Eurogamer

Resident Evil 4 Remake voice actor, Lily Gao, has closed her Instagram account to comments after receiving thousands of messages from players criticising her performance as Ada Wong.

Gao – who had excitedly shared several posts talking about the role – has now deactivated replies and hidden all but one of her posts from public view after vitriolic so-called Resident Evil fans flooded her mentions.

"You ruined the remake," wrote one commenter. "I feel like I just wasted my money by buying the deluxe edition to get this VA to dub Ada." Wrote another: "Your voice acting was horrible in the RE4 Remake," added another. "It sounded super stiff and there was nothing seductive about it? It didn't fit at all omfg I hope they don't hire you as Ada's voice actor for another game."

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Final Fantasy 14's expansion, Stormblood, is currently free to download for a "limited time only".

From now until 8th May, Stormblood – the MMORPG's second big expansion following Heavensward – can be downloaded across all platforms for new and existing owners of Final Fantasy 14 Online Starter Edition.

"Continuing the critically acclaimed story from Heavensward, Stormblood takes players to new far away locales, introduces new playable jobs, continues the enthralling main scenario questline and more," teases Square Enix.

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It's strange to think that for a moment in 2022, the New York Times, one of the most prestigious and respected news brands on the planet, became a global media story itself - for buying a game. Wordle wasn't just any game though. Created by programmer Josh Wardle to amuse his partner, it was - and still is - a phenomenon; a deceptively simple word-spotting puzzle with an insanely compelling and sharable design. Launched in October 2021 it became a viral sensation, hitting two million players by December, and three million by the time the NYT purchased it at the end of January 2022.

Wordle now sits on the NYT's renowned online games portal among the paper's homegrown titles, including the thoughtful word search challenge, Spelling Bee, the dot-to-dot shape-maker, Vertex, and the ever compulsive Mini Crossword. The games were played almost four billion times in 2022, attracting over one million subscribers, and it's such an important part of the paper's remit, the service now has its own "Play" tab in the NYT News app.

Heading up Games for the paper is Jonathan Knight, a 25-year video game industry veteran who started out as a producer at Activision before moving to Electronic Arts, Warner Bros and Zynga. So what's the secret of the NYT's puzzling success, and what's it like running a game studio inside a digital news operation? We sat down with him in London to find out.

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Final Fantasy 14 producer and director, Naoki Yoshida, has outlined what's coming up in the RPG's next substantive update, Patch 6.4.

During the latest Letter from the Producer broadcast, Yoshida revealed that Patch 6.4 – otherwise known as The Dark Throne – will launch in "late May 2023", bringing the conclusion of the Pandæmonium raid series and the continuation of the main scenario questline, the Warrior of Light.

New dungeon The Aetherfont, The Voidcast Dais new trials, duty support system and ocean fishing updates, and new side story quests are on the way, too.

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Insurgency: Sandstorm's final "major content update" of Year 2 is now available.

As part of its fourth-anniversary celebrations, Operation: Accolade celebrates "player-created content in a stunning new setting" as well as a new map – Last Light – new weapons MDR and SG 552, and new character cosmetics Scout and Rebel, all of which will be available for free.

There are also "premium DLC cosmetics" for those who have purchased a Year 2 Pass, Gold Edition, or separately as individual paid content. These include new skin packs and gear sets.

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Naughty Dog has apologised to PC players for the "quality level" of The Last of Us Part 1 and assured fans that it working to address the "issues preventing some of you from experiencing the game".

The studio said that a hotfix designed to address the "jittering on mouse-controlled camera movement" was on the way on Tuesday, and a "larger patch with additional fixes" will drop later next week.

As Matt summarised for us recently, The Last of Us Part 1 finally launched for PC earlier this week after a 25-day delay designed to ensure it would debut "in the best shape possible". Despite that delay, PC purchasers on Steam quickly began reporting a host of technical issues - including inconsistent frame rates, regular crashes, stuttering, long load times, and poor optimisation - soon garnering the port a Mostly Negative rating on Valve's storefront.

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Ubisoft is gunning for The Division 2 players who are "circumventing game mechanics" to rack up "an excessive amount".

In a statement shared across the shooter's social media channels, the development team warned that it was "monitoring" the issue and players who "make use of these exploits" will receive a temporary ban, whilst repeat offenders will be banned permanently.

"We have seen players circumvent game mechanics and systems in order to gain an excessive amount of XP in a short amount of time," the team explained in the brief statement.

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EGX Full-Ride Fund is offering bursaries to enable UK-based, low-income and marginalised game developers to attend EGX 2023.

The campaign - which has no official connection with EGX or its organisers and was set up by "working class lad and formerly low-income member of the games industry", Dan Ahern - hopes to "fully fund" five game developers to travel from anywhere in the UK to attend EGX, as well as cover accommodation and subsistence costs, too.

It has already exceeded its original £4900 target.

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A GoFundMe fundraiser launched to help Dark and Darker developer Ironmace raise funds to fight a copyright claim against publisher Nexon has been deleted.

The fundraiser - which hoped to secure half a million dollars to pay for legal costs and developer salaries whilst the dispute persisted - was only live for about an hour before it was taken down.

"Support the Ironmace team in light of the known ongoing legal circumstances," the fundraiser begins. "All donations will be used as supplementary funding towards the known legal circumstances and also provide continued salary towards the development team".

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Capcom has issued a warning to Resident Evil 4 Remake players to "be aware of a rare but critical progress bug".

Whilst the problem will "only occur under very specific circumstances", the team said that it was working on a fix and apologised for any inconvenience.

The bug - which currently affects all platforms - prevents progress "when performing certain actions in a specific area".

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Science fiction often isn't really about the future. It's a reflection of our present, how today's anxieties and issues might be represented tomorrow.

Citizen Sleeper is a game about an android in a space station, overthrowing a corrupt corporation, and finding a home. But it's also a game about identity, about capitalism, and about trans experience. And now, with the third and final arc of its DLC released today, it's a game that explores refugees too.

Indeed, solo developer Gareth Damian Martin told me "the game is intended to be about now, as opposed to about the future". That seems particularly pertinent when the game has been nominated for four BAFTAs, including British Game and Game for Impact. It's something the developer admitted to feeling uncomfortable about.

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Developer Omega Force has given a closer look at Wild Hearts' first entirely new creature addition since launch ahead of its arrival on 6th April, alongside a peek at its fancy new spinning top Karakuri coming on the same day.

We got first details of Murakumo - Wild Hearts new "petal-manipulating fox" Kemono - last week, and now Omega Force has shared a trailer showing the eye-catcher critter in action.

Murakumo - Wild Hearts' third post-launch monster addition, following on from Kemono subspecies variants Hellfire Laharaback and Grimstalker - is able to harness the power of the wind, hopping on platforms fashioned from sakura blossoms to avoid counterattacks and unleashing a devastating tornado once enraged.

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Crystal Dynamics has released its final content update for beleaguered live-service superhero action-adventure Marvel's Avengers, which, among other things, adds one last new skin for legacy players and makes "nearly all" its paid cosmetics free.

Crystal Dynamics confirmed reports it was about to pull the plug on Marvel's Avengers in January this year, saying March's 2.8 update would be the game's final content release, with support officially ending on 30th September.

As promised, Marvel's Avengers' 2.8 update is now officially here, and Crystal Dynamics has shared full patch notes detailing exactly what players can expect from this final release.

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Naughty Dog has released a second update to address some of the many complaints leveraged at its recently launch and poorly recieved The Last of Us Part 1 PC port, this one primarily targetting memory and performance concerns.

The Last of Us Part 1 finally launched for PC earlier this week after a 25-day delay designed to ensure it would debut "in the best shape possible." Unfortunately, and despite that delay, PC purchasers on Steam quickly began reporting a host of technical issues - including inconsistent frame rates, regular crashes, stuttering, long load times, and poor optimisation - soon garnering the port a Mostly Negative rating on Valve's storefront.

Since then, Naughty Dog has acknowledged player's complaints, saying it's "heard your concerns, and our team is actively investigating multiple issues you've reported."

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Vampires Survivors, having just scored itself a BAFTA for its all-round awesomeness, is ready to bring yet more reasonably priced brilliance into the world, courtesy of its second DLC expansion, Tides of the Foscari, now confirmed for launch on 13th April.

Arriving almost exactly four months after Vampire Survivors' first expansion Legacy of the Moonspell, Tides of the Foscari sees the minimalist survival RPG taking a trip to western Europe for an adventure inspired by fairy tales and folklore.

Deep in a great forest, where the barrier between worlds is perilously thin, lies the Foscari Academy, where generations of warriors, magic-wielders, and thieves can learn their craft.

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E3 2023 is cancelled - and it's uncertain if it will ever return in the same way again. However you feel about that, it's undeniable that the gaming calendar's most talked about show continually provided moments you never got anywhere else.

E3 was a stage for video game companies to strut their stuff, a certain tier of celebrities to make their presences felt, and console rivals to take not-so-subtle pops at one another.

It was a place of huge excitement and anticipation, where internet memes and catchphrases were born, and extremely vanilla marketing executives became legends. It was also a place of failure and disappointment, as outlandish concepts and eyebrow-raising price points were debuted.

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Grant Kirkhope has many attributes to his name. This is the man who wrote the brilliant GoldenEye 007 watch music, after all. However, Kirkhope is also widely known for his DK rap number, something he composed for Donkey Kong 64 all the way back in the '90s.

This little number will be introduced to a new generation of Mario-loving fans thanks to its inclusion in the Super Mario Bros. Movie (of course, there is also the chance parents have already shown the rap to their children - I certainly have).

Seth Rogen, who voices Donkey Kong in the upcoming film, has revealed this iconic tune will be in the Super Mario Bros. Movie. In fact, it is the song Donkey Kong "comes out to", according to Rogen.

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Today is International Transgender Day of Visibility, so we wanted to put together a short list of some great games about trans experience - from visual novels, like If Found... to unique role-playing games like Citizen Sleeper.

A Life is Strange entry in all but name, Tell Me Why mixes melodrama, mystery, and the supernatural in signature Dontnod fashion. At the heart of that mystery are twins Tyler and Alyson Ronan, separated as children, but reunited all-grown-up in their tiny Alaskan town. The twins share a psychic bond that lets them feel each other’s emotions and share memories, which is often used as a way to explore Tyler’s feelings on being trans.

Awkward dialogue and all, I adore the Life is Strange series. The indie-pop soundtracks and small town settings make for a bittersweet atmosphere to soak in while exploring mysteries and characters - and Tell Me Why is my favourite of the lot. The focus on the town’s perceived similarities and differences between Tyler and his identical twin sister is a subtle way to show how trans and cis experiences can differ. However, while Tyler being trans is important to the plot, he’s also a well-rounded character who gets to explore family secrets, and deepen relationships throughout the game’s three chapters.

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Emma's Adventures is a brand new monthly series only for supporters of Eurogamer. It arrives as part of our recent supporter programme revamp which, among other things, significantly lowered the price. Emma's Adventures will air on the last Friday of every month, and this the debut instalment.

Tattered jackets, leather coats and hazmat suits? So hot right now. Or at least, they are in the world of Fallout 76, where parts of the landscape are literally on fire. And though high fashion may not immediately spring to mind when you think of the post-apocalypse, for the past few weeks it's been the main source of my adventures in Appalachia. My desire to collect clothing has now superseded any other mission in the game, and I've even neglected the main storyline in my personal mission to stock the shop. I think the poor overseer is still sitting in her house somewhere, waiting for me to pay her a visit.

Establishing a fashion store in Fallout 76 was, obviously, never the main goal when I returned to Fallout 76 this year. In the middle of my investigations into whether the game had improved since launch (the answer: sorta), I realised that I had accidentally dressed my character as a rugged version of Anna Wintour - the global editor-in-chief of Vogue, and the inspiration behind The Devil Wears Prada's Miranda Priestly. It seemed only right, then, that I should fully lean into this role, and create my very own fashion boutique in the middle of the wasteland.

The use of AI is becoming more prevalent in the games industry, with the likes of Ubisoft creating an AI tool for script writing and its use more widely for both art and voice acting.

High on Life, for instance, used AI for both art and voice acting, while AI voice cloning is being used by modders to replicate the work of actors.

At last night's BAFTA Game Awards, a number of actors spoke to Eurogamer about their scepticism of whether AI can truly replicate human performances and what its impact could be on the voice acting industry.

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Roadwarden will see its world expand later this year, with the release of Windy Meadow.

Windy Meadow is the upcoming official counterpart to Moral Anxiety Studio's text-based RPG Roadwarden.

It will feature a "multitude of hand-crafted characters" along with a "richly detailed" village within a fantasy setting, and follow three interwoven stories - those of Vena, Fabel, and Ludicia - as they "navigate grand life choices regarding their futures". You can see a little trailer for Windy Meadow below:

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On the surface, I don't think there's much in Zelda in general that makes one think of Just Cause 2. But this week, the latest presentation for Tears of the Kingdom took me way, way back - twelve years back, which barely seems possible - to a game that I still think is a bit of a classic.

Tears of the Kingdom had already been revealed before this week, of course. It feels, what with delays and hype and all that jazz, like we've been waiting for it forever. But I hadn't really been paying attention - not full attention anyway. In my head it was a spooky Halloween follow-up to Breath of the Wild, but with a bit of skymindedness thrown in with all those floating islands. So Zelda maths was basically Breath of the Wild + Majora's Mask + Skyward Sword?

Now I see how wrong I was. Because you can fuse stuff in Tears of the Kingdom. You can take one object and bodge it onto another. So you can add a boulder to a stick. You can add a fork to a longer stick and have a weapon with real reach. It's beautifully modular too, so if you stick an eyeball on an arrow, it becomes a target-seeking arrow, because the arrow can see!

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It looks like Netflix is working on a feature that will let you use your smartphone to control games on your television.

That's according to a report by Bloomberg (paywall), and as evidenced by code sourced by TheTapeDrive editor and iOS developer Steve Moser over on Twitter.

This code, which was found within the Netflix app, states: "A game on your TV needs a controller to play. Do you want to use this phone as a game controller?" This suggests the media company is at least experimenting with the use of smartphones as controllers for its games on TV, even if it has not made any public statements as yet.

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After last night's confirmation that E3 2023 is cancelled, it's worth a quick check of June's calendar - which still has plenty to look forward to in the shape of video game announcements.

We're still several months away, but already we've heard word from Ubisoft, Microsoft and Bethesda about their own livestreamed announcement broadcast. And of course there's Summer Game Fest, the more general live show hosted by Geoff Keighley, with updates from other publishers.

Without further ado, here's what to expect and when.

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God of War Ragnarök won six awards at last night's BAFTA Game Awards, including awards for Performer in a Supporting Role and Performer in a Leading Role.

The game dominated both awards, taking half of the nominations, but it was Christopher Judge as Kratos and Laya Deleon Hayes as Angrboða who won.

After their wins, both performers spoke to Eurogamer about the importance of Black representation in gaming.

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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: demons, sumo, and cryptics.

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

Shortly after the Diablo 4 beta came to an end, Blizzard senior quest designer Harrison Pink took to Twitter to discuss one of the action role-playing game's cool narrative moments. I won't spoil it for you here, and I'll link to the tweets rather than embed them. But there's one thing Pink said about Diablo I wanted to dig into, having dug into the Diablo 4 beta myself last weekend.

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"There's definitely been a few significant female characters in the last decade, we've seen great things happening with Ellie from The Last of Us, and with the Horizon Zero Dawn franchise as well. We've seen a few more female protagonists coming out there, I think. But, [10 years ago] it was an unusual situation."

Rhianna Pratchett is talking to me about Tomb Raider, a game she wrote over a decade ago, to reboot the franchise. On 5th March, 2013, the world was reintroduced to Lara Croft, as she found herself washed up on the shores of Yamatai, a strange and storm-wracked island within the Dragon's Triangle. Unlike the Tomb Raider games that had come before, this version of Lara was young and inexperienced - she had not yet become the Tomb Raider synonymous with the series.

I talk to Pratchett over Zoom, with the idea that we'll take a quick look back at the game that ignited Tomb Raider's "Survivor" timeline. What I thought would be a half hour chat turns into something more, though: a brilliant, two-hour long dive into the games and Pratchett's relationship with them, covering everything from last minute story changes and a scrapped multiplayer experience, to the ways the games are shaped by her own memories and the importance of representation in media.

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Vampire Survivors was the surprise winner of Best Game at last night's BAFTA Game Awards, beating the likes of Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarök.

Ragnarök remained the biggest winner of the night, awarded with six wins out of the fifteen nominations it received.

Vampire Survivors also won the award for Game Design.

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CD Projekt has shared little more information on its decision to 're-evaluate' the development of its The Witcher spin-off Project Sirus, saying it's sometimes "better to cut costs early".

Project Sirius was first outlined last October as part of CD Projekt's ambitious studio roadmap, which included a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, a new IP, the next Witcher trilogy, a remake of the first Witcher game, and Project Sirius, a part-solo, part-multiplayer experience being developed by The Flame and the Flood studio Molasses Flood.

Last week, however, CD Projekt announced its intention to write-off funds allotted to Project Sirius, saying it had re-evaluated the "scope and commercial potential of the original concept" and was now "formulating a new framework" better "aligned with the [company's] strategy".

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"This was a difficult decision because of all the effort we and our partners put toward making this event happen, but we had to do what's right for the industry and what's right for E3," said Kyle Marsden-Kish, Reedpop's Global VP of Gaming.

"We appreciate and understand that interested companies wouldn't have playable demos ready and that resourcing challenges made being at E3 this summer an obstacle they couldn't overcome. For those who did commit to E3 2023, we're sorry we can't put on the showcase you deserve and that you've come to expect from ReedPop's event experiences."

A press release containing the statement concludes by noting ReedPop and the ESA will continue to work together on future E3 events.

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Pokémon Go maker Niantic has announced a set of changes to Remote Raid gameplay, in a bid to rebalance a lockdown-era feature it says has grown to overly dominate the app's economy and game balance.

Beginning next Thursday, 6th April, players will be limited to a cap of five Remote Raids per day (though this cap may change and increase for certain events). The cost of Remote Raid passes will also increase from 100 to 195 coins, or from 300 to 525 for a pack of three (though with a possibility to receive one free as part of the game's weekly rewards). To counteract some of this, a discounted three-pack of in-person raid passes will be added to the game's shop, while the endgame XL Candy resource will be made more abundant from in-person raids.

These are changes designed to nudge players away from Remote Raids, and seem likely to spark a strong reaction from some of Pokémon Go's many fans - in particular, those who previously campaigned against the disappearance of the app's many lockdown-era bonuses which made the game easier to play. Again, these changes seem to place the reality of how some fans want to play Pokémon Go in opposition to the vision set out by its creator Niantic. So, why was Niantic so sure these changes were necessary? And if this is the stick, where exactly is the carrot?

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Shadows of Doubt, the wildly ambitious and long-in-development procedural detective noir from developer Cole Jefferies, is launching into Steam early access on 24th April.

Shadows of Doubt, which Jefferies first started discussing all the way back in April 2018, is a first-person, open-world detective sim - complete with the prerequisite snooping and stealth - set in a procedurally-generated noirish sci-fi city.

That procedural generation, which also incorporates elements of hand-crafted design, governs everything from the city's streets and fully explorable buildings to the citizens milling around the world as determined by their personal schedules.

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Mask of the Rose, the "marvellous romance with a hint of murder" visual novel from Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies developer Failbetter Games, has been delayed a little longer and is now eyeing up an 8th June release on PC and Switch.

Mask of the Rose, if you're unfamiliar, takes place in 1862, shortly after the city of Fallen London (an alternate-universe version of Victorian London) is stolen by bats and carried to a vast underground cavern system deep beneath the Earth's surface.

Here, in Mask of the Rose, players will need to pop on their investigatory hats as they attempt to solve the mystery of Fallen London's first post-plunge murder and clear their housemate Archie's name - a task that'll see them exploring "cosy, mysterious and magnificent" locations, donning outfits, doing odd jobs to earn money and resources, and replaying the mystery to uncover "deeper and deeper" secrets.

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Disney Dreamlight Valley is poised to welcome a fresh set of four-legged friends next Wednesday, 5th April, as Simba and Nala take up residence as part of the village life sim's previously announced The Lion King update.

Samba and Nala's arrival brings Disney Dreamlight Valley's villager count up to 25, and comes alongside a new Lion-King-themed realm, additional and unspecified "surprises", plus a new battle-pass-style Star Path with a fresh set of rewards.

As ever, the Star Path must first be purchased using Disney Dreamlight Valley's premium currency, whereupon players can set about completing challenges to unlock its various cosmetic rewards - this time inspired by Disney's theme parks.

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Xbox has revealed the next games which will be available through Games with Gold over the course of April.

This time, we've got the choice of exploring outer space with Out of Space or, erm, beautiful Birmingham with Peaky Blinders: Mastermind.

Out of Space can be claimed from 1st to 30th April, whilst Peaky Blinders will be available from 16th April to 15th May.

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Cassette Beasts, a monster-collecting open-world RPG, is set to release next month on PC.

The game will initially be available on Steam and PC Game Pass day one, with Switch and Xbox versions out in "late spring" according to developer Bytten Studio.

Featuring 2D art in a 3D environment, players will collect monster by recording them on cassettes and then using them to transform in battle. Different monster forms can be fused to create new, unique forms, and the game will also support local co-op. Take a look at the announcement trailer for Cassette Beast below.

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Live A Live, the 2022 remake for Square Enix's 2D pixel RPG released on Nintendo Switch, will launch on PlayStation consoles and PC next month, the publisher has announced.

The game is a collection of eight short stories set throughout different time periods and it captured Edwin in his review and Jessica in our Games of 2022 rundown.

Ahead of the game's release, a demo has gone live on PSN and Steam. The demo includes the opening sections of three stories: The Wild West, Twilight of Edo Japan and The Distant Future.

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A year on from Elden Ring's release, developer From Software has added ray tracing to the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and PC versions of the game with update 1.09. More specifically, it's ray-traced shadows and ambient occlusion that make the cut, although neither feature comes to the Xbox Series S version of the game. For those on PS5, Series X and PC, this is a welcome surprise - it's not since Scholars of the First Sin for Dark Souls 2 have we seen such a post-launch revamp of a Souls game's aesthetic.

Of course, whether the new features are worth enabling depends how successful the implementation is, with the big question being fairly straightforward: does the RT deliver enough of a visual upgrade to justify the performance cost on each of the three platforms? And did RT really deserve this focus when so many technical problems remain unchanged since launch?

First, let's cover off how to activate the RT features. On PS5 and Series X this appears as a new on/off toggle available when quality mode is enabled, while PC users get four RT settings that affect RT shadows and AO in combination: low, medium, high and maximum. The patch notes warn that the game's resolution and frame-rate can be affected by enabling RT, which is what we'd expect given that Elden Ring often doesn't run with much headroom and RT has both a CPU and GPU cost.

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D-Pad Studio, the developer behind acclaimed 2016 platform adventure Owlboy, is back with a 10th anniversary remaster of its debut title Savant - Ascent, which is coming to PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and mobile some time this "summer".

Savant - Ascent, which D-Pad calls a "shoot-em-up platformer", casts players as the Alchemist, a magical practitioner forced from their tower by a mysterious entity. The goal, then, is to return to the top by clearing stages consisting solely of two platforms - which players will need to carefully navigate as they fend off swarms of enemies using their projectiles.

Savant - Ascent is inspired by the music of Norweigian artist Savant, and its newly announced Anniversary Edition promises new stages, abilities, bosses, and power-ups, plus a new Survival Mode pitting players against a parade of bosses as they ride the Endless Elevator.

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While playing Resident Evil 4 Remake, I've found it enjoyable to look for traces of the original game and compare what's been changed.

Which of Leon's terrible lines made the script and which didn't, for example, if the eggs are equipable, whether I'd get some goodies by shooting the lake...

But in recreating and reinventing its masterpiece, Capcom went even further back it seems, as players have spotted a reference to the fabled Resident Evil 3.5, an earlier version of RE4 which was in development but ultimately canned.

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