Gaming in Ukraine. Reviews, Walkthroughs, News

You now have a new way to quantify your personal privacy dystopia: A “Creep-O-Meter” score from the Mozilla Foundation that puts a number on the state of digital privacy each year.

Though this was the year "everything changed," Gartner Fellow Leigh McMullen was looking to the future at this week's Gartner Symposium, laying out the company's strategic predictions for 2024.

Israel is following Ukraine in tapping SpaceX’s Starlink to supply wartime communications.

Ubuntu has pulled its latest desktop release, 23.10, after discovering that its Ukrainian translations included hate speech.

It’s a sad time for the world. Just when there was a chance of a thawing in the Middle East, the awful attacks in Israel and retaliation in Gaza have frozen hopes of peace and progress. It has set us all back 50 years. I look at the news and want to cry. I want to look away, but I also want to look so I can fully understand the scope of the heartbreak that is happening.

A new Bloomberg report reveals CD Projekt Red employed AI to recreate the voice of an actor that passed away after the game's release. Speaking to the outlet, CDPR said it reproduced the performance of Miłogost Reczek (who plays V's confidante and Ripper doc Viktor Vektor) for the recently released Phantom Liberty expansion. 

CD Projekt Red has used a combination of AI and a new voice actor to record new lines for a Cyberpunk 2077 character in Phantom Liberty. 

Arma developer Bohemia Interactive has issued a statement criticising the use of in-game images by people online claiming it to be real war footage from Israel and Palestine.

Arma 3 developer Bohemia Interactive has commented on the use of footage taken from its military shooter being used online to spread misinformation about Israel and Palestine.

Bohemia Interactive has said it’s aware that Arma 3 is once again being used to spread fake news about real-life conflicts.

Czech game developer Bohemia Interactive has once again had to address the fact that footage of Arma 3 is being used as fake news about the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Social media users are attempting to pass off videos of Bohemia Interactive's military shooter Arma 3 as real-life footage of the on-going Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which erupted into open war this week. Several of these mocked-up videos have circulated on Tik-Tok and Xitter, one of them purporting to show a member of the Hamas group shooting down Israeli helicopters. Bohemia Interactive have now released a statement calling on their community to publish and share Arma 3 footage responsibly, while offering advice on how to spot a fake.

To craft Cyberpunk 2077‘s immersive world, plenty of voice actors were necessary. CD Projekt Red ran into a problem when Miłogost Reczek, a Polish performer who did the Polish voice acting for Viktor Vektor, passed away in 2021. As revealed by Bloomberg, the studio overcame this setback with the help of artificial intelligence.

With large-scale hostilities breaking out between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East, Arma 3 developer Bohemia Interactive has issued a statement asking its players and content creators to «use their footage responsibly» in order to avoid contributing to a flood of false information being spread on social media. The studio also shared a detailed guide to help people distinguish videos made in the game from real-world combat footage.

World of Warcraft’ s most recent charity efforts, selling charity pets, Sunny and Flurky, have raised $1.5 million to help the people of Ukraine. Blizzard announced details on the charity efforts, including where all of the money from the WoW-BlueCheck Ukraine partnership will be going.

Back in July, Hexacore raised $3.5 million to propel the high-quality Web3 mobile games that have potential to scale to big audiences such as the upcoming space fantasy Pocket Space.

World of Warcraft players have once again shown their community spirit and love of adorable animals, raising over $1.5 Million (USD) for BlueCheck efforts in Ukraine through the sale of two precious in-game pets: Sunny and Flurky.

Blizzard is celebrating the success of the Sunny and Flurky pet packs, having raised over a million dollars in charity for BlueCheck Ukraine! Previously available between July 25 and August 29, 2023, Blizzard pledged 100% of proceeds for each Pet Pack in support of BlueCheck Ukraine, consisting of the Sunny pet for Dragonflight and Flurky pet for Wrath Classic.

Thanks to the World of Warcraft community, more than a million dollars in aid has already been designated for BlueCheck partners on the ground. By cutting the red tape the WoW-BlueCheck partnership is providing critical resources, right now, to the following organizations:

It’s been more than a hot minute since we’ve had a Silent Hill game. Last year’s announcement that the series was making a return caused joy (and a bit of relief) in many fans’ hearts. As well as brand-new interactive series, we’re also getting a remake of Silent Hill 2, and some updates on Steam suggest we may hear more about this project soon.

In an effort to stifle any public opinion that isn't fawning or shows viewpoints the Kremlin doesn't want the average Russian to see, the Russian government is going to try to ban virtual private networks (VPNs). According to a report from Russia's RIA (H/T to Fudzilla), The regime wants to ban VPNs from March 1. 

The Creator, the latest film from Rogue One director Gareth Edwards, takes a strong stance against war and America’s worldwide interventionism in particular, pointing out its human cost. The movie is filled with anti-war imagery and messaging, but according to Edwards, it also gained a surprising connection to a real-life war in the middle of filming.

We could be hearing more about the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake from Konami anytime now, as a new Steam backend update is one of many puzzle pieces that may just complete a picture that gives us more details about the remake of one of the horror genre’s best games.

Peacock’s John Wick spinoff, The Continental,has had a secret weapon lurking in the shadows. And in the third and final episode of the limited series, she was finally unleashed.

As we creak ever closer to spooky season and a possible second Silent Hill Transmission – the last was just before Halloween 2022 – it seems Bloober Team has quietly been updating the backend of Silent Hill 2 Remake's Steam page.

Ever since KONAMI confirmed years of rumors to reveal that a SILENT HILL 2 remake was indeed in production, fans have been eagerly awaiting the day they'll once again be able to step in the shoes of protagonist James Sunderland and go back to the eponymous town after receiving a letter from Mary, his deceased wife.

We live in an age of state-sponsored cyber warfare, one where conflicts have a parallel and intangible digital battlefield. The most obvious manifestation of this is propaganda, good old information warfare, with things like photos, videos and records being obtained and then framed and circulated online. The other side of it—concentrated cyber attacks on infrastructure, hacks of enemy equipment and forces, doomsday viruses like Stuxnet—the public never sees outside of vague news reports.

Sad Cat Studios announced today that it has raised $5 million in funding, an investment in the studio that it plans to put towards its future games. The studio is currently working on its retro-style action-platformer Replaced, which it announced in 2021. GEM Capital invested in the studio in part to help it launch Replaced sometime in 2024.

Epic Games' head of publishing strategy Sergiy Galyonkin has announced that he is leaving the company after eight years.

Epic Games' director of publisher Sergiy Galyonkin has left the company.

Epic Games‘ director of publishing strategy, Sergiy Galyonkin, is leaving the company.

The world's most expensive weapons program - the US's F-35 fighter jet - got even more costly, according to the Pentagon. The program to develop and procure the plane will cost a total of $438 billion, up $26 billion from the last estimate a year ago, according to the F-35's new Selected Acquisition Report released Monday. The 6.5% increase is actually relatively modest by the standards of the program, which originally was $233 billion when Lockheed Martin Corp. won the contract in 2001.

Sergiy Galyonkin - aka Mr. SteamSpy himself - has left Epic Games after almost a decade at the Fortnite maker, including six years as its director of publishing strategy, saying that he is no longer “a good fit” for the publisher.

Sergiy Galyonkin, the director of publishing strategy for Epic Games, is leaving the company after eight years. 

Sergiy Galyonkin has announced via Twitter today that he has resigned from his role as Director of Publishing Strategy at Epic Games. He had been with the company for over eight years.

Sergiy Galyonkin, director of publishing strategy at Epic Games — and creator of Steam analytics website Steam Spy — has announced his departure from the Fortnite maker after nearly eight years, saying he is «not a good fit» for the «new version of Epic».

After years of Fortnite-fueled relative stability, it seems a shakeup has come to Epic Games. Last week, we heard Epic was laying off nearly 900 employees, with company CEO Tim Sweeny admitting the company has been “spending way more money than we earn” for some time now. It seems whatever transition Epic Games is going through may affect one of the most divisive parts of their business – the Epic Games Store – as today Sergiy Galyonkin announced he was leaving the company.

There have been some major changes behind the scenes at Epic Games in recent weeks. Recently, it was announced that chief creative officer Donald Mustard was leaving the company, to be replaced by Charlie Wen, a former Marvel and God of War vet. Now, another key figure at the company has announced his departure.

CD Projekt have detailed Cyberpunk 2077 2.01, the game's first patch following update 2.0, which implemented a top-to-bottom reset of the once-ailing but at present, rather triumphant sci-fi RPG. According to the provisional changelog, the latest update encompasses general performance improvements and minor fixes plus a fatal bug which sees V falling through an elevator floor to their death when the performance falls too low. Now that's what I call a plunging frame-rate.

Like many Eastern European companies, SayGames has had a tumultuous time with the war in Ukraine. But SayGames has achieved four billion downloads for its hypercasual games, and its My Perfect Hotel hybrid casual game has hit the top ranks of mobile gaming.

SpaceX has won a Pentaogon contract to supply military communications to the US Armed Forces using Starlink technology.

CD Projekt Red has apologised for the Ukrainian localisation of Cyberpunk 2077 due to language which could be «considered offensive by Russian gamers» which was added in the 2.0 update last week and said it is working to add the «correct lines» in the next patch.

In news that is sure to thrill Elon Musk, European regulators say that Twitter is currently the biggest source of disinformation. 

Microsoft starts rolling out Windows 11's biggest update for 2023 today. The Copilot artificial intelligence sidebar gets top billing, but there’s plenty more to pore over in the release.

CD Projekt Red has apologized for a Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update featuring anti-Russian dialogue and graffiti and says it will remove them in the next update.

Developer CD Projekt Red has apologized to Russian players for a number of anti-Russian messages that were included in the new Ukrainian localization of Cyberpunk 2077.

CD Projekt RED has issued an apology, after it was discovered the Ukrainian localization of Cyberpunk 2077 includes a remarkably comprehensive array of anti-Russian references. These range from prominently featured graffiti all the way to niche terminology that will largely be unfamiliar to anyone not from Ukraine or the surrounding countries.

Elon Musk's X was cited as the biggest outlet for peddlers of disinformation as the European Union urged Silicon Valley platforms to step up their vigilance to combat Russia's “war of ideas.” European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said platforms need to act ahead of national and European elections over the next year. “This is a multi-million euro weapon of mass manipulation aimed both internally at the Russians as well as Europeans and the rest of the world,” Jourova told reporters Tuesday.

CD Projekt have formally commented on the presence of references to the Russia-Ukraine war in Cyberpunk 2077's recently added Ukrainian localisation, apologising for dialogue lines "that can be considered offensive by Russian gamers", while reiterating their support for Ukraine.

CD Projekt has apologised for anti-Russian elements in the Ukrainian version of Cyberpunk 2077, which was released alongside the game-changing Update 2.0 ahead of Phantom Liberty's launch on September 26.

Cyberpunk 2077's 2.0 update includes a Ukrainian localisation of the game's enormous script, but added in this version without developer CD Projekt Red's knowledge are references to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

CD Projekt Red has apologized after it was spotted that the newly released Ukrainian localization of Cyberpunk 2077 contained dialog and images that could offend Russian players.

CD Projekt has apologized for in-game dialog and graffiti in the Ukrainian localization of Cyberpunk 2077 that criticizes Russia's invasion of the country, and says it's working to remove or replace them in the next update.

Ransomware group Ransomed.vc claims to have successfully breached Sony Group and is threatening to sell a cache of data stolen from the Japanese company.

Reworked skill trees and new minigames aside, Cyberpunk 2077's 2.0 update includes a Ukrainian localisation of the game's million-plus-word script. It turns out the Ukrainian version is awash with references to Russia's on-going invasion of Ukraine, all of it seemingly in support of the latter. The news comes via Zone of Games, who have published a few side-by-side comparisons from the game's files, underlining differences between the English and Ukrainian translations in various bits of dialogue and menu text.

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We're thrilled to announce the return of GamesBeat Next, hosted in San Francisco this October, where we will explore the theme of «Playing the Edge.» Apply to speak here and learn more about sponsorship opportunities here. At the event, we will also announce 25 top game startups as the 2024 Game Changers. Apply or nominate today!

Leaked emails from Microsoft show the company was concerned about the anemic schedule for its flagship subscription service.

There are a lot of emails going around about Xbox and how Microsoft was planning to do lots of things with lots of ideas. Phil Spencer was the focal point of many of these emails, given their importance and how they outlined his head position within the brand and company. All of these emails leaked because of the FTC case that tried to stop them from acquiring Activision Blizzard. While that didn’t happen, it hasn’t stopped this torrent of emails peeling back the layers of the company and highlighting some key things, such as how, in 2022, Spencer and others were scrambling to try and fill “a big hole” in their gaming lineup.

Leaked court documents from the FTC v. Microsoft case show Microsoft's head of gaming Phil Spencer admitting that the Starfield delay was a bad situation for the company's Xbox Game Pass lineup.

Phil Spencer admitted the hole in Game Pass left by Starfield's delay was a «disaster situation» and suggested FromSoftware's Dark Souls games to plug the gap following the success of Elden Ring, among other third-party releases.

You can really hear the exasperation in this terse statement from Konstantin Govorun, head of PR at War Thunder publisher Gaijin Entertainment: «Our moderators quickly nuked the post, deleted the files and banned the user. This is probably 12th time this happens.»

Starfield was comfortably No.1 across Europe during its launch week, GSD data shows.

The return of Netflix's “Sex Education” with Gillian Anderson, Sean Penn's documentary about Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a docuseries that charts the rise of the first supermodels are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you

How much money Starlink makes has long been a mystery. But a new report suggests the satellite internet service is struggling to reach SpaceX’s financial targets. 

STALKER 2 developer GSC Game World seems cursed with bad luck. As you might remember, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, most of the team relocated to Prague to work from a more secure location.

GSC Game World, the game developer for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, has revealed that they have been victim of a fire.

A fire has destroyed part of Stalker developer GSC Game World's offices in Prague.

The developer of Stalker 2, GSC Game World, has had a fire at in their offices.

There was plenty of excitement when a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. sequel was announced by GSC Game World. Nobody could have predicted just how tumultuous the development cycle would be. The game has faced numerous delays due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine which forced the team to quickly relocate from Kyiv to Prague.

GSC Game World has hit a number of hurdles during the development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, and recently suffered another setback. As reported by Vortex (via @HazzadorGamin on Twitter), the offices of GSC Game World in Prague – where the studio was forced to relocate part of its development team due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – recently suffered damages from a fire.

A fire has destroyed part of the offices of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl developer GSC Game World.

The offices of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl developer GSC Game World have suffered a fire.

As reported by Czech publication Vortex, on September 7, Stalker 2 developer GSC Game World suffered a fire at the Prague office it moved into last year following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. GSC Game World employees have stated that no one was hurt in the incident, but one of the three floors occupied by the dev sustained heavy damage and requires «full restoration.»

Some technology experts believe innovative commercial software developers now entering the arms market are challenging the dominance of the traditional defense industry, which produces big-ticket weapons, sometimes at glacial speed.

North Korean hackers targeted Russian diplomats and successfully breached a Russian aerospace research institute earlier this year, Microsoft Corp said in a blog post published Thursday.

Men of War 2 is moving its release date back to next year so that developers Best Way can add some extra technical polish to the upcoming World War II RTS.

An RTS with an all-timer of a name, the original Men of War launched in 2009 and was very decent indeed (with a standalone expansion, Assault Squad, we rated highly). But those men just didn't get enough war the first time around: The sequel Men of War 2 has been in development for several years at Best Way, and was supposed to release this month.

Geralt of Rivia is back, but this time it’s the version from CD Projekt Red’s video games, not the one from the Netflix show — and he’s starring in a new comic from Dark Horse. The new comic is called The Witcher: Wild Animals, and it’s set for a four-issue run starting on Sept. 20.