It’s no secret that the Xbox Series X hasn’t been selling great, and this holiday season Microsoft’s “next-gen” console is getting some huge discounts. For a brief period today, Amazon was selling the Starfield machine for as little as $350.
Ahead of his playable debut in Honkai: Star Rail, HoYoVerse uploaded a trailer for Argenti. As a reminder, he will appear as a new five-star from December 6, 2023.
You can watch the Argenti trailer, called “Chivalric Romances,” for Honkai: Star Rail here:
It is also available in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
While similar to Kafka’s trailer in that it’s very theatrical, Argenti’s has a more humorous vibe. It ends with mock credits, with Pom-Pom acting in place of the Omen of Evil and March serving as the straight man to Argenti’s funny man.
A new trailer appeared for the Suicide Squad Isekai anime, with a particular focus on the Joker and Harley Quinn. The trailer also shows the roster of Suicide Squad members who will go to the other world.
You can watch the Suicide Squad Isekai trailer here:
As for the plot of the show, it will focus on Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Peacemaker, Clayface, and King Shark as members of Suicide Squad. Joker is not part of the line-up, but he’s a major character nonetheless. For reasons unknown, Waller sends the Suicide Squad to an isekai that is a classic fantasy world with magic, orcs, and dragons.
Here is the cast list for Suicide Squad Isekai:
The full lineup for the EVO Japan 2024 fighting game tournament is now known. A total of seven titles will be available for people to test their skills to the limit with a prize pool for the top six players. Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6, the respective latest entries from Bandai Namco and Capcom's flagship series, are also included in the list.
Here is the full lineup of EVO Japan 2024, along with the maximum player allocations for each title:
The Overwatch series has fumbled the bag a few times since its 2016 debut, but one of the most confounding things developer Blizzard has done is not lean into its storytelling prowess. Overwatch’s animated shorts have consistently provided heartwarming, often poignant stories that weave together its massive cast of…
Revisiting the past by way of a remaster, remake, or reboot isn’t always a surefire path to success for most franchises. But things have been working out so well for Capcom’s remakes of older Resident Evil titles that the company is going all in on rebuilding other titles from the classic Japanese survival horror…
The promise of digital media is that it can last forever, pristine and undisturbed by the forces of entropy constantly buffeting the material world. Unfortunately, a mess of online DRM and license agreements means that we mostly don’t own the digital stuff we buy, as most recently evidenced by the fact that Sony is…
After remaining silent on the price of the much-anticipated new skins for all 18 Street Fighter 6 launch characters, we finally know how much each alternate costume will cost, and fans of the 2D fighter aren’t too happy about the prices they’re seeing.
After years and years of waiting, rumors, fake leaks, real leaks, and teases, we at last know when the trailer for the next Grand Theft Auto game (presumably called GTA VI) will be here. On December 5, we’ll finally see the sequel to GTA V. That’s all very exciting. But, instead, let’s talk about something else: the…
Square Enix released a notice that a Final Fantasy XVI arcade mode update will appear and change the way scores will be counted. The update is scheduled to arrive fon December 8, 2023, after which the old leaderboard will unavailable.
The arcade mode in FFXVI allows players who wish to engage more with its combat system to revisit certain dungeons and fights at a fixed level. Upon completion, players earn a score based on their performance, including combo length and extra challenges completed. That can then be uploaded to an online scoreboard. After this update, however, the method for calculating these scores will change. A new leaderboard will be used to record scores under the new system. The notice does not elaborate on what exactly the changes to scoring will be, so players will have to experiment to find the best ways to rack up their scores once the update is out.
You can read the full notice in the tweet below.
Bandai will be releasing a new set of Animal Crossing New Horizons trading cards in Japan. They will go on sale on December 25, 2023 for 110 yen ($0.74) each. [Thanks, Game Watch!]
In each pack, there will be one Animal Crossing New Horizons trading card and four gummy candies included. When it comes to the types of cards we can collect, there will be resident cards and landscape cards.
Resident cards will introduce one villager and include their basic profile. Their birth dates, along with their personality types, will be included. Many of the residents featured are villagers new to the Animal Crossing series as of Animal Crossing New Horizons. Landscape cards will be a full horizontal print of island scenery during various seasons.
Here’s a full list of the potential resident card villagers you can get:
On Twitter, Yasumi Matsuno stated that there no plans at the moment to remaster Final Fantasy Tactics. He added that if fans have a request for a specific game or remaster, they’d have to directly contact Square Enix instead of the developers.
The exchange took place on November 28, 2023, when a user made some quality-of-life requests for a possible Final Fantasy Tactics remaster. However, Matsuno replied that there are no plans at Square Enix to remaster that game. Matsuno added that it’s up to the user (as well as other users who may have seen the exchange) whether they believe Matsuno or not. It should be noted that in February 2023, some fans thought that there would be a remaster of Final Fantasy Tactics on the way due to an interview about Theatrhythm Final Bar Line.
Ark: Survival Evolved remake Ark: Survival Ascended has seen its cross-platform PVP multiplayer temporarily turned off for Windows 10 users in an effort to crack down on PC cheaters.
Fortnite’s devouring of all pop culture into its gigantic maw continues apace, as leaks suggest that next on the menu for the IP-gobbling battle royale shooter is Metal Gear Solid’s Solid Snake and Family Guy’s Peter Griffin. (Don’t worry, The Maw is safe from the maw, for now.)
After offering up some of their accessibility inventions for free a couple of years ago - including the context-aware ping system seen in Apex Legends and code for a colourblindness tool - Electronic Arts are opening up even more of their accessibility features for anyone to use.
Surprise, surprise: Capcom are working on another Resident Evil remake in their successful series of ground-up rebuilds for the survival-horror franchise. As for whether we’ll barrel straight into Resident Evil 5 from this year’s RE4 Remake or jump back to Zero or even, uh, sideways to Code Veronica? They won’t say - yet.
With apologies to Bithell Games for the two-in-a-row smackdown of games they released this year, the next entry on my list of good things that didn't quite make my personal GOTY rankings in 2023 is none other than The Banished Vault. I'll put my hands up here - I really did intend to review this one properly when it came out back in July, and I regret never quite getting round to it. Time, as ever, escaped me in the run-up to Gamescom, but it was also one of the first games in a while where I felt I wasn't quite equipped to do it justice.
This week on All Things Nintendo, Brian is joined by YouTube and Twitch personality Fadel AKA GamesCage to nerd out about all the little surprises and delights found in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Both Brian and Fadel have 100%'d the game, so be warned that this episode contains full spoilers for any and all portions of the latest 2D Mario platformer.
If you'd like to follow Brian on social media, you can do so on his Instagram/Threads @BrianPShea or Twitter @BrianPShea. You can follow Fadel on Twitter: @GamesCage_, YouTube: @GamesCage, and Twitch: GamesCage.
The All Things Nintendo podcast is a weekly show where we celebrate, discuss, and break down all the latest games, news, and announcements from the industry's most recognizable name. Each week, Brian is joined by different guests to talk about what's happening in the world of Nintendo. Along the way, they'll share personal stories, uncover hidden gems in the eShop, and even look back on the classics we all grew up with. A new episode hits every Friday!
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom makes you spend a lot of time thinking about the structural integrity of all the nonsense you build with Link’s Ultra Hand. But have you ever stopped to think about the integrity of the wood-based structures Nintendo has put around Hyrule? Well, Eden Klinger, a furniture…
Well. Here we are. Call of Duty’s extraction mode, DMZ, is dead. For a little while now, debate has raged in the community over whether or not it was going to happen, especially as Modern Warfare 3’s Zombies has taken the spotlight as the series’ PvE mode. In a recent update, Acitivison confirmed the reality many of…
CLAMP announced on social media that an original painting exhibition will be coming to Japan in 2024, focusing on their manga manuscripts and covering the scope of their art over the years. The CLAMP Exhibition will be held from July 3, 2024, to September 23, 2024.
CLAMP will be holding this exhibit at the National Art Center in Roppongi, Tokyo and will be a large-scale original art exhibition tracing back through CLAMP's creative activities up until now. The creative group comprised of four women, comprised of Nanase Ohkawa, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi, will show off a wide range of work from their shounen, shoujo, and youth comics. They plan to exhibit their manga manuscripts from their debut to the present across many different publishers and magazines. The creative group has not announced which series they intend to feature, although
According to an official announcement from the company and VTuber herself, LIZ from the Japanese music group KMNZ will graduate from all activities on December 31, 2023. After this date, we will not see her participate as a member of the group again.
According to the official announcement, this graduation decision was mutual between the artist and the company. To respect the remaining KMNZ members’ wishes, the group is planned to restart in early summer of 2024.
LIZ expressed her gratitude towards fans that have been supporting her and her group since her 2018 debut five years ago. She mentioned that it was painful to be separated from the other group members and her partner, LITA. She also wishes for her fans to spend her last moments with her as LIZ.
This announcement was posted on the KMNZ official social media account, as well as LIZ’s personal account. You can view it below:
The latest banner for FFVII Ever Crisis features new five-star weapons for Tifa and Lucia, as well as Christmas themed costumes for the both of them available via stamp card. The banner is currently live and will last until December 14, 2023.
The new weapon for Tifa, called the Holy Flame Gloves, comes with the C. Ability Freezing blow that performs a single target Ice and Physical attack for up to 800% damage when fully overboosted. Lucia's Holiday Revolver, meanwhile, is similar. However, its skill has an Earth and Magic typing.
Additionally, stamps earned by pulling on the FFVII Ever Crisis Christmas banner can be exchanged for the Fairy of the Holy Flame costume for Tifa, or the Holiday Coat for Lucia. Those that manage to pull the weapons and upgrade them to a certain rarity will also receive wallpapers featuring Tifa or Lucia in their new outfits.
You can check out Tifa and Lucia's weapons and outfits below:
Good Smile Company opened pre-orders for a limited metallic Moderoid kit of Shinji Ikari's Evangelion Unit-01. People from all around the world can place orders for the kit on Good Smile Online Shop at ¥7,900 / $49.99.
This limited edition model kit will feature parts pre-painted with metallic coating. The set will also include the Pallet Rifle and Spear of Cassius as equipable weapons. The resulting unit will stand at around 165mm (~6.5 inches) tall when completed.
Good Smile Company previously released the regular plastic kit of the same unit in May 2023. It will only produce a limited amount of this metallic model kit. The order window for this kit will close once its stock has run out.
Baldur’s Gate 3’s fifth big patch added some significant changes to Larian’s Dungeons & Dragons RPG, including a new epilogue, modes, and ways to accomplish previously impossible feats. It also had a slightly less significant update that is probably unnecessary, but is still glorious to behold: Characters’ dicks and…
The eccentric Tiny Tina from the Borderlands series will appear as a Nendoroid figure in 2024. She is available to pre-order now from the Good Smile US online shop for the price of $43.99 and Japanese one for ¥6,900.
By pre-ordering the Tiny Tina Nendoroid directly from Good Smile Company’s online shop, customers will receive a special round base featuring the Borderlands logo. This figure is expected to ship out in the fourth quarter of 2024 in the US. In Japan, she'll appear in June 2024.
We can view the promotional video for the Tiny Tina Nendoroid from Good Smile Company’s announcement post below:
Square Enix announced that there will be a SaGa Glimmerfest 2023 showcase that discusses SaGa Emerald Beyond. It will air on December 15, 2023 at 6am PT/9am ET/3pm CET on YouTube and Twitch.
There are two games that will be the focus for this presentation. The one star of the showcase is SaGa Emerald Beyond. The other is Romancing SaGa Re;univerSe, the ongoing mobile game available worldwide. There will be additional updates on both. These will come from three members of the staff working on the series. The SaGa Series Producer Masanori Ichikawa, the SaGa Series Director Akitoshi Kawazu, and Localization Director Neil Broadley are all confirmed to appear to discuss the game at the event. People can watch live or watch it after the fact on YouTube.
Blizzard Entertainment announced the Season of Discovery for World of Warcraft Classic at BlizzCon 2023. However, once the update went live on November 30, 2023, the servers struggled to keep up as players rushed to create their characters on servers and dive into a new way to enjoy their favorite online game.
It isn't the most populated I've seen the game — I play Classic Hardcore which has seen a massive uptick in activity — but it's a close second. To be fair, I didn't roll a character on Crusader Strike, the server some of World of Warcraft's most popular streamers and content creators have chosen to level on. Instead, I opted to play on Lava Lash with a handful of friends. I've found role-playing servers in World of Warcraft to have some of the most relaxed and active players, so we all decided that this is where we wanted to play.
And while it was really crowded for those first few hours, with many of us partying up with strangers to kill specific amounts of zombies or obtain bat carcasses, it wasn't the worst experience. Instead, it had that sense of community I always feel is missing from many modern MMORPGs where players band together and create these unspoken rules to help one another progress. For example, standing in line to turn in a quest that impacts an NPC.
Ohagi3, a traditional Japanese sweets shop, will be collaborating with the anime and manga series Fruits Basket in December 2023. The Shimokitazawa shop now has two sets of four ohagi themed after Fruits Basket characters available for pre-order for the price of 1,320 yen ($8.92) each. [Thanks, Natalie!]
The A set includes ohagi based on the characters Tohru Honda, Yuki Sohma, Momiji Sohma, and Hatori Sohma. Tohru’s ohagi is in the shape of an onigiri (rice ball), and Yuki’s is shaped like a rat, which corresponds to his representative zodiac animal in the series. Momiji’s ohagi is honey and cheese flavored, while Hatori’s tastes like purple sweet potato.
The B set features the characters Kyo Sohma, Hatsuharu Sohma, Ayame Sohma, and Shigure Sohma. Kyo’s ohagi is in the shape of a cat, which is his zodiac animal from the series. It’s also flavored with Kinako (roasted soybean flour). Shigure’s ohagi flavor is matcha, Hatsuharu’s is coconut, and Ayame’s is strawberry.
HoYoVerse announced the 7.1 Honkai Impact 3rd update release date, which will bring new story missions, events, and a Griseo battlesuit. It will debut on December 7, 2023.
Griseo will be both the new playable character and play a major part in the Honkai Impact 3rd story in the next update. As a unit, she’ll deal physical Bleed damage to enemies. She’s also an SP SD-type unit. Essentially, people can place Beacons on enemies and raise her Internal Energy to eventually use a Special Weapon Skill and Ultimate.
When people go through Story Chapter XLIL in Honkai: Star Rail, Fu Hua and Griseo will be the primary characters. Players will use Fu Hua against a new boss named Sa while Griseo supports them.
A few of the new Honkai Impact 3rd events were also revealed. One is going to be Starry Voyage: Strike Back, which will offer the On Fair Clouds outfit for the Starchasm Nyx battlesuit, Crystals, Energy Devices, and Honkai Shards. Seize Sensational Sentience will let people get a Herrscher of Sentience Character Card.
During the PlayStation Partner Awards 2023 Japan Asia, FromSoftware Producer Yasuhiro Kitao was asked about development progress for the Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree. Kitao said that they will talk more about the Elden Ring DLC in the future, but gave a small glimpse to what players can expect to see and compared it to Bloodborne. [Thanks, Game Watch!]
Kitao said that the Elden Ring DLC will have new battles and characters and compared it to the Bloodborne DLC and other FromSoftware titles. The producer also confirmed that the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is still some ways off, but that the developers are making good progress.
During the latest Kadokawa financial report in early November 2023, FromSoftware echoed the news and confirmed that development in the Elden Ring DLC is progressing adequately. In addition, FromSoftware recently held a large-scale staff recruiting campaign to develop new games.
While each Assassin’s Creed entry may vary in terms of performance, quality, and appeal, you tend to know what you’re getting into and the sort of experience to expect. With Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, we get the staple gameplay of Assassins versus Templars in historical settings, but executed in such a way that it’s accessible, offers an array of scenarios, and is more comfortable than I expected.
Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR begins with players taking on the role of a hacker who works alongside the modern day Brotherhood of Assassins. They’ve been contacted by Abstergo, the Templar agency, to enter the Animus to explore past scenarios to gain data from artifacts found in scenarios starring Ezio Auditore from Assassin’s Creed II in Italy during the renaissance, Kassandra from Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey in Greece around the Peloponnesian War. and Connor from Assassin’s Creed III in America during the revolution. Each one has their own brief storyline and objectives, which all feel like they could have easily fit into their original games as part of the campaign.
Cast your mind back to Cyberpunk 2077's E3 2018 trailer and you might remember Night City's metro system playing a prominent role - which was why its absence as a fully functional transportation service was so notable come the game's beleagured release in December 2020. Three years later though, CD Projekt has announced it's restoring the long-missing rideable metro system in a surprise 2.1 update arriving next Tuesday, 5th December.
The 2.1 update coincides with the launch of Cyberpunk 2077's Ultimate Edition (bundling together the base game and Phantom Liberty expansion) and was detailed in a new developer livestream, beginning with that long-awaited Metro system. "The metro was not in our plans for a long time," producer Monika Janowska explained during the presentation. "However, over time we've revisited our plan and... decided that it actually could be achievable."
Night City's metro system, officially known as Night City Area Rapid Transit and described as an "immersive way to travel through the world", consists of five lines spanning 19 stations. It unlocks after Cyberpunk's Konpeki Plaza sequence relatively early on and can either be used as fast travel locations (as was the case prior to 2.1) or "as a proper metro ride experience" for those who'd like to take in the sights in a more leisurely fashion.
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Microsoft has cheekily riffed on Rockstar's big Grand Theft Auto 6 reveal trailer release date announcement by teasing a surprise announcement of its own.
Just over two years after launch, a fresh reveal for Halo Infinite will apparently arrive on Monday, 4th December at 5pm UK time.
The announcement was made this evening by Microsoft via a post on X, formerly Twitter, made to look like Rockstar's GTA 6 trailer post from this afternoon. The accompanying image shows the softly-lit silhouette of a Halo ring (rather than palm trees and seagulls).
Bandai Spirits opened pre-orders for its upcoming SH Figuarts figure of Guile from the Street Fighter series. This action figure will depict Guile with his classic Street Fighter II outfit, which is also available to select in Street Fighter 6 as Outfit 2.
The action figure will stand at around 16 cm (~6.3 inches) tall. The package will come with swappable alternate parts for Guile's hands and facial expressions. It will also include a Sonic Boom effect set that lets the owner reproduce one of Guile's signature moves.
The SH Figuarts action figure of Guile will be available at 8,800 yen / $80. The Japanese Tamashii Web site also hinted that the figure will be available for sale in the U.S. via Amazon. While the figure is also available on Amiami, pre-orders on the site had closed in just a few hours after the opening.
The Japanese version of the mobile rhythm game BanG Dream! Girls Band Party will start its second collaboration event with the VTuber production company Hololive on December 6, 2023. The BanG Dream Hololive crossover announcement was made on their official Bandori social media account.
The Hololive talent that will be featured in the BanG Dream! Girls Band Party event includes Tokino Sora, Minato Aqua, Shirakami Fubuki, Hoshimachi Suisei, Sakamata Chloe, Houshou Marine, Yukihana Lamy, and Shishiro Botan.
This second BanG Dream Hololive crossover collaboration will be distributed in three parts. For the first part, three collaboration cards featuring one Hololive talent and one Bandori character will be available to collect via gacha in the game. Minato Aqua will be paired with Aya Maruyama, Tokino Sora with Kasumi Toyama, and Shirakami Fubuki with Kokoro Tsurumaki.
The second part of the collaboration will feature the band Roselia with Sakamata Chloe and Raise A Suilen with Hoshimachi Suisei. Finally, the third part will feature the band Afterglow with Houshou Marine, Morfonica with Yukihana Lamy, and MyGO!!!!! With Shishiro Botan.
As announced previously, the Vocaloid producer cosMo@bousouP uploaded the fifth song for the Hatsune Miku and Pokemon collaboration Project Voltage on December 1, 2023. The new song is called “Battle! (Hatsune Miku).”
This new music video features a new design for Hatsune Miku as she appears alongside several Pokemon like Gengar and Nidoking. Along with the rest of the Project Voltage songs, this song also features sound samples from the Pokemon series.
View the music video and listen to the new Project Voltage song below:
A new Sega prize figure of Asuna from Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of the Deep Night will be released in Japan in the spring of 2024. The upcoming collectible will be part of the FIGURIZMα line.
This new Asuna figure features her in a dynamic pose, with the wind picking up her hair, cape, and skirt as she sprints. She also wields an unsheathed sword in her right hand. The figurine also features Asuna with a stern expression that shows her battle readiness.
This Asuna Sword Art Online Progressive figure includes a base that is more atypical to the standard black base seen often in prize figures. It is made of semi-transparent blue plastic and resembles a natural element, adding to the scene.
You can view the announcement and teaser photo of the new Asuna figure below:
Sega has not yet announced a price point for this new Asuna figure. She will be available to win as a prize from game centers in Japan and also sold at various other Japanese retailers.
