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It's hard to imagine now given the advances in gaming technology, but stepping out of Vault 13 into the wide post-apocalyptic wasteland was a stunning moment in the first Fallout. You went from a dank ***** filled with rats to a massive map you could explore in any direction, which was huge for 1997. Many Fallout games have replicated that feeling of leaving the vault in the years following, but the first still holds a special place in many hearts. Fallout Vault 13 is a brand new Fallout 4 mod that aims to recreate that moment - and the entire first game - and it's got a demo you'll be able to play surprisingly soon. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Best Fallout 4 mods 2024 The best games like Fallout on PC 2024 New Fallout 4 mod gives it the action FPS overhaul it sorely needs View the full article

A new Destiny 2 ***** revealed that a Destiny 10th anniversary event is coming soon, with various free rewards to earn and "new secrets" to discover. Bungie has yet to officially unveil its 10th anniversary plans for the Destiny franchise, but the ***** reveals a description of what's coming soon in Destiny 2. View the full article

I should not be playing Space Marine 2 like this. Even the game warned me not to. Regardless, here I slog, a puny level 1 Aspirant in a Ruthless difficulty op recommended for level 15 Angels of ******. Why am I here? For the glory of the ****-Emperor. To feel the full grimdark direness of 40K. And because I’m a ******* ******. Through sheer grit, *****, and spite, I’ve clutch-******* a path through a swarm of Tyranids to my main objective. I’m caked in mud and blood. I’m out of medicae and depleted of lives, so my two beloved AI chapter brothers cannot resuscitate me. When these four rounds in my sidearm go, we’ll be down to ******* whips and harsh language. As I crest the last hill and prepare to cry victoriam, the shout ***** upon my lips. I stand in genuine awe of the graphics engine-flex that greets me. At least a thousand xenos—like an ****** rash on the planet, like a Helldiver’s worst ultra-nightmare—flood across the mountain range beyond. I gulp, despite “knowing” in the back of my gamer brain that this must be a parlour trick. Non-interactive eye-candy. Some sort of 2.5D matte painting, animated by the voodoo of an especially clever art team. To my growing horror, a swarm of no fewer than two hundred of these xenos break off from the main host and beeline toward my position. I empty my bolt ******* into the biomass, shriek “Ave, Imperator!” and a tsunami of fangs and foreclaws obliterate us. This is my very first experience of Space Marine 2, and I cannot wait to go again, albeit on a way more sensible difficulty. In a moment, I’ll fill you in on the finer details of my second sortie, but first let me get some preorder options out of the way. To skip that window shopping, click here to read my continued thoughts. Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 DealsStandard Edition PS5 Preorder at Mighty Ape - $89Preorder at JB Hi-Fi - $99Get it digital on PS Store - $107.95 XSX Preorder at Mighty Ape - $89Preorder at JB Hi-Fi - $99Get it digital on MS Store - $107.95 PC Get it digital on Steam - $89.95Gold Edition PS5 Preorder at Amazon + free shipping - $149Preorder at Mighty Ape - $159Preorder at JB Hi-Fi - $149Get it digital on PS Store - $152.95 XSX Preorder at Amazon + free shipping - $149Preorder at Mighty Ape - $159Preorder at JB Hi-Fi - $149Get it digital on MS Store - $152.95 PC Get it digital on Steam - $134.95Ultra Edition PS5 Get it digital on PS Store - $169.95 XSX Get it digital on MS Store - $169.95 PC Get it digital on Steam - $149.95 Back to top Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 hands-on For those of you who never played the 2011 original, let's cut right to the beating ossmodula of what Space Marine 2 is. The closest analogue I can give would be: a cover-system-less Gears of War with six classes, XP grinding for unique perks, and a three-player (or AI) squad running finite lives. Also, despite frequent and impressive glimpses outward to a larger conflict on your macro, missions will funnel you along hemmed in paths that can branch and become flooded with foes. Even on Recruit difficulty, with a rifle that looks like it was ripped off an aircraft, your default state shall be backpedalling, dodging, and desperately trying to parry. Almost every encounter devolves into chainsword-to-claw CQC and last ditch Ability usage to turn some of the highest tides this side of Days Gone. Every quiet moment is spent licking your wounds and scratching for ammo and stimms left near the corpse piles of non-transhumans who had buckley's chance of returning home with a head. Sometimes you’ll stumble upon a dataslate that fleshes out their final heroic or hopeless moments. More often, exposition comes from well-voiced vox orders from your superiors, or some surprisingly touching snatches of squaddie chatter. Your bros keep their trigger discipline to short-controlled bursts; they’ll ***** at will with compliments and encouragement. It's...nice. Is this revolutionary action gaming? No, not particularly. Does it nail the brutalist, survival on a ******’s edge atmosphere of Warhammer 40K? You betcha. And, like almost every game ever made, all of it’s elevated when you enlist some human cohorts who know how to roll as a unit and cover each other’s weaknesses. To achieve that dynamic effectively requires the studious unlocking of 9 core perks, 3 team perks, 9 gear perks, and 3 signature perks. Quick tip: You should also probably pick and stick to a class early, as any self-improvement done will only accrue to the path chosen: Tactical, ********, Vanguard, Bulwark, *******, or Heavy. Being a lone wolf who loves to test the limits of common sense, I slid into the armour of a Heavy. Downsides: I'm less zippier, and having no melee weapons means I’m beholden to ammo box charity in the levels. Upsides: my 450-round Heavy Bolter reconstitutes Tyranids into tomato paste, and my Sig ability, Iron Halo, creates a semi-circle of safety from ranged *****. Upsides: my 450-round Heavy Bolter reconstitutes Tyranids into tomato paste. Better yet, I have cool things to (literally and repeatedly) ****** for. At level 25, I can make my Halo regen myself and my homies at a greater range and twice as quick. Or at level 24, I can go the other way and increasingly weaponise my bubble to melt any interlopers. I’m also taken by the tactical risk-reward of perks, which, surprisingly, give me damage bonuses when I’m on cooldown and vulnerable. Alternatively, you could invest in being a Team player. Your perk-improved rezzes could thoroughly refresh a brother, instead of heaving him to his feet, mere inches from ******’s door again. Or you can avoid that entire life-****** cycle by simply making your squad’s attitude-adjusters hurt more and chew ammo less to the tune of 25%. Decisions, decisions. Even from a cursory glance into the systems of Space Marine 2, I catch the strong whiff of hours upon hours of grinding yet to be done. *****, I can see that half of it will be spent on the purely cosmetic and tactically inconsequential. (Yes, Saber Interactive, I will achieve victory in 32 missions in Operations or Eternal War mode to unlock the ****-Emperor-tier, 9-item set of ‘Relic Secundus’ armour.) But all of this is assuming I won’t first be lured away by the chase of earning every Astartes Chapter's colour sets, decals, and armour parts. It's going to be agonising trying to pick from the Ultramarines, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Iron Hands, Imperial Fists, Space Wolves, Salamanders, Raven Guard—this list goes on. When I'm not drooling over menus, my time is spent in Operations mode, a PvE sidebar to the Campaign that’s centred on the auxiliary missions of Combat Squads Talasa and Veridian. In these sorties I mow down Termagants until my heavy bolter overheats, then it’s time to learn how to time my parries (obvious blue circle HUD element) to knock leaping Hormagaunts back. As I dispense pure, unadulterated gunishment to the masses, a Tyranid Warrior will invariably show up. They’re effectively mini-bosses, prone to blocking rounds with their scythe-like hands, and you’ll need to leap roll away from their (unblockable red circle) attacks. Manageable stuff, until you have more than three of them encircling you. Sometimes you’ll earn a short QTE window where you can counter-******* these brutes with a quick ******* blast to their bonce. And there’s also the sheer satisfaction of watching them enter a 'red-flashy critical health’ state, whereupon they may be ********* with an R3 click. The go-to move here seems to be shish kabobbing them with their own dismembered limbs. Or just grabbing their head with your Power Glove to administer the ultimate facelift (think: peeling). On the whole, this gameplay loop of crowd/ammo/heat controlling may sound primitive on paper, but it’s also a pretty compelling power fantasy. Add the very real danger of you and your cohorts getting too ******—and then boxed in with no means to jump or mantle to safety, because man-tank—and these encounters can get out of pocket quick. Grab their head with your Power Glove to administer the ultimate facelift (think: peeling). Do I have concerns at this point? Only some ********* things. For starters, I think an extra audio layer of "blades biting flesh" was absent in the otherwise kinetic swordplay here. Also, despite being in the top-tier of specs needed to run this, I copped long load/shader caching moments, both from a cold boot and when taxiing to/from missions. Optimisable stuff. Lastly, I spotted an isolated bug where one of my brothers was skating about on his helmet, completely inverted. But you know what? I think that’s all just the joys of preview code. In my decades of pre-release demoing, I’ve witnessed a lot worse in games that turned out just fine. The only real irritation I'm feeling is the ***** to hop back aboard for another pod drop. Space Marine 2 looks a treat up close, with an Emperor level reverence spent on the dense subject matter and fan-service attention to the minutiae of the titular marines. Even a trigger-happy berserker like myself could waste hours tinkering in the cosmetics menus, and then whatever photo mode options Saber feels like including. More importantly, it just felt good in my Power Gloves and as merciless as you please, even when dialled down. Plus, Space Marine 2 clearly has a long-tail for post-campaign grinding in co-op or PvP for some seriously alluring unlocks and skills for six XP-independent classes. Admittedly, the story ******** a mystery and a major piece of the puzzle, but it still seems like Saber is nailing the basic genetic-engineering of this sequel. I can feel it in my implanted, secondary heart of hearts. Back to top Adam Mathew was raised on Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels and stans the Adeptus Custodes. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Batman. Justice League. Harry Potter. Looney Tunes. Game of Thrones. The list of intellectual property owned by Warner Bros. Discovery is massive, and an awful lot of it seems ripe for being turned into a video game. If you're thinking WB's been a little slow to leverage that library, it sounds like the company's leadership agrees, and is looking not just to make more of its own games, but to license out some of its biggest franchises to other game studios in the future. Today on the Warner Bros. Discovery Q2 earnings, call CEO David Zaslav and president of global streaming and games JB Perrette responded to a question about the "strategic value" of games to Warner Bros. given recent "uneven performance". The company had just reported gaming revenue down 41% year-over-year due to underperformance of ******** Squad: ***** the Justice League compared to Hogwarts Legacy's massive success last year. Does WB see games as a core part of its portfolio? Seems like the answer is yes. Both Zaslav and Perrette explained that they wanted to grow the gaming business, especially in the free-to-play space, which Perrette says can help balance out some of the ups-and-downs of the cyclical console industry. That's part of why WB acquired Player First Games, developer of Multiversus, earlier this year. Zaslav followed up by noting that not only did WB want to keep leveraging its eleven studios, but that there's "also a lot of interest among others in coming to take advantage of some of that IP for gaming, which we're looking at." Here's both of their answers in full below: Perrette: We look at the evolution of the storytelling in interactive entertainment as a space and say it's one of the unique areas in media that is growing, both growing in terms of time spent, growing in terms of engagement, and growing in terms of revenue. And so we still see this as a huge opportunity for us. We know that our franchises, particularly in a world where the gaming industry-launching brand new franchises is getting ******* and ******* for a number of reasons, including IDFA deprecation and more challenges with marketing and customer acquisition And that franchises like the ones that we have are in high demand, and can help in launching games. You still need a great game, and the reality is, we've had the unfortunate- in a short ******* of 12 months, we went from having the record year in 2023 with Hogwarts Legacy to unfortunately having the opposite side of that spectrum with ******** Squad. And it is still hit-driven nature of some of that business, but one of the areas we are particularly leaning into, which is about half of the $200 billion games business, is the free-to-play space. And the Player First deal was really about strengthening our capabilities in that space. Because we do think we are subscale and we have more opportunities to grow in that space, which is a big part of the market. And when we do, then it'll help also provide some more balance to our games business, from the inevitably cyclicality of more console-based releases which have a 3-4 year time horizon and a little bit more lumpiness even when you do get it right. So we continue to be strong believers in the game space, we want to continue to see and figure out how we lean into it and get ******* in that space, and we'll certainly tell you more about it as time goes on. Zaslav: One of the strategic advantages of owning all our IP is, as the world has changed, it used to be you launch a movie or you launch a TV series, then you do a game. But one of the reasons that Hogwarts Legacy was so successful and the #1 game last year, you went to Hogwarts Legacy and you entered the game and you were able to become part of that world. That ultimately I think is a big piece of where this industry is going. That we'll create a movie, whether it's Batman or Superman or Harry Potter, and maybe there'll be a TV show, but the ability to go in that world and have that experience of spending time with all the characters is something that we still own. We have 11 studios here, and we have a lot of IP. And there's also a lot of interest among others in coming to take advantage of some of that IP for gaming, which we're looking at. Because as JB said, we need to get *******, and the IP that we own and the value that it has in the gaming space is something we're looking to take advantage of. [/url] Warner Bros. Discovery reported revenue of $9.7 billion for the quarter, but an overall net loss of $10 billion, $9.1 billion of which was due to impairment charges. The company also reported subscription services were up 3.6 million subscribers from last quarter, bringing its total to 103.3 million. Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected]. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

In Five Night at Freddy’s: Into the Pit it’s up to you to save your dad, who’s stuck in the ball pit. He’s stuck down there, but before you can get to him you need to find a way to escape your house and make it to the pizzeria. You’re forced to escape your home after you find your Mom’s number and call her home. She didn’t believe you when you tried to show her your Dad has been possessed. That leaves one final option for you: Escape your home. Unfortunately, the thing pretending to be your Dad won’t let you leave, and so you have to escape. View the full article

Larian Studios, the developers behind Baldur’s Gate 3, have released some mind-boggling romance statistics to celebrate the game’s anniversary—revealing just how frisky the player base can get. On top of a large-scale fantasy story, BG3 features many different romance options with steamy **** scenes, as well as some monstrous one-night stands. While a third of players having **** with Halsin in bear form may pique your interest, the developers’ statistics showed that even more were interested in the Emperor’s sweet, sweet tentacles. View the full article

Update 31.1 to PUBG: Battlegrounds includes a few changes and additions that have angered many long-time players. The update focuses mainly on clans, adding clan missions, challenges, a supply airplane, and tokens to use in a clan shop. Developer KRAFTON also made a few tweaks to **** attachments and added a new attachment, upsetting many players. View the full article

Just in case you missed the recent fanfare around its reveal, Spectre Divide is an upcoming 3v3, Counter-Strike-style tactical shooter where you control two characters at the same time. Sounds wild, right? Well, you can get a sense of just how wild it is for yourself very soon, as developer Mountaintop has just confirmed when the very first Spectre Divide beta is set to arrive - and it's just around the corner. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: New tac shooter Spectre Divide offers up a rare dose of FPS innovation View the full article

Things take a turn for the worst when your Dad becomes possessed in Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into The Pit, and you have to find a way to save him. But you first want to focus on finding your Mom’s number. You have the full house to explore where the number could be hiding. Unfortunately, things aren’t safe for you here in Into the Pit with your dad’s possession. It’s also tricky to find where to learn about your Mom’s number so you can call her. Here’s what you need to know about where to find your Mom’s number in FNAF: Into the Pit. View the full article

Ready at Dawn, a venerable game studio that once worked on **** War and Daxter among other projects, is closing its doors. Android Central reports that Meta is shuttering the studio effective immediately, with employees being encouraged to apply for other positions within Oculus Studios. The closure follows Meta's decision to discontinue Echo VR in 2023, which coincided with major layoffs impacting a third of the studio. Oculus Studios had previously acquired Ready at Dawn, which had found success with the Lone Echo series, to develop VR games for its platforms. Brutal to hear about the closure of Ready at Dawn. Here’s a documentary I made about the studio while at Game Informer. Woof, double-whammy of sadness this week. [Hidden Content] — Ben Hanson (@yozetty) August 7, 2024 As many have already heard, this morning Ready At Dawn Studios is closing its doors. I've been at RAD for over 10 years and I am incredibly sad to see this wonderful team I've grown to love be broken apart this way," designer director Robert Duncan wrote. "That said, at least for now I'm trying to focus my effort on (and, let's be honest, distract myself by) finding solid places for all my dear friends to land. If anyone has any leads/positions they'd like to share, please feel free to reach out to me directly and I'll try my best to get you in touch with good folks that might be interested." The games industry mourned the closure on social media and elsewhere, with many describing it as underappreciated. MinnMax founder Ben Hanson posted a documentary he produced with Game Informer that provides a snapshot of the studio circa 2014, when it was preparing to release The Order: 1886. Ready at Dawn's history extends all the way back to 2003, when it was formed by former employees of Naughty Dog and Blizzard Entertainment. It was particularly well-known for its prowess on the PlayStation Portable, producing multiple **** of War games for the platform. Following the mixed reception of The Order: 1886, Ready at Dawn began to move into VR, releasing Lone Echo for the Oculus Rift in 2017. We wrote at the time, "Lone Echo and Echo Arena are the rare games that demonstrate the true value of VR and hand tracking. Its sense of movement feels great, and it couldn’t exist in any other way." After it was purchased by Oculus Studios in 2021, Ready at Dawn released Lone Echo II, but otherwise has not put out a game since. A report in mid-July stated that Meta was reportedly cutting its Reality Labs division's budget by 20 percent in 2026 in order to make a "better long-term impact" in VR development. Meta subsequently told Android Central that this isn't a signal "wider cuts" to the number of first-party games on Quest. Ready at Dawn is one many game studios to close in 2024, joining Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, Roll7, and more in what has been a difficult year for games. For more, check out our deep ***** into the layoffs impacting the games industry. Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot. View the full article

With the release of the Fallout 4 conversion mod Fallout: London, fans of the franchise are getting the opportunity to explore new lands and meet hundreds of new characters. However long-time Fallout players might not realize there is a familiar face to be found in 2237s London. And those aware of this characters history in the Fallout universe will not be surprised to learn that theyre up to their regular tricks. View the full article

To boost Stats in Dungeons of Hinterberg, players need to take a more wholesome approach to character progression. Even if defeating monsters and clearing dungeons are big focus points in the game, they are only one side of protagonist Luisa's Alpine vacation. Making new friends, socializing, doing activities, and taking relaxing breaks are all just as important for raising Stats in Dungeons of Hinterberg. View the full article

If you’re looking for a soccer game backed by one of the sport’s greatest players, Cristiano Ronaldo, look no further than UFL. The market for soccer games has primarily been dominated by EA Sports FC and eFootball, but the upcoming UFL looks to carve out a niche among soccer enthusiasts. The game has endorsed its “fair-to-play” slogan since its announcement in 2022, and looks to eliminate the infamous notion about soccer games that skills don’t take precedence over collection and luck. View the full article

Adding to a recent string of media and internet bans, the Turkish government has abruptly blocked all user access to Roblox, upsetting fans across the Eurasian nation. Roblox has received criticism in the past for its lack of safety measures against mature content and for allegations of profiting off of child labor due to young game designers making massive amounts of popular mini-games. However, players have been baffled by the sudden banning of Roblox in Turkey. View the full article

Electronic Arts has announced an important The Sims 4 update that aims to address a variety of issues currently plaguing the game. The patch, which is planned to roll out by mid-August 2024, will primarily target problems that were introduced as part of the Lovestruck expansion for The Sims 4. View the full article

Oxygen Esports, the operating company behind various esports teams including the Call of Duty League’s Boston Breach, is laying off all staff and ceasing operations entirely, according to a new report. The report, by Dexerto’s Jacob Hale, cites multiple sources as saying the company is exiting the competitive gaming scene. Oxygen is most well-known for partnering up with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s company in 2021 after originally being founded in 2020. View the full article

Five Laps at Freddy’s is a new racing game that takes place in the iconic and infamous Five Nights at Freddy’s horror universe. Instead of braving another job on the night shift, you’ll race against iconic animatronics and use whatever it takes to get first place. While racing games are certainly fun, nothing is better than competing against friends to see who has the best racing skills—or who’s the best murderous, life-size animal ******. While not everything has been released yet, let’s take a look at the multiplayer functionality of Five Laps at Freddy’s. View the full article

Overwatch 2 is rolling out some new changes for Lifeweaver in the next patch that should give the support hero some more power. While the specifics of these changes are currently unknown, players should expect to see them when Overwatch 2 releases Season 12 on August 20. View the full article

Version 8.0.5 of Destiny 2 marks the beginning of this year's Solstice event while also carrying a lengthy list of bug fixes and gameplay adjustments, with the patch notes confirming a nerf to The Mountaintop grenade launcher's ability to accommodate grenade jumping. This one-of-a-kind ******* in Destiny 2 is the only grenade launcher that allows players to effectively rocket jump, and has recently enjoyed more widespread use among players thanks to the *******'s resurgence with the Into the Light update. View the full article

Live out Khazan's tale of revenge as he slowly succumbs to madness in this action RPG. View the full article

Five Nights At Freddy’s (FNAF) fans can rejoice, as the surprise release of the latest game, Into the Pit, got an early release. Initially, the game was coming out on Aug. 8, but it’s available a day early because of a “goof” that released it in Japan. The creator of FNAF shared the news on his official X (formerly Twitter) page, informing everyone of the slip-up. Rather than retracting it in Japan, the team decided to make it something everyone can enjoy, and eager fans of the series can start playing it right now on Steam. After a full week of celebrating the 10th anniversary of the FNAF franchise, it’s a great way to cap off the celebrations. View the full article

Disney Dreamlight Valley developer Gameloft has recently teased more space and freedom for players to decorate their Valleys during the announcement of the games current roadmap. Decoration is a big part of Disney Dreamlight Valley, and gamers will likely be happy with this mysterious upcoming feature. View the full article

Meet Metis, Aigis' sister, as a new journey unfolds in the enigmatic Abyss of Time. View the full article

Warner Bros. Discovery reported today that its game revenue suffered a major drop this quarter from the same ******* last year, largely due to weak performance of ******** Squad: ***** the Justice League. Games revenue, under the WB Games division, dropped 41% year-over-year. Though ******** Squad's struggles were the main culprit, it was admittedly up against stiff competition: last year's comparable included strong sales of Hogwarts Legacy, which launched in February of 2023 and continued to do exceedingly well throughout the year that followed. It sold 22 million copies in 2023 alone, and has since reached 24 million. ******** Squad, meanwhile, was panned by critics and called "disappointing" by WB Discovery boss David Zaslav last quarter, and resulted in a $200 million impairment charge in that report. An impairment charge is a practice businesses use when they need to write off or report a reduction in the value of some of their assets that they previously thought would have a higher value. Speaking of impairment charges, Warner Bros. Discovery undertook a massive one this quarter outside of games. The company reported revenue of $9.7 billion, but an overall net loss of $10 billion, $9.1 billion of which was due to impairment charges. Officially, WB cited the charge as due to "the difference between market capitalization and book value, continued softness in the U.S. linear advertising market, and uncertainty related to affiliate and sports rights renewals, including the NBA." The first part, about book value, is WB reevaluating the value of its TV networks segment in light of customers and advertiser interest in streaming and digital content over traditional TV. But the NBA bit was likely responsible for a hefty sum of the impairment charge too. WB's contract for NBA media rights expires after the 2024-2025 season, and the NBA appears to have opted to take its business to Amazon instead. Though WB has since attempted to exercise what it says are its rights to match Amazon's offer and is suing the NBA over them, it doesn't seem likely to win. While all that sounds fairly dismal, WB's subscription services were up 3.6 million from last quarter, bringing its total to 103.3 million. This is the first time the company has passed 100 million subscribers. Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected]. View the full article

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is making the jump to new platforms this month. The survival crafting game, which is set in the Fourth Age of Middle-earth, will hit Steam and Xbox Series X/S on August 27, at a discounted price of $19.99 for a limited time. Developed by indie studio Free Range Games and published by North Beach Games, Return to Moria was originally released for PC via the Epic Games Store in October 2023, before hitting PS5 last December. Read More... View the full article