Another PathPath of Exile 2 is a deep, dark, dastardly ARPG that's got what it takes to transcend even the original - hands-on previewI came away from my time with PoE 2 with an urgent sense to play more.Image credit: Grinding Gear Games Article by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on Nov. 21, 2024 There are some games, really good games, which are time vampires. They entice you with engaging gameplay, snatch your gaze with beautiful visuals, and trap you in a vice of challenging fights you don't want to give up on.Having played around seven hours of Path of Exile 2 during a preview event - all the way through Act 1 of the campaign and a good way into Act 2 - it's clear to me that this game is the Nosferatu of hour-eaters. The great weekend devourer. I look towards its December 6 release date and know I am screwed. You certainly are, too. Sorry.What Grinding Gear Games has done here is taken the ever-excellent Path of Exile 1 and refined it into a greater, more modern monster. Don't panic! The complexity is still there in spades, as is the challenge. Rather than dilute the sauce, it's a gorgeous revolution of the original. Easier to pick up, but begging to be experimented with. Full of surprises, too - even for those familiar with the team's work.You're thinking maybe you'll be fine, but you won't be. Path of Exile 2 has 12 classes: all very different from each other and with a frankly absurd level of skill customisation which all but confirms that my playstyle and yours will be entirely different. Eat your heart out, Diablo.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. This is true even if we play the same base class, by the way. My Warrior could be all about his totems, popping them up and using them to detonate the ground around them in vast AOE clears. Yours might be a fire-centric warrior, using war crys to ignite enemies and enhance their attacks. Maybe you'll grab a unique weapon that boosts bleed attacks? Well, then you can reset everything and build your character around it to superb results. Add on top of this support gems and the legendarily enormous passive skill tree...building a character in Path of Exile 2 is like thrifting for clothes, you could come across a shirt or jacket that totally flips your outfit on its head.This on its own is similar to what Path of Exile 1 offers. The key difference for me is the improved new-player experience when it comes to scaling the daunting wall of complexity that surrounds this series. The Path of Exile 2 approach offers a path to the top of that wall. Any active or support skill gems you get offer you a selection that's broken down into classic and weapon type. You can, if you're more experienced, venture away from the standard options presented to you. But what this approach offers is a streamlined avenue through the games' systems. This way, once a player reaches the end of the campaign, they'll understand how everything works. No lengthy guides needed! It's not hard to get a decent character working here, which is good for the newbies! | Image credit: Grinding Gear GamesIf that's the meat and gristle of the game, where do you take all these skills and intricacies to? Well, you take it to the homes of a honestly absurd variety of monsters, ghouls, freaks, and horrors in invigorating combat. It's all well and good writing about how much you can tweak your abilities in Path of Exile 2, but such praise would matter little if these skills flopped about limp and unimpressive. I'm happy to write that nothing could be further from reality. Your attacks erupt outward in VFX-laden blasts and brutal blows that send enemies flying, or scattered and gory.Path of Exile 1 has taken significant steps towards improving the overall combat experience in recent years, but I feel Path of Exile 2 has leaped forward into an exciting direct. No part of the game exemplifies this more than the boss fights. Not just end-of-act bosses either, regular bosses you find all over the gaff. Various phases, heaps of attacks, and very eager to slap you dead. This is a good thing! You shouldn't have to wait until the end game to have to lock in. It's also worth noting that it's incredibly easy to feel radically powerful in PoE2. | Image credit: Grinding Gear GamesAs for other notable perks? The tone of this game is extraordinary. Even in Act 1, the various biomes are distinct in nature, so much so that I never got bored of a particular zone nor enemy type. It helps that there are a frankly absurd number of enemies present! Rarely will you see repeated use of foes across your journey through the campaign - a fact which applies to bosses too! Each zone is a fresh slate, a fresh challenge to confront. All these zones share a dread, a malaise. You follow the path of the antagonists and they leave a poison in their wake, one that flavours the entire experience.These zones too are dotted with surprises. Those bosses I mentioned earlier aren't throwaway damage sponges but real, interesting fights. I came across a boss called Crowbell around half way through Act 1. This was a three-phase fight that navigated the map, one with a unique model and attacks. This fight, which could well have ended a side-quest or have acted as a mini-boss with narrative ties, was just left for me to discover. A genuine surprise, and a pleasant one.There's a lot of Path of Exile 2 I didn't see. I only saw a bit of Act 2, but none of Act 3. I haven't had hands-on with the end-game, but have seen how it works through a pre-play presentation. Even so, I can't help but sit here and feel a surge of excitement around Path of Exile 2. It really does feel like a sequel in the truest sense of the word, improving where it can and maintaining the foundation where it's stable. I would recommend it to everyone with a love of ARPGs to try it out next month, and anyone with even a vague taste for a deep, dark, dastardly game you can really sink your teeth into.Path of Exile 2 releases on December 6 on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. We accessed Path of Exile 2 via a dedicated Grinding Gear Games preview event, with travel assistance provided by the developer.

Rich ininspirationPath of Exile 2 has many inspirations from Elden Ring to Civilization 5, according to game directorIn a roundtable interview with press, Jonathan Rogers reveals some of the game's inspirations.Image credit: VG247 News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on Nov. 21, 2024 According to Path of Exile 2 game director Jonathan Rogers the game has a wealth of inspirations from across the video game landscape, including Elden Ring and the wider action genre for its boss fights, and Civilization V for its end-game map.Revealed during an end game presentation, and elaborated on in a press roundtable, the topic first popped up following a story boss fight in which the player character faces off against a massive construct with over a dozen unique attacks and various phases. When asked about wider inspirations in a roubtable press interview following the presentation, Rogers stated the following.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Honestly it would be very hard for me to come up with just one game, becauase we get inspired [a lot] and there are random influences everywhere. The in-game map, right? The thing I said to the artists is that I want it to look like Civiliation V! These are things you wouldn't usually expect to influence an ARPG. We take inspiration from everywhere, and it's hard to even nail down the list.""Obviously, recent action games because it was approaching the combat stuff that we were doing, stuff like Elden Ring. I kind of play jsut about every type of genre of video game, I'm not locked into just ARPGs. But I think probably, strangely enough single player action games are probably my favourite genre.""It's really what I love, so those types of games are what I take a lot of inspiration from in terms of boss design and stuff like that. We really want the bosses in PoE 2 are world class as far as action games go. There's lots of interesting mechanics, a lot of abilties, and it takes a lot of work to make a boss like that. In PoE 2 we also have to take into consideration dodge rolling right? So there are more action game type considerations you have to make. We have to be an action game and a stat game at the same time, which is quite tricky."We noted the merit behind PoE 2's boss design in our preview of the game, which you can read in full here. Path of Exile 2 is set to launch on December 6, on PC and console. Read this next

Bite MeWho says cannibalism and Valentine's Day don't mix? Yellowjackets Season 3 has a release dateLove and blood are in the air!Image credit: Paramount News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 20, 2024 Calling all cannibalism lovers, Yellowjackets season 3 has a release date, and its timing is great, if a bit twisted.Fans of Yellowjackets have been desperate for the third season of the popular TV show since season 2 wrapped up early 2023, but last year's writer and actor strikes (understandably) delayed things a touch. There was some casting news earlier this year, which Community lovers will likely be quite happy about, but Showtime has finally set a release date for season 3: February 14, next year. Yes, that is Valentine's Day, which definitely tickles me a little bit given the whole cannibalism thing Yellowjackets has going on, but whoever said that there was nothing romantic about eating your best friend? Not me, that's for sure!To see this content please enable targeting cookies. For those that have never heard of Yellowjackets before, an official logline explains that it follows "the saga of a team of wildly talented high school girls soccer players who become the (un)lucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the remote northern wilderness. The series chronicles their descent from a complicated but thriving team to savage clans, while also tracking the lives theyve attempted to piece back together nearly 25 years later, proving that the past is never really past and what began out in the wilderness is far from over." To see this content please enable targeting cookies.A teaser for the new season can be seen above, which doesn't show all that much. On top of Joel McHale joining the cast, there's also Hilary Swank, as well as all the main cast members from the first two seasons. Fingers crossed neither of them bite the bullet too quickly. The show will arrive on Paramount+ with the Showtime plan on the aforementioned February 14 release date, before its linear debut on February 16 - international viewers will also be able to catch it on Paramount+.

Gears & GambitsI want to add a different twist Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 will rethink how it implements mini-games, says director Naoki HamaguchiThe as-yet-untitled Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth sequel is going to change things up a bit, as Hamaguchi vows to rearrange things slightly.Image credit: VG247 Article by Dom Peppiatt Editor-in-chief Additional contributions byAlex DonaldsonPublished on Nov. 21, 2024 There sure were a lot of mini-games in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, huh? By my count, there are 21 different activities you can experience as Cloud and his company venture out from Kalm and across the planet.Some are fantastic - Queens Blood probably rivals Final Fantasy 8s Triple Triad in terms of being one of the series best additions - but some pale in comparison. Glide de Chocobo? 3D Brawler? Cactuar Crush? Crunch-off? It feels like a lot of them were just there as filler, with less thought and polish than the obvious, keystone diversions.A cursory look online will show you that the proliferation of mini-games split the audience in two; some loved the variety, the challenge, the nonsense of it all, and some hated it. Pfft, its just busywork, they cry, needless time-wasting. Well, it turns out Square Enix has been paying attention to all you loud-mouth malcontents, and for Final Fantasy Remake Project, Part 3, the developer is keen to do things slightly differently.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Just talking about Rebirth, I think I'm very happy with the volume and the balance of mini-games we have in that game, says Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director, Naoki Hamaguchi, in an exclusive interview with VG247. And I think we very much achieved what we set out to do with the mini-games, as well. I'll explain what that was.I play a lot of games, a lot of open world games, and something I feel whilst playing a lot of these games is that you've got the core mechanics - or their fighting systems - and most of the content you'll encounter, most of the places you can go, most of what you'll be doing, can get repetitive. [These games] just use the same mechanics. There are no real changes, theres nothing new to experience around the different regions of these worlds.Hes right. Youll often see open world titles these days simply have all the various mini-games on offer available to you throughout the world; think of Far Cry, or Assassins Creed, or even The Witcher -- the various mini-games on offer populate the map, theyre not really locked to any one region. The world at large enjoys Gwent, or Orlog, or whatever else; it doesnt necessarily vary, region-to-region. Queen's Blood is the highlight of FF7 Rebirth - but will Part 3 have something similar? | Image credit: VG247But in making Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth feel like a whole planet rather than just one big open area, the development team made the conscious decision to put different mini-games in different regions. Not everyone, everywhere, enjoys the same thing, right? The downside is that some players thought there was simply too much to do, and a gulf of quality between the best of the best, and the worst of the worst.Obviously, theres a great battle system in Rebirth - and theres a lot of fun to be had in fighting the various different monsters in each region - but I wanted it to feel like a breath of fresh air when you entered each different region, continues Hamaguchi. That you feel like theres something new and exciting to do when you enter a new area. That you can experience something different with the mechanics. Thats why we wanted to put so many different mini-games in, and I feel we really managed to achieve our goal with that. Its simply a breath of fresh air in an open world (or open field, as we call it for Rebirth).But hes aware that doing the same thing again and again isnt necessarily going to get good results. Theres a law of diminishing returns, after all, and Final Fantasy is - and has always been - known for its desire to innovate and not rest on its laurels.So are we going to continue with this same balance going forward? Have we reached perfection? I think if we did just do the same thing again for the third game in the series, then it wouldnt really be very new or exciting anymore, he says. I want to add a different twist, rearrange things slightly for the next game, and have a slightly different look to things.We dont just want to make more of the same, we want to make new and exciting experiences. Not just a load of balls, as they say. | Image credit: Square EnixThere is very little information about Part 3 out there at the moment - we dont even know its name yet - but this is refreshing to hear. Its clear that Hamaguchi, alongside (assumedly returning) creative director Tetsuya Nomura and producer Yoshinori Kitase, want to keep things fresh for the third game. It needs to be a satisfying climax, after all, and were not going to get that simply by retreading old ground, are we?Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is out now on PS5, and looks even better on the PS5 Pro (if you can afford one). Final Fantasy Remake Part 3 has no release date, but we may get it sooner than we thought.

With ChildThe latest Alien: Earth teaser trailer doesn't tell us much other than the fact our planet is pregnant, but it did offer up a release window at leastBaby steps.Image credit: Fox News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 20, 2024 Another Alien: Earth teaser trailer has been released upon the world, and there's not much to see, so let's be thankful there's a release window.It seems like with every Alien: Earth tease we get we don't really get any closer to actually seeing the damn show. The first one mostly just showed the titular Alien and Earth, and the most recent one is so short that you really could blink and miss it. This latest one, released earlier today, is almost a remix of the original one, with that same shot of the Earth reflecting in the titular xenomorph's big ole black chrome dome, though there is a trailer voice person there to relay a very silly joke: "In 2120, mother Earth is expecting." Expecting what? Well, the joke is a play on that whole pregnancy thing, but it's actually an alien, which feels a little out of place with the series' quite dark tone, but hey ho, I'm not a marketing person, what do I know?Watch on YouTubeThe rest of it is glitchy shots of alien-looking things that aren't necessarily That alien, and someone screaming, so there's really not that much you can get from it, but it did have one helpful detail: Alien: Earth will be screaming summer 2025 on Hulu. All that was known previously is that it would be out next year, so this does narrow it down a smidge which is nice. We'll just have to keep waiting for that full trailer and concrete release date in the meantime. With it being a Hulu release, over us in the UK and elsewhere can probably assume that it'll be coming to Disney+, though I imagine you'll need the family friendly filter switched off.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Alien has been doing quite well for itself recently, with the latest entry in the series Alien: Romulus proving itself to be enough of a hit to warrant a sequel being greenlit. There might even be another Alien vs. Predator somewhere along the line, with the Predator series also having a bit of a comeback - the next one, Badlands, is out next year, and it'll put the titular alien in the hot seat.

Don't forget itHoYoverse teases Honkai Star Rail 3.0 characters, and oh by the way, Remembrance is a new playable pathHow's that for character drip marketingImage credit: HoYoverse News by Josh Broadwell Contributor Published on Nov. 20, 2024 HoYoverse might be gearing up to set Sunday and Tingyun Fugue, whom I affectionately call Fugueyun or Deadyun (IYKYK), loose in Honkai Star Rail, but that hasnt stopped them from teasing HSR 3.0s characters already. First up was The Herta, a 5-star variant of the Herta puppet thats been present at launch with an impressive hat and, surprisingly, the same path and element as her 4-star version Ice and Erudition. Thats exciting.More exciting is Aglaea, a 5-star Dressmaster on Amphoreus, HSR 3.0s newest planet. Its the first confirmation weve had of Amphoreus being next in line. Oh, and Aglaea walks the path of Remembrance. HoYoverse casually slipped that in Aglaeas character art like it was no big deal, just a normal thing to reveal on Twitter on a Tuesday night. No official mention, no nothing. But Remembrance is definitely coming.The more perceptive among you probably find this information unsurprising. With as much attention as HoYoverse started giving Erudition lately, including teasing 5-star Herta in the previous update, I assumed Erudition would be the big thing on Amphoreus. However, after a friend reminded me of Black Swans role early in HSR 2.0 and how prominent Fuli and The Remembrance were in those conversations, I realized HoYoverse was actually setting up for this all along. How Remembrance will play is anyones guess. In Hertas Simulated Universe and its various iterations, Remembrance blessings are tied to the freeze effect and freeze-specific debuffs. Any Ice-aligned character can inflict freeze when they break an enemy, regardless of path. Star Rails other paths are more broadly defined based on playstyle support with Harmony, health in Abundance, damage-over-time and debuffs with Nihility which seems oddly specific for an entire path, not to mention odd in general for an Electric character such as Aglaea.In short, expect something unexpected that probably shakes up the meta, perhaps something to do with the summoned help some Star Rail leakers have posted about for the past few months.Honkai Star Rail 3.0 should go live around Jan. 14, 2025. Meanwhile, brush up on your Acheron and Aventurine knowledge if you're planning any pulls in the near future, and grab some HSR codes if you need a few freebies.

Kiss From A Rook-seYep, Dragon Age: The Veilguard modders are definitely cooking now: they've covered Solas' bald bonce in big wet sloppy kisses and clown makeupThey've also slapped his face on The Inquisitor's pyjamas, because why not?Image credit: EA/Pinacoladamatata/Queenschadenfreude News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Nov. 19, 2024 Over the past few days, the dam has peroperly broken on Dragon Age: The Veilguard modding, with folks finally starting to be able to do stuff that isn't just reshades or Rook presets. Anyway, we've now hit that blessed point where mods that're pretty funny are starting to arrive - such as one that covers the Dread Wolf himself in lipstick.As we reported yesterday, a new tool has made it possible for Veilguard modders to start more easily doing stuff like add in their own custom textures, opening up the possibility for some slightly more advanced work, even if it's still very much early days yet.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. So, naturally, modder Pinacoladamatata has woken up, looked in the mirror, and said sometjing like: 'Right, time to cover the head of everyone's favourite folically challenged (spoiler alert) Elven god in smooches, like he's just had to let his very overenthusistic grandma give him a goodbye head kiss before he leaves to go do a ritual'.Enter 'Kisses for Solas', which does exactly what you'd expect, coating the head of your best weird dream convo buddy in snog marks that he hasn't chosen to wash off. Maybe he thinks they make intimidating war paint.Anyway, this isn't the first mod that's done this to Solas, with Pinacoladamatata citing OfficiallyJewls' 'Kisses for the Dread Wolf (Solas)' for DA: Inqusition as a direct inspiration. That mod in turn was inspired by this bit of fanart, because of course it is (we here at VG247 don't judge).Anyway, that's not the only Veilguard mod involving Solas Pinacoladamatata's recently put out. They've also done 'Have You Seen This Man- Inquisitor outfit recolor', which slaps Solas' kiss-covered face on The Inquisitor's weird pyjama-like clothes, rimmed by a meme-esque caption asking if anyone's seen him. Fashion.Thankfully, other Dragon Age modders are up to less strange stuff, such as, er, covering Solas' face in clown makeup, as queenschadenfreude's 'Clown Solas 2 Veilguard Boogaloo' does. They even got permission from the author of the classic Inquisition mod that does the same thing.So, all of those are a thing. If you've been playing through Veilguard and think everyone in it's just being too bloody nice, you should read this feature, as you'll probably agree with it.

Attempts Were Made"There was always going to be live action" - As the Minecraft movie gets a new trailer, its director and producer try to defend its controversial look"A lot of the people who will see it were not born when the first contracts and the first discussions were had."Image credit: Warner Bros/ Mojang News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 20, 2024 As A Minecraft Movie gets a new uncanny valley as heck trailer, its director and producer attempt to defend how it looks.Warner Bros. released a new Minecraft Movie trailer yesterday, giving a much more comprehensive look at the upcoming video game adaptation, complete with a duck roasted by lava, that classic chill music, and skeletons trying to kill you with bows and arrows. It's certainly a better trailer than the first one, but obviously it can't change that slightly terrifying and controversial look that mixes live action and CGI. The first trailer quickly proved divisive amongst fans, and alongside the release of this latest trailer for Warner Bros., IGN put out a new interview with director Jared Hess and producer/ Minecraft senior director of original content Torfi Frans Olafsson where they attempted to defend the decision to use live action.Watch on YouTube"I mean, look, we knew this game represents so many different things to so many different people," Hess said, talking of that partial negative reaction to the first trailer (which wasn't as passionate as that first trailer for the original Sonic movie, a situation Hess wanted to avoid at all costs). "We knew that whatever we led out with, there was going to be strong opinions across the spectrum of what people were expecting, what they wanted it to be. Everybody brings their own special personal connection to the game. So we were ready for everything."To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Olafsson took the time to specifically respond to the live action criticism, saying, "I mean, that was one of the things [fans were saying in response to the trailer]: Why is it live action? Why isn't it animated? I think a lot of people were expecting that, and just the fact that there was live action and directly real-life characters and physical sets, didn't feel right with them, because in their imagination, they've been playing it for a very long time."And they've kind of projected and seen a bunch of content obviously that's been made both by us, the community, we've made a story mode. We made animated content before, and there's a lot of it out there. But that was also one of the reasons why the filmmakers wanted to go with live action rather than animate it, rather than do something that's been done before."The producer goes on to note that the movie has been in development for a "very, very long time", and by that he means at least 10 years. "A lot of the people who will see it were not born when the first contracts and the first discussions were had, and there was always going to be live action."I'm not sure how strong a defence that actually is, just because there was always going to be live action doesn't mean there should have been. Olafsson and Hess do also talk about how strong the team is that has worked on the film, and at the very least the effects themselves don't look bad. They just look strange with the human cast being green screened amongst them. Either way, we'll find out how it actually is when it finally releases April 4, next year.

MetacrossPokemon Go developer Niantic is using player data to train AI that could power map-roaming robotsAccording to a Niantic blog posts, Pokemon Go players have been helping train machine learning models for a while.Image credit: The Pokemon Company/Niantic Labs News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on Nov. 20, 2024 A blog post on the Niantic website has gained the attention of numerous Pokemon Go fans and tech-savvy folks alike due to the company's lengthy description of its work training up a machine learning powered geospacial model through its apps. That means you, yes you, might have played a part in building it up.The blog post in question, titled "Building a Large Geospatial Model to Achieve Spatial Intelligence" states that through Niantic's Visual Positioning System, it has gathered a lot of data and put its geospacial model through a lot of training (thanks, 404 Media).To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "As part of Niantics Visual Positioning System (VPS), we have trained more than 50 million neural networks, with more than 150 trillion parameters, enabling operation in over a million locations. In our vision for a Large Geospatial Model (LGM), each of these local networks would contribute to a global large model, implementing a shared understanding of geographic locations, and comprehending places yet to be fully scanned."Okay, so there are probably a few big questions here. First, what's this geospacial model actually do? Well, in simple terms, it'll help computers percieve and navigate real-world environments. What this actually means for tech, as laid out in the aforementioned blog post, is that stuff like AR glasses, robots, and autonomous systems will be better able to walk across the street without struggling to identify the lamppost they're walking towards.https://bsky.app/profile/josephcox.bsky.social/post/3lbcr7erh2c2rSecond question, what's this Visual Positioning System? Well, Pokemon Go players might know it through the lens of the game's AR mapping tool. These have ben part of field research tasks for a bit, and have the player scan parts of the world for in-game rewards. The VPS, as explained in another Niantic blog post, is a bit of tech that better maps AR content to the real world. So, again in simple terms, the way the game maps a poke stop to a local museum, rather than the pub toilets.Niantic states it's now got over 10 million locations scanned by its users across its many games, even providing a heat map to show the majority of this data has been gathered in Japan, the Coastal US, and Central Europe. AI and machine learning models have gotten a well-deserved bad wrap for their use in bunch of useless shite. But, if you're on board with AI development, this does point to real technological improvements as far as AR goes. One just hopes you've not been using Pokemon Go to scan your entire house for Niantic, lest a real life Metacross breaks down your bathroom door like in The Shining.What do you think about all this? Personally speaking, I'm largely against AI tech on an environmental level, at least until we've got a good solution to the energy crisis, but maybe you feel differently! Let us know below.

Up In LightsSpider-Verse fans are hoping a massive neon sign that's cropped up in New York is evidence of an incoming announcement, but I just feel sorry for the poor renters stuck behind itSeriously, are there people still living there?Image credit: Sony News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 19, 2024 Some Spider-Verse fans have spotted a big ol' neon sign the size of an apartment building in New York, and a few of them think it might be to do with the upcoming third film.Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse was originally meant to be released in March of this year, in part due to those strikes from last year, but despite some rumours it had been delayed all the way to 2027, it generally seems like production is moving along. There hasn't been any official announcement regarding the threequel since it was delayed, but yesterday some Spider-Man fans walking through Chelsea, New York noticed that a huge neon sign of Miles Morales spider-sigil from Across the Spider-Verse was being hung up in front of what looks like an apartment building, leading some to speculate that an announcement is imminent.Miles Morales symbol going up in Chelsea, NYC? byu/ConeyQ inSpidermanTo see this content please enable targeting cookies.A photo of the sign was shared to a Spider-Man subreddit, with some joking that it could just be the owner of the building showing their love of the character, but others did point out that Chelsea is where Gwen Stacy lives in Across the Spider-Verse. That obviously does raise some eyebrows even further, but it does seem like quite an odd way to potentially do some promo for the third film, because for one, this building does actually seem like it's in use by the people living there, so I'm not sure they'd appreciate being kept up all night by a giant neon sign, and two, it's right next to a Latter-Day Saints church, who I also assume won't be big fans of the sign for similar reasons.Right now there's not much known about Beyond, other than the fact it will pick up where that juicy cliffhanger left off in the previous film, and that it will be completely free from AI, but for now you're just going to have to wait for a trailer to see more. And if you're in New York, you could always go find that sign for a bit of a lark.

The Movies, Baby!The first trailer for Apple TV's The Studio features Hollywood's best like Martin Scorsese and Charlize Theron telling Seth Rogen how terrible he isPlus quite a few other familiar faces, too.Image credit: Apple News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 19, 2024 The first trailer for Seth Rogen's Apple TV+ series The Studio is here, and it features plenty of big names telling him how awful he is.Okay, they're not specifically telling Rogen he's awful, but there really are some big names in this thing. The Studio is an upcoming, 10-episode long series created by Rogen and his frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg, where the actor plays the fictional Matt Remick, the new head of the also not real production company Continental Studios. "As movies struggle to stay alive and relevant, Matt and his core team of infighting executives battle their own insecurities as they wrangle narcissistic artists and craven corporate overlords in the ever-elusive pursuit of making great films," an official logline explains.Watch on YouTube"With their power suits masking their neverending sense of panic, every party, set visit, casting decision, marketing meeting, and award show presents them with an opportunity for glittering success or career-ending catastrophe. As someone who eats, sleeps, and breathes movies, its the job Matts been pursuing his whole life, and it may very well destroy him."To see this content please enable targeting cookies. This thing has a seriously stacked cast, with actors like Catherine O'Hara (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), Kathryn Hahn (Agatha All Along) joining him as part of the main cast, alongside Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) as a guest star, and Hollywood icons such as Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, and Charlize Theron playing himself - all of which who don't seem to like Rogen's character very much ("You're talentless. Spineless," Scorsese says at one point, showing the ageing director still has some acting chops).It all looks quite fun in the first trailer, and you don't have all that long to wait for it, as it's currently set to be released on Apple TV+ on March 26, next year.

Keep 'Em ComingAre you a fan of Dragon Quest 3 and Square Enix's HD-2D look? You better let the developer know, as the JRPG's producer is worried you'll all get "bored" of themThough with all the trouble it's been having, I can only imagine it'll be slowing down anyway.Image credit: Square Enix News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 18, 2024 Square Enix has pumped out a lot of HD-2D games over the past few years, and the producer of the Dragon Quest 3 remake is worried you might get "bored" of them.The HD-2D style that Square Enix introduced with Octopath Traveler is one that has generally gone down pretty well with fans, with the developer going on to use it in a number of other titles, like the Live A Live remake, and most recently Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake. We also know that Dragon Quest 1 and 2 are getting the same treatment, and In a recent interview with Bloomberg, the JRPG remake's producer Masaaki Hayasaka shared that even more remakes of games from the series is something he'd "love to consider", but that partially depends on how well this one does.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Hayasaka goes on to explain that if Square Enix was "to release too many games in succession, that would lead to people being bored of those games. On the flipside, if theres too much of a span between launches, that can also lead to the series not seeming as vibrant and robust anymore. Its a sensitive topic. Its something that even my supervisors are constantly unsure and mulling over."Personally, I do understand the hesitation, especially considering that even now there are people that don't like games that look remotely retro, and with Square Enix struggling quite a bit at the moment, the hesitancy is warranted. Lucky for it, Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake seems to be going quite well, as just yesterday it hit a peak of more than 45,000 players on Steam alone (via SteamDB), a very healthy figure for a remake of a single-player RPG. Whether those numbers hold up for the upcoming remakes of the first and second games is another question, but at least for now more HD-2D remakes seem like they could be on the table.

Veiled ThreatsEveryone in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is too nice, and I cant stand itDragon Age: The Veilguard is as sickly-sweet as they come - and that's a problem.Image credit: VG247 Article by Alex Donaldson Assistant Editor Published on Nov. 18, 2024 I want to be absolutely clear: I really think Dragon Age: The Veilguard is rather good. Its also true that its a game that is drawn taut between its different ambitions. It wants to reach new fans while satisfying series fans whove waited a decade for Inquisitions cliffhanger to resolve. It wants to be accessible, but it wants to be a full-fat RPG. It wants to depict a world on the edge of a knife, the gentlest breeze enough to tip it into the pit but it also wants you to have a nice time.That last bit is the thing that has stuck with me most keenly since finishing The Veilguard as part of the review process - this is a relentlessly nice game. Honestly, I actually find it a little bit tiring.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. I know what some are going to say, so let me stop you right there: the real world is in a hell of a mess, and theres nothing wrong with wanting a bit of escapism from the disaster outside your real life window in the form of a cuddly video game. But let me fire back something: if I really want that, Ill fire up Stardew Valley, or Animal Crossing. Or Ill mine the nostalgia from my childhood years with a bit of Sonic 2 or Banjo-Kazooie or something.But coming into a BioWare game, I sort of want a bit of friction. I want some shades of grey. I want hard decisions. I want a gang of companions who I love, but who dont necessarily get along. I want the rough and the smooth - and The Veilguard seems practically allergic to the rough. Even the hard choices are just too nice, really. | Image credit: Bioware/VG247Its probably unfair, but I cant help drawing the comparison back to BioWares greatest game, Mass Effect 2. Its obvious that it formed a hefty inspiration for The Veilguard; you can see it in the structure, the building-a-team narrative, and later acts of the game feel like a mash up of the endings of the second and third Mass Effect entries.For this point I want to focus on the characters, though. The party you build is the heart of both games - when I talked to people on the Dragon Age team at preview, they described the process of turning the characters into load-bearing pillars for the entire experience. This is something BioWare hasnt strictly done before in the sense that it is a tweak of process - the characters have always been a key part of the structure of these games, but this feels like the first time the characters themselves are the foundation for the story. And yetGosh, I wish this crew had a little more about them in terms of how they interplay and interact with each other besides Rook. I know this is a team that needs to work together for the greater good - but this lot have got nary a thing to disagree over. Theres none of the prickliness of, say, the antagonistic relationship between Jack and Miranda that the player is then forced to mediate. The Veilguard party banter and play-bicker over picnics and living space - all very charming, and the sort of thing also present in Mass Effect - but thats sort of it. One big happy family? Boo. | Image credit: EA/BioWareYou recruit a mage and then you recruit a mage killer, and neither really blinks an eye. And its okay, anyway, as hes not really a mage killer in that way. Hes nice, hes heroic, hes selfless.Again, Im looping back around to Mass Effect 2. Im thinking about Garrus, and how when you meet him he isnt a grand hero, but a vigilante with a death wish, having gone off the deep end since the last game. I think about Zaeed, who is a truly disgraceful piece of s**t - but you need him. Or do you? You can, of course, conclude hes a liability and leave him for dead. I want this sort of thing back - but Im not even sure that these sorts of stories could exist within the narrative sandbox The Veilguard places itself.I dont want to only compare it to Mass Effect, of course, because past Dragon Age titles were also rich with this sort of texture. I think of Alistair and Morrigan back in Origins; prickly bedfellows who ultimately come together in a satisfying way. In The Veilguard, everybody is nice from the jump.The same is true, to some extent, of the whole world. This is a world with beggars on every street corner, but theres no real talk of poverty or inequity in the world; none of the introspective world building BioWare contemplates with places like Omega or Kirkwall. Everything is Fine! Thedas is The Good Place, even when rampaging gods on high are threatening to end all of existence. He'd know how to sour your mood. | Image credit: EAThe intent, I expect, is to not offend the sensibilities of absolutely anybody playing. But story-driven games and role-playing games should challenge the player. Not just with exciting character progression choices and fist-pumping combat - which The Veilguard has - but also with narrative, world, and character. This overwhelming niceness seeps into every aspect of those elements. Ultimately, the niceness is a poison, the very definition of killing with kindness. Bluntly, when everybody is nice, everybody is a little bit boring - and in fantasy, that just doesnt fly.Worst of all, it works against those excellent characters, those load-bearing pillars designed to shoulder the weight of the rest of the experience. I like them all, and in fact I think one or two of them are some of the most charismatic BioWare has delivered - but I strongly feel the niceties often stood in the way of me truly getting to know them.As the saying goes, The sweet is never as sweet without the sour. Frustratingly, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is as sickly-sweet as they come.

Popeing OffThe odds of Baldur's Gate 3 being owned by The Pope just got better, as Larian's head of publishing shouts out mods for helping it outdo numbers from last yearThere's also an equally good - if not greater - chance he's not one of the three Vatican-based BG3 buyers, but we can dream.Image credit: VG247/Larian Studios News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Nov. 18, 2024 We all know Baldur's Gate 3's mods have proven pretty popular since official support for them was added by Larian with Patch 7. The developer's gone out of its way to tell us just that, even letting us know just who we need to thank for contributing.Anyway, now Larian's publishing director has shared that embracing mods has actually led Larian in 2024 to be ahead of where it was at in terms of some player stats this time last year, when BG3 was about to head into a holiday season that'd see it start to mop up all the GOTY awards it ended up getting. Seriously, it even looks like there's a chance The Pope's just bought it to see what the ongoing fuss is about.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. On Twitter, Michael Douse has shared some "fun data facts" he's dug up while looking through Larian's sales charts. "Our average daily peak concurrents are up 3% this year over last year" is the first one, "Our average daily active "users" are up 20% over last year" is the second, and "average daily Steam Deck users are up 61% over last year".The exec cites the first two specifically as being evidence that "mods are good", which is a thing I've also been saying for a while now, in between trying to work out which of the over 1000 add-ons is stopping my copy of Skyrim from launching. In response, one user said they wish more developers would embrace modding like Larian has via the release of its toolkit and the bringing of BG3 mods to both PC and console. "They are likely scared that people will mod sex and therefore the ratings boards would chase them down and kill them in the night," Douse replied. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Another interesting nugget which came out via this fresh batch of rare Douse tweets is that Baldur's Gate 3 has now sold one more copy in the Vatican City. Yes, after he revealed last week that two copies of BG3 had been sold in the Vatican - the place where The Pope lives - with one additional wishlist, Douse is now reporting another sale has been made.Naturally, Larian's publishing director has immediately assumed this final copy has been bought by The Pope himself, because that's funny. However, we here at VG247 are all about FACTS, as we've previously proven, so we've decided to try and calculate the odds that The Pope does actually own BG3.As of 2023, the Vatican's population is 764 people. Three copies of BG3 have been sold there. So, roughly 0.39% of the population of the Vatican are BG3 owners right now, meaning that's the chance The Pope has of being one of the three. Unless my maths in wrong, and it's last thing on a Monday right now, so there's a good chance that's the case. Sure, it's not a big chance he owns it, but it's better than nothing.With what his holiness has tweeted about the New Orleans Saints recently, I'm pretty certain he's got a good chance of being a Madden player too, so here's hoping he can find ample time for both in between popely duties.

Bare MetalThe latest contender in the retro hardware wars is a high-quality delight: the ChromaticTheres another premium retro console in town, and its got one of the sleekest and fanciest cases Ive ever seen.Image credit: VG247 Article by Alex Donaldson Assistant Editor Published on Nov. 18, 2024 Over the last few years, the retro floodgates have opened - and its honestly never been a better time to be an elderly gamer. If you want to relive the glories of your childhood there are now numerous options from a wide variety of companies - but this latest contender might be one of the most exciting yet.Ive seen a few Game Boy-alikes in my time. Just one year ago I reviewed the Super Pocket, a super cheap and simple offering from the team behind Evercade. The gold standard for the form remains the Analogue Pocket, a luxury and feature-filled device that keeps getting better with updates. The Chromatic slots into this pantheon on the higher end, rivalling the Pocket - though its approach is markedly different in important ways.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. First things first: this is a Game Boy. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck well, this is that. Its got that same familiar form factor - B and A buttons, Select and Start, a D-Pad, power switch, volume rocker everything is where youll remember it. The form factor is alarmingly close to the Game Boy Color, though divergent enough to be Legally Distinct. So, if were getting more specific, this is a Game Boy Color.That definition brings interesting advantages, drawbacks, and considerations that well dig into a little later in this article. But for now, let me start out with some broadly declarative praise - this is one of the nicest pieces of handheld gaming hardware Ive ever used.A lot of this is down to the shell - rather than plastic, as pretty much every other device like this uses, the Chromatic is crafted from magnesium alloy. This is still lightweight, but it feels bloody luxe. Its a weirdly specific thing to zone in on, but when I popped off the battery compartment for the first time (this eschews the now-common rechargeable battery for three traditional Double-As, though a rechargeable battery pack is also available) I was shocked at how solid and firm the compartment feels, and how definitively it clicks into place. The commitment to authenticity is strong. | Image credit: ChromaticIt just feels like quality. Im envisioning that American Psycho business card scene with these damn things. Someone flashes some Abernic Android handheld. Then its an Analogue Pocket; The operating system supports something called OpenFPGA. Then the Chromatic gets slammed on the table. Metal. The tasteful weight of it. Oh my god, it even has an IR portThe folks behind Chromatic claim that its also very, very sturdy - their website pictures a car driving over the device while it still happily runs Tetris. I dont have the stones to test this out, but holding the device in my hands and feeling the natural heft of it, I believe them.The build quality is good. The buttons are lovely; the D-Pad having that right amount of squishiness. The speakers are surprisingly loud, and output from the 3.5mm headphone jack is clear. Basically, its a nice device. Its IPS backlit LCD has a crisp, high clarity. Its not the time of year for testing sunlight - but playing with artificial light Im pretty sure itll fare quite well under natures glare. I like it a great deal.But as ever, the real test for hardware like this comes in terms of the games youll be playing - and this is where the choices made for the Chromatic get interesting.It is, frankly, impossible to talk about the Chromatic without talking about the Analogue Pocket. At this stage I must drop the facade and address them both, for they are such tightly-intertwined rivals that they have to be considered as a duo.As I said before, this is a Game Boy Color. I mean it: those are the games this plays. It takes the original cartridges, and even has the matching Infrared and Link Cable ports. Using those functions, it can talk to original Game Boys - or Analogue Pockets, for that matter.When we sit the Chromatic side-by-side with Analogue, theres no Game Boy Advance support, no wider-reaching operating system with implied support for other types of software, and certainly no physical adapters to slot in things like Game Gear carts. This is a Game Boy Color. It takes those old cartridges and plays em. With FPGA technology, it plays em damn good, with near-100% accuracy to original hardware.Theres a sense of deliberate simplicity here. The Chromatic does less, but it aims to be more impressive in what it offers for that less. For instance, a USB-C port on the bottom can be used not only to charge an optional battery pack, but also to directly video out the screen of the Chromatic to a PC. If youre a streamer who wants to play Game Boy games without emulation, on a device that has the original machines form and function - the Chromatic is now the machine for you.Theres also just something to be said for slamming a cart in, flicking the power switch and away you go. This obviously wont be for everybody. For a start, not everybody has libraries of games. Some want to dump a bunch of ROMs from their original carts (I assume dont tell me how you otherwise obtain them, I dont want to know) and load them from an SD card, getting rid of the need to carry around and swap carts. But theres something in the Chromatic that really channels the original experience, and I like that. Plus, if you really want to, the Chromatic does run an Everdrive without issue.Combine that OG experience with that beautiful metal casing and this feels like a toy, sure - but it feels like a toy for grown ups. There's a certain... charm... to it. | Image credit: ChromaticIts got a grown-up price tag too. The Chromatic runs $200 (161 for Brits, currently) - an unarguably premium product. Younger players less familiar with this hardware and without a cart collection are really not the target of this machine. In that context, and coupled with the super high quality, the price makes sense.The $200 price puts the Chromatic just $20 cheaper than the Analogue Pocket. This is where the situation becomes a bit pricklier - that machine has more compatibility, runs just as well, and is only a smidge more expensive. However, Analogues offering lacks the gorgeous case, and some might find all the bells and whistles a bit of a distraction. The Analogue offers a bigger screen, but as a result comes in a much larger overall footprint - so its less pocket friendly.Swings and roundabouts, as the saying goes. Ultimately, the feature and price comparison between the Analogue and Chromatic leads to what isnt exactly an easy sell - but I can totally see the market for both devices.Plus, the Chromatic has an ace up its sleeve. This is something that could completely flip the script around this machine in the years to come. The X-Factor is thus: Chromatic doesnt just play Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges; it also plays Chromatic Cartridges. Don't but the cart before the horses, now. | Image credit: VG247To be clear, these Chromatic Cartridges are just new Game Boy Color carts, really. The Chromatic ships with an all-new port of Tetris created specifically for the machine, and if you take that cart and drop it into a GBC, Analogue Pocket, or any other similar device, itll run. But the curiosity here is the promise that ModRetro will release more new games, licensed reprints of old games, or all-new ports on these carts, is intriguing.Readily available modern cartridges back up the concept of the machine as a more simple, traditional, physical media-driven device. Weve seen this sort of thing rolled out with great success by Evercade, which now has a pretty impressive line-up of classics available across many carts. Could the same happen here? I hope so.Ultimately, I think this is a lovely device. The price might be difficult for some to swallow - but I think if youre the sort of person whod go in for this sort of thing, youre likely already primed and ready to pay a premium. Its one of the nicest of these devices Ive used - and its one Ill continue to use, which is saying something given how many I have access to.The Chromatic is available to order now - and it could be a perfect Christmas gift for the ageing hardcore gamer in your life. Or, indeed, for yourself - if youre also edging ever closer to picking up your gaming pension.

All ClearA year after Payday 3's rocky launch, Starbreeze downsizes the game's team, but thankfully it doesn't sound like any layoffs are on the way just yetLet's hope it stays that way. News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 18, 2024 In perhaps a not particularly surprising move, Starbreeze is reducing the size of the team working on Payday 3.Everyone knows that Payday 3 had a pretty bad launch. Even Starbreeze knows it! And while the developer is hoping it can regain its players' trust, it'll be doing so with a smaller team working on the game, as outlined in a recent interim report from acting Starbreeze CEO Mats Juhl. In the report Juhl explained that "in the coming months, investment will be lower as we round off 'Operation Medic Bag' for Payday and therefore enter Year 2 with a smaller team focused on continuously updating the game with new content."To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Juhl didn't clarify how exactly that will affect the game, and whether players can expect less frequent or smaller updates, though the "continuously" does suggest at least semi-regular updates. The report does note that Starbreeze "remains financially strong", and there are no mentions of layoffs anywhere, so despite acknowledging that Payday 3 sales still have "great potential to improve", for now hopefully that smaller team is a result of staff being repositioned elsewhere as opposed to losing their jobs outright. Later on Juhl also shared that the game's most recent DLCs have also been well received, so maybe Starbreeze can turn things around.Funnily enough, "relatively stable sales of Payday 2" are helping to support Payday 3's comparatively weaker sales, which isn't surprising considering a lot of players actually went back to the second game.The report also talks of Project Baxter, a Dungeons & Dragons project that apparently "continues at full speed", sharing that internally playtests are taking place, and that there are "active discussions with a number of industry-leading players regarding potential collaborations around Baxter's development and launch."For now, let's hope everyone gets to keep their jobs so the number of layoffs over the past year doesn't increase further still.

Modding OnDragon Age: The Veilguard modding finally looks to be moving beyond purple deletion and ridiculously attractive Rooks, thanks to some experimental new toolsIt's still early days though, so you might want to make sure you know hat you're doing if you're after more than just a facelift.Image credit: BioWare/VG247 News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Nov. 18, 2024 It's been a bit quiet on the Dragon Age: The Veilguard modding front so far, unless you've been in the market for works that make the game look a bit darker or save you some character creation time. However, it now looks like that's starting to change, with a bunch of new mods using a new tool to help them do stuff beyond that.If you head onto the game's Nexus Mods page today, you'll find a number of works have begun to pop up which use an alpha version of the 'Frosty Mod Manager', which appears to be an early toolset which a group of modders from FrostyToolsuite Discord server have put together into order to facilitate some more in-depth modding of Veilguard.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. So far, the tool looks to mainly be useful for stuff like switching up textures in the game, with those early examples of works made using it including modder LexTypeC swapping in Dragon Age Origins' font, Izzli having made some edits to clothing, and sajere1 using it to change Davrin's party assembling menu image for a snap where he's not screaming.That said, it's also seemigly useful for some traditional removing of limits the game places on the player, with modder Tellah9 having gotten rid of the specialization limits for each class, and Yeulia having made it easy to max out your faction rep.Padme4000's also used the tool to mute the little noises the dialogue wheel makes as you desperately search for something to day, before inevitably deciding on the sarky option.Now, there is a hangup to all of this - using the Frosty Mod Manager looks to require you to enter an encryption key for the game. This is a very risky proposition modding-wise, as the manager's developers could potentially be in for legal trouble if they're seen to be provably distributing stuff that may allow folks to get around from EA/BioWare's software encryption, which is seemingly why the manager's GitHub page and a lot of the comments on these new mods discourage folks from asking modders to provide the key required directly.So, it's well worth being aware that - as with all mods - you're using this tool at your own risk. If you want to be safe, it's definitely worth waiting to see if Veilguard modders develop tools that don't depend on stuff like this. There's no guarantee that'll happen, but we have recently seen it with the likes of tools that unlock features in Baldur's Gate 3's modding toolkit.Make sure to check out our array of handy guides for Veilguard, which can help you create the best character build and get your hands on some nice loot.

Good ColoursI'd forgotten how stylish the original GTA: San Andreas was until the latest Definitive Edition updateAh yes, this game had what the kids call 'aura' these days.Image credit: Rockstar Games Article by Fran Ruiz Contributor Published on Nov. 17, 2024 GTA: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition's launch in 2021, three years ago, was infamously rough. From badly upscaled textures, to shoddy character models, to broken animations (and plenty more), the three games that defined modern open worlds were butchered. Now, Rockstar Games has wowed everyone by pulling off a complete 180.The November 12, 2024, update to the Definitive Edition collection across PC and consoles (with the old gen and Switch getting it a day later) doesn't just fix a lot of what was broken. It also brings back the classic lighting (now enabled by default) that tied the entire visual presentation together in the original console releases.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. I promptly jumped into GTA: San Andreas, the one installment I'd been meaning to quickly revisit for a while, to check what was new, and found myself quickly absorbed by its world for a couple of magical hours during which, as it was back in my high school days, I barely made any story progress. Just driving around and enjoying the refreshed vistas was a blast from the past.I've actually played a lot of San Andreas over the years, but mostly on PC through the original release from 2005. That version was always regarded as the most solid one (plus it nurtured a vibrant modding community), yet it always missed the vibrant color hues from the OG console versions, and thus felt far flatter visually, or at least more 'realistic' in a way that felt weird for anyone who'd played the 2004 release on PS2 (or later on Xbox). Image credit: Rockstar Games, VG247For some weird reason, despite all the ports and re-releases the classic GTA trilogy has enjoyed over the years, Rockstar has always managed not to deliver an 'ultimate' way to enjoy these games. The original console releases has a framerate which was rough and could only be 'fixed' through advanced emulation. The aforementioned PC port wasn't exactly the same, something and that also applied to GTA 3 and Vice City. Later ports in modern consoles always screwed something up, with the 360 one being the sole exception. And you know how the Definitive Edition originally went.Now, with original developer Grove Street Games removed from the collection's credits and Video Games Deluxe taking over, the Definitive Edition feels several steps closer to definitive. The vibes are restored, and even if you could argue the modern lighting looks better at times (especially at night), restoring the fog and giving each city its own unique weather and set of skies, alongside much-needed color grading, has truly made a world of difference. Image credit: Rockstar Games, VG247After so many years playing the PC version of San Andreas, I'd simply forgotten how great the true original release looked. Sometimes (far too often, I'm afraid), in the pursuit of a clearer image and realism with remasters and remakes, a good chunk of the original artistic vision is erased, and the Definitive Edition collection was a prime example of that. Even if it had felt okay-ish for a while now - as in not utterly broken - this giant rework and visual refresh is a reminder of everything that was lost.Los Santos simply 'pops' in a way that a brutish approach to more modern graphics couldn't achieve, and it was just a matter of getting the colors right and that moody fog back in the game. Perhaps younger players who never played the original releases will be turned off with the highly saturated look that San Andreas sported back in the day, but it's hard to back to a sauceless visual presentation after realizing the older GTAs were never meant to look clean or realistic. After this patch, looking at the upscaled textures and UE4-rendered models that still remain rusty as hell through the very de-saturated modern filter is hilarious, and I can't believe we've been stuck with these bangers looking like that for so long. Image credit: Rockstar Games, VG247Mind you, I'd already warmed up to at least Vice City Definitive in recent times, as that game and GTA 3 always felt far less post-processed, yet this patch also made me realize they were missing an extra 'otherworldly' spark. Now, the modern lighting also looks way too clean on them, with the lack of a misty horizon making their admittedly small maps feel even smaller. I don't want the full thing rendered on my screen at once, it was never meant to look like that!Other small but welcome improvements include walking around while aiming heavier weapons than pistols and submachine guns in GTA 3 and Vice City, which essentially makes many of their missions easier, but it's all in the service of making the right upgrades where needed, which should be the main driving force behind every remaster. Preserve the past while preparing the games for the future...without diluting their identities. Image credit: Rockstar Games, VG247I'd say this Definitive Edition is still a couple of smaller patches away from reaching perfection, and it's hard to predict whether Video Games Deluxe will stick to working on it for much longer, but it's suddenly become an easy recommendation for old and new players alike. As long as you overlook some leftover jank and a few plasticky, too UE-ish textures, this feels like the best, most painless way to experience these games two decades after their original launches.The most hilarious thing about this whole story is that we have to thank the recent Netflix port (yes, really) of the Definitive Edition for these updates to the console and PC releases, as most of the new improvements have been brought over from that version. Gaming is so freakin' weird right now, man.

Sure, JanThe Boys' creator says he's worried about becoming "the thing we've been satirizing for five years" of the same series that is set to get three spinoffs"Im really working hard to not sell out."Image credit: Amazon News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 17, 2024 Eric Kripke, creator of The Boys, is worried about becoming the same as the superhero movies it's been satirising since it started airing.The Boys is obviously an incredibly popular show - you don't make it to five seasons in the age of streaming without bringing in some big numbers. But coming this far along, creator Eric Kripke unsurprisingly has some concerns about whether or not the show has become the very thing it's trying to mock. Speaking to Collider about expanding the series beyond the original show, considering all those spinoffs, Kripke explained, "Were gonna look at the chips we have on the table right now. I live in absolute terror of becoming the thing weve been satirizing for five years . The thing about The Boys is that its punk rock, and it hurts extra hard when punk rockers sell out.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Im really working hard to not sell out. We do these shows because we really care about them and were passionate about them, and they can tell fresh stories that we cant tell in The Boys and not just be about rapid expansion but be very careful and mindful about the choices were making and being able to defend why were making them. I worry about that every single day. I just want people to say, maybe its for them and maybe it isnt for them, but gotta hand it to them, they maintain a consistent level of quality."The problem is, The Boys kind of has jumped on the MCU train when it comes to building a comic book universe. Last year Amazon announced that following the success of The Boys and its first spinoff Gen V, another one set in Mexico is in the works. Then there's Vought Rising, a third spinoff that'll serve as a prequel, focusing on Soldier Boy and Stormfront. I don't know about you, but to me those in-world jokes about all those The Seven movies rings a little hollow these days.We will be saying goodbye to The Boys eventually, though, as it was confirmed earlier this year that season 5 will be the last, so enjoy it while you can.

Keepin' OnNot ready for Dragon Age: The Veilguard but struggling to import your world save states from the Keep into Inquisition? You're not the only one, and BioWare is trying to fix itTo be fair, it was only last month that The Veilguard came out, BioWare's probably a bit busy right now.Image credit: BioWare News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 17, 2024 Dragon Age: Inquisition players currently aren't able to import their world states over from the Keep, but don't worry, BioWare is working on a fix.Right now, most of you Dragon Age fans are probably quite fixated on The Veilguard, but there'll still be plenty of people going through the series for the first time just to get to the latest entry. Except, that isn't the easiest thing to do for Inquisition players right now, as the Keep currently isn't working as it's supposed to. For those that don't know, Dragon Age Keep is an online app that lets you import all your decisions made in Origins and 2 into Inquisition. Except a week ago one player reported being unable to import their world states on EA's forums, with many other players reporting similar issues, across different platforms.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Community manager EA_Shepard did share in the forum thread that the issue has been reported, saying early this week that they "reported this at the end of the week last week and checked up on this. Some players have reported that keep is indeed working for them, but not all players can confirm. This is still an open issue with these issues." Later on in the week there was a further update from EA_Shepard clarifying that they are "still looking out for this one," noting that they know "the whole 'we are working on it' message gets old. Believe me, I get it! There is a lot happening and being worked on with Dragon Age so things are a bit slower on other fronts."As of now it still seems that some players are having problems importing their world state, so a fix doesn't appear to have been sorted just yet. BioWare is obviously a bit busy with The Veilguard at the minute, so it might just be that it's a bit stretched, but hopefully the functionality will come back soon enough.Dragon Age: The Veilguard finally released last month to generally positive reviews, though our own Alex was slightly more critical, giving the RPG 3/5 stars in his review.

Doing NumbersDespite being a 20 year old single-player game, Half-Life 2 just hit an all-time high concurrent player count thanks to that anniversary updateTurns out you can teach an old dog new tricks.Image credit: Valve News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 17, 2024 Crikey, Half-Life 2 just turned 20 this week, but despite that, and even thanks to that, it's just hit a new concurrent player count peak.Look, we all know that Half-Life 2 is one of the greatest games around. I've not even played it and I know that! It just is, but it's also quite old now and in spite of having a lot of fans, it's not like a huge number of people are playing it day to day. Except, well, right now they are, as just this week a big new update dropped that brought in a ton of improvements, as well as compiling Episode 1 and 2 into the base game. Not only that, but a completely new developer commentary was added in for the base game too, offering up some behind the scenes tidbits to one of the most iconic games around. And do you know what an update like that does? Bring in a whole heap of players, apparently.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. As seen over on SteamDB, a tracking website that lets you see all sorts of insights on various games, Half-Life 2 hit a concurrent player count peak of 63,636 (love a palindromic number), the game's all-time high. That was literally hit just 12 minutes ago at the time of writing, with only a few less than that in-game right now too. It's a ridiculously impressive figure for such an old game, these are the kind of numbers you might expect to see for an online title during a quieter period, but clearly an update like this has brought the fans out of the woodworks. Presumably there's some new players in there too, as until tomorrow you can pick up the game for free to celebrate its 20th anniversary.Not only was there a big new update, but an entire feature-length documentary too, which is well worth a watch if you're a long-time fan of Valve and all its games - it even features an in-game look at what Half-Life 2: Episode 3 could have been (just don't take that as confirmation that it's finally happening).

Not Again!Continuing gaming's worst trend, you'll be able to play Avowed five days early as long as you're happy to fork over $90Can we put this one to bed, please?Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 17, 2024 My least favourite trend in gaming has hit Avowed, meaning if you're happy to pay some extra money for it, you'll get to play it five days early.Video game company executives have really run out of ways to get you to pay more for their games, haven't they? They couldn't just leave it at microtransactions, live-service models, expansions, deluxe editions, all that nonsense, they had to add in an incentive like paying more so you can play before everyone else. "Ohh, look at this, you can brag that you've played the latest hit video game before anyone else, and it'll only cost you a day's wage!" Jog on! And yet that same trend will be found in Avowed, as Obsidian recently detailed the game's premium edition, which yes, will let you play the game five days early, if you're happy to cough up $90.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Yes, that's right, if you do want to play it almost a week early, you'll have to spend roughly a day's wage for the premium edition. That's not all you get, you do get two premium skin packs, as well as access to the game's digital artbook and soundtrack, but if we're being real that's a bit pants for so much money, right? You want me to fork over that much money for next to nothing? Yeah, I'll pass on the premium edition methinks, but good luck to those of you that do end up playing early, let's hope the Elder Scrolls-like RPG doesn't have Elder Scrolls-like game ruining bugs.If you're on Xbox Game Pass, you won't need to pay for the game at all, as it is available on the service from day one (on the Ultimate tier, anyway), but you'll still have to buy that premium edition if you're that desperate to play it early.

Ice ColdSorry, turns out you won't be watching a Star Wars movie December 2026, but at the very least you'll get a sequel to a series you probably haven't thought about in almost a decadeNot so equivalent exchange.Image credit: Lucasfilm News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 16, 2024 It may not have had a title, but Disney has given its December 2026 Star Wars film the boot, with a family friendly replacement I'm sure will do fine.Star Wars is very much in an odd spot at the moment, in that since the release of Rise of the Skywalker most of the new media that's canon to the universe has been TV shows. There hasn't been a single film, and based on some recent reports, it's clear the house of mouse is trying to figure out how it can move forward on the film side of things. As of right now though, the only concrete decision it appears to have made is removing one of its upcoming Star Wars flicks (via Variety). The film was supposed to be releasing December 18, 2026, and it's not sure what it was meant to be (it could have been that solo Rey film, but that one's been struggling a bit too), but it doesn't matter now anyway.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. What's replacing it you may ask? Ah, well, Ice Age 6 of course! Yes, if you missed the news, last week Disney announced that another Ice Age film is on the way, a series I'm sure you all look back on fondly and definitely don't think to yourself, "wait, there were five of those things?" It makes enough sense as a December release, just in time for the holidays and all that, but it is a bit funny to go from Star Wars to Ice Age 6. Technically the most recent entry in the series is the 2022 film The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild, but that was a Disney+ release, so I won't blame you if you never saw it. Before that was Ice Age 5 in 2016, so by the time 6 rolls up it'll have been a whole decade since the last mainline entry.Don't worry though, Star Wars fans, it's not like you don't have any Star Wars films to look forward to in 2026. Right now The Mandalorian and Grogu (yes that's its actual name) is scheduled for a May 2026 release, and there are plenty more in the works too, so maybe Disney will actually manage to figure out how to get Star Wars back on the big screen again. I'm not placing any bets, though.

I'll PassAfter a leak suggest Assassin's Creed Shadows will be getting a battle pass, Ubisoft sets the record straight on what you'll actually be paying forOr what you won't be paying for, rather.Image credit: Ubisoft News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 16, 2024 After an Assassin's Creed Shadows battle pass appeared to leak online, Ubisoft sets the record straight on if you have to pay for it or not.While a lot of players might engage with them, battle passes aren't exactly a universally loved thing, as it's essentially just homework designed to keep you playing while nothing else is going on. They suck, honestly, and when a leak earlier this week seemed to suggest that the incoming Animus Hub, the hub area for Assassin's Creed games starting with Shadows, would have a battle pass that unlocks things like cosmetics, red flags were obviously raised at the prospect. It wasn't clear if it would be paid or not, with people obviously concerned that a paid battle pass attached to a single player game existed at all.A Message From the Team on the Animus Hub byu/Ubi_Waldo inassassinscreedTo see this content please enable targeting cookies.Now, over on the Assassin's Creed subreddit, Ubisoft has shared a statement on the matter clarifying whether you will need to spend extra money to collect said rewards or not. "Hello everyone. It has come to our attention that inaccurate rumors have been circulating online regarding the upcoming Animus Hub (ex-codename Infinity)," reads the post. "We wanted to take this occasion to clarify that all the rewards available in the Animus Hub will be entirely free. There are no paid subscriptions or paid battle pass featured in the Animus Hub. Players will have access to regular content & missions at no extra cost. We will unveil more details about it closer to the launch of Assassins Creed Shadows. Thank you!"To see this content please enable targeting cookies. With Assassin's Creed Shadows being important as it is for Ubisoft (a developer who might be acquired by Tencent because it's doing so poorly), it's not surprising that it would want to set the record straight on something like this. It is good news that anything battle pass adjacent in the Animus Hub will be free, so let's just hope it stays that way.Assassin's Creed Shadows was delayed in September, so it's now set to be released February 14, 2025, where it'll be available on PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S.

In The BloodVampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines at 20: A masterpiece of RPG storytelling which might just have a blighted bloodline of its ownSeriously vamily, we probably shouldn't have made all those jokes about cursed legacies.Image credit: VG247 / Troika Games / Activision Article by Rebecca Jones Guides Writer Published on Nov. 16, 2024 There was a lot working against Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines when it launched on this day back in 2004. Nobody wants to launch up against a game as hotly anticipated as Half-Life 2, let alone be pushed out half-finished due to a bizarre corporate mandate to launch on the same day as said game which, incidentally, used the same brand-new engine as V:TM-B was built in, but as proprietary in-house technology rather than via a third-party licence, and so very much getting the better end of the deal.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Ultimately, looking back on the launch debacle that surrounded Bloodlines just shows you how radically the games industry has changed in the past 20 years. If the same scenario were to play out today, you'd probably see the publishers overseeing a video game tie-in to a relatively niche TTRPG doing everything in their power to avoid launching on the same day as such an obvious GOTY candidate. In fact, the launch would likely be pushed back several months to minimise clashing over the audience's attentions, which ironically would have been exactly what Bloodlines' developer Troika Games wanted and needed but never got.But there's also the fact that Bloodlines managed to gain a fair amount of popularity quite quickly despite its underbaked launch state. Even before it gained the cult classic status it's best known for today, this wasn't a game that required reassessment from a later generation of players, and its reputation initially grew out of perseverance from the fans who were already there at the time. Many fond memories of Bloodlines owe a debt to the dedicated modders whose work on post-launch patches was crucial to ensuring its legacy. However, I really must stress that this screenshot comes from a totally unmodded version of the game. | Image credit: Troika Games / ActivisionAgain, that's something that wouldn't happen in 2024, when a theoretically decent game with performance issues not patched out on Day 1 is more often than not dismissed as "mid" and consigned to the status of a minor historical footnote, as players turn their attentions to any of the dozens of other games that launched that week. And honestly, who can blame them?The world of two decades ago was quite different: fewer games doing the rounds, and slower access to the games there were (digital distribution was still in its infancy, remember: Steam was a mere year old at this point, and still only sold games made directly by Valve) meant that something like Bloodlines could still emerge with a respectable 80% average critical score, rapidly become something of a darling among players, and even pick up a modest handful of end-of-year awards despite launching in mid-November on top of everything else that it had to contend with. Shout out to my main gal, the female Tremere PC, one of the 14 playable character archetypes you choose from in Bloodlines. What she lacks in raw physical strength, she more than makes up for in her ability to suspend her enemies in mid-air using the blood she magically boils in their veins. | Image credit: Troika Games / ActivisionSadly, the purgatorial status of the Bloodlines IP continues to this day. Given that Troika Games folded not long after Bloodlines' launch, most fans knew better than to expect a sequel. So when one was announced in 2019 with an initial release window that would broadly coincide with the original game's 15th anniversary, but also risked clashing with the then-intended launch date for the hotly-awaited, GOTY-tipped Cyberpunk 2077 the pleasant surprise was tempered by nervous jokes about generational curses.Five years and numerous delays later, of course, Bloodlines 2 still hasn't launched and has changed almost beyond recognition, morphing from a closely-moulded direct sequel developed by Hardsuit Labs to a looser spiritual successor rebuilt from the ground up by The Chinese Room. By the sounds of things, 2025 might just be the year we finally get our hands on V:TM-B2, but it's fair to say that those half-joking predictions of a troubled production proved more accurate than even the prognosticators themselves anticipated. One of V:TM-B's many strengths on display: an early example of digital tourism via the game's loving rendition of a seedy late-night Los Angeles spread across four hub maps. | Image credit: Troika Games / ActivisionIn truth, though and speaking from the heart here, as someone who still considers Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines quite possibly their single favourite video game of all time even two decades later I'm not that worried about Bloodlines 2.Not because it's better viewed in the context of the fact that there have actually been 11 official VTM video games (plus numerous sanctioned VTM game jam titles) released in the past two decades that weren't Bloodlines sequels, but which did demonstrate that the IP is versatile enough to support a steady supply of good games, even if they mostly don't have the scope and reach to set the world on fire. And not because I have faith in The Chinese Room to deliver a decent World of Darkness-flavoured Dishonored-style imsim that bears little relation to the original but stands up well enough on its own although, for what it's worth, I do actually think that'll be the case. To say nothing of the half-dozen non-VTM World of Darkness games that have launched over the past 20 years, including several from Werewolf: The Apocalypse. | Image credit: Troika Games / ActivisionI've mentioned this already in our end-of-year video round-ups for 2023, but last year's resounding Game of the Year winner Baldur's Gate 3 has in many ways already scratched my itch for a modern Vampire: The Masquerade follow-up. As a deeply engrossing RPG based on a popular tabletop setting, made exceptional by the strength of its writing, world-building, and performances (and even with a hot-yet-troubled vampire in a key role), BG3 already proved that the V:TM-B formula could be one of the most winning concepts in video games if a developer was given the time, space, and crucially funding and resources needed to make a game that lived up to all that truly excellent potential.Viewed through this more holistic lens, Bloodlines' legacy has already come full circle. A throwback title in the same vein became the first video game ever to win all five major GOTY awards; if ever a point could be comprehensively proven in a field as subjective as art and entertainment, this one has been now. Bloodlines 2 can be what it needs to be whether it ends up being beloved, reviled, or just quickly forgotten and at the end of the day, the original Bloodlines will still be that messy but wonderful cult classic that set the bar for RPG storytelling in video games.

I Need A... Hero?Great news, human haters and Yautja lovers, Predator: Badlands will put the titular alien in the protagonist seatDreams really do come true!Image credit: 20th Century Studios News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 16, 2024 Those of you hoping that we'd get a Predator film with the alien as the main character will be very happy to hear that Badlands is doing just that.Predator is having a bit of a renaissance right now, with Dan Trachtenberg's Prey being very well received when it came out in 2022. Shooting for the next Predator film kicked off back in August (actually, the next two films, in a neat surprise from Trachtenberg), and in a new interview with Empire, the director shared that the upcoming Badlands will do things a little differently by making the hunting expert alien the protagonist for a change. "The creature is front and centre, leading the charge," Trachtenberg said in the interview.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Hes still badass, but theres something there that touches you emotionally, too. Creating a character you connect with, but are also super-intimidated by, has been challenging. But exciting." Trachtenberg went on to explain that this idea came from wanting to find another essential piece of cinema that does what Prey did spiritually - pushing the franchises boundaries, letting us root for a hero we rarely get to root for - but in a different way. And that transformed into this big idea of rooting for the Predator."It won't be all aliens, all the time though in the sequel - Elle Fanning, who you can also expect to see in Death Stranding 2 next year, is set to star in it, and apparently as more than one character too. "She faced intense challenges on this movie - dramatically, physically, logistically," Trachtenberg said of Fanning, which sounds like lots of fun.That secret Predators movie still has a lot of secrecy surrounding it, though Trachtenberg did previously share that it's due out before Badlands. With Badlands currently set to be released November 7 next year, that means you can expect the secret one by November 6 at the latest, but I'm sure they'll give it a bit more headroom than that.

Mum's The WordMonths after initial reports, Marvel finally confirms who'll be playing the Silver Surfer in its Fantastic Four film with a new synopsis, but it's keeping quiet on a Doctor Doom appearanceBut he has to be in it, right? News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 16, 2024 You might know who'll be in Marvel Studios' Fantastic Four film, but an official synopsis finally tells us what they'll actually be doing.Back in February, after lots of fan casting, hopes, and questions around who would be the MCU's Fantastic Four, Marvel finally revealed a pretty strong cast. A lil while after that, a report emerged that Julia Garner would be playing fan favourite character the Silver Surfer, though it wasn't outright confirmed at the time. Now, though, Marvel has confirmed Garner's involvement and the character, and it has even released a full, official synopsis, so we actually roughly know what the film will be about (thanks, IGN).To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Set against the vibrant backdrop of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world, Marvel Studios The Fantastic Four: First Steps introduces Marvels First Family - Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as they face their most daunting challenge yet," reads the synopsis from Marvel."Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, they must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner). And if Galactus plan to devour the entire planet and everyone on it werent bad enough, it suddenly gets very personal."Alright, so, that is generally what you could kind of assume the film is about, but it's nice to know for certain at the very least. There's no indication that Robert Downey Jr. will be appearing in the film as Doctor Doom, who he's confirmed to be portraying in Avengers 5, but given that the Fantastic Four will also be in the next couple of Avengers movies, you'd assume he's at least in a post-credits scene.Filming is currently taking place for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, with the film currently scheduled to be released on July 25, 2025.

Easier GrindSurprise! All your double XP tokens from Modern Warfare 2&3, and Warzone are now in Black Ops 6The first season of Black Ops 6 came with a really nice surprise for players with a history in Warzone, Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3.Image credit: Activision, Treyarch, Raven. News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Updated on Nov. 15, 2024 Season One has officially kicked off in Black Ops 6, following a major update. Apart from the new content, battle pass, weapons, maps and everything else players knew they were getting after the season goes live, it seems Call of Duty developers threw in an unexpected gift.In particular, anyone who spent hours playing Modern Warfare 2, last years Modern Warfare 3 or Warzone will find a nice surprise waiting for them the next time they log into the game.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Following the release of the Season One update, it appears that double XP, double weapon XP, and double battle pass tier tokens from past years games have made it into Black Ops 6/Warzone.While players knew that the integration would allow them to make use of Black Ops 6s weapons, gadgets and Omnimovement in Warzone, no one expected their entire library of unused double XP tokens to also show up.Shortly after the new season went live, a number of players shared their reaction upon discovering a stacked set of double XP tokens available to use in the new game/Warzone. The tokens appear to be usable across multiplayer, Zombies, as well as Warzone. This is particularly surprising, because prior to the launch of Black Ops 6, Activision said that tokens would carry over, but players will only be able to use them in Warzone, as the free-to-play battle royale mode is the only one that shares continuity with the three most recent games.This is why some believe this to simply be an error that will be corrected soon, removing the tokens from Black Ops multiplayer and Zombies modes, and limiting their availability to Warzone. Needless to say, doing so after letting players access all tokens everywhere would cause a ruckus, but Activision hasnt been shy about doing so in the past.Whether or not the situation changes in the next few days, however, its probably worth taking advantage of this - assuming you have any leftover tokens from past games - in Black Ops 6 multiplayer and Zombies.In other Season One news, Activision has also started cracking down on VPN usage in multiplayer, which some players abused to find matches outside their region in order break the games matchmaking and end up in sessions where they outskill their opponents.

Credit ControversyAfter GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition update ditches some mentions of the studio, Grove Street Games boss says it's "a dick move" to yank devs from credits via updatesThe latest update to CJ, Tommy, and Claude's remastered adventures removes some GSG logos, but leaves the studio in the end credits.Image credit: Rockstar Games News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Nov. 15, 2024 The CEO of Grove Street Games, the studio which developed The GTA Trilogy's Definitive Edition - yes, the version that came out in a pretty shocking state - has tweeted a thinly veiled response to Rockstar's latest update to the trilogy removing some mentions of the studio from the three remastered games.Following the release of the update - which brings a heap of fixes, including lighting tweaks that at least one of our lovely regular contributors is a big fan of - players have noticed that some mentions of Grove Street Games are now absent. The main references removed are in the start-up splashes for the collection's GTA 3, San Andreas, and Vice City remasters, as well as copyright blurbs.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Seemigly responding to the online chatter this inevitably spawned, GSG CEO Thomas Williamson posted: "Speaking entire hypothetically: It's a dick move to remove primary developers from credits in an update, especially when an update includes hundreds of fixes that were provided by those developers that stayed out of players' hands for years."While the Trilogy update hasn't removed Grove Street Games from the end credits of the games, as GTANet points out, you can understand why a developer might be unhappy at evcen some mentions of their studio being taken out of a game it helped develop, and faced plenty of criticism for the launch state of after being being given the project by Rockstar. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.The second half of Williamson's tweet is also interesting, given that it appears like it could suggest that fixes for the game weren't deployed right away, instead allegedly being held back in some fashion. While this would seem a strange thing to have happened with any game, depending on the factors at play, the developer didn't elaborate on it any further.We'll have to see if anything else comes of this, but for now it's a strange end to what was an altogether pretty weird release of remasters for three widely beloved games that it doesn't exactly take much to persuade most GTA fans to replay.

Helldivers 2's Democracy Space Station might be a bit of a problem right now, due to the fact its orbital barrages keep blowing up just as many helldivers as they do bots and bugs, but there's good news. Arrowhead says it's on the case, and has just enacted a temporaray measure to help out while it works on a proper solution.The DSS has had pretty high expectations to live up to as a big Galactic War thing. So, hopefully this means the wave of bad reviews for it from exploded divers that's followed a wave of initial positivity will result in the DSS going back to being a good thing.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. As part of its efforts to bring about that change, Arrowhead's just announced a "Temporary DSS Augmentation" via tweet. "High Command has authorized augmentations to Helldiver loadouts while the Planetary Bombardment Tactical Action is active," it writes, "in order to ameliorate an unexpectedly steep increase in heroic sacrifices."This is a temporary change, while a full assessment of the optimal number of sacrifices is underway. Consult the DSS Interface on your Galactic Map for more details." To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Shortly before this temporary measure was revealed, Arrowhead community manager Twinbeard had acknowledged on Helldivers 2's Discord server in response to player queries that the studio was aware of the issue and looking into what action it should take about the DSS."There was testing, and I don't believe the pressure was too steep either," they wrote in one response, "Better to simply own up to the fact that the first incarnation of the DSS didn't pan out as well as we'd wanted it to and work hard to rework and improve it. We'll learn from this and grow I'm sure. There are a lot of discussions ongoing at the moment. This is not the end of the DSS, we'll tweak and evolve." Image credit: VG247What do you think Arrowhead should do in terms of tweaks or fixes for the DSS, in order to get it working as the asset to Super Earth it was designed to be? Let us know below!

New home!World of Warcraft player housing is the "most ambitious feature in a WoW expansion ever" according to game directorIn a press roundtable, Ion Hazzikostas peeled back the curtain a little on player housing.Image credit: Activision Blizzard Article by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on Nov. 15, 2024 In a press roundtable following the Warcraft 30th anniversary direct, World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas stated that player housing is the "most ambitious feature in a WoW expansion ever".In a response to a question from the press, Hazzikostas stated, "Dare I say it's our most ambitious feature in a WoW expansion ever. Part of why it's taken such a long time to present it is that we knew we couldn't really phone it in and put out a barebones foundation, even if we were to build on it in the future. I think everything we do needs to be great, but especially something with so much expectation and so much history across the MMO genre. We know it needs to be excellent, and it'll be a foundation for years and years of further development and growth upon those foundations to follow."To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Ahead of this question, we asked why the development team shifted from the prior stance against implementing player housing, to the new embrace of the feature. Hazzikostas's response revealed more about why the feature is being revealed now."Player housing is something that the team has thought about and discussed for a long, long time. It's something the community has been asking for and wondering about for a long time, and that's not lost on us. When you say it wasn't embraced in the past, there wasn't anything philosophical that was standing in the way, in that we didn't have a feeling it wasn't a good idea or thought it wouldn't be an improvement to the social ecosystem of the MMO.""I think frankly we were looking at what it would take to make it real, and make it at the quality level our players expect and deserve. That includes our resources, customisation options, the underlying tech required to have it really feel integrated into the world. In the past, many of those pieces just weren't there, in that we had to choose between doing housing or everything else in an expansion, and everything else just won out."It's something we've been working on in the background for a few years at this point. It's something we knew would take more than one expansion development cycle to create, and we're really excited to finally bring it to players with Midnight. We'll have a lot more details to share on exactly it'll work, what it is, what it isn't, where it's going in the year ahead. But really, we wanted to pull back the curtain a little bit and give players a peak of what' coming on the horizon. "Maybe a bit selfishly, to kick of discussion among the community about housing, on what they want it to be and what they want it to not be. That way, we can check our instincts and make sure we're on the right track with our development."More updates can be expected, according to Hazzikostas, over 2025 through blog posts and similar official Blizzard platforms. So we'll have to sit back and wait for more news!

Shiny!Pokemon TCG Pocket lets me enjoy my card-collecting hobby for free, but at what cost?Pokemon TCG Pocket is testing my bank account and my friendships.Image credit: The Pokemon Company/VG247 Article by Kelsey Raynor Guides Writer Published on Nov. 14, 2024 It's no news to anyone that I'm a pretty big fan of Pokemon, and I've been collecting Pokemon cards 'for fun' for just over three years now. The past three years, however, have largely seen me enjoying the hobby on my own, occasionally sharing rare pulls with my friends, before finally pulling the plug on it all. Now, I'm left with thousands of cards all neatly organised that are collecting dust in their binders and briefcases while I wait to win the lottery and pay to get them graded.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The physical Pokemon Trading Card Game launches four full sets a year, with various mini-sets or promotional sets amid those highly-anticipated ones. It's hard to keep up with, and after a while, I simply couldn't justify it anymore when more pressing things walked into my life, such as the cost of living crisis. This was fine. I have plenty of other hobbies, namely video games and reading and sometimes, going outdoors, that I can fortunately do endlessly, whenever I want, and for free. Who needs Pokemon cards?Before I could even blink, given just how fast this year has passed, Pokemon TCG Pocket rocked up. A casual, speedier, video-game format of the physical Pokemon TCG or online version Pokemon TCG Live a game that allows me to open two booster packs of cards a day at no cost. My desire to open cards and collect new ones could finally be satiated without needing to spend 50 on an Elite Trainer Box every three months. No longer do I need to physically avert my eyes everytime I see Pokemon cards on the shelf of one of my local shops; I have Pokemon TCG Pocket booster packs to look forward to each day!What's better about Pokemon TCG Pocket is how it's achieved the Pokemon GO effect all over again. All of my friends are playing it, and I'm no longer rejoicing in rare pulls by myself. Every day, me and my friends send screenshots of our pulls to a designated group chat, rejoicing over the wonderful artwork each rare card possesses. My partner who has little experience or interest in Pokemon went from moaning about how much Pokemon battling I was doing to suddenly collecting his own stack of virtual cards and being determined to beat me in battle whenever possible (Im winning 4-2 right now, for what its worth). My mum's been playing it since I successfully got her into Pokemon GO a while back. Image credit: The Pokemon CompanyEven VG247s own Connor Makar lost a battle against me yesterday (Im sorry). It's just great to have this one thing centered around a series I've felt passionate about since I was a kid and for everyone be interested in it again. It's even better to see people showing more of an interest in Pokemon cards again, too. All in all, the buzz around collecting Pokemon feels just like it did back when Pokemon GO launched.Becoming enamored with Pokemon TCG Pocket was my first mistake though. For the first time ever, I'm close to completing a set, albeit not a physical one, and I'm in competition with my friends to try and be the first one to do it. As I've wrapped up my solo battles, missions, and used up the Premium Pass' free trial, Pokemon TCG Pocket's booster packs and the opportunities to open them dwindle. Waiting 12 hours a day when I so desperately want a bloody Gardevoir to finish off my Gengar ex deck is not fun, and engaging in PvP battles for minimal rewards 15 EXP is also not all that fun. How did I deal with that? I became my own worst enemy and returned to buying physical Pokemon cards. This was after I bought the Gardevoir cosmetics available in Pokemon TCG Pocket. I know what Pokemon I like. I wasnt missing out on those.I'm not sure if The Pokemon Company intended to promote its physical cards further with Pokemon TCG Pocket, but it certainly had that effect on me after a hiatus from spending on anything Pokemon-related, and it looks to be having similar effects on other folk every time I open social media lately, too. After opening ten physical packs and receiving just one 'good' pull, however, I think I'll be sticking to my daily packs on Pokemon TCG Pocket. They're free, after all, and the fact I get to share my booster packs with my friends in our silly group chats and via Wonder Picks and bicker about who got good pulls each morning versus who got a pile of nothing is exactly what Pokemon Trading Card Game is all about. Now, if the team behind TCG Pocket could just actually add the trading part to it...

Yep, that's home.Atomfall, the next game that'll vaguely aim to satisfy our British Fallout thing cravings, just got one of the the most sadness island release date reveal trailers everA poor sod getting mugged next to an old school phone box that's seen better days. Ahhhhhhhhhh, blighty.Image credit: Rebellion News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Nov. 14, 2024 Atomfall, the upcoming game from Sniper Elite developer Rebellion that a lot of folks are be looking to for another fix of British post-apocalypse with a radioactive tinge to it that isn't quite an official Fallout take on our sad little island, now has a proper release date. It's arriving on March 25, 2025, as fresh trailer with very English countryside vibes conveys.While we techincally got British Fallout earlier this year thanks to massive mod Fallout: London, which we really liked when it wasn't suffering too many bugs, ever since Atomfall was announced, it's been getting those comparisons. Whether it warrants them is up to you to decide, and you've now got more material to go off of.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Closing with the aforementioned release date of March 25 next year, Atomfall's latest trailer is set in an iconic British location - the woods. Casterfell Woods, in fact, Rebellion associate head of design Ben Fisher clarifies in an Xbox Wire post released alongside the trailer. Apparently it's "a wild and inhospitable place, underpinned by an immediately eerie vibe".Yep, add in a liberal supply of discarded condoms and lager cans strewn about next to the wicker men Casterfell has, and that's a pretty accurate description of a lot of the wooded areas around where I live. The fact the trailer basically shows some poor fella being subjected to a folk tune, and then being assaulted next to a dilapidated phone box by a stranger who walks off whistling also seems very realistic England too.Watch on YouTubeAnyway, the phone box is ringing, and Fisher says that's important, writing: "The voice at the end of the phone line is one of Atomfalls many mysteries that players will have to tackle if they are to get to the bottom of what happened at the Windscale nuclear plant all those years ago."In terms of influences, the developer adds that Atomfall's drawing on classic sci-fi like Doctor Who, The Quatermass Experiment and The Day of the Triffids for the creepy woodland bits of its survival-action, er, action.You'll be able to give it a go on PC, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, and PS4 when it releases, as well as Xbox Game Pass on day one. Let us know how grotty your local woods is below, and whether you're planning to play Atomfall.

The Eyes Have ItI played Bloodborne on PS5 Pro, and all Im left with are these lousy questionsA slight image quality boost is not enough, I need more. I need more frames, more resolution, more texture. Grant me eyes.Image credit: VG247 Article by Dom Peppiatt Editor-in-chief Published on Nov. 13, 2024 Bloodborne, a legendary game. In my eyes, the best FromSoft game. The first one I fell in love with. The one that opened my mind to the grizzly machinations of Miyazaki and co., and that still echoes in my blood today whenever I pick up the pad and enter the Lands Between or venture back to Lordran.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. But, to be a Bloodborne fan is to be cursed. The game came out in March 2014 - nearly a whole decade ago, now! - and since then it has been largely ignored by its own developer (FromSoft), its publisher (Sony), and even the various remaster-specific studios that have shot to prominence in the interceding years (heres looking at you, Nixxes). Fans praying for a version of the game running above the frankly dismal 720p/30FPS native to the PS4 version have had to make do with modders and dataminers showing off illicit builds of the game online. Were probably never even going to get an officially-sanctioned PC port. Mores the pity.So, imagine my delight when I saw that the PS5 Pro was going to apply some hardware-level wizardry to PS4 games. Imagine the speed with which I hastened to get Bloodborne installed on my PS5 Pro when it arrived last week. Imagine my disappointment when I realised with growing horror exactly what Id gotten here -- somewhere, I felt a monkeys paw curling its finger, a Needful Things-type fella cooly smirking as the imposing spires of Yharnam rendered on my screen once more. Is that fog, or just some patchy rendering? | Image credit: PlayStation/FromSoftwareThe only real upgrade you get playing Bloodborne on PS5 Pro is a slight image quality boost, to use Sonys own parlance. It sharpens everything up, basically; takes off the jaggedness and removes some of that vaseline-smear that I actually came to associate with the game in some ways. As a result, text and UI elements look better, some details in the world are clearer, and that huge YOU DIED message hits harder than it ever has. It doesnt exactly make Bloodborne feel like a new game, but more like youre playing it with a new pair of glasses on - everythings a bit more in-focus, a little nicer to look at. Thats it.The framerate is still a bit choppy. Some of the textures and colours are still a bit weird (the gold trim on some of the items and environmental assets in Old Yharnam still look really weird baked into the gloomy twilight of the early game, for example). In the dark and gloom, some of the vibe is still lost to ageing graphics. I cant help but imagine how amazing Bloodborne would look with proper HDR implementation -- how itd look to see an amygdala peering at you from the top of the cathedral in the dark when you finally reach enough wisdom, the screen dark enough so you can only make out its vague shape, see its alien movements out the corner of your eyeAlas. If youre waiting for a 60FPS and 4K version of this game, you need to wait for a remaster or remake thats likely never going to happen. Whilst Sony is out there remaking/remastering more recent games like TLOU2 or Horizon Zero Dawn (why?), Bloodborne remains out in the cold, rocking back and forth in its creaky wheelchair, visibly ageing with every passing iteration of hardware. Spinning a Yharnam. | Image credit: FromSoftwareI am not alone in thinking that a Bloodborne acknowledgement, in whatever form it takes, would move consoles. People would have been knocking down doors for a PS5 Pro if it had come with a version of Bloodborne that run at 4K/60FPS, Im sure of it. Look here, here, and here. The people chattering about parting with 700 for a PS5 Pro are the exact people Sony is aiming for with premium tech like this; the system is being sold as something for enthusiasts, for people who can actually tell the difference between 30FPS and 60FPS (because, lo and behold, not everyone can, nerd).Im not even talking about a full-blown remake or new product here, really, to take advantage of this in-built audience. I think a patch for Bloodborne, making it juice the PS5 Pro hardware, would have been just as appealing to all the FromSoft goths as a wholly new title. The audience has been clamouring for something like this since even the PS4 Pro in 2016. Its a license to print money. So, to go back to that headline, why wont Sony even acknowledge Bloodborne these days? The best we have are fan efforts, which admittedly do look spectacular. There's also a lot of cut content we could get in a re-release...Theres a rumour going around that FromSoft is working on over 20 games right now. The developer and publisher is famous for keeping many of its irons in the proverbial fire at all times, and I dont think Im alone in praying that one of these is something to do with Bloodborne -- a sequel, a remaster, a remake, something.The world is turning to ruin all around us, theres no better time to head back to Yharnam to suffer alongside its denizens. Grant us eyes.

Froggy!"It's fun to see the fan debates online about who's coming up next" - Sonic 3 director hints at even more characters being teased in the threequel, and I'm placing all my bets on Big the CatNo, I've never gambled before, why do you ask?Image credit: Paramount/ Sega News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 13, 2024 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 certainly won't be the end of the series' live-action adaptations, as its director hints at more character teases to come.Earlier this year, the producer of the Sonic movies Toby Ascher said he wants the Sonic movies to be "Avengers-level events", and it sounds like there's still plans to put that into practice. Director Jeff Fowler recently spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the upcoming threequel, and like the two previous films before it, he said that we can expect the end of the film to tease another character from the games for future projects. While Fowler didn't say who that would be, to no one's surprise, he did say that it's "fun to see the fan debates online about who's coming up next, who's going to be teased at the end of the film.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "We have a lot of the same conversations. We've all got our favorites on the filmmaking side, and we're all making great cases for 'it should be this one or that one.' It is fun to keep that anticipation. This movie is no different in terms of teasing new characters." Personally, you can find me at the betting station putting all my money on Big the Cat, because there's just no way we can have another film without him, right? Okay, the more likely scenario is either someone like Metal Sonic or Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat, but I can dream, right?Interestingly, Fowler also spoke about developing Shadow's storyline for the third film, with the original material obviously being a bit heavier than you might think (Maria, a young girl and Shadow's closest friend, literally gets shot and dies in the games, and she's set to appear in the film). "That's the challenge of these films," Fowler says. "It's always to take what has come before in terms of the video games and the comics and all that. How do we take the essence of what the fans love and merge it with this movie treatment that we created?"We certainly are very respectful about what fans expect to see and what they love about the character. We're also very aware of the times and the right way to handle that kind of imagery in a family film. I think we really ended in a great place. I think fans will watch this film and really appreciate Shadow and Maria. A lot of care and a lot of love has gone into telling Shadow's story and giving fans the best movie version of the character imaginable."With the film not due out until December 20, there's certainly lots of questions about what's going to happen to Maria, but for now we'll all just have to find out in the cinema.

Wasteland Walkout"We are not afraid to do what's necessary" Hundreds of Fallout and Elder Scrolls devs at Zenimax go on strike against MicrosoftThe need to bargain over issues like remote work options and outsourcing is the crux of the one-day action, union claims.Image credit: Bethesda News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Nov. 13, 2024 Hundreds of workers at ZeniMax - the publisher behind Fallout and Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda, as well as the likes of DOOM developer id Software - have gone on a one-day strike today, November 13, with reason for the action being alleged lack of bargaining by Microsoft over issues like remote work and outsourcing.Members of ZeniMax Workers United - CWA, the group of roughly 300 QA developers who unionised via the Communications Workers of America union back in January 2023, have walked out of ZeniMax locations across the US states of Maryland and Texas.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Today, we are on strike," ZeniMax Workers United - CWA wrote in a post on Twitter, "We are not afraid to do what's necessary to make sure that Microsoft meets us at the bargaining table over key issues like remote work options and outsourcing."We deserve job security and improved working conditions. Hundreds of our members are striking from 10-6PM in Maryland and Texas today to tell Microsoft to stop dragging their feet." To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Just last month, The CWA filed an unfair labour practice charge against ZeniMax, accusing the company of contracting out QA work without notifying the union, with the concern among workers being that think kind of thing could undercut unionised amd established staff by shifting their work elsewhere, leaving them with less leverage to fight for the assurances they want from their employer.VG247 has reached out to ZeniMax and Microsoft for comment.Last month also saw Activision QA developers who unionised earlier this year, forming Activision Quality Assurance United - CWA, held protests on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's release day, protest over Microsoft's remote work policies, with workers claiming that "when workers requested reasonable accommodations to work from home, Microsoft refused to provide exemptions for workers who disclosed serious medical conditions or recommendations from doctors to work remotely".

The Bone ZoneWarframe delivers Xaku Prime Access ahead of major Warframe 1999 releaseBy no means a barebones addition, as everyone's favourite gun-wielding skeleton is getting the prime treatment.Image credit: Digital Extremes News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on Nov. 13, 2024 Ahead of the massive Warframe 1999 update coming to Digital Extreme's very own Sci-fi action MMO Warframe, the studio has released a new Prime Access pack to the game featuring none other than Xaku Prime. That's right, everyone's favourite spectral skeleton is getting a new look and some fancy new guns starting today.This version of Xaku has more shields, armour, energy, and a extra aura mod slot, and you can buy it right now for 2625 Platinum or 52.99 / $79.99. This pack also comes with two new prime weapons, the Trumna Prime and Quassus Prime. If you don't fancy buying 'em, these prime weapons and Xaku Prime itself can be earned in-game through grinding out relics at the cost of time rather than cash.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Xaku's a fun frame! Introduced alongside the Heart of Deimos major update in which players essentially help solve familial drama and conflict through killing 100,000 gross monsters, delving into vaults, and saving the occasional bit of fauna. As a relatively new frame, it's not feeling signs of age like some of the classics, and still holds up as a powerful option for players.With Warframe 1999 set to release in December, this marks the last Prime Access update before we all leap back in time for a real twist in the Warframe narrative. With the Xaku Prime Access update comes the return of the Hllvania Central Mall, a social hub for Warframe 1999 where folks can hang out and await the impending release.Are you gonna grind out Xaku Prime? Are you excited for Warframe 1999? Let us know below!

Point And ClickBlizzard shadow drops Warcraft 1 + 2 remastered, as well as a Warcraft 3 reforged overhaulOld school RTS, back again. Second time's the charm? News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on Nov. 13, 2024 Surprise! Activision Blizzard has suddenly dropped remasters of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, as well as Warcraft II. Not only that, but Warcraft III: Reforged been given a 2.0 update, fixing several issues with the game that hopefully will make it more presentable to classic Blizzard RTS fans. All of these are available today, right now!Announced via the November 13 Warcraft 30th anniversary direct, the reveal is part of Warcraft's 30th anniversary celebrations, which play a big part of the Warcraft-side of Blizzard's content this year. Before this, some classic Warcraft cosmetics popped up in the modern version of World of Warcraft via a mid-patch celebration event, as well as various prizes and events based on the history of World of Warcraft itself.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The new remasters of Warcraft I and Warcraft II have new hand-drawn visuals, and players can swap between new and old graphics in real time. Warcraft 1 and right click move and a faster game speed, while both games have various UI and UX improvements. You'll also be happy to hear that Warcraft 2 has functioning multiplayer and playable classic maps.There's a lot riding on these remasters, largely due to the original quality of Warcraft III: Reforged. That game had a lot of problems on launch, including bugs, matchmaking issues, visual problems with its overall refreshed aesthetic, and a controversial clause stating any custom maps made in the game were Blizzard's to own forever, without license. You must understand, DOTA started off as a custom map for Warcraft 3, so this is the company making sure they don't accidentally spawn a massive new game they don't own. Still gross!If these revamps come out and are safe from many of these issues, it'll mark a flash of good news for both Blizzard and the retro Blizzard RTS crowd, something both could always do with. These games were fundamental to the PC gaming space in their time y'know, so them getting some high-quality modern love can only be a good thing. We'll have to see what they're like!Are you gonna download these remasters? Let us know below!

New Game +The father of Devil May Cry himself Hideaki Itsuno has found a new home at LightSpeed Studios, and is working on new AAA action gamesOff on a new adventure, and hiring! Maybe you could work with Itsuno...Image credit: LightSpeed Studios News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on Nov. 12, 2024 Hideaki Itsuno, father of the Devil May Cry series as well as other Capcom bangers like Rival Schools and Dragon's Dogma, has found a new home at LightSpeed Studios. It's here that he'll be working on new "AAA action games", and they're hiring right now!LightSpeed Studios, which is known mostly for its work on shooters like PUBG Mobile and Undawn, has opened a Japanese studio with Itusno at the helm. It appears that the company is keen to branch out into new genres, and as far as senior talent to lead such an expdedition goes, Itsuno is certainly one of the better folks to snatch up.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Itsuno's departure from Capcom earlier this year was sombre news for many of his fans. He never indicated he was leaving game development entirely - quite the opposite in fact as he said he hoped to continue creating new and beautiful games in his farewell post - but it did leave the future of several Capcom IPs in limbo. Devil May cry is one, with Itsuno and his team having relatively recently released the brilliant Devil May Cry 5. There's also Dragon's Dogma 2, one of this year's best action RPGs and a long-time passion IP for the man.Looking at the LightSpeed Studios website, we can see they're hiring for a variety of roles including a sound director, engineers, artists, and a narrative designer. This points towards the early development of a new game, one that requires a wave of new staff to start work on it in earnest.Obviously, there's not much else to go on as of now, but for fans of high-flying action, LightSpeed Studios has suddenly become a company worth keeping an eye on in the coming years. What do you think they'll end up making? Let us know below!

Na-na-na-na-na-na-naFancy owning a functional replica of The Dark Knight's Batmobile? Got, uh, $3 million to spare? Then I've got some great newsIf you have that much money you should probably do anything else with it, though.Image credit: Warner Bros News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 12, 2024 We all at one point or another dream about owning a Batmobile, and soon enough 10 (very rich) people will get to make that reality.With so many different incarnations of Batman, we'll all have our favourite Batmobiles depending on when we grew up - my personal favourite is Batman: The Animated Series, but that shouldn't be a surprise considering I grew up watching it as a kid. More recent versions have gone for a more militaristic look, partially because of The Dark Knight's version, the Tumbler. It's not my favourite, and I wouldn't want to own one, but that doesn't matter much, because it turns out I couldn't even remotely afford it even if I did want it. That's because Wayne Enterprises, a very real business based off of the civilian persona of Batman, Bruce Wayne, is selling an actual Tumbler, for the low, low price of $3 million.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. No, this isn't a joke, and yes, it's an actual, functional car that you can drive around well, sort of, as it's not particularly road legal, but if you're a car collector with a big bit of private land, you're probably safe to drive it there. This thing is absolutely ridiculous, and there's only 10 of them being made, so you had to sign-up in order to even be considered a buyer (applications closed last month unfortunately so if you are stupid rich, 1. why are you even reading this, you have so much money you should spend your time differently, and 2. you're out of luck).I'm not going to even pretend to understand what all the specifications mean, but for the motorheads out there you can check the website for further details about the engine 'n' all that. Mostly I'm just surprised something so extravagant exists, but when the rest of the company is dedicated to jewellery, watches, and an AI robot (starting to feel like this place is just for the richy rich), maybe I shouldn't be. I think I'll stick to my silly little toy cars, thanks very much.