The portals to hell have legs and health bars in Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred’s Season of Hatred Rising
Demons can be anything they want, apparently. In Diablo 4’s next season, which starts on October 7, a massive creature called the Realmwalker will stomp around Sanctuary with a portal to hell on its back. Defeating it will send you into a dungeon with more portals and new seasonal potions to help fill your inventory […]
6 years after successfully crowdfunding a game about orphans in a cyberpunk warzone, the studio making it has closed: ‘We’ve been so close to a release, several times, and there’s a lot to regret after all the work done’
There’s a bit of unintended irony in our 2018 preview of Orphan Age, a life-sim game about orphans attempting to survive in the midst of a cyberpunk warzone. “Not sure this one will have a happy ending,” we said at the time, a reference to the game’s grim premise that turned out to be prescient […]
Larian boss Swen Vincke cruelly hints at a 2029 release for the studio’s next game, only to yoink it away: ‘It was just a joke’
Following on the runaway success of Baldur’s Gate 3, which is somehow still earning awards despite having launched well over a year ago, Larian Studios has not just one but two games in the works,which of course we’re all very eager to get our hands on. They’re still a long way off, of course, but… […]
‘Apple and Google have a totally broken vision for the world’: Epic CEO Tim Sweeney vows to ‘keep fighting on until there’s an ultimate victory’
Any thought that Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney might quit while he was ahead in his long-running disputes with Apple and Google went out the window earlier this week when Epic sued Google, again, and took a swing (figuratively, of course) at Samsung for good measure. Reinforcing that point, Sweeney said at the Unreal Fest […]
Windows 11 24H2 is finally here and Microsoft’s calling it a ‘full OS swap’, it’s just a shame the new Windows update still has Recall
Microsoft’s been busy. As has the rest of the tech industry, seemingly. I leave the room for what feels like one second and everything’s “AI this” and “AI that”. Now, Microsoft’s rolling out what it’s calling a “full operating system (OS) swap” that seems at pains to pave the way for AI. Yes, Windows 11 […]
The lead on one of Fallout’s least-loved entries says over-enthusiasm led to its hated hairy deathclaws: ‘At the time, I know it was sacrilege’
The pre-Bethesda Fallouts occupy an odd space, still held up by the die-hards as the Only True Fallouts but largely unplayed beyond gamers of a certain vintage. Me, it’s me that’s the vintage. Yet even among these titles there is the neglected stepson: Fallout Tactics, a Brotherhood of Steel RPG developed by Micro Forté, released […]
One of our favourite 4K gaming monitors is a whopping $200 off right now
Gigabyte M28U | 28-inch | 4K | 144 Hz | IPS | $599 $399.99 at Amazon (save $200) Here’s a monitor we really rate, as you can tell from our Gigabyte M28U review. We loved this package for its blend of speed and resolution, even at its original $600 price tag. At this tantalizingly cheap […]
Frostpunk dev’s quietly very cool survival game where you manage relationships with your alt-universe selves gets delayed to next year
When I played The Alters at the same preview event where I also tried to establish turbo-communism in Frostpunk 2 earlier this year (it could have worked), I came away very much surprised. Games that pitch themselves as survival-anything don’t tend to do much for me; I struggle enough to survive in real life. But […]
Nvidia’s RTX 4060 is THE dominant GPU, boosting its desktop market share by 34% in a single month on Steam’s Hardware Survey
The latest Steam hardware survey results are in and it looks like people are making the most of recent graphics card discounts, specifically at the lower end of the 40-series. These sales and price drops are to be expected as we’re currently in the lead-up to some next-gen graphics card releases. The September Steam hardware […]
Eco-adventure Rain World is getting a new expansion, complete with new slugcat
Rain World will get a new expansion called Rain World: The Watcher on March 28, 2025. The release will co me with a new slugcat to play as—the Watcher, AKA the Nightcat—and will be set in a wholly new-looking area of the Rain World with its own strange ecology that we get glimpses of in […]
It turns out you can keep Baldur’s Gate 3’s heartbreaking temporary companion permanently: You just have to beat half the game without resting, kill her and your main character, and stuff them in someone’s pocket
Baldur’s Gate 3’s Patch 7 deputized a well-liked side character, the Tiefling bard Alfira, to full companion status. The only problem is that it’s only temporary, and in the most “cursed monkey’s paw” way imaginable. Cenalexis_01 on the Baldur’s Gate 3 subreddit figured out how to make it permanent, though, and the exploit requires the […]
New report sheds light on Annapurna Interactive implosion while the parent company says it’s ‘focused on moving forward,’ hiring to fill the vacancies, and still working on the Blade Runner game whose devs just walked out the door
Following the shocking mass-resignation of publisher Annapurna Interactive’s entire 25-person staff, a new report from IGN has provided more details about the gaming division’s dispute with its parent company, Annapurna Pictures, and its billionaire owner, Megan Ellison. Anonymous former employees shared concerns about the Interactive division’s future under Annapurna Pictures, and claimed that Ellison refused […]
Today’s Wordle answer for Saturday, September 21
Solve Saturday’s Wordle as smoothly as you like using our helpful range of tips and tricks. There’s some general advice just below if you need to brush up your guess-making, a brand new hint written especially for the September 21 (1190) puzzle if you’d like a prod towards the winning word, and even today’s answer […]
I can’t believe how far Bloodborne emulation has come in just the last 2 months
I want to be very clear from the jump here: You cannot currently play Bloodborne on your PC without a lot of pain-in-the-ass setup. Even if you do spend hours just to get the game to run like I have, it’ll become clear very quickly that PS4 emulation still has a very long way to […]
They’re planning to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant to power Microsoft’s cloud and AI data centers
If everything goes to plan, a nuclear reactor at the famous Three Mile Island power plant in Pennsylvania—the site of a major accident in the ’70s—will be restarted by power company Constellation Energy to fulfill an agreement with Microsoft for carbon-free energy to power its data centers. The reactor coming back online is not the […]
Helldivers 2’s official Super Earth National Anthem has me so full of patriotic ardor, I feel like marching in the street
Super Earth just got a little more super: Sony has finally shared with us Helldivers 2’s official Super Earth National Anthem, a stirring orchestral tour de force that will bring tears to the eyes and steel the resolve of all who fight to bring managed democracy to the stars. Just take a moment and listen. […]
Netflix is doing a Splinter Cell animated series, and Michael Ironside isn’t in it
The Splinter Cell remake we were promised three years ago is still nowhere to be seen, but Sam Fisher is making a comeback of sorts on Netflix, in a new animated series called Deathwatch. There’s not much to see, really. Sam Fisher, now rocking a grandfatherly beard, is sinking in the drink, although he seems […]
Cards Against Humanity sues Elon Musk for $15M, alleges that SpaceX invaded a plot of land it owns in Texas: ‘Go **** yourself, Elon Musk’
Cards Against Humanity is suing Elon Musk rocket venture SpaceX, alleging that Musk’s company turned a plot of land it owns in Texas into a worksite without permission, or in its words, “completely fucked” it with “gravel, tractors, and space garbage.” Photos of CAH’s once-vacant Texas lot show piles of construction materials on the land, […]
Dragon Age: The Veilguard game director says Inquisition’s epilogue DLC ‘should have been part of the base game’
When it launches, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is going to have its work cut out for it when it comes to orienting players in its world. Not just because it’s the fourth game in a series whose last game came out 10 years ago, but because the beginning of its story hinges on a DLC […]
Penny’s Big Breakaway studio announces layoffs: ‘Evening Star has been swept up in the same turbulence that has affected so many of our peers in the games industry’
The videogame industry continues to be wracked by instability and chaos: Evening Star, the developer of the 3D platformer Penny’s Big Breakaway, has announced that “turbulence” in the business has forced it to lay off six employees. “This was a post that I was hoping to not have to write, but Evening Star has been […]
Control 2 isn’t affected by the collapse of Annapurna Interactive because the deal was signed by the other Annapurna
Despite the implosion of Annapurna Interactive—whose entire staff quit earlier this week—the recent deal its parent company, Annapurna Pictures, made with Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment will remain intact, according to the studio’s communications director Thomas Puha. Annapurna Pictures, not Annapurna Interactive, signed a deal with Remedy to co-fund the development of Control 2 and […]
Google results insist a Bugsnax sequel is coming out next month, but there’s one small problem: Its devs aren’t making one
Getting your game noticed is a tricky business when you have to punch through the noise of the more than 10,000 new Steam games releasing each year. Young Horses, the developer of Bugsnax and Octodad, have found itself in an even trickier spot: Thanks to Google, people are expecting a Bugsnax sequel that doesn’t […]
Flappy Bird makes an unlikely comeback after its creator apparently let the trademark lapse and the vultures swept right in
Update 09/16/24: Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen has now confirmed he has nothing to do with this relaunch. Full story here. A decade ago Flappy Bird, a crude but colourful autorun-style game, became a viral hit on mobile. It was so successful, in fact, that it became a millstone for its creator, Vietnamese programmer Dong Nguyen, […]
PSA: Consider cranking up Space Marine 2’s difficulty for co-op
Hey there, I won’t keep you long: If you’re playing Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2‘s campaign with some friends, are you finding it too easy? My friend and I reached that point after the first few missions. I was hosting the lobby and had difficulty set to “Normal” like I do in 90% of games. […]
The Penguin Sale on Steam celebrates Batman’s pointiest villain by slashing prices on the best superhero games around
There’s a new Batman series debuting on HBO next week, although it’s not actually about Batman. It’s called The Penguin, and it’s about—you guessed it—Oswald Cobblepot, better known in Gotham’s underworld as The Penguin. The series stars Colin Farrell, reprising his role from the 2022 flick The Batman, and he’s no Burgess Meredith but early […]
‘There’s an alternate universe where Half-Life disappeared after release’: Valve’s first marketing strategist Monica Harrington says she helped navigate its way out of early disaster
Looking back on Valve’s record of repeated hits and the fact that most of us are playing our PC games under Steam’s monolithic shadow, it’s tempting to think that this was the only way history could’ve gone. But according to Monica Harrington, Valve’s chief marketing strategist in its early years and then wife of studio […]
Immortals of Aveum developers find a new home at Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser’s Absurd Ventures studio
Following the flop of the fantasy FPS Immortals of Aveum, a “core team” from developer Ascendant Studios has found a new home at Absurd Ventures, the studio launched in 2021 by Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser. The former Ascendant team will form a new studio called Absurd Marin, headed up by Ascendant Studios founder and […]
Whoops, they did it again: Bungie admits fan art was used in an official Destiny 2 collectible, says the artist will be ‘compensated and credited for their incredible artwork’
A snafu that saw fan-made art used in the design for an upcoming Destiny 2 Nerf gun has come to a happy ending, as the artist involved says the situation is resolved, and Bungie says it’s going to pay up. The trouble came to light earlier this week, shortly after Bungie unveiled the Nerf Ace […]
EVE players are in revolt over CCP’s blockchain plans: ‘None of us want this crypto slop’
Yesterday, I wrote about my chat with CCP’s top brass about its upcoming survival MMO EVE Frontier—a new game in the EVE universe that uses blockchain tech to (so goes the CCP pitch) take the player-led philosophy of EVE Online and make it weirder, wilder, and woolier, even letting players become effectively co-developers of the […]
