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The VCT 2025 season for the Americas region has begun with a bang with the Kickoff phase. Featuring the top contending teams of North and South America, it’s worth every VALORANT esports fan’s attention, so here’s everything you need to know about this introductory regional tournament. Set to run from Jan. 16 till Feb. 8, the VCT Americas Kickoff will see multiple VALORANT teams battle it out for crucial championship points that’ll help them qualify for the year’s biggest international tournaments. If you’re looking to know more about the tournament, we’ve compiled all the crucial tidbits, including the list of participating teams, how to watch information, schedule, scores, and more. View the full article

Three things in this life are guaranteed: taxes, death, and a fight breaking out in Marvel Rival's team chat when no one on your team goes Vanguard. No role ****** has been a contentious subject for players ever since the new hero shooter was released—mostly due to players not really understanding what makes a good team composition—but despite some pleading from the community, it doesn't look like the devs are going to change anything... Read more.View the full article

Marvel Rivals’ massive roster of heroes already stands at 35 a little over a month after launch, and more are to come every six weeks or so, according to the game’s developers. Several heroes and villains have already been data mined, including names of some of their abilities, while others are potentially a long way out. One of these heroes is so popular and unique that Marvel Rivals players can’t help but think of ways to integrate their personality into their abilities. View the full article

Far Cry 3 feels like a tipping point in Ubisoft's catalog. It was a dramatic shift in tone from its predecessor, embracing full-tilt chaos and leaning into the open-world formula that the Assassin's Creed games had so dramatically popularized over the few years prior. It was also an absolute blast, and if you've ever been tempted to revisit the misadventures of its peril-plagued, party-going protagonist Jason Brody, there's now one more reason, as Ubisoft finally pushes the much-requested Steam achievements feature live. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Snag Far Cry 6 and the rest of Ubisoft's series dirt cheap right now The best Far Cry game is now free-to-keep Assassin's Creed IV: ****** Flag has outsold Far Cry 3 - but they're both going like gangbusters View the full article

What are the best book abilities and upgrades in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle? Since Indy isn't the most powerful of action stars, you need to rely on abilities that improve his physical skills, as well as those that give him more ways to take on the Nazis that plague the world. Among those skills, some are a lot more useful than others, so you need to be picky with which you unlock so that you're not wasting your vital Adventure Points. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle approaches skills and upgrades in a different way to most action adventure games. Instead of giving you a skill tree to work through, you need to find Adventure Books around the world, both in missions and the open world sections. Then, once you've found the books, you need to spend Adventure Points to unlock each one individually. Finding the book only gives you the chance to purchase the ability or upgrade. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: I played Indiana Jones on an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, and it hits 213fps at 5K Indiana Jones and the Great Circle voice actors and cast list Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review - an authentic Indy adventure View the full article

If you'd ask me, I'd say Sony's very well and truly felt the sting of Concord's flop, given it's slowly been shutting down other live service projects—despite the successes of Helldivers 2, though it's not as if the company hasn't endured some hits regarding its handling of the game, to say the very least... Read more.View the full article

In Dynasty Warriors: Origins, the Battle Preparation phase is an important step where you prepare your character for fights. This stage allows for a lot of customization, which affects how well you perform in battle. The decisions made here are crucial since many choices can't be changed once the fighting starts. You can adjust your character's abilities by picking from different weapons and items. View the full article

How do you use the Monster Hunter Wilds Hammer? The Hammer is a heavy weapon with striking mobility and a moveset packed with combo attacks. It also has a high chance to stun any monster unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of its trademark golf swing, leaving wounds and weak spots wide open. The Hammer can be considered a blunt alternative to the MHW Great Sword. Both offer the satisfaction of wielding a massive Monster Hunter Wilds weapon, but the Hammer has the edge in both speed and agility. It's an ideal weapon for players who prefer to attack and ask questions later in Monster Hunter Wilds, but its inability to guard demands careful timing. Here's how to master the Hammer and land those powerful swings when it counts. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Monster Hunter Wilds Sword and Shield overview - moveset and how to use Monster Hunter Wilds Hunting ***** overview - moveset and how to use All Monster Hunter Wilds monsters confirmed so far View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

How do you use the Monster Hunter Wilds Sword and Shield? Often abbreviated to the SnS, this classic medieval setup is the perfect way to ease into Wilds. One of the lighter Monster Hunter weapons, the Sword and Shield lets you dance around monsters to cut and slash through the toughest hides. The Sword and Shield is an agile Monster Hunter Wilds weapon that balances offense and defense, allowing for a far more flexible playstyle than one-note weapons such as the MHW Great Sword. This makes it a great pick for Monster Hunter Wilds beginners who prefer to stay light on their feet in the RPG game. Boasting high damage-per-second, fast recovery times, and highly adaptable combos, the SnS has a deceptively high skill ceiling, so here's how to master it. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Monster Hunter Wilds Hammer overview - moveset and how to use Monster Hunter Wilds Hunting ***** overview - moveset and how to use All Monster Hunter Wilds monsters confirmed so far View the full article

Who are the Arknights Endfield voice actors? Hypergryph's expansive open-world Arknights game is finally in closed beta, and it's given us a proper chance to lend our ears to the voice-acting prowess on display from its menagerie of operators. Though we don't quite have a full Arknights Endfield cast list just yet, we do know whose titillating tones are behind some of the key Arknights Endfield characters. Read on to find out not only who the Arknights Endfield VAs are in the RPG game, but also some of the places you may recognize them from. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Arknights Endfield banners - beta and beginner banners Arknights Endfield codes January 2025 Genshin Impact becomes a survival game in Arknights Endfield, beta open now View the full article

Ludwig and MoistCr1TiKaL, two of gaming’s biggest creators, are now co-owners of Shopify Rebellion, merging the org with their own Moist Esports/Moist Moguls team in the process. Known for their massive fanbases and influence, they’re bringing fresh energy and new audiences to competitive gaming, setting the stage for a possible new powerhouse team that could dominate the viewership of the esports scene in 2025 and beyond. The unexpected power move was announced on Jan. 17, with both Ludwig Ahgren and Charles Christopher “MoistCr1TiKaL” White Jr. sharing the news of becoming co-owners of the newly combined organization, operating under Shopify Rebellion’s banner. The timing couldn’t be better for the team and its main region, especially in League of Legends with the upcoming launch of the LTA North Conference on Jan 25. View the full article

Nacon’s folding steering wheel for the Switch 2 will be priced at around $30. | Image: Nacon During the Switch 2 reveal, Nintendo teased the next entry in its Mario Kart series. We likely won’t know more details about the follow-up to Mario Kart 8 until Nintendo’s Switch 2 Direct event in April, but Nacon has already announced some of the first accessories for the new handheld designed to improve the ergonomics of its Joy-**** controllers for racing games, as spotted by Nintendo Life. Several companies were prepping peripherals for the Switch 2 well before Nintendo officially revealed its new design, including Dbrand, Genki, and smaller accessory makers whose cases and screen protectors gave us our first peeks at the console’s redesign. Nacon’s Switch 2 lineup features several accessories similar to what’s been available for the original Switch for the past seven years. These include carrying cases, screen protectors, silicone wraps, USB-C chargers, and even tiny steering wheels for individual Joy-Cons for using motion controls in Mario Kart. Image: Nacon Nacon’s Switch 2 steering wheel looks like a step-up to similar accessories released for the original Switch. Most interesting is a more elaborate steering wheel accessory for the Switch 2 that looks similar to racing wheels available for PC simulators, but without features like force feedback. For €29.90 (about $30) it features suction cups on the base so it can be secured to a desk or table and a folding design allowing the wheel, which houses both the Switch 2’s left and right Joy-Cons, to be used at different angles. Unfortunately, while all the new accessories are listed on Nacon’s *** site, none of them are available for preorder or include shipping dates that could give a hint of when Nintendo plans to release the Switch 2. View the full article

When you embark on a run in Hyper Light Breaker, there are tons of different currency types you can collect while in the Overgrowth. With so many sources of currency, it can be hard to tell what each is used for at first. While some currencies are spent back at the Hub, others can be utilized throughout a run to grab new gear or important resources. View the full article

How do you use the Monster Hunter Wilds Hunting *****? This unconventional blunt weapon is what happens when you put a Hammer in the hands of a Rock Band enthusiast. The result is a comically large melee weapon you can swing at your enemies while chaining musical notes to boost your stats. In short, the Hunting ***** is the closest that Monster Hunter Wilds comes to a bard, which makes it perfect for players who prefer to take a support role in multiplayer. However, if you're looking for brute strength, don't let that dissuade you. The Hunting ***** remains a solid Monster Hunter Wilds weapon when playing solo in the RPG game thanks to its wide range of powerful buffs and stun attacks. Here's how to put on a show with the Hunting ***** and slay monsters with your stellar performance. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: All Monster Hunter Wilds monsters confirmed so far Monster Hunter Wilds bow overview - moveset and how to use Monster Hunter Wilds release date, trailers, and latest news View the full article

What are the Arknight Endfield banners? Having finally entered closed beta, we've been able to get a proper look at what Hypergryph is offering Endfield players as far as premium characters are concerned. From what we've seen so far, they don't disappoint. Of course, to pull for new Arknights Endfield characters you're going to need to try your luck on one of the Arknights Endfield banners. As of the beta, there are two different banners to pull from in the gacha game: one beginner banner and one limited banner. If you've managed to get access to the open-world game early, we recommend splashing your Oroberyl on the former - it's a heck of a deal - before moving on to the latter. To find out what they include, read on. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Arknights Endfield codes January 2025 Genshin Impact becomes a survival game in Arknights Endfield, beta open now Arknights: Endfield system requirements View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

If you thought your 4K gaming setup was pretty hardcore, then be prepared to eat humble pie, as Nvidia has demonstrated that 5K (5,120 x 2,880) gaming is not only possible on the new Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, but you can even manage it in demanding titles such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. I had a chance to play the game with DLSS 4 at CES, and was surprised by not only the sharpness of the image, but also the smoothness of the frame rate. The Indiana Jones and the Great Circle system requirements are about as demanding as you can get, with ray tracing enabled on all settings, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 required to run the game maxed out with full path tracing enabled. However, thanks to some magic from DLSS 4 Multi Frame Gen, you can play the game at over 200fps on a 5K monitor, using the new RTX 5090. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle voice actors and cast list Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review - an authentic Indy adventure All Indiana Jones and the Great Circle missions and side quests View the full article

Thursday's teaser trailer for the Switch 2 made it abundantly clear that the upcoming console will be quite a bit larger than the original Switch that came before it. But Nintendo is still being coy about the specific dimensions of the Switch 2's expanded tablet and Joy-Cons. Fortunately, the trailer itself features a number of head-on shots of the Switch 2 hardware next to a known quantity—the original Switch Joy-Cons. Using the established measurements of that older controller (102×35.9 mm) and some Photoshop pixel counting, we can use freeze frames from that trailer to extrapolate a rough size and shape for the Switch 2 hardware. Using the original Switch Joy-Cons as a reference, we can estimate the size of the Switch 2 shown in the trailer. Credit: Nintendo / Ars Technica After spending a good chunk of Thursday performing just those calculations, we're ready to estimate that the Switch 2 hardware features a roughly 7.9-inch screen (measured diagonally), up from 6.2 inches on the Switch and 7 inches on the Switch OLED. We also learned that the Switch tablet itself has a roughly 33 percent larger footprint than that of the original Switch (in terms of total area), while the joysticks on the Switch 2 Joy-Cons have a roughly 26 percent larger diameter than those on the Switch. Read full article Comments View the full article

If you love punishing strategy games, the challenge of learning from death that the best roguelikes bring to the table, and the idea of appeasing Lovecraftian gods, The Deadly Path is a game you'll want to try. Inspired by card-based management sim Cultist Simulator and dark fantasy city builder Against the Storm, The Deadly Path is a jovially nightmarish test of your skills. A new Steam demo makes now the perfect time to check it out for yourself, and, if you need even more convincing, there's even a potential prize up for grabs. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Appease Eldritch gods in this dark fantasy roguelike strategy game View the full article

Team Cherry's long-awaited metroidvania Hollow Knight: Silksong will be re-revealed in April, if you believe a bunch of frantic reddit posts about cake. The standard practice when writing up such fan theorising is to walk you through it step by step, peeling back the layers like Inspector Clouseau. But I know that you are a busy person, so I will jam it all into a single sentence: a Twitter account purporting to be a Silksong developer has posted a tweet that seemingly predicts the Switch 2 announcement while using a profile picture of some cake taken from a recipe book that was published on 2nd April 2024 which is exactly a year before 2nd April 2025 which is the date of the Nintendo Direct teased in the Switch 2 announcement. Read more View the full article

Assassin's Creed Shadows, much like its publisher Ubisoft, has faced countless controversies over the past year. Fans of the franchise have become somewhat disillusioned with it, in large part thanks to a handful of mediocre releases that seem to have abandoned what made the series so great in the first place. With Assassin's Creed Shadows proving to be such a divisive title, it isn't surprising that some felt it had already missed its chance at redeeming the once iconic series and seeing Ubisoft return to form. View the full article

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is official, following AMD's unveiling of its latest gaming GPUs at CES 2025. Details of the new card are still thin on the ground, but we know it will be coming out very soon and will be fighting it out with the Nvidia RTX 5070 for mid-range graphics card supremacy. Unveiled alongside AMD's top-tier card, the RX 9070 XT, the RX 9070 is the second-tier option out of the company's new RDNA 4 gaming GPU lineup. It's not set to be the very fastest card to grace our best graphics cards guide but could make for a great value option for those seeking a reasonably affordable option. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: We could make a Ryzen 9 9950X3D with 3D V-cache on all 16 cores, AMD tells us This AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT specs leak appears to reveal gaming GPU's key details Nvidia and AMD have excellent year as GPU shipments hit over 251 million View the full article

AMD has confirmed that it could make a limited-edition 16-core Ryzen X3D CPU with 3D V-cache on all 16 cores, and that it's going to analyze whether it's worth it, but that it thinks it will be a very niche product. I had the chance to catch up with AMD's senior technical marketing manager of consumer processors, Donny Woligroski, at CES, where we discussed the potential pros and cons of a limited edition AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D with 3D V-cache on both CCDs. AMD announced the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D at the tradeshow, coming a couple of months after we wrote our Ryzen 7 9800X3D review, promising not only massive multi-threaded performance, but also fast gaming performance thanks to its 3D V-cache. However, the new chip still only has 3D V-cache for eight of the cores, while the other eight cores have no 3D V-cache underneath them, but they do have a higher clock speed to make the most of multi-threaded workloads, such as video encoding and 3D rendering. That's arguably the best mix if you want a CPU that can do everything, but could there also be potential for an AMD 16-core X3D CPU where every core has immediate access to 3D V-cache? Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: AMD Radeon RX 9070 release date, price, and specs This AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT specs leak appears to reveal gaming GPU's key details Nvidia and AMD have excellent year as GPU shipments hit over 251 million View the full article

After the buffs and nerfs made to Marvel Rivals heroes, the meta changed from season zero to season one, and Storm, who was the last-standing hero in pick rate, is now in the top position with the highest win rate in competitive mode. Players did not like playing with Storm in season zero, but now she has the highest win rate at 56.44 percent according to Rivals Meta, a stats tracker website not affiliated with NetEase, followed by Rocket Raccoon with 54.76 percent, and Magik with 53.22 percent. The Duelist was in need of a buff after season zero, and it showed. She had the lowest pick rate last season at only 1.66 percent, even though her win rate (49.01 percent) was higher than ****** Widow’s (44.15 percent), Jeff the Land Shark’s (45.39 percent), and even Moon Knight’s (47.52 percent). View the full article

Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida has said he would have tried to resist Sony’s controversial live service video game push. Yoshida, who was President of SIE Worldwide Studios for Sony Interactive Entertainment from 2008 to 2019, told Kinda Funny Games that Sony always knew its investment in live service games was risky. Yoshida’s comments come amid a tumultuous time for PlayStation live service games. While Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 was a breakout hit, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game of all time with 12 million copies sold in just 12 weeks, Sony’s other live service games were either canceled or suffered disastrous launches. Indeed, Sony’s Concord is one of the biggest video game disasters in PlayStation history, lasting just a couple of weeks before it was brought offline amid eye-wateringly low player numbers. Sony later decided to kill the game entirely and shut its developer. It has proved a costly failure for Sony. Concord's initial development deal was around $200 million according to a report by Kotaku. It said the $200 million was not enough to fund Concord's entire development, nor did it include the purchase of the Concord IP rights or Firewalk Studios itself. The Concord flop came after Sony had already canceled Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer game. And just this week, Sony reportedly canceled two unannounced live service games, one a God of War title in development at Bluepoint, the other in the works at Days Gone developer Bend. Yoshida, who left Sony this week after 31 years at the company, discussed PlayStation live service in the interview with Kinda Funny Games, saying if he were current Sony Interactive Entertainment Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst, he would have pushed back on live service back when it emerged. “For me, I was managing this budget, so I was responsible for allocating money to what kinds of games to make,” Yoshida said. “If the company was considering [going] that way, it probably didn’t make sense to stop making another God of War or single-player game, and put all the money into the live service games. “However, what they did when I left and Hermen [Hulst] took over is the company gave us a lot more resources. I don’t think they told Hermen to stop making single-player games. [They said] ‘these games are great, keep doing that, and we’ll give you additional resources to work on these live service games and try it.’ “I’m sure they knew it was risky. The chance of a game becoming successful in this hugely competitive genre would be small. However, the company, knowing that risk, gave Hermen the resources and chance to try it. I think that’s the way they did it. In my mind, that’s great, and hopefully some games will become successful. “Luckily, Helldivers 2 did so well. Nobody expected that. So you can’t plan a success in this industry. That’s the most fun part of this business. I hope that this strategy will work in the end. If I was in Hermen’s position, probably I would’ve tried to resist that direction. Maybe that’s one of the reasons they removed me from the first-party!” In a recent financial call, Sony president, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki said the company had learned lessons from both the record-breaking launch of Helldivers 2 earlier this year and Concord’s failure. On Concord specifically, Totoki said Sony should have run its development gates such as user testing or internal evaluation “much earlier than we did.” “Currently we are still in the process of learning,” Totoki admitted. “Basically, with regards to new IP, of course you don’t know the result until you actually try it. So for our reflection, probably we need to have a lot of gates, including user testing or internal evaluation, and the timing of such gates, we need to bring them forward. We should have done those gates much earlier than we did.” The suggestion here from Totoki was that Sony should have noticed and reacted to Concord’s issues earlier in the development process, presumably so that it could have improved the game before launch. Totoki then went on to point fingers at Sony’s “siloed organization” and Concord’s release window, which may have caused cannibalisation. Concord launched in August, not long after smash hit ****** Myth: Wukong hit PS5 and PC. “We have a siloed organization, so going beyond the boundaries of those organizations in terms of development and also sales, I think that could have been much smoother,” Totoki said. “And then going forward, in our own titles and in third-party titles, we do have many different windows. And we want to be able to select the right and optimal window so that we can deploy them on our own platform without cannibalisation, so that we can maximize our performance in terms of title launches.” During the same financial call, Sony senior vice president for finance and IR Sadahiko Hayakawa compared the launches of Helldivers 2 and Concord, saying lessons learned would be shared throughout the business. “We launched two live service games this year,” he said. “Helldivers 2 was a huge hit, while Concord ended up being shut down. We gained a lot of experience and learned a lot from both. “We intend to share the lessons learned from our successes and failures across our studios, including in the areas of title development management as well as the process of continually adding expanded content and scaling the service after its release so as to strengthen our development management system. “We intend to build on an optimum title portfolio during the current mid-range plan ******* that combines single-player games — which are our strengths and which have a higher predictability of becoming hits due to our proven IP — with live-service games that pursue upside while taking on a certain amount of risk upon release.” Looking to the future, a number of PlayStation live service games remain in the works, including Bungie’s Marathon, Guerrilla’s Horizon Online, and Haven Studio’s Fairgame$. Wesley is the *** News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

No character in Baldur's Gate 3 is debated over as much as the Emperor. The decision to side with him or Orpheus is one of the biggest choices in the game, and players aren't given an obvious answer about whether they should keep him at their side. On the one hand, he is the reason why the player is alive, but on the other, it is understandable that the player would assume a mind flayer has ulterior motives. View the full article