An animated movie based on science fiction catventure Stray is in "active development", reports Entertainemnt Weekly. It's being developed by Annapurna Animation, the recently formed animation division of Annapurna Pictures, who also operate Stray's publisher Annapurna Interactive.
EA Sports WRC - the officially licensed, Codemasters-developed FIA World Rally Championship game - has been officially unveiled, bringing with it a first gameplay trailer and a release date of 3rd November on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
EA Sports WRC features 18 official FIA World Rally Championship locations across asphalt, gravel, and snow, alongside 78 vehicles, licensed from the likes of Ford, Toyota, and Hyundai. There are 10 current WRC, WRC2, and Junior WRC vehicles, plus 68 "iconic" rally cars covering 60 years of the sport - all making use of a "dynamic handling system" promising "the most realistic off-road experience to date".
Additionally, EA and Codemasters are touting EA Sports WRC's Builder featuring - enabling players to construct their own modern-era rally car by selecting from chassis, body shells, and mechanical parts, before diving into the interior, exterior, and livery editors - and there's cross-platform multiplayer support for up to 32 players.
Experience points can make all the difference in an RPG like Starfield. But what's the best way to level up quickly? We have a few suggestions as fans gear up for Starfield's big release on Game Pass later this week.
IGN's intrepid guides team have identified several quick tasks that will gain you a nice XP boost. Here's a list for your reference.
Starfield also rewards a strong XP bonus for having sex with your partner on a regular basis. Yep, you read that right. Starfield has an Emotional Security buff that will get you a sizable 15 percent XP gain over the course of 24 minutes.
In order to unlock the Emotional Security buff, you'll need to get married to one of your companions and go to bed. In essence, you're getting a big boost to the typical "Well Rested" buff, which normally affords a 10 percent XP gain, but that doesn't make it any less useful.
Replaced, an upcoming Xbox console exclusive that has found its way to several most anticipated list thanks to its lavish pixel art, has been delayed to 2024.
Developer Sad Cat Studios announced the delay alongside a production update, stressing that the team "do understand the game's scope" and that development is progressing "at a steady pace." However, the high quality of its visuals, which includes more than 500 "meticulously hand-painted animations made just for platforming," has put the release behind schedule.
"After Replaced's initial announcement in 2021 and its follow-up trailer in 2022 we had this incredible high bar of community's expectations," the team wrote in a statement posted on X. "And at this point we knew that we can't afford to release a sub-par game...This is our first game, and we want to make every aspect of it the best it can be."
Replaced won praise for its rad 2.5D art when it was first announced. It was part of a showcase that at the time left us feeling optimistic overall about Xbox's future. A new Replaced trailer was shown again at The Game Awards 2022, where we called it one of the show's 10 best reveals.
Sharing statement from @sadcatstudios #ICYMI pic.twitter.com/nyxuxJq3Yz
NetEase Games will be at TGS 2023, which will take place from September 21-24, 2023. You’ll be able to find them at Booth 03-S01. It plans on announcing some brand new titles on the first day of TGS 2023. [Thanks, Game Watch!]
Games that will appear at NetEase Games’s booth at TGS 2023 include:
Quantic Dream will also be at NetEase’s booth to promote games that it will release under its new publishing label, Spotlight by Quantic Dream. Dustborn, Under The Waves, and Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior will appear at NetEase’s booth. A game a day will be properly introduced on the main stage. There will also not be new Identity V or PUBG information at TGS 2023. Instead, there will be exhibition matches.
Quite a few of these games, including Where Winds Meet and PUBG, will be available to play at special booths. This will give people a chance to preview the games ahead of game review sites. Unlike other companies, NetEase has not released a particular stream schedule.
Tokyo Game Show 2023 will be September 21-24, 2023 at the Makuhari Messe in Japan.
The Sims 4 is getting two new Kits - the small-ish pieces of DLC which add new items, and no new mechanics, to the construction toybox. The Poolside Splash kit adds new "brght and playful" swimwear and poolside floaties, while the Modern Luxe kit adds expensive décor for use in posh homes. Both kits launch later this week on September 7th.
More Baldur's Gate 3 fixes have spilled forth from the depths of developer Larian Studios' ceaseless patch factory, this latest update - officially known as Hotfix #5 - remedying some previously acknowledged Minthara progression issues, as well as bringing a number of improvements specifically targeting the newly released PlayStation 5 version.
Starting with Minthara, Hotfix #5 aims to address some behind-the-scenes weirdness that was blocking certain lines of her dialogue, as well preventing player romances with the character from progressing in Act 3. There'd been some concern in the community, you might recall, that Minthara had been a victim of last-minute content cuts to meet Baldur's Gate 3's shifted deadline - but Larian had instead blamed her silence on a bug, promising an imminent fix, which, now here, should hopefully reinstate all missing Minthara content.
"This hotfix takes care of a bug that blocked access to some of Minthara’s lines of dialogue, including some hot takes from your companions about your decision to date the ruthless Oath of Vengeance Paladin," Larian explains in today's release notes. "If approval is high enough, your romance with Minthara will progress in Act 3. This unlocks several new dialogues allowing you to explore and deepen the relationship, and discover more details of Minthara's backstory. Alongside many lines of interactive dialogue, many more non-interactive voiced lines are available with Minthara as a romantic partner."
Seiko will release its first Transformers watch on January 10, 2024. Pre-orders are already available. Since Seiko will only make and release 300 watches, it may be better to purchase one if you’re interested in as early as possible as supplies are limited. The watch will cost 59,400 JPY, which is around $405.55. [Thanks, Dengeki Hobby!]
The Transformers watch from Seiko has the same color scheme as Optimus Prime, with a red face and blue chronographs. The Autobot emblem is in the 12 spot. Both the hands and the hour indicators can glow in the dark. Other than the face, Transformers motifs are everywhere on the watch. The little dials at the side have energon cubes on them, and the Transformers logo (including the serial number) is on the back.
Previously, Seiko partnered with Capcom to make Resident Evil watches. These watches cost over $2000 each. Other collaboration watches that Seiko released that are around the Transformers watch’s price point include a Hatsune Miku one and a Space Invaders one. These watches boast familiar color schemes and symbols much like the Optimus Prime watch.
Retro Game Challenge GameCenter CX will come out on the Nintendo Switch in Japan. It combines both the first and second GameCenter CX games, which were originally released on the Nintendo DS, into one collection. A limited edition of the game will also be available, which will include an original DVD of clips like Arino’s Challenge.
You can watch the trailer for Retro Game Challenge GameCenter CX here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBbEI8Pzan0
The game lets you play retro games from the perspective of children in the 1980’s. There are even gaming magazines that you can flip through, with tips on the back for difficult titles. As you play, you’ll steadily unlock newer generations of consoles. In total, there are over twenty original retro-style games that you can enjoy in Retro Game Challenge GameCenter CX.
Retro Game Challenge originally came out in 2007 in Japan. An English version came out in 2009. In Japanese, the title is Arino’s Challenge. In the game, you take on the role of a kid who has to play retro games in order to appease Demon Arino. This is a riff on Shinya Arino, who is a Japanese comedian and actor. He is also the star of gaming variety show, GameCenter CX. Only the first game was localized and released worldwide.
Retro Game Challenge GameCenter CX will come out in Japan some time in the future. It will also be at TGS 2023. There is no information on a Western release.
Nintendo has said it has no plans to release DLC for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and is moving on to a brand new game in the series.
In an interview with Famitsu, Eiji Aonuma, producer of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, ruled out additional content for the Nintendo Switch exclusive.
“There are no plans to release additional content this time, but that's because I feel like we've done everything we can to create fun in that world,” Aonuma said.
It’s a surprising decision considering the enormous success Tears of the Kingdom has enjoyed critically and commercially. It sold 18.51 million units as of June 30, just a month-and-a-half after it came out. That’s more than half the total sales of its predecessor, Breath of the Wild, which has shifted 30.65 million.
It’s also surprising given Breath of the Wild did receive DLC in the form of an expansion pass that added the likes of Master Mode, Hero's Path Mode, trials, and new items. IGN has contacted Nintendo for clarification.
Based on comments in the Famitsu interview, it sounds like Nintendo is now thinking about the next Zelda game instead of Tears of the Kingdom DLC. However, Aonuma did not rule out a return to the Hyrule of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, potentially setting up a third game.
Friend, are you weary of talk of blockbuster space-faring RPGs and blockbuster D&D adaptations and blockbusters in general? Do you yearn for the older, simpler days before the great Unrealification and the invention of sex scenes, when people called a spike pit a spike pit, and you could count all the different colours in a screenshot on your fingers? Do you, in fact, reject this framing of retro-styled 2D pixelart games as "older" and "simpler", regarding it as condescending and false? Look, shut up already. I'm trying to tell you about Isles of Sea and Sky from developers Jason Newman, Dan Collver and Craig Collver.
James Bond will bring his espionage hijinks to Apple Arcade later this month.
On 29th September, players will take on the role of a brand-new Bond in Cypher 007. This top-down mobile title comes from Tilting Point, and promises a return to some classic Bond locations, as well as the chance to relive some of the series' "iconic moments" from the past 60 years.
This will, of course, mean Her Majesty's best agent will also come face to face with several of his known-nemesis, such as Blofeld - along with Spectre - and Jaws. And, as every Bond fan knows, this means gadgets galore, including Little Nellie, Bond's gyrocopter from You Only Live Twice.
Cross-play is apparently already on the development roadmap for Baldur's Gate 3. This means players on PlayStation 5 and PC - and at some point, Xbox - will all theoretically be able to play together online in the future.
Confirmation comes from Larian's director of publishing, Michael Douse, who told me the studio always intended to do cross-play but it was one thing too many to get working for launch. The PS5 version comes out today, remember; the PC version came out at the beginning of August; and the Xbox versions will arrive at some point this year.
"It was always in the planning," Douse told me, "but we knew it wouldn't be for launch. It's in the roadmap, and though we have an idea of when we'd like to get it ready for, we don't want to put a date on it until we're sure."
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will not receive any additional content, Nintendo has said.
Nintendo's legendary Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma confirmed the decision in an interview with Famitsu, where he said he'd simply "done everything" he could in Tears of the Kingdom's world.
Tears of the Kingdom director Hidemaro Fujibayashi agreed, and said that while he was already thinking about what the "next fun experience" for the Zelda series should be, he did not know yet what form this may take.
I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 on console, on PlayStation 5, and I warn you, I'm becoming dangerously enthusiastic about it. There are even ways in which I - and I can barely bring myself to say this - prefer it to playing on PC. I did warn you!
It's not what I expected. I expected to prefer the PC version, the lead platform, the home of Baldur's Gate. But I cannot shake the feeling that, while lazily thumbing my way around the game on PS5, this is a more pleasurable way to play.
It's to do with the controller and the environment, and before you say it, yes I know you can achieve the same thing on PC. You can plug in a controller and BG3 will seamlessly switch to the controller UI (this is the case for Steam Deck too); it will even switch to split-screen co-op if you plug a second controller in. And if your PC is hooked up to your television, the environment will also be the same. So what the console is doing isn't theoretically exclusive, though I'd argue it's because of consoles any of it exists.
If you’re hoping to go into Mortal Kombat 1 fresh when it launches on September 14 you might want to tread carefully across the internet after physical copies appeared to make their way into the hands of eager players.
MP1st reported on one player who obtained the Nintendo Switch version of NetherRealm’s upcoming fighting game and uploaded images showing the launch roster of playable characters as well as the available Kameo (support) characters. IGN will not share the images here, or reveal the unannounced characters in the pictures.
It seems further leaks are coming, as the person in question even uploaded a video of the game running on Nintendo Switch to reddit.
Mortal Kombat is coming to PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and the aforementioned Nintendo Switch. For more information on Mortal Kombat 1, check out our interviews with the developer at gamescom 2023, including one with Ed Boon, where he discussed how Homelander and Omni-Man's gameplay mechanics differ, and our interview with NetherRealm Studios' narrative director, who answered all our lore-related questions.
It sounds like Diablo 4 is set for annual expansions, based on comments from its chief developer.
In an interview with Dexerto, Diablo 4 boss Rod Fergusson mentioned “quarterly seasons” and “annual expansions” as the focus for the action role-playing game’s live service.
“When you look at the launch of the game and this first season, we see that as building a foundation on which we can build for the future,” Fergusson said.
“So, as we look at our quarterly seasons, and we look at our annual expansions, those are the things that we’re really focused on for our live service.
“We’ve got plans, we have storylines that go well into the future. We’ve got plans. We’re always leapfrogging our seasons, and leapfrogging our expansions, so it’s something we are going to do for a long time. We’re excited.”
Annual expansions supported by quarterly seasons is the live service model employed by Destiny developer Bungie, which has maintained the popularity of Destiny 2 to a high enough level to support a live service for over six years now.
Lightyear Frontier is not the kind of game that fits neatly into a 30-minute Gamescom demo. There's so much to see and do in this laidback farming mech sim that by the time my demo ends, I barely feel like I've scratched the surface of it (and that's even with the assistance of some handy secret dev cheats to show me some of the structures and features they've got planned later on in the game). Rather, this is a game that's designed to unfurl slowly, bit by bit, over the course of several hours, and before we begin, developer Frame Break's CEO Joakim Hedström tells me they've shortened the game's opening sequence for this particular demo, just so they can get players right into the thick of things as quickly as possible.
But even on this whistlestop tour, there's plenty to dig into and delight in here - not least its gloriously bright and inviting colour palette (take that, Todd). I got to sample its farming, its wonderfully weighty mech exploration, and even indulge in a little bit of, well, powerwashing. Yep, PowerWash Simulator's influence was well and truly felt at this year's Gamescom, and I'm so very here for it.
Sad news vis-a-vis playing Starfield on the Steam Deck: it runs like a slug, even on the lowest possible settings. And if you were planning to get it through PC Game Pass, that's another issue, as Game Pass games are locked down behind the fully Deck-incompatible Universal Windows Platform system. If the wonder of space depends on the it being a borderless infinity realm of endless possibilities, nobody told Microsoft.
There is a way, however, to sidestep both problems. Xbox Cloud Gaming will let you play Starfield on the Steam Deck at a steady (enough) 30fps, by streaming the game from Microsoft's cloud network direct to your screen - no Proton GE or Lutris launcher required. It still takes some setting up, but luckily, you’ve already clicked onto a step-by-step guide on how to do it.
Humble Bundle has announced the games available in its monthly Humble Choice subscription for September.
Every month, the bundle-loving team at Humble selects a collection of PC games for its members to keep. In addition, it provides access to the Humble Games Collection and Vault, and members get 20 percent off the vast collection of games in the Humble Store.
This month, the bundle building team has grouped another eight games together for its subscribers. These are: Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Chaotic Great Edition, Deceive Inc, The Forgotten City, Aces & Adventures, Foretales, Patch Quest, Autonauts vs PirateBots and Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus.
Nintendo Switch Online subscribers can now access four more retro games via its emulation services.
The latest games to be added are Quest for Camelot, Kirby's Star Stacker, Joy Mech Fight and Downtown Nekketsu March Super-Awesome Field Day! across its Game Boy, SNES and NES libraries.
Admittedly, Kirby's Star Stacker is the only game I'd previously heard of on this list, but Quest for Camelot has piqued my interest (for non-gaming related reasons).
Having sex in Starfield will give you an XP boost.
For those looking to increase their XP, it looks like it would be worth setting yourself up for a romantic experience.
As highlighted on the Starfield reddit (via VG247), players will get a 15 percent XP boost when they sleep with a companion. This little buff is called "Emotional Security", and lasts for 24 minutes. It is similar but better than the 10 percent well-rested condition, which you can get by sleeping without a companion by your side.
Starfield is the sort of game that starts conversations, and one of the conversations I've been hearing a lot over the last few days has to do with fast travel. This is one of those elements of games that has become so common as games have gotten bigger that it can be easy - for me at least - to overlook how interesting it is in the first place. Now that I'm thinking about fast travel, I suspect it's one of those fascinating, unsolvable conundrums of game design: an idea that will always be in flux. It's convenient, and when games hit a certain size - Starfield with its thousands of planets certainly counts here - it becomes pretty much essential. But it's also one of those mechanics that can become part of a game's philosophy, part of its approach to how it handles things in the game world, and how it truly thinks about the game world. Fast travel says something about what the designers value in a game. It feels like this is a conversation worth having.
Diablo 4 will be updated each year via annual expansions, as developer Blizzard says it plans to work on the game for "years and years" to come.
Diablo boss Rod Fergusson confirmed Blizzard's plan to launch "quarterly seasons" and "annual expansions" as part of Diablo 4's ongoing live service.
Exactly how these expansions will be released, sold and priced is still unclear, however.
Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has teased fans with a new screenshot for forthcoming game Haunted Chocolatier.
The image, shared on X (formerly Twitter), shows what looks to be the game's player character speaking to an old man with a long white beard who is resting in bed.
Sound familiar?
4X real-time strategy game Dune: Spice Wars will be leaving early access next week on Thursday 14th September, developer Shiro Games has announced.
The game is currently available on Steam and Xbox Game Pass for PC, which it joined in November 2022.
The game's full release will include its sixth major update, adding a new faction, House Ecaz, warring for control over Arrakis.
Starfield has launched proper today, September 6, with an astonishing number of mods already available after a week of early access.
One of the most popular mods on NexusMods revamps the game’s inventory user interface, addressing a key complaint with Bethesda’s sci-fi role-playing game.
M8r98a4f2’s StarUI Inventory mod improves all inventory screens for Starfield on PC. There’s a new compact display style, more details in sortable columns, item category icons, and loads of quality-of-life features.
Modders have already fixed Starfield’s UI
— Synth Potato (Ameer) 🥔 (@SynthPotato) September 5, 2023
StarUI, Starfield equivalent of “SkyUI” is already here and gives PC players a far more intuitive and informative at a glance interface, Insane to me how fast modders work considering the game isn’t even “officially” out yet! pic.twitter.com/smZThoaMGm
As IGN Starfield reviewer Dan Stapleton pointed out, Starfield’s inventory management is “shockingly bad”.
“To avoid becoming overloaded you’ll constantly need to transfer the weapons, space suits, materials, and alien goo you’ve collected between your inventory and your companion’s, or to and from your ship’s cargo hold, but maddeningly you can’t view the contents and capacities of both the giving and receiving container at the same time,” Stapleton wrote.
Four classic Nintendo games have been added to the Nintendo Switch Online library including two that have never been released in the west previously: Kirby's Star Stacker and Joy Mech Fight.
Nintendo released a trailer for the new additions (below), which also include NES game Downtown Nekketsu March Super-Awesome Field Day and Game Boy Color game Quest for Camelot.
Kirby's Star Stacker, previously only available in Japan as Kirby no Kirakira Kizzu, is the SNES (or Super Famicon) remake of the Game Boy game of the same name. It's a familiar falling block puzzle game that tasks players will collecting as many stars as possible by matching blocks.
Also releasing in the west for the first time is Joy Mech Fight, a robot brawler released on Japan's Famicon (the NES) in 1993.
Downtown Nekketsu March Super-Awesome Field Day is an NES action sports game while Quest for Camelot is a Game Boy move tie-in action RPG.
Users will need both Nintendo Switch Online and the Expansion Pack before they're able to download these four games, but all of this can be done from the Switch Online app on the console itself.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
Between great reviews – you can read Game Informer’s right here – and excellent sales that led to Nintendo having a record-breaking quarter, there’s no question The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a success for Nintendo. Despite that success, though, it seems the company is moving on from this Hyrule as Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma has revealed there will be no DLC for the game.
That’s what he told Japanese magazine Famitsu in a new interview, as translated by Genki_JPN on Twitter. Based on his comments, the team behind TOTK might be moving on to a new Zelda game in a new Hyrule, too.
One SteamOS patch and a reinstall later, and I’ve overcome my initial launching woes to properly play Starfield on the Steam Deck. Though perhaps it was better off breaking in the atmosphere, and while I’m enjoying Starfield’s spacey adventures in a general sense, its punishing technical requirements are making the Deck’s usually-plucky hardware look like a pile of Old Earth scrap.
I never got round to playing Shiro's 4X-plus-RTS adaptation of Dune, but chuckling spice baron Nic Reuben deemed it "intricate", "polished" and "well-considered" in his early access review last year, and I trust his nose for these things. The game now has a 1.0 release date - 14th September 2023 - which will also bring a sixth major content update featuring the politically adept House Ecaz faction - who, if the press release speaks true, "wield power like a paint brush". You love to see it!
Hatsune Miku and her Vocaloid friends are shown popping out of PC windows in a new set of figures by Re-Ment. The lineup of characters featured in this window figure collection of mini figures consists of Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin, Kagamine Len, Megurine Luka, Meiko, and Kaito. The figures will be available at the price of 1,430 yen ($9.69) each. The collection is scheduled to go on sale on December 4, 2023 in Japan. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]
Promotional images of the new Hatsune Miku window figure collection were released on the Re-Ment official social media account. The concept for this collection is to bring the Vocaloid characters from the virtual world to the real world. The figures can be purchased separately at random or as a complete box set.
[embed]https://twitter.com/rement_official/status/1698893721973219514[/embed]
Each Vocaloid window mini-figure comes with replaceable parts and backgrounds. Also, each one comes with a PC window background part that displays a wallpaper featuring their image. Furthermore, each of the six figures in the lineup feature details pertaining to a specific Vocaloid character. For example, Kaito is shown holding a fallen ice cream bar, which is his character item.
After an 11 year absence, the Armored Core series jet-boosts back into action with Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon. And, given the huge success of Elden Ring last year, there is now of course heightened interest in developer From Software's output, regardless of what form it takes. Armored Core 6 is a completely different beast in game design to the studio's more recognised series of course, and so the question is this: has the technology evolved to a sufficient degree that the game overcomes the technical issues we saw with Elden Ring?
The truth is that despite its different, mission-based game structure, Armored Core 6 does still share its technical DNA with Elden Ring, in that it uses the same engine. Based on Tweets from modder Lance McDonald, it's the same From Software technology, though put to work on a wildly different concept. The high fantasy, seamlessly traversable world of Elden Ring - its knights and magic - are replaced by bleak, futuristic areas, often segmented by the mission. We get giant warring mechs, thundering across its world at breakneck speed. We get explosive battles, going from tanks in the city to a colossal, weaponised mining ship. The sense of scale is often awe-inspiring, but can the technology handle it?
Five of the Best is a weekly series for supporters of Eurogamer. It's a series that highlights some of the features in games that often overlooked. It's also about having your say, so don't be shy, use the comments below and join in!
Oh and you can find our entire Five of the Best archive elsewhere on the site.
Plants! And I don't mean friends you position in the audience to laugh at your jokes. I mean the green kind, the leafy kind - the kind we pop around our houses because it reminds us of the lovely world outside. Well games do that too. And games aren't bound by the laws of reality. So which weird and wonderful creations have they come up with that have caught your eye? Which plants in games, in other words, are the best?
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As we move into the mid-range sector of the GPU market, AMD's latest - and last - RDNA 3-based desktop graphics cards represent yet another golden opportunity for AMD to grab some precious market share from Nvidia. Put simply, the RTX 4060 Ti is the least compelling offering in the entire desktop 40-series line-up - it's the closest AMD is going to get to an open goal - while the RTX 4070's value proposition was controversial, being the most expensive 70-series card Nvidia has ever made.
On the face of it, AMD's new $499/£479 RX 7800 XT certainly offers a strong alternative to the RTX 4070. Based on US pricing, it's $100 cheaper, you get undeniably more potent rasterisation performance and the 12 gigs of VRAM offered by the Nvidia card gets a 4GB boost on its new AMD competitor. This is AMD making life tricky for its competition.
The $449/£429 RX 7700 XT? We're reminded of launch pricing for the RX 7900 XT - it offers proportionately less performance for the money than its more powerful counterpart with 4GB less framebuffer memory too, this time with a more impactful drop from a 16GB to 12GB allocation. It's absolutely baffling, as the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB was a turkey, and in the meantime, price cuts on the 16GB model add further pressure to the 7700 XT. It just doesn't quite make sense.
Bethesda development chief Todd Howard has discussed the benefits of Starfield being Xbox exclusive, namechecking the brand association Nintendo enjoys with its first party games.
Speaking to the BBC, Howard stressed that working to one console lets the development team “focus”, which in turns “yields a better product”.
"When you're making something exclusive then the more you can focus,” Howard said. "You know this is the hardware or the thing people are playing on, so the ability to focus on that always yields a better product.
"You do want people to be able to access it of course. But being with Xbox means there is an ease of access for us and I'm told we're expecting more people playing this launch than anything we've ever done before and that's despite the success of our previous games.”
Starfield, which launches proper today, September 6, as a day-one Game Pass game as well as a premium release on PC and Xbox Series X and S, is seen as a key first-party release for Microsoft after a string of high-profile failures.
Howard’s comments echo those of Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines, who said in June during the trial between Microsoft and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the future of the Activision Blizzard buyout, that developing for fewer platforms has streamlined the process in some cases.
When Super Space Club creator Graham Reid was a child growing up in Jamaica, he couldn’t even conceive of video game development as a career possibility.
“I thought that game development was just Nintendo and Sony and the big companies making things,” he tells me. “And of course I played games on Newgrounds and that kind of stuff, but I never actually thought that I could just make that. Looking back, I think, of course I could have made a Flash game. But in Jamaica, they don't teach any of that stuff. All the jobs are about being a doctor or a lawyer. One of those traditional, stable jobs.”
But many years, a motion graphics degree, a move to New York, and a major game release later, Reid seems to finally believe that he might be a game developer. He introduces himself to me alternatively as a “Jamaican game dev,” a “solo indie game developer,” and a “creative director,” saying that he changes his intro every time - it’s still a bit hard for him to believe, even now that he’s launched his arcade shooter Super Space Club on PC to positive reception, with an Xbox release on the way.
Reid’s path to video games began in college, when a friend in the game design program invited Reid to join him for a game jam. Through the jam, Reid was introduced to mobile game development, which in the early 2010s was widely accessible for many developers who would have otherwise struggled to get a game released on a console or even PC. “Mobile allowed anybody to make a game,” he recalls.
“People still paid for mobile games back then. I could [release] a $2 game and people would actually buy it… I couldn't try that now. People would laugh at me.”
The developers of STALKER 2 have discussed the game’s first hands-on at gamescom 2023 and addressed a “downgrade” debate sparked by a new gameplay trailer.
GSC Game World told IGN it is still targeting a visual quality and level of polish suggested by STALKER 2’s eye-catching 2021 trailer (below). This comes despite the horrendous conditions suffered by the staff at the Ukrainian developer amid the war with Russia, which halted development, displaced staff, and caused a number of delays.
STALKER 2 was at the Microsoft gamescom 2023 booth in hands-on fashion, letting the public and press play the post-apocalyptic first-person shooter for the first time. STALKER 2’s gamescom 2023 gameplay trailer (below) includes footage taken from the build used at the show.
It’s fair to say the build on show was rough. As IGN’s STALKER 2 hands-on preview revealed: “Despite its Unreal Engine 5 base and prominent Microsoft support, the 15-minute gamescom demo suggests that STALKER 2 still sits in the ‘eurojank’ category; the colloquial term for eastern European games that are overly ambitious and technically wobbly.
You can practically set your watch to it: each year, as Black Friday pokes its head over the horizon, Nintendo releases the same Nintendo Switch bundle. This time it's ready for Prime Day 2, but it will surpass that and still be a great deal all the way through to Black Friday on November 24. It includes an original Switch (not OLED, unfortunately), a digital copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and a three-month individual Nintendo Switch Online subscription. It costs $299, and you can order it now at Amazon.
Don't let my apparent lack of enthusiasm spoil this for you, though. If you’re going to buy a standard Switch and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe anyway, this is definitely a good deal. The bundle costs the same price of a Switch alone, so buying the bundle saves you roughly $65 over purchasing the items individually. And if you’re buying your first Switch, you’re definitely going to want to pick up Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, because it rules. An NSO subscription is also pretty great, because it gets you access to a bunch of classic NES and SNES games.
Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has revealed a new screen from his upcoming game The Haunted Chocolatier, which has some fans convinced a beloved Stardew Valley character is set to make an appearance in the highly anticipated confectionery store simulator.
The scene in question shows an old, white-bearded man in bed, with an unnamed companion standing at the bedside. Both the book-strewn darkened room around the pair and the waking man’s clothes seem to give off a distinctly wizardy vibe, with the only other information coming in a cryptic text box containing eight simple words: "...I was just having the most terrible dream."
here's a haunted chocolatier screne pic.twitter.com/bCVy3NJaMS
— ConcernedApe (@ConcernedApe) September 5, 2023
Excited fans in the comments were quick to point out the man in the picture looks a lot like the beloved Grandpa from Stardew Valley, who gifts the player his farm at the beginning of the game, seemingly on his deathbed, and periodically comes back to judge your achievements in etherial form.
GRANDPA AWAKENS