Gamescom 2020 Announces Its First Batch Of Exhibitors

Gamescom has announced the first wave of exhibitors who’ve signed up for Gamescom 2020.Â Among the 29 names are Bandai Namco, Capcom, CD Projekt Red, Microsoft, Nintendo, Ubisoft, NCSOFT, and THQ Nordic.

? The first exhibitors signed up for #gamescom2020! ? pic.twitter.com/d96cHgAkPm
— gamescom (@gamescom) March 5, 2020

While this is only the first batch of exhibitors, Sony’s absence is still noticeable, especially considering the presence of competitor Microsoft. The company previously skipped this year’s PAX East and the Game Developers Conference due to Covid-19 fears, with GDC 2020 eventually getting “postponed“.
However, there’s still the chance that they’ll show up in a future exhibitors list. This year’s Gamescom will be held in Cologne from 25 to 29 August 2020. This will be followed by Gamescom Asia from 15 to 18 October 2020 in Singapore.


Apex Legends Cross-Platform Play May Be Coming Sooner Than Expected

EA just released their quarterly financial report and it has a few statements that’s definitely worth paying attention to. One of the most noteworthy ones says that Apex Legends will be delivering “one of the most fan-requested features” in the next few weeks.
When Apex Legends was launched, it became a surprising success. It had very little marketing and thus not much hype was built around it. Now it’s one of most popular battle royale titles in the market.
Being that popular also comes with the burden of being compared to other industry bests. When observing games like Fortnite and PUBG, there are definitely a few features that Apex Legends still lack.

Cross-play
Fans have been asking for cross-play since the game’s launch. Sometimes our friends aren’t playing on the same platform we are and that’s a big letdown in games that don’t allow cross-play.
Fortnite is currently top dog in the battle royale scene and it has implemented cross-play for a while now. It’s so comprehensive that the cross-play doesn’t just cover PC and consoles but even mobiles too.
Solo Mode
Usually, a battle royale game can either be played in two modes: solo or team.
Although we mostly see people preferring to play in teams, there’s still a big crowd of players who like playing solo. It also offers a way to switch things up once in a while when you’re bored of playing team mode.

Apex Legends has been team-only since its release and to be honest, it’s understandable why. The game was built with teamwork and synergy in mind. Playing in solo would potentially make some characters and their skills become useless.
The respawn mechanic will also become unusable but that’s a given in a solo mode anyway.
Conclusion
There’s still no word on what this fan-requested feature is but I’m hoping it’s one of the two I’ve mentioned above. Personally I’m hoping it’s cross-play. As a PC player, I’ve really been wanting to play with my PS4 friends.
What do you guys think? Got any of your own speculation as to what this upcoming feature might be?


Black Desert Mobile Update Adds Great Ocean Content

Pearl Abyss announced today that the massive Great Ocean content, has arrived inÂ Black Desert Mobile. Adventurers can now explore this vast new region that offers various features and activities.
The Great Ocean is a mystical region full of secrets and rare treasures, and Adventurers can enter the ocean after they complete one of the main quests of North Valencia. They will need to visit the main islands of the ocean in order to remove the mist that covers areas they have not yet visited on the map.

Adventurers can obtain a Ship with a Ship license and can enhance it to increase their sea-faring abilities. While sailing, they can enjoy various content such as Cannon Combat, Fishing Hot Spots, Treasure Recovery, and Wanted Missions.
Adventurers can engage in battles against sea monsters and pirates by loading Cannonballs in their Ships. An Auto-Shoot feature is also available to allow sailors to continue shooting Cannons while they are being aimed.
Areas where seagulls are gathered are Fishing Hot Spots and Adventurers can get better items that are exchangeable for craft materials such as Plywood, Steel, and Ocuilla Coins.

The expedition to the Great Ocean can also lead Adventurers to a new battleground; Padix Pirate Island. To enter the island, Adventurers will need 10 invitations which can be obtained by completing weekly missions or by defeating monsters and pirate ships.
You can visit Black Desert Mobileâ€™sÂ official websiteÂ for more information.


Anthem Latest Update Addresses Bugs and Drop Rate Issues

BioWareÂ has dropped another update for Anthem, and this time it’s update 1.0.4.02, which went live earlier today.
Over the last weekend, Anthem‘s community manager, Jesse Anderson, has been teasing today’s update, which he says would greatly reduce the drop rate of components for Javelins that players arenâ€™t using. He also added that the patch would make loot from Elysian Caches â€œshow up immediately after a Stronghold finishes.â€

This update also makes loot earned from an Elysian Cache show up immediately after a Stronghold finishes, fixes the issue where the newsfeed is blank and more. Full list will be posted Monday morning.
â€” Jesse Anderson (@Darokaz) April 5, 2019
Update 1.0.4.02. features fixes to tons of other bugs, such as the newsfeed, and issues that arose when players turned off motion blur.
The full patch notes are detailed below;

Fixed an issue that was causing loot to drop for Javelins other than the one being used.
Addressed a number of issues that could occasionally cause Nvidia highlights to crash.
Fixed an issue that was causing Elysian Cache items to not appear until completing another activity or restarting the game.
The newsfeed will now properly show content again upon launching into the game.
Fixed an issue that was causing Ursix and Titans to not spawn as frequently in Freeplay.
Fixed an issue that would cause the screen to shake when enabling DLSS and turning off motion blur.
Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause players not to be able to interact with Owen, or hear his audio at the end of the Legendary version of the mission â€œFinding Old Friendsâ€.
Titans, Ursix, Luminaries and Fury enemies should no longer disappear when another player starts an Event in Freeplay.

You can head here to check out the official patch notes.
Here’s hoping that these fixes will be consistent and drastically improve the Anthem experience.


Malaysian Gaming Chain Embroiled in HR Issues During MCO [Update]

The COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting many non-essential businesses all across Malaysia, including a particular Malaysia’s video game store chain that rhymes with “Baby’s Day Out”. And it seems that there’s a bit of kerfuffle going on behind the scenes, particularly from an HR’s standpoint.
According to a recent reveal via Twitter, the management behind the company is forcing its staff to take annual leave or get unpaid leave during the COVID-19 lockdown while working from home. The tip-off started with Danial Ashman’s Twitter post, who is a former employee of the store in question.

Sources close to Kakuchopurei has confirmed this, alongside other details.

The company has its employees working from home during the MCO; keep in mind that said gaming store is mostly a brick and mortar setup.
The internal memo above was made before the MCO; hence the date.
Workers aren’t sure whether their employment is guaranteed after 14th April, the new closing date of the MCO.
On the company’s work chat group, one of its employees asked if they will get paid leave, which led to the other staff asking why the company is not complying to government orders. The chat group was disbanded by top management. This was followed by the HR manager stating that the group chat was supposed to be “work-related” only and the staff was “exploiting” the chat.

Danial Ahmad also pointed out via Twitter that the company has sent out official emails for its workers to sign an agreement to take unpaid leave during the lockdown period and not work as ground staff during then. However, the company promised the staff to return with an Employment Retention Program(ERP) benefits system by PERSEKO. This last part is not in writing as far as we know.

We have reached out to the Malaysian gaming store’s CEO to hear his side of the story. No official response has been sent at this time of writing. We do hope there’s a resolution to this tale; as much as we love having our games physically and delivered/collected on time, we still want the job status quo to remain stable.
Also, it’s illegal to not pay your employees during the MCO.
This story is still in development…


Final Fantasy VII Remake Combat Guide: How To ATB Like A Pro [Update]

Update (17 April): Hard Mode guide added.Â
Final Fantasy VII Remake is out now; we played about 30 or so hours of it and we enjoyed every minute of it. It’s mostly got to do with the fun and action-packed combat system.
The battle system combines both the menu-driven system from Final Fantasy titles while keeping everything going in real-time. Final Fantasy VII Remake combines all of Hajime Tabata’s Final Fantasy games and tweaked it so that you can have party control among the four adventurers: Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith.
Here are some tips to enjoy combat to the fullest, especially if you want to tackle Hard mode where Items are not allowed to be used mid-battle.
Don’t Rely On Button-Mashing
Your regular attacks don’t do much damage. Having said that, you’ll need to still use it to keep the ATB bar flowing and going up at a fast rate. For instance, if you continuously fire your gun at enemies as Barret, he’ll do a “final shot” animation that spikes up your ATB significantly.
When get at least one chunk of ATB meter, that’s when you start dealing damage. Cast a spell, use any of your character’s abilities, use items; ATB meter is important to end fights quickly and cap them off.
Cloud’s Punisher Stance: Use It & Block Frequently
Each character has unique abilities mapped on the triangle button. Cloud’s Operator and Punisher stances are useful to switch between. Use Operator as the default stance. Use Punisher when you have a ton of fast physical-hitting enemies coming at you.
Block, then let them dare hit you; you’ll build up Stagger onto these enemies with your wide-ranged melee counterattack. To make the most out of this, use weapons that bolster his Punisher Stance even for a bit, as well as equip Materia that reduces block damage while increasing ATB.
When Cloud goes from Punisher to Operator, he does a decent sword swipe to change his stance. Perfect for comboing and using skills after a few sword swipes.
Cloud’s Best Moves Are Triple Slash And Focused Thrust; Get Them ASAP
As you progress in the game, you’ll get new swords for Cloud to use. They come with abilities you can learn and inherit while using different swords. Two abilities that will get you far are Triple Slash and Focused Thrust. The former comes out super-fast, hits for decent damage, and uses only one ATB. The latter gets you close to enemies from a good distance and increases enemy stagger meter quick.
You’ll get the weapons associated with these skills early in the game, so make sure to inherit them so you can use other niftier weapons. Other moves to consider in your permanent repertoire include Blade Burst (a ranged attack that uses one ATB) andÂ  Infinity’s End (a long startup move that hits super-hard when your opponent is in a Stagger state).

Let Your Ranged Party Members Do The Healing
Both Barret and Aerith are ranged attackers; make sure they come equipped with Healing Materia orbs so that they can keep Cloud and Tifa’s health in proper shape. Use the L2/R2 tactical command option to make them heal you while you still retain control of your main damage dealer.
Also, be sure to at least give one of them an Auto-Cure Materia alongside a Healing Materia so that they can automatically heal anyone who gets in the red.

Abuse Tifa’s Unbridled Power, Always
Tifa’s whirlwind uppercut hits hard and serves as a great combo ender, but it has terrible range. Using Unbridled Power gives Tifa access to her second-level triangle attack, while using that buff again gives her a pretty nifty kick combo that moves her forward.
Try to use her Unbridled Power twice so that she has a good tool for reaching and multihitting enemies from a good distance. Since she’s meant to be a fast-hitting speedy brawler, give her Materia that boosts her ATB quick like First Strike or ATB Booster (press L1 and R1 to trigger it manually).
Tifa’s Best Skills Are Focused Strike and Star Shower
The former makes her dodge back and then do a lunge that increases enemy stagger quick, while the latter is a super-powerful flurry of blows and kicks.
Keep Aerith’s Pray Materia On Her…
Having a free healing spell that affects everyone is always useful. You can also put it on Barret’s Materia slot if Aerith isn’t in your party during certain battles.

Use Assess Materia To Get Enemy Info
Early in the game, you’ll do some quests for researcher kid Chadley who can sell you Materia for dirt cheap (the first time around though) if you help him out with his research. He’ll pass you an Assess Materia orb for you to scan enemies with. Use this.
See, the many different enemies and bosses of Final Fantasy VII Remake have different weaknesses and methods on how to get staggered. Because you want to get them to a staggered state as soon as possible, you need to know what works against them and what they’re strong against. Using Assess early in a fight will help you get the info you need.
Protip: once you get the info you need, you can press the PS4 touchpad to bring it up in the middle of combat.
Help Chadley With His Battle Research…
…by Assessing enemies with the Assess Materia and staggering enemies whenever possible. You’ll get to buy cheaper Materia and other goodies if you fight smart and fight more.

Bonus Tips For Specific Parts Of The Game Related To Combat:

Before you fight the Airbuster boss, you’re given the option to take out its parts. Don’t bother with the M-items; just dismantle the robot’s AI cores and bombs instead.
Hold L1 while healing to cure multiple party members at once outside of combat.
There’s going to be a segment late in the game where you’ll fight a ton of bloodhounds and you only have two characters available. You will die a lot here, so don’t feel bad if you have to switch to easy mode here.

NEXT: Boss Fights (Spoiler Alert)


So Which Kaijus Popped Up In Godzilla: King Of The Monsters? (Spoilers)

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is essentially a kaiju movie fan’s wet dream. From its visuals and spectacle that works alongside an epic soundtrack that’s part homage part revamp thanks to Bear “God of War” McCreary, it’s solid proof that America can come up with a damn good Godzilla film that deserves to hang alongside its Japanese predecessors.
So which monsters made an appearance? Well, here’s the full list. Spoilers, obviously, so here’s the obligatory warning.

Godzilla: Well, duh.
Mothra: The “Queen of the Monsters” is featured prominently in the film.
Rodan:Â The pterodactyl-like Titan flies around all godlike in the film’s middle portion.
King Ghidorah: AKA “Moster Zero”. Essentially the film’s main antagonist, Ghidorah and Godzilla battle for supremacy over Earth.
King Kong: We see the King of Skull Island in footage and in a cave painting.
MUTO 1, 2, and 3: We met MUTO 1 and MUTO 2 in 2014â€™s Godzilla, and both a seen briefly in footage. A 3rd MUTO is awakened by King Ghidorah.
Behemoth: Behemoth is sort of a cross between a woolly mammoth and a gorilla. Pops up when King Ghidorah calls out the rest of the Titans in the second act of the film.
Scylla: Scylla is a giant spider. Pops up when King Ghidorah calls out the rest of the Titans in the second act of the film.
Methuselah: Methuselah is the “Mountain Titan” weâ€™ve seen in the trailers. Pops up when King Ghidorah calls out the rest of the Titans in the second act of the film.
The Titans below were never seen, but their names appeared on computer screens and in newspaper headlines:

Mokele-Mbembe
Baphomet
Tiamat
Typhoon
Abaddon
Leviathan
Sargon
Bunyip

Are there any monsters or kaijus we missed out on? Let us know!


Yuji Naka Sued Square Enix Over Removing Him As Balan Wonderworld Director

Balan Wonderworld was one of the biggest disappointments of 2022. One of the reasons why that was is because the director of the game, Yuji Naka, is a legendary developer best known for co-creating Sonic The Hedgehog and Nights Into Dreams. However, it looks like things weren’t really his fault after all.
Today, a report claims that Yuji Naka has revealed that he filed a lawsuit against Square Enix for removing him as the director of Balan Wonderworld six months before the game’s launch. As of now, the lawsuit is already over, but in a statement, he adds about how the game was released in an unfinished state and that meant a game that was doomed to fail from the beginning of launch.

Even if read with machine translation, it is a very scathing thread that concludes with the following
"I think Square Enix and Arzest are companies that do not care about games and game fans."
Until a better translation comes out, here's a DeepL translation of the thread: pic.twitter.com/mlRet1gHwC
— Nibel (@Nibellion) April 28, 2022

According to the machine translation via Nibel, Naka apologized to fans that he couldn’t do anything to make the game better and that fans had to play an unfinished game.
He said:
“I think Square Enix is not taking good care of their game fans as retweeting, liking, etc. was also banned on social networking sites. There were many comments and very nice illustrations of Balan Wonderworld, and I am very sorry that I could not do anything about it.
For me, it is a real shame that you have released your unfinished work “Balan Wonderworld” to the world. I wanted to release it to the world as an action game in a proper form considering various things. I think Square Enix and Arzest are companies that do not care about games and game fans.”
Balan Wonderworld received almost universally negative reviews and reception from both critics and gamers alike when it came out for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC in early 2021. We also gave Balan Wonderworld a pretty bad review (check it out here).


Microsoft Xbox Wins Court Case Against FCT For Activision Blizzard Acquisition

Microsoft Xbox has officially won the court case against the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for the purchase of Activision Blizzard.
Californian Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley gave her ruling, which was submitted earlier today (via The Verge):
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision has been described as the largest in tech history. It deserves scrutiny. That scrutiny has paid off: Microsoft has committed in writing, in public, and in court to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for 10 years on parity with Xbox. It made an agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Switch. And it entered several agreements to for the first time bring Activision’s content to several cloud gaming services.
This Court’s responsibility in this case is narrow. It is to decide if, notwithstanding these current circumstances, the merger should be halted—perhaps even terminated—pending resolution of the FTC administrative action. For the reasons explained, the Court finds the FTC has not shown a likelihood it will prevail on its claim this particular vertical merger in this specific industry may substantially lessen competition. To the contrary, the record evidence points to more consumer access to Call of Duty and other Activision content. The motion for a preliminary injunction is therefore DENIED.
In a statement following Judge Corley’s decision, Microsoft president Brad Smith gave the following official statement:

Our statement on today's decision: pic.twitter.com/jRDD8PhBeT
— Brad Smith (@BradSmi) July 11, 2023

What this all means is that Microsoft Xbox can now technically close its Activision Blizzard deal ahead of the upcoming 18 July 2023 deadline. However, several other parties are still opposed to the acquisition, including the UK and the Competition And Markets Authority (CMA).
In other related news to come out of the Microsoft Xbox FTC trial, it was revealed that the upcoming Bethesda MachineGames Indiana Jones game will be an Xbox exclusive and that Starfield was originally planned for the PS5 before Microsoft purchased Bethesda. Microsoft also expects that the next-gen consoles will arrive in 2028 and that the PS5 Slim/Pro is slated to release sometime later this year.


Celebrating The Best Black Characters In Video Game History

In case you weren’t aware, this whole of February was Black History Month. With this iconic time coming to a close, let us celebrate and talk about our favourite and iconic black characters in video game history.
Barret Wallace (Final Fantasy VII Remake)

While the FFVII original version of Barret was fine, the 2020 version is a huge improvement. Barret in the FFVII Remake is a charismatic leader and passionate to a fault, as well as a loving father to an innocent kid. He also plays the part of a ranged character thanks to his machine gun hand to complement the melee attacks courtesy of Cloud and Tifa.
Sazh Katzroy (Final Fantasy XIII)

Probably the only good thing about Final Fantasy XIII. This afro-sporting gunman is a father to both his kid Dajh and the family pet Chocobo Chick. He’s mostly a youthful and carefree guy who plays the level-headed adult in the FFXIII group dynamic, though he does have his bouts of grief thanks to the time paradox nonsense in the storyline.
Come to think of it, single dads do have it tough in the Final Fantasy universe. Kudos to Sazh and Barret for keeping it real.
Sean Matsuda (Street Fighter III)

Back in the late 90s, Sean was the next generation of Street Fighter characters to represent a brand-new mish-mash Shotokan and Matsuda Jiu-Jitsu combat styles, as evident in his close-ranged combat skills. He was a unique powerhouse with a playful personality, at least until Third Strike where his movesets were nerfed to the ground.

Honestly, this guy needs to make a proper comeback. Who else do you know taunts his opponents with basketball flicks?
Jax Briggs & Jackie Briggs (Mortal Kombat series)

We have two pretty awesome black fighting game characters in the MK series; one is the mentor to Sonya Blade and a cigar-chomping ass-kicker with metallic arms. The other is the daughter who picks up after his dad and continues the path to kickassery.

She also picks up the tech-savviness of her dad, but more focused on the bottom half than the top. Dad’s got the punches covered, while the daughter has the kicks down pat.
Leroy Smith (Tekken 7)

Tekken’s latest character addition is all levels of coolness. Leroy Smith not only is a high-level practitioner of Wing Chun, but he also help bring in more players in Tekken 7 because of his easy-to-get-into playstyle and overall character look.
Plus, he’s got an incredibly loyal good boy who acts as his assist move at times of strife.
Roland (Borderlands)

From shady Vault Hunter with a Kevin Hart-esque voice (irony much) to a distinguished leader of the Crimson Raiders, Roland is a stand-up hero in Borderlands canon. Based on the work he did in Borderlands and Borderlands 2, he pretty much was leader material. He convinced the abandoned Crimson Lance soldiers on Pandora to join his cause and made the home base Sanctuary into what it is today.
Alyx (Half-Life series)

One of the major reasons why Half-Life 2 gets a lot of love from FPS and PC gaming fans is because of Alyx. She made her debut in part 2 and ends up being the best parts of the title, so much so that the last title is focused on her. She helps Gordon Freeman out a lot, is a pretty charismatic companion from start to finish, and her design looks great.
Rodin (Bayonetta series)

Badass shopkeeper, shifty ally, and optional uber boss, this fallen angel helps out the title character Bayonetta by crafting weapons out of demons he finds in the underworld (if you found the right vinyl records). He can also make a mean drink since he owns his own establishment called the Gates of Hell. If you have halos and demon currency, he’ll sort you out.
Adam Hunter (Streets of Rage series)

One of the iconic Streets of Rage characters. He was playable in part 1, was the princess in part 2, and was an assist in part 3.
He made a stellar comeback in part 4, being the only selectable character with an awesome dash move and great power moves involving spectral dragons. No, really.
Nessa (Pokemon)

It took Nintendo a while to create a noteworthy black Pokemon character that isn’t a caricature. Nessa has to juggle between being a top-tier Pokemon Gym Leader and a model; her character growth revolves around her conflict to either pick one or do both. It’s a pretty nifty arc, especially if you fight her in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
Plus, her dress sense is off-the-charts and pretty much put most Gym Leaders to shame.
Sheva Alomar (Resident Evil 5)

An awesome BSAA companion to Chris in RE5. She’s headstrong and loyal, as well as packs a mean roundhouse when she’s cornered by zombies and Majini bad guys in the shantytowns of Africa. She’s smaller than Chris and his cauliflower biceps, but she is flexible and faster.
Her outfit is also classy, with the purple shirt and green army pants and boots making her fashionable while also being practical combat-wise. Which makes her alternate outfit all the more jarring.

I doubt this is going to fly in this generation’s gaming PC-ness.
Know of any notable black characters in video game history? Let us know who we missed in the comments below, or on our social network pages.


God Of War Ragnarok Korean Rating Hints Release Date Announcement Soon

God Of War Ragnarok has been officially rated by Korea’s Game Rating and Administration Committee. That usually indicates, signifies or at least suggests that a release date announcement is going to happen soon.
The listing states a mature rating for the game, which is on the par for a God Of War game. A translation of the rating also seems to describe God Of War Ragnarok as an “action-adventure game based on Norse mythology, depicting the adventures of Kratos and his son Atreus”. It also stats that the game will feature “excessive profanity […]throughout the game,” “direct drug expression” and “characters drinking alcohol in pubs”.
For months now, there have been rumours that Sony is planning to do a big PlayStation live stream presentation sometime in June 2022. That grows increasingly probable as the days go by. The last we saw of God Of War Ragnarok was back in September 2021, which is more than six months ago now (see trailer below).
Stay tuned on Kakuchopurei!


Journey Devs To Release Next Game On Mobile First

Game developers Thatgamecompany has quietly released its follow-up to the phenomenal Journey (2013) with Sky: Children Of The Light. Their new game is out now on iOS devices, but it will be coming to Android next, with other platforms like PC and consoles to follow suit in the future.
In Sky: Children Of The Light, the developer will be delving into a more multiplayer-focused territory, as the game once again features heavy elements of exploration and puzzle-solving, just like Journey.
Despite being released on mobile platforms first, Sky: Children Of The Light doesn’t look like any typical mobile game. The graphics are a beauty to behold, and the music is heavenly.
It is available as a free-to-play game on the Apple App Store, though it does feature in-app purchases and microtransactions worth up to US$49.99. This includes what seems like a season pass system of sorts.
Meanwhile, Android users can pre-register now on the Google Play Store, though there’s no official release date yet. Gamers on other platforms will eventually receive the game too, but there’s no telling how long it will take for Sky: Children Of The Light to launch on their respective platforms.
In the meantime, check out the Adventure gameplay promo trailer for Sky: Children Of The Light below and soak in the majesty.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8lG5Bp_bMQ&w=560&h=315]


Mario Strikers Football Game Will Be Out This June

Nintendo and its loyal game developer studio Next Level Games (Punch Out!, Super Mario Strikers) is back with a brand new football game. The worldwide one, not the American kind.
Mario Strikers: Battle League will be out for Nintendo Switch on 10 June. The new football game will have 5v5 gameplay with the usual rules: score goals by kicking the ball into the enemy goal, use powerups and special moves for fancy shots and level the playing field to your advantage, and pick your favourite Mushroom Kingdom characters like Mario, Yoshi, and Princess Peach. The game wilave online play up to 20 players online and feature a football club mode, and also eight player modes offline and online.
Check out the trailer below.


Sonic The Hedgehog Netflix Series Out In Winter 2022

If you have the need for speed, you may want to tune in to the upcoming Sonic The Hedgehog Netflix series.
The streaming service will be airing the computer-animated cartoon series, called Sonic Prime, this Winter 2022 worldwide. The show teases Sonic fighting against Shadow The Hedgehog and Dr Eggman, as well as a look at Big The Cat. The landscape itself is what seems to be based on the video game’s Green Hill Zone area among others. And there are robots; can’t forget about the robots.
Sonic Prime is described as a high octane adventure and a “journey of self-discovery and redemption” following Sonic and his literal race to save a “strange new multiverse”. Deven Mack will voice the title character.
Check out the teaser trailer below.


Latest Code Vein Update Adds Halloween Accessories And Other Improvements

Bandai Namco has announced that the next Code Vein update, version 1.04, will be launched at the end of October 2019. Get ready to lose more hours in the character creator menu because Halloween accessories are coming!

Here’s everything that’s coming in the patch:
Character Creation

New Halloween-themed accessories, colour pallets, and face paints.
New function for hair parts that allow usage of left-right symmetry.

Exploration

Change partners at Mistle from the beginning.
Lock map direction.
Turn off conversations during exploration.
Pop-up messages while getting abnormal conditions.
Changing trigger conditions for “the Trial of Blood”.
Ichor can be drained from training sandbag.

I’m particularly thankful for the ability to change our partners at any Mistle. It’s a feature that was available in most of the game’s demo builds and I was a bit disappointed to find out that we’d have to switch partners manually at the hub when I played the final game.
If you haven’t played Code Vein but it piqued your interest, check out our review. It might help you make a decision.


Here’s A Quick Glimpse At Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba For PS4

That super popular Demon Slayer series has released the first trailer for its upcoming PS4 game. TitledÂ Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hinokami Keppuutan, it is slated for a 2021 release.

There’s no gameplay in the trailer, but you get to see protagonist Tanjiro Kamado using one of his Water Breathing moves on the Hand Demon from the Final Selection exams. No Shinobu or Nezuko, sadly.
The game is made by CyberConnect2, the guys behind Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, the Naruto Ultimate Ninja series, and the .hack games. This team also had a hand in building the early foundations of Final Fantasy VII Remake before Square Enix’s in-house team took over for the remaining years of the project.
We have no idea yet if Demon SlayerÂ will take any cues from those games, but I won’t be surprised if it turns out to be similar to the Ultimate Ninja titles.
Thanks, Gematsu.


We Need More Fun RPGs Like The Ruined King: A League of Legends Story

Platform(s): PC (version played), Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One
Genre: JRPG made by a Western company
November is a heckuva time to be a League of Legends fan. With the Netflix Arcane series out and Riot Games’ surprise spin-off launches, it looks like the company is going above and beyond content-wise. And that’s not even counting the esports stuff and upcoming fighting game that will hopefully be revealed in full next year.
For now, role-playing game fans can be content with Ruined King: A League of Legends Story. Made by Riot Games’ spin-off publisher Riot Forge and developer Airship Syndicate, which features Joe Madureira’s legendary art style and vision, Ruined King is basically a JRPG with a League of Legends plot worked in. Said story involves the vengeful pirate queen Miss Fortune who has to team up with Kraken priestess Illaio and a few other oddballs to prevent a mist-related life-wrecking magical catastrophe from destroying their home of Bilgewater. The folks who will join you include beloved samurai Yasuo, fox magic person Ahri, bald tough guy Braum, and spooky killer Pyke.
Ruined King’s deal is that it’s a story-driven RPG with a turn-based combat system to resolve enemy obstacles, puzzles in its overworld dungeons that need a bit of know-how to solve, and a bunch of sidequests to distract you and score you better loot. All this is made by the same folks who did the acclaimed RPG Battle Chasers: Nightwar and the action game Darksiders Genesis, so the seal of quality in this new title is apparent.
I love it. And I’m not even that fond of League of Legends, which goes to show how strong the game’s design and core mechanics are.
Laneway Festival

What makes this JRPG-from-Westerners’ turn-based combat system fun is the addition of the initiative bar system; an LoL game NEEDS to work in its MOBA lane system somehow to keep in theme, right? Your turn orders are determined by this three-lane bar on the bottom center of the screen; if you’re on the left-most part, you’ll start first. You have Instant moves that you can use straight away (normal attack, guard, taunt, additional attacks), and you have Lane moves that take a few turns to activate, but they either deal a ton of damage, add debuffs/buffs, or heal your party. Each Lane move can either be one of the three types on the initiative bar: Speed, Balance, and Power. Speed Lane moves activate quicker but hit for less, while Power activates slower but hit harder. Balance is the default choice if you’re not sure which one to go for.
Here’s where things get interesting: Hazard zones will appear on the initiative bar in most fights: these can either be beneficial or debuffs/damage-over-time effects. Whichever type of Lane move you pick will determine the position your character will be on the bar. If there’s a healing zone, you’d want to be on it to get the benefits. If there’s a zone that shoots lightning at whoever’s in it on the Speed lane, you’d want to avoid that lane. Furthermore, some moves can push or pull enemies back or towards the initiative bar. And some enemies will have powerful buffs that negate damage (or make them hit thrice as hard) unless you hit them with a specific Lane move, be it Speed or Power. That golem with the huge damage-negating armour? You have to use Power Lane attacks to destroy its armour bit by bit to weaken its defenses.
Therein lies the strategy in combat; while you’re hitting foes with attacks, you also want to make sure you’re on the right side of the initiative bar and save your Lane moves to be getting all the buffs in Wildcard Zones. At the same time, you have to deal with powerful enemies who can only be weakened with the right Lane attack, which means planning your delayed turns or just play defense, depending on the situation. Every major battle in the game will make you think hard and start figuring out your lane moves, especially in the higher difficulty settings.
This is all made spectacular with the game’s simple-yet-colourful art style (thanks to Joe Mad’s iconic art direction) and impactful sound design. Every hit that your samurai guy Yasuo lands is clean-cut and smooth, while Ahri’s spellcasting feels whimsical yet painful on foes. You’ll wince a bit when bad guys start putting the hurt on you, especially if you forget to put on your defenses on your turn.
Regicide

Ruined King isn’t without its problems though. For one, the game’s dialogue is pretty standard, with a few corny and exposition-filled lines that feel like they’re out of a comic book than an actual serious fantasy novel. Joke’s on me, given how splashy & sketch-like it looks, but don’t expect high-level Witcher-style profoundness in its narrative; just some good old-fashioned fantasy adventure tropes popping in.
The game also needs a bit more playtesting and thought in some areas. Some text is spelt wrong, and some unintentional placeholders pop up now and again during combat. I’ve also had my game crash via the game’s infinite loading sequence; I had to restart the game after a few minutes of seeing the loading screen not budge.
And the map system; oh lord the map. Sometimes I have no idea where I’m going, or where specific objectives are. Both the main and side quest objective markers are exactly the same, and some quests with noted locations do not update within that chain. This means that the map and quest log will still show you the map location of the first part of the quest, but not the second which takes place at an entirely different location. You might even trigger an unintended story sequence that can bar you from progress for a short while, or even trigger high-level encounters if you’re not careful. It’s a pain going back and forth in the game, especially since its fast travel options are few and far between. Simply put, the long-term exploration for sidequests and faffing about is not so hot.
Crowning Achievement

Still, all these isn’t enough to detract from the meaty 30+ hour experience, most of it fun and cathartic if only because I like to create power teams with these LoL characters to wreak havoc on the battlefield and get sweet loot out of it. If there’s a Western-based game developer who can make JRPG-style titles and nail them, it’s definitely Airship Syndicate.
That’s what Ruined King is aiming for: to be a lovely turn-based RPG experience that oozes with League of Legends flavour from its lane-based mechanics to its colourful lore that’s only presented previously on a surface level in the MOBAs. And it comes with the Joe Mad signature aesthetic to boot, which is always a boon for those who want easy-on-the-eyes titles that do not rack up triple-A prices.
True, some of the exposition story bits could use a lot less talking heads, but this isn’t a high-budget game (despite the oodles of wealth Riot Games has). All I’m saying is that this surprise LoL side game release is a fun and affordable RPG jaunt, even if you’re not a huge fan of the MOBA. If anything, this title proves that Airship Syndicate can make a worthy JRPG that can run with the big boys of the Square Enix and Bandai Namco variety.
Pros

Satisfying & fun combat with inventive initiative lane system.
Dungeons & bosses are challenging and full of fun puzzles.
Character interactions are fun to watch, despite corny dialogue.
Bang for your buck, with lots to do.

Cons

Kinda buggy.
Terrible map.

Final Score: 80/100


Uniqlo PlayStation Collection Goes On Sale Today

Starting from today (on 27 February 2023), the Uniqlo PlayStation UT collection is on sale at Uniqlo retail stores across Malaysia and the official website.
According to the website, the designs are described as being inspired by “the iconic PlayStation game consoles that have entertained people for decades. The various consoles and iconic shapes are depicted in playful original line art and eye-catching graphic designs.”
There are only four T-shirt designs in the Uniqlo PlayStation UT collection, but our favourite is one where it showcases all the consoles that PlayStation have made from the original PlayStation to the PlayStation 5 (as well as handhelds like the PSP and PS Vita):

Another is this one, which showcases the evolution of the PlayStation controller from the original stick-less PlayStation controller to the first DualShock and up until the PS5’s DualSense controller:

The other two designs are these; one with a simple PlayStation button icon design and one with the original PlayStation on it:

All of these T-shirts are priced at RM59.90.
Uniqlo collections usually sell out fast, so grab your favourite design as soon as possible and show off your colours as a PlayStation fan.


Big 2K Games Sale For Nintendo Switch

If you’re a Nintendo Switch gamer and a fan of 2K Games, then you’ll be happy to hear that a bunch of their titles are currently on sale on the Switch eShop.
2K is a publisher label that’s part of Take-Two Interactive, the same company that owns Rockstar Games, the folks behind Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. But while Rockstar is known for those two franchises, 2K has a bunch of different games under its belt like BioShock, Civilization, Borderlands, NBA 2K, and WWE 2K. And lucky for us, many of those games have been ported to the Switch.
Right now, you can snag some of 2K’s Switch games for up to 85% off! That’s a pretty sweet deal, especially if you’ve been eyeing BioShock: The Collection. For just $10, you get all three BioShock games and their expansions. That’s a steal if you want to catch up on the series before BioShock 4 possibly drops in 2023 (which was announced back in 2019) or if you just want to revisit the series after Ken Levine’s Judas reveal last year. So head on over to the eShop and see if any of these discounted 2K games catch your eye!
List Of Games

BioShock 2 Remastered
BioShock: The Collection
BioShock Infinite: The Complete Edition
BioShock Remastered
Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition
Borderlands Legendary Collection
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection
Carnival Games
NBA 2K23
PGA TOUR 2K21
Sid Meier’s Civilization 6
Sid Meier’s Civilization 6 Anthology
Sid Meier’s Civilization 6 Anthology Upgrade Bundle
Sid Meier’s Civilization 6 – New Frontier Pass
Sid Meier’s Civilization 6 Platinum Edition
XCOM 2 Collection

If you’re a fan of the Borderlands series, then you’ll be pleased to know that the Borderlands Legendary Collection is also on sale for US$10! This collection includes all the mainline Borderlands games, except for Borderlands 3, which was released in 2019. Borderlands has become one of the most beloved looter shooters out there and is often compared to other popular games in the same subgenre like Destiny 2 and Warframe.
But that’s not all – if you’re into strategy games, you can also pick up Sid Meier’s Civilization VI and XCOM 2 Collection for less than US$10 each! These games are considered some of the best in the genre and offer hours upon hours of engaging gameplay.
It’s no secret that one of the selling points of the Switch was the ability to play big, third-party AAA games portably. And it seems like publishers and developers still see the value in bringing their games to the platform, even if they’re older titles. We’ve seen recent examples of this with games like Doom Eternal, Dying Light, Nier: Automata, and No Man’s Sky. Even Microsoft is planning to bring Call of Duty to the Switch following their acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Sure, these games may not perform as well on the Switch compared to other platforms, but the portability and lower price point make them a great addition to your Switch library, especially when they’re on sale.


ROG Phone 6D Series & BATMAN Edition Announced For Malaysia

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) Malaysia has officially announced the pricing and availability of ROG Phone 6D Series and BATMAN Edition for the Malaysia market.
The ROG Phone 6D (12GB+256GB) Space Grey is priced at RM 3,499, while the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (16GB+512GB) Space Grey is priced at RM 4,999 that comes with an in-box AeroActive Cooler 6. These ROG Phone 6D models will be available in Malaysia starting from 9th November 2022.
Meanwhile, the ROG Phone 6 Batman Edition (MediaTek Dimensity 9000+) with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage will be priced at RM4,799 with exclusive matching accessories bundled. Availability is set for the end of November for the ROG Phone 6 Batman Edition.

With the ROG Phone 6D’s Level Up Your Gameplay Campaign, the ROG Phone 6D is more accessible than ever with an instant RM300 rebate. Users can own the latest ROG Phone 6D at just RM3,199, simply by bringing their old smartphone to their nearest ROG Authorized Dealer and following five simple steps. This will surely enable more mobile gamers to own the awesome ROG Phone 6D for themselves.
The ROG Phone 6D series is powered by the latest flagship MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ 5G smartphone platform, a flagship powerhouse that delivers power and performance enhancements for the ultimate boost across all on-device experiences. Dimensity 9000+ offers amped-up gameplay — unleashed with the full suite of HyperEngine 5.0 features plus an improved MediaTek Mali GPU. Clocking up to 3.2 GHz CPU speeds and boasting up to 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512 GB ROM of storage, the Dimensity 9000+ chipset provides flagship 5G experiences, perfect for mobile gamers.

The ROG Phone 6D Ultimate introduces an all-new AeroActive Portal feature, a heat-dissipation ‘door’ that works in conjunction with the AeroActive Cooler 6. The AeroActive Portal is a precisely located air intake on the phone that opens automatically when the AeroActive Cooler is attached.
The AeroActive Portal directs a continuous high-speed stream of cool air from the outside directly onto the vapor chamber’s cooling fins, efficiently dissipating the heat generated by the SoC. This unique thermal structure maximizes both gaming performance and battery endurance simultaneously, and boosts thermal efficiency up to 20% when the AeroActive Portal is activated.

New Features Highlight – ROG Phone BATMAN Edition

The ROG Phone 6 BATMAN Edition is an exciting collaboration that deep-dives into its subject, with the look and feel of the phone totally redesigned in honor of the mysterious, technology-loving crime-fighter. With its muted and atmospheric Gotham City Black color, mirrored product label, Batman Gauntlet-inspired graphic detail, and the iconic bat-shaped raster graphic of the Aura RGB logo, every effort has been made to capture the spirit of Batman’s universe.
The special semi-matte finish of the ROG Phone 6 BATMAN Edition, with its high-tech detailing, has been carefully designed to reflect light in a way that mimics the iconic image of the Bat-Signal searchlight illuminating dark clouds in the Gotham City night sky.
The phone also gives fans a special user experience and a custom user interface with the exclusive Batman animated theme pack. This features live Batman wallpaper and a redesigned app icon frame, and when the phone is being charged there’s an exclusive sound and animation combined with Batman-themed elements. The custom in-display fingerprint icon also means that users can unlock the phone by tapping the famous yellow Bat emblem.
Owners of the ROG Phone 6 BATMAN Edition get a special bonus with the unique three-piece matching accessory set.
At the top of the list is the Bat-Signal Projector, a miniature replica of the famous searchlight that’s used to call for Batman’s help. This LED searchlight can project one of two versions of the iconic Bat-Signal onto nearby surfaces and can be powered by a USB-C cable attached to the ROG Phone 6 BATMAN Edition.
The Batman Aero Case is a protective bumper case featuring a geometric relief rendering of the Bat emblem, created in layers for a 3D effect. The hidden inner part of the case is printed with a special ‘easter egg’ in the form of an image inspired by the Batman graphic novels.
Even the humble SIM removal tool gets the full Batman treatment: with its Bat emblem design and Gotham City-inspired desktop holder, the thoughtfully designed Batman Ejector Pin deserves pride of place in any collection of memorabilia.
To keep the ROG Phone 6 BATMAN Edition and its accessories safe from even the toughest supervillain, a custom storage case is supplied. This sturdy, one-piece water-resistant case is made from expanded polypropylene (EPP). Its appearance is based on military-style suitcases, and there’s an embossed Batman logo stamped into the lid.
Official Product Malaysia page links:

https://rog.asus.com/my/phones/rog-phone-6d-model/
https://rog.asus.com/my/phones/rog-phone-6d-ultimate-model/
https://rog.asus.com/my/phones/rog-phone-6-batman-edition-model/


Destiny 2 Season 19 Adds New Dungeon, Crucible Updates & More

Bungie has revealed what’s coming to Destiny 2 Season 19, which will be the game’s last major update before Destiny 2 Lightfall, the new major expansion that is slated to launch in 2023.
Check out the full patch notes below:
ACTIVITIES
RAIDS AND DUNGEONS

Fixed an issue in Vow of the Disciple where encounter challenges were unintentionally active for Guided Games.
Fixed an issue where the Regicide Triumph for King’s Fall remained visible when it could no longer be obtained.
Fixed an issue in King’s Fall during the Warpriest encounter where players could bypass plate mechanics.
Fixed an issue in King’s Fall during the Daughters encounterchallenge that bypasse intended completion requirements.
Fixed an issue in Duality where players sometimesself-revived and respawned outside of the final encounter.
Artifice Armor pieces that previously lost their bonus artifact mod sockets have had those sockets restored and can be used to slot Season 19 artifact mods.

CRUCIBLE

Playlists

Quickplay (6v6)

It is now a playlist with both Clash and Control.
Uses loose skill-based matchmaking (SBMM), which we have tuned during Season 18.

Weekly Rotator (6v6/Free For All)

Rotates weekly between Momentum Control, Mayhem, Scorched, Rift, and Rumble.
Use purely connection-based matchmaking (CBMM).

Competitive Division / Freelance (3v3)

This is now a playlist, randomly picking Survival, Rift, and Showdown.
Uses a new SBMM setting built using concepts we developed for loose SBMM tuning but tightened to match you more closely against opponents of your skill.

Crucible Labs

During Season 19, Labs is showcasing 3v3 Rift with asymmetric maps.
Labs now have a stacking +25% reputation booster.
Crucible Labs uses CBMM.

Trials of Osiris (3v3)

When Trials is active, it replaces Crucible Labs.

Iron Banner / Freelance (6v6)

When Iron Banner is active, it replaces the Quickplay node.

Competitive Division

Glory progression deprecated.
New Competitive Division ladder implemented.

Progress through seven divisions, based on your skill in the Crucible:

Copper
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platinum
Adept
Ascendant

Earn/lose more/less skill by:

Winning.
Playing well.
Having your division be above/below your skill rating.
Being better/worse than the rest of the lobby.

Participate in:

Placement Series to start each Season and be placed in an initial division based on skill.
Promotion Series to promote to a higher division.
Relegation Series to avoid demotion to a lower division.

Avoid division decay by playing some matches each week. Avoid division decay by playing some matches each week.
Shaxx has an intro quest to get you started!

Competitive Division Rewards

A cool division.
Your division gives you a stacking Crucible Rank bonus:

Copper and Bronze – 1.0x
Silver – 1.1x
Gold – 1.2x
Platinum – 1.3x
Adept – 1.4x
Ascendant – 1.5x

Once a week, each character can complete a Competitive Division challenge to earn a drop of the Rose Hand Cannon.

Quickplay

We are implementing a new matchmaking parameter in Quickplay: fireteam size. Expect more fireteam vs. fireteam matches in Quickplay and, as the Season continues, other playlists.
Lowered the amount of suspension time handed out for serial quitting in the Quickplay playlist.
Added the amount of time remaining to all suspension messages and made the messages trigger when clicking on the node. If you want to know how much time you have left before you can play again, the information is now available.

Rewards

New Crucible Seal and Title

Unbroken and its Glory related Triumphs have been memorialized.
Added new Crucible title ‘Glorious’ and new Triumphs.

Crucible Engrams

Crucible Engrams will be a virtual currency and live exclusively on the Rank Progress bar on Lord Shaxx.
Players can open Crucible Engrams by visiting Shaxx, no Rahool needed.

Crucible Gear Focusing

You can focus the Crucible Engram directly into either Crucible armor or Crucible weapons.

Crucible gear focusing cost for Season 19:

One Crucible Engram
10,000 Glimmer
50 Legendary Shards

Crucible Engrams DO NOT need to be “claimed” to be spent on focusing.
Individual pieces of gear must have been acquired at least once prior to being available for focusing.

Crucible armor available for focusing in Season 19:

Clutch Extol Set

Crucible weapons available for focusing in Season 19:

Stars in Shadow
The Keening
Frozen Orbit
Survivor’s Epitaph
Sorrow’s Verse
Crisis Inverted
Riptide
Out of Bounds

Brand new Crucible weapons are only available as drops during their introductory Season and are then available for focusing the following Season.

Other Shaxx changes

The Kill-Tracker Ghost Shell will no longer appear at Lord Shaxx if it has already been acquired. It may be reacquired from Collections.

Bounties

Fixed some issues where Void objectives for weaken and suppress were not counting correctly against Guardians.
Reduced number of final blows required for some bounties calling for elemental status effects in Crucible.
Updated Crucible bounty availability to align with Crucible revamp changes.

Modes

Quickplay suspension timer is now separate from Competitive. Suspension time remaining is now displayed.
Showdown Heavy ammo initial spawn time increased to 60s, is not shareable, and only spawns once per round.
Rift Heavy ammo is not shareable.
3v3 Rift and Showdown resurrect timer set to 2s; respawn timer set to 7s.
Mode rule descriptions added to launch screen of all Crucible modes.
Loading screen hints added for all Crucible and Iron Banner modes.
Curated maps in all Crucible modes.

General

Eternity should now award progress towards This Is the Way Triumph in Trials.
Fixed landing cinematic for Disjunction in Glory playlist.
Crucible Rank reputation is increased based on your Ranked 3v3 ladder rank.
MIDA Multi-Tool catalyst can now drop from any Crucible win.

STRIKES

Players will no longer be able to summon Sparrows in Maevic Square during the Lake of Shadows strike.
Fixed an issue where some Champion strings displayed the wrong icons.
Fixed rare issue of objectives not updating in the Warden of Nothing strike.

PUBLIC EVENTS

Increased Glimmer rewards for completing public events.

Heroic public events reward 10K and 12.5K Glimmer.
Non-heroic public events reward 3300 and 4645 Glimmer.

UI/UX

Fixed an issue preventing the color preview squares for Colorblind settings from updating until navigating away from the Settings screen and back.
Fixed an issue where the Fast Travel tutorial would appear multiple times during New Light and could not be dismissed.

GAMEPLAY AND INVESTMENT
ARMOR

Shaders

Reduced glow intensity of Gambit Jadestone to be in line with that of other shaders.

This was done to diminish the negative impact of the shader on fellow Guardians.
Other such shaders will follow in the future.

Wormgod Caress

Reduced maximum damage multiplier from 7.5x to 3.5x.

Winter’s Guile

Reduced maximum damage multiplier from 7.5x to 3.5x.

Lucky Pants

No longer scale the damage of the jolted status effect when applied by a Hand Cannon.

Mods

Restorative Finisher no longer prevents you from performing a finisher if you do not have enough Super energy to trigger its benefit.
Unstoppable Hand Cannon now correctly requires you to aim down sights without firing your Hand Cannon before activating the unstoppable effect.

WEAPONS

General

Added a full auto toggle to the Gameplay section of the Settings menu. This will make all weapons fire at full auto.
Reduced the size and intensity of Lumina’s muzzle flash in order to alleviate photosensitivity concerns.
Omolon weapons will now correctly display the liquid ammunition color that corresponds to their damage type while in the inspection screen.
Shoot to Loot can once again pick up ammo via explosion damage.
To Excess (Opulent origin trait) no longer displays a stacking counter when triggered on multiple weapons. (This is purely a visual change).

Weapon Archetypes

Sidearm

Reduced zoom stat on Drang and Drang (Baroque) from 14 to 13.

Fusion Rifle

Main Ingredient

Reduced stability from 49 to 35.
Reduced aim assist stat from 59 to 45.

Rebuilt the Fusion Rifle hip-fire reticle to react more obviously to changes in accuracy cone.

Shotgun

Added a fixed pellet spread to each Legendary Pellet Shotgun subfamily and a matching custom reticle.

Aggressive: Fixed evenly distributed cone.
Precision (includes Duality hip-fire): Vertical oval.
Lightweight: Diamond.
Rapid-Fire: Square.

Updated reticle for slug Shotgun to better represent precision.

Rapid-Fire:

Increased PvE damage by 5%.
Reload speed benefit now applies at all times instead of only when reloading from empty.

Aggressive:

Fixed several Shotguns which were using the incorrect intrinsic Aggressive perk. Now all Aggressive Shotguns will increase RPM after a kill, as intended.

Glaive

Glaive projectiles have been adjusted for more reliable hit detection.
Glaive melee attacks can now benefit from the Exotic armor perks on Synthoceps, Wormgod Caress, and Winter’s Guile.
Glaive melee damage multipliers reduced by 25-30% against Champions, minibosses, bosses, and vehicles. Majors and minors are unchanged.
Glaive melee base damage reduced from 75 to 67.

Grenade Launchers, The Queenbreaker, and Grand Overture

Switched from the old blinding screen effect to the new Arc blind one with reduced screen effect brightness.

Hand Cannon

Rose has new stats.

Increased range from 38 to 43.
Reduced stability from 45 to 40.
Reduced handling from 68 to 60.
Airborne effectiveness is 20.

Weapon Mods

The Dragonfly, Rampage, and Surrounded perks now have their spec mod behaviors enabled by default.

Perks

Air Assault

Now grants a stacking bonus to airborne effectiveness. Maximum two stacks: one per final blow, two per airborne final blow. Each stack is +30 AE.

Headseeker

Body shots now increase your precision multiplier and increase aim assist. Additional body shots reset the timer.
It has a 0.55s base timer. Body shots while the perk is active reset the timer.

Encore

Final blows now grant stacks of Encore. Stacks grant increased stability, range, and accuracy (+8 stability, +5 range, and +1.25% accuracy per stack).
Body shot final blows grant one stack, precision final blows grant two stacks, with a maximum of four stacks.
Lasts 7s, Enhanced Encore lasts 7.5s. Final blows refresh the timer.

Seraph Rounds

Removed +10% range scalar.
Now gives +7 stability, +3 range.

Tunnel Vision + Kill Clip

The duration of these buffs can now be refreshed if activated while already active.
Reduced damage bonus from Kill Clip from 33% to 25%.

Redirection

Now builds stacks against minor enemies and consumes them on everything else (i.e., matches Minor Spec and other perks that use similar language).

Häkke Breach Armaments

Now increases damage vs. Ward of Dawn and Well of Radiance sword by 30% (60% with the artifact mod).
Damage bonus against Stasis crystals has been increased by 15% (both base and with artifact mod).

Gutshot Straight

Increased bonus Auto Rifle body shot damage from 10% to 20%.

Compulsive Reloader

Now remains active down to half ammo.

High-Impact Frame intrinsic perk

Now allows a very small amount of movement instead of turning off with any movement.

Ambitious Assassin

Increased allowed time between final blows from 5s to 7s.

Well-Rounded

Duration increased from 10s to 15s.
Stacking the effect still resets the timer.

Recombination

Fixed the perk to work correctly in PvP.
Grants up to 100% bonus damage at max stacks in PvE.

50% in PvP.

Zen Moment

No longer deactivates on a miss. Now has a 1s timer.

Rewind Rounds

Now work correctly when hitting the cage created by Divinity.

Genesis

Now triggers on breaking player shields.

One Quiet Moment

Now reactivates much faster after a final blow.

Gun and Run

Reduced the number of final blows needed to activate.

Box Breathing

Reduced damage bonus on Scout Rifles by 5%.

Unstoppable Force

Reduced damage bonus from 30% to 20%.

One-Two Punch

Reduced bonus melee damage as follows:
From 3x to 2x vs. most enemies with unpowered melees.
From 1.8x to 1.4x vs. most enemies with charged melees.
Reduced the additional bonus vs. bosses from 0.5 to 0.25.

Enhanced Perks

Enhanced Unrelenting

Removed +5 handling.
Added +5 health regeneration.

Enhanced Perpetual Motion

Removed .1s faster activation.
Removed .1s grace period on end.
Added 1s faster activation of x2 stacks.

Enhanced Timed Payload

Shifted from +5 range to +5 stability.

Enhanced Explosive Payload

Shifted from +5 range to +5 reload.

Enhanced Firing Line

Added +10 handling when near allies.
Removed increased neutral range.

Enhanced Grave Robber

Changed +5 reload to +5 handling.

Enhanced Explosive Light

Added one more charge (stack caps at 7).

Enhanced Cornered

Added +10 stability when active.

Enhanced Cold Steel

Now adds +10 energy and weapon sizw to be consistent with other ammo capacity-increasing perks.

Enhanced Vorpal Weapon

Changed from +5 reload to +5 stability.
This will apply to the guard resistance stat on Swords.

Enhanced Genesis

Removed Primary ammo overflow.
Now provides additional handling.

Enhanced Flash Counter

Corrected an issue where this only provided a display stat to Swords; now this will properly provide increased ammo capacity.

Enhanced Chain Reaction

Updated its definition as inventory provides a different benefit to Swords.

Enhanced Ambitious Assassin

Increased allowed time between final blows from 6s to 8s.

Exotics

The Fundamentals trait (present on the damage-type switching Exotics like Borealis, Hard Light, and Dead Messenger)

Added stats to each element

Arc: +25 handling and +5 range.
Solar: +35 reload speed and +20 airborne effectiveness.
Void: +20 stability and +10 aim assist.

Borealis

Breaking a matched shield now refills the magazine from reserves and allows your next five shots to deal bonus damage.
Not deactivated by reloading anymore.

Jade Rabbit

New perk design:
Quickly landing three crits returns one round to the magazine, and allows your next body shot to land for increased damage.
Can stack up to three increased damage body shots.
Resets if you reload.

With the addition of the Full Auto setting, we’ve replaced the Full Auto Trigger System perk with something else on each weapon that had it.

No Time to Explain

Replaced with Feeding Frenzy.

Traveler’s Chosen

Catalyst perk replaced with Surplus.
It still has Osmosis.

Vigilance Wing

Catalyst perk replaced with Ensemble.

Dead Man’s Tale

Now prefers critical hits over body hits in hip-fire if both types of targets are inside the precision aim cone.
Increased body shot damage from 46 to 54, reduced crit damage from 81 to 80.

D.A.R.C.I.

Now applies Jolt when damaging targets affected by Personal Assistant.
Increased base airborne effectiveness to 80.

Wish-Ender

Increased its hidden damage bonus vs Witherhoard-blighted targets from 10% to 25%.

Whisper of the Worm

Increased base airborne effectiveness to 80.

The Prospector

Added Chain Reaction to the intrinsic perk.

The Fourth Horseman

Decreased recoil by 50%.

Forerunner

Increased crit damage by 30% in PvE.
Reduced base damage from 40 to 37 and crit damage from 72 to 67 in PvP.
The Rock perk:

Increased damage by 60% in PvE.
Increased damage at the outer edge damage radius from 0% to 20%.
Reduced ammo cost to activate from 6 to 4.

Merciless

Decreased charge time on hit no longer resets on kill or on reload and now works on a five-second timer.
The timer is refreshed when landing hits.

Rat King

Radius required to activate its perk increased from 15m to 20m.

Legend of Acrius

Removed movement penalties.

Bastion

Reduced spread angle by 6%.
This halves the effect of Season 14’s spread angle increase.

Quicksilver Storm

Increased PvP maximum grenade damage from 80 to 120. Increased explosion radius from 3m to 4m.
Switched rocket damage from Arc to Kinetic.

Coldheart

Reduced cooldown on Ionic Trace generation from 3.5s to 2s.
Now maxes out stability and reload speed when at maximum damage.
Picking up an Ionic Trace now reduces the time it takes to get to max damage.

Grand Overture

Increased missile damage by ~50%.

Xenophage

Now deals part (roughly half) of its damage as impact damage, and the rest as detonation.
Overall damage increased by 5%.

Cloudstrike

The lightning storm will now correctly activate when hitting Divinity’s cage.

Witherhoard

Reduced Taken blight duration from 7.5s to 4.5s.

Divinity

Reduced Divinity’s weaken from 30% to 15%.
Still self-buffs to 30%.

Gjallarhorn

Reduced primary rocket’s impact and detonation damage by 25%.
Wolfpack Rounds damage unaffected.

Arbalest

Reduced body shot damage to match Lorentz Driver.

ABILITIES

Solar subclasses

Gunslinger

Knock ‘Em Down

Golden Gun

Now provides 15% bonus damage resistance to Deadshot Golden Gun, and no longer provides bonus duration.
No longer provides 15% bonus damage resistance to Marksman Golden Gun.
Note: After seeing this play out in the wild, it was clear that there wasn’t enough differentiation between Deadshot and Marksman Golden Gun, primarily due to Deadshot benefiting significantly more from Knock ‘Em Down’s bonus duration (as seen by the number of Seventh, Eighth, and Fourteenth Column videos in recent months). We want to push these two enhanced Supers further apart and solidify Marksman Golden Gun as the option where you can take your time to aim your shot from range, and Deadshot as a more in-the-fray option. We believed that doubling up on bonuses and the bonus duration was confusing these identities and not giving them enough space to breathe.

Blade Barrage

Blade Barrage bonus projectiles reduced from 5 to 3 per group. It now releases a total of 20 knives (+43% from base), down from 24.
Note: While it was refreshing to see Blade Barrage topping the charts as a change of pace, the stacking bonuses from Patch 6.1.0’s PvE damage increase and consistency improvements and Knock ‘Em Down’s bonus knives, in combination with other buildcrafting elements, pushed the burst damage of Blade Barrage above where we were comfortable with burst Supers being. We believe this will still be a strong option for burst damage without being as much of an outlier.

Dawnblade

Celestial Fire

Increased close-range melee damage from 90 to 100, so players using Celestial Fire and the auto-melee option are no longer disadvantaged in close-range melee fights.

General

Ember of Torches

Radiant base duration reduced from 10s to 8s.
Now applies a -10 Discipline penalty while equipped.

Ember of Solace

Now provides a 50% bonus to Radiant duration, rather than a flat 5s.
Note: this is consistent with its behavior with Restoration.

Restoration

Restoration x1 base healing rate reduced from 25 to 20 health per second (40 health per second in PvE activities, down from 50).
Restoration x2 base healing rate reduced from 40 to 32.5 health per second (65 health per second in PvE activities, down from 80).
No longer stacks with Healing Rift’s healing. The stronger heal-over-time value is prioritized and will stop the weaker heal-over-time from taking effect.

Void subclasses

Nightstalker

Shadowshot: Deadfall

Increased tether anchor lifetime when triggered from 8s to 12s.

Shadowshot: Moebius Quiver

Reduced tether anchor lifetime when triggered from 8s to 6s.

Sentinel

Shield Bash

Improved reliability of the suppression application when hitting the primary target under poor network conditions.

Voidwalker

Nova Bomb: Vortex

Increased initial projectile speed by 21%.
Increased radius of the inward pull impulse on impact by ~17%.
Increased strength of the inward pull impulse on impact by ~20%.
Note: Vortex Nova Bomb has felt like a niche option for a while now, and we want to improve its viability relative to Cataclysm Nova Bomb by doubling down on its unique pull impulse. We also felt like it was too easy to undershoot targets at close-to-mid ranges. Increasing the initial projectile speed should help players catch their intended target more reliably.

General

Void Overshield

Fixed an issue where the Void overshield was only providing 25% PvE-only damage resistance to the overshield, rather than the intended 50%.

Stasis Subclasses

Revenant

Winter’s Shroud

Fragment slots increased from 1 to 2.

Shadebinder

Glacial Harvest

Reduced cooldown on Stasis shard creation (per 6 shards) from 15sto 10s.

Behemoth

Cryoclasm

Fragment slots increased from 1 to 2.

Stasis Grenades

Duskfield Grenade

Increased slow stack application rate on players by 13%.

Coldsnap Grenade

Coldsnap can now track targets for 0.5s after creation, rather than immediately finding a target and traveling toward their last known position.
Note: Base Coldsnap grenade was not meeting our reliability bar and was too frequently getting stuck in the environment or missing targets that had not significantly changed position. Our goal with this change is to increase Coldsnap’s reliability without compromising the ability for potential victims to relocate and avoid being frozen.

General

Stasis Slow

Increased movement speed penalty while Slowed by 10%.

Whisper of Rending

Now provides bonus damage to Stasis crystals and frozen targets for all Primary weapons, rather than just Kinetic Primary weapons.

Arc Subclasses

Arcstrider

Tempest Strike

Increased Tempest Strike damage against PvE combatants by 30%.

Striker

Ballistic Slam

Increased Ballistic Slam damage against PvE combatants by 16%.

Touch of Thunder

Storm Grenade

Decreased Touch of Thunder’s Storm Grenade base roaming duration from 5s to 4s.
Decreased the bonus lifetime granted by Spark of Magnitude to the enhanced Storm Grenade from 2s to 1.5s.
Fixed an issue that caused the enhanced Storm Grenade’s effective area to be difficult to understand in PvP.

Previously, the friend-or-foe ring surrounding a Touch of Thunder Storm Grenade’s lightning strikes blinked on and off between strikes, and there was no indication within the cloud itself of whether or not it was friend or foe. Now, the ring persists through the life of the storm, and enemy storms have an additional VFX layer in the cloud itself to help differentiate them from those created by allies.

Stormcaller

Ball Lightning

Increased travel distance from 27.5m to 35m.

Chain Lightning

Increased damage against PvE combatants by 50%.

Arc Soul

Increased base damage vs. PvE combatants from 35 to 60.
Note: With the release of Season 18, we increased Arc Soul’s base damage in PvE from 25 to 35, but it’s clear that wasn’t enough to help them feel particularly useful in very high-end PvE activities, so we decided to swing harder this time. We’ll be keeping an eye on this one as the Season progresses to make sure these are landing where we’d hoped.

Chaos Reach

Reduced base cooldown from 9:16 to 7:35.

POWER AND PROGRESSION

Fixed an issue where Shaw Han’s supply chest in the Cosmodrome could award items that have been removed from the game.
Fixed an issue where Europa and Beyond Light content may have been inaccessible to some players.

FOCUSING

You can no longer preview a focusing engram where you have no eligible items to decrypt.

DARES OF ETERNITY

Daily and weekly bounties from Xûr and Starhorse now reward Strange Favor reputation.
The amount of Strange Favor reputation earned by completing Dares on Legend difficulty has been increased.
Destiny 2: Year-4 weapons and armor sets and Tangled Shore armor sets have been added to the Dares of Eternity reward pool.
Destiny 2: Year-3 weapons and older, no longer available, destination armor sets (from Io, Mars, Mercury, and Titan) have been removed from the Dares of Eternity reward pool.

DESTINATION MATERIALS

All existing in-game sources of destination materials will be disabled. Players will no longer earn destination materials via interacting with resource nodes, opening chests, completing public events, finishing strikes, etc.

Harvesting resource nodes will now grant Glimmer and XP directly instead of destination materials,
Destination materials removed:

Glacial Starwort – Europa
Dusklight Shard – EDZ
Helium Filaments – Luna
Spinmetal Leaves – Cosmodrome
Baryon Bough – Dreaming City
Microphasic Datalattice – Nessus

MATERIAL EXCHANGE

Rahool will no longer sell destination materials.
Players who have destination materials on their account will still be able to exchange them for Glimmer at Rahool, although at a reduced rate compared to what is currently offered.

Current exchange rate: 20 destination materials = 10,000 Glimmer.
Rahool will provide context sensitive offers that will display depending on how many of each material players have in their inventory, offers will be invisible to players who do not have any destination materials.

New exchange rate: 20 destination materials = 5,000 Glimmer.

Offers are Only visible if players have more than 20 of the associated material in their inventory.

New exchange rate: 1 destination material = 250 Glimmer.

Offers are only visible if players have less than 20, but more than zero of the associated material in their inventory.

This will be the only use for destination materials beyond Season 19.
These offers are unavailable for previously deprecated materials such as Etheric Spirals, Alkane Dust, Phaseglass Needles, or Seraphite.

We don’t want players to feel bad if they have thrown these resources away.

Rahool now allows players to exchange the following materials for Glimmer:

Dark Fragment
Phantasmal Fragment
Herealways Piece

VENDORS

Destination material cost has been removed from Upgrade Module purchases.
Purchasing costs for the Monument to Lost Lights will see the destination material costs replaced with Legendary Shard costs.
As mentioned earlier in these patch notes, the Kill-Tracker Ghost Shell will no longer appear on Lord Shaxx if it has already been acquired. It may be reacquired from Collections.
Devrim Kay and Failsafe will see their current reputation system, which required players to spend Dusklight Shards and Microphasic Datalattice, respectively, removed.

Currently out of scope to create new reputation system akin to what we saw with Finch on Throneworld.

These vendors will no longer sell sunset weapons.
Destination armor will be available for purchase without requiring players to earn ranks with the vendor.

Cost will be 1000 Glimmer and 25 Legendary Shards.

Emblems and rewards that were once unlocked through ranking up vendor will become purchasable on vendor.

Ghost Shell Cost: 10 Legendary Shards.
Emblem Cost: 25 Legendary Shards.

Increase the number of daily bounties available at the vendor from 3 to 4 to be in line with other destinations.

GHOST MODS

The following Ghost Mods will be removed as they no longer will have any functionality in the game:

Materialism (Vanguard)
Materialism (Crucible)
Materialism (Gambit)

The Following Ghost Mods will see changes to their functionality:

Public Defender: no longer increases destination material acquisition, now offers increased Glimmer rewards.
Bountiful Harvest: no longer increases destination material acquisition, now offers increased Glimmer rewards.

PLATFORMS AND SYSTEMS

Fixed an issue where, after joining a player through a Bungie invite, attempting to join a different player by accepting a platform invite will send them to first player’s fireteam.
Fixed an issue where emblems rewarded by completing the King’s Fall raid or raid carries are missed by the raid metrics category.
Fixed an issue where chat disabled via in-game settings would remain inactive when players try to engage by text in the chat.

GENERAL

Fixed an issue where subclass emblems were not properly unlocked with New Light completion.

LOCALIZATION

French Exo Stranger voice talent has been recast.
Spanish Castilian Exo Stranger voice talent has been recast.
Russian Mara Sov was temporary recast for Season 19.

Original talent will come back for future releases.

Lightfall expansion renamed for Portuguese-BR to Queda da Luz.


The SNK Neo Geo Mini Is A Tiny Arcade Cabinet With 40+ Games

SNK has yet to make its Neo Geo Mini reveal official, but we’re getting one anyway from an unlikely source. According to YouTube channel Spawn Wave, the SNK Neo Geo Mini looks something like this:

Your eyes aren’t deceiving you; it’s basically a custom-made tiny arcade cabinet with the lovely colours of the Neo Geo logo, complete with a white and blue body. The arcade screen is 3.5 inches and comes with its own joystick and ABCD 4-button setup which is laid out in a 2×2 format instead of a 4×1 format that we Asians are used to.
And no, SNK isn’t going to force you to play the game on the tiny screen when in the comforts of your home. There is an HDMI output port so you can play it on a much bigger screen. As for controllers, SNK has you sorted:

Yep, these controllers are tailored after the Neo Geo/ Neo Geo CD controllers back in the mid-90s. Games-wise, we’re looking at 40 titles. Check out the list below, which includes all the major Neo Geo KOF games, the Samurai Shodown games that mattered, and Sengoku 3, the quintessential beat-em-up that rivals even Streets of Rage 2 in terms of awesomeness.
For the record, there is no price point for the Neo Geo Mini yet. It might be less than US$100, if the prices for the SNES Mini and NES Mini are of any frame of references.

Until SNK makes this announcement official, we all need to take this as speculation. Me? I’m just pissed off that the greatest Neo Geo 2D competitive shmup of all time is not on the Neo Geo Mini.
What is this game I’m referring to? You’ll find out on Monday.Â As an aside, check out the exclusive reveal below:


We May Be Facing A Temporary Nintendo Switch Shortage…

That Wuhan Coronavirus sure is putting a damper on a lot of things, especially in the video game business.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has recently stated that Nintendo Switch production will be affected on a worldwide scale since its main production originates in mainland China (via NintendoSoup).
Furukawa confirms that the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak has negatively affected the production of the Switch. Mainland China is currently in lockdown to contain the virus; consumers and retailers should expect temporary shortages of the device in the near future.
What does this mean? Well, distributors may probably take advantage of the situation and hike up prices of the Switch due to this unfortunate turn of events. I say “probably” because not many salespeople are that unscrupulous. Or are they?
Guess we’ll find out in a few months.


Fate/Samurai Remnant Launches This September

Koei Tecmo and Omega Force have announced that Fate/Samurai Remnant will launch for the PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam on 29 September 2023 worldwide.
Throughout the Fate franchise, pairs of masters and heroic spirits—also known as servants—have been fighting across history in a series of Holy Grail Wars, with the winning duo receiving an ancient artifact that grants wishes. Fate/Samurai Remnant continues the series’ epic Holy Grail War in the fourth year of the Keian Era, Edo Period Japan. It has been several decades since the end of a turbulent, blood-soaked era, and while the people are finally enjoying peace and tranquility, a battle between seven pairs of masters and servants is about to begin as the “Waxing Moon Ritual” unfolds in the shadows. This is where the game’s hero, Miyamoto Iori, a young man in Asakusa, finds himself caught in the violence alongside his servant Saber, as they fight to be the last pair remaining in order to receive the granter of wishes, the “Waxing Moon Vessel”.
In Fate/Samurai Remnant, players control Miyamoto Iori, a master who studied the Niten Ichiryu style of swordsmanship. He fights alongside Saber, a servant who possesses strength beyond that of humans! When facing enemies beyond human control, players will be able to instruct their servant to attack with powerful magical techniques, or even take direct control of the servant to attack the enemy swarm. Dynamic battle scenes between servants help elevate the action to new heights and are must-see contests for fans of the series!
Throughout the game, players get the chance to explore the town of Edo, where row houses, samurai residences, and brothels stand side by side. Here, many people frequent the streets and characters drawn with a distinct Japanese touch are brought to life. While following the story of the “Waxing Moon Ritual”, players will be able to interact with various characters and animals in town, explore a variety of areas, and take on a wide array of challenges as they fight for survival in the latest Holy Grail War!
Check out the trailer below:


Three All Elite Wrestling Games Are In The Works

Publisher AEW Games hasÂ announcedÂ that there are three new All Elite Wrestling games in development.
These include:
An untitled wrestling game for current and next-gen consoles developed by former WWE 2K developer Yukeâ€™s.A mobile general manager simulator AEW Elite General Manager.A virtual gambling game AEW Casino: Double Or Nothing, through which players can actually win AEW merch.

In a statement to Kotaku, AEW executive vice president and wrestler Kenny Omega said that they’re focused on making a game that’s fun (for the console game being developed by Yuke’s), rather than something that strives for realism.
 Hideyuki Iwashita, best known for having directed the 2000’s WWF No Mercy, is also involved with the projects.
All Elite Wrestling was founded in 2019 and is now rivals to the long-running and popular WWE. In the meantime, check out the announcement trailer below (from 5:10 to 6:22).


The Top 8 New Anime You Should Watch This Summer 2019

Summer has come along and with it are plenty of new anime debuting for the first time. Highly-anticipated shows finally get their time to shine, but youâ€™ll also find a few hidden gems sprinkled in the mix.
For this guide, weâ€™re looking to introduce a few excellent titles from broad genres. Be it an action-packed shounen, a laid-back comedy, or even historical fiction, look around and you may find something here that tickles your fancy.
Dr. Stone

Studio: TMS Entertainment
Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure
Dr. Stone is probably the hottest show of Summer 2019, and with good reason. Unlike the usual shounen stories like My Hero Academia or Sword Art Online, this one doesnâ€™t quite focus on physical one-on-one battles. Rather than brawn, Dr. Stone is an unusual story that promotes intellect as king.
It takes place in the modern-day after a cataclysmic light turns everyone on Earth into stone. High school student Taiju also falls victim to this before he can confess to his long-time crush Yuzuriha. About 3,000 years later, he manages to free himself from his stone prison but finds himself in a world devoid of living humans, all except for his genius friend Senku.
Without any better options on the table, the pair team up and strive to cure mankind of its illness, as well as rebuilding society through the power of science.
Cop Craft

Studio: Millepense
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Magic, Sci-Fi
The buddy cop genre is quite the old classic that has spawned memorable films the likes of Lethal Weapon and Rush Hour. In a similar way, Cop Craft seeks to tap into that magic once more by pairing together two police officers with contrasting personalities in order to solve a case.
This time, though? Both of them come from completely different worlds.
Cop Craft opens with Kei Matoba and his partner in a bust that almost immediately goes wrong. Besides losing the fairy being trafficked, his partner dies at the hands of a Semanian, who hails from an interdimensional gate that appeared 15 years ago.
Despite his hatred for these â€˜aliensâ€™ still ripe, heâ€™s assigned with a new partner in the shoes of Tilarna, a noble knight who also comes from the other side. The two must suffer each other’s differences, but knowing how these shows usually go, they’ll probably become the best of friends after everything’s said and done.
Fire Force

Studio: David Production
Genre: Action, Supernatural
If youâ€™re looking for just a little spice to the usual shounen format, consider watching Fire Force. Not only are the visuals striking and engaging, this one wastes no time in dropping you into the meat of the action.
The story is set in a world where humans are threatened by a phenomenon that makes them spontaneously combust. While the first generation of victims is transformed into dangerous creatures called Infernals, the second generation is imbued with the ability to wield flame as a weapon.
The protagonist, Shinra Kusakabe is a third-generation child who is capable of producing fire from his feet. Driven by the loss of his mother, he enlists himself in the Special Fire Force Company 8, where its members don firefighter-like uniforms to battle the Infernals.
O Maidens in Your Savage Season

Studio: Lay-duce
Genre: Drama, School
When was the last time that you had a frank discussion with someone about sex? Though many of us may go our entire lives without broaching the subject, O Maidens in Your Savage Season gives an honest and sometimes hilarious depiction of that one awkward phase in life weâ€™ve all been through.
It begins as the girls of a high school literature club go through an average icebreaker session. Their mundane meeting takes a sudden turn, however, when one of the members very plainly voices her desire to have sex before she dies. This sparks a roller coaster of emotions in the girls as they become intrigued in the subject.
Rampant hormones, buried feelings of love, as well as the inevitability of adulthood make the forefront of this story about plain old puberty and all the embarrassing things brought along.
NEXT


Resident Evil 4 Remake PC Specs Revealed

Capcom has revealed the PC specs for the upcoming Resident Evil 4 Remake via the game’s Steam page.
Minimum (60FPS, 1080P, “Prioritize Performance”)

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 1200 or Intel Core i5-7500
RAM: 8 GB RAM
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 560 with 4GB VRAM or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 for ray tracing)

Recommended (60FPS, 1080P)

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i7 8700
RAM: 16 GB RAM
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5700 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 for ray tracing)

The Resident Evil 4 Remake launches for the PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on 24 March 2023.


Dragons Of Wonderhatch’s Mackenyu Arata On His Role

Dragons Of Wonderhatch is a new hybrid live-action/anime fantasy adventure. The live-action segments will depict the “real world” while the anime segments depict another world where dragons live. It is slated to premiere on Disney+ Hotstar sometime in winter 2023.
The main leads are Nagi, a high school girl in the real world, and Tyme, a boy who lives in another world where dragon riders hear the cries of dragons and communicate with them. Sena Nakajima plays Nagi, and Daiken Okudaira plays Tyme. Yoshito Emmanuelle plays Nagi’s friend Son, and Mackenyu Arata plays the dragon rider Akuta.
Kentar? Hagiwara is directing the project after spending five years developing it, and Takashi Otsuka is directing the anime segments. Posuka Demizu (The Promised Neverland (manga) is drafting the original character designs and concept art.
Mackenyu Arata is the son of the late legendary Japanese actor, Sonny Chiba. He has previously starred in many movies, especially anime adaptation like Rurouni Kenshin The Final and Fullmetal Alchemist The Final Alchemy. He will star in upcoming high-profile projects like Pegasus Seiya in the Knights Of The Zodiac live-action film and as Roronoa Zoro in Netflix’s live-action One Piece series.
Courtesy of Disney+ Hotstar, we were lucky enough to interview Mackenyu Arata. This interview has been edited for clarity.
You’ve worked on a lot of anime adaptations in the past. How does that compare to working on an original series like Dragons Of Wonderhatch?
Mackenyu Arata: I think working on something that has the anime version or you know, everything I do is live-action, though it has the anime version already. But in this case, we didn’t have something we could watch before I make or be that role.
So, there’s a lot of freedom, there’s a lot of freestyle, in that role, so that’s one interesting part.
You play a dragon rider named Akuta. What can you tell us about your character?
Mackenyu Arata: Akuta is a hero of Upananta. Upananta is the ‘anime’ world, it’s called Upananta. And we have our world, the real world, so yeah, he’s the awesome hero of Upananta.
What was filming like as Akuta? Were there actual dragons riding ala Game Of Thrones where you ride prop dragons or machines?
Mackenyu Arata: Of course, we had actual dragons flying across the sky. I’m just kidding, I’m sorry. (laughs)
Right, the thing is, we just, just started filming and we haven’t shot any of the dragon stuff yet. So, there’s almost nothing I can tell you.
What is the experience like transitioning between live-action and animation parts?
Mackenyu Arata: So, the anime parts, there’s only my voice in the anime parts, and I haven’t seen the anime parts yet. Something I’m looking forward to is to watch the anime version of me, of that character, Akuta. So, yeah, I’m excited.
What attracted you to the role in Dragons Of Wonderhatch in the first place?
Mackenyu Arata: Going back and forth between two worlds is something you don’t do very often, so I thought that was a very interesting part of this Dragons Of Wonderhatch. And it’s every child’s dream to be a hero, so just to be a hero of a world is an honour.


Crossfire: Legion ESL Tournament Announced, Bringing Back The Good Old Days Of RTS Esports

If you feel like you’re savvy with real-time strategy games, then you’ll want to tune in to this upcoming ESL tournament.
Crossfire: Legion, the upcoming RTS title from Prime Matter and Blackbird Interactive (comprising of ex-Relic staff), will be featured on ESL Play. The tournament circuit will take place across Asia, Europe, and North America, with the qualifiers held from 5 June and the grand finals being held on 28 June. The finals will be streamed live on the Prime Matter Twitch channel.
If you’re interested and want to throw your hat into the RTS ring, you can register on the official link here.

Crossfire: Legion will be out in Early Access form this 24 May, with 3 factions playable from the get-go. For more on the game, check out our previews here.


Call of Duty Warzone Smashes Apex Legends’ Battle Royale Record

Call of Duty’s latest take on battle royale, dubbed “Warzone” is well poised to shake up the battle royale scene in a big way.
Just 24 hours following its release, the 150-player battle royale didn’t just break the highest 24-hour player count recently held by Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends: it obliterated it with over 6 million players.

What a day! 24 hours in and over 6 million of you have dropped into #Warzone.
Thank you â€“ weâ€™re just getting started.#FreeCallofDuty pic.twitter.com/GpDKJw5QD4
â€” Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) March 11, 2020
For the record, Apex Legends hit a massiveÂ  2.5 million unique users and 600,000 concurrent users at its peak 24 hours following its surprise release last February. The Respawn-developed game went on to hit the 10 million mark on day 3.
Capitalizing on their slick shooting mechanics, a novel “second chance” feature (a.k.a the Gulag), and presented on a gargantuan map accommodating 150 players at a time, Warzone is also free to play on all platforms. Players on PlayStation do not even require a PS Plus account although Xbox players would require Xbox Live Gold membership in order to play.
It has to be noted, however, that this number obvious rode on weeks and even months of buildup, while also running on a massive franchise which is Call of Duty. Whether Activision would be able to continue this momentum over a long period remains to be seen. But we always welcome more titles with innovative features into the battle royale scene.
Speaking of which, we wonder how soon will Fortnite release their own take of Warzone’s “Gulag”.