REVERB features 17 audiovisual installations including new works by Es Devlin and Theaster Gates, plus Devon Turnbull's Listening Room.

The post The Vinyl Factory celebrates art and sound with immersive exhibition at 180 Studios appeared first on Fact Magazine.

Reverb features new works by Es Devlin and Theaster Gates, plus Devon Turnbull's Listening Room.

The post The Vinyl Factory: Reverb exhibition extended until 22 December appeared first on Fact Magazine.

Super Mario Party Jamboree (NS) has remained in first place on the retail charts in Japan with sales of 57,522 units, according to Famitsu for the week ending October 27, 2024. 

Farmagia (NS) debuted in eighth place with sales of 4,296 units.

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven (NS) remained in second place with sales of 14,646 units. The PS5 version fell from third to seventh place with sales of 5,097 units.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (PS5) is up one spot to third place with sales of 8,620 units and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (NS) re-entered the top 10 in fourth place with sales of 5,782 units.

Professional Baseball Spirits 2024-2025 (PS5) is up two spots to fifth with sales of 5,729, and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (NS) is up two spots to sixth place with sales of 5,492 units.

The Nintendo Switch was the best-selling platform with 60,096 units sold. The PlayStation 5 sold 13,965 units, the Xbox Series X|S sold 2,610 units, and the PlayStation 4 sold 53 units.

Here are the best-selling games in Japan:

1. [NSW] Super Mario Party Jamboree (Nintendo, 10/17/24) – 57,522 (364,484)
2. [NSW] Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven (Square Enix, 10/24/24) – 14,646 (85,013)
3. [PS5] Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Activision, 10/25/24) – 8,620 (35,567)
4. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04/28/17) – 5,782 (6,044,039)
5. [PS5] Professional Baseball Spirits 2024-2025 (Konami, 10/17/24) – 5,729 (84,989)
6. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Nintendo, 09/26/24) – 5,492 (294,371)
7. [PS5] Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven (Square Enix, 10/24/24) – 5,097 (37,254)
8. [NSW] Farmagia (Marvelous, 11/01/24) – 4,296 (New)
9. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo, 03/20/20) – 4,253 (7,943,533)
10. [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 4,242 (3,666,338)

Here is the hardware breakdown (followed by lifetime sales):

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463007/super-mario-party-jamboree-tops-the-japanese-charts/

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company in September filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair. 

At the time Nintendo did not share which patents Palworld infringed on, however, Pocketpair has now revealed what patents Nintendo are claiming were infringed on.

"As announced on September 19, 2024, The Pokémon Company and Nintendo Co Ltd (hereinafter referred to as the Plaintiffs) have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against us," said Pocketpair. "We have received inquiries from various media outlets regarding the status of the lawsuit, and we would like to report the details and current status of this case as follows.

"The Plaintiffs claim that Palworld, released by us on January 19, 2024, infringes upon the following three patents held by the Plaintiffs, and are seeking an injunction against the game and compensation for a portion of the damages incurred between the date of registration of the patents and the date of filing of this lawsuit."

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are each seeking an injunction and damages of five million yen plus late payment damages.

Pocketpair added, "We will continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings. Please note that we will refrain from responding individually to inquiries regarding this case. If any matters arise that require public notice, we will announce them on our website, etc."

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463022/nintendo-and-the-pokemon-company-seeking-injunction-and-damages-from-pocketpair/

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick in the company's latest earnings report said he isn't worried about Rockstar getting Grand Theft Auto VI to run on the Xbox Series S.

"Look, we support the platforms where the consumers are for as long as they’re there, and we find a way to support platforms despite different levels of tech," said Zelnick (via VideoGamesChronicle) when asked about the Xbox Series S.

Zelnick added, "Our labels are really good at that. I’m not really worried. I’ve never worried about where hardware was going. And I’ve said this many times over the years because, first of all, I don’t worry about things over which I have zero control.

"Secondly, I believe in the audience. The audience is going to show up if you have great properties, and so we just have to make sure to be on an array of platforms."

Zelnick added PC is an important platform to release games on, despite the fact Grand Theft Auto VI has not been announced for PC.

"If one platform diminishes in value, there’s always another one," he said. "So we’re seeing great growth in PC right now, for example. And I have been able to view that open formats would continue to grow. PC is an open format.

"I do think PC will continue to be a more and more important part of the console business going forward, and that isn’t complicated for us to support at all. So the bottom line is we are selective about which platforms we support. We make the tech work when we can make it work as long as the audience is big enough to make that worthwhile."

Grand Theft Auto VI will launch for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in Fall 2025.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463023/take-two-ceo-is-not-worried-about-grand-theft-auto-vi-performance-on-xbox-series-s/

Sony has released the US and European PlayStation Store downloads charts for September 2024.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 topped the PlayStation 5 charts in the US and Canada, as well as on the European charts. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero was number two in the US and Canada, as well as in Europe. Undisputed was number three in the US and Canada, while it was EA Sports FC 25 in Europe.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was the most downloaded game on the PlayStation 4 charts in the US and Canada, while it was EA Sports FC 25 on the European charts. Minecraft was number two in the US and Canada, while it was Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in Europe. Red Dead Redemption 2 was number three in the US and Canada, while it was The Forest in Europe.

Arizona Sunshine Remake topped the PlayStation VR2 charts in the US and Canada, as well as in Europe. Beat Saber VR was number two in the US and Canada, while it was The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR in Europe. The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR was number three in the US and Canada, while it was Metro Awakening in Europe.

ASTRO BOT Rescue Mission topped the PlayStation VR charts in the US and Canada, while it was Batman: Arkham VR in Europe. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR was number two in the US and Canada, while it was The Exorcist: Legion VR in Europe.

Throne and Liberty topped the free-to-play US and Canada charts, and in Europe. Fortnite was number two in the US and Canada, and in Europe.

Here is the complete list of charts:

PS5 Games

PS4 Games

PS VR2 Games*

PS VR Games

Free to Play (PS5 + PS4)

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463025/call-of-duty-black-ops-6-tops-the-ps5-ps-store-download-charts-in-october/

Sony president Hiroki Totoki in a Q&A session with investors was asked about the failure of Concord, which was shut down less than two weeks after it released.

"Currently, we are still in the process of learning," said Totoki (via VideoGamesChronicle). "And basically, with regards to new IP, of course, you don’t know the result until you actually try it.

"So for us, for our reflection, we probably need to have a lot of gates, including user testing or internal evaluation, and the timing of such gates. And then we need to bring them forward, and we should have done those gates much earlier than we did.

"Also, we have a siloed organisation, so going beyond the boundaries of those organisations in terms of development, and also sales, I think that could have been much smoother.

"And then going forward, in our own titles and in third-party titles, we do have many different windows. And we want to be able to select the right and optimal window so that we can deploy them on our own platform without cannibalization, so that we can maximize our performance in terms of title launches. That’s all I have."

Sony senior vice president for finance and IR Sadahiko Hayakawa discussed the success of Helldivers 2 and the failure of Concord.

"We launched two live-service games this year," he said. "Helldivers 2 was a huge hit, while Concord ended up being shut down. We gained a lot of experience and learned a lot from both.

"We intend to share the lessons learned from our successes and failures across our studios, including in the areas of title development management as well as the process of continually adding expanded content and scaling the service after its release so as to strengthen our development management system.

"We intend to build on an optimum title portfolio during the current mid-range plan period that combines single-player games – which are our strengths and which have a higher predictability of becoming hits due to our proven IP – with live-service games that pursue upside while taking on a certain amount of risk upon release."

Concord released for the PlayStation 5 and PC on August 23, and it was shut down on September 6.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463026/sony-discusses-what-lessons-can-be-learned-from-the-failure-of-concord/

EA Sports FC 25 has debuted in first place on the Canadian charts for September 2024, according to data from Circana (formerly The NPD Group) reported by the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESA).

There were four other new releases in the top 10 with NHL 25 debuting in second place, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom in third place, Astro Bot in fourth place, and NBA 2K25 in 10th place.

Star Wars: Outlaws is in fifth place, Hogwarts Legacy is in sixth place, and Madden NFL 25 is in seventh place. God of War: Ragnarök is in eighth place following the release of the PC version and Elden Ring is in ninth place.

Top 10 best-selling games in Canada:

1. EA Sports FC 25 - NEW
2. NHL 25 - NEW
3. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom* - NEW
4. Astro Bot - NEW
5. Star Wars: Outlaws
6. Hogwarts Legacy
7. Madden NFL 25
8. God of War: Ragnarök
9. Elden Ring
10. NBA 2K25* - NEW

*Digital sales not included

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463027/ea-sports-fc-25-debuts-in-1st-on-the-canadian-charts/

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has remained in first place on the Australian charts, according to IGEA for the week ending November 3, 2024.

There were three new releases in the top 10 this week with Dragon Age: The Veilguard debuting in second place, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered in fourth place, and Life Is Strange: Double Exposure in ninth place.

Hogwarts Legacy is up one spot to third place, EA Sports FC 25 remained in fifth place, and Super Mario Party Jamboree dropped from second to sixth place.

Red Dead Redemption is in seventh place, NBA 2K25 is in eight place, and Battlefield 2042 rounds out the top 10.

Here are the top 10 best-selling titles in Australia for the week:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
2. Dragon Age: The Veilguard - NEW
3. Hogwarts Legacy
4. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered - NEW
5. EA Sports FC 25 
6. Super Mario Party Jamboree
7. Red Dead Redemption
8. NBA 2K25
9. Life Is Strange: Double Exposure - NEW
10. Battlefield 2042

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463028/dragon-age-the-veilguard-debuts-in-2nd-on-the-australian-charts/

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has remained in first place on the New Zealand charts, according to IGEA for the week ending November 3, 2024.

There were two new releases in the top 10 this week with Dragon Age: The Veilguard debuting in second place and Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered in fourth place.

Hogwarts Legacy is down one spot to third place, Grand Theft Auto V is up three spots to fifth place, and NBA 2K25 climbed from ninth to sixth place.

Red Dead Redemption is in seventh place, Borderlands 3 is in eight place, Battlefield 2042 is in ninth place, and EA Sports FC 25 rounds out the top 10.

Here are the top 10 best-selling titles in New Zealand for the week:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
2. Dragon Age: The Veilguard - NEW
3. Hogwarts Legacy
4. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered - NEW
5. Grand Theft Auto V
6. NBA 2K25
7. Red Dead Redemption
8. Borderlands 3
9. Battlefield 2042
10. EA Sports FC 25 

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463029/dragon-age-the-veilguard-debuts-in-2nd-on-the-new-zealand-charts/

ublisher Bethesda Softworks and developer MachineGames have released a gameplay deep dive video for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle that is nearly 15 minutes in length.

"From locations and puzzles to gear and combat, MachineGames Audio Director, Pete Ward, takes us on a whirlwind journey through the world of The Great Circle," reads the description to the video. "Get ready for launch with this look at Indy’s grand adventure."

View the gameplay deep dive below:

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will launch for the Xbox Series X|S, PC via Steam and Microsoft Store, and Xbox Game Pass on December 9.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463033/indiana-jones-and-the-great-circle-gets-gameplay-deep-dive/

Nintendo today hosted a Super Nintendo World Direct livestream that featured Shigeru Miyamoto giving a deep dive look into the Donkey Kong Country-themed land.

The new land will feature a family roller coaster, called Mine-Cart Madness, congas you can hit to a rhythm, letters that can found throughout the land that can be scanned on the new Donkey Kong Power-Up Band, character meet and greets, and new food options.

Donkey Kong Country will open at Universal Studios Japan on December 11, 2024, and will also be a part of Super Nintendo World at Epic Universe in Florida when the theme park opens in May 2025.

View the Direct below:

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463038/super-nintendo-world-direct-dives-into-the-donkey-kong-country-themed-land/

The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console in the UK in October, according to GfK Entertainment data reported by GamesIndustry. 

The Xbox Series X|S was the second best-selling console for the month, followed by the Nintendo Switch in third. The Xbox Series X|S has also surpassed the Switch in year-to-date sales.

Sales for the PS5 are up 27 percent month-on-month and down 18 percent year-on-year. Sales for the Switch are up 13 percent month-on-month and down 18 percent year-on-year. Sales for the Xbox Series X|S are down seven percent month-on-month and down 17 percent year-on-year. 

Overall, there were just under 144,000 video game consoles sold (NielsenIQ/GfK panel data) in the UK in October 2024. This is down 18 percent year-on-year.

GSD data shows there were 2.9 million games sold in October 2024, which is up 3.2 percent year-on-year. 

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 debuted in first place on the software charts (digital and physical combined). Sales are 11 percent lower than the launch month of 2023's 2023's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, however, this is most likely due to the number of people playing the game via Xbox Game Pass.

Sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 are up 24 percent year-on-year on PlayStation consoles, while sales dropped on Xbox consoles and PC. 75 percent of total sales were on PlayStation consoles, followed by 15 percent on PC, and just under 11 percent on Xbox consoles.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero debuted in third place with the first four week of sales up 80 percent compared to 2020's Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot.

Undisputed debuted in fourth place and had the second biggest launch for a sports title in 2024. Only EA Sports FC 24 had a bigger launch.

The remake of Silent Hill 2 debuted in fifth place. Launch sales are 32 percent lower than the remake of Dead Space and 62 percent lower than the remake of Resident Evil 4.

Super Mario Party Jamboree debuted in ninth place. Sales are 11 percent higher than 2018's Super Mario Party, but are four percent lower than 2021's Mario Party Superstar. It should be noted Nintendo doesn't share digital sales with these charts.

Sonic X Shadows Generations debuted in 10th place. Sales for the game are 150 percent compared to 2023's Sonic Superstars, but are down 21 percent compared to 2022's Sonic Frontiers.

Metaphor: Refantazio debuted in 12th place and the new version of Until Dawn debuted in 30th place.

EA Sports FC 25 came in second place with sales down 14 percent year-on-year.

There were over 681,000 accessories and add-on products sold in the UK in October, which is up nearly 16 percent year-over-year, but is down over eight percent month-on-month.

The White DualSense controller was the best-selling accessory, followed by the Midnight Black DualSense controller. The PlayStation Portal Remote Player is up four spots to take fourth place.

Here are the top 10 best-selling games in the UK (Digital + Physical):

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463042/ps5-best-seller-in-the-uk-in-october-black-ops-6-leads-strong-month-of-new-releases/

Sony Interactive Entertainment in a new video posted to YouTube revealed the PlayStation 5 Slim Digital Edition has been discounted by $70 and will be available for $379.99. The deal runs until December 24 "while supplies last."

No word yet if the standard PlayStation 5 or the recently released PlayStation 5 Pro will be discounted. The standard PS5 is priced at $499.99 and the PS5 Pro is priced at $699.99.

As of the time of writing, the discount isn't available yet at retailers or through PlayStation Direct.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463046/ps5-slim-digital-edition-discounted-to-379-in-the-us-until-december-24/

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in its third week remained in first place on the Steam Weekly Top Sellers chart (excluding revenue generated by free games) for Week 46, 2024, which ended November 12, 2024.

There were two new releases in the top 10 this week. Planet Coaster 2 debuted in fourth place, while Farming Simulator 25 came in fifth place.

Steam Deck is up two spots to second place, while Baldur's Gate 3 re-entered the top 10 in third place. EA Sports FC 25 is up two spots to sixth place, Cyberpunk 2077 re-entered the top 10 in seventh place, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard fell from second to eighth place.

Ahead of its release next week pre-orders for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl came in ninth place.

Here are the Steam Weekly Top Sellers by revenue for the week (excluding free games):

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
2. Steam Deck
3. Baldur's Gate 3
4. Planet Coaster 2 - NEW
5. Farming Simulator 25 - NEW
6. EA Sports FC 25
7. Cyberpunk 2077
8. Dragon Age: The Veilguard
9. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl - Pre-orders
10. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Here are the Steam Weekly Top Sellers by revenue for the week (including free games):

1. PUBG: Battlegrounds
2. Counter-Strike 2
3. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
4. Apex legends
5. Throne and Liberty
6. Steam Deck
7. Baldur's Gate 3
8. Dota 2
9. Planet Coaster 2 - NEW
10. Farming Simulator 25 - NEW

The Steam charts are ordered by revenue, include pre-order numbers, and hardware. If a game appears multiple times it is because it has multiple editions.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463048/planet-coaster-2-and-farming-simulator-25-debut-on-the-steam-charts/

In a contentious interview with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, Fox News host Bret Baier spent no time going after the vice president with a laundry list of the subjects often highlighted by former President Donald Trump on the campaign trail.

Immediately after the interview kicked off, Baier opened by asking: “How many illegal immigrants would you estimate your administration has released into the country over the last three and a half years?”

Harris began a carefully worded answer, but Baier consistently interrupted her before she could finish a sentence.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is TV’s best soap opera, week after week offering twists more shocking than secret twins and characters returning from the dead. That’s because it’s all real, happening in the most haunted suburb in the continental United States.

Where else do two women connect over knowing the long-lost birth father of one’s child? Is there another city where women squabble over body positivity in a parking lot off the side of a snowy mountain? Surely, there’s no other place on Earth where Lisa Barlow could come across anywhere near a voice of reason.

But that all happens here in Salt Lake City. Five episodes in, Season 5 has continued to evolve into the most captivating season in modern Real Housewives history, carried by the ever-changing bonds between our OGs and a team of wonderfully bizarre newbies.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Movies can’t, by definition, be all things to all people, and yet Anora—winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s highest honor, the Palme d’Or—manages to vacillate between assorted registers with stunning, and ultimately affecting, aplomb.

Another of The Florida Project and Red Rocket writer/director Sean Baker’s tales of marginalized individuals struggling to survive and find themselves in an often-unforgiving world, the film is a character study, romance, crime saga, screwball comedy, and vérité drama all wrapped into one unique and dexterous package. More impressive than its nimbleness, however, is its poise and empathy, the latter of which is chiefly bestowed upon its protagonist, whose life is thrown for a rollercoaster-grade loop-di-loop thanks to a chance introduction.

Ani (Mikey Madison, in a star-making turn) is a Brighton Beach 23-year-old who lives with her sister and earns a living stripping at a local club. Anora, which hits theaters Oct. 18, introduces her at the end of a long pan along a bench where men are receiving lap dances from erotic professionals. Fixating on Ani’s face as she flashes the fake smile that her customers crave and her superiors demand, Baker’s camera creates immediate, intimate engagement with the young woman, and that continues as it presents snapshots of her daily (or, rather, nightly) routine at her place of employment.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Online interactions are based on trust, since there are few definitive ways to certify the identity of the person with whom one is communicating. Naturally, this situation can lead to deception and manipulation, as it has—to tormenting effect—for Tegan and Sara, the popular indie rock duo whose lives have been turned upside down by a mysterious bad faith actor who, for more than a decade, has impersonated Tegan with fans, friends, and business partners.

Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara is an investigation into the myriad means by which the internet can be wielded to nefarious ends. More than that, though, it’s an anatomy of a crime and the complicated wreckage wrought by it, not just for the famous artists but also for the innocent admirers who were tricked into believing that fiction was reality.

Premiering on Hulu on Oct. 18, following its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Erin Lee Carr’s documentary is a chilling snapshot of the unholy marriage of corrosive fandom and online duplicity. At its center are Tegan and Sara, the identical twin songstresses who began making a name for themselves in the early 2000s both for their talent and for being openly gay. This earned them a loyal fanbase of queer women and men who saw themselves reflected in Tegan and Sara, and that bond was strengthened by the siblings’ active interest in interacting with fans in person—Tegan would chat with show attendees in line and at the merch table—and on LiveJournal and other budding message-board platforms that afforded a previously unavailable degree of contact.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Jan. 6, 2021— the day his supporters occupied Congress in a failed insurrection to try to stop lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory—was a “day of love.”

Trump made the baffling claim during a televised election town hall hosted by Univision.

Ramiro González, a construction worker from Tampa, told the meeting he deregistered as a Republican because he found Trump’s “inaction” during both Jan. 6 and the COVID-19 pandemic “disturbing.” He asked Trump to square his controversial behavior during the attack on the U.S. Capitol—and the fact that many of his own former administration officials don’t support him any longer—with why he should be re-elected.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Disaster was averted at a Kentucky hospital when an ostensibly deceased organ donor began “thrashing” around in the operating theater, a preservationist tells NPR.

“He was moving around,” Natasha Miller recalled of the patient, whom NPR identified as Anthony Thomas “TJ” Hoover II. “He was crying visibly.”

The two surgeons assigned to the transplant naturally refused to go through with the procedure, which was reportedly scheduled to take place at Baptist Health Richmond Hospital in October 2021. But when her colleague called Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates, which coordinated the harvest, Miller said the supervisor told them they “were going to do the case” and needed to “find another doctor.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

From developers Cannibal Interactive, the creators of Purgatory Dungeoneer, springs forth a new labyrinth game. This one is called Labyrinth of Wild Abyss: LayeRedux and it has labyrinths. Except the labyrinths don't just have single paths to their centres, but tube monsters covered in eyes who'll stalk you slowly and methodically as you meander. Personally, it's not the vibe I'm after when I sit down in the evening and I think, "I would like to play a video game that makes me feel somewhat pleasant". But hey, it might be for you.

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Inflexion Games are closing their UK office, laying off staff and restructuring their main Canadian studio after failing to find commercial success with their Victorian fantasy survival game Nightingale. Reportedly, at least 22 people have been let go.

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Part of the fun of Dragon Age's fantasy is that it's inconsistent - or at least, inconsistent by the standards of fantasy RPGs, which often break down into a million neatly organised and interlocking codex entries. It all rides on who you speak to. The humans believe one thing about the origins and workings of Thedas, the elves another, the qunari something else entirely. These differences are the basis for many factional disagreements and thus, many core series plot developments. According to former lead writer David Gaider, however, there's an "uber-plot" behind it all that may one day be resolved and bring the series to a close, assuming BioWare continue to refer to his original (and closely guarded) narrative documents.

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You remember Lucas Pope, right? He who casually dropped two of the most influential puzzle games ever then got distracted by yellow cranks for six years, occasionally popping up to drop a demake of Papers Please? Well, Pope has ceased hogging that crank, for now at least, and just released Haloween-y adventure game Moida Mansion. It’s on Itch here, and it’s completely free to play in your browser.

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The Steam Deck is something of a talisman for gaming on Linux, its popularity and penguin-powered SteamOS having almost singlehandedly dragged it past MacOS as the second-most-used operating system among Steam users. Sadly, this also means the Valve handheld is the primary casualty when developers decide to stop bothering with Linux support, as Respawn Entertainment have decided to do for Apex Legends.

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Some extremely fresh vintage workwear that I bought for entirely practical reasons aside, I’m not exactly a fashion person. I have nobody to impress most days but my cat, and the only item of clothing she appears to have an opinion on is my Oodie, which is very comfortable for both of us and also smells like a chicken shop, which I imagine is more pleasant for her than me.

This aside, I found myself taking a whole bunch of Dragon Age: The Veilguard screenshots as I played just to capture the RPG’s various outfits. They are ridiculous. Incredibly intricate and detailed, as well as being obscenely impractical for the most part. I do not like any of them in the sense I would wear them, but I like all of them in the sense that they display artists allowed to run free like caffeinated weasels and indulge their every whim.

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Stroll on down to Uncle Capcom's garage, girls and boys, because it's time to meddle with a cat's voicebox, ride a combat peacock and meticulously injure a vast, blubbery teddybear. By which I mean, the Monster Hunter Wilds beta is now live on Steam through to 4th November at 2.59am GMT. That's 2.59am sharp. If you're hurrying along at 3am on Monday absolutely desperate to polish the aesthetics of a small enslaved catperson, you can sod off and play Dragon Age: The Veilguard instead.

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There’s plenty that you could justifiably expect from a Bioware RPG: chats with mates, opportunities to get those mates horribly killed, surviving mates turning to the side then walking offscreen. But I don’t think anyone expected Dragon Age: The Veilguard to be, at least on a purely technical level, one of the smoothest-performing, settings-rich AAA PC releases of the year so far.

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Like a plague doctor delicately administering another handful of leeches, Ice Pick Lodge have shared a bit more about the recently announced Pathologic 3, explaining how their plans for the cult epidemic-battling series have progressed since the release of Pathologic 2.

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Typing Of The Dead released in arcades 25 years ago remains a masterpiece - funny, absurd, tense, and novel. I am keen on any game that aims to follow in its footsteps, and there are a few. The latest is Blood Typers, a horror game where you tippity-tap on your keyboard to fight montsters in a spooky mansion, but this isn't a rail shooter, so you'll be typing to explore and navigate, too.

It's now got a release of February 2025, and there's a demo you can play now.

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BioWare currently has no plans for Dragon Age: The Veilguard expansions, according to reports. Instead the studio will support the fantasy RPG with smaller updates and otherwise turn their full attention towards Mass Effect 5.

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It's official: I am once again the Sunday correspondent around here. That means it falls to me to round up (mostly) good (mostly) writing about (mostly) video games. I will otherwise be spending my Sunday continuing the fight against my dog's fleas, which rebound every three weeks no matter how much I spray, scrub or throw things away.

On, the independent video game magazine which I linked to last week, has run a series of brief interviews with each of the contributors to its launch issue. I recommend Christian Donlan's for the puzzle game recommendations and Margaret Robertson's which expands on her fascination with Japanese paper games.

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SCENE. A Video Game Website At Sunrise.

Enter A Reader Of News

A Reader Of News I wonder whither there be'est any new PC games on sale this week, perchance?

Enter A News Editor, With Alarums And Excursions

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One of my lesser quality tests for an RPG is whether the shopkeepers complain at you for not buying anything. Grumpy shopkeepers, good RPG. This most specific of litmus tests has served me well, although I must admit that I’d happily upgrade it to ‘shopkeepers you can attack’, would that not disqualify 99% of games. But not turn based dungeon crawler Thysiastery, it turns out. This “dungeon crawler RPG featuring traditional roguelike and turn-based gameplay” apparently trusts you enough to let you recklessly batter its friendly wandering lizard merchants. You’d be a monster for it, of course, but it’s nice to have options.

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I didn’t get much further in the extremely popular beta for the haute-couture-asaurus action of Monster Hunter Wilds than perfecting the exact orange-to-white ratio of my cat. Not because I wasn’t having fun, but because I immediately started looking up GPU prices after playing for ten minutes. As such, I didn’t spend enough time with the combat to get a proper feel for it. Cultural osmosis has once again allowed me to form an uneducated take, however, and I’m getting the sense there’s been some mixed reactions re: bonk quality. According to a clip shared on X by user Blue Stigma, there's a good reason for those misgivings. It's all about frames, you see.

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I didn't sleep last night for entirely self-inflicted reasons and my brain feels like that one accursed hoover bag you refuse to empty, because there is no way of doing so that won't turn the neighbourhood into Silent Hill. I need to avoid any complicated write-ups, or my brain will detonate similarly and paint north London grey.

Ah, a minigolf game! I think I can just about hack the concept of minigolf, on this most desperate of Mondays. It is golf but mini. Bonzai golf. Digestible! Intuitive! Why, I've managed to write 100 words without even looking at the Steam page. Let's do so now. Wait a minute, this isn't minigolf. It's Mini Mini Golf Golf. What is Mini Mini Golf Golf? "Destabilize the present and plunge into a neon psychohistory of a bizarre entity in distress," the Steam page explains. "This is not a game about minigolf." It is too late to flee.

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When nightmarish sci-fi extraction shooter The Forever Winter launched into early access in September it was somewhat messy. Bugs and maddening enemy spawns diminished the tension of being a fleshy human scavenger in a mech battlefield. But one feature annoyed some players much more - fresh water. See, you need to keep your headquarters stocked with water, as it gets steadily used by your settlement's inhabitants. The catch being that this water diminishes even while you're not playing the game. If it runs out completely, then everything you've collected gets wiped. The developers have listened to complaints about this most Farmville of mechanics, and they've answered in an interesting way. Water thieves! Now, on top of the usual downward trickle, burglars will come to steal your H2O as well.

It's not as bad as it sounds.

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The mystery surrounding Deadlock, Valve’s work-in-progress MOBA shooter, has largely evaporated. Its freely extendable invite system is about as effective at controlling player headcount as a disinterested football steward, meaning pretty much anyone with a clued-in Steam friend can get in and start poking around its secrets. And yet, being a lane-pushing wizard fighter in the Dota 2 vein, it’s already a vast tangle of interplaying abilities, items, strats, and often unspoken rules, of the kind that even experienced gankists will take hundreds of hours to learn. It’s been too much for poor Brendy, at any rate.

Still, Brendy is but one man. What if we had but four men, working in tandem to crush lanes and flatten Patrons just as Gabe intended? To find out if Deadlock is indeed more comprehensible as a team sport, Graham, Ed, Ollie, and James joined forces, promptly getting fucked up yet emerging from the warlock hospital with a deeper understanding of its workings. Or, at least, if anyone would keep playing.

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Twitch have introduced a new "Politics and Sensitive Social Issues" label for streams that "focus" on topics like "elections, civic integrity, and war or military conflict". As with the streaming giant's existing labels for M-rated material, sexual themes or depictions of gambling, the idea is that viewers can filter out such streams in advance by altering their settings.

Advertisers, similarly, can "make better choices about the content they want to advertise next to" - in other words, pull their ads from a whole swathe of material if they don't want to be associated with anything controversial. Twitch's hope is that "the labels will allow advertisers to have more context to inform which types of streams they show their ads alongside, which we expect to increase brands’ confidence in running ads on Twitch, and could bring new advertisers to our service."

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While we're getting a Gears Of War prequel in Gears Of War: E-Day, this does mean that Gears Of War 6 is yet to be a thing. In a recent episode of IGN's Podcast Unlocked, former Gears Of War director and current Diablo 4 lead Rod Fergusson revealed what his plans were for Gears 6 when he left. In short, he was going to take the game to space. Righto.

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Beloved roguelike traumatic-childhood-em-up The Binding Of Issac: Rebirth turned 10 yesterday, and it’s half off on Steam to celebrate. What’s more, maker Edmund McMillen has announced that the foretold online co-op update is due on the 18th of this month, alongside a “considerable” balance update. Consider me considering the considerability of said considerable update!

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Much the same as anyone with a soul, I find ants deeply fascinating and, much the same as anyone who occasionally drops small pieces of sandwich on the floor, I will continue to uphold my respect for them as long as they come nowhere near my feet. Yes. I admit it: I am a bug hypocrite, loudly extolling their virtue and beauty at a distance then getting irritated if they decide to come sit on me.

Fortunately, real time strategy Empire Of The Ants understands that the best place for insects to be is inside a screen, where they can be appreciated but cannot under any circumstances touch you. It’s out this week, as it happens, and here’s a new launch trailer to celebrate. Follow your pheromone trail to the video below.

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Hori's latest addition to its controller lineup, the "Horipad Wireless for Steam," is now available for preorder on Amazon. After already releasing in Japan at the end of October, now the gamepad is coming to the US.

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Discourse? Look mate, I’m just here to test the Steam Deck. Dragon Age: The Veilguard runs like a tap on any halfway decent desktop hardware, so was naturally going to be worth trying on the weaker Deck. And sure enough, Bioware’s RPG (which is really more of an action game with the occasional verbal spar) settles comfortably into handheld life.

In fact, Valve have festooned its Steam page with a Verified medal, a seal of approval for any game that performs and controls well on the Steam Deck without any glaring weaknesses or impractical annoyances. It’s still worth playing around with the settings – more on those later – but I’ll back up that official assessment, having played for several hours without so much as an undersized tooltip.

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As a yearly blockbuster, Call of Duty, through sheer expense and effort, would like you to think it is the Die Hard of video games. Or, depending on the setting, the Saving Private Ryan of video games. But it is barely Black Hawk Down. This latest campaign in Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 reminds me more of the forgettable Netflix shootfests that thumbnail their way across your TV screen as you try to find some gritty nothing to aid you in zoning out of life. Still, there is an anecdotal contingent of casual sofa sitters for whom Call Of Duty is the game. A balls-to-the-wall shooter to return to every winter and rinse through in a weekend. Ed has already gestured at its multiplayer, announcing: "yup, it's COD", like a deeply tired Captain Birdseye inspecting the day's catch, wondering when his life will change. But never mind that. How does the single player story mode hold up? Some are calling it the best campaign in years. And I guess that's true, in the sense that it is the least worst.

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We’re still a week away from Blizzard’s Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct next Wednesday the 13th of November, but art from an apparent remaster of 1995 real time strategy game Warcraft II: Tides Of Darkness has leaked online, via Xibbly user Stiven. It’s a thin one, as far as leaks go, but does show what looks to be cover, logo art, and a Battle.net icon. Thanks for the spot, Percy Coswald Gamer.

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I would never have predicted there'd be an isometric tactics game based on run-and-gun series Metal Slug, yet here Metal Slug Tactics is, and I am here for it. We've been following its development for a while but it's out now on Steam, and seemingly as strong as its demo suggested.

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We'll have a review of Planet Coaster 2 soon, but I keep making Brendy do other tasks so he's not had enough time yet to ride the rails. That means it falls to me to at least let you know that Frontier's theme park builder is out now.

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There must be hundreds of typewriters in the hall, their collective clacks a tidal wave of soulless automation, rising up to greet agent Kiran Estevez as she enters, pistol and flashlight in hands. Exploring rooms to the side, Alan Wake 2: The Lake House’s star finds whiteboards and documents revealing the typewriter’s purpose: to mimic Wake’s writing. Pages are graded along criteria such as ‘style’, ‘tone’, and ‘content’, then “fed into the algorithm” as references until “near-identical stories” to Wake’s can be produced.

“If Jules could simply cut the painter open and pull the painting out of him, he would,” reads one of the real Alan’s typewritten pages. That’s Jules Marmont, the obsessive head of the titular FBC centre. The Marmonts - Jules and his wife Diana - are running experiments to forcibly and synthetically create works of art, aiming to mimic creative passion convincingly enough for the paranatural entity inside Cauldron Lake to respond, as it has in the past.

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