Ubisoft’s new The Division game isn’t even out yet, as it’s still in beta testing and won’t launch officially until 2024. But after trying the beta, I already want one feature from the upcoming game to become standard in every video game I play in the future.
Lethal Company, a co-op horror game about scavenging scrap from moons full of monsters, has become the latest multiplayer game to blow up on Steam, hitting a new player record just a month after launch.
HoYoVerse’s latest look at Zenless Zone Zero on social media went over the Hollow Zero area players will explore. It explains how devastating it is, as well as how someone might find their way there.
Hollow Zero is a phenomenon that occurred over part of the city of Eridu. As a result, the areas not affected are considered New Eridu. However, while most of the trouble is situated in Hollow Zero, there are additional Hollows around New Eridu that are offshoots of it. One segment suggests that going into the location in Zenless Zone Zero can take you into the older parts of the city. All the Hollows seem to be connected, and investigating all of them nets players various rewards.
Here’s the full “pamphlet” HoYoVerse put together going through the Zenless Zone Zero Hollow Zero location.
Capcom revealed a new set of merchandise modeled after Minoto's drawings in the official online Hunting Guide for Monster Hunter Rise. The collection will consist of cushion pillows based on the drawings and hand puppets inspired by Minoto's versions of the Palico and Palamute.
The company has also shared the approximate dimensions for each item. The pillows will have an approximate length of 50cm (~19.7in) and width of 35cm (~13.8). Meanwhile, the puppets will be around 12-14 inches tall and 8-9 inches wide.
The Nier series will keep going as long as its mask-headed creator Yoko Taro is breathing, producer Yosuke Saito has said - while tempering expectations for a sequel (or prequel, or something less obvious) to Nier: Automata to arrive anytime soon.
Square Enix just opened the company's official Jump Festa 2024 website, revealing that FFVII Rebirth and Foamstars will playable at their booth this year. It also went over what to expect from both games' appearances.
There will be two FFVII Rebirth demos to try out at Square Enix's Jump Festa 2024 booth. The first demo is titled "Fated Beginnings: Sephiroth & Cloud" which features Sephiroth and Cloud together in Nibelheim. The second demo is "The World of Rebirth: Junon", which allows attendees to take control of the core FFVII Rebirth cast to explore the Junon area. Gameplay modes can be adjusted at any time during the demo.
Attendees can also take a photo with a special 160 cm long Buster Sword at a designated photo spot. Foamstars will also have a neon-lit photo spot where attendees can pose and take fun photos.
Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince will also have a demo and a commemorative photo spot where attendees can pose with King Slime and Golden Slime.
More information about Square Enix's Jump Festa 2024 booth will be revealed at a later time.
It turns out Fit Boxing feat Hatsune Miku, part of the Fitness Boxing series, will feature other Vocaloid characters as trainers. Imagineer confirmed Kagamine Len, Kagamine Rin, and Megurine Luka will also show up.
Initially, Miku was the only character confirmed to appear in the rhythm and exercise game. All videos and screenshots only showed her. However, the latest announcement confirmed Len, Rin, and Luka will also be characters you can choose. They will then show up on screen as the person whose movements you’ll need to follow, as well as offer support like trainers in other Fitness Boxing games.
A number of new screenshots showing the additional characters showed up on the official site. While none of them show Rin in action, the new images do feature both Len and Luka. You can take a look at them in the gallery below.
The next Sims game - currently codenamed Project Rene, even though we all know it’ll almost definitely be called The Sims 5 - will “definitely” have a multiplayer element of some kind, according to its devs. As guidance on what that could be, its team are unsurprisingly looking at the success of fellow cozy life-sim game Animal Crossing, as well as a perhaps less obvious inspiration in murder-mystery argument-starter Among Us.
A new fan-made Half-Life game, out now for free, lets you relive the franchise’s 25-year history in a condensed, funny, and pixelated walk down memory lane.
The Eat Pizza emote for FFXIV, previously available as part of a collaboration with GrubHub and The Game Awards, is now available to buy directly. The emote is available for $7 on the FFXIV Online Store, where you can also get a set of consumable in-game pizzas for $5.
The emote was originally available back in 2021 as part of a collaboration with GrubHub during The Game Awards. While there was originally some trouble distributing codes, Square Enix decided to make the emote available to everyone who wants it. Also available is the Pepperoni Pizza set, which includes several items that can be placed in player houses as furnishings or shared between friends and free company members for a beneficial effects.
There are some slight variations of the emote based on race and gender, which you can see in the video below:
If you have been on the lookout for a new seasonal knitting project but are yet to be inspired, well, Remedy may just have exactly what you need.
The Alan Wake 2 developer has just shared the knitting pattern for Saga Anderson's rather fetching Nordic-inspired jumper (which was made by her mother, you know).
The cosy jumper features a festive pattern, which includes a deer and tree motif. It is ideal for this time of year, when the nights are longer and - where I live, at least - quite a lot colder.
UPDATE 21/11/23: A US court has ruled that the proposed class-action lawsuit brought by two former Niantic employees can now proceed, after the Pokémon Go maker attempted to move the matter into individual arbitrations.
Niantic had sought to avoid the lawsuit, which alleges sexual bias in the workplace, going to trial.
"Niantic argued that the Ending Forced Arbitration Act, the law that ended forced individual arbitrations in these types of cases, doesn't mean what it says," attorney Genie Harrison said on behalf of the women involved. "Niantic's 'augmented reality' might work in games, but it doesn't work in the courtroom. Gone are the days when employers could hide gender-based discrimination, harassment, and equal pay violations behind forced individual arbitrations. We look forward to prosecuting this case in court on behalf of the women of Niantic."
Sunrise revealed "Freedom" by Takanori Nishikawa with T. Komuro is the theme song for Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom. The singer, who had contributed numerous theme songs for the Gundam SEED series as T.M. Revolution, is working with Tetsuya Komuro, the composer and keyboardist of TM Network. The latter band is also the one behind "Beyond the Time," the theme song of the 1988 movie Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.
A short preview of the theme song is available in the fourth official trailer for Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom right below:
The Crucial T500 only released on October 31st 2023, yet not even a full three weeks later, its prices are being cut to noodles as part of the early Black Friday sales. A very welcome surprise, that – it feels like I only just finished adding it to our best SSD rankings, for its absolutely top-class performance in game load speeds.
Cities: Skylines 2 developer Colossal Order has delayed the release of scheduled content within the game's expansion pass, while it continues to improve the main game's performance.
The studio posted an updated roadmap to Steam, and Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen expanded on the decision to delay the DLC in a new developer diary.
"We are committed to bringing the marketed DLC content to you," Hallikainen wrote, "but it will not be landing in the originally promoted schedule." Instead, the studio is focusing on improving the game's performance on PC before working on the delayed console release and DLC packs.
To help people get a better idea of what to expect from the FFIX Garnet gear for Aerith in FFVII Ever Crisis, there are videos showing gameplay and the wallpaper. Each one offers a brief peek at the gacha items and mission reward.
First, here’s the Garnet’s Rod and Gown video. This shows Aerith wearing the costume and wielding the weapon in-game during a Black Waltz fight. It also notes the Gown has the R. Abilities Boost HP and Boost Heal, to increase her health and make her a better healer. As a reminder, the Garnet’s Rod weapon’s C. Ability is Healing Pulse, which heals, casts Regen, and increases the MATK of the target character.
We still know next to nothing about Wonder Woman, the new action-adventure game from Shadow of Mordor developers Monolith Productions. But we did learn one important detail this past weekend: It won’t be a live-service game, according to the project’s publisher.
Cities: Skylines 2 came out last month, and while a sequel to a mega-poplar citybuilder should have been cause for concrete celebration, the reviews were sadly mixed. Most of the criticism was directed at the game’s performance woes (not teeth-related, apparently) and bugs (which are always a problem in cities, no?) In an effort to iron out the game’s technical problems and implement the mod editor, Paradox and developers Colossal Order have now delayed post-launch content included in the Expansion Pass.
Possibly the single best gaming keyboard deal of the early Black Friday period is, in a black mark for Anglo-US relations, currently only available in the States. But what a deal it is: the Roccat Vulcan Pro, a full-size mechanical board with ultralight half-height keycaps, macro recording, a removable palm rest, full RGB backlighting, and more goodies besides, has plummeted from $120 to $50 on Roccat’s own store. That’s real high-end mech keyboard features for mushy membrane money.
Harry Krueger, the director of 2021's PlayStation 5 exclusive Returnal, is leaving Housemarque after almost 15 years at the studio.
Krueger said the decision to move on was a "very difficult" one, but he was confident Housemarque's "brightest chapter" is still ahead.
"During my 14 years at Housemarque, I've been incredibly fortunate to work on one dream project after another, and had the privilege of working alongside some truly talented and wonderful people along the way," Kruger wrote in a statement announcing his depature on the company's website.
The Los Angeles Rams announced that it will hold a One Piece Game Collaboration Day on December 3, 2023. In addition to decorations around SoFi Stadium, there will also be One Piece merchandise given away to attendees at the event.
This is described as a One Piece game day, as it is promoting the One Piece Card Game and the One Piece Bounty Rush mobile game. Both of those appear on the clear bag, which will be given away to the first 10,000 attendees at the game.
While the bags are the more limited piece of merchandise, the One Piece sports towel will be easier to get. About 60,000 will be given away to attendees at the game. This will feature the LA Rams logo and the One Piece logo, as well as the Luffy Jolly Roger symbol.
Here’s how both of those are expected to look:
Roguelite city-builder Against The Storm found wide popularity during its year in early access, but developers Eremite Games are now ready for a full 1.0 release on December 8th. The game will also be hitting PC Game Pass, for those of you looking for a ‘no extra cost’ gateway. Launch doesn’t mark the end of the road for the dark fantasy hit, though, since the team has also detailed upcoming newness in the form of a new mode for players in want of an extra challenge.
This week's Digital Foundry Direct Weekly kicks off with first impressions on Sony's PlayStation Portal, which we received around the same time that the embargo lifted. Since then, the device has already sold out and in my experience, it's already commanding anything up to a £150 price premium. Well, it's a bit of a stretch to justify its £199 sticker price and I wouldn't recommend paying a penny more. When it works, it's fine, but I can't help but think that a first-party device from a console manufacturer should not ship in a state where the core quality of the device is entirely reliant on third-party equipment it has no oversight over.
That's the key thing about console gaming, in my opinion. Every device is the same, so by extension, the gameplay experience should be quantifiably and qualitatively identical for every user. By relying exclusive on its existing Remote Play functionality - a value-added extra, remember - the quality of gameplay on the Portal is reliant on a massive range of factors outside of Sony's control.
Owing to existing commitments, I've only spent a few hours with PlayStation Portal and I've only tested it in two scenarios. I'd say that the first scenario is close to perfect conditions: the PlayStation 5 and my home router are within 1m of each other, hooked up via a LAN cable. This means that there's effectively no latency between the console and the router. Secondly, the Portal itself is within 1-1.5m of the router.
“The Next Subnautica” is targeting a release date in the first half of 2025, according to the latest financial report from PUBG publisher Krafton. Unknown Worlds are back in the development seat for their third underwater survival dip, following the terrifying breakout first game in 2018 and its icier sequel Subnautica: Below Zero in 2021.
I've a bit of a soft spot for a good frozen outdoors setting. Sure, they can be a bit one note visually, but considering that even a doghole like London looks beautiful in the snow, it can be a strong note.
Kona 2 Colon Brume's snowy post-blizzard setup makes pretty good on the promise, and also smartly contrasts those stark snowbanks and deadly cold forests with the traditional cramped, dark indoors of many a horror game. I suspect I'd have enjoyed it less had it started with the latter, and truth be told, I'm not sure it's quite my thing overall. But it's held my attention so far, which most of its peers don't.
PlayStation Plus Premium, the most expensive tier of Sony’s online membership, has one perk that sometimes feels glossed over next to things like an extensive game library: game trials. These let you play a chunk of a game before you throw down cash. But not all game trials are made equal. Two new additions to the…
Yoasobi, a duo involving the Japanese artists Ayase and Ikura, released a new song in collaboration with the Pokemon company. The new track is called “Biri-Biri,” and the music video stars Nemona, a major rival character from Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
“Biri-Biri” is an electric track that features English one-liners and a bouncing instrumental. Many Pokemon references are included in the song as well, such as the classic “I choose you” catchphrase. Additionally, the song features some hip-hop and rap elements.
The music video stars Nemona and a character based on the protagonist of the game’s Pokemon adventure. There are plenty of Pokemon battles to see, as well as touching moments between the two. For example, the two can be seen riding Cyclizar and Koraidon together. As the two journey to find their treasure, the bond between them grows. Some of the Pokemon featured in the new music video include Sprigatito, Fuecoco, Fidough, and Gengar.
Check out the Yoasobi new “Biri-Biri” Pokemon song and music video below:
Sunrise announced a new VR movie titled Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom. The studio will produce the title with Atlas V, which has created numerous VR titles in its portfolio. Astrea will publish the finished work on Meta Quest.
The website included a teaser trailer that is only viewable in Japan. However, Sunrise has also uploaded the same trailer on the GundamInfo YouTube channel, which is available worldwide. This trailer only shows the formation of the title's logo and the confirmation of Meta Quest as its platform.
It’s that time of year, when you have to start putting together lists of gifts for all the various people in your life. It’s enough of a hassle to make anyone think, “Perhaps I have too many friends and family members…” But before you start ruthlessly discarding large swaths of your social circle, consider the…
Link’s new abilities in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom let you construct all kinds of contraptions, from functional computers to uh, flamethrowing dicks. Thanks to these building powers, a college professor is using TotK’s mechanics and physics engine to teach students a bit about engineering and robotics.
During a panel at G-STAR 2023 in South Korea, Yoko Taro and Yosuke Saito, the producer and director of NieR: Automata, delved into the production and development process of the game. To conclude the presentation, Saito revealed that he and Taro are currently working together on a new game project separate from the NieR series. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]
When asked if Yoko Taro believed the success he achieved from NieR: Automata could ever happen again, he fervently denied the notion that such an outcome was possible. Given the popularity of NieR: Automata, the high sales figures would be a difficult record to break. “It’s completely impossible,” Yoko Taro claimed.
Yosuke Saito attributed the success of the game to the well-balanced team that came together to work on it. The composer (Keiichi Okabe), game designer (Takahisa Taura), and character designer (Akihiko Yoshida) were all praised for their talents, but both Saito and Yoko Taro agreed that it was not their combined skill alone that made their team work. It was the team’s close relationship and balance between what the producer and director prioritized that carried the project to success. They were able to share a common vision for what they wanted the game to become.
“PS3 has no games.” Well, it actually has more than 700, but don’t tell that to 2013’s memes. A decade ago, Sony’s PlayStation 3 began its descent into twilight once its successor, PlayStation 4, was scheduled for release on November 15.
The Pokemon games have a variety of different music throughout, with Trainer battles being some of the most enjoyable themes available. We’ve rounded up ten of the greatest character-specific tunes when it comes to battling, so follow along below to relive these legendary encounters and determine which one is truly the best (like no one ever was).
One of the highlights of Pokemon ORAS’ storyline is the post-game Delta Episode content, starring the mysterious trainer known as Zinnia. As if her design, narrative, and partner Pokemon weren’t badass enough, this theme makes her even more memorable. Zinnia’s battle music is the perfect blend of intensity and mystery, which perfectly suits her character. With the violin creating a ridiculously catchy melody among the fast-paced drums, this music is sure to make your fight against her a significant highlight within the entire ORAS game.
Back in January 2023, Banzoin Hakka debuted as part of HOLOSTARS English -TEMPUS- alongside Gavis Bettel, Josuiji Shinri, and Machina x Flayon. Ahead of his one year anniversary with the group next year, Siliconera got in touch with him over email to talk about streaming, performing, and singing.
Jenni Lada: Now that you’ve been with HOLOSTARS English -TEMPUS- for half a year, what has being one of the Hololive Vtubers been like?
Banzoin Hakka: A Vtuber??? I am just but a little exorcist fella!!!
It has been so much fun, I adore my TEMPUS brothers so much and I love having fun with them and going out on funky adventures, jokes aside, it has been such an honor and an amazing experience. I am very happy to finally find a place where I feel I can belong and be myself, it is truly an honor to be part of such a crazy but very well-knit community as well <3
What does a normal schedule for you look like as you prepare for each week?
Black Friday week is underway and the world’s most reliably discounted gaming mouse, the Logitech G502 Hero, is enjoying a fresh round of savings. Yep, the same Logitech G502 Hero we post about every gosh-darn time there’s a Black Friday, or whatever mutant Prime Day variation Amazon has spawned. Still, no sense in stopping – it’s a cracking mouse, going cheap, and you folks seem to love it as much these days as you did in 2019.
Armored Core 6: Fires Of Rubicon is already pretty damn cool as is, what with the giant mechs zooming about and making things go boom. But now imagine two (or more) mecha-besties zooming about and making things go boom together. Cooperatively. That’s what one upcoming Armored Core 6 mod aims to enable, and it’s coming from the modder who brilliantly implemented co-op in both Elden Ring and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
If you are on the Premium tier of Sony's PlayStation Plus subscription service, you can now have a go at both The Lord of the Rings: Gollum and Baldur's Gate 3, as part of the subscription's trial offerings.
Users will be able to play up to an hour of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.
Baldur's Gate 3's trial, meanwhile, offers a more generous two hours of play time (although, given how vast the game actually is, this is really just a smidgen of the full release).
Black Friday is upon us, dear readers, and by all accounts, this year's sale is meant to be a pretty good one for PC gaming hardware, so let us help you navigate the trauma of endlessly navigating several different price-checking sites to bring you the best Black Friday deals from across the internet. Together with our hardware editor James, I'll be manning our Black Friday liveblog this week, bringing you rolling coverage of the stuff we think is worth highlighting as it happens, from great deals on new microSD cards for your Steam Deck to the best discounts on graphics cards, SSDs and more. James will also be regularly updating our dedicated Black Friday hub pages (linked below) with all the best deals if you're looking for something more specific.
(And if you're looking for more console-related Black Friday deals, then our friends at Eurogamer have their own Black Friday liveblog you may want to keep an eye on as well.)
For now, though, read on below to see the best Black Friday deals we've spotted so far, and if you spot a good one of your own you want to share, please do let us know in the comments!
UPDATE 22/11/13: Sources at Saber Interactive have told Bloomberg's Jason Schreier that the KOTOR Remake is still being worked on, contradicting this week's previous report that the game was "not being worked on in any way at any studio".
Schreier said (via ResetEra) he had spoken to two developers at Saber who both claimed to still be working on the project.
"'Is it alive?' and 'Will it ever actually come out?' are two very different questions," Schreier noted. "A third is 'If it does ever come out, what will it actually look like?'"