A quick perusal of RE4’s Microsoft Store page (opens in new tab) reveals a total of 13 different content packs, presumably available separately in addition to being bundled in the $70 Digital Deluxe version. These packs include mostly outfits and cosmetic options, but also two new weapons and the aforementioned treasure map.

We’ve been living in the age of the $70 Digital Deluxe Edition for a good long while now, but doesn’t this example seem particularly… odious? I’m not exactly railing against the heavens that my $60 isn’t enough to get me “Romantic (opens in new tab)” or “Casual” outfits for 21st century brain trust Leon Kennedy and Ashley Graham, it just makes me feel tired and old. I’m flashing back to all the cross promotion armor and day-one DLC we were faced with during BioWare’s peak productivity period under EA ownership. You know, your Blood Dragon Armor(s) (opens in new tab), Warden’s Keep, Inferno Armor, Zaeed⁠—The Price of Revenge (opens in new tab): pure, unadulterated content.

It’s not precisely clear what the Treasure Map Expansion’s vaunted treasures entail, but my guess is it’s more vendor trash to sell to my beloved Scottish pirate merchant in exchange for dubious firearm modifications. In most states of the Union outside Texas, it is highly illegal to give a strange masked man a “spinel” in exchange for a high-capacity magazine, and RE4’s set in the firearm-averse European Union!

I find I have a particular distaste for those premium weapons as well⁠—the Sentinel Nine pistol (opens in new tab), seemingly based on Leon’s gun from one of those CGI Resident Evil movies, and the Skull Shaker shotgun (opens in new tab), an admittedly pretty dope Winchester 1887 lever-action shotgun. Like any good Digital Deluxe weapon, you just get them for free at the first save point instead of having them organically combined with the game’s progression, and I’d argue these freebies clash with RE4’s perfectly calibrated pacing and itemization.

But who am I kidding with all this grousing, I’ll still buy Resident Evil 4 for the fourth time when it comes out on March 23, even though I find that unfurling scroll of “premium content” so tiresome. No Digital Deluxe handgun on Earth could ever hold a candle to my precious Red9 (opens in new tab). 

Hogwarts Legacy allows you to capture and tame several magical creatures, eventually releasing them into your Vivarium. It’s an animal sanctuary that’s part of the Room of Requirement. Still, there’s one creature of legend that’s fairly elusive, though you do have a chance to acquire it. Here’s our Hogwarts Legacy guide to help you tame your own Phoenix pet.

Phoenix Rising quest

To catch a Phoenix pet in Hogwarts Legacy, you’ll need to complete the Phoenix Rising quest. However, it won’t be available until much later in the campaign. Here are some requirements:

• Finish the Niamh Fitzgerald’s Trial main quest.
• Complete all of Deek the house elf’s sidequests, such as Plight of the House Elf and Foal of the Dead (which unlocks the Beast breeding mechanic).

Shortly thereafter, you’re told that Deek needs your help once more. With the Phoenix Rising quest tracked, you’ll want to head to the southern portion of the world map in a region called Poidsear Coast.

To be clear, you’ll visit this section of the game world as part of the campaign, too. However, you could also make your way to the bandit camp in Coastal Cavern. There, you should see a tunnel that lets you pass through the mountain range.

In any case, the Phoenix Rising quest is fairly straightforward. You’ll enter a small dungeon called Phoenix Mountain Cave, where you’ll battle several spiders and poacher enemies.

Eventually, the Phoenix will appear in front of you before flying away. You’ll have to continue going through the cavern until you reach it. When you spot it again, your character will remark that the creature seems like it wants to go with you, so just cast the Nab-sack spell and it will happily enter the container. There’s no need to do the button prompts.

When you’re done, return to Deek in the Room of Requirement. You’ll have your own Hogwarts Legacy Phoenix pet, and it will head straight to the Mountain Vivarium, the fourth and final biome upgrade.

Improve your daily Wordle (opens in new tab) game with our guides and tips, give your guesses some welcome guidance with today’s clue, or turn your luck around completely and skip straight to the February 12 (603) answer. However much or little help you want with today’s Wordle, you’re sure to find it here.

Today was just one of those days where the greens seemed to appear out of nowhere, and that meant I was able to reveal the answer by my third go. A bit of luck mixed with a dash of an educated guess has got to be the perfect Wordle combo.

Wordle hint

A Wordle hint for Sunday, February 12

At launch, Fatshark’s game of trying not to accidentally shoot a big friendly ogryn in the back while he protects you from a swarm of people with scabies was missing a few things. Of particular note was that three-quarters of its crafting system appeared to have been left out.

We asked Fatshark why Darktide had placeholder messages in place of the rest of its crafting mechanics at the time, and were told that a different system had been removed at the last minute because it wasn’t good enough. “If we release a system and it’s in there and people are using it, it’s really, really hard to rip that system out and replace it with another system,” Fatshark’s head of design Victor Magnuson said. “People have already invested in the previous system. And from a backend perspective it’s going to be a nightmare. From the player experience, it’s going to be really bad. So if we released the game with a borked crafting system and decided we needed to redo it, that’s major surgery, and we don’t want to do that. It was a really tough call, but I think in the end players will agree it was the right call. Of course, they’re never going to know how bad the original crafting system was.”