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More than anything, though, I am a sucker for games in which each screen is its own fixed unit of the world. For whatever reason these are the games that most feel like real places. Run off the edge of the screen in BIOTA and you end up in a new screen. Go back and the enemies have respawned. I love this. It’s particularly useful for a metroidvania, I think, because your brain kind of snapshots each environment, the layout of the platforms and what-have-you, and so it’s easier to start building your own internal map - a map that is at least in part a map of exits and entrances, of unseen doors that connect very seen spaces....

Anthem 2.0 was officially announced last February - a little under 12 month’s after the game’s rocky launch on Xbox One, PS4, and PC - with the aim of improving the underlying experience through more satisfying loot, better long-term progression, and a more fulfilling end game. “We recognise that there’s still more fundamental work to be done to bring out the full potential of [Anthem],” BioWare admitted at the time of its 2....

Boyd had served at BioWare for 16 years, with the majority spent writing for and looking after its Old Republic team. “It’s always sad to see someone you appreciate go, but I wish Charles all the best in his next adventure,” BioWare boss Gary McKay wrote in a new BioWare blog post. “He leaves SWTOR in excellent hands with an incredible team that will carry forward our vision for the game....

Blasphemous, which released to well-deserved acclaim back in 2019, tells the story of The Penitent One, a pointy hatted fellow with a barbed-wire sword, forced to venture across the accursed kingdom of Cvstodia - a desolate, but lavishly presented world of dark religious iconography, monsters, and encroaching madness. It’s wonderful stuff, serving up an engaging blend of 2D Souls-like and Metroidvania bolstered by some fascinating world-building and gorgeously wrought, grimly unforgettable imagery....

In its latest developer blog post, Blizzard detailed its “current thinking on hero balance and gameplay”, including map rotation and player ranking. “While some heroes are performing better than others, and there are differences across player skill levels, we have been happy to see that no hero’s overall power level is far out of line with our goals,” Blizzard said. Watch on YouTube Overwatch 2 Animated Short - “Kiriko”....

“World of Warcraft has ignited imaginations through rich storytelling and expansive worlds that prevail throughout the Shadowlands expansion,” Blizzard wrote in an its announcement of today’s news. “From the hopeless depths of the Maw to the ethereal plains of Zereth Mortis, the Shadowlands delivers a world that challenges heroes to confront the forces that threaten to upset the cosmic balance between life and death. With the story in the Shadowlands coming to a conclusion, the time is at hand to get a sneak peek at what’s next for the heroes of Azeroth....

This time round you’re helping Lilith and the Crimson Raiders fight the Calypso Twins - cult leaders, who have plans for the vaults hidden across the Borderlands galaxy. It’s a race against time, which means you’re going to need a really good gun. There are four new Vault Hunters for you to play as - Amara the Siren, Fl4k the Beastmaster, Moze the Gunner and Zane the Operative. Our Borderlands 3 walkthrough will give you an idea of what each story chapter will contain, including side missions you may encounter and an ideal level for your Vault Hunter to be at....

In the company’s recent annual report (via CharlieIntel), Activision wrote: “We continued to demonstrate the potential for our console and PC franchises on mobile. Call of Duty Mobile enjoyed a record year following its launch in China, with annual consumer spending on the title of well above $1bn. “Over 650 million people have downloaded Call of Duty Mobile around the world, and the number of people experiencing Call of Duty on mobile each month almost matched those playing on console and PC in 2021....

To put this figure into perspective, Warzone 1 reached 30 million players in 10 days. If Warzone 2 keeps up the same momentum, it is safe to assume it will soon exceed these figures. Activision shared the news of this milestone on its social media feeds, thanking those who have taken part in its frenzied battlegrounds so far. This is not to say that Warzone 2.0 has been without its issues, however....

The mod in question is Rise of Mordor, and it has been around for eons. And yet, in the same week that the Lord of the Rings film and game rights have also happened to go up for sale, Warner Bros has issued a DMC takedown claim to its developers. Interesting timing. In a statement (thanks, Game Watcher), Rise of Mordor’s devs say: “… we have received word from ModDB officials that Warner Bros has sent them a DMCA takedown request to remove Rise of Mordor from their databases....

Bloomberg states these projects are the first to come from Sega’s myserious “Super Game” initiative - and that two more, one a first-person shooter, are also in the works. Development on all the above is still early, with Crazy Taxi reportedly still “two to three years” away despite being in development for “over a year” already. Sega’s ambition here is to create live-service games which can live on for years, amass large communities of players, and be relied upon as a recurring source of income....

The remaster of the PSP game, released in December, used the voice cast from Final Fantasy 7 Remake, differing from the PSP original Crisis Core. Now, thanks to modder Svenchu, Rick Gomez (Zack Fair), Steve Burton (Cloud), George Newbern (Sephiroth), Andrea Bowen (Aerith) and Oliver Quinn (Genesis) can now be heard in the remastered game - on PC at least (thanks Siliconera). Watch on YouTube CRISIS CORE –FINAL FANTASY VII– REUNION | Launch Trailer However, this doesn’t work for all voice acting....

It’s a familiar opening for Final Fantasy 7 fans, especially those coming to Crisis Core for the first time, who are yet to experience the PSP prequel to Square Enix’s most popular game in its illustrious series but eager to explore this world once more. And plenty of fans have been gained over the two and a half decades since Final Fantasy 7 released on the PlayStation. It means that now, Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion (what a mouthful) has a fair bit of heavy lifting to do, as a 2022 remaster of a 2007 prequel to a 1997 game that received a celebrated Remake in 2020....

It’s worth noting that there are some fantastic mobile phone deals all year round, meaning Black Friday deals may not always be the best the prices have ever been. Either way, if you spot a deal on a phone you’re interested in, we recommend grabbing it today so that you don’t miss out on a good deal. Today’s best Cyber Monday phone deals We’re updating this page as we spot more Cyber Monday mobile phone deals, but we’re also tracking them over on the Jelly Deals Twitter account so follow us there and bookmark this page to make sure you don’t miss out....

Each attribute governs its own set of skills and each individual skill has its own set of perks. Perks will provide you with a range of different bonuses, as well as new abilities. If you’re returning to Cyberpunk 2077 after some time away, update 1.5 has added new perks to replace some old ones, and there have also been some balance changes made to attributes and skills. This page explains how to earn both attribute and perk points in Cyberpunk 2077, and what has changed with the attribute system in update 1....

As detailed below (and in CD Projekt’s accompanying patch notes), update 1.2 attempts to addresses a broad range of issues with Cyberpunk 2077, making adjustments to NPC behaviour, driving, game stability, and a heap more. PC players can expect a download of around 30GB, and that goes up to 40-45GB on consoles. ORIGINAL STORY 12.21pm: Another sorely-needed patch for Cyberpunk 2077 is on the horizon, and the list of changes is huge: an assortment of bug fixes, changes to NPC behaviour, stability improvements to prevent crashes, and sorting out various other annoyances....

Itagaki shared his announcement on Twitter, explaining Apex Game Studios would specialise in creating “high-quality and immersive” triple-A “Web3” titles - Web 3.0 being the umbrella term incorporating (frequently controversial) technologies such as blockchain and NFT. Apex Game Studios’ first project, Warrior, is an MMORPG developed in Unreal Engine that’s due to launch in Q1 next year. Unfortunately, details remain pretty limited at this juncture, with the official website being primarily interested in detailing the NFT economy at Warrior’s core....

Digital Bros, parent company of publisher 505 Games, released its half year financial report to 31st December 2020, and in it said Death Stranding’s PC release made 23.192m euros in 2020. Kojima Productions’ game launched on PC in July, so this figure includes all money made by the PC version last year. It does not include money made in the first quarter of this year. To put that figure into context, it’s the most money made by a 505 Games title in 2020....

id Software’s Quake is, of course, a stone-cold classic, serving up a seminal slice of FPS action that - somewhat unbelievably - celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons mightn’t be quite as well-known, but its story of two siblings on an increasingly fantastical quest to find a cure for their father’s mysterious affliction is an absolute delight, and a game I find myself returning to every couple of years....

The various legal documents make for great reading but do need to be treated with more than a little caution. On the face of it, it appears like we’re getting a fascinating insight into the inner workings of the platform holders, who are producing all manner of never-seen-before ‘insider’ information. However, we also need to remember that all of these disclosures are being driven by very specific agendas and nothing should be taken at face value, no matter how intriguing the information may be....