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Nintendo's lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair is "a clear case of bullying," patent analyst Florian Mueller has said. He did so as part of a wider analysis of some recently uncovered details about the Palworld complaint that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company filed in mid-September 2024. View the full article

Zenless Zone Zero has officially teased the newest character coming to the game with the release of the Version 1.4 update, showing off a teaser for the highly-anticipated Hoshimi *******. With HoYoverse recently rolling out the newest update for the urban action RPG, Version 1.3 has brought plenty to the table for fans. The patch introduces multiple new game modes, with both "The Mystery of Arpeggio Fault" and "Simulated Battle Trial" alongside new characters Yanagi and Lighter. However, HoYoverse is already getting fans ready for the game's following update. View the full article

Sales for Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 are up 60% on PlayStation and Steam when compared to last year's entry, Modern Warfare 3, according to Treyarch Studios developer Miles Leslie. While ****** Ops 6 has been heavily praised by both fans and critics for its stellar campaign, Sledgehammer Games' previous Call of Duty title was blasted for its short and lackluster story mode, which is likely one of the reasons for its poor sales when compared to this year's entry. View the full article

CS2 comes with many improvements over CS:GO that make navigating around it more convenient for the average player. Many of these features are available via the game’s menus, but for accessing everything at once, the console is your best friend. Many Counter-Strike players don’t even use the game’s menus: once you discover the CS2 console, you may find that it’s easier to input a string and a value to immediately run commands or change a setting. View the full article

Following on from the big release of Steam Game Recording in the stable Steam Client, there's a new smaller Beta available for Steam Deck and Desktop. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

Videogames are the weirdest of mediums. For lots of reasons, really, but this weekend it's DLC and expansions that I've got in my sights. An opinion piece about DLC, how novel! I know, I know, but lately there have been a few high profile games refusing to go down the DLC and expansion route, and this novelty really reinforces how strange it is that games drawing out their stories for a year or longer has become the expected, done thing... Read more.View the full article

Marvel Rivals confirms that Moon Knight is indeed the next playable character coming to the game, giving fans a look at the character through a new trailer. It's been a very positive year so far for NetEase's upcoming online hero shooter, as Marvel Rivals continues to build anticipation through new reveals and announcements. View the full article

Pretty early on in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, you'll arrive at the crossroads and receive the quest "The Heart of ***********" when you interact with your first Blight-sealed door. While you might think that this is just a side quest, you might be surprised to find that this quest will take you quite a long way into the game to complete. You'll need to do a bunch of exploration and defeat a few pretty strong bosses, so this quest isn't for the faint of heart. View the full article

Wine 9.21 released as one of the last developments builds, since we are steadily approaching the release of Wine 10.0 for this Windows compatibility layer. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

Publisher Rainmaker Productions and developer G.rev have announced a release date for NINJA KAMUI: SHINOBI ORIGINS. NINJA KAMUI: SHINOBI ORIGINS will launch for PlayStation 4 on November 14th and sometime in Q4 2024 for Windows PC (via Steam). The action game based on the original anime from ****** Swim was originally released for Nintendo Switch back […] Source View the full article

NetEase Games has announced another playable character for Marvel Rivals’ base roster with Moon Knight. Moon Knight is joining the team-based hero shooter as part of its base roster, all of whom will be unlocked and free-to-play at launch. Here’s a blurb on the character, plus a new trailer: He was given a second chance at […] Source View the full article

After a brief teaser, SUCCESS Corporation has announced Sonic Wings Reunion, the first new entry for the series in nearly 27 years. Sonic Wings Reunion is in development for Windows PC (via Steam), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and ********* arcades. A release is set for May 29th, 2025 in Japan. Originally known as Sonic Wings (ソニックウィングス, Sonikku wingusu) […] Source View the full article

Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 developer Treyarch Studios has nerfed the popular Recon perk for the third time, reducing the duration that enemies are highlighted to just 0.5 seconds. While Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 is less than three weeks old at the time of writing, it has received multiple balancing updates since launch, with the latest patch nerfing a divisive perk yet again. View the full article

Are you familiar with ****** words and their usage in the world of international diplomacy? Today’s NYT Mini Crossword clue is “Persona non grata,” which asks you to find the word to describe a person who is not welcomed in a country. If today’s NYT Mini Crossword clues feel like a challenge, you can use our hints and answers to easily solve the word puzzle. View the full article

It's easy to forget, given that Half-Life 2 Episode 3 never actually surfaced and probably never will, but Valve had plans that actually went beyond it. Half-Life 2 Episode 4 was on the cards for a while, under multiple studios. The first was Junction Point, which was founded by the father of immersive sims, Warren Spector, in 2004. Like so many Half-Life projects, unfortunately, it never saw the light of day... Read more.View the full article

Once Human: Way of Winter introduced new content, including exploring new locations. Along with the new locations come new mystical crates. Mystical crates contain many goodies players will want to get their hands on, including rare weapons, armor blueprints, and other valuable loots. View the full article

***** has announced they’ve sold off Amplitude Studios to members of its internal team, making the studio go independent once again. Originally founded back in 2011 by former Ubisoft employees Romain de Waubert de Genlis and Mathieu Girard, Amplitude Studios was eventually acquired by ***** 2016 and was part of its ***** Europe branch. “Our […] Source View the full article

Have you tried different forms of transport while traveling in San Francisco? Today’s NYT Mini Crossword clue is “Car puller in San Francisco,” which asks you to find an eco-friendly and old transportation system in the ******* States of America that is a nostalgic part of San Fran’s public transit system. If you can’t find the right word for today’s NYT Mini Crossword, you can use our hints and answers to breeze through the word game. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

There’s a line in our Dragon Age: The Veilguard review that has stuck with me throughout my own playthrough: “It’s hilarious that no one ever says the word ‘Veilguard’ out loud across the 100 hours I played of this dialogue-packed campaign, exposing a last-minute marketing pivot for what it was.” While I’m nowhere near the 100-hour mark myself, that line is so far proving true – not a single character has mentioned The Veilguard. My team of D&D archetype oddballs may collectively be known as such in all the marketing, online articles, and the physical box itself, but within the world of Thedas they’re none the wiser. Imagine Tony Stark and Steve Rogers having no idea the world called them Avengers… that’s how odd it is. A name that Rook, Varric, Harding, and the rest of the gang definitely do know, though, is Dread Wolf – the mythical moniker of former Dragon Age companion, Solas, as well as the original subtitle for this fourth entry in BioWare’s fantasy series. While ultimately it really doesn’t matter what this game is called, the more I play The Veilguard, the more it feels like it’s awkwardly in conflict with itself, torn into pieces that reflect two very different intentions – one a sequel to a decade-old RPG, the other a fresh beginning with no ties to what came before. Many aspects of The Veilguard point to it being something of a soft reset or even spin-off from the main Dragon Age series. Set in the northern Tevinter region, it leaves behind the saga’s original southern home of Ferelden, along with all its characters and politics. Dragon Age has always started afresh with each new game as, unlike Mass Effect, there’s no persistent protagonist across the series as each instalment tells a brand new story. The shift to Tevinter is perfectly in keeping with Dragon Age’s history, then, but The Veilguard isn’t a typical Dragon Age game. It is its first direct sequel – a continuation of Dragon Age: Inquisition, which dedicated its post-credits and Trespasser DLC to setting up Solas as the villainous Dread Wolf. And this is where it all starts to feel a little messy. So much of The Veilguard is dedicated to Solas. Its opening sees him performing a dangerous ****-unleashing ritual, and the world is littered with quests that explore his history and relationship with those dark deities. There may be no mention of the word “Veilguard” anywhere, but everyone is talking about the Dread Wolf. Why isn’t that the name of the game again? Rather than take his place as the villain Trespasser promised, Solas is usurped by a much more newcomer-friendly option But while Solas may take up considerable space, the Dread Wolf has weirdly been relegated to the position of fantasy Hannibal Lecter, trapped in dreams where he appears only to offer advice. Rather than take his place as the villain Trespasser promised, he’s usurped by other dark elven gods who don’t demand any significant prior knowledge – a much more newcomer-friendly option. I’m left with the impression of an antagonist who was robbed of his big bad status somewhere along The Veilguard’s infamously rocky development journey. As our review says, you can “practically smell the rewrites.” But despite his shift from villain to condescending informant, the story is still dedicated to him in a manner that never feels like a true fit for a game that elsewhere is so clearly attempting to be a fresh start rather than a direct sequel. While I’d rather we got a more clear-cut successor to Inquisition, I think the game we’ve ended up with would be better for cutting Solas loose entirely. Sure, the lack of answers to one of the greatest twists in RPG history would be frustrating, but Solas’ fate feels divorced from the story that established him. That’s because none of the world-altering choices you made across the Dragon Age series are reflected in The Veilguard. Unlike its predecessors, there’s no way to import or recreate your save games and world state aside from three basic and largely interchangeable decisions made in Inquisition’s Trespasser DLC. Speaking to IGN earlier this year, creative director John Epler told us “among many reasons why we moved to Northern Thedas is it becomes a little bit more of a clean slate for us. There's not as many decisions you have made up to this point that have an impact on what's happening in Northern Thedas. And we don't have to speak directly to things like who is the Divine? Because again, that's happening in the South.” But the South is where we made our home and our ties to this world, and so this move means that the Thedas that we helped influence and shape across dozens of hours is not the same Thedas that’s currently at stake. With The Veilguard’s elven gods representing not just the greatest apocalyptic threat Thedas has ever faced, but also the culmination of the Inquisition storyline, then surely it's more important than ever that the stakes are our own, personal version of this world? I do sympathise with BioWare – Dragon Age wasn’t developed as a trilogy in the same way as Mass Effect, and so the choices have been on very different scales that must be incredibly difficult to implement into successive games. But those choices being wiped entirely results in something that feels like an opening trying to be a finale. It’s a situation only further strained by the fact that The Veilguard’s version of Thedas is so tonally different from the one established in the previous Dragon Age games. Its grand Necropolis and floating Minrathous fortress feel divorced from the earthier lands of Inquisition and a far cry from the darker regions in which this saga began. Veilguard is a whole new world untouched by players and that clashes with its insistence on continuing Solas’ story in a roundabout way. If BioWare really needed to leave our choices behind, or if it really needed to start afresh for a new era, then going the Mass Effect: Andromeda route of an entirely new story, characters, and setting would have been the cleaner choice. The Veilguard crew all appear to be likeable people, but it feels as if I’m being blocked from forging true bonds with them. And so we come back to that history-avoiding title. When Dragon Age: Dreadwolf became Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare’s general manager Gary McKay explained the new name was chosen to reflect the “really deep and compelling group of companions.” It’s an unsurprising shift, moving away from Solas’ decade-old story that perhaps too few players will actually care about in favour of a direction clearly inspired by the phenomenon that is Baldur’s Gate 3’s beloved party. But, frustratingly, I don’t think The Veilguard does the intention of its new title justice. Across the first 15 or so hours, during which you put together a ****-******** team Mass Effect 2-style, there’s rarely the option to have a proper back-and-forth conversation. There’s a tendency to favour cutscenes or pre-scripted chat over traditional RPG dialogue choices, resulting in the feeling that characters are talking at you rather than with you. Very few party members can be spoken to at length following their initial recruitment, and this lack of introductory getting-to-know-you feels antithetical to a design that expects you to quickly forge bonds and trust with your team. As time goes by there are more opportunities to direct the flow of conversation yourself, but they frequently lack the multi-tier dialogue trees that really allow you to delve deep. It was only after unlocking the dragon-hunting Taash that I was presented with a conversation in which I was able to cycle through multiple tiers of responses at every stage of the dialogue. It was the first satisfying conversation I’d had in 17 hours of play, and I’m baffled as to why I hadn’t had the same experience with every other character I’d met. The Veilguard crew all appear to be likeable people, but it feels as if I’m being blocked from forging true bonds with them. That especially goes for Varric. What is arguably Dragon Age’s best-ever character has been imprisoned in his bedroom, consigned to spouting incidental dialogue that you can’t engage with. His sidelining is yet another example of The Veilguard’s uneasy relationship with its predecessor, but unfortunately the frustrating treatment of its new cast means it’s also difficult to fully embrace the story’s fresh faces. As I enter The Veilguard’s second half I have begun to appreciate its unique approaches. The knotty, secrets-filled Crossroads region is fun to explore. The action combat is really robust, particularly when enhanced by the well-considered skill tree. But at every turn you can feel the toll of that long, rocky development timeline. There’s a solid **** of War-style action game in here, but its sharp battles, linear-ish level design, and explosive cutscenes clash with the more traditional RPG that’s also fighting for air. Those level layouts throttle the quest design, action always takes precedence over conversation, stealth, or diplomacy, and the companions are more like NPCs than party members – Atreus over Astarion. The overall result is that Dragon Age: The Veilguard isn’t the golden era BioWare game that I had hoped it would be. Torn between continuing its traditional role-playing legacy and starting afresh as a modern action RPG, the end result is an awkward sequel trapped in a cage made of reboot ideas. After years and years of faltered steps I understand why BioWare landed on this particular, very mainstream AAA formula, but I wish it had been inspired by the undying mass popularity of The Witcher 3 – a full-on nerdy RPG – rather than veer closer to Sony’s palatable RPG-ish approach for modern **** of War. But that ill-defined shape is often what uneasy development cycles get you. Thankfully The Veilguard’s launch has seemingly gone well for EA and BioWare, which hopefully means Dragon Age will continue. Let’s just hope next time it’s not just the name that’s got a bit of Baldur’s Gate in it. Matt Purslow is IGN's Senior Features Editor. View the full article

As the mysterious World of Warcraft Guest Relations event rolls on, Blizzard steps in to help some WoW secret hunters that accidentally stumbled into a clue earlier than expected. Thinking about the fact that WoW is 20 years old has me a little weak in the knees, but The War Within has restored its reputation to stand alongside FF14 as the reigning MMORPG champions even among challenges from the likes of Throne and Liberty, or the upcoming Ashes of Creation. A particular puzzle in the WoW 20th anniversary celebrations, however, has players stumped for now. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: The best WoW addons November 2024 WoW 20th anniversary celebrations kick off with class balance chaos World of Warcraft just launched its weirdest collab in 20 years View the full article

Updated Nov. 9, 2024: Added new codes! I still see your shadows in my room. Those shadows are the highly anticipated Anime Shadows—the Roblox experience where you can unlock your favorite anime heroes and defeat raid bosses with ease using Anime Shadow codes. View the full article

Deciding to slap your hard-earned cash down on a new game is always a little scary, so taking advantage of a free weekend is a great way to try out something you've had your eye on. First launched in 2021 by RocketWerkz, the studio founded by DayZ creator Dean 'Rocket' Hall, survival game Icarus has come a long way since then. To celebrate its latest update you can play it for free right now, with a big Steam ***** discount making it cheap to keep if you like it. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Icarus update adds insured drops to make permadeath more forgiving Icarus review - survival stories Icarus devs targeting daily updates for the survival game following bumpy launch View the full article

According to the FBI, malicious actors are increasingly targeting government and law enforcement emails, using them to obtain sensitive information by sending fraudulent emergency data requests (EDRs) to tech companies. While users should always maintain strong cybersecurity practices, robust data policies are even more critical for officials and companies, which... Read Entire Article View the full article

Narrowing down what leader to play during a Sid Meiers Civilization 6 campaign can be hard, especially considering the range of gameplay approaches and independent characteristics. Choosing the right leader for the right strategy can be a crucial component of victory, serving as one part of the strategic depth that makes Civilization 6 stand out as a great strategy game on the Nintendo Switch and other modern platforms. Starting with the right leader matters, shaping the rest of the game for players. View the full article

A Slow Poison is a side quest in Dragon Age: The Veilguard that gives more insight into how The Butcher sees the people of Treviso. It also gives a hint or two on the mystery surrounding the Antaam invasion. The Antivan Crows, known for their espionage and intelligence gathering, suspect a traitor within the city walls, aiding the Antaam in their swift takeover. The player character, alongside their companions, is tasked by the Crows to uncover the truth. View the full article