Naughty Dog have officially stopped development of The Last Of Us Online, a multiplayer game based on their celebrated McCarthyite (no, not that McCarthy - I mean the novelist) post-apocalyptic action-adventure. Announced in the dusty days of 2018 as a multiplayer mode for The Last Of Us: Part 2, it evolved into a standalone experience with new characters and a new setting, but Sony reportedly scaled the project back earlier this year. Naughty Dog have now formally called it quits, stating that supporting a live service project such as this would have “severely impacted” future single-player game projects. Sony never locked down platforms for The Last Of Us Online, but a PC release was surely on the cards, though I would have expected the game to launch first on PlayStation, as with the original Last Of Us and Uncharted 4.

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To celebrate Doom's 30th birthday we had a discussion about the (understandably) vaunted FPS's influence, and what games would look like without it. It seems particularly interesting today in light of the recent resurgence of Doom-style shooters, often known as "boomer shooters" because of their deliberately retro style and singular focus on shootin' stuff and bein' cool, much like Doom. And then the obvious solution was to just ask the devs making these games about what they think of Doom and its impact on their work.

I reached out to developers who've worked on Turbo Overkill, Prodeus, Forgive Me Father (and Forgive Me Father 2) and almost the whole stable working at New Blood Interactive to ask them some annoyingly specific questions about Doom in the hope of getting the sort of idiosyncratic answers you get from interesting devs - and they delivered! In fact, they delivered in such quantity and quality that I've elected to just present their answers to you, rather than try to weave them together as if we were all sitting together at dinner exchanging bon mots, both for clarity and to include as much as possible in their own words. It's a fascinating and entertaining collection of thoughts.

Baldur’s Gate 3 will not be on Xbox Game Pass any time soon, according to Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke. In an IGN interview with the team, Vincke was asked about possible discussions with Microsoft to include the game on their service, which he insisted would not be happening. [Thanks, IGN!]

While Baldur’s Gate 3 is now available on Xbox, Larian seems unwilling to put the game on Game Pass. According to Vincke, the reason is simple: it’s a big game with no microtransactions. Due to the development costs, he sees it as fair that anyone looking to play it pays for it up front. In return, they get a “big meaty game”. He also refrained from discussing any potential offers Microsoft may have made.

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The Chinese video games market grew to $42.6 billion during 2023, an increase of 13% year-on-year.

As reported by Reuters, domestic revenue for games increased by 15% to $36 billion.

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Eurogamer's game of the year 2023 is...

I jest, I jest. Even though the spirit of Birdo-loving continues at Eurogamer, passed down by our old mate Martin Robinson, I can't crown the title to fangame Birdo's Holiday Brawl, deserving though it may be.

Birdo's Holiday Brawl was made by Super Squidoodle for the Christmas Sonic Amateur Games Expo organised by fan-run site Sonic Fan Games HQ. It's a fun, short little game which is easy to understand but difficult to master.

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Trust was a key reason Hideki Kamiya left Platinum Games earlier this year.

In a new interview with IGN, the Bayonetta creator discussed his reasoning for leaving the developer.

"My work with PlatinumGames was based on a relationship of trust with the company," he said. "I decided to leave because I felt that the direction the company was heading in was different from my beliefs as a developer. Without that element of trust, I couldn't continue working there, and so I left, so that I could continue working in what I consider to be the right way."

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Ahead of the Genshin Impact Navia debut, a Macaron Melange web event for her kicked off. HoYoVerse is running this introduction to the character and way to get Primogems on the special site now.

Like many web events in the game, this is designed to give people some Primogems, Mora, and other in-game items. In this case, completing the task gets you 2 Mystic Enhancement Ores, 3 Prithiva Topaz Fragments, 40 Primogems, and 20,000 Mora. 

The spoiler-free excuse for the activity is that Navia is making macarons in honor of the village of Poisson and a special event being held there to commemorate something that happened after events in the Fontaine Archon Quests. If people make three macarons with her by preparing almonds and eggs, adding sugar, including a berry or fruit, and adding a face design on top. 

Baldur’s Gate 3 director Swen Vincke believes the Dungeons & Dragons-based RPG is a big game worth paying for. I have to agree. The Larian Studios founder says that’s why the game isn’t coming to Xbox Game Pass.

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This Week in Business is our weekly recap column, a collection of stats and quotes from recent stories presented with a dash of opinion (sometimes more than a dash) and intended to shed light on various trends. Check every Friday for a new entry.

The Entertainment Software Association made it official this week. The Electronic Entertainment Expo is no more.

QUOTE | "After more than two decades of E3, each one bigger than the last, the time has come to say goodbye. Thanks for the memories." – The ESA confirms the show's demise on social media.

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Bandai and Konami have revealed new Suikoden II merchandise to celebrate the game's 25th anniversary. The Suikoden II 25th Selection acrylic charms will be available via Gashapon capsules in Japan in late December 2023. People will be able to spend 300 yen to pull a capsule containing a random character charm from the toy vending machine.

The lineup will feature 25 characters to correspond with the title's anniversary. Bandai and Konami previously held a poll in Japan from August 9, 2023, to September 10, 2023, to determine the characters that would appear in these charms.

The top 25 characters in the poll results, which will also feature in the charms, are as follows:

1. Suikoden II Protagonist
2. Camus
3. Kinnison
4. Clive
5. Klaus Windamier
6. Georg
7. Sasuke

The Japanese department store Parco is holding an exhibition in collaboration with the Like a Dragon series, which is themed around some of its most notable dead characters.

The exhibition will first be held at Parco Factory, a gallery at the Parco store in Ikebukuro, Tokyo from 30th December to 15th January, 2024. It'll feature series protagonists Kiryu, Ichiban, and Majima, as well as the noble "fallen men" who they've encountered over the years.

The exhibition will be laid out as a memorial space, with pictures of the dead characters and their last words put up onto the walls. Visitors will be given flowers to place at the portrait of their favourite dead character, before arriving at a cenotaph with an AR "gimmick" which sounds like the character will appear on your phone.

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Ahead of the SaGa Emerald Beyond Glimmerfest, which was slightly delayed, Square Enix’s Japanese branch released the SaGa Emerald Beyond release date. It will appear on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, PC, and mobile devices on April 25, 2024.

In addition to the reveal, various pre-orders are open worldwide. There’s also a collector’s edition in Japan. People can get it on the eShop, PlayStation Store, and Steam digitally. At time of writing, only the Steam page is showing the release date.

As for the SaGa Emerald Beyond Japanese collector’s edition, it includes a PS4, PS5, or Switch copy of the game to start. People also get the hardcover art book, a soundtrack with three CDs of music, and Bright Arts figures of Diva No. 5 and Teacher. There’s also a tote bag.

The Honkai: Star Rail Version Special Program stream included the run-down on upcoming events for the game in Version 1.6. These additions include Simulated Universe: Gold and Gears, which adds new challenges and rewards to the game's roguelike mode, as well as the Critter Pick event that will allow players to collect and experiment on biological pets.

Here's a summary of the events shown in the program:

• Simulated Universe: Gold and Gears - This event expands on Honkai: Star Rail's Simulated Universe rogue-like mode, adding the path of Erudition to the choosable schools of blessings. It also introduces a new mechanic involving dice, allowing players to equip faces to their dice which grant powerful effects The Intra-cognition board will also be added, which appears to allow players to track and record various storylines and paths through the Simulated Universe.
• Critter Pick - This scavenger event will involved hunting and capturing little creatures that can then be nurtured and have their DNA combined to create new breeds with different appearances, including mutants and rare strains. Most importantly though, this event will apparently allow players to take on the form of Asta's dog Peppy and solve puzzles around the space station.

If you’re after Echocalypse codes for the long-running gacha game, we’re here to help. Developed by Yoozoo, codes tend to drop fairly frequently to supply player with free boosts. Read on to see whether there are any codes right now for you to use!

Baldur's Gate 3 will not be coming to Game Pass, even now the game is available on Xbox.

Speaking with IGN, Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke stated the award winning RPG won't appear on Microsoft's subscription service, and that has always been the plan.

"We made a big game, so I think there's a fair price to be paid for that, and I think that that is okay," Vincke said, adding Baldur's Gate 3's inclusion on Game Pass was a "sensitive question".

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More than two months after leaving Platinum Games, co-founder and The Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta director Hideki Kamiya has revealed why he left the studio. In a new interview with IGN, Kamiya told the publication he decided to leave "because I felt that the direction the company was heading in was different from my beliefs as a developer."

"Without that element of trust, I couldn't continue working there, and so I left, so that I could continue working in what I consider to be the right way," Kamiya said. "I don't think of games as products, but rather as works of art. I want to put my artistry into games and deliver games that could only be made by Hideki Kamiya, so that players can enjoy Hideki Kamiya games exactly as they are.

"I decided to leave the company and forge my own path, to continue making games that reflect the developers who made them." 

It’s that time again: We’ve arrived at the weekend after another long series of cursed weekdays, and that, hopefully, means it’s time to get some gaming in.

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During the special program for Honkai: Star Rail Version 1.6, HoYoVerse revealed the release date for the new patch. It’ll come out on December 27, 2023.

You can watch the trailer for Honkai: Star Rail Version 1.6 here:

The new playable characters who’ll debut in Version 1.6 will be Dr Ratio, Ruan Mei, and Xueyi. Dr Ratio in particular will be a free log-in reward even though he is a limited five-star character. Kafka and Blade will also re-run during this patch.

As we near the end of 2023, it’s time to look back on some of the highlights of the anime year. Within the numerous new releases, remakes, and seasonal continuations of beloved shows, there are some true standout titles to be considered for the Shonen category. If you’re a fan of this genre, then prepare yourself – we’ve rounded up ten of the best titles that have aired across the year to review what made them such standout successes from their competitors.

Note: This article may contain spoilers for the selected titles, read at your own risk!

One of the many features that made the Sims franchise stand out from other games is the inclusion of various cultures, in which players can truly feel represented. Whether it be through the creation of a character or household, it gives them a chance to say, “Hey, look, it’s me” or “This is what my childhood home used to look like.”

Throughout the years, the Sims series has evolved even more with cultural representation, especially with the latest For Rent expansion pack that centers around a Southeast Asian lifestyle. I had the privilege of chatting with the EP’s Cultural Consultant, Jason Chu, who discussed the importance of authenticity during the development process.

This past year was packed with amazing anime, and there were a plethora of incredible moments that forced the community at large to stop and stare in awe. Either because of their hype or emotional resonance, these are our picks for the best anime moments of 2023.

Do be aware, however, that we’ll only be including one moment from any given show. This means that you won’t be seeing multiple moments from Jujutsu Kaisen, Attack on Titan, or other offerings that did admittedly have multiple epic scenes and events to choose from but would dominate the entire list if given the chance.

For an early Sunday morning, the crowd seemed way more energized than I expected as we walked around the entryway of the SoFi Stadium the Los Angeles Rams vs Cleveland Browns game held on December 3, 2023. People rushed through the security checkpoint, bright-eyed and smiling, eager to grab free towels and bags emblazoned with the One Piece logo. Over 70,000 fans were in attendance at the Rams vs Browns game, and to my surprise many were fans of both football and One Piece.

Rocket Arena, the multiplayer rocket-powered shooter, developed by Final Strike Games as an EA Originals title, was removed from sale last month without warning or a word on why, as reported by RockPaperShotgun. Now, roughly a month later, Final Strike Games has announced Rocket Arena will be sunset and its servers shut down in March. 

More specifically, Rocket Arena will come to an end at Noon PT/3 p.m. ET on March 21, 2024. As for why, the team doesn't really address that in its announcement but presumably, it has lost the player count needed to sustain its live-service, multiplayer model. 

Rocket Arena will be sunset on March 21, 2024 12:00 PM PDT. We’ll have some community events leading up to the date.

Read more at https://t.co/B59QPBDLzk and https://t.co/7Okzpse1Ht. pic.twitter.com/hFnJViw8jz

Brought to you by the decadent intellects behind Incredibly Fast-Paced And Very Rogue Movement Shooters, Completely Fictional Story About A City Inside A Whale is a gentle, comedic exploration game in which you steer a wind-up boat through the guts of a leviathan. It was announced this week and there's a demo on Steam, which I think will tickle the cockles of Psychonauts 2 players and A Short Hike fans alike, though I do wish developers ln404 and akinat0 had taken their own work just a little more seriously.

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During the Version 1.6 special program for Honkai: Star Rail, HoYoVerse revealed some more information on the upcoming banners. As a reminder, the new characters who’ll debut in Version 1.6 are Dr Ratio, Ruan Mei, and Xueyi.

Ruan Mei is a five-star Ice Harmony character who can increase allies’ DMG and Weakness Break Efficiency for three turns after she uses her Skill. With her Ultimate, she can generate a field that increases All-Type RES PEN, as well as extends how much time an enemy’s Weakness Break lasts. This makes her ideal in delaying enemy action.

As for Dr Ratio, he is a five-star Imaginary Hunt character who focuses on single target DMG with his Skill. As for his Ultimate, he deals single target DMG and applies Wiseman’s Folly. If an ally hits an enemy with Wiseman’s Folly, he can launch a follow-up attack. This is quite similar to Topaz’s kit. All players will get this character for free.

Toby Fox has remixed Ed Sheeran's song Celestial in the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet DLC The Indigo Disk.

Celestial featured in the credits of the base game, while Toby Fox - known as the creator of Undertale - composed music for the soundtrack, specifically the raid battle theme among others.

The remix is a stripped back, string-heavy affair that chops up the vocal lines - it's a pleasant change from the original.

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HoYoverse announced that all Honkai: Star Rail players will receive the five-star character Dr. Ratio for free when his banner drops in phase two of version 1.6. The announcement came as part of the Version 1.6 Special Program stream.

Dr. Ratio is an Imaginary element character who follows the path of the Hunt, meaning he is focused on dealing damage. Imaginary is an element that many enemies are weak to in the game, however characters that deal damage of that type are rare, currently numbering only four, three of which are five-star characters and thus difficult to obtain.

Dr. Ratio is set to become available in Honkai: Star Rail in the second phase of version 1.6, as part of the gacha banner Panta Rhei that also features March 7th, Natasha and Hook. Exact dates are yet to be revealed, but the second part of the 1.6 update is scheduled to launch in January 2024. Additionally, players will need to have obtained access to the mailbox feature by completing the trailblaze mission "The Blue — A Moment of Peace."

You can watch the full Honkai: Star Rail Version 1.6 Special Program stream via Youtube below:

Arkane Lyon has shared new concept art for its upcoming video game, Marvel's Blade.

The artwork gives our first glimpse of the game's vampire enemies.

It looks incredibly good, and hopefully this will carry over into the game's release. For want of a better word, it looks really, really cool, and has echoes of the studio's previous works Deathloop and Dishonored (at this point, it is worth noting that Arkane's previous vampire game Redfall was primarily helmed by its Austin department).

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Gaze down the sights of today's Advent Calendar window and you'll find time is a tricksy, malleable concept that's all slow-motion power slides and extraordinary grenade explosions. Just mind the gibs on the floor there. Wouldn't want to stain your boots.

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There are as many Doom mods as there are stars in the sky: jillions of accursed celestial bodies orbiting the supermassive black hole that is id Software, each infested with its own local flavours of cacodemons and keycards and shotguns. I've played just a handful - certainly, far from enough to pronounce myself any kind of expert - but I do feel like I've played one of the best in the shape of Siren, a Doom II total conversion from Dithered Output, the first episode of which can be downloaded free from Itch.io.

The mod's overall vibe is encapsulated, I think, by the sentient vending machine you meet a short way in, just round the corner from a rec room that contains a disembodied head on tentacles, and down the corridor from a tiered canteen full of ghouls and unsympathetic men with shotguns. You ask the machine if it has any clue what's going on. It tells you that its job is to keep its mouth shut and dispense soda. Can I have a soda, then? "No."

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Imagine a world where you can get any car or boat you want with little effort. In Southwest Florida, that’s possible! Create your dream life in Bonita Springs and enjoy exploring the Sunshine State while making friends and discovering unique places with amazingly detailed graphics.

The luxurious life never stops in this experience, so use all the available Southwest Florida codes for extra cash. With free help like this, you can easily buy a house and brag to other players in this cute town! Since you’re already here, check out our Roblox Driving Empire codes list for a similar game with a bunch of codes that can be exchanged for freebies!

As part of the 1.6 Honkai: Star Rail Special Program, characters who will appear on Penacony in 2.0 and beyond appeared. Sunday, the leader of the area, teased them with portraits during an “interview” with Owlbert.

This portion of the Special Program began with Sunday confirming his sister, the famous singer Robin, would appear on Penacony during the storyline and celebration. Misha, who was already teased on social media as possibly being a 2.0 launch character, came up during this segment. The Iris family member Firefly will show up. So will Gallagher, who is a Bloodhound family member and will handle security. Sunday also noted that the Annihilation Gang member Duke Inferno will appear, as will the Stellaron Hunter Sam.

Here’s a gallery showing all of the portraits for upcoming characters appearing in Honkai: Star Rail after 2.0. As a reminder, beyond knowing Misha will show up when 2.0 launches, we don't know which patch other characters will debut in.

It feels somewhat appropriate that probably the last big news story of 2023 is the final death knell of an industry institution. E3 is no more.

After limping on in various forms for the past five years, before finally seeing its latest incarnation cancelled outright in May, the decision of the ESA to walk away from the show it created will come as no shock to anyone – but as is tradition at any wake, most commemoration of E3 has been about the good times, rather than about the distinctly rough later years.

It was unquestionably time for the event to die – there is a strong argument to be made that the very format of the show itself echoed the industry's roots in consumer electronics rather than its present status as an important media and entertainment industry, for one thing, and advances in video streaming and digital distribution made the cost of the show to all parties involved increasingly hard to justify.

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Nintendo has issued a takedown notice for the unofficial Link's Awakening's PC port, which started making the rounds earlier this week.

The port, known as Link's Awakening DX HD, was a rather gorgeous remake of the classic Zelda GameBoy title. It featured HD visuals, 120fps scrolling and widescreen support.

As noted by Digital Foundry's John Linneman, it also allowed players to zoom out and take in the entirety of Koholint Island at once.

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The latest DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet lets players explore Paldea as their pocketed creatures, to some adorable and hilarious results.

The mechanic was revealed last week in a new trailer for The Indigo Disk. Now it's been released, players have been experimenting with what they can and can't do as their caught Pokémon.

As a sidenote, performance in The Indigo Disk is still bad, as Lewchube on X (née Twitter) discovered, and in some cases even worse than the base game.

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The Xbox Cloud Gaming beta app has launched on Meta Quest VR headsets, meaning those with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription can access its library of games.

The app is available to download via the Meta Quest Store, and can be accessed on Meta Quest 2, 3, and Pro headsets. Supported controllers include Xbox, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch Pro, with support for PlayStation 5 controllers planned for the future.

Games available to play include Starfield and Forza Motorsport displayed on a 2D virtual screen, which can be viewed through different display sizes.

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Hello! It's our last Game of the Week of 2023 - next week we'll be on to end-of-the-year stuff - and what an incredible week to end things on. How many five star games can one week handle? Quite a few, I guess.

I'm choosing Bahnsen Knights as our Game of the Week, though. It's the game I know the best - although I've already lost quite a bit of time to Cobalt Core - and it's also the game that took me a while to properly get to know in the first place. And I want to say a little bit about that.

Bahnsen Knights is the latest game in LCB Game Studio's series of Pixel Pulps. These are short, narrative games that tackle all kinds of weird fiction, and they're all made to look like CGA games. I've been a fan of the series since I first played Mothmen 1966, but I didn't know quite how much I loved these games until a little later.

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Another season has arrived, and with it a host of exciting new mechanical keyboards. Here are quick-fire reviews of four favourites that I've tested over the past month, from two extremely good value options with both niche and mass-market appeal (the trendy Nuphy Air75 v2 and odd Gamakay LK75) to two of the most customisable and expensive keyboards I've ever tested (the fancy Drop CSTM80 and the godlike Mode Sonnet).

Beyond the usual key feel impressisons and longevity stats cited by mechanical keyboard enthusiasts, the strength of this category is that there is just so much you can do to tweak and customise every aspect of your keyboard, from keycaps and switches to more subtle elements like plates, weights, foam and cases. This quartet demonstrates that flexibility ably, and while certain trendy features like gasket-mounted switches are included more or less throughout, there are also some new options I've not seen in mainstream gaming keyboards - so take a look if you want to see what Corsair, SteelSeries and Razer will be offering in a few years' time!

Use the links below to jump to just the keyboard you're interested in, or scroll on to see the full holiday assortment.

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