The Last of Us and its sequel are blockbuster action-adventure games with incredible graphics and deep narratives. They’re also games that, for a few different reasons, will never officially be playable on Nintendo’s aging Switch console. But don’t worry, you can just play The Last Hope - Dead Zone Survival instead, a…
Friday the 13th: The Game is going away at the end of the year, so in the meantime the developers decided to let players enjoy the asymmetric multiplayer horror chaos with free unlocks and level boosts.
If you haven’t been tuning into Fallout creator Tim Cain’s YouTube channel, you are sorely missing out on some fun gaming trivia and insights. Whether it’s the gritty details of how RPG gameplay gets fleshed out or Cain’s own personal experience as a gay dev, the former Obsidian creative is never short of an…
HoYoVerse released the Genshin Impact Tools update alongside version 3.8 of the game. These tools are part of the HoYoLAB community site, and offer new content and functions to help track in-game activities, characters, enemies, and items.
The first new addition for the Tools Update is improvements to the Battle Chronicle’s Event Review module. Players will now be able to view all current and past events. In addition, the version 3.8 Main Event “Secret Summer Paradise” has been added. The Event Review will allow players to check all event data, including Treasure Chests, Teleport Waypoints and scores.
The other major addition to the Genshin Impact Tools Update is an update to the Teyvat Interactive Map. Map Pins have gained additional details, and a layer function has been added. This will allow users to switch between layers by clicking on cavern entrances. While this layer function isn’t currently active, it will become available on July 20, 2023.
In addition to these updates, sign-in rewards for the month have been confirmed. The first check-in of the month will grant players 100 Primogems and 10,000 Mora.
The Genshin Impact version 3.8 update also features banners for Eula and Klee. In addition to these five-star characters, the four-star characters Mika, Razor and Thoma are also available. The banner will be available until July 25, 2023.
Square Enix released a music video for the Final Fantasy XVI theme song that includes its English translation. As a reminder, that track is "Tsuki wo Miteita - Moongazing" by Kenshi Yonezu. Leo Imai translated its lyrics for the video below.
Here's the full "Tsuki wo Miteita - Moongazing" Kenshi Yonezu theme song with English subtitles and scenes from Final Fantasy XVI. No spoilers appear during the video. You do need to turn on closed captions for the English lyric translations to appear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-jdUGkMVco&ab_channel=FINALFANTASY
The soundtrack CD for the game comes out in July 2023. However, it does not include this track.
Ahead of this release, Square Enix shared some songs from Final Fantasy XVI rather regularly. There was a teaser for this track at one point. "Find the Flame" is also available on various streaming services.
As for Kenshi Yonezu, he’s created the theme songs for multiple projects as of late. One of the more notable tracks is “Kick Back," which is the theme song from Chainsaw Man. His most recent song is “Lady,” which appeared in Coca Cola ads in Japan.
As part of a continuing collaboration with One Piece, Hololive Vtuber Calliope Mori will reveal a themed outfit on July 8, 2023 at 5am PT/8am ET/9pm JST. She recently released a theme song and music video to celebrate the manga's 106th volume.
The announcement featured a wanted poster with a silhouette of the new outfit, as well as the stylized One Piece skull and crossbones logo modified with Mori's hair, tiara and scythe. You can see the tweet below:
[embed]https://twitter.com/moricalliope/status/1676539181479395328?s=20[/embed]
Calliope Mori is a Vtuber and musician belonging to Hololive EN's first generation, Myth, along with Gawr Gura, Ninomae Ina'nis, Takanashi Kiara and Amelia Watson. Mori recently took part in Hololive EN's first concert, Connect the World, where she performed alongside other Hololive English members like IRyS and Ouro Kronii. Representatives from the agency's JP and ID branches also made an appearance. Fellow Hololive EN Myth members Gawr Gura and Ninomae Ina'nis also had figures shown off by Good Smile Company at Anime Expo 2023.
4TB SSDs are a rarity - particularly models with the high-speed flash memory and PCIe 4.0 connection necessary to hit reads of 7300MB/s and writes of 6900MB/s. Today you can pick up just such a drive from Newegg for $253.62, as long as you're OK with a lesser-known brand: Nextorage.
For context, this SSD cost $359 as recently as March, making this a tidy discount for a PC or PS5-compatible high-speed drive that originally retailed for $650.
Is there such thing as too much success? In the case of smash-hit 2D Minecraft-a-like Terraria, its devs at Re-Logic might agree - they’ve apparently been trying to stop developing it for years, but it just won’t stop being so darn popular.
A few months ago we posted about a deal that saw a 512GB Micro SD card available for £40. Now, things are improving - and you can get a similar model, Samsung's 512GB Evo Plus, for just £33.99 at Amazon.
Friday the 13th: The Game's days are regrettably numbered, but developer Gun Interactive is bidding it farewell in something like celebratory style, bestowing maximum power on all players for their maximum enjoyment (but also to alleviate some pressure on servers) as the game's doomsday clock ticks down toward its closure at the end of next year.
Gun announced an end for Friday the 13th: The Game back in June, confirming the asymmetrical multiplayer horror would be pulled from stores on 31st December this year, the same day its Friday the 13th licence officially expires. There's some small solace for owners, however, in that the studio has promised the game will remain playable through "at least" 31st December 2024.
And now, it's announced some new measures that, while primarily designed to "reduce the dependence on database servers", will also allow players to go about their merry slaughtering and killer-evading survival in chaotically maxed-out fashion.
The Skyrim modding community is currently embroiled in its own deepfake porn controversy, with popular modding site NexusMods and AI voice-cloning technology at its center. Ahead of the release of Bethesda’s upcoming space epic, Starfield, and the belief that the game will be a sort of Eden for the modding community,…
A simple new low-poly online PvP military shooter that plays a lot like Battlefield 3 and only costs $15 might not seem like the next big thing. But in fact, it is, and after playing it for a week I get why: It’s just a really good shooter focused on gameplay and chaos.
Street Fighter 6 is a frontrunner for my game of the year, but sometimes it feels like I spend more time fighting with its menus than I do throwing hands with other players online. I’ve put around 80 hours into Capcom’s latest fighter and have dealt with several annoyances just trying to change the smallest settings.…
Atlus shared a new Persona 5 Tactica character introduction video focused on Erina, the leader of of the Rebel Corps and a new original character in the upcoming strategy RPG. Early in the game, Erina saves Joker and the rest of the Phantom Thieves after they are transported to an alternate world.
After Erina and the Phantom Thieves meet, they decide to work together in order to create a revolution in Erina’s world. As a fun note, at the end of the video Erina teases Morgana about his paws, saying that they don’t look much like human hands.
The video was shared on the official Persona 5 Twitter account and is only available in Japanese. You can check it out in more detail here:
https://twitter.com/p_kouhou/status/1676425669259952132
In the Japanese version of Persona 5 Tactica Erina is called Elle. Rie Takahashi voices her in the Japanese dub of the game. Takahashi previously voiced Megumin in the KonoSuba anime, Hu Tao in Genshin Impact, as well as Nina Deforges in Star Ocean: The Divine Force.
In other P5T news, Atlus recently released another character spotlight video that focused on Joker, Morgana, and Erina and their combat skills.
Persona 5 Tactica will come out for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC on November 17, 2023. The standard and Digital Deluxe versions of the game are now available for pre-order.
Bandai Namco released a new Blue Protocol teaser trailer showcasing the Blitz Lancer, a new class in the action MMORPG. The Blitz Lancer is a speedy melee class capable of weaving in and out of the front lines with quick spear attacks, as well as powerful aerial launchers and attacks. Blitz Lancer will release in August 2023.
Blitz Lancer is a new class and the sixth one to appear in Blue Protocol. This new class introduces the spear as a new weapon type exclusive to it. The other five classes are Blade Warden, Twin Striker, Keen Strider, Spell Weaver, and Foe Breaker, and their weapons are sword and shield, dual axes, bow and arrow, magic catalyst, and heavyweight hammer respectively.
The teaser trailer for the new class is a short 48 second video with that showcases a few combos and moves. You can check out the new Blue Protocol Blitz Lancer video in more detail here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEdQXV4mZ5Y
In other Blue Protocol news, Bandai Namco recently updated the game to incorporate a new item exchange system. The company also offered a list of items, cosmetics, and armor sets available in the service at launch. New items will be included in the future.
Square Enix shared new FFVII Remake renders of Rufus Shinra, the vice president of the Shinra Electric Power Company and son of its president. The new details about his design appeared on the official Twitter account. The focus this time is on Rufus’ iconic white trenchcoat.
The original tweet reads as follows:
“The clothes of the confident and ambitious Rufus Shinra are a double-breasted suit manufactured with high-end looking and refined materials!
The zipper fasteners on the chest and hip pockets are designed to look like the end of a sword!”
You can check out Rufus Shinra’s render from FFVII Remake and the detail of his design on the tweet below.
https://twitter.com/FFVIIR_CLOUD/status/1676153888565592065
In the renders, Rufus can be seen wearing a necktie and a grey suit under his coat. However, he is never seen without his coat in game, so we don’t know the full appearance of his suit.
As a reminder, another Final Fantasy VII character who recently received new details about her design as well as new original concept art is young Tifa in her cowboy clothes.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is immediately available for the PS4, PS5, and PC. Part 2 of the remake trilogy is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and it will come to the PlayStation 5 in early 2024 on two discs.
It’s interesting to see how a series can change from entry to entry. Pretty Princess Party is something of a minigame collection with character and castle customization. Its sequel Pretty Princess Magical Garden Island goes in a different direction. This time, it’s an Animal Crossing sort of game. However, while community is a focus there, here it feels like it is about customizing the island and gathering resources. It's mostly an age-appropriate game for younger players, but older and more experienced ones will deal with some tedium.
Good Smile Company is bringing back the Puella Magi Madoka Magica Ultimate Madoka figure after 12 years. The figure first launched in December 2012. Now it will return to Japan in February 2024 and North America in Q2 2024. It will cost ¥19,800/$130.99.
This is a 1/8th scale figure, so it might be bigger than usual ones you’d expect. It stands at about 330mm/13in tall. She’s armed with her bow and about to fire in the pose. She’s also wearing her “ultimate” outfit, which also means she has wings on her back and shows.
Here's a closer look at the full Puella Magi Madoka Magica Ultimate Madoka figure.
[gallery columns="5" size="full" ids="971502,971503,971504,971505,971506" link="file"]
People who pre-order from Good Smile Company direct also get a B3 size poster of the figure.
[gallery columns="1" size="full" ids="971510" link="file"]
Though the anime appeared back in 2011, it still comes up regularly. For example, Disgaea RPG featured a crossover with it. New merchandise, like figures, regularly appear.
BattleBit Remastered, the low-poly, massively multiplayer shooter perhaps best described as Battlefield by way of Roblox, has sure shifted a lot of copies since it became a viral sensation a couple of weeks ago.
The next Assassin’s Creed game will continue the series’ past mixture of stab-people-in-the-face stealth-action video game and learn-interesting-things-about-real-places history simulator with a feature dedicated to teaching you about its ninth-century setting of Baghdad.
Fairy tales and Drew Barrymore movies taught me that a girl with butterflies in her stomach might be easily inconvenienced by some weird guy (either a literal beast or an everyman who acts like one), but the fluttering is a product of purity, clear like a raindrop. Without a sword or a big-shot career at her disposal,…
Since its release on December 22, 2022, Aniplex sold over 150,000 copies of the PS4 and Nintendo Switch versions of Witch on the Holy Night. This number includes platforms, as well as both physical and digital copies. Because it is worldwide sales, it includes data from all countries, including Japan. [Thanks, KaroshiMyriad!]
Though 150,000 sales seems fairly low, it is a modest success for a visual novel with almost no choices (so it’s not a sim of any kind). Visual novels are still quite the niche genre, even if Type Moon works may have become more mainstream due to the Fate/stay Night anime adaptations.
Sales slowed significantly though. At the end of December 2022, shortly after the game came out, it sold 110,000 units. Nonetheless, the interest in The Witch on the Holy Night might have been one of the factors for why Type Moon decided to greenlight the English localization of Tsukihime Remake, which will come out in 2024.
Witch on the Holy Night is a visual novel that first came out for the PC in 2012. It follows Sojuro Shizuki, a young mn who moves to Misaki town and finds himself drawn to Aoko Aozaki. Unbeknownst to him, Aoko is a mage who lives with Alice Kuonji in a mansion that people say is inhabited by a witch. Sojuro finds himself pulled into a magical dispute happening within the town.
The Japanese version of Fate/Grand Order started a new event called Mystic Eyes Symphony, and it means the debut of Medusa Saber. This event will run from July 5-26, 2023. Medusa Saber will not be in the permanent banner after her gacha ends. So players that want to get her will have to pull now or wait for a possible re-run in the future.
The story of Mystic Eyes Symphony in Fate/Grand Order takes place on the Storm Border’s simulator. For some reason, there is a giant forest that they can’t get rid of. Though the follow the weird “Kick” instruction that appears before them and it does get rid of the trees, it has the side effect of sucking away the magic of the Servants that do so. Medusa Saber is a Servant that Chaldea was able to summon prior to the bizarre events, and with her help, it’ll find a way to get rid of the forest.
Medusa Saber has a very casual-looking outfit in her earlier Ascensions and becomes more divine-looking the further she goes. Aside from Medusa’s usual Petrify skill, she can also charge her own NP gauge and grant herself invincibility. Her Noble Phantasm, Chrysaor, deals Quick damage to a single target and there’s also the chance to Petrify them too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFaaaL70D3c
Flashback, the classic 16-bit sci-fi platformer from Delphine Software, is, as you probably already know, getting a sequel before the end of 2023, some 31 years after its original release. And new developer Microids has now offered a fresh look at Flashback 2's action - specifically the jungle-y bits - in a new trailer as it prepares for a November release.
The original Flashback, which arrived to much acclaim back in 1992 - when everything was still in black and white, and computers were powered by magic - followed the far-flung future adventures of agent Conrad B. Hart on the trail of shapeshifting aliens attempting to infiltrate human society. It was an investigation that, much like Delphine's earlier Another World, took the form of a strikingly rotoscoped platform-puzzler.
Flashback 2 (which, somewhat confusingly, isn't technically the game's first sequel, given the existence of 1995's 3D follow-up Fade to Black) sees Conrad B. Hart return for more sci-fi adventure - somewhere in the 22nd century - as he goes in search of his friend Ian. Again.
Watch the skies above you, Naraka: Bladepoint fans! Because big news about the melee battle royale game is on the way. The third Naraka Fest is upon us, and an upcoming live stream will give information on all the updates coming to Naraka: Bladepoint.
Here’s a watch guide on where and when to watch IGN’s stream of Naraka Fest. We'll also take some guesses at what you can expect to see when you tune in.
The 2023 Naraka Fest stream starts on Wednesday July 5, 2023 at 7 p.m. PST. That's at 10 p.m. for folks on EST. It's also a sensible Thursday July 6, 2023 at 12 p.m. in AEST.
Tune in to any of the links below to watch the Naraka Fest Stream. We have several portals to the show:
IGN.com(Our homepage)
The official Naraka: Bladepoint Twitch account will likewise host the stream.
Naraka: Bladepoint's high-paced melee combat has earned the game a strong fan base of over 10 million players worldwide since its launch in August of 2021. While it is a battle royale, its focus on close combat means it handles much differently from a shooter like Fortnite or PUBG.
Emile Morel, a Ubisoft game designer and creative director for Beyond Good and Evil 2, has passed away at age 40.
The announcement was originally spotted by IGN on LinkedIn, where two individuals that worked with Morel made tributes on the website.
"A cherished colleague for over a decade at Ubisoft Montpellier, we laughed and wept through good times and bad, and shipped a lot great games together," Morel's former colleague M. Gabrielle Shrager wrote on LinkedIn. "Emile was so very proud of Beyond Good and Evil 2, the Space Monkeys and his teammates. He will be sorely missed."
La Liga, Spain’s top flight of professional football and home to some of the world’s biggest clubs—like Barcelona and Real Madrid—has signed a new sponsorship deal that sees its previous branding (“La Liga Santander”) swapped out, with the league now to be known as LALIGA EA SPORTS.
As we await the verdict in the Microsoft vs. FTC trial regarding the fate of Xbox's Activision-Blizzard acquisition, we dig into some of the other things happening in the world of Xbox, from the future of Banjo-Kazooie (if there even is one) to Ubisoft's rumored Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake to this month's hidden gem on Xbox Game Pass, and more!
Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 of this week's episode. For more awesome content, check out my recent interview with Todd Howard, who discussed the realization of his vision for Starfield after eight years, how Red Dead Redemption 2 was something of an inspiration, what his future holds, and more!
For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review, our Xbox Series S review, and our PS5 review.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
Everybody 1-2-Switch might be the first party game I’ve played where I ended up with fewer friends afterwards – and not for any of the good reasons either, like a contentious Mario Kart match that tears friends apart. After roping numerous groups into playing with me, a few of those people aren’t returning my calls. Instead, these former companions live in fear that I’ll ask them to play again, because this game is full of bad ideas that unfortunately soured a good chunk of my holiday weekend. Sadly, Everybody 1-2-Switch is an incredibly disappointing sequel to 1-2-Switch. While its predecessor served as a tech demo – and mission statement of sorts – for a console that was breaking new ground with its controllers, this meager follow-up manages to feel like a major step backwards by hosting a slim collection of uncreative and poorly designed minigames that make shoddy use of what’s still unique about the Switch’s tech.
The idea is that two teams battle it out in a series of non sequitur minigames that have you perform competitive chores, like jumping rope or pumping up balloons, until a winner is declared. The most interesting change from the original is that now there’s a mode where you and your friends can use Apple or Android phones instead of Joy-Cons, so you don’t need to buy a ton of extra controllers to play in a group.
Square Enix released a Final Fantasy XVI patch that allows people to adjust the degree of motion blur in the game and keep the camera from following players' movements. These are two of the most notable requested features that made it into 1.03. While there's no keybinding, there are also three new control schemes in the options.
Both the Final Fantasy XVI motion blur and camera options are in the Main Menu’s System section. The new possibilities allow you get rid of motion blur entirely, if someone wishes. It can also be toned down. As for the camera options, you can now opt into whether it follows players’ attacks or movements. and its general sensitivity.
Here are the full Final Fantasy XVI patch notes for 1.03.
Naraka: Bladepoint comes out on PlayStation 5 on July 13 alongside a switch across all platforms to free-to-play.
The mythical melee battle royale also gets a new mode, called Capture the Spirit Well, a new hero called Tessa, and a new Dual Halberd weapon. Cross-play across all platforms launches July 13, too.
Naraka: Bladepoint, developed by 24 Entertainment and published by NetEase Games Montreal, launched on PC in August 2021 before Xbox Series X and S in June 2022. The new PS5 version launches just over a year later.
NetEase said Naraka: Bladepoint has now crossed the 20 million unique player mark. It’s a regular in Steam’s top 100 played games by concurrents list. At the time of publication, Naraka: Bladepoint was the 17th most-played game on Steam with just shy of 60,000 concurrents.
IGN’s Naraka: Bladepoint review returned an 8/10: “Superb melee combat and gravity-defying movement make Naraka: Bladepoint a clever spin on the familiar battle royale formula.”
Here’s the list of new features coming with the F2P launch:
Hello! All this week, Eurogamer is marking Pride with a week of features celebrating the intersection of LGBTQ+ culture and gaming. Today, Sharang Biswas takes us on a tour of bodily pleasures, exploring the perhaps surprising connection between pornography and analogue gaming - and highlighting the creators designing in the spaces between intimacy and play.
At the 2020 San Francisco Porn Film Festival, I watched a pretty arresting piece named Tidal, part of a French film project called Vespéral.
At seven minutes long, Tidal focuses on a nude brunette woman and the half-a-dozen pairs of hands that touch her, stroke her, caress her, and appear to bring her immense pleasure. The scene is scored with a thrumming, meditative track. Clips of waves hitting the beach, whose to-and-fro movement is often mimicked by the motion of the hands, intercut our vision of the woman - not interrupting but punctuating. It was an exquisitely poetic, and highly erotic film. Even I — once described by a classmate at grad school as "gay as fuck" — was titillated.
Capcom has announced Rashid, who previously appeared in Street Fighter 5, will join the roster of Street Fighter 6 later this month. Rashid will be the first fighter added to the game post-launch.
Rashid can be encountered across all three game modes. In World Tour, players will be able to apply his moves to their own avatar, whilst he'll be available to play as in Fighting Ground.
This month's battle pass contains gear, emotes, and music all related to Rashid. Take a look at Rashid in action in the gameplay trailer below.
Pokémon Go celebrates its seventh anniversary this week with the rollout of a fresh new feature: contest-like Showcases.
Hosted at specific PokéStops, Showcases act as local leaderboards for Pokémon with particularly impressive stats. First up will be a contest to find and show off your biggest sized Squirtle.
Up to 200 Pokémon can be entered into any PokéStop Showcase, with in-game prizes offered for those who rank highly - including premium items such as Star Pieces and Incubators.
Ubisoft veteran Emile Morel has died at the age of 40.
Morel most recently served as creative director on the upcoming and long-awaited Beyond Good and Evil 2, though had worked at Ubisoft's Montpellier studio since 2009.
It was there, alongside Rayman creator Michel Ancel, that Morel helped crafted the brilliant Rayman Legends as its lead game designer.
UPDATE 4.30pm: The prices for Xbox Game Pass have now increased.
Game Pass Ultimate (which gives you access to games on console, cloud and PC) now costs £12.99/€14.99/$16.99 a month, while its console only option costs £8.99/€10.99/$10.99.
The original story continues below.
An update released today for Final Fantasy 16 adds a new option for players to adjust the strength of motion blur.
Many players have complained of nausea while playing the game, making this option a much requested feature.
As explained in the patch notes, the default setting for motion blur is the maximum of five - this can now be reduced or completely switched off.
Capcom has formally revealed the first fighter joining the Street Fighter 6 roster post-launch, and it's Rashid, a returning fighter who first appeared in Street Fighter 5.
Rashid hits the game on July 24, so there are still a few weeks to go until he's playable. All owners of the game's Deluxe Edition, Ultimate Edition, and Year 1 Character Pass can play as him. You can also play Rashid for up to one hour for free using a Rental Fighter ticket, which is obtainable in the in-game Fighting Pass.
Check out the Street Fighter 6 Rashid gameplay trailer below for a look at what to expect:
Rashid will be playable in all three of Street Fighter 6's modes: World Tour, where he'll be added to the story mode with unique moves for your custom avatar, the Fighting Ground as the 19th playable character; and the Battle Hub, where you can earn Rashid-related gear, emotes, and more. Moves to look out for include Arabian Cyclone, Arabian Skyhigh, Super Rashid Kick, Ysaar, and Altair.
Rashid hits Street Fighter 6 on July 24. He'll be joined by upcoming fighters like A.K.I., Ed, and Akuma this year.
There’s something so comforting about old-school turn-based RPGs. Maybe that comfort comes from a childhood spent playing the genre until 2AM - muffling the sounds of an epic adventure by stuffing my DS under a pillow anytime an adult walked by the room. Enter Sea Of Stars, a love letter to the genre that’s full of both nostalgic charm and fresh new ideas.
