The Pumpkaboo’s Sweet Surprises event has arrived in Pokemon Pokopia, and it runs from October 17 until November 1, giving players roughly two weeks to work through everything it offers. The headline attractions are two Generation 6 Ghost-types, making this a worthwhile window for anyone still filling out their collection. If you have taken part in previous Pokopia limited-time events, the structure will feel familiar. Pumpkaboo shows up at a Pokemon Center and asks for a dedicated currency, in this case Pumpkin Candy, in exchange for items that help you build a couple of new habitats. That means the event is as much about decorating as it is about catching, and the rewards are aimed at players who enjoy customising their space as well as battling. The obvious question is how to earn Pumpkin Candy efficiently. Event currencies are almost always tied to ordinary play rather than one-off tasks, so the reliable approach is...
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Capcom has confirmed that a Switch 2 update for Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen is in the works, though it has not committed to a date. The news follows the game’s launch earlier this month and a title update that has already rolled out on other platforms. For anyone new to the naming, Dark Arisen is the expanded version of Dragon’s Dogma 2, bundling the base game with additional content and the changes that came with it. That makes the Switch 2 release the most complete way to play, at least on paper, which is why the state of its post-launch support matters more than usual. The situation is straightforward but not ideal. Capcom has said an update for the Switch 2 version is presently in progress and will arrive at a future date, which is a deliberately vague commitment. In practice that means Switch 2 owners are waiting while players on other platforms...
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Vice City has long been treated as one of the high points of the Grand Theft Auto series, remembered for its sun-bleached 1980s setting, its soundtrack and its swagger. According to Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser, however, the writing behind it was not the reason it worked. Houser has described that writing as “awful.” It is a striking thing to say about a game so many players hold up as a landmark, and it underlines how much of a title’s personality can come from the people performing it rather than the words on the page. His explanation points squarely at Ray Liotta. Houser credits the actor, who voiced the lead character Tommy, with introducing a degree of genuineness to the role. In other words, the performance gave the character a grounding that the script alone apparently did not provide. That is a familiar dynamic in acting. A line can read as flat or overwrought on...
Read MoreMarvel Rivals is a team-based hero shooter with a large and highly competitive audience, and with that audience comes a familiar problem. Online games built around fast team play tend to attract abusive chat, and the more popular a title becomes, the harder that behaviour is to contain. NetEase, the studio behind the game, has now signalled that it is taking the issue more seriously. The company says it has “further escalated our penalties for speech violations,” and promises more moderation going forward. It has also guaranteed what it calls considerably stricter consequences for players who cross the line. The wording is firm. NetEase has made clear it will not treat these behaviours as acceptable simply because they are unfortunately common, which frames toxicity as something to confront rather than tolerate as an ordinary part of online life. That last point matters, because the usual defence of toxic chat is that it has always...
Read MoreAnime based on a video game can struggle to feel like it belongs to the same world. Sets get simplified, landmarks disappear, and the result is recognisable in name only. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners avoided that fate, and a detail from its production helps explain why. The director of the series combed through Cyberpunk 2077 using a “virtual camera,” searching the game for the best Night City locations to bring into the anime. Rather than inventing a generic future city, the team evidently wanted to reuse the specific places players already knew. That approach is more painstaking than it sounds. A virtual camera lets a creator move freely through a digital environment, framing views that were never meant to be seen from those angles and hunting for compositions that would work as animation backgrounds. It is location scouting inside a game. Studio Trigger, the animation studio behind the project, also acquired a joystick alongside the camera,...
Read MoreCastlevania has always had a strong sense of style. From its gothic castles to its sharply drawn heroes and villains, the series has long understood that memorable character design is part of the appeal, not an afterthought. The team behind Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse appears to share that view. Evil Empire, the studio developing the game, has said it is proud of the cast’s hot characters. The comment comes after the developers noticed the volume of eager fan illustrations the game has inspired. In other words, the reaction they were hoping for is already happening. There is a playful confidence in owning that. Developers do not always embrace the more enthusiastic side of their fandom openly, but acknowledging it signals that the appeal is understood and intended rather than accidental. The teaser for the game even gestures at a mock award for hot dads, a joke that lands because Castlevania’s lineage is full of imposing,...
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