SMITE 2 first alpha weekend has been dated

I spent this morning being pseudo-profound about Animal Well and pseudo-elegaic about Tango Gameworks, so now it's time to get back to the Real Business - being a pseud on the subject of videogame gun balancing.

Remedy have called it quits on the project codenamed Kestrel. The co-op multiplayer game was an original IP being made with the backing of Tencent, but now Remedy say they've cancelled it to allow them to focus on "other games in our portfolio", all of which are based on "existing franchises".

Alan Wake 2, Control developer Remedy has announced that it has cancelled its multiplayer project, codenamed Kestrel. The studio has revealed that it will instead be focusing more on its existing franchises. According to the announcement, Kestrel had started development in November 2023, and was a reboot of previous project, Vanguard.

The Invincible has been updated to version 1.2 with the release of the Voyager update, 11 bit Studios and Starward Industries have confirmed. This new update adds new story slides, a wider field of view option, dynamic camera for the Rover, enhanced walking and sprinting speeds in some locations, and some smaller changes too. The full notes can be read below the update video.

The Helldivers 2 debacle has reached new hellish lows as the year's best-selling game is now unavailable on Steam in over 170 countries. 

A new game based on the Nintendo World Championships appears to have been rated by the ESRB.

NVIDIA has announced an update to the NvRTX branch of Epic's Unreal Engine 5. The major new feature is the addition of experimental support for ReSTIR Global Illumination, the ray tracing algorithm first discussed by NVIDIA researchers in the seminal paper Spatiotemporal Reservoir Resampling for Real-Time Ray Tracing with Dynamic Direct Lighting released at ACM SIGGRAPH 2020.

Popular MOBA game SMITE is getting a sequel, and you’ll soon be able to play it yourself. While the release date for Smite 2 is still a ways off, developer Hi-Rez Studios is letting fans get an early look at the title with a closed alpha test.

During the big MOBA boom, Smite stood out primarily for its unique perspective. Instead of the traditional isometric view that games like League of Legends and DOTA 2 used, Smite was played from a more traditional third-person point of view. This made it far more approachable than its competitors, and it has enjoyed a loyal fan base for the last decade. Despite constant updates and new additions, fans have been ready for a more substantial upgrade to the game, and we will soon have it when Smite 2 arrives sometime soon. However, alpha tests are already underway and you can join in if you want to be one of the first to jump into the fray.

Developer FuturLab has announced that PowerWash Simulator has been played by 12 million players. Celebrating the milestone, the studio states that the game’s various collaboration DLC releases, including ones with SpongeBob SquarePants, Back to the Future, and Warhammer 40,000, had a hand in hitting the number.

Sega has declared 2024 the year of Shadow the Hedgehog, which means fans of the Ultimate Lifeform (as he likes to be referred to) have plenty to look forward to in the coming months. That, of course, includes Keanu Reeves voicing him in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which will release in theaters worldwide this December, but Sonic fans in the gaming space won’t be left behind either.

The Watch Dogs is "dead and buried", as Ubisoft canceled multiple projects based on the franchise, according to online rumors.