Steam

Valve has launched Steam Replay 2024, offering players a look back at what they played throughout the year. The end of year review tool delivers a host of stats, including how many games users have played in 2024 and how many of them were new titles. It lists most played games by percentage of playtime, how many sessions players had, and the number of achievements they unlocked. Read More... View the full article

On December 16, Tekken 8 launched Patch 1.10.1, introducing Clive Rosfield from Final Fantasy 16 as a playable fighter and an updated photo mode. The new Tekken 8 update also brought player search functionality for online matches and a new penalty system that will deduct ranking points if a player disconnects during a ranked match. View the full article

In theory, it ought to be as good a time as ever to be a gamer on the iPhone. Classic console emulators have rolled out to the platform for the first time, and they work great. There are strong libraries of non-skeezy mobile games on Apple Arcade and Netflix Games, streaming via Xbox and PlayStation services is continuing apace, and there are even a few AAA console games now running natively on the platform, like Assassin's Creed and Resident Evil titles. Some of those games need a traditional, dual-stick game controller to work well, though, and Apple bafflingly offers no first-party solution for this. Read full article Comments View the full article

Disney Dreamlight Valley is offering its players a holiday gift with the addition of a new free Premium Bundle in the in-game shop. The holiday-themed Festive Blue Star is available now in Disney Dreamlight Valley, but players only have about a week to claim it before the offer goes away. View the full article

The upcoming strategy game Civilization 7 has revealed a new surprise leader: American abolitionist Harriet Tubman. In the Civilization series, leaders primarily determine playstyle. Each one comes with distinct advantages, disadvantages, perks, and skills that color the way they build strength, interact with other civs/leaders, and more. Choosing the right leader is the first step to victory in a game of Civ, although certainly not the last - and that'll likely work much the same in Civ 7 as it has in 1-6. View the full article

Japanese developer Ikumi Nakamura, known for her work on Kemuri, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and The Evil Within, has one of the most prominent careers in the gaming industry and, most specifically, within the horror genre. She became a viral sensation having presented a trailer for Ghostwire: Tokyo at E3 2019 and showing her work at Tango Gameworks. However, Nakamura began her work long before, having started as a background production artist for Okami at Clover Studios. Later on, with the closure of Clover and the start of PlatinumGames, the developer worked as a concept artist for the reputable Bayonetta. View the full article

In Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the Seat of Eternity Mystery is a fun puzzle located in the northern half of Gizeh. This is the largest open area that Indy explores, so make sure to grab the Gizeh map from Nuwal before embarking on exploration. Mysteries often provide useful rewards, such as money, artifacts, or upgrade items upon completion. View the full article

There are plenty of mysteries and puzzles for you to unravel in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. A small one you can find while investigating the Nazi compound in Sukhothai is called A Game of Wits, where you have to solve a Mak-Yek Challenge to learn the lockbox code. There are a handful of notes you need to find nearby to learn the proper way to decipher the game and get the code you need to unlock the safe. You’ll need to read the game’s rules to learn how to play it and develop a mental map of it in your head. You can unlock the safe after you have the four digits to beat the game. We’ll explain how to solve A Game of Wits mystery and get you the code for the safe in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. View the full article

Wizards of the Coast subsidiary Archetype Entertainment dropped a new gameplay trailer for Exodus, and it has a lot of gamers thinking about Mass Effect. This title was notably revealed at The Game Awards' 2023 show where Interstellar star Matthew McConaughey hyped up Exodus. Although a promising idea featuring a similar focus on time dilation was described, there wasn't much else to go off of, but now gamers are getting a better look. View the full article

From iconic names like Indiana Jones and Final Fantasy to indie sensations like Balatro and Animal Well, 2024 has provided gamers with a variety of incredible experiences. IGN is in the process of picking our game of the year, but now you have the chance to have your voice heard too in the IGN People’s Choice Tournament. With our partners at Truth, we’ve selected 64 of the best titles of the year to be placed in a bracket and randomly sorted into groups. They’ll go head-to-head, with the winner moving on to the next round and the loser being eliminated. As the rounds progress, the competition will get tougher, until there’s only one title left standing as the fan-voted Game of the Year. If you’re familiar with how March Madness brackets work, it’s the same concept. Tournament Schedule and How to Vote Voting will take place on IGN’s Instagram starting today, December 18. We’ll post the matchups to our Instagram stories around 3 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. CT / 12 p.m. PT, and you’ll have 24 hours to vote. The 32 winners will move on to the next round, where the process will repeat. Here are the dates when each round will be posted (around the same times listed above), so make sure to check back on our Instagram stories to continue voting for your favorite games: Round 1: December 18Round 2: December 20Round 3: December 23Quarterfinals: December 27Semifinals: December 30Finals: December 31 Which Games Are Grouped Together? As we mentioned earlier, the bracket placements of the 64 games we selected were randomized. They were split up into four groups, like the regions of March Madness. Group 1 is led by some heavy hitters: Helldivers 2, Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. But they’ll have to go up against breakout indie Animal Well. Plus, three popular sports games: Madden NFL 25, College Football 25, and MLB The Show 24. And you can’t look past the beautiful visuals of Unicorn Overlord and Infinity Nikki. Group 2 is led by the excellent Silent Hill 2 remake, but it’ll face stiff competition from a trio of RPGs — Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. There’s also heralded remasters and remakes from Nintendo with Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. And we can’t leave out the technical marvel Senua’a Sage: Hellblade II, or another standout indie in Lorelai and the Laser Eyes. Group 3 ended up stacked with three games that have been cleaning up during awards season: Astro Bot, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and ****** Myth: Wukong. They’re joined by an eclectic group of competitors. There’s entries from massive franchises in Star Wars Outlaws and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (which will face off against each other in Round 1). There’s games from other long-running series in Tekken 8 and Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble. There’s the latest version of sports franchises in EA Sports FC 25 and NBA 2K25. But also some notable new IPs with Stellar Blade and Slitterhead. Rounding things out, Group 4 is also full of some big names. First, there’s indie darling Balatro, which has also done very well for itself this awards season. But it’ll have to get through two huge RPG sequels in Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth and Dragon’s Dogma 2, as well as a popular RPG remake in Persona 3 Reload. And they’ll be up against several family-friendly opponents in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, LEGO Horizon Adventures, Super Mario Party Jamboree, and The Plucky Squire. Not to mention the often overlooked Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and surprise hit Enshrouded. As you can see, this year is going to be a hotly contested race. So make sure you head over to Instagram to vote for each matchup and help determine which games will move on and which will be sent packing. It’ll all build to a big reveal of the fan voted Game of the Year. Happy voting! View the full article

SIE's 'China Hero Project' game finally gets a new gameplay showcase with a 2025 release window for PS5 and PC. View the full article

The pop culture crossover game Funko Fusion recently got some new content based on the Mega Man series, adding on to the game's existing content from the hit Capcom franchise and giving fans more characters to play as. The new DLC features two new playable characters, each with their own unique abilities, and expands the roster of pop culture icons available in Funko Fusion even further. View the full article

With Marvel Rivals now in full swing, players are likely looking for ways to improve their gameplay, though the developers are warning against altering the mouse settings for those on PC. Some players were rather shocked to find out Marvel Rivals does not feature a toggle for mouse acceleration, taking matters into their own hands. However, the game's developer NetEase is warning against doing so, claiming other problems may occur as players enjoy Marvel Rivals. View the full article

Zenless Zone Zero developer HoYoverse has recently released the game’s Update 1.4. The newest Zenless Zone Zero update brings two new playable characters, more story content, multiple bug fixes, and much more, and marks an important time for the popular action RPG. View the full article

The holidays have taken over Disney Dreamlight Valley and there are many winter tasks you can undertake, like searching for Festive Wrapping Paper. This seasonal material can be foraged from the valley to complete various quests. Festive Wrapping Paper is a key resource for the holiday festivities, but it’s fairly tricky to find if you don’t know where to look. A very limited amount is available at a time too, so acquiring it whenever you can is a must. Here’s how to get Festive Wrapping Paper in Disney Dreamlight Valley. View the full article

If recent leaks are to be believed, the next Epic Games Store free mystery game is none other than Vampire Survivors. The Epic Games Store free mystery game promotion ensures that December is always an exciting time for PC gamers. It's during free mystery game promotions that they are given the chance to seriously stack their digital gaming libraries at no cost. View the full article

With Diablo 4's Vessel of Hatred expansion and the meteoric early access launch of Path of Exile 2, it's safe to say that 2024 has ended well for ARPG fans. Good news has also arrived for Moon Beast Productions, the ARPG-focused studio that was spun up by some former Diablo developers in 2021. Moon Beast has revealed today that it has secured an extra $4.5 million in funding from investors which will go towards the creation of its incredibly ambitious debut game. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Win a GeForce RTX 4080 Super and copy of Diablo 4, thanks to Nvidia Netflix, Activision drama allegedly kills Overwatch, Diablo, and StarCraft shows After Diablo 4's first year, Blizzard says it wants to try new things View the full article

It's that time again when all of the apps and platforms you use every day begin rounding up what you watched, listened to, or played over the last 12 months. Following a less-than-popular name change last year, Steam's annual roundup is back and it comes bearing its original Steam Replay name as well. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: When is the next Steam *****? Best VR games on PC 2024 Valve just hinted at plans to bring Steam Deck OS to other PC gaming handhelds View the full article

Microsoft is reportedly working on a new cross-platform user interface. That’s according to a Windows Central report, which also claims that exclusive Xbox console games will be the exception rather than the rule going forward. “Sources tell us that Microsoft is also working on a set of in-game APIs and user interface features, called Project Rainway, which is some form of cross-platform Xbox guide menu,” the report claims. Read More... View the full article

Call of Duty’s massive move to becoming a day one launch title on Game Pass definitely impacted console sales this year, but maybe not in the way you think. According to Circana Retail Tracking Service’s Mat Piscatella, overall hardware spending at $927 million was “flat” compared to November 2023. But the interesting numbers are that the PS5 saw a 15 percent increase in console sales, while Xbox dropped a whopping 29 percent compared to last year at the same time. View the full article

According to tradition, the holiday season actually began over a month ago when Mariah Carey once again emerged from a giant block of ice to sing Christmas anthem "All I Want for Christmas Is You." Fortnite's is arriving a bit late to the holiday party, but leakers say an upcoming update to the game will replicate this timeless holiday tradition and have Mariah Carey burst forth from a large block of ice in the game, bringing with her holiday character skins and the Winterfest event. Santa Shaq, Snoop Dogg, and Mariah Carey [Hidden Content] — iFireMonkey (@iFireMonkey) December 18, 2024 This news comes from prominent Fortnite leaker iFireMonkey, who has previously been a source of credible Fortnite leaks. Per their information, Mariah Carey will be getting a Fortnite skin as part of its upcoming Winterfest 2024 event, alongside Snoop Dogg and Shaquille O'Neal. All of them will, of course, be dressed in holiday finery. Another leaker, Egyptian_Leaker, suggests that there will be an additional event involving a large block of ice that's already appeared on the Fortnite map. Per them, the ice block will defrost after three days, and Mariah Carey will appear in-game as an NPC handing out gifts to players. MINI-LIVE EVENT CONFIRMED: There's a very small Winterfest event at the start of it Mariah Carey will be an Ice block on the map for 3 days. After she defrosts there will be a small sequence with Fireworks. Mariah Carey will then be available as an NPC that gives gifts to… [Hidden Content] — Egyptian Fortnite Leaker (@Egyptian_Leaker) December 18, 2024 For the time being, she remains tragically frozen: Alongside Mariah Carey, iFireMonkey has posted a number of other holiday-themed leaks we're likely to see in the coming days. These include loads of holiday-themed skins and accessories (one of them is a backpack full of bread dogs!), new emotes and dances, and the return of Sgt. Winter as an NPC. We've also heard that Skibidi Toilet is coming to Fortnite...tonight. Just in time for the holidays. Winterfest 2024 launches on December 20 and runs through January 7. In addition to the rumored holiday skins and Mariah Carey's ice block extravaganza, Epic Games has confirmed we'll see the return of Jonesy's Cabin. Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected]. View the full article

Universities from the US and China collaborated on a paper titled Return to Office Mandates and Brain Drain, which tracked over 3 million tech and finance workers' employment histories reported on LinkedIn. Read Entire Article View the full article

Sony is furthering its partnership with AMD so they can create more AI-powered technology to make games look and play better — and not just on PlayStation hardware. The two companies are establishing a “deeper collaboration” to work on “Machine Learning-based technology for graphics and gameplay,” lead architect of the PS5 and PS5 Pro Mark Cerny announced on Wednesday. The two already partner on the PS5 and PS5 Pro’s GPUs, which are based on AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture, and the PS5 Pro uses a feature called PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) to improve image clarity and frame rates. Sony also released a 37-minute presentation by Cerny discussing technical aspects of the PS5 Pro and some additional information about the “multi-year” project with AMD, which is codenamed “Amethyst.” The two are vague about how, when, and where the tech resulting from Project Amethyst will be used, but general it sounds like it’s something we could see on the next PlayStation and other future hardware that AMD is a part of. “These components should be key in increasing the richness of game graphics” [/url] The companies have two goals with Project Amethyst, according to Cerny. “The first goal is a more ideal architecture for machine learning,” Cerny said, including something that’s particularly good at dealing with the lightweight convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for game graphics. The second goal is to develop “a set of high-quality CNNs for graphics,” Cerny said. “Both SIE and AMD will independently have the ability to draw from this collection of network architectures and training strategies, and these components should be key in increasing the richness of game graphics as well as enabling more extensive use of ray tracing and path tracing.” Sony and AMD don’t want this technology to be exclusive to PlayStation. “Through this technology collaboration we’re looking to support broad work and machine learning across a variety of devices,” Cerny said. That means “something that can be used broadly across PC and console and cloud,” Cerny said to IGN. [Hidden Content] The fruits of this work seem like they’re a ways out, though: “Don’t expect some massive hardware announcement immediately coming out of this,” Cerny told Digital Foundry. And since creating a console is “roughly a four year-journey,” Cerny said during the presentation, it’s possible we might not see hardware that uses tech from Project Amethyst until the PlayStation 6. (Cerny dodged a direct question from IGN about when we should expect a potential PS6.) If you want to read more of what Cerny said about Amethyst in his presentation, here’s the transcript of that part (which starts at around 34:32 in the video): I have some very exciting news to share. We have begun a deeper collaboration with AMD. For the project name we’re taking a hint from AMD’s red and PlayStation’s blue. The code name is Amethyst. With Amethyst, we’ve started on another long journey and are combining our expertise with two goals in mind. The first goal is a more ideal architecture for machine learning. Something capable of generalized processing of neural networks but particularly good at the lightweight CNNs needed for game graphics and something focused around achieving that Holy Grail of fully-fused networks. In going after this we’re combining the lessons AMD has learned from its multi-generation RDNA road map and SIE has learned from the custom work in PS5 Pro. But ML use in games shouldn’t and can’t be restricted to graphics libraries. We’re also working towards a democratization of machine learning something accessible that allows direct work in AI and ML by game developers both for graphics and for gameplay. Amethyst is not about proprietary technology for PlayStation. In fact it’s the exact opposite. Through this technology collaboration we’re looking to support broad work and machine learning across a variety of devices. The other goal is to develop, in parallel, a set of highquality CNNs for game graphics. Both SIE and AMD will independently have the ability to draw from this collection of network architectures and training strategies, and these components should be key in increasing the richness of game graphics as well as enabling more extensive use of ray tracing and path tracing. We’re looking forward to keeping you posted throughout what we anticipate to be a multi-year collaboration. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

With Diablo 4's Vessel of Hatred expansion and the meteoric early access launch of Path of Exile 2, it's safe to say that 2024 has ended well for ARPG fans. Good news has also arrived for Moon Beast Productions, the ARPG-focused studio that was spun up by some former Diablo developers in 2021. Moon Beast has revealed today that it has secured an extra $4.5 million in funding from investors which will go towards the creation of its incredibly ambitious debut game. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Win a GeForce RTX 4080 Super and copy of Diablo 4, thanks to Nvidia Netflix, Activision drama allegedly kills Overwatch, Diablo, and StarCraft shows After Diablo 4's first year, Blizzard says it wants to try new things View the full article

The third annual Steam Year In Review Steam Replay has arrived, and your very own jaunt down gaming memory lane awaits! It's a fun-filled, fact-filled, friend-filled (because you can share it!) look back at what you played in 2024. Name change? What name change?Ok, you got us. We called it Steam Replay when we launched it in 2022. Then last year, some of us thought "Hey! What if we changed it to Steam Year In Review for giggles?" Then we all giggled and did it. Then this year, someone said, "Um, that was a dumb idea we had last year. Are we crazy if we change it back to the better name for it?" And we all said "Shut up, Gabe, that's too much work." HA HA we kid, it was actually Chris. Or Eric? No wait it was Jane. Or maybe Tom? And we actually said "That's a great, collaborative idea, fellow teammate!" and here we are. You, on Steam, by the numbersHow many games did you play, and how does that compare to last year? Did you unlock a bunch of achievements? What about your longest streak? These fun numbers and more are in your Replay. There are spiders! ...graphs. Spider GRAPHS, we mean, showing in spider language what kinds of games you played. ...and so much more!There are so many fun ways to look at your year in Steam gaming: playtime by month; playtime by what you played on; even playtime across your Steam Family if you're part of one! Sharing is caringEach Steam Replay is different, so what will yours look like? Take a look at your own, and share it both on and off Steam with your friends (and see what theirs look like too!)View the full article