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Factorio, which has garnered a seemingly endless procession of rave reviews since entering Steam early access all the way back in 2016 (it got its full release in 2020), casts players as impromptu space industrialists, tasking them with building increasingly elaborate contraptions in a ceaseless grasp for ever-more efficient automation. Ultimately, the goal is to build a rocket ship and escape the planet you’ve crash-landed on - a process that begins by farming natural resources to create basic machines which, in turn, open up more and more construction possibilities the further you travel along the tech tree....

Call of the Sea - which initially launched for PC and consoles at the tail-end of 2020 - tells the story of Norah Everhart (voiced by Firewatch and The Walking Dead: Season One’s Cissy Jones), as she investigates a beautiful South Pacific island, circa 1934, in search of her missing husband. What follows is a captivating, often ingenious blend of story, exploration, and puzzling that successfully hits some powerful emotional beats even as it tips gently into cosmic weirdness....

On the face of it, Let’s Build a Zoo delivers pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a zoo tycoon, tasking players with importing and breeding animals (from a list of over 500), managing staff, and fashioning an appealing park using scenery items, shops, and amenities in order to keep guests happy and the money rolling in. However, Let’s Build a Zoo starts to stray from that familiar template a little with its morality system, giving players the choice between keeping everything aboveboard, or taking a more exploitative path, working staff to the bone, purchasing exhibits from the black market, and engaging in other less-than-wholesome activities in pursuit of additional cash....

Beginning in 2023, FIFA’s new name will be EA Sports FC - though expect the game to remain otherwise unchanged, with the same wide array of club and player licenses, as well as all the usual game modes. The widely-expected move was confirmed today via press release, shortly before EA’s annual financial briefing. “Everything you love about our games will be part of EA Sports FC - the same great experiences, modes, leagues, tournaments, clubs and athletes,” EA Sports exec Cam Weber wrote....

On 14th December, Aliens: Fireteam Elite will be available on Game Pass alongside the new season (also on PlayStation and PC via Steam). The co-op third person survival game sees your team of marines up against waves of the iconic Xenomorphs. Season two adds a new game mode, Point Defense, as an alternative to Horde Mode, in which fireteams must protect, repair and hold three strategic points through multiple waves of attacks....

Details on the new venture - currently being referred to as “Aliens” - are pretty scarce right now, with Survios only saying it’ll feature an original storyline set somewhere between the events of Alien and Aliens, with players taking on the role of a “battle hardened veteran [with] a vendetta against the Xenomorphs”. Given Survios’ background as a primarily VR-focused developer - it’s worked on the likes of Creed: Rise to Glory, The Walking Dead Onslaught, and Puzzle Bobble 3D: Vacation Odyssey - it won’t be much of a surprise to hear its new Aliens project is also be getting the VR treatment....

New World launched yesterday and peaked at 707,230 concurrent players - the fifth-highest concurrents figure ever seen on Valve’s platform. At one point it was the most popular game on Steam, ahead of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. But this popularity has made for extremely long queue times - for some over nine hours - that has made New World practically unplayable for many customers. In fact, most of the game’s negative user reviews on Steam are complaints about these server problems....

Ordinarily, Wraith cannot equip weapons in the void, let alone unleash upon suspecting opponents whilst essentially invisible, but players have discovered that they can take pop shots at enemies if they expertly pull off a nifty manoeuvre that uses both Wraith’s Dimensional Rift ultimate skill and her Into the Void tactical. According to RossBossSquirrel’s video below (thanks, Dexerto), players can make good of the exploit no matter if they’re in the firing range, arena mode, or playing the battle royale’s main mode, and though it may take players a little while to “get the timing down”, the fact you can practice to your heart’s content in the firing range may prove to be problematic, at least in the short term....

Debuting in Season 10 Emergence, Evolution focuses around Rampart, who is one of the defensive legends in the roster. In addition, there are cosmetics to earn for an array of characters. This page outlines the Apex Legends Evolution release time and everything you have to look forward to during the collection event. On this page: UK: 6pm (BST) Europe: 7pm (CEST) East Coast US: 1pm (EDT) West Coast US: 10am (PDT)...

Catalyst - an “experienced terraformer and defensive conjurer”, and the first trans Legend to join the Apex Legends’ line-up - made her introductions earlier this week in a new animated episode of Stories from the Outlands. Here, we got a glimpse of her early years on the planet of Boreas - as she becomes unwittingly embroiled in an eco-terrorist plot to save Boreas’ moon - but developer Respawn’s latest trailer skips ahead to Catalyst’s Apex Games debut....

Back in September - following a lengthy court battle arising from Apple’s decision to remove Fortnite from its App Store after Epic broke App Store guidelines by deliberately circumventing iOS’ in-app payment mechanisms - California’s Judge Gonzalez Rogers ruled against all but one of Epic’s legal challenges. Gonzalez Rogers proclaimed Apple was free to control the payment system of its own platform - as Epic had failed to prove the iPhone maker held a monopoly as defined by antitrust laws - but also ruled Apple could not block developers from linking out to alternative payment methods from within their apps, or prevent developers from informing customers of alternative payments methods using contact details voluntarily provided for that purposes, as that would constitute “anti-competitive conduct” under state law....

The law, known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), has yet to be passed by the European Parliament but if accepted could be enforced as early as October. It would mean Apple would be forced to allow users to access both third-party stores and third-party apps - something the company is vehemently opposed to as it could compromise security. “Allowing sideloading would degrade the security of the iOS platform and expose users to serious security risks not only on third-party app stores, but also on the App Store,” states a report by Apple from last year....

The teaser video is below: Here’s the official blurb: “Be prepared to prove your bravery! Asterix and Obelix: Slap them All! Is set in 50 B.C. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans and only one small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders. Play as Asterix & Obelix and set sail to the most iconic places in the comic book series while battling Roman legionaries, pirates, brigands and even the dreaded Normans....

Babylon’s Fall’s Nier: Automata collaboration will be a limited-time event introducing the likes of new enemies, a new dungeon inspired by Automata’s Machine Village and the Amusement Park areas, plus cosmetics based on 2B, A2, 9S, Commander White, and Operator 210. Square has also teased some of the other additions coming as part of Babylon’s Fall’s first season (whose Premium Battle Pass will be free for all players), including new game modes, a new faction, a new weapon type, new story content, plus new bosses, armour, and quests - some of which can be glimpsed in the currently Japanese-only trailer below....

As previously reported, the project - codenamed Rift - will be set in Baghdad and release next year. Now YouTuber j0nathan has released a new video detailing information on the game that’s been corroborated by Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier. Watch on YouTube Eurogamer Breaking Newscast: Sony reluctantly raises PS5 price, but knows it can get away with it The video suggests Assassin’s Creed Mirage will be released in Spring 2023, will take place in Baghdad between the years 870-860, and will be a return to basics among other points, although Schreier notes that only parts of this leak are true so take it with a pinch of salt....

Arkham Horror: Mother’s Embrace, as it’s known, was originally announced as an adaptation of Fantasy Flight Games’ other Lovecraft-inspired board game series Mansions of Madness back in 2018, but it received its new name - and a new developer, Artefacts Studio - last year. Despite the development switcheroo, Arkham Horror: Mother’s Embrace is still very much along the lines of Asmodee’s original announcement, setting players loose in a spooky old mansion circa 1926, where the heinous murder of an astronomy professor has occurred....

Moze is a former soldier in the Vladof army’s Ursa Corps. A veteran of many battles across many galaxies, Moze has left the battlefield to pursue her own fortune as a Vault Hunter. Described as the Gunner for Borderlands 3, Moze uses a variety of mechanized combat abilities to control the battlefield. On this page: This means that you can play around with a variety of different combinations. Do you want to have a Minigun and the Bear Fist, so that the Iron Bear can deal some melee damage?...

Season One of the shooter gets a new 6v6 multiplayer mode, a new Fireteam map and a new mode for zombies. The 6v6 mode is called Dropkick and revolves around fighting for control of nuclear codes. The new Fireteam map is called Sanatorium. The image below is of Sanatorium: Dropkick mode actually leaked back in November 2020 through Black Ops Cold War’s in-game loading screen. You have to gain access to launch codes while holding the objective to deploy a nuke to win....

This week, Activision said Verdansk will get a number of points of interest to either discover or explore as part of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone Season Two. These advance Warzone’s story, we were told. The Season Two trailer is below: There was mention of the cargo tanker Vodianoy, which players had spotted off the coast of Rebirth Island recently. This ship had gone missing at sea, but is now heading toward the Port of Verdansk....

Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail was among those who spoke out about the game, and who shared a detailed thread of criticism posted on ResetEra. “Why don’t you for once just hire some Arabs [and] locals to ensure the places you seem to insist you gotta blow us up in would at least pass the critical gaze of say, a three-year-old,” Ismail wrote on Twitter. “This is embarrassing to game development as a whole....