Fans of competitive, block-dropping puzzle games had it pretty rough for most of the last decade. Creativity in the Tetris space was being stifled by a strict set of game-rules guidelines imposed by The Tetris Company, while Puyo Puyo was mostly trapped in Japan, playable only by those international fans fervent enough to tread import waters. Thankfully, things have changed somewhat on both fronts, bringing us the unusual mashup title Puyo Puyo Tetris in 2017 to critical and fan success. Three years later, we now have a follow-up in the form of Puyo Puyo Tetris 2. While it keeps much of what made the original game a success, it offers a few new game modes and online enhancements--but as a sequel, it lacks the same punch as the original.

Like in the original game, Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 is built around an engine combining these two competitive puzzle titans into a singular game entity. Players pick either Puyo Puyo or Tetris gameplay and go up against an opponent, with rules adjusted according to which style they're using--or they can play a mode that switches between Puyo Puyo and Tetris gameplay at set intervals. If you're feeling especially brave, you can attempt Fusion mode, which puts Puyo blobs and Tetromino blocks on the same board in a complex rules mashup that will put your puzzling skills to the true test.

But that's just the beginning. There's a lot on offer in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 for both solo and multiplayer play. The Adventure mode offers an all-new story, complete with a pleasant new overworld interface and featuring a cast of colorful weirdos--mostly from the expanded Puyo Puyo universe--who solve all of their problems and disagreements by tossing colored blobs and blocks at each other. The game modes change in every chapter, so Adventure Mode serves as a way to practice and learn the various styles of gameplay available while also unlocking characters, in-game shop credits, and various embellishments for your profile. While the rainbow-colored characters and their jokey personalities are certainly cute, the nonsensical nature of the narrative will either charm you to bits or leave you mashing the skip button to get to the dropping faster. This mode takes a few hours to finish, and future DLC expansions have been teased.

Fans of competitive, block-dropping puzzle games had it pretty rough for most of the last decade. Creativity in the Tetris space was being stifled by a strict set of game-rules guidelines imposed by The Tetris Company, while Puyo Puyo was mostly trapped in Japan, playable only by those international fans fervent enough to tread import waters. Thankfully, things have changed somewhat on both fronts, bringing us the unusual mashup title Puyo Puyo Tetris in 2017 to critical and fan success. Three years later, we now have a follow-up in the form of Puyo Puyo Tetris 2. While it keeps much of what made the original game a success, it offers a few new game modes and online enhancements--but as a sequel, it lacks the same punch as the original.

Like in the original game, Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 is built around an engine combining these two competitive puzzle titans into a singular game entity. Players pick either Puyo Puyo or Tetris gameplay and go up against an opponent, with rules adjusted according to which style they're using--or they can play a mode that switches between Puyo Puyo and Tetris gameplay at set intervals. If you're feeling especially brave, you can attempt Fusion mode, which puts Puyo blobs and Tetromino blocks on the same board in a complex rules mashup that will put your puzzling skills to the true test.

But that's just the beginning. There's a lot on offer in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 for both solo and multiplayer play. The Adventure mode offers an all-new story, complete with a pleasant new overworld interface and featuring a cast of colorful weirdos--mostly from the expanded Puyo Puyo universe--who solve all of their problems and disagreements by tossing colored blobs and blocks at each other. The game modes change in every chapter, so Adventure Mode serves as a way to practice and learn the various styles of gameplay available while also unlocking characters, in-game shop credits, and various embellishments for your profile. While the rainbow-colored characters and their jokey personalities are certainly cute, the nonsensical nature of the narrative will either charm you to bits or leave you mashing the skip button to get to the dropping faster. This mode takes a few hours to finish, and future DLC expansions have been teased.

My absolute favorite thing about Twitter is Chris Evans being totally wonderstruck by the majesty of outer space. pic.twitter.com/h99eFYqpYo

— Devan Coggan (@devancoggan) July 9, 2018

Thor: Love and Thunder isn’t just bringing back Natalie Portman. Lady Sif, once again played by Jaimie Alexander, is set to return, according to a report by Deadline.

Sif/Alexander was absent from Thor: Ragnarok, though her co-stars returned to portray the Warriors Three, who fought against Cate Blanchett’s sinister Hela.

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Deadline also reports that Lady Sif may appear in other Marvel properties, including Disney Plus’ Loki series.

Sif was featured throughout the first two Thor films as a dedicated ally and secondary possible love interest to the Asgardian god. She also appeared in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., where she aided the cast in pursuing escaped sorceress Lorelei.

Disney spent several hours pouring over details about its plans for 2021 and beyond on Thursday during an investors presentation. This included a multitude of announcements about Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney Plus properties.

Perhaps the most interesting announcement for Thor fans was that actor Christian Bale (Dark Knight) will play Gorr the God Butcher, a fan-favorite nemesis of Thor’s who, as the name implies, sets off a campaign of deicide.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/11/ms-marvel-disney-plus-teaser-trailer"]

Update (12/12/20) - Cyberpunk 2077's Twitter has confirmed that Hotfix 1.04 is now available on Xbox consoles as well.

Original story follows.

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Cyberpunk 2077 is getting its first hotfix patch less than 48 hours after an aggressively buggy launch. CD Projekt Red says the update fixes a number of issues with quest bugs, visual bugs, stability, and more.

Hotfix 1.04 is now live on PlayStation consoles and PC. CD Projekt says it is working on getting the update available on Xbox consoles “as soon as possible.”

CDPR has also removed copyrighted songs present in the game’s DMCA-friendly “disable copyrighted music” feature, which presented the streamer community with the huge issue of possibly being demonetized or having their content taken down following a DMCA strike.

Here’s CDPR’s full list of each fix in the 1.04 update.

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Quests

• Fixed an issue with completing the final objective in Gig: Freedom of the Press.
• Fixed an issue with starting conversation with Johnny at the end in Life During Wartime.
• Corrected a rare issue with NPCs no longer calling V if A Like Supreme quest was abandoned mid-way.
• Fixed an issue with Nix not going into his default state in Spellbound and KOLD MIRAGE.
• Fixed issues blocking progress in I Fought The Law if the quest area is left.
• Fixed inability to find Delamain in Epistrophy.
• Fixed issues related to remaining in the second phase of the quest after finishing Pacifica fight with Ozob if played after Finals.
• Fixed an issue with Nomads no longer present if V leaves the quest area mid-combat in With a Little Help from My Friends/Queen of the Highway.
• Adjusted mappings and re-enabled quest tracker in M'ap Tann Pèlen/I Walk the Line/Transmission.
• Fixed constraints on freedom to get up and sit down if neither blueline condition is met in Violence.
• Fixed issues with time and space resulting from leaving the quest area or abandoning the quest in Following the River.
• Fixed an issue with conversation with Johnny not starting after leaving the hotel in Tapeworm.
• Fixed an issue with quest being blocked upon leaving the quest area before climbing the hill in Following the River.
• Fixed the objective “Go into booth 9” not completing if the room’s entered too fast in Automatic Love.
• Fixed Jackie’s issues with sitting still in The Ripperdoc.
• Other quest fixes

Gameplay

• Fixed the preview in weapon crafting.

Visual

• Reduced vehicle appearance pop-in.
• Speeded up switching first person perspective to third person perspective in a vehicle.
• Fixed issues with animations missing from important quest NPCs during cinematics.

Performance & Stability

• Improved stability, including various crash fixes.

Miscellaneous

• Modified the flashing effect on braindances to reduce the risk of inducing epileptic symptoms. The effect has been smoothed out and the flashes reduced in frequency and magnitude.
• Removed copyrighted songs incorrectly present in the game with "Disable Copyrighted Music" feature toggled on.

PC-specific

• Switching language to default in the in-game settings now correctly sets it to the language of your Steam client.

Console-specific

• Improved reflections quality on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 to eliminate the smudge effect.
• Fixed “The Wasteland” achievement being stuck on 97% after completing all relevant missions in The Badlands on Xbox.
• Fixed an issue with missing PT-BR VO for Xbox players in Americas.

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In a short report to investors, the Management Board of CD Projekt says that the “estimated licensing royalties receivable by the Company in association with pre-order sales of Cyberpunk 2077 across all of its digital distribution channels have exceeded the sum,” of both the game’s development cost and marketing expense.