Author: Game Infliction

Yakuza / Like a Dragon developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio appears to be teasing a Snoop Dogg appearance in its mysterious new game Project Century.

RGG Studio posted a photo of Snoop wearing the distinctive jacket worn by the protagonist in the Project Century trailer. At the same time, studio director Masayoshi Yokoyama posted a photo of himself in the jacket, mirroring the pose of Snoop.

The Snoop photo has the teasing caption “…yet,” while Yokoyama’s, in Japanese, said: “please wait a bit, yeah?” It’s not the tease RGG Studio fans were expecting of Project Century, which appears to be a new series potentially connected to Yakuza / Like a Dragon but set in 1915, given it was only revealed at The Game Awards 2024 a few days ago, but there are some elements which aren’t completely bizarre.

“…yet.” pic.twitter.com/PZVRac0ag9

— RGG Studio | Like a Dragon & Yakuza Series (@RGGStudio) December 17, 2024

Snoop was also at The Game Awards 2024, for example, where he performed a medley of songs to the developers and press in attendance. It’s therefore likely the photo was taken there, and could be as simple as him liking the jacket and wanting a photo in it.

But this isn’t the first time Snoop Dogg’s name has been brought up in relation to the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series. Following on from Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, which featured Danny Trejo as the likeness and voice for villain Dwight Méndez, publisher Sega asked fans which other celebrities they’d like to appear in the series going forward.

Alongside video game adjacent stars such as Keanu Reeves, Mark Hamill, Jack Black, Rami Malek, and David Hayter came other celebrities, one of which was none other than Snoop Dogg. This tease could therefore be the end result of this poll, though nothing is confirmed yet.

Snoop would likely appear as a new character and not just as a cameo of himself, especially if he does show up in Project Century since it’s set 56 years before he was born. Little is known about the game, however, so anything is possible.

ちょっと待ってね pic.twitter.com/N2hkLB5Z53

— 横山昌義 (@yokoyama_masa) December 17, 2024

RGG Studio fans are already deep in the theorizing phase to figure out what the heck Project Century is, of course, and already have ideas on where it’s set, if it’s connected to the Yakuza / Like a Dragon franchise, who it’s main character is, and if it’s using the developer’s Dragon Engine.

They’ll have to be patient for these answers though. Project Century is probably still a while away given it doesn’t have a title yet, and RGG Studio is currently developing Virtua Fighter 6 and Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii alongside it.

It is known for its unbelievably speedy development times, however. In the last five years, for example, its released Yakuza 4 Remastered, Yakuza 5 Remastered, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Judgment Remastered, Lost Judgment, Like a Dragon: Ishin, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, alongside three Super Monkey Ball Games and an enhanced remaster of Virtua Fighter 5. That’s 12 games in total.

In our 9/10 review of the last RGG Studio release, IGN said: “Sprawling, enthralling, and packed with dynamic brawling, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth isn’t just the best turn-based Like a Dragon game, it’s one of the greatest games in the entire series.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game has grown so valuable that Japanese crime syndicates are reportedly using it to launder money.

The former head of a crime syndicate told Shunkan Gendai Online, translated by Automaton, that his organization used Pokémon cards as a means of transporting stolen money abroad.

The cards being so small, literally the size of a regular playing card, but holding so much value allowed them to be easily bought, transported, and sold abroad, the crime leader said. Some Pokémon cards are indeed incredibly valuable. The record holder sold for more than $5 million but even some cards in regular packs are worth hundreds of dollars or more.

The crime syndicate used well-documented methods of finding these expensive cards too, which are usually the ones with lots of shiny foiling. Thanks to this, advanced metal detectors are able to pick up the foiling from outside the pack, or incredibly sensitive scales can pick up incremental increases in weight.

This allows the crime syndicate to buy packs in bulk using their illegaly obtained cash, open all with actual value, and then re-sell the remaining ones at cost.

Perhaps inspired by Team Rocket, Pokémon cards and crime have long gone hand-in-hand, though plain theft appears to be at the forefront of criminals’ exploits. Tokyo police reported an unprecedented number of trading card thefts in the latter half of 2022, and there are many high profile examples making headlines.

An independent gaming store in Minnesota reportedly had around $250,000 worth of Pokémon merchandise stolen in February 2022, for example, and one month later, again in Tokyo, a man was arrested for allegedly launching a literal heist in order to steal the treasured cards.

Making the most of a bad situation, a trading card shop in California also posted a video of thieves who stole 35,000 Pokémon cards from them in January 2024 and mocked them for not knowing what to take.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket has received its first major update alongside the release of the Mythical Island Themed Booster, which adds 86 new cards to the game alongside new missions and rewards.

Mythical Island arrived today, December 17, and as a Themed Booster is a smaller set compared to the debut Genetic Apex, which includes 286 cards. Developer Creatures Inc. has still added myriad new missions and solo battles for players to interact with though, which somewhat recreates that opening day feeling of the digital trading card game.

There are plenty of special cards added with Mythical Island too, which despite adding 86 cards total officially caps out at 68 cards. This means there are 18 of the “secrete” alternate art cards, including one immersive and one crown card.

On the mission front, Mythical Island Dex Missions have been added which, just like Genetic Apex, reward players with special shop tickets for collecting five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, and 60 unique Mythical Island cards. These can be used to redeem a Mew icon.

Deck Missions are added too, rewarding players with Rental Decks for collecting some of the major new cards available in Mythical Island including Celebi ex, Gyarados ex, Mew ex, Aerodactyl ex, and Pidgeot ex.

Finally, Themed Collections are also updated for Mythical Island. A variety of missions here reward different items for collecting, well, themed collections of cards, such as the Flower Travelers mission tasking players with collecting the three flower Pokémon in the Florges evolution line.

Solo Battles at the Step-Up and Expert tiers have also been updated with new challenges. Eight new Step-Up Battles have been added for Mythical Island decks, with players able to take on the second most challenging versions of decks such as Celebi ex and Mew ex to earn rewards such as pack hourglasses.

Another eight decks are added at the Expert Battle tier, which each reward seven Pack Hourglasses upon completion. The Step-Up Battles offer five, so a total of 96 Pack Hourglasses are available in solo battles alone, letting players open eight booster packs at no cost. This comes on top of 12 Pack Hourglasses that Creatures Inc. offered as free gift to all players.

As for Wonder Picks, these now appear to only serve Mythical Island packs and no longer Genetic Apex, though it’s possible the new set is just dominating the random selection since the majority of players are presumably opening it on launch day.

Other changes to the game will emerge over the coming days, as the 86 new cards are slotted into the meta and shake up the player versus player scene. A new Vaporeon card is already threatening to make Misty even more powerful, while Aerodactyl ex may lead Pokémon TCG Pocket’s first control deck by stopping players evolving their Active Pokémon.

Pokémon TCG Pocket arrived October 30 and is a certified hit for Creatures Inc. and The Pokémon Company, having earned an estimated $200 million in its first month across more than 60 million downloads.

This huge amount of money comes as Pokémon TCG Pocket follows the standard mobile and free to play game model, flooding players with rewards in the first few days before soon drying up, with spending real world money the only real way to re-experience that early thrill outside of the occasional set drop like this.

Completing Genetic Apex, the first set of cards which totals 226 officially but also contains 60 rare alternate art cards, will take players not spending money around two years according to one estimate, while those looking to make it rain can wrap up the collection after dropping around $1,500.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Borderlands 4’s narrative director has hinted at a cut-back on the toilet humor the series is famous for.

Gearbox’s Sam Winkler tweeted to say he remains “firm” in his criticism of Borderlands 3’s “overabundance of toilet humor.”

Not at liberty to talk much about the content of BL4, but I remain firm in my criticism of BL3’s overabundance of toilet humor.

— Sam Winkler (@ThatSamWinkler) December 16, 2024

Then, responding to a user who joked that they wouldn’t be able to use “the poop poop farty 4,000 while doing a mission to clean up porta-potties with my companion skibidi toilet!?!?!?” Winkler said: “I’m not gonna say there’s no toilets but if the word skibidi ships in the game under my watch I’m gonna cry real tears.”

I’m not gonna say there’s no toilets but if the word skibidi ships in the game under my watch I’m gonna cry real tears. Paul Tassi joked that we were gonna have a gun called Hawk 2A and a fellow dev asked me if it was real and I wanted to put my hand down the sink grinder

— Sam Winkler (@ThatSamWinkler) December 16, 2024

The Borderlands series, which began with the first game’s release in 2009, is known as much for its humor as it is its loot-driven gameplay. The tone of the jokes have remained relatively consistent throughout the franchise’s run, which takes in 2012’s Borderlands 2, 2014’s The Pre-Sequel, and 2019’s Borderlands 3. Indeed, toilet humor has served Borderlands well so far, with total franchise sales now up to an impressive 81 million copies. But the debut teaser trailer for Borderlands 4 suggested a darker tone this time, and the latest trailer, unveiled at The Game Awards 2024, reinforced this shift.

The TGA 2024 trailer showed snippets of first-person shooting and a few returning characters, including Claptrap.

Here’s the official blurb from Gearbox:

Revealed at The Game Awards, a new trailer introduces The Timekeeper, a ruthless dictator who dominates the masses from on high. A world-altering catastrophe threatens his perfect Order, unleashing mayhem across Kairos, the most dangerous planet discovered so far in the Borderlands universe.

Borderlands 4 is the most ambitious Borderlands to date, lovingly hand-crafted by the development studio that first forged the looter shooter genre. The title evolves the series’ gameplay and storytelling in new ways while delivering on the quintessential Borderlands experience fans know and love, including:

Intense action, badass Vault Hunters, and billions of wild and deadly weapons on an all-new planet ruled by a ruthless tyrant.

The deepest and most diverse Vault Hunter skill trees of any Borderlands title yet, giving players an unprecedented level of expression through their builds. Paired with the most expansive loot chase yet, players will have all the tools they need to seek out and perfect the build that best matches their style.

Players will be able to seamlessly travel between zones and become immersed in a more dynamic world featuring events and discoverable side missions that encourage and reward exploration.

New traversal mechanics add to the exploration for loot and add new dimensions to combat. A vehicle that can be summoned almost anywhere will have players racing across the beautiful vistas of Kairos in style.

Fight solo or in co-op with up to three other players in this immense sci-fi adventure, packed with free-form combat and exploration, pulse-pounding boss fights, infinitely varied loot drops, and an eclectic cast of unforgettable characters new and old.

“Borderlands 4 is about freedom and being badass,” said Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford. “This is by far the biggest and most insane world we’ve ever made – it’s overloaded with jerkface ratnozzle scrote monsters that need to be put down with the most over-the-top hardcore nuts op guns and loot in any game ever. Oh, and the story also seriously kicks ass!”

Borderlands 4 is set to launch at some point in 2025, and comes after the disastrous launch of the Borderlands movie.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.