Eurogamer

You probably don't need reminding that Skull and Bones has been a long time coming. Announced in 2017 as a sort of standalone Assassin's Creed Black Flag spin-off, it was to offer a primarily ocean-bound, combat-focused online multiplayer twist on that game's much-loved seafaring, as players battled to become the Golden Age of Piracy's most infamous buccaneer.

Five years and many, many delays later, Skull and Bones is on the cusp of release, with a launch date now set for 8th November on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. So how have things changed in all that time? Well, honestly, after having seen a near-release version in action during a recent press preview, it's hard to say.

Despite Ubisoft at one point insisting development had been rebooted to accommodate a "new vision" as it "dreamt of something bigger" for the project, Skull and Bones 2022 looks an awful lot like Skull and Bones as presented in 2017 - offering, just as originally pitched, a combat-focused, almost exclusively ocean-bound online multiplayer twist on Black Flag's piratical core, albeit now with a seemingly greater emphasis on PvE. Which isn't a bad thing, of course. Black Flag's seafaring was hugely enjoyable, and a more fleshed out version of that - even five years on - has ample appeal, especially if you're a sucker for a spot of swashbuckling like me.

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Sea of Stars, the next game from the creators of The Messenger, is heading to PlayStation consoles in addition to Switch and PC.

The news comes alongside a new trailer that gives a fresh look at the game's combat system.

The retro-inspired RPG is heavily influenced by Chrono Trigger and includes similarly turn-based combat within its world without random encounters.

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Horror deck-builder Inscryption is heading to PlayStation with some exclusive features.

The game mixes elements of psychological horror with deck-building roguelike gameplay and puzzle elements, and was nominated at the BAFTAs earlier this year.

It's already available on PC but will come to PlayStation with extra controller features, though there's no release date yet.

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It's a big day for 2023 video game convention news. That's right, Blizzard has said it is looking to bring back its BlizzCon event in 2023.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra said his company wanted "to return to a live event that enables us to celebrate the community" and was "committed to bringing back BlizzCon" next year.

The annual BlizzCon event held in Anaheim has recently been pushed online due to Covid, and was then scrapped completely this year as Blizzard faced various allegations of staff misconduct and a toxic company culture.

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Halo veteran and former Bungie director Paul Bertone has joined 343 Industries as studio technical design director.

Bertone worked on Bungie's five Halo games before leaving the studio ahead of its work on Destiny, but will now return to the series.

The news was shared on Twitter by Joseph Staten, head of creative for Halo Infinite.

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Following a Covid-enforced absence, E3 is looking to make a proper in-person comeback at the Los Angeles Convention Center in the second week of June 2023, and ReedPop is going to be helping with its return, bringing expertise from running the likes of PAX, EGX, New York Comic Con and Star Wars Celebration for its first public outing since 2019.

Of course, ReedPop is Eurogamer's parent company, so it’s worth quickly noting what it means for us and the event - and to reassure you that nothing much is changing. Like Star Wars Celebration this is an event in partnership with another party - in this instance with the ESA, which has run E3 since the mid-90s - and even with the likes of ReedPop's wholly-owned shows like PAX and EGX we maintain editorial independence and will be explicit about the link in any coverage you see on the site.

I'll admit to being cautiously excited about the return of E3 proper - though I would say that, wouldn't I? There was something forlorn about strolling through Downtown LA last month while visiting for Summer Games Fest and seeing the LACC standing empty, and after what'll be a four year absence it's going to be something seeing those halls occupied by the games industry once again.

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The Portal games are genuine classics - brilliant, inventive first-person puzzle games that combine an inventive gameplay mechanic, mind-bending designs and witty storytelling to create a truly special experience. However, the fact is that these games have essentially been absent from the console space since their original releases in 2007 and 2011 respectively. Aside from enhanced backwards compatibility support on Xbox, we've seen nothing new from either game since the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 era. The good news is that this changed spectacularly last week with the release of Portal: The Companion Collection.

This new double-pack from Valve and Nvidia Lightspeed Studios combines Portal 1 and Portal 2 along with bonus gameplay content at an attractive £13.49/$19.99. Both games run on the landmark Source engine, most famous for powering 2004's Half-Life 2, so obviously, we're not looking at state-of-the-art technology here. However, brilliance in game and art design make both titles a great match for Nintendo's hybrid console and it's been fantastic to revisit these games, which turn out to be a perfect fit for the platform.

Before we go into platform differences, it's worth discussing the basic graphical makeup of both titles and the huge artistic and technical improvements made between the two games. Portal is essentially a series of basic puzzle rooms. The puzzles are interesting enough but the environments are simple, with rudimentary flat-textured walls, angular geometry and a heavy reliance on baked lighting and shadows. The game has an austere look with repetitive, straightforward artwork. Given the constraints of the project - developed by a team of about 10 people - these limitations make sense.

Nintendo and Lego are partnering again, this time on a large Bowser set.

The 2807-piece design stars the king of the Koopas standing upright on a stone platform, between flaming stone plinths.

Lego says The Mighty Bowser will be the largest Lego Mario adult set released to date when it becomes available on 1st October, priced £230/$270.

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New details from the recent playtest for Skate 4 have leaked online.

The leak was shared on reddit and pertains to an early alpha test - meaning details may well not be representative of the final game.

Here, a new map from the Skate 4 playtest called Fun City was shown. This was likely only a small section of the full map.

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Final Fantasy 7 fans were on cloud nine after the recent 25th anniversary showcase. Not only did Square Enix reveal the second part of the Remake trilogy - named Rebirth - but it also announced a remaster of the PSP spin-off Crisis Core.

Since then, fans have been speculating that Crisis Core's story will have increased significance in the wake of Remake. The release of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 - Reunion between Remake games surely offers a chance to recontextualise its story and characters.

Of course, the team at Square Enix are keen not to spoil any forthcoming plans, but it's a fair assumption that Zack - the star of Crisis Core - may have a bigger role to play in the trilogy's future.

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I'm a bit baffled by Xenoblade Chronicles 3. What's set to be a climax for a trilogy that started off so spectacularly with the 2010 original - and following on from the stuttering start of creator Tetsuya Takahashi's infamously stunted Xenosaga series - this JRPG epic has an awfully slow start all of its own. The dozen hour mark is fast creeping up and the training wheels remain firmly in place, while perhaps more frustratingly so too are embargo restrictions that mean I can't tell you much about the really interesting stuff.

Still, I can tell you some of the pertinent stuff. If you're a returning fan, know this: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 takes the best bits of the preceding games, folding in a fascinating evolution of Xenoblade Chronicles 2's broad and brilliant combat, the more defined fantasy of the original (and ditching some of the more embarrassing anime excesses) and some of the more open-ended elements of Xenoblade Chronicles X (though sadly I can't really go into any detail on them just yet).

Perhaps most importantly, it's technically far more impressive than the clearly compromised Xenoblade Chronicles 2. That was a launch year title for the Switch way back at the tail-end of 2017, of course, and in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 you can feel the five years of progress and familiarity that Monolith Soft have built up with the hardware - this looks simply sublime playing either handheld or docked, with the impossible vistas of the world of Aionios stretching to the distance (it bodes well for Breath of the Wild 2, too, with Monolith Soft's epic topography so key to the success of Zelda's open world outings). It's seriously impressive stuff, and Digital Foundry will have a deeper dive on the details closer to launch.

Staff at Activision Blizzard are planning a walkout next month, in light of the "recent attacks on the civil liberties of [its] employees".

"We are calling for protection of several communities of marginalised workers. Employees are actively facing state legislation that is putting women, LGBTQ+ employees, and their families at risk, with other vulnerable groups on the horizon," wrote works group ABetterABK via Twitter.

"Our walk-out demands focus on the protections of ABK employees from external threats like the recent overturn of Roe v Wade, and internal threats such as retaliation and harassment while in the workplace."

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Mike Ybarra, the head of Blizzard, has spoken out about the controversial microtransactions found in Diablo Immortal.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Ybarra implied that complaints surrounding Diablo Immortal's in-game purchases were limited to a small minority, and indeed, that Blizzard had specifically designed its free-to-play experience so the majority of players would still enjoy the bulk of the game.

Ybarra pointed to the game's high rating and number of positive reviews on the App Store, and suggested these contrasted with some of the negative headlines and complaints which have been reported.

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Films from Studio Canal purchased through the PlayStation store will be completely removed in Austria and Germany.

A notice has been posted on the PlayStation website in those regions, shared by flatpanelshd, that reads:

"As of August 31, 2022, due to our evolving licensing agreements with content providers, you will no longer be able to view your previously purchased Studio Canal content and it will be removed from your video library."

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PlayStation 5 users, we now have another update. This one, with the ever-catchy title of Version: 22.01-05.50.00, went live today.

This update is for the system software and includes the following (via Sony):

• If you're using a TV that supports ALLM (auto low latency mode), you can adjust ALLM settings in Settings > Screen and Video > Video Output > ALLM.

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Final Fantasy 14's Balmung server is being protected by a barricade of catgirls.

That's thanks to the new Data Centre Travel system that allows players to visit other worlds - it was so popular it was taken down soon after it launched but is now back up.

Balmung is known for its roleplayers, notoriously of a more erotic kind, and has seen an influx of players visiting.

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For those that recall the 2003 E3 demo for Halo 2 - yes, the Earthcity one that everyone loved at the time but that never made its way into the final game - I have good news for you. 343 Industries has teamed up with some modders, and as a result, almost two decades later we will soon be able to actually play that demo again.

"We have a special treat for you this month," started 343 community writer Alex Wakeford in a very in-depth blog post yesterday.

"Something that becomes part of the great journey of many Halo fans is learning about all the stuff that didn't make it into the games over the years," he teased before revealing, "I can confirm we are working on a rebuild of the original E3 Earthcity scenario that makes it playable in modern retail Halo 2."

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Microsoft has said it will attend Gamescom 2022, which returns in-person to Cologne in August for the first time in three years.

Details on what exactly Microsoft will show remain vague, other than a promise we'll see updates on previously-announced games set to be released over the coming 12 months.

This is a similar-sounding promise to what we saw recently at the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase, which concluded with new gameplay footage of Starfield.

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Iconic Elden Ring player Let Me Solo Her has received a congratulatory sword from the game's publisher.

The player became notorious in the Elden Ring community for assisting players with the game's infamously tricky Malenia boss, defeating her a thousand times.

In response, Bandai Namco sent the player a boxed sword, complete with map scroll and wooden plaque, with the message: "Congratulations on your great accomplishment".

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After months of downtime, the Wii Shop Channel and the DSi Shop are back available to access.

Both digital stores were quietly made inaccessible back in March. When asked about their status at the time, Nintendo subsequently told Eurogamer the stores were "undergoing maintenance", and no date was given for their return.

Indeed, some fans had begun wondering if the stores would ever return at all.

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In just two weeks since relaunching as a free-to-play game, Fall Guys has seen an incredible 50 million players flocking to its colourful and chaotic shores. You could say, we've fallen hard for it (thank you, I'm here all week).

Sharing the news on Twitter, the Falls Guys devs wrote, "We're in absolute disbelief... 50 million players in 2 weeks!!!"

The team reiterated its disbelief at such impressive numbers by following on with, "U N B E L I E V A B L E THANKS EVERYONE!"

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Final Fantasy 14 has had an absolute stonker of a year. 2021 saw the release of its latest Expansion, Endwalker, and an extraordinary increase in players, making it the most profitable game in the Final Fantasy series' history. It's quietened down a little (and only a little), but with over eight-years worth of updates and millions of players to its name, FF14 is now, unsurprisingly, one of the biggest games on the planet.

It's a position the game rightfully deserves, with each of its expansions praised by critics for an epic storyline that's gone from confronting evil empires to quelling thousand-year wars or hopping dimensions and facing a universe-destroying embodiment of despair, all while deftly navigating the threads that tie it all together.

As an MMO full of references to other games in the series, FF14 is often called a 'Final Fantasy theme park' - but there's far more to it than that. Its storyline rivals any of the single-player FF games - yes, even FFVII - while the daddy of Final Fantasy and its original creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi, plays it for fun. He's so into it he started his own in-game fashion brand, in fact, and frequently tweets his adventures. Its blend of epic, player-central storyline and huge array of casual extras continues to surprise me even now, and despite approaching it with some scepticism after the original failed release in 2010, FF14's managed to keep its hooks in me consistently for over eight years, in a way no other game has.

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Ubisoft has announced Tom Clancy's The Division Resurgence, a new free-to-play entry in its looter shooter series for smartphones due for a full launch in 2023.

Like its bigger console and PC brothers, Resurgence will be a third-person shooter RPG set in an open world, with a fresh story campaign which will offer a "new perspective on key story events".

Once again you play as an agent allied to the Strategic Homeland Division in a post-crisis America, following a deadly virus outbreak and the collapse of the government. Topical!

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Open-world game Biomutant will get new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions on 6th September.

An update, free for existing owners of the game, will add 4K resolution, HDR support and a boosted frame-rate "up to 60fps".

On PS5, three graphics modes will be offered. Quality (30fps at 4K), Quality Unleashed (40+ fps "up to 4K") and Performance (60fps locked at 1440p). DualSense support and Activity Cards will also be available.

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The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), a UK based regulator, will cast its scrutinous eyes over Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard in the coming months.

This investigation will allow the company to decide whether or not Microsoft's deal to purchase Activision Blizzard could be deemed anti-competitive.

"As with all merger reviews, this investigation will consider whether the deal could harm competition and lead to worse outcomes for consumers -- for example, through higher prices, lower quality, or reduced choice," the CMA said today (via GamesIndustry.biz).

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Forspoken, Square Enix's forthcoming action-RPG for PS5 and PC, has been delayed into 2023 as a "strategic decision".

Originally intended for release on 11th October this year, it will now be launched on 24th January 2023.

The news was revealed in a statement on Twitter.

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The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has investigated complaints regarding adverts that appeared in the free-to-play Scrabble Go app.

According to complainants, the ads in question made light of sexual assault, even going so far as to actively encourage it.

The first ad to be reported was for a mobile game app from OneSoft Studio named Naughty Puzzle: Tricky Test. It showed an animated woman wearing what appeared to be short shorts and a vest top struggling to free herself from a broken fence.

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Nintendo has announced a limited edition Splatoon 3 Switch OLED console.

It features a Splatoon design across the back and the on the dock, with neon coloured Joy-Con.

It will be available from 26th August.

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Sony has finally confirmed the release date for God of War Ragnarök - and it's Wednesday, 9th November for both PlayStation 4 and PS5.

Today also brings a fresh CGI trailer for the game, showing "a glimpse at some of the dangers Kratos and Atreus could find themselves up against" as the prophesised Ragnarök approaches.

Today also brings word of the game's many editions and pre-order bonuses. Lock down your purchase ahead of launch and you'll get the Kratos Risen Snow Armor and the Atreus Risen Snow Tunic cosmetics.

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A new update for Horizon Forbidden West will add Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and High Refresh Rate (HFR) support to the PlayStation 5 version of the game.

These new PS5 features will improve "dynamic resolution scaling on 60Hz" and target "a refresh rate between 60Hz and 120Hz". A new "Balanced" graphics mode has also been introduced, offering 40Hz for supported displays. You can check out the new trailer for these features below.

In addition to this, the latest Horizon Forbidden West update will continue to address a variety of the other smaller niggles and issues that some have found in the game. Please note there may be some minor story spoilers below.

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One of my great childhood milestones was learning the level-select cheat for Sonic 2. It transformed the game from a left-to-right narrative of mounting industrial peril into an album of killer vibes. No longer would I have to sweat through Chemical Plant Zone before tasting the glories of Casino Night. No longer would I have to brave all three acts of Metropolis before taking in the view from Sky Fortress. Instead, I could put together my own playlist, dive into zones as the mood took me, and grapple a little with the effects of running order on my experience of the game. Would Chemical Plant seem quite so dreadful if it wasn't the second level, a Mach-3 kick in the teeth after the Californian sunlight of Emerald Hill?

I'm currently reviewing the Switch remaster of Squaresoft classic Live A Live, which is essentially an RPG derived from a level-select cheat. The appropriate comparison isn't Sonic 2, of course, but director Takashi Tokita's later and more famous Chrono Trigger. Like Chrono, Live A Live sends you tunnelling through time, from cartoon prehistory through imperial China to a quaint far future where AI is commonplace but mobile phones are unheard of. Unlike Chrono, Live A Live doesn't give you command of a single party following a single narrative, though its characters do eventually unite by eldritch means in the game's final stretches. Rather, you dive into and out of each timeframe as you please using the same save file, living out different lives with specific gameplay quirks - an omnibus held together by a shared, easy-going battle system that mixes ATB bars with smallscale grid-based maps.

It's been six years since that initial summer of Pokémon Go, where we all wandered around hunting Vaporeon and the world seemed a sunnier place.

To celebrate this latest anniversary, Pokémon Go maker Niantic has released another of its annual celebratory artworks - which regularly tease what the next 12 months may bring.

Pokémon fans have been poring over the image, though the most noticable additions here are two brand-new characters - potentially the game's next two NPCs.

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Playing games online often brings out the worst in people, screaming and raging into a microphone.

But what if you could channel that into controlling the game?

Well, Rudeism strikes again. His latest homemade controller features a microphone that triggers gunfire whenever he speaks.

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A series of new avatar items, gamerpics and profile themes have been added to Xbox as part of Microsoft's Disability Pride month celebrations.

The avatar items, which you can get your hands on here, include t-shirts, vests, hoodies and caps (see a selection below).

Each of these items is embossed with one of a variety of designs such as guide dogs, prosthetic legs, and wheelchairs, among others.

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Final Fantasy 14 players hosting an in-game nightclub event advertised on real life billboards, sending the community into a spin.

Nightclub events and parties are common in the MMORPG, often with DJ sets on Twitch.

But owners of the Rain Nightclub bought four billboards in Texas and California to advertise their event, which included modded outfits and use of the Final Fantasy 14 logo (thanks PCGamer).

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It sounds a lot like Marvel's Avengers will get She-Hulk as a playable character.

The detail was dropped rather unexpectedly last night, as part of an official Xbox Twitch livestream for the game featuring streamer Frank "Techniq" Ellerbe and Marvel's Avengers lead designer Brian Waggoner.

In an off-the-cuff comment, Ellerbe claimed his acting coach was actually the voice of She-Hulk in the game, to the obvious surprise of Waggoner - who stated that the character had not yet been officially confirmed.

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There's not much longer for those who are yet to claim The Matrix Awakens to do so.

In fact, you only have a few more days, as the Unreal Engine 5 tech demo will be removed from Xbox series X/S and PlayStation 5 stores on 9th July.

So, if you want to have a whirl in its bustling and hyper-realistic world, you had better get a wiggle on.

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Tom Clancy's The Division 2 will receive further updates as part of a planned Year 5 for the game, Ubisoft has confirmed.

This follows a return to new features over the past year, and two more previously-announced seasons due over the course of 2022.

Season 10, due in late August, will feature a new Manhunt, fresh gear events, additional Countdown difficulties, new Legendary difficulty Strongholds and other quality of life improvements.

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Valkyrie Elysium, an action-RPG follow-up to the Valkyrie series, now has a release date of 29th September on PlayStation consoles.

A digital release of PSP game Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth - where the series began - will also be released on 29th September. A PC (Steam) version of Valkyrie Elysium will follow on 11th November.

The game was announced at the PlayStation State of Play back in March with a look at gameplay. Now there's a fresh trailer you can watch below.

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Yuji Naka has erased former co-worker and Sonic creator Naoto Ohshima from a team photo celebrating the anniversary of Saturn classic NiGHTS Into Dreams.

Naka posted the photo on Twitter for the game's 26th anniversary, but Ohshima has been edited out of the image.

Why? It all relates to controversy where Naka was removed as director from Balan Wonderworld, a game he worked on with Ohshima.

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