Dive into the enchanting world of a captivating third-person platformer adventure where magic and bravery collide. Follow the journey of a courageous girl adorned with a big, mysterious scarf and armed with a fun hammer, on her quest to rescue escaped animals from a magical zoo. The creatures have vanished through mystical portals leading to worlds filled with challenges and wonders, and it's up to her to bring them back to ensure the zoo's grand reopening.

Set sail to save the day in this colorful strategy RPG! Join Marona - a gifted young girl with the power to speak to Phantoms - as she traverses the ocean world of Ivoire, providing aid to those in need. When a fleet of ghost ships attack, it’s up to Marona and her new friend Apricot to assemble the legendary crew that once defeated these spectral foes. Recruit Phantoms, bind them to objects, combine them with Gadgets, and even merge them with Marona herself to unleash show-stopping abilities and sink the Shipwreck Fleet!

There's an ongoing debate as to whether Microsoft's Game Pass hurts or helps sales of titles that are available on the service. But as far as id Software co-founder and Doom co-creator John Romero is concerned, Game Pass is beneficial to the video game industry.

Via True Achievements, Romero was recently interviewed by Xbox Expansion Pass, and he was effusive with his praise for Game Pass.

"I love it," said Romero. "I mean, who doesn't love Game Pass? It's Netflix for games; who doesn't want that? It's great because it's try before you buy... one thing after another thing. Really the barrier for people to play games is just access to those games. Even free-to-play games, it's like, knowing that those games exist, and Game Pass is like 'Here they are!'"

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The Art of Destiny Volume 3

$50 | Releases April 15

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Destiny fans will soon have a new art book to add to their collection, as The Art of Destiny Volume 3 is slated to release on April 15. The long-awaited third entry in the popular series was originally scheduled to hit stores on November 19, but it was delayed by several months. Volume 2 released way back in 2017, so nearly eight years have passed since Insight Editions' last collection of art and commentary. As such, Volume 3 has a lot of ground to cover, and it will begin right where Volume 2 ended. This means fans who own all three volumes will have cohesive collection of artwork chronicling the development of Destiny 2 over the past decade.

You can preorder The Art of Destiny Volume 3 for $50 at Amazon. Additionally, you can pick up the first two books at a discount.

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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 will be getting multiple substantial updates through the first half of 2025 and beyond. The year's first big patch will release in February, adding a new map, a new Tyranid enemy, and Absolute difficulty.

Focus Entertainment revealed its roadmap for the game via a community update on its official forum. The post opens by addressing community complaints about a lack of updates, it then clarifies that updates can be expected every two months. The post adds, "We’d love to do more, but we’re committed to delivering polished updates, which takes time and care!" Take a look at the official "year one" roadmap below.

A Year One Battle Plan for Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine 2, showing what elements will arrive in future updates.

The roadmap indicates that players can expect a few substantial updates in the coming months. Releasing sometime during the Space Marine 2's third season, Patch 7 will add a new PvP mission, custom PvP lobbies, PvE Prestige ranks, and a new weapon. Updates in spring will bring a Horde Mode, a new enemy, a new PvP arena, a new PvP mode, and new weapons. The post also promises that the game will continue to receive support after 2025.

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Ahead of the release of Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, I spoke to developer Gareth Damian Martin about what it's been like to come back to the world of the dice-driven RPG in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 world and how this sequel ensures the action remains interesting even during failure. Citizen Sleeper 2 uses a very aggressive auto-save feature, preventing players from recovering from their mistakes or circumnavigating difficult rolls through save-scumming. As Damian Martin puts it, they're "trying to be a game master for a million people," and that means honoring player's choices and incentivizing them to keep going even when it might feel like the deck is stacked against them.

In Citizen Sleeper 2, you once again play as a sleeper, sentient android that's an emulation of a human mind that's then housed in an artificial body. The story begins with your body on the fritz and a bounty placed on your head, and no immediate means to repair yourself or escape the asteroid belt-located settlement you find yourself on. You pick a class to curate your ideal playstyle and then set out, using dice rolls to determine the outcome of the choices you make and shape the relationships with the crew you begin to recruit. Each class now also has its own unique push ability, allowing you to potentially reroll the dice in certain circumstances to transform a failure into success.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector launches on Xbox Series X|S, Game Pass, PS5, Switch, and PC on January 31.

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With its release coming in just one day, Insomniac Games and Nixxes have revealed the PC requirements for Marvel's Spider-Man 2. The specs do not require for a ray-tracing-compatible GPU, as has been the case with some recent and upcoming games such as Doom: The Dark Ages and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

Insomniac provided six different preset levels, three without ray tracing and three without. Those with beefier PCs can enable ray tracing for more realistic reflections. A slider allows you to adjust the range at which objects are considered for ray tracing reflections. If you're hoping to play on more modest hardware, the low end--which is for Very Low graphics settings and 720p resolution at 30fps--only calls for a GTX 1650 or RX 5500 XT. There's no word on Steam Deck compatibility as of yet.

The game supports Nvidia DLSS 3 and AMD FSR 3.1 upscaling and frame generation. Intel XeSS upscaling is supported too. Ultra-wide monitor support includes 21:9 and 32:9 aspect ratios. With a triple monitor, the aspect ratio can even go up to 48:9.

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Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz Board Game

$50

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BioWare's next Mass Effect was announced back in 2020, but the latest reports indicate the game is still a long way off. To make the wait for the next entry in the sci-fi space opera RPG series a bit easier, there's the Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz board game, which launched late last year and is available now for $50 at Amazon.

Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz Board Game $50

Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz is a co-op board game designed for 1-4 players. Players control iconic Mass Effect characters like Commander Shepard, Liara, Wrex, Tali, and Garrus on a mission to infiltrate a Cerberus cruiser on the planet Hagalaz, while fighting off enemy soldiers and attempting to complete objectives before a deadly storm bombards the ship.

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Just like the video games, Priority Hagalaz mixes tactical squad-based combat with branching narrative choices and multiple possible endings. The box comes with everything you need to play, including the rulebook, plastic minis of each playable squad member, character sheets, cards, tokens, dice, and more.

If you're looking for more ways to pass the time before Mass Effect 4, you might also want to check out this deal the Mass Effect: The Complete Comics. The 800-page paperback omnibus collects every issue of the Mass Effect comic book run into a single volume, and you can grab it for just $27 (was $40) at Amazon.

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The video game industry has plenty of titles that look like they were gently lifted from some other game that came before them. But few are quite as blatant about it as Mariostro Strikers Soccer League, a recent arrival on Xbox Marketplace. It could charitably be called an "homage" to Mario Strikers: Battle League, but it's unlikely that Nintendo will let that go without a response.

Via Nintendo Life, LightGamess--with an extra "s"--is the publisher of Mariostro Strikers Soccer League, which was released January 10 on Xbox Marketplace. The description of the game adds some unexpected humor to the listing because someone seemingly forgot to put the actual name of the game in the opening paragraph and never bothered to fix the mistake.

"Dive into the thrilling world of arcade-style soccer with [Your Game Name Here]! Experience the excitement of 4v4 matches, where every player counts. With 10 unique and fun teams to choose from, you’ll dribble, pass, and shoot your way to victory while defending your goal with a skilled goalkeeper," reads a line from the game's official description.

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It's been over a decade since the last main Grand Theft Auto installment, and fans have been keeping busy passing the time before GTA 6's release. Players have been modding previous games for years and putting out community challenges, but recently a YouTuber decided to put the little bit of what we know from GTA 6 into GTA 5.

A YouTuber that goes by the handle Dark Space has been working on a mod that adds some of GTA 6's Vice Beach map area into the game. Dark Space is planning on releasing the mod in two weeks on the GTA mod community server FiveM but has been showing off their work on their channel and Twitter.

Gta 6 Community map made in GTA 5 - progress update: Vice Beach is nearly done. Adding trees, props, and custom vice city themed models. After which I'll probably make the venetian islands too. pic.twitter.com/KDCsUq06rT

— Dark Space (@Dark_SpaceYT) January 27, 2025

Even though Rockstar has only released a single trailer for GTA 6, fans have been able to map out the playable area they expect to see in the game. Talking to IGN, Dark Space spoke about their work and the constant fear of Take-Two taking it down.

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Quantic Dream's story-driven video games including Detroit: Become Human and Heavy Rain seem like ideal titles to be adapted in Hollywood. However, Quantic Dream's 2013 title, Beyond: Two Souls, will apparently be the company's first game to be developed as a TV series.

According to Deadline, the proposed Beyond: Two Souls television show will be executive produced by Elliot Page through his Pageboy Productions. Prior to transitioning to a man, Page starred in Beyond as a girl named Jodie Holmes who was inexplicably linked to Aiden, a non-corporeal entity that lacked a body of its own. Jodie and Aiden's connection was explored in the game as it gave them access to supernatural powers. Aiden's presence also made it very difficult for Jodie to bond with other people.

"Filming the game was one of the most challenging and fulfilling acting experiences of my career," said Page in a statement. "The story's rich narrative and emotional depth offer us a fantastic foundation. We want to create a unique vision of the characters and their journeys that resonates with fans and newcomers."

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Overwatch 2 will be receiving "groundbreaking changes" that are "unlike anything you've seen before" later this year, according to developer Blizzard.

What, exactly, those changes will be is still a mystery, but Blizzard has announced a livestream titled Overwatch 2 Spotlight for February 12 to dive into all the updates. The stream will also be dedicated to showing off new heroes and maps coming this year.

Various Overwatch 2 content creators will be going hands-on with the changes and new content, and those who watch partnered streams will be able to score the Lucio Cyber DJ Legendary skin as a Twitch Drop.

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