Guilty Gear Baiken Sake Will Wrap Up the Liquor Collaboration

1 month 1 week ago

Guilty Gear Baiken rice sake by Wakatsuru

Arc System Works and Wakatsuru revealed the third Guilty Gear 25th-anniversary collaboration liquor drink, which will be a rice sake featuring Baiken. The branded Noukaya Oyamanishiki pure rice sake bottle will appear in limited numbers in March 2024.

Wakatsuru will use the same Japanese-made malted rice to produce the Noukaya Oyamanishiki sake drink. With a ratio of polished rice at 55%, the drink will have 16% of alcohol. A single bottle will contain 720ml of the liquor.

The bottles will be available with a tax-inclusive individual price of 3,300 yen (~$22). Wakatsuru will only produce up to 500 bottles featuring this Baiken brand.

Guilty Gear Baiken rice sake bottle
Image courtesy of Arc System Works and Wakatsuru

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Kite Stenbuck

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No Man's Sky Omega update takes aim at new and lapsed players with free weekend and pirate dreadnought

1 month 1 week ago

Hello Games describe No Man's Sky's latest Omega update as being geared towards newcomers and "lapsed players looking for a way back in". Hey, they're talking about me! I haven't played the wide-eyed space game since before the pandemic, partly because I only own the PS4 version and now that I'm RPS news editor, I'm not allowed to touch consoles any more. Seriously, they burn my skin on contact. Anyway, let's have a gander at the trailer.

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Author
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Sci-fi survival adventure Forever Skies will debut as PS5 console exclusive

1 month 1 week ago

When Forever Skies leaves PC early access later this year, it will also arrive on PlayStation 5 as a console exclusive.

Developer Far From Home has been "secretly" working alongside Sony for several years on its rather intriguing looking game of airships and survival. While the Forever Skies team is yet to set a date for this release, merely stating it will be some time in 2024, it has promised a same day launch for both PC and PS5.

Along with this news, the studio has shared a new trailer for Forever Skies, showing off the latest in-game footage. You can have a watch for yourself below.

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Princess Peach: Showtime Trailer Reveals Dashing New Transformations

1 month 1 week ago

Princess Peach: Showtime Act II Trailer

A new trailer for Princess Peach: Showtime shows off some more outfits and abilities the Mushroom Kingdom’s pink monarch has up her royal sleeve. 

Princess Peach: Showtime pits Peach against the villainous Sour Bunch, who crashes a performance at the Sparkle Theater. Its guardian, Stella, grants Peach the ability to transform and gain powers based on the costumes she dons. Stages take the form of different theater plays with ever-changing sets. 

The video introduces Figure Skater Peach, which sees her gracefully skating across a winter-themed stage and performing spins to take out enemies. The Dashing Thief costume gives Peach a Carmen Sandiego-esque look and vibe as she uses a retractable grappling hook to zipline and swing across 2D levels while evading security bots. Mermaid Peach grants a siren-like singing voice used in what appears to be a type of musical mini-game. Mighty Peach basically turns the Princess into a Super Sentai-like hero battling aliens using super strength and a jetpack to take out foes mid-air.

Princess Peach: Showtime is coming to Switch on March 22. Nintendo is also launching pink rose-colored Joy-Cons for the occasion.

Author
Marcus Stewart

Tales of Kenzera: Zau has the heart to heighten its spin on the metroidvania

1 month 1 week ago

"Baba…help me Baba…I need you Baba…." So says protagonist Zau at the start of Tales of Kenzera, his voice shaking. That's the voice of Abubakar Salim (Assassin's Creed: Origins), who founded Surgent Studios to create this game as he deals with the loss of his own father.

When he says those words, it doesn't feel like he's acting.

It's this raw, personal edge that lifts Tales of Kenzera above the usual influx of indie metroidvanias. The game's reveal at last year's The Game Awards was one of the more memorable moments of the show as Salim shared the poignant story of playing games with his father. It's this personal history with gaming that's inspired Tales of Kenzera and its paralleling father-son relationship. Playing the demo as part of Steam Next Fest is a striking experience.

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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The Electronic Wireless Show podcast S3 episode 6: Skull & Bones is finally about to come out

1 month 1 week ago

It's happening! Why I played Skull & Bones back when it wasn't even a live service game. But now it is, and it's out this weekend. We talk a bit about how long it has been coming out, why it's been in development this long, and why they didn't just release the sucker the two or three previous times they got close to doing so. Honestly, I hope it does okay. We also talk about the games we've been playing this week, and Nate challenges us with a game of Palworld Pal: real or fake? PLUS the giant game dildo and our recommendations this week.

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Author
Alice Bell

Persona 5 Royal Official Design Works Book Pre-Orders Open

1 month 1 week ago

Persona 5 The Royal Official Design Works

Atlus and Kadokawa revealed a new Persona 5 Royal book that will feature 2D artwork and 3D models from the game. Titled Persona 5 Royal Official Design Works, the book will appear in late March 2024. Pre-orders for the book have also opened on select Japanese web stores, with one of them supporting worldwide shipping.

With a total of 272 pages, the book will contain illustrations and CG models while including commentaries from the production staff. It will also feature two long interviews with P-Studio's creative staff that provide more insights into the title's development process.

The book is available for pre-order on Amazon Japan, which supports international shipping with the item priced at ¥3,520 (~$23.48). A more complete ebten DX Pack has also appeared on Atlus D Shop, which at ¥6,270 (~$41.85) adds a B2-sized hanging tapestry and a badge of Violet in Picaresque Mouse form. However, the latter store does not include the set in the WorldShopping widget's list of items eligible for overseas shipping.

Author
Kite Stenbuck

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Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a striking, impressive cross-gen fantasy RPG

1 month 1 week ago

After a protracted production, a developer swap and several delays, Granblue Fantasy: Relink has finally been released, some eight years after its initial announcement. This is a bold, colourful action RPG that combines compelling storytelling with a bombastic and exciting combat system. It's one of the more original RPG efforts I've seen in a while, but its protacted development raises questions about its visual quality and performance on PS4 and PS5 systems.

Right out of the gate, it's clear that Granblue Fantasy: Relink looks excellent, with beautiful and well-animated cutscenes that are interspersed generously throughout the title. Some of these scenes are more sedate, but many depict grand battles with plenty of pyrotechnics and carefully-animated swordfights. These are some of the best cinematics I've viewed in a while, and the game looks absolutely lavish here. Because Relink is a relatively modest adventure by RPG standards - clocking in at ~15 hours to complete the story and another ~20 to complete optional content - the game takes a liberal approach to cinematic density that few other RPG efforts in recent memory can match.

We also see a good workout for some of the game's key rendering tech here as well. Of particular note is the post-processing, namely the motion blur and depth of field. Relink has extremely high-quality motion blur that makes the game look very smooth in its default performance mode. Even when you examine the motion blur closely, it holds up remarkably well, without the kinds of sampling artifacts that often characterise motion blur techniques. The bokeh depth of field is also used frequently, with an attractive appearance and blurring patterns that suggest a circular aperture.

Author
Oliver Mackenzie

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Supernatural spaceship shooter Underspace shows admirable ambition in its Next Fest demo

1 month 1 week ago

I respect a game with wild ambition. Declaring your game "the spiritual successor to Freelancer" is bold and ambitious, considering how the spaceship sim is still so beloved after 20 years that our readers voted it your 16th favourite space game of all time. This ambition is wild when the tiny development team is led by someone best known for replacing Skyrim's dragons with Thomas The Tank Engine. So while I'm not much of a spaceship sort, I had to check out the demo for Underspace, which aims to combine Freelancer shoot-o-trading space action with a dash of Lovecraftian horror.

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Author
Alice O'Connor

Activision Blizzard Selling a $65 Diablo IV Mount, and Platinum Bundle

1 month 1 week ago

Activision Blizzard Selling a $65 Diablo IV Mount, and Currency Bundle

There’s a new Vitreous Scourge mount and Platinum currency bundle people can buy for Diablo IV, and it may call to mind the Horse Armor from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It costs $64.99 for a mount, armor for it to wear, trophies, and Platinum currency on Battle.net.

Essentially, this is a currency bundle that includes a Crystal-Clad mount and related items for it. The horse has crystal and demon bones on it, and players get immediate access to it at the Stable once they complete the “Donan’s Favor” quest. There is matching Crystal and Bone Cage armor to equip to the horse, which can be used by anyone and is also at the stable after acquiring the add-on. The two Mount Trophies Banner of Crystal and Bone and Crystal Capita also come with the pack. 

Author
Jenni Lada

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Can we use tracking tech for good? (aka: a game automatically knowing if I've forgotten the controls?)

1 month 1 week ago

Tracking technology isn't perfect. Actually, that's an understatement. Tracking technology has many pitfalls, including how Google Maps can be accidentally used to track people, and the fact that if you systematically turn off cookies, your internet browsing experience becomes increasingly bizarre. I am offered adverts for afro hair care products and huge bags of puppy kibble, because the algorithms no longer have any idea who I am or how many small dogs I have. And yet.

Surely this technology has reached the point where, if I open a game for the first time in several weeks, it should be able to tell I haven't played for a long time, and ask if I would like a small refresher of the controls.

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Author
Alice Bell

I'm not sure I'll ever leave the prologue area in Skull And Bones

1 month 1 week ago

Last night I spent an hour in Ubisoft Singapore's Skull And Bones, the much-reconceived, nigh-mythical open world pirate game that has been in development since 2013. Taking a leaf from the book of feared intergalactic corsair Samus Aran, the prologue starts you off at the height of your bucanneering powers, with a mighty gold-and-scarlet galleon at your disposal that is shortly blown to bits by the English Navy.

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Author
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Hololive Vtuber Hats Will Appear in the Official Tokyo Roblox Space

1 month 1 week ago

Hololive Vtuber digital hats in Hello Tokyo Friends - official Roblox space

Hololive Production revealed that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government will give away digital items based on the former's Vtubers in the latter's official Roblox space. People will be able to obtain wearable hats modeled after Gawr Gura, Mori Calliope, and Sakura Miko from the Hello! Tokyo Friends world.

The government bureau will set a number of quests that players will have to complete in order to receive the hats. The quests will involve buying a number of cosmetics from the lobby shop, exploring the official Tokyo space in Roblox, and collecting coins after each Hololive Vtuber hat has been released.

In addition, only the first 15,000 players who cleared the quests will be able to get the hats. Those who have owned the hats can wear and showcase them in other Roblox worlds.

Author
Kite Stenbuck

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A Reddit user's ant-infested PC has destroyed my hopes for a real life Discworld computer

1 month 1 week ago

People who read my articles have exceptionally good taste, which is why I will assume you are already intimately familiar with Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. For those who are not and somehow got here by mistake, it will save me a lot of time if you go away and read them all. Oh fine, I will explain Hex. And also, if I have time, a real life man with ants in his computer.

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Author
Alice Bell

Xbox adds custom touch controls in remote play for over 100 games

1 month 1 week ago

Xbox has rolled out a new update for February, adding touch controls in remote play and more.

With this update in action, users will be able to play games without being tied to their console even if they don't have a wireless controller to hand. This is as Xbox remote play now supports custom touch control layouts on the Xbox app (via iOS, Android and Windows devices) for over 100 games.

"The same custom touch layouts available through Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) will now be available when remotely playing games from your personal console," Microsoft said. "This includes games like Minecraft Dungeons, Psychonauts 2, Sea of Thieves, and many more. Additionally, a basic touch control layout can now be used for most other games."

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Helldivers 2: The Kotaku Review

1 month 1 week ago

A random player and I are surrounded by giant, alien bugs who want to rip out our guts and eat our bones. We are trying to destroy their nest, which lies in a rocky crater on some backwater alien planet. Low on ammo, out of health items, and unsure of what to do next, it seems we are screwed. But this is Helldivers 2—w…

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Author
Zack Zwiezen

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No Man's Sky is free to play this weekend as new Omega update lands

1 month 1 week ago

It's been fairly quiet on the No Man's Sky front since its previous big update, Echoes, introduced the world to a mysterious new robot race known as the Autophages last August, but all that changes today with the release of its new Omega update - which coincides with a first-ever free weekend for the exploratory space sim on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC.

No Man's Sky's Omega update introduces a handful of new core features, including on-planet missions. These procedurally generated quests can be initiated by speaking to alien lifeforms Travellers find roaming around on planet surfaces, and are assembled based on a number of factors, including locale, climate, and alien personality.

Elsewhere, the update makes it possible to captain an imposing Dreadnought capital ship - previously they existed mainly to be blown up - but this first requires a spot of successful space combat; players will need to defeat the pirate freighters surrounding a hostile Dreadnought during an encounter before they're able to board it and take control.

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Author
Matt Wales

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FFVII Rebirth Animation Shows a Date Between Cloud and Tifa

1 month 1 week ago

FFVII Rebirth Funny Movie Involves a Date Between Cloud and Tifa

Square Enix and FUNNYMOVIE released a new FFVII Rebirth promotional animated video in Japan featuring Cloud and date on a Tifa at the Gold Saucer. The video is presented in a 2D animated comedic style.

The video starts with Cloud and Tifa discussing the nice and romantic ride on the Gold Saucer gondola, when Cloud calls her Aerith by accident. After noticing, Tifa tries to get an explanation out of Cloud, who insists that he did not say Aerith, and tries to make up a ridiculous excuse about it.

The excuse that Cloud tries to make work is that instead of Aerith he said “this is a nice seat” in Japanese, which can be pronounced in Kansai dialect as “eeyan kono isu” (ええやんこの椅子,) which Cloud tries to argue is similar to the Japanese pronunciation of Aerith’s name (“Earisu.”) The video concludes with Tifa explaining some of the content that players can expect in FFVII Rebirth.

You can check out the new FFVII Rebirth FUNNYMOVIE animation featuring Tifa and Cloud’s date below. The video is 2 minutes and 46 seconds long and is only available in Japanese.

Author
Daniel Bueno

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Islands Of The Caliph is a colourful and cleverly condensed griddy RPG

1 month 1 week ago

I have never enjoyed those grid-based dungeon-crawling games. I dislike the very notion of dungeon-crawling in general, frankly, but the awkward juddery squareskipping rat-toucher games have always left me absolutely cold.

You will be shocked and aroused to learn that I preface with all this just so I can make an exception of Islands Of The Caliph. Does this mean she's becoming more open minded, or just that she's found a way to gripe and complain even within a recommendation? Who can say, readers.

What I can say is that I don't merely hate it less than its genremates. I think it's a bloody great little RPG, full of charm and detail that never drags it down.

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Author
Sin Vega

This Cobalt Core mod adds hapless frog Soggins to your crew for extra chaos

1 month 1 week ago

If you've been enjoying the excellent Cobalt Core as part of this month's RPS Game Club, you may well have stumbled into Soggins the frog along your travels. Running into this hapless buffoon is always a delight in Cobalt Core, as he's one of the few special characters who doesn't instantly attack you on sight. Rather, the task here is always to try and save him from his own idiocy - namely, his malfunctioning ship that keeps firing his missiles right back toward him. He's an ungrateful little sod if you do rescue him from certain doom, but I kinda love him for it anyway - and thanks to an industrious pair of modders, you can now have Soggins join your crew to inflict his own special brand of personal chaos on you.

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Author
Katharine Castle

Bulletstorm VR gets hefty patch following broken launch

1 month 1 week ago

Making good on their word, People Can Fly and Incuvo have released a rather chunky patch for Bulletstorm VR on PlayStation VR2 and Steam VR. This follows an earlier update on Meta Quest sets, which took aim at crashes and more.

Bulletstorm VR had a broken release earlier this year, with players complaining about the port's botched physics and censorship, among other issues. Back in January, the team subsequently said it was "committed to improving the quality" of its release, and would be prioritising fixes based on their severity.

This new patch will provide fixes for multiple crashes and bugs, as well as improving the AI on select enemies. Other quality of life improvements, such as holding down the trigger to automatically skip a cinematic, have also been added.

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Payday 3 developer seeks long-term success after disappointing launch

1 month 1 week ago

Following a rocky launch, Payday 3 developer Starbreeze said its sales and player activity are "currently at significantly lower levels than [it] would like". However, the studio hopes to turn this around in the future, stating it will focus efforts "to ensure that the game lives up to expectations" for players.

The developer noted there have been other examples of games that have successfully turned a "problematic initial time on the market" into a "long-term success" story. While Starbreeze did not mention any names, Cyberpunk 2077 came to my mind.

"There is no simple recipe available, but a common thread from the positive examples is to take players' criticism to heart, dare to support your game and keeping an open and honest dialogue with your stakeholders," Starbreeze said in its year-end report. "That is exactly what we are now doing with Payday 3."

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Palworld's community manager reminds people impatient for updates that playing other games is fine

1 month 1 week ago

If you told me at the start of the year that Palworld would break Steam records, I would've done a hearty "no no" chuckle. But here we are, with the survival game exceeding 19 million players and Pocketpair probably wondering how they managed such a feat. With its success has come the inevitable slew of impatient people saying the game's dead because it's not received updates fast enough, or folks saying it's lost a hefty percentage of its player base, and others saying its viewership numbers over on streaming services have plummeted. Palworld's community manager Bucky has gently reminded folks that not only is this discourse "lazy", but to play other games instead.

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Author
Ed Thorn

Embracer have laid off 8% of their global workforce since their "restructuring" began

1 month 1 week ago

Embracer have released their interim financial results for Q3, October-December 2023, in which they share details of the conglomerate's on-going efforts to "restructure" and reduce their massive debts, to the tune of hundreds of layoffs over the past year.

Amid the talk of revenues, profits and losses, we learn that Embracer have laid off 8% of their global workforce since announcing their restructuring program in June 2023. According to the report, Embracer's total headcount has fallen from 16,243 in the period October-December 2022 to 15,218 in the period October-December 2023. The number of Embracer studio game projects in development, meanwhile, has fallen from 224 to 179.

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Author
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Helldivers 2 will "never" include PvP mode

1 month 1 week ago

Helldivers 2 will "never" include a PvP mode in order to reduce toxic play.

The game's creative director and Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt responded to a fan requesting the addition of a PvP mode to keep "hardcore gamers engaged".

"We'll 'never' add a PvP-mode. This is to reduce toxic elements from the community," said Pilestedt. "We want an environment that's supportive, fun and where we all are fighting on the same side!"

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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"Every screen is an Xbox" Microsoft reportedly tells staff

1 month 1 week ago

Xbox president Sarah Bond reportedly told staff that "every screen is an Xbox". These words come ahead of Microsoft's business update later today, in which the company is expected to lay out its plans to publish some Xbox games on PlayStation and Nintendo platforms.

Bond was speaking at an internal town hall meeting, with several sources telling Inverse the exec went on to discuss Xbox's strategy of existing on multiple devices. She also spoke more on the company's ambitions to become the number one cross-platform gaming company, the sources said.

To illustrate this point, staff were shown images of this year's breakout hit Palworld across multiple screens. This included "tablets, TV screens, monitors, and handheld devices", the publication said.

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Homeworld 3 studio Blackbird Interactive hit with layoffs

1 month 1 week ago

The studio behind Homeworld 3, Homeworld: Deserts Of Kharak, and Hardspace: Shipbreaker have cut a number of jobs, explaining this is "part of a realignment plan that's necessary because of new projects that were shelved by some of our partners". Blackbird Interactive haven't confirmed the number of people who lost their jobs, nor have they said what the mystery projects were. It's been a grim year for people working in the video games industry, with thousands losing their jobs, and we're only halfway through February.

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Author
Alice O'Connor

Embracer has now laid off 8% of staff

1 month 1 week ago

Embracer has laid off 8 percent of its workforce as its restructuring programme reaches "mature stages".

The company released its latest financial report today, stating its net sales increased by 4 percent, though this is largely thanks to its Tabletop Games and Entertainment divisions. PC and console games net sales decreased by five percent.

In its third quarter, the company laid off 483 people, meaning 1387 employees have now lost their jobs in the last two quarters, representing 8 percent of the total workforce.

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered's modern controls are an absolute travesty

1 month 1 week ago

Readers, consider this is a public service announcement for (deep breath) Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Trilogy Starring Lara Croft. Do not, for the love of all that's ancient and holy, play this game with its newly-added modern control scheme. The original tank controls are by far and away the best (and only real) option for going back and experiencing Lara's OG adventures from the late 90s, and I'm not just saying that out of nostalgia. The modern controls are bad, plain and simple, and are as much an enemy to Tomb Raider's incredibly precise mode of 3D platforming as the tigers and wolves that stalk its trap-filled catacombs. They are utterly maddening, and the antithesis of everything Tomb Raider stands for. I implore you, do not go anywhere near them, for your own sake as well as Lara's.

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Author
Katharine Castle

Helldivers 2 will "never" get PvP because Arrowhead don't want a toxic community

1 month 1 week ago

If you've been yearning to take up arms against Super Earth as either an arachnid, a robot or a filthy (managed) democracy-hating human traitor, then I have bad news, roughneck. Helldivers 2 will "never" get a PvP mode, according to Arrowhead's CEO Johan Pilestedt. The reason? They want to avoid encouraging any toxic behaviour in the new shooter's multiplayer community.

Given that Helldivers 2 is a game with mandatory friendly fire in which you can kill team-mates by respawning right on top of them, I fear the Good Ship Camaraderie may already have sailed, but I'm very early on in my Helldiver career, and I'm... intrigued by how Arrowhead's efforts at community curation sit alongside/within the game's premise of playing a dirty space fascist locked in an endless xenophobic crusade.

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Author
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

French union report alleges mismanagement at Life is Strange developer Don't Nod

1 month 1 week ago

A report by the French video game workers union has raised concerns from staff at Life is Strange and Vampyr developer Don't Nod.

Headquarted in Paris, the company released action role-player Banishers: Ghosts of Eden this week, following last year's well-received Jusant and Harmony: The Fall of Reverie.

Now, a report by French union Le Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo (STJV) has alleged that staff at Don't Nod are subject to mismanagement by the company due to the need to balance multiple projects with "frequently" changing deadlines, "contradictory" directions and "no long-term vision" for staff welfare.

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Author
Tom Phillips

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Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden review - a haunting story of consequence

1 month 1 week ago

Commitment can be scarier than any ghost story. When I got married, I spent a lot of time leading up to the wedding borrowing grief from my future self. The prospect of 'til death do we part' brought forward the stark idea that one day one of us would have to say goodbye to the other. I was suddenly and unexpectedly wracked with anxiety about the mortality of my loved ones, and playing Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden reminded me of this uncomfortable feeling. Antea and Red have each other, to hold and confide in and joke with – but Antea is a ghost, and they have to get ready to say goodbye. That's the commitment they make to each other.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden sees Red and Antea, ghost hunters and life partners, called to settle a curse that's fallen on the early Massachusetts settler colony of New Eden. The tight-knit, suspicious puritan community aren't all convinced that the pair can help, seeing their arrival as too little too late – or insufficiently godly – after the loss of their community pillar to the ghost at the centre of the curse.

New Eden Town introduces you to life as a banisher: fighting violent spectres that have forgotten who they were, convincing benevolent ghosts to leave people to grieve in peace, and snooping in people's belongings to get better answers to your questions. When the pair inadvertently walk into a trap, the townspeople's suspicions are proved correct – Antea is killed, and the survivors scatter. To help her peacefully pass on, it will be a long journey to loosen the curse's hold on the area to retrieve her body – and there's the unthinkable option of taking that same journey to instead resurrect her, going against everything they believe as banishers. Death to the dead, and life to the living.

Author
Ruth Cassidy

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DF's tools of the trade: digital callipers

1 month 1 week ago

Digital Foundry's tools of the trade is a new series looking at the tools - physical and virtual - that DF members use to carry out their work analysing video games and hardware. In this first episode, Will Judd shares his thoughts on digital callipers, specifically the Hozo NeoCaliper.

There are a handful of tools that should be in any PC gamer's toolkit, from the Phillips-head screwdrivers you'll need to build or modify pretty much every PC out there to the Allen keys that can help you adjust sim racing rigs, monitor arms and other more substantial furniture. However, one useful tool I've not seen mentioned much is a set of callipers - whether that's a traditional analogue set or more newfangled digital alternatives. I've used a set of the latter for several years now, and I'm always amazed at how useful these can be for PC building in general - and PC journalism more specifically.

First, the general stuff: callipers are extremely useful for small form factor Mini ITX builds, where you could start by just cramming every component into your case, but it's often better to measure your components before you begin to make sure you'll have enough clearance. Callipers won't replace a tape measure for extremely long objects - I'm thinking of graphics card length, for example - but smaller objects like CPU tower coolers or radiators can be measured quickly and accurately with digital callipers, allowing you to ensure that your intended setup is actually workable in the often limited space available. It's worth pointing out that as well as measuring the size of objects (outer diameter), you can also measure gaps (inner diameter) - the arms on the top of a set of callipers grip in the opposite direction, allowing you to see exactly how much space you have available.

Author
Will Judd

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Blue Protocol Reportedly Underperforming for Bandai Namco

1 month 2 weeks ago

Blue Protocol Reportedly Underperforming for Bandai Namco

The latest Bandai Namco financial statement suggests that Blue Protocol is underperforming for the company. The statement for Q3 of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024, shows losses due to “new online game titles introduced this fiscal year.” [Thanks, Ryokutya2089!]

The company noted that performance for mainline titles belonging to the Dragon Ball and One Piece series remained stable in Japan and overseas, but new online game titles fell far short of plans. The latest statement appeared on the Japanese gaming website Gamebiz. While Bandai Namco doesn’t directly state that Blue Protocol is underperforming or name it as responsible for the losses, the title is the only online game the company has released for the current fiscal year.

Bandai Namco reported ¥772 billion yen in sales for Q3, an increase of 3.9% compared to the previous fiscal year during the same period of time. However, operating income for the company resulted in ¥78 billion yen, a decrease of 26.3% year-over-year. Going forward, Bandai Namco stated plans to build an optimal and well-balanced title portfolio and strengthen development with an emphasis on quality.

Author
Daniel Bueno

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PlayStation boss says first-party PC releases will be part of "aggressive" growth plan

1 month 2 weeks ago

Sony president and PlayStation chairman Hiroki Totoki has spoken of the opportunities available in its approach to releasing first-party games on PC, saying it's "proactively [working] on" bringing more titles to other platforms as part of an "aggressive" profit margin growth plan.

Totoki made the comments during an investor Q&A coinciding with Sony's latest financial earnings report. When asked how its gaming division might be looking to increase profits, he first discussed the difficulty of cost reduction in PlayStation hardware, given component pricing, before highlighting a "multiplatform" approach to its first-party game releases as a potentially more fruitful area of expansion.

"In the past, as you all know," Totoki explained, "we wanted to popularise [our] console, and the first-party title's main purpose was to make the console popular."

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Author
Matt Wales

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