May 2023

Take-Two has released its latest yearly earnings report and there're intriguing predictions buried within, suggesting Grand Theft Auto 6 could well be launching as soon as next year.

As spotted by IGN, publisher Take-Two is predicting it will generate an absolutely staggering $8bn in net bookings for its 2025 fiscal year (beginning April 2024), as it launches "several groundbreaking titles". That's a significant jump up from the $5.3bn it's just reported for its financial year 2023, and an even bigger leap from the $3.5bn it reported in the year prior, suggesting something major is due between next April and March 2025.

"For the last several years, we have been preparing our business to release an incredibly robust pipeline of projects that we believe will take our company to even greater levels of success," Take-Two wrote in its earnings report.

Read more

Hey remember when a lot of people got excited that cult mech shooter Hawken was coming back from the dead? That was Monday! Now it’s Wednesday and I’m sad to say the excitement has been very short-lived.

Read more...

Grand Theft Auto VI, the next entry in the popular open-world franchise from Rockstar Games, might be coming out as soon as next year based on some big numbers found in a new earnings report.

Read more...

On Tuesday, Dark Horse Comics announced that the Trigun manga as well as its sequel manga, Trigun Maximum, are getting their own deluxe hardcover reprints later this year and in early 2024, respectively.

Read more...

The second featured event character is here for Honkai: Star Rail, and a good Jing Yuan build sets up him with a Light Cone and Relic set that helps him deal damage. While Seele serves in a similar sort of role, she’s focused on hurting a single foe due to being on The Hunt path. Jing Yuan being an Erudition one means it is about spreading that pain out. Which means hopefully going for a lot of damage from critical hits.

What are the best Light Cones for a Jing Yuan build in Honkai: Star Rail?

Okay, so obviously the best Light Cone for a Jing Yuan build in Honkai: Star Rail is the five-star HoYoVerse made for him: Before Dawn. It’s designed to increase his critical hit damage, as well as damage from his Skill and Ultimate. Then, whenever he uses his Skill or Ultimate, he gets the Somnus Corpus effect that boosts his follow-up attack damage.

Theaters in North America will show the Psycho-Pass: Providence movie starting in July 2023 in around twenty territories. It will first arrive in North America on July 14, 2023. Crunchyroll also confirmed advanced sneak peek showings on July 11, 2023 and July 13, 2023. Other territories that will be able to watch it in theaters from Summer 2023 include Australia, Chile, and Indonesia.

The movie will be available in both Japanese and English audio in North America. For the Japanese audio showings, there will be subtitles in English. Countries where we will be able to watch the Psycho-Pass: Providence movie in theaters are:

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Canada
• Chile
• France
• Germany
• India
• Indonesia
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• Peru
• Philippines
• Singapore
• Spain
• Switzerland
• Thailand
• United Kingdom/Ireland
• United States

Psycho-Pass: Providence came out on May 12, 2023 in Japan. It is the latest in the Psycho-Pass franchise and continues to follow Akane Tsunemori as a PSB Inspector. Chronologically, it takes place between Psycho-Pass 3 and Psycho-Pass: Sinners of the System Case 3: On the Other Side of Love and Hate.

Link, hero of the Legend of Zelda series, has been through many visual changes over the years. We could all rank our favourites there. But have you ever stopped and wondered how the different Links across the timeline smell?

Read more...

I was on board with Lego 2K Drive the moment I learned we were getting an open-world Lego racing game, complete with the ability to build your own vehicles. And having played nearly 12 hours so far, I’m still having a lot of fun with the game. But it’s impossible to ignore a nagging feeling that it really wants me to…

Read more...

The Games Accessibility Conference returned to London on the 24th and 25th of April, with a program of talks on accessibility at the Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre. The conference talks were also live streamed through Zoom thanks to the conference's hybrid setup.

"In a time where many events are returning to in-person only," conference co-director, Tara Voelker told me, "we are embracing hybrid to truly support the disability community.

"I think events are getting more accessible overall, but I like to think we keep trying to set the bar and act as an example for other events to follow."

Read more

Diablo 4 employs a level scaling system designed to make monsters relevant to players at all times.

Blizzard's upcoming action RPG guides the player through its various zones as they make progress on the campaign, and here it should feel like you're a little more powerful than the creatures you face.

"We don't want a part of the game to ever become utterly trivial, such that there's no reason to return to that place," associate game director Joe Piepiora explained to Eurogamer in an interview.

Read more

Sony has revealed the name of its accessibility controller previously known as Project Leonardo.

The Access controller for PS5, as it's now known, was first revealed at CES earlier this year and is a highly-customisable controller kit to help players with disabilities play games more easily.

Sony has also revealed the UI for the controller as it will appear on the console.

Read more

Telltale are ready to release their first new game since their sort-of revival, in collaboration with fellow adventure game experts Deck Nine. Episodic adventure The Expanse: A Telltale Series will debut on July 27th with its first episode, with four more episodes dropping every two weeks - hopefully keeping those water cooler conversations alive. The full game should be available to binge starting from September 21st, 2023.

Read more

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was released on a rocky road last month, bogged down by some troublesome technical problems. After a series of patches, our James took a second look at the sequel, where he said, “neither of these really make Jedi: Survivor's PC performance good, merely less bad.” Now, developer Respawn continues its mission to lessen the badness with a fifth patch aimed at performance and stability.

Read more

Nightingale, the forthcoming "gaslamp fantasy" survival game from ex-Bioware boss Aaryn Flynn, has had its early access release delayed.

Originally slated for the first half of 2023, early access will now begin this autumn.

"The reason for the release shift is simple: the playtest process is working," said Flynn in a new developer update video detailing the delay (see below).

Read more

This week, Amazon announced plans for an all-new Lord of the Rings MMO from its New World development studio, just years after an earlier attempt.

But, of course, this isn't the only Lord of the Rings MMO out there. Word of Amazon's plans inevitably sparked questions around what might happen to the already existing and well-established MMO The Lord of the Rings Online from Middle-earth Enterprises and Standing Stone Games.

Will the two struggle to co-exist? No, says Amazon Games' vice president Christoph Hartmann.

Read more

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom players have discovered multiple glitches to duplicate items.

One involves fusing an item using the bow, while another allows players to duplicate weapons and shields. Both involve exiting and entering the pause menu at high speed.

Both methods potentially allow for infinite copies of certain items, whether you're seeking powerful ammo and weapons, or want to sell items for extra Rupees.

Read more

If you have been waiting to watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie from the comfort of your own home, it looks like you will be able to do so from Monday.

iTunes has listed the film as being able to own from 22nd May here in the UK.

Currently, iTunes appears to be the only place listing a purchase date for those of us in Blighty. I checked elsewhere and YouTube and Amazon Prime both have the film available to pre-order, but no release date. Netflix just sends you to its Sonic Prime animated series.

Read more

Over the last few weeks, Netherrealm Studios and Series Creator Ed Boon teased a new Mortal Kombat game is on the way with a September 19, 2023 release date. We were told to expect a reveal on May 18, 2023, and it happened. On , people will see Mortal Kombat 1. The official site is open, and Shang Tsung and beta access confirmed as pre-order bonuses. The first trailer is also online. It will have rollback netcode and eventually cross-play or cross-progression.

Here is how Mortal Kombat 1 will look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ6eFEjFfJ0&ab_channel=MortalKombat

The announcement noted that this is essentially a reboot with reimagined characters. In addition to confirming the return of Liu Kang, Kitana, Mileena, Raiden, Kung Lao, Scorpion, Sub Zero, and Johnny Cage. Standard copies will be $69.99. Premium Editions will be $109.99 and include early access on September 14, 2023, 1,250 Dragon Krystals currency, and a Kombat Pack with six playable characters, five Kameo characters, and a Jean-Claude Van Damme version of Johnny Cage. The $249.99 Kollector’s Edition is only for the PS5 and Xbox Series X and comes with everything in the Premium version, a Liu Kang skin, art prints, a steel case, a Liu Kang 16.5 inch figure, and 1,450 more Dragon Krystals.

After a few teases, Mortal Kombat 1 has been announced and ushers in a new era for its kombatants by wiping the slate clean.

Following up on the conclusions of both Mortal Kombat 11 and its Aftermath expansion, Liu Kang is now an all-powerful fire god that rules over the reset timeline he created. Despite creating a peaceful new era, danger still looms its ugly head. The extremely violent cinematic trailer gives us glimpses of familiar (mostly masked) faces, though expect new twists on classic rivalries. 

Per an official press release, the following fighters are confirmed so far:

• Liu Kang
• Scorpion
• Sub-Zero
• Kitana
• Mileena
• Kung Lao
• Raiden
• Johnny Cage
• Shang Tsung (pre-order bonus)

Mortal Kombat 1 will include a new cinematic story campaign and introduces a new feature called Kameo Fighter, a unique roster of partner fighters that assist players during matches. 

“Mortal Kombat 1 marks a new beginning for the franchise and we couldn’t be more excited to share this original storyline and fresh take on classic characters with our fans,” said NetherRealm studio head Ed Boon in the press release. “We’re also introducing our Kameo Fighter system which brings a unique roster of partner characters into the mix, and we are looking forward to showing this feature as well as more new elements of the game very soon.”

Lego 2K Drive has stirred up a surprising amount of thoughts, perhaps moreso than any other video game so far this year. I think it's because the game is an open world kart racer, a combination of words that sing to my nostalgic love for old-school racers, where as a kid I'd worshipped the majesty of Muppets Race Mania and Mario Kart (this is the only time I mention Mario Kart). In all respects, 2K Drive nails Lego's historically strong presentation, with slick courses and a genuinely lovely combo of grassy hills and dusty plains which certainly seem like a chip off Forza Horizon's shiny paint job. Building is upheld too, as a mighty garage lets anyone create an interesting set of wheels. The wheels start spinning, though, as the live service gates start closing. I don't think the gates totally shut off what's meant to be a fun time, but it certainly tries. Even an innocent kart racer can't escape the perils of live service, it seems.

Read more

Mortal Kombat fans have been relentlessly teased these past few weeks with MK12 name-drops in the middle of an investor call, developer jokes online, and brief clips that hinted at a timeline reset (plus a nasty case of leakage). Developer Netherrealm have now ended the speculation and announced the next game in their brutal fighting series: Mortal Kombat 1. And it's coming September 19th.

Read more

Hey hey, we’re finally getting some real mid-rangers in the RTX 40 series, as Nvidia have announced the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti and RTX 4060 GPUs. These will finally bring Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace architecture, complete with improved ray tracing performance and DLSS 3 support, beneath the £400 mark.

Read more

Thatgamecompany, the widely admired studio behind Flower and Journey, are bringing their peaceful MMO Sky: Children Of The Light to PC. The game’s all about flying through endless fluffy clouds, exploring ancient ruins, and befriending wordless strangers throughout the chill open world. There’s no release window yet, but check out its gorgeous new trailer below.

Read more

HoYoVerse went over some of the things people can expect in the 1.1 Honkai: Star Rail update and beyond, and they include a story change, Camera Mode character expression adjustments, and an easier way to find enemies for items. Some adjustments involve specific characters, like Seele. Those will show up beyond 1.1 as a result.

Nintendo promised Pokemon Scarlet and Violet would get Pokemon HOME support post-launch, and now it’s about to happen. In the near future, people will be able to access their boxes via the service and pull from the ones they already have. This will also coincide with the launch of the 3.0.0 patch for the Switch games. Also, as usual, there will be special versions of the starters for people who use the service.

May 19, 2023 Update: Nintendo announced that Pokemon HOME support won't arrive for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet on May 24, 2023. It will appear in the near future.

The official announcement noted people who use Pokemon HOME with Pokemon Scarlet or Violet get the three starters with their Hidden Abilities as Mystery Gift bonuses for doing so. This means the Fuecoco would arrive with Unaware, that Quaxly would come with Moxie, and Sprigatito would know Protean. There will be some limitations. You won’t be able to send Paldean Pokemon to other titles where they didn’t exist yet. However, characters from say Let’s Go, Pikachu or Eevee or Sword and Shield that are in the new games could be transferred.

Here's the updated announcement:

The latest Pokémon games for Nintendo Switch will finally connect to cloud service Pokémon Home following an update due next Wednesday, 24th May.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet first arrived in November last year, and until now have been unable to connect to Pokémon Home, the service which lets you transfer creatures to and from other Pokémon games.

That all changes next week, when Scarlet and Violet will gain Home compatibility. This means being able to import any supported creature from any of the mainline games supported by Home at present, alongside the previous storage service Pokémon Bank, and also Pokémon Go.

Read more

Acclaimed puzzle game The Case of the Golden Idol is coming to Nintendo Switch. After a period of PC exclusivity, the murder mystery head scratcher will be making its console debut next Thursday 25th May.

On its release, Switch players will be able to experience all of the game's redacted and perplexing scenarios in a whole new way, thanks to touchscreen controls. For those who don't want to get their screens all mucky, however, there is also a custom developed controller layout option for gathering up evidence. This Switch release also boasts an overhauled UI, for the "best user experience" when playing the game in either docked or handheld mode.

As well as the base game, Switch owners will also have the opportunity to get their hands on Golden Idol's first expansion - The Spider of Lanka. This DLC kicks off a year before The Case of the Golden Idol's first scenario, and follows the story of Albert Cloudsley and Oberon Geller as they make their maiden voyage to the Kingdom of Lanka.

Read more

Killer Instinct, the 2013 soft reboot for the fighting series, is receiving an update - as the game's servers undergo a legacy migration.

The update was revealed in a blog post by developer Iron Galaxy yesterday, along with information on what players can expect as the migration takes place.

"It has become more challenging to deal with issues that crop up due to [Killer Instinct]'s reliance on legacy services," the developer said.

Read more

Mortal Kombat 1 launches 19th September 2023 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store. There's no PS4 or Xbox One version.

As expected, Mortal Kombat 1 is a reboot of sorts (developer NetherRealm has rebooted Mortal Kombat a number of times over the years), set in a "reborn" universe created by the Fire God Liu Kang who ended up victorious at the end of Mortal Kombat 11.

Mortal Kombat 1 has a brand new story featuring familiar characters, NetherRealm said. The debut trailer is below (be warned, things get very gory):

Read more

Two months ago, Pokémon Go developer Niantic told Eurogamer it would launch a blockbuster slate of new features over the course of this summer, following its controversial restructure of the game's popular Remote Raids gameplay.

Today, Niantic has pulled back the curtain on the first of these - the genuinely exciting introduction of Shadow Raids, which Niantic describes as merely the "tip of the iceberg" compared to everything else still in store.

Speaking to Eurogamer in a further interview on what's next for the game, Pokémon Go's development team also discussed in more detail why that Remote Raid nerf was so necessary.

Read more

Lords of the Fallen has a release date: Friday 13th October 2023. Let's hope it's not unlucky.

The dark fantasy action-RPG (or Soulslike, if you will) has been developed by Hexworks as a reboot of the original 2014 game and will launch across PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

The release date comes with a new gameplay trailer you can check out below.

Read more

UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt has called upon the country's regulator to understand its "wider responsibilities" to promote economic growth, following its recent block of Microsoft's proposed $68.7bn Activision Blizzard buyout.

The remarks, reported by The Telegraph, follow questions from MPs this week directed at bosses of the Competition and Markets Authority regarding the decision which has scuppered Microsoft's ambitions here in the UK - and potentially worldwide.

Both Microsoft and Activision have criticised the UK for disrupting the deal, and have labelled the country as being "bad for business" post-Brexit. The remarks come in stark contrast to the vision for the UK's tech industry previously set out by Hunt and UK prime minister Rishi Sunak to become the "Silicon Valley" of Europe.

Read more

Nvidia has announced the first Xbox PC games to hit GeForce Now, its cloud gaming service.

The addition of Xbox titles to GeForce is just one of the many deals Microsoft has struck during its campaign to acquire Activision Blizzard.

In February, Microsoft president Brad Smith announced the 10-year partnership with Nvidia after a hearing at the European Commission.

Read more