Gaming News

Resident Evil 2, 3 and 7 Getting PS5 and Xbox Series X/S Upgrades

Capcom is bringing Resident Evil 2 Remake, 3 Remake, and 7 to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series later this year, with free upgrades for existing owners. The three games will receive visual enhancements for the new consoles, and those who already own them on PS4 and Xbox One will receive free digital upgrades. Capcom also confirmed that PC versions of the games will receive upgrade patches at the same time as the PS5 and Xbox Series versions are released. Each of the three titles will be updated to include ray tracing, high frame rate, and 3D audio. The PS5 versions will also utilise the DualSense controller's Haptic Feedback and Adaptive Triggers. This means that four out of the eight mainline Resident Evil games will be officially...

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Elden Ring Publisher Raises All Employee Salaries in Japan

Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco has informed its Japanese staff that they will all receive a pay increase from this April. The average monthly salary will be increased by 50,000 yen. Announced to staff on February 28, the publisher said in a press release (translated by IGN Japan) "Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. will increase the ratio of basic salary to annual income from April 2022, with the aim of improving working conditions by stabilizing employee income. We will introduce a new compensation system that raises the basic salary by an average of 50,000 yen per month for all employees. In addition, the starting salary will be raised from the previous 232,000 yen per month to 290,000 yen per month." The press release outlines...

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Of Course Elden Ring is Already Being Played By Twitch Chat

Elden Ring is already being played by a Twitch chat, as players continue to seek the wackiest ways to play developer FromSoftware's latest. Twitch streamer Bruce Greene put his chat to work when he stepped away from his computer in a stream to support charities helping Ukrainian civilians and refugees. The Twitch chat took control of his Elden Ring gameplay as Greene slept (in a tent with a bonfire) by spamming chat-based commands to move forward, back, roll, use items, and so on, in a trend that gained prominence in 2014 with Twitch Plays Pokémon. The results were naturally chaotic, and resulted in death after death, but the chat was eventually able to move around with a bit of consistency. However, don't expect the triumphs of a...

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World of Warcraft: Sylvanas - Exclusive Preview of the Prequel Novel

It's safe to say Sylvanas Windrunner is among the most beloved characters in the vast Warcraft universe, so it's only fitting that she becomes the subject of the latest World of Warcraft tie-in novel. IGN can exclusively debut an excerpt from writer Christie Golden's World of Warcraft: Sylvanas ahead of its March 29 release date. Golden has penned a number of World of Warcraft novels in recent years, including 2009's Arthas: Rise of the Lich King and 2012's Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War. As with Arthas, Sylvanas aims to provide a full account of the titular character's life and death and the cursed existence that now defines her. The book will also lend new insight into her relationship with the being known as the Jailer. This...

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Elden Ring Has an Official Candy, But It's Not for Sale

As Elden Ring continues to prove itself a cultural phenomenon, it's now extended beyond the gaming sphere into the world of candy. Trolli has created its own range of official Elden Ring gummies called Sweet Peachie Elden Rings, though unfortunately they're incredibly limited and not actually for sale. In a tweet, below, Trolli Candy joked: "We have searched The Lands Between with our delicious sour gummi bodies and have found these Sweet Peachie Elden Rings. "For the sake of all the Tarnished, we will devour them with great speed!" Sadly, Trolli made clear to one fan that the Rings are not for sale – and they seem to have been created purely to send to influencers and notable figures in the game industry. Game Awards creator...

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Ghostwire: Tokyo Gets a Free Visual Novel Prequel

Ghostwire: Tokyo – Prelude has been released on PlayStation 4 and 5, a visual novel prequel that focuses on one of the game's main characters, KK, six months before the events of the main game. KK is the voice inside protagonist Akito's head in Ghostwire, but in Prelude he's a normal human detective investigating a series of urban legends come to life. Announced on the PlayStation Blog, Prelude has been designed to give players a taste of Ghostwire's world ahead of the main game's release date of March 25. Scenario writer Takahiro Kaji said: "There’s a different, kind of more relaxed atmosphere in the visual novel. KK is a veteran, accustomed to the situation, working within his realm of expertise and there’s good teamwork with...

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Bungie Warns Of Bans For Trying To Play Destiny 2 On Steam Deck

Destiny 2 cannot currently be played on Steam Deck, and those who attempt to get around restrictions may be banned. In an update to its support page for Destiny 2 to coincide with the Steam Deck's launch, developer Bungie said the game is not supported on Valve's new handheld or any device that uses Proton, Valve's Linux solution for playing Window-compatible games. Destiny 2 can be installed but not launched on Proton, and "players who attempt to bypass incompatibility will be met with a game ban," according to the page. Bungie notes that Destiny 2 could work if "Windows is installed and running", but this is currently not possible on Steam Deck. As we noted in our review in progress of the Steam Deck, Windows can be installed...

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Steam Deck Stick Drift Will Be Fixed in a Patch, Says Valve

Valve has acknowledged early reports of 'stick drift' on Steam Deck, thankfully saying that this is a "deadzone calibration issue" that should be fixed by a new firmware update. Stick drift is an issue that affects many gaming controllers, in which the controller registers left or right stick inputs that are not actually being put in by the player. Reports of stick drift issues on Steam Deck began spreading yesterday, March 1, and many worried that this was a hardware issue, as it appears to be in the likes of Nintendo's Joy-Con controllers. Thankfully, Valve says this is a firmware issue, and a fix has already been applied. In a statement to IGN, a Valve spokesperson wrote: "The team has looked into these reports and has determined...

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What Call of Duty’s Year Off Means for the Series – Unlocked 533

Our Xbox crew digs into the latest bit of big Call of Duty news: that the series will be taking next year off. We discuss what it means for the franchise. Plus: Elden Ring lives up to the hype, the possibility of Xbox Game Pass coming to Steam (and thus the Steam Deck), and more! Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 download of this week's episode. For more awesome content, check out our latest IGN Unfiltered interview, where Joseph Staten – one of Halo's original creators and now the head of creative on Halo Infinite – discusses his fascinating career: Oh, and you can be featured on Unlocked by tweeting us a video Loot Box question! Tweet your question and tag Ryan at @DMC_Ryan...

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Lost Game Award For Celeste Discovered On eBay By Youtuber

The Game Awards is a big celebration for video games that are put on at the end of every single year. Thousands of viewers watch it every year and so video game developers love to have their own games showcased on it. What's even better is if your own game wins an award. Celeste was among the games that won big in 2018, but apparently never received an actual trophy... at least until it was recovered by a Youtuber who happened to be visiting eBay. PrestigeIsKey, or Ryan B., is a Youtuber and streamer. He always wanted a replica of the Game Award trophy, so he scoured eBay for the past five years to see if there were any. He ended up coming across a listing for $500 that contained one. After putting in an offer for $375, the seller...

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Elden Ring Player Defeats Boss Using Ring Fit Controller... On the First Try

FromSoftware fans are on a different level, known for beating games like Dark Souls with banana controllers, Donkey Kong bongos, and more. Naturally, players are already experimenting with unique play styles for Elden Ring, with one fan taking down a boss using Nintendo's Ring Fit Adventure controller. If you're unfamiliar, Ring Fit Adventure is an exercise game on Nintendo Switch that uses a controller called the Ring-Con, which is basically a Pilates ring with a Joy-Con attached to it. It also makes use of a leg strap with the other Joy-Con fitted inside. In Ring Fit Adventure, players use the Ring-Con and leg strap to perform different forms of exercise. Now, SuperLouis64 — the very same streamer who beat Dark Souls with bananas...

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Microsoft Flight Simulator Is Finally Playable on Xbox One

Xbox One players initially missed out on Microsoft Flight Simulator, but last-gen console owners can now access the game on their hardware. Plus, you can experience the wonders of flying anywhere you want without having to commit nearly 100 GB of storage space to install the game. This is because Microsoft Flight Simulator is coming to Xbox Cloud Gaming through Xbox Game Pass. All Game Pass subscribers can now stream Flight Simulator in 1080p/30fps on Xbox One, as well as other devices that support Xbox Cloud Gaming like Series X|S, phones, tablets, and PCs. Microsoft says the multiplayer experience is the same across all devices, meaning you can play with your friends no matter what hardware they are on. Plus, if you already made...

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Songs of Conquest Brings Old-School Might and Magic Vibes to a New Age

We live in an age of throwbacks, nostalgia, and spiritual successors, but it's not too often that I'm as immediately drawn in by one as I have been with Songs of Conquest. Seeking to recapture the heyday of fantasy strategy classics like Heroes of Might and Magic, developer Lavapotion has put together a relatively simple formula that nonetheless has plenty of built-in depth. It's not trying to be overly ambitious or completely reinvent the genre, but that helps to make it a breath of fresh air in a lot of the right ways. There are two layers to Songs of Conquest: a turn-based campaign map where you'll move your hero and their followers around to find secrets, complete quests, and gather resources, and a tactical battle screen where...

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Elden Ring: George R.R. Martin Is Very Happy With the Reviews

Martin published a new blog post saying the reviews for Elden Ring - which have made it one of the best reviewed games in modern history - were "music to the ears". "The wait is over," the legendary author wrote. "Years in the making, ELDEN RING was released last week, and has been taking the gaming world by storm. But don’t listen to me. From Software brought me on to do their worldbuilding, so I can hardly pretend to be objective." Martin went onto point to some examples of almost universally good reviews, and wrote, "And… well, there’s more. Lots more." Miyazaki previously commented that Martin, who was brought on years ago to develop the world and history of Elden Ring, may be shocked by what became of his characters. But...

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Xbox Game Pass in March: Guardians of the Galaxy, Lightning Returns, Kentucky Route Zero, and More

New Xbox Game Pass additions for the first half of March have been announced by Xbox, and the headline game this month is Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. Developed by Square Enix, Guardians of the Galaxy came out quite recently during the tail-end of 2021, and will be available for cloud, console, and PC Game Pass from March 10. If you missed out on the game during the holiday rush, this is a great time to jump in and give it a go. Other games hitting the service this month include Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, Kentucky Route Zero, and much more. See below for even more details. Marvel's Guardian's of the Galaxy is on Xbox Game Pass This Month Guardian's of the Galaxy earned some decent reviews during its launch period...

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GTA Trilogy Gets Its First Patch in Almost 3 Months

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy has gotten its first patch in nearly three months, which seeks to improve the three games' overall stability and visuals. The trilogy launched back in November 2021 with myriad performance issues but developer Rockstar has been quiet on it since December 3, when it released its previous 1.03 update. The latest 1.04 patch, now available on all platforms and affecting all three GTA games in the collection, will also fix an issue where players couldn't retry a mission from the latest checkpoint, and fixes certain collision issues. Rockstar appears to have made good use of the three month wait as the patch notes feature more than 120 separate, detailed updates to GTA: The Trilogy. In Grand Theft Auto III...

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Aussie Deals: Cheap Co-op Must Owns, AAA Q1 Releases and More!

Some of the best gaming experiences you can have are achieved via co-op. Today is all about grabbing a super cheap copy of the best buddy games available (and maybe another one to enable online play). My personal pick: Broforce. Simple, 2D ultra-violence for the whole family! Notable Sales for Nintendo Switch Purchase Cheaply for PC Exciting Offers for XO/XS Product Savings for PS4/PS5 Adam’s our Aussie deals wrangler. You can watch him game on YouTube. Continue reading...

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Far: Changing Tides Review

Bigger isn’t always better. In the case of Far: Changing Tides, a sequel to 2018’s lovely and underappreciated Far: Lone Sails, bigger certainly means more to do and see, but it doesn’t necessarily mean those things are any more interesting. It’s still an absolutely gorgeous and at times almost meditative roadtrip across a world full of stunning vistas and clever puzzles – but developer Okomotive’s efforts to make it a more mechanically varied journey, while successful, also inadvertently tip the balance of the original’s formula from peaceful to tedious at times. Far: Changing Tides puts you in control of an almost comically small person, at least compared to the large sailing vessel they are piloting all on their own. Like its...

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Elden Ring's Game of Thrones Easter Egg Can Be Found Surprisingly Early

When Elden Ring was announced the developers announced it was a creative collaboration between Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki and Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin. While Elden Ring is much closer to previous From Software RPGs than Martin's Game of Thrones, there is still a nice easter egg reference to Martin's famous series-turned-HBO mega-hit. Spoilers for Elden Ring boss and weapon below. George R.R. Martin wrote the lore for Elden Ring which served as the foundation for the game's story. While Elden Ring has no ties to Martin’s other works, the team at From Software did throw in a nice reference to Martin’s most famous work in the form of a weapon called the Grafted Blade Greatsword. This Greatsword is several...

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Why Genshin Impact Dev MiHoYo Is Investing In Fusion Energy

MiHoYo is best-known as the studio behind the absurdly successful Genshin Impact, the free-to-play open world RPG that generates billions of dollars each year. But MiHoYo also has another goal: Science. As reported by Pandaily, MiHoYo is a major investor in Energy Singularity, a startup dedicated to exploring commercialized fusion technology. Founded by a body of experts from the world's top universities, the company was able to raise $63 million in its first round of funding. Other investors include NIO Capital, Sequoia China’s Seed Fund, and BlueRun Ventures. Energy Singularity is working on a tokamak reactor — a device that uses powerful magnets to confine plasma particles in order to achieve fusion. Tokamak reactors have existed...

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Civilization Creator Sid Meier Says Games Shouldn't Focus on Monetization

Sid Meier, the creator of the Civilization franchise, says that video game companies could lose their audiences if they continue to heavily focus on different kinds of monetization tactics such as microtransactions and NFTs. In an interview with BBC, Meier explained, "People can assume that a game is going to be fun and what it needs for success are more cinematics or monetization or whatever - but if the core just is not there with good gameplay, then it won't work." The point is that games need to be fun, first and foremost. Gameplay is critical in order to keep players happy and engaged with the product. Over the years, games have shifted business models and now some rely on microtransactions as well as in-app purchases...

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Shadow Warrior 3 Review

Shadow Warrior 3 doesn’t beat around the bush. In an era where games feel like they keep trying to be bigger, this one is happy not to draw itself out with lengthy dialogue or exposition-filled cutscenes. Instead, it throws you into the action right away and rarely lets a moment of ease set in from there. And while that focus on fun is refreshing, Shadow Warrior 3 is almost completely unremarkable in its execution, being about as straightforward as an FPS can get. It might not offer many new ideas, and its protagonist may be unbearable to listen to, but sometimes solid movement and satisfying weapons is all you really need. Picking up a good while after Shadow Warrior 2, a massive dragon is wreaking havoc across Earth and it’s up to...

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Elden Ring Director Placed Important Restraints on George R.R. Martin's Contributions

With Elden Ring finally out in the wild, eager players are undoubtedly combing every inch of FromSoftware's new fantasy world to find the influences of writer George R. R. Martin. Martin, the author of the Game of Thrones series, was famously brought onto Elden Ring to write the backstory for the in-game universe. But in a new interview with New Yorker, game director Hidetaka Miyazaki revealed that he placed a few key restrictions on what Martin could do. According to Miyazaki, Martin primarily wrote snippets of text about the world's history, its characters, and mythology, including the destruction of the Elden Ring and the subsequent scattering of shards. While this was something we learned previously, Miyazaki further clarified...

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Farthest Frontier Announced from the Developers of Grim Dawn

Crate Entertainment, the developers behind 2016's excellent action-RPG Grim Dawn, has announced its next project: the city-builder Farthest Frontier. It'll be coming to PC, though no release date or window has been revealed yet. Get your first look in the announcement trailer above. You'll hunt, harvest, fish, and farm as you craft items and strategize on the best ways to protect your village dwellers (and later town-goers and city residents as you build up your settlement) from both Mother Nature as well as external threats from other humans. A pacifist mode will be available for those who want to build their town in peace. Farthest Frontier also promises the "most detailed farming system ever," described as such: "Strategically...

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The Long Road to Perfecting Batman in Video Games

We love Batman because he’s a multifaceted superhero. He’s a kung-fu master with a cool costume and an arsenal of fancy toys. He’s a billionaire playboy. He’s arguably the world’s greatest detective. And most of all, he’s an orphan with a mountain of trauma who takes it out on the criminals of Gotham night after night. Plenty of Batman comics, movies and TV shows have explored the many sides of the Caped Crusader, but the video game realm has been a very different story. In fact, it’s only recently that the Batman games have really hit on the ideal Batman formula. Let’s look back at Batman’s long, if not always glamorous, history in games and why it took so long for developers to truly put us in the Dark Knight’s shoes. The Early...

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Valve Is Working on Optimizing Elden Ring for Steam Deck

Valve is taking Elden Ring performance issues into its own hands by working on an update to optimise the game for Steam Deck. Users on PC have reported numerous frame rate issues for which publisher Bandai Namco apologized, but Valve coder Pierre-Loup Griffais posted on Twitter (below) that his team is currently working on a fix that should benefit the game on Steam Deck. Heavy stuttering and frame rate issues will be fixed next week, though a test version of the update is available now. IGN's own test of Elden Ring on Steam Deck showed that, in offline mode, it ran at around 45 frames per second and occasionally dipped below 30. The game is verified to work well on Steam Deck, but that applies to how it interacts with the hardware...

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Elden Ring: Online Maintenance Announced for All Platforms

FromSoftware has announced that online maintenance for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC versions of Elden Ring will be carried out over the next couple of days. As revealed on the Elden Ring Twitter account, maintenance will be carried out across today and tomorrow, depending on your time zone. The timings will vary by platform. For those on PlayStation consoles, severs will be down for maintenance between 6pm and 7pm PT today, February 28. For most other territories this means severs will be down on March 1, between the hours of 2am-3am in the UK, 3am-4am in CET zones, and 1pm-2pm in Australia AEDT. Over on Xbox, the maintenance period will begin today at 7pm PST and last for one hour. Other territories will experience the maintenance...

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How Playground Created Forza Horizon 5’s Groundbreaking Sign Language Support

A few years ago, a London-based teacher of deaf and hard-of-hearing children, Cameron Akitt was brought to Playground Games to participate in a workshop for the in-development Forza Horizon 5. Over two days, he spoke to numerous designers within Playground about his experience playing games with subtitling and captioning in video games. At one point during the workshops, he gave a piece of feedback that he never expected to see implemented. He suggested that Playground could take a step beyond subtitles and captions, and include American Sign Language and British Sign Language as supported languages within their game. “Subtitles and captions are okay,” Akitt says, speaking to IGN. “But if you are a sign language-first language user...

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Gabe Newell Has Apparently Been Hand Delivering Signed Steam Decks in Seattle

Valve boss Gabe Newell is apparently hand delivering Steam Decks around the Seattle area, where the developer is based. Reddit users who preordered the tech have claimed that Newell appeared at their door with a signed Steam Deck, and was even giving them away for free. User bitfiddler0 posted a photo of the case with Newell's signature and the Steam Deck itself, adding that it was free and the highest specs version. A camera crew was also allegedly accompanying Newell, meaning the deliveries could be part of a promotional stunt for the Steam Deck's launch. In a separate post, user SeattleRainPidgeons said he saw Newell delivering a Steam Deck to his neighbour, and when he and his flatmates shouted over to Gabe, he handed them one...

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Elden Ring Just Keeps Getting Bigger on Steam

Elden Ring has already dominated the gaming sphere since it launched on February 25 and, at least on Steam, it's only growing in popularity. Per SteamDB data, Elden Ring has hit record peak concurrent users every day since it was released. More than 764,000 played Elden Ring on February 25, followed by more than 861,000 the next day, and more than 891,000 the day after. Elden Ring's peak concurrent users is 891,638, placing it seventh in the all-time list behind only New World, Cyberpunk 2077, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: GO, Lost Ark, and PUBG: Battlegrounds in first. But it's fast approaching sixth place. Elden Ring is currently just 21,996 peak concurrent users behind New World, meaning if the trend continues and even more people...

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