In the weeks following the launch of Skyrim developer Bethesda’s highly anticipated RPG Starfield, the game has caught a bit of attention for its plummeting player numbers on Steam. Its ranking from user reviews has also dropped on Valve’s digital storefront, falling from “Positive” into the pale orange of “Mixed.”…
Netflix’s Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, the eight-episode anime series based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s stylish graphic novels, is a pretty great spin on the original story, albeit a divisive one among fans who wanted a more straightforward retelling. The series follows Scott and Ramona, who, after establishing a budding…
Now that the Street Fighter 6 Outfit 3 costumes are on the way, new details about the Cammy, Ken, Lily, Blanka-chan, and Zangief ones appeared. Capcom shared concept art and screenshots of each on social media, all accompanied by commentary from Director Takayuki Nakayama.
The Zangief costume is the first of the ones to be detailed this week. It puts him in a suit, with glasses and some gold jewelry.
The Blanka costume that turns him into Blanka-chan appeared after that. This is based on the dolls and design we’ve seen over the years.
Niantic revealed that Pokemon GO will be getting more Hisuian Pokemon starting this week when the new Timeless Travels season begins. Pokemon GO: Timeless Travels will start on December 1, 2023 and run through to March 1, 2024.
In the new season of Pokemon GO, more Pokemon discovered in the Hisui region featured in Pokemon Legends: Arceus will begin to appear. Niantic has not yet announced which Hisuian Pokemon will appear, but the company has shown Hisuian variants like Typlosion, Samurott, Decidueye, and Wyrdeer in the promotional materials for Timeless Travels.
At the start of each month during the Timeless Travels season, Pokemon GO players will be able to purchase new ticketed experiences that include bonuses and Timed Research events. Players will also be able to stock up on Incubators during Timeless Travels.
Niantic also announced new dates for Community Days happening during the Timeless Travels season:
The Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable game was supposed to appear on Meta Quest headsets in Winter 2023, but now the release date is delayed. Instead, it will show up in 2024.
There’s no new exact release window for the experience, which would involve using ODM Gear to hunt titans alone or with other players. Rather, the new window is the “latter half of 2024.” Univrs CEO Keigo Fujikawa released a statement noting that the goal of the delay is to ensure the overall quality of the game.
Here’s Fujikawa’s full statement regarding the delay:
To all those who are waiting for the release,
We have decided to postpone the release date of Attack on Titan VR: Unbreakable once again. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to those who have been looking forward to the game, as well as to everyone involved.
To deliver the highest quality product to players around the world, we need a little more time to complete it.
Good Smile Company announced that the Misato Katsuragi Evangelion Nendoroid will be releasing in 2024. Misato Katsuragi was first revealed at WonHobby G 2023 for during the Autumn announcements.
The latest Evangelion Nendoroid is based on Misato Katsuragi from the Rebuild of Evangelion film series, and will cost ¥6,500 (~$44) from the Good Smile Online Shop for people ordering directly from Japan and $40.99 USD from the United States shop. The Misato Nendoroid will release October 2024 in Japan and Q1 2025 in North America. Pre-orders will remain open until January 18, 2024.
Last month, something odd happened in the streets of Gotham. With no prior announcement or fanfare, people booting up Batman: Arkham Knight were greeted with a skin from 2022's The Batman starring Robert Pattinson. But then, as quickly as it appeared, it was removed, all without comment from the developers. While we still don't know exactly why the skin was added accidentally, we know exactly why it was created: it's a timed-exclusive suit launching with the Batman: Arkham Trilogy on Switch.
The collection brings Rocksteady's beloved trio of Batman games to Nintendo's hybrid console, complete with all previously released DLC. The trilogy will also include the aforementioned suit from The Batman, but it won't be limited to the Switch forever – other platforms will get access to the suit "at a later date."
Ubisoft's beleaguered pirate adventure Skull and Bones is - following yet another delay back in October - reportedly now targeting a 16th February release next year.
Skull and Bones has, of course, been a very long time in the making, with development starting over a decade a go in 2013. Since then, it's suffered repeated delays (it was originally expected to arrive in 2018), most recently seeing its release shift to Q4 of Ubisoft's current financial year, meaning a launch within the January-March 2024 period.
And Ubisoft has now reportedly narrowed that previous launch window down to 16th February 2024 according to Insider Gaming, which has a good track record when it comes to Ubisoft leaks. The site says the publisher is likely to make the new release date official in "the next couple of weeks", potentially during December's The Game Awards.
The Embracer mass layoffs train has come for Fishlabs, the Hamburg-based studio behind space shooter Chorus. Embracer have laid off more than half the Fishlabs team - "around 50 people" - as part of a restructuring operation that has already seen the Swedish conglomerate cut over 900 jobs across their business over the summer.
Earlier this year, The Last of Us on HBO became one of the biggest shows of 2023 and racked up rave reviews from fans of the original game and newcomers alike. And now Neil Druckmann, co-creator of both the game and the show, has hinted that some cut content from 2020’s The Last of Us Part II will be included in the…
Coral Island, the new farming and dating sim by Stairway Games, is the latest example of a game in which pursuing a handsome lad is enough to drag me through something I’m otherwise lukewarm on. I’ve spent chunks of my playtime chopping trees trying to make a real farm out of my designated plot of land. But I do not…
In a newly released preview of Amazon Prime’s upcoming Fallout TV show, we learned a lot of new details about the world, characters, and story of the highly anticipated live-action adaptation of Bethesda’s popular post-apocalyptic RPG franchise. For example, the show is considered canon with the games. And Walter…
During the latest showcase for the game, Capcom confirmed the release date for Dragon’s Dogma 2 is March 22, 2024. The game will have a worldwide simultaneous release and will appear on the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.
You can check out the Dragon’s Dogma 2 Showcase 2023 here:
The last time Capcom showed footage for Dragon’s Dogma 2 was during TGS 2023, where two new advanced Magick vocations were shown, the Mystic Spearhand and Magick Archer. Capcom previously mentioned that the game will be roughly four times bigger than the previous entry.
Coral Island is part of the increasingly crowded Farming sim genre. Farming games, life sims, cozy games – whatever you want to call them, there are many of them, and it can be tough to stand out. For Coral Island developers, Stairway Games has chosen to focus on a theme of environmental sustainability as you work to restore a dying island.
The premise of Coral Island is simple. You’ve left your big city job and traveled to a small tropical island to set up a farm. Your arrival is seen as a surprise, as the island has seen better days and is ranked poorly by tourist organizations. This is thanks to abundant trash and a stray oil spill that has tainted its once-clear waters. Making matters worse, the island’s future is threatened by a corporate entity whose goals are to choke the life out of its community and turn it into a profitable travel destination.
This is where you come in. Your arrival will not only revive the overgrown and abandoned farmland, but your work will uncover mystical forces that require your help to restore the island’s natural beauty. In gameplay, this involves raising the town’s rank by making offerings to the lake goddess. This is done by donating artifacts and wildlife to the museum and cleaning out the ocean with the help of ancient undersea technology.
Atlus and Hyte completely revealed the Persona 3 Reload PC collection of merchandise. A Y60 PC case, keycap set, and desk pads are all expected to ship in February 2024.
The PC case first appeared at Anime NYC 2023. It features the cast of the game on its panels. That costs $229.99 to pre-order. It also seems it will be the base for the eventual iBuyPower PCs will work on. Those are going to appear in the first quarter of 2024. When people buy the case, they also get a Fool Arcana tarot card in a tin.
CD Projekt has announced that Phantom Liberty, the first and only expansion for its sci-fi RPG Cyberpunk 2077, has sold 4.3m copies since launching this September - and that over 330 developers at the company are now working on the next Witcher game.
When last we heard from Phantom Liberty, CD Projekt revealed it had sold 3m copies in the first week of its release - news that was accompanied by updated sales figures for Cyberpunk 2077, which has now surpassed 25m copies sold since its rocky launch back in December 2020.
Word of Phantom Liberty's 4.3m milestone comes via CD Projekt's latest financial earnings report, which also includes an update on how the company's developers are currently split between its various projects. As of October, around half the studio - later confirmed to be approximately 330 developers by CEO Adam Kiciński in an earnings call - was working on the next Witcher game, with that number expected to rise to over 400 by "mid-next year".
When Overwatch 2 shifted the hero shooter’s economy away from loot boxes and into a seasonal battle pass, the customizable Mythic Skins unlocked at the end of that pass were framed as the light at the end of the grindy tunnel. Unlike any other Overwatch skin, these would be somewhat customizable, offering a few style…
Idol Corp announced that it terminated its contract with Project Star Vtuber Riro Ron and a member of its idol management team. It cited “dangerous and harmful” contract violations as the reason for the dismissal.
Four specific offenses were noted as part of the reasons behind the Vtuber’s dismissal. Two of the causes involved Riro directly contacting fans to solicit them for offline, private, and in one case an in-person meeting, with one involving “gifts from said fan in the total value of thousands of dollars.” The performer was also in a “secretive relationship” with the dismissed management team member. Idol Corp also cited the Vtuber’s “misuse of controlled substances” while streaming.
Here is the full statement. In the second half of the announcement, the company noted the Riro Ron YouTube channel will be live until January 1, 2024, the Discord channels for her are already removed, and the company Discord server will have Donothon and merchandise refund request forms.
At the Dragon's Dogma 2 showcase on November 28, 2023, Capcom revealed three of the advanced vocations available in the game, including the censer-wielding Trickster class. The Warrior and Sorcerer are also confirmed to be returning from the first game.
The Warrior vocation returns as the advanced version of the Fighter. This involves wielding a greatsword and focusing on physical offense. Meanwhile, the Mage class advances into the Sorcerer, which in the original game gave up the ability to heal in order to channel more powerful spells and staves.
Perhaps most interesting, however, is the addition of the Trickster vocation. This class wields a censer and uses the smoke to confuse enemies and buff allied pawns. Producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi described the class as a "great fit for players who want to step back from the action and manipulate the battle from the sidelines."
You can watch the Dragon's Dogma 2 showcase below:
Capcom revealed the Dragon’s Dogma 2 Deluxe Edition and pre-order bonuses during the latest showcase for the game. The digital Deluxe Edition will include various items that will help players during the early hours of the game.
The Deluxe Edition includes the base game and the A Boon for Adventurers - New Journey Pack add-on. The items that come with this pack are the following:
Capcom held a new showcase for Dragon’s Dogma 2, showing off more of the game’s fantastical action but giving fans the one thing they’ve wanted most: a release date. The hotly anticipated sequel is coming on March 22.
If that date looks familiar, that’s because it was accidentally leaked not once but twice. The first instance occurred earlier this month, thanks to a PEGI rating that revealed the March 22 date. The second leak occurred just hours before today’s presentation courtesy of the game’s Steam page. But if you missed both early reveals, today is probably a nice surprise.
A new trailer shows off more of the game’s story while also offering up new gameplay footage. The trailer showcases the new Trickster Vocation alongside new enemies, such as the towering statue, mythical beasts, and, naturally, dragons.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is launching on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
Crossover skins are extremely commonplace for in-game stores in 2023, and Among Us is no different. Their latest collaborative effort introduces skins from a list of popular indie games; Undertale, Celeste, A Hat in Time, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Untitled Goose Game, Alien Hominid Invasion, and Castle Crashers. The cosmetics from all seven games will be included in a Cosmicube, which can be purchased with 7000 beans. The crossover includes 25 hats, 18 skins, 12 nameplates, 9 visors, and 6 pets. You can see a gallery of the featured skins below.
In news that'll surprise nobody who's been following the various leaks leading up to today's official announcement, Capcom has confirmed Dragon's Dogma 2 will launch for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC on 22nd March next year.
That date first emerged earlier this month, when it was spotted as part of a (quickly removed) listing on the PEGI ratings website. It then prematurely resurfaced on Steam today, getting a little ahead of Capcom's latest Dragon's Dogma 2 showcase where it was finally made official.
And official it now is, with Dragon's Dogma 2 director Hideaki Itsuno and producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi confirming the news during a 15-minute livestream that also featured a lengthy new trailer. Tucked in there was an appearance from the previously unseen Talos, a truly colossal armoured soldier striding forth from the depths of the ocean that Capcom seems particularly proud of - so much so that we got an extended look at the fight once the trailer was over.
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Dragon's Dogma 2's release date seemed to leak via European ratings board PEGI a little over a week ago, and sure enough, it's now confirmed. Capcom's fantasy sequel will launch on March 22nd, 2024, and there's a new trailer.
The Anacrusis is a co-op swarm shooter from Stray Bombay, the studio co-founded by former Left 4 Dead developer Chet Faliszek. It's currently making its way through Steam Early Access, but Faliszek says he "will never do Early Access again" due to "how player counts are seen by steam and then downwind by the community."
Cyberpunk 2077 has several endings and the recent Phantom Liberty expansion added more. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that none of these endings are uncomplicated.
"I know that some players were disappointed that we didn’t add a 'good' ending when Phantom Liberty was released," says CD Projekt Red senior writer Magda Zych in a new interview. But Cyberpunk 2077 is "no place for happy endings."
A live-action film adaptation of Teasing Master Takagi-san is in production. It’ll come out on May 31, 2024. [Thanks, Livedoor!]
Rather than a faithful manga adaptation, the live-action show will have an original story. It’ll feature Takagi and Nishikata in their early twenties. For reference, the story is a rom-com slice-of-life that takes place in a middle school.
Filming took place on Shodoshima in the Kagawa Prefecture. Shodoshima is the setting of Teasing Master Takagi-san. The live-action story will focus on Takagi, who returns to her old middle school as a trainee teacher. There, she meets Nishikata, who is working at the school as a gym teacher.
The live-action version will star Mei Nagano as the titular Takagi. Some of Nagano’s previous roles include Suzume Yosano in Daytime Shooting Star and Anzu Murata in Burn the House Down. Fumiya Takahashi will star alongside her as Nishikata. Some of Takahashi’s prominent roles are Aruto Hiden in Kamen Rider Zero-One and Gaku Kitada in Fermat no Ryori.
McDonald’s Japan is teasing an upcoming Fate/Grand Order collaboration, and its key visual shows a silhouette for two new Christmas Servants. More information on both the collaboration and the new Santa Servant will come out during a livestream on November 29, 2023.
The key visual shows the silhouettes of two new Santa Servants and a table full of McDonald’s food. The Fate/Grand Order logo appears throughout the Christmas tree, and there’s a Fou-shaped snowman at the base of it. 'The star topping the tree is Saint Quartz. Neither silhouette matches existing Santa Servants, meaning this year might give players two welfare Servants.
Google will hold an online Google Play event, "Welcome to Diamond Valley." During the event, you can play the titular Diamond Valley game to win prizes, which include exclusive merchandise for games like Genshin Impact, Umamusume: Pretty Derby, and Honkai: Star Rail. [Thanks, Game Watch!]
The event will take place on December 12, 2023, and run until January 9, 2024. If you pre-register and your Google Play Points status is either Platinum or Diamond, you can also get a limited t-shirt. To pre-register, you must log into your Google account and then follow the steps from the Google Play Thanksgiving page.
You can get two types of t-shirts by pre-registering with a Platinum or Diamond account. Both of them feature pixel art of characters underneath the logo for Google Play. One of them features Umamusume: Pretty Derby characters like Gold Ship or Special Week. The other shirt features HoYoVerse characters. Genshin Impact characters on the shirt include Venti and Diluc, while Honkai: Star Rail has characters like Stelle and Dan Heng.
Red Dead Redemption series writer Michael Unsworth has joined Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser's Absurd Ventures studio as head of story and creative management.
Absurd Ventures was officially unveiled back in June, marking Houser's first high-profile video game project since departing Rockstar - following an "extended break" - in 2020.
Absurd describes itself as a studio focused on "building narrative worlds, creating characters, and writing stories for a diverse variety of genres" that span a variety of mediums - with the studio specifically calling out live-action, animation, video games and other interactive content, books, graphic novels, scripted podcasts, and more.
Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors has reportedly confirmed to employees that TimeSplitters studio Free Radical is facing closure next month, as part of a sweeping restructuring programme that has already resulted in more than 900 job cuts at the company.
Word that Free Radical - a studio resurrected in 2021 specifically to revive the beloved TimeSplitters franchise - was the latest developer to be impacted by parent company Embracer's restructuring first surfaced earlier this month in a report by VGC.
The publication's sources have now shared a company wide email from Wingefors confirming that Free Radical is currently engaged in a consultation process - as per UK employment law, employees must enter into a 30-day consultation process before redundancies can be made - that could result in the studio's closure next month.
Square Enix announced on social media that it will end service for Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia on February 29, 2024. The mobile game first launched on February 1, 2017 and will be shut down after seven years.
In the official announcement about DFFOO's end og service, the development team stated that they were finding it difficult to provide services that would please their customers in the future. This prompted the decision to end its service in 2024.
Despite the announcement, there are multiple events planned for DFFOO coming out during its last few months. The following events will occur in the Global version of DFFOO:
Square Enix shared a Final Fantasy VII Rebirth character relationship chart ahead of the game's release on February 29, 2024. The chart focuses on the conflict between the Shinra Electric Power Company and Avalanche and their fight to protect the planet.
You can take a look at the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth character relationship chart here:
Cloud is a former member of Soldier. The line connecting him to Sephiroth indicates their relationship as fated opponents, while Cloud and Zack are described as close friends. Cloud and Tifa are childhood friends, and the blue arrow connecting them says that Cloud is temporarily cooperating with Tifa and Avalanche.
Barret is the leader of the Midgar Avalanche cell, and he asks Cloud for assistance with the bombing mission. Marlene is Barret’s adopted daughter, and Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie are fellow Avalanche members alongside Tifa. Separated from the rest, Sonon and Yuffie are ninjas from Wutai.
Five of the Best is a weekly series for supporters of Eurogamer. It's a series that highlights some of the features in games that are often overlooked. It's also about having your say, so don't be shy, use the comments below and join in!
Oh and you can find our entire Five of the Best archive elsewhere on the site.
Which was the first game to use slow-mo - do you know? I can't seem to find a definitive answer. Some people claim it's Pac-Man, because the pills slow ghosts down, but does it really count if Pac-Man doesn't slow down too? I'm not sure. Other people, meanwhile, reckon it's Atari 2600 game Threshold, but I don't know it well enough to say.
Ian Higton, your task is to write a news post about the announcement of Taskmaster VR. Your time starts... now!
Popular comedy panel show Taskmaster has joined forces with Scallywag Arcade to bring a virtual reality version of the hit show to VR helmets worldwide.
Launching in 2024 for Meta Quest 2 and 3 (the wacky physics-based action is too much for the Quest 1 to handle allegedly), Taskmaster VR will give players the chance to visit the Taskmaster house in order to take part in comical challenges like smashing watermelons or making the Taskmaster a lovely sandwich.
The suit worn by a certain Robert Pattinson - or Battinson, if you will allow me - in Warner Bros' The Batman film will be available as part of the Arkham Trilogy on Nintendo Switch.
We briefly got a look at this particular batsuit last month, when players noticed it cropping up prematurely in 2015's Batman: Arkham Knight.
Now, however, the suit is officially set to be part of the games. It will be a timed-exclusive suit launching with the Batman: Arkham Trilogy on Switch.
I hope you've had your fill of cyberpunk, because we're heading back to Rivia, baby. Almost half of CD Projekt's development staff - around 330 people - are now working on the next Witcher game, the mysterious project Polaris.
Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia will shut down in February, it's been announced.
In a message to "loyal players" on X, formerly Twitter, the game's end date was revealed as 29th February 2024.
"We would like to thank you for your many years of support, and hope you can enjoy playing for a little while longer," reads the post.
UK developer Frontier has said it will refocus on making simulation games following the launch of real-time strategy game Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin.
In a business update, the developer behind Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo and Jurassic World Evolution admitted that Warhammer sales had "been lower than expected" since its launch earlier this month, and that it was lowering its revenue forecast for the year.
The news comes just a month after layoffs at the studio were announced, with an unknown number of people set to leave following an ongoing consultation period.
