Finding the perfect Squad Leaders for your Boarding Squad groups inLike A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaiiis a tall task, as you’re given the unenviable task of balancing your crew’s skills between Cannons and Boarding. While some crew members are suited for your Boarding Squad, only those with the best Squad Leader Traits can head one of your four groups. Once you’ve bought all the Boarding Squad increases, you’ll have access to four Squad Leader slots, forcing you to choose the best four options for the Goromaru’s boarding crew....

There was something in the water in the late ’90s and early ’00s, some chemical that made fictional scientists want to create the ultimate lifeform. That lifeform, crucially, also needed to resemble existing characters from their universe. And, of course, the creatures would need to turn against them and/or what they stood for, and leave the laboratory behind. It’s a tale as old as Frankenstein (at least), but the familiar story was reimagined with an anthropomorphic edge at the turn of the millennium....

It’s hard to think aboutXboxleaving the console business behind as anything other than the end of the world. Ever since the brand was brought into existence over two decades ago, it has traded on the same business philosophy asSonyandNintendo. Here is a console. It has games that you cannot play anywhere else. Please can you buy it? But for a long time, this strategy hasn’t worked for Xbox, and I’m tempted to suggest it never will again....

Summary Xboxboss Phil Spencer has reaffirmed the company’s commitment to single-player games, both big and small. This comes after both of the big giants have suffered setbacks with their live service endeavours, withSonyin particular now reassessing its entire strategy afterConcord. This comes from an interview withXboxEra, which took place right after Xbox’s Developer Direct late last month. Here, Spencer says he was pleased to see that all of the games showcased were single-player, and seesGame Passas a good home for titles likeSouth of Midnight, which are a bit smaller compared to other first-party releases....

Summary Xboxboss Phil Spencer has had a lot to say about the future of the platform, particularly when it comes to Xbox games showing up on rival platforms. Now former Microsoft VP Mike Ybarra has been weighing in on what the cross-platform landscape looks like for Xbox, suggestingPlayStationandNintendowork with Xbox so that console gamers can have one shared friends list across all three platforms. Ybarra’s friends list suggestion is part of a tweet responding to news that Xbox is no longer in the business of trying to take players away from PlayStation and Nintendo....

Quick Links After discovering the old cabin, the girls fromLost Records: Bloom & Ragewant to make it into their own hideout, away from anyone else. There’s certainly nothing suspicious about an abandoned building lost in the middle of the woods, ain’t I right? The girls were all drawn to it for some reason, and agreed to visit it again later. And after you finish calling one of them during the previous day, you finally return to the woods during the “This Old Cabin” chapter, accompanied by your favorite girl....

Quick Links If you thought the search for tiny animals was over withHonkai: Star Railmoving to Amphoreus, then you will be sorely disappointed. Now, you’ll be searching for nymphs, tiny insect friends, as you explore the Eternal Land, and if you want every reward available from the 3.0 update, you’ll be hunting a small army of the things. You’ll find nymphs in every area of Amphroeus, and finding them is essential to maxing out one of the core progression systems on the new planet: theTidal Bounty....

Quick Links Ready to race into a new year inMonopoly Gowith our very first team racing event for 2025? To savor the wintry spirit, we’ll be playing Snow Racers between10AM EST on January 8when the planning phase starts through to the last race, which ends at3PM EST on January 12. For the first time in a Tycoon Racers event in Monopoly Go, Scopely is giving those who’ve been burned by teammates in the past a chance to play by themselves instead of recruiting other players....

TheNintendo Switchshot to successon the strength of fantastic new gameslikeThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the WildandSuper Mario Odyssey. Those games established the Switch as a must-have console and, during the system’s launch window, that’s exactly what it needed. Especially when you’re coming off the Wii U, a console that sold88.07 million fewer unitsthan its predecessor, the Wii. How The Switch Cannibalized The Wii U’s Back Catalog Those marquee games weren’t the only thing that kept the Switch going for nearly eight years....

Summary Andor will return for what will be its second and final season on April 22, andan epic new trailer hyping its arrivaldropped this week. Upon closer inspection, someStar Warsfans think there’s a tease in there for what would be a huge cameo, and since the timelines and story beats line up, they may be onto something. Andor’s second season will be the show’s last as it will almost certainly end right before where Rogue One begins on the Star Wars timeline....

Quick Links Rift of the Necrodanceris a Guitar Hero-esque game, whisking Cadence into a new world she’s never seen before. For fans of the previous two games in the franchise, you’ll recognize Cadence, as well as a few familiar faces in the city. Are you brand new to Rift of the Necrodancer, or the franchise in general? We’ve got you covered. In this guide, we are going to take a look at some beginner tips to help you get started in Rift of the Necrodancer....

Summary TheXenoblade Chroniclesseries has a wealth of excellent characters across its games, from its memorable main characters to the party members that join you for the journey. These characters have distinctive character designs that make them instantly recognisable and lovable personalities that make you more attached to them the more you play. Whether it’s because of their emotional story arcs and impact on the narrative, or the comic relief that they bring to help ease the tension in serious moments, these Xenoblade Chronicles characters stand out the most and are among the very best of the series’ large cast....

Compared to the mainlineLike A Dragonentries,Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuzais a much shorter game. With the main story only taking around 15 hours to complete (or a lot longer if you’re dedicated to seeing everything), you might well finish the game and still want a taste of something similar. Luckily, with how many different genres and gameplay ideas are packed into Majima’s Hawaiian adventure, there are plenty of other games that feel like a natural continuation after finishing Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza....