August 2023

The Good Smile Company announced that both the Link and Zelda The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Nendoroid figures are coming back. Both are available to pre-order now, with a planned release date of December 2023. They'll ship from the US storefront in Q1 2024. The Link Nendoroid is priced at ¥8,600/$56.99, while the Zelda Nendoroid is ¥6,800/$44.99.

The higher price for the Link Nendoroid is down to the large number of items that he comes with. Boasting a variety of weapons, along with a chicken leg, Sheikah Slate, hood and horse, the figure is designed to help recreate scenes from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. He also has two face plates with a smiling and a shouting expression.

The Zelda Nendoroid has fewer accessories, with just a Hot-Footed Frog, Sheikah Slate and Royal White Stallion included. She also comes with a Master Sword, although it’s meant for Link to hold. She’s a little more expressive, however, with three face plates showing a neutral expression, a smile, and an angry face.

Baldur's Gate 3 came out earlier this evening. It couldn't be pre-loaded before launch and having already installed the Early Access version wasn't an alternative, which means a lot of people were trying to download the 122GB RPG at the same time.

Steam held up to the onslaught - mostly.

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Dave The Diver is an unusual mixture of deep sea exploration, sushi restaurant management, and a thousand other ideas. It's also been a smash hit since its release from early access in June.

In a new update video from developers Mintrocket, they seem as surprised by its huge success as anyone, while also outlining their roadmap for coming quality-of-life updates.

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Following a bit of a ratings board leak earlier this year, a new report has claimed a Quake 2 remaster will - in a move that wouldn't exactly be surprising - be getting an official unveiling during this year's QuakeCon festivities, which take place next week.

A Quake 2 remaster first reared in head in June this year, when a listing appeared on the Game Rating and Administration Committee of Korea's website. And now, reliable leaker billbil-kun has piped up (thanks VGC) with some fresh information, claiming both an imminent QuakeCon unveiling and a release for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch.

As astute readers may have already spotted, those are the very same platforms that received a Nightdive-Studios-developed 25th anniversary remaster of the original Quake back in 2021. Billbil-kun says the remaster of its sequel will simply be referred to as Quake 2, ditching the 'Remastered' suffix that appeared in the South Korean ratings board listing.

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Some wonderful maniac is developing an emulator that will one day let people play Zeebo games. And…oh wait, you might be asking “What’s a Zeebo?” Fair question! Well, it’s a fairly obscure digital-only console released outside of the United States in 2009 in just two countries. And while it’s not a great console with…

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Udon announced that its next Darkstalkers comic book will star Hsien-Ko and be out ahead of Halloween 2023. On October 4, 2023, her story will start. That's when the first issue of the new series will kick off. There will also be four possible covers for it.

Only a brief teaser for the story appeared. Ken Siu-Chong is telling this tale. It follows Hsien-Ko as she deals with a villain known as Nurse Noir.

Here's a full gallery of the four cover options. Cover A is by Panzer Steinbach. Cover B is drawn by Tovio Rogers. Both will appear in regular comic stores. However, there are also two Udon-exclusive variants. Those will be sold through the company's storefront. Cover C is a blank one, for people to take to conventions and get sketches. Cover D is drawn by Jason Shawn Alexander and also features Felicia and Morrigan.
[gallery columns="4" size="full" ids="976121,976118,976117,976119" link="file"]

This will be the third Darkstalkers character to star in their own comic. Udon already picked up two other series. The first one focused on Morrigan and a story starring the succubus. The second one was a Felicia one-shot story in 2023.

Issue 1 of the Darkstalkers: Hsien-Ko comic will appear on October 4, 2023.

To commemorate the 3rd anniversary of Project Sekai, available worldwide as Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage, Sega and Colorful Palette are holding a Project Sekai 3rd Anniversary Thanks Festival. For fans who cannot attend the in-person event, Live Viewing Japan is offering an alternative means for fans to watch all four performances from the Project Sekai 3rd Anniversary Thanks Festival. Tickets to a Project Sekai 3rd Anniversary Thanks Festival Live Viewing will be available at the price of 3,500 yen ($25) across theaters in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Korea. The event will be at the Tokyo Dome City Hall in Tokyo between September 16-17, 2023, with theater showings happening at that time in all countries.

During the festival, there will be a live reading of an exclusive scenario, a talk show delving into the history of Project Sekai, and a mini live performance from the cast. The festival will be split into two days. There will be different people appearing on Saturday and Sunday.

Here are the September 16, 2023 performers:

Project Moon made an official statement over the controversy regarding the firing of an artist for Limbus Company. The controversy initially occurred in late July 2023. According to Project Moon, the reason why it took so long to explain everything is due to consultations with its legal department.

Before we get into the official statement, let’s discuss what the controversy is about. In late July 2023, Korean netizens expressed outrage when Project Moon fired an illustrator after male fans of Limbus Company complained about how conservative a character’s swimsuit was compared to other ones. This, according to those fans, was feminist.

[caption id="attachment_976065" align="alignnone" width="960"] Image via Project Moon.[/caption]
[gallery columns="1" size="full" ids="976065" link="file"]

Megahouse announced a re-release of a Naruto Minato Namikaze figure. Pre-orders will open on August 4, 2023, and it will ship out some time in January 2024. You can order it from Premium Bandai for 19,800 JPY (approximately $138.25).

The GEM Minato Namikaze figure focuses on his speed. Lore-wise, he was the fastest shinobi in Konoha’s history. Even during his time as Hokage, he preferred strategies that utilized this specific quality. As such, the figure looks like he is in the middle of running. According to the description on his store page, the sculptor took great care in giving him a sharp but kind expression.

[gallery columns="2" ids="976043,976044" link="file"]

Previous Naruto figures that Megahouse released include ones of Tsunade, Temari, and Tenten. These are all part of its Naruto Gals line, whereas the Minato is a GEM figure. GEM series figures are highly-detailed scale figures. While it did not state what scale the Minato figure is, he stands at around 150 millimeters tall.

If you're not one of the many PC players already Baldur's deep in a certain RPG spectacular and you're looking for some amusement this weekend, the Epic Games Store has unveiled a fresh batch of freebies to download and keep, which this week take the form of developer Four Quarters' RPG oddity Loop Hero and Ninja Kiwi's vibrant tower defence adventure Bloons TD 6.

Starting with Loop Hero, it's a fantasy RPG with a twist; the twist being your heroes are stuck automatically navigating the procedurally generated world, battling monsters, and so on, in an endless, literal loop. You don't have a whole lot of control over what they do, but as they down enemies you accumulate loot to boost their stats and - more importantly - collect cards to place in the world that introduce new encounters and perhaps new bonuses to be exploited on successive loops. Reach a certain point and you fight a boss, then on it goes.

That's the very basics of it, at least, and Eurogamer's Christian Donlan quite liked its peculiar, grindy progression when he reviewed it back in 2021, slapping it with ye olde Recommended badge, and calling it a "deeply knowing game whose designers pluck at your obsessions as if they're idly reaching into a piano case to twang the strings".

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What's moving and shaking in the mouse world of 2023? To find out, we've rounded up five of the best mice we've tested over the past few months, from modular designs and MMO/MOBA specials to ultra-light options for competitive gaming.

If you've seen our recent round-up of 2023 keyboard trends, this is very much in the same vein: five mini reviews of recently released gaming mice, from big-name brands like Corsair, SteelSeries and Asus to more boutique options like Mountain and Endgame Gear.

We've also leaned in further to that theme of gaming mice trends for this year, with a write-up of the most interesting mouse trends as epitomised by these five mice - and the others that we've tested at Digital Foundry HQ in 2023 so far.

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Multiplayer survival sandbox Scum has dropped its 0.9 Smokin’ Hot update today to add more of the expected guns, monsters, and balance tweaks. But the update’s called Smokin’ Hot because it makes all the guys in the game, well, smokin’ hot - if you're into men with a Gears Of War workout routine, that is. Following the revamped female character models last year, developer Gamepires continue their early access tour with a refresh for every male character in the game which may or may not include a touch up for the Danny Trejo DLC skin. Take a look at the new beefcakes and beefy mutants below.

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Highly-anticipated D&D role-player Baldur's Gate 3 is doing well on Steam, where it has racked up an impressive player peak of more than 472,000 people in its first day on sale.

This makes Baldur's Gate 3 the second-largest Steam launch of 2023 so far in terms of player count, with just Hogwarts Legacy in front.

Baldur's Gate 3 is currently the third-most played game of the last 24 hours, behind only Steam stalwarts Counter-Strike and Dota 2.

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Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: warring animals, wordsearches, and inventories.

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.

I am hooked on Squaredle. It is another word-based web game, somewhere between a wordsearch and Wordle. Actually, perhaps it's more like Boggle, now that I think about it.

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Mice, keyboards, game pads? You've got those at home. It's only at EGX that you can play games you control with a lamp, or a brick, or with a real morse code tapper. All of those and more were present at the RPS Future Of Play booth at EGX 2022, a curated collection of alternative controllers.

We're bringing it back again this year and this time we're inviting developers to submit their work for inclusion. Do you have a custom controller and one-of-a-kind video game you want to show to the world? Read on.

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Liam and I have been playing looter shooter Remnant 2 in our spare time, as we realised we both couldn't stop thinking about it. Having been burned out of Destiny 2 and most live service games, we discovered Remnant 2 delivers all the benefits of blasting gangly creatures for skill points without all the live service baggage. What a refreshing thing.

Thing is, if two out of the three major bosses we've faced so far took us to court for cheesing them, we'd lose. And it brings us no greater pleasure, knowing we've carved powerful new weapons out of their remains. God, it feels good to be totally undeserving of any credit whatsoever.

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Call of Duty will now alert players in real time if a cheater is removed from the game.

The addition to the game's Ricochet cheating system comes as part of the newly released Warzone season five.

If Ricochet removes a problem player from the game, the kill feed will immediately notify players in that lobby.

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If you're just starting out in Baldur's Gate 3, then beware there's a bug that might prevent you from saving.

There have been multiple reports from players claiming the game gets stuck when syncing, preventing them from saving or loading the game.

Larian Studios is aware of the issue and has updated its FAQ for the game with a number of possible solutions.

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It looks like Animal Crossing Lego sets are reportedly on the way.

According to the Lego leaking Instagram account exabrickslegogo_ there are five different sets in the works, to be released in March 2024.

It's unknown exactly what these sets will look like, but the pieces range from 170 to 535, with a price of $14.99 to $74.99.

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Have you ever wondered how far the rabbit hole of video game collectibles goes? The world of video game memorabilia is more expansive and expensive than many realize. From limited edition consoles to factory-sealed games, these precious gems can command exorbitant prices, often becoming an investment rather than a simple hobby. For some people, the thrill of the hunt, the pleasure of possession, and the prospect of selling a rare item for a hefty sum in the future are irresistible. Let’s delve into this universe and explore some of the rarest and most valuable video game collectibles in the world. Beware, these are some of the rarest video game collectibles you’ll need to take out a loan to buy!

Dave the Diver’s Dev Interview has revealed a much-needed change for the game regarding the QTE moments that have caused some concern for many players. And, if you haven’t guessed yet, it’s none other than the button-mashing mechanic, which has awoken many sleeping family members during those late diving sessions.

Jaeho Hwang (Game Director) and Nolan King (Game Designer) discussed the matter in the interview, announcing a new option to turn on ‘Automate button mashing’ in the Settings section. With this feature, you will no longer need to exert yourself during the challenging fish captures, where you can easily hold down the button.

2023 has seen plenty of PlayStation releases, and trophy hunters have been well-fed. However, there are certainly better games than others regarding easy (and fun trophies). We have looked through the games we have played and the trophies we have earned to bring you this list of the easiest trophies and platinum of 2023.

Season 5’s newest vehicles have changed the dynamics of Warzone and DMZ as we know it, cultivating fun and challenging elements for the two modes. While the MRAP has become an unstoppable force in DMZ, the Dirt Bike allows you to try out a few nifty tricks in the heat of the battle.

Due to the MRAP’s heavy armor, many players have expressed their concerns over the overpowered vehicle, in which they have countlessly succumbed to its deadly attacks. One user has noted an experience where the tank completely annihilated them, despite having a fully equipped 6-man team.

HoYoVerse released the upcoming character banners we'll see in Genshin Impact Version 4.0. Among them are the debuts of three playable characters—Lyney, Lynette, and Freminet—as well as see some familiar faces. There will be one new five-star character, and two new four-star characters.

https://twitter.com/Genshin_7/status/1687434531673124864

The first banners for Genshin Impact Version 4.0 will be Lyney and Yelan. Both of them are Bow users. However, Yelan is a Hydro unit and Lyney is a Pyro one. Lynette will be the four-star on this banner. She is an Anemo Sword user whose skill is very similar to Yelan’s, in which she enters a quick-moving state that can mark enemies with her element. You'll also be able to get Lynette for free through a 4.0 event, so you don't have to worry if you want her but don't get her here.

As for the second banners for Genshin Impact Version 4.0, we’ll see the return of two five-star characters from Liyue. Zhongli and Childe will be the five-stars, and Freminet will be the four-star. Technically, Childe is from Snezhnaya, but he debuted as a playable character during the Liyue Archon Quest. Freminet will be a Cryo Claymore user, whereas Zhongli is a Geo Polearm and Childe is a Hydro Bow.

Genshin Impact is readily available on the PS4, PS5, Windows PC, and mobile devices. Genshin impact Version 4.0 should debut on August 16, 2023.

As usual, HoYoVerse celebrated its next Genshin Impact update and the Special Program with codes for free Primogems ahead of 4.0. Entering all three of them nets you 300 Primogems and various in-game items. However, they are only good for a single day and can run out, if you don't use them in time.

Here is the full list of the new Genshin Impact codes from the 4.0 special program.

Remember to enter them as soon as you can, as the Genshin Impact codes for 4.0 are only good on August 4, 2023.

• WA845MQHUHKH: 100 Primogems, 5 Hero’s Wits
• ZT8MLL8GCYKM: 100 Primogems, 50,000 Mora
• 3BRLL59ZCZKD: 100 Primogems, 10 Mystic Enhancement Ores

And here's a gallery showing images of all three codes:
[gallery size="full" ids="976316,976317,976318" link="file"]

As for redeeming those codes, it varies a little. Genshin Impact PC players need to head to the official site. After you log into your HoYoVerse account, you can enter them there. The items will all show up in your in-game inbox. The other four options work by going into the game proper. If you use a PS4, PS5, or mobile device, head to the Settings menu. Go to Account. Select “Redeem Code” and enter the codes.

HoYoVerse released the upcoming character banners we'll see in Genshin Impact Version 4.0. Among them are the debuts of three playable characters—Lyney, Lynette, and Freminet—as well as see some familiar faces. There will be one new five-star character, and two new four-star characters.

https://twitter.com/Genshin_7/status/1687434531673124864

The first banners for Genshin Impact Version 4.0 will be Lyney and Yelan. Both of them are Bow users. However, Yelan is a Hydro unit and Lyney is a Pyro one. Lynette will be the four-star on this banner. She is an Anemo Sword user whose skill is very similar to Yelan’s, in which she enters a quick-moving state that can mark enemies with her element. You'll also be able to get Lynette for free through a 4.0 event, so you don't have to worry if you want her but don't get her here.

As for the second banners for Genshin Impact Version 4.0, we’ll see the return of two five-star characters from Liyue. Zhongli and Childe will be the five-stars, and Freminet will be the four-star. Technically, Childe is from Snezhnaya, but he debuted as a playable character during the Liyue Archon Quest. Freminet will be a Cryo Claymore user, whereas Zhongli is a Geo Polearm and Childe is a Hydro Bow.

Genshin Impact is readily available on the PS4, PS5, Windows PC, and mobile devices. Genshin impact Version 4.0 should debut on August 16, 2023.

As usual, HoYoVerse celebrated its next Genshin Impact update and the Special Program with codes for free Primogems ahead of 4.0. Entering all three of them nets you 300 Primogems and various in-game items. However, they are only good for a single day and can run out, if you don't use them in time.

Here is the full list of the new Genshin Impact codes from the 4.0 special program.

Remember to enter them as soon as you can, as the Genshin Impact codes for 4.0 are only good on August 4, 2023.

• WA845MQHUHKH: 100 Primogems, 5 Hero’s Wits
• ZT8MLL8GCYKM: 100 Primogems, 50,000 Mora
• 3BRLL59ZCZKD: 100 Primogems, 10 Mystic Enhancement Ores

And here's a gallery showing images of all three codes:
[gallery size="full" ids="976316,976317,976318" link="file"]

As for redeeming those codes, it varies a little. Genshin Impact PC players need to head to the official site. After you log into your HoYoVerse account, you can enter them there. The items will all show up in your in-game inbox. The other four options work by going into the game proper. If you use a PS4, PS5, or mobile device, head to the Settings menu. Go to Account. Select “Redeem Code” and enter the codes.

During the Genshin Impact 4.0 special program, HoYoVerse gave us a look at three new characters who will show up as playable units in Fontaine. Lynette, Lyney, and Freminet will debut as our first Fontaine characters, and all three of them are siblings. Lyney in particular will have his own character mission when Version 4.0 launches.

Lyney is a Pyro Bow user whose charged shot can create a box that taunts the enemies. It will also explode over some time, dealing Pyro damage. His Elemental Burst turns him into a cat box that can move quickly and send down fire from above. He’s like a combination of Amber and Kirara. His passive lets him mark Fontaine’s local specialties on the map.

[caption id="attachment_976305" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via HoYoVerse[/caption]

The 4.0 Genshin Impact story will see the Traveler head to Fontaine to learn about a prophecy, take part in a trial, and reunite with Childe. The start of the Special Program on on August 4, 2023 offered a brief overview of things. It also offered a chance to see more Fontaine characters from "The Final Feast" trailer.

It seems a critical part of the Fontaine story in Genshin Impact will involve one of Lyney’s performances going wrong. During the first trailer, we saw him putting on one of his shows, with his sister Lynette inside of a box of water. It seems like she’s panicking, and then it shatters. There’s some commotion, as though if that was supposed to happen like that. The Traveler and Paimon are watching as that happens. It seems immediately after, they’re fighting “guardmechs” alongside Navia, who seems to be protecting the Traveler and Paimon.

Since this is an Alpha release experiment, please help out by rating the quality of the answers provided. Note that the chat window will only appear at the bottom of our guide pages if you’re logged in with an IGN account.

I’m about 20 hours into Baldur’s Gate 3, and I’ve picked the most basic-ass romance for a person attracted to men: Gale. He’s a human wizard who is sassy and kind of annoying but also sweet and tragic in a way that tickles the part of my brain that writes fanfiction. With Gale as my chosen romance, t my canon couple…

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The Pokémon Company has announced that a Pokémon Presents presentation is happening next week, on Tuesday, August 8.

It will begin at 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. ET and run for roughly 35 minutes. The company announced this with a short teaser clip on the official Pokémon Twitter account, and you can watch that for yourself below: 

The next #PokemonPresents arrives soon, Trainers!

Tune in to our official YouTube channel at 6:00 a.m. PDT on August 8 for 35 minutes of Pokémon news and updates! 🎊https://t.co/Lxoud6kVxF pic.twitter.com/xe65FmqEn5

After doing some back of the fag packet style calculations, I have determined that I save Baldur's Gate 3 - the ole' F5 quicksave, baby - a bit over every five minutes. This is not something the game discourages. In fact, I would say that Larian's Dungeons-&-Dragons-but-digital game actively encourages it. Both Edders and Graham found out that you can die almost immediately upon finishing the tutorial and encountering a dying bit of ocotopus sashimi in a crashed ship; fail a roll involved in talking to this unfortunate mind flayer and that's it. Kaput, in about an hour. As Graham observed, the lesson that this teaches you is not "mind flayers are dangerous", because you have already learned this lesson on account of the opening cutscene being all about that. The lesson is "the DM is a prick, so savescum often".

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The looter shooter with cool Spider-Man-ish grappling hooks, The First Descendant, has pushed back its open beta dates to September 19-25th. Previously, it was planned for a late August timeframe. Since the full game and the upcoming beta support crossplay, developers Nexon say the delay will help to optimise the game on all platforms. So you can loop laser rope threads with buddies on consoles, no problem.

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The next Pokémon Presents will take place next week.

On 8th August at 2pm UK time, we'll be treated to 35 minutes of Pokémon news and updates.

You can watch on the Pokémon YouTube channel.

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It's hard to ignore this week's big release because everyone's talking about it. And before I talk about it, I want to quickly flag up the wonderful Venba, a game that tells a story through cooking, and makes me very hungry just reading about it. Emad was really taken with it in his Venba review.

But back to the big game, the whopper which, if you're me, you've waited several years for. You might even have been waiting decades for it, if you're an obsessive fan of the series it's attached to, and many people are. The game is, of course, Baldur's Gate 3, which we haven't reviewed yet because we haven't had it long enough, but it is very exciting nonetheless.

There are many reasons why it's exciting, not least because of the enormous crossover potential it has to excite the vast Dungeons & Dragons audience. Remember, developer Larian really doesn't know how successful a game like this can be - it's quite a niche game, really - so tapping into the D&D fandom will obviously help.

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