Atlus uploaded a new trailer for Persona 3 Reload, this time focusing on Aigis. The trailer shows both scenes of Aigis in her daily life, as well as how she looks in combat.

In Persona 3 lore, Aigis is an Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon, which essentially means she is a robot. In order to summon a Persona, she has a heart. Her starting Persona is Palladion. Though she starts the game as a very robotic-like character, she slowly starts to gain more human-like emotions, allowing her to act like a real person. Aigis is an incredibly prominent character in the Persona 3 story, and was even the main character in The Answer, which was an epilogue chapter from Persona 3 Fes.

You can watch the Japanese Aigis trailer for Persona 3 Reload here:

Whenever a new blockbuster first-person shooter drops, gamers limber up so they can once again argue over how multiplayer matches get made and the algorithmic systems that determine who plays against whom and when. The recent release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is no exception—not long after its multiplayer…

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It’s no surprise that the newest Persona spin-off is pretty dang dialogue-heavy. The high concentration of story and character dialogue is what I and so many others love about the series. But no amount of fandom could blind me to just how longwinded Persona 5 Tactica‘s dialogue can be. I’ll explain why the game’s dialogue feels heavy-handed at times, and what can be done to rectify it in future entries.

Lastly, this is no mere spin-off fatigue setting in; at least I don’t think it is. There are real problems inherent in some of the dialogue that cripples the flow of an otherwise brilliant tactics game.

So, My Next Life as a Villainess is an isekai series about a woman reincarnated into the world of her favorite otome game, and now the Switch otome visual novel based on it called My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom -Pirates of the Disturbance- is about to appear worldwide. To learn more about its development and release, Siliconera spoke with Director Akira Haruse about preparing it.

Jenni Lada: When did development for My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom -Pirates of the Disturbance- start?

Akira Haruse: I believe this concept came to me around 2019, right before the first season of the anime was about to air. At the time, I submitted a total of three concepts: "school of magic," "magic ministry," and "cruise ship x pirate." The IP holder liked the "cruise ship x pirate" theme, so we decided to put that idea into motion. The development truly began in 2020.

There is the completed novel, manga and light novel currently in production, and the anime available so far. How much of each affected the story and development of the game?

CD Projekt Red has announced its Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, which will include both the base game and its expansion Phantom Liberty.

CDPR's Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition is set to release across Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC (both physically and digitally, although, given the art work, it looks like it will still be a PC download code. There will also be a PSN voucher for Phantom Liberty on PS5) on 5th December.

At the time of writing, there is no word on price.

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Bulletstorm VR has seen its release delayed by just over a month, into 2024.

The upcoming and "ultravoilent" shooter, which is being developed by Incuvo and published by People Can Fly, was originally set to release on 14th December.

It is now set to launch on 18th January.

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CD Projekt Red released Phantom Liberty, the first and last expansion for its 2020 RPG, Cyberpunk 2077, in September. We loved it – find out why in Game Informer's Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty review here – and if you enjoyed the base game, it's not an expansion to miss. Currently, it's only available for purchase as an add-on to Cyberpunk 2077, but if you haven't yet picked it up, it might be worth waiting just a couple more weeks. That's because CDPR has revealed Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, which includes the base game and the Phantom Liberty expansion in one single package.

Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on December 5, and will be released in both a digital format and physical. Check out the box art below: 

GTA 6 developer Rockstar Games were once working on a zombie survival game set on a Scottish island, which sounds like a mixture of GTA: Vice City and legendary Arma mod DayZ. That's according to former technical director Obbe Vermeij, who joined Rockstar North in 1995 back when it was called DMA Design, and left in 2009 following the release of GTA 4. In the run-up to the GTA 6 trailer reveal next month, he's started blogging about the development of several Rockstar games, from GTA through grotty snuff film simulator Manhunt to cancelled projects such as the zombie title and Cold War stealth fest Agent.

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An ambitious-sounding follow-up to The Simpsons: Hit & Run was set to include airships.

That's according to the scrapped project's executive producer John Melchior, who revealed developer Radical Entertainment even had plans to include planes in a Hit & Run sequel.

Speaking with MinnMax, the producer, along with other members of the Hit & Run team, discussed the tabled sequel and the various ideas the studio had for it.

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Nvidia’s RTX 4060 Ti is likely one of the hotter properties this Black Friday week; its dual 1080p/1440p capabilities, ray tracing and DLSS 3 support, efficiency, and relatively restrained pricing make it one of the best graphics cards of the current generation. Now, there’s an all-too-rare opportunity to grab one at significantly less than RRP/MSRP, with the triple-fan MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Ventus 3X OC falling to £380 in the UK and $370 in the US.

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I worried a bit about American Arcadia because of how much of a departure it seemed to be from Call of the Sea, Out of the Blue's first game, which I really liked. Why ditch a template that seemed to work so well? Why leave first-person mystery adventuring behind for a platformer set in the 1970s? Like I said, I worried.

I shouldn't have. American Arcadia is a departure from Call of the Sea, but now that I've played it, I'm happy to say the hallmarks of Call of the Sea are absolutely still there. There is first-person puzzling and adventuring, it's just not immediately apparent, and there is a compelling mystery running through the game. And while 1970s America isn't as eye-catching as the tropical island of Call of the Sea, American Arcadia does manage to turn a look, and there's plenty about it to recommend.

Let's cover the basics. American Arcadia is a game about a man escaping from inside a TV show, which has thus far been his whole life, a bit like The Truman Show - with one crucial difference. This is not a TV show about only his life, but everyones' lives who live in the utopia known as American Arcadia.

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Assassin's Creed publisher Ubisoft has pulled its live advertising from X, formerly Twitter, amidst the ongoing row over antisemitism on the platform.

Ubisoft is among other firms such as Apple, Disney and Warner Bros Discovery to have paused their advertising on X, BBC News reported today.

In a statement to Axios, Ubisoft said it has disabled advertising for Assassin's Creed Nexus VR, the recently-launched spin-off from its blockbuster series designed for virtual reality headsets.

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Bethesda has released a new patch for Starfield, which adds DLSS support for those on PC, as well as the ability to ingest food when it is found in the environment. This means players will be able to "enjoy those Chunks immediately or save them for later". Mmm.

This update was previously available as part of a Steam beta, but it is now available for all players.

Along with the much requested DLSS support for those Starfield players with compatible graphics cards, this update also covers a variety of other fixes and features across the board.

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Following yet another last-minute delay, Ark: Survival Ascended's Xbox Series X/S release is now happening later today.

Studio Wildcard's dinosaur survival game was meant to launch last week on 14th November for Xbox Series X/S, but was delayed until some point later in the week. On 16th November, Studio Wildcard delayed the release once again, with a target window of early this week.

Fast forward to today, 21st November, and Studio Wildcard has now confirmed the final release date for Ark: Survival Ascended on Xbox - and there's no more delays. The game goes live later today at 5pm UK time / 9am Pacific.

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I’ve spotted a familiar face among this morning’s gaggle of early Black Friday deals: the Gigabyte G5, one of my most favouritest budget gaming laptops. In both the UK and US, you can now pick up an RTX 4060 version for much less cash than you’d think, given its support for premium features like ray tracing and DLSS 3 frame generation.

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Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 developers Sledgehammer Games (umpteenth reminder: that's Modern Warfare 3 as in the 2023 game, not the 2011 FPS of the same name) have hosted a Reddit AMA in which they answered a bunch of questions about the evolution of the game's competitive meta. That's meta as in the overall balance of power between Modern Warfare 3 loadouts, playstyles and so forth based on a variety of factors such as map design, rather than the Alan Wake 2 kind of "meta", where characters talk about how they're just characters in a game and so on. I would dearly like to see some crossover between these types of "meta". I guess the Call of Duty that comes closest to fulfilling that idea is Black Ops 3, with its fourth-wall-breaking cyborg theatrics.

Anyway, the discussion is interesting because it touches on the fact that the evolution of an FPS competitive meta is an artful balance of prediction and reaction, imposing new directions on players at times, taking direction from them at others. The developers want the Modern Warfare 3 meta to change "from season to season" - the question, of course, is how to do this without alienating fans of certain weapons and strategies.

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I thought I would give Snakebird Complete five minutes or so when I downloaded it. Of course, it ended up eating my entire weekend. Brilliant brain-teasy puzzles, each the size of a single thought, and those lovely flat, bright colours and that beautiful children's book world!

Hmm. I bet I'm about to find out that Snakebird is annoying to describe. It's sort of a puzzley, spatial-logic take on Blockade, or Snake. You play as a long, thin animal that grows every time you eat a piece of fruit. Your job is to get from the starting point on each compact, 2D level, to the exit. If there's fruit, you have to make sure you eat all of it in order to open up the exit. If there are spikes you need to avoid them. If there are drops you need to navigate them without falling.

A lot of the fun comes from the rules. Snakebirds can form shapes as they move through the game's spaces, which are all secretly grid-based. It's almost like you're colouring in sections in an Excel spreadsheet. A snakebird can't pass through itself. When you have more than one snakebird, you can allow one to ride on the back of another to access high spots. If you have a long enough body, you can hook yourself around blocks and hang underneath without falling. Some levels have portals, which you need to enter in the right shape in order to appear in the right shape somewhere else. Others have bits of furniture you can move around.

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The PlayStation 2 holds a special place in the hearts of millions of gamers worldwide. With its expansive library of titles, the console defined what gaming could be for a generation in the early 2000s.

However, not every PS2 title was created equal, and for the hundreds of amazing games that have stood the test of time, there are a few that haven’t aged quite as well. Some games were so bad, we can’t help but think about them to this day – here are the worst PS2 games everyone loves to hate.

The project to create a new Black Jack chapter using AI technology has been completed, and Tezuka Production has publicized some of it. Some of the people working on the project include movie director Kaizo Hayashi, Mega Man manga artist Shigeto Ikehara, and character designer Tsunogai. [Thanks, NHK and ryokutya2089!]

Project TEZUKA2023 started in June 2023, and its goal is to create a new Black Jack work for its 50th anniversary. It combines AI technology with human artists, with AI developing the idea for the general story and characters.

From there, the creators would edit the work that AI made. According to Hayashi, it felt like conversing with someone while working. The creators would ask AI questions about what they should do, and the AI would answer. Aside from commemorating the 50th anniversary of Black Jack, TEZUKA2023 also wants to see just how much AI can act to support creative work.

NoriPro announced that four of its talents will graduate from the company and will become independent Vtubers in January 2024. The four leaving are Shirayuki Mashiro, Enomiya Milk, Himesaki Yuzuru, and Nekozeno Shin.

Official goods and voices from these four Vtubers will no longer be available to purchase in "late" December 2023. NoriPro stated that it cannot answer any questions about their departures. It asked that viewers refrain from contacting it or its remaining Vtubers to try and get answers. In the statement for their graduations though, NoriPro stated that they’re leaving because they chose not to renew their contracts. The NoriPro announcement did not mention if they will use their current identities or if they will create new ones next year when they leave.

An ad scan of deals you can expect from GameStop for Black Friday 2023 is now online. As a reminder, Black Friday will be November 24, 2023 this year.

For starters, some general deals from GameStop will include $50 off of all consoles and hardware, a buy-2-get-1-free deal on all pre-owned games, and up to $25 off on Sony DualSense wireless controllers. There will also be a PS5 bundle for $499.99, reduced from its original price of $559.99. This bundle will come with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.

As for video games, GameStop will offer up to 50% off on select Xbox video games and Nintendo Switch digital games. There will also be a discount of up to 75% on Ubisoft PC games. Games that are part of this deal, including their new prices, include:

• Assassin’s Creed Mirage - $41.99
• Cult of the Lamb Deluxe Edition - $39.99
• Cult of the Lamb - $29.99

Sega revealed details of some new jobs that will be in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. You’ll be able to customize the party of your dreams with the addition of new jobs and ways to customize your characters.

Like in the previous game (as well as the RPGs that Like a Dragon: Infinite both parodies and draws inspiration from), a job will determine a character’s base stats and usable skills. In the previous game, you got to change jobs by going to Hello Work. Hello Work is an actual employment service center in Japan. All characters will start with a base default job. You’ll be able to unlock more jobs for them throughout Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

Here is a list of default jobs for all of the main playable characters:

• Chitose Fujinomiya: Heiress (a job that fights with ballet moves, which can also lower enemies’ attack and speed)

Capcom finished development on an Outfit 3 for eighteen characters in Street Fighter 6 and is planning a costume showcase trailer on November 20, 2023. It has uploaded a sneak peek at the concept art for Jamie’s Outfit 3.

As of the time of writing, there are twenty playable characters available, with the recent additions of DLC characters Rashid and AKI. Capcom has not yet given a release window for when it will patch Outfit 3 into Street Fighter 6. But it will likely announce the date soon, after it finishes designing and developing the final skins.

This could come up during the November 20, 2023 trailer at about 2pm PT/5pm ET. You can see the embed for the Street Fighter 6 costume showcase below:

Hakos Baelz and Inugami Korone have released a new song, which is titled “Bite! Come! Bite!” There is also a music video for it available via YouTube.

The single is available to listen to on Spotify, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music. As for the music video, Hako Baelz has uploaded it onto her channel. As of the time of writing, she uploaded it about 21 hours ago and it has accumulated around 133,065 views, with 24,000 Likes.

You can watch the music video for “Bite! Come! Bite!” here:

The song combines English and Japanese, and has a fairly upbeat tempo. Several of the comments on the music video have complimented the “catchy” tune. Artist Odyk was the one who both animated and illustrated the music video. 

Nippon Ichi Software announced Bar Stella Abyss, a new roguelike strategy RPG title. The company also released a reveal trailer for the game, which will release in Japan on February 29, 2024.

Bar Stella Abyss focuses around interacting with the different patrons of the titular bar, as well as exploring and fighting in the otherworldly “Drunken World.” The protagonist is Wanderer, a mysterious figure that lost their face and arm in the Drunken World, and is set to recover them by diving back in the dungeon.

You can check out the reveal trailer for Bar Stella Abyss here:

The gameplay is divided between roguelike strategy RPG sections, where players explore and fight enemies in the Drunken World, and light life-sim sections where the protagonist interacts with the patrons of Stella Abyss and shares drinks with them to advance the plot and obtain different bonuses. These characters will also appear in the Drunken World as allies.

Want a 4TB SSD for £160? Of course you do, you glorious data hoarder! The Crucial MX500 is my go-to SATA SSD recommendation, and it's now available at this price in an Amazon Black Friday deal.

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AMD's Ryzen 5000 series was the zenith of the long-running AM4 platform, a family of CPUs that offered an extreme uptick in performance compared to Ryzen 1000 processsors on the same socket. While the exceptional 5800X3D takes the title of the fastest gaming CPU from this generation, the standard 5800X is another capable performer - and this eight-core, 16-thread CPU is significantly cheaper during Black Friday, costing just £181/$207.

That's pretty good going for a CPU that cost double that at the start of 2022 - especially when it also costs 60% as much as the Ryzen 7 5800X3D while delivering 75% to 95% of the performance, depending on the game.

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Samsung recently restocked the highly popular Pokemon Poke Ball earbud case for Galaxy Buds exclusively on the Samsung online store in Japan. The earphone case is currently sold out on the website, but people can sign up for notifications when the case will restock. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

Licensed by Pokemon, Nintendo, Creatures Inc., and Game Freak, the Poke Ball earphone case was originally released in 2022 for Samsung's line of Galaxy Buds. The case combines recycled materials and premium production quality with the iconic Poke Ball design to craft a unique product for Pokemon fans. The Poke Ball earphone case costs ¥ 4,480 (~$30 USD) from the Samsung online store in Japan.

Images of the Pokemon Poke Ball earbud case can be viewed below:

After some beta testing, Bethesda has released Starfield’s latest patch for PC and Xbox. This new update adds DLSS support, the ability to eat food you find in the world instantly, some much-needed graphical options, and plenty of bug fixes, too.

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How much time has to pass before it becomes acceptable to remaster or even remake a game? 10 years? 15 years? What about three-ish years? Is that enough time between the original and the remaster? Well, that’s what’s happening early next year as Naughty Dog is remastering 2020’s The Last of Us Part II. 

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Koei Tecmo, Gust, and Akatsuki Games announced that the pre-registration period for the upcoming global release of Atelier Resleriana is now open. The game is set to release overseas sometime in 2024, and the full release date will appear at a later date.

Players will also receive various rewards as a pre-registration bonus. These are 1000 Lodestar Gems, the SSR Memoria "By the Cool Riverside," and the 3-star character "5-Star Pie Meister" Rorona. While the naming convention can be confusing, the character is of 3-star rarity. You can take a better look at the Atelier Resleriana pre-registration bonuses here:

Atelier Resleriana is the upcoming main entry in Gust’s Atelier series. It will be a free-to-play simulation RPG with in-app purchases, and gacha elements. Koei Tecmo also revealed which devices will be compatible with the game.

A controversial skin in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is slated to get pulled following community backlash over visual issues with the buyable cosmetic.

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Crocs and Crunchyroll announced that there will be Jujutsu Kaisen Crocs shoes and Jibbitz charms for them. They are expected to release in November 2023, but an exact release date and price weren’t announced.

There will be three sorts of Crocs in this collection. The clog inspired by Yuji will only be available for kids. It is blue with a red strap and charms tied to the character. The Gojo clog, which is black with purple accents, Satoru Gojo charms, and a white strap, will appear in adult sizes. The Classic Slide sandal will be black with red accents and feature charms of Yuji and Megumi.

Here’s a closer look at the three sorts of shoes on the way.

Nintendo has never dropped the price of its six-year old Switch, and it’s not about to start now. But the company is still bundling Mario Kart 8 free with its consoles for Black Friday 2023, and discounting a bunch of other great games. The Switch 2 might be just around the corner, but there’s never been a better time…

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Amazon already kicked off its Black Friday 2023 deals with a hub page, and a number of games are already available and reduced ahead of the November 24, 2023. Many of these are available on all major consoles, and newer titles like Sonic Suprstars are included.

Here is a list of some of the Amazon Black Friday 2023 video games appearing on sale online so far. There are links to the product pages or hub pages for titles that are multiplatform games.

• Assassin’s Creed Mirage Launch Edition (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) - $39.99

Following some intense controversy surrounding her new snack brand, popular Twitch streamer Pokimane has apologized for an insensitive comment she made to a “rude chatter” during a November 18 livestream.

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Honkai: Star Rail developer HoYoVerse released an in-universe explanation of the Heliobus, wisp-like creatures that appear in the game and form an important part of the Xianzhou storyline. The "Heliobus Purging Manual" covers their behaviour, affects on victims and how to deal with them.

According to the manual, Heliobi are formless beings that are driven to possess people, especially those with strong emotions. If not properly exorcised, a Heliobus' host will begin hallucinating and lose all self-control, before finally combusting once fully drained. Possessed hosts can break free if they become aware of the Heliobus, but otherwise the main method of exorcism involves beating them unconscious and then trapping the emerging heliobus in a force-field.

Heliobus characters appear in several parts of the Xianzhou storyline in Honkai: Star Rail, most notably in Chapter II. Phantylia, a boss fought during the mission Topclouded Towerthrust, is an older Heliobus composed of many smaller entities. HoYoVerse also recently released a trailer for HuoHuo, a healer character that has a Heliobus sealed in her tale.

It’s more bad news for Knights of the Old Republic fans patiently awaiting the remake of the classic Star Wars game, as reports emerge that the game is no longer in active development.

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Square Enix and Applibot updated Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis, releasing a brand new chapter for the game alongside a number of limited time events and campaigns. Final Fantasy VII Chapter 4 "Cloud's Memories" is now a part of the main story, and it covers Cloud's memories of going to Nibelheim with Sephiroth.

A new level limit has been added to the game, so players who had reached the cap can now continue to level their characters up to level 60.

The latest campaign titled "New Chapter Release Campaign" has begun as well. Players will receive ten (10) Draw Tickets for weapon draws to commemorate the release of FFVII Chapter 4. Metal Cactuars, a rare enemy, can now be encountered in Solo Content Enhancement Quests, Solo Content Summon Quests, and Co-op Content until November 26, 2023. Metal Cactuars that do not flee can also appear once a day in the Daily Quest from now until November 27, 2023. The New Chapter Release Training Campaign will also run through to November 26, 2023, allowing players to receive 30% extra EXP for Cloud, Barret, Tifa, Aerith, and Red XIII.

Yakuza: Like A Dragon was a very silly game in spite of its dramatic narrative, but its follow-up, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, looks to give it a run for its money. Between letting Ichiban ride a dolphin and its Animal Crossing-style city-building mode, fans of the franchise’s goofball nature should be in for a treat, and a new batch of screenshots highlight this.

The images provide looks at Ichiban, Kiryu Joryu, and their returning friends, such as Nanba, Adachi, and Saeko, kicking butt in a variety of classes and looking absurd doing so. Other familiar faces will be playable party members for the first time, such as Seonhee, who is shown brutalizing opponents with a whip in the images. It's clear that Hawaii will never be the same once these guys are done with it.