Konami's eFootball begins Season 2 with The Football Festival.
It includes The International Cup Experience, in which players compete against AI as one of 46 available national teams, as well as the eFootball International Cup challenge event with a prize pool of 1bn eFootball coins.
This definitely isn't the World Cup. Nope.
The Dark Pictures Anthology's first season will conclude tomorrow with Supermassive Games' The Devil in Me.
As with previous entries in the series, the game concludes with a trailer for the series' next title - which has already been posted online. However, unlike previous entries to the series, the upcoming game - known as Directive 8020 - looks set to take players to space.
Yes, this will be yet another game to add to the ever-growing space-horror genre which is having quite the renaissance of late (looking at you Callisto Protocol, Dead Space Remake and Fort Solis).
Obsidian's Josh Sawyer has said Pentiment never would have been made without Game Pass.
The medieval-em-up is definitely something of a unique experience and is the latest exclusive to hit the Xbox subscription service.
Speaking to Waypoint Radio, Sawyer said the game was only possible because Game Pass allows for unusual, niche games alongside blockbusters.
A senior figure at NetEase, the Chinese publisher of World of Warcraft and Overwatch, has blasted the actions of an unnamed "jerk" for the breakdown in relationship between his company and Activision Blizzard, which is run by the controversial Bobby Kotick.
WOW, Overwatch, Hearthstone, Diablo 3, Heroes of the Storm and the StarCraft series will become unplayable in China from 23rd January 2023, when NetEase's current license expires. Diablo Immortal is unaffected.
This morning, NetEase president of global investment and partnership Simon Zhu - who says he's spent "10,000 hours" playing the above games - reacted to the announcement in an extraordinary statement posted publicly via LinkedIn, where he blamed behind the scenes "damage" done by a "jerk" - who he left unnamed.
Dead Island 2 has hit another roadblock, albeit a comparatively small one in the grand scheme of things.
The game will now release on 28th April, a 12 week delay from what was most recently announced.
In a statement, the developer said this shift in release will give the team the extra time needed to provide a game everyone involved is "proud to launch".
As a young fan, my dream Pokémon game contained three important features - returning to an old region like in Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal, destroying buildings with Mewtwo and escaping the chains of the route system, so I could explore a region to its very core. While I'm begrudgingly coming to terms with the fact that an instalment containing two regions may never occur again (still holding out hope for the Mewtwo dream), an open-world Pokémon game has finally arrived in the form of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.
Gone are the days of neatly organised routes funnelling you from Gym to Gym, for, after completing the games' opening chapter, you're free to venture anywhere. Paldea is the largest region the series has seen so far - ranging from green fields to a windswept desert to a bamboo grove - and, upon leaving the city of Mesagoza for the wilds, it does feel like you're on the cusp of a grand adventure.
All of the locations you can glimpse in the distance are reachable and, while you can set a destination on the overworld map, the mini-map will only show a marker pointing in its direction. How you reach your destination is up to you; creating the sense of carving out your own journey, rather than following a set path like in previous Pokémon titles. Though you will often find yourself being distracted by the siren call of a new Pokémon to catch or an item to collect and, before you know it, you're wandering through a new location.
Bethesda has responded to recent claims made by composer Mick Gordon, calling his lengthy account of mistreatment while working with id Software on the Doom Eternal soundtrack "one-sided and unjust" and a "distortion of the truth".
Back in May 2020, Doom Eternal executive producer Marty Stratton took to Reddit to address "speculation and criticism" surrounding the the game's soundtrack's release, and admitting to "eroded trust" between Gordon and id Software.
Then, last week, Gordon took to Medium to share a lengthy statement rebutting Stratton's claims, releasing screenshots of emails and legal documents as evidence of the true timeline of events. He went on to allege abusive behaviour and manipulation by Stratton.
Xbox's November update is rolling out today, making a number of previously Insider-only features - including improved Discord support - available to all users.
Discord server voice chat support for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S initially launched in September, but was somewhat hampered by its convoluted mobile app requirements.
Today's Xbox update streamlines the whole process, meaning users simply need to launch a Discord server via their console's Parties & chats > Discord option then pick a voice channel from their available Discord servers - and as long their Discord and Xbox accounts are linked, they'll be able to join that channel directly, no additional mobile app faff required.
Riot Games and Ubisoft have announced a partnership that'll see the companies collaborating on a research project with the aim of creating "more positive gaming communities".
As explained in a blog post on Riot's website, the project - which goes by the name Zero Harm in Comms - is the first step in a cross-industry initiative that'll see the two companies working on a database to collect in-game data.
This anonymised data - consisting of chat logs labelled by behaviours, from neutral to racist and sexist - will be used to better train AI-based preemptive moderation tools, helping them more effectively recognise and parse, and so detect and mitigate, disruptive behaviour in-game.
With preloads for Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 and DMZ now available, we can finally get a clearer view of the new interface to facilitate access between the different game modes, and it's horrendous.
Here's how it works. The Modern Warfare 2 launcher will serve as the all-encompassing interface to access Modern Warfare 2, DMZ and Warzone 2.0.
This is known as "Call of Duty HQ" and is presented with the same Netflixy style of tile interface courtesy of Infinity Ward's director of UX/UI William Faler who previously served the same role at Hulu.
Microsoft's corporate chat tool Teams is getting a range of casual games to aid team building, including Solitaire, Minesweeper, Wordament and IceBreakers.
The four game additions are designed to be played in multiplayer groups within your Teams calls, in order to spark some light entertainment and office rivalry before diving into your latest Powerpoint deck.
It's part of an initiative which Microsoft has dubbed Games for Work, and is designed to show results and highlight winners of groups of players - from two people up to 250.
UPDATE 17/11/22: Call of Duty players have figured out a neat trick that stops your squad from having to kill the Chemist four times in a row. You can read about it here.
ORIGINAL STORY 16/11/22: Fans have already started combing through all the new content coming to Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0 with the arrival of Season One tonight, but one small detail has taken over fan discussion.
Some Modern Warfare 2 weapons will be locked behind challenges that can only be completed on other game modes. Most notably, the M13B Assault Rifle is locked behind a challenge in the game's new DMZ mode which will be releasing alongside Warzone 2.0.
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak's next free Title Update is right around the corner, and it's a good 'un, adding new monster variants, expanded uses for AI hunters, plus a host of welcome tweaks and refinements when it launches next Thursday, 24th November.
On the monster front, there're no brand-new additions in Title Update 3, but some existing favourites do get a bit of a makeover. Elder Dragons Kushala Daora and Teostra, for instance, have now shaken off the affliction, only to emerge in Risen form - both available at Master Rank 120 or higher - causing them to become much more menacing when their anger peaks.
Then there's the Chaotic Gore Magala, unlocked at Master Rank 10 or higher. This unfortunate beast has failed to complete the skin-shedding process that would normally see it turn into the Shagaru Magala, leaving it in a "deformed" halfway state that's able to use the attacks of both creatures. Sometimes, says Capcom, it will display "expressions of intense agony".
We've already established that A Plague Tale: Requiem is a graphically demanding game - hence the move to a 30fps/40fps target for Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, despite running at a native 1440p with temporal upscaling for a 4K output and often failing to maintain its performance target. In search of answers as to how heavy this game is, we can look to the PC version for answers - just as we did with Gotham Knights.
Adding extra spice is the arrival of a new patch for the game. We were hoping that this would add ray tracing support for PC, but alas that is not the case - but as you'll see, Asobo has delivered solid performance improvements here. For PC users looking to get even better frame-rates, we've also put together a detailed settings analysis along with console vs PC performance comparisons.
First up, let's discuss the recent patch. On consoles, we found a number of performance pressure spots but to pick up on just one, with our heroes surrounded by a fiery inferno, this could drop beneath 30fps on PlayStation 5. The new patch improves performance by 35 percent on the Sony console, while the improvement on Series X takes it to its 40fps limit. Interestingly though, PC has the exact same optimisation with a similar frame-rate boost when tested on an RTX 2070 Super, the closest GPU we could find to match PS5 performance.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate users can now get three months worth of free access to Apple TV+ and Apple Music through the service's Perks program.
Users who wish to make the most of this offer can claim the perk any time between now and 31st March. This can be done via Xbox consoles or the Xbox app on Windows.
Microsoft states once users claim this perk, they will be taken to the "respective Apple TV+ or Apple Music site to activate their subscription", and then they're away.
Twitch streamer dinossindgeil has completed The God Run 3 - that's a Soulsbornekiroring no hit run.
Over 120 days, the streamer completed the greatest hits of From Software without taking a single hit: Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1, 2, and 3, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring.
If even one hit was taken, the run of all games would have to start again from scratch.
Earlier this week, Assassin's Creed fans equipped with Eagle Vision spotted a Game Pass logo on the Microsoft Store page for Viking adventure Valhalla.
Microsoft typically confirms its latest Xbox Game Pass additions via fortnightly blog posts, but does sometimes like to spring surprises on fans. Alas, this is not one of them.
Speaking to Eurogamer today following press reports that suggested Valhalla was due to arrive on Game Pass in the near future, Ubisoft confirmed this was not the case.
Next year's Grammy Awards will include the first ever Grammy for video game music.
Games nominated for the Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media include Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, and Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy.
Previously, video games were included in the Score Soundtrack for Visual Media category, but now there's a brand new separate category.
Have you ever found yourself playing through God of War thinking "damn, that food looks good enough to eat?"
Well, if this is you, I have good news. The God of War cookbook is now available.
The Official Cookbook of the Nine Realms comes from prolific recipe writer Victoria Rosenthal (you may recognise her name from a podcast with Bertie earlier in the year) and Rick Barba.
The unnamed protagonist of Nier Replicant and his companion Grimoire Weiss are coming to Rainbow Six Siege next week.
The content will be made available as part of the Maverick Replicant bundle. The bundle itself is a part of the Year 7 Season 4 content update for Rainbow Six Siege.
At the end of the teaser video for the bundle, someone wearing a familiar pair of boots walks forward with the caption "A YoRHa soldier is approaching... glory to mankind!" overlaid. It looks like Nier: Automata protagonist 2B will also be involved in the bundle in some way.
Remember Marvel's Avengers? Square Enix's live service game gets its long-expected addition of Bucky Barnes, AKA the Winter Soldier, on 29th November.
Bucky's moveset is described as having "echoes" of Avengers core characters Captain America and Black Widow, alongside "all-new animations, a new full skill tree, and heroic abilities all his own".
The character will be voiced by Friday Night Lights' Scott Porter, who previously voiced Bucky in Lego Marvel's Avengers.
As Call of Duty fans eagerly wait for Warzone 2.0's servers to go live this evening, the original Warzone will see some major changes.
Alongside Warzone 2.0's launch, servers for the original Warzone will be temporarily taken offline until 28th November.
Once Warzone re-launches, however, players will no longer be able to play on two of the game's most iconic maps: Rebirth Island and Fortune's Keep.
Where has the time gone? Can you believe that Xbox Live first went, well, live 20 years ago?
But, yes, it really has been that long. On 15th November 2002, Xbox Live (now known, at least officially, as the Xbox network) arrived in our lives, adding online capability to the original Xbox.
The service's popularity saw a steady increase after the launch of Halo 2 and, needless to say, Microsoft has not looked back since. By January 2021, Microsoft reported there were more than 100m Xbox network subscribers (with this figure including those signed up through the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription tier).
Hello! Welcome to the first in a series of pieces to celebrate Disability History Month. Today, Vivek returns to the streets of Los Santos.
A few weeks back, the shocking news of the GTA 6 leaks drove me to revisit the incredible city of Los Santos in GTA 5. I thought that my initial opinions of the game would have changed after a decade, but it is still one of the best open-world games out there. The reasons behind my bold statement are left up to you to explore - after all, you have the freedom to play with the sandbox and immerse yourself in the beauty of Los Santos.
It makes me think, too. I've been trying to think of an eloquent phrase to replace 'lack of accessibility settings' when it comes to games. I believe the perfect expression is 'immersion breakers'. Imagine a player who requires high stick sensitivity and decreased deadzones, but they're faced with a game that doesn't allow for adjustment of those settings. The gameplay experience would be frustrating, as you would constantly die in firefights. This struggle would break the immersion, due to an unnecessary barrier.
Clive, the protagonist of Final Fantasy 16, won't be the only playable character.
In an interview with Japanese site Game Watch (via PlayStation Lifestyle), creative director Kazutoyo Maehiro noted that in the early stages of the game, players will control a character other than Clive.
When asked if this was similar to Reks in Final Fantasy 12, he agreed.
Sony has now officially announced its Black Friday discounts for PlayStation Plus subscriptions, with 25 percent off each of the program's three tiers.
The official details match those we reported earlier this week, and see PlayStation Plus' Essential offering cut to £37.49 for a year rather than £50. A year of PlayStation Plus Extra is £63 instead of £84. PlayStation Plus Premium is £75 instead of £100.
All of these offers are now live, and are expected to be available until 28th November. If you've been on the fence so far, are these sale prices enough?
Phil Spencer has admitted Microsoft has shipped games "too early".
Speaking to The Verge, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming was asked about the decision to delay Starfield and Redfall, two of the company's biggest upcoming exclusives.
"It isn't really a decision to move a game after spending the team's effort over multiple years just to get to a point where you know you're not going to deliver the game you want on the date that was promised," said Spencer. "Now, it is at some level, because I have shipped games too early. We have experienced shipping games too early."
In October, CD Projekt Red announced it was remaking the first The Witcher game with the help of an external studio called Fool's Theory.
We know the game is codenamed Canis Majoris and will be built in Unreal Engine 5, but that's all we know. We don't know anything about how, or whether, the game's content will change. We don't know how far CDPR is willing to go.
I was speaking to Geralt voice actor Doug Cockle about this during the latest episode of One-to-One, my podcast series, which is available to everyone now (search for "Eurogamer Podcasts" wherever you listen to them). I wanted to know what he thought about the remake and whether he's doing any work for it.
I can't believe it was six years ago that I met Doug Cockle, voice of The Witcher (Geralt) in the video games. He was a teacher back then, leading the acting course at Arts University Bournemouth - such an ordinary place to find a bonafide video game star.
But a lot has changed since then. Doug Cockle no longer teaches there; he was debating a return to full-time acting when we talked, and shortly after, did exactly that.
Meanwhile, The Witcher became a household name, propelled into the mainstream by the Netflix TV show. The star of that show, Henry Cavill, turned out to be an open admirer of Cockle's work, too, being a keen game-player himself. He even invited Cockle to the season one premiere in London, to hang out. And they did, as Cockle tells me in this episode of the One-to-one podcast show, now available everywhere and for everyone (search for "Eurogamer Podcasts" wherever you listen to them).
Doug Cockle, the actor renowned for portraying Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher series of video games, has told me he's sad to see Henry Cavill leave The Witcher Netflix show.
Netflix announced Cavill would leave the show at the end of the series three. He will be replaced, in series four, by Liam Hemsworth, the brother of Marvel Thor star Chris Hemsworth.
"Well I think it's really sad," Doug Cockle told me during the latest episode of my podcast One-to-One, available everywhere now (look for "Eurogamer Podcasts").
Plenty has been said about the state of Halo Infinite - a game which launched to deserved praise on the strength of its campaign and multiplayer, but has since struggled to gain any real momentum. Our State of the Game from Vikki this summer goes into this in closer detail, but in short, despite being a brilliant return to form for the series, Halo Infinite has been left to dwindle through delayed updates and a clunky live service model that even Microsoft itself admitted it must recover from.
Almost a year after launch, that recovery starts here. Despite being pitched as a stopgap before the next full (and recently delayed) Season 3, the Winter Update is substantial, delivering long-awaited features and carefully considered tweaks alike. The headliner is the arrival of online campaign co-op, a series staple that should have been there at release.
Its belated implementation has the hallmarks of something that's been patched in after the fact. If you played Halo Infinite at launch, working out how to start a new playthrough while keeping your existing unlocks is far from clear. On a first attempt, our session started after 10 minutes of fumbling through menus and slightly panicked double checking of save states as we tried to line up our respective playthroughs intact.
Six months after enjoyable open water survival adventure Raft drifted serenely out of Steam early access, developer Redbeet Interactive has announced it's adapting the game for consoles.
Raft, if you're unfamiliar, first gained attention as a free itch.io prototype back in 2016. After a two year spell expanding the game's core survival loop - in which players chart their raft across a vast ocean, reeling in food, supplies, and building materials to turn their initially tiny vessel into a veritable sea-faring palace - Redbeet launched into Steam early access in 2018.
Raft has come a long way since then, gaining the likes of online co-op, explorable islands, underwater reefs, crop growing, cooking, animal care, and even a full story campaign for its version 1.0 release on PC, which arrived this June.
If you're still impatiently awaiting Amazon's live-action take on the Fallout universe, you might like a look at a newly released Fallout 76 fan project, admirably capturing the ambience of Bethesda's long-running series without, I assume, a budget of 150m Bezosbucks.
Created by YouTube channel Infectious Designer (which has also produced live-action shorts inspired by the likes of Half-Life, Killzone, and Watch Dogs), the Fallout 76 concept trailer serves up two minutes and 35 seconds of impressively realised Fallout splendour, replicating the series' distinctive retro-futuristic aesthetic both before and after the nuclear apocalypse.
Now, I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on Fallout 76 - about the only thing I can say with any confidence is that it's the 76th game in the Fallout series - but even to my eyes there's some lovely attention to detail in Infectious Designer's concept trailer, ranging from an authentic Pip-Boy and a hulking Vault suit to what I think is a CGI Scorchbeast. Oh and there's enough Nuka-Cola to rot the teeth clean out of your skull.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has revealed Microsoft's decision to "pivot away" from its previously announced Game Pass streaming box earlier this year was due to pricing concerns, with the company unable to get the device within its desired $99-$129 price bracket.
Speaking in the latest episode of The Verge's Decoder podcast (as spotted by VGC), Spencer explained, "The console we built that now people have seen...was more expensive than we wanted it to be when we actually built it out with the hardware that we had inside."
Microsoft never formally revealed this version of its streaming box, codenamed Keystone - a standalone device utilising a familiar Xbox user interface, according to Spencer - but it did set tongues wagging when a prototype showed up in a photo of the Xbox boss' office last month.
2K and developer Firaxis have formally announced the previously leaked Leader Pass for Civilisation 6, adding 18 leaders to the 4X strategy favourite over the course of six DLC releases.
12 of the 18 leaders featured in the DLC are new to Civilization 6, while six are described as "new takes" on existing leaders. Each is said to offer "surprising new or updated abilities", alongside "inventive agendas that'll change the way you play".
Up first are Abraham Lincoln (representing the United States), Queen Nzinga Mbande (Kongo), and Sultan Saladin (Arabia), all arriving as part of the diplomacy focused Great Negotiations Pack on 21st November. 2K is yet to provide launch dates for the Leader Pass' five remaining DLC releases, but all are due before the end of March 2023.
UPDATE 16/11/22: Up next for MultiVersus - after all of the new Season 2 launch content listed below - will be a brand new character and stage, Warner Bros. has announced.
A sneak peek at both last night revealed the fresh face to be Looney Tunes alien Marvin the Martian, while the new arena will be themed around Game of Thrones' throne room in King's Landing. It's kind of odd to remember all the horrible things which happened in that room, and know that Bugs Bunny and co. will soon be hanging out in it.
There's no release date or further details on Marvin and King's Landing yet - but we'll update you when we have them.
Pikmin Bloom, the social walking game from Pokémon Go maker Niantic, recently passed its first birthday and is now hosting a special event themed around Pikmin 3.
This event in particular caught my eye, as it will allow you to grow the series' original Red, Blue and Yellow Pikmin varieties dressed up in the space suits of Pikmin 3's main characters: Alph, Brittany, and Charlie.
If you're unfamiliar, Pikmin Bloom lets you potter about your neighbourhood growing flower trails and picking up Pikmin seedlings that can grow into Pikmin wearing costumes. If you're near a beach, for example, the Pikmin could be wearing a shell, or a discarded bottle cap if collected near a corner shop. It's a collection game and a glorified pedometer - and a cute nudge to get off your sofa once in a while.
Xbox has revealed the dates for November's additions to Game Pass.
Available from today on cloud, console and PC are Pentiment and Somerville. Pentiment received a recommended badge from us, and our Donlan described it as "a brilliant narrative adventure that is filled with intelligence and heart". Donlan also enjoyed Somerville for its beautiful and eerie art direction.
That's not it for the month, however. Here's what else to look forward to!
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Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty will be a paid expansion.
CD Projekt Red's global PR director Radek Grabowski confirmed this news to GamesRadar earlier today.
Grabowski did not comment on how much the upcoming expansion will cost, however he did note CDPR's expansions are "traditionally cheaper than full-priced games". So, we are looking at under the £60 mark (phew!).
Sony has published a patent that suggests its exploring ways of the history of in-game assets using the blockchain and NFTs.
The patent, titled "Tracking Unique In-Game Digital Assets Using Tokens on a Distributed Ledger" shows a theoretical mechanism for tracking the changes to in-game assets, including ownership, visual appearance and metadata (thanks, Gamesual).
"Individuals often find it meaningful to own or use unique physical items related to respected celebrities or activities," the patent description notes.