In this new tale, the future rulers of the three nations that govern Fódlan cross paths with Shez – a mercenary on a mission and the protagonist of Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. Shez is on a quest for answers after suffering a brutal defeat at the hands of the mysterious Ashen Demon. Players will guide them through this yet unseen story and its diverging paths.

You will put your tactics to the test giving orders to allies in real time. This while hacking and slashing through hordes of enemies. Some strategical elements from Fire Emblem: Three Houses are also making a comeback.

Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude, leaders of the Officers Academy’s three mighty houses, are back as well, along with their members brimming with personality. Before heading into the fray, it is possible to explore the encampment and interact with allies during training, tasty meals and conversations. By strengthening their bonds, allies will share personal stories and unlock new abilities that could turn the tide of battle.

You can start their adventure with a demo for Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, now available in Nintendo eShop.

Then you can carry over your progress after purchasing the full game.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is out now on Nintendo Switch.

Players can discover a different story set in the familiar universe of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. You will put your tactical abilities to test, and forge meaningful relationships with their allies. This while guiding a mercenary who was meant to fade from the pages of history to their ultimate destiny.

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Beat ‘em ups have been hit and miss for me. Going back to classic ones they are old, clunky, and frustrating as hell to play. Newer ones can be better but the graphical style can sometimes interfere with easily seeing how to interact with the world and lanes. Well Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge has come along to see if it can balance newer gameplay, and beautiful pixel art graphics. But does it succeed?

Nostalgia

There have been plenty of TMNT over the years, but as I am a bit of an old fart, the classic cartoon characters are what resonates most with me. April with that terrible yellow jumpsuit is an icon and I won’t hear anything else about it. So with this I was so in.

Then we bust in with the villains, classic Shredder, classic Beebop and Rocksteady, Classic Krang in the old beefy body. It oozes old in all of the right ways.

More nostalgia, just better

Then there is that sweet, sweet pixel art beauty. Everything in this game looks so good, and in that way they get nostalgia right. If it looks too much like a classic beat ’em up it would look so much worse. Seriously go watch some old NES games and see how it doesn’t look the way you remembered them. This has been an experience that has scarred my memories as I go back to ‘stunning’ games and am greeted with awkward pixelated horrors. Some games don’t age, some do.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge has taken the pixelation, but made gorgeous 2022 graphics with it. The animation is a little bit jittery, but so well designed. In this way it feels more like how you remember old games looking, as opposed to what they actually look like.

More modified notalgia

Gameplay is another issue that ages with Beat em ups. A couple over the years have clicked with me, but so many are clunky. Not being enough to the side for your hits to land, weird enemy hit boxes, Beat ‘em ups have aged hard over the years.

Fortunately Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge has been designed in a way that feels like how I remember the games working. It plays so well and is so damn fun. SImple combat, repetitive enemies, excellent boss battles. It’s so damn well designed.

Best of all, the levels are super short. I was always surprised how quickly I got to the boss but this is a pretty key aspect of what I enjoyed about the game. The levels being short and snappy means any repetitive enemies don’t hang around for long enough to get boring. This means someone wanting to enjoy the game on ‘easy’, can beat it in a day. Someone wanting more can take on harder difficulties, and try beating the other challenges that levels have to offer. Since they get as hard as not taking any damage, there are heaps here for completionists.

Turtle Power

I figured the game would be fun enough, and maybe scratch a nostalgia itch. I was not expecting a genuinely fun and engaging experience. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge delivered so much more than I was expecting.

If you have a group of friends then the game gets even better. But on your own it is still a damn fun game. Turtle Power!

If you have ‘Game Pass’, it is already there. Check it out!

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Fall Guys is free for everyone at last.

Not only that, but the chaotic jellybean fight is now on more consoles. You can nab it on Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series S | X, PS4, PS5 and the Epic Games Store. All this while boasting its biggest and most action-packed season launch to date. Even coming with complete compatibility for crossplay and cross-progression across all platforms thanks to Epic Online Services. 

There’s a lot going on in the Blunderdome right now, and so there’s a summary below.

But first – be sure to check out the trailers!

New for Players Now: 

• New Rounds: Greatness awaits in the rip-roaring rotations of Hex-A-Ring, the probably-a-future-Olympic-sport thrills of Volleyfall and the madcap momentum of Speed Circuit. 
• New Obstacles: The Blast Ball, Jump Rope and (very) Bouncy Floors will either help or hinder your charge for the Crown. 
• New Season Pass & Currency Changes: The brand-new Fall Guys Season Pass includes 100 levels of Costumes, Emotes, Celebrations and much more. Find out about new in-game currency Show-Bucks and other changes in our latest blog on the Fall Guys Economy.
• New Platforms: Fall Guys is now available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series S | X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and the Epic Games Store. Steam will continue to be supported with updates for existing players, but will no longer be downloadable for new users.
• Legacy Pack for Existing Players: To celebrate the more than 40 million players already in our community, all returning Fall Guys players who have previously logged into the Blunderdome are set to receive the Legacy Pack free of charge, which includes the first Season Pass alongside a bundle of cosmetic goodies. 

More info can be found on the Season 1 Launch Blog.

—

Fall Guys is available for free now on Switch, PS4, PS5, XB1, Xbox Series S|X and Epic Games Store.

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With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge having already dropped, June is already a massive month. If somehow that isn’t your jam, well Xbox Game Pass has a few other treats on board.

How about the quirky Omori, or Naraka: Bladepoint?

Out Now:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (Cloud, Console, and PC) – Available now

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge reunites Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael as they kick shell in a bodacious, beautifully realized side scrolling beat ’em up invoking the Turtles’ legendary 1987 design and paying homage to classic TMNT games like Turtles In Time.

Omori (Cloud, Console, and PC) – Available now

Explore a strange world full of colorful friends and foes. Navigate through the vibrant and the mundane in order to uncover a forgotten past. When the time comes, the path you’ve chosen will determine your fate… and perhaps the fate of others as well.

Coming Soon

FIFA 22 (Console and PC) EA Play – June 23

FIFA 22 is coming soon to The Play List with EA Play, so PC Game Pass and Ultimate members can experience fundamental gameplay advances and a new season of innovation across every mode. Plus, score monthly recurring rewards like Ultimate Team Stadium Sets, Seasonal XP Boosts, and more. Keep up to date with all the EA Play benefits here!

Naraka: Bladepoint (Cloud, Console, and PC) – June 23

Naraka: Bladepoint is an up to 60-player mythical action combat experience with martial arts inspired melee combat, gravity defying mobility, vast arsenals of melee & ranged weapons, legendary customizable heroes with epic abilities – inspired by the legends of the Far East.

Far Cry 5 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – July 1

Welcome to Hope County, Montana, the land of the free and brave, but also the home to a fanatical doomsday cult known as Eden’s Gate. Stand up to cult leader Joseph Seed and his siblings, the Heralds, to spark the fires of resistance and liberate the besieged community.

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SteelSeries, has announced the launch of its newest additions to the Apex line of keyboards. The Apex Pro Mini and Apex Pro Mini Wireless keyboards!

These little beasts are smaller, faster, and highly adjustable. The Apex Pro Mini and Apex Pro Mini Wireless give credence to “Mini is Mighty.”

The 60% form factor is the mini part. For the Pro you have OmniPoint 2.0 with an 11x faster response time, 10x faster actuation. It supposedly is also 2x more durable than standard mechanical switches.

In addition to the compact form factor, come improvements on the fastest switches in the world.  The OmniPoint 2.0 operates between 0.2mm and 3.8mm. This gives users faster response and actuation times, along with even more adjustment potential than ever before. When adjusted to 0.2mm, the 0.54 ms response time offers the fastest keystrokes in the world.

Additionally, the introduction of OmniPoint 2.0 offers Dual Action keypresses allowing programming two actions with a single key. This makes executing combos, or walking and running, or pulling out a grenade and throwing it, one keypress.
 
With SteelSeries’ innovative modifier key, full keyboard functionality is maintained in a smaller mini form factor – making the Apex Pro Mini keyboards the perfect size to fit within a backpack for on-the-go, esports tournaments, LAN parties, and those headed to their first dorm room or already enrolled in college.

Apex Pro Mini Wireless

Combining OmniPoint 2.0, the world’s fastest key switches, with a new smaller 60% form factor, the Apex Pro Mini Wireless allows gamers to take a high-performance keyboard with them on the go. Quantum 2.0 Wireless ensures lag-free gaming and working while offering dual connectivity. Users can switch between 2.4Ghz Gaming Grade Wireless and Bluetooth connectivity wherever they go. Rated at 100M keystrokes, the OmniPoint 2.0 switches need the right keycaps to match. Adding double shot PBT keycaps makes for the perfect pairing. This delivers unrivaled durability so they last from the first press to the last. 

On May 23, FaZe Karrigan became the first pro gamer to win a CS:GO major using a wireless keyboard (Apex Pro Mini Wireless).

Apex Pro Mini

Utilizing the new OmniPoint 2.0 switches, the Apex Pro Mini allows users to adjust between 0.2mm and 3.8mm, switching between weightless actuation and deep deliberate presses. The 60% design allows for more desk space, ensuring that big mouse swings go uninterrupted while offering better ergonomics when working and playing. Double shot PBT keycaps ensure the keycaps last as long as the switches, while side printed key functions allow users full keyboard functionality in a small package.

Pricing an Availability

These beauties will be landing in NZ in August for:

• Apex Pro Mini Wireless – $599 NZD
• Apex Pro Mini – $469 NZD

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Final Fantasy VII had a 25th Anniversary celebration last week. You can see the full video below showing new merch and more, but I am in it for the games. With our slice of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion I am in.

You can watch the full celebration here, or below it has the trailers I am all about.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Part 2 of the FF7 Remake is coming. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is coming next year and all I can say is, I want it now!!!!!

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion

Crisis Core on PSP was amazing, and now this sweet ass prequel is getting a remake too. Fortunately this one doesn’t have as much of a wait time with a planned release window this year.

Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis

Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis is coming to mobile, and appear to mash together stories from multiple FF7 games. The more I see, the more I am intrigued by this one.

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Among the news that Xbox Cloud Gaming has hit our shores in Aotearoa, was a fancy new piece of news. That the Xbox Cloud Gaming app is coming to Samsung TV’s.

Well Samsung has elaborated by announcing that Xbox is joining Samsung Gaming Hub. Samsung Gaming Hub is a new game streaming discovery platform available on 2022 Samsung Smart TVs. These include Neo QLED 8K, Neo QLED 4K, QLEDs and 2022 Smart Monitor Series. 

This makes them the world’s first Smart TV platform to include the Xbox app on Smart TVs. This means  Samsung Gaming Hub users are now able to stream over 100 high quality games through the Xbox app. This includes blockbuster titles like Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5.

Gamers have already been able to stream on their phones. So now being able to play at home on the TV without a console is next level awesome.

As part of the Game ass service gamers can play new titles on day one from Xbox Game Studios. That is on top of enjoying iconic franchises from Bethesda Softworks and more. 

Gamers can also look forward to an amazing gaming experience with minimised latency and incredible visual graphics. This is thanks to advanced motion enhancements and game-play performance technology across Samsung’s 2022 range. This includes their new Smart TV lineup and 2022 Smart Monitor Series.

“We are excited to deepen our partnership with Xbox by adding the Xbox app to Samsung Gaming Hub, which now gives Samsung Smart TV users access to hundreds of Xbox Game Pass games. With the same ease that our customers watch live sports and stream movies on Samsung Neo QLEDs and QLEDs, they can now play their favourite games.” said Won-Jin Lee, President and Head of the Service Business Team at Samsung Electronics.

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The 2nd Gen ASTRO A10 has been released and it looks tidy. The old A10 looked like a cheaper headset, this one looks gorgeous. The blockier shapes and light yet bold colour schemes look damn snazzy.

I mean look at that Lilac beast, she is gorgeous.

This one features an industrial design inspired by the brand’s roots. It blends the advanced technology with the style and design needs of a modern player.

Some of the key features are:

• Unofficially ‘rage quit’ certified – a rugged durable construction with a handsome finish
• Step into your comfort zone – a feather light and pillowy soft headset designed for long lasting comfort so much so that your ears will outlast your thumbs
• Flip-to-mute microphone – muting made easy; you’ll never have to hear ‘I think you’re muted’ again
• Tuned with ASTRO Audio – crystal clear audio because when it comes to your enemies on the field, faint footsteps matter!
• Sustainable – ASTRO’s most sustainable wired gaming headset produced to date, the A10 Gen 2 is CarbonNeutral

It’s out now with a RRP of $119 at PB Tech, EB Games, JB Hi-Fi and Mighty Ape. You can actually nab it at Mighty Ape for $108.

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Games based on TV Shows, TV Shows based on games, and games that are just games. Netlfix has announced heaps of value coming to your sub!

If you haven’t checked out Netflix games, install the Netflix app on your phone and you can install some sweet ass games for the same sub price.

Dragon Age: Absolution

Been playing the game but wish you could enjoy the story without all that fun gameplay? Well how about a great looking animated series?

Dragon Age: Absolution is looking good based on this teaser.

Tekken: Bloodline

Tekken Bloodline is a very interesting looking one. Tekken has had some mixed quality content outside of the games, but this one looks very interesting.

Castlevania: Nocturne

Castlevania: Nocturne is another Castlvania series. The first one was well received so crossed fingers for this one.

Games

Heaps of interesting games are coming/have come to Netflix games.

I have been playing Poinpy which is from Devolver Digital and it’s weird and fun. Heaps more coming that look good as.

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Capcom had a pretty awesome showcase to show off their snazzy new releases. You can re-watch the show below if you want. It’s a solid 3 hours, and worth your time. If you don’t have the time, then we have the cliff notes below.

Resident Evil Village

Resident Evil Village is getting it’s first DLC. The Winters’ Expansion arrives Oct. 28, 2022 on all available platforms.

This includes a big change, a Third-Person Mode for the campaign.

On top of this The Mercenaries Additional Orders features new stages and playable characters Chris Redfield, Heisenberg, and Lady Dimitrescu; and a continuation of the story in Shadows of Rose.

Set 16 years after the events of Resident Evil Village, this new tale follows Rose Winters. Rose is the daughter of main protagonist Ethan, as she struggles with her terrifying powers. Players must explore and survive a warped realm inside the consciousness of the Megamycete in search of a cure. 

Resident Evil Village Gold Edition, a bundle of the Winters’ Expansion and the main game, will also launch on Oct. 28, 2022 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, and Xbox One. 

A new multiplayer experience, Resident Evil Re:Verse, was also announced. It will be free for Resident Evil Village players, will go live on the same date. 

Resident Evil Village Producer Tsuyoshi Kanda also shared the game’s main story is now in production for PSVR2.

Resident Evil 4

RE4 fans were in luck. Director Yasuhiro Ampo and Producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi discussed the modern reimagining of the 2005 classic. The development team aims to dial up the original release’s key feelings of loneliness and the fear of enemies blinded by zealotry; when the action-packed survival horror title reawakens March 24, 2023.

Until then, players can sink their teeth into three enhanced Resident Evil games.

RE PS5 and Xbox Series X|S ports

RE2, RE3, and RE7 biohazard have reanimated today on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. With it they bring 4K resolution, ray tracing, high frame rate, and 3D audio.

These cutting-edge features offer a more vivid, smooth, and immersive experience. DualSense haptic feedback and adaptive trigger support is also available on PS5. PS4 and Xbox One players can upgrade at no additional cost via the digital upgrade program and Smart Delivery.

Exoprimal 

To prepare players before they suit up in mechanized combat armor and join the fight, Exoprimal Director Takuro Hiraoka presented a briefing on the dynamic main game mode, Dino Survival.

Before you mech up and get fighting, the Director for Exoprimal has some words. Takuro Hiraoka presented the main game mode, aptly names Dino Survival. Dun dun duuuun!

In this multiplayer experience, two squads of five Exofighters race to complete orders assigned by Leviathan. Leviathan is a totally casual and sinister artificial intelligence behind the dinosaur outbreaks. Teams must complete missions before their rivals to win, stay alive, and continue searching for a way to escape Leviathan’s deadly games.

The new trailer teased a selection of objectives that make up Dino Survival. This includes VTOL Defence, where squads defend downed aircraft from dinosaur onslaughts. Thrown in the mix is Omega Charge, which introduces a massive hammer that Exofighters will wield to obliterate targets. The video also unveiled two new Assault class Exosuits that are absolutely armed to the teeth. Barrage, a burning bombardier, and the rail gun-wielding sniper Vigilant join a growing armoury of futuristic suits that teams can swap between on-the-fly to coordinate and overcome any challenge. While many situations pit players against hordes of dinosaurs, there are others where they clash directly with opposing squads, and even some where rival teams must band together to take-down common foes, like the twisted Neo Tyrannosaurus.

Dragons Dogma

Before you get too excited, they teased a 10th anniversary celebration. Might something be announced there? dunno.

Either way, at the show Dragon’s Dogma Director Hideaki Itsuno joined the program to thank fans as the open-world action franchise celebrates its 10^th anniversary.

Arisen can look forward to a dedicated video message from the team later this week, so tune in to the Dragon’s Dogma YouTube channel on June 17, 2022 at 10:00 AM NZST.

Additional games making an appearance in the show included:

• Street Fighter 6 – The next evolution of Capcom’s beloved fighting game franchise welcomes new challengers in 2023 with striking new visuals, battle mechanics, control options, characters, in-game commentary features, and a groundbreaking story mode

• Capcom Fighting Collection – An anthology of 10 classic competitive arcade games fortified with online multiplayer releases worldwide on June 24, 2022

• Capcom Arcade 2^nd Stadium – The arcade collection continues the retro action with a bundle of 32 cherished arcade titles launching on July 22, 2022

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