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Logitech has just unveiled the G Pro X Superlight 2 Dex, a new version of its Superlight 2 gaming mouse that takes on a new curvy shape that's aimed at appealing to gamers that aren't so keen on the flatter, straighter-style of symmetrical mice like previous G Pro iterations. I went hands-on with the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 Dex to see if it's set to be a new gaming mouse revolution. The Superlight 2 currently sits on our best gaming mouse guide as the best wireless ultralight gaming mouse, thanks to its comfortable symmetrical shape, very light weight, and excellent overall performance. So, can the new ergonomic version of this Logitech rodent perform as well? Let's take a look. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Logitech G915 X Lightspeed gaming keyboard hands on Logitech G502 X Plus aluminum hands on - the gaming mouse not for you These new Genshin Impact Logitech gaming mice are actually gorgeous View the full article

The release date for Two Point Museum has been revealed by *****. The third game in the Two Point series of humorous simulations will be released on March 4, on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Players who pre-order the game will get a Sonic themed Pre-Order Pack, which includes a variety of Sonic items and cosmetics. Read More... View the full article

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will officially launch on November 19th, 2024. | Image: Microsoft Preorders are now open for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 through the Microsoft Store. The next installment of the franchise will launch on Xbox and PC on November 19th, with updates that include new aircraft like hot air balloons and a more realistic-looking simulated earth. But the most welcome upgrade could be a much smaller installation size. The current version of Microsoft Flight Simulator needs over 130GB of storage, but that’s just for the base version of the game. Players can enhance their experience by downloading additional aircraft or installing world updates that bring more details to local scenery and airports, but that can gobble up even more storage. Those playing on the Xbox Series S, which only offers players 364GB of... Continue reading… View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

You’ve never played a twin-stick shooter quite like ***** Knight. This relentlessly intense action game may indeed be based around ******* off a steady stream of projectiles as enemies swarm in, forcing you to dodge and shimmy your way to every corner of the game’s tightly enclosed arenas, but you also wield a sword – which itself feeds into the game’s (at least initially) overwhelming set of mechanics. ***** Knight is a densely layered twin-stick shooter, in other words, but it’s been designed that way with a very clear purpose – to sort the wheat from the chaff. This is a return to old school arcade sensibilities; a straight-up high score chaser anchored in twin-stick shooter traditions, but also owing a lot to the likes of Dark Souls, Hyper ******, and ***** Eternal. It is ruthlessly exacting, but never unfair, with over the top action and a skill ceiling that seemingly reaches up forever. It’s also, thankfully, a whole lot of fun. The learning curve is undoubtedly steep, but I found myself quickly sucked in by the chunky, satisfying feel of ***** Knight’s frenetic combat – not to mention its elegant interlocking mechanics, striking lo-fi brutalist aesthetic, grim mood and ******* soundscape. Playing ***** Knight is a whirling dervish of ******, a high-speed mix of swords and gunplay, counters, and supercharged screen clears. It is a game in which wave upon wave of enemies constantly crowds in, forcing you into perpetual motion, dashing to reposition, lining up your most powerful attacks and kiting mobs to create just enough breathing room to clear them out. ***** Knight has no procedural randomness, so each of the five levels (or Eldritch Layers, as the game rather poetically calls them) unfolds the same way each time, playing host to the same overwhelming horde in the same order. They’ll spawn in different places depending on where you are on the ******** floor, and you don’t necessarily need to complete a wave for the next one to start (there are key targets that act as triggers). The action never feels rote, but for the purposes of a high score competition, it’s exactly where it needs to be. Ensuring you’re always slightly off-balance, the arena itself reconfigures under your feet in a way that’s reminiscent of Aussie indie classic ******** Android Cactus. You’re constantly on the back foot, and simply surviving the many waves – let alone dominating them – really forces you to engage with all the combat mechanics. And boy, there are a lot of them. Ensuring you’re always slightly off-balance, the arena itself reconfigures under your feet in a way that’s reminiscent of Aussie indie classic ******** Android Cactus. In fact, even with the tutorials, there’s only so much it’s really possible to understand out of the gate. To improve, you need to play and play some more – many, many times over. By doing so you’ll gradually getting a feel for this game’s destructive dance, and the role your three core weapons – pistols, sword and heavy – all have to play. The pistols are your baseline damage dealers, but really come into their own once you’re in the rhythm of using the game’s active reload system to “overdrive” their firepower. This is mechanically similar to the Gears of War series, but different pistols have different perks for successfully timing your active reload. The Revolters (yes, that’s what they’re called) give your bullets pierce, letting you line up and mow down columns of enemies, whereas the Exhausters have a spinning spread shot burst. Tap a different button, meanwhile, and you can use overdrive in other ways. Why not overdrive your sword for a dashing slash or a spinning ******* that would make the hero of Hyrule proud? The sword is an interesting inclusion. In moment to moment combat it’s more of a utility than anything else – not particularly powerful, but any ****** you net will restore your heavy ******* ammo. This means that part of ***** Knight’s rhythm is using your sword to farm the weakest mobs and ensure your powerful heavy ******* is online. Using the sword also builds a surge meter over time that gives you access to a screen-clearing super. ****** designs lean into the many mechanics too, encouraging specific tactics. Foes with a demonic carapace (essentially a glowing purple shield) will explode when hit with a wrath blast (yet another mechanic; I’ll get to it in a moment). Other enemies will charge up, giving you a window to “pulse counter” them and even slow time, while enemies with weak points can be stunned and then *********. It’s a heady mix of systems. Utilising every inch of the arena is critical to survival, as is taking advantage of the brief ******* of immunity while dashing. Almost all the mechanics have a push/pull element to them. Enemies, for instance, drop blood gems, but these can be used in two distinct ways. One is to simply walk over them to boost your movement speed and ***** power. The other is to hit the right bumper to ***** them in and convert them to wrath, which then powers a special ******* called a wrath blast, which is both devastating and your only source of health orbs… which, given how punishing ***** Knight is, can be essential to survival. Combat, then, is an ever-evolving puzzle as you scramble to prioritise targets, make the most of your arsenal, dodge damage, and try to avoid being overwhelmed by the incessant onslaught. Urgency is part and parcel of play too, as you’re chaining together ****** to grow and maintain your score multiplier. Go a few seconds without a ***** and you’ll lose it – and can most likely kiss the leaderboards goodbye. That’s not the only way to pile on points, either. The difficulty you play on determines your overall score bonus (ranging from no bonus up to +30% on the highest difficulty – unlocked only after beating the truly punishing layer 5). The pace ramps right up as you crank the challenge. Nailing ****** with more advanced mechanics (such as pulse counters or executions) nets you carnage points which also contribute to your overall score, while picking up health orbs when already at full health gives you bonus points as well. Making the most of all these systems will ultimately be what gives the very best players the edge over everyone else. I’ve already mentioned that you can swap equipment, but unlocking new gear is gated behind objectives (optional sub-quests during normal play) which are designed to prove your mastery of ***** Knight’s systems. At launch, the game will have five pistols, five heavy weapons, five swords, and five armour sets, as well as 10 items to choose from in the gem slot. There are some pretty distinct options in the mix that really shake up the gameplay. Do you want a super-targeted shotgun blast for your heavy *******, or a cannon that shoots large shells that explode on contact? (And for that matter, what type of wrath burst do you want? That’s also decided by your heavy ******* choice and ranges from a bazooka-like blast to an AOE around the player.) Do you want a fast-slashing sword or one that shoots out a radial spray of ground projectiles? Do you want to drop to only one dash charge in exchange for taking less damage, as well as doing damage and knockback when dashing? Or perhaps you want three dash charges but are willing to cop increased damage? Figuring out which builds are most satisfying, or tailoring builds to specific layers will all be part of the fun. It’s also worth pointing out that the development team’s goal is for there to be “no fluff”. They want every single piece of equipment to be viable. The ambition, then, is for any build to have a shot at the leaderboards, and for there to not be a “best build” or narrow meta around how to play. That’s a tricky thing to accomplish but certainly a worthwhile goal. At a baseline, the spread of options will let you find a play style that works for you, and also gives you other approaches to try if you’re ******** your head against a layer and simply can’t beat it. The development team’s goal is for there to be ‘no fluff’. They want every single piece of equipment to be viable. This is PlaySide Studio’s first console release, which is kind of bonkers for a studio founded in 2011, but understandable given that its heritage is in the mobile space (and, more recently, in the world of PC gaming). Even so, with ***** Knight, the venerable Aussie outfit is throwing down a (medieval, but also eerily eldritch) gauntlet that showcases the talent they have in-house, and just how much they can deliver on a truly laser-focused vision. Because ultimately, that’s what’s so impressive about ***** Knight. This game is instantly iconic. From the ****** neon brutalist visual aesthetic and low poly character models through to the absolutely ******* score and overall audio design, there is no mistaking it. The gameplay, too, takes elements that are familiar and reshapes them into something new and utterly compelling. Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay ***** Knight is that this is not the kind of game I ordinarily play, and yet, I’m obsessed. I find it intensely challenging, but every day I get a little bit better. I master new skills, I find new lines, I anticipate more of what’s being thrown at me. How far will I go? It’s hard to say, but for the gaming savant the crowning achievement will be Sever mode, ***** Knight’s final coup de gras. This pits you against remixed versions of all five layers in one unbroken sequence. That’s going to be the preserve of the truly skilled and bull-headed, and it’s going to be interesting seeing just how far players can push such a gruelling challenge. All of the above is just a roundabout way of saying that I’m expecting ***** Knight to absolutely pop off when it releases on October 3rd for PC, PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox, so don’t sleep on this one. It’s a stone-cold *******. Cam Shea is the former editor-in-chief of IGN AU, and now spends most of his time immersed in Australia’s craft ***** scene. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

After ten years, we’re now just a little over a month away from playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I played a hefty seven hours of BioWare’s first original game since Anthem in 2019 and fourth mainline installment in the Dragon Age series, starting with the prologue and later loaded into several different saves. As a longtime fan, what I’ll say is ten years is a very long time but so far, The Veilguard hasn’t disappointed. Getting Into Character Now, I could talk to you about the combat (and I will) or the gorgeous locales (that’s coming too) or the way it felt to see Varric and Solas again. Or I could skip straight to the character creator and start with: There’s. So. Much. Hair. Look, I loved Dragon Age: Inquisition, but fans have long acknowledged the limitations of its character creator. The Veilguard blew me away in that regard. After the lackluster options of the last entry, it’s wild to see what we’ve got to look forward to. Thirty hair options for Qunari and 88 for non-Qunari, complete with gorgeous physics as Rook scurries through Northern Thedas. So many different hair textures are represented, whether you’d like totally straight hair, 2B waves or 4C curls. In making my character, I was drawn immediately to a long braid that whipped around as quickly as I did. Qunari horns also see a massive improvement. With 49 unique styles, options range from large and imposing to decorative or even asymmetrical. That said, yes, their foreheads can look pretty jarring. I played as a Qunari mage during most of my preview and will say I got used to the look pretty quickly. Drago n Age: The Veilguard actually only marks the second game of the series where you can play as a Qunari, so the odd imbalance of forehead versus face feels like stylistic growing pains. I remain curious about whether more time with the character creator might help. The Arishok of Dragon Age 2 is, in my opinion, such a beautifully crafted model and I would love to be able to create a Qunari Rook that feels as memorable. Every aspect of your Rook is editable, even allowing for facial asymmetry if you choose. Customization certainly doesn’t stop at hair (or horns) of course. Every aspect of your Rook is editable, even allowing for facial asymmetry if you choose. Sliders allow you to change everything from head shape to the melanin in your skin to the presence of vitiligo. Perhaps my favorite addition, however, is the introduction of body diversity. Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur’s Gate 3 had whiffs of this, but nowhere near what you’re capable of in The Veilguard, which is much more similar to the breadth of the character creator in Dragon’s Dogma 2. For each of the four races, there are plenty of presets to choose from, all with varying heights and muscle/**** distribution. Once you’ve chosen your preset, however, you can build further upon those elements as much as you’d like. First is a triangulation of coordinates allowing for many unique combinations of body types that are thinner, larger, or more muscular. Height sliders are fun – especially when it means watching my particularly short elf ruin years of Solas’ ritual planning by pushing over a statue. The options feel almost endless. There’s even a glute slider and, yes, I gave my Rook one ***** of an ****. All of this is only scratching the surface. I haven’t even gotten into facial hair, makeup, scars or tattoos. As an elf, my Rook sported` some vallaslin, but there are so many different designs for both the face and the body to experiment with. While I didn’t spend very much time exploring customization for the Inquisitor, I just know we’ll all get the chance to make them in the way we’ve always imagined. Also, it may be a relief to some of you to know that Veilguard abandons the awful green lighting of Inquisition’s character creator and instead allows you to cycle through several lighting options in service of creating Rooks that look just as good in gameplay as they do when you create them. Fighting Chance Combat, meanwhile, was a refreshing change from DA:I. My go-to class has always been mage, and even as a Knight-Enchanter I often felt like I was standing in one place holding down the left trigger. This felt like a return to the pace of DA2, with innovations that improve upon the experience of battle overall. The Veilguard introduces a new fighting style for mages featuring an orb and dagger tailored for close-quarters combat. It’s tailor-made for players like me who love magic but, also, really like to stab. Combat was a refreshing change from Dragon Age: Inquisition. During my preview, I played through the prologue and then dropped forward into various points of Act 1, so I really got to quickly experience the progression Rook and their companions can go through as fighters. We may not be able to take control of our companions this time around, but The Veilguard really encourages strategizing with them. They’ll call out to you when they’ve rebuilt their mana or stamina, and the ability wheel even suggests combos. My focus during the event was mission-driven so I didn’t get as much of a chance to interact with the characters as I would have liked, but even the brief moments of banter endeared me to them pretty quickly. Each class gets its own ultimate ability (think the Focus ability) along with a ranged ******* – for warriors that means yeeting your shield like a giant metal boomerang. I’ve always played Dragon Age for story and not combat, but with this new system I had so much fun. I felt present during every encounter and truly accomplished after every boss battle. That said, there’s definitely a bit of a learning curve. I still found myself confusing controls a few hours in. It’s a departure from all three previous installments, but luckily The Veilguard offers five different difficulty levels that you can change at will if you want to ease yourself in. The Dragon Age-Free Decade Ends Soon As a longtime fan, The Veilguard felt like a homecoming of sorts. Just as much as seeing familiar faces in Solas and Varric, I was overjoyed to be back in the world of Thedas itself. Moving us north allows for that sense of discovery I got in Inquisition, and if I’d encourage anything it’s to really look at your surroundings. Not only are there small environmental puzzles to untangle along with small and effective moments of visual storytelling, but the horizon is full of breathtaking scenery that drives home the scale of these locations I’ve personally always wondered about. One new locale, for instance, is a gorgeous underwater prison called the Ossuary. I won’t spoil what you’re there to do, but the design alone makes it one of the most memorable moments I’ve had in any Dragon Age game. Even after hours of gameplay, I still felt like I could have played for many hours more. I’m optimistic about The Veilguard and excited for it in a way I haven’t quite felt about another game in quite some time. If you’d like to see even more of the game, check out our exclusive IGN First coverage, which features even more gameplay and deep dives on Rook’s companions. View the full article

Image: Sony PlayStation has deftly come up with a way to get more people on board with the PS5 Pro. The company has announced a special 30th anniversary collection for the suite of PS5 consoles and accessories that is unfortunately ***** as *****. “To celebrate this 30th anniversary milestone, we had to create something that honored the history and joy that PlayStation has brought us all,” said PlayStation platform business CEO Hideaki Nishino. All the consoles and accessories are cast in classic PlayStation gray and feature the old-school multicolored PlayStation logo creating a look designed to target every gaming 30-something’s nostalgia organ with surgical precision. The 30th anniversary collection features a PS5 Pro bundle that includes the... Continue reading… View the full article

After the terrible news of Microsoft deciding to shutter of a bunch of studios dropped back in May, we ended up getting a rare bit of positive 2024 games industry news, as PUBG publisher Krafton swooped in to buy the studio and the Hi-Fi Rush IP. Read more View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Grand Theft Auto Online has, in an eyebrow-raising move, been given an anti-cheat software named BattlEye over a decade after the game came out. As a consequence, it's now officially no longer compatible with the Steam Deck, per Valve's own store page for the game and an official FAQ from Rockstar... Read more.View the full article

The next Battlefield game will likely be a make-or-break moment for the franchise following the disaster that was Battlefield 2042. The Battlefield franchise is one of the few major shooter franchises out there still releasing traditional games. Halo went free-to-play with its multiplayer, Rainbow Six has been updating the same game for nine years, and Medal of Honor has been dormant for years. Now, Call of Duty and Battlefield are the only ones still releasing new games on a regular basis. However, Battlefield hasn't had a ton of luck in recent years. View the full article

Its almost a decade since the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition, and just over three months since Dragon Age: The Veilguards gameplay trailer gave everyone a real peek at whats to come. Now, with the imminent release of the fourth game, Dragon Age: The Veilguard feels like a proper torchbearer in BioWares dark fantasy RPG tradition, and Screen Rant played five action-packed hours of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. View the full article

Six days ago, a YouTube account claiming to be Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch commented on Asmongold's video about how Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 "is a reminder of what we lost", criticising modern games for "imposing morals". View the full article

Tetsuya Nomura, the legendary co-creator behind the beloved RPG series Kingdom Hearts, is thinking about retiring and wrapping up the lengthy storyline he helped begin back in 2002. The creator's reputation speaks for itself, with Nomura originally hired by Square Enix as a debugger for 1991s Final Fantasy 4 before becoming a monster designer for Final Fantasy 5. He then helped Yoshitaka Amano as a character designer for Final Fantasy 6 before making the jump to lead character designer and story co-creator in the seminal Final Fantasy 7, a game that would propel him to stardom alongside projects like the Kingdom Hearts series. View the full article

***** of P director Jiwon Choi has written a letter to fans thanking them for their support a year after the game's launch. In addition, links to a new music track and screenshot for the upcoming DLC for ***** of P has been revealed. Read more View the full article

Image: Pocketpair Pocketpair has responded to the lawsuit filed against it by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. The studio that developed Palworld, the game at the heart of the suit, issued a statement early this morning saying it doesn’t know what patents it violated. “At this moment, we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details,” the statement read. According to Nintendo’s press release, the reason for the lawsuit has to do with Pocketpair allegedly infringing on multiple as yet undisclosed patents. The details of the lawsuit have not yet been made public, so we do not yet know which patents and according to Pocketpair’s statement, it doesn’t know either. The news broke last... Continue reading… View the full article

***** Rising Deluxe Remaster has tweaked some of the zombie game's achievements. ***** Rising Deluxe Remaster is a brand-new way to experience the fan favorite Capcom game, offering players revamped graphics and some major quality-of-life changes. View the full article

The Dragon Ball Tenkaichi series is one that meant a lot to me as a teenager and young ****** – which was about the peak of my obsession with Dragon Ball Z – but it’s also one that I haven’t really thought about or touched in the last 15 or so years. Fast forward to the present, and after about three hours of hands-on time with Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, it felt like I was hit with a spirit ***** of nostalgia as I once again got back in there, chaining together rapid movement teleports, bouncing my foes like ping pong ****** between multiple vanishing attacks, and kicking them away with so much force that they ******** mountains. It was like reuniting with a dear old friend, and yet, Dragon Ball Sparking Zero feels like much more than just a nostalgia play. It’s packed with new mechanics, a brand new approach to story mode, and a host of other exciting features that I only got a taste of, but I’m excited to dig more into once it comes out next month. The first two hours of my hands-on time was spent on freeplay. I used a large chunk of this time to refamiliarize myself with the Tenkaichi style of gameplay by hitting up Sparking Zero’s exhaustive tutorial mode, which covers all of the many many mechanics present here. There are Vanishing Assaults, Vanishing Attacks, Lightning Attacks, Burst Smashes, Dragon Smashes, high guards, low guards, high speed evasion counters, perception counters, super counters, z-counters, and so on. It’s a lot to take in for sure, but it all serves to enhance the depth of the combat, and most importantly, deliver on the power trip of controlling some of the most powerful characters throughout all of anime. Sure, I might not NEED to know how to knock an ****** away, vanish behind them, drill them into the ground, and then pick them back up and hurl them away like a ragdoll – there are other, simpler ways to get just as much damage, if not more – but doing stuff like that feels so incredibly cool, and to me, that’s what the Tenkaichi series is all about. Once I was back up to speed on the combat and mechanics, I decided to check out one of Sparking Zero’s big new modes outside of its story mode: Custom Battles. It lets you create, share, and play out your own fantasy Dragon Ball ****** scenarios – complete with options to create an intro cutscene, a title card, mid-match triggers, and outro cutscenes that cover what happens when you win, and when you lose. There’s even a Mario Maker-style rule to it, where in order to share your Custom Battle with other players, you need to be able to prove that it’s possible by beating it yourself. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to craft my own battle to the degree that I would have wanted, so I opted instead to see what the mode was capable of by trying out some pre-made battles that were prepped by the developers. And to my delight, they were a lot of fun, with a great variety of different types of fights. Some were simply based around the idea of pitting certain characters against each other: like a battle of speed demons that had you controlling Burter as you faced off against Kakunsa and Hit. Another had you as **** Goku going up against Master Roshi to relive one of their training sessions, and forcingforced you to win the ****** specifically with whatever move Roshi calls out.by using a Kamehameha. Custom Battles have great potential as a sandbox for creative players to come up with and share exciting fights that go far beyond the limits of Dragon Ball's canon. My favorite, though, had me playing as a weak and underpowered Captain Ginyu against an appropriately overpowered Frieza. My only hope for victory was using Ginyu’s ultimate technique, the body-change beam, to swap bodies with Frieza and then easily finish the ******. Easier said than done, as whenever I tried to power up to be able to use the move, Frieza would hit me with an instant-***** ****** beam. So I had to engage with Frieza in combat just enough to be able to charge my meter, knock him away, and then use that time to charge up into Sparking Mode so I could look for an opening to land the *******. It was a surprisingly tense and refreshingly unique battle, and a great showing of the potential that this mode has as a sandbox for creative players to come up with and share exciting fights that go far beyond the limits of Dragon Ball’s canon. On the Next Episode of Dragon Ball Z After the time for freeplay was up, I got a chance to check out a handful of Episode Battles, which collectively make up Sparking Zero’s story mode. Dragon Ball’s story has been told an ungodly number of times at this point across pretty much all forms of media, but what makes Sparking Zero’s interpretation especially cool is how it gives you multiple opportunities to do things differently from how they’re supposed to go. Right from the start of Goku’s episode battle, when Raditz takes Gohan away and Goku and Piccolo give chase, you actually don’t have to join forces with Piccolo. You’re given the option to instead go it alone, and if you do that, then you’ll be joined by Krillin and ****** Raditz in a battle with a completely different outcome. That’s not all either. Even if you decide to play it by the canon and team up with Piccolo, if you manage to defeat Raditz before Piccolo is able to charge his *******, you’ll be met with a special fully animated and voiced “Sparking Episode” that plays out this “what if” scenario of Goku surviving his encounter with Raditz, getting to train Gohan himself, and being there right when the Saiyans arrive on Earth. Producer Jun Furutani told me that when selecting the battles that they wanted to highlight in Episode Mode, they wanted to focus on the battles that highlighted the playable characters the best in the story, but they also wanted to put a focus on battles that could potentially lead to branching outcomes. I followed up and asked Furutani about how substantial these branches could be, to which he replied, “It's a really hard question to answer because depending on which branch we're talking about, it could skew very in a completely different direction. But some branches might just go back to the actual canonical route again. For example, when you ****** Raditz, there's some smaller branches that have been there, but it takes you back to the canonical route. And obviously after Raditz is Vegeta and after Vegeta is Frieza. Some of them are just blips, some of them kind of take you in a very drastically different direction.” And while there are eight characters that make up Sparking Zero’s Episode Battle mode, they do seem to vary wildly in terms of length. I played 30 minutes of Goku’s and only got through the Saiyan saga; 30 minutes of Frieza’s only got me to the final battle against Super Saiyan Goku; and then 30-45 minutes of Future Trunks’ story from Dragon Ball Super pretty much finished it all up right there. Still, I’m very much looking forward to diving into all of these at launch and seeing if I can find all of the hidden “what if” moments myself. It’s worth mentioning too that they’re not easy to trigger. The fights themselves are already pretty tough, and to try and accomplish specific added challenges on top of that makes it seem like these are meant as rewards for the most dedicated players – doubly so because you can’t actually trigger these scenes if you lower the difficulty. Beyond the Custom and Episode Battle modes, I also messed around with the tournament mode, which allows you to participate in one of many different types of tournaments, each with different rule sets. The Tournament of Power, for example, has you competing on the Tournament of Power stage with flight turned off and ringouts as an alternate win condition; Cell Games is a strictly 1v1 affair with no rules, but you only regain 20% of your life between fights; and Yamcha Games is straight chaos with random rules and random character selection. You can also create your own tournament and customize your very own set of rules as well. And then finally there’s the encyclopedia mode, which I got to exclusively check out for a few minutes. It’s a returning feature from Tenkaichi 3, but instead of just having ******* giving commentary on a character, this time you get *******, Bulma, and Videl all gossiping about the cast and giving their own little insights. The little bits I got to listen to were all very amusing, like the ****** commentating on how ugly Goku becomes when he transforms into his Super Saiyan 3 form, or how Garlic Jr. looks like a roided-out Emperor Pilaf. My relatively short time with Sparking Zero rekindled my love for the Budokai Tenkaichi games and was a much needed reminder that arena fighters can excite and thrill just as much as traditional 2D and 3D fighters can. The attention to detail here is phenomenal; the combat definitely has a learning curve, but is packed full of depth that is very satisfying to learn and engage with; and its story looks to provide a ton of flexibility in how it tells the tale of Dragon Ball. We’ll see how its final form turns out when Dragon Ball Sparking Zero releases next month on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

One of my own most anticipated titles still slated to come in 2024 is Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero, a true sequel to the Budokai Tenkaichi series that has been largely dormant ever since Budokai Tenkaichi came out way back in 2007 on the PlayStation 2. There's a lot we already know about the game, much of which is covered in my Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero preview, but I got an opportunity to speak with Producer Jun Furutani to see if he can provide a little more insight into the development of Sparking Zero, what their plans are for the future with regards to the game, and much more, all of which you can read all about below. IGN: Can you talk a little bit about what it's like creating a story mode for something like Dragon Ball, that's so long and has so many sequels, movies, battles, and character plot lines. How do you decide what to focus on, what to cut, and what to lightly gloss over. Jun Furutani, Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero Producer: Yeah. So a good way to think about it – this is about the bottom line, [which] is that this game's a battle game. So in the episode battles that you played earlier, we wanted to focus on which battles highlighted the characters the best in the story. And obviously, the side story stuff you [can] kind of see in the cut scenes. So I think a better way of thinking about it is more than fully enjoying the story, we want the players to fully enjoy the best battles in the Dragon Ball franchise. And additionally, you played the episode battles earlier. We didn't really go into the branching maps, but we wanted to also focus on battles that could potentially branch out into different things. What if this guy defeated him, instead of losing to him? Like those kinds of battles. So yeah, that is something that we put extra focus on the branching fights. So I actually wanted to touch upon those branches. Can you go into a little detail about how significant those branches actually go? How much of a different game am I playing if I follow one of those branches versus someone who just followed the canonical story of Dragon Ball? Furutani: So it's a really hard question to answer because depending on which branch we're talking about, it could skew very in a completely different direction. But some branches might just go back to the actual canonical route again. For example, the example he used is very early if you were to play the Goku episode battles, when you ****** Raditz, there's some smaller branches that have been there, but it takes you back to the canonical route. And obviously after Raditz is Vegeta and after Vegeta is Frieza. So yeah. Some of them are just blips, I guess some of them kind of take you in a more different, very drastically different direction. So I know you probably can't say, but I got to ask, through these what-if scenarios, is there any chance that we could see any new fusions born in this game? Furutani: Very cool question, hard question to answer. We want leave the ifs a little hidden for until the game is out. Got it. Furutani: We'll leave it at that for now. So I think that one of the things that Tenkaichi fans appreciate most about the series, are all the little touches and keen attention to detail. Like some matches have unique dialogue when you start a match between two certain characters, or the fact that Mr. ****** can't fly, so uses a Jetpack in Tenkaichi 3. Are there any small touches meant specifically for big fans of Dragon Ball, that you're particularly proud of in this game? Furutani: Yeah. So one of the things that they paid close attention to is, how the characters actually move and the expressions that they have. And going deeper into it, you saw the various different versions of Goku that were in the game. And depending on which Goku from which Dragon Ball that you're playing, the way his clothes ripped will be completely different. So I don't know, Frieza I guess, there's a very distinct way when Goku fights Frieza, there was a very distinct way of how his clothes ripped and something more recent like Super, there's a very different way that his clothes ripped there. So very subtle touches like that, is something that they pay close attention to, but wanted to keep it as true to the original work as possible. The other thing is like hair styles as well, subtle differences that the true Dragon Ball fans will notice. You mentioned that depending on the character combinations, they have different conversations [but also] if you were to throw certain characters with certain characters, there's a special action that happens in the game. Can you talk to me a little bit about the encyclopedia mode and just what made you want to include this in the game and what's something that you're particularly fond of with regards to it? Furutani: Yeah, so the encyclopedia mode, I guess it may not have been called in encyclopedia mode in the past, but there was a mode where Chi Chi introduces the characters in the previous version. But again, we wanted to kind of power that up as you saw earlier with Videl and Bulma as well. So yeah, it's something we felt that it was something the players enjoyed back then and obviously would continue to enjoy with the newest Sparking! ZERO. So yeah, that's something that we wanted to implement into the game. I know you guys announced you're announcing the giant roster of 150 plus characters, but obviously this is an age where there's DLC to keep games going on. Do you have any DLC plans for Sparking! ZERO, are they're going to be character packs, additional story content, or anything else on the horizon? Furutani: So in regards to the characters, they have plans to release three DLC packs [covering characters from] Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, and from DAIMA. So there's three packs total from those two [Dragon Ball] Super: Super Hero and DAIMA, split into three basically. I know it's thinking maybe too far ahead, but I just want to get your thought on it. But there's a lot of cool characters in the Dragon Ball Super manga right now, that I think a lot of fans would love to see, like Granolah and Moro. Are those characters that are on your radar, or would you like to touch upon characters in the manga, that haven't gotten to appear in the anime yet? Furutani: At this point, the short answer is, it's difficult for him to talk about these things. Yeah, yeah. Due to various situations. I'm sure you understand. Sure, sure. So talk to me about the stages of Sparking! ZERO, do you know about how many will be in the game and are there any unique elements of them individually? Furutani: As of right now, there's 12 stages in the game, and that may or may not change in the future, but there's tons of gimmicks per stage. For example, if we're fighting on planet Manu, if you were to use a strong move, going down from the sky and you happen to hit the planet, you will see a change into when Frieza is fighting Goku towards the end of that saga. Pretty sure you recognize what I'm talking about. Another one that we could bring up is in the Tenkaichi stage where we have fans watching from the outside. In the very beginning, you could only really only ****** in the area where you're supposed to ******, but for example, if somebody were to use a skill that goes into the bleachers, the people who are watching will run away, and then it would kind of effectively expand the stage. So fighters are able to ****** in a wider stage as well. If you're playing an android character, you could potentially get blasted away, kind of sneak up to your ******, and do a sneak ******* on them Yeah. Another thing, I think I kind of mentioned this to you when you were playing, but you're able to lose sight of your ******. You're not always constantly locked onto them, and that's kind of by design, but because if you do a big move and you blast them far away, you're not going to be able to find them right away. Especially if you're an, Android that has no ki power and you're not able to detect them. So that's in the game. That's all in the game. So if you're playing as an Android character, you could potentially get blasted away, kind of sneak up to your ****** and do a sneak ******* on [them], which is canonical. The Androids actually do that against Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z. So yeah, that's another thing that we want you to look out for. And obviously going back to your question, you were asking about stages, there's tons of objects on the map, so you could kind of use them to kind of line of sight yourself away from your enemies as well. So that's something we want players to experiment with. And you kind of got a first-hand experience as well. That's so cool. Furutani: Another thing he wants, or he wants our fans to try out is, you know how in Dragon Ball, whether when you're using a skill, when you're charging, you see all this dust fly up in the air and sometimes, the characters in the show come out of that dust and perform an *******. That's something that they've also on as well. So yeah, there's ways to combat this dust from going up also, or you could purposely kind of get the dust to fly up more, so you create a wall that makes it ******* for that ****** to see you. So yeah, that's something we want the players to check out as well. Cross play is something that I don't believe is currently planned for Sparking! ZERO. If it is, please correct me, but can you talk a little bit about what the challenges are with regards to including cross play in this game? And is it something that you hope to include post-launch? Furutani: One of those touchy subjects, that's very difficult for him to explain. The short professional answer is, yeah, there's a difficult that we have to go through to get cross play to work. So yeah, that's where we stand right now. And as for your question about future, obviously we don't know yet, but yeah. Speaking of single player content, you have the episode battle, but what else is there for single players after they complete the campaign? Is there any kind of challenges or rewards awaiting those who want to keep playing Sparking! ZERO, after finishing the story, but maybe don't want to go online and play other people? Furutani: One of the features that a player, like you mentioned earlier, would probably partake in is the custom battles. Obviously that's the mode where people could go in, create their own custom battles and either share them or play them for themselves. So yeah, what you could potentially do is make a really hard custom battle, and try to clear it for yourself. And after that you could share it. Or maybe if you want to try what other players are making as well, you could go search for what other players have made. They could use these tags that indicate what kind of battle it is. So you could search in the game by tags. You make a really hard stage, clear it, and its kind of a way of showing off to other players. So I mean there's thousands of, I mean not thousands, but it is pretty limitless in terms of what you could play after clearing the episode battles. So the requirements for uploading a custom battle is that you need to be able to clear it, so you can't just set impossible demands to the players if you can and upload it and be like, "Hey guys, try to clear it." But flip side of that is like, okay, you make a really hard stage, you clear it, and it's kind of a way of showing off to other players like, "Hey guys, check this out. I made this super crazy custom battle. I cleared it. What's up?" Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero is releasing on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on October 11. View the full article

With **** of War Ragnarok now available on PC, players should note that they can tone down an aspect of the game that many found "intrusive" when it first released in 2022. Although **** of War Ragnarok's supporting characters are very highly regarded, players did find them a bit too chatty while attempting to solve puzzles. View the full article

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GTA V has consistently ranked among the top 20 most-played games on the Steam Deck for at least two years, and it even remained in the top 10 list this week. However, the game's online mode has long been plagued by cheaters. To address the issue, Rockstar Games implemented the... Read Entire Article View the full article

We've found a great gaming mouse deal for Fortnite fans, as the special edition Battle Bus-themed Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro is currently on ***** at Best Buy, with up to $34 in savings available. Razer put comfort at the forefront of its DeathAdder design and the V3 Pro is the pinnacle of the current generation, making a case for being one of the best gaming mouse options for those with ******* hands, even if it has a high MSRP. Luckily, this Best Buy deal brings a few items from the Razer Fortnite collection, including DeathAdder V3 Pro, to a more affordable price. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Is Fortnite shutting down in 2024? Fortnite NPC locations and character items How do you get Fortnite community goal rewards? View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

The CEO of Krafton says the acquisition of Tango Gameworks was designed to add more creativity to its portfolio, rather than to make big money. Microsoft announced in April that Tango was one of four Bethesda developers it would be shutting down, and the studio seemingly closed its doors in June. However, last month South Korean publisher Krafton, which also owns PUBG Studios and The Callisto Protocol studio Striking Distance, announced that it had acquired Tango Gameworks, seemingly rescuing it. Read More... View the full article

PUBG publisher Krafton has sad it didn't buy Tango Gameworks from Microsoft because it cares about making a profit, with CEO Changhan Kim admitting "we don't think Hi-Fi Rush 2 is going to make us money." Kim told Game Developer that Krafton swooped in to save the studio after Xbox announced its closure because it cares about legacy and allowing creativity to flourish in the video game industry. This comes despite Tango Gameworks, developer of The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo alongside Hi-Fi Rush, not having "big success" with its games. "We wanted to maintain their legacy," Kim said. "Although they did not have a big success in their games, we saw many creatives worth pursuing. That's why we wanted to work with that organization." We don't think Hi-Fi Rush 2 is going to make us money, to be frank. He continued: "We're trying to increase our portfolio lineup and Tango Gameworks comes into play [there]. We can't acquire Tango Gameworks based on their financials or their numbers, right? We don't think Hi-Fi Rush 2 is going to make us money, to be frank. "But it's part of our attempt. We have to keep trying in the spirit of challenge taking. Tango Gameworks are creative. They want to try something new, and we want to do more of that. [Making] video games is really a hit or miss industry, and that is risk taking. But having more project lineups is actually a way to mitigate risk, because one of them might work out." Kim said that Tango Gamework's previous games "may not even have broken even" and the deal to acquire the studio was "not too expensive, or cheap either." Definitive numbers can't be shared until the deal goes through, but "the dollar amount was not really important to Microsoft," he said. Krafton announced its intention to buy Tango Gameworks on August 13, three months after Microsoft announced its closure alongside other studios and lay-offs. Only the Hi-Fi Rush intellectual property was brought over with Tango Gameworks, however. Kim said this was because it knew Hi-Fi rush was the priority for fans and it didn't want to add too much to the deal and overcomplicate things. This would cause it to move slowly and add to the stress of already "anxious" employees. "Because Hi-Fi Rush fans really want to see sequels, we negotiated with Tango Gameworks' parent company to acquire that IP as well," he said. "We wanted to make sure the deal happens fast to minimize that gap in [employees' careers]." If we were to acquire all IPs, I think it's going to complicate the deal too much. Kim added: "If we were to acquire all IPs, I think it's going to complicate the deal too much. Krafton is a pretty big company, but Microsoft is very complicated. We wanted to help the team continue developing their games, but especially Hi-Fi Rush. When I think about our fans, I think what they really care about is Hi-Fi Rush sequels." Hi-Fi Rush certainly appeared to be a breakout hit for Tango Gameworks, breaking the mold of its horror game roots as a colorful rhythm action game. "Hi-Fi Rush marches to the beat of its own drum with stunning animation, loveable characters, and stylish rhythmic action that are anything but one-note," IGN said in our 9/10 review. Microsoft itself said the game was a success too, despite it shadow dropping the game with no marketing. Microsoft executive Aaron Greenberg declared the game "was a breakout hit for [Xbox] and [its] players in all key measurements and expectations." He said Microsoft "couldn’t be happier with what the team at Tango Gameworks delivered" when it hit two million players after a month and received high praise from critics. But just over a year later the studio was shut down. "So this is how it ends," wrote Tango Gameworks creative director and Hi-Fi rush director John Johanas on X/Twitter. "Unfortunately I don't quite have the words. But at least thank you to everyone who supported us." Krafton kept the studio alive though, and brought over around 50 of the 100 staff members. It's unclear why the remaining approximately 50 staff didn't join Krafton, but it's possible they had already found jobs elsewhere as the studio's closure was announced three months earlier. Kim made clear Krafton had no plans to lower the number of staff, and even suggested an expansion was on the cards. Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

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