Developer Arkane Studios' multiplayer vampire shooter Redfall launched earlier this year to middling reviews from critics and players alike – Game Informer gave the game a 5 out of 10. Ahead of its launch in May, Xbox revealed that Redfall would only launch with a 30 FPS Quality Mode on Xbox Series X/S, noting that a Performance Mode would arrive at a later unspecified date. Nearly six months later, that date has arrived: Performance Mode is now live in Redfall. 

Publisher Bethesda's patch notes about today's Redfall update don't specify how exactly this Performance Mode works, but presumably, it runs the game at 60 FPS. This update also brings some heavily requested features to Arkane as well, including stealth takedowns, more accessibility options, multiplayer communication improvements, and more. 

"This patch brings a Performance Mode to Xbox Series X/S, stealth takedowns, new controller settings, accessibility improvements, and much more," the update notes read. "Explore an even more dangerous Redfall with an increased open-world enemy population and new encounters."

Nissin Brazil released a commercial for its Cup Noodles collaboration with Genshin Impact. The campaign will sell Cup Noodles with Layla, Yae Miko, and Bennett printed on the packaging. It has not been confirmed whether this collaboration will appear outside of Brazil. [Thanks, Inside Games!]

The advertisement features four actors cosplaying as the characters Hu Tao, Bennett, Yae Miko, and Layla. When Hu Tao attempts to cook and serve udon to Bennett, Yae Miko, and Layla, it doesn’t come out the way she wanted it to. Yae Miko is left speechless at the sight of the noodles, and Bennett is so shocked that he is thrown back in his chair. This is a reference to her The More the Merrier talent. In game, she can also get an additional Suspicious Dish after cooking an item perfectly.

The video also has an animated segment in which cartoon interpretations of Yae Miko, Layla, and Bennett fly off with Cup Noodles. We also get to see what the printing will look like on the Cup Noodles products.

Watch the Cup Noodles Genshin Impact commercial below:

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dkSs0LHChQ[/embed]

People can actually get Hu Tao in-game again for a limited time. Her rerun banner is live until October 17, 2023.

Genshin Impact is available to download on the PS4, PS5, PC, and mobile devices.

Kenji Anabuki, the director of Scarlet Nexus and Tales of Xillia 2, illustrated wanted posters of characters from Tales of Symphonia for the game’s 20th anniversary. The wanted posters were shown off on the Tales of Series Events official social media account. They join the Lloyd one that actually appeared in the original game

Anabuki replied to the official reveal post, apologizing for what he believed are poorly drawn illustrations. In addition to the protagonist, Lloyd Irving, nine remaining characters from Tales of Symphonia were also illustrated on wanted posters. Genis Sage, Sheena Fujibayashi, Regal Bryant, Kratos Aurion, Presea Combatir, Colette Brunel, Zelos Wilder, and Raine Sage are pictured.

Bandai Namco announced more festivities in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Tales of Symphonia. A festival, during which the Japanese voice cast of the game will make an appearance, will be held on October 21, 2023.

Tales of Symphonia is a classic JRPG developed by Namco Tales Studio. It was the fifth installment in the Tales series. It was originally released on the GameCube in Japan in 2003, with North American and European localizations releasing in 2004.

After months of silence, vampire shooter Redfall is receiving its biggest update yet following a disastrous launch back in May. The second big patch will add the Game Pass multiplayer game’s long-awaited 60 frames-per-second mode on Xbox Series X/S, as well as a host of gameplay improvements and bug fixes.

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Castlevania: Nocturne, the sequel to Netflix’s surprise-hit Castlevania anime, premiered on the streamer last week to rave reviews from critics and fans alike. So it’s probably not startling to hear that the vampire-killing series has been renewed for a second season, but that won’t stop me from pumping my fist in the…

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Cyberpunk 2077 - now redeemed and somewhat rebuilt after the car crash that was its initial launch - is looking ahead at the even further future. CD Projekt Red have expressed that they have “no regrets” about switching from a third-person camera to a first-person one in the transition from The Witcher to Cyberpunk, however, for future games in Night City, the studio are still undecided.

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Remedy announced that the first track off of Alan Wake 2: Chapter Songs soundtrack is now available. The full seven-track album won’t appear until October 27, 2023. However, the Fried Music and Rakel song “Follow You into the Dark” is available now.  

First, here’s the full version of “Follow You into the Dark” from YouTube. People can also find it on Apple Music, Amazon Music, iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, and Tidal. 

There’s also a “Making of” video from Remedy and Fried Music showing what led to the creation of Alan Wake 2 Chapter Songs.

Five years after all but shutting up shop in 2018, Telltale Games are once again laying off staff. The company let "most" of its employees go in September, according to former staffer and cinematic artist Jonah Huang, who began posting about the situation on Xitter earlier in the week. Telltale have now confirmed aspects of Huang's story, while declining to specify how many jobs have been chopped.

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Life may be full of regrets, but if one of those regrets is that you decided to call your Baldur's Gate 3 character Bumfart the Third in a moment of weakness, there's some good news: the game's latest hotfix will finally let you change their ill-conceived name.

That's the headline feature for Baldur's Gate 3's Hotfix #9 (or at least it is if you're a remorseful Bumfart), but there's more where that came from. The Magic Mirror, for instance, will - as well as enabling the aforementioned renaming unshaming - allow you to customise your hirelings if their outward appearance isn't to your liking.

Developer Larian notes the same restrictions apply to hirelings that apply when changing the appearance of the player character - presumably meaning you can give them a full aesthetic makeover to suit your dubious whims but you're stuck with their original race, sub race, and any cosmetic modifications resulting from gameplay.

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From time to time, Square Enix shares songs from Final Fantasy games on social media. This serves as a means to hear an isolated track, perhaps one that people might not know how to otherwise find outside of the game. The one that appeared on October 6, 2023 is the FFVII Remake “Tifa’s Theme (Jazz Arrangement).”

In-game, people can find this version of her personal theme song on the juke box. As the title suggests, it is a more jazzy version of her theme. It was arranged by Eijiro Nakagawa that includes other instruments in addition to the ever-present piano. You can hear it below:

HyperX's Cloud Orbit S is a fascinating wireless gaming headset with planar magnetic drivers. Despite the name, this headset is produced by audio experts Audeze and the Cloud Orbit S is 99% the same as the Audeze Mobius, just with a slightly different colour scheme, simpler microphone and without Bluetooth support. That allows HP to hit a more aggressive price target, making the Cloud Orbit S one of the most affordable ways to try a great planar magnetic gaming headset.

The Cloud Orbit S debuted at a mighty £299.99, but today it's available on Amazon for just £209 - a nice £91 savings.

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Microsoft's long journey to acquire gaming giant Activision Blizzard is finally nearing an end. According to The Verge, a source familiar with Microsoft's plans indicated that it was aiming for Friday, October 13, as a date to close the deal. Ignoring the infamy of the date (it seems Microsoft and Activision Blizzard executives aren't very superstitious), it's not a surprising day to choose. Back in July, the two parties in the deal jointly agreed to extend the deadline of their agreement to October 18 in order to sort out any further regulatory concerns. At the time of publishing, that date is only twelve days away, so the deal would have to be closed soon.

Correction: In 2022 the Axis series switched from titling its games for their current year to titling them for next year. Since I skipped last year's installment, and searches for "Axis Football 2022" brought up nothing, I got horribly confused and wrongly stated that the series skipped 2022 entirely. I apologise for this embarrassing error, and for not realising it until the exact moment everyone at RPS went home for the weekend. Although that latter part is at least quite funny.

Axis Football 2024 is part of the little Americaball series that could. Since 2019 I've settled into a habit of skipping every second entry, only to learn that this time, its developers did too.

The result is still iterative improvement, but a more noticeable one in lots of small ways. Its animations in particular combine more naturally, with players visibly struggling to tackle, catch, or shake off an opponent. It feels like a punchier sport, making the significance of blocking and positioning clearer, and bringing out the drama that its coaching mode in particular really thrives on.

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As a part of Project Voltage, a collaboration between The Pokemon Company International and the Vocaloid Hatsune Miku, producer Inabakumori released a new song. It is called “Denki Yohou (Electricity Forecast).” In the music video, Hatsune Miku is pictured with various Electric-type Pokemon. The song was also promoted on the Project Voltage official social media account and website, where you can see the 18 Pokemon trainer Miku designs that were released sequentially throughout September 2023.

Inabakumori, is best known for creating the song “Lagtrain,” among other Vocaloid tracks including Hatsune Miku ones. The artist that provided the illustration for the music video is Nukunuku Nigirimeshi, who has worked with Inabakumori on “Lagtrain” and other tracks in the past.

“Denki Yohou” is the second song released so far for Project Voltage. It, along with the other Project Voltage tracks, feature samples from the Pokemon series. Last week, DECO*27’s “Volt Tackle” appeared.

Watch the music video for “Denki Yohou” below:

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imcr7rsBxsc[/embed]

Last Friday, AMD finally released FSR 3 frame generation, its answer to Nvidia's DLSS 3. Two titles had supported added: Forspoken and Immortals of Aveum. We'd already seen demos of both games under controlled conditions at Gamescom back in August, but this was our first chance to go hands-on and to truly put FSR 3 through its paces. The verdict? Image quality in terms of generated frames is impressive, but elsewhere there are some fundamental issues AMD needs to address.

Let's quickly review what frame generation is about. Nvidia kicked this all off with DLSS 3, and in many respects, FSR 3 follows the exact same principles. The next frame is rendered and the one beyond that too, then via a combination of optical flow analysis informed via inputs from the game engine - such as motion vectors, for example - an intermediate frame is generated that slots in between them. Frame-rate then typically receives an extraordinary boost - in my tests with FSR3 in Immortals of Aveum on an RX 7900 XTX at 4K resolution, it's a 71 percent boost compared to standard rendering.

I'm careful in using words to describe the frame-rate uplift, because similar to DLSS 3, I don't think you can call it 'extra performance' as such, even though both Nvidia and AMD will likely use that term. The game itself is still performing as it was without frame generation and in fact, the extra calculations required to generate the intermediate frame have a cost of their own, so one might even argue that frame generation reduces performance.

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The RTX 4060 Ti has emerged as something of a sweet spot in Nvidia's current-gen graphics card lineup, being more affordable than the RTX 4070 and above while providing better performance per pound than the 4060 below it - despite some reservations over its 8GB VRAM capacity and relatively modest gen-on-gen performance uplift compared to the RTX 3060 Ti. However, if you want access to Nvidia's DLSS 3 frame generation and 3.5 ray reconstruction features, and one of the most power-efficient cards on the market, then the 4060 Ti is definitely worth a look.

The RTX 4060 Ti normally retails for $400 or higher, but today you can pick up the Zotac Twin Edge OC model for just $370, a sweet $60 savings versus MSRP on one of the best-looking and highest-clocked 4060 Ti models.

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Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game Baldur’s Gate 3 is a horny elven fantasy until you end up in a fight. Then, you and your companions get blood spatter all over your faces—very real and sobering—and it’s hard to woo each other at a safe campsite while you’re staring at gore. Some players try to freshen up their…

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If Dave the Diver is great (which it officially is, of course) then it stands to reason that more Dave the Diver will also be great. So prepare to be showered in additional greatness when Dave the Diver's first proper content updates arrives "real soon".

Dave the Diver's previous big update, which released in August, was predominantly focused on quality of life improvements, and while there're plenty more of those stuffed into October's update, we get a bunch of new content too.

The glacier area, for instance - which primarily exists as a story-focused location with fewer missions compared to its counterparts right now - will receive new quests. Additionally, the ocean is set to welcome new species - crabs and lobsters - both requiring players to use special traps to catch. Oh, and a lobster party event will be added to coincide with their arrival.

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It was only a matter of time, I suppose. Everyone’s favorite broken Armored Core VI build is no more. FromSoftware released a new update for the mech shooter that makes its beloved Zimmerman shotguns less godlike. 621’s days of skating around Rubicon smashing and staggering everything in sight with ease are over.

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At this year’s EVE Fanfest, the annual convention celebrating the 20-year-old space MMO, Icelandic developers CCP announced a new game: EVE Vanguard. A shooter set in their gunmetal grey sci-fi universe, Vanguard puts you into the shoes of mercenaries, dropping onto planets to retrieve equipment from wrecked ships, battling it out with AI-controlled pirates and other squads of human players. It’s Escape from Tarkov by way of the galaxy of New Eden.

If you’ve followed CCP, you may get a sense of de ja vu. This isn’t the first time the developers have tried to make a shooter happen in EVE Online: it’s the fourth. It’s just they've only gotten one out the door before.

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Good Smile Company is about to finish a line of figures from a series. The Doki Doki Literature Club Yuri Nendoroid is now available to order. She’ll show up in May 2024 in Japan. After that, she’ll come to read and drink tea in people’s homes in Q4 2024. She costs ¥6,500/$40.99. Also, if people buy her direct from the manufacturer, she comes with a piece of chocolate to hold.

Editor’s Note: The gallery below will feature spoilers for Doki Doki Literature Club.

The base version of the Nendoroid comes with three face plates. One features Yuri smiling and blushing. In another, she looks more anxious and embarrassed. The final one shows her when she’s glitching out. She also has a book she can hold and a cup of tea. There are also background and text box parts.

Here’s a closer look at Yuri.

Mega sales events like Amazon Prime Big Deal Days should prick up the ears of anyone wanting a good graphics card deal. As expensive as these slabs of pixel-pushing circuitry can get, even the most luxurious GPUs can find themselves snared in Amazon’s savings net, from which we can pick out solely the best GPU deals of the day. Days, sorry. Until October 11th.

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Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has shown more of what he's been working on as development on update 1.6 for the game continues.

The latest feature teased by Barone is maybe the most important one in the update - wearable hats for pets.

A range of headwear for pets will be available, including a very cute bow, allowing players to dress up their farm pets.

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Redfall's player count has dropped so low on Steam that players might find it tough to fill up their team in multiplayer.

For those of you wondering, a full team in Redfall multiplayer is made up of four players. Over the past week, Redfall's concurrent Steam player count dropped to a low of three, as recorded by SteamDB. Its peak during that same period of time is 38.

Redfall's launch didn't go as parent company Microsoft had hoped, as Phil Spencer revealed the company had expected the game to review much higher than it did.

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Another version of Sephiroth is now in FFVII Ever Crisis. This time, it’s in the form of a challenge inspired by a part of Crisis Core FFVII. Square Enix announced the Critical Threat Sephiroth - The Arrival is a new challenge with him as the boss. He is around to fight now until October 19, 2023, and there will be Stamina Tonic rewards for everyone if the clear rate hits certain hallmarks. Square Enix teased a more powerful Sephiroth fight.

The Critical Threat Sephiroth - The Arrival Campaign Quest involves facing the battle simulator version of him. People might recall this sort of fight is akin to the one Zack faced at the very start of Crisis Core FFVII and its Reunion rerelease. As such, someone does need to complete the CC Final Fantasy VII Chapter 1 Main Section 3 Episode 6 fight to access it. If you do, and then face and defeat Sephiroth, you can earn Victory Draw Tickets. The Victory Draw has different prizes at each level, with one being a free weapon. 

As for the Critial Threat Campaign, here are Sephiroth fight reward tiers:

• Beaten 7 million times: Everyone gets 5 Stamina Tonics

Cyberpunk 2077’s highly acclaimed and massive expansion, Phantom Liberty, almost feels like its own game. That’s probably because the developers behind the expansion spent over $60 million on developing Phantom Liberty and $21 million on marketing it, bringing the total cost of producing the DLC to about half of…

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Detective Pikachu Returns is out October 6 on Nintendo Switch (Amazon), and it brings a new mystery for the titular Pokémon investigator to solve. But it also dredges up an old mystery that has plagued the character since his debut in 2016: is Detective Pikachu a cop? Well, the only way to solve a mystery is to look…

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Hello friend! Have you been suffering from a pronounced lack of domes in your life of late? Are your videogames dispiritingly dome-less? Well, good news - the "small, but perfectly formed tower defence game" Dome Keeper has just received a big free update, adding two new domes to its roster together with a dome supplements system, that you may dome like you've never domed before. Domes!

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Those power-hungry villains vying for control of Final Fantasy 14’s Garlean Empire can’t seem to agree on much. Still, if there’s one thing that unites them, it’s their love of oversized weapons and intimidating suits of armor. With an appearance that looks something like a Warframe mixed with a Power Rangers villain, they’re some of the most memorable character designs in the game.

Instead of the constant back-stabbing between Final Fantasy 14‘s villainous empire, maybe it’s time to just let the fashion do the talking. That’s the opinion of Reddit users, who have have been discussing which of the Garlean antagonists has the coolest armor, and so far it seems that a clear favorite is emerging.

A new set of merchandise that pairs Jujutsu Kaisen characters with kaiju from the Godzilla series will appear in Japan. The official Japanese website for Jujutsu Kaisen revealed that these items will be available on the storefronts for both franchises on October 13, 2023.

Here is the full price list for the merchandise lineup. All of the prices are in Japanese yen with tax already included.

• Big hologram badge: ¥550
• Hologram sticker: ¥385
• Set of 2 clear files: ¥990
• Acrylic stand keychain: ¥1,320
• Hand towel: ¥990

And here is the list of the pairings between the Jujutsu Kaisen characters and the Godzilla series' kaiju monsters.

• Yuji Itadori with Godzilla
• Megumi Fushiguro with Rodan
• Nobara Kugisaki with Biollante

The crackdown on counterfeit Pikachus and Charizards continues. Earlier this week, an investigation by police in Annaka City, Japan led them to a haul of 1,000 cards believed to be fake, including Pokémon trading card game products. The 21-year-old suspect they allegedly belonged to had been caught selling a few of…

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