On September 17, the previously PS5-exclusive RPG Final Fantasy 16 finally arrives on PC. Of course, that means that people will start to mod the game, adding or tweaking content. But if you are one of those modders, please know that the game’s producer doesn’t want any naughty stuff, okay?
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For PC gamers, the recent and well-reviewed Black Myth: Wukong game is finally on sale. Right now Fanatical is offering the standard edition PC digital download for only $47.99 after a 17% off coupon code " FANATICAL17". The coupon may be applied automatically so you won't have to do anything extra. A code will be emailed to your inbox that you will then activate on Steam. Fanatical is a legitimate gaming storefront we've purchased games from ourselves several times. 17% Off Black Myth: Wukong for PC
Black Myth: Wukong was released on August 17 amidst overwhelming popularity. This game from Game Sciene is easily one of the best looking PC games based on the Unreal Engine 5 engine, with enough graphical settings to tax even the mighty RTX 4090. It also boasts a grand, sweeping story based on the Monkey King lore, punishingly difficult Souls-like gameplay (I personally found it harder than Elden Ring), gorgeous and varied monster designs, and a lengthy campaign whose main story alone averages 35 hours according to howlongtobeat.
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It seems that The New York Times isn't quite content with players attempting to complete Wordle 4.8 billion times a year on its apps and website. The publication has brought the all-conquering daily word game to a new platform in the shape of Meta Quest headsets. That's right, Wordle VR is now a thing. There's a dedicated app for it on Meta Quest 2, 3 and Pro.
Wordle VR works in much the same way as the game does on your phone or computer. You have six attempts to guess a five-letter word. The mystery word is the same for all players and the game refreshes at midnight local time. The main difference in VR is that Wordle is played on a floating screen, with yellow and green blocks in the background. I guess those add a little extra visual stimuli.
"We’re always looking for unique and creative opportunities to reach audiences with our games," Jonathan Knight, the general manager of NYT Games, told the Meta Quest blog. "This collaboration reflects our embrace of innovative technologies and exploration of new formats and experiences, like mixed reality, to bring our games to life. Wordle is the perfect choice for this virtual environment, given its simple, user-friendly interface that audiences everywhere have come to love."
I can't imagine that anyone will explicitly strap on a Quest headset just for the two minutes or so it takes to play each round of Wordle. But perhaps having the app on their Quest homescreen will remind them to try to keep their streak going before they hop into Asgard's Wrath 2 or that cool-looking Batman VR game. Otherwise, was anyone truly hoping for Wordle VR to exist? (If that's you, please drop a comment below. I need to know.)
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Image: The New York Times
Wordle now has a native app for Meta Quest so that you can easily play the game in virtual reality. The free app is available for Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, and Meta Quest Pro.
Based on screenshots in a Meta blog post and an NYT video, the game looks like, well, Wordle in VR: You’ll have six attempts to guess a five-letter word. But if you have wanted to play the game in an app on your Quest, that’s now something you can do.
Image: The New York Times
“We’re always looking for unique and creative opportunities to reach audiences with our games,” NYT Games general manager Jonathan Knight says in an interview for Meta’s blog post.
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In this week’s newsletter: Eight years and many millions of dollars in the making, the latest high-profile multiplayer flop points to an existential problem in game development.
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As is now traditional, right after I’d filed last week’s Pushing Buttons, huge gaming news broke: Sony was pulling its hero shooter Concord from sale just two weeks after launch – because nobody was playing it. Everyone who bought it on PlayStation 5 and PC was refunded, and the future of the game is now unclear.
This is a brutal sequence of events. Sony bought the makers of Concord, Firewalk Studios, in 2023. Concord had been in development for eight years, and it was an expensive game, with bespoke cinematics and a long-term plan that would have cost $100m or more to develop. In its two weeks on the market, it sold fewer than 25,000 copies, according to estimates. This is a shocker, even compared with the year’s other bad news for developers and studios.
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The next Battlefield promises a return to the Call of Duty competitor’s “core” after 2021's futuristic sequel drove many longtime fans away. The man in charge, longtime Respawn head Vince Zampella, cites Battlefield 3 and 4 as the peak of the series that the currently untitled Battlefield 6 will be chasing.
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In an exclusive interview with IGN, Head of Respawn & Group GM for EA Studios Organization Vince Zampella defended the price of the PS5 Pro while taking a wait and see approach to what it might mean for Battlefield.
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Every couple of years, a core childhood memory resurfaces and sends me hunting for a bizarre PlayStation game my brother and I obsessed over but never actually played in its entirety. The internet search goes like this: game on red-and-black PS1 demo disk featuring
feral child with pink hair tackling pigs and trees that look like butts. The results tell me the game I’m looking for is the 1997 platformer Tomba!, and I giddily bask in the nostalgia. Then I forget all about it, and the cycle eventually repeats.
You can imagine my surprise, then, when a trailer popped up earlier this summer announcing Limited Run Games’ rerelease of Tomba! in all its wacky glory for modern consoles. Tomba! Special Edition is now available digitally for PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC. Physical editions, a line of plushies and a themed NEO S controller (pre-orders for which are sadly sold out) are also on the way. And in finally playing it all the way through almost 20 years after its original release, I’ve discovered that Tomba! is even more unhinged than I remembered.
Tomba, the player-character, is a wild boy who lives outside of society, hunting boars and sleeping under the stars. His peace is disrupted one day when a group of delinquent pigs swoops in and wreaks havoc, ultimately robbing him of a gold bracelet that belonged to his grandfather. To get it back, Tomba ventures into the nearby towns to find the Evil Pig ringleaders and take them down. Along the way, he meets a slew of strange characters who will help guide him on his mission, but only after he completes a bunch of tasks for them.
It’s a 2.5D platformer, meaning much of the game operates like a two-dimensional side-scroller, but you can occasionally move into the background or foreground to explore the map in more depth. Tomba! Special Edition doesn’t change much about the original game. The graphics are still distinctly PS1 polygonal, and the controls can feel clunky. There are some quality of life additions, though — namely a rewind feature that ends up being extremely handy because, as it turns out, this game is pretty tricky in some spots. I found myself needing to try certain maneuvers over and over again to get them right.
Just about every part of the story and its environment carries a touch of absurdity. Tomba is able to scale walls, swing on branches, jump with inhuman ability and apparently store items (including living creatures) in his stomach, which he can regurgitate when they’re needed later on. There are the butt trees, as mentioned earlier, which are allegedly meant to depict peaches but when Tomba jumps onto them and squeezes, a cloud of magical gas comes pouring out. You’ll encounter a village of dwarves, but can only communicate with them after leaping on the heads of several dwarves to learn their language. In another village, everyone’s been turned into mice, and for some reason, they’re all wound up about the disappearance of an actual, never-been-human baby mouse.
Limited Run Games
One of the most memorable areas is undoubtedly the Mushroom Forest, a bad trip of a location that’s filled with creepy, clownish anthropomorphic flowers and mushrooms that inflict Tomba with certain ailments if he jumps onto them. One will have him laughing uncontrollably, while the other makes him wail — and that cry is deeply unsettling. It kind of jump-scared me the first time it happened, if I’m being real. With both mushroom illnesses, Tomba becomes unable to wield his weapons, instead flailing his arms and screaming if you try to do an attack.
It is altogether a surprisingly complex game, and visually striking thanks to its loud color palette. But the quest can feel convoluted as you try to navigate the often confusing map layout and fulfill the many, many tasks thrown your way. Boss fights are uniquely frustrating, too. Instead of simply beating up or killing the Evil Pigs, you have to wrangle each one and throw it in a bag… but the bag is floating and, in most cases, spinning.
While frequently maddening, Tomba! was a joy to revisit. It’s consistently silly, and the soundtrack gave me a welcome blast of nostalgia from the moment its steel drums started playing. (Tomba! Special Edition includes both the original soundtrack and a remastered version, and they’re both great.) If anything, the Special Edition release has made it clear why Tomba! has lingered so long in my memory — I can’t say I’ve ever played another game quite like it.
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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
What’s next after the PS5 Pro? A report from Reuters focuses on Sony’s plans beyond this fall’s new $700 system, saying that the battle to win a contract for the chip powering a future PlayStation 6 came down to AMD vs. Intel, with others like Broadcom eliminated earlier, with AMD eventually winning out.
According to Reuters, since AMD makes the chip in the PS5 and PS5 Pro, maintaining backward compatibility in a possible move was part of “months” of discussions in 2022 between executives and engineers at Sony and Intel. However, Intel’s bid was blocked because they couldn’t agree on how much profit Intel would make from each chip it would design as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) handled the manufacturing process.
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Extra £300 on a Digital Edition PS5 buys an upgraded graphics processing unit and an 8K mode on enhanced games.
After months of rumours and speculation, Sony has finally revealed the PlayStation 5 Pro console, an update to its current machine, offering enhanced technical specifications and a 2TB solid state drive for £699/$699. It is launching on 7 November, with pre-orders beginning on 26 September.
It is an expensive machine compared with current systems, coming in at £300 more than the Digital Edition PlayStation 5, which retails at £390. It’s also digital only: if you want to play games or movies on Blu-ray discs, you’ll have to add a Blu-ray player for an extra £100.
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For any enjoyer of the thriving indie scene, it’s become more and more common in recent years to see one particular name when playing especially great games—Fellow Traveller.
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In an exclusive interview with IGN, Head of Respawn & Group GM for EA Studios Organization Vince Zampella sat down to talk about Battlefield's return to a modern setting while revealing its first concept art.
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A new, $26 solderless mod kit from 8BitDo can transform your old GameCube controller into a wireless Bluetooth device that works with Nintendo Switch and Android. It’ll also work with the original GameCube, but for that, you’ll have to buy the $26 Retro Receiver too. The mod kit comes with Hall Effect joysticks, a trigger pack and a rechargeable 300mAh battery, which 8BitDo says should get you around 6 hours of play time. Pre-orders for the kit are now open, and it’ll ship September 25.
Introducing the 8BitDo Mod Kit for Original NGC Controller. Easily modify your original wired NGC controller into a Bluetooth controller, bring wireless compatibility with Switch and Android. Including Hall Effect joysticks and the Trigger Pack.
Pre-oder on eShop now:… pic.twitter.com/oeEUq4WRlP.— 8BitDo (@8BitDo) September 14, 2024
There are numerous adapters on the market that will allow you to use an original wired GameCube controller with the Switch, including 8BitDo’s own GBros. adapter and an official one from Nintendo, but the mod kit cuts out the middleman to bring completely wireless Bluetooth connectivity. All you’d need to do is open up the controller and swap the old PCB with the new one.
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Image: Netflix
We’re still a little ways out from the season 2 premiere of Castlevania: Nocturne, but after months of waiting, Netflix has shared a general window for the show’s return.
Ahead of Geeked Week 2024, Netflix has dropped a new Castlevania: Nocturne trailer teasing how Richter Belmont (Edward Bluemel), Annette (Thuso Mbedu), Maria (Pixie Davies), and Alucard (James Callis) will continue their war against vampire queen Erzsebet Báthory (Franka Potente). The teaser’s shots of Nocturne’s heroes make it seem like season 2 will see them being haunted by memories of all they’ve lost.
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PC; Strange Scaffold
Deep in the woods, hardbitten spec ops soldiers are having a proper falling out in this gleeful piece of pulp brilliance.
Harding and Burkin might sound like a law firm, but these two go way back on the battlefield. Harding was the brilliant spec ops guy who could get anything done, no matter how bloody. Burkin was Harding’s handler, and now he wants him back for one last job. Harding’s long since retreated to the woods to start a new life, so can Burkin flush him out at gunpoint? How far will each man go? And, lost in the wilderness together, who’s really hunting whom?
This is the deliriously pulpy premise of Strange Scaffold’s latest action game, I Am Your Beast. What follows is not Rambo so much as an exploration of the way that Rambo has settled in the memory, all trees and traps and body counts. Strange Scaffold is known for making hectic, relentless games at a hectic, relentless pace. I Am Your Beast is another masterwork of briskness and efficiency. Binged in three hours, it’s a first-person shooter in which you’re always outgunned but endlessly resourceful. Even the longest of the game’s “micro-sandbox” missions is over in 90 seconds, been and gone before you’ve had time to register the fact that the level names all sound like Jack Reacher novels: Late Shift, Breakdown, On Your Six.
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Black Myth: Wukong quickly became one of the biggest games of the year, and it might be getting an expansion sooner than some expected. A previously teased DLC is coming as soon as January 2025, according to a new report on the content plans for the fantasy action game.
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Lenovo is currently offering the Microsoft Xbox Series X wireless controller in Carbon Black for only $39.00 shipped. That's about 30% off its original $55 MSRP. You won't find a better price on a brand new official controller at the moment. Xbox Wireless Controller for $39
The Xbox Core controller also features both Xbox wireless and Bluetooth connectivity. That means you can use it for your PC or mobile device as long as it supports Bluetooth. In fact, the Core controller is considered one of the best PC controllers you can get, especially if you limit yourself to this price point. If your PC doesn't have Bluetooth, then you can connect your controller via a USB Type-C cable or with the Xbox wireless adapter.
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It used to go by at least two different names — Oculus Connect and then Facebook Connect — but whatever the moniker, Meta’s fall event is still a big showcase for the company’s latest and greatest achievements in the virtual reality and mixed reality space. Much like last year, we can likely predict the biggest news coming out of Meta Connect 2024 with just two acronyms: AI and AR.
Like every other big tech firm this year, Meta will be desperate to demonstrate how it plans to stay relevant in a future powered by AI.
And now that we're seven months beyond the launch of Apple's Vision Pro, which arrived alongside a short-lived spike in interest in augmented reality (AR), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is likely eager to show off his own plans to make AR a reality.
While Zuckerberg isn't as hot on the metaverse as he was when he renamed his company, the union of AI and AR is one way he can still make the dream of persistent virtual worlds come true. It might look less like Ready Player One, but if AR glasses actually take off, they could still let Meta control another piece of our digital world. And to help get them there, delivering an updated inexpensive VR headset couldn’t hurt.
With all of that in mind, here are a few things we expect to see at Meta Connect 2024, which kicks off virtually on September 25 and runs for two days.
Orion AR glasses.
After reportedly killing a pricey next-generation mixed reality headset, which was meant to compete with the Apple Vision Pro, Meta is instead focusing on a pair of augmented reality glasses, codenamed Orion, as its next innovation. As seen in the background of one Mark Zuckerberg photo (above) , and later somewhat confirmed by him, Orion resembles a pair of chunky hipster frames.
Unlike the Quest 3, which fully consumes your vision and uses cameras to show you a low-quality view of the world, Orion could let you see the real world like a normal pair of glasses. But, like Magic Leap
and Microsoft's HoloLens before it, Meta’s glasses could layer holographic imagery on top of your reality. The key difference, of course, is that it appears to be far less cumbersome than those devices.
“The glasses are, I think, going to be a big deal,” Zuckerberg said in an interview on the Blueprint Podcast (via RoadtoVR). “We’re almost ready to start showing the prototype version of the full holographic glasses. We’re not going to be selling it broadly; we’re focused on building the full consumer version rather than selling the prototype.”
Back at Meta Connect 2022, Zuckerberg showed off how the company was thinking of AR glasses, together with an intriguing wrist-based controller:
"It’s probably our most exciting prototype that we’ve had to date," Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth told The Verge last year. "I might get myself in trouble for saying this: I think it might be the most advanced piece of technology on the planet in its domain. In the domain of consumer electronics, it might be the most advanced thing that we’ve ever produced as a species."
According to a leaked Meta roadmap, the company plans to release a new pair of Ray-Ban smart glasses next year which would add a small built-in screen alongside its existing camera, speaker and microphone. That would be followed by Meta’s first pair of consumer AR glasses in 2027. It makes sense that we'll see some sort of concept device this year. Much like Apple’s Vision Pro was effectively that company’s version of an AR/VR concept car to introduce developers to its notion of "spatial computing," Meta will need to give developers a way to use its platform so they can build their own AR experiences.
Meta via Gary_the_mememachine/Reddit
A cheaper Quest 3 variant.
Instead of an upgraded headset, all signs point to Meta releasing a stripped-down version of the Quest 3 called the Quest 3S, reports Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Recent leaked images from Meta’s own Quest Link application has confirmed the headset’s existence. According to Gurman, the company is aiming to make it much cheaper than the current version, reportedly considering price points of $300 or $400, while still delivering an experience close to the Quest 3. It could potentially replace the Quest 2, which remains in the product line priced at $299 long after its 2020 release.
So why would Meta do this? There’s a huge performance gap between the Quest 3 and Quest 2, which makes life difficult for developers. With a cheaper device that’s similar to the Quest 3, potentially using the same processor, it would be easier to build games that can scale across two price points. According to Bloomberg’s Gurman, Meta has also considered releasing some models of the new headset without any bundled controllers, which would push the price down even further.
More AI, of course.
Expect Meta to show off even more ways it’s taking advantage of AI across its Quest headsets and the Ray-Ban smart glasses. The company rolled out multi-modal AI search capabilities on those glasses in January, which allowed you to ask the Meta AI about objects or landmarks you were looking at, or for a quick translation. Based on our testing, though, those features were surprisingly half-baked.
Meta will likely discuss ways it’s improving those existing features by implementing its Llama 3.1 large language model (LLM), which it’s positioning as an open source competitor to Google and OpenAI’s LLMs. In particular, the company notes that Llama 3.1 offers dramatically improved translation, math and general knowledge capabilities. There’s certainly room for Meta to introduce new AI capabilities powered by Llama 3.1 in the Ray-Ban smart glasses, but given their limited processing power and battery life, we’ll probably have to wait for an updated model before we see anything truly groundbreaking.
Karissa Bell contributed to this report.
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San Diego Comic-Con may have just wrapped up, but there’s still more entertainment news on the way — this time from Netflix. The streamer has confirmed that its now-annual Geeked Week event will take place the week of September 16th, wrapping up with some kind of in-person event in Atlanta, Georgia, on the 19th. There aren’t a lot of details right now, but Netflix did release a short teaser video.
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Reactions to the trailer have ranged from ‘awful’ to ‘horrendous’. But what does its target audience think?
Nothing makes you feel older than watching someone two generations younger than you play Minecraft – except, perhaps, watching someone two generations younger watching someone else play Minecraft on YouTube. (What are they doing? Why are they always so over-excited?) This might all seem a bit 2011: gen A have generally moved on to watching YouTubers play Fortnite, Roblox and Elden Ring with their minds instead. But there are still millions of people, most of them kids, playing every month, and there’s powerful nostalgia for this blocky virtual-Lego game among the gen Z young adults who grew up with it. A Minecraft movie was inevitable.
This film has been on the cards since 2012, originally with Ryan Reynolds’ Wrexham FC mate Rob McElhenney on to direct, and Steve Carell to star. Various botched attempts, Covid, and the pesky actors’ strike, meant that filming didn’t start (in Auckland, New Zealand) until early 2024. A Minecraft Movie, out April 2025, is directed by Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess, and stars Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Emma Myers, Jennifer Coolidge, Jermaine Clement and Matt Berry. From the trailer released this week, it’s even more bonkers than you would imagine.
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Among everything added to the Cult of the Lamb Unholy Alliance update, the centerpiece is undoubtedly the new co-op mode. It allows two players to take control of the eponymous lamb and a devious goat to go on crusades and manage the cult together.
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Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida has asked fans to please not make "offensive or inappropriate" mods upon the game's PC release tomorrow, September 17.
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Tales of the Shire, a cozy life sim set in the world of Lord of the Rings, has been delayed until 2025. It was previously set for a release sometime this year. Developer Weta Workshop, who assisted with the effects in all of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth films, says the delay was necessary to ensure that players experience a fully realized version of its original vision.
This is a cozy life sim in the vein of Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley and a million others, but this one is set in In Tolkien's Middle-earth between the events of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Mixing the cozy sim formula with a pre-established IP tends to work. Just ask fans of Disney Dreamlight Valley.
If there’s one aspect of Tolkien’s world that fits this genre, it’s the Hobbits and their Shire. The forthcoming game looks to prioritize meal prep, as we all know Hobbits love a good feast, and will let players design the look of their own personal Hobbit hole. There’s fishing and farming, of course, but also a robust-seeming character interaction system. We aren’t sure if romance is on the table but, come on, that Hobbit population isn’t going to replenish itself.
The developer is holding a live showcase event on September 22 at 10:30AM ET to discuss some new aspects of the game and to go over various mechanics. It will also use the stream to drop an actual release date which, again, will be sometime in 2025. Maybe we’ll also get an update on Hobbit-based romance during the showcase.
🏡 A #HOBBITDAY SHOWCASE 🏡
Join us September 22nd for an inside look at #TalesoftheShire!
Here is just a smattering of what's in store...
🥘 Sharing home-cooked meals
🐉 Visiting The Green Dragon
🚪 Furnishing your Hobbit hole pic.twitter.com/9AB55H6vyh.— Tales of the Shire (@talesoftheshire) September 10, 2024
This makes me wonder what other culturally significant IPs could benefit from the cozy life sim experience. They were always trying to farm in The Walking Dead, but the presence of zombies would be less cozy and more an endless nightmare. I could see farming or building up a society in some outer rim planet in the Star Wars universe, or maybe Knowhere as seen in the MCU films.
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Image: Nintendo
The incoming holiday season has some reliable signs, with Christmas songs on the radio, football back on television, and Nintendo Switch bundles with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. If you somehow have avoided the convertible console so far, then this is your chance to get not only the system but also a complimentary subscription to Nintendo Switch Online.
Since we know that the Switch 2 will be announced soon, Nintendo has improved the offer over last year’s bundle by including the Switch OLED as an option and packing in 12 months of the online service for free instead of three.
Image: Nintendo
The Mario Kart 8 pack-in is in the form of a digital code, so that’s worth noting if you demand physical media.
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As Bungie’s storied online shooter completes its first decade, we look back on an odd game that has always been worth talking about – and ask why it’s like Marks & Spencer.
Destiny is 10 years old, which is an aeon in video game terms. It’s also one of the most fascinating games of the last decade, sometimes for unlikely reasons. On the surface, this is a lavish online prog-rock space shooter made by Bungie, the creators of the Xbox classic Halo. You bundle together with friends, deploy somewhere amid the glittering vistas of a futuristic version of our solar system, and then shoot people/aliens/robots to get better loot.
None of this is exactly unprecedented, and that’s maybe the point. You could argue that Destiny’s touchstones are games like Halo, for its gunplay, World of Warcraft, for its persistent online spaces, and – this is where it gets a bit odd, granted – the deathless British retailer Marks & Spencer. This last point is because, above all else, Destiny is a game of fluctuating fortunes, and those fortunes seem to fascinate everyone close to video games, regardless of whether they actually play Destiny or not. Just as a lot of people in the UK seem to have a secret sense for whether M&S is currently on an upward or downward trajectory – there is no middle ground – everyone in games knows whether Destiny is in boom or bust mode. Is it now better than it’s been in ages? Or is it a shadow of the game it was two, five, seven years back? Destiny is our ever-reliable topic of fretful conversation.
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Starfield’s first expansion, Shattered Space, is nearly here. And ahead of the DLC’s release later this month, Bethesda has released a new, detail-filled 9-minute video showing off the alien world where the expansion takes place, as well as its inhabitants.
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Bethesda has released a deep dive into Starfield expansion Shattered Space, offering a first meaningful look at gameplay.
The video, below, shows off Va’ruun, the new planet Starfield players get to explore in Shattered Space. Bethesda describes Va’ruun as an “isolated, handcrafted new world in Starfield’s first major story expansion,” and compares it to some of the biggest and best expansions it has released for its The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games.
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In Hollowbody, an early 2000s-style third-person survival horror game by Nathan Hamley (the solo developer behind Headware Games), the true terror comes not from its hideous monsters, but from inhabiting a world where regular people are failed by the system and left to die.
Hollowbody is an homage to the PlayStation 2-era classics that helped define the genre. It also adds a “tech-noir” spin; think the first few Silent Hill games, namely Silent Hill 2, and a touch of Blade Runner. It goes heavy on atmosphere, relying almost entirely on tension-building rather than action to create a sense of palpable unease. And while the game resurrects PS2 graphics, it does not subject you to tank controls (unless you want them, then there’s a toggle for that, sickos).
It’s set in the not-too-distant future in a ruined city somewhere in the British Isles, decades after the region was struck by a supposed biological attack and later bombed while under quarantine. A brief introduction alludes to corruption and conspiracy around the true events of the catastrophe.
The initial attacks targeted cities “plagued by economic hardship and depravity,” and the affected areas were walled off to contain the spread of any contagions — but not before people deemed to be “high value” citizens were allowed to escape to an artificial island with a suspiciously utopic name (Aeonis).
The game opens with a group of researcher-activists who have convened at an entry site to one of the exclusion zones, where they plan to go in search of answers. After one of them, Sasha, goes missing, her partner Mica sets out in a hover car to find her at any cost.
It’s in this early sequence that we really see the tech-noir part of Hollowbody’s description come through: Mica staring out the huge glass window of an apartment overlooking a densely packed city à la Blade Runner 2049; zipping between skyscrapers in a flying passenger vehicle; having a cheeky conversation with an intelligent navigation system. Naturally, Mica crashes on the ride in, loses contact with the one person who can help her and has to make her way toward Sasha on foot.
Headware Games
From then on, the tech-noir bit slips mostly out of focus until it swings back around at the end of the game, and Hollowbody takes on the more traditional survival horror mold of ‘science experiment turned local extinction event.’ There are some touches of that distinct tech-infused vision — at one point, Mica passes a broken-down mech the size of an apartment building, and there’s a glowing children’s toy in one room that looks vaguely robotic — but it’s not exactly pervasive. Mica’s personal gadgetry and the styling of the inventory menu serve as the only real reminders of that angle for most of the game.
There are a number of puzzles to solve as you explore derelict buildings and the city’s parks trying to figure out how to get the hell out of there. The solutions to most of these are fairly obvious once you’ve come across the clues sprinkled around each location, so the fun is more in the exploration.
There was an occasional head-scratcher that would send me in circles though. It didn’t help that the surfaces I was able to interact with would sometimes continue to display indicators like “Pick up” or “Seek” even after I took everything that could be used from them. In cluttered rooms, I found myself rechecking some spots over and over thinking I’d missed something. These prompts will also appear in some places just for the sake of having Mica make inconsequential observations, like commenting on the dirty dishes or sheets that have gone years unwashed, and she’ll say the same remarks repeatedly as she encounters the same setups in different apartments.
Thankfully, that doesn’t detract much from how unnerving the setting is. The music is haunting, and it combines with heightened environmental noises like rain, radio static and Mica’s echoing footsteps to create a really visceral soundscape. If ever Mica’s inside a building or underground structure, you can be sure it’ll be dark and labyrinthine. It always felt like a monster was going to jump out at any second, despite that not usually being the case. (It was sometimes, though.) Outside, Mica is exposed, and it doesn’t take long for monsters to notice her and start congregating around her.
Headware Games
The monsters themselves are wonderfully disgusting. There are bipedal abominations, some emaciated while others are top-heavy and headless, with gross tendrils flailing out from their upper halves. Hollowbody has some demon dogs, too, plus a few scuttling insectoid creatures that seemingly pose no threat beyond creeping you out. Cat-sized worm critters will slither right past you, and their hilariously clunky animation just might be the most PS2 thing about the entire game.
It’s not very combat-oriented — often, you can just run past the enemies — but there are guns to come by, and a few makeshift melee weapons. Using the latter felt somewhat stiff and slow at times, particularly when facing a group of beasts, but I was still able to make do favoring
bludgeoning tools to conserve ammunition. And I delighted in the gushy thwack of my street sign ax connecting with monster flesh. I also loved that Mica can grab an electric guitar off the wall and use it as a weapon. It may not be the most pragmatic approach considering the heaviness, but the clang when it makes contact with its target is very satisfying.
There are bodies in various states of decay at every turn, and Mica’s scanner will give you an instant read on the deceased to get a sense of who they were and how they died. In many instances, the cause is nothing paranormal: dehydration, starvation, murder, etc. A backstory forms through documents and audio flashbacks that are activated at certain sites, telling of financial struggles and gentrification in the city long before the biological disaster, and the eventual desolation endured by the people in the quarantined area afterward, who could only survive as long as their dwindling resources allowed.
Mica finds a notice of impending rent hikes, a letter that mentions the disruption of construction going on at all hours of the night and a past due notice for unpaid utilities bills showing monthly prices had quadrupled. She comes across a note left behind by a dying man, wishing for a better future for his family and humanity. In one post-quarantine recording, starving civilians pleading to leave the city are gunned down by armed forces. It is all incredibly bleak, and I didn’t have to suspend my disbelief very much to envision a reality in which things would pan out like this.
Headware Games
But an explanation as to why there are horrid, fleshy humanoid monsters roaming the streets never fully reveals itself in a straightforward way. (At least, not with the ending I reached and all the materials I collected.) The most substantial hint on that front came from a single newspaper clipping, the contents of which I’d rather not spoil here. The article plants the seed of an idea, but it’s largely up to the player to fill in the blanks beyond that.
There are touching snippets of Mica and Sasha’s story as well, but the duo’s connection to this place and apparent significance within its present goings-on never quite got the neat wrap-up I was hoping for. While the ending was a beautiful, emotional scene that felt like it brought the story full circle thematically, it also left me with the feeling of, Wait, what just happened? It seems like there are other endings, though, which may prove more conclusive on subsequent playthroughs. Beating the game also unlocks a harder difficulty option and a first-person dungeon crawler mode, which immediately made everything feel scarier when I switched it on.
Even with its shortcomings, Hollowbody is a solid survival horror title that feels especially impressive when you take into account the fact that it was made by a solo indie developer. Vibes are part of what made its predecessors unforgettable, and Hollowbody’s oppressive mood hits all the right notes.
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The new take on Flappy Bird will include alternate game modes. Screenshot: The Flappy Bird Foundation
Last week, The Flappy Bird Foundation announced a game called Flappy Bird. But while the group has been framing it as the triumphant return of a classic mobile game, Flappy Bird’s original developer, Dong Nguyen isn’t calling it a comeback — in fact, he says he’s not involved at all.
Nguyen posted as much on X (for the first time since 2017!) this morning, saying he didn’t “sell anything.” The Flappy Bird Foundation wrote in the announcement it shared with press last week that it had “acquired the rights from Gametech Holdings, LLC,” which had secured the trademark from Nguyen, but it doesn’t appear as though that was the result of any dealings between him and the group.
No, I have no related with their game. I did not sell anything.
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If you are expecting an authentic driving experience along the lines of Forza or Gran Turismo, think again. Instead, this new absurdist adventure features a car with legs.
Imagine a new racing video game. Whatever you’ve pictured, What the Car? is not it. In a world where racing games pride themselves on the ever-increasing detail and authenticity of their driving experiences, pushing the speedometer towards realism with cutting-edge game engines as well as perfectly simulated motor ones, this is the opposite. This car is literally running around on foot.
Described as “an absurdly silly adventure full of racing, laughs, and surprises,” What the Car? has you playing as a car with legs, sprinting and climbing through obstacles each more daft than the last, to get to the finish line. “Not a single person in the team owns a car, or even likes cars,” says Tim Garbos, the game’s creative director at Copenhagen studio Triband.
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At launch, Diablo IV felt barebones. It was lacking essential quality-of-life features and entertaining end-game content. Well, that’s slowly changing with each passing season, as Blizzard works to satiate the terrifying maws of level 100 players.
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The infamous Madden curse appears to be back as Madden NFL 25 cover star Christian McCaffrey of the San Francisco 49ers has been ruled out for four games.
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Uh oh, it appears that The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom has leaked online a couple of weeks ahead of the game’s release date. Some new images and clips from the Nintendo Switch title are circulating online, per Nintendo Life.
YouTubers Nintendo Prime and Zelda Lore sounded the alarm, claiming that a ROM file of the game is already available and that some people are playing it via emulators. For what it’s worth, some of the more popular sites from which people obtain pirated Switch games don’t yet offer download links for the Echoes of Wisdom ROM, but it might take a little time for the leaked file to propagate on those.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a rare occurrence. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom leaked before its debut last year, with boss battles and other spoiler-laden footage popping up within a similar timeframe, around two weeks ahead of the release date.
As for how this latest leak happened, Echoes of Wisdom is set to arrive on September 26, so this is right around the time that Nintendo is likely to be sending out review copies. As such, someone with early access may have ripped the game and shared it online. In any case, it’s worth exercising some caution and maybe muting some keywords on the social media platforms you frequent if you don't want any of the game's surprises to be ruined.
It would be a real shame for fans to accidentally be spoiled on Echoes of Wisdom, since it marks the first time Zelda herself will be the main playable character in the series that carries her name. Any leak could also result in Nintendo being even more selective when it comes to providing review copies of games.
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Image: Goblinz Publishing
Shogun Showdown sometimes breaks my brain. The new deckbuilding roguelike is all about tactics, and a key part of the game is that you can always see what the enemies plan to do next. Every once in a while, that gets me in a quandary where I know I’ll lose. But when things click into place and I clear everyone out in one fell swoop, I feel like a strategic genius.
In the game, which just left early access, you’re constantly trying to position your character across a small level to either attack your foes or dodge their moves. As you play, you can upgrade your “tiles” (think: cards) to improve their damage, add perks like freezing ice, or lower their cooldown so that you can use them more frequently.
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PlayStation 5; Team Asobi/Sony
Fun-packed and brimming with personality, this full-length Astro Bot outing pays tribute to PlayStation history while pushing the console’s capabilities.
When I say that Astro Bot reminds me of Super Mario Galaxy, I could pay it no higher compliment. It’s not that it’s derivative: indeed it’s the very abundance of new ideas that places it up there with Nintendo’s best 3D platformers. It has taken me around its own small galaxy of planetoid-style levels, from bathhouses to diorama-sized jungle temples to rainy islands, each host to a brilliant one-shot idea, such as a pair of frog boxing gloves or a backpack monkey or a time-stopping watch that lets you freeze giant zooming darts in place so you can jump on them. It is splendid to witness this development team’s creativity let loose.
Team Asobi has previously made a couple of short-form Astro Bot games – one for the PSVR, Rescue Mission, and another that came packaged with the PS5 at launch, Astro’s Playroom – but this one is full-length, complete with challenging bonus levels that play out like electrified skill-check gauntlets for the generation raised on 3D platformers. It is supremely funny and characterful, thanks to the titular chibi blue-and-white robot and his crowd of friends, many of whom are dressed up as characters from the most obscure crevices of PlayStation history. The attention paid to these bots – their animation, their mannerisms, their dance moves and little cries for help when they’re stuck up a tree being menaced by malevolent octopuses – fills them to the brim with personality.
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Blizzard’s 2023 action RPG dungeon looter Diablo 4 has been criticized for its microtransactions and pricey skins. But apparently, that hasn’t stopped plenty of players from spending over $100 million on in-game cosmetics and other items since it launched.
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We spoke with legendary sci-fi author Peter F. Hamilton about his collaboration with Archetype Entertainment on the highly anticipated AAA RPG, Exodus. He offers insights into his creative worldbuilding journey alongside industry veterans from BioWare and Naughty Dog, and also discusses his upcoming spin-off novel, Exodus: The Archimedes Engine.
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A European consumer watchdog has filed a complaint against Epic Games, Electronic Arts, Roblox and other game publishers over deceptive in-game currency practices, Reuters reported. The European Consumer Organization (BEUC) said it has "identified numerous cases where gamers are misled into spending money" and called on authorities "to provide consumers with safe gaming environments."
The BEUC pointed out that consumers are unable to see the real cost of digital items price using in-game currencies, saying that in-game purchases should always be displayed in real money. It added that companies' claims that gamers prefer in-game premium currencies are wrong; consumers are often denied their rights when using such currencies; and that children are particularly vulnerable to these "manipulative tactics."
"Regulators must act, making it clear that even though the gaming world is virtual, it still needs to abide by real-world rules," said BEUC director general Augustin Reyna in a statement. "Premium in-game currencies are purposefully tricking consumers and take a big toll on children. Companies are well aware of children's vulnerability and use tricks to lure younger consumers into spending more."
Also named in the complaint is Microsoft's Activision Blizzard, Mojang Studios, Tencent-owned Supercell and Ubisoft.
In a separate statement, Video Games Europe, which counts members including Epic Games, Roblox, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Supercell and and Ubisoft, said that consumers are already well-informed around in-game currencies. "The PEGI (Pan-European Game information) Code of Conduct requires developers to ensure that the real-world cost is clear and unambiguous at the point of purchase of the in-game currency," it told Reuters. "Our members always respect European consumer laws in how they offer these purchases."
The use of premium currencies purchased with real money has been controversial, especially around young players. In 2022, Epic was hit by a record FTC fine, in part for making it possible for children to purchase Fortnite's V-Bucks in-game currency without parental consent until 2018. The regulator said that Epic ignored more than a million user complaints and employee concerns over wrongful charges.
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A GameCube controller, post-mod. Image: 8BitDo
8BitDo announced it’s taking preorders for a new mod kit that lets you retrofit a wired GameCube controller with Hall effects joysticks and Bluetooth connectivity. The company is charging $25.98 for the kit, which it says is a simple, solderless mod.
8BitDo has made a few of these in the past for old Nintendo controllers, including those for the N64 and earlier consoles, and now it’s the GameCube’s turn. The kit replaces your controller’s existing PCB with a drop-in board that has Hall effects joysticks and a USB-C-rechargeable 300mAh battery attached. It also comes with a trigger pack, and 8BitDo says the battery will get 6 hours of playtime between charges. It’s compatible with the Switch and Android, according to the product page.
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In this week’s newsletter: Fuelled by a backdrop of sexist culture, alarming censorship guidelines and ‘anti-woke’ ire, the summer’s biggest hit has become a lightning rod in the video game culture wars.
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A Chinese game called Black Myth: Wukong has been the biggest hit of the summer, selling 10m copies in just three days, according to its developer Game Science, with over 1 million people playing it every day on games marketplace Steam. China’s homegrown games industry is absolutely massive, but concentrated almost entirely on mobile phones: this is the country’s first successful blockbuster console and PC game, which makes it very interesting in itself. It’s also a massively successful single-player game arriving on the back of a few high-profile multiplayer flops, which suggests there is still more of a market for this kind of adventure than video game execs like to believe.
But Wukong has been grabbing headlines for other reasons, too. Back in November, IGN put together a report compiling crude, vulgar public comments from a number of Game Science staff, some of whom are very well-known in China’s games industry. IGN also spoke to several women who expressed their disappointment and despair over omnipresent sexism in games and in China more broadly. It is a very interesting and well-researched article that doesn’t so much point the finger at Game Science specifically as set it within the context of a bigger Chinese feminist struggle. But of course, it attracted the ire of an increasingly vocal swathe of “anti-woke” gamers that has found a gathering-place on YouTube and social media, some of whom accused IGN of trying to sabotage Black Myth: Wukong by making things up.
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Last week, Capcom released its latest compilation of retro arcade games to massive acclaim. Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics features seven legendary titles, including a stunningly faithful port of the arcade version of The Punisher, and the hugely influential Marvel Vs. Capcom 2.
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Will Rockstar delay GTA 6 out of 2025 and into 2026? It’s one of the burning questions gamers, publishers, and analysts have of what to expect from next year. In truth, only Rockstar can answer that question, but one former developer at the studio has suggested such a decision could come in pretty hot.
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The entire Annapurna Interactive team has left the company after its executives walked out, according to Bloomberg. Apparently, the video game publisher's president, Nathan Gary, had been negotiating with Annapurna Pictures' founder Megan Ellison to spin off Annapurna Interactive into its own entity. A company spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg that the parties had explored the possibility of a spinoff, but their discussions broke down. Gary and the publisher's other executives had resigned and walked out as a result, and the team's other members had followed suit.
"All 25 members of the Annapurna Interactive team collectively resigned," the team said in a joint statement. "This was one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make and we did not take this action lightly."
Annapurna Interactive, like other publishers, teams up with developers, funds their games, takes care of the QA process and then markets and distributes titles when they're ready for the public. Its partner developers have reportedly been scrambling to find out what the team exodus means for them over the past few days. Bloomberg says Hector Sanchez, an Annapurna Interactive co-founder, assured developers that the company will honor their agreements. Sanchez had been at Epic Games the past five years, but he recently rejoined the publisher as its president for Interactive + New Media. Annapurna will also reportedly hire new staff members to replace those who left, essentially building a brand new team.
"Our top priority is continuing to support our developer and publishing partners during this transition,” Ellison told Bloomberg News. “We’re committed to not only our existing slate of games but also expanding our presence in the interactive space as we continue to look for opportunities to take a more integrated approach to linear and interactive storytelling across film and TV, gaming, and theater."
The publisher made a splash when it debuted with What Remains of Edith Finch back in 2017, and it now has a number of critically acclaimed and popular games under its belt. Its games include the cat simulator Stray, a puzzle adventure game featuring a world-hopping beetle called Cocoon, pop album rhythm action game Sayonara Wild Hearts, and action adventure game Outer Wilds, which is set in a solar system trapped in a time loop.
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Not included: a desk that’s a country mile wide. Image: Samsung
A running gag here at The Verge and on The Vergecast is that ever since Samsung switched to a six-day workweek for its executives, it’s made some particularly wild decisions — like throwing out its own unique earbud design for glorified Apple knockoffs with light strips. And right now, Samsung will not only sell you its impressive 49-inch Odyssey OLED G9 (G95SC) 49-inch curved ultrawide gaming monitor for $1,099.99 (a discount of $700), but it’s also including a second, 24-inch Odyssey G30D monitor for free (a $150 value).
The deal price is being matched at Best Buy and Amazon but without the freebie second monitor. And why wouldn’t you want a second baby monitor to compliment your wraparound surfboard of a main monitor?
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This seemingly minor addition allows players to sprint and dive in every direction so crunch moments can feel like a ridiculously fun John Woo shootout.
Here is a statement of fact that I am not entirely proud of: I have played every Call of Duty game since the series launched in 2003. I’ve been there through the extremely good times (Call of Duty 4) and the extremely not good (Call of Duty: Roads to Victory). And while I may have cringed at some of the narrative decisions, the casual bigotry rife on the online multiplayer servers, and the general “America, fuck yeah!” mentality of the entire series, I have always come back.
In that time, I’ve seen all the many attempts to tweak the core feel of the games – from perks to jetpacks (thanks Advanced Warfare!) – but having spent a weekend in the multiplayer beta test for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, I think developer Treyarch may have stumbled on the best so far. It is called omni-movement.
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Mega mobile hit Flappy Bird made a surprise return last week but something seemed off. Despite first-person language using “I” in the announcement, there was no mention of the twitchy arcade-style game’s original creator.
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Woot is once again offering up some fantastic video game deals that you don't want to miss. Right now, as part of the website's 'Fall In Love With Video Games' event that only runs for a few more days, you can score Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance for PS5 and Nintendo Switch (see here at Woot) and Unicorn Overlord for Xbox Series X for just $29.99 (see here at Woot). That's 50% off both of their MSRPs - a price drop that's well worth taking advantage of while it's still live for the next few days.
We likely won't see a discount like this again until Prime Day 2 hits around October or even in November for Black Friday, so stock up now while you can. Check them out at the links below.
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An artist who goes by @tofu_rabbit on X says that the look of Nerf’s Ace of Spades handgun from Bungie's Destiny games came from a commissioned artwork they drew almost a decade ago.
Nerf and Bungie unveiled its newest foam dart gun collaboration on Tuesday featuring a limited edition version of Cayde-6’s iconic “Ace of Spades” blaster from Destiny 2 that is available for purchase on Bungie’s online store. The following morning, @tofu_rabbit posted images comparing Nerf’s newest foam dart launcher to a piece of art they made in 2015 and posted on their DeviantArt page based on the same gun from the game.
The artist pointed out 11 parts or designs on the Nerf gun that allegedly line up perfectly with their original design. They include features like an upside down spade on the handle, identical shaped cracks in a strip of paint on the bullet chamber and a paisley pattern etched on the gun just in front of the trigger. They claim the design of the Nerf gun "DIRECTLY lifts a commission" they did in 2015, and add that the likeness goes beyond just being "similar" or "coincidence."
Hey @Bungie @BungieHelp @DestinyTheGame @A_dmg04 @Cozmo23 @DestinyComArt soo, the NERF ace of spades DIRECTLY lifts a commission i did in 2015. This is not "similar" or a coincidence, you can see my same brush strokes and scratches/smudges.
Original: https://t.co/GobNslptoI pic.twitter.com/zQoYEbfdGV.— Tofu 🏳️⚧️ Bunny (@Tofu_Rabbit) September 11, 2024
Bungie issued a statement on its official Destiny 2 X page that they are investigating the artist’s claims and “will share more on what next steps we are taking once we have gathered more information.” We’ve also reached out to Nerf’s parent company Hasbro for comment.
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Capcom’s Ace Attorney InvestigationsCollection, the spinoffs to the popular if wildly legally inaccurate Ace Attorney series, are finally out. The two-game collection includes a long-awaited gift for Ace Attorney diehards: the official Western release of Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit. And though Investigations suffers from gameplay issues that run counter to the spirit of the overall series, the characters and story make the collection a must-have for any Ace Attorney fan.
Though there are two games in the collection, I’m going to focus exclusively on Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit. Despite getting a Japanese release on the DS in 2011, the game never officially made it to the West until now. Prosecutor’s Gambit puts you in the cravat of prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, Phoenix Wright’s childhood friend, opposing counsel, and, if you subscribe to certain parts of the fandom, longtime lover. (Not me, though, I’m firmly a Gumshoe / Edgeworth girlie.)
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Following extraordinarily low sales and player counts, Sony has removed its latest shooter from sale on PC and PS5.
Sony has announced that new PlayStation 5 shooter Concord, which released on 23 August, is to be taken offline just two weeks later, with refunds issued to every player who bought it.
The game is a team-based hero shooter in the vein of Activision-Blizzard’s hit Overwatch, pitting teams of five against each other in tight combat arenas, and its launch has been one of the most high-profile flops of the gaming year. It has recorded player counts in the mere hundreds on Steam, the most popular PC marketplace, and is estimated to have sold fewer than 25,000 copies, according to analysts at GameDiscoverCo.
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