Gaming Bolt News, Tips, Tricks, Ideas

Out of nowhere, Arrowhead Game Studios has released an extensive balance patch for Helldivers 2. While it reduces burning damage by 15 percent and reduces headshot damage on those with armor ratings above 100, it offers many changes to existing weapons and Stratagems.

Honkai: Star Rail’s next big update – Version 2.2, “Then Wake to Weep” – goes live on May 8th for all platforms. It concludes the Penacony storyline as players face off against The Great Septimus of The Family. Check out the trailer below (though beware of spoilers).

Street Fighter 6’s final Year 1 DLC character, Akuma, is one that fans have been looking forward to for some time. The fan-favourite series veteran is set to close out the game’s first wave of DLC fighters sometime this spring, and Capcom has now announced a specific release date for his arrival.

Following the conclusion of XDefiant’s Server Test Session on April 19th to 21st, executive producer Mark Rubin says a release date is coming “very soon.”

Housemarque turned a lot of people into fans of its work with 2021’s Returnal, which, of course, means the studio’s next project is going to have more eyes on it than any of its past titles. But while it doesn’t look like the developer is ready to share details on its next big title just yet, it looks like another announcement related to Returnal might be coming soon.

If it weren’t enough to see Bandai Namco announce free updates and new story content for Tekken 8 this year, it also outlined its roadmap for Season 1 DLC fighters. After Eddy Gordo, the next DLC character is one that should be familiar to Tekken 7 fans – Lidia Sobieska. Check out some teases of her power below.

Klei Entertainment’s Rotwood launched into early access last Friday and garnered quite a strong reception, with over 200,000 players. However, there were multiple complaints regarding its difficulties (known as enemies) and certain enemies. Patch [605165] went live recently to adjust these but also added a Rotwood Public group for players to match with.

Though Klei Entertainment’s Rotwood launched to some praise on Steam last Friday, it’s since fallen into the “Mixed” category, with only 69 percent positive reviews. The development team is aware of criticisms surrounding the difficulty and released a patch yesterday to tone down the Frenzies and nerf some enemies. It also adds a public group for easier matchmaking with other players.

During EVO Japan 2024, Bandai Namco released a new trailer showcasing upcoming updates for Tekken 8. A new balance patch will be available this Spring, but fans can expect several free post-launch updates. Check out the trailer below.

Bandai Namco has a lot in store for Tekken 8 fans this year, starting with a new balance patch this Spring. While a new stage and Photo Mode will go live this Summer, perhaps the most intriguing announcement is a new Main Story chapter launching this Autumn for free. Check out some teases from it in the Season 1 trailer.

The fourth and final DLC character for Guilty Gear Strive’s Season Pass 3 is revealed, and, as many suspected, it’s Slayer. The dignified, laid-back vampire is even more impressive than ever and will be available for Season Pass holders on May 30th. Check out his first gameplay trailer below.

The hotfixes for Moon Studios’ No Rest for the Wicked continue to roll following its launch into Steam Early Access. The sixth hotfix addresses complaints of the game feeling too dark with improvements to rim light rendering in shadows. It improves visibility in darker areas and makes the characters “feel more integrated into the environments.”

SNK has released a new trailer forFatal: Fury: City of the Wolves, announcing the addition of Marco Rodrigues to the roster (voiced by Earl Baylon in English and Kenichirou Matsuda in Japanese). As a practitioner of Kyokugen Karate, he made his debut in Garou: Mark of the Wolves, so a return only makes sense. Check out some of his moves below.

F1 24 is a little more than a month away from launch, and Codemasters and EA Sports are continuing to reveal new details on the racing sim. Plenty more of that has come courtesy of a new gameplay deep dive.

With Grounded, Pentiment, and Hi-Fi Rush, Microsoft has brought a number of its first-party Xbox titles to rival platforms in recent weeks, and though that’s set to continue with Sea of Thieves, which launches for PS5 on April 30, for now, that’s as much as we know about Microsoft’s plans for multiplatform releases. Interestingly, however, CEO Satya Nadella has suggested that more Xbox titles will be following in the aforementioned games’ footsteps.

Xbox Series X/S hardware sales have been consistently on the decline for a while now, and it looks like that continued to be the case in the quarter ending March 31 as well, as per Microsoft’s recently released quarterly fiscal report.

By all accounts, the Nintendo Switch 2 is still almost a year away, but potential new details on the console have been filtering through on a consistent basis, courtesy of a what’s been an unbroken stream of leaks. Another leak has now emerged, with Mobopad, a manufacturer of Switch accessories, posting alleged new details that it has learned about Nintendo’s next-gen console on Bilibili.

Mortal Kombat 1 has added plenty of content in the form of new DLC fighters, Kameo characters, post-launch content for the Invasions mode, and more since its release last year, but developer NetherRealm Studios still has plenty more stuff in the pipeline.

Bloober Team has plenty of irons in the fire, with Silent Hill 2’s long anticipated remake being the game that the studio is currently focused on most, but it looks like it will soon begin talking about its other projects as well.

With Blizzard Entertainment having several major upcoming releases in the works, many had expected that the company would have a lot to say at BlizzCon later this year. Recently, however, it was announced that Blizzard had decided not to host the event in 2024. With Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard having gone through last year, there were some who wondered if it was Blizzard’s new parent company that made the decision to not go ahead with a BlizzCon event this year, but apparently that wasn’t the case.

From Resident Evil and Monster Hunter to Street Fighter and more, Capcom has an impressive stable of established IP with a long history of success- though the company, it seems, has some new things in the works as well. One of those things is seemingly a new game called The Descendants.

Upon its announcement last month, NetEase Games confirmed that Marvel Rivals would be getting a closed alpha sometime in May, and now the company has revealed further details. The 6v6 hero shooter’s closed alpha will go live on May 10 at 5 PM Pacific, and will remain live until May 20 at 11:59 PM Pacific. The test will be available to 30,000 players, but only in the United States and Canada.

When it was announced in 2022, Kingdom Hearts 4 was confirmed to be in early development, but with little to no updates having been shared on the game in the two years since then, fans continue to grow increasingly anxious about when Square Enix will next showcase the Kingdom Hearts franchise’s next mainline instalment.

Supergiant Games’ technical test for Hades 2 will be coming to an end on April 29th. As promised, it went on for longer than a week and less than a month, but appears to have been successful. The team has identified and addressed “a number of key issues we weren’t able to find before.” After it ends, early access will launch “relatively soon” after.

With the launch of Fallout 4’s Next-Gen Update, players have faced several issues, from messed up save files to mods breaking. Recent reviews on Steam are now at 78 percent “Mostly Positive” as more negative reviews continue to pile up. However, there’s another baffling issue on Xbox Series X – even if you opt for Quality Mode (which offers native 4K/30 FPS), it will still run at 60 FPS.

Fallout is all the craze these days, especially off the success of Amazon’s recent TV show (recently renewed for Season 2). Though older titles like Fallout 76 and Fallout 4 have received impressive bumps in player numbers, the latter celebrating its Next-Gen Update launch, it wouldn’t be surprising if Microsoft is thinking of ways to capitalize on the show’s success.

In the lead up to its launch, it was pretty clear that medieval city building RTS title Manor Lords was generating a fair bit of excitement, and in the immediate aftermath of its recent early access release, that’s become doubly clear.

Power has inspired much discussion in the Destiny 2 community, and with Bungie experimenting more with not raising the Power limit, many believed The Final Shape would remove it. Instead, the development team is taking several steps to allow more easily playing with friends, regardless of their Power.

Among its most unpopular decisions with Destiny 2, Bungie made two exceptionally annoying ones – vaulting previously released content, like The Red War, Curse of Osiris and Warmind campaigns, and capping Power on Legendary gear. It would slightly alter course on the latter, ensuring that Legendaries released after a point didn’t suffer the same issue. However, in The Final Shape, it’s completely reversing the decision.

If The Witness wasn’t enough for Guardians in Destiny 2: The Final Shape, they must contend with the new Dread faction. Wielding the powers of Darkness, they create havoc and keep the player off-balance, as seen with the Harbinger, Weaver, Husk and Geist. Two new teasers highlight the remaining members – the Omen, Attendant and Grim.

Despite its rough early access launch last week, Moon Studios has worked extensively to improve No Rest for the Wicked. The Souls-like action RPG has garnered some positive impressions, though – check them out in the trailer below.

Bandai Namco’sSAND LAND is now available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. You can check out its launch trailer here, featuring all the hijinx and vehicular action (though be warned of potential spoilers).

Manor Lords generated a fair bit of buzz in the lead-up to its recent release, surpassing 3 million wishlists, so it’s no surprise that it’s got off to a flying start where player numbers are concerned. Developer Slavic Magic and publisher Hooded Horse’s medieval city-building real-time strategy title launched for Steam in early access on April 26, and within the first 24 hours of its release, it’s attracted players in strong numbers.

Xur has returned in Bungie’s Destiny 2, appearing in the Tower Hangar. Unfortunately, much of the sought after loot is dropping in Onslaught, and his inventory just can’t hack it. Nevertheless, he’s carrying the Exotic energy shotgun Lord of Wolves and other items until the next reset.

Valve has added many quality-of-life updates to Counter-Strike 2 in its latest patch while buffing the Zeus and nerfing the kill reward from the XM1014. Some prominent changes include the ability to swap between one’s left and right hand while aiming. You can set it before rounds and swap temporarily by pressing H.

Survios announced in 2022 that it was developing a new horror game based on the Alien franchise, and that game has now been formally unveiled. Titled Alien: Rogue Incursion, the single-player action horror game has been announced with a brief trailer that reveals its name, but doesn’t show any gameplay or offer any details on its story and setup.

The Plucky Squire sits close to the top of most anticipated lists for a great many people, and even though we’ve seen frustratingly little of it, every time it does re-emerge, it continues to look incredibly promising. In recent days, for instance, developer All Possible Futures has been posting short gameplay clips of the action-adventure title on its official Twitter page, and you guessed it- it’s looking really good.

Tango Gameworks has seen some success over the past year thanks to the launch of Hi-Fi Rush (which recently arrived on PS5). While many awaited to see its next big project, perhaps the most surprising announcement to emerge was that Shinji Mikami would be leaving. As the founder, he would directThe Evil Within and serve as executive producer on The Evil Within 2, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Hi-Fi Rush.

Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno has provided an update on Silent Hill 2 in an IR/conference following the group’s consolidated annual report for 2023 (via MauroNL on Twitter). He noted that the team is “in the final stages of work” on the remake, and “We expect that a release date and platforms on which the game will appear will be revealed soon.”

Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s newest update is out today, adding Tweyen and Seofon as new playable characters. However, players won’t have to wait long before the next addition, as Sandalphon arrives with Version 1.3.0 in late May.

The wait for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has been a long one, but with the long-anticipated open world survival horror FPS drawing closer to its launch a few months down the line, on the 38th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, developer GSC Game World has released a brief new trailer that offers another look at the game.

We’ve been hearing about Lost Soul Aside for years at this point, and though the Devil May Cry and Final Fantasy-inspired action RPG has continued to look impressive with each of its new showings, details on when the game will actually launch have remained frustratingly elusive. That, however, might change soon.

Nintendo has still yet to unveil the successor to the Switch, but the Japanese company’s next-gen console continues to be the subject of rumours and leaks. A new report published by Spanish outlet Vandal has now also allegedly revealed new details on the upcoming console.

Allegedly in the works since as far back as 2018, Resident Evil 9 is set to have the longest ever development cycle for a Resident Evil game by the time it launches, which, as per prior reports, is going hand-in-hand with the series’ largest ever budget for a single game to date. It seems, however, that Capcom might have pushed back the game further out than originally planned to give it even more time in the oven.

After ending its open beta last year, Player First Games’ MultiVersus will fully launch next month. Alongside new characters, netcode changes, a PvE Mode, a shift to Unreal Engine 5 and more, several changes and new mechanics have been added. These include new Dash Attacks.

Star Wars Outlaws will task players with dealing with several different criminal syndicates at the same time, and while many of these – like the Hutts, the Pykes, and Crimson Dawn – will be familiar to fans of the property, the game will also be introducing things of its own creation into the Star Wars canon as well. There is, for instance, the Ashiga Clan, one of the criminal factions in the game, and in an article published by Game Informer, members of the game’s development team at Massive Entertainment have revealed more details on the newly created Syndicate.

Stellar Blade is out today on PS5 after receiving a stylish launch trailer to commemorate its release. However, Shift Up has a brief new trailer, this time showcasing the unique ranged attacks that Eve can unleash. Check it out below.

Bethesda’s long-awaited Next-Gen Update for Fallout 4 went live yesterday, adding free Creation Club content for all players and native 4K support for Xbox Series X/S and PS5. However, there were several issues, like PlayStation Plus subscribers not getting the update for free. Game Pass subscribers don’t have this issue, of course.

As showcased in yesterday’s livestream, the latest update for Granblue Fantasy: Relink is available today for PS4, PS5 and PC players. Ver. 1.2.1 brings two new quests and adds new characters – Seofon and Tweyen of the Immortals. Check out the new content trailer below to see them in action, though beware of spoilers.

Square Enix’s latest mainline title in the SaGa series is now available with SaGa Emerald Beyond. Featuring six playable characters and 17 worlds to explore, it’s playable on PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS and Android. Check out the launch trailer below.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’s upcoming remake is continuing to generate buzz in the lead-up to its release next month, which is no surprise, given the immense legacy of the GameCube original. From a content and gameplay standpoint, it looks like the remake is going to be a pretty straightforward one, but Nintendo is still adding in some new features to modernize the experience.

When Exodus was announced at The Game Awards last December, it was none other than actor Matthew McConaughey who unveiled the game on-stage. At the time, it was revealed that he was playing a major character in the game, though since then, further details on the role he will play have been scarce.

As a sci-fi RPG coming from ex-BioWare devs, it’s no surprise that Exodus is getting as much attention from Mass Effect as it is, and clearly, the game is going to offer a similar experience to BioWare’s series in a number of key ways.

Archetype Entertainment might be an entirely new studio, but with its ranks full of industry vets from BioWare, Naughty Dog, and more, it certainly seems to have the talent to back its AAA ambitions. The studio revealed its first game – AAA sci-fi action RPG Exodus – in December last year, turning the heads of more than a few Mass Effect fans, and has been doling out new details on it in bits and pieces ever since.

Slime Rancher 2 is coming to PS5 this June, developer Monomi Park has announced. The first-person life sim adventure game has been available exclusively on Xbox Series X/S and PC ever since its early access launch in 2022, but is finally also headed to Sony’s current-gen console.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that it won’t host BlizzCon this year. The annual event washosted for the first time in person last year since 2020 and was seemingly on the verge of a comeback. Though not meant to be, the company told IGN it’s not a decision “made lightly.”

People Can Fly has cancelled Project Dagger, a new action-adventure IP that was in development at its New York studio for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The studio announced the project’s development back in 2020, revealing at the time that it would be published by Take-Two Interactive. In 2022, however, it was announced that the agreement between the two had been terminated, and that People Can Fly would be moving forward with the project with the intention of self-publishing it.

After showcasing what the Harbinger and Weaver are capable of inDestiny 2’s The Final Shape, Bungie has a new teaser dedicated to the Husk. As a melee combatant of The Witness’s Dread faction, it rushes players with bladed tonfa. Check it out below.

Since it was first unveiled as Project Eve several years ago, Korean studio Shift Up’s Stellar Blade has been on the radar for many, and now the action title is celebrating its release. Though officially the PS5-exclusive hasn’t yet launched in many regions of the world, there are some that have got access to it, to celebrate which Sony has released a launch trailer for the game. Check it out below.

Polyphony Digital’s latest monthly content update is available for Gran Turismo 7, focusing on two new electronic vehicles – the ŠKODA Vision Gran Turismo and AFEELA Prototype 2024. Check out the trailer below to see them in action.

The Fallout festivities continue. With Amazon Prime’s Fallout show having got off to an impressive start (and a second season already having been grenlit), the Fallout games, too, have been enjoying significant boosts in sales. That’s likely to continue for the foreseeable future, with Fallout 4’s long-awaited Next-Gen Update out now.

Klei Entertainment’s Rotwood, a co-op hack-and-slash title with rogue-like elements, is now live for PC via Steam Early Access. Retailing for $10.99, it’s ten percent off until May 8th. Check out the launch trailer below.

Coming from the creative leads of Persona 3, 4, and 5, Metaphor: ReFantazio is obviously borrowing plenty of elements from the Persona series, but Atlus’ upcoming RPG is also going to put its own twist in that formula in a number of ways, appropriately enough for an entirely new IP. Take, for instance, its blend of real-time and turn-based combat mechanics, or how it will handle exploration throughout its map. Another area where the fantasy RPG will differ from Persona games is how it’ll handle bonds.

Aspyr’s Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection had a shaky launch last month, facing several “critical errors” with its multiplayer and bugs. It’s since improved, with the development team’s second update out now on all platforms.

11 bit Studios’ Frostpunk celebrates its sixth anniversary, with the developer announcing over five million copies sold on all platforms. It first launched in 2018 for PC before coming to PS4 and Xbox One in 2019 and MacOS in 2021.

Rabbit and Bear Studios’ Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes has seen a long journey since its 2020 Kickstarter (including the passing of director Yoshitaka Murayama), but is now finally playable. Unfortunately, the Nintendo Switch version has some issues, including a bug preventing a major character’s recruitment.

After game director Kim Hyung-tae announced New Game Plus would be coming “very soon” to Stellar Blade, various reviews have confirmed its availability from launch. YouTuber FightinCowboy revealed this on Twitter, and IGN also updated their review to confirm the arrival of New Game Plus in a new patch.

Nintendo has released an overview trailer for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, breaking down the story, setting, and combat mechanics players can expect. Check it out below.

If there’s one area (or one of several, actually) where Persona games never fail to impress, it’s the music. Persona 3 Reload, which launched in February, was no different, with the remake receiving widespread praise for how it reimagined and expanded on the original Persona 3’s beloved soundtrack. Now, the remake’s full OST is available for purchase and streaming.

Between support for Dreams coming to an end, reductions in staff due to layoffs, and even the threat of being shuttered entirely, Media Molecule has suffered several blows over the last several months, though the studio best known for LittleBigPlanet and Dreams is continuing to trudge along. Last year, it revealed that it had started working on its next project, and though the developer did say at the time that this new game wouldn’t be a Dreams sequel, it was unclear if that meant it would be a new IP. Was it, perhaps, going to be a Dreams spinoff? A new LittleBigPlanet game?

NOTE: There are spoilers ahead for Gears 5.

Bandai Namco has a new trailer for its upcoming action-adventure SAND LAND, based on Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama’s manga. Be warned, since it’s rife with story spoilers. Check it out below.

Last year’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage was very much a back-to-the-basics moment for Ubisoft’s flagship franchise, opting to have a smaller world with a gameplay loop focused on stealth and parkouring, rather than the RPG mechanics that the series has become known for. Whether or not we’ll ever see a direct follow-up to Mirage is a question that some series fans have wondered at since the game launched last October, and though there’s no concrete answers on that front yet, its development team certainly seems open to the idea of making more games with Mirage’s protagonist Basim.

With Destiny 2: The Final Shape, players will tackle familiar foes inside the Pale Heart of the Traveler en route to fighting The Witness. However, they also have to tackle the Dread, a race of Rhulk-like beings loyal to the latter. Check out the brief trailer below, which highlights two types of Dread: the Harbinger and the Weaver.

Saber Interactive’s MudRunner game has carved out a solid niche for itself, but if you just can’t get enough of it, even with the recently released Expeditions: A MudRunner Game– well, there’s more on the way, albeit on new platforms.

The Fallout series has exploded like a nuclear bomb over the last couple of weeks. Ever since Amazon Prime’s acclaimed eight-episode series premiered on April 10, both the show itself as well as the games it is inspired by have enjoyed roaring success.

A new software update is available for PlayStation 5, adding the recently announced Community Game Help feature. Unlike regular Game Help, this feature uses gameplay videos from other players to provide hints.

Tomas Salas’ Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles launched as a sizable follow-up to The Falconeer that veers into the city-builder genre. However, it’s expanding ever more, starting with its first free update, “Trade, Tribute and Spoils.” A new trailer is available, outlining its features – check it out below.

Meta has announced that it is teaming up with Asus ROG and Lenovo to make new third-party VR gaming headsets that will run on the Meta VR ecosystem. The ecosystem itself is getting a refresh, as detailed by a lengthy blog post, and will now be known as Meta Horizon OS.