Xbox and Microsoft Flight Simulator are immersing gamers worldwide in the captivating world of Arrakis, commemorating the highly anticipated release of "Dune: Part Two." Enthusiasts can anticipate a free game expansion for Microsoft Flight Simulator launching, bespoke Xbox hardware, and an awe-inspiring gaming simulator-all intricately inspired by the film. Two prominent stars from the movie, Timothée Chalamet, portraying Paul Atreides, and Austin Butler, who embodies Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, captured the collaboration with a short video (see below).

Dune Comes Alive Like Never Before in Free Expansion
Microsoft Flight Simulator, working with Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, for the first time ever is taking you beyond Planet Earth into the harsh deserts of the world of "Dune" and the planet Arrakis. The skies of Arrakis are traversed by a deft craft called an ornithopter, a nimble flying machine propelled by four precisely tuned oscillating wings. The Royal Atreides Ornithopter is a special ultra-performance variant of the craft, renowned for its lightning acceleration, blazing speeds, and precision maneuverability when under the control of pilots skilled in its operation - and who have the fortitude to survive the harsh extremes of Dune.

Paradox Interactive and Triumph Studios have announced the release date for Age of Wonders 4: Primal Fury, a new content pack coming on February 27, 2024 to the award-winning fantasy strategy game for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The studios also revealed the full list of features that will be included with Primal Fury, including a new Primal Culture themed around mastery of beasts and nature, new Tomes of Magic to wield the forces of mists and storms, new physical forms, mounts, and much more. Primal Fury will be available on all platforms for a suggested retail price of $9.99/£8.49/€9.99; players who purchased the Premium Edition of Age of Wonders 4 or the Expansion Pass will receive Primal Fury at launch for no additional cost.

In the Age of Wonders 4: Primal Fury content pack, players will discover new ways to conquer the realms, and bring the land itself under their control. The new Primal Culture will enable rulers to channel an animal spirit that shapes their empire, both physically and spiritually. The Tome of Fey Mists and the Tome of the Stormborne, both added in Primal Fury, include new spells to conceal troops in magical fog, gain advantages over seas and shorelines, and even transform armies into fearsome nagas. The pack will also launch alongside the free Wolf Update, which will add new features and improvements requested by the Age of Wonders community, including a rework of necromancy, new randomly generated items, and War Bounties to better direct allies in conflicts.

Hey, everyone! We're excited to bring you some big (and heartwarming) news today! Today is the day! Get ready to trade in John's bang-bang gun for a watering can, and embark on a tranquil new life in Octopia. (Don't worry, you'll still need that frying pan 🍳). In Eastward: Octopia, Sam and John return in a parallel world adventure, leaving the miasma and monsters behind them, to start a simpler life, living off the land. Get ready to trade swords (or may we say rusty pans?) for shovels and embark on a tranquil world of rural life, fishing, and culinary magic in Octopia, the brand-new DLC for Eastward, landing on Steam and Nintendo Switch TODAY at $5.99 / £4.99 / €5.89 / 700円 / ¥22 CNY, with a special launch offer of 15% off the DLC running from today until February 14th! We're also running special limited-time offers on the base game & bundle too.

"I haven't played Eastward! Do I have to play the base game to get the most out of the DLC?"
Eastward: Octopia takes place in a parallel universe, so there's no need to have finished (or even started) Eastward's base game story to enjoy the simple life—you can even play it straight from the menu. However, please note that a copy of Eastward is required to access the DLC. Although many familiar faces appear in Eastward: Octopia, the plot, gameplay and character 'settings' will be a completely new experience. Once you've purchased and downloaded the DLC, make sure the DLC is 'checked' in the base game properties. After starting the base game of Eastward in your Steam Library, you can then travel to the pastoral time and space of Eastward: Octopia is a single click from the main menu interface! 🚞

Skull and Bones sets sail on February 16, welcoming players to the cutthroat world of the Indian Ocean during the Golden Age of Piracy. While you start off as a shipwrecked outcast, you'll fight, forge alliances, and make enemies as you build your empire and become a kingpin of the seas. And the adventure doesn't stop once you've reached the top. As a kingpin, you'll have the power to take on difficult endgame events and challenges to earn more riches and unlock new items, but that's just the start. Skull and Bones' first year will bring four seasons of new enemies to the Indian Ocean, starting with a pestilent pirate lord who rains poison from the sky.

In a recent co-op gameplay session, we had the opportunity to play around in Skull and Bones' endgame. Playing at the Kingpin level, the highest Infamy ranking, we had a fleet of ships and an arsenal of weapons at our disposal to plunder outposts and seize their means of production, hunt down a devastating sea monster, and sail into battle against the aforementioned pirate lord. Skull and Bones endgame is full of opportunities to take on legendary challenges, cement yourself as a powerhouse in different regions of the Indian Ocean, and even change up a few game mechanics.

Fight through fearsome Vaults and avoid lethal hazards while fighting alongside your Seneschal Companion in Diablo IV's Season of the Construct. Later today (January 23), dive into a new Seasonal Questline where you'll receive your very own Seneschal Construct. As an exclusive deep dive for Season of the Construct, we're going to give an overview of how to earn your Construct and the Stones needed to increase their lethality. Here's the insider scoop on key builds you can use to obliterate your enemies.

Crush, conquer, Constructs
The Seneschal Construct is obtained during the Seasonal Questline in Season of the Construct. To begin the Seasonal Questline, you'll need to create a new Seasonal Character and select the Skip Main Campaign option to dive right in. If you have not yet completed the Main Campaign, create a new character on the Seasonal realm, complete the prologue, and then use the Skip Main Campaign option to access the Seasonal Questline. Once your Seneschal Companion is obtained, your next step is to customize them with Governing and Tuning Stones. Governing Stones give your companion a variety of abilities, ranging from launching smaller Constructs to detonate on impact to shooting down enemy projectiles. Tuning Stones modify the skills of the associated Governing Stones, such as increasing the attack speed or instantly destroying enemy barriers. Each Construct can be customized with two Governing Stones and six Tuning Stones (three Tuning stones to modify one Governing Stone), leading to a variety of potent combinations to uncover.

Today, 2K announced WWE 2K24, the newest installment of the flagship WWE video game franchise developed by Visual Concepts, will be coming soon for PlayStation 5 (PS5), PlayStation 4 (PS4), Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam. As he burns a path through WWE in an effort to claim world championship gold and fulfill his destiny, "The American Nightmare" Cody Rhodes will be featured on the Standard Edition cover. Multi-time champions and Women's Royal Rumble winners Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley share the Deluxe Edition cover, marking the first time in history two women have graced a dedicated WWE 2K cover, while the Forty Years of WrestleMania Edition cover features original artwork celebrating the most iconic Superstars and Legends in WrestleMania history, including The Rock, The Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and more.

WWE 2K24 features several franchise advancements, including 2K Showcase…of the Immortals celebrating 40 years of WrestleMania, four new match types such as Ambulance and Special Guest Referee, two new MyRISE experiences, and much more. In addition, fans can also look forward to a massive roster of more than 200* WWE Superstars and Legends including Roman Reigns, Andre the Giant, Becky Lynch, Batista, Kurt Angle, Asuka, Bret Hart, Brock Lesnar, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Chyna, and more. Incredibly realistic graphics and improved animations - with over 90% of facial expressions updated - plus improvements to Ramp cameras and Dive cameras, and the ability to move the camera during live gameplay provide the most visually impressive WWE 2K experience to date. WWE 2K24 Deluxe Edition and Forty Years of WrestleMania Edition are scheduled for worldwide release on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, followed by the Standard Edition and Standard Cross-Gen Digital Edition on Friday, March 8, 2024.

Ancient forces threaten Sanctuary. Aided by your Seneschal Companion, hazard the many traps and devastating Constructs beneath the deserts of Kehjistan. Deep beneath the swirling sands, elemental forces are amassing for malicious whims of the demon Malphas. Only by descending far below the surface will you be able to cull this cursed threat from its root. Season of the Construct begins on January 23 at 10 a.m. PST. Prepare to uncover the powerful secrets of Zoltun Kulle's Loom with a new Dungeon type called Vaults, a seasonal robotic Seneschal Companion, and Weekly Leaderboards in The Gauntlet. Several key quality-of-life features—including almost constant Helltide events—arrive to help aid your conquests while fighting in the Vaults.

UNEARTH ZOLTUN KULLE'S LEGACY IN A NEW QUESTLINE
A new threat lurks deep beneath the sands of Kehjistan, where the Loom, an ancient technology—designed by Zoltun Kulle and Ayuzhan of Caldeum—has been usurped by the forces of evil. The Demon Malphas is responsible for twisting the Loom for his cruel whims. Zoltun's former companion Ayuzhan leads you through the treacherous Vaults, desperate to stop the formidable Malphas and his deadly constructs from overtaking Sanctuary. Travel to the Gatehall, a town center underneath Kehjistan that serves as your base of operations in the fight against the Constructs. The Gatehall is your conduit to access the deadly Vaults—riddled with elemental Hazards and Constructs, these Vaults are the key to harnessing the true potential of the Loom. Travel to the Loom to stop the threat at its source and defeat Malphas in a new Boss fight. To play the Season of the Construct Seasonal Questline, you must create a new character on the Seasonal Realm and have completed the Main Campaign. Take advantage of the Skip Main Campaign feature once you've completed the prologue if you want to jump right in!

We, the Mohawk Games team, are pleased to announce that the fourth DLC for Old World, entitled Wonders and Dynasties, is now available on Steam, Epic and GOG. Old World - Wonders and Dynasties introduces 30 brand new ways of starting your game with the addition of new Dynastic leaders - each empire has received new leaders and starting conditions. Play as the dictator Sulla to leverage your unique dictator trait, as Khufu to construct endless wonders with the help of his wonder cost reduction, or as Nebuchadnezzar to quickly control large amounts of territory and forge a massive empire in the early game.

Meanwhile, eight new wonders of the ancient world will add new and unique modifiers to your empire. Generate free specialists with the Jerwan Aqueduct, become the trade capital of the world with the Al Khazneh, or spawn an endless army of swordsmen with the Colosseum. Carve your legacy in blood, or stone.

Since launch, we—Mojang—have been working hard together with Blackbird Interactive to bring improvements and new features to Minecraft Legends based on your feedback. With Minecraft Legends, we took a completely new approach to gameplay, so much so that we had to make up a new genre for it (kind of): action strategy. Our community has always helped us shape our games and that's something we value greatly, especially when launching a completely new game. The latest title update brought the fearless frog, witches, clangers, air choppers and a host of enhancements to the game's mechanics, making the battles in Minecraft Legends even more intense. And, thanks to your input, we've made various tweaks to the gameplay and interface, from enhanced pathfinding to a more comprehensive Battle View UI.

A DEVELOPMENT UPDATE
Since launch, we've listened to community feedback and implemented a series of changes and tweaks to make the game better. With that complete, we're now going to take a step back from development. While we won't be releasing any new content (i.e. updates, Lost Legends, or Marketplace DLC) for Minecraft Legends, the fun doesn't stop here. We'll continue having a blast playing the game alongside our community because those rowdy piglins are showing no signs of slowing down. Plus, we're leaving you one last freebie: the Bright-Eyed Hero skin, which you can claim now on Minecraft Legends Marketplace. Illuminate your path forward and continue fighting the good fight!

GIGABYTE Technology, Giga Computing, a subsidiary of GIGABYTE and an industry leader in high-performance servers, server motherboards, and workstations, today announced direct liquid cooling (DLC) multi-node servers for NVIDIA Grace CPU & NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchip. In addition, a DLC ready Intel-based server for the NVIDIA HGX H100 8-GPU platform and a high-density server for AMD EPYC 9004 processors. For the ultimate in efficiency, is also a new 12U single-phase immersion tank. All these mentioned products will be at GIGABYTE booth #355 at SC23.

Just announced high-density CPU servers include Intel Xeon-based H263-S63-LAN1 and AMD EPYC-based H273-Z80-LAN1. These 2U 4 node servers employ DLC for all eight CPUs, and although it is dense computing CPU performance achieves its full potential. In August, GIGABYTE announced new servers for NVIDIA HGX H100 GPU, and now adds the DLC version to the G593 series, G593-SD0-LAX1, for NVIDIA HGX H100 8-GPU.

Unlock the rich history and stories of two remarkable civilizations—The Mountain Royals is now live! The exciting next expansion is available now on Steam, and the Microsoft & Xbox Stores. There so much to delve in to with two new civilizations, three new, fully-voiced campaigns, plus the newly updated Persian civilization.

Prepare to embark on a legendary journey as we introduce the "The Mountain Royals" DLC for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. Unlock the rich history and untold stories of two remarkable civilizations, the Armenians and Georgians, and immerse yourself in three captivating new campaigns: Tamar, Thoros the Great, and Ismail. Lead the Charge! Forge Empires! Get "The Mountain Royals" DLC Now and Conquer History Anew!

Good evening Kindred, today we shared some very exciting news on our Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 news stream! We were joined by Sean Greaney (EVP of Darkness) and Ian Thomas (Narrative Director at TCR), who discussed some of the game's features relating to both narrative and roleplaying. In case you missed it, you can find it below. In the stream, we were introduced to the protagonist of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2; Phyre, an Elder vampire at odds with the voice in her head, who confronts Seattle's powerful elites at war over the City's fate.

Players choose Phyre's clan and gender and begin exploring a re-imagined Seattle filled with compelling characters while maneuvering through complex relationships. Choices and conversations (even outfits!) shape how the environment and characters react to Phyre, changing how the story unfolds.

Accompanying The Mountain Royals expansion will be an update including a massive rework of the Persian civilization! This update will be available to everyone who owns the base game of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, whether you have purchased the upcoming The Mountain Royals expansion or not. Prepare to embark on a legendary journey in "The Mountain Royals" DLC for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. Unlock the rich history and untold stories of two remarkable civilizations, the Armenians and Georgians, and immerse yourself in three captivating new campaigns: Tamar, Thoros the Great, and Ismail.

The Persian Civilization Identity
As more civilizations were released through additional expansions, we found the Persian civilization was slowly becoming less unique and their primary identity as a Knight civilization had become less meaningful. We strived for the way the Persians are represented in-game to incorporate additional design, while representing their rich history, creating more unique tools for the Persian civilization's toolbox. We wanted to provide you with more interesting strategic choices, and ways for you to engage your opponents, all while representing them from the early Middle Ages to late empire.

We are excited to introduce the The Mountain Royals DLC for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition! Unlock the rich history and untold stories of two remarkable civilizations, available now to pre-order with a 15% discount! Our teams have been working on The Mountain Royals for some time, expanding the storytelling of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. As we announce this DLC publicly and make it available for pre-order, we're aware of the events currently affecting modern day Armenians. The Mountain Royals has not been designed as a comment or reference to modern day events.

The Georgians
Carve out a sturdy kingdom in the shadow of the Caucasus Mountains and use the rugged terrain to your advantage as you repulse countless foreign invasions. The Georgian unique unit is the Monaspa, a brawny cavalry unit whose strength increases in numbers. During the early medieval period, the regions south of the Caucasus Mountains were divided among numerous petty kingdoms that eluded foreign dominance largely through geographical isolation. Although the Byzantine Empire occasionally attempted to extend its influence into these polities, no significant lasting gains were made. However, the constant threat of foreign invasion catalyzed a gradual shift towards unity. In the early 11th century, Bagrat III finally succeeded in gathering these formerly squabbling states into the Kingdom of Georgia.

Greetings, Pilots! With EVERSPACE 2 now successfully available on PC and current-gen platforms, it's time for our first free update! Our Armed & Dangerous Update is available now on all platforms. This free update is gear-focused and brings a few community-requested features, as well as a slew of tweaks and bug fixes. At its heart, EVERSPACE 2 is a looter-shooter and what every good looter-shooter needs is MORE ITEMS. With the latest update, we bring 10 new item sets, 2 new companion perks, 4 new ship perks for each class, 4 new catalysts for crafting, 15 new Tier 4 wing modules, and more to EVERSPACE 2.

We've also added more than 40 new item attributes to the loot pool, giving you all a greater variety of potential combinations to fit together. We can't wait to see the amazing builds you'll create! Now, we've already anticipated that many players will be seeking that one perfect piece of gear to complete a build and to aid you, we've added a new gear modifier action feature that allows re-rolling of bonus attributes.

The world of Horizon Forbidden West brims with life across its spectacular landscapes, fierce roaming machines, and thriving cultures that populate a renewed land once ravaged by the biomass-consuming machines of the Faro Plague. And though the wilds are breathtaking, and the machines are massive, Horizon's third essential element is its authentic tribal inhabitants. On her mission, Aloy meets a varied and colorful array of compelling characters, each with their own hopes, journeys, and motivations.

Weaving real personalities and genuine humanity into these characters was a feat accomplished together by many teams at Guerrilla. This article explores those processes, from the narrative foundations of character development to capturing the perfect performance and ultimately implementing them through cinematics and conversation design. Each stage is crucial to ensure the characters of Horizon are as realistic and full of depth as the world around them.

The scheduled maintenance carried out last week has fixed the initial matchmaking issues that occurred during Payday 3's first few days after launch. Matchmaking has been stable and has had good performance after the completed maintenance. In the past five days, PAYDAY 3 had a peak concurrent players (CCU) of 124,254. In September 2023, the game had 3,167,938 unique players (MAU). Starbreeze Nebula has a total of 4,538,702 registered users across all titles.

Starbreeze will now intensify the commercial activities around Payday 3, after partially pausing these during the previous week. In early October, the first update to Payday 3 will launch, focusing on improving the game experience. The coming months include planned updates for PAYDAY 3 that address both content, Quality of Life-improvements, bug fixes and new functionality.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is available now on PC through Steam, GOG, the Epic Games Store, and GeForce Now. On Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 the expansion is being rolled out and will become available at midnight in each time zone. Return as cyber-enhanced mercenary V and embark on a high-stakes mission of espionage and intrigue to save the NUSA President with the help of NUSA secret agent Solomon Reed. Phantom Liberty will bring you to Dogtown—the most dangerous district of Night City ruled by arms dealer and warlord, Kurt Hansen.

FREEDOM ALWAYS COMES AT A PRICE
Phantom Liberty is a new spy-thriller adventure for Cyberpunk 2077. Enter the shadowy world of spycraft and become a government secret agent. Infiltrate high-security buildings, take out enemies and go toe-to-toe against seasoned professionals. Espionage is a high-risk game, and failure isn't an option. Choose your allies with care as you unravel the secrets at the heart of this expansion.

As we're about to enter the last week of September, we have another somewhat slow week of new releases, that is unless you're a football fan, the kind with a round ball, not the oblong pig bladder kind. That said, if you're into trains, house building, hunting relics or ever wanted to know what it's like to jump between worlds, there might be something for you this week as well.

EA Sports FC 24 / This week's AAA title / Thursday 28 September
EA Sports FC 24 welcomes you to The World's Game: the most true-to-football experience ever with HyperMotionV, PlayStyles optimised by Opta, and an enhanced Frostbite. Join us in building the future of football on a foundation of innovation and authenticity with more than 19,000 fully licensed players, 700 teams, and 30 leagues.

The free Update 2.0 for Cyberpunk 2077 is being rolled out on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S! It brings an overhaul to a number of gameplay mechanics and core game features (such as the police system and Perk trees) along with various fixes and improvements. These changes apply to the base game and are available to all players on PC and current-gen consoles, free of charge. There's more to come on September 26th for owners of the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty expansion!

You can continue playing from existing saves, but in order to have the best experience of the extensive changes we made, we recommend starting a new playthrough. Come September 26th, owners of Phantom Liberty will also have the option to jump straight into the story of the expansion by starting a new game with a new character that is already adequately leveled up. Because changes to crucial game systems are extensive, we strongly recommend uninstalling pre-2.0 mods until the modding community has a chance to update them. Outdated mods can disrupt the experience in many ways and, in some situations, may cause critical errors.

Just a few weeks ago at Gamescom we announced that an expansion for Age of Empires IV—The Sultans Ascend—would be coming soon. Today we're thrilled to let our PC and Xbox console players around the world know that they'll be able to play this exciting new content on November 14! Pre-orders are available now for everyone wanting to graduate The Sultans Ascend from their wishlist and begin counting down the days.

This new Age of Empires IV single player campaign takes place in the Middle East during the European Crusades. You'll take on the role of the Muslim resistance to the invasion and follow the story of well-known Muslim leaders, their struggles with the Crusaders, and the battles they fought. Our story begins with the First Crusade at the end of the 11th century, when Muslim provinces are mired in rivalry with one another.

Fan-favorite Resident Evil 4 additional scenario "Separate Ways" returns as new story DLC on September 21! Separate Ways—the missing link in the main story—is a thrilling, survival-horror adventure starring Ada Wong. Additionally, on the same day an update arrives for the free DLC "The Mercenaries," adding new playable characters. If you haven't experienced Resident Evil 4 yet, the base game is currently discounted for a limited time!

The mission requires secrecy. Failure is not an option
Play as Ada Wong in this additional scenario and experience the events of Resident Evil 4 from her perspective, filling in unanswered questions posed in the main story. See the other side of the story from her eyes as her mission, and fate, intertwines with Leon Kennedy's a second time.

We are honored to announce Tales of Arise - Beyond the Dawn. Through this expansion players will enjoy a story that depicts the world after the main story of Tales of Arise, which was released in September 2021. This is the first DLC in the Tales of series that is a direct continuation of the main story in this scale. We will discuss what players can expect from the storyline and why we made the decision to create it.

Sometimes a story is over, but not quite done. Over a year has passed since the conclusion of Tales of Arise, but there's more to the story that hasn't been told yet. Enter Tales of Arise - Beyond the Dawn the upcoming expansion to The Game Awards 2021 RPG of the Year from Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. Adding 20+ hours of game content, the new expansion adds new quests, dungeons, boss fights, and an epic new story arc all within the backdrop of an evolving, beautiful fantasy world. The game will be available on November 9, for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC via Steam. To learn more, please visit the official website.

Hello heisters, we hope you're having a wonderful week - and if you're not, we have some cool news for you to dig into when it comes to Payday 3! This is the much anticipated sequel to one of the most popular co-op shooters ever. Since its release, Payday-players have been reveling in the thrill of a perfectly planned and executed heist. That's what makes Payday a high-octane, co-op FPS experience without equal.

Post Launch Plans
We're nearing the launch date on September 21 (Early Access on September 18), but today we wanted to give you a glimpse of what's to come for Year One of Payday 3 and its future content. Besides 4 DLCs, with names yet to be fully determined, we'll also look at seasonal events, playable characters, new enemy, weapons, Unreal Engine 5 upgrade, cosmetics, quality of life improvements, new features and much more. Let us know in the comments which part you're the most excited for!

Rod Fergusson, general franchise manager of Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo IP, has confirmed that IV's post-release content release model is set for some adjustments—in an interview, conducted by Dextero, he said: "When you look at the launch of the game and this first season, we see that as building a foundation on which we can build for the future. So, as we look at our quarterly seasons, and we look at our annual expansions, those are the things that we're really focused on for our live service." Several media outlets have jumped on Fergusson's statement—comparisons have been made to Bungie's approach to keeping online multiplayer franchises alive for a long time. Paul Tassi (via Forbes) pointed out that Diablo IV's leadership is pushing for the: "exact same model as Destiny 2."

Sections of the fan base have not yet warmed to this more live service-heavy content model, when compared to previous entries in the long-running ARPG series. Past reports have cited Blizzard's continued recruitment drive to bolster these efforts, albeit only for seasonal DLC. The annual release model is very much a fresh announcement, and Fergusson stopped short of revealing pricing and exact launch windows: "We've got plans, we have storylines that go well into the future. When you look back and realize that there were 11 years between Diablo III and Diablo IV, that feels like we didn't live up to our players, our community, and what they deserve. That's something we are rectifying in D4 with our seasons and our expansions."