Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 released October 20 with fanfare worthy of the vibrant New York City where it’s set, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation exclusive and igniting pertinent conversations about its protagonists’ asses. Below the surface, the direct sequel to developer Insomniac Games’ 2018 game is even more…
I had never listened to the K-Pop ensemble Le Sserafim before this morning, but after the group collaborated with Overwatch 2 on a music video and skins, I may be on my way to becoming a stan.
Want to see a magic trick? All you need is an open-world video game that flopped at launch and a popular subscription service with millions of gamers. And presto, you can bring a “dead” game like Saints Row (2022) back to life and make it one of the most played games on PlayStation.
Arizona Sunshine 2, the sequel to developer Vertigo Games' well-received 2016 VR zombie shooter, is coming to PlayStation VR 2, Meta Quest, and Steam VR on 7th December - and there's a new gameplay trailer to accompany the news.
Vertigo's sequel brings back the original game's wise-cracking protagonist for another bout of sun-kissed (and optionally co-operative) zombie-slaying shooting action in the Arizona desert. This time, however, it's promising to mix things up with the likes of enhanced "next-gen VR environments" and a "new mutilation and gore system". And if you can't make zombies' eyes pop out by kicking them up the arse, I'm sending it back.
There's also talk of "all-new and fan-favourite" weapons - including the likes of shotguns, flamethrowers, crowbars, pickaxes, and machetes - but the absolute most critical new addition is Buddy. Yes, this time around, you get to mow down the zombies hordes alongside your own pet dog pal. And he's not just there for the violence; described as the "goodest boy to play a game of undead fetch with", he'll also unearth key items and help carry gear.
Reviewed on:
PlayStation 5
Platform:
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Publisher:
EA Sports
Developer:
EA Vancouver
Release:
Rating:
Mature
A target appears on your back when you’re a long-reigning champ. No longer the enigma you once were, contenders begin studying your body of work to figure out the path to ending your time at the top. The best way to fend off would-be challengers is to continually build and evolve. Developer EA Vancouver seems to understand this because while no legitimate contenders have emerged in the mixed-martial-arts genre, EA Sports UFC 5 retools several key areas to show the franchise isn’t resting on its laurels.
Like its predecessors, UFC 5 aptly captures the thrill of stepping into the Octagon. After thankfully truncated pomp and circumstance (gone are the grating pre-fight emotes from the last game), the fast-paced fistfighting had me on the edge of my seat until the final horn. I love that the licensed fighters are programmed to behave like their real-world counterparts, forcing you to solve a different puzzle with each new encounter. The action satisfies, particularly in striking battles, though the occasional glitched fighter, unnatural limb contortion, and awful camera swing break the immersion in frustrating ways.
From now until Monday, Diablo 4 is free to play. The trial is available via Battle.net and includes the entire game. If you want to keep playing past Monday, it's currently 25% off, too.
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Mouse house life sim Disney Dreamlight Valley has been in early access since it launched last year, with the plan being that it would ditch the fee and become free-to-play upon its full release.
That plan has changed. Dreamlight Valley will leave early access on December 5th but will remain a paid-for game.
A new development diary appeared for the twin Kickstarter for JRPG's Armed Fantasia and Penny Blood, including concept art for a transforming weapon and a wind-powered monster. The Armed Fantasia update is written by Hiroki Ishii, while Matsuzo Machida penned the one for Penny Blood.
In the section for Armed Fantasia, Ishii mainly described development continuing on the story, with new dungeon gimmicks and UI elements being developed. Ishii commented that the response from bee tribe Digital Studio, which is working on the 3D designs, has been swift and that he thinks the last boss is really cute. He also included some concept art of a mechanical katana weapon with a short video of its transforming animation, which he promises will have impressive effects added later.
Good Smile Company and Max Factory revealed a new Pop Up Parade figure of Guilty Gear Strive's Bridget with an alternate color scheme. Labeled as the Strive Black version, this figure will be available worldwide in 2024.
While it will be a while before it appears, people can commit to one now. Pre-orders for the figure have opened on both the Japanese and American Good Smile Online Shop. It will cost ¥5,500 / $34.99.
The figure producer previously released a Pop Up Parade figure of Bridget in her original color scheme in August 2023. This black figure variant will take inspiration from an existing color scheme in Guilty Gear Strive. The #10 color scheme for Bridget is available in the actual fighting game by purchasing the Additional Colors #2 DLC.
Now that Topaz is making her playable Honkai: Star Rail debut, there are two trailers showing her and Numby. One is cinematic, while the other introduces her moveset.
First, the cinematic Topaz trailer sees her showing what it’s like to work for the Interastral Peace Corporation’s Strategic Investment Department. We get to watch her interact with other characters from the series’ universe, collecting debuts from folks like Sampo and Herta. (Though in Herta’s case, Asta ends up footing the bill.)
The 2022 horror movie Barbarian wasn’t on my short list of recent films I thought might get a video game adaptation. But it sounds like one is coming from the company behind the Friday the 13th and Evil Dead games.
It’s nearly Halloween, so it’s once again time for Valve to throw a big ol’ spooky-themed Steam sale. And this year there are plenty of great deals on new and old games, most of which are scary and perfect to play on Halloween night. Also…
If, while exploring Starfield’s vast, planet-filled galaxy, you’ve felt at times that its size and sheer number of possible destinations may actually be too much for the game’s own good, well, it sounds like some folks who were part of the development team may agree with you. Hindsight is 20/20, after all.
With just over a week to go until this year's BlizzCon - the show's first in-person event since 2019 - Blizzard has shared a full broadcast schedule detailing everything that'll be available to watch online as the two-day convention unfolds.
This year's BlizzCon, which is being held at California's Anaheim Convention Center, runs from Saturday, 3rd November to Sunday, 4th November; all panels due to take place at the BlizzCon Arena during that time will be streamed in their entirety via YouTube and Twitch for the benefit of fans unable to attend in-person.
In total, 11 panels will be broadcast over the course of the two-day event, with the most tantalising - aside from BlizzCon's Opening Ceremony, which usually manages to pack in reveal or two (not always a good one, admittedly) - being the four offering a look at "what's next".
Free-to-play battle royale shooter Apex Legends is finally introducing cross-progression as part of its 19th season, and ahead of its arrival next Tuesday, 31st October, developer Respawn Entertainment has detailed how the whole thing'll work.
Cross-progression, once launched, will enable players to access their progression data, cosmetics, and currency via a single EA account across all platforms. Crucially, the cross-progression migration process is both automatic and mandatory, meaning there's a fair amount those who play across multiple platforms will likely want to know in preparation.
For starters, players who've accrued different progress levels across multiple platforms will soon have all that smushed together into a single account. Respawn will generate the stats of this new account based on what it's calling a player's "primarily platform" - that is, the one with the highest level reached across all platforms. Stats/progress of all other accounts will be lost.
Since Insomanic revealed its Wolverine game two years ago, fans have wondered if it’s set in the same universe as the studio’s Spider-Man games. In an interview with Kinda Funny, Spider-Man 2 director Bryan Intihar confirmed the answer is yes
When host Greg Miller asked if it had been previously confirmed or denied whether or not their spin on Wolverine shared the same Earth as its Spider-Men, Intihar replied by saying, “They’re all 1048. I think I got that right, but yeah.” Inthiar is referring to Earth-1048, which is the designation for the Marvel universe Insonmiac’s superhero games occupy.
You can watch the clip beginning at the 1:10:44 mark (thanks IGN).
Whether or not that means we’ll see any Spider-Man references in Wolverine, which does not have a release window, remains to be seen, but that’s exciting news regardless. Marvel’s Spider-Man’s New York City is chock full of references to other heroes, such as Avengers Tower, the Sanctum Sanctorum, and the Wakandan Embassy, so it made more sense to imagine Logan doing his thing somewhere out there.
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is the good kind of distraction: a silly, finite, Zeldalike in which you rollick around a pixel art pasture and tick off todo list items by bish-boshing enemies and assisting vegetables. Alice B called it the funniest game she'd ever played.
This is an advanced heads-up that it'll be free to keep from the Epic Games Store from November 2nd.
Fortnite's original map is coming back, Epic have confirmed. The news was announced via X (formerly Twitter) weeks after several leaks had suggested that time travel shenanigans would revert the free-to-play shooter's map back to its original Chapter 1 layout.
A new line of NieR Automata Ver1.1a merchandise includes household items imitating a YoRHa Pod Lamp, Lunar Tear flower decorations, and YoRHa mini humidifiers. The items will appear in Japan between late March and early May 2024.
Here’s the full lineup and prices of NieR Automata Ver1.1a household items inspired by YoRHa Pod units and Lunar Tear flowers:
New FFXIV character portrait magnets will appear at select Taito Arcades throughout Japan as prizes. There are 9 different magnets, which were released on October 27, 2023.
The Final Fantasy XIV magnets depict various characters in the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. The characters in question are Y'shtola Rhul, Estinien Varlineau, Thancred Waters, Urianger Augurelt, Tataru Taru, Alphinaud and Alisaie Leveilleur, Krile Mayer Baldesion, and G'raha Tia. Each magnet is approximately 10cm tall.
You can take a better look at the new FFXIV character portrait magnets in the gallery below:
It’s much more of a horror game than Control or the first Alan Wake
Spooky season starts to close out with a bunch of new horror movies to watch at home
The glitzy opioid crisis drama is fun, but it has conflicting aims, and it’s a little too keen to make the sale
Equip Saga with a handy sawed-off shotgun for an early boss fight
Cooking in Stardew Valley is a great feature in the game, except for the fact that you can’t taste what you make. Luckily, ConcernedApe is releasing a cookbook for the game on May 14, 2024, so here’s 10 recipes that we’d love to see included in the Stardew Valley Cookbook.
Tropical Curry is just what it sounds like: a curry with all the spice you’re used to but cut with some sweet, juicy tropical fruits.
The world of My Hero Academia is full of individuals who possess unique Quirks, from classic elemental powers to crazy shapeshifting abilities; the My Hero universe has them all.
Naturally, certain Quirks just so happen to gift their users with much darker and scarier powers than the average ability. To celebrate Halloween, we’ve rounded up ten of the most frightening Quirks in the My Hero Academia Universe; Plus Ultra, spooky edition!
The Switch has been a Nintendo console for the ages, but its time is drawing to a close. As we prepare to hang up this generation’s Joy-Cons, here are 10 things we want to see from a Switch 2.
Spider-Man 2 includes several long-awaited showdowns with our favorite villains. These fights with them can range from absolutely breathtaking to simple one-off fights that aren’t really memorable. With that in mind, it’s time to break down our ranking of all the boss fights in the game.
PSA: There will be major spoilers regarding all the game’s bosses. If you have yet to play it, please do so before reading on in case you want to avoid spoilers.
Alan Wake 2 on PS5 takes advantage of the Dualsense controller’s haptics, similar to all games. It gets the haptic triggers for shooting and the usual even rumble for effects. However, the game also includes an extra setting I have never encountered before that all players should use.
This setting can be found in the Audio section called Dialogue Vibration Intensity, and it is set to off by default. What it does is that character dialogue, whether in cutscenes or just surrounding chatter while in towns, will cause the Dualsense to vibrate.
When it comes to defensive Supers there are a few that come to mind: The Titan’s Void bubble, and the Solar Warlock’s Well of Radiance. However, not everything is equal and balanced, so let’s discuss how in Destiny 2: Well of Radiance Warlock outmatches every other class.
Destiny 2’s various Supers are as iconic as they are useful in combat. Ranging from giant exploding projectiles to quick, invisible strikes, Supers cover a wide swath of gameplay styles in Destiny 2. However, the range of Super options given by Bungie are not equal in usefulness, especially in the context of Destiny 2 gameplay being heavily skewed toward teamwork. No other Super options in the game hammer this notion in more than Void Bubble Titan, Void Shield Titan, and Solar Well Warlock.
The Steam Deck is a pretty great piece of hardware. Capable of running AAA games like Elden Ring and smaller indie titles alike, it’s honestly the perfect handheld for experiencing the treasure trove of Steam’s more obscure library. In particular, these are 10 of the best underrated games you can play on Steam Deck.
There are numerous anime series that fall into the horror genre, full of twisted and terrifying tales. However, what makes many of these series so memorable is not just the gripping plotline, but also their iconic, spooky opening songs, and we’ve compiled 10 of the best ones for Halloween festivities.
Soul Eater’s world and imagery are very Halloweenish in general, which helps to create a spooky but not necessarily scary environment. The first opening theme for the series, Resonance, managed to combine these Halloween-like visuals with a fun, upbeat opening track.
This article is sponsored by Gravity
A colorful adventure awaits! Wetory, a new roguelike game from global gaming company Gravity, is now available globally on Steam and Nintendo Switch platforms, at 12pm KST on October 26th.
The Super Mario Bros. series is packed full of outstanding games, which means it’s time to take a look back at them and see which ones were the cream of the crop. Here’s our ranking of all the best Super Mario Bros. games.
Note: Due to the expansive nature of the Super Mario Bros. series, spin-offs have been omitted from the rankings. This includes: Mario Party, Mario & Luigi, Mario Maker, and more.
