May 2023

In most games, when a cheater gets caught in the act, they receive their just desserts in the form of a swift ban. Goodbye! But sometimes developers want to have a little more fun at the loser’s expense, go an extra mile to do something a little more memorable and elaborate. Maybe they disable the cheater’s guns in…

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Square Enix once again opened up pre–orders for three pieces of jewelry that resemble ones Aerith and Tifa wore in FFVII. There is a rose gold ribbon necklace and a flower one for Aerith, and a clip-on earring for Tifa. You can get the necklaces via the North America store for $147.99 and the earring for $99.99. The necklaces will come out in November 2023. They're also available in the Japan store for 16,280 JPY and the earring is 10,450 JPY. They all have a release date of September 16, 2023.

In HoYoVerse games, we’ve tended to see player protagonists and main characters who tend to be generally kind and polite people. Kiana Kaslana from Honkai Impact 3rd is an optimistic, kind, and dedicated. Likewise, both Aether and Lumine from Genshin Impact are always very pleasant and tend to be willing to go out of their way for people, teasing of Paimon aside, with most of the silent protagonists’ lines being largely “good.” Rosa, the main character in Tears of Themis, is also very smart, justice-driven, and willing to help. Meanwhile, the Honkai: Star Rail Trailblazer Stelle and Caelus avatar options can often be a sarcastic, pessimistic, lazy, self-serving, dumpster-diving gremlin. Simply put, it’s refreshing to get the option to be more of a “well, I guess I’m here and will do it” person.

Part of it comes from their general appearances. Both the Caelus and Stelle Trailblazer options in Honkai: Star Rail are delightfully disheveled. Part of it could come from their origins. After all, Kafka woke them up by shoving a Stellaron into their body. Buckles are askew and unfastened. Their hair is messed up. Their eyes look sleepy. Their shirts are untucked. They look like they rolled out of bed and we should be thankful they are there and willing to help out. The outfit and design look great, to be clear, due to an “organized chaos” approach.

Square Enix announced a new array of Final Fantasy X merchandise featuring major characters from the series. People can buy single acrylic stands of nine heroes and villains from this entry. There's also a set of eight pins and a collection of eight visual art cards. Finally, a motel-style keychain will appear as well. All of them are going to ship out in October 2023.

The Final Fantasy X character acrylic stands are $17.99 each. Each one features the character and a quote from them in both English and Japanese on the base. So for example, the Yuna one’s quote says, “I will defeat Sin. I must defeat Sin.”

The other items tend to be sets of items. The Visual Card Set features key art of eight characters. For $21.99, you get images of Tidus, Yuna, Wakka, Lulu, Auron, Kimahri, Rikku, and Yuna and Tidus together. The $31.99 pin set includes the seven main characters and antagonist Seymour. Meanwhile, the motel keychain involves general Zanarkand imagery for $11.99.

Marvel's Midnight Suns' long-delayed PS4 and Xbox One versions will finally launch next Thursday, 11th May - but the previously announced Switch release is now officially cancelled.

Midnight Suns - which blends card-battling turn-based combat and Fire-Emblem-style relationship building into a superb superhero strategy whole - had a bit of a bumpy road to release, getting two delays before it finally launched for PC, Series X/S, and PS5 last December.

At the time of its second delay, 2K made the surprise announcement it was postponing Marvel's Midnight Suns for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Switch indefinitely, only saying those versions would launch at "a later date" - and we've had no further updates until today.

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The PlayStation 4 was the graphical shot in the arm console gaming needed after the very very lengthy PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 generation, which saw the consoles struggling to meet games’ increasing graphical demands by the early 2010s.

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Game Pass PC is full of great games, and a new referral program now lets you invite friends to play them with you free for two weeks. The new benefit arrives alongside Redfall, Xbox’s latest co-op shooter featuring an eerie open world and lots of vampires.

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In the spring of 2011, Japanese broadcasters declined to air two episodes from the Pokémon anime due to a catastrophic earthquake. While the networks originally promised to air them at a later date, these episodes never materialized. Now, thanks to the efforts of a fan who tracked down a copy of the script, we’re…

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Cover announced a digital message board is now available in preparation for the Hololive English 1st Concert: Connect the World. People can purchase their own digital messages to be included in the boards, which will appear at the event. In addition, each purchase will include a bonus voice from one of the VTubers performing. It costs $21 for a text message and $41 for one with an image.

The digital messages can be either a text message with a 170-characters limit or an image. In the case of images, they must be 520x520 px and be in a JPG, PNG, or PDF format. The submitted digital messages will appear on stage from when the doors open until the start of the concert and also on the event's special website.

Cover posted an official application form that lets you submit the message or upload the picture by checking your order number. In case of not using the form or submitting something against the guidelines, there will be a default message prepared by the company instead.

As for the bonuses, fans can choose from all the Hololive English VTubers to get their own special voiced line. However, there is only one liver’s voice per purchase. If someone wants to get two or more, you have to buy each package separately.

Nintendo released a new update patch for Splatoon 3. It’s not a huge update and mostly focused on a few fixes, along with a change to Splatfests. The patch is ready to be installed now.

The main purpose of this new Splatoon 3 update has been to add data related to upcoming Splatfests. However, there’s an additional change, as Nintendo are changing the brightness and color choices for ink during Splatfests. There will also be changes to ink coloring for the Color Lock accessibility feature which will be added in the next patch.

Elsewhere, the new Splatoon 3 update focuses on a few bug fixes. A crash during a Special Wave of Salmon Run has been fixed. A bug that caused music and animation to desync during Splatfest Plaza performances has also been fixed. In addition, players will no longer lose changes to their locker if they’re editing during a schedule transition.

The new update comes just before the latest Splatfest event. In celebration of the upcoming release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, it will be themed around the Triforce. Players can choose to be part of teams for power, wisdom or courage. The Splatfest takes place on 5-7 May, 2023.

Splatoon 3 is available now for Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo shared a new short clip of Link using monster materials in the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. In the new footage shared on the official The Legend of Zelda Japanese Twitter account, Link throws White Chuchu Jelly by itself on a new type of enemy, without using his new Fuse ability. White Chuchu Jelly instantly freezes enemies, leaving them open to attacks.

In the short clip, Link is shown scrolling through a list of materials that include some precious gems, different varieties of Chuchu jellies, and Keese eyes and wings. These were also shown in the latest 10-minute-long gameplay video released by Nintendo. The video also shows that Link can sort the materials in the list by different metrics, but only Fuse attack power has been shown so far. At the end of the clip, Link throws White Chuchu Jelly on a new type of enemy that looks similar to Bokoblins and Moblins, instantly freezing it.

You can take a look at new The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom footage of Link utilizing monster materials during combat here:

https://twitter.com/ZeldaOfficialJP/status/1653323443323146242

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will come to the Nintendo Switch on May 12, 2023. Nintendo recently revealed the English voice actor for Zelda in the upcoming Tears of the Kingdom.

The elite women of Liyue are going international, as Pizza Hut in Japan also started a collaboration with Genshin Impact. It is using the same key visuals of Yelan and Ningguang in modern-looking closing as the campaign in China. Boxes and bags with Yelan and Ningguang on them will be available from May 1, 2023 to June 18, 2023.

Aside from being able to get boxes with Yelan and Ningguang on them when you order the My Box set from Pizza Hut, you can also get a multipurpose file of either woman for 200 JPY (~$2) extra. These are available while supplies last. However, you cannot choose which one you get. The file is around 100 millimeters in width and 220 millimeters in height.

More importantly, you will be able to get four event items in Genshin Impact if you order the My Box set from Pizza Hut. You can get a crafting recipe for a table and a couch, as well as recipes for Mint Fruit Tea and Super Deluxe Pizza. Though regions outside of China never had a KFC campaign, all servers eventually received the KFC recipes for Golden Chicken Burger and Golden Fried Chicken. So it’s possible that these two recipes will appear in a future event for other countries, though we haven't seen a HoYoVerse announcement about them yet.

Is there worse box art than that for the first Age Of Wonders, back in 1999? Probably - but I still wouldn't have seen it and bet on the series continuing 24 years later.

Yet here we are. Age Of Wonders 4 is out today.

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Each game in the Super Mega Baseball series strips the sport back to its fundamentals: pitching, batting, and making its big-headed players cry. That makes it a baseball series that someone with no understanding of the sport can enjoy - and I would know.

Now Super Mega Baseball 4 has been announced, and for the first time it's got a roster of pros to play with - or former pros, at least.

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No one on RPS having much fun with Redfall so far, but perhaps you want to try Arkane's open world vampire shooter for yourself. Game Pass would be a good way to do that, particularly if you have a free trial.

As of today, any Game Pass subscriber can offer up to five friends a 14-day free trial to PC Game Pass. So I guess it's time to bug your friends.

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It's been a bumpy old ride for the Saints Row reboot, but, now, after several months focused on bug fixes and improvements, developer Volition has confirmed the game's first bit of paid story DLC, The Heist and The Hazardous, will arrive next Tuesday, 9th May.

The Heist and The Hazardous, which was unveiled as part of Saints Row's updated roadmap back in March, is the first of three promised content drops for the open-world crime caper's paid Expansion Pass, bringing new story missions, events, cosmetics, and more.

Publisher Deep Silver still hasn't shared much in the way of specifics beyond that, but we do now know it'll see the Saints embarking on an adventure to exact "sweet revenge" after obnoxious movie star Chris Hardy double-crosses the Boss on a successful assassination hit.

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Convergence: A League of Legends Story - the time-manipulating parkour platformer (and, yes, League of Legends spin-off) from developer Double Stallion and Riot Games publishing arm Riot Forge - launches for Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on 23rd May.

Convergence (or CONV/RGENCE, if you really must) is the third entry in Riot Forge's genre-hopping, externally developed A League of Legends Story series, which takes familiar faces from Riot Games' wildly popular MOBA and deposits them in their own standalone adventures.

So far, the series has featured a turn-based RPG from developer Airship Syndicate, titled Ruined King: A League of Legends Story, as well as Choice Provisions' puzzler Hextech Mayhem, and last month's action-RPG The Mageseeker, created by Digital Sun. It's all change again for Convergence, which shines a spotlight on League of Legends' dimension-hopping, time-manipualiting Ekko, and brings yet another a new genre focus.

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Redfall, a vampire shooter out this week on Xbox and PC, was developed by Arkane Studios, the same team behind classics like Dishonored and Prey. It’s one of Microsoft’s first-party exclusives for 2023, a big release for the company’s Game Pass subscription service. And by most accounts, it sucks.

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While we wait for Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, a troupe of modders known as Garden of Eyes is working on an overhaul mod to FromSoftware’s latest “You Died” open-world RPG, which will introduce new weapons, additional skins for Torrent, and Bloodborne-style gun parries to The Lands Between. As it continues…

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Kadokawa revealed that a new Oshi no Ko figure of Ai Hoshino is on the way. It will be a part of Kadokawa’s KDcolle series. It will be a 1/7 scale plastic figure, painted in full color, and it stands at approximately 8.5 inches, or 215mm in height. A stand is included with the figure as well. The figure costs 21,780 JPY (or roughly $160 USD), and it is scheduled to release on November 2023 in Japan. Pre-orders for the figure will close on May 24, 2023.

The new Oshi no Ko Ai Hoshino figure depicts the titular character of the series in her idol outfit, holding a microphone in one hand while pointing at the crowd while performing. Different facial expressions for the figure will be included.

In addition, a new teaser video for the figure was released showcasing all its features and details. You can watch the teaser video for the Ai Hoshino figure, as well as a gallery of the figure in more detail here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM4IMxp4GEY

[gallery columns="5" ids="961555,961554,961553,961552,961551" link="file"]

The recent anime adaptation of Oshi no Ko is streaming on HIDIVE, and Yen Press handles the English localization of the manga. An English website for the anime adaptation opened recently.

The new Oshi no Ko Ai Hoshino figure is now available for pre-order in Japan. Pre-orders close on May 24, 2023 in Japan. The figure costs 21,780 JPY (~$160 USD), and it will release on November 2023. We don't know if it will be sold worldwide yet.

We've been writing about Skywind for nine years. The ambitious modding project aims to import the entirery of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind into the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim engine. To celebrate the 21st anniversary of Morrowind, the Skywind team have released a 21 minute video of a single quest in Skywind.

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Honkai: Star Rail is the sort of game that can offer little mini “quests” with rewards that you can incidentally stumble upon while playing the game. For example, you can get a profile picture and some items for removing wanted posters on Jarilo-VI. While going through the actual mission "Requiem Mass," you might happen upon another. In one room where you meet Adler and a Wubbadoo, there is a PC you can log into. However, you need to get the credentials off of an origami crane. The one you need can be a little tricky to pin down, so here’s where the Honkai: Star Rail origami crane with the password is in the Herta Space Station Supply Room map.

[caption id="attachment_961602" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot via Siliconera[/caption]

Nintendo announced that pre-orders are now open for a new line of Fire Emblem Heroes merchandise. In addition to Fire Emblem Heroes, the lineup of the new merchandise includes goods based after characters from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. Each acrylic stand costs 1,980 JPY (or roughly $14 USD), and they are scheduled to release in July 2023. The second series of Fire Emblem Acrylic Stand Heroes is now available for pre-order from empty’s online store.

The lineup of the new series of Fire Emblem Heroes acrylic stands includes five characters, two of which are from Genealogy of the Holy War. These characters are Líf, Eir, Ymir, Sigurd, and Deirdre. Each acrylic stand is about 110 millimeters tall, or 4.3 inches. You can take a better look at the merchandise in the gallery below.

[gallery columns="4" ids="961589,961588,961587,961586" link="file"]

In other Fire Emblem Heroes news, Nintendo recently revealed that the next banner in the game will add Nerbuz as a playable character, alongside other returning focus units.

The second series of Fire Emblem Heroes and Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War Acrylic Stand Heroes is available for pre-order now from empty’s online store. Each acrylic stand costs 1,980 JPY (~$14 USD), and the new merchandise is scheduled to release on July 2023.

Japanese amateur orchestra Ensemble G.A.P. have released “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - The First Concert” to the public on its YouTube channel. The concert lasts about 116 minutes, and it is divided in an opening act, three parts, and two encores. The opening act and three parts include a total of 16 movements. Additionally, the description of the YouTube video includes a full listing of the concert’s contents. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

The opening act is the Nintendo Switch 2017 Presentation trailer music for Breath of the Wild, while its closing act is the “Tears of the Kingdom Main Theme” that appeared on the E3 2021 Nintendo Direct presentation.

You can take a look at Ensemble G.A.P.’s “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - The First Concert” here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5AV5HAKjh0

Ensemble G.A.P. is a Japanese classically trained and amateur ensemble founded in August 2021 by previous members of the Little Jack Orchestra. Their main activity is the arrangement and performance of popular music on YouTube. The name G.A.P. is an acronym created of the three main type of music the ensemble plays: games, anime, and pop music.

Good news, everyone! The blindingly quick Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor has dropped to just £440 at UK, a fair bit better than than the £450+ price points and poor availability that greeted the launch of the CPU last month. You can pick up the 7800X3D for this price at Amazon, Ebuyer and Overclockers, so you have a fair few options too.

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At GDC in late March this year, AI was everywhere. There's always a buzzword at GDC of course, with the previous years' pandemic-hit shows being dominated by the opportunist grift of talks and stalls dedicated to web3, blockchain, and the metaverse. But this time, amongst the still lingering whiff of crypto-bullshit, artificial intelligence was the talk of the town. And this time it feels different. Where the blockchain chatter was very much a product of new, external parties stepping in to fill the space left by real developers during a quieter year, all the talk of AI was very much coming from inside the house.

Typically it would be worth drawing some context around the recent news in AI at this point, but the reality is that's rather hard to do, precisely because of what AI is. If nothing else, AI as a topic is a rapidly moving target. What was once bleeding edge - remember Twitter's brief dalliance with Dall-E? - already feels old hat. GDC's context, though, was that of a week of developer talks around AI that took place within days of major announcements from AI's biggest players. Microsoft unveiled its GPT-led Office companion, Copilot, on 16th March. Google announced something that sounds rather similar on the 14th. On 15th March, Midjourney, one of several viral AI image creators, introduced Version 5 of its tool, which is able to overcome some AI image generation's earlier struggles, like celebrity faces and regular-looking hands.

It's rare to see discounts on compact keyboards, and rare to see discount on wireless keyboards, but today we're got a cracker on a mechanical keyboard that is both compact and wireless. It's the Cooler Master SK622, a gaming-optimised 60% design that offers low profile switches, a UK layout (with optional RGB backlighting) and the flexibility of wired (USB-C), Bluetooth and lower-latency 2.4GHz wireless.

The CM SK622 retailed for over £100 back in the day, but now it's available for half-price: £49.98. That's an awesome deal for any mechanical keyboard, much less one from a name brand with wireless connectivity!

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Modding community The Garden of Eyes has revealed the first original boss it will add to Elden Ring in a forthcoming mod.

The Garden of Eyes Overhaul Mod is still in development, but will add unique weapons, armours, spells, and new mechanics in what is dubbed a "fan-made DLC".

The group's latest video is a showcase of new boss Oedon the Primeval Current, which combines the best of Elden Ring with Bloodborne.

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Five of the Best is a weekly series for supporters. It's a series about highlighting some of the features in games that are often overlooked. It's also a series about you having your say, so don't be shy, use the comments below and join in!

Oh and you can find our entire Five of the Best archive elsewhere on the site.

I know what you're thinking: Alpha Protocol. You loved the hacking mini-game and you don't think another game can top it. It's understandable - it's hard to match perfection!

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Those bundle building rascals at Humble are at it again. This month, the team is offering XCOM-style strategy game Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters and Windjammers 2 as part of May's Humble Choice bundle.

Humble Choice is Humble Bundle's take on PC gaming memberships. Every month, Humble Bundle's game scouts choose a selection of PC games for their members, all of which they can own forever.

In addition to the already mentioned games above, this month's Choice bundle also includes Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition, Bendy and the Dark Revival, Operation Tango, Builder Simulator, Behind the Frame and The Invisible Hand.

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Soviet fantasy Atomic Heart is set to receive its first piece of DLC this summer.

A new teaser trailer has been released, which hints at some of the undiscovered locations yet to be explored in Facility 3826.

It's only 20 seconds long, but begins underwater (how very Bioshock!) before revealing some squiggly pathways in the sky. You can check it out below.

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A little over a year since it made its debut on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, WolfEye Studios' cowboy-themed action-RPG Weird West will be coming to current gen consoles.

On 8th May - so, this Monday - the game's Definitive Edition will launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S (where it will also available on Game Pass). Along with these consoles, Weird West's definitive edition will also be available for PC.

While details on this upcoming edition are still rather scant, it does promise 4K resolution and 60fps.

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This week's Digital Foundry Direct Weekly delivers yet another content coverage 'war story' as we tried to do our best to cover Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, despite no PC code arriving until the day before release and no console review code at all until launch day. Attempts to source it earlier via retail stores helped, but from a creator point of view, I can't help but feel a touch disappointed that we didn't have more time with the console versions of the game. However, it's the second topic on the docket that I'm going to focus on in this blog - the CMA's blocking of the Microsoft/Activision deal owing to a perceived unfair advantage it would give Microsoft in the cloud space.

There's been plenty of analysis on whether the CMA's reservations are valid are not, but there was one piece of information contained in the documentation that intrigued me - that 'a rival' - likely Sony - contacted the CMA to tell them that the latency challenges facing cloud gaming have been overcome. The CMA was rather lacking in terms of detail here, only saying that 'more powerful graphical processing units (GPUs)' can solve the problem. The immediate reaction online was to dismiss the idea because you cannot overcome the laws of physics. Latency will always be a problem that cannot be conquered.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns ends its post-launch tour with the long-time X-Men leader Storm, who’s joining the roster on May 11th. The weather-controlling mutant will be available as part of the Blood Storm DLC pack, which also includes new missions, hero outfits, and upgrades to The Abbey.

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After an excellent discussion about dice and pizza making last week in our Betrayal At Club Low liveblog, we've decided (that is, I have decided) to stick with the dice-rolling theme this month to crown the excellent Citizen Sleeper as our next pick for the RPS Game Club. We named Jump Over The Age's dystopian RPG one of our favourite games of 2022 last year, and seeing as the game is also celebrating its first anniversary this month, it's the perfect time to return the rag-tag world of Erlin's Eye.

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