Evil West Is A Hogtied Action Game Slated For This September

Developer Flying Wild Hog will be making a game featuring the Wild West and a ton of vampire-killing violence called….Evil West.
This third-person action game will be out later in 20th September for Xbox Series, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC via publisher Focus Entertainment. Here’s a description of the game:
“Evil never sleeps… but it bleeds.
A dark menace consumes the American frontier. As one of the last agents in a top-secret vampire-hunting institute, you are the final line between humanity and a deep-rooted terror that now emerges from the shadows. Rise up to become a Wild West Superhero, eradicate the vampire threat and save the United States!
In visceral, explosive combat, unleash hell with your firearms, lightning-fueled gauntlet and gadgets. Kill bloodthirsty monstrosities in style as a lone hunter or in co-op with a friend. Explore and fight in a narrative-driven campaign while upgrading your weapons and hunting tools. Unlock new perks to evolve your monster-slaying mastery, crafting your own playstyle to defeat the supernatural hordes.”
Here are the game’s key features:

Battle alone or with a friend in stylish, gory action combat.
Myths and legends retold within a stylized, weird wild west universe.
Evolve with perks, upgradable weapons, and tools.
Explore and fight through a story-driven campaign to save America.

Check out the full gameplay trailer below.


You Can Sign Up For Overwatch 2 Beta, Here’s How

Overwatch 2 beta sign-ups are also now available via the official website. 28 June 2022 is when the beta will go live. Blizzard plans to provide access to this beta to anyone who has signed up for it by 14 July 2022.
Recently, Blizzard also announced that Overwatch 2 will continue to evolve and expand with regular seasonal content rolling out every nine weeks after launch. And, beginning in 2023, the developer will be delving more into the world of Overwatch and the heroes that inhabit it with new narrative experiences and PvE gameplay updates.
With the new Battle Pass system, you’ll be able to unlock themed cosmetic items and complete weekly challenges for unique rewards. Instead of relying on Loot Box luck, you’ll be able to choose how you want to invest and progress toward new content throughout each season.
Check out more details on Overwatch 2 seasons and future roadmap by heading over here.


[Report] Ubisoft Is Experiencing An Employee Exodus; Here’s Why

It’s not going to be quite a happy holiday for the company that made Rayman and FarCry.Â
According to an Axios report, Ubisoft is right now experiencing a “great exodus” of talent. Developers are leaving the studio at an alarming rate.
At least five of the top 25 people in the Far Cry 6 credits have left the company. Twelve of the top 50 credited developers on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla are also gone.
Even lower-level employees are bailing out: business-focused social network site LinkedIn has stated that at least 60 employees from Ubisoft’s Toronto and Montreal offices have left the company over the past six months. According to current employees who are remaining anonymous, this huge loss of staff is enough to slow down and even stall current projects.
Why?
The reasons are plentiful: low pay, issues with Ubisoft’s creative direction especially with the company’s embracing of NFTs, and allegations of widespread workplace abuses. All this bad press certainly isn’t helping the company’s current image, going so far as to be a good target for recruiters from other companies.
Still, there is some hope. Ubisoft said that its attrition rate has increased, but it is “still within industry norms”. The blow is lessened thanks to the company’s November pay raise at its Canadian studios, making the employee retention rate go to 50%. We do wonder how this will affect the next Splinter Cell title.


E3 2019: Ubisoft Introduces Their Competitor To EA Access

Ubisoft just announced at E3 that it will introduce its new subscription service, dubbed Uplay+, that will be available on 3 September this year.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9L3Xk6vNv4]
For an affordable fee of USD14.99 (RM63), players will be able to access a massive library of more than 100 Ubisoft titles, including newer games like The Division 2, and upcoming titles, such as Watch Dogs: Legion and Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
Subscribers will also be automatically included in beta access and early access programs for upcoming titles. DLCs are also available.
To sign up for Uplay+, you can check out their website here.
This service is very similar to EA Access and PlayStation Plus, but resembles more of the former in which it offers tons of games for a recurring nominal fee. It’s a good move as players will get the chance to try out a number of triple-A titles at a fraction of the price.


Titanfall 2 Gets Massive Discount Ahead Of Apex Legends’ Valkyrie Debut

Apex Legends is getting a new Legend named Valkyrie with ties to Titanfall 2. Her real name is Kairi Imahara, the daughter of Viper, an Apex Predator killed by Jack Cooper in Titanfall 2. However, some people clearly haven’t played Titanfall 2, like this writer at Polygon, who got called out by the folks at Respawn Entertainment on Twitter:

Hmmm, we suggest you check your sources. Here’s a great place to start: https://t.co/rn4rUSF0RG
— Respawn (@Respawn) April 21, 2021

It’s just a fun dig by the developer, but the biggest takeaway is that Titanfall 2 is currently at a whopping 75 percent off on Steam, making it a steal at just RM29.75. Now’s certainly the best time to check out Titanfall 2 before Valkyrie drops in Apex Legends Legacy on 4 May 2021.


The PS5 Is Getting Glorious Memes & Fan Art

Update: We’re putting in the obligatory PS5 fan art because damn, they look good!
Sony revealed its PlayStation 5 to the world, and everyone has words about it. We thought it looked alright, though if you place it horizontally and look at in at a certain angle, you’ll get…

It’s a Day One purchase for me if there are official attachments like these.
For those hoping for the days of the PlayStation 3 grill meme, your prayers have been answered with the PlayStation 5. Behold, the quotes and Tweets online about PlayStation’s ode to 1999 music video props.

Playstation 5 pic.twitter.com/EvvxS4xjmF
— dunkey (@vgdunkey) June 11, 2020

 pic.twitter.com/UvrOPB5v1b
— Parker Ortolani (@ParkerOrtolani) June 11, 2020

Unlucky lads; got the ps5 already ????? pic.twitter.com/neEVEgks7S
— Martin Davis (@GGhandi_) June 11, 2020

Just chiling with my PS5 debug kit here: pic.twitter.com/dVzBlWTlYq
— Justin (@Kranzl) June 11, 2020

pic.twitter.com/malD49f5FT
— LGR (@lazygamereviews) June 11, 2020

i'm glad my router developed the confidence to pop its collar pic.twitter.com/AcvPwSW2lN
— SungWon Cho (@ProZD) June 11, 2020

https://twitter.com/josephfcox/status/1271188782167932928

Playstation 5. The Wii cosplaying as Batman. pic.twitter.com/BDt38ttayB
— Richard Cobbett (@richardcobbett) June 11, 2020

just remembered what the ps5 reminded me of pic.twitter.com/eZ4s0tTInt
— Joshua Rivera (@jmrivera02) June 11, 2020

pic.twitter.com/oeP9oNbkU2
— Steven Messner (@stevenmessner) June 11, 2020

https://twitter.com/plante/status/1271199588804853765
https://twitter.com/backlon/status/1271192667314024448

new #PlayStation5 lookin good ??? pic.twitter.com/XYmVYUFxy8
— flacko (@Flackxx) June 11, 2020

You can't unsee it. #PlayStation5 pic.twitter.com/oMidxcSCg8
— Jared Petty (@pettycommajared) June 11, 2020

Got another one for you #PlayStation5 #PS5 pic.twitter.com/gOedF94rnn
— Night (@Nightknight498) June 11, 2020

https://twitter.com/yonodiam/status/1271208672568307712

I mean we weren't the only ones thinking that right? #PlayStation5 pic.twitter.com/IBsVZRrxWC
— Skybound Games (@skyboundgames) June 11, 2020

Let's go #PlayStation5 pic.twitter.com/ShDyIgxFWj
— Oskar / ???? (@OkiOkiPanic) June 11, 2020

PS5 Slim pic.twitter.com/VaKCbm5PBE
— Iris ????? (alt) (@TheLBall2) June 11, 2020

WS5 pic.twitter.com/9i8USeimVc
— ???? (@mojojoj27827860) June 12, 2020

https://www.facebook.com/paulagrace.tolentino.56/posts/579108436358659
The more I scroll on Twitter, the harder it is to control my laughter and, in some rare cases, contain my admiration. Well played, internet. You can own your PlayStation 5 reverse ice cream sandwich this Holiday 2020.
As a bonus, here’s our contribution:
https://www.facebook.com/kakuchopurei/posts/2653577554746643?__cft__[0]=AZX8GYKKqeCrMnj6svo2CGGnZvQB5-4_MBdWxnjRrQ9L_iWY4n7bh0_hY_pxywKvfpTmZE9UCM7G4CLkEkurw418CTCDiYubZ290sLjCfpnBwrxSSL6kYFyYhOQQ1yITxOkJnF-0szZXl2G6g0l7ca0EdOKQmQmPJOXwXiSL4yO6DA&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R


[Rumour] Final Fantasy VII Remake Is Coming To PC, But…

Good news, PC master race folks. The PS4 and PS5 exclusive Final Fantasy VII Remake exclusive will be coming out to PC.
However, Epic Games will be getting it first on its Epic Games Store (via EpicData data tracker & ResetEra). This means fans who want to play the action RPG remake on PC will need to buy it and run it on the Epic Games Store app. So far, there’s no current release date for the port, and whether this will be the Intergrade version with the bonus Yuffie content.

Take this piece of news with a grain of salt since this isn’t official. However, Square Enix’s track record with Epic Games Store seems consistent if we take the PC port of Kingdom Hearts 3 into account. Also, it’s already been a year since Final Fantasy VII Remake is out on PS4, so chances are this whole exclusivity deal with Square Enix is timed.
On a related note, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is out for PS5 right now. Check out our review of the DLC featuring the series’ loveable kleptomaniac.Â


New Redfall Trailer Shows Off More Stylish Gameplay

After the official gameplay reveal at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase in June 2022, the team at Arkane Austin presents a more focused look at what the Redfall experience provides players with the new Welcome to Redfall trailer.
Redfall is an open world, story-driven shooter that gives players the option to go it alone or play with up to three other friends as they unravel the mysterious appearance of Vampires on the island town of Redfall, Massachusetts. With a diverse team of heroes to choose from, players can collect an arsenal of specialised weaponry and customise their character with unique abilities and upgrades as they take back Redfall.
Redfall blends single-player and multiplayer options seamlessly, allowing the player to venture into the darkness alone or to squad-up for up to four player co-op. Teammates can try different hero loadouts and combine their strengths to find creative solutions to the vampire apocalypse. You will collect an arsenal of specialized weaponry and customize your character with unique upgrades and abilities to suit your playstyle for guns blazing, stealth combat, and everything in-between.
Created by science experiments gone wrong and gifted with psychic abilities, Redfall‘s vampires will challenge you and your squad to get creative. You will choose from a team of diverse heroes – each with their own character-specific abilities—to overcome the vampire legion and their brood of maniacal followers.

Devinder Crousley – A cryptozoologist and aspiring inventor. Armed with weapons of his own creation, he’s on a mission to prove himself.
Layla Ellison – A biomedical engineering student who interned at a research facility, where something went very wrong, leaving her with intense telekinetic abilities.
Remi de la Rosa – A brilliant combat engineer who has spent her life on the frontlines. With the help of her robot cohort, Bribón, she’s determined to help rescue Redfall’s survivors.
Jacob Boyer – An ex-military sharpshooter turned private contractor. Strange happenings on Redfall have left Jacob with a mysterious vampiric eye and a spectral raven that’s never far from his side.

Arkane is best known for developing games like the Dishonored franchise and Prey. Redfall is slated to launch for the Xbox Series X/S and PC sometime in 2023.
In the meantime, check out the trailer below:


Kakuchopurei Best 30 Games Of 2022: #9

For the full list, head here.
#9: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

“Got a rare doodad right here!”
“Is that like a rare thing?”
“Hear that, Noah? Lanz wants something a bit meatier”
“Yippee!”
With the numerous amounts of battle and overworld sound clips from Nintendo and Monolithsoft’s latest epic JRPG, it’s probably easy to make an entire 200-word summary using nothing but those quotes. But really, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 goes beyond internet memes.
The tale of child soldiers being used in a recurring war, with said group escaping their fate and forging their own, making waves in the game’s society and political climate, is about as large-scale anime as you can get with a JRPG.
There are so many layers and much heart that is seeping inside the game with its charming cast of characters, recruitable heroes, and side NPCs. The game also comes with an in-depth battle system that requires you to chain attacks in a grandiose fashion. And its soundtrack is perhaps one of this year’s finest, featuring the best of legendary composer Yasunori Mitsuda and his associates from past Xenoblade titles.
Simply put, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is yet another bold reason the Nintendo Switch has a magnificent role-playing game library.


Bandai Namco Sues Illegal Ms. Pac-Man Mini-Cabinet Maker

Bandai Namco is suing the maker of illegal Ms. Pac-Man mini arcade cabinets, AtGames, for the alleged copyright infringement. According to GamesIndustry.biz, the lawsuit also involves counterfeiting, unfair competition, and false advertising. However, this case isn’t exactly new.
It all started in 2012, AtGames CEO Ping-Kang Hsiung reportedly proposed the sales of plug-and-play handheld devices featuring Ms. Pac-Man to Bandai Namco, who refused the offer. Between then and now, there have been several other projects on which they have worked together on. None of those involved Ms. Pac-Man, since the permission for that property was never given.
Bandai Namco only became aware of the illegal Ms. Pac-Man product by AtGames in August 2019, when General Computer Corporation developer Kevin Curran told them about the machine.
Now the Japanese games giant is seeking damages for AtGames’ alleged failure to uphold its end of the agreement by creating a product that was “materially different” from the approved version, ultimately causing “irreparable harm to [Bandai’s] reputation and goodwill.”
In a statement to Polygon, an AtGames representative said that it was the companyâ€™s policy to not comment on pending litigation. Check out the unauthorized Ms. Pac-Man mini arcade cabinet below.


Epic Games: Server Overload Causes Fortnite Outage Last Weekend

Fortnite developers, Epic Games has attributed last weekend’s outtage to severe overload of their servers, which caused recurring interruptions for players. It was reported that the game hit a peak of 3.4 million concurrent users which mainly led to the disruption – definitely a problem other companies would kill to have. Official announcement and description which was released on the dev’s website read (in case you’re into these things) :
The extreme load caused 6 different incidents between Saturday and Sunday, with a mix of partial and total service disruptions to Fortnite.
“…Â Fortnite has a service called MCP (remember the Tron nemesis?) which players contact in order to retrieve game profiles, statistics, items, matchmaking info and more. Itâ€™s backed by several sets of databases used to persistently store this data. The Fortnite game service is our largest database to date.
The primary MCP database is comprised of 9 MongoDB shards, where each shard has a writer, two read replicas, and a hidden replica for redundancy. At a high level user specific data is spread across 8 shards, whereas the remaining shard contains matchmaking sessions, shared service caches, and runtime configuration data.
The MCP is architected such that each service has a db connection pool to a sidecar process that in turn maintains a connection pool to all of our shards. At peak the MCP handles 124k client requests per second, which translates to 318k database reads and 132k database writes per second with a sub 10ms average database response time. Of that, matchmaking requests account for roughly 15% of all db queries and 11% of all writes across a single shard. In addition our current matchmaking implementation requires data to be in a single collection.
At peak we see an issue where the matchmaking shard begins queuing writes waiting on available writer resources. This can cause db update times to spike in the 40k+ ms range per operation causing MCP threads to block. Players experience unusually long wait times not just attempting to matchmake, but with all operations. Â We have investigated this in detail and it is currently unclear to us and support why our writes are being queued in this way but we are working towards a root cause.
This issue does not recover and the db process soon becomes unresponsive, at which point we need to perform a manual primary failover in order to restore functionality. During these outages this procedure was being repeated multiple times per hour. Each failover causing a brief window of matchmaking instability followed by recovery.”
TL;DR – Our system could not handle so many players at once.
However, Epic did not disclose how many percent of these players logged-in were playing the free-to-play version of Fortnite, PUBG rival, Battle Royale mode and whether they purchased the the full game. Regardless, expect improvements on Epic Games’ end as they sought to put full focus on the game havingÂ shut down its MOBA, Paragon, and moving the team to work on Fortnite.


World of Warships is Coming to Consoles

Yes you read it right. We were stoked as well when we came across the news just now. The trail started when the official World of Warships (WoWs) Twitter posted the following Tweet:

How excited are you to see World of Warships on consoles? For more information head over to https://t.co/YfZQuiSR0R pic.twitter.com/y0GApSYJRj
â€” World of Warships (@WorldofWarships) June 20, 2018
Clicking you on the link sends you to a survey for prospective Alpha-testers of the game. While not much was revealed in the questionnaire save for their inquiries about your gaming habits, location and availability, rest assure that the days of blowing up pesky destroyers and cruising on the Yamato via your PlayStation 4 is coming real soon. The survey indicates that the game will be coming to the Xbox One as well.
According to official press release, the alpha testing period will run for a couple months before shifting to closed, followed by open beta tests. To play the game on either the PS4 or Xbox One, players will require about 30GB of free space.
Having occupied the PC realms for years prior to hitting the mobile scene in January via WoWs Blitz, the console version of WoWs which we believe will be called ‘World of Warships Legends’ is sure to bring awesome realistic naval warfare for console gamers, just like what was deliveredÂ  via World of Tanks’ console port.
Like Tanks on PC, console and mobile and Warships on PC and mobile, expect Legends to be free-to-play as well.


The New Morbius Trailer Comes With A Nice Surprise For Spider-Man Fans

The first month of 2020 sure has some trailers loaded up for the year’s releases. One of them is the Spider-Man spin-off film Morbius, a movie about a vampire in the Marvel universe. Jared Leto, a guy who has his own band and also couldn’t get Joker right, is headlining the film as the titular bloodsucker.
Other notable actors in this comic book movie adaptation include Tyrese “Beats dealbreaker” Gibson as FBI agent Simon Stroud and Matt “Dr Who” Smith as Loxias Crown. Check out the full trailer here.

Notice anything at the end? Apart from seeing Morbius’ powers and a glimpse of his white bat-esque nose face…

as well as that wall art of Spider-Man with “murderer” graffitied onto it…

…the trailer also features Michael Keaton reprising his role as Adrian Toomes a.k.a The Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Something tells us this may be set in a world where Tom Holland Spider-Man exists in Morbius’ timeline, and some studio camaraderie between Disney and Sony has formed in giving this film a direct connection to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Great for those who haven’t suffered from superhero movie burnout yet post-Avengers Endgame.
The film will be out 31st July, and will be directed by Daniel Espinosa.


The PlayStation 5 Gets Official Release Date & Price

During the PS5 Showcase earlier today, Sony finally announced the official release date and price for the upcoming PlayStation 5 console.
The PS5 will launch on 12 November 2020 in selected countries, including the following:
United StatesJapanCanadaMexicoAustraliaNew ZealandSouth Korea
Meanwhile, the PS5 will launch for the rest of the world on 19 November 2020, with the exception of China (which will be announced at a later date).

The standard edition of the PS5 will be priced at US$499 or roughly RM2060+, while the Digital Edition (without the physical disc drive) will be priced at US$399 or roughly RM1640+.

For more on the PS5, here’s a hot take from our own Mr Toffee.


Cat Lady Is An Adorable-Looking Dungeon Crawler Filled With Pussy

Love roguelike dungeon crawlers like Nicalis’ The Binding Of Isaac: Rebirth and Dodge Roll’s Enter The Gungeon?
Look no further than Cat Lady, a new game by indie developer Rose City Games and publisher Viz Media. I hope you like pussies because there are tons of them in this game, as you assume the role of Ally Marie, a woman who is looking to rescue her grandmother from ghosts by throwing cats at them.

Cat Lady features a purr-fect blend of dual-stick shooter action, roguelike elements, and tons of collectibility. You can also look forward to music composed by Jim Guthrie and J.J. Ipsen.
The indie game dynamic duo is responsible for the awesome soundtracks of other indie hits such as Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Below, Planet Coaster, and Reigns: Her Majesty.
The only platform confirmed for Cat Lady so far is on PC, as evident by its newly-launched Steam page. However, the official price and release date for the game have yet to be announced.
Before you start grabbing those pussies and throwing them at white apparitions, check out the gameplay trailer for Cat Lady below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8YHp-pE4RU&w=560&h=315]


SDCC 2019: Doctor Strange’s Next Movie Will Explore The Multiverse

In Gamespot‘s coverage of the Marvel San Diego Comic Con 2019 panel, a lot of titles in the MCU’s Phase 4 lineup have been revealed. If you loved the first Doctor Strange and have been itching for another world-flipping and portal-hopping adventure, then you’re going to love this announcement.
Doctor Strange 2: In the Multiverse of Madness is the next Doctor Strange movie and yes, the movie will focus on the MCU multiverse which fans have been theorising on since the first Doctor Strange movie. With the timeline-and-dimension-branching plot of Endgame and Spider-Man’s mention of it in Far From Home, the writers at Marvel Studios have definitely been planning this for a while now.

Director of the first Doctor Strange movie Scott Derrickson will be assuming the same role for the sequel and he says that it will lean more into the horror genre. Benedict Cumberbatch will be playing Doctor Strange again (of course) and he appeared on stage at the panel to talk a bit about the movie.

“What excites me about Doctor Strange is from the comics–he doesn’t fight villains from this Earth, he fights everything from everywhere. If I was gonna do a sequel we’re gonna dip into the gothic and the horror — we’re gonna make the first scary MCU film,”

– Scott Derickson, director.

“We’re going to do some of the things we had in the first film with that twist of horror. He’ll be facing unexpected things–he won’t know what’s coming at him. We’re going back to trying to destroy him a bit,”

– Benedict Cumberbatch.
Scheduled for a 7 May 2021 release, we’re still far away from seeing Doctor Strange in action again but there’s a lot more MCU coming our way in the meantime. The closest one is the Black Widow movie which will come out in May 2020. The WandaVision TV series will be released around the same time as Doctor Strange’s next movie and will possibly be tied-in thanks to Scarlet Witch also appearing in Doctor Strange 2.
At the end of the first Doctor Strange movie, we were teased with Baron Mordo‘s alignment shift where we see him hurting the magically healed man who told Strange about Kamar-Taj. I’m assuming there’s a strong possibility he’ll make his return in Doctor Strange 2.


Watch Dogs Legion Is Free To Play This Weekend

Ubisoft has announced that Watch Dogs Legion will be available to play for free from 26 March to 29 March 2021 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC via the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Store. In addition, pre-load will be available from 25 March 2021.
Every character in near-future London will be available to recruit and play as during the Free Trial Weekend in both single-player and online modes. Players will be able to check out all of the open-world activities such as playing darts at the local pub and participating in bare-knuckle fights, as well as explore half of the eight boroughs including the City of London and Islington & Hackney. Additionally, players will be able to discover the gameâ€™s storyline up to the Skye Larsen mission.
Players who want to continue their fight will keep their game progression and enjoy discounts on Watch Dogs: Legion and the season pass across select platforms:

Xbox: From 23 March to 15 April 2021Â â€“ 50 percent off of the Standard and Ultimate editions.
PlayStation: From 24 March to 31 March 2021 â€“ 55 percent off of the Standard edition, 40 percent off of the Ultimate edition and 20 percent off of the season pass.
Ubisoft Store on Windows PC: From 18 March to 9 April 2021Â – 50 percent off of the Standard, Gold & Ultimate editions, and 25 percent off of the season pass
Epic Games Store on Windows PC: 25 March to 8 April 2021 – 50 percent off of the Standard, Gold & Ultimate editions, and 25 percent off of the season pass.

More information on the Free Trial Weekend, including the exact timing, can be found here.

Furthermore, Ubisoft has detailed the availability of the free post-launch content for all Watch Dogs Legion players as well as the new, exclusive content for season pass owners across single-player and online modes.
The post-launch content for all Watch Dogs Legion players include:

Today, 24 March 2021: Leader of the Pack, the first Tactical Op which will require teamwork and efficiency, is available to play in the online mode of Watch Dogs: Legion. Working with a whistle-blower, DedSec uncovers a deadly initiative that brings the next level of hive-mind based AI on Urban Drone Warfare. They must race to stop the program at its tracks and will discover a hidden terrifying threat at the heart of it all.
In late-May 2021, players will have access to two new PvP modes: Extraction and fan favourite, Invasion, and a new Tactical Op, Project Omni, in the online mode of Watch Dogs: Legion. Project Omni is intense and challenging and will need a team of four to infiltrate a secret project to find out why Londonersâ€™ Optik devices are negatively affecting their brains.

For Season pass owners:

In late-April 2021, Mina, a subject of transhuman experiments, who possesses the ability to mind control individuals will be available alongside a new mission.
Late-June 2021 will see the release Watch Dogs: Legion â€“ Bloodline, a new storyline that includes Aiden Pearce from the original Watch Dogs game and Wrench from Watch Dogs 2 fully playable in the single-player campaign and online.
In August 2021, Darcy, a member of the Assassin Order from Assassinâ€™s CreedÂ®Â will be available as a new playable character alongside new missions.

In the meantime, check out the trailer below:


Netflix’s The Witcher Showrunner Has Plans For Seven Seasons

Earlier this week, we received not only a brand new trailer for Netflix’s The Witcher but also the release date for the highly-anticipated series. Now we know even more details about the upcoming adaptation of the popular novels by Andrzej Sapkowski.
In an interview with SFX magazine issue 320 (via PCGamesN), The Witcher showrunner Lauren Hissrich revealed that she actually already has a whopping seven seasons planned, despite the fact that Netflix has yet to renew the series beyond its first season.
She felt that it was vital to set up what the characters will eventually grow into, saying:

â€œIâ€™ve [mapped out stories] for seven seasons.
Right now itâ€™s just about, â€˜how do you set up stories that really capture audiences for years at a time?’
The worst thing we could do is put all of our energies just into season one, and not be thinking about where these characters can grow to.
I canâ€™t promise you that theyâ€™re very much alive.â€

Planning seven seasons in advance is certainly ambitious, especially for a Netflix series. The streaming giant is notorious for cancelling its shows only several seasons in, and it’s hard to gauge how successful any show is considering that they only release certain data for certain shows like Stranger Things.
It remains to be seen if The Witcher will warrant a second season, let alone seven seasons, especially in the current age of crowded equally-ambitious TV shows. The Witcher is slated to release on 20 December 2019.
In the meantime, check out the trailer below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndl1W4ltcmg&w=560&h=315]


Here’s The Secret Sauce To Apex Legends’ Meteoric Rise

The mainstream gaming industry has been dominated by the battle royale genre ever since PUBG reared its ugly head in 2017. Ever since then, developers and publishers have scrambled to launch their own battle royale titles to capitalize on the booming genre. Fortnite later arrived to kick PUBG‘s butt and become the undisputed king for a while, enchanting the mass with its charming and silly dancing emotes.
Some games, like H1Z1, restructured their gameplay model to become battle royales, while other games preferred to just introduce battle royale modes like Call of Duty Black Ops 4‘s Blackout and Battlefield 5‘s yet to be released Firestorm. The turnover rate for battle royale games is fast and hard, as gamers get tired of the mind-numbing and senseless gameplay after a few months. However, there is currently a new king on the throne, Respawn’s Apex Legends, who took the world by storm on 4 February 2019.
What is the secret sauce to Apex Legends‘ meteoric rise? According to statistics provided by Newzoo, there are two major reasons. The first is that Respawn and EA decided to forego the games media and typical marketing conventions by adopting a streamer-first and streamer-exclusive approach. They did this by involving popular streamers during the game’s early development process and holding a streamer-only event shortly before the game’s launch.
This unorthodox approach also meant that streamers played Apex Legends by the droves, making it the most-watched game by live hours across Twitch and YouTube Gaming within two weeks of release. That’s over 63.7 million hours of live viewership on Twitch alone.

The other major reason for Apex Legends‘ meteoric rise is that Respawn has learned from the mistakes of previous battle royale games by introducing many quality-of-life improvements and even lifting elements from other popular online games like Overwatch. Check out our review of Apex Legends here to find out more about what makes the game unique in a sea of derivative battle royale titles.
Despite not even being a month old, Apex Legends already boasts a burgeoning esports scene with the Twitch Rivals Apex Legends Challenge, which featured top streamers like Ninja, DrDisrespect, Summit1G, CocoTaco, Shroud and more. Ninja’s team won the first tournament on 12 February 2019, while former Overwatch League player Lucas â€œMendoâ€ HÃ¥kansson’s team, Scotts Tots, won the second and final tournament on 19 February 2019.
A meteoric rise often leads to a similar meteoric downfall. It happened to PUBG and Fortnite, and it is inevitable that it will happen to Apex Legends. It’s just a matter of time before another new game releases and pushes it off its pedestal. For now, however, it remains the undisputed number one battle royale game.
In other related news, Respawn recently released the second patch for Apex Legends on all platforms. Take a look at the official patch notes below for all changes and updates, courtesy of Reddit:

Fixes for PS4 crash issues – Addresses issues we saw with GPU hangs and fixed crash when pressing button early in the load process.
Fixed issue where players would sometimes move slowly after revive.
Fixed issue with Mirage Ability causing crashes.
Fixed issue with Gibraltar Epic skins on Xbox One causing crashes


You Can Now Get Your PokÃ©mon Masters On With A Singapore Account

The soft launch for the mobile RPG PokÃ©mon Masters has started. The countries that get to download and play this game before everyone else are Canada and our red dot neighbours in Singapore.
Canada and Singapore will get to play a basic version of the game pretty soon, 24 or 25 July give or take. Soft launches on iOS and Android devices can happen whenever. This preview will feature sync pair options and some tidbits on how to fight, and the ability to carry your save over to the full game when it’s out god-knows-when. If you’ve played mobile RPGs where you control up to three party members, you should be able to pick up PokÃ©mon Masters pretty quick.
We’ll put up the tutorials here voiced by a moe in case you’re dying to give this one a go.

The game will be available worldwide in its final evolution this summer.


Minecraft Legends: The Best Improvements & Upgrades Guide

Starting off in the world of Minecraft Legends can be hard especially with those pesky piglins constantly coming after the villages. Several upgrades are available for you to improve your fight against the piglins. You can make these upgrades or improvements at the Well of Fate. Now these improvements vary from collecting more valuable resources, increasing your resource storage, as well as buffs for your battle against the oink hordes.
Do note though that this is our opinion on best improvements based off of our experience. Minecraft Legends is a strategy game and there is no right way to play it due to its open world nature. So feel free to do your own exploring and find what fits your own playstyle.
For more guides, check out our Minecraft Legends Best Mounts.
WALL OF FATE
All your improvements will be done here at the Wall of Fate, which is your mother base. In Minecraft Legends, upgrades are referred to improvements. Each improvement will cost a certain amount of resources to build and you can check out how much they will cost on your hot bar or your guide book (R). Every improvement will cost a certain amount of Prismarine, a resource which is gained from destroying Piglin structures.

HOW TO BUY IMPROVEMENTS
Some improvements will only be available once you unlock more resources which you will get as you progress through the game. All the improvements will not just pop up on your hotbar. There is a submenu which you can access by hitting R on your keyboard or Right Click on an Xbox controller. Look for the tab showing the Well of Fate icon on your left and click on it to see all the improvements you have available to you.
To add these improvements to your hot bar, you can simply click on it with your mouse button or  press A on the controller, then click again or hit A in the hot bar once you’ve found a spot for it. Once it’s on your hot bar, you can then exit the menu and get to placing these improvement down.

When placing an improvement down, there will be a blue border around the fountains. These are the only place you can put your improvements on. A big tip is to make sure you place these improvements close to each other so you don’t end up wasting space for more improvements you will build later on.
The best upgrades can definitely give you an advantage against the little oink hordes. But with so many options, there are some that you’ll need to prioritize as you will have limited prismarines at the start. Feel free to use this guide as baseline as you go forth and keep the villages safe from the piglins.
IMPROVEMENT : ALLAY STORAGE

As you start building defenses for your villages, it can get really expensive and you’ll soon notice you run out of resources fairly quick. The Increased Allay Storage improvement is in my opinion, the most important upgrade to get as soon as possible.
The upgrade costs 100 Stone, 100 Prismarine, and 10 Gold. It will increase your cap for your wood, stone, lapis, prismarine and gold. Having this early makes building and spawning mobs more convenient for you. This is also the best to get early since it increases your prismarine capacity which means you can store more prismarines after fighting pesky piglins.
IMPROVEMENT : GATHER RESOURCE UPGRADES

You know what’s great? Increasing the cap of resources you can store so you can just keep farming in peace. This will allow you to craft different upgraded structures. It’s important to get all of them as quickly as you can, as you’ll need them for just about everything else going forward.
Each improvement will cost 100 Stone and 100 Prismarine. Also, each additional Gather ‘Resource’ improvement will only increase that resource’s storage by 150.
IMPROVEMENT : (LARGE) FLAMES OF CREATION

Now that you have all your resources set up, it’s time to start expanding your army. The Flames of Creation upgrade is an upgrade which decides how many mobs you can spawn at any given time. The small version of this upgrade is in my opinion a waste of resources and time. It only adds an additional 4 mobs you can spawn in. Instead, try to save up for the larger upgrade, which will allow you to spawn in 10 mobs. Extra troops = more manpower.
The small upgrade costs 200 Stone, 200 Prismarine and 25 Gold, and the large upgrade costs 400 Stone, 400 Prismarine and 100 Gold. It’s expensive but very well worth saving for. Trust me, this upgrade will make your life so much easier.
IMPROVEMENT : BANNER

You rally and control your troops by using a banner that appears in an area surrounding your hero. However, there is a limited amount of troops you can rally at once. And this is where the banner improvement helps out. The Banner improvement increases your radius of control, thus letting you control an extra 15 mobs with each improvement. Now who wouldn’t want to control a bigger army?
This costs 100 Stone, 100 Prismarines, and 25 gold per improvement. You needn’t have to worry about having this improvement until you actually increase the size of your army. So just focus up on upgrading the Flames of Creation first.

IMPROVEMENT : SHARED VILLAGE CHESTS

Now that you have tons of resource storage, it’s time to get this upgrade. Each village is equipped with a fountain at its center, and they will house a chest of goodies that will generate resources over a period of time. Every village will generate Wood, Stone and Lapis as well as another randomized resource. This improvement will make it so you don’t have to go to specific villages to collect the goodies from the chests. You will only have to visit one village to collect all the available resources.
This improvement does however come at a high cost of 100 Stone, 100 Prismarine, 25 Iron, 25 Coal, 25 Diamond and 25 Redstone. But don’t worry you’ll gather these resources back in no time!

And well, that is all we have for the best upgrades. Do remember that again, there are many other improvements you can choose for yourselves. However, these are the ones we found to be the most useful to us in our playthrough! So go forth, have fun and get rid of those pesky oink hordes.


Minecraft’s New Update Removes Notch Reference

Get this: the latest Minecraft Java snapshot release, 19w13a, adds in features like a status effect called “Hero of the Village”, as well as an accessibility button on the title screen.
Besides that, the devs also added new quotes on the splash screen, like “Don’t worry, be happy!” and “Go to the dentist.” They also wiped out the two splash screen messages that referenced original Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson.
Twitter user decrepitlab pointed out that the lines were scrubbed in the 27 March snapshot on the wiki list. The lines in question were “Made by Notch!” and “The Work of Notch!”

As you can see in the screenshot, the lines have now disappeared, and will forever be forgotten and lost in the dark corners of time.
Notch sold Mojang to Microsoft in 2014 for USD 2.5 billion, just after the game went public for 5 years. Notch said he “decided that he doesnâ€™t want the responsibility of owning a company of such global significance”.
Over the past few years, heâ€™s made attempts to work on smaller projects, but the pressure of owning Minecraft became too much for him to handle’.
Screenshot credit: Wes Fenlon


MPL Singapore Returns For Its 5th Season

A brand new year means a brand new season of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL). Mooton Games and Zenway jointly announce that the fifth season of the Singaporean circuit (MPL SG) qualifiers are going to commence in mid-February.
The open qualifiers will be held from 18 to 19 February with the top two teams advancing to the Regular Season of MPL SG S5, where they will face old dames from Season 4 looking to get themselves back up at the top once again. Registration ends on 15 February at 11:59 pm (UTC+8).
Jaime Cruz, Esports Lead, Singapore, MOONTON Games states that “MPL Singapore remains committed to our aim of enabling professional esports athletes to compete at the highest levels of sportsmanship. Given the right resources and support, we believe that our esports players can surpass other regional and international teams”
Managing Director of Zenway, Lee Jian Ming said “We had an awesome run in Season 4, achieving a record-breaking PCV and a full house for our Playoffs,
Season 5 will expand on our fans’ experiences, where we aim to continue enhancing the viewing experience online, while also improving the onsite fan experience to ensure accessibility and space for a larger audience.”
The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional Leagues are avenues for local teams to reach regional and international competitions like the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asia Cup (MSC) and the M-Series World Championship. Previously, Singaporean teams like RSG SG and Slate Esports (formerly EVOS SG) have competed on the global stage.
According to Lee, “Local esports athletes have a lot of passion and talent to offer, we always look at ways to raise the level of our league and players, and one of the ways is to expose the teams to international events where they can benefit from the experience.”
Below you can find all the necessary dates for this upcoming MPL SG season. If you think you have what it takes then you can sign up here.

Qualifiers

Dates: 18 – 19 Feb

Day 2 of the qualifiers will be streamed online (livestream details TBC).

Qualifiers will be conducted in a group stage setting.
The top teams from each group will play in a double-elimination format to determine the top 2 squads, who will proceed onto the Regular Season.

Regular Season

Dates

11 Mar – 12 Mar / Regular Season Week 1
18 – 19 Mar / Regular Season Week 2
25 – 26 Mar / Regular Season Week 3
1 Apr / Regular Season Week 4

Each team will play against the other seven teams in a Best of 3 series.
Points will determine each team’s ranking, which in turn determines how they will be seeded during Playoffs

Playoffs

Dates: 14 Apr – 16 Apr
All eight teams will qualify for the Playoffs and play in a double-elimination bracket. The top four teams from the Regular Season will be seeded in the Upper Brackets while the bottom four of the group will start from the Lower Brackets.


Steam Next Fest June 2023 Edition Demos You Need To Try

Steam Next Fest is back with more amazing games to come and to preview for your own peruse.
If you don’t know what Steam Next Fest is, it is a week-long of “hundreds” of demos of games that are in the works. There will also be developer chats and livestreams if you want to see them in action.
Steam Next Fest starts from today (20th June), until Tuesday 27th June GMT+8. So buckle up and get ready to stock up on more games with that wishlist, while we show you some of the demos we think you should check out!
Shadow Gambit : The Cursed Crew

Shadow Gambit is a fun stealth strategy game in which you are captain of a ghost ship navigating the waters and exploring the beautiful islands in the Lost Caribbean. Your undead crew’s supernatural powers will take down guards, you can sneak behind enemy lines and manipulate time as you beat the big bad inquisitor. Hop on that ship and get your journey started folks.

Play the demo here.
Cuisineer

If you like food and boba tea, this one’s for you! A wholesome food-focused game, Cuisineer is a game in which you play as Pom, a young adventurer turned restaurateur. The game is cute and cozy and definitely has a special charm to it that will draw you in. Craft your own delicious culinary experience, explore dungeons, maters the flavours of fighting and go on quests!
Play the demo here.
Wizard with a Gun

Wizard with a Gun is an online cooperative sandbox survival game. You explore the unknown world as a wizard, fight dangerous monsters and discover arcane mysteries. The best part? You don’t have to do it on your own! Grab your partner or a friend, combine your resources, magic, and creativity in your tower building. Or just watch it all burn down together.

Play the demo here.
Little Kitty, Big City

In this indie title, you play as a curious little kitty trying to find your way home. How cute is that? The city is your open-world playground in which you get to explore at your own pace. Wander around, make some new friends with other animals, cause a ruckus! Check out the adorable demo here.

Sea Of Stars

The makers of The Messenger are back with a brand-new turn-based old-school-look RPG that plans to hearken back to the good old days of SNES 90s JRPGing. Demo’s here.

Eternights

English-made and VO’ed visual novel action game hybrid where you make the most out of the apocalypse lifestyle. Clear dungeons, then go out on dates with your teammate(s). Fun!
Demo’s available here.

Deer Crusade

A 2D adventure set in a cursed world filled with deadly puzzles and creatures.

TAGLINE

Jet Set Radio but first-person. Demo’s here.

Ugly

Here’s a game about a tormented nobleman who has to face traumas of his past, all in 2D puzzle platforming glory. The game features a mirror mechanic that help reveal ugly truths about his life and secrets hidden within.
Check out the demo here.

The Master’s Pupil

The Master’s Pupil is a hand-painted puzzle adventure game taking place inside Claude Monet’s eyeball. Yes, it looks stunning and needs to be seen for yourself. We also did an exclusive interview with the maker of the game here.

More Demos:

Dungeon Golf
Deer Crusade
SYNCED
Echo Wisp
Voidborn
LunarLux
Captains of the Wacky Waters
Dreamed Away
House Flipper 2
SteamWorld Build
Galacticare
Warhaven
ArcRacer


Famous Fighting Game Villain Gets Banned From All Capcom Tournaments

Sometimes, you take a supposed joke too far. In rare instances, that joke was told in the worst time possible when a country’s political climate gets incredibly dicey.
(In)famous fighting game player Ryan Ramirez, better known as Filipino Champ, did not read the proverbial room and, as a result, is now banned indefinitely from all Capcom-owned and operated events. Street Fighter V, Marvel vs. Capcom 3; you name it, he ain’t participating in it.
Why? It all started with this race-related “joke” he tweeted:

The tweet has been deleted, but that didn’t stop everyone from calling him out for his bad taste in racist humour, especially during the current Black Lives Matter movement. This was followed by him being banned from tournaments like Combo Breaker and East Coast Throwdown.

In solidarity with the team behind ECT, any community member barred from attending East Coast Throwdown will not be welcome at Combo Breaker 2021 or other events I direct. https://t.co/aeeHpMBKGy
— Rick (@TheHadou) June 13, 2020

This was followed by the aforementioned Capcom ban (via Slasher).

former EVO champion Filipino Champ has now been banned indefinitely from all Capcom owned and operated events following insensitive comments made on black lives matter pic.twitter.com/a2qdFTIdeM
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) June 17, 2020

Filipino Champ is an entertaining smack-talking tournament player who spices things up in versus games for his villainous persona; mad props to him for that. But as a professional for 9 years in the fighting game circuit competing in large-scale tournaments, he should know better than to joke about things like these during a heated time in the US of A. He’ll most likely be back after his indefinite suspension -see Infiltration- but this is a cautionary tale to all esports players who want to be controversial.


This Week In PC Gaming: 29 July

Esports shooters. EA making single-player games. MultiVersus numbers. More GTA news. And a slew of small PC titles. All this and more on this KKP PC gaming recap, sponsored by ASUS TUF Gaming.

Timestamp:
0:00 – Intro, Rollerdrome plug
0:50 – PC game news
4:55 – PC games to play this week
This video is brought to you by ASUS TUF Gaming F15/17 Laptop. Head to the link here for more info.


Exit The Gungeon Is Out Later Today For Nintendo Switch

Fans of 2D roguelike shooter Enter The Gungeon will be pleased to know that its sequel Exit The Gungeon (now a 2D run-and-gun platformer) is out later today in Malaysian time. On consoles!
However, it’s a timed exclusive for the Nintendo Switch.Â The game will still be available for PC and other platforms later on 31st May 2020. But if you can’t wait, you can play the Switch version right now, or on mobile devices like an iOS or Android phone.
Basically, it’ll be the first time Exit The Gungeon will be using proper tactile feedback controls. We do need physical buttons for our bullet hell dungeon climber games. From the looks of it, I’d say we’re in for some good old-school challenge.


New Transformers Rise Of The Beasts Trailer Teases Unicron As The Villain

United International Pictures Malaysia has unveiled a new trailer for the upcoming Transformers Rise Of The Beasts.
It reveals the villain of the movie, which will be the planet-eating transformer known as Unicron. There’s also a lot more action in the trailer.
Returning to the action and spectacle that have captured moviegoers around the world, Transformers Rise Of The Beasts will take audiences on a ‘90s globetrotting adventure with the Autobots and introduce a whole new faction of Transformers – the Maximals – to join them as allies in the existing battle for earth.
The new film will be the first new live-action Transformers film since 2018’s Bumblebee and is set to be a sequel to that film as well as a soft reboot of the franchise, while also beginning a new trilogy of films.

The film stars Anthony Ramos as Noah Diaz who teams up with the Transformer Mirage (Pete Davidson). Additional cast members joining Ramos in live-action roles include Dominique Fishback, Luna Lauren Vélez, and Tobe Nwigwe.
As for the voices of the Transformers, the film has an all-star ensemble of voice talent that will see Peter Cullen once again return to provide the iconic voice for Optimus Prime with Ron Perlman voicing the leader of the Maximals, Optimus Primal. Other starring voice talent includes Peter Dinklage, Liza Koshy, Michelle Yeoh, Cristo Fernández, John DiMaggio, David Sobolov, and Michaela Jaé Rodriguez. The film is produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Tom DeSanto, Don Murphy, Michael Bay, Mark Vahradian, and Duncan Henderson and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Brian Goldner, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Brian Oliver, Bradley J. Fischer, and Valerii An.
Directed by Steven Caple Jr., Transformers Rise Of The Beasts premieres in cinemas on 8 June 2023.
Check out the new trailer below:


GTA V Is The UK’s Best-Selling Game Of The Decade

As we finally enter 2020, everyone is looking back at the past decade. Video game industry analysts go over the best-selling games of the decade and in the UK, Rockstar still comes out on top.

According to a recent report by GameCentral, Grand Theft Auto 5 has been revealed to be the number one best-selling video game of the 2010s. It was first released in 2013 and became the UK’s best-selling game of all time a year later, selling more than 2.25 million copies five days after release.
Coming in at second place is Call of Duty: Black Ops which was released in 2010. Within its first five days, the game sold more than 2 million copies. At one point, it was the best-selling game of all time in the UK before GTA 5 took its place.

Here’s a full ranking of the top 10 best-selling video games of the 2010s in the UK (retail only):

Grand Theft Auto 5
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Minecraft
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
FIFA 14
FIFA 13
FIFA 15
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
FIFA 11
FIFA 12

GTA and COD may appear to be the champion of the rankings but the FIFA franchise is the true king of the UK video games market. Seeing as how football is the country’s biggest sport, it shouldn’t come off as a surprise to anyone.
One reason why FIFA 14 appears to be the best-selling FIFA game in the last decade is because the data only includes retail sales. If digital sales were accounted for, there’s a chance that newer FIFA games would make it into the list.

Just look at the success of FIFA 20 in the UK. It’s the UK’s number one best-selling game of 2019 with more than 1.5 million copies sold (retail only). In that same list, the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot comes at second place followed by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Here are the top 10 best-selling video games of 2019 in the UK (retail only):

FIFA 20
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Red Dead Redemption 2
FIFA 19
Pokemon Sword
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Grand Theft Auto 5
The Division 2

All in all, it’s not all that surprising. The numbers seem to reflect each game’s success in other countries except for the US. Over there, there’s not much love for football (they call it soccer) and people are crazier about their NBAs, NFLs, and MLBs.
For more insight into the UK video games market performance, check out GameCentral’s article on Metro.


HBO GO February 2023: Our Picks & Highlights

I’m sure you won’t want to waste time sifting through HBO GO’s extensive catalogue of shows and movies just to decide on what to watch. The streaming site updates its site every day, week, and month with new content, so I’m here to save your precious time.
Here are my personal recommendations and highlights for HBO GO February 2023 lineup and how to fill up your free time with worthwhile content at home:
Fifty Shades Trilogy (1 February 2023)

Follow Anastasia and Christian as they embark on a passionate affair in all three movies of the global bestseller – Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed. Stars Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Jennifer Ehle, Marcia Gay Harden, Eloise Mumford, Victor Rasuk and Luke Grimes.
Available to stream from February 1 on HBO GO.

Super Pumped The Battle For Uber (2 February 2023)
(L-R): Kerry Bishe as Austin, Joel Kelley Dauten as Ryan Graves, Jon Bass as Garrett Camp, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Travis Kalanick and Uma Thurman as Arianna Huffington in SUPER PUMPED: THE BATTLE FOR UBER, “Same Last Name”. Photo credit: Elizabeth Morris/SHOWTIME.
Based on the true story behind one of Silicon Valley’s most successful unicorns and the meteoric rise and fall of Uber founder, Travis Kalanick. Driven by a vision of a transportation revolution, Kalanick takes a win-at-all-costs approach to forge the fledgling start-up into a multi-billion-dollar colossus with the help of venture capitalist Bill Gurley and board member Arianna Huffington. But every surge comes with a price. Stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kyle Chandler, Uma Thurman, Elisabeth Shue, Kerry Bishé, Jon Bass, Bridget Gao Hollitt and Babak Tafti.
Premieres Thursday, February 2 on HBO GO.

Secret Headquarters (4 February 2023)
Jessie Mueller as Lily and Owen Wilson as Jack in Secret Headquarters from Paramount Pictures. Photo credit: Hopper Stone/Paramount Pictures.
Charlie and his friends discover the headquarters of the world’s most powerful superhero hidden beneath his home. When villains attack, they must team up to defend the headquarters and save the world. Stars Owen Wilson, Walker Scobell, Jesse Williams, Keith L. Williams, Momona Tamada, Michael Peña, Abby James Witherspoon, Kezii Curtis and Jessie Mueller.
Premieres Saturday, February 4 at 9pm on HBO (Astro Ch 411) and HBO GO.

The Flash Season 9 (9 February 2023)

After defeating the Reverse Flash once and for all, the final season picks up one week later following their epic battle. But when a deadly group of Rogues descend on Central City led by a powerful new threat, The Flash and his team must once again defy impossible odds to save the day. Stars Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Danielle Nicolet, Kayla Compton, Brandon McKnight and Jon Cor.
Premieres Thursday, February 9 at 9.50pm on Warner TV (Astro Ch 712).

The Bad Guys (25 February 2023)

Nobody has ever failed so hard at trying to be good as The Bad Guys. Based on the New York Times best-selling book series, a crackerjack criminal crew of animal outlaws are about to attempt their most challenging con yet—becoming model citizens. Stars Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Awkwafina, Zazie Beetz, Lilly Singh and Alex Borstein.
Premieres Saturday, February 25 at 9pm on HBO (Astro Ch 411) and HBO GO.


Skateboarding Funtime Title OlliOlli World Launches Next February

Publisher Private Division and developer Roll7 announced the release date of its 2D skateboarding title OlliOlli World.Â
The game will launch digitally for PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC (Steam) on 8th February 2022. You can pre-order the Rad Edition of the game which includes:

The base game,
The first story expansion Void Riders (slated for Summer 2022),
Second story expansion (out Fall 2022),
New biome levels, characters, gameplay, and customization unlocks,
A “Close Encounter Skate Deck” digital cosmetic item.

Check out the sweet overview trailer below and our preview, which delighted and challenged us to no end.


League of Legends’ Spinoff Music Rhythm Platformer Is Fluffy Freeform Fun

Platform(s): PC (version played), Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PS4
Genre: Music rhythm platform game from the Bit.trip makers
The League of Legends spin-off November onslaught is capped off with this quirky music game title Hextech Mayhem. In this 2D platformer with music rhythm Simon Says-ish gameplay, you play as explosive personality Ziggs as he wreaks havoc all over Piltover. Stopping him is scientist Heimerdigger and the entire Piltover police force, so you’ll need to collect as many shinies as you can and complete each music-laced level by blowing stuff up, avoiding pitfalls, and jumping your way to victory.
Eruption

Hextech Mayhem’s gameplay is as simple as they come: the music plays, you jump, throw bombs, and quick land with the jump button, bomb button, and down d-pad input respectively, and you do the prompted actions according to the beat of the song. See an upward triangle? That’s a jump. See a downward arrow? That’s when you press down. See a bomb icon? You chuck bombs. Missed a beat? No problem; just don’t get hit by obstacles. Got struck by one? You can recover but you’ll miss out on extra points and collectables as you’re slowly getting back to the beat chart.
You fight a boss after a slew of levels; generally, it’s the same except you have a lifebar and you cannot screw up too much lest you start all over again. What makes this music rhythm game a little different is that you can start hammering buttons in a freeflow manner without any restriction while a stage is ongoing. As you play through the earlier stages, you realize that you won’t be penalized at all if you go off-script.
In fact, one of the criteria for completing a stage and getting a high Diamond or Master rank is to cause as much destruction as possible. Yes, following the icons that are in-sync with the music will net you precision points, but to get max destruction, you need to start chucking bombs and jumping/stomping things on your own accord to the beat of the game’s drums. And guitar chords if you’re doing well; the game’s feedback is pretty sound.
Symphony of Destruction

That’s the part where Hextech Mayhem shines: giving you the chance to play around with the song with impromptu button presses but also rewarding you for sticking to the “notation” on-screen. Developer Choice Provision did a great job at treading that fine line, making sure that it’s not too restrictive and orderly, with that flair of chaos like its bombs expert protagonist.
And with 30 levels and 3 bosses to deal with, along with other new modes of play that are challenging and requires total improvisation, you’ll get your money’s worth with this arcade-style action game. League of Legends fans and lorehounds will get a kick out of seeing interactions between Ziggs and Heimerdigger, though it’s clear that non-fans will just see two furry midgets playing each other off with colourful banter while driving their respective instruments of destruction in the boss segments.
Even without much of the LoL context, Hextech Mayhem is still a fun ride for music game aficionados and 2D platformer fans. Just avoid the Nintendo Switch version; we heard that version has some bugs & goes out-of-sync at time.
Final Score: 80/100


Super Nintendo World Universal Studios Japan Will Be A Life-Sized, Living Video Game

The world’s first-ever Super Nintendo World is slated to open at Universal Studios Japan in summer 2020. In anticipation, Nintendo has released a new music video with an original song by world-class hitmaker Galantis and worldwide popular singer Charli XCX.
The music video doesn’t actually show us what the Super Nintendo World will look like, but the official website does mention a real-life Mario Kart experience, and that visitors will be able to somehow ride on Yoshi’s back, just like Baby Mario.
According to Bloomberg reporter Kurumi Mori (who attended the briefing event for Super Nintendo World), visitors will wear the Power Up Band to keep track of their progress in the theme park, which is described as a “Life-Sized, Living Video Game”.

Super Nintendo World finally opening in Osaka this summer… ðŸŽŒ
Followed by Universal Parks in Hollywood, Orlando and Singapore #SuperNintendoWorld pic.twitter.com/JcFo6PlNgr
â€” Kurumi Mori (@rumireports) January 14, 2020
After opening at Universal Studios Japan, Super Nintendo World will be opening new branches at Universal Studios Hollywood, Orlando and Singapore in the future as well.

“A life-size, living video game” — Thierry Coup shows us the new app used to enjoy Super Nintendo World with a wrist band, touting an interactive experience #Nintendo pic.twitter.com/n468l5elnO
â€” Kurumi Mori (@rumireports) January 14, 2020
There will also be a mobile app of sorts, featuring a game-style overhead map for finding attractions, with which visitors will be able to create a profile and unlock achievements. There will likely be prizes to win, like Mario or Nintendo merchandise. These could also be considered as a form of interactivity for visitors.
In the meantime, check out the Super Nintendo World music video below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTSA709zNzY&w=560&h=315]


The Demon Slayer Game Is Coming To PS5, Xbox One & PC Too

Demon Slayer Kimetsu No Yaiba Hinokami Kepputan will be available on more than just the previously-announced PS4 platform.
According to the latest issue of Weekly Jump (translated by Gematsu), the Demon Slayer game is also coming to the PS5, Xbox One, and PC when it launches sometime in 2021 in Japan.
It will also feature a â€œStory Modeâ€ and a â€œTag Battle Mode,â€ where players can play as various characters with simple controls.
The Demon Slayer game is published by Aniplex and developed by CyberConnect2.
In other recent news, we’re still waiting for the Demon Slayer movie to debut in Malaysia.
In the meantime, check out the trailer below:


No Straight Roads’ Metronomik Will Address The Game’s Major Bugs

We dug our time with Metronomik’s music-laced action game No Straight Roads, even with its technical bugs & quirks. The devs know this too, so leave it to the company’s CEO Wan Hazmer to release a video talking about it, as well as dish out some protips on the game’s harder segments.
He details some of the bugs in the game, which include players falling off the transition rails during the Sayu boss battle and health hamburgers not popping up during the DK West rap battle for other versions of the game like the Xbox One.
While the team is working on a patch for the game, he also offered some advice on the following critical bugs in the game:
-After a fresh install, don’t start the game right away with the third save slot as it will mess with the main menu & the save will not appear in the Load Game screen later. The save is still there.
Start the game again in Slot 1 up until you’re in front of the planetarium and the Auto Save icon appears. Exit to the main menu and your save file in the third slot will appear.
-If you’re playing in two-player mode, only have one of you activate the rails in Sayu’s battle. Activating two different rails at the same time will cause both of you to fall.
-If the Audition is not proceeding as expected, please ensure that the HUD in Options is turned on before you start the game.
-If the voices sound messed up, restart the game.Â
–At the NSR Tower fight (spoiler link FYI), do not hit the boss with long-ranged attacks or special skills when the boss is on the higher platform. A blocker bug might trigger.
The intended goal of this phase is to hit the glowing crown circling around the stage before time runs out. You can hear the ticking sound getting faster. Otherwise, the boss will unleash the rewind mechanic that brings you to the previous phases. This bit is intentional.
He also brought up the DK West rap battle which involves you moving a hand icon on a lane and avoiding “bulls” to preserve your life. While the first DK West fight is compulsory, the other two fights are optional. Thus, the devs went all-out with the difficulty for these two battles and designed them as such to bring out the rhythm sense in players.

They’re quite a handful, we’ll confess, but he did bring up some protips, like the notes light up when the “bulls” reach the end of the line and also seeing the top bit of the screen to get a forecast of where to dodge at.
The only major bug I’ve come across include getting hit when the transition cutscene between Yinu’s phases happen (specifically the final phase), dying from that while the cutscene is playing, and having to restart. Other than that and some camera issues that are tied to core problems with action games with fixed perspectives, my experience has been pretty smooth and fun for the most part.
For our review on No Straight Roads, head here. We also have a guide if you’re stuck.


The Prince Of Persia Remake Is Still In Development, Confirms Ubisoft

TheÂ Prince Of Persia Sands Of Time RemakeÂ was initially announcedÂ during the Ubisoft Forward showcaseÂ in July 2020. Developed by Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai, it was supposed to release for the PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Ubisoft Store and Epic Games Store on 21 January 2021, but was then revealed toÂ have been delayed indefinitely in February 2021.
Now, Ubisoft has given an update on the project, confirming that it’s still in active development.
“We want to take a moment to reassure you that the development of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake is still underway, motivated and inspired by your feedback. We will update you on our progress in the future and want to thank all of you for your unwavering support and patience.”

An update from the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake development team: pic.twitter.com/z9sFaBwz9N
— Prince of Persia (@princeofpersia) October 28, 2021

Ubisoft also confirmed in its quarterly financial report today that the Prince Of Persia remake is expected to be out sometime during its 2022-23 fiscal year, which is somewhere between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.
In the meantime, rewatch the reveal trailer for the game below:


Next Final Fantasy XVI Trailer Out In October, Maybe

Final Fantasy XIV director and Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki “Yoshi-p” Yoshida said during Tokyo Game Show 2022’s Japan Game Awards 2022 event that the next trailer for the next Final Fantasy will be out next month in October.
Here’s what he said when asked about the next slew of information for Final Fantasy XVI:
“I haven’t gotten a chance to talk to the marketing or public relations teams at all, so I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say, but I think we’ll probably be able to release the next trailer next month or so… And after that, I hope to be able to give a rough idea of when it will be released.”

Final Fantasy XVI will be out for PlayStation 5 in Summer 2023. Maybe.


Ejen Ali Launches School Holiday Mission 5km Virtual Run Next Month

Ejen Ali today announced open registration for the EJEN ALI MISI: RUSH 2.0 VIRTUAL RUN, happening from 1st to 31st December 2022 at the secret location of your choice.
A collaboration between Primeworks Studios, WAU Animation and Marhaen.my, this first Virtual Run for Ejen Ali presents a unique twist on the concept. In line with the MATA Arena storyline featured in Ejen Ali Season 3 (now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar), Ejen Ali is calling up all fans to sign up to support their favourite Teras; with a choice of Neuro, Inviso, Tekno and Kombat. Each Teras comes with your choice of running kit, containing a Running Jersey designed based on a MATA Ejen uniform, Medal & Lanyard, Sticker Pack, Fridge Magnet and E certificate.

The EJEN ALI MISI: RUSH 2.0 VIRTUAL RUN will also be enhanced with some friendly competition through weekly missions on social media (Instagram: @ejen_ali) and crowning a Teras champion; a challenge to see which Teras runs the longest distance! Aiming to encourage healthy physical activity during the school holidays, the participants’ personal goal to complete a 5-kilometre goal can include running, biking, treadmill or even walking. Individual scores must be logged every week on the official website https://ejenalirush.marhaen.my/ and the top Ejens have the chance to be featured in the MATA Arena Hall of Fame.
A promotional Early Bird price is available on the official website at https://ejenalirush.marhaen.my/, retailing at RM66 per person. The Early Bird promo is valid for registration from 24th to 30th November 2022, returning to its full retail price of RM99 after this period. A discount of RM10 off per transaction is available for group purchase of two or more once the Early Bird promo has expired. Participants can expect to receive their running kits via postage once the EJEN ALI MISI: RUSH 2.0 VIRTUAL RUN event is completed, between 15th to 31st January 2023.
For Ejens who want to join MATA in style, other exclusive event-only merchandise are also available for a limited time; a stylish MATA Arena cap (retailing at RM89) and a high-tech drinks tumbler (retailing at RM59).


Legendary Comics Artist Greg Capullo On Batman, Spawn & What He’s Really Like

Singapore Comic Con 2019 (SGCC 2019) took place at the Marina Bay Sands Expo last weekend and we received the opportunity to interview legendary comic book artist, Greg Capullo.
For those who donâ€™t know him, Greg Capullo is a comic book artist veteran, who is best known for his 80-issue run on Image Comicsâ€™ Spawn with Todd McFarlane and highly-acclaimed Batman series for DC Comics with Scott Snyder, introducing famous new concepts like the Court Of Owls and most recently, the DC Black Label Batman: Last Knight On Earth.

He is also the creator of The Creech, a sci-fi horror comic published by Image Comics, and has previously provided art for Blizzard Entertainmentâ€™s World of Warcraft franchise.
Q: You’ve worked with Scott Snyder on many great Batman stories from the Court Of Owls to most recently, Batman: Last Knight On Earth. What do you think that you bring to the table when working with him?
A: See, I don’t know. I mean, Scott writes some great stories, like Court Of Owls is brilliant. The reason why I think it’s brilliant is because Bruce Wayne or Batman is very arrogant and self-assured that no one knows Gotham better than he does.

To slip the Court Of Owls into there that’s been there for four hundred years and Batman has been completely unaware of that the whole time really, really unseats Batman and takes away that security and that cockiness.
You didn’t know as much as you thought you did, kid, and I think that’s a brilliant move on Scott’s part.

What do I bring to him, I don’t know. I’m just happy that the fans like what we’re doing. He comes up with great stories, I draw them the way that I see it should be drawn, and I’m just grateful for the fans’ reactions, but I don’t know what the formula is. I’m just happy that everybody accepts it.

Q: Batman: Last Knight On Earth is sort of like DCâ€™s version of Old Man Logan. It features some of the bleakest versions of DC characters Iâ€™ve ever seen in a comic book How was the experience redesigning these iconic characters?
A: Well, the most enjoyable part is the creating itself because when I was a little boy, I just imagined most young artists, the joy is the freedom. You got your pencil or your crayon and your pad of paper, you’re free to see what comes out of your imagination. Creating is a lot like that, it’s the closest thing to being that little boy who’s just having fun.
When you’re doing comics, there’s a deadline and a lot of pressure, creating gives you a bit more of that feeling you had when you were a child exploring. I like big characters, so that was my first opportunity for drawing Bane, so it was a lot of fun to do that.

I’ve done so much Spawn with the horror stuff, to do this version of Bane and Scarecrow was just added fun, it was familiar to me, so those were the most joyous bits.

Q: You recently returned to Spawn after a hiatus of about a hundred issues. Was it daunting to return to drawing him?
A: No, it was the complete opposite, it was like getting comfortable slippers on and I don’t even have to think about it, you know. It was like going to a family reunion, and it’s funny because when I quit Spawn back on issue 100, I still stayed in work with Todd. At one point, Todd said that I want you to come back and do Spawn.
I was sort of on payroll, so I couldn’t say no and said, oh, okay. Or you could do Haunt with Robert Kirkman. I said, yes, anything other than Spawn, because I’ve done so much Spawn. But after so many years away from Spawn, it was fun to come back. Not that I want to return to Spawn, but it was fun to do the reunion that one time.
I’ll tell you a funny thing, back in the day, our Spawn was so detailed, and we were much younger, Todd liked to say that you could see the youth on the page. And do, I’ve given him some detailed stuff, you know, but he’s texting me and going, you’re killing me, you’re killing me with this.

Q: Do you have any particular DC Comics character or property that you’ve ever wanted to work on?
A: I’ve talked of doing a Wonder Woman book, but I want to do Swamp Thing, actually. Swamp Thing had a brief cameo and I told Dan DiDio that I wanted to do a Swamp Thing book and he said, let’s talk about it over dinner. He gave me a sales pitch that he wanted me to do Wonder Woman instead.

I said, alright, Wonder Woman.
Then he said, I don’t have a Swamp Thing book but if you do covers, I’ll do a Swamp Thing book from your covers.
At some point, it would be fund to do a Swamp Thing book but I’d also do Wonder Woman.
I’d also like to get my hands on Lobo. I think I would do a badass Lobo.

Q: Where do you find inspiration for your characters?
A: You got to follow your own instincts, how you feel about them. The only thing I consciously thought about with Batman was one of the things I loved from what Frank Miller did in The Dark Knight was when he put Batman in the armour and wired him up to the lamp post to fight Superman and he had like a flat helmet, I thought that looked so badass.
And so I said when I got into Batman, I wanted to do that. but then they gave me Jim Lee’s design when I started and they go, you have to draw this, I went like awww. It took a while to where I got to draw Batman the way I wanted to, but I eventually got it in in some of the later designs.

So, yeah, I just follow my own instincts, and I always knew I didn’t want, one of the things that bother me about superheroes is like they all look like contest-ready bodybuilders with the suit spray-painted on.
You can see every vein, every muscle, but they’re wearing costumes so how can that be?

So, I wanted my Batman to be more solid and monolithic and heavy-framed and more intimidating than the other stuff I had seen previously. Apart from that, there was not really much conscious things other than following my instincts and my gut.
Q: What non-DC character would you like to work on if given the opportunity?
A: Pretty much anything at Marvel. I grew up with Marvel. So you could put a blindfold on me, give me a dart, and show me a board of all the characters and I’d probably be happy no matter where the dart landed.

I grew up with Marvel Comics mostly.
I had Batman, Superman, a few others, Green Arrow, whatever, a few of those, but I’m really a Marvel guy and if you went to my house, it’s almost all Marvel books, so I’d be happy to draw almost anything at Marvel Comics.
Sorry, DC!

Q: What advice would you give to budding comic book artists?
A: My advice is don’t set out to be a comics artist, set out to be an illustrator, make yourself a good drafter because I say what if comics disappeared tomorrow? Alright, you still have a drawing skill, and you’d probably want to make money doing that, what would you do if there’s no more comics?

But if you’re a good draftsperson and you know how to illustrate stories, then it opens more possibilities, you could do storyboards for cinema, work in advertising, there’s a lot of things.
So become a draftsperson, learn as much about the craft as you can, and that’s what I tell people.

Don’t just put all you focus on that (comic book artist), so then you’ll be too limited on what you’re doing and what’s available to you, so that’s my advice.
Q: How do you feel about becoming sort of a household name, with your name on merchandise and collectibles after drawing Batman?
A: I don’t know. Here’s the weird thing, man. When you do comics, your life just goes by you because you’re always drawing. It’s almost like an assembly line, and so there’s not a lot of time to look around and reflect on anything.
You know, even the last issue I just did, it’s already in the rearview mirror. It’s like driving on a highway and the trees are going by, and you can’t focus on any of it. It’s weird because I’ll go back and open an issue of Spawn, it’s like looking at a different artist.
So now I can admire it like I’m a different person. You always have to have this moment where you have some free time to stand around, there’s toys and statues, it’s hard to even make sense of it. You know what I mean, I wanted to do this since I was eight years old, but I never thought I’d make money at it.
I didn’t know there’ll be fans, conventions, autographs, pictures. I just wanted to draw comic books. People want my name, and they want to take pictures, and make toys and statues, it’s too much to even make sense of. You’re just, wow, you know.
Q: Why don’t you do sketches at conventions?
A: One is I have so many fans. If I did sketches, I could never sign as many books as I do. My goal is to meet as many fans and sign as many books as I can. I don’t want them to stand there in line staring at the top of my bald head as I draw pictures.
The other part of that though is I work so much that when I’m away from home, I don’t want to draw. The last past is that I don’t like to draw in front of people. My wife will come into the room while I’m drawing and I stop and I put my pencil down and then I have to get my head back into the drawing.
So, I like to be isolated when I draw. It’s who I am.
Q: Despite your somewhat tough physical exterior, you’re actually softer and nicer than you look. How would you describe that to your fans?
A: You see this side of me that looks rough, but the reality of it is that I grew up rough, in a violent household, a poor neighbourhood with rough kids, and I fought a lot of fights. The things that happened in my life, they did make me a bit hard, and I used to be very quick to temper and violence.
But what happened was, I always had a nice side, but the world made me that way. My upbringing made me that way. My first wife made me aware of the problem I had, with the anger and the violence. I made a very strong effort to change, and I’ve been successful in changing, I think.
I’d rather make people laugh and smile than to make them bleed or hurt. I want to be a positive force in the world. People think that they don’t mean anything and that they’re insignificant. That’s not true. Because if you drop a pebble in a pond, those ripples go out and they affect everything around.
And so, if I pass a car and they scream and they give me the middle finger and push me into a bad mood, then I meet somebody in a bad mood, it spreads. But if you can smile at somebody or make them laugh and make them happy. Again, that affects the whole world around you, so you could change the world with your own simple action.
The world is a bad place these days, and I want to always be something positive, that could make a difference in that way. When people meet me, I want them to go away happy, I want them to be smiling, and if you see me with anybody, I hug girls, I hug guys, I want you to feel like a family, I want you to feel warm.

So, that’s me, man, I wanna be a positive force in this crappy world where there’s so much hatred and prejudice and everything else.
So that’s the real me, man. I still have that temper and anger, but it takes a lot to get it out of me now.
I try never to bring it out. I prefer a life of peace.
My biggest regret is that I wasted years of my life in this other way.

Check out more of Greg Capullo on his Instagram and Twitter.


World of Warships: Legends Set Sail For Xbox One; Features 3 Versions

Wargaming.net’s World of Warships: LegendsÂ is now ready and waiting for Xbox One players. And they’ll get a bevvy of options on how to play it.
The game will come in 3 editions, but the base game is free. The base game offers epic naval action in a global multiplayer, free-to-play online game where you battle other players in history’s greatest warships. Recruit commanders, upgrade your ships and dominate the seas in an online environment. Players will meet 20 historical commanders, 50 legendary ships and 15 maps in the game.
Let us break down the rest of the editions for you:

World of Warships: Legends – Ultimate Edition

US$109.99 (RM453)
Four combat-ready Premium warships

The Iwaki battleship
The Arkansas battleship
The exclusive Marblehead battleship
The limited edition Gremyashchy battleship

World of Warships: Legends â€“ Deluxe Edition

US$59.99 (RM247)
Three combat-ready Premium warships

The Iwaki battleship
The Arkansas battleship
The exclusive Marblehead battleship

World of Warships: Legends – Premium Edition

US$ 29.99 (RM124)
Two combat-ready Premium warships

The Iwaki battleship
The Arkansas battleship

The game has been developed from the ground up with the current generation consoles in mind. Taking advantage of the powerful hardware, the game will have 4K support later in the summer. With a revamped user interface, intuitive new controls, and console-exclusive content,Â LegendsÂ is an experience that is only possible on the current generation of consoles.
The game will hit the high seas on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on 16 April.


E3 2019: Darksiders 3’s Gunfire Games Shows Off Remnant: From The Ashes

Ever felt like taking on the post-apocalypse with a team to take down fantastical monsters? Then Remnant: From The Ashes is your cup of tea.

Made by Gunfire Games, the people who created last year’s Darksiders 3, this third-person shooter requires you and two other players to tackle the game’s monsters and scenarios that seem pretty influenced by titles like Dark Souls and Bloodborne. The title also features drop-in and drop-out co-op, which means you won’t be playing the game alone with AIs as long as you keep your network settings public.
The game features a dynamic generation system, where the “game’s system picks up the stitches and makes sure that no two playthroughs are the same” according to Gunfire’s lead designer David Adams. The team wants to make sure the playthroughs for each team is unique, right down to even the legendary loot they receive from kills and boss defeats.
If anything, having a co-op experience in an action game with RPG elements and dark fantasy is refreshing especially when you’ve been playing such games alone. Remnant: From The Ashes will be out 20th August.


The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Nintendo Switch OLED Model Pops Up This April

*cue The Legend of Zelda treasure fanfare
Nintendo has announced a limited edition The Legend Of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch OLED Model. Suffice to say, it looks real pretty with the Hyrule patterns and decor, along with the sleek gold-green-white colour palette.

The console will be out on 28 April, a couple of weeks early before the actual game comes out. The console will be priced at US$349.99.
In addition, there will also be a Tears of the Kingdom Pro Controller and Carrying Case; these will be out on 12th May.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be out for Nintendo Switch on 12th May. Check out the gameplay breakdown here.


PlayStation Just Confirmed The Release Windows For Major PS5 Titles During CES 2021

While folks around the world and in Asia are still trying to get their hands on the PlayStation 5 despite positive reviews and impressions, PlayStation is securing their console gaming foothold and has dropped some progress update regarding its PS5 games, tentpole or otherwise.
According to a CES 2021 presentation from PlayStation, the following games for the PS5 now have release windows:

Ratchet & Clank: Rift ApartÂ â€“ 2021
Horizon Forbidden West â€“ 2021 (also for PS4)
ReturnalÂ â€“ March 19, 2021
Kena: Bridge of Spirits â€“ March 2021 (also for PS4)
Solar Ash â€“ June 2021 (also for PS4)
Little Devil Inside â€“ July 2021 (also for PS4)
Stray â€“ October 2021 (also for PS4)
GhostWire: TokyoÂ â€“ October 2021
Project AthiaÂ â€“ January 2022
PragmataÂ â€“ 2023

Personally? I doubt some of these release windows will stick especially with a future as uncertain as 2021’s. At the very least, some of these might get pushed back to late 2021. I will say it’s unexpected of Square Enix and Capcom to set release windows for their respective games; Project Athia for the former and Pragmata for the latter.


H.R. Giger-Inspired Horror Game Scorn Is Delayed to 2022; Maybe?

If you’re looking forward to playing the esoteric sci-fi horror game Scorn this year, think again.
The H.R. Giger inspired horror first-person shooter Scorn was delayed multiple times since its debut announcement in 2017 via its successful Kickstarter campaign. The game surfaced again in a 2020 trailer, and had a fall 2021 launch window announced. Of course, we’re close to the end of 2021, and developer Ebb Software had no choice but to announce its delay to 2022.
Here’s the announcement the devs made in full:
“Development hell is a term that is thrown around quite often. It should be used on projects that changed their core idea or scope mid-dev and can’t adjust to. That doesn’t apply to our products for the most part. In our case, a lot of mistakes were made and will make more in the future, but it’s a normal process for a new, inexperienced team.
Everything that was done up until the middle of 2018 has been reworked, 90% of it completely scrapped. It’s about making it what we want it to be, not releasing it just because we gave some arbitrary release date. If it’s not ready, it’s not ready. Why would people want to play something that the developers think it’s still not up to par?”
The delay announcement also ended on an aggressive note:
“If lack of communication is so bothersome just ask for a refund and be done with it.”
Studio CEO Ljubomir Peklar apologized for that remark the following day. At least we’ll have this spiffy past trailer to watch, to tide us over until mid-2022.


The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra Defies Expectations

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is Samsung’s flagship, tentpole smartphone model of 2021. Considered the beefiest version of the already impressive S21 range – which itself already presents a leap from last year’s solid offering – the S21 Ultra is akin to the Xbox Series X to the Series S of the ‘standard’ S21 variation. It’s huge, comes with all the high-end specs one expects from a flagship device under the hood and befittingly, costs a bomb.
After all, you get what you paid for, right? Nope. You get much, much more.
Style And Substance
Unlike the past where black Samsung phones carried a glossy sheen, the texture on the S21 Ultra is matte. Sure it looks great and all but does take a bit of getting used to.
Users with butterfingers beware, however. Due to the uneven feel of the phone, the screen portion has more “grip” than its back, thus you may disastrously mishandle and lose grip of the device easily. I can’t emphasize enough how it takes a while to get used to the heft and feel of the phone straight out of the box.
Although I dig the updated silhouette, the redesigned camera bump which houses the four rear cameras prevents the phone from laying fully flush on its back. You’d also be wise to invest in a protective case and screen protector, as while the phone does come with those top-end materials especially on the screen department, a rogue grain of sand is all it takes to scuff it.
Still, the S21 Ultra feels ultra-premium all around. It is also worth pointing out that the phone also comes in Phantom Silver. Samsung site-exclusive colours include Phantom Titanium, Navy and Brown.
With a body made of mostly aluminum and glass, the S21 Ultra is a hefty phone. Weighing at 227 grams, this smartphone isn’t exactly what I would classify as light. Samsung really should have added a belt in the box. The S21 Ultra will weigh your pants down.
Security-wise, the phone has an in-screen thumbprint scanner to go along with the face unlock feature. Samsung claims that this year’s phone has a larger and faster sensor compared to last year’s model. Since I missed out on trying it, I’ll just have to take Samsung’s word for it. But from my experience throughout this review, the fingerprint sensor is responsive as it could ever be.
Spectacular Scenes and Sound
The Samsung S21 Ultra comes with a huge display size of 6.8 inches of Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen and a high 120Hz refresh rate. It sports almost nonexistent forehead and chin areas which somewhat hurts its ability to comfortably play games on when tilted. Don’t read me wrong here; the phone is lightning fast in loading games and presents zero stutters. But the overall design makes it hard to handle on landscape mode. This is exacerbated when playing shooter games such as Call of Duty Mobile and PUBG Mobile where I am forced to scrunch up my fingers to find that balance of keeping the phone stable and navigating the on-screen buttons.
Then again, I have to be realistic as the S21 Ultra is a top-shelf, luxury-level smartphone – like those sporty Aston Martin cars. Sure they’ll smoke other vehicles on the road but aren’t the sort you’d bring over for track days. If you get my drift.
Needless to say, I had a blast with the crisp images moreover when utilizing the phone for Netflix binges, YouTube videos on the go or when the mood suits me, remote play sessions via the Xbox app thanks to the super clear front-facing stereo speakers. Pumping out even and crisp audio puts the S21 Ultra among the best devices currently in the market to enjoy your streaming services sans a headset.
The S21’s screen is obviously no slouch as well. It’s ultra-bright, ultra-responsive and is a joy to look at. However, I did come across issues of the phone overheating over prolonged use. This could be simply due to a software issue and is easily remedied via an update.
The S21 Ultra has a USB-C port for charging, but does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack, following the trend of modern smartphones. Gone also is the storage expansion slot which may pose a problem for those who tend to cram their devices with 4k videos and high-resolution photographs. Speaking of photos, the S21 Ultra is equipped with four cameras;

40MP Selfie Camera;
12MP Ultra Wide Camera
108MP Wide-angle Camera; and
Two 10MP Telephoto Cameras

Check out the slideshow below for photos taken on the Samsung S21 Ultra:

As you’d quickly notice, I’m not the best phone photographer out there. And yet, these shots turned out great. Regardless of your skill level, the S21 Ultra will improve it. The bad to decent, and the pretty OK to respectable, wallpaper-worthy shots.
Being a collector of 1/6th scale action figures, I had tons of fun fiddling with the camera settings to capture that one perfect shot that showcases those intricate details of my newly acquired figurines. Though it’s just not for me; my significant other and I had fun testing the macro shot feature on other items as well.
While we doubt we’d have tons of practical uses for this apart from artsy Instagram posts, it is indeed a cool party trick. The wide-angle shots just work, although the 100x zoom lose its novelty really quick. In a way, this justifies the phone’s purchase with your significant other; its camera can be used by all.
Enthusiasts would love the micro-adjustments they are able to make with the phone while casuals can simply switch between specific modes – or just stick on auto. Either way, the phone leaves very little room for error and dare I say it here – any imperfect, out-of-focus and poorly lit photographs that may come out of this phone camera are either deliberate or in most cases, user-induced.
I do have a minor gripe in regards to how the camera processes the images taken. Under optimal lighting, I find the photos taken on the S21 Ultra to be slightly oversaturated for my liking. The colours pop out a bit too much which isn’t really my cup of tea as I’ve always preferred the more natural tones when it comes to our photos.
Then again, if high contrast, vibrant photographs are your jam, you will not be disappointed with the S21 Ultra’s camera.
The humongous battery that comes with the phones is definitely something I won’t be complaining about, as I am able to eke out close to two full days of continued normal use. This is two days of the standard fare; social media, texting, occasional random photography and music listening whilst alternating between Wi-Fi and cellular network. Your mileage may vary but I’m sure you’ll have to be one super hardcore phone user to even get the battery down to 30% by the first day’s end.
To Sum It Up
In all, the Samsung S21 Ultra is easily one of if not (depending on your bias) the best phones one could get in today’s market. It ticks all the boxes a premium, flagship model should and more.
Is this the answer to Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro Max? Undoubtedly. The 21 Ultra blows it out of the water. Whilst the price may set a considerable dent in one’s wallet, it is all worth it.

Final Score: 90/100

Vital Statistics
Platform: Android 11 OS, One UI 3.1
Body: 165.1 x 75.6 x 8.9 mm (6.5 x 2.98 x 0.35 in), 227g
Frame: Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus), glass back (Gorilla Glass Victus), aluminum frame with IP68 dust/water resistance
Chipset: Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 5G (5 nm)
CPU: Octa-core (1×2.84 GHz Kryo 680 & 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 680 & 4×1.80 GHz Kryo 680)
GPU: Adreno 660
Display: Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1500 nits; 6.8 inches, 112.1 cm2
Memory (Internal): 128GB 12GB RAM/ 256GB 12GB RAM/ 512GB 16GB RAM UFS 3.1
Main Camera: 108 MP, f/1.8, 24mm (wide); 10 MP, f/4.9, 240mm (periscope telephoto); 10 MP, f/2.4, 70mm (telephoto); 3x optical zoom 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide),
Sound: Stereo speakers, no jacks given
Battery: Li-Ion 5000 mAh, non-removable
Price: Starts from RM 4,549.00 (128GB)