Deadrop developers Midnight Society have “terminated” their relationship with studio co-founder and celebrity streamer Herschel “Guy” Beahm, aka “Dr Disrespect”, over fresh allegations about the reasons for his infamous Twitch ban in 2020.
In for a penny, in for a pand.
Developer Game Freak has been known to dabble in projects outside of the Pokémon franchise, producing the likes of the excellent Pocket Card Jockey and Little Town Hero, and now it’s just launched a new mobile game called Pand Land (thanks, Siliconera). If you remember, the company filed trademarks for the title at the start of the year, but we weren’t too sure what it was all about at the time.
Although there’s no word on a worldside release at the time of writing, Pand Land is available via Android and iOS in Japan. Described as a casual marine adventure RPG, you travel the lands with your crew to collect various bits of treasure. Boasting some rather charming voxel-based visuals, you’ll also explore dangerous dungeons and can tackle the game either on your own or with friends.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has issued a new patch for the PC and PlayStation 5 co-op shooter that fixes the Spear after a previous update caused crash problems.
Last week’s update 1.000.402 included a fix for the Spear not targeting several entities (spawners, compound objects, etc). This change was welcomed by fans because, it was hoped, it would finally make the Spear weapon more reliable out on the battlefield.
However, players soon found that the Spear, the very weapon Arrowhead had sought to fix, caused crashes, resulting in a fresh recommendation not to use it. Now, patch 01.000.403 includes a fix for Spear-related crashes. Fingers crossed that’s now the end of the Spear’s tumultuous time in Helldivers 2.
Elsewhere, there are more fixes for a variety of relatively minor problems, and an updated list of issues Arrowhead is working on.
Helldivers 2 is the fastest-selling PlayStation game of all time, having shifted an incredible 12 million copies in just 12 weeks since going on sale earlier this year. Amid the huge revenue Helldivers 2 has generated, Arrowhead itself has suffered a number of crises, including launch server problems and, most recently, a battle with Sony itself over the console maker’s controversial attempt to force Steam players to account link to PlayStation Network.
Arrowhead recently revealed it was in the process of setting the studio up so it could “make more and better stuff” in the long-term. In an introductory post on reddit, new CEO Shams Jorjani, who recently replaced previous Arrowhead CEO and now current Chief Creative Officer Johan Pilestedt, said the studio has had to adjust to the enormous success Helldivers 2 has brought to the company.
For this patch, we have made improvements and changes to the following areas:
These are issues that were either introduced by this patch and are being worked on, or are from a previous version and have not yet been fixed.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
A corn dog is something I’ve never eaten, because they’re not really a thing in UK. I am morbidly curious about them, although I cannot ascertain their texture just by looking, which worries me. A Khorne dog, however, is a texturally simpler proposition. You can tell just by looking at today’s new legendary hero for strategy game Total War Warhammer 3 that he’d be quite difficult to chew, should you get to that point. Either way, the price is definitely easy to swallow – he’s completely free as part of today’s patch 5.1.0, which also brings substantial changes to multiplayer.
Aside from its naturally satisfying rhythm and the cool audio dings of success that usually accompany it, I find something innately hilarious about parrying. Yes, yes, it’s a deeply skilled expression of martial prowess that turns your enemy’s aggression back at them. But it’s also a pleasingly low-effort method to make your opponent look very silly – the combat equivalent of waving your outstretched hand and shaking your head in unison. I assume so from videogames, anyway. In reality, I could not parry a nerf dart with a metal bin lid.
“We’re committed to upholding the integrity of the Pokémon TCG”.
If you keep up with developments in The Pokémon Trading Card Game scene, you might have heard about a recent ‘Illustration Contest’ where select entrants were accused of submitting AI-generated work.
This has caused quite a stir within the community and now The Pokémon Company has come forward with an official statement explaining how it’s committed to “upholding the integrity” of this contest, and entrants in violation of the rules have been immediately disqualified.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Unlock a new theme later this week.
Nintendo has announced a new Tetris 99 crossover event adding a new theme based on its online battle royale racer F-Zero 99.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Looking to increase the storage capacity of your Nintendo Switch? Amazon currently has a TEAMGROUP GO 1TB Micro SDXC card for only $63.99. For most people, this will be enough space for the entire lifespan of your Switch and at a great price. There’s only one Micro SD card slot in the Switch console so you want to make sure you get the biggest card you can afford.
The Nintendo Switch is an outstanding console, but it doesn’t give you much space to install many games out of the box, especially if you purchase digital games off eShop. The Switch and Switch OLED have 32GB and 64GB of internal storage, respectively, with some of it reserved for the OS. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom uses up 16GB and Breath of the Wild about 13.5GB. If bought digitally, those two games alone would take up all of your internal storage on the OG Switch console. Fortunately, the Switch features a single memory card expansion slot. It supports up to 2TB Micro SDXC cards, but since 2TB Micro SDXC cards don’t exist in the mainsteam market, a 1TB or 1.5TB card is the maximum you can get.
The 1TB TEAMGROUP Micro SDXC card is compatible with virtually any device that accepts the Micro SDXC card standard. That includes the Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally, any recently released smartphone that supports expandable memory, GoPros, cameras and much more. Despite its low price, the TEAMGROUP is faster than your average Micro SDXC card. It has a U3 A1 rating and boasts transfer speeds of up to 100MB/s read and 50MB/s write. Although TEAMGROUP isn’t as well known of a brand as SanDisk or Samsung, this brand has been around for a while and is a legitimate manufacturer of flash-based storage. This particular model has plenty of good reviews on Amazon.
The TEAMGROUP PRO PLUS 1TB Micro SDXC card is U3 A2 rated with transfer speeds up to 160MB/s read and 110MB/s write. This extra speed can’t be exploited in a Nintendo Switch, but this is a better Micro SDXC card for mobile electronics that often handle bitrate heavy files like GoPros, smartphones with 4K video recording, DSLR cameras, and PCs with an available Micro SD or SD card slot (an adapter is included).
Roguelikes! They’re all the rage lately, whether it’s a pure run-based game like Hades 2, a devilish combination with something like the settlement-management of Cult of the Lamb or the application of the genre’s live-die-live-again loop to add a new bit of spice to a familiar series like The Rogue Prince of Persia. Into that last category comes a new contender: Diablo 4, which will soon introduce a new wave-based roguelike mode in its next season.
Twitch streamer Perri Karyal has taken down two major Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree bosses using a hands free ‘mind control’ virtual controller, which decodes electrical information fed directly from her brain in real time.
Prior to Shadow of the Erdtree’s release, FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki was quoted as saying that the challenge posed by the DLC “really pushed the envelope in terms of what we think can be withstood by the player”. True to his word, the days following Shadow of the Erdtree’s June 21 launch have seen many players take to social media to lament that the new content is simply too hard, while others complained of performance issues, leading to a ‘mixed’ review on Steam.
However, its fearsome difficulty hasn’t stopped Karyal from attempting to take on the DLC using a very unconventional method of controlling her tarnished, which also proves that 90 percent of a FromSoftware boss fight plays out between the ears.
Thought I’d post a clip of what mental controls I use and how I get around
Getting to the boss is often harder than the boss😅#shadowoftheerdtree #EldenRing pic.twitter.com/RmetlwJb8h
— Perri (@perrikaryal) June 23, 2024
Karyal made headlines last year after beating Elden Ring’s base game content while using an electroencephalography (EEG) brain monitoring headset to control specific in-game actions such as attacking, and rolling. EEG technology is ordinarily used by physicians as a diagnostic tool. However, after encountering the brain-scanning headwear while studying for a masters degree in psychology she became curious as to whether the technology could be adapted to control video games as part of a virtual controller.
To that end Karyal was able to use some fancy coding to train the software that came with her commercial EEG headset to recognize patterns in her brain’s electrical activity that were brought about when she imagined a particular object, action, or emotion. Each pattern was then assigned to an input on a virtual controller, which allowed Karyal to execute actions with her mind by imagining things during gameplay. For example, by imagining herself pushing a cube forward she could execute a roll, or alternatively she could imagine a plate spinning to make her tarnished perform an attack, or simply make herself angry to heal.
WE DID IT
Shadow of the Erdtree, first boss, COMPLETED with mind control, and ZERO HANDS
I can’t believe it. This was the hardest thing ever. We’ve come SO FAR! Let’s gooooooo pic.twitter.com/INrwrgOH0Y
— Perri (@perrikaryal) June 22, 2024
WE DID IT AGAIN
Shadow of the Erdtree, SECOND boss, Renalla, DEFEATED with mind control, and ZERO HANDS. Absolutely INSANE
Let’s gooooooooooo
If you have any questions, look at the full VOD below – I do set-up, training, and troubleshooting all LIVE pic.twitter.com/H0UpxUj8hz
— Perri (@perrikaryal) June 23, 2024
During the 2023 Elden Ring runthrough Karyal had still been beholden to a physical Xbox controller to dictate the movement of her tarnished warrier. However, for Shadow of the Erdtree, the streamer opted to attempt a completely hands-free run, by using eye-tracking software to track the movement of her head to control her character’s movement, and voice prompts to trigger more nuanced actions, including saying “I choose you” to summon a spirit ash. Navigating to bosses also required a completely different command setup to the one used during the climactic fights themselves, adding another layer of mental gymnastics to the process.
Impressively, Karyal has already managed to use her mind-control approach to take down two challenging early DLC bosses in the Divine Beast Dancing Lion, and Rellana, the Twin Moon Knight. Of course this isn’t the first time that FromSoftware fans have employed a non-traditional controller to shame Elden Ring bosses. Just last year Twitch streamer MissMikkaa managed to beat two Malenias simultaneously in two separate instances of the game while using a Dance Pad and a PS5 DualSense. Another FromSoftware challenge runner by the name Dr. Decomposing was also able to complete a no-damage run while using a modified electric saxophone as a controller.
Be sure to check out IGN’s interactive map and comprehensive guide for all the tips, tricks, and walkthroughs that you need to get the most out of your time in the Land of Shadow, or read up on how modders are already finding ways to make the game easier on PC.
Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
