Jan 23, 14:00


GamersHeroes Tuesday, January 23, 2024 12:10 PM
    

Get ready for this week's release of Arika and Bandai Namco's TEKKEN 8 with TheMainManSWE's beginners guide for the game.

The post TEKKEN 8 Beginner's Guide with TheMainManSWE Released appeared first on GamersHeroes.


GamersHeroes Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:52 AM
    

In this guide, we show you How To Move Your Base In Palworld. How To Move Your Base In Palworld At the start of the game, if you try to put down another base after your current one, it will say you can't do it. First thing's first: Level up your first base. Once you …

The post How To Move Your Base In Palworld appeared first on GamersHeroes.


GamersHeroes Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:37 AM
    

Learn how to assign Pals to ranch in Palworld with our guide.

The post How To Assign Pals To Ranch In Palworld appeared first on GamersHeroes.


GamersHeroes Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:02 AM
    

We've now had three Like A Dragon games in less than a year. Is Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth worth playing, or should you take a break from the series? Check out our review and find out.

The post Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.


GamersHeroes Tuesday, January 23, 2024 9:44 AM
    

Ahead of its release early next month, Atlus West has released a live action trailer for their upcoming JRPG Persona 3 Reload, dubbed "Seal Your Fate."

The post Persona 3 Reload Live Action Trailer Released appeared first on GamersHeroes.


Kotaku Tuesday, January 23, 2024 1:55 PM
    

The Overwatch League, the Overwatch 2 esports league that (somewhat ill-advisedly) adopted an NFL-like franchise model, died last year. The brainchild of former Blizzard president Bobby Kotick, it failed to flourish thanks to expensive buy-ins, the covid pandemic kneecapping in-person events, and more—but after it…

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Kotaku Tuesday, January 23, 2024 1:31 PM
    

Tekken 8 comes out on January 26 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, and reviews are popping up ahead of the game's release date. It'll be the eighth mainline entry in Bandai Namco Entertainment's long-running franchise, and it seems critics are enjoying the game, with Tekken 8 currently boasting a score of 90…

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Kotaku Tuesday, January 23, 2024 1:00 PM
    

A new advanced treadmill-like floor invention from Disney could solve one of the biggest problems with VR: movement. But, it could also bring the world one step closer to making Star Trek-like holodecks a reality.

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Kotaku Tuesday, January 23, 2024 12:45 PM
    

This March we receive the triumphant return of the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, Her Majesty Princess Peach. Princess Peach: Showtime, the resilient monarch's first headline game since 2005's Super Princess Peach, is a stage-based action-adventure, as shown in new footage released by Nintendo today.

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Kotaku Tuesday, January 23, 2024 12:30 PM
    

The Last of Us Part II Remastered has a lot of behind-the-scenes content in its special features. It's cool to get a glimpse into what could have been, such as the playable cut segments in the Lost Levels. However, on the other end of the spectrum, we also learn about how easily the game could have been a much worse,…

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Kotaku Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:25 AM
    

Within the last few years, video game industry layoffs have unfortunately become more commonplace. In 2023, we saw near-weekly layoffs across the entire industry. When the dust had settled, at least 6,000 jobs across publishers, developers, and other video game-related companies had happened. Sadly, it appears 2024…

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Kotaku Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:15 AM
    

Navigating massive, open-world games like Bethesda Game Studios' Starfield or CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3 usually requires a shortcut to span their sprawling maps. Though you can hop in a car in Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto or travel by horse in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Valhalla, players often look for a much…

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Kotaku Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:04 AM
    

More details about Obsidian's next first-person RPG, Avowed, have been revealed. A recent episode of the so-called Official Xbox Podcast (it's…not a podcast) has a bunch more footage from the game than we saw during Microsoft's January Developer Direct, along with a good deal more information about how it'll actually…

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Kotaku Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:30 AM
    

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Nintendo has taken action against the Palworld mod that would have made the "Pokémon With Guns" label much more literal. So if you were hoping to play Pocketpair's monster-taming survival game as long-time Pokémon anime protagonist Ash Ketchum capturing and enslaving Game Freak's…

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Kotaku Tuesday, January 23, 2024 9:15 AM
    

In September 2011, I was a college junior very willing to waste away the early days of her fall semester playing Epic Games' new third-person shooter, Gears of War 3. I pre-ordered the highly anticipated title so I could guarantee I got the gold Retro Lancer skin for my multiplayer battles, and threw myself into the…

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PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 12:33 PM
     Sand Land release date, trailers, and latest news

When is the Sand Land release date? Fans of Akira Toriyama's work, such as Dragon Ball and the character designs for the Dragon Quest series, may be familiar with Sand Land. The manga originally ran in the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine in the year 2000 before seeing an English translation in 2003. It wasn't until 2023 that it got an anime adaptation in Japan, as well as a game being announced.

So what is Sand Land? Well, it's a post-apocalyptic RPG game developed by Ilca, best known for the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl remakes, and published by Bandai Namco. In it, you drive vehicles such as tanks and mechs around the desert, blowing up those who would stand in your way from reaching the nearest free water source. There's not much else to go on, so here is everything we know, including the Sand Land release date, trailers, and all the gameplay details we know about.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best anime games, Best RPG games, Best JRPG games

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 12:25 PM
     Nexus Mods

One of the biggest videogame modding platforms in the world, Nexus Mods, is hesitant to include any Palworld Pokemon mods on the site due to Nintendo's history of filing copyright strikes, legal challenges, and DMCAs against projects that use its IP. Nexus tells PCGamesN it is "not comfortable hosting this content," but that Palworld mods, in general, will still be available to download.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Palworld pals, Palworld review, Palworld system requirements

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 12:32 PM
     Best gaming desk 2024

Finding the best gaming desk for your space helps to elevate the experiences you have on your PC, both in terms of aesthetics and ergonomics. To save you the trouble of taking a chance on a surface that might not be the right fit, we've put together our picks of the best desks for gaming across the price and RGB spectrum.

In addition to cost, both the size and strength of your next potential gaming desk are equally important considerations that should inform your purchasing decision - from weight capacity to price. We're here to help you find a desk that is both an appropriate throne for the best gaming PC, and which can accommodate all the best gaming chairs.

Continue reading Best gaming desk 2024
MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 12:15 PM
     Best Steam Deck games 2024

What are the best Steam Deck games? Narrowing down the list of the best Steam Deck games is no easy task, as the device is capable of playing a myriad of genres and titles from across the decades. Yet whether you play your Steam Deck in small bursts, have it hooked up to an external display, or use it as your official travel buddy, there are perfect games for every occasion.

Continue reading Best Steam Deck games 2024
MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:58 AM
     Bandle Tale release date, gameplay, and trailers

When is the Bandle Tale release date? The final game to launch under the Riot Forge banner is Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story. In this crafting RPG, you play as a Yordle living in Yarnville, an island that loves everything knitting-related. There are portals connecting Yarnville to Bandle City, but those portals suddenly stop working one day, throwing everything into chaos.

Riot Forge partnered with Lazy Bear Games, the developers of Graveyard Keeper and the Punch Club series, to expand the lore of the Yordles and introduce fans to their home of Bandle City. In this indie game, your job is to get the portals working again to bring joy to the rest of the Yordles using your crafting skills. Here's what we know about the Bandle Tale release date, including information on the recently released trailers, gameplay, and more.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best crafting games, Best farming games, Best RPG games

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:44 AM
     Death Stranding 2 might have a new and unusual name

Death Stranding 2 looks like another example of Hideo Kojima's trademark surrealism. The original game, starring Norman Reedus and Lea Seydoux, was a terrific blend of stark, arthouse imagery, high melodrama, and Monster Energy. The Metal Gear Solid auteur may be working on a new Silent Hill game, judging from a small teaser in the trailer for OD, but Death Stranding 2 remains his most prominent upcoming project. Death Stranding 2, however, might not be the full name. Based on a reliable leaker, the upcoming open-world epic might have a subtitle to rival Snake Eater.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Death Stranding 2 revealed, Death Stranding 2 release date speculation, Hideo Kojima's making a VR game

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:41 AM
     Scale new RGB heights with these Mountain Snow keycaps

Mountain has just unveiled its new range of keyboard keycaps, called Mountain Snow, which incorporate translucent sides, meaning that loads more RGB lighting can spill out around your keyboard's keys. These so-called pudding-style keycaps are compatible with the company's range of keyboards, as well as any conventional keyboard that uses the Cherry MX stem keycap mount.

These potential best gaming keyboard upgrades are built using PBT plastic, which is harder-wearing than the ABS plastic used as the default keycaps for Mountain's own Everest Max keyboard. These Mountain keycaps doubleshot, which means the legends for the keys are created by using two injections of plastic into the mold, to make for a thick, durable legend, as opposed to screen-printed legends that wear off over time.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:29 AM
     Is The Witcher 3 Steam Deck compatible?

Is The Witcher 3 Steam Deck compatible? It doesn't matter whether it's your first or fifth time venturing into The Continent, playing The Witcher 3 on the Steam Deck is a great way to enjoy this expansive RPG.

Having released long before the Steam Deck was likely even a concept, one of the best PC games ever released has made quite a name for itself over the last decade. The Witcher 3 system requirements show us that with 32GB of storage space needed, it won't demand one of the best microSD cards for the Steam Deck to start your adventure.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: The Witcher 3 mods, The Witcher 4 news, Witcher 3 system requirements

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:20 AM
     New AMD CPU's integrated graphics reportedly more powerful than PS5

AMD has seemingly just inadvertently confirmed the existence of a CPU that's rumored to give you more gaming power than a PlayStation 5 without needing a graphics card. In fact, in terms of core specs, you could think of this new CPU, codenamed AMD Strix Halo, as being an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and a Radeon RX 7600 in one single chip. Not only that, but the GPU maybe even more powerful than that. If this is true, then mini PCs that can genuinely handle the demands of PC gaming are on the cards, as are some killer gaming laptops.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Ryzen 7 7800X3D review, Best gaming CPU, Radeon RX 7800 XT review

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:24 AM
     Free Monopoly Go dice links January 2024

January 23, 2024: We've added new entries to our list of free dice links.

How can I get Monopoly Go free dice links? The classic board game has made its way to a free-to-play format, and you'll be doing laps of the board collecting houses and hotels and completing a variety of multiplayer minigames along the way.

You can't get far in Monopoly Go without dice rolls, which you'll have a limited amount of to begin with. To earn more dice rolls, you'll need to log in daily to collect bonuses, invite your friends to the game, or progress further. If you don't want to spend your hard-earned money on more dice, you can use dice links for the board game instead. Now, let's run down all the currently active Monopoly Go free dice links for today.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best board games, Free PC games, Monopoly Go dice

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:06 AM
     How to enable resizable BAR on your graphics card

In this guide, we'll show you how to enable resizable BAR on your graphics card, which is a great way to improve your frame rate in many of today's PC games for free, including a lot of the Assassin's Creed games.

How does it work? AMD and Nvidia GPUs have recently added the ability for the CPU to access your graphics card's entire frame buffer, instead of smaller chunks of up to 256MB, and this headroom enables you to boost performance in some situations with compatible hardware and games.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Ryzen 7 7800X3D review, Best gaming CPU, Radeon RX 7800 XT review

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:06 AM
     How to fix bent CPU pins

In this guide, we'll show you how to fix bent CPU pins, as well as how to fix bent motherboard socket pins if you have an LGA motherboard. Bent socket pins are one of the main reasons for motherboard returns, and if you mash a bunch of pins accidentally by dropping an object into the CPU socket, it's usually game over.

We can't overstate their delicacy and the ease with which you can make silly mistakes here, so taking care when building your PC is essential. If the worst happens, though, and you end up with a wonky pin on your CPU or motherboard socket, then it's worth carefully trying to fix it before paying out for new components.

Continue reading How to fix bent CPU pins
MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Ryzen 7 7800X3D review, Best gaming CPU, Radeon RX 7800 XT review

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:06 AM
     How to paint a PC motherboard

In this guide, we'll show you how to paint a motherboard in your own choice of color. Your motherboard might sport RGB lighting, but that's usually the only way you can customize it to add a splash of color. However, it's easy to spice up your board further using spray paints.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:06 AM
     How to etch glass on your PC case

In this guide, we'll show you how to etch glass on your PC case. PC etching is the easiest and safest way to customize the glass panels on your PC case. Tempered glass will shatter if you mess around with it too much, and it does so by design, leaving you with few options when it comes to customizing glass side panels.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:06 AM
     How to paint your PC case

In this guide, we'll show you how to paint a PC case in your own chosen color using spray paints, which are both affordable and easy to use. We'll take you through the whole process of dismantling, masking, and then spray painting your PC case, as well as adding a protective layer of clear coat.

Continue reading How to paint your PC case
MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:58 AM
     Palworld ore and the best place to farm it

How can you farm Palworld ore? There are many resources to gather in Palworld. Still, perhaps none are more important, or needed in abundance than Palworld Ore. Ore can be refined into ingots, which, as you move on from bows to fully automatic assault rifles, is a necessary ingredient. We've found what we think is the best spot to farm ore in Palworld, so you'll never be short.

For those still wondering whether they should dip a toe into the crafting game, check out Nat's Palworld early access review; it should give you all the information you need. For those who are knee-deep in Palworld already, we have the complete Paldeck here, so you can complete your collection.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Palworld pals, Palworld review, Palworld system requirements

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:56 AM
     Paralives release date estimate and latest news

When is the Paralives release date? This upcoming life sim has been likened to The Sims, and it's easy to see why. With cute outfits, tons of items, an extensive character creator, build mode, and extra features we wish were in The Sims, there's a lot to look forward to.

Paralives is an ambitious project, but we already know a fair bit about what's headed to this simulation game. What first started off as a Patreon project by a lone developer in 2019, has developed into a life sim game set to rival the genre. Though the studio does rely on community pledges to keep the game in development, the official website is great at keeping the community up to date with progress and what to expect next.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best simulation games, Best sandbox games, Best indie games

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:48 AM
     Valve just made the Steam Deck so much better with this update

Valve has just released a new beta update for the Steam Deck that includes a handful of bug fixes and one seemingly low-key but actually quite profound change to the gaming handheld. A newly-designed Quick Settings menu adds descriptions for each of the settings that make it easier for users to understand what they're changing and so how best they can fine-tune the balance of image quality, performance, and battery life for their gaming handheld.

The Steam Deck Beta Client Update: January 18th also includes a new version of its Chromium browser, fixes issues with SD cards being used as default storage locations, and several other minor tweaks to the best gaming handheld you can currently buy.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:32 AM
     Bushiden release date estimate, trailers, and story

When is the Bushiden release date? Those of a certain age will take one look at the Bushiden trailer and instantly be taken back to a simpler time; playing Shinobi in your pants, eating cereal in between bouts with the seemingly endless waves of enemies, getting mildly frustrated with a platforming section. A better time, really.

Bushiden is a Metroidvania in the purest sense of the portmanteau - your agile avatar has to traverse through several levels of increasing complexity utilizing their newfound skills to venture deeper into the enemy's lair. It's a platforming game that looks to test your reflexes and environmental problem-solving, while also taking you on a wild adventure with a hint of revenge. Catnip to a certain section of the gamersphere, I'm sure you'll agree. When is the Bushiden release date?


PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:10 AM
     Palworld's dominance has no end as it smashes Counter-Strike on Steam

Palworld is unstoppable. Palworld is forever. Less than a week since the cute but also heavily armed Pokemon-style survival and crafting game hit Steam, it's now officially more popular than Counter-Strike 2. The all-time player record for Valve's shooter, previously known as CSGO, made it a mainstay at the near top of the Steam charts. Now, Palworld has taken the number two spot, becoming the second most-played game in Steam's history, beaten only by the monumental record set by PUBG six years ago. Palworld, your power is boundless.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Palworld pals, Palworld review, Palworld system requirements

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:00 AM
     Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth review – an expansive RPG epic

Yakuza: Like a Dragon was, in many ways, a risk. A brand-new protagonist, the charming and lighthearted Ichiban Kasuga, replaced the legendary Kazuma Kiryu, while the series' long-iterated action-brawler combat was switched out for an experimental turn-based RPG system. Despite these risks, it went on to become one of the most critically and commercially successful entries in the series to date. As a sequel to both LaD's rebirth and Kiryu's final solo game, Like a Dragon Gaiden, this latest release has a lot of weight to carry on its irezumi-inked shoulders. Thankfully, Ryu Ga Gotoku has delivered its magnum opus with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Infinite Wealth system requirements, Best RPG games on PC, Best crime games

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:40 AM
     All Palworld bosses in order and how to beat them

What are the Palworld bosses? These powerful Pals are under the command of skilled Pal Tamers who don't take kindly to newcomers. While they certainly pose a challenge, we've got the boss strategies you need to take all of the main bosses down without breaking a sweat. We've also got a collection of the free-roaming boss Pals to keep an eye out for while you're busy exploring Palpagos Island.

The main boss challenges in Palworld require you to defeat the Palworld Pals and their Tamers within a set time limit, so maximizing your damage output is key. If you're having trouble, Palworld multiplayer can certainly help, especially if you're part of a community-driven Palworld server. Eliminating a Palworld boss for the first time nets you Palworld Technology points, which are invaluable for expanding your Palworld base. So, whether you're looking to progress in the Pokemon PC game or you just want to put your Palworld fighting prowess to the test, here's every Palworld boss and how to beat them.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Palworld pals, Palworld review, Palworld system requirements

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 9:53 AM
     Palworld is 60% done, with PvP and new content coming next

In its Steam Early Access state Palworld is around 60% complete, saysPocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe, while the next step for the team is to "improve the level of perfection" across the board for the game. With the player count and purchases rising, the team has a lot on its plate right now.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Palworld pals, Palworld review, Palworld system requirements

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 9:47 AM
     Quick, get an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X for $199 while you still can

Here's a great chance to snag yourself an awesome new AMD gaming CPU for under $200. The latest AMD CPU deal sees the price of the venerable Ryzen 5 7600X dropping to just $199, which is a massive drop of nearly $100 since the CPU first launched.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Ryzen 7 7800X3D review, Best gaming CPU, Radeon RX 7800 XT review

PCGamesN Tuesday, January 23, 2024 9:23 AM
     The best FPS games on PC 2024

What are the best FPS games on PC? From the classic physics chaos of Half-Life 2 to Halo Infinite's beautifully rendered worlds, these are the finest FPS games. For more than two decades, FPS games have been the driving force of the PC games industry. They've let us travel from the depths of Hell in Doom to the outer reaches of space in Titanfall 2. Others have taken us on a detour through the likes of Half-Life 2's zombie-infested Ravenholm, while some have embraced futuristic cities.

Some of these games are old, others are new, and all are great. Wolfenstein 2's amazing campaign; Rainbow Six Siege's tight tactical multiplayer; Overwatch 2 and its vast array of amazing heroes. No matter what sort of virtual gunplay you're after, the following titles will satisfy your itchy trigger finger. So crack those knuckles, and make every shot count. These aren't only the best FPS games, some of these entries are included in our best PC games too.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Titanfall 2 class guide, Titanfall 2 PC port review, Titanfall 2 campaign review

Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Tuesday, January 23, 2024 1:26 PM
    

Riot Games have announced that they will shortly fire "about 530" people, or 11 per cent of their global workforce, so as to "create focus and move us towards a more sustainable future", in the words of CEO Dylan Jadeja. The "biggest impact" will be felt outside of core development, though they'll affect at least one major internal team - the developers of Legends Of Runeterra. Riot are also binning off the Riot Forge publishing label, under which third-party developers create smaller-scale games based on Riot's own intellectual properties.

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Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:48 AM
    

Readers with keen memories may remember that I recently self-described as being in my scented candle girlie era. I'm currently burning one called Starry Night, which is a nice fresh scent but it's nowhere near as strong as I would like. I can never find fresh scents that are as long-lingering as the fruity or woody ones. Anyway, I have been discussing my new interest (and interrupting work meetings with pretend candle unboxing videos where I tell them to like and subscribe and check out my collab with WickManiac) with the rest of the Treehouse, which prompted us to talk about the idea of gamer candles. They exist! They're just candles of lies.

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Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:08 AM
    

A new update for the PC Game Pass and Xbox versions of Palworld has fixed some of its many, many known issues today, but those hoping for some fixes to its online multiplayer options will sadly have to wait a little longer. Currently, those playing on Game Pass still don't have the ability to join or create dedicated servers for up to 32-player multiplayer like their mates on Steam can. Instead, they remain limited to just 2-4-player co-op via the use of friend codes, meaning that Game Pass players aren't having quite the same experience as their Steam counterparts.

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Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:00 AM
    

If you're in need of some quiet time - and I certainly am, because the people upstairs are having their kitchen refitted, and the resulting powerdrill noise is literally shaking things off my desk - I recommend a stroll across the plains of Planetside 2. This might seem odd advice, given that PlanetSide 2 is a shooter in which hundreds or even thousands of players fight each other simultaneously, but the thing about planet-sized wars is that they require plenty of legroom, and the thing about crowds is that you can lose yourself within them.

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Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:55 AM
    

Basically the only sort of strategy games I like are city builders, so I was interested in the playtest for El Dorado: The Golden City Builder, which casts you as the leader of an ancient Mayan-ish city. The playtest is only the prologue, but the eventual goal is to take over the Yucatán peninsula, and if nothing else it's refreshing to see a city-builder that doesn't feel overwhelmingly European. It also has a complicated system of religion. Whereas in a similarly polytheistic game like Zeus, the gods would turn up to stomp on buildings and/or bless them, at fairly large intervals, in El Dorado I was getting a home immolated every few days. Building shrines that have an area of effect, and that require resources to run and protect your town, is its own supply chain in El Dorado. This is a very interesting idea that I liked.

But. The aforementioned deities are figures from Maya mythology, and the Yucatán peninsula is the bit where the Mayans lived, so I just find it a bit sus the word "Mayan" does not appear anywhere on the Steam page or in the press release materials. Sometimes said materials say "the Yucatán peninsula", and sometimes "the mystical land of Jukatan", which could well be an innocent translation mistake, but doesn't make me less sus. I've hedged my bets by saying "Mayan-ish" - just as an uncharitable person could say the devs are doing...

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Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:41 AM
    

Today I'm just tickled pink seeing an excellent Deus Ex cosplayer fully step into the role of JC Denton, funny walk and weird talk and all. Seeing as you voted the seminal immersive sim your seventh-favourite RPG of all time, I thought you might like to see it too. It's very good.

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Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:30 AM
    

I try to be open minded, you know. What usually happens is I give an adventure game a chance though they're all terrible (all of them), and I try. I really do. I made it several hours into Stasis Colon Bone Totem before getting frustra-bored and giving up. That may sound damning, but it's actually very good indeed, because usually that happens within about ten minutes. I can't say it defied my hatred of the genre as much as a The Last Express or The Cat Lady, but it had a good enough run to deserve talking about. Not least as I'm still curious about its setting.

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Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:24 AM
    

Ahhh, fast travel: the opinion generator. Speaking to IGN, Dragon's Dogma 2 director Hideaki Itsuno threw his own hat into the ring, saying that he's keen to avoid fast travel in DD2 and would prefer that "players travel normally and experience the world around them". If you're someone who argues all games should let you teleport to the objective, then Itsuno thinks you're wrong. Hey, he doesn't mess about, and I don't disagree with him, as long as the game isn't actually wasting my time.

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Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:00 AM
    

Yakuza: Like A Dragon was a brilliant foray into turn-based chaos, but some of its RPG elements didn't quite lead anywhere. Well, in swaggers the frankly ginormous Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth to tie off the loose ends and give us a follow-up that links all the best bits of Yakuza into a far more satisfying reward loop. Some of the refinements make for superb silliness, while others are a bit eh - not everything is perfect. But spending time with Ichiban and his pals in the sun-soaked Hawaii and beyond is the real treat. It's a wonderful, happy JRPG and it will never fail to brighten my day. Thank goodness for Yakuza.

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Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Tuesday, January 23, 2024 9:00 AM
    

For such a ma-bloody-hoosive RPG, it turns out Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth can fit rather snugly in the diminutive Steam Deck. Developers RGG Studio revealed, a full two weeks before launch, that Valve had awarded it coveted Verified status – a mark of honour for games that run, control, and generally operate well on the handheld.

What that golden sticker doesn't explain is that to keep above a suitable 30fps, Infinite Wealth does demand that you swing the stolen bicycle of quality reductions directly into the soft skull of its graphical settings. It's perfectly doable, mind, so if LADding around Hawaii sounds like as much fun to you as Ed's review makes it seem, read on to find out how Infinite Wealth gets on with the Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED.

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Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Tuesday, January 23, 2024 9:00 AM
    

When I am faced with Death, and that grim skeletal mouth asks me to choose the game we play to decide my fate, I have long believed I will pick Tekken. I'm not confident I will best the reaper in Iron Fist combat. But I cannot pass up the adrenally depraved possibility of successfully performing a ten-button airborne combo on mortality made manifest. It would be rad. It would be absurd and beautiful and I know, for a fact, that Death will play as Panda.

But will we play Tekken 8? Or roll back to Tekken 7? Hmmm. Let's find out.

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Twinfinite Tuesday, January 23, 2024 12:12 PM
    
It's not just Pokemon with guns.

Twinfinite Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:00 AM
    
A massive JRPG that brings the series' unique style to the United States in an unforgettable adventure.

Twinfinite Tuesday, January 23, 2024 9:00 AM
    
Nothing left to be desired.

Twinfinite Tuesday, January 23, 2024 7:25 AM
    
The very best of Palworld's breeding system.

Siliconera Tuesday, January 23, 2024 2:00 PM
    

Atelier Resleriana English Version January Release Date Set

Koei Tecmo announced the Atelier Resleriana English release date, and it will appear this week. It will launch on mobile devices and PCs via Steam on January 25, 2024, following the September 2023 Japanese debut.

While only a mobile and PC game, Atelier Resleriana is considered the next mainline entry in the series. It follows the aspiring alchemist Resna and adventurer Valeria. The two are investigating the disappearance of a comet that brought alchemy to the world and attempting to reach World's End, all while also dealing with the Polar Night Alchemists. In addition to again focusing on synthesizing items and timeline-centered, turn-based battles, it also brings in various characters from past games like Ryza. In fact, the most recent video for Atelier Resleriana shows Ryza, Lent, and Tao in the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ewX7bPj0PA&ab_channel=AtelierResleriana

In addition, Koei Tecmo updated the official website for the game. It features six comics introducing Resna and showing her interactions with her friends Izana, Saskia, and Roman. None of them feature Valeria, however.

The Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night Liberator English release date is January 25, 2024. It will appear on the PC via Steam and mobile devices. It is already available in Japan. 

The post Atelier Resleriana English Version January Release Date Set appeared first on Siliconera.


Siliconera Tuesday, January 23, 2024 1:30 PM
    

Baldur's Gate 3 Xbox Bans capture clips Error 544 PS5 Patch

Larian Studios announced on social media that a patch is now live that fixes the Baldur's Gate 3 PS5 Error 544 with save files. It also offered details for how to fix the situation on the system after updating the game.

For those who didn't encounter it, Baldur's Gate 3 Error 544 kept a PS5 player from saving their progress. This is due to the fact that invisible save files were being made and taking up space. It ended up being a problem throughout December 2023 and January 2024.

After updating the game to the latest version, it will now force all invisible safe files to actually show up for PS5 players. They can then delete unneeded files in the game to eliminate the problem. Larian noted that after getting the Baldur's Gate 3 patch, they should go to the Load Game section and delete all unwanted saves they can't recognize. Once this is done, someone should be able to play the game as usual and save without seeing Error 544.

Such fixes regularly come in the form of major and minor patches. For example, one of the other recent January 2024 updates was a hotfix that would keep Gale from leaving the party without proper cause. 

Baldur's Gate 3 is available for the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC. 

The post Baldur's Gate 3 PS5 Save Files Error 544 Fixed With Patch appeared first on Siliconera.


Siliconera Tuesday, January 23, 2024 1:00 PM
    

Demon Slayer SH Figuarts of Tanjiro and Nezuko Kamado

Bandai Spirits revealed that it will sell SH Figuarts action figures of Tanjiro and Nezuko Kamado from Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba-. The company has also indicated that both action figures will be available for sale worldwide in Asia Pacific including Japan, the Americas including the US, and Europe. However, it has not provided any web store links as it will only open the pre-order window on February 1, 2024.

Tanjiro Kamado's action figure will be available in July 2024 with a price tag of 4,400 yen (~$30). The set will come with his Nichirin Sword and its sheath. The package will also have three facial expression parts ranging from closed mouth, angry face, to happy face.

Nezuko Kamado's SH Figuarts will appear a month later in August 2024. Her action figure will cost almost double Tanjiro's at 8,250 yen (~$56). The package will come with five facial expression parts, with some of them showing Nezuko's mouth without the scroll. The set will also include a seating part and a special hand part that lets Nezuko hold hands with her brother Tanjiro.

The Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- anime show, which these figures are modeled after, is still ongoing as of this reveal. The fourth season that covers the Hashira Training arc will air in Spring 2024. People can also watch the new season's first episode earlier by watching the Demon Slayer: To the Hashira Training movie, which will launch in theaters worldwide on February 21, 2024.

The SH Figuarts action figure of Tanjiro Kamado from Demon Slayer will appear first in July 2024. Nezuko Kamado's action figure will follow a month later in August 2024. The pre-order window for both products will open on February 1, 2024.

The post Demon Slayer Tanjiro and Nezuko SH Figuarts Will Appear Worldwide appeared first on Siliconera.


Siliconera Tuesday, January 23, 2024 12:30 PM
    

New Kingdom Hearts Jackets and Apparel Coming Soon

Anime and manga character goods company Amnibus will be releasing a new line of Kingdom Hearts clothing and apparel including jackets, shirts, and hoodies sometime early June 2024. Pre-orders can be made on the new line of apparel until March 12, 2024.

The new Amnibus Kingdom Hearts clothing and apparel line features 14 unique items like shirts, and these items come in sizes starting from small up to XXXL.

Amnibus by armabianca has released many different collaboration lines with brands including Danganronpa, NieR Automata, PaRappa the Rapper, and Gurren Lagann. Many of the different pieces of merchandise released by Amnibus focus on clothing, apparel, lifestyle goods, and home goods.

The Kingdom Hearts series has seen tons of new merchandise come out recently, including a new Ichiban Kuji lottery set to release May 2024, foil-printed puzzles, a brand new light-up Keyblade based on the Kingdom Key D, and a line of clothing and apparel by Graniph.

Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link is currently in development for iOS and Android, and is set to release in 2024. The Android beta test is planned to begin sometime this year. Kingdom Hearts 4 is also currently in development.

The Amnibus Kingdom Hearts clothing line will release in early June 2024 in Japan.

The post New Kingdom Hearts Jackets, Shirts, and Clothing Coming Soon appeared first on Siliconera.


Siliconera Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:30 AM
    

Palworld Passes Counter-Strike 2 for Most Concurrent Steam Players

As has been the norm for the Pokemon with guns gamesince its early access launch on January 19, 2024, it hit another milestone after another 24 hours. Palworld now sold another million copies and its Steam concurrent players count passed Counter-Strike 2

The latest sales milestone is six million. The five million copies sold reveal came at about 4:15am ET on January 22, 2024 and this latest one happened at 1:05am ET on January 23, 2024, so it took almost 24 hours for the next hallmark to be hit. 

Here's the announcement tweet, which also confirmed Pocketpair is working on patches:

https://twitter.com/Palworld_EN/status/1749674695560208888

As for the latest Palworld Steam concurrent players count, it once again provided SteamDB stats. At the time the screenshot was taken, the all-time peak was 1,853,216. At time of writing that's gone up a bit, as the current peak is 1,864,421. 

https://twitter.com/Palworld_EN/status/1749794952660619571

At 9:20am ET on January 23, 2024, it is at the top of the current concurrent players list, with Counter-Strike 2 in second, Dota 2 in third, PUBG in forth, and Apex Legends rounding out the top five. Of those five, it is the only paid game.

Palworld is immediately available for the PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X in early access.

The post Palworld Passes Counter-Strike 2 for Most Concurrent Steam Players appeared first on Siliconera.


Siliconera Tuesday, January 23, 2024 11:00 AM
    

FFVII Advent Children Complete Appearing in US Movie Theaters

Square Enix announced that it will bring FFVII Advent Children Complete to movie theaters in the US. The only showings will be held between February 21-22, 2024.

The Fathom Events page for the showings is already live. From what I saw on the page, the February 21, 2024 showing are all the English dub. The February 22, 2024 ones all seem to be for the Japanese version with English subtitles. Tickets seem to be around $16-17, depending on the theater selected. 

In addition to this being the extended cut of the FFVII Advent Children Complete, FFVII Rebirth segments will precede this showing. The announcement didn't note how long the "preshow" portion will be, but it did note it will include a history for this entry and insights into the remake trilogy from Naoki Hamaguchi, Tetsuya Nomura, and Yoshinori Kitase. 

As a reminder, this FFVII movie is a sequel to the original game. It follows Cloud, Tifa, and his allies, as well as the Shinra Turks Reno and Rude, as they deal with Kadaj and his brothers Loz and Yazoo. All three are remnants of Sephiroth, and the crew is dealing with them while also seeing the effects of Geostigma on people after Sephiroth's defeat.

Here's a trailer from the 4K Ultra HD physical and digital release, which came out back in 2021. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NoV4HpOC4E&ab_channel=SonyPicturesEntertainment

This isn't the only time Square Enix brought this film back to theaters. It did the same thing in Japan. Except there, the movie is running for a longer period of time. People can see it in theaters until February 1, 2024.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will come to the PS5 on February 29, 2024, with the exclusivity arrangement ending on May 29, 2024. FFVII Remake is available for the PS4, PS5, and PC, and FFVII Ever Crisis is available on the PC and mobile devices. Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete is available on Blu-ray, DVD, PSP UMDs, and digital storefronts.

The post FFVII Advent Children Complete Appearing in US Movie Theaters  appeared first on Siliconera.


Siliconera Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:30 AM
    

Street Fighter Kashihara City tourism app

Capcom released a new mobile app that lets people explore Kashihara City in Japan's Nara Prefecture with a Street Fighter theme. The Street Fighter x Kashihara Sightseeing Tour app is now available on the Japanese Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

This app features landmark spots in the city, and a navigation map that creates routes to those spots will also play theme songs from the fighting game series. It also has an AR camera where users can spawn Street Fighter characters unleashing their signature moves. A Gallery mode that gradually unlocks character artworks by clearing given quests completes the app.

Kashihara City holds a special connection with Capcom because the company's founder Kenzo Tsujimoto was born there. The Street Fighter collaboration began in earnest in late August 2022, when Capcom signed an agreement with the city to help promote the latter's tourism.

The city then started launching multiple events and building permanent monuments throughout 2023. The first monument is a bronze statue of Ryu, which was unveiled in May 2023 and is located in front of the Kashihara City Tourism Exchange Center. The city's government also held successful crowdfunding to produce utility holes featuring Street Fighter characters and add a Chun-Li bronze statue, both of which are scheduled for completion in February 2024. The city even has plans to add more bronze statues modeled after Edmond Honda and Ken.

Street Fighter x Kashihara Sightseeing Tour is available on Android and iOS mobile devices. The app features content from the fighting game series, of which its latest entry is Street Fighter 6, available immediately on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, PC, and arcades.

The post Street Fighter Kashihara City Tour App Released in Japan appeared first on Siliconera.


Siliconera Tuesday, January 23, 2024 10:00 AM
    

like a dragon infinite wealth review yakuza ichiban sujimon

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, a game that SEO and general cultural awareness requires me to constantly remind you is the eighth main entry in the Yakuza series, follows Ichiban Kasuga as plot reasons send him to the bright environs of Hawaii. Infinite Wealth takes place in a wild fantasy version of our world, in which famous online personalities have a reputation for fact-checking and currencies have a reliable and consistent exchange rate. It follows the last game as a turn-based RPG, sticking with this new scheme as the future of the franchise.

There's definitely a degree to which starting to play a new Like a Dragon game feels a lot like continuing to play the last one. You're in the same worlds as the same characters, and previous minigames and personalities return whenever possible. The franchise is happy to continue with the level of world interaction and environmental design it established almost two decades ago. Boxes block stairwells, and lines of people or invisible walls funnel you to destinations. There's no significant effort to make the world feel more real. It is what it is.

like a dragon infinite wealth review kazuma kiryu
Screenshot by Siliconera

And these aren't necessarily bad things. Sure, we want a more immersive world, but these restrained ambitions mean all the effort goes into adding more things to do. And there's truly a lot! The game, like ones before it, has a lot of half-baked systems and minigames mixed in, but the sheer quantity of things to do makes forgiving that a lot easier. The big advantage of throwing so much at the wall is that not everything needs to stick. The game has dozens of little mini games, and you'll find a few engrossing and play the plot-mandated one round of the rest.

The "Sujimon" miscreant collecting scheme from the last game makes a return here, but with a lot more to it. This time, it's essentially a Pokemon Go parody, with trainers all around to fight and locations to visit for occasional free items. It's also built around triple battles. There are a few different systems here, but most of the time you'll move your attacker to the middle and hit the opposing party with splash damage from there.

Making this side game a little more useful is the "Sujimancer" class. Ichiban can summon one of each element for magical attacks, and the stronger they are, the higher the damage. This compelled us to dig a little deeper in the mode, equipping strong hooligans for the rest of the game.

yakuza 8 sujimon battle
Screenshot by Siliconera

Still, it's nice to just wander around the streets. There's even a dedicated button for waving at people this time around, and NPCs respond in kind. There's a "game" attached to this too, but it's incredibly minor and not nearly as important as just saying "what's up" to passersby.

It's good and helpful for both English and Japanese to be used by different characters. Generally the main characters get dubbed one way or the other depending on settings, and we guess that's largely unavoidable. Some characters on the Japanese track do speak English, but they're supposed to be fluent and they're not! That's because they're using the same voice actor for both sides and they're cast for Japanese, so their English delivery is awkward at best. We know it might be hard to match the English actor enough for them to use those voices for those lines, but if done well, that'd be less immersion-breaking. And if it's feasible to do a third voice option with everyone speaking the language they should as often as possible? That'd be nice for those of us who'd want that. But it's certainly not an enviable position, and the game manages better than most under the circumstances.

As always for the Yakuza and Like a Dragon titles, there's a strange clash between the serious main narrative and the side adventures. It approaches story moments in a lot of different ways. Sometimes, they're full pre-rendered animations. Occasionally there's an action moment or two. In addition, Infinite Wealth presents many sequences in something close to a motion comic, fully voiced but with new still poses and angles every second or two. We'd feel less charitable about these if that was the only type of scene and it was done just to save development resources, but it feels like it's deployed in specific moments and mostly when people are recounting their own past actions to another.

ichiban kasuga dating app
Screenshot by Siliconera

It does feel like Ichiban Kasuga as a character is built to help bridge this divide, though. He approaches serious moments with quirk, and quirky moments with earnest seriousness. This is most prominently shown here, as he adventures side-by-side with a late-stage Kiryu who's a bit too reserved and competent for some hijinks and slip-ups.

But can we talk about the name change again? There's even a whole segment in Infinite Wealth in which Ichiban, for marketing reasons, emphasizes calling himself yakuza. Someone involved in making the game seems to get the issue.

The biggest and most promoted side adventure in Infinite Wealth is Dondoko Island, a take on Animal Crossing that's at times both send-up and homage. It's substantial, too. It feels almost like a standalone application, with different menus, text treatments and action mechanics. It connects to the main game in a few ways, but we wouldn't be surprised if it was developed separately and stitched together near the end.

like a dragon infinite wealth review dondoko island
Screenshot by Siliconera

In it, you rehabilitate an island resort, mostly through Ichiban hitting things with a bat until they dematerialize. It's also an income source for the rest of the adventure, as you get paid when guests visit and have a good time. We went from start to finish in Dondoko's progression in about 15 hours, which is a lot for a minigame and not much at all for an Animal Crossing replacement, but we're happy it doesn't pad things out to overstay its welcome.

Dondoko Island's ambitions exceed its grasp sometimes. The frame rate in the object placement mode literally made us sick at times. And the ability to shape your island? It's a bit limited by the parts you can get, which are almost exclusively recycled building and street clutter assets from the franchise's previous settings. And some of the later-unlocked areas show up a bit after they might have been most useful.

Still, you can lose yourself in Dondoko for a few days. It's not Animal Crossing deep or polished, but it's a fun thing to do and integration with other things in the game helps a lot. In other words, the franchise's most successful formula.

we see what you did there, sega
Screenshot by Siliconera

We won't spoil any late-game happenings, but Infinite Wealth truly is huge. We figured the "it wouldn't have fit" excuse for Gaiden's existence was more marketing than fact, but playing through this? Yeah, that might just be true. About 50 hours in, the tone of the game shifted a bit, turning into a love letter to the franchise's Kiryu-led past.

As overstuffed as it is, we didn't want Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth to end. It's such a high-effort package with tons of heart, and it's hard not to let that endearing feeling sand down some of the game's rough mechanical edges.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth launches January 26, 2024 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One and PC.

The post Review: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Connects Old and New Eras appeared first on Siliconera.


Siliconera Tuesday, January 23, 2024 9:05 AM
    

Review: Lil Guardsman Is Packed With Humor and Heart

Sometimes, I end up covering a game that I'd never expect to like as much as I do. Lil Guardsman absolutely surprised me with its detail, depth, humor, and heart. It embraces the absurdity of a child thrust into a dangerous, high-stakes job, while also emphasizing how certain choices influence the city and its people.

Things in Lil Guardsman start out fairly innocently. Lil is the daughter of Hamish, a guardsman who mans the gate at a kingdom called The Sprawl. He wants to bet on a Goblinball game, so he drafts his daughter to fill his position. As the days go by and the situation in the city changes, Lil ends up with increasingly strict restrictions from major authorities in the kingdom, handling greater responsibilities and night shifts, and basically becomes a test subject for a Chronometer 3000 device that can let her rewind time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmBgCuwyw9o&ab_channel=VersusEvil

Much of the comedy in Lil Guardsman comes from the obvious and blatant silliness. That part of it is great and reminiscent of LucasArts classic titles. But I also appreciated when said humor also involved critiques of modern society and issues that stem from corruption and intolerance. The state of the working class and nature of politicians, for example, are handled well and in genuinely funny ways. 

Speaking of those deeper issues, while Lil Guardsman is a humorous game, it also addresses them and allows players to make decisions to stand up to authority and for equality. For example, racism runs rampant. Species like Goblins are discriminated against, with certain "rules" on some days threatening punishments for Lil letting non-humans in or telling her she should treat them differently than human visitors. We also firsthand see how power struggles work and have moments during which we could be part of the problem, rather than the solution. 

Those complexities also can be quite wholesome. There is way more heart to Lil Guardsman than I expected. The relationship between Lil and her father Hamish is absolutely exceptional. It pairs typical goofy dad humor with more serious moments between the two. Hamish jokes with his daughter constantly, but then we also get asides that reveal exactly how much he's doing for her sake as a single parent. At another point, a choice that shapes the Sprawl involves Lil debating if she stays positive for him or is honest about how hard the situation is for her, and I really hesitated because both sides could be the "right" answer or have "negative" consequences.

As for the gameplay, it is a mix of Papers Please and classic point-and-click adventures. When Lil is at her post, there are certain restrictions and goals for the day. She can talk to the person trying to get into The Sprawl, teasing, trusting, or doubting them to get additional insight. Three advisors can be called to get insight or because it's part of the edicts for that shift. You can use a Bullwhip, Decoder Ring, Metal Detector, Truth Spray, or X-ray to further analyze people and handle the situation. It is also possible to confiscate items, then either use them later or sell them for money for the crystals needed to power and upgrade the tools you use each day. Of course, there's also the Chronometer 3000, a major plot device, which allows you to rewind at will or if you get a bad ending. After taking three "turns" investigating, you admit someone to the city, deny them entry, or even in some cases jail them.

The only downside to this is that the array of tools don't all carry the same weight. The Decoder Ring, Truth Spray, and X-ray all proved absolutely vital to me throughout the course of the game, but I pretty much never needed the Bullwhip or Metal Detector. The Metal Detector was essentially a backup item in case I'd spent my X-ray uses for the shift. However, I appreciate that the developers even realized this about certain tools, as it has the potential to come up in a clever way depending on your approach in one encounter. However, since you do choose how you invest Lil's paychecks into upgrades, you can just… prioritize the equipment you see as being important to you and focus on that throughout your run. 

Review: Lil Guardsman Is Packed With Humor and Heart
Image via Hilltop Studios

I also appreciated that while the focus is on the guardsman shifts, there are occasional adventure elements that involve logical reasoning or finding specific items. When these segments come up, they never wear out their welcome and tend to be well-integrated. There's a reason for Lil to be called upon to help make an important decision (adults are corrupt and/or incompetent) and 

Lil Guardsman is one of those games that I basically took a chance on because the trailers made me smile, and I don't regret it. It's really entertaining, sometimes touching, and it even shocked me at certain points because of immediate results of decisions I'd made. Speaking of which, this is also a game during which you do face the consequences of your actions, and I'm curious to go back and replay to see how different choices will affect the city on another run.

Lil Guardsman is available for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC. 

The post Review: Lil Guardsman Is Packed With Humor and Heart appeared first on Siliconera.


Siliconera Tuesday, January 23, 2024 9:01 AM
    

Tekken 8 - A wrestler in an animal mask holds a microphone

As someone completely new to series, Tekken 8 was pretty daunting to walk into. Move lists that could have over a hundred attacks can leave you wondering where to start with your character. The paddlings I received online showed me that I wasn't quite on the right track just by picking a character and winging it, that's for sure. While the game does have tools to make it easy to hop in and start slapping folks around and its single player modes have tons of fun in store no matter what your skill level, it's the satisfying journey of finding a character and delving into their incredible depths that really makes this game shine bright.

After picking up fighting games a few years ago, I've always had an interest in the series, but those expansive move lists always left me worrying. Yes, I know that when you have dozens upon dozens of moves, they can't all be useful and you're more supposed to just incorporate them as you slowly learn a character. Still, how do you play someone like King or Jin right out of the gate? What are the good tools? What are my pokes? What moves are good at catching the opponent when they miss? It's a lot to put together.

If you're not super sure and you don't want to put in a ton of work to start having fun, Tekken 8 offers Special Style. This allows you to mash buttons to do some cool combos with each character. So, if you don't want to commit a ton of time but want to start smacking friends, activate this mode by pressing L1 and you'll be doing wacky attacks in no time. The really neat part about this mechanic is that you can turn it on or off at will. So, if you like some of the combos but still want to learn how to play your character with a bit more purpose, you can quickly flick them on if you need them and turn them back off when you're done. It gives you a lot of flexibility in how you incorporate them into your play.

You can also just tank your way through some of your opponent's strikes using Heat. When you activate Heat, you do a Heat Burst where you can absorb a hit and then smash your opponent right back. While in this mode, your character is stronger (but only until the bar runs out), you do chip damage with your strikes, and you gain access to unique moves (many of which are pretty impressive to see). You can also end Heat using a powerful Heat Smash, which stomps foes for a lot of damage if it hits.

Tekken 8 - Boxer Steve punches law in the stomach hard enough to lift him off the ground.
Image courtesy of Bandai Namco

Similarly, when you're at low health in Tekken 8, you enter a Rage state. Here, your attacks do more damage, and you can also activate a Rage Art with R2 that just hammers your foe (while also protecting you like Heat does when you activate it). These are some of the most impressive attacks in the game, and honestly, being able to do these by simply pressing R2 at the right time is just great. You just have to focus on your timing without worrying about how to actually input the button presses.

While learning your character, you have a few single player modes that you can play on the lower difficulties (or if you just feel like beating people up with a character's sweet moveset). Story mode, The Dark Awakens, lets you play on one of several difficulties, and also gives you infinite chances to play many single-round matches, so it's a decent mode to mess around with. Plus, the story is fun (although a bit complex to understand if you're new to the series even WITH the in-game explanations).

Story Mode largely focuses on Jin with some dabbling with other characters, which is fine if you like Jin but less interesting if you don't. If you want more character experience, there are Character Episodes that have a handful of matches and a brief story for all of the characters in the game. You can also tweak the difficulty here to breeze through the array of fun side stories. It's a great way to experience each character to see who you like, and you get a good amount of Fight Money (which you can use to buy customization items for characters and avatars, among other things).

Tekken 8 also offers Arcade Quest, a playful mode where you work your way through arcades across the country, fighting a variety of CPU players of varying skill levels. This mode is where many of the beginner's tutorials lie, so you'll want to pick up this mode and play through it if you aren't sure how the game works. The light challenge, ability to pick whichever character you want to play, and then have some of the more basic concepts explained to you make it a great starting point once you want to start getting more serious about learning a character.

A dark-haired woman holds a bird in her hand.
Image courtesy of Bandai Namco

Having so many single player modes that can cater to lower-skill levels is nice, but what about when you want to start getting better? The game features a Practice Mode where you can look at move lists, how many frames each move takes to go out, your frame advantage for follow-up strikes, as well as properties and damage. You can play around with your attacks and use the frame information to string together some combos of your own, or you can check the same for moves executed by your opponents to look for gaps. Adding combo challenges and samples to the mix give you the usual fighting game tools to tinker with your character until you figure them out.

While I could flip through the move list and have the game demonstrate each strike, I still wasn't sure where to start to take my characters seriously in Tekken 8. Luckily, many of the characters work fairly similarly to their iterations in the past, so if you have experience in the older titles, it will carry over. If you don't, much of the knowledge out there on the older games can still give you some guidance. I found that looking outside of the game was a big help at first. While you have tools to learn within the game, connecting with the community is an excellent place to get started, too.

But say all of that doesn't help you much, and you just start getting blown up online. The game features replays for your matches, which you can watch to check for your mistakes so you can plan to avoid them next time. If you're just getting started, you might not have a good idea how to counter things. This title offers tips to help you figure out what to do, though. If you're getting smacked, you can press R2 to bring up a tip about a better way of punishing something the opponent whiffed with, or a hint as to a better combo route. If you're getting walloped the tips probably won't have much to say, but it's really cool to get some hints during a replay about what you can try next time.

Except, to hell with waiting for next time. Tekken 8 lets you take over your character during a replay to try your new idea live. You basically take control of your character (or the opponent, if you like) so you can play around with things that might stop you from getting stomped next time. There are so many matches that I lost because I couldn't figure out what to do with one thing my foe was doing. Here, I can hope into a replay, stop when the opponent is going to use that ability, and start trying things to stop it. This is an amazing tool for dealing with specific problems against characters and opponents, and I love how quickly it lets you fix gaps in your game plan.

Finally, you can practice against AI opponents built from your own character and others in Super Ghost Battle. These AI enemies use movesets and attack strings based off of players online, so they're a good way to dabble in online play without actually fighting people online, if you're too nervous. More interestingly, you can play against your own character and see what the AI would do with your game plan. See my own play style in use showed me some depressing gaps in my play (why don't I block more?) in a neat light, and makes for a cool addition to the game.

Tekken 8 - Asuka divekicks Leroy
Image courtesy of Bandai Namco

Being able to practice in so many different ways will be useful, as Tekken 8 features a massive, varied roster. The cast has a ton of playable fighters, each having a lot of personality in their moves and abilities. Most of them all look really impressive as well, and I found myself spending a ton of time just trying out many of them. In doing so, I found there were many that I gravitated toward. So many that I am still kinda lost on who I want to sink most of my time into. I usually only feel inclined to play two or three people in most fighters, but here, I liked so many styles and characters that I am still figuring out who I like best. I'm used to finding a lot of fluff in fighters with massive rosters, but here, it just feels like a ton of great characters that you can spend hours picking from.

You can also infuse these characters with all kinds of personality thanks to Character Customization. While you can make an Xbox Live-like avatar for Arcade Quest, it's in customizing the actual fighters that things get really interesting. You can get all kinds of neat costume additions for free, or else spend Fight Money that you earn in-game to unlock many more (and you earn Fight Money fairly quickly through playing every mode). I decked out King in a flower-print suit with a dapper top hat and a donut in his mouth, and could then take that ridiculousness online immediately. No waiting months to get a single new costume for my actual fighter like a certain street fighting game. Just creative outfits right out of the gate.

That said, the main costumes look far better than anything you can create in Tekken 8. Even so, it feels like it's the player expression that they wanted to focus on. Yes, the developer-created outfits are better, but the creators wanted you to be able to express yourself with the way you look. This pairs well with the massive move lists, which are also a way of telling your opponent about yourself. Yes, there's optimal ways to play your character, but it's all of the variety in the attacks and how you, personally, would work them into your game plan that make the character feel unique to you.

While that excess of moves is overwhelming for me right now, it also feels exciting because there's so much nuance to the characters. I feel like there is a lifetime of discovery lying in each of those move lists, if I'm interested in digging into it. I could always just use Special Style and go wild if I don't want that depth, but as I've started digging into King (as I love grapplers), I've been floored by the sheer number of neat things he can do once he muckles onto you. There's just so much, and while it's so much at first, just grabbing a few moves and working them into a match feels like I could play this character forever and keep finding exciting things.

Tekken 8 is daunting to get into, don't get me wrong, but it's the same kind of fear you feel when you start something new and exciting in your life. It's like taking on a whole new hobby and you know very little about it. There are so many places you can go and so many things you can do with this new, thrilling entry in the series. There is just so much possibility and a community to be found. While I have a very long road ahead, this game makes you want to keep taking those steps with its helpful replay tools, great characters, stunning visuals, and its array of handy features to help me turn the tide when I'm in danger or to have fun when I need things to be a bit easier. There's a wealth of wonderful fighting to be had, and it's a fantastic time to take your first steps into Tekken.

Tekken 8 will come out on January 26, 2024 for the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PC.

The post Review: Tekken 8 Is an Extensive, Exhilarating Journey appeared first on Siliconera.


Siliconera Tuesday, January 23, 2024 8:30 AM
    

NieR Reincarnation Ending Service Worldwide

Square Enix and Applibot have announced that they will end NieR Reincarnation services worldwide on April 29, 2024. The final chapter is titled "The People and the World," and it will be released on March 28, 2024 to allow players a month to complete the game.

Until the game's end of service and the launch of "The People and the World Act III: Transmigration," there will be brand new content and characters added into the game. Alongside new content, there will be new events and campaigns.

Square Enix and Applibot have shared their final roadmap for NieR Reincarnation ahead of the end of service, which can be viewed below:

[gallery size="large" columns="1" ids="1008354" link="file"]

The new Variation quest "Blazing Binding Oculus" will run from January 30, 2024 to February 17, 2024. The new Record quest "The Cage of Rebirth" will run from February 17, 2024 to April 29, 2024. Numerous resurrected quests from the past will also return and run concurrently during NieR Reincarnation's end of service.

NieR Reincarnation will be holding a Story Completion Countdown Event starting now with the launch of "The People and the World Act II: The Return". From now until March 29, 2024, players will be able to obtain ten free summons per day and have access to complete Stamina missions. From now until March 28, 2024, players will also get ten Premium Summon Tickets as part of their daily log-in bonus. Players will also receive weekly Gem gifts until April 1, 2024.

Additional campaigns including the People and the World New Chapter campaign will run until February 4th which increases the drop rate by 10x for story quests and give three 4-star Premium Summon Ticket as a gift, as well as 100 Karma Stones as a log-in bonus. There will also be campaigns for the Japanese 3rd Anniversary.

The global version of NieR Re[in]carnation has been running for almost three years, having released July 2021NieR Reincarnation will end service on April 29, 2024 worldwide.

The post NieR Reincarnation Service Ending Worldwide appeared first on Siliconera.


PC Invasion - FeedDDD Tuesday, January 23, 2024 1:57 PM
     Best Class In Diablo 4 Season 3Every season, Blizzard mixed up the meta in Diablo 4 through buffs, nerfs, and general changes to each class. In Diablo 4 Season 3, the best class is different than in past seasons. What is the best class in Diablo 4 Season 3? The best class in Diablo 4 Season of the Construct is Barbarian. In the past, Barbarian has been at either rock bottom or the middle of the pack, but in Season 3, they are the best class. Related: Diablo 4 Season 3 tier list | Best classes and builds, ranked The reason Barbarians are the best in Diablo 4 is relative to how the other classes got changed and how they got buffed. First, their Charge, Hammer of the Ancients, and Upheaval builds got buffed which makes them more fun to experiment with and more viable than other classes with less powerful builds. Second, other classes received nerfs to their central builds, which dragged them down this season. All classes in Diablo 4 Season 3, ranked Barbarian Sorcerer ...

PC Invasion - FeedDDD Tuesday, January 23, 2024 1:42 PM
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PC Invasion - FeedDDD Tuesday, January 23, 2024 1:31 PM
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PC Invasion - FeedDDD Tuesday, January 23, 2024 1:14 PM
     Palworld Eikthyrdeer GuideEikthyrdeer is one of the cooler Pals you can find in the early game of Palworld. It's also one that can be quite elusive to catch. Luckily, there's a way to make catching an Eikthyrdeer pretty easy in Palworld. Where to find Eikthyrdeer in Palworld Eikthyrdeer roams around in a ton of spots in Palworld. There's a chance you might have seen one already, and by the time you've gone back there, it was never to be seen again. This Pal can be annoying like that, but I've got a way of making Palworld play nice. Head over to the Grassy Behemoth Hills and use the marker to fast travel back and forth between it and the Plateau of Beginnings. Eventually, Eikthyrdeer should spawn near the Hills marker. Just be sure to take a careful look around the area because they sometimes hide behind rocks and trees. Eikthyrdeer is one of the more annoying Pals to catch in Palworld because it likes to hide. Or at the very least, it just likes to hide from ...

PC Invasion - FeedDDD Tuesday, January 23, 2024 1:02 PM
     Diablo 4 Season Of The Construct Featured ImageWith a brand-new zone and brand-new enemy type, we sure expected new Uniques for the Season of the Construct. And now we've got them. Here are all the new Uniques coming to Diablo 4 Season 3. Diablo 4: All Season of the Construct Unique Items A new season is now up for all of us to discover, and one of the main things Diablo 4 players want to get is the new Unique items. There are a total of 6 new Uniques coming to Diablo 4 Season of the Construct: one per each class and one for all classes. As you might expect, all Uniques will continue to drop randomly from endgame activities. You better level up your seasonal character as much as you can so that you can get to World Tier 3 and 4 and take part in World Events, take out World Bosses, and even complete Nightmare Dungeons. Take a look at all the new Uniques coming to Diablo 4 during the Season of the Construct. Diablo 4 Season 3 Unique item list UniqueClassDescriptionPaingorger's Gaun...

iDev Games Feed Tuesday, January 23, 2024 9:00 AM
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