Welcome to Wednesday, or what's also known as Ahsokaday at my house. (Obviously, it won't be called that next week, as we've reached series finale.) Star Warsing aside, I've found you some pretty insane deals on a SteelSeries headset, a Dragon Ball Ultimate Ed., and I'm loving these historical lows for Tiny Tina's NLE and Dying Light 2 on Xbox and PS5. Get 'em before they're gone.
This Day in Gaming
Aussie birthdays for notable games and hardware
- Star Fox 64 (N64) 1997.
- Onimusha 2 (PS2) 2002.
- Silent Hill 2 (XB) 2002.
- The Godfather: The Game (X360,PSP) 2006.
Table of Contents
Nintendo Switch
PC
Xbox
PlayStation
Nice Savings for Nintendo Switch
Expiring Deals From Yesterday
Hardware Watch
How much to make the...
Gaming News
Everyone can post news here.
The news posted here could be anything from gaming to world news.
This section will be monitored fairly heavily.
Assassin's Creed Mirage, the 13th major installment in Ubisoft's franchise, is nearly upon us.
Mirage will debut on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC on Oct. 5, a full week earlier than originally planned. But these days, it can be tough to figure out what that means exactly in terms of when you'll be able to start playing. Luckily, Ubisoft has detailed the global release times for both PC and console, which vary by an hour or so in most regions.
For the most part, you'll be able to start playing in the wee hours of Friday, Oct. 5, with a few regions getting a jumpstart on PC late on Thursday. Mirage is already available for pre-loading.
You can see the various release times in their graphic...
Boomerang X developer Dang! has announced that the studio is closing its doors due to being unable to secure funding for its next game.
“Dang is closing up shop. Unfortunately, we were not able to find funding for our next game and we are out of money,” the studio said in a statement written on the desktop Notepad app. “We’re not writing off the possibility of working on some small stuff together in the future but for now we’re all going our separate ways. Thanks to all the love you’ve shown to us over the years and thanks for playing Boomerang X.”
While the studio joked that it was rather unserious about its closure announcement by not making a professional-looking one with a logo, it assured that the news wasn’t a joke. The studio...
Developer StickyLock has announced its new free-to-play multiplayer first-person shooter, Histera. Its unique hook is that its maps will change unpredictably mid-match, forcing players who want to succeed to stay light on their toes. It's due out on PC (via Steam) in 2024, but a free playable demo will be available on Steam as part of Steam Next Fest, from October 9-16.
The name of the unpredictable space-time oddity causing these map changes to Histera's sci-fi world is called the Glitch, and "before they know it, players will be rushing through humid prehistoric jungles, jumping over modern ruins in a war-torn city or hiding in the shadows of futuristic skyscrapers," StickyLock told IGN. "The dynamics of the match can change at any...
When I first pulled into Station to Station’s voxel-powered railways, I was expecting more of a straight-forward train sim, something akin to the A-Train franchise with a bit of city building. The reality, however, is much different – Station to Station is more like a puzzle game built around some of the tropes of simulation-style games, with stuff like resource and money management unlocking the next possibility in the gameplay loop. It's disarmingly simple to explain: some of the buildings on your map are industries that produce resources. Connect those to the other buildings that need those resources. Connect them all to the cities. Profit.
When everything is connected according to its needs and its ability to produce, you win...
Activision has released a first proper look at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer, leaning heavily on nostalgia for classic maps and mechanics.
Veteran fans of the series will immediately note Activision’s use of Eminem’s Till I Collapse for the trailer, below. Till I Collapse was used for the Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 launch trailer 14 years ago.
2023’s Modern Warfare 3 includes all 16 launch maps from the original Modern Warfare 2 and will see 12 new 6v6 maps come out post-launch. The video showcases a number of these classic maps, such as the eternally popular Rust. Check out multiplayer screenshots in the slideshow below:
We also get a look at slide cancelling, which makes a return for this game. Slide...
Square Enix has finally made it possible to play all of Final Fantasy 14 completely solo despite it being a massively multiplayer online game.
As reported by VG247, Final Fantasy 14's patch 6.5 has brought the game's Duty Support system — which lets players bring NPCs into dungeons instead of other players — up to date to include every part of the game.
Stormblood dungeons The Drowned City of Skalla, The Burn, and The Ghimlyt Dark were the last to be made available with Duty Support, but the brand new dungeon Lunar Subterrane also works with the system immediately.
Players can therefore now play the entirety of Final Fantasy 14's main story missions, including the base game and all expansions, without having to team up with other...
Activision has told fans of Call of Duty’s DMZ that it intends to continue supporting the extraction mode despite it skipping the upcoming COD Next reveal event.
COD Next, set for this Thursday, October 5, will fully reveal Modern Warfare 3 and what’s next for Warzone 2.0, including its new map. But DMZ mode is not part of the show.
“Although DMZ won’t be showcased at COD Next this week, we’re excited to share that we will continue to support the DMZ Beta,” Activision said in an announcement shared this week. “Players will have continuing infiltration opportunities for Al Mazrah, Ashika Island, Vondel — as well as Building 21 and Koschei Complex.
“Thank you for your continued support and dedication to the Beta! We will share further...
2023's Call of Duty will be in the form of Modern Warfare III, acting as a direct sequel to last year's Modern Warfare II. With a brand new campaign, multiplayer experience, and more. Activision is hosting an Open Beta across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC (PlayStation owners get first access), starting this Friday, October 6. The beta will feature 5 of the 16 remastered launch maps from the 2009 Modern Warfare 2, with the full game including the entire collection upon release, on November 10.
Preorder Modern Warfare 3 for Early Access to the Open Beta
PlayStation users will get early access to the Open Beta on October 6-7 if they preorder the game through any retailer. The associated retailer will then email you a code for you to redeem...
To ensure player safety in its popular battle royale game, Epic Games announced it is rolling out age ratings for all Fortnite experiences, starting November 14.
Epic Games notes the new system includes "all first and third-party playable content" in Fortnite. Specifically, these age ratings will be used to examine and issue a rating to all content built in Fortnite's Creative mode. The new system is part of a new partnership Epic Games formed with the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), an initiative that works with rating boards, including the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB).
Epic Games said that when a creator is ready to publish their island into Fortnite, they have to fill out an IARC content rating...
Microsoft has announced the first wave of games coming to Xbox Game Pass in October 2023.
As already announced, co-op focused adventure Gotham Knights is available in Game Pass today, October 3, for Xbox Series X and S, PC, and the cloud. IGN’s Gotham Knights review returned a 5/10. “Gotham Knights is a co-op-centric caped adventure that made my interest Wayne thanks to poor combat, a transparently predictable mystery, and grueling progression,” we said.
Also available today is The Lamplighters League on Xbox Series X and S, PC, and the cloud. This is a day-one Game Pass release from Shadowrun developer Harebrained Schemes and published by Paradox Interactive. IGN gave it 7/10: “The Lamplighters League starts slow, but its mix of...
Naughty Dog has reportedly suffered a round of layoffs, with the troubled The Last of Us multiplayer spin-off said to be “on ice”.
The Sony-owned studio, which is home to some 400 staff, is laying off at least 25 developers, Kotaku said. Most of the people affected are quality assurance (QA) contractors who are seeing their contracts cut short. According to Kotaku, full-time staff are not affected.
Naughty Dog will reportedly not offer severance to laid off staff, who Kotaku said are expected to work until the end of October. According to the site, Naughty Dog staff “are being pressured to keep the news quiet”. IGN has asked Sony for comment.
The Last of Us multiplayer spin-off is, according to Kotaku, “basically on ice”, although...
Phantom Liberty and Update 2.0 might have made a lot of improvements to Cyberpunk 2077 but one new bug has introduced a haunted police car to Night City.
Several players have shared screenshots and gameplay of the car on Reddit, with Crowzer commenting (below) that it's no wonder Night City is so full of crimes if this is what the police come equipped with.
The vehicle is a standard issue Night City Police Department car but, even though it still drives around as normal with two police officers inside, it's completely wrecked. It looks like a car that's been blown up already, completely burnt out with no wheels, windows, or doors. Who need 'em?
"I've seen that quite a couple of times since I started a new 2.0 game," said...
Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios has shaved His Majesty after fans of the cat complained about a recent change that added fur.
His Majesty is a cat found in the Last Light Inn that looked like a hairless Sphynx. However, this appearance was a bug that gave His Majesty the same model as Steelclaw, a different cat meant to be a Sphynx.
And so, Larian fixed the bug with Baldur’s Gate 3’s recently released Patch 3. “Updated the visuals of His Majesty, who previously looked like Steelclaw,” the patch notes read. “His Majesty’s appearance now befits his name and nature.”
That, you would have thought, would be that, but it turned out His Majesty had fans who bemoaned this new look, and called on Larian to revert the fix.
Now...
Wherever you are in Australia right now, chances are it's gonna be a hot one. Your very best bet: retreat to the dank coolness of your Game Cave with something new to play. Alternatively, go for a swim and invest your money in the preordering of a AAA for some future day. Instant or slightly delayed gaming gratification—we deal in both approaches here.
This Day in Gaming
Aussie birthdays for notable games and hardware
- Sonic CD (PC) 1996.
- Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations (DS) 2008.
- MGS: Legacy Collection (PS3) 2013.
- Super Smash Bros.(3DS) 2014.
- Dragon’s Dogma (PS4,XO) 2017.
Table of Contents
Nintendo Switch
PC
Xbox
PlayStation
Nice Savings for Nintendo Switch
Expiring Deals From Yesterday
Hardware...
Now that spooky season has officially started, we're beginning to see a lot of Halloween-themed events in games. To that end, Overwatch 2 has just announced that its Season 7: Rise of Darkness will start on Oct. 10, and it features, among other things, a badass Lilith skin.
The announcement came from X/Twitter, where the official Overwatch account posted a video showing off the Blizzard World map, updated to fit its annual Halloween PvE event, Junkenstein's Revenge. Right before the trailer ends, we're given a glimpse of a new Moira skin that's themed around Diablo IV's main antagonist, Lilith.
The brief trailer doesn't reveal too much else, but leaks on Reddit have already seemingly revealed Halloween appropriate skins for...
In 1997, when Ultima Online first released, Tess (known online as “TessPhyreForge”) didn’t own a computer. She didn’t know anything about computers. But she was dating a guy at the time who was really, really into Ultima Online. “He made me a character and sat me down and said, ‘This is what you do.’ Then after two hours I was hooked, and I've been playing ever since.”
After her then-boyfriend got her hooked on Ultima Online, Tess eventually purchased her own computer. And then another computer so her son could play with her.
“When he turned 14, the area we lived at, we had a couple pool halls and stuff like that where the kids would go hang out,” Tess says. “But it was so bad an atmosphere for teenagers and drugs and stuff that I...
Microsoft has revealed six additional games leaving Xbox and PC Game Pass in October 2023 including fan favourite Trek to Yomi.
Revealed on the Xbox Store, Trek to Yomi's removal will be joined by The Legend of Tianding, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, and Eville on Xbox Game Pass, in addition to Shenzhen I/O and Overwhelm on PC Game Pass.
Microsoft didn't share an exact date for the games' removal but did say it would be "in the next two weeks", with Game Pass departures usually taking place mid-month. It's worth noting that, for those looking to play these games after their removal, they'll be available to purchase outright for 20% off while still available as part of Game Pass.
Trek to Yomi is reminiscent of classic samurai...
After nine months filled with dark and serious stories in games ranging from Diablo IV to Lies of P, I was more than a little eager to dive back into the stark contrast of stupidity and smut that is High on Life with the release of its first DLC: High on Knife. But while it certainly delivers the usual silly gags, amusingly gross and annoying characters, and some good laughs, that ride comes to an abrupt stop after only two hours, ending before I’d even fully settled back into a goofy world I’d desperately like to spend some more time in. Beyond that, the focus on Knifey, one of the more one-dimensional friends in your arsenal, doesn’t make for a particularly good story (even if he’s usually a reliable source of chuckles), and a lack of...
Assassin's Creed Mirage is just a few days away from launch on October 5 so developer Ubisoft has asked fans to please not spoil it for others.
In a post on Twitter (below), Ubisoft made clear it still wanted people talking about the game, of course, but said players shouldn't share spoiler-filled comments or posts online without marking them as such first.
"No spoilers," Ubisoft said in the post. "With the launch of Assassin's Creed Mirage upon us, we would kindly ask you to consider your fellow Assassins and refrain from posting or sharing unmarked spoilers that would impact their experience. Thank you. The wait it almost over."
Unwanted spoilers are practically commonplace in the video game industry, with leaks of trailers...
Final Fantasy 7's big bad Sephiroth just got a big chunk of new backstory thanks to mobile game spin-off Ever Crisis.
As reported by Eurogamer, the story of young Sephiroth is at the centre of Ever Crisis's latest update and players are now wondering if or how this lore dump will connect to the highly anticipated Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, the sequel to 2020's Remake.
The crux of the story, which is as dramatic and bizarre and tragic as much of Final Fantasy, revolves around Sephiroth's heritage. The villain's parents are Shinra scientists (part of the evil mega-corporation ruling Final Fantasy 7's world of Gaia) called Hojo and Lucrecia. Fans of the game will also be familiar with Jenova, a big evil alien whose cells were injected...
A Final Fantasy 14 player has become the first to unlock all 2,751 Achievements, more than a decade after the game launched.
As reported by Games Radar, a Reddit post from PrismaticParrot revealed a Japanese user in the Garuda server is now the one and only Final Fantasy 14 player to have every single Achievement unlocked. The post showed data obtained through Achievement tracking website Lalachievements, which confirmed the feat.
The massively multiplayer online role-playing game has a notorious Achievement list, and not just because it's over a decade old with humungous expansions released regularly, but because some individual Achievements require hundreds of hours of gameplay.
To unlock them all requires players not just...
Worms maker Team17 is set for significant layoffs as well as the exit of its CEO.
Eurogamer reported Team17’s quality assurance (QA) department will bear the brunt of the layoffs, with around 50 roles at risk. A consultation process is set to end in November. Meanwhile, CEO Michael Pattison is expected to leave.
Team17 confirmed the layoffs in a statement to IGN, although it insisted its Astragon and Storytoys businesses are unaffected.
“In response to the reports concerning the departure of Michael Pattison from Team17, we can confirm we have amicably parted ways with Michael. We can also confirm that we have sadly entered into a period of consultation today within Team17 Digital, with Astragon and Storytoys remaining unaffected by...
If you’re a history and government nerd like me, you’d probably be hard pressed to find a franchise that better appeals to your love of society building and tough moral quandaries than Frostpunk. Thankfully, developer 11 Bit Studios is cooking up another depressing city management simulator with Frostpunk 2, and from the 30-minute demo I saw, they appear to be doubling down on gut-wrenching decisions and brutal difficulty, and it’s got me positively giddy to get my hands on it. The demo I saw was focused solely on the freeplay mode called “Utopia Builder,” so any details of the dedicated story mode remain a mystery, but after seeing the fascinating new direction they’re taking that focuses on politics, faction management, and greatly...
After a disastrous launch that saw Payday 3 unplayable for many, developer Starbreeze has declared the matchmaking issues over, opening the door to a big update for October.
Starbreeze said the scheduled maintenance carried out last week fixed the matchmaking issues that occurred during Payday 3’s first week after launch. Matchmaking is now stable, Starbreeze said, and has had “good performance”.
The developer bigged up the popularity of Payday 3 since it came out, saying over the past five days it had a peak concurrent players (CCU) of 124,254, and during September saw 3,167,938 unique players (MAU).
Starbreeze said it will now “intensify” commercial activities around Payday 3 after an initial pause. This starts early October with...
Ultimate Team is EA’s controversial cash cow that brings in hundreds of millions of dollars to the publisher’s coffers every year. While FIFA players are well used to EA Sports adding expensive and powerful card packs later in the year-long life of the annualised football game, with the launch of FC 24, the community has reacted in shock to a $30 pack available to buy before the game even properly launched.
The Elite Season Opener Pack, currently available in the store, cost 285,000 Ultimate Team coins (the in-game currency), or 3,000 FC Points (the premium currency). 3,000 FC Points costs around $30. In true video game monetisation fashion, FC 24 does not let you buy 3,000 FC Points exactly in one bundle.
This Elite Season Opener...
13 (real-world and in-game) years have passed since we left Alan Wake in the Dark Place. The 2010 action game/psychological thriller gained a cult following thanks to a compelling narrative that blends Stephen King-esque psychological mystery with the quirky charm and evocative surrealism of Twin Peaks. In the decade-plus since, Remedy has grown to become one of the industry’s premier development studios, and now it’s writing an all-new chapter with its first survival-horror game, Alan Wake 2.
Ahead of the sequel’s upcoming release, we’ve compiled this comprehensive overview of everything we know about Alan Wake 2, including a release date, platforms, price, gameplay updates, story details, and more.
Jump to:
Release Date
Storyline...
There’s a moment at the very beginning of El Paso, Elsewhere, where the protagonist James Savage leans over the hood of a car pulled over in the middle of nowhere and makes a plea directly to the player. “I need you to believe…that I’m going to get back into this car, on the count of three, and stop my ex before she destroys us all. I need to know that you believe, so I can too.” He slowly counts to three, and in a blink, he’s in the El Paso hotel where she lies in wait. “Well,” he says, as if pleasantly surprised. “Here’s to believing.”
The parallels between this specific moment of James’ opening monologue and the story told to me by Strange Scaffold studio head Xalavier Nelson Jr. of the game’s development aren’t lost on me. He’s...
After a surprise announcement earlier this year, Valve surprised players once again by suddenly releasing Counter-Strike 2 as an update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Wednesday after a long beta period. Along with several new gameplay aspects, Counter-Strike 2 brings a few major changes, like weapon refunds and overhauled graphics, to the model that helped its predecessor become one of the most-played Steam games of all time.
Unfortunately for quite a few players, though, the original Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was completely replaced by Counter-Strike 2 (aside from being playable as an offline "demo"), which seems to be missing quite a few beloved features from the original game. Now, players caught off guard are taking...
Spoiler Warning: The following article features minor spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty's fourth main mission: Lucretia My Reflection.
Cyberpunk 2077 players have found a super sneaky reference to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt hidden by CD Projekt inside the Phantom Liberty expansion.
As recorded in IGN's Cyberpunk 2077 Easter Eggs and References Guide, players will encounter a wall-mounted phone in Phantom Liberty's Lucretia My Reflection mission. While this is a one-off encounter where players contact Idris Elba's Solomon Reed for the first time, going back to it and dialling a bunch of different phone numbers will net some interesting results.
Thanks to Cyberpunk 2077 being open-world, players can simply head back to the...