Moonbreaker, the unexpected collaboration between Subnautica developers Unknown Worlds and seemingly tireless human book machine Brandon Sanderson, has hit 1.0 after spending the last year in early access.
Mix the side-on colony management of Fallout Shelter with the trap-laying tower defence of Orcs Must Die, stir both together in a wizard’s cauldron, and you’ll end up with something not far from Artificer's Tower.
If you'd told me back in 1999 that a rudimentary grasp of sound editing software would stand me in surprisingly good stead as a strategy game player, I'd have asked you who the hell you are and what you're doing in my house. But in the years that followed, after you'd been sent to the slammer for crashing through my window bellowing about cheap Audible subscriptions, I might have checked out games like Ghost Trick and Phantom Brigade - each sort of an exercise in placing actions on a timeline like audio layers to produce a winning composition - and thought "hey, that hysterical burglar was onto something".
I wouldn't say there's an abundance of games in which you place actions on timelines, mind you. But those that do exist are neat, as Marge Simpson would say. Take Tarnished Blood.
Johnsto's Law states: if a game has a level editor, someone will recreate de_dust2. The iconic Counter-Strike map is, I have argued, "one of the fundamental shapes of video games". Recreating levels from other games is a mapping tradition as old as creating your house (not to be confused with MyHouse). I am delighted to see this done en masse, with a twist. A new player-made map pack for Quake offers 30 new singleplayer levels based on multiplayer levels from other games including Unreal Tournament, Valorant, Perfect Dark, and Mario Kart 64. Yes, of course it has a de_dust2.
Amid a fresh swirl of reports suggesting Microsoft is at least mulling a dramatic shift in strategy for its first-party Xbox titles, it's been claimed Gears of War - a series that's long been tightly intertwined with Xbox's identity - is also being considered for a PlayStation release.
That's according to Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb, who made the claim in the latest edition of his Game Mess Mornings podcast (thanks VGC). Addressing the recent spate of rumours about first-party Xbox games heading to PlayStation - which so far include Starfield, Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush, and Bethesda's upcoming Indiana Jones game - Grubb said, "The other one that I've heard that's definitely under consideration...is Gears of War".
"It doesn't mean that it's going to happen," he added, "but it's in talks".
HoYoVerse announced a February 29, 2024 release date for Honkai Impact 3rd Part 2 7.3. It also previewed some of the things people can expect in a new trailer and opened pre-registration at the official site.
As a reminder, when this new launch of Honkai Impact 3rd occurs, it will take players to Mars for Mars Crisis. The new stars and playable characters will be Senadina, from the Sea of Data, Earth’s Erdos Helia, and a young woman from Earth with ears and a tail named Coralie 6626 Planck. Pre-registering gets people a Warm-Up Bundle with an Anchoring the Past and Present Memorial Ribbon, a bundle of Growth Materials for characters, a Voyage to the Future Memorial Emblem, and entries into raffles for an Apple Vision Pro, Nintendo Switch, and other electronics.
Once 7.3 arrives, there are also a handful of celebratory bonuses to get. Everyone can get a Coralie character card, recommended weapon, stigma set, and 10 Focused Supply Cards. You also get to choose one S-rank Battlesuit as a bonus gift. Three of the ones shown as option sare Dea Anchora, Fallen Rosemary, and Herrscher of Thunder.
Independent Vtuber Dokibird announced that she will return to streaming on February 7, 2024 to celebrate the Lunar New Year with fans. She also issued a number of statements on social media explaining her absence and expressing her thanks to people.
Ahead of Dokibird’s return, she shared an announcement explaining her absence. In the first written statement, she discussed her hospitalization and announced her return.
Following that, she also released two voice tweets further going into the situation. Here’s the first one, which explained how she learned about the situation. During it, she also thanked her community and fans.
Square Enix has released their Consolidated Financial Results for the nine-month period of April 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023 of the 2024 financial year. As seen in their previous 1st quarter and half year reports, Square Enix has continued to see an increase in sales but a decline in profits due to an increase in development and advertisement costs. [Thanks, gamebiz!]
The report states that Square Enix is continuing to make efforts to "strengthen the competitiveness and profitability" of the various arms of the company including Digital Entertainment, Amusement, Publication, and Merchandising. The company reported ¥257,612 million in net sales during the nine-month period ending December 31, 2023. This is an increase of 0.8% from the company's prior fiscal year during the same period of time. Square Enix also reported a 15.5% decrease in its operating income which totaled ¥34,918 million.
Square Enix announced a new Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis wand weapon and piece of gear for Aerith. Rather than continuing the Valentine’s Day initiative, this is a more fantasy-themed set.
The highlighted weapon this time is the Floral Wand. It’s a five-star piece of equipment. It both deals damage and debuffs a single enemy with its C. Ability Floral Flare. That deals 420% non-elemental physical damage, while also reducing physical defense. If Aerith’s health is above half, she’ll also lower the enemy’s resistance to wind-based attacks.
As for the new gear, that’s the Floral Gown. Square Enix didn’t detail what its specific abilities are. However, if people get these kinds of pieces of gear via the Stamp Card, they tend to boost stats and provide other bonuses.
The last new items added to Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis were for Tifa and Yuffie. The former’s was a pair of Oven Mitts that could be earned from the event and are a weapon. The latter got a Diner Tray weapon and Sparkling Skater gear from a themed banner.
Microsoft had a strong start to 2024 thanks to their Developer Direct Showcase, but it sounds like we'll get even more information on what the gaming giant is up to very soon. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer gathered the attention of gamers everywhere this afternoon with a post announcing an upcoming "business update event." You can see the post for yourself below.
We're listening and we hear you. We've been planning a business update event for next week, where we look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox. Stay tuned.
The Supreme Court of Korea has ruled that a South Korean man must serve one year and six months in prison after he refused the country’s mandatory military service. He had argued he was a conscientious objector, but a lower court dismissed this partially because he loves playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the third movie in the live-action adaptations, recently announced a slew of casting updates from confirming Jim Carrey’s return as villain Dr. Robotnik, to Jessica Jones star Krysten Ritter joining the cast. I simply cannot die before seeing the blue blur’s angsty rival, Shadow the Hedgehog, on…
Apple Vision Pro, the massive tech company’s foray into the VR headset space that hit stores just a few days ago, is very expensive. It’s an impressive piece of tech (hence the price tag) that you can use for working from home (by virtually pinning windows all over your house—take that, return-to-office mandates!),…
As of 2013’s PS4, Sony has included dedicated capture buttons on its DualShock/Dual Sense controllers to aid with saving your best clips and screenshots whenever you want. The PS5 has the same feature, which is great whether you’re a content creator or just want to archive your gaming history. If you’re looking to set…
After a number of high-profile leaks suggesting Xbox is looking into porting a number of first-party titles to other platforms, Phil Spencer has taken to Twitter to clear the air. The head of Xbox tells fans that they should look forward to a “business update event” next week, though he did not provide details on…
Following a day of reports pointing to a potentially seismic shift in Microsoft's approach to its first-party games, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has confirmed the company will be sharing its "vision for the future of Xbox" in a "business event" next week.
All this began earlier this year, when reports surfaced that Microsoft could be preparing to release Tango Gameworks' acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush on PlayStation and Switch - a rumour that was rapidly followed by claims Rare's multiplayer pirate adventure Sea of Thieves is also readying for release on competing consoles. However, reports began snowballing this weekend, with Starfield, Bethesda's upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and even Gears of War all emerging as candidates for a potential PlayStation release.
As the rumours of Xbox first-party titles going multiplatform have steadily escalated, Microsoft has remained silent, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer has now - following a dramatic day of reports from numerous reliable sources - taken to social media to announce that Xbox will be outlining its future plans in an official "business update event" coming next week.
Two executives from a Tokyo-based manga and anime retailer company were arrested on suspicion of violating the copyright law of Japan. The suspects are accused of leaking Weekly Shonen Jump manga chapters ahead of their official release. [Thanks, NHK!]
Two people are accused of using a smartphone to take pictures of a Weekly Shonen Jump manga chapter and sharing them online five days prior to its release in March 2023. According to the police, the suspects partially denied the charges and claimed they did not share the images.
36-year-old Moussa Samir is one of the suspects arrested. His company, Japan Deal World, sells popular anime and manga goods and is based in Kita Ward, Tokyo. The suspects were arrested on January 2024 by the Kumamoto Prefectural Police and are currently in custody.
Atlus and Vanillaware shared another Unicorn Overlord trailer, this time detailing how to build relationships in the game and what sort of benefits they bring on the battlefield. This is one of several videos released ahead of the game's launch on March 8, 2024.
The rapport system will be familiar to anyone who has played the Fire Emblem games, consisting of a relationship meter that fills when characters fight together or receive gifts from Alain. Multiple characters can gain rapport at the same time by sharing a meal at a tavern, with bonus rapport earned if they like the dish. Upon reaching certain thresholds, characters will receive stat bonuses when fighting in the same unit, as well as unlock conversation scenes for you to view. The trailer rounds out by stating that the next video will focus on character growth and training.
You can watch the full Unicorn Overlord Relationships trailer via Youtube below:
Square Enix shared a FFVII Rebirth interview with the Cloud voice actor Cody Christian. In some of the more notable segments, Christian brought up how challenging the recording process can be, especially as he played Cloud at different ages in this installment. He also noted, “The best thing about playing Cloud Strife… is being able to play Cloud Strife, man.”
First, here’s Christian’s official statement on voicing Cloud at different ages throughout FFVII Rebirth and how that affected his performance.
Honestly, I had to do some actual physical changes, kind of lightening up the tone, trying to reach a higher octave. Naturally, my voice sits a little lower, so that was fun to explore.
There were two different age brackets. There was like a younger, younger cloud and then a slightly older version of that. And then the current state that I voice them in.
Reviewed on:
PlayStation 5
Platform:
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher:
Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer:
Rocksteady Studios
Release:
Rating:
Mature
Years ago, when I first heard about the provocative title for Rocksteady’s follow-up to the Arkham games, I recall wondering what mental gymnastics were in store to not actually murder the well-liked central characters of the DC mythos, including the version of Batman the studio had so expertly developed over prior titles. Credit where it’s due: Rocksteady followed through, and Kill the Justice League does just that. Unfortunately, it also killed my interest or enthusiasm through a story that feels juvenile and callous alongside repetitive and confusing gameplay. While many technical features work as intended, I walked away from every session feeling angry and out of sorts, which aren’t sensations that will keep me returning for endless hours of future adventures.
I don't expect anyone to buy this monitor - but I'm absolutely entranced by a $700 discount on a gaming monitor that brings it down to "just" $1800. To be fair, this is essentially two 32-inch 4K 240Hz monitors without the gap in the middle, with a Mini LED backlight that delivers 1000-nit HDR highlights, an absolute beast of a monitor... but I'm guessing that most people that can drop nearly $2000 on a monitor aren't waiting for a deals post on Rock Paper Shotgun to do so.
Still, I can dream, and this monitor is pretty cool, so let's take a closer look at this absolute bargain.
One of Intel's best value CPUs for gaming is even better value than usual this week, as the Core i5 12400F is down to just £125 at Amazon. That's more than £75 cheaper than the 13th and 14th-gen equivalents, which add on only meagre levels of performance, and a great price for a CPU that can use the same DDR4 or DDR5 motherboards with PCIe 5.0 support. If you're building an Intel-based gaming PC, I'd argue that this is the best budget option going!
If it's demos you want, today's your lucky day; Valve's thrice-yearly Steam Next Fest event is back for another outing, this time featuring "hundreds" of demos across its seven-day duration.
Valve's latest Steam Next Fest is already underway and runs until Monday, 12th February. That means you've got approximately 160 hours to piledrive your way through everything on offer - which, given the magnitude of the task, is probably a literal impossibility at this point. But then we live in a world where someone finished Dark Souls 3 with a banana, so what do I know.
As usual, Valve has tried to make the whole Sisyphean challenge a little less daunting by sorting all those playable demos into easily perusable categories on its Steam Next Fest landing page. And while you're there, you can also take in some of the "hours" of developer livestreams running across the week, as if you didn't already have enough to be getting on with.
HoYoVerse confirmed that there will once again be more Honkai: Star Rail Stellar Jade codes to redeem for the “It’s Always Night in Penacony” 2.0 special program, and here they are. It brought it up ahead of the February 5, 2024 event, and also confirmed Twitch Drops will increase the count to 30 during the presentation.
This will mark the second batch of Stellar Jade for players to redeem release ahead of the Honkai: Star Rail 2.0 update. As usual, there are three codes people can enter, and they’re good until February 18, 2024. You get 100 Stellar Jades with each one, as well as some other items. That’s one full 160 Stellar Jades pull on a gacha banner.
As usual, each code redeemed gives you a handful of items to use in-game. In addition to the Stellar Jades, you get Credits, characters and Light Cone experience items.
Following the termination of Selen Tatsuki, a number of Nijisanji English Vtubers are taking various breaks. The four total who made statements on February 5, 2024 were Rosemi Lovelock, Alban Knox, Ike Eveland, and Victoria Brightshield.
Rosemi noted that her break will last for “a few days.” She specifically noted it refers to social media and didn’t mention if it will apply to streaming.
Alban also noted his break will last “some time.” His announcement also stated it will apply to social media, but didn’t mention if it will include streams.
Nintendo remains tight-lipped on the widely-expected launch of Switch 2 this year - except to say that its current Switch hardware would remain its "main business" heading into the year.
In an investor call today, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said the company would lay out its plan for the coming financial year at its next earnings briefing, expected in May (thanks, Bloomberg).
For now, Nintendo reported a rosy set of results, with better-than-estimated numbers for Switch sales and overall profit. The current Nintendo Switch now stands at 139m sold - around 38m more than the Wii.
Content Warning: Silent Hill: The Short Message contains explicit and continual themes and references to self-harm, suicide ideation, child neglect, and child abuse. While I won't dwell on these in this review or go into much further detail, please be mindful of this before reading further or, indeed, playing the game yourself.
It's long been known that different Silent Hills wait for different people. For some – most famously perhaps – there are faceless, buxom nurses lurking in the rust-encrusted corridors. For others, flames tower around them, leeching the air of all light and hope. For Anita, sticky notes daubed with crude insults are layered like feathers on every surface. It's kind of beautiful in a dark, melancholic, effed-up way.
Kind of beautiful in a dark, melancholic, effed-up way is actually a pretty good summary for Silent Hill: The Short Message, actually. I went in hopeful, if cautious – I know better than most how many false dawns Silent Hill has had – but by the time I came out the other side just a couple of hours later, I was surprised at not only how complete The Short Message feels, but how much it affected me, too.
UPDATE 2.20pm: Microsoft has confirmed the next batch of Xbox Game Pass games.
As we reported earlier, Resident Evil 3, PlateUp! and Madden NFL 24 will all be joining the service this month. Other games also coming include A Little To The Left and Return to Grace.
Here is the full list of titles coming to Game Pass with this wave.
UPDATE 07/02/24: The demo for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has now been officially announced and is available to download and play immediately.
The official announcement took place at tonight's PlayStation State of Play dedicated to the game that also showed some new and returning characters, nods to various minigames, and story hints from throughout the plot.
There are character-specific traversal mechanics; performance and graphics visual modes; relationship mechanics; DualSense feedback; skill boards for synergy commands; and more.
If you've been dreaming of a hyper-agile FPS set on the sky islands from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Echo Point Nova could be your jam. It casts you as a space pilot who crashlands on a floating archipelago planet during a research expedition. I'm not sure what you're researching, exactly, but going by your character's loadout, it's the Science of Sick Moves.
The latest haul of Steam Next Fest demos is so vast that I initially missed Tribes 3: Rivals, a game I’ve been cautiously coveting, among them. While this high-speed FPS has been playable in a number of semi-open alpha tests already, trying it out is now as easy as sliding into its Steam page and hitting the big green demo download button.
The demo launch is accompanied by a shiny new trailer, showing more of Rivals’ skiing shenanigans, aurally satisfying airshots, and flag-throwing tricks that I will never, ever be able to successfully pull off in a real match. Also, a confirmation that it’s launching into early access, though there’s no date beyond “soon.”
Years back I knew someone who was really into lucid dreaming. They had never actually had a lucid dream, but that inevitably only made them more into it. They read books on lucid dreaming and probably attended symposia on lucid dreaming. Their house was filled with Post-it notes on which they had written, over and over, "IS THIS A DREAM?" before plastering them to every surface, because the books and symposia had all told them that the key to this magical garden was teaching yourself to constantly question whether or not you were dreaming right now.
Reader, like my friend I have never had a lucid dream. But I imagine it's a bit like Infinite Craft, the latest browser game from Neal Agarwal. My boss Graham dropped it into our Slack this morning, and it was exactly as if he had dropped a bunch of mentos into a communal vat of Coca-cola. We are all lost now. Do not send help.
Infinite Craft is a highly evolved version of those games where you combine items to get better items. I think these used to be called alchemy games? But anyway, you combine WATER with FIRE and you get STEAM. That kind of thing. But twenty minutes later you're staring at PORN GENIE, and you know that somehow this all started with WATER and FIRE and you decide you need to step away from it all for a while and do something else.
The ability to adjust the brightness of your console's power indicator is one of several nifty features included in the PlayStation 5's next console update beta.
While 'Bright' is the indicator's standard level of illumination, those taking part in the beta will also be able select either 'Medium' or 'Dim', if they so desire.
New Share Screen interactions in the form of pointers and emoji reactions will also be available. Participants viewing Share Screen in fullscreen mode can send these emojis to a host as a way to provide encouragement and celebrations.
A Twitch streamer has had his custom Pokémon emote removed due to sexual content - even though it's just an innocent Bonsly.
Pokémon streamer SBCoop shared the response from Twitch on X, formerly Twitter, showing the emote in question. It's just a little Bonsly on its back crying with a hole in its base, isn't it?
According to the removal statement from Twitch, the emote includes "imagery of sexual content or nudity" in a "gasm-style".
I've always been a fan of underdog brands, and Romanian headphone maker Meze definitely counts as one. The company has been making wave amongst audiophiles, and today we have in for review their most affordable headphones - the £185/$199 Meze 99 Neos. These are far from cheap headphones at that price, but when the other end of Meze's range tops out at €4000 they're still relatively modest!
As you'd hope, the Meze 99 Neo still carry a certain air of authority with their black textured plastic earcups and zinc alloy headband. They actually look more expensive than they are, and their blend of high-quality metals and plastics goes some way to justifying the price point - though they of course don't look or feel quite as premium as the wooden earcups of the Meze 99 Classic. The headphones are well-built too, held together entirely by screws and metal fixings to ensure complete repairability. I haven't felt the need to test this, but reports elsewhere suggest they're easy to tear down.
Henry Cavill has hung up the long white locks of The Witcher's Geralt, and is now ready for his next foray into the gaming adaptation sphere with Warhammer, calling it the "greatest privilege" of his career.
Back in 2022, the actor signed a deal with Amazon to bring Warhammer 40,000 to our television screens. Even before this deal, Cavill was known to be famously into Warhammer 40,000, often talking about it in interviews. He once even corrected Graham Norton during an interview when the host mistakenly called Warhammer World of Warcraft.
Cavill's long-time love for Warhammer is apparent even further thanks to a recent interview with Josh Horowitz (thanks, PC Gamer). When asked about the upcoming Warhammer 40,000 project, Cavill said it was the "greatest privilege of [his] professional career" to have this opportunity.
Tencent is developing an Elden Ring mobile game, according to a new report.
The company acquired the licensing rights to Elden Ring from owner FromSoftware in 2022, Reuters reports, and a team was put together to work on a prototype. Sources say development on the project has been "slow".
Tencent is reportedly seeking to turn its Elden Ring mobile version as a free-to-play title with in-app purchases, like Genshin Impact.
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Many a Survivors-like has come and gone over the last couple of years, but Bore Blasters might be the first one that's really struck a chord with me. Or maybe that should be struck gold, as this mining roguelike is all about collecting little gem-like nuggets while boring deep underground for treasure and fending off all manner of flying eyeballs, bats and other unmentionable horrors with wings. I've been playing its Steam Next Fest demo this morning, and my initial impression is that it's a little bit Dome Keeper, a little bit SteamWorld Dig, and very, very good. Even better, developers 8BitSkull have just announced it's coming out in full next month.
