June 2023

Among Us, the popular sci-fi social deduction game from developer Innersloth, is being turned into an animated series by CBS Studios.

As reported by Variety, the new series - which is being handled by Big Mouth and Star: Trek Lower Decks animation studio Titmouse - looks to be adhering closely to the core murder-and-deduction premise of its video game source material.

The show's official longline reads, "Members of your crew have been replaced by an alien shapeshifter intent on causing confusion, sabotaging the ship, and killing everyone. Root out the 'Impostor' or fall victim to its murderous designs."

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Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC
Publisher: Xseed, Marvelous Games
Developer: Marvelous Inc.
Release: June 27, 2023
Rating: Everyone

Remakes and remasters are more common than ever in 2023. What's most interesting is seeing how these new versions handle the issue of completely rebuilding versus simply making modern visual improvements. Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a remake of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life that straddles the line between these two philosophies fairly evenly but still delivers an outdated experience in various aspects.

Releasing on modern consoles, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life initially looks like nothing more than an updated re-skin on the surface. However, some significant changes have made it more inclusive for players. A Wonderful Life establishes each player as a young person who has inherited a farm from their father in a small town called Forgotten Valley. Before claiming your inheritance, you must name yourself and decide your appearance.

That’s right, the boastful, Dwayne Johnson-voiced demigod from the 2016 Disney animated musical Moana is entering the world of Lorcana. The game features both classic renditions of Disney characters and brand new versions with never-before-seen twists on their looks and personalities, so while the Maui on this card is just as you remember him, he may have another card that looks and plays in a wildly different way. The silver banner on this Maui card marks him as a Steel ink character, one of Lorcana’s six color-coded card types, which each focus on different strategies. At a glance, Steel seems to be full of tough characters who excel at brawling.

Tears of the Kingdom Shrine Map: Sky

A Fortnite streamer recently shaved his entire head, eyebrows included, for a big $2,500 donation from a viewer that wound up taking the money back.

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Diablo IV is a big game. With multiple classes and tons of skill-tree options, a big-ass map with tons of shit to kill, and so, so much loot to equip, sell, upgrade (rinse and repeat, for eternity), there’s a lot to keep in mind, and so much more that the game kinda-sorta doesn’t tell you.

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Starfield could be the biggest PC game of the year. It also might be heading for a lot of unnecessary annoyances on that platform. Bethesda revealed an exclusive PC partnership with card maker AMD, causing a mini-revolt among PC gamers in the process over concerns the massive open world RPG will face stuttering issues…

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Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg will likely never actually fight each other in a cage match during a UFC event. (I know that’s a weird way to start a paragraph, stick with me…) However, we can all experience the alternate and better timeline where that fight did happen thanks to a newly released free game pitting the…

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Blizzard just dropped a new update for its loot-grinding RPG Diablo IV. The latest patch notes mark some crucial changes to the game, particularly around buffing all five character classes.

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Ahead of her addition to the Honkai: Star Rail cast of characters, HoYoVerse shared details abou Yukong's Character Ascension and Trace Upgrade Materials. As she is an Imaginary character like Luocha, there is some overlap for materials you'll need. However, many of them are typical Harmony path and Imaginary items.

The Yukong Character Ascension Materials in Honkai: Star Rail can all be farmed already. You’ll need the Golden Crown of the Past Shadow from the Shape of Mirage Stagnant Shadow at Jarilo-VI’s Backwater Pass. It’s next to the Space Anchor, and you may already have some if you started collecting them for Luocha or Welt. Also just like Luocha, she needs Artifex’s Modules, Artifex’s Cogwheel, and Artifex’s Gyreheart. The Artifex’s Modules is an enemy drop, Simulated Universe drop, and an Assignments item you can collect. You can combine it at the Omni-Synthesizer to get its upgraded forms. The Embers Exchange also carries a few Artifex’s Modules each month.

Among Us is being turned into an animated TV show by CBS. The series is being led by Owen Dennis and Titmouse will be the studio handling animation duties. Innersloth, the original developers of the game, will also be overseeing the project. [Thanks, Variety!]

The premise of the Among Us TV show will follow the game. There’s a crew heading through space, and an imposter is hiding among them. No doubt there will be a lot of paranoia and baseless accusations thrown around as the cast figure out who is "sus."

Owen Dennis will be acting as executive producer on the Among Us TV show. He’s best known for the Cartoon Network series Infinity Train and previously worked as a writer on Regular Show. Titmouse, who will be handling the animation, previously worked on Star Trek: Lower Decks and The Legend of Vox Machina. The studio also worked on cutscenes for a few video games, including Hi-Fi Rush, Indivisible, and the Guitar Hero franchise.

Among Us originally released in 2018 for mobile platforms and was later ported to PC. However, it wasn’t until 2020 that Among Us exploded in popularity, largely thanks to Twitch streamers playing it during lockdown.

Shueisha announced when the one-shot Naruto manga starring the Narutop99 worldwide character poll winner Minato Namikaze will appear. It will show up in the July 18, 2023 Weekly Shonen Jump issue. That will be number 33. It is only confirmed for a Japanese release so far. The official site didn't note a worldwide launch for the story, which is called "Naruto Gaiden: Uzu no Naka no Tsumujikaze."

The announcement did offer some details about the story. It will be a prequel, as evidenced by the “gaiden” in the name. The art suggests it will also follow him when he was younger and about the age of Naruto during his storylines. It will be a 55-page one-shot with color pages as well.

There's also a new piece of official art of Minato Namikaze as he will appear in this Naruto prequel manga. Here's the new Masashi Kishimoto image.
[gallery columns="1" size="full" ids="970573" link="file"]
As a reminder, the top five characters in the Narutop99 poll were Minato, then Itachi, Sakura, Shisui, and Kakashi.

The "Naruto Gaiden: Uzu no Naka no Tsumujikaze" manga will appear in issue 33 of Weekly Shonen Jump. Viz Media handles the Naruto and Boruto manga and light novels outside Japan. The anime is available to stream on Crunchyroll.

Cover will release an eikaiwa (English conversational) textbook featuring characters from Hololive Myth. The title of the book is Hololistening: Learning the Mysterious World of English Conversation with Hololive English Myth The book will come out in 2,530 JPY (~$17.60) on September 29, 2023. You can also get a digital version for 2,200 JPY (~$15.30), but this will not come with the CD or any audio files.

The book will feature conversations between the five Myth members that you can practice reading yourself. The CD that comes with the physical version of the book will have them chatting, so you can enjoy listening to their conversations and native pronunciation. Namori, who drew Yuru Yuri and provided several official illustrations for Hololive, is in charge of the cover art. Panjamunoname, who has drawn art for Hololive merchandise, provided internal illustrations.

Hololive Myth is the first branch of Hololive English, with all of the characters based on mythological creatures. The members are Gawr Gura, Mori Calliope, Kiara Takanashi, Ina’nis Inomae, and Watson Amelia. Some members have a grasp on Japanese and have collaborated with their peers on the JP side. Several comments on YouTube and other social media channels have noted that their English can be easy to listen and follow along to for non-native speakers.

Project Rene - aka The Sims 5 - seems a long way off, but that isn't stopping Maxis from showing the game in its early, in-development state. The second episode of their community stream, Behind The Sims, continues from the first by showing lots of different prototype features, including glimpses of a new lighting model, new emotive animations, daily routines, hair customisation and more.

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Diablo 4's first major patch, 1.0.3, is out now. It fixes a lot of bugs, but its main goal is to re-balance and buff every class and to "smooth out the leveling experience" by increasing the power of certain skills.

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Earlier this month EA confirmed reports that they were in talks to transfer development of long-running MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic from its creators BioWare to an external studio. Today, BioWare confirmed that Broadsword would be taking over development, and that "not every role" would move with the game.

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Monitor arms are brilliant. I've got three in my office, somehow, where they elevate my screens above my desk so that I can use all of the space below for my keyboard, mouse and other knicknacks without needing to awkwardly position things around the base of a monitor stand. They're a total game-changer that I couldn't go without - and thanks to this deal on Amazon US, soon you won't have to either.

You can currently pick up a dual-monitor stand that accommodates two monitors up to 32 inches in size or 17.6 pounds in weight for just $15 when you use code LHEMYSVN and you're an Amazon Prime member. That's an incredible deal for a dual monitor arm that normally costs $46 and comes with over 15,000 ratings with an average score of 90%.

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Apple has announced a new batch of titles heading to its Apple Arcade subscription service in July, including two particularly notable oldies-but-goodies: Stardew Valley and Slay the Spire, which both arrive in '+' form, denoting they were previously available on the iOS App Store.

Stardew Valley+, as if it needs an introduction, is developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone's wildly popular spin on the farm life sim genre, having now sold over 20m copies since its launch in 2016. Apple Arcade subscribers will have the opportunity to succumb to its endearing blend of agricultural wealth accumulation and pixel wooing from 28th July.

As for Slay the Spire+, it's also a bit of a modern classic. Developer Mega Crit Games' roguelike deck-building dungeon-crawler - which sees players attempting to fend off monsters and scale the titular spire with nothing but a fist of battle-ready cards - is a wonderfully refined, richly rewarding experience, and well worth seeking out.

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We now know where to watch Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, as Crunchyroll announced it will be the streaming home for the movie. It will debut on the service on July 12, 2023. It didn’t note if this release will be limited to specific countries. However, it did confirm that this will include both the Japanese version with subtitles and the English dub. There’s also a new trailer to go with the announcement. Physical copies of the film appeared back in March 2023.

The Red Ribbon Army has returned as the New Red Ribbon Army with Gamma 1 and Gamma 2. However, there are those willing to stand in their way. Gohan and Piccolo will face off against these “super heroes” to again save the day.

Here’s the trailer for the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Crunchyroll streaming debut. It features the English dub. As a reminder, this means the return of classic voice actors. So Christopher. R Sabat is once again Piccolo and Vegeta and Kyle Hebert is Gohan. Aleks Le and Zeno Robinson are Gamma 1 and Gamma 2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scy5HN5WeW4&ab_channel=CrunchyrollDubs

Bandai Namco announced that the latest mobile suit to join Gundam Battle Operation 2 will be the RX-93ff Nu Gundam. The suit will become available on June 28, 2023 at 10pm PT and will be available as part of the Supply Drop gacha system.

The RX-93ff Nu Gundam is based on the RX-93 Nu Gundam that appears in the movie Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, and which is already available in game. The ff variant exists as a life sized statue outside the Mitsui Shopping Center LaLaport in Fukuoka, Japan. In game, the Nu Gundam is a Cost 700 unit making it one of the most expensive to field. Its armaments include a beam rifle, bazooka and beam saber, as well as its iconic L-Fin funnels.

You can catch the full trailer for the Nu Gundam below:

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5l2n1KVC_U[/embed]

In May, Bandai-Namco announced record-breaking profits from the Gundam franchise, citing the success of The Witch from Mercury anime series as a large factor. Gundam Battle Operation 2 hit 5 million downloads back in March and recently got a PC port.

Publisher Discotek Media announced two new Fist of the North Star Blu-Ray releases, complete with a new English dub by Sound Cadence studios. The new releases include Fist of the North Star: Legend of the True Savior - Legend of Yuria and Legend of Toki together as a double OVA set. We'll also see Legend of True Saviour - Chapter of Fierce Fighting, which will be available for the first time in English. Neither release currently has a launch date.

The releases were announced during Discotek's Summer Vacation 2023 livestream and crossposted onto the official Twitter account. The new dubs feature Robbie Daymond as Kenshiro, Jason Douglas as Raoh, David Wald as Toki and Alexis Tipton as Yuria. You can see the announcement tweet including a short clip of Legend of Yuria below:

[embed]https://twitter.com/discotekmedia/status/1673507588728852482?s=20[/embed]

Roblox, for so very long a platform of games (I’m sorry, experiences) aimed at and played by kids, is trying to expand its offerings now that many of those kids are growing up into young adults. In doing so, though, they’re running into some problems.

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Cyberpunk 2077 expansion Phantom Liberty got a new trailer and a release date during this month's Xbox Games Showcase. If you watched Xbox's extended showcase a few days later then you would have seen more of the game and of one of its stars, Keanu Reeves.

Let's assume you didn't watch that, though. Let's assume that you, like me, were by that point too exhausted from 90 second trailers to tune in. Let's instead watch these videos now, since they've just been uploaded as separate videos, to learn more about Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty's new district, Dogtown.

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Following the news that development of BioWare's free-to-play MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic would be shifting to a third-party studio, BioWare general manager Gary McKay has now confirmed some team members will lose their jobs as a result of the move.

Writing on the BioWare website, McKay explained that "most of the current team will be invited to accompany" Star Wars: The Old Republic as its development switches over to Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot studio Broadsword Online Games - a move EA previously said was necessary so BioWare could focus on its new Mass Effect and Dragon Age titles.

"Unfortunately," McKay continued, "not every role will make the move. This is the hardest part of this transition, and these decisions were not made lightly."

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The Sims 5 - or Project Rene, as EA is currently calling - is still some considerable way from release, but that isn't stopping developer Maxis from showing off its early experiments exploring what this "next generation" Sims game could be - and the studio has now shared a little more as part of its latest Sims stream.

When Project Rene was officially unveiled in October last year, EA teased a game built on a foundation of "charming sims, powerful tools, and meaningful stories" that would be designed with real-time collaboration in mind (solo play is still supported) and be simultaneously playable across a range of devices, including mobile and PC.

At the time, footage was limited to some expanded creativity tools inspired by The Sims 3's Create a Style options, but Project Rene's latest airing in EA's new Behind the Sims showcase (which also had a lot to say about horses) has gone into a little more detail about what The Sims 5 might look like if Maxis' current experiments prove fruitful.

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The Blackening Review: Predictable Yet Hilarious Read More »

Video games engine provider Unity announced earlier today the introduction of two new machine-learning platforms, one of which in particular has developers and artists asking questions of the company that, at time of publishing, have yet to be answered.

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With only a few months between its announcement and 19th September release date, Mortal Kombat 1 feels like a masterclass in how to reveal a new game. This past weekend only reinforced that fact with the release of the game's first network stress test, giving gamers around the world the chance to try out the latest in Mortal Kombat. I joined the test on Series X and Series S and have some thoughts on how MK1 is shaping up, from early resolution and performance numbers to more subjective impressions of the graphics and technology that power the game.

What makes this release particularly interesting is developer NetherRealm's decision to move to Unreal Engine 4 - rather than sticking with their own UE3-derived tech or jumping to the more advanced Unreal Engine 5.

When you first boot the game, you're greeted by a gorgeous native 4K background with crisp menu elements, with two modes (an offline four fight ladder and an online mode) and seven characters available for the stress test. Sub-Zero, Liu Kang, Kenshi and Kitana are the four main options, with three Kameo characters: Kano, Sonya Blade and the cigar chomping Jax.

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Sony has detailed the latest batch of games set to leave the PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium game catalogue - and there's some big names in the list.

Brilliant post-apocatalyptic feline simulator Stray is among those getting the chop - just ahead of publisher Annapurna Interactive's upcoming digital showcase event, where we may see an Xbox version of the game.

Live-service game flop Marvel's Avengers is also being removed, although the game itself will still be playable if you pay and gets its final update in September.

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Five of the Best is a weekly series for supporters of Eurogamer. 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.

Pubs or taverns or inns - whatever you call them, they're the heart of so many gaming adventures. Be they sci-fi pubs or fantasy taverns, or modern day boozers, they're the gathering point for local communities. And if you're looking for a way into those local communities, as you often are in a game, there's rarely a better place to start.

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Death maze construction shooter Meet Your Maker is now free to play until July 3rd to celebrate the release of its first major content drop. Entitled Sector 1: Dreadshore, the big free update adds a new coastal location that has an appropriately grim lighthouse in it. It also doubles up as a research facility used to experiment on prisoners, which sounds like the perfect place to build hard-to-enter mazes.

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Among Us took the world by storm at the perfect time: when we were all stuck inside and paranoid about Imposters (family members) betraying us (swiping the last bit of edible food out of the fridge). Now, the hit multiplayer game will infiltrate the world of television, as developer Innersloth have teamed up with CBS’ animation crew to work on a new series based on the game.

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UPDATE 4.45pm UK: Sony has now officially confirmed the leaked line-up of games headed to PlayStation Plus in July, including Alan Wake and Call of Duty. Read on for more details.

ORIGINAL STORY 12:40pm UK: July's PlayStation Plus Essential games have leaked early and will include Alan Wake Remastered and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

That's according to a reliable leak on DealLabs, stating the games will be available from 4th July - 1st August across both PS4 and PS5.

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PlayStation head Jim Ryan has admitted that, while he does not like Starfield being an Xbox console exclusive, he doesn't consider it to be anti-competitive.

Microsoft's court battle with US antitrust agency the FTC continued last night, with testimony from Ryan. During a pre-recorded video regarding Microsoft's ongoing bid to purchase Activision Blizzard, the exec shared further insight on the takeover, and the impact it could have on Sony.

When asked directly if he had any issues with Redfall or Starfield being exclusive, Ryan replied: "I don't like it but it's not anti-competitive" (thanks, IGN)

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Notorious Souls modder Lance McDonland has got Bloodborne running at 60fps on a PlayStation 5 without upscaling.

McDonald has been busy getting the game running at 60fps for some time - a video from 2020 shows the game at 60fps on a PS4 Pro. Digital Foundry tested their own PS5 version with AI upscaling you can watch below.

McDonald's new video has the game running natively on a PS5 at 1080p, without upscaling or interpolation. In McDonald's words, it's "just raw gameplay capture".

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Pokémon Go developer Niantic has infuriated fans by reverting a positive change to the game's spawn radius that let you see Pokémon spawns from twice as far away.

The change went live earlier this week and was praised by players. But, last night, Niantic announced via Twitter that the buff would be removed.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that the game's community leaders - who are regularly fed information by Niantic - were allegedly told the game was working "as intended" with the spawn change applied.

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Four Mega Drive games have joined Nintendo's Switch Online service, including two Zelda-like adventures.

The first is Landstalker, an isometric adventure developed by Climax Entertainment and released in 1993 in which players take the role of treasure hunter Nigel (no, really). Many of the team went on to develop Alundra for the PlayStation, considered something of a spiritual successor to Landstalker.

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