Eurogamer

Chernobylite developer The Farm 51 is "heartbroken" at current events in Ukraine.

Speaking to PressPlayNews, studio creative director Wojciech Pazdur discussed the war, as well as the future of the game.

"This war, like any other, is an unnecessary violence which takes lives of innocent people and forces millions to flee and abandon their homes while those who stayed have to fight for their lives during the humanitarian crisis," he said.

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World of Warcraft maker Blizzard is polling fans of the franchise on what they'd like to see offered in the somewhat-inevitable Wrath of the Lich King Classic.

Options in the marketing survey obtained by Wowhead include digital toys, pets and mounts, as well as character transfers, level boosts and game time.

Several price points are mentioned, including $50 (£38) and $30 (£23) options.

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One scientist has answered the question surely on everyone's minds since The Elder Scrolls 5 released over a decade ago – just what would Skyrim's skeletons look like if they were alive today? Well, it turns out, they would look like disgruntled cavemen.

Thanks to facial reconstruction technology, Twitter user Sulkalmakh from the Ancestral Whispers cranial reconstruction research team brought Skyrim's bony boys to life, as it were.

In a playful tweet from April Fool's Day (via IGN), the user shared their "Facial reconstruction of an ancient Atmoran from Saarthal, dated to the late Merethic Era". This may well have gone over the heads of many, but eagle-eyed fans were soon quick to realise that the face staring back at them on the screen was indeed that of a (now fully fleshed) Skyrim Skeleton.

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Jetpacks have been unvaulted in Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 2, receiving some welcome improvements.

Although you don’t get any XP for finding Jetpacks, they are very useful for traversing the map, especially in No-Build Mode. You can also now aim down the sights of your gun while hovering, making it easier to get kills from a longer distance.

Below you'll learn how to get Jetpacks in Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 2 and how to use Jetpacks.

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Destiny developer Bungie has committed to a new "digital-first" hiring policy, and said that "most current and future roles will be fully remote eligible".

The move contrasts with recent pushes from companies such as Call of Duty maker Activision and League of Legends studio Riot Games, who seem keener to get staff back in offices - leading to Covid safety concerns.

Bungie has said it will allow remote work from a number of US states (likely due to local tax laws - thanks, Kotaku) including the developer's home of Washington, plus others including California, Florida and Texas.

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Bandai Namco is working with Nintendo to remaster a 3D action game.

That's according to multiple job listings on Bandai Namco's Japanese website, spotted on Resetera.

Those listings are for a planner and two visual artist positions, one of which specifies work to "perform HD remastering of the 3D background" (thanks google translate).

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Halo support studio Certain Affinity has said it is "deepening" its relationship with the series' main developer 343 Industries, and is now at work on "evolving" Halo Infinite further.

Certain Affinity has assisted with Halo development as far back as Halo 2, where it worked on extra maps for that game. Subsequently, it has served as a co-developer for 343 on Halo Waypoint, Reach, Halo 4 and Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Its continued work on the series with Halo Infinite comes as little surprise, then, but the language it has used - and an earlier report on what it might be up to - point to a major addition to Infinite coming from Certain Affinity in the future.

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Publisher Devolver Digital and developer WolfEye Studios have unveiled new and future content for their cowboy-themed action-RPG, Weird West.

In a trailer for its new, and free, community 'Plague' event, Devolver Digital wrote, "Reports are rolling in from across the Weird West of a plague of undead rising from the grave! Worse, a terrible sickness seems to follow in their wake. Stay sharp, travelers."

So, yes, Hollywood may have given us Cowboys vs Aliens already, but now its time for Cowboys vs Zombies! You can check out the new trailer for yourself below.

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Are you running out of storage space on your Nintendo Switch, Switch Lite or Switch OLED, and don't want to delete any games from your library? If so, now's the perfect time to expand your storage thanks to this heavily discounted micro SD card deal.

Today is the last day of the Amazon Spring Sale and the online retail giant has knocked a massive 38 quid off one of Sandisk's 400GB micro SD cards - that's almost half price!

This micro SD card option should give you more than enough space for your games and plenty of room to grow your Switch collection in the future. It also has up to 120MB/s transfer speeds, meaning better gameplay experience and A1-rated performance for apps.

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I don't need to tell you Fez is a great game because you know that. Everyone told you that in 2012. We named it Game of the Year, then called a Game of the Decade seven years later. It's one of the indie icons, a mandatory mention whenever you're talking about them.

But it's been 10 years since it was released, which is a long time, and somehow within all of that, I had never played it. Until now, that is, and it's an interesting place to look back on the game from. There's no noise surrounding it now, no drama. All that hullabaloo, it's gone. Now, really, there is only the game.

And what a game. I'm not here to give you a controversial hot-take on how time has ravaged Fez and revealed it to be rubbish, because it hasn't. In fact, I'm partly here to tell you the opposite and how time doesn't seem to have touched Fez at all. It's remarkable how fresh it still feels. It could have been released this year.

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If you've been itching to turn to the darker side in No Man's Sky, developer Hello Games' exploratory space sim has you covered in its new Outlaws update, giving players the chance to trade their life of relatively wholesome interplanetary meandering and base building for one of rather more criminal pursuits as they take on the role of fearsome space pirates.

Just as February's Sentinels update sought to improve ground combat, Outlaws aims to do the same for space combat. That means better ship handling, shields for enemy starships, plus visual enhancements and various specialist secondary effects for weapons. The latter for instance, might give players the ability to slow enemy engines or disable their shield systems. Additionally, combat can now move down into a planet's atmosphere and AI pirates can even attack your settlements - and if all that sounds a little intimidating, Hello Games has introduced a new Auto-Follow mode to improve combat accessibility.

Elsewhere, there's a brand-new class of ship in the form of the sleek, solar-powered, and rather unimaginatively named Solar Starship (plus the maximum number of ships players can store has now been increased to nine), and it's now possible to create squadrons, recruiting and upgrading AI wingmen, each with their own unique abilities, for assistance in battle. Oh, and all ships now have high-capacity (and expandable) cargo inventories for specialist goods.

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Blizzard has provided additional details of next week's World of Warcraft expansion reveal, confirming the event - previously announced to be airing on Tuesday, 19th April - will commence at 5pm BST/6pm CEST/9am PT/12pm ET.

"World of Warcraft has ignited imaginations through rich storytelling and expansive worlds that prevail throughout the Shadowlands expansion," Blizzard wrote in an its announcement of today's news. "From the hopeless depths of the Maw to the ethereal plains of Zereth Mortis, the Shadowlands delivers a world that challenges heroes to confront the forces that threaten to upset the cosmic balance between life and death. With the story in the Shadowlands coming to a conclusion, the time is at hand to get a sneak peek at what’s next for the heroes of Azeroth."

As for what maybe next for the long-running MMO, that's still somewhat unclear, but Warcraft-focused website Wowhead reports (thanks VGC) that data found in the source code of the official World of Warcraft website suggests the new expansion will be called Dragonflight, with Base, Heroic, and Epic Expansion pre-purchases seemingly set to become available following next week's reveal.

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Last March, John Wick director Chad Stahelski announced he was working on a movie adaptation of PlayStation samurai adventure Ghost of Tsushima, and now, a little over a year later, a writer for the project has been named.

As reported by Deadline, the new Ghost of Tsushima film adaptation will be penned by Takashi Doscher, who previously wrote and directed romantic sci-fi romance, Only, alongside ESPN documentary A Fighting Chance.

Deadline says the adaptation is still in "early development" and, as such, details remain scarce. However, the publication previously confirmed the project - a collaboration between Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions - will, perhaps unsurprisingly, follow the adventures of game protagonist Jin Sakai. Will there be Hot Spring butt? Only time will tell.

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UPDATE 13/4/22: Aspyr has acquired Beamdog and will publish its newly-announced MythForce.

Aspyr is best known for its Star Wars remasters and is currently working on a remake of BioWare's Knights of the Old Republic.

Beamdog, itself founded by former BioWare leads Trent Oster and Cameron Tofer, will operate as an independent studio within Aspyr, which is owned by Saber Interactive. Ultimately, this means Aspyr is now part of the enormous Embracer Group, formerly THQ Nordic AB.

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Elden Ring's late-game bosses are tough, so what better way to ease the pain of FromSoftware latest epic than by cutting out the middle man and getting one boss to fight another boss on your behalf? We've already had one such showdown before, pitting Malenia against Starcourge Radahn (and his pal Leonard the horse), and the victor of that skirmish is now back, this time taking on Maliketh, the Black Blade.

This latest battle of Elden Ring's elite comes courtesy of the Garden of Eyes, the same modder that bought Malenia face to face with Radahn (and that also pitted Bloodborne's Lady Maria against Resident Evil Village's Lady Dimitrescu), this time promising the "ultimate battle of the Shardbearers" and delivering a whole lot of pyrotechnics as the two fight it out.

Those who've yet to enter the gauntlet of carefully curated misery that makes up Elden Ring's final stretch will obviously want to steer clear of Garden of Eyes' latest head-to-head for obvious spoiler reasons, but those eager to see who reigns victorious this time around simply need to watch the video below.

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Datacards in LEGO Star Wars Skywalker Saga have replaced the Red Bricks found in most other LEGO games.

Similar to Red Bricks, Datacards are required to unlock cheats, but the big difference is that you can’t enter a code to get Datacards instantly. Instead, you have to find Datacard locations scattered across all nine episodes in order to toggle cheats like handy Stud multipliers or Big Head Mode.

This guide will explain exactly how to get Datacards, and all Datacard locations in LEGO Star Wars Skywalker Saga.

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There is a shiny Bunnelby in Pokémon Go, but that’s not the only reason why you should partake in this week’s Spotlight Hour.

Here we cover why you should catch as many Bunnelby as possible during this hour-long window, including a preview of shiny Bunnelby and the chance to catch a 100% perfect IV stats Bunnelby.

Even once Bunnelby’s Spotlight Hour is over, this week is quite busy in Pokémon Go - the Spring into Spring event has returned with a new Collection Challenge and Tapu Bulu is appearing for the first time in five-star raids.

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In a sadly expected move, veteran development studio Vicarious Visions has been rebranded as Blizzard Albany.

"We've officially merged with Blizzard Entertainment," the developer tweeted today.

"Our development team will remain in Albany, NY and fully dedicated to Blizzard games."

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What is the most visually impressive indie game you've ever seen? From our perspective, The Ascent - released last summer for PC and Xbox - is a strong candidate. This Unreal Engine 4-based isometric action game features dense environmental geometry, great lighting, and high quality effects work. It's easily mistaken for a big-budget title but was in fact primarily made by Neon Giant, a small Swedish studio with just 12 core developers. Previously an Xbox console exclusive, The Ascent is now available for current-gen and last-gen PlayStation consoles - and we highly recommend it.

Whether you're gaming on PS4 or PS5, The Ascent retains its signature visual appeal - it's a beautiful title that combines extremely detailed environmental geometry with stunning pyrotechnics. As action breaks out The Ascent becomes an electrifying visual showcase, bathed in explosions and bullet trails. The interplay between the environment and the action is a key highlight here: stray bullets and explosions chip at barriers and take chunks out of concrete slabs. Despite massive levels packed with dense environmental meshes, everything seems to fit together surprisingly well, without any geometric or lighting discontinuities. Even the game's narrative sequences, which zoom in to close range, don't highlight many shortcomings.

Transmit data to drone is one of the Resistance challenges in Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 2.

If you want to complete this challenge, you must first complete the Resistance challenges from Week 3 and the ‘Deploy Aquatic Communication Relays near Logjam Lumberyard’ challenge from Week 4.

Completing this challenge will reward you with 23k XP, which will help you unlock skins from the new Battle Pass.

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Deploy Aquatic Communication Relays near Logjam Lumberyard is one of the Resistance Quests in Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 2.

To complete the challenge, you must first establish a Device Uplink near Logjam Lumberyard, and then find three of the four Aquatic Communication Relays nearby.

Completing each step of this challenge will reward you with 23K XP, which will help unlock new Battle Pass skins.

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Get ready intrepid explorers, as Young Horses has announced its colourful and eclectic adventure romp Bugsnax will be making its way to Xbox, Nintendo Switch and Steam on 28th April, as well as to Game Pass across Xbox and PC.

But wait, there’s more. Not only will new players be welcomed onto the whimsical shores of Snaktooth Island, home to the game’s titular snack and bug hybrids, they will also get their hands on the game’s brand new DLC - The Isle of Bigsnax - on the very same day. For those who have already been playing Bugsnax through PlayStation and Epic, don’t worry. This DLC will also be coming to you at the same time.

In this new DLC, players will be sent to a mysterious new island that has risen up from the depths of the sea. And, as you may have already guessed by its name, here players will come across a new range of supersized bugsnax to capture. You can check out the new trailer for The Isle of Bigsnax below.

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Acer's monitors are often overlooked, despite many models catering to different needs for different users. The Predator line has always been reserved for enthusiast gamers.

This is where the Acer Predator XB253QGX steps in. It's a full HD monitor with incredible features, now reduced by £70 and available for just £279.99 from Amazon.

The IPS panel means you'll get great viewing angles with vibrant colours, unlike a washed-out TN panel. It also has a staggering 240Hz refresh rate. That means if you're deep into esports and playing titles such as Call of Duty, Apex Legends and Rocket League, this is the monitor for you. And because it has G-Sync support, you'll experience less tearing and see more of your gameplay, so long as your reflexes can keep up.

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A new trailer for the forthcoming musou spin-off Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes has revealed the game’s Mysterious Mercenary protagonist.

You’ll be playing as the purple-haired Shez, who can be male or female (the name can be changed too) and is on a quest to challenge The Ashen Demon.

Shez can choose between three diverging paths based on the houses from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. There’s Scarlet Blaze (Edelgard), Azure Gleam (Dimitri), and Golden Wildfire (Claude), with the path chosen affecting story beats and playable characters.

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"Unreal. Absolutely unreal." That's how Wren Brier and Tim Dawson, the creators of Unpacking, described their double win at the BAFTA Games to me last week. So shocked were they at taking home gongs for Narrative and the public voted Game of the Year the couple didn't even have a speech prepared.

Unpacking's success has seen the indie "zen puzzle game" beat a number of big AAA games to several awards (not least Eurogamer's own Game of the Year last year), and find itself cast as a gentle, queer David to the Goliaths of Returnal, It Takes Two, and Metroid Dread.

I caught up with Brier and Dawson before the BAFTAs to discuss the game's development.

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Kristen Hines has been named as the new chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at embattled publisher Activision Blizzard.

Hines' appointment comes after a year of damaging headlines which have shone light on Activision Blizzard's company culture, including numerous allegations of misconduct and abuse.

Controversial Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick - who remains in place, at least while the company's sale to Microsoft is finalised - welcomed Hines' hiring today.

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If you feel like you need to see even more of Master Chief's derriere after his naked TV debut last week, well I have good news - there is a mod that lets you play Halo Infinite in third person.

The PC mod in question comes from Opulent Halo (via PC Gamer). While the mod is actually a few months old now, many have been recently diving back into Halo Infinite to see how Master Chief (at least his video game form) looks from this new angle. Perhaps Paramount has whetted some appetites?

In a video showing off the mod in action, the creator wrote, "after my novice modding skills in Halo Infinite, I wondered what third person would look like... [spoiler alert] it's amazing".

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Elden Ring's worlds are beautiful and desolate. But what if the perspective was shifted?

That's exactly what YouTuber Flurdeh has done. Using camera tools by Frans Bouma, they've used a tilt shift lens and isometric view to create a video of the Lands Between from above (thanks PC Gamer).

Though not a full mod, it somewhat reimagines the game as a CRPG, Miyazaki's bleak world becoming adorable little dioramas with tiny model enemies shuffling around.

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Not content with completing Elden Ring in under 10 minutes, speedrunner Distortion2 has now finished the game using a butt stomp.

Technically it's an Ashe of War called Ground Slam but let’s be real: it's a butt stomp.

Spotted by PC Gamer, the streamer has a highlights video of the run up on YouTube that shows the butt slamming route to victory.

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Publisher Nacon and developer Rogue Factor have lifted the curtain on their new action-adventure IP, Hell is Us.

In a joint press release, the companies gave a brief and somewhat haunting synopsis for the game. "The almost total self-sufficiency of the country hides a dark secret: the recent appearance of supernatural creatures resembling ancient headstones and monuments in the region,” the Hell is Us team explained. "The citizens call this phenomenon 'the Calamity'. Armed with weapons specially forged to fight these monsters, the protagonist must learn how to defeat them and use his equipment wisely."

To accompany this announcement, a new teaser for Hell is Us was also debuted. This trailer gives off strong Kojima vibes, and shows off the game's dystopian country, which is ravaged by civil war. In the words of Ed Nightingale, "It’s like Death Stranding with a sword". You can check out the trailer for yourself below.

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A new update for Halo: The Master Chief Collection has added "experimental" cross-platform co-op for both Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST.

The feature will let anyone on PC, Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S play these games' campaigns co-operatively online together.

In patch notes, developer 343 Industries said the cross-play had been tested internally - though the company now needed "additional insight from real players with different networking setups". If you experience issues, you're encouraged to report them so 343 can improve the feature further.

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Nintendo will expand its Kyoto headquarters with a new 10,000 square metre building next door to its existing sites.

The Mario maker has already stumped up the $40m required to purchase the land, on which it will build a new 12-storey office which will expand its notoriously-secretive research and development work.

The new building (red in the diagram below) will sit next to other Nintendo buildings (in pink) and be open by the end of December 2027 (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz). Maybe we'll have Switch 3 by then?

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The Spring into Spring event in Pokémon Go celebrates both the arrival of spring and Easter.

Throughout this event, you can complete the Spring into Spring Collection Challenge and event exclusive field research tasks. There’s also a variety of bonuses for you to enjoy, including a reduced hatch distance on any egg placed into an incubator during the event.

There are also three new Flower Crown Pokémon to add to your costume Pokémon collection. Yay?

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An Ula’ula Adventure is a special research quest released as part of the Season of Alola in Pokémon Go.

If you complete this quest - along with A Melemele Adventure, An Akala Adventure and the Poni Island research quest - before Wednesday, 1st June, you’ll earn free access to an end-of-season event.

Below you’ll find all of the An Ula’ula Adventure quest steps and rewards in Pokémon Go.

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Tapu Bulu is a legendary Pokémon hailing from Gen 7 and debuted in Pokémon Go as part of the Season of Alola.

Tapu Bulu is one the Alola region’s guardian deities and both Tapu Koko and Tapu Lele have already appeared in five-star raids in Pokémon Go.

Before attempting to catch this Pokémon, it’s a good idea to know Tapu Bulu’s counters and weaknesses, so you have a better chance of adding this legendary to your Pokédex!

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I used to think I wanted to learn card tricks. These days I want to learn card flourishes. There's a difference. I get it now.

Card tricks are great of course. The magician takes a new deck and cuts an ace. They get you to pick a card and then it appears upside down in the pack, in your next hand, stuck in your pocket, tucked behind the clock on the mantlepiece.

All of this is brilliant. It's magic! But you need an audience. And, as the saying goes, you can only do it once really. Do it twice and the magic disappears and the audience starts to think about how much work is going into it.

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Wingspan, the rather lovely digital adaptation of Stonemaier Games' equally lovely bird-themed board game, will be ushering a fresh flock of avians into its welcoming habitats from 5th May, come the launch of its first major gameplay DLC, the European Expansion.

Wingspan's European Expansion builds on the core game's soothing, strategic deck building - which Eurogamer's Robert Purchese was rather taken with when he first put it through its paces some time back now - by introducing 81 new bird cards from the European area, each accompanied by a recording of its actual sound.

These new birds will bring a range of fresh abilities for use during play - such as the option to steal other players' food, to place cards on already played cards, and to reset the bird feeder - and you'll find a little more in the way of specifics on the official European Expansion website.

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Capcom has confirmed a sequel to its Arcade Stadium retro compilation is on the way - consisting of 32 more classic titles - after references to a follow-up were spotted on the South Korean game classification website earlier this month.

Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium, as the sequel is known, will follow the same release model as its predecessor, consisting of a free base download that includes one game and offering additional titles to purchase from within the collection. Quite why Capcom has decided a sequel is necessary, given the modular, expandable nature of the original, is currently unclear.

"The second Capcom Arcade Stadium title featuring a recreated arcade full of authentic cabinets to play", is how the publisher describes the sequel in a reference on Steam, promising "a new lineup of masterpieces!". And in a seperate tweet, it's now confirmed that lineup will total 32 arcade classics when it comes to Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC this June.

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Since we began DF Direct Weekly just over a year ago, there has always been one scenario we've been quietly dreading. If we're making a show based around the latest gaming and technology news, what if there is no gaming and technology news? Thankfully something always emerges but last week was our closest brush yet to a content-free show.

Perhaps I'm over-exaggerating. After all, the arrival of Unreal Engine 5 and the release of The Matrix Awakens city sample for PC users is a big deal, along with the wealth of information 'dropped' in Epic's State of Unreal presentation last week. And yes, we've got plenty to say about that - especially with the news that the next Tomb Raider game will ship on UE5, likely meaning the end of the excellent Foundation Engine used in the the latest series entries and of course, Marvel's Avengers.

Possibly the most interesting news was the leak of a ray tracing enabled version of Minecraft for Xbox Series consoles. Path-traced features made their way into an insider built, but the code was quickly withdrawn. We have to wonder, why? When we first saw Xbox Series X way back in March 2020, Minecraft was the title used to showcase the hardware's RT capabilities. Over two years on, we're still waiting for the upgrade.

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New figures show that player numbers for DICE's Battlefield 2042 keep on falling, with less than 1000 concurrent users playing via Steam this morning.

A thread on ResetEra revealed that as few as 979 players were shown to be taking part in the game on Steam earlier today, with a peak of 2411 players in the last 24 hours. In comparison, 2018’s Battlefield 5 had a peak of 20,913 players over the same 24-hour period.

These numbers are pretty dire for such a relatively new game, especially one in such a longstanding series, but at this point aren't a surprise. After all, in November, Vikki reported that Battlefield 2042 was one of Steam's worst-reviewed games of all time, with one user stating the game's “issues are endless”.

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