Eurogamer

The warm, orienting rituals of Coffee Talk 2

1 year ago

Coffee is one of the world's great rituals, I guess. I'm sort of surprised when Voyager went off on its grand tour it didn't have a burr grinder or at least a packet of instant decaf packed away on it somewhere, or a few bags of tea if that's your thing.

I think the aspect that makes coffee particularly interesting to me, is that the ritual can expand or contract to fit the time you have for it. I follow people on TikTok who actually get angry about coffee made with an inferior grinder, who tamp and settle and do that funny thing where pins draw little shapes in the grain before it even gets near hot water. That always looks a lot like fun - and the videos are particularly good with the ASMR stuff inherent to coffee preparation. But take it the other way and there's a pleasant enough ritual to making instant, throwing in a scoop of the stuff, pouring in the water, and then watching as a lazy spinning nimbus forms on the top. Ten seconds of the day spent contemplating the vast structures of the cosmos in all their repeating glory. Again - Voyager missed a trick here.

It's this ritual side of things that makes coffee so well suited to games, and it's why I know that before long I will pick up Coffee Talk 2, our game of the week. Alexis felt the game wasn't quite as coherent as the first, but it sounds like it's still a fascinating thing, a return to spooky Seattle and its midnight coffee shops. Another kind, thoughtful game, that hopefully carries on the spirit of the series' late creator, Mohammad Fahmi.

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Author
Christian Donlan

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Moons of Darsalon is a gloriously silly game about rescuing astronauts

1 year ago

Few players relish the thought of escort missions nowadays, but there was a time when developers built best-selling games around the act of saving NPCs, from Lemmings to Abe's Odyssey. Moons of Darsalon, out now on Steam after a whopping eight years in development, is an immediately delightful homage to that kinder era. In this level-based 2D platformer from Spanish developer Dr Kucho, you play a spaceperson sent to rescue a bunch of other spacepeople from a collection of small but very intense alien planets, shepherding them to a base using simple "follow me" or "go here" commands.

Your other tools include a flashlight for underground exploration, a laser rifle which can be used to tunnel through certain materials, and a soil cannon which lets you blob together bridges, a la Prey 2017's gloo gun. Some levels have gates that require a certain number of spacepeople to unlock, and there's usually one or two hidden inside a hillside or similar, given away by a plaintive speech bubble as you pass.

It's a blend of retro styles. The CRT overlay and fidgety, layered backdrops are pure 16-bit side-scroller, while the chintzy 3D spaceships look like Netscape loading icons upgraded into UFOs. In the hands, it feels a bit like a great Flash game from the late noughties, with a surprisingly in-depth physics system and a level editor waiting in the wings. But the tapering, floppy characters and bobbly, Happy Meal terrain also evoke Earthworm Jim – as does the game's sense of humour, which consists partly of meta jokes such as hurrying home for "pizza and PS4", but mostly of things going terribly awry.

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Author
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

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Garry's Mod dev wants to "get rid of the celebration of Nazis" in his game

1 year ago

Garry's Mod has a Nazi problem, and its developer wants to do something about it.

In a tweet, Garry Newman, creator of the incredibly popular physics sandbox game and founder of Facepunch Studios, said "lurking" in some Garry's Mod roleplaying servers are "a bunch of guys that really seem to love the Nazis".

"It seems like a few of them really love the Nazis outside of the game too," Newman continued.

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Author
Wesley Yin-Poole

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Xbox owners can no longer share game uploads straight to Twitter

1 year ago

Microsoft has disabled its function that allowed users to share their game uploads directly to Twitter from the Xbox console and Windows Game Bar.

"You can still share your favourite moments to Twitter via the Xbox app for Android and iOS," Microsoft assured users last night while sharing this news.

In a recent update, Microsoft additionally revealed that, starting on 25th April, its "Smart Campaigns with Multi-platform will no longer support Twitter".

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Blizzard responds to claims from producer it's creating product "crisis maps"

1 year ago

Blizzard has responded to claims from one of its producers that the company is creating "crisis maps" of what products can be shipped due to the number of employees leaving.

Earlier this week, World of Warcraft producer Adam "Glaxigrav" took to Twitter to voice opinions on how Blizzard is "losing amazing talent because someone in power doesn't listen to the game directors who make his products".

He added: "DE&I [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] also means diversity of thought, especially when it's backed by data and financials".

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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Dota 2's huge New Frontiers update makes the map 40% bigger

1 year ago

Valve has released a significant update to its MOBA Dota 2, called New Frontiers.

It expands the map and makes meaningful gameplay, matchmaking and user interface changes, among many other things.

While the core objectives of the game are the same, with lanes the same distance from each other and win objectives still in the centre of the map, there's 40 percent more terrain, which means there's loads of room to gather resources.

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Author
Wesley Yin-Poole

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What we've been playing

1 year ago

Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: cards, horror, and draggable wreckage.

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

I beat a Daily Voyage! That's the game's version of a daily challenge. And I can't tell you how happy I am about it. Well, I can actually - I am happy about it. There, done.

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Author
Eurogamer staff

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Atari acquires the rights to 100+ retro game IP including Bubsy and Hardball

1 year ago

Atari has whipped out its wallet and snapped up the intellectual property rights to over 100 retro games from the 80s and 90s, including Bubsy, Demolition Racer, and more.

Specifically, Atari's new acquisitions span the PC and console game catalogues of publishers Micropose, Infogrames, Accolade, with Atari also now owning the Accolade trademark.

Sadly, the company hasn't shared a full list of the retro IP it now owns after its most recent splurge, so there'll be no time for lengthy bouts of nostalgia here - but its announcement did at least call out the aforementioned Bubsy and Demolition Racer, alongside Hardball, 1942: Pacific Air War, F-117A, and F-14 air combat series.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Street Fighter 6 confirms first four DLC characters, drops demo on PS5 and PS4

1 year ago

Capcom has announced the first four DLC characters coming to Street Fighter 6, and dropped a new demo on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.

Four playable characters are set for Street Fighter 6's first year. They are Rashid (summer 2023), A.K.I. (autumn - 2023), Akuma (spring 2024), and Ed (winter 2024). The video below shows off some artwork for their Street Fighter 6 designs.

Meanwhile, Capcom has tonight released a Street Fighter 6 demo on PS5 and PS4. This lets you play the initial part of World Tour mode and create an avatar that can then be used in the main game when it comes out in June.

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Author
Wesley Yin-Poole

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Alone in the Dark and more confirmed for THQ Nordic's August showcase

1 year ago

THQ Nordic is holding another digital showcase this August, featuring new reveals and updates on previously announced games, including its intriguing Alone in the Dark reboot.

Here's the bit for your diary: things get underway at 8pm BST/9pm CEST/12pm PT on Friday, 11th August, with proceedings being streamed via YouTube and Twitch.

As for what we can expect, THQ Nordic is promising "world premiere announcements but also updates and reveals for previously announced games", with Alone in the Dark, the recently revealed Trine 5, and Outcast 2 all confirmed to be getting more time in the spotlight.

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Author
Matt Wales

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PlayStation acquires Firewalk Studios as it continues work on triple-A multiplayer exclusive

1 year ago

Sony has acquired developer Firewalk Studios from Bungie boss Harold Ryan's ProbablyMonsters collective, making it PlayStation's 20th first-party studio.

Firewalk was founded in 2018 as a subsidiary of ProbablyMonsters and is yet to release its first game. However, the studio announced a partnership with Sony in 2021 to create a new PlayStation-exclusive triple-A title focused on delivering "memorable multiplayer moments".

In a PlayStation Blog post announcing the acquisition, PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst explained it was Firewalk's work on its still mysterious title - a project being headed by former Destiny creative director Ryan Ellis - that lead Sony to acquire the developer.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Diablo 4 "Server Slam" weekend announced for May

1 year ago

Blizzard has announced a "Server Slam" weekend for Diablo 4, due to run 12th to 14th May.

This will provide fans with one final chance to play the action role-playing game before it launches in early June. Any character progress made during Server Slam will not carry over to launch.

The server slam weekend kicks off at 8pm UK time on 12th May and ends 8pm UK time on 14th May, and is available on PC, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, with couch co-op for consoles and cross-play and cross-progression for all platforms.

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Author
Wesley Yin-Poole

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Tetris Effect dev's chaotic crowd puzzler Humanity gets May release date

1 year ago

Dazzlingly chaotic crowd puzzler Humanity, which is being developed by Tokyo game studio THA in collaboration Tetris Effect developer Enhance, will be tumbling onto PlayStation 5, PS4, and PC on 16th May, and it'll be a day one PlayStation Plus Game Catalogue addition too.

Humanity, if you're unfamiliar, has been in development for a fair old while, with THA first showcasing the game back in 2017 before it re-emerged two years later with Enhance attached. It's remained an intriguing proposition throughout its journey, challenging players - in the role of a Shiba Inu - to corral huge, purposeless crowds.

There's a vague air of classic puzzler Lemmings about the whole thing as players let out a "woof" to control Humanity's vast swarms, making the crowds move, change direction, jump, float, or even fight in order to navigate Trials packed with traps and obstacles, and overcome enemies known as the Others.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Ubisoft's free-to-play Division Heartland still coming, but more player testing to be done

1 year ago

Tonight brings a dollop of news from Ubisoft's The Division franchise, which will soon be extended by the arrival of free-to-play spin-off The Division Heartland.

Originally announced in May 2021, Heartland has now been in closed testing for over a year already - but there's evidently still more to be done before it gets a final launch date.

Tonight, Ubisoft directed interested players and their parties to register for access (at thedivisionheartland.com) in a fresh round of testing, ahead of "more news this summer".

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Author
Tom Phillips

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Ready at Dawn reportedly heavily impacted by latest Meta layoffs

1 year ago

Lone Echo developer Ready at Dawn has reportedly been heavily affected by the latest round of job cuts at Meta Quest and VR owner Meta, with one employee claiming a third of the studio has been laid off, including the studio head.

As originally reported by The Washington Post, today's layoffs could affect as many as 4,000 employees at Meta, and are part of the company's stated goal of cutting a further 10,000 jobs in 2023 following the 11,000 job losses announced last year.

The Washington Post claims Meta has targeted "highly skilled staff" - including engineers and other technical workers - in its latest round of layoffs, and, since its report, employees have said both Ready at Dawn and fellow Meta acquisition Downpour Interactive have been impacted.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo director on using history to create atmospheric horror

1 year ago

Spooky visual novel Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is steeped in Japanese history. When you're not absorbing the sights of 1980s Tokyo or hearing ancient folk tales, Paranormasight feeds you bits of information about Japan during the wider Shōwa era and the earlier Edo period.

Whether from decades or centuries ago, elements of Japanese history are woven into the game, something which Paranormasight director and writer Takaya Ishiyama told me more about, in a discussion which revealed more about the team's approach to using history in the game's narrative as a way to balance realism and mystery.

One of the first things you notice when playing Paranormasight is the difference in visual style between the environments and the characters. The game's cast were drawn by Kobayashi Gen, and his distinct style stands out from the surroundings in-game. The 360-degree panoramas you explore were all created from photographs, though this wasn't initially what the team set out to do.

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Author
Liv Ngan

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Is Zelda playable in Tears of the Kingdom?

1 year ago

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast it's all about Zelda, and the many burning questions we still have surrounding the upcoming Tears of the Kingdom.

Despite all the details to be found in Nintendo's final Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom trailer, there's still so much we don't know. How much has changed in Hyrule since Breath of the Wild, and how many new areas are there to explore? Are there proper dungeons in the game this time around? What are the Tears of the Kingdom?

With less than a month until launch, it's time for one final round of theorising - as the internet begins to entertain some wild theories that Ganon is actually good, or maybe just pulling a Thanos. Joining me to discuss it all - and place bets on whether Zelda really is playable - are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Liv Ngan.

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Author
Tom Phillips

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Call of Duty: DMZ slightly nerfs UAV as community braces itself for pay-to-win bundle

1 year ago

Activision issued an update to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Warzone 2.0 and DMZ overnight that includes an interesting gameplay change the community reckons is a response to a backlash over pay-to-win bundles.

Last week, Season 3 of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0 went live alongside a bundle that includes controversial "bonus effects" for the extraction mode, DMZ.

For example, the Classic Ghost Pack, which costs 2400 CP, includes a free two-plate armour vest, a 15-minute insured weapon cooldown for each of the two guns included in the bundle, and adds one more active duty operator slot for DMZ.

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Author
Wesley Yin-Poole

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Photorealistic bodycam game Unrecord gets official trailer, Steam page

1 year ago

UPDATE 21/4/23: Unrecord's co-creator has released some in-engine development footage, to further prove the game is not fake.

After yesterday's trailer made the rounds, many felt that Unrecord looked too good to be true. Now, Drama's Alexandre Spindler has shared a short clip of Unrecord, showing the game being developed within Unreal Engine 5.

The footage sees the developer manipulating the game's environment before resuming gameplay. Then, once inside one of Unrecord's buildings, the developer proceeds to make more edits to the surroundings.

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Dead Island 2, Dark Pictures Anthology and more available on GeForce Now

1 year ago

A number of new additions are now available to stream via Nvidia's GeForce Now cloud gaming service.

Dead Island 2 is the main attraction, joining the service when it releases on 21st April. You can check out our review of the zombie action-RPG right here.

Also available is The Dark Pictures Anthology horror series, which includes all four games: Man of Medan, Little Hope, House of Ashes, and The Devil in Me.

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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High quality scans of original Pokémon watercolour art shared for first time

1 year ago

For years, scans of Sugimori Ken's original watercolour artwork of the first two generations of Pokémon species have circulated online. For the first time, high quality scans of the artwork are being shared with the Pokémon community in the hopes of archiving them.

The drawings depict the first 251 Pokémon to appear in the games and were uploaded by YouTuber and Pokémon archivist LewTwo to Twitter. The scans were sent to Lewtwo by Twitter user ExcaliburZero_Z.

The old scans are believed to have originated from the Pokémon Red and Blue Player's Guide, Lewtwo explained, where they ended up with "inaccurate colors, were often misshapen, and generally very low quality".

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Author
Liv Ngan

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Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores ending sparks fan debate

1 year ago

Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores only released yesterday, but many players have already completed the DLC, and one particular moment during its ending has evoked a strong reaction from some fans.

Please note, there are spoilers for Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores below. If you want to head into the game as fresh as you can, this is your cue to head elsewhere.

During the events of Burning Shores, Aloy meets Seyka, an "ambitious marine of the Quen tribe who has stepped up to help her people survive". Ahead of the DLC's release, Seyka was touted as a character that would be Aloy's equal, with actress Ashley Birch even saying "Aloy may have met her match".

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Bungie adding accessibility options to Destiny 2 for colour blind players

1 year ago

Bungie is adding new accessibility options to Destiny 2, specifically for colour blindness.

Season of the Deep, out 23rd May, will include an option for players to amend the Enemy Targeted Reticle Colour that changes when aiming at an enemy, as well as new colour options for subtitles to ensure they're easy to read.

Bungie is also adding colour presets for Commendations, meaning players with colour blindness can still clearly see rewards.

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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Pokémon Go has a cheeky Grass and Gratitude event for 4/20

1 year ago

Roll up, roll up, Pokémon Go's latest in-game event begins today, 20th April - and fans think it contains a cheeky nod to 4/20.

Today brings the long-awaited free release of Grass-type Mythical Pokémon Shaymin - for those who didn't cough up for a paid Go Fest ticket last summer.

Sparking up players' attention is the title of this event's new Special Research questline - "Grass and Gratitude" - which is available now alongside the game's similarly grass-themed Sustainability Week.

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Author
Tom Phillips

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RTX 3060 laptops are everywhere - but just how fast are they?

1 year ago

The RTX 3060 feels like it's everywhere. The desktop version of the graphics card tops the March 2023 Steam Hardware Survey, while the laptop version holds down 8th place in the same rankings. It's not an entirely unexpected state of affairs, with this tier of GPUs dominating since the great GTX 1060 back in 2018, but the laptop version in particular is worth looking at in more detail.

Our interest was prompted by two factors. The first is the fact that the RTX 3060 Laptop uses precisely the same silicon as the desktop card, with even more CUDA cores activated - just with a slightly lower power target. That dichotomy is a rarity in the laptop space, which often marries high-end GPU names (eg RTX 4090) with more down-market GPU dies (AD103) - with a corresponding gulf in expected performance. The second, more prosaic reason is that recent sales have brought premium 3060 laptops to the £1250 mark and budget examples well below the £1000 barrier.

So given these factors, how well do these laptops perform - can a 3060 Laptop GPU give a desktop-class 3060 a run for its money? We've gotten in two RTX 3060 gaming laptops to find out, a heavyweight option from British firm Chillblast (via parents CCL) and a more sophisticated model from German company Tuxedo, who focus on advanced Linux machines.

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Author
Will Judd

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Professor Oak voice actor retires due to cancer

1 year ago

James Carter Cathcart, a long-time voice actor for the Pokémon anime series, has announced his retirement from script adapting and voice dubbing for Pokémon USA due to throat cancer.

Cathcart is known for voicing Professor Oak and his grandson Gary, as well as Team Rocket's James and Meowth, since the first episode of Pokémon the Series. His other credits include providing the voice of Vector the Crocodile in 2005's Shadow the Hedgehog.

In a blog post earlier this week, Cathcart's wife Martha made the announcement after revealing Cathcart's tumours weren't responding to initial chemotherapy "as much as was anticipated".

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Author
Liv Ngan

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Disney Illusion Island evolves '90s platformers into a Mickey-vania

1 year ago

Back in the day, after a few levels of Sonic, it was Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse on the Master System that really got me into playing platform games. Butt stomping enemies, eating cake, collecting gems, the nightmarish toy level, the mouth-watering cake level... all to save Minnie from the clutches of Mizrabel the witch. Ah, memories!

Thankfully the team at Dlala shares my enthusiasm for the old 90s platformers. "I actually have my childhood Mega Drive Castle of Illusion cartridge next to my desk at work," said Dlala CEO and creative director Aj Grand-Scrutton tells me after a look at the title. "We love those games."

Disney Illusion Island isn't a direct sequel to those classics, but it does have Illusion in the title. Dlala's take is instead a "spiritual successor in a way", Grand-Scrutton continues, "because this game only exists because of how much we love those games. I probably wouldn't be making games if I hadn't played those."

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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Nintendo acknowledges Mario character name change for Japan

1 year ago

A Mario character who appears in the new Super Mario Bros. Movie will be re-named in Japan, Nintendo has confirmed.

Mario and Luigi's former boss Spike appears in the film as a stern foreman and rival for the brothers' new firm. The character is a deep cut from Mario canon, and originally appeared in the NES and arcade game Wrecking Crew back in the 1980s.

In Japan, Spike has always had the name "Blackie" - which for obvious reasons will no longer be used. Henceforth, the character will be re-named as "Spike" in any future appearances, and the Japanese dub of the Super Mario Bros. Movie will use "Spike" as well.

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Author
Tom Phillips

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MLB: The Show can make you feel the frustration and isolation of the world's greatest athletes

1 year ago

Despite being raised in Britain, last year I started playing MLB: The Show 22' as part of a growing fascination with baseball spurred by the game's cover star, Shohei Ohtani, a literal once-a-century talent. I created a character in imitation of him, Jack Kirby, a two-way player with the ability to both regularly hit home runs and pitch at an elite level. This was considered genuinely impossible outside of a video game before Ohtani. Since I was still learning the sport, the majority of my time was spent in the career mode, Road to the Show.

Personal achievement is the end goal of Road to the Show. Teams are set up to be deliberately transitory-you're drafted through a somewhat baffling conversation tree, and you move through two minor-league teams over the course of a few months. Because you only take control of your character for the moments they actually play, winning individual games, or the season, is almost entirely out of your hands. You can pitch perfectly, or score two home runs, only to discover your team lost by a huge margin. All that matters is that your individual stats go up, and your contract goes up. Theoretically, your money should go up too, and your career income is placed teasingly at the bottom of the stats page.

But here's the thing MLB: The Show reflects real-life MLB contracts, and that means it takes at least two years playing for a team to have any ability to renegotiate salary above the league minimum, and up to six years to gain the ability to go into free agency and change teams, regardless of the wealth the player generates for a team. This means even though money is one of the only meaningful long-term goals to strive towards, playing every start means it can take hundreds of real-world hours to negotiate a raise or change teams.

Author
Justice Herbert-Wattie

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Epic acquires Horizon Chase Turbo developer Aquiris to work on Fortnite

1 year ago

Epic Games has gripped another studio in a permanent money hug, this time acquiring Horizon Chase Turbo developer Aquiris to work on Fortnite.

The Brazil-based Aquiris was founded in 2007 and went on to develop the well-received Wonderbox: The Adventure Maker and Looney Tunes World of Mayhem for mobile, as well as its retro-inspired arcade racer Horizon Chase which released in 2015.

A much-expanded - and critically acclaimed - follow-up, Horizon Chase Turbo, arrived in 2018, whisking the series from mobile to PC and consoles, and Aquiris launched a third entry in the series, Horizon Chase 2, on Apple Arcade at the end of last year.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Everything featured in today's Nintendo Indie World Showcase

1 year ago

Nintendo's latest Indie World Showcase has been and gone, serving up another busy, breakneck run-down of indie titles heading to Switch before the year is through. Obvious highlights included a release date for the highly anticipated Oxenfree 2, as well as a first look at Blasphemous 2, but you'll find a full breakdown of everything featured during the show below.

Mineko's Night Market

The lovely looking Mineko's Night Market from Meowza Games is part narrative adventure, part social sim, all inspired by Japanese culture. It promises a mix of exploration, puzzle solving, and village life - and cats! - as player prepare for a weekly visit from the titular Night Market. After a long old wait, this one finally has a release date and is coming to Switch on 26th September.

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Matt Wales

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Here's a first trailer for gothic action-platformer sequel Blasphemous 2

1 year ago

It's been quite some time since The Game Kitchen announced it was working on a sequel to its gorgeous, gothic action-platformer Blasphemous, but now - with a release pencilled in for "late summer" 2023 - we've been given a first trailer for Blasphemous 2.

The original Blasphemous released back in 2019 to well-deserved acclaim, delivering a superb 2D Metroidvania-meets-Souls-like that married a lavishly presented world of dark religious iconography, monsters, and encroaching madness with some truly unsettling baroque imagery.

In its upcoming sequel, Blasphemous' original pointy hatted protagonist The Penitent One returns for another adventure - tying into the first game's Wounds of Eventide update ending - set across a strange new labyrinthine land ravaged by a curse known as The Miracle.

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Matt Wales

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Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals gets a long-awaited July release date

1 year ago

Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals, the long-awaited follow-up to developer Night School Studio's acclaimed supernatural adventure Oxenfree, finally has a release date, and is launching for Switch, PlayStaton, PC, and mobile on 12th July.

Announced back in 2021 and initially expected to launch that same year, Oxenfree 2 is set five years after the memorable, dimension-shattering events of the original game. This time around, the story focuses on new protagonist Riley Poverly, an environmental researcher who returns to her small coastal hometown of Camena which, as you might already have guessed, is being plagued by mysterious radio signals.

Making matters worse, there's a cult on the loose, attempting to open a portal between worlds, but Riley has some useful new tricks to help her investigations. A new walkie talkie, for instance, means communiucation can occur between characters all across Camena even when they're not together, with conversation and dialogue choices affecting how events play out.

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Author
Matt Wales

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The Day Before beta coming, as developer re-emerges following calendar app kerfuffle

1 year ago

The Day Before developer Fntastic has re-emerged with news of a beta test for its highly-anticipated but held-up zombie MMO, ahead of a full release on 10th November.

As a reminder, The Day Before was originally meant to release in March, before its launch was delayed. In a bizarre series of events, it transpired that Fntastic had failed to trademark the game's name, which had since been contested by the company behind a calendar app. All traces of the game were subsequently removed from Steam and since then, very little has been heard at all.

The Day Before has now reemerged, however, with word from an administrator on the game's official Discord that a beta is now in the pipeline.

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak adds stormy elder dragon Amatsu tomorrow

1 year ago

Capcom has detailed the additions coming to Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak - including the weather-manipulating elder dragon Amatsu - as part of its free April update. It's also confirmed there'll be one final free Sunbreak update arriving in June.

Monster Hunter Rise's Title Update 5 (also referred to as Version 15) launches tomorrow, 20th April, and its most notable new arrival is the Looming Calamity, better known as the elder dragon Amatsu. This formidable creature can control the weather, conjuring violent storms and lightning strikes once it shows its true power, and is available to hunters at MR 10 or higher.

Amatsu is accompanied by Title Update 5's second creature addition, a powerful Risen variant of Shagaru Magala, which becomes available at MR 180 or higher. As you'd expect, new equipment can be forged from the materials dropped by both creatures, including a fetching Palamute outfit resembling a floating armoured horse.

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Matt Wales

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Fan re-imagines Pokémon Red as a Square Enix HD-2D game

1 year ago

A Pokémon fan has created an impressive HD-2D take on the series' original Game Boy games.

Several videos made by 3D pixel artist and designer Dott have surfaced in the past week, showing off what Pokémon Red might look like if reimagined in an HD-2D style similar to recent Square Enix titles like Triangle Strategy and Octopath Traveler.

It's a design which has sparked excitement from fans at how future Pokémon remakes could be made, after the rather lacklustre response to 2021's Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and more general gripes about the series' visuals in all-new entries.

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Author
Tom Phillips

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Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp: an enjoyable remake tempered by disappointing visuals

1 year ago

Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp for Switch updates one of the greatest ever turn-based strategy games with 3D visuals and online multiplayer. While the revamped look won't be to everyone's tastes, developer WayForward has nailed its recreation of the original mechanics while adding plenty of quality-of-live improvements. It's addictive, challenging stuff, but is this everything an Advance Wars game could have been on Switch - and how does the remake compare to the Game Boy Advance original in terms of visuals and performance? We've been testing the game to find out.

If you had a Game Boy Advance in the early 2000s, chances are you played Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2, two nearly perfect titles that made excellent use of the hardware available. Every button served a function, every pixel on the screen was used for gorgeous 2D sprite work and local multiplayer was even possible via link-up cable. It's a pure, almost timeless top-down strategy game where every unit has a counter, from infantry and vehicles to aircraft and ships, and terrain types, weather and visibility are all crucial to victory. And while Advance Wars marks the zenith of the series, it began with Famicom Wars in 1988, explaining the strength and polish of the GBA titles that were the first to be released in the West.

Author
Thomas Morgan

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