Charity speedrunning extravaganza Games Done Quick has kicked off its first week-long event for 2024. Among the highlights are speedy plays of 2023 highlights including Starfield, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Lies of P, along with a marathon from the world’s first canine speedrunner.
Tekken 8’s first DLC character will be a familiar face: Eddy Gordo, the capoeira pro who has previously appeared in the mainline roster of the fighting game series since 1997’s Tekken 3.
Square Enix has dropped a ton of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth details alongside artwork, screenshots, and even a trailer showing off Cait Sith, Nibelheim, Junon, and lots of other additions and changes coming in the highly anticipated sequel.
A huge blog post from Square Enix akin to one from November revealed lots of new information ahead of Rebirth’s launch on February 29. It outlines how new party members like Cait Sith and Yuffie fight, Elena’s new look in the remake, the different editions of the game available to preorder, and more.
It’s unclear who’ll be unlocked first out of Cait Sith and Yuffie, though as fans got to play the latter in Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Integrade on PS5, let’s start there. Yuffie is focused on speed (with a fast charging active time battle meter) and inflicting raw damage with her large throwing star.
Magic can be applied to her weapon through ninjutsu, made even more effective by chaining attacks together. Her Doppelgänger ability also allows Yuffie to attack from two places at once and seek out enemies’ weakness.
Cait Sith, the little cat who fights atop a chunky moogle mount, also darts around the battlefield quickly or calling upon the moogle for some slower but higher damage attacks. These attacks will also fill the Moogle Meter, which once charged can apply buffs to allies.
Keeping to Cait Sith’s focus on luck from the original Final Fantasy 7, different abilities can seemingly apply random buffs or damage to enemies and allies alike. The Let’s Ride ability, however, combines Cait Sith with his moogle to attack in tandem, enhancing both his regular attacks and unique abilities. Cait Sith can also drop kick his enemies while riding his moogle friend.
Yuffie and Cait Sith also have their own Synergy Ability, which are essentially combo attacks, called Moogle Pinwheel. Square Enix didn’t share too much of what it does, but promised the pair will attack together “with a secret ninja technique”.
Fans of the original Final Fantasy 7 were surprised to see Elena left out of Remake, but the young Turks member will make her revamped debut in Rebirth.
“Though she may be a rookie, she’s as skilled with her fists and a gun as anyone else in the Turks unit of Shinra’s General Affairs Division,” reads her official description. Her involvement appears directly related to the Remake Trilogy’s multiverse shenanigans, however, as her and Rude are tasked with pursuing the black-robed figures this time around.
One brand new character is Captain Titov, who also headlines a big change from the original Final Fantasy 7. Rebirth doesn’t feature the cargo ship Cloud and friends use to sneak across to Costa del Sol from Junon, but instead a cruise ship called the Shinra-8.
“He’s earned a sterling reputation among his crew, thanks to his unerring devotion to his duties.” Square Enix said. “This is most evident during the various festivities held aboard his vessel, which he personally — and passionately — emcees.”
Speaking of Junon, the trailer and screenshots show off its Shinra parade which Cloud must infiltrate, plus other iconic locations like The Gold Saucer and even brand new ones like the aforementioned Shinra-8 ship. It’s “a Shinra cruise ship that ferries travelers between the planet’s eastern and western continents,” Square Enix said. “After departing the port of Junon, it heads for the resort town of Costa del Sol. As part of the on-board entertainment, the ship plays host to a Queen’s Blood tournament.”
Rebirth will be available in several different editions, headling by the $349.99 / £349.99 Collector’s Edition, which includes a Sephiroth statue, steelbook case, mini soundtrack CD, physical artbook, and a physical version of the full game (which Square Enix loves to point out is across two discs). It also includes a Moogle Trio Summoning Materia, Magic Pot Summoning Materia, Reclaimant Choker, and Orchid Bracelet as in-game items.
The $99.99 / £99.99 Deluxe Edition includes the game, steelbook case, mini soundtrack CD, and physical artbook with no digital add ons. The Standard Edition naturally only comes with the game and is priced at $69.99 / £69.99. Preordering either of these also grants access to the Midgar Bangle in-game item.
As for full digital offerings, the Digital Deluxe Edition comes with the game, digital mini soundtrack, digital artbook, plus the Magic Pot Summoning Materia, Reclaimant Choker, and Orchid Bracelet as in-game items. Preordering this also grants access to the Moogle Trio Summoning Materia.
Finally, a Twin Pack includes both games digitally but no other add ons. Preordering will grant access to the Moogle Trio Summoning Materia, however.
Rebirth is the highly anticipated sequel to Final Fantasy 7 Remake. A third game will wrap up the Remake Trilogy, and while no release window has been shared, it’s already in development.
Rebirth therefore follows Cloud and friends as they leave Midgar and enter the wider Final Fantasy 7 world, encountering locations like Kalm, the Mythril Mine, Junon and Costa del Sol plus brand new ones created for the remake.
Square Enix has added new playable characters, too, plus a card game akin to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s Gwent, and impressive fast travel. An ESRB rating has otherwise teased deep cleavage, pools of blood, and a clue to Aerith’s fate.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
The developers of renovation sim House Flipper 2 have outlined their own ongoing renovation plans for the chill clean-and-decorate game, including notable bug fixes and incoming features missing from its predecessor.
Say hello to CitraVR.
The popular open-source 3DS emulator Citra is making its way to the Meta Quest platform as a native OpenXR application called CitraVR on January 20th, 2024.
As reported by UploadVR, the application will launch in beta on SideQuest and GitHub, skipping Steam as a result of the Dolphin emulator’s legal issues. Users will be able to play 3DS titles legally by dumping their games through a hacked 3DS. You can, of course, also download ROMs, though Citra itself doesn’t endorse doing so.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
January is a big gaming month for EA Play members!
Racing fans: get ready to get behind the wheel in F1 23, the official video game of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship, coming to the Play List on January 18.
Featuring new circuits – Las Vegas and Lusail – and a new chapter in the Braking Point story mode, F1 23 delivering high-speed drama and heated rivalries. Players can earn more rewards in F1 World, and can experience the new Precision Drive technology in action, offering controller players more confidence and control in crucial moments. In addition, EA Play members can take advantage of recurring 5,000 XP rewards and a 10% discount on EA digital content, including PitCoins.
Grab your glove and bat and hit the diamond in EA SPORTS Super Mega Baseball 4 – now available on the Play List for all EA Play members!
Super Mega Baseball 4 is where the Legends play. Featuring the series’ iconic combination of arcade-inspired style and immersive gameplay, Super Mega Baseball 4 adds 6 all-new stadiums and significant presentation upgrades, an entire lineup of fan-requested features, as well as expanded cross-gen and cross-platform multiplayer in certain modes. Players can step up to the plate with more than 200 larger-than-life versions of fan-favorite former pros who are joining the roster, like Vladimir Guerrero, Johnny Damon, Ozzie Smith and Jason Giambi.
In addition to these great games, members are scoring a bunch of rewards. Here are the latest rewards members can get with EA Play:
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Game Pass PC members receive EA Play at no additional cost with their Game Pass subscription. Members enjoy great player benefits, including in-game challenges and rewards, special member-only content, trials of select brand-new titles like EA SPORTS FC 24, and Madden NFL 24, access to a collection of EA’s best-loved series and top titles, and 10% off purchases of Electronic Arts digital content.
Visit the EA Play page for more details, and to stay up to date on the latest from EA Play, follow EA Play on, Instagram, or X. Please see EA.com/EA-Play/Terms for terms and conditions.
The post Ring in the New Year With New Play List Additions: F1 23 and EA SPORTS Super Mega Baseball 4 appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Elden Ring fans have grown ravenous for a Shadow of the Erdtree expansion announcement after developer FromSoftware made a change to the game’s backend on Steam.
X/Twitter user and Elden Ring YouTuber Ziostorm noticed the change on SteamDB’s page for Elden Ring, sharing an image of a new application added to the Downloadable Content section of Elden Ring’s Steam page for the first time since launch.
“I’m not saying it’s 100% Shadow of the Erdtree but there’s a pretty good chance it is,” they said, and fans are similarly hopeful elsewhere online. “Announcement must be imminent,” JoRads said on Reddit. “Definitely. It’s a matter of days now, or even less,” Hector_Savage_ replied.
A new Elden Ring DLC package has just been added to Elden Ring within the files for the first time since launch.
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I’m not saying it’s 100% Shadow of the Erdtree but… There’s a pretty good chance it is. pic.twitter.com/1j6HCVfGQo— Ziostorm (@Ziostorm1) January 15, 2024
This update also adds fuel to the fire of a previous rumour, as a leaked collaboration between Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco and accessory creator Thrustmaster also suggested a February release of Shadow of the Erdtree.
That being said, it’s not the first time Elden Ring fans have grown a bit out of hand anticipating an announcement after growing incredibly confident about a reveal at The Game Awards 2023 — an announcement that obviously never game.
Shadow of the Erdtree was initially announced in March 2023 as a major expansion coming to Elden Ring. A single piece of concept art was released alongside the announcement but didn’t give much away, just showing a character atop a spectral steed looking towards the horizon that featured a dying Erdtree.
It will likely arrive as the only Elden Ring expansion (outside of a smaller piece of player-versus-player DLC) and be akin to the likes of Bloodborne’s The Old Hunters expansion or Dark Souls 3’s The Ringed City.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Hello folks. It’s probably officially too far into January to get away with saying Happy New Year now, but stuff it, I’ll wish you a good one anyway, as well as a warm welcome back to Letter From The Editor. This month’s letter can be considered very much a part two to the one I wrote in November, in which we had a sneaky peek at the behind the scenes process of putting together our annual RPS Advent Calendar (or in regular video game website speak, our big games of the year feature).
We always have a big old voting barney around November time to decide which games do or don’t make the cut in our Advent Calendar (that is: we all submit top ten lists and we count up the votes afterwards), and every year lots of you try and guess which ones will make it over on the RPS Discord. Inevitably, there are only so many slots for what is always a heck of a lot of games put forward, but the key question has always been thus: who voted for what? WELL. For the first time ever, come and find out below as we reveal all.
When it comes to game night, it’s always a great idea to have a variety of board games around for people to choose from. Unfortunately, building that collection of games can oftentimes cost you more than you’d expect. Have no fear, though, as we’re here to help you out with a variety of deals on board games that are worth picking up.
This doesn’t just cater to events like Amazon Prime Day or Black Friday, either. We try to find deals on the best board games all throughout the year, so you can buy your favorites without breaking the bank. Below, you can find a selection of the best board game deals at the moment.
For when board games aren’t on sale, it’s nice to know you still have options that don’t cost you tons of money. Here, we’ll point you in the direction of more affordable board games that are still worth the investment for your next game night.
Board games go on sale at sites like Amazon, Target, Walmart, and even GameStop fairly regularly — you can generally find special discounts every month or two. In addition, they absolutely get big discounts during major sale events like Amazon’s Prime Day and Black Friday.
While Prime Day is primarily an Amazon shopping holiday, other retailers always put on competing sales events at the same time. Those are great times to look for board game deals.
As for Black Friday, it’s not just a one-day event: you can often find deals on board games the whole week of Black Friday, as well as on Cyber Monday and throughout that whole following week. Keep in mind that stock runs out (particularly at Amazon), so if you see a good price on a board game you want during one of these major sale events, grab it before it’s gone.
At online board game retailers like Amazon and Walmart, prices are always in flux, to say the least. Many of the board games in the board game section will be discounted to some degree from their MSRP. But there are a few ways to know when a board game is on sale for a notable discount.
For one, you can check Amazon’s daily deals page, where you’ll occasionally find an actual sale on various board games. Sometimes these are from one company, sometimes they’re on the whole category of board games. Target also periodically runs sales on board games, so check their deal page, too.
If you’re looking at a board game and are wondering if the sale price is good, copy the URL and paste it into the search field at camelcamelcamel. That’s an Amazon price tracker that shows you price history. Better yet, it works for any item, not just board games.
Finally, you can follow IGN Deals on Twitter, where we’ll always tweet any notable board game deals we come across.
IGN reviews board games fairly regularly, so you can always search to see if we’ve reviewed a game you’re considering picking up. Other websites do, too. We also have a whole lot of board game roundups, ranging from the best classic board games and the best cooperative board games to the best horror board games.
Outside of IGN, the best board game resource around (for my money) is Board Game Geek. It maintains a database of every board and card game you’d want to know about, with all kinds of news, stats, and user reviews all gathered together in one place.
War Hospital, out now on Steam, is about subsisting on the periphery of a war and keeping it firmly off-screen by means of adept time management. Set in 1918, it puts you in charge of a field hospital in northern France, a few minutes drive from the frontline. Here’s how all that works: casualties arrive from the trenches by ambulance or stretcher, and are carried by your medics to a clearing station, where nurses look after them before they’re seen by a doctor. Patients may be lightly or severely injured, but they will all eventually die if they’re left unattended.
