Eurogamer

The new game from Flavourworks, the studio that brought us FMV-style game Erica, arrives today, and it's called Hush - Crane and is available free from Google Play and the App Store.

Hush - Crane is pretty short, around 20 minutes or so, and is very similar in many ways to Erica - a movie-like game you can touch to interact with, and a game I really liked. Hush - Crane follows a kind of hitman, or gangster - someone working for an underworld organised gang - who ends up tangled in a love affair with someone who's not all they seem.

What you see is live-action, as if you're watching a film. But the game constantly wants your tactile involvement, be it using two thumbs to slide straps off of a lady's shoulders, or a finger to pull back the trigger of a gun. You can flip tables, smash bottles over people's heads, and very little of it needs any explanation - it just feels intuitive and right. And since it’s a kind of multi-path experience you can play it a few times to see different outcomes from different decisions.

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Gearbox announced a new "roguelight" game at PAX East 2022 named Eyes in the Dark: The Curious Case of One Victoria Bloom.

Developed by Under The Stairs, the monochromatic game sees a young girl - the titular Victoria Bloom - searching the darkness of her family home for her lost grandfather.

The layout of the house will shift each run and Victoria will have a variety of light-based weapons to fend off creatures. You can check out gameplay in the trailer below.

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Telltale Games' brilliant Tales from the Borderlands is getting a sequel of sorts, courtesy of Borderlands' main developer Gearbox.

The new Tales game will launch this year and feature a fresh cast of characters, Gearbox's colourful CEO Randy Pitchford announced on stage at PAX East last night.

In development for "many" years, the project has been worked on in-house at Gearbox after the developer saw the critical success of the original Tales - and after Telltale itself sadly closed down.

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Nintendo has added three more "power-packed" Sega Genesis games to its Switch Online expansion pack. So, put your feet up and enjoy a nostalgic trip back through time thanks to Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball, Shining Force 2 and Space Harrier 2.

Sharing a trailer of what is new, Nintendo invited fans to, "relive some of the iconic games that defined Sega Genesis."

So, what can you expect from Nintendo's latest offering of retro games?

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One of Elden Ring's most difficult bosses has now been made even trickier.

It's thanks to a bug in the latest update that causes the infamous Malenia to self-heal when other players are summoned in to help.

The bug was spotted by the now legendary player Let Me Solo Her, who regularly leaves a summon sign outside the boss fight to help those struggling to defeat her.

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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: demons, pirates and planes.

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

Playdate's opening season offers a bunch of lovely games, but few have intrigued me as much as Demon Quest 85. It's a beautiful grotty thing, a game about high school students summoning demons, delivered with Mad Magazine cartoon visuals and a wonderful sense of dark humour.

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Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series, Bandai Namco-s two-game remaster of the much-loved Klonoa series, will be heading to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on 8th July, arriving alongside the previously announced Switch version.

Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series features HD remasters of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, first released on PlayStation 1 in 1997 and celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, plus its 2001 PlayStation 2 sequel Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil, both in the same package.

Both games, if you're unfamiliar, play out as side-scrolling platformers in which protatongist Klonoa, a Dream Traveler (and be-hatted rabbit thing), embarks on an adventure to save their respective worlds.

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It's been an eventful day for long-starved Skate fans; not only did footage from the series' upcoming fourth instalment leak its way onto the internet, additional details have begun to emerge, with a new report suggesting Skate 4 will let players build skateparks together in free skate mode as part of an emphasis on user-generated content.

That's according to the ever-leaky Jeff Grubb, who shared some fresh Skate 4 morsals from his sources during the most recent episode of his Giant Bomb show Grubbsnax. As transcribed by VGC, Grubb began by saying early word on the game appeared to be positive, with those who've played it being "very impressed with the way it feels."

According to Grubb, EA's goal with Skate 4 is to modernise the series while retaining its much-loved skating core, with some of the new features said to be akin to those seen in the likes of Forza or other modern multiplayer games. These reportedly includes ample customisation options for characters - "a lot of skins, skins for your board, things like that", Grubb explained - as well as user-generated content, which Skate 4 will "really emphasise".

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Sci-fi grand strategy game Stellaris' new Overlord expansion has been given a release date and will be making its way to PC on 12th May, arriving alongside a free update for all players.

Overlord is Stellaris' sixth major expansion (following on from Nemesis, Federations, MegaCorp, Apocalypse, and Utopia), and brings a range of new options for players as they spread their influence among the stars, this time loosely focussed on empire management.

There are, for instance, new vassalisation mechanics, enabling players to negotiate or demand the terms of their agreements with their new vassals, or even define the specialist role they'll play in an empire - either focusing on military might, tech research, or economic acquisition.

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You'd better sit down before I tell you this: in Overwatch 2, Bastion no longer stays still while turreted. Yes, the infamous party-wiping mounted chaingun of a character can now move around while in turret form. Bastion is completely transformed - and is not the only one.

I'm playing the Overwatch 2 closed alpha PvP test ahead of the closed beta on 26th April, which will invite members of the public in. It lets me try a small slice of PvP and play as new character Sojourn - who's great and I'll come back to in a moment - as well as test significant reworks for existing heroes Bastion, Doomfist, Orisa and Sombra. There are new maps and modes, a new ping feature, five-versus-five team sizes, a graphical facelift and a new user interface, and they all combine to make Overwatch 2 feel refreshing if not remarkably new.

First, Bastion. The robot has been redesigned with the philosophy of becoming more of a skirmisher that moves around and fights on the go, rather than one that finds sneaky places to mow teams down from - and it's a philosophy you can feel running through a lot of the character reworks and Overwatch 2. The vibe seems to be to keep the pace up and keep things moving.

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Retro spruce-up House of the Dead: Remake is making the jump from Switch to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC next Friday, 28th April.

Developed by Forever Entertainment and MegaPixel Studio, which previously collaborated on the similar Panzer Dragoon remake, this updated version of Sega's beloved 1997 arcade rail-shooter, delivers all the ludicrous zombie blasting action (and wonderfully awful dialogue) of the original, albeit with a fresh lick of modern-day paint.

Alongside its enhanced visuals, which you can scrutinise for yourself in the trailer below, House of the Dead: Remake also features a new Horde mode that increases the on-screen enemy count, updated controls (what with modern hardware largely being upsettingly lightgun-free), two-player local co-op, a photo mode, gallery, leaderboards, and achievements.

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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we're talking about Microsoft and Sony's plans to put advertising in free-to-play games. It's a feature commonly found - and widely accepted, if not enjoyed - in free mobile titles, which now seems to be on the way to your PlayStation and Xbox.

It's fair to say that few people enjoy advertising and it's unlikely you'd opt into seeing more of it - but do Microsoft and Sony see this as a way to encourage new, smaller developers into the console space? Of course, a lot depends on how these plans are implemented - and here we chew over a few ways that could be worse than others.

Finally, to lighten the mood, we have a chat about Amy Hennig's return to the Star Wars universe and the sheer number of upcoming games set in the galaxy far, far away we now have to look forward to. Apex Legends developer is making three, alongside projects from Quantic Dream, Ubisoft and others. Joining me to discuss all that are Eurogamer reporters Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Ishraq Subhan!

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Square Enix has revealed Outriders Worldslayer, a massive expansion to the original Outriders game.

Featuring a brand-new campaign story, Worldslayer contains higher gear level caps, new gear, a new difficulty mode and a gigantic new end-game.

The story campaign is standalone from the original game, with players facing a new Altered enemy, Ereshkigal, who wields an unnamed new power.

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When Rockstar announced that West-coast rapper Dr Dre would be starring in his own campaign in Grand Theft Auto Online, very few expected him to release a whole EP of music in the game.

To put it into context, Dre hadn't published any new music since his last album, Compton, back in 2015.

So just how did Rockstar convince one of the greatest rappers in history to play such a large role in a video game?

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"There were some comments that came up on Twitter after the game was released saying ‘Oh, she's ugly, she's not very attractive, I'm not interested in her'," says Jane Perry, the voice of Returnal's lead character Selene.

"And I thought that was such an interesting comment, I thought it was kind of illuminating in some ways in terms of what is expected of female characters in games, especially if they're going to be a kick-ass hero like Selene.

"And I just got to thinking, that person probably feels that because he or she has been fed a steady diet of a particular stereotype. And I think when you're fed a steady diet of one thing, you've been educated to expect that in a way."

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F1 has entered its new era in fairly convincing fashion, with the 2022 season delivering some great action and a revised order - and now, as the circus rocks up at Imola for the start of the European season EA Sports has lifted the lid on this year's model of the official game.

F1 22, as it's monikered, will of course feature all the tracks and new cars of the new season, alongside tweaked physics to take into account the ground-effect enabled cornering speeds of the new breed. It'll also offer the debut of the new Miami circuit, as well as a refined race day experience that offers both 'Immersive' and 'Broadcast' modes, with the former putting an emphasis on you making the big decisions while the latter allows for a more relaxed experience.

Perhaps most significantly for long-running players of the series VR support will finally be available on PC for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift players.

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Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One is coming to PS4 later this month, but the Xbox One version has been cancelled.

Frogwares, the Ukrainian developer behind the game, shared a statement stating that the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game were held back to improve optimisation.

However, thanks to the amount of work and the impact of the war, the Xbox One version has been put on hold indefinitely. Anyone with a pre-order on Xbox One can receive a full refund.

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Fall 10 stories or more without taking damage is one of the Seasonal Challenges in Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 2.

Gliding won’t count toward completing the quest, so you can’t use jump pads or IO Blimp fans to land safely.

Completing this challenge will reward you with 20K XP, which will help you unlock skins from the new Battle Pass.

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343 Industries has unveiled an early look at what Halo Infinite players can expect from Season 2, which is due to arrive on 3rd May.

"Knowing the rules of engagement is paramount to success," the developer wrote. "Today, we're giving you an early look at new game modes arriving with Season 2 of Halo Infinite – Landgrab, King of the Hill, and Last Spartan Standing."

So, without further ado, here is a small taster of what is coming in Halo Infinite's second season, Lone Wolves.

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Paradox will launch a Shadowrun Trilogy compilation for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on 21st June.

This will contain Shadowrun Returns, Shadowrun Dragonfall and Shadowrun: Hong Kong, previously released on PC, now with "upscaled graphics, improved performance and controller-optimised gameplay".

Originally developed by Jordan Weisman's Harebrained Schemes, the turn-based cyberpunk trilogy first arrived for PC between 2013 and 2015. Mobile versions have also been available - but never console editions. Until now!

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Five months after the game's release, Battlefield 2042 finally has voice chat (VoIP) support.

Update 4.0, which was released on Tuesday, made over 400 fixes, bugs, and quality of life improvements, in addition to voice chat and a new End of Round scoreboard.

Here are the main changes and bug fixes in the update:

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Gearbox has announced its acquisition of independent video game studio Lost Boys, adding more than 220 team members to its numbers. Gearbox's headcount now sits at roughly 1300, with that figure only expected to keep on rising.

"Lost Boys is an incredible studio with industry-leading talent that continue to push the bar higher for what gamers expect from their favourite franchises," said Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford.

"I am excited for Chase, Rod, Shaun, Mark and my old friend Tim, along with all of the incredible talent at Lost Boys, to have an immediate and positive impact on the games secretly in development at Gearbox Software [Borderlands 4??]. I am also eager to empower this amazing team to provide their world-class development services to partners and allies throughout the larger game industry."

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Capcom's games are selling so well, the publisher has revised its earnings forecast.

Last year, it released the likes of Resident Evil: Village and Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, both of which exceeded sales expectations and are cited by Capcom as a direct reason for the forecast revision.

Additionally, the release of Monster Hunter Rise on PC earlier this year - previously exclusive to the Nintendo Switch - has proven the "stable popularity of catalogue titles".

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Poor Ciro Immobile. He must barely be processing his national team’s non-attendance at the World Cup after winning the Euros last year. The last thing he needed was for me to pick him for my Dream Team campaign in eFootball 2022’s Season 1 update. A lone superstar in a squad of 40-something-rated no names, his has been a campaign of frustration and impotent rage. We have that in common, Ciro and I.

This was to be the artist formerly known as PES’s grand redemption. The launch of eFootball 2022 could hardly have gone worse for Konami last autumn, comprising a bafflingly sparse swathe of content, an ugly game of football on the pitch, and the kind of critical reception usually reserved for Activision movie tie-ins of the 2010s.

This first substantial update had a lot riding on it, and the feature list sounded promising - among the hilariously named Stunning Kick controls and the licensed Japanese and Korean Leagues lay a substantial mode to sink one’s teeth into. Finally, in Dream Team, we have something to do.

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JRPG fans are going to be in for a treat this summer, as Digimon Survive will be releasing on 29th July. So, yes, the very same day as fellow JRPG, Xenoblade Chronicles 3. It is safe to say that wasn't planned, but there we go.

Kazumasa Habu, producer for Digimon Survive shared the news on YouTube last night. "Sorry to keep you waiting for updates on Digimon Survive," he said. "But today I would like to provide you with this exciting news. The release date of Digimon Survive has finally been fixed for July 29, 2022."

He then goes on to say that there will be even more "exciting news" coming our way in "all forms", so, something to keep an eye out for.

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Amidst headlines over its plummeting subscriber numbers, Netflix has announced its next game project: a mobile version of hit card game Exploding Kittens.

Exploding Kittens - The Game will launch via Netflix next month, as the latest mobile title available to subscribers.

An Exploding Kittens adult animated series is also on the cards, with Lucy Liu and Lucifer star Tom Ellis attached to provide voices. That project won't arrive until 2023, however.

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EA has rushed to pull pre-alpha footage of Skate 4 which was leaked online last night.

The footage was uploaded on the video-hosting site Odysee before being quickly taken down a few hours later.

But the clip was quickly spread online after it was tweeted by notable industry insiders, Tom Henderson and Jeff Grubb.

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Accessibility options have been added to Quake, 26 years after the original game was released.

Last year an enhanced version of the game was released, which Bethesda is continuing to update and support.

This third update adds a number of accessibility options, mainly affecting visuals and voice chat.

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Marvel's Moon Knight is the latest Fortnite crossover, coinciding with the character's so-so new Disney+ show.

Fortnite has played host to countless Marvel characters before, of course, typically timed around their appearances on the big screen or TV shows (the current battle pass includes Doctor Strange, while we were treated to Hawkeye and Kate Bishop late last year).

Moon Knight's rather fetching skin includes a style with/without his cloak, and an additional style for his Mr. Knight persona. (We won't get into story details here, in case you're yet to start the new series.)

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Bluehole's MMO TERA is shutting down, after almost 10 years of service outside of South Korea.

"After careful deliberations, the developers of TERA have unfortunately taken the difficult decision to end development of the game, as they feel that they are no longer able to provide the satisfying content that TERA players deserve. Instead, they would like to focus their internal development efforts on other projects," publisher Gameforge wrote in a statement.

"Gameforge has happily hosted a great community in TERA for almost 10 years now, and would have happily served players even longer, but without the support of the developers this is not feasible."

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Ubisoft have made huge adventure games in recent years, and they provide excellent support by extending the story and our time with the characters for those of us who want to hang around with them even longer.

Some of their excellent DLC packs are currently on sale right now on Ubisoft's own site, and we've made a list of some of the more notable discounts.

The most significant DLC here is the Dawn of Ragnarok for Asssassin's Creed Valhalla. As Eivor, your goal is to become Odin, the Norse god of Battle and Wisdom, and use your powers to save your son in this Viking saga. Despite its recent release last month as one of Valhalla's biggest add-ons, it's reduced by 25 per cent to £25.49 right now.

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MSI is one of the leading brands in PC gaming thanks to their excellent range of PC components, which also allows them to make quality gaming laptops and gaming desktops. They also maunfacture monitors with FreeSync and G-Sync, and accessories like keyboards and mice.

No matter what you're looking for to upgrade your setup, MSI will have something to suit your style and budget. And for today only, you can save 5 percent on everything MSI at CCL Computers with the code 'MSIAPR'. CCL have a lot of MSI products available, so we've rounded up some the best deals below.

If you've been waiting to upgrade your GPU but couldn't stomach the prices being so high, then it's a good idea to take advantage of this sale. GPU prices have started going down already, and this MSI Radeon RX 6600 card is now under £300 on CCL. If you add the code 'MSIAPR' at checkout, that will bring it down to £294.49. You'll also get a month of Xbox Game Pass for PC as well!

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Back in January, Hazelight Studios' acclaimed It Takes Two was revealed to be getting the film and television adaptation treatment, and it's now being reported Amazon will be handling development of the movie, with Dwayne Johnson potentially set to star.

That's according to Variety, which reports the It Takes Two movie is now set for "priority development" at Amazon Studios, with dj2 Entertainment still producing the movie, and Dwayne Johnson's Seven Bucks Productions (Jumanji, Jungle Cruise) also on board.

Johnson will apparently serve as a producer, and Variety says its sources claim Johnson may also star in the movie, although "nothing is official as of now".

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Paradox Interactive's acclaimed Medieval grand strategy game Crusader Kings 3 is setting its sights on Spain and Portugal for its next DLC, the Fate of Iberia Flavour Pack, which arrives on 31st May alongside a big free update for all players.

Core to the DLC - which aims to give players the opportunity to "truly decide the fate of the [Iberian] peninsula, either by reenacting history or creating an alternative that pleases you more" - is a new system that Paradox is referring to as the Struggle, said to highlight the "unique historical circumstances that typify regions that have been centres of conflict" and "create new opportunities and add constraints" for players in the Iberian peninsula.

Fate of Iberia will include an updated map for the region - refining the county and duchy divisions, as well as cultures and faiths - alongside new events (some specific to Iberia and others adding variety for all players), new Urbane and Coterie Legacy tracks, new Cultural Traditions, plus new friend interactions and duels.

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Following reports earlier this week that Microsoft is considering introducing ads to free-to-play games on Xbox, a new report has surfaced claiming Sony has been working on its own plan to do the same with its PlayStation games.

As reported by Business Insider (paywall), which cites three people involved with Sony plans as its sources, the company is currently investigating ways to encourage developers to continue making free-to-play games - said to have soared in popularity during the pandemic - by providing new ways to monetise them.

At present, PlayStation's ad inventory is said to be limited to in-menu ads - which can be used by publishers and developers to do things like promote their own games on the PlayStation Store - and ads served via streaming video on certain apps.

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Remember last week when I told you publisher Deep Silver and developer Volition had a showcase all about the customisation coming in the Saints Row reboot? Well, it's here, and boy has it delivered.

Let's put it this way, when the Saints Row team said the customisation will cover "all aspects of player choice in the game", they really meant it.

Everything from your teeth to your car's horn can be made just the way you want. You fancy fangs? Go for it.

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If you've been hankering for more quality VR action to shove your face into, there's a good chance you might find something to your liking in Meta's latest Quest-focused virtual reality showcase, broadcast earlier today. And if you missed its selection of reveals and gameplay, have no fear! You'll find all its announcements - including word on Ghostbusters VR, Red Matter 2, Moss 2, Resident Evil 4's Mercenaries mode, and a follow-up to Boneworks - conveniently gathered together for your perusal below.

Ghostbusters VR

Ghostbusters VR (working title, if you were wondering) brings the 80s movie classic to virtual reality as a four-player co-op adventure promising an "extensive and engrossing" spirit-bothering campaign. Players will need to track, blast, and trap ghosts as they protect San Francisco from the unearthly realm, with developer nDreams aiming to deliver "all the humour and frights from the beloved franchise" when Ghostbusters VR eventually arrives at some currently undisclosed future point.

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Resident Evil 4's Mercenaries mode arrives today as part of the Meta Quest 2 version of Capcom's classic, via a free update with brand new content made specifically for this VR version. The announcement came via the just-finished Meta Gaming Showcase event - and you can play the mode for yourself now, or watch our Ian try it for himself just below.

Mercenaries, a wave-based PVE mode found in several Resident Evil titles, is a fan-favourite - and not least in Resident Evil 4, where you face hordes of ganados against the clock while attempting to land a high score. But this fresh version of Mercenaries for Meta Quest 2 includes an array of new options and unlockable extras - including online leaderboards and 20 Challenges which mix up Mercenaries' gameplay in new ways.

Challenges include options which restrict gameplay to just knives or rocket launchers, or shroud the map in fog. Complete these, and you'll gain access to other all-new additions such as a Big Head Mode, speedy Fast Forward mode, and a black-and-white Classic Horror Mode for the main Resi 4 campaign.

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Developer Ludeon Studios' widely acclaimed sci-fi colony sim RimWorld has had its Refused Classification status rescinded in Australia following a successful appeal, meaning its effective ban in the region has been overturned.

The notoriously sensitive Australian Classification Board initially refused to grant RimWorld a rating in March after its publisher Double Eleven Limited submitted the game for an upcoming "multi platform" launch, prohibiting it from release and effectively banning it from sale. The decision even affected the long-available Steam version of RimWorld, preventing new purchases from being made on Valve's digital store.

No specific reason was given for the board's decision at the time, with its website only referencing its usual boilerplate copy for games refused a rating, saying RC titles are those that "depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified."

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The Lantern Trails are a recurring Fortnite event that rewards you for completing specific acts.

If you want to partake in the Lantern Trails and, more importantly, earn the Lantern Trails rewards, then you must first sign up for them.

Below we cover how to sign up for the Lantern Trails, including how they work, and what the current Lantern Trail rewards are.

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