February 2024

The shining moment for Bikini Bottom’s band has arrived

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Make Los Santos a little more chaotic and fun

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Amazon’s discount will save you $25 at checkout — no coupons needed

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Revenge of the ladies who lunch

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City builders don’t need to be 100+ hour affairs

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War never changes, but TV adaptations do

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Season 2 of Squid Game will take us (and Lee Jung-jae’s Gi-hun) back to the game

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Every Persona player knows that the most difficult part of these games isn’t taking down shadows, managing your hangout time, or getting Morgana to let you stay awake past 8 at night. The toughest part of being a Persona user is answering the difficult questions your teachers ask you during school hours.

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Our Game of the Week is Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. It's a game I enjoyed much more than I was expecting to. But I'm also deeply aware that I'm not really the intended audience. James Cameron made this deeply felt fantasy world that people really adore - I'm not one of those people.

I had a sense throughout, though, that I was stepping on hallowed ground. I remember reading an article back when the first Avatar came out about how bummed out a bunch of people were once the film left cinemas. They were bereft because they wanted to be in that world permanently. They didn't love Avatar the film so much as they loved Pandora the place: its foliage, its sense of pristine wildlife, its blend of the jungle and the deep sea.

This has made me think a little bit about 3D, a craze that the first Avatar was definitely caught up in. I went to the cinema and saw the film and wore the glasses and all that jazz, but a game like Frontiers of Pandora, which isn't presented in 3D as far as I'm aware, is still a much more three-dimensional experience. For people who love Pandora, they can now climb inside it. You can follow paths that take you deeper into the world, deeper into the screen. You can look at all the nooks where nothing at all is really happening. You can just be in Pandora. That must be wonderful for the true fans.

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Infamous Nintendo hacker Gary Bowser believes the company used him as an example, and says his prison sentence and fine are designed to send a message to others who cross the company in the future.

To quickly recap, Bowser was sentenced to 40 months in prison for the distribution and sale of piracy-enabling devices back in 2022. The Canadian programmer had worked as part of a larger hacking group known as Team Xecuter, which in turn made millions from the sale of devices which enabled pirated video games to be played on a number of Nintendo's consoles. At the time of his sentence, Bowser pleaded guilty and agreed to a $4.5m fine, as well as an additional $10m fine to settle Nintendo's own civil lawsuit against him.

Bowser was subsequently released from prison last year, however he will remain in debt to Nintendo for decades to come. In April, Bowser said Nintendo is now able to recoup 25-30 percent of his personal income for the rest of his working life.

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Tencent won't be buying the Dungeons & Dragons IP from Hasbro.

That's now been confirmed by both the Hasbro-owned Wizards of the Coast and Larian Studios boss Swen Vincke, of Baldur's Gate 3 fame.

According to a report by Pandaily, Hasbro was seeking to sell the IP with Tencent as a potential buyer and Larian Studios acting as an intermediary - 30 percent of the developer is owned by Tencent.

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Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is doing well, having sold 1m units after a week of release.

This makes it the fastest-selling title in the series, and is already made over half of its predecessor Yakuza: Like a Dragon's lifetime sales (1.8m as of December 2023).

The numbers back up the positive reception Infinite Wealth has had from players. The game also had the series' biggest Steam launch ever, racking up over 45,000 concurrent players at peak.

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Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth looks to be getting a demo ahead of release.

PlayStation Game Size has revealed the download size of the game from the back-end of the PlayStation Store, as well as the existence of a Rebirth demo in which players will earn the in-game item Kupo Charm - Survival Set.

PlayStation will be hosting another State of Play next week dedicated solely to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth with an "extensive look" at the game and "exciting news you won't want to miss". Could this include an immediate demo, or at least a release date for one?

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Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing over the past few days. This week: possessed cards, infinite wealth, and journals.

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.

Imagine - it's a cold and blustery night, the wind whistles through the window that's ever so slightly open for a necessary dose of oxygen. A chill comes in with it, but you don't care because you're tucked under a blanket strolling through Hawaii with Ichiban, Kiryu and company.

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As news broke that Microsoft would block an unspecified array of third-party devices from Xbox consoles in late 2023, it quickly became clear the decision would disproportionately affect disabled gamers. Despite the benefit of time, the actual scope of the change remains uncertain, even as third-party devices continue to be unilaterally blocked.

"It's certainly not an unprecedented move," says Laura Kate Dale, an accessibility critic and consultant, "it's basically already the case on Nintendo and PlayStation consoles, but it will undoubtedly reduce the number of options available to players."

This was underlined when news broke that Sony had quietly blocked the Cronus Zen from connecting to PlayStation 5 consoles in a new update this week. It's a device many disabled players use to connect more accessible input devices to their consoles, many of whom are left in limbo on both Sony and Microsoft consoles. It means that setups dependent on unlicensed devices are now rendered useless and investment wasted by unfocussed and unfair bans on anything Microsoft and Sony deem unauthorised.

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Square Enix announced that the company has brought back the Free Login Campaign for Final Fantasy XIV. Starting from today until February 21, 2024 at 6:59am PT, eligible players will be able to log into the critically acclaimed MMORPG for free up to four days.

Players will have needed to purchase and registered Final Fantasy XIV previously, have service accounts that are currently inactive during the campaign period, and have been inactive for at least 30 days. One those three criteria are met, players will be able to start the launcher to begin their free login period. The free login period begins after logging in, and will end once the four days end regardless if the game has actually been played.

In the event there are there are multiple accounts tied to a single Square Enix account, only the inactive players are able to utilize the free login days. If there are multiple accounts tied to a single Square Enix account, only one account can redeem the free login days at a time. Players will have to wait until the first account's free days expire before redeeming the free login days for the next service account. Also, players whose accounts were cancelled or suspended due to violating the service agreement cannot redeem the free days.

When we published our most anticipated games of 2024 list last month, eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that there was one notable absence: Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector. Don't get me wrong - I'm still very much looking forward to continuing my journey through the Helion System in the follow-up to 2022's exquisite sci-fi RPG, but when developer Jump Over The Age first announced it last June, I got the sense it would take quite a bit longer than the next 12 months to come out. Now, Jump Over The Age has confirmed that, yep, "there's around a year left of development" to go on the game, putting its release firmly into 2025 territory.

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Devolver Digital have confirmed they're cutting 28 people's jobs at Artificer, the Polish studio behind Showgunners, the turn-based tactics game about a dystopian murderous gameshow. Most are gone immediately, while some will stay on until Artificer release their yet-unannounced next game. Artificer were previously owned by Good Shepherd Entertainment, a publisher Devolver bought in 2021.

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A new report on the development of The Day Before alleges Fntastic employees and "volunteers" were subject to mistreatment.

The report was published by German PC gaming outlet GameStar and YouTube channel Game Two earlier this week, and is based on testimonies from 16 former Fntastic employees, one volunteer, and seven employees at publisher Mytona.

The claims paint a bleak image of the working environment at Fntastic, which include allegations of toxic management, in particular co-founders Eduard and Aysen Gotovtsev, and a lack of direction.

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InnerSloth and CBS Studios have shared a small teaser for their upcoming Among Us animated series.

While it doesn't give too much away, the image shows an empty cafeteria with pizzas and balloons adorned by a banner that reads: "We're not dead".

Well, I presume it should be read that way anyway. However, a nice big splash of red blood has covered up the middle word, leaving only 'We're' and 'Dead' on show. Seems kind of sus...

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The boss of indie publisher Devolver Digital has stepped down with immediate effect, following yesterday's confirmation of layoffs at the company's Artificer studio.

Outgoing CEO Douglas Morin departed "as part of planning for Devolver's long-term growth and development", the company said in a statement. He has been replaced by Harry Miller, a Devolver co-founder who served as CEO previously.

Devolver announced yesterday that 28 people are set to lose their jobs at the Polish-based Artificer this year, the majority of which will depart this month.

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As part of the series of Kotobukiya Collection announcements on February 2, 2024, the company showed King of Fighters Bishoujo figures of Angel and Leona. Angel is the further of the two along, while Leona was only teased.

We first learned about the Angel King of Fighters 2001 figure back in August 2023. At the time, Kotobukiya only shared a silhouette of the character. For this latest reveal, a painted prototype showed up. There’s no set release date for this 1/7 scale figure yet.

Here are two of the photos Kotobukiya shared.

A new series of ads in Japan will translate the Monster Hunter monsters' habitats into ideal house-hunting criteria. Capcom is working with Recruit Co., Ltd. to produce special collaboration ads that pair the Monster Hunter franchise with the latter's real estate searching website Suumo. These ads will appear at several train stations in Japan for a limited time in February 2024.

These are the monsters who will be featured in the ads, along with their ideal home criteria:

• Felyne: A house facing south to maximize natural lighting with underfloor storage and a reheatable bathtub, managed by an administrator who also allows pets.
• Khezu: A barrier-free designer-style corner apartment with a soundproof room.
• Rajang: The penthouse of a high-rise condominium with a soundproof room and an allowance to place musical instruments.
• Rathalos: A move-in ready house with a balcony, underfloor heating, and CCTV cameras installed, with DIY projects also allowed.

FuRyu revealed a life-size bust figure of Persona 3's Aigis. The company has also started accepting pre-orders for the item, which will cost 660,000 yen or around $4,505. People residing outside Japan can also place orders and have the figure shipped internationally via the Buyee widget.

This life-size bust figure will have an overall height of around 90 cm (~35.43 in), which also includes the stand. The item will also have a width of around 73 cm (~28.74 in) and a depth of approximately 83 cm (~32.67 in).

The static figure will be completely made-to-order by using polyresin and PVC as materials. There will also be specific attention to detail on Aigis' facial features and mechanical joints.

Some of the sample images for the Aigis bust figure are available right below:

Oh my god, yes. I was a little hesitant to put this in the shortlist so soon after another stabby swordy duelling game (“Wait, five months? Really?” - Actually Looked It Up While Editing Sin) but goddamn. First Cut Colon Samurai Duel is great. You know those little, simple games that you try out on a whim and find yourself going, "I will absolutely play this all day unless someone stops me"? Yeah.

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Preservation is a nightmare in the games industry, especially as some 87 percent of retro games are swiftly vanishing with the passing of time and many recent games get unceremoniously killed off for…reasons. It seems things may only get worse before they get better, as there are now indications that some European…

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When Veronica Taylor was called to audition for a Japanese cartoon in 1998, she had no idea what to expect. Heavily pregnant and living in New York, the 33-year-old actor had just finished a run of commercials, soaps and theatre productions, before a chance call from her acting coach sent her hurrying downtown. It was…

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If you subscribe to the digital edition of Game Informer, you can now learn all about the future of Apex Legends! Following the cover reveal our digital issue is now live on web browsers, iPad/iPhone, and Android devices. Alongside the cover story, you will also find big features on the history of hip-hop in video games, the upcoming Fallout TV show adaptation, Unicorn Overlord, and our big breakdown of all the upcoming games we're excited about in 2024 and beyond. We've also got reviews for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Tekken 8, and much more!

Individual issues are also now available for purchase at this link or in any GameStop store.

You can download the apps to read the issue by following this link.

Update, 2/2: In addition to Jim Carrey's comeback to Sonic the Hedgehog 3, IGN has revealed some of the film's new cast members. We've listed the names below, though it's currently unknown what roles they will have. 

• Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones, Breaking Bad)
• Alyla Browne (Furisoa: A Mad Max Saga, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart)
• James Wolk (Mad Men, The Harley Quinn Show, Watchmen)
• Sofia Pernas (NCIS, Blood & Treasure)
• Cristo Fernández (Zorro, Ted Lasso)
• Jorma Taccone (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story)

Original Story: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 introduces Shadow as presumably a main antagonist, but it seems the ultimate lifeform will be sharing his limelight with Dr. Robotnik one more time. Variety reports that Jim Carrey is making a comeback in the upcoming third film.

Note: light Sonic the Hedgehog 2 spoilers ahead

UPDATE 05/02/24: More cast members for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 have been announced, joining the returning Jim Carrey.

Krysten Ritter, Alyla Browne, James Wolk, Sofia Pernas, Cristo Fernández, and Jorma Taccone have all been announced (thanks IGN), though it's unclear who they'll be playing.

Ritter is best known for playing Jessica Jones in the Marvel series and is rumoured to be playing Rouge the Bat, which would coincide with the supposed Sonic Adventure 2 storyline. Browne, meanwhile, is suspected to be playing Maria Robotnik from that game - a character who ties into Shadow's backstory.

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Frame generation went open source recently, as AMD added FSR 3 frame generation to its GPUOpen initiative, bringing competition to DLSS 3, locked exclusively to RTX 40-series GPUs. We've seen official FSR 3 support in a small amount of games so far, but the open source release has brought us DLSSG to FSR3 - a mod that works with any DLSS 3 frame generation title, swapping out Nvidia's solution for FSR 3. The upshot of this is that owners of Nvidia RTX 20 and 30 series cards now have their own frame generation solution. It's not perfect, there are issues, but fundamentally it works. On Nvidia cards, at least.

At least one other DLSS 3 to FSR 3 mod is coming which does work on AMD hardware, but right now, the first solution by 'Nukem', is exclusively for Nvidia users. That's down to the nature of the mod, which comes in two parts. First of all, you simply copy two DLL files into the game directory, then run a registry entry that fools your PC into thinking that your GPU is DLSS 3 compliant, even if it is not. Load up a game and the DLSS 3 frame generation option is no longer greyed out. However, toggling the option on activates the FSR 3 mod, not the original DLSS 3.

There are interesting side effects to this. Officially, FSR 3 only works with FSR 2 inputs. However, this mod allows you to use FSR 3 with any input you choose - so for a game like Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, you can add frame gen to FSR 2, XeSS, DLSS, Insomniac's ITGI or native resolution imagery. This is appropriate for owners of RTX cards, who stand to benefit from using DLSS spatial upscaling instead of FSR 2.

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A new scale figure of the protagonist of Persona 3 Reload is available to pre-order, this time courtesy of Kotobukiya and Sideshow. The figure will cost $160 or ¥24,212, with shipping expected sometime between August and October, 2024.

Standing at around 23 cm (8.86" tall), the figure is made in 1/8 scale out of PVC and ABS. The protagonist's S.E.E.S. patch and Evoker are prominent, but the figure also includes smaller details like his headphones, belt holster and music player. Additionally, the base of the figure features a bullet hole in the center and translucent parts to emulate the shattered glass aesthetic used throughout the game.

You can get a look at the figure in the gallery below:

Kotobukiya will produce and release even more plastic model kits modeled after Capcom's Mega Man metaseries. The company newly revealed at Kotobukiya Collection 2024 that it will produce new model kits of Sigma from the Mega Man X series and Bass.EXE from the Battle Network series. It also unveiled new prototypes of upcoming kits based on special weapon variants from Mega Man 11 and Mega Man X3. [Thanks, Hobby Watch!]

The Mega Man franchise kits of Sigma and Bass.EXE are still in a very early development phase, so Kotobukiya has yet to share any prototype samples for either character. It instead published unpainted prototypes of the weapon variant Mega Men.

Given that Persona 3 Reload is taking you through almost a year in your character’s life, a lot of important dates come up! You might miss certain experiences if you don’t pay attention. Also, it helps you plan and prepare for tests in school or certain boss fights. Here’s what you need to know was you play.

Spoiler-free list of all the Persona 3 Reload Important Dates:

Okay, so, here are all the dates you absolutely need to keep in mind as you go through the game. This collection consists of days you need to remember for exams, boss fight days, and certain social situations you don’t want to miss out on. Note that I also didn't mention dates for side stories for party members who don't have social links, like Akihiko.

• April 20th: You can now enter Tartarus.
• May 3rd: You can now watch Tanaka's Amazing Commodities every Sunday during the "day" portion before taking part in any activities to buy one of his "deals."
• May 9th: First Full Moon boss fight.
• May 10th: You can head deeper into Tartarus.

Imagine there's a restaurant known for its wonderful burgers. They're loved and respected in the industry. These Burgers changed the way all future burgers by other restaurants are sold. Now, imagine the place made a new dish. You're first in line. You have to have it. When the waiter comes, he serves you a nice, beautiful plate of saltine crackers and some cheese. This is how it feels to play Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League after playing Batman: Arkham Asylum.

One is a genre-defining game with innovative combat, a compelling and gripping story, and an overall unique presentation and approach. The other is Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. It's hard to fully grasp that Rocksteady Games made both titles.

The title of this game tells you the main objective and, admittedly, on paper it's a good one. You play as Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark, and Captain Boomerang as they set out to, well, kill the Justice League. You see, the team has been brainwashed by Brainiac, who is now hours away from a total invasion of Earth.

The Tekken 8 Director and Producer Kohei Ikeda revealed spectator mode issues have been fixed following a tweak to servers. This means that players shouldn’t experience issues when spectating matches.

Here’s Ikeda’s announcement on social media. The developer noted that the problem arose when someone was trying to watch multiple matches, rather than just a single one. 

There’s one other Tekken 8 issue to be aware of. Creator Katsuhiro Harada noted that there is a “specific area matching issue” for people in Indonesia and Oceania. He asked for people to share feedback on social media so the team could better investigate and address the issue. He also referred to this issue as a “rare case” in a follow-up tweet.

On the Apple Vision Pro launch day, HoYoVerse confirmed Honkai: Star Rail will be compatible with it. The update that makes it so will arrive on February 6, 2024 alongside the 2.0 release.

HoYoVerse didn’t get into what this will mean for the game. It could just be that when someone is using the headset, they will also be able to open up the app and play it in a window using the spatial computing offering. It did note it will explain more closer to launch. There is a chance we could learn more on February 5, 2024. That’s when the company will hold an “It’s Always Night in Penacony” presentation. 

As a reminder, the Apple Vision Pro will be the company’s new spatial computing headset. Its 256GB base model will be $3,499, while the 1TB variant starts at $3,899. That launched on February 2, 2024. 

Not all games that will appear on the headset will be in VR. Since it is a spatial computing device, it means that some will just use the technology to be playable in a passthrough mode where you can see your environment around you. For example, What the Golf and Synth Riders are both confirmed to be compatible with the device.

There are a number of Persona 3 Reload social links, and some of them can be missed due to various circumstances. Well, really only one could be totally passed by, but there are two others where you could end up missing out on a chance to finish them.

Which Persona 3 Reload social links can be missed in the game?

The big one to remember is Andre Laurent Jean Geraux, aka Bebe, who is the Temperance social link. There are three blockades to becoming friends with him as soon as possible. The first is you need to unlock the Bunkichi and Mitsuko social link, which is the Hierophant one at the Iwatodai Mall Bookworms book store, and get it to the third rank. During that event, Bebe will come up, find Bunkichi’s missing wallet, and introduce himself. 

Next is that your need your Academics level to be at rank 2, which is Average. This is because you need to check the Home Economics Room on the first floor of the school and be able to read the note. If you have that level unlocked, it will note you can stop by on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays during the After School period to participate in the Fashion Club and socialize with Bebe.

February is in full swing, new games have arrived, and we’re looking at a month full of some pretty neat games to pick up in the coming weeks. So what are we here at Kotaku looking forward to spending our time with this weekend?

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Developer Shift Up Second Eve Studios made quite the splash at Sony Interactive Entertainment’s recent State of Play broadcast with a gameplay reveal trailer for Stellar Blade (previously known as “Project Eve”). The PS5 character-action exclusive is looking real good, thanks it part to its stylish combat and even…

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