It's a strange thing, returning to the world of Death Stranding after more than a year away. Having done that classic thing of rinsing almost every last delivery out of it before finally strapping myself in for its rollercoaster ending back in 2020, there hasn't been much reason to return to my precious, daft BB Boys in the intervening months - not even its Cyberpunk 2077 crossover was enough to tempt me back. At long last, though, I have cause to load up the BB train again. Death Stranding Director's Cut arrives on Steam and the Epic Games Store today, bringing with it new story missions, new delivery buddies, new weapons and... a Mario Kart-style race track? Yep, that sounds like a classic Kojima upgrade pack, if you ask me. Not quite as revolutionary as Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, mind, but it's roughly in the same kind of ballpark.

The Armaguerra 43 was introduced as part of the Warzone Season 2 Reloaded update in March 2022, giving players yet another close range, rapid-fire weapon to utilize.

It's a decent SMG that will lead you to victory, though, depending on how you build it, you might have trouble controlling it.

The Armaguerra 43 is a high-skill SMG that will delete the competition as long as you can control its recoil and manage its low ammo count.

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Today marks the launch of Intel's Arc A-series graphics family, the company's first discrete graphics cards to go head to head against industry titans AMD and Nvidia. To start, Team Blue is building its Arc GPUs for laptops, with entry-level Arc 3 models debuting now in laptops from $899. Higher-powered models called Arc 5 and Arc 7 are set to arrive early this summer, in higher-end machines. The company also teased its first desktop Arc graphics card at the very end of its presentation, showing off a much beefier design than the DG1 card shipped to developers last year. Here's what you need to know from Intel's Arc announcements.

First of all, the Arc series of graphics cards ought to be fully-featured models, with support for the full DirectX 12 Ultimate feature set (ray tracing, VRS, mesh shading, sampler feedback) plus DirectStorage and XeSS AI upscaling. That puts them on an even keel with Nvidia in terms of most features, and ahead of AMD who don't yet have a temporal upscaling solution.

Intel detailed some specs for each of the five models announced thus far, including the number of Xe cores, ray tracing units and GDDR6 memory allocation. Given the relatively rapid scaling between families - we see a doubling of core count and VRAM from the top Arc 3 model to Arc 5, then another doubling to the top Arc 7 model - we could start to see very impressive performance from those top-end models.

Today marks the launch of Intel's Arc A-series graphics family, the company's first discrete graphics cards to go head to head against industry titans AMD and Nvidia. To start, Team Blue is building its Arc GPUs for laptops, with entry-level Arc 3 models debuting now in laptops from $899. Higher-powered models called Arc 5 and Arc 7 are set to arrive early this summer, in higher-end machines. The company also teased its first desktop Arc graphics card at the very end of its presentation, showing off a much beefier design than the DG1 card shipped to developers last year. Here's what you need to know from Intel's Arc announcements.

First of all, the Arc series of graphics cards ought to be fully-featured models, with support for the full DirectX 12 Ultimate feature set (ray tracing, VRS, mesh shading, sampler feedback) plus DirectStorage and XeSS AI upscaling. That puts them on an even keel with Nvidia in terms of most features, and ahead of AMD who don't yet have a temporal upscaling solution.

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Sony has warned PlayStation 5 owners that Persona 5 is being removed from its PlayStation Plus Collection on 11th May.

The PlayStation Plus Collection launched alongside PS5 back in 2020, giving PlayStation Plus members on Sony's new console access to 20 first- and third-party PlayStation 4 titles for as long as their subscription continued:

From 11th May, however, that impressive list will be down by one, as announced at the bottom of April's PlayStation Plus games reveal. Anyone still wishing to take advantage of Persona 5's inclusion still have time to do so, though - they'll just need to ensure they've added the game to their library prior to the 11th May deadline. As long as this is done, the game will continue to be available while a PlayStation Plus subscription is active.

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Sony has warned PlayStation 5 owners that Persona 5 is being removed from its PlayStation Plus Collection on 11th May.

The PlayStation Plus Collection launched alongside PS5 back in 2020, giving PlayStation Plus members on Sony's new console access to 20 first- and third-party PlayStation 4 titles for as long as their subscription continued:

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The PS5 exclusive PlayStation Plus Collection library is about to get a bit smaller, as Persona 5 will be leaving it. Sony noted it will leave on May 11, 2022. No reason was offered for its upcoming removal.

The announcement did confirm that it follows standard PlayStation Plus protocol. If you claim Persona 5 before it leaves on May 11, 2022, then you maintain access to it. As long as you subscribe, even if you let the subscription lapse and resubscribe, it will be in your library.

Persona 5 is one of the third-party games in the PS5 PlayStation Plus Collection. Others include FFXV Royal Edition, Monster Hunter: World, and Resident Evil 7. At the moment, there’s a fairly even split between third and first-party games like Bloodborne and The Last of Us Remastered. The total number of available games will go down to 19 once Persona 5 is removed.

Persona 5 is available for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4.

The post Persona 5 Leaving PS5 PlayStation Plus Collection in May appeared first on Siliconera.

Developer Guerrilla Games has rolled out a massive patch for Horizon Forbidden West, purporting to fix more than a dozen quests, plus a litany of minor hiccups. It also aims to make the game less shimmery. Those who made it through the era of puddlegate unscathed should rejoice.

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Platform: PlayStation 4, Switch, PC
Publisher: Mega Crit Studios
Developer: Mega Crit Studios
Release: January 23, 2019
Rating: Everyone 10+

Update 3/30/22: Our original story stated the lineup as a rumor, but we can now confirm that Slay the Spire, Hood: Outlaws & Legends, and Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated will be the April 2022 Playstation Plus titles, according to a post on the PlayStation Blog.

Everyone’s favorite terrifying clown is getting his own prequel series on HBO Max, as news broke earlier today that a brand new series titled Welcome to Derry is coming to the platform in the near future.

According to Variety, the series will be set in the 1960s and will focus on the time leading up to the events of the 2017 film, It: Part One, which was based on Stephen King’s novel. While the exact details of the story haven’t been released, it will include the origins of the series’ antagonist, Pennywise the Clown.

The two newest films in the franchise films collectively grossed over $1.1 billion at the global box office upon their release, which likely prompted HBO to go forward with a new mini-series. The choice to make it into a TV series shouldn’t surprise anyone, as the original 1990s adaptation was previously a two-part miniseries that aired on ABC.

It: Part One and It: Part Two director Andy Muschietti, is also set to serve as an executive producer. Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs are also rumored to be in charge of the story for Welcome to Derry, with Fuchs in charge of writing the script.

For more information on Welcome to Derry, be sure to check back to Twinfinite for updates. In the meantime, we’ve also got plenty of great horror news, features, and quizzes for all of your favorite movies, television shows, and games down below.

Square Enix talked more about the FFXIV housing lottery system the end of March 2022, and now it offered more details about what this means for free company housing. Most of the details involve exactly who can and can’t enter the lottery for a plot and what happens when multiple people enter. However, Square Enix also noted how it will handle free companies dealing with world regrouping who want to enter the lottery, but wouldn’t normally due to the new entry requirements.

Many of the initial questions dealt with additional information about the lottery system requirements. People must be a member of the free company for 30 days or more to participate, even if they a free company master. Also, if people add a fourth member now, they group can participate, but the fourth member can’t yet. People can only apply to either get a free company plot or a private one for themselves, as they can’t place bids for personal and group land during the same lottery. They must choose.

To go along with the Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition remaster, there is also a new song. Square Enix already shared snippets of “Dreams of the Past, Memories,” which is performed in Irish by Aisling McGlynn and composed by Yasunori Mitsuda. Now there’s a music video for the full track.

Here’s the “Dreams of the Past, Memories” music video. There’s no gameplay footage from Chrono Cross during the song. Rather, it focuses on McGlynn as she performs.

There's another way to hear Chrono Cross songs ahead of the remaster's release. Its soundtrack will appear on vinyl. To help promote its release, Square Enix shared a trailer with more tracks from the game. In addition to this new song, there are seven new arrangements of old tracks.

With Crusader Kings III finally having invaded the console market - presumably, as a result of a club-footed Belgian mystic spending months fabricating a claim to it - now seems a fine moment to step back and see how the game looks, eighteen months into its reign on PC. The answer, with almost embarrassing simplicity, is: “great”.

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Platform: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher: Humble Games
Developer: Witch Beam
Release: November 2, 2021 (PC, Switch, Xbox One), 2022 (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4)

Unpacking became one of 2021’s hidden gems when it launched on Xbox, Switch, and PC last November. Soon, PlayStation fans will have a chance to experience this unique narrative adventure when it comes to PS5 and PS4 this Spring.

Anno: Mutationem is an overly ambitious love letter with one too many recipients. While the game has an interesting gumbo of ideas, its story buckles under the weight of living up to the very properties it attempts to pay tribute to. Ultimately, Mutationem’s ending fails to deliver a satisfying or cohesive pursuit of…

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Today Sony Interactive Entertainment announced the games that will be granted to PlayStation Plus subscribers in April 2022 at no additional cost.

We’re getting Hood: Outlaws & Legends for PS4 and PS5, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated for PS4, and Slay the Spire for PS4.

We also learn that Persona 5 will be removed from the PS Plus Collection on May 11.

The new games will be made available on April 5 to PlayStation Plus subscribers.

This comes hot on the heels of the news about big changes coming to the PlayStation Plus services, but these won’t be effective before June.

If you’re unfamiliar with any of the games, here’s an official description for each.

Hood: Outlaws & Legends | PS4 & PS5

Hood: In this intense online multiplayer2 title, rival gangs compete in daring heists to hit the wealthy where it hurts. One of the different game modes is State Heist: a full coop PvE mode where teams control spawn points to recuperate as much gold as possible. In Gold Rush PvPvE mode however, two teams of four players battle it out in an attempt to execute the perfect heist, stealing and extracting treasure while fighting each other and the AI Guards. Equipped with unique skills and mystical abilities, each character moves in stealth to steal treasures unseen. It’s up to you to recruit your band of outlaws, master formidable fortresses and outplay your rivals.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated | PS4

Acclaimed Industrial-Revolution-era city builder Anno 1800 has enjoyed significant success since its release in 2019 - having surpassed more than 2m players at last count - and Ubisoft is capitalising on its continuing popularity with a fourth season of DLC. That much we already knew, but now the publisher has provided early details of Season 4 - which will include the likes of airplanes and agricultural revolution - revealing its first DLC will arrive on 12th April.

As outlined in Ubisoft's new introductory video, Anno 1800's fourth season will introduce a total of three new paid DLCs before 2022 is through, with its first offering being titled Seeds of Change. Arriving on 12th April, this will enable players to "revolutionise" the agricultural sector of the New World, introducing a powerful new building - the Hacienda - that will become the agricultural hub of players' empires.

Expanding the Hacienda with its various modules will enable players to gain access to a range of new agriculture-centric features, including the ability to produce import goods in the New World (such as beer) in order to help the population become more independent. Additionally, players will be able to adopt island-wide policies and produce high-quality fertiliser to boost farms in both the New and Old Worlds.

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Acclaimed Industrial-Revolution-era city builder Anno 1800 has enjoyed significant success since its release in 2019 - having surpassed more than 2m players at last count - and Ubisoft is capitalising on its continuing popularity with a fourth season of DLC. That much we already knew, but now the publisher has provided early details of Season 4 - which will include the likes of airplanes and agricultural revolution - revealing its first DLC will arrive on 12th April.

As outlined in Ubisoft's new introductory video, Anno 1800's fourth season will introduce a total of three new paid DLCs before 2022 is through, with its first offering being titled Seeds of Change. Arriving on 12th April, this will enable players to "revolutionise" the agricultural sector of the New World, introducing a powerful new building - the Hacienda - that will become the agricultural hub of players' empires.

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Sony exec Jim Ryan believes the future of gaming is in live service games and that subscription services won't reach the levels seen in other media.

Ryan discussed the June launch of Sony's revised PS Plus subscription with GamesIndustry.biz, but believes live service games are more likely to become the dominant model.

"That phenomenon of the live service game... that has, in a very large part, fuelled the enormous growth in the gaming industry that we've seen over the last ten years," he said.

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Sony exec Jim Ryan believes the future of gaming is in live service games and that subscription services won't reach the levels seen in other media.

Ryan discussed the June launch of Sony's revised PS Plus subscription with GamesIndustry.biz, but believes live service games are more likely to become the dominant model.

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Following this morning’s news that revealed Tales of Arise crossover items distributed in Scarlet Nexus we learn that the collaboration is going both ways.

Tales of Arise users also got three accessories for their characters plus one music track from Scarlet Nexus.

You can check out a trailer and a gallery of screenshots below.

When the 2.6 Genshin Impact arrived, it added The Chasm to the map. Now, that location is showing up in another spot. MiHoYo confirmed the Genshin Impact interactive map now features the new place.

When people visit this Genshin Impact official site, they can now select The Chasm: Underground Mines from the drop down menu. (The exterior of the new location appears on the Teyvat Interactive Map proper.) Once there, they can see where waypoints, chests, Lumenspar, Lumenlamps, puzzles, enemies, materials, viewpoints, and world quests are. You can also see exactly where the Ruin Serpent, the new boss, waits. Other in-game pins can be added if you log in, as usual.

If you love deep sea horror and have been looking to spice up your RPG campaign, then Alone in the Deep is just for you. Running on the Mothership RPG system, this brand new indie adventure takes players under the sea, tasking them with trying to save their remaining crewmates from a creepy catastrophe.

Created by S.Murphy Games, Alone in the Deep can be experienced as a standalone one-shot, or as part of an ongoing campaign. You can check out the official description for the game right down below.

HELP WILL NOT COME.

Something has gone terribly wrong on the Rimor 89. Crew are failing to report for duty, strange sounds are echoing throughout the vessel, and it feels as though the ocean itself is trying to eat the submarine alive. Can the remaining crew figure out whats happening? Or will the Rimor 89 end up as yet another wreck on the ocean floor?

EASY TO RUN, EASY TO PLAY

Alone In The Deep is designed for the easy to run Mothership RPG system (while being easy to convert to any other) and fits entirely on an a4 pamphlet. The adventures layout is designed around being easy to read and run at a glance, making it an ideal module for GM’s of any experience level. 

Alone in the Deep is available now for free to download on itch.io.

With looter shooters, one of the biggest tasks is finding a great farm that both respects the time put it into and is easy to get back to when it is time to take a break. Due to this, in the Borderlands series, bosses have long since been the ideal farm targets. Everyone knows the routine of kill boss, quit game, load back in. However, in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands you can cut out some of the downtime and even now farm bosses in co-op.

The first order of business is to get yourself to whatever boss you want, it doesn’t matter. You can be doing this solo or co-op, both work. Co-op farming even gives you the added bonus of better loot.

Once you have beaten the boss, without going anywhere, open your map and find Brighthoof on your Fast Travel menu and use it. The Town Portal mechanic is what makes the trick work.

Today, The Umbrella Academy revealed a brand new screenshot of Viktor Hargreeves, who is played by one of the show’s stars, Elliot Page. The news came by way of a tweet by the actor, which was then retweeted by the show’s official Twitter account.

Back in 2020, the actor came out as transgendered, changing their name from Ellen Page to Elliot Page to reflect that change. According to the tweet, his character will also come out as transgendered in the show, changing their name from Vanya to Viktor.

You can check out the screenshot of Page’s character, as well as a detailed description of the next season’s overview, below:

After putting a stop to 1963’s doomsday, the Umbrella Academy return home to the present, convinced they prevented the initial apocalypse and fixed this godforsaken timeline once and for all. But after a brief moment of celebration, they realize things aren’t exactly (okay, not at all) how they left them. Enter the Sparrow Academy.

Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, iOS, Android
Publisher: 505 Games
Developer: ArtPlay
Release: June 18, 2019 (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC), June 25, 2019 (Switch), December 3, 2020 (iOS, Android)
Rating: Teen

I was a little worried Norco wouldn't be very much fun. The first from independent studio Geography of Robots, it's a dark game, a story about a region's bleak, collapsing future. And on the surface a serious one, too, with all its staid point-and-click vistas and dense blocks of prose. Serious is fine, of course. The seriousness of Norco's first act is exactly the type of thing that wins you features in the New Yorker and inaugural awards at Tribeca. It's just this type of seriousness can occasionally slip into something a bit self-regarding, a bit dour. But beyond Norco's initial, slightly po-faced outer layer is something odd and adventurous. Peevish. Occasionally quite funny. A playful spirit bouncing off its sharply political straight-edge.

Still, it takes some time to draw that out. Norco begins with you telling your own backstory, or if not telling then unearthing it, sorting through dialogue options to fill in blanks, as you will for much of Norco's six-ish hours of narrative. A brief, clever little late-game reference to one of my off-hand choices in this opening had me wondering how much this impacts - I suspect not much, and hope not much either, if only because I'm unnaturally keen to have Hoovered up every little drop of Norco's story.

I was a little worried Norco wouldn't be very much fun. The first from independent studio Geography of Robots, it's a dark game, a story about a region's bleak, collapsing future. And on the surface a serious one, too, with all its staid point-and-click vistas and dense blocks of prose. Serious is fine, of course. The seriousness of Norco's first act is exactly the type of thing that wins you features in the New Yorker and inaugural awards at Tribeca. It's just this type of seriousness can occasionally slip into something a bit self-regarding, a bit dour. But beyond Norco's initial, slightly po-faced outer layer is something odd and adventurous. Peevish. Occasionally quite funny. A playful spirit bouncing off its sharply political straight-edge.

Still, it takes some time to draw that out. Norco begins with you telling your own backstory, or if not telling then unearthing it, sorting through dialogue options to fill in blanks, as you will for much of Norco's six-ish hours of narrative. A brief, clever little late-game reference to one of my off-hand choices in this opening had me wondering how much this impacts - I suspect not much, and hope not much either, if only because I'm unnaturally keen to have Hoovered up every little drop of Norco's story.

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Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is an upcoming compilation of games featuring the stories of the nine mainline Star Wars movies. The game is being released on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox One and Series X.

The game promises the same charming action adventure gameplay you can expect from a Lego game. That means slicing through enemies with your lightsabre and destroying different parts of the environment to find all sorts of collectibles. What's also great about this game is, regardless of platform, being able to complete the story through local co-op. So if you have more than one Star Wars fan in your life, this could be a great game to play together.

Below we've listed all the best places to pre-order Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga standard and deluxe editions, as well as the pre-order bonuses available for early birds.

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Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is an upcoming compilation of games featuring the stories of the nine mainline Star Wars movies. The game is being released on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox One and Series X.

The game promises the same charming action adventure gameplay you can expect from a Lego game. That means slicing through enemies with your lightsabre and destroying different parts of the environment to find all sorts of collectibles. What's also great about this game is, regardless of platform, being able to complete the story through local co-op. So if you have more than one Star Wars fan in your life, this could be a great game to play together.

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343 Industries describes Master Chief removing his helmet in the new Halo TV series as "a mission statement".

In a lengthy blog post from 343 Industries community writer Alex Wakeford dissecting the opening episode (it's full of spoilers!), the matter of the lead character removing his helmet is addressed, seemingly in response to fan criticism.

The post notes that the games "have predominantly been a space for player projection", but fans of the expanded universe shouldn't be quite so surprised.

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343 Industries describes Master Chief removing his helmet in the new Halo TV series as "a mission statement".

In a lengthy blog post from 343 Industries community writer Alex Wakeford dissecting the opening episode (it's full of spoilers!), the matter of the lead character removing his helmet is addressed, seemingly in response to fan criticism.

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Bokeh Game Studios kicked off a new video series. In each installment, Founder Keiichiro Toyama will talk with a guest. In the first entry, Resident Evil Creator and Director Shinji Mikami appeared to discuss the game, how the earlier Capcom game Sweet Home influenced it, and zombies.

After talking about their pasts, Mikami began talking about Resident Evil zombies. He discussed the challenge and means of making them intimidating and scary, as well as providing ambiance. For example, he mentioned how they can suddenly rush up and attack. He also discussed the limited resources in the original. For example, he referenced the limited amount of ammunition.

From there, Mikami talked about how Sweet Home, a Famicom horror game from Capcom and fellow Resident Evil creator Tokuro Fujiwara, helped shape the Resident Evil series as a whole. He explained how the way it handled resources carried over. In Sweet Home, players’ five characters each have one item and can pick up and use others along the way. To escape the mansion and its ghost, you have to use each of the items they arrived with and ones found in the house.

Here’s everything Mikami had to say about his feelings for Sweet Home and its effect on Resident Evil.

Hey, you, you like roguelikelike roleplaying 4X strategy doodads with card-based combat? You interested in a game we said was "An imperfect thing that I can't help but feel affectionate towards"? Of course you do, course you like knobbly weird games. So don't miss your chance to grab a copy of 2019's Thea 2: The Shattering free for keepsies as part of GOG's ongoing Spring Festival. You have two days to nab it.

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Prime Gaming has announced its games for April, and they include The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Game of the Year Edition Deluxe.

From 1st April Prime Gaming members will be able to immerse themselves in eight games.

In addition to Oblivion, there's Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville, Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge, Nanotale - Typing Chronicles, Guild of Ascension, Galaxy of Pen and Paper, House of 1000 Doors: Family Secrets, and Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (which, as the name suggests, is a game where players take on the role of a turnip and evade taxes).

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Prime Gaming has announced its games for April, and they include The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Game of the Year Edition Deluxe.

From 1st April Prime Gaming members will be able to immerse themselves in eight games.

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