The God of Thunder has returned! But it’s not exactly what you might think. Yes, earlier today, a brand new trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder was finally revealed giving fans a glimpse into what they can expect regarding the journeys of everyone’s favorite Asgardian.

In the trailer below, there’s a boatload of stuff to take in, as we see that Thor is not only getting back in shape but that he’s also going on a journey to find out what the next path he should take in life is.

According to the trailer, one of the choices on his path revolves around the decision to give up war, as we see him place Stormbreaker next to a tree in favor of trying to find less violent means of living. Not everyone is of that mindset, though, as the trailer ends with the return of Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster, who now wields Mjolnir and the mantle of Thor.

Thor: Love and Thunder arrives in theaters on July 8, 2022, starring Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Natalie Portman, and Christian Bale, directed by Taika Waititi. For more info on the movie, and anything else related to Marvel and the MCU, be sure to check out all of the other features, news, and quizzes we’ve got down below.

No art is ever “done,” but there comes a point where it has to exist on its own merits, untethered from its creators. That time has come for Ghost of Tsushima, which has now received what appears to be its final significant post-release update.

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Today Takeyasu Sawaki himself appeared in a video to announce that he’s working on a Nintendo Switch port of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron.

The aim was actually to launch it last September with the PC version but that was not possible. Yet, it’s finally coming.

More information will be provided in an anniversary video that will be released on April 24.

If you’re unfamiliar with El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, it was originally released for PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2011. Here’s an official description:

“El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, originally released in 2011, is a unique third-person action adventure filled with a deeply artistic world-building, outstanding aesthetics and thrilling battles. Experience an incredible mix of 2D-like platformer action and a colorful 3D world in an exceptional setting.
An ever-changing endless visual experience

El Shaddai’s artistic setting aims to provide a canvas-like world that changes in an organic way as long as you progress your adventure. The world keeps changing constantly in the most creative and innovative ways, perhaps even nostalgic.

Easy to play, hard to master

Lenovo have made some of the best gaming laptops in recent years, by offering their well-known build quality with great specs at competitive prices. And the Legion 5i is a perfect example of this.

This particular model comes equipped with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, the current "Goldilocks" GPU offering the best bang for buck, and it's currently down to just £799.97 at Amazon right now. That's £200 off the usual retail price.

The processor is an 11th gen Intel Core i5 chip, very capable for gaming, creative tasks and certainly a breeze for general productivity purposes. Combined with the aforementioned Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, you'll have a blast playing games at great detail levels on the laptop's full HD display. However, these guts are capable of taking advantage of the screen's 120Hz refresh rate, so if you're into esports and competitive games like DOTA, League of Legends and Call of Duty, you'll definitely see more of the action.

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Marvel Studios has released an official teaser trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder. 

This trailer comes just months before this sequel, which is directed by Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, hits theaters. With the release of this trailer, Thor: Love and Thunder now holds the record for the shortest amount of time between a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie's first trailer and its release in theaters. It's hard to complain, though, because while we did have to wait a while for this trailer, now, seeing how great it looks, it's nice knowing we only have to wait a few months to actually see the movie. 

You can watch the official teaser trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder below:

As you can see in the trailer above, there's not much going on story-wise, especially when you consider we already know a lot about what the movie's going to cover i.e. Gorr the God Butcher as the villain, Jane Foster as The Mighty Thor, and more. In fact, Gorr isn't mentioned once in the trailer and we only get a few quick seconds of Jane as Thor right at the end of the teaser. 

Activision Blizzard has stated in a new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that its CEO, Bobby Kotick, and Microsoft have not discussed what his potential employment status will be following the completion of Microsoft’s acquisition of the company. 

This news comes by way of Axios’ Stephen Totilo on Twitter, who noted over the weekend that on Friday, April 15, Activision Blizzard added a line to its main filing about its planned sale to Microsoft.

Here’s what the new line is, in full: 

It’s an ambitious project by dedicated fans

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Microsoft is teaming up with NBA 2K22 and the New York Liberty professional WNBA team to give one fan a chance take a half-court shot at an upcoming game with $1 million on the line.

The competition is called the Xbox $1 Million Half-Court Shot sweepstakes challenge. Anyone in the US who is 13 years or older can enter by posting a video of NBA 2K22 gameplay featuring a half-court shot on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #1MillionXboxShotSweepstakes.

One person will be chosen at random and given a paid trip to New York City, tickets to a Liberty game on July 23, and then the opportunity to try to make a half-court shot to win $1 million.

New York Liberty star Sabrina Lonescu said in a blog post, "We hear a lot of talk from NBA2K players, and now it's time to show us what they've got on the big stage. I'll be watching."

Anyone with a Microsoft Rewards account can redeem points or complete an Xbox punch card to earn additional entries. More details can be found here.

Even if the player misses, they still get a $10,000 prize, according to the fine print. Should the contestant sink the basket, they'll get $1 million paid as a 40-year annuity at $25,000 per year without interest. The winner could also opt for a lump sum payment of $626.507.37.

Half-court shot competitions like this are usually underwritten through prize indemnity insurance, so in the extremely unlikely event that the fan makes the basket, Microsoft will be covered and its insurance provider will have to pay out.

Adequately Prepared to Rock The organizers of the Evolution Championship Series 2022 (EVO) have released an in-progress breakdown of this...

The post Guilty Gear Strive is currently leading the herd of EVO 2022 entrants appeared first on Destructoid.

Steam Deck fans who have preordered the gaming system may have just cracked the formula for when they can expect to see their device ship out. Over on Reddit, users have managed to excavate data from Steam's source code for their preorders, using that information to roughly nail down the window in which they'll receive an order email letting them know that the Steam Deck has been shipped out.

Using this "epoch time" code, the information is compiled into a list with other users who also supplied information from their preorders. Using the system, people can track down the text "rtReserveTime" and copy the number into the Reddit thread. Once calculated--using the epoch converter link--the number will detail how many seconds passed since Jan 1, 1970, and represents when Valve accepted their preorder.

With that number discovered, you'll be able to roughly determine your place in Valve's line for your Steam Deck. You can see just how far the queue progressed since the last set of orders on the main Reddit thread for this topic.

Since the first batch of units shipped, Steam Deck owners have performed a number of experiments with Valve's mobile gaming PC. One modder discovered how to make the Steam Deck more powerful--and much less portable--with an external GPU, a new firmware update has made offline mode more convenient, and Xbox Cloud streaming is kind of supported through the Edge browser on the system.

Developer Grasshopper Manufacture and publisher XSEED Games have announced that No More Heroes 3 is coming to PC, PlayStation, and Xbox in Q3 2022. The game will be available for $60 as both a digital and physical version edition, with the special Day 1 version adding a softcover art book, a CD soundtrack, a Santa Destroy biker license plate, and a custom box with a new illustration by series artist Yusuke Kozaki.

Originally launching on the Nintendo Switch in August 2021, No More Heroes 3 is set nine years after the last game and stars Travis Touchdown as he once again looks to reach the top of the assassins leaderboard, although this time he has to face off against intergalactic contract killers who are attempting to take over the world.

For the PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC release, Grasshopper Manufacture has added that the game will have improved visuals, increased framerates and faster loading times. Grasshopper--which was acquired by NetEase recently--previously ported the first two No More Heroes games to PC in June last year.

Known for other games with an irreverent sense of humor like Lollipop Chainsaw and Killer7, the studio plans to release three new games over the next decade that retain the "Grasshopper Manufacture flavor" that can be found in its titles.

The death of beloved MMOs can teach us how to let go

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Elden Ring gets a lot harder when Moon Knight is right there

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Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, and the Stranger Things cast talk about what’s in store this season

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Mobile RPG players will soon be able to harness the power of gods in a whole new way as Dislyte, the latest from AFK Arena and Rise of Kingdoms developer Lilith Games, will begin an open beta test on both iOS and Android May 10.

Dislyte centers around Espers--powerful beings with powers based on real-world gods like Anubis, Odin, and Medusa. Players will build a team of five Espers and use them to battle powerful and giant monsters in order to defeat a terrible entity known as Miramon.

Players can also take their team of Espers to an online arena and battle other players for extra rewards, as well as let battles play out automatically even when the app is minimized--allowing them to progress in-game even when not actively playing.

Despite referencing ancient gods of real-world myth, Dislyte's world is one of present-day music and fashion, with a techno-pop soundtrack and character designs that mix the looks of the cultures they're referencing--Chinese, Norse, Egyptian, and others--with a more modernized style and look.

Dislyte will be available on both iOS and Android devices, with the open beta beginning May 10. Players can pre-register and earn additional rewards at the game's official website.

Samsung have not only made excellent tech products for years, but they've become known for making some of the best gaming monitors around, and their Odyssey line exemplifies this.

The Samsung Odyssey G5 is one of the company's more premium gaming monitors, and it's currently over £100 down at Amazon, available for just £339.

Its 34 inch size and 1000R curve ensures you'll be immersed like few other monitors can offer. It has a WQHD resolution (3440 x 1440), which will make it a great option for productivity too, letting you open multiple windows on such a wide workspace without having to add up a second display and have bezels in the middle to distract you.

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Emerging from Green Hill’s undergrowth Since its initial announcement in the spring of 2021, Sega has been completely silent on...

The post The M.I.A Sonic Origins compilation has recently been rated in Korea appeared first on Destructoid.

Did you know he was nearly a professional footballer? If it hadn't been for a shoulder injury when he was a teenager, we might well have seen him on TV playing for a top club. He had try-outs at a few of them. He might even have been England's goalkeeper - who knows?!

I know he'll hate me saying that.

Nevertheless, fate intervened and we got him. He is Chris Tapsell. He began writing guides at Eurogamer several years ago and his aptitude for critical writing - and Pokémon - was obvious, so his role evolved. He joined the features team, writing about how he appeared in Football Manager one year, the braggart, before sliding with more focus towards reviews.

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A publisher perspective: we haven't had one of those before, and it's an area of pivotal importance in games people often have misconceptions about. How does it all work, from spotting a game to signing it, to marshalling it out of the door? And whose side are publishers on?

My guest today started their own label five years ago in the hope of doing things differently - and things have gone very well. Today, No More Robots employs 13 people and is responsible for notable small-team games like Hypnospace Outlaw, Descenders, Not Tonight, and Yes, Your Grace.

The recently-announced Hypnospace Outlaws spiritual sequel Dreamsettler apparently became one of the company's most Wishlisted games. Not bad for a project Rose apparently suggested because he wanted more Hypnospace music.

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Death is pretty integral to videogames. Not in some fancy, high-falutin conceptual way, but as the default failure state in most action games. Even when it’s not explicitly referred to as such by the game, we talk about dying, about losing lives. At the same time, the attitude towards death is rather relaxed. You die, you restart, you try again. No biggie, until some story beat snatches a beloved NPC away from you. (Aeris! *sob*)

While some games have played with this, embracing death as a game mechanic, like Planescape: Torment, or rejecting it entirely, like Fable 2, the big shake up for dying in games came with Dark Souls and chums. Suddenly death mattered beyond simply losing progress. I’m not going to go into detail, for fear of stealth Soulsborne article accusations, but if you’ve carefully edged through a tough area to reclaim your lost souls/echoes/rings, you’ll know what I mean.

Thing is, it’s been a while and that approach is getting a bit stale. Did it really need to be in Tunic? Like Anor Londo, it’s beautiful, but stagnant. We need a fresh take on popping the old clogs. That’s where Blood West comes moseying into town, all cocksure gunslinger swagger. Death is a big part of the game, not least because that’s how you start out, a freshly raised undead desperado (undeasperado), tasked with collecting cursed golden artefacts by the (supposedly) benevolent spirits who dragged you back to the land of the living. Since they’ve done it once, they can do it again, rendering death a very temporary state of affairs.

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Today acclaimed developer PMDG revealed the first three of a new series of videos dedicated to its massively anticipated Boeing 737-700 for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

The first video, narrated by PMDG CEO Robert Randazzo, focuses on an introduction of the product and the series.

The second introduces the PMDG Operations Center and the installation process, on top of the first run of the aircraft, which can stay on the loading screen for a long time as it’s usual with aircraft of this complexity. Subsequent launches will be much faster.

The third video focuses on the installation of liveries and provides a glimpse of some that will be available at launch.

The fourth video shows more of the aircraft and discusses post-launch plans.

Do keep in mind that the aircraft will first launch on PC and then the plan is to port it to Xbox down the line, but it may take quite some time. A release date and pricing information have not been announced just yet.

Today Atlus released another of its daily trailers of the upcoming JRPG Soul Hackers 2, showing another demon included in the game.

This time around we get the reveal of Black Frost, another demon that had a long-running presence in the Shin Megami Tensei series, including in Shin Megami Tensei V.

The audio may confuse you with Jack Frost, but that’s simply because in Japanese Black Frost is named “Ja’aku Frost,” with “Aku” meaning “evil.”

As usual, the trailer also includes the daily horoscope with a ranking of signs from the luckiest to the unluckiest. Pisces is at the top, while Sagittarius is at the bottom of the fortune ranking.

Soul Hackers 2 releases for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC (Steam and Windows Store) on August 26, just one day after the Japanese launch on August 25.

On a Krystal fan site, Gagnetar said he is planning on releasing the full mod on September 23, 2022, which just so happens to be the 20th anniversary of Star Fox Adventures. It was also confirmed that some of the lines were rewritten to help Krystal "fit better" into the world.

Square Enix has launched in Japan a line of Dragon Quest products aiming to protect the houses of the fans of the popular JRPG franchise from dirt.

The slime-themed line of products includes two removable dust filters that you can attach to the ventilation fan grill, one measuring 15 cm and the other 30 cm. They cost respectively 548 and 658 yen.

The second pair of products includes fiberglass slimes (in blue and steel variety) that you can put on the surface of your induction stove to protect the surface from dirt and scratches.

They promise not to be flammable and not to negatively influence the heating efficiency. The price is 1408 yen.

The rest is a themed screen with steel slimes on one side and a classic map on the other. Priced at 823 yen, it’s made of aluminum and it’s designed to protect the area around the stove from oil splashes and stains.

All prices include taxes. You can see what each product looks like in the gallery below.

At the moment, there is no information about sales outside of Japan, but I would not hold my breath if I were you.

Kadokawa Games has been releasing new images and details of the mecha customization feature will be added to its strategy JRPG Relayer with an upcoming update.

The update will release on April 28 and will open up the “Hangar” section where you can modify your robots.

There you can spend SG points to upgrade six parameters for each mecha. After maxing all parameters, you will unlock a “final form” that will grant you a “full custom bonus.”

Incidentally, the patch on April 28 will also fix a “system error” that appears rarely on PS4 when replaying the same mission for a long period of time with cutscenes on.

Today Entergram released new information about its upcoming game dedicated to the popular light novel and anime series KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World!.

The game, which is titled Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! ~ Noroi no Ibutsu to Madoishi Boukenshatachi ~, which translates into “Cursed Relics and Clueless Adventurers,” will have a limited edition priced at 12,980 yen (which translates approximately int $102), and today we get to see the items included.

The box, which comes with a cute bikini cover, includes an acrylic figure portraying Megumin and Yunyun, a B2-format tapestry portraying the main protagonists, a soundtrack including the BGM and theme song, on top of a DLC code that provides Chinese-style dresses for the girls.

Today third-party developers provided new images and details about upcoming add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

We start with PMDG, which isn’t yet ready to share pricing and release details of its much-anticipated Boeing 737. That being said, we get a development update and new screenshots from CEO Robert Randazzo.

We also get some interesting details on the audio suite on top of what we can expect in the near future from the developer.

This week has brought us a bit closer to release, but we are still being pretty cautious about setting a date-certain because of a few things that add some ambiguity. The biggest issue we are evaluating is the potential for Asobo’s pending MSFS SU9 to create unanticipated issues with the 737. As you can imagine, consistency in the platform is important for testing purposes, so pushing a release out the door right at the pivot point when a major bug-fix change is coming to the platform requires some pretty careful calculus in order to avoid disrupting the testing process, but also being cautious about not creating a negative initial user experience when SU9 drops.

We have not yet finalized a decision and there is an entire evaluative process taking place. As I said in my 08APR22 update: When we make the date certain, we will let you know.

Today Nippon Ichi Software revealed a new trailer of the sequel of its cutesy game Void Terrarium, titled simply Void Terrarium 2 or not-so-simply void* tRrLM2();.

The trailer focuses on the mechanics of the game, including those inherited from the previous title of the series and those that are newly introduced for the sequel.

You can check it out below.

Void Terrarium 2 will be released in Japan on June 30 for PS4 and Nintendo Switch. No western release has been announced for the moment, but that’s pretty normal considering that the announcement for Japan came only a couple of months ago. It’ll likely be a while before NIS America lets us know anything on that front.

The game promises to maintain the charming (and a bit creepy) worldview of the original game while improving the dungeon RPG gameplay elements and those dedicated to taking care of the little girl Toriko.

Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda has detailed how he expects the game developer and publisher will capitalise on blockchain technology in a new interview.

Matsuda intimated that traditional game development, especially in the domestic Japanese market, is now "not enough" for the company, adding that he wants to "utilise the power of [autonomous game content] to create games that will continue to evolve" and use blockchain tech to incentivise any such user generated content.

"In the future, we would like to try our hand at providing ‘autonomous game content’," the president told Yahoo Japan (as translated by VGC).

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Final Fantasy 14 producer and director, Naoki Yoshida, has apologised for ongoing issues with the MMORPG's new housing lottery system that's preventing players from winning any land.

In a post on the game's official website, Yoshida outlined what the team was doing to address the problem in which players are being told their bids were unsuccessful because there "were no participants in this lottery", or that the winning number is "0"... even though no players can be assigned that number.

"We understand that this is a major issue, and are prioritising our investigation into the matter," Yoshida said. "We are working to identify the issue in the corresponding program; however, as the process is very complex and there are many patterns involved for the lottery conditions, it will require some time to pinpoint the problem.

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Ricken’s ‘philosophizing’ isn’t just a joke, for the innies or the show

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Platinum Games' beleaguered new release, Babylon's Fall, is continuing to struggle just a month on from its release.

As spotted by TechRadar, according to SteamCharts - a site that, predictably enough, charts the performance of games on Steam - the global concurrent player count for the new game dropped to just eight players on Wednesday 13th April. Its highest ever peak sits at just 1166 players.

In the last 30 days, the average player count has been just 137 simultaneous people.

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Activision Blizzard is seemingly gauging players' interest in cryptocurrency and NFT products.

In a YouGov survey issued to players over the weekend, Activision Blizzard - which is in the process of being acquired by Microsoft - asked players how "interested" they were in a range of "emerging/future trends in gaming".

Amongst standard innovations in the gaming industry, such as VR and AR, AI, cross play, and game subscription services, the company also sought players' views on more controversial topics such as "metaverse gaming experiences, play-to-earn gaming (earn cryptocurrency, NFTs, or real currency) [and] NFTS (non-fungible tokens)" (thanks, GameRant).

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Prolific dataminer Lance McDonald has discovered a deleted NPC questline in Elden Ring.

According to McDonald, if you visited Stormhill Shack - which had previously been known as Scavenger's Shack and is today the location where you'll meet Roderika - during the network test, it was empty. Before that test, however, it looks like it was the home to an unknown NPC called Monk Jigo.

As spotted by PC Gamer, Jigo had been "seduced by the good lady alcohol" and needed your help to gather the ingredients for Dreambrew, a magical booze that, shared with other NPCs, would unlock bonus dialogue.

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An update to the Steam backend has fans speculating that Among Us VR may be released in December 2022.

While this is by no means definite - even the SteamDB listing, which leaked the date, clearly states that the "Steam API release date [...] may be wrong" - the update was changed on 15th April 2022, amended from 10th November to 13th December, 2022 (thanks, PCGN).

While either date could be a placeholder, of course, the good news is that we probably don't have to wait that long to find out exactly what the release date will be; Innersloth has confirmed it'll be at Facebook's Meta Quest Gaming Showcase this coming Wednesday, and the hope is we'll find out one way or the other then. We'll keep you posted.

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