Month: October 2024

Apex Legends’ upcoming Season 22 will make significant changes to the free-to-play shooter’s Battle Pass “experience”, developer Respawn Entertainment has announced, by releasing two Battle Passes per season instead of one, and then charging full price for each.

As of Season 22, Apex Legends is ditching its current season-long Battle Pass in favour of two half-season Battle Passes – one launching at the start of a season and another at its mid-point “split” – each featuring 60 levels of rewards, compared to the previous version’s 110.

Despite the truncated number of progression levels, each new half-season premium Battle Pass costs approximately the same as the older season-long version. Previously, a premium Battle Pass cost 950 Apex Coins (a 1000-coin bundle is priced at $9.99 USD), and Respawn’s new half-season Battle Passes are $9.99 each. A new Premium+ tier (replacing the existing Premium Bundle) is $19.99 every half-season, and a free tier remains available.

Apex Legends: Upheaval Gameplay Trailer

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Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi says he’s reluctant to work on a Final Fantasy game again as he’s having too much fun playing Final Fantasy 14.
At last month’s Nintendo Direct, it was revealed that – after a period of Apple exclusivity – Sakaguchi’s latest game, Fantasian, was finally coming to Switch under the banner of his former employer, Square Enix.
It marks the first time Sakaguchi has worked for his former studio in over 20 years.

FANTASIAN Neo Dimension – Nintendo Direct 6.18.2024

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Metaphor: ReFantazio, released by Atlus today, has already surpassed a million units sold.
That makes it the fastest-selling Atlus game ever. Previously that record was held by Persona 3 Reload released earlier this year, which reached the same sales figure in under a week.
Atlus shared the news with a new illustration from character designer Shigenori Soejima to celebrate.

Metaphor: ReFantazio Review

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UPDATE 4.30pm UK: Eurogamer has received the following visual statement from Hotline Miami 2 publisher Devolver Digital, in response to today’s news:

Image credit: Devolver Digital / Eurogamer

Eurogamer’s original story follows.

ORIGINAL STORY 1pm UK:
PlayStation has removed Hotline Miami 2 from sale in Australia and refunded PS5 owners who bought the game, a decade on from the infamous kerfuffle over its release down under.

Back in January 2015, designer Jonatan Söderström memorably told Aussie fans to simply pirate Hotline Miami 2 after its release was blocked by the notoriously-strict Australian Classification Board, due to its inclusion of a skippable scene that showed simulated sexual violence.

But all of that seemed to have been smoothed over last October, when Hotline Miami 1 and 2 got a native release on PS5 in the country. Indeed, Hotline Miami 2 was later added to the PlayStation Plus Extra catalogue too.

12 months on from its PS5 arrival, however, Australian owners of the game on PS5 are suddenly receiving refunds – as someone, seemingly at the ACB, has once again stepped in to enforce the board’s original ruling.

PS5 o…

Two F-Zero games are headed to Nintendo’s Switch Online subscription, including a previously Japan-only release.
Both games launched on the Game Boy Advance and will be available on Switch from 11th October.
The first is F-Zero: GP Legend, which followed GBA launch game F-Zero: Maximum Velocity and was released in Europe in 2004. It plays similarly to the SNES original, but includes a Story mode based on the anime of the same name.

Game Boy Advance – October 2024 Game Update – Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack

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Team Asobi says that while “almost 100%” of its most-wishlisted iconic Sony characters made it into Astro Bot, it finds it “difficult to comment” why Square Enix characters were missing.
Talking to journalist Stephen Totilo, Team Asobi studio head Nicolas Doucet said that despite hoping that “maybe half” of the characters the team approached would be greenlit, most “partners just raised their hand and said, “Absolutely'”.

9 Adorable Astro Bot Gameplay Moments & Features That’ll Melt Your Heart – ASTRO BOT GAMEPLAY REVIEW

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Palworld will not be releasing on PS5 in Japan for the time being.
Last night during PlayStation’s State of Play broadcast, developer Pocketpair announced its monster-catching survival game was available to play for the first time on Sony’s console.
However, while Palworld has debuted on PS5 across 68 countries and regions worldwide, it has not yet been released in Japan.

Palworld – Launch Trailer | PS5 Games

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Satirical Doom WAD Thatcher’s Techbase has returned to Bethesda’s official mod browser – now shorn of Maggie and anything else that might conceivably be deemed offensive – after initially being booted for daring to dabble in “real-world politics”.

Thatcher’s Techbase – which sees players descending to the Tenth Circle of Hell in order to thwart the return of “one of humanity’s greatest threats” – has been around for a while, originally launching in 2021. However, when Bethesda’s official community published mod support arrived for Doom in August, developer Jim Purvis opted to take advantage of it, giving console owners the chance to play the WAD for the first time.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before Bethesda stepped in, yanking Thatcher’s Techbase from its browser after telling Purvis the mod had been reported for “real-world politics”. Purvis was also instructed to “educate” himself on modding guidelines and community rules.

Thatcher’s Techbase trailer

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Sony’s eye-catching PlayStation 5 30th Anniversary Edition bundles were announced last week with a key component missing – the prices.

Now, Dealabs’ reliable leaker bilbil-kun has obtained US pricing information, and found the PS5 Slim 30th Anniversary bundle will cost $499.99 – a $50 increase on the usual model. This will likely translate to £449.99 here in the UK, and around €519.99 in mainland Europe.

Included in this bundle is the PS5 Digital Edition console, DualSense, a faceplate, a vertical stand, plus collectors items including a sticker.

Introducing the PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection

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Kingdom Hearts 4 is being developed with the intention of the series “being a story that will be completed”.
That’s according to series director Tetsuya Nomura, via a new interview with Japanese outlet YoungJump.
Nomura was asked if he could foresee an end to the Kingdom Hearts series, especially considering its multiple sequels and spin-off games.

KINGDOM HEARTS 20th ANNIVERSARY ANNOUNCEMENT TRAILER

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