Something for the Weekend – 30/09/23

It’s been a busy week in the gaming industry, with big game releases, a new PS5 and, after months of to-ing and fro-ing, Microsoft finally completed their acquisition of Activision Blizzard to the tune of $68.7 billion!

The relaunch of Red Dead Online as a standalone title in late 2020 was something of a false dawn for its ever-optimistic community. Rockstar maintains the title but has been in a cycle for several years of repeating content, and it could fairly be said that this playerbase has been surviving on rations ever since 2020. This led to one of the best in-game protests I've ever seen, where a ton of RDO players gathered together in summer 2020 dressed up as clowns to protest the lack of substantial updates.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has explained that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will remain with the publisher "through the end of 2023."

Microsoft’s revised deal to acquire Activision Blizzard has now been cleared by the UK’s Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA).

Diablo 4's sorcerers have had, uh… a bit of a hard time, the poor guys. While they were super promising in the game's beta—with a ton of sorcerous excitement when the game opened its gates—things haven't exactly been smooth sailing since.

Amazon is heading into one of its biggest sales events of the year — Prime Day — with a lawsuit hanging over its head that accuses it of preventing sellers from hawking their merchandise at lower prices on other sites.

For The King II has a release date and that date is November 2nd, Curve Games and Iron Oak Games have confirmed. It is a sequel to For The King and retains a lot of the table top and turn based elements of the original game. The land of Fahruhl has come under the control of a tyrannical queen, and players will lead characters in a rebellion to overthrow the Queen’s rule, venturing across the world and dealing with various enemy encounters as well as exploration.

Golf With Your Friends is holding a free weekend on Steam, making it the perfect time to gather your friends together for a round or two. One of the most delightfully chaotic multiplayer games, Golf With Your Friends twists one of the most mundane sports into hilarious, high-octane action, so don’t miss your chance to try it for free. There’s even a deep discount for those of you who decide you want to keep playing it.

I’ve spent a lot of time behind a steering wheel over the past week, and I think I’m pretty likely to carry that forward through to the weekend, with Forza Motorsport in that weird Schrödinger state of expensive edition early access, but with the full release not until next week. There’s no messing around for AC Mirage, though. That throwback Assassin’s Creed adventure is just out and you can play it now. What a time to be alive!

Five years after it was put in the grave, the free-to-play hero shooter Gigantic is back for one weekend only, and while the game's fans are thrilled to have even a brief opportunity to play it once again I can't help but wonder if this is a new circle of game preservation hell.

For The King 2 is an adorable turn-based RPG with up to four player co-op that’s a perfect way to fill the void left after finishing Baldur’s Gate 3, and developer IronOak Games has revealed exactly when you can play it. With the For The King 2 release date set for November on Steam, it won’t be long until you can take on the tyrannical Queen Rosomon for yourself.

For The King II will launch for PC via Steam on November 2 for $24.99 / £19.99 / €24.99, publisher Curve Games and developer IronOak Games announced. Pre-orders are available now at a 10 percent-off limited time discount price of $22.49 / £17.99 / €22.49.