Game News

Popular Call Of Duty Warzone Theory Debunked

An enduring fan theory about Call of Duty: Warzone is that the battle royale mode is populated in part by bots. However, Activision has now come out to say this is a bunch of baloney.

In a blog post, the company set the record straight. The only bots in Warzone are in the Bootcamp training mode, which goes live with the Season 3 launch in April. Activision said Bootcamp is Warzone’s only mode that has bots. If the company does decide to add bots to other Warzone modes, it’ll only be after informing fans of this.

“We’ll ensure the community is informed ahead of time,” Activision said.

Fans have long theorized that both Warzone and Modern Warfare III include AI bots in some instances, but this is the first time Activision is debunking that rumor for Warzone specifically. The belief amongst fans is that bots are infiltrating matches so players can easily pound them and have a better experience that encourages them to come back and play more.

Not every Warzone match begins with a full roster of players, and some fans have suggested it would be nice to see bots added to matches in these instances to round things out. Whether or not Warzone ever officially adds bots to the main modes remains to be seen.

Epic’s battle royale game Fortnite features bots in its standard modes, and has for years.

For more, check out GameSpot’s rundown of everything coming to Call of Duty in the Season 3 update, including a bunch of 4/20-themed content, a mode that turns fallen foes into mines, and the newest BlackCell DLC.

Take-Two Buys Gearbox Entertainment From Embracer For $460M

After months of rumors that Embracer Group was looking for buyers for Borderlands developer Gearbox Entertainment, the studio is now officially being sold to 2K parent company Take-Two Interactive in a deal worth $460 million.

Gearbox was one of Embracer Group’s biggest acquisitions when it bought the company in 2021, in a deal worth up to $1.3 billion. As the deal was based on Gearbox reaching certain milestones, it’s unclear how much of that $1.3 billion Embracer ended up paying out beyond $363 million in guaranteed upfront payments.

Now, as reported by Brian Crecente on X, Take-Two Interactive has purchased Gearbox for $460 million, which will be paid out in Take-Two shares. The purchase includes Gearbox Software in Texas, Gearbox Montreal, and Gearbox Studio Quebec, and will cover Gearbox IP including Borderlands and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms, and Duke Nukem.

The sale doesn’t include Gearbox’s publishing arm in San Francisco, which published Remnant 2, and has publishing rights to the upcoming Hyper Light Breaker and other upcoming titles. The sale also excludes a number of studios purchased by Embracer through Gearbox Software, including Cryptic Studios, Lost Boys Interactive, and Captured Dimensions.

Take-Two has said that Gearbox will operate as a studio within 2K, which has a long history of partnering with Gearbox on the Borderlands series. Gearbox will continue to be led by its founder and CEO Randy Pitchford and his management team.

“My primary interest is always Gearbox, including our talent and our customers,” Pitchford said in a statement. “I want to personally ensure fans of our games that this arrangement will ensure that the experiences we have in development at Gearbox will be the best it can possibly be.”

“We are thrilled to welcome Randy Pitchford and his team of passionate, talented developers to 2K and we look forward to releasing numerous projects in the future as colleagues,” said David Ismailer, president of 2K. “We have loved partnering with Gearbox on every iteration of the Borderlands franchise and are excited to be in active development on the next installment in the series.”

In its own statement, Embracer co-founder and CEO Lars Wingefors refers to the divestment as part of a “transition to becoming a leaner and more focused company,” saying the transaction will “lower business risk and improve profitability.”

After a spree of large-scale acquisitions in the last few years, Embracer has now started downsizing, resulting in company-wide layoffs, cancelled games, and divestment of some of its assets. Last month it was revealed that Saber Interactive, which is currently working on the Star Wars: KOTOR remake, would split off to become an independent company, following a sale to private investors worth $500 million.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Buying Guide: All Editions, Delivery Estimates, And More

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is finally here, and it’s living up to the lofty expectations set by its predecessor. If you’re a fan of open-world RPGs, Dragon’s Dogma 2 offers a wonderful sense of adventure and a deep combat system that improves on the original. Before you pick up a copy, it is worth noting that the PC version has technical issues that Capcom is working on fixing, including steep drops in frame rate. With that in mind, we put together a roundup of where to buy physical and digital versions of Dragon’s Dogma 2, including details on shipping times, pickup in store options, and more. It’s also possible to get the game for less than retail price, if you know where to shop.

If you want to read more about the game before you buy, check out our Dragon’s Dogma 2 review, which awarded Capcom’s new RPG a 9/10.

Disclosure: GameSpot and Fanatical are both owned by Fandom.

Some Of Samsung’s Most Popular Monitors Get Big Price Cuts In Amazon’s Big Spring Sale

A bunch of great computer monitors are on sale during Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, including 20 monitors from Samsung’s impressive catalog. Whether you’re shopping for a monitor for your home office, gaming PC., or anything in between, there’s a good chance it’s currently discounted at Amazon.

If you’re just looking for a nice all-around monitor for general productivity, the Samsung 23.5-Inch Curved Gaming Monitor, which boasts a 1080p resolution and 60Hz refresh rate, is now just $110. Typically sold for $140, that’s the lowest price ever for the popular monitor at Amazon. Along with its curved display, it gets you a fast 4ms response time and ultra slim design that’s great for even the most crowded desktop.

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Looking for something more premium? Consider the Samsung 27-Inch ViewFinity S80PB Series Monitor (4K, 60Hz) for $400 (down from $580) or the Samsung 34-Inch ViewFinity S65TC Series Ultra-Wide Monitor (2K, 100Hz) for $450 (down from $800). Both get you a great refresh rate that’s ideal for gaming, while the S65TC gets you a nice 2K resolution.

There are plenty of other Samsung monitors on sale, including the Samsung 49-Inch Odyssey G9 Series Curved Gaming Monitor (2K, 240Hz), which is getting a big $500 price cut. So if you’re not sold on anything above, you’ll find even more options below.

Amazon Big Spring Sale – Samsung monitor deals

Game Reviews

MLB The Show 24 Review – Base Hit

A lot of people will tell you that Hank Aaron is the greatest to ever play the game of baseball. Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, is one of those people, and it’s easy to see why. You only have to look at Hammerin’ Hank’s stats–755 home runs and 3,771 hits in Major League Baseball–his outstanding consistency across 23 big league seasons, or the fact that he achieved all of this after such humble beginnings. Growing up, Aaron had few opportunities to play organized baseball. In fact, he had few opportunities to even use the right equipment. Instead, a young Henry Aaron would take his mom’s broomstick and use it as a makeshift bat to hit bottlecaps–it’s no wonder he ended up being so good.

I knew of Hank Aaron’s incredible career, but supplemental details like this are part of what makes Storylines such a captivating and enlightening experience. If last year’s game was all about introducing this brilliant and groundbreaking new mode, then MLB The Show 24 is more about fine-tuning the existing framework. This isn’t an uncommon approach for annual sports games, and while Sony San Diego’s latest baseball sim might not seem as fresh or exciting as last year’s offering, it still plays an excellent game of baseball while possessing a tangible reverence for the sport’s rich history and inherent romanticism. Players are more than just stats and numbers, after all.

This is where Storylines comes in, and it’s once again the highlight of the whole package. Like any good TV series, MLB The Show 24 returns with a second season of The Negro Leagues, exploring an era of baseball that has often been overlooked and forgotten. At launch, there are four stories to play through, shining a spotlight on the aforementioned Henry “Hank” Aaron, as well as Josh Gibson, Walter “Buck” Leonard, and Toni Stone, with more set to arrive in forthcoming updates.

MLB The Show 24

Bob Kendrick’s charismatic and insightful narration brings these tales to life, aided by slickly produced videos that weave in historical photographs, original artwork, and archival footage to paint a portrait of these players and their profound impact on baseball and American culture. In between these video packages, you’ll play through pivotal moments from each player’s career, from Aaron’s first hit as a member of the Milwaukee Braves to Josh Gibson’s decimation of MLB pitching in exhibition games–where he batted a ridiculous .426. Perhaps the most interesting collection of episodes focuses on the career of Toni Stone, a true trailblazer who became the first woman to play for a professional baseball team when she took Hank Aaron’s roster spot after he departed the Negro Leagues for the MLB.

Alongside these eye-opening tales, MLB The Show 24 also expands on the Storylines concept by adding a series on legendary New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. By using a New York subway motif as the backdrop for Jeter’s story, the former captain recounts important moments from the first few years of his storied career as you travel along the tracks from 1996 to 2000. Starting with his first steps as an unheralded rookie to achieving legendary status as the Yankees won three consecutive World Series titles, Jeter gives you an insight into his and the team’s mindset during this monumental run. There are also three side stories that center on the other members of the Yankees’ Core Four: Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, and Andy Pettitte. These stories are brief, consisting of a single video package, but completing each additional mission unlocks their player cards for use in Diamond Dynasty.

As a Yankees fan, I enjoyed Jeter’s retelling of the era’s events, along with being able to recreate moments like his iconic jump-throw and a number of his clutch hits. Admittedly, however, it’s not the most interesting collection of stories. This is a team and player that won four championships in five years with little to no adversity, while Jeter himself was relatively drama-free off the field. It doesn’t make for the most compelling narrative, but the inclusion of Jeter’s Storylines does at least set a precedent for the series where we’ll hopefully see more engrossing tales in the future, whether the focal point is on a single Hall of Fame player or an entire team.

MLB The Show 24

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Road to the Show, meanwhile, lets you create and play as a woman for the first time. There are specific video packages that differ from those in the male career, with MLB Network analysts embracing the historical significance of a woman being drafted by an MLB team. A separate narrative based around you getting drafted alongside a childhood friend also differentiates the female career from the male side–which lacks any kind of story–while considerations like a private dressing room add an element of authenticity. The majority of cutscenes play out via text message, however, replacing the series’ previous narration with a hackneyed alternative.

The only other new addition to Road to the Show is the return of the Draft Combine, which gives you three games to improve your draft ranking by playing well against other prospects. While it’s good to see the combine back, it’s a fairly superfluous addition for those who simply want to choose which team to play for rather than leaving it up to fate. It also doesn’t take into account starting pitchers, dropping your draft stock because you’re only able to play in one of the three available games. The inclusion of women is a positive one, but Road to the Show is still in desperate need of an overhaul to its tired loadout system and bland presentation.

Franchise remains mostly the same, aside from one new addition with the potential to completely alter how you engage with the mode. Custom Game Entry Conditions is a setting that lets you simulate games until certain conditions are met, at which point you’re able to take control. You can customize these conditions based on how critical the situation is by tinkering with a situation-importance slider that ranges from low to very high.

You’re able to pick the earliest inning you’re willing to enter games, and can also ensure that you’ll always jump into player-highlight moments, such as finishing off a potential no-hitter or extending a batter’s hitting streak. With this setting, you might decide you only want to enter games during high-leverage situations in the ninth inning or play from the seventh inning onwards in tight games. This alleviates the grind of a full 162-game season while keeping you invested and making sure you have an impact on games that might mean the difference between making the playoffs or missing out on October baseball. The one side-effect of this addition is that Road to October and its truncated seasons now feel obsolete, but improving Franchise makes this a worthy trade-off.

Diamond Dynasty, the card-collecting and squad-building mode, is also not too dissimilar from last year’s game. The implementation of Sets and Seasons has been tweaked, with longer seasons giving you more playing time with season-limited cards. The amount of top-rated cards attainable at the beginning of a season has also been reduced to give you something to build towards.

Cards will now gradually escalate in power over the course of a single season so you won’t be rocking a 99-rated team after a single week. These are positive changes in what remains the most approachable of the many card-collecting modes in sports games, such is the ease with which you’re able to acquire great players without spending a dime. The plethora of single and multiplayer modes is also a feather in its cap.

MLB The Show 24’s on-field action remains stellar. For the first time, new rules like the pitch clock, slightly larger bases, and limited pick-off attempts have been implemented. Impact Plays, a new addition that emphasizes great defense, are also new, reinforcing the impact of spectacular diving catches and difficult throws. Impact Plays are possible anytime you’re player-locked, such as in Road to the Show. If there’s a possibility for a highlight-reel play, the game will slow down and task you with completing a quick-time event. How you perform here determines how successful the play will be. It feels great each time you’re able to rob a batter of a base hit by plucking the ball out of the air moments before it touches the ground or firing a laser beam to first base to beat a runner. I only wish Impact Plays were more frequent and were included as an option when controlling a full team.

The continued absence of an online Franchise mode and the stale nature of Road to the Show are disappointing aspects of this release, but MLB The Show 24 still maintains the series’ commendable output with fantastic gameplay and another collection of fascinating stories exploring The Negro Leagues and its players. A journey through the exalted career of Derek Jeter might not be quite as gripping, but it builds on Storyline’s established framework and lays down an exciting blueprint for the mode’s future. The addition of women in Road to the Show is another positive step, further reinforcing the overarching theme that baseball is for everyone, while the ability to customize how you play Franchise mode makes it a much more palatable proposition for those embarking on a 162-game season. MLB The Show 24 might not swing for the fences, but it’s still a great way to spend the looming summer months.

Princess Peach Showtime Review – Drama Teacher

Princess Peach, the prototypical video game damsel in distress, has had limited success with her own solo adventures. On the rare occasion that she’s playable, she has typically been a sidekick in a larger adventure, like Super Mario RPG. Though she did land a starring role in Super Princess Peach, the game and its core mechanic—in which her powers were defined by wild mood swings—were a miss. Princess Peach Showtime is the latest attempt to make her own story, with nary a Mario or Luigi in sight, and this time she has come more into her own as an adventurer. More importantly, this solo outing seems primed at introducing new players to a wide variety of game genres. While veteran gamers will likely find the pacing too lethargic, it’s nice that Nintendo is making such a clear overture to welcome new players.

And when I say that there’s no Mario or Luigi, I mean at all. Nintendo’s most iconic characters aren’t even present in the intro, when Peach receives an invitation to come see the Sparkle Theater in a land occupied by Theets, little yellow creatures with bulbous noses. Upon arrival, the theater is taken over by a sorceress named Grape and her Sour Bunch goons, who kick out Peach’s loyal Toad companions, misplacing her crown in the process, and proceed to corrupt all the plays. Peach finds a guardian of the playhouse, a fairy named Stella, who accompanies peach by taking the form of a ribbon in her hair. (When Peach puts her hair up into a ponytail, you know it’s getting serious.) Stella is Peach’s default weapon, letting you use a whip-like motion to magically change objects and enemies in the environment, and it’s also the enabler for Peach’s various transformations.

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Now Playing: Princess Peach: Showtime! – Transformation Trailer

When Peach steps into a corrupted play, she finds a spark that lets her take on the role of its hero. These are broad archetypes like Swordfighter, Cowgirl, and Detective, and the 10 costume types allow for a broad range of different gameplay types. Once you’ve found your costumes in the first version of a stage, future stages of that type will start you with it already equipped. Each floor has four plays to conquer, after which you’ll fight a boss and gain access to the next floor. It’s all very easily understandable and flows nicely.

Since every stage is a sidescroller, I found that the plays felt most natural and familiar when they hewed closest to familiar sidescrolling action game mechanics. But even within those, there was some variety at play. The Swordfighter plays are modeled after a very traditional action game, light parry system included. The Cowgirl, on the other hand, is focused more on ranged attacks with your lasso, and the Kung-Fu stages included some lightly rhythmic fighting game mechanics. My personal favorite was Mighty Peach, a cute take on the henshin hero genre like Ultraman, in which Peach gets a robotic-looking power suit that she uses to fly through the air, take out invading UFOs, and lift buses over her head to throw at enemies or use as makeshift bridges. Those stages played almost like a shoot-em-up, with a unique focus on ricocheting ships and aliens into each other.

Some stages are less combat-focused but still handle like simplified platformers. The Ninja stages are centered on stealth, letting you hold up set dressing to blend in with the grass, or duck underwater and breathe through a reed while sneaking up on enemies. The Dashing Thief is focused mostly on a grappling hook as you run across rooftops. Other stages stray further from the platformer formula, like the Figure Skater stages that let you glide gracefully across the ice as you hit icon-coded stunt points to grab collectibles and ultimately defeat the evil Sour Bunch figure skater rival. The Mermaid stages take place almost entirely underwater and consist mostly of directing your siren singing voice–either to direct a group of fish where to go for solving puzzles, Pikmin-style, or to collect special singing-note fish to compose a song. They’re all variations on a theme to some extent, but they have enough slight differences to act as a rudimentary introduction to disparate game genres.

Then there are the costumes that stray furthest from traditional platforming mechanics, to mixed results. The Patissiere (pastry chef) stages are modeled after timing-based cooking games, as you bake batches of cookies or carefully apply frosting to cakes. These are a nice change of pace that really show the flexibility of the concept. The same can’t be said for the Detective stages, which are the weakest of the bunch. These consist almost entirely of walking around, talking to Theets, and then holding a button to point out an inconsistency with some object in the relatively small room. Even keeping in mind that these mysteries are aimed at younger children, the pace of these segments is particularly dull. From your movement speed to tracking something with your magnifying glass to holding the button to call out an inconsistency, everything feels just a little slower than it should be.

That said, the Detective stages, like all of the stages, carry an excellent eye for set design. Princess Peach Showtime works on two levels, as you have to both visually understand the goals and mechanics of the stage itself, while also taking notice that these are ultimately supposed to be stage plays. Many of the props and backgrounds are designed to look like stagecraft, and moving parts like Mighty Peach’s alien enemies or your Cowgirl’s trusty steed are made to look like puppetry, with seams and barely-visible strings. It’s a lovely, subtle touch that really sells the worldbuilding of the Sparkle Theater. The boss designs are equally inventive, as they’re built to look like pieces of behind-the-scenes stage pieces that have been cursed into fearsome beasts, like a massive snake made out lighting rigging to make up its segmented body.

Purrjector Cat is one of the stylized bosses based on stagecraft.

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As you proceed through each stage, you’ll find coins, as well as sparks that are ultimately used to gate access to each boss. These are plentiful enough that I never had to backtrack for more, which is a welcome change from other recent Nintendo games with similar gating structures. Your coins, meanwhile, can be used to purchase additional dress designs for Peach and ribbon colors for Stella. This isn’t very impactful, given that most of your time is spent in plays where Peach will be changed into her stage-appropriate costume, but it’s nice to see your customized Peach when she’s exploring the main floors of the theater at least. As you progress, you’ll also unlock special stages to rescue Sparklas, the Theet embodiment of each of the play’s characters, as well as elements like timed challenge stages. These serve as the culmination of the individual stories, and while they still aren’t very difficult, they are among the most challenging parts of the game. That should be enough to give the target audience the sense of a difficulty ramp. Plus, all of these collectibles means there’s plenty to do for completionists, but the gating isn’t so aggressive that it’s likely to frustrate players–especially the younger players who seem to be the target.

And just as Mario games have never been known for their strong stories, Princess Peach doesn’t escape that issue in her own solo outing. Grape is a typical evil cackling villain with a barely-stated plan or motivations. We never even get a clear idea of whether she intended to attack the theater while Peach was there, or if that was happenstance. This is too bad because the final confrontation is a gameplay highlight, ending on a high note that would be even better if we’d been given a more compelling villain to defeat. If anything, the stories in the individual plays themselves are often more interesting, thanks in part to some great, so-goofy-it’s-fun writing and animation work.

Princess Peach Showtime is a friendly, inviting game that’s made to be easy to digest. Some of the genres work better than others in this format, but none of them are too tricky or off-putting, and most of it will come down to personal taste. None of these stages are fleshed out enough to support their own game, but they’re an invitation for novice gamers to explore a bunch of different game types, with a charming (and apparently polymath) princess offering her gloved hand to welcome them in.

Rise Of The Ronin Review – Long-Term Investment

If someone tells me a game takes several hours to “get good,” my immediate feeling is that I will never play that game. Who has hours to waste waiting for the good part of anything when there are so many other games to play? But my opinion of Rise of the Ronin changed drastically over the course of my 50 hours of playtime–in the first five or 10 hours, I didn’t really like it. By the end, I was planning to dive back in to clear out side quests and replay key moments to see how the story might change. It’s a game that takes its time getting good, but once it finds its footing in samurai-sword duels and character-focused missions, your investment pays off.

The thing that turned the tide for me is the way Rise of the Ronin focuses on telling small, character-driven stories that weave together into a large, history-shaping narrative. The entire game is built on its “Bond” system, where doing side quests big and small builds your relationships with everyone, from the different provinces of Ronin’s massive open-world Japan, to the many characters you meet throughout the course of the game.

Though the Bond system isn’t particularly different from building up faction reputation, liberating map segments, or growing relationship stats with characters like you might see in other games, the focus on investing in all those things and people is illustrative of Team Ninja’s approach to the entire game. Your personal connection to everything in Rise of the Ronin is what makes it work, and the reason it’s worth it to power through its learning curve and less remarkable opening hours.

Rise of the Ronin puts you into the role of a samurai trained alongside another warrior from childhood to be an unstoppable, sword-wielding fighting duo for a group called the Veiled Edge. It’s the 1860s and Japan is opening itself to foreign powers, including the United States and England, creating political strife. On a mission to assassinate a powerful American, your “blade twin” sacrifices themselves so you can escape. Soon after, the rest of the Veiled Edge is wiped out for rebelling against Japan’s government, the shogunate. You set out alone, a ronin warrior without a clan, but soon discover your blade twin is rumored to have survived. What ensues is a lot of politics, intrigue, and adventure.

With no clan to serve, you essentially become a sword for hire and lots of people want your help, which you exchange for leads in finding your blade twin. The main part of Rise of the Ronin’s gameplay is stealthily sneaking up on enemies to assassinate them, and fighting duels. Combat has a similar fast-paced feel to games like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Ghost of Tsushima, with an emphasis on parrying enemies at the right moment and using different fighting styles to counter your opponents. Fights are frenetic, but for that early portion, they’re also frustrating thanks to a combination of weird controls and enemies who will often deploy intense, overwhelming force against you.

Rise of the Ronin

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You and every fighter you come across have both a health bar and a Ki gauge, which is akin to a stamina meter. Ki powers every blow, dodge, and block, and if you run out of Ki and are struck while blocking, you’ll be dazed for a few seconds, opening you up to more punishment. Your goal in every fight–especially with tougher opponents–is to strike blows while parrying their attacks, breaking their rhythm and whittling down their Ki to stagger them. When staggered, most normal enemies can be executed, while tougher foes and bosses take a big hit, then get their Ki back to go another round. It sounds pretty standard, especially with the ubiquity of Souls-likes and similar styles of swordplay focused on parrying, stamina, and breaking an enemy’s posture. Rise of the Ronin has its own take on the approach, though, and it took me a while to build up the skill to actually enjoy it.

The main two elements of sword fights are Martial attacks, which are powerful special moves, and Countersparks, which are flowery parry moves. Like Sekiro and its posture system, your main goal in Rise of the Ronin is to parry enemy blows until you can stagger them. But Countersparks are kind of weird, especially at first. They’re not just straight parries; they’re fast, short-range attacks with their own forward momentum. Missing the timing on a parry usually means you still hit the opponent and the opponent hits you, but there are plenty of times when a Counterspark can move you past the enemy altogether. It creates a strange flow to your fight movements that takes a lot of getting used to.

Rise of the Ronin borrows a bit from Souls-like combat in that enemies will sometimes power through your strikes with their own attack animations, so you need to recognize when to attack and when to hold back. Yet Ronin wants fights to be fast and aggressive, so if you Counterspark certain attacks, you’ll knock the enemy off-balance and open up a brief counter-strike opportunity. This also creates an unusual rhythm–you can Counterspark most of a combo chain from an enemy to no benefit, because the only attack that truly matters for parrying is the last or strongest in the chain. That means your strategy should actually be to safely block your way through a series of attacks, and Counterspark only the final move.

That requirement makes Countersparks unintuitive because the urge to parry has to be strategically resisted. Sometimes you can skillfully parry a bunch of moves in a row and wind up being punished for it anyway; other times, you may be rewarded just for hammering the button against a tough opponent. Mostly, though, you’re spending the first few battles against any tough enemy trying to figure out when the correct time to parry is and getting demolished by quick, relentless strikes in the meantime. It’s not a bad parry system–I came to enjoy Rise of the Ronin’s approach quite a bit once I understood how it worked and could start to read its enemies and their attacks–but the extra motion and timing are at odds with similar games, so you’ll have to unlearn a few things to acclimate yourself.

Enemy Martial attacks are marked by a red glow that indicates you can’t just block them like you can with normal strikes. That means you have to avoid them with a well-timed dodge, or knock them down with a perfectly timed Counterspark for big Ki damage. You have Martial attacks of your own that are great as counterattacks when you successfully knock an enemy off-balance, but they’re not unblockable like enemy ones are and cost extra Ki to execute.

Martial attacks are cool additions to your repertoire, but in enemy hands, they add to the learning curve and pile on some frustration in the early game, as fighting in Rise of the Ronin is usually very fast. You’ll often get hit with a series of attacks you have to block your way through, taking a ton of damage to your Ki, only to get blasted by a devastating Martial attack that cuts your defenses and hurts you even more. Then you get staggered, leaving you open to further walloping, or knocked off your feet and subject to a standing-up animation that lasts just long enough for the enemy to lay into you again with no defenses. One screw-up can lead to a beatdown that’s tough to recover from.

Especially early on, this combat pacing is annoyingly brutal–one particular early boss fight had a massive difficulty spike that held me up for a couple hours. For a game that easily lasts more than 50 hours and has a similar fight at the end of every single mission, being stuck on the same boss for that long was grueling. Fortunately, Rise of the Ronin lets you change the difficulty whenever you want, so you can drop to its easier mode if a fight is giving you trouble, then increase the challenge once you’re over the hump.

It was only later that I started to appreciate the combat system’s combination of elements. That includes the timing of Countersparks, as well as things like the ability to change your fighting style on the fly once you’ve learned new ones. When you approach an enemy, an icon will appear next to their name that indicates both how tough a fight they’ll be and whether their fighting style is strong or weak to your own. You can have two main weapons equipped at any time–which include katanas, odachis, European-style sabers and greatswords, and spears–and three styles for each one, which can be quickly swapped to deal with just about any opponent. Picking the right style to deal with an enemy greatly enhances the effectiveness of your Counterspark, so once I got the hang of parrying and using the right styles and weapons for certain enemies, battles started to click, becoming intense, hard-fought duels that also made me feel like a legendary swordsman.

Rise of the Ronin

Gallery

Against the toughest of enemies, it also pays to make use of your allies. You’ll meander through the open world alone, but just about every major story mission or side quest is an instanced level where you have one or two computer-controlled allies backing you up, playing into the Twin Blade concept. You can play cooperatively with other humans in the place of AI buddies, but when you play alone, you’re able to swap between characters on the fly. The AI characters all have their own styles and moves that you can learn and take advantage of, but the best part is the way they enable you to overwhelm an enemy, quickly swapping around to get behind their guard and take advantage of their divided attention. It’s another aspect that takes a while to get good at using, but which sets apart Rise of the Ronin’s combat and makes it intense and chaotic in a good way–most of the time.

What makes fighting a bit wonky is Rise of the Ronin’s control scheme, which is convoluted and unintuitive. Blocking attacks is done by holding the left bumper, but parrying is done with the triangle button. The separation of your defensive moves requires specific training for your brain: Hold this button for this kind of attack, tap this other button for another kind, but mix the two together as well. It’s enough to jumble you up until you’ve spent time getting used to this specific approach.

The same is true of the swapping controls, which require various bumper holds combined with control stick movements or d-pad presses. Changing between loadout items, like healing pills and status-removing salves, is done while holding the left bumper, and so is swapping between characters. Holding the right bumper, on the other hand, lets you change your main weapons, your sub-weapons (like pistols, bows, and rifles), and your fighting styles. Again, it’s just a lot of really specific, esoteric controls to hold in your mind at once, and tough to mentally page through while a guy with a sword is slicing away at your face. Eventually all these controls became natural for me–but it took a while to get there.

The blade twin story isn’t a particularly compelling one, and while it’s the framing device that’s supposed to drive your character, it doesn’t get a lot of screen time. But Rise of the Ronin picks up quite a bit as your investigation pushes you to start making friends with various people, who either support the stability of the shogunate or think the country needs a new government. As time goes on, those different people develop into separate factions that will require your help, and which you can choose to aid.

However, it all leads to an open-world setup that’s somewhat unremarkable. A lot of the open-world content in Rise of the Ronin feels set to the standard of 2010s-era games, with some repetitive activities that will pop up randomly in front of you, some collectibles to chase down, and some side quests to complete that tend to end up with you killing some random baddies.

The more minor activities you do and collectibles you find in each of the small provinces in an area, the higher your bond with that location, which unlocks various minor bonuses. Later, completing these same activities will increase or decrease a faction’s hold on that location, which can have a bearing on story missions as you take them on–although that exact effect is somewhat opaque, especially because you change allegiances multiple times through the course of the story. Generally, though, the open-world activities of Rise of the Ronin are somewhat uninspired. It’s not particularly engaging to clear out yet another group of five bandits, two of which are mini-boss-like “formidable opponents,” to lower a faction’s hold on a province, but Rise of the Ronin will give you a ton of these activities to knock down, alongside small side missions and random activities like muggings. It’s a lot of stuff that seems like filler content in a game that’s already brimming with things to do.

Story missions and side quests are more interesting and involved, although they also get repetitive. Most of these put you into a level where you infiltrate a location, sneak around assassinating rank-and-file soldiers, get seen and fight some guys, and then defeat a boss. These missions suffer in part because Rise of the Ronin’s stealth is a bit undercooked. It can be unreliable, with enemies sometimes spotting you from far off with little issue, and other times being totally oblivious as you fight pitched, protracted battles with their friends 10 feet behind them.

Missions always end with excellent, challenging boss fights, though, and once you get good at Rise of the Ronin’s dueling system, every fight becomes a combat puzzle mixing twitch-reactions and strategic responses that continually make them exciting. Stealth breaks up the fighting just enough to help mission pacing, while rewarding you for analyzing the environment and planning your approach, even if it’ll sometimes annoy you by failing at key moments. Stealth is more a nice-to-have addition than essential to the formula.

The best of Rise of the Ronin’s levels are its Bond missions. You’ll meet a ton of samurai and join many of them in missions as allies, creating ongoing relationships. You can then enhance your friendship with those folks by completing side missions that flesh out their stories and engaging in conversations or giving them gifts. Building stronger Bonds unlocks new fighting styles as well as passive bonuses when you bring them on missions, but the most interesting part is the way each character’s individual stories expand across missions and add to the overall narrative. The characters are all well-drawn, dealing with their own principles and motivations, and their stories are worth experiencing on their own.

Having personal ties to all these characters makes the overall story a lot deeper. Rise of the Ronin tells a fictionalized version of the historical end of the shogunate and the samurai lifestyle in the 1860s, with the characters and events you’re engaged with eventually pushing Japan toward civil war, and your own principles and relationships causing you to switch sides numerous times. That means a character you brought as an ally on one mission might be a boss you have to face down in another, and your connection to all Rise of the Ronin’s characters does a lot to raise the stakes and make the entire narrative feel personally important.

So while Rise of the Ronin has some elements that can frustrate or require some investment to make sense of, and weaker elements like some open-world design that comes off as dated or some repetition in level design, it does a great job of getting you invested in what’s going on and the people involved. Bond missions in particular are a standout, but a mix of personal stakes and large-scale politics make the historical story compelling all the way through. The longer you play Rise of the Ronin, the more characters you meet and spend time with, and the more you learn about its combat and its world, the better it becomes.

It’s not without some flaws, but I finished Rise of the Ronin with much more left to do, and even after 50 hours, I want to head back in to see what I’d missed and attempt to change history. The parts of the game that work more than balance out its weaker elements. And while it took a while to find the rhythm of Rise of the Ronin’s combat, its speed, complexity, and intensity make for some phenomenal fights that always feel great to win. Rise of the Ronin is a game that might take a bit to get good, but the commitment is worth it.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Review – Pawn Stars

Dragon’s Dogma 2 doesn’t have a traditional fast-travel system. For most open-world games, this would be a death sentence–an affront to the player’s valuable time. Yet somehow, Capcom has turned the absence of this quality-of-life feature into a resounding strength. It’s the game’s tremendous sense of adventure and discovery that accomplishes this. Every time you leave the relative safety of a village or city, there’s no telling what will happen; you just know it has the potential to be spellbinding and will be well worth your time.

As a sequel, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is an extension of everything the first game achieved 12 years ago. It’s an enchanting open-world RPG with varied, exciting combat and a player-created companion system that’s still unlike anything else. It doesn’t do much beyond what the original did, but advancements in technology have enhanced its anomalous strengths, breathing new life into its massive open world and the ways in which you and everything around you can interact with it. New ideas and innovation might not be at the forefront, but the things it does are still relatively distinct.

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Now Playing: Dragon’s Dogma 2 GameSpot Video Review

After a brief but intriguing prologue, your adventure begins in the country of Vermund, a land of lush green forests, alpine peaks, and the flowing currents of its many winding rivers. The royalty and noblemen of Vermund reside behind the fortified walls of its capital city, and it’s from this bustling location that you can board an oxcart to a small village in the north or a checkpoint city in the west. The latter sits on the border with Battahl, an arid land, home to the humanoid cat-like beastren, where gondolas provide an occasional route over the craggy canyons below. Beyond traveling via oxcart or climbing aboard one of these sky lifts, you’re left to explore this sprawling world on foot, traversing dense forests blanketed by canopies that blot out the sun, elven ruins carved into the sides of mountains, and shifting sands bathed in harsh sunlight and circled by deadly harpies.

There is a method of instant fast travel available, but it works in much the same way as it did in the first game. You can exhaust a costly resource known as Ferrystones to travel to any Portcrystal in the world, but these fast-travel points are few and far between–either as a permanent fixture or an item you can pick up and place anywhere you desire. You’ll use them sparingly and spend the vast majority of your time covering large swathes of land on your own two feet. Considering the 12-year gap between the original game and its sequel, this approach to fast travel and seamless exploration feels like an even bolder decision now than it did in 2012. The open-world genre has become more codified in the interim, yet Dragon’s Dogma 2 makes a concerted effort to ensure that the journey is just as important as the destination.

This is a game defined as much by the trek through an undulating gorge as it is the battle you encounter when you reach the bottom. The quests you embark on are diverse, tasking you with venturing off to rescue a boy who’s been taken by a pack of wolves or accompanying an elf on their rite of passage. These quests are sometimes generic but the way they play out is anything but. You’re never just engaging with one singular objective at a time; Dragon’s Dogma 2 is filled to the brim with emergent moments that consistently dazzle and surprise. I could regale you with myriad tales from my 40-hour adventure without even mentioning an actual scripted questline. Defined objectives might give you the impetus to head in a particular direction, but this then unravels a thread of distinct events that occur naturally, challenging you with enormous beasts to topple or piquing your curiosity with a cave tucked away to the side of the main pathway.

I once embarked on a lengthy journey that began with the usual ambushes from resourceful goblins and roadside bandits. I thought a first encounter with the three-headed, magic-wielding chimera would be the most noteworthy part of this venture, only for a monstrous griffin to swoop down and introduce an entirely new set of problems. After hacking at the chimera’s wailing goat head until it eventually collapsed in defeat, I focused all of my attention on the fearsome griffin. The immense force of this mighty creature made the nearby foliage rustle and shake every time it reared back and flapped its wings, but I managed to clamber on top of the beast and dig my sword into the back of its skull before it launched into the air and sent me spiraling to the floor.

After a time, the griffin made its escape, retreating back to the skies above, so I spent the night camping to recuperate my depleted health bar. I set out again in the morning, only to be interrupted by the same griffin, presumably with a newly formed vendetta against me. This time, after much hardship, I defeated the mythical creature before it could flee again, yet my journey was far from over. A pair of colossi sprang an unpredictable attack in the tight confines between two rocky outcrops, while the next night brought about a horde of undead skeletons whose glowing blue eyes pierced the suffocating darkness.

[Dragon’s Dogma 2 is] an enchanting open-world RPG with varied, exciting combat and a player-created companion system that’s still unlike anything else

None of these encounters related to one another or pertained to the quest I initially set out on, but that’s the magic of Dragon’s Dogma 2’s open world. You’re constantly pulled in numerous directions at once and it’s up to you to decide which avenues to pursue. It might be a quest given to you by a villager in need, an enticing structure looming on the horizon, or a locked gate and the potential to find an alternative way inside. Backtracking is fairly common, but no one journey is exactly the same as another, so it never feels like a chore when you’re retreading familiar ground.

Of course, none of this would work nearly as well if the game’s other elements weren’t up to snuff. Fortunately, combat is excellent across the board, providing you with a variety of unique vocations to choose from. These classes range from the sword and shield-wielding Fighter and long-range Archer, to new additions like the Mystic Spearhand–a melee/magic combo build–and the jack-of-all-trades Warfarer. It’s entirely viable to pick a vocation and play the entire game as that class, but you’re also rewarded for experimenting. Each vocation has special Augmentations to unlock which grant passive buffs that you can apply regardless of what class you’re currently using. This means you can make a Mage sturdier, or give a Warrior greater stamina usually reserved for the Thief.

Whichever vocation you choose, there’s a fantastic sense of impact behind your attacks. Axes and greatswords meet flesh with a glorious crunch–the game slowing down to let you bask in your most impactful strikes–while enemies burst into flames and tumble off cliffsides behind the power of a Sorcerer’s stave. There’s a hint of Devil May Cry to its most stylish and over-the-top moves, and hacking away at colossal beasts with slow but purposeful blows can’t help but bring to mind the protracted battles of Monster Hunter.

Even when you’re swirling through the air and conjuring piercing ice shards, the combat still feels grounded thanks to the world reacting realistically to everything that occurs within it. When I toppled a colossus and it stumbled towards a small chasm, it didn’t just fall down the gap, but grabbed onto the other side, creating a desperate, makeshift bridge. Only after hacking at its fingers did it lose its grip and tumble to its demise. The camera sometimes has trouble keeping up with all of this explosive action, usually because a mage has filled the screen with fire or ice. In that sense, it’s a somewhat acceptable trade-off. What’s not quite as forgivable is when the camera becomes unwieldy in tight interiors or when you’re clinging to the back of a terrifying beast, but at least these instances aren’t too frequent and are only a minor inconvenience when you consider the ensuing thrills of Dragon’s Dogma 2’s fantastic combat.

In terms of story, you’re once again cast as the Arisen, repeating a cycle that has occurred for generations. A fearsome dragon rules over the land and chooses you as a worthy challenger to its reign by plucking out your still-beating heart and consuming it. Your ultimate goal is to take up arms and slay the dragon, but before that can happen you need to build up your strength and contend with the disparate politics of both Vermund and Battahl. In Vermund, the Arisen is revered as a sovereign and champion of the people, tasked with protecting the land from the ominous shadow of the dragon. An imposter sits on your throne, however: a False Arisen, put in place by a queen who doesn’t want to lose her power. In attempting to claim what’s rightfully yours, you’ll gradually unravel a mystery that threatens to impact the fate of the whole world.

It’s a decent tale that propels your adventure forward, although it’s light on characterization, which contributes to a persistent feeling of detachment. This makes it difficult to care about the overarching narrative, aside from an interest in unraveling the core mystery. The awe-inspiring scale of its later moments somewhat makes up for its shortcomings, while exploring the differences between the cultures of Vermund and Battahl is also compelling. The beastren nation casts the Arisen as an outsider, fearful as they are of your entourage of pawns and the misfortune they portend.

Much like the first game, these user-created companions are the game’s most exceptional feature. Up to three pawns can join you on your journey, though one is a permanent fixture and your own creation. You can set their vocation and change it as you see fit, equipping skills and upgrades for them just as you would your own character. The other two members of your party are hirelings you can recruit and replace on a whim and are typically created by other players. Choosing which pawns to hire primarily comes down to a matter of party composition. Whether they’re leading from the front, imbuing your weapon with magic, or blanketing the battlefield in meteors, it’s hard not to love the impact they have on combat. But there’s also more to them than simply being hired guns.

The time a pawn spends with other players is retained in their memory. They might recall a treasure chest they opened in another Arisen’s world and then lead you to it, and they do the same when it comes to navigating quests as well. If you prioritize an objective and one of your pawns has completed it before, they’ll offer to lead you to wherever it is you need to go. Rather than being weighed down by having to constantly revisit the map, you can let a pawn naturally guide you, creating an ebb and flow to your adventure that removes the need for menu screens and waypoints. They can sometimes lose their way when you’re interrupted by combat, but I found that hitting the “Go” command would reset them back on the right path.

Pawns perform a similar function after defeating a certain number of a particular enemy type, too. If a pawn has sufficient experience beating, say, an ogre, they’ll relay pertinent information on weak points and the nature of their attacks. You can also find and then equip different specializations for your pawn, maybe granting them the ability to translate Elvish, or forage for materials so you don’t have to bother. They can still be overly loquacious at times, expressing child-like wonder at the world with a barrage of Ye Olde English dialogue. Their remarks are nowhere near as repetitive as before, though, and they’re much more personable this time around, chatting among themselves about other players they’ve traveled with and creating a palpable sense of teamwork and camaraderie.

Gallery

The most noticeable misstep derives from Dragon’s Dogma 2’s performance on PC. My current rig exceeds the recommended specifications (aside from the CPU), and the game generally runs at around 60fps using the game’s “High” preset. Sometimes it dips into the 40s and drops even lower inside villages and cities, but it’s certainly playable, if a little unstable. The problem is that this performance is consistent across all visual settings, which leads me to believe it’s a matter of poor optimization. I could’ve used the performance bump from lowering shadow quality and the like, but doing so has no effect. Ideally, this will be rectified with a day-one patch and driver updates, but it’s not ideal at the time of writing.

Even so, these performance issues did little to deter my love for this game. It’s not often that a cult classic gets the green light for a sequel, especially 12 years after the original game was released. Capcom hasn’t tried to make Dragon’s Dogma 2 more palatable to potentially attract a wider audience, either. It stuck to the first game’s core values and expanded upon them to create a bigger and better game that consistently delights in its approach to seamless exploration and the thrill of adventure. This means it feels very familiar in a lot of ways, but it’s a game for those who fell in love with the original, despite its flaws, and will hopefully find an entirely new audience who perhaps never gave the first game a chance. Even after 40 hours, my heart continues to grow fonder for this special game. It’s an exceptional achievement that’s quite unlike anything else, and I wouldn’t hesitate to place it amongst the pantheon of Capcom’s very best.

Alone In The Dark Review – Dimly Lit

When I think of the survival-horror genre’s best games, I often wonder if they were made better by their frequently unwieldy combat mechanics. The inability to reliably defend yourself heightened the terror in anti-power fantasies like Silent Hill, and the awkwardness of taking on the undead in Resident Evil became core to its tension. With that in mind, could a modern horror game benefit from having similarly janky self-defense systems? Alone in the Dark, the 2024 reboot project from THQ Nordic and Pieces Interactive, emphatically resolves this question for me; as it turns out, the answer is no–it’s certainly worse off.

Alone in the Dark centers on characters and a haunted house all named the same as they were in the original 1992 game, but it mostly ditches that game’s original story and old-school adventure game leanings in favor of a third-person, over-the-shoulder horror experience in line with modern counterparts. The game’s writing pedigree flaunts Soma and Amnesia: The Dark Descent’s Mikael Hedberg, and the story even plays out like an Amnesia game at times, to its credit. Much of what it does well is also derivative, but a larger issue is that it can’t do these aspects of the game well consistently. And all the while its worst parts are ceaselessly unenjoyable.

Chief among the blemishes is the aforementioned shoddy combat. There are three guns in total, and though wielding them feels cumbersome in the way a horror game wants to, so much else about dispatching monsters in the Derceto mansion’s hallways and bedrooms is a chore. Many enemies feel uniform in their behaviors and are often comically unaware or incapable of reaching you due to getting stuck on geometry or even each other when they show up in groups.

Even the few that do behave differently, like a monster that lurks on all fours and pounces or flying bug-like creatures that swarm down onto you, are so easily killed off that I quickly felt like the game might’ve been more enjoyable if there weren’t any combat at all.

Melee combat feels worse than gunplay, with a swinging mechanic that behaves more like a directionless flail. I found that for best results I had to button-mash the melee weapon and just hope that I took down the enemy I was targeting before they got to me first, and I wasn’t always successful.

But neither guns nor melee can outdo the confounding use of throwable weapons. Scattered around environments are bottles and Molotovs that can be thrown at the many monsters in your path. But you can’t add them to your inventory: You have to throw them from where you find them, and the game’s way of telling you this is to prompt you to pick one up (RT/R2) and watch as your character immediately tosses it without a care. That teaches you that the next time you want to use one, you should instead hold the button down, thereby allowing yourself to aim the throw. But you still aren’t meant to actually move with the object in your hand, and if you try, the character will slowly walk in the direction you point, all while the throwing arc still sits on your screen. It’s easily one of the most undercooked combat mechanics I can recall in a horror game.

Alone in the Dark’s combat moments don’t bring much to the game since they’re not scary–and sometimes not even functional.

It’s also odd and distracting how the first shot of any round of gunfire suffers an unmissable audio delay of a second or two. Whenever I’d fire a gun, the enemy would react to the damage, and a moment later, I’d hear the gunshot. It was always the first shot and never any subsequent shots in a series of them. It didn’t break the game but it was jarring for all 15 hours I played. I should mention that this occurred on Xbox for me, but not for a colleague playing on PC, though they did report other issues such as game crashes.

Alone in the Dark also features the other gameplay tentpole of the genre, as the elaborate home it takes place in is littered with puzzles. This is actually an area where the game sometimes shines, but not consistently. Some early puzzles in the mansion-turned-rest-home are fun to piece together and offer a sense of reward not just for advancing the story, but for letting you piece it together and feel like an investigator, like one of the two playable characters is.

I enjoyed exploring the mansion and opening up new avenues through which to solve its roundabout puzzles, and it was great to mix in a few otherworldly sections that pulled me out of Derceto and into various nightmarishly twisted memories. The transitions between the mansion and these other places were mostly done smoothly and caught me by surprise, albeit not without an occasional stutter, but I never found this as distracting as the gunfire audio delay.

But other puzzles were obnoxiously obtuse, with solutions that didn’t feel like they were available in the game’s context clues. Many of these revolve around determining safe codes or piecing broken objects back together. In one example, I had to infer a three-digit code from a letter I’d found, and the eventual solution didn’t feel logically telegraphed. Alone in the Dark is sometimes more of a headache than it needs to be.

Thankfully, the doom jazz soundtrack is a nice cure for what ails you. I loved the game’s atmosphere, strongly aided by the great music and good performances by Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) and David Harbour (Stranger Things). Ultimately, however, I never felt like the familiar faces from Hollywood raised the game’s quality level to a degree that justifies their inclusion beyond the marketability of star power. They aren’t bad in their roles by any means, but I didn’t feel like they brought an element to the game that couldn’t have been granted by other talented folks, making their involvement feel like simple stunt casting.

Exploring the mansion and its rich history is a highlight of the game.

You can choose either character–Comer’s Emily Hartwood or Harbour’s Detective Carnby–and play the full campaign as either. For large swaths of the story, these campaigns are the same, but they each involve gameplay and story moments unique to them, like puzzle sections and some hauntings unique to each of their backstories, along with a true ending for players who finish both versions. These alternate pathways feel like a fun added wrinkle to the full story, but the allure of playing the game a second time is dampened by its issues. I liked the game’s story for the most part, but I did witness a jarring sequence near the end where it so plainly and brazenly pulls a plot detail from another major horror game that I found it hard to imagine how it got through editing. You can’t just repeat another game’s twist, can you? Alone in the Dark suggests you can.

I found that to be such a perplexing choice, given how much else Hedberg has done well in the horror world and even does well here. Whenever the combat bored me or the puzzles left me totally stumped, I persevered, in part, because I wanted to see how the story shook out.

Led by the game’s mysterious Dark Man, an entity resembling a Pharaoh, Alone in the Dark mixes in the same kind of ancient history element that the Amnesia series has done so well. It initially feels so out-of-place that it actually serves the game better in the end. You think you’re getting a period-piece haunted house story, and suddenly the game is making nods to much greater supernatural oddities and blending reality and fiction in ways that make it hard to trust anything you’re seeing. It makes the world of Alone in the Dark feel more uncertain, and thus, less safe. Save for the story beat that feels too close to another game’s big moment, I found the story to be Alone in the Dark’s best, most consistent quality.

With its reality-bending story, parade of puzzles, and unwieldy combat, Alone in the Dark is, in some ways, more faithful to some turn-of-the-century horror games than their own revitalized modern remakes. I enjoyed the game’s story, setting, and abundant lore, and I felt smart when I’d overcome some of its puzzles. But others proved so obtuse as to be frustrating, and nothing about the combat even climbs to a level I’d call serviceable–it’s consistently poor. This isn’t Alone in the Dark’s first revival attempt, and it’s probably not its last, but it isn’t the one that will put the series’ name in the same breath as the all-time greats it originally helped inspire.

Unicorn Overlord Review – A Rare Beast

There are few gaming experiences more engrossing, engaging, and satisfying than a quality strategy-RPG. They offer the joy of building up a little ragtag army, bit by bit, into a gang of storied warriors with precision-specialized skills; the tension of seeing what sort of wrenches the next combat stage will throw into the mix; the utter thrill of eking out a victory with a wild strategy–or having an army that works so well together that they lay waste to all before them. Unicorn Overlord, the latest collaboration between developer Vanillaware and publisher Atlus, seeks its place among strategy-RPG royals–and, despite a few small missteps, lays claim to an honorable spot among its peers.

In its narrative, Prince Alain was spirited off to a faraway island a decade ago as his mother, the queen, was deposed from her throne by the wicked tyrant General Valmore and the Zenoiran Empire. Now, the Empire has all but conquered the continent of Fevrith, and an older Alain sets out to reclaim his throne and liberate the populace from their oppressors, all while bolstering the ranks of his Resistance army. But a mystery lies at the heart of everything: How did the Zenoiran Empire conquer all of the kingdoms so easily? Is there a much darker power at play?

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Now Playing: Unicorn Overlord — Official Launch Trailer

The visuals in Unicorn Overlord dazzle right from the opening cutscene, with Vanillaware’s well-loved 2D art bringing a detailed fantasy realm to life. There are a great many characters and environments throughout so there’s plenty of variety to the eye candy–but even if that hadn’t been the case, it would be hard to draw your eyes away from the attractive character designs, exquisite backgrounds, and weighty battle animations that are there. Occasionally, things can get a bit cluttered and confusing–some parts of the UI are messy to navigate–but after a while, it becomes no big deal.

You can’t just stare at the pretty visuals, however–not while evil is afoot. Fortunately, if you want to take your time with seeing all the game’s sights, you can go straight through the crucial story battles, or stop and do all manner of side-questing. Taking the time to explore and help those in need is a good idea, too: When you begin Unicorn Overlord, Prince Alain’s army consists of a handful of close companions, and it feels like the entire world is against you. Only through fighting small skirmishes, liberating towns, forts, and cities from their Zenovian captors can you gradually reclaim territory. Many of these places are decimated from years of war and neglect–but the prince can bring the materials needed to repair the damage, often with a bit of careful overworld exploration. As you do this, your Honors and Renown grow, and you can recruit and hire more soldiers for your army–as well as expand the number and capacity of your current units. It’s a fun gameplay loop that encourages you to explore and rebuild.

But ultimately, games in this genre live and die by how fun the actual strategy and combat is, and Unicorn Overlord passes this test with flying colors. Battles are a mix of real-time unit movement and turn-based battles that play out whenever two units engage one another. Unlike many other games in this genre, each unit consists of a group of up to six different characters, arranged in a 2×3 grid. A designated leader determines elements like map movement speed and what kind of assistance they can provide allied units: If you want to move fast to intercept an enemy or conquer a garrison, a cavalry leader is an ideal choice, but if you want to be able to provide combat spell or projectile backup to a nearby squad then you’ll need an archer or magic user leading the way.

Movement and positioning is critical, since many fights revolve around taking control of key areas on the map–usually towns, forts, watchtowers, or other structures–and using them as recovery, defense, and deployment stations. Sometimes you’ll be blessed with devices like catapults and ballistas that a unit can man and cause serious damage with–if the opposing army doesn’t get there first and cause you a massive headache. Buildable barricades and traps can hold forces at bay while you muster strength, but a winged unit can fly right over them without a care. Finally, stamina determines how many times in a row a unit can attack, be attacked, or assist–run out of energy and that team can’t move until they rest for a while. There are so many options and factors to consider when it comes to something as simple as map movement, allowing you to devise your own unique approaches to combat. When an allied and enemy unit engage, the view switches to a side-view, turn-based battle that plays out automatically. Units will take turns attacking and using skills based on the abilities and criteria you’ve set for them.

The characters themselves come in a variety of classes, each with its own unique traits, abilities, and weaknesses. For example, a Hoplite is a tremendous tank that can significantly reduce damage from many physical attacks and protect other characters, but they suffer when up against defense-lowering Housecarls and armor-penetrating magic users. A spear-wielding Knight cavalry unit can attack a row of enemies at once, while a similarly mounted Radiant Knight is strong against magic, but both are vulnerable to weapons and skills targeting horse-riders. When crafting units, you can carefully concoct a balanced mix of defense, offense, mobility, and support–or you can go all-in on an ultra-specialized team designed for a singular purpose. Weapons and accessories can grant extra boosts and abilities to individual characters, which you can then further customize by setting specific criteria for when and how skills are used in battle. Micromanaging so many factors can be very daunting at first, but Unicorn Overlord is excellent at encouraging experimentation and discovery, and it offers you myriad opportunities to test out new units or character builds outside of key battles.

Team-building is a delight, but what also helps keep your attention rapt is how the combat scenarios you face keep on evolving throughout the game. Besides adding elements like new units and assorted traps and hindrances over time, the unique scenarios of major story battles often present surprises that require you to change your approach. You’ll just be marching along, only to be greeted by a siege of surprise reinforcements, or perhaps a new ally drops in and wants to help–or needs your protection. And maybe, just maybe, that enemy general can be reasoned with if you have the right person speak to them.

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Unicorn Overlord’s combat is the standout element of the game–which is good, because it manages to carry the weight of a disappointing story. If you’ve played any RPG where a group of rebels reclaims the land from a despot with the powers of darkness fueling him, you probably know where the story is headed. I frequently found myself wishing that the cutscenes were less frequent and wordy so I could get back to the fun of moving a bunch of little guys around a map. The individual characters aren’t much better, with one-note personalities and motives that don’t offer much in the way of development or interesting interactions. There’s a whole affection system among characters that opens up brief little side conversations when relationships reach a certain point, but even these typically fail at making the characters appealing beyond mere utility like “that dude looks cool and hits like a truck, so maybe I’ll use him more.”

But even though the story is lackluster, the core gameplay of Unicorn Overlord is more than compelling enough to make you want to see the story of Prince Alain to its conclusion. There’s so much satisfaction and gameplay depth here to sink your teeth into that you may find yourself thinking deeply about the game’s team dynamics even when you’re not playing. When the primary feeling a game leaves you with is wanting to play more of it, you know you have a gem on your hands.

Anime News

New Xbox All-Digital Console Launching This Year — Report

New images have emerged of what appears to be a brand-new Xbox Series X console model. The leaked pictures show a white Xbox Series X with a similar design to the current model, but no disc drive. The shade of white also appears to be the same as the one used on the Xbox Series S console–and the one-off model seen in a 2022 Logitech advert–and it has been claimed that this version has a few minor hardware upgrades.

According to Exputer, the console comes with an improved heatsink, could be priced at $50-$100 less than the current $499 Xbox Series X console, and may launch in June or July. Microsoft hasn’t commented on this leak, but The Verge corroborated these claims by saying that it has seen additional documents suggesting the photos are the real deal.

Last year, leaked legal documents also revealed the apparent existence of a new cylindrical Xbox console as part of a mid-gen refresh strategy. Codenamed “Brooklin” and featuring an all-digital design, the documents showed a targeted release date of November 2024 and a $499 launch price. Recently, Xbox president Sarah Bond revealed how Microsoft is working on the next-gen Xbox and said it will be “the largest technical leap” ever seen in a hardware generation.

Outside of hardware, Microsoft appears to be changing its approach to the gaming business by releasing more of its first-party games on other platforms. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer also spoke about how the company is attempting to create more open ecosystems on its hardware and how he’d like to see other storefronts like the Epic Games Store on Xbox in the future.

Visions Of Mana Preview: Classic Feel And Vivid Visuals Underpin The Return Of The Action-RPG Series

Despite being whimsical and colorful adventures with flexible action-RPG combat to boot, the Mana series has largely existed through remakes instead of new entries for the past 15 years. This is what makes Visions of Mana–the first fully-realized entry in the modern sense in a long time–such a big deal for fans of Square Enix’s dormant franchise.

Visions of Mana makes the most of its newest outing with vast regions to explore, breathtaking vistas to take in, and an emphasis on magical elements woven into both its combat mechanics and exploration that create synergy between the two.

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Now Playing: Visions of Mana | Announce Trailer

Having had the chance to play a brief two-part demo for Visions of Mana, I was left eager to dig into its systems as that’s where the game’s real potential lies. I spent the first part of the demo exploring the open region of Fallow Steppe, which let me get my feet wet in basic battles against enemies sprinkled throughout. The three controllable characters–Val, Careena, and Morley–all had their own combat classes with their own assortment of magic spells, and I could switch between any of them on the fly. It felt like pretty simple action-RPG fare with light and heavy attack combos and a mix of magic, but after this warm-up, I got to play through the Mt. Gala dungeon, which is a more linear story-based scenario with greater combat challenges.

I also had access to more advanced combat classes at Mt. Gala, and once I got to mess around with Morley as a Nightblade–a swift ninja dual-wielding daggers–I started to really feel the flow of Visions of Mana’s combat. This came in handy when I faced off against Mantis Ant, the gargantuan beast lurking at the end of Mt. Gala. With a huge combat arena and a fast opponent with multiple targetable parts, being fast and closing the gap was my solution to taking it down. Instead of using a heavy attack, I would teleport next to my target and start serving up quick combos, almost like a Warp Strike in Final Fantasy XV.

While the Nightblade class was definitely more of my speed when it comes to my preference in action combat, Val and Careena had their share of effective abilities such as fireballs and wind gusts to tack on big damage from a distance. The best damage dealer is the Limit Break-style Class Strike, which you can activate after filling up the CS Gauge. Each character has their own based on their class and they all come with brief, beautifully animated cinematic cuts before wreaking havoc.

Taking a step back, what I’m intrigued by is how the class system works. Elemental Vessels can be equipped to any character and these determine their class. However, each character has their own unique set of classes when equipping the same Elemental Vessels. For example, when Val has the wind-based Sylphid Boomerang, he becomes a heavy sword-wielding Rune Knight but if Careena equips that same Elemental Vessel, she turns into a nimble Dancer. And I could only access the Nightblade class if I had the Luna Globe equipped to Morley, or the paladin-inspired Aegis set to Val. This all may sound like standard action-RPG stuff, but combined with the variation available in each class and the specific playstyles they offer through every party member, it seems there’s a lot worth digging into that can genuinely change the gameplay experience.

It’s worth noting, though, that Visions of Mana sometimes doesn’t feel as fluid as it should be. While it’s definitely a step up from the Trials of Mana remake from 2020, there’s a bit of a stickiness when it comes to how characters move and attack. This took some getting used to and the targeting system was often a point of frustration in the demo–while the game does feature a lock-on mechanic, the camera struggles to follow the target, and since the right stick changes the target you lock onto, you can’t really move the camera to get a better view of the combat arena. We’ve seen several action-RPGs get this right in the past, and the hope is Visions of Mana can improve this small but important aspect before launch.

There wasn’t much story content shown in the demo since it was more focused on combat and the use of Elemental Vessels. From what I can tell, the main protagonist Val seems like your typical headstrong lead, but Visions of Mana appears to be giving its other party members proper screen time as well. After the Mt. Gala portion of the demo, I got to see Careena take the spotlight alongside her adorable owl-cat hybrid name Ramcoh as they saved the wind sylphid Mantis Ant. With her background of being half-dragon and half-human, she’s dubbed the One-Winged Oracle and the wind Sylphid agrees to lend her his power. In talking with the game’s producer Masaru Oyamada, he mentioned that we can expect to explore the various cultures that fill Visions of Mana’s world along with a story about questioning things that are taken at face value.

Gallery

As Oyamada told me, “One thing that we wanted to explore thematically was this idea that there might be certain things that people think of as a normal way of looking at the world. But that might not actually be the case. And so this feeling of sort of questioning what you feel is common sense is definitely an important theme to support the story.”

My broadest takeaway from playing roughly 30 minutes of Visions of Mana is that it’s going for a classic RPG feel. It’s not necessarily breaking the mold, but it’s a modern extension of Mana’s core elements wrapped in a bigger, more vibrant fantasy setting. While I’m interested in unraveling the possibilities with its class system, I’m hoping combat can be tightened up a bit more or evolve in a way that makes sense for the flow of its gameplay. However, it’s going to be the story, characters, and sense of adventure that will likely determine whether Visions of Mana can stand out among the sea of great RPGs we’ve seen in recent years.

Popular Call Of Duty Warzone Theory Debunked

An enduring fan theory about Call of Duty: Warzone is that the battle royale mode is populated in part by bots. However, Activision has now come out to say this is a bunch of baloney.

In a blog post, the company set the record straight. The only bots in Warzone are in the Bootcamp training mode, which goes live with the Season 3 launch in April. Activision said Bootcamp is Warzone’s only mode that has bots. If the company does decide to add bots to other Warzone modes, it’ll only be after informing fans of this.

“We’ll ensure the community is informed ahead of time,” Activision said.

Fans have long theorized that both Warzone and Modern Warfare III include AI bots in some instances, but this is the first time Activision is debunking that rumor for Warzone specifically. The belief amongst fans is that bots are infiltrating matches so players can easily pound them and have a better experience that encourages them to come back and play more.

Not every Warzone match begins with a full roster of players, and some fans have suggested it would be nice to see bots added to matches in these instances to round things out. Whether or not Warzone ever officially adds bots to the main modes remains to be seen.

Epic’s battle royale game Fortnite features bots in its standard modes, and has for years.

For more, check out GameSpot’s rundown of everything coming to Call of Duty in the Season 3 update, including a bunch of 4/20-themed content, a mode that turns fallen foes into mines, and the newest BlackCell DLC.

Call Of Duty Warzone Adding Mode With Bots To Help Players Learn The Ropes

Call of Duty: Warzone is a challenging battle royale game that requires skill and patience to be the last soldier or team standing. If you’re intrigued by the game but are maybe put off by diving directly into a game, Activision is releasing a new mode with bots to help you learn the ropes.

Call of Duty: Warzone Bootcamp, as it’s called, is a new training mode aimed at helping players get up to speed before dropping into a game with human enemies. Set on a randomized slice of the Urzikstan map and featuring up to 20 human players and 24 bots, Bootcamp is a quad-only mode that provides a “snapshot” of the real experience.

This isn’t Call of Duty’s first training mode, as Modern Warfare III features a “training course” mode that allows players to learn the basics of multiplayer before getting into the action.

The idea with that mode and Bootcamp is to help players build confidence before jumping into matches populated exclusively with human players. To that end, Activision pointed out in its blog post that Bootcamp is Warzone’s only mode that has bots. It’s been an enduring theory that Warzone is actually populated in part by bots, but Activision says this is not true, for now at least.

“If this changes in the future, we’ll ensure the community is informed ahead of time,” Activision said.

Activision also clarified that players won’t be able to use Bootcamp as a way to amass easy XP. Player, weapon, and battle pass XP progression is “limited” in Bootcamp, Activision said. Additionally, playing the training mode will not contribute to progress for daily and weekly challenges, calling card challenges, weapon challenges, or Champion’s Quest. Finally, Bootcamp does not include any of the public events or advanced contracts in the main mode.

The new Bootcamp mode arrives with the debut of Season 3 on April 3, and it’s the first new season since Warzone Mobile launched on March 21. As announced previously, player progress and all store bundles bought on one platform carry over to another, so you can grind on console, for example, and your progress and purchases will also be applied to mobile. However, COD Points do not move between platforms.

For more, check out GameSpot’s rundown of everything coming to Call of Duty in the Season 3 update, including a bunch of 4/20-themed content, a mode that turns fallen foes into mines, and the newest BlackCell DLC.

Next Borderlands Game In “Active Development”

As part of the wider announcement that Take-Two has acquired Gearbox from Embracer, Take-Two announced that Gearbox is now in “active development” on the next Borderlands title.

In February this year, Gearbox founder and CEO Randy Pitchford teased the company’s next game, saying it is the “greatest thing we’ve ever done.” Many believe it’s the rumored Borderlands 4. The latest entry in the main series was 2019’s Borderlands 3. In 2022, the spin-off Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands was released, and a sequel is reportedly in the works.

Whatever the next game is, the new Borderlands game is just one of many upcoming games from Gearbox. There are six “key interactive entertainment projects” in the works currently at Gearbox in various stages of development. These include five sequels, including the aforementioned Borderlands game and the next Homeworld title, along with “at least one” new IP.

In addition to these six games, Take-Two said it sees opportunities to “invest in new projects and to expand Gearbox’s proven franchises.”

Take-Two and Gearbox had worked together previously on every Borderlands game, and that relationship continued despite Gearbox being owned for a period of time by Embracer. However, Take-Two has now taken full ownership of Gearbox’s development teams and its franchises for the price of $460 million.

Gearbox founder and CEO Randy Pitchford said getting acquired by Take-Two will help Gearbox “ascend to our next level.”

In the future, Gearbox will become a 2K studio led by Pitchford and his management team. Gearbox has teams in Frisco, Texas; Montreal, Canada; and Quebec City, Canada.

Hot Wheels Reveals Fidget Spinner-Inspired Vehicle For Autism Acceptance Month

Hot Wheels has revealed a new vehicle called the Flippin Fast die-cast ahead of Autism Acceptance Month in April, saying it based the design of the new toy off a fidget spinner to allow for open-ended sensory play.

The new car sports a unique reversible design that allows it to roll whether it’s right way up or upside down, as well as an extra spinner in the middle of the vehicle for fidget spinner-like play. Ahead of Autism Acceptance Month, the vehicle was designed in partnership with ASAN, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, an autism advocacy nonprofit run for and by autistic people.

The design of the Flippin Fast is centered around open-ended, sensory play, with Hot Wheels stressing that there’s no right or wrong way to play with the toy. “Flip it, spin it, or roll it forwards, backwards and even upside down,” the press release encourages.

“We design tons of cars every year, and of course inspiration can come from anywhere,” said Ted Wu, vice-president of global vehicle design at Mattel. “We have a host of designers that come from the automotive industry. We work across cars of every genre and every type, but one of the most important sources of inspiration, of course, is our consumer, the kids that play with our toys, which is why it was really important for us to take that feedback in while we were developing the Flippin Fast car.”

While the sensory-based toy is designed with people on the autism spectrum in mind, Wu says it was also important for it to be “a fun car for anyone who is a Hot Wheels fan.”

Homeworld 3 Devs Reveal What Is Being Changed Thanks To Player Feedback

Last month, Homeworld 3 developer Blackbird Interactive announced it was pushing the game’s release date to May, in order to implement player feedback from February’s open demo. Now, the devs have revealed what exactly they’re working on to get the long-awaited sequel ready for release in May.

In a new update on the game’s Steam page, Blackbird has outlined five major changes they’re implementing in response to player feedback, including tweaks that bring the new title closer in line with classic Homeworld games.

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Now Playing: Homeworld 3 | Gamescom ONL 2022

First up, the controls are getting reworked in response to player feedback that said the Modern control scheme was unintuitive and the Classic controls didn’t feel enough like those classic games. First and foremost, Blackbird is making every keyboard input rebindable, meaning players can customize the controls to their liking if the defaults still don’t hit the mark.

The default hotkeys are also getting some sweeping changes, to make the overall experience better for players who don’t want to spend a lot of time customizing their input. There are two defaults for hotkeys, one of them the revamped Modern layout, and one replicating the Homeworld 2 Remastered hotkeys. The camera movement has also seen some tweaks, with the devs saying it handles more like you may remember from Homeworld 2 Remastered now.

The second point of business for the developers is to make combat more exciting, by tweaking some of the more tedious aspects of combat. The changes will make formations feel more organic, as well as making them more strategically useful. Support Frigates now also have more autonomy to heal friendly ships without directly being instructed to. All ships will now have 30% more hitpoints, and the developers have also increased both the duration and cooldown on abilities to make their use more strategic and less spammy.

In terms of bringing back more of that classic Homeworld feel, Blackbird has also fixed the classic Attack Move, where ships can attack in one direction while moving in a different one. The studio explains that Attack Move wasn’t performing as expected in the demo due to needing more time to properly implement it, as well as a bug that impacted certain larger ships.

A number of quality-of-life updates are also in line for Homeworld 3 before its release, including a slider to adjust the scale of the HUD. Blackbird has also fixed an issue impacting the scaling of ships, which in the demo resulted in some ships looking far larger or smaller than they should.

Finally, Blackbird is also making some balance tweaks to War Games, including adding extra objectives to improve the variety between runs. Resources Controllers have also been made free to rebuild if destroyed during a game, however they will now take significantly longer to build.

The full blog post goes into more detail on the pre-launch changes, with the developers explaining the process of finding balance between modern gaming standards and that classic Homeworld feel. Check out everything we know about Homeworld 3 ahead of its release on PC on May 13, with advanced access from May 10.

Gaming Charity SpecialEffect Will Receive Prestigious BAFTA Special Award

BAFTA has announced that UK gaming charity SpecialEffect will be presented with its prestigious Special Award at the 20th BAFTA Games Awards this April. SpecialEffect is a charity that uses technology to improve access to video games for people with physical disabilities.

SpecialEffect was started in 2007 as a collaboration between founder Mick Donegan, a specialist in assistive technology, and his son Bill, a gamer and product designer. SpecialEffect works with game developers to create accessible hardware and improve accessibility of video game software, as well as providing one-on-one assessments and support for severely disabled gamers.

The charity now has thirty employees and raises all its own funds, often aided by high profile fundraising campaigns from industry figures including voice actors, streamers, and game developers.

“I started SpecialEffect not only to help individuals to play video games but also to collaborate with the games industry to make their games more accessible ‘at source,'” Donegan said in a statement. “Since then, we have been privileged to be invited to share our ideas with more and more developers all over the world. Now, 17 years since SpecialEffect began, it’s an absolute honour for SpecialEffect’s work to be recognised by BAFTA.”

“SpecialEffect’s work is essential to the games world and is hugely deserving of a BAFTA Special Award,” said BAFTA’s executive director of awards Emma Baehr. “Their innovative and supportive approach to making games accessible drives progress within the industry, collaborating with developers and studios on new technologies to make games within reach to more people.”

The BAFTA Special Award is awarded sporadically to people and companies who have made major contributions to the games industry. Previous recipients of the award include Epic Games, voice actor Nolan North, Uncharted director Amy Hennig, and PlayStation marketer Chris Deering.

The 20th BAFTA Games Awards will take place on April 11, 2024.

Take-Two Buys Gearbox Entertainment From Embracer For $460M

After months of rumors that Embracer Group was looking for buyers for Borderlands developer Gearbox Entertainment, the studio is now officially being sold to 2K parent company Take-Two Interactive in a deal worth $460 million.

Gearbox was one of Embracer Group’s biggest acquisitions when it bought the company in 2021, in a deal worth up to $1.3 billion. As the deal was based on Gearbox reaching certain milestones, it’s unclear how much of that $1.3 billion Embracer ended up paying out beyond $363 million in guaranteed upfront payments.

Now, as reported by Brian Crecente on X, Take-Two Interactive has purchased Gearbox for $460 million, which will be paid out in Take-Two shares. The purchase includes Gearbox Software in Texas, Gearbox Montreal, and Gearbox Studio Quebec, and will cover Gearbox IP including Borderlands and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms, and Duke Nukem.

The sale doesn’t include Gearbox’s publishing arm in San Francisco, which published Remnant 2, and has publishing rights to the upcoming Hyper Light Breaker and other upcoming titles. The sale also excludes a number of studios purchased by Embracer through Gearbox Software, including Cryptic Studios, Lost Boys Interactive, and Captured Dimensions.

Take-Two has said that Gearbox will operate as a studio within 2K, which has a long history of partnering with Gearbox on the Borderlands series. Gearbox will continue to be led by its founder and CEO Randy Pitchford and his management team.

“My primary interest is always Gearbox, including our talent and our customers,” Pitchford said in a statement. “I want to personally ensure fans of our games that this arrangement will ensure that the experiences we have in development at Gearbox will be the best it can possibly be.”

“We are thrilled to welcome Randy Pitchford and his team of passionate, talented developers to 2K and we look forward to releasing numerous projects in the future as colleagues,” said David Ismailer, president of 2K. “We have loved partnering with Gearbox on every iteration of the Borderlands franchise and are excited to be in active development on the next installment in the series.”

In its own statement, Embracer co-founder and CEO Lars Wingefors refers to the divestment as part of a “transition to becoming a leaner and more focused company,” saying the transaction will “lower business risk and improve profitability.”

After a spree of large-scale acquisitions in the last few years, Embracer has now started downsizing, resulting in company-wide layoffs, cancelled games, and divestment of some of its assets. Last month it was revealed that Saber Interactive, which is currently working on the Star Wars: KOTOR remake, would split off to become an independent company, following a sale to private investors worth $500 million.

Apple Vision Pro Gets First Discount – Save $200 On The New VR Headset

The new Apple Vision Pro 256GB model is $200 off at the Amazon-owned retailer Woot, dropping the price to $3,299 (was $3,499). While that’s a modest discount, it’s also the first price drop we’re aware of for Apple’s augmented reality headset–or “spatial computer,” as Apple markets it. The deal is also notable because the Apple Vision Pro isn’t sold by Amazon, and Woot deals tend to focus on products that were first available on Amazon.

Before you rush over to Woot to grab the Apple Vision Pro, there’s one caveat: the model for sale on Woot comes with the Solo Knit Band, Dual Loop Band, and Light Seal accessories in small sizes. This could limit its wearability, so be sure to check the sizing guides on Apple’s website to confirm everything will fit.

Apple Vision Pro

The Apple Vision Pro launched earlier this year to positive reviews. Most reviewers laud the device’s screen, 3D video capabilities, and spatial computing features while noting room for improvement in the headset’s overall design and broader appeal. This is definitely a product for enthusiast AR, VR, and Apple fans–but if that’s you, then this discount is a great way to grab the Vision Pro at a slightly more affordable price point.

That said, you’ll want to act fast if you want one. Woot’s Apple Vision Pro deal is limited to one per customer, and is available until April 23, unless it sells out beforehand. The offer is part of the retailer’s Prime Appreciation Days event, which includes a special Video Game Favorites sale featuring deals on new games like Princess Peach: Showtime! and hardware like consoles, pro controllers, and more.

If you’re interested in VR but don’t want to drop north of $3,000, Woot has the 128GB Meta Quest 2 on sale for $189 (was $250). Alternatively, you can buy the Quest 2 directly from Amazon for $199. The Quest 2 is the best entry-level VR headset on the market. It offers great performance at its price point, and it’s significantly cheaper than the other major VR gaming headsets. For reference, the Quest 3 starts at $499 and the PlayStation VR 2 starts at $549.