December 2023

Nightingale developer Inflexion Games has announced it'll be conducting stress tests for the game's servers in early 2024.

The "gaslamp fantasy" survival game is currently in closed testing, but the stress test will be an open playtest.

Inflexion Games is inviting players to help "break the portal network" and all you need to do if you're interested in taking part is request access to the playtest on Nightingale's Steam page.

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Last year, I bemoaned the lack of Mac-friendly mechanical keyboards in my review of the Das Keyboard MacTigr. It seems that someone heard my calls, as I've got the Wombat Pine Professional sat on my desk to review. It may not be from a brand many of you know, but the parent company of Wombat, KSI (not that one) first made peripherals to pair with Apple's IIe four decades ago. Now they've released a full-size wireless mechanical keyboard that, on paper, looks like a solid option for Mac users looking to upgrade their typing experience without giving up the benefits of Mac-specific designs.

The Pine Pro, in its grey and black colourway here, looks classy and purposeful. The grey chassis keycaps and metal top plate match the Space Grey of my MacBook Pro nicely, as well as being a near-match to my Logitech MX Master 3S mouse I use for work, meaning everything ties together nicely. Considering Apple has always valued aesthetics, that's a big win for the Pine Pro. If this grey colourway isn't for you though, the Pine Pro is also available in other colourways including blue, green and pink for something a little more funky.

This is a sturdily built keeb too, especially with the combo of a half-plastic, half-anodised-aluminium case which offers no deck flex to speak of and a reassuring heft. The two level feet on the bottom of the keyboard also feel good; it's nice to have a choice of typing angle even if the default feels comfortable.

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Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the Release Calendar for December is so delightful. Catchy isn't it? OK no it's not, but it is partially truthful in that there are still games to come this year. And when better to submerge yourself in them?

What to Play This Month brings you both a list of games you might have missed from the previous month as well as a list of what's coming in the month ahead. Our aim is to cut through the noise for you to give you a clearer picture of what's out there. So, without further ado, here's What To Play This December.

Availability: Out now on PC, PS5, Switch and Xbox Series X/S.

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A seven-second TikTok reverberated across the internet over the weekend, after it claimed to show the “first look” at in-game footage of a city in Grand Theft Auto VI, the open-world blockbuster whose official trailer is just a day away. Frantic speculation about whether the footage was real or not ensued, including…

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Update: Rockstar has now confirmed that the trailer was leaked and has released the trailer itself. Check out our rundown here. Original story follows.

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The latest character to be revealed for the mobile game Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night Liberator is Master’s Right-Hand Ryza. In this new design, she’s wearing a monocle over her left eye.

New artwork showing off this version of Ryza was uploaded to the official Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night Liberator social media account. Check out the new character design from the official post below:

An animated character promotional video was also uploaded to the official Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night Liberator YouTube channel. In it, we get a glimpse at how this version of Ryza operates in battle and can see her special attack.

Watch the new Master’s Right-Hand Ryza character trailer below:

Universal Studios Japan revealed that it will hold a My Hero Academia event for the first time ever. New exclusive attractions based on the action manga and anime franchise will be available from March 2024 to August 14, 2024.

Barely any details about the collaboration are known about as of this announcement. Universal Studios Japan so far teases that visitors will be able to immerse themselves in battles between the franchise's heroes and villains. It also published a key art showing the protagonist Izuku "Deku" Midoriya preparing an attack with the Universal Pictures logo as a background.

Sunrise announced that Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance will appear worldwide on Netflix. It also published a new teaser trailer that shows a sneak peek of the main characters and Mobile Suits. The trailer also shows a Gundam-type Mobile Suit that will appear as the antagonist from the viewpoint of Zeon's pilots.

The new teaser trailer is available to watch on multiple official YouTube channels, such as GundamInfo and Netflix Anime:

Sunrise first revealed Requiem for Vengeance in July 2023. It is using Unreal Engine 5 to produce the film, and Erasmus Brosdau is also working as the director. The new title will take place in Europe during the One Year War in the year 0079 of the Universal Century timeline. Celia Massingham will voice the female protagonist who pilots a Zaku for Zeon's attack forces.

On December 4, 2023, a new line of gothic lolita Sanrio sweatshirts will be available to purchase at the clothing store Uniqlo retail locations and the online store in Japan, and this lineup features the mascot characters Cinnamoroll, My Melody, and Kuromi.

Each of the three featured Sanrio characters is re-imagined with a gothic lolita theme for the merchandise. These new illustrations inspired by Harajuku fashion are featured on the new sweatshirts. The Cinnamoroll and My Melody sweatshirts also include a ribbon print on the sleeves, while the black Kuromi sweatshirt features an airbrush-style design.

Here’s a list of all of the new products, along with the prices:

• Black Kuromi Sweatshirt: 2,990 yen ($20.36)
• Cinnamoroll Sweatshirt: 2,990 yen ($20.36)
• My Melody Sweatshirt: 2,990 yen ($20.36)

Starbreeze, the studio behind games such as Payday 3, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and The Darkness, has announced a partnership with Wizards of the Coast to develop and publish a new cooperative multiplayer game set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons.

The title is codenamed Project Baxter and is slated to arrive in 2026. In a press release, Starbreeze states that Baxter is being developed in Unreal Engine 5 and “will carry 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.” Although D&D is a role-playing game, it's unclear what genre Project Baxter will be. 

We are excited to unveil Dungeons & Dragons® as the IP for our next game, codename ”Project Baxter”. A co-operative multiplayer title to be released on all major platforms in 2026!

Read more here: https://t.co/JROgMApCzl pic.twitter.com/2SIOUZycyV

— Starbreeze Entertainment (@StarbreezeAB) December 4, 2023

Project Baxter is slated to launch on all major platforms and will feature cross-play. Starbreeze released a piece of concept artwork, posted above, as a small visual hint of what's to come.

Endure The Swarm, which launches on Friday 8th December, takes that most abstract and respectable of game genres, the block-pushing puzzler, and fills it with ghastly, flesh-eating insects. There’s no amount of pesticide that can stay this tide, nor (sadly) is there the option to stand on a chair screaming and waving a broom. Rather, you must call upon your mammalian mastery of spatial reasoning to survive. The insect hivemind, you see, is incapable of grasping the complexities of block positioning.

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BioWare just released a new Dragon Age: Dreadwolf teaser, only to then say the game won't be getting a full reveal until next year.

The short teaser comes in at just shy of 50 seconds, and pans across some nice vistas - the port city in Antiva sits bathed in evening light, the Rivain shoreline is lapped by azure blue seas, Anderfels is in the midst of a storm. It is all very Dragon Age-y, much as you would expect.

"Enter Thedas, a vibrant land of rugged wilderness, treacherous labyrinths, and glittering cities - steeped in savage combat and secret magics. Now, its fate teeters on a knife's edge," the teaser's description reads.

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Last week, we asked y’all what you’d like to see from GTA VI now that we know Rockstar Games will drop an official trailer on December 5. Any response was welcomed here. You could get creative, tossing out ideas that are probably less than likely. Or you could keep it realistic, presenting features that might be more…

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Earlier this week, we asked you all to give us your choice for the best video game sequel. Any sequel would count and everyone was free to suggest any game they wanted, no matter how old, obscure, or divisive. And we tallied up all the answers, crunched the numbers, and figured out your top ten sequels.

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Dragon Quest series creator Yuji Horii confirmed that he is currently playtesting the upcoming Dragon Quest III: HD-2D Remake. The game still has no confirmed release date or confirmed release platforms.

Yuji Horii thanked fans for their support and celebrated both the recent launch of the new Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince and the second anniversary of the Japan-only Dragon Quest Keshi Keshi mobile game in a social media post. Additionally, Yuji Horii mentioned staying up to nearly 10pm on the night of October 30, 2023 while playtesting the upcoming Dragon Quest III: HD-2D Remake.

You can check out the original Japanese post by Yuji Horii here:

We’re mere hours away from the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6, the simple teaser image for which has already sparked an internet-wide meme and thrown infinite fuel on the ever-burning GTA 6 rumour fire. Big questions remain, of course. Not least: when will GTA 6 actually be out? Yet some eagle-eyed internet detectives reckon GTA 6’s release date has been staring us all in the face - and nips - for months.

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Stellaris Nexus hinges off one of the downsides of the Paradox space game’s epic scale - the amount of time it takes to finish a match - to present a bite-sized side dish of 4X nibbles if you only have an hour to play instead of, say, a day. Now that plate of nibbles is offering up, er, a basically identical plate of bite-sized nibbles that you don’t have to pay for right away, as the game has seen its early access release date - planned for tomorrow, no less - replaced by a last-minute week-long open beta.

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I'm writing to you from the scene of a terrible spit-take accident, as seeing the size and height of this gaudy Thermalright NVMe heatsink caused me to emit a fine mist of water over my desk. No keyboards or computers were harmed in the inchident, but I thought I'd let you know that this heatsink is also discounted by nearly £2 - from £9.39 to £7.51!

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Here's a fun fact: Corsair started off making L2 cache modules in the 90s, before Intel started including a L2 cache in their CPUs. Corsair switched over to making RAM modules, and nearly 30 years later they're still doing it - but the list of Corsair products has grown hugely.

Today we're looking at two of Corsair's best products in a £130 bundle at Scan in the UK: their 4000D Airflow PC case and their RM750 power supply. Both are well-regarded options for building your own gaming PC, and now you can pick them up together for more than £70 under RRP.

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Outcast: A New Beginning is gearing up to drop its long-awaited sequel to the nineties sci-fi adventure game, with its newly-announced release date landing almost a quarter of a century after its predecessor. If you’re new, or have just forgotten what happened in the first Outcast - of which there’s a good chance given that time gap - you should apparently still be able to jump in here.

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Payday devs Starbreeze are working on a co-op multiplayer game based on storied tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons. It’ll be out in 2026, and Starbreeze are being upfront with the fact it’ll be a games-as-a-service-type game.

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The secret is out: the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series has great minigames. Whether you enjoy playing retro arcade brawlers like Virtua Fighter, dumping dozens of hours into becoming a real-estate tycoon, or chatting up bodacious babes at the hostess club, Sega’s goofy action series has plenty of pleasant timesinks to…

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When it comes to Starfield, Bethesda’s massive space RPG, Xbox head Phil Spencer doesn’t care about Steam active player counts or Game Awards GOTY snubs. He still believes, in his heart of hearts, that the game will enjoy Skryim-esque longevity—at least, that’s what he said onstage at Brazil’s Comic Con Experience…

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Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 1 has begun, introducing new locations, skins, and weapons to unlock. One of the skins, Metal Gear Solid’s Snake, is buried deep within this season’s battle pass, and while folks are figuring out how to unlock the bonus cosmetic, it seems everyone’s bummed by his newfound lack of cake.

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Paramount’s Halo series was divisive when it premiered in 2022. Much to the chagrin of long-time fans who wanted a straightforward adaptation of the iconic video game franchise, it did its own thing, unmasking the iconic Master Chief and even giving him a romantic subplot. Based on the trailer for season two, it looks…

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According to the recent results from the Yahoo Japan Search Awards, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was the most searched for video game in 2023. In terms of anime, Oshi no Ko was the one most people searched for.

After the success of Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom followed as both next big mainline The Legend of Zelda title from Nintendo and a direct sequel to the game. For six years the game was in development, and it released on May 12, 2023. By June 2023, Tears of the Kingdom had cemented itself as the fastest selling Nintendo title.

Here are the top five most searched for video games on Yahoo Japan in 2023:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
2. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

A manga adaptation inspired by the Hololive subunit Shiranui Construction is scheduled to begin its serialization in the Japanese magazine Weekly Shonen Champion. The first appearance of the comic will be in the upcoming January 11, 2024 issue. [Thanks, ryokutya2089!]

The manga will be called Shiranai Koto Kenkyuukai, or Shiraken Scholar Society. It follows the everyday high school adventures of the five Shiranui Construction members brought together by their shared love of Minecraft. These are Shiranui Flare, Omaru Polka, Shirogane Noel, Sakura Miko, and Hoshimachi Suisei.

As an added note, this manga will be illustrated by the artist Tsumumi, who also currently illustrates the Love Live! flowers*-Hasu no Sora Jōgakuin School Idol Club manga in Ultra Jump. A preview of the beginning of the manga will appear in the upcoming December 7, 2023 issue, and a site is open.

Koei Tecmo and Ruby Party will end online services for La Corda d'Oro: Starlight Orchestra on March 29, 2024. The mobile game ran for about three years following a launch in February 2021. There will be no celebrations for the outgoing game's third anniversary in February 2024, as Ruby Party will focus on releasing the final event and character story chapters.

Shortly after shutting down the online-exclusive game, Ruby Party will release an offline archive version that existing players can download to review stories and cards that they have unlocked. Koei Tecmo will also process refunds for unused paid jewels from March 30, 2024, to June 30, 2024. However, it will first change the jewel usage behavior to prioritize paid jewels over free jewels after disabling in-app purchases on February 28, 2024.

HoYoVerse went over the equipment and allies people will encounter in Zenless Zone Zero, detailing how the Bangboo, Eous, Drive Discs, and W-Engines will work. All of them help players while in a Hollow.

The Drive Discs and W-Engines are the equipment Zenless Zone Zero players will use in the game. The W-Engine affects Base Attack, an Advanced Stat, and applies a W-Engine Effect. So for example the Starlight Engine shown by the company increases the Base Attack, has an Attack percentage increase as the Advanced Stat, and has the Knight Pummel W-Engine Effect that increases ATK by 24% briefly after someone starts a Chain Attack. W-Engines can be found via Proxy Primers and at the Box Galaxy Shop. To buy one, you need W-Engine Chips, Modification Materials, and Dennies. You can also combine the same kind of W-Engine to increase its Effect. Think of it as being like a Genshin Impact weapon

At the end of November 2023, Nijisanji Vtuber Selen Tatsuki announced a HoloNiji Apex Custom Apex Legends tournament for members of Anycolor’s company and Hololive and Holostars performers, and now we know the 16 teams participating. It will be held on December 9, 2023 at 7pm PT/10pm ET.

Many of the teams are mixed ones. This means there could be both Hololive and Nijisanji Vtubers playing Apex Legends on the same side. As a notable aside, Team 1 is Team Snake Bite (TSB), which features Selen with Axel Syrios and Regis Altare. This is the group that participated in V-Saikyo in April 2023. As a reminder, this is an EA-supported Apex Legends tournament. 

Here’s the full list of every HoloNiji Apex Custom team. 

• Team 1: Axel Syrios, Selen Tatsuki, and Regis Altare
• Team 2: Kureiji Ollie, Airani Iofifteen, and Alban Knox
• Team 3: Kaede Higuchi, Yuki Chihiro, and Takamiya Rion
• Team 4: Gwelu Os Gar, Seto Miyako, Kanda Shoichi

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has been a long time coming, and a new teaser trailer – arriving on Dragon Age Day, appropriately – provides a glimpse of its continent, Thedas, while also announcing when Bioware will properly reveal the game. 

The trailer provides a cinematic flyby of Thedas’ map and a few scenic shots of locales as out-of-context musings from several characters set the tone. It wraps up with a message announcing a full reveal coming next summer. 

It’s a bittersweet announcement. It’s good to know when we’ll finally see what Dreadwolf actually is. We're just bummed to get a teaser for a trailer that's months away. There’s always the chance Dreadwolf launches a few months after its grand debut (it’s happened before with several other big games), though the game was announced as being in the middle of full production last year, and with Bioware’s recent restructuring resulting in layoffs, a 2024 launch may be optimistic. 

The first trailer for Rockstar’s next Grand Theft Auto game, likely to be named GTA VI, comes out December 5. What can we expect the trailer to reveal? Well, based on Rockstar’s past GTA trailers, which are fantastic, there’s a pattern that can help us predict what we might see during GTA VI’s official debut.

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At its core, Pokémon is a wildlife expedition. The series sends us into nature to capture these wonderful creatures to fight our battles for us. On top of that, we fill out a Pokédex and learn more about them as we capture them in Poké Balls. Over the years, the series has explored different human/Pokémon…

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On December 5, Rockstar Games will finally show the world the first official look at the next Grand Theft Auto. The highly anticipated sequel to 2013's GTA V has a lot of hype, which might explain why over 50,000 fans are currently sat there watching a blank screen while waiting for the teaser.

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Season two of Halo’s TV adaptation is set to premiere on Paramount+ February 8, and we all got our first look over the weekend. It was packed with intense scenes forecasting the destruction of a world, lots of death, and lots of fighting. There were also a couple of neat little tidbits we spotted, including some…

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The Pokemon Company announced that it will share sightings of the new Pokemon Terapagos during the 10 days leading to the release of the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Indigo Disk DLC. Terapagos is the flagship Legendary Pokemon for the new add-on scenario.

The information on the Terapagos sightings will be available every day until December 14, 2023 on the Pokemon Intelligence Bureau​ X official account (formerly Twitter) and on the Terapagos official website. Both the X account and the website are only available in Japanese.

Additionally, episodes from the Pokemon anime featuring Terapagos will be available on the Japanese Pokemon YouTube channel throughout December 1-15, 2023. At the time of writing, these videos appear to be hidden.

Japanese accessory brand The Kiss collaborated with Sanrio to release a limited edition Cinnamoroll Necklace. The Kiss Cinnamoroll necklace is available though GIV, Japan's largest character accessory shop.

If ordered by 2pm Japan Time on GIV's marketplace, The Kiss Cinnamoroll necklace will ship out on the same day. The item will remain on sale throughout December until all stock sells out. The necklace can be ordered through Rakuten through GIV's marketplace for ¥13,200 (~$90 USD) and has free shipping costs. Rakuten does not support overseas shipping for this limited edition necklace.

The Kiss necklace is made of .925 sterling silver and features Cinnamoroll floating atop a 4.5mm round-cut Royal Blue Topaz. Atop his ear is a small 2.0mm round-cut Morganite. The necklace comes with an original box branded with the character's likeness along with a light blue bow and a jewelry cloth with an adorable pattern based on the character.

Images of this limited edition necklace and its packaging can be viewed below:

[gallery size="medium" link="file" ids="1000230,1000231,1000232,1000233,1000234,1000235"]

Level-5 announced on social media that Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road will be coming to Steam in 2024. The game is already planned to release on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, iOS devices, and Android devices.

Level-5 did not elaborate further about the Steam version of Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road of Heroes beyond its reveal. It is unknown if it will be releasing at the same time as the other versions of the game, but it has been listed with a 2024 release date on the official website.

The social media post announcing the Steam version of the game can be viewed below:

Yet another new manga debuted in Shonen Jump, and this time it is the series Shadow Eliminators (Ruirui Senki). The Kento Amemiya series’ first chapter is now available to read on MangaPlus and Viz Media.

When Shadow Eliminators begins, we see new student Aoba Kuromori leaping over the gate after arriving late and gaining the ire and attention of the Public Morals Committee Vice-Chairman Yayoi Asakaze. Because of this, Yayoi follows Aoba and happens through the Human Ward into an Otherworld Hollow. He watches as Aoba deals with the Shadow affecting another student with the help of his grandmother. These Shadows can infect and take over someone, turning them into a Kasane. As a result, Yayoi gets caught up in his world, and the two found the Shadow Eliminators.

Previously, Amemiya worked on the series Shikigami and Beast Children. Viz Media also handled the latter.

This is the second recent new manga to show up in Shonen Jump. At the end of November 2023, Green Green Greensstarted its run. Its second chapter is live now, and the first chapter is still free to read.