Each game's asset repositories weights in at tens of gigabytes and includes many assets for all of Valve's games in an uncompressed form, with many of the assets being cut content that never made it into the games. The assets should prove to be a gold mine for video game modders, preservationists, and those interested in the general development of video games.

the entire valve repo is leaking as we speek pic.twitter.com/aUlScUWEHD

— braixen 🏴🎀 (@sylvia_braixen) January 12, 2023

The news comes via PC Gamer, who confirmed that Leakerwanderer had shared the files on Discord, and claims he has held on to them since 2016 and never shared them, seemingly due to legal threats from Valve. They also claimed they "don't care anymore" before adding, "I also did my toying around with it for a few years, and did not upload because I was threatened every time."

"A real shame. I have no legal binding to these files. Not anymore. I have held onto these since 2016. Most of the file dates are from when I moved them after my computer blew up in 2019," they added.

As for how the leak occurred, these asset libraries are usually those Valve shares with third-party developers that they work alongside, which gives us some idea as to how they may have leaked out. 

And now it seems things are moving roughly in the right direction, as PCGamesN has noted that the game's release date on its Steam page has now been updated, with "2023" being replaced with "coming soon." Presumably, this change signals a release earlier in 2023, with most rumours suggesting the game will launch in the first half of this year.

As for when the exclusive Starfield showcase will take place, we don't yet know. Starfield is a new IP from Bethesda, the studio behind the popular Elder Scrolls and Fallout series of games, and I'm personally stoked to learn more about it.

As for the 25th of January event, there'll be some news on The Elder Scrolls Online, the new Forza Motorsport that I'm interested in seeing more about, Minecraft Legends, and Redfall. We'll be sure to bring you any news from the event as it happens.

Starfield will be released at some stage this year and marks the first major release from Bethesda since Fallout 76 in 2018. Perhaps once it's out of the door, we can start looking forward to The Elder Scrolls VI or Fallout 5, hopefully releasing before 2030...

According to the game's creative director Stéphane Boudon, in an interview with GamesRadar+, the team has heard the community and will be focusing on the scope of the game's content this time.  "Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla, they are all great games with the promise to live an epic journey in a strong fantasy," he said, adding that "their scopes have been calibrated to fulfil those ambitions as they all embrace the RPG mechanics. 

He acknowledged that fans are clamouring for a character-driven storyline but focusing more on the core mechanics that made the early games so successful, adding that "It resonates with us as well as developers, and this was the starting point of the project."

Sometimes, less is more, so I'm excited to see how this one pans out. Valhalla felt incredibly long and sometimes slow to progress through, and could have done with a trimming of the fat, in my opinion. It could also be symptomatic of Ubisoft's recent woes, with Skull and Bones delayed once again, and multiple projects cancelled. 

The good news is that Mirage also promises to have a "richer and denser map" compared to other recent titles. It also promises "more gameplay opportunities, more interactions between systems, and more depth." 

To follow the timeline precisely, the game was originally slated to release in the fall of 2018. That soon fell back to 2019, then 2020, then 2021.... until eventually, Ubisoft settled on November of 2022. In practice, though, that was pushed back until March 9th, 2023. Today, that date is slipping back to sometime later in 2023 or even 2024.

When it does release, it will be what Ubisoft is calling a "playable beta," which also doesn't fill me with confidence. The game appears to be stuck in development hell. However, Ubisoft states that “the additional time has already paid off and brought impressive improvements to its quality, which has been confirmed by recent playtests."

“We believe players will be positively surprised by its evolution. We have decided to postpone its release in order to have more time to showcase a much more polished and balanced experience and to build awareness. Skull and Bones will now be released early 2023-24.”

The wording suggests sometime after April but is somewhat non-committal. It's not the only bad news that Ubisoft is facing right now either, with the company stating that it's "facing major challenges as the industry continues to shift towards mega-brands and long-lasting titles that can reach players across the globe, across platforms and business models." 

Personally, I feel that Skull and Bones has missed the boat, if you pardon the pun. While I'm a huge fan of Sea of Thieves, I feel like the pirate craze spawned by the aforementioned Pirates of the Caribbean movies (and Assassin's Creed: Black Flag which spawned this mess) has long gone.

We'll be sure to post any updates as we learn them.

The event has been heralded by some as the peak of everything wrong with the game's PvP modes, something that has seemingly been building for some time. While things have been slowly improving, some in the community are highlighting this event as a new low point.

Frustration was built into the event with much of the RNG loot being especially poor, with players grinding for little reward, and especially elusive was the Iron Banner loot that players specifically wanted.

Instead, most players found themselves repeatedly getting the same-old Crucible drops. Some players report playing dozens of matches without obtaining the desirable Iron Banner armor, leaving many feeling disappointed and frustrated.

Making the grind worse was the severe lag the event suffered from, with many players facing difficulty connecting, staying connected, and maintaining a playable ping. This was most notably highlighted by YouTuber Fallout Plays, as you can see below.

Even when players could get a stable connection, they were faced with the most unpalatable cheeseboard the game has seen in some time.

The new Fortress game mode. that combines controlling zones with a singular objective to compete over, brought out some of the worst cheesing strats the game has seen for some time. Often times teams packed with Titans using the Ward of Dawn bubble Super would simply smash their way through games, making them an incredibly one-sided affair.

This led to other counter-cheesing strats with other broken supers, including Thundercrash, Witherhoad, and Well of Radiance. Before long, the game mode had become a complete mess.

Players resulted to using long-range weapons to try and avoid the super cheese, which slowed down match pacing and had a detrimental effect to match quality. 

All in all, poor loot, heavy grind, severe lag, and cheesy gameplay lead to what some are calling the worst Destiny 2 event of all time. Will Bungie finally learn some critical lessons? Only time will tell.

The Winter Classics Sale offers some pretty hefty discounts on these games and more, in fact, over 299 games are on sale right now, but you'll have to move quickly to take advantage, with the discounts ending this Friday.

Several classic Ubisoft titles are on sale, including Far Cry 2, Rainbow Six, and the original Assassin's Creed, all of which are fantastic games if you've never played them before (or fancy some nostalgia) with other games such as the original System Shock getting 85% off (although you might want to wait for the remake that's coming soon)

System Shock 2 is also on sale, along with some other favourites of mine, including Theme Park and SimCity 3000. You can also grab some stalwarts like Dragon Age: Origins and Heros of Might and Magic 3 for 75% off, essentially the price of a cup of coffee.

There's plenty to choose from, so why not head on over to the GOG Winter Classics Sale now?

It was a pleasant surprise, therefore, to see valve release a free new add-on for the game entitled Evacuation after all these years. Interestingly though, it wasn't developed by Valve but instead by a modding team known as the Evac Dev. Team.

It's not the first time Valve has allowed something like this, with Left 4 Dead 2 getting a similar free add-on update last year with community-created content. The new content follows a new story away from Gordon Freeman and his trusty crowbar and instead focuses on a group of rebels fighting Combine while trying to traverse woodland.

Instead, players will use an axe to chop their way through the forest, and a walkie-talkie has also been added, which will allow you to stay in touch with your fellow rebels. There's no shortage of the usual enemies, though, with the Combine being joined by Raiders and Zombies, who could very well fight each other as well as you.

There are the usual puzzle elements to solve as you go, too, along with a brand-new soundtrack that is much more fitting to the environment. The new add-on is completely free if you already own Half-Life 2 (and honestly, who doesn't?) and is available to download on Steam here.

Dark Souls: Archthrones launched a new gameplay showcase trailer this past week, and it certainly caught my attention. There's 15 minutes of footage here showing off various levels and demonstrations of how it remixes content in Dark Souls 3 with elements from other FromSoft titles, along with brand new content, to create a uniquely familiar experience. 

The trailer shows off some interesting new areas, including the Rainswept Outpost (which serves as a tutorial area) that contains a return of the Vanguard from Demon's Souls, before heading to the Nexus of Embers, which is this mod's replacement for the Firelink Shrine. It's seriously impressive just how different it is visually compared to the base game. 

Interestingly there's gameplay changes too, with the guard counter mechanic from Elden Ring being modded into the game, with some changes. Many enemies here will have movesets from other games too, including one part of the trailer where you can see a miniboss clearly using a moveset from the Nightjar Ninja from Sekiro.

Other Dark Souls levels appear remixed too, including the Ruins of Blue, a remix of the Tower of Flame from DS2, and the War-Torn Village, which is remixed from the Undead Settlement with brand new enemies and level geometry to explore.

It truly does look excellent, and if you're craving new Souls-like experiences to tide you over before the next Elden Ring DLC, this could certainly scratch that itch. Unfortunately, we're not yet sure when the mod will release, but you can support its development on the team's Patreon page.

In case you weren't aware, the original Left 4 Dead was developed by Turtle Rock Studios, who were subcontracted by Valve to work on the games. Prior to L4D though, Valve had also hired the studio to work on Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, where they had cooked up a few interesting ideas. One of them was a mod that caused endless waves of bots to come at you, attacking you only with knives. 

The mod was called Terror-Strike and was initially designed as a testbed for the developers to work out bugs in the bot AI. The developers found themselves having a lot of fun, and that in turn, became further refined prototypes before becoming the basis for Left 4 Dead.

Now one of these early prototypes is available to download online. While lacking much of the final polish, charm and atmosphere of Left 4 Dead, the basic gameplay mechanics are obviously there. It's a solid premise and looks like great fun, even in this fairly rudimentary version. Ultimately, Left 4 Dead would spawn an entire generation of zombie wave shooters, both as stand-alone games or additional game-modes.

Interestingly, some other maps have also leaked that show some interesting prototype concepts that Turtle Rock were pitching to Valve. You can check these out, as well as the L4D prototype map, using the GameBanana link above.

The new feature was hinted at in some code strings found within the latest update to the Steam client, which suggests that Valve may be releasing such a feature shortly. This should save bandwidth for many users, and if you're on a particularly slow or, worse still, a metered internet connection, this could be a lifesaver. Pavel Djundik, the founder of SteamDB, discovered the code buried in the Steam client and stated that the update "allows your PC to transfer game files to and from other PCs or Steam Decks on your local network, reducing your Internet traffic while downloading or updating a game." 

The feature, while seemingly buried in the code of the Steam client, is not visible or live yet. However, according to PCGamesN, some players are seeing a new setting buried within Steam's PC client that references the feature, along with the text "Game File Transfer over Local Network."

"This feature allows your PC to transfer files to and from other PCs or Steam Decks on your local network, reducing your Internet traffic while downloading or updating a game," appears below the new configuration options. 

The Steam Deck has proven to be pretty successful for Valve, and while not rare as hen's teeth as some gaming hardware can be right now, Valve is already planning on a successor to the device. The good news is that the quality of life updates for the Steam Deck is just getting started, and this seems like a great new feature that many players will find very useful.

As a Brit, you can probably imagine I'm pretty excited about this mod in more ways than one. We've rarely seen the Fallout universe outside of the United States of America, so to see a mod bring that lore into the streets and settings I know well is incredibly compelling. It adds a certain emotional impact to see London in a post-apocalyptic setting, even if it is through an unofficial mod.

Sometimes though, mods are just so professionally done that you find yourself just as excited, if not more so, than if it was an official release. The latest update shows off just some of the progress the mod team have been making, including a closer look at the robotic residents of London. Perhaps most amusingly of these is the post killbot, an iconic red pillar box typically used for mail, being turned into a deadly killer robot.

With a circular saw in one hand and a grabbing claw in the other, I suspect it won't be sorting your mail anytime soon. It looks fast, too, with big chunky wheels (and a rather amusing stabiliser on the front) - another bot, based on a naval sea mine, is also featured. On rare occasions, they still crop in the Thames as relics of the second world war, but these ones are somewhat unique in the fact that, well, they've got legs.

Finally, I'm excited to see the team has developed the planned London Underground network further, being able to create a fully functional train system. Rather than using "sideways elevators" to make trains work, the team have developed a fully functional system that means you can ride trains across London at any time. If you've ever visited London, "The Tube" is an iconic and critical part of getting around the city, so it's wonderful to see this integral part of the experience getting the attention it deserves.

There's plenty more to see in the video too, although nofollow there's no word on when we might expect a release. In the meantime, you can keep track of the team's progress on their website.

The change signals the end of separate titles for each wave of new Hitman content, which makes sense given that each release has carried over the content from its predecessor each time, making having multiple copies of essentially the same content redundant. Previously, you needed to own Hitman 1 and 2 to access that content in 3 - but in the future, all content will be available in a combined bundle.

This should help simplify things. Right now, there are six variations of the base Hitman 3 game on sale, along with Hitman 1 and 2 sold separately, and that's before we get into DLC. To get the most out of the game, though, you'll need the content from all of the games in the trilogy, so it's nice to see this is finally getting addressed. According to developer IO Interactive, World of Assassination will be "the single available option to start playing." 

"There will be no more confusion over which edition to buy, what content you own, how to redeem Legacy packs or import locations, etc.," they added. "We’re done with that."

New players will get access to all content from the entire HitmanTrilogy when they purchase World of Assassination, with just one Deluxe Pack being sold as an additional extra, which will combine 3 previous expansion packs from Hitman 3 and Hitman 2.

If you're already playing Hitman 3 without the content from the previous games, though, you'll need to pay a little extra to get access to the content. According to IO, you'll be able to "complete the set" for a small one-off payment, which will be much cheaper than buying World of Assassination as a new game. 

As for the future of Hitman, this change signals the latest move towards becoming a fully-fledged game as a service. The changes will be rolled out on January 26th.

The studio shared the news in a developer update following the release date on the game's official Steam page being updated earlier in the day. They stopped short of giving an exact date, leaving the entire month open as a potential release window.

The remake was first announced in 2015 and is a remastering of the original 1994 release that spawned a number of successful games before eventually pivoting into the BioShock franchise. Development was put on hold in 2018 before recently returning to what they're now describing as a "faithful reboot" of the original.

Essentially this means more modern gameplay and design principles have been adopted, in addition to a visual upgrade. New enemy types have also been added, weapons have been improved, and a new dismemberment system means you'll be able to blast enemies apart for the first time; with Nightdive commenting that “dismemberment has been a high priority for us and every enemy is receiving a completely custom dismemberment model, there are a lot of enemies and the amount of effort being spent on this is staggering.” 

Finally, Nightdive issued some reassurance over the release window; "as some of you have already pointed out this is not our first time announcing a tentative launch window, but over the past few years much has changed,” they said. “The scope and scale of the project has evolved dramatically and with Prime Matter joining the project it’s enabled us to focus on quality-of-life improvements, bug fixing, and localization support – the last major steps towards releasing a game we’re all incredibly proud of.” 

But fear not, young tarnished, as a Peaceful Ring from modder Rainer Geis is here to save your bacon. Now you'll be able to explore the entire world without the hassle of being killed constantly by callous enemies. 

The mod essentially serves as a super-easy mode. Enemies are still there; you can still attack and kill them, but they'll no longer attack you, leaving you to explore the Lands Between without fear of repercussion. Sure, you can cheese your way through the game this way if you want to feel about 2 inches tall, but the mod has some useful applications, too, such as creating gorgeous screenshots or just generally exploring the world post-game.

Using it any other way feels a little like cheating, but what do I know? I cheesed my way through with the help of the GameFront chat... arguably, if you're new to FromSoft games, it could serve as an excellent little training tool to get used to the mechanics. I wouldn't get too used to trying to play this way, though; I'd save this mod for after you've beaten the game.

Still, if you're interested in some casual, relaxing exploration, then head here to grab the mod for yourself!

Speaking with Famitsu, he noted that the hugely successful movie sequel, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, kicked off the year the right way, with the subsequent Netflix show Sonic Prime also launching this year. I believe both the film and the series have been successful, with Sonic 2 proving even better than the original, focusing more on the core Sonic characters and lore than the first movie did.

Similarly, Sonic Prime was a decent outing; while lacking a lot of the humour of its predecessor, Sonic Boom, its overarching story and stunning visuals brought something a little more SatAM to the table compared to Boom's Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog.

The video games, on the other hand, I have mixed feelings about. Both Sonic Origins, a repackaging and remastering of the original 2D era Sonic games, launched on PC, next-gen consoles and Nintendo Switch this year, while the first AAA game in some time, Sonic Frontiers, set to redefine the genre by copying Zelda: Breath of the Wild and getting inspiration in gameplay mechanics from Ubisoft games.

Even though Frontier's repetitive, grind-to-win gameplay and uninspired levels are not my cup of tea, it's proven popular with fans. The good news is Iizuka wants to keep that momentum going next year. "We are preparing a second wave to keep the fans happy and maintain that momentum going into 2023. We already announced additional content for Sonic Frontiers, but there is a lot more outside of that, so please look forward to it." 

And perhaps the good news for fans like myself is that Sonic Team's director, Morio Kishimoto, believes that Sonic Frontiers "still has a long way to go" too, and that the entire team were "checking out the opinions of the critics and players" and that the team "will take this seriously as a global playtest."

On the other hand, it's also likely to be the defining format for Sonic games going forward, unfortunately. Iizuka stated that he sees the transition as transformative as the one from 2D to 3D with Sonic Adventure in 1998.

"Our goal with Sonic Frontiers was to evolve the linear, stage-clearing 3D action that began with Sonic Adventure in 1998 into a new action-packed adventure game where players have the freedom to explore the environment around them." He added that the new gameplay style will be the cornerstone for future games, stating that the "brand-new approach marks another defining moment for the franchise".

The new trailer, entitled "Come to Me," shows off two and a half minutes of gameplay, giving you a small taste of the game's unique atmosphere and detailed, open world. Everything you've come to expect from the series is here, with plenty of mystery, dilapidation and horror, although interestingly punctuated by moments of beauty, especially the poppy field at the end. It's emotive in more ways than one.

While the studio confirmed a release date of 2023, there's no word on when, exactly, the game will release. Understandably, the game has suffered some development issues, with GSC Game World suffering a very real impact from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a result, the company has since relocated most of its development teams to neighbouring countries.

The company also paid tribute to one of its developers, Volodymyr Yezhov, who was tragically killed while fighting for Ukraine against Russian forces.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will be released on PC, along with Xbox Games Pass for PC and Xbox Series X|S consoles, next year.

Firstly, It Takes Two is currently on sale for 60% off - you'll need a friend to co-op with (although they can play along for free!) - but if you do happen to be fortunate enough to have a friend, it's possibly one of the best experiences I've had playing a video game in a long, long time. It's a heartwarming story that forces you to work together to solve problems and grow stronger in your relationship. I genuinely believe this game should be used as a marriage counselling tool.

Similarly, Half-Life Alyx is also on sale for 60% off - you'll need a VR headset this time (but no friends, so yay....I think?) - but if you do happen to be fortunate enough to have a VR headset of some kind, it's one of the most immersive, compelling and intense VR experiences I've ever had. Everything from the intuitive control scheme, the graphical fidelity, and the wonderfully engaging story is brilliantly executed. There's some impactful lore in here too.... honestly, get a VR headset just for this game. It's worth it.

Finally, Resident Evil Village is half-price right now, and it's safe to say it took the crown as my favourite-ever Resident Evil game. It's part of a combined story arc with Resident Evil VII, so I recommend playing that first if you haven't, but both games are fantastic romps through sheer jumpscares, tension-building combat, and intense puzzle solving, with Village, in particular, having a nice mix of gameplay styles as you progress around each area.

There are a few more noteworthy deals to be had too, including;

• 50% off Cyberpunk 2077
• 75% off Assassin's Creed Odyssey
• 88% off Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
• 66% off Total War: Warhammer 3
• 75% off the Mass Effect remastered trilogy

There are way more deals to be had, with over 4,000 games currently discounted. If you're looking for more great deals, you can also grab Dishonored 2 for free with a Prime Gaming subscription right now.

However, some players are becoming victims of a rather unusual bug (although with this game, it could very well be a feature), with players randomly getting trapped inside a random branch of Applebee's that happens to be on an alien world. The problem is that even when restarting from a checkpoint, there's no way to get out... the only option is to start a brand new game.

Even when you consider High on Life's self-referential humour, this seems like a step too far to be intentional. We don't have Applebee's here in the UK (although I have heard of the brand), so for those unaware, it's an American restaurant chain that we Brits might compare to something like Harvester. It's an odd place to find in space... and even odder to get trapped inside one.

Here's to hoping that the glitch is fixed soon, and players can continue on with their old save games. Bugs aside, though, I highly recommend picking up a copy of the game. If you're a fan of the aforementioned animated series, you will have a riot, although I can understand how the game may be a little "marmite" for some.

The good news is that it's still manageable for most systems. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the new minimum specifics are similar to Modern Warfare 2. The biggest impact is to players with older Intel Sandy Bridge or earlier CPUs, and the minimum bar to entry for graphics is now set to the GeForce GTX 960.

Minimum Specifications

OS: Windows 10 64 Bit (latest update)

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 / Core i5-2500K or AMD Ryzen 3 1200

RAM: 8 GB

Hi-Rez Assets Cache: Up to 32 GB

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon RX 470

Video Memory: 2 GB

Recommended Specifications

OS: Windows 10 64 Bit (latest update) or Windows 11 64 Bit (latest update)

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K / Core i7-4770 or AMD Ryzen 5 1400

RAM: 12 GB

Hi-Rez Assets Cache: Up to 32 GB

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580

Video Memory: 4 GB

Competitive Specifications

OS: Windows 10 64 Bit (latest update) or Windows 11 64 Bit (latest update)

CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 7 1800X

RAM: 16 GB

Hi-Rez Assets Cache: Up to 32 GB

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060Ti or AMD Radeon RX 5700XT

Video Memory: 8 GB

You'll also need a minimum of 12GB of memory to meet the recommended specs. While most mid-to-high gaming PCs from the last 10 years should meet these requirements, if you've been holding on to your classic for the best part of a decade, then now might be the time to upgrade. 

While PC components are becoming more widely available, especially RTX 4080 GPUs which appear to be sitting on shelves, they're certainly not cheap in this day and age, so upgrades and new PC builds are out of reach of a lot of gamers these days, unfortunately. The good news is that most PCs should be able to handle Warzone 2.0  just fine.

You probably already have Amazon Prime, at least I do; it's saved my bacon this Christmas... and Prime Gaming is one of the many often-overlooked perks that come along with free deliveries of goods and an eclectic collection of on-demand movies and TV series. All you need to do is visit the Amazon Prime Gaming website, grab your code, head to GOG, and claim your free copy.

The good news is your copy of the game is DRM free, and you get to keep it for life, even if you cancel your Prime subscription. Neato. It's worth picking up - despite being a sequel - the game is an excellent stand-alone experience and has a beautiful Steampunk setting. It takes place in a city named Dunwall, and players can choose one of two characters to play through the story in whichever way they choose.

The free game offer is available between December 27, 2022, and February 14, 2023. 

Released as part of the 0.13 patch update, the new map ups the anti much faster pace and sense of adrenaline thanks to its setting - you'll need to think on your feet and use your environment to survive here - making it a nice change of pace from what we've seen so far.

As you can see from the trailer above, the city is incredibly detailed and there's a ton of variation in strategy that could be applied here. It's not the only thing to be included in the patch though, with the trailer also showing off a few new items and weapons.

Some of the weapons being added include an AUG bullpup rifle, SR-2 submachine gun, RSH-12 assault revolver, and an under-barrel GP-34 and M203 grenade launchers. There's also a new boss being added in the update, along with new repair kits that will allow you add enhancements to your weapons and armour.

The update is out now, although the game remains in beta and is still under active development. That being said, there's also a New Year event taking place in-game right now the celebrate the new year, and the new patch launch.

Kojima, in an interview with IGN, added that "while the games themselves are based on characters who are not bound by our reality, the players themselves have gone through the pandemic, and a story written before that experience just wouldn't resonate with them in the same way." 

Death Stranding already tackles themes similar to the global pandemic, which, in hindsight, makes the original all the more impactful to play through. It tackles themes including the disbanding of humanity and communities becoming isolated due to global disaster. Kojima felt the global pandemic is having a similar impact on society in real life today.

"I personally feel a sense of danger regarding the continued movement toward promoting remote work, leaving Tokyo, and minimising the amount of face-to-face contact required because of the pandemic," he said. "Humans exist in a physical reality. When I went to America and finally got to hug people again, that feeling was just so different." Kojima plans to address these themes in Death Stranding 2, adding that "creating connections was the right thing to do in Death Stranding, and there are a lot of isolated people who were able to survive because of connections once the pandemic really happened. I just wonder whether we should be doing that via the Internet alone."

 He also adds that he feels other issues of "isolation and division" have similar effects on humanity. However, he didn't elaborate on specifics - that being said - he has no plans to make Death Stranding 2 political.

"Entertainment can't intervene in politics, nor can it be used as a weapon. The existence of entertainment can change the world, though, and I want to help put life into people by providing them with entertainment." 

Death Stranding 2 has been confirmed as a PS5 exclusive, but we're hoping it also comes to PC later, much like the original. There's no release date confirmed yet, but we expect the game to be released at least in 2024, if not later.

There are three Colosseum's in the game, located in Limgrave, Leyndell and Caelid. Each one has a slight variation on the game modes available. The easiest Colosseum to reach is in Limgrave. Simply travel to the grace at the Warmaster's Shack and head North along the path, until you eventually reach the first Colosseum. Open the doors, and you'll be able to partake in both one-on-one "Combat Ordeal" mode, where it's every Tarnished for themselves, or team combat, where combatants are split into teams of two.

The Caelid Colosseum can be found at the most northerly point of the region. If you remember doing the Great-Jar's side-quest, then you'll remember this area. Travel to the grace at Deep Siofra River Well, and travel along the canyon until you reach the front door, just behind the Great Jar. This arena has the same modes as the previous one, but allows players to spawn their spirit summons, making battles a little easier.  There's also an additional mode called Duel, which is a 1 vs. 1 mode where the first to die looses.

Finally, the Leyndell Colosseum can be found in Atlus Plateau, near the Royal Capital. If you've already beaten the base game, the easiest way to find your way there is to travel to the grace at Lyndell, Capital of Ash or at the Capital Rampart - then head towards the giant dragon wing found in the sandy desert. Climb up it and onto the walkways above, before heading up the stairs to the right.  This arena has all previous game modes found in Caelid, but spirit summoning is not allowed this time around.

Once you've found a Colosseum, you'll be able to easily start a game there at any time from the Roundtable Hold. Just head to the Marika at the back of the Hold next to the fireplace. Once you interact with the statue, you'll see all the options you've unlocked so far, allowing you easily choose your favourite game mode.

Have fun fighting your follow Tarnished in the Lands Between, and don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more GameFront walkthroughs!

The initial launch line-up will include the 6-core Ryzen 5 7600X for $299, an 8-core Ryzen 7 7700X for $399, and the Ryzen 9 7900X for $549. This puts the pricing of the new CPUs roughly on-par with previous generations of Ryzen CPUs, with the 7950X even promising to be around $100 cheaper.

The new chips are based on the Zen 4 architecture, which will finally deliver max boost clock speeds above 5GHz on Ryzen, along with new AI acceleration and a doubling of the L2 cache. This is backed up by the new AM5 socket, which will require DDR5 RAM. The new chips are also manufactured using a new 5nm process that promises to provide more performance per watt and more power efficiency for gamers.

According to AMD, the new CPUs will be roughly 29% faster than their equivalent 5000 series models in single-threaded workloads, which is great news for gamers, especially those who are still playing older titles. 

The lower-end Ryzen 7 chips won't be arriving until next year, unfortunately, so if you are holding out for the more affordable options in the lineup, you may be waiting a little while. The good news is that AMD hasn't entirely abandoned AM4 just yet, and promises to continue selling processors based on the old socket for the time being.

AMD have also committed to supporting the new AM5 socket standard through 2025 "and beyond," so its great to see that, much like last time, motherboards will be able to support newer and newer processors for some time to come.

We've now gotten a detailed look at one of these boss fights against Harley Quinn, thanks to a 7-minute gameplay preview courtesy of IGN. The video shows Nightwing taking on Harley, who appears to be holding a bunch of folks hostage inside of a hospital using mind-control.

Harley's vibe seems to be a little darker than recent depictions on the big screen, gone are the colorful pigtails, replaced instead with a playing-card spade painted onto her face (presumably this has something to do with the Joker) - but her trademark hammer and terrible puns are still present and correct.

Nightwing appears to have had some refinement to his gameplay based on previous gameplay previews, and we get to see a number of his special moves here including the ability to fire an ice stun from his wrists, along with rubber bullets. 

The fight looks surprisingly easy here in this video, perhaps intentionally, but it's more than likely being played by someone who's had a lot of experience with this particular boss fight. 

Gotham Knights is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam, and Epic Games Store on the 21st of October.

The deal has been in the works for several months, but according to Embracer, "all conditions for the transaction, including regulatory approvals, have now been fulfilled and the transaction may be completed. Embracer has, therefore, today completed the acquisition." 

We are happy to announce the completion of the acquisition of @CrystalDynamics, @EidosMontreal, & soon to be renamed @SquareEnixMtl! The companies will form the 12th operative group under the leadership of Phil Rogers. A warm welcome to all new colleagues.https://t.co/9t5nHktjEo

— Embracer Group (@embracergroup) August 26, 2022

The companies will form a new operative group under Phil Rogers. Embracer now has a number of popular IPs under its umbrella including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Legacy of Kain, and Thief - although outside of Tomb Raider, there's no word if there are any plans to create new games within these franchises. 

Embracer is acquiring studios at a rapid rate and is currently in the process of finalizing deals with multiple studios including Tripwire Interactive (the studio behind killing Floor) and Tuxedo Labs, the indie developer behind Teardown.

The good news is, at least for now, that Valve does seemingly have plans to release newer versions of the Steam Deck in the future, with more powerful hardware and improvements to the SteamOS platform. The details were found in an ebook published for Asian markets, where valve talks about its plans for the future, under the title of The Future: more Steam Decks, more SteamOS.

Valve states in the document that they "will follow up on this product with improvements and iterations to hardware and software, bringing new versions of Steam Deck to market. This is a multi-generational product line. Valve will support Steam Deck and SteamOS well into the foreseeable future. We will learn from the Steam community about new uses for our hardware that we haven’t thought of yet, and we will build new versions to be even more open and capable than the first version of Steam Deck has been."

It seems then that Valve is committed to the Steam Deck, at least right now - and it's easy to see why. The Steam Deck seems to have been the most successful product launch that the company has had to date, and the company has stated in the past that its previous hardware efforts have all culminated in this product. At a minimum, we should hopefully see some good quality of life improvements to SteamOS through the lifetime of the device.

Fast-forward seven months and one of those games, Dark Souls 3, is finally getting its online functionality back. Players can now once again invade, summon, and use soapstones to praise the sun in the form of glowing messages.

The bad news is that Dark Souls 1 and 2 are still offline, at least for now. Developer From Software has stated on Twitter that those two games will hopefully be getting fixes soon, though. 

Online features for the PC version of Dark Souls III have been reactivated.

We are working to restore these features for all other #DarkSouls titles and will inform you when they are back in service.

Thank you once more for your patience and support. pic.twitter.com/XHiCZDEANC

— Dark Souls (@DarkSoulsGame) August 25, 2022

The security flaw found in the online multiplayer of all three games theoretically allowed hackers to get low-level access to your PC, meaning they could steal personal data, passwords, or run arbitarary code on your machine. 

The servers were shut down before the issue was exploited, so nobody actually suffered any real loss, but fans of the games have been left fustrated ever since. With Elden Ring taking priority, you have to think that has to be a lot of the reason why the issue has been left unfixed for so long.

Despite all the delays and development problems the game apparently has suffered, it seems the release is now finally upon us, with the official system requirements now being revealed. If you were hoping to play this at 4K or on Ultra, then you may need to temper your expectations unless you're rocking the latest high-end hardware.

Still, this handy chart allows you to figure out what kind of hardware you'll need to run at the resolution and framerate you might be targeting.

If you're playing on PC, you're also going to enjoy some additional benefits including;

• An uncapped frame-rate
• Support for ultrawide monitors
• DLSS support for Nvidia GPUs and FSR for AMD
• Ray-Traced Global Illumination\

There are a few other extras too including a benchmark and various extra graphics options, along with the ability to customize the control scheme to suit you. 

Ubisoft also talked a little about the anti-cheat solution. The game will predominantly be an online experience (although you can play solo if you really want to) - as such the game will use BattlEye as its anti-cheat solution. Ubi is also warning that players will get banned immediately if they're caught cheating, no warnings.

Skull and Bones will be released on the 8th of November.

Which game are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments below! 👇

SEGA is apparently partnering up with Picturestart to produce the two movies, the same company that is also working on the upcoming Borderlands movie, launched by producer Erik Feig.

You'd be forgiven for not knowing what either of these franchises are, though, especially if you were born at some point after 1999. Comix Zone is a game I have many fond memories of, and was released on the Sega Genesis (or Mega Drive in Japan & Europe) in 1995. It was a pretty unique concept for a platformer, allowing you to play your way through an actual comic book, tearing down the border between the drawings, fighting enemies, and revealing the story through speech bubbles along the way.

Space Channel 5, on the other hand, was a rather obscure Dreamcast rhythm game with a rather unique Sci-Fi setting. You played as a journalist named Ulala, who found herself fighting hoards of invading aliens, as well as fellow reporters trying to steal the scoop. Apparently, the movie adaption will be a little different though. Simply named "Channel 5," it will see Ulala in the role of a fast-food worker who will be recruited to save the future from the invading aliens with viral dances...

As for Comix Zone, that will also apparently have its title truncated to just "Zone" (....ugh, why) and will apparently follow a young, queer comic book writer of color, who has become jaded with life, before unexpectedly finding themselves transported into the final issue of his own popular comic series, and having to stop a dangerous supervillain from causing complete destruction.

Interestingly though, SEGA game director Takumi Yoshinaga will be a producer on Channel 5, while SEGA veteran and producer Kagasei Shimomura will be a producer on Zone, along with Toru Nakahara, who also produced on both Sonic movies.

You'll once again take on the role of Beatrix LeBeau, tasked with building your ranch, managing your farm, and collecting sparkling slime to sell in order to build your operation. 

Where things differ this time will be the setting, this time being set on a new location known as Rainbow Island (presumably unrelated to the 1987 Taito arcade game) - this basically translates to a totally different visual style for the game, and my word, it looks pretty.

There'll of course be new slimes to collect, and you'll also be able to cross-breed these new slimes with the originals to create your own unique breeds, much as you could in the original.

Slime Rancher 2 will have a limited selection of content at first, with the developer Monomi Park stating that it will launch with "a big world to explore, many different slimes to collect and combine, and an introduction to the game story and the mystery behind Rainbow Island." 

You'll be able to grab the game in early access on September 22nd from Steam and the Epic Games Store, as well as PC Games Pass.

The news broke on Twitter via dataminer Ginsor, who posted screenshots of a set of Fortnite armor sets for the game. The good news is that they've been molded to fit the aesthetic of Destiny 2, rather than being all-out cartoonish, but it's still.... interesting to see.

Based on the screenshots, the skins appear to be based on Fortnite's Black Knight, Catalyst, and Omega. 

Fortnite Destiny confirmed pic.twitter.com/U3kZeFY6l8

— Ginsor (@GinsorKR) August 20, 2022

This all happens to coincide with further rumors that Destiny 2 might be coming to the Epic Games Store in the near future, possibly indicating a promotional tie-in.

It follows hot on the heels of a previous collab with Halo, and marks an interesting change in direction for the game. I can imagine there are a number of hardcore Destiny fans who aren't happy about the out-of-universe crossovers, but it's not clear yet if Bungie intends to continue this trend.

Perhaps we'll see some Fortnite dance moves in Destiny 2 soon, too. Season 18 gets underway tomorrow, so we'll no doubt find out more during Gamescom week. Stay tuned to GameFront for all the latest as we learn it.

You'll revisit some familiar locales including Nova Prospekt, before tracking down Dr. Mossman in a snow-covered facility - which presumably all ties into the events of Half-Life 2. From what I have played so far though, it's pretty fantastic stuff - featuring a fully voice-acted, detailed story campaign that should bring around 10 hours of gameplay.

And of course, there's the turret from Portal. Given both games exist within the same canonical universe, it's totally plausible, and brings some incredibly wacky moments to the story.

The turret is named Wilson (presumably a reference to the Tom Hanks classic Castaway) and you can use him to get the upper hand in a number of situations you'll find yourself in as you progress. 

In addition, the mod features a number of brand new enemies, weapons, and environments in addition to familiar ones. You're even able to give orders to teams of Combine, and deploy manhacks to track down and kill your enemies.

If you're interested in playing it, and I recommend that you do, you can grab it now on Steam.

The videos were originally posted to YouTube and documented Dailly's early work at DMA. Posting on Twitter, he confirmed that Rockstar was "issuing copyright strikes to any GTA video they can find - including both my prototype videos. So now they're trying to block all release of anyone's work on a game - and any old development footage." 

I see Rockstar are going full fuckers mode again, issuing copyright strikes to any GTA video they can find - including both my prototype videos. So now they're trying to block all release of anyone's work on a game - and any old development footage.

— Mike Dailly™ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇺🇦💙 (@mdf200) August 21, 2022

The videos showed off various renders from prototype versions of the game, including alternative graphic styles. Interestingly, one showed off a rotating, isometric view, as opposed to the top-down angle we're now so fond of. There was also footage from a beta version of what would become the final game.

Unfortunately, the experience has left Dailly unwilling to share these gems of development further. "I've now removed all GTA dev stuff. Only direct examples of my own work are left - work that was never used in GTA, but "inspired" parts of its evolution," he said in a statement to PC Gamer. 

It's difficult to see the reason why Rockstar and Take-Two would prevent these historical records to be publicly shared, given the age of the game, and the fact it was made freeware by Rockstar themselves at one point. I personally think game preservation and insight into the development process is not only incredibly interesting but important to preserve as a matter of historical record.

Hopefully, Rockstar and Take-Two change their minds on this decision.

The data comes via NPD, who are reporting that the game was the top-selling video game last month. Even more remarkable is the game only became available on the 19th, which means it rose to the top spot in just 13 days.

Of course, it helps that the game is free to play, unlike Elden Ring. Despite this, sales have been measured against the game's microtransaction content, including Founders Packs, which give players various tickets to unlock characters in the game. According to the data from NPD, these packs were the bulk of the game's launch to the top of the sales charts.

Since its release back in February, Elden Ring has almost continuously, and consistently, held the top spot for game sales. So far it's sold nearly 17 million copies, which means that, whatever happens going forward, it's pretty much guaranteed to still be the best-selling game of 2022.

The question remains though, what is the recipe to MultiVersus' incredible success? It's a solid brawler for sure, releasing on platforms that have long been crying out for a competitive alternative to Smash Bros. Player First has done a fantastic job developing the game to be sure, but the fact it's backed by the Warner Bros' IP, complete with every iconic character under that umbrella from Bugs Bunny to Batman, surely has to have helped.

According to Krafton, the game now has 80,000 more daily active users than before its conversion into a free-to-play title. Average revenue earned per user has actually increased too, by more than 20% per user, quarter over quarter. 

The game is feeling more like a F2P title than ever these days, doubling down on in-game cosmetic item sales, and brand cross-overs with properties such as Assassin's Creed. What isn't clear though is how much of the revenue is driven through mobile vs. PC. It's been a while since I tried the mobile version of PUBG, and found it to be a little bit of a wasteland, but perhaps things have picked up in recent times.

Krafton will also be showing off The Callisto Protocol, along with another new, as yet unveiled IP at Gamescom in just over a week's time - we'll have boots on the ground at Gamescom so stay tuned to GameFront for all the latest news.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick held a financial update call for investors today, where he stated that the next entry of the series was indeed in development.

The Rockstar Games team is determined to once again set creative benchmarks for the series, our industry, and for all entertainment, just as the label has done with every one of their frontline releases

It's true that GTA V managed to break multiple records, beating out even the highest grossing and profiting Hollywood movies. It's proved a real money-spinner for Rockstar and Take-Two, and there's no doubting the culteral impact on society of the GTA franchise at this point.

Big claims asside, though, that's pretty much all we got - there's still no real indication as to when, where, or who will feature in GTA VI, but speculation is doing the rounds that it may feature the first female protagonist in the series' history.

We'll be sure to report any further new on Grand Theft Auto VI as we learn it.

There'll be two weekends of playtests, and the first will be exclusive to PlayStation. The first will be for Early Access pre-orders and will take place on the 16th and 17th of September. There'll then be an open beta on PlayStation on the 18th, 19th, and 20th of September.

This is followed by the Xbox & PC Early Access beta on the 22nd and 23rd when a further, open beta for PlayStation will also take place. Finally, all platforms will have a final open beta between the 24th and 26th of September.

It's a bit confusing but, TLDR, PlayStation gets there first, and gets the most opportunities to play. Activision has made this handy little graphic to help you keep track of things, though.

Activision is promising that you'll get a "robust multiplayer experience" that will go beyond the traditional 6v6 modes we've seen before, with different map sizes and modes, along with other new features.

If you play the beta, you'll also be able to get some in-game rewards, and those who've pre-ordered the Vault Edition will also get access to all four Red Team 141 Operators during the beta testing, these being Farah, Ghost, Price, and Soap.

There'll be more details revealed on just what the beta will entail during the next showcase, which will also reveal details on multiplayer and Call of Duty: Warzone updates, on the 15th of September. The game itself releases on October 28th.

The first screenshot, courtesy of Twitter, shows off the settings menus and key-mapping menus, both critical features for PC players. You'll be pleased to know that you'll be able to reassign keys freely, and there'll be plenty of graphics options to tweak, including ray-traced reflections, and the ability to turn off certain effects like motion blur and chromatic aberration, which aren't everyone's cup of tea.

Some PC settings pic.twitter.com/KF84XO8fvr

— Nick  (@Shpeshal_Nick) August 6, 2022

The next screenshots leaked via Reddit show off the game on an ultrawide display, something I'm personally stoked about, although it doesn't seem like they have the graphics settings beyond mid-high. Still, if you're curious to see what the ultrawide experience will look like, here's a side-on first idea.

There's also a bunch more screenshots doing the rounds on Reddit. According to the official system specs, if you're rocking a 3080 or RX 6950 XT then you should be able to play at Ultimate Ray Tracing graphics settings, but it seems like there's plenty of configurable options for those on lower-end cards.

The game will release on both Steam and the Epic Games Store on August 12th. 

The new 40 series cards are codenamed Ada Lovelace and will be a significant upgrade over the older 30 series of cards, with the new cards based on TSMC's 5nm process, as opposed to the Samsung 8nm process in the 30 series. The good news is that Nvidia has also apparently learned from the mistakes of the 30 series launch, securing over $10B USD worth of the new 5nm wafers, in order to avoid stock shortages.

The chips in the 40 series will be named ADXXX, and the AD102 in the rumored RTX 4090 Ti will be the most powerful. The RTX 4080 will be based on the AD103 chip, and the AD104 will power the RTX 4070. As you can see in the table below, the latest rumored specs vary but should prove to be a significant upgrade over the 30 series.

Of course, Nvidia hasn't confirmed or publicly acknowledged any of these specifications, which may be red herrings or subject to change, but its a rough indicator of what we might expect. Even so, take it all with a pinch of salt. 

If true, though, then the RTX 4070 will provide roughly the same performance as an RTX 3090 Ti, a kick in the teeth for 30 series owners to be sure. The 3080 upwards will be breaking new ground in terms of graphical performance from there on. Thankfully though, prices should be fairly reasonable, as the crypto crash means that there's now a oversaturated market of cheap graphics cards.

As for when to expect them, all signs indicate that October will be the release timeframe, backed up by the latest leaks from Moore's Law is Dead. Some sources are suggesting however that only the RTX 4090 will be available in October, with the rest launching at some stage in 2023.

40 series chips are allegedly already arriving at suppliers, so it seems that production is ramping up, even if you might be waiting for the actual release. As for what to expect at retail, the pricing suggests that the RTX 4070 will clock in at $599.99 USD, with the 4080 at $799.99 and the 4090 at $1999.99, roughly in line with the 30 series launch pricing.

We'll be sure to bring any further news as we learn it.

If you've got the time, you could potentially rattle through the entire game in this timeframe (although you'll need to spend the entire weekend doing it) - but in any case, it's a great opportunity to check it out without putting any money down.

I played through it last year and while it's certainly visually impressive, it was rather average when it came to the storyline. It's definitely still worth playing through though, with its much-improved inventory system, and exciting set-pieces, you pretty much know what you're getting. The game takes place on a fictional island named Yara, which is very much echoing Cuba. 

You assume the role of a local Yaran rebel named Dani Rojas, a former conscript in the Yaran military turned guerrilla fighter who initially yearns to escape Castillo's violent crackdown on Yaran civil society for the American city of Miami. You can also select Dani's gender at the start of the game.

The free-to-play period is underway now and lasts until midday on the 7th of August, but you'll need to grab it either through Uplay or on the Epic Store. As you'd expect, if you don't manage to beat it by the end of the weekend, then you can buy it for 60% off until the 8th of August on Epic, or the 16th of August on Uplay - and naturally - your save games will carry over to the paid version.

There's no revised release date or reason for the delay yet either, according to the official Twitter account for the game. "We want to let everyone know that we are delaying the start of Season 1 and the release of Morty to a later date. We know this might be disappointing for some and want to assure our community that we are dedicated to delivering new and exciting content that delights players."

We want to let everyone know that we are delaying the start of Season 1 & the release of Morty to a later date. We know this might be disappointing for some and want to assure our Community that we are dedicated to delivering new and exciting content that delights players. (2/3)

— MultiVersus (@multiversus) August 4, 2022

They went on to add that they'll be letting players know as soon as possible when Season 1 would finally get underway. Some fear it may be related to Discovery's mass axing of various Warner Bros. properties following their merger, but according to several sources, MultiVersus is unaffected. 

Earlier in the day, details had emerged about the new season and the battle pass, with the Season 1 pass having 50 tiers for the price of 950 Gleamium currency, or roughly $9.50 in real money.

The game has been available for a little while in open beta, where presumably it will remain until Season 1 is officially rescheduled. We'll be sure to post any updates as we learn them.

For context, ladders sort of exist already in Fallout 4, but they act like a doorway to another area, in that the screen simply fades to black and you appear somewhere else. One modder by the name of neeher has managed to do that which Bethesda themselves could not, and bring actual working ladders into the game.

They're available for you to use in any settlement, and you have a selection of different ladder heights to choose from, from a single story up to around two and a half - allowing you to turn your huge post-apocalyptic structures into glorified climbing frames. There's even a lovely tutorial video that shows you exactly how they work.

Even the climbing animations look first-rate, from a normal regular climb through to a rather awesome fast-slide down. Heck, even NPCs can use them! If you're interested in checking it out, you can find all the details on Nexus Mods here.

The new DLC will be the second story content to be released for the game and will tell the story of agent Shen Xiu, aka The Huntress. There'll be a number of deadly new challenges, enemies, bounties, and more introduced in the DLC, too. 

While there's no firm release date yet, Techland says it's going to drop in the next few weeks, so expect it before the end of the month, and probably around the time of Gamescom. There's some hints of what to expect in the video above, too, as brand manager Anna Kubica and one of the game's designers, Karol Langier, talk about some of the content that'll be coming in the DLC.

There'll be some fixes for the base game too, with patch 1.5 releasing alongside the new DLC, hopefully addressing some of the long-standing minor bugs and niggles.

The tweet showed off a quick ten-second video that seemed to suggest that we should "gear up for an all-new contract," although quite what that extends to, we're not quite sure. It's a cool little teaser though, so I'm hopeful for some fun new content here.

It's our 1st Year Anniversary! We're humbled by the support and love we've had since launch. Thank you to our awesome community for sticking with us and for playing our game! We appreciate each and every one of you!

Now with that being said, we'll just leave this here... 👀 pic.twitter.com/v4JxRZe7i3

— The Ascent (@AscentTheGame) July 29, 2022

Developer Neon Giant also thanked fans for their support, stating "we're humbled by the support and love we've had since launch. Thank you to our awesome community for sticking with us and for playing our game! We appreciate each and every one of you!"

They then cryptically added, "Now with that being said, we'll just leave this here... 👀" - hopefully we'll find out more soon, but for fans of The Ascent, this is surely good news. 

It was announced alongside the release of the reveal trailer, along with confirmation that the game is being headed up by Team Ninja's two producers, Fumihiko Yasuda, who worked on Nioh, and Masaaki Yamagiwa, known for his work on Bloodborne.

The game seems likely to be pretty steep in Soulslike qualities both on the surface, and behind the scenes. It's set in feudal China and will see you take control of a militia member fighting to survive in a dark fantasy world that seems to be inspired by the Later Han Dynasty, putting the year roughly between 947-951 AD.

The latest tweet from the official Twitter account confirms that a "gameplay trial" is on the way, which roughly translated, means a playable demo. We don't know much in the way of details yet, or if it'll be infinitely playable or a one-shot demo, but it'll be exciting to give it a try before the release next year.

The game will also feature online multiplayer, along with what they describe as "challenging gameplay", which isn't a huge surprise to be fair. The game is due to release early next year and will be on PS4/5, Xbox Series / One, and PC via Xbox Games Pass.

Hardware has been in short supply ever since the pandemic hit back in 2020, coupled with general global economic decline. Steam Deck has been no different, with many orders being pushed back and delayed. It's not entirely clear which components are the cause of the supply chain problems, but according to some sources, switching to PCI express 3.0 and using two SSDs instead of the original 4 drives has managed to relieve some of the problems.

This means that most customers who paid a deposit for a Steam Deck and are still waiting should get their device, at the latest, before the end of December 2022. There may be room for new orders to also fit in the Q4 2022 timeframe, too, although if you've not yet put cash down for one, you'll most likely still be waiting until 2023 at the earliest.

Some orders may also be accelerated, with some customers currently slated to get their Deck during Q3 of this year now starting to see their orders fulfilled.

The changes to matchmaking will include the introduction of "loose SBMM" which will be introduced when Season 18 starts on the 23rd of August but is just the start of a longer project to give matchmaking in the game a much-needed overhaul. For those not aware, SBMM stands for Skills Based Match-Making and means that players will be more likely to be paired with others of their skill level, rather than being outgunned from the get-go.

SBMM is not without its detractors, though. While useful for new and inexperienced players, life can be tough at the top when facing extremely difficult competition and can make multiplayer games much more stressful for the top % of players, resulting in an ultra-competitive atmosphere.

According to Bungie though, it's needed; "In Control, the skill disparities on a team can be stark—over 50% of matches have a skill disparity of 900 or more between best and worst player, which is so significant that the outcome is already known before a single shot is fired." Bungie explains that this internal stat means that "once you get to a difference of 600 there is basically zero chance for the lower-skilled player to ever win a 1v1 conflict."

Weirdly, Destiny 2 used to have a version of SBMM, but it was disabled due to similar controversy as mentioned above. There's also the problem of the game's peer-to-peer architecture meaning that focusing matchups on skill rather than, for example, ping, results in more lag and teleporting issues.

That's where the keyword "loose" comes in. According to Bungie, it will be a softer version of SBMM, which will focus on connection quality too. "Our initial version of loose SBMM for the Control playlist is going to work a little differently. It starts with wider acceptable skill variance, and then expands very slowly on both acceptable skill and connection quality at the same time." 

That being said, expect some fallout when this feature goes live. Destiny 2 players are a passionate crowd, and I expect there'll be a mixed response to this - but that being said - if you're struggling to get a foothold in PvP, this might just be the solution.

The mod lets you take on eaves of enemies in City 17, as combine after combine come towards you. It's a lot more challenging than the baseline Alyx experience, which usually was fairly forgiving on the number of enemies, largely due to the VR nature of the game. Given you have to physically duck, cover, handle your weapon and reload it much as you would in real life, it provides for some intense moments.

The mod places Alyx Vance at a combine checkpoint just outside of the City 17 Quarantine Zone, forcing her to manage resources and "use clever tactics" in order to survive. Largely though there's no real story, more of a sandbox level where resources and enemies just constantly spawn, seemingly in random locations, which means you'll also get something of a fresh experience every time.

If you want to give it a try, you can grab it from the Steam Workshop, so it's pretty easy to install.

Enter the new Life of Crime mod, which adds an entirely new story mission mode to the game in the Red Dead Redemption 2 set, and you can even create your own character this time around.

It's pretty high quality too, with a brand new set of cutscenes, dialogue, and options, including the ability to have a male or female character. You start off breaking out of the Siska Penitentiary, before you meet an old friend who will get you started on your path to criminality - sounds like the rough framework for a lot of Rockstar games.

You'll be able to upgrade your character, play missions, engage in heists, and do the usual things you've come to expect in Red Dead 2's open-world setting. According to the modder, CruelMasterMC, "The whole point of the mod is to play as a completely NEW character." 

Given Red Dead Online will no longer be updated, you might be craving some new Red Dead content. You can download the mod now here, but don't forget to grab the dependencies such as Script Hook RDR2 which you can find in the description.

According to the article, which focuses on "internal development culture" at the studio, Grand Theft Auto will feature its first female protagonist, with further people familiar with the game also claiming she will be "Latina" - and one of two characters who will be leading the story, which is being described as heavily influenced by infamous bank robbers, Bonnie and Clyde. There's no word though on if the second character will also be female or not.

There's some other interesting information in the article too. Allegedly, GTA VI is codenamed 'Project Americas,' and has actually been in active development since 2014, which is getting on for 8-9 years now. The reports claim that it was originally going to feature huge areas across both the north and south of America, hence the codename, but allegedly is now focused on a Miami-type area, which would suggest perhaps a return to Vice City.

Perhaps controversially, the game is allegedly also going to take a live-service model, similar to games like Destiny 2, where new cities and missions will be added to the game over time, although this could be focusing on an online-only portion, similar to how GTA V and GTA Online work today. Rockstar hopes, however, that this new live service approach will reduce crunch, even with the base game being bigger in scope than GTA V.

Assuming that the reports are accurate, this all sounds very exciting. What are your thoughts on this potential vision for GTA VI? Let us know in the comments below!

The Witch Queen will launch with a normal and legendary mode of the new campaign, and Bungie have said in their recent ViDoc that “If you like games with standalone campaigns like Doom, Titanfall 2, God of War, and Halo, then The Witch Queen is for you.”.

Guardians who complete the Legendary Campaign will be rewarded with extra chests, loot, and a guaranteed 1520 power armor set upon completion. For comparison, the starting power level for The Witch Queen is 1350, so Guardians who are dedicated enough can likely skip out on most of the "grind" and get that guaranteed power boost upon legendary campaign completion.

Weapon Crafting

Guardians are also getting access to Weapon Crafting, a first for the franchise, allowing players to craft an initially limited selection of their "god roll" weapons through new quests and material exchanges.

The Glaive

In another first for the franchise, The Witch Queen will see the introduction of the first "first person melee" weapon archetype; The Glaive. The Glaive is more than just a first person melee weapon however, as it also features ranged attacks and shielding capabilities, really becoming a "one size fits all" weapon.

Wellspring

A new six person activity will launch with The Witch Queen; Wellspring. This is being billed as the "at the heart of the ongoing struggle for control of the Throne World."

Savathûn's Throne World.

A new destination in Destiny 2, the Throne World is the seat of Savathûn’s power, a twisted wonderland of corruption and splendor. Here, Guardians will seek the truth and learn that mystery makes a home in both the Darkness and the Light.

Raid - Vow of the Disciple

A brand new Raid will launch on March 5th at 6pm UTC, 1pm EST, the Vow of the Disciple. Bungie describes this raid as:

Among the swamps of Savathûn’s Throne World lies a sunken Pyramid. Guardians will gather their fireteam and confront the ancient danger that lies within.

Void 3.0

Void 3.0, the long awaited update to the light based Void subclass will also launch with The Witch Queen, converting the old light based subclass system to the new "subclass 3.0" system that was introduced with the last DLC, Beyond Light. This allows the player to customise the subclass further than the old subclass system through the use of aspects and fragments.

Season of the Risen

Alongside the new DLC launch, the latest season of Destiny 2 will launch, Season of the Risen.

This Season, Guardians will work with the Cabal empress, Caiatl, to foil Savathûn’s plans and defy the Light-wielding hordes of Lucent Hive that threaten humanity and the solar system. In Season of the Risen, Guardians will use Light-suppressing technology granted by an uneasy alliance with the Cabal empress, Caiatl, to stand against the Witch Queen’s growing army of Light-infused Hive.

Season of the Risen will also feature a new PsiOps Battlegrounds playlist, where Guardians will track down and capture high ranking Lucent Hive and with the help of Caitls Psions, will enter their minds into what bungie is calling the "Mindscape". Once inside these Lucent Hive's Mindscapes, Guardians will "cut through" Savathûn's leiutenants to achieve victory.

The new Seasonal Artifact is called the "Synaptic Spear", and will allow guardians to enter the Lucent Brood's Mindscapes, as well as allowing guardians to unlock new mods.

Along with a brand-new Seasonal story that directly connects to The Witch Queen, there are also new Legendary weapons, armor, cosmetics, weekly challenges, ranks, Triumphs and Seals, Trials, Iron Banner, and more.

Guardians will also gain access to a brand new Exotic Quest with Season of the Risen, below is all we know about this:

Investigate Psionic anti-Caiatl propaganda emanating from a bunker on Mars and unlock the Exotic Grenade Launcher, Dead Messenger. This wave frame breech Grenade Launcher generates a fan of three waves of impact and can rotate elemental damage types on reload, similar to other Exotics like Hard Light and Borealis.

So, that's all we know so far about Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, and Season of the Risen. Are you going to be sat in the queues at launch time? Maybe have the GameFront YouTube channel up on a second monitor, check out our Humble Choice playlist for some recommendations for other games to try out. 

Eyes up Guardians.

It comes as Esports is being recognised all over the world including this years Asian games. Esports in nature is extremely competitive and those players go through rigorous training and practice to ensure they are at the top of their game either playing alone or as a team. and it's a testament to the worlds Esports community, organisations, players and most importantly fans as to how they have grown and matured it into something that could be in the fully Olympics soon!

Dame Louise Martin, President of the Commonwealth Games Federation said:

Esports is continuing to grow dramatically in terms of popularity and participation, particularly amongst young people, and we are continuing to look at ways to explore how it can align with the Commonwealth Sports Movement.

You can read the full article on the BBC.

The game development then took a turn for the worst and it was never released. It seem as though in the demo we see a character that is different from the gameplay footage. Whether that is a side mission or the game changed to focus on a Boba Fett style character or maybe it's just our character with armour on is something of a mystery and only a developer could comment on. Although, since the winding down of the game we've had the Mandalorian and now The Book of Boba Fett coming to our screens in a huge swathe of bounty hunter content. The Vault has been working on collecting bits and pieces of information left from the old developer and have recently released this unseen gameplay for what they deem to be is Boba Fett:

The twenty minute preview takes you across some of those destinations and terrain that awaits you to traverse it upon it's release.

Check out the games Steam store page here.

The 4X strategy game gives you the ability to explore, grow and adventure throughout the stars and beyond. Wage war, conquer and form alliances to your society and evolve your race to be whatever you want it to be. The game has undergone an extensive free update history and an expansion pack which released in April 2021. 

The other games available are Golazo! Soccer League, As Far as the Eye, Ashwalkers: A Survival Journey and Double Kick heroes.

Prime gaming also gives away various packs for games such as League of Legends, Madden NFL packs, Grand Theft Auto Online currencies and so much more. View the full list of games and other goodies here if you have Prime.

The game offers a multitude of modes ranging from sandbox, campaign and even weekly challenges. There are of course five continents with 14 missions all varying in difficulty. The game has a very large research tree without over 30 perks to research and upgrade with their points system. 

The game offers a wide variety of playstyles to suit you and your strategy or the city you are needing to power. You can go for the power plants and energy storage methods of your choosing to make the most use out of what nature has given to you or forge your own path. 

Be sure to check out the games Steam store page here.

In addition, Rockstar Games celebrated the 20th anniversary with the launch of Grand Theft Auto III with the release of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy -- The Definitive Addition for current and prior-gen consoles and PC via the Rockstar Games Launcher with the title significantly exceeding our commercial expectations.

Mario Lu an Analyst at Barclays Capital asked during the Q&A about the bugs launched in the Definitive Edition if the bugs had been fixed and if there had been any changes made to the QA process so it doesn't happen again in future launches, particularly for GTA Enhanced next month. Strauss Zelnick responded with the following:

Thanks for the question. Yes, we are totally focused on quality here. And we always want to deliver the best possible experience. Very occasionally, we fall short.

And I think The Trilogy was an example of that. And the title was launched with some issues. We've addressed many of them. There are more fixes to come.

And going forward, we remain highly focused on quality, and we are exceedingly confident in all of our upcoming releases.

The GTA Enhanced game features GTA 5 coming to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X in March.  What's great to hear is the lessons are being learnt and hopefully we see the outcomes of that next month, and despite the issues faced in the Definitive Edition sales were strong and proved the fanbase is well and truly there for GTA. As we announced earlier in the month, GTA 6 is in development so the future is certainly looking bright for Take-Two but most importantly the GTA series.

For the Call of Duty series things are looking good, growth in their franchise increases at all levels from PC, console to even their mobile game thanks to those playing in China. They also have done some studio expansion in terms of getting more people worldwide and that investment has been put on on-going live operations and also new unannounced Call of Duty titles. 

For their Warcraft content we can expect to see more in 2022 for World of Warcraft and Hearthstone. The joint classic and normal subscription model has certainly helped retain a certain level of player base but the new content is what all the players are waiting on. Diablo II: Resurrected has been a hit with the fans selling more than any other Activision Blizzard remaster, and the mobile free to play version of the game Diablo Immortal has finished its public testing. We can expect a release of Diablo Immortal in the first half of this year.

New content is not just coming to Warcraft, Diablo and Overwatch and a new exciting game is coming too. However the big bit of news is the mobile Warcraft game that is included within the report:

Blizzard is planning substantial new content for the Warcraft franchise in 2022, including new experiences in World of Warcraft and Hearthstone, and getting all-new mobile Warcraft content into players’ hands for the first time.

We'll be keeping our eyes peeled for more announcements and will bring you updates as soon as we get them.

Yesterday Rockstar Games confirmed in a news post and a tweet that Grand Theft Auto 6 is in the works! They've said absolutely nothing more than to confirm it is in development so I'm sure lots of people will be speculating and hoping where the game will be based, will they take us back to Liberty City, keep is in San Andreas, maybe incorporate Vice City into the mix or go to a new place entirely? 

Let the speculation begin, but as always we'll bring you the news of any updates so you don't have to go searching. Here is the official tweet from Rockstar confirming the news:

Many of you have been asking about a new entry in the Grand Theft Auto series.

With every new project, our goal is always to significantly move beyond what we've previously delivered. We're pleased to confirm that active development for the next entry in the series is underway.

— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) February 4, 2022

The storytelling aspect is fantastic, Games Workshop have left Creative Assembly to do their thing and tell the epic story and create an epic adventure for those playing the game, all whilst keeping to the lore. It's a fantastic achievement and with the success of Warhammer 1 and 2 why would they want to reign them in now?

Upon the games release I know I'll be starting with Kislev just because I love their roster of snow leopards, armoured bears, and of course the Ice Queen herself. The game continues to bring about roster developments and improvements, but also refinement in terms of how the units work together. For example the Grand Cathay faction utilises a Yin and Yang system to build a good mix of troops for combat effectiveness or watch the battle turn in favour of the enemy.

The campaign map features are similar to that seen in Warhammer 2 with the Eye of the Vortex. However, players are now more so in control of where they need to be and go, instead of having to rush to far parts of the map to achieve various things. In order to make progress in the campaign the faction you control will have to get the power required to defeat the Daemon Prince Be'lakor. In order to do this they'll have to beat a champion of every Chaos god. To find them they'll have to get to the rifts created by Ursan that can take you into the Realms of Chaos. But be careful, once these rifts open warriors of Chaos will storm out of them and carry on if you don't take appropriate action!

One element of Total War games that is being constantly developed is diplomacy. There are some changes and improvements such as regional trading whereby you cannot complete an entire province because an ally has taken a settlement within it. A huge problem before that I've always dealt with by conquering them but in Total War games it's always that simple as it has multiple other diplomatic repercussions with your kin allies. There is also an option to request factions who do not have military access or an alliance to get our of your land without incurring a penalty, there are other options to get them to leave as well. Outputs are also a new feature in the game allowing you to fortify your allies defences in their settlement within a shared province or recruiting troops from their roster. I think an output in an Empire settlement with Demigryph Knights is going to be one of my first moves if I can reach them as Kislev!

Multiplayer has also had a re-vamp. There is an eight player co-op now possible! We'll have to wait and see how that works but if the developers are putting that in it must have made the campaign playthrough a bit quicker than it was under previous games. There is also a post-launch plan that we have grown accustom to with previous Warhammer games. Lots of DLCs will be incoming and support for the game.

In conclusion, this is the Total War game they'll be talking about for a generation. Not only will it complete the series but there will be an epic end to a journey started many years ago capturing the imagination of all Total War fans, even the naysayers are now converted! The game has told the story of Warhammer in such a brilliant way, adding to the richness of the lore but also the Total War series. It has also added a lot to other Total War games released and without this successful experiment I don't think the games Creative Assembly have created since the release of the first Warhammer game would have been what they were. The richness of the story, the unit details, the RPG element of the game where you take your heroes through a journey is also a lovely touch they've put into these games. Immerse yourself again and you won't regret it.

I leave you with one of my favourite YouTubers and his preview of Kislev in the new game, sit back, relax and wait for the 18th February when Warhammer 3 immerses us into their world once more:

Pre-order the games via Steam, EPIC or via the Total War store.

The engine is focused on simulation, which is expected for the types of games the studio produces. It's designed to allow impressive visuals while still enabling complex systems to drive gameplay experiences, while also being friendlier to hardware. According to the studio, games built with the engine will run "much better than before."

We want your 16-core PC Master Race builds to sweat, but we also want to make sure everyone can enjoy their content across various builds and console generations.

It will also set the studio up for more console releases in the future. So far, only DayZ has made it to consoles, and was developed using a prototype of Enfusion. According to the studio, the engine can run on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, but that does not mean games developed with it 'have to be ported' if it doesn't make sense for them to do so.

The engine is also developer-friendly, according to the studio, and is keen for modders and other studios to adopt it, featuring a dedicated modding backend that will allow for their own custom workshop to be built directly into the game.

The HR department at Bungie has also allegedly covered up malpractice at the company, with one staff member stating that "HR has never been there to protect employees. They've always been there to protect the company. I've watched it happen a few times at Bungie, where someone went to HR and things went completely sideways for them." 

According to a new email obtained by IGN, d'Hondt has resigned from her position, stating that she felt that Bungie needed "fresh blood" to lead the HR team to be seen as trustworthy. "I know that they need to be trusted to be your advocates – not labelled as 'enablers' or seen as company resources who provide bad actors with safe harbor", she said.

 In September of this year, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons had released a statement that Bungie was committed to "fostering a safe, welcoming environment for everyone" and that it was "making conscious and constant improvements through listening, self-awareness, improving our workplace and our systems, and by acting on behalf of our people." The statement appeared to have been prompted by the still-ongoing, but unrelated, issues of misconduct at Activision Blizzard.

In a new statement, Parsons stated that he wanted "to apologize to anyone who has ever experienced anything less than a safe, fair, and professional working environment at Bungie," adding that he was "not here to refute or to challenge the experiences we're seeing shared today by people who have graced our studio with their time and talent. Our actions or, in some cases, inactions, caused these people pain. I apologize personally and on behalf of everyone at Bungie who I know feels a deep sense of empathy and sadness reading through these accounts." 

"As CEO, it is my job to factor both the past and the future and be accountable for all of it, here and now. Speaking with the team at Bungie, reading the stories, and seeing both known and newly surfaced accounts, it is clear we still have work ahead of us." 

The game was originally released in 1994 but was very much ahead of its time in many respects. It's something of a spiritual precursor to the Bioshock series of games. Heavy on narrative and action, it's set on a space station in 2072, where you'll need to stop a rogue AI that controls the station.

Without further ado, here are the new screenshots (click to enlarge);

The great news is the game will be faithful to the original, with the original voice of one of the main villains of the game, Shodan, returning to re-record their dialogue, and many members of the original development team being involved in the remake. 

Taking to Twitter, he suggested that the game was supposedly a "surprise reveal" at the event and that some people have already been given materials alluding to the reveal. He followed up alleging that "people" saw a "playable version" just weeks prior to the awards, but that information was "blurry."

Bully 2 was expected as a potential surprise reveal at #TheGameAwards last week after some people have been shown some material alluding to a reveal soon.

Information is a bit blurry at the moment, and I have to be quite vague here, but if I hear more I will report on it. pic.twitter.com/OF53pU5Y8C

— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) December 13, 2021

Bully was a hugely successful game for Rockstar, but since its release in 2006, has never seen a sequel. It's had a few facelifts in the intervening years, with a tenth-anniversary mobile port and a graphically enhanced PC release, but fans of the game have been crying out for a sequel for the best part of 15 years at this point.

Like I say, take this with a pinch of salt, but if true, then it's strange the announcement was pulled. There are no similar events coming any time soon, so a reveal will probably now have to wait until the new year at the earliest, and possibly once we start getting into the spring or early summer when events such as E3 start to kick off.

We'll be sure to report any further rumblings as we hear them, though. 

Dre posted the preview to YouTube, and while the song hasn't been given a title, we now know that it'll also feature fellow rap artist Eminem. We also got a preview of some in-game cutscenes on Instagram, shared by rapper Anderson .Paak, who will also be involved with the new update and the song.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

A post shared by Little Sputnik 69 (@anderson._paak)

The screenshot shared on Instagram shows Paak and Dre recording the track, with both artists also appearing in the update itself as characters that you'll encounter.

The free update releases on Wednesday this week and will see you team up with Franklin and Lamar from GTA V, who have gone into business offering help to 'high-profile' celebrities, which will include Dr. Dre. 

The leak included both the name and specifications for the new card, which has since been taken down, but not before it was screenshotted and shared on the VideoCardz website. The listing revealed the entry-level card would feature 4GB of GDDR6 memory and have just two display outputs, one HDMI 2.1 and one DisplayPort 1.4 port.

👋 pic.twitter.com/zRatEcmyLJ

— 遠坂小町 (@KOMACHI_ENSAKA) December 11, 2021

It might have made a relatively decent productivity card though, with resolutions up to 8K at 60Hz supported, although obviously on the desktop and not in-game. In terms of gaming, we'd expect them to be roughly capable of playing less demanding games at 1080p easily enough, but don't expect record-breaking performance in that department.

If it's cheap enough though, it may make a solid card for Fortnite or other esports games, or as a decent stop-gap until higher-end cards become more affordable if you're currently looking at a new build. We'll be sure to bring any further details as we learn them.

The filing was made on the 6th of December according to VGC, which renews the trademarks that were last updated in 2017, with some changes being included such as changing the coverage of the trademark from "interactive multi-player computer games" to "providing an online computer game."

It's a subtle change in definition but one that might hint at plans for the series, such as adding online features that may include co-op or an always-online PvE mode. There are no specific details, and it's common for companies to renew trademarks regardless, but it does seem to back up earlier reports from VentureBeat that a new Splinter Cell game similar to the Hitman series was in development, possibly being an open-world title.

If true, the reports suggest the game is very early on in development, so there's no reason to expect any kind of announcement any time soon. It's also possible for plans to change or be cancelled. There's been little word on the franchise since the last game, Blacklist, was released in 2013, but it's clear that fans are clamouring for a new instalment. We'll be sure to report any further news as we learn it.

The leaked information was translated and shared on Reddit, which reveals that the new DLC will be set in the "magnificent Nine Realms in the mythology of North", where Eivor will "personally experience the fate of Odin", and find himself "shouldering the urgent task of saving children, unleashing the brand-new supernatural power of the thunderbolt." 

The game's senior community developer, Karen Lee, hinted at E3 in June that "Eivor is not done with Odin yet," so it all seems to line up. Also corroborating the leak is French data miner j0nathan, who posted details to YouTube that first revealed the name for the DLC, along with mentions of Muspelheim in the game's files, which suggests that will be one of the realms that you'll visit in this new expansion.

There's also a number of leaked images, that show Odin, along with a bracer that appears to have a blade attached to it. The environments also seem to be a mix of extremes, lava and ice, which also lines up with the premise for the DLC.

I'm guessing this new DLC will dive head-first into the more mythical elements of Viking culture, after the more factually-based DLCs we've had so far, so I'm pretty excited. We're expecting more details at Ubisoft's live premiere which will happen tomorrow, and we'll be sure to provide any updates as we learn them.

It'll be released on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC platforms (both on Steam, Epic Games Store and Microsoft Store) but will be included on Xbox Games Pass from day one, which is no doubt how many people are going to pick this one up.

There's a trailer showing off the new game too, which will feature a crew of US Rangers in Brittany, France, who have been sent to weaken a fortified Second World War stronghold. They soon discover a secret Nazi operation, though, and you'll soon find yourself in the midst of the action in an attempt to stop them.

The developers talk about building a "living, immersive environment" by using photogrammetry, a method that captures real-world environments and converts them into digital ones. Co-op play will be improved upon this time around, with players now able to share items, give orders, and heal each other for the first time.

There's also a new PvP system allowing you to invade another campaign ala Dark Souls as an Axis sniper, which should be interesting. Finally, the kill cam has had some improvements too, with developer Rebellion stating that "Bones deflect bullets unpredictably, ripping a new path through enemy bodies." 

Sounds gruesome. The game is set to release at some point during 2022, but we'll be sure to update you with any further details as we learn them.

Players are finding that nearly all of the 40 guns added in the new Warzone Pacific update are suffering from the issue, and it seems to be related to a new 'aim bloom' feature that is supposed to give bullets a random chance to land a few inches away from where you're targeting.

It seems to be a problem, though, with players finding the new feature causing an unfair disadvantage in fights, with Raven software now acknowledging they had gone a little too far with the new feature. Thankfully, a new patch has now been issued which "drastically reduced the amount of ‘Bloom’ on all base Vanguard weapons." 

It's still in the game though, and players are still unhappy, with Raven now confirming that the feature will be removed entirely in a new update. Apparently, "this process will take time, as we will need to determine adequate downsides to counterbalance the removal of Bloom, which will vary based on each individual Weapon and the type of Attachment they are attributed to." 

The patch does not affect Vanguard itself, however, just the Warzone component, which may make switching between the two games a little confusing. We'll be sure to report any further updates as we learn them.

He did however state that the studio had made positive changes, before adding that "it is not enough, and it has taken too long." 

In September of this year, Parsons had released a statement that Bungie was committed to "fostering a safe, welcoming environment for everyone" and that it was "making conscious and constant improvements through listening, self-awareness, improving our workplace and our systems, and by acting on behalf of our people." The statement appeared to have been prompted by the still-ongoing, but unrelated, issues of misconduct at Activision Blizzard.

That statement didn't sit well with employees according to the IGN report, who told of first-hand experiences of toxicity at the company, with 26 different employees alleging that there was an overtly sexist, "boys club" culture at the company, which also enforced heavy crunch, and actively protected those who were at the centre of the abuse.

The report claimed that the narrative team would be forced to work upwards of 100 hours a week at points, with requests for new team members to help reduce the stress frequently denied. The company allegedly told team members to stop the practice, but some staff members continued to crunch in order to avoid having to cut features. The allegation lines up with the delay of Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, which has apparently been delayed until early next year to ensure "the health" of the teams working on it.

The HR department at Bungie has also allegedly covered up malpractice at the company, with one staff member stating that "HR has never been there to protect employees. They've always been there to protect the company. I've watched it happen a few times at Bungie, where someone went to HR and things went completely sideways for them." 

Another employee talks about alleged sexism at the company, which has allegedly manifested in the female characters in Destiny 2. "I could go on for a long time about all the ways women have been made to stand by as the men on the team have written characters in baffling, unrecognizable ways," said one staff member. Another points to the character of Dervim Kay, a character within Destiny 2.

The character is gay, but Bungie demanded references to that fact be cut in order to continue to sell the game in Russia and China. In the end, a compromise was reached and the lines were "softened", but originally, the company had tried to remove any references to his sexuality altogether. 

A message from Bungie’s CEO, Pete Parsons.https://t.co/LsBrYmZCyU pic.twitter.com/nYmGXuEt1p

— Bungie (@Bungie) December 10, 2021

In a new statement, Parsons stated that he wanted "to apologize to anyone who has ever experienced anything less than a safe, fair, and professional working environment at Bungie," adding that he was "not here to refute or to challenge the experiences we're seeing shared today by people who have graced our studio with their time and talent. Our actions or, in some cases, inactions, caused these people pain. I apologize personally and on behalf of everyone at Bungie who I know feels a deep sense of empathy and sadness reading through these accounts." 

"As CEO, it is my job to factor both the past and the future and be accountable for all of it, here and now. Speaking with the team at Bungie, reading the stories, and seeing both known and newly surfaced accounts, it is clear we still have work ahead of us." 

The Bungie Foundation has suspended its Game2Give charity indefinitely while they "digest this news and support" employees, although the website will remain available until December 15th.

The news was broken by Herman Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, who stated that Valkyrie is "making invaluable contributions" to key PlayStation franchises, with the studio already deep into assisting development on God of War: Ragnarok.

Today we announce @valkyrieent will be joining the PlayStation Studios family. The studio will be making invaluable contributions to key PlayStation Studios franchises pic.twitter.com/sNTugminD5

— Hermen Hulst (@hermenhulst) December 10, 2021

Interestingly, however, the studio-for-hire has also done work with a number of Xbox Game Studios titles including Forza Motorsport 7, Halo Infinite, and State of Decay 2. Presumably they'll be focusing exclusively on Sony related work going forward.

Valkyrie joins a number of developers including Housemarque (Returnal), Bluepoint (Demon's Souls remake), and Nixxes, the developers of a number of PC ports, with Sony's strategy apparently to buy up and grow smaller, work-for-hire studios, rather than buy up big names as others such as Microsoft and Tencent appear to be doing.

It's been a fantastic year for video games though, with some amazing games including Deathloop, Resident Evil Village, Forza Horizon 5, Life is Strange; True Colours, and many more. 

Specifically, it was great to see Maggie Robertson winning the award for Best Performance for her role as Lady Dimitrescu in Resident Evill Village, and I was personally thrilled to see that Life is Strange: True Colours had recognition, winning the "Games For Impact" award.

Here's the full list of winners from the event;

• Game of the Year - It Takes Two
• Best Game Direction - Deathloop
• Best Narrative - Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy 
• Best Art Direction - Deathloop
• Best Score and Music - Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139
• Best Audio Design - Forza Horizon 5
• Best Performance - Maggie Robertson as Lady Dimitrescu
• Games For Impact - Life is Strange: True Colors
• Best Ongoing - Final Fantasy XIV Online
• Best Indie - Kena: Bridge of Spirits
• Best Mobile Game - Genshin Impact
• Best Community Support - Final Fantasy XIV Online
• Innovation in Accessibility - Forza Horizon 5
• Best VR / AR - Resident Evil 4 VR
• Best Action Game - Returnal 
• Best Action / Adventure - Metroid Dread
• Best Role Playing - Tales of Arise
• Best Fighting - Guilty Gear - Strive -
• Best Family - It Takes Two
• Best Sim / Strategy - Age of Empires
• Best Sports / Racing - Forza Horizon 5
• Best Multiplayer - It Takes Two
• Content Creator of the Year - Dream
• Best Indie Debut - Kena: Bridge of Spirits
• Most Anticipated Game - Elden Ring
• Best Esports Game - League of Legends
• Best Esports Athlete - Oleksandr "S1mple" Kostyliev
• Best Esports Team - Natus Vincere
• Best Esports Coach - Kim "Kkoma" Jeong-gyun
• Best Esports Event - 2021 League of Legends World Championship    

Do you agree with the choices? Let us know in the comments below your favourite games from 2021, and which titles you're looking forward to getting your hands on in 2022!

The game was released exactly one year ago today and was met with a ton of heat for poorly optimized last-gen console ports, various bugs and glitches, and a number of lacking features such as police AI. There's been a lot of work put into the game since then, though, and as of today, the game has a mostly positive rating on Steam.

The game's Quest director, Pawel Sasko, commented on how the game was one of "the biggest challenges" of his career and proved to be a turning point, although he still adores the game and hopes to work on it for "many more years."

Dear #Cyberpunk2077,

Today you are 1 year old. You have delivered the biggest challenges in my career and thought me persistence, humility, and courage.

I adore you, tough bastard. To many more years 🥂 pic.twitter.com/8rhn3S2ZUG

— Paweł Sasko (@PaweSasko) December 10, 2021

Meanwhile, the game's senior-level designer posted about how working on Cyberpunk 2077 "blessed me with the most exhilarating, hilarious, exhausting, frustrating, and insightful moments in my life."

Reflecting ont the challenges, he stated that "game dev isn't easy" and that it "sure wasn't easy to make this game," but that he "wouldn't want to trade my experiences for anything." He also added that "having seen my colleagues fighting, pushing and succeeding not only for improvements on our game, but the way we do things as a whole has left me in awe and optimistic about the future."

#Cyberpunk2077 is having its first anniversary today and... well, what a ride it's been coming all the way from when I switched projects after concluding Blood & Wine in 2016.

— Miles Tost (@tostspender) December 10, 2021

It's great to see the game has slowly turned around. Despite the bugs and issues when it was first released, it was one of the most compelling games I've played in a number of years, with fantastic environments, an immersive story and great casting.

It's great to see the game is finally getting to a place that everyone is happy about, and hopefully, we'll start to see the first DLC drop at some point during 2022.

The trailer was entirely cinematic but is the first piece of fresh Alan Wake content in over a decade. It seems that Alan's woes are far from behind him, with the sequel seeming to lean heavily into the survival horror aspects, at least as far as I can tell from the trailer.

Indeed, the game's creative director, Same Lake, stated at the event that the game is "Remedy’s first survival horror game" and "our take on the genre. Our opportunity to truly connect the gameplay and the story. It is a deep, layered mystery." 

The game is set to release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in 2023, with more information coming in Summer 2022, when we can expect another new trailer and some initial story details.

The news was revealed with a new trailer that chronicled the history of the game, before revealing the move to free-to-play on the 12th of January next year. As mentioned though, competitive ranked play will still have a $12.99 entry fee, with something called 'Battlegrounds Plus,' an upgrade to free accounts that also gives players some additional cosmetic items.

If you already own the game, you'll be upgraded to Battlegrounds Plus for free, and you'll also get a commemorative pack of cosmetics, too.

It's been a long-time coming, with the game having a number of week-long free-to-play events this year to test how a move to free-to-play would work out. The game practically invented the Battle Royale genre but has since been overtaken by F2P alternatives like Fortnite, Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone. The OG Royale still holds a strong player count and is clearly looking to regain some lost battleground.

Microsoft is fond of rebranding and confusing their consumers, frankly, but this is one change I can get on board with. Xbox Games Pass for PC was brought in as a companion for Xbox Games Pass back in 2019 and has since grown its roster of games significantly. The name was always a little clunky though, and many at the time wondered why it wasn't simply PC Games Pass (my PC isn't an Xbox, after all...)

PC Games Pass gives players access to a large number of games to download and install through the Microsoft store, which you can play as long as your subscription remains active. It's complemented by Xbox Games Pass on consoles, and Xbox Games Pass Ultimate for access to both, along with Xbox Live Gold features.

The new name makes much more sense anyway. The games on PC Games Pass aren't all Xbox games, and it's just a cleaner, shorter name. It has a new, complimentary logo too, revealed at The Game Awards last night.

The game was developed by Hazelight Studios, and serves as something of a spiritual sequel to their first game, A Way Out. There's no single-player mode, instead, you must work with a friend to play through the almost Disney-like levels and charming story. You don't have to buy two copies though, as any of your friends can play with you for free, even if they don't own the game themselves.

I played through the game with Zac over on our Twitch channel earlier this year, and I have to admit I'm incredibly excited to see the game has won the top award. It's certainly one of the most compelling video-game experiences I've had in a long time, and it's well deserved, in my opinion. Also, The Book of Loooove. The best character, hands down.

The award was accepted by director Josef Fares, who stopped short of his infamous "fuck the Oscars" quip from the 2017 awards, instead thanking the team and dedicating the win to his daughters. 

The game also took home the Best Family Game award against an entire roster of Nintendo titles, impressively. There was plenty of other noteworthy winners at the show though, and we'll be bringing all the latest updates throughout this evening.

It's the first game of the brand new High Republic era for Star Wars, which will allow us to explore it and soak in the tensions, storylines and drama before the latest movies and series hit us in a few years. 

The game is currently in early development, and so far, we know that it will take us on a journey through multiple characters that will meet in their journeys and lives throughout the galaxy. As a player, you'll create unique stories and make choices that will affect the character and, of course, the galaxy. 

The game will be focused on the Outer Rim with never seen before planets that will offer the developers the unique ability to be creative and try to create a scene of the High Republic era that will take Star Wars into the hearts and minds of the new generation. We'll bring you more information as we get it on Star Wars Eclipse, but in the meantime, sit back, relax, and enjoy the official cinematic.

That seems to be continuing, as the game has managed to hit an all-time record for concurrent players on Steam 11 years after it first launched, thanks to the release of Endwalker, the latest content added for the game. The new peak player count was 95,150, which smashes the previous 67,148 back in July.

Given the game is also available from the Square Enix store, and on PlayStation 4 and 5, it's safe to say a lot of people were playing the game that day. Queues were long this past weekend, to say the least, leading to error messages and players having to queue, unfortunately, with wait times being upwards of four hours.

Square Enix is also facing issues thanks to the semiconductor shortage, stating that they haven't been able to spin up new servers, despite the surge in players. As a result, they've offered everyone seven days of free game time to compensate for the issues.

Posting on Twitter, Keighley stated that "there is no place for abuse, harassment or predatory practices in any company or any community. I also realize we have a big platform which can accelerate and inspire change.  We are committed to that, but we all need to work together to build a better and a more inclusive environment so everyone feels safe to build the world's best games." 

Beyond its nominations, I can confirm that Activision|Blizzard will not be a part of this year’s #TheGameAwards

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) December 4, 2021

Activision Blizzard has been facing multiple allegations in a lawsuit that alleges the company has an ingrained culture of sexual, and racial, harassment against its employees. The company has since defended itself (and contradicted itself) by claiming the lawsuit is "distorted" and "in many cases false," while also calling the allegations "disturbing." The lawsuit, brought forward by the state of California, has also been criticized by Activision as being filed by "unaccountable state bureaucrats."

Keighley also spoke to The Washington Post before taking to Twitter, where he also stated that "We want to support employees and developers,we have to think very carefully about how to proceed here." He confirmed that there'll be no game reveals from the company, with Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 not featuring during the show. 

This will be the first time in a while that nothing new has been shown off during The Game Awards from Activision Blizzard. The only involvement this year will be two nominations for Best Esports Game for Call of Duty, and Best Ongoing for Call of Duty: Warzone.

Halo Infinite was originally slated as a launch title for Xbox Series X, but following widespread criticism about the apparent lack of graphic fidelity in the material shown so far, Microsoft has opted to delay its release by nearly a full year. At the time, Chris Lee, the head of Halo Infinite, stated that "The decision to shift our release is the result of multiple factors that have contributed to development challenges, including the ongoing COVID-related impacts affecting us all this year."

It's finally here though, with the game releasing worldwide later today. In my timezone, the United Kingdom, it's at 6 pm tonight, but here's the full run-down for you;

PST: 10 am
EST:  1 pm
GMT: 6 pm
CET: 7 pm
AEDT: 5 am

Some bad news is that the game won't include any co-op campaign at launch, which is a shame as I'd be quite excited about streaming that with Zac over on our Twitch channel. On the plus side, the multiplayer mode is still free, and a great way to give the game out for a spin before diving into single-player.

According to Eurogamer, the trademark was applied for by Hazlelight in May last year but was abandoned just before the game's launch due to intervention from Take-Two. The studio refused to comment in the article, stating the dispute was ongoing, but that they were "hopeful it will be resolved." 

The good news is that the dispute is unlikely to cause any problems with the game itself or force a renaming. According to industry analyst Michael Flutter, "the trademark conflict means that Hazelight can't protect the name, not that they will be forced to change it."

Take-Two has sent a trademark claim to Hazelight because of It Takes Two, forcing Hazelight to abandon any ownership of the game's name

No details yet whether the game will be renamed or how this impacts its sales/marketinghttps://t.co/Os6XFdmxHH pic.twitter.com/5KMrB4Rxv0

— Nibel (@Nibellion) December 3, 2021

Take-Two haven't given any indication that they want the name of the game to be changed either, but instead, simply want to oppose the trademarking of a name so similar to their own. Arguably that claim is valid. 

According to lawyer Richard Hoeg, speaking on the Hoeg Law podcast, "Take-Two is delivering a message with this kind of action to other lawyers, to other folks that could potentially use the word Rockstar, or the letter R, or the name Dot or Dots or Two Dots, or, as it turns out, Take-Two itself, and saying, 'Go away. You don't even want to get into this because we will just make your lives miserable',"

We'll be sure to keep an eye on the situation and report any further developments as we learn them.

Perhaps the most critical fix is for convoys, specifically, a bug that caused infinite loading for players trying to find a convoy to roll in. The feature has now been fixed, along with some general improvements to convoys including making the convoy icon on the player label more readable.

Horizon Arcade has had some love too, with improvements to the score target which now scales based on the number of players, along with a fix for an issue that caused convoy members to disappear. The matchmaking logic has had some tweaks, which should mean you'll land in bigger groups of players, and the leaderboards have also had some fixes and issues resolved.

Here's the full rundown;

Game Stability

• Various stability fixes
• Fixed crash that could occur when loading Chapter 6 in the Born Fast Horizon Story
• Fixed crash that could occur when replaying the Canyon Expedition
• Fixed a soft lock which could occur during the Baja Expedition

Multiplayer

• Improvements for an issue where convoy members and other players can disappear
• Horizon Open - Reduced the amount of races in Open Racing events before a car change, from 5 to 3
• Horizon Open - Removed The Goliath from pool to prevent long wait for race completion
• Horizon Open - Street Race routes will now be at night
• Horizon Open - Removed S2 Cross Country races from rotation
• Horizon Open - Fixed issue with scoring HUD in Open Drifting
• Eliminator - Randomised position of Eliminator car drops
• Fixed an issue where searching for a convoy via 'Find a Convoy' could result in an infinite load
• Convoy leaders accepting a Forza LINK invite now accepts for the whole convoy
• Convoy icon on Player Label in the map has been updated to be more readable
• Horizon Arcade - Score target now scales based on number of participants
• Horizon Arcade - Fixed an issue where convoy members were seeing different score totals
• Horizon Arcade - Prioritise grouping players in larger groups when event starts
• Horizon Arcade - Increased the time at which a Horizon Arcade event radius will appear on the map ahead of it starting to 10 minutes
• Horizon Arcade - Adjusted completion requirements for some Horizon Arcade events
• Horizon Arcade - Fixed issue where finding a Barn Find during a Horizon Arcade event could leave players in a bad game state
• Horizon Arcade - Fixed issue where Horizon Arcade Mini Missions HUD wouldn't show players when next mission is starting
• Horizon Arcade - Added unique icons for each Horizon Arcade game type on the map
• Horizon Arcade - Fixed an issue where some ramps might not appear during Horizon Arcade bullseye events
• Horizon Arcade - Reduced the completion requirements as part of Festival Playlist
• Made car restrictions for Horizon Tour clearer
• Fixed issue where beating a record in Rivals and Series Rivals wouldn't provide a new rival in the post-race screen
• Fixed issue where players could see incorrect points total in Playground Games events when a player left
• Fixed issue where no traffic was present for online street races
• Fixed issue with destination pin when playing expeditions in co-op
• Fixed issue with AI cars disappearing when playing expeditions in co-op

Wheel Compatibility

• Fixed an issue where button prompts were not appearing for users with a Logitech G920

Exploits

• Fixed an issue where players could tune their car to a higher class vehicle before starting a race
• Fixed an issue where times from Blueprint events could be erroneously posted to the leaderboard for the race at that location
• Fixed an issue where players were able to post to Rivals and PR Stunt leaderboards when using modified game speed settings

PC

• Fixed issue where Pause Menu could show two tabs at once when changing focus away from the game and unpausing with a controller
• Fixed issue where mouse input was being ignored in the Horizon Story Post Race Stars screen
• Stopped mouse being able to move the camera during Pre-Race cinematic
• Fixed an issue where low video memory warning could be displayed incorrectly on AMD Renoir
• Fixed an issue where running at 3440x1440 resolution would cause graphical artefacts on the screen edge
• Improved messaging around out of date drivers

Cars

• '98 Toyota Supra RZ - Corrected window trim issue and various other fixes to upgrade parts
• Added Freeroam Convertible functionality to the Willys Jeep and Porsche 918 Spyder
• '18 BMW M5 - Corrected colour in front left brake calliper
• '70 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler - Stock brakes can't be painted
• Fixed DeLorean logo on Car Collection screen
• Reduced Transmission whine on stock car audio
• Updated the engine audio for the Porsche 918 Spyder

Accolades

• Fixed an issue where some completed Accolades could reset to being incomplete
• Fixed an issue with Accolades for photographing the statues in the El Camino story not unlocking
• Fixed an issue where the Accolade for taking a short cut in the final Lucha De Carreteras story chapter would not unlock
• Fixed "Raised in the Desert" not requiring the player to be in the designated car
• Fixed "Unlimited Power" description to say Unlimited Off-road rather than Extreme Off-road
• Fixed "Ready, Set, Go!" unlocking if player lost the race
• Removed some Accolades which could become incompletable which required the player to complete a PR Stunt in a specific car
• Corrected typo on the "A True Advantage" description from 2018 to 2019 Aston Martin Vantage
• Fixed "Ford of the Wings" where the objective wouldn't appear when pinned
• Fixed issue where "Monster Destroyer" would not complete if the player wins after a restart
• Updated the "Canon Run" accolades to use the correct name
• Corrected the number of air skills required for the "Air In A G Wagon" Accolade
• Fixed an issue with the "Unbeatable Dirt Racing" Accolade counting progress incorrectly
• Fixed "Money To Burn" Accolade directing players to wrong drift zone
• Updated "Don't Break It, There Isn't Many Left" Accolade to inform player of danger sign they need to complete
• Fixed issue where pinning Accolades for some danger signs would not set the route correctly
• Added ability to jump to rewards in the Accolade menus

Super7

• Super7 second pre event screen now shows Title and Description rather than the Creator and Description
• Fixed issue in Super7 where players can experience a long load if creating a challenge far from a road
• Fixed issue where Super7 challenge props wouldn't load after publishing
• Fixed issue where player could stop getting new Super7 challenges
• Removed an incorrect VO line from playing when returning to Freeroam from Super7

Other

• Fixed an issue where Seasonal PR Stunts would state 1mph/1ft/1m more required despite meeting the completion criteria
• EventLab - Props will now appear as the colour variant selected before being placed
• Removed some erroneous props present in the stadium when creating EventLab events
• Fixed an issue where players could not see their own Events in Event Blueprints menu
• Changed "Place" variable in Rules of Play to "Rank" to be more representative
• Fixed issue in Blueprint Builder where prop thumbnail wouldn't appear
• Altered the flow of the Forza LINK tutorial to avoid players with custom control mappings getting stuck
• Added scrolling delay to long Forza LINK phrases to help with legibility
• Fixed an issue with Forza LINK when sending "Follow me" in reply to the barn find request not setting a route
• Rewinding during a showcase could cause the game to ignore the offline game speed accessibility setting
• Infiniti Car Collection now awards the "STONKS" Forza LINK phrase
• Fixed issue where player would get spawned in the wrong location when replaying Expeditions
• Added accessibility option to progress Horizon Stories without completing the proceeding challenges
• Fixed Hall of Fame banners not prioritising friends who had joined the Hall of Fame
• Fixed various bad Fast Travel points which could leave the player stuck
• Fixed an issue where the Lugar Tranquilo player home could become locked again after having purchased it
• Fixed player labels showing the wrong PI on the map
• Marathon icon no longer overlaps the Horizon Street Scene outpost icon on the map
• Change map filters to include the Eliminator map icon under multiplayer events, rather than Festival sites
• Fixed camera clipping through scenery during post-race results cinematic
• Fixed issues with clipping on various clothing items in character creator
• Fixed issue with price displaying incorrectly for Car Pass and Premium Add-Ons Bundle in Steam
• Fixed an issue where Festival Playlist displayed more points earned than are achievable
• Fixed prestige stars not appearing in online leaderboards
• Added the Ability to 'View Eligible Cars' on Seasonal PR Stunts in the Festival Playlist screen
• Made the final checkpoint in street race events visually distinct from normal checkpoints
• Made it so that the Add Layer feature in the Livery Editor now correctly adds the layer to the top of the stack
• Fixed Achievement tracking for the "Unlimited Prowess" Achievement
• Fixed an issue where players were able to skip the whole race in Chapter 2 of Lucha de Carreteras
• Fixed an issue where the radio could be turned back on after turning it off
• Updated Fast Travel message from pause menu to correctly inform player it will take them to the nearest Festival site
• Fixed an issue where players could be switched from manual to automatic gears after a cutscene

As crazy as it sounds, you can access these additional modes by booting the game in offline mode, and there's even a method of going online to play with your friends if you so choose. The method, noted by WickedSoldier991 on Reddit, is fairly simple to do.

You'll unlock 14 new modes, some of which are completely unique such as Attrition, where players have a limited number of respawns, similar to the ticketing system in Battlefield. There are also some variants, such as Elimination, similar to Attrition but played across a number of rounds.

To unlock the modes, simply;

• Disconnect from the internet, or set Steam to "offline mode"
• Launch the game
• Check the new modes are available
• Reconnect to the internet

The game modes have been suspected for a while, but only recently discovered, although some of the names had leaked previously. You'll find other modes such as variants of the existing Fiesta game mode, including an interesting Capture The Flag version. 

Here's the full list of modes you can unlock;

• Arena: Attrition
• Arena: Attrition Dodgeball
• Arena: Elimination
• Fiesta: Attrition
• Fiesta: CTF
• Fiesta: One Flag CTF
• Fiesta: Strongholds
• Ranked: Elimination
• Ranked: One Flag
• Tactical: Slayer
• Tactical: Slayer Commandos
• Tactical: Slayer Manglers
• Tactical: Slayer Sidekicks
• Tactical: Slayer Stalker Rifles

It's likely these game modes are sitting and waiting for an official launch sometime after the campaign's release, or when the first season gets fully underway. It's possible this workaround to access them early may get patched out at some stage, but for now, the method seems to work.

What do you make of the hidden game modes? Let us know in the comments below.

While you can't buy the game anymore, it will remain on subscription services until the 1st of March next year, likely due to some contractual quirks. It effectively concedes defeat in what has been a long battle against hackers and DDoS attacks that have been going on since 2019, destroying the game's reputation and player-base.

Respawn had promised that "help was coming" earlier this year and suggested that they had dedicated personnel to try and fix the problems, but that help seemingly never arrived.

The company isn't giving up on the franchise, however, stating that "Titanfall is core to Respawn's DNA and this incredible universe will continue," and noted that Titanfall 2, along with Apex Legends, will continue business as usual.

Titanfall 2 suffers from many of the same issues that the original did though, facing continuous DDoS attacks and hacking issues, rendering the multiplayer virtually unplayable. It does, however, include a single-player campaign that many players have rated highly.

The mod's ultimate goal is to start building out the rest of Tamriel to Morrowind's map, with hundreds of new quests and characters to flesh it out, adding hundreds of hours of new content to the classic game. According to the team behind the mod, they want to achieve what Morrowind was always supposed to be in the concept stage, namely an Elder Scrolls game that included the entirety of Tamriel, and not just one region.

It's taken them the best part of two decades, but they've achieved roughly "50%" of that goal, which puts the work ahead of them into perspective. That leads us nicely onto their roadmap, with the Velothi Mountains and the western edge of the continent up next, along with some new original locations to help bring things into check, known as the Roth Roryn badlands and the Armun Ashlands.

According to the developers, "the release area also contains our first major Hlaalu city—Andothren—which will be the main focus point for the more than 140 quests currently on track to being included in this release." The team are also planing to head East, with the Thirr Valley region also coming soon. "This area is home to a multitude of small to medium-sized Hlaalu trade towns and tanna plantations, all nestled between thick mushroom mangroves. The Redoran Waters March, almost entirely pushed out of the region by Hlaalu expansion, holds on to a precarious existence in the twin river fortress of Ald Iuval and Ald Marak. Overtly, the region is peaceful, but players may soon find themselves entangled in webs of vicious underworld rivalry."

Naturally, there's also some reworking of existing content being done too. The roadmap also includes lots of new screenshots to check out of the work in progress. You can even download and play the mod in its current state right now. Hopefully, we won't be waiting until 2041 for the finished product, though.

If you hadn't heard of it, FidelityFX Super Resolution is designed to upscale graphics in real-time to give 4K visuals at a higher framerate. The tech uses "Advanced Edge Reconstruction" and sharpening techniques that AMD says compete with Nvidia's offering known as DLSS and will offer a performance boost in games that support it, especially to older GPU owners. This is pretty important right now for a lot of folks, with new graphics cards being almost impossible to buy right now.

 The idea is simple, take a 1440p image and upscale it to 4K in a way that makes the end result look close to native 4K, meaning your graphics card has a lot less work to do. AMD's tech does this by firstly rendering at the lower resolution, and then using spatial upscaling and advanced edge reconstruction algorithms to create a 4K image that is almost as sharp as a native 4K output. 

The plugin is available now for Unreal Engine 4 and is available to download by anybody who wants to use it in their games. Nvidia has had plugins for DLSS available for some time now, but it's nice to see more choices being made readily available for developers.

The game faced stiff competition from the likes of Doom, Grand Theft Auto V, Half-Life 2, Halo: Combat Evolved, Minecraft, Portal and even Space Invaders. It's a huge acolade, and one that the game's director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, was grateful to receive. 

"Thank you very much for receiving such a wonderful award, It's still unbelievable that the user chose from the nominated works, but I feel it's a great honor," he said in a statement released after the event. 

He went on to recognise the team behind the game, many of whom joined the company with Dark Souls and are now working on their latest game, Elden Ring. "I was deeply moved by the award," he added. "We will continue to make interesting and valuable games. I hope you look forward to it. Thank you!" 

FromSoftware's next game will be Elden Ring, a collaboration with George R.R. Martin, the author behind the Game of Thrones series of books. The game is a sequel to the Dark Souls series, but with an open-world setting. The game will also be significantly longer than previous Dark Souls games and will have a huge depth of freedom and intricate storyline. 

Melee combat will still be a big focus, though, in true FromSoftware style. The game is set to release in February next year on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4 and PS5.

The company released a new trailer detailing their roadmap for next year, which will kick off with the addition of VR support for PC players in January of next year, along with an elusive target 'arcade' which will mix things up for what have traditionally been time-limited one-off events.

There's also new maps, storylines and modes coming through the year, along with support for ray-tracing on PC. According to Hakan Abrak, CEO of IO, there'll be "a few surprises that our community has been asking for for a very, very long time" coming too.

There's a mystery update slated for Spring next year, which may be where a lot of this surprise content will drop, but we don't have any details just yet and that's purely speculation. In any case, Hitman 3 has proven to be the most successful release in the trilogy so far, so it's great to see that IO is continuing to support the game for the foreseeable future.

The deal seems exclusive to Walmart though, with most retailers sticking to the $40+ mark, which is where most Nintendo first-party games tend to live ad-Infinium. In fact, it's a bit of a steal, and like I say, it's incredibly rare to find first-party Nintendo titles discounted at all, so it's worth picking up if you're even remotely considering playing this (and you should.)

There's plenty of other deals to be had during Black Friday too, from consoles to games and everything in-between. We don't do the affiliate-shilling gimmick here at GameFront, though, so we won't be ramming article-after-article of deals down your throat, but if you're after a console too, then the Nintendo Switch + Mario Kart 8 Deluxe & 3 Months Nintendo Switch Online is just $299 at Best Buy right now.

I really love the Nintendo Switch OLED. If you're already rocking an OG Switch, it probably isn't worth the upgrade, but for newcomers to the platform, the screen does make the experience a little bit nicer. Graphically the console is about as last-gen as it's always been, but that isn't the appeal of Nintendo's offering, although the OLED sweetness does soften the blow significantly until you plug it into your huge 4K TV.

The rumour comes from Tez2, a well-known Rockstar leaker who stated on Twitter that "Rockstar is allocating more resources and devs to assist with GTA Trilogy post-launch development," noting that there was a fair chance that the work would push back upcoming updates for their Online titles.

That being said, patch notes have been released on time for the regular GTA and Red Dead Online updates this week, so if there is going to be disruption to the regular development cycle, it hasn't yet been felt. It's interesting to note that, if the rumour is true, it means work on fixing the games seems to be shifting internally, as opposed to the external studio that developed the remasters, Grove Street Games (formerly War Drum Studios)

Tez2 does state that Rockstar had a number of updates for GTA and Red Dead Online ready to go, so it may be a few weeks before the disruption is felt. If we do see disruption to the release schedules, then this would be a good sign that Rockstar is indeed devoting internal resources to fixing the games.

We'll be sure to keep an eye on the situation and report any further news as we learn it.

The company gave no reason for the delay but has confirmed the new release date is December 8th, although Vanguard players get access 24-hours earlier than Warzone, with access becoming more widely available on the 9th.

Update: Season 1 of #Vanguard and Warzone Pacific will now release Dec. 8.

Vanguard owners will have 24-hour exclusive first play access to the Caldera map. Open access begins on Dec. 9. pic.twitter.com/GnnYCp6g75

— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) November 19, 2021

According to the Call of Duty Twitter account, "Vanguard owners will have 24-hour exclusive first play access to the Caldera map. Open access begins on Dec. 9." It's unknown as to why the release has been delayed, although the company has been suffering from a lot of issues lately, with workers staging a walkout, demanding CEO Bobby Kotick be removed in light of various allegations.

In any event, it's not much longer to wait for Season One to get underway. 

The game doesn't make sales in the traditional sense, instead, access to the game is currently offered by backing the project. That hasn't stopped the game from becoming hugely popular, and it even has its own convention, CitizenCon, already.

The game seems to be going from strength to strength, indeed, last year the game had raised up to $250 Million in backing, meaning the game has netted nearly double the total amount of crowdfunding in the last year alone.... indeed, the funding raised so far surpasses the development budget of GTA V, to put it in perspective.

Have you backed Star Citizen? Let us know in the comments below!

Polish news site XGP kicked off the rumour, claiming to have spotted artwork for the game that showed the Games Pass logo in the bottom right corner, something that is typical for games that are available for the service on the Microsoft store. 

You can't see the label anymore, but they helpfully took a screengrab, although we've not confirmed its authenticity, and it's fairly easy to photoshop something like this.

It seems plausible given publisher EA is now bundling EA Play with Xbox Games Pass Ultimate, but we've had no word from either EA or Microsoft as to the authenticity of these rumours so far. 

We'll be sure to keep an eye on the situation and report on any further news.

The bad news is there was one nasty bug introduced in the update, which causes a black screen on loading save games, allegedly once the Civil War questline has been completed. There's a number of other bugs reported too, such as loading screen crashes and PlayStation specific issues relating to system storage.

The good news is that Bethesda has promised that a fix is coming, posting on Discord to state that "the team has been working on a fix for these (it's taking a little longer than we'd like) and hopes to have them resolved as soon as we can."

The new patch should hopefully launch next week, but in the meantime, there's a rollback mod that will bring the game back to the pre-Anniversary edition version, if you don't mind tinkering.

The return of the classics will be welcome news for many, which will also be included for free for anyone who has bought the remastered Trilogy through until June 20th, 2022. The good news is Rockstar is also promising a suite of comprehensive fixes for The Definitive Edition, stating that " the games that make up this iconic trilogy—are as special to us as we know they are to fans around the world. The updated versions of these classic games did not launch in a state that meets our own standards of quality, or the standards our fans have come to expect." 

We have ongoing plans to address the technical issues and to improve each game going forward. With each planned update, the games will reach the level of quality that they deserve to be.

Rockstar is promising that a title update will be released in the coming days to fix some of the more immediate issues with the games, with more fixes promised over the coming months.

Unfortunately, they also had to issue a statement asking the community not to harass members of the game's developers on social media, stating that "it pains us to mention that we are hearing reports of members of the development teams being harassed on social media. We would kindly ask our community to please maintain a respectful and civil discourse around this release as we work through these issues."

All in all, this is really positive from Rockstar. I've personally been enjoying the games, despite some of the initial issues, and see potential in them, so it'll be great if Rockstar can fix some of the bugs and texture issues that have found their way into the games, and hopefully bring them to the level of quality that we expect.

The game currently has a "mostly negative" review score, with nearly 15,000 negative reviews as of writing. The number of positive comments seems absolutely dwarfed by the review bombing, which seems to be pretty relentless right now. 

Most of the negative reviews complain bout the same things, mainly the unwelcome changes to the Battlefield formula, along with a number of bugs and early launch issues. According to many players, DICE has taken away many of the elements that make the game Battlefield, such as the lack of scoreboards and the removal of the class system that has been a staple of every game to date.

Instead, the game now has a roster of "specialists," which many are arguing discourages teamplay as it allows players to fill any role they want rather than invest into building up a class. The feedback was prominent even during the beta, but DICE went on record to say they wouldn't be changing anything. The reason for the change is also leaving a bitter taste in many players' mouths, with a number reasoning that the change is to drive sales from cosmetic DLC.

The list of complaints and issues is exhaustive, as the top-rated comment on steam helpfully highlights, with over 94 pieces of feedback about the game including problems with various weapons, missing or changed features, and general bugs.