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Borderlands 4 Legendary Weapons and Items list

One of Borderlands’ most hated characters seems to have been cut from Borderlands 4

by admin October 7, 2025

It looks like one of the most disliked characters in the Borderlands series may have been cut from Borderlands 4, according to datamined file names posted online.

As posted by to EpicNNG, a Borderlands content creator and dataminer who previously led an archival effort for the defunct Chinese Borderlands MMO, files exist within Borderlands 4 that explicitly name a character called Ava. This character, introduced during Borderlands 3, proved quite divisive when series fans first met her back in 2019.

These Borderlands 4 files, posted in screenshot form on X by EpicNNG, include assets seemingly tied to her bubble (a Siren ability she was shown to have had in Borderlands 3), as well as moments in the game when she’d be accompanying Zane throughout the story.

Watch the Borderlands 4 story trailer here!Watch on YouTube

These files indicate that Ava may have been totally replaced by another character: Amara. Notably Amara is introduced to the play alongside Hermes (Ava’s pet from Borderlands 3), and by the crashed Sanctuary ship from Borderlands 3 no less. So such inferences based on breadcrumbs left in the files aren’t baseless.

It’s worth noting that these small files datamined from the game are the only evidence available that Ava was at one point part of Borderlands 4. There has been no model discovered, nor audio files.

If Ava was originally intended to be part of Borderlands 4’s narrative as these datamined files suggest, then this would mark a fairly substantial U-turn for the game during development. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford asked the community roughly a year ago what players thought of Ava, and got a passionate response from both those who disliked the character, and those willing to give her a second shot.

Similarly, Gearbox added a Claptrap sound slider to the game, as many fans found the character to be a tad grating to listen to. A smart move, as the option itself is good joke that Borderlands fans could appreciate.

Ava has yet to be confirmed as a returning character in upcoming DLC at all, so this may very well be the closest she comes to appearing in Borderlands 4. Or maybe she’ll make a grand return to the game at a later date. The fact she was considered at all indicates there was some appetite to bring her back a few in-universe years after her grand introduction.

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October 7, 2025 0 comments

An AI-generated Goku fires an energy beam off-screen.

Game Updates

OpenAI Boldly Uses Copyrighted Characters Like Pikachu In Sora 2

by admin October 2, 2025

Generative AI continues to plague every creative industry you care about, and despite the obvious copyright infringement and legal cases that surround it, companies like OpenAI keep training their models on licensed art. Sora, OpenAI’s video generation model, launched its updated “Sora 2” model on September 30. The app trains itself on copyrighted material by default, with the burden on copyright holders to actively opt out of it. As a result, there’s a lot of AI-generated slop leaking out onto the internet featuring huge characters you know and love.

I tested the AI model Sora 2 on classic anime, the result is hardly believable…

I can already see the hundreds of fanmades and parodies that are going to come out! Sora 2 is definitely a new step in AI anime.. pic.twitter.com/npWkSJjjML

— Naegiko (@naegiko) September 30, 2025

I am not going to be posting a ton of these or anything but just to get extent of the capabilities and copyright violations of Sora 2, here’s Zagreus riding a scooter through hell (sound on) pic.twitter.com/zCCNNppQ0k

— Paul Tassi (@PaulTassi) October 1, 2025

404 Media has some videos of Pikachu and what appears to be a Nazi version of SpongeBob SquarePants doing everything from ASMR to boxing matches. By default, Sora 2 can generate animated videos of almost any copyrighted material you prompt it with because genAI companies seem to think the rules governing how copyright IP is typically handled don’t apply to them. So now, companies like Nickelodeon and Nintendo will have to hit OpenAI up to tell the company to stop using their characters and iconography, rather than the other way around. It’s a bold strategy considering that Disney, NBC, and Warner Bros. are all suing Midjourney for using characters from their IP. Artists who work on the Magic: The Gathering card game have also sued Midjourney for scraping their artwork to train the generative AI model.

The Pokémon Company may not be taking immediate action against the Department of Homeland Security for using its characters in a video posted to social media, but I can’t imagine the litigious company is going to sit by while Pikachu’s image is used in AI slop that puts the mascot in a bad light. We’ve reached out to The Pokémon Company, Supergiant Games, and Toei Animation about their respective characters appearing in videos generated by the app.

On top of the slop featuring copyrighted characters, Sora 2 seems to let people make deepfakes of themselves or public figures. The new app has a TikTok-like feed that lets you endlessly scroll through the generated videos, and if you scroll long enough, you might see deepfakes of real people, despite OpenAI claiming it has safeguards in place to protect people from this. Some have even reported seeing some wild shit, like a blackface version of actor Scarlett Johansson performing in the musical Hamilton. OpenAI notably got into legal hot water with the actor last year when the company was using a voice that sounded very similar to her performance as an AI in the movie Her for its own ChatGPT AI chatbot.

I literally have seen someone posting on Twitter a version of Hamilton where Scarlett Johansson is in it.

On top of this likely costing OpenAI a dollar a second to generate, they are potentially going to get sued into a fine paste by multiple different parties

— Ed Zitron (@edzitron.com) 2025-09-30T23:13:44.116Z

The entire thing seems like a series of legal battles in the making, but it also has some artists and animators disheartened as the possibility looms that animation companies may be increasingly inclined to use it to cut costs at the expense of a human touch.

Man, sometimes i feel like giving up as a real animator when I look at this.
AI animation is advancing way faster than I expected. I knew it was coming, but not at this speed. In five years, it might be impossible for real animators to keep up. Honestly…holy shit. I’m genuinely… https://t.co/GIxgbIi97i

— Devil Artemis Animation (@DevilArtemisX) October 2, 2025

don’t let shit like this make you give up on pursuing art/animation

no matter what AI can do, nothing can take away the satisfaction/pride of knowing the work you’ve created was made entirely by your own hands.

and not because you wrote a quick little prompt on a keyboard https://t.co/TjiTfaf3g8

— kornkob🇦🇺🇱🇦 COMMS OPEN 3 SLOTS (@imkornkob) October 2, 2025

Personally, I think that even if these videos look better than they did a year ago, they still look like shit. Even the more fluid, action-packed scenes Sora generates still have clear tells of AI generation, like unnatural shifts and glitches in the animation. But for any who hope to use this to cut costs, quality is probably not a priority. Bigwigs who insist that AI is the future only do so because they’re the ones who stand to benefit from it, while the artists who create and the people who enjoy their work get the short end of the stick. Maybe some of IP lawyers will step in and try to put a stop to it all, but it sometimes feels like every time one AI slop machine gets taken down, another one sprouts up in its place.

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October 2, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds leak reveals more iconic characters coming to its roster, which retro fans will love

by admin September 20, 2025

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds still has some DLC to come, as physical copies show yet-to-be-revealed characters on their way to the kart racer.

As the CrossWorlds name suggests, this latest Sonic Racing game includes crossovers with a bunch of other franchises, both from Sega and other studios. The likes of Hatsune Miku, Minecraft’s Steve, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Pac-Man have all been revealed, among others.

Yet physical copies are now out in the wild ahead of the game’s release on 25th September, revealing more characters on the way.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds – Come Race on Our Level CommercialWatch on YouTube

As shared on reddit, a flyer inside the box features logos for crossover franchises. It includes Capcom’s Megaman, who has yet to be officially revealed, suggesting we’ll be able to race around as the iconic hero.

Guys… I think Mega Man may have an unexpected return…
byu/Wrong-Minute-1319 inSonicTheHedgehog

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Sonic fan pages Sonic Stadium and Tails’ Channel have both confirmed the flyer in social media posts.

What’s more, Sonic Stadium revealed the back of the box features a render of NiGHTS, the jester character from the iconic Sega Saturn game, suggesting another character inclusion yet to be officially announced. It’s unknown if a themed race track will also be added.

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Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds will be out next week across PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC.

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September 20, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Strange New Worlds’ Needs to Imagine More for Its Female Characters

by admin September 18, 2025

Star Trek‘s utopian vision for an equal society, especially in terms of gender equality, has always been a complicated aspect of its idealized vision. It’s true that the franchise has a legacy of beloved, nuanced female characters and has championed putting those characters in the spotlight over six decades of storytelling. But it’s equally true that Star Trek‘s often conservative vision of women in leadership roles, as figures of desire, and as beholden to the stories of male characters has sat hand in hand with that feminist progressivism.

There are perhaps, however, few individual seasons of Star Trek from the past 60 years that reflect that dichotomy more than Strange New Worlds‘ recently concluded third.

On paper, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds arguably has one of the largest groups of female characters in its primary cast. Of the current main crew, just four of the show’s central characters are men—Pike, Spock, M’Benga, and this season’s addition of Martin Quinn as the younger Montgomery Scott—in comparison to six women: Una, Uhura, La’an, Ortegas, Chapel, and Pelia. That gap has only grown over the course of the show’s life, with Pelia replacing former chief engineer Hemmer after season one, and even the increased prominence of guest characters like Paul Wesley’s young Jim Kirk has been balanced by an increasingly prominent role for Melanie Scrofano’s Marie Batel (especially this season, as we’ll get into).

Those female characters have also served to facilitate some of Strange New Worlds‘ standout episodes and arcs thus far as well. Uhura’s initial focus as the new perspective aboard the Enterprise in season one flourished across episodes like “Children of the Comet” or in her mentee relationship with Hemmer. La’an’s history with the Gorn played a significant role in Strange New Worlds‘ characterization of the species (for better or worse), and she was given space to process both that and, in episodes like “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow“, her complicated relationship to Khan and the Augments. Una’s revelation of her Illyrian heritage was made a climactic point in the final moments of the show’s first season, leading to a character-defining turn for actress Rebecca Romijn in the season two episode “Ad Astra Per Aspera“.

But, at times, those female characters were also underserved in those first two seasons—a problem exacerbated by season three, rather than wholly created by it. Nurse Chapel’s arc in the first two seasons largely hinged on her will-they-won’t-they relationship with Spock, fizzling out almost immediately after the two were allowed to get together (shortchanging another great female character in Spock’s Vulcan fiancee, T’Pring, played by guest star Gia Sandhu). Ortegas, meanwhile, was regularly criticized for never really getting her own moment to shine in the show, constantly seeking a storyline outside of a perfunctory exploration of her role as the Enterprise helmsperson (a frustration compounded by the fact that the character, a veteran of Discovery‘s Klingon-Federation war, was only ever allowed to be aggressively distrusting of Klingons or other alien species or simply say things like “I fly the ship”).

Unfortunately, of the various factors that led to Strange New Worlds‘ third season failing to come even close to the mark left by seasons one and two—an experimental breadth of tone and genre leading to more misses than swings, an overreliance on connection to Star Trek‘s past, and an ongoing issue of its episodic format increasingly being in friction with the show’s character work, among other things—one that stood out the most was that these prior issues the show had with underserving some of its female characters suddenly began impacting almost all of them.

Across its third season, it has consistently felt like Strange New Worlds has had little idea of where it wanted to take its characters, but especially so with its female ones. Prior arcs like La’an’s traumatic history with the Gorn were dropped or shuffled onto other characters: Ortegas sustains a nearly fatal injury from a Gorn attack in the season’s premiere, setting her up to take on that arc instead, to mixed results—it’s not touched on notably until the penultimate episode of the season, “Terrarium,” in which she’s forced to work with a similarly stranded Gorn pilot, but Erica’s attitude towards hostile species and her own traumatic memory of her injury are almost immediately dropped in the episode with little examination as to why.

Una’s relationship as an Illyrian, a genetically modified humanoid who won legal precedent against Starfleet’s rules against such species being part of the Federation, manifested less as an arc for her and more as a plot device when she essentially became a “magic blood” donor to save Captain Batel’s life.

And then what was continued, or introduced to serve as replacements to those prior character arcs, was almost unified across the majority of the series’ female characters: romantic relationships with men. Almost as soon as she was broken up with Spock, season three introduced Cillian O’Sullivan as Chapel’s new love interest (“new” in that it connected up with her eventual status quo in classic Star Trek) Dr. Korby, with her time in the series largely less about exploring herself and her own agency and more about how her relationship furthered the characters of the men she was romantically involved with. Even more immediately, after Spock’s breakup with Chapel, he was paired with La’an, a move that narratively came out of nowhere and was only largely sold by Christina Chong and Ethan Peck’s chemistry—and again, was more in service to Spock’s character than it was necessarily to La’an or her own agency in the matter.

Even Una and Uhura couldn’t escape this heteronormative focusing either. Uhura was casually paired up with Ortegas’ newly introduced brother Beto (Mynor Lüken) here and there throughout the season, only for their burgeoning relationship to seemingly fizzle out and not be picked up again after the one-two tonal misfires of “What Is Starfleet?” and “Four and a Half Vulcans.” That latter episode, among its many issues, couldn’t even resist also capturing Una in Strange New Worlds‘ obsession with romance, giving her second-most-prominent arc in the season over to an extended gag about a prior, sexually intense relationship with Patton Oswalt’s guest-starring role as the human-obsessed Vulcan Doug.

It’s not even that a romance plotline is inherently a bad thing. The real issue is the fact that Strange New Worlds seemingly only had the idea to do one with the bulk of its female stars this season over giving them any other kind of arc. The only characters that escaped that framing were Pelia, who almost entirely exists as an excuse (a delightful one, at that) for Carol Kane to make one gag after another, and Ortegas, whom the show still struggles to do anything with, romantic or otherwise. And ultimately, all of these romantic arcs have been less about the autonomy of their female halves and instead in service of forwarding the arcs of the men in their lives, further stagnating their characters across the season.

This climaxes and is most obliquely symbolized in the season’s final episode, “New Life and Civilizations,” putting the spotlight on the culmination of Captain Batel and Captain Pike’s romantic relationship. Strange New Worlds had done very little with Batel in its first two seasons outside of her role as Pike’s love interest, outside of endangering her in the Gorn attack that straddled season two’s end and season three’s beginning (season three, again, largely sidelined her for her recovery, focusing on the impact of her situation on Pike instead), but the season three finale placed their relationship at the forefront of the show’s emotional climax. In doing so, it was again less about Batel and who we knew her to be as an individual and more about defining the fact that she was Pike’s girlfriend.

The dramatic thrust of the finale sees Batel confronted with the (largely out of nowhere) revelation that she is the subject of a predestination paradox where she is fated to become a crystallized statue sealing an ancient evil race called the Vezda for all eternity. But instead of centering her own concerns and fears about taking on that mantle—she’d almost literally just been given back her job at Starfleet’s judicial division after a season of fighting to be put back into service—the episode’s emotional throughline becomes almost entirely about Batel ensuring Pike that he’s going to be fine without her (she is almost too keen to essentially sacrifice herself in comparison), leading to an extended dream sequence where she uses her newfound guardian abilities to essentially speedrun Pike through a hypothetical future where they grow old and raise a child together before she is crystallized and, essentially for the series, removed as an ongoing character.

This was, ultimately, Batel’s most prominent appearance in Strange New Worlds, and it not only didn’t really further our understanding of her character, but it was almost entirely framed through the perspective of Pike’s emotional journey and narrative in regard to his own predestined fate.

As Strange New Worlds draws closer and closer to its own conclusion—just 16 episodes of the series remain across its final two seasons, or around two-thirds of one season of a classic Star Trek show—it’s damning that seemingly one of the few ideas it can have for its female characters is defining their arc in relationship to a man. With the time it has left, one of the lessons the series must take to heart is to better explore the wealth of opportunities its breadth of female characters can provide, instead of pigeonholing them into the same arc over and over.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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September 18, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

‘The Long Walk’ Star Garrett Wareing on His Character’s Big Surprise

by admin September 16, 2025

Now that The Long Walk is in theaters, members of its ensemble cast are free to talk spoilers. The movie, based on Stephen King’s story, revolves around a literal death march, so it’s not surprising that not all of the stars make it to the finish line. The brutal twists come with what order they go down—and at least one other surprising nuggets shared along the way.

In a new interview with Deadline, Garrett Wareing, who plays Billy Stebbins, talked about his experiences on the film as well as what happens to his character.

Eventually, it’s revealed to the audience and Billy’s fellow walkers that he is actually the illegitimate son of the Major (Mark Hamill), the cruel overseer of the titular march. He puts up a tough front, but it becomes clear Billy has got a different level of investment in the competition than the other boys.

“His dream, his goal, is to meet his father and for [his father] to be this hero that he idolized his whole life,” Wareing told Deadline. “I think that he goes into the walk thinking that this is a necessary thing, this is a good thing. And throughout the course, he begins to see the brutality that exists along something like this. And maybe he begins to see it for what it is, not necessarily [as] what it’s pitched to [be to] these young boys in the nation.”

In the book, Stebbins comes in second place. In the movie, he’s third, a twist that allows for The Long Walk‘s poignant final moments between Ray (Cooper Hoffman) and Peter (David Jonsson)—and Peter getting his wish-fulfillment part of the prize, which is killing the Major.

There’s no happy ending for Stebbins and his father, but Wareing did tell Deadline how much he enjoyed working with Hamill. And yes, Star Wars came up.

“One of the first times I interacted with Mark in the makeup trailer, he made the brilliant connection to Star Wars by saying, ‘you know, here on page 96 (or whatever page it was), there’s a bit of an “I am your father” moment when your character reveals that the Major is his father.’ And we both laughed. It was quite fitting that Luke had now become the father and in turn, I had now become Luke speaking to Vader.”

The Long Walk is now in theaters.

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September 16, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Nintendo patents in-game characters summoning others to battle

by admin September 10, 2025

Nintendo has secured a new patent that protects a common gameplay mechanic wherein an in-game character to summon another sub-character to support it in battle.

As noted by Games Fray, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted Nintendo patent number 12,403,397 on September 2, 2025. Submitted in March 2023, the patent application was approved uncontested despite the mechanic already existing in prior games, both within and outside of Nintendo’s own portfolio.

This means games that use features like those detailed below could now be in breach of Nintendo’s copyright.

There must be a PC, console, or other computing device, and the game is stored on a drive or similar storage medium.
You can move a character in a virtual space.
You must be able to summon a character. They call it a “sub character” by which they mean it’s not the player character, but, for example, a little monster such as a Pokémon that the player character has at their disposal.
Then the logic branches out, with items 4 and 5 being mutually exclusive scenarios, before reuniting again in item 6.
This is about summoning the “sub character” in a place where there already is another character that it will then (when instructed to do so) fight.
This alternative scenario is about summoning the “sub character” at a position where there is no other character to fight immediately.
This final step is about sending the “sub character” in a direction and then letting an automatic battle ensue with another character. It is not clear whether this is even needed if one previously executed step (4) where the “sub character” will basically be thrown at another character.

As Games Fray stressed, the ramifications for the wider industry cannot be understated, and may now prompt other developers and publishers, in turn, to file patents to protect other common in-game mechanics.

“The ‘397 patent poses a fundamental threat to creativity and innovation in the games industry,” the report stated. “That question is not specific to [the existing copyright lawsuit concerning] Palworld, but to a large number of games that already have that mechanic as well as future releases that will have it.”

Yesterday, we reported that Nintendo had secured a $2 million stipulated judgment and injunction against one of the modders Nintendo of America filed lawsuits against back in July last year, accusing them of violating its copyright by trading and selling “circumvention devices.”

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September 10, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Elden Ring Nightreign’s pre-Deep of Night patch rebalances all characters, tweaks some Everdark Sovereign bosses

by admin September 10, 2025

Elden Ring Nightreign will, very soon, get its higher difficulty mode – The Deep of Night. The game is clearly about to have a moment again. FromSoftware knows this, of course, so the developer decided to roll out a big update to tweak several things ahead of the new mode’s release.

This latest patch, version 1.02.2, arrived moments ago across all platforms, bringing with it a number of unexpected balance changes and gameplay tweaks that were no doubt made with Deep of Night in mind.

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Patch 1.02.2 released following an hour of server maintenance. While it does contain Deep of Night content, that higher difficulty mode won’t be available until tomorrow, September 11, as previously announced.

What you are going to see today, however, is a list of wide-ranging balance changes to all of (except Ironeye) the game’s Nightfarer character classes. Here are some of the highlights: Wylder now has increased poise while casting Claw Shot, and the ability now deals increased Stamina damage to blocking enemies. Guardian now gains more Strength and Dex with each level, and their Steel Guard passive has a wider range.

Duchess has a lot of changes of her own. She gets more Dexterity with each level up, and some of her dagger attacks deal more damage. Her ever-popular Finale Ultimate now lasts longer, too. Executor gets a flat attack power increase while Cursed Sword is in use, and a boost to the skill itself. While Aspects of the Crucible: Beast is active, the class now deals more damage. Revenant is the recipient of another interesting change, as other players can now pass through her summoned spirits. Their transparency has also been adjusted, perhaps to better signal to players that they can be passed through.

Image credit: Bandai Namco/VG247

Beyond the individual changes for each Nightfarer, 1.02.2 makes changes that affect everyone using certain weapons. For example, dual-wielded jump attacks performed with small and medium weapons now deal more stagger damage, but doing the same with larger weapons will deal less.

Death Flare of Eclipse Shotel, a weapon skill that applies Death, should now be more effective at doing so. Interestingly, there’s now a cap on the cumulative effects of the Power of Vengeance and Power of House Marais passives, which is something that might mess with some builds out there.

The other big component of the patch affects a couple of the Everdark Sovereign bosses. Everdark Sovereigns are more challenging versions of the game’s Nightlord bosses, and though some have seen balance tweaks in the past, today’s changes have a wider reach. Everdark Sovereign Sentient Pest, Equilibrious Beast, and Darkdrift Knight have received a mix of buffs and nerfs to their attacks, as well as how they respond to attacks/status effects from players.

Image credit: Bandai Namco/VG247

Read on below for the full change log.

Nightfarers adjustments

Wylder

Increased Poise while casting Claw Shot.
Increased Stamina damage dealt by Claw Shot to blocking enemies.

Guardian

Increased Strength and Dexterity gain when leveling up.
Increased the Steel Guard passive ability angle range.
Increased the range of the Wings of Salvation Ultimate Art’s weapon portion.
Increased the attack power of Halberd guard counters.

Duchess

Increased Dexterity gain when leveling up.
Increased the attack power of some Dagger attacks.
Decreased the two-handed Dagger’s second heavy attack damage.
This change does not affect charged attacks.
Increased the duration of the Finale Ultimate Art.

Raider

Increased the Greataxe’s and Great Hammer’s ability to stagger enemies with attacks.
Increased the attack range of the Retaliation skill.

Revenant

Adjusted the transparency of Revenant’s summoned spirits.
Players can now pass through Revenant’s spirits Helen and Frederick.

Recluse

Increased the offensive spells attack power of Magic Cocktail.
Decreased the time required to cast spells using Magic Cocktail.

Executor

Increased attack power while Cursed Sword is in use.
Increased the attack power of the Cursed Sword weapon skill when the skill is in use and the blade is in its unleashed state.
Increased the attack power of some attacks while Aspects of the Crucible: Beast is active.

Weapons, Passive Effects, and Special Effects adjustments

Increased the stagger damage with dual-wielded jump attacks for some small and medium weapons..
Decreased the stagger damage with dual-wielded jump attacks for some large weapons.
Increased the potency of the death status ailment applied by the weapon skill Death Flare of Eclipse Shotel.
Set a cap on the cumulative effects of the Power of Vengeance and Power of House Marais passive effects and adjusted their potency accordingly.
Adjusted the stagger effect of the “Guard counters trigger holy bursts” passive’s explosion to ensure that it doesn’t reset the enemy’s posture break state.

Relic Effects adjustments

Adjusted the effect “[Wylder] Standard attacks enhanced with fiery follow-ups when using Character Skill (greatsword only)” to consume stamina when performing follow-up attacks.
Increased the attack power of the “[Wylder] Art activation spreads fire in area” burn effect.
Adjusted the effect “[Wylder] Art activation spreads fire in area” so that the burn effect’s attack power does not vary between one-handed and two-handed weapon wielding.  Increased the duration extension of the “[Ironeye] Extends duration of weak point” effect.
Increased the potency of the “Continuous HP Recovery” effect.
Increased the potency of the “HP restored when using medicinal boluses, etc” effect.
Increased the potency of the “[Recluse] Activating Ultimate Art raises Max HP” effect.
Changed the “[Recluse] Activating Ultimate Art raises Max HP” effect so that the HP increase persists until an attack is received, even after the art’s duration ends.
Increased the amount of Runes obtained through the “Critical Hits Earn Runes” effect.
Increased the potency of the “HP Restoration upon (specific weapon type) attacks” effect.
Increased the potency of the effect “FP Restoration upon (specific weapon type) attacks” effect.
Reduced the duration of the “Improved Poise & Damage Negation When Knocked Back by Damage” effect.

Other Nightfarers adjustments

Adjusted the visibility of the “Rykard’s Rancor” sorcery.

Everdark Sovereign adjustments

Everdark Sovereign Sentient Pest

Increased attack and stamina attack power against guarding Nightfarers while possessed by Animus, Ascendant Light.
Adjusted and modified the attack actions of Animus, Ascendant Light, Gnoster, Wisdom of Night, and Faurtis Stoneshield.
Reduced the stagger duration when Nightfarers is hit by some attacks of Animus, Ascendant Light.

Everdark Sovereign Equilibrious Beast

Adjusted the effect granted to summoned condemned Nightfarers so that it can be dispelled by Law of Regression.
Increased the enhancement granted by the light dropped by defeated condemned Nightfarers.
Reduced the attack power of the condemned Guardian.
Removed the effect that increased damage negation upon re-summoning condemned.
Reduced the death status effect resistance of condemned Nightfarers.
Adjusted the reaction of condemned Nightfarers to player character’s ranged attacks.
Adjusted the targeting priority of condemned Nightfarers under specific combat rules.

Everdark Sovereign Darkdrift Knight

Increased the HP and stamina attack power against guarding Nightfarers for Fulghor, Champion of Nightglow.
Increased the attack power of some attacks from Fulghor, Champion of Nightglow.

Other enemies

Adjusted the reaction to player character’s ranged attacks of condemned Nightfarers that appear during events.
Added a stagger reaction when strong attacks, such as Ultimate Arts, hit the Red Wolf of the King Consort boss.
Fixed a bug where some attacks of the Marionette Soldiers were less likely to hit player characters.

Limveld adjustments

Increased the Night’s Tide damage after defeating the second night boss.
Adjusted the spawn locations of Sentient Pest incursions so they are less likely to occur far from player characters.

Menu adjustments

Adjusted the design of the Holy attribute icon.

Penalties for disconnecting from online sessions

Adjusted the penalties rate for session disconnection.
Disconnecting from a session due to network issues or quitting the game during a session in progress will result in penalties, which may limit multiplayer capabilities. Rejoining the session you left will remove the penalty imposed upon disconnection.

Bug fixes

Fixed a bug where the post-attack delay for right-handed Greatswords when handled by Wylder was shorter than expected when using Sorceries or Incantations with a left-hand weapon right after attacking.
Fixed a bug where Guardian’s Wings of Salvation Ultimate Art could be interrupted by enemy attacks or other factors during its activation.
Fixed a bug where Guardian’s Wings of Salvation Ultimate Art could be deflected and interrupted.
Fixed a bug where backstepping as Duchess did not accept pre-inputs for skill commands.
Fixed a bug where spells cast through using the Magic Cocktail skill could be casted again under certain conditions.
Fixed a bug where allied player characters could clip through tombstones when Totem Stella was used.
Fixed a bug where spirits summoned by Revenant did not revive if their HPs were depleted.
Fixed a bug where special effects applied to spirits summoned by Revenant would appear above Revenant.
Fixed a bug where Executor could not perform critical hits using the Cursed Sword while holding a weapon in the right hand that cannot land critical hits.
Fixed a bug where the Relic Effect “HP Restoration upon Thrusting Counterattack” did not apply to the attacks of Executor’s Cursed Sword.
Fixed a bug where Executor could not use pre-inputs for actions after deflecting an enemy attack with the Cursed Sword under certain circumstances.
Fixed a bug where accumulated effects of Power of Vengeance and Power of House Marais Passive Effects would disappear when opening the large door and moving to the final battle area by using the “Open the door” action prompt in the Spirit Shelter.
Fixed a bug where the rarity of weapons placed directly on the field from Dormant Power might not be displayed correctly.
Fixed an issue where Passive Effects triggered by walking did not activate during horizontal movement with precision-aimed shots using “Bow” and “Crossbow”.
Fixed an issue where the player character could become unresponsive for several seconds after performing an attack from a stance with certain Skills.
Fixed an issue where the passive effect “Improved Charged Sorceries” was not applied to the sorcery “Shattering Crystal”.
Fixed an issue where the status ailment “Frostbite” could be inflicted on the player character due to the accumulation of the frostbite status ailment from some enemy attacks while using an Ultimate Art.
Fixed an issue in the battle with the Everdark Sovereign “Equilibrious Beast” where “Libra, Creature of Night” could move below the ground under certain conditions.
Fixed a bug where levels would decrease without healing from flasks when False Blessing occured during the battle against Everdark Sovereign Equilibrious Beast.
Fixed a bug where the player would level down if the False Blessing effect was activated during the battle against Everdark Sovereign: Equilibrious Beast, even if the action was interrupted by an enemy attack before the HP recovery effect occurred.
Fixed a bug where blessings would become usable again after defeating the second night boss.
Fixed a bug where the player character could perform unintentional moves when using the Spectral Hawk.
This addresses issues that were not fully resolved in App Ver. 1.02.
Fixed a bug where the player might not be correctly transported to the battle area if they died from falling during the cutscene while moving to the final battle area in the Spirit Shelter.
Fixed a bug where Dormant Power might not appear upon defeating an enemy under unstable network conditions.
Fixed a bug where the effect of an used Wending Grace could activate when rejoining a session after a disconnection.
Reduced rendering load for some attacks of the Everdark Sovereign Tricephalos on PS4 and Xbox One.
Fixed a bug where it was difficult to switch targets with a diagonal input (PC only).
Improved game stability in some environments (PC only).

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September 10, 2025 0 comments

Story of Seasons - A cahacter in a purple tuxedo stands outside in a town square talking to the player

Gaming Gear

Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar gift guide for romanceable characters

by admin September 2, 2025

The key to making friends in Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar is by giving gifts, but unlike a lot of farming simulators, knowing who likes what isn’t exactly obvious from the get-go. You’re given some pretty vague examples of what characters like and dislike and are left to figure out the details on your own. It takes a lot of trial and error, which is something I learned the hard way, and something that can be pretty detrimental to the relationships you’ve already worked on.

You’ll be able to boost your connections with your fellow townspeople every day by having a conversation with them, but outside of that, gifts are the quickest way to increase your friendship. You can give each character one gift each day, and you’ll earn extra points if you wrap a gift. The same goes for giving presents on someone’s birthday. Here’s everything you need to know about each character’s likes and dislikes so you can pick out the perfect present.

Gift guide for marriage candidates in Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar

The table below lists every marriage candidate in Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, alongside their favourite gift, loved gift, liked gifts, and the general information the game gives you about their preferences.

Swipe to scroll horizontallyJules

Favourite

Loves

Likes

General gift info

Herbal perfume

Chamomile

Mint

Tomato salad

Floral perfume

Tomato

Pumpkin

Likes: Fragrances

Dislikes: Sweets

Swipe to scroll horizontallyDerek

Favourite

Loves

Likes

General gift info

Cream croquettes

Donburi rice bowl

Any beetle

Curry rice

Gold medal

Likes: Bugs

Dislikes: Salads

Swipe to scroll horizontallyLloyd

Favourite

Loves

Likes

General gift info

Paella

Diamond

Rainbow curry

Sushi

Gold medal

Stag beetle

Walnut juice

Strawberry juice

Likes: Elaborate meals

Dislikes: Quick bites

Swipe to scroll horizontallyGabriel

Favourite

Loves

Likes

General gift info

Omelet rice

Curry rice

Fruit dumplings

Mont Blanc cake

Soy milk pudding

Likes: Sweets

Dislikes: Pickled food

Swipe to scroll horizontallySamir

Favourite

Loves

Likes

General gift info

Stew

Chocolate cake

Cooked rice

Egg drop soup

Chocolate

Beetles

Likes: Home cooking

Dislikes: Fancy meals

Swipe to scroll horizontallyArata

Favourite

Loves

Likes

General gift info

Unadon

Warm milk

Fish

Curry rice

Likes: Hearty meals

Dislikes: Sour flavour

Swipe to scroll horizontallySophie

Favourite

Loves

Likes

General gift info

Herb salad

Tomato salad

Onion salad

Pickled crops

Egg drop soup

Likes: Light, refreshing meals

Dislikes: Spicy food

Swipe to scroll horizontallyJune

Favourite

Loves

Likes

General gift info

Cherry tea

Any accessories

Chocolate

Black tea

Likes: Tea and desserts

Dislikes: Fish

Swipe to scroll horizontallyFreya

Favourite

Loves

Likes

General gift info

Citrus perfume

Moonstone

Diamond

Amythest

Any accessories

Warm milk

Chocolate

Likes: Beautiful things

Dislikes: Tempura

Swipe to scroll horizontallyMaple

Favourite

Loves

Likes

General gift info

Engadiner nusstorte

Chocolate cake

Honey cake

Pancake

Ice cream

Soy milk pudding

Egg tart

Castella

Likes: Sweets

Dislikes: Spicy food

Swipe to scroll horizontallyKagetsu

Favourite

Loves

Likes

General gift info

Soy milk pudding

Tofu

Soy milk

Crops from your farm

Likes: Simple foods

Dislikes: Intricate meals

Swipe to scroll horizontallyDiana

Favourite

Loves

Likes

General gift info

Apple pie

Apple Jam

Apple Juice

Soy milk pudding

Pancake

Chocolate cake

Tea leaves

Likes: Sweets

Dislikes: Greasy foods

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September 2, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Scott Pilgrim EX Adds Lucas Lee And Roxie Richter As Playable Characters

by admin August 30, 2025

Scott Pilgrim EX, the beat-em-up inspired by the popular graphic novel series, is getting two more playable characters. Roxie Richter and Lucas Lee, two of the series’ iconic Evil Exes, join Scott and Ramona Flowers in their fight against the vegans, robots, and demons that have taken over the city. You can see them in action in the gameplay trailer below:

As you’d expect, both playable exes use abilities seen in their past appearances. Lucas Lee uses a skateboard as a weapon and summons his crew of stunt doubles, while Roxie Richter wields a katana with ninja-like agility. Their announcement brings Scott Pilgrim EX’s playable roster up to four, but developer Tribute Games has previously announced the game would have seven total playable options, so there are still three fighters we don’t know about yet.

Scott Pilgrim EX was announced at Summer Game Fest 2025. While it’s not a direct sequel, it continues the legacy of 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game, which was infamously de-listed from digital marketplaces in 2014, but was re-released in 2021. Scott Pilgrim EX features a soundtrack by Anamanaguchi (who composed for this game’s predecessor) and an original story written by Bryan Lee O’Malley, the series’ original creator. EX’s developer Tribute Games is also known for its work on TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge and the upcoming Marvel Cosmic Invasion.

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August 30, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Avengers: Doomsday star says cast has “smaller roles” to make space for new characters

by admin August 27, 2025

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star Tenoch Huerta has been speaking about his participation in Avengers: Doomsday, saying the dynamic is different as the film endeavours to make room for “twentysomething characters.”

Tenoch Huerta made his MCU debut as Namor in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The character came into conflict with Shuri, before finding common ground at the end of the movie, and making a truce.

But with no more Black Panther in the pipeline at present, it looked like that might be the last we saw of the Talokan king.

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Then in March 2025, Marvel did a five-hour livestream in which cast members of Avengers: Doomsday were revealed via director’s chairs, and Huerta was one of the 26. Though he only found that out hours beforehand…

Namor actor told about Avengers: Doomsday role on same day

Marvel Studios

Speaking on late-night show La Resolana Con El Capi, and as reported by Deadline, Huerta said: “We were waiting on the green light and my agents in the U.S. were not sure about the news.

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“They practically told us around 12 at night, and at 5:30 in the morning, the livestream started, and they told us, ‘Hey, the news is about to drop.’ It was surprising and it was cool.”

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He added that the shoot has contrasted with his work on the Black Panther sequel, as “the dynamic has been different.”

Huerta explains: “There are twentysomething characters involved in the story, which means we are each going to have smaller roles because there needs to be space for all the characters and all the universes.

“This makes it a much more simpler role, in terms of time and energy of making a film like this.”

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Avengers: Doomsday will be released on December 18, 2026, and you can head here for a twist theory concerning the movie, or here for a potentially major spoiler concerning Captain America. Alternatively, check out our ranking of the MCU movies.

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August 27, 2025 0 comments