Gaming News

Xbox Changing How It Handles Renewals for Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold in the UK

Xbox is changing how it handles automatic renewals for both Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold subscriptions in the UK, after the government got involved. It's not clear if those changes will be made in other regions. The changes by Microsoft were revealed as part of a report (spotted by Eurogamer) following an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into the video game sector that highlighted a number of concerns about Microsoft's online gaming services. According to the CMA, the concerns related to Microsoft were particularly focused on the company's auto-renewal processes and revolved around several key factors - whether or not the company was clear upfront that its subscription contracts would renew, how easy it...

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Uncharted Devs Seem to Want to Make Another Sequel: 'It's a World We Want to See More Of'

Uncharted creative director Shaun Escayg has hinted that developers at Naughty Dog would like to make another sequel in the blockbuster series, saying that it's a "world we want to see more of." As part of an interview with GamesRadar, Escayg offered fans a slight hope that perhaps there could be more to come from the Uncharted franchise when speaking about his thoughts on the topic. "I think we can say for certain that we can never say never. Yeah. Uncharted is a franchise we love – that the studio loves. I love, and [Uncharted: The Lost Legacy director Kurt Margenau] loves. It's a world we want to see more of. So I can certainly say that," explained Escayg. While the creative director didn't share any studio secrets, and...

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Star Wars 1313: New Footage of the Canceled Game Shows Boba Fett in Action

New footage has been released from the canceled Star Wars: 1313 project that shows off Boba Fett in action. It's another tantalising glimpse at a much-anticipated game that never came to be. The gameplay, which was uploaded to YouTube by Battlefront 3 archive channel The Vault in celebration of the game history project's sixth anniversary, shows off two clips depicting Boba Fett in action. The first, and shorter of the two segments, shows off Fett walking through the crowded alleyways and bars of Coruscant before the action quickly cuts away to the second sequence, which instead depicts the bounty hunter as he attempts to track down a target across an array of rooftops. The gameplay detailed in the second clip shows off a far more...

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Aussie Deals: Catch Pokémon Arceus, Dying Light 2 and Horizon Forbidden West for Way Less!

If you're keen for a trip to the Sinnoh region, allow me to provide you the cheapest ticket possibe. I've also got discount holiday packages for a forbidden destination that's due West of here (out on the horizon somewhere). Last but not least, I can aid the more adrenaline inclined with a cheap run through the infested streets of The City (location: Europe-ish). 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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The Book of Boba Fett's Darksaber Explained: The History of the Mandalorian Lightsaber

Warning: this article contains major spoilers for The Mandalorian: Season 2 and The Book of Boba Fett: Episode 5! The Mandalorian Season 1 introduced a weapon with a major legacy in the Star Wars universe. The Darksaber returned in the hands of Moff Gideon in the Season 1 finale, with Season 2 subsequently introducing one of the Darksaber's previous owners in the form of Katee Sackhoff's Bo-Katan Kryze. And with the Darksaber now in the hands of Mando himself following the Mandalorian Season 2 finale, it's safe to say this blade will continue to play a big part in the series and spinoffs like The Book of Boba Fett. If you're confused as to why everyone seems so fixated on a black lightsaber, fear not. Here's everything you need to...

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Uncharted's PS5 Debut Is Beautiful and Still a Blast - Beyond 733

On this week's episode of IGN's PlayStation show, Podcast Beyond!, host Jonathon Dornbush is joined by Mark Medina and Jada Griffin to discuss Uncharted's PS5 debut with the Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection, and a host of news in the world of PlayStation. First, we break down the PlayStation Plus lineup for February, which brings three games to players who subscribe to PS Plus: UFC 4, Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, and Planet Coaster: Console Edition. We dig into our thoughts on PS Plus, how Sony's alleged upcoming Game Pass-like subscription service might affect it, and more. Then, we follow up on the discussion around Call of Duty's future on PlayStation, with a new report from Bloomberg about how PlayStation fans can...

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Minecraft Tournament Cyberattack Cripples a Small Country's Internet

More than a decade after its original release, Minecraft continues to be massive — so massive that it apparently has the power to take down an entire country's internet. Last weekend, a major Minecraft tournament endured a cyberattack significant enough to disrupt the internet in Andorra, a small country in Europe bordered by France and Spain. The population only numbers around 77,000, roughly the capacity of an NFL football stadium. NetBlocks, an internet outage tracker, says the disruption was caused by a cyberattack targeting the Minecraft competition, which led directly to the elimination of Team Andorra. The competition featured 150 contestants competing in events from Squid Game, including well-known streamers. As you can see...

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Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection Performance Review

Nathan Drake is back once again with his first PlayStation 5 adventure, bringing Chloe and friends along for an updated and upgraded dual package of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and the spinoff Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Offering enhancements and some huge performance leaps over the globetrotting thief’s PS4 & PS4 Pro release. But is a treasure worth fighting for? This new remaster offers a few paths to play, with existing disc or digital owners of the PS4 version of either included game being able to upgrade for $10s, euros, or great British pounds to this new pack. Or you can make a full purchase if you’re new to the Uncharted fold, and even PC players will get a release later this year. As we have seen in previous remasters from...

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Steam Deck Gets an Official Release Date, First Units to Ship in February

Steam Deck will go on sale starting on February 25, with the first batch of handhelds set to ship on February 28. In a blog post, Steam says customers will begin getting invites “shortly after 10 am PT” on February 25 and will have 3 days, or 72 hours, from the receipt of their order email to make their purchase. If a person doesn't make an order at this time, the person next in the queue will get the chance to place an order. Valve says it is hoping to send emails for orders out in batches weekly. Order emails will be sent out in the same order as the reservations, and Valve will only let you order the Steam Deck model that you originally reserved. The initial reservation deposit will also be applied to the final price of the...

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PlayStation Reveals February PS Plus Games

Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep leads the way for February's PlayStation Plus lineup. Announced on the PlayStation Blog, February's free games for PS Plus subscribers include Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep and EA Sports UFC 4 for PS4 players, and Planet Coaster Console Edition for PS5 owners. Fans looking forward to Tiny Tina's Wonderlands in March will want to check out Assault on Dragon Keep. While the upcoming game is a full-fledged adventure taking place in Borderlands' Dungeons & Dragons-inspired counterpart, players first got their taste of the Wonderlands back in 2013, with a Borderlands 2 DLC starring Tiny Tina. Now, that DLC has been rereleased as a standalone package so players can get a taste of battling skeletons...

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Every Game Delay Announced in 2022 (So Far)

Video game delays have become commonplace during the pandemic — we tallied 60 delays in 2021 alone — as studios largely continue to work within the confines of remote or hybrid development. This dramatic shift in the way games are made may remain the norm throughout 2022, and as such, we're once again expecting to see a significant number of games delayed. To keep track of these ever-shifting release dates and to keep you up on when to expect your most-anticipated games, we've created a running list of every such announcement: full games, notable DLC, and every piece of gaming hardware officially delayed this year. Click through the gallery below or continue scrolling for the full list of every game delay announced in 2022 (so far)...

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No Man's Sky Studio's Lost Early Games Return

No Man's Sky studio Hello Games has announced that it's surprise-released remasters of its debut Joe Danger games on Apple devices. Before it gained notoriety for making No Man's Sky, Hello Games cut its teeth with Joe Danger - a sidescrolling mobile series. Now, ahead of the character's tenth birthday, Hello Games has revealed that both Joe Danger and Joe Danger Infinity have been remastered for iOS15 and are available as of today from the App Store. The remasters see a number of enhancements over their predecessors. Improved graphics, a new engine, and upped framerates are present in both titles, while Joe Danger Infinity will also gain the added benefit of gamepad and ProMotion support for those who are interested. To cap off the...

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Kao the Kangaroo (2022) Announced

Kao the Kangaroo, the mascot platformer first seen two decades ago on the Sega Dreamcast and Game Boy Advance, is returning for a reboot on all major platforms (PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X) this summer. Watch the announcement trailer above and click through a half-dozen new screenshots in the gallery below. Punchy kangaroo Kao will again navigate colorful worlds clad in boxing gloves that can be imbued with various abilities. Coin-collecting is a must, of course, and the developers at Tate Multimedia also promise challenging combat along with "unique boss battles." Naturally, it's a family-friendly game that Tate says will have an engaging story. Check out IGN's review of the Sega Dreamcast...

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Crysis 4 Is Coming

Crysis 4 is on its way, with developer Crytek putting out a teaser trailer following a leak on Chinese social media. The game is still early in development and "will be a while yet". Announced under the simple headline of 'A Crytek Announcement', the teaser shows a number of images, from an unstable sun to a collapsing building, before ending with a large number 4 and the tagline "Join the journey. become the hero." No official title, release date, platforms, or game details have been announced at time of writing. Update: Crytek CEO Avni Yerli has confirmed that the fourth Crysis game is "in the early stages of development so it will be a while yet." Yerli added: "We wanted to bring you the news at this time as we are so hyped for...

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New Knights of the Old Republic Switch Patch Fixes Its Giant Text

A new Knights of the Old Republic patch for Nintendo Switch has fixed the game's giant and rather obnoxious text boxes. Per a press release, the game's latest Nintendo Switch update will fix a number of issues - including its oversized combat message boxes that have frustrated fans since the game's launch last year. For those unaware of the issue, it would present problems for fans during turn-based combat sequences in the classic action-RPG. When in fights, players would see almost a quarter of their screen filled with a massive text box, which was mostly blank space. KOTOR developer Aspyr noted on Twitter last month that it was set to fix the issue during an upcoming patch. While that might be the most notable change from the...

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Black Myth: Wukong - Comedy Trailer Shows Off Purposely Glitchy Gameplay and Lots of Cats

Much anticipated action-RPG Black Myth: Wukong has released a 13-minute new trailer – but don't expect much in the way of new information, as it's a short comedy film featuring some silly gameplay and a lot of cats in a motion capture studio. Released to celebrate Chinese New Year, and the start of the Year of the Tiger, developer Game Science has released 'An Alternate Reality of Game Science', in which we see developers discussing the difficulties of using cats for motion capture, and then revealing an extremely broken boss battle based on that work. Eventually, we see the Game Science office shut down and then reopened as a restaurant. The joke seems to be that Game Science actually did try using motion capture for cats at one...

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Our Dream Xbox-Activision Collabs + Who Should Xbox Buy Next? – Unlocked 528

We can't stop thinking about last week's landmark Xbox acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, so on this week's podcast, we're talking about A) Who Microsoft might strategically target for acquisition next, and B) our dream Xbox-Bethesda-Activision-Blizzard project collaborations and IP revivals. Plus: Respawn announces THREE new Star Wars games, and more! Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our new 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...

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Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker 6.08 Patch Adds New Oceania Data Center, Class Buffs

Final Fantasy 14’s Patch 6.08 is now live. Along with a bevy of balance updates for a lot of classes, the Oceania data servers are finally up-and-running. The 6.08 patch tackles two big points among the community, class balances and server congestion. The latter is tackled by the opening of a brand new Data Center in Oceania that will first help players of the region, and redistribute the players to servers closer to home. Oceania Data Center - Materia Initially, Final Fantasy 14 had three Data Centers, one in Japan, North America, and Europe. This meant that players in Australia, New Zealand, and other regions across the Pacific, were forced to play on a far-off data center which can impact latency. For a long time, players in...

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Call of Duty: Activision Reportedly Wants To Release Next Three Games On PlayStation Despite Xbox Acquisition

Although Activision Blizzard is soon set to become an Xbox company, the future of Call of Duty isn’t exclusive just yet. According to a new report, the next few annual Call of Duty releases are still set to be released on PlayStation. Bloomberg says that before Xbox announced its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the Call of Duty company had already committed to making the next few Call of Duty games available across all platforms, including PlayStation. According to Jason Schreier, this includes Call of Duty 2022, Call of Duty 2023, and Warzone 2 also planned for 2023. After these, however, the future of Call of Duty outside of Xbox and Windows platforms is less clear. Xbox boss Phil Spencer tweeted last week that in...

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Resident Evil 4 HD Fan Project Eight Years In the Making Finally Has a Release Date

A Resident Evil 4 HD remaster eight years in the making finally has a release date. The fan project, which is being developed by just two people, will rebuild Resident Evil 4 from the ground up. Based on the 2014 Ultimate HD version, each texture has essentially been scaled up 8-16 times the original resolution and redrawn from there. A brand new trailer detailing the features of the 1.0 version has been released. According to it, this project has improved lighting effects and contains thousands of 3D model revisions with restored visuals. In some cases, the creators have been able to find the original source materials used, allowing the team to faithfully recreate the original texture at a much higher resolution. The project's...

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Blizzard Is Hiring For an Unannounced Survival Game Set in a Brand New Universe

Blizzard has announced it is working on a new, AAA survival game for PC and console set in a brand new universe. And Blizzard is hiring to help make it happen. In a new blog post announcing the job openings, Blizzard says its new survival game will be “A place full of heroes we have yet to meet, stories yet to be told, and adventures yet to be lived. A vast realm of possibility, waiting to be explored.” Blizzard is hiring across multiple departments including art, design, and engineering. Among the open positions are jobs for Environment Artist, Senior Character Artist, Senior Concept Artist, Level Designer, and Software Engineers for Engine, Audio, Server, and Tools. Alongside the job listings are two pieces of artwork, one of...

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Best CPU for Gaming 2022

It's not unusual to begin the search for a great gaming processor for a high-end gaming PC after finding the best graphics cards. It’s not totally unreasonable to prioritize the GPU, as that component ultimately determines which quality settings and resolution you’ll be able to run your games at. But, you can't throw all your time and money into choosing your GPU only to skimp on a CPU. After all, your processor is arguably as important as it dictates how well the rest of your gaming PC runs, and a CPU that's too weak can bottleneck your system, preventing your GPU from even running at its full capacity. The processor isn’t just known as the ‘central processing unit’ for kicks, it’s in charge of how quickly your whole computer...

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Ex-StarCraft and Warcraft Devs Raise $25 Million to Make an Unreal Engine 5 RTS

Frost Giant Studios, a debut developer formed by ex-Blizzard staff, has raised $25 million to help create a brand new real-time strategy game in Unreal Engine 5. Frost Giant – which was founded by Tom Morten (production director on StarCraft 2) and Tim Campbell (lead campaign designer on WarCraft 3: The Frozen Throne) – was founded in 2020 with the goal of creating an "epic" real-time strategy game. It's latest round of funding brought in $25 million from the likes of Korean publisher Kakao Games (PUBG), Riot Games (League of Legends), and more. In total, Frost Giant has raised $34.7 million for its debut project, and the game is now set to be formally announced later this year. Speaking to IGN, CEO Tim Morten explained the several...

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Gord, a New Dark-Fantasy Strategy Game from a Former Witcher 3 Producer, Gets New CG Trailer

Publisher Team17 and developer Covenant, a group of two dozen veteran developers headed by former producer on The Witcher 3 Stan Just, have just released a new cinematic story trailer for Gord, their upcoming dark-fantasy strategy game for PC. See the new trailer above and the original announcement trailer – which got over a million views on IGN's YouTube channel – below. Gord is inspired by Slavic folklore and will incorporate city-building elements similar to Frostpunk, and with a sanity system for NPCs that may make you think of Eternal Darkness back on the Nintendo Gamecube. "Players will have to complete quests to grow the tribe’s settlements (known as ‘gords’) and fortify these from invaders while managing a populace whose...

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German Physicist Makes GTA 5 Playable on Game Boy Using Streaming

A German physicist has found a way to make Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 5 playable on a 1989 Nintendo Game Boy through the use of a custom-built streaming cartridge. As spotted by GamesRadar, Sebastian Staacks, a physicist and drummer from Germany, has managed to play GTA V on a Game Boy by using a WiFi cartridge to stream the game. As explained by Staacks on YouTube, the game itself doesn't run on the Game Boy itself, that would be practically impossible: "I am playing GTA 5 on the Game Boy," says Staacks in the video. "But it's not running on the Game Boy. The game is rendered on my PlayStation and then streamed to the Game Boy via WiFi. Conversely, if I press a button on the Game Boy, the input is sent back to the PlayStation so I...

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Respawn Working On Three New Star Wars Games, Including Jedi: Fallen Order Sequel

EA is far from finished with the Star Wars universe. The publisher is working on three new Star Wars games, all of which are being overseen in one form or another by developer Respawn Entertainment. The games comprise a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, an FPS, and a strategy game. The new game in the Star Wars: Jedi series – which was confirmed to be the start of a franchise shortly after its 2019 release – will once again be directed by Stig Asmussen, who led development of the first game as well as God of War 3. The Jedi: Fallen Order sequel will be joined by two additional games set in the Star Wars universe, both of them as yet untitled. One will be a first-person shooter led by Peter Hirschmann, who previously served as...

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Valve Details Steam Deck's Quick Resume-Like Dynamic Cloud Sync

Steam Deck creator Valve has revealed that the console will include a quick-resume like Dynamic Cloud Sync system, which will make it easier for players to switch between devices as they wish. As detailed in a blog post on the developer's website, Valve says that the Steam Deck's Dynamic Cloud Sync will allow players to "seamlessly move between Deck and PC instances of the game without needing to worry about exiting the game on the Steam Deck." The developer says that it has included the feature on the console as it anticipates that users will want to frequently suspend their gameplay sessions without exiting the game. The closest comparison to this in terms of a handheld perhaps comes with the Nintendo Switch, which allows players...

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Aussie Deals: Scary Good Prices on Horror Classics, Nintendo Switch Essentials and More!

When times are tough, you need a little perspective as to how bad things could really get. Case in point: the deals I've found on the next-next-level pandemics going on in Days Gone and The Last of Us Part II. Likewise, we have the spooky antics of Amnesia, Outlast and (in my opinion the pinnacle of pants soiling) Alien Isolation. Buy them all cheap now ... chicken out and not be able to finish them later. 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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World of Warcraft on Console Feels Closer Than Ever Before

I watched Duke Nukem Forever emerge from its tomb, dripping with amniotic fluid, after an unprecedented 15- year development cycle. I can go play the long-gestating S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and its many spinoffs and expansions, right now on my Steam account. Final Fantasy XV finally left the assembly line at Square Enix, same with Persona 5 at Atlus, and I still go watch the Beyond Good & Evil 2 E3 trailer when I need a lift. (I'm holding out hope, Ubisoft. Always and forever.) But for my money, the greatest remaining white whale in gaming was first speculated about on Blizzard forums in 2004, right as we were getting our feet wet in the arcadia of Azeroth: "Man, do you think they'll ever port World of Warcraft to consoles?" Those hopes never...

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Elden Ring Has Been Designed to Reduce Player Stress - Without Reducing Enemy Difficulty

A new gameplay overview of Elden Ring has revealed FromSoftware's focus on making sure players aren't overly stressed while playing the game – but seemingly without reducing the difficulty you'd expect from Souls game enemies. Speaking during Taipei Game Show, producer Yasuhiro Kitao repeatedly explained how elements of the game had been tooled to reduce player stress – in effect making the game difficult in the right places, but gentler in how you reach them. "With the game's world being so large, that can produce real depth and breadth of enjoyment, but it can also lead to unnecessary stress for some players," explained Kitao. "The dev team has been very careful to avoid that where possible." Interviewer Misuzu Araki replied...

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