Summary Final Fantasy 14is getting a graphical overhaul with the release ofDawntrail, but some fans aren’t happy with what they’re seeing so far. The graphical overhaul promises to give characters new visual depth and more refined appearances, something many have been hoping for now thatFinal Fantasy 14is over a decade old. Final Fantasy 14just launched theDawntrailbenchmark test, which gives players their very first look at the world of the game with the new graphics in effect....

Square Enix is one of the biggest video game companies around, housing multiple different IPs andchurning out many great games. The company’s track record might be slightly mixed, but there’s no denying the massive impact they’ve had on the gaming industry. The characters that have appeared in these games have been quite iconic in their own right, with many people recognizing the many heroes that have appeared across many of Square Enix’s titles....

Nintendo has seemingly gone all out for Mario’s 35th anniversary with games like theSuper Mario 3D All-Starscollection, crossover events inSplatoon 2andAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, as well as merchandise like Mario LEGO sets being outlined inlast week’sSuper Mario35th Anniversary Direct. One product that made an appearance in the Direct was a pair ofSuper Mario 64-themed PUMA RS-Dreamer sneakers, but it seems those were not the only ones in development. TheSuper Mario 64PUMA sneakers were leaked by an Australian Foot Lockerlisting prior to their announcement, and the same appears to be happening for pairs of shoes based on the other two games in the3D All-Starscollection:Super Mario GalaxyandSuper Mario Sunshine....

TheStar WarsDisney+ shows should be unique and fascinating explorations of the massive open universe of the film franchise. That was, presumably, the goal. Movies are more expensive, giving them an expectation of prestige. The shows can exist in another space, but Disney has rarely used that power.Andoraside,Star Warsshows have been even more risk-averse than the films in many cases.The Acolytelooks like something new, providing a new space to play in the galaxy far far away....

Considering how acclaimed Studio Ghibli films are, it’s still amazing to think that Americans didn’t get the vast majority of them until 1999 (well over a decade after most of them had been made). What was the hold-up? Were there no production companies that wanted to dub them? Were his movies so unknown outside of Japan that no studio realized they existed? Well, the truth of the matter is that the films of Hayao Miyazaki were VERY well known outside of Japan!...

Many of the shrines inThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomprovide players with a safe space to work on solving the puzzles at hand. This isn’t always the case though, with certainshrines inTears of the Kingdomsurrounding the player with dangerous environmental hazards, from bottomless pits to scorching hot lava streams. RELATED:Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - All Misko’s Treasure Locations The Timawak Shrine is an example of the latter, withThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomplayers needing to cross several streams of molten magma to reach their goal....

Less than one week away fromThe Super Mario Bros. Movie’s premiere, its star Chris Pratt is already teasing the beginning of a possible Nintendo cinematic universe by tipping off gaming fans about a must-see post-credits scene that hints where Mario and Luigi will go next. The news will hardly surprise millions ofMariofans who see the movie as an opportunity to kickstart a wider interconnected group of films based on Nintendo’s famed gaming icons,such asDonkey Kong,The Legend of Zelda, or evenSuper Smash Bros....

Quick Links Back whenThe Witcher 3came out, CD Projekt Red released16 free DLCs for itover the next few months. The “Fools' Gold” quest is one of them, and it’s one of the most memorable side quests in the game. Like many other side quests inThe Witcher 3, “Fools' Gold” is marked with an exclamation point that only appears when Geralt gets close. Since the quest is in Velen and far away from any question marks or notice boards, players may end upmissing out without even realizing it....

When the average person thinks of chess, they tend to picture classicalgames that take numerous hoursas players take the time to fully calculate each and every line. Bullet chess goes completely against that stereotype because, as the name suggests, it is an extremely fast variant of chess where each player has under 3 minutes on their clock. Unsurprisingly, this can lead to frantic and intense games, particularly when playing over the board where keeping the pieces on the table is part of the challenge....

Through the use of a hack, one YouTube user has created a video highlighting the wild differences betweenStreet Fighter 2’s original bosses and their later playable incarnations. The classic fighting game’s bosses - Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison - are now franchise staples, but began as unplayable boss characters players could only challenge by beating up the main cast of the game’s eight characters. One recent tool changes that, making theseStreet Fighter 2bosses playable....

Since its release back in February 2019,Apex Legendshas become one of the most popular battle royale games. Currently,Apex Legendsis in its sixth seasonand the studio is now gearing up for Season 7, which is expected to bring tons of new content to the game. It is worth noting that Season 7 has been moved up a week, and players can expect the upcoming chapter to launch on November 4. The earlier release date for Season 7 is definitely good news for fans, and for those interested in knowing what this new chapter brings, here is everything players should expect to see inApex Legends’Season 7....

Yinlin is one of the few characters inWuthering Wavesthat players look forward to, due to her appearance in the CBT. Before she was released, the community roared about her being the ultimate support for Calcharo, but since CBT doesn’t represent the final version of a Resonator, it’s understandable that the developer made some changes to Yinlin’s kit. Yinlin still plays well with Calcharo, but her kit mostly revolves around damage-dealing, sospecificallybringing Calcharo into her teamcan be unnecessary, given she fares well as a damage-dealer herself and works well with other DPS units....

Video games are defined by their ability to let the player freely influence and control an aspect of the game they are playing, and for console games the bottleneck for this player freedom is the controller. Controller design has come a long way since the pointy corners of the NES, and many features continue to be improved upon to create better and more comfortable player control. It is no surprise then that many players like for this gateway into the games they play to be personalized to suit them....