I saw a trailer for What Lies in the Multiverse back then and immediately fell in love with the art style and humor. I was lucky enough to get a review code and dove right in. It’s a story driven puzzle-platformer that took me about 7 hours to complete. 

This is a game that while short, packed a huge narrative punch. I was going through a lot at this point in my life, and the story really hit home for me. It is without a doubt, one of the most impactful narratives I’ve ever experienced. 

MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS 

One of my favorite things about this game is that it leans into the multiverse as a part of its story. The character you control is just known as The Kid. After he gets sucked into another world, he meets Everett. He’s a mysterious character with a clearly checkered past and the ability to move between universes.

I won’t go into the story much because I really do want anyone reading this to give it a shot and experience it for themselves. But this game does tackle depression and what it’s like for all parties involved in a way that is about as accurate as it gets. 

Outside of the more serious aspects of the story, this is a genuinely hilarious game. The writing, the cartoon like cutaway gags, and even the multiverse traversal itself all come together to form one of the funniest games I’ve played.  

PLAY MORE INDIES 

This game is one that I point to whenever I get asked for a recommendation. The first time Dwayne and I ever spoke to each other on a video call, I told him to get it. It’s a must play for anyone who loves indie games, and weird games in general. And as an aside, it has one of my favorite soundtracks in gaming. I have it saved to my phone, and I listen to it when I write.

I love indie games but specifically ones like What Lies in the Multiverse. Games that creatively find ways to tell their story and take chances with narrative. It’s games like these that push the industry forward and inspire others to take chances. It definitely did that for me.

The post ‘What Lies in the Multiverse’: A Hidden Indie Gem  appeared first on VICE.

Additionally, it’s currently speculated the detained employees were laundering money. “The contract value involved in this case is approximately 2 billion yuan (roughly $280,025,762 USD), and the actual amount involved is estimated to be between 800 million and 1 billion yuan, and 28 suppliers have been affected,” Leifeng reports.

“After the incident, it was not only Xiang Lang who was investigated. It was reported that several employees of his channel center were also under investigation. Among them were employees who were responsible for purchasing traffic for many of NetEase’s top products. Most of the employees involved, including Xiang Lang, have no longer been found in NetEase’s internal system today.”

It was ‘destiny’: netease employees were arrested for alleged money laundering

So, yeah, that apparently happened! NetEase folks got tired of Marvel Rivals and Destiny: Rising, I guess. Yuji Naka (the dude who made Sonic) also went to prison, you know. Although, “white-collar crimes” are taken way more seriously in countries beyond America. Rightfully so, if you ask me. In most states, you might receive a single-digit sentence for stealing millions of dollars.

But, white-collar crime certainly isn’t a “cool” crime. It’s hard to brag about going to prison if you went in there for insider trading or embezzlement. I guess you could make money laundering sound interesting enough if you tie it to, say, Breaking Bad or something. Also, speaking of Yuji Naka, I have to share a morbid joke with y’all.

I always thought it was a little funny that Naka went to prison after being responsible for Balan Wonderworld. Before I knew the charge was insider trading, I assumed he went to jail because that game came out. And was awful. To this day, I believe Naka’s pretty upset about how Balan Wonderworld panned out. The game being his last hurrah and all… yeah, I can see why that would be rage-inducing.

The post Employees From Team Working on ‘Marvel Rivals’ and ‘Destiny: Rising’ Were Arrested appeared first on VICE.

Even though we got walked on for four out of five rounds, I left my hands-on time with Project ARC excited for more. Some frustrations peppered my hands-on time with this event, but it feels like we may be on the verge of something big here.

Tactical, yet Adorable — ‘Project ARC’ Has Some Big Shoes to Fill

Project ARC is basically Rainbow Six Siege with a more cutesy coat of paint. Don’t let the colorful vibes of the pre-release screenshots trick you; it’s surprisingly hardcore. Rewarding tactical play versus run-and-gun, our team snuck through walkways, trying to flank our opponents. Unfortunately for us, we were playing against members of the development team who knew every nook and cranny of the maps we had never touched before.

Frustration was the initial vibe, followed by a lust for revenge. We needed to show them that we weren’t just going to take their attacks lying down. The learning curve is slightly steep, but rewarding once a plan is laid into motion. Communication is key here; if you don’t chat with your team, you’re going to lose.

In my preview event, I was able to participate in two types of matches: a Team Deathmatch and an Attack/Defense mode. Two stages were also highlighted: the Mansion for TDM and a Hospital for the Bomb mode. Both stages showcased clever design, giving ample room to crouch and hide if needed, as well as plenty of secret entrances I could snake my way through.

Even with the limited time we got to spend playing the game, there’s one thing we could all seemingly agree on — the game is fun as hell. It’s challenging but rewarding. Gives players something to strive toward, and as long as the communication is good, you can easily dominate. But, there are some issues that need ironing out before it can hit the big leagues.

It’s Still Early, but Balancing Issues Could Ruin the Fun

There are a few things I’m worried about regarding Project ARC, however. A few of the Gadgets are extremely overpowered. A Blue Energy grenade was the most disgusting, OP attack I experienced during my hands-on time. Even an employee at Krafton took note of how quickly our health was deteriorating, as we were asked to share our screens so they could note how we were playing.

The ability for every member to choose the same character is also troubling. After getting stomped on by the dev team by a shotgun user, we all decided it would be a smart idea to storm the Hospital building using the same character. Granted, our mission was not a success, but in the right hands? This could be a dangerous oversight.

Even when we were getting stomped, Project ARC was a blast. It would have been nice to learn that friendly fire was a thing before I accidentally killed a teammate, but sometimes, sacrifices need to be made.

All of this being said, Project ARC has the potential to be a big hit. The bones are solid, and the meat is delightfully tender. There are just a few things we need to know before it launches. Is Project ARC going to be free-to-play? If so, sign me right up. I’ll happily dump hours into this if it’s free, or even reasonably priced.

The post ‘Project ARC’ Is Isometric ‘Rainbow Six Siege,’ and I’m All in appeared first on VICE.

‘dragon age: the veilguard’ patch 1 details

N7 Day Content

• Rook can find a new N7 day appearance in the Lighthouse. This is a cosmetic only armor.

‘Dragon Age: The Veilguard’ Bug Fixes

• The Faction Achievements will now be gained properly upon reaching max Faction Strength instead of the Faction Cap.
• Fixed an issue where DLSS options could end up “grayed-out” on a 40-series Nvidia GPU. (PC Only)
• Eliminated the cause of a small number of crashes. (PC Only)
• Updated XeSS version to 1.3.1. (PC Only)
• Fixed an issue where some customizations were not applied to the Inquisitor correctly in one of the ending scenes.
• Fixed a bug that caused Companion Skill Points to reset.
• Adjusted Companion Approval notifications so they remain on-screen longer as scenes end.
• Harding now has arrows in her quiver and is ready for battle.
• Global banter should no longer start too early.

Bug Fixes (Cont.)

• Harding and Taash banter no longer repeats indefinitely.
• Fixed potential issues that could occur if a player fast traveled during a quest.
• Changing your party members on the way to certain quests no longer breaks the camera for in-world missions.
• Updated a number of assets to improve visual performance over long distances.
• Fixed several distance “pop-ins” on level art assets.
• Added collision to several assets that were missing it.
• Fixed a minor texture issue with codex art.
• Added haptics to a number of interactions and events.
• Fixed lip sync in some ambient scenes.
• Adjusted audio balance on several assets.
• Changing equipment no longer disables helmet voice processing.
• Fixed several objective markers that were spawning improperly.
• Cleaned up certain interactions between Skills that caused them to not behave as described.
• Apparitions generated by Iron Veil will now attack Razikale.
• Entropic Spheres now behave properly on vertical surfaces.
• Fixed a bug where Taunt would sometimes be cleared early, which caused enemies to ignore it.

‘Dragon Age: The Veilguard’ Bug Fixes (Final)

• Fixed a rare issue where Rogues would not hold their bow while aiming down sights.
• Made the detailed stats screen more readable.
• Balance changes made to certain fights to match design intent.
• Balance adjustments made to several player skills.
• Fixed leashing exploits on major encounters.
• The Rage Demon’s Ring of Fire should now be appropriately dodgeable in all situations.
• Slowed down the speedy raven in Hossberg.
• Adjusted creepy corpse movement while they moved on/off-camera.
• The Dalish elf in the Unwanted Guests quest is now an actual elf.
• Fixed a rare blocking issue in the Sea of Blood quest.
• Halla should no longer float during the In Entropy’s Grasp quest.
• Fixed a blocking issue in the Pinnacle of Its Kind quest.
• Adjusted timing on epilogue text cards.
• NPC necks no longer grow unexpectedly.
• Corrected instances where NPCs would not properly look at each other or at Rook.
• Long hair should now properly mesh with certain armor.
• Fixed several issues with makeup in character creation.
• Venatori crystal VFX should now disappear properly.
• Added scroll wheel support to the sell screen.
• Opening the journal while on the map no longer causes it to continue scrolling.

The post ‘Dragon Age: The Veilguard’ Released Its First Major Update appeared first on VICE.

The Dark Knight Rises to Save Wb games Once More

As reported by IGN.com, David Zaslav recently spoke during a financial call and mentioned four properties WB Games would be focusing on in particular. Zaslav can be quoted as saying:

“We have four strong and profitable game franchises with loyal, global fans: Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, and DC in particular Batman. We are focusing our development efforts on those core franchises, with proven studios to improve our success ratio.”

Hogwarts Legacy, as divisive as it may have been, recently crossed the 30 million mark for sales. With that kind of momentum, WB Games would be foolish not to capitalize on the possibility of a sequel. Or even some DLC for the single-player adventure. Mortal Kombat 1 has surpassed over four million sales, putting it on pace to be one of the most successful offerings in the fighting game market.

Seeing games like MultiVersus flop doesn’t feel good. Studios like Rocksteady working on another live service failure feel awful, too. And it seems like WB Games is taking notice by pulling their focus away from quantity and focusing on quality. Hopefully, every company gets the memo regarding that.

Further, with Roger Craig Smith donning the cowl of the Caped Crusader in the recent Batman: Arkham Shadow, we’ve likely got our choice after the unfortunate and tragic passing of Kevin Conroy. A return to the Arkhamverse seems like a wise decision. Wipe the events of Suicide Squad off the board and chalk them up to a “multiverse” situation or something.

Indeed, in the gaming and entertainment sphere, Zaslav has been quite a controversial name. Between canceling different Looney Tunes projects after they were complete to indefinitely shelving full feature-length films, we can only hope this is the redemption arc for WB Games.

The post WB Games Promises ‘More Batman’ After Recent Games Flop appeared first on VICE.

The 06.00 patch is short but sweet! So, without further ado? Let’s get into the God of War Ragnarok 06.00 patch!

‘God of War Ragnarok’ 06.00 patch details

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Brok would not path correctly to the shop in Freyr’s camp
• Fixed an issue where Hilts could not be crafted if item was not crafted before a NG+ run
• Special resources required for crafting Hilts can no longer be sold
• Special resources required for crafting Hilts will drop again if player sold the item on accident

‘God of War Ragnarok’ New Gameplay Options

• Reduced Puzzle Hints: Reduces companion puzzle hints throughout the game to allow for more exploration time and trial and error
• Audio Descriptions: Added new accessibility option that adds audio descriptions to all cinematics in the game

New PS5 Pro Enhanced Options

• PS5 Pro Enhanced Mode: New mode added for PS5 Pro that enables Favor Quality features while running at 60 frames per second
• High Frame Rate mode will unlock framerate when running on variable refresh rate monitors
• PS5 base Favor Performance mode is boosted on PS5 Pro
• PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution option available as an upscaler in addition to Temporal Anti-Aliasing

‘god of war ragnarok’ hasn’t forgotten

That’s the serious part of the article over with. Now, nonsense. Seriously, though, send Kratos to Egypt! I’m sick of Norse and Greek mythology! Haven’t we seen enough of that? It reminds me of how long it took Assassin’s Creed to finally take itself to Feudal Japan after fans screamed about it for years. Well, this is my hill, PlayStation/Sony.

I want God of War to adopt ancient Egypt as a setting! There are so many cool boss fights you could do there. Don’t worry — I’ll get people to rally behind this. We aren’t through here, Sony.

The post ‘God of War Ragnarok’ Dropped a Surprise Patch, Boy appeared first on VICE.

Take-Two Chairman and CEO, Strauss Zelnick, told investors when GTA6 was likely to release. “We have one of the strongest portfolios of owned intellectual property in our industry. With many exciting new titles coming in Fiscal 2026—including Grand Theft Auto 6 in the fall, Borderlands 4 and Mafia: The Old Country—we expect to create long-term value for our shareholders,” Zelnick emphasized.

Sure, it’s no “official” confirmation. But, it was stated in a room where the money’s expected to be flowing and fruitful. That’s as official as it gets! You already know Rockstar will be hard at work, fine-tuning, making sure Grand Theft Auto 6 is the talk of the gaming town! The game has been prematurely situated as “the savior of the games industry.” So, time will tell if Rockstar will clear that lofty bar (they will).

‘grand theft auto 6’ is (theoretically) less than a year away

“Sales of Grand Theft Auto 5 outperformed our expectations and to date the title has sold over 205 million units worldwide,” Zelnick continued. “Grand Theft Auto Online has also exceeded our plans, driven by sustained engagement … momentum also continued within GTA+ as Rockstar grew its membership by 35% over the last year.”

Basically, the rest is just telling shareholders and investors how cool the franchise is. But, if you were behind a cash cow like GTA, you’d probably be quick to brag about it, too! …Also, while I still have you, did you know the subreddit for GTA6 keeps banging on about a “moon theory” regarding the game’s official release date? Please take a look at this beautiful insanity.

“When people bring the theory #2 up, they act like theory #1 always predicted December 1st all along. But that simply isn’t true. There were many dates floating around at the time like October 2nd and November 1st (as seen in image 1 & 2). Because of this, theory #2 could also for December, or literally any month after with a late waning gibbous (unlikely).” There’s a fun snippet from the post, in case you need extra motivation to hop down this GTA Reddit rabbit hole!

The post ‘Grand Theft Auto 6’ Seems to Be on Track for a Fall 2025 Release appeared first on VICE.

However, I was going to keep letting you get away with it, Capcom. The disrespect would’ve stood. But then, I saw an X post from Adi Shankar, an amazing film producer, screenwriter, and someone who has exceptional taste in choosing games to turn into anime. Let’s see what he said recently, Capcom. Let’s pull the receipts.

Specifically, Capcom? This part: “When I first went to Capcom in 2017, my mission was clear: I wanted to bring Dino Crisis back. But in an awesome twist of fate, they sold me Devil May Cry instead! I didn’t think DMC would even be on the table.” A Devil May Cry anime is a baller idea, though. No notes there! But is there a reason Dino Crisis can’t catch a break?!

capcom, please give us ‘dino crisis’

Please stop toying with our emotions. Remake Dino Crisis. Just one. Regina deserves better, guys. “Amazing! As a huge Dino Crisis fan, I’d love to see them do something, ANYTHING with it,” one poor, defeated X user cries. You hear that, Capcom? Indeed, every day you allow the dinos to starve, someone on the internet perishes. Is that what you want on your hands? Blood?

“I joined the survival horror fanclub with resident evil 2, but the game that made me fall in love was Dino Crisis 2 with its fast paced [rhythm] and narrative, It was the first game I wanted to repeat again and again!” another X believer proclaims.

Can y’all at least do a poll to gauge interest? If it gets over 100,000 likes or whatever, we get another Dino Crisis? Everything else gets respected, everything else gets a turn. Even Mega Man. So, I’m speaking to the Capcom Gods. Give us Dino Crisis or give us… not death, necessarily. Just do it!

The post Does Capcom Have a Vendetta Against ‘Dino Crisis’? appeared first on VICE.

‘TrophyRC’ Brings a Big World to Your Backyard

Living in the Midwest, I’m used to a ton of rain and snow ruining my RC plans. Sure, some of my machines are waterproof or resistant to some extent. But my prized possession, my childhood Traxxas Rustler, is not. So, there are plenty of times when I’m left craving the excitement of the great outdoors on a 1/10th scale. That’s where TrophyRC has come in clutch.

TrophyRC is a passion project being developed by one person. A free demo is available to try now, and I strongly suggest giving it a whirl. The first thing most will notice about TrophyRC is the fact that it’s absolutely gorgeous. Switching to first-person mode on this scaled SUV is breathtaking, especially if you’ve got the hardware to back up the UE5-powered demo.

In the free demo version, you can either try and conquer the obstacle course laid out before you or explore the world at your own pace. It’s a smaller map, as to be expected for something this early in development, but it’s difficult to master. Take your time, line your wheels up, and try to overcome this track.

The Community Behind the Game Is Also Pretty Great

A great game is one thing, but a great group of people who enjoy that game? Sign me right up. Thankfully, TrophyRC does have an active and wonderful Discord community behind it. People happily posting about their dream builds, giving the developer actual constructive feedback. Just generally awesome folks who love the hobby and the passion behind this project.

If you’re looking for something fun to try out, give TrophyRC a run. It’s surprisingly tricky, but it’s also incredibly rewarding. I’ve been keeping a close eye on the development of this one for quite a while, and I can’t wait to see all of the features Eugene Hatskevich plans on implementing into this pixel-perfect simulation.

As folks in the “scene” refer to it, TrophyRC would be hobby grade, rather than toy grade. Everything here has already been polished to a shine, and the sky is the limit for this excellent RC simulator.

The post ‘TrophyRC’ Is a Remote Control Car Enthusiast’s Dream appeared first on VICE.

Daniel Casey, who wrote for the Fast and Furious 9 (or simply “F9” if you’re nasty) film, will be on executive producer and writer duties for the series. Additionally, other executive producers include Karim Zreik, Ari Arad, and Michael Gamble. Variety also reported that the Mass Effect series had been quietly up for grabs in 2021. Seems Amazon ended up being the big winner there!

“It was previously reported in 2021 that Amazon was in negotiations to develop a Mass Effect TV series, but there have been no updates on the project until now. There had also been various attempts to develop a feature film based on the games but the project never materialized,” Variety states.

‘mass effect’ will be amazon’s next big project

Mark my words: Amazon’s Mass Effect will be phenomenal. Holy Mother, I can’t wait to watch that! Usually, I’d fold my arms and play the cynic. But, Amazon has quickly proven itself as a “Can’t Miss” kind of monster when it comes to respecting video game adaptations. Fallout? Beloved. This? Has all the ingredients for a perfect adaptation.

The Mass Effect lore is so deep, you could play it however you want and not piss off ravenous fans. I don’t want to see Shepard! Do your own thing! …Or, at least, deviate heavily from the OG trilogy! It’s going to be hard to goof this up is what I’m saying. I have every faith — every single faith — that this will be the show everyone’s hyped about when it drops. Bookmark this. Screenshot me. I’m calling it now.

Now, there will be a sense of loss in whoever the lead is since, you know, we won’t be making the decisions on their behalf. But, I’m ready, Mass Effect. I’m Dwayne Jenkins, and this will be my favorite series in the Citadel.

The post Not a Drill: Amazon’s Making a ‘Mass Effect’ TV Series appeared first on VICE.