Ultimate FishermanThe most underrated game of 2024 reminds me of Animal Crossing, but it's all about fishing - and nothing elseFish, gamble, and parkour. What more could you want?Image credit: lamedeveloper Article by Kelsey Raynor Guides Writer Published on Dec. 21, 2024 When your game(s) of the year largely consist of psychological horror and back-to-back, brutal boss fights as mine did youll almost definitely need something mindlessly relaxing to kick back with. Sure enough, as I wrapped up my time wandering around the streets of Silent Hill 2, an adorable, unsuspecting game began doing the rounds on social media: Webfishing.Webfishing is simple. You fish. Thats it. After hours of deciphering Silent Hill 2s ending conditions, fishing is all I wanted to do.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Sure, Webfishing does have a little more to it than just fishing. Theres a chat function, and ultimately, the idea is that you make friends or hang with your existing friends and chat while waiting for a fish to bite. Theres cosmetics, upgrades, and even gambling, but not the predatory type; Webfishing, fortunately, doesnt require you to spend a penny beyond the 4.29 that the game actually costs.Sure enough, myself and a close friend got to work catching fish and quickly spent most of our profits on scratchcards. Our newfound profits, which werent really profits at all, were quickly spent on cosmetics and better bait. Better bait means bigger fish, and the fish in Webfishing get really bigAnd what happens when you catch those big fish? More often than not, youll find other folk who all look like Animal Crossing characters, by the way cheering for you in chat. Ive had some of my nicest, most innocent of online interactions all year in Webfishing. Cast off! | Image credit: lamedeveloperAn incredibly simple premise with, for the most part, a lovely playerbase and community. In one random lobby that I joined, hoping to quietly fish while watching YouTube, I joined a group of people fishing from a toilet. One of the many things you can do in Webfishing that I didnt know existed at the time. Another player brought out a guitar and began taking requests from others, while we all continued to fish from the same, small toilet.On another occasion, myself and my friend decided to spend our Saturday evening having some in-game (and real!) beers while playing Webfishing and catching up on each others lives. Our server quickly went from just the two of us to multiple pixelated cats and dogs gathering on the pier to chat about anything and everything, get drunk on in-game wine, and of course, fish.There were a few casualties to the wine, but all in all, logging into a game to fish with your friend and then finding yourself chatting to a whole array of like-minded, LGBTQIA+ people while doing so isnt something I necessarily expected from Webfishing when I first installed it. I was pleasantly surprised, and its what keeps me coming back. That, and fishing, of course. Theres a real kick from catching a fish so big that it clips through the map. Though, not so much of a kick from then spending all of your profits from it on scratchcards, and losing most of them. That's bait. | Image credit: lamedeveloperWebfishing is bizarre and surreal at the best of times, especially when you witness your friend parkour from one side of the map to the other meowing frantically the entire time, because thats a thing you can do but theres something just so lovely about it all. Webfishing is a small corner of the internet where when hackers arent trying to ruin the fun you can truly switch off and relax for a while. Fish, gamble, parkour. Push people into the ocean. Get wine drunk on the pier. Webfishing is an underrated gem and a rare place of respite for gamers who need a break from it all.

Get over here StalkrStalker 2 is a miracle game, and deserves its flowers more than any of the other big budget behemoth games that launched in 2024Nothing has made me happier than seeing this game, by this team, do well.Image credit: VG247 Article by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on Dec. 21, 2024 Looking back at 2024, there have obviously been a lot of fantastic games. No doubt about it - it's been a great year for pretty much anyone who loves turning on their PC, console, or phone and just throwing dozens of hours to the wind. But there is only one game that has truly astounded me this year. Not only on its own merit (a huge open world packed with mystery, secrets, and perilous dangers) but for the context outside of the game, too. Stalker 2 is a miracle game, and it deserves its flowers.Yes, it is still an imperfect thing, filled with bugs. It was worse still on launch, and, brother, if I could sit you down and chat to you about the version of the game press played in the week prior to its launch. Still, it shines despite such faults. I typically have little patience for such problems. Yes, I played it for a review and would have marched through its issues regardless, but bugs and crashes didn't siphon my wanderlust. Not one bit.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. It takes a lot of work from the world-building team, the narrative team, the composers, designers, and a strong vision from the lofty heights of directors and producers to manifest such a feeling. The team at GSC Game World has done this not only often, but to a stunning quality. I found myself enamoured with the darker corners of The Zone, and thoroughly engaged when something more drastic popped up on my mini-map. I see you, big tornado in the North West corner of the map.One amazing aspect of the game I only learned about following our Stalker 2 review is the sheer variance in the story depending on your choices. How different NPCs react to you, the different settlements you have access to. The order in which you traverse The Zone! Different boss fights, different lines from your player character... It's just so rad, man. So many games in the same genre offer a paltry unique quest here or there, a different ending cinematic. To talk the entire narrative and shake it up depending on which faction you side with is a brilliant move that frankly wants me to boot it up again and give it another shot this December. It's lonely at the top. | Image credit: GSC Game WorldOne of the things you start to learn doing this job is how much work goes into making games. You can never know for sure, obviously. Only those who have sat down and made a game can really know the physical and mental toil of turning stray lines of code or a grey cube into a wonderful experience. But, talk to enough developers and it becomes clear that it's a difficult feat under regular circumstances. Doing so during a hostile invasion of your home country - with some peers staying in Ukraine to fight or support their families - is outstanding.I think some out there may see sentiments like that and worry that some of the praise GSC is getting stems in part from pity, or support for the real-world struggle of the people making it. I want to tackle that sentiment head on. If Stalker 2 launched without the wider context surrounding development, it would still be brilliant. It may have come out sooner and with less server damage sure. But the fact this game was made under these circumstances is an extra layer atop an already great accomplishment, not a stool the game stands on to reach the heights of other big games this year.It's fantastic, and only getting better. As post-release patches and bug fixes come out and clash against the game's biggest flaw, I can only sit here and feel my faith in the industry's capability to create endearing, exhilarating worlds harden further. I am further glad of its popularity. It is a game you absolutely must play for yourself.

Kessel Re-RunStar Wars: Outlaws is completely unoriginal, but that's kind-of the best partIt's not innovative, but sometimes the best thing about Star Wars is that it's unmistakably Star Wars.Image credit: VG247 Article by James Billcliffe Guides Editor Published on Dec. 20, 2024 On TV and in films and games, Star Wars has the same problem.The original trilogy was an unprecedented mix of grizzled Western, brooding Samurai film and pioneering Science Fiction which made for transformative popcorn entertainment, a true pop-cultural event.Most things they do make lots of money, but in a cultural impact sense, in the Disney-era particularly, Lucasfilm has only managed to repeat anything close to that level of success a couple of times, most recently with the Mandalorian; itself a Sci-Fi soup of The Lone Ranger, Seven Samurai and good old fashioned practical effects.Saddled with this legacy, with the series already steeped in nostalgia for John Wayne, John Ford and Flash Gordon since the late 70s, new Star Wars media has the unique prerequisite of being authentically Star Wars-y before it can even attempt to deliver on its own ideas.This can pull a project both towards the Dark Side and the Force, because it makes a lot of Star Wars stuff inherently derivative and unimpressive, by design its aping the wet puppets, pew-pew blasters and sliding doors on strings that we all find cozier than the inside of a Tauntaun. However, because it has that route into everyones happy place - even if its no bigger than a womp rat - when something really nails that vibe, it really nails it.After its post-launch re-work, Star Wars: Outlaws is a perfect example of this. It doesnt do much thats new or exciting in and of itself, but there are so many Star Wars hallmarks it gets right that its quietly one of the best, breeziest, most action-packed and rollicking romps you can play over the Holidays (even if it retains some of the weirdness that left if with a rightly mixed reception at launch).This is especially true if you live in a cold, snowy climate - or wish you did for Christmas. Just as youre settling into your groove with Outlaws, your mission takes you to the frigid, slick and stony streets of Kijimi (home of the sequel trilogys only redeeming character, Babu Frik). As the snow drifts down and you get to wear a Hoth cosplay puffer jacket, its lovely.But to get the right feel post-patch, the first thing you need to do is turn one of the main changes straight back off.One of my favourite things about Star Wars: Outlaws is playing with the letterbox, wide-screen aspect ratio, which immediately grounds all of the action and exploration in the unique grungy, yet cinematic aesthetic of Star Wars. It turns the flat, arid landscapes of Toshara and Tatooine into frames from the films instead of just another Ubisoft open world.The amount of fluff activities scattered across the main planets are mercifully restrained, although I have definitely started ignoring random quest givers like I owe them a fiver as I wander from place to place.But the moment that really sold me on Outlaws was on Tatooine. In need of new parts for my blaster, I found a merchant on the map, set off and sprinted around the corner to meet them, only to come face-to-face, or rather thigh bone to yellow golf ball eye, with 3ft of unadulterated Jawa.Can you imagine how much better other open world games would be if the merchants were Jawas? Like in Far Cry 6 or something you just came around the corner and its a little Jawa standing on a box behind the counter. Umpeeni! Whanga hoopa! hed say, handing over a new silencer - itd be great.Anyway, these little moments of Star Wars-y discovery are all over Outlaws and make it feel like an amazingly lived-in representation of a galaxy far, far away. The cities and spaceports are perfectly populated with big hitters and deep cuts alongside a sprinkling of major movie characters and Easter Eggs I wont spoil.There are gameplay elements of Outlaws I dont love. From, I think, the second worst communicated lockpicking mini-game Ive played (after Kingdom Come: Deliverance) to visual signposting in platforming sections thats harder to read than Aurebesh, theres a surprisingly low floor to some of the mechanics and design thats very jarring when it appears. But ultimately its low-stakes, simple stealth with a seat-of-your-pants energy once it all goes wrong that calls to mind Han, Luke and Leia escaping from the Star Destroyer in A New Hope, as you scoop up Stormtroopers blasters and haphazardly fire back at them one-handed.Now, after its difficult initial release, I feel like Star Wars: Outlaws occupies a similar place to a lot of Disney Star Wars. Its a pulpy, but gorgeous and lushly produced caper that was too flawed on launch to capture the cultural consciousness like its predecessors, but, when freed of the pressure to do so, is just clean, escapist fun. This is Star Wars to enjoy under a blanket pulled up to your nose with just your eyes peeping out.Sadly, thats not enough to feed the gears of the AAA games machine, but thats Ubisofts problem to solve, not the playing public. If you need me, Ill be swapping a Jawa three rolls of Bantha wool for a power converter.

We'll Lu-seeFallout season two likely won't see Fallout 76 take its TV crossovers to a whole new level, as its devs don't want to "give fan service for just the sake of doing it""We probably won't go out of our way to add a whole bunch of stuff specific to the show, because we don't feel like we need to."Image credit: Bethesda/Prime Video News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Dec. 20, 2024 The second series of Amazon's Fallout TV show has already commenced filming, and even if we've still likely got plenty of time to wait until we see what Lucy, Maximus and The Ghoul get up to in New Vegas, that doesn't mean people aren't excited.It'll no doubt be a boon for Fallout games too, with the first series having brought players to the likes of Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 in droves, as the latter did some little crossovers with the show too. Given these were most limited to things like outfits, and the show's now cemented itself as the hit no-one could be 100% sure it would be heading into season one, as part of an interview about playable ghouls and other stuff, I asked 76's lead producer Bill LaCoste if the team will be looking to level up what it does crossover bit-wise for season two.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "I would imagine it would probably be along the same lines," LaCoste told me, "Because we have an appreciation for the TV show, the story its trying to tell and the characters it's trying to [portray], and we also have an appreciation for the story of Fallout 76 is trying to tell."So, very, very limited amounts of crossover, where it actually makes sense, because again, we're on extreme ends of the [Fallout] timeline as well. So, some of that crossover doesn't make sense. We just want to make sure that it's done in a way that is supportive of the TV show, but also allows us to just coexist within this story overall that's being told."We probably won't go out of our way to add a whole bunch of stuff specific to the show, because we don't feel like we need to. We feel like it's great to let the TV show do its thing and for people to love the TV show for what it is, but also love our game for what it is, and not just give fan service for just the sake of doing it. We'll do some things that make sense, [the] Vault 33 suit made sense, it's something that exists in the world and you can have it, but yeah, we'll probably keep that relatively light would be my guess."So, some stuff, but nothing that'd feel too out of place in the world of Appalachia, with its mothmen cults and giant snakes. Ok, I'm being a bit facetious there, but it will be interesting to see what Bethesda does do Fallout game-wise to coincide with Fallout season two, given how much chatter the series' lack of a recent release that the first series spawned, for better or worse.In the meantime, however, we will all at least have Fallout 76's playable ghoul to try out, in between squinting at alleged photos of Fallout season two sets.

Larian has put out Baldur's Gate 3's last big community update of 2024, and it brings some nice news. Registration's now open for the stress test of Patch 8 that's set to take place early next year, so you you can throw your username in the hat if you wish.As the studio revealed late last month, Patch 8 is the final major update for BG3, it swears. What'll be in it? Well, a heap of things, such as crossplay, a photo mode, and 12 new subclasses - with the latter including the likes of a College of Glamour bard, bladesinging wizards, and drunken master monks.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. In that announcement, Larain made mention of stress testing for the update happening in January 2025, and it's now opened up registration for that test, so you can apply to be a part of it by going to this link. You'll just be reigering your interest, so you might not get picked, but it's worth a shot if you fancy it.As for why the test - which is available to folks on PC via Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation, but not Mac or GOG - is taking place, Larian explained: "A stress test aims to do exactly what it sounds like; rigorously test the latest game version to detect any instability or gameplay issues before Patch 8 releases. With your help, well be able to keep an eye on any funny business. To see this content please enable targeting cookies."Bringing cross-play to a game the size of Baldurs Gate 3 has been no easy task, and we want your help to test-drive this new functionality. Share the stress test registration link to summon your friends and settle in for a cross-play campaign, or head to the Larian Studios Discord Server to look for a group to play with."While mods should be ok, Larian also says this test'll be a chance for it to see how they mesh with Patch 8's new fgeatures, hopefully meaning that by release, load orders won't be giant barrel explosions waiting to happen. The studio's also winding down console mod curation for the holidays from today, but it'll be back on that grind in the new year.While you wait, Larian's also done its own advent calendar thingy that you can use to help celebrate whichever holidays you celebrate this time of year. There's even a video that sees Swen Vincke cheekily shoulderbarge somone who used to work for Eurogamer.

Holiday Hell HurlDiablo 4 is free to play until the new year on everything, and you can even try out the new Spiritborn classBlizzard really wants you to be playing Diablo 4 over the holidays and into the new year.Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment. News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on Dec. 20, 2024 While the core ARPG community may be busy arguing the merits of Path of Exile 2 right now; how challenging (and sometimes downright unfair) it can be, and how much it is and isnt like Diablo, casual players likely dont care much about all that.What may turn their heads, however - at least, the way Blizzard sees it, is a chance to play Diablo 4 for free while everyone is off for the holidays.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Blizzard has once again brought back the Diablo 4 trial. This particular iteration is one of the more generous, as it lets people who dont own the game play the base campaign, and try out the new Spiritborn class (from Vessel of Hatred).The trial is available across PC (Battlenet), PlayStation, and Xbox, which is a nice change from some of the PC-limited trials of the past. The trial is available right now all the way until Friday, January 3, to cover the Christmas and New Years Eve break.Diablo 4 is also on sale up to 40% off across all platforms, giving you another reason to turn that free trial into a full purchase, should you think its worth it. All your progress will carry over, too. As a reminder, the base game of Diablo 4 is also part of Game Pass on PC and Xbox. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.

Ray-Aw, ManRayman stars in a weird NFT game vaguely inspired by the coolest Far Cry DLC that Ubisoft's just quietly plopped out, because of course he doesAlso, he's seemingly now a Die Hard baddie who makes a lot of probably very salient points about how America sucks.Image credit: Ubisoft News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Dec. 20, 2024 Ubisoft's done it again. Here's a new weird NFT game that's been released with close to zero fanfare by the publisher. This one's got Rayman in it, and is based on a thing that's inspired by Far Cry 3's fun Blood Dragon expansion, if you can believe that.As you may be aware, this isn't the first time Ubisoft's pretty much stealth-dropped a weird NFT/Web3 game this year - there was Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles in late October. The name proably doesn't mean anything to you, but you might remember it as the game that suffered from a bug which led to one or two players starring in and insta-winning every single match put on, until a ban, a fix, and then a kinda awkward unbanning.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Enter Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E., a thing that was released earlier this week with barely any marketing, likely because, as Stephen Totilo of Game File reports, it features a bunch of cryptocurrency and blockchain s**t, and even requires an NFT to play.Here's where things get weird, though. This game is based on a Netflix animated series called Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix, which itself draws inspiration from Far Cry: Blood Dragon, an actually good expansion for - or standalone mini-game based on, depending on your view - for Far Cry 3.You remember Blood Dragon, right? It was a cool 80s action movie-style twist on your island adventure with Vaas, and it let you play as a military cyborg called Sergeant Rex "Power" Colt voiced by Aliens and Terminator actor Michael Biehn.Anyway, based on what Totilo says, this NFT thing's nowhere near as fun as that. Instead it's reportedly an early access game that's "the most basic top-down shooter imaginable", letting PC folks do some shooty stuff while running into characters from that Neflix show and Rayman, who's guest starring it for reasons."Rayman is the glossy face of Eden's entire media system, from the Eden Report to the Eden Late Show, including any form of entertainment program," reads the Ubisoft mascot's character description on Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E.'s website."In his earlier life, Rayman was a resident of a universe called Dimension X. As an immigrant to this reality, Rayman was witness to the many injustices of America and struggled to overcome rejection by everyone he met. He was happy to see America fall - and even happier that Eden gave him purpose. As he is Eden's chief propaganda officer, Rayman's friendly image is seen everywhere. Though Rayman's likeness has great influence, Rayman is simply a cog in the Eden machine."Hang on a minute, has Ubisoft transformed Rayman into a Die Hard villain that you actually want to side with by the time you're halfway through the movie? Maybe, but I'm not playing some NFT bollocks to find out.

Future Box FightEither PlayStation or Xbox will "struggle mightily" to do well with their next gen console, while Nintendo'll be "the clear winner, predicts research firmThere isnt room for more than two major console systems" in the upcoming cycle, reckons DFC Intelligence.Image credit: Xbox/PlayStation/Nintendo. News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Dec. 20, 2024 Yep, it's time to talk about video game boxes again. And the future. I know, I'm scared too. Anyway, a reasrach firm has had a go aty predicting what the next generation of console hardware will look like, and its verdict is this - one of PlayStation and Xbox will be able to achieve the kind of success it craves by avoiding landing in third place, while Nintendo'll be just fine.This is according to market research company DFC Intelligence (thanks, VGC), which has released its annual market report and forecast, outlining what it predicts could happen beteen now and about 2030. Yes, we're now nearing 2030 and you are as old as that makes you feel.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. So, what does it reckon'll happen. Well, basically that there'll only be scope for one of Sony or Microsoft to have success with a console in this upcoming gen, with Nintendo being a sure bet to join whichever of those comes out on top in doing well."There isnt room for more than two major console systems, DFC wrote, "Sony or Microsoft will struggle mightily in a distant third place largely depending on which of those companies can gain early momentum."Naturally, it reckons there are a lot of factors that'll go into deciding which of Xbox or Playstation has to settle for the bronze medal, including basic stuff like pricing and the specfic launch dates opted for. Both sides also each have their own reasons to feel good about their chances, or at least tell corporate shareholder/investor types they do, with DFC citing a "loyal base and strong Sony IP" on one side, and Microsoft's big recent aquisitions giving it "the option of focusing on software and distribution models over hardware".Meanwhile, Nintendo'll seemingly just be chilling with its Switch 2, with the firm predicting it'll be "the clear winner" in this new console gen, due to factors like earlier availability for its hardware and limited competition. The report also predicts that the games industry as a whole will "resume growing at a healthy rate" starting next year, with Ninty's new hardware and a little game called GTA 6 helping 2025 move on from the last few years of post-Covid pandemic decline. Here's hoping there's at least a slim chance that means less bigwigs will be pushing the layoffs button every six months/weeks.What do you think the next half decade in gaming will look like console-wise? Let us know below!

SmoothMonster Hunter Wilds' performance has been improved in the final game, and we may even get a second betaCapcom just revealed a bunch of new Monster Hunter Wilds details, and addressed several points of criticism from the recent open beta.Image credit: Capcom News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on Dec. 20, 2024 Just before we all check out of 2024 and prepare for the new year, Capcom hosted one final community update to address pretty much all the major topics the recent beta of Monster Hunter Wilds generated.The livestream touched on a number of key topics, including some that have caused some controversies amongst the Monster Hunter community. It was full of good news, and even the promise of another chance with the beta.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Anyone who played the recent Monster Hunter Wilds beta, or even got to watch others play, will very clearly tell you that the game just didnt run very well on any system. Even high-end PCs struggled with constant framerate drops and lower than expected performance. The beta was clearly heavily CPU-bound, meaning even those lucky enough to own the most expensive GPUs couldnt brute-force their way into a smoother experience. Things were even worse on consoles, too.This was one of the first things game director Yuya Tokuda addressed on the livestream. We got to see a gameplay video from an updated build, which certainly looked smoother than the beta. According to Tokuda, the team fixed a rendering bug in the PS5s Prioritize Framerate mode that was responsible for some of the performance woes, and generally improved it elsewhere.The team also shared target framerates and resolutions for all console versions. Unsurprisingly, Prioritize Graphics modes run at a higher resolution but limit the framerate to 30fps, whereas Prioritize Framerate can go as high as 60fps by rendering at a lower resolution.All of this is good news for everyone. The even better news for PC players is that Capcom is considering releasing a benchmarking tool to help players understand how the game is going to run on their systems. The games minimum specs will also be lowered. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.One of the more heavily discussed issues with the open beta was the lack of a hitstop/impact of weapon attacks. The hitstop effect will return in the final version, and you can expect weapons to generally feel more weighty as a result. Sound effects have been improved there, too.Another controversial topic has been the degree of friendly fire, particularly when using upswing attacks of the hammer. That has been adjusted, and so has the gunlance's fire. Friendly fire will always be an element of combat in Monster Hunter, of course, but as Tokuda explained, its all about the balance.As for whether were going to get a chance to go hands-on with Wilds one last time prior to launch, Tokuda teased that we may potentially get a second open beta, but couldnt outright confirm it. Though it may have more content the first beta, dont expect many of the improvements discussed on the livestream to make it into that.Monster Hunter Wilds is out February 28 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

It's been easy to forget that Helldivers 2 has still had an Illuminate invasion going on over the past couple of days, as everyone's been distracted by the pricing backlash against the game's Killzone crossover gear. But, the aliens are still doing their thing in-game, and the next step in their warpath could delay yopu getting your hands on a new ride.Remember the Omens of Tyranny update's announcement mentioning Helldivers 2's first driveable car, the Fast Reconnaissance Vehicle or FRV? Well, the baddies have it in their crosshairs, and players reckon they're aiming at something else too.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "The AM Defense Factory Hub on Achernar Secundus has come under attack by the Illuminate, threatening production of the Fast Reconnaissance Vehicle (FRV)," this latest Major Order from Arrowhead reads, "If the Illuminate are not repelled, distribution of the FRV will be severely delayed. Importantly, many colonists will also be killed or abducted."So, naturally, the folks on the Helldivers 2 subreddit and in the game itself were like 'oop, better get my bum over to Achernar Secundus', only to look at their maps and realise something. This new order's main battleground planet isn't far from Meridia, which long-time Helldivers will remember as the planet that got spaghettified into a purple black hole all the way back in June. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Now, in a fun coincidence, players have noticed that the black hole's apparance has recently been revamped alongside the deployment of that Killzone crossover, taking on a darker hue and gaining some extra floaty bits around it. Naturally the conclusion being reached is that the Illuminate will make a move for Meridia soon, maybe to do something like pull some fresh reinforcements through this hole.Given a lot of folks have spent the majority of this year since the hole became a thing believing that it could well be where the Illuminate would enter the game from, it doesn't seem like too big a leap in logic, but Arrowhead itself's not convinced yet.A recently released in-game alert from the studio issues folks with the following edict: "Some helldivers may have noticed novel electromagnetic phenomena in the vicinity of the Meridian Black Hole. High Command is aware of the situation, which is being closely monitored by experts in the field. "Helldivers are advised to avoid distractions and focus their full attention on replling the Illuminate threat."So, there you go. No thinking, leave that to the experts. I'm sure everything with Meridia will be just fine.At leasdt if anything does happen with the back hole soon, you'll have some gear from Helldivers 2's Killzone crossover on hand as you dive into the fray, after Arrowhead responded to the pricing controversy by gifting everyone the second part of it for free.

Flying Or CrashingJames Gunn's Superman has just received its first trailer: some people love it, some don't, and we can't tell if Krypto or Lois Lane has the bigger stan armyNot everything is praise and hype.Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures News by Fran Ruiz Contributor Published on Dec. 19, 2024 The generous teaser trailer for Superman, written and directed by James Gunn, has finally arrived, and you can bet that everyone has strong opinions about it, good and bad. Here's a quick rundown of the current buzz online.As far as first looks go, this one, from my personal point of view, feels quite classical and uplifting. It's also the rare sort of trailer that doesn't reveal a lot about the actual plot and character dynamics. That said, we're fully expecting future promo material to be bolder in its approach to selling us on the story and characters. This kind of vibes-based preview is exactly what the people needed right now, especially when it's so openly hopeful and the direct opposite to the now-deceased DCEU's plans for Kal-El/Clark Kent.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Let's start with the words of praise first. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the online noise seems to be positive following this first trailer, mainly because Gunn has earned the audiences' trust over a decade now with the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy (and a great Holiday Special), The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker, and Creature Commandos. Even when he explores darker themes and plot elements, he remains hopeful and poignant at the end of the day. This Superman reboot appears to be doubling down on that, and it's also a good exercise for the filmmaker after dealing with bloodier affairs in his other recent works at the DC camp (which he now helms alongside Peter Safran)."This is straight up a comicbook come to life. Superman nation, we won," writes ClarkQuill97 on Twitter. As you can infer from the username, this user is big on Superman and probably had high hopes. So far, they're satisfied.Rachel Brosnahan's Lois Lane is algo gaining tons of stans, even after just one trailer: To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Massive comic book fan account PridefulSin is also sold on the movie due to the special focus put on Superman actually saving and inspiring people. These are the sort of big voices you want to convince with a first look: To see this content please enable targeting cookies."Krypto is gonna put asses in seats," predicts illustrator Dan Veesenmeyer. He's probably right. People love a good boy. "I have got the biggest smile on my face right now," added gaming figure Ultima. It's definitely a clear mission statement to kick your comic book adaptation universe with a super dog with a cape!On the cinephile side of things, buzz seems to be positive for the most part, with users praising the fact Superman is back to being an innocent boy scout instead of a bipolar alien. I kinda liked what Zack Snyder was going for, but that was the kind of stuff you tried to adapt after doing this, not before! "Oh, so this is an actual Superman movie and not an edgy mess." Even 'Out of Context Simpsons Couch Gags' chimed in.Of course, not everyone is happy with a lighter (both thematically and visually) approach to the character, and some raised valid concerns about some scenes looking a bit too 'made for TV' (we must remember the movie has just entered post-production though). "Im not going to be an idiot and claim it looks like a fake movie but this is not matching the quality level I was expecting," expressed ComicAccuracy with a mild take.BroBible's Eric Italiano also wanted to like what he was seeing, but is "concerned by the aesthetic" and tried to put it into words diplomatically: To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Other people haven't been as kind: To see this content please enable targeting cookies. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.You get the idea by now. Some folks are digging the vibes and others aren't, maybe because they're still fighting for the 'SnyderVerse' or just because they'd rather have a different, more adult take on the character. The beauty of comic books, especially when it comes to legendary characters like Superman (who has been around for a very very long time) is that so many approaches to the character are equally valid. Gunn's iteration is simply bringing back some of the Silver Age style, and should his DCU be successful and advance, I'm fairly sure the characters and tone would evolve as well.Regardless of what you think about the trailer and the movie, we all can agree that Krypto alone might make it a box office success and are hoping he isn't hurt by evil businessman Lex Luthor. Everything else is up in the air and will be until the movie opens on July 11, 2025.

Super SantaHelldivers 2 dev Arrowhead comes up with a suitably festive solution to all that Killzone collab price backlash"We will revisit this," the studio says of the item prices folks weren't fans of, while loading up the free gifts onto its sleigh.Image credit: Arrowhead News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Dec. 19, 2024 Since Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead deployed the opening bit of the game's Killzone crossover, the prices players are being asked to pay for this new stuff have been causing some serious backlash. Now, after working to respond to unhappy players, the studio's made the decision to give away the gear coming as second part of the collab for free.As we reported yesterday, the big bugbear players have about this Killzone gear is the fact that the amount of super credits being charged individually - because it's not come as a warbond - for the new assault rifle and armour set are pretty lofty.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. After CEO Shams Jorjani and Johan Pilestedt spent some time on the socials trying to explain to players why they did what they did with this crossover gear, the studio's now deployed a solution that it's hoping will help repair any goodwill the high prices have burned through. Basically, it's giving the second part of the collaboration, which was set to drop on December 23, away to everyone as a free festive gift today.As this was our first crossover offering, weve been listening to the response, and the feedback weve received from our community surveys is that crossover content is really high up on your wishlists," Arrowhead wrote in a Steam post outlining this, "At the same time, some of you are not happy with the prices of the items and we will revisit this. To see this content please enable targeting cookies."Many of you were also concerned that items wouldnt be in rotation for long enough, and there was a bit of concern around how these items exist outside of our usual Warbond releases, which are always themed in our own universe."So, it's made the call to give away the second wave of gear for free to all players, with it set to drop "in two waves", as well as extending the time items currently in the Superstore will be there "from 5 days to 10 days", so you don't have to worry about FOMO as much if you're busy grinding Super Credits to grab the other Killzone bits."Were also investigating solutions for how we can bring these items back permanently in the future," the studio added, "The W.A.S.P. stratagem will be available for you all to unlock via a major order shortly."There you go. Arrowhead's work certainly isn't done - it needs to work on finding an ideal price point for stuff like this that works for both it and Helldivers 2 players, if such a thing exists, but it's a nice gesture. Tis the season of giving, after all.Has this free gift help ease any unhappiness you might have been feeling about Helldivers 2's Killzone crossover and its beefy prices? Let us know below!

I Got A Letter...It's been a grim year, hasn't it? 2024s best games are all about disgust, decay, and existential dreadI had a pretty cheerful 2024 in gaming, as you can tell.Image credit: VG247 Article by Kelsey Raynor Guides Writer Published on Dec. 19, 2024 2024 was a big year for folk with a never-ending affinity towards all things survival-horror, largely due to the fact that the Silent Hill 2 Remake finally released. A game that, after its initial announcement, I was truly dreading. I love Silent Hill 2, so much, and for the longest time, all I ever really wanted was for the original trio of games to be ported to modern platforms exactly as they are. Nothing more, and nothing less. I, admittedly, did not trust Konami or Bloober Team to do it justice.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. I couldnt have been more wrong. After a preview event in which we spent three hours with the game, I was wholly obsessed. Converted from the stubborn, bitter Silent Hill fan I was always was (this is with thanks to the cancellation of Silent Hills, which I will never stop banging on about) into, well, someone who finally felt hopeful about the series. Bloober Team alleviated me of all my Silent Hill woes in such a short span of time, and continued to do so once the game was released.The remake was a different game to the original Silent Hill 2, but Bloober Team managed to make something so special; an entirely new iteration of James journey that was just as psychologically tormenting as the last. I will never doubt Bloober Team ever again. As for my trust in Konami, well have to see how Metal Gear Solid Delta turns out first.While the Silent Hill 2 Remake stands tall as my personal game of the year in 2024, it was far from the only game to have impressed me. 2024 wasnt quite the year for horror fans that 2023 was, we got the Dead Space remake, Resident Evil 4 remake, and the exceptional Alan Wake 2 last year but we did receive a good portion of indie horror games trying to make their mark, which some did with ease. Image credit: Bloober Team/VG247Mouthwashing, for example. An acid-trip of a game that, for two hours, is impossible to put down as you try to piece together its non-linear, gruesome story. Beneath all that, though, is a poignant discussion of existential dread. Is there more to life than, well, capitalism? Working your way up the ranks in an increasingly cruel world? Does any of it even matter? It isnt the cheeriest way to spend your time, but its one game that you wont be forgetting in a hurry.My horror GOTYs aside, there is one more game that while it doesnt quite beat Silent Hill 2 for me, personally I spent the most time with this year. A game that some may argue isnt really a game at all, and thats Elden Rings Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.A part of me would argue that Shadow of the Erdtree, given its size and scope, is a game within its own right. Theres just so much to be done, but the folk who argue that you have to fight the likes of Radahn and Mohg to even access the DLC admittedly have a point. Either way, I think one thing many of us can agree on is that Shadow of the Erdtree was an exceptional DLC. I expected something brilliant from FromSoftware, as always, but I wasnt quite prepared to be whisked into a haunting world in which most of my burning questions were finally answered. Armed to the teeth. | Image credit: VG247/FromSoftwareShadow of the Erdtree boasted numerous bosses in a much more compact space. A space that was still huge, however, meaning that exploration was still very much a big and important thing in Erdtree, but the DLC felt one step closer to a Dark Souls game. Boss fights were frequent, the world felt dark and grim, and the characters you meet along the way oh, how they tug at your heartstrings (for the most part). Moore and his friends will forever have my heart.I also owe a shout out to the likes of Persona 3 Reload and Balatro. These are two more games that have helped shape my year in gaming, though Im not quite done with them just yet. And I dont think Ill ever be done with Balatro thats for sure.

Fallen-on-and-OnIf you can believe it, Lords of the Fallen is still getting patches that change its combat this many months after launchOver a year after its initial release, the devs behind Lords of the Fallen continue to tweak some of its most fundamental aspects.Image credit: CI Games News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on Dec. 17, 2024 Remember Lords of the Fallen? Not the original 2014 game, the sequel that came out in October last year and was fairly divisive. The games developer, Hexworks, never really stopped working on it.Very quickly after launch, patches started arriving to address some severe stuttering and performance issues, and fix some crucial bugs. Once the bulk of that work was over, Hexworks turned its gaze to some of the core issues in combat, difficulty, and progression.The developer changed some much, in fact, it ended up giving players the tools to essentially balance the game themselves, but what we all thought was the games final patch ended up being just another one in a long list of them.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Just days ago, Lords of the Fallen received its 1.7 update. Though a smaller patch that added support for PS5 Pro was released prior, 1.7 is among the more major, gameplay-changing patches the game has received.Now, over a year on from the moment Lords of the Fallen first arrived, the developer is once again attempting to tweak the gameplay feel. More specifically, the patch improves character control and responsiveness in combat by tweaking animations to allow for more invincibility frames, more accurate dodges/rolls, and even more accurate animation cancelling.Hexoworks said the goal of the update is to make the game more accessible to new players, while increasing the skill ceiling for veterans who know what theyre doing. Are heavy weapons going to feel less awkward now?This patch also comes with a couple of quality of life tweaks of its own, including the ability for your character to automatically collect Vigor, and balance tweaks to New Game Plus. Another feature new players should appreciate is being able to summon NPCs in boss fights on a first try, and theyre going to be more effective, tooEven more surprising is that it sounds like 1.7 may not be the end of the road for Lords of the Fallen, either. Despite a sequel having been confirmed, more work will seemingly continue to go into the current game. If the changes in the new update intrigue you, the game is currently 60% off on Steam, until December 19.

Rider!Warframe does it again, turning another mobility bug into a permanent featureMotorbikes weren't meant to be used in non-Warframe 1999 missions. But fun comes first!Image credit: Digital Extremes News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on Dec. 17, 2024 Almost a decade ago, Warframe players were using weapons like The Tipedo to send themselves flying through the air at ludicrous speeds. This turned the mobility game on its heads, allowing folks with the dexterity to do so to quickly soar through levels. Digital Extremes, rather than remove this bug, made it a feature. Now, with Warframe 1999, it seems a similar revolution in the mobility game has happened again.This is all thanks to the motorbike, a summonable bit of gear that allows players to jump on their own personal two-wheeled vehicle at will. This is meant to be only usable in new Warframe 1999 missions - a way to quickly traverse the sprawling city recently added to the game. However, players quickly learned that you could summon this in missions outside of this new content, allowing for vehicular speeds where it is absolutely not intended.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Announced in-game, as well as on the official Warframe Reddit, the team has seemingly decided to let things ride. Megan Everett, the Warframe community director, provided some additional info on what will be fixed to make the whole situation works. This includes this leniency not applying to other traversal vehicles, not being able to use the motorbike in Archwing missions (as bikes can't fly, duh), and any gamebreaking issues stemming from this decision being fixed in due time.It's a wonderful decision, honestly. When Warframe actually embraced bullet jumping it added a whole new layer to the game, forcing players to master movement skills to really make the most out of their time. It also allowed for greater verticality. One wonders if boss fights like the Ropalolyst would even be possible without this decision. The choice to make motorbikes usable in regular missions opens up all kinds of interesting possibilities.Let us know what you think about this? Do you appreciate this decision? Or is it all a bit too much? Let us know below!

Leaf It Out, MateMy game of the year is Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree because, yes, of course you're are allowed to choose DLCIt's my game of the year, I'll choose whatever I like, thanks.Image credit: VG247 Article by James Billcliffe Guides Editor Published on Dec. 17, 2024 The best expansions are unmistakably grounded in their base game, but take all of their strongest ideas and distill them down into a more refined, self-contained experience which not only celebrates everything that made the original great, but takes it just that little bit further, too.Shadow of the Erdtree is not just the phenomenal, lore-drenched, soul-sucking Elden Ring experience you know in the present, but an homage to FromSoftwares past and glimpse into its future as well.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. It all begins in true Souls style, with one of this years best horror moments followed by a legacy dungeon that could come from anywhere in FromSoftwares storied back-catalogue - packed to the rafters with hidden ambushes, unfair fights and a cataclysmic boss battle to top it all off.But, as you reveal the undiscovered secrets of the universe in a labyrinthine warren of secret tunnels and passageways that belie the regions true, incredible scale, its the gothic ambiance of The Lands of Shadow that steals the show. This is yet another special FromSoftware setting, contained within another special FromSoftware setting: Fromception.Crucially though, this is also one of FromSoftwares most forthright narratives - certainly in a Souls game - but that does nothing to dampen the mystery and ethereal wonder of the locations you visit and characters you meet. Its this story-telling evolution that makes Shadow of the Erdtree essential in its own right, as well as an absolutely stellar addition to the base game of Elden Ring (obviously a GOTY contender in its own right, too, of course). Don't lose your thread. | Image credit: VG247Shadow of the Erdtree is easily one of the most memorable, exciting, and engrossing things to drop this year, and can be hewn alongside The Shivering Isles, Phantom Liberty, and Undead Nightmare on the Mount Rushmore of great video game DLCs.In fact, we've got a podcast dedicated to this very topic: Which expansions are better than the main game? From The Shivering Isles to Toussaint, some downloadable content is worth every penny. Twice. The fact that Shadow of the Erdtree quickly and effortlessly adds itself to these iconic names says it all, really; in a year of incredibly strong, memorable games, it's an expansion that really lodges itself in my head as we tiptoe into 2025.

Music MattersDen of Wolves lead reveals the secret behind badass video game music, the "other mid tempo", and Metal Gear Rising's composer's involvementSimon Viklund sits down for a conversation on music, something here's clearly a fiend for.Image credit: 10 Chambers Article by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on Dec. 17, 2024 Den of Wolves stood out to me during this year's packed Game Awards celebration for one major reason. The music. Yes, the concept of a new first person heist game from the developers of Payday 2 is enough to garner significant hype, but it's the pounding, relentless rhythms that snatched my attention. Inside the Peacock theatre, you could feel your chair shaking.As a fan of drum and bass myself, I was delighted to have a chance to sit down and chat to Simon Viklund about the approach to music in Den of Wolves. We had talked before, ahead of the game's initial reveal last year. But now that gameplay is out there, I wanted to dig deeper into this topic to find out the trick to making heist games exhilarating through music, and if there were any new details on Metal Gear Rising: Revengence composer Jamie Christopherson's involvement.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. So first, what exactly is the music style in Den of Wolves? It's not quite dubstep, not quite drum and bass. Thankfully, Viklund was willing to explain exactly where both tracks we've heard so far live in the musical landscape. This, of course, came with him miming the drums with his hands and a collection of mouth sounds.Viklund: "Both are 150BPM - last year's trailer and the TGA trailer. Last year's trailer is in half time, so it has more of a hip-hop feel to it. While this one has more of a techno thing. I'm just experimenting with different things. I call it the 'other mid-tempo'. The mid-tempo is like 100-110 BPM, the sort of music you have in Cyberpunk. 120-130 is where Dubstep is. With Den of Wolves, I'm at 150BPM, 160. It's this no-man's land - because you have to go above 170 to reach Drum and Bass. That's why I call it the other mid-tempo."Not all music will be like that, obviously. But I like exploring rhythmical, almost hypnotic things that just repeat, y'know? The music isn't very melodic really, it's just a grove you get into with this constant rhythmical thing."He mentions Cyberpunk, a game that many will draw comparisons to at least as far as the setting is concerned. That game had a boundary-pushing soundtrack. So did Den of Wolves' corporate dystopia provide a similar opportunity? The answer, in short, is yes. Viklund: "Yeah, absolutely. It's forcing me to try to make something [interesting]. I can't go super cutting-edge and avant garde - I'm not trying to think about what music would be like in 2097. It would be so out there that I guess people would struggle to feel the emotions you want them to feel when they play the game. It has to be rooted in what people recognise as action music now, that gives a sense of attitude or badass-ness. That's why I bring in hip-hop influences and trap music with the brass hits - I really like that sound. Combining that with the drum and bass rhythms is cool. It's got just enough of that cutting-edge feeling to it.This all is done in support of creating a soundtrack that is not only distinct, but achieves the most important role: making the player feel "f*ckin badass", as Viklund puts it. Viklund: "We want them to feel like, yes! Cool and dangerous. The music needs that street vibe to it. Even though we're not preaching and saying it's you against the corporations, it feels a little bit like you're looking out for yourself. Even though you're doing missions for corporations and CEOs, you might do a crime within the crime. Looking out for number one."But what about Jamie Christopherson! His presence on the Den of Wolves soundtrack was big news last year, especially for fans of his legendary work on Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. According to Viklund, Christopherson has indeed composed music for the game, not that we've heard it. However, there's a real desire to continue the partnership to better play to Christopherson's strengths.Viklund: I'll be completely honest and say that I asked him to do some atmospheric music for the game, and he made some fantastic tracks. It was super useful to get the ball rolling, but it's not what he... The music was great, but it's not utilizing what he does best, why you should really turn to Jamie Christopherson. So I think we really need to go back to Jamie. We're still in contact, and he really wants to work more on the game - he loved helping out! But we need to use what he's known for. High energy music, like what he did for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.With no firm release date at all, aside from a very vague 202X window, we've little that points to when the rest of the soundtrack will be blasted directly into our ears. Thankfully, the track we heard in the recent gameplay trailer is on Spotify! So at the very least, we can pass the months / years with a taste of the other mid-tempo.

Rising Starr"There's a lot packed into this update emotionally" warframe 1999's Ben Starr speaks on bringing some humanity to Arthur"I was fully naked the entire time, bathed in goo, a la Get Your Own Back"Image credit: VG247 / Digital Extremes Article by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on Dec. 17, 2024 Warframe 1999 is here at last and players are having a blast exploring the past, zooming around on motorbikes, and thirsting over Viktor. However, it's also probably one of the most stacked updates in terms of popular voice acting talent. Warframe has always been solid in the VO department, but with Ben Starr, Alpha Takahashi, Amelia Tyler, and Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge the bar has been lifted to a whole other level.So, with this in mind, I wanted to sit down and chat to one of these voice actors about what it was like stepping into the wacky world of Warframe in what is likely its most ambitious update yet. For this, Mr Starr was willing to spare five minutes to talk about bringing Arthur to life, if he had any inspirations for the performance, and the finer points of adding a voice of humanity to a warframe of all things.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Starr: "I was fully naked the entire time, bathed in goo, a la Get Your Own Back. Sorry, no. I would say the cool thing about this character is you get two very different sides to them. You get the wisened officer who barks orders, and then because of the romance system you get the really intimate tender moments if you want to choose that. For me, it was never about doing a 90s voice, because what is a '90's voice'? I'm not really doing a particular 90s archetype, it's more just like, here's an officer who has lived a life. Make him care about stuff, the stuff that's in front of him. The battlefield, your character (if you choose it), the Hex group. The immediate circumstances that are around him.""I'm a huge fan of the 90s, they're some of my most formative years, so to get to play in that sandbox is really neat. They - the devs - do all the work to make it sound like the 90s. I just make him sound human."VG247: How are you able to play in the 90s sandbox if the character doesn't have a "90s voice"? If you aren't doing a 90s voice, what are the differences between a performance on a character like Arthur and a modern day character?Starr: "When it comes to performance? No. Because if you're trying to affect something, it's not going to be particularly interesting. I think the most interesting thing for us is that we've taken these characters. No, almost these archetypes! Excalibur, I play Excalibur which is the iconic Warframe character. How do you take that frame, and explore what makes them tick like a human? How do you take those aspects and show that battle between their humanity and the inhumane part of themselves.""It just happens that the backdrop is the 90s, the soundtrack is the 90s, but that's not anything I can affect. This character is literally battling for their own survival, and for his humanity at the same time. How do those two things work together, how do they clash against each other, and how do they combine to make a compelling story."VG247: As the player proceeds through the update they can choose to get closer to Arthur. How do you as a voice actor shift from those harder, officer moments to the more intimate moments? How does your performance change?Starr: "It's just like, walls up walls down. Instead of it being having the walls come down suddenly, we create these little cracks to peek through. I think there's got to be that tease, because it's just a carrot on a stick for the player to explore if they want that.""There are these characters the player can romance and get to know, and it's like how do we make Athur an appealing prospect whose story you want to learn more of. And each person's story is going to be as interesting as the last, be it Amir or Lettie or Eleanor. They're all very interesting stories, Arthur is just one of them. It's really cool in my own way to have this character where if you as the player put the hours in, here's this little treat for you! Here are some fun little easter eggs that are gonna make it worthwhile if you put the time in."VG247: Did you have any inspirations for this role, or did you pull from anything personal?Starr: "I'm not pulling from anything personal. I would say there was a note that Reb made, which said the initial tone was 'grinding gears into the dirt'. That's what she wanted for Arthur. So there's this real deep growl, but as you proceed further through Warframe 1999 it softens. If you choose to engage in that, you will see almost a need to be loved, and a need to find love in a loveless place. In a lot of action games you don't have an opportunity to do that, so it's really amazing. There's a lot packed into this update emotionally."Voice performances like Starr's (but not only Starr's, I'm especially in love with Alpha Takahashi's and Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge's presense depictions) adds a lot of heart to Warframe 1999. It's an important piece of the wider picture, a beautiful painting that has brought thousands upon thousands of players to the game to interact with the cast. It's absolutely worth checking out if you haven't already.

Dun-dun-dun-duhh-duhWhile you wait for that Superman trailer, have a listen to the upcoming film's quite lovely main theme that calls back to the 1978 originalA little something to tide you over.Image credit: DC Studios News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Dec. 16, 2024 We won't be getting the first trailer for James Gunn's Superman until later in the week, but he has at least shared the main theme.There's a lot riding on James Gunn's shoulders at the moment. As co-CEO of DC Studios, he's the one leading the new DCU in a direction that'll either pay off tremendously, or have DC presumably abandon its connected film universe ambitions entirely (there's only so many times you can do a universe reboot, despite what the comics might tell you). As shared by Gunn himself on his personal Twitter account, a teaser trailer for his Superman film is finally coming this Thursday, offering up a first look at the new DCU - on the live action front, anyway, as his currently airing animated series Creature Commandos is actually the first project in the film universe. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.In order to tide you over until Thursday, though, Gunn also released a small snippet of what seems to be the film's main theme. You can check it out for yourself above, the audio paired with a sort-of-GIF of David Corenswet's Superman flying upwards, the theme playing as he does so. And it's quite lovely! Very mellow, nostalgic kind of vibe to it, and you don't have to listen too closely to hear that it has a callback to the 1978 Richard Donner directed film's main theme, of course incredibly composed by the one and only John Williams. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. This new theme will have been done by John Murphy, a composer who has a number of classics under his belt like 28 Days Later, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and 2021's The Suicide Squad, which Gunn also directed; this'll be the third film the pair has worked on together, as Murphy also did the score on Guardians of the Galaxy 3.After this week's teaser trailer, though, you've still got a bit of a wait to go, as Superman isn't due out until July 11 next year. I'm sure you'll manage!

Shadowy BehaviourTurns out we can't have anything nice anymore, as Sonic the Hedgehog 3 spoilers are apparently already floating aroundThe film is due out later this week.Image credit: Paramount/ Sega News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Dec. 16, 2024 Be careful out there, Sonic fans, as spoilers for the third movie have seemingly hit the internet.Look, I'm not the biggest stickler for spoilers in the world, but they're still a bit annoying from time to time, and especially if it's for a film that hasn't even come out. There's a lot of joy in being surprised by something! And if you like me enjoy a good surprise, you might want to stay clear of anything to do with our good friend Sonic the Hedgehog, as it appears that spoilers for the third film have made their way online. I'm not going to link to it, but I have seen a video shared around of the film's post credits scene, which won't necessarily spoil the film itself considering the first couple of films just used them to set up the next one, but still something best viewed in the cinema.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. From what I've seen that's the one big spoiler that's been floating around, though it might still be worth muting some general Sonic-related terms just in case if you're particularly spoiler averse. You've only got four days to wait, as the film's worldwide release is this Friday, December 20, and the official Sonic the Hedgehog movie Twitter account has even said you shouldn't "disappoint Shadow" by sharing spoilers. You wouldn't want to do that now, would you? To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Last month director Jeff Fowler even specifically went out of his way to tease the post-credits scene for this third film, and earlier this month the film's producers confirmed there'll even be more than one of them - I can't tell you which of them have been shared online, potentially all of them, so again, best to stay off the internet for a few days. I'm sure you haven't managed to 100% complete Sonic x Shadow Generations yet so why don't you give that a go in the meantime.

Rock The DragonYou might be surprised to hear it, but Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is apparently already one of Bandai Namco's best selling games of all time"I wasn't expecting this." News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Dec. 16, 2024 Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero has obviously been popular with fans, but it turns out it might be more successful than anyone might have guessed.It was always clear that Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero was going to do well, given that it's the first new entry in the Budokai series in many years, a fan favourite amongst all the games, but just how well it's done has definitely been a bit of a surprise. It even managed to hit 100,000 concurrent players around launch, a seriously strong figure for a fighting game. And now it's sounding like that success is even bigger than imagined, as speaking to GamesRadar Circana's executive director and games analyst Mat Piscatella shared that Sparking! Zero is one of Bandai Namco's best-selling games of all time, if you can believe it.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Piscatella said that he was "as surprised as anybody, not only for it to be the best-selling Dragon Ball game, but to be among the best-selling Bandai Namco games all time." He went on to note that Bandai Namco has "had some really big hits over the years," Elden Ring obviously being one of the biggest, making Sparking! Zero just another one of the strong titles it has in its catalogue. "I wasn't expecting this," Piscatella continued."It sure didn't hurt that it had that huge cast of characters and beloved IP allowing people to kind of dig into the history of that thing. Even though I've never personally watched it, I know people are very passionate about Dragon Ball... I'd agree with you that this thing has been one heck of a nice surprise in a year that's been kind of rough overall."As sad as it is, creator Akira Toriyama's passing earlier this year definitely brought out a lot of nostalgia in fans, and with a new anime also airing, there's a lot of love for the series in the air at the moment. And it helps that Sparking! Zero was really good too.

Global Goblin GrindDiablo 4's final event of the year has the entire community chasing Treasure Goblins for some cool rewardsDiablo 4 is just about ready to wrap up 2024, and it's going to do so with a very on-theme event.Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment. News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on Dec. 16, 2024 Diablo 4 is ending whats been its best year yet on a high note with one final event thats going to involve all players. Rather than the usual style of live event, this one features multiple tiers that can only be unlocked through the communitys collective effort.The goal of this one is to kill as many Treasure Goblins as possible all across the games Sanctuary world map.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The Slay Ride to Hell event has five tiers in total. The more Treasure Goblins the Diablo 4 community kills, the higher through the tiers we all get. With every tier reached, all players will be able to claim reward caches from the Goblin Square in Kyovashad, and Vessel of Hatred owners will get more caches.It all kicks off tomorrow, December 17 at 10am PT, 1pm ET, 6pm UK. The event will continue into the new year, before it wraps up on January 2.The requirements may initially appear a bit high, but considering that millions of players will be contributing to the goal, its likely going to go by very quickly. If tiers 3-5 are reached, the in-game shop will have some limited-time cosmetics, too. The final tier is, obviously, the one we all want, because it rewards a Resplendent Spark - one of the rarest items in the game. Don't let him portla out! | Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment.Blizzard is also bringing back a number of live events to run alongside the big Treasure Goblin chase. Mothers Blessing, which boosts XP and Gold earned, will be active December 17 to January 2. The bonus, as always, stacks with elixirs and any other Urns you may have activated in the battle pass.To make things even more interesting for new and lapsed players, the Spiritborn trial will return December 19 - January 3, giving anyone who does not yet own Vessel of Hatred a chance to try out the new class. You can only take it up to level 25, but that should be enough time to experience the expansion. All your progress carries over, too, should you decide to buy it. As for those who played Diablo 4 in the past and want one more reason to pick it back up, the Winback Booster is available for up to two characters in the Eternal Realm, instantly boosting a character to level 50, unlocking all Altars of Lilith, and even granting you a gear set to match a certain build.

Bloody HellWhile you wait for The Witcher 4, a bunch of former CD Projekt Red devs hope to get you interested in what they're working on with a title reveal and a promise of a proper showcaseNot sure on the title, though.Image credit: Rebel Wolves News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Dec. 15, 2024 Rebel Wolves isn't quite ready to show you what it's working on yet, but a small teaser has revealed the name of its first game.It's been a couple of years since Rebel Wolves, a team composed of former Witcher and Cyberpunk devs, revealed itself, but it sounds like the new team is finally ready to show off what it's working on next month. Following the announcement in October that Bandai Namco would be publishing Rebel Wolves' first title, the Elden Ring publisher shared a title reveal trailer today, announcing that the game will be called The Blood of Dawnwalker. There was a fancy logo shown off too, though I'm not exactly convinced of the title just yet - it's a bit generic sounding honestly, but the trailer had more to say at the very least.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. #"Join us under the full wolf moon for the game reveal event," the trailer shares. "The world needs what it fears." I've no idea what that last line means, but I can explain that the full wolf moon bit means there will be a proper reveal of the game on January 13, almost exactly a month away, and the next scheduled day for a full moon (it's a full moon today too, so an obviously purposely timed announcement here). That'll be at 1pm PST/ 4pm EST/ 10pm CET, though the trailer doesn't explain whether any gameplay will be shown off, or if it'll just be a cinematic trailer.Watch on YouTubeThe YouTube video's description explains that "The Blood of Dawnwalker is the first chapter of Rebel Wolves brand new role-playing saga - a single-player open-world dark fantasy action-RPG with a strong focus on story and narrative," which could easily be how you'd describe The Witcher too, so the devs have clearly stuck to what they know. Well, the title might be a bit naff, but maybe a strong trailer will be the hook that it needs! I'll find it in a month, let's just see if it can tide fans over until The Witcher 4 comes out.

Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki is taking a backseat for Nightreign, but he did have some solid advice for the spin-offs director. Read more

Pugi-wishlistForget everything else at The Game Awards, between Like A Dragon dev RGG's mysterious new game and a semi-leaked thing, the real winners last night were lovers of early 20th century scrapsLook, I just like getting into massive barneys that slightly pre-date the two world wars, ok?Image credit: RGG/Hangar 13 News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Dec. 13, 2024 Among the many, many things that were shown off at last night's Keighleyfest - The Game Awards - were few things that I'm really excited about. Sure, The Witcher 4 was a big one, but there were others, and two of them have more common ground than you might expect from a couple of games set literally miles apart. They're Project Century and Mafia: The Old Country and they both look like they'll scratch my weird itch for fights that take place when my great grandad was alive.Now, of these two, Mafia's probably the one that's playing the Robin to Project Century's Batman. After all, we already knew it was a thing prior to last night, and it lost a bit more mistique when its freshly narrowed release window leaked ahead of the show.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. We still got a fresh trailer for it, though, and I quite enjoyed seeing how its plot about gangsters in 1900s Sicily looks to be shaping up. It might not be an absolute blockbuster that redefines how we all see gaming, but it looks like exactly the kind of just plain good fun title that's the bread and butter of any great year in gaming.A bit like I did with Star Wars Outlaws this year, I'll likely fire The Old Country up, spend however long it takes to play through it, and just have a plain old nice time. After all, look at all the potential for dicking about in a historical setting, getting up to crimes, and doing some old school fighting that it has. I've not been kidnapped and replaced by Jim Trinca, I swear, these are just the kinds of things I also often get a kick out of in games.Watch on YouTubePlus, there are old cars, and plenty of cosa nostra storytelling stuff that I'll presumably at least like as much as I did the previous Mafia games, even if it doesn't end up being quite The Godfather of The Sopranos level.While - based on what its predecessors were like and the little we've seen of it so far - Mafia might not have the juice, that something that takes a game from good to great, Project Century looks like it definitely could. Announced last night, this is a rather mysteriuous new game being worked on by Yakuza/Like A Dragon series developer and bringers of the pirate Majima RGG Studio. It's set in Japan in 1915 and the trailer showed off some pretty brutal - i.e a bit more bloody than the average Kiryu brawl - street scrapping between its unnamed protagonist and your usual street toughs.Watch on YouTubeSo, like Mafia, there's a historical setting and the chance to batter people before the invention of Penicillin in it, but there also seems to be a bit more bubbling under the surface. The protagonist's eyes are glowing in the main promo image, and at one point he fights a huge, hulking bald figure that arguably tooks more monster than man. Maybe a bit of sci-fi or alt history to spice things up? Then again, Kazuma Kiryu did once fistfight two tigers and it was played off as just being a normal thing to happen to a guy living in 2006, so who knows.At the end of the day, both of these games have the potential to be great things since they're still existing in the pre-release nether world right now, and I'll definitely be keen to give them a go when they do drop, even if it's just to beat up some historical lads.

Ciri How It GoesWhile Geralt's still hanging around, The Witcher 4 being about Ciri was "the natural choice" and CD Projekt says it'll lead to "more uncertainty and more surprises"It's also an idea the studio's had in mind for a good decade or so.Image credit: CD Projekt News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Dec. 13, 2024 We all got our first proper look at The Witcher 4 during The Game Awards last night, via a cool new trailer that showed Ciri - the game's protagonist - doing some witchering.Ever since it was originally announced via that image of a medallion in the snow, Geralt's stepdaughter of destiny taking over the reins of the series from him is something that'd long been among the theories tabled by fans. And now we know it's the case, CD Projekt has explained a bit of the reasoning behind it opting to go in this direction for the game.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Speaking to PC Gamer, TW4's game director Sebastian Kalemba and executive producer Gosia Mitręga revealed that it's of a course of action the studio had first put on the table about a decade ago, around the time it was finishing up working on and releasing The Witcher 3 - which Ciri obviously plays a huge role in and is even playable during a few missions."I remember discussions after releasing Wild Hunt, that it is a natural path for her to prove herselfthat was a very natural choice for us," Kalemba said, adding: "There's so much room for exploration, and because she's such a nuanced character, the beginning of her journey gives us freedom and so many opportunities to be able to dig in and use [that] for good."Mitręga also emphasised some of the differences between Geralt and Ciri that could help the devs tell some different stories, such as her youth and passion compared to the While Wolf's veteran monster-hunting experience and worldly nous that comes with having dealt with so many people and scenarios."Because she cares so much," the producer said, "it gives us an amazing opportunity for us as creators, and for the players, to experience more uncertainty and more surprises because of that character, right?"That said, don't worry about old Gerry from the Riviera being allowed to live out his days sipping wine far away from whatever action you're getting up to in The Witcher 4 - CD Projekt has now officially confirmed that he'll be showing up in it. Kalemba didn't provide any details as to what exactly the White Wolf'll be doing in the game, but he did insist that Geralt is important to both the devs and Ciri. Awwww, insert that image of Gerry giving a cheeky thumbs up we've used for articles before here.If you want to celebrate now knowing more about the next Witcher game, why not do what I did not long ago and goof around in The Witcher 3 with a mod that allows Geralt to turn into a centaur by blowing a big horn. I can very much confirm he'll play a major role in that witchering adventure.

Feelin PineUh oh, Roblox's Dress to Impress has lost Santa, but it's still sleighing the festive season with new Winter Wonderland eventNew outfits, an ice rink, and a flying obstacle course is on the horizon. Oh, Santas also gone missing.Image credit: Dress to Impress/Roblox/VG247 News by Kelsey Raynor Guides Writer Published on Dec. 14, 2024 Dress to Impress kicks off its Christmas-themed festivities today with a Winter Wonderland event that will be running within the Roblox game until January 14. Thats a whole month of putting together outfits that will sleigh the catwalk, as well as some sleuthing, as players are also tasked with finding out where the hell Santa has vanished to.Thats right. After months of theorising about the shady goings-on inside the Dress to Impress universe, which saw players conclude that in-game nail artist, Lana, had been replaced with some kind of eldritch nail-painting clone, weve another mystery to solve.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Its up to the community of Dress to Impress stylists to figure out where St. Nick has wandered off to and to save Christmas. Players will also be able to pay a visit to Santas Workshop in the meantime, and give the elves a helping hand while their trusty leader is AWOL.Dress to Impress creators shared a sneak peek at the update on TikTok, where we see one fashionista kitted out in suitably Santa-themed clothing decorating a tree. We unfortunately dont get to see much more than that, just like when teasers dropped for the previous Charli XCX-inspired brat update, but we do know a little more about whats to come. @dtionroblox Let it snow, let it slay #DressToImpress #Winter original sound - Dress To Impress To see this content please enable targeting cookies.On top of tracking down Santa and assisting his elves, theres a Candy Cane Forest to look forward to exploring, reindeers to ride with a flying obstacle course to boot and even an ancient ice cave to explore. Now Im wondering if Dress to Impress is even the same game I played months ago, because flying around on reindeer seems a world away from my experiences of doing the apple dance on the catwalk while dressed as Spongebob.Last, but not least, players can of course expect new clothing and accessories to adorn themselves with. Both masculine and feminine wardrobes are getting all-new winter items, poses, and more. Therell even be an icing rink, a cafe, and a new lobby for players to explore.There will, naturally, be brand-new secrets to discover while you all get to work figuring out St. Nicks fate, tooWhat aspects of this Winter Wonderland update are you most looking forward to seeing in Dress to Impress this holiday season? While you're here, be sure to check out our Dress to Impress codes to unlock some new clothing items!

Marvelous HitMarvel Rivals' secret weapon is its healthy mix of A-listers and overlooked characters, and this may help the brand as a wholeA golden opportunity to up Marvel's brand synergy.Image credit: NetEase Games, Marvel Games Article by Fran Ruiz Contributor Published on Dec. 13, 2024 "Curse you, Jeff!" That's what I've yelled internally as I was thrown into the nearest abyss at least five times since Marvel Rivals' launch on December 6. Before that, I barely even knew who the hell Jeff the Land Shark was, and this is coming from a pop culture sicko.Look, I'm a reasonably big Marvel fan, but I'll admit that I don't read every single thing the publisher puts out. Hell, I probably check out a very small percentage of what they're doing nowadays. This has been an issue for a while, and not just for Marvel: More people than ever before are aware of comic book universes, but that doesn't mean that most of those same people are reading comics. Even during the Marvel Cinematic Universe's peak days, there was a problem in getting viewers to jump into comic books.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. A theory of mine is that, as solid as Marvel's adaptation efforts were until a few years ago, they never quite capitalized on the weirdness and less popular side of the massive Marvel universe. Now, the MCU is very much trying to tackle such characters and elements, but is failing to consistently execute that vision well enough to make folks stick around beyond surefire hits like Deadpool & Wolverine.When you're presented with well-known characters like Iron Man, Captain America, or Spider-Man over and over again on the big and small screens, a common by-product is not wanting to see much more of their faces on the pages. At this point, I tend to really gravitate towards less popular characters who I know less about. That seems like a far better use of my time. And I'm willing to admit that recent TV shows and video games have a played a big role in getting me to read about characters like Agatha Harkness or Robbie Reyes' Ghost Rider (shoutout to Midnight Suns). Image credit: NetEase GamesAfter spending some time with Marvel Rivals' full release, I'm starting to feel the same itch. Sure, having A-listers like Magneto and Venom ready to play as rocks, but I'm having even more fun with characters I wasn't as familiar with. Even if they suck in the current meta, I'm curious to learn more about them, and I feel like Marvel Rivals has done a pretty job of mixing the popular faces with heroes and villains who are traditionally overlooked."No character is off limits," executive producer Danny Koo teased back at Gamescom 2024. It's a refreshing approach to filling out an ever-expanding roster of heroes and villains over doing something as limited as an Avengers live-service looter shooter again. Let's put the Overwatch comparisons aside for a small moment and admit that half (if not more) of the reason why Marvel Rivals has popped off is because it simply looks and feels amazing and also promises the excitement of not knowing who's around the corner due to the source material's richness. Image credit: NetEase GamesMoon Knight or Lin Lie (Marvel Rivals' Iron Fist and currently scariest character) were relative nobodies a few years ago unless you really were into comics. Yeah, Moon Knight has been around forever, but come on, normies didn't give a s**t until the Oscar Isaac-led show came out. New MCU entries and video games aren't just meant to generate money on their own, they're also meant to keep comic books and the overall brand healthy and relevant. While Marvel's Avengers felt like a major stumble, Marvel Snap and Marvel Rivals have completely turned the ship around when it comes to video games. Stuff like Insomniac's Spider-Man games is great and all, but having live-service titles that become this big and constantly go deeper into Marvel's library is excellent value for the powers that be.Yes, I still want Daredevil to enter the arena as soon as Daredevil: Born Again hits in March. Yes, I want more X-Men to show up. But at the end of the day, I'm just grateful for a very solid hero shooter that's making the most of a genuinely colorful and rich multiverse that too often feels underused outside of comic books. Rock-solid systems aside, it's the main reason why I found Firaxis' Midnight Suns so damn appealing; it wasn't afraid to get weird and explore a side of the brand that had barely made it outside of comic books before. We all knew Marvel would have something huge in their hands the moment they managed to successfully mix that with popular, highly profitable genres. Look at us now. Image credit: NetEase GamesNow here's the thing: We know how the video game market works and how publishers and rights holders react to massive hits by now. So, what are the chances of Warner Bros. Games rushing to make a DC alternative to Marvel Rivals that completely misses the point of why it works so well, especially now that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is done for good? It pains me to say that they're quite high.In conclusion, I guess that, in the age of milking huge IPs until they're dry and with some of them potentially set to be around forever in one way or another, we might as well ask for transmedia works that actually make good use of them, especially if they're pushing more people to pick up books instead of doom-scrolling for five hours a day when they're not watching or playing anything.

Eldamn, That Soon?Wahey, Elden Ring Nightreign is getting a network test that'll let you play a bit of it early next year, and you can sign up very soonYou'll just be helping the devs make sure everything works as intended, but it's still cool.Image credit: FromSoftware News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Dec. 13, 2024 Elden Ring Nightreign was one of the big healines at The Game Awards yesterday, as you'd expect from anything with FromSoftware's critically-acclaimed fingertips. Now, Bandai Namco has revealed that it'll be getting a network test early next year, with sign-ups starting in January.If you somehow missed Nightreign being announced, it's a co-op focussed title that will allow multiple players to take on bosses from the FromSofftverse in collaborative environments. So yup, Elden Ring with your mates in a form that's not just leaving each other cheeky notes and occasionally invading to help out with a particular fight or muck s**t up.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. This new game is sert to release at some point in 2025, and it'll be getting a network test not long after the calendar flips over into the new year.The test's been penned in for February 2025, and registration for it will start from January 10, so you've really not got long to wait to try your luck at being one of those selected. Only the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S are mentioned as platforms for the test though, which means you're seemingly outta luck if you're on PC or last-gen consoles. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.What'll you be doing if you do get in? Well, Bandai writes: "The network test is a preliminary verification test in which the selected testers play a portion of the game prior to the full game launch. Various technical verifications of online systems will be examined by conducting large-scale network load tests."If it helps, just think of those technical bits as the bosses you're fighting while your're battling bosses, with network stability for the full release being the big reward you get for slaying them. You can call it an 'aura of stable network load' if that doesn't sound fancy enough when you brag to your mates about having procured it.For more Elden Ring chatter, make sure to check out what Sony recently said when it confirmed its interest in buying FromSoftware parent company Kadokawa.

I'm MythbustingGood Mews, Pokmon TCG Pocket's Mythical Island expansion is set to offer new booster packs with a chance to grab everyone's favourite pink catThe game has also now surpassed the 60 million download milestone.Image credit: Pokemon News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Dec. 12, 2024 Desperate for more content to drop in Pokemon TCG Pocket? Well, good news, a new expansion is dropping for it next week, featuring a new booster pack that'll give you a chance grab yourself a Mew.As outlined in a fresh Tweet from the game's official account, this expansion is dubbed Mythical Island, and will be arriving on Tuesday December 17. "I kicked in a lot of doors to get this information to you. (Realistically, I asked REALLY nice and cried a little)," the TCG Pocket social person wrote.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. As you can see in the trailer below, there'll be a bunch of new cards - with Mew, Aerodactyl, and Celebi are among the ex ones - up for grabs in the new Mythical Island booster pack, which will provide a nice fourth option for those who've already packed ten million Doduo (Doduos, Dodui, who knows?). "The Mythical Island expansion features over 80 cards, including five new exciting Pokmon ex cards, five new Trainer cards, and gorgeous immersive cards ready to bring you into the wondrous world of Pokmon," reads the trailer's description.Watch on YouTubeThere are also new binder and display board covers that include the scenery of the Mythical Island for you to grab, so you can send your little gang mythical animal slave gladiators off on a little holiday - or have them pretend they're on one, which seems more on brand for Pokemon's flavour of weird zookeeping, which gets a bit morally dubious if you think about it for more than five minutes.Do the Pokemon enjoy being seemingly immortal beings that get enslaved and made to fight to the death in card colosseums? I don't know, but The Pokemon Company's also announced that TCG Pocket's now exceeded the 60 million download mark, so I'm not going to argue too much, as that's a lot of people to p**s off. It also includes me, so I'd be annoying myself, which is far too meta.Anyway, let us know how excited you are about Mythical Island! Also, you can consult our huge array of helpful TCG Pocket guides for expert advice on things like getting started and assembling decks based around Pokemon ranging from Alakazam to Vileplume.

YOU'VE GOT NO FANSEA Sports FC Empires looks to take on Football Manager with weird 4X strategy that's Ultimate Team meets Clash of ClansIts available on iOS and Android in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand right now, with a global release soon.Image credit: EA Sports News by James Billcliffe Guides Editor Published on Dec. 12, 2024 EA Sports has just released the early access for FC Empires, a new football 4X Strategy game thats kind of like Football Manager meets Clash of Clans.Its available on iOS and Android in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand right now, with a global release scheduled at some point in the near future.FC Empires focuses as much on the business side of modern football as the sport itself, tasking players with building their club up into a worldwide superpower with smart merchandising, the best medical and scouting facilities and experienced coaching staff.Watch on YouTubeWeve played a closed alpha version of FC Empires prior to this release, and it was strange and strangely compelling in equal measure. The different mechanics will be instantly recognisable to anyone thats played either EA Sports FC 25s Ultimate Team and any other mobile strategy game like Clash of Clans or even The Simpsons: Tapped Out.You invest your in-game cash into building up infrastructure, which is constructed in real-world time but can be sped up with premium items. That infrastructure then has in-game utility, like the hospital speeds up the recovery time of injured players. So far, so very mobile strategy.Building your squad is where EAs Ultimate Team comes in, as you get a drip feed of transfers like opening up packs in EA Sports FC 25. You can then mix and match different players based on their nationality, real-life team and the league they play in, to build up team chemistry for stat boosts.Where the Football Manager similarity appears is in the match engine, where you dont control each player individually, but rather set the formation and tactics and watch the game play out from the sidelines.FC Empires is much more streamlined than the in-depth tactical plans you can devise in Football Manager, but its clear that EA is targeting a similar kind of football fan whos turned off by the fast, twitch-intensive hundred-miles-a-minute gameplay of EA Sports FC, but enjoys the squad building and tactics, albeit more casually. Image credit: EA SportsOnce youve settled on your squad, you can either invite AI controlled squads to visit your home stadium for exhibition matches, or strike out into the wider world to compete against other players, with the victor winning the adoration of more fans throughout the world and increasing their clubs worth.Its a pitch thats about as far away from proper football as you can get. The notion that you can become a fan of a team because theyre winning is in and of itself utterly alien to most avid supporters. Supporting Leeds United makes me miserable, ruins my weekend and spikes my blood pressure - I love it.But theres no getting away from the fact that FC Empires is a confluence of two key game mechanics that have proven to be both incredibly popular and compelling on a global scale - plus, its worth mentioning, literally addictive in many unfortunate cases.FC Empires has an official website with more information, as well as an official Facebook and Discord you can follow for release announcements.

A Granbull Day OutPokemon's next adventure is a team-up with the iconic Wallace and Gromit stop-motion studio Aardman, though you'll be waiting quite a while for itBit of an early announcement, but still exciting!Image credit: The Pokemon Company/ Aardman News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Dec. 11, 2024 The Pokemon Company and Aardman have announced a very unexpected team-up for a "special project", you'll just be waiting quite a while for it.You know who's one of the best animation studios around? Aardman! The folks over there just always hit, even when they miss, with a signature style that can easily be recognised anywhere, including that one Star Wars Visions episode they did. So when I heard the news that the beloved animation studio and The Pokemon Company are working together on something, I jumped for joy and shouted "yippee!" (editor's note: Oisin did not literally do this). Right now it's a bit of a mystery what this project is, in fact the language doesn't even make it clear if this will be a film or TV show.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. In a statement, VP or marketing and media at The Pokemon Company Taito Okiura said, "This is a dream partnership for Pokmon. Aardman are masters of their craft, and we have been blown away by their talent and creativity. What we have been working on together ensures our global Pokmon fans are in for a treat! To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Managing director of Aardman Sean Clarke also provided a statement, saying that it's a "huge honour to be working with The Pokmon Company International - we feel sincerely privileged to be trusted with bringing their characters and world to life in a brand-new way. Bringing together Pokmon, the worlds biggest entertainment brand, together with our love of craft, character and comedic storytelling feels incredibly exciting."I'm not going to get my hopes up too much of it being anything like a game, even if Aardman has actually dabbled in the field with titles like 11-11: Memories Retold, but that would be pretty neat if you ask me (hint, hint). Either way, this'll mark the latest stop-motion Pokemon project following last year's Pokemon Concierge, which was made by the Japanese animation company Dwarf Studios. As a lover of all things stop-motion, I'm all aboard this particular train - it's just a shame we won't know what it is for another two dang years.

Ready Player NoneSecret Level doesn't work on its own, and it doesn't sell me on its games, so what's the point of it?There aren't even any secret levels.Image credit: Amazon Article by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Dec. 11, 2024 I'm gonna answer the question in my headline in very literal terms, just to get that out the way before anyone decides to comment "it's this, duh": Secret Level exists for IP expansion, and money. That's it, that's almost definitely the real reason, because all the executives care about these days is IP, why else do you think Disney is going all in on sequels and Hollywood is finding any game to adapt it can, even if it's a bit of a silly idea? Except, I don't even know how Secret Level is meant to do that.The first batch of episodes dropped this week, and I'll be honest with you, I thought they were all a bit rubbish. The nicest thing I think I can say about any of them is that the Pac-Man episode (which we'll come back to) was bold, and I wouldn't even really say that if I'm being honest. Viewed at their worst, these episodes are fancy ads for their respective properties, but if we are looking at them that way, I think they failed on that front.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Kicking things off is the Dungeons & Dragons episode, a tabletop game that yes has its serious moments, but is widely known as a game where you roleplay doing the most ridiculous nonsense with your friends. Instead, we just got a clearly-meant-to-be epic battle sequence that I couldn't have cared less about because I didn't get to know any of the characters, and isn't that the appeal of a world like that? It certainly didn't encourage me to get my friends together and try it out.None of the other episodes were very successful in getting me to check out their respective properties either, so then there's the question of how do they stand on their own right? Well, not particularly well to be honest. Sifu's episode was pretty, but just one long fight scene. Crossfire's was so dull I was half on my phone the entire time. There was an attempt at comedy in New World's, but it just fell flat. Not even Keanu Reeves could save the Armored Core episode which really was just a bunch of mechs fighting each other, and I eat that s**t up normally.Not to be a parent in the late '90s/ early aughts that doesn't really get video games and just thinks that all the violence will poison their kids' brains, but they were all just a bit violent too! Genuinely, it felt almost ironic how every single episode presented had some amount of gratuitous violence in one way or another. As a collective piece it felt like the very thing that assholes used to reduce video games too, it felt wholly detached from what games are and can be. Watch on YouTubeYes, there is a lot of violence in them, but the short run time for each episode deprives us of context that occasionally justifies that violence. I think I actually would have liked the Warhammer 40K episode, with its mysterious and atmospheric vibes, but when literally every episode is filled with violence too, there's nothing to make it stand out. And when I say every episode, I mean every episode! Including the Pac-Man one.The Pac-Man one might be the goriest of all, bar that Warhammer one, with the titular lip-flapper killing beasties in increasingly bloody ways before chowing down on their raw flesh. There's the odd reference to the actual games like with a moment where he, a grey alien man, by the way, not the floating yellow orb you'd assume to be Pac-Man, eats some cherries. Get it! Pac-Man! It felt like a fan film, not that there's anything wrong with fan films, it's just that they can also be incredibly self-indulgent, and yes, sometimes pointlessly violent just for the sake of exploring the concept of Pac-Man, but edgy. "How revolutionary!" they write with the strongest hint of sarcasm possible.Sure, there's more episodes to come next week, but I really just don't get the point of Secret Level as a series. Despite being days old, it's already dated, a relic of a time that maybe never existed in the first place. But I suppose, if anything, we'll at least get some idea of what Concord was meant to be like, for better or worse.

Line 'Em Up!Increasingly brutal deaths are back on the menu, as Final Destination 6 finally sees a release date in its futureAnd it's not too far away, either.Image credit: Warner Bros. News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Dec. 10, 2024 It's been more than a decade since a new Final Destination came to cinemas, but it seems a date has been set for the upcoming sixth film in the franchise.Remember when the Final Destination films were a thing? Well, next year Warner Bros. will be seeing if audiences are still into the incredibly violent and gory tendencies the films typically displayed. As reported by Variety, the film production company has set a release date for the sixth film in the series, titled Final Destination: Bloodlines, now expected to be released May 16, 2025, around five months away. Originally the David Robert Mitchell (It Follows) directed Flowervale Street was set to be released around then, but apparently Warner Bros. noted how that period is good for genre franchises, noting the successes of films like A Quiet Place Part 2, The Hangover, and The Fast and the Furious.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. This latest entry into the once very popular horror series will be helmed by a couple of directors, Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, whose previous co-directing credits include 2019's live action adaptation of Kim Possible. Individually Lipovsky directed a 2015 live action adaptation of Dead Rising, and Stein has written for the animated Harley Quinn series, as well as Hazbin Hotel, so it's a bit of a mixed bag between the pair of them.Tony Todd was also expected to return as his iconic role in the series as William Bludworth, supposedly finally digging into his backstory, but sadly the actor passed away last month, so it's a bit unclear whether he'll be making a posthumous release - considering how close the film is from releasing, and that production started back in March, he probably will though. This sequel will supposedly focus on first responders, but again, details overall are still pretty slim. Considering we're less than half a year out from release, we can probably expect a release date soon, so stay tuned.

Nothin' In The TankAhead of Kraven the Hunter's release this week, a new report claims what we already know: Sony's live action Spider-Verse is deadBuh-bye now! See ya later! Don't let the door hit you on the way out!Image credit: Sony News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Dec. 10, 2024 Kraven the Hunter isn't even out yet, but a new report has made it pretty clear that Sony is done with its SUMC for now.The SUMC, or Sony Universe of Marvel Characters, will go down in history for a few reasons, including having a ridiculous name, featuring films about characters that no one really cares about, and wasting a whole ton of money. Kraven the Hunter is still set to be the latest entry in the Spider-Man-less Spider-Verse when it releases this Friday the 13th (seriously? That's the date you picked?), but a new report from TheWrap essentially confirms that yes, this will be the last attempt from Sony at making a connected universe of Spider-Man related characters.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. A top talent agent that spoke with TheWrap has reportedly said that Sony has "developed what they want to develop for now," and that it's now "really about the next Spider-Man film." That film will be Tom Holland's Spider-Man 4, a Destin Daniel Cretton directed flick that's set to be released in July 2026, and is obviously a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Sony just helping to produce it. Another Sony insider told TheWrap that alongside Spider-Man 4 being the focus, the company will also continue to hone in on Beyond the Spider-Verse, the upcoming animated sequel that's yet to get a release date, and Spider-Man Noir, the live-action Amazon series that has Nicolas Cage attached to star as the titular character.What you'll obviously notice here is that the emphasis is being put back on Spider-Man, you know, the character that people actually like, rather than his villains or side characters that people are barely familiar with. After that though? Who knows! But I'm sure it won't involve Morbius.

Need Some SpaceWondering if Final Fantasy 14 Mobile will be full of MMO UI clutter like its full-sized counterpart? A first look at gameplay suggests notA win's a win!Image credit: Square Enix News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Dec. 9, 2024 Some combat gameplay from the upcoming mobile version of Final Fantasy 14 has been shown off, and it's cluttered, but not that cluttered.I think one of the big turn offs for a lot of people when it comes to MMOs is that there's always just a lot of crap on the screen. There's so many icons that just don't make any sense, constant numbers implying that you're doing damage but the health bar doesn't go down as quick as you'd like, there's just a lot to take in! So when it was announced that Final Fantasy 14 is getting a mobile version, eyebrows were raised as to how it would be played, and how much the UI would take up space on the screen. As it turns out, not a massive amount, as some gameplay of the battle system was shown off on Chinese social media site Weibo. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.For the most part buttons are shown in the bottom right, with different icons for different jobs, and like many mobile games you just tap 'em to do 'em. Looks pretty simple! Except, of course, there are jobs where you have to use a whole lot of abilities, and it isn't clear if there's any way to cycle through the abilities on screen, so it's entirely possible this version of Final Fantasy 14 has been massively simplified. It's not even clear if you can walk around during battle or not as the gameplay shows all the different classes just staying in one position, and considering how the original MMO has plenty of attacks that require you to hustle out of danger's way, that would be quite a radical change.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Still, it looks pretty good all-in, and I'm sure the most passionate of Final Fantasy 14 fans would have a good time no matter what the gameplay systems were like (though it does help when they're not a mess). There's still no release date for Final Fantasy 14 Mobile yet, but we do know that it'll start at the beginning again whenever it does come out.

PawfectAfter Netflix shut down its triple-A studio, the former art director for God of War: Ragnarok is heading back to Sony to hang out with some mischievous pups"I'm hyped and cant wait to share more about it!"Image credit: Naughty Dog/ Santa Monica Studio News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Dec. 9, 2024 From Sony, to Netflix, and back to Sony again, the art director of God of War: Ragnarok has shared he's joining Naughty Dog.Back in May of last year, Rafael Grassetti announced that he would be leaving Santa Monica Studio after 10 years at the studio and shipping both God of War and its sequel Ragnarok as principal artists and art director respectively, not to mention he was the studio-wide art director from 2022 until he left. The developer had moved on to Netflix as part of Team Blue, a triple-A studio with some other big names like ex-Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny, and former Halo creative lead Joseph Staten, but that shut down back in October. Today Grassetti announced a "new chapter" over on his Twitter account, which is that he'll be back at Sony, only this time as part of Naughty Dog.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Im super excited to be joining the amazing crew and project over at Naughty Dog , and to be back to Playstation!" Grassetti wrote in a post on Instagram. "Im joining Neil Druckmann and his team as Art Director, to help create the next big thing! A huge thanks to everybody who was involved on making this happen and all my friends from sister studios. I'm hyped and cant wait to share more about it! Cheers!" Whatever that "more" is is very much a mystery right now, as it's been completely unclear what Naughty Dog has been working on since the release of The Last of Us Part 2 (no I'm not counting the first game's remake or the second game's remaster), and the cancellation of the multiplayer Last of Us spin-off. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.There is that second season of the TV adaptation of The Last of Us that's due out next year, so that'll keep Naughty Dog fans busy at the very least, but other than that we'll just have to wait and see.

Take Your TimeEver wonder how long it takes to design one of Monster Hunter's titular monsters? According to one Monster Hunter Wilds dev, it's probably a lot longer than you'd thinkThese things aren't just bashed out in a couple minutes you know.Image credit: Capcom News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Dec. 8, 2024 Ahead of Monster Hunter Wilds release in a couple months time, the game's art director has shared just how long it takes to design one of its many huntable beasts.Considering how long Monster Hunter has been around for now - 20 years next year! - you would think that designing the titular monsters would have been condensed into an exact science, but it turns out that it actually takes quite a while just to design one of them. Art director Kaname Fujioka, who directed the very first entry way back when and numerous other titles in the series since, recently spoke with Screen Rant where he shared that each monster takes about a year from start to finish. "Many monsters are designed and created at the same time, like parallel, so it's kind of hard to tell which monsters took how long, but typically an average from planning a monster, designing it, making the models, animation, usually takes about one year for a monster."To see this content please enable targeting cookies. That doesn't mean they only take a year either though, as Fujioka explained that things like small detail tweaks, potentially adding or removing certain elements, or just refining a design can add more time on top of that. Wild's signature monster Arkveld was apparently particularly difficult to implement into the game due to its complicated design, with Fujioka explaining, "The flagship monster for Monster Hunter Wilds obviously took a very long time, because it has to do with the story of the game and we wanted people to enjoy for a long time hunting this monster."Interestingly, Fujioka also shared that when they're developing a monster, the team wants to "focus on how each person will be able to find their own favorite monster," which is a little funny to me considering Pokemon are designed in a similar manner, except with Monster Hunter you're, you know, hunting them.You don't have all that long to wait for Monster Hunter Wilds now, as the game is currently set to be released this coming February 28, on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

That's The StuffExcited for Like a Dragon/ Yakuza's 20th anniversary next year? Good, because Ryu Ga Gotoku has promised you can look forward to lots of announcements, events, and merch next yearIt's a good time to be a Yakuza fan. News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Dec. 8, 2024 If you can believe it, the Like a Dragon/ Yakuza series is celebrating its 20th anniversary next year, and there's plenty of good news to come.The Like a Dragon series, formerly and still lovingly known as Yakuza, just hit 19 years old today, December 8, as that's the release date of the original game way back on the PS2. Obviously the games have only really gotten properly popular in the west over the past decade or so, but now they're bigger than ever, and with its 20th anniversary coming up, you'd hope that some big news would be coming. As it turns out, there is! To celebrate the series' anniversary, the official RGG Studio Twitter account shared a video message from studio director and executive producer Masayoshi Yokoyama to commemorate the occasion.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Today, December 8th, marks the day the first game in the Like a Dragon & Yakuza series was released," Yokoyama said. "19 years have passed since the first game in the series was released in Japan, and today marks the start of the year leading up to the 20th anniversary From today, we will be holding various events and making announcements leading up to the 20th anniversary next year. We're also creating a global structure to deliver various types of merchandise and content to fans in Japan, Asia, and the west starting from next year. With this, I'm confident we'll be able to surprise gamers around the world." To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Who knows how surprised all you Like a Dragon gamers will actually be, but it is nice to know that RGG Studio has no intention of slowing down on tapping into the series' popularity. Right now, though, the developer will likely be focused on Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, the latest entry that pits everyone's beloved Majima as a pirate! Duh! That's out February 21, next year, so not long to go now.

Hero TimeInvincible season 3 "feels a little serious" in its first full trailer, but it looks like a good time at the very leastMark Grayson is looking a bit black and blue, but not because he's getting beaten up a lot this time.Image credit: Prime Video News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Dec. 8, 2024 Prime Video has released the first full trailer for Invincible season 3, and it's offered up a first look at the titular hero in his new black and blue suit.It's been CCXP over in Brazil this weekend, offering up plenty of announcements, behind the scenes tidbits, and more, with Prime Video also sharing the first trailer for Invincible season 3 there too. Lucky for you that trailer has been shared online too, which you can check out below if you're not someone who's completely spoiler averse. It seems like this time around protagonist Mark Grayson will be grappling what it means to be a good person versus a good hero, with the main issue being his sort-of boss Cecil - that relationship appears to be dissolving fast, with Mark heading off on his own route, and adopting his black and blue suit (which he notes "feels a little serious") that fans of the comic will recognise.Watch on YouTubeOn top of that, Mark's new and younger (but growing fast) brother Oliver wants to take part in the superhero life, which obviously isn't an easy thing to manage because when have kids with superpowers ever been easy to deal with? Never! Aside from that, it's not exactly clear what else is going on; there's some punching, some blood and guts, the usual thing you might expect from Invincible, but I doubt that Invincible season 3 will just be about a workplace debut. Plus Atom Eve is missing in action, so who knows what's going on there.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. You don't have too long to wait until you can check out the third season at the very least, as it's currently set to air on Prime Video February 6 next year, where you'll be able to check out the first three episodes, before switching to a weekly release until March 13.