Ark: Survival Ascended, the Unreal Engine 5 remake of 2017's Ark: Survival Evolved, surprise launched on Wednesday, and its Early Access release very much mirrors that of the original game, mired by mixed reviews and performance complaints.
10.10.2023 - 19:20 / gamespot.com / Claire Lewis / New
Months after the game's shaky launch, Redfall's second update has arrived, bringing new content, bug fixes, and quality-of-life improvements to the game.
By Claire Lewis on
It's no secret that Arkane Studios' Redfall had a rocky launch. The newest game from the legendary studio that developed classics like Dishonored and Prey, Redfall had so many issues at launch that even Xbox executives admitted their disappointment, with some higher-ups seeming genuinely surprised that the game was so poorly received by critics and fans alike. In June--a month after it launched--Redfall received an update that did manage to fix a decent amount of the game's issues, but still left many players feeling underwhelmed and frustrated. Since then, it's been radio silence, with some players wondering if Bethesda and Arkane have simply chosen to abandon the game. But Bethesda has assured players this isn't the case, and Arkane echoed that sentiment with the recent release of Game Update 2, Redfall's latest patch.
Arriving nearly six months after the game's initial release, Game Update 2 is packed to the brim with desperately needed bug fixes and new features that drastically improve (or entirely remove) previous quality-of-life issues. Players can now pull off incredibly slick-looking stealth takedowns (even with stake-based weapons), and the Bethesda gods have blessed Xbox players with a new performance mode option that truly lets the game's visuals shine.
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Now Playing: Redfall Review — Half-Staked
Additionally, the number of NPCs has been increased. More vampires are lurking around Redfall, and they've gotten smarter, too. Enemies will now jump out of the way if they get hit by friendly fire, and generally seem to spend less time standing around and waiting to get killed. The changes to NPCs and enemies in particular have already earned the game praise from some of its staunchest critics.
But perhaps the biggest triumph included in Game Update 2 is the sheer amount of accessibility features that have been added. The heavily increased narration options make Redfall much more accessible for blind or vision-impaired gamers. Arkane has also made some much-needed changes to five in-game events that can trigger seizures in those with photosensitive epilepsy.
Redfall's future is still somewhat unclear--the lack of communication after launch has led some players to believe the game has been abandoned by its developers, but Game Update 2 is proof that Arkane and Bethesda are still committed to improving the game, at least to some
Ark: Survival Ascended, the Unreal Engine 5 remake of 2017's Ark: Survival Evolved, surprise launched on Wednesday, and its Early Access release very much mirrors that of the original game, mired by mixed reviews and performance complaints.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 hit PlayStation 5 exclusively last week and it's already Sony's fastest-selling first-party game. While we loved the game – read Game Informer's Marvel's Spider-Man 2 here – once players got their hands on the game, some encountered a few bugs and issues, like one where their character model became a small white cube that looks like tofu. Plus, players discovered a Cuban flag was displayed inside and outside the Morales household rather than the expected Puerto Rican flag. A new update for Marvel's Spider-Man 2 out today fixes both of these issues and more.
The latest New World Community Q&A is up, and the team is answering questions about Artifacts, Heartrunes, mutation difficulty, and bee shooters?
It's been 11 long years since the unveiling of Squadron 42, Star Citizen's singleplayer campaign, seven years since developer Cloud Imperium Games broke Squadron 42 off into a standalone purchase, five years since Crytek took them to court for allegedly breaching their CryEngine license, three years since Crytek and Cloud Imperium settled that lawsuit, and three years since director Chris Roberts sought to justify the game's long development time to Kickstarter backers, declaring that "it would be doing a huge disservice to everyone working really hard on the project and all of you that are looking forward to it to deliver something that isn't great." Well, all that waiting has finally paid off, as Squadron 42 is now officially... "feature-complete" and "into the polishing phase", meaning that the Wing Commander-inspired space sim is almost guaranteed to release before the death of our sun.
Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is available worldwide, and while perfectly playable for those physical edition owners, it’s recommended to download the day one update. Patch notes are now available, revealing additional accessibility features and improvements.
Insomniac has a tendency to cram its games full of additive bells and whistles at launch, with plenty of modes and additional features being available in the developer’s titles to allow players to get the most out of the games. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, however, will have one or two such features missing at launch- though they will be coming in the not-too-distant future.
A new Cyberpunk 2077 mod allows users to tweak additional visual and performance settings directly in the game to achieve better performance without having to edit .ini files.
Microsoft has outlined some of the new Xbox accessibility features due in the coming months, including the ability to remap keyboard keys to the Xbox Adaptive Controller and Elite Series 2.
Microsoft is always moving forward in the field of accessibility, especially in gaming, where its Xbox Adaptive Controller and other features help gamers with disabilities play however is comfortable for them. A couple new updates and a touching short video on how games fit into the rehabilitation process mark the company’s accessibility highlight month.
Just one day after AMD removed Anti-Lag+ for Counter-Strike 2, to prevent any more players from potentially receiving account bans, there's now a new driver set that's stripped the feature altogether. That's a pretty drastic move but it's far better than incurring further wrath from the gaming community.
's Season 5: Reckoning has arrived, and it brings a variety of new content and general updates with it. Although a singleplayer campaign can be purchased in the tradition of the series, the online aspect of the game has been free-to-play since its launch in 2021. A steady stream of seasonal updates has expanded the multiplayer from a comparatively bare-bones launch, and Season 5 is no slouch when it comes to offering new opportunities in both gameplay and customization.
Pokémon Go developer Niantic has always pitched its mobile Pokémon game as a social experience. But when you’re actually playing it, it’s just your lonely trainer on-screen, walking the virtual world of Pokémon Go and catching ’em all.