Dredge was one of this year’s more surprising gems, an unexpectedly winning combination of spooky Lovecraftian atmosphere, open-world exploration and compelling fishing sim that lay somewhere on the ocean-wide spectrum between the chill management of Stardew Valley and the existential dread of Sunless Sea.
During the Nintendo Direct the other week, a single game stood head and shoulders above the rest for me. It wasn't Super Mario Wonder (though that does look pretty all right for a 2D Mario game), and it wasn't F-Zero 99 (which I sort of instantly dismissed as a cheap cash-in on that most excellent of neglected Nintendo racing games but have since been told is also quite good). Rather, it was the news that the insta-sit-up-and-pay-attention pairing of Atlus and Vanillaware were making a new fantasy tactics RPG called - wait for it - Unicorn Overlord, and woah nelly, it looks absolutely incredible. Vanillaware games have always been a feast for the eyes - see Muramasa: The Demon Blade on Wii and more recently 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim on PS4 and Switch - and the thought of marrying those lovely visuals with what appears to be a pixel art mash-up of Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem? Yes please and thank you.
I was all ready to gush about it in a news post and whack it straight into our release date calendar when I first saw it. But then my heart sank. The press release for it came through, and despite it launching on literally every other console including the Nintendo Switch, PC was not among them. My heart. It was broken.
It's so stormy where I live that a house in the town next over lost its roof this morning, which must mean it's the season for cosy life sim games. After having fun in Fae Farm recently, this week I've been taking Moonstone Island for a spin. The twist for this Stardewlike is that it has collided the farming and having a nice house business with Pokémon-style death battles involving whimsical Ghibli-esque Spirits. After a few scant hours I think I sort of... like it...? But I also have some problems with it.
Cyberpunk 2077’s update 2.0 makes its RPG combat better than it’s ever been. The new perk system means that you can easily create a brutal killing machine, one capable of deflecting bullets with samurai swords and air-dashing like an anime hero to punch enemies apart.
Phantom Liberty, the expansion released right after update 2.0, makes its combat better in one extra way: by making most of it optional.
On September 28, Bethesda shadow-dropped a new spin-off in its popular RPG series, The Elder Scrolls, with absolutely no fanfare. We didn’t even know it was coming, as there was no announcement for Elder Scrolls: Castles, a mobile game where you aren’t playing as one brave adventurer exploring dungeons and killing…
Cyberpunk 2077’s 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty DLC expansion has completely revived the open-world RPG, and, for many, finally turned it into the immersive sci-fi blockbuster they’d been dreaming of based on all those E3 trailers. But more fixes are still on the way. An upcoming 2.01 patch will address corrupted…
If you get really invested in your RPG decisions, you might have played one of Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty routes and then put the expansion down. It’s your way of saying “this was my story and that’s how it played out.” In most cases, I’m all about playing RPGs just like this—sometimes the mystery of what could…
UPDATE 05/10: The 2.01 patch for Cyberpunk 2077 is now live, which should stop PS5 becoming corrupted. As stated previously, the fix won't apply to any saves created before the patch is installed.
The patch also contains a number of bug fixes related to Phantom Liberty quests, plus overall performance improvements for all platforms. The patch notes for 2.01 are available to read on the Cyberpunk website.
ORIGINAL STORY 29/09: CD Projekt has detailed Cyberpunk 2077's first patch since the sci-fi RPG's big 2.0 update, promising, among other things, a fix for a save corruption issue affecting PlayStation 5 players.
It has been 13 years since the original Alan Wake was released as an Xbox 360 exclusive. That's a long time, and if you've not played since then (or even played Alan Wake at all!) then you may want a recap of the story to help prepare you for Alan Wake 2. You could read a plot synopsis, or you could join us for the finale of this month's IGN First, in which the game's writer himself - Sam Lake - tells us the entire Alan Wake story so far.
In today's video, Sam will cover the events of Alan Wake and its two DLC episodes; the standalone expansion Alan Wake's American Nightmare; and AWE, the Alan Wake crossover expansion for Control. With these games covered, you'll be more than caught up on the events of Bright Falls and the Cauldron Lake incident.
If you’ve never encountered Alan Wake before but you think the sequel looks interesting, let IGN be your introduction to the haunted world of Bright Falls before you watch Sam Lake tell the bigger picture. Alan Wake is a crime fiction author who heads to the small town of Bright Falls, Washington on vacation with his wife, in hope that time away will cure him of his writer’s block. This idyllic cabin getaway soon turns sour, though, as Alan has nightmares of shadowy figures who try to kill him. Soon nightmares become reality as Alan's wife goes missing overnight. Not only that, but the figures from Alan's dreams begin to stalk him in the woods. As he tries to work out what is going on, Alan keeps finding pages of a new, twisted novel that he has no memory of writing... and it seems to know exactly what is happening to him.
The massive Pokémon Trading Card Game Classic Collection is officially up for preorder (see at Walmart). This collection is set to release on November 17, though Walmart has it listed for December 23 at the moment, and will set you back $400. It’s an investment that’s great for fans looking to get their hands on some classic cards in a sleek case, and it includes a wide variety of cards as well. The full collection includes three 60-card decks, a two-player game board, and so much more for Pokémon fans to enjoy. Click the link below to pick up yours.
Per Pokémon’s official website, the full Pokémon Trading Card Game Classic Collection includes:
These decks, and the collection in general, are great for some competitions between friends and family, especially if you want to show off classic characters you know and love. Its sleek case will keep all of your new cards and items safe as well.
F-Zero 99 is pretty great, and continues Nintendo's Nintendo Switch Online streak of fun, inventive, and most of all excellent "battle royale" games. So far we've had Tetris 99, Super Mario 35, Pac-Man 99, and now F-Zero 99. All of these entries have taken classic games we know and love and remixed them to create insanely fun spins on the originals, bringing competition to the forefront like never before.
So that got us thinking: what other Nintendo properties could the Big N be revisiting for the "99" treatment? It doesn't even need to be a Nintendo property (as is the case with Pac-Man 99), but by and large we stuck with first-party Nintendo games for our pitches.
To hear us go over some of them in real time, make sure you check out the latest episode of NVC, but in the meantime, check them out below:
Jada Griffin
Starfox 99 is a battle royale that pits you against 98 or 99 other Arwing pilots for space supremacy. Taking down other users will drop items like upgrades for your lasers, bombs, and health rings to collect. It will follow the typical BR format, but to up the pace, instead of small ticks of damage, it will be waves of explosions that deal massive damage or eliminate anyone caught outside the arena. The battles will occur in various locations, such as Asteroid fields in space and on planets like Corneria or Venom. Winning matches will earn you various medals to decorate your Arwing with and if you won your previous match, you also get to fly in a gold-colored Arwing to show off your victory.
Gran Turismo Sport owners better rev up those engines as developer Polyphony Digital announced today that online services for its 2017 racing sim will shut down early next year.
In a new blog post on the official Gran Turismo website, Polyphony revealed that online services for Gran Turismo Sport will shut down on January 31, 2024. After that date, Gran Turismo Sport players will no longer have access to online services, including Open Lobby, Garage Car Liveries, and Sport Mode, so if you have any trophies that require online play you have yet to unlock, the clock is ticking. Offline modes, such as splitscreen multiplayer, the main single-player campaign, World Circuits, and time trials will still be accessible.
Prior to online services shutting down, the over 200 in-game vehicles you can buy via the PlayStation Store will no longer be available for sale starting on December 1 of this year. And any add-ons purchased prior to December 1 can still be used in-game.
Developer Fool's Theory is cooking up a very different role-playing game with The Thaumaturge. It blends a dark fantasy storyline about fighting hooligans and actual demons in early 20th-century Poland with a detective-style plot of uncovering people's dark secrets to free them from their curses. It presents a morally ambiguous and surprisingly humorous journey to undertake, and it has all the makings for one of the strangest, yet most intriguing takes on a Western role-playing game I've seen in some time.
I got extended hands-on time with an extensive questline from the early hours of The Thaumaturge, showcasing its absurdist take on a historical-inspired RPG where you quite literally have to face your demons.
Set in 1905 Poland, you play as the cunning and enigmatic Wiktor Szulski, the titular Thaumaturge who can commune and command spirits known as Salutors. These horrifying apparitions can possess humans and torment their lives, and only Wiktor can track them down. Haunted by one such Salutor named Upyr, Wiktor forms a bond with it and embarks on a quest to find other demons and sever the connections to their unsuspecting hosts, all while forging connections with his closest confidants in early 1900s Poland.
After playing more than a hundred hours of Larian Studio's Baldur's Gate 3, we finally captured what we believe to be every major romance scene with every origin character and beyond.
Compilations of both the spicy NSFW versions and the (mildly) safe-for-work versions are just above, but you can always find all of the scenes for a specific origin character in our Baldur's Gate 3 romance guides:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone are getting a raft of licensed bundles over the course of Season 6, and now the update is out in the wild, players have dug up gameplay clips showing off how they look.
Courtesy of Twitter user @BoomstickButch, we have an early look at gameplay showing off various operators and weapons. The highlight here has to be the Doom Tracer Pack, due October 9. This adds the Super Shotgun from id Software’s famous series to Call of Duty as well as its chainsaw. Both weapons are reminiscent of classic pixel Doom graphics and get bloodier as you get more eliminations. Here’s how they look:
Better video of the doom shotgun in action.
— Boomstick Butcher (@BoomstickButch) September 28, 2023
Note: it has no inspect animation pic.twitter.com/cIhoFcY0zW
Doom bundle pic.twitter.com/VGScHhfRIP
— Boomstick Butcher (@BoomstickButch) September 27, 2023
Elsewhere, we have a first look at the Lilith and Inarius operators, parachuted into Call of Duty from Blizzard’s Diablo 4. The Lilith operator bundle, due out October 15, includes the Daughter of Hatred Finishing Move. The Inarius operator bundle, out October 26, has the Inarius Impaling Finishing Move.
Cyberpunk 2077 may have just received Update 2.0 and its Phantom Liberty expansion but developer CD Projekt has promised Patch 2.01 is "coming soon" with performance improvements in Dogtown and a fix for corrupted save data on PlayStation 5.
Announced on Cyberpunk 2077's support website, Patch 2.01 doesn't include a ton of additions to the game-changing 2.0 update but does look to address its two biggest issues: slowdown in Phantom Liberty's new area and some PS5 users finding their previous game saves busted.
The full patch notes can be viewed below, but CD Projekt said "these are just the highlights", implying other bugs will be addressed in the update too.
"[We] addressed the issue of corrupted saves on PlayStation by increasing the maximum save file size limit," CD Projekt said in the post. It does note, however: "This won't fix the saves corrupted before the update. If you're experiencing the issue, keep a working save (for example, resave it as manual save) until 2.01 arrives."
As for the issues in Dogtown, with some users experiencing occasional slowdown and pop-ins, which thankfully come as small complaints compared to the original launch of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt said it has made "performance improvements for both PC and consoles, especially in the Dogtown area".
You’re reading the third chapter of my eight-day travelog recounting my unbelievable trip to Japan to cover the 2023 Pokémon World Championships.
If you already haven't, be sure to check out the other chapters:
7:15 am - A complimentary breakfast buffet comes with our stay at the hotel, and I help myself to a Spanish omelet with ratatouille, a croissant, and a cup of coffee. At the end of the buffet line, I notice there’s a big pan of lasagna. I’m a bit mystified and decide to take a closer look to see if it’s some sort of breakfast lasagna, perhaps with eggs or bacon, but nope, it’s just normal lasagna. Do they eat lasagna for breakfast in Japan? The Kahala is a Hawaiian-themed hotel, so could this be a Hawaiian thing? I debate this with the rest of the media group and we’re unable to come up with an answer. I decide to try some and it’s a bit heavy for seven in the morning but it’s also super tasty.
8:00 am - We walk over to the convention center and we’re given early access to shop in the Worlds Pokémon Center. Normally, there’s a huge line that takes an eternity to get through, and by the time you get in, half of the exclusive merch is gone, so this is an incredible privilege.
Now that young Sephiroth is in FFVII Ever Crisis, Square Enix also launched a banner with weapons, gear, and a wallpaper for him. Both the gear and live in-game wallpaper come from the new weapon banner live in the game now. It shows Sephiroth in the new Edged Wings Training Garb costume.
First, the Sephiroth & Lucia New Weapon Featured Draw is available until October 9, 2023. It has Sephiroth’s Edged Wings and Lucia’s Bald Eagle. Edged Wings has the C. Ability Aerial Frostblade. Bald Eagle has Diving Burst tied to it. While there’s no gear for Lucia, Sephiroth can get the Edged Wings Training Garb. That has the R. Abilities Boost MATK and Frostblade Arcanum.
Here’s the trailer showing off that gear. In it, Sephiroth is wielding the Edged Wings sword and performs Aerial Frostblade.
Check out Sephiroth's Edged Wings Training Garb!
In September 2023, a collaboration project between The Pokemon Company International and Hatsune Miku began. 18 designs for Hatsune Miku based on the theme “what if Hatsune Miku were a Pokemon trainer?” were revealed daily on social media. Now the first Hatsune Miku song for the project called "Volt Tackle" is available on the YouTube channel of producer Deco 27. The song also appeared on the Project Voltage official social media account and website.
The song shows Hatsune Miku alongside a Pikachu as a partner Pokemon. DECO 27 is best known for creating popular Vocaloid songs like "The Vampire" and "HIBANA," as well as the "Milgram Project."
You can watch the music video for the new Deco 27 Hatsune Miku Pokemon Project Voltage song below:
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-7TIDIKc98[/embed]
Kadokawa has revealed that it will release a new series of plastic model kits that feature heroines and key female characters from its anime titles. The Kadokawa Plastic Model Series will feature Megumin from KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! as its first figure.
The Megumin set will come with multiple face plates and costume options that let the owner change the model's attire from a swimsuit to her regular clothing. Kadokawa also shared an example image showing the parts that constitute Megumin's wizard hat.
Here's a look at the finished Megumin figure:
Square Enix revealed the 6.5 part 1 FFXIV patch notes are live and bring up the new Stormblood changes on the way. It goes over the additions for people who own the base game and new content for the free trial. The update also goes over the new quests, activities, Hrothgar and Viera hairstyles, new mounts, minions, and cosmetics on the way as well.
Basically, the 6.5 part 1 patch notes for FFXIV reassured us that the free trial includes Stormblood. It also noted the level cap will be at 70 once the update happens. It does note that if someone is taking part in that demo portion, they will not get to go through any Ultimate Raids.
As for the base game, Square Enix noted everyone who only owns A Realm Reborn will get Stormblood for free. There will be no need to claim it, like people needed to when there was the promotion to get a free copy of the expansion earlier in 2023.
SNK Global decided to delay the Samurai Shodown rollback netcode update for a second time. The decision has been made to ensure that the update reaches the appropriate levels of quality. The netcode update was already delayed once to September 2023. A third community beta test will be held sometime in October 2023, after which a new release window will be established. More information about the new test will be given at a later date.
The first rollback netcode community beta test for the game was held back in February 2023. However, the update was delayed to Summer 2023, and a second test was held between June 13-20, 2023. After the last test, the release window was set for September 2023.
You can read the new statement by SNK in more detail here:
12 years later, The Binding of Isaac remains my go-to roguelite. There have been some incredible Rogue-inspired games since, but nothing has quite stuck its disgusting, fly and poop-covered hooks in me like Edmund McMillen’s tale of a crying child fighting his murderous mother using the power of his tears. Yes, I’m in therapy, why do you ask?
In another reality, 2003's The Simpsons: Hit & Run — an action-adventure game that was by then the show's 22nd video game adaptation — might have slid quietly into obscurity. So why is it, then, that we can't seem to let it go? On YouTube, the game frequently resurfaces via longplays, speedruns, and retrospective essays that garner respectable amounts of views year after year. A few months ago, the game's lead designer told GamesRadar that he would support an official remake, mentioning that Hit & Run continues to be The Simpsons' most popular video game adaptation on Metacritic.
Yet Hit & Run's sustained relevance is, on its surface, a bit of an enigma. You'd be hard-pressed to find the game included in any critical canons or best-of lists, and there's hardly been a shortage of T-rated open-world games since its release. But for many, the game isn't just a source of nostalgia today; it was an introduction to a wholly new form of in-game self-expression. I looked into the still-growing community keeping it alive today.
In case you forgot - be that willingly or otherwise - Peter Molyneux has been working on a blockchain-connected business sim for the last few years. Well, it’s out next month, just in time to sink the final nail into the coffin of worthless NFTs.
FSR 3, AMD’s framerate-roiding answer to DLSS 3 frame generation, is ready to roll in its first supporting games. Great! Except these are currently limited to tedious magic shooters Forspoken and Immortals of Aveum, which is less great.
Regardless, this could be a major moment for basically any modern graphics card that isn’t an Nvidia RTX 40 series model. FSR 3’s Fluid Motion Frames system works in a broadly similar manner to DLSS 3, piecing together whole new frames outside of the usual GPU rendering pipeline and slipping them onto your screen between the 'real' frames. The result (in theory – I’ll be trying FSR 3 out in depth next week) is higher FPS with no extra strain on your PC, and unlike Nvidia’s frame generation, it doesn’t need any specialist hardware to work. Therefore older cards, as well as recent AMD GPUs like the RX 7700 XT and RX 7800 XT, could get a new lease of life in games that support it.
Sad tidings, folks. Today is vid bud Liam Richardson's last day at RPS. After a glorious eighteen months of photoshopping creepy smiles onto thumbnails and making a staggering 125 videos about our beloved PC games, Liam is returning to the world from whence he came: the wild frontiers of software design. It's been a pleasure having him, even if but for a brief window of time, and I invite you all to come and bid him a fond farewell below.
Fortnite is to increase the price of its in-game currency V-Bucks in a number of countries, including the US and across Europe. While publisher Epic Games attributed the decision to economic factors - citing previous “pricing alignment” in countries including the UK over the summer - the move will follow hundreds of job losses at the company, partially as the result of lower than expected revenue for their immensely popular battle royale shooter.
It's time to discuss the focus of this month's RPS Game Club, Hypnospace Outlaw! We've spent the last month writing a bunch of articles about Tendershoot's weird and wonderful alternate-reality internet simulator, mourning a time when the internet used to be fun, reminiscing about virtual pets and even having a chat with the Hypnospace creator Jay Tholen about the game's origins and legacy. But now it's time to hear what you think about it.
From 4pm BST today, we'll be here to chat about the game together thanks to our fancy liveblogging technology. If you have some thoughts about Dylan Merchant, Coolpunk or Granny Cream's Hot Butter Ice Cream, then make sure you pop in to let us know!
If you’ve checked out Twitter anytime recently, you might’ve caught a glimpse of Project Voltage, The Pokémon Company’s ongoing art and music collaboration with the Vocaloid teen idol Hatsune Miku. So far Voltage has released 18 illustrations (one for every type of Pokémon) imagining Miku as different kinds of trainers
A newly unsealed FBI indictment accuses a former analyst at Goldman Sachs of insider trading, including allegedly using an Xbox to pass tips onto his close friends. The friend group earned over $400,000 in ill-gotten gains as a result, federal prosecutors claim. “There’s no tracing [Xbox 360 chat],” the analyst…
As September draws to a rainy close (seriously, New York is practically underwater at this point), we look forward to nicer, breezier, hopefully drier October days. But given all of the precipitation, maybe you’re looking for something to do while stuck inside this weekend?
There's a bit of bad news if you've been looking forward to fishing horror Dredge's first paid expansion: developer Black Salt Games has delayed its release from Q4 this year into 2024.
More Dredge, both free and paid, was confirmed to be on the way back in May, with the game's The Iron Rig expansion - focusing on the machinations of the Ironhaven Corporation - looking to be its most significant chunk of new content.
"Originally, we planned to spend a few months crafting this exciting addition and release it in Q4 this year," Black Salt Games explained in its delay announcement. "However, as we progressed, we were faced with the reality that, given the time of the year, we'd need more lead time to coordinate our marketing and make the launch as exciting as it could be."
The talking stack of pancakes, Xur, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week's reset. If you're looking to get you some shiny new Exotic armor or weapons for your Guardian, look no further.
Each week, Xûr has a random assortment of Exotic armor, one for each Guardian class, as well as a random Exotic Weapon and an Exotic Engram available for purchase. In addition to his Exotic wares, he's got a random collection of Legendary weapons and armor to deck out your Guardians.
We've rounded up all the info on Xûr for the week including where to find Xûr, which Exotic weapons and armor are available, as well as which Legendary weapons you should pick up, either for PvE or PvP.
Xûr's location can be found at Winding Cove in the EDZ on September 29 through October 2. To reach him, travel to the landing point at Winding Cove. When you arrive, make for the rock cliffs at the far end of the cove and look for a cave winding up to a platform next to some Fallen. There you'll find the retail monster who inspires us all.
In this line of work, there is the immense pressure to make everything you consume, everything you touch or experience or enjoy, into content. Bills need to be paid, medical emergencies need to be covered, and maybe you want to splurge on some take-out. Writing is hard work, and it rarely ever pays. It's why you'll see a thousand different "How to's" or the long list of guides trotted out day after day, because we have to make end's meet. As I'm writing this opening, I'm aware of how ironic this is. I'm writing about a game I enjoy and making content out of it. I'm writing about how Palia is the game I've grown to love in my downtime, where I'm able to live the fantasy of home ownership and find some peace of mind fishing and collecting oysters on the shores of Bahari. I'm monetizing my relaxation. But right now, it feels different. Mostly because I want to write this. I've grown to love everything Palia has afforded me, and that's peace of mind.
A new selection of Super Groupies merchandise is available to pre-order, this time including bags, wallets, and watches based on NieR: Automata protagonists 2B and 9S. Pre-orders are set to close on October 15, 2023 or while supplies last. Delivery is set for May 2024. Items can ship worldwide.
The collection includes two watch designs, two bags, and two wallets, each themed after either 2B or 9S. The watches cost $220 each, and while the wallets are $135 each. Because the bags are different sizes however, they also have slightly different prices. The larger 2B bag costs around $180, while the lighter 9S bag will set you back $160.
The watches feature unnumbered, analog displays with each character's full name in Japanese displayed in hexadecimal code. Their "birthday," or rather rollout date, is displayed at the bottom of the watch. 2B's bag has a backpack design with embossed sides and more hexadecimal phrases printed on the inside, while 9S's is a crossbody bag modeled after the one he wears on his back. Each of the bags and wallets have designs on the interior referencing various symbols from the NieR universe, like 9S's hacking or images from the opening to the anime adaptation.
You can get a look at the Super Groupies NieR: Automata merchandise in the gallery below:
The video game industry is still reeling from Epic Games’ September 28 announcement that it will lay off nearly 900 employees. If developers at the Fortnite money-printing factory aren’t safe, nobody is. In perhaps the worst-timed microtransaction ever, Fortnite’s “Share The Wealth” emote went back up for sale on the…
Using a public copy of the Baldur’s Gate 3 script, one Reddit user discovered the worst decisions you could make when interacting with your companions, whose approval impacts the role-playing game’s story options. From the script, u/sudosussudio picked out 11 decisions that will set you back significantly in your…
Doom is still a very good first-person shooter, even if it’s nearly 30 years old. But that first, world-changing chapter did lack something that its predecessor, Wolfenstein 3D, had plenty of—Nazi killin’. Thankfully a new total conversion mod for Doom, called Venturous, has fixed this and in the process created a…
