Apr 29, 12:01


Kotaku Saturday, April 29, 2023 10:30 AM
    

In nearly every niche online community, there are two kinds of people: those who like the porn related to their obscure interests, and those who don't.

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PCGamesN Saturday, April 29, 2023 11:38 AM
     Honkai Star Rail reveals Bronya's mysterious past and top-tier skills

A Honkai Star Rail Bronya video gives us a glimpse into the mysterious history of the next Supreme Guardian, as well as revealing why her support buffs and sharpshooting skills have seen her top the Honkai Star Rail tier list at launch. The turn-based anime game from HoYoverse continues to build out its world and characters with another excellent Honkai Star Rail video going over Bronya's skills and lore.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Honkai Star Rail codes, Honkai Star Rail characters, Honkai Star Rail tier list

PCGamesN Saturday, April 29, 2023 10:33 AM
     Strategy, survival, and a Nemesis-inspired system fuse in Space Prison

Space Prison looks like a truly inventive strategy game. Developed by the new Polish studio Wooden Alien, it blends turn- and grid-based strategy with social dynamics, delightful aliens, and quite surprisingly, survival elements and the Shadow of Mordor Nemesis System, to create something I feel is truly new. So to mark the recent reveal of Space Prison, PCGamesN talks with Wooden Alien and learns a lot more about the upcoming game.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: best strategy games, best 4X games, best turn-based strategy games

PCGamesN Saturday, April 29, 2023 10:07 AM
     Minecraft Legends is bigger than you think, thanks to PC Game Pass

The Minecraft Legends player count is looking healthier than you might have expected. Despite a pretty lacklustre response to the blocky strategy game on Steam, the Minecraft spin-off has managed to rack up some impressive numbers since launch. The news serves as another reminder how the availability of games like Minecraft Legends on subscription services such as Xbox and PC Game Pass can be a real boon to new releases.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Minecraft Legends player count, Minecraft Legends system requirements, Minecraft Legends Steam Deck

PCGamesN Saturday, April 29, 2023 9:06 AM
     Diablo 2 Resurrected season 4 makes huge impact with one small change

A first look at the Diablo 2 Resurrected season 4 patch notes reveals a seemingly small change that could dramatically affect your builds in the classic RPG game. What reads on paper as a simple quality-of-life change in Diablo 2 Resurrected patch 2.7 promises to be a huge buff to Mosaic Assassins and might have far-reaching ramifications on multiple builds as well as multiplayer in general.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Diablo 2: Resurrected review, The best RPG games, The best Diablo 2 Resurrected classes

PCGamesN Saturday, April 29, 2023 7:34 AM
     WoW Dragonflight came from Blizzard tossing out MMO's

Following World of Warcraft Dragonflight, Blizzard says that the studio's change in approach to the fantasy MMORPG and its big return has been due to listening to player feedback, with communication at the heart of World of Warcraft matching up to both Blizzard and player standards.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: WoW Dragonflight tier list, The best WoW addons, WoW Dragonflight review

PCGamesN Saturday, April 29, 2023 7:02 AM
     League of Legends Mythic items are changing as Riot tries to save them

The League of Legends midseason update aims to find a new direction for some of the most powerful items in the MOBA. Speaking in a developer update, Riot Games devs explain that they're unhappy with the state of League of Legends Mythic items in their current form, and lay out a first big wave of changes. There's also news on the incoming ranked reset, bot ban waves, and new champions.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: How much have I spent on League of Legends?, League of Legends patch 13.6, League of Legends tier list

PCGamesN Saturday, April 29, 2023 6:17 AM
     Huge Elden Ring Convergence mod arrives with 24 pages of changes

While we wait for the Elden Ring DLC, plenty of excellent modders have been giving us great content for FromSoftware's open-world game, and now the team behind what may very well be the most significant and game-changing Dark Souls 3 total conversion has released the Alpha for its next project, Elden Ring Convergence, and the changes are endless. If the Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree release date wait is making you hungry, The Convergence is an Elden Ring mod that's an absolute feast.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: The best Elden Ring builds, Elden Ring bosses, The best Elden Ring classes

Siliconera Saturday, April 29, 2023 12:00 PM
    

How to Use Findie in Honkai: Star Rail Ones Fallen into the Abyss

During the Honkai: Star Rail "Ones Fallen into the Abyss" Trailblaze Mission, you'll eventually need to use Findie the Interastral Peace Corporation object finder to collect mine cart parts. However, the game doesn't explain how to do so. It gives you the ability to place seven pieces of Findie at a time, highlights an area and leaves you to it while the character spouts ads repeatedly for things you don't need. In case you missed the tutorial message or just want to know where the items are, here is how Findie works.

How to use Findie to find mine cart parts in Honkai: Star Rail "Ones Fallen into the Abyss"

The key here is to place the seven pieces of Findie and look at the color and direction of the beams. The search will limit you to an area in yellow on the map. The item can only be around there. Place the first Findie somewhere. Look at the color of the beam. If it is pointing in a direction and red, it is very far away. If the color is yellow, it is further away in that direction. If it is green, it is very nearby and you should probably take a few steps in that direction and place another Findie part.

The part closest to the broken mine cart is the Mine Cart Pin. Place one FIndie piece right next to the treasure chest to get it. Findie will say they found it, and there will now be a point you can investigate to collect the object.

[gallery columns="1" size="full" ids="961300" link="file"]

Now, the Mine Cart Wheelset is even easier to find. Go to the Calyx (Golden) in the new yellow highlighted area. Place a Findie part right there. The item is to the left of it, and it will immediately pick up on the radar.

[gallery columns="1" size="full" link="file" ids="961301"]

Once that's done, head back to the mine cart. You can use the two items there, Seele will fix it, and you'll be on your way.

Honkai: Star Rail is available for PCs and mobile devices, and PS4 and PS5 versions are in development.

The post How to Use Findie in Honkai: Star Rail Ones Fallen into the Abyss appeared first on Siliconera.


Siliconera Saturday, April 29, 2023 11:00 AM
    

Don't Forget the Daily Honkai: Star Rail Assignments and Training Missions

Like Genshin Impact, HoYoVerse designed Honkai: Star Rail in such a way that there are Daily Training missions and Assignments that can give you bonus items and points that lead to Nameless Honor and Glory battle Pass rewards. These aren't available right away, as you need to increase your Trailblaze Level to at least 11 to start. Once you do, you get a chance to actively and passively begin earning rewards.

[gallery columns="1" size="full" ids="961293" link="file"]

How to unlock and do in Honkai: Star Rail Daily Training and Missions

Go through Trailblaze Missions and the main campaign until you hit Trailblaze Level 11. The game will automatically perform a tutorial introducing you to the activity and encourage you along. Basically, these daily tasks function in the same way Genshin Impact ones do. You'll see these under the Interastral Guide in the menu.

A handful will be available, each awarding a number of Activity Points that let you earn rewards. You need 500 points to claim all of them for a day. So on April 29, 2023, some of the ones available to me were:

  • Complete 1 Daily Mission: 200 Activity
  • Level up any character 1 time: 100 Activity
  • Inflict Weakness Break 5 times: 100 Activity
  • Complete 1 stage in Simulated Universe (any world): 200 Activity
  • Take 1 photo: 100 Activity
  • Clear Calyx (Golden) 1 time: 100 Activity

In the case of the Daily Mission, character level up, Simulated Universe stage, and Calyx, there's even a button that you can click to directly go to that objective to complete it.

The Daily Missions themselves tend to be very simple. For example, one of the early ones you may encounter is a series of quests that includes The Art of Conversation. This involves talking to a Herta Space Station researcher named Emily and helping her learn to talk to people. There are no battles involved in this one. All you need to do is go, talk to her, then exchange some text messages.

Here are the rewards you get at each tier of Daily Training:

  • 100: 10 Stellar Jade, 200 Trailblaze EXP, 12,800 Credits
  • 200: 4 Lost Gold Fragment, 10 Stellar Jade, 200 Trailblaze EXP
  • 300: 6 Adventure Logs, 10 Stellar Jades, 200 Trailblaze EXP
  • 400: 10 Stellar Jade, 200 Trailblaze EXP, 17,600 Credits
  • 500: 5 Lost Gold Fragments, 15 Stellar Jades, 200 Trailblaze EXP
  • So by doing a Daily Mission, taking a photo by accessing the photo option from the main menu, leveling up a character, and completing one Calyx (Golden) wave, I was done. Honestly, if you're choosing a Calyx or Simulated Universe as one of your tasks, you'll probably complete the "inflict weakness" training without even thinking about it.

    [caption id="attachment_961295" align="alignnone" width="1200"]Don't Forget the Daily Honkai: Star Rail Assignments and Training Missions Screenshot via Siliconera[/caption]

    How to unlock and do in Honkai: Star Rail Daily Training and Missions

    I'm going to level with you. I don't exactly remember at which Trailblaze Level Assignments unlocked for me in Honkai: Star Rail. A lot of things come up at once, but know that appears around the same time as Daily Training. You'll find it in your main phone menu under Assignments.

    This is your passive means of getting Character Materials or EXP Materials and Credits. As you play the game, more missions unlock. However, at the very start, the following missions appear. You can send out two pairs of characters on up to two assignments at a time, and there tends to be a Path that will perform better when selected. Here are the options:

  • Character Materials: Destruction of the Destroyer for up to 30 Thief's Instincts. 20 are guaranteed, and 10 can be acquired as a bonus.
  • Character Materials: Nine Billion Names for up to 30 Extinguished Cores. 20 are guaranteed, and 10 can be acquired as a bonus.
  • EXP Materials/Credits: Akashic Records for up to 2 Sparse Aether. 1 is guaranteed, and 1 can be acquired as a bonus.
  • EXP Materials/Credits: The Invisible Hand for up to 3,000 Credits. 2,000 are guaranteed, and 1,000 can be acquired as a bonus.
  • EXP Materials/Credits: Nameless Land, Nameless People for up to 4 Travel Encounters. 2 are guaranteed, and 2 can be acquired as a bonus.

20 hours after you dispatch your characters on assignments, they will return with rewards.

Honkai: Star Rail is available for PCs and mobile devices, and PS4 and PS5 versions are in development.

The post Don't Forget the Daily Honkai: Star Rail Assignments and Training Missions appeared first on Siliconera.


Siliconera Saturday, April 29, 2023 10:30 AM
    

Sword Art Online Last Recollection Philia and Strea

The official Sword Art Online games Twitter account introduced Philia and Strea, two original characters created for SAO: Hollow Fragment, and SAO: Infinity Moment respectively, that will appear in the upcoming Sword Art Online: Last Recollection. Philia is a dagger wielding treasure hunter, while Strea is an AI and Yui's younger sister.

Philia is a treasure hunter known as the Swordbreaker. Appropriately, she wields a sword breaker dagger. She made her first appearance in SAO: Hollow Fragment, released on 2014 for the PS Vita and 2015 for the PS4, where she saved by Kirito. Philia is a treasure-loving treasure hunter, and she will be joining Underworld in Sword Art Online: Last Recollection with her past memories intact.

https://twitter.com/sao_gameinfo/status/1651926059439489027

Since Strea is an AI, she has appeared in the in-universe world of SAO, as well as the worlds of ALfheim Online, and Gun Gale Online, and she is set to reappear in Underworld on SAO: Last Recollection. This is her first appearance in the SAO games since Hollow Fragment. Strea first appeared in SAO: Infinity Moment, released on the PSP in 2013.

https://twitter.com/sao_gameinfo/status/1651924880106061825

In other SAO: Last Recollection news, other characters recently introduced include Lisbeth in her Fire Goddess Ignia form, and Silica in her Wind Goddess Aeria form.

Sword Art Online: Last Recollection will release on October 6, 2023 for the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC via Steam.

The post Philia and Strea Will Appear in Sword Art Online Last Recollection appeared first on Siliconera.


Siliconera Saturday, April 29, 2023 9:00 AM
    

Cassette Beasts

Cassette Beasts is not what it looks like on the surface. The premise of the game is simple: Pokemon, but you catch creatures using cassette tapes instead of Poke Balls, there are party members, and you can fuse with them Digimon style. That in itself sounds solid enough, but there is much more to it than just a neat creature collector RPG. Add to the mix a bit of the exploration in 2D Zelda style (particularly Link's Awakening), a lot of Persona, a good serving of lo-fi 1980s music and personality, some cosmic horror, and you have Cassette Beasts.

The setting of Cassette Beasts is New Wirral, a strange island full of whimsical creatures. The player character awakens there one day, without knowing how they arrived. People in New Wirral record these creatures on tapes, and then use them to transform into them, to protect themselves and explore the island to survive. After pressing start, you create your avatar from a selection of hairstyles, clothes, and accessories. The game also lets you choose between masculine, feminine, and neutral pronouns, which was a very nice touch. If you wish to change anything about your character, the game lets you do so on your house after the tutorial.

[caption id="attachment_960932" align="alignnone" width="1200"]Cassette Beasts Review Image via Siliconera[/caption]

Shortly after meeting Kayleigh, your first party member, you will be thrown into the main gameplay loop. Combat in Cassette Beasts starts very straightforward. It's a turn-based RPG with your standard fare of damaging moves, buffs, debuffs, support, ailments, and passive abilities. You always fight alongside a party member, and normally face between one to three enemies at once. You can hold up to six monsters at any time. Shortly after unlocking fusion with a party member, you can create any combination of monster available. The game doesn't have traditional difficulty settings, instead letting the player choose how smart the AI acts, and how level scaling works.

Cassette Beasts gradually introduces you to creature types. Similar to Pokemon, each creature has its own type, which ranges from your typical elements like fire, water, air, or earth to stranger and more varied properties like plastic, glass, astral, or glitter. The relationship within each type not only serves to deal more damage or guard yourself from certain types of beasts. Within this system lies a complex and interesting set of rules, in which each type will create a particular chemical reaction on each other, some beneficial and some detrimental. For example, hitting a plastic type with a fire attack will deal extra damage, but it will also change the plastic type creature to poison for a few rounds, changing the dynamic of the battle and expanding the possibilities of the damaged creature.

[caption id="attachment_960931" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Siliconera[/caption]

At first, creatures are limited to a few moves available. As they level up and when you "remaster" your tapes (the game's term for evolving them), your creatures will gain more slots to put stickers on. These are their moves. The game really wants you to know they are cassette tapes, and it rules. Most moves don't have an innate type to them and will instead adapt to the creature's type. To use your moves, you will have to expend Action Points (AP). Each turn your character will gain 2 AP, and by using basic moves that use no AP you can quickly amass a large number of it to deal devastating damage to your enemy. If you have ever played a monster collecting game, you will very quickly learn how types interact and which moves you like best. One of my favorite additions to Cassette Beasts is passive moves that let you start battle by immediately using a set or random move for free. Building your cassettes so that you plan around this is super fun and adds an extra layer of strategy.

Traversing through New Wirral starts slow, but as you explore each location for the main quest and unlock traversal skills, you'll be zooming across the map. Some of these skills include a fire sprint, a vine climbing ability, a magnetic ability to push and pull objects, and a swimming ability, among others. Almost all of the traversal skills have a store upgrade that lets you start battle with some advantage, such as burning your foes, or creating a plant shield. The way you acquire these skills is by capturing a particular type of beast, and you can find them early on in each area that requires the use of this ability, such as the sea monsters being near the coast of a lake. The world is not huge, but it is connected in a really fun way. Acquiring each traversal skill felt almost like getting a new dungeon weapon in 2D Zelda games.

[caption id="attachment_960934" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Siliconera[/caption]

But what really makes Cassette Beasts is its overarching story, and the different sets of interpersonal narratives from the inhabitants of Harbourtown, the main human settlement in New Wirral. Knowing near to nothing about it when playing the game only made me appreciate the quality of the writing, as I was not expecting it. The narrative is not too complex nor ambitious, instead it explores self-contained and relatable experiences from the Rangers of Harbourtown and your party, which is comprised of Kayleigh, Eugene, Meredith, Felix, Viola, and even Barkley the dog. These stories are some of the sincerest and most earnest I have experienced in a game recently.

All of the humans in New Wirral are stranded there, and some even come from different years, or from totally different realities, where things are not quite what you remember from your own. Your shared goal is to find a way out of the island, and most of your party sees themselves entangled with Archangels, reality-bending creatures whose overarching mystery holds the key to find a way back home.

[caption id="attachment_960939" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Siliconera[/caption]

In the process, you will get to deepen your bonds with your party, which allows you to fuse with them, use a special fusion move, and strengthen the fusion form with each level of affinity, up to a maximum of five. If I have a complain about the affinity system, is that you can accidentally unlock it with some characters very late into the game, if you do things in a particular order. For most of the early game, I was stuck with Kayleigh as the only party member I could fuse with. Fortunately, it doesn't take too long until you eventually unlock it with other party members. On that topic, all of them are great, and by the end of the game I was very attached to them. Special mention goes to Eugene, Felix, and Meredith, whose personal stories of struggle with identity and capitalism will resonate with a lot of people in their early to late 20s.

Naturally, a vert important aspect of Cassette Beasts is its music. The soundtrack has some really catchy tunes, but the biggest standout has to be its vocal themes. Especially the songs that play inside the locales of Harbourtown, and during fusion in battle. Some of these songs are really evocative and longing, and its lyrics will get you pumped during the fights. Especial mention goes to some of the songs in the endgame and final dungeon. Additionally, the main quests in the game are named after some very popular 80s and 90s hits, to add that extra flair of personality to the game.

[caption id="attachment_960943" align="alignnone" width="1200"]Cassette Beasts Image via Siliconera[/caption]

The art and graphics in Cassette Beasts are beautiful, and perfectly match the whimsical, and at times terrifying nature of New Wirral. Without spoiling anything, the design for each boss battle is spectacular. Likewise, character portraits are beautiful and full of personality. In contrast, the game world is simple and not filled with too much detail, which helps with navigation and clarity. Because of this simplicity, the pixel art pops-up and the art style benefits a lot from it.

Cassette Beasts is available on PC via Steam and PC Game Pass. It will release for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch on May 25, 2023.

The post Review: Cassette Beasts Is an RPG With a Lot of Heart appeared first on Siliconera.


PC Invasion - FeedDDD Saturday, April 29, 2023 8:13 AM
     Vampire Survivors Character Tier List Featured ImageDespite the persistent danger, and the guarantee of Death at the end, there's no shortage of willing participants ready to step up and face Vampire Survivors' endless hordes. As of the latest expansion, Tides of the Foscari, there are 57 of them in fact: an astounding figure, and one that makes it easy to get lost when deciding who to choose for your next run. Fear not, however, as that's where our Vampire Survivors character tier list comes in. We've broken down every character in the game, looking at their strengths and weaknesses, and divided them into five tiers. These range from D (Don't even bother) to S (Simply Sensational), and hopefully they'll help you with any pre-run indecision you might be experiencing. The comprehensive Vampire Survivors tier list D Tier Arca Ladonna Starting Weapon Passive Abilities Fire Wand Weapon cooldown is reduced by 5% every 10 levels (max 15%).   Look up the word 'underwhelming' in the dictionary and you'll see a pi...