Honkai Star Rail Redemption Codes For Free Stellar Jade

Honkai Star Rail is out this week, and to celebrate, HoYoverse has given players some freebies for use in the anime RPG with turn-based combat galore!
In addition to 4-star character Serval, HoYoverse also features a similar code redemption system similar to Genshin Impact. Basically, you get a unique code which grants you in-game rewards and Stellar Jade. The latter can be used for pulls in the game’s many character banner events from launch and beyond. There are already a few codes that will be activated this week in April, so if you want to find out what they are, read below.
Honkai Star Rail Launch Codes
Here are the codes that you can use to get Stellar Jade for your gacha and pulling needs. If you want to find out the best characters to reroll for, head here.

HSRGRANDOPEN1
HSRGRANDOPEN2
HSRGRANDOPEN3

Here’s how you can redeem the codes.

Create a character in Honkai: Star Rail.
Head to the Honkai: Star Rail code redeem website.
Log in and select your region.
Once it recognizes your character name, copy and paste the code.
Click “Redeem”.

Keep in mind that these codes are only active on 26 April, when the game goes live. And if you want more codes like these, you’ll have to tune in to future Honkai: Star Rail livestream events on Twitch and YouTube courtesy of HoYoverse.


Activision Explains Why Modern Warfare 2 Remaster Doesn’t Have Multiplayer

The sudden launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered was a surprise, but perhaps a bigger surprise was the absence of the multiplayer component. This is Modern Warfare 2 we’re talking about, after all. Where on Earth did the multiplayer go?
Well, the answer has something to do with the recent Modern Warfare reboot. In a blog post, Activision explained that they want to “bring players together seamlessly in one unified online multiplayer playground”.
“Weâ€™ve played iconic Modern WarfareÂ series maps of past returning in the newÂ Modern Warfare, including classic maps like Rust, Shipment, Crash and Vacant,” they said. “Plus, inÂ WarzoneÂ weâ€™ve also experienced classicÂ Modern Warfare series locations like Gulag and Boneyard in new ways.”

“Rather than release a separate, multiplayer experience as a standalone pack, Activision and Infinity Ward are looking to bring more classic map experiences to new life within theÂ Modern Warfare universe as it continues to grow and build over time.”

I still can’t help but see Modern Warfare 2 Campaign RemasteredÂ as a gutted product, but I do appreciate how Activision is trying to avoid fragmenting the player base. It wasn’t too long ago that map packs were a staple of Call of Duty games, and Black Ops 4 didn’t improve things by locking 12 multiplayer maps and more behind its season pass. While the series’ yearly release schedule still does no great favours for longevity, at least Modern Warfare will continue to be an inclusive experience.


New The Witcher Season 3 Clip Showcases Epic Battle Scene

During Netflix TUDUM 2023, Netflix unveiled a new clip from the upcoming The Witcher Season 3.
The first five episodes will premiere on 29 June 2023 and the remaining three episodes will drop on 27 July 2023.
The synopsis reads:
“Destiny brought them together. Dangerous forces are trying to tear them apart. Geralt and Yennefer fight to keep Ciri safe as war brews on the Continent.”
In the meantime, check out my review of Season 2 here. The Witcher Season 2 premiered back in December 2021.
Check it out below:


The Super Mario Bros. Movie Soundtrack Is Available Right Now

If you want to hear awesome remixes of Koji Kondo’s 80s and 90s Mario music, look no further than this recent Spotify update.
Digital music streaming services like Spotify has released the Super Mario Bros. Movie soundtrack on Spotify. No, not the licensed music nonsense: the show’s actual soundtrack that features Koji Kondo’s music arranged by composer Brian Tyler in loving and epic fashion.
35 of the tracks were composed by Tyler. The other two are Bowser’s song “Peaches” by Jack Black and the Mario Brothers Rap from the ’89 cartoon The Super Mario Bros Super Show. If you want a physical version of the OST, you may need to visit iam8bit for a 2xLP vinyl set, along with CD and cassette versions and a 7? vinyl single of “Peaches”.
For the rest of the world, here’s the full playlist via Spotify.

The Super Mario Bros Movie will be out in Malaysia on 20th April, but it’s out right now in most SEA countries and most parts of the world. Here’s our early review of the show; it’s fun but definitely classified under fluff entertainment.


New Halo Game Set to Be Announced at E3?

The latest Halo game – possibly Halo 6 – will be announced at E32018 and will be called Halo: Infinity according to sources. ‘Word on the street’ has it, as claimed byÂ an editor for Thurott.com,Â Brad Sams.

A new Halo game at e3, possibly called Halo Infinity ðŸ§
â€” Brad Sams (@bdsams) June 5, 2018

Obv, things could change here but thatâ€™s the word the street
â€” Brad Sams (@bdsams) June 5, 2018
While some may quash this as pointless pre-E3 rumor, it is worth mentioning that Sams have been spot on with his E3 predictions related to Microsoft in the past. Apart from the name, not much was revealed.
However, Halo Infinity could very well be the continuation of Halo 5: Guardians (which wasn’t that great) considering Infinity is the name of theÂ first Infinity-class supercarrier commissioned into the UNSC Navy. It was last seen doing multiple random jumps to evade the rampant AI Cortana at the end of Halo 5: Guardians.
Then again, the lack of numbering in the nomenclature could indicate that this might be a self-contained game which takes place somewhere between the core Master Chief-led games e.g happenings between Halo 3 and 4 or even what transpired between Halo 4 and Guardians.
Our guesses are as good as yours but if we had to pick, we are guessing that it is going to be a top down RTS game ala Halo Wars. What do you think? Another shooter featuring Locke and his squad or even worse – a Halo battle royale game?
As usual, the comments section is right down below.


The Book Of Boba Fett Arrives This December

Disney+ has announced that Star Wars’ The Book Of Boba Fett Season 1 will premiere on 29 December 2021.
It was originally announced in December 2020 during The Mandalorian Season 2 finale.
Hereâ€™s the official synopsis via Disney:
â€œThe Book of Boba Fett,â€ a thrilling Star Wars adventure, finds legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett and mercenary Fennec Shand navigating the Galaxyâ€™s underworld when they return to the sands of Tatooine to stake their claim on the territory once ruled by Jabba the Hutt and his crime syndicate.â€

His story is only beginning. The Book of @BobaFett, an all-new Original Series, starts streaming December 29 on @DisneyPlus. #TheBookOfBobaFett pic.twitter.com/bWPg0D0Z6l
— Star Wars (@starwars) September 29, 2021

Perhaps we’ll see a trailer debut on Disney+ Day, which is slated to take place on 12 November 2021.
Both Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen will reprise their roles as Boba Fett and Fennec Shand, respectively.Â Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni and Robert RodriguezÂ (all of whom are also involved withÂ The Mandalorian) will be executive producers of the new series.
The Book Of Boba FettÂ is the eleventh Star Wars TV series to be announced afterÂ the ten previously-announced ones, which includes anÂ AhsokaÂ series and more.
In the meantime, check out my breakdown ofÂ The MandalorianÂ Season 2 finale and what it might mean for Season 3.


Xbox Explains Why Series X Controller Still Uses AA Batteries

When Microsoft initially unveiled the Xbox Series X controller earlier this month, many gamers were surprised that the next-gen controller still used AA batteries, especially considering that the PS4’s Dualshock 4 has been using a built-in rechargeable battery for years.
Speaking with Eurogamer, Xbox partner director of program management Jason Ronald explained that both consumer and internal development feedback were split 50/50 on the matter of the Xbox Series X controller’s battery.
He said:

“What it comes down to is when actually talking to gamers, it’s kind of polarising and there is a strong camp that really wants AAs.
So just giving flexibility is the way to please both [sets of] people…
You can use a rechargeable battery pack and it works just like it does on the Elite, [but] it is a separate thing.”

Despite using AA batteries to power itself, Xbox Series X owners will still be able to purchase a rechargeable battery pack, albeit at an additional (pricey) cost. It’s hard to think why anyone would really prefer to use AA batteries instead of a convenient rechargeable pack.
I’ve been using my Dualshock 4 for years without any problems. Unless all you do is play games all day or more than 12 hours in a single sitting, a rechargeable internal battery pack would normally be enough to sustain your gaming. What do I know, it’s not like I write about video games for a living.
Besides still using AA batteries, the Xbox Series X controller will also feature a new D-pad, a Share button, a tactile dot pattern on the triggers, and a matte finish, as well as fit a wider range of hand sizes, especially smaller hands.
The Xbox Series X controller.


Scorn Will Show You Such Sights With An Experience Of Horror Delights

Platform(s): PC, Xbox Series X/S
Genre: First-Person, Survival Horror, FPS, Biopunk, Horror, H.R. Giger
Not everyone loves the horror genre, and the body horror genre is even more niche. The most famous directors include the likes of David Cronenberg but one name that is not mentioned as often is that of the late H.R. Giger, who designed the iconic design for the Alien Xenomorphs of the Alien film franchise, especially the surreal and bizarre “biomechanical” aesthetic style the movies would become known for.
Now, there’s finally a game that is fully inspired by the style of H.R. Giger and that game is Scorn.
Hide Your Face

Scorn was originally announced by Ebb Software all the way back in 2014. It’s an atmospheric first-person horror adventure game set in a nightmarish universe of odd forms and sombre tapestry featuring the aforementioned H.R. Giger’s biomechanical style. Imagine a whole world with body horror-esque Alien designs.
According to the developer, Scorn is designed around the idea of “being thrown into the world”. Isolated and lost inside this dream-like world, you will explore different interconnected regions in a non-linear fashion. The unsettling environment is a character itself. After playing the Scorn prologue demo, that’s exactly how I felt. After starting a new game and watching the brief opening cinematic, the game literally just drops me in the middle of nowhere in a hellish-looking and creepy place.
As a fan of horror (including body horror and the like), I was impressed with the world that Ebb Software has created. Most sci-fi games feature the same-looking and similar mechanical aesthetics. This even includes Creative Assembly’s Alien Isolation, which is arguably one of the best Alien games ever made. Scorn is different. During moments when no music is playing, all you hear are the occasional groans, sighs and moans emanating from the walls, which feel as if they’re throbbing and breathing with life. This is definitely a game you should be playing with headphones, especially when you come across some of the parts with screaming later on.

In addition, the details of the world are astounding. Every level and environment looks intricate and designed to the smallest details. It took them eight years to develop this game and it’s easy to see why. Not even big-budget sci-fi movie sets look like this. It’s important to note that Scorn is not a traditional first-person shooter. You’re basically dropped in a place and expected to find your own way out. There are no written objectives or waypoints, no maps or mini-maps. Scorn takes place in an open-ended world with different interconnected regions. Each region is a maze-like structure with various rooms and paths to discover.
Playing Scorn requires complete focus. Why? The game literally doesn’t tell you anything from the beginning to the end of the game. It doesn’t you what a new item or weapon does, and it doesn’t tell you what you need to do in order to progress. It’s really refreshing and unique to play a game without any instructions, tips, waypoints, maps, or tutorials at all. Yeah, despite there being Search Action and Metroidvania elements, there is no map or mini-map to speak of. All of this makes for one of the most immersive games I’ve played in years.
For most of the game’s duration, there’s not much combat to speak of. Most of your time will be spent moving around, exploring and solving puzzles to get to the next area. That’s simplifying it, of course, because the puzzles are connected to each other and they sometimes unlock new paths and rooms. This is where Search Action or Metroidvania elements come into play. You’ll come across certain doors or mechanisms that you can’t interact with until later when you find a key or unlock a new item. Some of the puzzles include moving large mechanisms or even shifting entire parts of the environment around, which is part of what makes the world in Scorn feel alive (besides its biomechanical designs).
Dark Seed

Scorn is terrifying because you don’t know what’s waiting for you around the corner or in the next room, just like a survival horror should. That said, Scorn focuses more on the puzzles and atmosphere than actual combat. While the shooting does feel satisfying and explosive, it’s a lot like Silent Hill where you’re encouraged to avoid combat wherever possible in order to save precious ammo and health for future encounters.
Sometimes, it’s just not possible to avoid combat and you will die a lot in Scorn since there aren’t a lot of stealth options. You can’t even crouch or anything to avoid detection, and the hallways in this game are usually narrow so all you can really do is run away. Some players might complain about the checkpoint system in this game, but I didn’t find it too punishing, especially considering that it’s a survival horror game. If you die, you’ll lose only several minutes of gameplay at most.
For instance, in the first chapter, there was one huge door that required two people to open. Of course, this being a single-player game, I was confused at first, what was I supposed to do? It turns out that I had to solve an elaborate puzzle to find a creature and break it out of its egg. It’s a pretty gruesome process, and this is where the “body horror” part of the game first kicks in. I had to bring the creature to several machines to break it out of its egg and it could definitely be considered torture porn or something you’d see in a David Cronenberg movie. The final section of the first chapter finally has me finding a weapon of some sort, which I have to literally attach to my hand (body horror, remember?). The weapon isn’t a gun though, since it shoots sort of a metal extension in a short almost-melee range, which reminded me of how the Alien Xenomorph’s tongue shoots out of its mouth.
Another aspect that makes Scorn a unique experience is how the narrative is told with no dialogue. There isn’t a single line of dialogue from beginning to end, and that includes readable prompts or anything that you’d usually see in other games. This might frustrate or annoy players who are used to getting everything in a straightforward or direct manner, but for those who don’t mind a more esoteric or abstract form of storytelling, Scorn is for you.

I would recommend Scorn to any fan of horror and/or body horror for its unforgettable experience but the biggest flaw of the game is that it’s a bit on the short side. It took me only about six hours to finish Scorn. However, the developers said that only puzzle-savvy players will be able to complete it around that length of time (six to eight hours) and normal casual players will likely take closer to 10 hours or more to complete the game. The puzzles take time to understand and solve, so you’ll be spending most of your time there instead of in combat.
Combat is perhaps only roughly 20 percent or so of the game, and there’s only one boss battle in the entire game. There were also a bunch of bugs, even ones that occasionally hindered progress and required me to restart a whole Act/chapter, but these will probably be fixed in the day one patch.
Having said that, Scorn only gets more nerve-wracking and intense as you progress through the game. There’s no moment where you really feel powerful because you don’t get more powerful. Sure, you get more weapons, but the ammo you get is extremely limited, even when compared to other survival horror games. The atmosphere of the game never truly lets up, leaving you always on your guard and always feeling the pressure. That’s a huge reason why despite being able to finish the game in only six hours, I felt like it was almost double that amount of time because I was scared out of my mind for the entire experience.
Heartwork

In a nutshell, Scorn is a unique and refreshing experience. It’s more of a first-person horror game with lots of puzzle solving, similar to the likes of games such as Alien Isolation or Silent Hill in a way. The game doesn’t tell you anything, so it’s up to you to explore and navigate through the game’s nightmarish world. Just don’t expect this to be the body horror equivalent of Doom because it’s not. If you love H.R. Giger’s aesthetics and things that are extremely alien, Scorn is something you should try playing.
Scorn is certainly not for the squeamish or those not familiar with body horror, I can tell you that. However, if you’re into Cronenberg and body horror, you’ll love Scorn. Scorn is best experienced with no prior knowledge or tips because that’s how a game like Scorn is meant to be experienced.
PROS

Tense and atmospheric horror experience in a living breathing world.
Gory and full of body horror.
Challenging but fair puzzles.
Refreshing and minimalist approach with no tutorials, objectives, maps, etc.

CONS

A bit on the short side (took me six hours but probably closer to eight to ten or more hours for casual gamers).
A few bugs and glitches.

FINAL SCORE: 80/100
We were given early access to the Scorn courtesy of Ebb Software and Kepler Interactive. Scorn launches on PC, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox Game Pass on 14 October 2022.


Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising Is A Decent Old-School 2D Platforming Fantasy Ride

Platform(s): PC (version reviewed), Xbox Series, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch
Genre: 2D Platforming Action RPGing Spin-Off Game
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes was a successful Kickstarter project launched by ex-Konami developers who know that the world needs a new Suikoden-like title. But since making these kinds of ambitious games can take a long while, it only makes a modicum of sense to make a “smaller” game to quell the thirst of 90s JRG fans.
Eiyuden Chronicle series developer Rabbit & Bear Studios’ solution? Get their pals from Natsume Atari to make a 2D action game in the veins of a PS1 platformer instead.Â I can’t be too sure if any such fan would play a spin-off game first over the actual successor, especially if the Kickstarter net them a lot of money. But one thing is for certain: I’m getting a lot of action platforming out of my US$15 here with Eiyuden Chronicle Rising, even if the overall game can get tedious if you’re going for that completionist route.
The Old Switcheroo

The premise of Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is simple – you play a trio of adventurers who are helping the town of New Nevaeh become an attractive spot for tourists and adventurers. You do this by gathering resources and performing tons of fetch quests for the townsfolk, kill a ton of beasts and monsters impeding your path, and open up new areas by destroying colour-coded elemental walls. There’s also a dark secret within the town and the area it’s situated in, but that’s up for you to uncover within the 10 hours you’ll spend in this quaint adventure. The kicker here is the game’s character-switching mechanic: press any of the attack buttons -X, Y, B- to summon the character assigned to the button to perform their moves and gain access to their traversal skillsets.
Adventurer CJ can double jump, air dash, and cling onto ledges. Beastman Garoo can do a long hop and break big barriers down. Isha can teleport and shoot down certain crystal barriers. As you can clearly tell, CJ takes lead in the game because of her more diverse movement set. The switching is pretty important when fighting enemies; certain enemy barriers can only be broken down with the game’s Link Attack system, where you press a different attack button to summon in a new character for a Link Attack. Link Attacks also slows time down to a crawl so you can deal a ton of damage while also getting out of harm’s way with a dodge/evade move cancel halfway.Â As you grow the town by helping build it up with tasks and accumulating stamps for your reward, you gain access to more Link Attack opportunities. Pretty soon, you can chain up to 4 attacks in a row, and dealing a ton of damage onto enemies with little effort.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising’s character-switching mechanic takes some time to get used to; I have stumbled a couple of times because I keep switching attacks and accidentally summon the wrong character during a short climbing segment.Â But once you’re accustomed to it a few hours deep and have the full trio, the sky’s the limit when it comes to dealing your own brand of fantasy combo action justice. I dig the fact that all the characters play differently: CJ is fast and nimble and deals the most combos, while Garoo is slow but hits hard, has good range with his sword, and jumps pretty high. Isha has a Princess Peach float, can teleport away from trouble, and is the team’s only ranged attacker. Each of them have their uses in many different scenarios. Have too many enemies in the air? Just use Garoo’s overarching swipe to one-hit kill them all. Need to get out of a corner when you’re being flanked by enemies? Switch to CJ and just double-jump and air dash out of there.
You can also equip elemental runes onto them to deal all sorts of elemental damage and shoot out elemental spells, if you’re Isha. Later on, enemies will need to be taken down with the right elements to get rid of their shields and buffs; equipping the wrong element could mean unnecessary healing when you could be dealing more damage with proper planning.
All this would be for naught if the world of this spin-off comes off as bland. Fortunately, that isn’t the case; Natsume Atari’s blending of 2D sprites (to an extent) and 3D graphic work makes the There’s a bit of charm and relaxation in combat and exploration; almost like as if it’s tailored from the get-go to be a 2D RPG with jumping and platforming in the mix. The camaraderie between the three characters are fleshed out just fine; they’re not exactly the deepest characters since you’ve seen these archetypes in other JRPGs: backwater tomboy do-gooder, gruff old man, and the tsundere with tragic past. However, they are likeable and they have their own reasons for being what they are. Isha’s story arc is the most interesting, given that she is playing the role of mayor and support for CJ’s adventuring.
Three’s Company

Granted, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is not the most challenging game of this type. Except for the last few bosses, most of the game can be a cakewalk if you know how to link attacks and switch partners quick, and the regular enemy variety isn’t that huge or complicated to deal with. Still, the plethora of elements here that are present -the presentation, the story, the progression, and the controls- are done with care that you don’t mind just doing repetitive sidequests and harvesting just to see how far you can take your in-game stamp collection. Plus, you can bump up the difficulty when you finish the game once -which should take you 10 hours or so on your first run- but unless you’re the kind who want to just bump up enemy health and damage as actual difficulty, you may just want to continue getting max stamps for CJ’s collection.
Chalk this 2D action RPG platformer under the “charming and inoffensive” category of entertainment. At the very least, this diversion from the actual Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes game will at least be worth 10 hours or so of your time. Natsume Atari: might I suggest more post-release DLC with new stages and bosses as the game’s base is pretty solid?
Pros

Lovely aesthetics and new era PS1-esque vibes.
Cool character-switching mechanic and action.
Cute story & progression showcase.
Mostly fun action and exploration bits.

Cons

Sidequests and back-and-forth gets repetitive.
Not that challenging overall.

Final Score: 70/100
Review copy provided by 505 Games.


Kakuchopurei Best 30 Games Of 2022: #15

For the rest of the list, head here. For #16, head here.
#16. Cursed To Golf (PS5, Xbox Series X | S, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC)

Described as a side-scrolling golf game that implements puzzles and other rogue-lite aspects, Cursed to Golf is one of many solid games that came from Thunderful Publishing this year.
With cute and undead art partnered with an equally fitting soundtrack, the game is a breath of fresh air for those who have grown tired of the same mundane concepts we see in the genre as Cursed To Golf puts a new spin on things.
We’d go as far as to call Cursed To Golf a hole-in-one victory. It’s definitely worth your time if you fancy an esoteric and pixel-laden take on golf minus the dull bits of the sport and for that, we thought it deserved a spot on this list this year.


Resident Evil Village Sold More Than 4.5 Million Copies Worldwide

To the surprise of absolutely no one, the most-anticipated and most-acclaimed Resident Evil game of this year has sold a ton of copies.
Capcom announced that the total shipments and digital sales for all digital versions of Resident Evil Village (or RE8) has surpassed 4.5 million units worldwide. The game came out on 7th May, so it’s pretty impressive it sold this amount in just a few months. The fact that it’s fun to play, gives out the right amount of chills and survival horror action beats, as well as being a lovely callback to a great Resident Evil predecessor without being an outright remake, is why it sold so many copies.
For more Resident Evil Village, check out our review and guides.


Overwatch’s New Hero Echo Joins The Game This April

In four days’ time, the next Overwatch hero will drop on public servers. That’s right, Echo’s PTR time is just about done.
She’ll be swooping into the game’s roster this 14th April.

Following the flight plan.
Echo swoops into Overwatch on April 14! pic.twitter.com/BWO8W6ivDO
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) April 9, 2020

Just to recap, Echo’s abilities include flying freely and glide while falling, firing delayed-fuse sticky bombs, and using a “focusing beam” that’s devastating against enemies with less than half health. Her Ultimate lets her copy and use the abilities of any character on the opposing team, complete with an extremely accelerated ultimate generation time.
Also, she’s Singaporean, if her “can or not?” and “jialat” quotes are of any indication.

Will there be any more new heroes joining the Overwatch roster before Overwatch 2 comes in? Probably not; Blizzard and daddy Jeff Kaplan will need to start gearing up for the sequel as the original game has been around for quite a while; 5 years in fact.


Crossfire: Legion Leaves Early Access Early December

Publishers Prime Matter and Smilegate, along with developer Blackbird Interactive have confirmed that Crossfire: Legion will be leaving Early Access and into stores on December 8, 2022.
Crossfire: Legion is a real-time strategy game featuring tactical action on battlefields; think Command & Conquer and the StarCraft series but with Crossfire units and lore. Players can choose one between the three different factions fighting each other. You unlock new units for your faction by playing matches against other players or bots. Each faction has its own take on commanders, infantry units, vehicles, and airborne units; all of which are upgradeable and has special abilities. The core gameplay design is for players to play with the competitive multiplayer element.

The full launch will have tonnes of content for the final version and include a ‘Free Weekend’ where players can explore the game starting on the 8th until 11th December. Here’s the breakdown of the latest content added for the final version:

Campaign Act IV
New Game Mode Brawl
12 new units, 4 for each faction
Operation Northside Coop mode
New Skirmish Map: Labyrinth (3v3)
New PayLoad Map: Tongren Facility (3v3)
A.I. creation for Battle Lines, Payload, Brawl, and Standard Game modes
3 additional commanders; Warden (Global Risk), Stalker (Black List), and Cipher (New Horizon)

Entering Early Access in May 2022, the game has grown tremendously as the developers have been working with the RTS communities to mould the game for today’s fans of classic RTS to play. From removing the progression system, adding balance tweaks, etc – Crossfire: Legion now comes with plenty of game modes, units, and a map-making tool for players to immerse in a classic RTS experience.
Strap your Commander boots on and get the game now via PC (Steam). Check out the trailer below to get a taste of the isometric top-down action.


Let’s Celebrate Malaysia’s Many Gaming Accomplishments For 2020 [Video]

Happy Malaysia Day, everyone!Â
To celebrate the 31st of AugustÂ  16th of September (and its weekend by extension), let’s give thanks to the many hard-working folks in the Malaysian games industry for all of their contributions. From government body MDEC to small studios, every one of these fine folks should be recognized for their hard work.Â
Here’s a list of games that Malaysia had a hand in, or just outright created for 2020. There’s actually a fair bit, starting with the most recent one we covered…

No Straight Roads

This one’s the most obvious, since Metronomik’s No Straight Roads conspiciously came out a few days before Merdeka. Whether it was intentional or not, the fact remains: this is an action game Malaysians should be proud of.Â
Not only it’s a lovely & challenging hybrid of music rhythm and action that we haven’t seen since 2000s’ Rez, but it oozes charisma thanks to its voiceovers, art, and music. The Malaysian DNA is present here and works to the game’s advantage in creating a unique gaming world unlike any other.
The little things add up for a unique experience, be it the colourful folks that signifies racial harmony, a prominent character speaking Bahasa Melayu while eloquently doing a rap battle with our heroes, folks getting hit and yelling out “opocot”, “adoi”, or “oi, tipu!”, and most importantly…

…one of our best local snacks out in full force being shilled by a corporate-owned digital idol. Truly Malaysian!

Fires At Midnight

Billed as a visual novel with quite a bit of sexytime, Fires At Midnight is also another stellar debut from Malaysian company Persona Theory.
Our reviewer Alleef said that it’s a brave and bold title that isn’t afraid to explore controversial subject matters.Â We’re talking topics like racism, corruption, sexual assaults, mental health, depression, and suicidal tendencies from trauma. Think Doki Doki Literature type themes and creeping sense of dread, and you’re not too far off here.Â

You can now get the game at a 31 percent discount on Steam. Because, you know, Merdeka-themed sale and all…

Bake ‘n Switch

Need to sate your Overcooked fix? Why not try Bake ‘n Switch?

https://youtu.be/T4eIhgFMBcg

 Unlike its inspiration, players assume the role of a Baker instead of a cook who must punch, merge, and bake adorable Bun creatures by throwing them into ovens in colourful levels to appease the Guardians. It’s looking adorable so far!

 The game is now available on PC via Steam at only RM51, but is also coming to the PS4 at an unspecified date.

Ageless

While this 2D platformer isn’t for everybody, we will admit that it possesses a unique ageing/deageing mechanic and some decent 2D puzzles and platforming segments. It’s at least worth a curious look and playtest.
We do hope to see more from this small-time developer; hopefully they’ll learn from the mistakes in this title and poise for higher aspirations.

Parts of Ghost of Tsushima

Local developers Passion Republic Games contributed to the development of the Sucker Punch magnum opus adventure game Ghost of Tsushima.Â
The studio also worked on other major titles like Dark Souls III, League of Legends, and Mortal Kombat 11. So good on them to pay the bills with these major projects while working on upcoming games like their multiplayer monster brawler GigaBash.Â

Parts of Final Fantasy VII Remake

So all those cool 3D models and animations that make the world of Final Fantasy VII Remake come alive? Part of it is due to the works of Malaysia studio Lemon Sky Studios. That CGI studio group also worked on Marvel’s Spider-Man and Gears 5.
The studio is also busy with a ton of animation works like Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya (2019), so you can thank them for bringing some of your recent animes and kid shows alive.Â

Parts of The Last of Us Part 2

Love it or hate it, you know this Naughty Dog game is getting more and more attention with each passing day. part of the game’s art, assets, and animation are done up by Malaysia-based Lemon Sky Studio. You know the drill to this…

That One Hyperscape Character

Ubisoft’s entry in battle royale may not be catching some buzz and attention from players, but at least it has an inclusive cast of characters.
One of them is a Malaysian woman named Noor Azimah binti Yusof, or just “Noor Casulink” for short. She’s a 23-year old who is the face of Southeast Asia in the game. She’s also a fashionista and a social media influencer rolled into one.Â
All characters in Hyperscape all play the same; it’s just a matter of whether you want to play a Japanese guy in a biker helmet or a Malay social influencer. At least you’re given a choice even if it’s cosmetic.Â

And All These Other Upcoming Games…
Once we’re done with the past and present of 2020, we should look forward to Malaysian-made endeavours slated for the future. They’re still being made as we speak, so show them some love and give them some useful feedback if you see them being displayed at game expos (when the pandemic is cured, of course):

GigaBash

https://www.youtube.com/embed/pJ0Ryi504gk

There’s a reason why party fighting games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are so popular. They’re easy to pick up and play, especially when playing with friends and family. That’s why this new arena brawler game from Passion Republic will definitely be the same.

GigaBash feature four players as giant monsters inspired by classic kaiju battling it out in cities and exotic places around the world. If youâ€™ve ever played 2003â€™s War Of The Monsters or any of the myriad Godzilla games during the PS2 era, youâ€™ll be familiar with its gameplay mechanics.

Itâ€™s fun in short bursts and with more future additions to its roster, might even turn out to be more robust than it looks. Oh, and unlike the hectic and chaotic Overcooked, GigaBash probably wouldnâ€™t destroy your relationships in the process.

It is slated to release for the PS4 and PC sometime in 2021.

Short Creepy Tales: 7PM

https://www.youtube.com/embed/el2OLNOhwrI

Cellar Vault Games is an indie game developer team based in Malaysia, and their upcoming game, Short Creepy Tales: 7PM, is a horror adventure visual novel game. It looks creepy as heck, especially considering that it revolves around the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival.

Built using Unreal Engine 4, Short Creepy Tales: 7PM is the first formal instalment of an anthology horror series by Cellar Vault Games. Taking place in a small low-cost apartment block.

It is slated to release for the PC via Steam sometime in September 2020.
Rhythm Doctor
Malaysian studio 7th Beat Games obviously have a love of rhythm games. Their aim? To create a one-button rhythm game that’s challenging and fun to watch. It’s like a hardcore Rhythm Heaven or Beatmania, so we’re down with that!Â
Check out the gameplay below to see what we mean.Â

Â

Know of any other 2020 Malaysian games & gaming success stories we should give the spotlight to? Or do you want us to extend the list to the last few years? Let us know on the comments or on our Facebook and YouTube page.Â


Legion of Champions Series 2: Bangkok 2018 Kicked off with a bang!

                [wpvideo IwGAqOh4]

The Legion of Champions Grand Finals kicked off in Bangkok with 7 teams competing: Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Hong Kong/Macau, Vietnam and Indonesia with a total of 9 teams battling it out for the 15,000 USD prizepool.
The opening ceremony was graced by BNK 48, the Thai popular girls’ group. Their singing and dancing were definitely an addictive sight to behold. Legion of Champions was a 3 day event which consisted of Legion by Lenovo product demos which included their VR Ready PCs and laptops, the Lenovo Y520 Anniversary Edition Laptop Launch, cosplays, and so much more!
Tashbunny holding up the Anniversary Edition of the Legion by Lenovo Y520 laptop which instead of the usual black and red, now sports a black and gold accent with white keyboard backlights

Team “Argma” from Hong Kong brought home the bacon, grabbing the championship title with them. The Philippines’ “Wargods” came in as runner up and last but not least, Fire Dragoon from Malaysia in third place.
Winners and grand final participants of the Legion of Champions Series 2.
This is the second time Legion of Champions has come round. 1400 teams had participated this year across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong with the number of teams increased this year. We hope to see Legion of Champions again next year with more teams participating and even bloodier tests of skill in League of Legends!


Monster Hunter Movie Will Have Palicoes & Meowscular Chef

The upcoming Monster Hunter movie from Sony is really trying to nail the look and tone of the game it’s based on, as well as get the blessing from Capcom’s series producer and director Ryozo Tsujimoto and Kaname Fujioka (via IGN).

A good PR stunt, sure, but this should at least placate fans of the series. Film director Paul W.S. Anderson also confirmed at last weekend’s New York Comic Con Monster Hunter panel that the upcoming Monster Hunter movie will feature both Palicoes and the Meowscular Chef.

“Well, you couldn’t make a Monster Hunter movie without having a Palico in it. So definitely we lean into the Palico.”

Yes, the cat slaves/field companions in Monster Hunter World will be in the upcoming film starring Milla Jovovich. And yes, the Meowscular Chef will have a story bit where he is smitten with Milla Jovovich’s character Captain Artemis.

“We have one of the characters, Meowscular Chef, who’s the Admiral’s sidekick, who’s a fantastic character, who has this rather flirtatious relationship with Milla, which is really interesting.”

Paul W.S. Anderson also has some choice quotes regarding the monsters in the film.

“I love the Rathalos, because the Rathalos is pretty much the rock star of the Monster Hunter video games. It’s been in nearly all of the games. It’s probably one of the hardest creatures to kill. It’s just badass. So I’m very excited that that’s in our movie.”
“I love the Black Diablos. The Diablos is a creature that I just like, but the Black Diablos is particularly nasty because that’s a female Diablos that’s in heat. So it’s just very angry and very territorial.”

Monster Hunter will be in cinemas(?) April 2021.


Asia Leads The World In Worldwide Video Game Revenue

The video game industry is always changing and growing in tandem with improving tech and facilities like the Internet. According to statistics gathered by WePC from various sources (and published earlier this year), Asia is currently leading the world in terms of overall revenue in the video games industry.
The Asia Pacific region reached a revenue of US$51.2 billion in 2017, making them the largest gaming market in the world. That’s more than half of the total US$78.61 billion of total video game revenue in 2017. This isn’t totally surprising, considering that approximately 36 percent of gamers worldwide are from the Asia Pacific region.

In comparison, Europe placed second, while the US was third in the largest revenue generated. In regards to both free-to-play and pay-to-play MMO games especially, Asia took up 63 percent of the global share. For example, Riot Games’ free-to-play MOBA League Of Legends alone generated US$2.1 billion globally in 2017.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, more gamers are resorting to free-to-play games to spend their time at home, which means potentially increasing revenue for the games industry. The same applies for PC games as well, considering that PC games are mostly digitized now thanks to storefronts like Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG.
The Nintendo Switch in particular recently saw a surge in popularity sparked by the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and the current global shortage of the hybrid console. While the sales of the PS4 might be negatively affected by the upcoming launch of the next-gen PS5, the release of highly-anticipated PS4 games like Ghost Of Tsushima and The Last Of Us Part 2 might still boost sales.
It remains to be seen when (or if) the negative effects of the COVID-19 will affect game revenue, or how the launch of next-gen consoles will ultimately be affected. However, right now the games industry is still likely doing fine in terms of revenue compared to other industries like movies or music, despite the number of gaming events being cancelled left and right.


Ubisoft Forward E3 2021 To Showcase Rainbow Six Quarantine, Far Cry 6 & More

Ubisoft has announced more details about the latest edition of Ubisoft Forward which will be streamed live on 13 June 2021 at 3am GMT+8. The show, available to view on ubisoft.com/Forward, is part of this yearâ€™s digital E3 2021 event, featuring a diverse content lineup including fan favourites, newly announced titles, and surprises.
The pre-show will debut at 2am GMT+8, with news and updates from live games such as For Honor, Trackmania, The Crew 2, Brawlhalla, Watch Dogs Legion, and more from the teams at Ubisoft.
The main show, starting 3am GMT+8, will feature the next mainline entry in the Rainbow Six franchise, formerly known as Rainbow Six Quarantine, with world premiere gameplay and trailers revealing this brand-new co-op title for the first time.
The show will also include more details on Far Cry 6, a game set in a nation under the heel of dictator AntÃ³n Castillo, played by Giancarlo Esposito. There will also be news of Riders Republic, the upcoming multiplayer open-world playground taking place in the landscapes of North America.
There will also be updates from Assassinâ€™s Creed Valhalla and Rainbow Six Siege on their upcoming content, as well as content from the Apple TV+ series Mythic Quest, and soon-to-release movie Werewolves Within, both from Ubisoft Film & Television.
Following the main show, at 4am GMT+8, the post-show will include a Rainbow Six Siege Community Briefing to update players on the latest news, plus an in-depth discussion with Siege developers on how they designed the latest addition to the Operator roster, Operation North Starâ€™s Thunderbird. The show also will provide a number of fresh reveals, such as the Y6S2 Streamer Charms, Community Artist Bundle, and Sixth Guardian Charity bundle partnerships. Developers will provide deeper insight into the announcements from the main show, and players will have a chance to win an exclusive Fan Charm via Twitch Drops.
In an ongoing effort to make Ubisoft Forward an accessible show for as many people as possible, watching the main show onÂ ubisoft.com/Forward will give access to subtitles in 12 different languages. Furthermore, the pre-show and main show will be translated into American Sign Language, with the main show audio described in English.
EMEAâ€™s Executive Director Alain Corre said:

â€œWe canâ€™t wait to share more about our upcoming line-up at Ubisoft Forward as part of this yearâ€™s digital E3 event.
This is always a highly anticipated moment for our industry and an opportunity to celebrate new content and creations.
Weâ€™re proud to be showcasing such a diverse portfolio of games with something for every type of player, not forgetting a few surprises of course.â€

Players can tune in at ubisoft.com/Forward,Â Twitch, orÂ YouTube, and join the discussion on social media with #UbiForward this 13 June 2021. For more on E3 2021’s schedule, head on over here.


The Hunger Games Prequel Movie Gets Its First Trailer

Lionsgate has unveiled the first trailer for the upcoming The Hunger Games The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes, which is a prequel to the main franchise.
The Hunger Games The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes follows a young Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) who is the last hope for his failing lineage, the once-proud Snow family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With his livelihood threatened, Snow is reluctantly assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from the impoverished District 12. But after Lucy Gray’s charm captivates the audience of Panem, Snow sees an opportunity to shift their fates. With everything he has worked for hanging in the balance, Snow unites with Lucy Gray to turn the odds in their favor. Battling his instincts for both good and evil, Snow sets out on a race against time to survive and reveal if he will ultimately become a songbird or a snake.
The movie also stars Peter Dinklage, Hunter Schafer, Josh Andrés Rivera, Jason Schwartzman, and Viola Davis.
It is slated to premiere on 17 November 2023.
Check out the trailer below:


Apex Legends Mobile Racks Up US$5 Million In Its Launch Week

According to a VGC report, Apex Legends Mobile has accumulated US$4.8 million during its first week since it launched globally.
Since the beta, Apex Legends Mobile (ALM) fans have been eager to get their hands on some of the cosmetics and other in-game rewards. But since it was only in beta, many didn’t see the need to purchase anything as the developers, Respawn Entertainment came out and said that no purchases will carry over from the beta.
Now the mobile title has officially been released, it has generated nearly US$5 million over the past seven days.
Most of this revenue reportedly comes from cosmetics that are purchasable in-game, but there are a few other purchases that can be made in-game that affect gameplay. Obviously, the premium battle pass which includes multiple mobile-exclusive skins is another massive contributor to this success as well.
Much like its console and PC counterpart, it’s way faster to unlock new Legends by buying them with real money rather than grinding the game. Speaking from experience, it takes a long time, trust me. Players can also gain access to mobile-first character Fade quickly by spending 750 Syndicate Gold to unlock him immediately.

Apex Legends Mobile is estimated to have generated almost $5 million through player spending during its first week of availability, which is about a third of what Call of Duty Mobile brought in during its first seven days back in 2019https://t.co/KDMnmtOKVT pic.twitter.com/M33B7br1FQ
— VGC (@VGC_News) May 25, 2022

VGC also notes that the US$4.8 million figure is only about a third of what Call of Duty: Mobile earned in its first week, but did mention that it blow out PUBG: Mobile eight times over. These estimated figures derive from Sensor Tower which is a mobile data tracker.
So I think it’s safe to say that ALM’s opening week has been a massive success being compared to the two biggest mobile FPSs in Call of Duty: Mobile and PUBG: Mobile who have now made well into the billions of dollars to date.

If things continue as it is, by the time ALM’s around the same age, we can expect their earnings to compete with what CODM and PUBGM have earned to date.


Shanghai Dragons Addresses Account Sharing Issue Involving Undead and Xushu

The Shanghai Dragons have moved swiftly to discipline two of its players, ChaoÂ “Undead”Â Fang andÂ JunjieÂ “Xushu”Â Liu for violating Blizzard’s code of conduct pertaining to account use and possibly by doing so, avoided further (and much sterner) action from the Overwatch League. The full explanation and chronology of events can be found below:

Source
What is most surprising from this issue – even more than the fact that some of these players are account sharing – was that some have an SR rating not deemed enough to allow them to double queue together. Following changes to Season 6 for competitive matches on Overwatch, the SR of each group member must be within 1000 (positive or negative) of all other group members ranked at Diamond or below, and within 500 of all members ranked at Master or above.
In late November, Philadelphia Fusion’s tank main Su-Min â€œSadoâ€ Kim was handed a pre-season and 30-match suspension forÂ account boosting – a practice of beingÂ paid to increase another userâ€™s Skill Rating. While Undead & Xushu’s offense isn’t as severe as Sado’s, it is a poor reflection of the players’ professionalism considering they are now competing in the highest level of competitive Overwatch. Let’s hope that this is an isolated incident and these kids will learn a lesson or two from this.
Shanghai Dragons performed poorly in the recent Overwatch League pre-season exhibition matches, losing both their games to the highly favored Seoul Dynasty and the surprise package, Boston Uprising. The team looked in disarray and we recently had to demote them to Tier-B in our updated Overwatch League Team Grades.


[Rumour] Call Of Duty 2020 Will Be Set In The Vietnam War

This year’s Call of Duty will be part of the Black Ops universe if today’s rumours are of any indication.
Call of Duty 2020 will be dubbed Call of Duty: Vietnam, at least according to Charlie Intel. Later, Kotaku’s Jason Schreier backed up the rumour, stating that this year’s Black Ops universe-set entry will focus on the war in Vietnam. It wouldn’t be a reboot of the original Black Ops released back in 2010 because some of use are holding onto a shred of hope that Activision aren’t completely bankrupt ideas-wise.

I’m not a COD person so I don’t know anything about all the lore shenanigans or what it really means to be a Black Ops game, but one title I’ve heard thrown around a couple times is just “COD: Vietnam.” As far as I know it’s part of the Black ops series though? Not sure
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) April 21, 2020

I don’t think it’s a reboot
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) April 21, 2020

Guess shooter fans will have to find out in May if there will be a brand-new Black Ops or not. In the meantime, you’ll have time to play last year’s Call of Duty and its recent Warzone mode until it’s all made obsolete by the upcoming Call of Duty. Honestly, does the series need to be annualized to the ground, especially if the last one seems to be stable gameplay-wise?


Mortal Shell Is A New Souls-Like That Looks Very Dark

Ah, yes, another Souls-like. That’s the apathetic reaction I expected to have towards the Mortal Shell‘s announcement trailer, but its dark fantasy world has my interest.
The imagery isn’t fully arresting, but its brooding warriors, creepy creatures, and gloomy atmosphere are not unappealing. Having a gravelly-sounding narrator who says lines like “Untouched by false truths, will you pry these gifts from the unwilling, or will you let them rot?” with immense gravitas helps too.

Mortal Shell‘s title comes from the fact that its player character can inhabit the remains of defeated warriors that lie around the world. “Awaken these Mortal Shells, occupy their bodies and significantly open your understanding to diverse masteries of combat,” reads the Steam description.
The player can cover their Mortal Shell in stone for defensive purposes, or use the stone-form to strengthen their attacks. The trailer also shows the player character – who looks humanoid rather than human – exiting their Mortal Shell to launch an attack on enemies, though I’m a bigger fan of the “stab blade into ground to summon stone spikes” ability.
There’s also a moment in the trailer where the player character falls out of their Mortal Shell after being struck by an attack. Given how I can’t even handle Code Vein‘s demo, I’ll probably continue to stay away from Souls-likes.
Still, Mortal ShellÂ looks like it has the potential to leave an impressive mark on the Souls-like landscape. The game will be available in Q3 2020 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.


Borderlands 3 Maurice Black Market Vending Machine Location: 23rd July

Another new week, another new location for Borderlands 3’s best saurian black market dealer. Here’s where you can find this week’s Maurice Black Market Vending Machine.
You’ll have to go to Devil’s Razor on the planet Pandora. Teleport to Roland’s Rest, then check out the hut on your left when you’re near the ledge of Roland’s Rest. Just check out the screenshots below.

What does this week’s vending machine contain? These Legendary weapons:

The Shreddifier assault rifle
Crossroads SMG
Rowan’s Call assault rifle

Both the Shreddifier and Rowan’s Call are worth buying ASAP. They’re tedious to farm for, so having these purchasable here is good news!


The Taika Waititi Star Wars Movie Is Still In The Works

During Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London, Lucasfilm president and Star Wars boss Kathleen Kennedy has given an update on the long-gestating Star Wars movie by director Taika Waititi. The Taika Waititi Star Wars movie project was originally announced way back in 2020.
During an interview with Variety, Kennedy confirmed that Taika Waititi is still actively working on his Star Wars movie.
She said:
“Taika is still working away. He’s writing the script himself. He doesn’t really want to bring others into that process and I don’t blame him.
He has a very, very unique voice. So we want to protect that and that’s what he’s doing. But we’re going to make that one day.”
That being said, there are still no concrete details about the project (cast, title, etc.) so it will probably be a while before we get more information about Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie.


Historical Epic The Woman King Premieres In Malaysia This October

TriStar Pictures has released the first trailer for The Woman King. The historical epic war action drama makes its way to Malaysia cinemas on 6 October 2022.
It is based on the true story of the Dahomey Amazons, who were a Fon all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey which existed until 1904 when they finally fell to French colonial powers.
The synopsis reads:
The Woman King is the remarkable story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s with skills and a fierceness unlike anything the world has ever seen.
Inspired by true events, The Woman King follows the emotionally epic journey of General Nanisca (Oscar®-winner Viola Davis) as she trains the next generation of recruits and readies them for battle against an enemy determined to destroy their way of life.
Some things are worth fighting for…
Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. Story by Maria Bello. Screenplay by Dana Stevens and Gina Prince-Bythewood. Produced by Cathy Schulman, Viola Davis, Julius Tennon and Maria Bello. Peter McAleese serves as executive producer. The film also stars Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, Hero Fiennes Tiffin and John Boyega.
In the meantime, check out the trailer below:


Genshin Impact 1.4 Windblume Festival Guide: How To Party Hard In Mondstadt

This guide will be updated periodically as the Windblume Festival still hasn’t fully unlocked most of its minigames and challenges yet.
Genshin Impact’s major 1.4 event is here: the Windblume Festival. It’s basically part yearly Mondstadt festival and part after-party to celebrate the liberation of the city from last year’s major plotline involving “tone deaf” bard Venti and the knights of Favonius (Kaeya, Bennett, Amber, etc.).
This means a ton of activities where you can win a bunch of exclusive limited-time goodies & freebies, as well as a contest where you can win up to 6,000 Primogems if you come up with an awesome guide. We’re not here to chase glory; we’re here to help you out because we want to. So here’s our own festival guide.
How To Enter
You take part in the event, you need to reach Adventure Rank 20 and finish the “Song of the Dragon and Freedom” main quest (ie: the one where you fight Stormterror for the first time).
Once that’s sorted, you will gain access to the quest “Ode to Flower and Cloud”. At the end of this quest, you’ll meet up with Venti, Kaeya, and Bennett, followed by the unlocking of these events and activities:

Festive Anecdotes
Festive Challenge: Bullseye Balloons
Festive Challenge: Floral Freefall
Festive Challenge: Ballads of Breeze
Peculiar Wonderland
Event shop

We’ll break them down below. Keep in mind the following:

The event will last from now until 5th April. The event shop will be around from now until 12th April.
All activities listed above are unlocked in stages. Come back here to see more updates here on a periodic basis.

Festive Anecdotes
This event will open up new anecdotal sidequests for your hero to complete. Here’s the list and how to complete them:

Those Hard-To-Reach-Places

Speak with Aramis at Mondstadtâ€™s plaza.
Youâ€™ll have to clean multiple piles of leaves on rooftops. They come in sets of three, four, then three again. You can use either an Anemo or Pyro character to dispose of the leaves.
You’ll eventually find a cat in a high-rise area. Talk to Aramis to complete this quest.

Quiet, Please! This Is A Library

Youâ€™ll visit the library in the Knights of Favonius headquarters.
Speak with Ella Musk, then the three couples who are talking in the area.
Talk to Wyratt outside the library.
Return to the library and talk to Ella once more to complete the quest.

Missive of Cloud & Fog

Talk to Kaeya in the Knights of Favonius headquarters.
Meet his drinking buddy at the Angel’s Share tavern.
Give him two small lampgrass.
Report back to Kaeya.
Head to the Monstadt church.
Talk to Barbara. You’ll have to head to the forest near the Dawn Winery. Teleport to the Statue of The Seven near the Dawn Winery.
Head to the spot & defeat the Treasure Hoarders there.

Flavor of the Month

Talk to Brook in Springvale.
Talk to the scared traveler at Dragonvale. Light his campfire with a Pyro skill. He’ll give you chilled meat for Brook.
Head back to Brook; she’ll want 1x Dandelion and 1x Slime Condensation.
Pass these items to her to complete the quest.

Windbrew

Talk to Margaret in Mondstadt. She’ll ask you to find either 3x Dandelions and 3x Windwheel Asters. You can find these at Starfell Lake and Windrise.
Give Margeret the requested items. She’ll teach you how to make Windbrew.
When prompted, the correct order to make the drink is: Place Sweet Flower in, Pour Milk in, Place Windwheel Aster in, Let it sit, Place Dandelion Seeds in, Place ice cubes in.
Give the drinks to various NPCs to complete the quest.

Festive Challenge: Bullseye Balloons

Want to win Festive Tickets for prizes? Participate in this event!
To access this event, talk to Lizzie outside of Mondstadt. This person also gives you access to the Floral Frefall and Ballads of Breeze challenges.
In Bullseye Balloons, you shoot down balloons and get points in a set time limit. The catch is that you can only do this with Normal ranged shots and charged ranged shots: you’ll need your archer for this (Amber, Ganyu, Venti, etc.). Different balloons have different effects:

Bloom Balloon (green) â€“ Gives a small number of points.
Bouquet Balloon (orange) â€“ Gives a large number of points.
Celebration Balloon (orange stuff toy) â€“ Does an AoE explosion, destroying all nearby balloons.
Heartbreak Balloon (red stuff toy) â€“ Deducts a certain number of points when hit.

Long story short, avoid the heartbreak Balloons, shoot the rest. Make sure to line up your shot since some balloons will move in a set pattern (up and down, or in a loop). Protip: When you successfully hit your targets (no misses and no point deductions), youâ€™ll earn a combo streak. The higher it gets, the more points youâ€™re awarded.
The first location for this event is at the northeastern tip of Stormbearer Point. The second is near the Temple of the Wolf, just east of Mondstadt.
The third is near Springvale at the south lake. More locations will be unveiled later in the next few days and week.
The rewards tier for each area is listed below:
Tower WaltzÂ

Mona (1,000 points) â€“ 30x Primogems and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Jean (1,800 points) â€“ 2x Heroâ€™s Wit and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Venti (2,600 points) â€“ 20,000 Mora.

Temple Spiral

Lisa (1,200 points) – 30x Primogems and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Diluc (2,200 points) – 2x Hero’s Wit and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Klee (3,200 points) – 20,000 Mora.

Heart of the Lake

Sucrose (1,600 points) – 30x Primogems and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Razor (2,800 points) – 2x Hero’s Wit and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Fischl (4,000 points) – 20,000 Mora.

Festive Challenge: Floral Freefall

Want to win Festive Tickets for prizes? Participate in this event! To access this minigame, talk to Lizzie outside of Mondstadt.
This is Genshin Impact’s freefall minigame; you collect flowers in the air for points while reaching the ground for the fastest time. You jump off a high-rise area and glide down/fall down strategically, moving around while you’re descending to get points. Avoid the dust clouds as they’ll obscure your vision.
You’ll get the appropriate points for collecting the following:

Fluorescent Flowerball (green) â€“ 35 points.
Honey-Petal Crowns (orange) â€“ 200 points.
Finish Line Garland (rainbow) â€“ 400 points.

The first location is at Falcon Coast; the rest of the spots are at Windrise, Brightcrown Canyon, and Stormterror’s Lair (unlocked at later dates).
When you’re close to the ground, do land on the moving holly circle: you’ll gain more points if you do. The list of rewards are as follows:
Falcon Coast

Kaeya (1.000 points) -30x Primogems and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Fischl (2,000 points) – 2x Hero’s Wit and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Amber (3,000 points) – 20,000 Mora.

Windrise

Sucrose (1,000 points) – 30x Primogems and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Klee (2,000 points) – 2x Hero’s Wit and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Venti (3,000 points) – 20,000 Mora.

Brightcrown Canyon

Noelle (1,000 points) – 30x Primogems and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Albedo (2.000 points) – 2x Hero’s Wit and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Jean (3,000 points) – 20,000 Mora.

Festive Challenge: Ballads of Breeze
Want to win Festive Tickets for prizes? Participate in this event! To access this minigame, talk to Lizzie outside of Mondstadt.
This is Genshin Impact’s version of O2Jam/Beatmania/your typical music rhythm game in your country. You pick a track and hit a corresponding key(or two) in accordance with the beat of the tune. You have three difficulties: Normal, Hard, and Pro. The higher the difficulty, the more inputs you get.

As you can tell from the screencap above, your keys are WASD on the left and IJKL on the right. When a circle closes in close to the outline, hit the corresponding key to get points. If you miss your cue, you get a “Fail!” prompt and no points. The trick is to listen to the song that’s playing. The circles will close in and perfectly align with the greyed-out circle according to the melody and beat; so if you don’t get it right the first time, just keep replaying it until you get the song in your head.

Here are the rewards you’ll get per song. More of them will be unlocked later in the week.
Celestial Destiny

Klee (1,000 points on normal mode) â€“ 30x Primogems and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Noelle (1,200 points on hard mode) â€“ 2x Heroâ€™s Wit and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Venti (1,800 points on pro mode) â€“ 20,000 Mora.

Early Dawn

Razor (800 points on normal mode) -Â 30x Primogems and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Lisa (1,200 on hard mode) – 2x Heroâ€™s Wit and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Diluc (1,800 on pro mode) – 20,000 Mora.

Fondest Strength

Bennett (1,000 on normal mode) -Â 30x Primogems and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Kaeya (1,400 on hard mode) – 2x Heroâ€™s Wit and 100x Festive Tour Tickets.
Barbara (2,200 on pro mode) – 20,000 Mora.

Peculiar Wonderland

This special challenge is the only way to earn Peculiar Collab Coupons, which can be traded for limited-time rewards in this event. To access this minigame, speak with Plauen at the outskirts of Mondstadt.
This is Genshin Impact’s special boss fight event, coupled with some Peculiar Challenges (ie: Fall Guys minigames) you have to partake before fighting it. All you have to do is:

Enter the Wonderland portal to start.
You’ll be given three random minigames to participate in. Get Facundity points in those Peculiar Challenges to acquire buffs/blessings for the upcoming boss fight.
For each 100 points of Facundity, you’ll gain 1 blessing. At 100 points, you’ll get a 20% attack speed buff to your normal attacks. At 200, you can trigger Hydro DMG rapids half the time. At 300, your crit damage increases by 140%.
After those three minigames, you then fight the boss to cap off the event. Right now, the current boss is a modified Pyro Regisvine. This fight will be made easier depending on the blessings you get.

So what are these Peculiar Challenges you will be partaking in to get these buffs?
Stepping Stone Antics: The mid-air platforms will judder for a while before collapsing. Evade the collapsing platforms and search for a safe place to stand, and survive until the time limit ends. If you fall below the platforms, you lose Facundity points.
Windblume Blessing: Collect falling crowns falling from the sky. Don’t pick up the red ones; they’ll explode in your face and you’ll lose points for doing so.

Barrage Minuet: Dodge bullets in Genshin Impact’s version of bullet hell challenges while you collect flowers for points. Avoid glowing mine traps while you’re at it. Getting hit means you lose points.
The Great Bubble Crash: Avoid mist bubbles on the pathway while you race to your destination within the time limit. Touching a bubble will make you lose points and stun you for a short bit.
One-Way Traffic: Platforms in this challenge will be lit up temporarily. Memorize the pattern and follow the path. If you step on a wrong tile, you fall down, lose points, and have to start at the beginning.
Here is the list of rewards for completing this challenge under various conditions:

Complete Peculiar Wonderland in 480s: 30 Primogems and 20,000 Mora.
Complete the challenge with more than 50 Facundity points remaining: 30 Primogems and 20,000 Mora.
Complete the Wonderland while obtaining 10 Crowns in “Windblume Blessing”: 2x Guide to Ballad and 20,000 Mora.
Complete the Wonderland without falling a single time in “Stepping Stone Antics”: 2x Guide to Freedom and 20,000 Mora.
Complete the Wonderland while dodging the entire barrage in “Barrage Minuet”: 2x Guide to Resistance and 20,000 Mora.

Event Shop
This shop only takes Festive Tour Tickets & Peculiar Collab Coupons as currencies. To get tickets, you need to play and win the following Festive Challenges: Bullseye Balloons, Floral Freefall, Ballads of Breeze. To get Peculiar Collab Coupons, you need to complete Peculiar Wonderland challenges.
Here’s the list of items you can win with Festive Tour Tickets.

Item Reward
Festive Tour Ticket Cost
Purchase Limit

Crown of Insight
400
1

Windblume Festival Commemorative Balloon (gadget)
280
1

Windsong Lyre (gadget)
280
1

Blue talent booklets (i.e., Guide to Freedom/Resistance)
20
6 (each type)

Purple talent booklets (i.e., Philosophies of Freedom/Resistance)
60
2 (each type)

Here are the items you can cash in using Peculiar Collab Coupons

Item Reward
Peculiar Collab Coupon Cost
Purchase Limit

Windblume Ode (bow)
700
1

The Visible Winds (refinement material)
500
4

Blue weapon ascension materials (i.e., Chains of the Dandelion Gladiator/Piece of Aerosiderite)
15
6 (each type)

Heroâ€™s Wit
10
30

Mystic Enhancement Ore
5
20

10,000x Mora/gold
10
30

6x Dust of Azoth
3
20

Bonus Stuff
While not tied to the festival, the 1.4 update introduces Hangout Events. Check out our guide on how to date certain characters in Genshin Impact.


Ratchet & Clank Celebrates 20th Anniversary With New Rift Apart Update

Today (4 November 2022) marks the 20th anniversary of the Ratchet & Clank franchise from Insomniac Games. They launched the original game in 2002, sparking two decades of grand adventures through space, time, and dimensions. Since its humble beginnings on the PlayStation 2 console, the franchise introduced us to a variety of beloved characters, a host of iconic weapons and gadgets, multitudes of eccentric alien worlds, and much more.
Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart will receive a 20th Anniversary Armor Pack today in honor of #Ratchet20, which will be available via a game update at no extra cost. * The pack includes five armours inspired by games throughout the franchise’s history:

Commando Armor inspired by Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
Holoflux Armor inspired by Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
Quest Armor inspired by Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty
Marauder Armor inspired by Ratchet: Deadlocked
Clank Armor to celebrate the greatest of pals

More of the Ratchet & Clank franchise coming to PlayStation Plus Premium on 15 November 2022. Unfortunately, this cloud service is unavailable in many countries, including Malaysia. This includes:
Currently on PlayStation Plus Premium:

Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty (PS3)
Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time (PS3)
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One (PS3)
Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault (PS3)
Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus (PS3)

Coming to PlayStation Plus Premium on November 15:

Ratchet & Clank (PS3)
Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (PS3)
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (PS3)
Ratchet & Clank: Deadlocked (PS3)
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)

You can check out my 4000-word spoiler-free review of Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart here.


Thor: Love & Thunder Spoiler FAQ

Originally published on 7 July. This feature is brought forward in lieu of the film’s release on Disney+.
Thor: Love and Thunder is out now in most countries, and it’s a really fun film to watch. It balances comedy and character development just fine while still maintaining the Marvel comic book movie fun runtime it’s set out on doing, as well as features some heavy development in the MCU canon.
This being a rundown of the fourth Thor movie’s plot and surprises, there will be a ton of spoilers. So here’s your warning.
Disclaimer: For our Malaysian viewers & readers, I highly suggest you don’t look further on if you want to preserve the movie experience. We can answer the following question though:
As A Malaysian Viewer, Should I Hold Off From Spoilers?
Yes, you should. It’s a really fun film to experience and watch. Avoid the internet and temporarily unfollow your movie/comic book websites temporarily until the show’s release date of 21st July. Drop by Singapore to watch it if you have to.

How Does The Movie Start?
With the reason why Christian Bale’s character Gorr is killing gods in the trailers you see online. See, his own god has forsaken him when his own village and daughter died from a calamity of sorts. He tried to ask for aid, but his own god just laughed him off and said that humans and lowly beings are meant to serve gods for their amusement. He’s clearly irked by this and lashes out, but said god is about to strangle the mortality out of him. Then a nearby legendary relic called the Necrosword comes to Gorr’s aid, and he thus smote the asshole god by beheading him. Now cursed with shadow powers, he vows to kill all gods. Of course, his vengeance is the driving force for the Necrosword to work its insidious shadow magic onto him.
So the Guardians of the Galaxy are in this?

Yeah, but only for the first 30 minutes or so. Thor (Chris Hemsworth in his best role yet) teams up with them, they’re not a fan of him being around due to his aimlessness, and they do their best to avoid working with him by offering to split up and help the people being assailed by Gorr the God Butcher. Of course, their beef with him has a lot to do with the fact that he’s the one-man army who helped them with a recent mission to liberate a planet full of blue people from bird-like aliens who look like they came out from Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. The movie also displays its love for Guns n’ Roses with the track “Welcome To The Jungle” playing here.
Thor’s combat skills and deft lightning-based wielding of his trusty axe Stormbreaker led to him being victorious, but also causing collateral damage to the blue people’s sacred holy temple; the one thing he was supposed to protect. As a gesture of appreciation(?), the blue folks gave Thor and his rock buddy Korg (Taika Waititi) a pair of space goats which are loud as hell. Their bleats are basically comical human screams; the movie uses this as a recurring gag because Taika Waititi loves this sort of nonsense. It does pay off, because Korg has to use a special whistle to have the goats get them out in a jam courtesy of a future Thor Classic Adventure which we’ll get to in a bit.
So What’s Up With Jane?

It’s been established early on, barely 30 minutes into the film, that she has stage 4 cancer. Her bit has some exposition delivered courtesy of that Two Broke Girls’ Kat Dennings playing her former science assistant-now-S.W.O.R.D. operative Darcy. There’s also a bit of story-telling about Thor and Jane being together in a serious relationship between Thor 2: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok. They broke up on bad terms; Thor has his Avengers stuff while Jane has her science stuff. Jane basically buried herself in her award-winning science work. Classic romance stuff, basically.
How Is Jane Going To Solve Her Cancer Conundrum?
She plans on using Mjolnir, which happens to be on display at New Asgard. She blends in as a tourist, then somehow activates the hammer, making her the new Thor.
There’s also a bit in the flashbacks that Thor, while dating Jane, asked Mjolnir to protect her. Basically it’s the writer’s way to explain why the hammer is so prone to helping Jane out. Then again, magic in any movie (comic book movies, or anything) can make easy plot links in scripts and stories for any medium. It works in Thor’s case because magic has been a thing in the MCU since the first Thor and Doctor Strange movie.
Surely There Must Be A Catch, Right?
Indeed there is. Turns out that while Mjolnir will make Jane Foster buff and tough, when she’s out of Thor form, she drastically weakens to the point where her actual body cannot fight the cancer. This being a Hollywood film, she just looks like a slightly-worse version of herself (eyebags and dirt) rather than having her hair wither out or being super-skinny. Still, it’s a distinct difference and doesn’t distract from the viewing experience.
So How Is Gorr’s Story Interweaved With Thor’s?

Well, Gorr suspects that he’s in New Asgard, or at least someone resembling godhood. So he goes there, summon his shadow creatures, and kidnaps the children living there. Thor, King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson in her most non-subtle lesbian butch role yet), and Jane Foster Thor jump in to fight off Gorr, but failed. So the trio and Korg plus the noisy space goats head off to get aid from other gods in a secret god planet to get help, and then to Shadow Realm where the kids are taken.
It should be noted that one of the kids, Axl (Kieron L.Dyer), is the son of the late Heimdall. Which means he can use the magic vision communication thing with Thor to relay status updates and whereabouts. Of course, Gorr knows this and lets Thor give them some shred of hope. You’ll find out later why.
Oh, and Sif? She lost her arm during one of Gorr’s rampages in a distant planet, but she was rescued by Thor, who then teleported her to New Asgard for medical care.
A Secret God Planet, You Say?
The name escapes us, but it’s a play on “omnipotence”. Generally it’s a secret congregation spot where all the gods gather and party, with God of Lightning Zeus being the de facto leader. There are also a bunch of gods too ranging from a Mayan God to even Bao, God of Dumpings, whom we’re very sure will be screencapped and meme’d for the internet later this week when the film is out.
Did It Work?
Sadly, no. Thor’s plea to rally all gods to help him was rejected by Zeus because Zeus is a stereotypical pompous god who rather have orgies than to do serious god things. So they got in a tussle, with Thor actually murdering Zeus with his own lightning. Also, Thor gets Zeus’ lightning bolt weapon, which will help him out.
Why Didn’t He Use Stormbreaker In This Fight?
Because it’s being used as a way to open a Bifrost road to lead the party to the Shadow Realm and to the god planet. Earlier in New Asgard, Thor tried to teleport his way to the Shadow Realm using the Stormbreaker’s Bifrost abilities, but it’s unstable. So he used it as a navigator and is attached to a New Asgard tour boat, with the noisy space goats as its backup steeds.
So Plan Failed. Now What?
The trio decide to press on and use Zeus’ lightning bolt as a new weapon to deal with Gorr. Before the fated Shadow Realm battle, Thor and Jane had a moment and kissed with the latter telling him about the cancer.

Valkyrie and Korg have a karaoke session, with Valkyrie telling Korg about her past failed lesbian relationships.
Was The Movie Delayed In Malaysia Because Of Valkyrie’s Lifestyle Choices?
Honestly, your guess is as good as ours. From what we’ve seen, there is a bit of sexual tension and possible gay vibes between Valkyrie and Jane when they talk, and Valkyrie did kiss the hand of one of Zeus’ whores, implying that she really wants to see if her carpet matches her drapes. It’s pretty tame if we’re being honest.
Speaking of lifestyle choices, it turns out that Korg is gay. Seems like his race is all male and they procreate by holding hands near a lava pit and magically spawn a baby rock being. Magic!
Did The Team Manage To Defeat Gorr?
Hell no. After entering the greyscaled Shadow Realm (it’s a damn cool effect, by the by), the trio finds out that…

Gorr actually wanted the Stormbreaker to help him cross to the realm of Eternity, so that he can get his wish granted: to kill all gods. So after a major story fight, Valkyrie is critically injured and the team is overwhelmed by shadow creatures. They run off but not without Gorr stealing Stormbreaker at the last minute.
Wait, THAT Eternity?

Yes, that Eternity.
Eternity makes its appearance in the MCU, sans the face and more of the silhouette with the cool cosmic effect. In the MCU, they are a being that can grant wishes assuming its visitors know how to get to them. Gorr’s main idea is to use Stormbreaker’s Bifrost powers to head there and get his god-killing wish sorted.
The Party Is Back At New Asgard. Now What?
Thor will have to head off alone with Zeus’ weapon, which somehow has the ability to use Bifrost teleportation well. Jane wants to tag along, but Thor insists and begs she stays because Mjolnir is killing her real body every time she uses it. Of course, it’s her choice.
So off Thor goes. He heads to the gateway of the Hall of Eternity, manages to rescue the children, and fights off Gorr and his shadow creatures. We should mention that Thor temporarily gives the kids lighting powers to combat the shadow creatures, resulting in a pretty hilarious fight of the children winning against the monsters they were afraid of, to the second half of the Guns N’ Roses hit song “November Rain”. It’s epic stuff.
Thor proceeds to fight Gorr, but he’s overpowered because of shadow powers and the Necrosword being powerful over time and stuff. In comes in Jane in Thor form, says the line “I’m Mighty Thor”, and the both of them whoop Gorr’s ass. They ended up in Eternity’s presence eventually, which is a white space of nothing where Eternity is chilling.
So The Bad Guy Won And Made His Wish?

Technically, yeah. In an expected but logical twist, Gorr had a change of heart about his wish after hearing about Thor’s lament about staying with the ones he love. As Jane is close to death after using Mjolnir one last time, he chooses to be with her in her final moments, concluding the storyline arc that’s been peppered around for the past few Thor films. Gorr has flashbacks of being with his daughter in her last days, and decides to instead trade his cursed life so that his daughter can be reborn.

Jane ends up dying in the end, dissipating in gold spirit glitter. Thor makes a promise to Gorr to take care of his new Eternity-powered kid to showcase that not all gods are terrible assholes and self-serving dicks. Albeit he has to take care of a kid with some demon powers, but them’s the break if you’re trying to find a purpose in life: in Thor’s case, it’s being a loving dad in the end. Makes sense, given how he started off in the first Thor movie as an actual spoiled kid, who grows and matures to a person who now has his own family.
So what lessons can we learn from Thor: Love and Thunder?

Love conquers all? As if the show’s title isn’t on-the-nose enough.
Have your movie title have a sort of double meaning to it. See, Love and Thunder isn’t just about Thor and Jane, it’s about Thor and his new Eternity-laced kid nicknamed Love.

Oh, and always add a clause before you hand out your lightning powers to children. And one good way to get your tourist sector booming in your new town is to have re-enactments of Thor’s classic adventures in stage play form using Matt Damon as Loki, the other Hemsworth brother as Thor, Sam Neill as Odin, and Melissa McCarthy as Hela.
Let’s Talk About The Scenes After The Movie. There’s At Least One, Right?
Oh, you mean the mid-credits scene? Sure!
Zeus somehow is still alive even after taking a lightning bolt through a chest. He talks to someone who is off-screen about making people fear gods again. Camera cuts to his son Hercules who plans to do his dad’s bidding to wreak havoc, all decked out like he is in the Marvel comics.

Hercules is played by Ted Lasso actor Brett Goldstein. You have to see it to believe it.

The post-credits scene is basically Jane Foster arriving in Valhalla and is greeted by Heimdall (Idris Elba) who previously died in Avengers: Infinity War. I doubt she’ll be coming back to the film unless it’s a cameo role in future Thor movies.

How Many Guns N’ Roses Songs Are Played In The Movie’s Soundtrack
Four. “Welcome to the Jungle”, “Paradise City”, “November Rain” second half, and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” for the credits.
This Gorr The God-Butcher Storyline Is Completely Different From The Comics, Isn’t It?
Yeah, because the comic storyline is a lot darker and wouldn’t fit with what Taika Waititi was going for; it won’t be consistent with what the actually good third Thor movie has already laid out. Besides, the MCU is its own timeline that’s different from the comics.
If you’re basically wishing for Thor: Love and Thunder to fail at the box office just because it isn’t comics-accurate, please go outside sometime and touch grass. And eat a salad.


[Rumours] Eidos Montreal Wants To Go Back To Making Deus Ex One Day

Modern Deus Ex developer Eidos Montreal wants to return to the scifi series and hopes to outdo Cyberpunk 2077 in the process, according to sources in the industry.
Insider Jeff Grub said on Giant Bomb that any internal discussions about the developer going into the project are very early, though the studio is eager to return to Deus Ex.
“It’s early. The rumbling I’ve heard is that the studio wants to immediately get into Deus Ex. They want to get right back into that. They want to challenge – they want to do what Cyberpunk 2077 couldn’t, and stuff like that. That’s the word going around. We’ll see if that happens. It’s so early, like what that will turn into. But there was no possibility for that conversation to begin under the current Square Enix, right?”
The company only talked about Deus Ex when they finally were under the Embracer Group umbrella following a US$300 million buyout deal where Square Enix sold them and Crystal Dynamics, as well as a couple of other IPs like the Tomb Raider series. With Embracer stating that Eidos Montreal is handling “very sizeable AAA experiences” in the pipeline, along with a Tomb Raider game in the works, people are clearly asking for this. It’s only fitting for the companies to deliver.


Weathering With You Is About A Boy Who Doomed Tokyo Because Of Hormones

A lot of people adored Makoto Shinkai’s latest animated movie, Weathering With You. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them.
My review has since received flak and attacks from Shinkai fans and weeaboos who apparently think that Weathering With You is the greatest anime masterpiece since 2016’s Your Name and that it’s a crime for anyone not to like the movie.
Sure, Weathering With You featured breathtakingly-beautiful animation and visuals of unparallel quality. But it had several glaring problems and flaws, including its extremely unlikeable male protagonist, Hodaka Morishima, and its ridiculously nonsensical plot.
I will be discussing full spoilers from Weathering With You below, so if you haven’t watched the movie yet, this is your last chance to stop reading.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that I hate Hodaka with an unbridled passion. He is one of the most unlikeable male protagonists Iâ€™ve ever had the displeasure of knowing. In Weathering With You, Hodaka is a 16-year-old boy who runs away from home and escapes to Tokyo to find a new life there.
And that’s literally all we learn about the character for the entirety of the movie. Shinkai couldn’t even take a few minutes out of the movie’s almost two-hour-long runtime to explain why Hodaka is running away from home in the first place.
The one and only attempt to flesh out and develop Hodaka in the movie is in a scene where he reveals that the reason why he can’t go back home is because he finds living with his parents too suffocating.
What exactly does “suffocating” mean? Did his parents abuse him either physically or emotionally? Did something happen with his parents that forced him to run away from home? No, all we know is that his parents were too “suffocating”.

This makes him come across as a spoiled brat who ran away from home for seemingly petty and selfish reasons. He sounds like aÂ naive delinquent in his rebellious teenage phase who doesn’t care about how his actions negatively affect others.

Hodaka acts rashly and impulsively throughout the movie, never thinking about what long-term effects of whatever he does. Some people would say that this behaviour is considered normal for a teenager his age, but that doesn’t excuse what he does throughout the movie.
Thanks to Hodaka’s status as a runaway minor, he brings problems to both female protagonist Hina Amano and supporting adult character Keisuke Suga. It turns out that the police have been looking for him, bringing dire ramifications for both Hina and Suga.

The police inform Hina that social services will be called in to take away Nagi (Hina’s younger brother) because they are minors with no legal guardian, while Suga refuses to help harbour Hodaka any longer for fear of negatively impacting his ongoing custody case for his daughter.

What is Hodaka’s reaction to all this? Not to give himself to the police and go home like a sensible and responsible person would, but instead what he does next is to further drag Hina and her brother to run away with him.

Hodaka even has delusions of somehow being able to sustain living with just Hina and her brother at hotels with just the one-time severance pay Suga gave him. That further proves just how childish he is, and how his actions will only endanger those around him.
It all comes to a head when Hodaka commits the ultimate selfish act during the climax of Weathering With You. In the lore established within the movie, Hina is a sunshine girl or weather maiden who must be sacrificed in order to appease/stop the increasingly-aggressive and unpredictable weather.
Hina sacrifices herself to stop the torrential rain from flooding the city of Tokyo, but Hodaka, blinded by his love for her, engages in a frantic chase from the police to try and save her. At one point, Suga gets involved again and Hodaka points a freaking gun at him (and several cops) like an unhinged maniac.

He ultimately succeeds in saving Hina from being sacrificed but in doing so, caused the crazy weather to return and ravage Tokyo.
After jumping forward three years into the future, we find out that Hodaka finally graduated from high school (while on probation) and that half of Tokyo is now flooded and submerged in water.

That’s right. Hodaka’s actions caused a whole Waterworld situation to happen in Tokyo, but it seems that the inhabitants are seemingly fine with it and shrugging it off nonchalantly. We’re supposed to be okay with Hodaka causing countless citizens to be displaced with nowhere to go (now that their homes are underwater)?
It must have been chaotic as hell in those three years while Tokyo started to slowly drown in rising water levels. It would’ve been a nightmarish situation for everyone in the city.

But no, we’re supposed to accept it all on the basis of one senile grandma saying that this is all just Tokyo simply returning to how it was in olden times when it was a bay.

The guilt of being single-handedly responsible for all of that should be psychologically-devastating for anyone, let alone a naive teenager. Hodaka must be a psychopath of some sort if he’s seriously perfectly fine with everything that’s happened.
Weathering With You expects us to not only sympathise and relate with Hodaka but somehow celebrate his relationship with Hina. He saved Hina at the expense of a city with millions of people whose lives were disrupted by a massive environmental change.
I’m sorry but as touching and emotional as it all was, I just couldn’t bear to support Hodaka in any way. His only redeemable quality is that he’ll do anything for love and to recap; that includes stealing a cop’s gun and pointing it at the man (Suga) who gave him shelter when had none and causing irreversible harm to millions of people by submerging half of Tokyo.

You can like Weathering With You all you want, especially in lush and detailed animation, but no one in their right mind would say that Hodaka is a ‘good’ protagonist.

If anything, the plot and character course for Hodaka in the movie seems fitting for the origin of a supervillain, or at the very least a mentally-disturbed individual.


Spider-Man No Way Home Suits Are Coming To Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered

Marvel’s Spider-Man is getting two new suits from the upcoming Spider-Man No Way Home movie. These include the Black And Gold suit, as well as the new Iron Spider suit.Â However, keep in mind that for whatever reason, Insomniac Games is only releasing these suits in Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered for the PS5, which means that the PS4 version of the game won’t receive this update.
Not only is Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered only available on the PS5, but you can also only get it by buying Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales Ultimate Edition.
Marvelâ€™s Spider-Man Miles MoralesÂ hasÂ sold more than 4.1 million copiesÂ as of February 2021. You canÂ head on over hereÂ to check out our full review ofÂ Marvelâ€™s Spider-Man Miles Morales.
The new Spider-Man No Way Home suits are coming to Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on 10 December 2021. Spider-Man No Way Home will premiere in Malaysian cinemas on 16 December 2021.