Destructoid News, Tips, Tricks, Ideas

Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced today that the corporation will cut around 8% of its workforce, or more than 900 jobs. Also, in the announcement, they stated that PlayStation Studios London will be closing.

If you haven’t played Black Mesa, the unofficial (yet wholly endorsed by Valve) remake of Half-Life, it’s definitely worth checking out. For those of us who have played – and enjoyed – it, the team responsible for it is teasing a new game that’s currently in the pipeline.

After more than two weeks of hammered servers and lengthy queues, Helldivers 2 players and developer Arrowhead have a reason to collectively sigh in relief. Helldivers 2 server issues seem to have finally let up during the weekend, and now the studio is ready to go back to the “original plan” and prep new content.

When the end of the world comes (and it will), I like to imagine that in the midst of all the rubble and chaos, people will still be playing Skyrim. There doesn’t seem to be any way that people won’t tinker with the game and in this instance, we get to see dead technology being revived in order to play TES5.

While Forza Motorsport fans eagerly anticipate the seemingly game-changing Update 6, Forza Horizon 5 continues its assortment of wacky hijinks by introducing dinosaurs into its roster of usable assets. The game’s major Eurotrip update is, therefore, particularly eclectic, and bound to thrill players this way or the other.

Pokemon has always diversified the ways you can explore its world, with Pokemon TCG being one of them. During today’s Pokemon Presents, the company revealed Pokemon Pocket, an upcoming new way to enjoy the trading card game.

Final Fantasy VII was released in 1997 on PlayStation. In those days, the NES, despite Nintendo only discontinuing it in 1995, was considered practically ancient. Things aged faster in the ‘90s.

Whether it bumps up our numbers or matches our shiny new boots: we crave new loot in video games. To help satiate our hunger, the most recent legendary weapon in World of Warcraft is now more likely to drop than ever. Even failed attempts now move you closer towards actually seeing the axe fall into your hands.

When I bring up the “tactics RPG,” it feels like there is a certain image that comes to mind: grid-based, turn-based, isometric, or top-down, with units hopping up and down terrain to bonk each other on the head with swords and magic. The sheer popularity of games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, and Fire Emblem have cemented as much.

Did you pop in Final Fantasy XV only to hitch your Regalia permanently to Galdin Quay? Did you halt progress in Sea of Stars in an effort to filet every single species known to man? If you’re a total fishing freak, there’s an open-world action-RPG on the way for you called Sea Fantasy. 

The elite Valkyries’ adventures continue in Honkai Impact 3rd’s upcoming chapter, Mars Crisis. This time, we’ll see new faces join the team, from the eccentric Senadina to the animalistic Coralie 6626 Planck.

News of Stardew Valley’s 1.6 update have circulated since ConcernedApe revealed a major sneak peek in September and various mini-announcements, such as one in October and another 1.6 progress report in December. Today, ConcernedApe announced an official 1.6 release date, with this update releasing on March 19 on PC and later on console and mobile.

Many of us grew to know most parts of the original Final Fantasy VII by heart, and that’s both awesome and heartbreaking. But how many of us are aware of the full extent of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII extended universe that Square Enix kickstarted in the mid-aughts, in celebration of its seventh anniversary?

Danish studio Die Gute Fabrik, responsible for indie titles such as the excellently unique indie Mutazione, has announced that the company is halting production of current projects. The studio points to the current “challenging funding and investment scene” in games as the big reason behind the decision.

In yet another round of bad news for the gaming industry, Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures developer Supermassive Games is about to be hit by a wave of layoffs. 

FuRyu and Natsume Atari have announced that action RPG Reynatis will be arriving in North America this Fall. It’s set for Switch, PS4, PS5, and PC.

Riot Games has revealed the next set for its popular strategy auto battler Teamfight Tactics. Titled Inkborn Fables, the new set brings players to a mystical and ancient world filled with mythological creatures and legendary heroes. Patch 14.6 which begins the newInkborn Fables set sis scheduled to go live on PC and mobile on March 20, 2024.

According to the official scheduling, Microsoft is getting ready to show off its first-party resolution upscaler at this year’s Game Developer Conference in San Francisco. Though this is more of an industry event rather than a conference for the consumer, the presence of DirectSR is quite exciting.

Even though many of us may see Skyrim as one of the greatest RPGs of all time, there’s no denying that it’s a painfully flawed game. We know this, and that’s why modders are always working to make sure Bethesda’s aging epic maintains some degree of relevancy.

As the go-to digital storefront for many PC gamers, Steam has dominated the market for the better part of 20 years. Aside from the fact that it has millions of games in its growing selection, regular sales and events continue to be a mild threat to a lot of people’s finances.

It’s finally happening: Dying Light 2‘s post-apocalyptic civilization has rediscovered guns. As announced months ago, late in 2023, Techland’s latest major content update for Dying Light 2 is all about weaponry, celebrating the game’s second anniversary with a boom and a bang.

If you thought the days of porting Doom onto every possible device known to humanity were over, think again. Now, get ready to slay demons while also maintaining a neat yard. You may be a lover of violent FPS games, but you’re also a responsible adult now.

A good part of the Internet has already sung high praise for the OG Tomb Raider trilogy remaster’s loving determination to rejuvenate the classic. I’m glad it has. Being alone in finding it quite a marvel would leave me feeling pretty sad and possibly stupid.

The hits keep coming and they don’t stop coming for Rocksteady as its parent company, Warner Bros. Games, is disappointed in the performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Like a poorly made macaroni picture, it looks like this one isn’t going up on the fridge.

I realized a long time ago I was probably never going to be good at poker. It’s not that I’m bad at assessing risk; worse, I just don’t care. When I used to play casual games in-between classes in school, I’d go all-in on bad hands. I’d swap cards for a flush that probably wouldn’t show up. So imagine my surprise when Balatro, a deckbuilding poker roguelite, asked me to lean into those bad habits.

I have a number of valuable games in my collection. Some I acquired through lucky timing, others I’ve actually shelled out for, but all of them are the result of questionable priorities. None are as valuable as my copy of Little Samson.

For a series coming up on three decades of history, I guess it only makes sense it expands into mobile with everything else. During today’s Age of Empires New Year, New Age Livestream, Microsoft unveiled Age of Empires Mobile which is coming to both iOS and Android

Logging into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 today is quite the ride. Players have seen their rank drop to level 1 overnight, in addition to the server errors being delivered in certain game modes. Particularly Zombies, but also other modes, have displayed a ‘Minot Hawthorne’ error, or just a never-ending loading screen, which prevents the player from playing. The developer is working on solutions, while temporarily disabling some modes while it’s being fixed.

The Mother games are a highly celebrated RPG series, containing the likes of both Mother and EarthBound. There’s also Mother 3, a really good RPG from what I’veheard, that still hasn’t made it to the west.

The Bloodborne community is the equivalent of a dog losing its absolute mind whenever it catches wind of a remaster or PC port of its beloved title. “Bloodborne!? Bloodborne! BLOODBOOOOOOOOOORNE!” Such was the case when the FromSoftware darling was brought up with director Hidetaka Miyazaki during the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC reveal.

Some people like World of Warcraft because of the interaction with other players. The promise of a massively multi-player online game is a community of folks to pal around with. But, some players wish they could just go on a big single-player adventure. The upcoming Hardcore Self-Found Mode aims to grant the latter WoW Classic players their wish on February 29.

Xbox Game Studios is currently hosting a New Year, New Age live stream to celebrate everything Age of Empires and reveal updates about its future. However, it’s not all about Age of Empires. After being teased in 2022, Age of Mythology: Retold has been revealed. A definitive edition of the original classic RTS Age of Mythology, Retold will release on PC and Xbox Serise X|S later this year.

A solo developer from Moldova, Andrground, has announced their upcoming project, Troleu, a totally accurate work simulator about working as a trolleybus conductor.

Hello. I gathered you all here to tell you that water is wet. In other – perhaps equally obvious – news, Palworld continues to attract more players than some countries have citizens. As of this week, more than 25 million people have played Pocketpair’s monster-catching survival game.

Can’t get enough Death Stranding? Well, you’re in luck. The documentary film Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds shows the creative process behind Hideo Kojima launching his independent studio Kojima Productions and the development of Death Stranding. Connecting Worlds is available to stream now on Disney+, Hulu, and Hotstar depending on region.

Since Bethesda announced the studio would be teaming up with AMD prior to Starfield‘s release, the two have barely left each other’s sides. As well as optimizing the game for Team Red’s hardware, there’s now a chance to win some PC hardware from the tech giant that’s themed after the game.

If you’re one of the many players who logged into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 today and found out you’re now level 1, you aren’t alone. Social media users everywhere reported their accounts have been reset. The official Call of Duty Updates Twitter account has already responded, stating the developers are working on a fix.

It almost feels like Dead by Daylight should be running out of ideas. Incorporating icons from numerous horror franchises, surely the developer would run out. Seemingly not. Along with some new content coming in March, the asymmetrical survival game is also throwing up the horns for heavy metal.

It had gotten fairly hard to keep track of Destiny 2‘s many ups and downs in the year of Lightfall. From catastrophic layoffs to Bungie’s emergency-button rollout of long-anticipated new features, there’s whiplash trying to parse it all for the average player.

Helldiver 2‘s popularity has drawn in players from around the world ready to spread democracy across the galaxy. Unfortunately, Arrowhead’s servers weren’t prepared for just how popular the game was going to be, which has led to frustrating issues.

After a decade-long hiatus, EA Sports’ College Football is coming back. Not only is it reviving a beloved series for football fans, but it’s also bringing all 134 FBS (formerly Division I-A) schools along for the ride.

A previously PC-only turn-based strategy game, Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters is now available on Xbox and PlayStation consoles. PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One owners can now play the Warhammer universe-based adventure for the first time. I’ve spent some time playing it on PC already, so here’s what you’re getting, console players.

Two years after Elden Ring was released, we finally got our first look at the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. From cryptic teases to ghastly enemies, it had it all, and it sounds like there will still be some challenges in store for those seeking more of them.

D4 Enterprise is continuing the pace of PC-88 games releasing on Switch under their EggConsole label with 1987’s Hydlide3: The Space Memories. Like many of their recent releases, it has the caveat of being untranslated.

If roguelites, transforming robots, and tearing corrupt corporations down from within are all on your to-do list, Metal Mind might just be up your alley. Publisher 2P Games announced that the latest from developer WHIRLLAXY LIMITED is set to launch on Nintendo Switch and PC (via Epic Games Store) on March 7, 2024.

For those of you with conflicting feelings about making calamari of your fellow Octolings and Inklings, you can rejoice as Wave 2 of the Splatoon 3 Expansion Pass, Side Order, launched today. With none of that nasty PvP business, you can focus on ethically annihilating other species.

Last Epoch left early access on February 21, resulting in a sudden influx of players checking out the full release. How many players? On the day Last Epoch officially launched, SteamDB recorded a peak of over 152,000 concurrent players. One day later, the figure has grown to more than 176,000 players, and it’s not even a weekend.

It appears I may have to eat crow when it comes to the PS VR2 and its future. I previously predicted that it would go the way of the PS Vita, but upcoming changes may rejuvenate the underutilized headset.

Just two days after launch, Inflexion Games announced that the developer is now prioritizing the development of an offline mode for Nightingale. In its current state, Nightingale requires a consistent online connection to the game servers. Having just released into Early Access, this is what every player hopes to see. A developer open to changing its game to fit community feedback, which it appears Inflexion is willing to do.

It’s a sad day in MOBA land as Paragon: The Overprime is being shut down…again. It would seem that a new developer and a slight name change weren’t enough to save the third-person MOBA from a second death.

Since Baldur’s Gate 3’s launch in August 2023, the community has banded together to create mods ranging from race and class additions to small quality-of-life improvements between official patches. While modding is not officially supported, Larian Studios has openly encouraged the modding community and has been working on introducing support for some time. As of today, an official statement in the Larian Studios Discord revealed the future of modding for Baldur’s Gate 3, detailing that it will come in the game’s next big patch.

Back in November of 2023, developer Endnight Games announced that Sons of the Forest, its latest survival crafting game after The Forest, would finally release Version 1.0 on February 22, 2024 — oh hey, that’s today.

At last, the sturdy boot of Managed Democracy will be delivered to those who deserve it nearly as much as bugs and bots. The latest patch for Helldivers 2 adds an AFK kick timer to remove AWOL players so that active divers can be allowed to unleash justice.

Digital Eclipse has announced that the second game in their Gold Master Series of interactive documentaries, Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, will be available on March 13, 2024.

PowerWash Simulator is no stranger to unusual collaborations. From Final Fantasy VII to SpongeBob SquarePants, this compelling cleaning sim is willing to tackle dirt no matter where it may be. Following a series of teasing posts on X by the PowerWash Simulator account, we finally have a release date for what might be the most ambitious crossover yet, Warhammer 40,000.

Consolidating the entire new Hitman trilogy into one comprehensive package, Hitman 3 (or Hitman: World of Assassination, as it is now known) is essentially the ultimate envisioning of the franchise. It’s not done yet, either, with the upcoming Season of the Undying introducing even more content to the package.

If there’s one thing many of us know about Skyrim, it’s that the NPCs are not the brightest around. Enemy AI is usually pretty easy to manipulate, but this one modder decided that better NPC reactions make for a better experience.

If you’re still playing DayZ (and why wouldn’t you be?) the latest patch has started rolling out, which comes with new guns and some quality-of-life changes. Perhaps more importantly, developer Bohemia Interactive says we may be seeing something a little different later on this year.

It’s been a good week for rescues. Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On is no longer exclusive to Apple Arcade, Ninja Five-O has been saved from the clutches of eBay, and Picross S+ is about to free a bunch of puzzles that were previously only on Nintendo 3DS.

The name Project L was always going to be a placeholder, and today, Riot Games revealed the full name of its League of Legends fighting game: 2XKO. I have already mistyped it three times.

Only By Midnight has announced Ctrl Alt Deal, which is billed as a “game about AI proudly made by humans.”

Troglobytes Games has announced that the dystopian delivery simulator developed by Tiny Pixel and Stupidi Pixel, Death Noodle Delivery, will be released on PC on April 4th, 2024. Console versions will follow later.

It’s not often that games immediately impress with the combination of their animation and presentation, but #BLUD is a straight-up stunner. Humble Games and developer Exit 73 Studios have locked the ’90s cartoon-inspired action-RPG in for a June 18 launch on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Games Operators and Jutsu Games have announced that their zombie apocalypse survival management game, Infection Free Zone, will enter early access on April 11, 2024.

When I saw that Final Fantasy 7 Remake came out in 2020, I had to do a triple-take. Really? It was out on PS4, four years ago? No way!

In September 2023, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan announced his departure. He will be succeeded by Sony’s current chief operating officer Hiroki Totoki, who Ryan expresses full confidence in. In an interview with Variety, he lists his favorite titles from each PlayStation generation for a little fun. Can’t say it’s a question that doesn’t pique my curiosity.

Now that the dust has mostly settled on Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the question remains over when those games will start to trickle onto Xbox Game Pass. Xbox head Phil Spencer seems to still want Call of Duty and other big titles on the pass, but it remains to be seen when it could happen.

Man, have I been writing a lot of Fallout articles lately! Ah, well. One more won’t hurt. This time, however, it’s not about the main games, but about one of the most ambitious mods for Fallout 4, which is still on track for an April release.

If you’re a streamer on Twitch and you’re somehow managing to make money off it, it seems there’s a bit of good news on the horizon. Well, provided you’re based in the UK, Canada, Australia, or Turkey. However, if you’re a subscriber to streamers, this may sting a little.

Upon first impressions, I argued that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a monotonous, uninspired ordeal. The introduction to Metropolis drags along, only to feel worse thanks to messy presentation and unintuitive mechanics, though I admit the latter may be a product of my own faults. Those early thoughts still stand, as Kill the Justice League doesn’t offer an enticing first few hours. Eventually, some of those pieces improve. Others, not so much.  

Final Fantasy XIV welcomes Noctis back to Eorzea with the Final Fantasy XV collaboration event, A Nocturne for Heroes. Like other recurring events, the FFXIV x FFXV collab always comes with the same quests and rewards, but this one is particularly popular as it offers FFXIV’s first-ever four-person mount.

Disney Dreamlight Valley players take a trip to Monstropolis on February 28. The free Monsters, Inc. content for Disney Dreamlight Valley, which includes Mike and Sulley as villagers, launches for free on all platforms

Ah, it’s a new day, full of Nintendo news. We got our first Nintendo Direct of the year today with a Partner Showcase, spotlighting games arriving in the first half of 2024 for the Switch.

Welcome to Pandora. After yesterday’s teaser, the live-action Borderlands has released its first trailer and it looks like one heck of a ride, for better or worse. 

Last week, Microsoft confirmed it would bring more first-party titles to other platforms. There was plenty of speculation as to what those games would be, but after various announcements today, the roster has been set.

Limited Run Games has announced that they’re going to be re-releasing Hudson’s 2003 Game Boy Advance game, Ninja Five-O, both physically and digitally for Switch, PS4, and PS5.

I’m not saying Minecraft is entirely infinite, but it definitely has the kind of longevity most other games would kill for. Much of it comes down to the near-endless creative possibilities, but also the mods. Mods and add-ons are what keep the gaming world a-turnin’, and Mojang has now added…add-ons to the game.

For those who already tried the demo for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, there’s now more in store. Today, the demo has expanded with an open-world section of Junon for players to roam about and explore.

Palia developer Singularity 6 announced today that the cozy social MMO will finally head to Steam on March 25. As of now Palia is only available via a stand-alone client on PC and Nintendo Switch. The Steam version will also include c ross-progression play and cross-platform availability, allowing friends to play together across the Steam and standalone clients on PC as well as those on Nintendo Switch.

Following the announcement of Pentiment and Grounded heading to the Nintendo Switch, it seems like Hi-Fi Rush is slamming its way onto the PS5 this March.