Author: Game Infliction

With the upcoming release of Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution in September, following Japan’s Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia on August 1, the return of Mega Evolution is now in sight.

This new era not only closes the book on the Scarlet and Violet era, but also sets the stage for a full-blown revival of X-Y-era Mega cards, many of which are already seeing price surges.

With Pokémon Legends: Z-A on the horizon and new Mega cards like Mega Lucario ex and Mega Gardevoir ex already revealed, it’s clear the TCG is about to re-enter one of its most collectible formats ever.

TL;DR: Top 10 Mega Evolution Cards To Buy Right Now

Collectors who were around during the XY era already know the visual firepower and competitive edge Mega cards brought to the game. But for new players or investors entering the space, now is the time to act.

Pre-release allocations for the new sets are expected to be limited, premium boxes are already creating hype in Japan, and classic Mega cards from Flashfire, Ancient Origins, and Phantom Forces are being swept off the market. Here’s the top 10 I have my eye on right now:

10. Primal Groudon EX (Omega Full Art) 151/160

Bonus: Honorable Mention to My Personal Favorites

We’re half way through the round up, so here’s a few other picks are worth grabbing before they trend up. M Mewtwo EX (Full Art) 160/162 – BREAKthrough is another to watch at $61.70 for a full-art legendary Mega in a mainline expansion.

Primal Kyogre EX (Alpha Full Art) 149/160 – Primal Clash is a key visual pairing to the Groudon Omega from earlier and still holds around $120.12, which feels low considering its set position and full-art finish.

More affordable plays include M Gyarados EX (Full Art) 115/122 – BREAKpoint and M Tyranitar EX (Full Art) – Ancient Origins, both hovering below $90.

These have strong set representation and solid collector appeal. The same goes for M Rayquaza EX 61/108 – Roaring Skies at $72.85, which offers a great backup to its full-art counterpart at a lower entry cost.

5. Primal Groudon EX (Shiny Full Art) 97/98

Free-to-play open-world RPG NTE recently launched its Containment Test, a closed beta that showcases the upgrades developer Hotta Studio has made since the game’s last technical test. There are improvements across the board, including better visuals, new mechanics, racing content, reworked combat, and more.

NTE takes place in Hethereau, a sprawling metropolis that’s really more like two cities in one. On the surface, it’s a pristine urban center filled with people going about their daily lives. But the underworld is constantly warped by reality-defying anomalies, and you’re an unlicensed Anomaly Hunter tasked with investigating these strange occurrences and putting a stop to them.

Hethereau itself has always been one of the game’s focal points, a city built in Unreal Engine 5 to allow seamless travel across its massive size. But the latest updates have taken things to another level, giving the city a comprehensive visual overhaul. There’s richer detail, updated aesthetics, and improvements to lighting and environmental effects.

Light and shadows now show more contrast, which is especially apparent as you progress through the natural day/night cycle. You also can experience dynamic weather conditions — from fog to rain to snow — as you travel across the city, and snow effects in particular have been enhanced. Thanks to physically based rendering, snowflakes now look translucent and lifelike.

Characters have also gotten a graphical makeover. The materials of their clothes and strands of their hair are now much more detailed, making each character pop even more in the anime-inspired art style.

You’ll form a party of four characters during your anomaly-hunting missions, and each character has their own skills called Esper Abilities. You control one character at a time, but can switch between the four in your party on the fly to chain their Esper Abilities together and form combos that synergize well together.

That experience has also been refined in the latest update, with actions, skills, and the overall feel of combat reworked for smoother gameplay. There are also new mechanics, like parry attacks and critical dodge counterattacks, that have been introduced to add more variety to combat.

No matter which characters are in your party, you can make use of their Esper Abilities inside and outside of combat. Some help with traversal of the city, like allowing you to run up the sides of buildings and parkour to get around quickly. But that’s not the only way to travel through Hethereau. There are also ziplines that can help you find hidden corners of the city, and with the help of the character Mint from the Bureau of Anomaly Control, you can “requisition” cars.

Buying and modding cars has always been part of NTE. There are lots of customization options — including colors, tires, bumpers, and engines — and you can mix and match until you have your ride just how you want it. There are dozens of different custom cars, and you can drive in first-person or third-person.

Requisitioning cars is new in the latest update and can bring some consequences with it if you’re reckless. With Mint’s help, you can commandeer vehicles at any time across the city, which can help quickly get you from mission to mission if you don’t have an owned car easily at hand. However, be aware that if you damage the vehicle or disturb public safety, things can get out of hand fast. There’s a new multi-level wanted system with escalating consequences — police officers and bots will you pursue you and get increasingly aggressive the higher your wanted level rises. You can see this system in action in the video below.

However you end up with your car, you can take it online and team up with friends to take on street racing crews across different districts in multiplayer races, another new addition in the latest update. Racing also includes drifting, but be careful when it’s raining or snowing — the roads will be slippery and handling will be worse.

The Containment Test is running from now until July 16, after which Hotta Studio will take player feedback and address it in future updates. The full release of NTE will be available on PC, console, iOS, and Android, and it will be free-to-play with cross-progression across all platforms. Pre-registration is open now, and for the latest news and info, you can follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Discord.

Metal Gear and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima recently echoed Tom Cruise when talking about his future plans, declaring: “I want to keep creating things until I die.”

Since starting out in the industry at Konami in 1986, Kojima has created a variety of games, including Snatcher, the innovative sunlight-based GBA title Boktai, and the infamous P.T. demo. In a recent interview centering around Kojima’s latest game Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Game*Spark asked Kojima about his motivations and thoughts on why he continues to make games.

“I’m the same as Tom Cruise (laughs),” he said. “My life has been dedicated to creating things. That is my joy. I want to create for as long as my body and my brain keep working. I will think about (stopping) if it begins to inconvenience the people around me, but I want to keep creating things until I die.”