Elden Ring Graceborne Mod Brings Bloodborne To The Lands Between

Elden Ring's Lands Between isn't exactly a lighthearted fantasy realm, but the fan-created Graceborne mod makes things even darker by giving the game a Bloodborne-themed makeover. And since Bloodborne still isn't on PC nearly a decade after its release, Graceborne may be the closest thing to it that we're going to get.

Via GamesRadar, the Elden Ring Graceborne mod was created by a user going by corvianNoctis on Nexus Mods. Although Graceborne is still in an early stage of development, the accompanying trailer is very impressive.

Several characters in Elden Ring have gotten redesigns for Graceborne, including the playable character--the Tarnished--who is now reborn as Bloodborne's Hunter. But the changes are more than just cosmetic. This mod has added Bloodborne's gun-parrying and quick-step ability, while also reworking the way that the main character heals. There are also 22 sets of armor, 35 weapons, 17 trick weapons, and five firearms that have been added to the player's arsenal.Continue Reading at GameSpot


https://www.gamespot.com/articles/elden-ring-graceborne-mod-brings-bloodborne-to-the-lands-between/1100-6524641/?ftag=CAD-01-10abi2f&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Demo And Okami Collaboration Are Out Now

There are so many active Capcom franchises that it seems like a big deal whenever a new franchise is added to the lineup. Later this month, Capcom is dropping Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess on most of the major consoles and PC. But you don't have to wait long to play it, because the Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess demo is out right now. There's no limit on the playtime, so you can play it as often as you want. Capcom has also released a trailer for the demo, which you can see below.

The game puts players in control of Soh, a warrior who is driven to protect a divine maiden, Yoshiro, and the village she lives in from evil. It's an action game with some real-time strategy and tower-defense elements. During the day, Soh has to prepare the villages' defenses and utilize his resources at hand. By night, the enemy creatures attack and not even injuries can stop Soh from his sworn duties. Through Soh, players can still direct the village's defenses even when severely wounded.

Additionally, Capcom announced a collaboration between Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess and Okami, the classic 2006 video game that put players in control of the Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu. Although Amaterasu doesn't appear in Path of the Goddess, Soh's costume is clearly inspired by her in the video below.Continue Reading at GameSpot


https://www.gamespot.com/articles/kunitsu-gami-path-of-the-goddess-demo-and-okami-collaboration-are-out-now/1100-6524639/?ftag=CAD-01-10abi2f&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Final Fantasy 14's Dawntrail early access launch turned a 10-year-old raid encounter into a bugged MMO super boss, but the community rallied to beat it anyway

While the launch of a new Final Fantasy 14 expansion typically kicks up a lot of familiar talking points, it's the random and unexpected stuff that I enjoy the most. Sitting around in a queue for Endwalker and seeing people lose it over some audacious low-poly grapes made me all the keener to see them for myself. 

This time around, the star of the show is a 10-year-old raid that Dawntrail broke. Not that it matters to the scores of players who have collectively gone, 'I reckon I could still take Amon, bug buffed or not.' And so they did!

Back in the old days of A Realm Reborn, Square Enix introduced a then-optional trio of raids known as the Crystal Tower series. The second of those, Syrcus Tower, ends with a boss called Amon, who has seemingly decided they've had enough of being bullied over the past 10 years. Once a relatively easy encounter, the raid boss is now a menace. 

Typically, when you fight Amon, he casts a spell called 'Curtain Call' that is an instant knockout if you don't hide behind three players who become frozen into ice cubes. Now, players are still frozen, but no ice blocks are appearing, leaving everyone forced to take a big ol' L.


amon after dying over 32 million times become enlightened and came to a realization that he can just stop making ice boulders blocking his curtain calls #ffxiv pic.twitter.com/RaoJF7QODpJune 28, 2024


Square Enix has since acknowledged and fixed the error, but only after many Final Fantasy 14 fans managed to find a way to beat Amon despite his buggy state. One popular method involved having a healer fall before the big moment – you have to accept a resurrection from another player so it can be timed to avoid the Curtain Call. Naturally, one healer can't do the work of 24 players, so the next step is using a level three Limit Break to revive the entire party. It's fidgety, but it can work.

Other popular strategies involve using food buffs to simply bully Amon into the dirt before he can cast Curtain Call or simply just avoiding the raid altogether if you're doing an Alliance Raid as part of your daily roulettes. Both are effective options, to be fair.

Much like Endwalker's low-poly grapes, buff Amon is also gone but was enjoyed for the brief stint he played in the MMO all the same. Final Fantasy 14 is designed to give fans plenty to enjoy, though I always enjoy the community's ability to make something memorable out of the unintended.

Speaking of highlights, eating pizza as a certain race in Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail can lead to horrible (and hilarious) spaghettification.


https://www.gamesradar.com/games/final-fantasy/final-fantasy-14s-dawntrail-early-access-launch-turned-a-10-year-old-raid-encounter-into-a-bugged-mmo-super-boss-but-the-community-rallied-to-beat-it-anyway/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Beyond Good and Evil's 20th Anniversary Edition just makes the need for Beyond Good and Evil 2 even more pressing

Beyond Good and Evil's new remaster further emphasizes the need for Beyond Good and Evil 2 and integrates the upcoming prequel into the original game.

When Ubisoft first announced Beyond Good and Evil's 20th Anniversary Edition last month, the publisher revealed it would have a "narrative link" between the remaster and the long-gestating Beyond Good and Evil 2. As first noted by Eurogamer, the video below has trawled through the 20th Anniversary Edition to show exactly what that "narrative link" is.



The new stuff basically takes the form of a treasure hunt, where protagonist Jade can obtain a number of items which in turn unlock some tantalizing items. They might even be new outfits you can equip on characters in the 20th Anniversary Edition, like the outfit that Uncle Pey'j was originally seen wearing in a Beyond Good and Evil 2 trailer many, many years ago.

The treasure hunt items themselves, though, are items that have been left for Jade to recover by characters from Beyond Good and Evil 2, which is a prequel set years before the original game. You might happen upon items from Knox the Monkey, for example, a brand new character in Beyond Good and Evil 2, basically introducing the newcomer for veteran players of the original.

Crucially, though, all the item descriptions after narrated by Dakini, and it's revealed in an ensuing new scene that the character is in fact Jade's mother. This puts to bed years and years of debates over who Jade's parents actually are, and as Eurogamer notes, finally puts to bed fan speculation that engineer Callum is actually Jade's father. 

In short, we're meeting the crew of the Gada in these new additions to Beyond Good and Evil, in plot threads that you'd assume would be picked up on in Beyond Good and Evil 2, whenever it eventually releases. It's been 16 years since Ubisoft first announced the sequel, which then turned into a prequel, and no release window is yet in sight.

Read up on our upcoming Ubisoft games guide for a look at all the other games the massive developer has in the works.


https://www.gamesradar.com/games/action/beyond-good-and-evils-20th-anniversary-edition-just-makes-the-need-for-beyond-good-and-evil-2-even-more-pressing/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Red Dead Redemption 2 jumps back into Steam's top 10 thanks to a Summer Sale discount that's one of the lowest-ever prices on Rockstar's open-world Western epic

Red Dead Redemption 2 has jumped back into Steam's top ten charts, all thanks to a Steam Summer Sale discount that's an almost historic low for Rockstar's Western.

Thanks to the summer sale, Steam's top seller chart is pretty volatile right now. Baldur's Gate 3 is available at its lowest-ever price, and as such has jumped from number 14 all the way back to the top three, while Elden Ring's 30% discount and recent Shadow of the Erdtree DLC drop mean that it's right up at number two, behind the perennially popular Steam deck. One of the biggest jumps, however, is Red Dead Redemption 2, which has not only made it back into the top 100, but all the way into the top 10.

Billed as a new entry on Steam's official Top Sellers chart, Red Dead Redemption 2 is the tenth top earning game by revenue on the platform right now. That's likely thanks in no small part to its 67% price reduction. At $19.79, that brings it within touching distance of its lowest-ever price on Steam, and not very far away from some of the lowest prices ever recorded by third-party checks.

Couple that low, low price with Rockstar's well-known quality and a huge open-world to explore, and it should come as no surprise that Red Dead Redemption 2 has surged back up the charts. It's got some stiff competition in that top ten, but it's doing extremely well in the sales - the most successful new entry after brand-new streamer-friendly release Chained Together, it's selling better than the likes of Hogwarts Legacy, GTA 5, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, all of which have also shot back into the top 100 thanks to their summer sale discounts.

If you want a real bargain, check out the official 'Deep Discounts' section of the Steam Summer Sale.


https://www.gamesradar.com/games/red-dead/red-dead-redemption-2-jumps-back-into-steams-top-10-thanks-to-a-summer-sale-discount-thats-one-of-the-lowest-ever-prices-on-rockstars-open-world-western-epic/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Nintendo Has A Simple But Effective Plan To Stop Switch 2 Scalpers

Nintendo has a plan to combat the potential scalping of its Switch successor: one that boils down to making certain that there are enough units available to satisfy demand when it's eventually released. In a Q&A session during a shareholders meeting, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa explained how the company will take on the reseller market.

"As a countermeasure against resale, we believe that the most important thing is to produce a sufficient number to meet customer demand, and this idea has not changed since last year," Furukawa said (translated via IGN). "In addition to this, we are considering whether there are any other measures that can be taken to the extent allowed by laws and regulations, taking into account the circumstances of each region."

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Switch consoles became sought-after items. The global semiconductor shortage in 2021 saw supply shrink, but echoing previous statements regarding availability, Furukawa added that Nintendo is anticipating that it'll have enough stock to combat scalping.Continue Reading at GameSpot


https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-has-a-simple-but-effective-plan-to-stop-switch-2-scalpers/1100-6524605/?ftag=CAD-01-10abi2f&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

House of the Dragon season 2, episode 3 features a major Game of Thrones Easter egg

House of the Dragon season 2, episode 3 features a major Game of Thrones Easter egg that foreshadows the events of the War of the Five Kings. 

Below, we've dived deep into what the Easter egg is and what it means, which naturally means there are spoilers for the latest House of the Dragon season 2 episode below. Turn back now if you're not up to date! 

If you're still reading, then you're ready to dig into what those dragon eggs mean – and how they link to Daenerys Targaryen. 


Whose dragon eggs are those in House of the Dragon season 2, episode 3?




(Image credit: HBO)


When Rhaenyra is sending away Rhaena, she gives the young princess four dragon eggs. 

Look closely, and you'll spot that the dragon eggs are red, cream, and green, and blue. Cast your minds back to Game of Thrones, and you'll remember that Daenerys Targaryen was gifted three dragon eggs in the season 1 premiere: one was red, one was cream, and one was green. Of course, these hatched and became Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegal, the first living dragons in generations. 

So, are the eggs Rhaenyra is giving away the eggs that eventually become Daenerys's dragons? It certainly looks that way. It's not quite confirmed in George RR Martin's source material Fire and Blood which dragon laid Daenerys's eggs – a character steals three eggs and takes them across the Narrow Sea to Braavos, which is the likeliest explanation for how Dany ends up with her dragons. But, House of the Dragon has now introduced another possibility, considering Rhaena is going to Pentos. With the colors matching up, it looks like these are indeed Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegal. 

"Should all come to ruin here, you will bear our hope for the future," Rhaenyra tells Rhaena. In Game of Thrones, Daenerys is the last of the Targaryens (at least, until Jon Snow is revealed to be Aegon Targaryen, that is). 

Now, that blue egg is more of a mystery. This could be one of the dragon eggs that fails to hatch, or it could end up being the egg that belongs to Rhaenyra's young son Viserys (at this point in the timeline, her son Aegon should have his dragon Stormcloud already). It remains to be seen. 

In the Game of Thrones premiere, when Daenerys is gifted her eggs, she's told they've been fossilized over time and were discovered in the Shadow Lands. Somehow, it seems these three eggs are going to end up separated from Rhaena – and will be lying in wait for Daenerys, some 200 years later. 

---



House of the Dragon season 2 continues weekly on Sky and NOW in the UK and HBO in the US. For more on the show, check out our pieces on: 


* House of the Dragon season 2, episodes 1-4 review
* House of the Dragon season 2 showrunner on why Blood and Cheese is nothing like Game of Thrones' Red Wedding
* House of the Dragon season 2 showrunner doesn't feel the pressure of following the controversial Game of Thrones season 8: "Our challenge comes from within"
* House of the Dragon showrunner teases season 3: "You don't want to end up in that place where you're doing the same thing again and again"
* House of the Dragon season 2 showrunner breaks down the complicated relationship between Daemon and Rhaenyra: "Conflict is the order of the day"
* House of the Dragon season 2 showrunner says Rhaenyra and Alicent's bond is still the heart of the show: "We understand that these two women are connected"
* House of the Dragon season 2, episode 1 recap and Easter eggs
* House of the Dragon season 2, episode 2 recap and Easter eggs
* Hugh Hammer explained
* How Blood and Cheese is different from the book
* Cregan Stark explained
* Addam of Hull explained
* Daeron Targaryen explained
* The House of the Dragon dragons, listed and explained
* Greens vs. Blacks, explained
* The White Worm, explained
* The Targaryen family tree
* The House of the Dragon timeline
* Who wins the Dance of the Dragons?
* The history of Vhagar
* The Song of Ice and Fire prophecy
* House of the Dragon season 2 release schedule


https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/fantasy-shows/house-of-the-dragon-season-2-episode-3-easter-egg-game-of-thrones-daenerys-targaryen/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Bungie heard the feedback on your favorite activities, so Destiny 2 will be "building on the Coils and the Onslaughts" going forward

Destiny 2 got true loot rain in the beloved Coil activity, and back in January Bungie said it was prepared to make it rain again. Speaking with Edge magazine in a new feature on the making of The Final Shape and the future of Destiny 2, Bungie stresses how positive feedback to activities like the Coil and Onslaught has informed its plans.
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This interview originally appeared in Edge Magazine. For more fantastic in-depth interviews, features, reviews, and more delivered straight to your door or device, subscribe to Edge. 


"Part of year 10 is making sure we give a lot of focus to these individual Acts so you know exactly where to go, exactly what to do when you're chasing this loot," says assistant game director Robbie Stevens. "We have a lot of ways that we're considering doing this. We have a lot of ways we've done it in the past, and we're going to be blending those over the next year or so, but honestly a lot of it is just coming down to a lot of stuff coming in year 10 first. A lot of it is building on the Coils and the Onslaughts."

After its introduction in the Into the Light update, Onslaught has been preserved through the Vanguard playlist. Stevens said Destiny 2 will "build upon" Onslaught going forward, and while the Coil has rotated out of the game with other seasonal content, its ideas and successes, especially that roguelike feel and variation, will live on as well. 

"Some of the thinking with some of the roguelikes and some of the bins that you could think of for survival or extraction games or things like that is: what are those different styles of stakes that you can apply to these different activity types?" Stevens says. "How can we build an activity type that actually can be longer than the traditional Strike or Battleground? How can we change the things we're building to react to players saying, 'We want to see y'all really mix the pot on what Destiny could be'?"

Destiny 2 is getting a new Exotic mission in a few months, and Bungie says "it is one of the biggest we've ever built."


https://www.gamesradar.com/games/mmo/bungie-heard-the-feedback-on-your-favorite-activities-so-destiny-2-will-be-building-on-the-coils-and-the-onslaughts-going-forward/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

PSA: Eating pizza as a certain race in Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail can lead to horrible (and hilarious) spaghettification

Public warning: don't eat pizza in Final Fantasy 14... unless you want a mini black hole to open up around your character's nose, causing horrid but hilarious disfigurement. 

Final Fantasy 14 introduced a beautiful graphical overhaul alongside its new summery expansion Dawntrail, but the update seems to have broken a couple of pre-existing animations, which I'm not complaining about because the results are expectedly brilliant.

Final Fantasy 14 players have flocked onto the interwebs to warn others that male Au Ra, the horned lads you might see running around, are deadly allergic to pizza. (Some kind of genetic resistance to Italian food?) The clips below show a bunch of instances of Au Ra chomping down on cheesy slices, before their entire faces flip and jumble and rejig and and generally become squished - before going back to normal, so what's the harm really. Enjoy a slice while you have a laugh below; as far as we're aware, the bug doesn't exist in real life. 


半回転する顔見て #FF14
https://t.co/Kdbaxp8qVZ pic.twitter.com/mkbBm5d06dJune 28, 2024


oh my god pic.twitter.com/86kfDezBQpJune 28, 2024
Old animations working perfectly with the graphical update from r/ffxiv


Ending the animation with a thumbs up is truly the cherry on top of an already funny bug that hopefully won't be fixed any time soon. "Pizza so good you'll undergo spaghettification to get it," one Reddit comment jokes.

When players weren't busy being terrorized by pizza, Final Fantasy 14 fans gathered to wave goodbye to the expansion that ended a ten-year saga, Endwalker, with huge group photos and "Goodbye Endwalker" chants in unison. If you're looking to get into the MMO for the first time, then skip Final Fantasy 14's "endless labyrinth" of account sign-up checklists with one handy fan-built tool.

Final Fantasy 14’s Yoshi-P “would love” to see the MMO on Nintendo’s Switch successor.


https://www.gamesradar.com/games/final-fantasy/psa-eating-pizza-as-a-certain-race-in-final-fantasy-14-dawntrail-can-lead-to-horrible-and-hilarious-spaghettification/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Silent Hill creator says he wouldn't be "unsatisfied" if Slitterhead was his last game because his "last mission" is to "leave a path for these younger creators"

Keiichiro Toyama - the director and writer behind the original Silent Hill, Siren, and both Gravity Rushes - is now working on another new concept in the form of Slitterhead, a disturbing, body-hopping action-horror game. With such an influential resume behind him, the famed dev wouldn't be "unsatisfied" if it were to be his last directorial role.

During an interview with Gamesradar+ at Summer Game Fest 2024, Toyama was asked about his opinion on comments made by Astlibra Revision creator Keizo about how many games one could make within a single lifetime. "From a personal perspective, I'm going into my mid-50s," Toyama explained via an interpreter, "I don't feel like I'd be unsatisfied even if this was the last game I made."

Despite the sentiment, Toyama emphasizes that he doesn't have any concrete plans to stop making games, though his more pressing concern is about what he can leave for the next generation of developers under his wing. "I opened up this studio and we actually have a lot of new staff coming in, younger staff. I'm more concerned about what I can leave behind for them," he continued. "Obviously I'm not saying this is my last game. But I think my last mission is to leave a path for these younger creators to work on what they want to."

Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto recently expressed a similar attitude, explaining that the company was in the midst of a "generational handover" with "developers that are young and brilliant." Resident Evil's once-director and fellow horror icon Shinji Mikami also stayed at his former studio Tango Gamesworks for eight years longer than he planned because he wanted to give younger developers a place to grow.

From Snatcher to Slitterhead, check out the collected works of Keiichiro Toyama.


https://www.gamesradar.com/games/horror/silent-hill-creator-says-he-wouldnt-be-unsatisfied-if-slitterhead-was-his-last-game-because-his-last-mission-is-to-leave-a-path-for-these-younger-creators/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The new Riven remake is even better than Myst

Enlarge / The same gorgeous vistas return in the Riven remake. (credit: Samuel Axon)




A remake of Riven: The Sequel to Myst launched this week, made by the original game's developers. It strikes a fascinating balance between re-creation and reinvention, and based on a couple of hours of playing it, it's a resounding success.


Myst was the classic most people remembered fondly from the early CD-ROM era, but for me, its sequel, Riven, was the highlight. After that, the sequels declined in quality. The sophomore effort was the apex.


It was certainly more ambitious than Myst. Instead of a handful of tightly packed theme park worlds, it offered a singular, cohesive one that felt lived in and steeped in history in a way that Myst couldn't quite match.

Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments


https://arstechnica.com/?p=2034421&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

After 25 years, one of the OG anime visual novels has finally hit Steam with its first official English translation

A quarter-century after its original release, Kanon - one of the most celebrated visual novels ever made - has finally hit Steam with its first official English translation.

Kanon puts you in the shoes of a high school boy who has recently returned to a town he had visited seven years earlier. He meets five girls who each tie into one of the game's major plotlines, with your choices determining which story you follow through to its conclusion. It's a cute slice-of-life romance that to this day remains one of the darlings of the dating sim scene.

Originally released in 1999, Kanon was the first game from Key, the visual novel studio that would go on to make the even more beloved Clannad. Like many romance visual novels of its era, Kanon originally launched with a bit of explicit sexual content attached, but later releases of the game - including this one - excised that content in favor of an all-ages story. It was a big enough hit in Japan to inspire light novels, manga, and two separate anime adaptations.

On top of the new, official English translation, the new Steam edition adds voice acting to the PC version for the first time, and upgrades the UI and visuals to look nice in HD. The game defaults to widescreen, which means some of the original 4:3 art gets cropped, but Steam reviews suggest you can still see the full, original art at the press of a button.

Kanon is a pretty niche game in 2024, but that's exactly why it was so exciting to see it among Steam's new releases this month. It's a game with a notable legacy in a notable genre, and it's great to see it get the chance to meet a whole new audience.

Looking for some of the best anime games? You know where to click. 


https://www.gamesradar.com/games/adventure/after-25-years-one-of-the-og-anime-visual-novels-has-finally-hit-steam-with-its-first-official-english-translation/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Switch 2 Needs Backwards Compatibility, And Luigi's Mansion 2 Shows Why

Nintendo has gained a reputation, and not unfairly, for double- or even triple-dipping on its beloved catalog of classic games. From Super Mario All-Stars on Super NES, to the Classic NES Collection on Game Boy Advance, to modern HD remasters like Metroid Prime and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo has never been shy about capitalizing on its history. As we move into an increasingly digital era, Nintendo has also been noticeably slow to adopt a single, cross-generation digital library akin to PlayStation and Xbox. We've seen lots of speculation over whether Nintendo will finally break this trend as it moves into the era of the Switch successor--and recent remasters like Luigi's Mansion 2 HD show why it's so necessary that the company follows through with this pro-consumer move.

Luigi's Mansion 2 HD is a remaster of a 2013 3DS game, and a pretty good one at that. I enjoyed revisiting the 3DS game on a modern system and felt it was paying homage to its history. But it's precisely because this appealed to me as a historical artifact that I couldn't help but think about what it means for my digital collection. Luigi's Mansion 2 is, so far, the middle chapter of a series that has already grown past it. It's nice to have the game unshackled from the 3DS, but that won't matter if its destiny is just to get shackled to the Nintendo Switch instead.

To be blunt, Luigi's Mansion 2 is good but slight. It's an enjoyable little chapter and a neat way to see how the Luigi's Mansion series has developed, but it's lower on the tier list of vital remasters than games that are older, more in need of modernization, or just difficult to find. The mere existence of an HD remaster of Luigi's Mansion 2 shows how Nintendo is filling its release calendar, which is a fine strategy as the Switch lives an especially long time for a console. And it's far from the last. At its June 2024 Nintendo Direct, the company announced a remaster of Donkey Kong Country Returns, a game that was already ported to the 3DS shortly after its initial release on the Wii and is now making the journey to Switch.Continue Reading at GameSpot


https://www.gamespot.com/articles/switch-2-needs-backwards-compatibility-and-luigis-mansion-2-shows-why/1100-6524558/?ftag=CAD-01-10abi2f&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

After just two weeks, Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance enters Steam's highest-rated JRPG chart

Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, the juicy mega-re-release for (obviously) Shin Megami Tensei 5, has already wormed its way into Steam's best-rated Japanese role-playing games chart a mere two weeks after its launch.

For those not in the ShinPersonaHackers camp, Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance practically bolts on an entire second campaign called the Canon of Vengeance, in addition to the base game's Canon of Creation storyline, as well as new demons to fight/recruit, new dungeons, new characters, and several other major tweaks to progression and the turn-based combat.

With so much new newness added to the landmark game, it's no surprise to hear that it's now one of best-rated JRPGs on Steam. Sitting at an 'Overwhelming Positive' score based on almost 2,500 user reviews, Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is now the storefront's twelfth high-rated game in the subgenre's charts, beating both classics (Final Fantasy 9) and newbie heavyweights (Yakuza: Like A Dragon) alike.

The only JRPGs with better ratings are this year's Granblue Fantasy Relink, classic remake Star Ocean The Second Story R, Astlibra Revision, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, Final Fantasy 14 and the OG Final Fantasy 7, HD-2D pioneer Octopath Traveler 2, Nier Automata, and a trio of bangers at the top of the list: Persona 3 Reload, Persona 5 Royal, and Persona 4 Golden - which are all, funnily enough, Shin Megami Tensei spin-offs.

The mammoth re-release isn't just a critical hit, though. Vengeance sold a whopping 500,000 copies in three days alone, which means it's actually inching closer to the big sales numbers that its more popular spin-off series Persona normally manages. Total Shin Megami Tensei 5 sales numbers sit at a comfortable 1.6 million.

Shin Megami Tensei 5 director echoes FromSoftware’s stance on hard games: “Our intent was never to make things difficult for difficulty’s sake.”


https://www.gamesradar.com/games/jrpg/after-just-two-weeks-shin-megami-tensei-5-vengeance-enters-steams-highest-rated-jrpg-chart/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

10 years later, The Sims 4 is finally getting its long-requested polyamory feature in a free update alongside the new Lovestruck expansion

Alongside The Sims 4's steamy new expansion pack Lovestruck, EA reveals that it's releasing a free update containing one of the community's most requested romance features - polyamory.

Next month brings truly exciting times for us Simmers - not only is EA's spiciest expansion pack yet dropping, but the life sim's developer is also finally adding polyamory to the game. This marks a monumental first for The Sims series, with no entry prior to the fourth officially supporting open or polyamorous relationships. Longtime fans may recall grappling with Sims and their negative emotions when they feel they're being cheated on. Gone are those days of needing Sims 4 mods just to counter unwanted jealousy, though, according to EA.

"Free for all players is the new Romantic Boundaries system that will allow you to customize your Sim's experience with boundaries and jealousy," writes the dev in a post announcing the Lovestruck expansion. "You can now define how your Sims approach romantic relationships in terms of physical and emotional romantic exclusivity. This allows for Sims to date multiple Sims without impact to other relationships." Unsurprisingly, Simmers largely seem ecstatic to hear EA's news regarding polyamory.
Polyamory coming into the base game for everyone. from r/Sims4


In a recent Reddit thread, fans are sharing their thoughts on the update: "FINALLY! I am tired of giving all my poly sims the player trait as a workaround!" Another player comments that it's "One less mod I need to use," while many more express how they're "so excited to read this." As someone with thousands of in-game hours myself, I'm looking forward to scrapping some mods in favor of official polyamory support - more importantly, though, I'm happy to hear that console users without any access to mods can play more freely.

Everyone can experience the joys of open relationships and polyamory with their Sims now, whether on PC or on console, once the free update rolls out this summer. The patch should make its way to The Sims 4 at the same time as the Lovestruck expansion launching on July 25, so there's not long to wait anymore - a welcome fact after 24 lengthy years without any word of such inclusive relationship dynamics in The Sims series.

Looking for something new to play? Here are 10 games like The Sims 4 to check out.


https://www.gamesradar.com/games/the-sims/10-years-later-the-sims-4-is-finally-getting-its-long-requested-polyamory-feature-in-a-free-update-alongside-the-new-lovestruck-expansion/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Metal Gear Solid Delta's visual filters let you replicate the original MGS 3's PS2 look

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater remakes the 2004 stealthy-action game with all the modern bells and whistles (and realistically rendered pores) you'd expect, but a few filters will still let you replicate the original Metal Gear Solid 3's look. In other words, the pee-yellow filter is making a comeback.

"After the new trailer, some commenters said they would like to play with the colors from the original," producer Noriaki Okamura explained in the most recent Metal Gear - Production Hotline episode on YouTube. "We do have multiple color filters you can change between, applicable whether you are playing with New Style or Legacy Style," he continued, referring to the updated control settings and the old ones from the PS2 release that are both in the remake. 

The two screenshots below compare the same shot in two different filters: the "Normal" color palate that the remake's introducing, and the "Legacy" filter that tries to echo the original game's yellowy-green hues. Scroll a little further and the embedded video will give you a look at two more filters - a "Sepia" one that looks like it's been drenched in teabags and a "Retro" one that's much more purple - starting at around the 7-minute mark.


(Image credit: Konami)


(Image credit: Konami)



Metal Gear Solid Delta's changes to the original game's art style were slightly controversial with fans, so it's nice to see a little throwback option that might alleviate some complaints. Other HD-era remakes, like Shadow of the Colossus and Halo 2 Anniversary for example, have also come under fire for ignoring the original's artistic intent in favor of a cleaned up, smoothed out 'realistic' look, so hopefully the trend above continues in future remakes/reimaginings/remasters.

Metal Gear Solid Delta is set to release sometime later this year on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5.

A Metal Gear Solid 3 remake producer also said Konami would “like nothing better” than for OG director Hideo Kojima to come back and work on the series.


https://www.gamesradar.com/games/metal-gear/metal-gear-solid-deltas-visual-filters-let-you-replicate-the-original-mgs-3s-ps2-look/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Hearthstone Perils in Paradise Card Reveal: Rogue Eudora Leads A Treasure Hunt

Hearthstone's next expansion, Perils in Paradise, is launching on July 23. And while the tropical-themed expansion is mostly about kicking back and relaxing on the beach, everybody knows that when you go on vacation, you should keep a close eye on your wallet. Sure enough, the Rogue package for the upcoming expansion has big burgle synergy, with cards that reward you for exercising the old five-finger discount.

The leader of the gang is Treasure Hunter Eudora, a Rogue legendary card (with a lovely Signature variant). The 6-mana 4/5 Pirate has a Battlecry that gives you a Sidequest token, Eudora's Treasure Hunt. The Sidequest challenges you to play three cards from other classes.Gallery

To help you complete the task, Eudora has brought a couple of scurvy scalawags along with her, and a big spell that will help remove threats while you plan your heist. Sea Shill is a 3-mana 3/2 pirate that gives you a 2-mana discount on the next non-Rogue card you play. Conniving Conman is a 4-mana 4/4 pirate that lets you double up on your stolen goods by replaying the last card you played from another class. And Snatch and Grab is an 8-mana spell that removes two enemy minions--but gets cheaper and more efficient for every stolen card you've played.Continue Reading at GameSpot


https://www.gamespot.com/articles/hearthstone-perils-in-paradise-card-reveal-rogue-eudora-leads-a-treasure-hunt/1100-6524560/?ftag=CAD-01-10abi2f&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

New Hitman Event Challenges You To Kill Conor McGregor

A new Elusive Target has entered Hitman's world of assassination, as players will have a month to take on the MMA Legend Conor McGregor. The former UFC champion will be playing The Disruptor, a notorious fighter who has risen to the top of the ranks and has a past shrouded in mystery. Pay no attention to the giant "McGregor" tattoo on his abdomen.

The Elusive Target can be found on Hitman 2's Isle of Sgàil, a secret refuge for the world's billionaires, and tasks Agent 47 with eliminating McGregor so that amateur MMA fighter--and Quantum Leap CEO--Tim Quinn doesn't suffer a brutal beatdown when he steps into the ring.

This mission will be free to play for everyone through a free starter pack in The Ostentatious--an Arcade contract featuring The Disruptor Elusive Target. You'll be tasked with completing multiple missions that escalate in difficulty, and if you fail, progress will restart from the first level and the contract will be locked for 12 hours. There'll also be new premium DLC featuring cosmetics inspired by McGregor.Continue Reading at GameSpot


https://www.gamespot.com/articles/new-hitman-event-challenges-you-to-kill-conor-mcgregor/1100-6524551/?ftag=CAD-01-10abi2f&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Let Me Solo Her is now Let Me Solo Him in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, and he's ready to kill Messmer for you

Elden Ring community legend Klein Tsuboi – best known as Let Me Solo Her – is back, this time with an updated name and mission as he sets out on a new quest to help struggling Tarnished everywhere beat Shadow of the Erdtree's extra spicy mandatory boss, Messmer the Impaler.

Let Me Solo Her rose to fame back in 2022, when he first began offering his services to players struggling to beat the hardest boss from Elden Ring's base game, Malenia. Wearing nothing but a jar on his head, the noble Tarnished did exactly what his name suggested, and would take on Malenia alone while the player he was helping stood safely off to one side, and over time, he defeated her thousands of times. Now, though, in an announcement on Twitter and YouTube, it seems a new era is upon us, as the player has transformed into Let Me Solo Him. 

The iconic jar helmet is still intact, but this time, the player is rocking a new cloak, and it's Messmer who's at the other end of his sword. In a video on YouTube, Let Me Solo Him has shown off one of these solo fights already, demonstrating an absolutely flawless run where he defeats Messmer in less than four minutes without getting hit once. "It's time," he writes in the video description.



Anyone who's fought Messmer will know that that's no mean feat – he's a fast, aggressive boss who leaves few opportunities for you to swing at him without being swiftly met with a spear or scorching flames in your face. While he offers a fair fight, there's no denying that he's brutal to learn, and he's an enemy you absolutely have to defeat if you want to progress Shadow of the Erdtree's story. With that in mind, you can imagine players feeling totally stuck on him would love nothing more than to see Let Me Solo Him's summon sign appear outside the boss door. 

Whether Let Me Solo Him will be taking on Messmer with the same gusto as he did Malenia remains to be seen, but if someone with a jar on their head appears to help you in the fight, just be aware that you may well be in the presence of a legend.

If you want to get equipped for the fight against Messmer, be sure to check out our guide to the best weapons in Shadow of the Erdtree for all builds.


https://www.gamesradar.com/games/action-rpg/let-me-solo-her-is-now-let-me-solo-him-in-elden-ring-shadow-of-the-erdtree-and-hes-ready-to-kill-messmer-for-you/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Persona and Shin Megami Tensei lead reveals you won't be able to see every dungeon in Metaphor: ReFantazio in just one playthrough as the new JRPG offers "a lot more freedom"

Mastermind Persona and Shin Megami Tensei director Katsura Hashino explains just how big Atlus' upcoming JRPG Metaphor: ReFantazio is - and why you'll probably have to play a few times to experience every dungeon.

There are only a few months left between now and Metaphor: ReFantazio's grand release this fall, and Atlus' new JRPG sounds downright massive. Speaking recently to GameSpot, director Katsura Hashino reveals just how big the game is, and how it stands apart from the studio's predecessors such as Persona. Much like Persona, there are plenty of dungeons to explore - but in contrast, they're not all that linear. According to Hashino, players have more freedom in Metaphor: ReFantazio to choose how and where to progress.

"Imagine if you go on vacation," the developer explains, comparing the choices one faces in reality to those one may find in-game. "You go to a city and you have 10 places listed on your travel log. Some of these might take two days to enjoy, whereas others might take half a day. Some might require a guide or more preparations, others might be a bit more safe. But you can't do it all." Just as a person "can't do it all" while making decisions in real life, they also can't accomplish everything available to play through in Metaphor: ReFantazio all at once.

"In this game, you travel a lot," Hashino continues, "and when you get to your destinations, you have a choice of multiple dungeons you can do. And all these dungeons have different difficulty levels as well, so it's kind of up to you how you choose to spend your time. In this way, there's a lot more freedom." The main story itself is fixed in Metaphor: ReFantazio, but it seems like there's still a lot of choice within it - it certainly sounds different than the TV World in Persona 4 or the Palaces in Persona 5, and I personally can't wait to play.

"It's definitely harder than Persona": Shin Megami Tensei lead explains that his new JRPG Metaphor: ReFantazio needed more challenge or else "it won't feel right"


https://www.gamesradar.com/games/jrpg/persona-and-shin-megami-tensei-lead-reveals-you-wont-be-able-to-see-every-dungeon-in-metaphor-refantazio-in-just-one-playthrough-as-the-new-jrpg-offers-a-lot-more-freedom/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger