It looks like the much maligned Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will officially join the likes of Foamstars in not-quite-abandonware purgatory after the upcoming Season 4 content update. The new update, titled "Season 4, Episode 7: Control" will be the game's penultimate episode, releasing on December 10. Episode 7 will add a long-promised offline mode to the game, as well as a new character, Deathstroke. In the same blog post announcing the arrival of the infamous DC villain, Rocksteady Studios and Warner Bros also announced that Season 4 will officially be the game's final season, with Episode 8: Balance, scheduled for 14 January 2025 being the final episode in the game's live service lifetime. As of the release of Episode 8, Rocksteady will no longer provide any more content updates to the game, although the silver lining is that online co-op will still be available. Co-op will notably not be available in the offline mode, suggesting that when the game's servers are inevitably shut down, there will be no co-op gameplay available.

Rocksteady and Warner Bros. will continue to sell Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, seemingly at full retail price, and all past seasons' content will become available, even in offline mode after the end of Season 4. This is a similar approach taken by Square Enix with Foamstars, when the developer announced last week that it would also stop supporting the PS5 game, despite leaving the online play servers and in-game items shop available after halting further development and support of the game.

Steam has set a new record of over 39 million concurrent players, breaking its earlier record of over 38 million set back in September. Some of the recently launched games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, Marvel Rivals, and Path of Exile 2 are doing quite well.

As spotted by DSOGaming, the newest Steam record for concurrent players is set at 39,205,447. It took around three months to break the previous record of over 38 million concurrent players set back in September. When it comes to the list of most played games in the last 24 hours, Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 are still holding the top two places, but some recently launched games are also doing quite well.

Welcome to week 50 and Lucia, alternatively Freddy week if that's something that's celebrated in your part of the world. This week's AAA title will bring back childhood memories for many of you, at least if you're old enough to remember Dr Jones. As for the rest of this coming week's new releases, we have a spoiled cat, some people trying to survive the apocalypse, a bunch of people playing with swords, a hungry elevator and some ruins in need of repair.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle / This week's AAA title / Monday 9 December
Uncover one of history's greatest mysteries in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a first-person, single-player adventure set between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. The year is 1937, sinister forces are scouring the globe for the secret to an ancient power connected to the Great Circle, and only one person can stop them - Indiana Jones. You'll become the legendary archaeologist in this cinematic action-adventure game from MachineGames, the award-winning studio behind the recent Wolfenstein series, and executive produced by Hall of Fame game designer Todd Howard. Steam link

Path of Exile 2 today released in Early Access on Steam and consoles, and, despite the game's $29.99 Early Access pricing, it has already managed to amass a peak player count of over 458,920 players on Steam alone. While this is undoubtedly good news for the developer and publisher, the increased server load has apparently already caused problems, resulting in excessive queue times to get into game sessions. At the time of writing, the game has only been available to play for a little over four hours, and the player count is only beginning to plateau now.

According to the Path of Exile X account, the development team has been hard at work trying to stem the bleeding, as it were. So far, the Path of Exile website has been down several times due to the high traffic, preventing players from claiming their Steam keys. Additionally, and somewhat hilariously, this outage has also affected the "Early Access Live Updates" site that was meant to be a resource for gamers to keep track of work the live service team was doing to try and deal with the high launch-day volumes.

It's no secret that Ubisoft hasn't had the best year, with the gaming giant having had to shut down multiple live-service and single-player games this year as a result of disappointing player counts and sales figures. Now, according to a series of rumors, Ubisoft is in talks with Chinese conglomerate Tencent with the intention of a buy-out. Curiously, though, Yves Guillemot, who currently sits as CEO of Ubisoft, wants to sell at least some of the Guillemot family's shares to Tencent, effectively giving Tencent a controlling stake in Ubisoft, but the Guillemot family wants to do so without losing control of the company it helped found.

According to Reuters, inside sources claim that the Guillemot family, who are the founding shareholders and currently have a controlling stake in Ubisoft, would like to maintain a controlling position in the company after whatever potential buyout deal is being discussed. Apparently, the Guillemot Family's desire for continued control has thus far been a sticking point for Tencent, who has as yet opted not increase its stake in the French game developer and publisher, instead holding out for a more favorable deal. Tencent already has around a 10% stake in Ubisoft, but the inside sources claim that Tencent wants greater control over the company before agreeing to a buyout of Guillemot shares.

GeForce NOW is wrapping a sleigh-full of gaming gifts this month, stuffing members' cloud gaming stockings with new titles and fresh offers to keep holiday gaming spirits merry and bright. Adventure calls and whip-cracking action awaits in the highly anticipated Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, streaming in the cloud today during the Advanced Access period for those who have preordered the Premium Edition from Steam or the Microsoft Store. The title can only be played with RTX ON - GeForce NOW is offering gamers without high-performance hardware the ability to play it with 25% off Ultimate and Performance Day Passes. It's like finding that extra-special gift hidden behind the tree.

This GFN Thursday also brings a new limited-time offer: 50% off the first month of new Ultimate or Performance memberships - a gift that can keep on giving. Whether looking to try out GeForce NOW or buckle in for long-term cloud gaming, new members can choose between the Day Pass sale or the new membership offer. There's a perfect gaming gift for everyone this holiday season. GFN Thursday also brings 13 new titles in December, with four available this week to get the festivities going. Plus, the latest update to GeForce NOW - version 2.0.69 - includes expanded support for 10-bit color precision. This feature enhances image quality when streaming on Windows, macOS and NVIDIA SHIELD TVs - and now to Edge and Chrome browsers on Windows devices, as well as to the Chrome browser on Chromebooks, Samsung TVs and LG TVs.

GOG (Good Old Games) recently announced its Preservation Program, an initiative to support and maintain old and abandoned games to ensure that they still function on modern hardware. Today, with the announcement of the removal of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and Warcraft II from the GOG Store in the coming weeks, the GOG Preservation Program both hits its first hiccup and proves why it's necessary. On X today, GOG announced that the two aforementioned Warcraft games will soon disappear from the GOG store, becoming officially unsupported and essentially becoming abandonware.

According to the post, both Warcraft II and Orcs and Humans will no longer be available from the GOG store as of December 13, 2024, however, GOG will continue to ensure that the game remains compatible with modern hardware as part of the GOG Preservation Program. Additionally, while they will no longer be purchasable on GOG, the offline installation files will still be available to download after the games are removed from the GOG store, meaning even if players lose their installation or backed-up game installers, they will be able to recover their game.

Humanoid Origin, a game studio started and lead by former Mass Effect creator, Casey Hudson, has just announced that it will be shutting down just 3 years after its creation. The main driving factor behind the closure of Humanoid Origin is a lack of funding, with the announcement coming from a LinkedIn post on Monday, November 25. In the announcement, Hudson places some of the blame on the "broader challenges in the industry" and says that the studio's main goal right now is to support its employees in the transition to new projects.

The fledgling game studio was unable to launch its first project, which was to be an ambitious, large-scale AAA sci-fi game for which it had aggressively been hiring creative talent since the company's 2021 start. This is just the latest studio casualty in what has been a brutal year for the gaming industry as a whole. Earlier this year, studios owned by much larger corporations with deeper pockets also saw similar closures, like the somewhat mysterious shuttering of the Humble Games publishing division, which was later clarified as "restructuring."

More than 600 games and applications feature RTX technologies, and each week new games integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex and advanced ray-traced effects are released or announced, delivering the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX players. This week, Void Crew has officially launched with support for DLSS Super Resolution. Towers of Aghasba is available now with DLSS Super Resolution. And War Thunder has added new hardware-accelerated ray-traced effects that take full advantage of GeForce RTX Ray Tracing Cores.

Void Crew Out Now With DLSS Super Resolution
Hutlihut Games and Focus Entertainment's Void Crew is a co-op roguelite for 1-4 players, where you and your friends join the ranks of METEM's chosen clone warriors, embarking on a Pilgrimage into the unknown. As a crew, you'll take on the role of Pilot, Gunner, Engineer, or Scavenger to face the threats lurking deep in METEM's domain. Your mission? Stand against the mysterious HOLLOW, an alien force like no other, to restore order - and try not to panic! Void Crew has just exited Early Access, adding a ton of new content, along with new technical features. Now, GeForce RTX gamers can accelerate performance using DLSS Super Resolution, to make their space adventures even better.

PLAION, a global leader in video games, and Retro Games Ltd. (RGL), the premier producer of reimagined home computers, proudly announce the launch of The Spectrum. This modern recreation of Sir Clive Sinclair's legendary ZX Spectrum retains its original design while incorporating today's technology, delivering nostalgia and innovation in one package.

Unlike previous emulations, The Spectrum is the first to faithfully replicate the design of the iconic 48k ZX Spectrum while including 48 pre-installed games. The design of the original machine was seen as unique. While machines like the Commodore 64, BBC Micro and ATARI 800XL shared a common aesthetic that became synonymous with home computers, the ZX Spectrum had a look and feel that had not been seen before, or indeed since. The Spectrum aims to bring back that nostalgic feeling to retro fans with an authentic looking, sleek, minimalist design worthy of any display cabinet.

Today at The MIX's Fall Showcase, indie publisher Raw Fury and developer Clifftop Games revealed Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer, the second installment in the point-and-click Kathy Rain series. In this new urban thriller, down-and-out private eye Kathy Rain will embark on her most dangerous case yet—pursuing the notorious serial killer, the Soothsayer.

Three years following her investigation in Conwell Springs, Kathy Rain is on a brand new case involving a string of murders that have paralyzed the metropolitan city of Kassidy. Players must help Kathy Rain find clues, gather evidence, connect the dots, and confront the murderer before the hunter becomes hunted… will this case define her career, or cast her as the next victim of the 'Soothsayer'...?

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is now available on PC and Xbox Series X/S, marking the end of a long and challenging development cycle that included the pandemic, relocations, cyberattacks, a fire in the Prague office, and, above all, the ongoing war in Ukraine, which continues to devastate the developers' Homeland.

The game is available for purchase on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG), Xbox Series X/S and Microsoft Store. Also, the game is available for Game Pass subscribers day one.

We are pleased to announce that Atomfall will launch on March 27, 2025 and is now available to pre-order. Atomfall is coming day one to Game Pass and will be available both digitally and in a boxed physical edition, [published by Fireshine Games] on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Windows PC and PC via Steam, Rebellion Shop and Epic Games Store. Atomfall will also release on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.

Atomfall's Deluxe Edition will also be available, and in addition to the Basic Supply Bundle DLC, the Deluxe Edition will also give players an Enhanced Supply Bundle, which includes an exclusive pistol variant, metal detector skin and character upgrades. Alongside this, players will also enjoy 3 days early access to Atomfall and the planned Story Expansion DLC when released. Also available for PC Players, exclusive to the Rebellion Shop, is the Quarantine Edition which includes all rewards within the Deluxe Edition, as well as a host of additional content.

Viva La Dirt League, FusionPlay and Team17 Digital have teamed up to bring you the first official game set in Viva La Dirt League's world of Azerim! Bust out those fishing rods and prepare to face ultimate evil. Then take 'em down: hook, line and sinker!

Epic NPC Man Nice Day For Fishing will have you step into the waders of Baelin, to defend Azerim and help out the beloved characters from the Epic NPC Man series. Unlock spells, fight powerful aquatic adversaries and experience the ultimate in fishing-based combat! Also, you get to collect hats, who doesn't love a hat collection.
Epic NPC Man Nice Day For Fishing releases 2025.

Team17 Digital and Crowbar Collective are working together on a new tactical shooter called Rogue Point. The CEO, the richest man in the world, is dead. Cutthroat conglomerates seek to carve up his kingdom. Using the MERX app, rival businessmen can order private mercenary armies as easily as ordering takeout! Only Rogue Point, an elite, independent vigilante squad, dares to fight back.

Your objective is clear. Eliminate the MERX, and put an end to the corporate war. Gather up to 4 friends and build an elite team, engaging in challenging missions with a dynamic rogue-lite twist offering hundreds of ways to play.

The indie developer My Little Studio has announced that the platformer Beyond The Darkness, featuring horror elements, will launch on Steam on November 14. On this day, players will enter an eerie world of memories, accompanying a young girl named Millie on her search for her parents and brother.

Beyond The Darkness is a game filled with mystery, danger, and the supernatural, where a once-cozy home has turned into a terrifying lair of monsters. The goal is to help Millie escape this nightmare world, find her parents, and flee from the lurking creatures—all with only an old lamp to keep her safe. Players will have to keep the light alive, solve puzzles, and master new mechanics. Do you have what it takes to survive in a world swallowed by darkness, fear, and monsters?

Many gamers have been skeptical of the recently announced Sony PS5 Pro since the day it was announced, largely due to the high price and the perceived lack of meaningful improvements. It seemed to many as though the PS5 Pro was simply a meaningless mid-cycle cash-grab with a few extra features tacked onto the top, however, it looks like Sony and its development partners have put in the work to make the PS5 Pro experience fresh and worthwhile. According to a new post on the official PlayStation Blog, the new console will launch with at least 50 confirmed "Enhanced" games.

What exactly Sony means by Enhanced is rather nebulous, since many of the Enhanced games for the PS5 Pro have a mishmash of different Pro features. For example, Resident Evil Village gets the full 120 FPS treatment, while Horizon Forbidden West only gets a bump up to 4K at 60 FPS. Stellar Blade, on the other hand, only gets an FPS boost to 80 FPS or 50 FPS at 4K. It's likely that, like Stellar Blade, all the titles aiming for higher refresh rates on the PS5 Pro are using some mix of PSSR, dedicated AI acceleration, and traditional rasterization rendering techniques to achieve the increased frame rates. Both The Last of Us Part I and The Last of Us II Remastered will run at 60 FPS on the PS5 Pro, but they will render at 1440p and use PSSR to upscale to 4K output.

Electronic Arts Inc. and BioWare announced today that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is now available for PlayStation 5 (also enhanced for PS5 Pro), Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam (Steam Deck Verified), EA app and Epic Games Store. This bold, heroic adventure is built to deliver on what the series is best known for: rich storytelling, fantasy worldbuilding, companions & fellowship, and a world where you matter. The next installment in BioWare's beloved franchise has captivated critics worldwide, with outlets such as IGN and GamesRadar+ proclaiming it "deserves its place in the RPG pantheon" and is "A true return to RPG form for BioWare" in their 9/10 and 4.5/5 reviews.

In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Solas, the Dread Wolf, wants to tear down the Veil that separates Thedas from the world of demons, restoring his people's immortality and glory - even at the cost of countless lives. But his ritual goes awry, and his worst fears are realized, as two of his most ancient and powerful adversaries are released. Players will step into the role of Rook, a fully-customizable protagonist who must rise up and unite their companions to stop these two powerful deities on a journey that will span across Thedas' bustling cities, lush tropics, boreal forests, fettered swamps and deepest depths.

After being forced to shut down at the beginning of October, it looks like the open-source Nintendo Switch emulator, Ryujinx, may have found a new home. Late last week, a new fork of the Ryujinx emulator popped up online. The original Ryujinx project's lead developer, known online as gdkchan, took down the GitHub page after a mysterious offer from Nintendo. Although there was speculation that the creator of the project was offered money to shut the emulator down, the wording on the new GitHub project seems to suggest that Nintendo forced Ryujinx to shut down. The GitHub page for the new project is run by a developer that goes by GreemDev, who doesn't seem to have been involved with the original Ryujinx before it shut down.

GreemDev's Ryujinx is starting out as a direct fork and continuation of the original, although there are hints that the new Ryujinx will take on a slightly different nature in the future. For starters, it doesn't look like GreemDev plans to offer any documentation for the Nintendo Switch emulator—at least not yet. This is likely partially to avoid Nintendo's ire and because creating documentation is a lot of additional work for developers. Instead, the GitHub directs readers to the former Ryujinx documentation on Archive.org, indicating that, although there are intended changes in-store for the future of Ryujinx, the current forked version basically picks up where the original left off.

Attention, recruits! It's time to test combat skills and strategic prowess. Drop into the heart of the action this GFN Thursday with the launch of the highly anticipated first-person blockbuster Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, streaming in the cloud Oct. 24, 9pm PT. Plus, embark on an adventure to defend an empire in the remake of the classic role-playing game (RPG), Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven. That's just the tip of the iceberg. These are part of the nine titles being added to GeForce NOW's library of over 2,000 games. Members can also look forward to a new reward - a free in-game Stag-Heart Skull Sallet Hat - for the award-winning RPG The Elder Scrolls Online, starting on Thursday, Oct. 31. Get ready by opting into GeForce NOW's Rewards program today.

Mission Critical
Get ready, soldiers - the next assignment awaits in the cloud. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is set against the backdrop of the Gulf War in the early 1990s, and will bring a thrilling Campaign, action-packed Multiplayer and a Zombies experience sure to thrill fans. The new game introduces the Omnimovement system to the franchise, allowing players to sprint, slide and dive in any direction, enhancing tactical gameplay across all modes. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launches with 16 new Multiplayer maps and two Zombies maps - Terminus and Liberty Falls. In Multiplayer, the classic Prestige system makes a comeback, while the single player Campaign experience promises a gripping espionage narrative. With its blend of historical fiction, gameplay innovations and fan-favorite features, Black Ops 6 aims to deliver an intense Call of Duty experience that pushes the boundaries of the franchise.

Denuvo has taken its fair share of flak over the years for a variety of warranted and unwarranted reasons, but it looks like the company has finally decided to put its foot down, or at least try to. Recently, Denuvo started a Discord server, seemingly in an effort to address the gaming community's complaints about a variety of topics. These include alleged performance impacts and hardware degradation caused by its anti-piracy and DRM software commonly used in modern games. Needless to say the Denuvo Discord server was met with about as much enthusiasm as one might expect, and the Discord sever was shut down just two days after it opened. Although the server has since been resuscitated, the company has muted unapproved community members. Today, however, Rock Paper Shotgun published an interview with Denuvo's product manager, Andreas Ullmann, and in it, Ullmann goes on to defend Denuvo's existence and outright dismiss gamers' concerns about the anti-cheat and anti-piracy software.

Addressing a question about "toxicity" and oft-genuine concerns from gamers over the use of Denuvo anti-tamper and anti-cheat software, Ullmann seemingly implied that gamers are just upset because the software works, robbing gamers of the ability to simply play a game for free instead of paying full retail price. When asked directly about why Denuvo doesn't address the claims of performance hits to games that implement it, Ullmann placed the onus on game developers to perform those comparative tests, again calling the gaming and piracy community toxic in the response. He dismissed the idea of Denuvo or a third party performing comparative analysis of the impact of anti-tamper and anti-cheat software, citing intellectual property concerns and community mistrust for a lack of first-party testing. At the same time, Ullmann admits that Denuvo has had performance impacts on games in the past but remarks that it's "interesting" that there aren't more incidents of reduced gaming performance. These comments were also made in spite of Denuvo's own marketing materials claiming that the software has "No impact on in-game performance."

Publisher Dotemu (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, Streets of Rage 4) and developer Leikir Studio (Rogue Lords, Synergy) today announced Metal Slug Tactics (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1590760/Metal_Slug_Tactics/), the grid-based tactical adaptation of the iconic run-and-gun METAL SLUG series, will launch Nov. 5 on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.

The release date trailer debuts three additional playable characters in hard-hitting gameplay, each bringing a unique set of abilities into battle:

• Clark Still: Originally hailing from the Ikari Warriors series and previously playable in Metal Slug 6, Clark's immense strength and wrestling experience allows this tanklike ally to relocate enemies on the map and dish out wide-reaching, status-inflicting damage.
• Ralf Jones: Also returning for battle from the Ikari Warriors series and Metal Slug 6, Ralf is a master of short-range combat, packing devastating punches and the ability to charge at enemies head-on like a raging bull.
• Leona Heidern: A newer addition to the Ikari Warriors, Leona is a revered fighter capable of replacing fallen enemies with decoy allies; she can distract and overwhelm enemy forces in her distinct approach to dominating the combat zone.

Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) surprised fans with a live playthrough of Squadron 42, their upcoming epic single-player narrative space adventure. Revealed onstage at CitizenCon 2954, the live showcase of the opening moments of the game offered attendees the most in-depth look at the visually stunning Squadron 42 yet, demonstrating action-packed space combat, grand cinematic storytelling and incomparable scale and fidelity. Squadron 42 is in the polish phase of production, with developer CIG revealing their intention to launch the game in 2026. Following the conclusion of the presentation, CIG released the full recording of the live playthrough on their YouTube channel.

Squadron 42 is a cinematic, single-player sci-fi adventure set in the universe of Star Citizen. Fight the good fight in an epic and immersive narrative full of action and intrigue; facing off against ruthless enemies in strategic FPS battles on foot and intense space combat from a cockpit. The epic space adventure will be experienced alongside a stunning all-star cast including Mark Hamill, Eleanor Tomlinson, Gary Oldman, John Rhys-Davies, Sophie Wu, Jonathan Bailey, and Henry Cavill.

Unknown Worlds has finally announced the next sequel to its popular indie survival game franchise, Subnautica, and released a teaser trailer alongside the reveal. While details are still scant, the first trailer divulges some key information about the upcoming game. For starters, and likely the biggest divergence from Subnautica and the Subnautica: Below Zero expansion, is the addition of multiplayer gameplay, supporting teams of up to four players. For now, it looks like gameplay will either be single-player or online co-op, although it's unclear whether teams will be able to mix the two, popping into four-player sessions alone or with one or two players sitting it out.

Just judging from the trailer and Steam Store page, it looks like Subnautica 2 will take many of the same game mechanics—crafting, resource management, and an open-world sandbox—as the other games in the franchise, and build on them, instead of trying to rewrite the story. Likewise, it looks to be leaning into the Lovecraftian horror themes earlier on in the game. There also seems to be a new upgrade mechanic that will allow players to augment the biology of their characters, which should add an extra layer of depth to the game. Unknown Worlds has not yet published the full retail price for Subnautica 2 or pinned an exact release date, but it will release as an Early Access game sometime in 2025. Fans of the genre and franchise can wishlist and follow the game on Steam, Epic Games, or Xbox or join the Discord community.

Terahard Studios is excited to announce its latest title, Dunebound Tactics, a turn-based tactics roguelite RPG set in a wasteland overtaken by the bonedry desert sand. The Steam page launched today and is ready to welcome some wishlists! Lead your band of survivors on a hazardous trek across unforgiving sands in search of a new home. Battle ruthless factions, scavenge dwindling resources, and make life-or-death choices to keep your sand-faring ship on the move, even if it requires sacrificing your own crewmates!

"Personally, I'm a huge tactics fanatic. We built our very own tactics engine with RPG elements from the ground up for Dunebound Tactics! I'm excited both for the technical innovations as well as the freedom we gave our game designers to create an amazing experience. The art in this game is the best we've managed so far connecting all the little details to squeeze performance and quality." - Aris Tsevrenis, CEO of Terahard Studios