News:: Let's just be companions

_{[Unfortunately, it turns out that Nanashi is a bit of a prude, but he’s actually got some fairly solid, logical points in this blog tackling the topic of virtual “sexy time” in games. I’m not even going to lie here. I jump at every opportunity I get to do the digital dirty, so it’s interesting to read another perspective on the matter. Still, if I see that I can have sex in a game, you can bet your bottom dollar that’ll be the first thing on my agenda when I finally boot it up. There’s something strangely fascinating about it. It’s always goofy looking, and it’s never really done particularly well. – Kevin]}

While perusing the plethora of anti-Bethesda, Fallout 4 criticisms to be found on YouTube (Seriously, there are so many...) a point came up in one of these videos entitled “Fallout 4 Review - No Todds, No Masters”: Companions in Bethesda RPGs usually suck.

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News:: Kirby meets Jack Kirby in celebratory comic strip

Today would be the 100th birthday of Jack Kirby, creator and co-creator on many of Marvel Comics biggest superstars. Coincidentally, it's also 25 years today since lovable ball of inhalation Kirby saw his Game Boy game Kirby's Dream Land released in the U.S.

Artist Kate Willaert decided to draw a strip to celebrate the joint namesakes. The amusing  comic sees Kirby swallow up the Captain America co-creator, leading to the Nintendo star embarking on a (pretty trippy) Marvel tribute, as well as rocking a sweet grey pompadour.

Jack Kirby, alongside fellow Marvel Comics alumni Stan Lee and Joe Simon, was responsible for the creation of pretty much all of Marvel's poster children, including The Avengers, The Fantastic Four, and X-Men.

Kirby, who generally works alone, is responsible for eating everything in sight, and being timelessly adorable.

Kirby meets Kirby [Kate Willaert tumblr]

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News:: Fire Emblem Warriors gets a North American release date and special edition

Those looking to get their hands on some more Nintendo themed Warriors action won't have much longer to wait. Taking to Twitter, Nintendo of America has announced that Fire Emblem Warriors will be launching on October 20 for the Nintendo Switch (probably the 3DS, as well). If that weren't enough news to excite you, the game is also getting a collector's edition!

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News:: North Korea's Hunting Yankee is a game about sniping US soldiers

Hunting Yankee is a new game out of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea that's sure to rankle US nationalists just three weeks after president Donald Trump threatened the DPRK with "fire and fury like the world has never seen."

"The 3D-amusement entertainment program Hunting Yankee is a fighting game of shooting and knocking down Yankees with a sniper gun… behind enemy lines," according to DPRK outlet Arirang-Meari, as translated by NK News. Arirang-Meari reports the game "has become popular," but not if it's playable on phones or PC. It adds that, "Users can perform a variety of special actions in a virtual world reminded of a cliff-hanger battle scene."

It looks about as bad as Homefront: The Revolution, a paranoid and reality-detached series wherein the small island nation somehow invades and takes over modern America, allowing the richest and most powerful country in the history of the world to cosplay as plucky underdogs. 

The DPRK isn't the only country cashing in on anti-American sentiment. Over in China, this year's smash hit is a Rambo-style action movie, Wolf Warrior 2, wherein the lead has to kill a bunch of evil US soldiers in Africa who massacre civilians with drones for no reason. It is only the second film in history to make $800 million in one territory (the other is Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which made $936.7 million in North America alone). Maybe Wolf Warrior 3 will have a similar moment to Rambo III, which inserted a note of support in the end credits for the CIA-backed mujahideen, a group which included eventual American enemy Osama bin Laden.

US interventionism coming home to roost comes full circle in the Hunting Yankee discussion. "How many Americans know that 'over a period of three years or so,' to quote Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War, 'we killed off … 20 percent of the population'?," Mehdi Hasan explains at The Intercept. The DPRK has a lot of justified grievances with America -- the only country to ever use nuclear weapons against others -- even if Americans have long forgotten them.

인기를 끌고있는 3차원유희오락프로그람 《미국놈사냥》 [Arirang-Meari]
North Korean media promoting new “Hunting Yankee” first-person shooter game [NK News]

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News:: Get ready for 'Halo' in VR

Microsoft regularly uses Halo as a selling point for its technology (see: the original Xbox), and that's definitely true in the virtual reality era. The tech pioneer and 343 Industries have revealed that they're working on Halo mixed reality experiences. The two aren't saying anything more at this early stage, but it's safe to say these offerings will run on Windows Mixed Reality headsets whenever they're ready... and of course, Microsoft is bound to hype them to the hilt.

Source: Windows Experience Blog

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News:: Nintendo whipped up some sweet new Nintendo Power covers

Hey, party PAX people! Nintendo has created three Nintendo Power covers (RIP), what with the SNES Classic about to enter our lives (or not). They look wonderfully nostalgic, and if you're heading to Seattle this weekend and have time to attend a panel, you'll be able to nab physical copies.

Download and enjoy these special #SNESClassic-themed #NintendoPower covers, and join our #PAXWest2017 panel to receive physical copies! http://pic.twitter.com/N99OzZ8JoR

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) August 28, 2017

The panel, Talking Metroid: Samus Returns, is scheduled for September 2 at 10:00am Pacific.

I'm such a fan of the old Mario artwork, to say nothing of Nintendo Power. I had a ridiculous stack of these magazines not-so-perfectly lined up on a shelf during my childhood and teenage years.

Nintendo of America [Twitter]

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News:: Korean man infiltrates Chinese PUBG gang, betrays them all

Sometimes, players unknown will try to game the system in PUBG, queuing up at the same moment to get into the same game (or doing so with unknowing streamers and using their stream to get a tactical advantage in hunting them down). That seems to be the case with this roving gang of seven, red-shirt-clad Chinese players -- PUBG squads max out at four, normally -- that a Korean player saw bearing down while hiding in a house, all of his three squad mates already dead.

Outgunned, our wily narrator decided to not engage with this outsize gang, and instead tracked down a red shirt and tried to join their ranks. Somehow, it worked. Despite a few tense moments of obvious suspicion, our narrator was welcomed by the group.

He repaid this kindness by assassinating them all.

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News:: Another look at the Advance Wars-inspired Tiny Metal

We're getting not one but (at least!) two notable games inspired by the almighty Advance Wars. I'm still desperate for Intelligent Systems to return to the series, but until then, this duo should keep me busy.

Chucklefish has its fantasy turn-based strategy title Wargroove, and Area 35 is cooking up Tiny Metal, a more modern-looking adaptation. The latter has a new trailer out ahead of PAX later this week.

"Unlike the usual Advance Wars generals' ability, Hero Units are units you can unlock by playing through the campaign," says director Hiroaki Yura. "Their veterancy rank is maintained throughout the battles and it really pays to make sure you give them experience." One example given: a scout unit that can launch surface-to-air missiles instead of firing the standard machine gun. Yes please!

Tiny Metal is on track for Q4 2017 on PC, Mac, PS4, and yes, Nintendo Switch.

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News:: Yamcha is in Dragon Ball FighterZ, in some capacity

The best human Dragon Ball Z character looks slated to make an appearance in the upcoming Arc System Works joint, Dragon Ball FighterZ.

Back in June, Yamcha's Japanese voice actor, Tōru Furuya, tweeted about being tired from a voice acting session wherein he was doing Yamcha's voice. Yesterday, a fan asked him to follow up on the tweet, and what project it was for, and he obliged:

The name of the game is a "Dragon Ball Fighters" released in 2018 . (^-^)https://t.co/5RF0AczNzb

— 古谷徹 50周年 Thanks！ (@torushome) August 28, 2017

It's unclear whether Yamcha is just going to show up in the story or be a playable character -- hopefully the latter.

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News:: Sony's PlayStation VR bundles are getting a little better

With the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive seeing price cuts, it's now Sony's turn to sweeten the VR deal.

As of September 1 in the US and Canada, the core PlayStation VR bundle ($399 USD / $499 CAD) will include the PlayStation Camera. The peripheral is required, so that's 40-some extra bucks you won't need to spend to get started with VR on PlayStation 4.

There's also a change planned for the "all-in" bundle. At $449 USD / $579 CAD, you can get the PSVR headset, Camera, and two PlayStation Move controllers. Currently, this package costs $499.

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News:: A series veteran and a neophyte try out Danganronpa V3's demo

The Danganronpa series has arguably been Spike Chunsoft's biggest in recent years.

With three games, two anime series and a handful of light novels under the belt, this colorful take on murder mysteries has blown up since its official reveal as Distrust on the PlayStation Portable. And now, the third mainline entry in the series, Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, brings despair to all on PS4, Vita and Steam this September. And if you know me even a little, you probably guessed I'm as hype as can be.

A demo for the game recently released on all three platforms. Since it's non-canon and doesn't spoil anything in the main game, I figured I'd take a look at it with our own Mike Sounders. He hasn't tried anything in the franchise yet except two episodes of the anime. That way, you can get a balanced point of view from both the average guy and the weirdo.

He's the weirdo, I swear.

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News:: Have your credit cards ready for this fun Windjammers launch trailer

Tomorrow sees the long-awaited, highly-anticipated return of Data East's Windjammers, screaming onto a Sony console near you. A fun launch trailer has been released, shot in the style of early '90s infomercials.

This isn't the first time a retro-release has seen this type of marketing strategy, but it's still an amusing spot, bringing back memories of late-night, low-budget advertisements for duck-shaped telephones, Tel-Star CD box sets and radio-equipped baseball caps.

Windjammers was published by SNK in 1994, for both the arcade market and their own Neo-Geo console. It's a simple-but-addictive flying-disc game set in a futuristic environment where frisbee has apparently conquered the sporting world. The game has recently become a darling of the internet, being played frequently on the Giant Bomb website and even being hosted as an official EVO entry last month.

If you want a piece of the action yourself, then you won't have very long to wait. Windjammers will be hitting the PS4 and PS Vita tomorrow, as a cross-buy title, priced at $15.

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News:: Nintendo is holding an indie showcase for the Switch on Wednesday

Just ahead of PAX, Nintendo plans to host another Nindies Showcase.

On August 30 at 10:00am Pacific, we'll get another look at "multiple indie games coming to Nintendo Switch." These events don't have the same buzz that a full-on Nintendo Direct can bring, but hey, independent games on Switch? They've still got my attention. Give me a little Golf Story, and we're good.

Is there anything you want to see more of? Or are you mostly hoping for announcements?

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News:: Pokemon Sun/Moon legendary Marshadow hits Gamestop soon

The latest rare Pokemon -- technically a "mythical" monster, even rarer than a "legendary" -- Marshadow was announced in April, but trainers will finally grab hold of the Ghost/Fighting blob to fill the very last slot in their Pokedexs starting October 9, according to The Pokemon Company.

North American trainers can show up to participating Gamestops between October 9 and 23 for a code that will unlock a level 50 Marshadow with the ability Technician. It will also be holding at item, Marshadium Z.

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News:: Bethesda's paid mods debut today on Fallout 4

At this year's E3, Bethesda announced the Creation Club -- a new ecosystem of game content for Fallout 4 and Skyrim. The pitch is that these add-ons (think weapons, armor, accessories) are developed by either Bethesda employees or third-party creators, and then they go through an internal review by Bethesda to ensure that they're completely compatible with the game. Because of that extra degree of quality control, the Creation Club is a paid system.

Today, the first Creation Club implementation has begun. As outlined in a post on Steam, the program is in beta in Fallout 4 on PC. In order for it to work, Fallout 4 has to be updated to version 1.10. The Creation Club is said to be coming to PS4 and Xbox One tomorrow.

The pricing isn't widely available yet, but the consensus seems to be that 100 credits is approximately equal to $1. Here's a screenshot of the storefront, which shows some power armor for 500 credits which is about $5. Users are gifted 100 credits the first time they sign in and credits are transferable between Fallout 4 and Skyrim on PC and Xbox; credits are not transferable between games on PS4.

As for the initial batch of content, it's mostly kitschy reskins and spins on existing things. The two most novel items are probably the Power Horse Armor and Morgan Yu's suit from Prey. (Both are in the gallery below.) 

Bethesda's official stance on the Creation Club is something akin to "these aren't paid mods" even though they are very obviously paid mods. In the Creation Club FAQ, Bethesda defends the new system by noting all the internal review that this new content has to go through to ensure it works flawlessly within the game.

Fair point, but it doesn't change the fact that these really are just paid mods. Also, $5 seems about 10 times too expensive for a set of power armor.

Predictably, there's substantial backlash from the community over the Creation Club. Social media channels and the Bethesda forums are full of people who are voicing their displeasure over the program. At the time of writing, there were approximately 250 comments on the Steam page announcement, and many of them contain the phrase "Fuck off, Bethesda."

For anyone who's put off by this, the silver lining is that the unpaid mod scene will continue to live on. The Creation Club allegedly won't interfere with that.

Fallout 4 Creation Club Now Live [Steam]

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News:: NVIDIA's Shield 2 prototype shows up in a Canadian pawn shop

Back in 2013, NVIDIA released the Shield, a handheld gaming unit that looked like a heftier Xbox controller paired with a fold-up screen. Powered by the company's then-current Tegra 4 chips, it ran on Android as a small powerhouse. The company renamed it the Shield Portable but never followed up with another officially-released handheld, instead moving on to a pair of tablet gaming machines. But a supposed prototype for the next version of the NVIDIA Shield Portable somehow wound up in a Canadian pawnshop.

Via: Liliputing

Source: NVIDIA (Reddit)

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News:: Target listing for 'Bethesda: Game of Thrones' spotted

With how popular George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire book series and modern-day television hit Game of Thrones have become, it shouldn't surprise anyone that spin-offs and other forms of media will be following close behind -- including video games.

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News:: Fate/Grand Order's next major update is due soon-ish

Anime streaming service Crunchyroll held its annual Crunchyroll Expo this year, and there was a fair bit of news released for otaku to chew on, particularly ones that are fans of Type-MOON and the Fate franchise. One such announcement was of an impending update to the North American version of Fate/Grand Order, Aniplex and DelightWorks' mobile RPG.

For those unfamiliar, Fate/Grand Order puts players in charge of saving the future of humanity by time traveling to various periods of history and doing battle using Servants, superpowered reincarnations of history's greatest heroes and villains. Though the game debuted in 2015 in Japan, Aniplex has opted to more or less replicate the original pace of updates to the 2017-dated English version. That means that, as then, only now is FGO set to receive the third chapter to its story. Previous chapters had players slaying dragons in Joan of Arc's France and defending Nero's Rome from an invasion by resurrected, previous emperors.

Chapter 3, titled "A.D. 1573 - Sealed Ends of the Fours Seas, Okeanos" ("Okeanos" for short) promises a high seas adventure during the Age of Exploration, and will feature new Servants to gamble for, including Sir Francis Drake (as seen in Fate/Extra, meaning she's a sexy anime pirate lady) and Sakata Kintoki, the alleged real person the Japanese folk hero Kintarou is based on. The update didn't get a firm release date, but players familiar with the Japanese version's timeline suggest that it may drop sometime in September, with other events timed for Halloween and the holidays.

As for non-game Fate news, the event also included a window for Netflix's release of the Fate/Apocrypha anime series (October), as well as a trailer for Fate/stay night [Heaven's Feel] I. presage flower, the first in a planned trilogy of feature films adapting the last and most grim route of the original Fate/stay night game. Check out trailers for both Okeanos and Heaven's Feel below.

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News:: The hits and misses of Gamescom 2017

We've just wrapped up another games show, and found plenty to keep us busy in Cologne, Germany. Gamescom might not have the flagship reveals of E3, but all the major games makers are here -- and they usually have plenty to show off. Whether it was VR tasters, indie hits of the future or adding drama to the beautiful game, there's likely something for everyone. Here's what wowed -- and what underwhelmed -- the Engadget team.

And don't forget: You can check out the rest of our coverage right here.

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News:: Human Head Studios' Rune gets a surprise sequel announcement

Many moons ago, in the year 2000, Human Head Studios released an epic action game that was steeped in Norse mythology. Running on the then cutting edge Unreal 1.0 engine, Rune put players in the shoes of a Viking named Ragnar on a quest to prevent Ragnarok, which is basically the Norse apocalypse. It may have taken 17 years to get here, but it looks like the end is finally nigh.

Human Head announced, today, that they will be returning to their roots for a brand new installment in Rune called Rune: Ragnarok. While not much is known (like platforms, possible launch date or even how it plays), the game will be an open-world action RPG set during the end of days.

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News:: 'Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle' tempers insanity with charm

When I first stumbled across the rumor that Nintendo and Ubisoft had teamed up to make a Super Mario Bros. and Raving Rabbids cross-over, I chose to live in denial. It just wasn't something I wanted to be real. The very idea of allowing the banal, annoying humor that defined Ubisoft's screaming mascots into the Mushroom Kingdom just felt wrong to me. I told myself it had to be a joke, because if it wasn't, I was either going to have to play a Rabbids game -- something I'd avoided for over a decade -- or skip the first original Mario title to release on the Nintendo Switch. I was wrong. It's real. And you know what's weird? Not only is Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle actually pretty good, but the mascots I primed myself to reject, completely steal the show.

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News:: Sonic Mania is steeped in history and Easter eggs

It's intriguing to see how two passionate fan project developers came together to form Sonic Mania, and in essence, create a Sonic game better than Sega would have done. 

That's just how Headcannon and PagodaWest Games did it, as this video from Did You Know Gaming explains, and they even got a Sonic remixer to handle the music and an outside artist to work on the intro. In many ways it's a supercharged fan game, and the fact that Sega allowed this to happen is pretty amazing -- now we just pray that they don't buy them out and run them into the ground.

In less worrying news, Sonic Mania rocks, and this clip showcases where some of its merchandise and new levels came from.

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News:: SuperGroupies unveils line of Street Fighter lingerie

Japanese fashion brand SuperGroupies, who are known for their gaming-themed range of clothing and accessories, have revealed an official line of ladies underwear based on Capcom's Street Fighter series.

The two ensembles on offer in the collection are based upon the famous fighting colours of the strongest woman in the world, Chun-Li, and British special agent Cammy White, featuring a bra and panties pairing recalling the heroic duos classic looks.

Whilst the Cammy gear is fairly simplistic, I think the Chun delicates are really nicely styled, though those fringed shorts are probably not very ergonomic under casual clothing, I don't know. If someone wants to buy me a set I'd gladly try them out and let you know.

The two ensembles are roughly $80 each, and if you aren't wearing the Cammy pants as a wedgie, you're doing it completely wrong.

Street Fighter lingerie [SuperGroupies]

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News:: SteamWorld Dig 2 will take place between the first game and SteamWorld Heist

The first time I played the original SteamWorld Dig, I completed it all in one sitting. Calling it “addicting” would be an understatement. Image & Form recently showed off a demo of its sequel, SteamWorld Dig 2, during a live stream with Nintendo of Europe, and it looks absolutely fantastic so far.

Dorothy, a character from the first game, is the star this time around. Mechanically, this appears to be very much an extension of what made the original so special. The most immediate, noticeable change is the fluidity and speed of movement. Everything looks great as you sprint and wall jump your way around the environments.

A new feature, not shown in the demo, is the ability to reassign cogs used to upgrade various gear. Some situations will call for more armor rather than weapon damage, and it’ll be up to player discretion how to divvy up their stats in each scenario.

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News:: Super Troopers 2 gets baked, and a trailer!

Super Troopers the original was left in a basket on our doorsteps all the way back in 2002. Probably around the same time some of you were delivered to your parents by giant, lice-ridden birds. In other words, it's been a while. But merow, Broken Lizard, the comedy team behind it and fellow comedy classic Beeriest look to have returned to their finest form, as Vermont's finest.

Check out the red band trailer (possibly NSFW) below!

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News:: Steep is still supposedly coming to Switch, currently being optimized

Steep, that winter sports open world game from Ubisoft that released last December to decent reviews, is still slated for Switch. Ubisoft hasn't canceled it, but they haven't really given us regular updates on it either.

In fact, the only way we know it's not canceled is through a brief Twitter message from a lighting/3D artist at Ubisoft Montreal, who notes that they're still hammering out the framerate in an optimization phase,. This was part of Ubisoft's big "partnership" with Nintendo, which so far has only really garnered Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and a few other ports.

I know a lot of people are curious about Steep, so I hope it eventually hits the plaform along with some enhancements and fixes.

Ubisoft [Twitter]

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News:: Game of Thrones Season 7 Finale, 'The Dragon and the Wolf,' and Review

And thus we were left to feel slightly less excited about Sunday evening, a time usually reserved for the doldrums of the weeks as it foretold the coming of the long winter that is Monday mornings. But boy oh boy, what a rush to get there!

"Finally," I proclaimed to my Facebook feed the moment Sunday's seventh and final episode of Game of Thrones season 7 had concluded, "Game of Thrones is BACK!" It felt like that type of moment for me. It was a brief, seven week summer journey that left my head spinning and many complaints tumbling over one another, much like watching the inside of a washing machine. How can they ignore space-time continuity issues? How can any of this be happening? 

But happen it did, explain it the producers did, as best they could, through good intentions and a dire need to progress the story to the point where they could wrap the series in a successful fashion (here, book readers should take note and perhaps cringe in fear--if the show had this much trouble reaching an ending, how will a seven book series with two books remaining do so when it moves at a glacially slower pace and its story hasn't even reached where season 6 of the television show began?).

But for all my complaints throughout season 7, this episode, "The Dragon and the Wolf," took them, chewed them up, and regurgitated them in one of the more satisfying conclusionary meals I've ever had the pleasure to lap up.

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