In a year of AAA tentpoles like Armored Core VI and Final Fantasy XVI, one of the most surprising games of 2023 was the short narrative cooking game Venba. It tells the story of an immigrant family, centering on the strained relationship between mother Venba and her son through traditional Tamil cuisine. It’s a…
Can you believe it’s been almost half a decade since Satisfactory unleashed its gloriously pleasing factory-building hijinks into early access? And that, five years on, it’s still yet to hit 1.0? Well, you best believe it, as devs Coffee Stain Studios have confirmed that Satisfactory will finally reach the end of the early access conveyer belt sometime in 2024.
Readers, I must confess. I was watching Sony's State Of Play stream on Wednesday with a mind divided. I'd arranged with some pals to play an online board game with them that evening, and when news hit that it might actually be a reasonably big deal for us PC folks, I ambitiously thought: I can proooobably do both at the same time??? Reader, I was wrong, at least for the most part. The first 30 minutes of it was arguably fine, but then the 10-minute trailer for Death Stranding 2 arrived and I simply had to throw my hands up in defeat. I honestly did not understand what I was watching, and even several re-watches later, I'm still not 100% sure what Kojima thinks he's playing at.
But hot damn, do I love it anyway.
Steam Next Fest doesn't officially start until next Monday, February 5th, but what the heck, everyone's putting their demos live early this year, it seems, and another one that's just popped the cork ahead of time is Pepper Grinder, the excellent-looking pixel platformer where you're burrowing through bedrock with a heckin' great drill in your hands as you attempt to steal back your treasure from some pesky pirates. I was instantly smitten with this one when it was first unveiled at the end of 2022, and the more I've seen of it, the more it's risen into becoming one of my most anticipated games of 2024. Happily, its Next Fest demo doesn't disappoint, as it not only feels wonderful in the hands, but ooof, it really knows how to do a good plinky plink coin jostle. My word.
It's February, which means Steam Next Fest is upon us! If you're unfamiliar with what this festive celebration of games is, every year, Steam holds its Next Fest to highlight (mostly) indie games coming out this year and beyond with fun, often bite-sized demos. And the best part is the demos are completely free!
Game Informer got access to some of these demos before their launch when Steam Next Fest begins on Monday, February 5, and enjoyed quite a few. That's why in today's installment of New Gameplay Today, hosts Wesely LeBlanc and Kyle Hilliard want to showcase three games: Pepper Grinder, a fun momentum-based platformer, Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge, a cozy frog farming sim, and Dystopika, a chill cyberpunk city builder.
Check out gameplay of all three of these demos in the NGT below:
All three of these games are set to launch sometime later this year, but if you're interested, you can try each out (and dozens more) as part of Steam Next Fest, which begins Monday, February 5, and ends Monday, February 12.
Head over to Game Informer's YouTube channel for more previews, reviews, and discussions of new and upcoming games. Watch other episodes of New Gameplay Today right here.
As acclaimed first-person automation sim Satisfactory inches closer to the fifth anniversary of its early access launch, developer Coffee Stain Studios has revealed it's eyeing up a version 1.0 release "this year", and that the game has now sold over 5.5m copies.
Satisfactory released into early access back in March 2019 - initially as an Epic Games Store exclusive before making the jump to Steam the following year - and it quickly made a splash, thanks its co-operative, open-world spin on the automated resource exploitation loop popularised by developer Wube Software's much-loved Factorio.
In Satisfactory, Factorio's irresistably compulsive formula - in which you mine stuff to craft stuff that'll make mining more stuff easier so you can craft bigger stuff and so on - plays out in first-person across a vibrant, explorable sci-fi open-world, where up to four friends can work together to achieve their goals. It's a twist that's clearly resonated with people too, as Coffee Stain has now revealed Satisfactory has sold over 5.5m copies since early access began.
As technology advances and we keep asking relatively less from computers for most tasks, the mini PC in general becomes a more and more viable option. AYANEO, a company that’s established itself with its handhelds, is expanding into the market with its Retro Mini PC AM01. Is it right for you? We’ll try to help you answer that.
The packaging of the AYANEO AM01 makes tons of nods to Apple’s choices over the years, setting the stage for the product itself. It makes tons of nods to Apple’s choices, both in its early era and its modern-style box packing. Do these match with the era of the Macintosh Classic, the computer upon which the AM01’s design is based? Uh, not really, no. It’s a pastiche, much like other products in the Remake line. And maybe that makes sense for a product that looks like a Mac but runs Windows.
The materials and wallpaper use a pixelated version of the old Apple serif, which… is weird! It was used on print materials or large enough on the screen to not look like that. The interchangeable icon on the case where the Apple logo would be is a nice touch, if sort of unnecessary. It’s not like the AM02 model with its built-in screen, so we’re not sure how often you’ll be looking at the hardware itself.
Jim Carrey will be returning as Dr Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. He will be reprising the role when the movie releases in theaters on December 20, 2024. [Thanks, Variety!]
The return of Jim Carrey for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was first teased on the official Sonic movie X/Twitter account. A short video featuring the movie’s logo was shown featuring Robotnik’s distinctive laugh. The return of Robotnik was then confirmed by Variety. A teaser for Robotnik’s return also featured during a post-credits scene in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will be the third in the hugely successful movie series from Paramount. The first two movies have made a combined $870 million at the global box office. It’s one of the highest-grossing movies based on a video game ever released, alongside The Super Mario Bros Movie and Detective Pikachu. A TV series based on Knuckles is also in development.
HoYoVerse revealed the full details of what to expect from Black Swan in Honkai: Star Rail. This five-star wind-type Nihility character will be making her debut in version 2.0 on February 6, 2024.
Black Swan can inflict a new DoT effect for Honkai: Star Rail. It’s called Arcana, and many of her abilities are focused on building this up. Arcana can be stacked any time a DoT effect is applied to an enemy, and will cause wind damage on an affected enemy’s turn.
Black Swan can use her basic attack, Percipience, Silent Dawn, to deals wind damage to a single target. This has a chance of inflicting Arcana, and if the enemy has Wind Shear, Bleed, Burn or Shock applied, there’s a chance for additional Arcana stacks to be added. Her Skill, Decadence, False Twilight, will do the same but for multiple targets. It also has a chance to reduce enemy DEF. Her Technique, From Facade to Verite, will apply a stack of Arcana at the start of battle too.
Black Swan can also use her Talent, Loom of Fate’s Caprice, to enhance the effects of Arcana. Depending on how many stacks are on an enemy, she can increase damage and even apply stacks of Arcana to adjacent enemies. If the player can apply more than seven stacks of Arcana, the damage will also ignore a percentage of the enemy’s DEF.
Kotobukiya announced a new Star Trek Bishoujo figure, and this time the hint suggests it is inspired by Captain Kirk. However, only a silhouette of the upcoming character appeared.
In this line of Kotobukiya figures, as is common with the Bishoujo collection, it focuses on depictions of female characters. This is the case even if they aren’t originally that gender in the source material.
For this figure, the Star Trek Bishoujo heroine’s figure has a dynamic pose. She is holding a phaser in her right hand and is speaking into a communicator in her left. She also appears to be perched on a rock of some sort. The art makes it look as though she is being beamed up.
As for the hints about it being a figure of a captain, two seem to suggest that. The first is that the silhouette is yellow, which is the color of Command uniforms in the original Star Trek. The second is that the English announcement on social media begins with “Space: the final frontier,” which is how Kirk would begin the show.
Persona 3’s cast, much like the game itself, is the best one. This is only solidified by Persona 3 Reload’s new side stories that flesh out some of the cast into the best versions of themselves. The third iteration of the Megami Tensei subseries pivots into a supernatural, social sim-driven dungeon crawler. Part of…
Jobs. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em. In Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Jobs are simply another term for “Class,” and switching them up will alter your characters’ stats and reward them with new abilities as you increase their ranks. Some Jobs can be equipped on multiple characters, while others are…
Video game publisher Activision Blizzard has been embroiled in controversy within the last few years, from allegations that a culture of sexual harassment was allowed to thrive to reports of union-busting by management. But in January 2024, when a new lawsuit was filed against the Call of Duty and Overwatch publisher,…
It’s been over a decade since we’ve gotten a BioShock game and no official follow-up has been announced, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something on the horizon for fans of the franchise. Upcoming shooter Judas looks to be a BioShock game in everything but name, and it’s helmed by none other than Ken Levine, the…
In these turbulent times, we could all do with a little more lo-fi in our lives. Delivering said remedy to the tickling of gentle piano and soft sunset palette hues is Tranquil Isle, a lovely-looking combination of city-builder and resource-management roguelite drifting in on the waves later this year. (Or you can just make pretty islands, if you prefer.)
Persona developers Atlus have promised there are no plans to follow up Persona 3 remake Reload with an expanded re-release like Persona 5 Royal, giving us all a welcome break from the tyranny of the letter R.
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The early access release of Paradox's big rival to The Sims has been delayed by another three months, the publisher has announced. Life By You was originally set to launch next month on March 5th, but will now enter early access on June 4th, which developers Paradox Tectonic say will allow them "to refine the visuals for its human characters and further improve gameplay".
I am not reviewing Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League for Game Informer (that privilege belongs to looter-shooter expert Matt Miller), and for that I am grateful. But it’s not because the game is terrible. It’s because even after five hours, I still have no idea how I feel about it.
There is a scene in The Dark Knight Rises that I always assumed would become a meme, but never did. When Anne Hathaway’s Selina Kyle gets stopped trying to escape at the airport by Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s John Blake, he asks her about Bruce Wayne’s fate. In a fantastic one-line performance, she looks into his eyes with genuine uncertainty and fear and says simply, “I’m not sure.” And that’s exactly how I feel when someone asks me what I think of Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad.
Paradox Interactive has announced another delay for its ambitious Sims-like Life By You, which is now due to enter Steam and Epic Games Store early access on 4th June.
Life By You, the first game from Paradox's Tectonic studio (headed up by former Sims boss and Second Life CEO Rod Humble), was officially unveiled last March, promising a game that would let players "create humans and live out their lives without loading screens".
It is, essentially, the Sims, albeit with a few key selling points intended to differentiate it from the current iteration of EA's juggernaut franchise: it's fully open-world with no loading screens, it features "real language conversation", its digital humans can optionally be directly controlled, and "everything is customisable". It also sports a more realistic art style compared to the Sims 4, which, last year at least, unfortunately looked rather drab and bland.
Catherine O'Hara has joined the cast of The Last of Us for the show's second season.
O'Hara, whose expansive career includes playing eccentric matriarch Moira Rose on Schitt's Creek and Kate McCallister in the Home Alone films, will play an undisclosed character in HBO's adaptation. However, previous rumours suggested she will have a recurring role as an all-new character known as Gail.
O'Hara joins Bella Ramsey's Ellie, Pedro Pascal's Joel, Kaitlyn Dever's Abby, Young Mazino's Jesse, and Isabela Merced's Dina for the second season of The Last of Us.
Square Enix shared an official interview with Britt Baron, the voice actress behind Tifa Lockhart in FFVII Remake and Rebirth. As part of that, she shared her favorite moments playing the character in both games, though her thoughts on the one from Remakeis less vague than the Rebirth moment to avoid spoilers.
When it came to her favorite FFVII Remake memory of Tifa, Baron brought up a point involving Tifa’s kindness. She explained how at one point, even though they are enemies, the character goes out of her way to help someone from Shinra.
My favorite scene to play in Remake, might have been on the train when Tifa saves one of the Shinra employees.
A new game industry survey revealed that over 500 studios around the world are currently working on or maintaining live-service video games like Destiny 2, Suicide Squad, and Fortnite.
Sony’s massive State of Play presentation on January 31 gave us a look at a bunch of upcoming PlayStation 5 games, including the first-person shooter Judas, the action game Stellar Blade, and many more. Stunlock Studios’ 2022 breakout game V Rising also made an appearance, with an announcement that the open-world…
If, for whatever reason, you weren’t satisfied with the hopeful ambiguity of The Last of Us Part II’s ending, it sounds like Naughty Dog still thinks there’s at least one more bullet in the chamber for the series. Director Neil Druckmann has revealed in the Grounded II: The Making of The Last of Us Part II documentary…
The roster for the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us grows bigger every day. The latest actor to jump on board the critically acclaimed adaptation of Naughty Dog’s series of games is Catherine O’Hara of Beetlejuice and Schitt’s Creek fame. She’ll be joining returning leads Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, along with…
The newest game in the Like a Dragon series, Infinite Wealth continues the series’ focus on interpersonal relationships. In fact, it even has a button dedicated to saying hi to people. And once you hit the streets of Hawaii, you won’t just say hello, you’ll say aloha, and will gain a friend in the game’s in-world…
It has been a big week for Sonic the Hedgehog fans. Not only did we get the Sonic X Shadow Generations announcement during Sony’s State of Play presentation, but we also have a new tease and a ton of casting news for the third live-action movie set to premiere on December 20. This teaser used a Sonic Adventure 2-style…
Carl Weathers, the legendary Black actor who portrayed Apollo Creed in the Rocky films and starred in dozens of other movies and TV shows like Predator, The Mandalorian, and Toy Story 4, died on Thursday, February 1 at the age of 76. According to Deadline, his family released a statement confirming Weather’s passing.…
This week on All Things Nintendo, Brian is joined by Game Informer's Charles Harte to preview Mario vs. Donkey Kong, the new Switch remake of the well-liked Game Boy Advance puzzle platformer. Before that, though, the two editors run down the latest news, and the show wraps up with an eShop Gem of the Week.
If you'd like to follow Brian on social media, you can do so on Instagram/Threads( @BrianPShea) or Twitter (@BrianPShea). You can also follow Charles on Twitter (@chuckduck365).
The All Things Nintendo podcast is a weekly show where we celebrate, discuss, and break down all the latest games, news, and announcements from the industry's most recognizable name. Each week, Brian is joined by different guests to talk about what's happening in the world of Nintendo. Along the way, they'll share personal stories, uncover hidden gems in the eShop, and even look back on the classics we all grew up with. A new episode hits every Friday!
In this week's episode of The Game Informer Show, former Game Informer editor Jay Guisao joins us to share exclusive details about Apex Legends Season 20: Breakout and discuss our time visiting Respawn Vancouver. Marcus and Kyle discuss the early hours of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League; Charles breaks down his Mario Vs. Donkey Kong preview, then we round out the show discussing Persona 3 Reload.
Follow us on social media: Alex Van Aken (@itsVanAken), Jason Guisao (@Jason_Guisao), Marcus Stewart (@MarcusStewart7), Kyle Hilliard (@KyleMHilliard), Charles Harte (@Chuckduck365)
There's a bit of bad news if, like us, you were quietly hoping Citizen Sleeper 2 might just squeak out before the end of 2024; developer Jump Over The Age has confirmed there's still "around a year left of development" on its eagerly anticipated narrative sci-fi RPG sequel.
Jump Over The Age - AKA developer Gareth Damian Martin - announced they were working on a follow-up to the hugely well-received Citizen Sleeper back in June last year. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, as the sequel is known, introduces a brand-new Sleeper android protagonist in a new setting where players will need to build themselves a life among the stars, piloting their own ramshackle stolen ship populated by a crew they've recruited themselves.
An update in August gave us a first look at a new location in Citizen Sleeper 2 - a bustling way station known as Hexport - as well as confirmation it'll be releasing for PC via both Game Pass and Steam. What we didn't get, though, was any hint of an ETA for Citizen Sleeper 2 - and that's where Jump Over The Age's latest update comes in.
Kotobukiya announced two new NieR Automata scale figures of protagonists 2B and 9S. So far, Kotobukiya has only shown images of gray unpainted prototypes, and there is no release date or window announced yet.
Once the PVC figures are complete, they will be pre-painted. The figures will be at a 1/8 scale. There are no details currently on its dimensions yet. More news will appear in the future. The figures are based on the NieR Automata Ver1.1a anime adaptation of the game. The prototypes are now on display at Akihabara Radio Kaikan as part of the Kotobukiya Collection event.
You can check out the new prototypes of the NieR Automata Kotobukiya figures of 2B and 9S here:
A new line of official Persona 3 Reload merchandise includes a replica of the protagonist’s MP3 player, various acrylic stands, keychains, pin badges, a tarot card set, and a replica of the Velvet Room key, among others. [Thanks, Dengeki Online!]
The items are available for pre-order from the Atlus section of the Ebten online store and are expected to be released sometime in mid-April 2024. In addition, the Persona 3 Reload Soundtrack is also included in the new batch of merchandise.
Here is the full list of Persona 3 Reload merchandise items alongside the prices:
Pocketpair CEO and Palworld creator Takuro Mizobe shared on social media that the server costs for the game have drastically increased. The current server upkeep costs stand at 70.53 million yen (or approximately $475,500,) which is 359% more than the server fees cost in January 2024.
Mizobe made the original post on his personal X (formerly Twitter) account, where he shared a screenshot of the cost increases and its price. The post was accompanied by a Japanese caption that translates to the following:
Huh, am I going to go bankrupt due to server costs?
You can also check out the original post here:
Anyone who was on the internet around the release of The Last of Us Part II knows it was a bad time. But while we, as fans and writers, saw the vitriolic backlash unfold in real-time, it was far worse for the creative team who was directly targeted by it. Laura Bailey, who played the secret second protagonist Abby,…
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach’s latest trailer is aggressively bizarre. In 9 minutes and 40 seconds, the video assaults us with talking stop-motion puppets, sentient gloves wrapped around people’s necks, throat babies vomiting out spaceships, a samurai that sounds like an infant, and somehow, Higgs returned.
It’s so densely packed with weird stuff that, upon repeat viewings, I actually had to go out of my way to pinpoint anything remotely mundane. In a humorous turn of events, Death Stranding 2 is so overwhelmingly odd that every eye-brow-raising visual element is par for the course. Anything that isn’t a black oil-covered tube baby with a hilariously literal moniker voiced by Troy Baker is now the minority and, in turn, the “weird” stuff. They’re not easy to spot, so I took the liberty of doing it for you. Here are all the normal/boring/remarkably tame elements the trailer has to offer.
Nihon Falcom has announced a release date for the PS4 and PS5 versions of Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana. The much anticipated JRPG will come out on May 23, 2024.
The game's first release will include a bonus item, which is the soundtrack of Ys III. However, those who get the digital version of Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana will get the digital version of the soundtrack. Meanwhile, those who purchase the game's physical version will get an actual CD. The CD will be the repackaged version of “Music From Ys III.”
Ys: The Oath in Felghana originally came out in 2005 and is a remake of Ys III. It first came out on the PC and later appeared on the PSP and the Nintendo Switch. The Switch version had a 2023 release and featured voiceovers, including casting Yuki Kaji (Eren in Attack on Titan, Todoroki in My Hero Academia) for protagonist Adol.
There are some differences in the plot compared to the original Ys III and additional scenes. Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is an HD remastered version of the Switch version, though you will be able to switch back to the classic PSP and PC versions of the character sprites.
Square Enix has posted some information on Sephiroth and Cloud’s Synergy Ability in FFVII Rebirth. There is also a short clip of it on its Twitter (X) account.
In Sephiroth and Coud’s Synergy Ability, the two of them attack an enemy simultaneously. It ends with Sephiroth and Cloud looking at each other, though with very different emotions on their faces. As for Square Enix’s description of the Synergy Ability, it describes Sephiroth’s attacks as an elegant dance. Meanwhile, Cloud is doing his best to slice at the enemy with his sword. The name of their Synergy Ability is Cross Spiral.
JP Games has announced development on its new RPG project, Shallah. It will be about a love story between a human and a goddess, and take inspiration from One Thousand and One Nights. [Thanks, PR Times!]
According to JP Games, it will be a cutting-edge “adult” RPG about themes of life and death. Aside from the love story, it will also feature battles that use magic and sorcery. Shallah will have a worldwide release, though there is no information yet in regards to the consoles. The first key visual from the game shows a city lit up under the moon, with many clouds. The city itself has a Middle Eastern look to it.
