The Video Game History Foundation's immense collection is now available in early access for you to learn about an epic moment in gaming history — or simply peruse at your whim — for free.

VGHF is a nonprofit focusing on keeping and making available all resources pertaining to video games press. The library the foundation just made available to the public contains over 1500 out-of-print gaming magazines and 30,000 files that have been scanned so hard you can even use the text search function on them.

The foundation's previous announcement teased a bunch of surprises, and now we know that even the library's early version is packed with amazing goodies:

• A collection of FromSoft's promotional materials, put together by Kris Urquhart, that the people of FromSoft were totally cool with seeing shared online.
• Guides for many important game events, such as the 12 first years of E3.
• 100 CD-ROMS filled with GamePro magazine's archives.
• An over-100-hour-long making of the Myst series.
• The "Mark Flitman papers", a long list of documents kept by Mark Flitman from the time he worked on big companies such as Konami and Acclaim.

VGHF is a non-profit organization, so all this is made possible by the contributions of people who want game history to stay accessible for all present and future generations of gamers. You can help this cause right here.

The library is now fully accessible online here. Still, be aware that you might encounter a few hiccups as a lot of people are likely to be accessing the site at the same time. All possible issues are likely to either go away by themselves or to get fixed as the archive leaves early access.

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Hello Kitty Island Adventure has finally hit Steam and Nintendo Switch, welcoming an influx of new players to the fold. However, the Steam launch did not go as smoothly as Sunblink hoped, with players confused by version options and wording, but now there’s half a fix. 

If, like me, you woke up first thing this morning and immediately opened Steam to download the impossibly cute Hello Kitty Island Adventure on PC, you may have noticed something a little strange. There were two options: the basic game and the Deluxe version, which promised extra items and outfits with “no need to wait.”

Some people purchased the basic game with a view to upgrade to the Deluxe version later if they liked the experience, because it was labeled as a DLC. But once they’d purchased the basic version, there was no option available to buy the Deluxe version content.

After some pushback from players, this issue has been rectified after Valve apparently contacted Sunblink directly and suggested changing this system. Soon, players who purchased the Standard version will have the option to upgrade. 

Here’s what Sunblink has said via the official Island Adventure Discord server:

For those who have not yet purchased the Deluxe version of Island Adventure, or upgraded to it, a word of warning. The Steam page description of the Deluxe content is badly worded, and while it states there is “no need to wait” for all of the extra goodies, everything is locked behind mid-game quests. You’ll end up playing for hours before you get the outfits you’ve forked out for, so bear that in mind if you want to spend the extra cash for the upgraded version. 

Plus, those who have previously played Island Adventure on Apple Arcade have noted that all of the items included in the Deluxe version are actually available during repeat events and can be obtained by putting in a little more effort during those events. This means that nothing is exclusive to the Deluxe version, and the bulk of the “300 unique items” is a pile of 100 Sticks. 

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The makers of Forza have just announced via their official blog that Microsoft will be releasing yet another of the Xbox big hitters on the PS5. This time it's Forza Horizon 5, one of the best "chillout" racing games of all time.

The port of Forza Horizon 5 is being developed not just by Turn 10 Studios, the people responsible for all the games in the series so far, but by Panic Button in partnership with Playground games and Turn 10.

If you're just hearing about Panic Button for the first time, rest assured, as they're behind fantastic Switch ports of Id titles such as Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal.

Microsoft stated that all content from the Xbox version of the game will be present in the game. That includes all existing car packs available in the store, and the Hot Wheels and Rally Adventure expansions.

And that's not all, as the Forza team is working on a new free content update for all platforms, which will be called Horizon Realms. The new update will allow players to explore a collection of some of the community's favorite Evolving Words, and also a few surprises. The best addition, however, will likely be the chance to cross-play with everyone on Xbox, PlayStation 5, and PC.

"We are excited to see the Forza Horizon 5 community grow with new players on PS5, and we can't wait to see the creativity and skill these new creators, builders, and racers will bring to our vibrant community."

Phil Spencer seemingly was not bluffing when he said the exclusivity model doesn't work for the Xbox, so we're pretty excited to see what other once tightly-guarded Xbox exclusives will be entering the multi-platform zone.

You can wishlist Forza Horizon 5 right now on the PlayStation Store, and wait for it to release sometime during Spring.

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This time last year, the finale of Bombservice's Momodora series of indie Metroidvanias had just hit PC, and as revealed during today's PLAYISM Game Show Mini, Moonlit Farewell is making the leap to consoles on February 6, 2025.

While there's no shortage of options for Metroidvanias, there's something truly special about the Momodora series. You'll soon be able to explore this excellent swan song on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. Here's a Switch trailer from the announcement for another look at what Moonlit Farewell has to offer.

For my money, Momodora: Moonlit Farewell ticks all the right boxes. It's not too long but still clocks in with a beefier adventure than its predecessors. The visuals are outstanding, the bosses are all fun to fight, and the new Sigil system offers up a mix of interesting buffs and tempting risk-reward debuffs. 

As for new stuff, it sounds like the console version will just include content from the major updates, like the Boss Rush mode. The press release also mentions a newly added post-credits boss battle, which was also part of the PC version's March 2024 update. 

It's been 15 years since Guilherme "rdein" Martins first kicked the series off with the original Momodora. If you include the spiritual sequel. Minoria. there are six games in total, each worth the little time they ask of players. It'll be nice to have more options soon to traverse the final entry's expertly-woven map.

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Graphics card drivers aren't usually a thing one should get excited over, but Nvidia's latest release, 572.16, is worth celebrating. Specifically, Nvidia is now pushing out official support for its Transformer-based DLSS4 upscaler, which comes with a massive suite of visual and performance improvements by default.

There are two main reasons you'd want to update to driver 572.16, and they're both vast boons from a utility point of view. Firstly, you're getting ready access to Transformer-based upscaling via DLSS4, which provides a huge uplift in the supported games' visual quality. The second reason is related to DLSS4, though it is a tad more technical: you get to update old games' crummy DLSS versions to the latest build. Exciting, right?

Nvidia's DLSS4 Driver, version 572.16, is now available for download

The DLSS Override feature is one of those things that really should've been implemented from day one of Nvidia's foray into super-sampling, but here we are. It is basically a new utility screen available via the Nvidia App that lets you replace old DLSS versions with the latest Transformer-based model. Any DLSS2+ game should be able to support DLSS4 super-sampling, though I am sad to report that the UI doesn't seem to be working fully just yet. Some users claim that a restart following the drivers' installation helps, but that hasn't been the case on my end.

On a similar note, I'd like to add that there's still some weirdness with how the official Nvidia App is handling this rollout. A significant number of games don't yet support the override UI for some reason, so it may be a good idea to wait for a few more client updates until everything's cleared up. In the interim, I recommend the excellent unofficial DLSS Swapper utility. This handy little tool lets you fine-tune exactly which version of DLSS and its respective presets you wish to use in a given game, and it already has the DLSS4 configuration file ready to go. Nothing beats a good community tool, right?

As one might expect from Nvidia's corpo-garble, DLSS4 is actually a whole clown car's worth of utilities bundled together under the super-sampler's name. While the new RTX 5000 GPUs can access all of these utilities, older cards won't be able to use Multi-Frame Generation, for example. It is what it is, though, and the important bit is that Frame Generation itself isn't the reason to update your Nvidia driver anyway. Instead, you want the ability to switch DLSS upscaler version to the latest version in any supported game, and this feature goes back all the way to RTX 2000 series. That's a big deal right there, no matter how you flip it, and Nvidia can only build upon this feature as we go on.

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You’re getting stood up, as Sassy Chap Games has announced that they won’t be making the Valentine’s Day launch date for Date Everything as they had planned. Instead, Date Everything will be coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and PC on June 25.

This is actually the second time the game has been delayed, as it was originally supposed to arrive on October 24, 2024 before getting moved to February 14, 2025. The Valentine’s Day launch would be very appropriate, but according to the release from Designer Ray Chase, “I was too confident that we could properly test ALL the wild amount of content that exists in this massive game, and unfortunately, we ran out of time on our current release date.” Fair enough.

Date Everything is, of course, the dating sim that allows you to date everything. You wander a house and interact with anthropomorphized versions of, well, everything. From the couch to the icebox. More importantly, you can romance them, because no one understands your problems quite like your bed. I have to wonder if the genre pioneers who worked on games like Tokimeki Memorial thought that this is where things would end up.

The delay is unfortunate, but you don’t want bugs getting involved in your passions. Visual novels can get pretty messy, especially when they branch as much as Date Everything promises to. Even with a lot of planning, every variable you add to the mix has the chance of throwing a wrench into the mix. So, I guess what I’m saying is: I’m sorry your date stood you up, chum. I'm sorry everything stood you up.

Date Everything is now coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and PC on June 25.

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More good news in the world of tardy translations, Ratalaika Games and Shinyuden are localizing Technos Japan’s 1991 dice-centric Famicom RPG, Sugoro Quest: Dice Heroes. It’s coming February 7 to Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

It’s interesting news coming in the wake of Super Technos World: River City & Arcade Classics, as it will feature the Super Famicom’s Sugoro Quest++: DICENICS, but won’t be providing a translation. I’m not sure if this news makes that more disappointing or less. At least now we’re getting some Sugoro Quest and not none.

Sugoro Quest is something of a cross between a board game and a JRPG. The game world is a series of segmented paths that you roll to traverse. Fights also have you pit your dice against those thrown by enemies. Whoever gets the highest number gets to attack. Somewhat like an actual tabletop RPG. Sort of. Some of them. Maybe.

Was it any good? I’m not sure, personally. I’ve heard good things and have wanted to try it myself, if only because I’m a fan of Technos’ Famicom output. I was a bit bummed that Sugoro Quest++ isn’t being translated in the Super Technos World collection, but I also understand that translating old games isn’t as easy as it sounds, which is why you should appreciate each and every fan effort.

At the same time, new official translations are becoming more common, and it’s great to see. Not only are we getting games like the Shockman series from Ratalaika and Sinyuden, but there are official cartridge releases from folks like Retro-Bit, collections from Arc Systems Works (Sugoro Quest++ aside), and even Nintendo got in on it with their limited-time re-release of the first Fire Emblem game. Great stuff.

Sugoro Quest: Dice Heroes is coming to Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on February 7, 2025 (thanks to Gematsu for spotting it).

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The history of gaming is filled with twists, a fascinating tale of ‘what ifs’ and ‘maybes’ that has culminated in the current console wars and exclusivity rights. One of the ‘what ifs’ comes in the form of the ‘Nintendo PlayStation’, and it really is a rabbit hole of a story. 

It’s jarring, isn’t it? To see the Super Nintendo controller with the PlayStation branding that we’ve now all come to know so well. How did it get there, and why? Here’s everything you could ever want to know about the sordid tale of the doomed Nintendo PlayStation.

The birth (and death) of the Nintendo PlayStation

Back in the late 1980s (1988, to be precise) Sony and Nintendo were actually working together very well. Sony were working on not only a standalone CD based add-on for the Super Nintendo, but also a hybrid console that would combine both formats. It seemed like a good idea, at the time, and around 200 prototypes of this dual console were created. 

But then things went horribly wrong, and the exact story varies depending on where you get it from. Either way, some things are known for certain. On June 1, 1991, Sony announced that they would be working on a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo at Summer CES. The very next day, in an act of betrayal that must have really pinched, Nintendo announced that the company would rather partner with Philips to create this add-on. 

Nintendo apparently grew concerned that they were being used as a ‘prop’ in Sony’s ambitions for a console release, and had uncovered details that warned of Sony’s intention to take all of the profits, but that’s never quite been entirely confirmed. 

As a result, most of the prototype consoles were destroyed, and others were lost to history for a very long time, but more on that later. 

Whatever happened to the Philips CD-i?

Though the partnership between Philips and Nintendo didn’t actually get off the ground and produce a joint console, Philips were left with the rights to create Nintendo video games. They used these rights to create games for the already existing Compact Disk Interactive, otherwise known as the CD-i. 

Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of it before. While the CD-i itself was around for almost a decade, the gaming aspect was doomed and short lived. Only four games were ever released for the platform (Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda’s Adventure, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, and Hotel Mario) with two further cancelled titles (Super Mario’s Wacky Worlds and Mario Takes America) rounding up the total number of releases for this ill-fated platform to six. 

The rediscovery of the PlayStation Nintendo

This is where the story takes a fortunate and fascinating turn. One of the prototype consoles had escaped being destroyed, and was instead stored away by former Sony CEO Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson when he became a Board of Director member at Advanta. There it remained, until 2009. 

When Advanta filed for bankruptcy, all of the company’s former property was included in a bankruptcy auction and a former worker named Terry Diebold decided to pick up a few lots, mainly because he wanted some tableware that took his fancy. Unbeknownst to him, Terry paid $75 USD for a lot that included a long-lost piece of gaming history. 

But he had no idea what he’d stumbled upon, and put it into his attic for six years. 

It was only when Terry’s son, Daniel, found the console in his father’s attic that news of its discovery came to light, with Daniel posting a short clip to YouTube shortly after to prove its existence. 

The Diebolds then handed the PlayStation Nintendo prototype off to Benjamin Heckendorn, otherwise known as Ben Heck Hacks on YouTube, trusting his extensive knowledge of console restoration to get the prototype working again. And get it working he did. 

So now we have a PlayStation Nintendo prototype that will run Nintendo Cartridges and Audio CDs, but what happened next?

Where is the Nintendo PlayStation now?

After touring the world with their fascinating discovery, the Diebolds eventually decided to put the Nintendo PlayStation up for auction via Heritage Auctions, a well known online collectibles auctioneer. Interest was high, understandably, but the prototype eventually sold on March 6, 2020, for $360,000 USD including fees. Not much, considering the Terry Diebold's claim that he turned down an offer of £1.2 million a few years before. A bargain, by all accounts.

It was purchased by Californian Greg McLemore, an entrepreneur who is most known for founding both pets.com and toys.com, websites that are now defunct. It seems like an odd choice of purchase for the man, but it turns out that McLemore is an avid collector and cataloger of arcade and video game history, running the online site Arcade Museum since 2000. 

And, as far as anyone knows, the Nintendo PlayStation is still in his hands. You can still see the prototype on the Museum of Obsolete Technology page of the aforementioned website. 

The Nintendo PlayStation timeline

Don’t worry if you’re a little bit confused by this perplexing winding tale. Here’s the full timeline, condensed:

Legacy and influence on modern gaming

Despite their disastrous collaboration with Nintendo, Sony persevered and released the PlayStation 1 in 1994. In a turn of events that has probably been a thorn in Nintendo’s side ever since, the console sold more than twice as many units than the Nintendo 64, which was released two years later. 

I think it’s safe to say that PlayStation has had a choke hold on the gaming sphere ever since, and we’re now on the fifth iteration of the console, with no signs of slowing down. This begs the question of what could have been had this collaboration been not doomed to fail?

Without focusing too much on the simple fact that PlayStation exists, I think it’s useful to consider the other influence that PlayStation has had on the gaming industry. Console wars between Sony and Microsoft have driven development of newer, more powerful consoles for decades now, and that shows no sign of changing any time soon. 

While it’s understandable to wonder about what could have been, it’s perhaps a good thing that the Nintendo and Sony collaboration never actually materialized into anything. The gaming industry would likely be a vastly different place if it had, and with all of the incredible releases that have come in the last 30 years, I for one happen to quite like it just the way it is. 

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It's been a hot minute since we've had a new Mass Effect release, not including the Legendary Edition that came out in 2021. There is a follow-up in development, but a recent post suggests the studio may be downsizing, or is at least restructuring.

According to Gary McCay – the current General Manager at BioWare – the next entry in Mass Effect will be handled by a "core team" going forward. It seems as though developers who worked on Dragon Age: The Vailguard are being moved over to the new project.

This information follows an announcement from August 2023 that said the company would be "changing how we build games to meet the needs of our upcoming projects and hold ourselves to the highest quality standards."

Carefully chosen language

McCay goes on to say that BioWare is "taking this opportunity between full development cycles to reimagine" how the team works. As such, the upcoming Mass Effect game doesn't require support from "the full studio."

Do note that at no point does the blog post say that BioWare is actually initiating layoffs or terminating roles at the company. However, the language employed does seem to skirt around this. In fact, a report from IGN, some people at the company have been relocated to other roles.

This also seems to include those who worked on the recent Dragon Age game. The report claims that "team members are also seeing their roles terminated" while also being offered new jobs internally. Given this, it does sound like BioWare is indeed restructuring in a way that will affect those who are already working at the studio.

As for the new Mass Effect, we don't have much information to go off at this stage. At the time it was announced a few years ago, it was in the early stages of development, but McCay's post suggests the project is about to become the focus of BioWare.

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The adorable yet comical rom-com series Komi Can't Communicate took the anime world by a silent storm when its anime adaptation aired in 2021. But even before its anime success, the manga already built a loyal fanbase. And now, after nine years of serialization, the manga officially comes to an end.

Komi Can't Communicate, penned by Tomohito Oda, debuted on Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine in May 2016. The manga ended with Chapter 499, which is available in English on VIZ Media. While the manga released weekly chapters via Weekly Shonen Sunday, the chapters are compiled into 36 tankobon volumes, though the final chapters are yet to be included.

The series received an anime adaptation in 2021. The first season had 12 episodes, airing from October to December of that year. Its huge success warranted another 12-episode season, which came out in April 2022 and ended in June of the same year. In addition, the manga also won the 67th Shogakukan Manga Award for the shonen category in 2022.

Netflix licensed the anime for worldwide streaming. But while all episodes can be streamed via the platform, availability may vary depending on region.

What is the Komi Can't Communicate manga about?

Komi Can't Communicate follows the story of the high school student Hitohito Tadano, a total wallflower who doesn't have a knack for reading social situations. Even though his social interactions were scarce, Tadano preferred it that way. He believed it was the key to maintaining a peaceful school life. However, his peaceful days instantly ended after he met the aloof Komi.

By being seated next to Komi, who immediately became the school princess, Tadano was targeted by jealous stares. But when he was left in a room with her, he realized she wasn't naturally cool. Instead, she was just super socially awkward. After a brief confrontation, he took it upon himself to help her achieve her dream of getting 100 friends.

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Folks looking for another promising roguelite action game to sink some time into can now mark their calendars for this spring. Game Source Entertainment locked in an April 24 launch date for Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade, a stylish-looking actioner that's on the way to PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Taiwanese indie developer 7Quark is behind the action-RPG, which unfurls its take on the story of the Nine-Tailed Fox in Edo era Japan. Also known as the "King of Demons," the beast's arrival upsets the previously-established peace between humans and demons. As one might expect, that serves as a nice excuse for some fast-paced hackin' and slashin'.

You can see some of that in action along with a look at the main characters in the new trailer:

The three main characters each have notable Japanese voice talent behind them. Yoko Hikasa (Minami in Dr. STONE) voices the Demon Blade-wielding immortal ninja known as Shigure. Ayana Taketatsu (Leafa in Sword Art Online) voices Oni Emissary Sara, and Rikiya Koyama (Taiga Saejima in Yakuza/Like a Dragon) voices demon samurai and master archer Taketora. 

Throughout the adventure, weapons can be upgraded, recipes can be discovered, and alliances can be forged with "kind-hearted demons." Uh huh, we've heard that one before. Nice try, demons. 

For those who want to check it out before it drops this April, a demo is currently available on Steam. It's billed as an "evolving demo," so more is on the way in the future. As of right now, Steam Next Fest is the next approaching milestone. Look for the first half of Chapter One, new seasonal scenery, new enemies, and a new boss stage to be added to the sampler platter soon. 

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Destiny 2's Arc Subclass is about to improve in the upcoming Episode: Heresy. Bungie has started sharing some details about the next bout of in-game content, including how each Class' abilities will change.

The spotlight here is on a new Arc keyword, Bolt Charge, that lets you repeatedly target foes with lightning strikes. Of course, that's not all from the finale Episode of The Final Shape, as new Aspects are also inbound to help shake up the gameplay sandbox.

While these tweaks and additions don't come with every Tuesday reset in Destiny 2, they often appear in significant updates. With three Episodes for The Final Shape, the structure allowed Bungie a well-defined period of four or so months before changing things up when a new Episode arrived. Now, it looks like some of the biggest shakeups of The Final Shape era were saved for Episode: Heresy.

Introducing Bolt Charge

Bungie highlighted what players could expect from Subclasses heading into the new Episode. While Arc will have a lot going for it in Episode: Heresy, one of the spotlight items is the new keyword: Bolt Charge. It is an Arc feature that allows Guardians to call down a surge of electricity to damage foes. It works differently from other keywords, potentially requiring a bit more planning.

"While you have one or more stacks, from any source — Aspects, Fragments, weapon perks, etc.  — dealing damage with any weapon increases your Bolt Charge stack count. Each time a stack is gained, you gain a chunk of melee energy. At 10 stacks, your Bolt Charge is ready and any ability damage — Arc or otherwise — summons a powerful Arc bolt, dealing roughly the same amount of damage as a Solar Ignition with a smaller area of effect. Different from Ignition though, Bolt Charge is tuned to have more consistent and predictable uptime," the studio said.

It sounds like the key to making the new feature work is getting that first stack of Bolt Charge. From there, additional stacks seem easy to gain, as any weapon damage contributes. Bungie did mention that players wouldn't just be limited to pure Arc builds to use the new keyword. Prismatic Subclasses will also have access to Bolt Charge through various options.

After watching the short gameplay clip of a Titan player using the new Arc Aspect to trigger Bolt Charge on the first encounter in the Vesper's Host Dungeon, the feature looks incredibly powerful. In that clip, it appears the lightning strike knocks a respectable 15 percent or so of health off the Brig.

New Aspects

Warlocks have a new tool to play with in the form of Ionic Sentry. This Arc Aspect allows Guardians to create their own Tesla tower that chains electricity to any foes unfortunate enough to be within range. As a bonus, the Ionic Sentry deploys with a Blinding effect and builds stacks of Bolt Charge as it slays enemies. Using the Ionic Sentry is as simple as charging the feature up by getting Arc kills and then activating it by tossing out a grenade.

Bungie commented on the new Aspect's design, "Stormcallers are masterful at channeling Arc energy, reshaping and redeploying it to cause mayhem on the battlefield. With Ionic Sentry, Stormcallers have harnessed Arc energy and coalesced it into a perfect orb of hurricane and harmony. Once it is charged up through Arc ability and weapon kills, you gain access to Ionic Sentry as a special grenade throw, similar to how Gunpowder Gamble works for Gunslingers."

While Hunters did not get an Arc Aspect to coincide with Bolt Charge, Guardians will have a new Void Aspect to play around with. It is called On The Prowl, allowing Hunters to defeat marked priority targets. When defeated, those priority targets create a weakening smoke cloud that Hunters and allies can use to become invisible again, gaining ability energy in the process.

Titans are also getting a fancy new Arc Aspect: Storm's Keep. Whenever Titans use their Class ability, they'll bestow a "moderate" number of Bolt Charge stacks to themselves and nearby allies. If Titans take one of the Barricade abilities, friendly players (including the casting Titan) will gain Bolt Charge stacks while behind it and can also discharge the lightning strike with weapon damage instead of only ability damage.

"We wanted to do a few things with this Aspect for Strikers," the studio noted. "We wanted to create an opportunity for Barricade to be used offensively and we wanted to capitalize on what Bolt Charge can provide. We envision Strikers pushing forward on the battlefield and using their class abilities to cement themselves as the tip of the spear in any fireteam."

Arc Subclass updates

Several updates are coming to the Arc Subclass aimed at making it more viable and forgiving in endgame content. Most importantly, PvE enemies will now be less accurate against Amplified players, and Guardians themselves will gain 15% PvE damage resistance when under the effect.

Many Fragments are also seeing tweaks to support the Arc-focused Episode. Spark of Discharge will grant a stack of Bolt Charge whenever an Ionic Trace is collected, and Spark of Momentum gets the new effect of getting a Bolt Charge stack after sliding over ammo bricks. It's also easier to trigger the Fragment, but the melee energy bonus has disappeared.

Spark of Frequency will have the added benefit of providing an extra Bolt Charge stack whenever players gain Bolt Charge from any source. That is joined by Spark of Volts, which also adds Bolt Charge stacks when Guardians get Finishers on top of the Amplified buff. Finally, Spark of Ions will additionally reward Ionic Traces whenever players defeat enemies with Bolt Charge.

Hunters

While Hunters may not have a flashy Arc Aspect to use in Episode: Heresy, plenty of updates are coming to the Subclass itself. The Tempest Strike melee ability is getting its damage increased by 57% in PvE. Additionally, players gain a stack of Bolt Charge if it is used to kill a Jolt-affected target.

The Disorienting Blow melee is also seeing a change, offering a "moderate" amount of Bolt Charge stacks whenever dealing damage with the ability. It will also deal AoE damage around the target, and its Blind effect has increased from six meters to a little over nine and a half meters. And for Arc Staff Super enjoyers, there's now a good reason to ensure you're reflecting blows, as it will offer a stack of Bolt Charge. 

Any of these retuned abilities will work well with the touched-up Ascension Aspect. The Aspect now provides three Fragment slots when running an Arc Subclass (already available on Prismatic). Activating the Aspect's effect, an upward Arc Staff twirl, now procs the effects from several other Hunter Class abilities. Bungie noted that Gambler's Dodge, Marksman's Dodge, Empowering Dodge, and Threaded Specter would be included for now, but more options could come in the future.

Titans

Alongside the new Aspect, Titans have a slew of quality-of-life tweaks coming their way. First and foremost, and most important for Storm's Keep, are a few changes to Barricades. Overall, Guardians will be more resilient when behind a Barricade, with splash damage resistance jumping from 60% to 80%. On top of this, the Taunt effect is changing a bit, no longer losing potency and range over time.

The Juggernaut Aspect is also getting a glow-up. The Juggernaut shield effect now offers 60% splash damage resistance in PvE and 10% in PvP. Additionally, you have an extra 10% flat damage reduction in PvE when the shield is up. Finally, when the shield successfully blocks damage, Titans gain a stack of Bolt Charge.

Titan's Ballistic Slam melee ability is also seeing some significant updates. It allows Titans to deal AoE damage with a ground slam after sprinting and while airborne. In Heresy, you won't have to sprint for long before the ability is ready, and damage will scale based on the distance Guardians travel. If that didn't get your attention, overall PvE damage has been bumped by 30%, and a stack of Bolt Charge is earned for each enemy damaged by the melee.

Warlocks

Warlocks have the least of tweaks to their Arc Subclass, but they already had a powerful setup with Arc Soul and Supers like Chaos Reach. Speaking of Chaos Reach, its damage will increase by 15% against non-Champion targets in PvE. The Stormtrance Super is similarly getting a damage boost, jumping by an additional 20% against non-Champion PvE foes.

The Lightning Surge Aspect is getting some tweaks, too. When Guardians use its effect, Amplified will be consumed. Damage is also getting reduced in PvP, from 20 per projectile to 15. That said, a payout is getting easier to predict with a two-meter width and a one-meter height increase of its cone.

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Antistatic Studios has announced that a demo playtest of their four-player cooperative FPS, Phantom Line, is now available on PC via their Discord server. Alongside this is a new trailer to give you a peek at what you’re getting into.

It’s a bit hard to get a good read on what Phantom Line really is, so let’s start from the top. It’s a first-person shooter for 1-4 players, set in an open-world environment. You’re an operative for a megacorporation who has been dispatched into an Eastern European country following a nuclear war. Okay, sounds familiar.

However, there’s also something called the H.U.S.K. that allows you to transfer your consciousness between artificial bodies. The trailer doesn’t really capture that very well, but there’s a gif on the store page that shows it in action. Maybe.

Phantom Line promises an open world full of dynamic events. You and your friends get a derelict ship as a base of operations and can show off your loot. There’s also crafting, because an artificial army runs on its stomach, so you have to eat. The trailer shows a suspicious amount of bear violence, so you may be eating something pretty gamey.

To get in on the Phantom Line playtest, you’ll need to sign up for their discord at this link here. The full release date has yet to be announced. 

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Believe it or not, Oryx, the Taken King, is returning to Destiny 2. Bungie confirmed as much in a Developer Livestream for Episode: Heresy, but there's obviously a lot of information the studio has yet to give us. We know we'll be venturing back into the Dreadnaught, and the Taken and Hive will be involved, but we lack the finer details. The stream did, however, provide players with an idea of what the bones of Heresy will look like.

Oryx, the Taken King, is a major villain from Destiny's past. Once a Hive god and a significant force to be reckoned with, Guardians would eventually topple the monarch in the original Destiny's The Taken King expansion. To do so, we boarded Oryx's Throne World spacecraft hybrid, the Dreadnaught. While the King's Fall Raid is currently available in Destiny 2, Episode: Heresy will be the first time Guardians can explore the Dreadnaught in the sequel. 

The return of the King

Following a trend established in the Episodes of The Final Shape, it seems Episode: Heresy also plans to bring back a major villain. While Echoes brought Maya Sundaresh back into conversations, and Revenant offered a finale for Fikrul, Oryx definitely has the most star power as an Episode's headlining villain. That said, the revival of Oryx doesn't appear as simple as what was attempted in the Ghosts of the Deep Dungeon.

In some key art shared during the livestream, a ghostly visage of Oryx is shown peering over the Dreadnaught. The blue-spectered foe doesn't appear to be haunting us in the flesh, perhaps much in the same way that the Ahamkara Riven came back for Season of the Wish. That said, Bungie did hint at a flesh-and-blood enemy at the root of Heresy's conflict: an as-of-now unnamed Dread character.

Of course, with the prospect of Oryx's return on the horizon, Guardians will need to call in the specialists to deal with the combined Dread, Hive, and Taken threat. Naturally, that means Eris Morn, the Ghost-less Moon Guardian who briefly became a Hive god during the Season of the Witch. Joining the Hive expert is her more-than-just-friends ally, The Drifter, and Commander Sloan from Titan, who'd become afflicted by Taken corruption during Season of the Deep.

Are we getting the power to Take?

During the stream, there were some coy hints and references that Episode: Heresy may finally let players do something they've been asking for since the Taken were encountered: Gain the power to Take. The power of the Taken is intrinsically tied to Oryx, as he originated the ability. While control of the mindless faction has drifted since Oryx's fall, who knows what's bound to happen when the King himself returns? 

If persistent rumors suggesting that we're going to use the Dreadnaught to leave the solar system pan out, then it stands to reason we might need to master the same powers as its former steward. Bungie's Narrative Architect, Nikko Stevens, said, "[Sloan] has been afflicted with this Taken corruption that we saw back in Season of the Deep, and she's learned how to sort of hold it back but also utilize it to make her stronger. So she is going to be teaching us some of that." Adding some fuel to the fire, Senior Social Media Manager Andy Salisbury noted, "We're going 'Beyond,' once again."

Stevens added another piece of context later on when asked about the Path of Resolve in Heresy. "There is 'an event' that happens at the beginning of the Episode," Stevens noted. "This 'REDACTED' event sort of kicks off Sloan's motivation for teaching us about the Taken power that she has been holding back. So, that is the Path of Resolve, she's going to be teaching us how to fight fire with fire." 

The Narrative Architect continued, explaining how the Path of Resolve would factor into gameplay on the Dreadnaught. "We're going to be going into the Dreadnaught, taking some control of that Taken energy, taking some control of those old Hive Magiks, and wielding them using our Light and using our Paracausaility," Stevens said.

Into The Nether

Launching with the first Act of Episode: Heresy is a new activity called The Nether. The studio explained that The Nether would take players back through the old patrol zones of the Dreadnaught as Guardians rot out recent incursions by Dread, Taken, and Hive foes. As Senior Designer Ryan Harris notes, the activity was designed to be highly replayable.

"Baseline, the Patrol Zones are randomized and varied. The encounters inside are varied and randomized as well. So, time over time, when you launch into the activity, it's going to be a different starting bubble, different encounters, and different events and objectives for you to engage with," Harris explained.

The Nether may have some familiar trappings, but the activity will take on a wholly different vibe. Guardians will not regenerate health on their own, so a dedicated healer might be needed to conquer more serious difficulties. To compensate, Bungie is increasing player health by 300 and shields by 75 while in The Nether. "We really want to make your health a resource," Harris noted.

Ammo will also appear at a more limited capacity in The Nether, but the developers explained that there are ways to earn both health and ammo drops throughout the activity. Finally, as Guardians progress through The Nether, they will acquire Boons, which are buffs that will remain present for the rest of the run. Destination materials, chests, and destructible environmental objects like pots were described, acting as potential resource caches.

The Nether will have variable instances, with one mode that caters to solo players. "For players who are wanting that explorative aspect, we've seperated out the modes a little bit. People can go in and they can explore the Dreadnaught, but people who are just looking to bust through the activity and get loot, they have a different matchmade mode," Stevens noted. In addition to the solo and regular matchmade mode, there's also an Expert difficulty option.

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Surprise! GOG has released the first two Dino Crisis games on their storefront. That’s today! You can get them now! They’ve also announced the GOG Dreamlist that allows their community to suggest games that they want re-released.

Yeah, sorry, it’s not news of a new Dino Crisis. The series has been dormant since 2003’s Dino Crisis 3, which is something that didn’t happen and therefore didn’t count. I’m kidding. I haven’t actually played the Dino Crisis games, so I’m really just a poseur. However, that could change.

Like the Resident Evil trilogy that GOG lovingly touched up, the two Dino Crisis games have been brought up to modern specs. Beyond just being friendlier with modern operating systems, the company states it “includes Original, Arrange, and PC-exclusive Operation Wipe Out modes. Updates feature enhanced DirectX rendering, ~4K resolution, modern controllers, and fixes for stability, transparency, and save issues. New options like V-Sync, Gamma Correction, and Anti-Aliasing offer a refined experience.”

If you’re unfamiliar (and I’m only partially familiar), the first two Dino Crisis games are often described as Resident Evil but with dinosaurs. They’re fixed-camera survival horror games that play very similarly. One difference is that Dino Crisis 2 has pre-rendered backgrounds like the Resident Evil games, but the first Dino Crisis had real-time 3D backgrounds. Doesn’t make much difference since it’s still fixed-camera.

Alongside the launch, the site is launching the GOG Dreamlist, which is something of a replacement to the Community Wishlist. This allows users to vote on games that they want to get this sort of treatment. The Dreamlist is more streamlined, but the idea is the same. It lets GOG know where they should be focusing, and it also helps them show rights holders that there’s demand for a re-release. As they put it, “Your votes keep the fire burning, even when negotiations get tough.”

Both Dino Crisis and Dino Crisis 2 are available for PC on GOG today.

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EA has long had a backlog of Sims games sitting in its vault, from the cult classic Bustin’ Out to The Urbz: Sims in the City. This includes the original The Sims which was released for PC, and the highly rated sequel, The Sims 2. Electronic Arts might have previously just left these titles to rot, but not anymore. It looks like The Sims and The Sims 2 are getting an official re-release.

Thanks to an update to the official website showing off a Sim from the original title with the interaction wheel from the sequel, plus a teaser with Plumbobs from both games, it seems as though EA will be putting these two games out to gamers everywhere. This, coupled with industry rumors that the release will be before the end of the month, seemingly confirms what fans have been asking for.

The Sims and The Sims 2 could be coming back for an official release

While there is no official confirmation from EA yet, a leak from SimsCommunity.info will be re-released on January 31, 2025. Along with the teases from the official Sims accounts, it seems likely the information is true. The ports will reportedly be for Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems, making the games playable on modern PCs. Again, this is all a leak, so information could change, and these rumors could be incorrect.

Along with the base games, the re-release is expected to include all the expansion packs for The Sims, and all the expansions and stuff packs for The Sims 2. Pricing is still unknown. However, we can assume it will be similar to past bundles, such as The Sims 2: Ultimate Collection.

The first two mainline titles of the series have been unplayable through official channels for years now, as neither game is currently available on the EA App or Origin. Players interested in enjoying the nostalgia offered by the original two Sims games have had to resort to buying the games secondhand or pirating them, and having to run them through backwards compatibility.

Coupled with the release of the MySims Cozy Bundle and the update to The Sims 3 not long ago, it seems that EA is finally listening to fans and making their older games accessible to players. The Sims 4 has been the cash cow for the company for over a decade now, and the company has pretty much ignored the rest of the catalog besides a few mobile spin-offs. With the series' 25^th Anniversary being celebrated in February 2025, EA has finally decided it’s the perfect time to give fans what they want.

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Hogwarts Legacy, folks! Remember that big ol' AAA Wizarding World RPG from early 2023? Though it's been mostly out of the headlines for a little while now, the developer Avalanche Software is looking to change that through the official implementation of mods. A striking development, this, but it gets better.

Specifically, Hogwarts Legacy is due to receive official PC modding support via CurseForge on January 30, opening the more-or-less literal floodgates for community-made content. I'm not saying it's a huge improvement compared to the strangely humble Summer 2024 update, but it is a pretty darn big deal if we're being honest. The fact that it's all being accomplished via CurseForge, specifically, means modding will be easy and snappy, to boot, and content development will be driven through the fancy new Hogwarts Legacy creator kit. Nice!

Enjoy official Hogwarts Legacy mods via CurseForge, coming very soon

Anyone interested in actually producing mods for Hogwarts Legacy will be able to grab its accompanying Creator Kit via the Epic Games Store at no additional charge. "The creator kit provides powerful tools right at your fingertips, allowing you to flex your inner developer like the ones here at Avalanche and conjure the magic with custom mods that other players can enjoy, too," said Avalanche Software's community manager via IGN.

This is some very exciting stuff, to be sure. While I don't anticipate Hogwarts Legacy's modding scene to reach the ridiculous heights of, say, a mainline Bethesda Softworks RPG, there's immense potential here. And hey, Avalanche is eager to show off just how powerful Hogwarts Legacy's mod kit is by offering a whole suite of accompanying content for players to peruse. Some examples include a fancy new magical creature fetch-quest, some cool new cosmetics, and an honest-to-goodness endless dungeon to fight your way through. That certainly wasn't on my list of things to expect out of Hogwarts Legacy, I can tell you that much.

The game itself is a compelling enough product, though I do have to admit I never got around to finishing it.

Modding support might make Hogwarts Legacy more intriguing over time, and I do think most players will be interested in the prospect of enjoying community-made mods now that the feature is finally coming out. At the same time, the core Hogwarts Legacy experience is pretty far from perfect. Its gameplay systems can come apart at the seams and the drudgery of traditional open-world fetch-questing doesn't take long to set in.

The fact that mods will be handled via CurseForge implies that truly meaningful gameplay revamps might be impossible, but take this claim with a pinch of salt: we just don't know how powerful the official modkit actually is. The good news, then, is that we won't have to wait long before we get to test it out, so stay tuned.

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Through all of its many ups and downs, Helldivers 2 has remained steadfast in its insistence on being the go-to tactical horde shooter. That's in no small part due to its singular vision, which the former CEO and CCO Johan Pilestedt maintained. Now, though, he's off the project.

The silver lining is that Pilestedt isn't suddenly the centerpiece of a workplace drama. Instead, he's simply decided to take a sabbatical and do his own thing for a while. This may come as a big surprise to Pilestedt's many fans, as the CCO had grown very popular with the game's community, even when the going was tough. With that in mind, while it's plainly obvious that Helldivers 2 has been a team project from the very start, it was people such as Johan Pilestedt who brought the player base together, helping them weather whatever storm might've been cooking at any given time.

Johan Pilestedt is leaving Helldivers 2 for a sabbatical, moving onto other projects

"11 years of working "around the clock" on the same IP has made me set aside family, friends, and my lovely wife... and myself," said Pilestedt in his recent Tweet. "I am going to take some time now to redeem what was lost from all of those that supported me over a decade."

Pilestedt hasn't revealed how long his sabbatical might take, but he has confirmed in no uncertain terms that his work on Helldivers 2, specifically, is done: "When I'm back - I will start working on the next Arrowhead game," he said. If you were hoping he'd take over from whoever the acting CCO might be in the interim, it doesn't seem this will be the case at all.

Considering just how eventful things have been for Arrowhead from the day of Helldivers 2's release, it shouldn't come as too big of a surprise that Pilestedt might wish to leave the project behind. And on that note, while it's certainly easy to forget that Arrowhead's got a bunch of other IPs in tow, that is very much the case. I myself am hoping to see a revival of Magicka, for one, though the title itself is probably going to be a no-go, as it's now under Paradox Interactive's control.

It should come as no surprise that there's some uncertainty in the Helldivers 2 community over this decision:

Pilestedt has been very clear in his post that he's got no intention of coming back to Helldivers 2, and so the community is bound to be particularly mindful of that fact moving forward. Arrowhead might be hard-pressed to find someone else to fill Pilestedt's shoes as far as how personable the man's been, but it is what it is.

For what it's worth, after Pilestedt left the position of Arrowhead CEO to take the reigns as Helldivers 2 CCO, specifically, the new CEO Shams Jorjani found his footing reasonably quickly. He's not quite as popular with the community as Pilestedt has been, of course, but it's entirely possible he might choose to position himself as the next public Arrowhead personality that players can rally behind.

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Last week saw the release of DeepSeek, a cheaper alternative to ChatGPT from a Chinese AI company that is now seriously disrupting the world of AI. According to the BBC, DeepSeek has now overthrown all competition to become the most downloaded free app in the United States.

DeepSeek's impact has been so profound it caused the stock of giants such as Nvidia, Microsoft, and Meta to drop considerably, and now casts a huge shadow of uncertainty over the future of its competitors.

What makes DeepSeek so dangerous to other AI chatbots?

The main reason behind ChatGPT's meteoric rise was the huge amount of money parent company OpenAI managed to pour into its development. Just last week, after the inauguration of President Trump, OpenAI and other AI companies pledged to invest $500 billion dollars into the construction of AI infrastructure in the US. DeepSeek, on the other hand, is based on the DeepSeek-V3 model, which is open source, and was allegedly trained for no more than $6 million. It's seemingly already providing superior results to those of its competition.

DeepSeek is seemingly emerging out of a response to the United States restricting the sale of advanced chips to China. Now, instead of having to rely on the most advanced — and costly — tech, China's AI chatbot is relying on everyone's help to improve its functionalities. This has, so far, resulted in AI models that require far less processing power.

As of Monday, Nvidia and Broadcom saw their stocks plunging by 18%. Microsoft saw a drop of 2.5%, and Alphabet, Google's parent company, saw its stock drop by 4%.

The explanation so far? Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index, says they were blindsided.

"This idea of a low-cost Chinese version hasn't necessarily been forefront, so it's taken the market a little bit by surprise,"

Who's behind DeepSeek?

DeepSeek is the brainchild of Liang Wengfeng, a 40-year-old engineer and hedge fund founder from Hangzhou, China. According to the MIT Technology Review, he built up a store of Nvidia A100, which you can no longer get in China from the US. Researchers believe Wengfeng then paired up these chips with cheaper ones that the people of China still have commercial access to.

In a separate development, possibly related to a response to this new threat, DeepSeek will temporarily limit new user registrations because of what the company describes as large-scale malicious attacks on the DeepSeek software.

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Green Hell developer Creepy Jar announced today that its upcoming sci-fi base-builder StarRupture will be released into Early Access in Fall 2025. To celebrate the announcement, Creepy Jar also released an extended gameplay release trailer showcasing the gunplay, building, and exploring players will be able to do this Autumn.

Set in the year 2021, StarRupture puts players into the role of a corporate prisoner exiled to a deceptively vibrant planet ruled by a merciless star, Ruptura. The star inevitably obliterates all surface life in a fiery doom, resulting in cycles of new life and fauna being formed. It's up to you to harvest resources between each cycle to send back to your corpo-overlords while trying to survive the planet's deadly landscape.

As players survive the hostile ecosystem, they'll build a dynamic base and construct sprawling factories to process the planet's precious resources, unlock new tech, and fortify against the swarms of aggressive alien creatures. You can also uncover clues from prior expeditions, explore abandoned camps, discover cryptic logs, and learn more about the deeper narrative of what's really going on here on the surface of this harsh planet.

I'm a fan of Green Hell as well as pretty much anything sci-fi, so I'm really interested in seeing what Creepy Jar has cooked up with this one. Based on the trailer, it looks like a nice blend of actual gunplay against the aliens while also building up your base and setting up factories. Usually, games focus too much on one or the other which I think is a missed opportunity. Also, I tend to enjoy co-oping this types of games with a friend or two, so having the option to squad up to 4 players total or jumping in solo is an appealing feature.

If you're interested in trying to survive the fiery wrath of Ruptura, StarRupture ignites into Steam Early Access this Fall via Steam.

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Gaming Factory has announced that JDM: Japanese Drift Master, the game about drift racing in Japan, is set to release on March 26, 2025 on PC.

You’d think there wouldn’t be much more to say beyond that, but JDM: Japanese Drift Master isn’t just some knock-off of Need for Speed: Underground. It uses its open world to tell a story told through manga-like cutscenes. According to the store page, you will “Step into the shoes of a foreigner determined to make his mark on the Japanese drifting scene.”

I played the prologue demo, and, from what I can tell, it wasn’t really about that. You played as some jerk rich kid who was going around and being a privileged jerk. Being a prologue, that kind of makes sense if it was setting up the antagonist. I also didn’t complete the demo, so maybe the story had some sense of redemption to it.

Part of the reason I didn’t complete the demo is it’s just not my kind of game. I love drift racing in a Mario Kart or Parking Garage Rally Circuit sort of way. That is to say: very unrealistic. JDM: Japanese Drift Master calls itself “simcade.” Specifically, it says, “with a solid simulation backbone and arcade layers added on top for a fun and enjoyable experience.” 

As it turns out, the arcade layer isn’t enough for it to keep me engaged. The cars feel heavy, like how I would imagine cars do. You can’t drift over the horizon. Yet, worst of all, the cars (at least in the demo) are completely impervious to damage. Listen, I can’t overstate how much San Francisco Rush ruined my expectations for racing games. If it’s not over-the-top wacky, I’m expecting some big, metal-twisting crashes.

That is to say, it’s just not the game for me. I appreciate what it’s doing, and I imagine that drift racing enthusiasts who prefer things to have the whiff of realism. It’s also built in Unreal Engine 5, so it has a lot of technical bells and whistles. It still felt like a smaller production in the prologue, but the new press materials suggest it’s received a lot of upgrades. Even still, it touts 250km in main roads and official licensing for the cars, includings Mazda, Nissan, and Subaru. So, there’s a lot there for enthusiasts.

JDM: Japanese Drift Master launches on PC on March 26, 2025.

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Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja announced today that the open-world action RPG Rise of the Ronin, which lets players explore 1863 Japan as a twin blade-wielding Ronin will be hitting PC on March 10, 2025. The PC version will launch almost a full year after releasing exclusively on the PlayStation 5 back on March 22, 2024.

According to Koei Tecmo, Rise of the Ronin will include new features exclusive to the PC version including 8K resolution support, DirectX 12 Ultimate support, Ultra-Wide and Super Ultrade-Wide monitor compatibility, 120 FPS, Ray Tracing, FSR and DLSS support, and more. Players who purchase the PC version of Rise of the Ronin will also receive an "early purchase bonus" of four unique combat styles: Hayabusa-ryu for Katana, Hayabusa-ryu for Naginata, Nioh-ryu for Katana, and Aisu Kage-ryu for Katana. The bonus also includes the Iga Ninja armor set and Iga Ninja Katana cosmetics.

In Rise of the Ronin, players utilize a variety of weapons and weapon styles to slice through various enemies in feudal Japan. Along the way, you'll encounter various historical figures and have to make important choices like whether to assassinate or protect key political figures to shape and mold the world after Tokugawa Shogunate's reign over the country, amidst a period of war and political unrest.

Our very own Kristina Ebanez scored Rise of the Ronin a 7/10 last year, saying you can expect to "have fun dicing up your enemies while learning about Japan's rich culture." With the upcoming Assassin's Creed Shadows and several other feudal Japan-themed releases coming later this year including the highly anticipated Ghost of Yotei, I hadn't really considered checking out Rise of the Ronin any time soon. But between the hype from the recent reveal of Ninja Gaiden 4 and all the great PC-exclusive features coming to the Steam release, I might have to change those plans.

Rise of the Ronin will slice its way onto PC via Steam on March 10, 2025.

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Ubisoft has confirmed that the Japanese version of Assassin's Creed Shadows will be censored in some areas to comply with the regional rating organization CERO. The game initially received a "Z" rating from CERO, which ensured that it would have been illegal to sell the game to anyone under the age of 18.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Japan censorship explained

In a statement translated on X, Ubisoft claims that "there are some differences in the in-game content of the version sold in Japan in order to comply with the regulations of the reviewing organization," referring to CERO.

"The option to switch dismemberment on and off has been removed from the game settings, and now dismembering the heads and limbs of enemies while playing is permanently disabled. The way severed body parts are depicted has also been changed." This will be a huge disappointment to players in Japan who were looking forward to this element of the game, although the rest of the world remains unaffected, with the option to toggle dismemberment intact.

That's not all, though. Interestingly, "the representation of some Japanese voices played in the overseas versions (North America and Europe) has been changed." Ubisoft was light on details regarding this, so it remains to be seen what has specifically changed here.

Assassin's Creed Shadows finally takes the long-running series to feudal Japan, arguably one of the most requested periods since the series' inception. On the surface, the two seem to be a match made in heaven, returning back to the RPG formula after the back-to-basics approach of the previous game, Assassin's Creed Mirage.

The road to Shadows has been fraught with controversy, namely multiple delays that have halted the hype somewhat. Still, hands-on previews of Assassin's Creed Shadows have been largely positive, offering hope that Ubisoft may have stuck the landing on this one.

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The journey of Yoshifumi Tozuka's Undead Unluck manga has officially reached its conclusion with the release of Chapter 239. The series was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, though the digital English version was simultaneously released on MANGA Plus and VIZ Media. With this ending, it joins the long-running titles My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen in the recently concluded list.

Undead Unluck first saw the light as a one-shot manga in January 2019, before officially becoming a serialized title a year later. The series quickly gained a strong following for its quirky blend of humor, action, and intriguing premise. With over 200 chapters, the manga was collected into 24 tankobon volumes as of January 2025, with the final chapters yet to be accounted for.

The series also received an anime adaptation in 2023. It was a two-cour season with a total of 24 episodes. The pilot episode aired on October 2023 and the final episode released on March 2024.

What is Undead Unluck manga about?

The story follows Fuuko Izumo, a girl whose Unluck curse brings misfortune to anyone she touches. This curse brought her to the lowest of low, causing her to attempt to take her own life. It was during the said attempt that she met Andy, who bore the Undead curse. As the curse's name suggested, Andy couldn't meet his demise no matter what he tried. After centuries of living, he started to search for ways to finally put an end to his life.

Despite his years of futile attempts, he finally found a glimmer of home during his fateful meeting with Fuuko. After getting a taste of her Unluck, he realized she was his best chance of achieving his goal. Since Fuuko's curse worsened the stronger her feelings toward her target became, Andy now aimed to make her fall in love with him and bring out the worst Unluck she could possibly manifest.

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It barely feels like the new year has begun, but 2025 is surging ahead and the season of all things love is just around the corner. In Final Fantasy XIV, that means that Valentione’s Day is making a return, and it will all begin on February 3. 

Get ready to grab your beau and head down to Mih Khetto’s Amphitheatre, because the 2025 Valentione’s event, “With Roses from the Heart” is coming to Eorzea in a little over a week (from the time of writing). Beginning on February 3 and running until February 17, players will have the opportunity to complete a whole new love-themed quest to earn a rather special emote. 

Dote has long been the go-to emote for those wanting to express their love to special friends in FFXIV, and more recently in 2024, we got the Love Heart emote to go alongside it. Now, another emote, the Bouquet emote, is up for grabs for anyone who completes the Valentione’s Event in 2025.

As a side note, if you missed out on the Love Heart emote and are itching to get your hands on it, the start of this year’s Valentione’s event will also bring the Heart emote to the FFXIV Online Store, so you’ll have a chance to fork out a small amount of real-life money and add it to your ever-growing collection. 

Valentione’s Day 2025 will begin at 3 a.m. EST on February 3, and the emote isn’t the only new thing that will be available. As always, we'll see another unique housing item to be purchased with Gil. This year, this item is the “Heartfelt Valentione’s Day Advertisement”, which features artwork from last year’s event. 

As is standard by this point, Astrid will be waiting at Mih Khetto’s Amphitheatre after the event goes live, and you’ll be able to pick up the event quest “I Promise You A Rose Garden” by talking to her at coordinates (X:10.2, Y:9.4).

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There’s nothing better as a fan of any game than being able to display that love in official merch, and there is a lot of Final Fantasy XIV merch out there fit for purpose. On February 3, more merch is set to arrive in the shape of an official collab with Australian clothing company BlackMilk. 

Set your alarms for 4 p.m. EST on February 3. Do it now, before you forget, because you won't want to miss this collab.

BlackMilk is well known for its collab collections with household names. They’ve got collections filled with designs inspired by the likes of Sailor Moon, Pokémon, Hello Kitty, and even Zelda. Now FFXIV is getting its own collection, and it all looks absolutely stunning. 

What I love about this collection is that it actually looks wearable. Don’t get me wrong, everything is wearable if you’ve got the guts and confidence to pull it off, but a lot of FFXIV releases outside of basic t-shirts do lend themselves more to special occasions and cosplay purposes. The BlackMilk collection, on the other hand, is filled with frankly stunning designs that are more socially acceptable for everyday wear. 

Take, for instance, that black lace maxi dress. 

At first glance, it looks like simple lace and you might actually wonder where this fits in with the FFXIV theme. However, if you look closer, that lace design is actually made up of individual Job icons, including the latest additions of Pictomancer and Viper, and even Blue Mage. Whatever job you play, it’s represented in the subtle yet very clever design of this dress. 

The virtual lookbook for the entire collection will go live on the BlackMilk website at 9 a.m. EST on January 29, giving those interested a chance to glimpse the full collection, which includes the following items that have already been shared:

• Velvet Eorzean map mini dress
• Eorzean map leggings
• Unisex oversized Mothercrystal tee
• Knit co-ord set with an adorable Cactuar motif design
• And of course, that gorgeous Job icon maxi dress

Following the release of the lookbook, there will also be a collection preview at 5 p.m. EST on January 30, ahead of the official launch at 4 p.m. EST on February 3. 

The BlackMilk website warns that collections have been known to sell out within hours, so interested buyers are urged to set alarms and make sure they’re there at the drop to make sure they get everything they want. You can also sign up for an account on the BlackMilk website now, and you’ll receive email alerts when the collection is available for purchase.

Although prices haven’t been revealed, a brief exploration of other BlackMilk collab collections offers a good indication of potential costs. For instance, a similar maxi dress available as part of the Lord of the Rings x BlackMilk collab costs $103 USD, so the FFXIV dress may be priced similarly.

The post FFXIV x BlackMilk collab clothing collection announced, launching February 3 appeared first on Destructoid.

Destiny 2's Raids sure are cool. Predictably enough, Bungie's decision to port Raids from Destiny to its sequel was extremely popular, though one of the most notable old Destiny Raids is nowhere to be seen. As it turns out, the Wrath of the Machine isn't even on the docket.

This information comes from Destiny 2's Global Community Lead, Dylan Gafner, who is also known by his dmg04 moniker. As seen via the XCancelled web app, Gafner posted a cheeky call for fans to ask him anything with the caveat that he wouldn't respond to any of the questions. It didn't take long for Gafner to respond to one particular comment from comedian2008, who tried to get some information on the potential launch window for the Wrath of the Machine Raid from the original Destiny. According to Gafner, the port isn't happening "any time soon," which isn't great news for series veterans.

Destiny 2's next Raid is a mystery, but we do know it's not Wrath of the Machine

As you may already know, the original Destiny only had four Raids in total: Vault of Glass, Crota's End, King's Fall, and the Wrath of the Machine. It just so happens that all of them bar Wrath of the Machine have already been ported over to Destiny 2 to immense satisfaction from the community. All three returns have been widely acclaimed by virtually everyone, and served as excellent pit-stops in between entirely new and original Destiny 2 Raid content.

To provide more context to Gafner's partially off-hand comment, Bungie is currently working on new Destiny 2 Raid content. We've known that there's something cooking in the oven for a while now, since at least August 2024, though we obviously don't have any details on the what, why, and how of this mysterious new Raid. The obvious expectation was that Bungie might wish to once again tide the community over by porting Wrath of the Machine, but that's not the case.

One of the main reasons why the Destiny community has historically rallied around Raids is that their respective releases are celebrated with competitive racing events. Those have instead been relegated to the new Dungeons, such as 2024's Vesper's Host and the upcoming Sundered Doctrine. This isn't a bad approach, but Dungeons are obviously smaller-scale and substantially less complex than full-fledged Raids.

With all of that in mind, even though we do know that Bungie is working on all-new Raids, we don't have the faintest idea of how and when they might be coming out. Presumably, they'll be released as part of the new Destiny 2: Frontiers content pipeline, but the whole thing is a real mystery beyond that. The fact of the matter, though, is that Destiny lives and dies by its endgame content, and it'd be downright blasphemous if Bungie just gave up on Raids as a concept. Guess we'll just have to stay tuned, at least for the time being.

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Although we don't have a lot of information to go on at this point, we pretty much know that Resident Evil 9 is going to happen. Given the success of the franchise reboot – as well as the official remakes – how could Capcom not jump at the chance to do another entry?

While we don't quite know what the studio has in store, there has been at least one piece of information leaked by an insider. As spotted by Rely on Horror, known leaker Dusk Golem (aka AestheticGamer) says Leon Kennedy will return for Resident Evil 9, adding that he will "100%" be the main character.

This information has been shared on the above Reddit thread (via a screenshot on Imgur), with some additional details thrown into the mix. For example: there's a possibility that the next remake will be of RE: Zero.

Crushing hopes

Perhaps one other thing that fans may want to note is that Dusk Golem seems pretty certain that Jill Valentine won't make it into the next game. This comes from recent rumors (referred to as "Jill Hopium") that she would make a triumphant return to Resident Evil, but this may not be the case now.

However, it's possible that Capcom was considering having Jill come back, but this seems to have changed in favor of Leon:

It was true then, it isn't now. Really not any more complicated, I wouldn't be surprised in the future when RE9 comes out and they show concept art that they might show early drafts of the game had Jill.

As always, take these speculations at face value. Dusk Golem has been pretty consistent with their insider information over the years, especially when it comes to horror gaming. However, we should still exercise caution.

Last year, series director Koshi Nakanishi confirmed that things are moving forward with Resident Evil, with new games in the pipeline. Given this, we might very well be getting to play as Leon once more, but don't get your hopes up until it's officially confirmed or denied.

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If you're one of the Star Wars fans who've recently decided that the prequels are worth caring about, you'll probably be happy to know that there's a new prequel Star Wars comic telling, among other things, the fate of Watto.

Legacy Of Vader is an upcoming Star Wars canon comic where Supreme Leader Kylo Ren goes on a journey to backtrack Vader's steps. It takes place during the time period between The Last Jedi and The Rise Of Skywalker — a highly unpopular period in the Star Wars continuity — but Legacy Of Vader has an ace up its sleeve. When Kylo goes back to Tatooine, he finds out what happened, or, more correctly, what Vader had done to Watto, his and his mother's former slaver.

And, spoiler alert, it's exactly what you'd expect.

RIP Watto, he never made sense in the first place.

I find it hard to care about supposed Star Wars canon that Disney cares so little about that it doesn't even show in movie format, but this will probably appeal to all types of people who have ever come across Star Wars. Watto was always a despicable character so it's hard to understand how he never found any serious comeuppance for his actions.

And, the more you look into the character, the less it makes sense. Watto is first introduced as an interesting opponent due to his imperviousness to force mind tricks, but that still doesn't explain his position as a successful slaver. Watto is a weak little critter with no hired goons to be seen. Qui Gon can't trick him into releasing his slaves, sure, but he could have "aggressively negotiated" Watto into releasing Anakin and his mother (and prevent all future bad events in that universe from taking place). Even when ignoring that, it's hard to understand how Anakin, filled with rage after the death of his mother, doesn't look for Watto after slaughtering even the innocent children from the sand people tribe who'd taken her. It's a bit strange that he'd only remember to take that detour so long after his first bout of rage, but better late than never.

The first issue of Legacy Of Vader, written by Charles Soule and illustrated by Luke Ross, will come out on February 5.

The post New Legacy Of Vader Star Wars comic finally shows Vader killing Watto appeared first on Destructoid.

While much of the gaming world is still waiting to know what's happening with the ever-elusive next installment in The Elder Scrolls, Bethesda may be revisiting some of the older games in the series. There have been rumors flying around that 2005's Oblivion could be getting a remake/remaster, and we might be getting it this year.

As reported by PCGamesN, Tom Warren over on The Verge says 2025 looks like it could be a great year for Xbox. After the recent Developer Direct announcements – chief among them being Doom: The Dark Ages' release date – it's been suggested that an official remaster of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion could arrive "late spring or early summer" of this year.

It should be noted that Warren specifically refers to it as a remaster rather than a remake. Of course, expectations should be tempered, as the alleged project has yet to be confirmed by either Bethesda or Microsoft or any other first-party studio linked to the game.

See Kvatch get destroyed in glorious Ray-Tracing

Speculations about an Oblivion remaster have been going on for some time. The first instance of this was during the Microsoft vs. FTC court case, which saw leaked documents that outlined a number of potential video game line-ups. The document also pointed to a possible Fallout 3 remaster.

Oblivion stands tall as one of the most successful entries in Bethesda's ongoing RPG franchise. It's hard to imagine that, come March 2026, the game will be celebrating 20 years. I still don't think I've discovered everything that Cyrodiil has to offer, despite playing it since day one.

Of course, the biggest Elder Scrolls fans probably don't care, as this still doesn't bring us any closer to the long-awaited The Elder Scrolls 6. Sorry to harp on about it, but the last time we heard about it, we were under the impression that the Skyrim follow-up was in early development. That was in August 2023.

Anyway, it's best to keep an eye on what the developer/publisher has to say about the rumored Oblivion remaster. It could be good for it to have a new lease of life all these years later. Then again, it could be just a quick cash grab for Bethesda while TES6 remains seemingly forever in development.

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