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Dedicated Atlus fans were exhilarated when the upcoming Metaphor: ReFantazio was announced as getting a lengthy free demo on Steam. For PC players, ReFantazio is one of the most highly anticipated games of the year, coming straight from the minds of the Persona series. However, since the free demo hit Steam, there have been more than a few issues with performance, leading the developers at Studio Zero to recognize the problems and promise to solve them quickly. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Metaphor Refantazio is already a hit on Steam, though it isn't out yet New Metaphor Refantazio demo lets you start the 100-hour JRPG early NieR creator says Persona dev's RPG is "truly next gen" View the full article

There are scores of incredible digital cards to pick up and add to your collection in Pokémon TCG Pocket—but have you got the hidden Mew card yet? It’s one of the most striking immersive cards currently in the game. Here’s how you can add the beloved critter to your Pokémon TCG Pocket collection and see the animation for yourself, along with some tips on how to get to the Kanto-themed achievement quicker. View the full article

Pokémon TCG Pocket has a lot of cards to begin with, but there are even rarer ones to find when you start looking away from packs, with special Promo cards on offer outside of the base expansion sets. These are known as Promo-A cards and are likely the first in a long line of exclusive alternative artwork cards that trainers can try to find and add to their collections. In truth, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to get every one of them by yourself, and you might need to use the future trading feature to get some of the rarer cards. Some cards in the set are also still unavailable but are likely to drop in time. View the full article

Publisher Forever Entertainment and developer MegaPixel Studio shared new details for the new “Mercenaries” update for Front Mission 1st: Remake. The new “Mercenaries” update for the remake will launch for all platforms on October 3rd, bringing with it hot-seat local multiplayer, new single-player scenarios, and more. Here’s a rundown on the new content: New Singleplayer Scenarios […] Source View the full article

Picking the best World of Warcraft expansion of all time is no easy feat. Almost every expansion has its memorable moments, both in terms of overall lore and content. (Even Shadowlands.) Here, we’ve ranked every World of Warcraft expansion from worst to best, considering everything from raid design to world-building. View the full article

While there are tons of Pokemon style adventures on the gaming market, not enough of these titles are improving the trading card game aspect. That's where Isle of Swaps comes in, a new title from Fuzz Force (an appropriately named company) that has just been released on Steam. Isle of Swaps focuses the gameplay on building up a deck of critters, celebrating the pack opening and trading aspects of TCGs that haven't been given nearly enough attention. Read the rest of the story... View the full article

The ***** of Night in Shadows of Doubt throws you straight into your first ******* case. Do you have what it takes to solve it before the ******* strikes again? All cases in Shadows of Doubt are procedurally generated, meaning that no two cases are the same. While the concept of The ***** of Night case ******** the same—including the case type and main leads—your victim and ******* will be different from ours. View the full article

Despite their speed and strength, traditional ****** arms are usually bolted in place for stability, limiting their reach. The EPFL team aimed to create a bimodal hand that could not only grasp objects powerfully but also break free for limited mobility when needed. This led to the development of the... Read Entire Article View the full article

We had a chance to go hands-on with Nexon's upcoming "********* Action RPG" during TGS, and we're excited to see more View the full article

The Gerudo Sanctum in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a bit confusing at the best of times, especially when you come across a room with a gold plaque that asks you to ‘Seek two distinct tributes’ in front of a golden locked door. The tablet says that there are ‘Clues to the desired tributes are recorded somewhere on this floor,’ but after scouring it for over an hour, I never could find out what it was referring to and let random chance be my guide. It ended up working out as I discovered it referred to two of the four Echos you can find in the sanctum. View the full article

If you just can't wait for Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred to get your ARPG fix, roguelike game Dwarven Realms might be just what you're after. Coming from two-person indie dev Crater Studios, it blends satisfying hack-and-slash combat with a surprising amount of depth, vast ****** hordes akin to Vampire Survivors, and a branching skill tree inspired by Path of Exile to create something that might surprise you. Having just launched out of early access after almost two years, it's already proving a winner among players. Read the rest of the story... View the full article

Playstack Now that Balatro is out on mobile, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. And while it’s a great game, its tutorial doesn’t do the best job of setting you up for the kind of success necessary to ***** you. In my first few hours, though I was completing the objectives ***** out, it felt like I was stumbling my way to success instead of achieving it through strategy. Onboarding was a bit too abrupt, focused on the barebones of how to play instead of blending that with tips on how to play effectively. With that in mind, here’s some useful info and tips on how to get started. I was told there would be no math In Balatro, the main gameplay loop is amassing enough poker chips to beat a set chip total called a ******. To do that, you must... Continue reading… View the full article

Okay this is an absolutely awesome deal. The Jurassic World Evolution Completionist Bundle from Humble Bundle is one not to be missed. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Do you enjoy visiting different landforms of the earth? Today’s NYT Mini Crossword clue, “Flatten out over time,” tests your geographical knowledge and asks you to decipher the name of a popular landform that is very flat in nature. If you’re finding today’s NYT Mini Crossword challenging, then you’re free to use our hints and answers below, which will set you on the right track to find the answer. View the full article

Publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment and developer SHIFT UP released a new update for Stellar Blade improving its visuals and more. The new 1.007 update has a particular focus on Eve’s costume – winds can ***** her skirt(s) up – as well as her bosom, her ******* physics are improved to such an extent that when putting […] Source View the full article

Adventuring is always more fun with a companion, and in Throne and Liberty, you can team up with adorable Amitoi—little plush-like creatures. The Adventures of the Expedition quest in Chapter three of Throne and Liberty introduces the Amitoi House and Amitoi Expeditions. An Amitoi adventurer in Kastleton reveals how they can head out on their own adventures to explore the world and bring you some rewards to boot. View the full article

It almost doesn't feel real after so long waiting, but Ashes of Creation Alpha 2 is just one month away from starting. With FF14 Dawntrail, WoW The War Within, and now the launch of new Amazon MMORPG Throne and LIberty upon us, 2024 has been a busy year for fans of massively multiplayer games. As the ambitious Ashes of Creation from Intrepid Studios plans to bring more players into the testing fold, a new developer video gives us a look at the earliest hours of our time in Verra. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Long-awaited MMORPG Ashes of Creation shows off 40-player raid boss Ambitious MMORPG Ashes of Creation finally dates Alpha 2 launch Ashes of Creation: Apocalypse brings us fantasy battle royale later this month View the full article

Warning: This piece contains full spoilers for The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II. The Last of Us is part of an ongoing craze of faithful video game adaptations with roots traceable all the way back to the original Silent Hill film. However, adapting a game like The Last of Us Part II is a bit different from adapting its predecessor, not just because it has a more complicated, fractured narrative, but also because it’s a (phenomenal) game with much more dramatic meat to explore, both in terms of sheer length and in the thornier dimensions it mines from its characters. To make a show that stands up to its inspiration, it most likely will have to make some major deviations from the source material. While diehard fans may cry foul, it might be the only way this adaptation can feel as vital as the game does. It’s something co-showrunner Neil Druckmann, who is also creative director of The Last of Us games, agrees on. Talking to Variety about the adaptation process, he noted that a common mistake is “staying so close to the source material that is built and designed and written for this other medium that has strengths and weaknesses, and trying to translate it as is, with no changes to this other medium that has different strengths and weaknesses.” Looking at the newly released first trailer for Season 2, we can already see the first signs of how Druckmann and his creative partner Craig Mazin may have altered the original story to suit the television medium. Season II. The HBO Original Series #TheLastOfUs returns in 2025 on Max. #TLOUDay [Hidden Content] — Max (@StreamOnMax) September 26, 2024 Different Mediums, Different Priorities With so many artistic mediums bleeding into each other these days, it can sometimes be hard to remember that video games and television are two very different things. Every medium for telling stories has ***** and ***** that are virtually inseparable from the form. The narrative techniques that make perfect sense in interactive fiction in regards to scene geography, atmosphere, environmental design, and use of player expression often don’t translate to something with a set runtime and no input from the viewer. The narrative techniques that make perfect sense in interactive fiction often don’t translate to something with a set runtime and no input from the viewer. That’s not to say you can’t try. The first season of The Last of Us meticulously rebuilt many moments from the game’s cutscenes, sometimes literally frame by frame. But what purpose does that really serve? The story worked excellently the first time around, the game is available in its best ever form with The Last of Us Part I Remastered, and the cutscenes are readily available on YouTube. If people want a truly faithful version of the story, it’s already out there and has been for years. If anything, taking this cutscene cloning approach, rather than allowing the show’s direction and cinematography to present the story’s most critical moments in a wholly new way, only highlights the ways the original games frequently veered away from the strengths of interactive narrative. And it’s developer Naughty Dog’s adoption of non-interactive storytelling technique that makes such scenes so easy to plop directly into a TV show. I say this as a massive fan of both games: they kind of already were HBO shows. They do use the possibilities of interactive storytelling to their advantage, but in terms of basic construction and scene direction, even during playable segments, there’s ******** use of the techniques and stylistic conventions of prestige television. This is why it isn’t just ironic that the games were eventually adapted as an HBO show; it was so easy to adapt them because the games did a lot of the work already. This is not to discount any of the contributions from the show’s directors, writers or performers, but the blueprint for a successful television show was already baked straight into the game. So if the next season wants to be its best self, it would do well to find a new way to present the story many of us already know. Expand and Explore Even with its fealty to the original game, the first season of The Last of Us often benefited from the deviations it did make. Hiring Latino actor Pedro Pascal gave a strong new take for main protagonist Joel by adding a softer dad-like quality to him compared to Troy Baker’s gruffer edge, adding new characters like Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen expanded the post-apocalyptic world explored in the original game, and devoting an entire episode to the unseen story of Bill (Nick Offerman) and his lover Frank (Murray Bartlett) led to what many considered to be the season’s best entry. Unlike a video game, which usually necessitates some kind of consistency to the player perspective through the controllable character, television affords the opportunity to shift focus more readily, and the show made great use of that in key areas. The second season should use that technique to greater effect. One of the main structural conceits of Part II is playing through the same three days from both Ellie and Abby’s perspectives. Their separate paths don’t really cross over until the end of the three days, both of them going through intensely personal journeys of revenge and rebirth respectively, meaning that each lead character is essentially gone from the narrative for somewhere around ten solid hours apiece. This makes sense in a video game because jumping back and forth between protagonists each level would be jarring for a player, never allowing them to truly settle into the peaks and valleys of power and equipment a survival action game is supposed to foster. But do we really want to watch four or five episodes in a row without Ellie or Abby showing up? Intercutting between their journeys and finding ways to draw thematic parallels between Ellie and Abby even when they’re not in the same physical space would help maintain emotional continuity and viewer investment in both characters. After all, the entire point of the extended lead-up to their confrontation is that it’s a battle we don’t want either side to “win,” because we’ve come to empathize with their experiences. It’s hard for an audience at home to go through that if a character is absent for several weeks of television. We also know that Season 2 won’t adapt the entirety of Part II, which gives the creators plenty of breathing room to add or expand on characters, subplots and world-building concepts that could give the series a fresh feel. If the trailer is anything to go by, we may have already seen hints of the show going in this direction. Trust the Process It’s a small detail, but the teaser trailer hints at what could be a major deviation from the original game’s setup: it looks like Abby will spend time in Jackson with Joel and Ellie. After we see Abby’s first encounter with Joel and Tommy where they save her from infected trying to get at her through a chain link fence (a scene ripped straight from the game), we later see a shot of the three of them fleeing on horses before what appears to be a horde of infected slamming themselves against Jackson’s perimeter wall. There’s also an earlier shot of a large group of infected being spotted through binoculars as they run through snow, indicating that they are heading towards Jackson, the only area in the game where snow is featured. This all suggests that there could be a sequence where Abby and Joel get back to Jackson and have more interaction than they do in the game (perhaps even involving Ellie) before Abby ****** Joel. Such a sequence would be a prime opportunity for more character drama, as well as also giving us more scenes with Pascal before he’s relegated to flashbacks. The teaser trailer hints at what could be a major deviation from the original game’s setup. Abby ingratiating herself within Jackson’s community (a story thread concept art for the second game confirms the developers considered) and perhaps even casting her as an ally who helps them overcome an infected ******* would provide us more context and inner conflict, giving the scene where she finally reveals her true motives a greater sense of dramatic weight. We get little time with Abby before she ****** Joel in the game, which is a shocking scene in its original form, but viewers at home might feel a little lost if someone they assume to be one of the series’ two leads is ******* so abruptly in the first couple of episodes. Getting us into Abby’s headspace earlier so we know exactly what she’s planning and why is the sort of shift that would help smooth that plot development over. And let’s be real here, more Kaitlyn Dever is never a bad thing (Did you see No One Will Save You? She was very good in that). Ultimately, we don’t know exactly how The Last of Us Season 2 will pan out, but based on the first season, it’s fair to say the creative team behind the show can be extended a little bit of trust. There’s a *********’s row of talent involved in the production, and although a game series as beloved as this can engender strong protective feelings from its fans, it can be rewarding to let an adaptation of a story you already know surprise you. The game isn’t going anywhere. The story will always exist in that form. So let’s have a little ****** and see what the differences in the new season will add to the story, instead of assuming they’ll only subtract. Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter. View the full article

There are over 200 cards to find in TCG Card Shop Simulator, so knowing which ones are the best to keep an eye out for when opening packs is crucial to making a lot of money—or deciding which cards to keep hold of cards for future updates and modes. Knowing which cards are the best can be hard with so many available. After all, you need to manage opening packs, selling them, keeping shelves stocked, and paying off bills while making a profit, so knowing what to look out for can be challenging. We’re here to help you with all that. View the full article

This was the best film I saw at TIFF 2024! As someone who dabbles in Southeast ****** films, this one blew me away. Naruebet “Boss” Kuno’s directorial-writing debut stunned audiences and had us all gasping for air in the theatre. It also moved some people to tears. Kuno brought madness, beauty, jealousy, love, tragedy, and happiness in his dramatic thriller, The Paradise of Thorns. In a remote, mountainous Thai village, there is a durian orchard—a paradise Thongkam (Jeff Satur) and Sek (Pongsakorn Mettarikanon) have built for themselves from the ground up. After five years of hard work, their trees are blooming. The two men promise each other eternal love despite not being married, as gay marriage is not recognized in Thailand. But their dream life is soon shattered when Sek falls to his ******. "This was the best film I saw at TIFF 2024!" For Thongkam, coping with the loss of his love is only part of his misfortune. Without his name on the land deed, Sek’s mother, Saeng (Srida Puapimol)—who shows up with her adopted daughter, Mo (Engfa Waraha)—is entitled to ownership of the orchard. Thongkam must now ****** to reclaim the fruits of the couple’s love and labour.... Read moreView the full article

If you roam around the map in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, especially in the Gerudo Desert, you might come across a few hidden caves with solutions you can solve, but nothing happens. In the north of the Gerudo Desert, the rifts have swallowed a temple. If you come across it, you can go through the area as normal until you come across a tomb with two unlit torches. View the full article

Have you ever tried ******** cuisine or snacks? I have. They’re delicious and full of spices. Today’s NYT Mini Crossword clue, “Savory ******** snack with a cracked shell,” asks for the name of one of the most popular ******** snacks with quality health benefits. If you’re having trouble with today’s NYT Mini Crossword clues, we’ve got the hints and answers below for you to easily finish the word game. View the full article

Following up on everything that made Monster Hunter World great, Monster Hunter Wilds looks to be all that - and more. View the full article

Even if a game is very ****** indeed, it's nice to see it do well. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a grim title filled with absolutely excruciating murders, and it just launched a new mode, at least for players who have bought the game's content pass. Even though it has a limited release right now it's done wonders for the game's Steam player numbers, with them more than doubling. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: DBD rival The Texas Chainsaw Massacre slashes price permanently The Texas Chain Saw Massacre adds canonical Leatherface origin story The Texas Chainsaw Massacre blows up with free Steam weekend, update View the full article

Our first impressions for this pirate-themed romp is positive, as RGG Studios crafts some of the best action combat in the series' history View the full article