Kaitlyn Dever, the actress portraying Abby Anderson in the second season of HBO's The Last of Us adaptation, required extra security during filming for her own protection.

This comes from fellow castmate Isabel Merced, who is playing Dina in the show. Speaking with Josh Horowitz on Happy Sad Confused, Merced discussed the strong emotions the series can spark within some that have resulted in volatile reactions from so-called fans.

When Horowitz said he was concerned about Dever, and the toxicity she will likely receive "through proxy of being Abby", Merced stated there are "so many strange people" who "genuinely hate" the character. This is despite her being completely fictional. And, because of this, Dever was required to have extra security during the filming for the second season.

Read more

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."

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

US workers body SAG-AFTRA says its voice actors strike could still impact projects that have been in development for over a year, including games like GTA 6, despite the terms of its agreement stating they should be safe.

Initially, last week's shock announcement of strike action by video game actors over AI concerns was thought to have minimal impact on games expected to release later this year, as it did not include games that commenced production before August 2023.

Now, however, SAG-AFTRA says all "members who want to show solidarity with the union can elect voluntarily not to work", intimating that it believed the strike could be more disruptive than previously suspected and impact "non-struck" games.

Read more

Flippin’ heck, what a journey it’s been for Baldur's Gate 3, eh? It seems just yesterday I was getting very jealous at Matthew Castle (RPS in peace) for getting to preview the sequel to my beloved Shadows Of Amn. Fast forward several turns, Larian’s RPG banger is officially one year old since release, and there’s now a much higher chance that strangers at pubs will understand why my failed romance with Jaheira as a youth was such a deeply heartbreaking experience. Baldur’s Gate 3 itself looks to be done and dusted following the upcoming patch, but Larian now seem to be gearing up for their next charm offensive with a new “community focused” YouTube channel, as well as further teasing their two games currently in development.

Read more

Flippin’ heck, what a journey it’s been for Baldur's Gate 3, eh? It seems just yesterday I was getting very jealous at Matthew Castle (RPS in peace) for getting to preview the sequel to my beloved Shadows Of Amn. Fast forward several turns, Larian’s RPG banger is officially one year old since release, and there’s now a much higher chance that strangers at pubs will understand why my failed romance with Jaheira as a youth was such a deeply heartbreaking experience. Baldur’s Gate 3 itself looks to be done and dusted following the upcoming patch, but Larian now seem to be gearing up for their next charm offensive with a new “community focused” YouTube channel, as well as further teasing their two games currently in development.

Read more

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.

Read more

US workers body SAG-AFTRA says its voice actors strike could still impact projects that have been in development for over a year, including games like GTA 6, despite the terms of its agreement stating they should be safe.

Initially, last week's shock announcement of strike action by video game actors over AI concerns was thought to have minimal impact on games expected to release later this year, as it did not include games that commenced production before August 2023.

Now, however, SAG-AFTRA says all "members who want to show solidarity with the union can elect voluntarily not to work", intimating that it believed the strike could be more disruptive than previously suspected and impact "non-struck" games.

Read more

Yesterday's dramatic announcement of strike action by video game actors over AI concerns may have less of an immediate impact on upcoming titles than first thought.

While the SAG-AFTRA union has indeed voted for voice artists and performance capture personnel to strike from today, a large swathe of projects now appear unaffected.

This includes any video game in development as of a year ago, including (for now) live service games, according to statements from both SAG-AFTRA and the companies the strike will hit, first shared by Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach.

Read more

While he's "blown away" by the beach scenes in the first GTA 6 trailer, former Rockstar North technical director Obbe Vermeij thinks the forthcoming open worlder might underwhelm players hoping for a palpable technological update on GTA 5, which has been reworked and re-released extensively since its 2013 launch. This has less to do with GTA in itself, Vermeij says, than with the fact that changes in computing capacity today simply aren't as dramatic as in the days of the very first PlayStation. It's becoming rare, he suggests, that you see a "jump" akin to GTA going 3D.

Read more

How do you like your survival games? A nice bit of wood chopping while the birds chirp? Gathering some mushrooms while you deflect a little goblin's swings? Stumbling parched through a desert as a bed of scorpions prick your ankles with deadly venom? Well, Enshrouded may provide some or none of these experiences, but what its latest update does is capture their spirit. You'll now be able to choose from several difficulty presets to dampen or spice up the game's challenge. Otherwise, there's new customisation options and some quality of life tweaks, too.

Read more

While he's "blown away" by the beach scenes in the first GTA 6 trailer, former Rockstar North technical director Obbe Vermeij thinks the forthcoming open worlder might underwhelm players hoping for a palpable technological update on GTA 5, which has been reworked and re-released extensively since its 2013 launch. This has less to do with GTA in itself, Vermeij says, than with the fact that changes in computing capacity today simply aren't as dramatic as in the days of the very first PlayStation. It's becoming rare, he suggests, that you see a "jump" akin to GTA going 3D.

Read more

Baldur's Gate 3’s latest patch was due to launch in closed beta yesterday, but Larian have decided to give it a bit more time in the oven due to bugs. Namely, a bug that caused passive rolls - like those that detect traps - to stop working.

Happily, if you hadn’t already registered to take part in the beta, you now have more time to sign up. Scroll down a bit on the RPG’s Steam page and click the ‘Request Access’ button.

Read more

How do you like your survival games? A nice bit of wood chopping while the birds chirp? Gathering some mushrooms while you deflect a little goblin's swings? Stumbling parched through a desert as a bed of scorpions prick your ankles with deadly venom? Well, Enshrouded may provide some or none of these experiences, but what its latest update does is capture their spirit. You'll now be able to choose from several difficulty presets to dampen or spice up the game's challenge. Otherwise, there's new customisation options and some quality of life tweaks, too.

Read more

Baldur's Gate 3’s latest patch was due to launch in closed beta yesterday, but Larian have decided to give it a bit more time in the oven due to bugs. Namely, a bug that caused passive rolls - like those that detect traps - to stop working.

Happily, if you hadn’t already registered to take part in the beta, you now have more time to sign up. Scroll down a bit on the RPG’s Steam page and click the ‘Request Access’ button.

Read more

That game where all you do is click a banana is now one of Steam's most popular releases ever. In fact, it is so popular, it has today bopped both Hogwarts Legacy and Baldur's Gate 3 down a place on Steam's most played games chart.

Banana - as the game is aptly called - is now sitting proudly in ninth place on Steam's most played games charts in terms of all-time player peak.

At the time of writing, that peak is 884,469 banana clickers, according to SteamDB.

Read more

Microsoft has announced the next wave of games arriving on Xbox and PC Game Pass this June.

EA Sports FC 24 is the headline game, which arrives on 25th June as football fans enjoy the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament.

Before that, out today, is The Chinese Room's oil rig horror Still Wakes the Deep - a day one release across Xbox Series X/S, PC, and cloud.

Read more

Baldur's Gate 3 will receive official mod support in a forthcoming patch, which Larian CEO Swen Vincke said will be a handover moment to players.

Speaking at BAFTA's An Evening with Baldur's Gate 3 after the game received multiple wins at this year's awards, Vincke discussed development of the game and Larian's long term support.

"One of the big things for us, and the one that we're really working towards now, is the ability for players to mod [Baldur's Gate 3] themselves, because then they will be able to make their own things," said Vincke. "And I think that will be the point where we're going to say 'ok, now it's yours fully'."

Read more

Baldur's Gate 3’s upcoming mod support update, which will introduce official modding tools to the sprawling Dungeons & Dragons RPG later this year, will effectively serve as Larian’s swan song for their work on the game.

Read more

Baldur's Gate 3’s upcoming mod support update, which will introduce official modding tools to the sprawling Dungeons & Dragons RPG later this year, will effectively serve as Larian’s swan song for their work on the game.

Read more

Mods are to Baldur's Gate 3 what butter is to bread, that unreadable squiggle-font is to death metal bands or wheels are to the bottom of trainers when you’re a kid: not necessarily essential, per se, but so harmonious and well-suited that they feel essential. In the case of the D&D CRPG, it’s a natural extension of playing dungeon master around the table, crafting the world and its characters as you see fit - typically by making everyone in Faerûn even hornier somehow.

Read more

The highly-anticipated GTA 6 is set to release next year across PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. However, Rockstar is yet to say anything at all regarding a PC release.

Now, publisher Take-Two has given further comment on the lack of Grand Theft Auto 6-related PC news, stating Rockstar would "make more announcements in due time".

During an interview at a TD Cowen conference (as transcribed by VGC), Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said "the lack of an announcement is not something that could be set in stone as near as I could tell, because the only thing that happens after the lack of an announcement is an announcement, I suppose, or a continuing lack of an announcement, I guess that could happen too. It doesn't seem to me that either would be set in stone".

Read more

Sony has scrubbed an interview with Naughty Dog head Neil Druckmann from its website after finding "several significant errors and inaccuracies".

Last week Druckmann took part in an interview with Sony as part of the company's corporate strategy meeting, and at the time, Druckmann was reported to have said that Naughty Dog's next title could "redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming", and that "AI is really going to revolutionise how content is being created".

Soon after it was published, however, Druckmann took to social media to state that what he said had been lost in translation. Or, to quote Druckmann, his "words, context, and intent were unfortunately lost".

Read more

Five of the Best is a weekly series for supporters of Eurogamer. It's a series that highlights some of the features in games that are often overlooked. It's also about having your say, so don't be shy, use the comments below and join in!

Oh and if you want to read more, you can - you can find our entire Five of the Best archive elsewhere on the site.

Which was the first game to have a dash move in it? The earliest I can think of is the Mega Man series. But was that a slide or a dash? Because although they serve similar functions, I think they're distinct things. It's tricky! Today of course, dashes are synonymous with action games, and even other kinds of games, and it's probably more common to play games with them than without them. Dashes have become a fundamental part of our gaming lexicon. But the question is, which dashes have been the most memorable - which dashes are the best?

Read more

Larian Studios' Swen Vincke has opened up about crunch culture at the studio, acknowledging that the team did, at times, "have to do a bit of crunch" when "things happened that [the studio] didn't foresee".

In the Q&A Vincke hosted after his address at the Digital Dragons conference in Poland, Vincke was asked if the team ever had to crunch – that is, the term given to the extreme overtime studios compel staff to do to get a game ready for its release date – and whilst Vincke said the team wasn't "overly" required to crunch, and it was "certainly less on BG3 than we did in the past", "It would be a lie to say that we didn't" crunch at all.

"We didn't overly crunch," Vincke said (thanks, GR+). "but we did have to do a bit of crunch. And I think, to be honest, you will always have a little bit when you're trying to finish something, especially when there's so much complexity that needs to be brought together."

Read more

Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios has shared the "disappointing news" that its physical PS5 North America deluxe editions have been delayed once again, this time to July 2024.

In a statement posted to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, last night, the team said it was "so hoping not to have to update [...] with any further news of delay", but it had "run into more production issues", further delaying the shipping of physical copies of the North American PS5 version until later this year.

"Due to production changes outside of our control, we have had to follow certain processes specifically set by production companies when manufacturing the PS5 discs, and unfortunately, the approval for particular regions has taken much longer than expected," Larian explained in the statement.

Read more

Welcome back! Let's Get Evil is a monthly series for Eurogamer Supporters in which Bertie rampages through games being as evil as he can. It sounds easy, but is it? And how much freedom to be horrible does each game afford? There's only one way to find out.

Note, spoilers will naturally occur as Bertie gets further and further through Baldur's Gate 3. Currently, he's dealing with events in Act 3, especially those revolving around the Dark Urge. If you're joining us for the free trial this month, make sure you catch up on the earlier instalments - then you'll know the true power of the Dark Side.

This month, I have mostly been helping others reach their horrid potential. Think of me as an enabler, if you like - a demonic enabler bent on bringing out the very worst in people. Today's enable-ee: Astarion. But first a quick catch-up. I left you last time after the seismic reveal that Bhaal, the god of murder, was my father. Not only that, I discovered I had instigated this whole sorry Elder Brain plot to take over the world to begin with. Gortash, Ketheric Thorm and I started it, and then Orin came along and turfed me out. I remember now, more or less. Gortash is up for rekindling our old alliance and conquering the world together, which I'm all for. Now all I have to do is kill Orin. It will be my pleasure.

Read more

UPDATE 28/5/24: A photo showing Jeffrey Wright on the set of The Last of Us has started making the rounds online.

Wright was announced to be reprising his role as Isaac - whom he also played in The Last of Us Part 2 - for the show's second season at the end of last week. The photo appears to suggest that we will be getting more of Isaac's backstory told when season two airs next year.

You can see the photo below, if you want to see a clue to how the show is (perhaps) developing Isaac's story, however please be aware of potential spoilers.

Read more

If you are looking to get your hands on Dave the Diver's free Godzilla DLC, there is a limited time you will be able to do so.

This DLC adds three new missions to Dave the Diver, each of which will be available after chapter five's close. There are also new dishes to discover, and a number of Godzilla figures scattered throughout the ocean for players to collect.

You can see a little teaser for Dave the Diver's Godzilla DLC in the video below.

Read more

Update Saturday 25th May 2024: Naughty Dog co-studio head, Neil Druckmann, has pushed back on claims he said Naughty Dog's next project "could redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming", saying his "words, context, and intent were unfortunately lost" in an interview with Sony.

In an image appended to his message, Druckmann highlighted the eyebrow-raising phrase, "[Naughty Dog's next game] could redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming", and then appended his original response to the interview question "is there a personal vision or dream you hope to see realised in the realm of entertainment", which I've written out in full below:

"Well, I've been very lucky, in that I've already had that. I got the chance to make several of my dream projects. I am working on a new one right now. And it's maybe the most excited I've been for a project yet. I can't talk about it or our bosses will get very mad at me. And I guess in general, there is something happening now that I think is very cool. Which is there's a new appreciation for gaming that I've never seen before. Like when I was growing up, gaming was more of a kid's thing. Now it's clearly for everyone. But it's like, if you're a gamer, you know about the potential of games, and non-gamers, they don't really know what they're missing out on.

Read more

The director of Baldur's Gate 3 and CEO of developers Larian has revealed that the studio experienced crunch in order to get the sprawling Dungeons & Dragons CRPG finished. While Swen Vincke admitted that “it would be a lie to say that we didn't [crunch]”, he insisted that it was less than on past Larian games such as Divinity, staff were paid for the overtime and it seemingly didn’t go as far as working late nights or weekends (for the most part, anyway).

Read more

Videogames and especially role-playing games are chock-full of sheltered upbringings that go tits up. Innocent times and places like the prologue for Baldur's Gate, which unfolds in the vast, fortified monastery of Candlekeep (beware spoilers from this point on).

BioWare's first ever RPG opens with your unsuspecting Chosen One learning the ropes from the old sage Gorion. There are fetchquests that take you around the enormous citadel, bits of combat training to do, cosy formative chinwags to have with characters like your childhood friend Imoen. But it's not to last, of course: Gorion is murdered, and you must rove the Sword Coast in pursuit of his killer. When you return to Candlekeep later in the game, this once-proud bastion of learning has been filled with doppelgangers of Gorion and other acquaintances, a parade of chatbots waiting to stab you in the back.

Read more

Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity Original Sin developers Larian today announced the opening of a new studio in Warsaw, Poland. This is RPG outfit Larian’s seventh studio worldwide, and the latest to contribute to their "24-hour development cycle" model. That’s even more hands on deck to a) keep Swen Vincke’s armour polished to a fine sheen and b) ensure smooth sailing for the two new games that Larian currently have in the works.

Read more

Rockstar Games and publisher Take-Two Interactive have narrowed GTA 6's release window from the previously announced "2025" to "fall" of next year.

Take-Two shared the news during its Q4 2024 earnings report, saying it was "highly confident that Rockstar Games will deliver an unparalleled entertainment experience".

"Our expectations for the commercial impact of the title continue to increase", it added, noting it expects to see "tremendous growth" in net bookings over the next three years.

Read more

Five of the Best is a weekly series for supporters of Eurogamer. It's a series that highlights some of the features in games that are often overlooked. It's also about having your say, so don't be shy, use the comments below and join in!

Oh and if you want to read more, you can - you can find our entire Five of the Best archive elsewhere on the site.

We're well aware of our human capabilities, so games often deliver fantasies about going beyond them. We play characters with extraordinary acrobatic abilities, or with incredible strength or martial prowess, and sometimes, we play as characters who have powers we could never have. Mixed within this is the fantasy of becoming something completely different and changing entirely from a human into something else, and that's what I want to get at here. Ever since Altered Beast, and probably for far longer, we've had games that allowed us to change shapes and access new abilities as we play. We've even had games take us to inorganic places, with mech suits and more. Shape changes can be the ultimate power-up. The question is, which are the best?

Read more

Sony has added another game to its ongoing trials catalogue over on PlayStation Plus Premium.

Those subscribed to the service's Premium tier are now able to give The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered a whirl. This particular trial offers the chance for users to experience two hours of the game.

Once those two hours are then up, those that wish to continue on with the story will need to fork out the full £44.99.

Read more

Fans of EA Sports FC have responded angrily after EA altered a perceived issue with FUT rewards providing "unintended results".

As part of the game's Weekend League, players have a chance to win special versions of certain players, which this past weekend included Kylian Mbappe who's considered the best player in the game.

EA doesn't release the odds of receiving specific players, but Mbappe and other top players appeared to be cropping up more often than usual at the start of the weekend.

Read more

Open world crime-a-thon GTA 6 will release next “fall”, according to publisher Take-Two Interactive’s latest earning report, via Eurogamer. This narrows the previously announced release window of “2025” down by, uh, infinity I suppose? A year is an effectively endless stretch in terms of release calenders. But “Fall”, despite not being a real season, is something I can work with.

Read more

It seems like Rockstar is readying up to share some more GTA 6 news with us very soon.

As spotted by the aptly named X account @GTAVI_Countdown, the developer's page was recently updated to include GTA 6 in its database. This update included placeholder spots for four screenshots, cover art, and a release date.

This page was subsequently removed by Rockstar, but not before @GTAVI_Countdown managed to grab a screenshot. In a followup post, the account noted the code with placeholders still remains in the database, as do mentions of digital purchases.

Read more

It's just occurred to me that Baldur's Gate 3 is shy of being a year old, and I'm struggling to come to terms with that because it feels like the game just came out. I know in my rational mind it didn't, but where did those months go? Why didn't I feel them in the way I normally would? I think I have an inkling why.

I felt it while watching an orchestral performance of Baldur's Gate 3 at the weekend. It was part of the Game Music Festival and featured a special concert arrangement of the game's score, and it was sublimely done. There was a large choir and full orchestra and it gave oomph to the dramatic music from the game. Even the vocalists were there to reprise their iconic "down, down, down by the river" motif. Not that any of this is unique; we've had orchestral video game concerts before - Ed was just at one for Elden Ring - and earlier in the day at the Southbank Centre, there was a recital for The Last of Us. I saw people milling around in The Last of Us T-shirts when I arrived. So I expected much of this. What I didn't expect, however, or what I wasn't prepared for, was the Baldur's Gate 3 effect.

Remember what the event itself was: an orchestral performance by the Philharmonia Orchestra. It's not where you would expect to see cosplay, as you would a games convention, but as the afternoon unfolded, that's what it resembled. Shadowhearts and Astarions gathered, as did copies of other characters from the game, and a palpable feeling of excitement crackled around. This quietened for the start of the performance, as people sat sensibly and clapped in the correct places, but the further it went on, the less it could be contained.

Read more

"Role-playing games are only 50 years old. We're still inventing them every day. That's what's really exciting about it. We haven't found the boundaries of it yet, if there are any. We're still pushing out. That's what keeps me doing this stuff, years after most of my peers have retired or passed on."

Do you believe in fate, that there's an invisible force steering us through our lives and that we end up in certain places for certain reasons? Perhaps after hearing Lawrence Schick's story, you will.

It's not a name I expect you'll recognise, but you'll know some of the things he's responsible for. Take the term XP, for example. It's ubiquitous in gaming and possibly beyond it, and Lawrence Schick created it. It's primarily the reason I set out to track him down, to hear how that came to be, because it fascinates me to think of a gaming landscape where there's no established term for experience points, and possibly no such thing as experience points at all. I find it really hard to even conceive of that, given where we are now.

Read more

It seems like Rockstar is readying up to share some more GTA 6 news with us very soon.

As spotted by the aptly named X account @GTAVI_Countdown, the developer's page was recently updated to include GTA 6 in its database. This update included placeholder spots for four screenshots, cover art, and a release date.

This page was subsequently removed by Rockstar, but not before @GTAVI_Countdown managed to grab a screenshot. In a followup post, the account noted the code with placeholders still remains in the database, as do mentions of digital purchases.

Read more

It's just occurred to me that Baldur's Gate 3 is shy of being a year old, and I'm struggling to come to terms with that because it feels like the game just came out. I know in my rational mind it didn't, but where did those months go? Why didn't I feel them in the way I normally would? I think I have an inkling why.

I felt it while watching an orchestral performance of Baldur's Gate 3 at the weekend. It was part of the Game Music Festival and featured a special concert arrangement of the game's score, and it was sublimely done. There was a large choir and full orchestra and it gave oomph to the dramatic music from the game. Even the vocalists were there to reprise their iconic "down, down, down by the river" motif. Not that any of this is unique; we've had orchestral video game concerts before - Ed was just at one for Elden Ring - and earlier in the day at the Southbank Centre, there was a recital for The Last of Us. I saw people milling around in The Last of Us T-shirts when I arrived. So I expected much of this. What I didn't expect, however, or what I wasn't prepared for, was the Baldur's Gate 3 effect.

Remember what the event itself was: an orchestral performance by the Philharmonia Orchestra. It's not where you would expect to see cosplay, as you would a games convention, but as the afternoon unfolded, that's what it resembled. Shadowhearts and Astarions gathered, as did copies of other characters from the game, and a palpable feeling of excitement crackled around. This quietened for the start of the performance, as people sat sensibly and clapped in the correct places, but the further it went on, the less it could be contained.

Read more

"Role-playing games are only 50 years old. We're still inventing them every day. That's what's really exciting about it. We haven't found the boundaries of it yet, if there are any. We're still pushing out. That's what keeps me doing this stuff, years after most of my peers have retired or passed on."

Do you believe in fate, that there's an invisible force steering us through our lives and that we end up in certain places for certain reasons? Perhaps after hearing Lawrence Schick's story, you will.

It's not a name I expect you'll recognise, but you'll know some of the things he's responsible for. Take the term XP, for example. It's ubiquitous in gaming and possibly beyond it, and Lawrence Schick created it. It's primarily the reason I set out to track him down, to hear how that came to be, because it fascinates me to think of a gaming landscape where there's no established term for experience points, and possibly no such thing as experience points at all. I find it really hard to even conceive of that, given where we are now.

Read more

It seems like Rockstar is readying up to share some more GTA 6 news with us very soon.

As spotted by the aptly named X account @GTAVI_Countdown, the developer's page was recently updated to include GTA 6 in its database. This update included placeholder spots for four screenshots, cover art, and a release date.

This page was subsequently removed by Rockstar, but not before @GTAVI_Countdown managed to grab a screenshot. In a followup post, the account noted the code with placeholders still remains in the database, as do mentions of digital purchases.

Read more

It's just occurred to me that Baldur's Gate 3 is shy of being a year old, and I'm struggling to come to terms with that because it feels like the game just came out. I know in my rational mind it didn't, but where did those months go? Why didn't I feel them in the way I normally would? I think I have an inkling why.

I felt it while watching an orchestral performance of Baldur's Gate 3 at the weekend. It was part of the Game Music Festival and featured a special concert arrangement of the game's score, and it was sublimely done. There was a large choir and full orchestra and it gave oomph to the dramatic music from the game. Even the vocalists were there to reprise their iconic "down, down, down by the river" motif. Not that any of this is unique; we've had orchestral video game concerts before - Ed was just at one for Elden Ring - and earlier in the day at the Southbank Centre, there was a recital for The Last of Us. I saw people milling around in The Last of Us T-shirts when I arrived. So I expected much of this. What I didn't expect, however, or what I wasn't prepared for, was the Baldur's Gate 3 effect.

Remember what the event itself was: an orchestral performance by the Philharmonia Orchestra. It's not where you would expect to see cosplay, as you would a games convention, but as the afternoon unfolded, that's what it resembled. Shadowhearts and Astarions gathered, as did copies of other characters from the game, and a palpable feeling of excitement crackled around. This quietened for the start of the performance, as people sat sensibly and clapped in the correct places, but the further it went on, the less it could be contained.

Read more

"Role-playing games are only 50 years old. We're still inventing them every day. That's what's really exciting about it. We haven't found the boundaries of it yet, if there are any. We're still pushing out. That's what keeps me doing this stuff, years after most of my peers have retired or passed on."

Do you believe in fate, that there's an invisible force steering us through our lives and that we end up in certain places for certain reasons? Perhaps after hearing Lawrence Schick's story, you will.

It's not a name I expect you'll recognise, but you'll know some of the things he's responsible for. Take the term XP, for example. It's ubiquitous in gaming and possibly beyond it, and Lawrence Schick created it. It's primarily the reason I set out to track him down, to hear how that came to be, because it fascinates me to think of a gaming landscape where there's no established term for experience points, and possibly no such thing as experience points at all. I find it really hard to even conceive of that, given where we are now.

Read more

Larian Studios has warned of a further - if hopefully short - delay for the Xbox Series X/S and North American PlayStation 5 versions of its fancy Baldur's Gate 3 physical Deluxe Edition, caused by unspecified "production issues".

Baldur's Gate 3's Deluxe Edition was unveiled last December promising an assortment of appealing tat, including a double-sided map, cloth patches, a mind flayer poster, stickers, a soundtrack, a digital art book, and a variety of in-game items - all crammed into a big old box.

The PC Deluxe Edition began its journey to purchasers in March, and Larian initially expressed hope it would be able to get the PS5 version out the door at the same time. However, after running into a number of "production issues", it announced shipping for Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation would begin between April and May.

Read more

PlayStation has revealed its four free monthly games for PlayStation Plus Essential subscribers this month, which will be available from 7th May.

Zelda-like adventure Tunic leads the pack across PS4 and PS5, though don't let the cute visuals fool you - this is a tricky puzzler full of hidden secrets.

May's full list of PlayStation Plus Essential games lies below:

Read more