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Gaming
Releases, platforms, and the people making the games.
4732 stories archived
"I just find AI to be creatively soulless": Casey Hudson on the controversial tech and Star Wars: Fate Of The Old Republic
It is, obviously, way too early to know anything that's worth anything about Star Wars: Fate Of The Old Republic just yet. The KOTOR spiritual successor was only revealed last December, and it was one of those CG trailers that exist to build hype and to tell prospective hirees that they can apply for a job without having to worry about breaking several thousand NDAs. But one thing we can hopefully say about it? There won't be any AI (the bad kind) found within it. Read more
Nintendo explains why it raised the price of Switch 2, and says the issues responsible "could have an impact not only this year but next year as well"
Nintendo has offered a more detailed explanation about why it raised the price of Switch 2, revealing that, unfortunately, it doesn't expect the inflated price of computer memory and components to fall any time soon. Read more
Head beneath the waves and pull up "corpses from an oil-drenched nightmare" in the ocean-fear inducing KEROGEN
I do not trust the ocean. It's too big! There's too much going on in that thing and oh how I pray and pray for the day that James Cameron stops messing around down there. Makes for a good horror setting though, as evidenced by the likes of BioShock, SOMA, and Iron Lung, and now KEROGEN is entering the fray for the title of "I'm not sure I can keep my eyes open while I play this" that SOMA currently holds in my heart. Read more
"The people that you care about and root for are not good all the time" - Craig Mazin discusses landing the crucial Abby perspective in The Last of Us season three
Filming for the third season of HBO's The Last of Us adaptation is currently underway, with recent footage showing Kaitlyn Dever's Abby and newcomer Kyriana Kratter as Lev, and now showrunner Craig Mazin has shared more about what viewers can expect from it. Read more
KingFish is a co-op roguelike where one of you gets to play a city builder while the other plays an action game
We all love a little city builder around here, right? Course we do! But I'm sure not all of our friends do, they'd rather be off hacking and slashing and other such brutish things. KingFish, then, might present a pleasant opportunity to bring you and said friend together, for it is both a city builder and an action game, where one of you gets to do the building, while the other gets to do the fighting. Read more
"If David Lynch made shooters" is Black Ops veteran David Vondehaar's catchphrase for his new game that isn't a "Call of Duty killer"
Former Call of Duty: Black Ops designer David Vondehaar is making some kind of shooter for GreaterThan Group - the holding company recently founded by a former NetEase executive, who are also funding development of Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic. What manner of shootybooty might this be? Well, Vondehaar is making allusions to the work of David Lynch - the beautiful crackpot behind such films and shows as Eraserhead, Twin Peaks and Lost Highway, whose impact on videogames extends from Silent Hill to Kentucky Route Zero, but who never, I think, developed a game himself. Read more
BioWare had a plan to reboot Star Wars: The Old Republic and make it more KOTOR like, but EA's board of directors shut it down
Former BioWare lead designer James Ohlen has revealed there was once a plan to reboot the studio's massively-multiplayer online role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic, and it would have made it more like 2003's single-player RPG Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, had the project been allowed to go ahead. Read more
"Unofficial builds of Subnautica 2 are currently circulating online," Unknown Worlds confirm, just days before the ocean survival game's early access release
With just a day or two to go till Subnautica 2's early access launch, "unofficial builds" of the ocean survival game have leaked onto the internet. Picture a punctured Cyclops submarine slowly filling with illicit video files and screenshots, while Unknown Worlds staff wade around with their repair tools, shrieking "Nothing to see here". Read more
"Sometimes all it really takes is one very bad commute" - the Saros team reveal the surprising origins of Arjun's angry delivery
Many video game characters are immediately recognisable by their voices. Doug Cockle's gravely Geralt from The Witcher series is, Chrisopher Judge's imposing Kratos in God of War is, David Hayter's covert Snake is. I could go on. But how does an actor find the voice people will remember them for? When it came to playing Saros' protagonist Arjun Devraj, actor Rahul Kohli said inspiration struck while being fed up stuck in traffic. Read more
The Steam Controller is actually a scream controller, because Valve couldn't resist making it cry out in memey pain when you drop it
We've all heard it. This sound. The infamous Wilhelm scream, famous for cropping up whenever a game or film sound designer fancies a bit of inside jokery. Or, in this case, when Valve want to work an easter egg into their new Steam Controller. Yep, if you drop it in the right way, the controller Wilhelm screams in pain. Read more
UK MPs claim GTA 6 studio Rockstar "refused to properly engage with staff" during legal wranglings over dev firings
Several UK politicians have called on Rockstar Games to be more transparent and co-operative in their legal dealings with GTA 6 developers fired last year. The staff were let go in autumn last year, with Rockstar subsequently claiming that they were fired due to the leaking of "confidential information" via a public forum, while the IWGB Game Workers Union have accused Rockstar of union busting. With legal matters between Rockstar and union over the firings currently ongoing, several UK MPs have called on the former to be more transparent and accused the company of having "refused to properly engage with staff, representatives and trade unions throughout this process". Read more
Crimson Desert's latest update adds more bosses for rematches as well as new unarmed combat skills for Damiane
The Crimson Desert team only recently released an update which allowed you to mount iguanas and other fantastic beasts, but it is already back at it, releasing a new patch which, among other things, adds more bosses to the rematch system meaning you can fight them again and again. Read more
"Everyone would hate you": Stardew Valley creator is "open" to adding adultery and NPC divorces, but he's against it "on a moral level"
The first thing I read this morning was a lifestyle headline about how humans simply aren't "built" for monogamy. The second thing I read was Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone toying with the idea of introducing adultery and, by extension, divorces to cosy life sim Stardew Valley. If the third thing I read this morning is, for example, a bus advert for Paramount show Caught in the Act, I will interpret this as the universe granting permission to jump into a Portaloo with the next person who waggles their eyebrows at me. Read more
Subnautica 2 already has huge concurrent player counts and has swum to 2 million sales
Subnautica 2 has done exceptionally well following its launch into Early Access, quickly coasting to 467,000 concurrent players on Steam alone. Read more
"I dunno if I'm cooking or becoming cooked": Iron Lung and Dusk dev David Szymanski is making a giant ant shooter set inside mountains of trash
Earlier today I discovered an ant in my bathroom. The thing about discovering an ant is that there is always another ant. And another ant. Ant another ant. Antnother ant. Antnothant. I believe I've found the hive's point of ingress, a pin-sized hole in a skirting board. I've taped it up. We will see what happens next. Incidentally, if you are my landlord, please do not leap to any wild conclusions about how often I'm cleaning the floor. Anyway! Dusk and Iron Lung developer David Szymanski is making a new isometric shooter called B.U.G.B.I.T.E. He hasn't formally announced the game yet, but he's been quietly blogging about the thing for several months, and the new game appears to involve ants. Giant ants who live in spoiling industrial labyrinths the colour of finely aged urine. How very unlike my bathroom floor, a realm of blinding purity with the occasional rogue inverterbate, just for charm. Read more
We haven't heard anything for months about The Duskbloods and Elden Ring coming to Switch 2, but FromSoftware's owner insists they're still coming out this year
We haven't heard anything for months about FromSoftware's Switch 2 exclusive The Duskbloods and the Switch 2 version of Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition, but apparently they're both still down for release this year. That's according to FromSoftware's owner Kadokawa, which listed both games in its financial report as "slated for a 2026 release for Switch 2". Read more
Baldur's Gate 3 modders remaking the original Baldur's Gate show off a revamped Candlekeep as a taste of how their work's evolving
A group of Baldur's Gate 3 modders taking on the task of remaking the original Baldur's Gate as a custom campaign have shown off one of the first major milestones since their ambitious quest kicked off in earnest. They've gone back and revamped Candlekeep, the library-fortress that served as the location of an inital demo published last year. Read more
After a bit of a false start The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is absolutely, definitely getting a digital home release next week
After early reports of an imminent home release for The Super Mario Galaxy turned out to be false, Universal has officially announced the film is making its digital download debut next week. Those interested in watching Mario and co's latest animated outing from home can download it this coming Tuesday, 19th May. Read more
"I cannot condone piracy, but I get why people do" - Subnautica 2 lead designer airs frustration at 'flagrant' pirates
Subnautica 2 is finally here, and while the vast majority of fans are playing - and paying - their hearts out, a few have taken to a different ocean. And the game's design lead has now pushed back against these flagrant pirates. Read more
Marathon "overwhelming" for newcomers, director admits as plans for PvE and PvP-lite modes revealed
Marathon game director Joe Ziegler has shared some of Bungie's plans to improve its divisive extraction shooter, which include the introduction of PvE and PvP-lite game modes as alternatives to the "overwhelming" core experience. Read more
Subnautica 2 is Steam Deck Verified, as is Forza Horizon 6, Mina the Hollower, and Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight
An unusually busy May for game releases is turning into an unusually bounteous month for the Steam Deck, with Valve granting their seal of handheld PC approval – Steam Deck Verified status – to a wave of new and upcoming games. Among these are the early access version of Subnautica 2 , which finally launches this week after what feels like eons of legal sniping, as well as open-world racer Forza Horizon 6 and caped minifig crusade Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. Read more
Arc Raiders will get major updates every six months going forwards, with the next one set to roll out the shooter's largest map yet
Arc Raiders is switching up its update cadence, with developers Embark having decided that dropping a major set of additions every six months is better for the shooter's long-term health than sticking to a monthly update grind. The first update set to be released under this new modus operandi's also been revealed: it's called Frozen Trail and will include the game's biggest map to date. Read more
Invincible Vs Review
The sentence: "An Amazon television show video game tie-in" is about as big a red flag as a two star hygiene rating on a kebab van. You would not be at fault for looking at Invincible Vs with narrowed eyes. However, would you believe it, Invincible Vs is an exceptionally enjoyable game. Not only does it do wonders as an adaption, it might just be one of the best fighting games released in recent years. Read more
Alabaster Dawn is the kind of 2.5D action-RPG spectacle that makes you question the need for "true" 3D
One of the grievous burdens the Heroic Videogames Journalist must shoulder is seeing a couple dozen Cool New Games each week, and only having the time to write about two or three. Sometimes, however, the Heroic Videogames Journalist takes a Valiant Stand against Inconstant Fashion, and decides to write about a videogame that came out in the Dark Ages of Last Week. On which note: have you played action-RPG Alabaster Dawn? It launched in early access on 7th May and still has a demo. Based on 30 minutes or so, it's very good. Read more