The first major update to Honkai: Star Rail was released this week in the form of version 2.0. It brings with it a new area to explore, a continuation of the main story, and new characters to pull on the limited banner. Phase 1 of version 2.0 introduces Black Swan, a five-star Wind Nihility character available on the…
Atlus revealed that it is working with the Japanese cosmetic brand Aqua Savon to produce a perfume branded with the lead character from Persona 3 Reload. With the full title "Aqua Savon Eau de Toilette Watery Shampoo X Persona 3 Reload," the perfume will be available in stores across Japan in late February 2024.
Aqua Savon noted that it will use its existing Watery Shampoo aroma—which is also the brand's most popular entry—for this perfume. The aroma features the following composition:
This branded perfume will also come with an exclusive sticker featuring a silhouette of the Persona 3 Reload character. The owner will be able to place the sticker of the avatar anywhere on the perfume bottle as they like.
One of the surprises in the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth State of Play trailer is that Cissnei, a Crisis Core FFVII character, will return. While we already saw screenshots and renders for her, there’s now also an official profile that explains what she’s been up to since the last game.
As a reminder, Cissnei first debuted in Before Crisis: FFVII. That was a Japan-exclusive mobile game, the story of which might eventually also end up implemented into FFVII Ever Crisis. There, she was one of the nameless playable characters who served as a member of the Turks. She then later appeared as a named character in Crisis Core FFVII, the prequel focusing on Zack Fair. Once again, she appeared as a Turk. However, during the later events of Before Crisis, which took place after Crisis Core, she ended up going off on her own.
Square Enix is planning to release Kingdom Hearts fluffy room wear outfits and shoes based on Sora, Riku, Kairi, and King Mickey's outfits from Kingdom Hearts 3. Pre-orders are currently open on the Square Enix e-Store and will release on February 29, 2024.
There are four different kinds of fluffy room wear outfits and shoes based on the main characters of the Kingdom Hearts series. Sora, Riku, and Kairi's fluffy room wear will cost ¥13,200 (~$89 USD) and King Mickey's fluffy room wear will cost ¥11,000 (~$74 USD). All of the fluffy room shoes will cost ¥3,850 (~$26 USD).
At the start of the Dokibird return stream on February 8, 2024, the Vtuber noted that she made zero profits in 2023 as Selen Tatsuki with Nijisanji. She also noted that she spent $200,000 Canadian during the course of her role as a performer with the company, and she also asked at the end of her stream that none of her followers “harass or bully anybody.”
The insight into her financials came up during a portion of the stream during which Dokibird was talking about the experiences she’s already had with her new manager and the assistance she can get for her streams and work. At the 21 minute mark, she noted that the manager told her, “We can get sponsors for that. And I was like, ‘Huh?’ And he was like ‘Yeah, you don’t have to pay out of your own pocket anymore.’” She noted “That blew my mind.”
Here’s the full statement regarding how much Dokibird spent as Selen Tatsuki when with Nijisanji, which came up at about the 21:50 mark of her return stream.
By the way, my mom scolded me about this because, you know, during all this she looked at my financials. And I made zero profit last year. She was like, Doki, you have to spend less, because you spent $200,000 last year. And I was like, “That hurt.”
A manga version of Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent has opened for pre-orders. Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent - The Bargello Family will come out on April 6, 2024 and will cost 730 JPY ($4.90).
This is a prequel to the events of the game, which is itself a prequel to the original Octopath Traveler. There is no summary on the store page for the book. However, Square Enix Tweeted that this is the story of a young man who has not made a name for himself yet, and it will depict his meetings and farewells.
It will likely focus on Bargello, who is the main character of the Master of Wealth path. He also plays a major role in the Bestower of Wealth and the Bestower of All storylines. Bargello is the leader of the New Mafia, or the Bargello Family. The story will likely depict how he came to hold this position.
Calling dusty post-apocalyptic city builders a trend is probably a stretch, but not by much. I suppose it's a natural extension of the post-2000s explosion of the survival sim from "literally about 3 ever made" to "does your tetris remake really need the hunger meter". Games like Against The Storm porting over the roguelike element as well certainly suggest it. In my head, that's probably why New Cycle hangs out more with Endzone Dash A World Apart, and Surviving The Aftermath. It's more a traditional building game than a punishing test to be retaken, or the intense "survive the ordeal" narrative of Frostpunk, despite the superficial similarity that your town expects to be ravaged by scorching solar flares.
But it might also be because after playing it more than I really wanted to, New Cycle matches those two peers by leaving me with a vague feeling of disappointment. I'm just not sure what it really has to say.
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The success of Baldur's Gate 3 is a double-edged sword for other CRPGs launching in its wake. On the one hand, there's arguably a hungry new audience for such games; on the other, you're going up against one of the best RPGs ever made. Expectations are high, but Tiny Trinket Games' co-founder Stefan Nitescu remains unfazed as his three-strong team prepare to release Zoria: Age Of Shattering on March 7th. Zoria is carving an altogether different path through the RPG landscape, fusing isometric exploration with XCOM-like combat and 50 playable characters who are more like unit classes than personalities. The latter is a decision that comes with its own "repercussions", says Nitescu, but he's confident that it will help Zoria stand apart, with character abilities being unusually central to exploration.
In survival games, I leave the building to everyone else, or I build the absolute bare minimum unless I really enjoy the world I'm in. I think that's a thing inherent in me, as I've never taken great pleasure in snapping together pieces of Lego, and would much rather earn killstreaks than decorate a back garden. For me, building in most games is laborious and predictable and does not sate my impatient brain.
But I like Neal Agarwal's Infinite Craft, a browser game where you slide words on top of each other and see if they generate something new. For instance, "water" and "fire" combine to make "steam", with what's practically infinitesimal possibilities. It is immediate, simple, and unpredictable. More games should facilitate haphazard engineering and silliness.
I've long been enamoured with the landscape of the Pacific Northwest, from the Douglas firs and waterfalls of Twin Peaks to the redwoods I once swam beneath on a road trip. Thanks to Pacific Drive's Steam Next Fest demo, I have now also barrelled through the woods and backroads of a spooky alt-history PNW in a banged-up car which is itself a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-esque artifact. I've had my eye on Pacific Drive for a few years and after playing the demo, I am delighted by parts of it but not entirely sold on its roguelikelike survival scavenge-o-rama structure. Hmm! Give it a go and tell me what you think.
This week The Electronic Wireless Show podcast is a bit shorter because I accidentally stopped recording in the middle of it, and then had to sort of restart. Though movie magic you will never know the difference, except I just told you. Oh no! Anyway, with the Steam Next Fest ongoing, I noticed an uptick in games and demos for games that are just about making a nice diorama, and have no goals or real restrictions. Interesting! I ask my co-hosts why they think this is, if that even makes a game a game, is making your own play less fun if you're not breaking someone else's rules, and so on. Plus: we reveal why James was in LA before!
Assassin's Creed Codename Red - which takes the long-running series to feudal Japan - will launch before Ubisoft's next financial year ends in March 2025, CEO Yves Guillemot has confirmed, with the publisher's open-world Star Wars Outlaws still targeting a release in 2024.
Guillemot shared the news as part of Ubisoft's latest earnings results - for the third quarter of fiscal 2023-24 - in which he touted a "very promising line-up" for the year to come. That line-up includes a 2024 release for Massive Entertainment's highly anticipated Star Wars Outlaws, suggesting Ubisoft isn't expecting any further slippage after the game was reportedly delayed out of the publisher's current fiscal year - ending 31st March 2024 - and into the next.
The bigger news, though, is confirmation that Ubisoft's next blockbuster-sized Assassin's Creed game - currently only known as Codename Red, despite confirmation of its feudal Japan setting - will be coming in fiscal year 2025, meaning a release before 31st March next year. Historically, the Assassin's Creed franchise has avoided the spring launch window, suggesting Red could also be targeting 2024 - as previously reported - unless Ubisoft is breaking with tradition.
This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss the bombshell news that some of Xbox's biggest exclusives are being mulled by Microsoft for release on PlaySation.
Blockbuster games such as Starfield and the upcoming Indiana Jones title could no longer be Xbox exclusives, reports now claim, following whispers that smaller titles such as Hi-Fi Rush were being considered for PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. So what has prompted Microsoft to think bigger with its third-party publishing plans? And does this finally mean the console wars are over? (Fat chance.)
Join us as we discuss the long-term factors at play - hardware sales, subscription service growth slowing - and more recent triggers such as the eye-wateringly large purchase of Activision Blizzard and the need to quickly see a return on that investment (also seen, sadly, in the recent decision to cull 1900 Xbox and Activision employees). We also consider Microsoft's next steps after all of this leaked - reportedly, by people within Xbox itself hostile to the very idea of Gears of War on PlayStation.
Overwatch 2 has had a rough road following the early success of the first game. That game, which easily earned Game Informer's Game of the Year in 2016, started with such promise and a massive, enthusiastic audience, but following the 2019 announcement of Overwatch 2, support for the original Overwatch floundered, and so, too, did the community. Last year's release of Overwatch 2's PvE elements in its Invasion update pushed the hero shooter back in the right direction, but it didn't make the splash Blizzard had hoped for. With Overwatch 2 Season 9, which kicks off next week, Blizzard is making a ton of sweeping behind-the-scenes changes to make the game more approachable for players.
Players of all modes will notice updates to how moment-to-moment gameplay, encounters, and matches as a whole play out. Hit consistency is being improved, with projectiles growing in size; those characters that don't have projectile-based weapons or abilities and, therefore, receive no benefits from this change will receive additional balance updates. Those changes to non-projectile heroes will happen at a later date so the development team can assess how significant the projectile changes are in a live environment.
In this week's episode of The Game Informer Show, the crew discusses Final Fantasy VII Rebirth one last time before it releases and then examines Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League against the three game design pillars: camera, controls, and character. Alex chats about playing Metal Gear Solid for the first time and what it's like playing a game made in 1998 on its own terms in 2024. Finally, Brian and Charles dive into Persona 3 Reload, now publisher Atlus's fastest-selling game of all time.
Follow us on social media: Alex Van Aken (@itsVanAken), Kyle Hilliard (@KyleMHilliard), Brian Shea (@BrianPShea), Charles Harte (@Chuckduck365)
Persona 3 Reload, Atlus’ remake of the PlayStation 2 classic, is a 70+ hour-long RPG. Wouldn’t you hate to play all that video game, with all the dungeon crawling, social linking, and question-answering, just to mess up and take a wrong turn, resulting in reaching its “bad” ending? We’re always here to give you advice…
Recently, the games industry has been shaken by news that could change the dynamic between console giants Xbox and PlayStation. A number of recent leaks suggested that Microsoft may be planning to put aside exclusivity and bring its catalog of titles like Halo to rival platforms…even to the PS5 This fans of this rumor…
The SAG-AFTRA strike this summer was huge and important and powerful, but there was one thing we kind of missed during those long, quiet months: deeply unhinged press tours. Luckily, the actors have really delivered on this front in the time they’ve been back. Hugh Grant compared his oompa-loompa mocap suit for Wonka…
Overwatch 2’s ninth season is going to be a big shift for the hero shooter when it starts on February 13. Alongside implementing the previously announced passive healing for all heroes, season 9 is bringing other sweeping changes geared around increasing hero survivability, but a few other adjustments might help…
A fusion of real-time reaction speed and tactical decision-making, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s combat system is both speedy and strategic. If it’s been a while since you’ve played 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake, or if you’re jumping into Rebirth as your first modern FF7 experience, this guide will help you gain…
Under Night in Birth II SYS: Celes looked eerily similar to the previous game, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r] when I first sat down with it. The characters all looked and, at a glance, seemed to play the same. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as Tekken 8 recently showed the fantastic positives that come with being able to carry your skills from the previous games into the new entries. As I dug deeper into this game, I started to see the small tweaks, move changes, and visual details that made this fighter stand out and shine. And it doesn’t hurt that it’s a ton of fun thanks to some interconnected systems that add so much depth to which strike you use next.
Yes, it all looks deceptively similar to the previous title. That said, it feels like all of the visuals in the game have been sharpened and improved. All of the characters have some visual improvements to the already-impressive attack animations. Attacks seem just a little bit snappier or flashier. It’s the sort of thing that felt like a minor difference, but I felt my enjoyment of the game was a little bit higher. This was also aided by the clean user interface. Something about the fonts, win screens, character portrait appearances, and other fine details of the game’s framework looked really nice. It’s not usually something that jumps right out at me, but it was so good that it really improved the game’s presentation.
Mayla is releasing a new line of Evangelion Heel Sneakers, which is also a brand new product for the company. Pre-orders in Japan open on February 16, 2024 on Mayla's website.
By combining heel and sneaker elements, Mayla stated it created a shoe that is both stylish and comfortable. The Evangelion Heel Sneakers feature the same thickness and softness found in sneakers, and a thick sole and heel that stabilizes the shoe. The shoes will feature ribbon shoe strings, gold metal accents on the shoe tongue, sides, and underside of the shoe, and different colors based on Shinji, Rei, Asuka, and Kaworu. No price has been revealed for the shoes as of yet.
The currently revealed designs for the heel sneakers based on Evangelion can be viewed below:
Square Enix will hold an exhibition event in Nagoya that combines the city's traditional crafts with the former's game franchises. The SQEX Creators Exhibition will feature items modeled with illustrations from the following Square Enix titles: Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy XII, Star Ocean The Second Story R, Paranormasight, and the SaGa series. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]
Square Enix has also provided a map of the event area. Visitors will enter the venue from the southwestern gate. In a counter-clockwise direction, they will see the following booths in order before exiting the venue via the Theater Area:
UPDATE 9/2/24: Helldivers developer Arrowhead Game Studios has pushed out a "rapid patch" on Steam to sort some of its issues.
The PC update, available now, is designed to alleviate matchmaking problems and a number of instances where the game can crash.
"We've uploaded a patch to Steam that should improve matchmaking for PC," game director Mikael Eriksson wrote in an update posted to X. "The patch also includes some other crash fixes we've identified. We know there's more to solve, and we're working our way through it. Nevertheless, we hope this rapid patch goes a long way to making your experience better. Now go smash some bugs (and bots)!"
Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds has moved to address fan concerns following publisher Krafton's announcement that the underwater survival sequel will be a multiplayer title adopting a "game-as-a-service model".
Krafton made the claims in its latest financial earnings report, which also brought the news Subnautica 2 - the third game in Unknown Worlds' series, following on from the acclaimed 2018 original and its 2021 continuation Subnautica: Below Zero - would be out this year. And with fans beginning to express displeasure at the apparent swerve away from the solo, self-contained survival action of previous Subnautica games, Unknown Worlds quickly sprung into action, offering clarification on its blog.
Starting with the multiplayer announcement, that much is apparently true, with Subnautica 2 confirmed to be playable co-operatively with up to four players. However, Unknown Worlds stresses the sequel "is not multiplayer-focused", and that co-op is "entirely optional", with players able to play the game entirely solo if they choose.
People looking for a challenge in Palworld can now add a Pokemon like Nuzlocke run mode into the game with the Nuzlocke Death mod by DekitaRPG. It is available to download and implement via Nexus Mods.
For those unfamiliar with the term, a Nuzlocke run in a Pokemon like game like Palworld means that if your monster or creature dies, they are gone forever. While this means releasing them in a game like Pokemon, other monster-catching titles like Coromon already include it as a gameplay mode option. In the case of the DekitaRPG mod, it will automatically remove and eliminate a Pal if it dies while in your party.
DekitaRPG shared a video of the mod in-game to show how it will work. It involves a Foxparks and a Chikipi, with the Foxparks eventually being totally eliminated and permanently removed as a result of the Nuzlocke mod.
Square Enix just announced when the FFVII Rebirth demo will update to add the Junon area and additional content. Director Naoki Hamaguchi said it will be available on February 21, 2024.
As a reminder, the demo for the latest entry in the remake trilogy appeared on February 6, 2024. Square Enix dropped it on the PlayStation Store following the State of Play focused on the RPG. That currently covers part of the first chapter of the game. It involves a flashback portion with Cloud and Sephiroth.
Hamaguchi noted that to play through the Junon segment of the FFVII Rebirth demo, someone first needs to beat the Nibelheim portion with Cloud and Sephiroth. He also clarified this is not an exact slice of gameplay from the full title. Square Enix “altered [it] to make the content more compact.” He also noted the demo will need to be updated and played to unlock bonuses like being able to skip the Nibelheim section and get the Kupo Charm and Survival Set.
Here’s the full statement from Director Naoki Hamaguchi:
Gecco revealed a new statue featuring the Missionary from Silent Hill 3. The 1/6 scale statue will stand at around 24 cm (~9.45in) tall. It will have a price tag of 42,000 yen (~$281).
Gecco has also opened pre-orders for the statue on the Sweet Factory Souvenir Shop. People residing in North America will also have more outlets to place orders, as Sideshow, Ultra Tokyo Connection, and Diamond Comics have also been confirmed as distributors for the region. D4TOYS will handle the statue's distribution in other countries worldwide.
Here are some of the sample images for the upcoming Missionary statue:
In honor of the Lunar New Year, which is coming up on February 10, 2024, HoYoVerse shared a Honkai: Star Rail anime trailer starring Xianzhou Luofu characters like Guinaifen and Sushang. It focuses on a New Year’s performance put on the two of them.
The video begins with Guinaifen and Sushang being told they’ll play the lion and dragon during the Xianzhou New Year’s performance. As the two prepare, we see other characters from the region like Jing Yuan, Fu Xuan, and Dan Heng. From there, we see an ink-based “battle” narrated by Master Gongshu.
However, it’s soon revealed part of the performance went awry. Just past the halfway point of this Honkai: Star Rail anime video, we see what looks like a slip by Guinaifen. The presentation then halts to show she did fall, and Sushang is left holding her up. Jing Yuan and Dan Heng then need to combine their abilities to help save her, so she can return to the platform and the performance can continue.
Here’s the full “Harmony Greets the New Year” animated short:
Game Beauty is selling Attack on Titan makeup based on characters and elements from the series on its official site. It focuses on characters like Eren, Mikasa, Armin, and Levi, as well as the Maria, Rose, and Sina walls, and pre-orders are open through March 7, 2024.
There are multiple options for purchasing items from the collection. People can buy items piecemeal. For example, the Eren, Mikasa, Armin, and Levi lip glosses are $15 each or $55 in a bundle all together. The Maria, Rose, and Sina eye shadow palettes are $18 each, and you can get a bundle of the three for $49. There is also a full collection option, which is $96 without a commemorative gift box and $106 with one.
Here’s a closer look at the full collection, which also shows how eyeshadow looks when used on a person and the colors for each lip glosses.
Video game publisher Krafton released a report that seemed to imply underwater survival sim Subnautica 2 would be a multiplayer-focused live-service game, which disappointed and frustrated many fans. But now the devs have quickly clarified that no, this isn’t the case and instead the game is going to just receive…
Since its release in late 2023, the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer has become one of the biggest, most-watched video game ads in history. And now, a YouTuber has recreated scenes from the trailer in Miami (the game is set in a fictitious version of the Florida city) to create one of the most impressive side-by-side…
Last year, Overwatch 2 developer Blizzard promised that changes were coming to the hero shooter’s competitive mode, the ranked version of the traditional 5v5 (once 6v6) gameplay. At the time, it wasn’t clear when the changes were coming or what they would be, but as a competitive sicko with 780 hours logged in the…
Japanese bookstore Village Vanguard announced the opening of a new collaboration pop-up shop pairing Oshi no Ko and Sanrio characters together. The new pop-up shop will open between February 9 and 25, 2024, at the Grand Tree Musashikosugi store in Kanagawa Prefecture. [Thanks, PR Times!]
New plushies, keychains, and other goods featuring character pairings from both franchises will be available for sale for a limited time. Other non-collaboration Oshi no Ko items will be available as well. You can check out the specific character pairings here:
And here is the full list of Oshi no Ko x Sanrio merchandise items available alongside their prices:
Last month we reported that a highly rated 1200W PSU was going cheap on Newegg, where you could pick up the Super Flower Leadex 1200W 80+ Platinum for just $160. After selling out rapidly, Newegg has restocked and is offering the same deal again, giving you a second chance to get a PSU that could well outlast every other component in your system!
To get the quoted $160 price rather than the standard $220, you'll need to use code YPCDP6233 at the checkout!
Need to store a lot of non-critical data? Live in the US? Want to maximise value over speed? Have we got the storage device for you: a refurbished 12TB Seagate enterprise HDD. These drives typically go for around $130 new, but you can pick them up for just $82 in "refurbished - excellent" condition on Ebay US. Their specialist HDD seller promises fully tested drives with zero bad sectors and a three-year warranty, which sounds great at $6.83 per TB!
Helldivers 2 launched earlier today and has been sat at the top of the Steam sales charts, with a healthy 60,000+ currently in-game. Alas, the co-op shooter also has a "Mixed" user review rating on the platform, thanks in part to optimisation and matchmaking issues.
Developers Arrowhead say they're working on a hotfix to address the issues as fast as possible.
A financial report from Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton said the underwater survival sequel would adopt a "game-as-a-service model". Cue much gnashing of teeth and rending of shirts, so much so that developers Unknown Worlds have clarified what that means. "No season passes. No battle passes. No subscription."
In a financial report released today, Ubisoft said they intend to release Star Wars Outlaws in 2024. That was already expected. More interesting is that Assassin's Creed Codename Red, the stab 'em up set in feudal Japan, is also due to launch in the "fiscal year 2025". That's also known as "before March 2025", for all you non-CEOs.
A fresh set of weekly freebies has now arrived on the Epic Games Store, this time in the form of acclaimed visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! and rogue-like brawling RPG Lost Castle - with Dakar Desert Racing to follow next week.
Starting with Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, it's the enhanced and expanded version of developer Team Salvato renowned 2017 freeware visual novel of the same name (minus the 'Plus!' bit, obviously) that starts out innocently enough - with players taking on the role of a new student who can romance the anime-styled members of the titular club - before taking a metatextual turn into considerably darker territory.
If that's not your thing - and its Epic Games Store listing makes it clear Doki Doki isn't "suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed" - your other freebie option is Lost Castle. This is a "super cute, super hard action RPG with roguelike elements and randomised dungeons" from Hunter Studio, and it supports four-player co-op and PvP both locally and online.