Gaming News

Josh Sawyer Would Make Pillars of Eternity 3 If Given a Baldur's Gate 3-Sized Budget

Obsidian Entertainment released Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire in May 2018, and it hasn't given any news of another sequel to the Pillars series ever since. Now, studio design director Josh Sawyer said he would love to develop Pillars of Eternity 3 — under the condition the game receives the same budget as Baldur's Gate 3. In a video interview with Touch Arcade about the anniversary of Pentiment, Sawyer said that, while he loved the first two Pillars games, he would love to make Pillars 3 if there weren't any time or budget constraints. He didn't say the same for Pentiment 2, however. "I don’t think I would make Pentiment 2. I really do feel very satisfied with that game. It’s not like I don’t wanna return to it ever, but I just...

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Xbox Players Can Enjoy Diablo 4 For Free This Weekend

Diablo 4 is going free to play on Xbox this weekend with players able to log up to 10 hours of gameplay at no extra cost. Revealed on Xbox Wire, all Xbox owners can access Diablo 4 for free from October 19 to at 12:01am Pacific until October 22 at 11:59pm Pacific. Game Pass Core (formerly Xbox Live Gold) or Game Pass are not required. While this grants three full days to access the action role-playing game, players will be limited to a total of 10 hours of playtime. Diablo 4 launched in June as a smash hit, proving popular with players and critics. "Diablo 4 is a stunning sequel with near perfect endgame and progression design that makes it absolutely excruciating to put down," IGN said in our 9/10 review. Those with Game Pass Core...

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The Walking Dead: Destinies Arrives This November

The Walking Dead: Destinies comes to PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series, Nintendo Switch, and PC on November 17, 2023. The release date for the third-person narrative driven action-adventure game was revealed in a new trailer, below, which also featured a series of iconic moments from AMC's The Walking Dead TV show. While Destinies reflects the show's beginning, however, its hook is in the ability to make choices that The Walking Dead's cast of characters did not. "Begin your journey as Rick Grimes, waking alone in a hospital surrounded by the dead," reads the synopsis. "Assemble allies and fight your way through the walker apocalypse across iconic locations from The Walking Dead, including Atlanta, the Greene family farm, the...

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Cities: Skylines 2 Review

While the original Cities: Skylines practically brought its breed of open-ended city builder back from the dead (after SimCity 2013 killed it), Cities: Skylines 2 is a sequel that often feels like it took more steps back than it did forward. It's full of exciting and gratifying new mechanics for managing your economy and creating more realistic metropolises. But it also asks you to do a lot of busywork if you don't want the end product to look horrendous on close inspection, and sacrifices some of the user friendliness of its predecessor to fit in more bells and whistles. I’m not ready to tear it all down, but right now there’s an unsightly case of urban blight that’s going to take some major technical renovations to clear up. I'm...

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Exclusive Developer Interview ft. Phantom Blade Zero

Soulframe, you studied architecture in Beijing and New Haven. How did this education inspire development of S-Game and Phantom Blade Zero? Soulframe: Architecture is not only about building houses. It taught me almost everything that I need to complete games–from traditional drawings, to animations, to 3D modeling, to programming, and engineering–budgeting and program management. So when I began to develop my first indie game, I was a "one man army" who did almost everything on my own. Game development is a mysterious and coveted profession, how did you get your start? And how did S-Game come to be? Soulframe: I finished my first indie game before I graduated college, and after that, I moved to the U.S. for graduate school. Then I...

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Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Finally Lets Players Pause Cutscenes, but It Takes 10 Seconds

Konami is finally adding the ability to pause cutscenes to the original three Metal Gear Solid games when the Master Collection launches October 24, but there's a strange catch: it takes 10 seconds. As reported by MP1st, YouTuber Irriducibile 86ss somehow got their hands on an early copy of the game and streamed it live. They showed off the new feature, revealing that pressing the pause button during a cutscene does stop the game, but only 10 seconds later does the actual pause menu appear. There's a chance this is just a mistake or bug and not intended by Konami and may be addressed in an update, of course, perhaps even before the Master Collection comes out, ready for a day one patch. The ability to pause cutscenes has been...

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EA Sports FC 24 Bug Completely Breaks the Game

EA’s FIFA series has over the years suffered from the odd bug. Most of the time these bugs are hilarious glitches that result from nightmarish physics collisions between players. But the latest, currently spreading throughout FC 24, is perhaps the worst yet. The bug sees a player perform a skill move to fully attach the ball to the back of their leg, leaving them free to run straight into the goal. There is nothing the opponent can do to prevent this. Really. It’s hard to trace the origin of the bug, but it’s prevalent enough to be affecting competitive multiplayer. Players of Ultimate Team’s Division Rivals mode, results in which affect player ranking and rewards, have taken to social media to publish clips of the exploit...

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Valorant Episode 7 Act 3: New Agent Iso - All Abilities Explained

Valorant Episode 7 Act 3 is launching October 31st and this upcoming update brings in the 23rd Agent to enter the game. The new Duelist is named Iso, a Chinese fixer for hire with unique gun skills that translate to creating bulletproof protecting for himself. Here’s how his kit works! Iso Abilities: E - Double Tap Activate your focus timer. When it’s run out, Iso will be able to harvest energy orbs from enemies he downs or damages. Once these orbs are shot, Iso will receive a shield that absorbs one instance of damage from any source. Q - Undercut Throw a molecular bolt that can pass through walls and other solid objects to catch enemies behind obstacles. When the bolt touches a player, the FRAGILE status will be applied to...

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The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria Delayed on PS5 Just Days Ahead of Release

The PlayStation 5 version of co-op survival crafting RPG The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria has been delayed to December 5, just days before it was due to launch. The PS5 version now launches both digitally and physically at retail on December 5, 2023, developer Free Range Games and publisher North Beach Games said. Return to Moria launches as planned on PC as an Epic Games Store exclusive on October 24. An Xbox Series X and S version is planned for early 2024. The companies said they were using the extra time to "improve various aspects" of the PS5 version, and apologised to fans for the delay. Return to Moria is set in the Fourth Age (70 years after the destruction of the ring) of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy world of...

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Tokyo Resident Arrested for Stalking, Including in Final Fantasy 14

A 38-year-old Tokyo resident has been arrested on stalking charges including on social media and, more unusually, in multiplayer video game Final Fantasy 14. As reported by Kobe News, translated by Siliconera and verified by IGN, Japanese police arrested a man for behaviour that violates Japan's Anti-Stalking Control Law. The man has been accused of sending a 28-year-old woman threatening messages. It's unclear how much of the alleged activity took place within Final Fantasy 14 itself, where players can message each other while roaming the world, but the man was also accused of using social media websites like Twitter and Line to send messages. In the game, however, the man also allegedly followed the victim's character around...

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Laika: Aged Through Blood Review

Laika: Aged Through Blood’s crumbling, post-apocalyptic world is brutal and unforgiving, and it won’t give you many chances to forget that. Its pain and anguish is told through a story of reluctant revenge and desperate survival, heard in the mournful lyrics of its impeccable soundtrack and blasted through the barrel of the titular character’s revolver — all while you’re flipping through the air on a motorcycle and coating the wasteland in viscera. Though a bit more punishing than it needs to be at times, Laika manages to brilliantly meld its satisfying combat, beautiful music, and heartfelt story into a dazzling, bloody action game that’s even greater than the sum of its parts Laika puts a clever spin on the 2D side scrolling...

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EA Sports FC 24, Mortal Kombat 1, and NBA 2K24 Launch Sales All Down in Europe

Big-name video games released in September have sold less at launch than their predecessors across Europe, according to fresh data. Data from Game Sales Data (GSD), which tracks physical and digital sales, shows declines for EA Sports FC 24, Warner Bros. Games’ Mortal Kombat 1, and 2K’s NBA 2K24 compared to launch sales of their predecessors. As reported by GI.biz, FC 24 launch sales are down 10% compared to the launch sales of FIFA 23 last year in Europe. GI points out FIFA 23 was a monster hit for EA, but FC 24 launch sales are still down compared to 2021’s FIFA 22 by 3.7%. Of course, it’s worth pointing out that EA’s football video game franchise changed its name this year after EA Sports’ relationship with FIFA broke down...

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Halo Infinite Steam Player Count Doubles Following Season 5 Launch

Halo Infinite is enjoying a modest resurgence following the release of Season 5: Reckoning. Developer 343 Industries' first-person shooter had hovered around the 7,000 concurrent player mark on Valve’s platform in the run-up to this week’s launch of the Flood-fuelled Season 5. According to SteamDB, Halo Infinite then spiked on October 18, with 18,000 concurrents. That’s the game’s highest peak since the launch of Season 2 some 17 months ago, and enough players for Halo Infinite to crack Steam’s top 50 most-played games based on concurrents. It’s worth remembering that the only concrete player data we have comes from Steam. Microsoft does not publish official Halo Infinite stats across platforms. But we do know Halo Infinite’s...

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Xbox's Activision Deal Is Done. Now What? – Unlocked 617

Microsoft's acquisition of Activision-Blizzard is finally done, and so we can finally stop talking about it! Or, well, at least we can stop talking about the annoying will-they-or-won't-they regulatory side of it. Now it's time to talk about the games! We discuss Activision-Blizzard games in the back catalog that we'd like to see lightly refreshed for the Xbox Series X|S (similar to the recent Quake 2 remaster), before taking turns talking about which of their IPs we'd like to see Microsoft bring back as a brand-new game. Plus: Starfield tops the sales charts, Bethesda's "Uncle Pete" Hines says goodbye, and more! Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 of this week's episode. For more...

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The Least Coins for Super Mario Wonder, FFVII: Rebirth Prices Go Phoenix Down, and More!

Our favourite plumber returns today, finally! You've probably read the review already—it's a damn fine sequel that ought to be bought. And this is where I come in, with the cheapest prices in the Mushroom or any other kingdom. Oh, and I also can't let you leave without saying this. Today is the 32 year anniversary of Streets of Rage, an all-time beat 'em up that's a personal fave. I still maintain that Yuzo Koshiro's soundtrack still slaps. And if you and I were ever to co-op this, I'd shotgun Axel but share all the floor chickens. This Day in Gaming Aussie birthdays for notable games and hardware - Streets of Rage (MD) 1991. Get - Battlefield 2142 (PC) 2006. - Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (PS3,X360) 2010. - Batman: Arkham CIty...

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Skull Island: Rise of Kong Review

Here's the thing about King Kong: He is not just an ape, he's a giant ape. It's his defining feature in the 1933 movie that birthed him and the ultimate cause of his tragic demise. Picking up people, climbing skyscrapers, fighting dinosaurs — being huge is King Kong's whole deal. Skull Island: Rise of Kong is bad for a lot of reasons, but the main one is it's a game that lets you play as an iconically large gorilla and somehow manages to make him feel exceedingly average. Rise of Kong portrays King Kong in the most bland way possible, and then it matches that mediocrity for everything else around him. Rise of Kong lets you experience how King Kong became King Kong, which was apparently by beating a lot of things to death and getting...

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Hellboy: Web of Wyrd Review

As a longtime Hellboy fan, it continues to astound me that there are desperately few video game adaptations of the big red monkey devil’s exploits. There’s a lot to love about Mike Mignola’s almost 30-year-old hellion, from his look, to the fable-flavored supernatural world he skulks around righting wrongs and protecting the innocent, to the often touching pieces of self-reflection throughout the many stories that touch on themes of loneliness, discrimination, found families, and the risks and rewards of rising to a higher calling. Seven hours with Web of Wyrd was a good reminder of the challenges involved with turning such a complex work into an interactive game where our actions matter. While it nails much of the look of the graphic...

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Overwatch 2's Next Collaboration Is With K-Pop Group Le Sserafim

Overwatch 2 is following Fortnite’s footsteps and holding its first-ever musical collaboration, this one with K-Pop group Le Sserafim. Blizzard announced the collaboration with the five-member girl group, whose name is an anagram for “I’m fearless,” in an official blog post published on Wednesday. The event will see new in-game content inspired by the rising K-pop band behind hits like “FEARLESS” and “ANTIFRAGILE.” Le Sserafim — comprised of members Kim Chaewon, Sakura, Huh Yunjin, Kazuha, and Hong Eunchae — will kick off their collaboration with Overwatch 2 with the release of their music video for their new single “Perfect Night,” which premieres October 26 at 9 p.m. PT. In the concept trailer for the music video, one of the...

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Best Buy Black Friday 2023: What Deals and Sales to Expect This Year

Whether you’re ready or not for Black Friday 2023, Best Buy has laid out its plans for the holiday shopping season — and the plans are extensive. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to save money on gifts for the people on your list, and for yourself. Best Buy’s Black Friday sales event will kick off soon, and will continue through November, even past the day itself. Here’s what to expect from the sale in 2023. Jump to: Best Buy Black Friday Dates My Best Buy Membership Details Best Buy’s Store Hours Best Buy’s Holiday Shopping Return Policy Best Buy Black Friday Deals Predictions Best Buy Shopping Tips Click the links above to navigate to the various sections of this page. When Does Best Buy Black Friday Start? While Black...

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PSA: Diablo 4 Is Verified on Steam Deck

If you haven’t downloaded Diablo 4 on Steam yet, here’s a reminder that the latest title in Blizzard’s popular action RPG series is now verified on Steam Deck. Blizzard launched Diablo 4 on Steam and certified it for the Steam Deck on Tuesday in conjunction with the launch of its second season, titled Season of Blood. Community manager Adam Fletcher confirmed in a post on X (formerly Twitter) last week that they’ll be able to play Diablo 4 on the Steam Deck wherever they take it after receiving inquiries from fans about whether the game will be playable on the portable PC system at all. “We have been hearing some questions regarding Steam Deck verification for Diablo 4,” Fletcher said at the time. “We can happily say that Diablo IV...

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Starfield Was the Best-Selling Game of September 2023 in the U.S., Even With Game Pass

Starfield managed to hold off Mortal Kombat 1 to be the best-selling game of September 2023 in the U.S., according to new numbers from Circana. It may not be too surprising that the big new title from Bethesda was popular, but the sales numbers are still pretty impressive considering Starfield debuted Day 1 on Xbox Game Pass. Obviously, that means that there’s a whole swath of people playing Starfield on Game Pass that aren’t factored into these sales numbers. Starfield debuted officially across PC and Xbox Series X/S on Sept. 6, followed by Mortal Kombat 1 on Sept. 19 for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, PC, and Nintendo Switch (although that Switch release didn’t go so well initially). After Starfield and Mortal Kombat 1 are EA...

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone The Haunting Event Details Explained

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II just released its The Haunting, a spooky event available in Multiplayer, Warzone, and DMZ. Here’s what’s happening! The Dark Ritual Operators have opened a Hellmouth that let in otherworldly threats into the world. This open gate also let in Spawn, you know that Hellspawn superhero you may have seen from that cult classic movie in 1997. He entered our world to help defend us. At least that’s the reasoning given to us to make him available in the battle pass as an unlockable skin. Along with Spawn, there are several other skins available in the shop like Lilith from Diablo, Skeletor, and Alucard from Hellsing. Soul-Capture is a big part of The Haunting. You can collect Souls in Multiplayer, Warzone...

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Tekken 8: Tekken Fight Lounge First Look – IGN First

Online lobbies you can run around in are all the rage in fighting games these days. There’s the Tower and Park from Guilty Gear Strive, the Battle Hub from Street Fighter 6, and so on. Tekken 8 joins the craze with the Tekken Fighting Lounge, and it’s got a little bit of everything. In fact, it might be the fighting game genre’s best online lobby yet. The Tekken Fight Lounge is divided into four areas: the Battle Area, where you can fight against other players and watch other matches in progress; the Customization Shop, Iron Fist Outfitters, where you can spend your hard-earned fight money on customization options for your avatar; the Beach Area, where you can relax, enjoy the vibes, and most importantly, play Tekken Ball; and the...

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Mortal Kombat 1 PC Crashes Are Devouring Space on Your Hard Drive, Too

If you are playing the PC version of Mortal Kombat 1 and have experienced crashes, you might be surprised to learn that NetherRealm's latest fighting game leaves an extra digital footprint on your PC as it takes up more space on your hard-drive. Spotted by PCGamesN, X user @X-Azeez posted screenshots from another user that show every time Mortal Kombat 1 on PC crashes, it creates a report file that includes information on the in-game crash, but the caveat is that each of these folders also takes 1GB of free space away from your rig. Another user replied to the post with their own screenshot of crash report files, showing it took up an additional 41.6GB of storage space on their computer. Cory Taylor, the community manager for...

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Exclusive: Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story Music Video "You and Me Makes Us"

IGN can exclusively reveal a brand new music video for the upcoming Song of Nunu: A League of Legends story titled "You and Me Makes Us". The original song is written and performed by Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter DEEGAN and co-published by Riot Games Music and The Hit House Global Publishing BMI. The animated music video follows Nunu and his Yeti Willump's friendship while revealing another League of Legends Champion that will appear in Song of Nunu – Volibear. The song is a bit of a bop and feels right at home in the music catalog produced for Riot’s various games. The music video features a mixture of animation styles and hints at the type of hijinks our heroes will get into during their journey. Song of Nunu: A League of...

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Alaskan Road Truckers – Out Now!

Our latest game, Alaskan Road Truckers, has just launched on Steam. Set in the wild frontiers of Alaska, Alaskan Road Truckers sees you set up your own trucking company as you try to survive out there on the cold, lonely Alaskan roads. If you’ve ever wanted to live the rugged fantasy of survival out there […] The post Alaskan Road Truckers – Out Now! appeared first on Green Man Gaming Blog. Continue reading...

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Lords of the Fallen Patch 1.1.203 Makes ‘Substantial Performance Improvements’

The Lords of the Fallen developers continue to make improvements to the game, with the latest update targeting performance issues. Hexworks’ dark fantasy action-RPG launched last week to a "mixed" user review rating of 57% on Steam. Most of the complaints revolve around performance issues, with crashes chief among them. Patch v.1.1.203 makes "substantial performance improvements", Hexworks and publisher CI Games said in a post on the Lords of the Fallen Steam page. "This is aimed at freeing up VRAM to provide additional headroom for GPUs that are operating at the limit of their capabilities. This process is taking some time because we are committed to ensuring that you do not lose any quality." Here are the Lords of the Fallen...

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YouTube Star Markiplier Reveals Blood-Drenched Teaser for His Upcoming Film, Iron Lung

YouTuber Markiplier has revealed a teaser for his upcoming movie Iron Lung, which he says is “coming soon” to theatres. Markiplier, real name Mark Edward Fischbach, has a whopping 35.6 million subscribers on YouTube, where he is known for incredibly popular Let’s Plays of indie horror games. One such game is Iron Lung, the 2022 submarine horror video game by David Szymanski that hit the headlines in June after it saw a sales spike following OceanGate's Titan submersible going missing, something Szymanski said "feels so wrong". Iron Lung the movie is a sci-fi horror written, directed, produced by, and starring Markiplier as an adaptation of the video game. The teaser, below, shows a suitably horrific atmosphere in which Markiplier...

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Diablo 4 Launches on Steam to ‘Mixed’ User Reviews, Concurrent Players Slowly Climbing From Low Base

Diablo 4 launched on Steam last night and saw users jhave dished out a “mixed” review rating of 55%. Blizzard’s action role-playing game launched on PC exclusively on its own Battle.net platform back in June and saw record-breaking sales that secured Diablo 4’s place as Blizzard’s fastest-selling game of all time. Four months later, Diablo 4’s Steam launch is altogether more muted, with users taking advantage of the platform to tell the world what they think about developer Blizzard as much as the game itself. Diablo 4’s “most helpful” review posted in the past day, according to Steam, comes from a user who said: “During my childhood Blizzard couldn’t get it wrong. As an adult, they can’t get it right.” Other reviews call out a...

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Top 10 Metal Gear Solid Bosses

Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid series is known for having incredible boss fights. Whether the gameplay itself was fun or the character just stuck in our mind as particularly awesome, here are the top 10 Metal Gear Solid bosses. What do you think of our list? Have your say by casting your own votes in our audience ranking of the top Metal Gear Solid bosses here: 10. Metal Gear REX - Metal Gear Solid The big encounter with the nuclear-armed bipedal tank, dubbed Metal Gear REX, brought a chilling edge to the final moments of the Shadow Moses Incident. Kojima and his team spent a lot of the story building up this potential nuclear threat. The fight itself was quite a spectacle, even by the graphics standards of 1998. The DARPA-built...

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