December 2023

It's taken five and a half years of asking from the community, but Sea of Thieves' oft-requested private servers are almost here, with Rare having now confirmed they'll arrive as part of the multiplayer pirate adventure's third major Season 10 update on Thursday, 7th December.

Private servers will be available under the new banner of Safer Seas mode, which'll co-exist alongside the current shared world experience - officially renamed High Seas. Safer Seas lets up to four friends crew a single ship across a private version of the world and access all PvE content - ranging from emergent events to Trading Company quests and narrative-driven Tall Tales - without needing to deal with other players.

It is, then, pretty much exactly what people have been asking for since Sea of Thieves' launch back in 2018, albeit with a number of restrictions. Features including Guilds, Hourglass Factions, and live-service events such as Gold & Glory are all unavailable, and Rare is capping Trading Company progression at 40 in Safer Seas, meaning it won't be possible to reach Pirate Legend status without returning to High Seas mode. Additionally, gold and reputation for Athena's Fortune or their Reaper's Bones counterpart won't be earnable.

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Avail stores in Japan will start selling Hunter x Hunter apparel and home items starting December 9, 2023. You’ll be able to find them in both physical and online storefronts.

As of the time of writing, clicking on the link in the announcement Tweet will take you to the main Shimamura store for Avail. The online store will not have the Hunter x Hunter items until December 9, 2023. Avail does not offer international shipping. So those who don’t plan on being in Japan at the time will need to use a proxy service if they wish to purchase these items.

The full list of items and prices that are part of the Hunter x Hunter collection from Avail are:

• Back cushion: 1500 JPY
• Backpack charm: 790 JPY
• Card case: 1200 JPY
• Clip: 790 JPY
• Fastener charm: 790 JPY
• Half-sleeved t-shirts: 1800 JPY

Atlus shared a new Persona 3 Reload trailer focused on its battle system. The gameplay footage shows characters using some of the new combat abilities, such as the Shift mechanic and the Theurgy skills.

The Shift mechanic is similar to Persona 5’s Batton Pass, in which a character can give its turn to another party member after gaining a One More for exploiting an enemy’s weakness or performing a critical attack.

Aigis’ Theurgia skill is her Orgia Mode. In the original Persona 3, this was an ability unique to Aigis that improved her damage and healed her status ailments while making her unable to listen to orders. In P3R, Orgia Mode is an attack that deals Heavy Pierce damage to all foes ignoring resistances.

The main character’s Theurgy skill consists of him summoning two Persona to execute a powerful ability. This is similar to the Fusion Spells from Persona 3, which required pairing two specific Persona to cast different powerful abilities. In Persona 3 Portable, Fusion Spells were turned into consumable items. In the trailer, the main character summons Siegfried and Mithras.

The anime and manga series Onimai: I’m Now Your Sister! will be officially collaborating with Sanrio characters. From December 23, 2023, to January 10, 2024, Sanrio x Onimai crossover merchandise will be available to purchase from PremiumShop locations in Japan.

The Sanrio x Onimai crossover collaboration was announced on the official social media account for Onimai: I'm Now Your Sister. You can see the official announcement in the post below:

The characters from Onimai: I’m Now Your Sister! and Sanrio, featured in the collaboration, are listed below:

• Mahiro Oyama with My Melody
• Mihari Oyama with Kuromi
• Kaede Hozuki with Hello Kitty

It's rare to see gaming monitors available for under $100, but that's exactly what Best Buy are offering at the moment. You can pick up an LG 24-inch IPS monitor with a 1080p resolution and 100Hz refresh rate for just $80 after a $90 reduction.

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The NZXT H1 is a brilliant small form factor PC case that vaguely resembles the Xbox Series X, a portrait orientation design that minimises its footprint. This case originally retailed for $400, but today it's available for $200 from Best Buy. That's an excellent deal for a well-reviewed SFF PC case that also includes a 140mm AiO, a 92mm fan, a PCIe 4.0 riser cable and a 750W SFX power supply.

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In an interview with Square Enix during the PlayStation Partner Awards 2023, the director and writer for Final Fantasy XVI teased details about the DLC on the horizon. Both add-ons will focus on expanding the world of Valisthea. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

Square Enix first announced that there will be two pieces of paid add-ons for Final Fantasy XVI in September 2023. At the time of this announcement, Square Enix also talked about Windows PC port, as well as an update that already went live in the game. As for the two piece of DLC, they’ll both give more details about the world of Final Fantasy XVI, as well as allow players to experience the mystery and darkness of Clive’s story.

Aside from deepening the lore of the game, the DLC will also have new battles and powerful enemies to defeat. However, there’s not much details beyond that. Square Enix will release more information on the DLC at a later date.

It's a pretty good time to be an AMD fan. The Red Team's desktop processors include the fastest gaming CPU we've ever tested, while its Radeon graphics card business is increasingly competitive with a forward-looking 'chiplet' design and two flavours of frame generation tech. AMD also appears to be making inroads in the laptop space, where its new X3D laptop CPUs have been achieving some impressive performance. However, there's another laptop innovation that's gone relatively unheralded - that of the Ryzen 9 7940HS, AMD's first laptop CPU with dedicated AI hardware.

We've been playing with a Razer Blade 14 laptop that sports the new chip, to see what difference AI acceleration makes - and how competitive the Ryzen 9 7940HS is when paired with an Nvidia RTX 4070 graphics card.

Let's start by getting a sense of this 7940HS CPU. This is a 4nm Zen 4 part with eight cores and sixteen threads, matching the desktop Ryzen 7 7700, with 25 billion transistors, a single-core boost clock of 5.2GHz and a TDP configurable from 35W to 54W. That's a lot of performance on tap - without even mentioning its XDNA AI engine, produced by AMD and recent acquisition Xilinx, branded here as Ryzen AI.

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At long last, it is winter. All this week there's been a definite chill in the air that wasn't there before. No matter how many blankets I pile on top of my knees, it hangs there lurking, breathing down my neck, extending its icy mitts down my fingers until they're too frosty to carry on typing. I sometimes worry the cold will penetrate my very soul, a harbinger of something more sinister and oppressive. Oh wait. False alarm. It's just the cat giving me the evils out the corner of my eye because I've stolen their favourite woolen nap pillow. Nothing to worry about. Anyway! What are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on from beneath our duvets.

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Let's Get Evil is a monthly series for Eurogamer supporters in which Bertie rampages through games being as evil as he can. It sounds easy, but is it? And how much freedom does each game afford in this area? There's only one way to find out.

Welcome back; evil grin. Let's cause some more misery and mayhem in Baldur's Gate 3. But first a recap - where did we leave off? Last episode (I'm sure there'll be a TV adaptation at some point), I began my horrendously evil playthrough of BG3. I chose a human paladin to be my vessel of evil, and picked the murderous Dark Urge background. This is a special background in BG3 that can enable unpredictable and murderous things to happen while you play, such as when I severed Gale's hand while he stuck it through a portal asking for help. Sorry Gale (although am I?). Such as me butchering a helpless and innocent tiefling bard while everyone slept in our camp one night, and then giggling about it afterwards. I am, as you can gather from this, quite the monster.

But you might be wondering how on earth - or Toril, which is the name of the world we're in - a paladin can get away with such a monstrous deed. And you'd be right to ask. You see, in Dungeons & Dragons and in Baldur's Gate 3, there is a consequence to such actions. Should you break a sacred oath that you've sworn to uphold - in my case I swore to protect all life and living things, which I quite clearly have not done - you will be considered an Oathbreaker, which in turn means a visit from the foreboding Oathbreaker Knight.

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Time to open the second door on our advent calendar. No doubt some of you will argue this entry is some kind of cheat, but this is our treehouse and you're wrong.

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Amouranth bought an orchard for a cool $17 mill, Bethesda’s attempting to win the hearts and minds of disaffected Starfield players on Steam, and Dan Houser is back! In podcast form!

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There’s the idea that you’re always the hero in your own story, and that feels exceptionally true for the Taizan 5 manga Takopi’s Original Sin. There are these layers and depths here as we gradually grow to know each character, and that insight keeps changing the reader’s perspective.

Editor’s Note: There will be no spoilers for the Takopi’s Origin Sin manga below.

Takopi’s Original Sin revolves around the relationship between three characters. One is a Happian alien who comes to Earth. Upon landing, he meets a school girl named Shizuka. You get the idea that something is off upon this initial meeting. At best, she’s depressed and bullied by a classmate named Marina and her friends. But as Takopi and Shizuka meet more often, we get a better idea of her exact situation. We see the relationship that develops. 

Video games make the world a better place. We’ve got honkin’ deals on Xbox Series X, a new genocide-free romance option in Baldur’s Gate 3, and wicked-strong Marvel Snap decks for your perusing pleasure.

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Nestled deep in the heart of virtual Yokohama down an ordinary alleyway lies the Sasaki Game Center - a virtual playground celebrating Sega's arcade heritage. The arcade has become a staple of Sega's Like A Dragon series but with the latest series entry, we've reached a new milestone - Sega has finally, for the first time, introduced official Model 3 emulation with it comes one of the finest racing games ever made.

Daytona USA 2: Battle on the Edge - now known, thanks to licensing issues, as Sega Racing Classic 2 - is an arcade racing game from the legendary AM2 and it stands as one of the fastest, most elegantly designed racing games of all time. It's not alone either, as a second Model 3 game is also included - Fighting Vipers 2. Daytona USA 2 has never been available on home consoles before, but Fighting Vipers 2 has in the form of a creditable Dreamcast port, thought to be uncannily similar to its arcade counterpart. But how close is it really? Thanks to Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, now we can find out.

To understand Sega's Model 3 arcade technology, we need to put 1996 into context. This is the year Nintendo 64 arrived on the market and the year that PlayStation really started to take hold across the industry. It was the year of games like Tekken 2 and Soul Edge, the year of Quake, Tomb Raider, Super Mario 64 and Waverace. On the PC side, the 3DFX Voodoo card arrived on the scene introducing high resolution rendering, faster frame-rates and smooth textures. But then there was Virtua Fighter 3.

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Fortnite's original map will return again (again) in 2024, following its impending destruction (again) during tonight's The Big Bang live event.

Epic Games made the announcement this afternoon on social media, after the wild popularity of the current "OG" season which saw the hugely-popular battle royale return to its roots.

"Ngl the OG season far exceeded our expectations," Epic Games wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. "So much so that we'd like to bring it back… *opens 2024 roadmap doc* In the meantime, see you on the Battle Bus."

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Sunrise will hold an event on December 18, 2023 to announce the development of Z of the Recapture, which will be a new entry in the Code Geass franchise. Guests who will be present include Jun Fukuyama, who voices Lelouch, and Yoshimitsu Oohashi, who will be the director. [Thanks, Comic Natalie!]

During the event, Sunrise will reveal the main cast, as well as an exclusive teaser. Since it also happens to be Lelouch’s birthday, there will be special airings of episode 6 of the first season and episode 5 of the second season. For reference, S1E06 was the episode when Arthur, Suzaku’s cat, stole Lelouch’s iconic Zero mask. S2E05 was the one when Ashford Academy threw a giant party to commemorate Suzaku returning. Both episodes are fairly lighthearted, focusing more on shenanigans than the rebellion. There will also be a stream of the event, though it will not be free.

Anyone familiar with Greek myths know the relationships between the gods were complicated and all of them were characters, so that should already offer something of a hint of what potential Ueji Yuho’s Lord Hades’s Ruthless Marriage manga might have. Now that the first volume is available via Yen Press, it’s easy to see how various traits and myths are adapted for this comedy.

Hades is a strong, serious, stable leader and god of the Underworld. He’s beloved by his forces, like Hypnos and Thanatos. However, moments after dealing with an escapee from Tartaros, we see the majestic god… blindfolded and with an arrow sticking out of his forehead.

Said arrow is one of Eros’ When Hades removes the blindfold, the first person he sees is the one he’ll fall in love with. And, while he’s very put off by this, his minions like Hypnos and Thanatos are delighted. Everyone’s been worried because he is single and alone, and they want him to be happy.

However, after saying he won’t get married and retreating to his palace, the goddess of spring Kore drops into his lap when the blindfold is gone. The arrow disappears, his guards come in to arrest her, but… it seems he doesn’t feel as though he’s in love with her. He suggests it must have been a dud.

As part of the many teases about the 1.6 update for Stardew Valley, Eric “Concerned Ape” Barone introduced the Big Chest for people who need a bigger one. It is a new type of item that people can build and place in the game.

In Stardew Valley, the standard Chest is one of the earliest things people can build, and it be built with 50 pieces of wood. Once created and placed somewhere, it can hold 36. As such, someone who has been playing for a substantial amount of time might have multiple ones placed around their farm or in other areas. 

The new screenshot Concerned Ape shared showed that the new, bigger Big Chest in Stardew Valley will hold “almost twice as much as a regular chest.” Double the space would mean 72 items. However, since the description says “almost,” we don’t know the exact amount of storage. Barone did confirm it will be useable with the workbench.

Here’s the latest announcement. In it, Barone also mentioned being in a state of “(self-imposed) extreme crunch” and accomplishing a “ton.”

Sega is bringing a "new era, new energy" to next week's The Game Awards.

That's according to a flyer that's doing the rounds on social media, in which the developer/publisher invites fans to "make sure [that they] tune in to The Game Awards" on 7th December 2023.

Streamer and Twitch ambassador Curiousjoi shared their glossy invitation on X/Twitter earlier today in a post entitled "So I got a letter from Sega…"

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Sony has patented an updated DualSense controller design that will provide players with "predictive AI assistance features".

This means the controller will light up or even move certain buttons and sticks to provide hints on what players need to do if they find themselves stuck in a game.

As reported by GameRant, the patent – which was filed on 30th November – details a machine learning model that will monitor a player's performance and provide predictive assistance should the player be – or about to be – stuck on a particular puzzle.

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Unknown 9: Awakening will be released in 2024.

That's according to Singapore's rating classification board, which recently rated the action-adventure game as suitable for players aged 16 and upwards and revealed the as-yet-unannounced release year will be 2024.

Unknown 9 was originally due to launch in 2021 for PC, PlayStation and Xbox, although interestingly, Singapore's Infocomm Media Development Authority has only listed it as coming to Asia on PS4 and PS5.

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I was so excited coming into the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Stone Ocean manga. I loved the anime when it aired on Netflix, and there always tend to be more details and depth in the original source. The first volume doesn’t disappoint, and I feel like that’s especially true concerning Stone Ocean characters. 

If you did happen to see the anime adaptation, then a lot of the first volume of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Stone Ocean manga will feel quite familiar. It’s a very faithful adaptation. If it is new to someone, Stone Ocean is yet another fantastic example of Hirohiko Araki’s intricate designs for characters and storytelling. 

Things start off a bit fast-paced, to help swiftly introduce the reader to Jolyne Cujoh and her situation. After taking the fall for a deadly hit-and-run her boyfriend committed, she’s on the way to trial and prison. However, before going before the judge, her lawyer presents her with a locket her mother was holding for her from her absentee father, Jotaro Kujo. It contains a fragment of the arrow from Diamond is Unbreakable and, upon handling the item, unlocks her ability to use the Stand Stone Free. 

A movie adaptation of the anime series Symphogear is in production. The name of the new project that Satelight announced back in 2022 is “Project Symphogear Next.” [Thanks, Dengeki Online!]

On November 30, 2023, Bushiroad announced that it would end service for Senki Zesshou Symphogear XD Unlimited in Japan at the end of January 2024. However, it will also provide an offline archive app so that mobile players will be able to look back on their journey. At the end of this announcement, Bushiroad teased a new project for Symphogear, which is Project Symphogear Next.

There’s not a lot of information yet in regards to the movie. The trailer for it, which bears the hashtag #Symphogear10thAnniversary and came out in November 2022, mostly focuses on the past entries for the franchise. As production continues, we will most likely get some more information on the plot and release window.

Infinite Borders – "one of the most popular mobile strategy games in East Asia", according to publisher/developer NetEase – is now available on mobile and PC worldwide.

"With tens of millions [of] downloads to date", strategy game Infinite Borders tasks you with leading armies in the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history. Here, you'll fight alongside legendary heroes like Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Lu Bu and use "mighty warriors to form unique teams, allowing for diverse combinations of generals and battle tactics to defeat your enemies and conquer territory".

"The world of Infinite Borders is genuinely grand to behold, with a 2.25 million grid map, allowing for truly immersive play in its ancient world," NetEase teases. "You can command troops into battle in this land, with over 300 Generals available for our collection. It’s possible to take on many roles, such as Fighter or Farmer, Diplomat or Spy, offering you many avenues to victory. Not only will you lead armies in this epic world, but you can also build and manage your estate, earning you resources in the process."

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Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone says he is in the midst of a "self-imposed crunch mode" as he gets Stardew Valley's 1.6 update ready for release.

Addressing Stardew fans directly via his X/Twitter channel, Barone says he is in "nose to the grindstone mode", and whilst he's keeping a lot of the details "secret", did reveal one little teaser which made fans very, very happy.

"A ton of progress on 1.6 last month, it's (self-imposed) extreme crunch mode, nose to the grindstone (raw nose) mode," Barone said.

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Welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the best community creations from the previous week.

With it being the start of December, that can mean only one thing: Giant Bomb is officially in the midst of GOTY FEVER! In case you missed it, Giant Bomb has already started its GOTY coverage, category discussions, and podcasts so the staff can attend The 2023 Game Awards and host their own GOTY live show on December 9th! Friday, December 1st, saw the staff debate the site's first seven GOTY categories and the programming will continue on December 5th! If you want the VOD, here you go! If you are wondering about the future, here's a programming schedule in case you were wondering:

Cyberpunk 2077 is finally getting the feature I most crave from every open world game: public transport. Update 2.1, due for release next week, is adding a fully-functioning metro system of the sort seen in Cyberpunk 2077's 2018 cinematic trailer - as well as new hangouts with your romantic pals, repeatable car races, and new accessibility settings.

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The first official glimpse at Fortnite Chapter 5 is now available to watch online, and shows a host of new upgrades available on an all-new battle royale island.

The ability to ride trains, wield riot shields, mod weapons, scramble across buildings and grapple up structures is shown in the official launch trailer below.

Fortnite's Chapter 5 Island clearly features a number of biomes, including one with sunny vinyards, alpine mountains, and ancient ruins.

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Tonight's Fortnite live event - the first in almost a year - was an eye-popping rollercoaster ride for those lucky enough to see it. After a throwback season based on the game's original map, it was perhaps fitting that The Big Bang also saw the return of Fortnite's old capacity issues - as more than 10 million players reportedly swamped the game's servers, while many millions more were left to watch the event online.

In-game, as the event's countdown timer hit zero above Dusty Divot, players were initially treated to an abbreviated version of the game's original The End event, with its apocalyptic meteor causing the Island to get sucked into a black hole once again (although, Epic has already confirmed, the OG map will emerge just okay due to public demand in 2024).

With the battle royale Island beyond Epic's event horizon, players next witnessed the birth of three major new Fortnite modes due to make a proper debut in the coming week: Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival.

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A seven-second TikTok video claiming to be a "first look at GTA 6" has gone viral, and unsubstantiated rumours reckon the leak comes via the son of a Rockstar developer.

It's almost impossible to go online these days without being smacked in the face by at least half a dozen purported GTA 6 "leaks", but this one was more plausible than most, which is probably why it gained traction. Quickly.

Two videos have been posted by the seemingly throwaway account i_see_in_4k, and both have - in the last couple of hours – shared a few tantalising seconds of what the poster insists is GTA 6.

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WWE 2K24 has been rated in Brazil, ahead of the sequel being formally announced by publisher 2K.

Its predecessor, WWE 2K23, was officially announced in January 2023, and released swiftly thereafter in March of that same year, leading some pundits to suggest that a similar timescale could apply here, too.

Whilst it's unlikely to come as a shock that the sequel was on the way, the rating board has seemingly confirmed the game's existence ahead of 2K's own marketing schedule.

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EA has "opened up" its accessibility tools and technology for "wider use to help gamers".

In a statement, EA reiterated its commitment to inclusivity by making its "easy-to-use photosensitivity analysis tool" available publicly via open source.

The tool, known as IRIS, automatically analyses and identifies frames within videos that could potentially impact players who experience photosensitivity.

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Perhaps the Last Of Us TV show on HBO getting it right was the dawn of a new era of good TV based on video games, but I still approach each adaptation with trepidation. That includes Amazon's Fallout series from Westworld and Person Of Interest writer/director Jonathan Nolan, which just got its first trailer.

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Stardew Valley developer Eric Barone, also known as ConcernedApe, says he is currently in "(self-imposed) extreme crunch mode" while working on the pastoral life sim's 1.6 update. When asked what motivates him to keep working on the already-beloved game, Barone called Stardew his "life's work."

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SteelSeries has been on something of a roll recently, with their redesigned Arctis Nova Pro headsets and new Arena speakers both attracting plaudits from press - including Eurogamer - and users alike for their design, audio quality and software. Now the Danish firm has turned its attention to the other side of audio: microphones. We've seen even great audio brands like Epos fail to deliver a convincing microphone for the gaming and streaming market, so how does SteelSeries fare with its Alias and Alias Pro microphones? In a word: superbly.

Let's start at the beginning. The Alias microphones are both built around a one-inch condenser capsule in a cardioid pattern, designed to capture your voice while sitting at a PC - rather than the Blue Yeti approach of offering four different pickup patterns for different recording scenarios that use up to four smaller capsules in combination. This focus allows for a noticeably slimmer microphone without sacrificing on sound quality. (The Alias's main body is around 190x55x45mm or 470cm³, compared to the 702cm³ Blue Yeti X and 590cm³ Shure SM7B.)

I'm stuck on Starfield. There are a million mission icons dotted around the screen, and I keep getting my ass handed to me in space by a bunch of pirates. Fortunately, it's 2023. I grab my smartphone, and within a few seconds, I'm looking at a page from Eurogamer's excellent guide to the Bethesda space epic. Ah, I press that button - now, only my current mission icon shows up. And I need to upgrade my ship. Or buy a better one. Here are the best ones, how much they cost and where to get them. Job done.

Rewind almost 40 years. I'm stumped on Ultimate's latest isometric epic, Pentagram. In typical Ultimate style, the instructions are eloquent but useless. I'm wandering around, exploring the two-colour world, occasionally jumping over blocks and avoiding the odd nasty. Eurogamer is just a twinkle in its founder's eyes, and in any case, how would I access it? The concept of networking computers was gathering pace, but it would be many years before the internet, as we know it today, would be available to proles such as me.

So, we networked, old school style and tips and tricks were swapped in the playground. But that didn't always work, especially with tougher games like Pentagram. There was one avenue left. Our internet, our network of (in my case) Spectrum fans, eagerly engaging with the experts and each other: the games magazines.

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It's door number three! This one leads to a night out. Can you pet a dog? No. But you can pet the rats.

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From one AMD CPU to another - the last deal we posted was on an AM4 gaming-focused processor, the 5800X3D, and now we're looking at the opposite end of Team Red's lineup: the 7950X. This Zen 4 design includes 16 cores and 32 threads, making it their ultimate consumer CPU for highly threaded workloads like video production, 3D rendering... and yes, many video games too!

This is still a pretty expensive processor, but it's a relative steal versus its launch price of £770. Amazon are now asking just £483 for this flagship-grade model, and that seems a fair price given just how well this CPU performs in everything from games to scientific computing and video rendering.

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AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X3D processor is well-known for offering a sharp upgrade to gaming performance over all other CPUs compatible with the company's now defunct AM4 motherboard platform. These days the processor costs around £290, but today the price has dipped to £271 - making it a good time to get that final CPU upgrade for your Ryzen 1000-5000 system.

Update: This article's headline had an incorrect price, which has now been updated to match the body text. I regret the error. Original article continues below.

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