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At the beginning of Kingdom Hearts, you have to make a tough choice on which ******* you want to bring on your adventure. This guide will help you decide as it will explain the best starting choices and the benefits of the three available weapons: Rod, Sword, and Shield.Which ******* is the best starting choice in Kingdom Hearts?With the recent release of Kingdom Hearts on Steam, it’s time to hop back into this classic and pick a *******. When choosing a ******* at the start of your Kingdom Hearts journey, you need to take into account that each choice has its benefits, strengths, and weaknesses. It’s also important to know that after choosing a *******, you’ll have to sacrifice one of the remaining two. Which ******* you sacrifice has an impact on your stats.Everything you need to know about the Rod, Sword, and Shield is detailed below. After learning about each *******, read further for our pick on the best ******* to choose and sacrifice.Choosing the Rod...View the full article

Honkai: Star Rail has revealed all the details about the Divergent Universe, confirming that it will serve as another source of Stellar Jades starting from version 2.3. Honkai: Star Rail's version 2.3 is almost here, with the developers providing details about modes that will be available in the upcoming update. Recently, they announced a brand-new endgame mode, Apocalyptic Shadow, which works similarly to Genshin Impact's Spiral Abyss domain. View the full article

Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Busted Boros energy deck makes red MTG card spike 570% New tech for ***** decks made this MTG card spike 830% Legacy win made this humble MTG card's price spike 325% View the full article

On June 5, Vicki Shalbot, a campaigner for children and families’ digital rights, filed a £656 million (roughly $834 million) lawsuit against Valve for anti-competitive behavior and excessive prices. As reported by VGC, they accused Valve of making publishers sign a contract that dictates the lowest price they’re allowed to sell games for on rival platforms. In other words, if a game is on Steam and at least one other PC platform, Steam allegedly always gets the best deal during sales. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

A huge Helldivers 2 patch dropped yesterday, June 13, bringing with it more tweaks and changes than you can properly read through in less than half an hour. While it's generally gone down a treat among players, the revisions Arrowhead made to ****** and patrol spawning look like they might be the exception, with folks complaining of a sharp difficulty spike. If you were busy washing your hair yesterday, not only did the hefty patch Arrowhead's had in the works for a little while now arrive, but the Viper Commandos warbond also deployed right on time. Sadly, it doesn't seem like being able to don a beret is helping players who're complaining of a post-patch increase in deaths and rage quitting. As part of the patch, Arrowhead toned down the amount of heavily armored enemies which spawn during higher difficulty missions, filling in the gaps with more smaller enemies, as well as reverting patrol spawning back to what it was like prior to patch 01.000.300. Read more View the full article

There's Final Fantasy, there's World of Warcraft, there's Elden Ring. But if you want gigantic enemies and a supremely rich, occasionally dark fantasy world, Capcom's Monster Hunter ******** the go-to RPG. Monster Hunter Wilds may be on its way, and there are rumblings of Resident Evil 9 and possibly remakes of Code Veronica and RE Zero, but the Street Fighter studio has just delivered a nice surprise for PC players. Eight years after its original release, one overlooked Monster Hunter game is suddenly on Steam. Read the rest of the story... View the full article

Scalpers can get in the bin, as Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree Collector's Edition is back in stock and on ***** right now at trusted *** retailer The Game Collection. These are still incredibly popular, meaning this is extremely time-sensitive as they could sell out. but we couldn't just sit by and not shout about it. The Collector's Edition is down to £203.96 at the moment for PS5 and Xbox using code DAYLIGHT15. This is the best preorder deal in the *** right now, and over £26 off the list price of £229.99. This promo code is applicable across the whole of eBay, but preorders for one of the most anticipated DLC expansions of all time certainly caught our eye, especially as it's for the Collector's Edition. But, the DAYLIGHT15 code will expire by June 17 at 11:59 PM, so there's a limited time left to secure this offer. If they are out of stock by the time you're reading this again, make sure you're following @IGNUKDeals on Twitter/X for immediate updates for when they come back. So what's included? Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree (base game not included), a Figurine of Mesmer the Impaler (46cm), an exclusive hardcover artbook (English), and a Digital Soundtrack. This sounds perfect for any big fans or collectors out there, so there's no like the present to get your order in. Plus, we likely won't see a better deal than this before the release on June 21. In case you slept on this game when it first came out, we liked it rather a lot. In our review, the first ever 10 we've given a FromSoftware game, we said: "Throughout it all, while the fundamentals of combat haven’t changed much from what we’ve seen before, the enormous variety of viciously designed enemies and the brutal but surmountable bosses have brought its battles to a new level. Even with all the threads I didn’t manage to tug on my first playthrough (of what I’m sure will be several), what I was treated to can easily be held amongst the best open-world games I’ve ever played." It was also recently announced that Elden Ring has sold 25 million units ahead of Shadow of the Erdtree. In a post on X/Twitter, the colossal 25 million units sold milestone was revealed alongside a thank you to fans who have purchased the game. Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco announced the game crossed 23 million units sold in March 2024, meaning it's grown another two million in less than three months. This all comes ahead of what will likely be another sales boost for the game too when its only expansion Shadow of the Erdtree launches. Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Metal Gear Solid 3 and Metal Gear Solid 4. It’s been a long time coming but Metal Gear fans finally have something concrete to look forward to. Although series creator Hideo Kojima has moved on to other projects, his long-beloved stealth action franchise is making a grand return to the forefront of gaming with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Now that we have our first look at Delta’s gameplay from the new trailer shown at the Xbox Games Showcase, we’re even more excited to get our hands on it. But for now, we want to take a look back at the original Metal Gear Solid 3, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year on November 17th, 2004. Specifically, we’re going to talk about how MGS3 tells a more vital prequel narrative than most other franchises can match. What was at the time seen as a course correction from Metal Gear Solid 2’s lack of Solid Snake playtime and perhaps even a delaying action of paying off 2’s narrative threads to the eventual Metal Gear Solid 4, the benefit of hindsight has shown that MGS3 is a critical installment in the series’ mythology. Sure, it received great reviews on release, but why does the story not really work if you just played MGS1, 2 and 4 as a trilogy when they happen in chronological order? Let’s take a look at what makes MGS3 so essential. A New Mission After two games set in a “few years in the future” sci-fi setting, Kojima went in an entirely new direction with Metal Gear Solid 3. The mechanics and systems he used to create such iconic stealth action gameplay in MGS1 and 2 could have been iterated on to even greater success, but 3 made the bold leap of developing new ways to engage with the genre. From the camo index system where players had to adjust their disguise to match their surroundings, needing to hunt for food in the wild to keep up stamina, curing serious injuries in the field, and depriving players of many of the futuristic gadgets that were so helpful in previous games, MGS3 forced fans to rethink their strategies as they explored the ******* jungle in pursuit of objectives. The mission took players through a variety of exotic locations and exciting sequences, with the Shagohod chase in particular being one of the best action set pieces on the PlayStation 2. Yet if the Metal Gear franchise is known for anything gameplay wise besides stealth, it’s a penchant for creative boss fights against bizarre villains, and MGS3 has one of the best rogue’s galleries in the franchise. The Cobra Unit were incredibly expressive both in visual design and how they let the ways they fought give players an insight into their personalities instead of each one telling an elaborate backstory as they *****. The bosses interacted with the new gameplay systems, such being able to use camo to hide from The Fury, or tricky players giving The ***** food poisoning using rotten food to quickly drain his stamina. The crown jewel of the Cobra fights was The End, which used a massive environment and all the game’s stealth mechanics to create a proper *******’s duel that for some players went on for over an hour. Kojima’s talent for merging story and gameplay reaches its peak in the game’s final encounter: the battle between Snake and The Boss. With only 10 minutes before the arena is bombed to smithereens, all of the skills players developed over the course of the journey, especially in regards to sneaking and CQC, are tested as they try to defeat Snake’s old mentor. The white flowers and trees of the arena matching The Boss’ outfit, the slow build up of the Snake Eater theme song as the timer winds down, and forcing the player to push the button to deliver the final shot during what appears to be a cutscene all coalesce to form one of the most artistically resonant final battles in game history. The design template Kojima used in previous games is expanded and refined into its purest form in MGS3, making the game a fitting prequel not just in story, but also in gameplay. In Love and (Cold) War Set in 1964, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is, at first glance, a back to basics take on the Metal Gear series. Snake is back in the lead role, albeit technically not the same one as previous games, with the protagonist instead being the original Snake, aka Big Boss, whose DNA was used to create the clones Solid, Liquid and Solidus. The setup is essentially classic MGS action but in the jungle, and with a 007-style spy thriller/romance angle added on top. The complicated philosophical concepts and labyrinthine bad guy plans from MGS2 are dropped for a more straightforward Cold War story about Snake trying to stop a nuclear war from breaking out, while also dealing with his relationships with his apparently traitorous mentor, The Boss, and his budding maybe-maybe-not romance with his spy companion EVA. What some likely took as an artistic retreat from Kojima into less controversial territory has instead revealed itself over the years to be a conscious addition of key emotional context to what had become a sprawling multi-decade saga. Trying to connect all the various threads of MGS lore and the political machinations of dozens of characters and factions can be a dizzying prospect, but MGS3 cuts through the chaff and reminds the audience that these are stories not just about nations and lofty ideas but about characters, ones who MGS3’s script mines for a surprising amount of depth. At the center of it all is Snake, a man and soldier still holding onto the last of his ideals, only to lose all of it as he “succeeds” in the mission that would break both him and his hope in his country. His battles with The Boss, who is revealed to not be a traitor but instead a patriot allowing her reputation to be destroyed in order to preserve world peace, shatter Snake’s ****** in everything he’d ever been led to believe in. Meanwhile, his romance with EVA turning out to be a ruse to pilfer him of the Philosopher’s Legacy ruins his ability to put trust in anyone besides his fellow soldiers. These two relationships crumbling not only gives an answer as to why he eventually becomes Big Boss, the villain of the original two Metal Gear games on the MSX2, but also establishes that the recurring theme of soldiers being betrayed by their governments and wanting to build nations of their own that had been one of the central running motifs of the series, has a foundation that goes beyond the conflict fans were already familiar with. Even before Solid Snake was born, this was just a fact of this world, and cementing that world is what makes MGS3 so crucial to its immediate successor. A Solid Circle Besides telling its own story, MGS3 also adds important definition to the world of Metal Gear that helps solidify (hah) the plot threads that MGS4 would conclude. Sure, in timeline order, MGS4 is technically a sequel to MGS2. But when looking at the actual meat of plot and world-building, MGS3 is the game that most informs MGS4. We’re talking about more than basic stuff like learning about the Shagohod, which was the genesis from which Metal Gear technology would later develop, or introducing the character of Big Boss to series fans who never played the original two MSX games (which, let’s be honest, is most of them). MGS4 only works as an ending to the saga because of how it builds off of MGS3’s themes and characters. Nothing that happens in MGS3 is a “bonus”; it is the beating heart of a saga Kojima had been telling across numerous games since 1987 The idea that the conflicts between soldiers and their governments that led Big Boss and other Metal Gear villains into wanting to establish some version of Outer Heaven are cyclical across history only sells if we’ve actually seen that conflict, well, across history. The reveal that EVA is the one who gave birth to Solid and Liquid and truly did love Big Boss despite her betrayal would come out of nowhere without us becoming invested in her in MGS3. And without getting to know them when they were young and charismatic, the twist that the Patriots, the ultimate villains of the entire Metal Gear saga, were in fact the mission support team who helped the original Snake (and by extension, the player) in the 1960s wouldn’t register as such a tragic gut-punch. Sure, there are worthwhile prequels that fill in lore gaps or recontextualize aspects of plot or character: Rogue One, Andor, Better Call Saul, House of the Dragon, and Furiosa to name a recent few. But what makes MGS3 stand out from the pack is that in most other cases, later stories in the timeline work perfectly well on their own without the prequel material. Metal Gear stories set after MGS3, such as MGS4, MGS5 or Peace Walker, don’t really function dramatically without knowing the story from MGS3. Nothing that happens in MGS3 is a “bonus”; it is the beating heart of a saga Kojima had been telling across numerous games since 1987. It is the connective tissue that brings the original MSX games, the early Solid series, and the final entries together into a single whole. That it’s also an excellent title on its own terms, full of some of the series’ most exciting action set pieces and strongest character work, only further cements its status as the greatest prequel ever made. Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Square Enix has published the launch trailer for Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail, which is viewable below. Launching on July 2, Final Fantasy 14’s fifth expansion will bring the game up to version 7.0. It will introduce the continent of Tural, two brand new jobs (Viper and Pictomancer), a new playable race (female Hrothgar) and a major graphical upgrade, among other features. Read More... View the full article

The endgame is the bread and butter of every looter shooter. The First Descendant is no exception, and now we have a better idea of what to expect from its endgame activities. In a breakdown video on June 13, The First Descendant developer detailed the “endless endgame content” we can expect, including several activities to complete and goals to achieve. One of the first things mentioned is unlocking new Descendants and Ultimate weapons. Each Descendant has a unique playstyle that synergizes with specific Ultimate weapons, and the developer added that more Descendants are currently in development. View the full article

Taira no Masakado is one of the most hidden demons in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. Here's where to have him join your team, if you can beat him. View the full article

There are 200 Miman to find in Shin Megami Tensei V, here's where to find each one of them. Updated with Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Miman! View the full article

While the unveiling of Dragon Age: The Veilguard has been a long time coming, the first glimpses of gameplay are making it look more like a fantasy-themed Mass Effect game than any Dragon Age game before it. As BioWare's longest-running and most successful franchise next to Mass Effect, Dragon Age has been through significant changes since its initial iteration in Dragon Age: Origins, which closely resembled the classic Baldur's Gate games which BioWare also worked on. As the series advances, however, it may be losing its RPG roots almost entirely. View the full article

Before being shelved by ZA/UM executives, the Disco Elysium spin-off project, codenamed X7, was on track to be “the most ********* Disco since Disco.” This comes from a June 13 PCGamer report where current and former staff of ZA/UM, the studio holding the rights for the Disco Elysium IP, talked about how almost the entire X7 team—headed by Disco Elysium writer Argo Tuulik—faced surprise layoffs after the sudden cancelation of the project. As Project X7’s lead writer, Dora Klindžić, says in the report, this was doubly bizarre as the X7 demo had a largely positive reception internally. View the full article

The Nic Cage-led ******'s Wonderland movie now has its own video game, but it's nothing like the Five Nights At Freddy's games thought to inspire ******'s. The 2021 movie appeared to share a similar premise to the popular FNAF franchise - although its filmmaker, G.O Parsons, stated any similarities were purely coincidental, and it was inspired by restaurants such as Chuck E. Cheese, with the original idea coming about in 2015 just before the first FNAF game was released - but with one key difference: Nic Cage's mute janitor could ****** back against the deadly animatronic creatures that thought they were hunting him, resulting in an array of violent carnage. View the full article

Life is Strange: Double Exposure will respect the player's final decision from the first game and won't be declaring either original ending canon, Deck Nine has confirmed. Following the game's initial reveal at the Xbox Games Showcase last weekend, an extended livestream aired last night, which included interviews with key developers and Max's returning voice actor Hannah Telle, plus 15 minutes of gameplay. The stream dug into details about the new setting, Max's new powers and, crucially, the way in which the game aims to stay true to the player's choices from previous titles. Two console generations and nearly 10 years on from the first Life is Strange release, it's unsurprising that you don't import your save info from LIS1 directly into Double Exposure, but Deck Nine has a plan to ensure that your experience in the latest game still reflects those long-ago choices. While previous follow-ups Life is Strange 2 and Life is Strange: True Colors both straight-up just asked you which ending you got in the original game, Double Exposure will be taking a slightly more organic approach for this direct sequel. Read more View the full article

One Reddit user, u/caponica23, shared a disappointing review of the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge laptop packing the X Elite chip. After running benchmarks like GeekBench and CrystalDiskMark along with some subjective battery and gaming tests, the results were... not great. Read Entire Article View the full article

FromSoftware's Bloodborne launched in 2015 and was highly praised for showcasing what the then-new PlayStation 4 was capable of during players' exploration of a blood-drenched gothic world. Surprisingly, it has remained one of the few major PlayStation exclusives of that generation not to be ported elsewhere, despite fan demand for a "new-gen" patch for the current PS5 console and a PC release. View the full article

Gears of War: E-Day could be released next year, it’s been claimed. According to The Verge’s sources (paywalled, via Reddit), a few months ago Microsoft was targeting a 2025 launch window for the newly announced game. It’s unclear if that ******** the case, and Microsoft didn’t announce a launch window for the title when it was revealed during Sunday’s Xbox Games Showcase. Read More... View the full article

****** is the new superboss of Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, and beating him unlocks a new mode and raised your level cap. View the full article

The vast open world of Fallout 4 features many quests with different rewards, including one at Cambridge Polymer Labs. Once devoted to research, this place continues its work even in the desolate Wasteland to create a new type of polymer. As with many missions, your character can get caught up in this place's experimentation and is forced to either help or ****** to escape the laboratory. View the full article

Back in February, Graham wrote about potential redundancies at Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM following the cancellation of a standalone expansion to that game, codenamed X7. Now, PC Gamer’s Ted Litchfield has spoken to 12 current and former employees about the circumstances surrounding the cancellation, notably the details of the layoffs, the expansion, and the “humiliation campaign” suffered by writer Argo Tuulik as apparent retaliation for his participation in last year’s extensive People Make Games documentary. You can, and should, read PC Gamer’s report here. Read more View the full article

The impenetrable wall of crossover fiction known as Kingdom Hearts has come to Steam. The games have been on Epic Games Store since 2021, so they're not new to PC folk. But this does open them up to players who shy away from Epic's storefront. I use the term "open up" loosely, because Kingdom Hearts is popularly regarded as a tangle of ******-crossing JRPG confuse-o-plots that require diagrams and multiple explainer videos to follow. I don't know if that's true, having never followed Alice down this Buster Sword-shaped rabbit *****, but it is the popular joke. And, looking into Goofy's cold, ***** eyes, I find I am afraid to question it. Read more View the full article

Ubisoft have announced that Prince of Persia The Lost Crown is finally coming to Steam on August 8th, making it much easier to play on Steam Deck and desktop Linux. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

For those who aren't afraid of spoilers, here is how the endings play out in Shin Megami Tensei V. SPOILER WARNING. View the full article