Eurogamer

Life is Strange creators discuss leaving their hit narrative adventure series behind, building on it with Lost Records

1 month 3 weeks ago

The team behind Life is Strange are no strangers to parallel timelines. Don't Nod's original narrative adventure ended with a binary choice - you could save the life of your closest companion, or doom them to protect the town you both grew up in. It was a decision that rippled through the stories of subsequent sequels, and remains an emotional peak the franchise has since struggled to surpass. Now, after years of silence, the team behind that ending are finally back with a new game - Lost Records: Bloom & Rage - ready to talk about why their time working on Life is Strange ended.

Much has changed for Don't Nod over the past decade, with the original Life is Strange team now an ocean away and under a brand new roof at the recently-established Don't Nod Montreal. Their time with Life is Strange is long over, following the conclusion of Life is Strange 2 at the end of 2019. Just over a year later, Eurogamer reported that Deck Nine Games, developer of the excellent Life is Strange prequel Before the Storm, was now the series' main developer - and it was indeed this studio that made 2021's enjoyable Life is Strange: True Colors.

Author
Tom Phillips

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Bloober's Silent Hill 2 remake gets fresh airing in combat-focused trailer

1 month 3 weeks ago

It's been a good long while since we've seen anything concrete from Konami and developer Bloober Team's Silent Hill 2 remake, but the project has now received a fresh airing as part of Sony's latest PlayStation State of Play showcase, this time with a trailer focusing on the game's "improved and modernised" combat.

Combat perhaps isn't the first thing you'd expect Konami's marketing material to dwell on given it's quite some way down the list of elements that made the original Silent Hill 2 such a beloved horror experience, but the trailer does, in fairness, hang back a whole 40 seconds before switching out the atmospheric meandering for bat-swinging, shotgun-blasting action.

Additionally, it's reassuring, and perhaps even a little surprising, to see just how closely Bloober Team's Silent Hill 2 remake hews to aesthetic of the original 2001 PlayStation 2 game - it certainly doesn't look like we're in for a radical tonal reinvention here.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Everything announced in Sony's PlayStation State of Play

1 month 3 weeks ago

Tonight's PlayStation State of Play offered insight into what we'll see arriving on PS5 during 2024 and beyond, with a selection of surprises mixed in with updates for titles we all already knew were heading our way.

Whether you missed the show or simply want a rundown of all the announcements, along with some of the trailers, you'll find all the show's reveals listed below.

The show began with a look at Helldivers 2. This sci-fi shooter will be released on 8th February, so you don't have long to wait if you're looking forward to Helldivers 2!

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Author
Lottie Lynn

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Death Stranding 2 officially titled On the Beach, coming 2025

1 month 3 weeks ago

During this evening's State of Play, we were all treated to a brand new and rather surreal look at Death Stranding 2, officially now known as On the Beach (as suspected).

The sequel was first announced to be in development back in 2022 during the Game Awards, with a bamboozling trailer featuring Léa Seydoux and Norman Reedus.

Tonight's trailer has now given us another slice of Kojima-infused pie, and once again it is as perplexing as you would expect. It includes a rather epic looking battle that I won't spoil by trying to describe it here. We also got a brief look at Elle Fanning's Death Stranding 2 character. The actress was first confirmed to be part of the sequel a while ago, after a series of enigmatic teases from Kojima (although, we all guessed).

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Kojima making new Metal Gear Solid-style game, and movie, for PlayStation

1 month 3 weeks ago

PlayStation has announced Physint, a major new project with Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, to "reinvent" the genre he is most famous for.

This new "next-generation action espionage game" will be a fresh, original IP - as Metal Gear Solid remains owned by Konami - and will also be a movie as well.

"Preparations are udnerway, but production will begin in earnest at Kojima Productions after Death Stranding 2," Kojima said tonight during Sony's PlayStation State of Play - during which we also learned Death Stranding 2 is set to arrive in 2025.

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Author
Tom Phillips

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Until Dawn PlayStation 5 and PC remaster official, out this year

1 month 3 weeks ago

UPDATE 1/2/24: As part of its post-PlayStation State of Play extended coverage, Sony has shared more on developer Ballistic Moon's Unreal Engine 5 take on Until Dawn, and it seems we're looking at a full-on remake - significantly overhauling some of the original's fundamental mechanics - rather than a simpler remaster spruce-up.

As detailed on the PlayStation Blog, this new version of Until Dawn ditches the fixed camera angles of the original in favour of a new third-person perspective - a perhaps surprisingly change given the whole point of the original was to replicate the classic slasher movie experience, complete with the genre's familiar cinematic language, albeit with an interactive twist - and it doesn't sound like Ballistic Moon was content with the first game's hokey horror vibes either. This new version is aiming to be "more nuanced and emotional", with a "broader cinematic tonal colour palette" compared to the original's wintery blue hues.

As well as expanding the original narrative with "unexplored emotional parts", Ballistic Moon says it's adding new locations, enhancing old ones, introducing new interactions (including new "contextual character movement animation"), and new collectables. That's in addition to a radical sound overhaul - there's talk of a "completely new soundscape" and Ballistic Moon is jettisoning original composer Jason Graves' score in favour of new music from Mark Korven.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Stellar Blade gets April release date along with shiny new trailer

1 month 3 weeks ago

Shift Up's upcoming release Stellar Blade has secured an April launch date.

It will be arriving on PlayStation 5 on 26th April. Those interested in the studio's action-adventure game can pre-order from the 7th February. If you do, you will receive an early unlock of the Planet Diving Suit for Eve, a pair of Classic Round Glasses for Eve and Ear Armor Earrings (also for Eve).

A Digital Deluxe edition of Stellar Blade will also be available, retailing at £79.99. This version comes with the above, as well as a Stargazer Suit for Eve, Stargazer Wear for Adam, a Stargazer Coat for Lily, Half-Rim Glasses for Eve, Quadruple Rectangle Earrings for Eve, a Stargazer Pack for the Drone, 2,000 SP EXP and 5,000 Gold in-game currency.

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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BioShock creator Ken Levine's Judas glimpsed again

1 month 3 weeks ago

Tonight brought a fresh look at Judas, the first new game from BioShock creator Ken Levine in over a decade, and the first ever to come from his studio Ghost Story Games.

A new trailer shown during Sony's PlayStation State of Play suggested Judas was set in a futuristic world where everyone's thoughts are recorded - and shown off on a series of screens.

All these thoughts are "planted in your brain like weeds in a garden", a character who looks slightly similar to BioShock Infinite's Elizabeth suggests, revealing that she's going to help free people from this.

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Author
Tom Phillips

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Silent Hill: The Short Message is free first-person horror and out today

1 month 3 weeks ago

Silent Hill: The Short Message - Konami's oft-leaked "contemporary psychological horror" spin on its long-dormant series - has finally been given its official unveiling, along with confirmation it's free and out today on PlayStation 5.

The Short Message - which first surfaced in September 2022 via a South Korea ratings board listing - made its formal debut during tonight's PlayStation State of Play showcase, with its announcement trailer revealing a first-person experience focusing on a young woman and featuring heavy interactions with her mobile phone.

"Silent Hill: The Short Message is a new, short-form Silent Hill title, featuring a young, contemporary protagonist," Konami explains over on the PlayStation Blog. "In 2022, we announced a revival for the Silent Hill series, along with several new titles in development, and this marks the first of that new wave of games to be released."

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Author
Matt Wales

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Sonic x Shadow Generations officially announced

1 month 3 weeks ago

Sonic x Shadow Generations was officially announced at tonight's PlayStation State of Play.

A remastered version of the 2011 game was rumoured to appear, but Shadow adds a welcome twist.

Generations featured 2D and 3D levels in a nod to both modern and classic Sonic. Now that game will be completely remastered, plus we'll get a brand new Shadow campaign including new abilities. It's set to release in autumn this year.

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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February's PlayStation Plus Essential games include Foamstars, Rollerdrome

1 month 3 weeks ago

With February almost upon us, Sony has revealed the next batch of monthly games it's making available to subscribers of its PlayStation Plus Essential tier - and it's also announced a two-hour trial of developer Insomniac's acclaimed Marvel's Spider-Man 2 for Premium subscribers.

Starting with the games, February's first Essential offering is Foamstars, Square Enix's stylish, Splatoon-esque 4v4 live-service game in which players furiously hose each other into submission with a torrent of slippery soapsuds. It'll be available on both PlayStation 4 and PS5.

Next up is Rollerdrome, from OlliOlli developer Roll7. Set a world ruled by corporations, where the public is kept placated by a brutal blood sport known as Rollerdrome, it sees players donning rollerskates for some high-speed third-person shooting action, where performing tricks restores ammo and bullet-time-style slo-mo can be deployed against opponents.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Palworld hits 19m players, sees "biggest third-party Game Pass launch ever"

1 month 3 weeks ago

Palworld - you know, the open-world survival game with the definitely-not-Pokémon you might have heard about once or twice lately - has, less than two weeks after its early access release, officially surpassed 19m players on Xbox Series X/S and PC, with Microsoft now touting it as the biggest third-party launch in Game Pass' history.

We've known known developer Pocketpair has had a hit on its hands with Palworld for some time now, of course; its early access launch on 19th January got off a bumpy start as an initial influx of players brought the game's servers to their knees, and just 24 hours later Pocketpair revealed 2m players were already galavanting around the Palapagos Islands.

Shortly after, Palworld became one of only six games ever to hit 1m concurrent players on Steam, and then updated sales figures brought the news it had shifted over 5m copies in just three days. Six days after launch, Steam sales hit 8m, and now, 12 days in, Pocketpair has announced Palworld has surpassed 19m players.

Author
Matt Wales

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Here's 15 minutes of The Chinese Room's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2

1 month 4 weeks ago

After months of conceptual chatter over on its blog, developer The Chinese Room has finally whipped back the shroud on its version of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, giving a first proper look at its in-game action courtesy of an 15-minute gameplay reveal.

Prior to today, The Chinese Room - which took over the troubled Bloodlines 2 back in 2021, although the studio's involvement wasn't announced until last year - has talked a little about the game's main character, vampire elder Phyre, its clans, and its "visceral immersive combat", and all of that comes together in today's extended gameplay debut.

According to The Chinese Room, this 15-minute first-look features a sequence from relatively early in the game, taking place after Phyre - who in this particular playthrough is part of the Brujah clan, imbuing her with supernatural speed and strength, as well as a rather short fuse - has established herself in Seattle and made inroads with the court. As she investigates the mysterious mark on her hand limiting her powers, she receives a tip-off leading her to a warehouse and a vampire known as Willem who might just have some answers.

Author
Matt Wales

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Join us for Sony's PlayStation State of Play

1 month 4 weeks ago

Two weeks after Microsoft's turn, it's now Sony's time in the spotlight. Tonight's big PlayStation State of Play broadcast is the first we've heard from Sony this year - and this evening looks set to lay out a line-up of blockbusters coming to PS5 over 2024 - and into 2025.

Join us as we watch and cover everything live from 10pm UK time (GMT) - the show is set to last 40 minutes, and feature 15 games.

What do we expect? Quite a lot, actually. Sony itself has said to expect "guest appearances from some of the most talented minds in gaming" - and without an invitation ourselves we can only assume this means Hideo Kojima. It's high time we heard more about Death Stranding 2. But who else might also qualify? Our money's on BioShock creator Ken Levine, whose long-awaited Judas is now finally nearing release.

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Author
Eurogamer staff

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Xbox releases new dreamy Vapor controller design

1 month 4 weeks ago

Xbox's latest special edition controller is a new take on its Stormcloud Vapor design from last year - Dream Vapor.

According to Xbox, Dream Vapor features a pink and purple coloured swirl pattern which will be unique to each controller. Feature-wise this is your bog standard Xbox wireless controller, with the addition of rubberised side grips.

However, you will also unlock an exclusive dynamic background of the same theme so you can match your console's Home screen to your hardware.

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Author
Liv Ngan

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Granblue Fantasy: Relink review - great real-time combat drives this action-RPG follow-up

1 month 4 weeks ago

At a glance, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Cygames' action-RPG follow-up to the 2014 original, has all the key ingredients of something easily-dismissible, including all the typical genre stereotypes like impractical fashion sense and annoying voices. But what's underneath is very much worth your time. This is a deep tale of parental abuse, and the struggles of the child to claw their way out from under the shadow of their parent and re-establish their own life - and, naturally, it has a cracking combat system to go alongside it.

That story's really the driving force in Granblue Fantasy: Relink, especially towards the end of the game. The overarching antagonist Lilith is trying to bring about the end of the world, manipulating her adopted child, Id, into putting down anyone who stands in her path. Id's struggles to break free often take precedence over the main plot of saving the world, and that's no bad thing - trying to help Id is a really compelling storyline.

Equally hidden beneath the surface of Granblue Fantasy: Relink is that fact it's quietly a sequel to the 2014 RPG from Final Fantasy veteran composer Nobuo Uematsu, and artist Hideo Minaba - one later spun off into a 2017 anime and the 2020 fighting game that some might know a little better. This time, all the original heroes are back for another bout, including the protagonist Captain, wisecracker Rackam, stoic Katalina, and gruff Eugen, all forming the Skyfarers that sail among the clouds atop a big flying boat.

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Author
Hirun Cryer

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Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super review: the 4K GPU shoot-out

1 month 4 weeks ago

We have reached the end of Nvidia's phased roll-out of new RTX 40-series cards, released under the 'Super' moniker - and what have we learned? Essentially, it's a value play at the top and bottom of the new stack, with the RTX 4070 Ti Super landing a touch awkwardly in the middle. The RTX 4070 Super offered the biggest proportionate increase in compute power, delivering a nice performance bump over the vanilla 4070 for the same money, while 4070 Ti Super bumped up VRAM nicely, but delivered less of a frame-rate upgrade. RTX 4080 Super? There are some minor spec bumps, but the reality is that for the most part, you're looking at nigh-on identical performance to the outgoing RTX 4080. You do, however, get a significant price drop - but once again, the feeling is that this is the maximum price the RTX 4080 should have had at launch and we've finally got it, 14 months on from the Ada launch.

The spec table below gives you some idea of how Nvidia has rebalanced the mid and upper range of the RTX 40-series line - but it illustrates the problem in beefing up the existing 4080. There's little scope to increase the specs without moving onto the RTX 4090's AD102 silicon. The firm has pushed as hard as it can with AD103 instead, meaning there's the full complement of 10240 CUDA cores - but it's a mere five percent increase in compute power over the standard RTX 4080. Augmenting this is the fastest GDDR6X modules Nvidia could find, but we're still looking at just a 2.6 percent increase to memory bandwidth over the vanilla 4080.

Author
Richard Leadbetter

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Burnout Paradise Remastered studio teases series revival

1 month 4 weeks ago

Stellar Entertainment is working on a fresh AAA arcade racing title, and not-so-subtly hinting it could be a new Burnout.

The studio previously worked on Burnout Paradise Remastered, as well as Need for Speed: Remastered and Need for Speed Unbound.

According to its website, the studio is currently hiring for a AAA arcade racing title built in Unreal 5 for Gen 5 consoles and PC, which is set to disrupt the racing scene.

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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Resident Evil 4 Remake becomes series' fastest-selling entry, now sold 6.4m

1 month 4 weeks ago

Capcom's Resident Evil 4 Remake has sold another 1m copies over the past three months, for a total of 6.48m units sold worldwide.

This makes it the fastest selling Resident Evil title "by far" - a stat tracked by Alex Aniel, writer of Itchy Tasty: An Unofficial History of Resident Evil - although the game still sits behind the likes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Village in terms of total sales to date.

In its recent consolidated financial results, Capcom said these more recent Resident Evil 4 sales have been supported by "ongoing promotional measures" such as free updates for the PlayStation VR2 version.

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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EA says it can't "acknowledge" Switch 2, but "new platforms are good for us"

1 month 4 weeks ago

The boss of Apex Legends and Battlefield maker EA has been asked about Nintendo Switch 2, ahead of the unannounced console's widely-expected launch later this year.

Quizzed on how Switch 2's arrival will impact EA, the company's CEO Andrew Wilson said he could "absolutely not comment on anything that has not been announced or acknowledge it in any way", before going on to say the company was pumped for "new platforms" in general.

"What I would say," Wilson told investors, "to the extent that platforms over the course of the last 20 years have come out and offered improved CPU, GPU, memory, battery life, screen resolution... where we're able to deliver more immersion for our players, particularly around our biggest franchises like FC, like Madden, like Battlefield, like Apex that has typically been very good for our business.

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Author
Tom Phillips

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Sega of America to lay off 61 staff next month

1 month 4 weeks ago

Sega of America will layoff 61 staff next month.

The news has spread following the issue of a Californian WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) notice - required by law to give employees 60 days in advance of sizable layoffs.

Eurogamer can confirm, via the Employment Development Department of the State of California, that two separate layoffs of 12 and 49 staff will take place on 8th March.

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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Former Saints Row developers join Clockwork Revolution development

1 month 4 weeks ago

A group of former Volition developers have joined the development of steampunk RPG Clockwork Revolution under the banner of a fresh studio.

Shapeshifter Games has been founded by Volition veterans, following the studio's closure last year and poor reception to its Saints Row reboot. Now, LinkedIn profiles of employees have since confirmed Shapeshifter's first project (thanks TechRaptor).

On LinkedIn, Shapeshifter Games stated it is a co-development studio and revealed it was already working "with a top publisher on their next great IP". Shortly after, inXile Entertainment released a statement announcing its partnership with Shapeshifter to help work on Clockwork Revolution.

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Author
Liv Ngan

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Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League gifts £16 of in-game currency to £100 deluxe edition owners

1 month 4 weeks ago

Rocksteady has gifted 2000 LuthorCoins of in-game currency to owners of the £100 Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League deluxe edition, following repeated server downtime over the past few days.

One of the main draws of spending £100 on the game's deluxe edition was its ability to play from Monday this week, before the game's general release on Friday.

But developer Rocksteady has twice had to take Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's servers offline to fix problems with the game - leaving the always-online co-op title completely unplayable in the interim.

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Author
Tom Phillips

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Palworld warns of app store clone that could risk your personal data

1 month 4 weeks ago

A mobile version of Palworld has appeared on the Apple App Store, said to be coming soon - but it is not the real deal.

The app, which you can see below in screenshots taken by Eurogamer, appears at first glance to be affiliated with Palworld developer Pocketpair and uses the same promotional images as on PC and Xbox. But this app has nothing to do with Pocketpair, and has instead been published by someone known as Oleksandra Kryccun.

Pocketpair has now said it is aware of this app's existence, and warned players not to be fooled by its arrival on the App Store (we've checked, and can't see it on the Google Play store at present).

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters on PC finally have feature parity with console

1 month 4 weeks ago

Square Enix has finally updated the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series on Steam to offer feature parity with the console versions.

In a new update, assistance features have been added across all six games that allow players to modify the amount of EXP, gil or magic AP they receive, or turn off enemy encounters entirely.

Further, players can switch between the original or newly arranged soundtracks, plus the font type can be switched between modern and classic versions.

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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What to play this February 2024

1 month 4 weeks ago

We're back! And we're past the grimmest month of the year. That's right, it's time for lovely, sunny, er, February! Thankfully, there's an absolute bucketload of interesting games to see you through it.

For the unfamiliar, What To Play This Month is our recurring series where we gather up the best games of the month gone by, and the ones we're most interested in from the month ahead. We missed January, instead pulling together a whopping great 65 games we're excited for in all of 2024 - and I am going to say that was a completely intentional decision, and absolutely not because I was too busy to get January's out in time alongside it. Anyway, here's What To Play This February!

We're sneaking in a few gems from December 2023 here too, since they didn't get their time to shine last month - and also because if you're anything like us, you might've struggled to find time to play them between hectic family holiday visits anyway. Do give them a look.

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Author
Chris Tapsell

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Five of the Best: Castles

1 month 4 weeks ago

Five of the Best is a weekly series for supporters of Eurogamer. It's a series that highlights some of the features in games that are often overlooked. It's also about having your say, so don't be shy, use the comments below and join in!

Oh and if you want to read more, you can - you can find our entire Five of the Best archive elsewhere on the site.

Castles. They've dominated our imaginations for literal ages, presumably because they were designed as the dominant symbols of wealth and power during those ages. These enormous and elaborate constructions have been at the centre of empires, and stand like crumbly old reminders still of influence that once was. It's no surprise, then, that games have recreated them. Where better to house a final boss? Where better to house an entire game? Castles are big enough, and they're certainly interesting enough environments for us to roam around, as places that don't belong to modern life except as site-seeing attractions. Castles typify something games do so well, in their ability to take us to times gone by. Games and castles go way back, then. But the question is, which game's castles are the best?

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Author
Robert Purchese

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Persona 3 Reload brings the genre-defining RPG to PS5 and Series X at 4K 60fps with RT

1 month 4 weeks ago

Persona 3 is a genre-defining RPG that blazed a trail for all other modern Persona titles and inspired countless other RPGs. Its original incarnation was stranded on the PS2 for over 15 years, but now Persona 3: Reload offers a top-to-bottom remake for modern consoles and PC - including 4K 60Hz gameplay with RT on PS5 and Series X. The 2024 release aims to revitalise and revamp the title for contemporary expectations - but is it the fully actualised remake that fans have been waiting for? And are the graphics an evolution beyond other recent Atlus efforts?

I'm going to work through the console comparisons quickly, because Persona 3 Reload runs with only minor differences to distinguish the Series X and PS5 versions. Both run at what appears to be a native 4K without anti-aliasing, although some UI elements appear lower-res, with only minor lighting differences between the two versions.

Series S looks similar but renders at just 1080p, again without obvious AA. It doesn't feature RT reflections, like Series X and PS5, while shadow resolution has also been reduced. This turnout is a little disappointing, but from a typical TV viewing distance it doesn't look bad - just softer than the Series X and PS5 versions.

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Author
Oliver Mackenzie

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Microsoft quarterly gaming revenue up 49% following Activision purchase

1 month 4 weeks ago

Microsoft has shared its Q2 2024 financial results, reporting significant revenue gains across its gaming division - including a massive 61 percent increase in Xbox content and services revenue - following its $69bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

As per its Q2 earnings release, Microsoft's gaming revenue increased by 49 percent compared to the equivalent quarter in its previous financial year, with the company recording a 61 percent boost in Xbox content and services revenue - which encompasses money generated by the likes of Game Pass - alongside a three percent increase in Xbox hardware revenue.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition was a key driver of its Q2 growth, with the deal contributing to just over $2bn in revenue. However, operating expenses and other costs - including transaction- and integration-related costs - saw the net impact of the Activision Blizzard deal result in an operating loss of $440m.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Starfield's latest patch out now on all platforms following end of Steam beta

1 month 4 weeks ago

Following a little under two weeks of Steam beta testing, Starfield's latest patch is now available for all players on PC and Xbox Series X/S, bringing quest fixes, visual improvements, and more.

As noted in Bethesda's announcement post, Starfield's latest update - officially numbered 1.9.51.0 - has received one additional PC crash fix in the jump from beta to full release. That tweak joins "over a hundred fixes and adjustments" detailed in its previous beta patch notes.

For the most part, updated 1.9.51.0 is focused on quality-of-life improvements and quest fixes, with Bethesda saying it's quashed instances of bulldozed objects reappearing when returning to an outpost, ship hatches being marked as inaccessible, and more. There's also yet another fix intended to stamp out the lingering issue of asteroids doggedly following ships across the galaxy like overly enthusiastic puppies.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Mass Effect is coming to Destiny 2 next month in new collaboration event

1 month 4 weeks ago

If your interests exist squarely within the Venn diagram of Mass Effect and Destiny 2, your day is almost here: Bungie has announced it's teaming up with EA and BioWare to bring Commander Shepard and company - or at least something vaguely inspired by them - to its free-to-play shooter as part of a new collaboration event.

As per Bungie's announcement, the 'Destiny 2 x BioWare' team-up will enable Destiny 2 players to "join the crew of the Normandy" from 13th February - which all sounds very exciting until it finishes its sentence, "with new cosmetics and in-game items".

On the premium cosmetics front, a new Normandy Crew Bundle will be available in the Eververse store once the event begins, containing a Commander Shepard-inspired N7 armour set for Titans, a Garrus-inspired Vakarian set for Hunters, and a Liara-inspired Shadow Broker set for Warlocks. An Omni Strike finisher and Flux Dance will also be purchasable with Silver.

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Matt Wales

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The Long Dark developer teases 'unannounced survival game' that might just be The Long Dark 2

1 month 4 weeks ago

Hinterland, the developer behind snowy survival game The Long Dark, has teased an 'unannounced survival game' currently in development at the studio, and the accompanying alpha footage certainly has the hallmarks of a potential The Long Dark 2.

Hinterland boss Raphael van Lierop (who confirmed he was stepping away from The Long Dark to start a new project at the studio back in 2022) shared the 22 seconds of "in-engine pre-alpha" footage on social media today, along with the caption, "Some good things happening in the Unannounced Survival Games space...".

The video itself is little more than a slow pan across a slightly ramshackle room - but a closer look might just offer some big clues as to the nature of Hinterland's new project. A running tally of "days" scrawled on the mirror and the general makeshift dilapidation of the room certainly suggest some kind of disaster has befallen the world outside, while the two roaring fires and the howling wind absolutely bring The Long Dark's big freeze to mind.

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Author
Matt Wales

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Palworld Pokémon mod returns with "legally-distinct pocket creatures" after Nintendo takedown

1 month 4 weeks ago

We all knew Nintendo would come after the Palworld Pokémon mod, but its modder has quickly struck back with a new download which replaces Palworld's friendly Pals with totally original "legally distinct" and "legit copyright free" pocket creatures.

Last week, YouTuber ToastedShoes took the Palworld's close Pokémon comparisons to the extreme, with an unlicensed Pokémon mod. Footage of the mod remained on the internet for about a day, before Nintendo got to work scrubbing it away.

The Pokémon Company itself soon responded, stating its intent to "investigate and take appropriate measures" regarding anything that could infringe on its copyright. Meanwhile, modding hub Nexus Mods released its own statement confirming it won't host Pokémon-themed Palworld mods thanks to the "headache of DMCA/legal threats from Nintendo".

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Author
Liv Ngan

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Planet Zoo releases for consoles in March

1 month 4 weeks ago

Frontier has announced a console version of Planet Zoo, its spiritual successor to Zoo Tycoon.

The zoo management simulator released in 2019 on PC and has since seen regular free updates and DLC packs adding new animals, items, and campaign scenarios to play through.

Planet Zoo: Console Edition will bring the animal antics to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 26th March, with pre-orders available now.

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Author
Liv Ngan

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Persona 3 Reload review - a classic 2006 RPG updated in hit-and-miss style

1 month 4 weeks ago

Persona 3 has always been somewhat of an outlier in the high-schooling, monster-bashing series. Going back to 2006, Persona 3 was the first in the series to layer visual novel social elements on top of the turn-based combat and party-centric stat fiddling. Now, it's perhaps the only modern Persona game that doesn't enjoy a 'definitive' edition for first-timers, and with the release of the high-definitioned remake Persona 3 Reload, I can't say the situation's changed.

Of course, Persona 3 Reload does tweak and turn knobs in almost every corner of the original, providing a streamlined and easygoing take on the classic, but some aesthetic adjustments in particular don't exactly gel with the teens-dealing-with-death tale that pulls everything together. And as much as Reload reaches into the future to borrow from Personas 4 and 5, the best things about it are still from 2006. Still great, then.

Persona 3 Reload follows the original game's story very closely, focusing on an orphaned transfer student who begins life anew at Gekkoukan High School and Tatsumi Port Island, which receives a blindingly bright glow-up compared to its relative murkiness on the PS2/PSP. He soon discovers the powers of the titular Persona - magical alter-ego warriors - and joins a group of fellow students (plus a very, very good dog) on their journey to end the Dark Hour, the time between days when mysterious creatures come a-running to feast and all the regular humans remain oblivious, trapped in sinister coffins.

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Author
Kaan Serin

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Suicide Squad's £100 early access edition goes offline, again

1 month 4 weeks ago

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has been taken offline for the second time in 24 hours, leaving players who paid for early access unable to play.

As a reminder, Suicide Squad is technically out on 2nd February, but early access was included in its Deluxe Edition, which costs £100 / $100.

At 11:22am this morning, developer Rocksteady announced a scheduled maintenance for Suicide Squad beginning at 11:30am. "The game will be offline until maintenance has been completed," the developer stated, with no estimate of when it'll be back online.

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Author
Liv Ngan

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Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora review - a surprisingly harmonious tribute to James Cameron's cinematic universe

1 month 4 weeks ago

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora first clicked for me when things got grim. Away from the cascading ferns and artfully twisted tree trunks, far from fronds and petals and whole plants that briskly pulled themselves underground as I approached, I found an RDA camp that seemed to be mining something from the earth. The RDA are the villains in this world, and they're us: they're the humans. Here, they had sunk a bunch of tall metal towers into the ground and turned the surrounding area to sludge. The grass was gone. The rocks were black with oil and smoke. Steam belched unpleasantly from many boxy, ugly pieces of technology that all seemed to come with grates and vents and nasty little legs to keep them from toppling on the seismic terrain. It was grim and abhorrent and I loved it.

These RDA camps crop up quite a lot throughout the course of the game, growing massively in complexity and challenge, sprouting indoor sections, underground sections, aerial sections, moving from minor set-piece to major dungeon. But they're all variations on a theme, the theme being the trashing of paradise. You're meant to feel angry, I think: how could you take the blue sky and green forests, the bounding creatures and the bioluminescent fungi and do this with it? Space nature's laid on a disco for you here, and you want to just churn it all up, drill into it, crack it open? In truth, though, these camps always made me delighted. They meant that I was in for a bit of stealthing and a bit of sabotage and a bit of panic, working my way around huge mechs, picking off lone sentries, pulling this leaver, winding that wheel, shooting these glowing weak spots when they appeared to gout smoke into the air. And then...?

Author
Christian Donlan

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Nightingale gets brisk three-hour stress test this Friday

1 month 4 weeks ago

Nightingale, the upcoming gaslamp fantasy game from Inflexion Games, will get a server stress test this Friday, 2nd February. It's a one-day only affair - if that - running from 6pm to 9pm UK time (1pm to 4pm Eastern).

Randomly selected players who had previously signed up for the test will start receiving access to the game one hour before. Others will then be invited to play in batches. Again, this will be random, so keep an eye out for an email from Steam.

"Our goal is for all players who signed up for the test to be able to participate. How quickly that happens will be dependent on how the test progresses," Inflexion said, explaining it will granting access in waves to assess how servers handle large amounts of players logging in at the same time and the developer's ability to rapidly scale up in response.

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Author
Victoria Kennedy

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Beloved platformer Celeste gets N64-style spin-off

1 month 4 weeks ago

Beloved indie platformer Celeste has received an official N64-style spin-off to celebrate its sixth anniversary.

Called Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain, it was created by the original team in around a week and is available to play on itch.io for free.

As you'd expect of this style, it features a fully 3D world and stubby little polygonal characters.

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Author
Ed Nightingale

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