The latest PlayStation State of Play has officially come to a close, but not before revealing a handful of brand-new games and some deeper looks at a few previously announced titles. With several of these games and updates headed our way later this year, we won’t have to wait too much longer to try them out ourselves. Until then, here’s a look at the biggest announcements from the March 2022 State of Play.

Exoprimal

Exoprimal is a brand-new IP from Capcom that pits mecha-wearing warriors up against waves of–wait for it–dinosaurs. In the fast-paced action game, you and your team of “exopilots” get the chance to choose from one of five exosuits–each outfitted with different abilities–and work together to protect the city from massive floods of vicious raptors and terrifying Tyrannosauruses. While it might not be Dino Crisis, it looks like the perfect game for anyone looking to have some Jurassic-sized fun with friends. Exoprimal is headed to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in 2023.

Ghostwire: Tokyo

Ghostwire: Tokyo is almost here and this new trailer gives us the most complete look at the upcoming title yet. Developed by Tango Gameworks with a team being led by Shinji Mikami–the creator of Resident Evil and The Evil Within–Ghostwire: Tokyo is a decidedly more action-oriented game for the Japanese studio. However, the game is still firmly rooted in both horror and supernatural elements, as you play the role of a possessed young man who must defend himself against various yokai and other demonic spirits. Ghostwire: Tokyo launches on March 25 for PlayStation 5 and PC, and preorders are now available from numerous online retailers.

Forspoken

Each and every Forspoken trailer we get does a great job of showing off just how ambitious Luminous Productions’ upcoming game appears to be and the one shared at the latest State of Play is no exception. In it, we see Frey take on a variety of enemies, including a flaming skeleton monster, a giant lion, and, last but not least, a fire-breathing dragon. We also saw a glimpse of how fast and fluid traversing the world of Forspoken looks–especially on Frey’s enchanted “surfboard.” Forspoken is scheduled to release on PS5 and PC on October 11 after being delayed from its May date just a few days ago.

Returnal: Ascension

While Returnal might not be a new game, its newest update might just make it feel like one. Returnal: Ascension is the name of the latest expansion to grace the 2021 roguelike, and with it comes a whole new element of challenge and cooperation. The new update adds both campaign co-op and a new survival mode called “The Tower of Sisyphus.” Ascension is scheduled to release on March 23 and will be free for all players.

JoJo’s Bizarre All Star Battle R

If you just can’t get enough anime and/or fighting games, boy oh boy do we have some great news for you. The colorful cast of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is coming to consoles and PC later this year with JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All Star Battle R. A remaster of the 2013 PS3 game by nearly the same name, All Star Battle R features 50 characters from the long-running series and boasts wide arenas for large-scale action. The game is scheduled to release Fall 2022 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and Steam.

The Diofield Chronicle

Square Enix is back at it again, bringing us yet another tactics game with the all-new IP The Diofield Chronicle. Featuring warring nations and a mix of anime-style 3D models and more-realistic environments, the upcoming game looks a whole lot like a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy Tactics. The Diofield Chronicle will release on both PS4 and PS5 in 2022, as well as Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Valkyrie Elysium

The next entry in the Valkyrie series is finally here with Valkyrie Elysium. Developed by Square Enix, Valkyrie Elysium offers an unusual take on Norse mythology wherein your character, Valkyrie, must ward off end of the world with fast-action melee combat and devastating magic. Based on the trailer, it looks like we can expect a combat system similar to Devil May Cry from the upcoming title–combos and all. However, it appears you will still be able to recruit warriors, or Einherjar, to assist you in battle. Valkyrie Elysium is set to release on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC in 2022.

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Warning: This article contains a huge amount of spoilers for Destiny 2‘s The Witch Queen and its raid, Vow of the Disciple. If you haven’t played The Witch Queen’s story campaign, the “Of Queens and Worms” questline, or the raid itself, you might want to do so before reading further. And if you’re confused about The Witch Queen’s story, read our explainer first.

Vow of the Disciple isn’t just about killing another huge monster. The Witch Queen’s raid fundamentally rewrites a huge amount of Destiny 2’s story, providing new context about Savathun, the Hive, and the Darkness. In fact, just about everything we thought we knew about the Hive gets rewritten thanks to what we learn in Vow of the Disciple. We also discover a new class of villains who are above the alien races we’ve been fighting for years, and face down a new villain called Rhulk. As it turns out, this guy has had a massive influence on the world of Destiny 2–despite the fact that we’ve never even heard of him before.

There’s a huge amount of story scattered throughout Vow of the Disciple, but you’ll have to seek it out to understand what’s going on in the Sunken Pyramid, and why. Here’s everything you need to know about the raid, its boss, the Hive, the worm gods, and Savathun’s plans.

Who is Rhulk?

The first thing we need to talk about is Rhulk, the final boss of the raid. Rhulk is the First Disciple of the Witness, the intelligent force behind the Darkness we’ve been hearing about for quite a while now. We’ve gotten hints about the Disciples from Mara Sov in The Witch Queen, but we have almost no information about them. However, what we can glean so far is that they seem to be the Witness’s lieutenants, the agents who carry out its will in the universe. (I think the term “Upended” may refer to this group of lieutenants, or maybe the forces of the Black Fleet altogether, but it’s not yet clear what exactly the “Upended” are.) Rhulk commands and controls a Pyramid, and we might find other Disciples in other ships.

Rhulk, however, is apparently the Witness’s first-ever disciple. He’s worked as an agent for the Witness for what seems like eons. We don’t know all that much about what he’s been up to in that time, but unlocking the Shattered Suns lore book gives us a look at Rhulk’s background from before he was a raid boss.

Before becoming a Disciple, Rhulk lived on a planet called Lubrae, which had two suns: one a bright blue and the other, somehow dark, referred to as the “Umbral Sun.” Life on Lubrae was deadly when either of the suns were at full brightness, it seems, but people who lived in the planet’s major city, under its governmental regime, were safe and comfortable. They’d been uplifted by the Traveler, and used technology they created during their Golden Age to suck power directly out of the blue sun. The result was a city that was always illuminated and always protected. But while Lubrae received the Traveler’s gifts, those gifts weren’t applied equally to everyone, and some–the city dwellers and the Regime–became very powerful.

Rhulk comes from a planet called Lubrae, and through his actions, it was destroyed.

Those who weren’t willing to live in the city were persecuted by the Regime; known as Wanderers, they were pacifist nomadic people hunted by the city’s soldiers. Rhulk and his family were Wanderers, but while Rhulk wanted to fight these Stalkers who hunted the nomads, the rest of his people shunned him for his desire for violence and vengeance. His father, Rhelik, counseled against fighting back, but when their clan was attacked and his father taken by the Stalkers, Rhulk took up a Glaive–a weapon created by the people of Lubrae–and fought back. He was a powerful warrior and killed the Stalkers, but rather than show gratitude, the rest of his clan shunned him for his bloodlust and Rhulk was exiled.

From there, Rhulk began hunting Stalkers, trying to find his father, even though he believed him dead. He searched and hunted Stalkers for two years before finally finding his father–alive, but having joined the Regime. The hypocrisy of Rhelik turning against his ideals and joining those who had oppressed them caused Rhulk to hate his father, but rather than go down fighting, Rhulk, too, turned coat and joined the regime. The plan was that Rhulk would use the opportunity to get close to his father and kill him, along with the Regime’s leaders. But Rhulk found that he liked the comfortable life in the city and the fact that he was accepted, even celebrated, for his skills and bloodlust.

Still, Rhulk harbored massive resentment for his father and aimed to kill him, but when finally confronted, Rhelik told him that he also planned to betray the Regime–joining the Stalkers was a scheme for the father, just like it was for the son. But Rhulk didn’t believe him, or couldn’t let go of his hate and anger. Rhelik escaped and Rhulk pursued him, eventually finding him with the rest of Rhulk’s clan. Rhelik had developed a plan to get his Wanderer clan into the city through hidden tunnels, where they’d be protected. It seems that Rhulk still couldn’t let go of his hateful feelings; he seemingly attacked his father but wound up falling into the Abyss, a huge crack in Lubrae created by the Regime to separate the city from the wilds where the Wanderers lived.

Despite the fall, Rhulk survived–thanks to the Witness. The Witness was quick to heal Rhulk and repair his Glaive, while also gifting him with some kind of Dark power. Rhulk then returned to the city and murdered his father and mother, as well as the rest of the clan. His rampage caused the Regime to turn against him, and Rhulk fought them, too, but was eventually imprisoned.

The new Glaives have a story reason for existing–they’re the weapons of Lubrae, which is why Rhulk wields one during your battle with him.

The Witness intervened again, helping him escape and find his Glaive. Infused with the power of Darkness, Rhulk used his Glaive to reverse the flow of solar energy the Regime used to power the city, and in so doing, destroyed Lubrae’s blue sun, an act that annihilated life on the planet. The last survivor of the planet, Rhulk fell into despair over what he’d done. The Witness forced him to revisit those memories, though, and in so doing, convinced Rhulk that what he’d done had helped him shed his weakness. Rhulk came to worship the Witness, becoming its Disciple and working to destroy what he saw as weakness in the universe, to help it move toward its “final shape.”

The creation of the Hive

It seems that Rhulk was the Witness’s answer to the Traveler’s interference with civilizations. The Traveler uplifted species to fit its ideology, so to battle it, the Witness started doing the same with powerful individuals. It dispatched Rhulk to create an army for the Witness–what you might consider a race of dark Guardians.

Rhulk went to the planet of a race called the Ahslid, but he didn’t make himself known there. Instead, he systematically and secretly killed members of the race, hiding his presence, over the course of years. His goal was to shape the Ahslid’s ideology through fear and destruction, to force them to realize that survival is a matter of strength. He was hoping to create a race who worshiped the Witness’s ideals, and for a while, it seemed as though he’d be successful.

Ultimately, though, Rhulk’s attempt at building a Darkness army backfired. Driven by the Witness’s ideology, the Ahslid wound up destroying each other in a nuclear war. Rhulk moved on; the Witness next sent it to Fundament, the home planet of the Krill. The Traveler had already arrived, uplifting civilizations that lived on Fundament’s moons. Down on the surface, on continents floating in Fundament’s oceans, were the Osmium Court and Sathona, Aurash, and Xi Ro–the Krill who would become the Hive gods Savathun, Oryx, and Xivu Arath.

Savathun was tricked by the worms, but the worms, too, were forced to do the bidding of Rhulk and the Witness.

We saw in The Witch Queen’s story campaign that the Witness manipulated events on Fundament to create the Hive, and Rhulk was the agent carrying out the orders. Rhulk began by finding the worm gods living in Fundament’s oceans and making a deal with them. The worms were trapped in the ocean by the Leviathan, a huge creature allied with the Traveler. Rhulk offered them the chance to live and spread, provided they served the Witness with their power. Despite the worms considering themselves gods, Rhulk struck fear in them with his own immense capabilities. They called him Subjugator, and agreed to the deal. It was Rhulk who set in motion the events that would lead to the worm familiar washing up on the shores of the Osmium Court. So the Hive were manipulated into fighting for the Darkness, but they’re not the only victims–the worms were also coerced into doing the Witness’s bidding, and seem to consider themselves prisoners of its will.

After fleeing the court following the assassination of their father, Sathona, Aurash, and Xi Ro used a ship they found to delve into the oceans, where they encountered the Leviathan. The Leviathan tried to convince the sisters not to trust the worms, but to no avail. It also tried to turn Rhulk away from the path of Darkness, but Rhulk demonstrated his incredible power by killing the creature. He kept one of its ribs, which you can see in the first area of the Sunken Pyramid, called Acquisitions.

Hive lore tells us there were five worm gods the Hive served, but in Rhulk’s story, we find out about a sixth–Xita, the worm mother. That’s the huge worm god you see lying in the middle of the Sunken Pyramid during Vow of the Disciple. With the Leviathan dead, Rhulk took Xita back to the Pyramid to facilitate the worms’ pact to create the Hive. As we see in the Birthplace of the Vile strike and in the raid, it was Rhulk who, using Pyramid tech and working for the Darkness, basically set up a factory to produce all the worm larvae the Hive needed for their entire race. Rhulk was the one who turned the Hive into a Darkness-worshiping force for genocide. He was the real power behind the worm gods.

Babysitting Savathun

The Pyramid is in Savathun’s throne world so Rhulk could keep an eye on the Witch Queen. The cities constructed nearby are part of his worm production operation.

The Hive ravaged Fundament and its moons, and then went on their billion-year tear through the universe, conquering and murdering all over. We don’t know what Rhulk was up to during that time; he might have been staying in the shadows to more easily manipulate the Hive’s progress. Eventually, though, the Witness became interested in Savathun, apparently even planning to potentially turn her into a Disciple as well. Rhulk was not happy about that possibility, feeling jealous of the possibility that the Witness could favor someone else. Still, the Witness also knew Savathun was a schemer, so it sent Rhulk to Savathun’s throne world in order to watch her; Fynch refers to it as “babysitting Savathun” in one of his dialogue lines. Rhulk did as he was told–the Sunken Pyramid in the throne world and the Pyramid-tech cities built there are Rhulk’s, as he’s been hanging out with Savathun for who knows how long. But that also made Rhulk resentful, wondering if he was being punished for his failure with the Ahslid; he found the worms disgusting and the Hive mostly unworthy.

Of course, we know Savathun eventually got disillusioned with her deal with the Darkness. She’s likely been planning to cut loose from the Darkness for a long time, but Rhulk would have been a big problem, hanging out right in her throne world. It seems like this is the reason Savathun needed the Light: She had a huge, powerful Darkness monster sitting in what was basically her bedroom, and no way to deal with it.

When Savathun was resurrected by Immaru to become a Guardian, however, everything changed. Her throne world, a reflection of Savathun’s mind, physically rearranged itself, resculpted by Light power–Fynch says that mountains collapsed and cities fell and were replaced. When the Light flooded into the throne world, suddenly, Savathun had the power to deal with Rhulk. She couldn’t kill him, but she was able to imprison him within the Sunken Pyramid and contain him.

Rhulk is the reason the Scorn are all over the place in the throne world. The world itself is covered in Light power, which should be enough to banish Darkness and its minions, such as the Scorn. But Rhulk and his Pyramid are kind of like a giant Darkness battery right in the middle of things. That power allows the Scorn into the throne world and creates the sort of environmental war we see between Light and Darkness.

Rhulk’s foothold in the throne world is what created these Dark city locations and why the Scorn are trying to take over.

The cutscene after the raid’s completion, then, suggests that Savathun’s plan for bringing the Traveler into her throne world was at least in part about dealing with the First Disciple once and for all. Unfortunately, uh, we Guardians intervened. By killing Savathun, we stunted her power in the throne world, giving Rhulk an opportunity to rise up. That meant that someone else had to stop him.

What’s happening in the raid

Vow of the Disciple takes Guardians into the Sunken Pyramid, seemingly by returning Rhulk’s powerful crystal thing to him in order to open the door. That spinning Pyramid tech cylinder you see on the sled? That seems to be a source of power that appears all through the raid. After bringing it into the Pyramid, you later see it with the Caretaker, who is apparently powering it up or accessing it. In the final fight with Rhulk, it hovers over him and is apparently used to generate the giant forcefield that marks the first phase of that encounter. If that’s the case (it’s honestly hard to tell), then it seems that Savathun snagged some key component from the Sunken Pyramid as part of imprisoning Rhulk within it, and in order to deal with him for good, you first have to give him the opportunity to regain his power.

Venturing into the Pyramid, you travel through what is essentially a museum to Rhulk’s exploits for the Witness. The Darkness is all about memory, reliving past glories and understanding past sins and pain, and the Sunken Pyramid is a monument to all that. It contains what seems like the full history of the Sol system’s wars in Destiny and Destiny 2, the Leviathan’s rib from when Rhulk killed it, and murals he’s created depicting his exploits and his relationship with the Witness. This is Rhulk’s palace, where he hangs out and enjoys thinking about being a Darkness badass.

Rhulk kept one of the worm gods on his ship, forcing it to create larvae that would bond with the Hive and provide their connection to the Darkness.

The big worm in the middle, Xita, seems to be powering a giant generator in the center of the Pyramid, and it’s this location where we find Rhulk. Since this worm is responsible for all the larvae the Hive use to gain their power, my guess is that we’re seeing the Hive’s “tithe” in action here. The Hive’s power through the worms comes from constantly feeding them through murder and conquest, but the Hive gods like Savathun, Oryx, and Xivu Arath became extra powerful through tithing. Each member of the Hive kills, using that murder to feed its worm–but some of that murder energy gets passed up the chain of command, from thralls to acolytes, acolytes to knights, knights to wizards, and so on. So the Hive gods feed their worms and gain their power through their own actions, as well as the actions of the entire Hive race beneath them. Seems like that’s not the whole story, though. What I’m guessing is that all the Darkness energy created by the Hive’s conquest is transmitted through the worm larvae to Xita, and thus, to Rhulk and his Pyramid. This is the true nature of the Hive’s existence, the pact with the worms, and the bargain the worms struck with the Subjugator. The Hive and their worms feed power to Rhulk.

We also find out through the Evidence Board and the items we see in the Pyramid that Rhulk hasn’t been sitting around doing nothing. He’s been experimenting with the worms and the Scorn. The Evidence Board related to the REVERSE-LURE mission to get the Exotic Glaive suggests that Rhulk was trying to find other creatures to bind with the worm larvae, especially once Savathun turned on him. The Caretaker boss you fight during the raid is a Scorn Abomination, and the Evidence Board mission speculates that the Caretaker might have been a successful version of this experiment–the Scorn bound and infused with the power of the worm larvae. That’s why the Scorn have been running around the throne world, trying to gather Hive runes and use their rituals; with Rhulk, the Scorn are trying to gain the Hive’s Darkness powers.

Finally, though, you kill Rhulk and seemingly sunder his Pyramid. That’s a big deal, since it establishes that yes, Disciples of the Witness can be killed. These Upended folks are powerful, but not unbeatable.

It also suggests some big potential changes for the Destiny 2 universe going forward. Putting a stop to Rhulk’s worm larvae production operation seems like it should strike a big blow to the Witness, because this seemingly should put a stop to the creation of additional Hive for the likes of Xivu Arath. Whatever Hive forces are at the Witness’s command right now should be all of them, and every time we kill Hive forces, their numbers permanently dwindle. We’ve also probably put an end to Rhulk’s experiments with joining the worms and the Scorn, stopping that threat before it could get off the ground.

The Caretaker is apparently a hybrid, a Scorn who also is bonded to a worm larvae, granting it exceptional power.

We don’t know who else is out there, though. The nature of the power of the Black Fleet isn’t clear, and some of what we think is going on with Rhulk is speculation. We still don’t know anything about the Upended, either. And overall, Savathun’s plans still seem to be unfolding, even after her death. Who knows what’s still waiting for us in the throne world or the Sunken Pyramid.

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Campaign co-op and a new survival mode are coming to Returnal. Announced during Sony’s most recent State of Play, Returnal: Ascension is the latest expansion to grace the 2021 roguelike, and adds a whole new element of challenge–and cooperation–to the sci-fi shooter. The update is slated to be released on March 23 and will be free for all players.

According to PlayStaton, Returnal: Ascension adds a robust campaign co-op mode that allows you to “share your entire journey through the shifting labyrinth of Atropos with another player.” In addition, the update also adds The Tower of Sisyphus–“an ascending gauntlet of increasingly dangerous phases, with each containing twenty floors.” Upon entering the tower, players will be tasked with eliminating all enemies on each floor before advancing to the next one, with plenty of brutal battles and unexpected challenges tucked away on each one.

While this new cooperative mode may take some of the stress out of the game’s notoriously grueling campaign, Housemarque has confirmed friends will not be able to join you in The Tower of Sisyphus or the game’s Challenge Mode.

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Rainbow Six Siege Year 7, Season 1 kicks off March 15. The new year marks another narrative shift for Ubisoft Montreal’s team-based shooter, which last changed gears in Year 4–that year saw Siege leave behind its initial counter-terrorism narrative for a competitive sports fantasy.

“Year 7 is a definite shift, but I think it’s way more organic than the last time we pivoted as a brand,” Rainbow Six Siege realization director Alex Lima told GameSpot. “The move towards a sport-like narrative was understandable as it gave us some much-needed levity during that time. The problem was that it happened overnight in Year 4, and our players didn’t quite understand it.”

According to Lima, Year 7 will see Siege refocus on the fact that Siege’s Operators are specialist soldiers, not athletes. Building upon the function and personalities of Siege’s massive roster of Operators, the new narrative will focus on Rainbow’s rivalry with Nighthaven, a private military company with involvement in criminal activity across the globe, as Rainbow begins to once again respond to international threats.

“We are leaving behind the sports competition narrative, but we’re not forgetting it,” Lima said. “Our story ‘The Program’ was key in preparing our Operators for what comes next. Now that we take the story ‘Back on the Road’ and make Operators operational again, three years of training and simulation will be invaluable.”

This is the first time that Siege has built up to such a major storyline over a long period of time. Ubisoft Montreal has been dropping hints about this major story development for years via trailers, blog posts, and in-game text logs, slowly transforming Siege into a more narrative-driven service game piece-by-piece–much in the same way that Destiny 2 worked its way up to The Witch Queen or Apex Legends set-up The Broken Ghost.

“It certainly did not get written overnight,” Lima said. “We wanted Nighthaven’s inception to be more substantial and conflictual back when we launched [Year 4, Season 4] Shifting Tides, but the team felt it was too soon to delve into a rival organization, so we’ve been planting seeds for years.”

Rainbow’s Ash and Nighthaven’s Kali have been at each other’s throats for a long time, with Rainbow’s Forward Operations leader even asking Flores to spy on the head of Nighthaven.

The introduction of Nighthaven represents the first external organization that can interfere with Rainbow since the game’s launch, which saw the team of soldiers going up against an international terrorist group called The White Masks. That group was faceless and not very interesting, however. They weren’t so much a foe to fight in so much an antagonistic force that was just kind of there.

Nighthaven addresses that shortcoming right out the gate–the group is led and composed of many of the Operators added to Siege since the start of Year 4. Plus, five of the Operators that have been a part of Rainbow for a while–Ela, Smoke, Finka, Pulse, and IQ–defected from the team at the end of Year 6 in order to join Nighthaven. So, this isn’t just some purely evil group that Rainbow is fighting. It’s a group composed of Rainbow’s former friends and allies.

This narrative has a large emotional investment as well, as it sees families split on their ideologies. As seen in the cinematic trailer Sisters In Arms, Ela’s decision to join Nighthaven creates a schism between her and her sister, fellow Operator Zofia. Similarly, Pulse is the husband of Hibana, and she’s choosing to stay with Rainbow. There are stakes in this rivalry that are worth caring about.

You may notice that none of those names are big players in Siege’s world–that’s by design. Going forward, Siege will highlight more of the Operators that traditionally stick to the sidelines when it comes to major story beats. So players can expect more storylines like what we saw in Sisters In Arms–it’s not always going to be about Ash from now on.

“We have a few standout personalities who have become star protagonists,” Lima said. “Ash, Mira, and Thermite take up a lot of screen time as mission givers or sources of exposition. We’ve seen them in a lot of Siege assets including peripheral Rainbow Six titles. What I always love to do is take a character people don’t know much about and bring them front and center, let them take the mic and lead the story.”

Lima added: “It’s why telling the story of Ela and Zofia was so appealing. If you need to make a big narrative shift, instinctively you think to use more spotlighted characters to do it. But you’ll notice none of the big Operators are featured in Sisters in Arms. It’s a very intimate story about relatively unknown characters meant to signify something bigger that will affect all of Rainbow. We even end on Smoke, which we’ve never really ‘seen’ in a big CGI before. That’s what I love about telling Siege stories, there are so many protagonists to choose from with an intense fanbase rooting for each.”

Ubisoft Montreal is planning on having this narrative impact more than just the context surrounding Siege–elements of playing the game will change too. Going forward, the game’s story and gameplay won’t be treated as completely separate things. Instead, one can impact the other. Lima told me about how that might play out, teasing that reactionary in-match voice lines that evolve over time to better reflect the changing relationships between certain Operators may be in Siege’s future.

“There is no better way to have relationship dynamics realized than through in-game voice lines,” Lima said. “The team has been interested in implementing this for years. It stands as an objective for Year 8 with tons of interest from our audio and business teams. We’ll have more info on this when discussing our future roadmap with our community.”

Until then, fans can expect to see the dynamic between Rainbow and Nighthaven continue to evolve in traditional trailers. However, unlike the mostly disjointed trailers of past years, Year 7 will begin a trend of Ubisoft Montreal tackling Siege as an episodic story that’s more akin to a TV show.

“We are, for the first time with Year 7, treating each entry of our animated shorts like an episode of a series that culminates in the annual CGI,” Lima said. “Our narrative pages on the game’s website also serve as added exposition for this episodic narrative. It’s very hard to detail a year’s worth of narrative, as we need to leverage new Operators in our assets–where they’re from, what they can do or what they look like. What we can do is paint with a broad brush and plan for high-level events in which legacy Operators can be implicated, using new Operators instead as supporting characters. With that said, we have Year 7 almost entirely mapped out including our next big CGI which is going to be insane.”

Rainbow Six Siege Year 7, Season 1 is called Demon Veil. It adds a new defender, Azami. The Japanese Operator can create makeshift barriers with her kunai-shaped Kiba Barrier gadgets. As seen in The Story of Azami trailer, she joins Rainbow under the condition that Hibana helps her track down and get revenge on Quantum Concepts and Robotics–this is the R&D unit for Nighthaven, created and run by Osa, an Operator added to Siege in Year 6, Season 3: Crystal Guard.

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Earlier this month Intel quietly launched its W680 chipset, the company’s workstation-focused chipset for its 12th Gen Core (Alder Lake) processors. Unlike the current generation of consumer desktop chipsets such as Z690, H670, B660, and H610, the W680 adds the capability to use ECC DRAM, including both DDR5 and DDR4 variants. At present, there haven’t been many W680 motherboard announcements, although a couple of vendors, including ASRock Industrial and Supermicro have a few options listed. So we’re giving you the lowdown on W680, what it has to offer, and what technologies it brings for users looking to build a workstation-class desktop with Intel’s latest Alder Lake architecture.

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Niantic has announced a brand-new series of live events: Niantic Community Days, which will feature the developer’s entire portfolio of games every month.

The first of these new Niantic Community Days is scheduled for March 13 from 11 AM to 5 PM local time–the exact timing of the next Pokemon Go Community Day featuring Sandshrew. Over 20 cities will host live events, while “over 200 locations will be virtually activated with special bonuses” according to the official blog post.

The list of cities hosting the Niantic Community Day live events is as follows:

United States:

Indianapolis, IN: Canal Elbow at White River State ParkWashington, DC: At the top of District pier at The WharfOakland, CA: TBC

Europe, the Middle East, Africa:

Warsaw, Poland: Electonia Powisle Shopping MallLinz, Austria: City-ParkBristol, UK: BroadmeadCardiff, UK: Churchill WayEdinburgh, UK: Castle StreetLiverpool, UK: Liverpool OneLondon, UK: St. Alfege ParkLondon, UK: Whitfield GardensManchester, UK: Piccadilly GardensLaatzen, Germany: Leine-Center LaatzenRecklinghausen, Germany: Palais VestOberhausen, Germany: Westfield CentroBerlin, Germany: Spandau ArcadenBochum, Germany: Ruhr ParkDüsseldorf, Germany: Düsseldorf ArcadenLeipzig, Germany: Paunsdorf CenterMunich, Germany: Pasing Arcaden

Asia-Pacific:

Taipei, Taiwan: Daan Forest ParkNew Delhi, India: GMR Aerocity

Latin America:

Monterrey, Mexico: Parque Fundidora

Each live event will have a Niantic booth handing out free gifts, while games like Pokemon Go, Pikmin Bloom, and Ingress will have special Community Day events for players to check out while meeting up. While March 13 is the first event, Niantic has confirmed they will be running events every month until July 2022.

Pokemon Go will factor heavily into the Niantic Community Day event, as Niantic is also planning Pokemon Go live meetups for the same day and time. This will mark the first ever live Community Day for Pikmin Bloom since its October 2021 launch.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

It looks like a Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin demo will be available in the PlayStation Store soon.

PlayStation Game Size, a Twitter account that monitors the PlayStation Store for updates and is generally reliable, reported that a new Stranger of Paradise demo will be released in the near future. The file’s download size will clock in around 36GB.

According to PlayStation Game Size, the demo will be available on both PS5 and PS4. We should hear more about Stranger of Paradise’s demo in PlayStation’s State of Play taking place March 9 at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET. It will be 20 minutes long and will focus on Japanese-published games.

🚨 STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN DEMO VERSION (PS5)
⬜ Download Size : 35.730 GB
🟪 #StrangerOfParadise #PS5
🟫 @fforigin pic.twitter.com/tsQbynVZGq

— PlayStation Game Size (@PlaystationSize) March 9, 2022

GameSpot reviewed the second Stranger of Paradise demo and focused on appraising the game’s job system. Phil Hornshaw commented, “My impression from the second demo of Stranger of Paradise is that its combat and systems are fun to play with and interestingly responsive, building a uniquely Final Fantasy take on some of the things we’ve seen from other big action games, like Nioh.”

Stranger of Paradise will take cues from the very first Final Fantasy game. In an interview with Famitsu (translated by IGN), Nomura stated, “[It] is not a direct continuation to FF1’s story, but a new story inspired by it.”

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin will launch on March 18 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, and Xbox One.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Amazon has detailed all the new content coming to its MMORPG Lost Ark as part of its Hunt for the Guardian Slayer update on March 10, and it includes everything from new endgame content to a Mario Kart-inspired limited-time event.

As previously detailed, the update will introduce the first of the game’s Abyss Raid, which are eight-player endgame boss battles against massive Guardians. The first to be introduced, Argos, will have three distinct phases, with a separate table of rewards for each phase that can be claimed once a week. Players will need at least an item level of 1370 to participate in the new content and must have first complete an associated guide quest to unlock the feature.

A new limited-time event will also make its way to the game–the Arkesia Grand Prix. This event will pit two teams of seven players against one another in a race. Players will need to be level 50 to participate, and the event will be live for roughly a month.

This update will also introduce new story content, new islands, and lay the groundwork for the game’s first competitive Proving Grounds PvP season. There will also be a new series of login bonuses available for players to claim each day, with rewards available until the arrival of the game’s April update.

While Lost Ark’s concurrent player counts have dipped since its record-breaking launch week of 1.3 million concurrent players on Steam, the game is still wildly popular. Amazon has stated it will be looking to address common criticisms about Lost Ark involving gender-locked classes and revealing female outfits in the future, and it recently banned over 1 million illegitimate bot accounts from the game. The full patch notes for the March update are below.

Lost Ark March Update Full Patch Notes

The March Update with new content and a swath of bug fixes has arrived! Downtime for the update will begin on March 10 at 12AM PT (8AM UTC) and is expected to last 4 hours. Find the new content (including a few additions from our previous announced features) and the list of fixes below.

SPOTLIGHT

KADAN STORY EPISODE (INCLUDES ISTERI & ILLUSION BAMBOO ISLANDS)

Experience a new storyline, complete with its own quests, new islands, and cinematic moments. These quests will include a cast of new and returning characters as you learn more about the Sidereals and search for the legendary Kadan, the first Guardian slayer, in your journey to find the final Ark.

Players will need to have completed Feiton, alongside completing the following quests: ‘Yorn – Let There Be Light’, ‘Whispering Islet – Start of Our Story’, and ‘Illusion Bamboo Island – End of the Trials’ as a prerequisite before embarking on the new end-game questlines. Both Isteri & Illusion Bamboo islands are recommended for players at item level 1100.

ABYSS RAID: ARGOS

Similar to the Guardian Raids that players have encountered in their adventures across Arkesia, participants will need to work together to defeat the Guardian Argos before time expires, with a limited number of revives available to the party. As an unrelenting foe, eight players are required to face Argos.

Players will need to progress through three distinct phases as they work together to vanquish this powerful Guardian. In the three phases, Argos will grow more powerful with different mechanics and attack patterns. Each phase has its own table of rewards (collectable once a week), and a different item level requirement for players to participate.

Phase 1 – Item Level 1370Phase 2 – Item Level 1385Phase 3 – Item Level 1400

To face Argos players must first complete the guide quest “Abyss Raid Unlocked!”. Those meeting the requirements are able to enter the encounter through the Abyss Raid Statue in major cities, where they can look for battle companions through match-making or by finding a specific group. Players can also find a group and enter the encounter using the “Find Party” button located below the mini-map.

GENERAL UPDATES

ARKESIA GRAND PRIX

Looking for a change of pace after intense Abyssal Raids and Competitive Proving Grounds matches? Look no further than the limited-time Arkesia Grand Prix racing event, available for the next month. In this mode, two teams of seven players (7v7) will compete against each other, racing around a course while transformed and attempting to progress toward their goal while preventing the other team from progressing. Progress can be earned by reaching the goal and eating cakes! The Arkesia Grand Prix will be live for roughly a month after the March update, until the April Update releases.

An NPC named “Arkesia Grand Prix Manager” will arrive in every major city (other than Prideholme) to help you enter the event, granting an “[Event][Daily] Go to the Arena!” quest for players to gain entry. Players must be level 50 to enter the event. Please note there is a known issue that the messaging for this requirement is only available in English in-game.

COMPETITIVE PROVING GROUNDS SEASON 1

Unlike the other content in the March Update, the initial March update will lay the groundwork for Season 1 of Competitive Proving Grounds, and the season will begin later in the month. We’ll keep you posted on the exact time the season is set to kick-off.

Time to start honing your player vs. player skills— the first season of competitive Proving Grounds is on its way; where players can battle each other for prestige and rewards. Players will be able to queue solo for the ‘Team Deathmatch’ mode. As you win and lose throughout the season, you can track your ‘Competitive Match Average Score’. Your rank is determined based on your score, as are the rewards you receive when the season ends. To participate, players will need to play Proving Grounds and reach Tier 1, so make sure to get some matches in before Season 1 begins!

NEW SKINS

Added the Omen skin collection to the in-game store. These cosmetics will be available in exchange for Royal Crystals until the April Update releases.

NEW LOG-IN BONUSES

The March update will add a new track for players to receive daily rewards for logging and claiming on a daily basis. Rewards include a variety of helpful materials, such as honing materials, rapport selection chests, card packs, and much more! This track will have 25 daily bonuses, alongside additional rewards at the 10, 15, and 20 day thresholds. These rewards will be available until our April Update.

Europe West will be receiving modified log-in bonuses to help players who moved regions to catch up. We’ll share more information on our official forums soon for Europe West players.

NOTABLE BUG FIXES

Fixed a Direct X 11 related issue causing the game client to become unresponsive after switching from Windowed Mode to Fullscreen and Alt+tabbing.Fixed an issue with graphical settings where sometimes the “Restore to Default” button would set the graphical settings to a higher than intended default setting.Fixed a few issues with Controller Support related messaging for tutorials and other instructions.Fixed an issue where it was not possible to unequip gems when using a controller.Fixed an issue in Character Creation/Customization causing the “hello” tattoo to display backwards.Fixed an issue with Stronghold’s Manor Management UI causing the AZERTY keyboard input was not properly supported.Fixed an issue where the wrong Guide video for the Abyssal Dungeon was being played.Fixed issues causing players to sometimes be unable to hear others, speak, or leave while in Raid group chat.Fixed an issue causing hotkey functionality for global chat to not work properly.Fixed an issue where the Weekly Battle Item Bundle stated it can be claimed 10 times. Changed it to reflect a purchase limit of once a week. While previously communicated this issue as fixed in our last update, we continued to work on resolving it and apologize for any confusion between the updates.Fixed an issue in the Training Room causing the tutorial text for the Stand Up movement to disappear too quickly.Fixed an issue in the “Honest Liar” quest preventing players from using mouse clicks to advance quest interactions and NPC dialogue.Fixed an issue causing the Notos Orka Ship Skin Selection Chest to be limited to 1 purchase instead of 3.Fixed an issue causing the Stronghold Lab UI to not display additional research slots when unlocked.Fixed various other minor and backend issues.Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

By far one of the most useful features the Xbox Series consoles have is Quick Resume, and their latest update just made it a little better. The March update for Xbox consoles has added a few improvements, but the one most players will notice immediately is the ability to pin games to Quick Resume.

Quick Resume is one of the fancier features included in the Xbox Series consoles, letting players switch between multiple games immediately and seamlessly. But the best part of Quick Resume is that a game will resume exactly where it was left off, meaning there’s no need to save or find a checkpoint. Players can simply swap between games as much as they want.

With this month’s Xbox update, players can now pin two games to Quick Resume, meaning they’ll always be available in an instant. To pin a game to Quick Resume, users simply have to select a game, press the Menu button, and select “Pin to Quick Resume” from the dropdown menu. These games will only be removed if players manually remove them or if they have a mandatory update.

Outside of Quick Resume enhancements, players can also remap their controller’s Share Button. While it normally lets users save clips or screenshots, the Share Button can now be remapped to perform a variety of actions, including opening up a friends list or muting a TV. A new audio setup wizard is also available for audiophiles who want to make sure their TV is using the correct audio format.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

We currently live in a sea of buzzwords. Whether that’s something to catch the eye when scrolling through our news feed, or a company wanting to latch their product onto the word-of-the-day, the quintessential buzzword gets lodged in your brain and it’s hard to get out. Two that have broken through the barn doors in the technology community lately have been ‘Zettascale’, and ‘Metaverse’. Cue a collective groan while we wait for them to stop being buzzwords and into something tangible. That’s my goal today while speaking to Raja Koduri, Intel’s SVP and GM of Accelerated Computing.

What makes buzzwords like Zettascale and Metaverse so egregious right now is that they’re referring to one of our potential futures. To break it down: Zettascale is talking about creating 1000x the current level of compute today but in the latter half of the decade, to take advantage of the high demand for computational resources by both consumers and businesses, and especially machine learning; Metaverse is something about more immersive experiences, and leveling up the future of interaction, but is about as well defined as a PHP variable.

The main element that combines the two is computer hardware, coupled by computer software. That’s why I reached out to Intel to ask for an interview with Raja Koduri, SVP and GM, whose role is to manage both angles for the company towards a Zettascale future and a Metaverse experience. One of the goals of this interview was to cut through the miasma of marketing fluff and understand exactly what Intel means with these two phrases, and if they’re relevant enough to the company to be built into those future roadmaps (to no-one’s surprise, they are – but we’re finding out how).

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