Watch Dogs, Ubisoft's open-world sci-fi hacker series, is reportedly the latest in an ever-growing list of video games to get the live-action movie treatment, with Talk to Me actor Sophie Wilde said to be in talks to star.

That's according to Deadline, which reports the Watch Dogs movie will be helmed by director Mathieu Turi (who's currently adapting A Plague Tale for television), working from a screenplay by Christie LeBlanc - the writer behind Netflix's 2021 French sci-fi thriller Oxygen.

The Watch Dogs movie is in development at New Regency Productions but, beyond word of Talk to Me actor Sophie Wilde's potential involvement and the rather obvious note from Deadline that it'll be "set within the universe of Ubisoft's" series, details are limited.

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Ori and the Blind Forest is well known for its tear-jerker of an intro cutscene so for developer Moon Studios, the dark and damp, gore-soaked world of its next game No Rest for the Wicked, seems like a radical change in direction.

But how well has the studio managed the switch from magical Metroidvania to a swords and sorcery Soulsborne-like? Well, I went in blind and you can join me in my journey of discovery as I learn the ropes in the gameplay video below, where I play through the first 90 minutes of the game.

In No Rest for the Wicked, you play as a Cerim, a holy warrior imbued with remarkable powers (that you have to earn back before you can use them it seems) and, after a tragic accident at sea, you wash up on the backwaters of a land called Isola Sacra which is awash with something called 'the Pestilence'.

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EA has released a number of its older games onto Steam for the first time, and at a discounted price.

Newly-added titles include games from the Command & Conquer series, the early Dungeon Keeper games, and SimCity 3000 Unlimited.

The games EA has released all feature the most up-to-date patches, the company said in a press release.

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Sea of Thieves, you might have heard, is heading to PlayStation 5 next month. It's a significant moment for all sorts of reasons – it's perhaps the biggest of the four Microsoft first-party titles recently confirmed for Sony's console, and it's also the first time developer Rare has released a PlayStation title in its nearly 40-year history – but it's also an opportunity for a whole new group of players to experience (and I say this as a huge Sea of Thieves fan) a wonderful, genuinely unique game. And with the multiplayer pirate adventure's 30th April launch on PS5 looming, I spoke to creative director Mike Chapman and executive producer Joe Neate about this latest milestone, the state of the game, and the team's big sandbox focus for 2024.

"We've had [the PlayStation 5 version] running really since late last year," Neate explains of Sea of Thieves' journey to a new console. "We've been testing internally and we're getting into the 'take home' stage, where we're playing at home with our little hands on the [PlayStation] controllers, and kind of going, 'This is insane!'". But how did the pair react when they first learned a PlayStation version was happening? "I think it's such a surreal moment we have this opportunity," Chapman responds. "Sea of Thieves at its core is about taking barriers away, allowing crews of would-be pirates to sail together on the waves, to share ships, and the fact we're now adding one more platform so people can create their ideal crew and enjoy the game, it's monumental, absolutely monumental - if you'd told me this back in 2018, I don't think I would have believed you. It's amazing."

"And having this new influx of players," Neate adds, "this new influx of feedback and perspective, for the strength and health of Sea of Thieves as an ongoing, evolving game, it's just a great moment… It's a really good time for Sea of Thieves."

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With a little over a month until Amazon's Fallout TV adaptation airs, Prime Video has released another trailer for the series.

It provides our best look yet at the show, with three minutes of footage for us to pore over. And dare I say, it actually looks… decent? To my surprise, I quite liked it?

I've rewatched the trailer several times now to see if there's any new information we can glean hidden in the details, and there are a few things worth pointing out (as well as some references to my all-time favourite in the series, Fallout: New Vegas).

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There is an island in the Aegean, an island of stray cats and tumbling bougainvilleas, that has an instagram account devoted exclusively to its many doors. This account is a catalogue of variations on a theme, the theme being how you get in and out of a building, the variation being - well... Where to start? Modern doors, ancient doors. Doors of wood and doors of iron. Doors that are perfectly kept up, doors that are leaning, addled, barely hanging in there. Doors set with glass and doors set with grillwork. The doors are great individually, but it's together that they truly shine. You glimpse something of us as a species, I think, in their endless twists and reconfiguring, their fitness and anti-fitness for purpose.

If you are the kind of person who likes the idea of exploring the endless variation found within doors, Summerhouse is for you. And it's not just doors. Oh, the doors are great. They're nifty! Metal doors with an industrial feel, but also wooden double doors, perfect for an old junk shop. Sliding convenience-store doors. A round Hobbit number - painted green, of course.

But there are windows, rooves, finials and oddments like signage, rattling drainpipes, posters and hoardings. Fancy a polite little noticeboard? Fancy a lone payphone set, lollipop-style, upon a stick? Fancy trees and shrubs, wild and in pots? Walls of stone, walls of wood. Keep scrolling; even before the unlocks bring you a ghost amongst long grass and a cat lounging on an air-con unit, it's all here.

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Today's long-awaited arrival of Greek gods and legendary lands on the Fortnite battle royale Island is taking a little longer than planned, developer Epic Games has now said.

Chapter 5 Season 2: Myths and Mortals was set to go live this morning, UK time, but will now launch at 10pm tonight at the earliest.

This is due to a last-minute issue discovered during the game's still-ongoing downtime today, which will take at least the rest of the UK day to resolve.

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Nintendo hasn't announced which of its many development studios or partners is making Princess Peach: Showtime, this spring's biggest new Nintendo Switch game, and doesn't seem likely to before it debuts later this month.

"The development team will be credited in the game credits," a Nintendo spokesperson simply told me today when I enquired which developer had made the game.

There's no reason why Nintendo has to say who has made the game, of course, but fans have said it feels odd that the answer remains a mystery, just a few weeks away from Princess Peach: Showtime!'s 22nd March debut, after press have already played a preview build of the game, and following the launch of this week's public demo.

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The New York Times has issued a takedown notice to Reactle, a Wordle clone, which has meant around 1900 other versions of the game have now been taken down.

Reactle was an open-source project created by an individual, the brilliantly-named Chase Wackerfuss, that contained instructions on how to create Wordle spin-offs, such as variations in different languages or themed answers. The code repository is no longer available on Github, following the DMCA takedown notice from the NYT.

"I write to submit a revised DMCA Notice regarding an infringing repository (and hundreds of forked repositories) hosted by Github that instruct users how to infringe The New York Times Co.'s ('The Times') copyright in its immensely popular Wordle game and create knock-off copies of the same," reads the notice, as reported by 404 Media.

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Valiant Hearts: Coming Home is now available across consoles and PC, following its previous launch for smartphones via Netflix.

The game is now available on PC, PlayStation, Switch and Xbox consoles as part of a new collection, suitably titled Valiant Hearts: The Collection, which packages together Coming Home and its predecessor The Great War.

For a reminder of how it looks, there's a new trailer below where you can "experience the full emotional journey of love, sacrifice, and friendship". The colleciton will set you back £20.99. The game can also be purchased separately for £12.99.

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Ahead of the release of Dragon's Dogma 2 later this month, Capcom has made the character creator available to download.

It means players can create up to five designs for both their Arisen and main Pawn ahead of time, which will transfer to the main game.

And when the character creator is this detailed, getting ahead of the game is a massive win.

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Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing over the past few days. This week: first impressions, mazes, and zombie apocalypses.

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.

I've been playing a lot of Nightingale in the last couple of weeks, and I think there are good ideas there but also a lot of frustration. The game is too eager to have you grind, and it suffocates all of the more interesting things it's trying to do. I wrote about this in much more detail in my Nightingale Early Access impressions piece published yesterday.

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Developer Insomniac Games released its much anticipated New Game Plus update for Marvel's Spider-Man 2 yesterday, however it slipped up a tad and also accidentally gave players access to a development menu.

In a social media post soon after the update went live, Insomniac said a hotfix was on the way, as using this menu could corrupt saves and players' trophy progress. "There is no risk associated with playing the game as intended," Insomnia said.

However, despite the studio's efforts, this menu was of course accessed, and players have discovered content that was not in the base game, suggesting it was either cut ahead of release, or may be used later for DLC. Please note, potential spoilers lie below.

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Manga legend Akira Toriyama has passed away aged 68.

Toriyama is best known for his work as the creator of the Dragon Ball manga, which was then adapted into numerous anime series, films, and video games.

He also worked on multiple video games and was responsible for the character designs in Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger and Blue Dragon.

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Odd as it sounds, part of me misses those old licensed games. Everyone who came up in games journalism in the early 2000s will have been given some of these things to review, and it was always a fascinating challenge. I remember a former editor of Eurogamer telling me that the first game they ever put a score on was The Golden Compass, the spin-off game for the wonky big-budget adaptation of His Dark Materials. Now I think about it, my first review was Miami Vice for the PSP. Better than The Golden Compass, at least. Actually, it was quite good?

That was the thing. Sometimes these games were quite good. Sometimes they were more than quite good. But there was always a sense around my friends who took video games really seriously that licensed games were not worth messing with. Over the years I kept a fond eye on them, though. I have pleasant memories of a Hey Arnold! GBA game, and then there was the developer who once told me that licensed games occupied a role that sounds a bit like the role occupied by the church in medieval painting: providing a nice commission where you could work out some of your own interests while crowbarring in what the patron wanted. So maybe you used a film license to nail rain animation for your own non-licensed game. Raphael would be proud.

Things are different now, though, and that rambly introduction brings me to our game of the week: Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley. Somehow, I played this simultaneously aware that it was a game about Moomins, but unaware, really, that it was a licensed game. I knew that the Moomins were a thing, I just didn't think of that thing as being a license.

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Even to this day, developer Starbreeze Studios' 2013 classic Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is fondly remembered. This adventure puzzler was released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 just months before the next console generation, and packed a real emotional punch for those that caught it. Jump forward eleven years and we have a new remake for a new generation on PS5, Series X and Series S - so how does it hold up on new platforms, including the less powerful Series S, across both performance and quality modes?

In terms of its tech, this is a significant remake: the original game's Unreal Engine 3 is jettisoned for Unreal Engine 5, with Milan-based studio Avantgarden putting in serious work to re-imagine every environment with vastly improved detail via the engine's Nanite and Lumen technologies. Beyond improved visuals, the release also includes new cutscenes, tweaked controls and adjustments to difficulty. Even its soundtrack was re-recorded from scratch, with original composer Gustaf Grefberg returning to the project.

Despite all of those changes though, it's a relief to find that great care has been taken to stick closely to the original's core gameplay design and story. From the main menu design to the physics for its puzzles, the game logic running underneath is often identical. As before, you take control of two brothers simultaneously in a top-down view, with one brother on the left analogue stick and the other on the right. The goal is to navigate an eerie, beautiful fantasy world - full of trolls, wolves and sentient trees - in a quest to find a cure for their dying father.

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Epic has revealed the next titles it's giving away on the Epic Games Store, with Deux Ex: Mankind Divided and The Bridge getting the freebie treatment from Thursday, 14th March.

Deux Ex: Mankind Divided is the fifth instalment in Square Enix's stealthy, shooty sci-fi series and a direct sequel to 2012's Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Once again cyber-augmented protagonist Adam Jensen returns, and the ensuing adventure was deemed to be a "smart, handsome and weighty addition to the stealth-action genre" in Eurogamer's review.

As for The Bridge, it's a gravity shifting puzzle game created by Ty Taylor - and described as "Isaac Newton meets M. C. Escher" - that challenges players to manoeuvre the world and reach the exit each stage. Eurogamer quite liked this one on release in 2013, even if it sometimes felt like "the taster course for a more satisfying meal kept frustratingly off the menu."

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Funcom, developer of the upcoming Dune: Awakening, has issued a statement regarding the role of religion in the game after fan concerns erupted on the internet this week.

In Eurogamer's preview of Dune: Awakening, Funcom chief creative officer Joel Bylos mentioned how "for the large part, we sort of sidestep religion" as part of the game's "alternate history approach" - something which, as we wrote at the time, was likely to initially set Dune nerds' alarm bells ringing.

But the decision to "sidestep" Dune's overtly religious aspects in Awakening has been taken out of consideration for the series' lore, our Chris Tapsell wrote, and refers to one "religious aspect" in particular. That said, religion is still a theme in the game - something seemingly evident by its focus on the Butlerian jihad: the war between humans and AI.

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Roguelike, rhythm-based dungeon crawler Crypt of the NecroDancer's multiplayer Synchrony DLC will release on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch next week.

Synchrony entered early access on Steam in August 2022, and added a wealth of new features including three new playable characters, online multiplayer, a new Versus mode, and full mod support.

Developer Brace Yourself Games announced the Synchrony DLC is finally coming to PS4 and Switch, and will leave early access on PC at the same time.

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Final Fantasy fans are arguing over the redesigned moogles in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

Moogles are, of course, the adorable little white flying creatures that are regulars in the series, with each game having a slightly tweaked design.

In Rebirth, though, they're quite different: elongated bodies, round eyes, and... teeth.

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UPDATE 8/3/24: Helldivers 2 players have completed yesterday's mission to liberate Tien Kwan, unlocking mechs in the game for use by all players.

Mechs, or specifically the newly-unlocked EXO-45 Patriot Exosuit, can be unlocked from the Ship Management menu's strategem tab. For the price of 20,000 Requisitions, it can be called in twice a mission to cause carnage with its rocket launcher and chain gun.

Players are currently reporting that mechs have been briefly made free however - so everyone can give them a go. If you can get on the game's servers, that is.

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Somehow, I've spent nearly 40 hours playing Nightingale, but I'm still searching for the fun. I've seen glimpses of the game I feel we've been promised - the Victorian fantasy where friends glide through the air on umbrellas, fighting mythical beasts together in strange fae lands - but only ever glimpses. Mostly, I've been in dogged pursuit of an excitement that eludes me, hoping it'll be around the next corner I turn, in the next gear tier I unlock. But every corner seems to just bring another corner, and so around and around I go, getting somewhere but never there.

It's a shame because as a concept, and even in practice, there are things I love about Nightingale. The setting! A Victorian world of old-fashioned explorer garb and backpacks, of canvas and ironwork. And the fantasy world lurking just beside it, filled with unexplained phenomena and menacing faerie folk. It's pulled almost one-to-one from the pages of Susanna Clarke's brooding fairytale Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which I adore - they've even cast Marc Warren from the television adaptation to reprise his role as a faerie, which he does with sinister brilliance again. In Nightingale, the doors to the faerie realm have been blown wide open, and humanity scattered throughout the immeasurable archipelago of rae realms. Now, humanity is trying to find a way home, hopping through portal after portal as it tries to get back the eponymous city of Nightingale.

It's a refreshing set-up that's perfect for a survival crafting game, because it can be broken into myriad small realms to adventure on. These self-contained realms can be procedurally generated and offer varying threats, treasure, resources, depending on whatever seed you generate them from - the seed in this case being cards, which are another of the game's big ideas. These are craftable and collectable and open doorways depending on the cards you use. Match a desert or forest biome with a card representing a certain difficulty, and it will then appear. It's a great idea that works brilliantly with the setting of Nightingale to make the game feel distinct.

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What came first, the video game or the tie-in novel? Typically it's the former - and only after it's proven to be successful. But this isn't the case with Unknown 9: Awakening, a historical action adventure published by Bandai Namco originally announced back in 2020. Back then, it was due for launch the following year. Now, it will rather belatedly arrive this summer, long after a number of other Unknown 9 things have already debuted: a comic, the beginnings of a novel trilogy, a Spotify podcast. There's no Michael Fassbender movie in sight just yet, but the hope is that Unknown 9: Awakening will supercharge interest in all that, and act as an entry point into this fresh storytelling universe.

If you tuned in to last night's Xbox Partner Preview showcase, you'll have seen a bit of Unknown 9 in action. At first glance, it looks like a cross between Assassin's Creed and modern Tomb Raider, starring a character named Haroona played by Anya Chalotra (Yennefer in Netflix's version of The Witcher). But while last night's trailer was combat heavy, an extended look I was given offered plenty of moments for quieter, stealthier tactics, and smarter gameplay using a suite of special powers.

So, what's it all about? Well, you know how Assassin's Creed has an ancient civilisation and modern day clandestine societies vying to exploit its secret knowledge to promote rival causes centering on the nature of control or free will? It's very much like that.

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Larian's Baldur's Gate 3 leads the 2024 BAFTA Games Awards with 10 nominations, including Best Game, as it celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

BAFTA today released the shortlist of nominees for this year's awards, with Marvel's Spider-Man 2 receiving nine nominations, Alan Wake 2 receiving eight nominations, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor both receiving six.

The coveted Best Game will be awarded to either Alan Wake 2, Baldur's Gate 3, Dave the Diver, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, or Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

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Four years after a live-action Fallout TV adaptation was officially announced, the show is almost upon us. And ahead of its Amazon Video debut on 12th April - and following years of official images, unofficial behind-the-scenes shots, and even a sizeable teaser - we've got our best look yet at the adaptation, courtesy of a new three-minute series trailer.

Going by the trailer below, the adaptation makes a positive first impression, convicingly capturing the Fallout games' ever-shifting tone - blending gee-whizz '50s Americana with grubby post-apocalyptic mayhem as Ella Purnell's Vault Dweller protagonist Jean leaves her lifelong underground home to venture out into the Los Angeles Wasteland.

Speaking during a press panel ahead of today's trailer reveal, co-showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet explained that while the adaptation is set in the world of Fallout, it's also a "new story that comes after the events we've seen" in the games. "The show is built on 25 years of creativity and thinking and building," co-showrunner Graham Wagner added, "and we sort of thought the best thing to do is to continue that versus retread it. Because that's sort of what has worked with Fallout over the years. It's traded hands... it's a living thing... and we felt like we ought to take a swing at trying to build a new piece on top of all of that."

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Pokémon Go Fest will head to the Spanish capital of Madrid for this year's big European event, developer Niantic has announced.

The smartphone game phenomenon's biggest annual gathering will once again comprise three big in-person meetups, before a worldwide finale that can be played anywhere.

Go Fest 2024 will kick off in Sendai, Japan on 30th May to 2nd June, before its European leg in Madrid on 14th to 16th June. This year's US dates will see Go Fest return to New York between July 5th and 7th, meanwhile.

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Mary Kenney, associate narrative director at Insomniac Games, has discussed the current online discussion surrounding narrative development and consultancy firm Sweet Baby Inc.

To recap, Sweet Baby Inc. recently became the target of a group which claimed the company was forcing studios it worked with to increase diversity within its games, and accused it of pushing a "woke agenda" into the industry. Following a report into the claims by Kotaku, a number of game developers have spoken up to clear up misconceptions about what companies like Sweet Baby Inc. actually do.

Kenney, who has written for games including Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Telltale's The Walking Dead and the upcoming Marvel's Wolverine, posted a thread on X yesterday. "Some of you don't seem to understand how narrative consulting on games works," she began, "but don't worry: I do!"

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Last night's Xbox Partner Preview showcase gave us our first look at Sleight of Hand, an occult noir deckbuilding stealth sim from RiffRaff Games. And, it looks Ace (see what I did there?).

On Sleight of Hand's release next year across Xbox Series X/S and PC (including day one on Game Pass), players will take on the role of Lady Luck, a former occult detective "fated to return for one final job". And that job? Taking down her former Coven after a "less than amicable departure" which saw her lose her left hand.

"Too tired to fight fate any longer, and with more overdue bills than bucks to her name, Lady Luck strikes out to Steeple City with a cursed deck in hand, ready to track down everyone from her past life," reads Sleight of Hands description.

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If you have been playing Minecraft for the last decade or so and been thinking, 'I really enjoy this game, but I wish they would change up the wolves up a bit', then I have good news: Eight new wolf variations are coming to Minecraft, first via the Bedrock Edition beta and preview builds and Minecraft: Java Edition's latest snapshot.

In a blog post shared yesterday, Mojang detailed each new wolfy variant. The wolves all live in their own, specific areas, with the Rusty wolf "hiding between the jungle vines". The Spotted wolf, meanwhile, can be found in the Savanna Plateau.

Other wolves currently being put through the test are: The Black wolf, the Striped wolf, the Snowy wolf, the Ashen wolf, the Woods wolf and the Chestnut wolf. Meanwhile, Minecraft's original wolf is now going to be known as the Pale wolf.

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Capcom has confirmed that yes, the sizzling meat in Dragon's Dogma 2 is real.

While at camps, players can cook up a feast - as is the case with plenty of RPGs these days - but many fans have been speculating as to whether these cooking scenes are real or CGI.

Even PlayStation couldn't make up its mind and launched a poll on social media site X.

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Nintendo has released a free demo for Princess Peach: Showtime! ahead of its full release later this month.

The demo can be downloaded now on Switch. It begins at the start of the game and offers two levels to play, featuring Swordfighter Peach and Patisserie Peach.

If you've missed it so far, the game has players as Peach helping to save a theatre by playing dress up in various costumes that provide different powers.

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UPDATE 8/3/24: The war of the Tims continues with the news that, following EU intervention, Apple has reinstated Epic's developer account, meaning its plans to launch an App Store competitor on iOS can continue. It should also mean the return of Fortnite to Apple's platform.

In an update on its website, Epic wrote, "Apple has told us and committed to the European Commission that they will reinstate our developer account. This sends a strong signal to developers that the European Commission will act swiftly to enforce the Digital Markets Act and hold gatekeepers accountable. We are moving forward as planned to launch the Epic Games Store and bring Fortnite back to iOS in Europe."

EU commissioner Thierry Breton, in reponse to a social media post from Epic boss Tim Sweeney applauding the EU's "swift inquiry", also addressed Apple's reversal, writing, "I take note with satisfaction that following our contacts Apple decided to backtrack its decision on Epic exclusion. From Day 2, [the Digital Markets Act] is already showing very concrete results!".

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Developer Larian has issued another hotfix (number 21) for Baldur's Gate 3 across PC, PlayStation 5 and Mac. However, those on Xbox will have to wait a little longer for this and the game's previous hotfix to arrive, as they are still going through testing.

Sharing details of its most recent fix, Larian stated it had found a crash bug that was only affecting Xbox. "We're taking the time to investigate and solve that issue, so your future adventures go a little smoother," Larian said.

A knock on effect of this delay means cross-saves are currently not loadable on Xbox consoles, if they come from other platforms which have been updated with to include hotfixes 20 or 21. The developer apologised for this, and said it is working to sort these Xbox fixes "as soon as possible".

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Developer LocalThunk's Balatro might have hit a bit of a bump last week after an unexpected ratings change, but that hasn't stopped the acclaimed poker-inspired rogue-like deckbuilder from selling over half a million copies in ten days, according to publisher Playstack.

That's an impressive figure for what's a fairly unassuming card game at first glance. Balatro, if you're unfamiliar, challenges players to progress through a series of stage-like Blinds by exceeding each one's target score. A maximum of four poker hands can played each blind, and failure to reach the target, in classic rogue-like fashion, results in a game over.

As you can probably guess, though, there's a lot more to it than that, with successful Blinds rewarding in-game money to spend on the likes of fancy combo-boosting cards, exotic upgrades, and, crucially, a heap of rule-bending Jokers that quickly turn a relatively unremarkable set-up into an outlandish game of ludicrous, score-busting synergies.

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UPDATE 21.31pm: The Washington Post reporter responsible for a story claiming Square Enix's Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy had been confirmed as a PlayStation console exclusive by Sony has partially retracted the statement.

Originally, the report claimed, "Securing the Final Fantasy 7 trilogy as a console exclusive is a feather in the PlayStation cap", but, in a note on social media, Washington Post games reporter Gene Park offered a clarification, writing, "It was a mistake on my part to write the sentence like that." Park now says, "The entire FF7 trilogy is NOT yet confirmed to be Sony exclusive. The article has been amended to only mention Remake and Rebirth."

Of course, with Remake and Rebirth still being described as PlayStation console exclusives in the Washington Post report (an assertion you'd assume has now been very thoroughly run by Sony and Square), it would be unusual if the third entry in the series proved to be an outlier - but for now, consider the exclusivity status of part three still unconfirmed.

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Creatures of Ava, an action-adventure creature saving game, was announced by publisher 11 Bit Studios during tonight's Xbox Partner Preview.

The game is co-developed by Spanish indie studios Inverse and Chibig, with Tomb Raider writer Rhianna Pratchett involved in creating the narrative.

Players will take on the role of Vic, an adventurer who is on an expedition in a land called Ava. An infection is affecting Ava's local species of wildlife, causing them to be aggressive rather than their usual friendly selves, and players will help to heal the creatures and learn about the infection's origins.

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We've finally got more information on Capcom's upcoming game Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, which was shown during the Xbox Partner Preview showcase earlier today.

The game is a single-player, action strategy game in which the protagonist Soh must protect a maiden with divine powers called Yoshiro as she travels to cleanse villages of an "evil defilement".

The game is split into day and night sections. During the day, Soh will explore villages, purge defilements, and rescue villagers. The villagers can then be selected to help defend Yoshiro during the night, when evil spirits called The Seethe will siege the village.

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The Xbox Partner Preview showcase offered us a look at a number of the third-party games heading to Xbox Series X/S this year. We were shown a variety of trailers during the 30-minute presentation, including a taste of the Japanese mythology inspried Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess and the announcement of The Sinking City 2.

Whether you missed the presentation or want to revisit one of the spotlighted titles, there's a roundup of everything shown during the Xbox Partner Preview showcase below.

The showcase began with a look at Unknown 9: Awakening from Reflector and Bandai Namco. This body-hopping adventure will be arriving in the summer of 2024. Unknown 9: Awakening has a very strong Assassin's Creed vibe, so, if you're an Assassin's fan, this might be one for you.

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For those who want to prepare for the release of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl later this year by replaying the series' original trilogy, I have good news. They are now on Xbox and Playstation, making it the first time these games have been available on console.

The Legends of the Zone bundle groups together Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky, and Call of Pripyat in one nice package. If you would rather just pick the games up one at a time, you are able to do that as well.

The Legends of the Zone bundle retails at £33.50, while the games individually cost £9.99 each, on the Microsoft Store. Over on the PlayStation Store, the trilogy is currently listed for £15.99. [UPDATE: I rechecked the PlayStation Store this morning, and the pricing has changed. The Legends of the Zone bundle is now listed for £32.99.]

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Persona 3 Reload is receiving an expansion pass, adding the much-requested expansion The Answer.

The remake was criticised for not including all expansions from previous versions of the game, though dataminers discovered hints of this expansion pass last week.

As announced at tonight's Xbox Partner Preview, Episode Aigis is coming in September 2024 as the third wave of the expansion pass.

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Ukrainian developer Frogwares has announced The Sinking City 2, for launch on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2025.

Set once again in a Lovecraftian 1920s United States, this sequel will tell a separate and standalone story from its predecessor.

But, as detailed during tonight's Xbox Developer Direct, this entry will pivot to a "horror-first" genre focus, and also boast technical advancements from being built in Unreal Engine 5.

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This War of Mine developer 11 bit studios has at last unthawed a launch date for Frostpunk 2. The chilly society survival sequel will launch for PC on 25th July.

As previously announced, Frostpunk 2 will also launch straight into PC Games Pass. There's no further news on the console version today, though that will launch on Xbox Game Pass when it does arrive.

Once again, you'll be tasked with building a city to survive the elements and balance the various threats your small civilisation faces, now set 30 years after the original game.

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Final Fantasy 14 now has an official release date on Xbox.

The game is already playable on Microsoft's console through the open beta, after which we expected an official release date.

Now we know: the full release will be on 21st March.

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Epic's plans to launch a version of its Epic Games Store on iOS in the EU have stalled after Apple terminated its developer account, calling the company "verifiably untrustworthy" - and the much-trumpeted return of Fortnite to iOS has been impacted too.

Epic announced it would be launching an iOS version of its store in Europe back in February, following Apple's confirmation it would be complying with the EU's Digital Markets Act requiring it to allow sideloading and alternate marketplaces on its devices. While Epic boss Tim Sweeney immediately launched a social media tirade in response to the announcement - calling Apple's planned implementation of the EU's rules "hot garbage" - Epic soon confirmed it had officially received an Apple Developer Account and would be launching a version of its Epic Games Store, operated by Epic Games Sweden, sometime this year.

Now, however, Epic claims Apple has terminated its Epic Games Sweden AB developer account, preventing it from developing an iOS store - a move it says is "a serious violation of the DMA and shows Apple has no intention of allowing true competition on iOS devices."

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Twitch will continue to improve its mobile experience this year, with a new mobile app on the way.

CEO Dan Clancy shared an open letter today detailing the company's plans for 2024, including making the platform more mobile friendly, helping streamers make more money, and improvements to the Clip Editor for easier shares on social media.

Back at TwitchCon Paris last year, Twitch announced its Stories and Discovery Feed features would be added to the Twitch mobile app. Both of these will form the backbone of improvements coming this year.

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WWE 2K24 players have discovered footage of former WWE boss Vince McMahon has been blurred out in the game, following confirmation he would not be a playable wrestler.

McMahon had previously been expected to appear in the game's roster, but publisher 2K confirmed both McMahon and Brock Lesnar had been cut after allegations of sexual assault and trafficking against the former were made earlier this year.

Despite this, McMahon appears in some parts of the game's showcase mode, which allows players to play through iconic moments in WrestleMania history. The showcase includes real footage and in-game recreations of the events, with McMahon censored in some places.

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Following rumblings of an imminent release date for Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut on PC, Sony has made it official. Developer Sucker Punch's open-world samurai hit will launch via Steam and the Epic Games Store on 16th May.

Ghost of Tsushima launched for PlayStation 4 and PS5 back in July 2020, and a Director's Cut - bundling together the acclaimed base game, its Iki Island expansion, and cooperative online multiplayer Legends mode - arrived the following year. It's this version that'll be hitting PC in May, with Sony having now detailed some of the game's PC-specific enhancements.

As revealed in a post on the PlayStation Blog, Ghost of Tsushima for PC will offer unlocked frame rates, various graphics settings and presets, customisable mouse and keyboard controls, plus "extensive" controller support. It is, for instance, possible to use Steam Input to remap and customise the controller of your choice, and those using a DualSense controller can take advantage of its haptic feedback and adaptive triggers.

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Recently revealed game Kingmakers seems to perfectly capture the childhood thrill of smashing together characters from different worlds, with its debut trailer featuring a huge medieval army being demolished by a modern soldier with automatic weapons, a beat-up pick-up truck and command of a helicopter. Beyond that now-infamous plot twist at the 23 second mark, there's a lot going on: third-person shooter gameplay, real-time strategy elements and a massive scale to the proceedings with thousands of soldiers on-screen; it's like dropping a guy from Battlefield into Medieval: Total War.

The developers behind the title are Redemption Road Games, best known for the Road Rash spiritual successor Road Redemption that featured in our retrospective of that iconic series. Following that piece's publication late last year, the development team reached out to offer an interview about what they were working on next.

Here's that interview, which features John Linneman speaking to four members of Road Redemption Games: co-founders and programmers Ian Fisch, Paul Fisch and Daniel Balazs, and programmer Trace Myers. As usual, the text has been lightly edited for length and clarity, with the full interview available via the video embed below.

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Amazon's Fallout TV adaptation is set to debut next month, and to get us all in the mood, Xbox has added a new Fallout-inspired controller to Design Lab.

The design in question features a Fallout top case and side caps, with outlined Vault Boys adorning the cover. One chap is in colour, wearing his iconic blue and yellow ensemble while playing on an Xbox controller of his own. I won't lie, I really like this design and now want one for myself.

As you would expect from Design Lab, those who fancy grabbing themselves a Fallout-inspired Xbox controller will also be able to customise it with a variety of button styles, triggers and D-pad options (although Xbox has laid out some ideas inspired by Vault Dwellers, the Brotherhood, the Pip-Boy and, of course, mutants).

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When Modern Warfare 3 released last year, it pulled in some serious numbers for internet service providers (ISPs). The game's launch and pre-load period resulted in record traffic across EE and BT, which the companies reported as the "biggest single game contribution to a broadband peak". But what does this really mean? And how do ISPs cope when gaming traffic spikes occur? I spoke with EE's director for gaming and future propositional development Sam Kemp to find out.

Inside EE's network - as with any ISP - are records of games and other media in a cache, or CDN. "CDN is a content distribution node inside our network," Kemp says. "Whether it's the latest Apple software release, the latest Fortnite download or the latest Call of Duty game, we work with all of our partners globally to bring all of that content into our network... so when you call down on that film, that game, those maps, it's already in our network." This enables ISPs like EE to provide these downloads as fast and as directly as possible, with metrics "we know are really important to gamers", Kemp says, like "jitter, packet loss, latency, packet sequencing".

He compares EE's work adjusting internet signals - specifically when gaming on a smartphone - to a musician tweaking the "fine-tuned dials at the end of a violin or guitar. If you turn them all in the right way, you get the best sound".

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