Eurogamer

Valve's Dota 2 documentary, Free to Play, is coming to Netflix from tomorrow, 19th April.

Up until now, the hour-long film - which was produced way back during 2011's The International - had been available on Valve's YouTube channel, and - at the time of writing - is still available in its entirety online (thanks, PCGN).

Free to Play is described as a feature-length documentary that follows three professional gamers from around the world as they compete for a million dollar prize in the first Dota 2 International Tournament.

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Even if you play GTA 5 as a complete goody two-shoes, you'll still murder over 700 people.

This astonishing fact comes courtesy of Redditor TK-576 (thanks, PCGN), who calculated the tally by totting up every necessary kill in the game.

According to the calcuation, you'll kill at least 726 people by the time your adventure is up, with Franklin racking up 295 executions, Trevor taking down 258 foes, and Michael a paltry 172 kills. The threesome also worked together to dispatch of one other character together, too.

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Apex Legends dataminer Biast12 has revealed details of what they believe is a new Apex Legends' character: Pariah.

In a tweet - which was accompanied by what they say are screenshots taken from the game - Biast12 reports Pariah will feature an ultimate ability that enables them to activate a device that releases "a flurry of steam in all directions but becomes unable to move" and Steam that "causes burn damage directly to health" instead of armour.

The passive, on the other hand, will enable Pariah to see enemy health bars, as well as offer immunity from stunning effects and the steam from rival Pariah SDM devices.

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The image of Diddy Kong has been updated on the Japanese Nintendo website, sparking rumours that the pint-sized hero may be making a return in the not-too-distant future.

As spotted by the eagle-eyed BlueCatBanjo73 and reported by our friends at Nintendo Life, Diddy's had a bit of a makeover, even though it's been all quiet on the Kong front since Tropical Freeze was re-released on Nintendo Switch a couple of years back.

Now, however, Nintendo Japan has updated the stock image of Diddy on the official website, switching out the last render - which was taken from Mario Party DS - for a new one. Interestingly, Diddy's sporting the same pose and outfit.

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The writer and creative director of Days Gone says that players shouldn't "complain if a game doesn't get a sequel" if they didn't buy it "at f-cking full price".

In an interview on David Jaffe's YouTube channel, John Garvin was asked if the game's debut on Sony's PlayStation Plus subscription service had sparked new interest in the title.

"I do have an opinion on something that your audience may find of interest, and it might piss some of them off," Garvin said (thanks, VGC). "If you love a game, buy it at f-cking full price. I can't tell you how many times I've seen gamers say 'yeah, I got that on sale, I got it through PS Plus, whatever'.

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Amazon has cancelled its Lord of the Rings MMO.

Bloomberg reports the game, which was announced in 2019, was scrapped over a dispute between Amazon and Chinese mega-corp Tencent.

In July 2019, Amazon's game development arm, Amazon Game Studios, revealed it was co-developing a new free-to-play MMO based on JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

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Nintendo is suing a Switch hacker called Gary Bowser.

As reported by Polygon, Nintendo of America filed a lawsuit against 51-year-old Canadian national Bowser, who is an alleged member of Switch hack creators Team Xecuter.

That's right - president of Nintendo of America Doug Bowser is suing a Nintendo hacker called Gary Bowser. This is the battle of the Bowsers - in court.

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Remember the cancelled GoldenEye 007 XBLA remaster that leaked online in February? Now it's got Dr. Doak.

In the Xbox 360 remaster of Rare's groundbreaking N64 shooter, fan-favourite NPC Dr. Doak was replaced with "Dr. Rakhmanov".

Dr. Doak was based on David Doak, one of the real-life developers of GoldenEye 007 at Rare and actual real-life doctor. Prior to working at Rare, Doak was involved in scientific research, using what were for the time high-end graphics workstations on protein structure determination. (Work on these Silicon Graphics machines helped Doak got an in at Rare.)

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Well all know about Resident Evil Village's Lady Dimitrescu at this point. She's the star of the show and hot internet property. But, do we all know how to correctly pronounce her name?

I thought I did, at least. Lady Dimitrescu, with the "coo" at the end. Seems pretty obvious to me. That's how I've always pronounced Romanian footballers with the same or similar surname. World Cup '94 star Ilie Dumitrescu, for example. Brilliant former Chelsea fullback Dan Petrescu is another. Interviews with these footballers have always pronounced the "coo", too. And so that's what I did with Lady Dimitrescu.

But it appears I may be wrong.

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Sony issued an update to the PlayStation 5's DualSense controller this week, and reports indicate it has improved the rumble effect for PlayStation 4 back compat games.

The DualSense update, issued alongside the PS5's big firmware update that finally let you move games to USB storage, doesn't have official patch notes, leaving players to work out what's changed.

Reports indicate the DualSense's vibration is now more pronounced when playing PS4 games. Since the PS5 came out in November, it's felt like the vibration on the DualSense when playing PS4 games was weak compared to how it feels when playing PS4 games on an actual PS4. Obviously, the rumble created by the DualSense, which uses haptic feedback tech, is different than the rumble created by the DualShock 4's motors.

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Treyarch has restored Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War accounts incorrectly banned for cheating in Zombies after a community outcry.

Last week, Eurogamer reported on how Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War players were terrified of getting banned for playing Zombies to high rounds after a spate of high-profile ban reports from those who proclaimed their innocence.

The Zombies community surfaced a disconnect message called "Sail 630 nuclear bug", which popped up on the PC version of Treyarch's shooter.

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Path of Exile is currently embroiled in a controversy sparked by the catastrophic launch of a new expansion and a backlash against preferential treatment given to streamers.

The popular action role-playing game last night launched the Ultimatum expansion. Here, players risk items for coveted rewards in increasingly difficult trials.

There is an element of competition here, with those reaching the highest maps first expected to dominate the in-game economy over the next few months. These players would also gain the lead in the fight for extremely valuable rewards given to those who finish on top of the ladder.

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The PlayStation 5 is the fastest-selling console in US history.

According to market research group NPD, Sony's console is the fastest-selling ever in the US in both unit and dollar sales. That's lifetime sales with five months on the market.

The PS5 sold 4.5m units globally in 2020. In February, Sony said it was on track to sell over 7.6m PS5 units by 31st March 2021.

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Call of Duty: Warzone developer Raven Software has promised an "adjustment" for the controversial Roze skin.

Activision's battle royale has for months now come under fire for a particular skin for operator Roze, which many consider "pay-to-win".

Last year the "Rook" skin for Roze was sold as part of the Season 5 premium battle pass (it was a tier 100 unlock).

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Netflix has confirmed its enormously entertaining animated adaptation of Castlevania will return to the streaming service next month, on 13th May, for a fourth and final season - with a follow-up spin-off series reportedly in the works.

Netflix's animated take on Konami's classic video game series first aired back in 2017, with its initial four-episode run introducing disgraced monster hunter Trevor Belmont and a grief-stricken Dracula, hell-bent on revenge after his wife's murder by the church.

Castlevania has featured the likes of Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont, Graham McTavish as Dracula, James Callis as Alucard, and Alejandra Reynoso as Sypha Belnades during its run, and the series' scope has continued to expand under the watch of showrunner Warren Ellis.

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Immortals Fenyx Rising, Ubisoft's greek mythology inspired open-world adventure, will be getting its third and final helping of paid post-launch DLC next Thursday, 22nd April.

The Lost Gods, as the story DLC is known, follows the adventures of new protagonist Ash, who travels to Pyrite Island in order to gather up the deities - including Poseidon and Hades - that fled Olympos around the start of the main game. All going well, they'll return to the Pantheon and help restore balance of the world.

Notably, The Lost Gods shakes up Fenyx Rising's core formula by introducing new brawler-style combat, a new "god's eye" top-down isometric perspective, as well as unique abilities and a customisable upgrade system for Ash.

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Developer Frontier has offered a brisk look at Elite Dangerous' new genetic-sample-snaffling Exobiology feature, set to be introduced in the space sim's upcoming Odyssey expansion and available now for those in the current expansion alpha.

Given that players will have the option to hop out of their ships and stroll around on-foot in Odyssey, Elite dangerous' planetary systems have received a major overhaul. As part of these changes, new geological features and pockets of life will be available for discovery by thorough explorers, which can, in turn, be scanned to generate sellable data.

Frontier says it's now quadrupled the number of vegetation species in Elite Dangerous as part of its planetary overhaul, and those players interested in making a profit from the organic life they encounter will first need to acquire a Supratech Artemis Suit - purchasable from all good space stores - granting access to the new Genetic Sampler.

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If you've ever wondered what main characters look like early in the development process, well, here's your chance, as a modder has found placeholder models of many of Cyberpunk 2077's characters - and even "restored" some of them to make them playable. In as much as you can restore something that was never intended to make the final cut, anyway.

The Ghosts of Night City mod by Hineytroll reveals a whole bunch of unused character assets, including for main characters like Rogue, Jackie and Judy. These all appear to be placeholders, and while some barely resemble their final characters, others look far closer to the finished product. And, to be honest, they're just quite funny to look at.

Here are some screenshots of Judy, Lizzy Wizzy, Jackie, Rogue and Panam, who all vaguely resemble their final versions - aside from Panam's extremely blonde hair, perhaps. I'm now christening this bunch Jody, Dizzy Mizzy, Juckie, Rague and Ponom.

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Lego's electronic Super Mario toy has started calling out for his brother, an owner has noticed.

Following a firmware update this week, Lego Super Mario now cries out for Luigi after being woken for a nap.

Video footage of this phenomenon popped up online thanks to the below post by Twitter user Jay Phoenix - and Lego itself has now commented on the mysterious situation.

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Genshin Impact's PlayStation 5 version launches on 28th April, miHoYo has announced.

The PS5 version arrives alongside the 1.5 update, dubbed Beneath the Light of Jadeite. It includes native support for 4K resolution, "enhanced" textures and faster load times. The trailer is below:

Here's the official blurb on the 1.5 update:

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For a console that pushes technology to the next level in so many respects, there is one defining limitation to the PlayStation 5 hardware - its restrictive 667GB of useable storage. This week's system software update finally allows users to archive PS5 titles to external hard drives and SSDs, and of course, PS4 titles can be run from plug-in storage too - but what's the best option? We decided to put things to the test, stacking up the internal solid-state solution against three alternatives: a passport-style external hard drive, a SATA SSD and an NVMe alternative, housed within an appropriate enclosure.

Mario, Zelda, Splatoon and Animal Crossing designs are now available from ubiquitous online greetings company Moonpig.

Customisable cards featuring Mario and his Mushroom Kingdom pals are available for birthdays, Valentine's, thank yous, congratulations and Christmas, Nintendo UK announced today.

Zelda designs featuring Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time are also available. (Yes, there is one with Navi saying "Hey! It's Your Birthday!")

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Crash Bandicoot: On the Run earned more than half a million dollars during its first week on the iOS App Store and Google Play.

Data from app store analysts Sensor Tower pegged Crash's launch at nearly $700k in revenue over its first week available, with 23.6m downloads worldwide by the end of March.

Downloads of the endless runner are now up to 37.5m as of 14th April, PocketGamer.biz reported.

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The Elder Scrolls Online will soon let players acquire loot box items without paying real-world money.

Arriving as part of Update 30 and launching mid-June, the new Endeavors system is a free addition to the Elder Scrolls Online base game all players can access.

Endeavors are new daily and weekly tasks that grant you various rewards, such as gold or experience, as well as a new currency called Seals of Endeavor.

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Sega's much-missed Super Monkey Ball series looks set for a return, thanks to a leaked (and now deleted) game listing.

Gematsu reported on a listing for a game titled "Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania" briefly being visible via the Australian Classification Board. The page now returns an error.

Hopes for a new Super Monkey Ball game have been high since 2019's re-release of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A remake of the series' so-so Wii entry, it marked Sega's return to the franchise after a break of more than five years.

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Tekken 7 has sold more than seven million copies, Bandai Namco has announced.

The fighting game launched on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June 2017, although it was available in arcades before that.

Since then, Tekken 7 has seen a number of DLC characters released as part of seasons. Guest characters include Geese Howard from Fatal Fury, Noctis Lucis Caelum from Final Fantasy 15, and Negan from The Walking Dead.

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CD Projekt has broken its own financial records following the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 in December.

Preliminary numbers for 2020 see CD Projekt earn $562m in sales revenue, more than double those of 2015 when The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt debuted (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz). Year-on-year, CD Projekt sales revenues quadrupled from a quiet 2019.

Net profit was $303m, triple that of the previous record - again, from The Witcher 3's launch back in 2015.

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Alvo means 'target' in Portuguese but when it comes to hitting its release dates, this multiplayer VR shooter has been consistently wide of the mark.

Originally announced in 2017, Alvo was cancelled in 2018 after the developer Mardonpol "lost funding from our investor". Thankfully the project was resurrected later the following year and this week, Alvo has finally launched on PSVR.

So, for today's episode of Ian's VR Corner, I'll be putting this much anticipated game through its paces in a special 3 hour live stream which you can watch on the link below, starting at 2pm BST.

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Capcom has confirmed the resolution and framerate for Resident Evil Village across all consoles.

As you'd expect, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X offer the best possible console performance, weighing in with 4K HDR / 60fps each.

Expect a different framerate with ray-tracing enabled, however. You get 4K HDR / 45fps on both the PS5 and Xbox Series X with the fancy graphics tech turned on.

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Zombies have been crawling around in Verdansk since February, but now it seems some players may be joining the ranks - as new radiation zones are transforming players into the undead.

According to the official lore explainer, radiation levels on the map yesterday reached "100 per cent", and nuclear zones are now appearing around the Vodianoy shipwreck and the Prison. For now these seem to be the only two areas affected, but I wouldn't be surprised if we saw this spread to other corners of Verdansk.

The radiation zones slowly do damage to players - although a gas mask provides decent protection (and you can also just run around picking up stims, apparently). Those who die in these zones are then transformed into zombies, and sent back into Verdansk to wreak havoc. Unless you're playing in solo mode, as then you just get sent to the Gulag.

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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: Monsters, skate boards, and a town called Chicken.

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What we've been playing, here's our archive.

I don't know how it happened, but over the past week I've gone from Monster Hunter enthusiast to Monster Hunter advocate. A friend had just started out and was learning the ropes - or fumbling at them at least, in the same way I've been doing ever since I fell for the series myself with 2011's Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - so we got together on Discord for a handful of hunts so I might show him what's what.

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Square Enix has taken the unusual step of stating it isn't for sale, after a report claimed several potential buyers were circling the company.

Earlier today, Bloomberg Japan reported that the Final Fantasy maker was being courted by companies interested in an acquisition, citing bank officials with knowledge of the situation.

Now, Square Enix has said it won't be bought, and had received no offers along these lines.

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Another week, another set of attention-grabbing headlines in video games. Join Eurogamer news editor Tom Phillips, Eurogamer reporter Emma Kent and me in the video below as we run through the news that matters. Bong!

We start with the PlayStation 5's first big update, which comes five months after the console came out. This update finally lets you move games to USB storage - a feature the PS5 really should have had at launch. We chat about why this improvement is so important, but also discuss the state of the console itself as it approaches half a year out in the wild. Is the PS5 where it needs to be? Is it already playing catch-up in terms of features with Microsoft's Xbox Series X? And what do we want next from PS5?

Elsewhere, we chat about Nintendo's latest indie showcase (there's a lot of Fez talk, sorry!), before moving on to the ever-eventful world of Cyberpunk 2077. (Emma's report on what could be DLC for that game is well worth a read.) Can CD Projekt turn Cyberpunk around? The company has vowed to stick with it, at least.

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Call of Duty: Warzone and Modern Warfare got a new pistol last night - and players have already declared it overpowered.

The pistol in question is the Sykov, which can be used with a whopping 80-round mag, full-auto mode and the akimbo perk to dual-wield.

Players have tested the pistol in Warzone, and it looks like the Sykov has an incredibly fast time-to-kill. It's early days, but already players reckon the close-range Warzone meta has been flipped on its head.

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BioWare has confirmed a photo mode for Mass Effect Legendary Edition, so you can snap alien heartthrob Garrus from all angles.

Photo mode will be available as an option from the pause screen mission computer, BioWare technical design director Brenon Holmes said - which suggests it'll be available during gameplay at all times, but not during cut-scenes.

Last night, Mass Effect boss Mac Walters revealed the mode on Twitter with a moody monochrome shot of Garrus standing next to the Mako in Mass Effect 1.

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Is there a game you can play with your eyes closed? Besides a brief time when I fell asleep playing Mario Kart DS but woke up still in first place, my 'eyes closed' game of choice is Wario Land, also known as Super Mario Land 3, on the Nintendo Gameboy. Not that, obviously, I ever do play it with my eyes closed, but I'm fairly confident I could if need be (or for a bet). Back in the mid-1990s, it was one of the first games I ever completed and it blew my mind at the time. Sure, I loved Super Mario Land, but this was different - Wario was mean! It made a change to play as the bad guy rather than as the unlikely hero trying to rescue a princess or as a blue hedgehog saving trapped animals. Who wants to do all that when you can profit instead? That was one of the driving forces behind why I loved Wario Land.

The concept was a simple one. You play Wario, Mario's arch-rival, and you're homeless, having been kicked out of Mario's castle at the end of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. All you want and need is a new home to call your own. To get this, you need to collect as many coins and as much treasure as possible. Because Wario is a bitter sort, a humble two bedroom terrace isn't good enough for him. No, he wants a mansion or castle that's far superior to anything Mario could possess. Keeping up with the Mario Brothers? Capitalism gone crazy? Yup, all of those. Greed is very, very good here.

In 2D form, Wario was a fair bit chunkier than Mario. Maybe it was a reflection on how baddies generally are a bit more brash and cumbersome looking than the good guys? Who knows. All I know is it meant the game looked great on the Gameboy's small screen with Wario and his enemies all looking suitably chunky and well animated. Even now, it looks delightful in its dot matrix-y way.

Capcom's latest Resident Evil showcase event has detailed a series of times you'll be able to demo Resident Evil Village ahead of its May release.

It also included an announcement of Resident Evil 4 VR for Oculus Quest 2, a quick look at Village's Mercenaries mode, a new trailer for the Netflix CGI series Infinite Darkness, and some other smaller bits and pieces. No new Resident Evil games were announced.

The showcase kicked off with new Village trailer showing clips from early in the game, a radio broadcast calling for survivors, a look at the werewolf-like lycans, and Lady Dimitrescu taking a tasty sip of Ethan's blood. Chris Redfield also puts in an appearance - but what he's up to isn't clear.

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Sky: Children of the Light, the acclaimed "social adventure" from Journey and Flower developer ThatGameCompany, is heading to Switch this June.

The game, which debuted on iOS back in 2019 before getting an Android release last year, builds on the loosely social aspects of Journey - in which you'd occasionally be accompanied by another (silent) player on your travels - to create an experience based around "compassion, friendship, and altruism", where co-operation is integral to progression.

More broadly, it's a game about soaring across the seven realms of an exceedingly beautiful, richly atmospheric kingdom of billowing clouds, and exploring wherever your whims take you - with puzzley-platformy elements and delicate story vignettes thrown in along the way, all with a gently collaborative multiplayer aspect.

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In case you missed it first time around, Creative Assembly's classic space horror Alien: Isolation will once again be free on the Epic Games Store next Thursday, 22nd April, with entertaining deck-building RPG Hand of Fate 2 bringing up the rear.

Alien: Isolation originally released back in 2014, offering up a delectable slice of claustrophobic first-person horror that follows Amanda Ripley's attempts to track down her considerably more famous mum, Ellen - portrayed by Sigourney Weaver in the movies.

Soon enough, that journey takes Amanda aboard the starship Sevastopol where, would you believe it, a deadly Xenomorph is on the prowl.

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As if dealing with one existence wasn't enough to be getting on with, Annapurna Interactive and developer Joel MacDonald are offering players the chance to experience a woman's entire life, from birth to the present day, in upcoming narrative adventure Hindsight.

Prune is the work of former Call of Duty designer Joel McDonald - who created acclaimed iOS botanical puzzler Prune - and tells the story of a woman revisiting her childhood home.

As she sorts though her personal belongings, old memories are unlocked that players can experience first-hand. "What if the physical objects of everyday life, the possessions we hold close, were actual windows to the past?", MacDonald ponders.

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