June 2023

Insomniac Reveals How Spider-Man 2 Handles Character Switching

11 months ago

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is nearly here and one of the most exciting things about this sequel is that it features a story focused on both Peter Parker and Miles Morales. As if that wasn't amazing enough, Insomniac has confirmed that players will be able to switch between the two Spider-Men at will in the open-world and at specific times during the story.

Speaking to Eurogamer following Spider-Man 2's 10-minute gameplay demo in the latest PlayStation Showcase, Spider-Man 2 creative director Bryan Intihar explained how the game handles switching between the characters and how a lot of it is made possible thanks to the power of the PS5.

"When you're playing the main story, we control when you switch between Pete and Miles... it's done in service to the story when we're making those switches, for sure," Intihar said. "So, as you saw on that gameplay reveal, which is a segment of the main story, we are pre-determining those based on what we want to do for how the story plays out.

"We have content designed around Peter, we have content designed around Miles and we have content where you can play either. You'll be able to - in the open world - freely switch between them with a simple button press.

"Being able to switch in the open world so quickly between the two characters is really, really awesome. Just being able to pick and choose who I want to play as for a certain activity... it's been so awesome to have that feature. [It's] something we probably wouldn't have explored previously."

Author
Adam Bankhurst

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What are we all playing this weekend?

11 months ago

Diablo 4 launches on Tuesday and who knows how many people will soon part company with the sun? Our Diablo 4 review called it "a beautiful, frictionless grey toybox that puts nothing in the way of you playing it for hours and wondering what you've done with your life." And just when the weather got nice. But quite a few of us have been playing advance copies, and I hope they've remembering to chug vitamin D pills like so many healing potions. Anyway! What are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!

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Author
Alice O'Connor

My favourite Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom temple is a hole in the game

11 months ago

This article contains minor spoilers for dungeons, broad plot developments and one major quest location in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

My visit to Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's Forgotten Temple began auspiciously with the tragi-comic death of my horse, Dennis. I was peering into a deep canyon north-west of Hyrule Castle, trying to work out the precise elevation of the quest waypoint on my minimap, when Dennis came charging across the grasslands and went right over the cliff, disappearing into the murk without a sound.

I plunged after him, fanning my glider a few feet from the bottom, and caught up with my valiant steed's crumpled body just as it despawned. Not in a cloud of purple smoke, as with defeated enemies - that touch of pantomime which stops Zelda's fights feeling like slaughter. My dead horse just vanished, deleted from the simulation. I felt like I'd crossed a boundary of some kind. Looking up from the space where Dennis no longer was, I found myself on a huge expanse of sandstone, cut into long blocks and raised circular designs.

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Author
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

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The Texas Chain Saw Massacre game director tells fans that demanding content is "not how Hollywood works"

11 months ago

The director of upcoming The Texas Chain Saw Massacre game wants us to know that Hollywood licensing is "a total mess" so Gun Interactive probably can't add your favourite Texas Chain Saw character into the game.

CEO Wes Keltner broke the news on Twitter, offering a "friendly reminder" to players that despite their demands, Gun can't add just any character or location from the movie series' considerable back catalogue because it doesn't "have those rights".

"Friendly reminder. We have the interactive rights to the 1974 film. We can't put characters or locations in from other [Texas Chain Saw] films because we don't have those rights," Keltner explained. "Demanding we add them is not how Hollywood works. Licensing in general is usually a total mess."

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 – The Sith Lords' Restored Content DLC has been cancelled

11 months ago

Aspyr Media has revealed that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 – The Sith Lords' highly-anticipated DLC, Restored Content, will now not be coming to Nintendo Switch after all.

Whilst the team confirmed that the DLC plans would "not be moving forward", it did not offer an explanation as to why the content – which started out as a fan-made mod to restore content to the original game – had been scrapped.

After thanking the KOTOR community for its "immense passion and support for the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series", Aspyr said: "Sadly, today we are announcing that the Restored Content DLC for the Nintendo Switch version of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 – The Sith Lords will not be moving forward for release"."

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Review: The Lord of the Rings Gollum’s as Miserable as a Trip to Mordor

11 months ago

lord of the rings gollum review

In bygone days, video games based on TV shows and popular movies were usually hit or miss. The Harry Potter entries likely wouldn’t hold up to the test of time, nor would the ones for The Chronicles of Narnia. They’re mostly there to piggyback off the success of the property they're based on, after all. Though Daedalic Entertainment likely did not make The Lord of the Rings: Gollum in order to fit that particular niche, it certainly feels like it. With its poor appearance, uninspired gameplay, and lack of a meaningful plot, playing through The Lord of the Rings: Gollum feels as treacherous and miserable as the journey to Mordor. At least there was a point to Frodo's journey.

If you know anything about The Lord of the Rings, then you basically already know the plot of Gollum. Chronologically, it takes place after the events of The Hobbit, when Bilbo takes the One Ring from our titular protagonist. After Aragorn captures him, Gollum recounts to Gandalf his escape from Barad-dûr. He works as a slave, all while struggling to maintain mental balance between his Smeagol persona and his Gollum one. That’s essentially the plot. Gollum does eventually break out and make his way to Mirkwood, which is where Aragorn finds him. But the main meat of the game places the wretched creature in Barad-dûr.

[gallery columns="2" link="file" ids="965413,965414"]

Author
Stephanie Liu

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Diablo 4's first hotfixes are live – here's what's changed

11 months ago

Diablo 4's first hotfix has nerfed the Sorcerer and Rogue classes, as well as made the monsters in later World Tiers a little trickier.

As well as the usual unspecified stability and crash fixes, a second hotfix released later that same day has also "reduced the drop rate of the Elixir of Death Evasion recipe after it's already learned", fixed items "inheriting Junk status from gems socketed into them", and addressed an issue where "Sorcerers could teleport underground in Serpent’s Passage".

The changes – which have been detailed on the official forums and the community subreddit – are live now. Here's what you can expect when you boot up today:

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Duke Nukem Evercade publisher Blaze apologises after fans called out its AI-generated artwork

11 months ago

Blaze Entertainment has apologised after it was forced to acknowledge that artwork accompanying the announcement of a Duke Nukem collection – shown above – for Evercade was generated by AI.

In a brief statement, CEO Andrew Byatt insisted that the studio had commissioned an artist "to produce a lead image for the new Duke Nukem 1+2 Remastered" game, but "because of "the artists' use of AI in the process", it had "fallen below the expectation and standards demanded by fans".

Fans and professional artists were immediately suspicious when the artwork was first revealed, with some providing a breakdown of why the image – reportedly designed by "professional hybrid concept artist" Oskar Manuel – looked as though it had been machine-generated.

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Author
Vikki Blake

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The System Shock remake is excellent - and Nightdive's most ambitious work yet

11 months ago

After years of uncertainty and anticipation, System Shock has made its triumphant return and this remake is even better than I could have hoped. This Unreal Engine remake carefully straddles the line between modern and retro gaming, delivering a heartfelt interpretation of a classic. To give a better sense of what developer Nightdive has accomplished, we'll compare the remake to the original, explore its history and share some thoughts on performance too. This might be one of the best remakes ever made.

System Shock was originally developed by Looking Glass Technologies, a small Massachusetts studio known for its innovation. They pioneered a genre now known as the immersive sim, where players are plunged into a world where choices matter, problems can be solved systematically and thinking outside the box can be critical to success. The original Ultima Underworld games contained the genesis of this idea, but System Shock would be the studio's masterpiece. If you've ever played Bioshock, Prey 2017 or Deus Ex, among many others, you can thank System Shock for paving the way.

System Shock's release in 1994 may have come as a shock to players who had discovered first-person gaming through Doom and Wolfenstein, but beneath the clunky interface and abstract visuals lay a game unlike anything else on the market at the time. Facing off against the AI Shodan, you'll explore the many floors of Citadel Station non-linearly, unravelling the mystery through audio logs and emails - a fresh concept at the time.

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Author
John Linneman

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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Apparently Opens Up After Leaving Midgar

11 months ago

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Apparently Opens Up After Leaving Midgar

For the second day in a row, Square Enix offered a development update on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Things started on June 2, 2023. Now on June 3, 2023, there are details about what to expect now that Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and Red XIII left Midgar. Director Naoki Hamaguchi brought up how much opportunity we’ll have to explore, and noted there’ll be a “high degree of freedom.” However, the response doesn't note how much of the world we'll see in the second part of this three-part trilogy.

Here's Hamaguchi's exact response. In addition to claiming this second part of Final Fantasy VII Remake will offer freedom to go across a "wide and multifaceted world," it also cites different stories. This could be referring to different sidequests we saw in the original game, as well as mainline missions that saw the group headed to places like Junon, Gold Saucer, and Corel Prison.

Author
Jenni Lada

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Team17's mysterious "Redacted" is a turn-based tactics game set in WW2

11 months ago

Remember last week when Team17 revealed a mysterious new game without telling us anything about it? Well, now we know it's an all-new turn-based tactics war game called Classified: France '44.

Team17 Digital and Absolutely Games says the game is inspired by "the untold story" of the Jedburghs, "a group of heroic Allied special forces dropped behind enemy lines", and the "disparate brave Resistance groups" working across France in the lead-up to the Normandy Landings on D-Day.

Here, check out this new teaser:

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Check out this new trailer for Stranger Things VR

11 months ago

Tender Claws has dropped an all-new trailer for its upcoming Stranger Things VR game, called – predictably enough – Stranger Things VR.

The stylised game sees you play the part of villain Vecna as you battle monsters, "conquer minds", and exact your revenge. You can check it out in the teaser below:

The game's premise is simple enough: "Players will invade the dreams and memories of fan-favourite characters and harness telekinetic powers to possess minds and battle creatures, as Henry Creel’s transformation into Vecna and his influence on the events of prior seasons is revealed."

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Final Fantasy XVI Merchandise Lottery Will Be Held in Japan

11 months ago

Final Fantasy XVI merchandise lottery

Ahead of the launch of Final Fantasy XVI on June 22, 2023, Square Enix will be hold a special merchandise lottery in Japan to celebrate the occasion. Each entry in the lottery will cost 750 JPY (roughly $5). Tickets will be available at Square Enix official stores, 7 Eleven convenience stores, and Ito Yokado grocery stores in Japan. The lottery goods are scheduled to release on June 30, 2023.

The lineup of the merchandise in the new Final Fantasy XVI lottery includes figures and practical merchandise. There is a diorama figure of Shiva, alongside a special silver version of the figure, bust figurines of eight different Eikons that will appear in the game, a set of shot glasses depicting Eikons Phoenix and Ifrit, cork glass coasters, acrylic stands of young Clive, Joshua, and Jill, character magnets, and clear mats with illustrations.

You can take a better look at the items included in the Final Fantasy XVI merchandise lottery in the gallery below.
[gallery columns="4" link="file" ids="966345,966352,966346,966347,966348,966349,966350,966351"]

Final Fantasy XVI will come out for the PlayStation 5 on June 22, 2023. The game will be a timed exclusive for 6 months. Naoki Yoshida recently confirmed that a PC port of the game will start development after the release of the game on PS5.

Author
Daniel Bueno

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Here's What You Get For Completing All 152 Of The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom's Shrines

11 months ago

There are 152 Shrines in Tears of the Kingdom, which means finding and solving them all is no small feat. Comparatively, Breath of the Wild had 120 (and you can see what finding all of those earned you here), but the reward is surprising, bizarre, and raises some interesting questions about the larger Zelda lore. It's worth noting that there are spoilers below for a late-game unlock.

After skipping the two cutscenes that play at the end of every Shrine for the last approximately 165 hours, the final Shrine shows some unique text and suggests the player visit the Temple of Time for a reward.

Author
Kyle Hilliard

Street Fighter 6 players are struggling to access their deluxe edition on PS5

11 months ago

Street Fighter 6 players are struggling to access their deluxe and ultimate edition extras on PS5… while others are struggling to play at all.

Just hours after the game released, players flocked to the game's subreddit and social media channels, reporting that despite having forked out for the fighter's pricier editions, the game was stubbornly locking them out of the deluxe and ultimate edition's DLC and extras.

"There seems to be some kind of ongoing problem with either the PS5 deluxe and ultimate editions or DLC in general," posits one Reddit mod, linking to a possible workaround".

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Review: Convergence: A League of Legends Story Is a Treat for Everyone

11 months ago

Convergence Ekko

Convergence: A League of Legends Story is the latest game published by Riot Forge, following Ruined King and The Mageseeker. This recent arm of Riot exists to expand the League of Legends universe by loaning out their Champions to indie developers. While these side games offer players a greater insight into familiar characters, they serve a secondary purpose. By expanding the property into different genres, they’re hoping to bring in a new audience.

I am that new audience. My knowledge of League of Legends amounts to knowing there’s a character named Jinx and that the game inspired a Netflix show. Prior to playing Convergence, I had no idea who Ekko was and had never heard of a place called Zaun. However, I do like Metroidvanias, and Convergence definitely has appeal in that regard.

Fortunately, this lack of prior knowledge did not hurt my experience. While the story starts up in the middle of the action, it doesn’t take long to get up to speed. The game does a great job of providing plenty of context for its various concepts and factions. For the few times it doesn’t, there’s a helpful glossary to explain everything further.

Convergence focuses on Ekko, a young inventor living in the murky underground city of Zaun. After witnessing the collapse of a huge central building, Ekko rushes to check on his friends. At home, he finds a mysterious stranger that turns out to be a future version of himself. This future Ekko is here to prevent a bad future, and the Ekko in the present can help stop the oncoming disaster.

Author
Leigh Price

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Should You Salvage or Sell Loot in Diablo IV

11 months ago

Diablo IV Salvage Legendary Gear

Diablo IV features a loot system that will keep players grinding for gear for hours, but as your inventory fills up you may be asking yourself if you should salvage or sell the items you've obtained during your journey. It's definitely something circumstantial, but generally, salvaging your gear will be the way to go for a myriad reasons. Salvaging of any kind can be done at any Blacksmith, and salvaging items not only allows you to recycle old gear into cosmetics, but you also get extremely valuable materials by doing so.

Players will generally always want to salvage gear in Diablo IV, with the exception of Legendary items. Until you obtain the Codec of Power you're looking for to complete your ideal build, you will want to extract Legendary Aspects from Legendary gear at the Occultist. After this, you will want to salvage Legendary items in order to obtain the extremely valuable Baleful Fragment material. That can be obtained through salvaging Legendary items, to reapply Codecs of Power and extracted Legendary Aspects to new pieces of gear. While you may be concerned about gold, given that it can feel relatively hard to come by, it is always advisable to salvage instead of sell. Since Legendary drop rates will remain relatively low, even when playing on higher world tiers, you will want to make sure you have enough materials to create your desired build.

Author
Kazuma Hashimoto

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The Community Spotlight 2023.06.03

11 months ago

Welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the latest community creations from the previous week.

"Not E3" begins THIS WEEK! As the staff get ready to head down to L.A. in the coming week, get ready for some awesome in-person event coverage.

As I already mentioned last week, Grubb is scheduling an in-person gathering similar to what the site did in years' past. Over on the Giant Bomb Discord, Grubb said that he plans to book 50ish people to attend this year's Giant Bomb @ Nite event with groups of four to five. Wait for the site's weekly programming schedule to see which conferences and streams they plan to talk over and when the night-time events will be done.

Speaking of last week, I mentioned I would be having an online meeting with a Fandom rep about the state of the site and that indeed happened. What I can report is that there should be a new thread on how to report bugs and site issues that reviews how to make bug reports more actionable without overwhelming users.

Likewise, we should have a new thread wherein anyone can immediately report when Infinite goes down or is not working as intended. The issues with almost everything now appears to be related to a cookie conflict with the site's One-Trust policy. Fandom views the current workaround of enabling "Performance Cookies" as not a long-term solution.

Finally, Tamoor was on the Real Time Strategy to talk about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. If you are interested in giving it a listen, click this link.

Author
Marino - Brad Lynch

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How Does Hardcore Mode Work in Diablo IV

11 months ago

Diablo IV Hardcore Mode

Diablo IV, much like its predecessors, offers players two different game modes upon immediately starting the game: Normal and Hardcore. Those unfamiliar with the series may be wondering just what Hardcore mode is and what it entails. This is a more permanent game mode that will test players abilities to stay alive in the most harrowing of circumstances. Hardcore mode in Diablo IV is a challenge mode that will permanently kill a player's character if they die. Naturally, if you are playing Diablo IV for the first time, I wouldn’t advise you play on Hardcore. But you totally can, and you could even beat the game this way.

There are no additional rewards for beating the game with a Hardcore character, only achievements. This means that Hardcore characters do not get increased Legendary drops, as this is tied to World Tiers. Hardcore also doesn't make the game significantly harder, outside of it's perma-death penalty. If your character dies, they are gone forever, including their gear, aspects, and anything else they may have unlocked outside of cosmetics. This mode is truly for those just looking for the extra added challenge of not dying.

Normal mode, on the other hand, is exactly what you would expect. Players can die indefinitely, with only their gear slowly breaking as a penalty. This is the general way to play the game, and definitely advised for those looking to play Diablo for the very first time.

Author
Kazuma Hashimoto

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The 10 Best Puzzles for Adults to Enjoy in 2023

11 months ago

Piecing together a puzzle is a great way to relax and unwind. What’s even better is that they come in a variety of different styles and designs once put together. Whether you want the finished product to reflect your favorite film, game, artwork, or a piece of beautiful scenery, there are puzzles out there for everyone to enjoy.

In this gift guide, we’ve collected some of our favorite puzzles for adults. These come in a range of sizes as well, from 1000 pieces to a whopping 3000 pieces, so you’ll still have quite the challenge when putting it together. Each of the puzzles we’ve found features different designs in their finished products as well, so you’re sure to find something that suits your personal tastes.

TLDR: The Best Puzzles for Adults

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Jigsaw Puzzle

Created by: USAOPOLY

Number of pieces: 1,000

Author
Hannah Hoolihan

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In Tilt Brush, the early wonder of VR remains undimmed

11 months ago

The reason I love videogames, I think, is that every few years they absolutely flatten me. They destroy my sense of what's possible and replace it with something new and weird. Impossible Mission did this back on the Commodore 64 - a game, but so stylish, so transporting! (I would not have framed it that way at the time; I was probably six or so.) And then Wonder Boy 3 came along, a platformer in which left and right didn't matter - you could go anywhere.

This chain of little explosions never really ended, but maybe it did slow down a bit. The opening to Another World - actually Another World in its entirety, its sense of what gameplay could be. The sheer visual delight of Jet Set Radio. And more recently, VR.

VR absolutely astonished me. And yet I didn't expect it to. I thought at the time that it was going to be a tech thing - a thing that would impress me but leave me slightly cold, like an Unreal graphics demo. But when Oculus arrived in our office I found myself itching to unpack it. I then had a week of just screwing around with it, one of my favourite weeks in all the years of doing this job. And it turned out VR wasn't a tech thing at all. Or rather, tech had allowed for something that did not feel like tech, like frame-rates and fidelity and all that jazz that I love, but which generally goes over my head. Tech had allowed for something toylike and - that word again - transporting. As with Impossible Mission, Wonder Boy, as with Jet Set Radio's Tokyo-to, I was leaving my desk and arriving somewhere new.

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Author
Christian Donlan

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Knights of the Old Republic 2 Restored Content modder says "Aspyr did nothing wrong" by cancelling the DLC

11 months ago

One of the original programmers who was part of the volunteer effort to bring the Restored Content mod to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 – The Sith Lords says Aspyr Media "did nothing wrong" when it cancelled the DLC for Switch.

Aspyr Media revealed on Friday that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 – The Sith Lords' highly-anticipated DLC, Restored Content, would now not be coming to Nintendo Switch after all. The team did not explain why the DLC would "not be moving forward", and would not offer refunds either, instead choosing to offer a complimentary key for one of seven other Star Wars games.

As fans responded to the news, modder zbyl2 – who helped bring the Restored Content mod to PC in the first place – popped up in a comment on the KOTOR subreddit, saying: "Aspyr did nothing wrong. Quote me on that. Shame it ended the way it did".

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Blizzard says its "still looking into" that Diablo 4 PS5 licensing error

11 months ago

UPDATE 6/6/23: The licensing issue affecting Diablo 4 players on PlayStation 5 has been fixed.

As below, a message was previously posted on the forum by community manager PezRadar stating the issue had been addressed, though for some players it persisted.

Blizzard has not offered an official statement, but Eurogamer understands the issue has now been fully resolved.

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Will Feature a World With a 'High Degree of Freedom'

11 months ago

While we still don't know a ton about exactly what Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is, its director Naoki Hamaguchi has confirmed it will feature a "multifaceted world with a high degree of freedom."

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, for those unfamiliar, is the second entry in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake project and will pick up after the ending of the first game that saw our heroes leaving the walls of Midgar. In the original game, this is when the world opened up and the more contained opening hours became something much grander.

Hamaguchi's comments don't quite confirm that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth would be full open world, but the "high degree of freedom" comment should entice fans and will hopefully mean players will still have that wonder when exploring the wider world and the chance to choose how they tackle some of its missions and side content.

"Players will be able to journey across the wide and multifaceted world with a high degree of freedom, experiencing a myriad of different stories," Hamaguchi said.

Author
Adam Bankhurst

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All available PSVR2 horror games so far, ranked from worst to best

11 months ago

As a huge lover of horror games, I believe that there is no better way to experience them than in VR. With that in mind, I’ve decided to rank all 12 currently available PSVR2 horror games from worst to best. This way all you fellow horror-heads out there will be able to know which VR nightmares to embrace with your face and which to avoid like a hungry alien on Sevastopol station.

You'll find the video version of this list just above these words if you want to watch some lovely trailer gameplay while I natter over the top of them. In that video I've also judged these PSVR2 horror games on how scary they are too so, if you'd like to hear approximately 35 fart sound effects, this week's episode of Ian's VR Corner is the place to go. Enjoy!

There was a lot of hype behind the recently released horror-puzzle game Hello Neighbour VR: Search and Rescue, but unfortunately it launched onto PSVR2 in such a terrible state that it’s currently almost impossible to complete thanks to a catalogue of game breaking bugs and progression issues.Not only that though, it also has incredibly poor performance and the lack of some of the most basic VR functionality going. I mean, no smooth turn option at all? What were the developers thinking?

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Author
Ian Higton

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Ten years later, GTA 5 finally introduces an alternate sprint option

11 months ago

Grand Theft Auto 5's latest updates are here, and buried in the "action-packed update" is confirmation that Rockstar has finally introduced a hold-to-sprint alternate sprint control to your Settings Menu.

The update comes a decade after the game first debuted back in 2013, and means you no longer bruise your thumb as you spam the run button, tearing through Los Santos.

As spotted by TheGamer, that's not the only quality-of-life improvement making its debut, either. Rather than claim all of your destroyed vehicles from Mors Mutal Insurance individually, you'll now find an option to get it all over with at once. You can also add custom description tags in your garages to "help quickly locate your favourite rides", and believe it or not, snow is also making its long-awaited debut in Creator.

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Diablo 4's patch notes are here – here's what's changed

11 months ago

The Diablo 4 team says it has "been diligently monitoring [our] feedback" and has revealed what's changing as it rolls out its next patch of fixes.

Patch 1.0.2d is now live across all platforms and ushers in "balance adjustments" to classes.

"We’ve made some balance adjustments to Classes and want to provide our reasoning behind them," Blizzard explains in the patch notes. "Overall, we're quite happy with the performance of our Classes, but we know there is always room for improvement. Our goal behind these changes is to create a better balanced and enjoyable experience across the board.

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Bunhouse Is Adorable, but Frustrating

11 months ago

Bunhouse Switch

Take the satisfying botany of Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley, strip out the complexity, and make it bunnies. That's how you get Bunhouse, a rabbit themed indie game on the Switch and PC from one-man developer Reky Studios. Designed as a relaxing game to play with up to four players, Bunhouse sees you grow plants and upgrade a greenhouse while unlocking collectable hats and mustaches for your bunny avatar. It's honestly a great concept and one you can feel a lot of love went into, but it's unfortunately marred by wonky controls, fuzzy graphics, and a few frustrating mechanics.

The bulk of Bunhouse's gameplay revolves around planting in your greenhouse, watering, and changing up the soil to ensure good growth, then selling the matured plants for Carrots. Carrots are then used to upgrade your tools, expand the greenhouse, and buy more plant seeds, though these can also be used on cosmetic additions like paint and hanging vines. While waiting for your plants to grow, you can fish for extra carrots or eventually on dig around for buried goodies. It's a relaxing loop, or it would be if not for a few consistent annoyances.

[caption id="attachment_965737" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Bunhouse Switch Screeshot via Siliconera[/caption]

Author
Elliot Gostick

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Capcom wants you to choose what Resident Evil it remakes next

11 months ago

Capcom wants your help in deciding what Resident Evil game next gets the remake treatment.

In a new survey circulated to Resident Evil fans, Capcom first polls your thoughts on its social media channels and gauges how much you use and appreciate its community efforts.

But right at the end, once you've fed back on its various channels and websites, it asks two more questions: "Please let us know any opinions/comments you may have about the activities on the various [Resident Evil websites]" and "Let us know if there are any other Resident Evil games you want remade".

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Author
Vikki Blake

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10 Iconic Moments We Can’t Wait to Relive in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater

11 months ago

After almost 20 years, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has yet again taken the world by storm with the highly-anticipated remake, Delta. Longtime fans will experience the thrill all over again when Big Boss was just getting started as Naked Snake. But, this time around, we’ll see a more modern take on the classic with the realistic features of next-gen consoles.

If you are already tempted to eat the Forbidden Fruit of MGS3, we’ll show you the most iconic moments we can’t wait to relive in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater.

Author
Kristina Ebanez

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Icy Meat Makes Shield Surfing Frictionless Fun in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Trick

11 months ago

One of the most acclaimed aspects of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been the creativity and innovation allowed by the new Fusing mechanic. It’s made certain aspects of the game much easier – and it’s just done the same for Zelda’s fan favorite shield surfing mechanic.

We’ve already seen how it can make reaching Hyrule’s skies incredibly simple and, on June 1, one Redditor shared their Tears of the Kingdom trick to make shield surfing a frictionless breeze.

“Did you know that you can attach Icy Meat to your shield?” they asked. “Only works with normal and prime meat. Shield surfing basically has no friction now.”

Attached was a video showing the icy-meat-shield in action as a surfing device, with speed and duration increased thanks to the lack of friction and surprising durability of the created item.

Author
Joe Craven

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Everybody 1-2-Switch! Announced, Releasing Later This Month

11 months ago

Remember 1-2-Switch, the party game that released as a launch title for the Nintendo Switch back in 2017? It’s getting a sequel called Everybody 1-2-Switch! at the end of this month, Nintendo has just announced.

According to the game’s eShop page, Everybody 1-2-Switch! will be compatible with both Joy-Con and smart devices as controllers and feature team-based games that can be played in a group setting. While we don’t yet know all of the details of what kind of content will be included, we know that there will be a mix of games with several variations to change rules and add challenge.

Everybody 1-2-Switch! costs $29.99 on the eShop digitally, with a physical version listed for the same price.

Author
Rebecca Stone

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Meta Quest 2 & Quest Pro Get Major Performance Enhancements & Price Drops

11 months 1 week ago

Meta’s current generation of VR headsets, the Quest 2 and Quest Pro are receiving a significant boost in performance out of only a software update, allowing developers to do more with the VR devices.

With the announcement of the Meta Quest 3 came the additional footnote that the Quest 2 models will not only be receiving drops in their prices, but that they will getting maintained through software updates alongside the Quest Pro. The Quest 2 will cost $299.99 for the 128 GB model and $349.99 for the 256 GB model, starting June 4.

Meta also announced that both the Quest 2 and Quest 2 Pro are going to receive a software update that will greatly improve processing speeds. They claim that both headsets will receive a boost in CPU performance of up to 26%, and in terms of GPU performance, the Quest 2 will get a 19% increase and the Quest Pro will get an 11% increase.

These improvements will go hand-in-hand with the enabling of Dynamic Resolution Scaling, all serving the goal of giving developers more breathing room in what the devices are capable of. Meta is claiming that these improvements will allow for smoother graphics and textures and a more responsive UI, which are always more than welcome.

Both the reductions in price and the performance enhancements should open the door for more players and more developers to enter into the realm of VR. Those who might not be able to swing the $499.99 for the Quest 3 when it comes out will now have a much more accessible option, and they can take comfort in the fact that they can still get updates that improve their experience.

Author
Nick Rivera

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Vampire Survivors 1.4.200 Patch Notes Features New Relics, Easier Save Data Options, & Bug Fixes

11 months 1 week ago

The action roguelike Vampire Survivors has received a few new additions for its DLCs and base game, improving the player’s overall experience.

Fans can expect new relics for the DLCs, Legacy of the Moonspell and Tides of the Foscari, which can be found in the areas: Mt. Moonspell and Lake Foscari. You can also pinpoint their exact locations by pausing your menu to search for their icon on the map.

Author
Kristina Ebanez

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