Gaming in Britain. Reviews, Walkthroughs, News

Pole to Win has opened a new motion capture studio at SIDE London, an expansion of its partnership with Imaginarium Studios.

Gundam Breaker 4 will launch for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Steam on August 29, publisher Bandai Namco and developer Crafts & Meister announced.

Microsoft has signed Lords of the Fallen and Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 for release in its subscription service, Game Pass.

After soft-launching it in mid-February, Netflix has finally dropped Sonic Mania Plus globally on Android. It’s obviously an exclusive for all Netflix subscribers. During the past couple of months, the game saw over 10K downloads on Android alone.

An online concert to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Earthbound will be held in June.

Media Molecule, the developer behind LittleBigPlanet, is working on a brand-new IP, which is reportedly less of a «creative tool» unlike its latest title Dreams. The news about the LittleBigPlanet creator's next project comes from co-founder Mark Healey, who exited the company in 2023.

Gamers know that Nintendo Switch deals almost always get sold out quickly, so you should be quick in taking advantage of Walmart’s offer for the Nintendo Switch OLED. From its sticker price of $350, it’s available for only $284 for savings of $66, which is enough to get you a Nintendo Switch game. There’s a catch though — the version that’s on sale is imported from Japan, but that won’t be a problem for you to enjoy the hybrid console. Proceed with the transaction right away, as you may miss out on the bargain if you hesitate.

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius: War of the Visions will soon drop a new update and it looks kind of grim for global players. It’s not a biggie (or is it?) but the devs are taking a new turn with the Final Fantasy BE: WOTV English voice-over. They’re ending all English VOs for the global version of Final Fantasy BE: WOTV.

Codemasters has released the third in a series of deep dive trailers for F1 24, this time digging into the track and driver updates that we’ll see in the yearly sports series. F1 24 is coming out on 31st May (with three days early access for special editions) across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One and PC.

A Pokemon fan created a regional variant of Remoraid and shared the original concept online. Remoraid can become an Octillery upon reaching level 25, and it is also required for a Mantyke to evolve into Mantine.

The perfect power bank to use with your Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch is back on sale in the UK right now. We are, of course, talking about the INIU 65W 20000mAh Fast Charging Portable Charger, available on Amazon for just £19.99 right now.

The bountiful creations of the late Akira Toriyama are household names, but you won’t find any of his most well-known characters in Sand Land. His lesser-known graphic novel has remained a footnote when compared to Dragon Ball Z’s prodigious success, but it’s clear that someone out there thinks that now is Sand Land’s time, with the arrival of a movie, an animated series, and a video game adaptation, all in the last six months. This multi-format assault showcases that the genius of Akira Toriyama extended far beyond the Dragon Balls, and while it might have taken a long time coming, it was well worth the wait.

Media Molecule co-founder Mark Healey has claimed that the studio’s next project will be more of a game than a creative tool.

After Sony U-turned on its controversial decision to force Helldivers 2 PC gamers to account link to PlayStation Network, the game’s community has launched an initiative to drag Steam user reviews out from under rock bottom.

Helldivers 2’s first patch since the PSN login debacle is out now, making some much-needed fixes to the game.

Fortnite has always been on the pulse when it comes to nerdy culture, especially with regards to Star Wars.

YouTube Premium members can now test out a new AI-powered feature called ‘Jump ahead'. Rolled out as a part of a wider experiment, this feature aims to enhance user experience by allowing subscribers to skip ahead to the most relevant part of a video with just a double-tap.

Former Nintendo employees have revealed that, despite its public announcement, Xenoblade Chronicles was originally planned to go without a North American release. Xenoblade Chronicles is one of Nintendo's most popular RPG series, with its pedigree allowing developer Monolith Soft to become one of Nintendo's most reliable first-party studios. However, none of Xenoblade's success would have been possible without the very first entry released on the Nintendo Wii all the way back in 2010.

The UK government has responded to a petition asking for "government intervention" to force the industry to keep video games "in a reasonably working state when support ends", rather than allowing them to become unplayable such as when online servers are shut down. The petition was prompted by the closure in March of ten-year-old Ubisoft racing game The Crew.

It's Star Wars Day and if you're planning on celebrating your fandom by playing some video games set in a galaxy far, far away, you've got a lot of options. If you'd prefer to do that without spending any money, you still have options, and they're better options than you might think. Whether you game on Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or both, each platform has offered up the chance to take two of the very best Star Wars games for a spin this weekend to celebrate May 4.

Fortnite is the highest-grossing game in the first quarter of 2024, according to a report published by Newzoo. The year 2024 for the games industry has been marked by events such as layoffs, Gearbox Software's acquisition by Take-Two Interactive, and the farewell to Nintendo 3DS and Wii U online services. Meanwhile, new releases like Palworld and Helldivers 2 hit the shelves, sharing space with popular releases like Fortnite and Valorant.

The universe has begun a pretty significant expansion with the release of the hit TV adaptation released on Prime Video. There are more than 100 vaults located across the U.S., each of them holding a different horrific experiment inside — but longtime fans have pondered about what life outside of the U.S. must look like. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as though Bethesda plans to give us any answers.

Yesterday, Viz Media announced the English release of a Magic the Gathering manga series called "Destroy All Humans. They Can't Be Regenerated." The manga’s physical release, due later this fall, will also come with an exclusive Magic card.

What a week it has been, with the sun finally showing its face again after a chilly April for the UK. We’ve still had plenty of time to play games though, and I’ve been continuing to plug away at Fallout 4 and No Rest for the Wicked, as well as taking some time to chill out with Endless Ocean: Luminous which is just a little bit too calm for its own good. Besides that I’ve made a start on Sand Land for our review which will appear after the weekend.

Research firm Newzoo has revealed what it claims were the top-grossing console and PC games in the first quarter of 2024.

The box office returns for were far lower than the billion-dollar success of the first Captain Marvel movie. As a large studio, Disney released several box office bombs in 2023, including Wish and Haunted Mansion, among others. But as per Deadline’s yearly box office tournament, The Marvels topped Disney’s list of flops for that year. It even beat all other big-budget bombs of the year, including The Flash.

The EA Sports FC 24 Team of the Season event continues with the German Bundesliga and Frauen Bundesliga, with the squads for the top Male and Female football players in Germany set to be added to the game very soon indeed.

A new Fortnite update is arriving today (Friday 3rd May 2024), bringing a whole load of new Star Wars content into the game.

 magnum opus,, finally premiered on on The series marks Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s lavish entry into the web series. The female-led period drama has opened to positive reviews from both viewers and critics. Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who is known for his larger-than-life production, has brilliantly lived up to the extravaganza. The story is about Heeramandi, the grandest neighborhood of Lahore where courtesans, locally known as tawaifs, live. These courtesans were extremely beautiful and skilled in different forms of art such as music, dance, etc. 

Special promo cards from the will be available outside of Japan for the first time ever, breaking a 26-year-long tradition. The new expansion box from the series is hitting shelves later this month and fans are already excited about the cards they will be seeing. News of which Pokémon will get Secret Illustration Rares in has already come out, and other potential cards have been leaked, leaving fans hoping the leaks are accurate.

It can be difficult keeping track of the various comings and goings in the games industry, which is why we compile them in semi-regular round-ups.

In the biggest LEGO Fortnite collaboration to date, characters and items from Star Wars are coming to the brick-based Fortnite spin-off later this week.

Editor's Note: Our first NordVPN review was published back in 2017, but after significant updates we've revisted the review.

Amazon has revealed its slate of free Prime Gaming games for May 2024. This month's freebies available to Amazon Prime subscribers include Fallout 3 and eight other titles.

If you regularly play your favorite games online with friends and want to something that will give your voice chat a bit of something extra, then this Xbox controller deal on the Turtle Beach Recon could well be for you.

Following the release of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3’s Season 3 Reloaded update this week, dataminers have unearthed compelling evidence that the shooter is set for a number of eye-catching collaborations for Season 4.

Runaway waifu horse racing sensation Umamusume: Pretty Derby will make its PlayStation debut on 30th August, when minigame spin-off Party Dash gallops to PS4 in Japan and around the world. Unlike the main mobile game – which isn’t available in the west yet – this console outing centres on the Slapdash Grand Prix, which features four different sporting events, each with unique gameplay mechanics.

Stellar Blade was the best-selling physical game in the UK last week, with its launch sales on PS5 being enough to see it top sales charts in the region. Sony and Shift Up haven't shared any official sales data just yet, but this marks a good start for the title, which holds the potential to sell well long-term. TopSpin 2K25 was another new entry in the UK sales chart last week, debuting in third place.

Lucy's already iconic backpack from Amazon's Fallout adaptation is now up for pre-order at UK retailer Game (thanks VGC), and for just £200, you can proudly proclaim your Vault-Dweller status to the world. The bag, which is a replica of the in-show prop, sports the Vault 33 logo and comes equipped with a thick yellow fleece blanket «to complete the authentic look of the bag as seen in the show”.

PlayStation's Shuhei Yoshida and Greg Rice will present the headlining keynote at the Develop: Brighton gaming expo in July, it's been confirmed. A conference designed for game developers, the two indie experts will host the «Supporting Indies and Creativity in Game Development» keynote in Brighton, UK on 11th July 2024.

Another gameplay trailer for upcoming fighter Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero has arrived, showcasing a further glut of characters. The theme of this video is 'Master and Apprentice', so we've got the likes of Piccolo and Kid Gohan putting in an appearance, as well as Master Roshi and his Turtle School pupils Krillin and Yamcha.

Koei Tecmo has shared a brief sales update for recent PS5 exclusive Rise of the Ronin, revealing «sales are surpassing the Nioh series». Without posting any hard numbers, it goes on to say the game has a «high valuation» amongst players and the company is now looking at «mid to long-term growth» for the title.

Now Starfield’s May update is out in the wild in beta form on Steam, players are getting to grips with all the new features, including the detailed maps, ship interior customization, and more. But there’s one change that flew under the radar when it was announced but is now picking up plaudits: the ability to toggle the default dialogue camera off.

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has unveiled the game’s next premium Warbond, called Polar Patriots, alongside a May 9 release date.

American convenience store chain 7-Eleven is partnering with Tetris on a line of merchandise, including a handheld.

Rainbow Cotton, a poorly remembered 3D offshoot of one of the definitive entries in the cutesy shooter canon, is somehow making a comeback in English 24 years after its original launch, and the devs have provided a helpful explainer on the differences between emulation, remakes, and remasters. The catch is that they might've gotten it wrong.

Roll7, developers of bright skateboarding games OlliOlli World and dual-wielding bloodsport Rollerdrome, are being closed down as part of large scale layoffs by parent corp Take-Two Interactive, according to documents seen by Bloomberg. The British studio has been responsible for some great stuff over the years but the report says they'll be following the fate of Kerbal Space Program 2 developers in being laid off.

A brand new has emerged, showing how the radiation-riddled world is beautiful and dangerous

More details have emerged about the ongoing layoffs at Take-Two Interactive, with reports suggesting the publisher has shut down two indie-size studios.

Sony has signaled its intention to pull Horizon: Zero Dawn from PlayStation Plus later in May, fueling rumors the company is set to announce a PlayStation 5 remaster of the game.

Inti Creates has released the story trailer for side-scrolling action game Umbraclaw, which features the theme song “A Partner’s Promise” sung by Tsukumo voice actor Yuko Natsuyoshi.

Hypercharge: Unboxed is finally coming to Xbox consoles on May 31. The shooter, set in a world of toy soldiers, has been slated to receive an Xbox console release after the viral Hypercharge craze from a couple of years ago, and it seems that time has finally come.

Star Wars Hunters will finally be released for Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android devices on June 4, 2024.

Starfield is set for a significant update in May that adds a number of highly requested features to the space game.

Star Wars returns to Fortnite on May 3, one day before the annual May 4 Star Wars celebrations.

Eight years after the last Batman: Arkham game, Warner Bros. has announced the next in the series: Batman: Arkham Shadow.

Lucy’s backpack from Amazon‘s Fallout TV show is now available to preorder at Game in the UK.

Even though season one of the Fallout show will be six months old by the time Halloween rolls around, there will almost certainly be a lot of Fallout-themed costumes at parties and possibly even trick or treating this October 31, although I'm not sure the show is suitable for kids. If you are already piecing together a Vault Dweller costume for 2024's spooky season, and you want that costume to be the best it can possibly be, then you may want to pick up Game's new Vault 33 backpack.

Fallout 4’s next-gen update suffered a troubled launch, but it was PC players of Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic role-playing game that endured the most issues. Now, some of the most popular mods for Fallout 4 let players “downgrade” the game to a pre-patch point.

Last week a Catholic media ministry (not sure what that is but okay) called Catholic Answers created a generative AI priest chatbot called Father Justin. Fr. Justin used a large language model to answer questions about the Catholic church and Catholic orthodoxy, and if you have any familiarity with how people love to test AI chatbots - or you read the headline of this article - then you know where this is going. Fr. Justin, who was already kind of controversial anyway, offered the sacrament and claimed to be a real priest to Futurism, and gave the thumbs up to baptising a baby in Gatorade in an emergency.

A new report has revealed launch timings for Xbox games throughout the rest of 2024, spilling the beans on when to expect everything from the next Call of Duty to Indiana Jones.

Bethesda has made Fallout 4’s free next-gen update available to those who received the game via PlayStation Plus Collection.

This week, Microsoft announced the timing of its Xbox showcase event in June as well as a follow-up Direct for a mystery game that looks like a clear tease for the next Call of Duty.

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has issued a statement on recent changes to the way ricochet works in the game after members of the community pointed out one weapon in particular was killing players more than it should.

After seemingly endless delays, the Star Wars: Hunters release date has at long last been confirmed! Best of all, it's launching soon.

Even with Netflix’s recommendation algorithm serving you new movies, new TV shows, and original programming tailored to your viewing habits, the streaming service’s fire hose of content makes what’s coming difficult to parse.

Google I/O 2024: Google seems to be gearing up to introduce a fresh feature for Android, which would empower your smartwatch to manage the audio output settings on your smartphone. Currently, navigating audio output sources on your Android phone is fairly straightforward. Google has already developed a system where Chromecast devices and Spotify Connect facilitate swift transfers of audio output between devices. However, this capability is confined to your phone alone. It appears that Android will soon extend this control to your smartwatch.

Japan’s most popular indie games expo, BitSummit, has opened ticket sales for its 2024 event, which will return to Kyoto on Friday, July 19.

Microsoft's Xbox summer showcase in June will reportedly include a hefty post-show segment on the next and currently untitled Call Of Duty, alongside release dates for such first-party headliners as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Avowed and Indiana Jones And The Great Circle. As rumoured in April, they're also apparently going to show off new Gears Of War game. Nice to see the COG and Locust still getting work.

fans might be wondering about where they can read the about Levi. While the series has ended, we’re lucky enough to have AoT content rolling out this year. Here’s a guide on where to read the Attack on Titan Levi Bad Boy manga and if it’s available online.

Do you feel shy while speaking or replying in English because you're worried about how the sentences will come out? Worry no more because learning spoken English will now become easier with Google's new AI bot for Search. Yes, Google is reportedly testing a feature called “Speaking practice” in Search where users can speak to an AI-powered bot and improve their English speaking skills. This will allow users to boost their confidence as well as conversational skills. Know more about the Google speaking practice feature.

Earth Defense Force 6 will launch for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store on July 25 in the west for $59.99, D3 Publisher and developer Sandlot announced.

Funko Fusion will be released on September 13, 2024, it’s been announced.

In a recent interview, Fallout director Todd Howard said that Bethesda plans to «predominately keep» the franchise in the United States and explained his reasoning. Although Howard left the door open for non-US Fallout settings in the future, it seems unlikely given the franchise's established theme.

An incredibly rare Nintendo DS is being auctioned off, and it could sell for over £15,000. The Nintendo DS was first released in 2004 as the successor to the Nintendo Game Boy Advance and evolved the Big N's classic handheld formula by including a second touchscreen that players could use for hit titles like The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and Pokemon Black and White. While it was eventually phased out in favor of the upgraded Nintendo 3DS in 2011, the original Nintendo DS remains one of gaming’s most well-remembered portable systems, with several of its past exclusives being released on current hardware to this day.

Bethesda has released the hefty patch for Fallout 76 that removes a ton of bugs but weighs in at around 20 GB on console.

PQube will release MAGES.-developed otome visual novel Genso Manege, also known as Rever d’un Manege, for Switch and PC via Steam in the west, the publisher announced. A release date was not announced.

If you’re not happy with your stats and perks in Fallout 4, you’ll be wanting to respec your character.

To kick off (pun intended) the new season, Erling Haaland is coming to Clash of Clans as a Barbarian King – King Haaland.

Publisher Bandai Namco and developer Spike Chunsoft have released a new trailer and screenshots for Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO dubbed “Master and Apprentice,” which introduces 10 more playable characters.