Gaming

Squid Game season 2, Doctor Who’s Christmas special, and more new TV this week

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December 23, 2024

Squid Game season 2, Doctor Who’s Christmas special, and more new TV this week

It’s that time of year, when the world falls in love, every song you hear seems to say: Not a lot new on TV! Don’t let that get you down; this is, after all, just a list of premieres (and a curated one, at that). There’s plenty to watch, whether you’re pulling from our best-of-the-year lists of movies and television, ongoing shows like Skeleton Crew, or even just pulling out some of the holiday season (or holiday season time) staples.

But don’t let that distract you from the big headlines of the week (non-holiday-related): We’re going back in the Squid Game! The Doctor is in over his head just in time for Christmas, once again! Bad Sisters is coming to a close!

Here’s all the best new TV premieres and finales in this holiday week.

Genre: Dystopian competitionRelease date: Dec. 26, with all seven episodesShowrunner/creator: Hwang Dong-hyukCast: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon, Lee Byung-hun, and more

At the end of Squid Game season 1, Gi-hun was just about to get out and put his time in the games behind him. And then… he stopped. Season 2 picks up with what happens next: He wants to get put back in the game.

Doctor Who Christmas special

Genre: Sci-fi Christmas adventureRelease date: Dec. 25 at 9:10 a.m. PST/12:10 p.m. ESTWriter: Steven Moffat Cast: Ncuti Gatwa, Nicola Coughlan

You know the drill: It’s Christmas Day in our world, and in the Doctor’s (Ncuti Gatwa) — only his has some timey-wimey weirdness and we get to watch. “Joy to the World” is 2024’s Who Christmas episode, and it brings with it Derry Girls’ Nicola Coughlan, a series of very odd happenings (as the trailer can attest), and what appears to be many different worlds. Happy Christmas to all indeed!

New shows on Apple TV Plus

Genre: Irish black comedyRelease date: Dec. 25Showrunner/creator: Sharon Horgan, Dave Finkel, and Brett BaerCast: Sharon Horgan, Eve Hewson, Fiona Shaw, and more

After yet another season of misadventures and (unfortunately) murder, the “bad” sisters of Bad Sisters are rolling into the finale of season 2. With bodies in their wake and betrayals still left to be dealt with, what will this final episode bring for the sisters?

The Best Xbox Games Of 2024 According To Metacritic

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December 23, 2024

The Best Xbox Games Of 2024 According To Metacritic

GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

We’re four years into the current Xbox Series X|S generation, and in 2024, it was business mostly as usual for Microsoft’s console brand. While the biggest news this year related to Xbox was a new focus on bringing several of its first-party games to PS5 and Nintendo Switch, Xbox also saw an evolution of its Game Pass subscription service and an option for users of the Ultimate tier to stream select games they own. On top of a marketing push designed to remind people that they technically don’t need the console to play Xbox games, 2024 shaped up to be a year of diversification for Microsoft’s gaming ecosystem.

What of the games then? This was a pretty strong year overall, as the Xbox library was bolstered with first-party games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl. Third-party games like Neon White and Final Fantasy 14 only added to the appeal of sitting down for a night of gaming on an Xbox console, and with Game Pass having numerous day-one releases, you’d find yourself spoiled for choice on what you could download and play, especially when one of those options was Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

GameSpot sister Metacritic has crunched the numbers on the best-reviewed Xbox games of the year–as of December 5–and if you’re interested, you can check them all out in the list below. There were a few obvious winners here, as well as several surprises that you can read about. Be sure to also check out our running lists of the best Xbox Series X|S games and best Xbox Game Pass games to play right now.

More Best Of 2024:

Marvels Rivals Is The Hero Shooter We Didn’t Know We Needed

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December 22, 2024

Marvels Rivals Is The Hero Shooter We Didn’t Know We Needed

Image: Marvel Games / Kotaku

One of 2024’s biggest success stories has been Marvel Rivals, a third-person PVP shooter starring Marvel heroes and baddies. The game has already picked up over 20 million players and shows no signs of stopping. Which is cool but also very surprising!

I think I speak for many of us when I ask: Weren’t we done with hero shooters? After the market was saturated with them and Overwatch 2 turned out to be a slow-moving train wreck, it felt like the trend of having a colorful roster of heroes shoot each other over moving a payload was done. Concord, Sony’s failed hero shooter, seemed to really cement that when it launched and died in just about 4 weeks earlier this year. And yet, here we all are playing and loving Marvel Rivals, a free-to-play hero shooter with a big roster and plenty of payloads to move. Life is funny sometimes, huh?

Because Marvel Rivals is such a big hit, with many of us at Kotaku playing it, we’ve also been thinking about it a lot and writing up guides, stories, and other posts about it. So here’s everything we’ve written about Marvel Rivals in 2024 in one handy-dandy location.

The Casting of Frank Stone was never meant to be GOTY material, but its underrated formula for crowd-pleasing collaborations is one I wish we saw more often

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December 22, 2024

The Casting of Frank Stone was never meant to be GOTY material, but its underrated formula for crowd-pleasing collaborations is one I wish we saw more often

When I started writing up my shortlist of 2024 GOTY candidates earlier this autumn – in an attempt to sort through a messy mixture of widely-agreed-upon hits I still needed to play and total heart picks I intended to go to bat for – The Casting of Frank Stone easily cleared my personal top 10, quite clearly in the latter category.

Admittedly, this game was never going to be a hard sell in my case. As far as I’m concerned, the horror output of Supermassive Games only comes in three flavours: “good”, “great”, and “amazing”. Literally the only truly bad time I’ve ever had with one of their games was during the denouement of Little Hope, and even then, I got over it pretty quickly.

And, while my actual playtime in Dead by Daylight is definitely eclipsed by the hours I’ve spent obsessively digging into the lore surrounding it, I think that’s still sufficient to call myself a fan. So a Dead by Daylight story mode-style spin-off developed by Supermassive was, for me, the definition of a no-brainer.

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I didn’t go in expecting anything earth-shattering – just the promise of a Dead by Daylight story in the style of The Dark Pictures Anthology was already more than enough to win me over. But while Frank Stone somewhat predictably failed to set the world on fire when it released on September 3rd (meaning that we share a birthday, coincidentally, although I promise that’s only made me a little biased in its favour), I was still pleasantly surprised by how much I rated it. It might be in my all-time Supermassive top three, honestly.

Two of the protagonists, Linda and Chris, are basically gender-flipped expies of David Lynch and Sam Raimi, which is a fun touch. Here, we see what happens when not-Sam Raimi gets sucked into a portal. | Image credit: Behaviour Interactive

The Casting of Frank Stone is both intriguing and grim. Charting the intertwined fates of five playable protagonists across three different time periods – all connected by a historic series of killings in the town of Cedar Hills, Oregon, and the subsequent release of a no-budget student film inspired by the case – just theorising as to what’s really going on is enough to keep you on your toes for much of the game. It’s got atmosphere in spades, and a decent amount of variety in its choose-your-own-adventure gameplay, but at its heart this is 100% one for the lore nerds, alright.

Probably to its biggest detriment is the fact that The Casting of Frank Stone ends on a brutal narrative gut-punch that will only land if you’re at least passingly familiar with the wider worldbuilding of Dead by Daylight. I don’t think that this is a failure of the game, which I believe achieved exactly what it set out to do, and delivered a story that would hook fans of its parent series (pun absolutely intended). But when I think about how it came out and then went away again with relatively little fanfare, I suspect that this might be a big part as to why.

Nevertheless, in an entertainment industry increasingly dominated by cynical brand tie-ins between the biggest wallets on the one hand, and brutal copyright takedowns smothering small artists in petty disputes on the other, I don’t mind telling you that I for one want to see more collaborations like The Casting of Frank Stone: just a couple of studios taking an opportunity to meet organically at the intersection of their specialities, to see what shenanigans result from the mashup. That sort of co-operation coming out of artistic compatibility ahead of financial incentive feels so rare that it’s practically retro in and of itself.

So, even if The Casting of Frank Stone wasn’t for everyone, I’d love to see more games adopt its pattern going forward. And if your two favourite games just happen to be, say, Dead by Daylight and Until Dawn, then there’s a good chance that it actually could be your tailor-made GOTY after all – truthfully, it came rather close to being mine.

Disney Dreamlight Valley: How to Get Flyleaf Feta

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December 21, 2024

Disney Dreamlight Valley: How to Get Flyleaf Feta

Storybook Vale DLC offers multiple new biomes from which players can get new ingredient items. These new ingredients are used to prepare new food meals and are also required in various quests. Flyleaf Feta is one of the new protein-type ingredients in the Storybook Vale expansion of Disney Dreamlight Valley. Players can consume Flyleaf Feta to regenerate energy. In this guide, we’ll go over how to get Flyleaf Feta in Disney Dreamlight Valley.

How to Get Flyleaf Feta in Disney Dreamlight Valley

You can purchase Flyleaf Feta from Goofy’s Stall in The Bind biome of Storybook Vale. Storybook Vale is a New World exclusive for the Storybook Vale expansion, meaning players will first have to buy the Storybook Vale expansion to get the Flyleaf Feta.

Once players have access to the Storybook Vale, they need to progress in the main Expansion Quests to unlock The Bind during A New Chapter quest for Merida. It will allow players to access the Bind where they will be able to buy the Flyleaf Feta from Goofy’s Stall.

However, before players can buy the Flyleaf Feta, they will have to fix Goofy’s Stall. Moreover, players will have to get both upgrades of the stall to unlock Flyleaf Feta. Getting both upgrades of the stall will cost a total of 9,000 Star Coins. Upon unlocking the Flyleaf Feta on the stall, players will be able to purchase them for 150 Star Coins each.

Uses of Flyleaf Feta

The selling price for 1 Flyleaf Feta is 75 Star Coins. Moreover, you can consume Flyleaf Feta to regenerate 100 Energy. Lastly, you can use it for various new meals like Argossian Pizza.

Cop Officers: Police Simulator of NYPD City Switch Review

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December 21, 2024

Cop Officers: Police Simulator of NYPD City Switch Review

If Cop Officers: Police Simulator of NYPD City sounds familiar, it is because I talked extensively about it in an editorial comparing it to Police Simulator: Patrol Officers. I was only dealing with the marketing there, but now I have the real deal and I can safely say its surprisingly not completely Garbage. The problem with Cop Officers is it had no budget and it shows. The game borrows heavily from Police Simulator, even pretending it is Police Simulator:

Cop Officers follows the same basic structure of Police Simulator, you have a neighborhood, a shift and time limit to complete tasks. Your very first task is to stop and frisk everyone you see looking for an illegal gun. Ask for their ID, if it says “Gun Permit: Yes.” Let them go. If not, frisk em. If they have a gun on them, write them a ticket. Five to complete the task. . All the while, you can write parking tickets too for cars on the sidewalk. After fifteen minutes, the shift ends

As you can see, Cop Officer looks like trash. It sounds like trash too, with the cop voice overs probably stolen from the real Police Simulator. In fact lets do an image comparison with a marketing screenshot, shall we?

And there you have it, Cop Officers is a complete fraud. It pretends to be Police Simulator while being a pale imitation of it, hoping people are stupid enough to fall for it. Strangely, the game is playable, but why play a turd when can you play the real deal? I mean the traffic doesn’t even function here, with cars backed up at a stoplight forever(see the image comparison above). Cop Officers get a Garbage with a three back-end score, and I’m being really generous here.

Overall: Cop Officers: Police Simulator of NYPD City is strangely playable, but that’s doesn’t mean you should go anywhere near this, however.

Release Date12/20/24Cost$11.99Publisher16BITESRB RatingT

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Fortnite finally teases epic crossover with popular game coming soon

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December 21, 2024

Fortnite finally teases epic crossover with popular game coming soon

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you’re reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here

Whether it’s a film, a comic book figure, or even a musical artist like Snoop Dogg and Eminem who were immensely popular among fans, Fortnite crossovers are always something their player community looks forward to. Still, some crossovers in the game seem out of the blue; one as the Skibidi Toilet collab, which caught many off guard.

Due to great demand from fans and popularity shown in Fortnite polls, often times there also comes a crossover years in the making. One such collab is on its way to Fortnite and this time it features the most loved game of recent times.

Fortnite x Cyberpunk collaboration will bring two epic skins to Chapter 6

The official X page of Cyberpunk 2077 posted a mysterious picture showing the main character, V, seated in front of several screens, one of which displays the Fortnite Battle Bus and the others show different locations and POIs of the current Chapter 6 Season 1 map. The teaser posed, “Whatcha gawking at there, V?”

V from Cyberpunk 2077 looking at Fortnite bus — Cyberpunk 2077 has teased a Fortnite crossover in a cryptic post. Image by CD Projekt RED.

This validates the most recent leaks by data miners like ShiinaBR, who have exposed that a Cyberpunk 2077 collab scheduled for Fortnite on December 23, 2024, at 7 PM E.T. would be visiting the Item Shop with two skins. V and Johnny Silverhand are the characters getting their own outfits in Fortnite.

Each skin will cost 1,500 V-Bucks, and the bundle, including both sets, will be 2,800 V-Bucks. Additionally, a Quadra Turbo RV Tech vehicle will be sold for 1,800 V-Bucks.

Though fans have been requesting a male version of the skin be introduced as well, which was promoted in trailers and key art of the main game, the teaser image showed a female V skin, which can also be seen on the Phantom Liberty DLC cover. Although it’s not certain which variant will be included, it’s rather likely the one seen in the teaser.

But Epic can also add a male variant in a selectable style to V since they used the identical costume for two appearances for the Nathan Drake skin as well from the Uncharted game and the movie.

Three characters overlooking a vibrant, lush video game landscape with rivers, fields, and distant towns under a clear blue sky.

Fortnite

Platform(s):
Android, iOS, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X

Genre(s):
Action, Massively Multiplayer, Shooter

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DETECTIVE – The Motel Review | TheXboxHub

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December 21, 2024

DETECTIVE – The Motel Review | TheXboxHub

The American motel has become a compelling setting for fictional narratives. It evokes images of criminals on the run, hidden horrors, and an atmosphere of mystery and intrigue.

Games have explored this setting, from the eerie world of Alan Wake to the unsettling reality-bending, in between world of Control. In DETECTIVE – The Motel, a murder has occurred, and you arrive as a detective to investigate the scene, explore the rooms, and piece together the clues to solve the crime. Sounds simple, right?

Detective The Motel Review 1 — Take your detective skills to The Motel

The Detective series from JanduSoft has gained popularity with its bite-sized, memorable mysteries. I’ve reviewed a couple of entries in the franchise – DETECTIVE: Stella Porta Case and Detective Minerva Case – in recent months. These games offer engaging narratives with supernatural twists, requiring you to gather clues and deduce the truth. DETECTIVE – The Motel takes a different approach, focusing on a single location and providing a more open-ended investigative experience with minimal hand-holding.

You arrive at the motel in the first-person, with limited guidance on how to proceed. The classic motel setting features a parking lot with a couple of cars and a two-story building to explore. The motel has twelve rooms, eight of which are accessible, while the remaining four require codes or keys to unlock. On the top floor, you encounter a chalk outline of a body, marking the scene of the crime. Your objective is to identify the victim, the perpetrator, and the other occupants of the motel.

As mentioned, guidance is minimal, and even figuring out how to interact with objects can be initially challenging (it’s the RB button, in case you’re stuck). However, this hands-off approach effectively immerses you in the role of a detective, forcing you to rely on your observation and deduction skills. You must meticulously examine every room, searching for clues and piecing together the narrative. A date on a calendar might reveal a password, or arranging photographs in a specific order could unlock a vital piece of information. Thoroughness is key to unraveling the mystery.

Detective The Motel Review 2 — What’s going on here then?

At any point, when you feel confident in your deductions, you can press the Y button to access the deduction screen. Here, you assign guests to their respective rooms, identify the victim and the murderer, and even determine the date of the crime. Once you’ve submitted your accusation, you’ll receive a score based on your accuracy, along with feedback on your detective work and a brief narrative summarising your performance.

The visuals are impressive, with each room meticulously designed to reflect the occupant’s personality and preferences. The attention to detail creates a believable and lived-in environment, with scattered documents, laptops, and photographs adding to the immersive atmosphere. The focus on a single location likely allowed the developers to dedicate more resources to environmental detail.

However, the sound design is functional and somewhat sparse. And there’s absolutely no doubt that whilst the voice acting is decent overall, it occasionally veers into AI and uncanny valley territory.

Detective The Motel Review 3 — A decent puzzler

DETECTIVE – The Motel offers a refreshing change of pace for the franchise. While the previous games explored supernatural elements and provided more structured investigations, this one focuses on player agency and open-ended exploration. The lack of hand-holding and the centralisation on a single, richly detailed location create a unique and engaging detective experience.

While some players might find the lack of guidance challenging, DETECTIVE – The Motel is a rewarding puzzler for those who enjoy piecing together clues and testing their deductive skills.

Unravel the Mystery of Detective – The Motel on Xbox, PlayStation and PC – https://www.thexboxhub.com/unravel-the-mystery-of-detective-the-motel-on-xbox-playstation-and-pc/

Buy DETECTIVE – The Motel on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/detective-the-motel/9nh4nwm72m3p

Sam.Pr Explorer – Explore ancient Egypt in this new MSX 2 game via the MSXdev’24 compo!

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December 21, 2024

Sam.Pr Explorer – Explore ancient Egypt in this new MSX 2 game via the MSXdev’24 compo!

Even more games are appearing for the MSXdev’24 competition and rather than the platforming antics of The drop of Abu-Cymbel or Sorcerer Kid Adventure, this time you play as Sam.PR on an adventure within the Pyramids of Egypt. The only problem is, he’s found himself trapped inside one of those pyramids and you must find a way out. In light of this new retro gaming news, Saberman has provided a short gameplay video below.

And here’s the latest “Just as pyramids are constructed with traps to deter unwanted visitors, or to ensnare them, it’s hardly surprising that Sam has found himself in a predicament, having allowed his curiosity to override caution. Now, he’s caught and must find a way to escape. Be kind and assist your companion, will you? Depending on the chosen difficulty level, you must clear several rooms within a specified time frame. As always, be wary of adversaries that aim to make your life miserable.”

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