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Bloodlines 2 Isn’t Aiming To Be A Vampire-Themed GTA, And That Rules

Much like the titular monsters who inhabit its dreaded world of darkness, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2’s development has been a bit of a cursed creature. Once under the development of the team at Harsuit Labs, it was shifted to the horror pros at The Chinese Room, who recently released an excellent follow-up…

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Wuchang: Fallen Feathers: Every Status Effect And How To Cure It

There are seven status effects in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. Five of them are timed debuffs, while two of them are instantly applied upon infliction—but they’re all equally dangerous in the right situation. You should always wear gear that helps protect you against any status effects in the area you’re exploring, but…

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Xbox Games Are Saving The PS5 From Its Midlife Crisis

2017's Horizon Zero Dawn marked an inflection point for the PlayStation 4. The console went from being a great machine for indie games and third-party blockbusters to being synonymous with top-notch first-party exclusives. Spider-Man and God of War arrived the following year. The avalanche continued up until the…

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Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound: The Kotaku Review

The gaming world hasn’t talked enough about how it feels to get good at the original Ninja Gaiden for the NES. I mean, I get it, it’s a notoriously brutal example of “Nintendo Hard” difficulty. I still have nightmares about those endlessly respawning birds that boomerang relentlessly around protagonist Ryu Hayabusa.…

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Don't Sleep On Donkey Kong Bananza's Co-Op Mode

Donkey Kong Bananza is the newest entry in one of Nintendo’s longest-running franchises, and it’s a rip-roaring good time for fans eager to destroy everything in their paths. However, players only control Donkey Kong this time around, with his usual sidekicks like Diddy and Dixie taking on supporting roles as…

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The Most Expensive Cards In Pokémon TCG's Black Bolt And White Flare

Pokémon TCG’s Black Bolt And White Flare might be an anticlimactic ending to the Scarlet & Violet era, but some of the cards included are fetching extraordinary prices. We’ve compiled the top ten highest selling cards in the split sets.

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This Cool Mod For FF7 Rebirth Shows Us What A Modern Final Fantasy 8 Remake Might Look Like

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the middle chapter in the ambitious project to remake one of the greatest video games of all time, hit PC in February of this year. It brought with it its many, often aggravating, mini-games, and by virtue of now being on a more open platform, the potential for modders to expand what we can…

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The Bad Guys 2’s Credits Say The Film ‘May Not Be Used To Train AI’

The Bad Guys 2, the sequel to the surprise 2022 animated hit starring anthropomorphic villains turned good guys, has a surprising message in its credits that, even if you’re not tuned into DreamWorks’ heist series, should delight fans of animation. The film is out on Friday, August 1, but some folks saw early…

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You Could Be Earning So Much More For Hunting Mutants In Stalker 2

Earning coupons in the Zone was already pretty straightforward. But for those of us who’ve spent tens or hundreds of hours in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, tackling the same side quests repeatedly for cash becomes downright gruesome—more so than the mutants we fight. Thankfully, update 1.5 introduces a new…

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Adorable Betrayal Sim Peak Just Added Cannibalism

Peak is a climbing crew-like that took over Steam earlier this season and plays like you took a kids summer camp and crash landed it on a dangerous island in the middle of the Pacific. Whether you survive or slip and fall has to do with how much stamina you have, which can only be regained by eating food. And now…

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The First Nintendo Direct Of The Switch 2 Era Is Here

A long-rumored Nintendo Direct is taking place this month after all. The Mario maker announced a partner showcase will take place on July 31, marking the first new Nintendo Direct since the Switch 2 launched in early June.

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EA Won't Be Asking $80 For Battlefield 6

As large parts of the games industry looks to normalize $80 as the entry price for gaming, EA says it’s not planning to join in yet. EA CEO Andrew Wilson spoke on an earnings call to say the company is not intending to start charging eighty bucks “at this stage.”

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Elden Ring Nightreign's Duo Mode Patch Is Delayed Following Massive Earthquake

Last night, one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded on Earth occurred off the coast of Russia. Extraordinarily, so far, no one has died nor even been seriously injured, although millions are being evacuated from coastal areas in Hawaii, California and Japan for fear of incoming tsunamis. A bizarre knock-on effect…

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Pokémon TCG Pocket Apologizes, Pulls New Cards Following Plagiarism Accusations

When accusations of plagiarism are made, there’s usually an awful lot of back-and-forth, denials from all sides, and rarely clear-cut satisfaction. But after yesterday’s claims by a Chinese illustrator that his artwork had appeared in Pokémon TCG Pocket’s brand new set, Wisdom of Sea and Sky, the mobile app’s official…

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Nintendo Finally Throws Mario Kart World Players A Bone In Its Biggest Update Yet

Nintendo just reversed course on one of its most controversial changes to Mario Kart World, sorta. The Switch 2 maker just buffed the appearance rate of three-lap courses after previously nuking a sneaky workaround players had been exploiting to avoid the new game’s in-between driving sections. Somehow that’s not even…

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The War Over Credit Cards Censoring Games Is Just Getting Started

Artist Gilbert Martinez had just poured himself a glass of water and was pacing his suburban home in San Antonio, Texas while trying to navigate Mastercard’s byzantine customer service hotline. He was calling to complain about recent reports that the company is pressuring online gaming storefronts like Steam and…

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Ranking Blizzard’s Proposed Overwatch 2 Collabs By How Much I Do Or Don't Want Them

Overwatch 2 loves a collaboration. Blizzard has spent more time dressing up its heroes like characters from other worlds than nurturing its own lore, and that means fans can expect more themed skins in the future. If there’s one thing Overwatch fans can count on, it’s that Blizzard will find a new way to monetize a…

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Call Of Duty Finally Admits What We've Been Saying All Along: The Install Size Is Too Damn High

In theory, an all-in-one launcher to manage a massive franchise like Call of Duty probably makes sense. When you have multiple campaigns, multiplayer modes, and regular updates to live-service games like Warzone to manage, sure, you could convince me that a one-stop shop where I can find the specific experiences I…

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How I Built And Then Lost An Empire In One Of The Most Popular Games On The Planet

One of the biggest games on the planet right now isn’t Call of Duty or Counter-Strike or Fortnite. While those are very popular video games, a single free game in Roblox called Steal A Brainrot has them all beat.

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Every 'Face Of The Past' Location In Wuchang, And Which Gestures To Use On Them

As you play through Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, you’ll occasionally stumble upon an item or location with a bit of sparkly blue mist emanating from it. These are Faces of the Past. Interacting with these spots will present you with a simple gesture puzzle. Performing the right gesture will earn you rewards ranging from…

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Don't Like Your New Armor In Wuchang? Transmog It!

One thing almost every soulslike fan can agree on is that fashion is often more important to us than stats. It’s true! Most of us will rock some pretty terrible armor as long as we look cool doing it. But that’s why it’s so awesome when a game offers transmog with no downsides, letting us wear the best armor for our…

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Respeccing In Wuchang: Fallen Feathers Is Great, Here's Why

Sometimes, you just need to change your approach by resetting all your skill points. This is especially true in any good role-playing adventure that features a smorgasbord of build options like Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. Thankfully, this soulslike game incentivizes creativity and experimentation in its skill system,…

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PS Plus Gets Another Banger In August

Lies of P is arguably one of the best Soulslikes since the Dark Souls games themselves. A spiritual successor to Bloodborne for those hopelessly waiting for an actual sequel, Lies of P leads the free PS Plus games for August, continuing the paid subscription service’s recent win streak.

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Watch A Beyblade Perform A Smash Bros.-Style Save After Getting Knocked Out Of The Ring

This week, a video of a Beyblade match came across my Twitter timeline that was so sick, it made me think that maybe the anime from the early 2000s that dramatized the spinning tops wasn’t as exaggerated as I once believed. When you think about it, there’s drama to pitting two spinning tops against each other in a…

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Elden Ring Nightreign's Easiest Boss Is About To Get Way Harder

The second batch of Everdark Sovereign bosses arrive in Elden Ring Nightreign later this week, and FromSoftware just revealed who will be first up: Maris Fathom of Night. Better known simply as Augur, this phantasmal jellyfish was arguably the easiest Nightlord in the base game, so I’m looking forward to discovering…

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Someone Just Made It Way Easier To Eat Fries While Playing Switch 2

How much grease and salt can you stand on your video game controllers? Everyone who’s ever played a video game has, at some point, eaten while gaming, and usually it requires you to either put a controller down or hold it in one hand while quickly horking something down between respawns. Well, if you have access to a…

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Godbreakers Is The Latest Roguelike From Struggling Publisher Thunderful

Godbreakers is a multiplayer roguelike with some interesting ideas but a lot to prove. It’s coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC later this year and hoping to reverse a recent trend of underwhelming games by parent publisher Thunderful, which was just purchased by Atari amid its latest round of layoffs.

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Plagiarism Concerns Hit Pokémon TCG Pocket Over Ho-Oh Card Art

A Chinese Pokémon fan has noticed that a piece of fan art of Ho-Oh that they say they created appears to have—based on leaks—been mirrored and included in the forthcoming Wisdom of Sea and Sky set, coming to mobile app Pokémon TCG Pocket tomorrow.

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There's Finally A Nintendo Game That Uses The Switch 2's Mouse Controls, And It's 33 Years Old

During the marketing for the Switch 2, one of the most talked about aspects (perhaps because there was so little else to talk about) was the potential that the new Joy-Con 2s could be used as mice. Post-launch, there’s been almost no reason to bother. It hasn’t featured as a necessary control option in either of…

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It: Welcome To Derry Is Telling The Story Of Pennywise In Reverse

As we step ever closer to the event horizon of Stephen King properties, soon all will be drawn in. Right now you could be watching MGM+’s The Institute, catching The Life of Chuck in theaters, watching trailers for The Running Man andThe Long Walk, seeingThe Monkey on Hulu in a week, and getting psyched for Mike…

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