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A screenshot from Palworld. | Image: Pocketpair Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair, which makes the game Palworld. According to Nintendo’s press release: Nintendo Co., Ltd. (HQ: Kyoto, Minami-ku, Japan; Representative Director and President: Shuntaro Furukawa, “Nintendo” hereafter), together with The Pokémon Company, filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair, Inc. (HQ: 2-10-2 Higashigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, “Defendant” hereafter) on September 18, 2024. This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights. Palworld became a huge hit earlier... Continue reading… View the full article

Image: Rockstar Games Grand Theft Auto V was one of the top ten most played games on Valve’s Steam Deck handheld this past week. It’s been in the top twenty for at least two years. But as of today, Valve now lists the game as “unsupported” — because developer Rockstar mysteriously broke compatibility with Valve’s handheld for its online modes. As you can see in the image above, this is the latest ****** around Linux anti-cheat: like the developers of Fortnite and Roblox, Rockstar has decided not to support the Steam Deck with its new anti-cheat software for GTA Online — a game that, by all accounts, badly needs to deal with cheaters. But here, Rockstar is taking the multiplayer chunk of the game away from people, rather than not bringing it to the... Continue reading… View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

It's official: Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are taking action against Palworld's developer, Pocketpair. The companies filed a lawsuit against the developer today, September 18, seeking "an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights." Developing... View the full article

Seven-star Serperior Tera Raids will be making an appearance in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet somewhere around the Paldea region. Hunt them down for your chance to catch the Gen V Grass Starter with the Mightiest Mark. The Unrivaled Serperior Tera Raid event begins Thursday, Sept. 19 at 7pm CT and runs until Sunday, Sept. 22 at 6:59pm CT. If you happen to miss this first round, you’ll get a second opportunity the following week from Thursday, Sept. 26 at 7pm CT to Sunday, Sept. 29 at 6:59pm CT. View the full article

Overwatch 2 just added a brand-new glowing rune HUD effect around the ultimate meter for Reinhardts Bound ****** Mythic ******* skin. This cosmetic feature grows and reacts to ***** streaks along with the ******* itself, making the first Mythic ******* skin in Overwatch 2 even more unique. View the full article

Giangurgolo is a frightening foe when you face him for the first time in Enotria: The Last Song, but even kings of the Coliseum can be usurped. And in his own words: “This day, a bloodline ends.” But it isn’t going to be yours, Maskless. The Chimera ****** is an optional boss found to the right of the Coliseum knot in Falesia Magna, but he’s one you definitely won’t want to miss out on. Not only does he have one of the coolest monologues in the game, but he also offers a truly fun—albeit difficult—boss ****** experience. View the full article

Playing Tiny Glade – the latest cozy game to offer us all an escape from the dumpster ***** purgatory that is modern life – for the first time is like sitting down with some building blocks and falling into a hypnotic trance. One minute you’re just adding a tower and some windows to an old house, and suddenly you look up and you’ve spent two hours building a sprawling village with ponds and crooked paths, your screenshots folder is bursting with images of your little masterpiece at dusk and dawn, and your back hurts because you never did get a proper chair for your home office. Its biggest flaw is that, as the name implies, there just isn't enough of it. To say I was “playing Tiny Glade” arguably isn’t even accurate. It’s more like I was playing with it. You could call it a building sim, but it’s more like a set of enchanted Lego bricks, or a much prettier Minecraft creative mode. You get a blank canvas of terrain and a small set of tools to build some houses, place water and plants, take photos, and… well, that’s it. So if building freely and setting your own goals are not enough to keep your attention, know that Tiny Glade is not going to throw any armies of orcs at your scenic battlements, and no one actually lives here. It’s also a shallow pond rather than a deep ocean of content, but it does make the most of what it has. As someone who has built a million dysfunctional settlements for games, at first I cocked an eyebrow at the limited customization options on offer. Towers and buildings, plants, ponds, and paths didn't seem like enough to keep me busy, but as I experimented the limitations let my brain forget about building something specific because the tools take care of details thoughtfully and delightfully. Dragging a path right up to a building meant a door popped up on the front; Placing windows next to each other changed them from a simple pane to a wide bay window. Ducks arrived at the pond I had made and sheep wandered through the open areas and then, at night, the little lamps I had placed gave off a soft glow. It's almost meditative, seeing tiny changes in the environment affect your creation, safe in the knowledge there's no better or “best” way to do it, or anything you can put in place can't be taken away again with a quick click of the mouse. Doctors could probably prescribe it as part of anger management treatments - who can be **** when they're busy placing happy little trees? That's the sweet spot for Tiny Glade: a small slice of flow state to pamper your brain and make the real world seem very far away. Unfortunately, after a few building sessions, it felt like Tiny Glade had run out of surprises. The delightful procedurally generated details that were added as I built were feeling repetitive, and making a house blue or green or tall or small or built entirely over water – imagine the ****** mold – lost its charm. The same restrictions that allow everything to fit together so smoothly also mean that more creative types who want to experiment are going to have a very limited set of parameters to do that in. Building in different seasons, moving the clock forward to watch the lights come on in the windows, all of those tweaks can only maintain the thrill for so long. Covering a house all in lamps? Who cares, when you and your Steam screenshot folder are the only ones who will ever even notice, aside from the aforementioned sheep. There is at least a theme of the day that offers the gentlest of suggestions, setting a vibe and starting you off with a small hamlet for you to adapt. However, you're not getting graded on your work, so after a while the novelty of direction erodes like bad masonry. That said, after a few days’ break I was back again, using it as the equivalent of a cerebral fidget toy in between cutting Tyranids in half. That's the sweet spot for Tiny Glade: a small slice of flow state to pamper your brain and make the real world seem very far away. Of course, on the internet the rule for anything is “pics or it didn't happen,” and Tiny Glade has met that challenge with a peachy-keen screenshot mode. It even has a first-person mode so you can explore your creation on foot, and see just how wrong you got the angles on that particular bit of garden wall from the perspective of a flying ghostly architect. I can absolutely see a world where ********* fans trade screenshots, gently compete to out-cute each other, but I'll be keeping my adorable creations to myself, thank you very much. Still, having a way to preserve and play in the little sets I created is a nice touch, and I hope other games steal the screenshot toolset immediately for its clever mix of control and simplicity. Everything that's in Tiny Glade is a little spoonful of joy, from sheep to walled-in gardens to creating tall towers with a Rapunzel vibe, but it's a gaming snack. Go in expecting dozens of hours of gameplay and you'll ***** through it after a few hours and call it a day. See it as an art package that you'll bring up when a creative mood strikes and you'll find a magical little toolset to get lost in. It may be small in stature, but Tiny Glade will live forever in my Steam library, ready to use its coziness to quell the darkness that lurks within my very soul. View the full article

Final Fantasy XVI is now available on Steam and the Epic Games store, with **** of War Ragnarok following on Thursday, September 19. Sony released a final rundown of Ragnarok's PC feature set, and modders have already begun adding functionality to Final Fantasy. Read Entire Article View the full article

Taego features 15 Secret Rooms in PUBG for you to find—but knowing their location isn’t enough, as you require a Secret Room Key to unlock each of these hidden rooms. Almost every PUBG map offers Secret Rooms you can unlock to collect mid to high-tier loot like level-three vests, medkits, painkillers, weapons, and grenades. Taego’s Secret Rooms, unlike the rest of the maps in the pool, also provide a self-revive kit (Self-AED) which can certainly come in clutch when you’ve been downed from long ranges. View the full article

Meta-humans in Once Human must build fortified territories for protection, crafting, and generating materials for end game progression. Polluted areas in particular are especially desirable, as there are several facilities that can only function properly in these locations. Players can harvest resources such as Polluted Water, which is one of the primary ways to obtain Acid, a frequent choke point for crafting gear and supplies. View the full article

Hogwarts Legacy is the first video game set in the well-loved Wizarding World to make players really feel like they're immersed in their own Hogwarts story. Though there are some key features still missing from the gameplay experience, like Quidditch, thanks to Headmaster ******'s cancelation, being able to walk through the halls of Hogwarts as a character other than those well-trodden in the Harry Potter franchise was a unique premise fans have flocked to. View the full article

A good battle rifle can stand toe to toe with an AR in Call of Duty, and that’s what season six of Modern Warfare 3 added to the game as a final parting gift. The DTIR 30-06’s name is a mouthful, and that’s exactly what you’ll be giving your opponents with our build—a mouthful of bullets. This is easily one of the best battle rifles in MW3 and one that could continue to be used in Warzone once MW3’s year for live-service ends. View the full article

Enlarge / The final boss of the new WoW raid, who will now be beatable as a solo player in Story Mode. (credit: Blizzard) [/url] After 20 years, it's now possible for solo players to finish storylines in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft that previously required a group to do an intensive raid. That's thanks to "Story Mode," a new raid difficulty that was added for the final wing of the first raid of the recently released The War Within expansion. Over the years, developer Blizzard has expanded the difficulty options for raids to meet various players and communities where they're at in terms of play styles. The top difficulty is Mythic, where the semi-pro ********* guilds compete. Below that is Heroic, where serious, capital-G gamers coordinate with friends in weekly raid schedules to progress. Then there's Normal, which still requires some coordination but isn't nearly as challenging and can typically be completed by a pick-up group within a few tries. Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments View the full article

World of Warcraft has officially re-enabled the Restore Character button after nearly two months. Though it was not seemingly mentioned in any hotfix or announcement, World of Warcraft players can officially use the Restore Character function once again. View the full article

On Tuesday, Electronic Arts (EA) held its annual Investor Day — a three-hour presentation intended for its investors to learn more about the company's direction and promises to make them money in the coming year. But you'd be forgiven if you thought this was some sort of AI tech conference given how effusively the technology was brought up and touted as a key component of EA's future. While we've known for a while that EA and a number of other gaming companies are experimenting with and investing heavily in AI, it was nonetheless a bit overwhelming just how often AI came up throughout the entire presentation. It was mentioned it just about every single segment in some capacity, had its own dedicated segment near the end, and was described during CEO Andrew Wilson's introductory speech as "the very core of our business" — a rather shocking new mission statement for a company that ostensibly makes and publishes video games. We watched the entirety of the three-hour Investor Day presentation, and did our best to round up all the AI "highlights" in an effort to paint a picture of what, exactly, EA is doing with AI and what we can expect to see in the coming years if its investments and interest in the tech pan out. Core of the Business The first mention of AI in the presentation took place right at the top, in Andrew Wilson's opening speech. In addition to referring to AI as "the very core of our business" and "not merely a buzzword," he announced that EA apparently has over 100 active "novel AI projects" in the works right now, ranging from the practical to the very experimental. Wilson divvied these up into three categories: efficiency, expansion, and transformation. Wilson describes the "efficiency" projects as not just cost-saving, but related to doing things faster, cheaper, and at "higher quality." Specifically, he cites College Football 25, saying the developers could not have made the game's 150 different stadiums and over 11,000 player likenesses without AI. Wilson elaborated by saying he believes AI can give developers "richer colors" to paint "more brilliant worlds" and make characters with "more depth and intelligence" while offering "more authenticity and deeper immersion" to the company's sports games. And for transformation, Wilson describes this as looking into the future and finding entirely new kinds of experiences that don't currently exist in games, especially around user-generated content. Chief strategy officer Mihir Vaidya went into more depth about what the "transformation" element will mean for EA in a later section, but Wilson's opener made it clear that he's more than bullish on the technology. AI Examples In the talks that followed, a number of EA leads highlighted ways in which EA was already working with AI tech in its existing games. Laura Miele, president of EA entertainment, technology, and central development, talked about something called The Sims Hub, the first AI features coming to The Sims universe. EA plans to release a platform with "supercharged discovery tools" that use AI to allow players to find user-generated content more easily. She showed off an AI application that uses a photo search feature, allowing users to drop in photos of real life houses and then find user-generated houses that look similar to them. Miele also highlighted how the AI can be used for character creation, with users able to drop in an image of a celebrity or person in a certain outfit and then generate a Sim that matches up. Miele says The Sims Hub will be released "soon." On the internal tech side, Miele talked about EA's asset library, which she described as "like the Smithsonian of game assets." Essentially, EA has a massive database of assets from all of its games and work behind the scenes over the years, and it's using it to train its machine learning capabilities and large language models. Those capabilities are then being used by the company's "SEED" innovation lab, aka "Search for Extraordinary Experiences Division", for things like EA's "Script to Scene" tool. Script to Scene lets developers "create characters, direct performances, and define worlds all from text." Miele shows an example on screen, prompting an AI chat assistant to "build me a Parisian-style residential building." She then asks to make it taller, changes it to a modern high rise, and expands it into a larger neighborhood. With Script to Scene, Miele claims EA developers could eventually make an entire scene in a game using simple text prompts. After Miele, president of EA Sports Cam Weber took the stage to talk about, well, EA Sports. He showed off the already announced FC IQ, which uses "tactical AI" and real-world data to more accurately simulate how players and teams play together in EA Sports FC 25. And he highlighted Wilson's prior statements about using AI in College Football 25, noting that the stadium creator AI tools in particular reduced creation time "by about 70%" and allowed developers to focus on building the "pageantry" and unique traditions of each school instead. "The investment in these tools and tech will benefit the rest of our portfolio in the months and years ahead," he said. And finally, chief experience officer David Tinson briefly talked about an early prototype of a predictive simulation tool EA is working on. He claims the tool will combine EA game data, AI, and IQ ratings to allow users to run more accurate simulations and answer questions of which team would win in a match, who would have won in a hypothetical match, and which team is the best. Cardboard boxes and AI soccer stars If all that somehow wasn't enough AI chatter for you, chief strategy officer Mihir Vaidya took the stage next to talk about AI and nothing but. He opened by comparing the technology to the advent of makeup tutorial videos and cat videos, which he says people initially dismissed as trivial or niche, but now are ubiquitous and wildly popular. He says EA's experimental AI efforts should be viewed the same way as "early YouTube videos", and that while what he shows might feel rudimentary, it will naturally get better as AI improves. Vaidya was specifically brought onstage to talk about the "transformation" portion of AI that Wilson mentioned earlier. He says the experiences he shows onstage are "not intended to replace AAA games, but instead unlock new and adjacent categories that add as opposed to take away from the existing gaming market." Those "new and adjacent categories" Vaidya wanted to show off largely seem to involve apps of some sort that let people use AI to shuffle around EA proprietary assets and ***** out minigames of a sort. One example he shows involves two people asking an AI to "make a maze out of cardboard boxes." They then ask the AI to make it more complex, then multi-level. Then they ask the AI to "make two characters with weapons," allowing them to select from a gallery of existing EA characters before settling on two that purport to be community-designed, then equip them with guns from a library of weapons. They then select from a handful of game modes and start chasing each other around the cardboard maze. The video ends with one of them asking the AI to "make it more epic," resulting in a giant cardboard box pyramid seemingly appearing in real-time to the astonishment of the two players. In a second demonstration, Vaidya wants to demonstrate how AI can be used to create "more believable characters" that players care about even more. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of that in action, as Vaidya encourages investors to check out the demo at the investor event after the presentation is over. But we do see a few seconds of what he's talking about: an AI version of soccer star Jude Bellingham is apparently available to answer questions posed by investors using AI to simulate his likeness, voice, and likely responses. Vaidya demonstrates by asking him what it was like to play at Bernabéu "in front of millions of screaming fans." Bellingham briefly explains the indescribable thrill of the experience in a flat monotone, expressionless. Finally, Vaidya demonstrates how EA wants to use AI for "social ecosystems", specifically something codenamed Project AIR. Project AIR seems to be a way to use short text prompts to generate characters, have text-based interactions with them, and then share those conversations with friends. In his example, he creates a "legendary investor" character using the prompt, "A high-stakes VC who swims in the deep waters of innovation." He then decides the "game" will be to pitch business ideas to him. In an interface that looks suspiciously like Tik-Tok, the user pitches "self-tying shoes" only to be slapped down. He then invites a friend to help him pitch, but lost for any ideas on how to make self-tying shoes more interesting, he uses an AI co-pilot to write the pitch for him, which ultimately succeeds. What does it all mean? That's a lot of noise about AI, almost an astonishing amount even from a company we knew was pushing the tech hard. And it's a lot of noise specifically about generative AI. Artificial intelligence, broadly, has been used in games for decades. But generative AI, which is involved in most of the things EA shared yesterday, is different. Generative AI effectively spits out brand new images, text, sound, or other content based on data it's fed, which has led to numerous ethical questions regarding its use. Some of those EA has managed to answer effectively. For instance, EA is training its AI on its own proprietary material, so there's seemingly no concern about it stealing copyrighted work (we've reached out to EA for comment). But other concerns remain. There's the environmental impact, for one, which we've also asked EA about. And then there's issues of using personal likenesses. EA says Jude Bellingham agreed to let EA train an AI on his likeness and voice for the model we saw yesterday, but will EA ensure it has permission from every single individual it uses in the future? What about voice actors for beloved characters, who are still at this moment on strike from companies including AI over these exact protections? We've asked EA for comment on all this, too. On the game development side, how does this implementation of AI impact individual creatives at the company? It's easy to say that tools such as Script to Scene are intended to free up developers to work on other things. But it's a practical reality that the games industry has seen two years of unprecedented layoffs just as AI is beginning to creep into the mainstream, and EA has been a part of that. There are no guarantees that this tech might not eventually be used to replace developers eventually. Developers have said over and over that they are rightfully nervous about this possibility, but neither EA nor its investors seem to be especially interested in addressing that. Nor does it seem apparent to them the difference between the intentional, creative work of designers assembling a thoughtful map for a shoorter, and anyone at all prompting an AI to ***** out a random array of cardboard boxes. It's all content to be sold in the end. As some have pointed out online, EA is no stranger to pushing hard on new tech before immediately backing off the second the wind changed. But this feels different. EA leadership made it abundantly clear at the Investor Day that the company is already very, very deep in on AI even if the experiments themselves are still in their infancy. Investors might be kept happy by these experiments, but perhaps fans of EA's 40-year history as a video game company ought to be asking why AI, not games, has suddenly become the "core" of its business. Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected]. View the full article

In 2025, the Western League of Legends scene will be changed forever when the LCS merges with the CBLOL and LLA to create the Americas League. Riot Games will also implement new rules to the competition, including the introduction of three splits per year, and the long-awaited Fearless Draft. Having started with the three-split format in Europe’s LEC, the Americas League will also play out over three different splits next season. The league will feature North and South Conferences that will operate with the same format and schedules, but will host games in their own headquarters.The North Conference will play in the Riot Games Arena in Los Angeles, while the South Conference will play at the CBLOL Arena in São Paulo, Brazil. View the full article

In true soulslike fashion, the first boss of Enotria: The Last Song, the Price of Laughter, seemed impossibly tough. With a background in Dark Souls and ***** of P, I somehow began to question whether I was truly worthy to tackle Enotria, or if I’d be trapped in that Chapel of Maja forever. Here’s our guide on how to defeat Curtis, the Price of Laughter in Enotria: The Last Song. View the full article

Starfield's new beta update has the game's lighting taking on some noticeable improvements, which has gamers excited about what's next. Starfield was released on September 6, 2023, kickstarting a new adventure for many gamers and Bethesda fans. As the first Bethesda Game Studios release since 2019, people were excited to get their hands on this release, and it looks like Bethesda is setting the stage for more to come. View the full article

Serperior is slithering its way into seven-star Tera Raids in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet for a limited time for players to catch it with the rare Mightiest Mark. It took a while, but Unrivaled Serperior Tera Raids are finally coming to the Paldea region. This Serperior comes equipped with the Grass Tera Type, boosting its strongest Grass-type attacks and making it an overall menace to deal with. Expect some interesting shenanigans with its Hidden Ability, Contrary, which turns all of Serperior’s stat decreases into stat boosts. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Ghost of Tsushima captured many hearts with its wonderful graphics, awesome fighting sequences, and engaging storyline. However, it isn't just the gameplay that fans love, but the messages that the game delivers through its characters. The game has some powerful quotes, which can leave players in tears, whether from laughing or crying. In the PlayStation exclusive, players take on the role of a Samurai named Jin Sakai as he searches for his family while trying to protect Tsushima Island during the first Mongol Invasion of Japan. View the full article

Further details about the next Battlefield game have come out today thanks to a new report, and it’s enough to get long-time fans of the FPS franchise excited to put their squads back together. According to Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson, the game is currently untitled, but the debate now inside of EA and Dice is between calling it Battlefield or Battlefield 6. Either way, the title is currently slated to come out some time in 2025—but that’s not all. Henderson says the new Battlefield will bring a “significant overhaul to its destruction,” leaning more into something similar to what’s offered in Rainbow 6 Siege, which decides how much environments like walls and ceilings are destroyed depending on the caliber of ******* and ammo that’s fired. Other changes could be coming to player movement, such as the ability to pick up and carry downed players, which is likely a part of Battlefield’s upcoming battle royale experience, Henderson said. View the full article

Rumors recently surfaced that Grand Theft Auto 6 could be pushed back as far as 2026. But now, a former Rockstar Games lead has further fueled fears that the next GTA installment might need a lot more time and preparation before it becomes available to the general public. GTA 6 was officially announced in December 2023 and was initially scheduled to be released in late 2025 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. But that estimate may no longer be entirely accurate—or even realistic—according to a Rockstar insider. Obbe Vermeij, the former Rockstar North technical director, reminded fans on Twitter/X that the decision to delay GTA 4 came just four months before the intended release date. “Any further and it’s hard to make the call,” he said. Think of Rockstar’s decision as a stressful quick time event—perform the action too soon or too late, and it’s lights-out for the character. This comes after GTA 4 publisher Take-Two expressed confidence that there would be no delays to the game’s release. View the full article

It’s Saturn, in the future. Music is outlawed. Society is run by tyrannical Satellites that keep the good citizens silent and subjugated, unable to produce their own Electricity and beholden to the harsh hands of their overlords. Our protagonist Bobo is an ********, super glamorous, super cool musician, constantly on the wrong side of the law because of her insistence on making music. She's in just the right spot to upend the natural order of things and put the Satellites in their place, freeing the masses by playing a ***** guitar solo at key moments. Sure, she's got a grand plan—the Keylockers scattered around Soundwave City contain trapped djinn (and also the city's music or sound or both?) and if Bobo can free the djinn she will also have Released Music and Defeated Fascism, or something... Read more.View the full article

It seems that a rudimentary update can actually change the fate of a game, as Helldivers 2 continues to prove. Following massive buffs introduced in the Sept. 17 patch, Helldivers are now confused as to which ******* to choose since all of them have become more than viable and effective. This new and unique “issue” was first mentioned by a user in a Sept. 18 Reddit thread, where they and others expressed how they couldn’t decide which weapons and Strategems to take on Helldives. “There’s so much fun ***** I can’t decide what to pick,” the thread’s creator said, listing about a dozen fantastic choices that have been made usable again by the Sept. 17 patch. “[The] 500KG [*****] finally feels like a 500KG,” they said. “Well done, AH. I haven’t been this excited to play this game since I first bought it.” View the full article

Developer Cryptic launched a new event that rewards Star Trek: Online players with a free playable Typhoon Battlecruiser starship. View the full article