June 2023

People can now no longer use the ReFriender Twitter system to find people to play Final Fantasy XI with online. Square Enix took to Twitter to confirm the system is dead. It blamed changes with the way how the social media service works as to why it could no longer keep running. Essentially, it's now impossible for users and players to log in and register.

Here's the official announcement. The official website for the Final Fantasy XI ReFriender service also shut down and now displays a similar message.

As of today, the #FFXI ReFriender system will be discontinued due to changes on Twitter's behalf which prevents users from registering or logging in to the service.

Thank you for using the ReFriender and your continued support of FINAL FANTASY XI. pic.twitter.com/ExwKOA5krA

— FINAL FANTASY XI (@FFXI_EN) June 5, 2023

Nexus will collaborate with Atlus to release a sake based on Persona 4. Pre-orders are open via the Sake Tsunagi online shop. The sake is a junmai daiginjo, which is a traditional Japanese rice wine. It costs 4,500 JPY (around $32.15) per bottle, and Tsunagi will start sending them out from July 10, 2023. It does not seem to offer international shipping.

The Persona 4 sake bottle has a picture of Teddie on it. There is also a Konishi Liquor Store stamp on the bottle. This is a reference to the store of the same name in Persona 4. The name of the Persona 4 sake is “Junmai Daiginjo Yasoinaba.” For reference, Yasoinaba is the name of the town that the protagonist moves to in the beginning of the game. The Yasoinaba has a bright, sweet, and fruity flavor that tastes best cold.

Persona 4 first came out in 2008 for the PS2. It follows the story of the unnamed protagonist, who moves to the boonies town of Yasoinaba for a year. A series of bizarre murders rock Yasoinaba at the same time. The protagonist and his friends discover that the murders are being committed using a mysterious TV World, which they can also enter. Nexus suggests that fans who spent their summers uncovering the murder mystery as students of Yasogami High School can relive their Yasoinaba days with this wine.

Extensive gameplay of Ubisoft's open-world racer The Crew Motorfest has appeared online just a week ahead of its planned appearance at the publisher's Ubisoft Forward showcase.

Ubisoft unveiled The Crew Motorfest for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC back in January with a 49-second trailer featuring a handful of "in-engine" cinematics. It's a live-service game themed around a "one-of-a-kind" motoring festival, promising "tailor-made races, themed events, and other unique challenges", all taking place on the scenic Hawaiian island of O'ahu.

Since that official announcement, Ubisoft has hosted several "insider programme" closed testing sessions for registered players, with the fourth phase currently underway. It's this latest closed test that appears to have generated the spate of new gameplay videos Ubisoft is currently playing copyright-strike whack-a-mole with online.

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I’ve played horror games completely drenched in blood this year—nasty games with bombs and meat grinders rendered in high fidelity detail, but none have made me scream until the more straightforward Amnesia: The Bunker.

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You’re in one of a number of pickles. You’ve somehow already hit level 100 in Diablo IV; you’re waiting for it to drop in price; or just not convinced that enough has changed to make it worth buying after Diablo III. Whatever you reason for needing more loot, we’ve got you covered, with our suggestions for all the…

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All the rumors were true. Apple has a fancy headset it wants to sell you. The tech giant revealed its new mixed reality / virtual reality headset during its June 5 WWDC digital event, confirming the details of previous leaks. Dubbed the Apple Vision Pro, the new “facial computer” is out “early next year” and will cost…

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For my money, one of the most interesting aspects of a game’s creation is the composition and orchestration of its music. With Final Fantasy, that’s doubly the case because for me, and I imagine for so many others, its soundtrack is one of its best parts. Be it lo-fi channels, new arrangements, compilations, piano versions, or something else, Final Fantasy music makes its way into many of my playlists. 

That’s why I was so excited to chat with composer Masayoshi Soken about his score for Final Fantasy XVI. You might recognize his name as he’s also the composer of Final Fantasy XIV. Still, if you don’t, there’s a chance it’s a name you come to remember following the release of FFXVI because after spending more than three hours of hands-on time with the game in Square Enix’s Tokyo, Japan, office, I’m confident we’re about to get a banger of a score. 

In talking with Soken, I wanted to speak to him about some of the major themes and melodies of any Final Fantasy game – things like the Prelude, the main theme, the Victory Fanfare, and more – and he had plenty to say. In this four-part series, I’ll be breaking down different aspects of the music that excite me and hopefully you too. 

Be sure to catch up on the first three parts here: 

A Perfect Edition series of Hayate the Combat Butler will start coming out from June 16, 2023 in Japan. It is open for pre-order, as either a digital copy or a physical one, via Shogakukan’s website. It'll cost 1980 JPY (around $14.20) and have 416 pages. In total, there will be 27 volumes of Hayate the Combat Butler Perfect Edition. [Thanks, Manga Mogura RE!]

All volumes of the Perfect Edition will have new covers. New extras include a new 16-page omake manga, two special cards, restored color pages from serialization, and a 26-page gallery section. There were 52 volumes in the manga's original run. So it seems that the Perfect Edition will combine tankobon together into a single book.

Since the manga’s conclusion in 2017, there are over twenty million copies of Hayate the Combat Butler in circulation. The manga started in 2004. That means that it’s been almost twenty years since it began to appear in Weekly Shonen Sunday. Hayate the Combat butler is a gag manga about the titular Hayate, who works as a butler for rich little girl Nagi Sanzenin as the result of a misunderstanding. In Weekly Shonen Sunday’s Heroine Grand Prix poll in 2023, some people voted for Nagi and Hinagiku, putting them in the Top 30 of the list.

Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 once again offers precise, challenging tactical combat and an endless barrage of emotional gut-punches. The child protagonists of the first game may have found peace at the end of their first journey, but cruel events lead them back to yet another monstrous tank they can use to battle some new enemies. As you guide them in that fight, you'll have to weigh every decision with care once more. A single misstep can still mean ruin. Maybe not at first, and maybe not until the very end of the game, but your every single action is vital if you want to help these children survive yet another ruthless war.

The children who survived the relentless battles of the first Fuga have been called to help with an investigation of the battle tank they used throughout the first game, the Taranis. This goes as poorly as possible when several of the group of friends get trapped inside the Taranis as it goes haywire. The remaining playable characters hop in the Tarascus, the enemy tank from the last game, and give chase. This leads them through a conflict that will be fraught with danger and loss, once more asking how much these children can take.

Square Enix uploaded a new short teaser focusing on Clive Rosfield, who’ll be the protagonist of FFXVI. At just a little over fifteen seconds long, it shows Clive as a teen, as well as a young adult. It also shows a bit of the Ifrit tragedy that’ll start his journey for revenge.

You can watch the Clive trailer for FFXVI here:

https://twitter.com/FF16_JP/status/1665659731346853890?t=fziUK36YbmXk-azNpxcSJw&s=19

Clive is the first prince of Rosaria, as well as the eldest son of the Rosfield family. However, he didn’t awaken to his powers as Phoenix’s Dominant, and so his younger Joshua took on the role. After a certain incident involving the dark Eikon, Ifrit, Clive swears revenge on him and chases after him.

In English, Ben Starr voices Clive in FFXVI for the entire time. Starr previously voiced Sharp in Arknights, as well as played Dr. Christopher Priestly in the live-action show Jamestown. Japanese Clive has two voice actors; he has one for his teen self and one for his young adult self. Yuma Uchida (Kaveh from Genshin Impact and Megumi from Jujutsu Kaisen) voices the younger version of Clive. Meanwhile, Yuya Uchida (Stein in Soul Eater and Hanbei in Nioh 2) voices the older one. There is no blood relation between the two Uchidas.

Final Fantasy XVI will come out for the PS5 on June 22, 2023. There will be a six-month exclusivity period.

With the arrival of Nvidia RTX 40-series graphics cards in gaming laptops, models with previous-gen RTX 30-series cards are becoming super-affordable. Now you can get even high-models for less than £1000, including this HP Omen machine which includes a 16.1-inch 1440p 165Hz display, RTX 3070 Ti graphics card and Ryzen 7 6800H CPU for £972 on Amazon.

The same machine retailed for £1629 in March this year, so this is a huge bargain - especially given that this is still hugely a powerful machine for 1440p gaming. The spec even includes a 1TB NVMe SSD and 16GB of DDR5 RAM, so it's a convincing machine from top to bottom.

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After years of rumour and speculation, Apple has unveiled its long-in-the-works augmented reality headset, Vision Pro, which is due to release "early next year" for $3,499 USD.

Vision Pro - which Apple is insisting on referring to as a "spatial computer" - is designed around the idea of staying "present and connected to others", whether at home or at work. Which, in more practical terms, means its entire 3D interface is built around experiencing apps and other media directly within a user's immediate environment, as viewed through its internal display.

Apps can been relocated and resized in the physical space using Apple's new VisionOS 3D interface, which is primarily controlled through a mix of voice commands, eye tracking, and hand tracking - although traditional keyboards and trackpads are compatible.

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A new promo code will award players of Street Fighter 6 with free Fighter Coins (in-game currency) when ordering from fast food chain Chipotle. The offer is only valid for US customers with the game on Playstation 4, PlayStation 5, or Xbox Series X. You can also exchange Chipotle rewards points for additional Fighter Coins. The collaboration will be available until October 2023 or until 20,000 codes are redeemed.

Entering the code "HDKN236" at checkout on Chipotle's app or website will provide a code via email. Said code can then be redeemed online for 250 Street Fighter 6 Fighter Coins, usually costing around $4.99. Previous Chipotle customers can also redeem 250 Chipotle reward points for 250 more Fighter Coins. The coins are a microtransaction currency used in the game to unlock DLC characters, stages, cosmetics, and fight passes in the Goods Shop.

[embed]https://twitter.com/StreetFighter/status/1665463450754007040?s=20[/embed]

Chipotle will also be hosting a Street Fighter 6 2v2 tournement called the Chipotle Challenger Series. Its prizes include trips to the Evo 2023 competition in August, free food from Chipotle and a share of a $30,000 prize pool. The tournament is open to US residents and will have four regional qualifiers with a top 8 final being held on July 6, 2023. You can find more details for the tournament on the official site.

There's a new Diablo IV patch, as well as patch notes going over what to expect. As well as working on general stability and crashes, the recent changes for also focused on balancing the power of player classes. Blizzard explained that 1.0.2d focuses on buffing underperforming builds, making the Paragon Glyphs less powerful, and curtailing certain builds that were powerful enough to "warp" the vision for combat in Diablo IV. Another update, patch 1.0.2e, also fixed some stuttering and language issues for PC users.

[embed]https://twitter.com/Diablo/status/1665381043199696896?s=20[/embed]

One of the single biggest changes in the patch is the reduction in the power of Paragon Glyphs by ~34% across the board, with a few specific Glyph bonuses like Critical Strike and vulnerability receiving up to a ~66% reduction. Paragon Glyphs are items that begin to drop after reaching the maximum level cap of 50 and unlocking the Paragon Board, an extra progression system for endgame much like Diablo III's Paragon Levels system. The Glyphs are equipped into slots in the Paragon Board and enhance the bonuses provided. Blizzard clearly thought they were doing a little too much enhancing and toned them down quite significantly.

A live-action porn parody of Mappa’s popular shonen anime, Chainsaw Man, may have outsold the original series on Blu-ray in Japan.

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The world of Sanctuary is huge and fast-travel alone won’t get you everywhere you need to go. Fortunately, Diablo IV gives players mounts to help them travel between dungeons and side-quests more quickly. Here’s how to get your first one.

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Plushies of my six favorite Pokémon are sitting on my desk. They’re from the Sitting Cuties line (called Pokémon Fit in Japan), an ongoing line of stuffed toys meant to give every Pokémon (yes, all 1000+ of the little guys) a piece of merchandise. Sitting Cuties touches on a sentiment that Pokémon fans have been…

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Our sister site Eurogamer is celebrating 15 years of EGX (aka: the Eurogamer Expo) this month, and they're holding a charity pub quiz in its honour down in London this Thursday, June 8th. Yes, yes, we know that's the same day as Geoff's Annual Trainer Showcase (aka: Summer Game Fest), but hey, at least it's for a good cause, with all proceeds going to the lovely folks at GamesAid. Tickets are on sale now, and RPS supporters can also get a special code to nab themselves a free drink. Details below.

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Mia and The Dragon Princess Impressions Read More »

Hideo Kojima has announced Death Stranding Director's Cut will be launching for Mac later this year, with future Kojima Productions games also said to be heading to Apple's machines.

Kojima broke the news during Apple's WWDC 2023 keynote presentation, beaming onto Apple's expansive digital set to express his enthusiasm for the company's products. "I have been a die-hard Apple fan since I bought my first Mac back in 1994," Kojima explained. "It has been a dream of mine to see my team's best work come to life on the Mac."

To that end, Kojima said his studio's support for Mac would begin "later this year", with the launch of its expanded package-delivery-in-a-damp-valley extravaganza, Death Stranding Director's Cut. "This is just the beginning," Kojima added, "and we are actively working to bring our future titles to Apple platforms".

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With just days to go until the launch of Fortnite's Chapter 4 Season 3 on 9th June, Epic is steadily ramping up its teases for some of the season's big new additions, including the apparent confirmation of a previously rumoured new jungle biome.

Word that Epic might be preparing to bring a jungle biome to the latest iteration of Fortnite's map first came via leakers back in April. And a couple of recent official social media asset updates - including some art of a city bordered by vines - lent further credence to those reports.

But now, thanks to a new 8-second teaser shared on the Fortnite Twitter feed, a jungle biome is a good as confirmed. Peer closely betwixt the lettering and a brisk flyover awaits, the camera skimming over raging waters and lush, mist-shrouded tropical foliage before coming to a halt in view of some squat stone ruins perched atop a cliff.

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Video games aren’t real life, sure. I get that. But it’s still odd to realize that certain game characters who have been around for what seems like forever, aren’t actually that old. For example, according to a new video from Nintendo, Mario’s archnemesis—Bowser—is only in his thirties. Some of you are probably not…

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Last week the body representing professional League of Legends players in North America, the LCS Players Association, announced intentions to strike over Riot’s plans to gut the North American Challenger’s League. It’s a commendable stance over moves that will cost dozens of people their jobs, but not every League …

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In December 2022—so, only a few months back—Epic decided to close a bunch of servers for old Unreal Tournament games. This was bad news for long-suffering fans, but it was met with one small silver lining: Epic leaked/announced plans to re-release Unreal Tournament 3, for free, “no strings attached”.

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Capcom has revealed the date and hour for the Capcom Showcase Digital Event 2023. The stream event will air on YouTube and Twitch on June 12, 2023 at 3pm PT/6pm ET. The estimated runtime of the show is approximately 36 minutes. Capcom has yet to reveal the game lineup for the stream.

The official Capcom Twitter account shared that the Showcase will feature news and updates on some of the company’s latest games. Additionally, the website for the Showcase indicates that some of the games featured won’t be suitable for children. The company will reveal the featured titles in the days leading to the event.

Some of Capcom’s recent titles include Street Fighter 6 which received wide critical acclaim. Resident Evil 4 remake released in March 24, 2023, and shortly after it received a free DLC update unlocking The Mercenaries game mode. We might see some information on the rumored Separate Ways DLC As part of the Showcase.

Some of Capcom's upcoming games indlude sci-fi 5v5 multiplayer shooter Exoprimal, coming out in July 14, 2023. The mysterious Pragmata received a delay for 2023 back in November 2021, and there hasn’t been any more information about it since.

The Federal Trade Commission just announced that Microsoft has been fined $20 million “over charges it illegally collected personal information from children who signed up for its Xbox gaming system without their parents’ consent”.

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Thirsty Suitors is a game about how games can serve as props during difficult conversations - playful tasks that occupy your hands and impose a sense of equilibrium, while you and the other party do the tough work of airing and settling your differences. Created by Falcon Age developer Outerloop, it's a fantastical yet serious account of a queer South Asian immigrant woman reckoning with her cultural heritage, complex family life and torrid relationship history. It does this by means of a blend of gametypes that loosely resembles a traditional RPG, but unlike in most RPGs, each system exists primarily for the sake of the story.

As the tale begins, main character Jala has returned to her old Washington, USA hometown, Timber Hills, to attend her sister's wedding. She's on a journey of self-discovery following a rough break-up, beginning with the personality quiz she daydreams through on the bus - an introduction to both the game's laidback skateboarding, with Jala grinding rails between Qs and As, and her judgy inner narrator, who resembles her sister. But finding herself also means reconciling with her six ex-lovers, all still local and very much Not Over It, to say nothing of her parents, whom she hasn't seen in years. There's also the looming figure of Jala's overseas grandma Paati. She's the unseen hand behind the pop-up paramours you'll have to duel while roaming town, and from the sounds of things, she's the key individual you'll need to wrangle at your sister's wedding.

Have you played Arcade Paradise yet? It's a game about running a laundrette while building the arcade of your dreams in the back room - an arcade which eventually takes over. We loved it - it was one of our games of 2022. And if you haven't played it: good news - we're giving away Arcade Paradise game keys to supporters right now. If you have played it, well, there's new DLC to tempt you back in, but also: can you imagine the game without the laundrette? Because it very nearly didn't have one.

In fact, the original idea was to set the whole thing in a video shop, the kind you might have visited in the 90s, which, if you remember, looked like libraries of VHS boxes showing covers of films you'd probably never heard of before. A physical Netflix, if you like - and you don't know how much it pains me to say that. "You'd be working in a Blockbuster or something like that," says Andreas Firnigl, designer of the game and founder and CEO of Nosebleed, the company behind Arcade Paradise.

This idea, though, had a few problems. "A," Firnigl tells me, "to be authentic, we would have needed hundreds of video cassette covers with cool custom art and all that sort of stuff in it, because it needs to feel like here's Jaws but it's not Jaws; here's Critters but it's not Critters, and all those pastiches." Arcade Paradise is a game of pastiches - a game where the many arcade cabinets you collect are all loving riffs, let's say, on real-life machines, and part of the fun is guessing what the original inspirations were.

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We've got some Arcade Paradise keys to give away to yearly supporters of Eurogamer.

They're PC (Steam) keys and you can claim one by going to the "My account" section of Eurogamer (top-right on desktop site; in the Menu on mobile) and navigating to "Codes" section once there (there's another Menu on mobile that gets you there). Then, simply scroll down and find the Arcade Paradise box and claim your key.

Arcade Paradise was one of our stand-out games of 2022. I've just published an interview about Arcade Paradise that's worth checking out, too, if I don't say so myself.

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Microsoft has been fined $20m by the FTC for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

The fine is in response to the collection of personal information from children via Xbox without parents being notified or giving consent, as well as the illegal retention of that information, the FTC has said.

As a result, Microsoft is required to make a number of changes to improve privacy protection for children on Xbox.

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