Gaming

Honkai: Star Rail version 2.0 arrives February 6

Featuring the debut of Penacony

Published

January 29, 2024

GadgetMatch

Honkai: Star Rail version 2.0 (“If One Dreams At Midnight”) will arrive on February 6. The latest update features the much-anticipated new realm, Penacony.

Penacony’s main Trailblaze Missions will be initiated in the version. These missions will span versions 2.0 to 2.2 and will culminate in epilogues in version 2.3.

Journey to Penacony

The journey to Penacony begins with an invite from The Family. At the core of Penacony is The Reverie, which attracts interstellar celebrities for a luxurious getaway.

The realm’s grand event, the Charmony Festival, is a dream vacation and the Trailblazers are invited. Once the team arrives, they will need to utilize Dreampool, a unique sleep device to visit the 12 Dreamscapes.

The most popular among the Dreamscapes is The Golden Hour, where celebrations never end. Eventually, the Trailblazers will come across the Dream’s Eye, a device that uses visual illusions. They will also unlock the Dreamwalk to defy gravity and walk on walls and ceilings.

New characters

Black Swan, a five-star character, will debut at Penacony. She is a Memokeeper in the Garden of Recollection, who keeps others’ memories through patient listening.

This desire allows her the ability to turn memories into cards. When using basic ATKs or Skills, she can also activate a special stackable DoT effect called Arcana. The Black Swan can trigger additional effects based on the number of Arcana stacks a target is under.

At The Family’s feast, the team will find another five-star character in Sparkle. Sparkle is a Masked Fool who is dedicated to the pursuit of Elation. She has a thousand masks to embody any persona, and believes everything is just an illusion.

Her presence in battles can increase the team’s maximum Skill Point. Her unique Skill boosts the CRIT DMG of a teammate; it also Advance Forwards that teammate’s action. Her Ultimate, meanwhile, can restore multiple Skill Points for the team in one go.

Lastly, four-star character Misha is a local Penaconian working at The Reverie. Misha’s Ultimate inflicts more damage when the team uses more Skill Points in battle. When he uses his Ultimate, there is a chance to Freeze the target.

Limited five-star characters Dan Heng • Imbibitor Lunae and Jing Yuan will respectively appear in the two phases of version 2.0’s event warp.

System optimizations

Aside from everything Penacony related, Honkai: Star Rail version 2.0 brings a series of system optimizations.

A new feature called Fate’s Atlas will go live to help players document events and plot lines that occur in each world chronologically.

This enables Trailblazers to insert materials while upgrading and easily elevate each Relic to the specified level.

The new version introduces Relic set recommendations tailored for different characters too. This allows players to filter and switch between Relic sets easier.

Gaming

Street Fighter 6’s first Filipina fighter arrives August 3

Yasmine arrives in August.

Published

July 17, 2026

GadgetMatch

Capcom is celebrating the arrival of Yasmine, the first-ever Filipina character in the Street Fighter series, with an official community event in the Philippines this August.

The Official Street Fighter 6 ‘Yasmine’ Community Event takes place on August 9, 2026 at Salud! by Primera Bar & Restaurant in Palanan, Makati. Doors open at 2:00 PM, with tournament matches, community activities, giveaways, and free play sessions scheduled throughout the day.

Meet Yasmine, Street Fighter 6’s first Filipina fighter

Yasmine joins Street Fighter 6 as the first playable character in the game’s Year 4 roster.

According to Capcom, she learned to fight alongside her older brother under the guidance of her grandfather. After her brother’s disappearance, she returns to combat using high-speed Eskrima techniques while wielding a Karambit knife.

She is joined in the Year 4 lineup by Arjun, Tifa from the Final Fantasy VII Remake series, and Bosch. Her release also coincides with balance updates for the entire Street Fighter 6 roster.

Yasmine becomes available on August 3, 2026 for players who own the Year 4 Character Pass or Year 4 Ultimate Pass.

Community tournament and exclusive merchandise

The Makati event will feature a double-elimination tournament, beginning with Best-of-3 matches before switching to Best-of-5 during the Top 8 Finals.

The schedule includes:

2:00 PM: Doors Open, Player Check-in, Controller Button Checks, and Free Play Warmups
3:00 PM – 3:15 PM: Welcome Speech & Official Street Fighter 6 Yasmine Gameplay Showcase
3:15 PM – 5:00 PM: Tournament Pools
5:00 PM – 6:30 PM: Top 8 Finals (Main Stage Broadcast) & Prize Presentation Ceremony for Champion, 2nd and 3rd Placements.
6:30 PM – 7:00 PM: Premium Community Giveaways, Group Photo Ops, and Closing Remarks
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM: Free Play and Community Networking

Attendees can also receive exclusive event merchandise while supplies last, including a Yasmine-themed T-shirt, lanyard, keychains, and themed food and refreshments.

Capcom says admission is subject to venue capacity and will be handled on a first-come, first-served basis.

Watch the event online

Fans who cannot attend in person can watch the tournament live through the Capcom Asia Official YouTube Channeland the Enduins Games Official YouTube Channel.

Capcom also teased additional announcements, including appearances from cosplay personalities, fighting game veterans, and content creators, which will be revealed closer to the event.

Street Fighter 6 Yasmine community event details

Date: August 9, 2026
Time: 2:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Venue: Salud! by Primera Bar & Restaurant, Palanan, Makati City
Tournament: Double-elimination (FT2, Top 8 FT3)
Livestream: Capcom Asia Official YouTube Channel and Enduins Games Official YouTube Channel

Gaming

Most of the world’s PlayStations will be officially useless by 2028

PlayStation’s disastrous no-disc policy is now a lot worse than you thought.

Published

July 16, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

Last week, we lamented the loss of the PlayStation disc. As we described, the loss isn’t just a major blow to nostalgia for aging gamers, but it also puts a huge question mark on game ownership. Well, there’s another wrinkle that the world is slowly realizing. By deleting physical discs, PlayStation has effectively blockaded their entire service from countries without an official online store.

If you haven’t heard, PlayStation is ceasing the production of physical discs for new games starting 2028. The console will become an all-digital platform. Now, we can blather on and on about how this sucks for ownership, but all gamers will still have access to games online at the very least. Right?

Wrong.

Not every country has an official PlayStation Store or the ability to create a PSN account. In fact, a staggering amount don’t; 121 countries (or 62 percent of the entire world) don’t have official access to the online storefront.

If you live in any of these countries, you’re likely familiar with some unofficial solutions: that is, setting your country elsewhere where the store exists. But, because it’s an unofficial solution, doing this is technically against PlayStation’s policies and can result in bans.

That being said, as noted by users on Reddit, this means that, on a very technical and legal level, these 121 countries will no longer be able to buy physical or digital games starting 2028. Because of a clarified policy, you can still play older games, but if you want to play the latest Call of Duty or NBA 2K, you are out of luck.

There’s no official list of affected countries, other than those collated by others manually. But if you’ve never been able to set your own country on the PlayStation Network, you’re a part of it.

Gaming

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced comes to life at Skypark Macau

Themed event lets fans experience the game in real life from July 17 to 26

Published

July 13, 2026

GadgetMatch

Assassin’s Creed fans are invited to celebrate the launch of Black Flag Resynced through a limited-time themed experience at the Skypark Macau Tower.

The experience will run from July 17 to 26, and will feature elements from the title brought into a real-world setting. There’s themed installations, photo opportunities, and exclusive event rewards.

Aside from that, there is a concept art gallery and replica props inspired by the action-adventure.

The experience opens to the public from 11:00 A.M. on Friday, and will remain available until the last Sunday of the month.

It will be more fulfilling to come on the first day, as there will be exclusive merchandise sold only on July 17.

Guests who purchase the game on-site, or present proof of purchase of the game at the event will be eligible to redeem an exclusive item, available only until supplies last.

Moreover, those who complete an eligible activity during the Assassin’s Creed event period at Skypark Macau will receive a paper scroll replica of the “Letter for Duncan Walpole”, while supplies last.

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is a faithful remake of 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag. Rebuilt from the ground up and powered by the latest Anvil engine, the game features updated visuals, enriched gameplay, and new narrative content.

Set during the Golden Age of Piracy, the game invites players to sail the Caribbean as Edward Kenway. The rebellious pirate captain is drawn into the centuries-old conflict between Assassins and Templars.

As the protagonist pursues glory and fortune, he crosses paths with legendary figures such as Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, and Calico Jack. All this while the fate of everything the pirates have built hangs in the balance.

The game is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.