Eurogamer

Lords of the Fallen publisher CI Games lays off 10% of employees

3 months 2 weeks ago

Polish video game developer and publisher CI Games has laid off 10 percent of its staff.

The company, perhaps best known for Lords of the Fallen, told Eurogamer this was a "tough but necessary" decision it believes will help "preserve business strength and stability".

According to our sister site GamesIndustry.biz, these layoffs will affect employees from across the company, including Lords of the Fallen developer Hexworks, Sniper Ghost Warrior studio Underdog and the "majority" of CI Games' marketing team.

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Victoria Kennedy

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Bethesda rolling out Fallout Shelter-style The Elder Scrolls: Castles

3 months 2 weeks ago

Bethesda has at last officially announced The Elder Scrolls: Castles, its Fallout Shelter-style mobile game which popped up last year, ahead of a full launch.

The Elder Scrolls: Castles was quietly released into early access in September 2023 on Android, where players were able to try the game until December.

Now, the game is being rolled out on Android and iOS, with a staggered release across different regions. The game is free-to-play with in-app purchases.

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Liv Ngan

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Unannounced Far Cry spin-off game featuring laser deathmatches rated by PEGI

3 months 2 weeks ago

An unannounced Far Cry spin-off game known as Captain Laserhawk Niji Warrior has been rated by European classification board PEGI. While nothing official has been announced, this listing suggests a proper unveiling may be on the way soon

Spotted by Game Rant, PEGI's listing states the yet-to-be-revealed title will see players pitted against each other in some kind of "laser deathmatch", with the person clocking up the most kills declared the winner.

Captain Laserhawk Niji Warrior has been rated 12 by PEGI, with mention of "moderate violence to human-like characters". It will also include purchasable in-game items, such as cosmetics. The PEGI rating here is for PC.

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Victoria Kennedy

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Call of Duty games now shut down when mouse and keyboard players use aim assist

3 months 2 weeks ago

Several Call of Duty games will now shut down for mouse and keyboard players who activate aim assist.

Activision has updated its anti-cheat system, Ricochet, to detect aim assist usage for PC players across Modern Warfare 3, Modern Warfare 2, and Warzone.

"Our security detection systems now target players using tools to activate aim assist while using a mouse and keyboard. The Call of Duty application will close if detected," reads a new post on X, formerly Twitter.

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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Rock Band 4 DLC support ends next week, after eight years

3 months 2 weeks ago

After eight years of weekly releases, Rock Band 4's last dollop of song DLC will arrive next Thursday, 25th January, developer Harmonix has announced.

The move follows Harmonix's launch of Fortnite Festival, a Rock Band-like mode playable within Fortnite, at the end of last year - and the beginning of weekly track releases for that.

Rock Band 4 now features a library of nearly 3000 songs - and access to these isn't going anywhere to anyone who has bought them. But no more will launch after the end of this month.

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Author
Tom Phillips

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Another Code: Recollection and the pleasures of games not done quick

3 months 2 weeks ago

I remember being fascinated by Another Code: Two Memories when I first saw it in the pages of Edge magazine back in the early 2000s. An oddball DS game was always something to pay attention to, but this was one in which the main character had their own DS inside the game too. Or rather, they had a DAS, an in-game gadget that just happened to look exactly like that gorgeously angular first design of the DS. "Is it product placement when it's your own product being placed?" asked Edge, or words to that effect. New worlds and new wonder. I miss the early 2000s.

If my memory is correct, Two Memories came out at the start of the DS's lifespan. Now, it's back with us, to bustle the Switch off to its own personal Grey Havens. I've been playing the new remake this week and it's been a real journey. There's loads it turns out I've forgotten, loads that I suspect has changed, but there's one thing that has remained absolutely the same.

Before I get to that: Another Code: Recollection combines Two Memories and its sequel, R: A Journey into Memories, which was previously only released in Europe and Japan and came out for the Wii. Both games have been thoroughly reworked for the Switch. I knew that a DS game from 2005 or whatever would need some tweaks, but as far as I can tell, both games have new graphics and a new control scheme. As far as I can tell - I've played all of Two Memories in the new collection, but I'm still early on in R: A Journey into Memories - they've been given new puzzles too, and while the narratives seem to follow the same beats, there's been a little quiet reworking to keep things sweet.

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Christian Donlan

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Layoffs hit Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive, report says

3 months 2 weeks ago

UPDATE 3.42pm: Behaviour Interactive has confirmed layoffs at the company with Eurogamer.

"Recently, changing market conditions necessitated adjusting the scope of several Behaviour projects. In these situations, our preference is always to reassign talent to other projects," it said. "Unfortunately, this option is not always available to us. These departures represented less than three percent of our total workforce."

The original story continues below.

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Victoria Kennedy

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Rocksteady co-founders have formed new AAA studio Hundred Star Games

3 months 2 weeks ago

Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker, the duo that co-founded acclaimed Batman Arkham studio Rocksteady before departing to "start a new adventure together in games" in 2022, have set up a new AAA London development studio, Hundred Star Games.

Hundred Star Games' existence certainly isn't a secret - it already has a website and a detailed Great Place to Work listing - but its connection to Hill and Walker has only just started to become more widely known thanks to a new report by Polygon, which spotted the duo were named as Hundred Star's directors on corporate data website Endole.

Hundred Star hasn't yet announced itself to press, and only a limited amount of information is currently available. On Great Place to Work, the East London studio says its ethos is to create a "small team of only 100 industry veterans and emerging talents, who are committed to crafting cutting-edge gaming experiences that inspire and captivate players worldwide."

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Matt Wales

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Minecraft movie adds Jennifer Coolidge to its star-studded cast

3 months 2 weeks ago

Minecraft's long-in-the-works movie adaptation continues to pick up steam, with the news White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge has now joined its cast.

Word of Coolidge's arrival on the project comes via Deadline, but the publication offers no word on the role she'll be playing. That's to be expected, given story details are being kept under wraps - although a report last year suggested it would focus on a "malevolent Ender Dragon who sets out on a path of destruction".

Coolidge - who strode back into the spotlight with her widely acclaimed two-season portrayal of Tanya McQuoid in HBO's stellar 2021 series White Lotus following an already impressive decades-long acting career - joins a cast including Game of Thrones' Jason Momoa, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, Sebastian Eugene Hansen, and Jack Black.

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Matt Wales

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PlayStation slasher horror Until Dawn is being turned into a movie

3 months 2 weeks ago

Developer Supermassive's acclaimed PS4 cinematic horror game Until Dawn is being turned into a movie by the writer and director of 2017 horror hit Annabelle: Creation.

Until Dawn, if you're unfamiliar, released for PS4 back in 2015, delivering an interactive spin on the teen slasher genre - with a cast including Rami Malek and Hayden Panettiere - where players could influence who lived and who died through the choices they made along its branching narrative. It was a cheesy, atmospheric, and hugely enjoyable romp, establishing the template Supermassive would later revisit in its recent Dark Pictures Anthology series.

Given that much of Until Dawn's appeal came from the novelty of navigating through a whole bunch of knowingly trope-y slasher conventions (who hasn't pondered if they'd have what it takes to survive a horror movie and become Final Girl), it's perhaps an unexpected choice for a big screen adaptation - but the film's being described as a "R-rated love letter to the horror genre", suggesting it'll retain some of the meta elements of its inspiration.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Plants vs Zombies returns to mobile with new sequel out this year

3 months 2 weeks ago

Plants vs Zombies is back with a brand new mobile game.

Plants vs Zombies 3: Welcome to Zomburbia is once again being developed by PopCap Studios and has soft launched today, with the game releasing in full later this year.

The soft launch is a "near-launch ready build" available only to players in the UK, Netherlands, Australia and Philippines.

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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Epic's Tim Sweeney pledges more legal action as US Supreme Court rejects Apple lawsuit appeals

3 months 2 weeks ago

Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney has vowed more legal action against Apple, just days after the US Supreme Court dismissed both parties' further attempts to appeal a 2021 California court ruling on the Epic vs. Apple antitrust lawsuit.

Epic initially launched court proceedings against Apple back in August 2020, after the company revoked Epic's Fortnite developer account, preventing the game from being distributed on its devices. Apple made the move after Epic deliberately circumvented contractually mandated App Store payment mechanisms within its Fortnite iOS app, which would have allowed it to avoid Apple's 30 percent platform fees.

A decision on Epic's lawsuit came in September 2021, when Judge Gonzalez-Rogers ruled against Epic in nine of its 10 claims, determining the company had failed to prove Apple held a monopoly as defined by antitrust laws. Gonzalez-Rogers did, however, side with Epic in one matter, ruling Apple could not block developers from linking out to alternative payment methods from within their apps - a practice known as "anti-steering" - as that would constitute "anti-competitive conduct" under state law.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Narrative adventure Open Roads has promise, but a demo leaves us unconvinced

3 months 2 weeks ago

In theory, Open Roads should be an easy sell to someone like me, because I love a stylised narrative adventure game - see As Dusk Falls from a couple of years ago. Open Roads follows a mother and daughter (Opal and Tess) on a road trip after they learn a secret about their recently departed mother/grandmother. What was she hiding from them, and why? Who was she? The promise is an engaging mystery told through slow-burn character development - the kind of set-up that might teach us a thing or two about our lives along the way. Great; I'm all in.

Yet, after sitting through a half-hour preview of Open Roads, I'm left scratching my head about it - because nothing much happened. It was hands-off, I should say, and all I saw in that time was our character Tess, the daughter, walking around a house, picking objects up and talking to her mum. That was it. There was no sense of mystery and no real sense of story. Given the game is out next month, it was a very strange chunk of game to show.

I'm not sure about some of the things I did manage to see, either. To me, these kinds of games run on their performances; they are the engine driving them. It's doubly true of Open Roads because it has limited character animations and almost no lip-synching, either. This approach can work very well though - again, see As Dusk Falls.

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Author
Robert Purchese

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TwitchCon EU 2024 will be in Rotterdam

3 months 2 weeks ago

Twitch has released details of its next TwitchCon events in both Europe and the US.

TwitchCon EU 2024 will be hosted once again in the Netherlands, this time at the Rotterdam Ahoy from 29th-30th June. The event will return to the same location in both 2025 and 2026.

TwitchCon North America, meanwhile, will return to the San Diego Convention Center from 20th-22nd September 2024, with the same location from 2025 until 2028.

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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Thunderful Group to implement "restructuring programme" affecting around 20 percent of staff

3 months 2 weeks ago

Swedish video game holding company Thunderful Group is to implement a "restructuring programme", which will see around a fifth of its workforce laid off.

Thunderful, which owns multiple development studios and publishers including Coatsink and Somerville developer Jumpship, said this programme aims to "strengthen the Group's long-term competitive position" by lowering costs and "increasing focus on areas with the best future growth and profitability prospects".

This will include staff reductions of approximately 20 percent, as well as the "divestment of non-strategic assets".

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Victoria Kennedy

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The Last of Us showrunner pours cold water on Bill and Frank spin-off

3 months 2 weeks ago

No, sorry, there won't be a Bill and Frank TV spin-off for The Last of Us after all. Series co-creator Craig Mazin has said the crew is happy with what it accomplished with those characters in the first season, and as such "there won't be more Bill and Frank".

Mazin's comments come after Bill actor Nick Offerman said a The Last of Us spin-off following the two survivors had been pitched to HBO. "I think we pitched a whole mini-series of a prequel of their lives before they met each other," Offerman said, before joking: "It could be a musical. We're not short on ideas. We'll just, we'll see what Craig [Mazin] and Neil [Druckmann] come up with."

Speaking with Deadline, Mazin reiterated that Offerman was joking with his previous comments, which were made following the actor's Emmy win. "I'm very proud of the episode we did with Bill and Frank," Mazin said, later adding: "We are very happy with what we achieved."

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles gets March release date

3 months 2 weeks ago

Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles, the next game from The Falconeer developer Tomas Sala, will be released in March.

What's more, a demo will be playable from 30th January across all platforms. The game will be released on PC, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 on 26th March.

A sequel to The Falconeer, the game is a unique city builder with a distinct minimalist style that's been designed to be easy to play. Check out a trailer below.

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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Europa Universalis 4 subscription briefly skyrockets as publisher adjusts regional pricing

3 months 2 weeks ago

Yes, Paradox Interactive has increased the price of its expansion subscription to Europa Universalis 4 in multiple regions, but not to the extent some players were worried about.

Yesterday, several Canadian players shared emails they received from Steam which said the monthly price for their subscription had gone up to $122, a 21-fold increase on its initial price of $5.70.

The price in Canada was quickly updated to $10.99, a much more sensible figure.

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Liv Ngan

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The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered director doesn't "understand some of the consternation" around its release

3 months 2 weeks ago

Naughty Dog's Matthew Gallant has said he doesn't "understand some of the consternation" surrounding The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered's release.

The director was asked by VGC his thoughts on the backlash remakes and remasters - such as Naughty Dog's upcoming native PS5 version of The Last of Us Part 2 - are often met with. After all, the original game came out less than four years ago.

"I don't understand some of the consternation about what The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered offers," Gallant replied, adding he believes this release is "the best way to play The Last of Us Part 2, if you're a new PlayStation owner and new to the franchise".

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Victoria Kennedy

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Watch the moment Peanut Butter becomes the first dog speedrunner in AGDQ 2024

3 months 2 weeks ago

Yesterday, Shiba Inu Peanut Butter became the first dog to speedrun a game during Awesome Games Done Quick.

The fundraising event is currently underway, having begun on Sunday. As previously reported, streamer JSR_'s pet dog Peanut Butter was scheduled to be the first pet, and the first dog, to complete a speedrun for AGDQ.

Peanut Butter speedran Gyromite, a puzzle platformer released on the NES, in 26 minutes and 24 seconds, which is around a minute slower than his own world record, but well within the 30 minute slot he'd been allocated. Frankly, every Peanut Butter run is a PB record.

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Liv Ngan

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Final Fantasy 7 'shippers' "ruin great story development" with overt sexualisation, says Cloud voice artist

3 months 2 weeks ago

Voice artist Cody Christian, who plays Cloud in the forthcoming Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, thinks "shippers" who "overtly sexualise every relationship can ruin great story development".

Christian made the comments on X, formerly Twitter, following the latest trailer for Rebirth shared by Square Enix. Longtime fans of the original Final Fantasy 7 game (as well as Remake) have plenty of opinions on who Cloud's love interest should be in the Tifa/Aerith love triangle, which has caused plenty of heated online debates.

"'Shippers' crumble under the idea that a character is allowed to have significant relationships with MULTIPLE characters. This provides overarching depth," said Christian (thanks Games Radar). "The need to overtly sexualize every relationship can ruin great story development."

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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Tennis series Top Spin returns with TopSpin 2K25

3 months 2 weeks ago

2K is bringing back its tennis series Top Spin with a new instalment, TopSpin 2K25.

It's been 13 years since the last game in the series, Top Spin 4, was released on the PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, and Xbox 360.

TopSpin 2K25 was announced yesterday, in conjunction with the opening day of the main draw at the Australian Open. Check out the first trailer below.

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Author
Liv Ngan

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Larian Studios games won't be on subscription services, says CEO Swen Vincke

3 months 2 weeks ago

You won't find any Larian Studios games on a subscription service, said its CEO Swen Vincke.

In a thread on X, formerly Twitter, Vincke shared his views on subscription models in response to yesterday's news that Ubisoft is evolving its service. Ubisoft's director of subscription Philippe Tremblay said players need to be "comfortable" not owning games when discussing the range of consumer behaviour.

"Whatever the future of games looks like, content will always be king," said Vincke. "But it's going to be a lot harder to get good content if subscription becomes the dominant model and a select group gets to decide what goes to market and what not. Direct from developer to players is the way."

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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Five of the Best: Secret levels

3 months 2 weeks ago

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 are often overlooked. It's also about having your say, so don't be shy, use the comments below and join in!

Oh and if you want to read more, you can - you can find our entire Five of the Best archive elsewhere on the site.

You never forget the time you discover a secret level. There's a butterfly twang in your stomach as you enter somewhere noticeably different, somewhere you're not normally supposed to be. And you know that your discovery will mark you as now belonging to an exclusive group of people who have found this.

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Author
Robert Purchese

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The Finals 1.5.0 update adds limited-time Solo Bank It mode plus bug fixes and more

3 months 2 weeks ago

Developer Embark Studios has today released its shiny 1.5.0 update for The Finals, adding a new limited-time Solo Bank It mode, as well as a variety of bug fixes and further anti-cheat measures.

First off, that new mode. Embark calls Solo Bank It both "experimental" and a "fast-paced all-in-action" experience, so you are sure to be kept on your toes. It pits 12 single players against each other in PvP matches. Those taking on Solo Bank It need to scoop up a total of 40,000 Cash to claim victory.

The developer notes strategy is a key factor in this mode, as you won't have a squad backing you up for you to rely on. You can see a little tease of what's in store via the video below.

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Dave the Diver studio unveils sci-fi team battle game Wakerunners

3 months 2 weeks ago

Wakerunners is the next game from Mintrocket, the studio behind Dave the Diver.

The game is described as a team battle game with a top-down perspective set in a dystopian sci-fi future. So, quite the change from catching fish under the sea.

If you're keen to check it out, a demo will be available during Steam Next Fest from 5th February.

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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Baldur's Gate 3's long-awaited Xbox save bug fix is finally rolling out today

3 months 2 weeks ago

It looks like Baldur's Gate 3's save bug woes on Xbox Series X/S might finally - fingers crossed - be at an end. The long-awaited fix that developer Larian Studios recently promised would arrive this week is now available to download.

Xbox players have suffered save game woes ever since Baldur's Gate 3 made its delayed debut on the console at the end of last year, with reports soon emerging that hard-earned progress was being wiped after crashing. Unfortunately, the issue has persisted as the weeks have gone by, and Larian recently confirmed a permanent fix would require a console update from Microsoft, which was still in the works at the time.

Finally though, after an agonising five-and-a-half-week wait, Microsoft's long-promised fix is now here. Its arrival was confirmed by the official Xbox Support account on social media, which tweeted, "An Xbox System Update will be rolling out from today to address the Save Game issue on Baldur's Gate 3." All Xbox Series X/S players should automatically receive the update within the next week, it noted, but those wanting it sooner can manually force the update immediately via their console's Settings menu.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Diablo 4's Season of the Construct detailed ahead of next week's launch

3 months 2 weeks ago

With Diablo 4's third season of post-launch content - now officially titled Season of the Construct - rapidly approaching, Blizzard has finally deemed it time to share some details about what it'll bring when it arrives on 23rd January next week.

"Ancient forces threaten Sanctuary," the studio writes in a bout of scene-setting over on its blog. "Aided by your Seneschal Companion, hazard the many traps and devastating Constructs beneath the deserts of Kehjistan." Here, it continues, "elemental forces are amassing for malicious whims of the demon Malphas. Only by descending far below the surface will you be able to cull this cursed threat from its root."

Breaking that down into more specific terms, Season of the Construct introduces the seasonal robotic Seneschal Companion - available during the Seasonal Questline - a new dungeon type Blizzard is calling Vaults, weekly leaderboards in The Gauntlet, and a number of "key" new quality of life features, including WASD movement support on PC.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered dev talks controls, photo mode and more as new details revealed

3 months 2 weeks ago

We've not heard much about Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered since its unveiling back in September last year, but now developer Aspyr has emerged to share further details about what players can expect - including control toggles and a photo mode - when Lara Croft's spruced-up early adventures come to PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC, on 14th February.

Writing in a new post on the PlayStation Blog, Aspyr explains it wanted to focus on "additions instead of revisions" when developing Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered, saying it believes the "gameplay of [the originals] is timeless."

To that end, it's adding the option to toggle between the three games' "classic" tank-like controls and a more modern alternative, which takes inspiration from Tomb Raider Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld; here, full camera control is mapped to the right stick, while Lara moves directionally based on the camera position.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Final Fantasy 14 Online's Xbox open beta launch announced then unannounced by Microsoft

3 months 2 weeks ago

It looks like the wait for Final Fantasy 14 Online on Xbox Series X/S could be ending very soon; Microsoft today announced that an open beta for the acclaimed MMORPG was now "officially available" before yanking the post and tweeting to say it had "incorrectly" shared the news.

Final Fantasy 14 has been a long time coming to Xbox; it launched for PC and PlayStation back in 2013, but it wasn't until last summer that Microsoft and developer Square Enix confirmed it'd finally be making the leap to Xbox - specifically Xbox Series X/S consoles - in "spring 2024".

At the time, Microsoft said Final Fantasy 14 Online's full Xbox arrival would be preceded by an open beta, planned to coincide with the game's patch 6.5X. And with Patch 6.55 out today, 16th January, signs suggest Final Fantasy 14's Xbox open beta is imminent.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Sea of Thieves is adding fast-travel in radical on-demand voyage overhaul

3 months 2 weeks ago

Sea of Thieves' 11th season is right around the corner, and it looks like its arrival next Tuesday, 23rd January, could very well bring the most radical overhaul for the multiplayer pirate adventure since its launch back in 2018. Behold the advent of fast-travel!

As per Rare's latest video update, Sea of Thieves' Season 11 makes sweeping changes to the way voyages are accessed and activated. Previously, voyages - essentially self-contained quests directing players to specific themed activities, if you're familiar - could only be purchased from trading company representatives at one of the game's starting outposts. That meant a whole lot of time spent engaged in often wholly uneventful sailing as you traversed back and forth across the map to pick up new voyages, drop off loot, and so on.

From Season 11 onward, however, all voyages will be immediately available at any time from the updated Quest Table on your ship. Here, you'll get on-demand access to trading company voyages (ranked by length), Tall Tales, and more, meaning you can dive straight into any voyage type you fancy without first needing to take a lengthy trip back to an outpost to buy it.

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Matt Wales

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Prison Architect gets a 3D sequel in March

3 months 2 weeks ago

Popular jail simulator Prison Architect will get a 3D successor, and it'll release on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 26th March.

British developer Double Eleven and publisher Paradox Interactive made the announcement today, and confirmed a £35 pricetag ($40/€40).

As you can see from the reveal trailer below, Prison Architect 2 (as it's unsurprisingly titled) has been rebuilt from the ground up as a 3D experience, unlocking the ability to build across multiple floors in a sandboxy environment with ease.

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Author
Tom Phillips

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Square Enix "dabbled" with AI technology for Foamstars

3 months 2 weeks ago

Square Enix's upcoming team shooter Foamstars will have a small amount of AI art, the developer has said.

Speaking with VGC, Foamstars producer Kosuke Okatani said the team had "dabbled" with AI program Midjourney - a known AI tool that converts text into art - but the majority of the game has been crafted by hand.

"All of the core elements in Foamstars - the core gameplay, and the things that make the game enjoyable - those are all made by hand," Okatani said.

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl delayed until September

3 months 2 weeks ago

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl developer GSC Game World has revealed a release date for the survival horror sequel of 5th September, 2024.

This marks a further delay to the game, which was intially meant to release in April 2022. Since then, the game has been delayed several times for polishing and due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Most recently, Stalker 2 was rumoured to be releasing in December 2023 before GSC Game World pencilled in a launch window of Q1 2024.

"While there is absolutely no way to make another delay sound less dim," GSC Game World said in a press statement, "we decided to be clear about our reasons to postpone the game for the sake of yet another wave of polishing." GSC stated the game contained "certain technical imperfections" at the beginning of the year, making it clear the game "needed more time in the oven".

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Author
Liv Ngan

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Total War: Pharaoh free update arrives next week

3 months 2 weeks ago

Creative Assembly has announced a free update for strategy game Total War: Pharaoh will be available from next week.

Titled High Tide, the update will add two new factions from the Sea Peoples culture, Sherden and Peleset, who are more than willing to drive the Bronze Age Collapse. Alongside the factions are 37 new units to use in battle.

Sea Peoples factions have access to new mechanics including War Spoils, in which you can raze settlements to raise resources, and will benefit from the Crisis and Collapse world states which put other factions at a disadvantage.

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Author
Liv Ngan

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The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered delivers an accomplished upgrade for PlayStation 5

3 months 2 weeks ago

The Last of Us Part 2 was a stunning game when it launched for PS4 in 2020, a visual tour de force that showcased the best of Sony's first-party efforts at the tail end of the last console generation. A patch in 2021 added 60fps support for PS5, with a transformative impact on gameplay, but now we've got something further: The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, a new bespoke PS5 version that promises visual enhancements alongside additional content.

Going into this analysis, I wanted to find out if there's enough performance headroom on PS5 for visual improvements while keeping up that 60fps update - and whether the new content additions are meaty enough to justify an upgrade for existing players, even at a fairly painless $10.

After all, the original TLoUP2 enhancements for PS5 already have the game running at 1440p and 60fps - so how much extra can developers Naughty Dog push on the same hardware?

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Author
Oliver Mackenzie

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Here's our next batch of Xbox Game Pass titles for January

3 months 2 weeks ago

Microsoft has revealed its next batch of Game Pass titles for January and into the start of February.

Notable additions with this wave include Persona 3 Reload and Palworld (aka Pokémon with guns, see picture above). Persona 3 Reload (Cloud, Console, and PC) will arrive early next month, on 2nd February.

"I can say that Persona 3 Reload's promise is undeniable," wrote Henry Stockdale in Eurogamer's preview of the game. "Remaking an RPG with such a vast legacy would prove daunting for many, yet even with the omissions, Atlus is building on the original game's foundations well. After many years of waiting, I'm excited to dive in properly next month."

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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No Return may not live up to Factions, but The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered offers enough reason for a revisit

3 months 2 weeks ago

I don't replay games as much as I used to. I don't replay games as much as I'd like to. Like most things in my life – and yours, I suspect – I always intend to carve out extra time for them, but other things always seem to get in the way. Work. Kids. Partners. Kids again. By the time I get to the end of the working week, I barely have half-hour left to tackle one of the brand new games sitting expectantly in my To-Be-Played pile, let alone indulge in a little nostalgia.

The games that do get an encore, then, are particularly special. The Last of Us – both instalments – fall firmly under that category because every playthrough feels a little different depending upon how you approach it. My natural inclination, for instance, is to stealth my way through as much of the game as possible, only resorting to all out warfare when I've messed up a stealth takedown, perhaps, or chickened out of killing a dog that is neither my own furry child nor, indeed, actually real. And because I'm not a particularly confident stealther, this means it can take literal hours to get through, say, a hospital complex because I'm forever creeping around and doubling back on myself just in case there's a single bullet lying in that debris pile three and a half miles away.

Author
Vikki Blake

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Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super review: more frames for less money

3 months 2 weeks ago

History has a way of repeating itself. Back in 2018, Nvidia released its first wave of RTX graphics cards, boasting RT and machine learning features - but also arriving with some eye-watering price rises. £530 for the RTX 2070, anyone? However, balance was restored to the Force with the 2019 'Super' refresh, where 60, 70 and 80 class GPUs were beefed up in terms of specs with a price-cut to boot. So it is with the controversial RTX 40-series cards based on the Ada Lovelace architecture. Saddled with unflattering price vs performance comparisons up against the RTX 3080 10GB, this time it's the RTX 4070, 4070 Ti and 4080 that get the Super treatment.

It looks like Nvidia is going to release one new GPU per week and that kicks off with the RTX 4070 Super. It's priced at $599 US/£579 UK - the same price as the RTX 4070 - and is essentially the same card as its predecessor, with two notable improvements. Firstly, the CUDA core count is significantly increased: 7168 cores vs 5888, meaning a nigh-on 22 percent improvement. And to push performance on still further, there's a 10 percent increase in TGP - more juice to get more from the more fully enabled rendition of the AD104 processor. And as it is AD104 in place, there's no chance of a wider memory interface, meaning we're still on a 192-bit bus with 504GB/s of bandwidth - that bus also limiting the 4070 Super to the same 12GB of GDDR6X memory.

Author
Richard Leadbetter

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Foamstars debuts on PlayStation Plus next month, season pass detailed

3 months 2 weeks ago

Foamstars, Square Enix's four-on-four foam-party shooter, will release next month on PlayStation Plus.

The game will be available to members as a monthly title from 6th February until 4th March, after which it will be available for all to purchase on the PlayStation Store for £24.99.

Square Enix has also detailed the game's season pass, which will have both free and premium paid tracks (available for £4.99). Check out the new trailer below.

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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