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So, before I get into it, let’s quickly address the elephant from the room: Uncharted is a video game adaptation. These have always been a bit of a weak point throughout cinema’s history. They never really manage to hit the sweet spot that their game counterparts do so well. Be this because of poor pacing, some awkward dialogue, or a director’s desire to suddenly take a massive U-turn away from the source material, they just never seem to deliver the goods....

Delighted and unnerved. I alway bring that heightened combination of emotions to Vectorpark, whose classic puzzle-adventure-thingy Windosill has just landed on Switch. I bring this combination of emotions even though Magritte is, I suspect, only one of the influences at work. Vectorpark, also known as Patrick Smith, makes playfully unsettling toys. In his back catalogue, alongside Windosill, which I promise we’ll get to in a bit, there’s an alphabet toy in which you can play the ribs of a living creature like a xylophone....

For the uninitiated, the aim of Wordle is to work out a daily five-letter word within six guesses. The fewer the guesses, the better - and if you fail to guess it at all, you’ll break your streak. The latter is why working out today’s Wordle answer is such a priority, as players pride themselves on keeping their streak going. So why gamble on a risky final guess when you can learn a few clues and, failing that, get the definitive answer?...

For the uninitiated, the aim of Wordle is to work out a daily five-letter word within six guesses. The fewer the guesses, the better - and if you fail to guess it at all, you’ll break your streak. The latter is why working out today’s Wordle answer is such a priority, as players pride themselves on keeping their streak going. So why gamble on a risky final guess when you can learn a few clues and, failing that, get the definitive answer?...

Speaking to IGN, Diablo 2: Resurrected producer Matthew Cederquist said: “Yes! Keep your old save files. “Back when we were working on [the remaster], we wondered if the old save files would work, so we kind of shoved it in, and it worked! So yes, your local single-player save files will carry over. “[When it worked], we were like, ‘okay, that’s the best feature ever,’” he added. So! If you’ve still got your Hammerdin knocking about somewhere on your hard-drive, when Diablo 2: Resurrected comes out at some point later in 2021 you’ll be able to dust it off and watch it destroy stuff in the fancy new visuals....

The demo in question was found on an old N64 development cartridge used to hold Nintendo racer F-Zero X. On further inspection, files relating to a 1997 Zelda demo build were also found, partly saved-over but some very much still intact. Details have now been excitedly shared by the Forest of Illusion Twitter account, which is dedicated to preserving lost bits of Nintendo history. There’s a lot to see. First up, a series of magical spell medallions which granted eye-opening effects, such as the Soul Medallion that let Link “become Navi and fly around”....

So while we all wallow in pleasant nostalgia, how do those that were actually involved in the development of the computer feel about it 40 years on? What impact has it had on their lives – and from their perspective, the lives of others? We got in touch with six of the original team to ask them. Richard Altwasser joined Sinclair in November 1980 and designed the Spectrum’s internal hardware, including the custom ULA (Uncommitted Logic Array) that sits at the heart of the computer....

It’s been a long time coming - so long, the Ho Ho Holiday expansion (available to wishlist on Steam and Epic) will now reach us at a time we can’t afford to heat our actual homes. On a brighter note, Ho Ho Holiday adds a new story, 20 more toys to put in your fireplace, and 50 fresh combinations to uncover as you incinerate certain objects at the same time....

It’s not easy finding games to play with other people in the same house. You’ll know this if you’ve tried. It’s one of the reasons I was so impressed with It Takes Two earlier in the year. It’s not only playable in local co-op but entirely designed for it, which means gameplay solutions require two people rather than can also be played by two people. For instance, one person throws giant nails into a wall while the other person uses the head of a giant claw hammer to swing on them....

Playing A Musical Story made me think of tone poems. One glance at any of the screenshots accompanying this review will make it obvious to all but the most unobservant that the game does have actual images alongside the music, but they’re intimately entwined. There’s no dialogue and the animated scenes lean on the side of being vignettes, so the music isn’t just background noise, it’s doing the heavy lifting....

The leak was first shared by Twitter account On Thin Ice, showing footage of a work-in-progress TV advert for the new map. According to VGC’s sources, the new map is due to arrive in a live event on 22nd April, with nuclear warheads blowing up current-day Verdansk. Although the original video has been removed, multiple mirrors have popped up across social media, showing what appears to be an 80s-themed overhaul of Verdansk rather than an all-new location....

Washington Post reports that the studio - which co-created Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War with Treyarch - is calling in its quality assurance contractors for meetings between 3rd and 8th December. It’s here staff will be told if they’ve been promoted or if they’ve been made redundant. Right now, it seems about a third of the team has been laid off, although the meetings are continuing until 8th December....

It’s certainly welcome news if not particularly surprising; after all, developer Remedy has spent the last few years doing its best to bring Alan Wake back into the public conscience - first in a fairly substantial cameo in the studio’s acclaimed supernatural shooter Control, and then in a refreshed remaster for the 2010 original earlier this year. Details are limited right now, but Remedy’s Sam Lake took to the stage during this year’s Game Awards to reveal a first, appropriately moody, and extremely wet teaser trailer, before describing the sequel as the studio’s “first-ever survival horror game”....

Each badge is earned by either completing a side quest, uncovering a secret while exploring or reaching a specific point in Stray’s storyline. Collecting all the badges will unlock one of the Stray trophies, so it’s a good idea to know all of the badge locations. On this page: Each badge will also become pinned to the backpack your cat wears and, once earned, will appear no matter which chapter you decide to play as long as it a backpack-wearing-cat....

With these six cards, you can invite the Sanrio villagers which have been inspired by popular characters created by Sanrio, such as Hello Kitty, to your island. Each card will also unlock a set of items inspired by the Sanrio character, allowing you to drastically increase the cuteness factor of your island. Luckily, the Sanrio Amiibo Cards originally released for the Nintendo 3DS are compatible with New Horizons. On this page: If you’ve heard of Hello Kitty, then you’ve heard of Sanrio....

You’ll have to unlock new ones over time in the full game - the question of how to unlock Javelins in Anthem is answered further down this page too - so choosing your class, and your build for it, is a pretty big decision. Or at least it is early on. Here on this page we’ll run through all four Javelin classes in Anthem, detailing their possibile Javelin class abilities and loadouts, and we’ll also link out to our four Javelin class guides, with a dedicated page for each, featuring in-depth builds and strategies, listed down below....

Monsters Within’s most notable addition is Encore, a brand-new map for Arenas mode that whisks players off to Boreas, the home planet of recently introduced playable character Seer. This wide-open map is flanked by two high-ground power positions - the VIP Lounge and the Performance Stage - said to require strong environmental awareness, teamwork, and strategy if victory is to be secured. As you’ll immediately notice in the Monsters Within trailer below, the one thing Encore isn’t is spooky, but things get a little more sinister starting on 26th October, when Apex Legends’ Shadow Royale mode returns....

In an update posted to the game’s official website (via Reddit), Respawn responded to players’ reports that some of the battle royale’s weapon skins offered an unfair competitive advantage when aiming down sights. “Competitive integrity is and will always be a core pillar for Apex Legends,” Respawn said. “As part of that, our default iron sights are designed to push players to loot for better optics. We also believe that skins shouldn’t be a factor in the sights functionality as well....

One of these is a secret Isu Bow, named Nodens’ Arc, which was discovered by JorRaptor on YouTube in January 2020 through a glitch, which at the time of writing, is still accessible. Later in the month, the official method for accessing the Isu Bow was discovered by Access the Animus on YouTube - a mystery which involves uncovering clues outside of the game itself to work out the bow’s location and method of retrieval....

It has, of course, been a bumpy few months for Battlefield 2042; just days after its release last November, the DICE-developed shooter gained the unenviable accolade of being one of Steam’s worst-reviewed games of all time. Eurogamer’s Martin Robinson was equally damning, going as far as to call its launch “a disaster”, writing, “Since Battlefield 2042 went live on Friday, I’ve endured hard crashes, server problems and whole nights where the whole thing is simply unplayable…This is another Battlefield that’s launching in a sorry state....