May 2023

Among the new Marvelous Game Showcase 2023 game announcements were two new Rune Factory installments. Rune Factory: Project Dragon and 6 are in development. While Project Dragon is a spin-off that will take place in the teased eastern country, the sixth entry will appear in Adonea in the West.

While there was only a logo for Rune Factory 6, actual gameplay footage for Rune Factory: Project Dragon showed up. There will once again be an Earthmate player with connections to a dragon. The character showed up riding on the dragon to get to different areas. We also got to see them fight in a few battles and use a drum to cause trees to grow. Also, while this is set in an eastern country, a Wooly appeared to suggest familiar monsters could appear. Kenichiro Tsukuda is Project Dragon’s General Producer, Hisahi Fujii is Producer, and Shiro Maekawa is Director.

You can watch the full showcase below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4NGndJUuMY&ab_channel=XSEEDgames

During the Marvelous Game Showcase 2023, Marvelous and XSEED announced a new Story of Seasons game. While there's no name for it yet, Manager Hikaru Nakano called it, “A Story of Seasons you can play with everyone. The presentation also involved peeks at its concept art. Overall, this entry will be one to play with others.

You can see a glimpse of the new game at the 15:45 mark of the video below. It begins by looking at some animals and crops. A chicken with some chicks appears first. Then, there's a look at some tomatoes growing. That's followed by a peek at a sheep, a pair of dogs, and a cow. We also get to see what different seasons and weather conditions look like. All of that is followed by concept art and descriptions of how the goal will be to incorporate multiplayer elements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4NGndJUuMY&ab_channel=XSEEDgames

Before the new one appears though, there’s still another Story of Seasons game on the way. It’s already available in Japan. However, on June 27, 2023, it will also come to the Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC worldwide. People who pre-order or get it at launch also get a Mukumuku costume. At launch, there'll be a Premium Edition with plush goat.

After briefly discussing Fashion Dreamer, the Marvelous Game Showcase 2023 moved on to an entirely new game called Project Magia. Project Manager Takehiro Ishida appeared to discuss it and revealed Hiro Mashima, who created Fairy Tail and Edens Zero, worked on its character designs. Ishida also referred to it as a “a new frontier.”

Project Magia is in development for unspecified platforms.

The post Project Magia Features Hiro Mashima Art appeared first on Siliconera.

Right on time, Capcom shared another "how to play as" Street Fighter 6 character video, with Marisa as the newest star. The clip follows the usual pattern. This means the first parts focus on her general abilities and how to use her, then it zeroes in on a specific attack. In this case, it shows how someone could use "Scutum" in a match.

While the beginning of the trailer describes Marisa as a “powerhouse” in Street Fighter 6, the bulk of the video focuses on her Scutum attack. It shows how it can be used both as an aggressive move to attack an opponent, or as a reactionary one to punish someone as they try to attack her. At the end of the trailer, she performs a bridal carry on Ryu, showing it isn’t an action reserved for Zangief.

That was a beautiful fight!

Armed with powerful, long-reaching strikes and moves that work well on both offense and defense, Marisa is a hard-hitting powerhouse ready to pummel opponents into submission. pic.twitter.com/blCXmwRcrS

— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) May 25, 2023

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Developer: Pieces Interactive
Release: October 25, 2023

Before Resident Evil and Silent Hill, 1992’s Alone in the Dark helped lay the foundation for 3D survival horror before the genre even had a name. Players explored a haunted building laden with elaborate puzzles and scary monsters, with gameplay emphasizing thoughtful management of scarce resources. It even featured two playable characters with separate scenarios, an idea later adopted by Resident Evil 2. Numerous sequels of varying quality followed, but it’s been many years since the series was culturally relevant. 

IDW’s Metal Gear Solid board game was cancelled back in 2021 after a number of delays, and at the time it seemed like that was that. But no! This week it has been announced that the game is back, only now it’s going to be published by rivals CMON instead.

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Bungie got famous making Halo, and while Halo is famous for a few things—grumpy little aliens, green jeeps, Gregorian chants—I think its most enduring legacy is the way it completely reshaped the idea of what a singleplayer shooter could and should be.

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Both Nvidia and AMD's latest graphics card releases, the RTX 7600 and RTX 4060 Ti, have crashed and burned - so who's going to actually make a well-priced GPU? If you had Intel on your bingo cards, congrulations - their Arc A750 8GB graphics card is down to £230.98 on Amazon UK, marking a £20 price drop that brings this option way below the £300 RTX 3060 that it comprehensively beats.

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Wow, this is a good one. The 1TB WD SN850x, our best PCIe 4.0 SSD for gaming, is down to £64.99 at Amazon UK - after costing £95 earlier this month! This is by far the cheapest price we've ever seen for this model and an incredible deal for the level of performance it provides.

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We've not heard much from THQ Nordic's Alone in the Dark reboot since its surprise unveiling last year, but now the promising project is back with a 25th October release date and - for the impatient among us - a playable prologue that's available now.

The original Alone in the Dark, for those too young to remember, released in 1992 and offered a genuinely groundbreaking journey into the unknown. It's widely considered to be the granddaddy of the survival horror genre, pioneering the fixed-camera spook-house formula that would go on to influence the likes of Resident Evil and Silent Hill.

THQ Nordic's reimagined version of Alone in the Dark - which is being handled by Swedish developer Pieces Interactive with Soma and Amnesia: The Dark Descent writer Mikael Hedberg at the helm - takes the basic premise of the 1992 original, in which private detective Edward Carnby helps Emily Hartwood investigate her uncle's suicide at the gloomy Derceto Mansion, and cranks up the Southern Gothic as it attempts to filter the originals' blend of exploration, combat, puzzles, and story through a more modern lens.

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Two new event quests are coming to Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak and this time one of them will make you face a pair of Magnamalos to get a special layered armor. In addition, players can test their might fighting against a Flaming Espinas and get special titles. Both quests are available on the Switch and PC via Steam.

Check out the new event quests announcement from the Monster Hunter Twitter account below:
https://twitter.com/monsterhunter/status/1661526649962369024?s=20

The first new event quest in Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak is "Animose Crossing," adding in an "Animal Crossing pun. In this Dual Threat one, you will need to fight against two Scorned Magnamalo in the Forlorn Arena. Defeating them will reward you with the Heavenly Silk crafting item. You can then head to the Smithy to craft the new “Bloodmalice” layered armor set that uses it.

This armor set features a design reminiscent of the Magnamalo, as there are certain details such as claw-shaped boots and gauntlets. It should be noted that this is not the same Sinister Seal layered armor that's unlocked using the Magnamalo amiibo, as it has a completely different design.

Nintendo just updated The Legend Of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to version 1.1.2, and while the company’s official patch notes don’t mention it, users are reporting that many of the game’s notorious (and handy!) duplication glitches have been removed.

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Two years ago I wrote a dumb post listing just how many Warhammer games had been released in the past few years. That post is now massively out of date, because there are so many Warhammer games coming in 2023-24 that Games Workshop was able to host their own damn show about it.

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Earlier this week, Konami revealed not only the existence of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater - a remake of the series' third game - but also the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1.

This collection will include the first three Metal Gear Solid games - Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (both HD Collection versions), and will launch in the autumn.

However, the Konami website for the collection includes a blank space with "stay tuned for more information", which the PlayStation Store has revealed will be Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.

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The boss of the European Commission has explained in detail why her agency approved Microsoft's $68.7bn Activision Blizzard deal - and why she thinks the UK was wrong to block it.

In a speech given yesterday, European Commission executive vice president Margrethe Vestager laid out the regulator's own "call of duty" to only block buyouts when really necessary.

"Merger control is by nature a forward-looking exercise," Vestager said. "But that power comes with challenges... And to make things even more complicated, for global deals many authorities are predicting the future, at the same time. Of course we cooperate, but disagreements sometimes happen. No less recently than last week, we cleared the Microsoft/Activision deal, while the CMA decided to block it."

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Adeline Rudolph, who previously starred in Netflix's The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, has joined the Mortal Kombat 2 film cast.

Rudolph will play Princess Kitana, The Hollywood Reporter reports.

Kitana has remained a popular character in Mortal Kombat ever since her debut in 1993's Mortal Kombat 2. She is known for her steel fan weapons, although she has also used sais and a flying blade throughout the series.

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Nintendo has released a new patch for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that appears to remove item duplication glitches.

The patch notes themselves are minimal, stating some audio bug fixes, a fix to the quest 'Camera Work in the Depths', and "several issues have been addressed to improve the gameplay experience".

It's this last point that presumably covers the duplication glitches that seem to have been removed.

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Games Workshop has teased the upcoming release of Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine The Board Game.

Yes, it's a board game based on the Space Marine video game, which itself is based on Games Workshop's famous tabletop game.

The video below shows the Space Marine board game box as well as some miniatures, including a slightly awkward-looking Lieutenant Titus, star of the Space Marine video games.

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Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: Zelda, Bloodborne, and a bit of RollerCoaster Tycoon.

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.

Don't laugh but I only started playing Zelda this weekend. Breath of the Wild that is - have you heard of it? And have I got some burning hot takes for you!

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Have you ever looked at Mega Man's all blue aesthetic and thought, "yes, I like that ensemble, and I would absolutely wear it, but those boots just don't look comfortable"?

If you answered yes to that question, well I have some good news. The officially-licenced Mega Man slippers will be available this summer (23rd June, to be precise).

Clothing and costume store Fun has unveiled this new pair of Mega Man slippers, which have been designed to resemble Mega Man's classic series look. They have a stitched Mega Man on the side, and red emblems on the sole. Surely, a much more comfortable option for lounging around the house in than Mega Man's own, robotic booties.

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During its WonHobbyG 2023 Spring announcements, Good Smile Company revealed its Hollow Knight Nendoroids of The Knight and Hornet. There are no release dates for either figure. However, they did appear as painted prototypes.

Here’s the official reveal. It didn’t show any additional face plates for The Knight or Hornet. However, each character is wielding a weapon in this initial announcement. It also seems like their capes will be designed to be dynamic and show movement. The Knight’s is frayed a bit, while Hornet’s is more put together. Both of them are billowing in the example photos.

||◤　商品化決定　◢||
￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣
ねんどろいど
■放浪者
■ホーネット
＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿#HollowKnight #ホロウナイト#goodsmile #ねんどろいど

新作ねんどろいど一挙解禁動画、
【 #ねんどろいどFUNS 】公開中！
https://t.co/aqcmUuHrfR pic.twitter.com/JVECMalZ5Y

RTS threequel Homeworld 3 has been delayed to February 2024, flying away from its previous "first half of 2023" release window. The developers say they need more time to live up to the series’ standards, presumably with more epic spacefleet shootouts. For those missing the series’ galactic megastructures, the devs have promised to share their biggest “progress update” yet later this summer. Possibly at one of this year’s NotE3 showcases.

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Survival horror reboot Alone In The Dark is coming out on October 25th, publisher THQ announced last night. This new game reimagines the haunted Derceto Manor from the 1992 original, this time with a fancier coat of paint, a third-person camera view, and some famous faces. And if you’d like an early teaser of what’s in store, there’s a free prologue chapter available now, letting you explore a slice of the Southern Gothic mansion.

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Movie star Dolph Lundgren has let slip he's set to star in a Witcher spin-off TV show.

Lundgren, perhaps most famous for playing boxer Ivan Drago in Rocky 4, told Swedish publication Aftonbladet he's in South Africa shooting a spinoff series of The Witcher, which Collider speculates is the upcoming show about the Rats.

The Rats are a group of young Nilfgaardian thieves introduced in Andrzej Sapkowski's Time of Contempt novel. The third season of The Witcher (the last starring Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia), adapts this book, and so the expectation is the Rats will be introduced to fans of the show before their spin-off hits the screen.

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Our game of the week is Warhammer 40K: Boltgun, a kind of wilful throwback to the glorious days of early shooters. Rick loved it - with caveats - and the whole premise has a gleeful immediacy that makes it hard to resist.

It's an immediacy that was distinctly lacking from this week's other biggish release. This was The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, which I struggled through, intermittently seeing the beauty in it, but more often being frustrated by a game whose many problems ate away at all the potential. I'll remember this game - I do believe that. But I'll remember it with melancholy. A team really tried here, and they had some interesting ideas, but wider problems defeated them.

There may not seem to be a lot in common between the two biggies this week, but look sideways and they share one thing. They're both licensed games. They're both licensed games in the modern sense, too. Both Warhammer and Tolkien are licenses we see a lot. Scrolling Tiktok, there are a handful of these forever licenses - mobile games for 40K and for Star Trek and Star Wars always seem to be scrolling past.

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We now know the Alone in the Dark release date. It will debut on October 25, 2023. However, people can play before then. Grace in the Dark, a prologue demo for the upcoming Alone in the Dark reboot is now available to play.

The demo follows young child Grace Saunders, as she explores Derceto Manor. This playable prologue won’t include any combat, focusing entirely on exploration as the player controls a child character. The demo is now available for the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam.

The demo is the same one that was available to the public at the Gamescom 2022 event and Tokyo Game Show 2022. During this playable prologue, the player controls Grace Saunders as she is tasked by Jeremy Hartwood to deliver a letter to his niece Emily. The demo was made available shortly after the May 2023 spotlight event for the game, which also revealed the release date of the game as October 25, 2023.

The upcoming Alone in the Dark is a re-imagining of the original 1992 PC game that fostered the survival horror genre. The game is being developed by Pieces Interactive and published by THQ Nordic.

Four Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku Nendoroids and Pop Up Parade figures appeared at WonHobbyG 2023 Spring. Good Smile Company is bringing two characters into the real world with its merchandise. Gabimaru and Yamada Asaemon Sagiri will be added to both lines. The Nendoroids appear to be further along in development, as those appear as painted prototypes. The two Pop Up Parade figures were unpainted prototypes.

First, here's a closer look at Gabimaru and Sagiri as Nendoroids. While none of his accessories are shown, she's wielding her sword.

◤ 彩色原型 初公開 ◢#ねんどろいど
・画眉丸
・山田浅ェ門 佐切
＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿

新作ねんどろいど一挙解禁動画、
【 #ねんどろいどFUNS 】公開中！
https://t.co/aqcmUuHrfR#地獄楽#goodsmile #ワンホビG pic.twitter.com/rc9KDVyPxJ

— カホタン＠グッスマのすみっこ (@gsc_kahotan) May 26, 2023

Among the many WonHobbyG 2023 Spring announcements from Good Smile Company were Bocchi the Rock Nendoroids and figures. We already saw the Hitori Gotoh Nendoroid appear. She’ll be joined by her bandmates, Seika Ijichi, and Kikuri. There will also be scale figures of all four of the main characters.

First, here are the photos for all three unpainted prototypes of Nijika Ijichi, Ikuyo Kita, and Ryo Yamada.

#WonHobbyG 2023 Spring Figure Update!

Good Smile Company
Bocchi the Rock!
Nendoroid Nijika Ijichi

WonHobbyG Info: https://t.co/LI9nUpFwC0

*Photo gallery opens May 27 at 9:30JST#BocchiTheRock #nendoroid #goodsmile pic.twitter.com/b6nSWBqFTH

— GoodSmile_US (@GoodSmile_US) May 26, 2023

The latest Pokémon Trading Card Game expansion, Scarlet & Violet – Paldea Evolved, arrives next month. As the name implies, this new version delivers plenty of evolved forms of Paldean Pokémon while expanding on the pre-existing catalog of Paldean and non-Paldean monsters.

Every week, the Epic Games Store gives away one free game for everyone. This week that freebie is Fallout: New Vegas - Ultimate Edition, available to keep forever from now until June 1st. So, if you somehow missed Obsidian’s post-apocalyptic postal service sim, now’s the time to get stuck in the wasteland. Just hop over to the Epic Games Store to add the game to your account. The giveaway ends at 4pm BST on June 1st, at which point New Vegas will be replaced with another mysterious free game.

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Intelligent Systems will release a figure of Nohr Noble Corrin as she appears in Fire Emblem Fates. She is available for pre-order via Good Smile Company until September 28, 2023. Those in Japan will have to pay 28,600 JPY and can expect her in June 2024. Meanwhile, she costs $204.99 for those in North America and she’ll come out some time in Q3 2024.

The Nohr Noble Corrin figure is a 1/7 scale one and she stands at around 255 millimeters in height. She holds her sword in her right hand and her Dragonstone in her left. It appears that she is in the middle of transforming into her dragon, as you can see the power swirling around her feet and making her cloak billow behind her.

Here are some more pictures of the Fire Emblem Fates Nohr Noble Corrin figure, as well as a trailer:

[gallery columns="6" ids="965198,965197,965196,965195,965194,965193" link="file"]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHMuj-2aZNw

One., a remake of the classic visual novel One: Kagayaku Kisetsu E, will come out on Steam on December 22, 2023. It'll be available in English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese. Nexton released the original game in 1998. Though there is a Steam page available where you can wishlist the game, it’s unclear how much it will cost.

The remade version of One: Kagayaku Kisetsu E will come out for the 30th anniversary of Nexton, which is the company that developed the game. Since there is no warning on Steam, it likely will not have any erotic content, much like the PlayStation port. The original One: Kagayaku Kisetsu E for Windows PC was an adult visual novel.

One: Kagayaku Kisetsu E puts the player in the role of Kohei Orihara, who is a Japanese high school student. After the death of his father, Kohei becomes depressed and shuts himself in the Eternal World, which is a space inside of his mind. It becomes more and more difficult for him to leave, and there is a danger of being forgotten if you’re stuck in the Eternal World. Through his relationships with the six heroines in the story, he starts to ground himself more in reality.