Gaming News

Creating Overwatch 2’s New Portugal Map, from Tall Towers to Tiny Tarts

Esperança is Overwatch 2’s newest map. Set in Portugal, it pays tribute to the country’s architectural past while also ushering in Overwatch’s future through its streets. As a Push map - the sequel’s tug-of-war-like addition to the menu - it presented the development team with a lot of new challenges to overcome, but equally rewarded them on a professional and personal level. I spoke to Art Director Dion Rogers and Sound Designer Felipe de Mello Pereira to learn more about the design process, but first started with the basics: why Portugal? “We actually have a huge list of places to go when we're working on a game and the team is a pretty international team”, Rogers explains. “ Actually the lead environment artist for Overwatch 2 is a...

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Take-Two Pulls Out of Agreement with Outriders Developer After 2 Years of Development on New Game

Outriders developer People Can Fly has announced that it is parting ways with Take-Two, the publisher of its upcoming game codenamed Project Dagger. In a statement published on its own website, People Can Fly revealed that it has received a letter from Take-Two detailing its “intent to terminate the development and publishing agreement by means of mutual understanding between the parties.” The split will see People Can Fly retain the intellectual property rights to its game, and so it is free to either self-publish Project Dagger or seek a replacement publisher. The developer will, however, still have to pay back Take-Two for the money it provided to fund Project Dagger's costs. The details of this repayment have yet to be...

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Cyberpunk 2077 Quest Director Gets Emotional About Resurgence: 'It's F**king Good to be Back'

Cyberpunk 2077 is seeing a huge resurgence, and the devs are loving it. Speaking to fans on his Twitch channel (via GamesRadar), Cyberpunk 2077 quest director Pawel Sasko explained what it means to see the game being picked up by so many, so long after its original launch. “It’s hard to express, when you're putting so much heart and work into something,” he said. “And you know for some of us it's been six, seven, eight years sometimes, especially for those who started at the very beginning. So, to have this moment, of people liking something that we did, it's really feeling a bit unreal. That finally people are appreciating it.” Cyberpunk 2077 debuted on December 10, 2020, but had a troubled launch, to say the least. A disastrous...

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Aussie Deals: A Haul of Must-own $9 PS Hits, 19 Buck Far Cry 6 and Super Cheap Multi-game Bundles!

When it comes to sensible games shopping, there are two things I seek. Firstly, you should always keep an eye out for "whole shebang" solutions—packs, collections. anthologies, bundles— I don't care what your specific terminology is, just gimme. You also gotta love "hits" ranges that have already been dropped in price, officially, and then they limbo lower due to hyper-competitive price-match wars. Needless to say, I have all of the above for you today. Go nuts while you can. Notable Sales for Nintendo Switch Purchase Cheaply for PC Exciting Offers for XO/XS Product Savings for PS4/PS5 Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays at ludicrous difficulties on YouTube. Continue reading...

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Terra Invicta Early Access Review

I've called games ambitious before, but please believe me when I say that Terra Invicta is one of the wildest, strangest, and biggest ideas I've ever seen a single development team try to take on. All at once it's a grand strategy-scale geopolitics simulator, an alien-invasion battler, and a hard sci-fi solar system industrialization simulator with integrated real-time newtonian-physics-driven fleet combat. But while I got sucked into its world, that fresh mix of ideas suffers from some very conventional strategy game failures in its interface, accessibility, and balance. One part of Terra Invicta is an engaging simulation of a world where secret coalitions manipulate its nations. They fight in the shadows over humanity's response to...

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How Are You Feeling About the Future of Halo?

Though once the talk amongst FPS fans, Halo's popularity over the years has wavered even amongst the most dedicated fans. From its inception, it helped push the FPS genre forward on home consoles and was often considered one of the gold standards for an FPS on consoles. We've seen numerous sequels, prequels, and spin-offs; while some were successful, others were not. Even the most recent release, Halo Infinite, has drawn lots of criticism for its handling of the multiplayer mode and the lack of split-screen, Forge, and online co-op game modes, some of which are still not available nine months after launch. It's no surprise that Halo Infinite hasn't set the world on fire due to these missing features that many expected at launch...

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Netflix Opens Its Own Game Studio in Finland

Netflix has announced that it will be creating an internal game development studio in Helsinki, Finland. The studio will be led by Marko Lastikka, Zynga's vice president, as its director. “This is another step in our vision to build a world-class games studio that will bring a variety of delightful and deeply engaging original games — with no ads and no in-app purchases — to our hundreds of millions of members around the world,” Netflix says in a statement on its website. Netflix explains that Helsinki has some of the best game development talent in the world, and this will be the first studio that it builds from the ground up. The company also has another studio, Next Games, established in Helsinki as well. “It’s still early days...

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How Fortnite is the Antidote to Metaverse Skepticism

Nobody knows what the metaverse is. The term, which has become one of the most popular fundraising idioms deployed in boardrooms across the country, is notoriously enigmatic. Can the metaverse be defined as a social space where gamers hang out? A multiverse partitioned into distinct plots of land, governed by ruthless capital laws? Yet another extension of the questionable NFT gambit? Ask a million game developers, and you'll likely get a million different answers. You could make the argument that we've already been living in the metaverse for decades – after all, I spent much of my youth ambling outside of the Ironforge auction house in World of Warcraft. You could also make the argument that the metaverse is a far-off dream that can...

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UK Daily Deals: £15 Off Xbox Controllers, PS5 Bundles In Stock, and More

Maybe it's time we officially declare the PS5 available in the UK, because you can easily buy one at the moment if you really want to. GAME and ShopTo have now got the PS5 + FIFA 23 bundles available to preorder for £539.99, so go nuts if you want to pick it up. There's also an incredible deal on Xbox controllers right now at Amazon, coming down to just £39.99 for both the black and the white versions of the gamepad. The colour variations are also down to just £43.99 (dropping from £64.99), which is an excellent discount. It's not clear how long this sale will last for, so get your orders in ASAP to make sure you don't miss out. There's also an amazing discount on Pulse 3D Headsets for PS5 at Amazon right now, with the standard...

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Onimusha Anime: Netflix Shares First Look Images

Netflix has announced and revealed five images from an Onimusha anime based on the hit Capcom game series. Revealed in a tweet from Netflix Anime (below), the stills show a handful of characters against a backdrop of Japan's Edo period. The anime is being created with 3D, CGI characters and hand-drawn backgrounds, and the series promises to give new life to the classic game series. No release date was announced but Netflix did reveal the team behind Onimusha's anime. The project is being led by Takashi Miike and Shinya Sugai from Sublimation (the studio that released the Dragon's Dogma anime in 2020) and features Toshihiro Mifune as Musashi Miyamoto. A short plot-synopsis was also released (courtesy of Gematsu), with Netflix...

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Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals Delayed to 2023

Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals has been delayed to 2023 to make it Night School Studio's "best game yet." Night School Studio shared the update on Twitter, saying the delay was, in part, due to wanting to make it "truly special" and "add more localizations." "We owe it to our amazing community to make OXENFREE II: Lost Signals the best game it can possibly be," Night School Studio wrote. "Seeing your fan art, reading your excited comments, and connecting with you fuels our ambition to make this our best game yet. To make OXENFREE II truly special and add more localizations, we're moving our release window to 2023. "Thank you for your patience, support, and understanding. We can't wait to share the game with you. Stay tuned." Oxenfree 2...

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Are Developers or Publishers More Important in How You Choose Games?

Infinity Ward, Fromsoftware, and Insomniac are just a few of the hundreds of development teams out there but they and plenty of other top developers regularly take input from publishers like Activision, Bandai Namco, and Sony during the process to help their games reach the finish line. While some franchises and developers tend to be exclusive to specific publishers, there are a number of them that work across the industry with many different publishers. Call of Duty regularly cycles its developers yearly while FromSoftware has partnered with Sony and Bandai Namco for big successful titles like Bloodborne and Elden Ring. Even Insomniac worked with Xbox Game Studios on Sunset Overdrive before Sony put a ring on it and officially made...

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Beacon Pines Is a Narrative Adventure Where Everything Can Change With a Single Word

In Beacon Pines, the story and decisions made are mapped out on a tree, showing branching paths from single moments that changed the course of the story. For developer Matt Meyer, that was true in real life, too. His path to developing Beacon Pines began with a single, simple, consequential decision made years ago, almost on a whim. “I worked a corporate job for five years or so in Chicago, and sort of just snapped one day,” Meyer says. “It wasn't really the job's fault. It was the traffic. I was in my car an hour and a half every day…I hate traffic so much. So I just snapped one day. I was like, ‘I'm moving,’ and I moved to Austin, and didn't really have a plan.” Sans plan, Meyer was hoping to write music, specifically for games...

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How to Play the Halo Games in Chronological Order

Xbox’s flagship shooter is an intergalactic sci-fi saga with narrative foundations that date back billions of years. Despite that far-reaching history, the actual Halo games largely take place within a single decade during the tail end and aftermath of the Human-Covenant War. The mainline Halo games present a sequential storyline, though several spinoffs complicate the series’ chronology. With that in mind, we’ve created this brief rundown of the Halo timeline as explored in video games. This list includes all mainline Halo games and most spinoffs, including the Halo Wars strategy games and Halo: Spartan top-down shooters. The mixed-reality game Halo Recruit, the arcade game Halo: Fireteam Raven, and the marketing ploy/mobile game...

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What Classic Franchise Would You Like To See Make a Comeback?

Breathing new life into our favorite classic games is often a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the game has familiarity with audiences, so it will already have a fanbase that will be excited to see it make a return. Still, there is always the risk that the updated version won't live up to the memories we have of the original. Successful or not, year after year, we see more and more developers attempt to breathe life into an older franchise in the hopes of returning it to its previous glory days. Recently we've witnessed Chrono Cross, Destroy All Humans, Alan Wake, and plenty of others make a resurgence thanks to remasters. We also know that there are plenty more on the way as this trend doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon...

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Destiny 2: Where Is Xur Today? Location and Exotic Items for September 23-27

The swine of The Nine, Xûr, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week's reset. If you're looking to get your 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...

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Arkane Director Pitched Thief 4, a Blade Runner Game, and a Game Inspired By Michael Mann's Heat

Harvey Smith is best known for his work on Arkane's Dishonored series, but he's now revealed a trio of games he pitched that never entered development. Speaking to NME, Smith said he at one point pitched a Blade Runner game, a fourth entry in the Thief series, and an immersive sim inspired by the 1995 crime drama Heat. Smith is obviously a fan of the immersive sim genre, which is a staple part of most Arkane games. So it's no surprise that the games the designer pitched largely fall under that umbrella. The Thief series is one of the defining examples of the immersive sim genre, and it did eventually get a fourth entry with 2014's Thief developed by Eidos-Montreal. While the interview didn't share many details about the Blade...

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Company of Heroes 3: How to Master Tactical Pause - IGN First

For ages, real-time strategy has been a genre where the number of things you can physically do per second has a major impact on how effectively you can play. And while there's something to be said for that, Company of Heroes 3 is trying to expand the appeal of its tactical gameplay to those who would rather sit back and think through every move carefully, perhaps with a glass of whiskey in one hand and a mouse in the other. Tactical pause, as they call it, isn't any less harrowing of an experience for your soldiers who are being sent to charge a machine gun emplacement. But it is a much less chaotic and, dare I say, more luxurious experience for a commander. Pausing a single-player mission in Company of Heroes 3 will bring up an...

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Solium Infernum Is a 'Reimagining' of a 2009 Strategy Cult Classic

Solium Infernum was a literally hellish multiplayer strategy game that became a cult classic in 2009 – and League of Geeks aims to bring it back next year in a reimagined form. Announced as part of EGX, the new Solium Infernum takes the fundamentals of the indie original – a grand strategy game about warring, conniving archfiends in Hell – but builds in 3D visuals, more defined heroes (well, villains), adds accessibility and UI improvements, and more. The game is being described as a "reimagining", rather than a remake or remaster. In a hands-off demo, League of Geeks co-founder Trent Kusters tells me that his team are huge fans of the original game (going so far as to say the studio's debut, Armello was inspired in part by it), and...

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IGN UK Podcast #663: Professor Layton and the Sludge-Guts of Doom

Descend into the slimy heart of the IGN UK podcast this week, as Joe is confusingly repulsed by Scorn, Matt and Cardy have conflicting feelings on the new Monkey Island, and everyone really likes Andor. We also have a special little tease for a live show we hope to be putting on in the not-too-distant future... IGN UK Podcast #663: Professor Layton and the Sludge-Guts of Doom Got a game for us to play or some feedback you'd like read out on the show? Why not email us: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com. IGN UK Podcast #662: So Many Streams IGN UK Podcast #661: House of the Rings of Power IGN UK Podcast #660: Bat Family Ties IGN UK Podcast #659: Live from a Cologne Roof at Midnight IGN UK Podcast #658: Better Call She-Hulk Continue reading...

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Mortal Kombat Co-Creator Explains How He Came Up With the Iconic Logo

Mortal Kombat's co-creator has explained how he came up with the game's iconic logo – and how it almost got trashed for looking like a seahorse. On Twitter, John Tobias unveiled the original hand-drawn logo he created for the first Mortal Kombat game… and delved into its background. “Here’s a recently discovered image of the very first drawing of #MortalKombat’s dragon icon,” he revealed. “I designed the icon as both a symbol of our game and its fictional tournament.” Tobias’ original pencil drawing was digitized by both Tobias himself and Mortal Kombat artist John Vogel, who traced over the digitized image with pixels. Why a dragon? Well, Tobias explained that was all because of the game’s original name. “The inspiration to use a...

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Aussie Deals: GTA V and Red Dead 2 Drop to $24, Skyrim Anniversary and FIFA 22 for 19 Bucks Each!

Thank your own personal deity—possibly The Sustainer of Heavenly Principles—it's Friday! I'm going to assume you've called in sick and are already living the four-day-weekend dream. Such a vast amount of free time requires games, which is where today's bargains come in. Until next we meet, stay safe, save often and see you Monday. Notable Sales for Nintendo Switch Purchase Cheaply for PC Exciting Offers for XO/XS Product Savings for PS4/PS5 Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays at ludicrous difficulties on YouTube. Continue reading...

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Multiplayer Review in Progress - Beta Impressions

Ah, Call of Duty – one of my favorite signs of autumn. Just as mornings are broken by the sound of Canadian geese migrating to warmer climates, the tranquility of my living room is interrupted each fall by the coming of the Call of Duty beta period. Modern Warfare II (no, the new one, you're thinking of Modern Warfare 2) is the latest arrival – the 19th mainline game, if you’re keeping score – and it brings with it a return to a modern setting after last year's… return to World War 2. Much like another fall favorite that returns each year, the pumpkin spice latte, Call of Duty is familiar, reliable, and doesn't have any real surprises in store. In other words, it's nice to have it back, but outside of the obvious visual differences...

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Steam Revamps Stats Into Charts With Better Overview of Most Popular Games

In an industry notorious for being wildly secretive around how well its own products do, we love some real good, crunchy data. And with an overhaul to Steam Stats today, Valve is giving us exactly that. It's called Steam Charts now, replacing Steam Stats, and like the old version, it still shows off the most popular games on the platform. But unlike Stats, Charts has the tools to drill down into what's making that popularity happen. For context, the old Stats page mostly focused on top games by player count from moment to moment, with Valve regularly providing separate best-seller lists by genre and other factors. Charts puts all this in one spot. The main page shows the top-selling games on Steam right now, as well as the...

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Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Hands-On Preview: A Soulslike With Speed

Thirty minutes after I started playing, my impressions could be summed up with one word: "hard." I've finished most of Team Ninja's recent games like the Nioh series and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, but I couldn't help but be astounded by this title's difficulty when I first picked it up. Let me state right here, though, that while this isn't a simple game, you'll instantly be drawn in by the dizzying high-speed action on display once you get used to how it works. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty adds new systems to its masocore base to create impressive Chinese martial arts-themed combat. While the game had me wailing and groaning at first, by the time I was three hours in, my brain was pumping out so much dopamine that I...

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Four Weeks After Being Fixed, Dark Souls 3's PC Servers Are Down Again

Dark Souls 3's PC servers are back offline despite being restored by FromSoftware just four weeks ago. The Dark Souls Twitter account announced the news (below), saying that the Steam servers were down once again. No explanation of what the issue is or how long it will be an issue were given, but the developer did say it was actively investigating and trying to solve the problem. "At this time, there is a confirmed issue with Dark Souls 3 online play via the Steam platform," FromSoftware said. "We are investigating the source of the problem and will inform you as soon as more details become available." Fans were also thanked for their patience but, given the regularity of online problems encountered in the Dark Souls series, it's...

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What Do Games Actually Look Like During Development?

Video games are hard to make. You might have heard that somewhere before. Most people recognize that video games do not simply burst, fully-QA'd, from eggs laid carefully by an executive who then adjusts his T-shirt and blazer and steps onstage at E3 to announce their triumphant existence. But depending on how Extremely Online you are, you might not really have a good concept of exactly what they look like before they show up on your platform of choice, or even before we see them in shiny reveal trailers. That's one small part of what's made the discussion around the Grand Theft Auto 6 leaks so tricky to navigate. Everyone has a different perspective on how much your average gamer knows about what in-development games look like, or...

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Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth Remaster Delayed to December

Square Enix announced that it has delayed the release of the Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth remaster to December 22. It will no longer launch alongside the release of Valkyrie Elysium on PlayStation. “As we celebrate the upcoming launch of Valkyrie Elysium, we, unfortunately, need a bit more time for Valkryie Profile: Lenneth to improve the quality of the title and have decided to move the release date to December 22, 2022,” Square Enix says on Twitter. The remaster is a bonus for those who pre-ordered the Valkyrie Elysium Digital Deluxe Edition on PlayStation 4 and 5. It’s being ported from the PlayStation Portable version and includes new quality of life features such as rewind, quick save, and visual preset functionality. In Japan...

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Is the GTA 6 Leak Gaming’s Biggest Theft Ever?

This past weekend Rockstar was the victim of an unprecedented leak: 90 videos of in-development Grand Theft Auto 6 gameplay were published online after a hacker “illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from [Rockstar’s] systems,” according to the company. The leak already sits among the most consequential in gaming history for several reasons, chief among them the value of the targeted project: Grand Theft Auto 6 is the follow-up to the most profitable entertainment release of all time. For many, the leak is a fun, unexpected peek at one of the most anticipated video games of all time. To Rockstar, Take-Two, and their investors, however, the hack and subsequent leak are unexpected, potentially expensive roadblocks...

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Company of Heroes 3: North Africa Campaign Mission Hands-On – IGN First

North Africa in Company of Heroes 3 isn't just a different campaign structure and a sandy color palette. Compared to Italy, where the might of the US and British forces keep your offensive churning along, the Deutsch Afrika Korps often has to make a big difference with smaller, undersupplied forces and whatever they can find lying around – sometimes literally. In this brand new exclusive mission, Desert Route Raid, we went hands-on to see the kinds of challenges the dunes can throw your way. Running Out of Time This scenario, which takes place some time after the pivotal Battle of Tobruk, opens with Erwin Rommel detailing a high risk, high reward opportunity to hit British fuel supplies. There's no base building in this one. And worse...

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