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Image: The Verge Xbox is putting on a 20-minute “no fluff, all games” showcase from third-party studios. Continue reading… View the full article

On its official WeChat account, CSAC claimed that Intel's chips are a threat due to their "frequent vulnerabilities and high ******** rates." It added that the company's CPUs, including Xeon processors, have major defects when it comes to product quality and security management, indicating an extremely irresponsible attitude towards customers. Read Entire Article View the full article

The recent launch of Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream proved that the long-standing anime franchise continues to hold sway. The new SAO RPG arrived just two weeks ago, pulling in thousands of players and a positive reception on Steam. Now, the latest release from Elden Ring and Tekken publisher Bandai Namco follows up on its initial success with a first DLC, which introduces Strea as a new playable character in a special story scenario alongside additional weapons and costumes. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Co-op RPG Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream is blowing up on Steam Elden Ring publisher dates new RPG based on beloved anime series View the full article

Delta Force could be the next big online shooter. The latest demo, released as part of Steam Next Fest, has already drawn upwards of 39,000 concurrent players, beating the likes of Battlefield V and Helldivers 2 in terms of daily player count. A reimagining of the classic FPS series from the early '00s (the campaign mode, when it launches, will be a remake of the ****** Hawk Down game from 2003), Delta Force looks and sounds great, and has a lot of early potential. Based on a number of reports from players, however, cheaters are already starting to spoil the fun. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Best Delta Force loadouts and builds All Delta Force game weapons and guns Delta Force system requirements are low but have questionable RAM demands View the full article

One of Call of Duty’s main pain points over the past few years will be optimized in a pending update, coming early next week before ****** Ops 6’s launch. The first step in overhauling Call of Duty HQ’s hard-to-navigate user interface begins on Monday when preloads for BO6 go live at 11am CT. The hub of all things CoD that houses multiple titles from the past few years in the series, all the way back to 2019, should operate more smoothly and be less frustrating to navigate. It’s been a main complaint for many players since it was iterated. View the full article

Square Enix has released a new update for the PC version of Final Fantasy 16. The patch aims to address some of the more pressing issues fans have been having with the new port of Final Fantasy 16, which was initially released as a PlayStation 5 exclusive in June 2023. View the full article

Bohemia Interactive have announced that Arma 4, the next big instalment in their shooter simulation series, will release in 2027. The announcement came at the tail-end of Bohemia's 25th Anniversary Concert, alongside some disturbingly ****-less footage of a coastal promontory with rippling ocean waters against a cloudy sky - it reminds me more of The Elder Scrolls 6's announcement teaser than any tactial mili-banger. Perhaps they're secretly making an open world walking simulator? I ****, I ****. Please put the chair down. Read more View the full article

The Epic Games Store free game for October 24 is Moving Out. Epic Games Store users are treated to new freebies on a weekly basis, though the number of free games can certainly differ from one week to the next. Epic Games Store users will only have one new free game to claim next week, but they have two freebies that they can snag right now. View the full article

Image: Jack Bullard for The Verge In Stardew Valley, you can usually only speak to characters a few times per day. This limitation has led to a number of mods that add things for them to say so that players can spend more time with their virtual pals. But like many games, Stardew recently turned to AI, resulting in the addition of a mod with the ability to have theoretically endless conversations with your favorite farm companion. “The reception has been a lot better than I initially thought [it would be],” says modder DualityOfSoul. In the comments on Nexus Mods, users have called it “brilliant” and “one of the best mods out this year.” To function, the mod plugs into OpenAI’s API. The implementation is impressive but limited in its own way. Every character... Continue reading… View the full article

Quest rewards come in all shapes and sizes in Baldur’s Gate 3. Sometimes, you might receive a heaping pile of gold, and sometimes, you might receive a fancy new *******. Other times, you might receive a pair of dreamy Drow twins. The Drow twins are found in Act Three of Baldur’s Gate 3 as you first enter the Lower City region of Baldur’s Gate. While ultimately non-consequential to the game’s plot, they provide you with an opportunity for a bit of scandalous fun or a moral dilemma—depending on how you’ve played the game thus far. Should you hire the Drow twins in Baldur’s Gate 3? View the full article

Internet culture truly has evolved into something unique over the years, and gamer lingo is a big part of that shift. And, now, Overwatch 2 players have a new title that fully lives up to gamer slang to vie for: the Kitten of Discord. Calling people “chat” or spamming “W” are just two examples of this. Other examples, though, include nicknames surrounding the culture, and online games these days are full of references to them. Overwatch 2’s season 13 battle pass may have one of the best (or worst, depending on your POV) ones yet. Here’s what it is, what it means, and how to unlock it. View the full article

EA has dropped a new Madden NFL 25 update, introducing fresh face scans for several players, bringing back custom playbooks for Online H2H matches, and improving defensive plays to make them smarter. On top of that, this Madden NFL 25 update also fixes multiple issues impacting different aspects of the game. View the full article

The Nvidia app is heading towards a wider public release and the company is asking for help in a new survey to choose which features should be added next. The company is planning to ditch its older Control Panel and GeForce Experience apps soon, but before it does that, it needs you to help it pick which features make the final cut. While it's still in beta testing, recent Nvidia app updates have made it the best way to manage some of the best graphics cards, like the RTX 4070 Super, from the GPU powerhouse. This new survey is the best way to get your opinions heard about the company's new app, especially as Nvidia plans for it to exit beta by the end of the year. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 guide: Everything we know about the new gaming GPU A 24GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 gaming GPU is now more likely, thanks to Samsung Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 and 5060 could launch sooner than expected, says ***** View the full article

Semiconductor-focused analysis firm TechInsights says x86 currently accounts for 82 percent of the notebook processor market, while Arm's market share is around 18 percent. It expects Arm's footprint to grow to 20 percent by 2025 in the notebook market as more affordable Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered AI PCs hit the consumers. Read Entire Article View the full article

Back in 2021, that dark epoch known as the Pre-Edwin Age, there was but one Ed at Rock Paper Shotgun - the venerable Ed Thorn, aka Edders. Edders had a dream, the dream of Halo Infinite getting a battle royale mode . Like Moses descending from the mount with a Needler in either hand, he bedazzled and amazed us with visions of "an enormous playground stitched together from some of Halo's most iconic maps of yore; Warthogs and Mongooses roaming the lands; players racing to the M41 SPNKR as it spawns; grappling to a rooftop and laying down covering *****; some contrived reason as to why there's a circle of poison gas closing in... but hey, rings are what Halo does best, right? It's 100% doable."[/url] Ed Thorn has always been a journalist of great sagacity and supernatural insight, so it was of no surprise to the RPS editors of the era when rumours bubbled up a few months later that Certain Affinity had partnered with 343 Industries (nowadays Halo Studios) to make Halo battle royale a reality. These rumours have now been confirmed by Certain Affinity's former design director Mike Clopper, who says the now-cancelled mode could have been a "game changer". Read more View the full article

The park expansion is still under construction, but some early illustrations (pictured) give us an idea of what to expect. | Image: Universal Universal’s Florida resort will open new worlds themed around franchises like Harry Potter and Super Mario on May 22, 2025. The announcement sets a date for the new park expansion, dubbed “Epic Universe,” which consists of four new worlds connected via a centralized hotel and shopping distinct called Celestial Park. The lineup includes Super Nintendo World, the first to open on the US East Coast following earlier versions that debuted in California and Japan. Some early glimpses reveal it has all the theming you’d expect for an immersive Mushroom Kingdom experience — down to entering the world through a massive green pipe — and is supposedly larger than the two previous parks. A third Harry Potter park is also one of the most anticipated... Continue reading… View the full article

The first supplement for the Warhammer 40k RPG Imperium Maledictum, the 'Inquisition Player's Guide', is available for pre-order now - Wargamer was lucky enough to receive an early PDF copy from publisher Cubicle 7. Though the book has a clear focus on Inquisition-centric adventures, lots of the content will be valuable for any group of players - and we think the new rules for familiars will be particularly popular. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: GW promises plastic Horus Heresy Space Marines for each Legion Warhammer 40k fan crafts colossal papercraft Dreadnought Oh ****, the new DnD books have a DLC chart View the full article

Fanatical's Build your own Play on the Go Bundle PREMIUM edition has launched again with another set of games for you to grab for your Steam Deck. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

Sorry, Chris Redfield, but Leon S. Kennedy is still Resident Evil’s best protagonist. | Image: Capcom The Silent Hill 2 remake just came out for those looking for a nostalgic scare, but if you’re in need of heebie-jeebies on a budget, the Resident Evil 4 remake is just as capable. It’s down to $21.99 ($8 off) at Amazon for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen for a physical copy, and it’s just in time for Halloween and to reminisce about 2004 with us. [/url] Resident Evil 4 stars series favorite Leon Kennedy, who’s been tasked with infiltrating a cultish compound in Spain to rescue the president’s daughter, one Ashley Graham. It quickly becomes apparent that the cannibalistic desires of the townsfolk aren’t due to sheer psychosis and viral mutation alone. The RE4 remake is very faithful to the original... Continue reading… View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Netflix might be controlling its spending a little bit now, but is also still looking to put out gigantic blockbusters that rarely hit the big screen. Up next, we have the Russo Brothers' The Electric State, an adaptation of Simon Stålenhag's 2018 illustrated novel of the same name. Read more View the full article

The Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 community is up in arms over sweeping nerfs made by the latest patch — so much so that some players are review ******** the game on Steam. Update 4.0, which kicks off Space Marine 2 Season 2 with a new PvE map, Tyranid ******, and Lethal difficulty, also changes the game balance in significant ways to make Operations mode *******. Here’s the relevant section from the Update 4.0 patch notes: Melee Archetypes: Fencing weapons' perfect parry window will now have the same duration as balanced weapons but it will start from the first frame of parry animation. Melee Perks: Chainsword, Power Fist, Combat ****** charged attacks perks get significant damage increase. Basic Auspex Scan: bonus damage on bosses is reduced by 30%. Melta Charge: damage to bosses is reduced by 70%. ​****** Spawn Director PvE: Tweaked idle spawns.****** variety within waves is now less random while ****** variety between waves is *******.Extremis enemies can now spawn with additional enemies. Difficulty: Ruthless: Ammo crates have limited refills per player.Ruthless: Player's armour reduced by 20%.Substantial: Player's armour reduced by 10% It’s worth highlighting the change to fencing weapons’ perfect parry window (Space Marine 2 combat is all about well-timed perfect parries, indeed they’re essential for success on the ******* PvE difficulties because they let you follow up with a high damage shot from your *******). Fencing weapons were by far the most popular ******* type in the game due to their more generous perfect parry window compared to the balance ******* type (block weapons can't perfect parry). But Update 4.0 limits fencing weapons' active parry frames to the first half of the parry animation (frames 1-10), whereas pre-patch it covered the entirety of the animation. This means fencing weapons now revolve around parrying at the last moment; indeed it may be the case that the developers wish for fencing weapons to lean on last moment parries. In contrast, balance weapons parry frames 11-20, and so require players predict a parry in advance. There are trade-offs here when you get down to the stats, but the perception of this change right now is currently a negative one, given it halves the active parry frames of all fencing weapons. Then there’s the significant nerf to the basic Auspex Scan, which was a popular, some say essential method of doing bonus damage on enemies and bosses (some of the Operations mode bosses are incredibly tough, especially on ******* difficulties). The change to the Melta Charge has also sparked a backlash. This one-hit high damage piece of equipment (you can only carry one at a time) was often used against bosses to give Space Marines a fighting chance on higher difficulties. Now, players say, they’re next to useless. And then there are the changes made to the ruthless and substantial difficulties, which make Operations mode a lot ******* for everyone chasing rewards tied to those tiers. Even on the new Lethal difficulty, which is designed to be brutally hard, players have complained about its exclusive mechanic that only restores armor from finishers if you stay close to your teammates (restoring armor through finishers is essential to survival in Space Marine 2). Anyone who has played Space Marine 2’s Operations mode will know it’s not easy to stick together, especially when playing with randoms. Some of the more raid-style mechanics in the Operations require player coordination while Space Marines do their thing in different spots on the map. Players are now reporting that the radius players must be within to restore armor is tiny. This change, then, feels like a particularly harsh kick in the teeth. The backlash has been aggressive and swift. The official Space Marine 2 discord is packed with complaints, as is the Space Marine subreddit. “STOP THE NERF GIVE US FUN,” declared Wyndolll. “Haven't you learned from Helldivers 2 experience? Nerf player = negative reaction.” “‘Thanks for the nerfs in my PvE powerfantasy game,’ said no one ever,” said a clearly disgruntled Aspharr. “What’s with all the ********* nerfs,” added Old_Competition8765. “Extremely disappointing to see this game going the way of Helldivers. Hope they do proper balancing and not this lazy nerf *****.” The mention of Helldivers 2 is of course a reference to the backlash Arrowhead suffered from doing pretty much what Saber Interactive has done here: nerf the game at a time when players were hoping for buffs. Arrowhead spent a great deal of time, energy, and resources getting its playerbase back on-side, culminating with a recent update that rebalanced the entire game. Will Space Marine 2 end up stumbling down the same path? There are early signs players may review ***** the game to voice their displeasure. On Steam, Space Marine 2's recent user review rating ******** ‘very positive,’ but at the time of this article’s publication, 181 new negative reviews were left so far today, October 17. That number, many more than is usual for a single day, seems likely to grow. For Focus and Saber’s part, in today’s Patch 4 notes they admitted the changes would make Operations mode ******* and promised to keep an eye on feedback. The developers made the changes, they said, because they felt Operations mode was too easy, especially after the release of Patch 3. “This is not the last change,” they promised. Here’s the statement: "With Patch 3 we have noticed that Operations mode became noticeably easier, especially Chaos operations. We are happier with what we have right now compared to what we had on release, because before Patch 3 Chaos missions were unpopular. Still, we think that currently Operations mode is a bit too easy. "Overall these changes are going to make Operations mode *******, but it is difficult to measure by how much. We will continue to monitor those changes and will continue to adjust the balance of Operations mode. This is not the last change." Wesley is the *** News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Hazelight Studios has announced that its excellent co-operative adventure game and IGN 2021 game of the year nominee, It Takes Two, has sold over 20 million copies. #ItTakesTwo HAS SOLD OVER 20 MILLION!!! You’re the best fans in the world, how you have embraced our game is blowing our minds! We’re so grateful to every one of the millions upon millions who have enjoyed their time with Cody and May [Hidden Content] — Hazelight Studios (@HazelightGames) October 16, 2024 This milestone comes three and a half years after the couch co-op game's launch on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, with a Switch release following in November 2022. It Takes Two sold over one million units in the month following its launch, and its numbers have climbed steadily since. At last count in March of this year, it had reached 16 million units, a testimony to positive word-of-mouth and effusive critical praise helping the game continue to do well even years after release. And it helps that the game's been on ***** numerous times since launch - it's just $9.99 (down from $39.99) on the PlayStation Store at the time of publication. It Takes Two was showered with accolades on launch, earning a 9/10 review score from us where we called it "a spectacular co-op adventure that lays down a path of great gameplay ideas and uses it to play a giddy game of hopscotch." It's since settled at an 88 metascore on Metacritic and an 8.9 user score, and it won Game of the Year, Best Family Game, and Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards 2021. It also took home a Golden Joystick for Best Multiplayer Game, a GDC Award for Best Design, Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Game Design at the DICE Awards, and a BAFTA for Multiplayer Game and Original Property. A film adaptation is currently in the works at Amazon Studios, with Dawyne "The Rock" Johnson producing. Meanwhile, developer Hazelight Studios, headed up by Josef Fares, has been relatively quiet since It Takes Two's release. The studio's first game, A Way Out, came out roughly three years before It Takes Two, leading to hopes that we may be due for another announcement from the devoted cooperative game studio any day now. Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected]. View the full article

Rare Lithographs allow you to craft Rare items in Throne and Liberty. Depending on what you need, it might be an opportunity for you to craft that missing piece of the build or make some Lucent at the Auction House. Here’s everything you need to know about Rare Lithographs and Rare Blank Lithographs in Throne and Liberty. View the full article

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate has added MechWarrior 5: Clans and one returning title to its content library. This library expansion brings the total number of 2024 Xbox Game Pass releases to 120. View the full article

With the launch of Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 fast approaching, Activision has revealed even more details on the upcoming shooter and confirmed the return of the ******* range. This fan-favorite feature allows players to test out their weapons before jumping into a game and has featured in various other Call of Duty titles stemming back to 2014's Advanced Warfare, but will now be returning with a few improvements in Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6. View the full article