Category: Video Gaming

Late last week, we unveiled our list of the top 10 waifus from 2022. It featured the very best queens that anime had on offer, from midnight assassins to leporid heroines, and we are confident it brought unbridled joy to at least one person out there, statistically speaking.

But I know what you’re thinking. Where are the men? Those dashing lads, capable of melting your heart with a single smirk before stealing away into the misty morning dew? Worry not, thirsty one, because we’re back at it again, this time with a top 10 list that simply oozes machismo. For your viewing delight, these are the boys who put the “ohhhhh” in husbando.

As before, our rankings are limited to only one entrant per anime.

10. Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto (Bleach)

For those of you eager to have their daddy complex catered to, we start off hot by going full granddaddy with a man who has loyally served his people for thousands of years. He’s not just a silver fox, he’s a platinum kitsune, baby.

Wizened as he may be, Yamamoto will still mess you up twenty ways from Sunday, having hardly lost a step over a lengthy career of badassery. To underestimate him is to meet a swift and brutal death, and not coincidentally, this makes him our preferred protector from oncoming threats.

Choosing him as your husbando probably won’t result in a lot of picnics or baked goods — a man who has seen so many birthdays surely does not have time to remember yours — and yet, watching him mow down hordes of enemies is enough to light a spark of passion in even the timidest of temperaments. He also gets bonus points for that gravelly old man voice, yes indeed.

9. Tengen Uzui (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba)

Trying to compare to the valiant, lionhearted Flame Hashira, Kyojuro Rengoku, is no small feat. After our souls were laid bare in the events of the Mugen Train scuffle, we desperately sought a new mentor who could reassemble our fractured psyche.

We just needed a little bit of coddling, but instead, we received a flamboyant, muscular man with no sense of decency at all. Tengen Uzui is the very embodiment of noisy excess, which should really come as no surprise considering he is the Sound Hashira and all. He probably could have also qualified as the Arrogance Hashira or the Protein Powder Hashira.

As off-putting as his personality might be to some, once he enters a battle, he is all business, dishing out some truly spectacular techniques that leave his opponents reeling. Additionally, he has a harem of three wives, so he must offer something worthwhile to keep them around. He does have very nice hair, admittedly.

8. Maine (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)

Our Maine man.

If mentorship from Yamamoto or Tengen didn’t catch your fancy, perhaps you’d elect to strike up a conversation with this hulking veteran instead? Maine is a proponent of the ‘tough but fair’ style of leadership, teetering somewhere between assertive and crazed as he throws himself headlong into the fray.

Despite his relationship with Dorio, we cannot assure you that a romance with Maine will be anything less than traumatic, as he gradually loses himself to the rigors of being a cyberpunk. Could your affection be just what he needs to return to a humble life of domestication?

It’s quite unlikely, but the visual of Maine doing household chores is enough to make it worth trying. We are inclined to believe he is less than adept at dusting, though we would have to see it first-hand before being able to make a final call.

7. Hyoma Chigiri (Bluelock)

Upon first meeting the reserved Hyoma Chigiri as part of Team Z, you may be excused for wondering why exactly he qualified as one of the hottest soccer talents in the nation.

He keeps to himself for the most part, brooding quietly in the corner and refusing to divulge in his strengths. Once he has been sufficiently motivated, however, he unshackles himself from all fear and doubt, blitzing down the pitch at a breakneck speed.

Just by running fast for a few seconds, he has already surpassed Igarashi, making a beeline directly for our hearts. He’s pretty and non-threatening, and I like that in a man. If you’re not sold quite yet, his Japanese voice actor, Souma Saitou, was also the one who brought Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san to life — commendable and powerful!!

6. Wakana Gojou (My Dress-Up Darling)

David Lauren once said of his father Ralph’s fashion empire that it’s “not about fabric; it’s about dreams.”

Wakana Gojou is a talented young man who understands this mindset, deftly working behind the scenes to make Marin Kitagawa’s visions become reality. His eye for detail and meticulous craftsmanship allows him to create some truly wonderful works of art, morphing Marin from an everyday high schooler to a magical girl, succubus, and more. No, it’s not weird; stop looking at me like that.

Gojou is just a calming figure to have around in general, supportive and wise beyond his years. He’s quite versatile in his artisan work, having crafted Hina dolls from a young age. Seeking a stand-up guy or some talented fingers? Get you a man who can do both.

5. Dabi (My Hero Academia)

Look, they’re not all going to be Gojous. Sometimes you want a sweetheart to hold your hand and tell you everything’s going to be ok. Other times, you want a maniac who will burn your hand to a crisp and snarl that nothing will ever be ok. I’m not here to kink-shame.

Ever since his debut in season 2 of My Hero Academia, Dabi has given the impression that he knows more than he’s letting on. His powerful flames could rival the destructive force of Shigaraki himself, and yet, this sinister foe defers for the most part, content to remain on par with bumbling colleagues like Twice and Mr. Compress.

In the latest arc, all of his intentions were made clear, and Dabi dropped a bombshell that left the Hero community reeling. He also revealed that he’s a fabulous dancer, which is an important quality to have in a husbando. If we were writing a sleazy magazine article (instead of a sleazy website article), we would surmise that this bad boy was hot stuff in 2022.

4. Loid Forger (Spy x Family)

Though Agent Twilight wasn’t able to complete his mission of claiming a spot on the podium, he’ll be one to keep an eye on moving forward. The man known as Loid Forger is strikingly handsome, carrying an air of mystery that is surpassed only by his genius-level intellect.

He will enter any situation fully prepared for every possible outcome, whether it is a daring act of espionage or a brunch with work colleagues. Truly, the main reason he didn’t rank higher on this list of husbandos comes down to the knowledge that his whole demeanor is a front.

Yes, the sad truth is that Loid will probably love you and leave you, disappearing from your life without so much as a farewell note. Is it worth the eventual heartbreak for a few fleeting moments of thrill? That really depends on your disposition, though frankly, if you survived a date with Dabi, falling in love with Loid is comparatively risk-free.

3. Satoru Gojo (Jujutsu Kaisen)

Alright, we’re cheating a little bit on this one! 2022 was an entire agonizing year between Jujutsu Kaisen seasons, however, its first feature film, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, saw a western release in March. As such, Gojo-sensei makes the cut through technicality. You’re probably not complaining anyway, but we wanted to explain our tomfoolery.

Though the movie’s version of Gojo was yet to establish his fabulous partnership with Yuji Itadori, he was every bit the carefree, irreverent goofball we know and love. We were able to get further insight on his past — in particular, his rivalry with Getou — and saw him take Yuuta Okkotsu under his wing.

The fact of the matter is Jujutsu Kaisen’s cast steals the show in any medium, so even less than two hours of Gojo was enough for him to climb up the rankings. We are so damned ready for season 2 to blow us away with all the devastating force of Hollow Purple; we can’t touch Gojo directly, but we just know he’ll touch our hearts all the same.

2. Aki Hayakawa (Chainsaw Man)

The aloof Mr. Top-knot was able to walk a fine line in Chainsaw Man, visibly unyielding for the most part while also showing that he had a heart of gold underneath that cold veneer.

Aki is as business-like a protagonist as you will see in anime, calling out orders and setting about any task with calculated responsibility. His tragic upbringing has rendered his self-care obsolete, and in this way, crossing paths with Denji and Power was perhaps exactly what he needed to heal his frayed nerves.

Alas, as far as availability for husbando duties goes, you’d best quit while you’re ahead. Aki is all about the job, carrying a laser focus set squarely on slaying the Gun Devil. Your best bet is to make a contract with some form of Love Devil, bewitching him with your charms at the cost of… a lung or something equally as devastating.

1. Arataka Reigen (Mob Psycho 100)

If you polled ten people on whether Arataka Reigen would come out of this contest as the #1 husbando, you’d probably only receive one vote (from Reigen himself, wearing a clever disguise).

Digging a little bit deeper into this bumbling braggart reveals a genuinely good man who uses his gift for the gab as a means of compensating for his own shortcomings. He’s also quite fond of money, and swindling gullible customers is a great way of lining his pockets with yen. It doesn’t hurt to be enterprising, after all.

Although Reigen’s relationship with Mob as his psychic guide and spiritual teacher has always been rooted in deception, when all seems lost, he is the only one up to the challenge of setting things right. The true mark of a husbando isn’t necessarily someone who fights battles because they expect to win but a man who fights them merely because they need to be fought.

With all that being said, I could easily be swayed to award the top spot to God Dimple’s dummy thicc cheeks. I’m not a proud man, just one who appreciates a golden booty.

The Slayer Has Entered The Building.

Since its initial reveal in 2021, Arkane Austin’s vampire hunting co-op game Redfall has been intriguing Xbox fans with its enticing blend of style and carnage.

Positioned to be a killer app for Microsoft in a year where they could really use one, we have been slowly learning more about the expansive open world and the oppressive location in which the mayhem takes place. In a refreshingly transparent interview with the team at Arkane, however, we have been gifted with some fascinating insight into the development mindset itself.

Speaking with GamesRadar‘s Josh West, creative director Ricardo Bare revealed exactly how much effort has gone into ensuring the FPS gameplay lives up to players’ expectations.

“There’s a certain level of work you have to put into a shooter to just reach the minimum bar, because you’ll inevitably get compared to all the other shooters out there if your guns don’t feel good,” Bare explained. “We got insight from some of our sister studios; the people who worked on Doom came over and gave us feedback a couple of times, things like that, and we’re pretty happy with the results.”

Doom, of course, is under the umbrella of Bethesda Softworks, the publisher for Redfall. id Software has proven itself as a pioneer of the genre, able to provide unrivalled guidance. It is reassuring to know that Arkane is ready and willing to access the necessary resources to ensure that this potential console seller sets off on the right foot.

It’s also noteworthy that the developers are well aware of the comparisons being drawn between Redfall and the beloved albeit dormant Left 4 Dead franchise. The revered co-op zombie shooter of yesteryear appears to have several mechanical similarities, however Bare is resolute that there is a more accurate parallel to be made.

“It’s totally understandable for somebody to come to that conclusion,” he said of the comparison to Left 4 Dead. “There are four playable characters, you can play together cooperatively, and you’re going against the undead. But, in terms of the way that you play and experience Redfall, it’s not like those games at all. Redfall is more like loading into Far Cry.”

“Redfall sometimes feels like what you’d get if you blended the Arkane creative values with Far Cry 2 or S.T.A.L.K.E.R.,” studio director Harvey Smith added. “That’s the kind of thing that we have wanted to do for a long time.”

Redfall is scheduled to release for Xbox Series X|S and PC sometime in the first two quarters of 2023. We will of course keep you updated of any other news as it comes our way, so keep those stakes sharpened!

Earl Boen, who provided the voice of LeChuck in The Curse of Monkey Island and appeared in dozens of other games, television shows, and films, has died.

Boen’s first videogame credit, according to his MobyGames (opens in new tab) page, was on the 1995 adventure Shannara. He followed that up over the next decade with roles in games including Zork: Grand Inquisitor, Return to Krondor, Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force, Soldier of Fortune, Metal Gear Solid 2, Fallout Tactics, Icewind Dale 2, Call of Duty, Psychonauts, and World of Warcraft.

In this exclusive Game Informer interview, we learn how Dead Island 2’s audio team uses horror sound design to transform everyday groceries like watermelon, pasta, and grapefruit into the sounds of zombie’s blood and guts. Filmed at Dambuster Studios in Nottingham, England, this feature is part of our ongoing cover story content.

To learn more about Dead Island 2, visit our hub.

This weekend, The Menu, the dark comedy horror thriller starring Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s Gambit), and Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road), is available to stream on HBO Max following its theatrical debut in November 2022. If you’re not down to see a group of clout-chasing dilettantes and wannabe gourmands get their just deserts, not to worry — there are plenty of other new movies to choose from.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, the surprisingly good animated feature starring the eponymous breakout supporting character from DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek, lands on VOD this weekend. The period mystery thriller The Pale Blue Eye starring Christian Bale (The Dark Knight) and Harry Melling (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) comes to Netflix alongside the Colombian road movie The Kings of the World, while the biographical Me Too-era drama She Said comes to streaming on Peacock. We’ve also got a couple recent VOD releases now available at reduced rental prices, like Todd Field’s latest (and excellent) psychological thriller Tár starring Cate Blanchett, Prey for the Devil, and more.

There’s so much to choose from and so little free time to watch it all. Here’s a rundown on all there is new to enjoy on streaming and VOD this week.

New on Netflix

The Pale Blue Eye

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Genre: Mystery/thriller
Run time: 2h 8m
Director: Scott Cooper
Cast: Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson

Christian Bale stars in Scott Cooper’s 2022 historical mystery thriller as Augustus Landor, a world-weary veteran detective hired to investigate a series of murders at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Frustrated by lack of cooperation on part of the cadets, who have mostly sworn an oath of silence, Landor finds assistance in the form of an unlikely ally — a meek young military cadet by the name of Edgar Allan Poe (Melling).

The Kings of the World

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Netflix

Genre: Adventure/drama
Run time: 1h 43m
Director: Laura Mora Ortega
Cast: Carlos Andrés Castañeda, Davison Florez, Brahian Acevedo

This Colombian fantasy-drama road movie follows the story of five orphaned boys who band together as an adoptive family to eke out a meager existence on the streets of Medellín. When one of the boys discovers that he has inherited a plot of land from his late grandmother, who was violently expelled from her home by paramilitaries and whose land was later reclaimed by a government restitution program, the boys embark on a journey to Colombia on a perilous quest in search of a better life.

New on HBO Max

The Menu

Where to watch: Available to stream on HBO Max; available to purchase for $14.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Photo: Eric Zachanowich/Searchlight Pictures

Genre: Dark comedy/horror
Run time: 1h 47m
Director: Mark Mylod
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult

Anya Taylor-Joy (The Northman) stars opposite of Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Margot, a young woman who is invited on a “date” with a wealthy food snob named Tyler (Hoult) to eat at Hawthorne, an exclusive restaurant owned by reclusive world-renowned chef Julian Slowik (Fiennes). It’s not long, though, before they realize that Slowik has something else in mind for them besides overpriced oysters and beef bourguignon.

From our review:

The Menu often reads like an expansive version of a single-set play, where a group of people forced into close proximity gradually crack under pressure and reveal new things about themselves. A lot of what keeps it going isn’t that stagey energy, but the staging itself. production designer Ethan Tobman was inspired by everything from Luis Buñuel’s devastating 1962 film The Exterminating Angel (another film about smug elites who can’t escape each other) to German expressionist architecture. He and cinematographer Peter Deming give the film a harsh, punishing chilliness that emphasizes both the lack of comfort or warmth in haute cuisine and the state of Chef Slowik’s mind. It’s an appropriately sumptuous and sense-driven film, with something striking to look at in every frame.

New on Peacock

She Said

Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock

Image: Universal Pictures

Genre: Drama
Run time: 2h 9m
Director: Maria Schrader
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, Patricia Clarkson

This biographical drama stars Zoe Kazan (The Plot Against America) and Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman) as Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the New York Times reporters who broke the landmark story of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual abuse against women.

New on AMC+

Vesper

Where to watch: Available to stream on AMC+; Available to rent for $6.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: IFC Films

A post-apocalyptic indie sci-fi movie that’s received rave reviews since its release last year, including from us! The film follows the story of a 13 year old girl who struggles to survive in a world where Earth’s ecosystem has collapsed and human civilization has fallen apart.

From our review:

Vesper simultaneously plays like a resourceful shoestring-budget indie in the realm of Dual and like Alex Garland’s $50 million passion project Annihilation. It’s a small-scale story, at times so hushed and minimalist that even putting two characters in the same room can feel overcrowded. But in their first movie release since 2012’s well-received sci-fi import Vanishing Waves, [directors Kristina] Buozyte and [Bruno] Samper do an impressive job of creating a plausible, tangible world around these quiet spaces. The scenery tells the story as effectively as any laborious exposition could.

New on VOD

Devotion

Where to watch: Available to purchase for $19.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu on Jan. 8

Photo: Eli Adé/CTMG

Genre: Biographical war drama
Run time: 2h 19m
Director: J.D. Dillard
Cast: Jonathan Majors, Glen Powell, Christina Jackson

Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country) and Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick) star in this aerial war epic as Jesse Brown and Tom Hudner, two elite fighter pilots and naval officers who must learn to work together in order to overcome one of the most difficult battles of the Korean War.

From our review:

The film’s combination of squareness and relative understatement, courtesy of director J.D. Dillard (Sleight), accumulates a quiet power. Not everyone grew up idolizing Tom Cruise’s smug hotshot Maverick, and this is a Naval-aviator movie without quite so much need for speed. Accordingly, the aerial combat isn’t as big-canvas thrilling as similar material in Maverick. But it does look convincing, and there’s something satisfying about how it emphasizes precision over power. Throughout the film, Dillard and Majors find grace notes, like the moment where Dillard’s camera stays fixed on the nose of a grounded plane as Jesse gets his bearings, or the striking look at Jesse’s preflight ritual. He stares at himself in the mirror, reciting every ugly dismissal ever thrown his way, and Dillard shoots this so Majors faces the camera directly, torturing and steeling himself at the same time.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Where to watch: Available to purchase for $29.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: DreamWorks Animation

Genre: Adventure/comedy
Run time: 1h 42m
Director: Joel Crawford
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Harvey Guillén

Antonio Banderas returns as the swashbuckling feline Puss in Boots in the long-delayed follow-up to the character’s 2011 movie. Having discovered that he has already used up eight of his nine lives while adventuring across the kingdom of Duloc, Puss in Boots must embark on an epic quest in search of the very thing that drove Roy Batty to commit patricide in 1982’s Blade Runner: more life.

From our review:

The Last Wish is the closest I’ve ever seen a movie get to emulating hand-painted concept art. On their way to the wishing star, Puss and company traverse prismatic backdrops — from bright pinks and green forests to the rustic interiors of a cat-lady prison — that feel dabbed on by the artistic team. Their encounters with beasties use color, linework, and kinetic camera moves to bring viewers deeper into the battles, and like The Way of Water, regularly shift frame rates to jolt the senses. Puss, looking more oil-painted than ever, may be monologuing about his legendary skills one second, animated “on the ones,” then find himself in a cacophonous skirmish with a towering troll the next, which the team animates “on the twos.” The sensation builds on the work of Spider-verse and drags the Shrek franchise, of all things, into the territory of high art. It’s stunning.

Tár

Where to watch: Available to purchase for $5.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Focus Features

Genre: Psychological drama
Run time: 2h 38m
Director: Todd Field
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss

Cate Blanchett stars in Todd Field’s first feature film since 2006’s Little Children as the eponymous Lydia Tár, a virtuosic composer and the first female conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra. Known equally for both her immense talent and fierce personality as she is for her, shall we say, unbecoming abuses of power, Tár is mere days from reaching what might be one of the most significant milestones of her career. But when her myriad infidelities and offenses begin to come to light, she’ll have to find a way to weather the storm or find herself swept aside into the dust bin of history.

Prey for the Devil

Where to watch: Available to purchase for $5.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Lionsgate

Genre: Horror/thriller
Run time: 1h 33m
Director: Daniel Stamm
Cast: Jacqueline Byers, Colin Salmon, Christian Navarro

A troubled nun with a dark past, Sister Ann (Jacqueline Byers), attends an exorcism school reopened by the Catholic Church with the goal of becoming the first female exorcist. While battling for the soul of a young girl, Ann is brought face-to-face with the very demon that once tormented her family years ago.

Ticket to Paradise

Where to watch: Available to purchase on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Universal Pictures

Genre: Romantic comedy
Run time: 1h 44m
Director: Ol Parker
Cast: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Kaitlyn Dever

George Clooney and Julia Roberts star in this romantic comedy as a divorced couple who put aside their differences to work together with one goal in mind: stopping their lovestruck daughter, Lily (Kaitlyn Dever), from getting married and making the same “mistake” they did.

The tabletop industry looks to be undergoing a seismic shift based on leaked documents showing that Wizards of the Coast intends to implement a more restricted Open Gaming License (OGL) agreement.

According to a recent Gizmodo report, Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast is poised to revoke its longstanding OGL, which allows for third-party publishers and fans to create D&D content using their game rules. For over 20 years, this license has empowered countless creators to make and distribute their own D&D content using tools like Kickstarter, and has allowed large publishers like Paizo, creators of Pathfinder, to become titans of the tabletop space in their own right.

Reportedly, the new license, called OGL 1.1, makes numerous revisions to the D&D policy, including adding a requirement that all creators register any products they’re selling with Wizards of the Coast. The new agreement also introduces a new 20-25% royalty to be paid to Wizards by license-users making an excess of $750,000 in a year while giving Wizards a “non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, sub-licensable, royalty-free license” to use content created using OGL for any purpose. The new agreement would force all creators to adopt OGL 1.1 despite the current version’s explicit language that a move like that could never be forced upon creators.

Wizards of the Coast responds: “The OGL is not going away”

Break out the jelly-filled donuts.

Big changes are going on in the Pokemon anime, with the beloved protagonist, Ash, set to leave the show after 25 years, marking the end of one truly iconic and much-loved era. This news was released to the public on Twitter in December 2022, alongside a preview image of the two new protagonists that are primed to take over.

Following this, Crunchyroll has just made an announcement that will capture the heart of your inner child: Brock and Misty are set to make a return appearance during Ash’s final episodes in the Pokemon anime. That’s right, Ash’s original companions are going to join him on screen one last time, helping us all see our boy out the way he deserves.

You can see the announcement made by Crunchyroll below:

Some settings seem ripe for almost unlimited exploration, and one of them belongs to the Fallout games, starting with the first one in 1997, up through Fallout 76 in 2018. The Fallout series takes the bright image we had of the future in the 1940s and ’50s and imagines that it all came true–and then went horribly wrong. We had nuclear-powered cars, home assistant robots, and every convenience you could’ve ever imagined. Everything was clean and slickly designed.

And then, in 2077, nuclear war blew it all to hell. That’s where the players come in. Having lived in underground bunkers called Vaults, built by a company called Vault-Tec, these self-sustaining shelters became homes for countless potential survivors and were meant to work until the world was safe to inhabit again. Many of the vaults, however, were also used as experiments on their inhabitants, and others simply malfunctioned. Throughout the game series, players have left their vaults as early as the year 2102 and as late as 2287, emerging into the post-apocalyptic wasteland in pursuit of knowledge, supplies, and survival.

The game series has garnered a loyal fan base thanks to iconic art direction, memorable use of classic pre-war music, and wide-open worlds to explore full of quests, characters, and decisions. As the Vault Dweller, you can join the Brotherhood of Steel, hang out with Ghouls (heavily-irradiated, mutated humans), fight raiders, and run from Super Mutants and Deathclaws, while deciding how you want to save the world, helping people or using them, making allies and meeting companions.

With hundreds of years between the bomb drop and the events of Fallout 4, and the disparate settings of the New California Republic and the wastelands of the East coast, there’s a ton of space and time in which the show could be set. The series will probably not be based on a particular Fallout game, though there’s so much content to pull from that it’s sure to be filled with references and Easter eggs for fans of the games to watch for.

What’s the release date for the Fallout TV show?

Amazon has not yet announced a release date for the Prime Video Fallout series, though it’s safe to bet on the show debuting in late 2023 at the very earliest.

Who’s the director?

While the series has its showrunners, no episode directors have yet been confirmed, though executive producer Jonathan Nolan will reportedly direct the pilot episode. Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Captain Marvel) and Graham Wagner (Portlandia) will act as showrunners. Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy (Westworld) are developing the show, so it’s possible that they’ll helm some episodes, but nothing formal has been announced. Nolan and Joy are both executive producing, alongside Todd Howard, director of the Fallout and Elder Scrolls game series at Bethesda Game Studios.

Who is in the cast?

Casting information is still pretty limited since the show is relatively early in production, but the announced cast so far includes Walton Goggins, Kyle MacLachlan, Xelia Mendes-Jones, Aaron Moten, and Ella Purnell. Goggins is believed to be playing a ghoul in the show, one of the heavily irradiated, but still living humans that appear frequently throughout the Fallout games. Roles of other cast members have not yet been revealed.

What do we know about the story?

Plot details for the show are being kept under wraps at the moment. According to Variety, the series “is set in a world where the future envisioned by Americans in the late 1940s explodes upon itself through a nuclear war in 2077.” In other words, we know that the show is pulling from the same fiction as the games. Based the first image released for the series above, we can bet that at least some of the main characters will be emerging from Vault 33.

Is there a trailer?

There is no trailer as of yet. Amazon has released an official image for the series. You can also get a vague peek at one of the show’s sets and a small piece of the series’ iconic power armor in a Fallout Retrospective video released this fall, which features Jonathan Nolan drinking a Nuka-Cola–the series’ in-fiction soda brand–handed to him by someone from offscreen.

How many episodes will Season 1 have?

We don’t know yet!

Will there be a second season?

Amazon has not yet announced whether there will be a Fallout Season 2; these announcements typically come closer to the show’s actual release date if the show is expected to do well, or sometime soon after if the show becomes a surprise hit.

Roguelike deckbuilders are everywhere, nowadays, which is just how I like it. Roguelike deckbuilders that carve out a path far afield of Slay The Spire are a little rarer, though, so I also like that Luck Be A Landlord just left Steam Early Access.

It’s about adding symbols to a slot machine, rather than removing monsters from a dungeon. You emerge from each run with sentences less like ‘damn, if only I’d picked more block cards’ and more like ‘damn, if only I hadn’t invested so much in coal and instead focused on feeding milk to my cats’.

(more…)

This week on All Things Nintendo, Brian invites Wesley LeBlanc on to chat about the first major release of 2023, Fire Emblem Engage. The two break down their time spent with the final game to this point, previewing the various aspects of this highly anticipated turn-based strategy title. Then, in the second segment, Brian and Wesley chat about Sports Story, the successor to Golf Story, which surprise-launched in late December.

If you’d like to follow Brian on social media, you can do so on his Instagram: @BrianPShea. You can follow Wesley on Twitter: @LeBlancWes.

The All Things Nintendo podcast is a weekly show where we can celebrate, discuss, and break down all the latest games, news, and announcements from the industry’s most recognizable name. Each week, Brian is joined by different guests to talk about what’s happening in the world of Nintendo. Along the way, they’ll share personal stories, uncover hidden gems in the eShop, and even look back on the classics we all grew up with. A new episode hits every Friday!

Be sure to subscribe to All Things Nintendo on your favorite podcast platform. The show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

00:00:00 – Introduction
00:01:06 – Fire Emblem Engage Preview
00:28:26 – Sports Story Impressions

If you’d like to get in touch with the All Things Nintendo podcast, you can email AllThingsNintendo@GameInformer.com, messaging Brian on Instagram (@BrianPShea), or by joining the official Game Informer Discord server. You can do that by linking your Discord account to your Twitch account and subscribing to the Game Informer Twitch channel. From there, find the All Things Nintendo channel under “Community Spaces.”

For Game Informer’s other podcast, be sure to check out The Game Informer Show with host Alex Van Aken, which covers the weekly happenings of the video game industry!

If you are a Pokemon Go player, you’ll have something new to participate in next week: the Twinkling Fantasy event.

Running January 10 through January 16, during the event, you will come into contact with various Fairy-types like Dedenne, can join a raid featuring Mega Salamence, and the Legendary Pokemon Zekrom returns to the game.

During the week-long event, you will earn twice the XP and candy for catching Pokemon with Nice, Great, and Excellent throws. In this instance, there is also an increased chance of earning Candy XL if you are level 31 and up.

Various Pokemon will appear more frequently in the wild. These include Bagon, Clefairy, Clefable, Dedenne (maybe even a shiny!), Deino, Dratini, Jigglypuff, Marill, Ralts, Togetic, and Vibrava. Some may even be shiny.

If you’re super lucky, you might encounter a Goomy or Noibat – maybe even a shiny one. Either would be nice, honestly.

You will also want to take a few snapshots because a Dragon or Fairy-type may photobomb your shot, providing an opportunity to catch it.

As with many events, a Collection Challenge will be available, and upon completion, you will receive 50 Salamence Mega Energy, a Charged TM, and a Fast TM.

Event-themed Field Research task encounters will be available, and when completed, you can encounter Bagon, Clefairy, Dedenne, or Dratini. You may even encounter Goomy – maybe even a shiny one.

A new rotation of Pokemon will appear during raids with the event. One-star Raids will feature Axew, Deino, Jigglypuff, and Marill. Pokemon in Three-Star Raids will be Dedenne, Druddigon, and Mawile.

The Mega Raid will feature Salamence, and Zekrom will be the Five-Star Raid boss, as mentioned previously. The latter will remain in the game until January 18, when it is replaced by Regice, followed by Tapu Koko.

Between Chespin Community Day happening tomorrow, January 7, and the Twinkling Fantasy event next week, there will be plenty to do in Pokemon Go. And that’s just the start of it.

There’s the Go Battle Weekend: Steven Stone running January 14-15, the Lunar New Year event happening January 19-23, on January 21, there’s the Larvitar Community Day Classic, and the game will close out the month with the Crackling Voltage Event which runs January 27 – February 5.

Have fun out there.

Good news! Blizzard have fixed an Overwatch 2 Kiriko bug that let her teleport while holding the flag in Capture the Flag mode. Bad news! In doing so they seem to have broken the cleanse effect attached to her Swift Step ability, meaning she can no longer purge debuffs. The bug appeared after yesterday’s update and isn’t mentioned in the patch notes, so yep, it’s a bug rather than a balance change. Hopefully she’ll get back to cleansing soon.

Swift Step teleports Kirko directly to an ally, even through walls – though she wasn’t supposed to be able to lug critical, game-winning objectives with her. A bug had been allowing her to do just that for the past few months, with a fix presumbly only just appearing because it’s not a widely played mode.

The cleanse-busting bug introduced with yesterday’s update is more significant, because it’s not mode specific. Widespread reports of the bug have appeared on Reddit and Blizzard’s forums, with no response from Blizzard so far.

Yesterday’s update did add a neat-sounding free for all mode that tweaks hero abilities so they resemble the powers of Greek gods. Swings and roundabouts, innit.

In days gone by this would be the bit in an Overwatch news post where I’d riff off of my own experiences, probably with a stupid comment about how I always play Genji anyways. Truth is I haven’t even touched the sequel, because tastes change and time makes a mockery of our identities.

Ollie reserved particular praise for Kiriko in his Overwatch 2 review, while questioning whether the overall game does enough to justify being billed as a sequel.

You can download Overwatch 2 for free from Battle.net.

Hey there — I’m Scott, Design Director at Heart Shaped Games, and I’ve been given the opportunity to share a bit about the unique design process behind our new sci-fi grand strategy RPG, We Are The Caretakers. A lot went into creating the game over its 4+ years in development, but I’d like to focus on how our design team discovered fun and novel new strategy gameplay mechanics from a very unlikely source: the poaching of endangered animals and real-world animal conservation work.

Inspirations and Ideation

I’ve always wanted to make a grand strategy game with a large roster of characters to organize and upgrade, similar to games like Xcom, Darkest Dungeon, or my personal all-time favorite, the classic Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. I had worked on concepts and prototypes in the grand strategy genre for many years prior, but finally found the right time to revisit those designs after our team was approached about making a game about the tracking and management of wildlife poachers.

At first this seemed like an odd topic to build a game around, but after spending time with actual researchers and rangers working in the field to protect endangered animals, we came away inspired. Their incredible work led us down a path of discovery about the realities of human-animal conflicts and animal conservation. Rangers work in small teams, with limited resources, tracking animals and poachers that move in unpredictable patterns across gigantic spaces. That unique management challenge translated into interesting gameplay decisions, and mapped perfectly to the squad-building and large roster management RPGs we loved. We quickly realized we had something innovative and special on our hands and got to work.

Bending Genres and Creating New Gameplay

Our solution to translating that research into a game was to blend a variety of game genres that each emulated an important aspect of protecting wildlife. We designed a Caretaker headquarters where you organize your hundreds of recruited characters into squads, deal with detained poachers, and upgrade your technology before heading out into the field. We created a real-time-with-pause map exploration system, where you deploy your squads to search for poacher activity. And we created a turn-based combat system to resolve meetings between your squads and poacher teams, giving you diplomatic options in addition to traditional JRPG-like abilities.

By giving players actions to take at the macro and micro levels over the course of our 30+ mission campaign, they get to experience what it is like piecing together an organization and that can fight back.

Building a World

While the gameplay design was a long discovery process, we put an equal amount of effort into creating an exciting world and style that matched the gameplay. Art Director Anthony “robotpencil” Jones found inspiration in Afrofuturist works such as Black Panther for the environment and character designs; Composer Jon Parra infused a striking orchestral score with inspirations from rap beats; and Narrative designer Xalavier Nelson, Jr. heightened the real-world stories with the addition of alien close-encounters and a post-apocalyptic planetary redemption story.

Lessons Learned

The biggest lesson learned making We Are The Caretakers was that looking outside of traditional genres and gameplay tropes is the path to new and original ideas. By bringing in collaborators from outside of the games industry and building a diverse development team, we ensured we had a variety of perspectives that could find the right solution and create something exciting and fresh for our players. Working with the team at Heart Shaped Games on We Are The Caretakers has been one of my greatest professional joys, and I hope it shows in the final game you’ll get to play.

We hope you enjoy We Are The Caretakers as much as we do. It’s available for pre-order today and launches on Friday, January 6th! Your purchase also supports the folks that inspired the game, with 10% of net revenue from the game being given to Wildlife Conservation Network’s Rhino Recovery Fund.

We Are The Caretakers

Heart Shaped Games LLC

☆☆☆☆☆
1

★★★★★

$19.99

$17.99

We Are The Caretakers is an afrofuturist squad management RPG. Assemble an arcane team of protectors in squad-building systems inspired by Darkest Dungeon, Ogre Battle, and XCOM. Defend the endangered animals your world relies on in strategic turn-based combat. Define your approach to a global resistance by balancing your reputation, funds, research, animals and alliances. We Are The Caretakers is a challenging strategy RPG fusion that asks you to protect a planet by fighting for the people, animals and ecosystems that inhabit it.

Anyone in the market for a wireless VR headset should look first at the Meta Quest 2. It hits a nice sweet spot in terms of price, quality, and the availability of games and apps. For a limited time, between now and January 19, if you buy a Meta Quest 2, you’ll get an Elite Strap thrown in for free (see it at Amazon). Those usually cost $59.99, so it’s a nice value proposition.

Free Elite Strap with Meta Quest 2 Purchase

The Elite Strap is an add-on that makes using the Meta Quest 2 more comfortable. The standard Quest 2 uses fabric straps, so the headset feels a little front-weighted and possibly looser. The Elite Strap has plastic straps to hold it in place, plus a flexible rear brace that makes it stay more securely in place. It offers better balance for the device as well, and it has a wheel you can twist to tighten the headset on your head.

As for the current VR market, I’d say the Meta Quest 2 is still the best bet for most people. It’s cheaper than the upcoming PSVR 2, and you don’t need to connect it to a PS5 to run it. It’s way cheaper than the upcoming HTC Vive XR Elite. If you want to run more impressive games than the Quest 2’s hardware allows, like Half Life: Alyx, you can connect it to a gaming PC and use it like a regular VR headset.