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With the recent announcement that both the Retroid Pocket 5 and Retroid Pocket Mini will have Linux support thanks to the new chipset, it's an exciting time for retro gamers and now we know how much you'll need to save. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

Microsoft has announced a return to the Tokyo Game Show later this month with a special Xbox broadcast event. The Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2024 Broadcast is set for Thursday, September 26 at 7pm JST / 3am Pacific / 6am Eastern / 11am ***. In a post on Xbox Wire, Larissa Hazel, Director, Gaming Integrated Marketing, Asia, said Microsoft will share content from Xbox Game Studios, Activision, Blizzard Entertainment, and Bethesda, as well as an “exciting lineup of games from third-party partners primarily based in Japan and across Asia, including games coming to Xbox Game Pass.” So, what can fans expect from the show? Microsoft has a long list of first-party studios currently working on various games due out across the next few years, but the mention of Activision, Blizzard, and Bethesda perhaps narrows down the list. Activision is set to release Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 in October, so perhaps the shooter will make an appearance. Blizzard, fresh from releasing World of Warcraft expansion The War Within, has Diablo 4 expansion Vessel of Hatred out in October, as well as ongoing updates for mobile game Diablo Immortal. Bethesda operates MMOs Fallout 76 and The Elder Scrolls Online, has Starfield expansion Shattered Space waiting in the wings, and is set to release MachineGames’ Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in December, and Id Software’s *****: The Dark Ages in 2025. Obsidian’s Avowed, recently delayed to February next year, may also turn up. As for the games from third-party partners based in Japan and across Asia, perhaps Square Enix will finally announce Final Fantasy 16 for Xbox, and maybe even the Final Fantasy 7 remakes for Microsoft’s consoles. Microsoft recently announced that MiHoYo’s megahit Genshin Impact is finally coming to Xbox, so maybe that game will make a big splash, too. It’s worth noting that this year Microsoft closed its Japan developer Tango Gameworks, with the studio having released Hi-Fi Rush to critical acclaim, as part of significant cuts that resulted in 1,900 layoffs across its gaming business. PUBG publisher Krafton later picked up roughly 50 of the 100 staff members employed at Tango. Microsoft is also heavily rumored to be working on an Xbox handheld, and has confirmed plans for next-generation consoles. 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

Affiliations have returned in NBA 2K25, and once again, you’re presented with a choice. Should you go with Elite or Rise? By the looks of things, your choice doesn’t make much of a difference. All our early testing and comparisons have shown no major gameplay advantage from one NBA 2K25 Affiliation to the other. The only confirmed difference between Rise and Elite is the daily spin rewards, which are mostly VC and cosmetics. All daily, weekly, and seasonal quests are either the same for both or slight variations of one another. The Affiliation progress rewards are also the same on both sides. View the full article

Have you even been made to take your clothes off and go dancing in the rain? Ricky Martin claimed that he had back in 1999, via Livin La Vida Loca, a song that you may well not like, but have almost definitely heard. The folks at PlayStation definitely seem to have heard it, having included the tune in a playlist that's arrived alongside what looks like it could be the first official tease of the PS5 Pro's design. All of this was packed into a blog post detailing some of the stuff that the console maker's doing to commemorate its 30th anniversary later this year, a milestone that I'm sure won't make anyone who grew up with a PS1 feel old in the slightest. This weirdness comes not long after leaker bilbil-kun shared an illustration that they claimed shows what the unannounced video game playing box will look like, as well as some apparent details about it. Read more View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

A week after the release of both Mesa 24.2.1 and Mesa 24.1.7, the next point release Mesa 24.2.2 is out now with numerous bug fixes and improvements. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

The long wait for Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 has ended, but persistent game crashes are causing problems for players on PC. If you are one of those encountering the issues, we’ve got some potential fixes. Space Marine 2 has plenty to enjoy, from a full co-op campaign to PvP environments, placing players amid the Warhammer universe. However, as is expected in modern gaming, it’s not always smooth sailing, and crashing issues are frustrating. View the full article

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown has been hit with a wave of review ****** on Steam after the first day of early access was plagued by server issues. After a 13-year wait since the previous entry in the franchise, players have been excited to ***** into Solar Crown and explore the island of Hong Kong—and the doors opened up on Sept. 5 for those who purchased the Gold Edition of the game. View the full article

About 12 years ago, we drew our breath in pain to report that Lone Survivor developer Jasper Byrne's new "Zelda x ******'s Souls" action-RPG was no more. "It was too big for a single person to make," Byrne wrote at the time. "This is the root of the problem. It wasn't that I fell out of love with the idea, just that I can't physically do it." That was then and this, thankfully, is now. Byrne has tentatively returned to the project and begun sharing screens on social media. Read more View the full article

Released originally back in 2018, Slipstream is a retro racer in the spirit of games from the late 80s and early 90s. The developer came back for one final update to finish it off. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

The landscape of the video games industry has changed so much in recent years, but no shift in the wind has been as influential as the live-service model. There are a decent number of games that have been truly successful as a game-as-a-service (GaaS), with titles like Destiny 2, Warframe, Fortnite, Overwatch, Apex Legends, yearly Call of Duty titles, and some more coming to mind. But the list is short compared to the opposite end of the money-making spectrum. View the full article

Valve are closing in on the final stable release of SteamOS 3.6 for Steam Deck, with SteamOS 3.6.12 Beta out now as the first release candidate. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 is subject to the same issues players have come to expect from online games, leaving them at the mercy of the servers. In this guide, we’ve detailed how to check for any issues. Space Marine 2 provides plenty of multiplayer options, ranging from a co-op campaign and three-player co-op Operations to full PvP environments. Of course, the servers need to be stable for you to make any progress. View the full article

The second part of the DLC will launch on October 31. View the full article

Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment has announced that it will delay Ranked Rumble, one of the game's returning multiplayer modes. The mode was originally set to return during Apex Legends Season 22. View the full article

Apex Legends ***** are traded out like Pokémon cards in the ALGS offseason. Not only is it difficult to keep track of the movement of your favorite players, but it’s even ******* to switch teams when the entire roster gets dropped. The ALGS comes by year after year, and the only thing that seemed to be consistent throughout was TSM’s roster, but all that has changed since May 2024. For every Pro League, the inevitable offseason comes around, and with it, the uncertainty of where your favorite players will end up. The leadup to Split One Playoffs saw so many changes across each region and even more for Split Two Pro League on June 1. View the full article

NFL fans have two reasons to rejoice this weekend, with the start of a new campaign coinciding with a free-to-play ******* for Madden 25 on PlayStation and Xbox. The new NFL season began on Sept. 5, with defending Super Bowl champions beating Baltimore Ravens 27-20, whetting the appetite ahead of a packed weekend of action—and Madden 25’s limited-time free-to-play offer adds to the football frenzy. View the full article

This seemingly random crossover is now available for most consoles, with a Switch version set to come later. View the full article

The lead developers of the Like a Dragon / Yakuza series say they have no intention to stray from the theme of doing “middle-aged guy things”. In an interview with Automaton, series director Ryosuke Horii and lead planner Hirotaka Chiba explained that despite the series continuing to grow and appealing to a wider range of players, they feel the middle-aged nature of the protagonists is what gives the series its unique flavour. “I think that this is precisely one of Like a Dragon’s selling points,” Horii said. “In Yakuza: Like a Dragon, everything starts with three unemployed middle-aged guys being like ‘let’s go to Hello Work’. Read More... View the full article

Console and Mac versions of Patch 7 are scheduled to launch in October. View the full article

The early access release of Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown has been a bit of a disaster, as server connection timeouts have entirely revoked access to the game for thousands of players. This issue is rather serious and has incited a lot of outrage, as it directly affects those who purchased the priciest $90 Gold Edition of Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown. View the full article

Let's start with a confession about one of my greatest weaknesses. I absolutely adore the HD-2D visual aesthetic from the Octopath Traveler series, and I'll play anything that employs it. Is your game unpolished with a bug that may or may not ruin save files? I'll take my chances with it in HD-2D. Am I also looking at a 30-hour plot that reads like your intern randomly threw up gobstoppers labelled with names, places, and plot twists? How concerning—now gimme my HD-2D. Obviously, if you choose to wrap this modern-meets-ancient art-style around one of the most celebrated RPGs of the golden age of gaming, well, winged serpents could not drag me away from your HD-2D quest. I'll clear my calendar for such a rejig, even if I didn't grow up with the NES original because it didn't launch in my country. For a few Aussies, like me, our introduction to DQ3 was a Game Boy port of the SNES refresh, which sold a million cartridges on launch day in '96. Apparently, it also caused 300 ********* fans to be arrested for truancy—a bit of gaming trivia I love almost as much as HD-2D. Speaking of delaying education, I'm going to tell you what to expect with Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake in two shakes of a Jackanape's tail. For now, though, let's service the needs of the "mind's already made up" types, because I know you exist. If that's not you, by all means skip the window shop by clicking here to continue. Preorder Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Nintendo Switch Get it at Amazon - $84.95 $79.95Get it at JB Hi-Fi - $84.95 $83Get it at Mighty Ape - $84.95 $74 PS5 Get it at Amazon - $99.95 $89.95Get it at JB Hi-Fi - $99.95 $97Get it at Mighty Ape - $99.95 $74Get it at PS Store (digital) - $99.95 Xbox Series X|S Get it at Xbox Store (digital) - $99.95 PC Get it at GMG (Steam) - $89.95Get it at Steam - $89.95 The standard edition comes with the game, along with the preorder bonus (detailed below), which includes a handful of in-game upgrades for your team of heroes. Don't worry if you don't see your store of choice in the list above. We'll add new retailers as the listings become available. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Preorder Bonus Preorder the game from any retailer, and you’ll receive the following in-game items: Elevating Shoes x1Seed of Agility x3Seed of Magic x3Seed of Defense x3Seed of Strength x3Seed of Life x3Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Impressions Here's the basic overview: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is a brand-new version of a classic RPG that first blew minds on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988. It’s a faithful remake that, despite the significant graphical revamp and refined narrative elements, doesn’t stray too far from the source material. If you're already an uber fan, you'd know that the first three Dragon Quest games represent the Erdrick Trilogy, and (kinda sorta spoilers) this third installment was actually a prequel that outlines the first steps of the adventure. Semi-confusing, no? Anyway, you must fill the 16-bit boots of a 16-year-old child of a hero named Ortega, who was sent to defeat the villainous Baramos. Your old man cocked it up, so the king sends you and a group of companions to rectify his mistakes. By the by, it should also be mentioned that you're not going to hit end credits and be left in a narrative lurch for long—Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD-2D upgrades are in the pipeline for 2025. It's very much worth getting in on the ground floor now if you've been wondering what all the fuss is with this (soon to be) 12-games-thick franchise. While I only had roughly an hour's worth of hands on with DQ3, I found it to be surprisingly delightful and engaging, despite the somewhat creaky bones source material. I'm told that there will be new story elements and never before seen vocations for its heroes. Sounds like cutting room floor stuff that the diehard faithful will drool over. Getting into the technicals, I noted Performance and Graphics modes on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, and more. The former translates to 60 frames per second, and the latter is a 4K resolution. Not sure why we can't have both there, to be honest. This being a turn-based combat affair with the only major motion being your top-down traipsings across the overworld...I just went 4K and was perfectly happy. I also noted that the devs are offering a choice between two protagonist appearances and three difficulty settings. If you do take the plunge there, you can always fall back on some quality of life features, including autosaves (with manual saves still available). Given that the combat here is light on the animations to preserve the OG feel, I was glad for the ability to speed the fisticuffs up with my shoulder buttons. Just give me my XP and a host of victory affirming, 16-bit-esque sound effects, please and thank you. Other welcome additions included two camera modes, and a mini map which could be toggled on. I also love this feature and wish it was in more RPGs that I have to finish in dribs and drabs—an NPC conversation log that saves the last 30 interactions. Looking back through my notes, it seems I also appreciated the now vestigial visual aesthetic where towns in the overworld appear like miniatures when compared to your super-deformed party. It's also cool that the level designers add in rolling topography to what were once pancake grid overworlds, not to mention some gorgeous dappled light caused by foreground trees and moving clouds up beyond your vision. It's modern things such as this—like the day/night cycle shoehorned in—that really make one appreciate the extra effort gone into enhancing this in sensible, non-destructive ways. Unless my eyeballs and instincts are deceiving me, this package already has the feeling of being built by a team who worship the original article. Playing a remake like that is always an infectious experience, and I can't wait to fill the gaps in my understanding of the "in the beginning" of a series I came to love later in the piece. November 15th can't arrive soon enough. Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays practically everything, often on YouTube. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Valve opened the gates to new players in August to finally test Deadlock, the new third-person MOBA-shooter the developer had been working toward for many years—and it appears the exciting game is making Dota 2 players abandon ship. Deadlock was initially closed to the public, available only to a few thousand players. However, with Valve allowing existing players to invite their friends, the game quickly eclipsed 150,000 concurrent players in September. On the other hand, Dota 2’s player count has been on a downward spiral, dropping below 600,000; the game’s lowest player count in well over a year. While Dota 2’s player base has been declining since May, the drop has visibly accelerated with Deadlock’s growing popularity—especially among popular streamers like Shroud and AverageJonas. View the full article

Today’s LoLdle quote is the perfect way to end the week, particularly if you know a League of Legends champion with a strong complex about their not-so-great height. If you’re unsure of which short queen or king says LoLdle‘s Sept. 6 quote, we’ve got the answer. Who says, “It’s only a short way. Is that a short joke?!” in LoL? The LoLdle quote on Sept. 6 is, “It’s only a short way. Is that a short joke?!” The League champion who says this line is Veigar. View the full article

Seven-star Incineroar Tera Raids are popping up in the Paldea region in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and it’s your job to beat the cat with the right partner Pokémon by your side. From Thursday, Sept. 5 at 7pm CT and to Sunday, Sept. 8 at 6:59pm CT and again from Thursday, Sept. 12 at 7pm CT until Sunday, Sept. 15 at 6:59pm CT, you have the opportunity to challenge and catch Incineroar with the Mightiest Mark in a special Tera Raid event. The Alola ***** Starter is feared as one of the best ‘mons in competitive play, so don’t expect this raid battle to be easy. It’ll take a strong counter to take this cat down. View the full article

Combat log in Rust can be a lifesaver—especially during intense PvP battles. The log displays stats like the number of attackers, weapons used by them, hits, and, most importantly, damage dealt to everyone involved in the gunfight. This helps you decide whether to continue engaging in combat (if they’re low) or flee the area if possible. With that in mind, here’s how to check the combat log in Rust. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]