Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s second DLC, The Indigo Disk, is a far less damning encapsulation of the base game than The Teal Mask expansion. The second half of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero embodies the best parts of Scarlet and Violet—even if it never quite matches its highest highs. It’s still the buggy, ugly…
Final Fantasy XVI is a wonderful game with many flaws. One of the low-key biggest is a grimy, dark pink sky that eclipses the world near the end of the game. It can make completing every side-quest and monster hunt real depressing. Fortunately, players will get a much-needed vacation from the ugliness when the …
Since Grand Theft Auto VI isn’t coming out until 2025, you might be thinking about having a fling with its esteemed predecessor Grand Theft Auto V, either for the first time or for a repeated visit. It’s a long game with a lot to do, and has an extensive multiplayer component which extends its longevity even further.…
Nijisanji and Hololive Vtubers Selen Tatsuki and Regis Altare announced they will be part of Apex Rising Charity Pro-Am, an Apex Legends charity tournament running December 14-15, 2023. This charity event is designed to support (Red) and raise money for AIDS research.
How this charity tournament works is that each team has a professionalplayer, with 40 teams total appearing. Evan Verhulst, who is part of TSM is the Apex Legends pro on Team Verhulst playing alongside the two Vtubers. They are one of the 40 teams that will be competing to be the last one standing. In addition to the main stream page, Selen confirmed she will be streaming from her perspective on YouTube. Altare didn’t mention if he will as well.
On December 11 the former mayor of a city in Pennsylvania was sentenced to prison for threatening and shooting at people playing Pokémon GO outside a community food bank last year.
As Version 1.5 of Honkai: Star Rail starts to wind to a close, HoYoVerse will once again launch the Garden of Plenty limited event. It’ll start on December 15, 2023 and end on December 22, 2023.
In order to participate in the Garden of Plenty event, you must first complete the “Calyx (Golden): Bud of Memories” Adventure Mission. The Garden of Plenty event is a recurring one in Honkai: Star Rail that’s good for those who are trying to build upcoming characters or their current roster. During the event period, you’ll get double the rewards from Calyxes, whether they’re the Golden ones for experience or the Crimson ones for Trace materials. You can only get bonus rewards a limited number of times per day.
As a reminder, Version 1.6 of Honkai: Star Rail, which should come out after the Garden of Plenty event, will feature three new characters. HoYoVerse teased Dr. Ratio, Ruan Mei, and Xueyi in the past. The order of their banners are currently unknown. However, HoYoVerse will reveal information on them, as well as other events, during the Version 1.6 special program. You can catch it on December 15, 2023.
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Career games journalist Stephen Totilo has gone independent and unveiled Game File.
The new website will be a reader-supported platform and newsletter covering video games.
Shueisha Games revealed that it will release a Jujutsu Kaisen board game in Spring 2024. The game's full title will be Jujutsu Kaisen: Jurei Tousou -Shibuya Jihen-. The subtitle could be translated to "Cursed Spirit Runaway - Shibuya Incident."
As the title implies, the board game will re-enact the Shibuya Incident from the original Jujutsu Kaisen storyline. It will pit Satoru Gojo against the Cursed Spirits. The player who controls Gojo will be able to use powerful spells to crush the enemy spirits. The game will also have an optional mission where Gojo can rescue trapped people to unlock his domain expansion technique, the Unlimited Void.
Meanwhile, other players will be able to act as the likes of Jogo, Hanami, and Mahito. Their primary objective will be to run away from Gojo, who can exorcise them by simply landing in the same spot. Players on the Cursed Spirits' side can win if they survive long enough for the mysterious sorcerer Geto to activate the Prison Realm and seal Gojo inside it.
Shueisha Games has also published a trailer for the board game on its YouTube channel:
Marvel's Blade was one of the most exciting reveals from the Game Awards. Not only is it the first proper video game adaptation of the beloved Marvel character, but it's being made by Arkane Lyon, developers of games like Deathloop and the Dishonored series. That said, the reveal trailer isn't that long, and fans are understandably hungry for more.
Luckily for them, co-creative director/art director Sébastien Mitton revealed a few images of concept art on X today. These images were created by Sergey Kolesov and Jean-Luc Monnet, and you can see them for yourself below:
Good Smile Company is now accepting pre-orders for the Elden Ring Ranni Nendoroid, which previously appeared in prototype form at WonHobby 36. Orders from the Good Smile Store in Japan are expected to ship in June 2024, while orders from the US store are expected sometime in Q4 2024.
The Nendoroid comes with several interchangeable parts, which include various arms, a hand holding the Dark Moon Ring item, the Dark Moon Greatsword, and parts to display her sitting on a small stone stool. Pre-orders will also come with Ranni's summon sign. Orders from the Good Smile Online store will cost ¥7,800 , while ones from the US store will cost $49.99.
You can get a look at the Elden Ring Ranni Nendoroid in the gallery below:
In defense of English dubs, no one does it better than Studio Ghibli. It’s not a matter of either-or; with the incredible global talents that span the original Japanese voices and the English casts, it just means we get more!
Fans jumping into the newly released mobile ports of the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition games are discovering something surprising: It seems to include improved visual settings that more closely match the look of the original PlayStation 2 games, as well as new bug fixes. That’s good news, but…
Vtubers Calliope Mori and Takanashi Kiara from Hololive English Myth released an original song together. The song, "Fire N Ice," is available to stream now and has a Youtube music video animated by frequent Hololive collaborator Kanauru.
The pair frequently streamed together when they first debuted as part of Hololive's first English speaking branch, where they were frequently referred to together as TakaMori. Despite both having released several original songs and covers, their only previous musical collaboration outside of group efforts was their cover of "Wah Wah World."
The music video was animated by Kanauru, who frequently animates Vtuber shorts on their Youtube channel. The artist has also been involved in providing animation for music videos and performances by several other Vtubers, including Selen Tatsuki and Hololive Indonesia's second generation.
You can watch the music video for the song "Fire N Ice" by Takanashi Kiara and Calliope Mori below:
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Newly established Barnyard Games has raised $3.4 million in a seed funding round.
The studio aims to develop AAA titles using the Unreal Editor for Fortnite.
People will be able to take critters along in pets in the first Fae Farm DLC Coasts of Croakia. It launches today, with Switch players getting it for free and PC owners able to pick it up for $9.99.
The Coasts of Croakia add-on can be played during or after the campaign. Once you head into it, you can go to the new Archi-pal-igo Park region. This adds new quests and chances to interact with the animals in the game. In the base game, collecting critters and placing them in certain biomes you build allows you to catch materials. However, in the Fae Farm DLC the new Conch item can be equipped to “talk” to critters to add them as a pet. Using it causes an area of influence to appear in front of you. You can then befriend them to have them work alongside you to provide a stat buff while you explore.
A new array of screenshots showed some of the new additions in the update. Two new NPCs are Lem, who owns Archi-pal-igo Park, and a critter named Champ talking to a person using the Conch. New frog-themed furniture items are shown in a player character’s home. There’s also an overview of the new island. We also get to see some critters accompanying a Fae Farm character as pets in dungeons.
505 Games have released a chunky overview trailer for the heavily Suikoden-inspired RPG Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes – which means it’s time once again for me to share that one Suikoden story I have about how I bought Suikoden 2 for PS1 but got bored and traded it in, and now PS1 copies of Suikoden 2 regularly sell for hundreds of pounds, and why, why, didn’t you keep that in your sock drawer, Edwin, instead of your prized vintage copy of V-Rally, current average eBay price £3.99???
Plus which, Suikoden 2 is clearly one of the best RPGs ever made, Edwin, you blundering oaf, you absolute weapon. Arrrrgh. Hopefully Eiyuden Chronicle will ease the agony a little when it goes on sale on 23rd April 2024.
SuperGroupies revealed a new collection of merchandise inspired by Capcom's Ace Attorney series. The lineup consists of a watch, a bag, and a pair of jackets. All of the items are immediately available for pre-orders worldwide.
One of the main highlights of the collection is the wristwatch, which is available at $240 plus tax. It will feature the Attorney's Badge on the left subdial for the day of the week, as well as the Prosecutor's Badge on the right subdial for the date of the month. Its most peculiar feature will be the sixth-hour mark, which will be rotated to fit the "Don't forget DL-6" inscription.
Running the gaming division at the second-most valuable company in the world sounds like a very demanding job. Tons of decisions to make, lots of details to stress over, and accountability to thousands of employees and millions of customers for every little misstep. Not much time to play video games, probably. Unless…
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition didn’t launch in the greatest state, but after months of fixes, the game has been deemed ready to launch on mobile devices. The remasters of the series’ defining trilogy are now available on iOS, Android, and Netflix.
Like all Netflix titles, subscribers have immediate access to the Definitive Edition, which consists of modernized remasters of GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas. On mobile, you can pick them up in the Trilogy bundle or purchase them individually.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition first launched for consoles and PCs in November of 2021, while the mobile version was originally planned to launch in early 2022. These improved versions of the 2000s-era classics feature high-resolution textures, advanced lighting/weather effects, and modernized controls (modeled after GTA V), among other bells and whistles. However, due to the player complaints stemming from the collection’s poor launch state, the mobile version was hit with a lengthy delay as Rockstar worked to improve the released versions.
"I was looking up our Wikipedia page to see what happened this year," says Nightdive Studios' CEO Stephen Kick as we sit down to chat. That might seem like an odd thing to say about your own company's activities. But when you look at what Nightdive have done in the last twelve months, it's less surprising. In March, Nightdive announced they were being acquired by Atari in a deal worth $10 million. In May, they released their long-anticipated remake of System Shock, in development for eight years. July brought Rise Of The Triad: Ludicrous Edition, while August saw the release of Quake 2 Remastered, and a remaster of Turok 3 arrived at the end of November. Nightdive are currently working on an overhaul of Star Wars: Dark Forces, due out in 2024.
In short, it's been a busy year for the remastering maestros. In the wider context of 2023, which has been simultaneously a banner games and a deeply worrying year for the people making them, I wanted to know how Nightdive view the last twelve months, and what the audience response to these projects means for the studio's future.
Thanks to Manscaped for sponsoring today's episode! Get 20% OFF + Free International Shipping with my link GISHOW at Manscaped.com!
This episode of The Game Informer Show podcast sees returning guest Jesse Vitelli (@jessevitelli) join host Marcus Stewart and editors Brian Shea and Charles Harte to discuss the official demise of E3 and its impact over the years. Brian also breaks down his time spent playing Tekken 8's bonkers story mode, and Charles Harte takes the stand to talk about playing Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy while quizzing the editors on their Ace Attorney character knowledge. Jesse and Charles also share their time spent in Fortnite Chapter 5: Season 1's new offerings such as Rocket Racing, Fortnite Festival, and Lego Fortnite.
Ahead of her playable debut in Genshin Impact, HoYoVerse released a new trailer for Navia. As a reminder, she will be a five-star Geo Claymore character and she debuted during the Fontaine Archon Quests.
The trailer shows Navia traveling around Fontaine with the members of Spina di Rosula, which she is the President of. Once she discovers Aether, she hands him an invitation to a party in Poisson. The trailer does not focus on Navia as a fighter and instead, highlights how she is a go-getter who works to obtain what she wants.
You can also watch the trailer in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
Arkane Lyon's studio director Sebastien Mitton has shared three concept artworks for the Deathloop developer's adaptation of Marvel's Blade, a third-person action adventure set in Paris, which was announced last week during the Keighleys. On the surface the artworks give away little, but thankfully, I am a Vampire of News, equipped with supernatural vision and insight. Why not come inside my den and let me regale you with some speculations? Don't worry about the red stains on the carpet, that's just, er, strawberry jam from all the doughnuts I've been eating recently. The red stains on the wall? Yeah, that's blood.
With 2023 speeding to a close, you might be wondering how much time you spent gaming in what many have called the best year ever for the industry. (Was it, though?) It’s hard to remember the early months of the year when we enter the final stretch so, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have devised a way for you to find…
Kotobukiya opened pre-orders for its upcoming ARTFX J figure of Elizabeth from Persona 3 Reload. People can now place their orders for the figure, which has a tax-inclusive price tag of 19,250 yen (~$136).
The 1/8 scale static figure will have an overall height of 220mm (~8.66 inches). The size will include the thickness of the pedestal where the figure will stand.
After having previously shown the unpainted prototype in late September 2023, Kotobukiya has shared new images of the fully painted sample. There will be more attention to detail on the tarot cards that will be attached to Elizabeth's shoe, dress, and the Persona Compendium book.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is one of the biggest successes of the year, but it launched missing a few features present in Insomniac's two prior Spidey games. The biggest omission was New Game Plus, but Insomniac assured fans it would come in an update to the game before the end of the year. Unfortunately, the developer won't be able to hit that deadline, as it posted this update on social media yesterday.
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This week, the Electronic Wireless Show podcast remembers the recently deceased E3 games show. Unfortunately, all that we can really recall is the occasional watch party, and maybe Keanu Reeves was there at one point? Was mostly just trailers, let’s be honest. Thus we also consider the events that replace it (with a side-chat on this year’s Game Awards), and how we’d design our own glittering showcase o' games.
We also share what we’ve been playing this week, make a single non-PC game recommendation (that also represents the strangest coincidence in EWS history), and take another look at the Lenovo Legion Go. Last time I talk about the Lenovo Legion Go for a while, promise.
You can listen above, or on on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, or Pocket Casts. You can find the RSS feed here, and you can discuss the episode on our Discord channel, which has a dedicated room for podcast chat.
Netflix head of gaming Mike Verdu has revealed the company has more than 10 games in development at its in-house studios.
Netflix formed its own studios in Helsinki and California last year, and acquired four other studios, including Oxenfree developer Night School Studio and Cozy Grove developer Spry Fox.
Verdu said the six studios are working on over 10 games in an interview with Axios, and stated Netflix has a total of 90 games in development through deals with external teams.
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A24 and Kojima Productions, led by Hideo Kojima, have announced that they will be teaming up to produce a live-action Death Stranding movie.
Death Stranding was released in 2019, and in November 2022, it amassed a player count of more than 10 million.
Hey everyone, is it Christmas holiday time for you yet? Here on Eurogamer we're around for another week, and we'll be keeping your stockings well stuffed over the break with a few regular presents.
Before all that, another regular feature - the Eurogamer reader survey for 2023. If you have two minutes (and it really is just two minutes, honest!) to tell us a little bit about your gaming habits this year, it'll help us better tailor our output for you in 2024.
And hey, if you're lucky enough to be taking some holiday already - what else are you going to be doing? Playing video games? Yes, probably that. But it really is just two minutes!
A24 has partnered with Kojima Productions to bring the live-action Death Stranding film to life.
The American film and TV production company is known for its surreal work, making it a good fit for Kojima (in my opinion). It also acts as a distributor for films, with titles such as the Oscar winning Everything Everywhere All At Once and the brilliant (also in my opinion) Ex Machina included in its library.
"A24 was born into this world about 10 years ago, their presence is singular within the industry, they are like no other. The films they are delivering to the world are high in quality and very innovative," Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima said following the announcement.
Ahead of Version 2.0, HoYoVerse teased another new Honkai: Star Rail character named Misha. He will be a four-star Ice Destruction character.
Misha is a bellboy at The Reverie Hotel, which will likely be a new location to explore and visit when Penacony goes live in Honkai: Star Rail. He dreams of becoming an intergalactic explorer just like his grandfather. Until he can do that, he works hard at the hotel and is very thoughtful to the guests. He has a particular affinity for mechanics, and is good at fixing things. In Misha’s splash art, it looks like he tripped over a cat and accidentally let go of a trolley, so clumsiness might also be a character trait of his.
In English, Cat Protano voices Misha. Protano previously appeared as iDoll Flower and Isabel in Goddess of Victory: Nikke, as well as Marie Anto in Persona 5 Tactica. Eriko Matsui voices him in the Japanese version. Matsui’s previous roles include Nao Kamiya in The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls and Fuji Kiseki in Umamusume: Pretty Derby.
Renowned video game developer and cinephile Hideo Kojima is expected to work with production company A24 to develop a film adaptation of his 2020 game Death Stranding. In a statement announcing the project, Kojima Productions said that the movie won’t be “just a direct translation of the game.”
FuturLab announced people can now head to Santa’s Workshop in PowerWash Simulator on most platforms. The doors will open on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC on December 14, 2023, with the Switch version showing showing up after Christmas on January 8, 2024.
The free area is referred to as Merry Washmas. Once people download it, they can change their avatar’s appearance and head to a new map to clean up at the North Pole. The Power Washer’s suit features an ugly sweater motif with matching “mittens.” The washer wand can be changed to look green with a candy cane-like handle.
A trailer and a handful of screenshots were released to offer a better look at the new space. Some of the messes will have elf-sized footprints or outlines on walls. There will be a tree to clean, Santa’s chair, and workshop elements. There will also be an area where people can see Santa’s suit and the elves’ uniforms.
Here’s the PowerWash Simulator Santa’s Workshop trailer:
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After more than two decades as the industry's most prominent trade show, E3 is dead.
Its demise is unsurprising (even expected, depending on who you talk to) but this still marks a significant moment, and one that saddens much of the games industry and the media.
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MyGamez has received €1.5 million in a private financing round.
The investment round included participation from Supercell co-founder Mikko Kodisoja, Small Giant Games co-founder Timo Soininen, Reworks co-founder Ilkka Teppo and ex-Riot China head of operations Daniel Wang.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s Indigo Disk DLC adds a handful of new monsters to catch, one of which is, as fans had theorized, an evolution to Dipplin called Hydrapple. This means one of Applin’s diverging evolutionary lines finally has a third form. But if you’ve had a Dippllin since it was introduced in The Teal Mask DLC
The 2023 Game Awards was full of new trailers and announcements but light on actual awards. Host Geoff Keighley ended up speedrunning through many of them, ultimately denying the winners an acceptance speech or cutting them off before they could finish one. Fortunately, some of the devs behind the best games of the…
Intel have finally confirmed the full lineup and specs for their 14th gen Meteor Lake CPUs, which for now is comprised entirely of ultrathin laptop chips with the new Core Ultra branding. I appreciate that a PC gaming site might not be the most natural home for this information, considering both that these are not technically gaming CPUs and that that Meteor Lake’s most hyped-up feature is more of a productivity aid: a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for client-side AI work. However, as the new H-series parts also integrate Intel Arc graphics for the first time, there is some interesting potential for them to transform lightweight ultrabooks into viable gaming laptops.
Ubisoft Massive has surpassed itself with its work on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora - a game that harnesses the power of PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, to create one of the most visually striking games of the generation so far. Following on from Alex's Avatar PC tech showcase, this write-up focuses on how the game compares on console: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S.
The questions going in to Avatar are simple: between the dense, rich jungle environments, ray-traced GI and reflections, and high-quality materials, how does each platform hold up - particularly the less powerful Series S? And in looking at the game's 60fps performance mode available only on Series X and PS5, are all of its cutting-edge visuals possible with unwavering performance? Or is the alternative 30fps quality mode the better way to go?
First things first: I'm happy to confirm you do not need a top-end PC to enjoy the fruits of Massive Entertainment's labour here. The bottom line is PS5, Series X and even Series S successfully translate the PC experience to less powerful console platforms with smart cutbacks. Crucially, none of these cutbacks hamper the experience of exploring its detail-rich jungle. In fact, it's clear the team has made these console versions a priority - with its Snowdrop engine scaling beautifully to each.