Shigeru Miyamoto Receives Japanese Cultural Merit Award

Every year, the Japanese government honours individuals for their cultural contributions to the country and humanity, by awarding them with the Person Of Cultural Merit. Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto is one of twenty people to be named a Person Of Cultural Merit in 2019 (via Japanese publication Sankei).
Miyamoto is one of the most famous figures in video game history, responsible for creating legendary franchises like Mario, The Legend Of Zelda, and Donkey Kong. He even replaced Satoru Iwata as acting president of Nintendo for several months in 2015, before becoming a Creative Fellow at the Japanese games giant.
Receiving the award, the living legend responded by saying (as translated by Twitter user @Cheesemeister3k):

 “I’m thankful that light is being shined upon the genre of games.
This is a job where you can’t do anything by yourself.”

Miyamoto is the first figure hailing from the games industry to receive the Person Of Cultural Merit. Other figures in similar fields include Shigeru Mizuki of GeGeGe no Kitaro fame in 2010 and Studio Ghibliâ€™s Hayao Miyazaki in 2012.
Thanks for everything you’ve done (and still doing) for gamers and the games industry, Miyamoto-san. You are part of the reason that games are so beloved now, so we appreciate it.
(Image Credits: The Wall Street Journal)


Souls-Like Sequel Morbid The Lords Of Ire Announced

Merge Games and Still Running have announced souls-like action RPG Morbid The Lords Of Ire for PC, which will launch sometime in 2023. It is a 3D sequel to 2020’s Morbid The Seven Acolytes.
Players will re-join their hero, the Striver of Dibrom, to slay and scavenge their way through a tortured world of vile creatures where they are the underdog. Featuring an improved version of the Sanity System from the prequel, experience a dynamic adventure that bends and shapes your actions.
Check out the trailer below:


Now You Can Sing Along To The Full Main Theme Of Project Sakura Wars

In lieu of the Japanese release of the action-adventure title Project Sakura Wars, the latest entry in Sega’s past strategy RPG-slash-dating sim series, Sega has released the official theme song “Geki! Teikoku Kagekidan [Shinshou]” for online music stores.
You can get the theme on iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play Music for 250 yen, assuming you have a Japanese account or some way to buy Japanese region tracks with your respective account. You’ll be able to download both the vocal and instrumental version of the song, which means karaoke time!
In fact, you can do that now since Sega officially published the music video of the instrumental version:

The theme song is written by Oji Hiroi and composed by Kouhei Tanaka, with vocals from Ayane Sakura (voice actor for Sakura Amamiya), Maaya Uchida (Hatsuho Shinonome), Hibiku Yamamura (Azami Mochizuki), Ayaka Fukuhara (Anastasia Palma), and Saori Hayami (Claris).
We also did a short feature on Sakura Wars‘ many anthems, in case you want to find out in great detail how it was incepted. Also, you can play a demo of the game using a Japanese PlayStation 4 account.


HoYo FEST 2023 comes to Southeast Asia

HoYoverse has just announced the launch of Hoyo FEST 2023 in Southeast Asia. This highly anticipated event will bring together a collection of beloved HoYoverse titles, including the popular Genshin Impact, Honkai Impact 3rd, Honkai: Star Rail, Tears of Themis, and the highly awaited Zenless Zone Zero. In addition, attendees and fans will have the opportunity to engage with the live virtual actress, Lumi, who will be present at the festivities. HoYo FEST 2023 will feature a diverse range of on-site events for all participants.
Spanning across multiple countries, HoYo FEST 2023 will commence in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam from July to August, followed by Thailand, Philippines, and Singapore from October to November. This extensive tour ensures that fans across Southeast Asia will have the opportunity to partake in the excitement and celebration surrounding this huge event.
HoYo FEST is a global series of both offline and online festivals which is held by Hoyoverse itself every year. This year is the first time all these beloved titles will have gathered together at an event. Each game at HoYo FEST 2023 will have an exclusive booth with themed décor, faithfully recreating the beloved scenes from the games. This immersive experience will allow fans and players to step into the virtual worlds they adore and engage with true-to-game details.
DATES FOR HOYO FEST 2023
These are the dates that have been announced for each country respectively:

Malaysia: 1 Aug – 7 Aug  Tropicana Gardens Mall, Selangor
Indonesia : 27 July – 6 Aug Mall Artha Gading, Jakarta
Vietnam : 27 July – 6 Aug AEON MALL Tân Phú Celadon, TP H? Chí Minh
Thailand : 20 Oct – 22 Oct Stay Tuned
Philippines : 21 – 29 Oct Stay Tuned
Singapore : 24 Nov – 26 Nov Stay Tuned

SPECIAL EVENTS AT HOYO FEST 2023

Genshin Impact will recreate a popular attraction in Mondstadt, welcoming all Travelers to connect, cooperate and compete with each other through bountiful interactive activities such as stage competitions and quiz games.
Honkai Impact 3rd will embody the spirit of the higher–dimensional realm, Sea of Quanta, via its mysterious design style. Captains will be able to dive headfirst into the infinite realities and then have a hands–on of the game play at the same time. The annual Honkai Impact 3rd official online concert will be premiered on screen on JUL 29 at 8pm (UTC+8), come and be the first guest of the feast for eyes and ears!
Honkai: Star Rail will bring all Trailblazers to the Xianzhou Luofu, the giant Silkpunk flagship in game with its custom designed booth. Exhilarating interactive activities and stage competitions will also await all visitors on the spot.
Zenless Zone Zero, will showcase its iconic spot in game — the Random Play video store — with the booth designed accordingly to the theme. Visitors can also try out the demo at the booth and catch a glimpse into the captivating story and gameplay!
The booth of the romance detective title developed by HoYoverse, Tears of Themis, will relive the romantic proposal scene, enabling Attorneys to rewind the special, touching and heart–melting moments with the four male protagonists.

Lumi, the first–ever live virtual actress of HoYoverse, will allow visitors to take a sneak peak of her cozy room!
There will be merchandise for sale at each booth, selling HoYo FEST exclusive goodies that can only be found on–site, and also official merchandise of each title, including popular figurines, plushies and standees. Join the fun to earn luxurious HoYo FEST–themed freebies and relish the moment of happiness!
You can find everything about Hoyo FEST 2023 over here: https://hoyo.link/bctMDBAd


WoW & South Park Icon Dies From COVID-19

Jarod Nandin has died due to COVID-19. Nandin was known by the World Of Warcraft community as NWBZPWNR and “The South Park Guy” cosplayer.
The late Nandin revealed that he tested positive for COVID-19 on 19 December 2020, and he passed away several days later.

Wasn’t sure I was gonna worry you guys but things are now looking good. Went to the ER yesterday for chest pains. They suspect I have covid. Test results not in yet. Feeling better after treatments. Again, things look good so don’t fret. Will keep you all posted. pic.twitter.com/T7x6VFtqbC— NWBZPWNR (@JarodNWBZPWNR) December 19, 2020

I tested positive for covid. I’m really sorry guys. Don’t worry. I’ll make it.— NWBZPWNR (@JarodNWBZPWNR) December 22, 2020

During BlizzCon 2013, Nandin cosplayed as the World Of Warcraft gamer (“That Which Has No Life”) that was getting far too strong for the game in South Park Season 10 Episode 8 ‘Make Love, Not Warcraft’.

For reference, this is the South Park Guy from that aforementioned South Park episode:

From then on, he was even known as “The South Park Guy” for many people. We at Kakuchopurei offer our condolences to Jarod Nandin’s family and friends.
On social media, many have also shared their tributes to the late Nandin:

We are deeply saddened to report that Jarod "NWBZPWNR" Nandin, aka "The South Park Guy" cosplayer from BlizzCon 2013, has passed away after contracting Covid-19. #Warcraft pic.twitter.com/cqLVmyV3qp— Wowhead? (@Wowhead) January 4, 2021

Today the @Warcraft & greater @Blizzard_Ent community lost one of it’s sweetest souls to Covid. Jarod Nandin aka @JarodNWBZPWNR was best known by his famous Blizzcon cosplay “That Which Has No Life” from the @SouthPark ep “Make Love Not Warcraft”… (cont) https://t.co/LGCWKUWD1R pic.twitter.com/Mx63iS4ivG— Michele Morrow (@michelemorrow) January 3, 2021

rip to Jarod Nandin, a World of Warcraft and South Park icon, who lost his life to covid. may he roam Azeroth forever pic.twitter.com/zoH5Hk9bu7— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) January 4, 2021

I just learned from a Blizzard games group I am in that @JarodNWBZPWNR Who many of you may recognize from the cosplay contest at Blizzcon a few years ago has passed away due to covid. May he rest in peace and my heart goes out to his friends and loved ones. pic.twitter.com/GdKNenERAI— Jaythebard (@Jaythebard) January 3, 2021

Oh my good friend @JarodNWBZPWNR you will be missed so much. We will cherish the memories we had & continue to celebrate your life at conventions. Thank you for always making me laugh.All I know is next BlizzCon we will get together to celebrate his life. pic.twitter.com/BwIgKkxy9m— Jimmy ? (@djtyrant) January 3, 2021

Sad to learn of the passing of @JarodNWBZPWNR due to COVID, best known for his popular cosplay as South Park's NWBZPWNR. Rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/RnuvFuqZf6— DTJAAAAM (@DTJAAAAM) January 3, 2021


Fuel Loses to Outlaws To Go 0-3. Is It Time to Panic Yet?

The Dallas Fuel fell 0-3 in the Overwatch League after losing 0-4 to Houston Outlaws earlier today. The highly popular team fielding a core of the most successful Western Overwatch team in history appear to be on the right path on day-1 despite narrowly losing to season favorites Seoul Dynasty and were expected to bounce back immediately. However, subsequent losses to teams many perceived to be weaker than Fuel; LA Valiant and Houston Outlaws cause many to question the team’s overall quality and whether they will ever be able to recover – for Stage 1 at least.
Featuring new faces to the team in support specialist Custa, tank main xQc and flex DPS Seagull, many expected to see Dallas Fuel to be spearheading the north American teams’ charge against the Korean teams’ dominance yet recent performances have totally flipped the form books. No one saw their back-to-back losses coming and the Overwatch scene is rife with suggestions that this team is in trouble and aren’t that great as on paper.

We have to disagree with it. While all credit to Los Angeles Valiant and Houston Outlaws for soundly beating Dallas Fuel, it was down to these teams having rapidly improved coupled with the fact that Dallas Fuel still in the midst of acclimatising with their new recruits. Both LA Valiant and Houston Outlaws are easily among the better teams in the OWL and results between these teams can go either way. Of course it is no excuse considering Valiant and Outlaws had more work to do in terms of finding that team chemistry compared to Fuel but hear us out.
The Dallas Fuel of old, EnVyUs was well known for pulling out unconventional tactics when taking on their opponents. This is a team known for their willingness to experiment, flexibility and ability to change approaches just like that and the addition of the earlier named players was proof of that philosophy.
This string of poor results isn’t down to the players’ mechanical skill. Any of the Dallas Fuel players would easily qualify as starters in other OWL teams and if you rewatch all their matches, Fuel, on multiple occasions were just one team fight or even one kill away from reversing the results. Even legendary teams aren’t immune to a bad patch of form – heck even Seoul Dynasty a.k.a Lunatic-Hai went through it in their last season on OGN APEX where they were swept 0-4 twice by eventual winners, GC Busan and look at where they are now. The point we are trying to make is that kneejerk reactions from fans won’t serve Dallas Fuel.
EnVyUs is an establishment known for their winning ways and we are confident they will get back to their groove much sooner than later. Perhaps lady luck wasn’t on their side considering their schedule which pits them against four top tier teams in their opening matches but the season is long – there are 37 matches left to be played! Their next one will be against another season favorites, London Spitfire so don’t expect that losing streak to end just yet (the Spitfire are flying high at the moment) but if there’s one team that is able to rise from the ashes, it’s the Boys in Blue and we are counting on seeing them lighting the OWL on fire as the season progresses.

Some thoughts from @A_Seagull on todayâ€™s match pic.twitter.com/Sux1bb3mtA
â€” Dallas Fuel (@DallasFuel) January 19, 2018


Apex Legends The Old Ways Event To Focus On Bloodhound’s Origin Story

Respawn Entertainment has announced that the Apex Legends The Old Ways event will be starting from tomorrow on 7 April to 21 April 2020. To celebrate the beginning of this new event, the developer has released a 10-minute Stories short film on the origin of Bloodhound.
The synopsis reads:

In a village that has rejected the hubris of machines, a child is sent into the wilds in a lethal rite of passage.
But they soon realize they are more hunted than hunter.
Learn the truth of the Old Ways and see a scared youth become the fearsome Bloodhound.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGf20wlss7Y&w=560&h=315]
Apex Legends The Old Ways will re-introduce Duos and Trios, as well as a permanent map rotation that will allow players to jump in both Kings Canyon and Worlds Edge. The biggest highlight is the new Bloodhoundâ€™s Trials Town Takeover, where players will find themselves battling against prowlers and other players to grab high-tier loot.
As part of the Apex Legends The Old Ways Event, players will have the chance to complete daily challenges and earn exclusive cosmetics inspired by the Outlands: The Old Ways digital short seen above. It will deliver an all-new prize track with the following rewards:

Besides that, players can look forward to new exclusive skins via the direct purchase shop. Check out the schedule below, including the one for the returning Legendary Hunt skins:

In the meantime, check out the trailer below for what awaits you in the Apex Legends The Old Ways event.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0gXZS9XcBM&w=560&h=315]


Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order To Feature Sekiro-Like Parrying Mechanic & Difficulty Options

Respawn Entertainment has recently unveiled new gameplay footage by giving a final preview to several selected publications. We already know that the upcoming game will be featuring non-linearÂ Metroidvania and Dark Souls-like gameplay, instead of the linear gameplay that was showcased at E3 2019.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order director Stig Asmussen revealed several more details about the highly-anticipated game. There will be difficulty options, including an easier story mode option and harder modes. He said:

“And probably the biggest change that we’ve made is difficulty in the game.
Most of us at work like a challenge, but we recognise this is Star Wars, [which has] a huge audience, we don’t want anybody to feel left out.”

According to Asmussen, the main theme of Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order will be “what it means to be a Jedi in dark times” and a lot of family-related themes as well. Cal and his crew will question the differences between what’s right and what’s wrong, but also the grey path in between as they realise that not everything is black and white in the fight against the Empire.
Asmussen also reassured players of the game’s non-linear gameplay:

“There’s a lot more choice for the player, and it’s about re-traversal, it’s about discovering new powers and finding new areas, but also going back to places you’ve been before, and discovering new areas within there as well.”

From the looks of the extended gameplay, the parrying mechanic seems to have been inspired by Sekiro Shadows Die Twice. Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order will feature a block meter, where players can find windows of opportunity to take out enemies in one hit. Enemies can also counter your attacks and do the same thing, which is pretty similar to how combat works in Sekiro.
Check out new gameplay footage of Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order with developer commentary below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZNMWOp3n3A&w=560&h=315]


KKP Best Of 2020: Game #12

For more 2020 gaming goodness, head here.
#12: Gears Tactics

Up until now, it’s tough to find a strategy game as nail-biting, as in-depth, and as action-packed as XCOM and XCOM 2. But Splash Damage has done it with Gears Tactics.Â
Staying on-brand with the Xbox franchise, you have to deal with a ton of Locusts and chest-high walls to hide behind, as well as a four-person squad armed to the teeth. You also have to plan ahead and commit to your moves, because you only have a limited amount of turns to work with. That’s when you have to use the game’s refined strategy mechanics like overwatch and turn-gaining skills like execution, as well as figuring out which class is viable for your four-person mission.
And if the campaign missions aren’t enough -they are- you can keep playing and getting legendary equipment via Veteran mode which randomizes the types of missions you get. This is definitely meant for those who want the series’ infamous “Seriously?” achievement. Or if fully-equipping your squad with nothing but legendary gear is your sole goal.

Bottom line: it’s arguably better than Firaxis’ XCOM reboot, due to the fact that everything about this strategy game is snappy & intuitive, yet reactive & difficult in all the right places. The extra blood and gibs also help too; there’s a sense of satisfaction in outmanoeuvring a pack of sniper drones and then lancing them from the back, getting that execution AP buff sorely needed to take on those oncoming Boomers. I’m not even that huge a fan of strategy titles, so having this turn-based Gears entry change my viewpoint a tad is a testament onto itself.
Oh, and that click after you’re out of bullets and the signal to reload? That still sounds awesome up to this day.


PlatinumGames Would Love To Finish Scalebound If Given The Chance Again

Remember that Xbox One exclusive Scalebound? No, you didn’t, because that open-world action-adventure game from PlatinumGames was cancelled three years ago because both the company and Microsoft were at fault for not delivering what was needed.

“I think there are areas where we couldâ€™ve done better and Iâ€™m sure there are areas that Microsoft as a publishing partner wish that they couldâ€™ve done better. Because nobody wants a game to be canceled.” – PlatinumGames head Atsushi Inaba.

Well, that may change if the studio that made Bayonetta and Vanquish are given the opportunity to return to past projects. According to a Eurogamer Portugal interview, PlatinumGames would love to return to the cancelled IP, but since Microsoft owns it, they can’t do much at this point.

“Again, it’s a good question! But this was an intellectual property that belongs 100% to Microsoft. Whatever happens with this project, we can’t really do anything with it unless Microsoft leaves us. But it’s a game that we fall in love with and love. If the opportunity arises, it’s something we would love to return to.”

Thanks to the company’s recent investment from Tencent, the company wants to self-publish its titles across multiple platforms, starting with The Wonderful 101.Â


The Upcoming KonoSuba Console RPG Is Delayed To November

If you’re looking forward to the next big video game adaptation of meme-worthy isekai comedy anime KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World!, you’ll have to suffer a slight delay.
Entergram has announced that KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Cursed Relic and the Perplexed Adventurers will be delayed from its original 29th September release date to 24th November. The delay is due to production issues. That’s just a 2-month, so it’s not a big deal if you want your slapstick fix, at least for the Japanese version. There’s no word on an English release as of now.
The game will be out for PS4 and Nintendo Switch. For more gameplay on the upcoming RPG, check out the video below:


[Sponsored] First of Moontonâ€™s Project NEXT Many MLBB Reworks Drops; Miya & Alucard Lead the Way

Following the announcement of Mobile Legends: Bang Bangâ€™s “Project NEXT” recently, developers Moonton have released several new pieces of information that would leave any MLBB player looking forward to more rounds in the upcoming months.
For the uninitiated, Project NEXT is Moontonâ€™s initiative to not only improve their flagship title but to also breathe new life into the game for old and returning players whilst making it attractive for newcomers alike.

Hero Revamp
The first hero revamp move touches one of the most iconic and beloved legends in the MLBB roster, the long-range archer who happens to be the gameâ€™s official mascot, Miya.Â
The revamp starts with her costume which the developers hope would make her appeal to many. In a step to increase the overall appeal of this hero, great care has been put into her redesign. Miya now sports a more functional look heading into battle complete with knee-high boots, shins, and forearms guards, as well as a redesigned shoulder pauldron.Â

Miyaâ€™s revamp isnâ€™t just skin deep. The tweaks on Miya involve her weapon and overall skill tree and kit, in hopes of making her a more viable hero in the current state of the game. Despite being the face of the game, Miya isnâ€™t really up there in terms of popularity amongst the player base. With that in mind, the development team aims to change that through this extensive rework.Â
To boost up her pick-up rates and viability in matchups, Miya is the lucky recipient of a progressive set of tweaks. Her Passive and Skill 2 now grants her a higher damage output, significantly better control and improved positioning ability.
One cannot speak about Miya without the mention of Alucard who also received tweaks in several areas. Unlike Miya, whose appearance received a drastic makeover, Alucard only went through minor changes, with the most prominent one being his hair makeover.

Following feedback from the player base, the MLBB team decided to do minimal yet meaningful tweaks to Alucardâ€™s to fit his 1v1 fighting style. First up is his passive skill “Pursuit” which originally saw him dealing extra damage once his skills hit two targets. The reworked “Pursuit” will now allow Alucard to inflict massive damage to just one single target instead, thus making him a very capable dueller.
Alucard’s Ultimate, Fission Wave gets a different effect going forward too. Instead of locking onto enemies while receiving a lifesteal buff in the process, Fission Wave will now mark opponents and allow Alucard to trigger Pursuitâ€™s extra damage bonus.Â
In addition to the legends’ kit and design, their lore and backstories are reconstructed and retold to various degrees to reflect changes done. Considering that MLBB has a roster of over 80 legends, this is definitely no small feat.
Expect to see more tweaks and adjustments of similar scale to be announced, as we head deeper into the NEXT project cycle.Â
NEXT Wave
A project of this size deserves a symbol of sorts to highlight the main objective and core tenet of the endeavour. To signify this, publishers Moonton have unveiled the official logo for the project which encapsulates the gargantuan task ahead.

According to Moonton, the stylized gold logo signifies glory, justice and passion of the game and its community. Meanwhile, the blue gem which is inspired by the in-game defense turret represents hope, as well as a beacon guiding the initiative forward.
Underlining the word “NEXT” is a subtle v-shape which, in Moonton’s own words “symbolizes the past achievements and the whole fresh adventure awaits, just as the name ‘NEXT’ implies.”
With a lot of effort put into the design of the logo alone, one can only imagine the scrutiny, dedication and focus being put to reinvigorate one of the most popular mobile game titles in the world. By keeping up with the times, and being super receptive and alert of community feedback, MLBB will continue to dominate the mobile gaming scene in many years to come.Â

This sponsored post is brought to you by Shanghai Moonton Technology Co., Ltd.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is developed by Moonton. You can download the free-to-play mobile game via Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.


Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 Gaming Monitor Pre-Orders Are Now Open

The second-generation Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 â€“ Ultimate Ultrawide Gaming Monitor is now open for pre-order from 10 to 14 November 2021.Â
Featuring the industryâ€™s first Quantum Mini LED curved display and Samsungâ€™s proprietary Quantum Matrix Technology, along with whip-fast response, refresh rates and a sleek design, the Odyssey Neo G9 delivers brilliant screen quality and premium performance to every gamer.
The quality of graphics and sound in games is improving all the time. Therefore, to enjoy games to their fullest, gamers must ensure they are playing on high-specification equipment that is capable of delivering a premium gaming experience or liven up your downtime by treating yourself to a new monitor for gaming hour.
The Recommended Retail Pricing for the New Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 is:

Model
Recommended Retail Price (RRP)

LS49AG950NEXXS â€“ 49â€ Odyssey Neo G9
RM9,499

Pre-Order Promotion
RM5,999

*While stocks last. Terms and Conditions apply.
To Pre-Order your new Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 Monitor and transform your gaming space, kindly visit https://shop.samsung.com/my/odysseyneog9preorder.


Destroy All Humans! Remake Invades Our Planet This July

Publisher THQ Nordic and developer Black Forest Games have finally announced a release date for the upcoming Destroy All Humans! remake. It is slated to release for the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Google Stadia on 28 July 2020.
The original Destroy All Humans! was initially launched developed by the now-defunct Pandemic and launched in 2005 for the PS2 and Xbox. If features snarky alien protagonist Crypto, crash landing on Earth in the 1950s.

It became a hit for its unconventional humour poking fun at sci-fi and B-movie tropes, as well as unique physics-based gameplay, which includes telekinesis and death rays. Those who pre-order the Destroy All Humans! remake will receive a set of exclusive skins, including one where Crypto wears a white Elvis Presly-like bodysuit.
In a sea of other major video game remakes like Final Fantasy VII Remake and Trials Of Mana in 2020, I still can’t believe that they’re actually making this game. In the meantime, check out the trailer below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCmeVbCYJw&w=560&h=315]


Second Dark Pictures Anthology Game Is Coming This Summer

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man Of Medan came out in August 2019, which we found to be a flawed interactive adventure horror title (check out our review here). Nevertheless, a second entry is coming soon, and developer Supermassive Games have dished out a few new details.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope was initially revealed in a secret teaser at the end of The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man Of Medan. It will officially launch for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC, sometime in summer 2020.
Supermassive Games CEO Pete Samuels said (via IGN):

“Trapped and isolated in the abandoned town of Little Hope, four college students and their professor must escape the nightmarish visions that relentlessly pursue them through an impenetrable fog.
As they journey through the town looking for a means of escape, they must understand the meaning of these events, the root of evil, and how it is directly connected to them.”

That sounds a lot like the premise and setting of Konami’s Silent Hill franchise. Imagine an interactive adventure Silent Hill title, perhaps that’s what The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope is trying to be.
The upcoming game will feature the same two multiplayer modes that The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan did, which includes Shared Story and Movie Night. In Shared Story, players can share their story with friends online, while a group of five players can pass the controller to each other in a local offline mode in Movie Night.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope will star Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and The Chronicles Of Narnia: Voyage Of The Dawn Treader actor Will Poulter. In the meantime, check out the trailer below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOtm9KJNqlI&w=560&h=315]


Star Wars Fans Can Buy Their Own Life-Size Tauntaun Head

The Tauntaun is an iconic beast from the Star Wars franchise, despite having been featured in only one movie; Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. If you ever wanted to own one (albeit just the head), now you can, courtesy of the folks atÂ Regal Robot.
Regal Robot is selling the officially licensed, numbered edition life-size Tauntaun bust from their Custom Character Studio. It’s an authentic 1:1 re-creation of practical life-size props from the production of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
Measuring at a height of 38 inches tall, the Tauntaun costs a whopping US$6,999.00 to US$7,999.00 since they’re developed with moulds from the original Lucasfilm props. Their New York FX team crafts each one of these busts, and shipping usually takes approximately 16 weeks from the order date.
They also have a Chewbacca bust at US$4,500.00. You can head on overÂ to their website to check them out.
Check out some of our other Star Wars stuff here.


Xbox Games Showcase 2023: All The Games & Announcements

The annual Xbox Games Showcase took place earlier today and it was full of game announcements. The biggest reveals included our first look at gameplay from Xbox exclusives such as Fable and Avowed, the release date for Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty, and more.
Check out all the games and our full coverage below:

XBOX UNVEILS FIRST LOOK AT THE NEW FABLE

SOUTH OF MIDNIGHT TRAILER UNVEILED AT XBOX GAME SHOWCASE

STAR WARS OUTLAWS IS A NEW OPEN-WORLD GAME BY UBISOFT

OBSIDIAN SHOWCASES AVOWED GAMEPLAY, LAUNCHING IN 2024

NEW 2D CO-OP GAME 33 IMMORTALS SLATED FOR 2024

SENUA’S SAGA HELLBLADE II TRAILER REVEALS 2024 RELEASE WINDOW

LIKE A DRAGON: INFINITE WEALTH DUE OUT EARLY 2024

THE NEW FORZA MOTORSPORT LAUNCHES THIS OCTOBER

HEIST GAME PAYDAY 3 LAUNCHES THIS SEPTEMBER

CAPCOM ANNOUNCE KUNITSU-GAMI: PATH OF THE GODDESS

CYBERPUNK 2077 PHANTOM LIBERTY DLC EXPANSION DROPS THIS SEPTEMBER

BETHESDA RELEASE GAMEPLAY & STORY TRAILER FOR STARFIELD

CITY SIMULATION GAME CITIES SKYLINES 2 LAUNCHES THIS OCTOBER

CREATORS OF PERSONA ANNOUNCE METAPHOR: REFANTAZIO

NEW 1TB CARBON BLACK XBOX SERIES S LAUNCHES THIS SEPTEMBER

WASTELAND DEVELOPER ANNOUNCE CLOCKWORK REVOLUTION

THE NEXT-GEN MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2024 LANDS NEXT YEAR

PERSONA 3 RELOAD & PERSONA 5 TACTICA OFFICIALLY REVEALED

JUSANT IS A NEW MOUNTAIN-CLIMBING GAME FROM LIFE IS STRANGE DEVELOPERS

DUNGEONS OF HINTERBERG IS A NEW ACTION-ADVENTURE RPG WITH CEL-SHADED VISUALS

PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR GAME STILL WAKES THE DEEP ARRIVES IN EARLY 2024

STARFIELD GAMEPLAY SHOWCASED IN DEEP DIVE VIDEO, LIMITED EDITION CONTROLLER & HEADSET REVEALED


Xbox Teams Up With Adidas To Make Gaming Sneakers

Taking a page from PlayStation and Paul George, Microsoft’s Xbox is teaming up with a sneaker company to make gamer shoes.
Xbox is teaming up with Adidas to create limited-edition Xbox sneakers to mark the first Xbox’s 20th anniversary. Apart from these limited edition Xbox sneakers, there will also be a separate Xbox-inspired sneaker available for purchase later in 2021. Here’s an official quote from the partnership’s press release.
“This is just the beginning of our partnership with Adidas, and over the next few months weâ€™ll continue to mark our 20th anniversary by launching additional sneakers inspired by past and present Xbox console generations, including the first-ever sneaker available for purchase by our fans later this year.”
Purchasing and pre-order details will come at a later date.


Diablo 3 Season 26 Starts On 15 April; Here’s What You Need To Know

The next major Diablo 3 season is happening next week, meaning new rewards and challenges for action RPG veterans.
Season 26 will start on 15 April at 4pm GMT+8 (Malaysia, Singapore, The Phillippines) and comes with the theme Echoing Nightmare. This will be the first Seasonal Theme that comes with a new activity called Echoing Nightmare, where players will experience an intense and densely packed event that stretches a player’s ability to stay in the fight as long as possible.
To access an Echoing Nightmare challenge, you need to collect a Petrified Scream from defeated Greater Rift Guardians to gain entry. To get the portal to the challenge out, just transmute the Petrified Scream in Kanai’s Cube.
Here are additional details & notes about the challenge:

Petrified Screams and the Echoing Nightmare can only be accessed with seasonal characters.
Only one player is required to transmute a Petrified Scream to open an Echoing Nightmare in a multiplayer game.
Similar to a boss encounter, all players in a multiplayer game must accept a prompt to enter.
While within an Echoing Nightmare, the difficulty scales as players progress in the encounter. Players can progress faster by defeating monsters quickly.
Players receive the following rewards upon completing an Echoing Nightmare: EXP, Legendary Items, Blood Shards, Gems, and a new Legendary Gem, Whisper of Atonement.
The Whisper of Atonement is a Legendary Gem used exclusively for Augmenting Ancient Legendary items. It drops pre-ranked based upon the player’s performance in the Echoing Nightmare.
Rare monsters now spawn within an Echoing Nightmare.
Meteors now fall from the sky.
Hellish Machinations now appear, which spawn streams of Exploding Lunatics.
Rift Guardians now spawn.
Increased the frequency of which monsters spawn.
Updated the Shadow Clone explosion to better reflect the area of effect.
The exit timer has been increased to 60 seconds.
Increased the possible rank a Whisper of Atonement can drop to 125 based on the Tier completed.
Monsters in Echoing Nightmares can no longer be Frozen, Stunned, Rooted or Knocked Back.
Fixed a bug that caused Conduit Shrines to deal less damage than intended.

The Season’s Cosmetic Rewards include a series of portrait frames themed around Tal Rasha, the Rakkis’ Remembrance portrait, and the Toothsome Trooper pet.

Completing Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of the Season Journey will reward you with three Haedrig’s Gifts, with each of them containing a few pieces from a Class Set. Here are the Class Sets from the gifts:

Barbarian – The Legacy of Raekor
Crusader – Armor of Akkhan
Demon Hunter – Embodiment of the Marauder
Monk – Inna’s Reach
Necromancer – Pestilence Master’s Shroud
Witch Doctor – Zunimassa’s Haunt
Wizard – Delsere’s Magnum Opus

A new Season means new changes, buffs, and nerfs to classes and Class Sets. Long story short: the Barbarian’s Raekor set gets an overhaul while the Crusader’s Thorns of the Invoker and Norvald’s Fervor get nerfed. No more horsing around, basically.
Here is the full list:
Barbarian

Legacy of Raekor (4-piece Bonus): Furious Charge gains the effect of every rune and deals 1000% increased damage. For every 1% Life you are missing, the damage of your Ancient Spear is increased by 2%.
Legacy of Raekor (6-piece Bonus): Hitting enemies with Furious Charge or Weapon Throw increases the damage of your next Ancient Spear by 5500% and causes it to release multiple spears from its target. This effect stacks and each spear throw consumes a maximum of 5 stacks.
Arreat’s Law: Weapon Throw and Ancient Spear deal 150-200% increased damage.

Weapon Throw generates up to 25 50 additional Fury based on the distance of the enemy hit. The generated Fury can go above the maximum cap by 200 Fury.
Ancient Spear refunds up to 25 50 Fury based on the distance of the enemy hit and resets your Fury cap to its base maximum.

The Three Hundredth Spear: Increase the damage of Weapon Throw and Ancient Spear by 150-200%. The attack speed of Weapon Throw is increased by 200%.
Skular’s Salvation: Increase the damage of Ancient Spear by 150-200%. If your Ancient Spear – Boulder Toss hits 5 or fewer enemies, the damage is increased by 100%.

Crusader

Thorns of the Invoker: The attack speed of Punish and Slash are increased by 100% and deal 67,500% of your Thorns damage.
Norvald’s Fervor: Gain 200% increased damage while using Steed Charge and for 5 seconds after it ends.

Monk

All Mystic Allies spawned by Inna’s Mantra 6-piece bonus now have their duration refreshed with each attack.
Mystic Ally – Fire Ally: Mini allies now have Passability.
Mystic Ally – Earth Ally:

Earth Ally boulders speed has been increased. Boulders always leash to the player regardless of how many monsters are on screen.
Prevented Earth Ally boulders from being slowed by missile dampening.

Bindings of the Lesser Gods: Enemies hit by your Cyclone Strike take 150%-200% more damage from your Mystic Ally for 5 seconds.


Respawn Will Be Reviving Medal Of Honor As A VR Game For Oculus

Good news, old-school shooter fans: EA’s Medal of Honor series is making a comeback. But don’t expect it to be your regular shooter like last time.
Apex Legends and Titanfall creator Respawn will be turning the latest in the military shooter franchise as a VR game exclusively for the Oculus Rift. Basically, this is the “triple-A VR game” the company mentioned 2 years ago before the fated EA buyout. The new title will be called Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond and will be set in World War II.
There’s some shred of hope for those disappointed by this news: the original Medal of Honor’s producer and writer Peter Hirschmann will be working on this game.

“Weâ€™re trying to make the most authentic World War II game possible,” said Hirschmann. “That does not mean weâ€™re trying to make the most realistic one.” He stressed that the game will draw the line between “authentic” and “realistic”.

You will use the Oculus motion controllers to pick up, hold, aim, and fire your weapon, as well as pretend to grab ammo from your left hip and then pop it to your gun. You won’t be putting the gun back in the holster. The game will feature a 10 to 12-hour campaign mode spread across 50 different levels and also a “full suite” of multiplayer modes. And just like the 1999 original, there will be a heavy educational element to the release;
Respawn already conducted interviews with many World War II veterans and partnered with organization Honor Flight, which flies veterans to memorials in Washington, D.C. The company is also scanning archival footage from the Library of Congress into 4K to make the upcoming game all the more authentic.
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond will be out 2020. Whether it’ll be a tipping point for gamers to buy an Oculus Rift for its selling points, we’ll never know until next year. Though it’s nice to see Respawn/previous Infinity Ward come back full circle to the series that launched a thousand military shooters.


Michael Keaton’s Batman 1989 Gets A New Hot Toy Figure

Hot Toys has unveiled a new figure of Michael Keaton’s Batman from Tim Burton’s Batman (1989). It’s good timing, considering that Batman is set to appear in the upcoming The Flash movie.
Meticulous and faithful recreation of Michael Keaton’s remarkable appearance as Batman in the movie, the highly-detailed 1/6th scale figure features a newly developed Batman head with separate rolling eyeballs and interchangeable lower faces techniques design; a specialized body highlighting Batman’s muscular form; the newly designed Batsuit to mimic the material appearance; unique Bat gadgets including grapple gun, gauntlet with line launcher, rope attached batarang, ninja wheels, smoke capsules; also accessories including a white heel shoe, Batmobile remote, bomb timer, punch gear, and a display base.
Check out the figure below:
https://www.facebook.com/hottoys/posts/pfbid02xhKKvjzABry3yMknmCjiLfEUzqsy69Mx5dHVkoahwi7DyDxWnZg3y8afv4BZriYwl


Nintendo Will Premiere The Second Mario Bros. Movie Trailer Tomorrow

Nintendo will premiere the second Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer tomorrow on Tuesday.
The trailer will be out in a special Nintendo Direct on 30th November 6am GMT+8. Based on the teaser image below, we will be getting the debut movie appearance of Princess Peach, voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy.

The ? awaits pic.twitter.com/15wjCfrdC4
— The Super Mario Bros. Movie (@supermariomovie) November 28, 2022

According to Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri, he said the movie has been in the works for 7 years and was nearing completion.
“Next week we complete animation, [and] we’re knee-deep into lighting and compositing. Composer Brian Tyler heads to the scoring stage in just 11 days. He’s been working hand-in-hand with [Super Mario Bros game composer] Koji Kondo to integrate classic themes from the game into the film score.”
In the meantime, some screenshots and stills of the film have been making the rounds online (via AutomaticZen). Here are the main Mario characters in their Illumination movie glory.

I must say: they look different. Not good or bad different; just…different.


5 Quirky Visual Novels You Might Have Missed

First of all, let’s define a visual novel – it’s a game genre where the player, you, will be reading a series of text, accompanied by images. This is the background images, then there are things like character sprites, or some kind of representation of the characters within the game – then of course, there’s the story.
You don’t always have choices, but sometimes you do – and sometimes those choices give you the ability to see different options depending on what you’ve chosen to do, and sometimes those choices don’t entirely matter at all beyond just progressing the story. Or do they? There are times when a decision made an hour ago will affect the ending of the arc. There’s probably a whole thing about how it’s just like life in that aspect, but that’s beside the point.
Bottom line, visual novels are a great medium to tell stories. They’re not the only way to express a narrative, but they’re often one of the more common ways. Some games will sometimes include elements of the visual novel genre in order to tell the story in the game, especially if there is a dialogue between multiple characters. Other times, visual novels may also include elements of other games in the form of mini-games, and those mini-games and your progress will affect how the story progresses. It’s a lot of fun!
That being said, there are definitely a couple of visual novels which must’ve missed everyone’s radars, and I’m here to bring some attention to them! So let’s check 5 of ‘em out!
Juniper’s Knot

Juniper’s Knot is a relatively short kinetic (meaning, one path, read straight through) visual novel made in the Ren’py engine that holds a special place in my heart. It’s one of those games that were a bit of a ‘you had to be there’ -type situation. At that time, in the far of year or 2012, majority of Ren’py-made games looked the same. You could tell it was made in the engine because of the UI/UX, because they shared similar assets, or rather, the assets all borrowed from the same skeleton. Not to say it oversaturated the market or anything, but things just looked… similar, at that time.
Then came Juniper’s Knot, a free-to-play visual novel about the meeting of a demon and a boy. There was a certain level of polish to it that really added to the story, and it didn’t feel like the polish was overcompensating for the story – the demon really has multiple layers, as does the human boy protagonist. Visually and story-wise, it still holds up over a decade later. A high recommendation for anyone who enjoys stories about magic and conversations between people in different places.
Re: Alistair++

Visual novels are often partnered with the romance genre, often in the form of a game where the player acts as a protagonist who seeks out a love interest out of many, or sometimes just the one. Re:Alistair++ is a short visual novel which plays on the former – the player takes on the role of Merui, an avid gamer who gets an item stolen from her in her favourite MMORPG. She goes on the hunt to discover who this mysterious ‘Alistair’ is, and how to get her item back. But in the pursuit of it, she discovers that ‘Alistair’ might be closer to her in real life than she thought…?!
It’s a relatively basic premise by modern standards – this is the kind of stuff that most light novels and anime are made of, right? You have the main girl, the supporting love interests, and everyone will have their own favourites to root for (there are three different romanceable guys!) – but given the time this came out, 2010, and for free, and using the Ren’py engine, it really set the tone for what visual novels could do and what you as a game developer, using the engine, was capable of. But that aside, the story itself is very light and fun, and easy to immerse yourself into.
SC2VN (StarCraft 2 Visual Novel: the eSports Visual Novel)

Stories can often be used to comment and describe certain environments we may not be familiar with, and the SC2VN is a great way to really get a feel of the South Korean StarCraft 2 eSports scene. Sure, it’s fictional – the characters aren’t real, yeah. However, the feelings, the passion, the drive as described in the game, those are real. It really gets your blood pumping and you have a better sense of intensity and respect for eSports players, which is especially topical as eSports has become even more widely known through the region and the world.
Beyond the story, the characters, it is also visually stunning. The game was made in 2015 and it doesn’t really feel like it – things are clean and readable without being overly difficult to understand, not only from a visual perspective but also from a story perspective. You might worry about being a total newbie to eSports – why should you play something like this? But that’s exactly why you should, because it’s a window into the highs and lows of a game that can mean so much to some. Highly recommended, for sure.
Digital: A Love Story

Digital: A Love Story is mostly here because it does something totally different from what you would expect out of a visual novel. It’s sure got a visual interface, and you do a lot of reading, like a novel. But it’s not what you’d expect otherwise.
The game is a computer mystery/romance set five minutes into the future of 1988. You’ll discover internet conspiracies, do some hacking, save the world, find some love?
This is another game which you truly had to see when it came out – this is from 2010 and it doesn’t look like other Ren’py games at all. The works of developer Christine Love have always had a sense of polish to them, but also a sense of grit. Digital: A Love Story is no exception to either. It gets a high recommendation from me for you to check out.
Jisei: The First Case

Another Sakevisual title on the list, but this time an all-out murder mystery. Jisei follows a nameless teenager with the power of reliving the dying moment of any corpse he touches. He takes on a case involving a murdered woman, of which he was accused of killing. Things continue to escalate, and the final result just might surprise you.
Jisei is a paid title from the Sakevisual team, but not their first time dabbling in the mystery genre. It’s a good exploration of a visual novel with elements of searching and exploration, and fact-finding to discover the truth. Jisei is also the first in a trilogy of games, and you’ll definitely want to play the whole series to discover more about the protagonist.
From a development perspective, this was especially interesting as paid titles coming from what was then called, the OELVN (Original English Language Visual Novel) market, were not always considered to be of quality. Many users at the time were very much of the opinion of “it has to have come from Japan if not it isn’t good” – something we might’ve also seen in the English-language Manga market (remember TokyoPop’s OEL titles that you’d find in Borders? I am very much ageing myself with this sentence). So Jisei was one of the first games to show “yes, I was made by a western dev, and I am also very good. I also cost money, and I am worth being paid for.” Kudos to the team for their work, genuinely. It definitely paved the way for future devs – like you and me!
Did you notice that all the games listed were also made with the free visual novel development engine, Ren’py? Did you also know that you can use it to make your own visual novels, and there’s a wealth of other engines you can also check out in order to make your next indie hit? Check out last week’s article on Game Engines to find out more!


World Of Warships Celebrates 6th Anniversary With Transformers, Dutch Cruisers & More

World of Warships has today launched a massive content update to celebrate its 6th anniversary. Update 0.10.8 brings the “6 Years of World of Warships” Collection, which comes with attractive rewards, alongside a brand-new wave of Transformers content.
Furthermore, Dutch cruisers have been added as a new ship branch, while Soviet aircraft carriers begin their maiden voyage in early access, followed by a new temporary event that teaches players about the different experimental aircraft design schools.
Six Years of Warships

To join the birthday celebrations, players can jump into the â€œ6 Years of World of Warships” collection, and begin piecing together a giant 60-piece jigsaw puzzle, dedicated to the biggest events over the previous year. Pieces can be obtained from “6 years of World of Warships” special containers, which are available in the Armory in exchange for Festive Tokens.
Players can also get containers by completing a special combat mission chain or with the new temporary Aircraft Bureaus Rivalry event. The reward for completing the collection will be a Supercontainer, 6x Gift containers, the “6 Years of World of Warships” festive flag and Festive Tokens can be exchanged in the Armory for themed permanent camouflages.
On top of that, players can look forward to special festive bonuses that can be earned by simply playing any Tier V ship or higher. Depending on ship tier players can obtain Supercontainers, Gift containers and Festive Tokens.
TRANSFORMERS, Warships in disguise!

World of Warships has teamed up with Hasbro to announce the second part of their popular crossover event. To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the iconic animated film, THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE, Wargaming will be releasing a slew of new in-game content inspired by the legendary franchise.
Four new characters enter the fray in World of Warships. Beginning 24th September players will be able to lead Hot Rod, Grimlock, Starscream and Soundwave in the battle on the open seas. The collaboration includes animated permanent thematic camouflages, expandable camouflages, commanders with unique voiceovers, as well as patches and flags to display The Matrix of Leadership proudly.
Dutch Cruisers are ready to research

Dutch Tier Iâ€“X cruisers are now available for all players to research, following a successful maiden voyage on Early Access. Setting sail from the historical Rotterdam port, these ships feature a new armament type – Airstrike, good concealment and manoeuvrability, as well as powerful guns and solid armour on high tiers.
Soviet CVs arrive in Early Access

Soviet aircraft carriers Tier IV Komsomolets, Tier VI Serov, and Tier VIII Pobeda have all arrived in Early Access in Update 0.10.8. Featuring powerful squadrons which attack in a single strike, rocket boosters, and skip bombers, these ships are set to bring a powerful aerial threat to the seas! These ships can be obtained through a new temporary resource: Soviet Tokens. These are earned through participating in the Aircraft Bureaus Rivalry event, activating free daily bundles and random bundles, or in exchange for Community Tokens in the Armory.
We got a sailing convoy!

Update 0.10.8 brings a brand new temporary battle type to World of Warships, based on real-life events which have proven critical during 20th-century conflicts â€” Convoy escort missions. Naval battles are often won or lost by defending or destroying cargo lanes, so players will be able to experience this conflict first hand. One team will need to escort a convoy of four bot ships that sail along a defined route, while the opposition team looks to prevent them from reaching their destination.


Dead Space 2023 Reboot Gameplay And Limited Run’s Collector Edition Revealed

EA Motive just launched a livestream to celebrate the 14th anniversary of the Dead Space franchise. And also show off gameplay of the reboot.
You can check it out below: it’s very detailed, full of remake and level revamps compared to the original, and will have main character engineer Isaac Clarke speaking a bit like he did in Dead Space 2. Here’s a bit more description about the game’s Intensity Director:
“The Intensity Director makes your exploration of the Ishimura even more intense, challenging, and unpredictable. Enemies, lighting, and ambiance may change each time you return to a previously explored area, making each experience unique. Then find out how new audio and visual effects help crank up the tension throughout.”

That’s not all: collector’s edition creators Limited Run will be distributing the Dead Space reboot Collector’s Edition worth US$274.99. It features a physical copy of the game (Xbox, PlayStation, PC), the collector’s box, lithograph print of Isaac in action, four mini posters, an Ishimura patch, the game’s soundtrack in CD form, and most importantly, a human head-sized wearable Isaac Helmet.

You can go get the collector’s edition here. The Dead Space reboot will be out on 27 January 2023 for Xbox Series, PlayStation 5, and PC.


The Last Of Us’ Gabriel Luna On Having The Same Hometown As His Character, Tommy

The Last Of Us based on the critically acclaimed video game of the same name developed by Naughty Dog exclusively for the PlayStation platforms, is written and executive produced by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann. The series is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television and is executive produced by Carolyn Strauss, Evan Wells, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, and Rose Lam. Production companies: PlayStation Productions, Word Games, The Mighty Mint, and Naughty Dog.
The Last Of Us takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal and heart-breaking journey as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
The cast includes Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, Gabriel Luna as Tommy, Anna Torv as Tess, Nico Parker as Sarah, Murray Bartlett as Frank, Nick Offerman as Bill, Melanie Lynskey as Kathleen, Storm Reid as Riley, Merle Dandridge as Marlene, Jeffrey Pierce as Perry, Lamar Johnson as Henry, Keivonn Woodard as Sam, Graham Greene as Marlon, and Elaine Miles as Florence. Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker also star.
Courtesy of HBO Asia, we were lucky enough to be the only Malaysian media to participate in an interview with Gabriel Luna, who plays the role of Tommy in The Last Of Us. This article has been edited for clarity.
HBO / HBO GO / Jorge Bispo
How did you prepare for your role? Did you play The Last Of Us and what do you think of them?
Gabriel Luna: So, as far as my preparation goes, I had a little experience with the game already before I got the job. I played the original game back in 2013 very briefly at a friend’s house who had a PlayStation and had the game. I was able to experience the first 30 minutes of it and I loved it. I thought, how cool was this, that you could choose what you’re looking at.
You know, you see everything through Sarah’s eyes and you get to choose, I’m the kind of guy who likes to get into Photo Mode, especially in these beautiful games and compose my own images. It was nice, almost like you’re your own cinematographer. I thought that was really innovative, I was really fascinated by it, but I never really finished the game until I got the job and got to play the game for work.
At the setup panel in Brazil, I got a big laugh but it’s true, you know, I got to sit there and my wife would come in and yell, baby, I need you to unload the dishwasher and I’m like, yeah, I’m sorry, I can’t do it, I’m working right now.
So, you got to do that, absorb Jeffrey Pierces’ performance, his performance capture and his voice, to hear that. And then, having done that, realise how similar we are, and knowing that the character is from Austin, I can draw on a lot of my own personal experience of having been born in Austin, Texas. So, I tried to really trust myself and trust what it is and the people I know, and I kind of modelled the voice off of myself really, but there’s really a lot of my cousin Adrian’s spirit in there. He unfortunately passed at 44 a few years back and in a way, I kind of honoured him in how I incorporated him into Tommy.
I would just draw on my previous experience with combat training, weapons training. I consulted with Jack Nevils, who was our military consultant on Terminator Dark Fate. He is an army sniper himself and trains army snipers, so he was able to fully give me confidence in the way I was handling the weapon, the way that I was slinging the rifle and firing on the move, how one holds his weapon and handles the scope at rest. All these little details that Tommy would know obviously as an army sniper.
And then it was just to get with Pedro and try to find the common threads. He’s a beautiful person, man, a great actor and a really collaborative guy. We started to find how they can relate, the qualities of the brothers.
What did you look forward to the most to film from the game?
Gabriel Luna: For me, this was ten years of built-up anticipation, because as I mentioned, I played that first 30 minutes of the game back when it originally came out nearly 10 years ago. I would have to say that it’s the end of the prologue, which is also the end of the first episode. It was originally the first episode but I think we combined them.
The scene where we lose her (Sarah), where our family, our very small tiny family becomes tragically even smaller in the blink of an eye and if only I had gotten there a split second earlier, maybe it doesn’t happen, right?  It was a scene I was really looking forward to and of course, had it circled on the one-liner in the schedule, but it was also one that I was kind of dreading.
I think I operate best when I’m in survival mode and that being a place where I’m somewhat trepidatious and somewhat fearful, it keeps the nerves raw and it keeps you on edge. So, I think it was that scene in particular was one I was most looking forward to both in anticipation of what I could bring to it and the emotional depth that it required and then of course, being a fan of the game, and knowing how heavy that hits so early in our story, I wanted to do it justice.
What was it like working with Pedro Pascal?
Gabriel Luna: We were able to get on level ground with each other fairly rapidly, I would say. We started by, we just got each other’s contact information, we started face timing and just simply speaking about our families, speaking about our family history. It was then that I learnt that I knew that he was of Chilean descent, that he was born in Chile, but what I hadn’t realised was that he moved to San Antonio when he was 2 years old.
San Antonio, Texas, is a short drive down I-35 for me, someone who was born and raised in Austin. Joel and Tommy, born and raised in Austin, Texas. So, we both knew it, we both knew Central Texas, we both knew the people, we knew what the cedar trees looked like and smelled like, we knew what the blue bonnets and the Indian paintbrushes looked like on the side of the highway. We know these feelings and we know this place.
So, we were able to talk to each other and come together on that and we’ve both been able to have roots in the place where our story starts. Beyond that, we wanted to make sure that the voices were there, we had some information from the games. We also wanted to bring it back into something a little bit more neutral place because my accent is there but it’s not super, super heavy. But he likes the music in it, the way it sounded, and wanted to try to match it in a way.
So, he gave me a passage by Cormac McCarthy from Blood Meridian and I just read it. He used that to come towards me in the way the voices were sounding and I observed him very closely. His body, his mannerisms, so that we could share a common geometry in the way our bodies moved. All that is to say that he’s a wonderful person, a very giving actor, and I’m really proud to call him my brother. Still very proud to call him my big brother. I don’t have a big brother, I’m the eldest in the family, so it’s nice to have one.
HBO / HBO GO / Jorge Bispo
What was it like to film during the pandemic? Is it scary how realistic and probable the science in the show can be?
Gabriel Luna: That’s what makes the threat in our story so different but also very relatable. You mentioned the science, the scientific element of it, the fact that these Cordyceps, this fungus. Fungus, as we know, is scientifically very important to turn dead things into living things, it’s the way that nature heals itself, enters into that cycle of renewal.
Also, I saw the National Geographic that it’s based off on many, many years ago about the zombie ants. The zombie ants, I think it’s part of the intro to the show. I always thought that was pretty gnarly, man, and kind of insane, this idea that this fungus could supersede your own motor functions, your own will, and then force you to do this, become this monster. So, that is how it differentiates itself from other stories in a similar genre.
In regards to your question about the pandemic and how it affected us, we were living through it. We were shooting it and living through the pandemic in the moment, in the same overlapping moment. We were wearing the mask, we were testing three times a week, we were very much still plunged into the pandemic. So, it helped quite a bit for us, as much as a global, you know, shutdown, it helped to know what it is, to feel an impending invisible threat from afar and to know it’s inching closer towards you.
I think it’s going to help us give the audience a docking point to our story to have had this experience, for all of us to have had this worldwide shared experience. So, I keep saying it, because I think the concern could be that people are fatigued, do they want to have a story about what we just lived through. But I think that’s what television does, what storytelling does, in cinema, when you see your experience on-screen and you can relate, that’s what we’re there for. In many ways, it can be a healing type experience. Also, I think that familiarity works to our advantage and we’d have to go back to 1918 and no one will have had the experience. No one would know what it’s like to have a global pandemic, but now the entire world does and can bring their personal experience to our story.
What would attract those not familiar with The Last Of Us to watch the HBO series?
Gabriel Luna: I think we’re going to get a lot of the people that trust and believe in the quality and prestige of HBO television. I think most people will set their calendars to Sunday night. We do that, we’ve done it for years, we’ve done it with True Detective, which I was fortunate enough to be a part of. We’ve done it with Game Of Thrones. Going back to The Sopranos, the original prestige television show, so HBO is destination TV on Sunday night, so I think we’re already going to get a lot of those folks.
And then, of course, we’re going to bring in millions and millions of fans, our gamer fans, whether just through genuine excitement to see their favourite game on-screen to the morbid curiosities of those who want to see another Pixels or another Super Mario Bros., the Bob Hoskins adaptation, you know what I mean. We have those.
But how will they find their way to our story? I think we’ve met the mark and are going to entertain them, frighten them, break their hearts, and that’s what they end up staying for. Just a really well-unravelled tale, or a really well-woven tale, I should say. But unravelled somehow feels more accurate, in the nature of our story.
I think we’re going to bring in a lot of everyone and those who are gamers are going to be able to travel to other pockets of the story, chambers of the story you weren’t able to visit previously because of the first-person linear style of storytelling that the game experiences and then obviously, you’re going to have people who, which is Neil’s dream, folks who have never played the game in their lives. Just love the show so much, and love the story and want to step into the world themselves. A full-reverse experience for us, to jump back into the game after seeing it in live-action, which is always great because you find more details and experience the characters on your own terms.
During filming, did you meet Jeffrey Pierce? And how is your version of Tommy different?
Gabriel Luna: During filming, no, I didn’t meet Jeffrey. I met Jeffrey only via the Internet. We’re Internet buddies and we’re each other’s biggest cheerleaders, which is so kind and gracious of him. To fully embrace me right from the jump and support me, and I’m a huge fan of his. So that’s a big love-fest going on online between he and I. He was so generous in some of his comments and he’s very protective of the character and it was important to him once he saw what I was doing, once we got to talking a little bit to relieve the concerns of the people who love the character, Tommy, and love the game, who are a little shocked at some of the different ‘visual’ differences, right?
It’s silly sometimes. Gabe’s got black hair and Tommy’s supposed to have blond hair, but Jeffrey was really quick, he jumped and said, he has my full support, and I know he’s going to succeed, so I was very thankful for that. He was kind to say, you know, he went up there and did his bit, and sent me a message that said, hey, man, that crew up there loves you and they couldn’t stop talking about you and what you’re doing.
And I was like, man, they love you, because we were talking about you on the steps of the truck, just talking about our experience with the game and what a marvelous job you’ve done. So, a big love-fest, man, back and forth, me and Jeffrey Pierce.


Outriders Endgame Expeditions & Progression Explained

So you’ve reached level 30, got the Legendaries you want, and beat the game with your friends in Outriders. Like all great loot-and-shoot games and multiplayer action RPGs, this is far from over. In fact, if you want to get the best possible level and weapons, you’ll need to play through Outriders’ endgame.
We’ll say this: it’s a whole new ball game.

Outriders Endgame Progression
After you beat the game, you’ll gain access to high-end missions called Expeditions. These new challenges will feature unique mechanics and challenges, as well as high-level enemies.
What do you do on Expeditions? The same thing you’ve been doing in Outriders this whole time: enter rooms and pathways, then kill all the enemies. Only tougher and with more Elites popping up. The faster you kill them all, the better rewards you get.
There are 14 different Expeditions players can party up and play in, but only 3 out of that pool are active every day. The final Expedition, Eye of the Storm, is only unlocked after reaching Challenge Tier 15. Here’s the list so far:

Archways of Enoch
Boom Town
Chem Plant
Frontline
Heart of the Wild
Marshland Caverns
Mountain Outpost
Stargrave
The Drought Palace
Eye of the Storm

You’ll also get a new progression mechanic called Challenge Tiers. Here’s what happens:

Challenge Tiers determine the difficulty of the endgame levels & Expeditions, as well as the quality of the loot. The higher the Challenge Tier, the tougher the challenges & the better the rewards.
Also, if you beat an Expedition level as fast as possible, you’ll get the best rewards possible and unlock the next Challenge Tier.
The highest Challenge Tier is 15. You start off at Challenge Tier 1 and work your way up.
Enemies will scale beyond level 30, which was the max cap in World Tier/Story mode. You’ll be fighting enemies and bosses from Level 31 to Level 50 depending on your Challenge Tier.
On the plus side, you’ll start getting loot that scales beyond level 30. You’ll be receiving loot from Level 31 to Level 50.
Enemies in Expeditions do not drop loot. Once you finish an expedition, the loot is instanced for each player who participated.
Endgame resources that drop in these Expeditions are Drop Pod Resources. You use these to craft high-level weapons & armour.
You’ll also get access to Elite Vendors, who will sell you Legendary weapons right off the bat. They change offers weekly, so keep that in mind if you’re planning to save up for that one Iceberg you want.
Prices for Eliter Vendor’s Elite Offers will double when you level up a Challenge Tier. So if you want to buy something, do it now before you attempt an Expedition and aim for a Challenge Tier upgrade.
World Tiers are “kinda useless” once you’re at the endgame. That bit is in quotation marks because we learnt of this recent farming technique, but that’s another feature.

Some Tips For Expeditions & Challenge Tiers
Keep Grinding
If you’re having trouble getting up a tier, just grind the lower tiers so that you can get Drop Pod Resources to buy the Legendaries you want to power up your Outrider(s).
Survivability > Damage
When you’re crafting and modding equipment for Expeditions & Challenge Tiers, prioritize armor/armor-generation and healing/life leech. Generally, when all your Outrider’s abilities are in a cooldown state, that’s usually when you will get mobbed and die. So bumping up your survivability is usually a good idea.
Keep Modding
Even in the endgame, modding your equipment is surprisingly affordable. So keep doing this per Challenge Tier bump.
Break Down Weapons & Armor You Don’t Need, Even During Campaign Mode
It’s usually best to disassemble all the loot you get in the early game and just before the endgame Expeditions. This is so that you have a lot to pick from when you’re customizing & crafting. Breaking down equipment will also give you attribute shards that you can use for other high-level gear in the future.
The Best Expedition To Farm Legendaries? Chem Plant
Not all Expeditions are built equally. The Chem Plant so far is the most ideal and straightforward Expedition to get a full completion star for. Even if you cannot get to Challenge Tier 15 (which would give you the net highest amount of Legendaries & sets in an hour or so), you can still score a decent amount of loot in lower Challenge Tiers if you complete it the fastest.
Need another method of farming Titanium for your modding and weapon-upgrading needs? Check out this video!


Illidan Stormrage Is Coming To Hearthstone In April’s Ashes of Outland Expansion

Hearthstone‘s Ashes of Outland expansion is coming, and it’s bringing with it the Demon Hunter, Illidan Stormrage.
Hearthstone is the one Blizzard game whose existence I forget about the most, so I was surprised to learn that this is the game’s first post-launch class.
“Illidan Stormrage, the newest playable Hero inÂ Hearthstone, embodies the Demon Hunterâ€™s class identity. Heâ€™s an aggressive attacker who leads his fel-infused forces into the fray,” says Blizzard’s blog post. “While other Heroes may buff and heal their minions, Illidan instead fuels himself with their souls when they fall in combat, taking vengeance upon his enemies.”

There’s a focus on aggression with the Demon Hunter class, as it uses its “own health as a resource” and relies on “smaller chip heals via Lifesteal” to regain health. Instead of buffing and healing minions, Illidan prefers to let them die and “fuels himself with their souls” when they do so. However, they can also use fel magic to “deploy massive demons to the battlefield far earlier than expected”.
The Demon Hunter’s Hero Power is Demon Claws, which is a low mana cost “one mana-cost boost” to his Attack. The class comes with a new unique keyword called Outcast as well. Cards with this keyword have “have impactful bonuses when played from the left or right-most position in your hand”.
There will a prologue campaign for the Demon Hunter on 2 April 2020 with free rewards upon completion, and the class will “officially unlock” on 7 April 2020 after its completion. The Year of the Phoenix rotation will also introduce 15 new Demon Hunter cards with each of its future expansions.
For the full run-down on the Demon Hunter class’ playstyle and abilities, check out Blizzard’s blog. You can also pre-purchase Ashes of OutlandÂ for US$49.99 (RM217.86), which nets you 55 card packs, while the mega bundle gives you 90 packs for US$79.99 (RM348.62).


Apex Legends Valentine’s Day Event Is Bringing Back Duos

Respawn Entertainment has announced that Apex Legends will be celebrating Valentine’s Day this year with another special event, which will see the highly-anticipated return of Duos mode. The Valentineâ€™s Day Rendezvous limited-time event will take place from 11 to 18 February 2020.
Apex Legends players will know that Duos mode originally debuted as a two-week limited-time mode back in November 2019. However, the Valentine’s Day Rendezvous Duos mode will run for only one week, but players can look forward to new Valentine’s Day-themed loot as consolation.

Everyone who logs in during the event will obtain a Valentine’s 2020 badge, not to mention that there will also be new Nessie and Pathfinder weapon charms available for purchase and a Double Up booster that will double XP rewards to a maximum of 20,000 XP per day.

https://media.contentapi.ea.com//content/dam/apex-legends/videos/2020/02/apex-inline-video-valentines-blog-gun-charms.mp4
That’s not all, as The Through the Heart skin for the Longbow DMR and the Love of the Game banner from last year’s Apex Legends Valentine’s Day event will be discounted in the Apex Store.
https://media.contentapi.ea.com/content/dam/apex-legends/videos/2020/02/apex-inline-video-valentines-blog-longbow.mp4


Anime Fan Michael B. Jordan Launches Own Line Of Expensive Naruto-Inspired Apparel

The concept of anime is glad to have a champion like Michael B. Jordan. In fact, his love for anime runs so deep, he’s teaming up with fashion company Coach to make apparel and clothing based on one of Shonen Jump’s iconic series.

Not that one.

No, the other one.

No! It’s Naruto, dammit.

Designed by Michael B. Jordan and inspired by that anime/manga series, the Coach x MBJ collection features “graphic t-shirts, functional outerwear, and leather accessories embellished with symbols from the manga series”. Here’s a quote from the man who played the son of Creed and Johnny Storm:
“It was important to design pieces that represent my cultural influences and community. I wanted to create pieces that I could see my friends, family and fans wearing with pride.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Coach (@coach)

So if you feel like throwing your hard-earned money for shirts that cost US$95 and a denim jacket for US$795, just head on over here since they’re on sale right now. I do wonder if people will ever complain about companies like Cospa charging high for anime apparel after seeing these.


Here’s How You Can Get Your Free Fire Freebie Diamonds If You Own Huawei’s New Phone

Huawei has launched its Nova 7 SE 5G smartphone, which we believe is suitable for mobile gaming. We know this because there’s a Free Fire promotion tying in with the phone’s release.
If you download the mobile battle royale game via the Huawei AppGallery from now to 31st December 2020, you can redeem a free Diamond Royale voucher, courtesy from Garena, which will net you a ton of diamonds for your in-game purchases.
Here’s how you can redeem this Free Fire gift:

Open the Huawei AppGallery. Select “Gift tab”.
Claim the Free Fire “Diamond Royale” gift. Copy the code.
Head to this link. Log into your Free Fire account.
Enter that code you copied, then tap “Confirm”.

In the meantime, check out the pics of the new Huawei Nova 7 SE phone. It’s got a whole lotta 5Gs, a 6.5-inch display, and an octa-core CPU to multitask a lot of phone apps. It also comes in three different colours: Space Silver, Crush Green, and Midsummer Purple. Go for the latter; it looks trippy and vibrant as all hell.


Fighting With My Family Is A Heartfelt If Dramatized Semi-Biopic

It’s hard to top Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler if you want a gritty and hard look at wrestling and its after-effects. And yet there’s quite a bit of heart if you dig deep enough, so much so that wrestling federation WWE is touched by how authentic it is.
On the other end of the spectrum, you have an adaptation of a biopic that’s mostly funded and approved by WWE Studios, which I should remind you it’s owned by the aforementioned wrestling monopoly that got to where it is today by being ruthless and business-savvy.
Said adaptation, title Fighting With My Family (based on the book of the same name), is also full of heart even if it does its damnest to focus on the fluffy side and glamour of wrestling while downplaying its ills. The thing is, it’s not meant to be as harrowing as The Wrestler. It focuses on its core key players who go from rags to riches and celebrates their trials and journey, while also doing a damn good job at making us care.

Anything But Jobbers
This is made possible due to lead actors Florence Pugh and Jack Lowden, who respectively play siblings Saraya “Paige” Knight and Zak “Zodiac” Knight. Based on the life and rising career of WWE female wrestler Paige, the story is about siblings from a wrestling family in England village Norwich who were lucky enough to enter tryouts for the WWE who happen to be around England.
Drama and tensions follow suit as Paige ended up being picked and flown to LA for the WWE NXT circuit, while Zak has to deal with his inferiority complex while also sorting out his own family and wife’s pregnancy. Not only are Florence and Jack perfect as siblings with huge amounts of chemistry with each other, but they also play their parts well. It’s gripping yet fun tosee the unsure-but-fast-learning rising star Paige and cheerful-and-gungho-to-depressed Zak play out their dramatized-but-a-tad-so lives.
The duo capture that feeling of what it is like to have a sibling unintentionally upstage you in something you’re good at, and then trying to cope with it. It’s not an easy thing to do or switch out from like a quick mood swing, which is why I’m glad the film panned out its resolution in the most realistic way possible.
As always, it’s always great to see Nick Frost play the well-meaning and outspoken father while Lena Headey complements him as the level-headed mother. These veteran actors know how to balance between funny and serious moments, whether they’re trying to maintain a facade when meeting other people or being an unorthodox-but-well-meaning family unit to sort out their kids.

Breaking Kayfabe
As per standard to these biopics funded by their monopoly companies, the film took a lot of liberties from its source material. Like the fact that her NXT female champion reign was downplayed even though it was an important part of her career.
And her eventual Raw debut after Wrestlemania was filled with a crowd that had her back in her NXT days, not a ruthless one portrayed in the film.

Do the changes detract from the main core of the film that highlights the pressure of maintaining your family legacy while also striking it out as your own in an intensive wrestling circuit with funny moments peppered in-between? Not really; I had a blast watching this play out. However, I do wish the film could tone down the presence of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
We know he’s famous. We know he may have played a part in inspiring wrestlers like Paige to be “the first you”, and even that bit is fabricated and shoved in.
We don’t need constant marketing promo reminders and even an epilogue byline to secure his ego. This may have been a WWE Studios mandate, but it just feels unnecessary and arguably immersion-breaking in an otherwise crowd-pleasing semi-biopic with balanced laughs and life lessons.
Final Rating: 70/100


Analysts Predict 20 Million ‘Master Race’ Gamers Will Defect To Console By 2022

The gaming industry is dominated by three platforms right now; PC, TV consoles, and mobile. The PC offers gamers tons of flexibility through mods, peripherals, and portability. PCs are also versatile as they could also be used as a workstation. Consoles, on the other hand, are simple and affordable, and new consoles such as the PlayStation 4 offers a wide variety of functions too, rather than just playing games.

Jon Peddie Research (JPR) has come up with a new reportÂ featuring a few key insights for both the market and the general public. The PC market has shown to decline and 20 million PC players will jump ship and stick to TV gaming platforms, better known as game consoles, over the next three years.
JPR pointed out that the majority of PC player who will potentially migrate comes from the low-end spectrum, defined with a full-build cost of USD1,000 (RM4,134). High-end and mid-range PC goers are also potentially affected, thanks to improvements in TV displays and console semiconductors, as well as console exclusive titles.
The main contributor to this future mass migration is the potential stagnation of innovation.
According to Jon Peddie, President of JPR said,

â€œThe PC market continues to decline because the innovation that took place in the past providing speed ups and clever new things has all but stopped, plus the product introduction times are stretching out to four years.”

Peddie also highlighted that this won’t be the death of markets such as GPUs, but there are forces at work that attracts the GPU market towards TV displays and other gaming services.
Gaming Industry Senior Analyst, Ted Pollak, said that ‘they are seeing a higher percentage of Low/Mid-Range PC products sold because of the consumerâ€™s intent to use with games.’
“But this does not generate more volume but does guide research and design as well as marketing investments for hardware providers and foreshadows the ultimate use model of the PC, a desktop ergonomic gaming/computing environment that embraces user choice and customization. Gaming services used with TV displays, whether local or cloud-based, will absorb PC defectors and likely flourish with new entrants. In the next five years, we will see potential customers with access to TV gaming swell by hundreds of millions,” he added.
JPR pointed out that the world will never be the same in the next five years. Moore’s Law will no longer be relevant. The layman definition of this law states that processor speeds, or overall processing power for computers will double every two years.
No longer can the processor builders count on shrinking transistors every 24 months and either doubling performance or reducing costs. Product cycles will stretch to four years or more. The high-margin high-end segment will feel the pain the most.
So How Does This Affect Gaming?
Based on the growing trend of hardware, it’s not hard to see where this report is coming from and you realize that a lot of it makes sense.
For instance, a leak revealed that the upcoming PlayStation 5 will cost a fraction of a standard high-end PC from the market and yet will have the same processing power with one of the beefiest GPUs in the market right now. Mark Cerny spoke to Wired and pointed out that there will be tons of bells and whistles on the new console such as built-in virtual surround sound and much more.
This is putting the consoles’ performance on par with many gaming PCs out there.
The PC market is also beginning to be overshadowed by consoles and mobile gaming.

According to Newzoo, the PC market dropped its revenue share by 3% in 2018, while the TV game console market rose by 4%.
This strengthens the notion that console gaming is growing, and the trend shows its growth is not stopping anytime soon.
However, as the majority of the PC gamers who will potentially defect are from the low-end spec of the market, a lot of advancement has been done for this segment of the market. Take, for instance, the new NVIDIA GPU, the GTX 1660 Ti and GTX 1650, it may not be an RTX or Vega VII, but it’s performance-per-dollar makes it a great upgrade for budget-oriented gamers.
With this trend in technological growth, it seems that console gaming will be on par with the high-end PCs of the coming era, and my PS5 wishlist doesn’t seem too farfetched at this point.


Owner Of Malaysia’s Top CSGO Team Acquires New Mobile Legends Roster

Bandar Sunway-based esports agency Cove Esports has just announced their acquisition of 5 Red Army, a Mobile Legends: Bang Bang team. 5 Red Army consists of five players:

From left to right:

Muhammad “Sepat” Irfan
Wan “4Meyz” Usman
Muhammad “Inferni” Saiful
Muhammad “CooL” Aizat
Muhammad “Anip” Haniff

5 Red Army isn’t just your run-of-the-mill Mobile Legends team. They’ve actually gone up against and defeated veteran teams such as GeekFam and Axis Bosskur. They’re currently aiming to play in the next season of MPL MY/SG.
Cove Esports also manages the Darkhorse CSGO team which is currently the number one CSGO team in Malaysia, according to HLTV statistics. They’ll be representing Malaysia at the upcoming WESG SEA 2019 which will be happening in Kuala Lumpur from 31 October to 3 November 2019.
The Darkhorse CSGO team.


[Rumour] Cyberpunk 2077 Delayed Due To Alleged Console Performance Issues

Chalk one up for PC master race folks, I guess.
A Polish insider (via Altchar) said that the recently-delayed sci-fi RPG Cyberpunk 2077 is delayed because of current-gen console performances. Allegedly; this is still a rumour albeit from strong sources.
Turns out that current-gen consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One are reportedly not powerful enough to run the game properly. Insider Borys Niespielak, who is considered the Polish equivalent of Jason Schreier in terms of credibility, said that the original Xbox One is not powerful enough to run the game properly. CD Projekt allegedly said that the game’s performance on it was “extremely unsatisfactory”.
Until more concrete information comes to light, let’s remind ourselves that we’re on the twilight years of current-gen consoles. Would something like this change CD Projekt’s mind to instead release Cyberpunk 2077 on the PS5/Xbox Series X instead? Let us know on the comments below or on Facebook.Â


Of Course Kingdom Hearts 3 Will Get Week One Patches

Square Enix just announced that it’s going to release a bunch of online update for its long-awaited action RPG Kingdom Hearts 3 when it ships 25 January. They’re making sure us plebs go online to download these updates, most likely to patch up the game’s possible bugs and long loading times.
Here are the details:
25 January

1.01 patch (partial data correction)
Memory Archive videos

26 January

Epilogue added. You can view this after beating the game.

31 January

Secret movie added. To watch it, you must beat the game and meet certain requirements; this is dependent on the difficulty level you selected.

The big question here is: will the epilogue and secret movie be sequel-bait? Or is it a setup for more Kingdom Heart spin-offs? Let us know!


Nier Replicant Ver 1.22: How To Get All The Endings

Nier Replicant Ver 1.22 is out now for everyone to experience and play. Long story short: it’s an amazing remake and massive improvement to a game with a great epic story but dubious gameplay.
You also have heard that this game boasts several endings that paint the full picture of Nier Replicant’s narrative. Welp, we’re here to help you figure out how to unlock them all.
Don’t worry: we’ll keep this guide as spoiler-free as possible. There are no massive spoilers on this guide. We’re not putting in any detailed descriptions on the endings; we’re just outlining basic instructions on how to get them in order.
Still, we will put this disclaimer in case you get triggered by vague instructions.

If you want a spoiler-filled feature, wait a few days. We will have something cooked up.

Ending A
Beat the game. That’s it. Fight the final boss and beat him to get this ending.
Ending B
After you complete Ending A, you are put back into the story just after the point in Part Two where you rescue Kaine. This path is called Route B.
This second time through features new cutscenes during the story, as well as some novel sections giving backstory to Kaine and Emil. You also keep the same weapons and level you obtained when you completed ending A, so going through boss fights should be slightly easier.
When you reach the end of the story again and defeat the final boss, you will get Ending B.
Ending C and D
The next time through, you will need to collect all weapons (if you havenâ€™t done so already) so that you gain the choice to trigger either Ending C or D after fighting a new final boss.
This wiki link (and this pretty detailed RPG Site weapons guide) is pretty handy to keep track of all the weapons you need to collect. You’ll need to complete some quests in the second half of the game, spend money in each city’s blacksmiths/weapons dealer, and also play through the 15 Nightmares dungeon to get all of them.
In this playthrough, Route C, you also will want to do the boss speedrun trophies if you havenâ€™t already. There are no new cutscenes here during these boss fights, so skip them if you want to make your playthrough faster.
It would be smart to make a backup of your save file at the end of the game just in case, before going on to trigger Ending C if you donâ€™t want to do an extra-long playthrough to then trigger Ending D. Last we checked, the last save you can do at this point is at the Lost Ruin: Rooftop, just a room before the point of no return.
After Ending C you can either revert a save file backup or do another playthrough to trigger Ending D. Note that doing the latter will delete all save files, with Ending E only giving back the one you completed the game off of, so if you wanted to keep the other two you should back up your save first.

Ending E
Yes, this is brand-new content that isn’t in the 2010 original.
After completing Ending D, you need to start a new game after your saves are wiped. Play through the game until you defeat the boss in the Aerie. After interacting with Kaine the story will diverge and you will be on the path to Ending E. Play through this part to the end for the final ending trophy.
If you plan to, make sure to do the â€œDaredevilâ€ trophy/achievement before reaching the ending, as this is the only point you can do it. If you miss it youâ€™d have to trigger Ending D again to get back into the Ending E path. This will be a hassle to do since it requires you to play through the second half of the game again.
Completing Ending E and choosing â€œYesâ€ at the end gives you back your deleted Ending D save that you completed the game off of. Yay!
How Do I Get The “Daredevil” Trophy?
This trophy is earned while playing the Ending E route.Â  You need to position the camera so that it is looking up Kaineâ€™s skirt. Here’s a video (might be spoiler-filled; proceed with caution).
She will chastise you and kick the camera away. Do this 10 times in a row to earn this trophy. You also earn a Game Over screen here because you’re a pervert. And rightfully so.


[Rumour] Dragon Age 4 On Track For 2023 Release

A lot of people are wondering about Bioware’s projects from EA, especially their absence during this morning’s EA Play livestream. We now know what happened to one of them, sort of.
Dragon Age 4, a CRPG that’s a long time coming since Dragon Age: Inquisition, is on track for a potential 2023 release according to sources close to Venturebeat. The game’s marketing will start in 2022.
Publicly, EA and Bioware made it clear a month ago that it wouldn’t have its RPG games at EA Play.
“Weâ€™re hard at work creating the next [Dragon Age] and [Mass Effect] games and have some exciting stuff coming to Star Wars: The Old Republic.”
Officially, the company hasn’t announced the date and has no plans to share it yet. Though fans should rest assured that the game will still be a single-player narrative adventure like past entries, with maybe an online feature similar to Dragon Age: Inquisition.


Nier: Automata Sales Top 4 Million, 2 Years Later

Better late than never, right? One of 2017’s critical gaming darlings from Square Enix and Platinum Games’, Nier: Automata, has recently exceeded four million units in sales both in shipments and in digital sales.

PlayStation®4/Xbox One/Steam?NieR:Automata????????????????????400????????????????????????????????400?????? GOTY????????? #NieR #??? https://t.co/Jwm3MtFzIb
— NieR??PR????? (@NieR_JPN) May 14, 2019

The sales total count the PS4, PC, and Xbox One sales for the game. Keep in mind that the game first came out on 23 February, 2017, and that the game was rereleased under the “Game of the YoRHa Edition” moniker this early February. The resurgence and the game’s quality did help in making it reach these sales numbers, so good going Platinum Games and Square Enix.
So should you still buy the game even if it’s a few year’s old? Heck yeah; if Kakuchopurei was around earlier in 2017, we would have crowned this one of our GOTYs of its period. It’s got a tragic tale of cyborgs trying to be human coupled with awesome action and gameplay that’s on-par with Platinum’s other works like Bayonetta and Vanquish. Plus, it got the cosplay scene in Southeast Asia in a tizzy thanks to 2B’s choice of clothing.


We’ll Be Seeing More Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order This April

Respawn’s Star Wars game, Jedi: Fallen Order was first brought into the light back in that lackluster E3 2018 presentation, but details were scarce. The only thing revealed was its release year, 2019, and that’s about it.
However, we’re now looking to what seems to be our first look at it in mid-April as part of Lucasfilm’s annual Star Wars celebration.

The story came from EA Star Wars Twitter account, which revealed that the game will be fully revealed on 13th April.

Did you hear? #StarWarsJediFallenOrder will be at #StarWarsCelebration Chicago! See the game for the first time on April 13th.
Plus, hear from @MattLanter about his work on #StarWarsBattlefrontII. https://t.co/vE0oPnYDSZ
â€” EA Star Wars (@EAStarWars) February 27, 2019
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen OrderÂ was first announced in 2016, and was named at E3 2018.
EA might be hoping that Jedi: Fallen Order to cleanse the EA Star Wars chapter after the internet slammed the pay-to-win model in Battlefront II. With Respawn’s stellar track record, could this be EA’s first great Star Wars game? We’ll see in a few months time.


MPL Season 3 Malaysia/Singapore: What You Need To Know

The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) MY/SG has concluded its Regular Season and will head into the Playoffs this weekend on 20 to 21 April 2019.
Before that, let’s check out the latest standings from our teams.

As you can see, the Singaporean team, NARA Esports SG, stands at 25 points and has dominated the competition with a flawless run heading into the Playoffs. They faced ICON and Mysterious Assassins, emerging victorious against them. Standing in second place is Team Reborn with 17 points, followed by Geek Fam, Bigetron SG, and EVOS Esports SG all tied at third place with 15 points.
Unfortunately for Team ICON and Mysterious Assassins, they will be eliminated from the Playoffs for being the teams with the lowest points in the league.
MPL MY/SG Season 3 Playoffs Format

The top 4 teams will fight it out in the Upper Bracket and the winners of the first two matches will move forward to the Semifinals. The losers of those matches will drop into the lower bracket and face the winners of the first two matches from the Lower Bracket, which comprises the bottom 4 teams of the league. Losers from the Lower Bracket will be eliminated.
From the final Regular Season standings, we can already know the starting matchups for the Playoffs this weekend. We’ll break it down below:

Upper Bracket

Nara Esports SG vs Bigetron SG
Reborn vs Geek Fam

Lower Bracket

EVOS Esports SG vs Bosskurr Gaming
Resurgence vs XPAX X-ASSINS

MPL MY/SG Season 3 Playoffs Prize Pool
The teams will be playing for a total prize of more than US$100,000 (RM411,450). This is a much higher amount compared to the Playoffs in previous seasons.
See You There
With the best of the best teams about to prove their mettle, it’s going to be one heck of a playoff. Check out what team Resurgence had to say;

That’s some sheer confidence right there, folks. After all, their performance is nothing short of promising.

The MPL MY/SG Season 3 Playoffs will take place fromÂ 20 to 21 April 2019Â at LG2, Blue Atrium, Sunway Pyramid.
For more details and information on the MPL MY/SG Season 3 Playoffs, you can head on overÂ to the official website here.