Video Game Culture: Celebs Rumors

Baldur’s Gate 3 Xbox save woes should be over from today following a new update.Baldur’s Gate 3 launched on Xbox in December 2023 after winning Game of the Year at the 2023 Game of the Year awards. However, it wasn’t released without several issues, such as reports of save files deleting themselves after a crash.

Rock Band 4 DLC updates are stopping next week.The news was announced in a post on developer Harmonix‘s blog.“After over 8 years of weekly Rock Band 4 DLC releases, we’re here to let you know that January 25 will be the last DLC release of the RB4 era,” the post explains.“All other live services will continue as normal, including Rivals seasons [weekly online challenges that rotate], online play, and everything else.”Rock Band 4 was released in 2015, and DLC has been released weekly for the game since it was launched. Over 3,000 songs have been released over the years as DLC, with the soundtracks from previous Rock Band titles available to people who have previously imported the licences for the games.The official announcement also explained exactly what to expect from Harmonix in the future, now that they won’t be working on Rock Band 4.“Looking ahead, the Harmonix team has been hard at work over the last two years to develop Fortnite Festival, which brings rhythm action gaming (and more) to the Fortnite ecosystem.

The Finals has received a massive new update today (January 17) adding a new game mode, new outfits, and more.The main attraction of update 1.5.0 is a new player vs player mode named ‘Solo Bank It’, which changes the already existing ‘Bank It’ mode from a trios-based game to a game mode where twelve players are all fighting against each other to try and grab as much money as they can.This mode is a limited-time event, with no real indication as to how long it’ll be sticking around other than the fact that according to the patch notes the mode is being put out to “learn more about your experience”. Developer Embark Studios will be opening a Discord channel to gather any feedback about the mode and decide on any tweaks that need making.The update also comes with several balance changes, tweaks to gameplay, and bug fixes to issues that fans have been complaining about since the game was originally released.

streamer JSR_, speedran the Nintendo Entertainment System title Gyromite by listening to commands from JSR. For those unfamiliar with Gyromite, the player is tasked with both raising and lowering various platforms for a scientist so that they can proceed to the end of a level.JSR got Peanut Butter to play the game by giving various commands, which would cause the Shiba Inu to press a button that corresponded to one of the actions that could be taken in the game.Peanut Butter’s final time was 26 minutes and 24 seconds and falls just shy of beating the second and first place world records of 25 minutes and 26 seconds and 24 minutes and 56 seconds, which were set by StarCrystas and TascoDLX respectively.

Total War: Pharaoh is receiving a new free DLC update as an apology to players.The new DLC allows players to play as ‘The Sea Peoples”, who are described as a faction that must “stay on the war path to survive” and need to constantly win battles in order to do this.Two new factions are also being added to the game: the Sherden and the Peleset. The Sherden use a new mechanic named Spoils of War to gain extra resources (such as the new resource Eminence) that you then use to build new camps to make your army stronger.Players who choose this faction can command new units such as the Nuraghe Warriors, who form a turtle-formation to protect themselves, Harpooners, who throw barbed javelins, and Sherden Archers who use sulfur-tipped arrows to set your enemies alight.The second faction is the Peleset, a faction that can both take over cities on the campaign map and pitch camp.

Stalker 2: Heart Of Chornobyl has received a new release date.After previously being announced for a Q1 2024 release window, the game has been delayed to September 5 and will be released on Xbox Series X|S and PC. The game will be released on Xbox Game Pass at launch.The trailer announcing the new date is weirdly calm and features a very nice campfire song being played as the point-of-view character reaches for a cup of what looks like coffee.Stalker 2: Heart Of Chornobyl was originally revealed back in 2010, with a release date set for 2012.

Grand Theft Auto parent company Take-Two Interactive and Alan Wake 2 developer Remedy Entertainment are engaged in a trademark dispute over Remedy’s logo.Trademark claims for two different versions of the Remedy logo were filed in May 2023, but both of the claims are opposed by Take-Two Interactive.As reported by RespawnFirst, the reason for this opposition is that Take-Two Interactive believes “there exists a likelihood of confusion on the part of the public”.Both trademarks are currently in what is referred to as a ‘cooling-off’ phase which means Remedy has until May to file a counterstatement in opposition to the filing, unless a further extension is agreed before that time by both parties.NME has reached out to Remedy Entertainment for comment.The Alan Wake developer’s new logo was revealed in April 2023, with a blog post at the time explaining the reason behind the change.“As a game development studio, we have come a long way since 1995 when we got our start. Remedy is constantly evolving,” the post explained.Remedy Entertainment and Take Two Interactive are in a trademark dispute over Remedy's logo.Disputed Logo 1: https://t.co/wY29pyReIvDisputed Logo 2: https://t.co/oOlzd47usG pic.twitter.com/FuIMLRtBdj— Jake (@usemyhandle) January 15, 2024“The bullet in the letter R in the old logo represented the era of Max Payne, but the Remedy of now is much bigger than a single game; we have a whole portfolio of games, new and old.

Elden Ring‘s DLC is closer than previously thought.The DLC section of Elden Ring on SteamDB hasn’t been updated for over a year, with the last update being the “Elden Ring Adventure Guide”. At the time of writing this article (January 16), however, a new entry simply named “SteamDB Unknown App 2778580” was updated seven hours ago, suggesting a release date for the already-announced expansion Elden Ring: Shadows of the Erdtree could be coming soon, perhaps in tandem with the fast approaching second anniversary of the original game on February 25.This would line up with a leak in December 2023 that suggested the expansion could be released in February 2024, with retailer DataBlitz briefly uploading a page for Elden Ring-themed controllers planned to release in February to “sync with new ‘Shadow of the Erdtree’ expansion release”, along with stating a second wave of controllers would be released in 2025 to celebrate a “major keybeat or new game expansion”.Elden Ring: Shadows of the Erdtree was first revealed in February 2023, mere days after the first anniversary of the initial game’s release.

Bandai Namco has released a video recapping the story of Tekken so far, presented by Succession actor Brian Cox.The five-minute-long recap of every Tekken game so far was posted yesterday (January 9) to the official Bandai Namco YouTube page.The video begins with Brian Cox stating that “every single fight, no matter how big or how small, has a story behind it” before devolving into Cox questioning the nature of his reality and wondering why “these fathers and sons keep throwing each other off cliffs”.The game will feature a full story mode that continues the lore detailed in the above video, Arcade Qiest, a mode that allows you to create an avatar who goes around playing Tekken matches in an actual arcade, Super Ghost Battle, a mode that puts you against an AI which will learn how to fight you, and there’s the typical online modes such as Versus which will pit you against real people from around the world.So far 32 playable characters have been announced for the title, with four of these (Azucena Milagros Ortiz Castillo, Jack-8, Reina, and Victor Chevalier) being brand-new characters.Returning characters include, among others, Alisa Bosconovitch, Claudio Serafino, Jin Kazama, Jun Kazama, Kazuya Mishima, Leo Kliesen, Marshall Law, Paul Phoenix, Sergei Dragunov and Yoshimitsu.A DLC pass will also be available for the game, with the first season of DLC containing four characters that won’t be available in the base game.Tekken 8 was first announced in 2022 and is currently scheduled for release on January 26, 2024. It will be released on PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X|S.

Immortality is coming to PlayStation 5 later this month, it has been announced.READ MORE: 15 huge games that we can’t wait to play in 2024Half Mermaid Productions, the developer behind the game, announced yesterday (January 9) that the game will be released on January 23, retailing at $19.99. This release will include both haptic and controller speaker features and also comes with a Platinum Trophy that can be unlocked.In a statement, game director Sam Barlow spoke about the process of bringing the game to a new platform.“From the inception of this project, the goal has been sharing Marissa Marcel’s life and work with as large an audience as possible.

Harry Potter games following the success of Hogwarts Legacy.Speaking to Variety in a new interview, Haddad stated that not only was an already announced game based on the wizarding sport Quidditch in beta testing but that a “series of other things” are also in development which “will let the fans be part of this world and stories and characters in deeper and deeper ways.”Haddad spoke on the upcoming Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, stating that they don’t have any “particular announcements on exactly how and when [the Quidditch game] is going to come to the market, but we are working to get it designed in a way just to delight fans.”He also spoke very briefly about the message that Warner Bros Discovery is giving to the gaming division, stating that they keep emphasising the “importance of franchises”.“There’s a unique and important games have in keeping our franchises relevant, resonant and exciting because there’s plenty of fans and plenty of people consuming content where games are their starting point, it’s their preferred form of content,” he explained.NME reviewed Hogwarts Legacy when it was released, stating that it was “fun and managed to get a lot of things right”, but that the game already felt “somewhat dated”.“It’s a stunning way to experience Hogwarts and the surrounding area and is probably the best representation for fans of the universe, regardless of the medium. Honestly, this is an exceptional piece of fan service and a loving recreation that for performance reasons and dated design, doesn’t quite come together,” our review read.In other gaming news, the face model for Mary Jane Watson in Marvel’s Spider-Man has called out the fanbase for harassing her.

Fallout 4 mod Fallout: London has finally received a release date.In a statement released on X (formerly Twitter) in December 2023, developer Team Folon said that “despite being content-complete as planned, upon careful consideration, we’ve recognised that our testing process may not be as robust as we desire”.“Our commitment is to provide you with a polished and as close to a flawless experience as we can. We only get one chance at a first release.

Nintendo hacker Gary Bowser has denied involvement with a newly revealed Nintendo Switch flash cart.Bowser was released from prison last year after receiving sentencing for being part of a group known as Team-Xecuter that was creating devices that allowed users to play illegally obtained ROMs on consoles such as Nintendo Switch and 3DS. He still has to pay £8million ($10million) in court-ordered damages to Nintendo, however.The flashcart, named MIG-Switch, was announced last month and is claimed to allow owners to play illegally obtained ROMs.

The Day Before, one of the most controversial games of 2023, now has modders working to put together an offline mode for the game.Before launch, The Day Before was Steam’s most wish-listed game up until launch. The game itself was launched in December 2023, to extremely negative reviews.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is to leave his role next week.Kotick became CEO of Activision in 1991 after purchasing a 25 per cent share in the near-bankrupt company the previous year. Over the next 32 years, he headed up the company as it grew to become one of the biggest and most influential pillars in the world of video games, acquiring a number of other studios on the way.However, it was claimed Kotick knew about cases of sexual misconduct happening within the company and kept it secret, even after state regulators started investigating the company in 2018.

Variety. He had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, though it is currently unclear when he was informed of the illness.James McCaffrey is survived by his wife Rochelle Bostrom and daughter Tiernan McCaffrey.Multiple myeloma is a type of bone marrow cancer characterised by abnormal expansion of malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow.

Nintendo Switch users are now able to check their Nintendo Year In Review.The Nintendo Switch 2023 Year In Review allows players to see how many games they’ve played on the system throughout the year, along with how many hours total they’ve played.The Year In Review then goes on to tell the user their most played games of the entire year, along with the number of hours they’ve put into those games. It then shows the genres that the player has played throughout the year.It also tells players what their first game of 2023 was, along with breaking down monthly playtime along with the month that a user played the most hours during.The biggest game to release on Nintendo Switch this year, and likely one of the most played in a lot of people’s Year In Review, is The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, a sequel to 2017’s The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild.NME‘s review called The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom a “surprisingly safe sequel”, with Dominic Preston writing that the title “commits the egregious sin of merely being a very good game” and that compared to Breath Of The Wild, the game is “quite simply more of the same”.“Tears of the Kingdom plays it safe, which is a shame for the follow-up to the least safe Zelda in decades,” he writes.“Still, it’s hard to complain too much about getting more of one of the all-time greats, and there are enough tweaks to make it feel worth playing all over again.”In other gaming news, major Starfield bugs have reportedly not been fixed by a recent patch.

God Of War Ragnarok: Valhalla has a challenge that is so tough that the development team didn’t even beat it before the game shipped.Mihir Sheth, game director of God of War Ragnarok‘s Valhalla update, posted on X (formerly Twitter), writing that “there is an endgame challenge in God Of War Ragnarok Valhalla that no one of the dev team has completed on the hardest difficulty ‘Show Me Mastery”.Sheth continued, stating “I am so, so curious to see how quickly players will humble us… as they often do… but maybe this time we’ve beaten them?”‘Show Me Mastery’ is a difficulty mode available in God Of War Ragnarok, and is the hardest difficulty available in the game.God Of War Ragnarok Valhalla was revealed during The Game Awards 2023 and launched earlier this week. The DLC is a free update to the base game and sees Kratos and Mimir travelling to find some closure on their adventure in the base game, with the gameplay style shifting from a traditional third-person action-adventure game to a roguelike.NME reviewed God Of War Ragnarok when it was released, with our writer calling the game a “blast”.“God Of War Ragnarok is a good game but never particularly surprising,” Jake Tucker wrote.“Shifting the focus onto Atreus’ story feels like a smart move and the universe painted here is as beautiful narratively as it is graphically, but some players may feel like they have ridden this ride before.”In other gaming news, a new Squid Game title has been announced by the Netflix Games division.

Hogwarts Legacy is set to top the US video game sales charts for 2023, breaking a long stretch of Call Of Duty titles.According to Mat Piscatella, the executive director & video game industry analyst at Circana, who spoke to IGN, this is a combination of both Hogwarts Legacy selling extremely well throughout the year (along with a boost from a recent Nintendo Switch port) and the fact that Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3‘s sales are behind Modern Warfare 2, despite Modern Warfare 3 being the second best-selling game of 2023.If Hogwarts Legacy stays at the top of the charts, then this year will be the first year since 2009 that the charts haven’t been topped by either a Call Of Duty game or a Rockstar Games title (in 2013, Grand Theft Auto V topped the list, and in 2018 Red Dead Redemption 2 topped the list).NME reviewed Hogwarts Legacy, stating that the game can “only offer a facsimile: a world that, although ostensibly populated, feels lifeless and doesn’t let you have any real impact on it.”“Hogwarts Legacy is fun and manages to get a lot of things right, but it already feels somewhat dated, no doubt a hangover from the six-year development cycle,” the review reads.“It’s a stunning way to experience Hogwarts and the surrounding area and is probably the best representation for fans of the universe, regardless of the medium. Honestly, this is an exceptional piece of fan service and a loving recreation that for performance reasons and dated design, doesn’t quite come together,” it concludes.In other gaming news, a new Assassin’s Creed Mirage update has introduced New Game Plus to the game.

Squid Game game has been announced by Netflix as being in development.Netflix yesterday announced its upcoming slate of games in a blog post, which includes titles such as Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit, FashionVerse, Sonic Mania Plus, Hades, Monument Valley 1 & 2 and more.The company also announced “a game set in the universe of Squid Game, in which you can compete with other players in games from the hit series”.A Rebel Moon is also in development at Super Evil Megacorp, and will “take place following the events of Rebel Moon-Part One: A Child Of Fire and Rebel Moon-Part Two: The Scargiver”. Fans will be able to “choose their rebel” and fight alongside their friends in a “four-player co-op action game”.According to Mike Verdu, vice president of Netflix’s gaming division, by the end of this year, Netflix will have “86 games available – all included with every Netflix membership without ads, in-app purchases or extra fees”.

Steam release The Day Before has launched to over 10,000 negative reviews decrying the quality of the game.The Day Before launched on December 7 following a series of delays. Throughout the pre-release period, the title has been accused of being an asset flip, with developer Fntastic disputing these claims.“Please don’t accuse us of asset flip; that’s not true also.

Skull & Bones has received yet another release date at The Game Awards 2023. It’s the game’s sixth planned launch following a series of delays.Skull & Bones is set to release on February 16 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

The Game Awards 2023, Sega announced five new titles including a new Jet Set Radio game and a new Crazy Taxi game.During the show, Sega revealed that new instalments of Jet Set Radio, Streets Of Rage, Golden Axe, Shinobi, and Crazy Taxi are all in development.“In recent years, Sonic the Hedgehog has forged new paths for Sega, bringing the franchise to life and reaching new audiences in ways we had only dreamed of in the past,” chief executive officer (CEO) of Sega America, Shuji Utsumi said in a press release.“Building off that success, we are digging into our legacy and reimagining several franchises to bring these games to more audiences around the globe,” he continued.According to Utsumi, the announcement is “just the start of our initiative”.“First and foremost, our ambition will be to create great games with memorable characters and worlds.

Baldur’s Gate 3 has been released on Xbox Series X|S. The hit fantasy game was surprise dropped last night (December 7) during The Game Awards 2023.Baldur’s Gate 3, which is based on the long-running tabletop role-playing game (RPG) Dungeons & Dragons, was released on PC back in August, with a PlayStation version following in September.

Deathloop developer Arkane Lyon is making a new Blade game based on the popular Marvel character.Blade is a half-vampire half-human hunter first appearing in Marvel Comics in 1973. In the early 2000s, Wesley Snipes played the character in a trilogy of successful movies.

Destiny 2 developer Bungie is facing a full takeover by Sony, according to a new report, leaving employees worried about the studio’s future.Sony already owns Bungie, but the developer retains some autonomy. In a statement issued when the acquisition process started in January 2022, Bungie said “we remain in charge of our destiny.

GTA 6 trailer was released earlier this week and featured Tom Petty’s ‘Love Is A Long Road’ which has now received a massive spike in listeners on Spotify.In data provided by Spotify, it has been revealed that the song has seen a “huge streaming increase of 36,979 per cent” since last week before the trailer was released.This isn’t the first time gaming has brought new popularity to older songs. Earlier in the year, HBO‘s adaptation of The Last Of Us caused a 4,900 per cent increase in streams for Linda Rondstadt’s ‘Long Long Time’.Spotify has also created a Grand Theft Auto playlist in collaboration with developer Rockstar Games, featuring songs such as ‘Fortunate Son’, ‘Danger Zone’, ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’, and ‘Mississippi Queen’, all of which have featured in previous Grand Theft Auto titles.The trailer for GTA 6 was released a day before when it was intended to drop due to a leak on social media.

Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios has revealed the most-romanced character in the game, along with several other interesting statistics about the title.According to Larian, Shadowheart has proven to be the most popular romantic interest among fans, with 51.3 per cent of players reaching the end of her romance path, with Karlach and Lae’zel taking the number two and three slots respectively.1.3million players have completed the game so far, with 94 per cent of players creating a custom character instead of choosing from the available origin characters. Speaking of origin characters, people who did choose to play as one of the pre-created characters chose to play as Gale, with Astarion closely following as the number two choice.The least played as origin character was Lae’zel, with only 228,960 people choosing to play as her, which is almost half of the number that chose to play as Gale.In terms of total playtime, Larian has confirmed that around 452,556,984 hours have been spent in the game, or the equivalent of over 51,662 years.

The Day Before developer Fntastic has issued an apology ahead of the early access release of the title.Though The Day Before is set to launch this week (December 7), the run-up has been plagued with allegations of plagiarism, trademark disputes and unpaid volunteers.The apology was directed at both people who are looking forward to the game and people who aren’t, with Fntastic writing to people who “didn’t believe in us” that they “accept any kind of criticism and don’t hold a grudge”.The developer also asked that people “don’t accuse us of scamming” and also not to “accuse us of asset flip: that’s not true also. Our team worked day and night for five years to make our dream game a reality”.“Please don’t underestimate our work; it wasn’t easy,” Fntastic wrote.

Payday developer Starbreeze Studios has announced a new co-op Dungeons & Dragons title.Starbreeze will both develop and publish the game, with the title planned to launch in 2026. The game currently holds the codename of Project: Baxter and is being produced in Unreal Engine 5.

Ark: Survival Ascended launched in October of this year, as a long-promised remaster of the original Ark: Survival Evolved. Now, the co-creator has admitted there are issues with the servers.During an Extra Life Charity Twitch Livestream, the co-creator of Ark: Survival Ascended, Jeremy Stieglitz, admitted that there are issues with the game’s servers in response to fan complaints (as transcribed by PCGamer).“Firstly, I wanna say the servers are an ass, they run like ass, and their stability is an ass,” Stieglitz stated.“We need to improve it.

Elden Ring, Shadows of the Erdtree, likely won’t be previewed next week at the The Game Awards 2023.Speaking to Japanese publication Game Watch (with a translation provided by PCGamesN) at the PlayStation Partners Awards, producer Yasuhiro Kitao was asked whether the long-anticipated Elden Ring DLC will be unveiled at next week’s annual industry bash.Kitao replied, stating “It’ll be a little while yet, but progress is going well.” He then went on to specify that the DLC is “like Bloodborne” and that it has “new battles and new characters.”Kitao also spoke a little on FromSoftware’s development process, stating that its “long-standing stance has been to work diligently to create something interesting and valuable.”Elden Ring: Shadows of the Erdtree was officially announced in February of this year, with no real details available other than that the DLC is in development. Fans were hoping to see details from the expansion at The Game Awards 2023, as it was also a Geoff Keighley-hosted show, Summer Game Fest 2021, in which we saw a lengthy look at the base game, but that’s looking increasingly less likely as the event approaches.NME‘s review of Elden Ring stated that the game “exceeds every expectation”, with writer Andy Brown noting that:“A refined open-world format adds unimagined wonder to the game, whilst legacy dungeons will likely go down as some of FromSoftware’s best level design.

Fortnite skin has been readded to the game ahead of the upcoming Big Bang event.The original Black Widow skin has returned to Fortnite in a shock return, with this being the first time that the skin has been available in-game since Avengers: Endgame was released in 2019. In addition to this, Black Widow’s emote has also returned to the game.Popular Fortnite account ShiinaBR posted the news on X (formerly Twitter), simply writing “OG BLACK WIDOW HAS RETURNED OMG.”Another X account, Ali-A, noted that the skin has been away from Fortnite for a total of 1,668 days.It’s unclear if this is the first of several rare skins returning to the game, or if this is just a one-off, however.Recently, Fortnite revealed that Eminem is coming to the game during the upcoming Big Bang event, with a selection of skins currently available based on the rapper.

Baldur’s Gate 3 has received its fifth patch, fixing numerous issues and adding new content to the game in an update that weighs 30GB.The patch includes a new epilogue which adds almost 4,000 additional lines of dialogue and allows you to say goodbye to characters that you’ve found yourself bonding with throughout the massive RPG.In addition to this, the update has added two new difficulty modes: honor mode and custom mode. Honor mode is a harder version of the game, adding new moves to every boss fight and making it so that you can’t save scum (reload a past save to get a different result).

Microsoft has officially announced the games that are coming to Xbox Game Pass in December.Twelve new games will be joining the popular subscription service, with many of the titles available across consoles, PCs, and the cloud.sneak peek at your holiday gifts this december

Critical Role video game, if he finds the right studio.When asked by Dicebreaker if he wants to make a Critical Role video game, Mercer responded by saying that he’d love to make one “should all the stars align”, but that it would need to be the “right idea, the right development studio, and the right budget.”Despite the sheer popularity of the series, Critical Role somehow hasn’t been optioned for a video game yet. The closest the popular Dungeons & Dragons actual-play podcast has come is a DLC pack in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire which featured their Vox Machina characters and voiceovers.However, the second series of Critical Role’s animated series The Legend of Vox Machina was released earlier this year, with the company also announcing an animated adaptation of their second campaign, The Mighty Nein, so the company is clearly making moves in multimedia ventures.Mercer earlier this year featured in Baldur’s Gate 3, playing fan-favorite character Minsc.