Gaming News

Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty Patch 2.02 Makes Key Quest and Gameplay Fixes

CD Projekt has released Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty Patch 2.02, which includes a number of quest and gameplay fixes as well as other general improvements. Patch 2.02, out now across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S, fixes perhaps the biggest issue left with the Phantom Liberty and Update 2.0 version of CD Projekt's sci-fi epic: rebalancing the timers in courier missions. As part of the Phantom Liberty expansion, players will occasionally find a car that needs to be driven out of the new Dog Town area to another part of Night City. The distances often don't match up with the time limit, however, and the mission will sometimes give players just 30 seconds to drive across the entire colossal map. Here are the...

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Ark: Survival Ascended Is a Hit on Steam, but Performance Complaints Dampen Launch

The hotly anticipated Ark: Survival Ascended released on PC overnight and quickly shot to the top of Steam's best-selling games list, but players are running into performance issues that have marred the launch. Ark: Survival Ascended is Studio Wildcard’s Unreal Engine 5 remake of the original dinosaur-filled survival game Ark: Survival Evolved. It’s out now on Steam alongside the original game. On Valve’s platform, both Survival Ascended and Survival Evolved are in Steam’s top 100 played games by concurrent players, with Survival Ascended in particular climbing rapidly. But the remake currently has a ‘mixed’ user review rating of 42%, with most of the negative reviews complaining about performance issues. One Steam review read...

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Microsoft Picks Up Third Most-Wishlisted Game on Steam for Day-One PC Game Pass Launch

Microsoft has snapped up eye-catching PC city-builder Manor Lords as a day-one Game Pass launch title. Publisher Hooded Horse announced Manor Lords launches on PC via Steam and GOG in early access form on April 26, 2024, and will be available then on PC Game Pass. A release on consoles and Xbox Game Pass is due “later”. Manor Lords is currently the third most-wishlisted game on Steam behind only Hades 2 and Hollow Knight: Silksong, and appeared during Microsoft’s Xbox Partner Preview October 2023 broadcast. The new trailer is below: Developer Slavic Magic has created a historical city-building strategy game that mixes city-building systems with complex production chains alongside a real-time combat layer that turns workers into...

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EA Sports FC 24 Title Update 4 Patch Notes Revealed — Here’s What It Does

EA Sports has unveiled the next big update to FC 24, which makes just a handful of gameplay changes but addresses one significant bug. The bug in question, dubbed the ‘Trickster Glitch’ by the community, involved using a player with the Trickster+ PlayStyle to stick the ball to the dribbler’s leg, leaving them free to simply run into the goal to score. The bug swept through Ultimate Team’s competitive multiplayer last week, with high-profile streamers using it to dominate the ultra hardcore Weekend League. Here's how it looked: Eventually EA Sports disabled the Trickster+ PlayStyle, although the developer has yet to address calls for those who used the glitch to be punished. EA Sports FC 24 Title Update 4 aims to tackle this bug...

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59 Buck Tears of the Kingdom, $49 Resi 4, and Scary Good Deals on Every Halloween Sale!

While Halloween isn't massively celebrated here in Oz, we sure do take a heightened interest in those spooky sales. (Because, hell, I'll break out the festive spirit if there's up to 85% off in my future.) That's all I really have time to say, intro wise, as I suspect today's deals on Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Resident Evil 4 will be blink and you'll miss 'em affairs. Happy hunting! This Day in Gaming Aussie birthdays for notable games and hardware - Bionic Commando (NES) 1990. Remake - Jak X (PS2) 2005. - Destroy All Humans! 2 (PS2,XB) 2005. - Splinter Cell: Double Agent (GC,PS2,XB) 2006. Table of Contents Nintendo Switch PC Xbox PlayStation Nice Savings for Nintendo Switch Expiring Recent Deals Hardware Watch...

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Stray Souls Review

On the surface, Stray Souls seems like it has everything a horror fan would want. In fact, its hellish creatures, townsfolk cult, and mysteriously empty main street with a malfunctioning fog machine are everything Silent Hill fans, in particular, could ask for, unabashedly drawing from Konami's iconic horror series throughout. But despite an effectively unsettling opening, pretty much everything else – from its dull combat and cringeworthy conversations to the uninspired boss fights and long, long list of bugs and glitches – fails to deliver. The most impressive thing about Stray Souls ends up being just how badly it manages to fall short of that inspiration by almost every single measure. Stray Souls takes you to Aspen Falls, an...

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Xbox's Partner Stream Surprised and Delighted – Unlocked 618

We did the podcast live this week immediately following Xbox's Partner Preview livestream, and we spent the entire episode being pleasantly surprised by both the things Microsoft promised would be there (like Alan Wake 2, Ark: Survival Ascended, and Dungeons of Hinterberg), and the things that were surprises (like Metal Gear solid Delta, Still Wakes the Deep, and The Finals). Plus, we give some constructive criticism on Xbox's latest presentation format. Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 of this week's episode. For more awesome content, check out my recent Alan Wake 2 preview! For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review, our Xbox Series S review...

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Diablo 4 Expansion Info Seemingly Uncovered by Dataminers, May Be Named Lord of Hatred

Thanks to the expert sluething of dataminers, we now have some pretty compelling evidence that suggests Diablo IV's first expansion will be called "Lord of Hatred," and will focus on everyone's favorite soulstone occupant: Mephisto. It shouldn't be terribly surprising that a live-service game supported by three separate development teams will likely be getting some major expansions, especially given how the base campaign's story set up for future conflict with the Prime Evils of Hell. The timing of this discovery is especially relevant since studio head Rod Fergusson recently confirmed that annual expansions could be in the stars for the ARPG. But heavy foreshadowing hasn't stopped dataminers from working around the clock to dig...

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Xbox Partner Preview October 2023: Everything Announced

Microsoft has revealed a new show format called Xbox Partner Preview and its first stream featured new looks at Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, Alan Wake 2: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, ARK: Survival Ascended, and so much more. There were a ton of games packed into the roughly 30-minute runtime, and we're here to break down and present to you all the biggest reveals, announcements, trailers, and more in one place! Enjoy! You can also check out our Xbox Partner Preview October 2023 Games Playlist to keep track of all the games you can't wait to play from the show! Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake Reveals First Gameplay, And It Looks Beautiful Konami has finally shared a first look at gameplay from the remake of Metal Gear Solid 3...

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First Look at Ark: Survival Ascended During Xbox Partner Preview

Microsoft has revealed a first look at Ark: Survival Ascended, the Unreal Engine 5 remake of the original Ark: Survival Evolved. The video, shown off during the Xbox Partner Preview broadcast, showcased familiar dinosaur-filled environments that made 2015's Ark: Survival Evolved such a huge hit across PC and console. Developer Studio Wildcard announced Ark: Survival Ascended is "coming soon", and supports cross-platform modding with Unreal Engine 5, which means the Xbox Series X and S version will benefit from mods created for the PC version. The new in-game CurseForge mod browser, which will be directly accessible from the main menu of the game, will soon be filled with new structures, dinos, maps, decorative pieces, and game...

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Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake Reveals First Gameplay, And It Looks Beautiful

At the Xbox Partner Preview showcase, Konami shared the first look at gameplay for its upcoming remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. And it looks breathtaking. While brief, the gameplay trailer showed off the signature stealth gameplay in action. From Snake crossing through the water while close to a crocodile to him just about to take out an enemy with a pistol equipped with a Silencer attachment. More interestingly, the end of the trailer confirmed that the game will be running on Epic's Unreal Engine 5, confirming earlier reports that the highly anticipated remake would run on Unreal Engine. Brief gameplay aside, the teaser also provided a good look at Metal Gear Solid 3 running on Unreal Engine 5, with various cuts to...

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Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Lets You Manage Your Own Island Resort

Microsoft has shown off a first look at Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth's new island activity in a new trailer unveiled during the Xbox Partner Preview broadcast. Developer RGG Studio Chief Producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto has added a build-your-own resort mode, which lets players play a number of activities while managing Dondoko Island. This is unlocked through a side-story that will be available at the start of Chapter 6. In a post on Xbox Wire, RGG Studio Chief Producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto confirmed Dondoko Island is independent from the main story so you will be able to play through at your own pace. Expect loads of mini-games, once of which is called Crazy Delivery, Sujimon Battle. Here, you collect enemies and battle them via a dating...

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New Starfield Community Patch Seeks to Address the Smaller Issues Besetting Bethesda's Sci-Fi RPG

Starfield players can now download a free community-created patch on PC that seeks to address a range of minor issues besetting Bethesda’s latest RPG, ranging from fixes for incorrect dialogue to skill tweaks, and numerous other polishing changes. Back in May 2022, Bethesda announced that it was delaying the launch of Starfield in order to ensure that players recieved "the best, most polished" version of the game. This was a good decision, as upon releasing on September 6 earlier this year players were treated to an expansive RPG that was packed with content, and largely free of major bugs and game breaking issues. However, as is understandable with a game as expansive as Bethesda's latest cosmic adventure, Starfield still had its...

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Payday 3 Dev Apologises for Radio Silence, Explains MIA First Patch

Co-op heist shooter Payday 3’s launch has gone so badly that more people are playing its 10-year-old predecessor on Steam than its sequel. Now, developer Starbreeze has apologised for its lack of communication, and explained the holdup with Payday 3’s first patch. “We’ve been quiet over the last few days, and for that we apologise,” began the statement published on the Payday website. “It’s not easy to communicate when we have not been able to offer any updates on the one big topic that’s on everyone’s mind right now: when are the patches coming to Payday 3? Despite our silence, we want to assure you all that the team is still working on our main priority, which is to get the patch we promised out to you, and to make sure our patching...

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The Best Horror Video Game Face-Off 2023

IGN’s Festival of Fear is underway at IGN as we countdown the days to Halloween, and we thought it would be the perfect time to revisit our best horror video game Face-Off! Do any of the newest spooky games, including Resident Evil 4 Remake, Lies of P, and Sons of the Forest, have the scares to dethrone Silent Hill 2 or the other classics on the list? You can help decide! We need your help once more to pick which of these games is the best as they “Face-Off” against each other two at a time. A winner needs to be chosen! Will you pick Dead Space or P.T.? Is The Callisto Protocol your new favorite or will nothing shake your love of BioShock? The choice is all yours. (And don't forget, you can pass on a Face-Off round if you don't know...

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IGN Cares and Kinda Funny are Teaming Up for a Week of Wonderful Chaos and Fun for Extra Life

In the greatest assembling of any kind since all of our favorite Marvel heroes did so in Avengers: Endgame, IGN Cares and Kinda Funny are officially uniting for a week of Extra Life charity goodness that will be as meaningful as it will be wonderfully chaotic. The main event will take place on Friday, November 3, and will see IGN and Kinda Funny facing off in games like Street Fighter 6, WWE 2K23, and even Kinda Feudy, but that’s not all. The whole week leading up to the big stream will be filled with crossovers that include super sized episodes of Beyond x P.S. I Love You XOXO and Unlocked x Xcast and many more surprises. This guide will ensure you won’t miss a thing, as it will provide you with everything you need to know to watch...

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Mortal Kombat 1 Omni-Man Early Access Release Date Confirmed via Xbox Store

Microsoft has seemingly pushed the button early on the early access release date for hotly anticipated Mortal Kombat 1 DLC character Omni-Man. At the time of this article’s publication, the Mortal Kombat 1 hub on the Xbox console storefront mentions Omni-Man launching in early access form on November 6. Omni-Man is a supervillain from the Invincible series, and in Mortal Kombat 1 is voiced by J. K. Simmons, who voices the character in the popular Amazon Prime Video show. A gameplay trailer shown during NYCC 2023 confirmed MK1’s Omni-Man has a number of attacks that will be familiar to fans of the comic-book and show, including his infamous and incredibly gory trip through a train. Omni-Man will be the first playable character in...

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Cities Skylines 2 Launches Big on Steam, but Suffers Complaints Over Performance

Cities Skylines 2 has launched big on Steam, hitting over 100,000 concurrent players and sitting atop the best-sellers chart. But performance issues have marred the launch, which was met with a ‘mixed’ user review rating of 48% on Valve’s platform. The majority of the negative user reviews include complaints about the city builder’s performance, which developer Colossal Order had warned would be a problem before the game came out. The current ‘most helpful review’ for Cities Skylines 2 on Steam, from user Ariegan, simply states: “Who would imagine that we would get another unoptimized mess of a game in 2023... I am tired, boss…” Steam user CountCristo goes into more detail. “Sadly the game isn't ready for release, hold off for now -...

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PS5 Slim's Optional Disc Drive Needs to Connect to the Internet to Pair It to a Console

The upcoming PlayStation 5 Slim has popped up online, and with that comes fresh information about how the optional disc drive will work with the Digital Edition of the console. The charlieINTEL Twitter account published images of the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 PS5 Slim bundle, and eagle-eyed observers noticed a disclaimer that has set the cat among the pigeons within the video game community: “Internet connection required to pair disc drive and PS5 console upon setup.” The smaller PS5 design comes with 1TB storage for the PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition, up from 825GB in the original versions of the console, and the new model provides the option to add an Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Drive to the PS5 Digital Edition. If you buy the PS5...

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Mortal Kombat 1 Is Selling a Halloween Fatality and the Community Is Not Happy About It

The Mortal Kombat community has yet another reason to dislike the monetisation of NetherRealm’s Mortal Kombat 1 after publisher Warner Bros. Games confirmed plans to sell a seasonal Fatality. Fatalities are Mortal Kombat’s world-famous match enders. The iconic “Finish Him!” line that plays out at the end of a match offers the victor an opportunity to humiliate their opponent with a typically over-the-top, gory finisher. Fatalities helped Mortal Kombat stand out when the first game hit arcades in the early nineties, and they continue to do so now, 30 years later. And so, when vague in-game patch notes mentioned “Halloween Fatality added to the Premium Store”, players reacted with a mix of shock and horror. Did Warner Bros. Games...

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Sling Into the Nicest Price on a New Sales Record King, Xbox Wheel Deals, and More!

Here we are again, friends. Deep in the Wednesday grind, but peering ahead for ways to make the weekend awesome. In interesting cost-of-living times such as these, you and I can always look to games as the greatest (and cheapest) forms of escape. I got a bunch of those today; however, it's also a pretty great time to consider a steering wheel purchase. Especially on Xbox, for all my fellow Forza fans. In historical news, it's been 29 years since system-linked Sega Rally cabinets appeared in Timezones and bowling alleys everywhere. Sadly, the franchise [medium] left [maybe] the games industry for good in 2011. Its ludicrous "Game Over, yeahhh!" soundbite remains eternal. This Day in Gaming Aussie birthdays for notable games and...

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Metal Gear Solid Fans Uncover Additional Evidence of Possible MGS 4 Remaster and More

After an earlier leak seemed to confirm that Metal Gear Solid 4 will eventually make its way to Metal Gear Solid Master Collection, more evidence of a remaster of the beloved PS3 classic has emerged, with hints of more to come. Reddit user Timo653 recently posted photos of code they say were taken from the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection launcher. The strings seem to indicate that Metal Gear Solid 4, Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, and even Metal Gear Solid 5 will be added at some point in the future. IGN has since examined the code and can confirm that the references are authentic. The discovery sparked plenty of excitement among fans, not the least because Metal Gear Solid 4 is only available on the defunct PlayStation 3...

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Xbox Reveals Earnings Post-Starfield, and It's (Mostly) Good News

Microsoft has just shared its first quarter results for the 2024 fiscal year, and it's mostly good news for Xbox. Following the long-anticipated release of Starfield, Xbox has broadly seen an increase in overall gaming revenue despite a decline in hardware. In its press release, Microsoft confirmed that Xbox content and services, which include the gaming subscription service Xbox Game Pass, saw a revenue increase of 13% over the last quarter. It is not entirely surprising for those following Xbox, as last month released its most highly anticipated first-party game of the year, Starfield, which hit 10 million players in just three weeks, becoming the biggest launch in Bethesda Game Studios' history. And a few months prior, Microsoft...

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The Best Optical Gaming Keyboards 2023

The best optical gaming keyboards are quickly becoming a popular choice among gamers, thanks to fewer moving parts to go wrong, and a shorter actuation distance (a fancy way of saying you can type on a scale hitherto undreamt of). While optical switches do feature mechanical components, they use light for actuation rather than a physical mechanical connection. TL;DR - These Are The Best Optical Gaming Keyboards Corsair K100 RGB Razer Huntsman V2 ASUS ROG Claymore II SteelSeries Apex 9 TKL EVGA Z20 RGB Not only is it seriously cool to tell people you type with frickin laser beams, but in most cases the best optical keyboards can register keypresses much quicker than most conventional mechanical keyboards, making them an especially...

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Ex-Bethesda Developer Reveals Internal Debate About Starfield's Scope

Bethesda's former design director has revealed an internal debate around the number of planets in Starfield early on in the game's development. Bruce Nesmith, who was lead designer on The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and senior designer on Starfield before leaving Bethesda in 2021, told MinnMax he initially proposed that the space role-playing game only have around two dozen systems instead of the 120 it ended up with. "The point was made, quite legitimately, that, once you've done one solar system, doing 100 is really not adding to your work all that much," he said. "You have to know how to build a planet so people can walk around on it. You have to have various objects: life forms that they interact with, rocks, all that. You have to...

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Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 Is Packed With Problems on PC

IGN has already reported on issues with the Nintendo Switch version of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1. Now it’s the PC version that’s come under fire. The hotly anticipated collection launched today, October 24, across platforms, but it’s on PC where there appears to be the most issues. On Steam, the various games sold within the collection already have a "mixed" review rating, with PC gamers pointing out problems across the board. Redditor 1Ocelot rounded up the worst offenders. Perhaps the most shocking is that Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3 are locked to a 720p internal resolution, despite the fact Konami advertises both games as outputting at 1080p. Modders moved fast to get MGS2 running at 4K, but there...

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Best Spider-Man Game of All Time Face-Off: The Winner Revealed

Last week, as the much-anticipated Marvel's Spider-Man 2 arrived, we asked you to help us decide which Spidey game was the best of them all. Was it Peter and Miles' newest adventure on PS5? Or does 2004's Spider-Man 2 or Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions still hold a special place in your heart? Or is your fave some other Spidey title altogether? Now, after thousands and thousands of 1v1 battles with matchups like Ultimate Spider-Man vs. Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 vs. Marvel's Spider-Man, the ultimate Spidey game has been chosen. So, which title claimed the top spot as the greatest friendly neighborhood Spider-Man game? Drumroll please... Some may say it is recency bias, but others, like IGN's wonderful...

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Bethesda Thought It Was 'Infallible' Before Fallout 76 Launch, Says Former Design Director

Bethesda's former design director has said the developer thought it was infallible ahead of Fallout 76's disastrous launch. Bruce Nesmith, who was a quest designer on Fallout 76 and Fallout 3 and 4, as well as lead designer on The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and senior designer on Starfield before leaving Bethesda in 2021, told MinnMax the studio's "own hubris" caught up with it. The developer had been on a hot streak, releasing The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion followed by Fallout 3, Skyrim, and Fallout 4, but Fallout 76 arrived in 2018 as the studio's first foray into multiplayer and launched to scathing reviews. "The rich wasteland map of Fallout 76 is wasted on a mess of bugs, conflicting ideas, and monotony," IGN said at the time. We...

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Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster Release Date Confirmed

The hotly anticipated remaster of Star Wars: Dark Forces has a release date: February 28, 2024. That’s for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch. Star Wars: Dark Forces is LucasArts’ much-loved first-person shooter originally released in 1995. This remaster, which arrives just shy of 30 years later, is in the works at Nightdive Studios, the video game restoration specialist behind the well-received System Shock remake and Turok and Quake remasters. Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster runs on modern gaming systems at up to 4K resolution and 120 frames per second (not on the Switch version). There’s mention of “upgraded gameplay”, high-resolution textures, enhanced lighting and rendering, and...

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Former Bethesda Design Director Confident The Elder Scrolls 6 Will Keep Skyrim's Levelling System

Bethesda's former design director thinks The Elder Scrolls 6 will keep The Elder Scroll 5: Skyrim's levelling up and progression system. Bruce Nesmith, who was lead designer on Skyrim and senior designer on Starfield before leaving Bethesda in 2021, told MinnMax the highly anticipated sequel would "absolutely" continue the system. Nesmith no longer works at Bethesda, of course, so can't guarantee these inclusions himself, but he was an influential and high-up figure at the developer just a couple of years ago. Skyrim's progression system is similar to that of other role-playing games such as Final Fantasy 2, where the player will level up specific skills when using items and abilities related to that skill. Using a bow and arrow...

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