The man behind both the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy and the Kingdom Hearts franchise says development on the next games is ‘progressing really smoothly’
The post Development Of <i>FF7 Remake Part 3</i> And <i>Kingdom Hearts 4</i> Are On Schedule, Says Director appeared first on Kotaku.
Time to visit the nearest ripperdoc to get some tinfoil hats permanently installed
The post Fans Are Trying To Crack A Cryptic, Unlisted <i>Cyberpunk 2077</i> Video appeared first on Kotaku.
A poor translation has tanked Steam reviews from Chinese-language fans
The post Here’s Why <i>Hollow Knight: Silksong</i> Is Getting Review-Bombed In China appeared first on Kotaku.
An image circulating online appears to show some of the most wishlisted games for Meta Quest headsets.
The image circulating among Quest VR devs appears to show Meta testing a version of its Coming Soon page disclosing the wishlist numbers of upcoming games. We reached out to Meta to ask about the page and will update if we hear back.
With Meta’s ongoing transition from Quest to Horizon, paid destinations in VR on the Quest store have faced an uphill battle standing out among free destinations available from phones and web. In the face of that reality, VR developers have started turning to ways they can build excitement for the game ahead of launch and, in particular, focusing on building out the number of wishlists they are on.
On Steam, the developers behind Zero Caliber 2 Remastered are trying an experiment in lowering the price based on how many people wishlist the game. On Horizon, the circulating image shows Meta’s own Deadpool VR holding a commanding lead in September with the game on nearly 200K wishlists ahead of its release in November.
After that, Cubism’s creator Thomas Van Bouwel has more than 50K wishlists for Laser Dance with a release currently slated for this fall. We’ve tested an early version of Laser Dance and it represents a potential breakthrough moment for mixed reality interaction, with laser mazes to dodge and escape made to fit whatever space you bring the game. You can add it to your wishlist here.
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Laser Dance was delayed once and, given its need for rock-solid environmental anchoring no matter where players want to play, we hope Thomas Van Bouwel takes as much time as he needs to build up his wishlists and get this particular gameplay locked in.
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After that, Forefront from Triangle Factory (developers of Breachers and Hyper Dash) is aiming for 32-player battles in an “all-out war experience” as they close in on the 50K mark for Quest store wishlists. The developers based in Belgium are hoping to build up excitement for their upcoming beta and you can join their Discord server here.
We’ve chosen not to share the specific wishlist numbers we saw on the circulating image. It’s too likely that the numbers are already different from the image we saw. Please find trailers below for upcoming VR games building out their wishlists with each link below going to a store page where you can add it.
You can also reach out to us if you’re a Quest or Steam developer and want to be included in this or a future wishlist roundup.
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The Circle to Search feature is designed to help users search Google for
Zwift’s Route, Climb, and Workout of the Week challenges are designed to get you riding routes and workouts you may not otherwise ride, in return for an XP bonus you wouldn’t otherwise earn. That’s right: finishing one of these weekly challenges earns you an XP bonus that varies based on the difficulty of the route/climb/workout.
Each week features a blend of challenges, including a shorter challenge (250XP), a medium challenge (500XP), and a longer challenge (750-1000XP). See the full schedule below.
Weekly challenges switch at 9am Pacific each Monday (noon Eastern, 4pm UTC).
To ride the Route/Climb/Workout of the week, begin by clicking the challenge card on the homescreen. Here’s what it looks like for the Route of the Week:
The Workout of the Week can be “stacked” with the Climb or Route of the Week to earn bonus XP extra fast.
To do this, you must first click the Workout of the Week challenge card to be “registered” for the week’s workout challenge.
Next, click the Route or Climb of the Week challenge card and enter the map to begin riding that challenge.
Once you’re in the game, pull up the list of workouts (use the “E” keyboard shortcut or access it by clicking Menu>Workouts). Find this week’s featured workout in the workout archive. (If you aren’t sure where to find it, click the workout on the calendar above to learn where it’s stored.) Load the workout and complete it while also completing the Route or Climb of the Week, and you’ll earn both XP bonuses!
Questions or comments about these weekly challenges? Share below!
DrakkenRidge offers a new VR fantasy adventure that feels like old-school RuneScape on Quest 3 and 3S. Read on for our impressions.
Fantasy adventure games have always captured my attention for their breadth and depth. Exploring a lived-in world, with its own magical rules free from the confines of our drab reality is something I will unequivocally gravitate towards. DrakkenRidge is the latest creation of seasoned VR developer Garage Collective that aims to deliver such an ambitious concept.
What is it?: A semi-open-world fantasy adventure game with a retro art style.
Platforms: Quest 3 and 3S
Release Date: Out now
Developer/Publisher: Garage Collective
Price: $19.99
With over five sizable islands to explore, active physics-based combat, and a recognizable jank permeating the experience, it feels like they accomplished this. After previously publishing several VR games over the years, like Stones of Harlath, this could be their best work yet, faults and all. Its undeniable charm can be traced to its retro art style that gives off the impression of being inside those classic 90s MMOs.
Dropped in the first area called Skull Island, which acts as a tutorial, the usual VR conventions are easy to spot. A belt for quickly accessing any items picked up in the wild is a tradition by now, as is meticulously crafting items like a mad scientist in a laboratory instead of just clicking “Craft.” Being able to press a button to summon your sword when combat starts instead of clumsily unsheathing it from your hips works wonders. These actions help create an enjoyable illusion.
Physics-based combat often feels like a buzzword, though it feels right at home here. These low-poly enemies kick, punch, and have special unblockable attacks. Mages light entire areas on fire as archers shoot from a distance, keeping you on your toes at all times. The parrying is a highlight when pulled off correctly, and it’s encouraged as it buffs your damage. Plenty of dungeon crawling is involved, organically set up to explore different avenues, rewarding you with unique weapons or items, each culminating in a satisfying boss fight.
Although the political story is nothing to write home about, the cornucopia of side quests certainly is welcome. Delivered with serviceable voice acting, DrakkenRidge has you doing plenty of activities. From the expected fetch quests to more involved tasks resulting in unlocking secrets and exclusive items otherwise unattainable, each of the five areas has a wealth of content to stay busy alongside the main quest.
Once magic is unlocked, both hands can equip spells or weapons. If you fancy it, becoming a battlemage with a mace in one hand and an electricity spell in the other is possible. The customization on offer allows you to enter every battle as you deem fit, choosing a classic sword and shield combination, or not. Using a portal in every town’s inn to reach a secret lair, this base of operations works as a place to craft more intricate items. Dropping scavenged plants into a cauldron and stirring them for a while produces an array of useful potions. Similarly, using the anvil to forge powerful tools with your hammer is rather enjoyable.
Before DrakkenRidge starts, you are asked to choose seated or standing mode. Moving the height up or down is helpful when grabbing items. Teleporting with either the right or left hand can be toggled. So is movement. Smooth to several degrees of snap rotation is not as intuitive, though it works. Lastly, a thumbstick click to toggle the sprint option is available, yet the player character does not move too fast.
However, DrakkenRidge is not without its issues at launch. At times, the screen would flicker, or the hands would make sudden contortions when moving. At one point, the anvil would not recognize my shield to improve it, making me have to leave the area and come back until it finally did. There’s work to be done still, though it usually achieves its goals quite well.
After spending five hours with it, it’s clear that DrakkenRidge is the right scope for a studio this size without biting off more than it could chew. What originated as an expansion of the studio’s previous work ultimately evolved into a respectable fantasy of its own. Bugs can be fixed, and the core gameplay is solid enough to see it through to the end. Living that dream of being an adventurer before taking an arrow to the knee is worth it.
Pete Hines took aim at the economics of Game Pass in a new interview
The post Ex-Bethesda Exec Says Subscriptions Are ‘Worth Jack S***’ Without The People Who Make Games For Them appeared first on Kotaku.
Finally, a gimmicky Reese’s Cup that isn’t awful and doesn’t make me hate myself for eating it
The post New Reese’s Oreo Cup Is Tasty, But Only If Luck Is On Your Side appeared first on Kotaku.
Save 40% on the UGREEN 65W USB-C charger over at Amazon for a limited time.
The post This UGREEN USB-C Charger Drops to a Practically Free, Stock Up for Samsung and Apple’s New Devices appeared first on Kotaku.
Insert your favorite Office reference here, there’s a limitless galaxy here to hold all nine seasons of them
The post One Fan Just Painstakingly Recreated <i>The Office</i> Inside <i>No Man’s Sky</i> appeared first on Kotaku.
Underpinning the iX3 on the automated driving (AD) front, Snapdragon Ride Pilot has been developed over
OnePlus and Hasselblad are ending their five-year partnership, according to an official blog post. The smartphone maker has started developing its own camera system, which it has dubbed the DetailMax Engine.
There was no reason given for the split, though OnePlus heaped praise on Hasselblad in that blog post. It lauded the camera maker’s “obsession with precision and detail” and opined about “nights in the lab chasing the perfect balance of light and shadow.” The company also said that “Hasselblad’s refined aesthetic sense is now part of our imaging DNA, woven into every future OnePlus camera.”
As for every future OnePlus camera, the proprietary imaging system is still in the early stages. OnePlus CEO Pete Lau said he’s already testing an early prototype that’s been “designed from the ground up to deliver the clearest and most real photos on a smartphone.”
The two companies first paired up for the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro flagship smartphones and the Hasselblad logo has been a mainstay of higher-end OnePlus devices since then. The Verge reports that the logo is likely to disappear with the release of the upcoming OnePlus 14, which may be renamed the OnePlus 15 to avoid the unlucky number “4” in China.
There’s one final wrinkle to this story. Oppo, which is the parent company of OnePlus, is sticking with Hasselblad for the time being. As a matter of fact, it officially extended the partnership back in July, with both companies promising a new mobile imaging system in the near future.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/oneplus-and-hasselblad-are-ending-their-five-year-partnership-154217176.html?src=rss
The Legion Go 2 is almost double the price of its predecessor
The post PC Gaming Handhelds Are Getting Ridiculously Expensive appeared first on Kotaku.
This is a video of “Slinky Josh” Jacobs at a pool hall in Guangdong, China demonstrating his Slinky skills with a friend. Not to brag or anything, but I almost had a Slinky go all the way down the stairs once. “Only almost?” Just five stairs shy. This though, this might honestly be even more impressive.
Panasonic’s market value has remained flat at approximately $25 billion over the past decade while rivals Hitachi, Sony and NEC have increased their valuations sixfold during the same period. The Osaka-based conglomerate announced a restructuring plan in May 2025 to eliminate 10,000 positions and streamline operations across its six operating companies and hundreds of product lines. The company generates $57 billion in annual revenue and maintains dominant positions in several markets. Financial Times reports: Within Panasonic’s six operating companies and hundreds of product lines are industrial technology gems. The company supplies 70 per cent of the world’s in-flight entertainment systems, its facial recognition technology is being used to measure brain health, and its EV battery plants are among the world’s most efficient, according to auto industry insiders.
Panasonic chief said in January that AI-driven hardware and software solutions would constitute 30% of revenues by 2035, compared to approximately 10% currently. But Goldman Sachs analyst Ryo Harada wrote recently that investors are seeking a growth strategy beyond the announced reforms.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Save 38% on the Marshall Major V on-ear wireless headphones over at Amazon.
The post Marshall Major V On-Ear Headphones Crash to Lowest Price Ever, Over 5x Cheaper Than AirPods Max appeared first on Kotaku.