McDonald’s restaurants in the UK are now offering Sonic the Hedgehog Happy Meal toys. They will be available in meals until February 6, 2024.

There are 12 stories total in this collection of toys. Not all of them appear in the initial images and site. Some toys involve building Sonic on a hoverboard, there are sticker sheets, jigsaw puzzles will be available, and other items will show up. 

Here’s an official image showing that item, as well as some of the flags people can pick up in-store with characters on them.

Active development on Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard's MOBA starring heroes and villains from across its iconic game franchises, ended in 2022, but one group of dedicated fans is bringing the game back in a big way.

It's called Resurgence of the Storm, and it's a free mod for Blizzard's own Starcraft 2, albeit one that completely transforms the RTS into something that is near indistinguishable from the official Blizzard-made version of Heroes of the Storm. Unlike Heroes of the Storm, which is still playable but no longer receives new content (but does occasionally receive some minor balance updates and bug fixes), Resurgence of the Storm features never-before-seen heroes, updated talents and abilities for some existing heroes, and even a content roadmap. The mod has been in development for over four years and is now officially available to the public.

So, what did you get up to on the holiday break? I was intending to spend a bit of time catching up on my horribly late slate of projects, but I ended up going down yet another rabbit hole - and this one's quite intriguing. Cyberpunk 2077 on PC ships with a range of internal benchmarks and streaming tests, only one of which users actually get to see. However, several others are available and thanks to a quirk of CD Projekt RED's cross-platform save system, it's possible to port those benchmark sequences across to consoles. I wasn't exactly optimistic that they would work - but they do. The question is, are they in any way useful?

CDPR's 'official' benchmark and a range of others are accessible in the PC version of the game and by my count, four of them auto-save during their duration, or else allow you to make a manual save as they start. This makes them exceptionally easy to access on the PC game (you load them like any other save game) but it also means that they transfer across once you log into CDPR's online network.

Under this system, the last manual save, quick save and auto save move from system to system, and that's how I managed to 'port' across PC's benchmark sequences across to consoles. Unfortunately, saving progress isn't possible in the official benchmark available from the main menu, but it's arguably less interesting than the others anyway.

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So, what did you get up to on the holiday break? I was intending to spend a bit of time catching up on my horribly late slate of projects, but I ended up going down yet another rabbit hole - and this one's quite intriguing. Cyberpunk 2077 on PC ships with a range of internal benchmarks and streaming tests, only one of which users actually get to see. However, several others are available and thanks to a quirk of CD Projekt RED's cross-platform save system, it's possible to port those benchmark sequences across to consoles. I wasn't exactly optimistic that they would work - but they do. The question is, are they in any way useful?

CDPR's 'official' benchmark and a range of others are accessible in the PC version of the game and by my count, four of them auto-save during their duration, or else allow you to make a manual save as they start. This makes them exceptionally easy to access on the PC game (you load them like any other save game) but it also means that they transfer across once you log into CDPR's online network.

Under this system, the last manual save, quick save and auto save move from system to system, and that's how I managed to 'port' across PC's benchmark sequences across to consoles. Unfortunately, saving progress isn't possible in the official benchmark available from the main menu, but it's arguably less interesting than the others anyway.

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Harley was the most consistent thing about an inconsistent franchise

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Apex Legends is getting a Final Fantasy VII Rebirth crossover event, and a new gameplay trailer shows how costume skins, Materia, and the Buster Sword will look in the game. This also means we get a better idea of how things will work and be acquired when things begin on January 9, 2024.

The trailer begins with a look at the Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, before some characters in the new skins drop in. It then shows how players can approach Hop-Ups to get different Materia. Purple Materia is shown off first in the gameplay footage, followed by Blue Materia and Red Materia. 

After that, it shows the Buster Sword R2R5. This is a Mythic cosmetic for all characters that will apparently be a part of the Event packs people can buy. It, like the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Apex Legends costume skins, was mentioned as being available via Apex Coins in the official press release. 

As for those costumes, here are the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth skins shown in the Apex Legends trailer.

Nintendo hacker Gary Bowser has denied being involved in a new flash cart project claimed to allow Switch users to play back-ups of their owned games.

The MIG-Switch flash cart, officially, is a "third party back-up and development device for the Nintendo Switch" according to the device website, that's not endorsed nor licenced by Nintendo of Japan. While the idea behind the device is players can back up games they own legally, it also opens the door for piracy and for people to potentially play roms of games they do not own.

However, Bowser - who was sentenced to 40 months in prison for the distribution and sale of piracy-enabling devices back in 2022 - said he was "not involved" in any aspect of the MIG-Switch. Rather, the hacker reportedly said he had been the "subject of DNS poisoning attack on [his] nameservers" (thanks, VGC).

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Nintendo hacker Gary Bowser has denied being involved in a new flash cart project claimed to allow Switch users to play back-ups of their owned games.

The MIG-Switch flash cart, officially, is a "third party back-up and development device for the Nintendo Switch" according to the device website, that's not endorsed nor licenced by Nintendo of Japan. While the idea behind the device is players can back up games they own legally, it also opens the door for piracy and for people to potentially play roms of games they do not own.

However, Bowser - who was sentenced to 40 months in prison for the distribution and sale of piracy-enabling devices back in 2022 - said he was "not involved" in any aspect of the MIG-Switch. Rather, the hacker reportedly said he had been the "subject of DNS poisoning attack on [his] nameservers" (thanks, VGC).

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Get hyped for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

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I wasn’t sure this day would ever come: Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, the once wildly popular mobile RPG in which players had to climb the Tinseltown ranks from the E-list to A-list, is shutting down. 10 years ago, this Android and iOS title dominated each store’s download charts, made gamers out of regular ol’ people,…

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2023 has quickly been inserted into the discussion for the year with the best selection of new game releases, with games like Baldur's Gate 3, The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, and Alan Wake 2 headlining the year. For Steam users in particular, there's a lot to consider, as reports say over 14,000 games launched on the service last year.

SteamDB, an independent site dedicated to analyzing Steam activity, states that 14,535 unique games launched on the platform in 2023, which marks a nearly 2,000-game increase from the previous year. VGC, via Circana (formerly NPD), also notes that Steam's 14,000+ launch figure dwarfs the second-place platform--the Nintendo Switch, which saw 2,360 games added to its library.

The number of new releases on Steam is staggering when compared to a decade before; 2013 saw only 435 new Steam games for the entire year. It also nearly doubles the service's output in 2018, when 8,900 games were launched.

In math terms: If you attempted to play every game that launched on Steam last year, you would have had to play video games every minute of every day of 2023. Oh, and you'd only be able to dedicate, at maximum, 37 minutes of playing time to each game.

2024 doesn't seem to be slowing down either, as SteamDB reports nearly 100 games have already launched as of the writing of this sentence, with the number set to eclipse the century mark by the end of the day. Notable Steam launches in January 2024 include Tekken 8, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and Enshrouded.

Here’s something unironically wonderful. Via a post by Larian Studios writer Rachel Quirke, we’ve just learned of a deeply moving tribute to a player’s father that appears in the studios’ award-winning RPG Baldur’s Gate 3. In October 2020, a member of the Larian forums posted to thank the developer for releasing the…

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Korean game publisher Nexon is being fined 11.6 billion won, or approximately $8.85 million, for manipulating the drop rates of randomized items and loot boxes in games without informing players. This practice has apparently been affecting games like MapleStory and Bubble Fighter since 2010. [Thanks, @Citrussalt!]

According to the Korean Fair Trade Commission, Nexon had been changing the item drop rates for loot boxes and other gacha mechanics in its games, including reducing some items to a 0% chance of appearing, without disclosing these changes to players. Nexon also apparantly released a statement claiming no changes had been made, aiming to "lure customers by giving them false information". 28% of MapleStory's 560 billion won in sales came from in-game purchases in 2020.

Nexon itself has accepted the decision and apologised to it's customers, but has said it may seek to challenge the decision claiming the company was not required to reveal probability information at the time.

You can find the Korean Fair Trade Commission's official statement below, or read an English summary via the Korea Times here.

Korean publisher Nexon have been fined 11.6 billion won - around $8.9 million - for secretly altering the drop rates of coveted items in free-to-play MMO gacha game MapleStory. The fine, issued by the Korea Fair Trade Commission, is the largest penalty ever doled out for violation of South Korea's Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce.

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Korean publisher Nexon have been fined 11.6 billion won - around $8.9 million - for secretly altering the drop rates of coveted items in free-to-play MMO gacha game MapleStory. The fine, issued by the Korea Fair Trade Commission, is the largest penalty ever doled out for violation of South Korea's Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce.

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Normally, when you do something amazing like winning a tournament or beating an impossible game, you celebrate and get congratulated for your accomplishment. That was definitely true for 13-year-old Tetris master Willis “Blue Scuti” Gibson, who became the first known human to “beat” the classic NES game over the…

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Cloud Imperium Games is selling a new DLC bundle for the spacefaring game Star Citizen that will set you back the cost of a fancy new real-life car. The Legatus 2953 bundle, as it's called, includes every ship in the game, along with a variety of extras. The cost? $48,000.

The bundle comes with more than 175 ships from every one of the game's many manufacturers, which the developer said should allow players to "forge a lasting legacy, leading humanity towards a brighter future." It includes weapons and cosmetics as well. Nearly all of the content is available now, except for the Karna Ascension rifle, which will be released sometime during Q1 2024 (January-March).

Cloud Imperium Games has sold these type of bundles since 2018. As PC Gamer reminds us, the first iteration of the bundle was priced at $27,000, and now it's scaled to almost double that. The site also reported that players need to have already spent $1,000 on Star Citizen to buy the Legatus 2953 bundle. That's because the premium offering is apparently only available to people in the Chairman's Club.

Star Citizen alpha 3.21, the newest version of the game, is available now on PC. The developer is releasing the game on an ongoing basis, with more features and functionality introduced over time. A standalone single-player game, Squadron 42, is also in development but doesn't have a release date yet. The game recently crossed a major development milestone, becoming feature-complete in October 2023.

Apex Legends players just got a closer look at the game's upcoming collaboration with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth via a new trailer for the event. The Apex Legends & Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Event was initially announced at 2023's The Game Awards on December 7, though the presentation didn't include many details, leaving fans of both games wondering what exactly the event would entail. According to the new trailer, the new event will give players access to a new limited-time mode, tons of Final Fantasy-themed cosmetic skins, and a new Buster Sword Heirloom Weapon that can be equipped by any legend, making it the first of its kind.

The event, which begins on January 9, will feature a new LTM that will replace unranked battle royale mode for the three-week duration of the event. Known as Final Fantasy Takeover, the new mode will see the game's maps littered with Cactuar-themed "Cacticks," special Loot Ticks that provide Materia Hop-Ups when destroyed. Materia Hop-Ups give players access to special buffs, including lightning AoE damage, HP absorption, and an AI-controller SOLDIER Nessie who will aid players in battle. The Final Fantasy Takeover mode will also give players the ability to wield Cloud's Buster Sword, which can be used to deflect bullets, dash, and even perform special Limit Breaks.

Square Enix has been taking to social media to celebrate the new year with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, with the latest images involving a kadomatsu display with Cait Sith and Cactaurs. It also features knitted ornamental mochi.

Here is the official display. Cait Sith is in the back, and it appears to be the same plush toy Square Enix was selling. The two Cactaur are alongside it and dressed up to look like the kadomatsu. The plush mochi is in front.

Amazon Prime Gaming is offering four free titles throughout the month of January, including Atari Mania and Endling - Extinction is Forever.

The first of these titles is available from today, 4th January, with the rest then released periodically throughout the month.

From today, Prime subscribers will be able to get their hands on the BAFTA award-winning and "eco-conscious adventure" Endling - Extinction is Forever. In this game, players take on the role of a mother fox, as she tries to make her way in the world with her cubs. She is the last mother fox on Earth (pictured in header image above).

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Amazon Prime Gaming is offering four free titles throughout the month of January, including Atari Mania and Endling - Extinction is Forever.

The first of these titles is available from today, 4th January, with the rest then released periodically throughout the month.

From today, Prime subscribers will be able to get their hands on the BAFTA award-winning and "eco-conscious adventure" Endling - Extinction is Forever. In this game, players take on the role of a mother fox, as she tries to make her way in the world with her cubs. She is the last mother fox on Earth (pictured in header image above).

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A collection of Monty Mole games from the 1980s will be making their Nintendo Switch debut on Monday, 8th January (well, here in the UK, at least - they are already available in the US).

The Monty Mole Collection comprises five games, covering the original Monty Mole saga. This includes the main trilogy of games: Wanted! Monty Mole, Monty on the Run, and Auf Wiedersehen Monty.

In addition, there are two bonus games to enjoy: Moley Christmas (which was originally given away with a magazine. As the name suggests, it will provide players with a "seasonal adventure") and Sam Stoat: Safebreaker. This is the "solo adventure of Sam Stoat, a supporting character from the main Monty Mole games".

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A collection of Monty Mole games from the 1980s will be making their Nintendo Switch debut on Monday, 8th January (well, here in the UK, at least - they are already available in the US).

The Monty Mole Collection comprises five games, covering the original Monty Mole saga. This includes the main trilogy of games: Wanted! Monty Mole, Monty on the Run, and Auf Wiedersehen Monty.

In addition, there are two bonus games to enjoy: Moley Christmas (which was originally given away with a magazine. As the name suggests, it will provide players with a "seasonal adventure") and Sam Stoat: Safebreaker. This is the "solo adventure of Sam Stoat, a supporting character from the main Monty Mole games".

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Russian Roulette is just an edgy version of Snakes & Ladders. It's pure luck gussied up with high stakes and the cool aesthetic of spinning a six-shooter. A grizzled mafioso whose cheeks glitter with fragments of other people's teeth has as much chance of winning Russian Roulette as a sleepy five-year-old in SpongeBob pyjamas. But take Russian Roulette, swap the revolver for a pump-action shotgun, mix up live and dud rounds, and add Inscryption-esque items which let you change the rules, and now you have a more skillful game. That's Buckshot Roulette, the latest from Mike Klubnika, the dev behind those excellent horror games about operating machinery. Great weird machines here too.

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Russian Roulette is just an edgy version of Snakes & Ladders. It's pure luck gussied up with high stakes and the cool aesthetic of spinning a six-shooter. A grizzled mafioso whose cheeks glitter with fragments of other people's teeth has as much chance of winning Russian Roulette as a sleepy five-year-old in SpongeBob pyjamas. But take Russian Roulette, swap the revolver for a pump-action shotgun, mix up live and dud rounds, and add Inscryption-esque items which let you change the rules, and now you have a more skillful game. That's Buckshot Roulette, the latest from Mike Klubnika, the dev behind those excellent horror games about operating machinery. Great weird machines here too.

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Happy New Year, folks! Have you recovered from the all the 100+ hour RPGs that came out last year? Well, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that everyone seems to be taking a bit of a breather in 2024, because (at time of writing at least) the official "big'uns" calendar is looking remarkably slim at the moment. There are still some heavy-hitters coming our way this year, such as , Star Wars Outlaws and Path Of Exile 2, but 2024 looks like another year where it will be the smaller, independent games that shine the brightest. They certainly make up the bulk of our most anticipated games list for 2024, which the RPS Treehouse has been feverishly putting together over the last few days. The bad news is that there are still loads of great games coming out. So come, join us, and see what's on our personal wishlists for 2024.

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The successor to the Nintendo Switch could arrive as soon as next year, cost $400, and be more of an “iterative” upgrade “rather than a revolution.” That’s according to the CEO of a Tokyo-based video game consultancy firm, who recently spoke with GamesIndustry.biz.

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Happy New Year, folks! Have you recovered from the all the 100+ hour RPGs that came out last year? Well, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that everyone seems to be taking a bit of a breather in 2024, because (at time of writing at least) the official "big'uns" calendar is looking remarkably slim at the moment. There are still some heavy-hitters coming our way this year, such as , Star Wars Outlaws and Path Of Exile 2, but 2024 looks like another year where it will be the smaller, independent games that shine the brightest. They certainly make up the bulk of our most anticipated games list for 2024, which the RPS Treehouse has been feverishly putting together over the last few days. The bad news is that there are still loads of great games coming out. So come, join us, and see what's on our personal wishlists for 2024.

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IGN shared a big chunk of footage from Dragon's Dogma 2, showcasing gameplay from 4 of the game's vocations, or classes. These include the shield-wielding Fighter and the nimble Thief, as well as advanced vocations like the greatsword-toting Warrior and powerful Sorceror. [Thanks, IGN!]

Fans of the original will be pleased to see the return of many characteristic elements of the first Dragon's Dogma. Despite the shiny new graphics and systems, Pawns still chatter in the same archaic English and Ogres can still dropkick you from from over a screen away, just as they did in the original.

There are a number of interesting new things to note, however, including a moment near the beginning where a Fighter perfectly times a block against a goblin attacking with a lit torch, which appears to imbue his weapons with fire without needing support from an allied mage. If that is indeed what happens (and he didn't just get a buff from an ally in the bushes) then it could be an interesting sign of potential new interactions between enemies and players.

Rockfish have announced that they're updating arcade dogfighter Everspace 2 to run on Unreal Engine 5. The engine rollover will arrive as part of or alongside the game's Incursions update in spring 2024, which includes tweaks and bugfixes as well as extra legendary items and a new game feature of some description. The idea is less to take advantage of UE5's various whizbangs and bellwhistles, like the new Nanite geometry system, than to grease the launch chutes for future Everspace 2 updates and expansions.

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Rockfish have announced that they're updating arcade dogfighter Everspace 2 to run on Unreal Engine 5. The engine rollover will arrive as part of or alongside the game's Incursions update in spring 2024, which includes tweaks and bugfixes as well as extra legendary items and a new game feature of some description. The idea is less to take advantage of UE5's various whizbangs and bellwhistles, like the new Nanite geometry system, than to grease the launch chutes for future Everspace 2 updates and expansions.

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We got our first look at Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth's Dondoko Island at last year's Xbox Partner showcase. Right as it dropped, I was in New York giving the Animal Crossing-esque minigame a go myself, albeit for a quickfire half hour of bashing rubbish bags with a baseball bat and plonking a urinal on the dirt to satisfy a tutorial. Still, in that brief time I've come away thinking I could lose much of my life to the promise of converting a polluted island into an idyll with the power of abs and friendship. There is the strong possibility of a grind. But hey, it's optional!

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Having spent some time in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth's Hawaii, I've come to realise that it's a wonderful place, home to trams that'll let you see the sights and soak in the warm breeze. But moreso than that, it's home to the previous game's Pokémon parody, Sujimon, which has now kicked into overdrive. From what I can tell, Infinite Wealth is as much a Pokémon trainers paradise as it is a game about the Japanese criminal underworld. I'm sold.

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Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth's release is right around the corner and we recently got invited to get some early hands-on time with many different parts of the game. Gripping emotional story? Check. Animal Crossing-inspired life sim mode that's going to take up countless hours of my time? Big check. A wild boss battle with a monster shark the size of a boat? You better believe it, fellow crime pals. Infinite Wealth is already my most anticipated game for 2024 so I was excited to dive right in.

Also, a small spoiler warning, there are going to be some story things mentioned in here for the series. Much like Gaiden before it, Infinite Wealth is a game that you should not jump into as your first game in the series as it relies heavily on knowing these characters. With that heads up out of the way, let's talk about Ichiban and Kiryu's Hawaiian adventure.

We began our day sitting down and getting an overview of everything new in Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth. Ichiban and his found family crew are back along with some new faces, including a taxi driver named Eric Tomizawa and a mysterious housekeeper named Chitose Fujinomiya. Ichiban has made the trip to Hawaiii to find his biological mother Akane, who was originally thought to be deceased, but is apparently alive and somewhere on the islands. This revelation sets our adventure in motion and allows Ichiban to come into contact with the legendary yakuza, Kazuma Kiryu.

We got our first look at Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth's Dondoko Island at last year's Xbox Partner showcase. Right as it dropped, I was in New York giving the Animal Crossing-esque minigame a go myself, albeit for a quickfire half hour of bashing rubbish bags with a baseball bat and plonking a urinal on the dirt to satisfy a tutorial. Still, in that brief time I've come away thinking I could lose much of my life to the promise of converting a polluted island into an idyll with the power of abs and friendship. There is the strong possibility of a grind. But hey, it's optional!

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Hololive Vtuber Sakamata Chloe took to social media to announce she will be taking a break. The performer noted she’d caught COVID-19 and will be taking time to recover.

Here is Chloe’s official announcement. She reported that when she went to the doctor, her fever was at 39.3°C. That’s almost 103°F. It was then revealed that she had caught COVID-19. She also reported that she will be taking time to recover and is taking medicine.

Prior to the announcement on January 4, 2024, she had previously noted she wasn’t feeling well. On January 3, 2024, she noted her fever had hit 37.8°C (~100°F). 

Having spent some time in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth's Hawaii, I've come to realise that it's a wonderful place, home to trams that'll let you see the sights and soak in the warm breeze. But moreso than that, it's home to the previous game's Pokémon parody, Sujimon, which has now kicked into overdrive. From what I can tell, Infinite Wealth is as much a Pokémon trainers paradise as it is a game about the Japanese criminal underworld. I'm sold.

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Once upon a time, not so very long ago, the first couple of months of the year were a dead zone for new game releases. Typically, publishers rushed to get their shiny new titles out in time for the holiday gift rush. But then some clever genius realized that people buy games all year round. 2023 kicked off with a…

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