Category: Video Games

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s New Spirits Have Been Revealed, Out This Week

Celebrating the game’s fifth anniversary.

Last month, Nintendo announced it would be celebrating the fifth anniversary of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with a special event as well as brand-new spirits. Now, in an update, the Japanese company has revealed the new spirits.

These spirits will be up for grabs for five days and will be made available this week on 11th January 2024. Included in the lineup are characters from Splatoon 3, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Pikmin 4.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Cult Of The Lamb’s so-called sex update will launch January 16th

Cult Of The Lamb‘s Sins Of The Flesh update promised to allow your followers to breed, in a way, by finding an egg that would hatch and produce new potential cult members. Players of the action-RPG/management hybrid on social media quickly did what people on social media do: demanded that they add sex.

Its developers said they would and now we get to see what that means when the update launches on January 16th.

Read more

Community Update January 2024 – First Month Accounts

Hi there, Xbox Insiders!

Passages

I hope this Community Update finds you as well as all those emails, meeting invites, and “let’s start the year strong” messages you marked all as read have in your Inbox. We’re only a week into 2024 and so much has happened already. We saw a real-life “Getting Over It” cosplay at a New Year’s party, the Internet™ collectively decided that Leon Kennedy would absolutely smoke Joel, and these are the streets I grew up in.

Over here at Xbox Insider HQ, we’ve also been busy chasing the hamsters back on their wheels (read: we are the hamsters) and getting back into the swing of things. It’s going to be a bit of a lighter January before we really kick it into high gear for the 10th Anniversary in February. So, let’s take a look at some of what we’ve been working on:

Connections

You might have noticed some changes to the layout, design, and overall look/feel of our lovely Xbox Wire pages over the last few months. As part of our strategy shift, we’ve been looking at different ways we can utilize the space we have here on the Xbox Wire and we think this redesign (as well as more interesting changes coming soon™!) is a great way to kick things off.

We’ve also been working to make our current content even better. It turns out, our resident Release Notes Virtuoso, Joshua, never got off his wheel. In fact, he’s been secretly whipping up some improvements and updates to Release Notes across all categories. We think you’ll agree these changes will make getting details on new builds easier and faster than ever!

Why Becomes How

I know, I know. Another one for the collage. I had hoped I wouldn’t have to use this joke for a while, but it’s taking longer than we initially thought for this process to happen. Apologies for this continued delay. I’ll take this one firmly on the chin though. I didn’t foresee the additional investments we’re now making, but I’m glad we’re making them nonetheless!

Full Tilt

That being said, we’re actually sprinting ahead with some of our other initiatives, specifically those tied to the 10th Anniversary. One thing I’m excited to share is that we’ll be publishing an absolute glut of content in February to the Xbox Wire. Interviews from past, present, (and future?!) Xbox Insider team members, an oral history of the program, and more will all be coming out to celebrate ten years of wonderful Xbox Insider Program accomplishments and highlights. This is something we’re super stoked about and we can’t wait for everyone to learn more.

Bright Future

We’ve also been working under the proverbial hood on a few items that aren’t quite ready to be fully revealed yet. These items are being worked on “in-house” within XIP, and I think it’s some of the coolest stuff we have cooking. We’ll be talking more about this in February, so stay tuned! In the meantime, please enjoy an updated/modified content roadmap.

As always, I hope everyone enjoyed this installment of the Xbox Insider Program Community Update. If you want to chat about this—and everything else XIP—hop on over to the r/XboxInsiders subreddit or throw us a follow @xboxinsider.

Wynn/

The post Community Update January 2024 – First Month Accounts appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Target Video Game Deals: Save on Avatar, Star Wars, and More

Target has some great deals on a variety of video games to kick off the new year, including $20 off the newly released Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Special Edition for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Additionally, you can save on recent titles such as Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Gran Turismo 7, and Sonic Superstars. Check out the deals below for more information.

Target Video Game Deals

This is the best price we’ve seen thus far on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which just released about a month ago. Not only can you save $20 on the game itself, but this sale is specifically for the Special Edition version of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which includes the base game plus some digital goodies including the Sarentu Heritage Cosmetic Pack which features a premium Na’vi weapon skin, one character cosmetic set, and a banshee cosmetic set.

In our review, we said, “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora features a stunning alien world to explore with a refreshingly uncluttered approach to navigation, countless enemy bases to destroy and Na’vi clan sidequests to complete, and no shortage of exotic flora and fauna to harvest and hunt.” If you’ve been itching to explore the world of Pandora after watching both Avatar films, there’s no better time to jump in than now with this great deal.

Additionally, Target also has some great deals on recent games released in 2023 such as Star Wars Jedi: Survivor marked down to $35 on PS5 and Xbox, Sonic Superstars down to $30 on Nintendo Switch, Gran Turismo 7 down to $40, and much more.

Matthew Adler is a Commerce, Features, Guides, News, Previews, and Reviews writer for IGN. You can follow him on the site formerly known as Twitter @MatthewAdler and watch him stream on Twitch.

Dragon’s Dogma 2: A Detailed Look at the Trickster Vocation – IGN First

Dragon’s Dogma 2 offers a wide variety of playstyles depending on what Vocation you select. Most of these are the kinds of archetypes you’d expect: melee sword fighter, speedy dagger wielding thief, ranged archer, and spell slinging mage – and some are hybrid Vocations, like Mystic Spearhand and Magick Archer, that combine elements of one Vocation with another for a completely new style of play.

But what of the Trickster Vocation? It was revealed as part of the Dragon’s Dogma 2 showcase back in November, but little has been shown of this unique class beyond that quick 45-second look, and a short description on the Dragon’s Dogma 2 website. Fortunately, as part of our visit to Capcom, we got to sit down and play with the Trickster for about an hour, and I can confidently say that this is a style of play unlike anything I’ve ever seen in an open-world action game.

To start, The Trickster is essentially a pacifist. Their chosen weapon, a ceremonial Censer, does little to no damage when it’s swung at an enemy. Instead, the purpose of attacking is to build up aggro and pull an enemy’s attention towards you. To that end, you also have a special ability called Suffocating Shroud that sends your smoke out in a wide area and draws a large amount of enemy attention towards you.

The Trickster vocation is a style of play unlike anything I’ve ever seen in an open-world action game.

So why would you want to get a whole group of enemies swarming on you if you can’t actually damage them? Ah, see that’s where the word “trickster” comes into play. By using the Trickster’s unique skill, Effigial Incense, you create a Simulacrum (or a clone, for simplicity’s sake) that enemies will perceive as the real you. This clone has its own health bar and will disappear if it’s killed, but you can also teleport the clone to you while it’s still alive with the press of a button. This way, you can basically kite enemies to wherever you want, as long as you keep their aggro and keep your clone alive.

So you can maneuver a foe to get an environmental advantage, which is super important, because the Trickster shines brightest when there are cliffs, uneven surfaces, or other elements of the environment that can be used to your advantage. The Trickster has two abilities designed around creating surfaces that aren’t really there, but appear real to enemies. The first, Tricky Terrace, creates a cloud that can be placed off a ledge that the enemy will perceive as real solid ground; and the second, Illusive Divider, will create a wall of smoke that you can see through, but the enemy cannot.

The final piece of this puzzle is the Visitant Aura, a technique that allows you to essentially make an astral projection that you can freely move around to scout the landscape for as long as your stamina will allow. You’re super vulnerable while controlling the projection, so using Illusive Divider to give yourself some cover while using it in the heat of battle is a good idea. Crucially, you can float off of ledges, ascend or descend at will, and even call your clone to wherever your projection currently is. I’m sure you can see why that might be useful.

When you combine all of these “tricks” together, the real value of the Trickster comes into view. Before getting into a combat encounter, you can create a clone with Effigial Incense, use Visitant Aura to scout out an area for enemies and look for any sort of environmental hazards (like a cliff for instance), recall your clone so that it hovers over said environmental hazard, place a false floor underneath it with Tricky Terrace, then lure enemies close to the clone and use Suffocating Shroud to send all of their aggro to the clone and watch with glee as enemies throw themselves off the edge in an effort to get at you.

When you combine all of these “tricks” together, the real value of the Trickster comes into view.

Now, obviously this is a lot of prep to go through, and isn’t going to be practical in every situation. Which is why the Trickster is also equipped with some other tricks up their sleeves. First and foremost, they are a support class – relying on, and substantially buffing, the strength of their pawn party so that they can do a lot of the heavy lifting. One such buff is Aromatic Resurgence, which supercharges your party, making them hit a lot harder. While I was playing for gameplay capture reasons, I had to make a mental note not to use this buff because my pawns would kill all of my foes before I got a chance to show off any of the more technical tricks of the vocation.

The most powerful spell I saw of the Trickster’s was Dragon’s Delusion, which takes some time to cast, but brings forth an illusion of a Dragon that terrifies any enemy that sees it, even large Ogres, bringing them down to their knees, giving your pawns ample opportunity to do big damage. Since most of the Trickster’s other skills seemed well-suited for dealing with small to mid-sized enemies, this was a really nice addition to see as something that could also let them deal with the bigger, beefier enemies.

The Trickster was not an easy vocation to figure out in just an hour’s time. It took me a while to fully grasp the aggro system – avoiding pulling too much aggro and not having any way to get away from the enemies I attracted. But once it clicked, I found it to be a uniquely satisfying Vocation that brought to mind one of the core tenets of Devil May Cry’s combat: It’s not just about killing every enemy in the room, but how you kill every enemy in the room. It’s an intentionally underpowered Vocation that’s designed to encourage creative thinking to solve difficult combat problems in ways beyond just swinging a weapon or hurling a tornado at it. And it’s one that I’m very excited to experiment more with, once I’ve got my hands on the full game.

Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit

Xbox Insider Release Notes – Omega (2311.240104-1615)

Hey Xbox Insiders! We have a new Xbox Update Preview coming to the Omega ring. It’s important we note that some updates made in these preview OS builds include background improvements that ensure a quality and stable build for Xbox consoles.

We continue to post these release notes, even when the noticeable changes to the UI are minimal, so you’re aware when updates are coming to your device. Details can be found below!

Xbox Insider Release Notes

System Update Details:

  • OS Version: XB_FLT_2311ZN25398.2922.240104-1615
  • Available: 4 p.m. PT – January 9, 2024
  • Mandatory: 4 p.m. PT – January 10, 2024

Note: This update may not occur automatically before it has already become mandatory. You can always find the most current update as soon as it is available by opening the Guide > Profile & system > Settings > System > Updates.

Remember: Newly enrolled users in this ring are not guaranteed to receive all early updates, but they’ll receive the update prior to the GA release. Additionally, a small subset of users may remain on their current GA build once they enroll until the next system update becomes mandatory for the public. Visit the Xbox Insider Program FAQ to learn more.

Fixes Implemented

Thanks to the hard work of Xbox engineers, we are happy to announce the following fixes have been implemented for this build:

Capture & Share

  • Fixed an issue where capturing screenshots or game clips immediately after launching a title could prevent subsequent captures from completing as expected until the console was restarted.

Games

  • Additional fixes to address unexpected loss of saved game progress in various titles.

System

  • Various stability and performance fixes.

Known Issues

We understand some issues have been listed in previous Xbox Insider Release Notes. These items aren’t being ignored, but it will take Xbox engineers more time to find a solution.

Audio

  • We have received reports of users experiencing intermittent issues with audio across the dashboard, games, and apps. If you have experienced issues, be sure you have the latest firmware updates for your TV and other equipment. If you’re unsure, you may need to contact the manufacturer for assistance.
    • Note: If you continue to experience issues after applying the latest firmware updates, please submit feedback via Report a Problem immediately with the “Reproduce with advanced diagnostics” option, then select the category “Console experiences” and “Console Audio Output Issues”. Be sure to include as much information as possible:
      • When did the issue start?
      • Did you lose audio just in the game/app or system audio as well?
      • Does changing the audio format resolve the issue? If yes, what was the format before and after?
      • Does rebooting resolve the issue?
      • What does your setup include? Equipment, layout, etc.
      • And any additional information you can provide to reproduce the problem.

Networking

  • We are investigating reports of an issue where the console may not connect to their network as expected on boot. If you experience this, be sure to report the issue via Report a Problem as soon as you’re able.

Make sure to use Report a problem to keep us informed of your issue. We may not be able to respond to everyone, but the data we’ll gather is crucial to finding a resolution.

What Happens to Your Feedback

If you’re an Xbox Insider looking for support, please reach out to the community subreddit. Official Xbox staff, moderators, and fellow Xbox Insiders are there to help with your concerns.

When posting to the subreddit, please look through most recent posts to see if your issue has already been posted or addressed. We always recommend adding to threads with the same issue before posting a brand new one. This helps us support you the best we can! Don’t forget to use “Report a problem” before posting—the information shared in both places helps us understand your issue better.

Thank you to every Xbox Insider in the subreddit today. We love that it has become such a friendly and community-driven hub of conversation and support.

For more information regarding the Xbox Insider Program follow us on Twitter. Keep an eye on future Xbox Insider Release Notes for more information regarding your Xbox Update Preview ring!

The post Xbox Insider Release Notes – Omega (2311.240104-1615) appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Succession Star Brian Cox Recapped the Story of Tekken and the Internet Is Delighted

Succession star Brian Cox partnered with Bandai Namco to retell the events of the Tekken series ahead of Tekken 8’s launch later this month – and the internet is both confused and delighted by it.

Basically, eight mainline installments might scare players who are looking to hop into the legendary fighting game franchise this late into its existence. It’s a lot of required reading, but thankfully, Cox has us covered with five minutes of storytelling that explains why these characters can’t stop throwing each other off cliffs.

It’s best if you don’t ask why or how this collaboration came to be and instead just take it for what it is as Logan Roy himself recounts the highlights from various iconic locations. That’s what most of the internet has done, at least.

“So surreal to see an actor like Brian Cox say things like ‘the devil gene’ and ‘the king of iron fist tournament,’” Matt McMuscles said on X/Twitter, “but I kinda love it.”

“I thought they made Brian Cox a playable fighter and almost lost my fucking mind,” Matt Post said.

“This is the best kind of video game marketing, where it’s like word association to come up with an idea,” GameSpot’s Tamoor Hussain joked. “Tekken. Bad dads. Succession. Logan Roy. BRIAN COX. OH MY GOD WE’VE GOT IT.”

Suffice it to say, the internet is have a good time with the extremely unlikely combination of classically trained Shakespearean actor Brian Cox and Tekken. See more delighted reactions below.

Cox’s bout in the world of Tekken is far from the first time a celebrity showed up to promote a video game. Some recent examples include Supernatural and The Boys star Jensen Ackles’ promotional trailer for 2023’s Atomic Heart. There’s also the time Mark Hamill returned to his sci-fi home with a trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. The Boys’ Karl Urban also helped promote Armored Core IV: Fires of Rubicon with his own video last year.

Tekken 8 launches for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S on January 26.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.