The long awaited (official) debut of Grand Theft Auto 6 is nearly upon us, Starfield is shedding like a bad wig, and Coral Island has hunks in every direction.
Over Black Friday 2023, Sanshee started to expand its Persona 5 line of merchandise with plush items based on Makoto Niijima and Morgana. What’s fun is how both the Makoto collector’s plush and Morgana plush hanger tote bag ended up being quality items that allow someone to appreciate the characters in different ways.
In the case of the Makoto collector’s plush, it’s a fun item to display on a shelf, bed, or couch. Given it is about 10 inches tall, it’s not exactly something that could go on a shelf alongside figures. But it’s a cute display item. Especially since it is so intricate. While the hair is made of a really soft, typical “plush” fabric, I felt like the rest came across as more of a decorative doll.
PlayStation has begun emailing players to inform them that due to "content licensing arrangements", from 31st December, some Dicovery content will be removed from players' libraries – even if they've paid for it.
The statement, which says the change affects only Discovery content for now, doesn't explain why content is being removed, nor apologises for it. All it does is thank players for their "continued support".
"As of 31 December 2023, due to our content licensing arrangements with content providers, you will no longer be able to watch any of your previously purchased Discovery content and the content will be removed from your video library," the brief statement explains.
Bandai Spirits will start selling a new Ichiban Kuji lottery series with Goddess of Victory: NIKKE merchandise from December 2, 2023. It’ll cost 780 JPY per attempt. [Thanks, Famitsu!]
Excluding the Double Chance Campaign and Last One Prize, there are ten different prizes that you can get in total from the NIKKE Ichiban Kuji. You’ll be able to participate from any Animate, Ichiban Kuji shop, hobby shop, game centers, et cetera in Japan. Those outside of Japan will need to ask their local hobby shop if they have the NIKKE Ichiban Kuji. The lottery will end in late March 2024.
Here are the prizes from the Chapter2 collection:
I adore puzzle games, even if I’m not particularly good at them. There’s something incredibly satisfying about finally cracking the last move in a complex level. Howl takes that same feeling of puzzle games and adds tactical RPG elements to create a more flexible and creative gameplay loop, all without simplifying the experience.
Howl is light on plot, but what it has of it is delightful. The player steps into the shoes of the Prophet, a deaf woman and the latest in a line of people with the ability to fight back against the titular Howl, a terrible curse that turns anyone that hears its call into a feral wolf-like monster. The Prophet embarks on a quest to find her lost brother, trying to save any innocent that is being threatened by the werewolves.
Electronic Arts has filed a trademark application for the words Neon Fox.
Filed just Friday, 1st December, the trademark application has been filed in numerous categories, including one for computer game software and online entertainment – which means some think this may be a new game – and another in the category "video game development services", which has others opining that it may be the name of a brand-new studio.
"Personally, I think it's a new studio," said professional leaker and rumourist, Kurakasis. "EA studio trademarks are filed with IC 042: Design and development of interactive, computer, video... unlike games. I think it's going to be announced pretty soon.
Wondering how Peter Griffin got in shape for Fortnite? Well, wonder no more.
Epic has drawn back the covers on what's next for Fortnite and, as previously leaked, Peter Griffin from Family Guy and Solid Snake are part of the Chapter 5 Season 1: Underground battle pass.
But while Griffin's appearance in Fortnite may not be all that surprising to some who've been paying attention, his actual appearance is.
A special version of Volume 12 of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End will come out on December 18, 2023. It will come with a special short novel that was written specifically for the Frieren anime opening. [Thanks, Dengeki Online!]
The Frieren light novel is readily available to read on the official website for the show. But Volume 12 will come with a physical copy of the book. In total, there will be 32 pages, as well as three illustrations. Tsukasa Abe, who draws for the manga, worked on these pictures. Though it’s unclear who the author of the novelization is, the original writer Kanehito Yamada supervised the entire time. If you get the bundle, you will only get the novel. Volume 12 itself is the same no matter what.
This is not the first time that someone wrote an official short story for a show. Prior to Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury coming out, a short story was available on Sunrise’s website that focused on the Aerial’s feelings for a young Suletta. At the time, the author stated that reading the novel and then listening to the song again will affect how you feel about the lyrics.
A gang of volunteer modders and developers have just released a huge expansion for the 25-year-old first-person stealth game, Thief: The Dark Project.
The Black Parade – a seven-year-long labour of love described as an "unofficial free expansion" for the game's Thief Gold edition – bundles 10 new missions, four new tools, and "30 minutes of gorgeous cutscenes and more" into this free-to-play add-on.
You can see it in action in the teaser below:
Xbox spends "over a billion dollars a year" on its Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
That's from Xbox boss Phil Spencer himself, who confirmed the eye-watering figure in an interview with Windows Central earlier this week.
"We've put a lot of money into the market, over a billion dollars a year supporting third-party games coming into Game Pass," Spencer said.
Amazon has dropped a new meaty teaser to get us in the mood for the upcoming Fallout TV show.
From the creators of Westworld, executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and starring Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Chris Parnell, Lost's Michael Emerson, and Walton Goggins, Fallout is set to arrive on Prime Video on 12th April 12, 2024. And the teaser has got a lot of us very excited, not least because Dogmeat is now all but confirmed.
You can check out the full two-and-a-half-minutes-long video below:
Ever since its debut in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999, Naruto has grown into a worldwide phenomenon. With its popular Shippuden anime adaptation and spin-off series consisting of decades of material, we wanted to discuss who we think is the best Naruto character in the entire franchise.
I feel like Gaara is such a cop-out answer because who doesn't like Gaara? But no matter how I rack my brain, I can't really think of a Naruto character I legitimately like more than him (I like Itachi too, but I feel like Itachi is also everyone's favorite). His character arc was really intriguing, his character design after the time skip was super nice, and Ishida Akira knocked it out of the park with his performance. My only complaint about Gaara is that I don't like to play as him in the Naruto games. — Stephanie
I adore Kakashi and think he’s the best Naruto character. He’s a good teacher who cares about his students but isn’t above being a little silly and childish sometimes. Which is especially appreciated, seeing he can have those moments considering his past. I want only the best for him and all his dogs. — Jenni
Gosh, Micro SD cards are so cheap now. Right now you can get a fast and capacious 512GB Samsung Evo Select memory card for just $24.99 after a $10 price drop. That's an absurd price for this amount of storage, especially for an A2-rated card that's ideal for Steam Deck, ROG Ally and Nintendo Switch.
Keyboard company Royal Kludge aren't doing themselves any favours with that name, but they do make some of the best cheap options on the market. Today their RK61 keyboard is down to $39.99 at Amazon US, a great price for a 60% keyboard with 2.4GHz wireless, Bluetooth and USB-C connectivity, hot-swappable switches and single colour backlighting.
This week is the week of The Games Awards, aka Geoffest, aka the Ke3ghleys - an absolute banquet of trailers, release dates and game announcements for the Maw. There are a few reveals in the offing. Some, we already know about, and may even have written up in advance; others, we'll learn about together with your good selves when the livestream begins at 4.30pm Los Angeles time on 7th December, which equates to 12.30am on 8th December (ouch) in the UK. There's the trifling matter of the first GTA 6 trailer on 5th December, too.
Some games out this week that we're keeping in the corner of our eye, in case they turn on us: A Highland Song (5th Dec), Blood West (5th Dec), Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (7th Dec), Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (7th Dec).
Phoenix Labs, the developer behind recent indie success Fae Farm, has laid off 34 staff.
This is the second round of layoffs for the studio this year.
"After a rigorous review we made the decision to change the structure of our support teams, and we have made the tough decision to reduce our workforce by a total of 34 people, across our publishing, HR, IT, and shared services teams," a studio representative told GamesIndusty.biz.
Have you ever felt like you're at least ten years too old to be playing certain video games? Whether it's the humour falling flat, or just the general hyperactivity of its main cast being a bit too much, there are some games out there that you can't help but bounce off. Hard. Alas, in the case of In Stars And Time, I've been thrown from its time-looping RPG trampoline with such violence that I now can't even look at it without breaking out into a sweat.
Fae Farm and Dauntless developers Phoenix Labs have cut 34 jobs following an internal review. It's a sad end to a busy year for the Canadian studio, who bought their independence back from previous owner Garena in February, and laid off 9 per cent of their workforce in May.
Jet Force Gemini on Switch has a broken widescreen mode.
The N64 cult classic is set to hit Nintendo Switch Online for Expansion Pack subscribers in December, but is already available in Japan.
The game supports both 4:3 and 16:9 modes. However, the widescreen mode does not properly scale and instead stretches the image with letterboxing, as reported by Nintendo World Report.
NetherRealm has released a new trailer for Mortal Kombat 1, offering up some sorcery-infused Quan Chi gameplay and a release date for his arrival in the game. As well as that, this trailer also shows Khameleon in all her lethal glory, and gives us our best look yet at John Cena's Peacemaker in-game.
Quan Chi will be arriving in Mortal Kombat 1 later this month. The sorcerer is one of the characters from Mortal Kombat 1's Kombat Pack. If players have this DLC or the Premium edition of the game, they will be able to put him through his paces from 14th December.
Alternatively, Quan Chi will be available to download separately from 21st December.
Sanrio released a new line of crossover merchandise involving the anime and manga series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon worldwide. Several new crossover products are available and on sale now on the company's online store.
For this crossover, each Sailor Senshi has been paired with a fitting Sanrio mascot. Additionally, a new illustration has been created for each duo.
Here is a full list of the new Sailor Moon X Sanrio products, along with the prices for each piece of merchandise:
Botany Manor is an enigmatic puzzle adventure game that tasks players with solving riddles to grow plants within a mysterious estate. The game first raised eyebrows during its reveal at a Nintendo Direct last November, and we can exclusively reveal that it’s arriving next spring.
Players control Arabella Greene, a retired botanist looking to bring life back to her massive collection of rare, long-lost plants. Doing this involves exploring a giant 19th-century manor in search of clues, notes, and other items to uncover the proper methods and conditions to make her plants grow. This involves finding the ideal habitats to place seedlings, for example, which may require some creative problem-solving and mature plants have mysterious qualities.
As players find and examine clues, they’ll also learn about the ups and downs in Arabella’s life, both personally and professionally. Overall, the game has a peaceful atmosphere accented by a calming presentation and a pleasant soundtrack. Botany Manor is the debut title by the small team at Balloon Studios and is published by Whitethorn Games.
Botany Manor is coming to Xbox consoles, Switch, and PC. It will also launch day one on Xbox Game Pass.
Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter's #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This week, my eye has been caught by games touching on chat around GTA 6 and Furiosa, along with spaceships, fungal horror, and the developer's dog. Come admire all these attractive and interesting indie games!
I'm in a weird place with the Meta Quest. It's really its own platform these days, with its own specs and increasingly divergent library of games. At the same time, the Meta's standalone headsets are by far the most popular PCVR devices. Therefore, most PCVR gamers will also have access to the Quest's handful of VR exclusives. Generally, this column sticks to covering games you can play with any PCVR headset, Quest or no. But since I reviewed the Meta Quest 3 last month, it feels odd not to check out at least one of its new titles, especially when it's probably the most notable VR release of the year – Assassin's Creed Nexus.
Also, I'll admit, a VR Assassin's Creed game intrigues me. The idea of cavorting across historical rooftops and shanking templars in the sternum sounds brilliant. It also sounds like barf city. Most VR games limit the need to move around as much as possible, so translating a game as kinetic as Assassin's Creed into VR seems mighty challenging.
The PlayStation Access Controller is a bold statement by PlayStation that the platform holder understands the importance of hardware accessibility. Players previously excluded from enjoying PlayStation games due to the lack of hardware choice now have the freedom to expand their gaming horizons.
It's important to note upfront that, while the Access Controller may have similarities to the Xbox Adaptive Controller, it's designed to be a full controller solution without needing external input devices. It's supported by robust accessibility software, rather than acting as a switch hub, like the XAC. There are positives and negatives to this.
The controller itself is aesthetically pleasing, matching the white and black colour scheme of the PS5 and DualSense controller. The rubber grips on the base are a firm foundation to ensure stability when the device is placed on a table or a wheelchair tray, and it also has four attachment points for different wheelchair mounting solutions. The plastic feels durable, surviving a drop test on both carpeted and wooden floor - and it's certainly going to be dropped on occasions if it rests on a knee. Buttons have a satisfying tactile click, making sure you feel and hear a click without glancing down at the controller. The circular design fits perfectly in your hand allowing you to reach the eight buttons, and the sticks can also retract and extend by holding the lock button.
Publisher THQ Nordic has announced Outcast: A New Beginning will release on 15th March, 2024.
The sci-fi action-adventure sequel sees original protagonist Cutter Slade return to the alien planet Adelpha in a bid to help the local Talans fend off invading humanoid robots and discover why he was sent back there.
The game was announced back in 2021 as Outcast 2: A New Beginning, but developer Appeal Studios dropped the 2 to make the game more approachable.
Waluigi creator Fumihide Aoki shared designs of a Wario-style Princess Peach for the first time at the weekend, before pulling them shortly after.
Aoki posted the designs to his Instagram page, which he has since set to private. The images have been reuploaded by others, including gosokkyu on X (née Twitter), who brought attention to "Walupeach" in January this year.
The images included both concept art for the character and an early 3D model. However they are no longer available to view.
Nintendo's Hidemaro Fujibayashi and Eiji Aonuma have spoken more about the monsters they created for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, including the all new Horriblins and the return of Gleeoks.
In an interview with Nintendo Dream, which was translated by Nintendo Everything, Fujibayashi said the team "prioritised gameplay" when deciding which monsters to include in Breath of the Wild's sequel.
The Tears of the Kingdom director noted that with the introduction of caves and underground areas, as well as sky-based action, the studio needed to consider which enemies would be able to "do well" in each area of Hyrule's expanded map.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is often heralded as one of the best adventure games of the past 25 years. With the nefarious Ganon once again scheming to conquer the land, it’s up to Link to traverse through time, space, and yet another aggravating water temple to save the Kingdom of Hyrule. While the epic for…
In 2023, Stern Pinball moved to a new location in Illinois, worked on tables based on Godzilla, Foo Fighters, and Venom, and launched its Insider Connected app to bring players together. To learn more about the company and its plans, Siliconera spoke with CEO Seth Davis about the company and its latest moves.
Jenni Lada: When did you first start here with Stern?
Seth Davis: I've been here for a little over two years. So, couple years ago I I joined and it's been a lot of fun.
What made you decide you wanted to join?
Davis: Stern makes the best pinball machines in the world. I've always been a big gamer. I came from Disney most recently, where I had worked on video games and all that. I’d grown up in an 80s arcade, like a lot of people my age, and, went between video games and pinball machines and all of that. So, having the opportunity to join a company that makes the best products in the world at what they do is just a really unique opportunity. So I moved out to Chicago and joined up.
Ahead of the release of the upcoming move Spy x Family CODE: White, a special collaboration will begin in Street Fighter 6 on January 9, 2024. An animated short featuring Yor Forger and Chun-Li teasing the crossover was uploaded to YouTube on December 3, 2023.
In the special animation, Yor can be seen using her skills as an assassin in battle with Chun-Li. This is based on the Street Fighter 6 version of the character.
You can watch their fight in the video below:
Square Enix shared a new video on the company's YouTube account that shows a preview of the Steam version of FFVII Ever Crisis, and in the description it stated that the Steam version of the game can link to mobile version. [Thanks, Wario64!]
The video description noted that due to the ability to link data between the smartphone version and the Steam version, players can enjoy playing FFVII Ever Crisis on both systems. The process for data linking has not yet been explained.
The video shared by Square Enix focuses on Final Fantasy VII, Chapter 1, Main Section 2 "Meeting the Flower Girl". This covers the first meeting between Aerith and Cloud in Sector 8 on Loveless Street when she gives Cloud a flower. After Cloud meets Aerith, he is surrounded by Shinra Security Officers and must fight them off to leave the sector. The footage shows off the keyboard inputs for the various buttons on the game's UI which have been retooled to work without a touchscreen. Each button has been replaced with a specific key on the keyboard. The video of the Steam version of FFVII Ever Crisis did not show off any footage of mouse inputs.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E25MT5bMd0k[/embed]
Next week, Mortal Kombat 1 is getting its second DLC fighter in the form of the Nether Realm’s favorite wizard, Quan Chi. His gameplay trailer makes no bones about the fact that he’s an extremely formidable fighter.
Quan Chi sports his usual arsenal of necromancy-based offense, such as summoning skeletons and firing skulls, but he can now conjure giant tentacles from presumably another reality. He also tag teams with upcoming Kameo fighter Khameleon, who becomes available in January. We particularly enjoy seeing Quan Chi and Shang Tsung make perhaps the most delightfully eye-rolling Deadly Alliance reference ever, plus the bonus tease of another impending guest fighter, Peacemaker, who arrives in February.
Owners of Mortal Kombat 1’s Premium Edition or Kombat Pack get access to Quan Chi early on December 14. Everyone else will have to wait until December 21. Quan Chi follows Invincible’s Omni-Man, who hit the game last month, on the DLC character roadmap, leaving Ermac, Takeda, Peacemaker, and The Boys’ Homelander.
For more on Mortal Kombat 1, you can read our review here.
After years of waiting, Amazon Studios has released the first trailer for its upcoming TV adaptation of Fallout. The series is set to premiere on April 12 on Amazon Prime, and this teaser proves that visually speaking, the series appears to faithfully capture the essence of Bethesda’s beloved RPG.
Fallout is brought to life by Westworld showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, with Bethesda head Todd Howard serving as executive producer. The cast includes Ella Purnell as a freshly emerged Vault 33 dweller named Lucy and Walton Goggins as a gunslinging ghoul aptly dubbed “The Ghoul,” and the series synopsis reads as follows:
Based on one of the greatest video game series of all time, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. 200 years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind — and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird and highly violent universe waiting for them.The trailer packs in what a lot of fans would expect from a Fallout adaptation: power armor, vaults, irradiated, mutated creatures, exploding headshots, and a dark sense of humor. Here's hoping it can live up to recent live-action success stories such as The Last of Us and Twisted Metal.
Once in a while I have to figure out how to recommend a game I know I'm never going to touch again. Orten Was The Case is an adventure game, which triggers a reflexive "ugh", and it's a big elaborate puzzle, which I have limited patience for, and it's a time-loop game, making it a cool and well-realised concept that happens to be a poor fit for my scattered brain. I wish I enjoyed it as much as some of you will, because it's clearly a bit special.
Following two years in early access, roguelite citybuilder Against The Storm has finally reached its 1.0 milestone. It’s a combination of genres that seem to pair together as naturally as sausages and strawberry jam. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of both of these things as separate entities, but together? My assumption was that they would prove too strange to stomach, but much like the cursed pork and berry snack that became a staple of my university diet, the result is a thrilling concoction that delights the palette. I’ll say it right up top: Against The Storm is one of this year’s best.
This week's DF Direct Weekly kicks off with our 'hot take' on the state of Batman: Arkham Trilogy on Nintendo Switch. We film the show on Friday morning and so only had an hour or so with the game before we sat down to record, but we had to know the answer to one burning question: can Nintendo's handheld hybrid really run Batman: Arkham Knight? Hopes were high for another 'impossible port' but alas, the final game is practically a disaster, brutally cutback in every conceivable way and plagued with profound stuttering problems.
Lighting is savagely downgraded, texture quality is a total mess, shadows take a trip back to PS2 era standards and geometry is culled. Arkham Knight routinely fails to hit its 30 frames per second target, often lingering in the low to mid-20s but worse than that is the pervasive stuttering problem. Most strongly evident in the Batmobile sections, Arkham Knight is clearly facing system-level bottlenecks at every turn: streaming environmental detail at speeds has a clearly measurable impact on the CPU, while the addition of collision physics stacks on top of that, taking performance into the teens.
Starbreeze, the studio known for the likes of Payday, is developing a game based on the Dungeons and Dragons IP.
Codenamed Project Baxter, the upcoming game is expected to release across platforms in 2026. It is being produced in Unreal Engine 5.
While further details on this project are still thin, the studio has said players can expect "the signature Starbreeze game cornerstones of co-operative multiplayer, lifetime commitment through a Games as a Service-model, community engagement and a larger than life experience" on release. When Project Baxter launches, Starbreeze will also act as the game's publisher.
