If you've ever been playing Elden Ring and thought "you know what, I wish I was Darth Vader with a lightsaber right now", you're in luck.
Thanks to modders, Elden Ring players on PC can be the Sith Lord or equip a lightsaber - just in time for Star Wars day.
Modders drs32 and XeIerate have teamed up to create a Darth Vader mod that replaces the confessor armour, available on Nexus Mods.
Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Interactive will sit around "breakeven" point for the next two years, soon-to-be-new owner Embracer has said.
Financial details for the two companies have been made public as part of Square Enix's sale. The Final Fantasy publisher is offloading both for just $300m - a figure which seems miniscule compared to other recent games industry mergers and acquisitions.
"We firmly believe that the studios will excel under Embracer's operating model and ownership," Embracer wrote in a note to press, adding that the studios would continue to "breakeven" for the "the upcoming two financial years driven mainly by sales of the back-catalogue titles".
Last month, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier tweeted that Blizzard was coming out of its "dry spell" and was set to release "a bunch of new games", with an accompanying link to tonight's mobile Warcraft announcement. Here, Schreier stated that this particular game was "one of two" mobile Warcraft projects in development.
Schreier then went into more detail about these games on ResetEra, saying: "Yup there are (at least) two Warcraft mobile games in development. One Pokémon Go, one other Clash-ish one. Heard good things about both."
However, it has now been confirmed that the Pokémon Go-like Warcraft game has in fact been cancelled.
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Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger believes the global chip shortage will continue into 2024.
Speaking to CNBC, Gelsinger said the shortage could continue due to constrained availability of key manufacturing tools.
"That's part of the reason that we believe the overall semiconductor shortage will now drift into 2024, from our earlier estimates in 2023, just because the shortages have now hit equipment and some of those factory ramps will be more challenged," he said.
A publisher's perspective: we haven't had one of those on the Eurogamer Podcast yet, not until today! And publishing is an area there are many misconceptions about. Are they goodies, are they baddies? We just don't know! And how does signing a game, and marshalling it out of the door, work?
My guest today started their own label five years ago in the hope of doing things differently, and things have gone very well. Today, No More Robots employs 13 people and is responsible for games like Hypnospace Outlaw, Descenders, Not Tonight, and Yes, Your Grace. Good games.
In fact, the recently-announced Dreamsettler, a spiritual successor to Hypnospace Outlaw, became the company's most Wishlisted game - an important metric for predicting how a game will ultimately do. Well, it used to be, anyway, but more on that in the chat.
Mega Latios is making its Pokémon Go debut during the new Air Adventures event in the Season of Alola.
To get Latios Mega Energy and get a Mega Latios, you must take part in Mega Raids to defeat the Gen 3 variant to add it to your Pokédex.
This is a tough Pokémon to take on solo, so we recommend teaming up with other trainers and knowing the best Mega Latios counters, and the Mega Latios weakness to cath the Pokémon, and maybe even get a Shiny Latios if you're lucky.
Last week, Nintendo issued a warning for parents, asking them to ensure that their children always stand far enough away from the TV screen to avoid hitting it, and far enough away from others to avoid any unintentional fisticuffs.
But alas, even after this warning, and the Wii-era experiences predating this time in our lives, it turns out that many still need to be reminded about the Joy-Cons handy little wrist straps, and why they are actually there. Specifically, when taking part in Nintendo's latest offering: Switch Sports.
Nintendo Switch Sports came out several days ago, and in that time, many have been streaming their own exploits in the fitness themed world it provides. However, while these streams have given many a small taster of the sports that they too could try if they decide to purchase the game, they have also given us a peak into the lives of some Nintendo rebels, who choose to forgo safety warnings.
Elden Ring has now been played with a Fisher Price controller.
New Zealand streamer Rudeism (aka Dylan Beck) is known for his controller tinkering and, after a jokey Twitter post from Wario 64, took on the challenge of modifying the kids controller.
Over two weeks, he modified the Fisher Price controller into a working Xbox controller and showed off his creation with a spot of Elden Ring.
Oh, I remember this. Move the sofa. Push back the chairs. And then every game begins with something that takes me back almost 40 years, to Music and Movement at infants school. Find a space, reach out your arms to make sure you don't touch anything and knock anyone over. You're ready. Just the thought of this is enough to bring back the smell of every school hall that has ever existed: floor polish, dust, feet.
But that isn't how this would smell. This would smell of pot pourri and corporate perfume wafting in from hidden vents. This would smell of marshmallow and candied fruit and sandalwood. That's one of the biggest surprises of Nintendo Switch Sports, actually. For me at least. How beautiful it all is.
The latest game in the Wii Sports series contains six games, three new, three returning, which might seem a little too slim a collection on paper, even after you factor in Golf, which is arriving in Autumn as a free update. This was all known in advance. What I didn't register, though, is that the game unfolds across a sort of idealised urban campus, with each sport having its own grounds.
An Italian voice actor may have dropped a big spoiler for the Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel.
Pietro Ubaldi, the voice of Daruk in the original game, was interviewed by fan site Lega Hyrule (via Resetera) and dropped a little nugget of information.
Spoilers follow.
Air Adventures celebrates not just flying-type Pokémon, but the release of Mega Latias and Mega Latios into Pokémon Go.
If you’re planning on conducting these legendary Mega Evolutions, then we recommend visiting our Mega Evolutions guide since this feature has recently been reworked.
Throughout Air Adventures, you can find event-exclusive field research tasks and complete Electrify the Sky - a timed research quest.
Trying to launch a new game show must be like trying to launch a new chocolate bar: absolutely terrifying. The established ones are thoroughly established indeed - they have survived changing trends, changing tastes, changing decades. If a game show (or a chocolate bar) is successful it becomes part of the fabric of life, part of the unquestioned background clutter of the world. That sounds like a difficult thing to achieve.
Now and then, though, Netflix throws a new game show our way. And I always get a bit excited. There is something plush and lavish about a new game show. It is fun to see money spent on something that has rules, of course, and I also love game show set design - the massive screens, the blue spotlights pointed to the heavens, as if the arena for Who Wants to be a Millionaire doubles as the alien landing zone from Close Encounters at weekends.
I spent this weekend watching a couple of Netflix's new offerings. I'm not sure either worked - to return to the chocolate bar analogy, I think we've got a Maverick here rather than a Twix. But it was good to see them. And I have hope. And when I read about Netflix struggling with growth and experts saying, "chuck in news programs and sport," part of me thinks: but that will turn it into regular TV! Just double-down on lavishly over-produced game shows that would never find a spot in the normal channels instead.
The arrival of Halo Infinite Season 2 sees the biggest update to the game since its launch back in late 2021.
Season 2 will introduce several significant additions to multiplayer in Halo Infinite, including new modes and maps, as well as a new Battle Pass and unlocks to work towards.
This season also paves the way for several campaign updates, such as campaign co-op, but those will be available later in the year ahead of Season 3. In short - this is a multiplayer-focused update, but there's plenty to dig into!
Sony has announced its PlayStation Now lineup for May, the final one of its kind ahead of the move to Sony's new-look subscription service next month.
The PlayStation Now games for May are PS4 titles Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, Soulcalibur 6 and Blasphemous. These games are available to play through Now from today and appear to be remaining for the foreseeable.
So, what can you expect from these new additions?
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics will continue to assist with the development of Microsoft's big budget Perfect Dark reboot, despite the company being sold by publisher Square Enix.
Microsoft's main Perfect Dark studio, The Initiative, confirmed yesterday that its co-development agreement remained in place with Crystal - despite the latter changing hands.
On Monday, Square Enix announced it was selling off its western development studios - including Crystal Dynamics, Guardians of the Galaxy studio Eidos Montreal, as well as Square Enix Montreal - and IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain for just $300m.
It's been a barren few weeks for gaming and technology news, but it looks like things are finally picking up! John, Rich and Alex share initial findings on PlayStation 5 VRR, discuss Valve's new 40-60Hz display support for Steam Deck... and what to make of the PlayStation "Preservation Group"?
First up, the long-awaited arrival of variable refresh rate support, also known as VRR, on the PlayStation 5. This technology has long been part of the landscape on PC and Xbox, but makes its PlayStation debut this week. The idea here is smoothing out uneven frame delivery, eliminating screen tearing and judder without the heavy input lag penalty of traditional v-sync. Recent PS5 releases like Elden Ring have really underscored the need for the tech, so does this release put the PS5 on feature parity with the other platforms? As always, the devil is in the details, and our testing unearthed some unique quirks to the implementation that are worth discussing in a weekly gaming tech show.
Another big release comes in beta form for the Steam Deck: user-adjustable screen refresh rate support. Rather than opting for 60Hz, which the Steam Deck can't deliver in all titles, you can now manually set the refresh rate to anything between 40Hz and 60Hz, which makes it easier to ensure even frame delivery and therefore a visually smoother experience than a frame-rate that ping-pongs between 30 and 60. 40Hz is exactly between 30Hz and 60Hz when it comes to frame times (16.66ms -> 25ms -> 33.33ms), which is why we've seen it appear as an option in some Insomniac games on PS5, for instance.
Square Enix has sold off its western studios and over 50 intellectual properties to Embracer Group for just $300m.
The sale, which is set to go through by September this year, means Embracer owns Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal, as well as IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain. That amounts to around 1100 employees.
As already announced, a new Tomb Raider is in development at Crystal Dynamics, built on Unreal Engine 5. Thoughts now turn to other games potentially in development at these just-bought studios.
BIOTA is an indie metroidvania, and for some reason it's really gotten to me. I really love it. I love the range of colour palettes you can select, at least one of which gives the game's sci-fi horrors a sort of holiday ice cream chic. I love the chunkiness of the art. I love the chugging chiptune soundtrack. I love the fact that the whole thing is set on an asteroid.
More than anything, though, I am a sucker for games in which each screen is its own fixed unit of the world. For whatever reason these are the games that most feel like real places. Run off the edge of the screen in BIOTA and you end up in a new screen. Go back and the enemies have respawned. I love this.
It's particularly useful for a metroidvania, I think, because your brain kind of snapshots each environment, the layout of the platforms and what-have-you, and so it's easier to start building your own internal map - a map that is at least in part a map of exits and entrances, of unseen doors that connect very seen spaces.
Two leaked screenshots, reportedly of the next Forza Motorsport game, have popped up online.
Posted to r/gamingleaksandrumours over the weekend, the images - reportedly taken in July 2021 - have been deemed authentic by the subreddit's moderating team.
If true, this means the new racing instalment will be coming to Xbox One as well as Xbox Series X and PC (thanks, Dualshockers).
Techland has opened up about what players can expect from Dying Light 2's upcoming story-driven DLC packs.
In an interview with wccftech, Dying Light 2 lead designer Tymon Smektała has confirmed the first "runs parallel to the main story".
"It can be started right after Aiden arrives in The City. Since it’s the first one out the gate, we didn’t want to force players to finish the game before they’d be able to have fun with it," Smektała said. "I went through some of the speculations our community has expressed online, but I haven’t seen any of those theories get it right. So I hope that we’ll positively surprise people with this DLC."
Dead Cells co-developer Evil Empire has opened up about new accessibility options coming to the fan-favourite indie.
It includes details about new features such as auto-hit, continue, and assist modes, all of which aim to boost accessibility.
While the team believes "part of the fun" is Dead Cells' "tough but fair experience", Evil Empire says it knows "that it can be complicated for some people".
Although the Easter sales are well in the rear-view mirror, there's still plenty of good deal events to take advantage of in the spring.
With the May bank holiday this weekend, it's a great time to get yourself a new laptop or monitor for less. Very's bank holiday sale is offering lots of discounts on brands including ACER, ASUS, MSI, and Dell.
We've gone through the full range of deals and picked out some products we think are worth snapping up this weekend.
Flat screen to VR modder Helifax has just released a new mod that brings full 6DOF VR to Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.
The mod itself is free to download from Helifax's website and you can watch me put it through its paces in traditionally immature, VR Corner style in the video above.
The mod itself features "synced eye (single-frame stereo instanced) full 6DOF VR with Ray Tracing (not AER)" which in layman's terms means it looks very pretty and you can fully move your head and look around in all directions.
YouTuber Jamie Moran was even able to play it on their Xbox Series X and share the footage, stating on Twitter: "The First Forza Horizon game popped up again in the store. Such a fun game, it still holds up really well and it’s 4K on Series X & One X."
https://twitter.com/JamieMoranUK/status/1520557268399501312The game's sudden and unexpected reappearance six years after it was removed from sale has some fans speculating that it may be making a return. Without official word from the developer or Microsoft, however, we can only chalk this up to a mistake for now.
The latest game in the series, Forza Horizon 5, has seen more than 10 million players since launch. The impressive milestone means Playground's racing game has enjoyed the biggest first week in Xbox and Game Pass history.
Forza Horizon 5 looked like a hit even before it came out, when nearly one million people were already playing via early access on PC and Xbox ahead of the 9th November street date.
The original Forza Horizon game was briefly available to buy from the Xbox store yesterday.
While there's no official word on whether or not the game's return to the Xbox store was intentional, the racer has already been removed again, albeit not quite before some gamers managed to buy and download it (thanks, VGC).
Psychonauts 2 is Double Fine's "highest-rated and best-selling game to date".
The news comes via art director Lisette Titre-Montgomery, who revealed the sequel's success in a series of tweets she posted whilst confirming she's now left the studio.
"April Fools Day was my last day at Double Fine. I have learned so much over the past four years+ about who I am as a leader and what it means to be a creative visionary," she said in a recent tweet. "Thank you for trusting me to bring the world of Psychonauts 2 to life."
Fellow Traveller's LudoNarraCon is back on 5th May.
The digital show - which showcases story-driven video games - is back for the fourth consecutive year with "games and their developers across a range of streams, panels, fireside chats, and demos".
Hosted on Steam and running until 9th May, the show features 42 exhibiting games and 56 panellists, including appearances from guests like Lucas Pope, Meg Jayanth, and Greg Lobanov. Viewers can also expect "exclusive reveals", too.
Pass by a pub in Lewes, East Sussex's quaint county town, and you'll likely hear the low, rhythmic clunk! of brass hitting lead. Pause for a moment - perhaps peer in a dusty window - and you might catch the glint of metal as heavy brass coins arc hopefully through the air to land, several feet away, on the soft, sloped surface of a small table. Clunk! This is Toad in the Hole, or just toads, a pub game that's a cross between darts and tiddly-winks. As sure as you'll find Harvey's on tap, you'll see a toads table tucked away in most Lewes drinking establishments - as well as in those among its many surrounding villages.
Exactly where toads got started, it's hard to say - a 1950 Pathé newsreel notes its Elizabethan roots, though the table played in that film (then located in Surrey) includes an ornamental toad sculpture on top seen in some European versions. It seems to be played a bit in Spain - where it is named "juego de la rana", game of the frog - and also in South America - where it is "juego del sapo", game of the toad. Here in England, however, its popularity as a pub game is very much Lewes-based.
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I have no memories of the fateful day in 1999 I bought Rollercoaster Tycoon. I don’t remember what got me interested in the game. I get nauseous as soon as I get on a bus, so it’s safe to say I’m not a theme park fan. I do remember having an obsession with the hypercapitalist, cool America style of Disneyland Paris, forever dangled in front of me by ads that would run at the end of Disney movie VHS tapes. But Rollercoaster Tycoon needed no specific branding to appeal. It just has you, right from its box illustration with the rollercoaster whizzing just out of view, the bright logo with its pleasant rollercoaster-esque bend. Rollercoaster Tycoon screams fun before you’ve even started it (even literally, on the back of the box).
Nowadays, games let you manage just about anything – hospitals, zoos, cafés - but in those management simulations you’re responsible first and foremost for someone’s well-being, or advancing your business. Of course you’re supposed to build a thriving theme park, but Rollercoaster Tycoon is interested in the mechanics of fun. Every aspect of it leads back to fun, and it explains why fun is at the root of your success as a player in terms that are easy to understand.
It is almost a meta look at how game designers try to get people to play their games: the overarching question is always what engages people and makes them stick around. As long as your guests are having fun and feel that they are getting value for their money, they will stay in your park. There, they will continue to spend money until they run out, and hopefully leave satisfied. Depending on the season and weather, they may favour different attractions. New things are always particularly exciting to them.
If you caught the rumour earlier this week that developers could prevent their games being downloaded on Steam Deck, worry not; turns out it was just an error.
A tweet showed purported evidence that the recently-released Demon Gaze Extra had been specifically configured to prevent downloads to Steam Deck, which understandably worried early adopters of Valve's new handheld system.
Turns out it's just a big misunderstanding, something Valve now suggests was "accidental". It's also promised to "fix the issue" with any other games that similarly prohibit Steam Deck installations.
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Players rushing to get into Call of Duty Warzone Season 3 have seemingly contributed to Virgin Media O2's "biggest gaming traffic spike on record".
Call of Duty Warzone Season 3 released at 5pm on Wednesday 27th April - albeit a day earlier for Vanguard players - and the rush of players downloading and jumping into the new season has purportedly resulted in internet provider Virgin Media's busiest day of the year thus far - and its second-busiest since records began.
According to our sister site VGC, the average Virgin Media customer downloaded 12.1GB of data between 4pm and midnight on 27th April - that's up 29 per cent on the preceding week - whilst the busiest period of 8-10pm saw an uptick in data consumption, 11.9 per cent higher than usual and 23.8 per cent higher than the week before.
An update on the Microsoft store intimates that Battlefield 2042 and FIFA 22 may be on the way to Xbox Game Pass.
Whilst not formally confirmed by Microsoft nor Electronic Arts - so treat this as a rumour for now - both games now sport the Game Pass logo (thanks, XGP, via NME) on the former's online store, suggesting they may get their debut on Microsoft's subscription service next month.
As FIFA 22 was released in October 2021 and Battlefield 2042 in November, this means both games will only be around six months old should they indeed be joining Microsoft's library of games soon.
The Long Dark's very first paid DLC is coming "later this year".
That's according to a new developer diary in which Hinterland Studio reflects on the last eight years of development, as well as teasing what may be coming next, including a premium season pass to ensure the game "continues to be financially self-sustaining".
After focussing for so long on the sandbox and story modes, the team says it's now ready to "decouple" them, mitigating issues that founder Raphael van Lierop says made development "unwieldy" at times.
Glen Schofield has shared some new concept art from his upcoming sci-fi horror, The Callisto Protocol.
The Striking Distance Studios' CEO shared what appears to be concept art of an enemy set against a grimy, dilapidated sci-fi backdrop of smashed gangways and torn fences.
"Going through some of the concept art from our incredibly talented art team for @callistothegame today," Schofield tweeted along with the single image. "It's almost time to show you the real thing. Can't wait."
Genshin Impact developer miHoYo has confirmed update 2.7 has been delayed.
Whilst the studio stopped short of detailing what's caused the delay - "project progress" is all we've been told, although many suspect the strict Chinese quarantine may be affecting development - the upcoming update has been indefinitely postponed.
"Due to project progress, the Version 2.7 update will be postponed," the developer tweeted. "For detailed information on the date of the new update, content adjustment plan, and compensation, please stay tuned for upcoming announcements."
Part of what's so exciting about Playdate - and weeks in, I am still excited about it - is the fact that it's been conceived as a system people can make their own games for from the off. With Pulp, a web-based game editor, and easy drag-and-drop sideloading of game files, there's already a Playdate scene developing on Itch.io.
It's still very early, but I wanted to get a sense of what's already out there. Here are just a few of the games I've enjoyed so far.
A lot of early Playdate games are a bit like Pulpmon - a loving recreation of an existing game, in this case Pokémon.
We've known developer Sloclap's challenging kung-fu beat-'em-up Sifu would be getting much-requested difficulty settings for some time, but now, following the release of a new content roadmap earlier this week, Sloclap has offered a closer look at how they'll function when they arrive in a new update next Tuesday, 3rd May.
As we learned earlier this week, Sifu's new difficulty levels will come in three flavours - Student, Disciple, and Master - and Sloclap's latest preview trailer breaks each setting down in a little more detail. Disciple, for instance, will offer the "classic Sifu experience", and it's the option for those that want to continue playing the game as it is now.
Student, however, is designed for those wanting a slightly easier ride. It'll make the experience "more forgiving but still challenging", by increasing player health, making ageing more forgiving, and introducing weaker enemies with less aggressive AI that use simplified combos.
As we teeter on the cusp of a brand-new month, Microsoft has whipped out its announcement horn to regale Xbox Live Gold subscribers with news of May's Xbox Games With Gold, which this month include Yoku’s Island Express and Viva Piñata Party Animals.
Yoku’s Island Express, which will be available to download from 1st-31st May is a strange but successful blend of platforming and pinball that Eurogamer's Christian Donlan liked a lot when it released back in 2018, calling it a "wild-spirited adventure to cherish."
Next up, and available to download from 16th May to 15th June, is The Inner World: The Last Wind Monk. This one, developed by Studio Fizbin (responsible for last year's striking Minute of Islands), is a follow-up to acclaimed 2013 point-and-click adventure The Inner World, and once again follows young, flute-nosed adventurer Robert on a quest to save the world.
The M1916, introduced in Warzone Pacific and Vanguard Season 3, is a Marksman Rifle that packs a punch.
Even though this weapon hits hard, it’s held back by low bullet velocity, slow fire rate, and general impracticality, especially when compared to other top-tier weapons.
It’s possible developer Raven Software will make this weapon more viable in the future, but for now, there isn’t much reason to use it in a competitive sense.
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The Nikita AVT was first introduced to Warzone and Vanguard as part of the April 2022 Pacific Season 3 update.
Unfortunately, this assault rifle isn’t as competitive as you might’ve hoped, due to its finicky recoil, and slower Time to Kill (TTK).
Despite this, we still recommend giving it a try since developer Raven Software will likely adjust the Nikita later on, as the developer has done with other weapons in the past. It certainly isn’t terrible, and is usable, especially if you’re a skilled player.
Capcom's been taking the slow and steady approach to revealing more on Monster Hunter Rise's Sunbreak expansion since its initial unveiling last year, but now, with its 30th June release approaching, the news is coming faster, and the publisher is promising "exciting reveals" and more for its next digital event on Tuesday, 10th May.
Precisely what will feature remains a mystery, but, alongside those aforementioned "exciting reveals", Capcom is also promising new gameplay, a look at some new monsters, and other currently unspecified treats. If your interest is suitably piqued, proceedings kick off at 3pm in the UK/7am PDT on 10th May via Twitch, and Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak’s director, Yoshitake Suzuki, will be on presenting duties.
Capcom’s previous Sunbreak digital event was a biggie, giving us a release date, a look at some new monsters, as well as an introduction to the expansion’s new hub area - the bustling port town of Elgado Outpost - and its new map, The Citadel. The latter promises to deliver a diverse range of biomes, including lush forests, icy mountains, and foggy swampland, with a huge ruined castle as its centrepiece - and we got an extended tour in a subsequent video.