Gaming News

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Starfield's first companion character has been revealed – VASCO is a robot, who looks to be a loader droid of some kind. Revealed in a new developer video, head of Bethesda Game Studios Todd Howard said, "No matter what story we write, the one the players tell themselves is the one they think about and love the most – and the companions." We then saw what seems to be an in-game shot of VASCO, a very practical looking robot who greets viewers by saying, "Hello, Captain. How may I be of assistance?" VASCO is presumably named after Portugese explorer Vasco da Gama, given that Bethesda is aiming for "grounded exploration" in a more realistic universe, and describes its game as NASA-Punk. The developers continued by explaining how...
A new Starfield developer video has revealed a ton of new concept art for the upcoming space RPG. Revealed as part of Episode 2 of the Into the Starfield series, the concept art shows new locations, enemies, and more – some of which was more specifically explained by the devs themselves. You can check out all the new art below: During the video, we find out that some of the art represents specific locations based on Starfield's major factions. We see the sleek, sun-dappled ships and locations home to the United Colonies space republic: There's also the home of the Freestar Collective, which offers more of a "space western" approach. We previously found out this location is the Collective's capital, called Akila – although the...
Private Division announced four new publishing partnerships today, adding to a group of developers that includes the studios behind Kerbal Space Program and OlliOlli World. They include Yellow Brick Games, the Quebec-based studio founded in part by Mike Laidlaw, who is best-known for his work on the Dragon Age series. Private Division also signed agreements with Piccolo Studio, the Barcelona-based outfit behind Arise; Evening Star, which is working on a "fully original 3D action platformer," and Die Gute Fabrik, which most recently produced Mutazione. The new agreements mark Private Division's steady evolution from an indie publisher into what it hopes will be something of a prestige label. According to Vice President of Marketing...
Elden Ring is off to an incredibly strong start as it has already sold 12 million copies worldwide since its February 25 release date. FromSoftware and Bandai Namco shared the news in a press release, stating that Elden Ring has sold more than one million copies in Japan alone and 12 million copies worldwide as of March 14, 2022. These sales are "derived from distribution figures of the package version and sales figures of the downloadable versions." "It's astonishing to see just how many people have been playing Elden Ring," FromSoftware President and CEO/director Hidetaka Miyazaki said. "I'd like to extend our heartfelt thanks on behalf of the entire development team. Elden Ring is based on a mythological story written by George...
If you've somehow done the unthinkable—bought a Switch and not Breath of the Wild, too—today''s the day to rectify your mistake. It's also a super good time to lay claim to your copy of Ghostwire:Tokyo, a $3 Tomb Raider and a God of War for 9 bucks. These deals and more await you below! 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...
In another blow to an already uncertain summer events season, IGN can reveal that EA will not be hosting its traditional EA Play event this year. Instead, the publishing giant will be revealing more about its projects "when the time is right for each of them." An EA representative shared the following the statement with IGN: EA has traditionally hosted a press conference or broadcast in tandem with June's E3 event. Beginning in 2016, EA turned the press conference into a live event called EA Play where fans could try the publisher's upcoming lineup of games. Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic forced EA to shift to a streaming format. While live events are beginning to return, the summer schedule remains uncertain due to E3 2022...
Tencent has been on a spree of acquiring or investing in gaming studios over the past few years. Now, the Chinese tech giant has become the majority shareholder of the Spanish studio, Tequila Works. The developer is known for games such as Rime, Gylt, The Sexy Brutale, and the upcoming Son of Nunu: A League of Legends Story. In a statement, Tequila Works CEO Raul Rubio said, "For 12 years, the teams at Tequila Works have passionately crafted high-quality titles that radiated our personal sensibilities. But there’s a limit to how much you can grow by yourself." Rubio says Tencent is a "partner that can appreciate the value of top creative talent with originality as their banner. One that respects our independence and creative freedom...
Players unable to migrate their GTA Online characters to next-gen consoles are now able to. Rockstar announced on Twitter (below) that save migration is now working as intended just a few hours after it acknowledged the issue. Early during the launch period users playing on the newly released PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series versions of GTA V were unable to transfer their characters from previous generation consoles if they'd already done so to PC. This issue has now been resolved. The PS5 and Xbox Series versions include much faster loading times, new graphics modes, and a number of other performance upgrades including "increased population and traffic variety, increased vegetation density, improved lighting quality across shadows...
Monster Hunter Rise's Sunbreak Expansion officially has a release date of June 30, 2022, on Switch and PC via Steam. Series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto announced a slew of new details about the expansion during today's Monster Hunter digital event. A new trailer showed off the new story, the new outpost hub, new monsters to hunt, and new abilities to gain after completing the base game. Check out the trailer above. The digital-only version of Sunbreak will cost you $39.99, while a Deluxe Edition will cost $49.99, but comes with layered armor sets, hairstyles, and gestures. Those who want a physical copy can spring for a limited Collector's Edition for $99.99, which comes with a digital voucher for the Deluxe Edition, a steelbook case...
The announcement of Exoprimal last week saw Capcom formally return to the world of human vs. dinosaur combat for the first time since 2003 – but many fans of the long-dormant Dino Crisis series haven't reacted well to the new game. Dino Crisis first appeared in 1999, combining the survival horror spirit of Resident Evil with a dinosaur breakout storyline drawn from the likes of Jurassic Park. It hasn't seen a new entry since 2003, but retained a cult following over the intervening years. When last week's Sony State of Play showed a Capcom game featuring dinosaur combat and a redheaded character with a resemblance to Dino Crisis' lead, Regina, many thought the wait was over. But that hope was dashed when it was revealed to be a...
Microsoft has announced that DirectStorage has finally arrived on Windows. The tech, previously used in Xbox Series X consoles, means PC games that support it will not only have more expansive and detailed in-game worlds but will have faster load times as well. If you are unfamiliar with DirectStorage, it is an I/O system that was introduced in the Xbox Series X. DirectStorage is designed to use hardware compression and fast solid state drives (SSDs) to improve load times and reduce the CPU's workload, allowing the processor to focus on demanding elements such as physics or adding more NPCs. Back in 2020 – a couple of months before the Xbox Series X launch Microsoft promised to bring this critical piece of tech to PCs. As detailed...
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands will have multiple options for co-op, including local split-screen and full cross-play online. For local splot-screen, up to four players can play locally on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series consoles, while PS4 and Xbox One are capped at two. Players can also choose between vertical or horizontal split-screen orientation. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands can also be played online with up to four players, across all available systems. Players on Xbox, PlayStation and PC can all play together through the Epic Games Store and Gearbox's SHiFT Matchmaking. All versions of co-op will also offer two gameplay options for determening how loot drops and enemies scale during multiplayer. The inclusion of PlayStation cross-play is...
Horizon Forbidden West sees franchise hero Aloy take on a mysterious new threat, learn more about her modern world and the once-modern world that lies in ruin, and find both new friends and foes as she travels throughout the Forbidden West. It's a captivating story as IGN's Horizon Forbidden West review noted, and one that simultaneously answers lingering mysteries of the Horizon universe and opens up potential paths for the future, all while telling deep, character-driven stories. And if you're wondering how some of its biggest moments came together, IGN spoke with Guerrilla Narrative Director Ben McCaw and Senior Writer Annie Kitain to break down some of Horizon Forbidden West's biggest story moments in our latest spoilercast...
Elden Ring is Europe's best-selling new gaming IP since Ubisoft's The Division in 2016. Revealed in the latest GSD data, as reported by gamesindustry.biz, Elden Ring is also the biggest game overall to launch in Europe since 2021's Call of Duty: Vanguard, meaning it outsold the likes of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, Halo: Infinite, and Horizon: Forbidden West. The GSD data also included a breakdown of formats, showing that 44% of European Elden Ring copies were sold on PC, followed by 27% on PlayStation 5, 16% on Xbox, and 13% on PS4. Elden Ring continues its world domination as last week it became the United States' best selling game of 2022 so far, and was only outsold by Call of Duty: Vanguard in the previous 12...
A new report suggests that Microsoft's The Initiative, the studio developing a reboot of Perfect Dark, has suffered significant staff departures over the past 12 months. Staff are apparently leaving the company due to "a lack of creative autonomy and slow development progress." The report from VGC is complied from interviews with unnamed ex-Initiative employees and analysis of the studio's structure. It notes that around 34 people have quit within the last year, including much of the senior design team. Game director Dan Neuburger appears to have left the team this year, and previous departures include design director Drew Murray, lead level designer Chris O’Neill, principal world builder Jolyon Myers, and several more from the core...
Devolver Digital co-founder Mike Wilson is beginning to make a habit of turning career disillusionment into hope. He’s been candid in the past about how the fall of his first major endeavor, Gamecock Media Group, was a good thing — its efforts to humorously lampoon the industry were more bully than benevolent. But its demise led to the founding of Devolver Digital, keeping the good-natured snark while redefining indie relationships with publishers. Wilson also co-founded Good Shepherd Entertainment in a further effort to push back against what he saw as harmful practices in indie publishing, and joined the board of gaming mental health charity Take This. And he’s done numerous speaking engagements on the importance of good mental...
Today, Steam is very much the place to be if you're a fan of JRPGs. Meanwhile, some insane discounts on a handful of AAA Switch games continues from yesterday. Lastly, it's also proving to be a logical time to score tech (think: Logitech stuff). All those deals and more await you below! 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...
One of the key features of the new-gen consoles like PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X is the faster loading times, and this key benefit is coming to Grand Theft Auto 5 when it’s re-released on the newest systems. According to tests we ran here at IGN, Grand Theft Auto 5 loads lightning fast on the PlayStation 5, especially compared to the PlayStation 4 version. Replay Mission take around 5 seconds to load, nearly 75% faster than on the PS4. Particularly striking is how fast autosaves load on the PS5 versus the PS4. On Sony’s newest console, GTA 5 loads save files at around 20 seconds while it takes over two minutes to load the same file on PS4. Check out the load time comparison below for the full results of our tests. Alongside...
Intel announced today that it will be hosting a digital broadcast later this month focusing on its first-generation Arc series graphics cards. The broadcast will air on Wednesday, March 30 at 8am PT / 11am ET and will provide viewers with a "first look" at Intel's new discrete graphics for laptops. While the company has announced intentions to release its Arc GPUs in laptops, desktops, and workstations, the company's upcoming broadcast will focus solely on the laptops. Earlier this year, the company announced that its Arc series would arrive first on laptops with a Q1 release window, with the Arc series arriving on desktops and workstations to follow in Q2 and Q3, respectively. Intel, which has previously been known for its laptop...
While we won't be getting a brand new Matrix video game any time soon, you'll be able to feel like you are playing one. A fan-made mod for Sifu has appeared online, where players can fight as Neo from The Matrix Reloaded. Over at Nexus Mods, a user named Halfmillz has created a skin mod that replaces the player with Mr. Anderson, otherwise known as Neo, from The Matrix Reloaded. In this mod, Neo is wearing The One's famous outfit, complete with realistic cloth physics. This particular mod replaces the male player character. Additionally, the mod pack also reskins all enemies to look like the Matrix franchise's main antagonist, Agent Smith. There is also a shade mod that makes the game have the signature Matrix green hue, as well as...
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been almost universally condemned by the international community. Sanctions from around the world mount by the day, the Kremlin's financial system has been utterly ostracized by global financial institutions, and the Biden administration recently unveiled a fresh, axis-tipping embargo on Russian energy imports. These are unprecedented efforts, and they haven't been limited to the crucible of Capitol Hill. In fact, video game and entertainment companies, many of which often remain apolitical in their messaging, have either halted sales or service in Russia or made changes to their offerings around the world. Microsoft has suspended all new sales of products and services in Russia in accordance with the...
Microsoft and Twitch are once again teaming up for a new ID@Xbox Showcase with /twitchgaming that looks to highlight some of the most exciting indie games from developers all around the world. From Tunic to Trek to Yomi to other surprises, there should be plenty to look forward to. IGN is carrying the stream and as usual, this watch guide will provide you with everything you need to know to watch the show, including when it starts, a list of places you can watch it with us, and what you can expect to see at the show. ID@Xbox and /twitchgaming Indie Showcase March 2022 Date and Start Time The newest ID@Xbox Showcase with /twitchgaming will take place on March 16, 2022. The stream is scheduled to start at 10am PT/1pm ET/5pm GMT. If...
Whether because of its simple but iconic style, or because it marked the moment that Sonic the Hedgehog truly exploded in popularity, Sonic 2's original boxart remains lodged in gaming's collective consciousness even today, 30 years after its original release. Apparently aware of this, the upcoming Sonic 2 movie has released yet another poster, this one aimed at squarely at fans who still have fond memories of the beloved sequel. Voice actor Ben Schwartz, who will reprise his role as Sonic in the upcoming film, shared the new poster on Twitter. The poster is a clear homage to the original boxart, with Jim Carrey's Dr. Robotnik grinning over a giant number denoting the sequel. The tagline — "Welcome to the Next Level" — is a...
An infamous hacker is invading Elden Ring players and soft-banning them for sport. Malcolm Reynolds, who's been hacking FromSoftware games since Dark Souls 3, invades worlds before killing players with hacked, practically undefeatable spells. The overwhelming power isn't the issue though. As Kotaku reports, these spells also add "illegal" items into the defending player's inventory that were only intended to be used in the development process. When the defeated player comes back to life, Elden Ring detects they have these illegal items and soft-bans them, meaning they can only play online with other cheaters going forward. Reynolds said he's forcing players into digital exile to make a point to FromSoftware. Telling Kotaku that he...
Riot Games, the creator of League of Legends, has bought a "significant, non-controlling stake" in the animation studio behind Netflix's Arcane. Riot Games has strengthened its longtime partnership with Fortiche Production, the studio handling animation duties for Arcane, through a new equity investment that will see the League of Legends developer and publisher taking a "non-controlling stake and board advisory role" in the company, following a recent collaboration on the hit Netflix series. Under the terms of the investment, which closed earlier this year, the board advisory roles at Fortiche will be headed up by Riot's Director of Corporate Development, Brendan Mulligan, and Riot's Chief Content Officer, Brian Wright. Wright is a...
Despite speculation, System Shock co-creator Warren Spector – and his studio Otherside Entertainment – hasn't been working on System Shock 3 since 2019. While Otherside announced that the long-awaited sequel's development had transferred over to Tencent in 2020, it was unclear at the time whether Otherside would remain involved in the project in some respect. However, speaking to GamesBeat, Spector confirmed that Otherside is totally divorced from the project and Tencent is now its only developer."There’s not much more to say at this point," he said. "Tencent is taking the franchise forward. It’ll be up to them to say what they want to say. There’s not much clarification I can give you." Spector made clear that Otherside only...
Hogwarts Legacy, the upcoming open world game set in the world of Harry Potter, will get a PlayStation State of Play broadcast this Thursday, March 17. The broadcast will include "an extended first look at gameplay", and begins at 2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern / 9pm UK (that's March 18 at 8am AEDT). It will be shown on PLayStation's Twitch and YouTube channels. The show will run for around 20 minutes, 14 minutes of which will be made up of gameplay captured on PS5. The rest of the show will be made up of "insight from a few members of the team at Avalanche Software who are bringing the Wizarding World to life." After being leaked in 2018 and announced in 2020, the game was delayed to 2022. Since that delay, we've heard very little...
Publisher Kepler Interactive and A44, the developers of the well-received 2018 action-RPG Ashen, have announced their next project: Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. It is an open-world action-RPG due out later this year for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC (on both Steam and Epic Games Store). It will launch straight into Xbox Game Pass as well. You'll combine guns and magic in Flintlock's combat, along with an AI-controlled magic-canine companion (who you can get a look at in the cinematic reveal trailer at the top of this page), in order to vanquish the undead hordes that threaten humanity. As A44 describes the story, "The door to the Afterlife has been opened, allowing the old god’s army of the undead to escape from...
When there’s something strange in the Shibuya neighborhood, who you gonna call? Nope, not those guys. I’m talking about Akito and his supernatural sidekick KK, the superpowered ghostbusting buddies that share the same body like Eddie Brock and a considerably less hostile version of Venom. I recently had hands-on with the first four hours of Ghostwire: Tokyo, in which I got to step into Akito’s shoes and explore a large chunk of its Tokyo-inspired open world, sniff out several spooky side missions, and indulge in numerous showdowns with its malevolent mobs of spectral assailants. It was an eerie and consistently engaging outing, and one that left me intrigued as to what other surprises lie waiting in its rain-slicked city streets. If...
Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin appears to have hidden his initials across Elden Ring's world, by way of many of its characters. The game's opening cutscene introduces one of Elden Ring's gods, Queen Marika, and players eventually meet her various relatives and offspring. Spoiler warning: This story going forward contains several names and relationships of Elden Ring characters from deep into the game. But the main four, as noted by PC Gamer, are Godfrey, Rennala, Radagon, and Marika. Their initials combine into G.R.R.M, not unlike George Raymond Richard Martin. In fact, all of Elden Ring's gods and demigods have names beginning with these three letters: Godfrey, Godwyn, Godrick, Rennala, Radagon, Radahn, Rykard, Ranni...