What are the latest Disney Dreamlight Valley codes? We've done some digging to make sure we've got the latest codes available from Gameloft. Codes weren't available in the Dreamlight Valley during its first few months, but with the festival of Foolishness now in swing, there are a whopping ten codes currently available, so read on to make sure you've claimed them all.
The Dreamlight Valley golden potato code was the first to come to the Disney game, and gives you just that, a golden potato. It doesn't even do anything yet, but the exciting news is that it appears to be part of a future Dreamlight Valley quest. The code might no longer available, but if you still don't have a golden potato, you can pick one up in Scrooge's shop. Other codes have since been released with various celebrations, including the Dreamlight Park community challenge and the Festival of Foolishness, for which all the Dreamlight Valley codes can be found below.
September 23, 2023: It seems players are continuing to encounter troubles matchmaking. Starbreeze says players should be able to create lobbies again, but some issues still persist.
Are Payday 3 servers down? The third installment in the Payday series went straight to the top of the Steam best sellers chart on release day, but its immediate success came with a downside as servers were slammed, matchmaking crashed, and error codes started popping up. While developer Starbreeze has been open with communication and quick to fix issues, there may still be a rocky road ahead.
For most multiplayer games, server issues come with the territory. When too many people try to play the game at once, sometimes those servers just can't hack it. Payday 3 is no different, and too many heisters spoil the… heist. Or something. In fact, since Payday 3 is an 'always online' co-op game, there's no real way to get around it. If you're having issues, here's the current lowdown on whether Payday 3 matchmaking is down right now.
Every time Hollow Knight Silksong pops its head up, the memories come flooding back. I avoided Team Cherry's first game for years, thinking it wasn't for me, only to fall completely in love with what now sits among my favorite games of all time. Like so many people, then, even the slightest sniff of news feels like blood in the water to a school of starving piranhas. The first Hollow Knight Silksong Steam update in months, then, is doubtless set to make waves, whether there's anything more to follow or not.
Minecraft Mob Vote 2023 is around the corner, and it seems like Mojang is teasing that duck mobs might finally be on the cards. Whether it is or not, plenty of fans are getting excited at the possibility of quacks dominating the overworld, in whatever form they take.
It's happening again. As sure as Square Enix overestimating their sales projections, as sure as John Riccitiello pissing off every available customer, EVE Online developers CCP will try to make a first-person shooter set in the same universe.
This time it's called EVE Vanguard, a shooter "module" which will sit within the EVE launcher and asychronously connect to EVE Online.
Payday 3 launched earlier this week. As reported back in July, it requires players to connect to a server even if they're playing solo or with a few friends in a private match.
You can already guess the third sentence: the servers have been a disaster at launch, with players forced to queue for long periods just to play alone, if they can manage to play at all. It currently sits "Mostly Negative" reviews on Steam - that's 31% positive after almost 19,000 reviews.
Unity have announced that they're making changes to their "runtime fee" in response to overwhelming negative feedback. The key changes are that the fees no longer apply to developers using Unity Personal, and will only apply to developers using Unity Pro or Unity Enterprise who upgrade the next version of Unity which ships in 2024.
Want an RX 6800 XT graphics card? And a Solidigm P41 Plus 512GB SSD? And Starfield? For $486? Thanks to a Newegg bundle, that offer is open for you right now when you use code EEGCWA827 with these two items in the checkout.
The Fractal Design North is one of the most popular recent PC case releases, combining a beautiful wood front panel, leather accents and excellent ventilation with a modern, easy-to-build mid-tower design. The North normally retails for £125 or more, but today you can pick it up for a more reasonable £110 when you buy from Box via Ebay, using code SAVINGS20 before September 28th. That's the cheapest this case has ever been in the UK!
The first season of the Netflix One Piece live-action adaptation is here and has been out long enough for many of you to have watched it once or maybe even multiple times. I remember when I first heard that Netflix was doing an adaptation I was... anxious. You don't have to think back too far to remember some very bad live-action versions of great anime series. (Netflix's Death Note is one of the more recent ones, and also one of the worst ones. We've been hurt time and time again by very poor adaptations of shows. For some, it's come to the point where we wonder if western adaptations of anime can really understand the source material well enough to get it right. While Netflix's One Piece isn't flawless, it is noticeably better than any live-action remakes I can think of in recent memory.
The eight-episode first season of the One Piece live-action version launched on August 31, 2023 on Netflix platform to much anticipation. I have to admit, in true One Piece fashion, I was a little intimidated when I saw that each episode was an hour long. I wasn't sure if 8 hours of an anime live-action remake would be worth the time spent watching it. What can I say? Death Note and the Dragon Ball movie really hurt me. But, I'm happy to say that Netflix actually managed to pull this off but, like I mentioned before, it isn't perfect.
[caption id="attachment_986336" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Netflix[/caption]
Let's get some of what I didn't like out of the way first. I'm not a huge fan of Iñaki Godoy as Luffy. While I don't think he plays the part poorly, I just feel like sometimes he tries too hard to be the character. I think that if he put a little less into it and went into it a more naturally, he'd come off as more genuine. I also have the same complaint about some of the side characters. They seem a little too skin-deep, even for supporting cast members. I'd like to see them open up and be more "human."
I also think some of the lines are a bit weak, especially compared to the source material. The script for some of the characters' feels a little too stilted to be coming from an actual human being I'm watching on screen. I felt myself tense up at a particularly weak lines in multiple episodes. In part because they would be delivered in a very corny ways.
But there are times when this Netflix live-action anime adaptation of One Piece can be quite good. The actors for the other characters come across very well. Mackenyu's take on Roronoa Zoro may be my favorite. He plays the three-sword wielding warrior perfectly, I think. He's quiet and strong, but also brings a dry humor to the role that fits the character very well. This is unsurprising, as he played the villain Yukishiro Enishi in two Rurouni Kenshin movies just as well..
[caption id="attachment_986337" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Netflix[/caption]
The choreography is also a strong point. Almost all of the fight scenes feel very believable and look great. The first episode's bar fight may be my favorite in from this season. It feels fluid, while also looking incredibly cool, and gives us a great view into the man on his way to becoming "the greatest swordsman in the world."
Cinematography is also something that Netflix handled quite well for this anime live-action adaptation. All the scenes feel like they enhance the moods for the moment. The ship and ocean scenes in particular feel very open and slightly reminiscent of (although less dramatic than) Pirates of the Caribbean. The costumes also seemed like the perfect blend of being anime/manga-inspired, while also being authentic. Sure, they're excessively colorful and gaudy, but that's just what I'd expect so I didn't mind that.
All-in-all, I think the Netflix adaptation of One Piece is one of the better live-action anime adaptations we've gotten. While it isn't perfect, it feels very close to the anime/manga and succeeds where it's most important to. Although each episode is quite long, it doesn't feel like a chore to watch them. I really hope that they continue to improve going into the second season.
The One Piece live-action's first season is available on Netflix. A second season is confirmed.
There's new activity involving the Hollow Knight: SilksongSteam page, which adjusted the art showing Hornet. SteamDB noted updates on September 21, 2023, then later September 23, 2023. This involved a web assets change that added the updated piece of art. [Thanks, Wario64!]
There have been a number of updates to theSteam product listing for the title in 2023. Many of them involved changing the user tags for the game. On January 13, 2023, however, SteamDB noted the TBA release date change on the page.
Here's the image that was changed, according to SteamDB. It matches the header Team Cherry is using on social media. This does not necessarily mean an announcement is drawing near, as this could instead be normal pre-release activity surrounding an in-development game.
Image via Team Cherry
Back in May 2023, Team Cherry announced the follow-up was pushed out of the first half of 2023. However, in Japan there will be a release tied to the game this year. The Knight and Hornet Nendoroids will debut in November 2023. Those will show up in North America in Q1 2024.
Hollow Knight: Silksong will come to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam. It is currently in development.
The first playable demo for Synduality: Echo of Ada appeared at Tokyo Game Show 2023. Bandai Namco also provided gameplay footage of the demo build on its livestream. It shows how the player can use their Cradle Coffin mech to explore the world's regions while gathering items and destroying hostiles.
Players will find containers that contain lootable items. They can also use AO Search to detect nearby mineable AO Crystals. When players reach a yellow spot, they can send their companion Magus to investigate it directly.
The initial reveal for Synduality: Echo of Ada mainly teased PvPvE combat where players can engage others with conflicting objectives. The demo footage showed that players can also send friendly greetings and even ask to form a party. Rain in this world will gradually corrode the unit's resistance, so players will have to take shelter in a covered area until it subsides.
The mission's grand objective will require the player to find an escape elevator and stay there until the elevator moves to return safely. If the player's mech gets destroyed, they will lose all the items they gathered during the session.
Synduality: Echo of Ada is under development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam. The game used to have a 2023 release window, but Bandai Namco delayed it indefinitely due to the need for more development time.
What are the latest Disney Dreamlight Valley codes? We've done some digging to make sure we've got the latest codes available from Gameloft. Codes weren't available in the Dreamlight Valley during its first few months, but with the festival of Foolishness now in swing, there are a whopping ten codes currently available, so read on to make sure you've claimed them all.
The Dreamlight Valley golden potato code was the first to come to the Disney game, and gives you just that, a golden potato. It doesn't even do anything yet, but the exciting news is that it appears to be part of a future Dreamlight Valley quest. The code might no longer available, but if you still don't have a golden potato, you can pick one up in Scrooge's shop. Other codes have since been released with various celebrations, including the Dreamlight Park community challenge and the Festival of Foolishness, for which all the Dreamlight Valley codes can be found below.
September 23, 2023: It seems players are continuing to encounter troubles matchmaking. Starbreeze says players should be able to create lobbies again, but some issues still persist.
Are Payday 3 servers down? The third installment in the Payday series went straight to the top of the Steam best sellers chart on release day, but its immediate success came with a downside as servers were slammed, matchmaking crashed, and error codes started popping up. While developer Starbreeze has been open with communication and quick to fix issues, there may still be a rocky road ahead.
For most multiplayer games, server issues come with the territory. When too many people try to play the game at once, sometimes those servers just can't hack it. Payday 3 is no different, and too many heisters spoil the… heist. Or something. In fact, since Payday 3 is an 'always online' co-op game, there's no real way to get around it. If you're having issues, here's the current lowdown on whether Payday 3 matchmaking is down right now.
Every time Hollow Knight Silksong pops its head up, the memories come flooding back. I avoided Team Cherry's first game for years, thinking it wasn't for me, only to fall completely in love with what now sits among my favorite games of all time. Like so many people, then, even the slightest sniff of news feels like blood in the water to a school of starving piranhas. The first Hollow Knight Silksong Steam update in months, then, is doubtless set to make waves, whether there's anything more to follow or not.
Minecraft Mob Vote 2023 is around the corner, and it seems like Mojang is teasing that duck mobs might finally be on the cards. Whether it is or not, plenty of fans are getting excited at the possibility of quacks dominating the overworld, in whatever form they take.
If Starfield hasn't satisfied your space cravings, a huge Everspace 2 update is on the way for free, making it a great time to get into or return to one of the most fun interstellar games of the year. The Armed and Dangerous update arrives at the start of October, and it's packed with new features, improved ship customization, and some welcome quality-of-life changes.
Right off the bat, it's crucial to establish that in my time with Dragon's Dogma 2, I didn't see anything that reinvents the wheel. This series has not suddenly followed in the footsteps of other fantasy RPG games where everyone's horny for a bit of action with the hero. Some developers have mastered that particular craft, so instead of trying to compete with that, Dragon's Dogma 2 opts to be a fun monster-slaying romp in a fantasy land filled with mythological beasties. We still have a while until the Dragon's Dogma 2 release date, but from what I've seen so far, there's a wonderfully simple fantasy charm from times when RPGs had more straightforward stakes. For a fan of the 2012 original, that's all I could ask for.
The Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update brings a lot of new features and overhauls to CD Projekt Red's take on Night City, and chief among them is a super secret in-universe boomer shooter, styled after Wolfenstein 3D, the '90s era of Doom, and much more. No, I'm one hundred percent not kidding, and yes, I'm about to tell you where to find it.
Valheim has given players plenty of reasons to come back lately, with the Valheim Hildir update providing a good opportunity to jump back into the Viking co-op survival game while we await more details on what the Valheim Ashlands will look like. Following an update to servers earlier in the week, developer Iron Gate Studio delivers a fresh set of Valheim patch notes, this time resolving issues with crafting stations and keybinds.
If you've finished Baldur's Gate 3 and want to see even more of Astarion, Lae'zel, Karlach, Gale, Wyll, and Shadowheart interacting with each other while abiding by the laws of Dungeons and Dragons (who doesn't?) then do we have a treat for you. The Baldur's Gate 3 companion cast of Origin has just started their own game of DnD, and it's as heartwarming and frantic as you'd expect.
As the Warhammer Vermintide 2 Necromancer career gets ready to unleash its undead pals on the armies of Chaos and the Skaven hordes alike, developer Fatshark reveals the weapons that Sienna will get to use in the upcoming Warhammer Vermintide 2 update. With a devastating scythe and a staff offering her unique magic abilities for the new career, you'll be making and reanimating corpses in equal measure.
Cyberpunk 2077 is officially back, everyone. After a rocky launch in 2020 filled with bugs, stability issues, and broken promises from CD Projekt Red, the 2.0 update ahead of the Phantom Liberty expansion has seen Night City's virtual streets bustling with players, and there's even a sale for those of you wanting to hang out with Keanu Reeves' Johnny Silverhand for the first time. Be careful though, he's got a bit of a foul mouth.
Starfield can be a rather gorgeous game at times. Peer too closely, however, and you'll start to notice the cracks in the facade. Many of the game's textures and effects don't hold up to close inspection, while a lot of the faces have a rather plastic look to them - something you'll likely become very aware of, given how close in proximity Bethesda NPCs like to stand while you're chatting to them. Fortunately, legendary Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 mod creator 'Halk Hogan' is here to instantly improve your Starfield graphics.
Dragon's Dogma was the action-RPG for people who wanted to play alone, but didn't want to feel alone. By far its most charming feature was the Pawn system, whereby you'd create an AI-controlled sidekick and hire two others, shared online by other players, to accompany you on your journey through a fantasy wilderness of tumbledown castles and goblin campfires. Pawns make dependable companions in many respects - pinning enemies for you to tag-team kill, healing or resurrecting you, opening chests you've missed, and enchanting your weapons at the outset of each skirmish. But what makes them fun to be around is that they're a bunch of massive buffoons.
Pawns talk without cease as you explore: a steady patter of idle observations about well-wrought staircases and the local fish trade, advice about the bestiary and, in the case of Pawns recruited from other players, quest tips based on time in their own worlds - all of it couched in the game's quirky faux-medieval dialect. Pawn dialogue is highly context-sensitive, and very often, nonsensical. They'll climb into fountains and complain that they're wet, and launch into pithy descriptions of monsters even as they're set on fire. It ought to be maddening, but somehow, it never is - probably because the Pawns never actually attempt to be witty like ally characters in, say, Xenoblade Chronicles. They're resolutely straight foils in a realm of lions with snakes for tails, chaotic boulder traps, unpleasantly lusty ogres, and players who push the wrong buttons and make random decisions on the fly. Well, pawns are back in Dragon's Dogma 2, which I recently played an hour of, and they're chattier than ever.
There's new activity involving the Hollow Knight: SilksongSteam page, which adjusted the art showing Hornet. SteamDB noted updates on September 21, 2023, then later September 23, 2023. This involved a web assets change that added the updated piece of art. [Thanks, Wario64!]
There have been a number of updates to theSteam product listing for the title in 2023. Many of them involved changing the user tags for the game. On January 13, 2023, however, SteamDB noted the TBA release date change on the page.
Here's the image that was changed, according to SteamDB. It matches the header Team Cherry is using on social media. This does not necessarily mean an announcement is drawing near, as this could instead be normal pre-release activity surrounding an in-development game.
Image via Team Cherry
Back in May 2023, Team Cherry announced the follow-up was pushed out of the first half of 2023. However, in Japan there will be a release tied to the game this year. The Knight and Hornet Nendoroids will debut in November 2023. Those will show up in North America in Q1 2024.
Hollow Knight: Silksong will come to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam. It is currently in development.
The first playable demo for Synduality: Echo of Ada appeared at Tokyo Game Show 2023. Bandai Namco also provided gameplay footage of the demo build on its livestream. It shows how the player can use their Cradle Coffin mech to explore the world's regions while gathering items and destroying hostiles.
Players will find containers that contain lootable items. They can also use AO Search to detect nearby mineable AO Crystals. When players reach a yellow spot, they can send their companion Magus to investigate it directly.
The initial reveal for Synduality: Echo of Ada mainly teased PvPvE combat where players can engage others with conflicting objectives. The demo footage showed that players can also send friendly greetings and even ask to form a party. Rain in this world will gradually corrode the unit's resistance, so players will have to take shelter in a covered area until it subsides.
The mission's grand objective will require the player to find an escape elevator and stay there until the elevator moves to return safely. If the player's mech gets destroyed, they will lose all the items they gathered during the session.
Synduality: Echo of Ada is under development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam. The game used to have a 2023 release window, but Bandai Namco delayed it indefinitely due to the need for more development time.
There was something special about playing platformers on the Game Boy. We'd sometimes get these oversized, chibi versions of characters and opponents that could look more endearing than menacing. However, the appearance would often bely a genuinely enjoyable game. Curse Crackers: For Whom the Belle Toils is a game that completely gets what people liked about this formula, with Colorgrave offering an entertaining character that keeps its personality present throughout. It's also especially fun to see a Game Boy-inspired title on the Nintendo Switch.
Curse Crackers is set in a world recovering from a disaster involving a fight between powerful factions led by children of a dragon. However, after a quick introduction, it quickly cuts to a more focused tale. A young woman named Belle who used to be an acrobat is about to go on a date with Clyde. She gets there to find Bonnie, who used to be a friend of hers, kidnapped him. Your goal is to go save him alongside your sentient bell and mascot Chime, while also exploring at times to learn more about the world and perhaps getting caught up in a greater plot.
Screenshot by Siliconera
In general, the concept behind Curse Crackers is a rather simple one. Belle needs to get through each area, facing Bonnie's minions, and journey across the world as she does. The main method of getting around is Chime, as you can toss the creature to deal damage to enemies or trigger switches for challenges, or use it and its momentum to help reach higher areas from carefully executed tosses. There are also times when you'll come across food from Claire that alter the properties of Chime once eaten, allowing Belle to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. As this is a typical platformer, that also means there will be hidden collectibles like medals, roses, and oath blades.
What's interesting is how Colorgrave plays with expectations. For example, the boss battles aren't typically straightforward. Yes, the fights will involve using Belle or Chime to attack after learning patterns. However, they won't always proceed as usual. A good example is the second boss fight, which involves a button-pressing portion to open the opponent up to an attack. However, you'll also come across situations where you might see Chime used in a different way or run into NPCs in actual levels who will then end up playing parts later in the game. It's almost like yes, you're going through a level in a platformer game. However, these NPC appearances and additional elements make it feel like it is part of a connected world, rather than an isolated space separated from it.
What I especially appreciated, however, is the characterizations themselves. I suppose this is to be expected after Colorgrave's Prodigal ended up being more than folks would expect, but the cast of Curse Crackers is really a fun one. There's a lot of depth to everyone, which gradually unfolds as you spend more time with it. It is genuinely a game where it feels like the more you do, the more you learn. Yes, you're earning the collectibles that trigger that little voice in your head to go, "Hey! You did it! That's great! You're great! Let's find more!" But you're also learning more about who all these people are as you do so.
It also runs so well on the Nintendo Switch. Curse Crackers showing up on here almost feels like the game is coming home. The aesthetic fits well. It's responsive on the handheld. There's no log. The controls are perfect. It's just a well-optimized port.
Screenshot by Siliconera
Curse Crackers: For Whom the Belle Toils is one of those sorts of platformers that I didn't expect to be as charming and rich as it is. It perfectly captures the ambiance of an era. Likewise, it manages to blend its story and personality well into the experience, giving it a more distinct identity.
Curse Crackers: For Whom the Belle Toils is available on the Nintendo Switch and PC.
Custom Mech Wars will have an extensive free-form robot creation system, and D3 Publisher showed how it will work at Tokyo Game Show 2023. The game's producer Yosuke Uchida was present at D3 Publisher's livestream to explain the Omega Customization system with live gameplay footage.
In Custom Mech Wars, a leg part will constitute the minimum requirement to construct a robot. While players can immediately launch with such a robot, its only attack will be a tackle with recoil damage.
Other parts will then be available to place on any available hardpoints and then repositioned or rotated. While players can resize the accessories, the key body parts will have fixed sizes. The three available sizes — S, M, and L — will determine whether the robot will have an emphasis on mobility or durability.
D3 Publisher will also release additional content based on its other IPs as optional DLC. The EDF Collab Edition will let players access missions to unlock units from the Earth Defense Force series, such as Barga, Balam, and Nix. The Ultimate Edition will further add panels of heroines from Samurai Maiden, Bullet Girls, Omega Labyrinth, and Dream Club.
When Capcom revealed Dragon's Dogma 2 would be four times the size of the original game, I was a bit hesitant. Generally when the scope of a game is increased, it often comes with a cost. Sometimes polish is lost along the way or the game is marred with technical issues. Dragon's Dogma was already an expansive game, with a decent-sized world map that featured both night and day cycles, that legitimately felt organic. It was hard to imagine something bigger than what Capcom had created in 2012. But after sitting down with Dragon's Dogma 2, I feel confident Capcom has made yet another incredible, open world, low fantasy game that will, if anything, become a cult classic.
Editor's Note: This preview was based on a special Dragon's Dogma 2 build made for media to experience, and its contents may differ from the final version.
No, I didn't hear any unexpected vocal tracks accompanied by an electric guitar when I fiddled through the systems menu to check out various accessibility features the version of the game provided allowed. But everything that made Dragon's Dogma was present in Dragon's Dogma 2, down to the strange, silted barks the Pawns would say to fill the silence. Sure, there wasn't anyone shouting "Goblins ill like fire, Arisen," but the dialogue for these A.I. controlled companions were just as endearingly awkward and sometimes repetitive.
Image via Capcom
For those unfamiliar with Pawns, they are Dragon's Dogma's NPC system. Each player can create a Pawn of their own choosing, shaping them as they will and assigning them a Class. These can range from ones like a Thief, Mage, Archer, and Fighter. I wasn't given the chance to create my own Pawn, but the option will be there in the full release of the game. These A.I. companions can be shared online, which means that you can recruit Pawns from other players to accompany you on your journey, and vice versa. What makes Pawns so unique by comparison to other A.I. companions in games is that they effectively store knowledge of things they've done before.
For example, while traveling through a dense forest one of the Pawns recruited through the Rift (a different dimension where you can recruit pre-generated Pawns, or Pawns made by other players) remembered the location of a chest. So I followed him through the brush to discover the chest he had potentially encountered with another player. This is what makes Pawns so interesting. While they will never replace a player, it makes them unique in their design. This was also a system present in the original Dragon's Dogma, so those who have played the first game will be intimately familiar with this system as little has changed.
This goes for just about everything in Dragon's Dogma 2 however, as Classes and Skills are functionally the same. A total of three Classes were available for me to test, which included the Archer, Fighter, and Thief. I ended up choosing Thief, as it allowed me to use dual blades extremely effectively and almost reminded me of using those very same weapons in Monster Hunter Rise. I was agile and able to dash around enemies with ease, which was absolutely the playstyle I was looking for. In Dragon's Dogma, I tended to play a Mage or Archer who was not too interested in being in the thick of things. Don't worry though, as you can still change your Class through the Vocation Guild, so you're never locked into a Class you don't gel with.
Image via Capcom
But playing the Thief felt extremely rewarding, especially when encountering a lumbering cyclops wandering through the nearby wood. I climbed this mighty foe and drove my daggers into it's back. It shook me off a few times, throwing me into the brush. After I scaled the cyclops for a third time, it eventually met its end. This was what I was looking for. Dynamic combat interspersed with these moments that feel larger in scale due to your ability to climb massive enemies. It's what Dragon's Dogma has always done well.
Dragon's Dogma 2 is effectively an improvement on everything that was present in the first title, even if it feels functionally the same. However, Capcom did add a few extra bells and whistles in terms of what you can do on the map and what Pawns are capable of. Players can now set up camp at designated spots highlighted by smoke and the smoldering remains of a campfire. You can camp as often as you like, so long as you have a pack in your inventory. Cooking at camp allows you to replenish your health, and includes a mouthwatering cinematic of a sizzling steak on a cast iron skillet that looked so unbelievably real I thought it was a video of an actual steak being cooked.
But my favorite part of camping, outside of being able to replenish your health, is that you can freely pass the time of day once you've set up camp. This means that you can avoid traveling at night if you manage to find camping spots between objectives. Traveling at night is still just as dangerous as it was in Dragon's Dogma. While I wasn't getting overwhelmed by skeletons and the like, I was still being chased by goblins and wisp-like ghosts that would constrict my Pawns. It was enough of a nuisance to make me sigh in relief when I caught sight of a camping spot in the distance.
Image via Capcom
One of the most notable quality of life features is that Pawns can now lead you to objectives. I undertook a quest to clear out some goblins in a nearby mine and Max, one of my Pawns, informed me that she could lead the way. I gladly let her do so, even if her pathing was sometimes a bit imprecise, as we ended up making our way to our destination via one way or another. (It did involve her climbing over the same rock five or six times.) Regardless, this is a nice new addition and is entirely optional. You don't have to ask your Pawns to guide you to whatever quest is marked on your map and can still get lost in the forests and hills if you wish. Exploration can still feel organic in Dragon's Dogma 2 without the intrusion of an NPC trying to steer you towards the right direction. You can also encounter Pawns on the road that you can hire, as they are no longer entirely constrained to the Rift. I even encountered one Pawn that had been killed, so I decided to revive them and let them go on their way. This was a nice touch in making the world feel lived in and alive.
Environments are absolutely stunning, as Capcom has made another great strive with the RE Engine. While nothing veers into extreme hyper realism (outside of the mentioned steak, which I still refuse to believe is a cutscene), forests are densely populated with trees and bushes, the oceans are vast and a lovely shade of sapphire blue, and the hills are mottled grey and brown with crags of rock and stone.
Dragon's Dogma 2 is a lot more colorful this time around, and is better for it. The world is vibrant and gorgeous, and utterly enticing to spend hours wandering around in. For the hour I was able to play, it left a strong impression. I absolutely cannot wait for whenever Dragon's Dogma 2 will release, eager to spend hundreds of hours just wandering around in the world Hideaki Itsuno and his team have created.
Dragon's Dogma 2will release for Playstation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam. A release date has yet to be announced.
I'm generally not the kind of person to talk about my personal experience with a game to any great degree. Naturally, for reviews I'll dive into some choice encounters that create a broad picture of what shaped my opinion along the way. For example, what it felt like to overcome a particularly arduous challenge, how a narrative absolutely enamored me in presentation or prose. But Baldur's Gate 3 brought something out in me I thought was long since dead. That was an abrupt and extreme hyper fixation over a game that I felt was really "just fine." So fine, so very just OK, that I decided to teach myself how to mod Baldur's Gate 3 to make Enver Gortash a companion member in my very own party.
Editor's Note: There will be spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3 and Enver Gortash below.
If you haven't made your way well into Act II of Baldur's Gate 3, you probably won't know who Enver Gortash is. That is, unless if you've watched promotional materials or The Game Awards trailer that introduced this character into the larger cast of the game. Enver Gortash is a scheming politician voiced by Jason Isaacs, who tends to voice diabolical or outright devilish men, who are often the devil, in video games. He's a man who was sold to the devil by his very own parents and clawed his way out of unfortunate circumstance to become the Chosen of Bane. He is cunning, clever, and wildly arrogant, but is willing to offer a tenuous alliance to the player character.
Me being me, I was immediately attracted to this prospect. This not only would make the game significantly easier, due to having the Archduke of Baldur's Gate as an ally, but I'd certainly get him as a party member, right?
No.
For all of his posturing on alliances and how valuable you are to each other (especially if you pick the Dark Urge Origin, where he reveals that you were once his "nearest and dearest" of companions), he sends you out to do his dirty work. Once all is said and done, he dies a quick death at the hands of the true antagonist of Baldur's Gate 3.
Admittedly, I was pretty disappointed. I don't know what I was expecting. Given how Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal allowed you to breathe life back into Sarevok to make him a companion, I had assumed you would be able to make at least one of the three Chosen a companion character, short-lived as it might have been. Regardless, unable to sate my sudden need to have Enver Gortash as a companion, I took to Twitter and forums to see what the modding community was up to. Mostly, people just really wanted to wear his clothes, which is fine. Over-embellished monstrosities aren't my kind of thing, but I get the appeal. There were also some mods that made small adjustments to his face, making him appear a bit younger or outright re-sculpting it to make it look closer to the propaganda posters found in Baldur's Gate. But none of it was what I was looking for. At least, until I saw someone talking about a cheat engine in Cyrillic.
I scoured through this Twitter user's feed as they detailed how they managed to use a cheat engine to import Orin as a party member, though only as a skin fitted over Lae'zel, the Githyanki warrior you meet in the early hours of the game. But that was enough for me. If I could just get him in my party, then that would satisfy my need and I could finally uninstall Baldur's Gate 3.
If only it was that simple. To put it plainly, I'm terrible at modding games. It took me at least 30 minutes to figure out how to successfully get the Elden Ring Seamless Co-op mod running the first time I installed it, afraid that I would damage my game and destroy my save files in the process. I once streamed modding Skyrim on my Twitch channel, which took me days to do correctly. However, I suppose Skyrim is just like that, and modding that game is a test of loading and unloading mods and reorganizing them to make sure they run properly. So getting the cheat engine to work with Baldur's Gate 3 was a task. It took me days of trying to figure how to get it to run, wondering if I could circumvent having to manually find Gortash's file and slot him into to someone else's place in my party. Every day while I toiled I checked Nexus Mods thinking someone had to be just as desperate as me, someone infinitely more competent and generous to those have no experience with modding. No dice.
Eventually I got it working, somehow. I'm still too afraid to mess with anything else in the game, in case if the mod breaks. Enver Gortash was finally part of my Baldur's Gate 3 party as a companion, having replaced Gale. But I didn't stop there. On Bluesky, I mused over what Class he could be, pondering this as I'd never really fought him since I'd only ever been his ally. Someone suggested Rogue, and I wasn't convinced. So I loaded up a save right before heading down to the final encounter, and hit him with a couple Magic Missiles to get the encounter going. He mostly just ran around shooting me with crossbow bolts, which didn't really tell me what Class he was. So I kept whittling him down until he finally had enough, channeled the spirit of his God, Bane, and appropriately beat me to death with his hands. (God of Tyranny aside, there was a letter that described him as having "burly" arms so I guess he's shredded despite looking like an evil, mustache twirling magic user, minus the mustache.) I got what I needed and re-loaded my new, fresh save with Enver as part of my party.
Sprinting over to Withers I changed his Class from Wizard to Monk. Somewhere down the line, I thought having him Multiclass into Warlock would be nice, but ended up changing it to Wizard. I don't know. I just think he'd like casting spells, even if he was more preoccupied with punching me. But I had finally gotten what I wanted! I achieved what I set out to do! Enver Gortash was here, in my Baldur's Gate 3 party! And despite it really just being Gale with an Enver Gortash skin, I got what I wanted. I ran around the goblin encampment for a few hours, slayed a few gnolls, and called it a day.
Was this a monumental effort to run around in Baldur's Gate 3 for maybe three or four hours? Absolutely. Was it worth it? To me it was! Would I ever do this again? Absolutely not. But I had a lot of fun trying to make this work while I still had some investment in Baldur's Gate 3. Who knows, maybe I'll boot the game up again in a few months, and assuming the mod still works, I might just finish a playthrough with the companion I wanted most.
Baldur's Gate 3 is available for the PC and PlayStation 5.
Dark Souls fans will be able to praise the sun even more through UselessUse Laboratory new line of home decor items coming out in March 2024. The collection includes a Dark Souls 3 clock, soup mug with mini plate set, and a wooden small item storage unit.
The Dark Souls 3 clock features a golden Warrior of the Sun covenant symbol affixed to a traditional 12-hour roman numeral clock made of black steel. Solaire of Astora can be seen praising the sun in place of the roman numeral "VI". The clock can be propped up against a flat surface or mounted to a wall. The clock will cost ¥11,000 (approximately $74 USD).
The soup mug and mini plate set is embossed with the iconography of Siegward of Catarina. The soup mug's glaze is grey, to match Siegward of Catarina's helmet design from Dark Souls 3. The wooden plate states "Long may the sun shine!" under the Siegbrau mug. The cutlery has Siegward of Catarina's famous line "Hmm...Mmm..." inscribed upon it. The soup mug & mini plate set will cost ¥7,700 (approximately $52 USD).
The wooden small item storage unit is engraved with the bonfire outline and the Soul of Cinder's outline. The Lothric Castle can be seen carved at the top of the storage unit. The Dark Souls 3-themed unit can hold a smartphone upright, and hold a number of small, thin items within the grooves. It can also be used to display items on a table. The small item storage unit will cost ¥7,150 (approximately $48 USD).
The reservation period will for these Dark Souls-themed home decor items end on October 10, 2023.
Dark Souls III is available to play on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The Dark Souls 3 clock, soup mug and mini plate set, and small item storage unit will release in Japan in March 2024.
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