Hackers under fire for Mario Kart 8 Wii U modding

A group of hackers have modded Wii U racing game Mario Kart 8. The video, below, published to YouTube by MrBean35000vr, shows Mario Kart 8 running with changed music, track titles and menu fonts. The modding is based on a recently-released browser exploit as well as additional code that allows the Wii U browser to edit Mario Kart 8's memory on the fly. The video has had a number of comments from angry YouTube users, who accuse the hackers of damaging Nintendo and Mario Kart 8 with their work. [Read More]

Hearthstone: Kobolds and Catacombs Guide

The next Hearthstone expansion, Kobolds and Catacombs, is expected to go live on the US servers in just a few hours from now, with the UK and Asia regions launching shortly afterwards. The new expansion adds the usual feast of 130+ new cards, and also introduces a few interesting new twists to the established mechanics of the game. We've teamed up with the Hearthstone experts over at our sister site Metabomb to bring you the lowdown on all of the new content that's launching with the seventh expansion, and a round-up of all the best decks that are beginning to emerge in the new meta. [Read More]

Metroid: Zero Mission | Eurogamer.net

Say what you like about Metroid Prime (we'd prefer that you say it was magnificent, but that's neither here nor there), there's no doubt that it's done wonders for the career of one Samus Aran. From her beginnings in a 2D game which left her gender in doubt right until the very end, young Ms. Aran has come on in leaps and bounds (often off the heads of frozen enemies) and is now probably one of the most bankable stars in videogames. [Read More]

Mod gives Fallout 4 cool New Vegas-style Traits

Fallout 4's perk system is one of the more divisive features in the game. Some enjoy its simplicity and the sheer number of perks available. Others - typically fans of Fallout 1, 2 and New Vegas - lament the lack of traits, cool modifiers that would change your characters statistics in meaningful ways in previous Fallout games. Now, a new mod for Fallout 4 adds traits into the game. The Traits and More mod, from Cirosan (maker of the cool Full Dialogue interface mod for Fallout 4), adds a number of new traits and a few new perks into the game. [Read More]

Nintendo uncages limited edition Pikachu 3DS XL release date

The limited edition Pikachu-flavoured 3DS XL will be available in the UK from 7th December, Nintendo has announced. The specially-coloured hardware was previously available in Japan for a short time. It joins two special edition white 3DS XL versions to be released later this month. One comes with Mario Kart 7 pre-installed (available 16th November), the other with Super Mario 3D Land (30th November). All three offers will be available in limited quantities. [Read More]

Pokémon Shining Pearl finished in only 15 minutes

Pokémon Shining Pearl, the recent remake, has now been completed in just over 15 minutes. The previous speedrun was by content creator Werster in 33 minutes, who described the game as "very" busted due to the number of glitches - perfect fodder for the speedrunning community. Now VTuber Carolio has cut that time in half. Werster utilised a trick with the game's menus: essentially, the game state is paused when the menu is open, but using a glitch to have two menus open allows you to run around the world interrupted. [Read More]

Reviewed: Amazon's £23 mechanical gaming keyboard

Mechanical keyboards used to be super expensive. When Twitch and esports rose to prominence at the start of the last decade, kicking off a wave of interest in these mechanical marvels, the only options out there were Japanese imports built around German-made Cherry MX switches. These boards delivered a rock-solid typing and gaming experience, but even the cheapest examples cost upwards of £100 here in the UK. That's a ton of money to spend on a peripheral, but the high cost of each mechanical switch - around £1, with 105 keys needed - meant that manufacturers and retailers alike only made a tiny profit on each unit sold. [Read More]

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town hopes to bring "new life to the series"

Harvest Moon for the SNES could have been lost in the wave of excellent games released in Japan during 1996, yet the farming simulator grew into a well-established series that celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. During these years Harvest Moon has visited multiple platforms, experimented with different playstyles and even been renamed to Story of Seasons when, in 2012, Marvelous Inc. stopped licensing the series to Natsume. From 2014 onwards, Marvelous Inc. [Read More]

Telltale's Jurassic Park would have been a great film, but it was a poor game.

The fourth Jurassic Park film has just come out, a full 22 years after the original 1993 Steven Spielberg masterpiece. And why not? The original film was a classic with its awe-inspiring dinosaurs, all hungry toothy grins and almost comically arrogant eye movements; an incredible score by John Williams that's equal parts wondrous, exciting and sentimental; multi-faceted characters whose ecological concerns conflict with their own inner child that drove them to study dinosaurs in the first place; and its rich setting, Isla Nublar, a comic concoction of untamed jungle choked by corporate interests in a soulless bid to appeal to the masses. [Read More]

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is Borderlands meets Dungeons & Dragons

Gearbox has announced Borderlands fantasy spin-off Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. It's due out early 2022 on Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. 2K is publishing. The trailer is below: Tiny Tina's Wonderlands revolves around Tiny Tina, the popular Borderlands character voiced by Ashly Burch. It also stars "headstrong captain" Valentine, played by Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), "rule-obsessed robot" [Read More]