Last month, Activision Blizzard was the focus of a damning Wall Street Journal report detailing further alleged sexual harassment, assault, and inappropriate behaviour at the company - further shining an unflattering spotlight on an organisation already facing widespread condemnation following the launch of a California state lawsuit in July calling it a “breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women”. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick came in for particular criticism in the Wall Street Journal report, with the publication claiming Kotick was aware of the allegations of sexual misconduct and mistreatment of female employees across many parts of the company “for years”....

The turn-based strategy game - believed to be complete and ready to launch - was pulled from release schedules earlier this year due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Fans had hoped to see Advance Wars 1+2 reannounced during last night’s Nintendo Direct presentation, though the company made no mention of it at all. Still, a short statement from Nintendo released in response to the game’s absence does at least point to it eventually arriving at some point - even if there’s no more news on when....

The Skyblivion team has been steadily documenting its progress on YouTube since 2013 - hosting everything from livestreams of asset creation to developer interviews - but, as the project nudges ever-closer to completion, it’s embarked on a series of development diaries, showcasing different aspects of the mod’s reimagined Cyrodiil in action. This time around, the team is focusing on the world it’s building for Skyblivion, saying it hopes to instil a similar sense of awe to that which its members felt when exploring Cyrodiil for the first time all those years ago....

All this was uncovered by long-time Valve watcher Tyler McVicker, with at least some of the new discoveries pointing to titles long rumoured to be in development at Valve, but never actually confirmed. The caveat, of course, is that their mere existence as references in Aperture Desk Job’s code doesn’t mean these are actual games still in development (particularly given Valve’s well-reported experiment-then-ditch approach to game design), or that they’ll ever see that light of day....

West Midlands Police published the video, below, showing 36-year-old Clint Butler kicking one officer in the groin before being restrained. Butler said he ventured into town - breaking lockdown rules in the process - to buy Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. He told officers: “I’ve come to get the new Call of Duty because I can’t sit around in lockdown.” After an officer asked to check Butler’s details, the fugitive kicked him and tried to run off....

Watching head of Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann pick up his phone over webcam and, within 30 seconds, be soaring majestically over Flight Simulator’s breathtaking rendition of central London elicits almost as much of a giddy thrill as seeing those first glorious trailers all those years ago - particularly from the perspective of a PC player like me whose mid-range GPU has never quite been up to the challenge of running the sim, even after contending with its 200GB+ footprint and tortuously long install and load times....

In theory, these games should be a good fit for Switch. The open world action-adventure games are full of small tasks and missions suitable for short play sessions. Plus, early instalments have technical roots on the seventh generation of consoles, which the Switch has proven more than capable of matching, especially as we’re looking at earlier titles in the series. There’s a clear visual progression: Assassin’s Creed 2 is a reasonable enough looking mid-generation effort, but with clear flaws....

Title Update 1.3.1 launches this afternoon for all platforms, and weighs in at 26-34GB (or a more slender 14GB on PlayStation 5). River raids get the most attention today, with a sizable helping of fresh content. Three new maps, set in countries visited in Valhalla’s expansions, effectively double the mode’s size. There’s also new cosmetics and abilities to unlock. The three new locations are the Erriff, Berbha and Rhine rivers....

Word of Lees’ death was shared on Twitter last night by Assassin’s Creed narrative director Darby McDevitt, who led tributes to his colleague. At Ubisoft Montreal, Lees wrote several story arcs for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, as well as the game’s Ireland-set Wrath of the Druids DLC. As a writer and narrative designer, Lees also contributed to Assassin’s Creed Origins and Assassin’s Creed 3’s Tyranny of King Washington expansion. For Syndicate, he wrote the game’s Dreadful Crimes missions....

Aztech Forgotten Gods has a bit of zip to it as well - and it has the kitten leg-dash move down perfectly. At times it has far too much zip, even. I’ve been playing the early stages of Aztech on Switch over the last morning or so. I had read reviews that suggested the camera is extremely wayward (it is) and the open world is kind of empty (it is), and that the whole thing feels like it’s pushing the boundaries of this kind of action game beyond the point where it’s comfortable....

One of the game’s main features is larger player counts for current-gen consoles and PC, with up to 128 players in a game. The trouble is, sometimes it can be difficult to fill in an entire lobby with so many players, so DICE has added AI bots to fill in servers with the goal of enhancing the gameplay experience. But some players have not been happy with the introduction of artificial teammates - and the numbers in which they are appearing....

In fact, the live service model was supposed to be used as a substitute for the traditional story campaign, where in-game events would fill in the lore of the new climate-change ridden world. But all of that was postponed thanks to dire state of the game at launch. Now almost a year since launch and two seasons later, we finally have our first in-season event and new game mode. We don’t know much about The Liquidators Event based on the 60-second trailer, but we did see the announcement of the new game mode called “Tactical Conquest” which is supposed to be more infantry-focused....

A temporary fix was initially deployed which restricted the Battle Pass from granting unlocks (while progression would still be tracked). However, work on a permanent fix led to the return of the same errors, leading DICE to revert all changes. ORIGINAL STORY: The launch of Battlefield 2042’s Season One was meant to be a turning point for DICE. Almost seven months after the game’s disastrous launch, “Zero Hour” along with Update 1....

Beginning in April, you’ll be able to migrate your library of games and outstanding wallet funds to Steam instead. “Many games” will also have their saves migrated, though not all. Some will require manual transfers. More information will be published next month, Bethesda said, when the migration process becomes available. Bethesda expects “almost all save progress to be transferable automatically or manually with the exception of Wolfenstein: Youngblood, which currently is unable to transfer”....

The brain behind the Off-Peak universe is composer/musician and game designer Cosmo D, who makes brilliantly eccentric narrative adventures that revolve around music, performance, and good old fashioned capitalism. The games can be enjoyed individually, but they’re all cohesive branches of a much bigger and weirder tree; The Norwood Suite (2017) remains a personal favorite for the way it marries the mundane with Off-Peak’s tantalizing mythology, and Betrayal at Club Low is tonally and thematically no different....

After acknowledging that “some technical issues have slowed down [its] production timetable”, Artplay apologised for “the long delay between updates” and detailed what’s coming next for fans of the Metroidvania adventure. “Our next update will introduce a new playable character to the game,” teased a new blog post from development team Artplay. “This is a change from our previously released roadmap. We can confirm that this new character is NOT from the world of Bloodstained....

“After careful deliberations, the developers of TERA have unfortunately taken the difficult decision to end development of the game, as they feel that they are no longer able to provide the satisfying content that TERA players deserve. Instead, they would like to focus their internal development efforts on other projects,” publisher Gameforge wrote in a statement. “Gameforge has happily hosted a great community in TERA for almost 10 years now, and would have happily served players even longer, but without the support of the developers this is not feasible....

The chapter takes place in the previously unexplored Mediterranean-inspired Systres Archipelago, home of the Bretons (descendants of humans and elves). It also adds two new companions and a brand-new card game called Tales of Tribute. Check out the cinematic trailer below. The lands of High Isle are something of a medieval paradise and the ideal setting for peace talks to end the Three Banners War. Of course, things don’t quite go to plan....

In addition to these specs, Infinity Ward has also announced those who pre-ordered the game digitally will be able to get their preloads on the go from today (19th October). This will in turn offer up those eight days of early campaign access announced in August, which will go live tomorrow. Meanwhile, preloading for the full release (which, unlike the early access mentioned above, will include the multiplayer and Special Ops elements) can begin from the 26th October ahead of the game’s official launch on the 27th/28th, depending on where you are playing....

The YouTube video goes into further depth on the story this mode would have told, including some of its characters. There’s also a look at work-in-progress screenshots and artwork from the campaign. It’ll be interesting to see how long this video remains online. Reddit user Purpletoaster20’s lengthy post has now been deleted without any explanation. ORIGINAL STORY 10/8/22: An enormous cache of cut content from Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has been posted online, detailing developer Treyarch’s early plans for a campaign mode....