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Rust, the multiplayer survival game, will implement its first monthly update of the year on January 7 at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET. The devs stated in a Twitter post that players should expect a blueprint and map wipe, as well as Twitch drops. Other specifics are unknown as of this time.

A blueprint wipe deletes, as the name implies, blueprints and players' data, including inventory and positions. A map wipe removes player-made structures, but keeps intact natural terrain and NPC towns--effectively resetting a map. Facepunch, the dev, regularly pushes map wipes at the beginning of every month.

Facepunch will also be enabling Twitch drops, a feature that rewards players for watching Rust streams on Twitch. To get this feature, you need to activate Twitch drops on your Steam account. You can identify which streams to watch by checking if it has the Drops Enabled tag.

In a recent job listing for a senior software engineer, Microsoft remarked that they were planning on making some extensive visual changes to the Windows UI to remind their user base that Windows is still a hip OS, as reported by Windows Latest.

The listing stated: "On this team, you’ll work with our key platform, Surface, and OEM partners to orchestrate and deliver a sweeping visual rejuvenation of Windows experiences to signal to our customers that Windows is BACK and ensure that Windows is considered the best user OS experience for customers." The ad has since been altered to remove any references to this Windows makeover, as Windows enthusiasts began to notice it in the listing.

Codenamed Sun Valley, the UI reboot was originally reported on by Windows Central back in late October 2020. According to this report, the planned refresh will most likely arrive as part of Windows 10 Cobalt during the 2021 holiday season, and will be bringing significant updates to user-interfaces like the File Explorer, Action Center, and Start menu. The update is meant to modernize the user experience to match a world that has become accustomed to more lightweight and navigable platforms.

Valve is looking for a psychologist to join their team and help develop future games and its storefront, Steam. A new listing has been posted to their official site looking for someone to join the studio out of its Bellevue office in Washington state.

"We hire people with broad skill sets who also exhibit deep expertise," the listing reads. "Psychologists at Valve contribute to a wide variety of initiatives across the company and are trusted to prioritize their work in collaboration with their peers."

The studio known for Half Life: Alyx, Team Fortress 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has employed a number of psychologists over the years. Valve conducts all sorts of experiments, like one that measures the player's sweat and level of arousal, to learn about player behavior in order to improve their games. The studio even created a version of Portal 2 that players could control with their eyes after it found that players could move their eyes faster than their hands.

Have you fantasized about becoming a trainer in Pokemon? Well here's your chance: Niantic wants to cast players' Trainer avatars as Trainer NPCs during the Pokemon Go Tour: Kanto event. If selected, other players will be able to challenge and battle your Trainer.

Niantic will choose candidates through a competition. You can enter by posting on Twitter before January 11, 11:59 PM PT. The post must include the following elements: a Trainer profile screenshot showing the avatar's full name and outfit, a list of three Pokemon you'd want on your team, and the hashtag #PokemonGOTourContest. There are restrictions on which Pokemon you can include: They must be originally from the Kanto region and cannot include Ditto, or any Legendary or Mythical Pokemon.

Niantic will evaluate submissions based on "creativity of avatar outfit, general theme, Pokemon team composition." Each person can only enter the competition once, and eight winners will be selected. Niantic will inform winners through Twitter DMs around January 18.

A handful of DSiWare games are no longer available on the Nintendo 3DS eShop. The games, including ones that have been published by Nintendo, have a "This software is currently unavailable" disclaimer posted on their store page.

"All DSiWare games released before mid-May 2011 have been deactivated on the eShop, including the classic Shantae Risky’s Revenge," reads a tweet from a user who first discovered the removals. "Luckily I got it on my DSi before that shop shut down. Grab from those still for sale while you can!"

Some of the games that have been removed include Shantae: Risky’s Revenge, Dr. Mario Express, Mr. Driller: Drill Till You Drop, and many others. Players can still access their copies of these games and redownload them from the eShop. However, those who haven't purchased these titles are unable to purchase or download them.

A new month has begun, which means a new set of Field Research tasks and rewards are now live in Pokemon Go. That's not all; a new Research Breakthrough encounter is also available this month, giving you a chance to catch another rare Pokemon in the game.

Each Research Breakthrough you achieve in January 2021 will lead to an encounter with Chansey. You'll achieve a Research Breakthrough once you've amassed seven stamps. As a refresher, one stamp is doled out for the first Field Research task you complete each day, so you'll need complete at least one task daily for a full week to encounter Chansey.

If you don't manage to achieve a Research Breakthrough before the month ends, don't worry; any stamps you've earned will carry over, so your progress will go toward next month's Research Breakthrough.

After multiple instances of collective action and demonstrations against management decisions, employees at Google have formed a minority union called the Alphabet Workers Union with the help of organizers from the Communication Workers of America, a union group that works with telecommunications and media workers.

Traditionally, when employees come together to unionize in the United States they have to recruit enough employees to petition their state or federal labor board (usually the National Labor Relations Board or NLRB) to hold an election. If employee organizers win the vote in this election, they are recognized by the board and company and can come to the table to negotiate a contract. The Alphabet Workers Union, named for Google's parent company, has taken a slightly different approach to make their organizing more feasible in the generally union-hostile tech industry.

2021 is a big year for Halo and Xbox, as Microsoft will finally release Halo Infinite after years of development and a late delay last year. We still don't know much about the game's story, apart from the fact that it is a direct sequel to Halo 5 and takes place on Zeta Halo. Plenty of questions remain unanswered, one of which is whether the Arbiter will make an appearance.

The Arbiter, an alien who befriends Master Chief and appears in Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 5, is voiced by actor Keith David. He recently had some time on his hands and asked people to submit questions to him on Twitter. One person asked if David had a role in Halo Infinite, and the actor gave an intriguing response.

Asked if he could say if he's going to be in Halo Infinite, David said, "I'd have to kill you."

The Sims is all about character customization and hilarious death traps, but mostly the character customization. Now EA has partnered with the cosmetics company MAC to create a line of Sims-themed eyeshadows, so you can look like your Sim that looks like you that looks like your Sim.

Input Mag reports that the product is called the Sims Eye Shadow x9 Palette Starring The Sims. The pan includes nine shades including smoky brown and shimmer shadows, all in a Sims-themed box. You can purchase the palette for $32 USD through the Mac Cosmetics site.

"Many gamers stream live and understand the power of the slightest gesture of makeup," Romero Jennings, MAC director of make-up artistry said. "They understand the impact it can make on themselves and their followers. Makeup and video games are the perfect escape to bring your perfect virtual world to the real life. Both definitely enhance our day-to-day lives."

Team Cherry has kept details about Hollow Knight: Silksong, the indie studio's sophomore effort, close to the chest since its announcement. But we've now learned some more about the upcoming soulslike metroidvania, including how protagonist Hornet's design influenced the creation of the game's setting, Pharloom.

"Hornet being taller changes everything," Hollow Knight: Silksong game designer Willian Pellen told Edge, in an interview published in Issue #354. In comparison to Hollow Knight's rather small unnamed knight of a protagonist, Silksong features the tall Hornet, a half-insect warrior princess.

"Hornet can travel so much faster, she can jump higher, she can mantle or clamber onto ledges, she's generally more acrobatic," Hollow Knight: Silksong animator Ari Gibson told Edge. "So the caves around her need to accommodate her height."

This year will mark a decade since the release of The Binding of Isaac, the monster roguelite that launched a thousand roguelites. But while it's been seven years since the major expansion Rebirth, and four years since Afterbirth added better mod support, Isaac will get one final major expansion to close out the game.

Titled Repentance, this expansion officially adopts a lot of content from Antibirth, a popular mod for Isaac that was released back in 2016, and several of the developers behind Antibirth are working with lead developer Edmund McMillen to put the game together. According to McMillen, Repentance is a sequel-sized expansion that is to the current game as the Rebirth was to the original flash version of Isaac.

Though many other roguelites have followed in McMillen's wake, most recently the smash-hit Hades, The Binding of Isaac is still arguably the biggest game in the genre, with many streamers still playing the game to this day. Given its pedigree and legacy, It remains to be seen if fans will embrace the changes that Repentance will bring to the game, since previous expansions have proven controversial among the game's fanbase at times.

While Cyberpunk 2077 does feature a third-person camera, the view is relegated exclusively to driving vehicles--unless players glitch the game. However, a new PC mod looks to fully convert developer CD Projekt Red's first-person RPG into a third-person RPG.

The mod, available on Nexus Mods and uploaded by user sarunama, is a work-in-progress. It does exactly what it says: Pushes the camera behind the character so players can get a wider view of Cyberpunk 2077 from the third-person perspective. However, in order for players to get access to the third-person plugin, they must download two mods: the TPP mod itself and the prerequisite mod Cyber Engine Tweaks, which is also downloadable from Nexus Mods.

Once both mods are installed, players can hit the "B" key to choose from four different third-person camera angles. YouTuber Slothability breaks down how to install the mod and provides a brief demonstration. Being a work-in-progress and with Cyberpunk 2077 created as a first-person game, character animations are erratic and wonky. It doesn't break the game in any way, but the mod is likely to make the experience even more unstable than it already has been. CD Projekt Red promised more bug fixes are planned for January and February of this year.

Speedrunning events like Awesome Games Done Quick and Summer Games Done Quick are a great way for runners to build their profile and show off the games that they specialize in. Given how competitive many of these games are and the pressure that the event brings, it's relatively rare for a runner to actually set a world record at a marathon. However, that's exactly what happened to a certain Sonic The Hedgehog speedrunner on Monday.

The Sonic runner FlyingFox set a new world record in the original Sonic the Hedgehog during the "Sonic block" on Monday. The run saw FlyingFox play through the entirety of the original game with the character Tails, which is possible only in the 2013 rerelease of the game on Android and iOS. Because the category relies on in-game time, not real-time, it took the moderators a moment to realize that FlyingFox set the record, during which time the runner said she was just happy that she "didn't die." This delay was caused in part due to the event occurring virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Awesome Games Done Quick--better known as AGDQ--takes place every winter and sees some of the best speedrunners in the world make history with difficult and nostalgic video games. Because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the event is being held online instead of as an in-person celebration this year, but there are still a ton of games to watch. Here's how to watch and what to expect.

How to watch AGDQ 2021

AGDQ 2021 is being streamed live on the organization's official Twitch channel. It began on January 3 at 8:30 AM PT / 11:30 AM ET with a pre-show presentation and concludes the following Sunday, January 10, after a special The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time stream. You can see the full stream below.

For this event, donations are going toward the Prevent Cancer Foundation. You can learn more on the official Games Done Quick website, which also shows off the prizes you'll have a chance to receive for donating. They include plenty of art projects as well as some hard-to-find merchandise. Want a Mario 35th anniversary pin set? You have a shot!

Nier: Automata is a very strange game, with multiple "endings" necessary in order to actually see its final ending and some of its content actually repeated from a different character's perspective. This all comes together to deliver one of the most memorable conclusions in video games, but one clever player has managed to figure out a way to let you skip nearly all of it. In fact, he uncovered the last secret the game was hiding. It only took four years!

Major spoilers for Nier: Automata to follow!

Once you've unlocked ending "E" in Nier: Automata, you're presented with a final credits sequence that sees other players' save data assisting you in a retro shooter sequence to defeat the text itself. Completing this gives you the chance to sacrifice your own save data--thus erasing all of your progress--in order to give another player the chance to beat the game, too. This is where Twitter user Lance McDonald comes in.

The Xbox Series X and Series S systems have been extremely difficult to find since they launched in November, and stock hasn’t improved much at the major retailers. However, head of Xbox Phil Spencer said he's taken some steps to ensure the console will be more plentiful soon. It's unclear how soon "soon" is, but the issues affecting Microsoft are likely similar to the ones affecting Sony.

Talking to Xbox Live's "Major Nelson" Larry Hryb on his podcast (via VGC), Spencer explained that Microsoft has been making new consoles as quickly as possible, but he's also working with their production partners to further increase output. This includes AMD, which creates the system's GPU and CPU. The Switch is the only major system to not use AMD for these components, relying instead on Nvidia.

"It really is just down to physics and engineering. We're not holding them back," Spencer said. "We're building them as fast as we can. We have all the assembly lines going. I was on the phone last week with Lisa Su at AMD [asking], 'How do we get more? How do we get more?' So it's something that we're constantly working on, but it's not just us. I think gaming has really come into its own in 2020."

It looks like the final chapter of Call of Duty Modern Warfare's Warzone storyline, The War Room, has been released, and with it, a new cutscene detailing the final outcome of the game's nuclear plotline. It's finally time to see how this saga ends; will the operators succeed, or will the situation quite literally go nuclear?

YouTuber Geeky Pastimes was the first to access this scene, but you don't have to be a professional gamer to do so. To access this final scene, you will need to unlock it by gathering every piece of intel currently available in the latest addition to the game. You can only gain one piece of intel per game, so keep that in mind while you are collecting. There are five pieces of intel in total.

The latest installment in Warzone's story brings the finale of the hunt for Victor Zakahev in Verdansk as the countdown on the nuclear missile launch ticks ever lower. Once you have collected all five pieces of intel, return to the main menu and use the missions tab to access the final scene.

As we move into the new year with some countries considering new lockdowns to guard against increasing cases of COVID-19, PlayStation Plus subscribers will have a handful of new free games to keep them occupied. They include a new free PS5 game, replacing Bugsnax from the console's launch. This month, subscribers will be able to pick up Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Greedfall on PS4, as well as shark simulator Maneater, which will be free exclusively on PS5. You have a few days left to pick up December's games. Don't miss your chance to get them before they're gone!

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the most recent instalment in the rebooted Tomb Raider series, bringing Lara Croft's ongoing adventure to the jungles of South America to save the world from a Mayan apocalypse. As the classic AAA adventure game you would expect, GameSpot's review of Shadow praised the thrill of exploration and the challenge of solving ancient tomb puzzles, but warned that the game's traditional mechanics can make the journey a frustrating one.

One thing the gaming industry is somewhat notorious for is the secrecy surrounding its different practices. Most studios don't reveal the intricacies of their day-to-day operations or contracts, keeping gamers and industry workers alike in the dark. For smaller, independent companies, however, there is more flexibility. Raw Fury has made a bold move in opposition to this standard, releasing several templates used in its business dealings, including the details of their standard contract with game studios publicly in a statement on December 22. It could help to push others in the same direction.

Raw Fury has developed a reputation as a developer-friendly publisher over the years, even supporting one of its indie teams for a full-year past release despite small profits, and this move seems to be another step in line with that ethos. According to its statement, the reasoning for this decision was based in empathy for developers trying to navigate the confusing landscape of the industry.

The founder of Yoozoo Games, Lin Qi, passed away on Christmas Day after eight days in hospital suffering "acute symptoms of illness." Now the Shanghai police have revealed that poison may have played a part in Lin's death, and this may have involved a colleague, the Guardian reports.

Yoozoo Games is a Shanghai studio best known for Game of Thrones strategy game Winter is Coming. Yoozoo is also set to produce the upcoming Netflix adaptation of the Three-Body Problem, which has Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss attached.

According to reports from the Shanghai police, the hospital determined that Lin had been poisoned. The police have detained a suspect with the surname Xu, who allegedly worked with Lin at Yoozoo Games. The police statement only said that Xu was a suspect, who was being detained "in accordance with the law while the relevant investigative work is carried out."

2021 is just around the corner, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons is ringing in the new year with a couple of new seasonal items. Four New Year-themed food items have now been added to the Nook Shopping catalog, but you only have a few days to grab them.

From now until December 31, you can order the sparkling cider (1,000 Bells), Twelve-grape dish (1,200 Bells), Berliner (1,200 Bells), and New Year's noodles (1,300 Bells). Like other limited-time items, these can be found in the Seasonal tab of the Nook Shopping catalog.

On top of the New Year's foods, you also still have a few more days to claim this month's other seasonal items: the Aurora wall and the Midwinter sweater. Both will be available to purchase from the Seasonal tab until December 31. The Aurora wall costs 7,000 Bells, while the Midwinter sweater runs for 1,200 Bells.

As threatened earlier in December, CD Projekt S.A. is being taken to court in the United States over claims that the bug-ridden state of Cyberpunk 2077's PS4 and Xbox One releases were hidden from investors, causing them to incur losses. Now the company has responded to acknowledge the class action suit, with a brief statement saying it will defend itself vigorously.

The class action refers to Cyberpunk 2077's release on PS4 and Xbox One, which ranged from incredibly buggy to literally unplayable. The issues encountered by players on these consoles led to CD Projekt Red putting out a statement that invited unhappy players to seek a refund, and later caused Sony to remove the game from the PlayStation store in a rare move. These issues caused CD Projekt stock prices to plummet, with the company's founders losing approximately $1 billion in value off their joint share.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the game we needed in 2020, providing a cute world to escape to with friends as the world was shutting down due to the global pandemic. Now, Nintendo is releasing the snazzy Dodo Airlines Pilot Jacket as a real piece of merchandise that you can wear to match your Animal Crossing character.

While the real-life Dodo Pilot Jacket was announced by the brick and mortar Nintendo store in New York City, it's also available from the online Nintendo store at a price of $80. The jacket is entirely based off the in-game DAL Pilot Jacket, with patches on the front and right sleeves, a zipper pouch in the left sleeve and a large Dodo applique on the back. It joins a Dodo Airlines t-shirt and cap, as well as a handful of similar Nook Inc. merchandise.

Ratchet & Clank is one of Sony's longest-running series, blending classic 3D platforming with an array of wild and wacky weaponry. It also serves as a nice bit of variety in the PlayStation portfolio, complementing dark and serious games like The Last of Us and God of War with the spirit of a Saturday morning cartoon.

So it should come as no surprise that the PS5 already has a new entry in the works, called Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. But this Ratchet is also serving as a nice showpiece for the PS5, relying on a snappy dimension-hopping mechanic made possible by the new hardware's faster-loading SSD. That may be why unlike some other launch window games for PS5 like Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Horizon Forbidden West, it's not coming for PS4 as well.

Here's everything we know so far about Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. For more on upcoming games, check out our most anticipated games of 2021.

Monster Hunter World may have skipped out on the Switch, but Nintendo's hybrid console is receiving its own new Monster Hunter game next year: Monster Hunter Rise. Developed on Capcom's RE Engine, Rise is a sprawling new entry in the action-RPG series, featuring seamless environments and a handful of brand-new mechanics that give the game a more fluid, action-packed feel than previous installments.

We're still a few months out from Monster Hunter Rise's release, but Capcom has already revealed various details about the game. We've rounded up everything we know about Switch's new Monster Hunter title below. For more on next year's biggest releases, be sure to check out our most anticipated games of 2021, as well as our lists of the biggest Switch games to play in 2021 and beyond and 50 games you should have on your radar next year.

The Far Cry series has been one of Ubisoft's most defining open-world action-adventure franchises, focusing on exploration and fighting hostile forces in exotic locales. In Far Cry 6, the franchise heads to a new location known as Yara, loosely based on the island and history of Cuba. Set during a political and social revolution, Yara's citizens begin their campaign to overthrow the cruel dictator Presidente Castillo. Here's everything we know about Far Cry 6 so far.

For more on other upcoming new games, check out our most anticipated games of 2021.

The Story So Far

Though previous entries in the Far Cry series have had some loose connections, Far Cry 6 is an entirely standalone game that doesn't have many ties to the previous games. This is likely for the best, considering Far Cry 5 and its spin-off New Dawn unexpectedly brought the series into the post-apocalyptic setting. Far Cry 6 takes place in the present, with the modern world still intact. However, this game's setting is on the island of Yara, a country isolated from the rest of the world due to economic sanctions, as the developers explained in a talk with GameSpot shortly after the reveal Playing as a native of Yara who joins the rebel forces, you'll make your way through the island dismantling the country's systems of power before facing off against Presidente Anton Castillo, who's played by Breaking Bad and The Mandalorian actor Giancarlo Esposito.

Back when Destiny first came out in 2014, one of the things that it most struggled with was telling the story of its vast and strange world. Set in a distant, alien-filled post-apocalypse in which flying robot flashlights resurrect the dead to turn them into immortal superheroes, Destiny packed so much seemingly random stuff into its original campaign that it was truly challenging to follow.

Part of what made Destiny 1 kind of a mess was that while you were being bombarded with all of those worldbuilding elements, Bungie decided to tell about half of one story, toss it out midway, and start another one. And that was all the fault of a weird character who showed up, pointed you at a new threat, famously gave you no explanation, and then disappeared for years: the Exo Stranger.

With Destiny 2's Beyond Light expansion, we've finally seen the return of the Exo Stranger six years later. Along with her return, Bungie is, at long last, taking the time to explain. In fact, there's a whole lot of story baked into Beyond Light--and it all finally fills in the gaps of what happened in Destiny 1. In a big way, Beyond Light just recontextualized everything that has happened in Destiny up to now, upending our understanding of the story. After six years, Destiny 1's story kind of makes sense now.

With 2020 just about wrapped up and all its best games recognized in our annual Best Of awards, the team at GameSpot would like to help you anticipate what lies ahead by accurately predicting the future (or attempting to). 2021 is looking to be an exciting proving ground for new-generation consoles PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, as they both enter the next phase after their recent launches. Will the year bring fantastic games and experiences that will push the new hardware toward exciting new heights? Or will we still have to wait a while before the heavy investment we made this past holiday season becomes worth it? And let's not forget; Nintendo just might use this year to release the long-rumored upgrade to the Switch--we think as much, at least. Whatever may happen, time will tell (or we will in our predictions)!

In GameSpot's annual prediction series, we've put our brains together to determine what could happen next year in the world of games. While our accuracy in predicting the future isn't always on the mark, it still won't stop us from speculating.

Below you can find our gaming predictions for 2021. No matter how plausible or absurd these predictions might be, these are what we believe will come true in some form next year.

Isn't it a little funny that we've heard more about Elden Ring in 2020 from Xbox head Phil Spencer than from the actual developers behind the game? Developer From Software sure is keeping details about Elden Ring close to the chest, but we do know a bit about the upcoming game.

From Software is developing the game in collaboration with Game Of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, telling a story where you're exploring an open world full of different kingdoms that are each ruled by a powerful entity. When you defeat a ruler, you gain their unique power--a system that sounds like (but isn't confirmed to be) how you can acquire the abilities and weapons of Dark Souls bosses by transfiguring their souls.

When talking to GameSpot, Spencer said, "As somebody who's played all of Miyazaki's games over at least the last decade, [Elden Ring] is clearly the most ambitious game that he's done. I mean, I love his games, but seeing some of the gameplay mechanics stuff that he's tackling, he and the team are tackling this time, of the setting, working with another creator in terms of story. I love it."

2020 saw the release of a lot of awesome indie games--If Found..., Evan's Remains, Signs of the Sojourner, Umurangi Generation, Murder By Numbers, Vigil: The Longest Night, What Comes After, Monster Train, and so many others. But with the year coming to a close, it's time we start looking forward to the ton of cool-looking indie games scheduled to launch in 2021.

Of the many indies currently scheduled to come out in 2021 and beyond, these 50 have really caught our eye. They're listed alphabetically.

Miles Morales and his mom Rio just moved into a new apartment in Harlem. There's still a lot to unpack in their rooms, and you can learn so much about them by looking around and examining their possessions. But the living room and kitchen are all put together, and Rio is going all-out to prepare a big Christmas dinner for herself, Miles, and a few family friends. It's a heartwarming scene where you have to do a few chores like put on some music, light the Christmas tree, and make sure Ganke cleans up the damn mess he made spilling soup on the rug. What's most important here is that it's a rich display of culture, language, and food that celebrates the Morales' Puerto Rican heritage.

Anyone who has played Spider-Man: Miles Morales will remember this part of the game--not necessarily for the fact that Miles has to get the power back on by using his Spidey skills while no one's looking, but because it draws you into a cozy winter vibe of a snow-covered New York City. It's a powerful moment of character building--you hear Miles and Rio speak Spanish to each other and you can see the Puerto Rican cuisine prepared and being cooked. It's an invitation to see Miles' Boricua roots first hand, and a striking piece of representation for those who share Boricua roots or relate through other Latin-American cultures, all over a nice dinner for the holidays. And for me, after I spoke to my mom to let her know I couldn't come home for Christmas this year, these moments in the game became much more bittersweet.

CD Projekt Red has released another hotfix patch for Cyberpunk 2077--it closely follows on the heels of Patch 1.05, which addressed numerous glitches that occur in the opening hours of the main campaign. This new hotfix, Patch 1.06, doesn't fix as much, but it addresses the noteworthy save file corruption glitch.

Patch 1.06 fixes the glitch that caused your save file to become corrupted if it exceeded a certain limit--something that could be done if you were holding onto too many items in your inventory. The patch is live across Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

Unfortunately, the patch cannot recover what has been lost. If you've already fallen victim to the save file glitch, your save will still be corrupted. Patch 1.06 simply prevents the bug from ever occurring again. You can see the full breakdown of what Patch 1.06 does in the full patch notes, which are listed below.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has led to many challenges in the gaming industry, it hasn't seen the industry at large get hit financially. Due to gaming being an at-home activity, the hobby has seen a huge uptick in both spending and playtime. As a result of safety regulations and quarantine restrictions, the gaming industry is now making more money than the movie and sporting industry combined.

According to data from the International Data Corporation (per MarketWatch), global gaming revenue is expected to be around $197.7 billion by the end of the year. That's up roughly 20% from last year, and the significant rise can be contributed to the pandemic, the continued success of the Nintendo Switch, and the console launches for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S and X. In 2019, the film and sports industries brought in a combined $175 billion, and both are down significantly this year.

While console sales are on the rise, the biggest boost in gaming revenue has come from mobile gaming. Smartphone titles have seen an overall revenue boost of nearly 25% and are now up to a projected $87.7 billion. A bulk of that revenue comes from Asia and the Pacific region, as it makes up $56.6 billion.

At the start of the year, I lamented the loss in functionality of one of my Roku remote's buttons after Sony shuttered its PlayStation Vue streaming service. As it happens, this turned out to rank rather low on the list of 2020's biggest problems, but I return to you this December with both good and bad news.

I've recently begun using the Roku remote from another device, my Roku Ultra. It works a lot like my Roku Streaming Stick+'s remote, albeit with a much bulkier frame that makes me feel as if I'm holding a deeply stale Twinkie (I'm not sure if that's a physical state that a Twinkie can attain, but hopefully you understand). It also has added A and B buttons that are oddly positioned. I don't know what they do, but they are new and different from what I'm accustomed to, and thus they frighten me. I don't plan to investigate the situation further.

Above those two is the standard layout of four buttons that jump you directly into an app. Netflix and Hulu are both welcome as such prominent streaming services. A third is for Sling, a service that I do not subscribe to, thus making it function as nothing more than an advertisement. So that's not great. But, on the bright side, it at least continues to exist, and so I begrudge it less than I do the continued blight that is the Vue button on my other remote.

Developer Mihoyo has revealed a handful of Genshin Impact events and wishes that are now live on Nintendo Switch, mobile devices, PC, and PlayStation 4 following the game's version 1.2 update. Each has a different end date, with one of them extending into February 2021.

The headlining event is The Chalk Prince and The Dragon, which sees the introduction of the sword-wielding Geo alchemist Albedo and gives players the chance to get the four-star sword Festering Desire for free until January 1. Those looking to score a five-star version of Albedo can participate in his Secretum Secretorum Character Wish Event until January 12. And smashed in between both of these events is round two of the Adventurer's Booster Bundles, a package that usually contains an assortment of goodies like Genesis Crystals, Mora, and XP.

A Character Trial Event featuring Albedo, Bennett, Fischl, and Sucrose is also live until January 12, providing players with a fixed team in order to complete challenges for various reward.

Former Republican congressman Duncan Hunter won't serve any time in prison for spending campaign funds on video games and other personal items for his family.

Hunter is one of 15 convicted criminals to receive a full pardon from President Donald Trump earlier this week. The son of prominent Republican politician Duncan Lee Hunter served as a US Representative for California's 50th congressional district from 2013 until resigning in early 2020 after pleading guilty to misusing campaign funds.

Hunter was sentenced to 11 months in prison after it was found out that he spent over $250,000 in campaign funds on luxury hotels, vacations, and other personal expenses. He even purchased plane tickets for his pet rabbits, named Eggburt and Cadbury. However, the politician never began his stint behind bars as the COVID-19 pandemic delayed his imprisonment until January 4, 2021.

Update: Escape From Tarkov update 12.9 is now live. The update, accompanied by a wipe, adds the Woods expansion, new weapons, and more. Read about what's new in the patch notes below.

Original story follows...

Escape From Tarkov update 12.9 is dropping on December 24 and will add both the Woods expansion and initiate a character wipe for all players. Developer Battlestate Games dropped the news early Wednesday morning following a livestream. You can read full patch notes for the update, which also introduces new weapons and ammo, minor character customization elements, and more, on the Escape From Tarkov forums.

With 2020 just about wrapped up, a new and thrilling year of games is approaching fast. Compared to 2020, 2021 is shaping up to be an even more exciting year, as Sony and Microsoft--with their successful launches behind them--will undoubtedly have to prove the worth of their new-generation consoles. Games are everything for a new console's success, so the quality of the output delivered will be key this year. And let's not forget Nintendo; the tenured company certainly has a lot to deal with this year, maintaining the momentum of its success in the wake of PS5 and Xbox Series X|S entering the market.

Fortunately, there's quite a promising schedule ahead in the first six months of 2021, and that's likely to expand with exciting new games as we get more confirmation from publishers and developers around what's coming. While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impose challenges upon the games industry at large, there still seems to be no shortage of thrilling new games to play in the new year.

Resident Evil Village, stylized to include the roman numeral VIII in the title, is the next game in the main Resident Evil series. It is a direct follow-up to Resident Evil 7, but developer and publisher Capcom has been insistent on using its full title rather than an abbreviation like RE8 in order to stress the importance of the mysterious village at the heart of the game. We got our first look at Resident Evil Village during Sony's PS5 reveal event in June. While we know some detail about the setting, characters, and how it ties in with the previous game, we don't have a release date or other crucial information just yet.

Here's what we know about Resident Evil Village so far. For more on upcoming games, check out our most anticipated games of 2021.

When Does Resident Evil Village Launch?

Resident Evil Village does not have an official release date yet, but we know it's scheduled to launch sometime in 2021. A recent leak points to a possible April 2021 launch, but until we hear from Capcom officially, we cannot verify this information ourselves.

Chinese media conglomerate Tencent has picked up two more developers after acquiring the Hong Kong-based video game company Leyou: Warframe developer Digital Extremes and Splash Damage, the studio best known for Brink, co-creating Gears 5's multiplayer and Gears Tactics with The Coalition, and the PC version of Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Both Digital Extremes and Splash Damage released statements about the acquisition, saying business at each studio will continue as usual. The studios will remain independent entities within Tencent, letting them leverage the giant's resources to bolster development efforts.

"One of our core pillars is transparency and so we’d like to let you know what that means: We will remain creatively independent, we expect no changes to Warframe or how our studio operates, and we will remain as dedicated ever to you, the community, who has been with us every step of the way since we launched Warframe," Digital Extremes said about the acquisition.