Eurogamer

I finally taught myself the Charlier cut this weekend. It's a card move: a one-handed shuffle in which you basically flip one part of the deck up over the other using the thumb and index finger. I'd been trying to learn it for an absolute age - it's seen as being a deeply simple piece of business, yet I struggled. In the end, there were two reasons it finally clicked for me. The first was a day of telephone calls, which gave me a lot of time to practice, phone tucked between shoulder and neck. The second, and this is quite weird, was switching to using my left hand. I'm right-handed, but for some reason I can only do this cut with the left.

There is often a quirk to learning magic, even the very simple non-magic magic of the Charlier cut. I am bad at card tricks in general, but deeply, perhaps foolishly, enthusiastic: I have learned enough bits and pieces now to know that I should always be surprised at what makes something come together for me.

This sense of surprise is perfectly captured in one of my very favourite novels. In fact, if the mark of how much you love a book is how often you buy it for other people, this must be the book I love the very most of all. It's Carter Beats the Devil, by Glen David Gold. If you haven't read it, today I'm going to try and convince you to pick it up.

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Citizen Sleeper, the really promising new game by In Other Waters developer Jump Over the Age, will be released 5th May.

Excitingly, it'll be available day-one on Xbox Game Pass, on Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One. It'll also be available on PC from a number of stores (Steam, GOG, Epic, Humble), and - this just in - Nintendo Switch. There's no PlayStation version, sadly.

I played a demo of Citizen Sleeper recently and was impressed. It's a mash-up of a board game and an RPG. There's a lot of descriptive text and dialogue choices, as you'd get in an RPG, and there's levelling up and skills and that kind of thing. But it all plays out in a turn-based, board game kind of way, and quite a lot of what you can do depends on dice you roll at the beginning of each turn. It takes a bit of getting used to.

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When Kylo Ren said to let the past die, he probably wasn't talking about those old Lego Star Wars games - the ones which already adapted the film's original trilogy, prequels, and a chunk of the Clone Wars. But like a freshly-tweaked George Lucas special edition re-release, the Skywalker Saga does do something a bit like that.

To be fair, those older games are some of the most technically outdated in developer TT Games' portfolio. Time, console hardware and game design have all moved on, and The Skywalker Saga now stands as very different beast. After a lengthy and somewhat troubled development, TT Games has at last completed its nine-film compilation - but that is only half the story. For as long as you spend on the game's main film storylines, you can also spend just as long aimlessly wandering through the game's expansive array of planets, undertaking in the series' largest collectible hunt ever.

The three Star Wars film trilogies can be played in any order, essentially giving three start and end points for your journey around the game's galaxy. As ever, finished levels (there are five per movie) can then be replayed to unlock further secrets, while visited planets get unlocked on your galaxy map. With so much material to adapt, it's perhaps unsurprising these shortcut through some of the saga's less-vital sections, with the series' typical warm humour used to lighten any of its darker moments. What is surprising, however, is how much the game relies on its open world in missions themselves.

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Those who subscribe to PlayStation Now will be able to get their hands on Mobius Digital's Outer Wilds this month.

Also coming to the service are WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship, Journey to the Savage Planet and Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood.

These games will all be available on the service from tomorrow (5th April).

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Devolver Digital has announced a sequel to Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is finally on its way, and it is rather fittingly called Return to Monkey Island.

Monkey Island co-creator Ron Gilbert is spearheading the project, alongside fellow co-creator Dave Grossman. Dominic Armato will also return as the fan-favourite voice of Guybrush Threepwood.

To accompany this announcement, a new teaser was also revealed, with a tenuous release date set for some time this year.

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Half-Life: Alyx mod Levitation is adding a whole new full campaign.

Free for owners of the game, the campaign is expected to be a four to five hour experience and will be released on the Steam Workshop early Q3 of 2022.

A slick trailer for the mod, which you can see below, features fan favourite characters Russell and G-Man.

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Developer Drinkbox Studios has announced its action RPG Nobody Saves the World is coming to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch on 14th April.

In addition to releasing on new platforms, Drinkbox is also introducing an updated local co-op mode for the game on the same day across all platforms.

In Nobody Save the World, players take on the role of the titular Nobody. However, Nobody has a special trick up their sleeve, as they have access to a nice shiny wand. And this wand allows Nobody to transform into a wide variety of different creatures.

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Welcome to the very latest episode of Digital Foundry Direct Weekly - DF's weekly show where the team discuss the latest gaming and technology news, while fielding a barrage of questions from backers of the Digital Foundry Supporter Program. And while the news this week is dominated by Sony's subscription plans, it's the new footage of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that catches our eyes. Is it actually running on Nintendo Switch?

So here's the thing - pixel counts on the new content vary between 720p in some instances to 1080p in another (the original was 900p) but what really struck us was the sheer fidelity in the presentation. Character self-shadowing, the quality of the volumetric rendering - it's very good indeed and worlds beyond the presentation of the original game. Just to be clear, we're not for one minute suggesting that Nintendo has delivered a surprise reveal of Switch Pro/Super Switch/Switch Model S/insert name but we would prefer to see transparency on game video sources - and in fairness, that level of transparency is exactly what other platform holders are delivering now.

As for the revised Sony subscription service? It comes across as a rationalisation of its existing offering, combining two different services into one. However, we still have more questions than answers really, especially in terms of what the games actually are that are being offered in the higher-end tiers and of course, the elephant in the room - curation and quality of the emulation for older systems along with the effectiveness of the streaming.

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The Witcher Season 3 has begun production and a plot summary has been revealed.

Following the second season of Netflix’s fantasy saga that released at Christmas, the official Twitter account has shared an image of Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri on set in the snow (that's Henry Cavill, Anya Chalotra and Freya Allan).

If it's hard to ascertain any story from that, the account has also shared a plot summary. Mild spoilers follow.

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It's all going on for Greg Buchanan. His still-warm thriller novel Sixteen Horses looks destined to become one of the books of the year, having filled window displays at Waterstones stores around the UK for the paperback launch in February. I've read it and it's brilliant: dark, disturbing, fearsomely intelligent and utterly compelling. I couldn't put it down.

Such is the popularity of the book that it's going to be adapted for TV! And there's going to be a follow-up book called Consumed, which Buchanan is writing right now, and there's a deal for a third, unrelated book that he's also writing right now, as a kind of creative break from Consumed. We talk about both new projects in the podcast.

But that's not all Buchanan has got going on. He recently announced he will be writing for the new Dark Souls tabletop RPG. It's - as I find out - one of his favourite series of games, and he has a lot of interesting things to say about it and about his current obsession, Elden Ring.

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Did you know he was nearly a professional footballer? If it hadn't been for a shoulder injury when he was a teenager, we might well have seen him on TV playing for a top club. He had try-outs at a few of them. He might even have been England's goalkeeper - who knows?!

I know he'll hate me saying that.

Nevertheless, fate intervened and we got him. He is Chris Tapsell. He began writing guides at Eurogamer several years ago, and his aptitude for critical writing and Pokémon was obvious. Slowly, his role evolved. He joined the features team, writing about how he appeared in Football Manager one year, the braggart, before sliding with more focus towards reviews.

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World of Tanks developer Wargaming will no longer operate in Russia and Belarus.

In a statement emailed to Eurogamer, the company has conducted a strategic review of business operations worldwide, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Its live games - namely World of Tanks - will be managed by a local studio no longer affiliated with Wargaming. It has also begun the process of closing its Minsk studio.

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Silent Schemes is the latest instalment in the Team Go Rocket invasion storyline in Pokémon Go which began way back in July 2019 with A Troubling Situation.

There has been a break in this quest series - the last we've seen was back in 2021 - but you can expect the familar gauntlet of grunt trainer battles and catching Shadow Pokémon before taking on the leaders and, eventually, Giovanni himself.

You'll also be rewarded with experience and a range of items for every quest steps you complete.

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A new trailer for Final Fantasy 14 has been released, showing off gameplay of its Newfound Adventure Patch 6.1 coming 12th April.

Released following the latest Letter from the Producer live broadcast, the trailer shows plenty of flashy gameplay of bosses and dungeons from the new content. Check it out below.

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Previously unseen footage from a demo for an unannounced Gex sequel has started making the rounds on the internet.

The footage in question shows a character named Gex Jr. making his way through what appears to be a cinema.

Gex Jr. jumps from screen to popcorn machine and on to yet another screen (one of which appears to show Gex from Crystal Dynamics’ original games), all while chugging down cans of fizzy soda and making some pretty dated references.

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Square Enix has released a new patch for its Final Fantasy themed kart racing sim Chocobo GP.

This patch will finally address numerous bugs present in the game, including an issue where the game stopped progressing at the rankings screen at the end of a race or while matchmaking for the next race.

It will also attend to an issue where finishing in fourth place or higher was treated as being eliminated due to lag.

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Elden Ring players have moved beyond speedruns to find alternative ways to play.

First up there’s Twitch streamer Seki, who not only completed the game in under three hours - an impressive feat alone - but did so without taking any damage.

Seki’s run was the world’s first to do so - while streamer GinoMachino managed a no hit run on 13th March, Seki took no damage at all. That means completing the whole game without taking fall or poison damage, let alone getting hit.

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PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has been talking up his big new subscription offering, and the quality of games which will be available via the service.

Speaking via the official PlayStation Podcast, Ryan said that subscribers would be able to look forward to "all the big names" in the service's upcoming library of games.

When asked to name more games set to be available, Ryan replied that Sony had "massive publisher participation... We have all the big names present".

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343 Industries has acknowledged the frustrations of its Halo Infinite community, however the team hopes the upcoming arrival of Season Two will fix some of the ongoing issues.

343 community director Brian Jarrard took to Reddit over the weekend, where he revealed the Halo Infinite team is "certainly not happy to be unable to meet player and community expectations".

He also admitted, "it's a difficult situation that's going to take the team time to work through".

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A new mode for The Division 2 sees players fighting to take back control of a nuclear power station which has been captured by enemy forces.

Ubisoft has not trumpeted the arrival of the new eight-player offering, dubbed Countdown, and it's easy to see why. The new mode has launched while the very real fight for control of Chernobyl power station has been in the headlines, during the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Of course, the mode has been in development for some time - and was not created in response to the real-world crisis. The timing, however, is unforunate.

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Kirby was among the big names to win at last night’s 64th Annual Grammy Awards.

As previously reported, arrangers Charlie Rosen and Jake Silverman were nominated for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella for their Big Band arrangement of Meta Knight's Revenge from Kirby Superstar.

It means Nintendo’s little pink ball - or at least, Rosen and Silverman - is only the second ever video game winner at the awards.

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Sony has quietly removed an offer for PS Now in the wake of the announcement for its revamped PS Plus subscription.

An offer was previously available to purchase a year’s subscription to streaming service PS Now for $59.99 (on the US PSN). This was a particularly good deal as existing PS Now subscribers will automatically transfer to the Premium tier of the new PS Plus worth $119.99 a year.

However, PS Now can currently only be purchased on a monthly basis (£8.99). Once the new PS Plus launches, PS Now will no longer be available as a standalone product so players will move to the equivalent tier at £13.49 monthly.

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Those looking to purchase a physical copy of Grand Theft Auto 5 for their PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S will be able to so on 12th April, with pre orders available now.

Boxed versions of GTA5 are retailing at £24.99 from outlets such as GAME in the UK (click here for the PS5 version and here for the Xbox Series X version).

Unless you particularly want to have a boxed version of the game to add to your collection, however, it is worth noting that digital copies of GTA5 are considerably cheaper.

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The era of building being banned from Fortnite's core modes is over.

Now, players can choose whether they want to play classic Solos, Duos, Trios or Squads playlists with building - or the option of No Builds Solos, Duos, Trios or Squads, as the game has offered over the past couple of weeks.

In those No Build modes, the game retains the Overshield mechanic introduced at the beginning of the season. But this is gone if you choose to play with building back re-enabled.

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Why start something that you know you'll never finish? An hour into Elden Ring, I already knew I'd be chipping away at this game for years. The temptation to move on from anything too tricky, the endless number of things to move on to, an ocean of a map, my own limited free time... I could tell this would be another Bloodborne, another Skyrim, another Minecraft, another thing I love where I'd never see the credits roll. In this way Elden Ring is a lot like Berserk, the legendary fantasy manga so closely threaded into the DNA of the FromSoft games that it can sometimes feel impossible to pull the two apart. I'll never finish Berserk either, though not for lack of trying. The author Kentaro Miura died last May at the age of 54. His manga, which ran for over thirty years, was never completed.

I'll be frank: Miura's death hit me like a truck. Unfair doesn't even begin to cover it. I will never know Miura and I envy those who did, but through his work I felt I understood him, at least a little bit. There's something very teenager-ish about early Berserk. It's a whole lot of angst and blood and frustration splattered willy-nilly on the page. As the series went on, though, it grew into something that cautiously examined or even regretted the tone of the early chapters. Protagonist Guts - and Miura, through him - seemed to lose interest in avenging what he'd lost and instead chose to focus on protecting what he had left. Unfathomable horrors both man-made and Lovecraftian, institutional religion, war, political intrigue, sexual assault, grief, trauma, love, betrayal; Berserk took everything on, all while looking the best that any comic has ever looked, ever. And you can quote me on that.

Why start something that you know you'll never finish? An hour into Elden Ring, I already knew I'd be chipping away at this game for years. The temptation to move on from anything too tricky, the endless number of things to move on to, an ocean of a map, my own limited free time... I could tell this would be another Bloodborne, another Skyrim, another Minecraft, another thing I love where I'd never see the credits roll. In this way Elden Ring is a lot like Berserk, the legendary fantasy manga so closely threaded into the DNA of the FromSoft games that it can sometimes feel impossible to pull the two apart. I'll never finish Berserk either, though not for lack of trying. The author Kentaro Miura died last May at the age of 54. His manga, which ran for over thirty years, was never completed.

I'll be frank: Miura's death hit me like a truck. Unfair doesn't even begin to cover it. I will never know Miura and I envy those who did, but through his work I felt I understood him, at least a little bit. There's something very teenager-ish about early Berserk. It's a whole lot of angst and blood and frustration splattered willy-nilly on the page. As the series went on, though, it grew into something that cautiously examined or even regretted the tone of the early chapters. Protagonist Guts - and Miura, through him - seemed to lose interest in avenging what he'd lost and instead chose to focus on protecting what he had left. Unfathomable horrors both man-made and Lovecraftian, institutional religion, war, political intrigue, sexual assault, grief, trauma, love, betrayal; Berserk took everything on, all while looking the best that any comic has ever looked, ever. And you can quote me on that.

Activision Blizzard will no longer require staff to be vaccinated against Covid, as the embattled Call of Duty and World of Warcraft company tries to encourage more people back into its offices from June.

The company said its move reflected similar changes made by other businesses across the US, in a company-wide email from exec Brian Bulatao, shared by ABK Worker Alliance's Jessica Gonzalez (thanks, Kotaku).

Bulatao's email began by suggesting conditions in the US were currently improving - despite the rising tide of new cases brought by the increasingly-dominant Omicron BA.2 subvariant, and the relatively low percentage of US citizens protected by a Covid booster dose.

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Activision Blizzard will no longer require staff to be vaccinated against Covid, as the embattled Call of Duty and World of Warcraft company tries to encourage more people back into its offices from June.

The company said its move reflected similar changes made by other businesses across the US, in a company-wide email from exec Brian Bulatao, shared by ABK Worker Alliance's Jessica Gonzalez (thanks, Kotaku).

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With so many key features that make a great gaming mouse, it's not often to find one that seems to check every box, particularly one on sale. But Razer have been making excellent mice for years now, and their DeathAdder V2 Pro is one of the best of the bunch at this price range.

Amazon currently have it reduced by nearly half price, down to just £66.99. And our US readers don't miss out on this deal either, as it's reduced by a similar margin to just $69.99.

Premium mice like this are hard to come by. First of all, it has a 20,000 DPI sensor for great levels of sensitivity and accuracy. And the chroma RGB lighting will ensure it looks like a great addition to any gaming setup.

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With so many key features that make a great gaming mouse, it's not often to find one that seems to check every box, particularly one on sale. But Razer have been making excellent mice for years now, and their DeathAdder V2 Pro is one of the best of the bunch at this price range.

Amazon currently have it reduced by nearly half price, down to just £66.99. And our US readers don't miss out on this deal either, as it's reduced by a similar margin to just $69.99.

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The Mystery Gift feature offers you the chance to download extra rewards for Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

You do this by redeeming Mystery Gift codes or from downloading the item via the Internet using the Mystery Gift feature.

Below you'll find a list of the active Mystery Gift codes, along with instructions on how to redeem said codes and, if you haven't done so already, how to unlock the Mystery Gift feature.

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To get Darkrai in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, you first need to download the Member Card via the Mystery Gift feature.

You must do this before Saturday, 30th April since catching Darkrai is a limited-time event. If you don't download the Member Card before this date, you'll never be able to add Darkrai to your Pokédex!

Due to this, we recommend downloading the Member Card even if you don't currently meet all of the requirements to catch Darkrai.

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Sites of Grace locations are a warm refuge in Elden Ring, and they're everywhere in the Lands Between.

Appearing as a ray of light above a mound of soil, a Lost Grace that is touched transforms into a Site of Grace.

These act as checkpoints where you can respawn upon death, level up, upgrade flasks with Golden Seeds and Sacred Tears, mix Wondrous Physick, memorise spells and other options.

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Creating a Samurai build in Elden Ring is proving to be one of the most popular ways to pay, offering an offensive playstyle with a range of katanas.

Whether you start with the Samurai as a class, or decide to respec your character into it, note that Elden Ring's open-ended nature encourages experimentation, so don't be afraid to be selective with what you take from this page.

Either way - we explain some of the best Samurai build weapons, Samurai build armor and Samurai build stats that we've found particularly useful.

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Attribute Scaling in Elden Ring can help you make powerful builds.

Whilst confusing at first, understanding attribute scaling can help you to further improve your weapons and equipment.

This page explains how Attribute Scaling in Elden Ring works - and how you can manipulate it to your advantage.

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Everybody's Golf will soon be downgraded to Everybody's Golf As Long As They're All In the Same Room, following Sony announcement it'll be ending the PlayStation 4 game's multiplayer support and taking its servers offline from September this year.

More specifically, the Everybody's Golf servers will go permanently offline from 30th September 2022, meaning all online multiplayer modes and other online features - including the likes of leaderboards and certain trophies - will cease to be available from that point on.

Gematsu has compiled a full list of online features getting the chop as of October, so do have a peruse and plan accordingly:

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Everybody's Golf will soon be downgraded to Everybody's Golf As Long As They're All In the Same Room, following Sony announcement it'll be ending the PlayStation 4 game's multiplayer support and taking its servers offline from September this year.

More specifically, the Everybody's Golf servers will go permanently offline from 30th September 2022, meaning all online multiplayer modes and other online features - including the likes of leaderboards and certain trophies - will cease to be available from that point on.

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Earlier this week it was announced that the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has been delayed into next year. This was not exactly a surprise, but a shame, nonetheless. But, to soften this blow slightly, Nintendo also shared a new, very small, snippet from the game.

By snippet, I really do mean snippet. It was a "blink and you will miss it" situation. However, after playing it coy throughout Breath of the Wild 2's most recent trailer, this delay announcement did finally reveal the front of Link, and more of his corrupted arm (with said corruption looking like it is also starting to make its way across Link's chest).

It also showed the Master Sword looking a tad worse for wear. In fact, it looked downright ruined.

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Earlier this week it was announced that the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has been delayed into next year. This was not exactly a surprise, but a shame, nonetheless. But, to soften this blow slightly, Nintendo also shared a new, very small, snippet from the game.

By snippet, I really do mean snippet. It was a "blink and you will miss it" situation. However, after playing it coy throughout Breath of the Wild 2's most recent trailer, this delay announcement did finally reveal the front of Link, and more of his corrupted arm (with said corruption looking like it is also starting to make its way across Link's chest).

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Latest (01.04.22): PS5 stock was available at Amazon US this week. Last week in the UK, PS5 stock was briefly available at Amazon UK for Prime members only. PS5 stock was also available in the UK at Game and Currys last week. Both retailers were selling bundles that include the PS5 standard disc console.

Keep your eyes on the retailer list below for the latest stock updates on PlayStation 5.

While PS5 restocks seem to be happening more frequently nowadays, the console is still selling out in a matter of minutes. We're hoping the PS5 stock shortage improves this year but there's no guarantees. This is due to the ongoing chip shortage and demand issues.

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