May 2023

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor developers Respawn Entertainment have been busy on patch duty, pumping out a series of updates aimed at addressing the torrid state of its PC performance at launch. The newest, last week’s Patch 4, sounded particularly enthusiastic about tackling Jedi: Survivor’s technical troubles, so now would be a fine time to check in on the progress of this fixing-upping campaign.

A few droid decapitatin’ benchmark runs later, I can say that Patch 4 (and its predecessors) have made meaningful improvements to ray tracing performance, and that there's a lot less stuttering than there was at launch - even if this hasn’t been smoothed out entirely. General performance, however, remains deeply underwhelming, with powerful GPUs still unable to achieve a bulletproof 60fps even at 1080p.

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Microsoft’s proposed buyout of Activision Blizzard just received some good news. The European Commission have today approved the $70 billion acquisition, saying that Microsoft’s commitments “represent a significant improvement for cloud gaming.” That’s a markedly different tone to the UK’s conclusion last month, as the British regulator blocked the acquisition over concerns about the cloud market’s future.

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Having left us a vague "June" launch window for its Layers of Fear remake over the last few months, developer Bloober Team is finally ready to talk specifics, confirming its "psychedelic horror chronicle" will be releasing for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC on 15th June.

Layers of Fear is a bit of an unusual proposition, taking Bloober Team's two previous Layers of Fear titles (as well as the first game's Inheritance DLC), then reimagining it all as a single, interlinking narrative, featuring striking Unreal Engine 5 visuals, new gameplay elements - including a lantern to ward off shadowy terrors - and expanded plot lines.

This time around, the familiar unravellings of a painter on the verge of completing his masterpiece and a legendary actor making one final movie on a labyrinthine ocean liner - as featured in Layers of Fear 1 and 2 respectively - are accompanied by a new "story chapter" following the painter's rarely seen wife, plus a new framing device focusing on a lighthouse-bound character known as The Writer, tying the whole thing together.

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With The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom here, there’s no better time to talk about what is surely one of the most polarizing aspects of both it and Breath of the Wild: weapon durability. Some love it, others hate it, and maybe like three people are indifferent about it. Everyone’s got an opinion on the feature one way or another, and I will proudly say that I am firmly in the “love it” camp. In fact, I’m even looking forward to its inclusion in Tears of the Kingdom, especially with some of the changes shown off.

To be clear, I absolutely do not believe the durability system is perfect. I find that most, if not all, weapons break far too quickly and would love the damage warning to be given with more time before the actual breakage. There have been many times I’ve destroyed two, three, or even over four weapons in the process of beating a single enemy, who then only drops one new one. Of course, that’s to be expected when fighting certain foes, but against enemies like Bokoblins, it’s nothing if not irksome. So why do I think so highly of a system that I have several problems with, including some at the fundamental level? Because I wholeheartedly believe that the game and its themes benefit greatly from the inclusion of the durability system.

Capcom announced that a manga adaptation of the upcoming Resident Evil Death Island CG movie is in the making. The manga will be serialized from May 19, 2023 on the online manga and comic website COMIC Hu. The announcement came through the official Resident Evil Japanese Twitter account, which also shared a new key visual for it. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

The manga will be serialized monthly, with a new episode releasing on the 19th of each month starting on May 19, 2023. Capcom also confirmed that the manga adaptation will follow the same plot as the movie.

The new key visual features the main protagonists of the movie Jill Valentine, sibling duo Chris Redfield and Claire Redfield, Leon S. Kennedy, and Rebecca Chambers. There is also a swarm of zombies surrounding the group.

You can take a better look at the new key visual art for the Resident Evil Death Island manga in the tweet bellow.

https://twitter.com/BIO_OFFICIAL/status/1658034718418534400

Resident Evil Death Island is the new CG movie in the Resident Evil series, a sequel to 2017’s Vendetta, and it marks the first chronological appearance of Jill Valentine since Resident Evil 5.

Pre-registrations for the 2023 One Piece Day celebration are already open on the event’s official webpage. Likewise, we know more details about what it will entail this year. This edition will begin with a screening of One Piece Film: Red on the first day, which is July 21, 2023. There will be a special presentation by the series' cast members the following day on July 22, 2023. The in-person event will be held at the Tokyo Big Sight convention center in Japan.

Check out the official announcement for the pre-registration from the official One Piece Twitter account below.

https://twitter.com/Eiichiro_Staff/status/1657944358455480320?s=20

On the second day, there will be an on-stage event with cast members revealing related news about One Piece. Alongside the show and event, there will also be a special exhibition and a vendor area.

The 2023 One Piece Day will be a hybrid event, with a combination of online and in-person activities. Alongside the movie screening, a special One Piece: Bounty Rush mobile game tournament will be held. The event's website also mentioned that there will be additional activities and announcements related to the anime and manga that will be disclosed at a later date.

We don’t have a lot of Physical characters in Honkai: Star Rail right now. That might mean someone would leave their Trailblazer on the Path of Destruction to cover that base. However, if you managed to get Sushang from the gacha, you have a Honkai: Star Rail character you can build up with Light Cones and Relic set pieces to also become one of the best attackers.

What are the best Light Cones for a Sushang build in Honkai: Star Rail?

Since Sushang’s moveset in Honkai: Star Rail is looking to her attack to determine damage, you want to ensure the Light Cones you pick for her build increase that. Since she’s on The Hunt path, increasing her speed doesn’t hurt either.

Following an "in-depth" investigation, the European Commission has approved Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. The investigation began last November, with the commission citing Microsoft's potential expansion into the cloud gaming market as a primary concern. This was just one of many roadblocks the company faced, including ongoing battles with America's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

Roughly summarized, here are the conclusions the European Commission came to as a result of their investigations:

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, PlayStation VR2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation VR, PC
Publisher: Enhance Games
Developer: Tha LTD
Release: May 16, 2023

Playing god is a familiar feeling for many video game genres, like action titles where your character is unstoppable or sims where you control everything. Roleplaying a god is rarely something I feel while playing puzzle games, but Humanity provides it in new and surprising ways. The unique style of puzzle solving uses directional signs and commands to guide droves of miniature people to an endpoint. The puzzles start simple, but Humanity builds on this core system throughout its 100-plus stages in exciting and challenging ways, pushing me to my limit while telling a heartfelt story about human nature. 

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was one of the biggest games of 2023. It launched to much critical acclaim, and has gone on to win Game of the Year awards at numerous outlets. It landed in second place here at Kotaku, but even if it didn’t take home gold, Link and Zelda’s latest was one of the defining…

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Since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom dropped on May 12, fans have been obsessed with the game’s new creation abilities. Thanks to Link’s new skills, particularly Fuse and Ultrahand, players are building absurdities like planes and tanks to commit war crimes in Hyrule Kingdom. But there’s one object folks…

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Internet archivists have finally found and uploaded a long-lost Cartoon Network segment in which ‘90s toon star Johnny Bravo did color commentary on a sped-up episode of the formative shonen anime Dragon Ball Z, and it’s now on the Internet Archive for your viewing pleasure. Check it out and be amazed that Bravo’s…

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The Molasses Flood, the CD-Projekt-owned studio currently working on The Witcher spin-off Project Sirius, has been hit by layoffs following the game's recent reboot.

Development on Project Sirius - previously described as a part-solo, part-multiplayer experience - was confirmed to have stalled back in March, after CD Projekt re-evaluated the "scope and commercial potential of the original concept". At the time, the company told investors it was "formulating a new framework" for the game that was better "aligned with [its] strategy".

Last week, CD Projekt shared an update on Project Sirius, announcing its "work on defining a new framework" was now complete. But that news was followed by growing reports of layoffs at the Boston-based The Molasses Flood, which was acquired by CD Projekt in 2021, with the studio's technical narrative designer Robert Bailey, environment artist Eleanore Falck, senior environment artist and world builder Gannon Jasper, and art producer Caryn M. Boehm, all revealing they had lost their jobs in tweets shared since last week.

Premium Bandai will release a two-piece ring based on Naruto and Hinata in Boruto. One ring is purple (for Hinata), the other is yellow (for Naruto), and together, they form a Hidden Leaf symbol. It will cost 13,200 JPY (around $97) and it will come out in July 2023. Pre-orders for the ring will be open until June 4, 2023.

When ordering the two-piece Boruto ring via Premium Bandai, you can choose your finger size. It ranges from size 9 to 19. However, Premium Bandai does not offer international shipping. So overseas customers will have to use a proxy service if they’re interested. As a two-piece ring, you can wear the rings together to form a single one or give one to a partner.

Naruto and Hinata are married and have two children in the series. Their son is, after all, the titular protagonist of Boruto. The show premiered in 2017, and introduced fans to an post-Industrial Revolution Hidden Leaf Village and older versions of familiar faces. Naruto and Hinata also have a daughter, whose name is Himawari.

The Boruto ring is open for pre-order until June 4, 2023 and it will come out in July 2023. Boruto is available for streaming on services such as Crunchyroll and a second season is in development.

The post Boruto Two-Piece Ring Represents Naruto And Hinata appeared first on Siliconera.

The Naruto one-shot manga about Minato Namikaze will appear in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in Summer 2023. Minato Namikaze was the winner of the Narutop99 (Naruto Top 99) poll held in December 2022. The results of the poll released on April 2023, with Minato receiving 792,257 votes in total. The new one-shot episode will be written and drawn by Naruto author Masashi Kishimoto.

A follow-up report to the Naruto Top 99 character poll released on May 15, 2023 in issue 24 of Weekly Shonen Jump. The report included an announcement of the upcoming one-shot. While there is no exact release date, the Naruto official website confirmed that the Minato manga will appear sometime this summer.

Masashi Kishimoto also offered thoughts about the Narutop 99 character poll. He said that he didn’t expect Minato to be so popular worldwide. He was very happy to see that Sakura remained a beloved character overseas, as she scored third on the poll. Additionally, Kishimoto revealed that he was rooting for Kurama to receive a lot of votes.

The PS4 version of Border Break will end service on September 9, 2023. However, there will still be updates to the Japanese game until the end date. The full schedule for those updates are available on the website for the game.

According to the website, the development team have worked hard to provide a good gaming experience in Border Break. This includes planning out events, improving the game system, and such. However, it made the decision to end service after considering the climate and mechanics of the game.

As for the schedule of updates before Border Break closes its borders for good, you can see it here:

• June 5, 2023: End automatic renewal of premium services.
• June 12, 2023: Frame Lot price revisions.
• July 10, 2023: Sales for new Core Seeds will end.
• August 14, 2023: Ranked Matches end.
• September 9, 2023: End of service.

You will no longer be able to play online after September 9, 2023. But you will still be able to play the Story Mode, as well as access Exhibition Battles and Training Battles.

Border Break is a FTP robot team battle game featuring a gacha system. The goal of the game is to defeat the other team’s energy reactor core, and you can use Class Points after each map to level up your rank. The game came out on the PS4 in August 2018, which means that when it ends, it will be a little over five years old.

For the sixth anniversary of Tales of the Rays, Kotobukiya will run a lottery where you can get prizes of various Tales characters. This lottery will start from May 19, 2023. Samples of the prizes will appear at the Tales of the Rays 6th Anniversary Party venue, as well as in various Tales Shops in Japan.

In total, there are four kinds of prizes. They are:

• S Prize: Giant Acrylic Stand to Enjoy Meals With (3 variations)
• A Prize: Acrylic Stand (6 variations) - Recollection Mode characters
• B Prize: Miniature Acrylic Stand (14 variations)
• C Prize: Big Face Card (22 variations)
• D Prize: Can badges (16 variations)

The three characters for the giant acrylic stand are Yuri, Milla, and Ludger. You can put them on the table across from you while eating to make it look like you’re dining together. The giant acrylic stand and big face card are both around 30 centimeters tall. As well, you can get a guaranteed S prize if you buy the 30-pull set, and you’re able to pick which of the three you want.

Here are some pictures of the various prizes:

[gallery columns="5" link="file" ids="963399,963400,963401,963402,963403,963404,963407,963408,963409,963405,963406"]

2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was a smash hit, and many of its beloved maps have continued to pop up in subsequent CoD entries over the last 15 years. Classics, I’m sure you agree. But it turns out that one of the most popular (and smallest) maps in Modern Warfare only accidentally got included after a…

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Everyone seems to be playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and my Switch won’t let me forget it. This weekend, as I too paraded around Hyrule exploring the Breath of the Wild sequel, I kept experiencing mild interruptions as the many other heroes of Hyrule with whom I’m acquainted picked up their Switches.

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Just 12 months after its full launch, development is ending on free-to-play battle royale game Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodhunt, with its developer Sharkmob blaming the title's failure "reach the critical mass needed" to continue support.

Bloodhunt was announced toward the end of 2020 and, following a limited Steam early access release, recieved its full launch on PlayStation and PC last April. It offered players a vampiric spin on the well-worn battle royale formula, setting them loose across the rain-soaked, moon-drenched streets and rooftops of Prague, armed with supernatural parkour abilities and other clan-specific powers - plus, rather more boringly, guns.

It made for an interesting twist on a familiar genre - even if Eurogamer's Robert Purchese didn't much like the whole shooty thing when he played it back in early access - but that clearly wasn't enough to attact and retain the kind of player base Bloodhunt needed.

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SNK posted a new KOF XV Character Breakdown video focused on the upcoming Sylvie Paula Paula showcasing her moveset in The King of Fighters. The teaser gives a technical look at what she can do in this entry for players wanting to prepare for the character’s arrival. Branding a new style with a dark color palette reminiscent of gothic Lolita fashion, her attack list relies heavily on lightning and electric attacks.

The Sylvie Paula Paula Character Breakdown trailer shows her playstyle focuses mainly on dashing moves and hard-hitting close combat, due to her melee attacks’ short range. Some attacks like Magne-Missile, Super Magnetic-Pop, and Guillo-Ton help players pressure their opponents at close range.

As for her special moves, these attacks mainly compensate for the distance with moves such as Thunderous Drip. It shoots a bolt of lightning through the floor across the stage. Magneto-Trapo grabs enemies at mid-range, then lets her stomp on them closer for follow-up combos.

You can take a closer look at the full list of moves for Sylvie Paula Paula on The King of Fighters XV in the Character Breakdown trailer here below.

https://youtu.be/opH5ZzvvnDA

Nintendo revealed that Great Tusk and Iron Treads will be the next 5-star Tera Raid battles in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. The new Tera Raid event will be available throughout May 19-22, 2023. Great Tusk will appear as a Tera Raid for players that own Pokemon Scarlet, while Iron Treads will appear for owners of Pokemon Violet. Additionally, the Tera Types for Great Tusk and Iron Treads will be randomized. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

Great Tusk is the past Paradox Pokemon version of the elephant pokemon Donphan. It is a Ground/Fighting-type Pokemon. Meanwhile, Iron Treads is the future Paradox Pokemon version of Donphan, and it is a Ground/Steel dual-type.

Both Great Tusk and Iron Treads can only be obtained in the Area Zero of their respective versions. Additionally, both Pokemon serve as the Quaking Earth Titan boss fight in the Path of Legends storyline of Scarlet and Violet.

As a reminder, Chesnaught will return as the current 7-star Tera Raid battle in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet between May 19-22, 2023 as well.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are immediately available for the Nintendo Switch. The Teal Mask and The Indigo Disk DLC content will release on Fall and Winter 2023 respectively as part of the DLC Expansion Pass.

Cygames announced that it will slow down updates for World Flipper, with the Main Quest ending with Chapter 12. It does not plan on adding any more, nor will there be new Story Events after May 31, 2023. However since May 27, 2023 will be the game’s 3.5 anniversary, there will be an event to commemorate that. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

As mentioned earlier, the Main Quest will end on Chapter 12, which will appear some time in the future. There will be no more Story Events from May 31, 2023, and Cygames will start to re-run its past events. That same date will also be the end of the manga updates. Though Cygames plans on adding new characters and equipment to the game, these will become more infrequent. Specifically, from June 2023, it will only add about 2-4 characters per update, as well as start to cut back on voice lines. However, it will continue to add Character Episodes.

Cygames will also cut back on adding weapons to the game. It will only add one every month or two. But it might start adding in enhanced weapons that use art of existing items in the game. There will be new bosses in World Flipper as well, though Cygames has not commented on whether or not there will be any alteration in its frequency.

Studio Z announced that the mobile game Shaman King: Funbari Chronicle will end service on July 12, 2023 in Japan. That is also the date that it will start refunding any premium currencies that accounts still have at the time of the closure. More information on how you can go about doing so will appear at a later date. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

According to the official website for Shaman King: Funbari Chronicle, the reason Studio Z decided to end the mobile game is because it has come to the conclusion that it will be difficult for the team to provide service and content that will be satisfactory for its player base. It thanked its players for their support over the years. Items that require paid Tama will stop appearing in the store from June 12, 2023 so if there is anything you wish to purchase, then that is the cutoff date.

There will still be updates to Shaman King: Funbari Chronicle before the game ends. One of these updates will include the addition of characters in Design Contest costumes. As well, Studio Z is considering an offline version of the game after service ends. This will be so that players can still enjoy the story, art, and 3D models. It will announce in-game whether it decides to do so.

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There are two ways you can approach Crusader Kings III. On the one hand it’s a sprawling grand strategy game where you’re in control of a Kingdom’s entire economy, military, society and faith. On the other, it’s a big ol’ RPG.

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It's been a good long while since we first laid eyes on dreamy Ecuadorian football adventure Despelote, but now, after several years away from the spotlight, it's resurfaced with a publisher and a planned 2024 release on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

Created by Julián Cordero and Sebastian Valbuena, Despelote is described as a semi-autobiographical slice-of-life adventure about "childhood and the magical grip soccer held over the people of Quito, Ecuador in 2001". It's set during a period when the country's football team was on the verge of qualifying for the World Cup for the first time, helping instil a sense of hope in a population still reeling from a major financial crisis.

That translates to "bittersweet and sometimes dreamy" game of kick-abouts and conversations, in which sees players - viewing the world through the eyes and ears of eight-year-old Julián - explore a dense corner of Quito, "full of activities, interactions, and mischief to get up to".

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Five years after free-to-play multiplayer mech shooter Hawken was pulled offline following a tumultuous development, the brand is being revived by 505 Games as the PvE-focused, and initially single-player, Hawken Reborn.

The original Hawken burst onto the scene back in 2011 with an eye-catching work-in-progress trailer, but it struggled to find an audience once out in the real world. A failed early access attempt in 2014 saw development stall until a "relaunch" in 2017, but even that wasn't enough to get bums in mechs, and the game's PC servers were yanked for good the following year.

Which does make Hawken something of an odd choice for a revival, but here we are, five years later, with the free-to-play Hawken Reborn now listed on Steam and poised to launch into early access as a "genuinely early-in-development" title this Wednesday, 17th May.

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Sharkmob released an official statement announcing it will halt development on Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt. This decision is apparently due to poor player reception. However, the game’s servers will still be up for the foreseeable future, but with no new content updates.

You can check the announcement about ceasing the development from the Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt official Twitter account below.

https://twitter.com/Bloodhunt/status/1658095057960853504?s=20

In the statement, Sharkmob explained that although having an active community, the game did not reach the “critical mass needed to sustain development.” This means that no more content-related updates will arrive. Nevertheless, the developers have stated that the game's servers will continue to operate and that maintenance patches will continue to arrive as long as there are active players.

On the same note, the development team also announced that the real currency purchase system will be taken down on September 26, 2023. To ease the change, there will be changes in how to earn in-game tokens so players can continue unlocking cosmetics even after support is cut.

In addition, an in-game player voting system will be put in place so that players to keep unlocking already prepared content. This will be one of the last solutions related to gameplay content. More information on this new system will be revealed at a later date.

In the wake of the news of O'Brien's passing, other tributes appeared on social media, including one from the official Crash Bandicoot account.

"Sharing our sincere condolences to Brendan O’Brien’s loved ones for his passing. He was an incredible talent who brought Crash Bandicoot and other Crash characters to life. He will forever live on in the hearts of Crash fans," the account wrote.

Back in 2011, a mech combat game was announced that blew the internet’s socks clean off. With a Maschinen Krieger-inspired aesthetic and fast-paced, stomping robot action, Hawken looked like one of the coolest video games the world had ever seen.

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For the past year a company known as Irreverent Labs have been working on a game called MechaFightClub, which was to be driven by NFT sales and be based on the proud and ancient sport of cockfighting.

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Quarto is so easy to learn that I was both introduced to it and taught the rules over the course of a single, brisk, Tiktok. It's a two-player board game that plays out on a 4x4 grid. Players take turns putting pieces on the grid. The objective is to get a line of four pieces, horizontally, vertically or diagonally, across the board.

This sounds like Connect 4, but rather than using pieces of different colours - I'm red and you're blue - Quarto's pieces are little towers that have a mix of four different characteristics. Pieces can be tall or sort, square or round, can be solid or hollow, and can be dark or light. Every piece is some of these things, so one will be dark, short, hollow, and round. Another will be solid, short, dark and square. The objective is to ensure that every piece in the line of four pieces you make shares at least one characteristic. You don't have to place all the pieces in the line, but you do have to complete it, at which point you shout "Quarto!"

One final rule. Your opponent chooses the piece you play each turn, and you choose the piece they play.

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CD Projekt has confirmed a round of layoffs at The Molasses Flood.

The news was first shared on Twitter on May 12 by employees who had been made redundant, with CDP now confirming the information to PC Gamer.

"Because the project changed, so has the composition of the team that's working on it – mainly on The Molasses Flood's side," a spokesperson said. "The concrete number of employees we parted ways with is 21 team members in the US and 8 in Poland (working on the project outside of the US)."

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An Austrian court's ruling that FIFA Ultimate Team packs constitute illegal gambling is going unchallenged, according to German site GamesMarkt.

Earlier this year, an Austrian district court ruled on a dispute between a number of PlayStation FIFA players and Sony Interactive Entertainment Network Europe Ltd., saying the PlayStation maker owed the players a refund on Ultimate Team packs they purchased from the PlayStation Store because the ability to sell player cards on a secondary market qualifies them as illegal gambling.

According to a Google translation of the site's reporting, the regional court to which the case would have been appealed said it had not received any such motion from Sony's representatives, so the ruling became final last month.

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