Feb 04, 14:00


Kotaku Sunday, February 4, 2024 9:15 AM
    

In case you haven't heard, Persona 3 Reload is out, and it's awfully darn good. Whether you're a longtime series die-hard or just hopped on the bandwagon after Persona 5, there's a lot to sink your teeth into here. But not every game left us feeling quite so satisfied this week. Read on for our thoughts on Silent…

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PCGamesN Sunday, February 4, 2024 1:37 PM
     Try this gorgeous new El Dorado city builder with free Steam prologue

El Dorado: The Golden City Builder may not have an official launch date yet, but that doesn't mean you can't get a taste of what's to come from the strategy title, as a free prologue demo has been released to Steam for those interested in diving into the strategy game to develop settlements, appease the Gods, and conquering the city of Yucatan, all without having to spend a cent of real money.


PCGamesN Sunday, February 4, 2024 12:49 PM
     Baldur's Gate 3 mod gives its tooltips a much needed upgrade

Baldur's Gate 3 has a seemingly infinite amount of depth, both in its characters as well as its combat systems. Utilizing each of the items and pieces of gear you come across on your journey in the Forgotten Realms is crucial to maximizing the power of each of the characters in your party. Although the game demands extensive knowledge of all its systems, not every item has a clear description of its classifications and exactly what it does. Thankfully, a new BG3 mod is here to the rescue.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Baldur's Gate 3 builds, BG3 mods, Baldur's Gate 3 classes

PCGamesN Sunday, February 4, 2024 11:27 AM
     This Palworld mod makes finding those perfect Pals a lot easier

With Palworld still sitting pretty at the top of the Steam charts, the open-world survival game that's often called 'Pokemon with guns' continues to reaffirm its success, having dethroned Valve and Counter-Strike 2 for a large portion of the past two weeks. While developer Pocketpair is hard at work developing new features and quality-of-life updates for the RPG, users have been coming up with their own Palworld mods to further enhance the experience, with one such tool a very welcome addition that fits right into the game's style.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Palworld bosses, Palworld map, Palworld settings

PCGamesN Sunday, February 4, 2024 10:48 AM
     League of Legends Ivern streamer discovers broken Season 14 build

Ivern is not one of the more popular champions to grace Summoner's Rift in League of Legends. However, that doesn't mean dedicated players of the tree-hugging jungler aren't always crafting up new strategies to dominate solo queue and rack up those precious League Points.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: League of Legends Season 14, League of Legends patch 13.23, League of Legends tier list

PCGamesN Sunday, February 4, 2024 10:01 AM
     Promising space strategy game gets launch date and a free Steam demo

From the grandiose space adventures of Starfield and No Man's Sky to the tactical intricacies of FTL and Rebel Galaxy, shipbuilding is always one of the most delightful aspects of any good space game. Exciting new strategy game Breachway implements all the essentials of ship upgrades, resource management, and crew recruitment in a gorgeous deck-building roguelike that splashes in a little of my favorite parts from games like Into the Breach and Slay the Spire, and we now have a date for the game's Steam Early Access release. Even better, a free Steam demo lets you try it out yourself this week as part of Steam Next Fest.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best space games, Best strategy games, Best roguelike games

PCGamesN Sunday, February 4, 2024 9:58 AM
     Co-op roguelike deckbuilder celebrates Steam launch with big upgrades

From Slay the Spire and Wildfrost to Monster Train and Cobalt Core, we've seen plenty of different takes on the roguelike deck builder. Hellcard, initially intended to be a short side project for developer Thing Trunk, expanded dramatically after positive initial reception. It brings its own unique spins to the table, including a positional combat system that'll please Baldur's Gate 3 or Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth enjoyers, and co-op with up to three players. As the team celebrates its full 1.0 release, Hellcard gets a new class and a rework to its endless mode.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best card games, Best roguelikes, Best co-op games

PCGamesN Sunday, February 4, 2024 9:58 AM
     The most essential RPG on PC is 75% off, but you'll need to be quick

I'm certainly not the first to extol the virtues of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and I won't be the last. The vast open-world RPG from Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red is their finest work to date, and one of the best PC games ever. If you're after another sprawling, deep fantasy tale after Baldur's Gate 3, a more narrative-laden, immersive adventure than Palworld, or a richer, more lived-in setting than Starfield, The Witcher 3 is a must-play. Right now, if you're quick, you can snag the complete edition including its masterful expansions at a bargain price, and if you haven't seen it running on PC then it's even more worth your time.

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

Twinfinite Sunday, February 4, 2024 11:15 AM
    
That's why they are the GOATs!

Twinfinite Sunday, February 4, 2024 7:07 AM
    
Wait, who are the good guys again?

Siliconera Sunday, February 4, 2024 12:00 PM
    

Granblue Fantasy Relink New Characters

After 8 long years, Granblue Fantasy Relink is finally here and playable, with a sizeable roster of characters set to be added with post-launch content. But with a cast so large, who exactly will Cygames add? Here are a few of our picks.

Black Knight and Orchid

Granblue Fantasy Relink New Characters
Image via Cygames

Apollonia, the Black Knight, plays an important part in the earlier arcs of Granblue Fantasy's story. First as a menacing adversary working for the Erste empire and later as a begrudging ally. I've been asking, nay, begging Cygames to add her to Versus since it released, but she could be just as interesting to see implemented as characters in Relink.

In the mobile game, she uses a mix of dark magic and swordplay, which serves as an offensive mirror to Katerina in her abilities and character. She's also Eugen's daughter, though the two have a rocky relationship that's often a source of drama.

Then there is Orchid, not to be confused with Orchis, who is a different but related character. She and Apollonia have a similar relationship to Katerina and Lyria: a mysterious girl with no past protected by a sisterly knight. Orchid would be especially interesting because she fights using a stand-like automaton called Lloyd, who ensnares foes with puppet strings.

The Angels and Primarchs

Granblue Fantasy Relink New Characters
Image via Cygames

The Angel characters were introduced in the story event 'What Makes the Sky Blue,' starting with coffee aficionado Sandalphon and the elemental Primarchs Michael, Raphael, Uriel, and Gabriel. Each of the Primarchs governed one of the four basic elements, like fire and earth, before giving up their roles, while Sandy, at one point, 'borrowed' all of their powers at once.

Their fighting styles also vary greatly. While Michael uses several conventional weapons, Uriel is a bare-knuckle brawler, and Raphael can strip his body into ribbons. Their natural flying ability could also make for some abnormally mobile movesets, or let them strike a wider area with their attacks.

There are also several other angels like Halluel and Malluel, Saruel, or the notorious innuendo-magnet Belial, who showed up in Versus not once but twice. Any of these would also make good choices for characters in Relink, though I'm not sure how much more Belial the universe can handle.

The Six Elemental Dragons

Granblue Fantasy Fediel
Image via Cygames

This group of characters began as bosses before becoming playable, and each can take both a dragon form and a mortal guise. Their personalities are as strong as their powers, and their overflowing curiosity makes them fun to see bounce off the other characters.

I'd love to see switching between their various dragon and mortal forms implemented in Relink, especially characters like Wamdus and Ewiyar whose respective forms are very interesting interpretations of 'dragons'.

Meg, Nicholas, and Robomi

Image via Cygames

The next two characters reacted very differently to being mostly normal people in a fantastical world. For example, Meg just wanted to vacation at the beach before the annual Granblue Fantasy Summer events, and the accompanying giant fish monsters drove her mad with stress. Retreating into the mountains, she honed her body into a weapon capable of protecting her beloved beach, and she also had a flying shark named Ursula on her arm. Her story events are hilarious, and she'd suit a very mobile playstyle very well.

Nicholas, on the other hand, adapted slightly more healthily than Meg. Upon discovering an army of invading creatures, he used his engineering knowledge to create Sentai suits, high-frequency blades, and giant robots to defend his family. He and the ancient anti-creature robot Robomi would suit a playstyle built around ridiculous special attacks and mecha transformations that would play very differently from the other characters.

So these are some of the characters we'd like to see potentially added to Granblue Fantasy Relink. Who would you like to see? Let us know in the comments!

The post Characters We'd Like to See in Granblue Fantasy Relink appeared first on Siliconera.


Siliconera Sunday, February 4, 2024 9:00 AM
    

Persona 3 Reload Makes the Reaper More of a Threat

I wasn't afraid of the Reaper in most iterations of Persona 3 prior to Persona 3 Reload. I played every version, mind you, both for work and fun. But because of the way that I played, I didn't fear Tartarus' greatest foe.

Persona 3 Reload made me genuinely fear the Reaper.

Okay, so, in past games I always go for efficiency when exploring Tartarus. Especially after getting through the first 100 floors, because by that point I'm sort of done. I don't want to waste time exploring. I'll probably even forget to rescue people who wandered in by that point. I just want to reach the next wall so I can go back and do the daily life stuff and see the story. This means I never really encountered the Reaper unless I was trying to. If you aren't lazing about, that boss isn't going to show up.

In Persona 3 Reload, other elements culminated to make an opponent who didn't see unless I was really looking for it before turn into a genuine threat. It first happened around November in-game. I was going in a bit more often when not engaging in daily life due to finishing the Mutatsu and Tanaka social links. I realized that if it was a darkened floor, the Reaper was not only more likely to appear, but would show up more quickly. 

The first time it happened, I was about two "rooms" in when Fuuka warned me the Reaper was here. I didn't see the red marker for the enemy on the map and there wasn't the telltale red haze at the edges of the screen, so I figured there was some sort of mistake and made a note for my review to point out there were inaccurate alerts. But then after a fight with a normal enemy, I came out of that to see that yes, the haze was there, the Reaper was there, and it was right behind me.

Worse, this version of the Reaper was smart. As you may or may not know, the Harabah block of Tartarus has a disco sort of feel to it, with winding paths and circular spaces. I figured, "Oh, I will run to the right, get the Reaper to chase me, then make a full circle to go back around. Except the AI for it seemed to realize that and doubled back to continue a close pursuit.

Persona 3 Reload Makes the Reaper More of a Threat
Screenshot by Siliconera

However, what really got me about the Persona 3 Reload Reaper is that this time the dude follows up us stairs. (It's me, I'm the reason Google probably started autofilling "Persona 3" Reaper follow another floor.") I ended up consulting with two fellow Siliconera writers with equal levels of familiarity, DMing them at a late hour going, "Yo, could the Reaper climb stairs before?"

It was such a shock when in December Fuuka suddenly warned me that after escaping the Reaper on one floor, the enemy was still right on my tail. Especially since the game then cut to an animation at the entrance of that floor showing that yes, my "friend" was here and wanted to catch up. I dashed to the next fast travel point I was aware of a few floors up, afraid that the Reaper might suddenly decide to tag along again. 

It really added to the intensity of the experience. While I don't like the idea of fighting the Reaper in any Persona 3 entry before I'm ready, the execution in Persona 3 Reload is pretty good and helps establish the opponent as a true threat.

Persona 3 Reload is available for the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC

The post Persona 3 Reload Makes the Reaper More of a Threat appeared first on Siliconera.


Pivotal Gamers Sunday, February 4, 2024 1:52 PM
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Pivotal Gamers Sunday, February 4, 2024 8:57 AM
     What's up all? GrabTheGames holds a new giveaway for Lazarus AD 2222. Let's hear them out. Get Lazarus AD 2222 for FREE! Last minute notes Use your email to enter this giveaway, follow the on-screen instructions to get and use your key. So what are you waiting for? Click on the button below to get you started. It couldn't be any easier! Need to get notified before everyone else? ...