Ubisoft announced earlier this month that it would be sunsetting its free-to-play first-person shooter, XDefiant, on June 3, 2025, after dwindling player counts made it unfeasible to continue supporting the live-service game. Despite the game being shut down by Ubisoft, the game's development team at Ubisoft San Francisco apparently still wanted to follow through with some of the content it had in the game's pipeline. In an announcement on X, the game's executive producer clarifies that much of the content that is being delivered in what he calls the last patch contains all the content that was planned for Season 3 along with some content from future seasons of the game, including Season 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Some major highlights in the new patch, are 13 new maps, three new factions, including the Assassins—from Assassin's Creed—six new weapons, and five new game modes. Along with the slew of new content, XDefiant received a handful of gameplay and QoL fixes for both competitive and casual play. The new maps consist of eight new arena maps, four new linear maps, and one new tactical map. XDefiant also got a new progression system that allows players to unlock cosmetics, badges, and other rewards for character progression. The developer also introduced daily rewards and "Credits," the game's new in-game currency that allows players to buy skins and other items from previous seasons.

On the morning of the launch of Warframe 1999, the ambitious 90s-themed update and story expansion for sci-fi-fantasy looter-shooter Warframe, Digital Extremes published the update notes for Warframe 1999, which launched in the morning of December 13. Warframe 1999 introduces a new tile-set, called Höllvania, alongside its companion cinematic quest, which will send players back in time to discover the Protoframes and help find the Protoframe creator, Albrecht Entrati. Players will form part of an underground resistance team alongside the Protoframes, although players will not play as the Protoframes or even their own Warframes in 1999. Instead, players will travel to Höllvania and complete the new Hex quest as Drifter. Höllvania has its own seasons, and players will enter the new area in winter.

The update also adds new quests and mission types in the new map, which see players hunt down and stop the Techrot and Scaldra in a number of classic Warframe game modes, including assassination, exterminate, and Warframe's first PvPvE mode. Along with the new game modes, there is also a new Warframe—appropriately called Cyte-09, sticking with the 90s theme—who looks to be something of an all-rounder, thanks to his abilities. Cyte-09 also drops with his own signature rifle, the Reconifex, which applies a heat effect and reload speed buff on timed reloads, and the Vesper77 secondary, which appears to be a critical-based sidearm that highlights weak points when aiming down the sights. There are also a number of changes coming to Warframe's core gameplay, including the introduction of the Atomicycle motorcycle, which will be available for all open maps, and the long-awaited Nyx and Trinity reworks. Find out more about the more minor changes in the full Warframe 1999 patch notes.

At The Game Awards, Saber Interactive, in collaboration with Universal Products & Experiences, revealed Turok: Origins, a new evolution of the classic dinosaur-hunting game franchise that began nearly 30 years ago. Developed and published by Saber, this fast-paced, third-person, sci-fi shooter, featuring both solo and cooperative action for up to three players, will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Watch the debut trailer now and get your very first look at the epic gameplay and spectacle of Turok: Origins.

Turok: Origins revives the legendary game franchise's action and spirit while bringing it forward into the modern era with a completely new look, story, and gameplay. Players will take on the role of fierce Turok warriors to face off against ferocious dinosaurs and a terrifying alien threat that seeks to destroy all human life in the galaxy. Fans can unleash devastating attacks on enemies with weapons and abilities, and harness fallen enemies' DNA to upgrade their arsenal. Players will embark on a high-stakes adventure - solo or with friends - to unravel mysteries that hold the key to saving humanity.

Hyper Light Breaker, the sequel to the massively popular indie hit, Hyper Light Drifter, is set to release on Steam on January 15, 2025. The only catch is that the game will release into early access, meaning it will likely change significantly during its first year on the market. At launch, Hyper Light Breaker will cost $29.99.

While Hyper Light Breaker shares a name with and hits a lot of the same aesthetic notes as Hyper Light Drifter, it isn't exactly a sequel in the classical sense. Hyper Light Breaker is set "decades before" the events of Hyper Light Drifter, and the aesthetic looks like an upgraded version of the hyper stylized 3D graphics we saw from Heart Machine in Solar Ash, as opposed to the top-down 2D pixel art of Hyper Light Drifter. Unlike Solar Ash, though, the core gameplay loop will rely on rogue-lite mechanics and hack and slash combat, making it a unique entry in the Hyper Light universe. Additionally, Hyper Light Breaker will be a co-op game, with support for up to three players in a squad.

After the fiasco surrounding the cancelled press previews and delayed upcoming launch of Assassin's Creed Shadows, it appears that Ubisoft is doing something of a redemption tour in order to garner hype for the latest installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise. Previously, news about AC Shadows's simultaneous console and Steam launch was quite positively received. Now, Ubisoft has given us a full overview of what's to come regarding the combat mechanics in Assassin's Creed Shadows. While the weapons and unit types in Shadows are certainly interesting, perhaps the most important take-away is that timing will be an important aspect to combat.

One of the most important mechanics behind Assassin's Creed Shadows's combat seems to be the character and weapon choices. The samurai, Yasuke, and the shinobi, Naoe, will supposedly come with their own versions of stealth, defensive, and offensive attacks, and each will have their own weapons, to bring some diversity to the gameplay of each character. It looks like each of the different weapon classes will be locked to either character and play style. At launch, Naoe will have three weapons to choose from, and Yasuke will have a broader selection of five weapons to choose from.

The annual Game Awards is just around the corner, with the opening night scheduled for December 12, and gaming industry big-shots have teased that there are big announcements coming. One such announcement is the reveal of the second Borderlands 4 trailer, which is all but confirmed for The Game Awards, thanks to Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox Software. We already know the game is planned for release sometime in 2025, but fans are itching to know more about what's to come from the looter shooter that dominated the early 2010s. Around the same time, Andy Robinson, CEO of Video Game Chronicle, teased that he is "Expecting a VERY big Game Awards next week," going on to hype up his followers with "Fire up the hype train."

Pitchford, who has a reputation for being very active on X, recently posted a not-so-subtle confirmation that Gearbox was working on a new trailer for Borderlands 4. Without revealing much more, Pitchford teased that the next trailer would start where the first left off, suggesting that we may find out more about whom the cybernetic arm at the end of the teaser trailer belongs to. So far, prevailing fan theories and speculation around the owner of said arm propose that it is a hint at the return of Gaige, a playable character, and fan favorite, from Borderlands 2. This is a plausible guess, since the Borderlands franchise is known for bringing back characters from previous games, and it wouldn't be the first time we will have seen a former playable character turn NPC.

Welcome to the first week of December and the first of advent for those that celebrate it. This week's AAA release is the 2024 release of a FPS shooter that first saw life back in 1998, but under a new developer and publisher. If this isn't your cup of tea, then you can try your luck in beating humans, demolishing things, surviving a bullet hell, finding your lost memories or pretending to be a superhero.

Delta Force / This week's AAA title / Thursday 5 December
Delta Force is back! The iconic series returns as the definitive free-to-play modern team-based tactical shooter and featuring three distinct gameplay modes: large-scale PvP warfare, intense extraction shooter action, and a remake of the legendary Black Hawk Down campaign. Steam link

GameSir, a World-renowned brand in gaming peripherals, proudly announces the release of the Cyclone 2, an advanced multi-platform wireless controller designed to redefine precision and gameplay experience. Featuring cutting-edge technology and versatile functionality, the Cyclone 2 caters to gamers across Switch, PC, Android, iOS, and Steam devices.

One of the standout features of the Cyclone 2 is that it integrates GameSir's groundbreaking Mag-Res TMR Sticks, combining the precision of traditional potentiometer sticks with the durability of Hall Effect technology. This combination ensures smoother performance, higher accuracy, and long-lasting durability. Additionally, precision-tuned Hall Effect analog triggers provide smooth and responsive feedback, giving players a competitive edge in various gaming genres. For action and FPS enthusiasts, the controller also features a Hair Trigger Mode for ultra-fast responses.

NVIDIA today announced incoming changes to its GeForce Now game streaming service, some of which are not likely to sit well with gamers. The biggest, and likely most controversial change coming to GeForce Now is the addition of monthly playtime caps for all GeForce Now users, regardless of which plan they're on. According to the blog post announcing the changes, GeForce Now gamers will be limited to 100 hours of gameplay per month in addition to the daily playtime caps. NVIDIA will allow gamers who don't use their whole monthly cap to roll 15 hours of game time into the following month.

It's not all bad news, however, as NVIDIA also announced that it will be increasing the resolution and image quality of the GeForce Now Performance tier—previously Priority—from 1080p to 1440p. The Ultimate and Basic tiers remain unchanged in both name and feature set. NVIDIA says the playtime limit was necessary in order "to continue providing exceptional quality and speed—as well as shorter queue times." Of course players can buy extra playtime at a rate of $2.99 for 15 hours of GeForce Now Performance and $5.99 for 15 hours of GeForce Now Ultimate. The playtime limits will come into effect on January 1, 2025, and anyone that signs up for a paid GeForce Now subscription before then won't be subjected to the new playtime limits until January 2026.

After spending some time testing the feature in the Steam Beta client, Valve has finally made native recording via the Steam game overlay public in the mainline Steam client. In the latest Steam client update, which landed on November 5, game recording finally went live for all versions of Steam. While the new feature is undoubtedly helpful for gamers on all platforms, it's particularly useful for Linux and Steam Deck gamers, who have, until now, had to rely on myriad third-party software, which can be a hassle to set up and present additional overhead that may cause issues in games.

Similar to the likes of NVIDIA's GeForce Experience (soon to be replaced by the NVIDIA App) and AMD's Adrenaline Software, Steam offers a number of different options to record entire sessions or just short gameplay clips. Unsurprisingly, Steam game recording works with the Steam Deck (and thus many other Linux distributions), but perhaps not as expected is that it also works with non-Steam games that allow the Steam overlay to work. Valve also put some thought into the technical side of things, with optimizations to minimize CPU usage and rely on NVIDIA and AMD GPU video encoding wherever possible. This should minimize any performance impacts and increase power efficiency where applicable—as in the case of gaming handhelds. Valve does note that non-AMD and -NVIDIA GPUs may see significant performance impacts, which is not great news for Intel Xe owners.

Windblown has not even been out in Steam Early Access for a week, and already community feedback is changing the new roguelike. According to an announcement on Steam, Motion Twin will be changing a game mechanic thanks to an overwhelming amount of feedback from the community. The feature in question is Sudden Death, which is somewhat similar to the old Borderlands mechanic, in the sense that it puts players into a downed state when they lose all their health in co-op mode. Except, in Windblown, it's up to the downed player's teammates to revive them by defeating 10 enemies. While Sudden Death isn't usually an issue in standard missions, it becomes problematic during boss fights, when there is only one enemy to defeat. Obviously, this makes it difficult for the remaining players to complete the mission and resuscitate their fallen compatriots.

Fortunately, Motion Twin confirmed in a recent Steam Store news post that it plans to address the difficulty introduced by the feature, although it's not clear that the planned fix will actually solve the problem for everyone who has complaints about it. Motion Twin says it will not remove Sudden Death from Windblown, instead opting to tweak it, admitting that the current state of the feature "feels harsh and maybe even unfair". Motion Twin says that, despite wanting to address the feedback, it wants to maintain the tension and teamwork that Sudden Death brings to the game.

The gaming industry is about to get massively disrupted. Instead of using game engines to power games, we are now witnessing an entirely new and crazy concept. A startup specializing in designing ASICs specifically for Transformer architecture, the foundation behind generative AI models like GPT/Claude/Stable Diffusion, has showcased a demo in partnership with Decart of a Minecraft clone being entirely generated and operated by AI instead of the traditional game engine. While we use AI to create images and videos based on specific descriptions and output pretty realistic content, having an AI model spit out an entire playable game is something different. Oasis is the first playable, real-time, real-time, open-world AI model that takes users' input and generates real-time gameplay, including physics, game rules, and graphics.

An interesting thing to point out is the hardware that powers this setup. Using a single NVIDIA H100 GPU, this 500-million parameter Oasis model can run at 720p resolution at 20 generated frames per second. Due to limitations of accelerators like NVIDIA's H100/B200, gameplay at 4K is almost impossible. However, Etched has its own accelerator called Sohu, which is specialized in accelerating transformer architectures. Eight NVIDIA H100 GPUs can power five Oasis models to five users, while the eight Sohu cards are capable of serving 65 Oasis runs to 65 users. This is more than a 10x increase in inference capability compared to NVIDIA's hardware on a single-use case alone. The accelerator is designed to run much larger models like future 100 billion-parameter generative AI video game models that can output 4K 30 FPS, all thanks to 144 GB of HBM3E memory, yielding 1,152 GB in eight-accelerator server configuration.

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.

Snail, a leading global independent developer and publisher of interactive digital entertainment, is excited to announce the acquisition of publishing rights for three new titles: Honeycomb, a sci-fi survival adventure, as well as Castle of Secrets and Stoneguard, through its indie-focused branch, Wandering Wizard. This expansion reflects Snail Games' commitment to delivering diverse, innovative gaming experiences across both mainstream and indie markets.

Honeycomb: The World Beyond, is an upcoming sci-fi survival adventure set to be published by Snail Games, where players assume the role of a bioengineer navigating the mysterious planet Sota7. Players will explore vast biomes, crossbreed alien species, and build a base to support their mission to save humanity. With its focus on bioengineering and exploration, Honeycomb represents Snail Games' dedication to providing a unique gameplay experience within the survival genre.

Welcome to the last full week of October and boy is it going to be a busy week of new game releases. This week's AAA release is said to force you to go rogue on your tour of duty. Next you'll be starting your own tentacle cult, which if followed by being kicked out of hell for the second time, an inaccurate history lesson, being blown away by the wind and finally being turned into a blue hedgehog.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 / This week's AAA title / Friday 25 October
Developed by Treyarch and Raven, Black Ops 6 is a spy action thriller set in the early 90s, a period of transition and upheaval in global politics, characterized by the end of the Cold War and the rise of the United States as a single superpower. With a mind-bending narrative, and unbound by the rules of engagement, this is signature Black Ops. The Black Ops 6 Campaign provides dynamic moment-to-moment gameplay that includes a variety of play spaces with blockbuster set pieces and action-packed moments, high-stakes heists, and cloak-and-dagger spy activity. Steam link

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions, is proud to announce the launch of X3D Turbo Mode, a revolutionary BIOS feature designed to maximize gaming performance on X870E, X870, and 600 series motherboards with AMD Ryzen 7000 X3D and Ryzen 9000 series processors.⁠

GIGABYTE X3D Turbo Mode is a cutting-edge BIOS feature that pushes the boundaries of gaming performance. Empirical testing demonstrates that this innovative BIOS feature delivers tangible benefits to gamers, with performance increases of up to 35% for incoming Ryzen 9000 X3D processors and an astounding 20% for Ryzen 9000 non-X3D processors. Moreover, X3D Turbo Mode's unique optimization parameters allow even Ryzen 9000 non-X3D processors to achieve similar gaming performance levels as their Ryzen X3D counterparts. Experience smoother gameplay, higher frame rates, and reduced latency by GIGABYTE's BIOS wizardry-X3D Turbo Mode.

GameSir, a World-renowned brand in gaming peripherals, proudly announces the launch of its latest product, the Tarantula Pro. This stylish new controller, is designed to enhance the gaming experience across multiple platforms including Switch, iOS, Android, PC and Steam. Inspired by the formidable spider species with the same namesake, the Tarantula Pro stands out with its unique design and lightning-fast response time, making it the perfect device for keen gamers that want a distinctive, feature rich controller with a striking design.

The GameSir Tarantula Pro's distinctive design has multiple extra buttons on the front aligned in three lines, inspired by the appearance of a tarantula. This innovative layout also provides gamers with unprecedented control and flexibility during gameplay. Complemented by an RGB lighting strip and vibrant face buttons, the Tarantula Pro not only offers exceptional performance but also brings a visual flair to the gaming experience.

Today at RazerCon 2024, we proudly unveiled the Razer Freyja, the world's first HD Haptics Gaming Cushion. This pioneering device is designed to significantly enhance sensory experiences, transforming gaming into a vividly immersive journey.

Next-Gen Tactile Immersion
At the core of the Razer Freyja is our Razer Sensa HD Haptics technology. This advanced system extends sensory feedback beyond the visual, allowing you to feel every detail of your gameplay. Imagine feeling the adrenaline of a race car's roar or the tense quiet of a stealth mission with such realism that it blurs the lines between game environments and reality.

Valve's latest third-person MOBA-like hero shooter, Deadlock, has had a pretty serious cheater problem, despite still being an invite-only public test. While the game has thus far operated on a player reporting system to identify and punish cheaters, a recent game patch has introduced a rather comical—and seemingly effective—anti-cheat system that can either ban cheating players or turn them into frogs until the end of the match.

Valve says that the new anti-cheat system is set up to be fairly conservative at the moment to avoid any false positives. Aside from the new anti-cheat, Deadlock's September 26 update introduced a new hero, Mirage, whose design and gameplay seem rooted in the jinn from Arabic myths (aka djinn or genie) and added a pretty vast collection of gameplay updates, balances, and quality-of-life improvements throughout the game.

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. Today, GreedFall II: The Dying World launches with support for DLSS Super Resolution, The Casting of Frank Stone and Witchfire are now available on Steam with DLSS 3 with Frame Generation support, and Satisfactory has exited Early Access with support for DLSS Super Resolution and DLAA.

Witchfire Now Available On Steam With Support For DLSS 3 & Reflex
The Astronauts' Witchfire is a dark fantasy first-person shooter from the creative leads behind Painkiller, Bulletstorm, and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Desperate for a chance to triumph in the deadly war against witches, the Church calls on forbidden pagan magic to turn willing sinners into immortal witch hunters called preyers. Armed with powerful spells and fearsome firearms conjured by the best Vatican sorcerers, your mission is to find the infamous witch of the Black Sea, destroy the phantom army that protects her, and retrieve a mysterious artifact that can finally turn the tide of war.

GameSir, a leading brand in gaming peripherals, proudly introduces its T7 wired controller. Featuring Hall Effect sticks and triggers, the T7 controller guarantees durability and precise handling for gamers. Compatible with Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One X|S, Windows 10/11 and Steam, the T7 blends functionality and style with its three colour choices too.

Equipped with GameSir non-contact magnetic Hall Effect technology, the controller's sticks are designed to remain wear-free throughout their lifetime. This advanced technology ensures an impressive lifespan of up to 5 million cycles, effectively preventing stick drift and guaranteeing reliable, durable performance for gaming on Xbox, PC, and Steam. Precision-tuned Hall Effect analogue triggers are also built-in, which offer a consistent, smooth pull. This feature is particularly beneficial for racing games, providing the confidence needed to enjoy a seamless and responsive gaming experience. The precision of these triggers ensures that every input is accurate, enhancing overall gameplay.

NVIDIA ACE is a revolutionary suite of digital human technologies that brings digital humans to life with generative AI. Since its debut at Computex 2023 in the Ramen Shop tech demo, ACE's capabilities have evolved rapidly.

At Gamescom 2024, we announced our first digital human technology on-device small language model improving the conversation abilities of game characters. We also announced that the first game to showcase these ACE and digital human technologies is Amazing Seasun Game's Mecha BREAK, bringing its characters to life and providing a more dynamic and immersive gameplay experience on GeForce RTX AI PCs.

Game Science, the developer behind the highly anticipated action RPG "Black Myth: Wukong," has released a free benchmark tool on Steam for its upcoming game. This standalone application, separate from the main game, allows PC users to evaluate their hardware performance and system compatibility in preparation for the game's launch. The "Black Myth: Wukong Benchmark Tool" offers a unique glimpse into the game's visuals by rendering a real-time in-game sequence. While not playable, it provides valuable insights into how well a user's system will handle the game's demanding graphics and performance requirements. One of the tool's standout features is its customization options. Users can tweak various graphics settings to preview the game's visuals and performance under different configurations. This flexibility allows gamers to find the optimal balance between visual fidelity and smooth gameplay for their specific hardware setup.

However, Game Science has cautioned that due to the complexity and variability of gaming scenarios, the benchmark results may not fully represent the final gaming experience. This caveat shows the tool's role as a guide rather than a definitive measure of performance. The benchmark tool's system requirements offer a clear picture of the hardware needed to run "Black Myth: Wukong." At a minimum, users will need a Windows 10 system with an Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and either an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB or AMD Radeon RX 580 8 GB graphics card. For an optimal experience, the recommended specifications include an Intel Core i7-9700 or AMD Ryzen 5 5500 processor and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, or Intel Arc A750 graphics card. Interestingly, the benchmark tool supports DLSS, FSR, and XeSS technologies, indicating that the final game will likely include these performance-enhancing features. The developers also strongly recommend using an SSD for storage.

AMD has introduced Fluid Motion Frames 2 (AFMF 2), an upgraded version of its frame generation technology designed to improve gameplay smoothness and frame rates. This new iteration brings several enhancements and expanded compatibility across Radeon RX 6000 and 7000 series graphics cards. AMD debuted Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF) in September 2023 introducing frame generation capabilities across a broad spectrum of GPUs, including those from NVIDIA, and Intel. This technology was compatible with all DirectX 12 and DirectX 11 games, potentially doubling performance when frame generation was activated.

Following its initial release, AMD addressed major concerns such as stuttering and frame-pacing through substantial driver improvements. The refined version of AFMF was officially incorporated into AMD's driver package in January of this year. Now, AMD is offering Fluid Motion Frames 2 as a technical preview using a special driver to convince gamers that they can have an even faster and smoother gaming experience.

Dune: Awakening, the Open World Survival MMO set on Arrakis from developer Funcom, today unveiled the second Dune: Awakening Direct. The showcase offers 30 minutes of in-depth interviews and game footage showing character creation, the MMO-like server structure, the narrative ramifications of a world where Paul Atreides was never born, and the spiritual journey the player will undergo in the game, following in the footsteps of the Fremen.

Dune: Awakening, which recently shot past 1 million wishlists on Steam, draws on the visual and aural identity created by Denis Villeneuve and Legendary's recent blockbuster movies and is deeply rooted in the original masterpiece by Frank Herbert. The game unleashes you on a vast and open Arrakis torn by war, where you must survive and strive for control of the spice alongside hundreds of other players.