Iwakura Aria is a brand-new original visual novel from MAGES. It is a dramatic suspense title that depicts the love-and-hate pattern of human relationships and the strong bonds between women. It is a suspenseful human drama set in Japan during a period of rapid economic growth. The rich story, which follows the complex and sometimes contradictory emotions of each character, and the turbulent developments brought about by their emotions, invites players back to "that summer" of 1966.

It's 1865. The fires of the Civil War have died down and America is once again expanding westwards. The Wild West is a frontier where everyone lives and dies by the gun. You are the captain of a squad of government soldiers sent to bring law and order, to hunt down the bandits and robbers that plague honest folks just trying to make a living out west - and unknowingly step into a much larger fight... Inspired by spaghetti western classics, A Fistful of Yankees is a real-time strategy game set in the heyday of the Wild West. Lead a squad of Yankee soldiers into cinematic fights with bandits, navigate treacherous badlands, and unravel a devious plot straight out of a Western comic book!

After adding two-player expeditions in the last Elden Ring Nightreign update, From Software's latest patch is adding some balance adjustments to the powerful abilities that come with the legendary sword known as Storm Ruler.

Going forward, it won't take as long to charge the storm effect and the animation speed of the blade will be faster. Overall, the performance of Storm Ruler will be increased, even when the attack power isn't charged with the storm. However, those upgrades come with a tweak that removes the bug that allowed players to use Storm Ruler without burning through FP.

The update also includes a number of other bug fixes, including one that addresses slowdown for other players when using too many Sorceries and Incantations. Performance issues appear to have been the main problems addressed in the patch, but there were others as well, including a bug that prevented some attacks of the Everdark Sovereign Caligo, Miasma of Night from hitting other players.

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Unlike many other multiplayer first-person shooters on the market, the Battlefield franchise hasn't always been keen to allow players to check their stats through the game's menus. That philosophy hasn't changed with Battlefield 6, as the multiplayer beta offers no way to check your account stats in-game. However, that doesn't mean you can't view your stats using an alternative method.

Fortunately for the community, EA has revealed a completely safe and official way to check all of your pertinent player stats in the Battlefield 6 beta.

How to view player stats in Battlefield 6

At the time of writing, you can only check your stats from the first weekend of the open beta in Battlefield 6. This should be expanded to include the second weekend after it concludes and eventually the full game when it releases in October. EA hasn't officially confirmed whether the stat-checking method will be a part of the full launch, but there's no reason to expect it won't be available.

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Some Terraria players charge into battle swinging broadswords, others rain arrows from afar, and then some prefer to watch the world burn from a safe distance. If your idea of fun involves turning mana into spectacular destruction, Terraria’s magic weapons are your bread and butter. From humble sparks to kaleidoscopic death rays, these staves of sorcery are the ultimate tools for mages looking to leave a scorching impression.

Magic wands in Terraria are more than just damage sticks. The best ones combine range, style, and special effects that can turn tricky boss fights into theatrical light shows. Our picks cover every stage of the game, from your first foray into the forests to the celestial gauntlet at the very end. Whether you’re into precise spellwork or screen-filling chaos, here’s what you should have in your arsenal.

Table of Contents [hide]

• Pre-Hardmode
  • Wand of Sparking
  Pre-HardmodeTerraria's Wand of Sparking in actionWand of Sparking
  • Damage: 14
  • Mana cost: 2
  • Knockback: 0
  • Critical chance: 14%
  • Speed: 26 (Average)

  If you’re fresh out of character creation and still rocking copper tools, the Wand of Sparking is your first taste of arcane power. It’s not subtle, shooting tiny flames with modest damage, but it’s notably accessible. You can find it in surface chests or wooden crates from fishing, meaning there’s a decent chance you’ll be clearing out caves and singeing zombies before you’ve even built a proper house.

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My first Evo was all the way back in 2003, when it was held at Cal Poly Pomona. It was a ragtag yet passionate operation where a bunch of weirdos crammed into one of the university's big halls to play fighting games and watch the best of the best from across North America (and the Japanese players they convinced to come attend) duke it out. There were a bunch of PlayStation 2 consoles and arcade machines, a few projection screens, and some seats if you wanted to either watch or play some games. There were no ads or major announcements--the entertainment during downtime consisted of fan-made combo videos and somebody playing the overhead levels of Contra III. Despite all of the tech hiccups and the obvious drive to run things as cheaply as possible, we all loved it there.

Never would I have dreamed that, almost a quarter-century later, Evo would become one of gaming's most-talked-about annual events: a celebration of love and community in fighting games that even people not really into the genre would tune in to watch online. Evo now occupies an entire, massive hall in the Las Vegas Convention Center, where thousands of players from around the world come for a chance to compete and share their passion for fighting games in a variety of ways--be it entering tournaments, running side events, drawing and selling art in the Artists Alley, cosplaying, or just playing casual sets all day with people they've never met before. In a way, the main Evo event has morphed from a tournament into a full-blown fighting game convention, where the tournaments are now just a major part of the show, not necessarily the sole reason why many of the people are there.

But with that rapid growth has come a massive price tag. If you didn't purchase admission early, a weekend competition pass to Evo 2025 was around $250, plus $10 for each of the official tournament games you wanted to enter. If you paid early and just wanted to watch or play casuals with other attendees, that would still set you back $180. That's not taking into account all of the other expenses: gas or airfare to get to Las Vegas, and then lodging, transportation, food once you're there. And that doesn't take into account a bunch of other miscellaneous expenses you might unexpectedly run into (Is your joystick bag too big? That's a checked-bag fee). Sure, there are ways to cut costs--the tried-and-true method of cramming a gaggle of people into a single hotel room is a favorite--but oftentimes they can wind up costing just as much or more. Staying at a cheaper hotel that's farther away from the LVCC? The moment you step into 105-degree Vegas summer heat, you're going to ditch the idea of walking and get a Lyft instead.

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The storytellers behind Blizzard's Story and Franchise Development team have decided to unionize. Following the results of a union-authorization vote, Blizzard's SFD will now join the Communications Workers of America in Orange County, California. Additionally, Microsoft has voluntarily recognized the SFD team's union vote.

There have been two previous unionization votes at Blizzard in the past year. In July 2024, the developers behind World of Warcraft voted to unionize and joined CWA. The Overwatch 2 team passed a similar vote in May 2025, and also joined CWA.

One of the SFD union organizers, Buddy Fisk, shared a statement through CWA citing the increasingly frequent layoffs in the video game industry as a driving force behind this vote.

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Nearly five years into the lifespan of the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 consoles, many live-service games still support the previous generation's Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but the number is always at risk of dropping. Today, Krafton announced it would be the next developer to end support for those last-gen consoles, as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will no longer be supported on Xbox One and PS4 beginning November 13.

Xbox One and PS4 support for PUBG will be shut off "during live server maintenance on November 13, 2025," according to the announcement post on PUBG's official website. The server maintenance will also make enhancements to the current-gen versions, including upgraded resolution and frame-rate options.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

"It weighs heavily on us to deliver this news to our console players who have enjoyed PUBG on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for so many years," the announcement post reads. "This was not a decision made lightly. It comes after long and careful consideration, in pursuit of the continued growth and long-term future of PUBG Console. We kindly ask for your understanding."

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Congressman Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, has issued a call to the developers of Roblox to "do more" to help protect children amid ongoing reports that the platform is not doing enough to safeguard young people from bad actors.

"There is a growing issue in our country with Roblox, an online gaming platform, and the abuse of children," Khanna said in a video posted to TikTok. "Roblox is simply not doing enough to protect our kids, to inform parents, and to go after child predators. As you know, I am leading the fight for the full release of the Epstein files. I believe in transparency and I believe in protecting our children."

Khanna said he's urging people to sign a petition to "push Roblox to do more," asking for 1 million signatures by Friday, August 15. "We need to keep our kids safe online," he said.

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Magic: The Gathering's crossover with Avatar: The Last Airbender releases November 21, and preorders just went live on Amazon. Store pages are also live at Best Buy, but none of the products are available to purchase at the time of writing. The Avatar MTG set has multiple booster boxes, a pair of Scene Boxes, the always-popular $70 bundle, and the Beginner Box, a $35 set designed for new players to learn how to play MTG with the Avatar: The Last Airbender set.

Preorder at Amazon

We've listed all of the Avatar: The Last Airbender Magic: The Gathering products below.

Magic: The Gathering x Avatar: The Last Airbender

• Beginner Box -- $35
• Avatar: The Last Airbender Bundle -- $70
• Scene Box 1 - The Black Sun Invasion -- $42
• Scene Box 2 - Tea Time at The Jasmine Dragon -- $42
• Commander's Bundle -- $110
• Jumpstart Booster Box -- $167.76
• Play Booster Box -- $209.70
• Jumpstart Pack -- $14
• Play Booster Sleeve -- $7
• Collector Booster Pack -- $40
• Collector Booster Box -- $430

Avatar: The Last Airbender x Magic: The Gathering

Like all MTG crossovers with major franchises, the Avatar: The Last Airbender crossover will be popular. If you're interested in adding some Avatar MTG cards to your collection, securing your preorders early is a good idea. Many of the Final Fantasy Magic products sold out long before launch, and most of the products in the Spider-Man Magic: The Gathering set are sold out ahead of the Marvel hero's MTG debut next month.

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Dragon Age: Origins was the start of a long-running and beloved series at BioWare, but it wasn't always meant to be. Former executive producer Mark Darrah, who worked for BioWare from 1998 through 2022, said that the game was conceived as a standalone story, and that you can still see that intent in some unresolved story threads.

"Dragon Age: Origins originally was intended as a standalone game," Darrah told MrMattyPlays (via PC Gamer). "You can see this, if you play Dragon Age: Origins, knowing that it was intended to stand alone. There's a lot of threads that are cast out that kind of had to be abandoned because there could be werewolves all over the world, there might be a civil war happening underground in Orzammar." He said those elements were good for world-building but were difficult to deal with as an ongoing series.

Dragon Age became known as BioWare's fantasy series alongside the sci-fi Mass Effect. Both had ongoing stories that respected your earlier choices, including the ability to import your saves from Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 into the third game, Dragon Age: Inquisition. Or, you could customize a set of pre-set choices to build the world of Thedas to your liking. But accounting for all those choices in the third game meant that they could only be so impactful while still telling new original stories, because the studio hadn't counted on needing to pay off every decision from Origins into later games. Then Origins was a success, and the company was inclined to iterate with sequels.

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Battlefield 6's open beta returns on August 14 for its second and final weekend of testing, and now Battlefield Studios has outlined what to expect, including playlist changes, a nice new feature, and more.

For Weekend 2, more playlists will rotate between different game modes. For example, the All-Out Warfare playlist will feature Breakthrough, Conquest, and Rush for the second weekend.

"Rotating through multiple modes within playlists helps us understand what our community enjoys as we shape the launch experience, and enables us to keep more fan-favorite modes available at the same time," Battlefield Studios said.

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