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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. Read more View the full article

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. Read more View the full article

Cyberpunk 2077 players will likely be familiar with the enigmatic fixer Mr. Hands, who appears briefly in the main game but features more often in the Phantom Liberty DLC. Hands is the prominent fixer in the Pacifica and Dogtown districts of Night City, offering jobs centered around the area's ********* underbelly. He's the most distant fixer by far, appearing mostly as a silhouette over holo calls with the only thing visible being his cybernetic hands. View the full article

Overwatch 2 players want Blizzard to bring back the original match cards at the end of Classic matches. Although its launch was met with plenty of issues and technical problems back in 2022, Overwatch 2 has managed to find its footing with players in the years since, thanks in large part to continued updates, fixes, and new content coming into the game. View the full article

A recent ***** from Zenless Zone Zero is hinting at a pair of new Drive Disk sets coming to the game with the upcoming Version 1.4 update. Much like many of HoYoverse's other titles, the urban action RPG provides players with a wide variety of ways to accessorize and enhance their characters. Beyond leveling a character's EXP and skills, players can collect different W-Engines, featuring powerful stat boosts and unique bonuses, and Drive Disks, which allow players to customize their individual characters' builds. Now, fans are rumored to be receiving new Drive Disk options in the near future. View the full article

Throne and Liberty publisher Amazon Games is warning players about an unintended strategy in Castle Siege events, before the PvP mode has even been added to the MMO. These colossal server-wide showdowns will pit guilds against each other in long conflicts, and they're supposed to incentivize working with your teammates to emerge with control of the game's castles. That said, it looks like the attackers are going to start with an advantage, so Amazon hopes sharing their strategy ahead of time can help defenders properly prepare. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Throne and Liberty server status and maintenance times Free MMORPG Throne and Liberty nears a million max-level players in first month Throne and Liberty coupons and all active codes View the full article

After an *********'s Creed Shadows battle pass appeared to ***** online, Ubisoft sets the record straight on if you have to pay for it or not. Read more View the full article

In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, weather can have a huge impact on a Pokémon’s damage output and move pool. It can be a powerful tool outside of battle, too. Some interesting evolutions are tied to specific weather conditions in the game, like rainstorms. To help you add rain-loving critters to your team, here’s a breakdown of where and when it rains in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, with tips on how to make the most of this weather condition. View the full article

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has revealed that Bethesda's Todd Howard wonders if holding back the release of Starfield's REV-8 buggy for the Shattered Space expansion could have been the right choice. The REV-8 gave Starfield players a new way to traverse the surface of planets and, for a long time post-launch, was probably the most requested feature for the game. View the full article

Have you ever tried hot tea with cookies? I have, and it’s a delicious combination to start your day. Today’s NYT Mini Crossword clue, “Nurses, as a drink,” asks you to solve a wordplay and decipher the hidden context behind it all. If today’s NYT Mini Crossword slows you down, you can use our hints and answers to speed things up and easily finish the puzzle. View the full article

Donating items to the museum is an important part of progression in Stardew Valley, but that's not all it's good for - players can actually claim quite a few rewards for the pieces they donate. Museum donations fall into one of three categories, drawing from Stardew's wider Minerals, Artifacts, and Scrolls item types. You can always recognize a donatable item when its flavor text reads, "Gunther can tell you more about this if you donate it to the museum." View the full article

Have you ever played golf? I once tried my hand at the sports, and I was embarrassed that all of my swings always found their way to the water. Today’s NYT Mini Crossword clue, “Course load?” tests your knowledge of the essential items to carry while playing the game. If today’s NYT Mini Crossword clues confuse you, use our hints and answers to breeze through the word puzzles. View the full article

Call of Duty ****** Ops 6 players are furious with Treyarch and Activision, as with BO6 Season 1 they were given access to all their legacy XP tokens, only for the developers to swiftly take them away again. Suddenly being able to use all your XP tokens from across every Call of Duty game in ****** Ops 6 was a welcome surprise, but as swiftly as this bonus was given, it's been removed. That said, there does appear to be a workaround, but there's no telling how long it might last. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Best BO6 and Warzone XM4 loadout and class build Best BO6 loadouts for the current meta Best BO6 and Warzone Saug loadout and class build View the full article

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. Read more View the full article

It has been 23 years since Rockstar Games pioneered the 3D open world with Grand Theft Auto 3 and ever since that industry-shifting release the studio has remained at the very forefront of the genre. Despite there being more contenders to the throne than ever these days, Rockstar’s worlds have consistently proven themselves to be generational leaders largely thanks to the pursuit of immersive realism. The network of overlapping systems and handcrafted elements that make up places like Los Santos and Saint Denis are designed to offer such a sense of authenticity that these simulated cities truly feel alive. The craft behind such digital realities is something that Ben Hinchliffe knows well. A former Rockstar designer now working in the immersive field of virtual reality, he helped put together the worlds of L.A. Noire, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Red ***** Redemption 2 – games that each pushed the bar higher and higher. For 2011’s L.A. Noire, much of that immersion came via its groundbreaking facial capture technology that was able to recreate an actor’s every sneering lip and twitching eye. It’s the feature that liquidated developer Team Bondi will be best remembered for. But Rockstar, who acted as both publisher and co-developer on the project, offered contributions that were informed by its proven strengths in open world design. That’s something that will no doubt raise a few eyebrows, as L.A. Noire is widely considered a poor open world game due to its lack of side activities and map-populating content. “Because the focus was on Phelps and the police, you were kind of boxed in a little bit,” says Hinchliffe. “How far would Phelps go and what could he do? He couldn't do anything too outrageous. He's law enforcement. It did shape a lot of the content as to where we could take it. Let's say you were a ********* or an outlaw, you probably could have gotten away with a lot more in terms of content and what you could have done.” Despite this, L.A. Noire’s approach to a sprawling city was closer to Grand Theft Auto’s guiding philosophy than you may expect. It was all about authenticity, something that has only become increasingly important to the studio over the last decade. “[The aim was] trying to get that vibe of the 1940s era and the setting and making sure that all felt very authentic in terms of how it was portrayed throughout the game,” explains Hinchliffe. L.A. Noire’s achievements in this area are largely uncontested thanks to a recreation of the city of angels that is so *******-accurate even people who lived in LA during the 1940s praised its depiction. Even the hand scripted stuff looks like it's organic because of Rockstar's tools A reflection of that authentic, painstaking-recreated LA would later be found in Grand Theft Auto 5’s Los Santos, which features large sections of city streets that are map-accurate to the metropolis that inspired it. But realism isn’t achieved by architectural accuracy alone – people are as important as pavements. Hinchliffe worked on several of L.A. Noire’s random *******, a human element that helped bring the digital city to life. There were mobsters lurking in the backalleys that didn’t care about the main story, and you’d never know when they’d strike next. They lent some authentic everyday frustration to the job of a detective – would you focus on the case, or do your public duty and clean up another one of the city’s messes? Those random ******* would indirectly evolve into Grand Theft Auto 5’s world events, in which pedestrians would call out for help after being mugged or carjacked. They appeared as part of Rockstar’s mandate to “go ******* and better in every aspect.” “It was making the cars feel like they handled better, having better damage on the vehicles, having the tyres deflate and stuff, having everything react more realistically,” recalls Hinchliffe. “It was a grand vision of just pushing everything forward.” The key to enhancing GTA 5’s immersive qualities were the dozens and dozens of automated systems that made its simulation of city life feel truly organic. A tyre bursting was a natural reaction to a player’s driving habits rather than a scripted sequence. But Rockstar learned that sometimes it took a lie to create something that feels like the truth. Hinchliffe worked on The Meltdown, a mission in which you must help paparazzi photographer Beverly Felton score a picture of a ******** celebrity caught in a police chase. To create an authentic race through the streets of Los Santos, Hinchliffe controlled everything. “A lot of the traffic in that chase is fully hand-scripted,” he says. “It's not ambient traffic. We've made the cars follow a set route and cross over at the set time, and have a garbage truck just pull around the corner at the right time. We've hand scripted all of it to give the player the best experience and the best cinematic feel for that chase.” “Rockstar’s systems are very clever,” he adds. “The tools are very powerful for design. You can switch between hand scripted and generic behaviors very easily, and even the hand scripted stuff looks like it's organic because of the tools.” That approach really comes into its own in Red ***** Redemption 2. While the 2018 western is Rockstar’s most simulation-heavy open world to date, much of its authenticity only exists because the world is so authored. The frontier may feel alive and reactive, but behind the scenes are thousands of hand-crafted responses to the many actions players can perform. “A big aspect of Red ***** 2 was that the higher ups wanted to push forward that feeling of the NPCs feeling more real and make that world around you feel like a living, breathing world,” Hinchliffe recalls. “You've got these smaller towns and less of a population density, so you need the NPCs to feel a bit more real,” he explains. “It was a big drive to [allow players] to talk to people and be more involved in the world, to make you feel bad if you just ****** a random person. [Because of that conversation system] maybe you'd feel a bit worse about that than just mowing down 20 people in GTA 5.” Pretty much every NPC in Red ***** Redemption 2 has some kind of interior life. Even if that life is just riding a cargo wagon along the same route over and over, it’s a job with a destination that players can turn into a highway robbery opportunity. This level of detail is vital for Red ***** Redemption because of the limited population density Hinchliffe mentioned. At the modern metropolitan scale of Grand Theft Auto, though, with its streets home to thousands of pedestrians, such a sense of authentic life is much more difficult to achieve. It feels like a pipe dream to expect the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 to replicate RDR 2’s immersive achievements… but that’s not to say it’s impossible. I don't see any reason why you couldn't have that Red ***** Redemption 2 level of NPC interaction in a much larger scale game. Hinchliffe worked on Grand Theft Auto 6 until he left Rockstar in 2022, which means he both knows the scope of its ambition and is bound by a Non-Disclosure Agreement to keep that scope a secret. But as a veteran designer of open world games, he has his own informed opinions about what is possible. “From a theoretical standpoint, and what you might be able to do if you had the budget and the team size, I don't see any reason why you couldn't have that [Red ***** Redemption 2] level of NPC interaction in a much larger scale game,” he says. Such interactions are not where his current priorities lie, though. Hinchliffe now works at British indie developer Just Add Water, acting as lead designer on virtual reality construction simulator Dig VR. In many ways it’s a galaxy away from his experiences at Rockstar, but there is an element that unites his past and present: immersion. “VR just adds another level of immersion by default because you're in the space,” Hinchliffe says. “But it's ******* to then make the player feel like they're immersed and that place is real because they're in it.” “Obviously VR is super tactile,” he continues. “You are using your hands in most stuff, and the challenge is making sure that the things you are doing with your hands or anything you interact with feels real. If it doesn't, you can instantly break the immersion.” Those challenges really highlight two very different approaches to immersion. Where in GTA it’s all about the detailed city-wide simulation, in VR it’s about physically turning the key in the ignition. It’s smaller, more intimate. That requires a complete reset of your expectations and ambitions when compared to traditional gaming. That goes for much more than just immersion, too. “A huge achievement for us [in Dig VR] was getting the dynamic terrain working so you can fully dig the ground and then dump it out,” he explains. “That's a first for any Meta Quest game. Now, people in the traditional flat screen world are going ‘Whoop-de-do, you've done dynamic terrain. There's like a million games with dynamic terrain. What's the big deal?’ But for us in VR, that's a huge deal because there was no reference point, no one to learn from. We just had to figure that out and make it work.” The current state of virtual reality feels like a repeat of traditional gaming’s infancy. Because the medium is so different, everything demands starting from scratch. And so Dig VR’s achievements are literally groundbreaking. Furthermore, it may inspire other VR developers to incorporate dynamic terrain in their projects. “It's those baby steps of helping each other and helping the medium go forwards,” says Hinchliffe. “As each game comes out with a new feature that hasn't been done in VR, the whole space starts iterating and moving forwards.” 23 years ago, Rockstar transformed its Scalextric-esque 2D roads into a fully three-dimensional city. It pushed the industry forwards, paving the way not just for its own games but laying the groundwork for the likes of *********’s Creed, Forza Horizon, and Cyberpunk 2077. The open world genre is now a patchwork of different developer contributions, each one having iterated and moved the concept forward. And next year, with the release of Grand Theft Auto 6, we’ll finally see what Rockstar’s next contribution to immersive worlds will be. Matt Purslow is IGN's Senior Features Editor. Views expressed in this interview are the personal opinions of Ben Hinchliffe and do not represent the thoughts or opinions of Rockstar Games. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

It's Half-Life 2 week at Ars Technica! This Saturday, November 16, is the 20th anniversary of the release of Half-Life 2—a game of historical importance for the artistic medium and technology of computer games. Each day up through the 16th, we'll be running a new article looking back at the game and its impact. “Well, I just hate the idea that our games might waste people’s time. Why spend four years of your life building something that isn't innovative and is basically pointless?” Valve software founder Gabe Newell is quoted by Geoff Keighley—yes, the Game Awards guy, back then a GameSpot writer—as saying this in June 1999, six months after the original Half-Life launched. Newell gave his team no real budget or deadline, only the assignment to “follow up the best PC game of all time” and redefine the genre. Read full article Comments View the full article

Left 4 ***** 2 is still easily one of the best co-op FPS games you can play today. With the witty character banter, the invisible 'Director' AI who keeps every wave of zombies feeling fresh, and the ease at which you can jump into the action, L4D2 stands tall all these years later. So if it's been a few years and you fancy diving back in, or if you've never played a Left 4 ***** game and want to experience it for yourself, now's your chance. You can play Left 4 ***** 2 for free on Steam for a limited time, and grab it at a significant discount afterward. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: The best games like Left 4 ***** on PC 2024 Former Valve writer debunks the constant Left 4 ***** 3 leaks Left 4 ***** 2 launches on mobile, but it's a scam View the full article

Two decades on from the release of Half-Life 2, Valve has shown off some of what Half-Life 2: Episode 3 could have looked like. Read more View the full article

The Game Awards is revealing all the nominees poised to take home some awards next week, and it wants you to know that could include DLC, expansions, and remakes. Read more View the full article

If you're one of the few Steam users who still doesn't own Half-Life 2, now is your chance to add Valve's blockbuster first-person shooter to your library permanently – for free – until November 18. The bundle also includes both follow-up episodes, plus the game has received a major update... Read Entire Article View the full article

Within a certain area of Baldur's Gate 3, players may stumble upon the kuo-toa, a strange group of fish folk in the middle of an even stranger ceremony. A cluster of the creatures are praising a ******* altar, upon which a powerful redcap will appear if players get close enough to trigger the cut scene. Depending on how players handle the interaction, they may end up fighting the whole group, or they could gain a powerful new ally. View the full article

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is home to numerous chests, with every region having around 20-30 chests each. Minrathous' Dock Town has one of the trickier chests to unlock, which can be found in Wharf Crossing South. To solve this puzzle and open the chest, players will need to have already recruited Taash. View the full article

Publisher Xbox Game Studios and developer Compulsion Games shared a lengthy documentary video for South of Midnight, their new southern USA action-adventure game. The new 30-minute documentary for the game provides a behind-the-scenes look at its music, inspiration, and development, as well as reveals brand-new gameplay. Here’s a rundown on the game, plus the new […] Source View the full article

Merchants are scattered around Thedas in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, but none has such a rich inventory as The ****** Emporium in Dock Town. Unfortunately, this merchant can only be unlocked later in the game, preventing players from grabbing some easy loot until they reach a certain point. Once you've reached the end of Act 2, you can unlock the quest in a few ways. View the full article

Disney Dreamlight Valley is currently one of the leading games in the simulator genre due to its endless customization options that provide its players with lots of creative freedom. Whether a player enjoys customizing their character and collecting cosmetic items, or whether they prefer to spend their time decorating their valleys, the customization gameplay is generous in Disney Dreamlight Valley. However, another reason that the game is such a success is its element of nostalgia due to its inclusion of Disney's beloved characters in the gameplay. View the full article