August 2023

On the surface, Venba, a charming cooking puzzle game in which you restore a family’s cookbook, is just that. It’s a colorful, ASMR-esque cooking game that’ll light a fire in your belly to stop ordering takeout and get busy making dishes in your own kitchen. However, after rolling the credits on the narrative puzzle…

Read more...

Read more...

At Dream Con, an anime and video game convention in Austin, Texas, actor Khleo Thomas, perhaps best known for the 2003 movie Holes, competed in and won a Mortal Kombat 11 tournament. Thomas, who played Zero in the 2003 Disney film opposite Shia LaBeouf, won the Mortal Kombat 11 tournament while cosplaying as Powerline…

Read more...

Xbox announced its first wave of August Game Pass titles in an August 1 blog post, and it looks like players have some great under-the-radar games to look forward to, including the cozy fan-favorite A Short Hike.

Read more...

Microsoft has revealed a new Stormcloud Vapor special edition Xbox Series X/S controller, and it looks great.

The Xbox maker announced the controller in a blog post, revealing that the controller is available for preorder starting today. It will cost $69.99 and you can purchase it from Xbox’s online store, Microsoft stores, and some local retailers. The controller is onyx blue, with a smoky aesthetic that gives the controller a unique look in the lineup of Xbox Series X/S controllers. 

Microsoft says the design is inspired by clouds and storming skies, “with each billowing puff of vapor bringing a unique design to each controller,” hence the Stormcloud Vapor name. It features rubberized, blue diamond-pattern grips and can hook up to Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One consoles, PC, mobile phones, and tablets. 

Purchasing this controller also gives you a unique Stormcloud Vapor dynamic background that you can check out in motion in the video below: 

Jujutsu Kaisen is the latest anime to crossover with Epic Games’ free-to-play battle royale, Fortnite. 

The official Fortnite Twitter account officially announced this crossover today with a quick teaser video showcasing some original characters making shadow puppets on a wall in the battle island’s Mega City locale. Shortly after, Jujutsu Kaisen’s Gojo, Megumi, Nobara, and Yuhi crash through that wall, revealing the first look at these skins in-game. 

You can check out the Jujutsu Kaisen Fortnite skins for yourself in the teaser below:

Crunchyroll added to its list of anime shows that are "free" to watch due to being ad-supported. 19 more shows are now available. However, only select episodes from the English dub versions may be free to watch. In cases when they do appear, only the first three can be seen. However, full subtitled seasons are available for other shows. Some of the more notable anime additions include Chainsaw Man, Spy x Family, Bluelock, Ranking of Kings, and Bocchi the Rock. All of them are now immediately available starting today.

Here’s the full list of new Crunchyroll “free” anime you can watch with ads, with Bocchi the Rock and Vinland Saga being the only ones with no English dubs available. Code Geass isn’t available in Australia, England, Ireland, Scotland, or New Zealand., while Soul Eater can’t be watched in England, Ireland, or Scotland.

Epic Games announced Jujutsu Kaisen’s Yuji Itadori, Megumi Fushiguro, Nobara Kugisaki, and Satoru Gojo will join Fortnite. There's no exact release date for the four of them yet. At the moment, the company only released a teaser trailer showing that the characters will show up as new cosmetic options in the game.

Here’s the teaser. It begins with original characters from the game making shadow puppets on a wall. The wall then breaks to reveal Yuji, Megumi, Nobara, and Gojo. Each of them strikes a pose. Nobara, for example, has her hammer and nails.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KFcPhIJ9eE&ab_channel=Fortnite
Given the timing of the announcement, we will likely see the Jujutsu Kaisen crossover begin later in August 2023. These reveals tend to come rather shortly ahead of their official debuts.

This isn't the first anime crossover to appear in Fortnite in 2023. January brought with it a Dragon Ball Super one. Attack on Titan characters showed up in April 2023.

Sanrio is teaming up with Hatsune Miku to release new merchandise and apparel items of the Vocaloid character alongside popular mascot Cinnamoroll. The goods will feature both characters in newly drawn illustrations. Some of the items being released as part of the collection include acrylic keychains, tote bags, bag charms, scrunchies, socks, and leg covers. The items will be available to purchase on August 5, 2023 from select retail stores in Japan and from the Avail online store. [Thanks, Inside!]

Here is a full list of the Hatsune Miku and Cinnamoroll items and their prices:

• Acrylic keychain – 869 JPY / $6
• Bag charm – 869 JPY / $6
• Card holder – 990 JPY / $7
• Leg covers – 1,650 JPY / $11
• Pouch – 990 JPY / $7
• Scrunchie – 869 JPY / $6
• Socks – 385 JPY / $2
• Stickers – 429 JPY / $3
• Tote bag – 1,980 JPY / $13

You can also check out the new merchandise in more detail here:

[gallery columns="4" size="medium" ids="975563,975564,975565,975566" link="file"]
There's also a Nendoroid of the Vocaloid with Cinnamoroll in development.

Cover released a selection of new merchandise featuring Vtuber Sakura Miko from Hololive's JP branch to celebrate her fifth anniversary. The items are available individually or in a set, and pre-orders will remain open until September 4, 2023. The limited edition set, however, is already out of stock.

The merchandise range includes a 240 × 200mm Pub Mirror illustrated by Ordan, who has done the art for several Hololive member's alternative outfits. There is also a plush Maguchi mascot, a small figurine of her viewer mascot holding a taiyaki, and a copy of her first EP "heart♡connect." That album features 7 tracks and a cover illustrated by Guchico. If ordered as a set, the items will also include an alternate jacket card by Ordan, a foil stamped autograph, and a message from Sakura Miko herself. The now-unavailable limited edition contains similar content, except the message is hand-written.

You can get a look at the Sakura Miko fifth anniversary merchandise in the gallery below:

[gallery link="file" ids="975542,975543,975544,975546,975547"]

Hololive's EN branch recently saw the debut of the new Advent unit, complete with its own set of merchandise and a original song. Five Hololive figures and Nendoroids were also showcased at Good Smile Company's WonHobby 37 Summer event.

The Planar Fissure Event: Planar Ornaments Simulated Universe event is about to return to Honkai: Star Rail. The event first appeared back in June 2023. During it, you get twice as many pieces of equipment during runs through a world. It all begins again on August 2, 2023.

So as usual, we need to have access to Simulated Universe to take part in the Planar Fissure: Planar Ornaments event in Honkai: Star Rail. The series of Herta Space Station quests starting with “Simulated Universe: First Closed Beta” kicks off access to that. Players need to finish those and have access to World 3 to take part.

If you do meet all the requirements, then once you go into a run in a world, you’ll get twice as many Planar Ornaments equipment pieces from the Immersion Device a limited number of times each day. It’s best to do so on higher level worlds, as you can get more five-star pieces that way. It's also wise to go in first thing, in case you need to use energy to claim items from the Immersion Device.

The Wholesome Games Celebration has kicked off on Steam, offering steep discounts on many, many cosy games that you’d typically see featured in various Wholesome Directs - downtempo puzzlers, non-violent explore ‘em ups, games starring cute woodland critters, and so on. Scrolling through all the good stuff might take a while since nearly 250 games are discounted, so let’s run through some highlights here.

Read more

Citizen Sleeper is a game with lots of brilliant individual stories in it, even the ones that end so catastrophically badly that redemption seems nigh on impossible. But when I look back on this tabletop-infused RPG and think of my favourites, there is one that stands head and shoulders above the rest. It isn't one of Citizen Sleeper's more emotional story beats (I miss ya, Lem and Mina), nor is it its most thrilling (big love to my man Feng). Rather, it's one of the game's quietest and arguably least significant plot points, but the fact it's there at all is probably what cemented Citizen Sleeper as one of my favourite games of last year. It is, of course, befriending The Stray who takes up residence in your Lowend apartment.

Read more

If you're an early access player of Baldur's Gate 3 you should delete your save, delete your mods, and then delete the game itself.

This advice comes direct from developer Larian, which said that doing all of the above would "reduce the risk of file conflicts when the final game downloads", meaning "more playing, and no troubleshooting!"

Players who do have mods installed are also advised to ensure they do not automatically re-download.

Read more

Rayman's long-awaited return mightn't be quite what fans were hoping for - arriving as he is in a bit of DLC for the excellent Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope instead of his own game - but something's (hopefully) better than nothing, and Ubisoft has now confirmed its beloved limb-flinging mascot will be making his entrance on 30th August this year.

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope: Rayman in the Phantom Show is described as a brand-new DLC adventure that'll be separate from the base game's storyline. Here, Rabbid Mario and Rabbid Peach stumble across the Space Opera Network, an "uncanny" TV studio run by the Phantom, one of the antagonists in Ubsoft's previous Mario + Rabbids game, Kingdom Battle.

"As the TV studio's rating are lower than ever," Ubisoft explains in its release date announcement, "he needs the help of true stars to help him get his past glory back."

Read more

UPDATE 02/08 11:00am: In a statement sent to Eurogamer from Activision, Hasbro has apologised for incorrectly suggesting Activision lost its Transformers games.

"To clarify, comments that suggest Transformers games have been lost were made in error," Hasbro said, via Activision. "We apologise to Activision and regret any confusion; they’ve been great partners, and we look forward to future opportunities to work together," the company continued.

Activision chief communications officer and outspoken exec Lulu Cheng Meservey also took to Twitter yesterday to deny the claim made by Hasbro, stating the company has the code - "it's not lost and never was," she posted.

Read more

The Last Hope: Dead Zone Survival—a Switch-exclusive budget game that many called a knockoff of Sony’s The Last of Us—has been removed from the Nintendo eShop. Meanwhile, Sony has started removing the game’s trailers from YouTube.

Read more...

After nearly 15 years, feminist game critic Anita Sarkeesian’s non-profit organization Feminist Frequency will cease operations in early 2024. The news was delivered via official press release with Sarkeesian citing endless burnout and exhaustion from growing the site over the years, which she says has proven…

Read more...

Do you have any Xbox gamers in your life? Maybe you’ve occasionally tried to talk to them about peculiar hobby? They can be a prickly bunch, and understandably so given how rough it’s been out there for, well, about a decade now. Time heals all wounds, unless you’re an Xbox fan and someone says the wrong thing.

Read more...

Ubisoft has revealed Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope: Rayman in the Phantom Show, the final announced DLC coming to the Nintendo mashup strategy game that hit Switch last October. 

Shortly after the release of Sparks of Hope last year, Ubisoft announced it had three DLCs planned for the game. The first was The Tower of Doooom, which hit the game this March. Ubisoft released the second DLC, The Last Spark Hunter, last month and now, we know when DLC 3 completes the game’s post-launch roadmap because Rayman in the Phantom Show goes live on August 30. 

You can check out the Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope DLC 3: Rayman in the Phantom Show reveal trailer for yourself below: 

“Rayman is back,” the trailer’s description reads. “And he is the special guest in a new mysterious dimension: the Phantom Opera’s network studio. The Phantom, the charismatic ghostly boss of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, is also coming back and asking for help to improve his channel’s ratings.” 

Mountaintop Studios has released the first teaser for its in-development competitive shooter inspired by anime, manga, and comics. 

Mountaintop Studios is a relatively new studio formed in 2020 by Nate Mitchell, a co-founder of Oculus. Mitchell enlisted several others to the studio for its leadership with experience at Double Fine, Valve, Naughty Dog, Riot Games, and Blizzard Entertainment. Now, the studio has more than four dozen employees and is hard at work developing a shooter it hopes has 10,000 hours of depth and fosters incredible communities and lasting friendships. 

While its first game remains unannounced technically, Mountaintop tweeted a short teaser today with the caption, “Soon.” Hopefully, we will get more information about the game soon because this teaser looks interesting. Check it out for yourself below: 

Soon. pic.twitter.com/vEWhnFPsTb

There are a lot of farming and life sims on the Switch, so much so that a game like Picontier could easily fly under the radar. It probably doesn’t help that we first heard about it back in 2016, but it’s never gotten tons of attention. Which is a shame, because it’s a novel experience with an unexpected sort of sort surrounding it, and more people should really give it a chance.

Persona 5 Tactica is an upcoming tactical role-playing game featuring a new storyline as well as new characters, and Atlus announced a premium trial event for Japan. It will provide participants the chance to experience the first two hours of the game before its scheduled release on November 17, 2023. The demo takes place in Tokyo on September 2-3, 2023. Applying to take part in the trial in advance is required before participating.

The Persona 5 Tactica premium trial event will be held over two days. Each one will be divided into four sessions, with there being a morning session starting at 10am JST and an afternoon session at 2pm JST. Applications are accepted until August 6, 2023, 11:59pm JST. Winners will be notified by email from the domain【@atlus.co.jp】on August 9, 2023. Atlus accepts only one application per person. Also, applicants must be at least 18 years old to participate. If there are too many applicants, potential players will be selected through a drawing. Transportation expenses are to be paid by the participant. Photography is strictly prohibited.

Those who wish to participate in the Persona 5 Tactica premium trial event must complete the official form to apply.

Persona 5 Tactica will launch globally on November 17, 2023. It will release on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Windows, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.

Arc System Works announced a plush toy based on Roger, Bridget’s bear from Guilty Gear. The plush toy is available from the company's storefront to pre-order now. It is set to release in Q3 2023. It’s normally priced at $174.99, but is currently listed at the pre-order price of $149.99.

The Roger plush takes its appearance from Guilty Gear Strive, featuring a special wash tag and a detailed zipper tag hanging from his neck. The plush features a "luxury exterior" fabric and custom stitching, along with a soft foam interior. It measures 18 inches tall while sitting, but it is 24 inches from head to toe.

Roger is a bear that assists Bridget in battle in the Guilty Gear series. Despite being a plush toy, he is sentient and boasts a high degree of intelligence.

After what feels like far too long an absence, it's all go-go-go in the world of Samba de Amigo. Not only is Sega's beloved rhythm-action series getting outings on Switch and Meta Quest soon, it'll be launching onto mobile via Apple Arcade this month.

More specifically, Apple's gaming subscription service is getting a version of the maraca-shaking classic called Samba de Amigo: Party-To-Go, which arrives on 29th August - the same day Samba de Amigo: Party Central launches on Switch.

Party-To-Go will feature 40 songs when it arrives in August, with more to follow after launch. There's no complete track list to peruse yet, but Sega's official announcement says it'll feature three songs exclusive to the Apple Arcade game: Daddy (feat. CL) by Psy, Lady Gaga's The Edge of Glory, and The Walker from Fitz and the Tantrums.

Read more

Just a month after shooting itself into space for the first time, asymmetrical multiplayer horror game Dead by Daylight is doing it all over again, only this time with an official license for the quintessential space scare-'em-up, Alien.

That's Alien singular, of course; Ridley Scott's seminal 1979 space horror in which Sigourney Weaver's iconic action hero Ellen Ripley, along with her crewmates aboard the spaceship Nostromo, are terrorised by an even more iconic phallus-headed extraterrestrial predator known as a Xenomorph. Someone also gets a tummy ache; it's great.

That single, deadly foe (as opposed to the umpteen creatures present in James Cameron's action-heavy 1986 follow-up, Aliens) makes Alien the perfect fit for Dead by Daylight's four-survivors-versus-one-killer set-up. As of right now, however, developer Behaviour Interactive is remaining coy about which of the movie's characters we might get to play as.

Read more

It is far too often the case that failed hardware components lead to unnecessary disposal. That means another expensive purchase for you and more stuff sitting in landfills for the Earth. Thankfully, Microsoft is now offering replacement parts and educational info for fixing tired and worn out controllers, meaning you…

Read more...

August 1st is Water Day in Japan. The Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism appointed Vaporeon ambassador for Water Day in 2023. This water-type Pokemon is promoting public understanding of the value of clean water throughout the entirety of Water Week.

From August 1-7, 2023, the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism plans to hold educational events across Japan in cooperation with related ministries, agencies and prefectures. This will all happen with Vaporeon attending events as a mascot. Water Day is a Japanese national holiday dedicated to promoting water conservation and raising awareness of the finite nature of water resources and the importance of water resource development. On Water Day and during Water Week, the Japanese national government, local governments, businesses and private organizations all cooperate to help spread the importance of maintaining clean, healthy water each year.

You can view the promotional video starring Vaporeon in this tweet:

It's a new month, which means a new FFVII calendar from Square Enix for August 2023. The Japanese Twitter account consistently releases new ones regularly for us to use on our computers and mobile devices. This month's is a piece of FFVII Remake art with Cloud on the Hardy-Daytona motorcycle he uses throughout the series.

Here's a gallery showing both of the August 2023 FFVII calendars with Cloud. August 11, 2023 is highlighted. This is because that's Cloud's birthday. It could also explain why he is the featured character for the month. However, Tifa was not the featured character in May 2023, which is the month in which her birthday falls. Instead, Aerith appeared on that calendar.
[gallery columns="2" size="full" ids="975635,975636" link="file"]

As a reminder, Cloud is following Zack. The July 2023 calendar was a summer-themed one. It featured Zack as he appeared in Crisis Core: FFVII Reunion. In it, we could see him from behind as he was on the beach on vacation at Costa Del Sol. While he got to see some members of the Turks, like Cissnei, there during the game, he was the only character to appear in that calendar image.

Developer Volition's beleaguered Saints Row reboot has almost reached the end of its journey - as far as the studio has currently revealed, at least - with the game's third and final bit of DLC, titled A Song Of Ice And Dust, now confirmed to arrive next Tuesday, 8th August, ahead of a Steam release for what was previously an Epic Games Store PC exclusive on 24th August.

Specifics surrounding A Song Of Ice And Dust are still a little thin on the ground, but a brief synopsis accompanying today's release date news sets the scene for the DLC thusly: "When a crippling ambush decimates the Dustlanders, it's up to fierce rivals Bossonius and Gwendolyn Firebird to join forces and defend The DustFaire from a new foe."

As previously revealed when Volition shared its post-launch development roadmap for Saints Row earlier this year, the reboot's third and final paid DLC expansion will introduce new story missions, new enemies, new cosmetics, and more.

Read more

Respawn and Electronic Arts’ popular single-player Star Wars sequel, Jedi: Survivor, is making the leap from current-gen to the older PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles.

Read more...