Gaming News

Baldur’s Gate 3 Used ‘Intimacy Co-Ordinators’ to Help Actors Feel Comfortable During Romantic Scenes

Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian employed specially trained intimacy co-ordinators to make sure actors felt comfortable during romantic scenes. In an interview with the BBC, actors Jennifer English and Devora Wilde, who play half-elf cleric Shadowheart and githyanki warrior Lae'zel respectively, praised Larian for employing the intimacy co-ordinators. "I never felt 'yuck' in a recording session at all,” said English. “And I've got quite a low 'yuck' threshold.” While intimacy co-ordinators are now commonly used in film and TV productions, Larian said it reckons it’s one of the first studios to use them during the development of a traditional video game. While 2022’s Immortality used an intimacy coordinator, that game is more an...

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Diablo 4 Season 1 Battle Pass Doesn’t Include Enough Currency to Buy Anything From the Store - or the Next Battle Pass

Diablo 4 players have heavily criticised the Season 1 battle pass, accusing developer Blizzard of not including enough virtual currency. The $10 battle pass, which launched last week, dishes out 666 Platinum in total upon completion, a figure in-keeping with Diablo’s hellish setting and a nice marketing gimmick, but not enough to afford a single item from the in-game store, where the cheapest cosmetic costs 800 Platinum. Unlike some other live service games, the Diablo 4 battle pass doesn’t even include enough virtual currency to afford the next battle pass, expected to cost 1,000 Platinum. Games like Call of Duty include a battle pass that essentially pays for itself in virtual currency. Those battle passes dish out enough COD...

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Final Fantasy 7 Remake Plot Hole Explained as Aerith Having Memories of Future Events

Square Enix has finally explained the logic behind what many fans consider to be a plot hole in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, justifying it through Aerith having vague memories of future events. Final Fantasy 7 Remake's protagonist Cloud likes to keep to himself, so when he meets Aerith and she already knows he's an ex-SOLDIER (a specific military group) and now a mercenary, there's no obvious way for her to know that. It's been a hotly-contested moment for years, with players' strongest theory being that a friend of Aerith called Zack was also a SOLDIER, so she'd recognise the look, but many others still didn't buy it. Square Enix has finally weighed in through a tweet translated by Siliconera, and spoilers for both versions of Final...

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Remnant 2 Shoots to the Top of Steam’s Best-Sellers List Ahead of Launch

Remnant 2 has shot to the top of Steam’s best-sellers list ahead of its launch later today, July 25. Gunfire Games’ well-received looter-shooter soulslike currently tops Steam’s best-sellers list, which is ordered by revenue. Remnant 2 is currently beating big-hitting rivals such as Valve’s own Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3 (which enjoyed a Steam chart surge of its own after a bear sex reveal), and Bethesda’s Starfield. While the first Remnant did well enough to justify a sequel, it’s clear Remnant 2 has attracted a much larger audience across PC and console. IGN’s Remnant 2 review returned a 9/10: “Where Remnant: From The Ashes was a strong first draft, Remnant 2 is a revolutionary sequel and a sterling...

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The Hottest Ultimate Winter Sales Picks, a Steam Stealth Fest, and More!

If you're like me, getting up to swap a disc is far too big a pain. That's precious energy, which could be expended on actually playing a game or reaching for another Tiny Teddy or Iced VoVo. This being the case, I've scoured the digital stores for the best discounts on downloadable goods. Nothing but the finest, er...softest wares from the PlayStation Store "75% off Winter Sale" and the "50% off Ultimate Sale" on Microsoft's Store. Oh, and Steam's Stealth Fest is also worth sneaking into. This Day in Gaming Aussie birthdays for notable games and hardware - Magic Sword (ARC) 1990. - Mario’s Picross (GB) 1995. - Painkiller (XB) 2006. Get - Dynasty Warriors 8 (PS3,X360) 2013. - Shadowrun Returns (PC) 2013. Table of Contents...

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Kingdom Hearts Fans Changing Twitter Bios En Masse to Organization XIII Members After 'X' Rebrand

Elon Musk's affinity for the letter 'X' is shared by least one Kingdom Hearts character: Master Xehanort, the overarching villain of Square Enix's popular trilogy and the leader of the Real Organization XIII. The connection has led to Kingdom Hearts fans changing their profile pics en masse to those of the hooded Nobodies of Organization XIII. It's just one in the massive wave of memes as fandoms across the board poke fun at Musk's strange decision to do away with one of the world's iconic brands. It seemingly began with a user named Letryx who urged Kingdom Hearts fans to change their bio pic, writing, "KH fans, it's time to rise up." The trend quickly caught on among Kingdom Hearts fans on the platform, many of whom posted scenes...

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Ubisoft Clarifies That It Won't Delete Game Libraries Due to Game Inactivity After Fan Panic

Over the weekend, fans of Ubisoft games underwent a minor panic as a rumor spread that Ubisoft might be spontaneously deleting inactive Ubisoft accounts, permanently destroying digital game libraries if users aren't logging on often enough. However, Ubisoft has now clarified that this is false, and users' digital game libraries are safe, even if their accounts are inactive. The rumors were kicked off when a tweet circulated showing an email entitled "Ubisoft Account Closure Due to Inactivity." The email instructed that the recipient's Ubisoft account had been temporarily suspended, and would be closed permanently in 30 days unless the closure was canceled by the account owner. The email was then confirmed to be legitimate by the...

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Starfield Fan Thinks They've Worked Out the Entire Skill Tree

One dedicated Starfield fan thinks they've uncovered the upcoming Bethesda RPG's entire skill tree after spending 200 hours piecing together different gameplay clips, trailers, and other game snippets. As reported by GamesRadar, asd8dhd on Reddit has listed each individual skill that's identifiable by different elements of gameplay or developer commentary and put them together to create what they believe is the complete skill tree. This includes things like the Equilibrium skill, which can be upgraded twice, pulled from zero gravity gameplay and a developer talking about how firing weapons in zero gravity will have different effects. Then there's the martial arts skill, evidenced by gameplay showing the player locked in hand-to-hand...

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Amnesia Developer Frictional Games Cutting Back on Horror

Amnesia: The Bunker developer Frictional Games is looking to cut back on horror games "to give greater focus on other emotional qualities". Speaking to 80.lv, Frictional creative director Thomas Grip echoed the sentiments of fellow horror studio Bloober Team, which also recently said it was stepping away from the games it was traditionally known for. "While all of our games have been horror in some way, what we really try to do is to get a kind of playable immersion," Grip said. "We want to give the player some sort of immersive fantasy, be that being a [World War 1] soldier trapped in a bunker or a robot stuck at the bottom of the ocean. "Horror games naturally are where emotions are front and centre. Games really excel at this...

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Tencent Buys Dying Light Developer Techland

Tencent announced it's buying Polish developer Techland, the studio behind the original Dead Island and the Dying Light series. In a blog post, Techland CEO Pawel Marchewka announced that Tencent "is currently in the process" of becoming the studio's majority shareholder. "Teaming up with Tencent will allow us to move full speed ahead with the execution of the vision for our games," Marchewka explained. "We have chosen an ally who has already partnered with some of the world's finest video game companies and helped them reach new heights while respecting their ways of doing things." Marchewka insisted that even though Tencent will own the studio, Techland will retain full ownership of its intellectual properties, maintain creative...

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0’s Laser Cats Spark Realism Debate

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0 are meant to be realistic, right? On the face of it, that’s what the hugely popular Activision shooters are, with campaign missions that ape historical military operations and an army-obsessed aesthetic that recreates real-world weapons and vehicles in video game form. Enter Call of Duty’s latest cosmetic concoction, dubbed “laser cats!”. Here’s redditor exileonwoodct with a clip of it in action. The laser cat is actually a combination of two $20 cosmetics: the Sgt. Pspsps Operator skin included in the Whisker Tango bundle, which costs 2,400 COD Points or around $20, and the Homelander skin from The Boys Homelander Operator bundle, which also costs 2,400 COD Points. The Homelander...

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Starfield's Pickpocketing Will Make Things Way More Intense by Playing Out in Real-Time

Players who enjoy stripping Bethesda NPCs (often literally) of everything they're worth won't have such an easy time of it in Starfield as pickpocketing will happen in real-time. Space thieves will have an extra level of intensity when picking the pockets of poor NPCs as, unlike in previous Bethesda games like Skyrim or Fallout 4, time won't pause while doing so in Starfield. A Reddit post from OkPain2022 shared a sliver of Starfield gameplay previously gone unnoticed that shows the player creeping around behind an unsuspecting guard as they pull items from their person. Players no longer have all the time in the world to weigh up the odds of taking items (which are presented alongside a percentage chance of alerting the NPC)...

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Time Bandit Is Anti-Capitalist, Dark Animal Crossing Bathed in Retro Metal Gear Aesthetic

I have deleted my save file in Time Bandit and started a new game three times now. I keep messing up and missing a very, very important appointment with a strange figure in scuba gear who wants to meet in secret. Fourth time’s the charm - I wake up early and make my appointment. Finally, I can get back to work. Developer Joel Jordon pitched me on covering Time Bandit for this column months ago, based on my known love for a similarly real-time game, The Longing. Time Bandit exists within the same very small genre of games that take place in real-time, but which also are not endless in the way that Animal Crossing or certain mobile games are - it’s a story that plays out, minute-by-minute, as you go. You play as a worker in a factory...

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Blizzard Promises Diablo 4 Fix for Heavily-Criticised Season 1 Menu Screen After Some Accidentally Activate Premium Battle Pass

Diablo 4 developer Blizzard has promised a fix for a user interface issue that is causing some players to accidentally activate the premium battle pass. Streamer Rurikhan took to Twitter to post a clip showing how he inadvertently activated the 1,000 Platinum (£8.39 / $9.99) Season 1 premium battle pass on Diablo 4's battle pass menu screen. Not only is the 'Activate Premium Battle Pass' button close to the button used to check your Season Journey, but the cursor defaults to the 'Activate Premium Battle Pass' button on this screen. Rurikhan explained he was saving his battle pass unlock, obtained by buying either the Digital Deluxe or Ultimate Editions of Diablo 4, for a future season “since I don't have time to commit to this one”...

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48 Hours of Diablo 4 Play Down the Drain as Disconnect Kills Season 1 Hardcore Rogue Seven Levels From 100

A Diablo 4 player saw over 40 hours of game time go to waste after his new Season 1 Hardcore character died after a disconnect. Diablo 4 YouTuber and streamer Wudijo, widely considered one of the best Diablo players in the world, saw his level 93 Hardcore Rogue die after a disconnect seconds away from the completion of an event in a Nightmare Dungeon, and just seven levels away from reaching the 100 level cap. The entire event was captured in a Twitch livestream. Hardcore mode adds permadeath to Diablo 4, which means if you die, your character is gone forever. Diablo 4’s first two months of life have been punctuated by the death of Hardcore characters following disconnect, adding fuel to the fire of complaints about Blizzard’s...

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Greatly Reduced GOTYs, Fighting Game Prices Piledriven, and More!

Another week, another chance to save serious amounts on the games worth buying. Today the theme seems to be violence — fighting game prices everywhere are getting [upper]cut to size. I'd also like to flag the first decent discount on Aliens: Dark Descent. It's got my pick as the sleeper hit of 2023. Absolutely nails the intensity of James Cameron's Aliens. In historical news, it's been 32 years to the day since Aussies first met the blue dude with the 'tude. Yep, Sonic the Hedgehog spindashed to stardom on CRTs everywhere. This prompted much critical acclaim and the first major conversations about gaming / light-induced seizures. Chalk that up to too much 'blast processing' or simply Sega doing what Nintendidn't, I guess. This Day in...

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Tekken 8’s Katsuhiro Harada Calls Player Reaction So Far ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ | Comic Con 2023

At San Diego Comic-Con 2023, we had the chance to chat with Tekken 8 director Katsuhiro Harada and producer Michael Murray and learn the latest details on the much-anticipated next entry of the legendary fighting franchise. During the interview, we touched on a wide variety of topics, including how the team is dealing with player feedback, how that feedback is making them a bit nervous as it's been "overwhelmingly positive," who the best-dressed fighter in the Tekken universe is, which move would hurt the most in real life, and much more. Tekken 8 currently has no release date, but a PlayStation 5-only closed network test is currently taking place through today, July 24, and all platforms (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC) will have one...

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Star Wars Outlaws May Have a Cooking System Based on Cryptic Tease From Director

Have you always wanted to know what people cook and eat in a galaxy far, far away? Well, it sounds like Star Wars Outlaws may give players the chance to discover that for themselves, according to a cryptic tease from Ubisoft Massive creative director Julian Gerighty. In a panel covering the game today at San Diego Comic-Con, Gerighty participated in a discussion regarding details of Tatooine and the new location the team created, the moon Toshara. After chatting about speeders and geographic aesthetics, Gerighty concluded the panel with a tease of two potential surprises one might encounter on Toshara: "There are a couple surprises I don’t want to spoil," he said. "There is a particular predator on Toshara that is mind-blowingly...

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J.K. Simmons Will Reprise His Invincible Role as Omni-Man in Mortal Kombat 1

After confirming earlier this weekend at San Diego Comic-Con that Invincible's Omni-Man would be headed to Mortal Kombat 1 alongside Homelander and Peacemaker, we've also just learned that J.K. Simmons will be voicing the role, having already popularized it in the Amazon Prime animated series. This comes from an interview on the Comic-Con show floor during which Netherrealm's Ed Boon revealed that Simmons had been recording the voiceover for Omni-Man. "It's as authentic as it can be," Boon said. Simmons has been beloved across film, TV, and even video games for some time. He's perhaps best known for playing J. Jonah Jameson across multiple Spider-Man instances including Sam Raimi's trilogy, Far From Home and No Way Home, Across the...

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Comedy Shooter High on Life Surprise-Launches on PS4 and PS5

Talking gun comedy shooter High on Life has launched on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 after seven months’ of console exclusivity on Xbox. Developer Squanch Games made the surprise announcement during San Diego Comic-Con 2023. “The fans have spoken. And spoken. And spoken,” said studio director Mike Fridley. “We’ve been thrilled with High On Life’s reception since it launched in December. Our PlayStation fans have been slightly less thrilled, which is why we’re so excited to share that it’s coming their way very soon. Like now soon! Thank you for your patience!” IGN gave High on Life 8/10 in its review: “High on Life is a laugh-out-loud funny space odyssey that’s chaotic, bizarre, and a ton of fun,” we said. It was a smash hit, and...

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You Can Work for and Even Betray Jabba the Hutt in Star Wars Outlaws

Developers from Ubisoft Massive and their compatriots over at LucasFilm shared a number of new details today with IGN at San Diego Comic-Con regarding Star Wars: Outlaws and the two locations revealed for the game thus far: the new moon Toshara, and Tatooine. Including, yes, that you can both work for and betray (if you want) Jabba the Hutt. Speaking to IGN, director Julian Gerighty says that Toshara is inspired by the eastern African savannah, and was specifically designed with heroine Kay Vess' speeder (which yes, is at least somewhat customizable) in mind, with lots of wide, open plains. The team even visited Tanzania for inspiration. "We start off with a biome, in this case, southeast African biomes as an inspiration, and then...

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Mortal Kombat 1 Interview: NetherRealm Explains Why it Chose Homelander, Peacemaker, Omni-Man

At San Diego Comic-Con 2023, we were able to sit down with NetherRealm Studios' Ed Boon, Thiago Gomes, and Dominic Cianciolo, along with voice actors Kelly Hu and Yuri Lowenthal, to discuss Mortal Kombat 1. Hu and Lowenthal discussed a bit about their characters and the changes made to them as the next installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise serves as a reboot for the series. The interview follows a big reveal that happened during the Mortal Kombat panel that took place yesterday, which revealed that Homelander, Peacemaker, Omni-Man, along with returning Mortal Kombat characters Quan Chi, Ermac, and Takeda will be available in the first Kombat Pack. Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon explains why the studio chose Homelander...

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Hideo Kojima Is Teasing Something Death Stranding-Related on Twitter

Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima seems to be teasing something very Death Stranding-related on his Twitter account, which may be related either to Death Stranding 2, or to the upcoming Death Stranding film adaptation. In a tweet posted last night, Kojima shared multiple photos of what appear to be a motion capture (mocap) stage with an actor moving around several large prop boulders. The stage is surrounded by what looks like an enormous LED wall similar to what was used to film The Mandalorian, except this one has what is clearly a Death Stranding background. On it, we can see snowy mountains, multiple BTs in the distance, a small campsite with multiple tents, and a completely unknown new figure looming large on the left-hand...

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NetherRealm Studios Explains How Next-Gen Consoles Enhance Small Details in Mortal Kombat 1

NetherRealm Studios appeared at San Diego Comic-Con to discuss its upcoming game Mortal Kombat 1, including how PlayStation and Xbox's next-gen consoles help enhance the small details found in the game. During the panel, Thiago Gomes, the art development director at NetherRealm Studios, elaborated on how the ninth generation of home gaming consoles allows the studio to show more little details and interactions in the costumes and levels. "With the new consoles, we have a lot more power to show a lot more little interactions, including the little robot that comes in and cleans up all the blood," Gomes said. Little details, such as the stitches on Li Mei's costume, are also noticeable, thanks to the power of the new consoles. Gomes...

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Mortal Kombat 1: Homelander, Peacemaker, and Li Mei and More Confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con

After numerous leaks and rumors, Netherrealm Studios has finally confirmed that Homelander and Peacemaker will be coming to Mortal Kombat 1 as special guest characters. They're joined by Omni-Man, the Image Comics hero created by Robert Kirkman who also stars in Invincible, and Mortal Kombat mainstays Li Mei, Tanya, and Baraka. Netherrealm Studios revealed Mortal Kombat 1's new roster additions during its San Diego Comic-Con panel, which featured several members of the development team alongside series director Ed Boon. Homelander and Peacemaker are ready for Kombat Homelander and Peacemaker are the most notable additions to Mortal Kombat 1's roster. They are part of an established tradition of guest characters that has previously...

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BitSummit 2023's 10 Most Impressive Games

With its debut in 2013, this year indie game festival BitSummit celebrates a full decade of operation in Kyoto, Japan. That first show, a one-day invite-only event, bears little resemblance to the spectacle that BitSummit has become, one that filled the first floor of the Miyako Messe convention center and drew thousands of paying visitors. As a longtime resident of nearby Osaka, I look forward to BitSummit each year for my chance to play new games and meet new developers in my proverbial neighborhood, an event that still maintains its independent spirit even as it seems poised to outgrow its primary venue. I saw so many exciting and unusual projects in Kyoto this past weekend that it was a genuine challenge to whittle my list down to...

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Blizzard Admits It Messed Up With Diablo 4’s Disastrous Nerf Patch, Announces Upcoming Sweeping Changes

Blizzard has addressed the backlash to Diablo 4’s controversial nerf patch, promising a new patch to revert many of the changes it made. In a livestream, associate game director Joe Piepiora, game director Joe Shely, and community chief Adam Fletcher discussed the thinking behind the 1.1.0 patch that sparked uproar within the Diablo 4 community for drastically reducing player power. “It’s not the greatest play experience for players out there,” Fletcher said. “We don’t plan on doing a patch like this ever again. We hear you loud and clear.” “We know that reducing player power is never a good experience,” Joe Piepiora added. “Sometimes we just don’t get it quite right.” Patch 1.1.1 is expected within the next two weeks, perhaps...

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BattleBit Remastered Early Access Review

2010 was an important year for the multiplayer first-person shooter genre. And, if you were like me, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 likely remained the top game on your Steam playlist for the duration of that year. It’s a safe bet that the developers behind BattleBit Remastered were right there with me. Take Bad Company 2’s commitment to class balance, open-ended and highly destructible map design, and delightfully over-the-top squad-based shootouts, put all of that into a Minecraft-like world where everything is made out of blocks, and what you get is this crazy game. It’s still in early access, and it could certainly use some fine-tuning. But if you’re into the flavor of multiplayer chaos wherein everything explodes like you’re in the...

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Destiny 2: Where Is Xur Today? Location and Exotic Items for July 21-25

The talking grab bag, Xûr, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week's reset. If you're looking to get you 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's location can be found at The...

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World of Warcraft Players Trick AI Website Into Covering Fictional Update Known Only as 'Glorbo'

The World of Warcraft community is jubilant after brazenly tricking an AI-generated games news website into publishing an article covering a fictitious upcoming feature, known simply as ‘Glorbo’. The spread of AI-generated news has been a subject of controversy and debate in recent years, and has seen certain websites dispatch bots to scrape information from the underbelly of the internet and use it to mould simplistic articles. Having seen similar tactics used to extract info from the World of Warcraft community, Reddit user kaefer_kriegerin created a post entitled ‘I’m so excited they finally introduced Glorbo!!!’ in which they gave an impassioned account of a fictitious feature coming to the game. The vigilante’s goal was to...

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