Steam

Playing with nostalgia-laden imagery from the early 2000s, Zenless Zone Zero sees developer HoYoverse pivot gracefully from the fantastical settings of Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail into an enticing urban dystopia. It’s a universe where you’ll duke it out in glitzy real-time fights as a trio of streetwear-clad agents, solving simple puzzles as their handler between battles to help them navigate a labyrinth of encounters – and that’s before you get to the carousel of social side activities layered on top. A mouthful of tasteful influences combine into something effortlessly stylish but also a bit inconsistent, occasionally undone by a lack of depth. Yet Zenless Zone Zero got its hooks into me regardless; its relentless charm compelled me to keep fighting, one combat puzzle or bowl of ramen at a time. Zenless Zone Zero takes place in a world where monster-filled pocket dimensions called Hollows have devastated civilisation. While much of humanity has been wiped out, the cyberpunk bastion of New Eridu survives through a fraught codependence with the Hollows and the valuable resources found within. You play as either Belle or Wise, a brother-sister hacker duo with a knack for navigating this dangerous territory, tackling commissions from a roster of lovable rogues searching for their next big score. It’s a unique and gritty setup that, while convoluted at times, kept me engaged by testing my strategic intuition across a smorgasbord of challenges I became hungry to best. Your brawling excursions embark from the retro tech-strewn backroom of the siblings’ video rental store, where you’ll pick from an impressive roster of unlockable agents to make up a three-person party and then ***** into the perilous Hollows, trading success for XP and upgrade resources. The review build provided by HoYoverse ahead of launch gave me access to all of the currently available agents, and I soon found an affinity for the ones from a faction called Victoria Housekeeping, thanks to their charming British inflexions and battle maid outfits. My personal favourite of the bunch, the shark-tailed Ellen Joe, swipes and slashes with an icy blade, stacking elemental debuffs on enemies and dropping blase quips in the process. While the makeup of your dream team will largely be in the hands of the Gacha Gods, as characters are unlocked through the genre’s usual method of randomized pulls, it’s handy that story missions allow you to try out the cast without the need to pull them first. Despite how intense it can seem in motion, Zenless Zone Zero’s combat is forgiving and approachable. You have a basic ******* and a dodge for timely escapes from signposted attacks, as well as the ability to swap to other agents to avoid scrapes, parry, or compound their combos. Building an ******’s daze meter leads to a persistently satisfying chain *******, a slo-mo quick-time event where your colleague swoops in to lay the smackdown. Basic and ultimate abilities round out each character’s combat options, though like any good action game, there’s plenty of variety available through the combination of timely button presses and latent passives. Districts are full of details that make them a joy to explore. Challenging boss encounters surfaced to test my reflexes, though I rarely felt overwhelmed as long as I could connect the dots of my combat strategy and juggle incoming ******* patterns to keep different ****** types at bay. Intricate build-tinkering systems, difficulty options, and endgame content help raise the skill ceiling for challenge-hungry players, but Zenless Zone Zero seems content to stay out of your way if you just want to simply pick it up and do some flashy moves. Elegant animations footnote most of your attacks, down to the way domestic ****** Van Lycaon gracefully lowers his metal heels after a kick. Ultimately, the focus is on indulging the fantasy of fighting with one of Zenless Zone Zero’s wonderfully designed and passionately voice-acted characters rather than rivaling the likes of ****** May Cry with its combat nuance – a tradeoff I’m comfortable with, even if it means less mechanical depth. Unfortunately, the dazzling combat is undermined by an overabundance of hacker puzzles meant to signify the link between your team of agents and the proxy guiding them through the Hollow from back home. You’ll be kicked into a labyrinth of chunky CRT monitors between pockets of combat, pushing a little avatar around to trigger mechanisms that lead to your next checkpoint or encounter. The fuzzy aesthetics of this mode are delightful to look at, but the process feels arbitrary and murders the momentum. After marching through walls of screens, I started seeking out the next encounter as fast as possible to boost my morale and return to the frenetic action sequences that actually make Zenless Zone Zero compelling. That hefty loop of taking on commissions and then venturing into the Hollow to complete them could easily be all there is and it wouldn’t feel scant, yet surprisingly, it only accounts for half of what’s here. The other half is a life simulator where you’ll roam cosy suburbs, manage your heroes’ Blockbuster-esque business, and maintain relationships with locals through dialogue-driven side stories across an atmospheric day-to-night cycle. While not strictly an open world, Zenless Zone Zero’s stunning districts are thoughtfully dressed with environmental details that make it a joy to explore. From rusty riverside kiddy rides to messy bedrooms and vandalised backstreets, there’s attention paid everywhere you look that helps centre you in this fashion-forward science fiction world. Once the initial excitement of exploring Hollows started to settle, I became drawn to all the extracurricular activities I had at my fingertips. Stocking my video store turned into the nexus of my daily routines, as each morning, I’d start by pairing eclectic videotapes from my collection with the genre demands of the public. After that, I’d need to venture outside in search of better merchandise, completing tasks for locals like solving quirky riddles or taking editorial pictures in order to earn my VHS reward. That symbiotic process worked well to funnel my attention toward the different social activities, not to mention the money provided by running my business certainly helped fund my story mission exploits. This side of Zenless Zone Zero isn’t quite as focused as something like the Persona series it’s so clearly inspired by, so there are some dull spots, but it offers an engaging workload for players to log in and tackle on a daily basis nonetheless. All of your activities are tied together well via a helpful submenu called the Inter-Knot, which let me find my rhythm amid all of the options I was handed. This in-game, everything app quickly became my best friend, taking on the role of job finder, social media platform, and, most importantly, scheduling tool, ensuring I wasn’t completely paralysed by the overwhelming prospect of what to do next. I enjoyed shirking my pressing responsibilities by chasing high scores at the Godfinger Arcade, whose moreish snake and spelunking minigames stole an embarrassing amount of my time. But the funny and sometimes profound substories left the biggest mark, reminding me of the human stakes in this world. One side quest involves a homeless ****** whose ghostly silhouette scares a local citizen, leading to a surprisingly moving crossed-wires situation. Easily forgotten in a sea of adorable shopkeepers and in-game currencies, the underlying frailty of Zenless Zone Zero’s post-apocalypse is always in frame. Overarching themes of displacement and *********** come through in the cinematic story and the design of its city wards, which range from dilapidated to gentrified. Given the unusually generous nature of HoYoverse’s review build, it was difficult to get a clear picture of how Zenless Zone Zero’s progression systems will feel long-term, but nothing I've seen looks wildly out of line with the developer’s other gacha games. Still, it’ll be illuminating to start again on a new account at launch and get accustomed to the grind in a more organic live service setting (and we’ll be sure to update this review if things are unexpectedly out of line). Regardless, I forged a strong attachment to this rich world and its cosplay-friendly characters by the end of a main story that easily takes dozens of hours to complete, and left feeling that this ambitious pivot certainly lives up to the high standards set by Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. View the full article

Zenless Zone Zero includes several event banners where players can draw for S-rank characters, weapons, and more. Because of this, knowing when one of the best S-ranks or weapons is dropping is crucial. This is because you need to know if you should be farming and saving your resources, like tapes, to have a better chance of pulling these S-ranks—or, as a worst scenario, having enough resources to hit pity to get them. View the full article

While gameplay is always important, shoddy visuals can make or break your gaming experience. Let me guide you through the best graphics and performance settings on PC, PS5, and mobile for Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ).How to change graphics settings on Zenless Zone ZeroBefore we ***** into the settings menu, let me quickly explain how to get there.Screenshot: PC InvasionYou should see the screen in the image above when you boot the game up. Click on the Cog icon I’ve circled to open the settings menu. You can also reach the same menu at any point by pressing ESC and moving to the Options tab. You can tinker with many features here, including controller settings and voice language. As these are personal preferences, I’ll only cover Graphics specifically in this guide.The Best Graphics settings for Zenless Zone Zero on PCScreenshot: PC InvasionLet’s cover the PC graphics settings first (it’s in our website name, after all!), as there are a to...View the full article

Dual-wielding weapons is a high-risk playstyle in Elden Ring, but some particular combos can reap a powerful reward. In lieu of a shield, players can equip two different armaments (or both of the same kind, if they happen to come across two) to dish out high damage and satisfying dual-wield combos on their enemies. However, since offense ends up being the main tool of survival, it's important to choose two weapons with synergy. With 309 weapons in Elden Ring to choose from, this can be a daunting task. View the full article

Zenless Zone Zero has multiple characters, all with one of five Specialties, but what does this exactly mean? We’ll explain the differences between each Specialty and how they change the characters’ playstyles.All Specialties in Zenless Zone Zero, explainedThere are five Specialties in Zenless Zone Zero that act similarly to classes, which are *******, Defense, Support, Stun, and Anomaly. A Specialty determines the character’s build and combat duties which makes it easier to create decent team comps. Let’s go over each Speciality and how they work.******* SpecialtyAgents with the ******* Specialty possess formidable damage capabilities and excel at rapidly racking up damage through direct attacks, allowing combat to come to an end quickly. These Agents typically excel in the ATK stat and there are more ******* Agents than any other Speciality, with seven available for your roster.CharacterAttributeTypeAntonElectricPierceBillyPhysicalPierceCorinPh...View the full article

Tekken 8 Director Katsuhiro Harada shot down fan discussions claiming that the developers dislike Anna Williams. Incidentally, Anna is not part of the base Tekken 8 roster, which further added to rumors and fan speculations regarding her status with the devs. While part of the reason is that Anna and Nina are somewhat parallel characters, the two are still completely different, which has prompted the community to discuss the unfair treatment of the former. View the full article

Zenless Zone Zero is an action-focused game, but that doesn’t mean it has to be hard. There are two difficulty modes available for the main story of ZZZ — casual mode and challenge mode — but the differences between the two aren’t very clear to new players.You’re given the choice between casual mode and challenge mode at the start of the very first mission in Zenless Zone Zero, so there isn’t much of an opportunity to get a feel for the mechanics and combat system before you have to make a decision. While they may just seem like the standard easy and hard modes that you’ve seen in other video games, it’s not quite that simple.ZZZ Casual vs Challenge Mode Differences and RewardsFirstly, there are no differences in rewards between casual mode and challenge mode in Zenless Zone Zero. No matter which difficulty setting you choose, you will still receive the same amount of resources and rewards. Playing on challenge mode will not net you a...View the full article

Zenless Zone Zero has finally launched, and eager players who preregistered their interest in miHoYo’s sci-fi gacha game can now claim preregistration rewards—though finding where these goodies land can be a little confusing. Here’s how to get your pre-rego rewards now that ZZZ is here. View the full article

Wake up mount collectors, there’s a new bragging rights mount—for an exorbitant amount of Bicolor Gemstones, you can get yourself the Ty’aitya mount in Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail. How to get the Ty’aitya Whistle in Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail This cute little flying squirrel—found as an ****** mob in the Yak T’el wilds—is FFXIV: Dawntrail’s first Bicolor Gemstone Voucher mount that requires a truly incredible amount of FATE grinding to earn. It costs 500 Turali Gemstone Vouchers, which can only be purchased from the Gemstone vendors in Tuliyollal and Solution Nine (Kajeel Ja at the Bayside Bevy and Beryl at the Nexus Arcade respectively) after you’ve maxed out the Shared FATE ranks in all Dawntrail areas. View the full article

Zenless Zone Zero features a choice between two protagonists just like other Hoyoverse gacha games, but there’s a unique twist this time around. The opening of the game lets you choose between two siblings — Belle and Wise — so it’s a similar setup to Genshin Impact with Aether and Lumine. Zenless Zone Zero does things differently, though, so the choice isn’t as big as you might think.Belle vs Wise Differences in ZZZ ExplainedScreenshot: PC InvasionYou should choose whichever of the siblings you like more. Pay particular attention to their designs and especially their voice acting, since those are the biggest differences between the two.Unlike other Hoyoverse games, both Wise and Belle are involved in the main story from the beginning regardless of who you pick. The sibling that you choose as the main character will be the one you control during exploration segments in between missions, while the other will act in a support role and hang out at...View the full article

Sonic X Shadow Generations has given fans a possible tease towards another playable character in the Shadow Generations campaign. Sonic X Shadow Generations is an updated re-release of the original 2011 anniversary title. Not only is the original game getting a graphical and 60 FPS enhancement, but additional gameplay features like Chao rescue missions are being added. The biggest talking point surrounding the game, however, is the second half of this re-release: a brand-new single-player campaign starring Sonic's anti-hero rival, Shadow the Hedgehog. View the full article

The Skull Merchant is one of the most controversial Killers in ***** by Daylight, and the developers have finally announced her third rework—but it’s going to take time. Ever since she strutted into ***** By Daylight, the Skull Merchant’s ability to create drawn-out matches has caused ire among the player base. Although the developers already addressed her kit in two prior reworks, Survivors’ general dislike of the Skull Merchant never faded, and many players immediately disconnect if she’s the *******. View the full article

When you reach the end of the Dawntrail expansion in Final Fantasy XIV, it all comes down to grinding gear and Allagan Tomestones. One of the dungeons you’ll frequently go through is Tender Valley, where you can get a handful of loot drops. Like others in Dawntrail, it’s a dungeon you unlock as you make your way through the Main Scenario Quests. It has a variety of distinct gear, but you primarily want to grind it for the Tomestones. These give you the very best gear to add to your FFXIV loadout, preparing them for the Extreme Trials and the Savage raid. View the full article

Some Overwatch 2 players are asking for nerfs for Pharah, as the character has become a dominant name in the hero shooter. Pharah is one of the characters who are part of the original Overwatch roster, and now in Overwatch 2, she has been the cause of many players' headaches. View the full article

Grand Piece Online (GPO) is a Roblox game mode where players can take on the rough seas searching for bosses, fruits, or treasures. However, as there’s so much to do, it can be pretty overwhelming, so joining the official Discord server and Trello board—and picking the brains of fellow Grand Piece Online (GPO) players on everything—can be super helpful. View the full article

Clover Retribution is one of the many Roblox game modes centered around anime. This one’s inspired by ****** Clover, and your goal is to max out your level, complete quests, and defeat formidable foes. However, leveling quickly can be challenging. There are steps you can take and things you can do to ensure you level quickly. Here’s what you need to know about ranking up in Clover Retribution. View the full article

XDefiant players aren't happy with changes made to the Spiderbot ability for Season 1, since they now have one less counter to use against the ability in matches. This change was enabled in the first XDefiant update for Season 1, which recently introduced the new GSK faction, new maps, and much more. View the full article

In Elden Ring, players must defeat Miquella's Followers as the penultimate boss challenge in Shadow Of The Erdtree. Before you encounter the final boss, Needle Knight Leda and her allies will do everything in their power to prevent the Tarnished from confronting Miquella. If you are an avid invader, this boss ****** should be a breeze. View the full article

As the wait for Mass Effect 4 continues, it is worth considering what makes the sci-fi RPG franchise stand out. One of the most important components of the first three games was the morality scale, a measurement of a player's good or bad reputation dependent on their previous choices. This scale determined what kind of person the game's protagonist, Commander Shepard, would be in the story and what options they would have available to them. View the full article

A GTA Online player has pointed out an Easter egg referencing The Matrix that was recently added to the game in the Bottom Dollar Bounties update. The find surprised many fans and adds one more layer of pop culture references that make up the DNA of Grand Theft Auto. View the full article

Dungeon-crawling extraction game Dark and Darker has company: An open beta for the very similar Dungeonborne is underway now on Steam. An exact duration for the playtest hasn't been set, but the plan is for it to last a week or two, after which Dungeonborne will launch in early access... Read more.View the full article

A Minecraft fan has pointed out that the Sculk blocks can accurately be used as a starry sky in building ceilings. There are many blocks that Minecraft players can use in their builds, but this may be the best way to feel like stars are shining down on them. View the full article

Star Wars Outlaws has officially gone gold, giving an exciting update for fans awaiting the game's arrival. With an August 30 launch in sight, Star Wars Outlaws looks to be right on track to hit the shelves without any delay. View the full article

A Stardew Valley player has pointed out a similarity between Evelyn and Alex's winter outfits and an iconic movie. While the commonality is likely a coincidence, it's one that's amusing the Stardew Valley community quite a bit. View the full article

Recently published research has exposed a security flaw affecting 12th, 13th, and 14th-generation Intel processors. Similar to Spectre, Meltdown, and Downfall, it could cause the processors to ***** sensitive information. Read Entire Article View the full article