The room was discovered by DeepGameResearch. YouTuber Blaines has then discussed the secret in a video on his channel. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. Players will know that Pokémon Legends: Arceus begins with the protagonist being ripped from modern day and thrust into the past to start their adventure. This differs from most Pokémon games where the protagonist begins in their bedroom, complete with the latest Nintendo console. By going out of bounds, DeepGameResearch has discovered a modern day bedroom in the game....

This means that new games coming to what would’ve been the “Yakuza” series will carry the “Like a Dragon” name instead. Confirmation comes by way of Sega, which confirmed to Kotaku that as the Like a Dragon branding is “more closely align with the Japanese name”, it is formally dropping the Yakuza name from every new title going forward. Sega recently announced that a western release for historical Yakuza spin-off Like a Dragon: Ishin – which has been “rebuilt from the ground up” – will be making its way to PS4 and PS5 next February....

That’s right - there’s no Nintendo Switch version announced, and it is actually arriving in the West alongside its Japanese release. “In a war between devil summoners, it’s up to Ringo and her team to decrypt destiny and save the world from apocalypse!” Atlus said today, alongside the below trailer. “Soul Hackers 2 inherits the essence of Devil Summoner: Soul Hacker, while evolving the game concept with a more defined art style, addictive RPG gameplay and Atlus’ next-level storytelling....

Shovel Knight Dig, a collaboration between Yacht Club Games and UK studio Nitrome, feels like it’s been a long time coming, having first been revealed all the way back in 2019 - when Yacht Club explained it would take players deep into an “ever-changing chasm of mystery”. More specifically, it’ll pit Shovel Knight against Drill Knight and his digging crew in a quest that’ll see adventurers jumping, slashing, and tunnelling their way downward through stages procedurally stitched together from “thousands” of level chunks in a bid to reach the bottom....

Published by Bandai Namco, the fighter will arrive on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S where the Smash Bros-like brawl will let “Minifigure mayhem begin”. Here’s a new teaser to celebrate: As Tom explained at the time the ports were announced, the idea here is to battle - solo or with up to eight network players - and collect minifigures which you can then customise to create your own hero of choice....

Naka joined Square Enix in 2018, and his first project with the publisher - action-platformer Balan Wonderworld - was announced last summer for release this year. Unfortunately, Balan Wonderland was met with generally unfavourable reviews and disappointing sales when it launched in April, and Naka confirmed his departure from Square Enix in June. At the time, he told Twitter, “I’m 55 years old, so I may retire.” It seems Naka has been busy since then, however, and he’s celebrated his birthday today by revealing some of what he’s been up to since leaving Square....

That makes it bulkier than prior Blue Blur games on Switch - as our friends at Nintendo Life point out, Sonic Forces was 6.6GB, and Sonic Colors: Ultimate was 6.8GB - and gives us a hint at how much bigger the latest instalment, set to be an open-world of course, will be. As for what the game entails? The official store description says: “In search of the missing Chaos emeralds, Sonic becomes stranded on an ancient island teeming with unusual creatures....

Revealed during today’s busy Nintendo Direct, Cyber Space is a mysterious digital realm that can be reached by uncovering ancient entrances around Starfall Islands - a cluster of landmasses incorporating Kronos Island, the lush area seen in Sonic Frontiers’ divisive first trailers. In order to unlock the Cyber Space entrances, players will first need to earn Portal Gears by solving puzzles and completing challenges around the “open zone” map. Once in Cyber Space, they can try their hand at “traditional, fast-paced, speed running action platforming” - linear stages more in line with classic Sonic action - earning Vault Keys required to progress further....

This week, PlayStation Plus subscribers found they were unable to redeem pre-paid voucher cards and extend their subscription time - even if it was about to run out. Bewildered customers were told the situation was “temporary”, but not given further explanation. “If you currently have a PlayStation Plus or PlayStation Now membership, due to changes we are making to the service prior to launch, you won’t be able to redeem a voucher code for that service until your existing membership expires and deactivates,” Sony wrote, “or after the new PlayStation Plus service launches in your area, whichever happens first....

Writing on its Discontinued PlayStation apps, features and services page, Sony says customers will no longer be able to use the aforementioned payment options to either purchase digital content or to add funds to their wallets directly from their PS3 or Vita starting on 27th October. Sony offers no explanation for the changes to its service (I’ve asked the company for additional information and will update the story if I get a response), but it notes customers can still make purchases through the PS3 and Vita stores provided they first add funds to their wallets via the PlayStation Store on PS4, PS5, a PC, or a mobile device....

The fall in stock price is the largest since October 2008 - the same month Sony was forced to recall 100,000 laptop batteries due to fire hazard. The Financial Times and Bloomberg spotted Sony’s sudden stock plunge overnight, and noted it had wiped around $20bn from Sony’s market value. There was positive news for other game makers, however. Shares for Japanese publishers such as Square Enix, Capcom and Konami all rose around five percent, while Ubisoft’s price surged 11 percent - all perhaps seen as Microsoft’s next target....

Now, Adventure Mode and Arena Mode are available to play online with friends or random players across PlayStation and Xbox consoles, Switch, and PC (Steam). “With that, I feel like all of our major goals for online multiplayer have been met, but to be clear, we will still be monitoring social channels for feedback and plan on making further improvements to the Spelunky 2 online experience,” reads an update on the release of v1....

As a reminder, Splatoon lore fans believe that Nintendo’s shooter series is set in a post-apocalyptic future where the sea levels have risen and much of our current world is underwater. Indeed, the new map - apparently uncovered from the files of Splatoon 3’s World Premiere Splatfest demo - appears to support that claim. As posted to Twitter by rassicas, and spotted by Nintendo Life, the image depicts a shrunken version of Earth’s familiar landmasses....

Anno’s free weekend starts this Thursday, 25th February, and runs until Monday, 1st March, during which time players can put the excellent base game through its paces on PC. Those appropriately smitten will be able to purchase the full experience at a discounted price, with the Standard Edition costing £24.99 (a 50% saving) and the Gold Edition Year 3 (which includes the base game, deluxe pack, and third season pass) reduced by 35% to £43....

Speaking of portable gaming, three original English-language Lara Croft voice actors will join Keeley Hawes in Tomb Raider Reloaded when the mobile game launches next year. Players will be able to choose classic voices such as Shelley Blond (Tomb Raider), Judith Gibbins (Tomb Raider 2 and 3), Jonell Elliott (The Last Revelation, Chronicles, The Angel of Darkness), or Keeley Hawes (Legend, Anniversary and Tomb Raider: Underworld). Developer Crystal Dynamics has released a special video celebrating the many women who brought Lara to life over the years....

Fans of the Ukranian first-person shooter survival horror series have reacted warmly to the news, while work continues on the game’s official follow-up. The remaster will launch as a free mod to the original game, creator Andrey0007 stated via ModDB, containing around 16GB of new textures. Plans to also edit the game’s plot in order to remove some inconsistencies have been scaled back, however. Here’s a glimpse at how it looks: “The fact is that I barely have time to work on textures,” Andrey0007 wrote, discussing their earlier, more ambitious plans....

In November, CIG revealed its plan to open an enormous new studio in Manchester, which would grow the company’s current 400-person team to 1000 by 2026. Speaking in an interview with MCV magazine, chief operating officer Carl Jones said that, by that time, he expected the company to be in development on multiple sequels to Squadron 42, the long-awaited and much-delayed single-player story adventure featuring Hollywood stars. “By that time we’ll be developing the sequel and sequels for Squadron 42,” Jones said....

Let’s start with rendering resolution - the trailer is presented at native 4K but shots vary in clarity. Interestingly, gameplay sequences seem to lack any sort of anti-aliasing, so you get razor-sharp edges with visible aliasing throughout. Conversely, the more cinematic shots use TAA in a manner similar to Fallout 4, which ought to be more in line with what we’ll see in the final product. Beyond simple resolution, we can get a sense of the dev team’s design goals by looking at how Starfield handles wide open areas on-planet, interior spaces, character rendering and finally outer space....

Overlord is Stellaris’ sixth major expansion (following on from Nemesis, Federations, MegaCorp, Apocalypse, and Utopia), and brings a range of new options for players as they spread their influence among the stars, this time loosely focussed on empire management. There are, for instance, new vassalisation mechanics, enabling players to negotiate or demand the terms of their agreements with their new vassals, or even define the specialist role they’ll play in an empire - either focusing on military might, tech research, or economic acquisition....

In a blog celebrating the studio’s 25th anniversary, the team said that whilst it was “proud to look back on the legacy of characters and stories” it had created, it is now focused “on [its] current project”. “As we approach 25 years since Sucker Punch first opened, we’re proud to look back on the legacy of characters and stories we’ve created, from Rocket: Robot on Wheels to Sly Cooper and infamous, and most recently Ghost of Tsushima,” the developer said in a blog post....