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Answering GDC's 2023 survey, 78% of respondents said they considered the harassment and toxicity developers receive from the public to be a serious issue. A simple sentiment is often the most effective, and the title of Dragon Age veteran Mark Darrah's latest video cuts right to the heart of it: "Your $70 doesn't buy you cruelty." You don't have to like a game, and you don't have stay quiet if you have complaints, says Darrah. You're entitled to be angry, and you're entitled to express that anger. "If you are mad at that Ubisoft game, be mad at Ubisoft," he says. "Express your anger to Ubisoft or the studio that made the game. But you cross a line when you start being cruel about it." (Thanks, PC Gamer and GamesRadar) Read more View the full article

Microsoft recently announced Muse, "a generative AI model of a video game that can generate game visuals, controller actions, or both". And somehow, Phil Spencer of Microsoft Gaming thinks it will help game preservation. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

Ubisoft's been returning to Steam with all the enthusiasm of a groom at a shotgun wedding for a good few years now, and most recently it's been adding Steam achievements to its back catalogue of games. In the last month alone, both Watch Dogs 2 and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon have found themselves redolent with cheevos... Read more.View the full article

While everyone was distracted by Final Fantasy, another Universes Beyond card slipped its pen and started ramping up in price. The Jurassic World Magic: The Gathering card Indoraptor, the Perfect Hybrid was valued at $6 at the beginning of February, according to the MTG Goldfish price tracker. Now it's shot up to $24. Foil copies have seen an even more extreme spike, going from just $10 to a whopping 80 bucks. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: MTG's Final Fantasy set sells out instantly, despite inflated prices MTG Final Fantasy release date and latest news MTG Final Fantasy has a Cactuar that attacks for 10,000 damage View the full article

There hasn’t been a day in recent weeks when League of Legends players have not been upset by a decision Riot Games has made, and today is no different. In the past 24 hours, Riot has dropped the trailer for its latest skin line, Grand Reckoning. This skin line features many champions from the region of Noxus, keeping with the seasonal theme for the 2025 League season. This skin line is expected to be released when Act Two drops, but players are already complaining about one champion’s appearance. View the full article

Valve has released a February 2025 patch for the MOBA Dota 2, encouraging players to explore the Wandering Waters in the 7.38 Gameplay Update. Dota 2 fans can utilize currents to arrive in the safe lane with haste within Wandering Waters, and players can also carve out their own destiny through craftable Neutral Items. The update makes several changes and improvements to gameplay, and the community seems very happy with the patch so far. View the full article

Call of Duty: Warzone developer Raven Software has reverted a controversial loadout change that was supposed to go live with the game's Season 2 Reloaded update on February 20. The mid-season patch for Call of Duty: Warzoneis set to bring a plethora of different bug fixes, weapon adjustments, and quality-of-life improvements to the Battle Royale title, but one change proved to be so controversial that it has been removed before it could even see the light of day. View the full article

Marvel Rivals has released the full patch notes for its major upcoming mid-season update, which will release version 20250221 of the popular hero shooter into the wild. Season 1: Eternal Night Falls of Marvel Rivals introduced Dracula as the game's main antagonist, as well as Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman as playable characters. With the fight between the iconic vampire and The Fantastic Four heating up, a wide variety of changes will be coming to the title. View the full article

Killing Floor 3’s beta began on Feb. 19, but players are already having trouble finding one of the game’s first objectives, the Testing Chamber. The story of Killing Floor 3 is simple as always, with gameplay being the core element of the franchise. Players group up teams of six and fight biogenetically modified humans called Zeds. Zeds come in waves, and they get stronger with each wave —but so do players. View the full article

Last summer, we learned that Talk To Me directors Danny and Michael Philippou had departed the new Street Fighter movie project that's been set at Legendary for years. However, the studio still moved ahead and grabbed a March 20, 2026, release date for the movie. Now, a new director has been attached to it, but we have our doubts about this one being ready in time. Read more View the full article

The voice behind Athena in both the original Hades and its sequel Hades 2, Marin Miller, has shared a post on their personal BlueSky account claiming that they may be recast in a "particular game that is very popular." According to Miller, if a recast does take place, it isn't because they "stepped away from the character willingly. It's because the employer refused to flip to an interim." In a follow-up post, the voice actor wrote that "it would be SUPER [sic] helpful if you wrote a GIANT [sic] email asking them to flip for their actors." Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Hades 2 gets a giant new update, but the roguelike still can't share 1.0 plans Hades 2 guides and release date estimate All Hades 2 Chaos Trials View the full article

Recently I highlighted a fight that had broken out between the OBS Studio team and the Fedora Linux developers. The issue was centred around the Fedora Flatpak of OBS Studio but it seems to have calmed down now. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

A name you might know from the likes of Dicey Dungeons, Super Hexagon and VVVVVV. This is not a single game but a collection of various experiments done by Terry Cavanagh over many years. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

Hades 2 just got another major update on its dungeon run to a full release that, sadly, is still yet to be dated at this point. In fact, even though this latest patch adds in "the final confrontation", Supergiant has plans for at least one more big pre-release update. Read more View the full article

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members can start playing Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader and EA Sports F1 24 as part of their subscription starting today, February 20. These additions bring the total number of 2025 Xbox Game Pass Ultimate releases to 19. View the full article

Marvel Rivals has announced that Human Torch will be making his debut alongside the Negative Zone Gladiator costume. NetEase Games is about to launch a major mid-season update for Marvel Rivals, which will introduce a wealth of new content to the popular hero shooter. Fans can expect to see two new heroes, a Central Park map, numerous balance changes, and new challenges with free rewards. View the full article

When I docked at Claviger's Landing, I immediately walked over to the local farm and started swinging my sword at the chickens. It's practically a rite of passage in Skyrim to slaughter everyone in Riverwood after accidentally killing one of their fowl. But don't worry, a missclick in Avowed won't turn Hadvar's entire family against you. View the full article

We've known that HBO's Last Of Us adaptation was getting a second season since 2023, but now it has a release date. The first episode will air in the US on April 13th. Read more View the full article

Despite my avid love for all things sports, I've given up on the idea that I'll ever be good at golf. Something about the way the body must contort to successfully crank a ball down the fairway just doesn't compute in my mind. But like few other games can, PGA Tour 2K25 takes everything I visualize myself doing in real life and executes it virtually, thanks to its in-depth simulation gameplay that lets my thumbs and brain do what my actual body simply refuses to do. To be honest, I went into PGA Tour 2K25 a bit hesitant. While 2K23 wasn’t the worst golf game I’ve ever played, it lacked any shine in its personality or gameplay, which came as a surprise considering HB Studios has been dutifully working on successful golf sims like The Golf Club for well over a decade. Couple this with the fact that, unlike most sports games, PGA Tour 2K took two full years to put out a new iteration, and it was safe to say my expectations were in check. To my surprise and relief, that extra time paid off: it didn’t take long for PGA Tour 2K25 to impress me with its improvements, especially in terms of appearance. While it still can’t quite match EA Sports’ rival PGA Tour game head to head in their respective visual recreations of golf, the difference is nowhere near as stark as it had been. Player models look much closer to their real-life counterparts, courses are more detailed, and animations are crisper. I found myself pausing while playing multiple times to take in the water crashing against the rocks or comparing the cut of the fairway, fringe, and rough areas for each course. The putting and driving animations are also fluid, no longer stopping abruptly after contact or feeling too weighty. Performance is smoothed out as well, and the only time I ever ran into issues with dropped frames on my PlayStation 5 was due to internet connectivity issues. Even the single-player Career Mode is always online, so there were a few instances where my shot would stutter and even a couple of times where my round didn't save. I found myself pausing while playing multiple times to take in the sights. My biggest gripe with the look and feel of PGA Tour 2K25 is the low-energy commentary team of Luke Elvy and Rich Beem. While they are both very knowledgeable, describing approaches and conditions beautifully, their lines could not be more flatly delivered. I know golf isn’t the most exciting sport, but there is no need to sound like a robot when discussing it. They also seem to have a vendetta against me. If I do any worse than getting on the green in two or birdie putting, Rich Beem will berate me like Bob Barker going at Happy Gilmore—the price is wrong, Richie! At least thanks to my experience dealing with FIFA commentary for years, tuning them out wasn't very difficult. Other than that, it’s pretty much all good news. For example, it’s clear that HB Studios prioritized features that the community has been begging for. The most notable additions revolve around approaches, with the ability to change tee position and choose your hazard drop spot. It might seem like a small detail, but not being able to adjust position after a water hazard or move the ball at the tee for a better angle made for some of my most frustrating shots in PGA Tour 2K23. I love the amount of control that 2K25 gives me. Another big change is that MyPlayer development has become an RPG system that allows you to unlock specific shots as you go, making your growth in the MyCareer campaign customizable to your specific strengths. Skills in the six trees vary from advanced shot types like the Stinger, which is ideal for dealing with high-wind situations, to proficiency boosts, which help buff each shot. I chose to build a Powerhouse archetype who focuses on driving down the fairway, getting my feet wet against other newbies in the Q-School. It was here that I got comfortable with the new EvoSwing mechanics. The new-and-improved golf swing technique focuses on proper posture, torque, and arc size, and after each swing it even breaks down how good your contact, rhythm, transition, and swing path are so you have detailed information on how to improve. You can even customize how it controls by choosing the classic Swing Stick or the 3-Click Swing, depending on your skill level. As a veteran golf (gamer) I love 3-Click Swing for the control it gives you over your shot. The Swing Stick simply requires you to pull the right stick back and release to swing, which is easy to get the hang of but it still has to be lined up well to get a good shot. The 3-Click Swing is certainly harder to master, since you have to press, hold, and release before clicking to push or pull the shot and finally click again to hook or slice, but it is something I love as a veteran golf (game) for the control it gives you over your shot. After using it to blow my competition out of the water, shooting 30 under par across four days, I moved on to the PGA Tour. Like the real deal, the goal here is to compete for points in tournaments, finishing in the Top 70 to earn a spot competing for the FedExCup. But instead of thrusting you into each event blindly, PGA Tour 2K25 features training and scouting scenarios before each event as a way to earn stat buffs and get the lay of the land. Training scenarios are bite-sized minigames, such as target challenges or competing to land on the green quickest or to sink the most long putts. Completing these gives your character a temporary boost in specific attributes, which is applied to the coming tournament. At first, I shrugged these off as ways to pad playtime, but once I played on harder difficulties I realized how what seemed like a minor buff to my drive power could mean the difference between hitting the fair way instead of a bunker. Practice Rounds also give you an edge for the coming tournament in exactly the way you’d expect: being able to play and feel out the specific run and shape of every course just before competing there is a real difference-maker. It is so satisfying to strategize for a course just like the pros would. Not every new feature in MyCareer lands on the fairway, though – especially the new personality and popularity mechanics. We’ve seen all this before in other games like Madden and EA Sports FC: Your pro spends time off the course gaining influence with fans, developing a following, and forming a personality based on the answers they choose in conversations and interviews. While this is a well-meaning effort to give MyCareer a bit more flair and make you feel like the belle of the ball, the system feels just as pointless as it does in other games. All conversations are done through text and don't have an effect on the actual gameplay, so it feels unpolished and isn’t a good use of time. The actual way to get sponsorships and unlock questlines for XP is simply by doing well at playing golf. This was pretty easy to do at first because the default settings PGA Tour 2K25 feel like child's play: I was easily winning each tournament, destroying the likes of Viktor Hovland by -13 strokes a round. The Dynamic option is my favorite addition to MyCareer since 2K23. At this point, I decided to experiment with the customizable sliders, which let you tune everything from CPU difficulty to green conditions to weather. The difficulty took the most time to experiment with, as it was hard to find the right percentages to match my own skills, and seemed uneven. In some games, one golfer would score 10 under the second-closest AI rival. However, once I adjusted weather and course conditions to random the playing field started to feel much more level, and scores were closer. Either everyone benefited from the smooth greens and shining sun, or everyone suffered the whipping winds and slick surfaces where the ball glides way too fast across them. The Dynamic option, though, is my favorite addition to MyCareer since 2K23: With this, you can choose the number of holes you want to play within a course, and which specific ones, and any skipped holes will be simulated. I don't mind playing a full 18 most of the time, but having the option to shorten the time commitment for some rounds by simming dynamically is a nice touch. Microtransactions are, unfortunately, still present in PGA Tour 2K25, but mercifully they are mostly cosmetic-based. Yes, you can dump real money into making your player a superstar stat-wise and decked out with flashy clothes right off the bat, but you'll also earn upgrade points and different outfits at a decent clip by completing tournaments, so they aren't entirely necessary and are less objectionable than what 2K has been doing in its casino-like approach to NBA 2K in recent years. So playing online with others is still enjoyable, since this isn’t a sport where you’re being dunked on by someone who can run faster and jump higher because they paid extra. The same seven online modes from 2K23 return, including my favorite: four-ball. I loved competing against my partner and the other team, as it simply felt more competitive, fast-paced, and interactive than going against AI. For my money, this mode is the next best thing to being out on the course with your buddies competing in real life. Ranked and Casual games also let you choose between Swing Stick and 3-Click lobbies and select which gameplay features and aides you want off and on to make sure everybody’s on the same page. It’s also notable that Societies mode now offers crossplay features, letting you and your friends schedule asynchronous events regardless of platform differences. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

I'm a Seraphine player, yes, I admit it. The Starry-Eyed Songstress remains one of the most controversial champions in League of Legends, attracting a decent number of players despite what feel like constant nerfs and adjustments. Whether you love her or hate her, however, there's no denying that Darling Dumplings Seraphine is an absolutely adorable skin, but while Amumu and Syndra are currently living out their gyoza fantasy on the Rift, Sera's still waiting for her Lunar New Year-inspired glow up. The plus is that the skin has made it back onto the PBE, but something has changed with its recall animation. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Which League of Legends skins are currently on *****? LoL tier list patch 25.S1.3 - best League of Legends champions The best MOBAs on PC 2025 View the full article

Two more games have been added to Game Pass for Xbox and PC today, while multiple titles will be leaving the subscription service in a week. EA Sports F1 24 joins Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass via EA Play on Thursday, February 20, while Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader will be playable via Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard on the same day. The latest Game Pass games arrive a week ahead of several notable removals from the service. On February 28, nine games will be leaving Game Pass, including: Read More... View the full article

The huge hit deck-builder Monster Train is getting a sequel, with Monster Train 2 getting an announcement and demo in the same day so you can try it early. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

In perhaps the least surprising news ever, Pokémon Presents will return on Pokémon Day 2025. If you want to ensure you don’t miss it, we have exactly what you need. Pokémon Day is Pokémon’s annual birthday celebration. The presentations reveal new titles, spin-off games, and more to the world. It’s a huge year for Pokémon and Nintendo, significantly raising excitement for the latest Pokémon Presents. View the full article

Between Last Epoch, Diablo 4, Lost Ark, and dozens of others, there's a lot of competition in the ARPG world right now. Slick mechanics and eye-catching design help you stand out, but developers will tell you that the secret to success is having a good bond with your community. The launch of Path of Exile 2 has been occasionally bumpy, but largely, Grinding Gear Games still gets a lot of love from its players. Chris Wilson, who served as lead designer and co-director on the original PoE, has been a mainstay on GGG forums and became the 'face' of the studio during the original game's creation. However, official documents suggest Wilson may have left. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Path of Exile reveals 19 new subclasses for its wild, month-long event Path of Exile's Legacy of Phrecia event changes the ARPG's endgame completely New Path of Exile event features a time-bending witch and the ultimate gambler View the full article

While Valve continue building up their next MOBA with Deadlock, their current Dota 2 is still as popular as ever and the Wandering Waters update for Dota 2 sounds pretty awesome. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article