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505 Games has announced the acquisition of Infinity Plus Two, the studio that created the Puzzle Quest series as well as the free-to-play Gems of War. 505 touted this as a strategic move to strengthen its position in the F2P market.

Infinity Plus Two is based in Melbourne, Australia, and has created more than 30 games, though it's most known for Puzzle Quest. Founder Steve Fawkner will remain in a leadership role at the studio as part of 505 Games management. The studio had previously collaborated with 505 on Gems of War, a strategy-RPG with match-3 mechanics.

"IP2 is a proven studio with phenomenal success over the years. Their creative vision and extensive experience will be a great addition to 505 Games," said 505 Games free-to-play head Clive Robert, in the announcement. "The F2P market has seen a tremendous amount of growth and rise in popularity over the years and has always been a key facet of the company's growth strategy. As one of the leading third-party publishers of F2P games across multiple platforms, this latest acquisition solidifies our investment in internal development and builds on our library of owned IP."

Developer Bloober Team has released a brand-new live-action trailer for its psychological third-person horror title The Medium, which drops later this month on PC and Xbox Series X|S.

The approximately three-minute trailer shows protagonist Marianne using her powers as a medium to connect with the spiritually displaced. She jumps between reality and some alternative version, which sees a Demogorgon-like creature emerge from the shadows to hunt her down. It was produced by Platige Image, a Poland-based VFX team that's worked on cinematics for Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher franchise, and Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman.

Check out the latest trailer above. Earlier this month, Bloober Team also shared 14 minutes of extended The Medium gameplay, giving players a small taste of the horror that's in store. Additionally, the studio dropped a batch of new screenshots, which are also embedded below.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla's title update 1.1.1. is out now on consoles on PC. The new update addresses a large number of graphical bugs, adds various gameplay fixes, and also includes support for Ubisoft's Connect Achievements. On Xbox One the update size is 6.6GB, Xbox Series X/S users can expect a 7.5GB download, and PC users can brace themselves for a 6.45GB update in their download queue.

The update sizes on PlayStation are much smaller, with PS4 users needing to download a 3GB patch while PS5 users will only need to grab a quick 2GB download. Among the more substantial tweaks to Assassin's Creed Valhalla that players can expect are numerous fixes to main quests and world events where certain sequences wouldn't properly trigger, various misplaced textures or objects have been repaired, and that one pesky floating boat in Vinland no longer defies the laws of gravity.

Various NPC behavior issues, an error where you could kill NPCs by flinging corpses at them, and guards will react more aggressively when you burn their members alive with oil jars. You can see the full patch notes below:

Nintendo has announced a release date for one of its next big Switch exclusives. New Pokemon Snap will arrive on April 30, the company has confirmed.

Nintendo also released a brand-new trailer to celebrate the release date announcement, which you can watch below. What's more, as of January 14, Nintendo has begun to accept pre-orders for New Pokemon Snap, so you can secure a copy right now. For more, check out GameSpot's New Pokemon Snap preorder guide.

A spin-off of the classic Nintendo 64 game, New Pokemon Snap takes players to the Lental region where they can explore various islands and snap photos of Pokemon in the wild. The photos you take will build up your Photodex, and Nintendo promises that you'll be able to discover "new, never-before-seen Pokemon expressions and behaviors."

Super Nintendo World was originally scheduled to open at Universal Studios Japan in just a few weeks, but the continued threat of the COVID pandemic has forced plans to change. The theme park's opening has been delayed indefinitely, so you'll have to wait to hang out with Mario and eat mushroom-flavored popcorn.

"After careful consideration of all aspects of the current situation, Universal Studios Japan is postponing the grand opening of its new Super Nintendo World until after the state of emergency for Osaka prefecture, issued yesterday, is lifted," Universal Studios said in a statement.

The park added that it will be announcing the new opening date once the state of emergency has lifted, but it remains to be seen when that will be. Osaka is experiencing one of the largest spikes of new infections in the entire country.

Fortnite Season 5 has new daily challenges that are a bit harder than usual. These challenges will send you to different named locations where you'll need to track down a handful of Gnomes. They take time if you don't know where to look. This guide will help you through each challenge. In fact, you'll complete it in "gnome time." Sorry.

The challenges are listed as "Find Gnomes in Sweaty Sands," although the named location will change from day to day based on what challenges you complete. A regular weekly challenge also involved finding gnomes, but these challenges are different. Gnomes will be found sitting on piles of dirt with a bright blue glow around them. You'll be able to interact with them once you are close enough.

Here is a guide for how to find all the gnomes for every named location that can come up for these daily challenges.

Electronic Arts' exclusivity rights to making Star Wars games has come to an end as LucasArts has opened its portfolio to other studios--in fact, The Division 2 developer Massive Entertainment has already announced it's creating an open-world Star Wars game. This is exciting; I'm happy to see that other big studios are being given the opportunity to try their hand at Star Wars, and I can't wait to get more games like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars: Squadrons. But I also can't help but think that any Star Wars game we get from a AAA studio may just cover genres and storylines we've already seen before. Massive Entertainment, for example, is doing what it does best and making an open-world game. But there are so many more exciting opportunities, and I hope LucasArts chooses to let a few indie studios take a stab at Star Wars to realize them.

I have no doubt that Massive can create a good Star Wars game, but I also assume it will cater to the strengths and gameplay systems that Ubisoft studios already know sell well. I'm willing to bet that this new game will be another open-world action game with RPG mechanics and a skill tree that stars a character who can be a man or woman and has enough side quests to keep audiences playing for over 30 hours--and then painted as Star Wars. That's not shade, I'm down for it, that sounds super fun, but it isn't all that weird for a Star Wars game. And Star Wars is at its best when you explore the stranger parts of its universe.

With Lucasfilm's announcement that all video games based on its properties will now live under the “Lucasfilm Games” umbrella, it appears that a new age is about to begin for the company's video games ambitions. We already got a glimpse of what this new strategy is with the reveal of a new Indiana Jones game by Bethesda's studio MachineGames. And more recently, Ubisoft confirmed that it's making an open-world Star Wars game, which is all the more surprising, given Star Wars titles have been predominantly developed by Lucasfilm's longtime video game collaborator Electronic Arts for the last few years.

With Star Wars and other Lucasfilm properties handed off to competing publishers and developers, it seems like EA will no longer have exclusive rights to the property's gaming-related projects. A shift in strategy like this now makes it open season for just about any notable developer in the industry to work with Lucasfilm properties. All this echoes how Marvel's games division approached making games based on its IP, where there was a greater emphasis on matching the right developer with the right property instead of handing off the entire catalog to one company.

Pokemon Go's Sinnoh Celebration event is underway until January 17, and it'll be followed by a Hoenn Celebration next week. That event will kick off on January 19, and now developer Niantic has shared more details about what Pokemon and bonuses will be available.

Throughout the Hoenn Celebration event, the following Pokemon will be appearing in the wild more frequently than usual:

• Treecko
• Torchic
• Mudkip
• Taillow
• Loudred
• Nosepass
• Aron (and Shiny Aron)
• Meditite
• Roselia
• Carvanha
• Numel
• Baltoy

In addition to those wild spawns, the following Pokemon will be hatching from 5 km eggs throughout the event:

Little Nightmares 2 is less than a month away from release, and to celebrate, publisher Bandai Namco is giving away free copies of the first game on PC. From now until January 17, you can claim a free Steam code for Little Nightmares via Bandai Namco's website. Codes will be delivered via email within two weeks, and the sign-up page says "while supplies last," so you may want to get your name on the list quickly.

This isn't the only way to snag Little Nightmares for free this month--Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can claim Little Nightmares right now as part of January's Games with Gold offerings. It's free on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S for members until January 31.

Following the rocky launch of Cyberpunk 2077 in December, developer CD Projekt Red has released a statement from studio co-founder Marcin Iwinski in which he offers a personal explanation of what happened in the days leading up to the game's release. They shed some light on just how there could have been such a disparity between the PC and console versions. The team also hinted at when the full next-gen versions will be ready.

"Despite good reviews on PC, the console version of Cyberpunk 2077 did not meet the quality standard we wanted it to meet. I and the entire leadership team are deeply sorry for this, and this video is me publicly owning up to that," Iwinski said.

"Please, don't fault any of our teams for what happened. They are all incredibly talented and hard-working. Myself and the board are the final decision-makers, and it was our call to release the game. Although, believe me, we never ever intended for anything like this to happen. I assure you that we will do our best to regain your trust."

Valve has released a number of year-end stats for its PC gaming store, Steam, and it would appear that the platform had a momentous year.

The big numbers include 120 million monthly active players, 62.6 million daily active players, and a peak of 24.8 million peak concurrent players. That last record has already fallen, as more than 25 million people logged into Steam at the same time in early January.

Some of the other marquee stats included 2.6 million new Steam purchasers every month in 2020, while users bought 21.4% more games than they did in 2019. Time spent gaming is up, too, with Valve reporting that the number of hours spent gaming increased by 50.7% percent compared to 2019.

The version 1.1.0 patch for Immortals: Fenyx Rising will be going out this week, fixing multiple bugs and adding support for the upcoming DLC called A New God. The patch notes don't give further details about the expansion.

The patch notes on the Ubisoft forums say that the patch will hit at 9 AM ET / 6 AM PT on Thursday, January 14. Those include a fix to a spoilery boss fight, and a few fixes to photo mode, among others. It also includes a few platform-specific issues, such as adding more haptic feedback on PS5, fixing save corruption on Xbox Series X, and aspect ratio, audio, and KBM bug fixes on PC.

Immortals: Fenyx Rising was released in December. In GameSpot's Immortals Fenyx Rising review, critic Suriel Vazquez wrote, "But even as it lives in the shadow of better games, its puzzles, combat, and open-world loop come together often enough for me to not only see it through for a few dozen hours, but also want to keep filling out its almighty checklist, even if it led me by the nose most of the way through."

The Mandalorian is playing a big role in Fortnite Season 5. He's come to the battle royale as an NPC and attacks players who approach his ship on sight. Those who manage to kill him can pick up his mythic sniper rifle and jetpack--there is only one of each in every match. He's come to be a thorn in the side of players all over the map.

The bounty hunter originally spawned close to the Razor Crest crash landing site near the center of the map, where he guards a piece of Beskar that players needed to collect. A recent update gave the bot multiple spawn locations--some players have found him swimming in rivers, fighting the IO Guards, and sneaking up on them with his signature thermal rifle. He's left his ship behind.

"This dude legit showed up at Pleasant Park and steamrolled the IO Guards there," said Redditor unlocked_. "I didn't know he could move that far until now. I was so confused."

Samsung has become Twitch's exclusive mobile partner in North America and will partner with the streaming platform on a variety of mobile gaming events (via Deadline).

The companies plan to collaborate on Twitch Rivals Mobile Challenges--events where streamers will play popular mobile games--and Mobile Mondays, a reoccurring tournament that will hand out cash prizes to participants. There will also be perks for Galaxy and Twitch users, but what exactly they are is still currently unknown.

A third event type, Mobile Gaming Heroes, will apparently "unveil the next generation of mobile gaming heroes." These individuals will "produce original content, host exclusive streams and participate in select events." Obviously, all events will feature Samsung’s lineup of Galaxy 5G-enabled mobile gaming devices.

The real-world NHL season begins on Wednesday, January 13, and to celebrate the occasion, EA Sports has released the results of its annual simulation to predict which team will win the Stanley Cup.

According to the results of the NHL 21 simulation, the Colorado Avalanche will win the Stanley Cup this year, defeating the defending champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning, in 7 games. In the real world, the Avalanche have not won the title since the 2000-2001 season.

The simulation also predicted that Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs will be the NHL's top goal-scorer for the season, racking up 39 goals. Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, meanwhile, will be the league's top points-scorer with 83, according to the prediction.

Fortnite's newest set of weekly challenges is here. Most of the Week 7 quests are easy to complete, but one will have you searching two named locations to find four books. The challenge asks you to collect books from Holly Hedges and Sweaty Sands. This guide will show you where to collect books to complete the challenge quickly.

This challenge leaked early; check back on Thursday to see it live in Fortnite.

Where To Find Books In Holly Hedges And Sweaty Sands

There are two books to collect at each named location. We don't know the exact spot for each one just yet, but some dataminers have tried to pinpoint where they will be when the challenges go live on Thursday morning.

With climate change being one of the greatest existential threats looming over humanity's survival, gamers may wonder what role they play in the fate of the environment. A new study seeks to answer that question, and the findings don't look all that reassuring.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, a US-based non-profit dedicated to climate advocacy, published a study looking at the environmental impact of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. The organization found that both consoles use between 160 and 200-plus watts of energy--more than previous generations. They also need roughly the same energy as the TV they're likely plugged into, which uses between 120 and 200 watts depending on size.

Of course, the energy used dips pretty low when either console is low-power mode or on standby. In fact, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S use less than 1 watt in these states, according to the NRDC. However, that changes with Xbox's "Instant On" setting enabled by default and PlayStation's inability to smartly adapt to console inactivity. As a result, the wattage used by both consoles can jump to double-digits if gamers forget to turn them off.

Pokemon Go's January Community Day is only a few days away, but Niantic has already shared details about next month's event. February's Community Day will take place on Sunday, February 7, and the featured Pokemon next month will be the Grass/Poison type Roselia.

Throughout February's Community Day, Roselia will appear in the wild much more frequently than normal, while its pre-evolved form, Budew, will hatch from 2 km eggs. You'll also have a chance to encounter Shiny Roselia in the game, and there will be Timed Research tasks to complete. These will reward you will Sinnoh Stones, which you'll need to evolve Roselia into Roserade.

The Last Guardian was a prestige game on PS4, but you can play it with a performance boost on PS5. The game from the studio behind Ico and Shadow of the Colossus had an unstable frame rate on its original hardware, but with a little work you can get it to run at a smooth 60 FPS on the new generation.

According to an analysis from Digital Foundry, The Last Guardian barely ran at 30 FPS on most PS4 hardware iterations, and sometimes would drop even lower than that. The PS5 can run at 60 FPS, but only under certain conditions. The game has to be running directly from the disc, which means you need to forgo any patches that attempt to auto-install when you insert it. That means you'll be running version 1.0, straight from the disc code, to enjoy your smooth frame rate.

The analysis does note that the frame rate dropped below 60 once in its tests, to around 55 FPS, but that was both temporary and a very minor drop. It appears that overall the increased horsepower of the PS5 makes a big difference in the game.

Earlier this year, a waiver protecting GPU manufacturers from additional tariffs in the ongoing trade war with China lapsed. ASUS recently announced plans to increase GPU prices as a result, and now EVGA and Zotac are following suit.

EVGA has added a note to its website making customers aware of the price hike, stating that it has attempted to minimize the impact to consumers. This includes honoring the price on preorders that have already been processed.

EVGA has increased the prices of all RTX 30-series GPUs, from the RTX 3060 Ti to the RTX 3090. Surprisingly, the increase is relatively standard across the board, with each card now retailing for $70 more than before. The RTX 3080, for example, is now $800 after previously launching at $730.

Among Us, the multiplayer game where you try to seek out an imposter, had a banner year in 2020. The game saw a massive spike in popularity; the game got so big that even Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got in on the action with her own record-breaking stream.

Victoria Tran, the community director at developer Innersloth, has now shared her thoughts on the surge in popularity for the game in 2020. Speaking to GameSpot's Lucy James during sister site CNET's CES 2021 coverage, Tran said of the renewed interest in Among Us, "That was terrifying and amazing and wonderful and there is really no English word to make people comprehend how surprising and amazing it was."

Asked what might have contributed to the big success of Among Us in 2020, Tran said it came down to a number of elements.

CES 2021 has been full of big announcements, from the RTX 3060 to Razer's new smart mask and gaming laptops. LG has also made a number of reveals, including a new portable gaming soundbar that has a built-in mic for party communication. The 20-watt LG UltraGear GP9 soundbar can be plugged in or run on battery power, allowing you to bring it with you on the go to friends' houses, LAN parties, or anywhere else you may need to game. Unfortunately, no images have been revealed, and LG hasn't yet announced a price or release date.

According to CNET, the GP9 soundbar's built-in mic uses an "Eco-sound" feature that lets the mic cut through your game's audio and pick up your voice. Additionally, the soundbar features a large volume knob and several different simulated surround sound modes for genres like first-person shooters and strategy. You can also plug a headset into the soundbar via a 3.5mm jack for private listening.

The latest update for the battle royale game Call of Duty: Warzone has arrived, delivering with it further weapon balance changes--including another update to the DMR 14--as well as a fix for a key issue pertaining to stims.

Developer Raven Software released the patch notes on Twitter but quickly deleted the post, but not before CharlieIntel captured the patch notes. Raven Software has since reinstated the patch notes, and you can see them below.

For the DMR 14, the patch increases the recoil slightly, while bullet penetration is decreased as well. The burst pistol, meanwhile, sees its max damage reduced by 11 percent.

The deadliest hunter in the galaxy is on his way to Fortnite, as this week's 15.20 update added several Predator-themed challenges to the game.

Completing these new tasks will unlock Predator cosmetic items in Fortnite's secret battle pass character tab, although the actual Predator skin won't be seen for a few more weeks.

Now that the downtime for the v15.20 has ended, Fortnite also has new weapons for players to get their hands on. The Lever Action Shotgun can drop enemies quickly if they get too close to you, while the Exotic-class Hop Rock Dualies are a pair of dual pistols that come equipped with a low-gravity effect.

Pikmin 3 Deluxe, the updated edition of the fantastic Wii U game, released in October but was somewhat overshadowed by all of the big holiday releases and console launches. We didn't see any deals on the real-time strategy game during Black Friday or over the holidays either. If you've been holding out and are looking for a Nintendo Switch game to tide you over until Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury releases next month, Pikmin 3 Deluxe is on sale for its lowest price yet. Right now, you can snag Pikmin 3 Deluxe for $45.39 at Walmart.

The discount will show up when you add Pikmin 3 to you cart. It comes with free two-day delivery, so you'll likely get your copy in time to play over the weekend.

Little Nightmares II just isn't suited to action sequences. We recently got one more chance to go hands-on with Little Nightmares II ahead of its release, playing through the first two levels of the game. The first level was the Forest that we got to play during our first hands-on with Little Nightmares II, but the second, the School, was brand-new. And it was here that Little Nightmares II started focusing more on platforming and combat sequences, which weren't as satisfying as the more puzzle- and stealth-focused levels we've played before.

In the School, protagonist Mono is quickly separated from deuteragonist Six, the original Little Nightmares' protagonist, as the two find themselves lost in a building that's inhabited by the Bullies, trouble-making porcelain children, and stalked by a monstrously grotesque teacher. While the Bullies are pranksters that prefer to set deadly traps and only roughhouse Mono if they get too close, the Teacher is far more proactive, responding to every little sound and stretching her neck out like a gross snake to twist her head into biting range.

With all the Bullies running around, the school is more heavily inhabited than the Forest and Hospital levels we've played before. There are more combat sequences where you have to lift a hammer or pipe to smash the Bullies in your way or platforming sections where you must carefully run, jump, and climb around and through obstacles, while the Teacher's head is twisting about the room, looking for you.

Lucasfilm Games is now in business with Bethesda for its new Indiana Jones game and Ubisoft for its own Star Wars project, but where does this leave EA, the publisher of Battlefront, Jedi: Fallen Order, and other Star Wars games? Lucasfilm Games boss Douglas Reilly said in an interview on the Star Wars website that Lucasfilm is staying in business with EA, and the publisher is working on "a number of projects" right now.

"We're really proud of the games we have created with EA," Reilly said. "We will continue working with them and our relationship has never been stronger. While we may not have a lot of details to share at the moment, we've got a number of projects underway with the talented teams at EA."

EA also shared a message on Twitter reaffirming the company's love of Star Wars and intention to continue making more games (and pointing out how cute BD-1 is). However, no specific plans are shared, nor is there any indication of whether future games will be of the console/PC or mobile variety.

PS5 exclusive Returnal has received another gameplay trailer highlighting the rougelite's fast-paced action, with developer Housemarque providing a deep dive into many of its systems.

In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Returnal's combat is described as a third-person take on Housemarque's classic bullet hell, arcade-inspired shooters, such as Resogun, Nex Machina, and Super Stardust HD. Each run, however, will change up the action in drastic ways. Protagonist Selene is only able to use one weapon at a time, but weapon traits allow you to modify the base function of each of the ten available. These can be stacked as the run continues, unlocking powerful combinations specific to the weapon you're using.

It's a good time to be a bounty hunter in Red Dead Online, as this week's update focuses on the gunslingers who bring in outlaws dead or alive. You can earn extra role XP and RDO$ by hunting down some notorious criminals, while also claiming some discounts.

This week you'll get double role XP on Legendary Bounties and double RDO$ on Prestigious Legendary Bounties. In particular, those Prestigious targets include Gene "Beau" Finley, Carmela "La Muñeca" Montez, and Virgil "Shepherd" Edwards. You can also claim 50% RDO$ bonus on the original 10 Legendary bounties.

No matter what your role, jumping into Red Dead Online this week will grant you a 1,000 Bounty Hunter XP reward, and 100 rounds of Express Repeater ammo.

Ubisoft has announced it is partnering with Lucasfilm Games on a new Star Wars game. The development effort will be led by Massive Entertainment, the studio behind The Division series. Although little is known about the game, it has been described as "a new story-driven open-world Star Wars adventure."

The unnamed Star Wars title will be developed on the Snowdrop engine, which was most recently used by Massive Entertainment for The Division 2. Julian Gerighty, who was the creative director of The Division 2, will serve the same role for the Star Wars title.

"This is a lore that we love, and we want to do it justice with a game and story that bring both lifelong and new fans on an immersive and outstanding journey that will stay with them for years," he said.

Alongside its desktop and laptop GPU announcements at CES 2021, Nvidia has revealed that it will start supporting Resizable BAR functionality from February.

Resizable BAR has been part of the PCIe specification for years, but AMD were the first to utilize it last year with what it called Smart Access Memory. This allowed Radeon RX 6000 GPUs and Ryzen 5000 CPUs to directly communicate, letting the processor access the entire batch of GPU memory instead of it being served up in 256MB chunks. This overcomes one of the biggest I/O limitations in PC hardware today.

Smart Access Memory requires specific hardware to work, but Nvidia is proposing a solution that works across both Intel and AMD CPUs. Intel has already confirmed support with its new 11th generation H and S series processors, while AMD has yet to officially announce which CPUs it will support.

When Grand Theft Auto V released in 2013, Lamar's "yee yee ass haircut" roast became a hit, catching on with gamers as an expression of disgust. In 2020, the meme was revived when people started remixing the scene, replacing Lamar with fictional characters ranging from Spongebob to Darth Vader. Now, the meme has reached its peak form, with the original voice actors from the game reuniting to recreate it in person.

The video stars GTA 5 actors Slink Johnson and Shawn Fonteno (who provided both voice and motion capture for their characters) acting out the scene with impressive attention to detail. After it was uploaded by YouTube channel PlayStation Haven it racked up almost 2.5 million views in under 24 hours, proving the meme is still alive and well. The meme has a page on Know Your Meme, as well as an Urban Dictionary definition of "yee yee ass".

PUBG Mobile's latest big update has arrived, bringing with it new modes and corresponding loot. Check out everything that's been added in the patch, including the brand new Runic Power Mode in the full patch notes below.

Runic Power is a new event that'll run from the moment you update until March 7. Available on the Erangel map, Runic Power has players select one of three special powers that they can then use by collecting rune fragments on the map.

The three runes are the Flame Rune, Arctic Rune, and Wind Rune, each with different abilities to suit varied playstyles. The Flame Rune is the most attack-based, with the ability to summon a fire-based attack and apply burning damage with your regular ammo. The Arctic Rune summons an ice wall that can be used either to impede opponents or to lift up anything on top of the wall's area. The Wind Rune creates a shield that will reduce projectile damage, as well as increasing player movement speed.

There are a lot of things about the Indiana Jones movies that make for good video game fodder: a hero who occasionally cracks wise, fascinating historical settings, Nazis and other evildoers to fight, and big action set pieces in which the heroic Indy takes on a tank or escapes ancient traps. Indiana Jones translates so well into video game form that a few other franchises, most notably Uncharted and Tomb Raider, have already more or less lifted key elements from the iconic movies.

That leaves the upcoming Indiana Jones title from current Wolfenstein developer MachineGames facing an uphill battle. One of its bigger challenges is distinguishing itself from the games that have already riffed on some of the essential elements of the Indiana Jones formula. Nathan Drake and Lara Croft are archaeological killing machines and treasure hunters, gunning down whole armies of mercenaries as they fight to keep lost cities and powerful relics out of the hands of bad guys. Some online reactions have already suggested any Indiana Jones game might wind up being an "Uncharted clone" on account of the ideas being so similar.

So how do you make an Indiana Jones game that doesn't feel like it's borrowing from the games that have borrowed from Indiana Jones? It might actually not be as difficult as it sounds, at least conceptually. The key is creating a game that is more like the movies than slotting the franchise into the Indiana Jones-shaped framework set out by the video games it inspired.

In an update about new additions to the beta version of the game, Phasmophobia developer Kinetic Games revealed that "the ghost will now listen for player voices when hunting." The biggest news for most Phasmophobia players, however, was that the game didn't already include this feature.

In a subsequent reply, Kinetic confirmed that it was added to the game because "lots of people thought it was a feature" already. With the game already allowing for audio input for communicating both with other players and with the ghost, as well as antagonizing ghosts by calling out their name, it's no surprise players believed that mic input would also lead a ghost to their location. The bad news is, if the ghosts weren't using those clues before, they're about to get even more deadly on a hunt.

Kinetic have elaborated that the update will be "based on how loud your mic is," meaning players will still be able to safely whisper while being hunted. Another recent update also improved ghosts' hunting behaviors, allowing ghosts to remember a player's last known location and to search that area first.

During Sony's CES livestream, Sony revealed that Square Enix's Project Athia will launch on PlayStation 5 in January 2022. The window was confirmed by way of a very small block of text on a PlayStation disclaimer image, which also confirmed dates for other upcoming PS5 titles. A release date for the game was previously unknown.

Project Athia was first announced as an exclusive title for the PS5 during Sony's PS5 reveal event stream. The trailer played during the announcement revealed a protagonist leaping and exploring a fantasy world with menacing-looking enemies. Project Athia's taglines suggest that the protagonist will endure something like a fish out of water trial: "In a world not her own, where resolve will be tested, truths will be questioned, and devotions will be doubted, she will rise." Not much else is known about the game at this time.

Project Athia is being produced by Square Enix's Luminous Productions, a subsidiary formed to develop AAA titles. Luminous Productions' past titles include only Final Fantasy XV, and Project Athia is the studio's first departure from a Final Fantasy installment.

There are plenty of indie games to look forward to in 2021, and Sony has just confirmed that two PlayStation console exclusive indie titles are coming out sooner rather than later. You can expect to get your hands on both Solar Ash and Kena: Bridge of Spirits within the first half of 2021.

In a small text message seen during Sony Interactive Entertainment's CES 2021 press conference, Sony revealed the release windows for several upcoming games. Both Solar Ash and Kena: Bridge of Spirits are listed, with the former scheduled to come out in June and the latter in March.

From developer Heart Machine, Solar Ash sees you play as a mysterious individual who can seemingly glide across practically anything, speeding through beautifully stylized worlds and just as quickly getting thrown into frantic bouts of combat. The game is scheduled to launch for PS4, PS5, and PC.

Sony's CES 2021 presentation gave us a look at some of the new tech on the way from the company this year, including various PS5 titles. Although few details were shared during the stream, we did learn some updated release windows for a handful of upcoming games, including Ghostwire: Tokyo and Stray.

As noted in a disclaimer during the presentation, both Ghostwire and Stray are now slated to release for PS5 in October 2021. Both had previously been confirmed for this year, but this further narrows down their release window. No further information about the titles was revealed beyond that.

Ghostwire: Tokyo is the next project from Tango Gameworks, the studio founded by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami. We've heard little about the game since last summer, when director Kenji Kimura spoke about how the title will take advantage of PS5's DualSense controller and other hardware features.

During CES 2021, Sony outlined release dates for some upcoming PlayStation 5 titles, including GhostWire: Tokyo, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Project Athia, Solar Ash, and Stray. The company also confirmed that Capcom's sci-fi title Pragmata has been pushed back to 2023.

Neither Sony nor Capcom have shared new footage of Pragmata during CES 2021. Originally slated to launch in 2022, Pragmata was unveiled in June 2020 with a trailer that didn’t reveal much. Questions around narrative, gameplay, characters, and the like have yet to be answered. However, it's supposed to launch on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S in 2023.

Toward the end of Sony's CES 2021 livestream, the company's logo was punctuated by small-print text featuring other release date announcements. This includes Kena: Bridge of Spirits (which releases this March), Solar Ash (launching this June), GhostWire: Tokyo and Stray (which both drop this October) and Project Athia (coming out in January 2022).