Gaming News

Pete Hines, one of the key executives at Bethesda Softworks, has announced his retirement from the company.In a statement published on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Bethesda announced Hines' retirement and thanked him for his contributions to the studio during his nearly 25-year tenure. "Pete's public presence was only a small part of his role at Bethesda," the company wrote, "although the way he represented us carried over into the values he nurtured here: authenticity, integrity and passion."Around the same time the statement went out from Bethesda, Hines posted his statement on his personal X account, confirming his decision to retire and thanking his colleagues and fans. "After 24 years, I have decided my time...

There’s a reason our cars aren’t also boats. It’s often as hard as it is risky to combine two very different functions into one package, especially when designing a system to do one thing well can be hard enough. That’s why, as I sat in front of my computer taking stock of the 20+ hours I spent playing Endless Dungeon, I couldn't help but smile at the sheer audacity on display. There’s no other way to describe the daring it must have taken to create this hybrid twin-stick shooting, tower defending, science fiction roguelite. Those are three very different genres all their own, so to take them all on simultaneously and make the result work so well is borderline miraculous.Endless Dungeon is set aboard The Station, a massive...

Diablo 4’s road to recovery hit an embarrassing snag after developer Blizzard published a new video hyping up the upcoming season that was filled with mistakes.YouTuber Raxxanterax picked up on the video, which was published on the official Diablo Twitter account on Friday, October 13 — a day that proved unlucky for Blizzard. The video was meant to detail improvements coming to the action role-playing game with Season 2, dubbed Season of Blood. Instead it became the focus of a few laughs.As Raxxanterax shows, the video includes incorrectly labelled dungeon maps, a horse speed comparison that shows both before and after horses trotting along at the same speed, and maths blunders when calculating experience point boosts.“Blizzard...

Battlefield 2042 enjoyed a huge surge in players over the weekend sparked by the game going free-to-play as well as meaningful improvements made over the last two years.DICE’s first-person shooter launched in October 2021 and became one of the worst-reviewed games on Steam, with players pointing to myriad bugs and performance issues, controversial gameplay changes, and a lack of expected features.The player count quickly declined after strong launch day concurrents and, at one point, more people were playing 2018’s Battlefield 5 than the more recent Battlefield 2042. Things got so bad that EA boss Andrew Wilson was forced to admit to investors that Battlefield 2042 "did not meet expectations".DICE has stuck with the game though...

Yakuza spin-off Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name won't launch with an English dub language option but will receive an update with it later.Players eager to hear longtime protagonist Kiryu Kazuma's new English voice actor will have to wait a little longer as the game will only have Japanese audio with English subtitles when it launches November 9.Yong Yea, who will replace Darryl Kurylo as Kiryu for the first time in Like a Dragon Gaiden (in a move some fans were unsure of), tweeted to break the news just a few weeks ahead of launch but didn't say when the English dub would arrive."Since Like A Dragon: Gaiden is a few weeks away and many may not know about this, thought I should let you know the English dub will...

Turbochargers work by sucking in air from the atmosphere, compressing and cooling it, and subsequently blowing it into the cylinders to help your engine burn fuel at a faster rate. Unlike turbochargers, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged doesn’t suck or blow, but it is pretty damn cool. This palm-sized sequel shines with graphics that range from excellent to outright remarkable, an inspired selection of life-sized environments where stools loom large like skyscrapers and skateboards are as big as sailboats, and accessible and drift-heavy handling with a couple of new twists. However, while it’s certainly a slight step forward from the excellent 2021 original, it has introduced a couple of annoying quirks – like creases in the...

Oh boy, do I love a big game week. Or, to be super specific, a big game embargo lift week. As consumers, we still have to wait to buy Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario Wonder, though in a few days we'll know if they scored an IGN seal of approval. Personally, I could tell you a lot more about one of those games—possibly using a complex system of blinks that wouldn't translate well to this article—but I'd best not. Maybe drop by tomorrow, and I can say quite a bit more then.This Day in GamingAussie birthdays for notable games and hardware- Saints Row 2 (PS3,X360) 2008.- Mario & Sonic Winter Games (Wii) 2009.- Muramasa: The Demon Blade (PSV) 2013/- The Evil Within (PS3/4,X360/O) 2014.Table of ContentsNintendo Switch PC Xbox...

Minecraft Live returned for 2023 and brought with it some big announcements, including a new Star Wars DLC that takes players from padawan to Jedi knight, Planet Earth III DLC, a ton of new features in mid-2024's Minecraft Vanilla Update 1.21, and more!We're here to break down all the biggest announcements in one place to ensure you don't miss a thing!Minecraft's Star Wars: Path of the Jedi DLC Will Take Players From Padawan to Jedi KnightOn November 7, the Minecraft Marketplace will be home to the Star Wars: Path of the Jedi DLC that will take players from "padawan to Jedi knight and showcase a variety of gameplay features including lightsaber combat and using Force powers."Iconic Star Wars characters will also be showing up...

Alongside confirming a November 2023 release window, NetherRealm has revealed the first gameplay trailer for Invincible's Omni-Man at NYCC 2023.Omni-Man will be the first playable character in Mortal Kombat's Kombat Pack 1 and will be available as a standalone fighter or as part of the Mortal Kombat 1 Premium Edition. The trailer is a brutal look at Omni-Man in action and shows that many of his moves were pulled straight from the Prime Video series.If you need a bit of a refresher, you can check out this comparison of the scenes right below!During the reveal at Skybound's 20th anniversary panel at NYCC, Robert Kirkman and Ed Boon shared that "every moment of Omni-Man in Mortal Kombat 1 is inspired by a piece of the show."...

If you love freebies and sweepstakes, today (and many other days on IGN) is your lucky day! There are quite a few cool giveaways going on right now, so you can enter for your chance to win a Nintendo Switch OLED, Steam Deck, Vizio TV, PlayStation 5, and the new Mission: Impossible movie, just to name a few.IGN Rewards are going on all the time, so check out the rewards page for more information, and check out the IGN Plus page (and the bottom of the page) for more information on the benefits of subscribing.The Custom Terra Alia Nintendo Switch OLED SweepstakesPrize: 1 WinnerCustom Nintendo Switch OLEDSweepstakes closes on Nov. 22, 2023.The Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One Prize Pack SweepstakesPrize: 1...

In case you did not know, Microsoft now owns Activision Blizzard after announcing the plans over a year ago. With the merger now complete, Xbox owns some of the biggest gaming franchises, including Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft.While it is easy to craft a wishlist of games you wish would be produced because of this new merger, such as a Halo game made by Infinity Ward, a Crash Bandicoot racing game by Playground Games, or even a new Call of Duty game from 343 Industries. Yet, many users on the social media platform X wish and remain hopeful that Xbox will leverage these new IPs to revive some classic, forgotten gems in Activision's IP vault.The biggest one is Guitar Hero, the music rhythm game that uses plastic...

Xbox has finally completed its historic acquisition of Activision Blizzard and with it gains control of some of the biggest franchises in video game history.Not mincing words, Xbox now owns the best-selling video game each year in Call of Duty. This franchise was at the centre of conversations (and arguments) during the acquisition process, as Xbox fought desperately to see the deal through.Unlike Bethesda games such as Starfield, Call of Duty won't become exclusive to Xbox. Microsoft essentially had to sign 10-year deals with PlayStation, Nintendo, and several streaming services to complete the deal.Activision Blizzard brings a lot more than Call of Duty, of course, with franchises such as Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Candy...

It’s official: Microsoft has bought Activision Blizzard for an incredible $69 billion. It’s the biggest buyout in video game history, and in one fell swoop expands Xbox’s first-party offering to encompass everything from Call of Duty to World of Warcraft.Thoughts immediately turn to Game Pass and how its library of games may expand. Xbox boss Phil Spencer has already said work has begun on bringing Activision Blizzard games to Game Pass, although he suggested it may take some time for them to show up. Activision Blizzard itself has indicated this year’s Diablo 4 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 won’t hit Microsoft’s subscription service until 2024.“Microsoft has clearly missed the 2023 holiday marketing window given how long this...

It’s cold at the recording studio at Bandai Namco’s offices in Irvine, California. Tekken 8 producer Michael Murray and I are mic'd up, waiting for the go-ahead from the production team. We’re talking about the weather in the different places we’ve lived, the two American fighting game majors we’re representing (I’m wearing an EVO shirt; Michael is wearing a Combo Breaker hoodie), and Tekken. Lots and lots and lots of Tekken. We spent most of the prior day playing and talking about Tekken 8, but it’s always a little different doing it in front of a camera, and we wanted to be prepared.Michael Murray is uniquely qualified to talk Tekken; he joined Namco in 2001 because he loved the series. He started out in localization, which wasn’t...

From PS2 exclusives like Okami and Shadow of the Colossus to best sellers like Final Fantasy X and GTA: Vice City, when it comes to picking the best PlayStation 2 games, there's no shortage of titles to choose from. It's true -- Sony's second console has quite the game library and story behind it.Released in the US on October 26, 2000 and nearly one month later in Europe and Australia, the PS2 arrived right at the start of a new millennium. And like the many other consoles that came out around that time (Nintendo Gamecube, Sega Dreamcast, and original Xbox), it became an important piece of video game history, innovating the way we play by bringing the experience online and making online gaming much more accessible to a larger...

The Communications Workers of America union has expressed delight in Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard, calling it a “new day” for workers at the Call of Duty maker.The CWA, the largest communications and media labour union in the United States, said the completion of the $69 billion buyout represents “a milestone in the effort to improve working conditions in the video game industry”.Microsoft is set to remain neutral when Activision Blizzard employees express interest in joining a union, providing a clear path to collective bargaining for almost 10,000 workers, the CWA said. Activision Blizzard has been accused of fighting union efforts at every turn.In recent years Activision Blizzard employees have issued a number...

One of the hottest topics in video games is the future of physical media, with both Microsoft and Sony making moves to suggest digital will eventually win out.The huge Xbox leak of last month revealed Microsoft’s alleged plan to launch a digital-only mid-generation console refresh of the Xbox Series X and S. And this week Sony announced a mid-gen refresh of the PlayStation 5, with a smaller console that comes with a detachable disc-drive.Now Ubisoft has snapped up the cloud gaming rights for all Activision Blizzard games as part of Microsoft’s $69 billion deal for the Call of Duty maker, the French mega-publisher has issued a blog post featuring an interview with Chris Early, Ubisoft’s SVP, Strategic Partnerships & Business...

Microsoft has released an emotional trailer to celebrate its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, showcasing the wealth of games Xbox now owns (and seemingly what it finds most important and wants to show off).The titles that now come under the Xbox Games Studios banner is a little eye-watering, with some of video games' biggest franchises of all time featuring in the trailer. World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Diablo, Crash Bandicoot, and Candy Crush all feature alongside franchises Xbox already owned like Halo, Fallout, Forza, and Starfield.The trailer (above) was released alongside Microsoft's announcement that it now owns Activision Blizzard, with the $68.7 billion deal the biggest in gaming history. You can read about the full...

Two independent game developers have announced Don't Scream, their new Unreal Engine 5-powered, found-camcorder-footage horror game set in the early '90s that leans into an incredibly unique hook: you have to literally stay quiet while playing it. So yes, a microphone will be required to play. Check out the gameplay reveal trailer above and the first screenshots in the gallery below.Time will only progress when you move in the Pinewood Forest, and the events are all dynamic, meaning you don't know what might make you scream next. How long, you might ask? The scene lasts for 18 minutes. The developers call it "the perfect game to scare the pants off your friends and family."The developers also laid out these three...

Following confirmation of Microsoft’s buyout of Activision Blizzard, controversial CEO Bobby Kotick has confirmed he will remain boss of the Call of Duty maker only until the end of 2023.In an email to all Activision Blizzard employees, Kotick said Xbox boss Phil Spencer had asked him to stick around as CEO to the end of this year, suggesting an exit in 2024.“I have long said that I am fully committed to helping with the transition,” Kotick said. “Phil has asked me to stay on as CEO of ABK, reporting to him, and we have agreed that I will do that through the end of 2023. We both look forward to working together on a smooth integration for our teams and players.”Developing…Image credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty...

After one year, eight months, and 26 days, Xbox has finally completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, meaning it now owns premium video game franchises including Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Diablo.Microsoft announced its intention to buy Activision Blizzard on January 18, 2022 but unlike its relatively smooth acquisitions of studios like Starfield and Fallout maker Bethesda, the historic $68.7 billion deal was almost brought to a halt several times.The deal seemed doomed at times, with the United States' Federal Trade Commission (FTC), European Union, and UK's Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) all bearing down on Xbox and Activision Blizzard. The pair emerged successful, however, as the deal was finally closed on...

Most Sonic games put the pedal to the metal, having you travel at blindingly fast speeds while avoiding hazards on your way to the goal. Unlike its predecessors, however, Sonic Superstars trades that traditional breakneck pace for new abilities, more exploration, multiple mini-games, and slightly more challenging bosses. Most of that stylistic shift works well for the majority of Superstars’ roughly 15-hour multi-campaign story – the new Chaos Emerald powers are an excellent addition to the formula, helping you make the most of stages that focus a little less on sprinting blindly to the end the first time through and more on hunting down secrets as you do. But while this slightly different flavor of Sonic can be fun, I couldn’t help but...

Despite making you look a bit like Eris Morn from Destiny, the Meta Quest 3 doesn’t promise infinite eldritch knowledge about worms, but to take you into a plethora of other worlds through the magic of not just virtual reality, but also mixed reality. The latter is something that feels as though it’s still in […]The post Meta Quest 3 Review – A substantial leap forwards appeared first on Green Man Gaming Blog.Continue reading...

The best Meta Quest games are the ones that not only make the most of the tech inside of the incredible line of VR headsets, but also make the most of the freedom they offer. While virtual reality is still a little niche, there’s no denying the appeal of the Meta Quest 2 and 3, […]The post The Best Meta Quest Games appeared first on Green Man Gaming Blog.Continue reading...

The team behind Grand Theft Auto 5 role-play server FiveM has warned users to ditch any content that may infringe third-party intellectual property.The warning comes just two months after GTA owner Rockstar acquired Cfx.re, the team behind the biggest Rockstar game roleplay and creator communities FiveM and RedM.The warning begins with a focus on in-game cars. Some FiveM servers let players drive around in cars based on real-world models. Indeed, these freeroam servers are among the most popular available, and some even charge for access.“You must fully remove all real-world vehicles from your server,” Cfx.re declared. “We cannot allow custom assets or mods that infringe third-party intellectual property (IP). Real-world brands...

Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt used AI to replace a deceased voice actor after gaining permission from the family.Miłogost Reczek was a Polish voice actor best known as the Polish dub for Homer Simpson in The Simpsons Movie, as well as Vesemir and Thaler in The Witcher games and doctor Viktor Vektor in Cyberpunk 2077. He died in December 2021 aged 60.Bloomberg reported Reczek’s family gave CD Projekt permission to recreate his voice using AI for the recently released expansion, Phantom Liberty. CD Projekt localization director Mikołaj Szwed is quoted as saying the developer didn’t want to find a replacement for the late actor and re-record his lines. “We didn’t like this approach,” Szwed explained, as Reczek “was one of the...

Microsoft’s long-running pursuit of Activision Blizzard looks set to come to an end today after the UK finally cleared the deal and stock in the Call of Duty maker was halted.The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority said it had cleared the tweaked $69 billion deal — the largest in tech history — for Microsoft to buy Activision without cloud gaming rights, which have been divested to Assassin’s Creed maker Ubisoft.The CMA framed its decision as a victory for the preservation of competitive prices and better services in cloud gaming. “In August this year Microsoft made a concession that would see Ubisoft, instead of Microsoft, buy Activision’s cloud gaming rights,” the CMA said. “This new deal will put the cloud streaming rights...

Thank your own personal deity—possibly Zeus—it's Friday! Today's overriding bargain theme is fine prices on force feedback devices. That's great timing because a long-awaited Forza has recently arrived on Xbox. Alternatively, you PSfolk can drift towards a very reasonably priced Gran Turismo 7. In case I don't see you, stay safe, save often, and catch you Monday!This Day in GamingAussie birthdays for notable games and hardware- Pokémon Gold/Silver (GBC) 2000.- Mario Party 2 (N64) 2000.- Suikoden V (PS2) 2006.- Sonic 4: Episode I (PS3,X360) 2010.- Dead Rising 2: Off the Record (PC,PS3,X360) 2011.- The Evil Within 2 (PC,PS4,XO) 2017.Table of ContentsNintendo Switch PC Xbox PlayStationNice Savings for Nintendo...

CI Games has announced that it is currently working on a patch to bring the Xbox version of Lords of the Fallen up to par with the PC and PlayStation versions.“We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the content creators who have worked with us to enable the rapid deployment of patches, updates, and performance improvements ahead of tomorrow’s exciting launch of Lords of the Fallen,” the developer said in a statement.“As such, PC and PlayStation 5 players will be able to enjoy the game as intended. The Xbox version is currently being updated, bringing it to parity with the other platforms, and the patch will release over the coming days.”Some players have said that the game suffers from technical issues on Xbox...

You don't have to wait any longer: the most essential mod to any Bethesda RPG is here and, as per usual, it will fill your game with Thomas the Tank Engine.The mod, which is now available for any PC player to download, converts all starships into Thomas the Tank Engine, complete with those lidless, dead eyes we know and love.If you're wondering why it took so long for such a critical mod to be brought to life, it's because the modding community only recently completed most of the work necessary to make modding Starfield much easier, including making it function with the popular Nifskope editor. Meanwhile Bethesda's own Creation Kit, which the company plans to provide itself next year to make modding easier, is still under...