IGN

Portal 1 & 2 co-writer Erik Wolpaw has shared his desire to begin work on Portal 3, but warns it may be tough to actually get it started at Valve.

As reported by VGC, Wolpaw appeared on the Kiwi Talkz podcast and ended his appearance by saying, "we've gotta start Portal 3. That's my message to... to whoever."

He continued to say that he isn't getting younger and that, if Valve wanted to do a Portal 3 with any of the original team members, it should greenlight the project sooner rather than later.

"I am not getting any younger," Wolpaw said. "We are reaching the point where it’s crazy to think [that we’re] literally going to be too old to work on Portal 3, so we should just do it.”

Alongside working on the Portal franchise, Wolpaw has also written on Half-Life 2: Episode One and Two, Left 4 Dead, and Half-Life Alyx, so one would assume that he has some power in convincing Valve to act. Unfortunately, it still isn't that easy. While he admits he'd "love" to work on Portal 3, he understands he can't "make it happen by myself."

"Oh, I could advocate for it […] it might help a little bit, but the problem is [Valve has] 300 employees and I don’t know exactly the breakdown – how many of them are on the production side versus Steam business side versus legal versus whatever," Wolpaw explained.

Atlus has confirmed that Shin Megami Tensei V has sold over one million units worldwide, seemingly making it the best-selling entry in the franchise.

The news was shared on Twitter alongside a special illustration of Nahobino from character designer Masayuki Doi to celebrate the milestone.

Shin Megami Tensei V has sold 1 million units worldwide! ✨

Character Designer Masayuki Doi has created a special illustration to celebrate! Thank you so much for your support! #SMT5 pic.twitter.com/ZDKePUroZS

— Official ATLUS West (@Atlus_West) April 18, 2022

Crossing one million copies appears to make Shin Megami Tensei V the best-selling game in the franchise, as Atlus previously confirmed that 3DS' Shin Megami Tensei IV sold 600,000 units.

The success of SMT5 is another example of franchises finding a massive bump in sales on the Nintendo Switch and it is added to an ever-growing list that includes Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's 43.35 million, Animal Crossing: New Horizons' 37.62 million, and so many more.

A Half-Life 2 mod is in the works that not only swaps Alyx Vance for Star Fox Adventures' Krystal, but it will also have all of Alyx's dialogue replaced by Krystal's original voice actress Estelle Ellis.

As reported by Polygon, Gagnetar created this mod four years ago when he replaced Alyx for Krystal, but he has now taken it one step further by bringing Ellis out of retirement to record brand-new lines for the project.

Gagnetar shared an early look at the mod with Krystal and Ellis' voice in Kleiner's Lab of Half-Life 2 and it shows how the character created for GameCube's Star Fox Adventures fits into this new universe.

Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda has once again shared his interest in exploring the world of blockchain video games.

As reported and translated by VGC, Matsuda was speaking to Yahoo Japan and shared that focusing on only traditional games would be "not enough" for the company's future. His thoughts revolve around rewarding those players who want to create content for the games they love.

"In the future, we would like to try our hand at providing ‘autonomous game content’,” Matsuda said. “Until now, in most games, we provided the content as a finished product and the players played that content. However, there are a certain number of players in the world who want to contribute to making games more interesting, by creating new settings and ways of playing.”

Matsuda continued to say that, instead of hoping players would only create content for games because it was their passion, he thinks there could be a world where the company can incentivize those who go above and beyond to create something special using "technologies such as blockchain."

“In the future, we want to utilise the power of these people to create games that will continue to evolve," Matsuda said. “If, instead of relying on goodwill, we can also provide incentives to those who contribute to development by utilising technologies such as blockchain, there is a possibility that innovative and interesting content can be created from the ideas of users.”

After nearly two years, Sucker Punch has released what appears to be the final planned patch for Ghost of Tsushima and has said it is not "actively working on any additional patches at the moment."

As reported by PlayStation LifeStyle, Sucker Punch shared the news on the notes for Patch 2.18 of Ghost of Tsushima, indirectly teasing that they are full steam ahead on what is undoubtedly its next, unannounced project.

"While we aren’t actively working on any additional patches at the moment, we will continue to monitor feedback on the community-run Gotlegends subreddit and messages sent to @SuckerPunchProd on Twitter for any high priority bugs or issues that emerge," Sucker Punch wrote. "We want to say a huge THANK YOU to the entire community for the incredible amount of support and feedback we’ve gotten since launch.

"When Legends launched in October 2020, we never expected to have such an active community more than a year and a half later, and we could not be more thankful to everyone who has been with us on this journey!"

Ghost of Tsushima was released for PS4 on July 17, 2020, and the Director's Cut for PS5 and PS4 followed on August 20, 2021. While it began its life as a single-player game, Ghost of Tsushima: Legends brought a well-received multiplayer component to the title on October 16, 2020.

Ron Gilbert, the mind behind Monkey Island, confirmed another installment in the classic franchise earlier this month. The sixth installment, Return to Monkey Island, will feature the return of Gilbert along with Dave Grossman, who collaborated with Secret of Monkey Island and LeChuck's Revenge.

In an interview with Adventuregamers.com, Gilbert and Grossman shared a little more about Return to Monkey Island. Despite Gilbert's distaste for April Fools, here's what he had to say about announcing that he might be working on a new Monkey Island game on April 1 before formally announcing it a few days later.

"It was maybe about the time right after I wrote that If I Made Another Monkey Island thing [in 2013], and I just thought, you know—it was a weird fantasy, I was like oh, I'd buy the rights back, and I'd announce it on April 1, and it'd be great," Gilbert said.

Gilbert also addressed his famous reluctance to make a new Monkey Island game unless he owned the IP.

"I think the more important thing, rather than owning it, was that I really wanted to have creative freedom. I didn't want to be making a game and having somebody tell me what I should make. It's not a work-for-hire gig. So that was probably more important than actually owning it, was being able to make the game we wanted to make.”

Microsoft is reportedly looking into letting advertisers insert ads into free-to-play Xbox games. This program is reportedly going to launch by the third quarter of this year.

According to Business Insider, these ads could show up as rendered billboards in a racing game. However, it wasn't able to be confirmed whether these advertisements would extend to avatar skins or video ads.

Interestingly, Microsoft reportedly doesn't intend to take a cut of the advertising revenue and is more interested in building out Xbox's advertising network, as it is said to be trying to identify which companies and ad agencies to work with. Instead, the revenue from the ads will be shared between the game developer and the respective ad company.

Microsoft reportedly wants to provide game developers the opportunity to make more money from their free-to-play games. It has been trying to build out Xbox's in-game ad network since between 2018-2019, but plans accelerated in 2020 due to the release of the Xbox Series S|X.

Microsoft reportedly also has some concerns about the potential backlash this initiative from consumers could look like, as console players aren't accustomed to seeing in-game ads, unlike mobile players. For example, EA placed in-game ads for UFC 4 but removed them after fan outcry.

In the grim, unforgiving world of Elden Ring, there are no characters that can truly be considered heroes — not even the protagonist. But one community member has risen to fame in the last week: a naked man wearing nothing but a jar on his head who waits outside the door to the game's hardest boss under the polite request of a name: 'Let me solo her'.

Let Me Solo Her (who asked in an email to go by either his Elden Ring moniker or LMSH for short) is an unassuming, altruistic player who has been dropping his summon sign outside the boss fight door of Malenia, for the last week or more. Malenia, while not a mandatory fight for finishing Elden Ring, is the culmination of multiple sidequests and has become notorious in the community as one of the most difficult battles FromSoftware has ever designed. So naturally, there are plenty of players who feel they want to finish it for completion, but are struggling to do so. Enter LMSH.

Everyone's favorite Lovecraftian Santa, Xûr, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week's reset. If you're looking to get your some shiny new Exotic armor or weapons for your Guardian, look no further.

Each week, Xûr has a random assortment of Exotic armor, one for each Guardian class, as well as a random Exotic Weapon and an Exotic Engram available for purchase. In addition to his Exotic wares, he's got a random collection of Legendary weapons and armor to deck out your Guardians.

We've rounded up all the info on Xûr for the week including where to find Xûr, which Exotic weapons and armor are available, as well as which Legendary weapons you should pick up, either for PvE or PvP.

Where Is Xûr Today?

Xûr can be found at The Tower on April 15 through April 19. To reach him, travel to the landing point at The Courtyard and make your way to the Hangar. You'll find ol' snake-face chilling near the stairs at the back of the Hangar area.

XSEED Games announced plans to publish No More Heroes 3 on next-gen consoles in Fall 2022.

No More Heroes 3 was originally released exclusively on Nintendo Switch, but the action-adventure game will be coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in North America this fall.

Its arrival on new platforms will also come with some upgrades, including “improved HD visuals, framerates, and faster loading times to keep players dishing out eye-popping ultraviolence” according to an XSEED press release.

XSEED Games, which previously handled PC ports for No More Heroes 1 and 2, announced pre-orders for the new upgrade’s Day 1 Edition on Friday. News about a digital release isn’t quite ready yet, though.

The announcement comes months after Grasshopper Manufacture, the Japanese studio behind the No More Heroes series, became a subsidiary of China’s NetEase Games.

Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops -- Daemon Hatfield, Tina Amini, Sam Claiborn, and Justin Davis -- are discussing Breath of the Wild 2, one game's "devastating" experience with PlayStation Plus, The Witcher, and more. And, of course, they play Video Game 20 Questions.

Watch the video above or hit the link below to your favorite podcast service.

Listen on:

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Find previous episodes here!

Guerrilla Games is already thinking about the Horizon: Forbidden West sequel.

Speaking to VG247, creative director Mathijs de Jonge said that, just like how Horizon: Zero Dawn set up story beats for Forbidden West, seeds have been planted for the third game too.

"This game ends with another big cliffhanger where we're setting up some things for the next game once again," he said.

De Jonge didn't give much else away but said there are several story elements the otherwise unconfirmed third game can pull from.

"Horizon is really about mystery; each of our stories has been about uncovering mysteries in both the old world and the present day, when the game takes place," he said. "Indeed, there is plenty of backstory that we can tap into to develop new storylines and create new mysteries from what we’ve already established."

The same happened in Forbidden West, as de Jonge explained that the terraform system needing to be repaired was a good starting point for the story to jump off from.

"On top of that, we had storylines from the past, from the Old World, that we wanted to tap into. So we had a lot to work with, as well as knowing how we wanted to evolve Aloy’s story arc, and it all just mixed together from there," he added.

Club Penguin's fan-made recreation has been shut down and seized by police over copyright issues.

Three individuals were arrested following action taken by Disney, who owned the original site and shut it down in 2017, but they have since been released. As reported by TechCrunch, Club Penguin Rewritten was set up later that year but as of April 2022 has ceased to exist.

The website's Discord was emptied except for one message from an admin that said "we have voluntarily given control over the website to the police for them to continue their copyright investigation."

A statement was also published on the Club Penguin Rewritten website from DC Daryl Fryatt of the City of London Police's IP crime unit (PIPCU) that said a complaint was made under copyright law.

It continued: "Three people were arrested on April 12 on suspicion of distributing materials infringing copyright and searches were carried out. They have been released under investigation and to aid with the police investigation, they agreed to sign over the website to the control of PIPCU."

It's not the first Club Penguin fan remake to be shut down but given the over seriousness and involvement of police in this case, but it may be the last.

Kingdom Hearts 4's first world will seemingly be the realistic looking Quadratum from the reveal trailer.

In an interview with Famitsu, translated by Video Games Chronicle, director Tetsuya Nomura said the room in which protagonist Sora awakes will be "the base for the early part of the game."

Quadratum, the Tokyo-looking world shown in the trailer, isn't actually the real world though. It's "similar to an afterworld", Nomura said, but features real world locations like Shibuya, and to Sora it's an underworld.

It's very much real to the residents of Quadratum, though, and according to Kingdom Hearts 3 (where it was introduced) it's not a world of light or dark but instead a world of fiction that exists "on the other side".

These different perspectives are all intentional according to Nomura, who said: "I think the theme of this project will be the contrast between those who are in such different positions."

Sora's realistic look is also a result of this real-looking but not real world, Nomura said, and he'll return to his more cartoony origins later in the game.

343 Industries has not only shared more details on Catalyst and Breaker - Halo Infinite's newest maps arriving in Season 2 "Lone Wolves" - but it has also provided fans with a video flythrough of each one.

The info and flythrough were both shared on Halo Waypoint, and the map previews you can see below show more about "the ancient and weathered ruins of Catalyst and the expansive, sand-blasted scrapyard site of Breaker."

Halo Infinite's multiplayer level designer Tyler Ensrude also stopped by to talk about the process of creating these new maps and tease some of what Spartans can expect when Catalyst and Breaker launch alongside Season 2 "Lone Wolves" on May 3, 2022.

To begin, Ensrude revealed a bit about how the team builds a foundation for a map and begins turning an idea into reality.

"We like to start with an idea that just gets us excited first and go from there," Ensrude said. "That idea could range from a location in the Halo universe, to an art palette, game mode, or encounter. Every time we start something new though, it is important to consider what will make it stand out from the current selection of maps we already have.

"The context of experiences that players have already had in the game is definitely something we keep in mind when we look to deliver something exciting and new, and that extends across all of those factors—aesthetics, layout and design, and gameplay."

Since Elden Ring’s release, there’s been no shortage of critical praise for its intricately crafted yet expansive open world, its complex combat, and the level of detail found in every corner. But Elden Ring isn't just a superb video game in the many obvious ways to analyze it. It's also an entire social media platform unto itself.

FromSoftware has been including a messaging system akin to a social media platform within its games for years now, as anyone who's been Soulsing since the dawn of Demon’s Souls can tell you. Every game since has included the option for players connected online to leave messages on the ground anywhere in the world. Players can't just write anything they want, though. They compose messages out of pre-existing templates and word sets that are (mostly) related to gameplay, with the option to add a conjunction between two sets of phrases, or a "gesture" - basically a character emote - again out of a preexisting set. Once a message is posted, it will show up in the games of other online players, and they can opt to interact with it by rating it Good or Bad. Rating it either way gives the player who composed it a little in-game health boost, and visibly adds to the message's rating count - though the count doesn't reveal whether ratings given were good or bad.

Blizzard has shown gameplay and broken down the abilities of Overwatch 2's new hero, Sojourn.

Revealed in a blog post on the Overwatch website, Sojourn's arsenal is headlined by a massive railgun that makes her an ideal mid-range character.

It fires rapid projectiles that generate energy upon hitting enemies, which is then used to power a much stronger blast that acts as Sojourn's secondary. The railgun, though a fairly simple weapon, therefore scales with player skill as accuracy directly affects secondary damage.

"We wanted to make a mid-range hero that rewards accuracy, but still make it fun for varying levels of skill and gameplay," said senior hero designer Josh Noh.

Another ability is the Disruptor Shot, an AOE attack that ensnares enemies, eats away their health, and was designed in tandem with the secondary attack as it allows an easier shot.

Sojourn also has a lot of mobility thanks to a rocket-powered slide that can be cancelled into a high jump to quickly reposition her. "We wanted to add a vertical element to her kit to enable her to quickly access high-ground vantage points and help solidify her role as a mobile damage hero," Noh said.

Finally, her Ultimate ability is Overclock, which automatically charges the railgun's energy for a short period of time and allows her shots to pierce multiple enemies if the player is accurate enough.

Zero-G sandbox game Hardspace: Shipbreaker is about to head out of early access.

A new announcement has revealed that the unique FPS is getting its full official launch on May 24, 2022 – two years after it first became available on Steam Early Access.

“Dust off your mag-gloves and charge your split-saw, we’ve got some great news!” reads the announcement. “The date for Hardspace: Shipbreaker’s 1.0 Update, and its full release from Early Access, is set. Your first shift in the full version will begin on May 24, 2022.”

Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a unique spin on the FPS genre as you’re given cutting-edge salvaging tech and tasked with carving up derelict spaceships to recover valuable materials - and it's all in the name of paying off a billion-credit debt to a faceless corporation.

Playing a blue-collar space worker for the Lync Corporation, there’s no escaping your debt as the company literally owns your DNA – re-assembling you after any unfortunate workplace accidents to ensure you carry on working.

The 1.0 launch update brings with it a number of additions and improvements:

Hideo Kojima mysteriously posted a photo of PlayStation Studios before clarifying that his studio will remain independent.

Around 1 pm in the afternoon Japan time, Kojima posted a picture of the PlayStation Studios banner with games from all of Sony's first-party studios and also Death Stranding. This cryptic tweet immediately kicked off speculation that Kojima Productions officially joined PlayStation Studios.

Kojima followed up 10 minutes later by clarifying Kojima Productions is still an independent company.

Good news, squid kids: Splatoon 3 is set to release exclusively for Nintendo Switch sometime this summer. The latest in the series of paint-blasting online shooters from Nintendo, Splatoon 3 promises all kinds of goopy mayhem across a handful of modes. It’s now available for preorder at a number of retailers, both in physical and digital formats (see it at Amazon).

Splatoon 3: Where to Preorder

Physical Copy

• Get it at Amazon - $59.99
• Get it at Best Buy - $59.99
• Get it at GameStop - $59.99
• Get it at Walmart - $59.99

Digital Copy

• Get it at Amazon - $59.99
• Get it at Best Buy - $59.99
• See it at Nintendo eShop - Not yet available

Physical copies are widely available for preorder. Digital copies aren’t available everywhere, but they are up for preorder at the above retailers.

Splatoon Amiibo

Roblox is getting an official Sonic the Hedgehog game backed by Sega called Sonic Speed Simulator. It's available for purchase for now but will go free-to-play this weekend on April 16 at 10 AM EST.

According to Eurogamer, the publisher and developer for Sonic Speed Simulator is Gamefam, a studio completely dedicated to creating content for the Roblox platform.

Sonic Speed Simulator will receive weekly updates and players can run through multiple unique worlds, including the iconic Emerald Hills. By racing against friends, players can earn rewards such as pets and Sonic character skins. If Sonic Speed Simulator reaches 10,000 "likes" from players in Roblox, then the players in the Roblox community can receive an exclusive Sonic the Hedgehog skin.

"The game is now available on the Roblox platform and marks the first time that a world-renowned, AAA gaming character has been officially featured on Roblox," says Gamefam in a separate statement. Roblox is available on iOS, Android, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

The next-gen update for Witcher 3 was recently pushed to 2023, but CD Projekt Red wants fans to know that it's not in "development hell." Speaking during the developer's latest financial earnings call, a CD Projekt Red representative addressed questions about the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series version being postponed.

"When it comes to next-gen launch of Witcher 3, there's one comment I wanted to make. I've been looking at headlines around the internet and one drew my attention: 'Witcher 3 next-gen delayed indefinitely.' "[This] sounds like the game is in sort of development hell. I want to say it's not a fact. There have been a lot of insinuations that we're going to launch June of next year. That's completely not the case," the representative said.

He added, "The game is going to be finished in-house. Nobody is saying the game is delayed in some monumental sort of time gap ahead of us."

While CD Projekt Red didn't use the phrase "delayed" exactly, it did say in a tweet yesterday that it has "to postpone Q2 release until further notice."

We have decided to have our in-house development team conduct the remaining work on the next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. We are currently evaluating the scope of work to be done and thus have to postpone Q2 release until further notice. 1/2

Fortnite is partnering with the Coachella music festival in yet another instance of the popular battle royale encroaching on the real world. The sound and fashion of the annual show are coming to Fortnite, an Epic Games blog post revealed, as a ton of Coachella themed items are being added to the store.

Players can also listen to a selection of songs from the upcoming festival in-game, which includes artists such as Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, and Doja Cat, by tuning in to Icon Radio while driving around the map.

The collaboration comes just days after Sony and LEGO's parent company KIRKBI invested $2 billion in Epic Games' metaverse and the partnership with Coachella certainly leans into the idea of bringing "the real world" into a shared online space.

You can now drive around listening to music while chatting to friends... in Fortnite. And while Epic Games didn't say that actual Coachella shows would be coming to the game it has hosted concerts in the past with superstars like Ariana Grande and Travis Scott.

Cyberpunk 2077's first expansion is slated to be released in 2023, CD Projekt Red President Adam Kicinski announced during today's earnings call. It offers a window into the ongoing development of the expansion, and Cyberpunk 2077 at large, which CDPR has pledged to continue supporting.

According to Kicinski, the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion is being developed by multiple "agile teams," which were implemented as part of the "transformation process" that began after Cyberpunk 2077's disastrous development. He didn't elaborate on what the expansion would entail, but did say that it will be developed in the same framework with the Witcher franchise.

"We're fully committed to the Cyberpunk franchise and intend to develop it further," Kicinski said.

The status of the Cyberpunk 2077 expansions has been a question mark since the release of Patch 1.5, which completed the CD Projekt's large-scale overhaul of the project. Earlier this week, Cyberpunk 2077 quest director Pawel Sasko said that Cyberpunk 2077 was "far from finished" while reconfirming the expansion.

CD Projekt Red has previously said that Cyberpunk 2077 will ultimately have more DLC than The Witcher 3.

Cyberpunk 2077 has sold more than 18 million copies while The Witcher 3 has now surpassed more than 40 million and 65 million as a franchise overall.

CD Projekt Red's latest financial earnings report revealed the latest figures for the studio's two cornerstone franchises. The developer also confirmed these numbers were for copies of the games sold through to customers and not just to retailers.

Cyberpunk suffered a pretty catastrophic launch as console versions of the game were riddled with bugs, but CD Projekt Red has slowly built the game to a better standard and it finally launched the next-gen versions in February.

pic.twitter.com/OGZduMcKri

— CD PROJEKT IR (@CDPROJEKTRED_IR) April 14, 2022

The financial report also revealed that CD Projekt Red plans to continue supporting the game throughout 2022 and earlier this week quest director Paweł Sasko said that Cyberpunk was far from finished.

"We are all aware there is work to be done," he said, and this general support comes alongside the development of a full DLC expansion for the game that's been promised since before launch.

Dinosaurs haven’t quite gone extinct in the board game world, but it’s close. You’d imagine that real-life roaring monsters stalking the actual earth would be an endless source of design inspiration, yet games featuring them are relatively few and far between. One of the best is Dinosaur Island - republished as Dinosaur World - which tasks players with building and managing their very own version of Jurassic World. It’s a great game if you can stand the sauropod-like weight of rules and play time.

For those of us without geological periods of time in which to play games, the same designers have invented a streamlined alternative, Dinosaur Island: Rawr n’ Write (see it at Amazon). The title riffs on the popular roll-and-write genre where a pool of dice is rolled and players mark down the results on a scoresheet. You’ve probably played Yahtzee, but this is a much bigger beast.

What’s In the Box

Beneath the rules and a simple card-holding board, the main component of Dinosaur Island: Rawr n’ Write is two big pads of scoresheets. This in itself is unusual: most roll and write games only have one. Closer inspection reveals them to both be packed with detail, and you may need to squint to see all the boxes. You can print your own, too, via online copies freely available from the publisher, and they also supply an app to use, although it’s fiddly.

Blizzard has revealed the origin story for Overwatch 2's new hero, Sojourn.

A new trailer (below) shared how the series' first Black female hero came to be involved with Overwatch, with her story being directly linked to Soldier: 76 (aka Jack Morrison).

"My unit of the Canadian Special Forces teamed up with Overwatch during the Omnic crisis," Sojourn says in the trailer. "Jack Morrison and I worked well together and after the war he reached out."

While it doesn't show any actual gameplay, Sojourn can be seen holding a large gun reminiscent of Soldier: 76's weapon, and the trailer description said she's equipped with cybernetic abilities.

Sojourn seemingly served with Overwatch sometime between the original and second game, saying "no matter what their mission was, mine was to bring every last one of them home."

Sojourn concludes by saying: "It was the honour of a lifetime to have served with Overwatch but you can love a thing with your whole heart and still know it's time to say goodbye. Even the best journeys end, but a new one is right around the corner."

While Overwatch 2 brings back the entire cast of characters from the first game, Sojourn is the only confirmed new character so far.

Players with access to the first PC closed beta can test her out on April 26, and though Blizzard has not confirmed a release date for the game's official launch, it has said the PvP and PvE modes will arrive separately.

If you want to take in the full scope of the Halo cross-media universe, you need to be reading dark Horse's Halo comics. Fortunately, that task is about to get much easier thanks to the release of a softcover omnibus collection called Halo: Initiation and Escalation Compendium.

This hefty graphic novel collects the entirety of Halo: Initiation and Halo: Escalation, totaling 27 issues and 650 pages. Both series greatly expand on the story of Spartan-IV Sarah Palmer, with Initiation serving as a prequel to 2012's Halo 4 and Escalation picking up where the game leaves off.

Check out the cover to Halo: Initiation and Escalation Compendium below:

The full version of eFootball has finally been released but it's still missing some of the PES series' major modes.

Master League, Team Play, Co-Op, Match Lobby, and Edit are all missing from the 1.0 update that promised to turn the game from what Konami called "basically a demo" into the fully-fledged version of its new soccer series.

These modes "will unfortunately not be included in v1.0.0", the game's official Twitter account tweeted (below). "We ask for your kind patience until they are ready," it said.

Lastly, we have received a lot of questions regarding 'Master League', 'Edit', 'Team Play', 'Co-op' and 'Match Lobby' (where you can create a room to play with your friends).
They will unfortunately not be included in v1.0.0. We ask for your kind patience until they are ready.

— eFootball (@play_eFootball) April 14, 2022

The missing Master League is the manager mode from PES where players start with a basic team and build it up to brilliance. It's something of a signature mode for the PES series, but it seems Konami is placing less importance on it having shifted to eFootball for th enewest iteration.

The absence of Match Lobby (which let players create an online room for playing with friends) and Co-Op also severely limits the ability to play with others that PES was known for.

I’m hardly alone in describing Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters as ‘XCOM with Space Marines.’ But now that I've gotten my hands on it, it's much clearer how that actually changes up the tactical formula. Enemy Unknown can feel like a horror game sometimes, as you're hunted by Chrysalids and Mutons through eerie crash sites and warehouses. But in Chaos Gate, there's no mistaking it: the Daemons are the prey, and you are the hunters.

That's not to say deploying into literal Hell is completely without tension. It's definitely possible to get into some bad situations if you aren't careful. But when you send your point man to kick down the doors of a massive space cathedral and send various creepy cultists scattering for cover, it's a totally different vibe from the very methodical and potentially lethal room-clearing routines I'd run in XCOM. The camera gets right down in there and punctuates each breach with enough bravado to get the message across: We're not trapped in here with these heretics. They're trapped in here with us.

And it's not empty posturing, either. Using that kind of in-your-face momentum worked out pretty well for me in a lot of situations where I found myself outnumbered. They say fortune favors the bold, and it seems like the Emperor does, too. Especially if you kit out one or two of your squad in terminator armor, which limits mobility but boosts defense, they're more than tanky enough to shrug off a few hits and let you take apart an enemy position quickly. Using grenades and the environment wisely can crush the opposition even faster, so the battles may be fast-paced, but they still reward thinking and observation skills.

Update: 04/14/2022: The seven states where Bungie is offering fully remote eligible positions is "only the start" of the developer's commitment to go "digital-first".

While these positions are currently only available in California, Florida, Illinois, Oregon, North Carolina, Texas, and Washington, Bungie plans to add more locations to this list in the future.

Speaking to IGN, a Bungie spokesperson said: "This is only the start of our transition to a digital-first approach to hybrid work. We plan to open new locations and will make additional announcements as they become available."

Original Story: Destiny developer Bungie has said that it is committed to remote working for "most current and future roles".

Announcing its intentions on Twitter (below), and spotted by Kotaku, Bungie said it would be adopting a "digital-first" approach for future job positions. California, Florida, Illinois, Oregon, North Carolina, Texas, and Washington are the "approved" states that are fully remote eligible.

It's currently unconfirmed why fully remote roles are only available in these seven states, or if Bungie plans on extending the offerings to other parts of the U.S., but IGN has reached out for comment regarding these matters.

Bungie is going digital-first.

Most current and future roles will be fully remote eligible in these states with more coming soon! https://t.co/5Jv3FZRv28 pic.twitter.com/Ot43z9tgZm

One of the absolute best storage solutions for PS5 consoles is down to its lowest price ever, the WD Black 1TB SSD with Heatsink is now available for just £128. Recommended by Mark Cerny himself, this is the perfect way to expand your PS5 storage.

Other deals today include £90 off IGN's absolute favourite gaming chairs until April 18. There's also Deathloop (PS5) for just £14, £10 off Apple Gift Cards, and £300 cashback on the new LG C2 series of TVs (perfect for PS5 or Xbox Series X, by the way). To top things off, you can even get 600 Yorkshire Teabags for just £11.88 at Amazon right now, that's less than 2p per cup of tea — fantastic.

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Just in case you didn’t think Call of Duty could get any crazier, season 3 seems to hint that Godzilla himself will show up to wreak havoc.

Call of Duty released Season 3’s “Classified Arms” trailer that has the team uncovering a mysterious device while searching for the released Nebula gas released by the Nazis.

The device is broadcasting an audio signal that’s heard at the end of the cinematic. The audio itself is somewhat broken up but sounds suspiciously like Godzilla’s signature roar.

YouTuber PrestigeIsKey posted a screenshot on his Twitter account of the audio ran through a spectrograph and found the words “Monsters Are Real.” And another Twitter user replied with a looping sound of Godzilla’s orca-like sound that matches the audio from the trailer. Both of these clues strongly hint at the famous kaiju making its grand appearance in Warzone.

When you run the audio through a spectrogram... https://t.co/7Xf06mYsb5 pic.twitter.com/qaq6D3cYbd

— Ryan B. (@PrestigeIsKey) April 13, 2022

Literally the same soundhttps://t.co/dPN6iebs2l

EA Motive has shared new information regarding the team's progress regarding how some weapons sound in its upcoming remake of Dead Space.

In a recent tweet shared on the official Dead Space Twitter account, EA Motive showed off the updated sound designs for the Plasma Cutter and Pulse Rifle. To compare how much the improvements have been made, EA Motive compared the sound of both weapons using the sound from the original Dead Space, the build shown off during its developer update live stream last March, and how both weapons currently sound when you fire them.

Of course, Dead Space Remake is still in development, with Motive Studios noting that the current sound of both weapons does not represent how either may sound when the final version is ready to go.

Things you did:
Shared feedback on our Plasma Cutter and Pulse Rifle

Things we did:
Listened and made modifications 💥 pic.twitter.com/HIMJ9kHRE4

Final Fantasy XIV players are already having fun with the MMO’s new Adventurer Plate feature. The player card system might've just been introduced in patch 6.1 earlier this week, but it’s already bringing out both the weird and wonderful of this gargantuan player base.

Adventurer Plates show off player information, like a Calling Card in Call of Duty, or a Hunter Card in Monster Hunter. You’ll see Adventurer Cards at the beginning of PvP activities in Final Fantasy XIV, including the new Crystalline Conflict activity, for example, to show you the players you’re matched up alongside on your team.

Players can customize these cards by posing their characters, adding effects, and more. And while it's easy enough to set a simple pose for your character and call it a day, there's a lot of potential for creative poses that defy the standard templates.

this new Adventure Plate feature is great pic.twitter.com/maiGyur3ss

— Kay Yu (@kaynimatic) April 12, 2022

business (adventure plate) vs casual (pvp portrait) pic.twitter.com/iDl1M2zQnb

CD Projekt Red announced it is delaying the next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt indefinitely, and will no longer be releasing the upgrade in Q2.

Part of the delay may have to do with the change in the developer. Previously, the update was being developed externally by Saber Interactive, but CD Projekt Red has elected to bring the remainder of the game's development in-house

“We have decided to have our in-house development team conduct the remaining work on the next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt,” a recent Tweet on The Witcher’s account reads. “We are currently evaluating the scope of work to be done and thus have to postpone Q2 release until further notice. We'll update you as soon as we can. Thank you for your understanding.”

We have decided to have our in-house development team conduct the remaining work on the next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. We are currently evaluating the scope of work to be done and thus have to postpone Q2 release until further notice. 1/2

— The Witcher (@witchergame) April 13, 2022

The upcoming free upgrade is intended to “visually and technically” enhance the PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X versions of the game, which was originally released in 2015.

Both Nintendo and Sony are changing their online subscription renewal systems following an investigation from the UK government.

The changes essentially make it harder for people to unknowingly pay money towards PlayStation Plus or Nintendo Switch Online, as reported by Gamesindustry.biz, after the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation into automatic renewal practices.

Sony will contact customers who haven't used the service in a long time to show them how to cancel their PS Plus subscription. If users neither cancel themselves nor return to the service, Sony will stop taking payments altogether.

Nintendo, on the other hand, will no longer have automatic renewal set as the default option when customers sign up to Nintendo Switch Online, meaning they will have to manually activate the feature themselves.

Michael Grenfell, executive director of enforcement at the CMA, told gamesindustry.biz: "As a result of our investigations, a number of changes have been made across this sector to protect customers and help tackle concerns about auto-renewing subscriptions."

Microsoft made changes to its Live Gold and Game Pass subscriptions in January when the government investigation was first launched.

Niantic's next game is Peridot, a virtual pet game reminiscent of everything from Tamagotchi to Neopets. It's Niantic's latest attempt to recreate the overwhelming success of Pokemon Go, this time with an experience geared firmly toward casual audiences.

In development for two and a half years, Peridot is Niantic's first original property since Ingress. It's built around breeding, raising, and playing with mystical creatures called Peridots, who are awakening after thousands of years.

Like Niantic's other games, Peridot will be structured around exploring the real world with your virtual pets. Using Nianatic's Lightship ARDK technology, Peridots can recognize differing terrain and forage for different items depending on whether they're on grass, water, or sand. Gameplay will also change depending on the different weather patterns, and Niantic says that it's working on implementing snow as well.

Peridot will feature Daily Tasks including petting, feeding, and walking your creature. Individual Peridots will also have their own desires, such as going to a specific destination or eating a blue tomato. There will be no consequences if you neglect your Peridot, so they will never die if you get busy and decide to do something else for a while. Instead, Niantic wants to reward players for coming back and playing more often.

"To be perfectly honest, we looked at a lot of pets in games. Our game design team was playing most of them while were iterating on them," producer Ziah Fogel says.

QuakeCon 2022 will once again be a digital-only event when it returns from August 18 to 20.

The yearly celebration of id Software games like Quake and Doom (and often their Bethesda stablemates) will mark its third anniversary as an online event, but organisers said they're fully committed to returning in-person next year.

They added: "An event of this size required months of planning, and in this case, we had to make decisions when there was still too much uncertainty to commit to successfully executing an in-person QuakeCon."

This year's QuakeCon will once again be a digital-only event, August 18-20, 2022. pic.twitter.com/UxJTuZDTYJ

— QuakeCon (@QuakeCon) April 13, 2022

Organisers said that, while they're disappointed to remain online for another year, the digital event will feature the full programming of an in-person version including online meet-ups, giveaways, charity opportunities, a virtual Bring Your Own Computer event, and more.

QuakeCon usually takes place in Dallas, Texas, and saw upwards of ten thousand people attend its last in-person event in 2019. It dates back to 1996 when around 100 people brought their PCs to a Best Western Hotel in Texas to play Quake and Doom with other fans.

Hello Games' new project would feel impossible to create even with 1,000 people behind it, the developer has said.

Speaking to IGN, studio co-founder and managing director Sean Murray said that, while it's not a sequel to No Man's Sky, the new game is just as ambitious.

He said: "For a while now we've been working on something pretty ambitious in the background. It's a small team but we like it that way.

"Similar to No Man's Sky, it's the kind of project that even if we had a thousand people working on it, it'd still seem impossible."

The game was in "very early" development as of September last year but Murray reassured that, while No Man's Sky is still receiving regular updates and isn't finished by a long shot, the two games aren't impacting each other's development.

"No Man's Sky is not being held back by the next project but neither is the new thing being slowed by No Man's Sky," he said. "We're lucky enough to be able to allow folks to move freely to work on what excites them."

Nothing else is known about Hello Games' new project and this will likely be the case for a while, as Murray has previously said "we've learned our lesson" on talking about games too early after No Man's Sky open (and controversial) pre-release.

Outlaws, the latest No Man's Sky update, completely overhauled space combat and added a pirate underworld to the galaxy-spanning game.