Climbing a skyscraper for the 25th time in a day quickly erodes the novelty of virtual reality.

For over three years, Attila Kardos was one of the quality assurance testers at PlayStation Liverpool, one of the testing centers of Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe. During his tenure, he worked on first-party behemoths like God of War, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Detroit: Become Human. But today, heʼs talking about a different type of testing involving a headset and physically mimicking movements for multiple hours at your office desk.

In games like Blood & Truth, where you take a starring role in action movie-esque setpieces, the fun factor of virtual reality quickly makes itself apparent. However, experiences like this can be taxing. A player can stop at any time. A tester doesnʼt have that luxury. It doesnʼt take long for the monotonous physical effort to take a toll. And then they have to show up at work the next day and do it all again.

“Eventually, you start feeling your shoulders,” Kardos laughs. “You feel the extra muscle pain.”

Versus Evil, the publisher behind The Banner Saga and Pillars Of Eternity 2, among others, has been closed down and its entire staff laid off. Versus Evil were bought by tinyBuild in November 2021.

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Hello?

Anyone?

Uh. I think I've been locked inside the treehouse while the others left on their Christmas holidays, so I guess I may as well continue to write the news. Deathloop is currently free to keep for those with an Amazon Prime membership.

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What’s up, gamers! Abby, here! Your former Giant Bomb Content Producer turned current comedy and marketing writer at Jackbox games! You may have also seen my work at G4TV’s Xplay, my web series Abby Dearest, or on my Twitch page.

2023 was a year of high highs and low lows, and like many people, it all went by in a blur. What this year did offer me was a reinvigorated love of video games. After many years of working in games media and having to play every game as it came out, I was burnt out and turned off. As it turns out, turning your hobby into work simply makes it work.

Some time away from that work, and a series of excellent choice-based narratives made it an easy transition getting back to my roots and identifying as a proud Gamer, once again.

HoYoVerse has released a teaser trailer for the Honkai: Star Rail Fan Art Program, taking place during the 2024 New Year HoYoFair. The theme will be “Galactic Grand Prix,” with the trailer featuring characters taking part in an intergalactic space racing contest.

The Honkai: Star Rail Galactic Grand Prix Fan Art Program will be part of the 2024 New Year HoYoFair event, which consists of a special livestream featuring works created by fans of the game. In the teaser trailer, we see several characters gearing up to take part in a futuristic motorsport. Competitors shown in the trailer include Asta and Argenti, while Lynx watches as a spectator. The event will be live-streamed on December 30, 2023, at 8 pm UTC+8 / 12 pm GMT / 7 am ET / 4 am PT.

The teaser trailer also features a snippet of an original song created for the event. “In a Flash” is a jazzy piece composed by inosoo and features the vocals of Lyn Inaizumi, best known for her work in Persona 5 and its spin-offs. The full song will feature during the broadcast. The event’s Program also lists some short films set to premiere during the live stream. These include “Pink Ambience,” “The Kuma Returns,” and “Sparks Yet to Fly.”

This year’s Siliconera Switch Game of the Year contest may have been the toughest competition since the console’s 2017 debut, with a lineup of stellar first-party releases accompanied by some surprise third-party entrants. What’s the winner? You can probably guess! But all of our Switch Game of the Year 2023 selections got here by beating out some truly impressive titles.

These awards represent the consensus of the Siliconera staff. For more of the year’s award selections, check out our Game of the Year 2023 archive.

Fire Emblem Engage

Strategy players love to min-max, and it seems developers like that as well sometimes! Following the watered-down gameplay and excellent characters of Three Houses, Engage pushes the slider all the way to “mechanics” and delivers some of the best maps and combat systems in the franchise’s history. Story? Characters? Toothpaste hair? Uh, we don’t need to talk about those. Engage instead offers something more like Fates’ customization-focused tactical playground, and there’s a lot of fun in that approach.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code

5. Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon

2023 was the year Armored Core broke out of the confines of its niche box and showed why so many people love it. Fires of Rubicon leverages years of top-notch work by FromSoftware to invite fans to try something different. And that something different is a mech game that has cinematic combat, a robust customization suite, and a story that is subtly told but interesting nonetheless. Most importantly, however, its kept what people love about From's titles intact and was challenging but satisfying. If you haven't played Armored Core before and want to know if it works for you, this is the one to try.

When Final Fantasy X exploded onto the PlayStation 2 in 2001, it revolutionized not just the Final Fantasy series but the role-playing genre as a whole. The tuned-to-perfection turn-based combat, the beautiful soundtrack, the heartfelt story, and the eye-popping-for-the-time visuals created one of the most important entries of one of the most important franchises in video game history. However, one element was absent from Final Fantasy X that several of the key developers involved with the project lamented: an explorable world map.

For Yoshinori Kitase, a producer on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth who also served as a director on Final Fantasy VI, VII, VIII, and X, the world map's disappearance was a sore spot as someone who has been involved with the series since 1990. "We started off expressing this world that you can venture through this world map," he tells Game Informer. That was how it was for Final Fantasy I, but starting with Final Fantasy X, when we entered into this real-time 3D world, this is when the world map development ceased or halted to some degree."

Square Enix has announced that the global version of Dragon Quest Tact will be shutting down. The spin-off mobile game will see the end of active service on February 29, 2024.

Dragon Quest Tact is set to shut down due to a shift in consumer trends that the team claims will create difficulties maintaining the game. This closure only affects the global version of the game, as the Japanese version will continue to be supported. The closure comes almost exactly three years after the game’s global release on January 27, 2021.

While Dragon Quest Tact isn’t shutting down until February, Square Enix has already ended some services within the game. Players can no longer purchase Gems and Metal Cards. They also cannot buy the monthly Passport, and all automatic renewals of the Passport have been canceled. In-game events will continue to be updated until the game’s closure.

It's December 26, which means Christmas has come and gone, and other seasonal holidays are underway while we all wait for the new year to kick off next week. Everyone knows that the days between your winter holiday and New Year's Eve are for gaming, right? At least, we hope you're doing some gaming today, tomorrow, and the day after! Or maybe you're kicking back with a good book, or watching a new movie?

We don't know what it is you're doing but we want to! In fact, we want to know what video game presents you found under the tree or in a beautifully wrapped gift box this year, too.

Did you get a new console? Did you get some games to add to your never-ending backlog – we're all still catching up on 2023's frankly absurd gauntlet of releases, right? Did you get some cool shirts, some Fortnite V-bucks, or a new coffee cup with Clive from Final Fantasy XVI on it?

To some, 2023 was one of the best years for video games in a long time. It didn’t quite land that way for me, but that’s okay. Even if I don’t rank the likes of Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Baldur’s Gate 3 among the year’s best, I still admire the impulse they exhibit to try something fresh and new, or to make the…

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Good parenting is a lot like being a solid player two. You want to be supportive, curious, and competent. You’re there to have a good time, and understand going with the flow is key to harmony. This can be a challenge with kids and video games when you’re actually, literally, player two, especially if you’re a gamer…

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Aviot has revealed new earbuds that feature Sword Art Online designs and character voices. The company has also opened pre-orders for the items on its own web store.

People residing outside Japan can also place orders, as the WorldShopping widget supports international deliveries for the branded earbuds. The collectibles will be based on Aviot's existing TE-D01v model, which normally costs ¥11,990 (~$84). The Sword Art Online-branded models have a higher price tag of ¥22,880 (~$160) but will also come with more functions.

Aviot will provide a mobile app where owners can change the system's voice character. The earbuds will also have a button that will play a random quote by the character when pressed for a long time. The Sword Art Online earbuds will be available in two models. The black Hero model will let owners choose between Kirito, Eugeo, or a combination of both. Meanwhile, the white Heroine model will feature voices from Asuna, Leafa, Sinon, Yuuki, and Alice.

You can get a closer look at the SAO earbuds below:

A few weeks ago, I went to a Fortnite event where developer-publisher Epic Games unveiled its plan for the near future of its game: a Lego survival game, a racing game, and a music game à la Rock Band and Fuser. This is on top of the toolset allowing anyone to make and publish their own games within Fortnite.

The whole thing was kind of weird.

Not that any of the experiences are bad – the Lego thing is super not for me, but I really like the racing game (made by Psyonix, developer of Rocket League), and I think the music element has the potential to become something interesting down the road. 

At last, every door on the RPS Advent Calendar has been ripped open, leaving nothing but foil wrapper remnants, and the odd pixel crumb of the digital delights once contained within them. But that doesn't festivities are over! Like a Boxing Day bubble and squeak, we've gathered together all of our favourite games of the year once again, this time in one handy location. If you've been following along with our Advent goings-on, you'll already know what our game of the year picks are for 2023, but just in case you missed them, here's the list in full. Enjoy!

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On Christmas Day, a big GTA 5 leak revealed that Rockstar Games had some single-player DLC planned for the open-world crime sim. Though none of them were released, what was uncovered by online sleuths is interesting all the same.

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Four more Nijisanji VTubers will make their appearance in Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis in February 2024. Sega revealed the new collaboration at the December 2023 NGS Headline program. Amamiya Kokoro, Nagao Kei, Matsukai Mao, and Yorumi Rena will be the four Japanese Nijisanji VTubers who will feature in the second collab batch in PSO2: New Genesis.

The first Nijisanji crossover appeared in PSO2: New Genesis in February 2023. It featured Kaida Haru, Hakase Fuyuki, Hoshikawa Sara, and the English VTuber Shu Yamino. A limited-time scratch ticket lineup would appear during the collaboration period, where players can gather avatar parts and voice sets based on each VTuber.

The second collab period will have even more interactions from the VTubers. In mid-February 2024, Kokoro, Kei, Mao, and Rena will visit Creative Spaces made by users who won a contest that Sega had previously held.

Cyberpunk 2077’s one-and-done expansion, Phantom Liberty, arrived on September 26, 2023, bringing with it a new story and a new location to explore. But fans have found another unique addition the expansion introduces: a subtle reference to another open-world game also set in a fictional take on California.

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Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon hit PlayStation, Xbox, and PC back in August – read Game Informer's review here – and if you've been looking for another reason to dip into its mech-action combat, look no further than the latest update for the game. Developer From Software released a new update last week that adds ranked online matchmaking, a ranked leaderboard, and more to the game. 

The update is free on all platforms where you can play Armored Core VI, and features new parts to enhance Armored Core loadouts as well as new PvP maps to face off against other players in and nameplate personalization. 

Check out the Armored Core VI ranked matchmaking update trailer for yourself below: 

As you can see, this new update adds a heaping dose of mech action to Armored Core VI, giving players who have already beaten the game a new reason to jump into its multiplayer suite. 

Over a year ago, I bought the Founders Pass for Disney Dreamlight Valley and immersed myself in what I hoped would be a fun, enjoyable life simulator-type game. What greeted me was a game filled with Disney magic, reigniting my passion for exploration and discovery and quickly became one of my favorite games of 2022 and 2023.

Disney Dreamlight Valley exited its beta and entered its full release on December 5, 2023, alongside its first paid expansion, A Rift in Time. The game opens with the player falling asleep and waking up in a strange world covered in darkness and strange purple thorns called Night Thorns. In this world called Dreamlight Valley, the player meets Merlin, a wizard who has forgotten many things due to something called "The Forgetting" and asks for help in remembering what was forgotten.

The player has the mysterious power to draw Dreamlight from the Night Thorns and use that power to restore Dreamlight Valley to what it once was and reawaken the lost memories of each Disney character who lives in the Valley. As the player explores the game's world, new yet familiar Disney characters are introduced, including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Ariel, Moana, Mother Gothel, and more.

We’re just a few short days away from the ball dropping and ushering in a new year. Kotaku put out our own Game of the Year list, but last week we also asked you, the Kotaku readers, about your favorite games from the year of our lord 2023. While there were a few obvious frontrunners, folks did come through with some…

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Square Enix shared a recipe for the Final Fantasy VII inspired Mako's Eye drink. The company had previously featured this drink at a temporary-themed cafe in 2022. But with this recipe, people residing anywhere worldwide will be able to replicate the drink if they have the specified ingredients.

The base drink consists of the following ingredients:

1. Blue Hawaii Syrup - 20cc
2. Ice - adequate amount
3. Carbonated Water - 140cc

The recipe also includes a separate syrup made by mixing 10cc of Pineapple Syrup with 0.1g of Yellow Food Coloring. When people pour this syrup into the drink, it will glow similarly to the Mako reflected on characters' pupils in Final Fantasy VII entries. An optional pineapple cut on the glass can complete the drink's presentation.

The drink recipe video is also available to watch on the Japanese official X account for the Final Fantasy VII Remake series:

Before the year concluded, discussions were already percolating about whether 2023 was the best year for video game releases ever. It was a challenging year for the industry as a whole, but in terms of artistic output, 2023 is absolutely a contender. Whittling the year's releases to a mere 10 games was challenging, but we did it (you can read our top 10 right here).

However, the year's game release calendar was so much more than just those 10 games. Below, you'll see our winners for various categories, allowing us to celebrate a wide range of games, moments, characters, and elements from the extremely strong year for game releases.

2B from Square Enix's NieR Automata will appear as a DLC playable character in Cygames and Arc System Works' Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising. Cygames made the reveal at Granblue Fes 2023, and it also announced that the character will be available for purchase in late February 2024.

A new trailer showcasing 2B in Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising has also appeared on the game's YouTube channel. It reveals that Yui Ishikawa and Hideki Yasumoto will reprise their respective Japanese voice roles as 2B and Pod 042. Cygames also announced that Kira Buckland will provide 2B's English voiceover.

Players who purchase the 2B DLC will also get special access to NieR Automata-themed outfits for Djeeta and Gran. There is a major sidenote that these outfits will appear in the original Granblue Fantasy mobile game instead of the Versus fighting game.

Hope you had a nice holiday, because a certain open-world space RPG certainly did not. As of right around December 25, 2023, Starfield had received enough thumbs-downs on Steam to push its user rating status into “Mostly Negative” territory. It’s an upsetting fall for such a hyped title from one of the most celebrated…

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It's rare to see a 27-inch 1440p 165Hz gaming monitor for £200 or less, but that's exactly what you can get from X= on Amazon UK at the moment. This alphabet-soup-inspired model, the X= XRGB27WQ, uses an IPS panel to deliver its spec point of choice, with FreeSync/G-Sync support, a 2ms GtG response time and a clean, RGB-optional design.

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Christmas and Hanukkah are both over, which means folks are probably still cleaning their homes and fridges of all the festivities. (I know I am.) But before you go back to playing with your new goodies, though, Kotaku has a question for you, dear reader: what was your fave gift ever?

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We’ve already recommended the very best ways to dress up Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2, and now, we’re here to focus on this partner-in-crime-fighting, Miles Morales. Miles has had to shoulder a lot of weight over the course of Spider-Man and Miles Morales. Most notably, he’s grieving the death of his father at the…

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Peter Parker is unemployed and late on his mortgage at the start of Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. But that doesn’t mean he’s neglecting his fashion—the webhead’s still going goblin mode, crafting sleek new Spidey suit designs. Now that everyone has had some time to refamiliarize themselves with the…

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WD's SN850x NVMe SSD is an RPS mainstay, having been named the best PCIe 4.0 SSD in our evergreen gaming SSD recommendations, thanks to its extremely quick game loads and generally excellent performance.

It's also frequently discounted, but not normally to the extremes of today - where a 4TB drive is available for just $230 at Amazon US, versus the $286 it normally costs and the $449 (!) it cost at the start of the year.

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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was one of the biggest games of 2023. It launched to much critical acclaim, and has gone on to win Game of the Year awards at numerous outlets. It landed in second place here at Kotaku, but even if it didn’t take home gold, Link and Zelda’s latest was one of the defining…

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Team FOLON revealed Fallout: London, its DLC-sized mod for Fallout 4, back in 2021, and it captured the interest of players quickly. We got a 2023 release window alongside a new trailer back in 2022, but the mod needed more time, missing a release this year. Now, Team FOLON has revealed Fallout: London will be released in April, as reported by Eurogamer. 

More specifically, it will be available on April 23, 2024. The team announced this date in a new developer update released on December 23. In it, the team shows off more of the work it's done since its last trailer, highlighting well-worn and lesser-known locales of London alongside enemies, weapons, and more. It ends with the April 23, 2024, release date announcement. 

Check out the Fallout: London release date announcement for yourself below: 

Baldur’s Gate 3 has become a cultural phenomenon in 2023. The CRPG has been sweeping awards this season, perhaps most notably the coveted Game of the Year title at this year’s Game Awards. (Director Swen Vincke even accepted the award in a full suit of armor.) Getting third place on Kotaku’s list might not merit the…

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Before there was a PlayStation 4 remake that blew the doors off its own canon, Final Fantasy VII lived on through various spinoffs that expanded the world of the classic RPG. One of those was Advent Children, the 2005 CG film which followed on from the events of the original game. If you’ve never seen it, or it’s been …

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Lenovo's Legion Go is the (literally) biggest Steam Deck competitor to hit the market, a handheld gaming PC that brings the same Z1 Extreme processor as the Asus ROG Ally but a larger 8.8-inch 1600p 144Hz display and faster DDR5-7500 RAM - along intriguing detachable controllers, one of which turns into a vertical mouse for FPS-type games.

The Legion Go retails for £700, but today you can pick one up with a screen protector for £648 from Lenovo direct. To get this price, you need to use the code UKIFLASHSALE at the checkout.

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When it comes to letting you embrace the murkier side of Mos Eisley, Star Wars games don’t have the best track record. Where 2018’s Battlefront 2 promised to place you at the heart of an Imperial-focused story, it took all of four missions for protagonist Iden Versio to defect to the Rebellion. Now, as Disney delivers…

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Bendy and the Ink Machine released as a set of chapters back in 2017 before a full complete release hit PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC the following year. Since then, it's become a fan-favorite horror game, thanks to its unique classic cartoon art style and fun puzzles. Now, players will officially get to see the haunts of Bendy and the Ink Machine on the big screen one day. 

The official Bendy Twitter account posted an image on December 25 that features Bendy's hand pointing at a projector, and on the projector, you can read, "Bendy is coming to the big screen." Check it out for yourself below: 

#BENDY 🎬 pic.twitter.com/XsWE30Jlpx

— Bendy (@Bendy) December 25, 2023

In the image, we also see the Joey Drew Studios logo – that's the game's developer – and a logo for the Radar Pictures film production company. Radar Pictures is behind the rebooted Jumanji franchise starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and other movies like The Last Samurai, Revenge of the Nerds, and the first two Bill & Ted movies. 

I knew that I would love Thirsty Suitors from the moment it was first unveiled. If I had to pick a moment where it clicked into place, it'd have to be when the protagonist, Jala, summoned her mother in battle. Early in the game, you encounter Sergio, Jala's third-grade ex, who has been working deceptively hard in her absence to ingratiate himself in her family and life. As you battle in a diner, Sergio becomes invulnerable to your "thirsty" skills, backing Jala into a corner. With no moves left, she conjures the one thing that can tear a person down in an instant: her own mother. A projection of her mother towers over the arena before slamming Sergio with a chappal. The psychic damage is done, he is emotionally scarred and vulnerable enough to be defeated in battle.

Disney Dreamlight Valley entered early access at the end of 2022, and the Animal Crossing-meets-Mickey Mouse gameplay immediately caught on in my house. The light and easy gameplay paired with soft music and the presence of some of the world's most family-friendly characters made for low-stakes gaming sessions that served as a nice break from whatever review was on my slate.

I honestly didn't expect much from the game; Animal Crossing never leaned heavily into its story so I didn't expect Disney Dreamlight Valley to do more than roughly as much as Nintendo's hit franchise. However, throughout the past year, the writers at Gameloft not only exceeded that expectation, they did so with a real and raw look at childhood, adulthood, and the transition between the two. It was a bold choice--and definitely one that flies in the face of "life simulator starring Mickey Mouse and friends"--but it's a tale I've routinely thought about since completing it.

SPOILERS for Disney Dreamlight Valley's first year of content is below, proceed with caution.