Month: October 2024

I am rich in rare Halsins. I came to Baldur’s Gate 3’s master portrait artist, Oskar Fevras, hoping for a new headshot to use on half-orc LinkedIn, or maybe a cute wallet-type deal of my Baldur’s Gate beau. But Oskar only has eyes for Halsin⁠—I had everyone in my party talk to the NPC, and he just painted Halsin.

In the late game conclusion to the quest, Free the Artist, you’re supposed to get that portrait as a quest reward. I’m not sure if you were only intended to get one, but you can speak to Oskar separately as the various members of your party and get the dialogue to paint a new portrait each time. 

There’s no rhyme or reason to who he paints though: the first time, I had two different characters talk to him and each got a portrait of the cheeky wizard of Waterdeep, Gale. I had to investigate further.

I decided to cycle every companion at my camp in and out of my party to get the maximum Oskar exposure, one portrait for each of my companions plus my Dark Urge avatar. I just cranked through the same dialogue over and over: “you’re a hero, let me paint you, oh what should we title the painting?” that sort of thing. Notably, you can’t tell w…

Bloomtown is a gorgeous village making the most of an apparently infinite golden hour, but don’t be deceived: its pastoral bliss is hiding horrible secrets. We got our first proper look at the game in the trailer that went live in Sunday’s PC Gaming Show, and it’s like a darker Stardew Valley.

Developers Different Sense Games and Lazy Bear Games are clearly onto something; a cursory scroll of the Stardew Valley mods list shows modders are already taking the game in a creepy direction. You’ll find mods that let you duel NPCs, plant people seeds, and transform the wizard into Morbius the vampire. 

In Bloomtown you’re Emily, a young girl visiting her grandfather. Things are a little run down, but there’s plenty to do and plenty of people to meet. Personally, I’m sold on the spa—those enormous windows, enough space for a warrior pose or two, and the incense. Heaven. In fact, the radiant color schemes, lighting, and animations are like the essence of Eastward and Harvest Moon stirred into a cauldron over a low, glowy flame. 

It might take a second watch of the trailer to catch those more macab…

• GUNDAM BREAKER 4ซีรีส์กลับมาอีกครั้งหลังจากห่างหายไปนานกว่า 6 ปี โดยจะพร้อมให้เล่นบน Nintendo Switch™, PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, และ PC ผ่านทาง Steam®
• รูปแบบการเล่นเกมเน้นไปที่การให้ผู้เล่นได้ปรับแต่งหุ่นยนต์จากซีรีส์ GUNDAM นำเข้าสู่สนามรบเพื่อแสวงหาชิ้นส่วนเพิ่มเติมที่จะนำมาปรับปรุงคลังหุ่นได้ตามใจชอบ
• Collector’s Edition ประกอบด้วยเกมตัวเต็ม ดนตรีประกอบแบบดิจิทัล 45 เพลง กล่องเหล็ก และชุดคิทโมเดลกันบาร์เรลสไตรค์กันดั้มรุ่นลิมิเต็ดที่มีกว่า 3 …
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สำหรับเจ็นเนอเรชันนี้ต้องยอมรับเลยว่าNintendo Switchเป็นเครื่องเล่นที่ประสบความสำเร็จอย่างท่วมท้นด้วยยอดจำหน่ายที่มีลุ้นจะแซงหน้า PlayStation 2 กันในอีกไม่ช้า ซึ่งนอกเหนือจากไอเดียของเครื่องเองแล้ว องค์ประกอบสำคัญที่ช่วยเสริมความแข็งแกร่งจะเป็นอะไรไปไม่ได้ครับนอกจากซอฟต์แวร์เกมคุณภาพยอดเยี่ยมจากทาง Nintendo เอง อย่างไรก็ตามล่าสุดมีการรายงานว่าตลับเกมจำนวนมากได้ยุติการผลิตลงเสียอย่างนั้น

มีการรายงานจากMy Nintendo Newsว่า เก�…

Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite (MVCI) is getting a remaster—but not from Capcom. As announced on Twitter, popular fighting game community YouTuber and streamer Maximillian Miles Christensen (Maximilian Dood) is commissioning a modder to create a complete top-to-bottom overhaul of the 2017 fighter’s visual style, and hot damn is it an improvement.

“We’re in the early stages, with only a couple days of tinkering, but already the results are absolutely incredible,” Christensen writes, linking to a quote tweet of some of Ryn’s current WIPs. One screenshot in particular took off among the MVCI community, showing a cel-shaded, gorgeous-looking Ryu giving Spider-Man a Shoryuken what-for. 

“Did you change the direction of the lighting? You can do that?” writes one astounded commenter, to which Ryn answers: “Yeah, I can change a f*ckton of things”—presumably while wearing a pair of sunglasses. 

It really is an astounding difference, especially when compared side-by-side. Here’s a direct comparison shot courtesy of MarrowOchi on Twitter. Gone are the strange Xbox 360-era textures and playdough overcast lighting, making way for cel shading…

Update: Looks like there are actually multiple post-credits scenes. Wowhead reports that enterprising players have dug up a total of four, equally short post-credits teases, each of which feature a deeply unpleasant, demonic-looking figure. For my money, at least some of them show Mephisto, but I leave it to wiser Diablo sages than me to reach a final verdict on who these figures are.

Original story: There’s something quite old-fashioned and pleasant about having one big game that everyone is playing and poring through for secrets. It puts me in mind of people looking for Bigfoot in GTA: San Andreas or trying to unlock Sheng Long in Street Fighter. Right now, that game is Diablo 4, which has set people to fervent theorycrafting with an incredibly short—and seemingly hidden—post-credits scene (via GamesRadar).

While I’m sure there are more than a few players out there that have already seen it, the existence of Diablo 4’s post-credits scene was brought to wider attention earlier today after a tweet from Blizzard Jamir Blanco, where he mentioned people “finally starting to realize” that Diablo 4 even had a post-credits …

It’s been almost 19 years since the Xbox 360 launched, which depending on your perspective might make it a retro console or make you a retro person—I for one had a lot more hair back then. Among the most notable features of the console, which launched a couple years after Steam, was its online game store where full games could be purchased and downloaded. That store is finally being retired.

“On July 29, 2024, Xbox will stop supporting the ability to purchase new games, DLC, and other entertainment content from the Xbox 360 Store on the console and the Xbox 360 Marketplace,” Microsoft announced last year, and now the day has come.

The shutdown only affects the ability to purchase games and DLC for the Xbox 360. Games that are already owned will continue to work, and there are also many backwards-compatible Xbox 360 games available to buy on newer Xboxes, so it’s not a total wipeout of a generation of digitally-distributed console games. (Many Xbox 360 games also ended up on PC.)

The closure, while obviously not directly relevant to PC gamers, has activated long-standing anxieties over DRM, digital distribution, and game preservation. “Today the Xbox 360 M…

As those of us who have spent our lives with screwdrivers in our hands will know, nothing causes an internal debate quite like finding a “warranty void if removed” sticker on an electronic device. Dare you continue your disassembly, or is it best left as it is, lest a warranty voiding prevents you from sending it back for a professional fix?

Now the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sent warning letters to eight companies about their warranty practices, including ASRock, Gigabyte and Zotac, voicing concerns that stickers used by these manufacturers violate the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (via The Verge). This federal law governs consumer product warranty protections, and as far as the FTC is concerned, these threatening stickers are in violation.

Samuel Levine, Director for the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said: “These warning letters put companies on notice that restricting consumers’ right to repair violates the law”

“The Commission will continue our efforts to protect consumers’ right to repair and independent dealers’ right to compete.”

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act was brought into effect in 1975 and was created to preve…