Games Updates
According to the news revealed in advance in the Genshin Impact 5.4 update, as expected, Arlecchino, an important game character, will get the character buff for the first time in a few months.
Currently, this action RPG is in the emerging initial stage of 5.3, but the beta tests for 5.4 have already begun. Coinciding with the New Year of 2025, Genshin Impact’s New Year update will not only have major updates on story missions and limited-time events, but also 7 mysterious new characters will be released along with it.
This will provide a lot of colorful new content for domestic and foreign players during the New Year. The disclosure of a lot of information also makes players look forward to Arlecchino’s character update, and the vigorous publicity among players on different online platforms has also added a wave of heat to this update.
What’s New In Genshin Impact 5.4 Update?
According to some reports on the Internet about the update content, the most discussed is the equipment details of the new character Mizuki in Genshin Impact 5.4. The report mentioned that she will be a 5-star Anemo character who uses Catalyst in battle.
According to some specific details reported in the patch, there will be some changes in the addition of new content. For example, there will be a new battle-centered event following a tower structure with more than 100 stages, and even an event that may provide a new F2P (free-to-play) 4-star polearm. If players want to achieve satisfactory results in these new activities, they need to stock up on sufficient Genshin Impact Genesis Crystals in advance to help themselves.
However, according to many speculations, this rumored Genshin Impact 5.4 free event weapon may not be as perfect as players expect. Besides adding new content, developer HoYoverse seems to be planning to achieve quality-of-life improvements. As mentioned in the previous leaks, this upgrade may also have some impact on Arlecchino.
Arlecchino May Get New Elements In Updated Patch
Starting from the next update, a sickle element may appear above the character. According to a video marked as “reliable” posted by an insider on the Reddit platform, Arlecchino will get a new visual buff effect when entering the battlefield.
In the release video, it can be seen that after using the character Yumemizuki Mizuki, the player immediately switches to Arlecchino on the team comp. Once entering the 5-star Pyro unit, an image of a sickle will appear above her head, similar to her iconic weapon.
However, the information revealed did not elaborate on the role of the visual buff contained in this new element, and what the animation after triggering represents. However, what we can speculate from this is that it is related to the main mechanism in the Arlecchino Kit.
If the current video revealing the function of Arlecchino’s visual buff is to be believed, then this scythe animation may indicate that the character has enough Bond of Life to trigger Masque of Red Death.
When playing Arlecchino in Genshin Impact, players can rotate Bond of Life to trigger Masque of Red Death, converting her Normal, Charged, and Plunging Attacks to deal with Pyro DMG.
Arlecchino’s Updated Buff Can Help Players
It is important to remind players that, as a reference, Arlecchino needs a Bond of Life equal to or greater than 30% of her maximum health to enter the Masque of Red Death state. With frequent rotations during the game, players may lose track of how much Bond of Life the character still has, and therefore have no idea whether she is causing Pyro DMG through Normal Attack.
Obviously, the animation introduced after the update to show that she still has enough Bond of Life to complete the Masque of Red Death mechanic is very useful. We naturally hope that this will be the visual effect of the character after its official release. Of course, players can also use the stored Genesis Crystal to obtain other available weapons you want so that you can show your prowess in battle.
When players face relatively complex rotations, it is necessary to let Arlecchino enter the field so that they can know whether they can continue to attack or whether they need to use her Elemental Skill. When her Burst is unavailable and it takes a long cooldown to use it again, players can keep this skill.
At present, the official is reserved about the series of information that has been revealed, because the footage may be incorrect and may also be changed. In addition, the animation may not truly represent her Masque of Red Death state, but I believe that more detailed information will be announced during the Genshin Impact 5.4 test.
2025 has arrived, and players are very concerned about all aspects of the new year Genshin Impact 5.4 release update. We believe that whether it is the expansion of the specific storyline of the game or the buff upgrade of existing characters, HoYoverse will consume the existing opinions and give players a satisfactory answer.
The developers have confirmed that Baldur’s Gate 3 will abandon the sequel and will focus on a new project. However, it has been revealed that at least one new patch will be released sometime in 2025.
This new patch will include the much-anticipated photo mode, cross-platform play, and 12 new subclasses. In addition, Baldur’s Gate 3 players can continue to look forward to merchandise collaborations and Dungeons and Dragons shorts featuring characters from the game.
New Photo Mode And Features
As we all know, players received a modification tool from the official Baldur’s Gate 3 in 2024, which has allowed players to do various things, such as adding new classes and renaming Withers to the fun nickname of Bone Daddy.
As for the game’s plan for 2025, the developers revealed that players will usher in a new major patch, the 8th patch. In this patch, players will receive several highly anticipated new features.
First of all, the developer has introduced a mechanism that allows players to play cross-platform games. Players can have the same game progress when playing on other devices, which is a very practical mechanism for players.
In addition, players can also use Larian Network system to search for multiplayer game lobbies that can be joined, or players can create a private lobby and invite your platform friends to join the adventure.
Secondly, the patch also provides players with a photo mode, allowing players to record photos of your favorite companions in real time anywhere in Faerun. The developer also thoughtfully published an article for players to introduce how to use this feature, including the camera settings, scene settings, lens settings and post-processing effects available to players.
In addition, when post-processing photos, players can also choose a variety of photo frames and stickers to add fun to your photos. Among them, stickers are various, such as emoticons, cat ears and bloodstains. In addition, players can also pose cool poses and other interesting actions when taking photos.
12 New Subclasses
In addition to the above two new additions, the developers added a new subclass for each class in the game in the eighth patch of Baldur’s Gate 3, a total of 12 new subclasses.
- Barbarian class has added Path of Giants, which increases size, carrying capacity, and strength.
- Bard class has added College of Glamour, which can charm enemies and provide temporary HP to teammates.
- Cleric class has added Death Domain, which can cause necrotic damage to enemies, detonate corpses, and can use the new spell Toll Dead.
- Druid class has added Circle of Stars, which can change into multiple Starry Forms during combat.
- Fighter class has added Arcane Archer, which can attack enemies from a distance and cause temporary blindness or banish the enemy’s mental damage.
- Monk class has added Drunken Master, which can make enemies drunk, and its own drinking will restore Ki and other improvements.
- Paladin class has added Oath of Crown, which can taunt enemies and absorb damage while healing teammates.
- Ranger class adds Swarmkeeper, which summons bees, jellyfish, and moths with different effects.
- Rogue class adds Swashbuckler, which can blind and disarm enemies, and can also use Fancy Footwork to prevent enemy attacks.
- Sorcerer class adds Shadow Magic, which can see and travel in the dark, and can summon Hounds of Ill Omen.
- Warlock class adds Hexblade, which can curse enemies and be summoned from their corpses.
- Wizard class adds Bladesinger, which can use both sword and magic weapons and has improved Constitution, Agility, Focus, and Speed attributes.
Product Collaboration And Actors
Baldur’s Gate 3 also launched some product collaborations in 2024, including Funko Pop toys. And it was revealed that the official will release Dungeons and Dragons team member models in 2025.
Secondly, some actors in Baldur’s Gate 3 will continue to appear in fan events. Previously, the actors had appeared in several Dungeons and Dragons shorts by reprising their roles, and it was later revealed that with the support of publisher Wizards of Coast, these activities fans can continue to look forward to.
In short, this patch 8 has a lot of new content and is worth your attention.
Genshin Impact 5.3 was updated on January 1st. This update not only introduced two new five-star characters, Mavuika and Citlali, but also new plots and activities.
New Game Characters
In Act V of Natlan’s Archon Quest, players will summon Natlan’s warriors for the last battle. In the previous main content, Natlan’s six heroes gathered together to bring the sacred blessing to all Natlan’s warriors. This time, Traveler will also awaken Pyro power and fight the ending battle with the boss named “Lord of Eroded Primal Fire” released by the Abyss.
This update will introduce two highly anticipated 5-star characters, Mavuika and Citlali.
Mavuika, also known as the Pyro Archon Haborym, is the most dazzling guardian during the battle in the Abyss. She will join the battle by crushing enemies in claymore or riding her Flamestrider. When the player clicks Mavuika’s Elemental Skill, she will generate the Ring of Searing Radiance and follow the current character on the field, continuously attacking nearby enemies and causing Pyro attacks.
In addition, by activating an Elemental Skill, Mavuika will ride her Flamestrider. She can use it to climb cliffs, cross land and water, glide through the air, or rush enemies on her way.
Mavuika can also gain a unique resource called “Fighting Spirit” by fighting alongside teammates, and accumulating it can activate her Elemental Burst. Mavuika’s Elemental Burst will cause extremely strong AoE Pyro attacks, and she will also enter a special state in which her combat power and interruption resistance are greatly increased.
In stark contrast to Mavuika is another five-star character, Granny Itztli, or the Masters of the Night-Wind. As a five-star Cryo Catalyst user, she can summon powerful Cryo shields. She can also summon a powerful Cryo storm, which deals area damage.
If in Nightsoul’s Blessin, Citlali’s partner Itzpapa will reduce the Pyro and Hydro RES of opponents with Frozen or Melt reactions. This effect also exists when Citlali is not in the field.
These two five-star characters will appear at the same time in the first half of the version, while Arlecchino and Clorinde will reappear in the second half.
To celebrate the festival, players will return to Liyue again to adventure with Xiangling and HuTao. At that time, two new skins will be launched, and players can obtain their new skins by topping up Genshin Impact Genesis Crystals. During the event, these new skins will have a good discount, so it would be a better choice to get them during this period.
Of course, during this adventure, players can also experience numerous mini-games and earn premium currency and other materials through mini-games. In addition, HoYoverse will also launch the “Repertoire of Myriad Melodies” music game mode in this update.
Repertoire Of Myriad Melodies
The “Repertoire of Myriad Melodies” event originated from an infographic released by HoYoverse, which details this new game mode that will be launched in Genshin Impact 5.3. The mode contains 56 songs from different regions. Among them, Fontaine, Sumeru, Inazuma, and Liyue each have 11 songs. Mondstadt has 12 songs. These songs reflect the characteristics of each country in Teyvat. Natlan promised that more new tracks will be launched in this music mode in subsequent game updates.
Players will receive some rewards when experiencing the new game mode “Repertoire of Myriad Melodies”, which will enable players to better participate in the game’s soundtrack and community discussions. At the same time, by completing tasks and participating in music creation, players can also obtain different instruments for different characters, as well as some titles and new scores.
In terms of performance, players can use the metronome in the game to control the rhythm of the performance. During the performance, notes of different shapes will appear on the screen, and each note corresponds to a tapping method. When the note falls on the line, tap the line to score.
The score depends on how long the player taps the line. By continuously tapping, the player can eventually complete the track.
Of course, players can also customize the beat and each section of the song, or customize the performance effect of the metronome.
The content update of Genshin Impact not only promotes the progress of the game plot but also brings new characters for players to experience. Some new activities and mini-game modes also enrich the player’s adventure activities on Teyvat continent, which is very worth downloading and experiencing.
As we all know, Hogwarts Legacy is an open-world role-playing game, and its game story is based on the works of British writers - Harry Potter series of novels.
As a result, Hogwarts Legacy has attracted the attention of Harry Potter fans around the world almost as soon as it was released, and even the eyes of non-fans.
Because it not only provides players with an unprecedented and unique magical world game experience, but also has a very large open world, it also gives players the opportunity to experience life in Wizarding World as a magic student as in the novels.
However, despite Hogwarts Legacy’s many game advantages. Unfortunately, it lacks any form of morality system, which also makes the game lose the opportunity for players to add weight to their actions.
For a game with a story based on the conflict between good and evil, it can’t help but make people feel that something is missing when playing the game.
But now there is a great opportunity to implement a moral choice system, that is to add it to Hogwarts Legacy 2. This system could add more depth to the formula in Hogwarts Legacy and add more complexity to the player’s life as a Hogwarts student, making the game more content-rich.
By adding a moral choice system to the game, fans can make decisions with more meaningful consequences. This may push Hogwarts Legacy 2 to greater heights and even more personal than the first game.
A Deeper Morality System Is Necessary
The morality system in Hogwarts Legacy seems to have been abandoned by the developers before the official release. Hogwarts Legacy does not use a traditional morality or karma system like modern role-playing games such as Baldur’s Gate 3 and the upcoming Fable reboot.
Instead, if the player in Hogwarts Legacy views some unforgivable curses such as Avada Kedavra, Crucio, or Imperio as an evil choice instead of a good choice, these moral choices are only made by the player, and there is no forced classification by the game system.
The entire Harry Potter universe revolves around the endless struggle between those who use magic for good and those who use magic for evil. But Hogwarts Legacy didn’t give a real moral choice system a chance to integrate into the game.
However, it turns out that the developers seemed to have designed a morality system specifically for Hogwarts Legacy, but the morality system was ultimately cut before the game was released. It was revealed that the cut morality system was centered around a crime and punishment mechanic, where players could accumulate wanted levels by committing evil deeds.
For example, according to the unused code that was cut from Hogwarts Legacy, if the player used the Killing Curse - Avada Kedavra in the game, this would increase the player’s wanted level to the highest level, and then the player would receive a one-way ticket to Azkaban Prison from the system.
It is not clear why the morality system was cut before the release of Hogwarts Legacy, but many players speculate that it may be because the developers wanted to focus on providing a more casual gaming experience for all players.
Hogwarts Legacy 2 Should Add A Meaningful Choice System
Given that a morality system was planned when Hogwarts Legacy was made, it makes sense to adopt and expand on it in Hogwarts Legacy 2. While there are occasional scenarios in Hogwarts Legacy where the player has to make decisions, such as whether to help a character, the need for rewards, and different ways to solve a problem, these choices do not have much impact on the overall player character development.
In addition, while there are multiple dialogue options in Hogwarts Legacy where the player can freely choose, although these dialogue options can change the tone of the player character and the results of some trivial situations to a certain extent, almost all of these choices have little impact on the overall player character journey and story development.
Now, there is such an opportunity to give players a more unique and different game content experience, so that every choice made by the player in the game will have a profound impact on the subsequent game content and story development. That is to add a moral choice system in the form of a punishment and crime system to Hogwarts Legacy 2, which is an interesting way.
And this moral system will further increase in complexity and diversity as the player character’s dialogue options increase, and the different choices of these dialogue options will have a direct and effective impact on the subsequent development of the player character’s story, whether it is positive or negative, whether it is effective in opening or closing the door, etc.
For developers, adding a moral choice system to Hogwarts Legacy 2 may achieve their goal in the first part, that is, to truly allow fans to experience the daily life of Hogwarts wizarding world as Hogwarts students.
Therefore, if developers want to continue to maintain such game popularity and a wide range of game enthusiasts in the second part, it is recommended to add the moral choice system to Hogwarts Legacy 2 to provide players with a game scene that can truly immerse themselves in the life of the wizarding world.
PlayStation 5 Pro has been a source of controversy lately. The lack of assurance that your favorite game will match the powerful hardware makes it difficult for players to get excited even when it’s dropping $699.
Of course, this sentiment is understandable, as is the frustration that PS5 Pro’s enhancement patches are mediocre. But Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is reassuring.
Because it has been revealed that the developers have developed reasonable new technology to make CoD Black Ops 6 more adaptable to PlayStation 5 Pro update.
Compared to the average console experience, the PS5 Pro gives players more options for gaming. In a game with the right settings, players can choose between a visually improved version running at 60 FPS and a version that prioritizes 120 FPS performance.
The main difference between this and the average performance setting on PS5 is that the performance option on the PS5 Pro version can give players the same graphics as the average PS5 running in quality mode. Moreover, given the level of visual fidelity of many PS5 games, this is a good trade-off.
Improved Visual Settings
The visual improvements of PS5 Pro are reflected in 60Hz mode, which includes a variety of improved visual settings.
Shadow Resolution
First, the shadow resolution will be improved by 2 to 4 times, depending on the type of shadow in the game and the distance of the player to the shadow. This mainly affects the environmental shadow map, such as the visual quality of shadows cast on walls at close and far distances. This improvement is very subtle, but often the most welcome. Because it reduces the step changes on hard shadow lines.
SSGI Setting
Second, global illumination has been optimized. Specifically, the screen-space GI method has been added to PS5 Pro version, which can be used to simulate light reflections between two planes.
SSGI setting technology is a technology that the development team is particularly proud of. It is a rasterization technology that attempts to mimic the quality of path tracing. After being calibrated, the technology can create results similar to the team’s internal path tracing reference, but it only costs a fraction of the cost. So this technology also extends to the implementation of environmental shadows.
Again, its changes in some areas are subtle. To appreciate the difference, you’ll need to switch back and forth between the base PS5 and PS5 Pro versions in fullscreen mode, and you’ll see that the lighting interaction between your character and nearby bright surfaces is more accurate and clear.
This can be a little hard for new players to get used to the visuals of this version when fighting, so new players can practice more with CoD: Black Ops 6 Bot Lobbies to get used to this mode and reduce the chance of being defeated.
SSAO
With SSAO optimizations in the PS5 Pro version, players can use 60 FPS running with SSAO, which will make the shadows in the scene richer and more realistic.
Screen-Space Reflections
Screen-space reflections (SSR) have also been optimized in Pro version, and the goal of the optimization is to match the internal path tracing reference as closely as possible.
The main difference in this regard for Pro version compared to the base PS5 version is the accuracy of reflected light that is blocked by objects in the scene. When players switch back and forth between the Pro version of the Skyline map, you will find that light leakage around some geometric objects such as walls or tables is significantly improved. This is due to the updated SSGI technology. All of these improvements have a domino effect on the accuracy of reflected light.
The combination of all these improvements makes CoD Black Ops 6 a game changer. While such changes may not be reflected in the rapid action in the game, it is indeed a very reasonable use of Sony’s mid-gen machine to improve the visual effects of the game.
PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution
PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution is another major upgrade in the optimization of PS5 Pro version of CoD Black Ops 6, which focuses on Sony’s internal native upscaler. It can only be applied in 60fps mode, and for raw metrics, it runs at a resolution of 2560x1440 internally, and then upscaled to 4K resolution.
However, it is revealed that the results of this technical upgrade are good, but not perfect. PSSR will introduce white flickering pixels in certain scenes, and this noise tends to appear more in black shadow areas.
However, players don’t need to worry too much about this problem, because according to the game developers, this problem has been fixed in a future patch and will be released as long as it passes the final QA.
In addition, another great feature of PlayStation 5 Pro version of CoD Black Ops 6 is the interaction with the variable refresh rate display.
If the player is using a 120Hz display with a variable refresh rate, but you set the game in 60Hz mode, the console will use an additional API to read the upcoming frame time.
Once it identifies the unused repetitive frame time, it will use the extra space to generate the next frame. This will be very beneficial for reducing input delay and translating into an improved frame rate above the set target.
This makes the player’s game smoother, which is very suitable for competitive multiplayer games where every second counts.
The rich game content, excellent game visuals and carefully crafted backend of CoD Black Ops 6 in PlayStation 5 Pro version make this game very popular in the circle and it is worth experiencing it in person!