Steam

Steam Next Fest 2024 has formally ended, we've spent a couple of weeks gorging upon demos of all stripes, from oil spill clean-up to dancefloor kendo, and now comes the all-important process of deciding which of those demos Won. Valve have helpfully shared a list of the most played Steam demos during this latest, gravest round of next festivity, and it covers a reasonable range. I mean, I wasn't that surprised to see an open world survival shooter with monsters at the top of the ladder - why else would we dedicate a bunch of Best Of features to such things? - but I am surprised that number three is a leering parody of neglect. Also, there's a game about mopping dungeons that appeals strongly to my Dungeon Meshi-watching sensibilities. Read more View the full article

s we near the release of Starfield's upcoming story expansion, Shattered Space, players are beginning to wonder what, if anything, comes next. But instead of just opting for regular updates, Todd Howard confirms that not only is another DLC planned for after Shattered Space, but that expansions could become a yearly occurrence... Read more.View the full article

In this comprehensive shootout comparing AMD's Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Intel's Core i9-14900K, we explore Intel's Extreme and Performance profiles, stability issues, and their impact on gaming performance. Read Entire Article View the full article

Despite some gripes about spawn rates and some lingering bugs, Helldivers 2's community seems to be a lot happier with the game since last week's big patch dropped. A lot of the praise from players for the change in direction has been going solely to ex-Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt, but the studio wants to make it clear that the patch was a team effort. If you're out of the loop, Pilestedt made the decision to give up his CEO duties at the studio late last month, staying on as chief creative officer - a role designed to allow him to spend more time focusing on helping to oversee development of the game, rather than business stuff. While it's worked out pretty well so far - with enough goodwill having been restored that players recently chose to obey Arrowhead's insistence that theysave some poor Super Earth kids, Pilestedt's work hasn't been the sole factor in the turnaround. In response to some of the praise the patch has spawned, Pilestedt's issued a response via Twitter. "I've seen a lot of people give me lots of cred for this patch as if I am the sole person responsible," he wrote, "I want to make it clear that the team are the ones that made it happen. Without their effort, design sensibilities, diligence and passion none of this would have been possible." Read more View the full article

A Wuthering Waves gameplay ***** has revealed the combat animations of two upcoming five-star characters, Jinhsi and Changli. These characters have been officially confirmed by Kuro Games in one of its blog posts. Both are expected to join the live servers with the Wuthering Waves update 1.1. View the full article

Movie and TV adaptations of games are all the rage these days, and Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki has shared his thoughts on potential FromSoftware adaptations. While DC is still trying to work towards its own cinematic universe, post Avengers: Endgame, it's seeming like the days of superhero movies dominating the box office might be slightly behind us. They're not completely down and out, but video game adaptations are clearly the next big trend, what with the massive success of films like the Super Mario Bros. Movie, and series like Fallout. That of course brings in the question if something as popular as Elden Ring could ever get the same treatment, especially considering how successfully it has sold. In a recent interview with GameSpot, Elden Ring director Miyazaki was asked his thoughts on a potential Elden Ring or Dark Souls movie or TV show, and if he sees a future where he wants to adapt things or try new mediums. "I don't know if I should say we or perhaps me in this instance, but I have no intention of saying, 'Oh, there's never going to be a movie' or denying all possibilities of other adaptations," Miyazaki responded. "It's just how I think and how I best communicate with audiences is through the interactive medium. So that's where my focus has gone. And when I think about how I can best communicate, it is through that interactivity. There are many others who can make a much better linear format content than we can. Read more View the full article

The real-time strategy genre has built a reputation on its complexity. Resource management, unit creation, and elaborate control schemes mark the RTS experience, which can be intimidating for new players. If you’ve ever played or watched a StarCraft 2 match, you’ll know exactly what we mean. Uncapped Games, a new studio based in California, has recognized this issue, and its first project is attempting to turn a complex genre into a format that fits under 10 minutes. That first project is Battle Aces, and we were able to go hands-on with it at Summer Game Fest. After a few matches, it’s apparent Uncapped is on to something here. The biggest achievement in Uncapped’s attempt to streamline the RTS process is how much automation has been added to the formula. As soon as a match starts, our first resource plant is up and running. Whenever we select a new unit to build, it’s built and ready for deployment instantaneously. Once we’ve accrued enough resources to build an expansion facility, that structure is automatically placed in a designated spot. Read More... View the full article

Like many other Bethesda titles, Fallout 76 has a hard limit to how many items your character can carry, with no real option to increase your stash space. As you play for longer and longer, the amount of items you collect throughout your journey will pile up and inevitably encumber your character. Thankfully, some organizational tricks can help you lighten the load and open up more room for storage. View the full article

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has followed up last week’s release of the game’s big balance update and premium warbond with a new patch that applies a long list of fixes. The highlight is a fix for the Spear support stratagem, which has suffered all sorts of problems since the PC and PlayStation 5 co-op shooter launched earlier this year. What should be a reliable monster of a ******* has for so long been fickle, with its anti-tank homing missile failing to properly track locked-on targets. According to the update 1.000.402 patch notes, there’s a fix for the Spear not targeting several entities (spawners, compound objects, etc). This should encourage more players to bring the Spear onto the battlefield. And here’s another helpful fix: Hellbombs now get called down facing the player, rather than away from the player. Players have got used to Hellbombs facing away from them, so there will be a bit of unlearning to do with this one. Arrowhead updated the known issues list, too, outlining what the studio is working on fixing with upcoming patches. Of note: the Bile Titan sometimes does not take damage to the head, and the Charger’s ***** does not take damage from explosions. What an *****! Last week was a big one for Helldivers 2 and Arrowhead, which recently revealed it was in the process of setting the studio up so it could “make more and better stuff” in the long-term. In an introductory post on reddit, new CEO Shams Jorjani, who recently replaced previous Arrowhead CEO and now current Chief Creative Officer Johan Pilestedt, said the studio has had to adjust to the enormous success Helldivers 2 has brought to the company. Helldivers 2 is the fastest-selling PlayStation game of all time, having shifted an incredible 12 million copies in just 12 weeks since going on ***** earlier this year. Amid the huge revenue Helldivers 2 has generated, Arrowhead itself has suffered a number of crises, including launch server problems and, most recently, a battle with Sony itself over the console maker’s controversial attempt to force Steam players to account link to PlayStation Network. Helldivers 2 update 1.000.402 patch notes: Overview For this patch, we have made improvements and changes to the following areas: Quality of life improvements****** fixesGeneral bug fixes Fixes Crashes Fixed various crashes that would sometimes occur when changing settings.Fixed potential ****** or corrupted font texture when changing the languageFixed a ****** that might occur after exiting a mission.Fixed a ****** that occurs when opening the social menu with more than 100 friends. As a result we have also limited the friends list visibility to 100. You will remain friends with anyone over 100, but you may not be able to see them if they are offline.Fixed ****** when opening social menu and having many blocked players and/or friend requests.Fixed a ****** when minimizing after changing fullscreen mode.Fixed rare ****** which could occur when picking up equipment.Fix a ****** when a client interacts with a terminal in a waiting state after host migration.Fix a ****** related to minefields. Misc Fixes Fix issues with dodge and prone.Fix not being able to stand up when wielding the ballistic shield.Fixed the Recoilless reload speed.Fixed issue where users couldn't write a description on console when reporting a player.Fixes vehicle preview not despawning in Warbonds when quickly scrolling through the catalog.Fix Spear not targeting several entities (spawners, compound objects, etc).Sentries have a higher destruction value so most explosions do not instantly ******** them regardless of the damage amount.Fixed bug where operation progress would be lost when kicked due to inactivity,The "Remove Friend" and "Block Player" buttons are now hold-to-confirm instead of a single click.Fix bug where dying would try to enter ADS.Fix a soft lock if you receive an interact emote while holding a grenade.Fix projectile to crosshair inaccuracies in ADS when the player is in different stancesFixed broken player model in career tab when on someone else's ship.Adjudicator: fixed incorrect recoil values.Fixed armory terminals losing their functionality if the last client player who interacted with them leaves the host's ship.Fix missing localization for flying patrols operation modifiers.Fix issue where throwing knives could be left floating in the air.Support for non-****** fonts in the game's install folder path.Vehicle skins are now applied to all vehicle variations when equipping directly from Warbonds.Fixes flag objectives not properly tracking Helldiver's position while on a Combat Walker.PH-202 Twigsnapper helmet: fixed missing description.Fixed the issue where the shuttle would clip through Bile Titans and terrain during landing sequences.Improved performance on PS5 when CPU boundFixes FX remaining when destroying Spore SpewerEnsure stim vfx ******** on screen for the entire duration of the stim effect when med-kit bonus is present.Fix for emote receiver players being able to use their weapons during emote animationHellbombs now get called down facing the player, rather than away from the player. Known Issues These are issues that were either introduced by this patch and are being worked on, or are from a previous version and have not yet been fixed. Sending friend requests via friend code in game currently does not work.Players may be unable to be joined or invited to the game.Players added to the 'Recent Players' list will appear in the middle of the list.Players may experience delays in Medals and Super Credits payouts.Available Operations are generated again after reconnecting after getting AFK kicked.Enemies that bleed out do not progress Personal Orders and Eradicate missions.Arc weapons sometimes behave inconsistently and sometimes misfire.Most weapons ****** below the crosshair when aiming down the sights.Plasma Punisher is unable to ****** out of the shield generators.Stratagem beam might attach itself to an ****** but it will deploy to its original location."Hand Carts" ship module does not reduce Shield Generator Pack's cooldown.Bile Titan sometimes does not take damage to the head.Charger’s ***** does not take damage from explosions.Players may become stuck in the Loadout when joining a game in progress.Reinforcement may not be available for players who join a game in progress.Planet liberation reaches 100% at the end of every Defend mission."Raise Flag of Super Earth" objective does not show a progress bar.Mission count in the Career tab is being reset to zero after every game restart.Some weapons’ descriptions are out-of-date and don’t reflect their current design. 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

Amid the increasing popularity of the Fallout franchise, some fans have called on Bethesda to remake the much-loved first two games in the series — but according to Bethesda Game Studios chief Todd Howard that’s not on the cards. In an interview with YouTube channel MrMattyPlays, Howard said that some of the charm of Fallout 1 and 2 has to do with the fact they remain firmly rooted in the old-school PC role-playing game era of the mid-to-late 90s, so he’s happy to leave them where there while ensuring they run well. “The main priority for us is to make sure they're available and you can still play them,” Howard said. “So on the PC obviously they're there for people to go and get and play, and making sure that they run okay. As far as beyond that, we've talked about it, but our priorities in terms of, hey let’s go do dev work and make certain things work, they haven't been in those areas. So again, priority is, hey can people load it up and play it? “We want it to load up and run well. The rest of it, I could argue some of the charm of games from that era and the original Fallouts is a little bit of that age. I would never want to paste over some of that with, well we changed how this works so it's more modern. So as long as you can download it, as long as it loads up and runs, I'd like people to experience it the way it was.” Led by Interplay producer Tim Cain, the original Fallout games enjoyed critical and commercial success on PC before the company collapsed. Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda later picked up the rights to the franchise and went on to release Fallout 3 in 2008, bringing the post-apocalyptic series into first-person and full 3D. Despite their age and archaic design, Fallout 1 and 2 remain much-loved by fans of the series, and are often held up as two of the greatest role-playing games ever released. Indeed the recent franchise boost fueled by Amazon Prime’s breakout Fallout TV show affected the original games as well as the modern titles with increased player numbers across Steam. Right now, if you ask me, the best way to play it is on a PC, mouse and keyboard, the way it was. And so, the calls to modernize Fallout 1 and 2 are louder than ever, but clearly Howard has more pressing matters to attend to, including ongoing updates for Fallout 76 and, eventually, Fallout 5, which is set to come out after The Elder Scrolls 6. Howard even ruled out bringing Fallout 1 and 2 to console. “Anything is possible, but that’s going to be a longer dev throw,” he replied when asked if such a port were even possible. “And you have to ask yourself, is that where we want to put our time right now? Or is it best played the way it was on a PC? Right now, if you ask me, the best way to play it is on a PC, mouse and keyboard, the way it was.” 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

Baldur's Gate 3 had a long early access *******—opening its doors in October 2020 before finally dropping in August 2023, almost three years (1,031 days, to be exact) later. It was a vastly different game to what it is now. For instance, I remember my inner D&D rules lawyer being very upset that firebolt made a damaging surface—that misstep, as well as a few others, were corrected for the better, producing what I'll happily call one of the strongest RPGs we'll see this decade... Read more.View the full article

Part of Starfield's new Creations programs, the second Trackers Alliance mission, called The Vulture, is a paid add-on that costs 700 Starfield Creation Credits, equivalent to $7 – though you're really going to be spending $10 as that's the least you can buy to cover the cost. Read Entire Article View the full article

A new Genshin Impact ***** has revealed that Emilie received an important buff to her Elemental Skill, which could significantly impact her power on the field. Developer HoYoverse has already confirmed that Emilie, the famous perfume designer from Fontaine, will join the playable roster in update 4.8. View the full article

An upcoming EA Sports FC rival, UFL, held its first open beta between June 7 and 9. Over these three days, it recorded astonishing numbers, with millions of players tuning in. The game’s official X (formerly Twitter) profile shared some information about the beta on June 17. A graphic outlined that players created 1,320,000 clubs, played 5,560,000 matches, and scored 9,986,206 goals. View the full article

The Remake Of The End Of The Greatest RPG Of All Time, or TROTEOTGRPGOAT for, uh, short, is a game that exists. I normally wouldn’t let such an opaque stub of a description survive outside of a quick Trello reminder to write something better later, but I’m currently finding it fulfilling enough just to gaze upon that title and consider the fully formed art object that may soon emerge from its tantalising promises. Ok, so the visual component helps too. Orientate yourself by means of the trailer below, and let’s dig into this brazen nose-******* of a head turner of a game that does exist, about another game that doesn’t. Read more View the full article

Capcom looks set to re-release the original 1996 version of Resident Evil for modern platforms. That’s according to a rating by Europe’s PEGI, which indicates that the original game has been cleared for release on PC this week. Although it was released on PC in 1996, the original Resident Evil is not widely available for purchase on modern storefronts. On Steam, currently none of the original RE games are available to buy. Read More... View the full article

While Hidetaka Miyazaki says Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion is designed to provide at least one character with a "conclusive endpoint", it sounds like there should still be plenty of room for the development of fun fan theories. As you're probably aware if you're reading this, FromSoftware is known for telling its tales in a fashion that often leaves players to put the pieces together, with Elden Ring and the nine million fan theories it's spawned over the years being a prime example of why subtle storytelling can be incredibly effective. Which other game, after all, could leave fans speculating about the metaphysical implications of some curtains? In response to being asked how FromSoft has approached crafting Shadow of the Erdtree's ending and whether it's aimed to leave things a little bit open with a view to doing more in the future during an interview with Gamespot, Miyazaki didn't say too much, but did confirm that at least one character will get a proper payoff in the DLC. Read more View the full article

You forgot about Habbo Hotel, didn't you? Habbo Hotel. With those words and the above image, it is possible I have sent a shocking dose of neurochemical nostalgia through your brain and into your various internal organs. Your vision blurs. You sweat. You are 12 years old again, frightened and intrigued at the idea of graduating to teenhood, bathing in the cool glow of a cream-********* CRT computer monitor. "Habbo Hotel is back!" is what I might shout if I did not know better, snapping you back to the present day in an act of psychological whiplash. The truth is the pixellated hangout zone of the early 2000s never went away. It has been alive this whole time. You forgot about the Hotel. But the Hotel did not forget about you. Today, developers Sulake are doing something to jog your memory. They are calling it Habbo Hotel: Origins. I ask you to think carefully before you go there. Read more View the full article

Sony Pictures is working on a follow-up to its 2022 Uncharted movie, it’s announced. The news was shared during the studio’s CineEurope presentation this week, as reported by Variety, in which it reportedly confirmed that Tom Holland would again play protagonist Nathan Drake. The Uncharted movie, which had a $120 budget, launched in February 2022 and earned over $400 million worldwide. To date, only a handful of video game movie adaptations have earned more. Read More... View the full article

Oh dear, the Street Fighter movie has had to pause progress, as it has just lost its pair of directors. Back in April, Capcom and Legendary Entertainment announced that it was working together to make a live-action movie based on Street Fighter. Soon after that, brother filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou were attached to direct the project, potentially a popular choice given their surprise 2022 indie horror hit Talk To Me, which they made with A24. However, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter, it appears both Philippou brothers have now left the project, leaving Legendary on the hunt for someone else to helm the film. According to THR, scheduling is partly to blame. The Philippous are working with A24 again on a film titled Bring Her Back, another horror film that is yet to have any plot details announced publicly. This one is set to star Sally Hawkins (Paddington) and Billy Barratt (Mr Selfridge), and ********* is set to start later this month in Australia. Legendary and Capcom were apparently hoping to ****** sooner than the Philippous were able to commit to, and it seems like their personal project must have taken priority for the pair of filmmakers. Read more View the full article

The first Trials of Osiris weekend in Destiny 2 after the launch of The Final Shape is ending, and two new Exotic weapons seemingly dominate the battlefield. The Final Shape reintroduced two Exotic weapons to Destiny 2 from the original game, the Khovostov 7G-0X auto rifle and the Red ****** Reformed pulse rifle, and both quickly became the most used weapons in the Trials of Osiris weekend from June 14 to 18, according to Destiny Trials Report. View the full article

Powered by Unreal Engine 5, The Nightscarred: Forgotten Gods from Shadowfall Studios is an immersive first-person action genre, combining a powerful spellcrafting system with hybrid combat mechanics that allow players to wield crafted magical abilities and melee weapons independently. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

Edwin backstory fragment #345: the greatest usage to which I have ever put my failing grasp of mathematics is determining how many different RPGs I could buy using the "same" money, by dint of trading them in promptly at Gamestation for carefully calculated diminishing returns. I'd save up to buy one of the premium headliners, attempt to get my money's worth inside a week, then swap it for a respected double-A and perhaps a sub-£8 oddity with the manual missing - nesting one purchase within the other like a series of Matryoshka dolls. This was my Big Short, my Money Ball. But it had a drawback: often, I was so eager to leapfrog to another game before the trade-in price changed that I skimmed RPGs that are now considered classics. The big one was Suikoden 2, which I spent only an evening with before gambling that I'd eke more FunValue out of a game with a less traditional battle system. I can't remember what I traded that for, which says it all. Another was Baten Kaitos on Gamecube, which - yes, we are finally getting to the point here - has just been rereleased on Steam in the shape of a Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster. I can't remember what I traded Baten Kaitos for either, which again, says it all. Please, gentle reader - be better. Read more View the full article

The 2024 Esports World Cup is right around the corner, with the tournament set to begin on July 3. It will include events for numerous games, including League of Legends and Counter-Strike 2. Dash could have been a host, but the 33-year-old turned it down. The ********* released a video on June 17, revealing was invited to be a part of the 2024 Esports World Cup’s broadcast but declined due to moral reasons. View the full article

Developer inDirection Games announced their cute looking gardening game Horticular is now set to arrive on July 11th. Here you are summoned by a bunch of mysterious gnomes, given the task of breathing new life into a long-lost garden, abandoned by its previous caretaker. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article