Author: Garry Smith

Activision has announced a week-long Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 “free access” multiplayer trial across all platforms, featuring a selection of different maps and modes. Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer trial kicks off tomorrow, 19th April, at 5pm BST in the UK/10am PT and runs until next Wednesday, 26th April. During that time, players will have access to 10 Modern Warfare 2 maps across 12 different modes. Participants can sample Modern Warfare 2’s 2v2 Gunfight mode, its larger-scale Ground War and Invasion battle modes, plus its 6v6 All or Nothing, Domination, Gun Game, Grind, Hardpoint, Infected, Kill Confirmed, One in…

Crank-based portable gaming curio Playdate has now sold over 53,000 units – more than twice the number its creator Panic had originally forecast. Playdate was initially announced back in 2019, promising a unique (and dinkily adorable) spin on portable gaming that would see Panic teaming up with a host of noted indie game designers – including the likes of Zach Gage and Bennett Foddy – to produce a curated 24-game “season”, as well as offering itch.io sideloading support and, more recently, an on-device store. It was a pitch that clearly captured peoples’ imaginations; Panic has now revealed the initial 20,000…

Ubisoft is giving The Division fans a glimpse of the series’ future (plus a recap of its present and past) during a newly announced livestream airing this Thursday, 20th April. Proceedings are set to commence at 7pm BST/8pm CEST/11am PDT this Thursday via Twitch and YouTube, with Ubisoft promising news on three of its The Division games. Up first is the still-popular The Division 2, which will share more on its upcoming rogue-like-inspired Descent mode, alongside details of its Year 5 plans. Ubisoft, you might recall, confirmed a fifth year of content would be happening last July. Read more Source…

Blizzard has confirmed it has “no plans” for a Diablo 4 tab overlay map. The “Automap” tool is a feature of the previous Diablo games. In Diablo 1 and 2 it appears as a faint overlay in the middle of the screen. Diablo 3 shifted the overlay map to the top right-hand corner of the screen, making it more of a mini-map. Diablo 4, however, has a dedicated mini-map on the top-right corner of the screen, with the tab button used to display the full map and journal. The game will not have a tab overlay map as seen in…

Those on base Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles will not be able to host a co-op session on Dead Island 2’s release. Instead, they will have to rely on players with more recent consoles (from the same console family) to be the host. In a recent blog, developer Dambuster Studios stated that, due to Dead Island 2’s graphic requirements, “the host must play on the latest generation console (PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X S) or one of the Generation 8+ consoles (PlayStation 4 Pro/Xbox One X)”. The host can then be joined by up to two more players. As such,…

Nintendo hacker Gary Bowser has been freed from prison, but will remain in debt to the company for the rest of his life. In February 2022, Bowser was sentenced to 40 months in prison for the distribution and sale of piracy-enabling devices. He pleaded guilty and agreed to a $4.5m fine, plus an additional $10m fine to settle Nintendo’s own civil lawsuit against him. Speaking to podcaster Nick Moses (via Kotaku), Bowser explained that Nintendo is now able to recoup 25-30 percent of his personal income for the rest of his working life. Read more Source – eurogamer.net All content…

Having teased the introduction of difficulty modifiers to its viking survival game Valheim back in January, developer Iron Gate Studio has now offered a first look at the feature’s progress. Word that Iron Gate was looking to introduce difficulty settings to Valheim first came as part of an very early glimpse at the game’s upcoming Ashlands biome. And now, three months on, development has reached a point where the studio is able to share more. As detailed by Iron Gate’s Jonathan Smårs on Twitter, Valheim’s difficulty settings will take the form of both pre-set and customisable “world modifiers”. Some you’d…

A French court has sided with Nintendo in an appeal launched by filehosting website operator Dstorarge, which was previously ordered to pay €935,500 (around £826k) after it refused to withdraw access to pirated Nintendo games. Nintendo initially took legal action against Dstorarge after it ignored copyright notifications demanding it remove illegal copies of Nintendo games hosted on its 1fichier service. The Judicial Court of Paris ultimately ruled in Nintendo’s favour, saying filehosting services such as 1fichier were responsible for blocking access to pirated content and ordering Dstorage pay the Mario maker €935,500 in damages. Dstorage, in turn, launched an appeal…

Following news of his departure from Microsoft earlier this month, former Halo Infinite creative head Joseph Staten has joined Netflix to begin work on a “AAA multiplatform” game. Staten has been closely associated with the Halo series since 2000, serving in various roles across both Bungie and 343 Industries. He started out as writer and director of cinematics for Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, and would become Halo Infinite’s head of creative in 2020. Word of his departure from 343 Industries arrived in January, amid extensive layoffs at Xbox Studios, when it was reported he would remain at Microsoft…

Nexon is suing Ironmace, the developer behind medieval dungeon looter Dark and Darker, for “copyright infringement”. The Korean game publisher is now demanding a jury trial, as part of its ongoing dispute with Ironmace. This lawsuit was officially filed last Friday (14th April) at the US District Court for the Western District of Washington. For a quick bit of background, the team at Ironmace was accused of creating Dark and Darker “using materials and assets they worked on during their time” at Nexon. These accusations specifically pertained to a game known as P3. Read more Source – eurogamer.net All content…