Gaming News

Elden Ring: Here's What Comes in Each Edition

Elden Ring is set to release for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC on February 25, 2022. Anyone who buys the PS4 or Xbox One version will get a free next-gen upgrade as well, which is always nice to see. Elden Ring is the next game from the makers of tough-but-satisfying action RPGs like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The game comes in a standard edition as well as a cool-looking collector's edition, and it's available for preorder now. Read on to see what comes in each edition and where you can lock in your Elden Ring preorder. Elden Ring Collector's Edition PS5 Get it at Best Buy - $189.99 Get it at GameStop - $189.99 Get it at Target - $189.99 Get it at Amazon UK - £179.99 PS4 Get it at Best...

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Elden Ring: FromSoftware Reveals 15 Minutes Of Gameplay

FromSoftware has released 15 minutes of new gameplay footage from Elden Ring, the studio's highly anticipated next game. The new gameplay can currently be watched over on YouTube and Twitch. The gameplay is comprised of multiple segments, each looking at Elden Ring's many fundamentals. While looking much like Dark Souls in many ways, there are clearly many differences in the way Elden Rings plays. The open world provides a somewhat Skyrim-like atmosphere, something particularly heightened when a dragon descends on the player character out of nowhere. The gameplay reveals that Elden Ring's bonfire alternative are known as a Site of Grace, and project rays of guiding light that can be used to find new areas. The open world nature of...

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Get 3-Months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $38 in this Early Black Friday Deal

Black Friday is fast approaching, but that doesn't mean we can't experience a few early deals before the big day. Right now at Amazon you can get 3-Months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $37.99 (was $44.99) in its early Black Friday sales (see here). This is a deal of epic proportions, as this code will stack on top of your current Game Pass membership, extending it for 3-months at the reduced cost. You can do this multiple times as well, continiously stacking the discount. Black Friday 2021: 15% Off Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at Amazon This is perfect time to jump into Xbox Game Pass at the moment, with the likes of Forza Horizon 5 launching on November 9 (which we gave a 10/10 in our review), GTA San Andreas on November 11, and It...

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Sony Is Reportedly Investing in Devolver Digital

Sony is reportedly investing in Devolver Digital, the indie publisher behind the likes of Hotline Miami, Inscryption, and Death’s Door. According to a report from GamesIndustry.biz, Sony is set to make a 5% investment in the company. This follows the announcement that Devolver Digital has been valued at $950 million after being floated on AIM, a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange. The GamesIndustry.biz report notes that the European law firm that advised Devolver, Fieldfisher, noted that the company has received a “significant strategy investment from a key industry player.” The report then states that such a key industry player is apparently Sony Interactive Entertainment. Devolver Digital has two headquarters; one in Austin...

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Forza Horizon 5 Review

As Forza Horizon 5 crosses the finish line, the bar for open-world racing has again been raised in so many different ways. A map of Mexico that’s bigger, higher, and wildly more varied than any Horizon game yet. A fresh change to the way the Horizon Festival itself is gradually constructed, which results in more one-off events deliberately designed to showcase Horizon 5 at its very best. Improved tools that allow us to build completely custom events that can be more or less indistinguishable from those crafted by the developers themselves. An enormous visual upgrade, especially to lighting, tyre smoke, and dust effects. Hundreds and hundreds of new custom parts, rims, and performance mods, and cars with more character than ever...

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Aussie Deals: Over 65% Off Watch Dogs Legion, Death Stranding, Witcher 3, and More!

PC gamers would do well to head on over to Fanatical today as it's their 4th birthday sale. I've curated a bunch of the best stuff from it already but there's still some gold in those thar hills. Meanwhile, console folk should take note of a bunch of cheap CoD titles, some of which are very recent and over half off. Lastly, I've noticed (a 4-player version of) Bubble Bobble is on sale. Who the hell doesn't love that game? Notable Sales for Nintendo Switch Purchase Cheaply for PC Exciting Offers for XO/XS Product Savings for PS4/PS5 Adam's an Aussie deals person who's replaying Westwood Studios' Dune games. He misses the age of cheesy FMVs. He's also @Grizwords. Continue reading...

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Red Dead Redemption 2 Modders Went and Made Their Own Undead Nightmare

After another Halloween has come and gone with no official Undead Nightmare DLC for Red Dead Redemption II, it's up to the modding community to save the day. Modders have uploaded to Nexus Mods on Monday and Undead Nightmare II mod that features zombies rampaging through the towns and forests of Red Dead Redemption 2. Town residents have boarded up their doors and are shooting at every zombie they see. New weather and music effects have also been added to create the perfect zombie-hunting ambiance. Undead Nightmare was a DLC that was released for the first Red Dead Redemption. The horror-themed paid DLC added zombies and other supernatural horrors to Rockstar's fictional wild west. Fans hoped that the sequel, Red Dead Redemption 2...

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Marvel's Avengers Was a 'Disappointing Outcome' According To Square Enix President

Marvel's Avengers hasn't had the warmest reputation since it launched last year, but now we've got some words from Square Enix's president about its own internal reception. In Square Enix's annual report for 2021, president Yosuke Matsuda says that Marvel's Avengers was an ambitious GaaS (Games as a Service) release. However, Avengers was not as successful as the company would have liked. "We overcame a variety of unexpected difficulties in the final phase of the game’s development, including needing to transition to work-from-home due to the pandemic. We were able to surmount these challenges and release the game, but it has unfortunately not proven as successful as we would have liked," Matsuda says. Matsuda said Square Enix would...

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Marvel's Midnight Suns Delayed to the Second Half of 2022

As a part of its second-quarter earnings announcement today, Take-Two Interactive announced that Firaxis' upcoming Marvel strategy game, Marvel's Midnight Suns, is being delayed into the second half of next year. This isn't a massive bump as the Midnight Suns was previously planned for March 2022. Now, it's looking at somewhere between July and December of that year. In a press release, the company implied that the delay was connected at least in part to increases in the difficulty of making games as technology has improved. As it becomes possible to make bigger and more technologically interesting games, those games are also tougher and take longer to make. "While we don’t take delays lightly, we know that our proven success has...

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Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Ending Explained

Square-Enix's Guardians of the Galaxy game puts players into Star Lord’s jet-boots to boss around everyone’s space-faring A-holes. As we covered in our review, it's a winning Marvel formula. But this new game exists outside of the MCU and the comic book versions we know and love, and these Guardians aren’t afraid to carve out their own section of the galaxy. So how exactly does the game's climactic ending draw from the Marvel Comics source material, and what does that tell us about the direction of a potential sequel? Let's take a deep dive into the ending, but beware of full spoilers ahead for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy! Showtime, A-Holes! Remember when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 teased the debut of Adam Warlock? Well, it...

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Danny Trejo Was Added to Far Cry 6 Too Early

Ubisoft has said that it accidentally added a mission featuring Hollywood actor Danny Trejo into Far Cry 6 early and that it has subsequently begun removing it from the game. In a statement released on Twitter, Ubisoft explained that the mission "Dani & Danny vs Everybody", which included the Spy Kids and Sons of Anarchy actor, had been released into the game by mistake. "The Dani & Danny vs Everybody mission is a work-in-progress and was accidentally released early," read the statement. "We're working to remove it and look forward to when players can check out the final version." Since raising the mistake with its fanbase, Ubisoft has begun rolling out an update to Far Cry 6 that will see the mission removed from the game. While the...

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Dawn of the Monsters Gameplay and Details Revealed

Publisher WayForward (also known as the beloved developer behind games like Contra 4, Duck Tales Remastered, and A Boy and His Blob) is partnering with developer 13AM Games on Dawn of the Monsters, a new co-op brawler in which you get to play as a Kaiju who stands up to other giant monsters and inadvertently trashes the fully destructible fictional city of New Toronto in the process. It is due out in the first half of 2022 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. There are four playable beasts: Megadon, Ganira, Aegis Prime, and Tempest Galahad. Each has Brutal Rage abilities, Cataclysm Attacks, and finishing moves. As you can see in the trailer above and in the screenshots below, Dawn of the Monsters has a...

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Battlefield Portal Explainer Reveals an Absurd Amount of Customisation

EA and DICE have offered an in-depth look at how Battlefield Portal, the create-your-own-Battlefield-experience tool that will be available in Battlefield 2042, works. The details reveal just how flexible the system is, from allowing faithful recreations of fan favourites such as Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3, to Frankenstein-like mashups that bring in weapons, rules, and maps from multiple different legacy games. Battlefield Portal will use a web browser interface, allowing for easy set up of custom modes. The Portal can be accessed even if you don’t own Battlefield 2042, meaning you can still create games and share them with friends that do own the game. Creating an ‘Experience’ in Battlefield Portal requires completing a variety...

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Elden Ring: 15 Minutes of Gameplay Coming Tomorrow

FromSoftware has announced that 15 minutes of Elden Ring gameplay will be showcased tomorrow, November 4. The announcement was made on the Elden Ring Twitter page, with no details offered beyond a time: 3pm CET / 7am PDT. It will be available to view on Bandai Namco US' Twitch channel, as well as on YouTube. Links to both are available in the tweet above. November will be a big month for Elden Ring fans; following this 15 minute slice of gameplay, a closed network test will be available on console from November 12-14. This will offer up a playable segment of the game, although interested fans needed to have registered by November 1 if they wanted to get involved. For more, check out our first preview of Elden Ring, based on 15...

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Incredible Mod Turns Crusader Kings 3 and Mount & Blade 2 Into a Single Game

A developer has created a very smart mod that turns Crusader Kings 3 and Mount & Blade 2 into a single game, allowing players to strategize in the former and battle inside the latter. For as much as Crusader Kings 3 does an impressive job at simulating the complex political and social structures of medieval rule, one particular element that it lacks is a battle simulator that allows players to jump into the action and see their forces battle it out in real-time. Now, however, a developer has created Crusader Blade - a new mod that remedies that exact problem. Taking your armies from Crusader Kings 3, the Crusader Blade mod then uses the battle engine from Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord to allow you to fight against your enemies at...

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Battlefield 2042 is Getting a 10-Hour Trial for EA Play and Game Pass Members

Battlefield 2042 will be getting a 10-hour trial for members of EA Play, starting on November 12. This will also include Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members on consoles, alongside members of Game Pass PC, and EA Play Pro on PC. The game had a fairly interesting open beta, sparking a lot of debate about the current state of the shooter. EA has tried to calm nerves by informing fans that the beta build was a few months old at least, but that doesn't mean there still won't be concerns about the final product. So, this trial might be a good opportunity for a second chance at a first impression. Battlefield 2042 is set to release on November 19, 2021, after being delayed by a month from its original October 22 launch day. This trial will be...

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Aussie Deals: Save Big as the Holiday Season Sales Begin!

Get in quick on these ones. Local brick and mortar retailers are slicing prices on stocking stuffers, and (naturally) online retailers are following suit. Personally, I'd pay particular attention to Resi Village going for half off, and Immortals Fenyx Rising (60% off) is an under-loved ARPG, too. While stocks last, all 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 an Aussie deals wrangler who is off to replay Banjo Kazooie after this. You won't find him @Grizwords. Continue reading...

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Is a Quake Reboot Bethesda’s Next Big Xbox-Exclusive FPS? - Unlocked 518

Is id Software moving onto Quake after Doom? Job postings suggest that might be the case, and we discuss what we'd like to see out of what would be Xbox's next major exclusive first-person shooter. Plus: Miranda and Ryan tell you about their visit to 343 Industries to play Halo Infinite, Sega and Microsoft forge a new partnership, 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 Halo Infinite new multiplayer map reveal below: 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! For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our...

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World of Warcraft Game Director Says Removal of Poorly-Aged WoW Content Isn't a 'Smokescreen'

In the last month or so, World of Warcraft has been working on a number of small changes to older parts of the game, removing or editing content that, well, hasn't aged all that well. Some of this, Blizzard explicitly addressed, such as its removals of references to real-life employees who have departed the company in the wake of a lawsuit alleging harassment, discrimination, and a toxic work environment. Other changes are more subtle, though, like the toning down of some in-game paintings and the removal of a number of "joke" lines that players could deliver using a chat command. Much of the removed content could be considered unnecessarily sexual compared to the tone of the rest of the game, or was explicitly or implicitly degrading...

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Marvel's Avengers Removes Purchasable XP Boosters from the In-Game Marketplace

Crystal Dynamics has announced that it will be removing Hero's Catalysts and Fragment Extractors from the Marvel's Avengers in-game marketplace. The game's official Twitter account laid out the reasoning. "We apologize for not responding sooner to your concerns about the addition of paid consumables in the Marketplace,” said the statement. “We introduced them as an option for an evolving player base, and did not see them as pay-to-win since they don’t offer power directly.” The Hero Catalysts and Fragment Extractors were consumable items that boosted XP for characters and speed up the usual grind in the game. The items can still be earned as normal gameplay rewards and those already earned will still be usable. Marvel's Avengers...

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Darkest Dungeon 2 Early Access Review

When Darkest Dungeon was first released in early access in 2015, it was a minor miracle. The tension-filled roguelike-ish design, the stress system on top of a Lovecraftian horror setting, and especially the sound, amazingly atmospheric narrator, and music combined to create an instant classic of a tactical role-playing game that was then refined into an outstanding and distinctive final version a year later. It’s a tough act to follow, but Red Hook Games has given it a worthy shot with the early access launch of Darkest Dungeon 2. The good news is that this sequel has a different enough structure and technical improvements that it more than justifies its existence, taking the original formula into surprisingly new directions instead of...

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Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 Delayed

Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 are being delayed, Activision Blizzard revealed amid today's earnings report. Activision Blizzard announced the delay in a slide titled "Update on Our Pipeline," saying that while it still plans to "deliver a substantial amount of content" next year, it is now "planning for a later launch for Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 than originally envisaged." "These are two of the most eagerly anticipated titles in the industry, and our teams have made great strides toward completion in recent quarters," Activision Blizzard said. "But we believe giving the teams some extra time to complete production and continue growing their creative resources to support the titles after launch will ensure that these releases delight...

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Microsoft is Making Its Own Metaverse

Worried that Facebook will keep the much-hyped metaverse all to itself? Microsoft has something to say about that. The tech giant announced during its Ignite conference that it's building its version of the metaverse, with a big focus on work and corporate applications, Bloomberg reports. Microsoft is currently preparing an alternate version of its Microsoft Teams chat software that will let employees use digital avatars and share Microsoft Office files, like Spreadsheets, in a virtual world. That's due out in the latter half of 2022. Using its new Mesh technology, Microsoft is also working towards enabling shareable virtual worlds across multiple VR and AR headsets, including Microsoft's own HoloLens. Employees without VR/AR...

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Ex-Skullgirls’ Devs Next Game Is Just One Project Backed By This New Games Fund

In their years working with small developers through cooperative-owned gaming label Glitch, CEO Evva Karr noticed a serious problem. While Karr had encountered many small, diverse game development teams with talented creators and brilliant ideas that they believed could be incredibly successful, those teams were struggling. Some didn't have the initial funding needed to get their projects started, while others simply lacked the practical knowledge to even publish a game. Making it, sure, but what about pitching it to publishers, marketing it, releasing it on consoles, or running a studio as a business? Turns out, none of that information is easily accessible to a lot of up and coming developers. What's more, Karr felt that gaming...

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Fortnite Updates: 18.30 Patch Adds Grapplers

Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 8 has ushered in an assortment of new weapons and items. Now Fortnite's 18.30 Patch is offering more of the same in the form of Grapplers – a suction cup firing gun that flings players across the map. Fortnite Update - November 2 Hotfix: The Icy Grappler As of today, the Grappler returns to Fortnite. Fans of this classic item will be able to find them in various chests and such across the island. Once acquired, it’ll allow you to launch yourself forward by way of a suction cup projectile. Need to escape a losing fight? Just fire the Grappler at a structure in the distance and let its rope pull you toward wherever/whatever the suction cup attached itself to. Grapplers have always been fun to use in...

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Netflix's Gaming Service Now Available in the US

Netflix announced today that it has expanded its gaming service to over 190 countries, including the United States and Canada. However, the gaming feature still requires subscribers to own either an Android smartphone or tablet to play. Starting today, Netflix Games will be available to subscribers, which you can either download from the Google Play Store, though Netflix says that all five games coming to the service will slowly roll out to its official app beginning November 3. Among the games included in the service is Stranger Things 3: The Game. Unfortunately, you will not be able to use a wireless controller or a mobile controller like the Razer Kishi, as the games on the Netflix Games app use touch controls only. Netflix notes...

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Century: Age of Ashes - The Final Preview

As a person who waited in a very small line to grab a launch PlayStation 3 and dragon-riding action disappointment Lair, you could say that any talk of flying scaly wyrms fighting in a video game both bristles my scales and ignites my curiosity. After spending some preview time with Century: Age of Ashes, I’m newly optimistic that mid-air monster battles don’t have to just be flights of fancy. Century is a third person multiplayer shooter that feels more akin to Ace Combat than Panzer Dragoon at first. Teams of three or six riders take to the skies to burn and blast their enemies to secure kills and objectives across a handful of maps and play modes. Before I did any of that, though, I had to take a pass through the tutorial mode...

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Blizzard Launching Community Council for World of Warcraft

Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.Blizzard is in the process of launching a player-led Community Council for World of Warcraft, which will allow more direct communication between the MMOs developers and its players. As revealed on the World of Warcraft website, the Community Council is being set up with the goal of making the voice of all WoW players heard. Applications to join the council are now open, and part of the process requires stating your areas of interest and expertise within World of Warcraft. This is to ensure the developers hear from a cross...

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Dubium Announced

Startup game developer Mumo Studio – whose founders have resumes that include games like Black Desert Online and Dead to Rights – has announced Dubium, a new five-player social deduction multiplayer game for PC via Steam Early Access in 2022. Gameplay, as the studio describes it, should sound familiar to Among Us fans: "Players take on the role of Frontier or Traitor and must escape from an abandoned space station by any means necessary. Frontiers will cooperate to repair solar panels that power the escape pod while trying to uncover the identity of the sole Traitor. Players must not relax until they escape; the Traitor will sabotage the Frontiers’ efforts at every step as they try to complete their own mission. The Traitor needs to...

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Skyrim Board Game Includes a Prequel to the Original RPG

RPG and tabletop publisher Modiphius Entertainment is creating a Skyrim board game that will include a sequel to the original RPG. As detailed in an article by Polygon, the upcoming co-operative tabletop game will include two campaigns, each with three chapters. In an interview with the outlet, game designer Juan Echenique explained that fans embarking on the first of those campaigns will be able to take part in events that pre-date the narrative set out in its video game counterpart. “The first campaign is 25 years before [the events of the video game],” said Echenique. “So you get to meet some of the [non-player characters] from Skyrim, but 25 years before when they were a young adventurer and then they take an arrow to the knee —...

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