Folk News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

We're thrilled to announce the return of GamesBeat Next, hosted in San Francisco this October, where we will explore the theme of «Playing the Edge.» Apply to speak here and learn more about sponsorship opportunities here. At the event, we will also announce 25 top game startups as the 2024 Game Changers. Apply or nominate today!

Alas, more sad news today, folks. Our brilliant guides writer Hayden Hefford has just completed their final day at RPS. From the end of September, they'll be starting a new life of scholarly enlightenment as they head off to university, undertaking that most noble of pursuits: the quest for infinite knowledge. We'll miss them dearly, so please join me in the comments below to say farewell.

On Aug. 1 crowdfunding giant Kickstarter announced its new policy on generative artificial intelligence, which required creators to disclose its use in the description of their campaigns beginning Aug. 29. But one of the first tabletop teams to admit to using the controversial technology isn’t a bootstrapped start-up. Instead, it’s Indie Game Studios’ imprint Stronghold Games, the United States-based licensor of the wildly popular Terraforming Mars. The strategy game is an international bestseller that has sold more than 1.5 million copies in at least 16 languages, ranks among the best board games in the world, and is currently being shopped around Hollywood for a movie or TV deal.

It's no secret that mechs have a proportionally outsized presence in video games over most other mediums. The mechanical behemoths loom large in the world of 2D and 3D animation, but are scantly seen seen in cinemas, lost in the land of literature, and taboo in the world of television. (They're common in comics, but still play second fiddle to caped crusaders).

If you are a gamer of a certain vintage, at some point in your gaming life, you got the scoop on silicone muffin cups as a great way to hold game components. I have a set of 20 or so, in five different colors, and while I have used them to bake muffins, mostly they serve as impromptu game-piece holders.

A Larian Studios head has come to Bethesda's defence following an unfavourable comparison between Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield. In response to the criticism, Larian's director of publishing Michael Douse says it's "not true or right" to say that Bethesda devs lacked passion for Starfield, as others highlight that the game's review scores fall below Baldur's Gate 3's.

Yes, that’s a real headline, folks: Nier Automata‘s Yoko Taro would like aliens to destroy Earth. Perhaps it’s not that much of a shock given the fact that he’s the mind behind Nier Automata and its predecessor, Replicant, the RPG games that basically see Earth descend into robot armageddon instead, but still, it’s pretty wild.

Every Destiny 2 player I know is either constantly strapped for Legendary Shards or utterly incapable of spending them fast enough, and between this wealth gap and the comically frequent Legendary Shard dupes, Bungie's gotten so sick of the currency that it's straight-up deleting it in The Final Shape after six years of – say it carefully – Sharding.

Nothing is worse than dropping a tablet and shattering the screen. Or feeling like you have to replace it because most of it works great, but the battery won't hold a charge anymore. Thankfully, the fine folks at iFixit are here to help rescue your Google Pixel tablet.

Earlier this week, Unity announced that from 2024 it will start charging developers for the number of downloads / installs of their games.

Well, it's a particularly notable day for Resi Evil fans. In 2002, the remake train started with a GameCube reimagining of 1996's Resident Evil. On the same day one year previous, PS2 folks got a taste of Code Veronica—a brilliant entry that was the first to include a real-time 3D environment. I humbly invite Capcom to remake it at their earliest possible convenience. You know what? Let's just keep the theme going with a bunch of Resi bargains..

Tomorrow should be a good day for gaming news. We have two events set now for September 14, 2023. During the morning hours, we’ll get to sit in on the upcoming Nintendo Direct presentation. Otherwise, you’ll get another presentation from the folks over at Sony that evening. The PlayStation State of Play is returning tomorrow, and we have just a few small bits of details to share with you all right now.

Ravenage Games has announced that 9FingerGames’ deckbuilding tower defense game Heretic’s Fork has hit PC today.

There has been quite a bit of an uproar these past few days due to the Unity engine. This is a popular game engine that allows development studios to craft some thrilling gameplay experiences. While we’ve seen a wide range of studios and even genres released using the Unity engine, there is now a sudden problem. As reported, Unity is introducing the Unity Runtime Fee starting in January 2024. That gives Unity the ability to reap more money from successful titles. However, it’s proving to be anything but popular for the development teams that actively use Unity to develop games or provide updates to their recent releases.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of my favorite games in a very long time, exemplary in nearly every way except for one — it had to be played on PC. Of course, I have nothing against PC gaming (hello, Overwatch!), but I am a creature of comfort and count the ability to play from comfortable places as important to a game’s enjoyability as the actual game itself. So when I heard aboutBG3’s cross-save ability with the PS5, I fell to my very knees in appreciation, excited beyond measure that I would have the ability to enjoy this masterwork of a game from the comfort of the papasan chair in my sunroom.

Only two weeks after launch, it's hard to say who's dissecting Starfield the fastest, speedrunners or modders. Put another check in the modding column, because one of the most popular mods for Skyrim now has a Starfield version. Alternate Start Starfield is here to give you different places to begin your space adventure instead of being some grunt miner. Because seriously, why would I choose the diplomat background if I'm still going to wind up a «dusty?»

Indonesian is now fully supported on Steam after the language was added to the full desktop client and mobile app.

Unity will begin charging a royalty fee based on the number of times a game is installed using the Unity engine.

Disney Lorcana’s second set, announced on Tuesday, expands the hot new trading card game with more than 200 additional cards. When it launches at mass market in December, it will be joined by the game’s first truly collectible retail release: Disney Lorcana: Disney100 Edition. And while this tiny boxed set only features six alternate art cards, they come courtesy of a murderer’s row of artistic talent from Walt Disney Animation Studios itself — including principal artists who helped create Ariel, Genie, Elsa, and more. Let’s look a little closer at some of the folks invited to flex on these tiny little canvases.

Last week we covered the release, but it seems like the Ever Crisis content news isn’t over yet, folks. A Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis event is the new story out there.

Starfield guide: Our hub of adviceStarfield console commands: Every cheat you needStarfield mods: Space is your sandboxStarfield traits: The full list, with our top picksStarfield companions: All your recruitable crewStarfield romance options: Space dating

It seems the latest Intel Arc driver update has caused an array of unintended issues with the Acer Predator BiFrost model of the A770 GPU. In an attempt to add more stable support for Starfield's launch last week, Intel sent out two updates to the A770 in late August/early September. While these have had mixed results for A770 cards trying to play the game, it seems to have caused inadvertent problems for the 16GB Acer version.

I didn’t need to play much of Mario Kart Tour to find out it’s not for me: but even if you’re still enjoying it, the race is coming to an end in the near future. According to a new in-game notification straight from Nintendo (via OatmealDome), new content for Mario Kart Tour will cease to come out from October 4, 2023 onward.

Despite Baldur's Gate 3's resounding success with critics and fans alike, the game's creative director, Sven Vincke, revealed in a recent interview that the folks at Larian Studios weren't initially confident that the RPG would be a hit. 

Google has started rolling out Privacy Sandbox, its replacement for third-party cookies.

Surprise! It looks like Gotham Knights is coming to Nintendo Switch.

We're thrilled to announce the return of GamesBeat Next, hosted in San Francisco this October, where we will explore the theme of «Playing the Edge.» Apply to speak here and learn more about sponsorship opportunities here. At the event, we will also announce 25 top game startups as the 2024 Game Changers. Apply or nominate today!

Nokia is getting ready to launch its new phone, the Nokia G42 5G, in India on September 11. Before the big launch, Nokia gave us a hint about the price from it official X (formerly Twitter) account. Plus, there's some exciting news for folks outside India as Nokia is introducing a new pink colour option for this phone in global markets. The Nokia G42 5G will be available for purchase on Amazon India.

If you were planning on getting cozy with a few robots or pink fair folk this weekend, you’re in luck. If you’re a part of the Palia Discord server, you’ve no doubt seen the updates concerning new content, shutdowns, and all else concerning the well-being of Palia and the characters that live there. The Discord server has reached a substantial amount of members playing the game, so now the community is at a bit of a fever pitch concerning activity.

The fine folks over at Noclip are currently undertaking a huge restoration project, digitising hours and hours of gaming-related footage from a forgotten archive of tapes. If you hit up the YouTube channel, where all of this stuff is free to watch, you'll see old video game trailers, footage of cancelled projects, and old E3 press conferences. Sony's memorable E3 2006 presser has already been restored, and now, its presentation from E3 2010 is now available to watch in the best quality possible.

Starfield's launch has been an invitation for us all to indulge in our favorite glitches, physics gags, and bugs, and now Bethesda has gotten in on the goofs too. It sponsored popular YouTube animator Joel Haver to whip up a Starfield skit in his signature weird rotoscope style. And yeah, seems like Haver's got the junk collecting bug just as bad as any of us.

It has been nearly a year since Splatoon 3 launched to much applause and fanfare. To celebrate, Nintendo is preparing to launch a truly contentious Splatfest — who among the members of Deep Cut would be the best leader? 

Netflix’s live-action One Piece has given fans of the manga and anime plenty to debate, but one objectively true fact is that the casting is aces. There’s no disputing this, I’m sorry. It’s hard to imagine anyone but Iñaki Godoy being more capable of doing everything a Monkey D. Luffy needs to do. Mackenyu has the kind of emo glower that makes every dang move look cool (including holding a sword in his teeth). The rest of the Straw Hat Pirates all bring their cartoonish counterparts down to Earth enough that they’re not just believable, but alive. People are even simping for dirtbag Buggy — this is what casting directors call success.

In a rare event that has galvanised skywatchers and sent them scooting for their telescopes and binoculars in order to cacth more than just a glimpse of a new comet that has just appeared. In fact, people all over the world are taking amazing pictures of Comet Nishimura as it travels through space. This comet was sighted for the first time in August, 2023 by a sky-watcher named Hideo Nishimura from Kakegawa City, Japan. He used a regular camera with a special lens to spot it. Finding a comet like this with a regular camera is a big deal because most new comets are discovered with fancy telescopes. This comet is especially important because a strange interaction with a solar storm was spotted.

Bethesda's Starfield has reached over six million players.

Opinions on Starfield are all over the place, but two criticisms are pretty widely shared: One, the maps aren't very good, and two, it's a bit disappointing that there aren't any ground vehicles to explore planets with.

I'm a devout Warlock main in Destiny 2, and my fellow robe enthusiasts and I have a running gag that low-rarity Warlock helmets all look like a diaper strapped to your face, optionally with the class-mandated vertical visor down the middle. I mention this because I'm getting a worryingly similar vibe from Starfield's Mantis armor, which is by far one of the strongest early-game armor sets you can find, but its impressive stats come at the cost of egregious fashion crimes. 

In Starfield, you will no doubt accrue a lot of stuff across the universe, and some of it may fetch a pretty penny. To help empty your pockets (and fill them up with credits), we’ll be looking at where to sell items in Starfield.

Bethesda is celebrating its successful launch of Starfield into the marketplace. The video game was quite a massively anticipated title for fans. Likewise, this is Bethesda’s first new RPG in a very long time. So having a new franchise, a new exclusive for Xbox, and after years of developing the game, finally crossing the finish line for the game development is likely allowing the folks from Bethesda to enjoy a bit of a break. However, even with this latest game that just launched into the marketplace, there are questions about what awaits next. For instance, we know that the next game under Bethesda would be The Elder Scrolls 6.

After stepping down as the voice of Mario and preparing for his new role as Mario Ambassador, Charles Martinet has a message for fans. With help from creator Shigeru Miyamoto, the longtime voice of Mario took a moment to introduce his new role and gush about how much he loves all the people who have supported him as Mario over the years.

The problem with some PC games is that technology is constantly improving. As a result, there’s more room for developers to push the limits with their games. So, it can leave some players having to adjust the settings of current video games to match the capabilities of their PC. But if you’re planning on Starfield being more accessible on older hardware, you might be out of luck. Instead, the optimization for Starfield on PC was done, but it’s also meant for modern hardware. 

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YouTube, which is owned by Google, is trying out a new gaming feature called "Playables." This is a move back into gaming for Google after it stopped its Stadia gaming service in January 2023. "Playables" are games that you can play right on YouTube, whether you're on a computer or a mobile device. Google is testing this feature with a select group of users. These games will have their own section on YouTube's main page, and you can access them on both computers and phones. Whether these games will be rolled out to a larger audience is as yet unknown. However, since it is jumping into the gaming arena again, it shows that luring gamers to the platform is being taken seriously by folks at Google.

Most of us are spending our first days of Starfield seeing the sights in space and enjoying the sandbox of it all. But speedrunning never sleeps, so folks who are well-practiced at breaking Bethesda games are of course completing it quicker than you'll believe. Speedrunner SupaScared already has a playthrough on Starfield New Game+ down to a surprisingly efficient 50 minutes.

It’s hard to believe that Skull And Bones is still facing troublesome waters. The pirate action-adventure game was first introduced during E3 2017, and the development team intended it was striving to see the game launch in 2018. But here we are in 2023, still waiting for an actual release date. Instead, the developers have continued to toy and work on this project with a series of delays, pushing their project further behind schedule.

A new Remnant II update should be coming within the week, and it'll add a 'potato mode' as well as several other performance and quality-of-life additions.

Todd Howard is a massive fan of the Indiana Jones franchise. We know that much already, so the fact that he’s getting the opportunity to bring out a video game for the IP must be quite a dream come true. However, we’ve learned little to nothing about this game, and that should change soon. In a recent interview with Esquire, Bethesda’s Game Director did make one small mention of the game and even hinted more towards when we can expect more news to emerge. However, we might be waiting for more details to arrive sometime next year.

By some estimates, it takes around 235 hours to see and do absolutely everything in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Some folks have already managed that and are eager for more, but unlike with Breath of the Wild, you shouldn’t expect Nintendo to release a major expansion this time around.

The folk behind the GameDiscoverCo newsletter have gone on a deep dive into Steam, ranking 212 words based on the median gross lifetime revenue of games that have them in the title. The results they pull out of their data may not all be super surprising, but that doesn't mean they're not interesting.

It's finally time for everybody — not just the early access folks — to get them some Starfield. You, uh, may have noticed the odd video on this site about this RPG. If that content avalanche has fired up your main thrusters and made you want to commence docking procedures, I have the current historical low for Xbox and PC below. Yep, Harvies has gone decidely more hardcore than even Amazon AU on this one. 88 bucks is a steal (if you're not rocking Game Pass).

Well, this is a terrible shame. The recent reboot of Saints Row will be free on PS Plus this month, and we’d hoped it’d give embattled developer Volition a shot in the arm. Unfortunately, having completed its DLC and post-release assignments for the title, it’s now been shut down. You may recall its owner Embracer recently went through a restructuring process, which has led to the closure of the studio.

Starfield officially releases tomorrow, and yet, it’s estimated there are already over 2 million people playing the game. How so? Well, if you shell out for the Starfield Premium Edition, you get to play the game 5 days early. While we don’t have hard numbers yet, PlayTracker has analyzed user data, and estimates the game has sold over a million copies on both Steam and Xbox Series X/S. Of course, with the exception of a few reviewers and influencers, all those folks playing must have purchased the Premium Edition.

By Ash Parrish, a reporter who has covered the business, culture, and communities of video games for seven years. Previously, she worked at Kotaku.

“Our mission was to convey the wonder and majesty of space exploration, to evoke the golden-age of early spaceflight, and we’ve been referring to this approach as ‘NASA Punk’”. That’s how Starfield art director Istvan Pely described the distinctive look of Bethesda’s latest grand-scale RPG during a lengthy presentation earlier this Summer.

Nintendo fans are waiting for that next fabled Direct to take place. We are typically used to seeing a Nintendo Direct during the month of September, but we just recently had a smaller direct. If you recall, Nintendo held a Nintendo Direct that was focused on their next major release coming into the marketplace, Super Mario Bros. Wonder. So, with this Direct over with, could we see a new stream coming out our way soon? Several rumors are suggesting one is coming sooner than you might have expected.

In the world of mobile gaming, a perfect controller can be hard to come by. Even with our personal favourite, the Backbone One, it can feel like you need to make compromises on comfort and accuracy, particularly if you have larger hands or want to take part in longer sessions. You can always connect a regular gamepad via Bluetooth, but if you don't have a good way to set your phone up as a display or there are connection issues, this isn't a perfect fit either. 

The folks behind Baldur’s Gate 3 have quite a bit to celebrate. Larian Studios was able to turn over an RPG that took fans and critics by surprise. Reviews and the general reception have been incredibly positive. Meanwhile, the game is gearing up for another release tomorrow for those on PlayStation 5. But even then, there is quite a bit of focus on ensuring this game not only releases smoothly but has the necessary updates and patches sent out as well. But some developers behind the critical hit are charting away their next big video game release. 

Starfield is getting ready to release tomorrow. Technically, this game has already been available for players since last week. The video game made its way into the marketplace through early access. So those that had access were able to start their journeys already. But the official full launch into the marketplace takes place tomorrow, and that will prompt quite a few players to log into their Xbox accounts and on PC to enjoy this latest RPG from the talented folks over at Bethesda. 

Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass is a well-worth subscription service to pick up if you’re on the latest generation of Xbox consoles. This service offers players access to a wide collection of video game titles to download and play for a monthly fee. Best of all, you can expect all of the Microsoft first-party video game titles to be readily available at launch. These games will also remain on the subscription service. Unfortunately, we can’t say that for third-party video game releases.

Starfield is the obvious big “get” for Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass program this month, and it’ll be arriving on September 6 on the service for cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X/S. Before that though you’ll be treated to Gris – a lovely little puzzle platformer that’s a fantastic rainy-day weekend game. After that, we’re getting Solar Ash on September 14, as well as Lies of P on September 19. Microsoft also reminds folks that Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition recently hit the service.

By Antonio G. Di Benedetto, a writer covering tech deals and The Verge’s Deals newsletter, buying guides, and gift guides. Previously, he spent 15 years in the photography industry.

Science fiction is a genre that loves to imagine fun, new vectors for human misery. Maybe we'll end up in a future where alien embryos might erupt from our chest cavities. Maybe an evil sorcerer with a big space gun will start blowing up planets. If Warhammer 40,000 is any metric, we've got about 39 millennia before there is literally only war. And yet, somehow, Bethesda has created a future even more terrible: In Starfield, humanity's lost a lot of its very good boys. The reporting comes courtesy of novelty Twitter account Can You Pet the Dog, which Tweeted a screenshot of Starfield's item description for the Chocolate Labs food consumable. «Centauri Mills' chocolate, shaped like an extinct canine called a Labrador Retriever,» the description says. It also notes that the consumable restores 5 health, which I think we can all agree doesn't quite undo the psychic damage it just inflicted. Also, Centauri Mills, if you're listening? Morbid branding decision, folks.

Time is almost up, folks — the days of online multiplayer in Crysis 3 are nearly over. As was confirmed last month, EA will be shutting down the servers for the 2013 first-person shooter for good this week. 

A Starfield player was allegedly able to save themselves and their family from a terrifying apartment fire because they had stayed up all night playing the game.

Starfield has quite a funny joke about The Elder Scrolls 6.

A Starfield player was allegedly able to save himself and his family from a terrifying apartment fire because he had stayed up all night playing the game.

The community of happy creators who love Bethesda's recent games for the settlement-building is off to the races in Starfield, thrilled to create a vast variety of ships of their own design—and their favorites of others' designs. Let's get in there and see some of the best I've seen, shall we? We'll see stuff from Firefly, Star Wars, Mass Effect, Aliens, Prometheus, and the ever-beloved Expanse.

We all joked about the Baldur's Gate 3 cast being too horny, and as it happens, we were dead right. Speaking to our features editor Eric Switzer at PAX West, game director Swen Vincke confirms that romances were bugged at launch. This means characters were flinging themselves at the player way faster than they were supposed to, particularly everyone's favourite down-bad wizard, Gale.

There's a new rumor buzzing around as we get closer to Apple's upcoming event that will serve as the launchpad of the iPhone 15 series. Some folks are talking about the possibility of Apple releasing a new iPhone this month, the iPhone 15 Ultra. Most earlier rumors had suggested that iPhone 15 Pro Max will likely be renamed as iPhone 15 Ultra, but now a leak is suggesting the possibility of an entirely new smartphone being launched. Sounds interesting, right? But is it likely to happen?

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has had a troubled development to say the least, but it has now risen from the dead once more. The first-person RPG sequel is now being made by Dear Esther developers The Chinese Room, it looks different from the last time we saw it, and it's aiming for release in autumn 2024. Watch the trailer below.

Starfield offers a seemingly endless array of sights and activities, but spending time on New Atlantis can be just as rewarding as venturing into the great void. Wandering the streets will let you overhear NPCs talking, and this can lead to small side quests that are well worth doing. Tapping The Grid is one such quest. 

For me, ARPGs have always served as a kind of calming junk food that allowed me to sink into my chair and spend countless hours mindlessly grinding away with little threat of ever breaking a sweat. This was definitely true of the original Path of Exile, which I’ve been known to actually fall asleep playing while raiding dusty crypts and forgotten dungeons – it just has a soothing effect on me in its pleasant repetition. Which is why I was shocked when I recently sat down with the folks at Grinding Gear Games to try out the Druid class in Path of Exile 2 and found myself wholly engaged by its new dynamic and action-packed combat system. With a renewed focus on putting players in thrilling battles that require careful consideration and adaptation, I think I may have finally found my next ARPG junk-food indulgence.

Yesterday, August 31, saw the end of Volition, and the studio bid farewell with one final post on Twitter. In its message, the 30-year-old developer looked back on its existence, saying it's "been around long enough that some folks forget what we made, but they certainly know our games."

The true nemesis in all of Bethesda's big RPGs isn't dragons or raiders, it's encumbrance. It's back again in Starfield and your junk collecting habits will not go unpunished. When your personal inventory fills up you can start storing items in your ship cargo hold, but when that fills up too, some folks have just decided to chuck space junk all over their ship as a last ditch effort to never leave any piece of trash behind.

Hogwarts Legacy was a massively anticipated video game. It had fans from all ages eager to dive into this wonderfully crafted world by the folks over at Avalanche Software. Fortunately, upon release, it seemed to have done quite well with critics and fans alike. Players were diving into a thrilling journey set well before the events of the Harry Potter series. While most of us might have shelved the game by now, there’s a new video set to arrive later this year that might have you persuaded to give this campaign another go. 

In Final Fantasy XIV, achievement hunting often leads to awfully long grinds. Sometimes, new chores mean I’m committing to the same monotonous routine for months, and sometimes that means I’m queuing up for duties long-abandoned, like the MMO’s MOBA-like PvP mode, Rival Wings.

Cyberpunk 2077 was a highly anticipated video game. Fans couldn’t wait to get their hands on the latest RPG from the talented folks at CD Projekt Red. After bringing out The Witcher franchise, the studio began work on a new cyberpunk setting. It would have a narrative storyline to keep players pulled in, a lively city, and plenty of action-packed gameplay. Add in the fact that actor Keanu Reeves was involved, and you had a massive fanbase ready to jump into this RPG during 2020.

The folks over at Ubisoft are gearing up to release Assassin’s Creed Mirage. We know the game is coming out in the following month. However, we’re just now learning that Assassin’s Creed Mirage was initially supposed to be DLC. With Ubisoft Bordeaux working on the title, their initial pitch was to see a DLC release for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla that would take players back to the Middle East. However, that pitch only lasted a few weeks before things shifted in a far bigger way.

Starfield's early access starts today, letting anyone who picked up a premium version of the game play it five days before its full launch. But even if this is Bethesda's first new universe in years, some things never change - the playerbase still wants to wreck chaos wherever they go. So, as always, the devs have put in some limitations on who we can harm.

Hello folks. If you've been wondering whether to take the plunge on an RPS Premium subscription, I have some excellent news for you. This September, we're running a free month trial for our Premium supporter tier, which means no more ads, extra exclusive articles every week, free game keys and more.