Why does EA's internal engine Frostbite have a public-facing brand?

China removed an official at a government body overseeing its press and publications regulator, five sources who were briefed on the matter said, days after Chinese gaming stocks were hit by proposed rules to curb spending on video games. Feng Shixin was removed last week from his position as head of the publishing unit of the Communist Party's Publicity Department, the sources said. The department oversees the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) which in turn regulates China's vast video games sector.

Elon Musk had removed the headlines from article links from X (formerly Twitter) last year to make the post look more appealing. However, later in November, Musk promised that the headlines would be back on the platform in the upcoming updates. Now, X has finally introduced an update in which users can see headlines on the article links on the post. But, as per reports, the headlines do not appear to look similar to the previous version as long headlines may not show the full text. And yes, you may not like it much.

In a shocking development, the American magazine, the New Republic has crowned X owner Elon Musk as ‘The Scoundrel of the Year'. In a long article liberally seeded with choice name-calling, the magazine charted out the actions and decisions made by the billionaire in 2023 that got his this dubious award. The New Republic said, “He proved this year that he's not just evil but deeply stupid too”. This comes after Musk made the headlines recently for posting anti-semitic comments on X, which led to multiple advertisers boycotting the platform and also using expletives during a live interview.

As one of the longest-running gaming storylines ever, the Tekken series has seen a whole assortment of oddball events and fierce fighters surrounding the over-the-top King of the Iron Fight tournament. While Tekken has had space ninjas, large robots, and demons join its roster, no other character -- in my view -- is weirder than Kuma, the fighting bear. And the latest character trailer that Bandai Namco just dropped proves how much of an oddball character Kuma is and that he's somehow even more of a dorky character in Tekken 8. And I personally wouldn't have it any other way.

For 20 years, Goro Abe has lived and breathed Wario, overseeing the development of thousands of microgames in the WarioWare series. In the creation of WarioWare: Move It! for Nintendo Switch, Abe helped whittle down more than a thousand ideas to ultimately deliver on 223 weird and wacky fresh microgames.

Before its release, promised to include 17,000 different endings — but does it really? There's undeniably a ton of player choice and variation in the game. There are even hundreds of contingencies and failsafes in case players try to break . It wouldn't be too much of a stretch at all to say there are thousands of different ways its story can play out, but 17,000 endings is an entirely different kind of claim.

Publisher Electronic Arts has rebranded its Frostbite engine, with the aim of better reflecting the tech as a «platform for collaborative innovation».

Electronic Arts’ proprietary Frostbite engine has received a makeover with a new logo and brand identity. Instead of multiple splinters and shards, the handprint is now a smoother, more defined shape. While built to “explore, evolve and apply proprietary technology specifically with, and for, our game studios”, it now represents “a platform for collaborative innovation.”

Square Enix has spilled a few more beans on Visions of Mana, the freshly announced, brand new instalment in the storied Mana series. For starters, this won't be an open world adventure. Questions were raised regarding the game's scope when its debut trailer showed off some huge environments, but no, it's not quite that big.

The latest episode of VGC: A Video Game Podcast is now available for listening.

Heading into Patch 10.2 and Season 3, Augmentation Evokers received substantial nerfs that looked to reduce their stackability in raid and to alleviate the stranglehold they had as an auto-include in Mythic+ compositions. Did these nerfs accomplish that goal or did they too far (or not far enough)? Our guide writer, Jereico, details the impact of these changes for Augmentation in Season 3 both in Amirdrassil and Mythic+ and how combat log issues make it significantly more difficult to assess the spec. Augmentation Evoker Guide

We’re some way into Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 1, so you’ll be wanting to know when it’s set to end.