Eurogamer

Ubisoft will unveil details about Far Cry 6's Lost Between Worlds expansion next week

1 year 5 months ago

More details about Far Cry 6's mysterious expansion, Lost Between Worlds, will drop next week.

That's according to Ubisoft's own social media posts, which revealed that on 6pm UK time on 29th November (that's 10am PT), the team will broadcast a "reveal livestream" about the upcoming expansion on its official Twitch channel.

Whilst the developer stopped short of revealing what, exactly, the new content includes, we do get a brief little teaser that includes hints about Fortnite-like crystals and portals. Here, take a peek:

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Vikki Blake

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Warzone 2.0 cheaters can make boats fly

1 year 5 months ago

Whilst Warzone 2.0 isn't without its fair share of irritants, including wallbackers and aimbotters, even I can't help but laugh at the latest hack currently plaguing Al Mazrah: flying boats.

That's right; some players have discovered how to make boats fly, elevating them high into the air to avoid the battlefield entirely and coast to victory. Here's one in action:

It's also perhaps the one good thing I've seen come from proximity chat so far, too; rather than eliminate their enemies, the hackers are using the chat feature to invite randoms into their ship where they sail across the sky instead of the clear blue waters, like this example below (thanks, PC Gamer):

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Author
Vikki Blake

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This fan-made No Man Sky standalone app lets you easily build and import bases

1 year 5 months ago

A standalone app now permits players to build and import bases into No Man's Sky.

The "Townscaper-esque" app - well, it's more of a PC mod, really - is "simple, focussed, and made purposefully for No Man's Sky" so players can create, edit, and improve their base building with "fun ways to move, snap, and color base parts".

And it comes with the greatest of great endorsements from Hello Games' own Sean Murray (thanks, PC Gamer):

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Author
Vikki Blake

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Need for Speed Unbound gameplay leaks online days ahead of its official release date

1 year 5 months ago

Several videos purportedly featuring footage from the as yet unreleased Need for Speed Unbound have leaked online.

The footage - uploaded by MrCarrot1890 and Lvneth on YouTube and spotted by the fine folks at Resetera - currently consists of numerous videos that culminate in about an hour of gameplay. It predates not only the 2nd December release date but also the early access period,too, which is supposed to go live on 29th November.

Interestingly, it doesn't look like the YouTube accounts in question took the footage themselves, as two of the videos were recorded from a Twitch livestream broadcast by someone called gerrykurlsucks, and another from a content creator called Chocolove95.

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Vikki Blake

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This 40-minute symphony showcases A Plague Tale: Requiem's "intense and emotional" music

1 year 5 months ago

To celebrate five The Game Awards nominations - including one for best music - Asobo Studio and Focus Entertainment have released a new symphony performance of the music from A Plague Tale: Requiem.

Acknowledging that "part of the success" of the sequel "undeniably goes to the game’s remarkable score", the team held an "exceptional concert for the occasion of the game’s release" which is now available on YouTube.

"A Plague Tale: Requiem, the spectacular, grounded medieval adventure within a violent fantasy world, has been nominated in no less than five categories for The Game Awards 2022, including the coveted Game of the Year award!" the team explains. "We're thrilled by this exciting chance, which confirms the overwhelmingly positive reception of the game.

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Vikki Blake

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Guildford.Games Ltd wants to "bring the talent within Guildford to the attention of the world"

1 year 5 months ago

Guildford.Games Ltd is a new not-for-profit initiative introduced to "showcase the local industry, form long lasting connections between studios, and bring the concentrated, creative talent within Guildford to the attention of the world".

Guildford - which the organisation describes as the "Hollywood of video games" - is home to over 3000 "highly-skilled programmers" and 60 individual game studios, including EA, Media Molecule, and Supermassive Games.

"After three successful years of holding the G.G Festival and Awards, hosting in person events, airing interviews with developers to an online audience of two million viewers the Guildford.Games committee have elected to make it official," the organisation explained in a statement.

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Vikki Blake

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The Sims 4 rolls out a new Gallery Profanity Filter Update to combat anti-Semitic content

1 year 5 months ago

EA has rolled out a "critical update" to The Sims 4 on PC and consoles following an increase in Nazi propaganda and anti-Semitic content.

"We are aware of and have seen some select instances of wholly unacceptable content that has been uploaded to The Sims 4 Gallery," EA said in a brief statement included in the game's patch notes.

"Our team has reviewed, and made critical updates to, the profanity filter to help prevent this from happening again in the future," the team explained.

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Vikki Blake

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The Epic Games Store will reportedly repeat its Christmas giveaway this year

1 year 5 months ago

It looks like Epic Games will once again be running its festive freebie giveaway over the Christmas period.

Confirmation came via Dealabs leaker billbil-kun who - as well as confirming that Star Wars: Squadrons is currently free to add to your Epic Games Store library from now until next Thursday, 1st December - dropped a hint that the Epic Games Store will once again be running its "Advent Calendar" event.

"Do you know if we'll have an advent calendar again in December? (1 set per day)", asked a curious poster, to which billbil-kun replied: "Yes, somewhere between December 15, 2022 and January 10, 2023," (thanks, VGC).

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Vikki Blake

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A Pokémon Champion's quest to master the unmasterable

1 year 5 months ago

A little while back, during one of the UK's many mid-pandemic lockdowns, I turned to the most unremarkable of comforts: watching playthroughs of old Pokémon games on YouTube. These were, however, playthroughs with a twist. Like speedrunning attempts or non-lethal clears of stealth games, they involved more challenging, entirely self-imposed rules. In the world of Pokémon, this particular variety is called a Nuzlocke, a kind of bond-strengthening challenge mode where knocked-out Pokémon are considered 'dead' and must be released or permanently locked away, where you can only catch the first Pokémon you find in each area, where having your whole party be defeated means a complete game over and where, crucially, each precious new addition to your team must be given a nickname. But this was just the beginning.

In addition to Nuzlocke rules, some particularly die-hard Pokémon fans like to use 'hardcore' versions, where you have to stick to certain level caps, like never going above the highest level Pokémon of the next Gym Leader, and where most items are banned, with only those held and triggered in-battle by your own Pokémon allowed. Beyond that: one further stage of excessive challenge. Some fans have created mods for older Pokémon games to increase their difficulty. Most notorious of all is Emerald Kaizo, a total reworking of that legendary 2004 game that turns every short-wearing, barely-out-of-preschool trainer into a competitive-tier opponent. Think top stats, higher levels, tournament-quality movesets and a totally reworked, systematic AI, tuned to maximum efficiency and aggression.

Author
Chris Tapsell

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Dead Island 2 getting an airing in gameplay showcase early next month

1 year 5 months ago

Following yet another delay for its exceedingly long-in-the-works Dead Island 2, publisher Deep Silver has announced the zombie shooter sequel will be getting its first proper airing in quite some time on Tuesday, 6th December.

Dead Island 2 was, somewhat unbelievably, initially unveiled all the way back in 2014, promising more of the kind of co-operative zombie shooting action that had made developer Techland's enjoyable 2011 original a bit of a hit.

Since then, though, development has been turbulent, with the sequel missing its initially announcement 2015 release date and losing its original developer - Spec Ops: The Line studio Yager - that same year. Eight months later, British developer Sumo Digital was revealed to have taken over the project, but another studio switch was still to come when Homefront: The Revolution maker Dambuster Studios took the reins in 2019.

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Author
Matt Wales

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The original Quake gets a ray tracing upgrade - and it's incredible

1 year 5 months ago

The transformative power of ray tracing has proven itself across many different games but perhaps the most impressive upgrades come from revisiting older, classic PC titles, and a recent mod for the original Quake delivers frankly astonishing results. This is less a mod and more a full-on RT remaster for one of PC's finest games, arriving courtesy of Sultim Tsyrendashiev, the maker of path-traced renditions of Serious Sam and Doom, and who's currently working on RT Half-Life. Tsyrendashiev has taken the Vulkan port of Quake by id Software's Axel Gneiting and delivered something very, very special.

But first up, how do you get your hands on the modified game? Simply download the necessary files from the VKQuake-RT github page and merge them with the version of Quake you own per the instructions on the page. It's all relatively straightforward, but I do recommend making one small change to the instructions. DLSS and FSR2 are supported - and both deliver great results overall, by the way - but the recommended DLSS 2.4.0 should be swapped out for the earlier DLSS 2.2.6. Doing this eliminates blurring issues that kick in with the more recent rendition of Nvidia's machine-learning upscaling technology.

Author
Alex Battaglia

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Sifu's autumn update will let you create your own takedown cam

1 year 5 months ago

Developer Sloclap has released some details on what is coming to kung-fu beat-em-up Sifu in its autumn update.

In August, Sifu received a beefy content update, which featured a new scoring system and modifiers which allowed players to customise the difficulty. Two new outfits were also added, and Slocap teased more to come in the autumn update.

Included in the roadmap for Sifu in the autumn update is the replay editor and additional modifiers. Slocap shared a brief look at the replay editor on the official Twitter account for Sifu.

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Author
Liv Ngan

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Nintendo Switch Black Friday deals 2022: all the best offers LIVE

1 year 5 months ago

Black Friday Nintendo Switch deals are some of the most popular Black Friday deals across the net, with retailers regularly adding new discounts for Switch bundles, games and accessories throughout the day. On this page, you can find today's best Black Friday savings on Nintendo Switch, Switch OLED and Nintendo Switch Lite deals in one handy place. We're also posting about cheap Nintendo Switch games and accessories, too.

We're also sharing a bunch of the best Nintendo Switch Black Friday deals over on our hub. Make sure to go check that out too!

SanDisk Ultra 512GB micro SD card- £34.99 from Amazon

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Corinna Burton

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20-year-old Morrowind mod adds two expansions

1 year 5 months ago

A 20-year-old mod for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind has just had a major content update, adding two new expansions.

The team behind Tamriel Rebuilt has been releasing content for Morrowind since 2002, though its conception happened in 2001 before Morrowind was released.

21 years later, the project is still going strong. In its first update in nearly two years, the project has added two more expansions with new areas of Tamriel to explore (thanks PC Gamer).

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Author
Liv Ngan

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I finally know who Lady Dimitrescu is in God of War Ragnarök

1 year 5 months ago

On God of War Ragnarök's release, actress Maggie Robertson teased she was part of the game, voicing a "larger-than-life" character.

Robertson became somewhat of an internet darling following her portrayal of the towering and beguiling Lady Dimitrescu in Resident Evil Village. She won legions of fans for her part in Capcom's long running series, and even won a few awards for it too.

Needless to say, dear reader, I am one of those fans, and since hearing she was a part of God of War Ragnarök, I have been eager to find her character in the game.

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Would you switch to Xbox if Call of Duty was on Game Pass?

1 year 5 months ago

The never-ending saga that is the Microsoft-Activision deal took a new turn when reports that the United States' Federal Trade Commission is planning to file an antitrust lawsuit against the deal became known. This could potentially delay a decision on the acquisition for several years.

Meanwhile, the Competition and Markets Authority published redacted documents from Microsoft and Sony, laying out its arguments for and against the acquisition, respectively.

Key to Sony's argument against the deal is giving control of Call of Duty to Microsoft. Leaning on the CMA's concerns about Microsoft's leading role in gaming subscription services, Sony argues that placing Call of Duty on Xbox Game Pass would be hugely detrimental to PlayStation.

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Author
Ishraq Subhan

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Warzone 2.0 is the latest battle royale game - but is it the best?

1 year 5 months ago

There are plenty of people who've had enough of battle royales by now, but I am not one of them. With neither teenage reaction speeds nor endless leisure time to devote to "gitting gud", battle royales' run-and-gun approach levels the playing field; I'd rather lose a fight because of crap loot and bad luck than succumb to someone who's managed to unlock a fancy gadget because they've clocked up 1000 more in-game hours than I have.

As the dust settled around the battle of the battle royales, Apex Legends was the last one standing for me, and - like many of us with jobs and kids - I simply didn't have the time to git gud at the rest of them, too. Consequently, although I did enjoy my time with Call of Duty's initial toe-dip into Battle Royale-flavoured waters, Blackout, I spent just enough time with Warzone to know I didn't like it quite as much as Apex and left it there. No offence, Infinity Ward; it's not you, it's me.

The problem with being a new - or even lapsed - player, though, is it's impossible to know when the best time to return is. Occasionally I'd pop my head over the hedge for a sneaky look - and it looked good over there! - but it was too late now, surely? I didn't know the map. I didn't know where people camped or sniped from, or where the top-tier loot spawned. I didn't know the shortcuts to help me escape the closing circle (or three; Warzone 2.0 bucks the trend and can offer multiple points of refuge, making the scramble for the final zone that much more dramatic). Apex Legends' shrinking zone, for example, is fairly forgiving, which means you can sometimes use it to a tactical advantage when engaging in a fight; Warzone 2.0's gas cloud, however, is not, and I only learned that the hard way.

Author
Vikki Blake

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What we've been playing

1 year 5 months ago

Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: Pokémon, Bugsnax and cars.

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.

I’m having a lot of fun with Pokémon Violet. A fully open world Pokémon game is a step towards the perfect vision I and many players have had since my tween days playing Blue. Both major and minor changes have been made in this latest instalment; it’s just frustrating they come with some caveats.

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Eurogamer staff

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All the best Black Friday Gaming Deals LIVE

1 year 5 months ago

Black Friday day two is here, and the gaming deals are still coming at us thick and fast. From Switches to Graphics Cards, we've got the lot, and we'll be updating this page as soon as we found another great deal.

Over the past few years Black Friday has been a bit of a dud, but it's been great so far this year, having seen a 28" ASUS 4K gaming monitor for £269, and a 512 GB Integreal SD card down to just £50. So keep your eyes on this page, and our deals Twitter account, as we continue scouring for the best Black Friday gaming deals out there.

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Author
Corinna Burton

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Meet the man making controllers accessible for everyone

1 year 5 months ago

Last week, I sat down to meet with Caleb Kraft from The Controller Project. It has to be said that Kraft is quite a fitting surname for Caleb, as he is a Kraft by name, and he is certainly a craftsman by nature.

Kraft's charity, The Controller Project, creates free downloadable blueprints to modify established controllers such as the PlayStation 5's DualSense or the Nintendo Switch's Joy Cons for players with disabilities or limb differences. In addition to this, it also uses 3D printing to craft these modifications and send them out to those who need them. Talk about nominative determinism.

The Controller Project all started 10 years ago with a young boy named Thomas.

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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The Long Dark details huge paid Survival mode expansion, out in December

1 year 5 months ago

Hinterland Studio's superb snowy survival adventure The Long Dark is getting its first paid expansion on 5th December and, ahead of release, the developer has detailed all it'll bring.

Tales from the Far Territory, as the new expansion is known, releases in six parts over the course of 12 months, each arriving approximately every 8-10 weeks. All six parts will focus on The Long Dark's much-loved Survival mode, but there are narrative elements in there and Hinterland is referring to the complete series as a "campaign".

Exactly what will be coming when is currently unclear, but Hinterland has now detailed all the major features it'll be introducing to Survival mode throughout the expansion. There are three new areas, for instance - the Forsaken Airfield, Industrial Mine, and Mountain Pass - all accessible via the Far Range Branchline and Transfer Pass hub.

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Author
Matt Wales

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American Truck Simulator's next stop is Oklahoma

1 year 5 months ago

It's barely been a week since American Truck Simulator thundered across the Texan border, but already SCS Software is setting course for a new destination, with the developer having now confirmed Oklahoma as the trucking sim's next DLC expansion.

Oklahoma will be American Truck Simulator's 12th explorable state, joining California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Texas - and its announcement isn't all that unexpected given SCS' continued left-to-right march across the US, and Oklahoma slotting so neatly above the recently released Texas.

"While Oklahoma tends to have an unfortunate reputation of being a rather arid place," SCS writes in its announcement post, "sometimes it's much better to avoid judging a book by its cover. The state is home to wonderful national parks, several natural marvels, and historical places full of mysteries and legends. And if you are looking for something more practical instead, the local road network and a strong economy will keep every trucker properly busy."

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Author
Matt Wales

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Pokémon Nuzlocke fans think Fuecoco is too easy

1 year 5 months ago

It's fair to say Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have caused their share of complaints. Now, fans are upset that a Pokémon is too good.

Fire starter Fuecoco has been branded as "broken" by proponents of Pokémon's "Nuzlocke" style of gameplay - the fan-invented method of playing Pokémon which essentially amounts to permadeath.

Any Pokémon which faints in a Nuzlocke run is considered dead and must be released back into the wild. Additionally, you may only catch the first creature in any area and no other, severely limiting the number of Pokémon at your disposal.

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Author
Tom Phillips

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The Witcher 3 next-gen update will add armour that may make your nose wrinkle

1 year 5 months ago

CD Projekt Red will deploy its long-awaited next-gen update for The Witcher 3 on 14th December, and with it bring new Performance and Quality modes, a new Photo Mode, and other such quality of life features to the game.

However, it will also bring along with it something that is, perhaps, not quite so welcome.

Why yes, Witcher fans, this next-gen update will also include Netflix's take (at least for its first season) on the Nilfgaardian army's armour.

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Call of Duty has remixed your national anthem for the World Cup

1 year 5 months ago

As the World Cup kicks off, video game publishers have of course devised strategies to cash-in on the hype. EA has an officially licenced World Cup mode in FIFA 23, while Epic has some not-so-official World Cup skins in Fortnite.

Activision falls under the latter category with what is possibly the most creative (or bizarre) tie-in I have ever seen.

In Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2/Warzone 2.0, players can now vote on which team they think will win future matches. Those who guess correctly get 10,000 XP, that national team's flag as a Calling Card, oh and a remix of their national anthem.

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Author
Ishraq Subhan

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Why is Sony worried about Call of Duty on PlayStation 6?

1 year 5 months ago

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we're discussing the PlayStation 6 - specifically, Sony's concerns about Call of Duty not being available on the upcoming platform, which we now know will debut sometime from 2027 onwards.

It's been another week dominated by news of Microsoft's $68bn Activision Blizzard takeover attempt, which is currently being scrutinised by the UK's anti-competition regulator. Partially-redacted documentation from this process has now been made public, revealing some eyebrow-raising arguments from Sony - which is trying to block the deal.

Both Sony and Microsoft have gone on the defensive to make themselves look the smaller fish - with Microsoft admitting Sony's exclusives are better and Sony saying any loss of Call of Duty would leave itself "extremely vulnerable", particularly if the series was made available through the popular Xbox Game Pass. So, should Sony be worried - or is this all just performative theatrics? Joining me this week to share their thoughts are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Ishraq Subhan.

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Author
Tom Phillips

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Want to know what Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's Ghost looks like under the mask?

1 year 5 months ago

A Modern Warfare 2 dataminer has revealed a character model for Call of Duty's Ghost that shows his unmasked face.

Ghost's face has been one of Call of Duty's biggest mysteries since his introduction. Just who is it that hides behind that slightly unnerving facial covering?

Well, this mystery is a mystery no more, as Ghost has - quite literally - been unmasked by Redditor Crafty-Astronomer905 (thanks PCGamesN).

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 players are buying a weapon on eBay as it's easier than unlocking it in-game

1 year 5 months ago

Modern Warfare 2 players are paying real money on eBay to unlock a hard-to-gain weapon in-game.

The M13B Assault Rifle is contentiously locked behind a challenge in Warzone's DMZ mode and is a massive pain in the bottom to complete.

However, players have also found a neat trick that means that only one person in your group of friends has to complete the challenge. That player can then "drop" the weapon for other members of the squad to pick up, extract, and unlock.

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Author
Ishraq Subhan

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Disco Elysium legal battle reaches court, centres on alleged €4.8m fraud

1 year 5 months ago

Fresh details of the legal battle between Disco Elyisum creatives and their former bosses have emerged, as part of a hearing held in an Estonian court.

To recap on the story so far: a trio of high profile staff behind the first Disco Elysium game were fired from developer ZA/UM following the company's takeover by Estonian businessmen Ilmar Kompus, who is now ZA/UM's boss and controlling shareholder, and Tõnis Haavel who was previously convicted of investment fraud.

On the one side, some of the staff - including Disco Elysium game director Robert Kurvitz and art director Aleksander Rostov - have previously alleged that Kompus and Haavel's takeover was fraudulent, and that they were booted out when trying to discover more. On the other, Kompus and Haavel have claimed the firings were due to some staff creating a "toxic environment" - and they were allegedly planning to depart the studio anyway to try and build a Disco Elysium sequel elsewhere.

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Author
Tom Phillips

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EA apologises for "milkshake brain" response from Need for Speed Twitter account

1 year 5 months ago

EA has apologised after the Need for Speed Twitter account branded a fan as a "milkshake brain".

The exchange followed news that players who pre-order the forthcoming Need for Speed Unbound: Palace Edition will receive three days of early access ahead of release.

One particular fan criticised this, which began an argument in which the official account called the fan "milkshake brain" and told them to "cry about it bro or buy regular price idc".

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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Here's the reason for John "Soap" MacTavish’s Call of Duty nickname

1 year 5 months ago

When you think of Call of Duty, you think of John "Soap" McTavish. Along with Captain Price and Ghost, his is just a name that immediately springs to mind whenever you talk about Activision's shooter.

But while Soap is certainly a key part of the series, there are still some aspects of his persona that are left untold. Well, this list of unknown attributes just got a little shorter, thanks to his Modern Warfare 2 bio.

Here, it is revealed that Soap got his nickname not because he is fastidious in the shower, but because he is good at "cleaning house". In fact, this is something he does with "remarkable speed and accuracy in room clearance techniques and urban warfare tactics".

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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US competition regulator "likely" to challenge Microsoft-Activision deal

1 year 5 months ago

UPDATE 3pm UK time: Activision Blizzard exec Lulu Cheng Meservey has hit back at yesterday's report which suggested the FTC will "fight" to challenge Microsoft's deal.

Making a statement on Twitter, Meservey said any notion the deal would be anticompetitive is "absurd" and that the "merger will benefit gamers and the US gaming industry - especially as we face stiffer competition from abroad".

This could be referring to moves made by Sweden's Embracer Group and China's Tencent to acquire more studios and IPs.

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Author
Ishraq Subhan

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Sony dunks on Battlefield series in Microsoft Activision merger bid

1 year 5 months ago

Sony has dunked on EA's Battlefield series in its arguments against Microsoft's buyout of Activision Blizzard.

In documents released as part of the UK's Competition and Markets Authority review into the potential merger, Sony argues that Call of Duty "is not replicable" and that other games cannot compete with its success.

It then calls out the Battlefield series as a major rival, but says the franchise "cannot keep up".

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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Pokémon Violet and Scarlet sell 10m copies in first three days of release

1 year 5 months ago

Nintendo has revealed Pokémon Violet and Scarlet sold over 10m copies in their first three days of release, making it the company's biggest ever launch in that time period.

Pokémon Violet and Scarlet have faced significant criticism since release - Digital Foundry called the games "comprehensive technical failures" - but that hasn't stopped them from smashing previous series entries' already considerable launch day records.

We already knew Violet and Scarlet were off to a flying start when charts firm GfK confirmed the pair were not only the UK's biggest boxed video game launch of the year, but the UK's second biggest boxed Pokémon launch of all time - only being beaten out by 3DS' Sun and Moon.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Callisto Protocol dev insists season pass' 25 death animations aren't cut content

1 year 5 months ago

Developer Striking Distance Studios has responded to the news its sci-fi horror The Callisto Protocol's season pass will feature exclusive death animations, insisting these haven't been cut from the main game to sell for an additional fee.

As detailed on Steam, The Callisto Protocol's season pass consists of four components: the Outer Way Skin Collection, story DLC, a Riot Bundle featuring a new wave-based mode set in an "undiscovered area" of Black Iron Prison, and a permadeath mode included in the Contagion Bundle. Eyebrows were raised, however, with the news the latter two bundles would also add a total of 25 new death animations - 13 for protagonist Jacob and 12 for enemies.

Much of The Callisto Protocol’s pre-release publicity has focused on its myriad gruesome death animations as a key selling point - Striking Distance's CEO Glen Schofield discussed its "gore engine" with Eurogamer earlier this year - so there was a degree of incredulity when Striking Distance revealed more than two dozen of these would only be available to purchasers of the season pass, being sold as part of the Digital Deluxe Edition for an additional £20.

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Matt Wales

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Step aside Netflix, Splinter Cell is getting a BBC Radio 4 adaptation

1 year 5 months ago

Look out Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and Paramount; the BBC wants in on that juicy video game adaptation action and is bringing Ubisoft's beloved Splinter Cell series to life in a new Radio 4 drama, starting next Friday, 2nd December.

Splinter Cell's audio adaptation - officially titled Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Firewall - follows series protagonist and Fourth Echelon agent Sam Fisher on a mission to recruit and train the next generation of operatives for the National Security Agency's covert action division. "When a lethal assassin from Fisher's past returns from the dead on a mission of murder," the BBC teases, "he is thrust into a race against time as a sinister threat to global security is revealed."

Firewall stars Andonis Anthony (The Archers) as Sam Fisher, and Daisy Head as his daughter Sarah. Other cast members include Sacha Dhawan (Doctor Who, The Great), Will Poulter (Midsommer, Black Mirror), and Nikesh Patel (Starstruck, The Devil's Hour).

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Author
Matt Wales

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Here's your first look at The Witcher 3's long-awaited next-gen update

1 year 5 months ago

CD Projekt's long-promised next-gen update for The Witcher 3 is almost upon us, and ahead of its PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC arrival on 14th December, the studio has shared a first look at the various enhancements it'll bring.

As far as technical improvements go, CD Projekt positively whistled through them during its first-look livestream, but PC players can expect to see support for the likes of raytracing, DLSS, and FSR, alongside a selection of new Ultra Plus graphics options, boosting background characters, level of detail, and more.

Indeed, there are visual touch-ups across the board, including a rework for grass and foliage, enhanced and more varied weather conditions, plus higher resolution textures and meshes throughout environments. Novigrad's cobblestones are no longer normal maps, for instance, and instead now fully 3D. Keen-eyed players will also see the likes of smoke drifting from chimneys in distant villages.

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Author
Matt Wales

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China says it's solved youth game addiction

1 year 5 months ago

The issue of young people growing addicted to video games has been solved, China says.

The country's top industry body made the announcement yesterday, Reuters reported, following the introduction of a draconian set of rules which restricted anyone in the country under the age of 18 from playing video games longer than three hours in any typical week.

This crackdown has achieved "remarkable results", the China Game Industry Group Committee data provider CNG said, with more than 75 percent of all under-18s now claimed to be following the rules.

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Author
Tom Phillips

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