Category: Video Gaming

With every passing day this summer, we undoubtedly approach the reveal of the next Battlefield. EA said we should expect it sometime in the summer, and though the game has yet to be given a proper title, there’s a lot the teams behind it have been comfortable sharing.

This may be the first time, however, that an open beta has been confirmed for a game with no name, because that’s exactly what EA just did.

The “announcement” was made on Battlefield’s official Twitter account. Quite surprisingly, the tweet itself was about something else, and the open beta news seemed to have just slipped in there.

“Open Weapons vs Closed Weapons. Why not both?” the tweet reads. “Starting at Open Beta players can choose official playlists with Signature Weapons locked to class, or not. More to come.”

So yes, that’s confirmation of an open beta, even before we know what the game is going to be called. What the tweet is referring to is all the drama amongst the community about a particularly major change in the way classes and weapons work in the upcoming game. DICE first revealed its intention to make all weapons available to all classes back in May. The reaction from longtime fans was immediately negative.

However, given that it was meant for Battlefield Labs – and not necessarily confirmed to be in the full game, some were hopeful that DICE’s intention was indeed to use the testing environment to validate such a controversial change.

Unfortunately, DICE returned earlier this month to confirm all those players’ worst fears – that it’s sticking with its original intention. While the game will incentivise players to stick to their class’ assigned weapons – dubbed Signature Weapons – they won’t be forced to do so.

That tweet is the first acknowledgement that there’s a major desire from fans for Battlefield to stick to, well, what made it great for decades – and class limitations and co-dependancy are high on that list.

It’s obviously not clear whether the playlists the tweet refers to will also be available at launch. For all we know, DICE may want to use the open beta to see which of the two will be popular, and whether the majority of players will even notice, or care.

At any rate, the reveal of the next Battlefield must be incredibly close now, which means the aforementioned open beta is not far off, either.

HoYoverse showed off a new elemental reaction in the Genshin Impact 5.8 livestream, and it’s something that finally makes Electro-Charged worthwhile. It also seems like it’ll make recent-ish characters like Ororon, who have talents specifically related to Electro-Charged, rather more useful.

Genshin‘s new reaction is called Lunar-Charged, and for version 5.8 at least, it’s tied to the new 5-star Electro character Ineffa. When a party member activates Electro-Charged, which is what happens when Hydro and Electro meet, Ineffa’s first passive talent transmutes it into Lunar Charged. HoYoverse’s description of Lunar Charged says that, once activated, it creates a cloud that deals Electro damage to enemies afflicted with Electro or Hydro, and the strikes may result in critical hits as well. Ineffa’s talent increases Lunar Charged damage by an amount based on her attack stat.

Ineffa’s the first Nod-Krai character in Genshin Impact, Nod-Krai being the place the Traveler will visit next, following the end of the version 5.8 update. Whether Lunar Charged ends up being a bigger, more permanent feature in Nod-Krai remains to be seen, though it seems likely based on HoYoverse’s trend of introducing a new battle feature with every new region since Sumeru.

Whatever the case, Lunar Charged brings a much-needed boost to one of the weakest elemental reactions and the only one that’s remained unchanged since launch. Burning had burgeon to give it a helping hand, crystallize… well, okay without Navia, crystallize is still not the greatest. Anyway, Electro-Charged was weak and had limited uses, which disincentivized partied with Electro and Hydro characters unless you had someone else to make their pairing helpful.

Ineffa is the sole new character in Genshin 5.8, and her banner goes live when the version launches on July 30, 2025.

Checking out our Genshin Impact codes page is always a great idea, and we’ve recently updated our Ifa builds guide, and Escoffier builds guide, too.

The Genshin Impact Special Program has come and gone, and it brought us the news we’d been expecting about the game’s next major release. Version 5.8 – dubbed Sunspray Summer Resort – will arrive on July 30.

The new version brings some fresh content to the action RPG, including the first character from Nod-Krai.

The big, non-character new addition in Genshin Impact’s 5.8 update is Easybreeze Holiday Resort, a new map in Natlan. This is a permanent addition to the game’s world, and it’s also where the new seasonal events will take place.

Easybreeze Holiday Resort is an island off the west coast of Natlan, and it’s split into four zones. Resort mascot, Asha, is not just for show; it also plays a key role in how you’re going to explore the place. Some of the powers you can acquire from Asha, like gliding across water, will help you in traversal, while others will make it easier to reveal and solve puzzles.

5.8 also introduces Ineffa, a 5-star Electro polearm user, who has the distinction of being the first playable unit from Nod-Krai, and also the first character to use Lunar-Charged reactions. Ineffa’s event Wish will debut in Phase 1 alongside a rerun for Citlali, whereas Phase 2 is reserved for reruns for Mualani and Chasca.

While Ineffa may be the only new character, Yelan and Bennett are both getting new outfits. Bennett’s outfit is free, while Yelan‘s is paid – though it will available at a discount for a period of time.

Beyond the characters themselves, version 5.8 has new narrative and gameplay content. There’s a new Story Quest that sees Bennett, Chasca, Mualani, and Venti all return. Song of the Welkin Moon: Prelude – The Journey Home is the new Archon Quest, and it explains Ineffa’s origins.

Of course, there are new Seasonal Events kicking off with the release of the patch to get stuck in, including new mini-games. In fact, that’s how you’re going to earn Bennett’s new outfit, and there’s a 4-star Claymore – Flame-Forged Insight – to get, too.

Sunspray Spirit is the main currency you’ll earn as you take part in the mini-games, and that’s what you’re going to later use to unlock some rewards. If you’re eager for a challenge, there’s a boss fight that awaits in Mare Jivari, pitting you against Bakunawa.

Checking out our Genshin Impact codes page is always a great idea, and we’ve recently updated our Ifa builds guide, and Escoffier builds guide, too.

It seems like things have been going well in the world of life sim inZOI lately. Just last month, the game received a major update. Though it had initially been targeting May, it ended up being pushed back to June.

The update was generally well received (though Steam reviews took a dip), and publisher Krafton even took that opportunity to put the game on sale for the first time since the start of early access.

The future is looking brighter still, because there’s something on the horizon for players to look forward to.

Krafton announced that inZOI’s first DLC is being revealed at gamescom Opening Night Live on August 19, the Geoff Keighley-hosted show that kicks off the world’s largest gaming convention. The upcoming DLC will bring a sizeable chunk of new content to the game.

For one, there’s going to be a new map that’s split into two islands. The tropical map is called Cahaya, and it’s inspired by Southeast Asia. The DLC will also introduce farming and fishing as new activities, available on the main island.

The second island is more of a resort for players to relax after a hard day’s work. As always, you can expect a host of new customisation features and items to arrive right alongside the new map.

What’s more, if you’re going attend the show in person, you’ll be able to go hands-on with Cahaya, making it the DLC’s first public demo. The bad news is that we still don’t have a solid release date for the upcoming DLC, but we’re hoping the big gamescom blow-out will bring us one.

Until then, you can always check out our ever-popular (and very useful) inZOI cheats, including a guide on how to enable them in-game. For answera to more specialised questions, here’s how to change your gender in inZOI, how to cure sickness, and a full breakdown of how the karma mechanic works in inZOI.

We’re about midway through the summer, which means it’s time for EA’s next football game to be revealed. EA Sports FC 26 has been officially announced, complete with the reveal of its dual-talent cover.

Jude Bellingham, and Jamal Musiala are the two cover starts for FC 26, while the legendary Zlatan Ibrahimović will adorn the Ultimate Edition cover instead. This actually isn’t Bellingham’s first time on the cover, having debuted last year.

Musiala, however, is making history as the first FC Bayern Munich player to feature on the cover of an EA Sports FC game.

EA is betting big on community with this year’s game. Many of the new gameplay updates are driven by player feedback, but there’s an even bigger opportunity for the community to shape the future of the game.

EA is calling it FC Feedback, and it encompasses the Player Feedback Portal, Design Councils led by the game’s community, the FC Discord server, as well as standard forums, and social media channels.

There are a couple of gameplay updates arriving with this year’s game that affect pretty much the entirety of it. EA claims improved dribbling responsiveness, more explosive player movement when running, smarter goalkeepers, and close-body volumetric animations.

Ultimate Team gets a lot of updates, too, mainly the new Live Events, and various tournament modes. There’s also what EA calls the Competitive Gameplay Preset, which is designed for Ultimate Team, and Clubs. That preset should be more responsive, and consistent, whereas the Authentic Gameplay Preset is designed to be as true-to-life as possible.

FC 26 also introduces Archetypes, essentially adding new classes to Clubs, and Player Career to accentuate player individuality. It lets you upgrade player attributes, and unlock unique perks that give each player a distinct feel.

EA Sports FC 26 is set for release September 26 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Switch 2, and Amazon Luna. As always, the Ultimate Edition will unlock the full game early, this time on September 19. This is also when the EA Play 10-hour trial will be available, with pre-orders for all editions now live.

We are getting very close to the launch of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, the next hot Soulslike with a fresh twist. This time, the game comes from Chinese developer Leenzee, who’s about to deliver a Ming Dynasty action RPG.

So far, the reception to the game has been very positive every time it showed up, but now that we’re closer than ever to the big day, the developer has revealed a couple of final pieces of information.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers arrives July 24 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. It’s also a day one Game Pass game on PC and Xbox. Up until now, however, it wasn’t clear what kind of PC hardware you’re going to need if you want to run the game smoothly.

Wuchang has always looked good, but it’s not using every piece of cutting-edge graphics tech like fellow Chinese action RPG Black Myth: Wukong, for instance. This makes it possible to run the game on modest hardware, and today’s reveal of the full PC specs definitely confirms that.

Leenzee published two sets of PC specs, minimum and recommended. Unfortunately, they’re missing framerate and resolution targets, so we have no idea what kind of experience each will provide. Interestingly, both sets were tested with upscaling (DLSS/FSR) enabled, which is a crucial bit of information to keep in mind.

Nevertheless, the specs are modest enough that you can get a decent idea about the type of performance profile the game is aiming for.

Minimum Specs

• OS: Windows 10 64bit.
• CPU: Intel Core i5-8400/AMD Ryzen 5 1600.
• RAM: 16GB RAM (dual channel recommended).
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB/AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB.
• DirectX: 12.
• Storage: 60GB.
• Additional Notes: HDD Supported, SSD Recommended. The above specifications were tested with DLSS/FSR enabled.

Recommended Specs

• OS: Windows 10/11 64bit.
• CPU: Intel Core i7-9700/AMD Ryzen 5 5500.
• RAM: 16GB RAM (dual channel recommended).
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070/AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT/Intel Arc A750.
• DirectX: 12.
• Storage: 60GB.
• Additional Notes: SSD Required. The above specifications were tested with DLSS/FSR enabled.

Alongside the above PC requirements, We also got exact launch times for various countries and cities across the world. We’ve included all of them below, but you can also see the map above and locate where you are in the world.

• Los Angeles: July 23, 7pm.
• Chicago: July 23, 9pm.
• Bogota: July 23, 9pm.
• New York: July 23, 10pm.
• Buenos Aires: July 23, 11pm.
• Sao Paulo: July 23, 11pm.
• London: July 24, 3am.
• Paris: July 24, 4am.
• Berlin: July 24, 4am.
• Madrid: July 24, 4am.
• Rome: July 24, 4am.
• Kyiv: July 24, 5am.
• Dubai: July 24, 6am.
• Bangkok: July 24, 9am.
• Chengdu: July 24, 10am.
• Beijing: July 24, 10am.
• Hong Kong: July 24, 10am.
• Seoul: July 24, 11am.
• Tokyo: July 24, 11am.
• Sydney: July 24, 12pm.

The latest Diablo 4 update rolled out right on schedule, on July 15, across all platforms. Unfortunately, it appears the update had skipped a couple of QA steps along the way, because it became immediately clear that it’s breaking the game for most players.

Patch 2.3.1 is the game’s second this month, and it’s actually full of buffs to various classes and abilities. These weren’t necessarily expected, but players got excited after reading the patch notes, only to download it on the day and realise something has gone horribly wrong.

Broken patches are rare for Diablo 4, but they have happened in the past. Typically, once the patch is released, one or several major bugs are quickly discovered, which Blizzard either rolls out a hotfix for within 24 hours, or is forced to rollback to the previous version.

In this case, patch 2.3.1 arrived on July 15 as planned, but it didn’t take long for players to post on Reddit and elsewhere about the myriad of issues they began experiencing as soon as they started playing after installing it.

Most of the complaints were from console players, many of whom described an unbearably laggy gameplay experience, with teleporting characters and enemies that stack damage. But the issues extended to good ol’ crashing and game freezes, and sometimes even missing expansion content.

“I can get maybe a 10-minute gameplay in before everything freezes, it will not let me leave properly, to hopefully try to keep any progress or loot I may have acquired,” wrote Reddit user That1Guy710_DD4Z.

“Currently trying to load up the game and have been stuck in a loading screen for about 10 minutes, gonna just let it do it’s thing,” they added.

Blizzard actually rolled Diablo 4 back to version 2.3.0 on PC for a few hours while the developer worked on fixing 2.3.1. The latest update was later reissued across all platforms, and it appears most of the major problems have been resolved, at least.

This is all particularly amusing, because just as the patch was rolling out, Blizzard launched a surprise in-game event. Gift of the Tree is a limited-time event that’s available now until Tuesday, July 22, and it simply rewards players with a Gift of the Tree Cache each time they turn in Whispers.

Obviously, nobody would say no to extra loot every time Grim Favours are completed, but the patch’s launch disaster completely overshadowed whatever excitement the event could’ve generated.

Indeed, given the mostly negative reaction to Diablo 4’s Season 9 so far, which itself follows the disappointing Season 8, Diablo 4 is clearly back to making players upset more frequently than it does bring them joy.

The game’s next major patch is likely the mid-season update, though it’s not clear at this stage what we can expect from it just yet. Hard to imagine it’s capable of turning sentiments around much, however.

FromSoftware has rolled out a new update for Elden Ring Nightreign. The patch’s arrival follows an hour of maintenance that took servers offline across all platforms. Today’s update is another small one, focusing entirely on bug fixes.

Patch 1.01.5 is available now, and arrives exactly two weeks on from the most recent release, version 1.01.4. As you can probably tell from the version numbers, it’s been one incremental update after the other for the studio’s co-op action RPG lately.

The list of notes for patch 1.01.5 is incredibly small, consisting only of two changes, both of which bring fixes to bugs that occur around fighting Everdark Sovereign bosses. Everdark Sovereigns are more challenging versions of some of the game’s existing Nightlord bosses, available only to players who managed to beat each boss’ original form.

As revealed on the official blog, this update fixes a bug that caused Everdark Sovereign Sentient Pest to get stuck midway through its fight, making it impossible to beat it and complete the encounter. You can imagine how frustrating that would be.

It seems Everdark Sovereign Sentient Pest has been the source of a more problems still, because the patch also addresses an issue that would sometimes see it appear outside its intended arena, which would be more than a little awkward for everyone involved.

That’s pretty much it for patch 1.01.5, but it’s not the end of the Everdark Sovereigns story. So far, we’ve also seen Everdark Sovereign Gaping Jaw, and Everdark Sovereign Darkdrift Knight, alongside the aforementioned Sentient Pest.

Everdark Sovereign bosses rotate, and they’ll be available in pairs each week. Right now that’s Gaping Jaw, and Darkdrift Knight, who will be replaced with Sentient Pest, and Darkdrift Knight July 17-24, before Gaping Jaw and Sentient Pest take the stage July 24-31.

FromSoftware confirmed that it’s currently working on Everdark Sovereign versions of Tricephalos, Augur, Equilibrious Beast, and Fissure in the Fog, all of which will be joining the game’s line-up later. For all sorts of other useful information, our Elden Ring Nightreign guide is split into many sections that cover the game’s characters, map events, bosses, builds, and more.

It’s been a while since Activision brought up Black Ops 7, this year’s Call of Duty. Too long, in fact. The game was initially unveiled in June with a brief trailer that closed off the Xbox Showcase… and that was it.

Of course, the publisher said to expect more to be shared about the upcoming shooter this summer, but it never set a proper date for that.

It’s now the middle of July, over one month on from the first time the world got introduced to Black Ops 7. Activision has now announced that August is when we’re going to be seeing it again.

The game’s next coming-out party will take place during gamescom Opening Night Live, which is set for Tuesday, August 19. Black Ops 7 will simply be part of the show’s line-up. The showcase itself will be streamed live at 11am PT, 2pm ET, 7pm UK.

This is especially interesting because the yearly Call of Duty releases are considered major enough to receive their own reveal event, hosted by Activision, away from any other big summer event.

It’s not exactly clear what we’re going to be seeing come August 19, so there’s still a chance that a longer, more detailed showcase will be hosted later that month, or early in September – perhaps a week or two ahead of the game’s inevitable beta.

Still, there’s a lot Black Ops 7 developers have left to say about the game, especially given its return to the near-future, and the fact it’s bringing co-op back to the campaign. Fans also expect some continuity to exist between the current game, Black Ops 6, and the upcoming sequel. An announcement like that would definitely be made sooner rather later.

Black Ops 7 does not have a release date, but it’s expected in November for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Today is a big day for Honkai: Star Rail, and everyone who’d been looking forward to the game’s first (and long-teased) collaboration event. The free-to-play RPG welcomes the world of Fate/stay night as part of this new event.

The collab arrives about a week after the release of patch 3.4, which brought more to the game than just content inspired by the visual novel.

We’ve known for a while what to expect from today’s launch, thanks to a developer livestream that took place in June. Without question, one of the most-anticipated elements of the Fate/stay night is the pair of new guest characters.

First things first, the collaboration content won’t be going anywhere for a good long while; in fact, there’s no end date listed yet, although rumours have surfaced that it’ll last until at least November of this year.

Saber, from the Fate series, drops in Honkai: Star Rail as a 5-Star Wind/Destruction hero. Archer is another 5-Star addition, a Quantum/Hunt character instead. Archer is free for anyone who logs in during the collaboration event, whereas you’re going to have to pull to get Saber. Archer also comes with enough materials to get him to level 60.

The launch brings four special banners for Saber, Archer and their respective light cones. Interestingly, there are no boosted drop rates for 4-star characters or weapons on any of these banners, though you are guaranteed to get Saber’s light cone after 200 warps.

One other thing worth mentioning is that none of the Fate collaboration characters have English voice over, seemingly by design, which is particularly interesting given MiHoYo’s recent harsh stance against their US-based voice actors supporting the SAG-AFTRA video game strike.

Beyond that, you can also look forward to a new Trailblaze Continuance called Sweet Dreams and the Holy Grail. And for the next 30 days – ending August 11 – you can take part in a limited-time event that’s basically a combat challenge. There are exclusive rewards you can earn right up until that date. The event content itself will later join the game’s Conventional Memoir for those who missed it, but several of the rewards are time-limited.

Earlier this month, the game added more playable characters that aren’t part of the Fate series. Phainon, who’s been an NPC in Honkai: Star Rail for a while now, joined the roster of playable characters. Phainon is likewise a 5-Star hero, with a Physical/Destruction speciality.

The first phase of reruns also arrived alongside 3.4 on July 2. We saw the return of Tribbie, Sunday, and Sparkle. Phase 2, which kicks off on July 23, will see the return of Firefly (who’s also getting a new outfit), Jingliu, and Blade.

Update 3.4 also introduced some upgrades to Kafka, Silver Wolf, and Blade, which took the form of enhanced game mechanics. The timing of Jingliu’s rerun is pretty good, too, considering her kit got an upgrade alongside those three.

Monopoly Go has debuted a new ad campaign that calls back to the time of sitcoms and family arguments over the classic board game. The new campaign is called The Dice Life, and it has a star-studded cast.

Headlining the bunch, of course, is Will Ferrell, who returns to voice Mr Monopoly in the ad’s various 90s TV tropes-inspired vignettes.

As reported by The Drum, The Dice Life ad campaign comes from creative agency Omelet, who’s partnered with Monopoly Go developer Scopely to create a love letter to that era of TV sitcoms, including an original theme song that’s clearly inspired by some of the most popular 90s classics.

You’ll recognise Jake Johnson (New Girl) and Sunita Mani (Glow) in the ad. It’s short, and serves to amplify the drama anyone who played the original board game with friends and family will be very familiar with.

Monopoly Go is having a busy summer. The game just revealed its latest Marvel collaboration, this time with the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps movie. The cross-over kicks off July 13, and brings iconic The Fantastic Four characters and locations into the world of the game.

It comes with a host of new mini-games, in-game events, collectibles – and, of course, a new Partners Event. Speaking of events, we’re still waiting to hear about the next Monopoly Go Treasures Event; the most recent one having taken place at the end of June.

For more helpful coverage, catch up on the latest set of free Monopoly Go Dice Links for the month of July.

One of the most anticipated movies of the summer is colliding with the world of Monopoly Go. Marvel is teaming up with Scopely for a major event in Monopoly Go that brings the characters and setting of the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps to the game.

This crossover follows on from the most recent Marvel event, held last September. It all kicks off Sunday, July 13.

As part of the collaboration, The Fantastic Four – known as Marvel’s First Family – will arrive in Monopoly Go on Sunday alongside in-game events, and unique collectibles. The Marvel portal has been reopened, unlocking a gateway between the worlds of The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Monopoly Go’s.

As a result, the game’s world is transformed as the quartet arrive in the game. This unlocks new challenges, mini-games and more inspired by The Fantastic Four. Here’s a rundown of what you can expect:

• Fantastic Racers: An adrenaline-fueled twist on the beloved Tycoon Racers event, with each member of the Fantastic Four behind the wheel of a retro-inspired Fantasti-Car. With Herbie cheering from the sidelines and a Dr. Doom-themed ‘Overload!’ disruptor.

• Fantastic Partners Event: Team up with fellow Tycoons to collect Fantastic Four Fantasticoins and bring Marvel’s icons to life, including Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, The Thing and more.

• Fantastic Treasures: Enter Reed’s futuristic lab to unearth Marvel artifacts like the Ultimate Nullifier, Silver Surfer’s board.

• Deluxe Drop: The Fantastic Four arrive with a Deluxe Drop to equip Tycoons with Fantastic Four-themed cosmetics for the remainder of the collaboration and beyond.

• Coveted Collectibles: Collect Fantastic Four themed tokens, emojis and shields.

As you can see, the collaboration has its own themed Partner Event, but if you’re reading this before July 13, you still have time to take advantage of the currently-active Aqua Partners event, which wraps up on the same day as the Fantastic Four one begins.

If you haven’t checked in on the game in a while, it helps to get a nice boost by checking out our Monopoly Go Dice Links guide, updated for July.

As promised, Sony has returned to confirm exactly when we’re all going to be getting our next look at Ghost of Yotei gameplay. The last time the publisher spoke of the game was a little over a month ago; in the middle of summer events season.

At the time, we got a brief trailer for the action RPG, alongside confirmation that more will be revealed later in July. We’re well past the first week of July now, and we won’t have to wait too much longer to see more of the game.

A State of Play livestream entirely dedicated to Ghost of Yotei is scheduled for this Thursday, July 10. This gameplay deep dive show will run for about 20 minutes, and offer a look at a wide range of the game’s systems and mechanics.

Hosted by Sucker Punch’s Jason Connell and Nate Fox – the game’s creative directors – the showcase will tackle the thrust of the sequel’s narrative, Atsu’s quest, as well as her new weapons. We’re also promised a look at “new ways to personalize your journey”.

The announcement also hints at new modes coming with Ghost of Yotei, which could be referring to a potential evolution of the popular Legends co-op mode from the first game, Ghost of Tsushima. It could also be something along the lines of the original game’s Kurosawa mode, which ended up being something of a novelty that changes the look of the game to resemble classic Samurai movies by the legendary Japanese director.

All of that and more will be revealed in what looks to be a packed showcase. It will be streamed live at 2pm PT, 5pm ET, 10pm BST, and 11pm CEST on the official PlayStation Twitch and YouTube channels – both of which are embedded below.

Ghost of Yotei arrives October 2 on PS5.

It’s been a little while since Infinity Nikki received a big update. The game’s most recent one dropped about a month ago in June, bringing a fair bit of new content – including, of course, outfits – to the dress-up game, all following a fairytales theme.

That update seems to have landed well with players, improving the game’s Steam review rating. This righting of the ship may continue with the next update, which is due to arrive very soon.

Blue Tears Season is the name of Infinity Nikki’s version 1.7 update. It will be released on Tuesday, July 8, transforming the game world into something out of a dream. Miraland has a different look and feel, and Nikki and Momo find themselves on the trail of a new mystery beneath Breezy Meadow.

Blue Tears kicks off this new season with the release of patch 1.7, but the limited-time event itself will only be live until July 29. The main hook of this one, of course, is the new story content, arriving in the form of quests to should push you to explore more of the world.

After you install the update, you’ll come across phantoms roaming the game’s world. You’ll need to interact with them to guide them, and unravel the stories behind each of their past selves. The overarching narrative this season is about reconciliation with past losses, so you can expect all main and side quests to follow that theme.

If you played any of the game’s past events, you’ll know that each of the season’s activities highlight themes from that season. In this case, prepare for a sombre one, as there’s going to be a lot of loss and redemption weaved into it. There’s a new dungeon, too.

If you take part in the new season’s events, you’ll earn 15 Revelation Crystals, a new stylist card background, a title, growth materials, and 2,900 Diamonds. Before you jump back in, though, you may want to check out our updated Infinity Nikki codes page.

The last four weeks have been pretty hot for Zenless Zone Zero. The game kicked off its first anniversary celebrations almost exactly a month ago with its long-awaited release on Xbox, as well as the major 2.0 update.

Anyone who’s been playing (or following) the sci-fi RPG, however, knows that the game’s actual anniversary wouldn’t be until July. Nobody was going to complain about a big new patch, and the kick-off of a new arc of the game’s story.

Time flies, though, and today – July 4 – is Zenless Zone Zero’s real, actual one-year anniversary. HoYoverse is celebrating yet again with another sizeable patch. Unfortunately, today only marks update 2.1’s reveal, as it won’t be released until Wednesday, July 16.

It’s called The Impending Crash of Waves, and its main narrative centres around a new faction, while introducing two new areas to the game. The new Spook Shack faction should go well with the aquatic theme of 2.1, as would Sailume Bay, and Fantasy Resort – the new areas.

This marks the start of Season 2 Chapter 2 of the game’s ongoing story, and the aforementioned Sailume Bay will be the main area where the events will take place. Fantasy Resort, on the other hand, is when the summer story – and summer event – will take place.

There are new Agents, too, of course. Ukinami Yuzuha is an S-Rank Physical Support Agent, who relies on a tankui companion named Kama to… throw bombs made of candies at enemies. Then there’s Alice Thymefield, another S-Rank member, though with the Physical Anomaly role instead. Thymefield is a swordmaster capable of fast maneuvers, which charge up her Blade Etiquette. When consuming that, Thymefield powers up her strikes.

When update 2.1 is released later this month, it’ll also do so with a new new Bangboo named Miss Esme, another S-Rank. Finally, re-runs of Void Hunter Miyabi (S-Rank Frost Anomaly), and Yanagi (S-Rank Electric Anomaly) will arrive with the update.

Catch up on our refreshed list of Zenless Zone Zero July codes, if you haven’t already.

Love and Deepspace has kicked off what its developer is calling its “most romantic” event yet, Witnessed By Deepspace. The new limited-time event is available until July 21, and the update that kicked it all off has more going for it, too.

The big new addition is the limited-time Wish Pool with five 5-Star Dynamic Memories, one for each of the five love interests in the game. Unfortunately, this means that the anticipated Love Interest #6 has not arrived with this one.

Coming off Love and Deepspace’s recent update, released in the middle of June, fans were pretty convinced that the game’s next major update would indeed be the one to give the roster of loverboys its sixth member.

The dating sim has added a new member to the squad with each major release, so expectations were high that today’s 4.0 update would add number six. It doesn’t help that their spot has had a tantalising ‘coming soon’ on it for months now, making it feel like their release was closer than it is.

Something else you won’t find in 4.0 is new story, which is another thing players have come to expect from the game’s major updates. What you will find after you install it, however, are the aforementioned 5-Star Dynamic Memories for each of the five hotboys.

These memories are only available during Witnessed By Deepspace’s runtime, and won’t return to the game later. They all come with boosted drop rates, however, so that should hopefully mean you can wrap them all up in time. And you’d want to complete them, because they each unlock a special outfit for the protagonist.

The event comes with some new rewards, too, such as the free 190 Pulls, one free 5-Star Memory for Caleb, new daily character outfits, event-exclusive wedding dresses, rings, accessories, and chat bubbles, as well as photo shoot items. You’ll also find fullscreen phone effects, new mini-games, and some upgrade materials and consumables you can make use of as you play.

Even beyond the new content, there are a few gameplay tweaks 4.0 makes to the game. The end-game roguelike gameplay has been updated with new mechanics, stage variations, and procedurally generated maps. Deepspace Trial now has a new Hard mode, and some updated stages, too.

4.0 is also a big one for Love and Deepspace’s companionship system. The update adds various bits of AR (Augmented Reality) features. Those enable players to take all five love interests with them anywhere they go in real life. Perhaps inspired by Pokemon Sleep, LADS now also has its own Sleep feature that makes use of the same AR tech.

If you’re new to the game, hit up our Love and Deepspace banner event explainer to understand what they are, and see a full list of past and future events. If you already know your way around this hot dating sim, you may instead make use of these Love and Deepspace July codes, or catch up on any story chapter you may have missed with our spoiler-free LADS story walkthrough.

We didn’t expect a new update this week for Elden Ring Nightreign, but the game just received a new one anyway. There was no downtime associated with this latest patch, but you obviously need to update your game to be able to matchmake with others.

Update 1.01.4 is yet another incremental one, following on from 1.01.3, which came out in the second half of June. That said, all of its fixes are relevant for most players.

Update 1.01.4 is available right now across all platforms. The one change that you can conceivably call a new feature is one that adds the weapon type to the Armament Information menu for each weapon.

This is likely intended to help players learn, at a glance, what type of weapon they’re carrying/picking up, which is also useful when deciding whether or not keep one or the other, in cases where you want to retain certain buffs.

The rest of the patch notes are entirely made up of fixes to various bugs, some of which could actually be disastrous for you if they’d occurred in your run. For instance, if both of your teammates joined and left at the same time, you may never be able to get matchmaking to work without restarting the game. That has now been fixed.

Patch 1.01.4 also has a few fixes for missing gestures, and achievements. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to meet the requirements again before they’re unlocked. Though that wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the patch notes, the update likely includes some behind-the-scenes changes to allow for the Sentient Pest Nightlord to be the next Everdark Sovereign.

You can expect that to be available in-game tomorrow, July 3. In case you missed it, Nightreign now has much tougher versions of certain Nightlords. These enhanced bosses are called Everdark Sovereign, and they’re available only to players who managed to beat their standard version.

Both the Everdark Sovereign Gaping Jaws, and Everdark Sovereign Darkdrift Knight fights came with new attacks, with some specifically designed to catch players familiar with their original forms off guard.

Read on below for the full change log for update 1.01.4.

• The Weapon Type will now be displayed in each Armament Information menu.
• Fixed a bug where matchmaking would continually fail after two players joined and left your team at the same time.
• Fixed a bug where the acquisition of the gesture “It’s Raining!” through Multiplayer would not register properly. Note: You can obtain the gesture by meeting the conditions, even if you have met them before.
• Fixed a bug where playable characters might revive from a near-death state without being defeated during the battle with the third-day boss after leaving a session and returning from the title screen.
• Fixed a bug where the background music in the Recluse Remembrance would not play properly when certain conditions were met.
• Fixed a bug where quitting the game incorrectly immediately after fulfilling the clearing conditions of the “Shifting Earth: Crater”, the “The Crater” achievement would not be awarded despite clearing the area. Note: Even if you have already earned the achievement, meeting the “Crater” clear conditions will award you with the clearing credit again.
• Fixed several other instances of bugs.

Now that you made it this far, there’s plenty our Elden Ring Nightreign guide can teach you. We recently updated it with a walkthrough of the Revenant Remembrance quest, as well as a breakdown of all map events in Nightreign (and their rewards).

Whether you want to quickly skim over our helpful tips for the November 8 (1238) Wordle, or you’re simply looking for someone to tell you today’s answer, right now, you’ll find everything you need ready and waiting below.

There’s nothing quite like finding yourself staring at three green letters with two yellows between them. It’s brilliant: I knew exactly how to win, all I had to do was quickly swap those two letters around. It’s agonizing: I could see that if I’d quickly swapped those two letters around I would’ve won today’s Wordle already. Argh, the pain. 

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Friday, November 8