Consequences News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Studio Wildcard’s ARK: Survival Ascended launched on October 25, and though it currently sits with a mixed reception on Steam, it has been gobbled up by players worldwide.

Recovering legendary magic items, negotiating with world-shaking creatures that wield godlike powers, and facing the enormous apparatus of a wizarding empire. The team behind Worlds Beyond Number’s inaugural Dungeons & Dragons actual-play podcast, The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One, have seemingly done it all — and they’ve done it all while playing their characters at level 1. For producer and audio maestro Taylor Moore, it’s at times just a little bit more than he can believe. During the recording of an upcoming episode, Moore said, he literally ran from the sound booth to the door of the playspace during a break in the action.

Variously known as Strix Halo or Sarlack, whatever you want to call it, the latest rumour is that AMD's much anticipated super APU is said to be delayed until 2025. In a further disappointment, the slightly less ambitious Strix Point APU is also said to be bumped by a few quarters.

The Chinese Room has revealed Phyre, the Elder Kindred who will serve as the main playable character in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. To learn more, we had the chance to speak to narrative designer Arone Le Bray all about this vampire who was Embraced in the early 17th century.

A new report from the Carbon Trust (a UK not-for-profit company that provides energy-saving and carbon-cutting advice to businesses) has highlighted challenges that the games industry faces when it comes to cutting down on carbon emissions and is urging gamers and those in the industry to do their part to hit climate targets. 

PAK vs BAN LIVE Score: The ICC Men's World Cup 2023 has proven to be extremely disappointing for Pakistan so far. After winning their first two matches, Pakistan have suffered four losses in a row, losing matches against India, Australia, Afghanistan and most recently, South Africa. The PAK vs SA match had a thrilling finish as South Africa defeated Pakistan by just 1 wicket. Consequently, Pakistan find themselves in the 7th spot in the points table and now face Bangladesh who have suffered a similar fate. Having five consecutive matches, Bangladesh are clinging on to very slim hopes of qualifying for the playoff spots of the World Cup, but it is looking unlikely by the day.

We said in our long-ago review of Dead Space 3 that it suffered from an «identity crisis.» Series star Isaac Clarke very suddenly went from being an engineer in a tight spot (and with a precarious grip on reality) in the first two games to a full-blown action hero in the third: «Isaac fights wave after wave of monsters while saying things like, 'I turned my back on the world because I couldn't face what had to be done'—and he's not talking about an oil change or repairing a carburetor.»

Dead Space 3 writer Chuck Beaver would redo the game’s story “almost completely” by focusing on a mentally broken Isaac Clark if he was ever approached about a potential remake.

In an apparent policy change, Microsoft has begun blocking “unauthorized” accessories, like controllers and adapters, from use with Xbox consoles. Users who connect an unlicensed third-party device to their Xbox are given two weeks to continue using it before it’s blocked from use completely.

Microsoft plans to block Xbox players from using unauthorized third-party controllers and accessories.

The Dimensity 9300 appears to be trading blows with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the latest AnTuTu benchmark leak, as MediaTek’s upcoming flagship SoC was reportedly tested in Vivo’s unreleased X100 flagship. Despite Qualcomm’s unveiling of its best silicon to date, it is beaten by the better chipset.

Dead Space 3’s story producer, Chuck Beaver, has revealed that if it was possible, he’d want to “redo the entire main story” of the controversial third main entry in EA’s iconic horror franchise. 

A new Xbox error message has revealed that “unauthorized accessories” will soon be blocked from use, with users being encouraged to return products from stores and manufacturers. 

In yet another roll out of a massive change on X platform that can have far-reaching consequences for users and, as usual, without warning, X owner Elon Musk says he is, "Making a slight change to creator monetization." By now that is familiar territory for Musk who has made it a habit of springing surprises on X users that they are not really expecting or have not been informed about beforehand.

Valve says it «doesn't know enough about NFTs to weigh in» on debates about the controversial tech and says it «just tries to make the best decisions [it] can about the things our players care about».

Mortal Kombat 1 players have hit back at a new Halloween-themed DLC fatality that has a horrifying price tag: $10.

Black Diamonds are one of the most sought-after resources in . That's not just because they're a rare gem that Dwarves like to stuff their pockets full of, but also because they have a variety of useful applications in the game. However, that consequently makes them one of the harder resources to get your hands on.

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PAK vs SA LIVE Score: The ICC Men's World Cup 2023 is currently taking place but it has been a torrid time for Pakistan so far. After winning their first two matches, Pakistan have suffered consecutive losses against India, Australia and then Afghanistan. As a consequence, the team finds itself in fifth place in the World Cup points table. On the other hand, South Africa have won all of their matches but one so far, with the only loss coming against the Netherlands. Pakistan desperately need a win under their belt to keep their grim hopes of making the World Cup playoffs alive.

The core of the US government's argument that Google is an illegal monopoly is a process that involves, on an iPhone, exactly four taps and a swipe. That's what it takes to switch search engines. To explain it step by step, prosecutors called to the witness stand on Sept. 26 one of Apple Inc.'s most powerful executives, Eddy Cue.

The lead designer of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim has discussed the difference in design philosophy between Bethesda games and Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3.

Ark: Survival Ascended, the Unreal Engine 5 remake of Ark: Survival Evolved, has hit its targeted October launch and is out now on PC. The Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 versions, though? They’ve been pushed back to a November release date.

The Bigscreen Beyond is miraculous. I expected the first hardware from Bigscreen, a company known mainly for its VR movie-watching app, to be merely a noble effort. You know, a brave attempt by a newcomer to make a splash in the niche world of VR – something that deserves golf claps and little more. They say hardware is hard for a reason; how can a small software company take on titans like Valve and Meta?

A nonprofit group has sent a petition to Microsoft, urging it to extend the end-of-support date for Windows 10 beyond 2025 to prevent “the junking” of millions of PCs.

Studio Wildcard has released a new gameplay trailer for Ark: Survival Ascended, the Unreal Engine 5 remake of Ark: Survival Evolved, and confirmed that the game will be coming out across Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC… soon – it will miss its October 2023 release date target, that’s clear.

It's been five years since Todd Howard revealed the startling news that yes, Bethesda is going to make The Elder Scrolls 6, and it will be years yet before it actually arrives. It's a virtually unprecedented gap between a game's «announcement» (such as it was) and tangible evidence that something's being done to make it happen, and Howard himself said not too long ago that he regrets handling the reveal the way he did. The obvious question then is, why announce it at all? According to longtime Bethesda designer Bruce Nesmith, the fans basically bullied him into it.

Today, October 24, turned out to be a pivotal day in the field of artificial intelligence. In the first incident, data workers in the US who are training AI have written an open letter to the policymakers urging them to safeguard their rights and livelihoods. This comes ahead of the second AI Insight Forum which is going to be hosted by the US Senate with AI leaders. In other news, a new study has assessed AI-based imaging techniques to diagnose multiple sclerosis. This and more in today's AI roundup. Let us take a closer look.

One programmer has given an AI model 50,000 hours worth of training in how to play Pokemon Red, leading to an algorithm that's capable of exploring the game and building a team to defeat the first gym leader - but not one that can find its way through Mt. Moon or know better than to keep buying Magikarp. Most of all, this exercise is a fascinating way to get an idea of how machine learning actually works.

Voyager 2 is having a software update installed in a bid to keep the spacecraft operating for as long as possible.

Naoki Hamaguchi, the director behind Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, revealed that the entire game will be stuffed with Gold Saucer-level mini-games.

Pickleball is quickly gaining in popularity across the United States. There’s no denying that playing a sport of any kind can help improve your health, but is trading your tennis racket for a kickball one a better move? Apple decided it wanted to find out.

Valve has confirmed that it will shortly begin «reversing» VAC bans for Counter-Strike 2 players who were banned from the game for using AMD’s Anti-Lag+ feature.

Zack Snyder's upcoming sci-fi epic Rebel Moon will be expanding out from the screen and onto the comics page. The director just announced a new tie-in comic, Rebel Moon: House of the Bloodaxe, which will be published by Titan in 2024.

Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 launched on PS5 this week, starting a new chapter in one of PlayStation’s flagship series. The importance of the game for the console cannot be understated, as it is one of the biggest current-gen PlayStation exclusives to date. A recent Bloomberg report suggests that Peter and Miles’ latest adventure could be the key to the kind of PS5 sales growth Sony is looking for.

Warning, this article contains minor spoilers from Gen V so far so proceed with caution.

Update: Six to Start founder Adrian Hon confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that the departures are the consequences of a wave of redundancies and "contract terminations/non-renewal."

In this fast-moving world where many of us drive our cars on a daily basis, all it takes is one unfortunate moment for an accident to happen. The consequences can be potentially lethal and sometimes due to no fault of our own. Once a car crashes, often time life and death situations are often determined on the basis of how fast medical assistance reaches them. We witnessed the same recently when Indian cricketer Rishabh Pant met with a near-fatal car accident. In his case, a good samaritan quickly called an ambulance and Pant was able to make a full recovery. But what if there is nobody to do the same for you? This is where your iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 series can become crucial. In particular, the iPhone crash detection feature.

The first thing to know about Kang the Conqueror, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s final boss du jour, is that there are a million of him. Loki’s first season successfully imparted that fact with He Who Remains, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe underscored it since in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

The latest trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader emphasizes choice and consequence, highlighting its equivalent of alignment—the conviction system. «While exploring you will be met with a great number of hard decisions,» the trailer says. «Do you try to save the population of a dying world? Or burn it all with the intent of containing heresy?»

The current volume of Amazing Spider-Man started with the question "What did Spider-Man do?", implying a dark deed in Peter Parker's past. But now, almost 36 issues into the run, that question has a new answer, as Peter was recently overcome with the oppressive evil of Norman Osborn's dormant Green Goblin personality, thanks to some strange magic from Kraven the Hunter and Queen Goblin.

Today, Owlcat Games released a new trailer for the upcoming cRPG Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader. The video is focused on showcasing some of the consequences of the player's actions.

Vicious Mockery might just be one of the best spells in Baldur's Gate 3, even Dungeons & Dragons proper. Not because of its power, mind you. While giving an enemy disadvantage on their next attack roll is useful, psychic damage is often resisted by foes—and its damage isn't anything to write home about.

Much has been made about the risks of deepfakes, the AI-created images and videos that can pass for real. And most of the attention goes to the dangers that deepfakes pose regarding disinformation, particularly of the political variety. While that is true, the primary use of deepfakes is for porn and it is no less dangerous. 

Mortal Kombat 1 crashes create a report file on your hard drive, which in some cases can occupy an enormous amount of space. Multiple reports from MK1 PC players (on both Steam and other platforms), as well as PCGamesN’s own investigation, confirm that every time Mortal Kombat 1 crashes on your PC, a new report folder is created. The more crashes your game experiences, the more folders are made, with some players reporting up to 70 GB of hard drive space being consumed by numerous crash files. A community manager for WB Games, which publishes NetherRealms’ Mortal Kombat 1, says the issue has been reported and that the MK1 team is “looking at it ASAP.”

Much like movies and TV shows, there's no shortage of video games based on comic books. Among the series that is soon getting its own video game adaptation is the Invincible series written by Robert Kirkman, best known for The Walking Dead series, which ran from 2003 until 2018 that was adapted into an animated TV Show now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. While the main series is focused on Mark Grayson as he balances his school life while fighting evil across different dimensions, Invincible Presents: Atom Eve focuses on one of the central characters of the universe, Atom Eve, another high schooler who possesses the power to alter matter with her mind.

The first update for RuneScape’s Necromancy season, “Ancient Awakening”, is officially out! The season launched earlier this year, and this new update allows players to delve deeper into the lore behind necromancy on the secretive island of Ungael!

Apple is facing a class action lawsuit over its AirTag tracking devices. It is accused of being linked to crimes, including murder. People claim that these small trackers are being misused by stalkers and criminals to follow their victims secretly. The lawsuit argues that Apple hasn't done enough to protect people from such dangerous tracking.

Long Gone Days is a turn-based RPG with visual novel elements that explores the horrors of modern war, and it's out today on PS5 and PS4. It's been in development for years, with a demo first emerging on PC back in 2016.

Saltsea Chronicles is another narrative-driven adventure from the makers of Mutazione, only this time, you're playing a whole cast of characters, not just one. With their captain missing, a group of friends set sail across the Saltsea archipelago to find her, only for the mystery to steadily grow much larger.

The Emerald Dream is home to many Wild Gods of Azeroth. In 10.2, we meet Q'onzu, a particularly strange Wild God known as the Loa of Change.

If you're a Counter-Strike 2 player with an AMD GPU, pay attention: Valve has warned that the company's latest GPU driver has introduced a new feature that, if activated, will result in a Steam VAC ban. So, basically, proceed with caution.

A class-action lawsuit against Apple alleges that AirTags have been used to facilitate murder.

I have a confession to make: Before this week I, Toussaint Egan, avowed lover of animation and all things dark and spooky, had never seen The Nightmare Before Christmas. I know, this is a shock; I’ll give you a moment to process and collect your jaws from the floor.

UPDATE: Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has announced that Activision Blizzard King is officially a part of Microsoft. This means that a cornucopia of big franchises, from “Pitfall to Call of Duty, World of Warcraft to Overwatch, Candy Crush Saga to Farm Heroes Saga” now fall under the Xbox banner.

Anyone who has doubted the depth of the crisis at Unity in recent months need only look at its consequences: it takes more than a storm in a teacup to capsize a CEO. John Riccitiello's retirement from the company – effective immediately, no less – is indeed a vanishingly rare thing in the games business, where blame for failure and poor judgement all too often trickles down the org chart and leaves top management unscathed.

BlizzCon® 2023 is almost here! On November 3-4, BlizzCon will take over the Anaheim Convention Center as we celebrate our communities and share what we’ve been working on. We can’t wait to get everyone together again after four years away. 

Since its debut on July 6, Threads has taken the world by storm, becoming the fastest platform ever to reach 100 million users, a feat that it took just 5 days to achieve. It is Instagram's answer to Elon Musk-owned X, which has undergone a myriad of changes since the acquisition by him. Users have considered some of the moves as draconian and have looked at alternate platforms to switch to, of which Threads has taken full advantage. However, the latest comments by Instagram head Adam Mosseri might spell bad news for the platform in its attempts to compete against X in the race to become the top microblogging site in the world.

The Earth this month has seen quite a few impacts due to the solar activities on the Sun, including a couple of solar flare eruptions and consequent radio blackouts, but so far we have not seen any solar storm events. But that is expected to change later today, October 12, as a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecast has revealed that our planet is likely to be hit by a co-rotating interaction region (CIR) that can spark a solar storm event. Know the likely impact of this solar storm, and why events like CIR occur.

Between Baldur’s Gate 3, Starfield, and Cyberpunk 2077,I’ve been absolutely drowning in high-quality RPGs. But I’d be remiss to count out the indie scene, which is also producing fantastic games in the genre. One of these sleeper titles that shouldn’t slip under the radar is Space Wreck, an homage to old-school isometric RPGs like the original Fallout. It’s weird, punishing, versatile, and extremely compelling.

Greetings, Adventurers!

Warhammer 40k Darktide players eagerly awaited the latest hotfix, hoping it would address the issues that had been plaguing the game. However, following the deployment of Darktide hotfix 1.2.1, a wave of new problems emerged, leaving some players in despair. This article delves into the unexpected consequences of the hotfix, including lost loadouts and crashes, and the developer’s response to the situation.

After revealing the smaller PlayStation 5 console yesterday, Sony has today confirmed that we will be able to upgrade the internal storage using an SSD.

Gen V may not have yet been renewed for another season, but that doesn’t mean writing hasn’t begun. Showrunner Michele Fazekas confirmed that they’re feeling so "hopeful" for season 2 that they’ve already begun a writers’ room. 

Elon Musk's acquisition of X (formerly Twitter) has resulted in a myriad of changes on the platform, the majority of which have drawn flak from users. Consequently, many of them have switched to alternate platforms such as Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky Social. While the former two platforms are accessible to everyone, Bluesky Social still follows an invite-only protocol, meaning only those who have invite codes can get onto the platform. Despite this, Bluesky last month announced that it had amassed 1 million users on its platform. To keep users engaged safely and securely on its platform, Bluesky Social has announced new safety features on its platform as part of the new update.

It might seem a little tacky to throw shade at Cyberpunk 2077, given how it’s been in recent months and now that its beloved DLC is out and about. But the truth is that the game still hasn’t fully embraced what CD Projekt Red said it would, and there are still many issues holding the game back. We’ll give the team credit. They have gone above and beyond to try and fix things, even spending $125 million after the game’s launch to try and fix things. The question was also, would everything be fixed? Well, the 2.0 update revealed that the answer is “no.”

In Baldur’s Gate 3, decisions matter, but players have discovered a way to avoid some negative consequences of recruiting the Drow Paladin companion Minthara by transforming her into a sheep. Be warned, there are some spoilers ahead for events in the game’s first and second acts, so new players should read with caution.

The Samsung S23 FE featuring the Exynos 2200 would be concluded by many as a terrible decision from Samsung, but a series of tests show that the price-to-performance handset can hold its CPU performance incredibly well. It appears that certain optimizations in the Exynos 2200’s manufacturing process and a cooling solution upgrade may be the reason for this dramatic change in results.

In the latest turn of Overwatch 2 versus its own fans, it has come to light that the community has abandoned the game’s PvE lobbies.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game jam-packed with consequences. Make this decision here, expect to see its effect there. It had been thought that recruiting one particularly evil character during the first act of the game was incompatible with a good playthrough, but one genius player came up with a workaround — using sheep magic.

If you've been playing Baldur's Gate 3, you're likely to have missed out on a companion or two — as making certain decisions can affect who's available. Heavy spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3 are included in this article.

Now that Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty has been out for roughly a week, players are reaching the new ending for the base game. It’s one of the expansion’s selling points and one of the biggest curiosities for me.

A new report suggests that the video game industry’s struggles in 2023 run deeper than firing staff and closing studios.

Warning! We’re getting into spoiler territory for Loki season 2 episode 1 below. So, make sure you’re up to date before reading on.

Believe it or not, it was seven years before the Assassin’s Creed franchise added a proper crouch button. There were seven mainline entries into the stealth-action franchise before you could duck.  

As longtime Sims fans know, in-game glitches are like hydras. For every one fixed by a new update, three more emerge. They range from the hilariously bizarre to the downright infuriating, and fans have created a host of mods to help remedy the trickier ones.

This preview of Pet Sematary: Bloodlines comes from a Q&A after the movie’s world premiere at the 2023 Fantastic Fest film festival.

XCOM 2 is a classic strategy sim for dozens of reasons. It looks great. It sounds great. The story and atmosphere are incredibly strong. But what I love most – and what sets the Firaxis squad shooter apart from the likes of Civilization, Crusader Kings, Total War, and others – is the overwhelming sense of consequences. It’s a game design cliche – ‘every choice matters’ – but in XCOM 2, it’s absolutely true. Combined with how it engineers and facilitates organic stories, XCOM 2 is one of the best strategy sims of all time, and now it’s all yours for little more than $2.

The original Frostpunk was a compelling blend of a city-builder and a survival game, all wrapped in a story about keeping a community alive during a global ice age. Unlike other city-builders focusing on cause and effect, however, Frostpunk's world offers no respite—either make things work or see the citizens slowly succumb to the elements and internal turmoil. This unorthodox, survivalist take on a city-builder presented a harrowing story of surviving the apocalypse, all defined by your actions.