You remember Gigantic, don’t you? The hero shooter from Motiga that was released in 2017 and, uh, died a year later? Well no worries if not, because Gearbox is bringing the ill-fated hero shooter back for a limited-time event from October 5 to 7, 2023.
Microsoft’s Bing Image Creator creator has been around since March, using “AI” technology to generate images based on whatever the user types. You never know where this sort of thing might lead, though, and in recent weeks users have been using the tool to create images of Kirby and other popular characters flying…
Much like TV- and movie-streaming apps with sliding scale price plans, manga-reading services have slowly integrated payment tiers with varying benefits and limitations. Manga Plus by Shueisha, a previously free-to-read manga website with a rather annoying caveat (we’ll get there), is the latest to launch a new…
Standalone Expansions, half-sequels, glorified DLC… whatever you want to call it, I’m a fan of these kinds of not-quite-full game, not-quite-DLC experiences. And with AAA game development now expected to take longer than ever, these half-sequels might be a way to address a potential new release shortage. So far nobody has done them better than PlayStation.
Looking back, it shouldn’t be surprising that these standalone expansions rank as some of my favorite games in the past decade. Uncharted Lost Legacy is one of my two favorite Uncharted games in the series, alongside Uncharted 2, and Miles Morales’ big advantage over Spider-Man was telling a story I had rarely heard before. Consider this: I’ve watched three different Peter Parker movies and watched him star in countless cartoons, but I never read an Ultimate Spider-Man comic in my life. It was new and fresh, but with all of the things from Marvel’s Spider-Man that I already loved.
It’s not just PlayStation either. FromSoftware has never released a DLC I wouldn’t consider among my favorite games of all time, from Dark Souls’ Artorias of the Abyss to the all-time hall-of-famer, Bloodborne: The Old Hunters.
IO Interactive and Feral Interactive have announced Hitman: Blood Money Reprisal for Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android. It’s a new version of 2006’s Hitman: Blood Money and it’ll arrive this fall for mobile devices, with the Switch version coming in winter.
This version of Blood Money has new features such as an Instinct Mode, minimap, and gameplay improvements from later games in the franchise. Instinct Mode was introduced in 2012’s Hitman: Absolution and let Agent 47 predict enemy and civilian movements, while the new minimap will stay on players’ screens during gameplay.
Blood Money Reprisal has 12 missions with a variety of different settings. Agent 47 will travel to places such as Paris and New Orleans as he executes his targets. Each mission has a sandbox for players to experiment how to achieve their objectives.
IO Interactive announced this game along with the studio's 25th anniversary. It plans to celebrate by launching a series of events for Hitman: World of Assassination and bringing back previous Elusive Targets such as Bady Boy and The Food Critic.
Hitman: Blood Money was first released in May 2006 for PC, PlayStation 2, the original Xbox, and Xbox 360. An HD port was released in 2013 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as part of the Hitman HD Trilogy. Then in 2019, a 4K port launched for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as part of the Hitman HD Enhanced Collection.
As May 10 rolled around and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was released into the world, it wasn't its titular character or Link or Ganondorf that captured the attention of fans, but instead the sad Zelda guy who starred in its latest trailer. Now, we finally have an update.
Opening on a bus in a dreary Australian landscape instead of in the bright fields of Hyrule, the trailer showed someone who looked just a little bit defeated by the life of an office job worker. Things were made a little bit brighter, however, by Tears of the Kingdom, with the trailer unfolding to show sad Zelda guy getting just a little bit happier as he explored the open world.
Five months on and, suffering the plight of most grown up gamers who work full time, sad Zelda guy is still chipping his way through Tears of the Kingdom. Fans will be glad to know that, in Nintendo's latest trailer for the game, he looks to be doing just fine.
Doing his best to sell copies of Tears of the Kingdom both in our universe and his, sad Zelda guy is even getting his wife involved. Struggling to get to grips with the game's basic mechanics (even after, again, five months), sad Zelda guy's ineptitude distracts his poor wife who's trying to enjoy a book on the sofa next to him.
After pointing out the obvious solution to the Shrine's puzzle, and seemingly sick of him hogging the TV, sad Zelda guy's wife buys her own Switch. Showing off her wild skills that already surpass sad Zelda guy's, the two have a laugh on the couch and live happily ever after.
Sony is releasing a new set of metallic colors for the DualSense controllers and PS5 console covers. It’s called the Deep Earth Collection, and it’s available to preorder now. The set consists of controllers and console covers (for both the disc and digital models) in volcanic red, cobalt blue, and sterling silver. All of the items are set to release starting November 3. Let’s take a look.
The controllers look pretty great, with bold red and blue colors, and a great looking (if less attention-grabbing) silver. Feature-wise, they’re no different from the standard PS5 DualSense controller, but if it isn’t broke, Sony doesn’t really need to fix it.
For some reason, the Volcanic Red and Cobalt Blue colorways will be available on November 3, but you’ll have to wait until January 26 for the Sterling Silver one to ship.
The console covers are only available at the PlayStation Direct store, at least at the time of this writing. The covers match the DualSense colors exactly, so you can pick up a set in the same color as the controller you get, or you can mix and match to suit your taste. They all look pretty great, if you ask me. PS Direct also has the controllers, so you can buy them both in one place if you like.
The release dates for the various console covers are the same as the controllers: red and blue arrive November 3, while the silver one is out January 26. Silver just takes longer, I suppose.
Nintendo is shutting down online servers for 3DS and Wii U games in early April 2024, with the exception of Pokémon Bank.
The announcement came in a tweet (below) and in an update on Nintendo's support website, where the publisher thanked players for using its hardware but confirmed the shutdown is just six months away. A specific shutdown date will be announced later.
"In early April 2024, online play and other functionality that uses online communication will end for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software," the post said. "This also includes online co-operative play, internet rankings, and data distribution."
As of early April 2024, online play and other functionality that uses online communication will end service for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software. Thank you very much for your continued support of our products.
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) October 4, 2023
Find out more: https://t.co/nOyzBImHCE
Though Nintendo said plans are subject to change and could potentially arrive sooner than announced, the one exception to the rule is Pokémon Bank, which will remain online but "may also end at some point in the future".
Reviewed on:
Switch
Platform:
Switch
Publisher:
Nintendo, The Pokémon Company
Developer:
Creatures Inc.
Release:
The previous Detective Pikachu game, released over five years ago on 3DS, traded in traditional Pokémon elements for mysteries more familiar to the Phoenix Wright/Professor Layton crowd. Gone were the trainers, Poké Balls, and battles in exchange for evidence-gathering, deduction, and a Pikachu that can speak far more than its own name. A year later, the movie adaptation became the second highest-grossing video game film at the time. While the game left a central loose thread dangling, the movie, which is disconnected from the game series, tied everything up in a neat bow. Detective Pikachu Returns is left to deal with this discrepancy, impacting the story this game sequel can tell.
Platform:
Switch
Publisher:
Nintendo
Developer:
Nintendo
Release:
As one of the most popular and influential series in video games, Super Mario Bros. must appeal to a wide audience of players across a massive spectrum of skills. The main stages of nearly every Super Mario Bros. game accomplish this daunting feat through balanced level design, innovative gimmicks, and fun challenges that nearly anyone can complete. However, late-game and special stages have traditionally been the place where Nintendo tests the mettle and skill of more veteran players.
French police have arrested five former Ubisoft executives after a years-long investigation that began in 2021 following complaints and allegations of sexual assault and harassment within the company, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz. Among the five arrested are Ubisoft's former chief creative officer, Serge Hascoët, and former vice president of editorial and creative services, Tommy François.
The publication learned of these arrests after French newspaper Libération reported that three former Ubisoft executives were arrested yesterday, with two more arrested today.
The summer of 2020 marked a turning point within Ubisoft after numerous reports surfaced regarding abuse, misconduct, and power corruption happening within the company. Various executives and managers, including François, were fired as a result; Hascoët voluntarily resigned.
Japanese game developers Yoko Taro and Yusuke Shiokawa met for a Denfaminicogamer discussion to attempt to answer the question, “What should creators do when they get flamed on the internet?” Taro, best known for his work as the director of the 2017 action RPG NieR: Automata, said it may be too late for Shiokawa, the former creative director of the massive mobile game Fate/Grand Order. He also advised becoming the Joker in response to such reactions. [Thanks, Denfaminicogamer!]
Before Shiokawa left the company Delightworks in 2022, there were a few instances in which the words he posted on social media were skewed and misunderstood. When he asked Taro for advice on being liked by the general public and avoiding his words being taken out of context, Taro came to the conclusion that it may be simply impossible.
Here is Yoko Taro's exact response from the Denfaminicogamer discussion:
This person is no good, and will never get better. Mr. Shiokawa is sincere about making games, but his word choice is overwhelmingly bad.
Shiokawa noted he long accepted the idea that getting flamed online is part of his job. Though it has been happening more as he transitioned to being an independent producer, he said, “I’m not going to do anything about it.”
A new strategy and simulation game where players get to be a demon king Murayaki Villain appeared on Steam. The game will come out some time in Fall or Winter 2024, though you can check out some early information on it via its store page. It is a new female-oriented SLG (strategy and logistics game) in which you play as a demon king who attempts to conquer the world. Developer and publisher ALENISM made the game using Wolf RPG Editor, and it is a simulation game in which you raise your demon king army. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]
You play as the descendant of a demon king that a hero defeated in the past, and you’re trying to make a great and powerful demon army that will eventually destroy all of humanity. You can get money through attacking villages and gaining items by robbing corpses. As you do so, you accumulate karma, which will become the root of your power. Other characters include Clarity, Vivian, Memel, and Solo, who are “useless” monsters who survived the previous war and currently serve under you.
Toho Towa announced that a 4D version of The Super Mario Bros Movie will be available throughout select theaters in Japan between October 13-19, 2023. Additionally, a special clear file bearing the Super Mario Bros Plumbing logo seen in the movie will be offered as a bonus gift for those attending the newMX4D and 4DX version of the film. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]
The new version will be an MX4D and 4DX theatrical release. This rerun of the movie will be held in response to many requests for this version, and to express gratitude to fans of the movie. Furthermore, a video message from Mamoru Miyano, the Japanese voice of Mario in the movie, was released to commemorate the 4D rerun of the film, and he briefly showed the special clear file.
You can also check out the Super Mario Bros Plumbing special clear file bonus gift here:
The price of Steam Deck SSD upgrades continues to fall, as Integral's 2230-sized PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD has dropped to £69.95 at Amazon UK. That's a great price for a drive that more than doubles even the highest capacity Steam Deck sold by Valve, and makes a tremendous upgrade for 512GB and 256GB Steam Deck owners too.
IO Interactive soon turns 25 years old, but Agent 47’s unwrinkled face doesn’t carry the “what am I doing with my life?” stress that normally accompanies such a birthday. The developer are instead celebrating with both new and returning events coming to the stealth infiltration mega package that is Hitman: World Of Assassination.
Seven former BioWare employees are suing the storied RPG studio for “adequate severance.” The studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age recently laid off around 50 employees, including developers who had been with the team for two decades, citing a “shift towards a more agile and more focused studio.” Now, a group of former workers are seeking better compensation.
Creative Assembly’s Hyenas - the recently cancelled extraction shooter about space Robin Hoods - was supposedly publisher Sega’s biggest budget game ever. New details about the game’s development claim that a lack of direction, slow progress, and an engine change turned the once hopeful “Super Game” into the canned FPS that it sadly is today.
Last time, you decided that improvised environmental weapons are better than skipping across a timeline flowchart. I can't say I'm too surprised, considering that timeline flowcharts are rare and that I did illustrate t'other with multiple screenshots of Kazuma Kiryu smashing men with bicycles. Now if Kiryu had been jumping between timelines... ah, we can't speculate, that's not scientific. This week, I ask you to choose between cutting something unnecessary and adding something unnecessary. What's better: quick restarts, or a diegetic HUD?
New World, Amazon Games’ fantasy MMO, has finally added horses to its previously horseless (and entirely mountless) setting of Aeternum. First released in 2021, New World has had players clamoring for rideable critters ever since, and although the privilege of straddling a horse, lion, or other mount, available only…
BioWare laid off 50 employees at the end of August. Mary Kirby was one of them. A 17-year veteran of the studio beloved for its story-driven RPGs, Kirby has worked on every Dragon Age game, and her contributions have shown up in some of the series’ most memorable characters and questlines. The franchise is estimated…
It’s no secret that the crossover between video games and professional wrestling, be it through the hilarious signs fans bring to events or the intricate wardrobes stars wear into the ring, is a strong one. As such, it’s hardly surprising to learn that WWE’s Randy Orton is an avid gamer who plays Elden Ring on his…
Today, during Blizzard’s Diablo IV Developer Update livestream, members of the game’s dev team dove right into the myriad changes expected to arrive with the game’s next big update: Season of Blood. But tweaks to loot drops and XP rewards won’t be the only new experience for PC players, as the game is now confirmed to…
I love racing games, but I’m not really a racing game kind of guy. What that means is I enjoy getting beyond the wheel of a flashy car, whether it’s a half-million-dollar Ferrari or a souped-up Subaru hatchback, and trying to hug turns while grazing past the competition. What I don’t particularly care about is getting…
Blizzard has unveiled all the much-needed changes coming to Diablo 4 on October 17 with the release of Season 2, dubbed Season of Blood, and patch 1.2.0 in a developer update livestream.
The patch makes a long list of crucial quality-of-life updates, adds more endgame activities, and significantly increases experience gains to make the grind to level 100 much quicker. Elsewhere, patch 1.2.0 lets players specifically target uniques and the incredibly rare uber unique items, which have been a hot topic among players since Diablo 4 came out in June.
Check out the list below to find out all the changes coming to Diablo 4 with Patch 1.2.0 and Season 2.
Five new endgame bosses
In an extended livestream today, Blizzard revealed a whole lot more details for Season 2 of Diablo 4, called Season of the Blood, and major reworks to progression and the endgame player experience.
Season of the Blood will focus on vampires, who become the latest major scourge of Sanctuary in the wake of Lilith's actions in the vanilla Diable 4 campaign. The player is infected with vampirism and gains evil powers to weild against this classic foe, giving plenty of excuses for new, deadly powers for players to add to their seasonal ARPG arsenal. Blizzard will also introduce a new NPC, Erys, a crossbow-weilding vampire hunter who will become the player's bestie for the next few months.
But beyond the details about the upcoming season, Blizzard also spent a lot of time detailing big changes coming to the game that specifically target the endgame experience, which has become a sore spot for many players after a series of debuffs and widely criticized changes to the meta put a damper on the live-service game despite an extremely strong launch.
The biggest of those changes are improved XP gains after level 50, which will supposedly make the endgame grind to level 100 "40% faster".
In a lengthy interview with IGN, game directors Joe Shely and Joseph Piepiora discussed a wide range of topics, from endgame content to the Steam release, their learning from the launch of Diablo 4 to microtransactions.
Diablo 4 is set to launch on Steam four months after the PC version released exclusively on Blizzard’s Battle.net.
The action role-playing game launches on Steam October 17. Those who play Diablo 4 for the first time via Steam need to first buy the game on Valve’s platform, then connect it to a Battle.net account. This is required of all Blizzard games to enable cross-platform play, the company said. Steam players do get access to Steam achievements, their Steam friends list, and the option to invite those friends to play in-game.
Diablo 4 is the second Blizzard game to hit Steam after hero shooter Overwatch 2 launched on the platform in August. Blizzard will be hoping for a better reception from fans this time around. Overwatch 2’s Steam launch was met with a backlash from players, and became the worst-reviewed Steam game ever.
After years of dogged commitment to its own PC launcher, Blizzard finally caved by releasing Overwatch 2 on Steam with the promise of more games to come. Blizzard has insisted its decision to release select games on Steam was driven by a desire to "break down the barriers" between gaming communities.
October, the spookiest month of the year, is officially upon us, if you're looking for a new horror game to celebrate the occasion, the indie horror title Stray Souls is launching later this month.
In a new post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), indie developer Jukai Studio announced its debut project will be released on Oct. 25, 2023 — five days before Halloween, as the studio previously said it was coming out around the holiday. The game will be available on PC, in addition to PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Powered by Unreal Engine 5, Stray Souls has players controlling Daniel, a teenage boy who recently inherited his grandma's home completely debt-free. Despite the lack of a mortgage, Daniel's new abode becomes a nightmare-fueled house of horror.
The game's publisher, Versus Evil, notes on its website that Stray Souls' gameplay is inspired "by classic horror combat with soulslike precision," touting the gameplay adds a fresh perspective into the modern-day action horror subgenre.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, FIFA fans - no, not Christmas (put those darn decorations away). It’s once again time to see if the Nintendo Switch version of EA’s premiere soccer series is still a complete mess. The good news is that, alongside a name change to EA Sports FC 24, we’ve finally gotten past the point where this port is simply a copy of the previous year with “the same gameplay innovation from [insert previous year] without any new development or significant enhancements,” like it was last year, and the year before that… and the year before that (and the year before that). The bad news is that it is still dreadfully out of date.
The long overdue switch to the Frostbite engine is a considerable step up from the previous Legacy engine, as the visuals look a bit more detailed and the gameplay feels better than FIFA 23 Legacy Edition, but the leap isn’t massive. EA Sports FC 24 has essentially gone from having PS2-era graphics and framerate to that of the PS3 – while the difference between those two was impressive in 2006, unfortunately for Switch owners, it is currently 2023. The 30 frames-per-second action feels painfully slow, especially compared to the HyperMotion technology used on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC versions.
Ubisoft revealed Assassin's Creed Mirage during a special celebratory event for the franchise's 15th anniversary. After several trailers, gameplay videos, and even a Game Informer cover (check out our hub here for exclusive behind-the-scenes content and more), the game is finally out for everyone.
If you've kept up with Mirage, you know it's a bit of a return to the series' roots. After completing the game, it's safe to say that's definitely the case, with Mirage falling somewhere between where this franchise began and the modern RPGs of late. It feels modern but ditches the RPG mechanics and nature of the open-world games and instead embraces series tradition: a singular city to explore, a focus on stealth and parkour, one-hit assassinations, and more.
New information has been revealed regarding Hiroyuki Kobayashi’s current video game project in the latest issue of the Japanese magazine Famitsu. His new game will be a single-player 3D action RPG for home consoles. [Thanks, ryokutya2089!]
Kobayashi’s new game will not be as difficult as his previous work, which challenged players with their characters facing death repeatedly. The new action RPG will feature jobs that you can complete, as well as a battle system where you can take advantage of an enemy’s weaknesses to easily defeat them. Currently, the main outline of the game’s world has already been decided on. A test version of the RPG will be completed by spring of next year, and an announcement about the game will be made following that. It will take two or three years before the project is completed.
Kobayashi was a veteran producer at Capcom for 27 years and now works for NetEase to lead the game studio GPTRACK50. He is well known for producing both the Devil May Cry series as well as the Sengoku Basara series of games.
It was revealed in the latest issue of the Japanese magazine Famitsu that producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi’s new game is a single-player 3D action RPG. It will remain in development for two or three more years.
Another Crab’s Treasure hooked me with its underwater Soulslike premise and cutesy charm. But once you take a closer look at the game’s polluted ocean, filled with plastic shells and weapons, the comparisons to Dark Souls get a little clearer. This is a quiet and kinda melancholy post-apocalypse. We can now find out whether the crustaceans lean on cuteness or sadness more in the game’s new demo, released just yesterday.
It's rare to see 32-inch 4K 144Hz monitors under $500, but that's exactly what you can get on Amazon US at the moment thanks to a hefty discount on the Aorus FI32U. This HDMI 2.1-capable model suits PC, PS5 and Series X use, uses a Fast IPS panel I've recommended many times before and even comes with some extra features worth knowing about. First, here's the link to the deal:
Modern Warfare 3 is right on the horizon and as we grow closer to its release date, Activision has dropped teaser after teaser. With all the new information we have, there has yet to be an official announcement on whether Warzone 2.0 will become 3.0. And in that spirit, we wanted to share our wish list for Warzone 3 if it exists.
There are two generally good contracts. Bounty which marks an enemy squad and has your team hunt them across the map, and Most Wanted which marks yourself to the entire lobby for the chance to resurrect your dead squaddies.
Final Fantasy 14’s latest update, Growing Light, sees the conclusion not just to the epic Endwalker storyline, but also to one of the most ambitious projects the development team has undertaken in the past few years. Thanks to said project, players can now solo every mandatory dungeon along Final Fantasy 14’s main story.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t quite mean one can play through the entirety of the story without having to occasionally group up with other players.
Let’s face it, Baldur’s Gate 3 is an amazing game. BG3 does so many things right, and many people can feel the passion that went into building such an experience. However, it isn’t perfect, no game is. So, when there are issues in such a product of quality they tend to stick out more. With that said, let’s explore 5 Things Baldur’s Gate 3 Gets Right (and 5 Things it Doesn’t) together!
Much akin to past titles, Bethesda Game Studios’ galaxy-spanning RPG Starfield offers players plenty of activities to engage with. From swashbuckling space pirate to intergalactic bounty hunter to cosmic smuggler, there’s so much to do in Starfield it’s enough to make your head spin. And that’s without mentioning the five major factions in the game, with each one boasting their own distinct questlines.
Nevertheless, one incredibly patient Starfield player has gone off the beaten path and done the seemingly impossible: they’ve managed to fully survey every possible planet in the game. We’ll let that sink in for a second.
A new report claims that Sega’s recently canceled online extraction shooter, Hyenas, was the publisher’s most expensive game production ever, beating out even Sega AM2’s historically pricey adventure game Shenmue, which famously cost $70 million in turn-of-the-century dollars to develop.
We were introduced to another new knight of Fragaria today on the Fragaria Memories official social media account. This time, Sanrio revealed Romarriche, the knight who serves Marron Cream. His personal bio was also added as an update to the Sanrio fantasy project’s official website.
Romarriche is a soft-spoken and gracious Fragarian. He is generous and offers support to others with kindness and care. The knight also enjoys sewing and baking sweets, which he learned from Marron Cream. The character is voiced by Shun'ichi Toki, who also provides the voice of Freminet in Genshin Impact. Romarriche's character art was illustrated by TCB.
Get a complete look at Romarriche in the post below:
[embed]https://twitter.com/fragaria_sanrio/status/1709493569944207567[/embed]
Romarriche is a member of the Red Bouquet in Fragaria Memories. With all of the group's members being set to be revealed soon, we can expect another Red Bouquet character to be previewed next. Fragaria Memories is a new multimedia fantasy project by Sanrio. Its concept centers around Hello Kitty and her friends, who have summoned the knights of Fragaria to defend their home continent from evil forces known as “seeds.”
New Capcorom plushies of Ada Wong and Claire Redfield from the Resident Evil series will become available at Capcom stores in Japan on October 6, 2023. They will cost 1,100 yen ($7.38) each, including tax. It has not been announced whether these plushies will become available to international audiences outside Japan. [Thanks, PR Times!]
The Ada and Claire Resident Evil Capcorom plushies will be available at the Tokyo, Osaka, and Cafe Umeda Capcom stores in Japan. For those that can’t go to the store physically, you also have a chance to win the plushies from the Capcom net catcher online crane machine from anywhere in Japan.
The Capcorom series of plushies is a line of Capcom dolls featuring characters in an adorable, round style. Other characters from the Resident Evil series, including Chris Redfield, Leon Scott Kennedy, Jill Valentine, Nemesis, and Mr. Raccoon, were also sold as Capcorom plushies from 2019 to 2021. New Monster Hunter Capcorom plushies were also recently revealed in September.
Ada Wong and Claire Redfield Capcorom plushies will be sold at Capcom stores in Japan beginning on October 6, 2023. They will cost 1,100 yen ($7.38) each. They will also be winnable from the Capcom net catcher online crane machines. The latest game in the Resident Evil series is the Resident Evil 4 remake, available on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.