Eurogamer

I like the piglins. They've got that anarchic goblin underdog vibe that makes me think that they'd be pretty cool if it wasn't for the mean big boss types making them invade the Overworld. It's a shame that they're Minecraft Legends' bad guys, because I'd have preferred to lead them in a revolution against their oppressive overlords. Instead, I'm stuck defending Minecraft's weird, flesh-toned Squidward villagers from their raids.

I chose to open with my thoughts on the game's porcine provocateurs because I was taught to always preface any criticism with a compliment and, to be perfectly honest, the piglins are by far the best thing about Minecraft Legends.

Minecraft Legends is, surprising precisely no-one, a spin-off from the ridiculously successful phallic object and computer building simulator Minecraft. You've been summoned by the Hosts Foresight, Knowledge and Action to defend the Overworld from the aforementioned piglin invasion. It's described as an "action-strategy" game and the best way I can describe it is like a rather rudimentary RTS game where the birds eye view and cursor has been replaced by a third-person view of a Minecraft character on a horse. You can swing your sword at things, which is where the action bit comes in, I suppose, but it's wildly ineffectual on anything other than the basic piglins, so there's not much point.

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Tonight's PlayStation State of Play was focused solely on Final Fantasy 16, offering a comprehensive rundown of what to expect from the next game in the series.

For those who have followed previous reports and the recent PAX East presentation, this State of Play didn't offer any new details beyond putting the world, characters and Eikon battles into context.

But the presentation was aimed instead at PlayStation owners and newcomers to the series. After all, this is Sony's big PlayStation exclusive for the near future, arriving on 22nd June worldwide. Check out the presentation below.

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Epic has revealed the next batch of weekly freebies heading to the Epic Games Store, with developer E-Line Media's BAFTA-winning Never Alone and its acclaimed oceanic follow-up Beyond Blue both set to go free next Thursday, 20th April.

Never Alone (also known as Kisima Ingitchuna) tells the tale of an Iñupiat girl named Nuna and her Arctic fox as they search for the source of an eternal blizzard in order to save their village from starvation - a quest presented as a narrative platformer playable both solo and in co-op.

While an enjoyable adventure in its own right, Never Alone is perhaps equally notable for its educational elements, with the game - which was made in collaboration with the Iñupiat community and narrated by a storyteller in the spoken Iñupiaq language - incorporating videos of the Alaska Native community sharing stories of their culture and the Arctic world.

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Following reports last month that Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice would be delayed again, Warner Bros. has made it official - and then some - pushing the Batman Arkham Knight follow-up's release all the way back to 2nd February 2024.

This does, of course, mark the second substantial delay for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice, which was initially expected to arrive in 2022 before Warner Bros. made the decision to shift its launch to 26th May this year in order to "make the best game we can".

Rumours Warner Bros. was having another change of heart first emerged at the end of March, when Bloomberg's Jason Schreier and Windows Central's Jez Corden reported Suicide Squad was now targeting a later release, after an extended PlayStation State of Play reveal in February was met with a less-than-enthusiastic reception from fans - with with many lamenting its uninspired action and live-service trappings.

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Warframe's wonderfully weird new expansion The Duviri Paradox finally has a release date, and is coming to Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC on Wednesday, 26th April.

The Duviri Paradox, if you're unfamiliar, is quite a departure for Warframe. Not only does its new open-world area, Duviri - perhaps most notable for the fact it exists inside the mind of the expansion's new big bad, Dominus Thrax - trade sci-fi for something closer to a fantasy western, it also propels the long-running free-to-play shooter into the realm of roguelikes.

Cast as a Drifter sentenced to death at the start of the expansion's story (which newcomers can select as an alternative introduction to Warframe), players are soon liberated by the mysterious rewind-on-death power that forms the core of the roguelike-inspired experience. Before long, they'll gain a fancy skeletal steed and a random assortment of perk-like Decrees, both proving invaluable as they set about restoring colour to a world shaped by the moods of its master.

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The closed beta for Ubisoft’s Call of Duty clone-alike XDefiant has just gone live and you beta believe I’ve already had the chance to examine the game! In my preview video above, you can expect to see PC gameplay that I captured during an hour long hands-on session as I talk about 13 ways that XDefiant aims to improve on Call of Duty's multiplayer.

There's 15 minutes worth of footage in the video, which shows off XDefiant's Faction-on-Faction action across a handful of the game's multiplayer modes and maps, so pop it on and stare in wonder at my below average FPS skills!

For those of you who hate video though (at least play it on silent while you read and keep me in a job, you monsters!), I've distilled the video script into a few paragraphs which you can find below, and these will give you a good idea of how the closed beta handles and what you can expect to see in it.

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Nintendo has released its final trailer for Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and boy was there a lot to unpack in there. So, here I am, unpacking it all for you all.

Before we dive on into it, here is that trailer again:

First off we see the game's sky islands, along with a Construct who is whacking away a Blue ChuChu. We then see a Construct chopping at a tree, in a rather calming way.

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Microsoft is now running adverts for its $68.7bn Activision Blizzard acquisition on the London tube network.

Digital advertising branded with Xbox and Microsoft logos have been spotted with the following message: "Call of Duty. For 150 million more players."

As spotted by Tom Warren, the advert comes a month after Microsoft previously published full-page adverts in the UK's Financial Times and Daily Mail with the same phrasing, and a claim Microsoft's bid to "unite Activision Blizzard and Xbox" would deliver "more games, for more players on more platforms".

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Ubisoft+ Multi Access is now available on Xbox consoles.

The subscription service provides access to games from Ubisoft's catalogue. Multi Access allows access across multiple platforms with one subscription, including PC (through Ubisoft Connect), Amazon Luna, and now Xbox consoles.

The library includes the latest Ubisoft releases on day one, as well as DLC and classic games.

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Today brings Nintendo's last trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, containing three minutes of footage from the highly-anticipated sequel.

After years of wait, we're now less than a month away from Tears of the Kingdom's arrival - and there's still so much we don't know about the game itself.

What are the dungeons like? What's going on with Ganon? Is Zelda playable? Here's Nintendo's last trailer to answer precisely none of these questions for certain.

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Leaked footage from last year's Microsoft hackathon - an internal event where employees prototype ideas and present them to leadership and investors - shows an attempt at getting Windows 11 to run on Steam Deck.

The presenter explained their team within Microsoft decided to tackle "creating a truly optimised Windows experience for the handheld PC market."

Steam Deck runs on Valve's own Steam OS, but is capable of running Windows (though not without some caveats).

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Firework puzzle game Fantavision 202X is heading to PC later this month.

The game was released for PS5 and PSVR2 back in February, but will hit PC on 27th April (spotted by Gematsu).

Fantavision was originally a launch title for the PS2, created by Sony's now-defunct Japan Studio back in 2000.

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Microsoft has responded to the re-filing of a lawsuit by a group of gamers bringing their own legal challenge against the company's $68.7bn Activsion Blizzard acquisition.

A new 73-page missive by the self-proclaimed gamers includes fresh details they say have been taken from redacted documents given "directly to the board of directors" at Microsoft, as well as information given by Sony.

In a statement to Reuters, Microsoft said this latest complaint was based on "unsupported and implausible claims about the deal's effect on competition". Microsoft said it will "bring more games to more people" through its proposed deal with Activision.

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An update for the Steam Deck's open source video driver will reduce the handheld PC's shader cache files by more than half.

That's according to PC Gamer, which stated this update will shrink the files by "approximately" 60 percent.

Just quickly for those who, like me, aren't as technologically minded as others: Steam Decks come in set sizes in terms of the internal SSD memory. However, these aren't particularly big - though memory can be expanded through microSD cards. So, with Valve now planning on reducing the size of its shader caches, this update will free up more space for games on the console.

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Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, the next game from Dragon Age writer David Gaider, now has a release date of 3rd August.

In a stream last night hosted by Twitch channel Critical Role, further details on the game were provided, including its star-studded cast that includes the likes of Troy Baker, Ashley Johnson, Felicia Day, Laura Bailey, and many more.

The game is set for release on PC and is available to wishlist now on Steam. Check out the latest trailer below.

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Last night, Season 3 of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Warzone 2.0 went live. Reception to the added content in Warzone 2.0 DMZ has been negative, with players taking to social media to criticise Activision for including pay-to-win elements.

The patch notes for the Season 3 update state that "certain" bundles have been added to the game's store which have additional Active Duty Operator Slots included.

Players start out with 3 slots by default, and there's no other way to obtain more other than buying the new Bomb Squad bundle, which costs about £8.40. The cosmetic bundle contains other perks which players have pointed out will give those who pay for it an advantage over those who don't.

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A Gamestop employee who sparked speculation regarding the Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom special edition Nintendo Switch Pro console has claimed they were fired following pressure by Nintendo itself.

While the special edition Switch Pro was only officially confirmed by Nintendo during its Direct broadcast last month, fans had long expected a Zelda-themed model to arrive alongside the upcoming game. Indeed, earlier leaks online had even suggested at its design.

So when Massachusetts GameStop employee Mike (last name kept anonymous) saw a "HW TBD Switch" entry pop up on his store's system hours before the Direct's broadcast, it didn't seem too surprising. Mike snapped a picture of the screen and uploaded it to reddit.

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UPDATE 14/4/22 5.30pm UK: In response to further questions from Eurogamer, Nintendo has confirmed that its controversial Russian boss Yasha Haddazhi is still employed at the company.

This is despite the fact Haddazhi is also now running Achivka, which was recently involved in the import and sale of Metroid Prime Remastered copies to the country. As a reminder, Nintendo stated in March 2022 that it had ended product shipments to the region.

"Mr Haddaji remains in a temporary administrative capacity to fulfil various internal administrative functions while winding down the company," a Nintendo spokesperson told Eurogamer.

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Yesterday Sony announced the next games joining its PlayStation Plus subscription in May, including a number of Bethesda-published games.

The PlayStation Blog also noted Marvel's Spider-Man, Resident Evil, and NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 "will be among some of the titles leaving the PlayStation Plus Game Catalogue in May" as part of its "normal content refresh".

It doesn't list any further games, but checking the Last Chance To Play section of the PSN Store reveals there are in fact over 30 games leaving the subscription on 15th May.

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Microsoft president Brad Smith has claimed Russian intelligence agencies and private military company The Wagner Group were trying to "penetrate gaming communities".

During a chat at Semafor's World Economy Summit, the discussion turned to leaked Pentagon documents that appear to stem from a gaming chatroom and contain sensitive information about the Ukraine war. This allegedly includes details about the deployment of British special forces, among others.

In response to these comments, Smith stated Microsoft's threat analysis team had "been identifying efforts by the Russians" to weave their way into gaming communities, with the intention to spread information from there. Smith specifically mentioned Discord and Minecraft, as an example. He said Microsoft has been "advising governments" on this issue, before stating: "It's the Wagner Group, it's Russian intelligence."

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Sony appears to have stopped sending out email receipts for downloads of PlayStation Plus games.

Email receipts are sent whenever games are downloaded from the PSN store, but this includes 'free' games downloaded as part of the PS Plus subscription.

This is something Sony has been doing since the PlayStation 3 days and likely caused many players confusion when downloading multiple games at once and receiving individual email receipts for each - despite them being for £0.00.

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PlayStation Stars, Sony's PlayStation loyalty programme, has revealed a new digital collectible of Shuhei Yoshida.

PlayStation Stars was first announced in July last year. In September, Sony showed some of the collectibles that can be obtained by completing tasks, including 3D models of Ape Escape and a PlayStation 3.

The new collectible is a 3D model of Yoshida as a bobblehead, complete with a short explanation of his role at PlayStation in working with third-party and indie developers.

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When you think of Peppa Pig, you probably don't think of a brand that pushes boundaries. After all, Peppa comes from your typical nuclear family, and her adventures within the show are generally confined to the day to day dealings of their lives together: Peppa and her family taking a trip to the recycling centre, for example, or visiting a theme park, or doing some DIY around the house. You get the idea.

That said, the team behind the newly-released Peppa Pig: World Adventures video game wanted players to fully immerse themselves into Peppa's world, no matter what their family dynamic, blueprint or fabric looks like. As such, developer Petoons Studio and publisher Outright Games included a character creator so players can customise their animalistic avatar, from gender and species to fur colour and accessories. Then, once their own character is designed, players can do the same for the rest of their family.

This means if players want to make their character a brown fox with a blue rabbit for a parent, they can. If they want their character to have siblings that are different animals to them, they can. If they want their parents to be the same gender, they can.

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Summer Games Done Quick is back at the end of May with a whole heap of new charity speedrunning fun, and organisers have now revealed the full show schedule, so you can start planning your viewing well ahead of time.

This year's Summer Games Done Quick - which will once again feature an in-person component - runs from Sunday, 28th May to Sunday, 4th June, and is set to feature more than 130 speedruns over its seven-day run-time, with all money raised going to Doctors Without Borders.

As ever, the newly shared schedule is an eclectic one, with the likes of Elden Ring and Hi-Fi Rush rubbing shoulders with everything from Disney's 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue and Peggle Deluxe to Michael Jackson's Moonwalker.

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Microsoft's latest monthly Xbox update is readying to roll out to consoles, this one introducing a refreshed Xbox search "experience" alongside a new adjustable active hours power setting, letting users decide when their machine can fully shut down.

Once the new update is installed, Xbox users can head to their console's Settings > General > Power options in order to determine what Microsoft calls their "active hours" - essentially, the times they're most likely to be using their machines.

During active hours (which are "always active" by default, until changed), Xbox can be instructed to power down using the Sleep option, enabling it to quickly reboot when required. Conversely, the console will power down using the more energy efficient Shutdown option outside of active hours, reducing power consumption from 10-15 watts when active to 0.5 watts, based on Microsoft's figures.

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Amnesia: The Bunker, SOMA developer Frictional Games "unscripted" WW1 horror, has been delayed again, albeit only by a week. It's now due to release for PC on 23rd May, giving the studio a little extra time to "make sure everything is perfect before launch".

The Bunker, as you might already know, is the fourth game in Frictional's Amnesia series, following on from 2010's acclaimed The Dark Descent, its Chinese-Room-developed successor A Machine for Pigs, and 2021's Rebirth. It's also a bit of a departure for the series, trading traditionally linear tales of horror for "unscripted" scares in a nightmarish semi-open-world.

This time around, players take on the role of Henri Clément, a French soldier who, over the course of the game, is relentlessly pursued by an "adaptive" otherworldly creature through the claustrophobic confines of a dimly lit underground bunker.

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Amplitude Studios has announced a delay for its tactical action roguelite and Dungeon of the Endless spiritual successor, Endless Dungeon, pushing its release back to 19th October in order to ensure "the game reaches its full potential".

Endless Dungeon, which was originally due to launch on 18th May, maroons players on a mysterious space station and tasks them with recruiting a team of heroes in an effort to transport a crystal to their crashed ship's core, protecting it - via some frenetic top-down twin-stick shooting action - from ceaseless waves of monsters along the way.

It features a new storyline set in the Endless universe, and can be played either solo - one player controlling the entire squad - or alongside friends in multiplayer, with available heroes including Comrade (Gunsmith), Bunker (Tank), Blaze (Artificer), and Shroom (Medic).

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Having spent the first half of this year whisking players off to Croft Manor and Midgar, PowerWash Simulator is set to embark on a whole new set of adventures, with developer FuturLab having now unveiled its content roadmap for the remainder of 2023.

FuturLab has divided its new roadmap up into convenient quarters, each offering a mix of both free and paid DLC. The free stuff will reveal more of Muckingham, the not-entirely sensible setting of PowerWash Simulator's base game, while the paid Special Packs will take players outside of the Muckingham universe - presumably in a similar fashion to those aforementioned Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy 7 crossovers.

No more details have been shared on the paid stuff as yet, but FutureLab has confirmed PowerWash Simulator's first free update - The Muckingham Files (AKA Update 1.2) – will arrive next Tuesday, 18th April, transporting players to never-before-seen corners of Muckingham.

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April's list of PlayStation Plus games for Extra and Premium subscribers is dominated by Bethesda-published classics, with numerous titles from franchises such as Doom, Wolfenstein, Dishonored and The Evil Within.

It's curious timing for the Microsoft-owned Bethesda to suddenly flood the service with its back catalogue in this way.

Could it be another push by Microsoft to show regulators it doesn't limit access to titles from companies it previously bought, as the decision on whether Microsoft's $68.7bn Activision Blizzard acquisition will succeed nears?

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For those of you so hungry for more The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom news you simply must consume it the second it appears (understandable), Nintendo has announced it'll be airing the final pre-launch trailer for its hugely anticipated Breath of the Wild follow-up tomorrow, Thursday 13th April.

If you need a little more in the way of specifics for your diary, Nintendo says the new trailer will be livestreamed at 3pm in the UK/7am PT, and will run to around three minutes in length. There's no word on what it'll feature as yet, but if Tingle's not included, I'll bloody riot.

Our last look at Tears of the Kingdom came toward the end of March, when Nintendo shared 10 minutes of new gameplay footage, showcasing some of Link's new abilities, new enemies, and the sky islands. It was enough to set Eurogamer's Christian Donlan a-quiver, and he subsequently named it Game of the Week.

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Arkane's co-op vampire shooter Redfall will arrive locked at 30fps on Xbox Series X and S.

On Xbox Series S, the game will run at 1440p and 30fps. On Xbox Series X, Redfall will run at 4K and 30fps. These options represent the game's "Quality mode" setting for each platform.

A 60fps "Performance mode" option is still planned for Redfall on consoles, but will now arrive post-launch via an update, publisher Bethesda confirmed today.

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A player has set to work recreating Dark and Darker's map within Fortnite's recently released Creative 2.0 mode.

For a quick bit of background before we get into it, Dark and Darker is facing a lot of issues at the moment, with developer Ironmace currently under investigation after gaming company Nexon claimed its game (P3) was used as a prototype for Dark and Darker.

This all led to Dark and Darker being removed from Steam, where it was once the most wishlisted game.

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After a bit of a leak earlier this year, developer FrozenByte has made it official; acclaimed physics-based co-op platformer Trine is returning for a fifth instalment - subtitled A Clockwork Conspiracy - sometime this "summer" on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC.

First things first, Trine 5 once again adopts the series' classic 2.5D side-scrolling perspective after Trine 3's ambitious, but ultimately poorly received, foray into full 3D back in 2015. That's likely a reassurance for series fans, but also makes for a new instalment that perhaps doesn't particularly distinguish itself from its predecessors at first glance.

Not that more of the same is necessarily a bad thing; Trine has carved something of a niche for itself over the years, and its platform puzzling - built around using the unique abilities of the series' wizard, knight, and thief protagonists, from heavy lifting to block conjuring and hook grappling - remains as enjoyable today as it did when the series debuted almost 15 years ago.

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The arrival of the $599/£589 GeForce RTX 4070 continues a trend of Nvidia's RTX 40-series GPUs: performance remains strong, thanks to the efficient Ada Lovelace architecture at its heart, but in terms of 'frames per currency unit' this is more of a sideways step than the genuine generational leap that the 3070 and 3080 provided. After all, the RTX 4070 aims only to match 3080 performance, whereas the 3070 had a loftier goal: matching the previous-gen flagship card, RTX 2080 Ti.

We can't gloss over the fact that the RTX 4070 is significantly more expensive than its predecessors, hence the focus on RTX 3080 performance. Price comparisons here are actually quite challenging as the 3080 is hard to find at its nominal $699/£649 MSRP - and it has been right across the product's lifespan. Amazingly, even in 2023 a $750/£700 retail price is more common. So, assuming the RTX 4070 hits its $599/£589 target (and Nvidia is bullish on this), you at least are paying a good degree less for this performance tier.

You're also getting a richer product in terms of features: there's an extra 2GB of VRAM, plus you're receiving massively improved power efficiency and DLSS 3 frame generation. That said, it's difficult to avoid the fact that RTX 40-series is somewhat reminiscent of the 20-series launch with more of a focus on features that still need widespread adoption, while overall performance for the money remains relatively static. The difference this time, however, is that frame generation is receiving a higher degree of early-doors support - and with the arrival of Cyberpunk 2077's path-traced lighting upgrade, 40-series opens the door to an experience which just doesn't work that well on older cards.

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Virtex is launching the first ever virtual esports stadium to allow viewers to watch matches from inside the arena - and the game's map.

The software developer has partnered with spectating and analysis platform Skybox to create the Virtex Stadium, which will launch with Counter-Strike (both CS:GO and Counter-Strike 2 will be compatible).

The virtual stadium is currently available in closed beta via desktop and compatible VR headsets.

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After an elongated development, Dead Island 2's release is almost upon us.

Earlier this year, Dambuster Studios revealed Dead Island 2 will make its debut on 21st April, so a week on Friday.

Now, the studio has revealed the PC specs players will need to get the game up and running when the time finally comes for us all to dive into the zombie-riddled shores off LA (or, Hell-A, as the team has christened it).

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You may remember the Wii being marketed as a console for everyone and it seems that motto is still going strong.

Over the weekend an elderly couple competed in a Wii Bowling tournament in France and won.

Jeanine (96) and Gilbert (85) competed representing their retirement home at a Wii Bowling LAN hosted by Gamers Assembly.

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A 41-year-old Konami employee has been arrested under suspicion of attempted murder, after attacking their former boss with a fire extinguisher while at work.

The unnamed employee reportedly struck their former boss with the fire extinguisher on the back of the head, before being pinned down by other colleagues until police arrived.

Details from Japanese site Livedoor, via Siliconera, suggest the suspect was previously being bullied by their boss - a matter which Konami's HR department had been dealing with.

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Nintendo Live, the company's annual in-person fan event, will be held this year in Seattle, Washington.

It's the first time Nintendo Live has been held outside of Japan. Previous iterations have been run in Kyoto (2018 and 2019) and Tokyo (2022). 2023's event will be held sometime in September, with more details to follow.

Typically, Nintendo Live is a fan-first event designed as a place to take part in tournaments and photo ops. It has also featured Nintendo music concerts, which have been streamed online.

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Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed is getting a last-gen port.

The game will be heading to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 27th June. However, unlike its current-gen release, it will not include multiplayer. You can see its announcement trailer below.

"No piece of pesky human technology is safe from Crypto! Destroy All Humans! 2 - Reprobed is finally coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One," THQ Nordic stated earlier. "The alien invader returns with a licence to probe, ready to take on hippies, the KGB, and even gigantic lizards."

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