I'm not sure how funny Buster Keaton movies are these days - I assume there are moments that still work as pure gags. But these films of his remain wonderful, because Keaton was kind of the Tom Cruise of his age - or rather Cruise, who namechecks Keaton often in interviews - is the closest thing we have to the original. Keaton's gags were almost always stunts, dangerous, brilliant, clearly visual stunts that moved the action forward while giving audiences something to gasp at. There's nothing on the surface to make me think of the World of Goo games, and yet I think of Keaton constantly when I play.

Keaton's world moves. I think that's it. Its physics are dependable - and predictable, which is important for gags and for games - but the ground itself cannot be trusted. If Keaton's sat on a steamboat's wheel and he thinks he's safe, we know that wheel's going to start turning. If he's climbing a ladder, we know that the ladder itself will start sinking into the mud. What then? Keaton has to vamp - to make the moment work. He has to over-engineer things to create a sense of new stability. That's where you get the gag, where you get the fun.

This is everywhere in World of Goo. At the heart of the first game, which helped usher in the Indie era, and at the heart of the second, which has just arrived, bringing with it both new ideas and a lot of fond memories - at the heart of both you're dealing with treacherous foundations. These games are bridge builders at their simplest. (Granted, they never stay simple for very long.) You have a pile of black goo lumps, and you can extend the lumps outwards to create rudimentary frames. The goal for each level is a pipe you have to reach, which will suck in any remaining goo balls. So build upwards in a tower to a pipe that's lurking above you! Build outward as a bridge across a nasty gap.

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Sales of Square Enix games have dropped compared to last year, despite the high profile release of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

According to its latest earnings report, the company's overall net sales dropped by 18.4 percent year-on-year for the most recent quarter.

This is driven in part due to a decline in sales of new games. By comparison, the same quarter in 2023 saw the release of Final Fantasy 16 and the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters.

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The remake of cult classic Lollipop Chainsaw will now arrive a couple of weeks earlier, on 12th September here in Europe and in America.

Lollipop Chainsaw RePop, as this new version is titled, was previously announced as launching on 26th September, for Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

After some initial confusion, developer Dragami Games has now made clear that RePop is a remaster of the original game by Grasshopper Manufacture, first launched in 2012, and not a full-on remake.

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Chatty gun game High on Life is set to be turned into an animated TV series, with Curb Your Own Enthusiasm's JB Smoove signed on as producer.

Smoove starred in High on Life game as Gus, one of the game's talking fish/guns, and Deadline reports there's a "good chance" he'll reprise the role in the upcoming animated series as well as producing the project.

High on Life launched in December 2022 for PC and Xbox and was the year's biggest launch on Xbox Game Pass, but proved controversial even before release, after it emerged the game included AI art and voice acting.

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With just a couple of weeks to go until the release of Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft has shared a post-launch content roadmap which, among other things, confirms Lando Calrissian and Hondo Ohnaka will appears as part of the game's paid Season Pass.

Star Wars Outlaws launches on 30th August, and owners of its Season Pass - which comes bundled into the game's £95 Gold Edition and £115 Ultimate Edition - immediately gain access to the Vessel Runner Character Pack (also a pre-order bonus), containing cosmetics for protagonist Kay and companion Nix, plus the exclusive Jabba’s Gambit mission.

Ubisoft moved to assure players Jabba the Hutt would also make an appear in Outlaws' base game earlier this year, after fans grew concerned one of Star Wars' most iconic villains would be locked behind a paid season pass. Lando Calrissian and Hondo Ohnaka's newly confirmed inclusion in Outlaws' Season Pass may prove similarly controversial, especially as Ubisoft is yet to confirm whether they star in the base game too.

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Monster Hunter Wilds might not be out until next year, but Capcom has just given the hype handle a tiny tweak with the release of three new videos detailing some of the mechanial additions and refinements players can expect when this latest series entry shows up in 2025.

Video number one, titled Basic Mechanics Overview, whizzes through some of the most fundamental aspects of Monster Hunter gameplay before introducing Wilds' new bird-like dino-mount, the Seikret. This (alas) replaces Monster Hunter Rise's awesome dog-like Canyne, serving as a new way to speed about the place.

The Seikret can automatically guide Hunters directly to their target if desired, and players are free to gather items from the environment, drink potions to recover their health, sharpen their blade, or switch between primary and secondary weapons ready for battle while in the saddle. The returning Slinger has also had a bit of an upgrade in Monster Hunter Wilds; as well as being able to launch different ammo types found around the map, it can gather items from a distance, and yank loose bits of scenery (rock, for instance) onto monsters' heads.

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Forthcoming action-RPG Phantom Blade Zero developer S-Game says that as it believes in "making our game accessible to everyone", it has not "ruled out any platforms".

Confirmation came via the studio itself, which took to social media to clarify its stance after several media outlets reported an unnamed developer said "nobody needs Xbox".

S-Game has distanced itself from the comments, saying they do not represent "S-Game's values or culture".

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It's another packed edition of DF Direct this week, with our latest thoughts on Star Wars Outlaws, impressions on Nobody Wants To Die and the Visions of Mana demo plus a look at how ray tracing is being introduced into the next wave of EA Sports titles. However, the focus for this piece is on the release of a new technical preview for AMD's Fluid Motion Frames technology - AFMF 2. This is the Radeon team's second attempt at driver-level frame generation and if you have the means, I highly recommend checking it out.

First of all, it's worth getting all of the caveats out of the way: driver-level frame generation can never hope to match the quality of Nvidia DLSS 3 frame-gen or AMD's FSR 3 alternative. These technologies have deep-level integration into game engines that allows for much higher levels of fidelity from generated frames. AFMF is essentially FSR 3 without the additional information given up by the game, so in effect, it works in a similar way to smooth motion interpolation in TVs. The game frame is rendered, then another is held, and then AFMF interpolates an 'in-betweener' image to sandwich between the two.

With only screen-space information to work from, AFMF has to make a lot of guesses in only a very short amount of time, so more artefacts and errors will present themselves. However, similar to other frame generation techniques, generated frames are effectively strobing between standard rendered frames. The higher the base frame-rate, the faster the strobing effect and the less noticeable the artefacts will be. AMD typically says that 60fps is a good base-level frame-rate for FSR 3, so it stands to reason that AFMF would require a higher base fps level to better hide its inadequacies.

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God of War studio Sony Santa Monica is developing its first new IP in over 20 years.

As spotted by a member of ResetEra, a developer at Sony Santa Monica mentioned they've been working at the studio "looking after the entire character development pipeline on their new IP".

In the "about" section of their LinkedIn profile, a developer supervising character development said they were "thrilled to be back" at Santa Monica after a brief departure to work at Striking Distance and Unknown Worlds.

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The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom continues to look brilliant in this latest trailer from Nintendo that gives you a whistlestop tour of its version of Hyrule.

From Hyrule Castle to Gerudo Desert and Kakariko Village, the upcoming Switch game will let Zelda see all the sights, plus hang out with Gorons, Deku Scrubs and both flavours of Zora.

As well as fast travel points, Zelda will also be able to explore on horseback to hop over small echoes. Just create a carrot "echo" - using your ability to conjur up objects you've seen previously - and your trusty steed will come running.

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Following yesterday's bombshell news that Valve could be developing a new Half-Life game, Valve expert Tyler McVicker has stepped forward to say he too believes it's true.

Codenamed "HLX", McVicker asserts the new game "seems to be a fully-fledged non-VR Half-Life game, something that seems too good to be true".

I'll go into some of the details after the video embedded below, but please be mindful there may be spoilers for this new game.

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Larian began a continuation of its work on the beloved Baldur's Gate 3 last year as it was "the obvious thing" to do - before ultimately deciding to change course.

Speaking to PC Gamer on the anniversary of Baldur's Gate 3's full release, Larian boss Swen Vincke said the initial decision to continue working on the Dungeons & Dragons-based franchise saw his team focus on an obvious follow-up - an idea that sounds like it was initially pitched as an expansion, before being considered as the basis for a potential Baldur's Gate 4.

"It's something that you all would have liked, I think," Vincke said. "I'm sure, actually. And we actually went pretty fast, because the production machine was still warm. You could already play stuff."

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Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi has confirmed card game Queen's Blood will make a return for the third part of the remake trilogy.

Hamaguchi was speaking at the Otacon anime convention in America as part of a panel with producers and voice actors from the game.

The director was asked by a fan if he could make the card game in real life. "Actually I've been receiving so many requests," he replied. "Right now we are preparing a revamped or even better version of Queen's Blood for the next title of this series. So I hope to be able to share more in the near future."

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HBO has released its first teaser for the second season of The Last of Us.

The teaser is short, but gives us a look at some returning and new faces coming to the second season. New faces include Kaitlyn Dever as Abby and Catherine O'Hara's still to be named character (although previous rumours suggested her character will be called Gail).

You can check out the teaser below, towards the end of HBO's latest sizzle reel. It starts at around the 01:15 mark. After the trailer, I will be breaking down a few bits I noticed, so please be aware of spoilers for The Last of Us Part 2 (the video game) below.

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Update 5th August, 2024: Natasha Chandel's website is currently down after it exceeded the bandwidth limit.

Just before the website went down, it had been updated, and all references to Valve's "Project White Sands" had been scrubbed.

Original story follows.

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Images of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 have leaked online, including multiplayer maps, menu screens, and perks.

Within hours, the screenshots were hit with copyright claims from Activision, adding credence to the claims they come from an in-development build. However, this is the internet, which means nothing's ever truly gone, and the images are still going up faster than Activision can remove them.

Whilst the map images have since been removed, the leaker claims the maps have partial titles, many of which will be familiar to Call of Duty players.

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I'm a big old dreamer, me. I see a thing that I love, like VR, and I like to imagine the best outcomes for it. You know, like Sony actually bringing a new Astrobot to the PS VR2, or say, smaller, lighter, cheaper headsets for all. Obviously I'm disappointed every time - newer headsets seem to be getting impossibly expensive and, well, of course Sony's gone done a Sony with the PS VR2.

One of my biggest dreams though, is that one day, in the future, every game released would come with a hybrid VR mode. A simple toggle at the start, like Capcom put in Resident Evil 7, that gives players the choice to either experience the game in VR, or enjoy it in flat screen on whatever TV or monitor they choose.

While this dream seems like a distant improbability, we do at least get to enjoy a taster of this fantasy thanks to Praydog's magical UEVR mod, which lets you convert any UE4 or UE5 game into VR at the click of a button. Sure, not every game runs perfectly and there's plenty of fiddling that can be done in the mod's menus to iron out the creases but still, for this week's VR Corner I was able to play a demo of a game that's not even fully released yet in both third person and first person VR.

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Humble Games' last release before the studio was "restructured" last week, Bõ: Path of the Teal Lotus, has launched a Patreon to support the game "in these uncertain times".

Writing on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, developer Squid Shock said that whilst it did not fault the team's work, Humble's changes "have meant we have missed out on critical post-launch support, which may put our studio's future at risk".

Although Humble has disputed the statements of former staff that characterised the layoffs as a shutdown, instead insisting laying off its staff is merely a "restructuring", Squid Shock also describes the changes as "shutting down".

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Activision has banned over 65,000 players across Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

The bans rolled out in the last few hours, purging thousands of "cheating and boosting" players from both Ranked and non-Ranked play alike.

"The Ricochet Anti-Cheat team has now purged the Ranked Play leaderboards in both Call of Duty: Warzone and Modern Warfare 3, banning accounts for cheating and boosting," Team Ricochet – the cheating enforcement team – said.

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Silent Hill: The Short Message – a two-hour free-to-play first-person horror shadow-dropped by Konami earlier this year – has been downloaded over three million times.

Konami marked the occasion on social media, inviting players yet to meet Anita to "please give it a try".

"In an abandoned apartment building where strange phenomena occur one after another, can you escape from the grotesque creatures?" the publisher teased (machine-translation provided by Google Translate).

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China has approved a number of new mobile games for release, most notably Marvel Rivals, Rainbow Six, Dynasty Warriors, and Final Fantasy 14 Mobile.

According to Niko Partners, a total of 15 games were approved yesterday (2nd August), including the still-as-yet-unconfirmed Final Fantasy 14 mobile port.

The news adds credence to a recent rumour that Final Fantasy developer Square Enix had linked up with Tencent to develop a mobile version of its fan-favourite MMO, Final Fantasy 14.

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Apple's iPad series of tablet computers had a huge impact on the computing landscape. The combination of a large-format touchscreen and the fluidity of Apple's software made for a really compelling device for web browsing, playing games, watching videos, and reading books. At the same time, iPads haven't quite displaced traditional computers for a lot of more traditional productivity-focused use cases, and haven't dethroned more dedicated devices like game consoles either.

That's where the latest generation of iPad Pros comes in. The 2024 iPad Pro packs a stunning "tandem OLED" display capable of up to 1600 nits peak brightness, along with the brand-new M4 processor which promises enough juice for sophisticated apps and console-level games. It's by far the most capable iPad yet, and the best positioned to shore up any weaknesses prior iPads might have had. So how does the M4 iPad Pro fare as a general purpose computer? And does it turn in satisfactory results when put up against the recent crop of demanding iPad console ports?

The M4 iPad Pro's form factor is exceptional - it's remarkable just how thin and light it is. I purchased the 11-inch mode and it feels like it's just barely there. It comes in about half a kilogram in weight, and is a mere 5.3mm thick - way thinner than my iPhone 15 Pro and substantially thinner than any other prior iPad. The actual utility of that thinness is perhaps a bit more questionable though - I can't really say that a thicker tablet has much of an impact on its day-to-day use. The second item of note is the OLED display, which is a first for any larger-screened Apple device. It offers perfect black levels, great off-axis viewing, and 120Hz support for silky smooth animation. It also features great brightness levels - about a thousand nits for a full white screen in SDR and HDR and 1600 nits for HDR highlights. I'd say those figures are better than the best OLED TVs on the market today, which can hit similar peak brightness but take a huge brightness hit with more uniformly bright content.

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An ancient quest, one the bards will sing of in every tavern this side of Cloudy Mountain. A heroic ranger, travelling mountain passes, fjording rivers and hacking her way through cursed forests, protected only by her wiles and the taught string of her trusty bow. Her arrows, enchanted by the witch queen, bounce off cavern walls, apt at slaying all manner of rat, bat, snake, and conniving spider. She tracks them through the mazes encountered on her journey, using scat and skull alike to stave off their advance – and that of the tunnels' vicious demons and dragons whose attacks land close enough to shave the very fibres of her cloak, but just can't seem to bring her down.

And so she hunts, careful to avoid the shambling pink blobs that are said to be indestructible even to the magic weapons of the brave adventurers who set out for Cloudy Mountain, never to return. By hook and crook and skin of teeth, she rides there and confronts the legendary winged dragons that guard the two lost halves of the Crown of Kings. The crown shards sport the midnight sigil of the ancients. Three arrows notched and flown straight through the creatures' hearts are the only way to take them down. The ranger recovers one shard, then the other. A fuzzy, computerised blast of sound greets her in her triumph. You return to the map screen, relinquishing control. You've done something I've never done. You've beaten Advanced Dungeons & Dragons on the Intellivision.

It was once the most technologically advanced piece of Dungeons & Dragons media known to humankind. Its mountain mazes, made up entirely of green and yellow pixels, held wonders and horrors for those with courage enough to brave their depths. Its enemies scaled in difficulty, from one-shot KO rats, to two-shot minibosses, all the way up to the winged dragons in the fabled Cloudy Mountain that took three arrows to vanquish. The game's sound design was enthralling, the back of the box quick to assure players – and rightfully so – that "exciting sound effects highlight game play." You were alerted to the presence of nearby monsters in the maze by the sound of their wings or the slithering of their bodies through the mud before seeing them at all. To find them, you had to uncover the rest of a tunnel by walking through it, and by that point it could be too late.

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Salt and Sanctuary, from Ska Studios, is a bit bloody good, serving up an enormously enjoyable, Dark Souls-inspired slice of 2D action-adventure. It's also now eight years old - but that hasn't stopped it from getting a surprise update this week, adding a tough new Randomiser mode.

Salt and Sanctuary, which initially released for PlayStation 4 and PC back in 2016, is a fairly explicit attempt to translate From Software's now oft-replicated dark fantasy RPG formula, complete with considered combat and corpse runs, into two dimensions. It begins on the shores of a vast and broodily enigmatic kingdom, which players - in the role of the Saltborn - must explore and overcome, tackling enemies and imposing bosses along the way.

It's good stuff, and not exactly a walk in the park, but it just got a whole lot tougher thanks to its new Randomiser mode. As detailed over on Steam, Salt and Sanctuary players looking to give themselves a real challenge can now select from three randomiser options: Item Randomiser, Monster Randomiser, and Scaling Monster Randomiser.

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Somehow, it's that time of the year again already! THQ Nordic's annual gaming showcase has returned to offer a look at its upcoming slate of releases, both previously known and newly announced. This time around, the long-awaited Gothic 1 Remake and Titan Quest 2 both got gameplay reveals, and Epic Mickey: Rebrushed popped up to remind us all it's coming out relatively soon. As for the new stuff, Wreckfest is getting a sequel, Little Nightmares studio Tarsier's creepy new game has been teased (as has a new Darksiders), while strikingly animated platforming adventure The Eternal Life of Goldman looks like a real gem.

So if you didn't catch the showcase and are curious to see what you missed, you'll find a full round-up - augmented by a few additional details from an earlier press briefing - below.

We were big fans of 2018 demolition derby racer Wreckfest ("Wreckfest offers primal pleasures," wrote Martin Robinson, "with little by way of pretension), and developer Bugbear Entertainment is ready to do it all over again in the newly announced Wreckfest 2. Details are relatively scant at this early juncture, but it promises "unmatched deformation and physical damage models" as its high-octane single-player and multiplayer racing unfolds.

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Activision and Microsoft have reportedly approved the creation of a new "smaller" team within Blizzard Entertainment - mostly comprised of employees from Activision's mobile-focused King division - to develop new "AA" games based on existing Blizzard properties.

That's according to Windows Central's Jez Corden, whose sources say the new initiative reflects an eagerness at Microsoft to "explore and experiment" with smaller teams within the larger organisation, in response to the "monstrously ballooning costs" of AAA game development.

Corden notes Microsoft has seen success with the likes of Sea of Thieves and Grounded, both built by comparatively small teams - and, of course, 2023's Hi-Fi Rush, created by a small team within Tango Gameworks, was heralded as a "break out hit" by Microsoft after its release.

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Riot Games' free-to-play hero shooter Valorant launches today for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, following its recent console open beta.

The game will not offer crossplay between its existing PC version and consoles "to maintain Valorant's renowned standard for competitive integrity", Riot has said.

In a press release issued today, Riot did at least promise future game updates would release simultaneously, so all additional maps and characters will arrive at the same time.

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Once Human's maintenance is now complete, and the F2P open-world shooter is back online with a plethora of QoL improvements and optimisations, including a desperately-needed revision to vehicle handling.

Whilst players received a bundle of Stardust and health-related items to make up for the downtime, Once Human's long-promised controller and Steam Deck support is still nowhere to be seen (although, confusingly, the "controller" in-game item remains in place).

In terms of Memetics, you can now pick up memetic specialisation memory fragments in the wild and trade them between players. All memetic fragments will be destroyed at the end of the season – which is in a couple of weeks time – and cannot be sent to Eternaland, so be mindful of that.

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Turkish air pistol shooter Yusuf Dikec has become an unlikely Olympic star after winning the silver medal at the 2024 Paris Games.

The 51-year-old won silver without any special equipment (lenses, eye covers, ear protection) and has subsequently been likened to a hitman, though he's in fact competed in every Summer Olympics since 2008.

His seeming nonchalance has been compared online to South Korean markswoman Kim Yeji, who also won silver in her event and has won over fans for just being impeccably cool.

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The upcoming movie adaptation of Supermassive's horror Until Dawn sees Peter Stormare reprise his role from the game, psychiatrist Dr Hill.

Whilst it remains unclear how, exactly, the movie will account for the game's myriad of deaths, survivals, and endings, Stormare's casting at least hints that Supermassive's trademark player "guide" will be making an appearance.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Stormare will be joined by Maia Mitchell and Belmont Cameli, although what roles they'll play remains under wraps for now.

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Chivalry 2 is now "content and feature complete", as its developer moves on to new projects.

The medieval first-person slasher received its latest update in May, the Regicide Update, which provides the game's narrative conclusion. In a new blog post, Torn Banner Studios president and creative director Steve Piggott confirmed this is the final update, but not the end of the franchise.

"With the Regicide Update we consider the game to be content and feature complete," said Piggott. "Though every story comes to an end, we know many players will be disappointed by the news - but this isn't the end for the Chivalry franchise."

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Nintendo is adding Game Boy Advance title Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team to its Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack catalogue.

The role-playing game spin-off from the main Pokémon series joins Nintendo's subscription library next week, on 9th August.

This is the first Pokémon game from the Game Boy Advance era to land on Nintendo Switch Online, which has so far offered other spin-offs such as Pokémon Snap, originally on N64, and Pokémon Trading Card Game, originally on Game Boy.

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Prison Architect 2 has been indefinitely delayed so publisher Paradox can improve its performance and content.

The game was expected to release on 3rd September, but has now been delayed for the third time this year.

The news was shared in a statement from Paradox, explaining the team "need more time to improve both the game's performance and its content" as internal reviews and beta test groups highlight these require more work.

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Bungie is no longer working on Payback, a new project set in the Destiny universe once overseen by franchise bosses Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy.

That's according to reporting by Gamespot's Tamoor Hussain, Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb and Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who all state that Smith and Noseworthy are also now no longer at Bungie.

Details of Payback leaked online back in April, when it was described as "Destiny 3". There were questions at the time over whether the project was still in development. Now, Schreier has confirmed that Payback was more of a spin-off, and was cancelled "a while ago".

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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 we push through to get to better times in a game, which we hope are coming; we change our perception of a game after talking to the people who made it; and we find the familiar in a game that also manages to feel completely new.

What have you been playing?

Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We've Been Playing archive.

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Intel is cutting 15,000 jobs as part of a swathe of "significant actions to reduce costs" and save $10m in 2025.

CEO Pat Gelsinger said those 15,000 jobs represent 15 percent of its global workforce and come after the computing megacorp reported no profits from the last financial quarter.

Other cost-cutting exercises to make "Intel a leaner, simpler and more agile company" include reducing operating costs, simplifying its portfolio, eliminating complexity, reducing capital, suspending its dividend, and maintaining growth investments.

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Nintendo's sales for Switch hardware and software have seen big declines as the console nears the end of its life.

In its latest earnings report, Nintendo stated a 46.3 percent decline year-on-year of console sales, while software has declined 41.3 percent year-on-year.

However, this is largely due to the huge success Nintendo had in 2023. The release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie "energised" game sales, while the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom boosted both software and hardware sales.

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Following yesterday's mass layoffs at Destiny 2 developer Bungie - in which 220 employees lost their jobs - a new report has claimed the cuts were a result of Bungie leadership 'overstating the studio's financial prospects' to Sony, which acquired the developer in 2022.

That's according to sources interviewed by journalist Stephen Totilo, who, writing in his GameFile newsletter, reports yesterday's job cuts were necessary to stem Bungie's continued financial losses. The studio is said to have repeatedly missed financial targets promised to Sony, and has reportedly lost money since the release of Destiny 2 expansion Lightfall in 2023.

Totilo claims yesterday's layoffs - the second round of job cuts in less than a year - had long been planned, and "couldn't be avoided" even if this year's Destiny 2 expansion, The Final Shape, had "blockbuster performance". Bungie management reportedly concluded last year - amid poor sales and a dwindling Destiny 2 player base - it would need to "make deep cuts to show Sony's executives that it was taking its finances seriously", with the studio's autonomy - and management jobs - seemingly on the line if it failed to meet its targets.

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It barely feels like five minutes since the last one, but, somehow, Gamescom is almost upon us again. Which means publishers are starting to detail their plans for the show - and in Microsoft's case, we now know that'll include daily livestreams for those at home, plus over 50 playable games for anyone wandering the Koelnmesse's halls.

Attendees visiting Microsoft's Hall 7 Gamescom booth in person will find 50 games from Xbox Game Studios, Blizzard, Bethesda, and third-party partners, playable across 240 gaming stations. These include Age of Mythology: Retold, Ara: History Untold, Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, Fallout 76: Milepost Zero, The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road, and Towerborne.

Playable third-party games, meanwhile, include Star Wars Outlaws, Space Marine 2, and the long-awaited Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl. A full list of games at the booth can be found here.

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UPDATE 10.06pm: Following a bit of an "oopsy" on developer FuturLab's part, Steam users now have an additional two PowerWash Simulator levels to blast into a state of cleanliness alongside today's intended cruise ship release.

It's not entirely clear how the mishap occurred, but it started after Steam users began reporting they were unable to play PowerWash Simulator's cruise ship DLC following its release earlier today. Then, while FuturLab was orchestrating a fix, the game's next update - The Muckingham Files 4 - managed to work its way onto Valve's store ahead of schedule.

As a result, Steam users now have access to two additional PowerWash Simulator jobs: they can hose down crypto enthusiast Devon King's vandalised modern mansion, as well as pilot Floraine Perez' fire plane - which is looking a bit worse for wear after a flight over Mount Rushless.

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June's big Civilization 7 announcement was pretty light - by which I mean completely devoid of - detail. But that's about to change, with developer Firaxis having now revealed it'll be showcasing first gameplay of its latest 4X strategy title later this month.

First, viewers will get a taste of Civ 7 during this year's Gamescom Opening Night Live, which - in case your diary isn't up-to-date - is airing from 7pm BST/11am PT on 20th August.

But! Firaxis will then be airing a far more substantial chunk of gameplay once Opening Night Live comes to an end. Specifically, Civ fans can expect to see "more than" 20 minutes of gameplay - and hear Civ 7's development team share "exclusive insights" on its "innovative new features" - from 9.30pm BST/1.30pm PT on 20th August.

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UPDATE 2/8/24: Following rumours of a delay for Obsidian Entertainment's Avowed, Microsoft has now officially moved the fantasy action-RPG's release out of 2024.

Avowed will now launch for Xbox and PC on 18th February next year, as confirmed in an official infographic shared on social media. The image, featuring release dates and windows for all Xbox's currently announced games, confirmed Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, plus Starfield's Shattered Space Expansion, are still expected to launch this year.

In text accompanying the graphic, Microsoft said it was moving Avowed's release to February 2025 in order to "give players' backlogs some breathing room." In a separate post, Xbox boss Phil Spencer wrote, "We're proud of what the Obsidian team have accomplished with Avowed and want to make sure they have the best launch possible."

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After teasing us all earlier in the year with a playful trailer featuring a vibrating cardboard box, the Jackbox team has today lifted the lid on its upcoming, risqué themed Naughty Pack.

The Naughty Pack, you may recall, will comprise three "provocative" games, which the Jackbox team promises will "deliver on laughter, wit, and a touch of irreverence".

We now know what these three games are, and one of them wants us to answer the ever important question: "Which of these meats most wants to be called daddy?" Well, I say!

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Fortnite players are now able to unlock the Tesla Cybertruck, though have found it has arrived with some issues - not unlike its real-world equivalent.

Players report that using the digital version of Elon Musk's motor breaks various in-game items, effectively penalising them for attempting to drive the Cybertruck themselves.

Videos uploaded by Fortnite fans on reddit show players unable to use the meta-dominating Nitro Fists, as well as the current Pirates of the Caribbean collaboration item Ship in a Bottle, after driving a Cybertruck.

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Developing games for Apple platforms has been described as "like an abusive relationship", due to a lack of support or strategy.

In a new report, MobileGamer.biz has spoken to a number of anonymous developers making games for the Apple Arcade mobile platform and the Vision Pro VR headset.

Sources describe a whole litany of issues, suggesting Apple simply "does not understand gamers" or the industry.

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Cor, it feels good to be ricocheting hats off chrome skulls again, let me tell you. It's been almost ten years since the original SteamWorld Heist showed us how XCOM could work in a 2D play space, and Thunderful's sequel has only doubled down on what made this particular bag of bolts such a joyful offshoot in the turn-based strategy genre. Case in point: the hats that you could whizz off the head of your enemies and claim for your own (for no other reason than sheer cheekiness) are back in full force, with 101 of them ready to be pilfered in your search for tasty loot. Its new cast of characters are also daft and brilliant in equal measure, and I'm not ashamed to admit that one of my first recruitment decisions was based purely on the pun work. Why yes, Dame Judy Wrench, I will have you on my crew with your Harsh Language special attack that can shame an enemy for three damage. Why is that even a question?

SteamWorld Heist 2 isn't just more of the same, though - even if that is a large part of its overall appeal. Apart from the shift in setting from space to a more explorable and connected ocean planet, there's a new class system that lets you pinch skills learned in other jobs you've undertaken. Of course, Heist 2 isn't the first game to land on this particular idea, and its execution is perhaps only partially successful in practice (more on that in a sec). But given this sequel is easily double the size of the original, it does need some form of progression support like this to help prevent its missions from buckling under the weight of its lengthy environmental crisis story. In truth, that reach for something bigger and better is arguably SteamWorld Heist 2's undoing in many ways, but what's here is still eminently enjoyable - and you're certainly not left hungry.

Let's start with the good stuff. Aside from its copious array of optional headwear to parade and pilfer, the heists themselves are as sharp and thrilling as ever. In your bid to find out what's causing this world's freshwater shortage (salt water doesn't play nice with a Steambot's metal work, after all), you'll be raiding all manner of moored ships, rigs and naval facilities to find the source of the problem. Unsurprisingly, there are several hiccups, detours and other obstacles you'll need to deal with along the way, taking you from the balmy, tropical shallows to deep, icy northern trenches and more - which you'll pootle around in your trusty submarine in real-time, travelling from one mission to the next on the high seas.

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Pokémon Go's upcoming addition of Dynamax mechanics has been something of an open secret - and now we're able to see how some elements will look in-game for the first time.

Fans of Pokémon Go have peered inside the popular mobile game's files to find visual elements of the upcoming Dynamax system, which also offer clues as to how Dynamax Pokémon will be obtained.

For the first time since Pokémon Go's launch all the way back in 2016, new locations look set to appear on the game's overworld map - currently labelled as "stations". These gym-like structures look like they'll host raids for Dynamax Pokémon.

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You can currently re-subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online and get an extra two months' worth of membership time for free.

Nintendo announced the offer today as a feature of its new Mega Multiplayer Festival, which runs from now until 8th September.

Purchase a 12-month Nintendo Switch Online membership option during this period from the eShop or My Nintendo Store and you'll be credited with 14 months of membership time.

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Last week, Ubisoft raised eyebrows when it issued a vaguely-worded apology for "some elements" in Assassin's Creed Shadows' promotional materials that had "caused concern" among some fans.

Fans widely attributed the statement as referring to the ongoing backlash towards the game's inclusion of historical figure Yasuke as a Black samurai and its dual protagonist. Moderators of the main Assassin's Creed reddit this week described the topic as a "tedious discussion" that Ubisoft's statement had only "exacerbated".

In contrast, Ubisoft creative director Julian Gerighty has now acknowledged online criticism of Star Wars Outlaws - specifically, the aesthetic appearance of main character Kay Vess - by stating that "bad-faith" debates are "not worth engaging with".

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A mod has been released for the fan-made Fallout 4 mod Fallout: London to change all football references to soccer.

Fallout: London, unsurprisingly, transports the post-apocalypse of the series to the English capital and has been created by a group of British fans, Team Folon.

That means the mod is full of British references, but the It's A Soccer Ball mod on NexusMods from GrumpyOldNord changes things for American players.

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