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Though the ‘surprise’ reveal of The Last of Us remake wasn’t much of a surprise, what is kind of more of one is the fact that Factions will now be its own thing. Director Neil Druckmann wasn’t able to show off the game in action, though we were treated to a bit of concept art, showing off a pair of characters in a run down city. Apparently, it will be as big as Naughty Dog’s single player games, and will feature some plot too....

Once you’ve met the mysterious Sadness in the lobby and repaired the elevator to try and meet her on the second floor, you’ll eventually find yourself on a lower floor of the hotel. Here, there’s a vase, a corridor full of moths, and one of the first places in the game where you could find yourself well and truly stuck. This vase puzzle forces you to apply all of the mechanics you’ve just learned in following Sadness’s ghostly footsteps into the hotel room, but in an ambiguous way that’s very easy to miss....

Nvidia and Microsoft have revealed that the Minecraft ray tracing RTX open beta will be available this Thursday at 10am PT, 1pm ET, 6pm UK. On top of ray tracing support (technically, path tracing) for lighting, shadows and reflections, the beta also supports Nvidia’s new DLSS 2.0, which should help with performance. All of this will be available for the Windows 10 (Bedrock) version. This beta also includes even more impressive features such as physically-based materials and volumetric light and fog, which all make Minecraft look quite different from the way you’re used to....

Then, one of the guards makes a move, and starts to stride in that unmistakably Morrowind way down the stairs; I give my partner the signal to wrap up her raid on the Cyrodillic Wine and get out of there. She escapes but – kleptomaniac that she is – can’t resist nosing in a sack on her way out, which the guard duly walks in on. We’re forced to flee, immediately becoming fugitives in the crossroads town of Pelagiad....

Switch owners can pick up the Obsidian’s RPG The Outer Worlds on March 6, according to the game’s publisher. It will be available through the Nintendo eShop and in retail stores, but since it’s a digital release, the box will contain a download code. It was initially released in late-October for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. In December it was announced story DLC would arrive this year, and while no additional information was provided, it’s nice to know we have something to look forward to....

Now we’re out of the hell year of 2020 and moving on, it’s tempting to only look forward - but we wanted to take a second to give credit to the games that we used to wind down and wrap up what was undeniably a difficult year. So - here’s our book report, in classic return-to-school fashion - what we got up to in the holidays. Alex: Strategy Classics & Party Games 2020 was a pretty heavy year, and so I didn’t really fancy playing anything too intense over the holidays....

If you want the new armor for yourself, you’ll need to get ready for a few fights and a tough boss. The Netflix quests - In The Eternal Fire’s Shadow - are available as soon as you boot the game, but the recommended level is fairly high for a good reason. If you aren’t seeing the quest or the toggles to change Nilfgaardian soldier armor and Triss and Yennefer’s outfits on the main menu’s “Game” settings option, make sure you’ve downloaded the latest update....

Apt it is, then, that we could be looking at a resurrection of the brand. This week’s news that Square Enix has unceremoniously shat off all of its less-desirable IP (that’s my reading of it) means that Raziel and Kain have a new God now; the faceless, uber-corporate suits at Embracer. At first look, you’d be forgiven for thinking the investment company would be satisfied simply pumping out a LoK-flavoured battle royal (hey, remember Nosgoth?...

As spotted by Modern Warzone, Killhouse from 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is now available in the 2019 reboot. There’s also a 24/7 Mosh Pit playlist for this map. Meanwhile, two brand new maps - Al-Raab Airbase and Drainage – have made their debut in the shooter. Neither of these will apparently have their own playlist and at the moment they are only available for private matches. There’s no word yet when – or if – they’ll be available for public games....

No, I’m not being hyperbolic. I’m being deadly serious. I would put Bioware’s trilogy of games up there with Asimov, with Star Wars, with Ballard, and with Star Trek. Whether Mass Effect is taking you on a tour of sentient life in the universe and forcing you to examine the macro patterns that it all follows, or dialling down into the minutiae of a doomed, intimate romance, it is beautiful and it is tragic....

Fans use it to celebrate and complain. Developers and media form little Twitter bubbles where they socialize and hang out. During covid lockdowns, Twitter became a primary networking and communication tool, and, more importantly, a way to catch up with people for vital sanity-checks. The gaming news cycle is now practically built around Twitter; if you want the news first, that’s where you’ll go. If we’re lucky, the hot tweet will point you to the full write-up on VG247....

Here’s the interview in full: What differentiates the career mode of this one to the previous UFC games? Brian Hayes: The biggest difference between career mode on UFC 4 and previous ones is really the non-linearity, or the unscripted nature of the journey you can have. So, that was a lot of the feedback that we got on previous iterations was that it was pretty much: fight to get here, fight to move up the rankings; here’s a rival that’s going to be the same rival all the time, regardless of where you get to, or how you get there....

The UK charity sent out a press statement shortly after receiving reports alerting to how Cyberpunk 2077 contains images that are “danger zones for epileptics.” This comes from Game Informer’s Lianna Ruppert, who notes that during her time with the game she had suffered “one major seizure and felt several moments where I was close to another one”. In response, Epilepsy Action’s Louise Cousins says, “We are alarmed and saddened that a game reviewer had a seizure triggered by Cyperpunk 2077, before it was even launched....

Soon you’ll be able to enjoy Untitled Goose Game with a friend in co-op when an update lands on September 23. With the update, you will be able to play through the whole game with a friend. It comes with a new honking goose, which looks to be a gander and allows you to make even more trouble for the village’s citizens. This will be a free update to all owners of Untitled Goose Game....

The showcase will feature a premiere trailer, interviews, and insider information from key members of the development team, and it will be hosted by Mica Burton. It will air on Deep Silver’s Twitch and YouTube channels at 12pm PT, 3pm ET, 8pm BST, and 9pm CEST. Within the showcase itself, the trailer will focus on customization across all aspects of player choice in the game. According to the developers, the customization suite is its “most powerful toolset to date and is best in class....

Coffee Stain Publishing and Iron Gate Studio announced the figure today. Earlier this week, it was reported the game had sold over two million copies within two weeks. Concurrent player numbers also continue to climb, surpassing 390,000 earlier this week, exceeding some all-time highs of triple-A titles such as Monster Hunter: World, and GTA 5. Currently, the game has over 60,000 Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam and has entered the service’s top 250 best-reviewed games of all time at number 78 on the list....

Road to VR reports that all 31 countries where Valve sells its Index VR headset have no stock. The Steam pages for all regions have a ‘Notify Me’ button instead of an option to purchase the Index. This also applies to the different packages available, including the full $999 option, and the cheapest, headset-only one. Japan is the only country where you can still find stock for the headset, and the headset and controllers package....

And then, screaming out of the tinny speaker in my Philips radio alarm clock, came a song that was, unknown to me at the time, foretelling my future. Ironic, by Alanis Morissette. A traffic jam when you’re already late A “No Smoking” sign on your cigarette break It’s like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife It’s being a games journo yeah, and then turning on them in a radio show And isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?...

The information comes from an official press release from the NPD. According to the NPD report, “overall total industry consumer spending on video gaming in the US reached a record $10.86 billion in the first quarter of 2020.” These figures indicate that sales have increased by 9% from the same time period last year. The report mentions a variety of games which were among the best-selling titles of the quarter, including new releases such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons and DOOM Eternal, as well as evergreen staples such as Grand Theft Auto V, Minecraft, and Fortnite....

So far, I’ve finished the orc prologue, and I’m six missions into the human campaign. The extra prologue missions that were restored with the Frozen Throne expansion are present, including the finale: that classic Blizzard RTS tradition - the timed base holdout mission. The later missions are usually a fair amount bigger in scale, but after sending some doomed footsoldiers to invade the undead basecamps in The March of the Scourge, I can say with some confidence that the game holds up during the larger fights....