Game News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Microsoft has confirmed it is closing studios with Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and Alpha Dog Studios all having their operations ceased. Roundhouse Games is being absorbed by ZeniMax Online. An email was sent by Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty to teams, and it has been verified by IGN. The email is below.

is the feature-length conclusion to the 21-year-long series that was written by Burnie Burns and directed by Matt Hullum. The series started with Burnie Burns' voiceovers over gameplay clips before evolving into its own popular web series as a Machinima and then an Unreal Engine production.

Shortly before the launch of , several new details about the game were leaked, including new weapons and bosses. Based on, a popular South Korean manhwa that was recently adapted into an anime, follows protagonist Sung Jinwoo, in a setting where fantasy dungeons and monsters have started to appear on Earth — and, as Sung discovers, he has the unique ability to «level up.»

Xbox Game Pass subscribers are reportedly in for a treat as a fantastic Soulslike RPG may soon make its debut on the platform. As a part of its promise to consumers, Microsoft goes to great lengths to ensure that its service is always stocked with dozens upon dozens of games old and new and during the quieter months of the industry, it's often a good idea to provide users an opportunity to play any games they may have missed. Given the amount of excellent games released in 2023, it makes sense that folks may have slept on this RPG.

When discussing the conclusion to Rooster Teeth's long-running , the show's co-writer, director, and voice actor, Matt Hullum talked about the game franchise it started life as a machinima of: . has been around since the very first game, starting in 2003 a year before the release of, and so the team at Rooster Teeth has experienced the release of every game both as fans and using the titles to create their content.

Apple is adding a bunch of new titles to its Arcade video game subscription service next month, including Return to Monkey Island. It's the first new entry in the franchise by series creator Ron Gilbert since Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, which was released way back in 1991. The game still revolves around the pirate Guybrush Threepwood who's on a journey to unearth the secret of Monkey Island. You'll see some familiar locations from the older games in the new title, which also features Threepwood's wife Elaine Marley and his arch-enemy, the zombie pirate LeChuck. Return to Monkey Island is already available on the App Store, but it's coming to Apple Arcade on June 6 where subscribers can access the whole game, including the in-app purchases non-subscribers would have to buy.

Nintendo has announced plans to unveil a new flagship Switch console within this fiscal year, aiming to keep its momentum in the gaming market. The company, led by President Shuntaro Furukawa, confirmed the successor to the ageing Switch will be revealed by March 2025. However, there won't be any specifics shared during the upcoming Nintendo Direct event in June.

Today, publisher Mindscape Games and developer Aesir Interactive announced Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori, a new entry in the equine-focused franchise that also features Windstorm: Start of a Great Friendship (which is getting a remaster in June) and Windstorm: An Unexpected Arrival.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth used all of the additional power offered by the PlayStation 5 to improve the game's frame rate.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt modding scene is about to change forever, thanks to the release of the REDKit mod editor later this month.

Helldivers 2 patch 01.000.032 has been deployed across PC and PS5, finally fixing damage-over-time (DoTS) effects.

The potential character banner reruns for 4.7 have allegedly leaked and, if the rumors are true, they might be bad news for some players. Version 4.7 is the next update lined up for HoYoverse’s hit action RPG. While the game is still in the early stages of Version 4.6, a patch that introduced Arlecchino as a playable character, story quests, and a new area, the tests for the next update have already commenced. With them, in addition to the three new already confirmed characters in 4.7, are several leaks about the upcoming content.

After the recent fiasco surrounding and Sony's attempt to make PSN account linking on Steam mandatory, the game's community is campaigning to commemorate its victory with a special cape. After days of backlash following the announcement that players on PC would need to create a PlayStation Network account to keep playing, users showed their dissatisfaction by «reviewing bombing» the game's Steam page with hundreds of thousands of negative reviews. The tactic proved effective, forcing Sony to walk back its decision while accidentally creating what could be a very cool cosmetic.

Remedy has announced that it has cancelled Project Kestrel, formerly (formerly Vanguard), which was in development with Tencent. Project Kestrel was meant to be Remedy’s first entry into the Games-as-a-Service business model. The cancellation has been announced as Remedy looks to focus on its existing catalogue of games and IP.

Warbits is getting a major makeover as Warbits+. Risky Lab is rolling out this new version of the popular strategy game with a full-on remake from scratch to play nice with the latest and greatest systems out there. The original version launched back in 2016, so I guess the devs decided it was time for a complete redo to stay up to date!

SHIFT UP’s PlayStation 5 exclusive game Stellar Blade has been a massive hit since its late April debut. The developer has teased two intriguing prospects for future updates, which fans greatly anticipated. Stellar Blade will soon have a boss challenge mode and a crossover with the well-liked mobile game Goddess of Victory: Nikke.

Songs of Travel is an animated graphic novel coming to Android on May 9th. It tells the stories of five migrants – Light, Vân, Michele, Hasan, and Olya – each on a journey to build a new life in Europe. Through their experiences, the game explores themes of hope, dreams, and what we hold dear.

A new life simulation inspired by the Studio Ghibli movies has been spotted on Steam.

The Fallout TV series is getting rave reviews from critics and love from fans of the franchise and newcomers alike.

Nintendo will unveil a successor to the Switch sometime «within this fiscal year» ending March 2025, president Shuntaro Furukawa wrote in a post on X. That differs slightly from reports that the next-gen console would be announced this year, as it could also be revealed early in 2025.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on PC will receive the official REDkit mod support on May 21, 2024, CD Projekt Red has announced.

Homeworld 3 launches next week, but there’s a game Homeworld fans who own a Meta Quest 2 or 3 should check out right now. Homeworld: Vast Reaches, which came to Meta’s VR headsets on May 2, is a prequel set between the events of the first two Homeworld games. This VR game offers up the core Homeworld experience in a novel niche of the video game medium.

It’s always an exciting week when the sequel to one of the greatest games of all time surprise releases on a Monday. That’s what happened on May 6 when Hades 2 surprise launched into early access. Players are already diving into the surprisingly robust roguelike, testing their might in its new biomes. I’ve been enjoying it myself from the comfort of my couch — and not on my Nintendo Switch, where I played the first Hades. Instead, I’m curled up with my Steam Deck.

Strands is a brand new daily puzzle from the New York Times. A trickier take on the classic word search, you’ll need a keen eye to solve this puzzle.

One of my favorite copypastas on the internet comes from someone complaining about a player using mods to make a FromSoftware game easier. “You cheated not only the game, but yourself,” it reads. “You didn’t grow. You didn’t improve. You took a shortcut and gained nothing. You experienced a hollow victory. Nothing was risked and nothing was gained. It’s sad that you don’t know the difference.”

Connections is the latest puzzle game from the New York Times. The game tasks you with categorizing a pool of 16 words into four secret (for now) groups by figuring out how the words relate to each other. The puzzle resets every night at midnight and each new puzzle has a varying degree of difficulty. Just like Wordle, you can keep track of your winning streak and compare your scores with friends.

After Sony U-turned on its controversial decision to force Helldivers 2 PC gamers to account link to PlayStation Network, the game’s community has launched an initiative to drag Steam user reviews out from under rock bottom.

May 8 has some brand new for fans to solve and we barely stumbled our way into victory today. Hopefully, your game went smoother than ours but if it didn't we can help you score a win and keep your win-streak alive. Be warned, full spoilers are ahead, but if you just need a little push in the right direction we've got some hints available. That way you can still claim a personal victory.

March 8’s answer may just throw off many players as they might need to use hints to solve it today. That’s because the answer contains three vowels, all right next to each other. This complicated placement of vowels is challenging to decipher using the regular mode without any hints. Players will have to be wary of their attempts from the beginning and may also have to use a different mode.

The community has issued its own major order to help clean up the mass review bombing that the game has received recently. 's review scores plummeted on Steam following the announcement that players would have to link their accounts to the PlayStation Network to continue, something that some were reluctant to do, and also prevented entire regions from accessing the game.

Helldivers 2 dropped to 'Mostly Negative' this weekend after announcing that players would have to link their PSN and Steam accounts to keep playing, making it so that the game couldn't be accessed in over 150 countries. This was partly spurred on by community manager Spitz, who mysteriously disappeared from the Discord server on Saturday.

Play any RPG from the past 40 years and you'll come across XP. It's the universal abbreviation of experience points that has become so ingrained in the gaming lexicon that it even broke the barrier and became widely understood beyond the medium. As it turns out, we have Baldur's Gate 3 principal narrative designer Lawrence Schick to thank.

Today, Finnish developer Remedy Entertainment decided jointly with Tencent to cancel the cooperative multiplayer game they were developing.

Remedy has announced the cancellation of its multiplayer title codenamed Kestrel in order to focus on its existing franchises.

Gaming enthusiasts in India have something to look forward to as Infinix prepares to unveil its latest gaming-oriented smartphone, the GT 20 Pro, via Flipkart. This upcoming release marks an evolution in the company's GT series, following the success of its predecessor, the GT 10 Pro. In addition to the smartphone, Infinix is venturing into the gaming laptop arena with its debut offering, the GTBook.

Pokémon Go has gone from strength to strength since its launch and initial craze back in 2016.

Fortnite has always been on the pulse when it comes to nerdy culture, especially with regards to Star Wars.

The wonderful world of Star Wars has once again descended on the battle royale island of Fortnite, bringing with it dozens of quests to complete and plenty of exciting goodies to unlock.

Remedy has cancelled one of its in-development multiplayer projects, codenamed Kestrel.

Nintendo just announced the Switch 2 in the most casual way possible. Tweeting on the Japanese account, Shuntaro Furukawa confirmed an announcement would arrive "within the fiscal year", while also revealing a new Direct is due to take place in June. However, the Switch 2 will not be at this Direct, as it will focus only on the second half of 2024 for the original Switch - right now, Nintendo's upcoming roster looks very empty, possibly due to the hole created by the Switch 2.

Gotta go fast? Speed fiends might be interested to discover that there's a new bag in The War Within Alpha that increases movement speed in outdoor areas of Khaz Algar! While increasing outdoor movement speed in a specific area of the expansion isn't a particularly important bonus, Arathor Courier's Satchel stands out as the first of its kind — no other bag in WoW has had this kind of statistical effect, and it could be a test case for more varied bag bonuses going forward. Although it is unlikely that we'll see universal combat enhancements like increased strength, critical strike chance, or damage procs, there are a number of other minor supplementary effects or effects that only work in specific areas of the game, like an excavators satchel increasing capabilities in Delves.

Remedy Entertainment has decided to cancel the game codenamed “Kestrel” in order to focus on other games in its portfolio, the developer announced.

Additional details about the setting of the rumored Resident Evil 9 might have surfaced.

As the winds of autumn gather to whip us, like some sort of FromSoftware boss inspired by Devo, games shall emerge as your perfect reason to stay indoors. Admittedly, we're in the dead period of the year, so that means looking back to recent releases and classics of yore. If you do want to keep things seasonal, it's the perfect time to play the discounted Resi 4 Remake and Far Cry 5 below—both of which take place in autumn. Otherwise, just binge a ton of Yakuza games (purely because they're cheap and awesome).

Garena Free Fire MAX Redeem Codes for May 7: FF Max, the battle royale successor to the popular Free Fire, is here to fuel your fight for survival. Since its launch in India, Free Fire Max has taken the gaming community by storm with its stunning visuals and thrilling action.

Dragon's Dogma 2 has come and gone, leaving behind a fairly mixed reception that ballooned during release but slowly deflated as the weeks rolled by. A lot of that will be down to players making more progress, thus spending more time in the game, all the while its slight annoyances build up more and more. However, there appears to be one big sticking point with fans, regardless of their feelings about Dragon's Dogma 2 as a whole, and that's the game's anti-climactic finale.

Being a Helldivers 2 fan has been an absolute rollercoaster over this past weekend, with the game being the most loved live service game out there, to the most hated, and back again over the course of just a few days. Most of you will know that this was down to Sony's sudden implementation of its PSN account system, requiring Helldivers 2 players on Steam to sign up for the PlayStation Network if they want to continue playing.

Hades 2 is finally out now in early access, giving us all the chance to jump in and give protagonist Melinoe a spin for the first time. Of course, Hades 2 isn't fully feature complete yet, with multiple big updates planned for later this year and in 2025, so questions have been raised as to exactly how much Hades 2 we'll get to play before we hit a wall. Thankfully, developer Supergiant is on hand to clear that up.

Lava Storm 5G Review: The budget smartphone segment is fiercely competitive and to dominate it, you have to provide something exceptional to be considered a worthy contender for the top spots. With so many options to choose from, it can be difficult to know which phone is right for you. Lava, a homegrown smartphone manufacturer, is hoping to make the decision easier for you with the new Lava Storm 5G.

Garena Free Fire Redeem Codes for May 7: Battle Royale games such as Free Fire, BGMI, and others have been gaining immense traction in the mobile gaming industry. Several players have been joining the virtual world for their time passes as well as for a career in gaming. However, these games become more interesting with timely updates, new features, events, and more to keep the players hooked to their devices. Free Fire recently announced the OB44 update and the Boyaah Pass for players to win exciting prizes. Know more about the Free Fire rewards.

We jump into April with another group of our crowdfunding campaigns to check out. This week we have a nice variety from an expansion for a popular euro game to a game with 3d pieces. Enjoy!

We review BitterSweet, a push your luck and set collection game published by Coo' Games.

If you haven’t heard of the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game (MESGB) from Games Workshop you are missing out on the most thematic well-written rule system in their entire line up! Those of you who know me, know that I am mainly an Age of Sigmar player who dabbles in 40k, but MESBG is truly a hidden gem amongst the Games Workshop lineup. While being incredibly balanced the game truly captures the thematic nature of the movies and the extended Tolkien universe.

It might seem like a boastful name, but Rockstar Games really are rockstars in the gaming world. The developer is responsible for arguably the most important and lucrative gaming franchise of all time with the Grand Theft Auto series. While the open-world crime series is what the studio is best known for, it has dipped its toes into a wide range of genres and styles as a publisher since its first game in 1997. While the studio’s output has certainly slowed, with an over eight-year gap between Red Dead Redemption 2and GTA 6, there’s a backlog of over 40 games in its portfolio. That’s a lot of history to digest, but it’s important to understand the entire scope before we decide which games are the best.

Patch notes released following last week's Developer Update highlight a ton of positive changes to look forward to in Season 4. One exciting change directly impacts the returning endgame dungeon, the Gauntlet — players who earn a Seal of the Worthy in the Gauntlet will be awarded a guaranteed Unique Item at the end of every week! Diablo 4 Season 4 Patch Notes 1.4.0

The Asus ROG Ally is an excellent PC gaming handheld in its own right: a gorgeous full HD screen and great performance, all in a lightweight and stylish form factor. However, a modder sought to improve upon its design and added an extra screen.

Bethesda fans should be excited to learn that QuakeCon is returning this summer from August 8 to 11 at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas. Bethesda made the announcement on its webpage, promising an array of thrilling activities for gaming enthusiasts.

A Pokemon fan has recently created a past Paradox form for Milotic. Milotic is a Water-type Pokemon that evolves from Feebas, and it first appeared in the third generation of Pokemon games.

Fallout 4's big next-gen update dropped a couple of weeks ago, and in true Bethesda fashion it was a bit of a disaster. While some couldn't access the update if they owned Fallout 4 via PlayStation Plus, it was PC players who ended up drawing the short straw, as all the update really did was break most existing mods for the title and implement a horribly stretched out widescreen feature, adding very little in the way of actual improvements.

Helldivers 2 announced over the weekend that players would soon have to link their Steam accounts to PSN to continue playing, a move that drew so much backlash that Sony completely walked back the announcement mere days later. However, it wasn't quick enough to stop a review bomb that tanked the game's overall score.

's first trailer broke records upon its release, becoming the most-watched non-music YouTube video in under 24 hours as it officially introduced players to a modern Vice City and its new protagonist duo, Lucia and an unnamed man rumored to be called Jason. One talented fan has imagined what would happen if the protagonists of the last game in the series,, decided to crash the party and wreak havoc across Leonida instead.

Gaming is filled with jargon that sounds like complete nonsense to anyone not totally plugged into the space. Terms like Metroidvania and rouguelike/roguelite are rough enough, but when we abbreviate terms, it can be impossible to figure out what they mean, even when said in context. DPS is a term first used mainly in MMORPGs, but it has found its way into other genres like hero shooters and single-player RPGs, among others. It can, and is, applied to just about every game involving combat of some sort. If you’ve heard people complaining about their DPS, or see it listed as part of a weapon’s stats, here’s what it all means.

No matter what type of lord you want to be in Manor Lords, you will need to play nice early on. You will only have access to so many materials and resources in your village's early stages, so trading is essential for not only upgrading and advancing, but also keeping your loyal population happy. To sustain yourself in the early years, trading will grant you access to much-needed support, as well as a great source of income if you have a surplus of materials to sell. To make sure your storehouses are well-stocked, you will need to learn how to set up a profitable trade operation.

With the PSN account linking fiasco now in the rearview mirror, what was nearly a disaster moment for Helldivers 2 is now becoming a part of community lore. Fans have been busy working on cape designs since Sony reversed course, at least some of which have seemingly caught the eye of the development team.

Choosing between the factions of the newPCextraction game, is a part of the game’s character creation, and as such, the choice does, unsurprisingly, have an impact on subsequent gameplay. Although in Early Access, the competitor to is gaining popularity, with increasing numbers looking to weigh up their options before heading into battle. Its approach to in-game factions is just one part of this, but one that has already had something of an impact.

has one material that should be saved for late-game leveling. This new action gacha game is inspired by the popular South Korean webtoon, playable on PC and mobile. A recent interview detailed how players will experience the dungeon-clearing story themselves while building and strengthening a roster of familiar characters. However, as most gacha games do, the best characters will be locked behind a banner that must be pulled on using a specific currency.

It's no secret that is littered with junk for players to pick up and horde if they so desire but a new mod has now made collecting everything significantly less annoying. Bethesda's RPG has a reputation for including all kinds of miscellaneous props to make their worlds feel more alive and authentic and the developer's most recent game did this better than any of its previous titles. Given the amount of useless objects strewn about, the game's inventory system isn't helpful when it comes to organizing everything.

Helldivers 2 players have spent their time in the galaxy since launch learning how to work together for a common cause. When the Automatons mysteriously returned to menace the galaxy, tacticians would take to X and Discord to encourage fans to hit the right planets. Super Earth asked Helldivers to kill two billion bugs, and the player base pulled it off within hours. But the biggest coordinated effort that players have pulled off is not against the bugs or bots, but against the game’s publisher, Sony — and after a weekend of protest, the Helldivers scored a massive triumph.

Helldivers 2 has been a huge hit this yea,r with a consistent player base since its launch in February and a peak of over 450,000 players. Fighting for Super Earth, players have been waging war against monstrous insects and deadly robots and laying down their lives for democracy. But the game’s reputation took a hit recently when it was announced that PC players would have to register for a PlayStation Network account to continue playing the game — a move that would have left players in parts of the world with no PSN support high and dry.

Manor Lords is the most wish-listed game on Steam at the time of this writing, and from my early impressions, it’s an excellent medieval village management simulator. It’s like Banished, but taken up a notch. But as impressive and fun as it is already, it’s still an Early Access game, which means getting it to run at its best requires a little finesse with the settings.

Hades 2 — the highly anticipated sequel to a roguelike that Digital Trends considers to be one of the best games of all time — is out now.

Hades II is now available in Early Access for PC players. After performing a technical test from April 16 to 29, Supergiant Games said Early Access for the “bewitching sequel” would follow “relatively soon after.” The developer lived up to its word, as a week after wrapping the preliminary test, PC players can now buy and play the highly anticipated roguelike title for $30.

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.

Hades 2 has removed one of the first game's most powerful Gods, although there's a good story explanation for why she's not offering her infamously Boons in the sequel.

Hades 2 lets you bathe with your companions at The Crossroads once you have a good enough relationship with them, although the scenes aren't always as romantic as you'd expect.

Hades II is now available to purchase as an early access title on both Steam and Epic Games Store, Supergiant Games has announced. For those who have a Steam Deck, the game is verified for that too. The early access version of Hades II has been priced at £24.99/$29.99

It is shocking to see that Hades 2 is only in early access, and that Supergiant Games plans to let it spend at least the rest of 2024 there before it’s ready to call it version 1.0. Shocking, because it already has just about everything I want from a sequel to one of the best roguelite action games of all time. Hades 2 manages to keep everything that made the original such a masterclass of design, but it does so in a way that changes up how each of the pieces fits together and gives it its own unique identity rather than feeling like a glorified expansion. The result is a familiar, but fresh follow up that challenged, surprised, and delighted me with every triumph and failure in equal measure. There are a few things missing, with an actual ending to its story being the most substantial among them, but once it’s complete it’s hard to imagine Hades 2 not living up to the mythological legacy of the first.

A few years ago, NVIDIA introduced NVIDIA Reflex, a revolutionary suite of technologies that gave PC gamers better responsiveness and lower latency. For competitive games, that resulted in faster target acquisition, quicker reaction time, and superior aim precision. It did this by measuring and optimizing system latency.

ASUS is reportedly readying a total of 14 next-gen ROG, TUF & ProArt laptops equipped with AMD's next-gen Ryzen "Strix Point" APUs based on Zen 5.

Supergiant Games has confirmed that Hades 2 will be in Early Access until "at least" the end of 2024, although there are some big content updates planned before its full release.