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Game Updates

Alleged Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra fight video shows Black Panther having an Angry Cat moment in a bar

by admin September 21, 2025

Development footage of what appears to be upcoming superhero action game Marvel 1943: Rise Of Hydra has exploded upon the internet like Black Panther clawing his way into a seedy Parisian bar and flinging himself at alt-fascist soldiers in a whirlwind of kicked chairs and bursting bottles. This also being the content of said video.

Assuming the leaked goods are the Real McCoy, they suggest that the game will be a fast and furious brawler with a fair amount of environment destruction, which is probably what you’re expecting from a game with Azzuri and Steve Rogers on the poster.

The footage comes to us via MP1st, who attribute it to “a developer who worked on the game”, and say it was created between 2022 and 2023, but do not link to the portfolio that originally contained it.

They’ve also found a selection of images that show various possible Marvel 1943 environments, including a plush lamp-lit hallway, a vast cavern entrance with dangling stalactites, a bunch of building-top areas with glass conservatory roofs, and a hazy nocturnal view of searchlights over what is presumably Paris.

Assuming it’s the Genuine MacGyver, the leaked Black Panther video is very clearly WIP. The fixed camera perspective suggests that it’s an internal test, knocked together to illustrate the flow of a typical Marvel 1943 fight scene. As such, we should be careful about reading too much into it. But I have to say, I do enjoy the 5am cat energy here.

If you live with a younger feline, you’ll be familiar with that time of day when they Catch The Crazy and start zipping about, striking amateur ninjitsu poses and climbing every nearby human bodypart/piece of furniture. I’d love it if Black Panther had a Zoomies mode that caused him to spontaneously sit on Captain America’s face. I’d love it if he had a special terrain execution that consisted of hiding under the sofa and slashing people’s feet off. “D’awww,” the abbreviated sturmtruppen of Hydra would coo, clutching their bloody stumps. “What on Earth is going through his ickle head.”

Developed by Skydance New Media and published by Plaion, with former Naughty Dog scribe Amy Hennig on-board to produce and co-write, Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra is the story of Captain America and the Panther fighting Hydra in occupied France, though part of it is set in Wakanda. It’s inspired by the comicbook series Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers.

Announced in 2024, the game is slated to land in early 2026. Which is not that far away, and Plaion have shown us little of the game beyond a couple of ‘cinematic’ trailers. I’ll ask them if they have any comment on this footage, and when we can see more of the game.

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September 21, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Xbox Series X/S Is Going Up In Price Again In The United States

by admin September 21, 2025

Just four months after the last time it did it, Xbox is raising the prices of the Series X/S consoles in the United States to a number I don’t think any of us could have fathomed in 2019 when Microsoft announced the system at the Game Awards.

Microsoft announced this on the Xbox support website, saying that the price changes will go into effect on October 3, and are “due to changes in the macroeconomic environment.”

The new prices are as follows:

Xbox Series S 512 $399.99 (up $20 from $379.99)
Xbox Series S 1TB $449.99 (up $20 from 429.99)
Xbox Series X Digital $599.99 (up $50 from $549.99)
Xbox Series X $649.99 (up $50 from $599.99)
Xbox Series X 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition $799.99 (up $70 from $729.99)

We can probably infer that the “macroeconomic environment” Microsoft gestures at is related to the Trump administration’s tariffs that are affecting a lot of video game companies, not just Xbox. PlayStation 5s also saw a similar price increase just last month. That said, Xbox raising the price of the Xbox Series X/S not once, but twice in just one year is absolutely bonkers. Remember when consoles used to get cheaper as a generation went on? Usually, by now, five years into a console’s lifetime, it would have probably seen at least one price drop. Now games are becoming more expensive and more unaffordable for a lot of people. We live in backwards times.

If you were planning on getting an Xbox Series X or S, you’ve got a couple of weeks left before the price change takes effect. Though I’d also understand if this made you not want to buy one at all.

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September 21, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Microsoft Is Raising Xbox Prices In The US Again

by admin September 20, 2025

If you were planning on getting an Xbox console for the holidays, you might want to act sooner rather than later, because Microsoft has just announced that it’s once again raising the price of its consoles starting October 3.

Beginning October 3, the most affordable Xbox on the market, the 512GB Xbox Series S, will cost $400 in the US. The most expensive Xbox Series X model, which comes with a disc drive and two terabytes of storage, will run folks $800. Here are the rest of the price changes to the Xbox lineup:

This is the second price increase that Microsoft has issued this year alone after it raised prices on the consoles earlier this May. In its announcement, Microsoft suggests that these price hikes are “due to changes in the macroeconomic environment.” Prices outside of the US will remain as they are.

The increase in prices for consoles, as well as their games and accessories, has been an alarming trend over the last year and is believed to be connected to tariffs being imposed by the current US administration, though few of these companies have outright come forward and said as much.

Nevertheless, PlayStation similarly raised its prices earlier this year, and the Switch 2 pre-orders were even briefly delayed in the US while Nintendo weighed its options. When the console did finally become available, many of the prices for games and accessories were higher than audiences expected, and just last month, Nintendo even raised the price of the original Switch.

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September 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Helldivers 2 devs Arrowhead pull new Rupture Strain bugs offline for five weeks to fix their, er, bugs

by admin September 20, 2025

Helldivers 2 developers Arrowhead have opted to pull a recently deployed variant of the shooter’s Terminid bugs offline for five weeks, in order to fix issues with them. Yep, for now you can dive onto planets like Oshaune and explore some Into the Unjust update caves without having to worry about burrowing bugs jumping out to mercilessly kick your bottom.

Rupture Warriors have been the main source of Rupture Strain ire since their arrival at the start of this month, as their ability to pop out of the Earth and instantly murder unsuspecting troops has proven tough to counter. At first, those hosting sessions were most at risk of dying like this, but Arrowhead’s attempt to rectify the issue in Tuesday’s patch seemingly put everyone in each party in an equal amount of danger, though some players did dispute this was the case.

Fast forward to now, and the studio have decided the best option is to sub the Rupture Strain out for a little while, until they can return in a more palatable form. “Our patch yesterday combined with other issues regarding the balance of the Rupture Strain have made them function in a way we did not intend,” Arrowhead community manager Katherine ‘Baskinator’ Baskin announced on the game’s Discord server. “We’re going to take the Rupture Strain offline…No other units will be affected. The improved Rupture Strain will be back online in 5 weeks.”

So, there you go, as of 5PM BST on September 17th, the Rupture Strain’s been put back in its box, and will stay there for just over a month while the devs try to persuade those warriors to give folks with machine guns and bombs a fair chance.

A comment an Arrowhead QA lead going by Jojo made in the Discord a couple of days ago sheds a bit more light as to what’s happened since the patch arrived and the Rupture Warriors started mercilessly murdering everyone, rather than just session hosts. Apparently the host focusing quirk was down to a “networking issue” that Arrowhead opted to rectify.

“That is a lot more straightforward to fix then tweaking the attacks and was causing some networking issues,” the developer explained. “So it’s unfortunate that the fix means more people are getting hit by an arguably unfair attack, but it was a needed fix. We are looking into how the rupture enemies have landed but thats a broader issue.”

That look’s clearly convinced the studio that this pulling of the enemies offline is the best course of action, so here’s hoping that when they come back online, the issue of their overtuned attacks making them very unpopular to play against will have been taken care of for the long-term.

Bugged bugs aren’t the only problem Arrowhead have had to grapple with after deploying Into the Unjust, with the days following its arrival plagued by technical gremlins that, to be fair, the studio were quick to say they’d try to sort, even if they weren’t keen on doing a patch that only featured performance tweaks.

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September 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Amazon Is Offloading This 1500W Power Station That Charges 7 Devices at Once and Weighs Almost Nothing

by admin September 20, 2025

Portable power stations are basically power banks amplified designed to charge all your devices and even serve as back-up power in case of a power outage. They’re really handy, surprisingly light and convenient to take with you wherever you go. Today, on the eve of Prime Day, Amazon has slashed the price on the Jackery Explorer 1000 (v2) to an all-time low of only $448, down from its normal $799 which is a fantastic deal for anyone looking for trustworthy portable power on the move.

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The Power Bank That Travels Everywhere

The Jackery Explorer 1000 is a portable powerhouse that can pack serious punch without weighing you down. Its 1,070Wh LiFePO4 battery life means you have enough juice to power multiple appliances like your AC unit, refrigerator, or electric stove, making it a camp lifesaver, road trip companion or emergency power outage rescuer. All that power and yet it only weighs 23.8 pounds and comes with a foldable handle so you can simply grab and leave whenever.

One of the things that is truly awesome is the 1,500W continuous AC output and 3,000W surge power which makes it possible for it to start devices that need a pre-initial power boost and keep them running effectively. The fast charging feature is a lifesaver which allows you to charge the entire device from zero to full in as little as one hour when you’re using emergency charging through the Jackery App. Typically, the unit charges in approximately 1.7 hours to maintain battery health, trading speed for smart care with the advanced ChargeShield 2.0 technology.

With two USB-C, one USB-A, a DC automobile port, and three true sine wave AC outlets, the Explorer 1000 can power an array of devices simultaneously (smartphones, laptops, cameras, and even small appliances). The 100W USB-C Power Delivery port assures rapid charging of compatible devices without requiring cumbersome power adapters, further enhancing the convenience in being able to go anywhere or respond to unforeseen power failures in your home.

If there was ever a time to take advantage of a portable power station that will never let you down, that time is now with this record-low price.

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September 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Get Nine Remedy PC Games For Only $27, Including Alan Wake 2 And Control

by admin September 20, 2025

Remedy Entertainment has made some of the best games of the last several years, including Alan Wake 2 and Control, and thanks to a new Humble Bundle, has made it possible to snag the studio’s entire oeuvre for a ridiculously low price. The Remedy 30th Anniversary Bundle includes up to nine of the studio’s game for $27. A portion of the proceeds for each bundle go to charity. In this case, it’s Save the Children, which works to improve the lives of children around the world and to help protect them when disasters strike. You can also increase your donation by choosing to pay more than the bundle price. This is an awesome deal, but you’ll want to grab the bundle soon, as it’s only available through October 10.

Get 9 games for $27 until October 10.

Here’s the full list of what you get in the Remedy 30th Anniversary Bundle:

Pay $27 or more

Alan Wake 2 – Deluxe Edition (Epic Games Store)
Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (Steam)
Alan Wake Collector’s Edition (Steam)
Alan Wake Remastered (Steam)
Control Ultimate Edition (Steam)
Death Rally (Steam)
Max Payne (Steam)
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (Steam)
Quantum Break (Steam)
Coupon Code: 25% off FBC: Firebreak

In total, you’re looking at $238 worth of PC games for just $27.

Pay $5 or more

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (Steam)
Death Rally (Steam)
Max Payne (Steam)
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (Steam)

Pay $12 or more

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (Steam)
Alan Wake Collector’s Edition (Steam)
Alan Wake Remastered (Steam)
Control Ultimate Edition (Steam)
Death Rally (Steam)
Max Payne (Steam)
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (Steam)
Quantum Break (Steam)

While the full $27 bundle offers the best value since it’s the only tier that includes Alan Wake 2, there are two lower-priced tiers, too. The cheapest tier is just $5 and includes the arcade racer Death Rally, the gritty noir third-person shooters Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, and Alan Wake: American Nightmare, which is a standalone expansion to the first Alan Wake game. This tier is great if you want to check out the studio’s earliest works. Death Rally is an interesting one to look back on, since it differs so much from the action and survival horror games the studio is now known for. However, the real standout of this tier are Max Payne and Max Payne 2. Both helped define the third-person shooter genre of their time, and they offer a strange, surreal story that is absolutely worth a visit. The first will be quite clunky by modern standards, but Max Payne 2 holds up pretty well thanks to its more refined storytelling.

If you step up to the $12 tier, you’ll also get Alan Wake Collector’s Edition, Alan Wake Remastered, Quantum Break, and Control Ultimate Edition. At the time, the original Alan Wake was another fascinating genre departure, as Remedy blended influences like Stephen King and Twin Peaks into a unique survival horror thriller. And this tier comes with both the original game and the great remaster. That said, Control is probably the standout of this tier. It stands as one of the best action games of the last several years, combining the studio’s penchant for supernatural sci-fi and third-person action-adventure with a giant metroidvania-style map to explore. It’s also where Remedy really turned up the dial on its universe-building and weird fiction aesthetics. Quantum Break is also worth a look, as its mix of live-action storytelling and gameplay levels is an early example of ideas the studio would later iterate on with Control and Alan Wake 2.

Humble Remedy 30th Anniversary Bundle

Even though it’s more than double the price of the middle tier, the full $27 bundle offers the best value. You’re effectively getting Alan Wake 2’s Deluxe Edition for $15. It’s worth emphasizing that Alan Wake 2 isn’t available on Steam, so this is the only game in the bundle that activates via the Epic Games Store. The Deluxe Edition includes the base game, the Night Springs and Lake House story expansions, and a additional DLC like costumes for Alan and Saga.

Alan Wake 2 is one of the rare games we’ve awarded a 10/10, with GameSpot reviewer Mark Delaney saying “The mere existence of an Alan Wake 2 would have, at different points over the years, felt like a minor miracle, but for it to be this one, that feels singular in its achievements, and coming from a studio that refuses to shy away from the paths less traveled, makes Alan Wake 2 a miracle.”

Console players who don’t yet own Alan Wake 2 can get the physical Deluxe Edition for PS5 or Xbox Series X for $50 (was $60) at Amazon. The console version includes all of the DLC plus a voucher to claim a digital copy of Alan Wake Remastered.

If you’re looking for even more Remedy goodness, you should check out the novelizations of both Alan Wake and Quantum Break, both available on Amazon. The book version of Alan Wake draws the story together in a way that flows a little more clearly and concretely than the game–you can’t miss picking up hidden manuscript pages when you’re reading a book. Meanwhile, Quantum Break: Zero State is more adaptation than novelization, since it doesn’t include that game’s player-driven choices, and provides a different angle on the game’s events and its smart approach to time travel. illuminated.”

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September 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Dying Light: The Beast is out, dark, Steam Deck Verified

by admin September 20, 2025

Parkoury zombie bludgeoner Dying Light: The Beast has, literally just this minute, gone on sale, which means the review embargo curtain has lifted on RPS to reveal… an empty chair with an IOU stuck to it.

This one is my bad, rather than because of any cheeky code withholding. I’d simply underestimated how many trillions of PC games were also out this week, and had to abandon my charge through The Beast to help keep the undermanned Treehouse on top of things elsewhere. Still, we’ll shortly be bringing you a full, likely much better appraisal from RPS veteran Dominic Tarason (thaaaaaanks Dominic), and in penance, I offer some initial impressions from my couple of hours with the game’s opening.

Firstly, Techland weren’t kidding about the nighttime. In response to complaints that the nocturnally inclined zombs of Dying Light 2: Stay Human weren’t sufficiently scary after the sun goes down, The Beast looks to put more horror back in the darkness. Successfully, in the mind of this wimp. Between the night’s pitch blackness, the keyring LED you call a torch, and the sprinting, lethally hench super-zeds that aren’t at all keen on sharing the game’s rooftops, any sort of freerunning you were flexing with during the daylight hours is effectively reduced to nervous shimmying through the void.

Yet it still feels like you’re supposed to be chased back to the safehouse by these burly Volatile bois now and then, in which case panic and near-blindness become enemies in themselves. Several attempts to survive my first night ended with my shinbones shooting up into my lungs, the stress of a pursuit having overwhelmed my ability to consider whether a roof-to-roof jump was actually doable before I hurled myself into the cobbles below. It’s not always “fun”, strictly speaking. But it is decent horror.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Techland

If anything, The Beast’s brighter hours could do with more of this urgency. The bread-and-butter meleeing benefits from some nicely heavy hittin’ sticks, but the actual swinging sensation is on the wrong side of sluggish, at least in these early stages. The first two bosses aren’t that exhilarating either: they require little in the way of sharp timing or last-gasp dodging, outside of a few repeating, heavily telegraphed attacks.

Visually and practically, they’re also just minor variations on the same ‘What if a ghoul was taller and shredded’ concept, which somewhat saps the excitement out of your stated mission of hunting and killing as many of these souped- up zeds as possible. Fleeting thrills can be had in the moments when you transform into a berzerking monsterman yourself, ripping off limbs and punching through chest cavities, but the time limit on this literal beast mode seems disappointingly stingy, considering how many regular shovel hits it takes to build up the gauge.

Again, mind, I’d only got two hours into what is supposedly a 20-hour-plus campaign. And I was similarly insta-fatigued by Borderlands 4, which apparently ain’t half bad once it gets rolling. Maybe I really should stick to hardware, in which case, I’ll note that Dying Light: The Beast has also been granted Verified status for the Steam Deck – justifiably so, as it repeatedly breached 60fps on my Steam Deck OLED when running in Performance mode. There is the slight hitch of an Epic Game Store pop-up asking on launch if you want to sync accounts, but it doesn’t throw up any serious non-Steam-app compatibility woes, and can be banished with a tap of the B button on subsequent boots.

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September 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Say No to $100 Speakers, This Anker Alternative Is Nearly Free on Amazon

by admin September 20, 2025

Premium brands love charging $100, $200, even $300 for Bluetooth speakers but a lot of the time, you’re paying for the label more than the performance. If you want real bang for your buck, the Anker Soundcore 2 is a fantastic choice. Now, with Amazon dropping the price from $45 to just $29, this deal is too good to pass up.

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A Pocket Powerhouse That Delivers Where It Counts

The Soundcore 2 isn’t your average small speaker: Inside its compact body hides a powerful 12W output, delivered through dual neodymium drivers engineered to produce rich sound even at higher volumes. One of its standout features is the BassUp technology which selectively boosts low frequencies in real time and makes bass tones punchier without causing distortion.

One of the big concerns when buying a portable speaker is durability and resistance to weather conditions: The Soundcore 2 handles that with an IPX7 rating of waterproofing. It’s a level of protection that can keep it underwater for full submersion up to 1 meter for 30 minutes. It also makes it easy to clean it up—just wash off and go.

Anker’s famed power management combined with a 5,200mAh lithium-ion battery lets this speaker run for up to 24 hours on a single charge. That’s enough to last a full day of work or travel without constantly hunting for an outlet. Plus, fast charge technology means you’re back to full power quickly and makes it ready for your next adventure.

Portability is never sacrificed: Tipping the scales at about half a pound and measuring small enough to fit into backpacks, purses, or big pockets with ease, it fits easily in your pocket. The looks are clean and minimalist, and the controls are uncomplicated enough that anyone can become familiar with them quickly. And talking of Bluetooth, the new Bluetooth 5.0 standard ensures reliable and low-latency connections with your device and improved range.

If expensive Bluetooth speakers are out of your budget, then this Anker Soundcore 2 deal shows you don’t have to take out a second mortgage on a quality portable speaker that’s rugged, sounds great, and plays all day on one battery charge.

See at Amazon

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September 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Octopath Traveler 0: Trailers, Release Date, And Everything We Know About Square-Enix’s New JRPG

by admin September 20, 2025

There’s been a resurgence of interest in turn-based RPGs in recent times–and, it seems, not enough new big-name titles in the space to appease eager fans. Thankfully for players who’re craving some of the finest JRPG combat out there, Square-Enix has a brand new installment in its popular Octopath Traveler series set for release this December on consoles and PC. Fear not, eager adventurers–we’ve got all the information we know about OT0 right here, including release specifics, trailers, and gameplay details so you’ll be ready for your adventure.

When Will Octopath Traveler 0 be released?

Thankfully, you won’t have to wait too long for a hearty dose of turn-based JRPG goodness. As was announced during the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, Octopath Traveler 0 will release on December 4, 2025–giving you plenty of time during the holiday break to dig deep into what’s likely to be a lengthy adventure.

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Now Playing: OCTOPATH TRAVELER 0 – Official Announcement Trailer

Preorder Octopath Traveler 0

Octopath Traveler 0 will be available digitally in both standard and digital deluxe editions. The standard edition will be $49.99, and is available both physically and digitally. You can purchase the physical editions for Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series on Amazon.

The digital deluxe edition, which includes a digital art book, three starting Action Skills (Triple Strike Mastery, SP Saver Master and Extra JP Mastery), alongside extra expendable combat items and special decorations for your town, is available exclusively through download storefronts and retails for $59.99.

The physical Collector’s Edition, which includes all of the Digital Deluxe extras alongside a bevy of physical goodies pictured below in a big collector box, is available exclusively on the Square Enix Online Store for $229.99.

All Octopath Traveler 0 pre-orders include the “Travel Provisions” item set, which contains five Healing Grape (M), five Inspiriting Plum (M), two Revitalizing Jam, and the Icewind Mastery Action Skill.

Check out the Octopath Traveler 0 trailer

With OT0’s Nintendo Direct reveal came a trailer and snippets of gameplay. As we can see, the game still boasts its trademark HD-2D visuals and strategic turn-based combat. There are intriguing new additions shown briefly, as well, including a glimpse at the game’s town-rebuilding mechanic and character creation.

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Octopath Traveler 0 platforms

Octopath Traveler 0 will be available on the majority of current platforms: Xbox Series, PlayStation 4 and 5, Switch and Switch 2, and PC.

Octopath Traveler 0 story, setting, and characters

Octopath Traveler 0 is loosely based on the mobile game Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. It takes place on Orsterra, the same setting as CotC and the original Octopath Traveler. During the Day of Reverence ceremony in Wishvale, the city is attacked and razed to the ground, leaving your created character with the task of both rebuilding and seeking revenge on those responsible.

The reveal trailer introduces a few story characters: Stia, an Architect who is the player character’s childhood friend; Phenn, a watchful Huntsman; and Laurana, a Cleric. Square Enix claims that there will be over 30 playable characters in total, and they will all have some unique abilities. Further character reveals include Celsus the thief, Alexia the Scholar, Ludo the Merchant, Viator the Warrior, and Macy the Apothecary. Antagonists that have been revealed so far include Herminia, the Covetous Witch; Tytos, the Hero; and Auguste, the Playwright.

Octopath Traveler 0 gameplay

Octopath Traveler 0 inherits much of the freeform exploration gameplay of previous titles. There’s no set, linear route you’ll be required to take from beginning to end, though certain areas may be easier than others depending on your party composition, skills, and equipment. You’ll be able to interact with NPCs through various, character-specific Path Actions, such as Entreat (asking NPCs to give you items) and Inquire (pressing NPCs to give you more information). One of the new Path Actions we know is in the game is Invite, which allows you to attempt to bring an NPC to live in your town.

Enemy encounters occur randomly in certain areas, though there are some encounters that are visible on the map–including challenging elite-tier enemies that require some extra power and strategy to take down.

Octopath Traveler 0 combat

Like the original Octopath Traveler and its sequel, Octopath Traveler 0 features turn-based combat in which you aim to strategically target enemy weaknesses to break down their “shields.” When their shields hit 0, they enter a weakened stun state, allowing you a prime opportunity for a big attack. You can also choose to use a Boost during a character’s turn to enhance their skills’ effectiveness. What makes OT0’s combat different is that up to eight characters can join in, up from four in OT and OT2. The front-row characters are active in combat, while the back-row team provides various boosts. You can switch characters between rows in battle, as well, opening up new strategies. For more details on combat, read our Octopath Traveler 0 Gamescom preview.

Octopath Traveler 0’s new features

Some big new mechanics have been introduced in Octopath Traveler 0. One such new element is town-building, which you’ll use to reconstruct Wishdale. In this mode, you’ll use materials to place and build structures. As you play, you can recruit characters who will aid in rebuilding in various ways, such as staffing facilities. You can also upgrade these facilities through quests. For more details on town-building, check out our Octopath Traveler 0 preview from Gamescom.

The other big feature is character creation and customization, which we detail below.

How character creation works in Octopath Traveler 0

Since all of its characters are drawn in 2D pixel art, character creation in Octopath Traveler 0 is a bit different from many of the 3D titles that offer the feature. You’ll be able to select a base gender, small facial details (eye appearance and color), hairstyle and hair color, skin tone, victory/action poses, voice, and name. Going from the trailer, you’ll also be able to choose a starting Learned Skill (likely similar to Hikari’s mechanic in Octopath Traveler II), starting job, a favorite food (which gives specific stat boosts), and starting gear.

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September 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Study into inverted versus uninverted controls suggests we can stop having pointless arguments about it

by admin September 20, 2025

To invert or not to invert? The question of whether to flip the Y-axis in games is often answered with recollections of childhood habits and/or varyingly smug declarations of which joystick setting is ‘better’. Now, though, a cognitive research study posits that our control preferences are less about whether or not we played GoldenEye after school and more about the innate quirks of our brains.

As reported by Keith Stuart at The Guardian, Dr Jennifer Corbett and Dr Jaap Munneke’s paper ‘Why axis inversion? Optimizing interactions between users, interfaces, and visual displays in 3D environments’ details their experiments into control inversion choices. After answering a questionnaire about whether and why they think they use invert controls or not, participants were tasked to, as Corbett puts it, “mentally rotate random shapes, take on the perspective of an ‘avatar’ object in a picture, determine which way something was tilted in differently tilted backgrounds, and overcome the typical ‘Simon effect’ where it’s harder to respond when a target is on the opposite v the same side of the screen as the response button.”

These experiments, the study claims, indicated that none of the participants’ stated reasons for rejecting or embracing inversion “had anything to do” with their actual choice. “It turns out,” Corbett says, “the most predictive out of all the factors we measured was how quickly gamers could mentally rotate things and overcome the Simon effect. The faster they were, the less likely they were to invert. People who said they sometimes inverted were by far the slowest on these tasks.”

Or, as Stuart puts it, “It’s much more likely that you invert or don’t invert due to how your brain perceives objects in 3D space.” And the speed factor doesn’t mean that electing to invert is a skill issue either, as the study adds that while non-inverters would flip their images at a faster pace, they’d make more mistakes than the cautious inverters, resulting in an overall equal accuracy rate.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

I suspect my C grade in GCSE Biology isn’t quite enough to let me give a learned interpretation of these findings, but it sure sounds like the desire to invert is based mainly on unconscious brainworkings – hardly sure footing for any “No, MY way is better” reasoning. Though on a personal level it’s nice to know, as someone who’s always inverted the Y axis on thumbstick controls but can’t remember a reason why, that I don’t actually need a reason. It’s just how I perceive objects in 3D space, guys. I shall continue to go around gaming trade shows, flipping the sticks at all the demo booths and forgetting to reset them, thus leaving a trail of harmless inconveniences like a hallway full of slightly tilted paintings. And it’ll all be fine, because it was basically an accident of birth.

Then again, the study doesn’t entirely reject the impact of learned behaviour, and in fact suggests we try practicing the opposite of our control preference – just in case we’ve convinced ourselves to stick with a method that isn’t a cognitive match.

“Non-inverters should give inversion a try – and inverters should give non-inversion another shot,” Corbett argues. “You might even want to force yourself to stick with it for a few hours. People have learned one way. That doesn’t mean they won’t learn another way even better.

“A good example is being left-handed. Until the mid-20th century, left-handed children were forced to write with their right hand, causing some people to have lifelong handwriting difficulties and learning problems. Many older adults still don’t realise they’re naturally left-handed and could write/draw much better if they switched back.”

Sometimes, when I’m running a quick test of something on the Steam Deck, I leave the Y-axis uninverted just because I can’t be bothered to delve into the menus to change it. Does that count?

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September 20, 2025 0 comments