April 2023

A little over two years after first details emerged, the Twisted Metal live-action TV series has a US air date, with its premiere now set for 27th July.

This 10 half-hour-long episode adaptation of the primarily PlayStation-exclusive vehicular combat series - which, slightly alarmingly, is now approaching its 30th anniversary - tells the story of a motor-mouthed outsider (played by Anthony Mackie) who's offered a chance at a better life, as long as he can deliver a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Sony first touted turning Twisted Metal into a television show back in 2019, but it wasn't until 2021 that the wheels officially got in motion. Since then, US subscription service Peacock has placed an order for the action comedy, while Cobra Kai's Michael Jonathan Smith has signed up as showrunner and to pen the scripts - which are based on a concept by Zombieland and Deadpool writing duo Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.

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Point and click puzzle game The Case of the Golden Idol will receive a new expansion next month.

On 4th May, players will be able to head into the game's The Spider of Lanka expansion, in a bid to puzzle out just what exactly is going on across three new scenarios. This expansion will be in a completely new setting. In fact, so new, it is all taking place "thousands of miles from the rainy hills of Blackfield."

The Spider of Lanka kicks off a year before The Case of the Golden Idol's first scenario, and follows the story of Albert Cloudsley and Oberon Geller as they make their maiden voyage to the Kingdom of Lanka. Here, they will visit... actually, I can't tell you that. In the true spirit of The Case of the Golden Idol, that information has been redacted. I can share this trailer with you though, so please do sit back and enjoy.

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The Case Of The Golden Idol was one of my favourite games of 2022, but one twist I didn't see coming from the heir to Obra Dinn's detective crown was more of it, or more of it so soon, for that matter. Happily, developers Color Gray Games have announced a new DLC pack is coming for The Golden Idol next week called The Spider Of Lanka. Set in 1741, a year before the first scenario of The Golden Idol proper, this trio of new cases looks set to shed extra light on the titular idol whose mysterious powers set the original game in motion. I'm afraid I can't tell you much more than that, as most of the announcement details have been slapped with big black REDACTED marks. Have a watch of the reveal trailer below instead.

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Between the spooky reality tears of Oxenfree II: Lost Signals and the chrono-bending clue hunts of Crime O’Clock, we at the Electronic Wireless Show podcast have had time travel on the brain. Clever game mechanic, or narrative copout? Maybe both? Maybe neither? Or maybe it’s just a reason for Nate and I to gush about Titanfall 2’s singleplayer campaign while Alice considers the temporal implications of save scumming. To know the answer, you yourself must travel back to the past, specifically Tuesday, when we recorded it.

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Grab a holy cross, maybe make some friends, and spray yourself with gross garlic water. Vampire-hunting shooter Redfall is only a mere week away, so developers Arkane have dropped a fun launch trailer to celebrate. It gives us another look at the titular rural town, haunted by fanged monsters, violent cultists, and psychic anomalies that distort the environment in weird and wonderful ways.

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Dead Island 2’s zombie-stocked netherworld is a lot easier to weather with friends, so it’s helpful that the game prioritizes multiplayer just as much as the original Dead Island did. But even so, this bloodbath of a sequel approaches co-op differently in a few important ways.

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Normally, a new line of plushies from the already merchandised-to-death Pokémon industrial complex wouldn’t be that noteworthy. However, the Pokémon Center in Japan is selling a new line of plush toys called “My Pikachu” that do have one pretty remarkable characteristic. Unlike the vast majority of plush toys, these…

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Fortnite is adding to its extensive Star Wars collaboration collection with a brand-new (and very sexy) Anakin Skywalker skin. The skin will debut on May 2, just two days before Star Wars Day (which is May the 4th, duh).

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In case you were one of the few Alien fans holding your breath for the sci-fi film legend Sigourney Weaver to reprise her role as Ellen Ripley in a future project, you can stop suffocating yourself because the Hollywood actress just made it abundantly clear that “that ship has sailed.”

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Sony and Square Enix revealed the Final Fantasy XVI a limited edition PS5 DualSense controller and a PS5 cover featuring a special FFXVI design in Japan. The already announced PS5 bundle will also appear there. These items will be available in limited quantities on June 22, 2023. Pre-orders for the PS5 bundles, DualSense controller, and PS5 cover open in Japan on May 4, 2023. As a reminder, both Final Fantasy XVI PS5 bundle editions will include a digital download code for the game.

The Final Fantasy XVI + PS5 console bundle will cost 67,980 JPY (or roughly $507 USD). Meanwhile, the Final Fantasy XVI + PS5 Digital Edition console bundle will cost 56,980 yen (~$425 USD.) The FFXVI Limited Edition DualSense Wireless Controller will cost 8,980 yen (~$67 USD). The PlayStation 5 Limited Edition FFXVI cover will be available in two variations, for PS5 consoles with disc drives and for PS5 digital editions for 7,980 yen (~$60 USD).

You can take a better look at the Final Fantasy XVI DualSense controller and the PS5 cover in the gallery below.

[gallery link="file" ids="961054,961055,961056"]

Once you get to Jarilo-VI’s Underworld area in Honkai: Star Rail, you’ll automatically get pulled into a campaign quest with Hook called “Hide-and-Seek.” Basically, to advance the story, you’ll need to get the trust of the Moles and play the game with them to reach the Fight Club. It isn’t the most challenging hunt, but here’s where I found everyone to help you speed through this segment.

First, here’s where Hook is when you’re searching for her during the “practice” session for the “Hide-and-Seek” Honkai: Star Rail quest.
[gallery columns="1" size="full" ids="961034" link="file"]

Once you find Hook, then the real Honkai: Star Rail hide-and-seek portion of the quest will begin. The characters are in this limited area. Both Hook and one of the Moles sidekicks are at the far ends of the map. However, the sidekick Julian is hiding in plain sight in the middle of the map, disguised as an adult man, and March 7th will point out in a scripted scene that you should talk to him.
[gallery size="full" ids="961035,961036,961037" link="file"]

After finding all three kids, Hook will lead you to the Fight Club. This is a short walk down the street. Once it’s done, you get 300 Trailblaze EXP, 3 Adventure Logs, and 4,000 Credits.

Honkai: Star Rail is available for the PC and mobile devices. PS4 and PS5 versions are on the way.

Masahiro Sakurai shared development secrets from the first Kirby game. In the latest video on his YouTube channel Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games, he shared some facts about the development of Kirby’s Dream Land. Many details shared in the video were originally seen in a presentation given at the Kirby 25th Anniversary concerts in 2017. Sakurai shared them with a wider audience to celebrate the 100th video on his channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUY2AtBD6Sk

At one point in the video, Sakurai shows off the original dev kit that was used to make the games Kirby’s Dream Land and Kirby’s Adventure. It was a special Famicom called the Twin Famicom, and all development took place with this device. Sakurai shows off the sprites and menus used in development. He also treats us to a bonus cat appearance.

Throughout the video he shows off how enemy designs were made specifically to save space. He reveals that all enemy movement was manually programmed by Sakurai himself. He also shows off the original design document for Kirby’s Dream Land, featuring an early concept for the Super Smash Bros damage system.

Sakurai previously looked back at Kirby’s Dream Land in another video on his channel as part of his Game Concepts series. He also shared stories about other Kirby games.

Resident Evil is an expansive series, with upwards of two decades worth of titles having releases since its inception in the late 1990s. While there are more than a handful of mainline games, 10 counting Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica X, the series has seen it's fair share of spin-off titles. This has included competitive first person shooters, multiplayer focused survival titles, and rail shooters. While there are many, these are among the best Resident Evil spin-off games worth checking out in some capacity.

Resident Evil Outbreak

Arguably ahead of its time, Resident Evil Outbreak is a online multiplayer Resident Evil game where players can pick one of several characters to escape Raccoon City. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses, which groups will need to plan around when completing objectives. Additionally, Outbreak features unique locales for players to explore, and while zombies remain the bread and butter enemy, Outbreak has its own plethora of frightening foes to encounter. It also featured an infection mechanic, which when bitten by zombies would increase your infection rate until you'd eventually turn. It'd only make sense for Capcom to give Resident Evil Outbreak a third chance, since multiplayer games are hugely popular. Either way, it'd just be great to have Outbreak on something that isn't the PlayStation 2 at this point.

Warner Bros' co-op action-adventure Gotham Knights has just received another update, this one bringing fixes, accessibility improvements, and a surprise new 15-floor Heroic Assault raid.

Gotham Knights, of course, recieved a lukewarm reception when it launched last October, with particularly stern words being saved for its myriad technical issues. Since then, developer Warner Bros Montreal has been tinkering under the hood to improve the experience - with notable success, as Digital Foundry noted recently - making today's update the latest in a long line of patches.

With most of the game's glaring technical issues seemingly now resolved, its latest update - which notably features accessibility improvements such as controller remapping, improved screen-reader support, and button press toggles, as detailed in the accompanying patch notes - is less about fixes and more about new content.

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Live A Live was originally released in 1994, but only on SNES and only in Japan. It was short as far as Square Enix JRPGs from the period go, but was unique in that it featured 8 inter-connected stories set across 8 time periods.

Last year, a remake brought the game to Nintendo Switch, and as of today it's also available on Steam.

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Long before indie outfit Capybara Games made a name for themselves with Sword & Sworcery or Below, they made a puzzle-strategy game with the Might & Magic license for Ubisoft. Might & Magic: Clash Of Heroes was a surprise delight on Nintendo DS in 2009 and an HD release made its way to PC in 2011.

Now it's getting a Definitive Edition release courtesy of Dotemu, with updated character art, quality-of-life improvements and rebalanced multiplayer.

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Samsung's Pro Plus memory cards are our top pick for the Steam Deck, so I thought you'd like to know that the giant 512GB cards are now down to £39.99 at Amazon UK, making it a good time to upgrade your Steam Deck game storage if you haven't already.

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Cities: Skylines 2 was announced in March and is due for release later this year. As a result, the next expansion for Cities: Skylines is also its last. Hotels & Retreats is a "mini-expansion" that adds hostels, cabins, hotels and luxury resorts to make your city friendlier to tourists.

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Samsung's 970 Evo Plus 2TB SSD is an almost legendary SSD, offering great real-world performance at a reasonable price. Recently the largest 2TB size has dropped from £145 to £99.99, making it significantly more affordable to add a ton of fast NVMe storage to your PC or laptop.

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Overwatch’s Brigitte, a plucky, tanky support character first introduced to the hero shooter in 2018, has always stood apart from her counterparts on the game’s roster. In comparison to both the other support characters and many other female characters in the first-person shooter, she’s got more HP, and a more average…

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As a human being on the internet reading a video game website, I probably don’t have to explain to you the long wait for Half-Life 3, the shooter sequel Valve continues to not make, and all the memes it’s spawned. But it seems that, even if it won’t make the long-awaited threequel, Valve doesn’t want you all to forget…

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Nerbuz is one of the major characters in Fire Emblem Heroes’ Book VII, and she’ll now be a playable character. Nintendo announced she is the latest unit to join in the new Mythic heroes banner. Starting on April 28, 2023, people can pull for the character.

Nerbuz is classified as a blue “beast” character and cavalry unit in the game. This means if she’s only near beasts and dragons, she’ll transform and have different stats. Her kit includes her Horn of the Land weapon and new skills like Fruit of Life and Alarm Atk/Spd.

Here are the other focus units on the banner:

• Arval: Cycle Keeper
• Ash: Retainer to Askr
• Byleth: The Fodlan Star
• Claude: King of Unification
• Deirdre: Fated Saint
• Ganglot: Death Anew
• Mirabilis: Daydream
• Plumeria: Lewd Dream
• Shez: Sharpest Blades
• Tiki: Awakened Blood
• Triandra: Nightmare

Here’s the full Mythic Hero Nerbuz: God of the Land Fire Emblem Heroes banner video. As usual, it notes that there is an opportunity to “spark” on this banner and be guaranteed one of the focus units if you pull 40 times. However, this is limited to Feh Pass subscribers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1q-_WVkTLw&ab_channel=NintendoMobile

You don’t need to change characters’ weapons or armor in Honkai: Star Rail. Rather, additional buffs and bonuses come from equipping Light Cones and Relics. The former are acquired through pulling on gacha banners. However, if you’re looking for how to get Relics in Honkai: Star Rail, you’ll actually need to play the game to find or earn them.

How to unlock Relics in Honkai: Star Rail

It takes a bit before you can even start getting Relics in the game! You need to get to the Trailblaze Mission “In the Withering Wintry Night” and finish its “Ones Fallen into the Abyss” task on Jarilo-VI. This involves being at Trailblaze Level 14 and helping Seele save the miners.

How to get Relics in Honkai: Star Rail

Well, an almost effortless way to get Relics is to take part in missions and storyline stuff. This is because as you explore places like Jarilo-VI, you might get one of these pieces of equipment from Bountiful Chests found in the world or  Trailblaze Missions. There will also be World Shops in each location, which would let you use Hertaerums at Herta Space Station, Shields at Jarilo-IV, or Strale at Xianzhou Lofou to buy them. However, you will need to hit certain Trailblaze Levels to be able to buy them. So the Musketeer of Wild Wheat set will be at Herta Space Station's shop, but you need to be at Trailblaze Level 20 to buy it, for example.

Netflix shared a trailer going over what’s coming regarding anime releases for May 2023. The main announcements are the arrival of Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune and Ultraman: Final Season. In the video, you can see scenes from both series along with confirmed release dates. ULTRAMAN’s last season will be released on May 11, 2023, and Yakitori will begin streaming on May 18, 2023.

Check out the Netflix Anime announcements for May 2023 below.

https://youtu.be/uzb6sh6MztE

Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune is a science fiction series based on the light novel of the same name written by Carlo Zen, author of The Saga of Tanya the Evil. The series will be set on a future version of Earth and tell the story of Akira, a young rebel who joins the "Yakitori" military unit. It is known for its high casualty rate.

On the other hand, the final season of Ultraman will also arrive in May 2023, confirmed shortly after the release of the second season in 2022. This final part will close the story of the original Ultraman's son, Shinjiro Hayata, and will solve several of the remaining mysteries about the giants of light.

In addition to the previews of the new series, the video also mentioned the arrival of new trivia-type content on the YouTube channel related to anime that can be watched on the platform such as Baki, Romance Killer, and The Daily Life of the Immortal King.

Ateam revealed the next new guest character for the second Hololive Valkyrie Connect event will be Ouro Kronii. In preparation for the event, she will be doing a special livestream along with Takanashi Kiara going over some details about the crossover. This stream will go live on April 27, 2023 at 2pm PT/5pm ET.

Check out the announcement from Valkyrie Connect’s official Twitter account here below.

https://twitter.com/vconnect_en/status/1651519051502587904?s=20

Ouro Kronii is the second confirmed guest character of this new Hololive Valkyrie Connect event after Hololive Fantasy’s Houshou Marine. Her character's official art wasn't shared yet, but people can expect to see that during the presentation with Kiara. However, details about her kit and abilities likely won't come up until either just before launch or after the crossover begins.

This marks half of this next event's new confirmed characters. There will be two representatives for Hololive’s Japanese and English branches. This follows the pattern from the initial one. For the first Hololive Valkyrie Connect collaboration in May 2022, the guest stars were Takanashi Kiara, Ina’nis Ninomae, La+ Darkness, and Pekora Usada, all of which returned with Awakened versions in January 2023.

In this week's episode of The Game Informer Show, we chat about our Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom preview and ask Brian Shea as many questions as we can think about the game. Editor-In-Chief Matt Miller joins us in the latter half of the podcast to talk about his Star Wars Jedi: Survivor review and Marcus' thoughts on Horizon Forbidden West's Burning Shores DLC.

Watch the video version of our weekly gaming podcast right here:

Follow us on social media: Alex Van Aken (@itsVanAken), Kyle Hilliard (@KyleMHilliard), Marcus Stewart (@MarcusStewart7), Wesley LeBlanc (@LeBlancWes)

The Game Informer Show is a weekly gaming podcast covering the latest video game news, industry topics, exclusive reveals, and reviews. Join host Alex Van Aken every Thursday for a chat about your favorite games – past and present – with Game Informer staff, developers, and special guests from around the industry. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

Arkane's co-op vampire shooter Redfall is just a week away now, and as the clock ticks down to release, Microsoft has shared a bunch of new info, including a new trailer, details on its accessibility options, and its PC system requirements - the latter being particularly intriguing in light of the recently announced 30fps limit on consoles.

Starting with Redfall's accessibility options, these have now been shared as part of a full "settings" breakdown over on Arkane's blog. Accessbility options, specifically, include the likes of text-to-speech and speech-to-text support, screen narration, subtitles and closed captioning, font scaling, a colour blindness filter, notification duration settings, and an optional "accessibility reticule" for anyone that would benefit from a permanent fixation point on-screen.

Arkane has also provided an extensive list of more general settings, highlighting things like toggleable head bob and camera shake, optional object highlights, and four difficulty settings - three of which are available when first starting the game. It's well worth checking out the full article for the considerably more expanded breakdown.

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I spent time last week watching old, Japanese PlayStation game adverts after puzzler Humanity referenced them in its own trailer. Among those adverts were several for Fantavision, a little-loved colour-matching puzzle game about firework displays from 2000.

Imagine my surprise when today Fantavision showed up on Steam.

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Not every video game needs to be a punishing test of reflex and perseverance. Some games aspire to put you in a state of pure bliss, focusing on wonder and enjoyment instead of competition and reaction times. If you’re looking for just such a chill experience this year, a number of exciting, cozy titles on the horizon…

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Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is almost here. The highly anticipated sequel arrives April 28, and to help you all get more excited (and to help Survivor lead Cameron Monaghan), Mark Hamill, aka Luke Skywalker himself, is here to offer some advice on how to be a Jedi. I’d listen to the man. He has some experience with…

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