Team Fortress 2 Finally Updated to 64-Bit, Although Not Without Some Issues

Xbox fans and some employees were blindsided earlier this morning when Microsoft announced a number of their studios were being shuttered, including Arkane Austin (Prey, Redfall), Tango Gameworks (The Evil Within, Hi-Fi Rush), Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios. In the hours since then, additional rumors and details about what’s going on behind the scenes with some Xbox teams have emerged.

Electronic Arts has released its Q4 2024 earnings, and overall, it was a solid 12 months for the company. Overall, EA has brought in revenue or $7.43 billion, up 1 percent over FY2023, with both EA Sports FC 24 and Madden NFL 24 having record-setting years in terms of revenue generated (Madden was the best-selling entry in the series since the early 2000s).

Anticipated roguelike sequel Hades II was announced back in 2022, and we knew an early access launch was coming sometime in mid-2024, but a specific release date hadn’t been provided by developer Supergiant Games. Well, surprise! Following some technical tests, Hades II officially launches into early access… today! You can check out a new trailer for the early access version of the game, below.

Like previous entries in the series, Mortal Kombat 1 is rolling out plenty of DLC fighters, with the game’s first “Kombat Pack” so far serving up Omni-Man from Invincible, Quan Chi, Peacemaker from Suicide Squad, and Ermac. And now NetherRealm Studios has provided a first peek at the second-to-last Kombat Pack fighter – Homelander from the Amazon series The Boys.

Ubisoft’s crossover Call-of-Duty-esque multiplayer shooter XDefiant has been in various forms of testing for over a year and delayed multiple times, but it seems the game is finally launching for real this month. XDefiant will be a free-to-play live-service game with regular updates, but it will launch with a variety of “preseason” content, including five factions, 14 maps, and multiple modes. Here’s a rundown of the launch content.

Bethesda has been promising the next update for Starfield would be a big one, and it turns out they weren’t exaggerating! The latest Starfield update lands in mid-May, although it’s available in beta right now and brings a lot of requested improvements. You can check out a video running down all the improvements below, or scroll on for our rundown.

The former NPD Group (now named “Circana”) has released its full North American sales data for March, and it seems like it was an up-and-down month for the industry. Players spent $4.9 billion on games, additional content, and hardware in March, up 4 percent year-on-year. This increase came from mobile and software spending, as hardware sales were down 31 percent year-on-year with PS5 #1 in terms of unit and dollar sales, Switch #2 in terms of unit sales, and Xbox Series X/S #2 in terms of dollar sales.

Palworld has been on one a hell of a run since launching earlier this year, breaking records and generating plenty of conversation, and developer Pocket Pair has been busy teasing new content. The most recent of these teases came during today’s ID@Xbox indie showcase, which gave us a peek at what we can expect from the game’s big summer update. The teaser showed off four new Pokemon-esque Pals, as well as a flamethrower weapon. There’s sure to be a lot more included in the update, but this gave us a nice taste of what kind of things are being focused on. Check out the teaser for yourself, below.

Helldivers 2 has dropped its latest update, and while it mostly focuses on balance changes, there are a lot of balance changes to talk about. Well over half the weapons in the game have received changes, with some, like the LAS-99 Quasar Cannon and R-36 Eruptor, getting pretty significant nerfs.

Excitement has been slowly building for Manor Lords, a unique Middle-Ages-set combination of city building and real-time-strategy, for some time now, and now it seems it’s the latest big indie success. Manor Lords launched into early access today, and peaked at just a hair shy of 160,000 concurrent players on Steam, good for a top 5 place on the charts, even displacing the suddenly-hot Fallout 4 at times. It’s also the top-seller on Steam right now. And these stats don’t capture the whole picture, as Manor Lords isn’t a Steam exclusive – it’s also available via Game Pass on PC and Xbox Series X/S. For those who haven’t been keeping up, here’s a look at Manor Lords in action.

When are we finally going to get a release date for the Silent Hill 2 remake? The game is widely expected to launch sometime in 2024, but PR from Konami has been spotty at best. We got a somewhat-questionable trailer back in February (that even developer Bloober Team criticized as not representative of the final game) and as we head deeper into the year, there’s still a lot to be nailed down. The game’s been rated by the ESRB and there are rumors it may pop up at a PlayStation Showcase next month, but Konami themselves have remained silent.

Valheim developer Iron Gate Studio have been teasing the new Ashlands biome for a long time, since early 2023 at least, and lo and behold, it’s finally arrived! The Ashlands are a rather interesting mashup of spooky land of the dead and volcanic themes, with plenty of lava and twisted monstrosities to deal with. The pleasant scenery of earlier Valheim biomes has definitely been left far behind. You can check out a quick trailer for Ashlands, below.