News:: Art of Fighting 2 available now on Nintendo Switch

Hamster continue their noble quest to pump out classic Neo Geo titles on modern platforms. This week sees tough-as-nails Neo Geo sequel Art of Fighting 2 re-released on Nintendo Switch.

AoF2, originally released by SNK in 1994, was the fairly ineffective sequel to 1992's Art of Fighting - naturally. Although it featured some new roster additions (including the playable debut of Yuri Sakazaki) and is a little less clunky than its predecessor, it still couldn't turn heads in a year that also saw the release of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, whilst Mortal Kombat II also continued to ride a wave of phenomenal success.

Not helping AoF2 was its infamously brutal A.I difficulty, which saw many players drop in 20p, get rekt in the first match, and just go back to other games. In its favour, AoF2 does feature some awesome, huge sprites and nicely detailed stages. It also has a varied, 12 character roster and even a hidden final boss in the form of Fatal Fury's Geese Howard, who apparently loves crossovers.

Art of Fighting 2 is available now on Nintendo Switch, priced at $8.

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News:: CONTEST: Win a Steam key for DUSK's Early Access period

Do you like '90s-inspired retro shooters? Of course you do. And if you don't, then this is your chance to fall in love.

Our good friends at DUSK have gifted us 10 keys to the Early Access beta period for the game's two single-player episodes, as well as the frenetic multiplayer mode DUSKWorld before the game sees its full launch. I thought about selling those keys on the black market for gambling money, but I thought that you guys might like them, instead! Isn't that a better idea?!

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News:: LA man charged with involuntary manslaughter over 'CoD' swatting

The man who was arrested last month in conjunction with the Kansas swatting incident that resulted in a fatality has now been charged. Tyler Barriss was arraigned in a Kansas court today and hit with three charges -- giving a false alarm, interference with law enforcement and involuntary manslaughter -- the latter of which carries a maximum prison sentence of 36 months and a fine of up to $300,000.

Via: Kotaku

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News:: What did you get out of the Nintendo Direct Mini?

Whole continents of gamers, expecting a possible Nintendo Direct this week, woke up to the news that one had already happened without them. I myself stumbled across the reveal just as I was logging off for lunch, leading to hastily-typed announcements and an excuse for another cup of coffee.

No-one really minded the suddenness of Nintendo's surprise attack once they got word of some of the giant's headlines, though. Not only did we get exciting content for previously established titles such as Pokken Tournament and Super Mario Odyssey, we also got revamped editions of fan-loved games and, God forbid, some actual new announcements.

Plus, a new game for Leona Heidern.

What did you guys and gals make of the whole affair? Did anything set your world alight, or at least get you giddy for a future release? Are you chomping at the bit for a Switch edition of Dark Souls, or eager to return to the court for Mario Tennis Aces? Let us know what you made of the drive-by revelations below.

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News:: Review: Dreadnought

Things change as one gets older, and I’m no exception. As I’ve aged from a fresh-faced, idealistic young nerd into a jaded, wrinkly older nerd, my preferences and tastes have also changed, with one major exception: my love of space combat. Few things get me to nerd out like the thought of huge ships, slugging it out against the backdrop of space. Beams,missiles and the occasional bullet crossing the blackness beyond to thud against armor or fizzle against shields.

For me, a childhood spent in the heyday of space-shooters like Wing Commander, Freespace, and X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter conditioned a Pavlovian response so strong that I even mark Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare as one of my favorites of the CoD franchise because it has decent space combat in it.

That in mind, Dreadnought looks like it’s aimed straight at my heart, because it’s all about the ship combat in Yager’s new space brawler. Can this “Giant Spaceship Hero Shooter” carve a docking berth in player’s hearts?

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News:: Tobii proves that eye tracking is VR's next killer feature

There are plenty of ways virtual reality headsets could get better. They could offer higher-resolution screens (like the new Vive Pro), a wider field of view and improved built-in tracking sensors. But another feature might be even more essential: eye tracking. It's not a new concept -- we've been following FOVE's eye-tracking headset, as well as 7Invensun's Vive accessory, for a few years now. But it seems more important than ever as consumer VR winds up. Tobii, a company that's been exploring the potential of eye tracking for a while, is hoping to integrate its technology into the next generation of VR headsets. And based on some demos I saw, it's clearly not a question of if VR headsets will get eye tracking. It's when.

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News:: Dragon Ball FighterZ's Beerus receives spotlight as open beta begins

Bandai Namco have released another trailer showing off of one the roster members for the upcoming Dragon Ball FighterZ, which is so close now you can almost taste it.

Lord Beerus, antagonist of 2013 Dragon Ball movie Battle of the Gods, is an anthropomorphic cat god and, as such, displays well-known feline traits such as laziness, selfish behaviour and a pissy attitude. Beerus' video game incarnation reflects this lethargic approach to carnage, with a relatively relaxed fighting stance and puppet projectiles, similar to Street Fighter V's Menat.

Beerus is one of the few latter-announced characters that I've been lucky enough to get hands-on with, and I thought he was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to to getting some more play-time with him this weekend, as part of the game's open beta.

The beta, which can be pre-loaded now on PS4 and Xbox One, goes live today for those who have pre-ordered the game, and tomorrow for everybody else. It will feature Training and Online modes and ten playable characters. The beta servers will close at 11:59PT on Monday, January 15.

Dragon Ball FighterZ launches January 26 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

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News:: 'Operation Campaigns' return to Battlefield 1 and are now free for everyone

Late last year, Battlefield 1 gained a spin on its exciting "Operations" mode that was called "Operation Campaigns." This mode strung together a bunch of various objective based maps to make a pseudo-campaign out of the multiplayer mode. It featured two variations; one that played on base maps and one that required DLC. It then vanished in early December with little word.

Operation Campaigns have now made a glorious return to BF1 and DICE has even upped the ante; you no longer need to own the DLC to participate. Operation Campaigns are free for everyone and to commemorate the event (or perhaps because of this), a brand new campaign has been added to the game.

"Fire & Ice" is the latest addition to this mode and it features a cross between maps from two expansion packs. You'll be battling on "Devil's Anvil" from They Shall Not Pass and "Brusilov Offensive" from In The Name of the Tsar. This cross between the two is the reason that DICE decided to open up the game mode, since requiring both expansions would split the player base.

"This has proven to be quite a technical challenge as we have many different ‘licenses’ you can have," reads a forum post by DICE, "depending on whether you are a Premium Pass owner, or own individual standalone expansions. This challenge presented two options: continue to configure Operation Campaigns to be exclusively for Premium Pass owners, as with 'Eastern Storm', or to not require Premium Pass at all, as with 'Fall of Empires'...Our goal here is to ensure the best chance at the most populated servers we can. We feel opening up the content to all players is the best way to do this."

If you do happen to own the Premium Pass, you will get some exclusive tools on each map, but at least you won't be struggling to find players to fill matches. DICE has also lowered the win criteria, so matches should move a big faster and demand less of your time.

The Return of Operation Campaigns [Battlefield Forums]

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News:: An easy way to find a box of Super Mario Cereal

The Super Mario Cereal, complete with amiibo functionality, released on December 11, 2017. However, until today, I hadn’t actually seen a single box on store shelves, despite searching obsessively. Sure, it’s kind of a dumb, pointless thing, but it’s a fun, dumb, pointless thing!

It turns out that there’s a pretty easy way to track down a box of this elusive, Lucky Charms wannabe. Thanks to an Amazon user named basscow, in the customer questions & answers section of the product page, a website known as BrickSeek was brought to my attention. 

All you have to do is go here, type in the sku: 545139362 and your zip code, and this neat little tool will tell you if any nearby Walmarts have any in stock. As an added bonus, it’ll even show how much of the item each store has as well. The site has a disclaimer stating that it cannot be held responsible for any incorrect information, but after purchasing four boxes earlier (For myself and my coworkers. I’m not a scalper, I swear!), the numbers were immediately updated. It’s definitely at least somewhat reliable.

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News:: The Morning After: Weekend Edition

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

CES 2018 is over, and the Engadget team is heading home. Keep an eye out for wrap-up coverage this weekend, but first, take a look at some of Friday's highlights and other prominent stories from last week.

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News:: BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle coming in June, adds RWBY's Blake Belladonna as DLC

Arc System Works has a habit of building up hype until the perennial other shoe drops and brings us down to Earth. Like Dragon Ball FighterZ, it seems rather than release a base game with a small roster and release expansions over time (the titular BlazBlue, for example), BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle will start with a sizeable roster and has major DLC plans down the line. 

The first of which is RWBY's Blake Belladonna, who fans most likely wanted to see in the main game. She'll be one of 20 DLC fighters planned (teased by silhouettes you can view in the gallery), and the game will launch with 20 characters which have all been revealed at this point. 

Here's the DLC schedule: 

• DLC Character All-in-One Pack
• DLC Character: Blake Belladonna
• DLC Character Set Vol. 1: ???, ???, and ???
• DLC Character Set Vol. 2: ???, ???, and ???
• DLC Character Set Vol. 3: ???, ???, and ???
• DLC Character Set Vol. 4: ???, ???, and ???
• DLC Character Set Vol. 5: ???, ???, and ???
• DLC Character Set Vol. 6: ???, ???, and ???
• DLC Character: ???

BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle is set to hit PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC May 31 in Japan, and June 5 in other regions. Japan will get a limited edition that includes special artwork (in gallery), art book, soundtrack, and a DLC character pass. No word on whether or not this will be available in other regions, however. 

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News:: Pro Call of Duty player: 'Everyone is gonna beat us'

Competitive endeavors foster competitive spirits. It's standard fare for competitive types to at least play the chest-beating and braggadocio parts. Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. Or something like that.

So, it's sort of incredible to hear a professional esports player being perfectly frank about his team's chances. Ahead of the Call of Duty World League New Orleans event, Epsilon Esports' Dave Davies gave the following interview to Dextero:

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News:: Major League Soccer is creating its own FIFA eSports league

There's a new eSports organization in town. In partnership with EA Sports, Major League Soccer is launching eMLS -- an eSports league in which 19 of the 23 MLS clubs will select a competitor to represent them. Those gamers will compete in the eMLS Cup, which will take place during PAX East in April, and the winner will then go on to the FIFA 18 Global Series and have a chance to play in the FIFA eWorld Cup.

Source: eMLS

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