Author: Game Infliction

Team Fortress 2’s Summer Update Makes ‘Security and Stability Improvements’ — and Fans Are Hoping the Bots Are Gone for Good

Valve has released Team Fortress 2’s big Summer 2024 update, leaving fans hopeful that it builds upon recent efforts to combat the game’s bot problem.

The Team Fortress 2 community came together in June in an attempt to brute-force Valve into fixing a bot problem that had plagued the game for years.

Disgruntled players of the near 17-year-old hero shooter, which remains one of the most-played games on Steam, caused Team Fortress 2’s Steam user review rating to plummet to ‘mostly negative,’ with pretty much all the comments about bots.

Valve released a banwave that appeared to stamp out Team Fortress 2’s bot problem, and published a no-nonsense FAQ outlining its tough stance on the matter. Recent Steam reviews recovered to ‘mixed’, and players praised Valve for taking action.

Now, Valve has released Team Fortress 2’s summer update, and while it includes expected content such as community-made maps, cosmetics, and effects, there’s also an vague line in the patch notes that’s left fans hopeful that the troublesome bots are gone for good: “Security and stability improvements.”

While Valve failed to detail exactly what these improvements involved, the hope is the developer has built upon the good work done last month to keep Team Fortress 2’s bots at bay.

Valve continues to operate the likes of Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, and Left 4 Dead 2. Meanwhile, gameplay leaks have revealed Valve’s alleged next game, Deadlock.

Valve’s last developed game to release was competitive first-person shooter Counter-Strike 2, which effectively replaced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Before that, in 2020, Valve released Half-Life: Alyx exclusively for virtual reality headsets. Valve has also released a Dota-themed digital card game called Artifact and a Dota auto chess game called Dota Underlords, although both failed to find as big of an audience as the company’s previous titles.

All the while, the wait for Half-Life 3 continues. Back in 2020, a making-of for Half-Life: Alyx revealed a swathe of games developed and shelved by Valve between the release of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Valve’s latest VR game. That list included details on a version of Half-Life 3 that was in development for around a year, and an open-world Left 4 Dead 3.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

New card battler Placid Plastic Deck blends Pokémon with Inscryption using the dark magic of ducks

Like many an addled follower of the games industry, I have recently fallen under the spell of Balatro, and especially, its jokers. The mechanics and overall presentation may be exquisite, but it’s the thrill of discovering another mutant jester modifier that has me lunging for the Steam Deck in my sleep. Well, now those jokers have competition: ducks. Step or rather waddle forward Placid Plastic Deck – A Quiet Quest, a quacked-up card battler which somehow takes inspiration from both the Pokémon series and Inscryption.

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Mortal Kombat Studio NetherRealm Is Reportedly Facing Layoffs

Following mobile team being shut down.

NetherRealm Studios, the developer behind the Mortal Kombat series, is reportedly facing multiple layoffs after select staff members from the studios’ mobile team shared posts on LinkedIn announcing that they have been put out of work (thanks, Eurogamer).

The NetherRealm mobile team seems to be the most affected by the layoffs, after the branch was reportedly shut down despite working on multiple active live-service projects including Mortal Kombat Mobile, Injustice 2, and Mortal Kombat Onslaught. Tony Lazzara, a quality assurance analyst, wrote “Netherrealm’s mobile team was shut down. A ton of very talented people were put out of work”.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Mortal Kombat Mobile Game to Shut Down a Year After Launch as Developer NetherRealm Suffers Layoffs

Mortal Kombat developer NetherRealm has suffered a significant round of layoffs and has signaled the closure of one of its high-profile mobile games.

As spotted by users on ResetEra, NetherRealm developers took to LinkedIn to announce they had been laid off as part of what looks like the gutting of the company’s mobile team.

One affected member of staff said NetherRealm’s entire mobile team was shut down. This team operated live services on multiple titles, including Mortal Kombat Mobile, Injustice 2, and Mortal Kombat Onslaught.

The X/Twitter page for Mortal Kombat: Onslaught announced plans to shut the game down in October 2024, just a year after launch. “It has been an honor creating this game for our Kommunity, and we appreciate the enthusiasm from our fans,” the statement read. “In the coming weeks we will share specific timing of the close of the game.”

At the time of this article’s publication, there is no shutdown announcement on either the Mortal Kombat Mobile or Injustice 2 Mobile X/Twitter pages. Both games received updates in recent days; indeed these layoffs occured just a day after Mortal Kombat Mobile received a significant update that added guest character Spawn to the game. Spawn is meant to be the first of three new characters coming to Mortal Kombat Mobile as part of its summer update, with Onslaught Jax and MK1 Kenshi next.

NetherRealm and Mortal Kombat franchise owner Warner Bros. Games billed Mortal Kombat: Onslaught as a mobile-exclusive collection role-playing game set in the Mortal Kombat universe. The free-to-download app features party-based combat that plays out automatically, with the player tapping to trigger special abilities and combos. There’s a fleshed out Story Mode that revolves around Shinnok’s bid for destruction. Mortal Kombat veterans Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Sub-Zero go up against familiar villains such as Shang Tsung, Kano, and Shao Kahn in their Mortal Kombat 11 visual style.

The layoffs hit NetherRealm as it prepares to reveal plans for Mortal Kombat 1’s second year of updates and DLC characters during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con. NetherRealm development chief Ed Boon is yet to tweet about the layoffs or the game closure.

The cuts to NetherRealm come amid one of the toughest periods for the video game industry in recent memory. Thousands have lost their jobs over the last two years as publishers and developers struggle in an increasingly difficult market. Microsoft announced 1,900 jobs would be lost from its gaming business this year, Sony has announced 900 layoffs, and many other AAA publishers have suffered cuts of their own.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Please go away I live in pet sim indie Bobo Bay now

Over the past few weeks, my review schedule has involved kicking dudes, shooting dudes, war, eldritch busses, and diseased rats. I did not know how utterly burnt out I was on violence and misery until I held one of pet simulation Bobo Bay’s sentient blob critters in my arms and lavished snacks upon it. When I close my eyes, I can still hear Conscript’s shells falling in the distance. But here and now, there are only Bobos, the races they take part in, and the idyllic bay in which they reside.

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Ex Chibi-Robo Devs Announce Spiritual Successor ‘koROBO’

Excitement activated.

Developer Tiny Wonder Studio has announced koROBO, a spiritual successor of sorts to the cult classic Chibi-Robo! series with ex-developers from Skip Ltd. working on the project.

The game follows koRobo, a small robot alongside his 10-year-old owner, Tom, set within the ‘urban jungle’ of New York City. When Tom receives koROBO as a birthday gift, he’s completely unaware of what the little robot is capable of.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

The Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection Will Be At EVO 2024

The fight gets underway this weekend.

This weekend is EVO 2024 and while the full roster of games has already been revealed, it seems there’ll be some other surprises…

Capcom’s official Marvel vs. Capcom social media account has announced it will be hosting a special “casual community livestream” which will showcase the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics from the show floor on 19th July. You’ll be able to see it in action on Capcom USA’s Twitch channel:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Outsmart Your Opponents on the Way to Legendary Loot in Fantasy Extraction RPG Dungeonborne

After multiple successful playtests and becoming the Most Played Game at February’s Steam Next Fest, extraction RPG Dungeonborne is out now for Early Access on PC, available to all players looking for a punishing but rewarding RPG.

Dungeonborne is a first-person dungeon crawler in which players band together with up to two friends or play solo to seek treasure and glory among the ruins of a gritty, gothic setting that is overrun by monsters and other adventurers. Blending extraction gameplay with iconic fantasy class design, Dungeonborne offers strategic gameplay full of powerful loot and high stakes combat as you rush to extract before a blade finds your back.

Eight Playable Classes, Eight Distinct Ways to Play

Dungeonborne draws on traditional RPG classes, giving you a chance to embrace your role as a Fighter, Priest, Rogue, Druid, or Pyromancer while also offering more unique choices like Swordmaster, Cryomancer, or Death Knight.

Thanks to the first-person point of view, combat feels visceral and every spell or weapon swing has weight behind it. Each of Dungeonborne’s classes brings something unique to the table, too — while Death Knights are masters of manipulation, capable of pulling enemies toward them and draining their life force, Druids can attack from any range and shapeshift into animal form to rip and tear.

Caster classes dispense destruction from afar. You can wield fire as the Pyromancer and scorch and burn all who oppose you, or encase your foes in ice and slow their advance as the Cryomancer. For players looking to take on more of a support role, the Priest will fit like a glove ⁠– heal your teammates and support them from afar, bolstering their defence and keeping them alive.

Protect your allies from the frontline as a Fighter, capable of holding the line against your foes while your allied Rogue sneaks behind enemy lines to unleash devastating critical strikes. Defend as a Swordmaster and keep your enemies’ attention on you as you conjure powerful psionic blades capable of sowing quick death among the unsuspecting.

With over 10 unique weapon pairings, every duel in Dungeonborne becomes a dance of death that brings a fluid, back-and-forth action combat experience. Parries, blocks, and ripostes dictate the flow of battle, and it’s split-second, in-the-moment decision making that determines the winner.

Strategize, Prepare, and Execute — You’ll Have to Fight Tooth and Nail to Claim What Is Yours

While simply jumping in and swinging your weapon around might work at first, you will quickly realise that spamming light attacks and pressing the loot button won’t be enough. Dungeonborne rewards and encourages tactical planning and strategy — terrain, trap locations, enemy positions, and time are all factors that you need to take into account if you wish to triumph over the opposing team that’s looking to claim your treasure as their own. Utilise terrain verticality to set up an ambush or lure enemies into the traps you find for easy kills.

As you slay your opponents and plunder their riches, you will find equipment with over 80 item affixes that synergize with your playstyle or completely change the way you play. If you don’t need an item or simply have a better one, you can put it up for sale at the in-game auction house, then hunt for dozens of legendary and unique items designed to help you sculpt the ultimate build. In Dungeonborne, the thrill of finding rare loot is accessible to all, not just the most dedicated players.

You Can Play Dungeonborne Right Now, and Devs are Listening to Your Feedback

Throughout Dungeonborne’s journey, Mithril Interactive has been working to address player feedback and tweak gameplay so that it feels rewarding, satisfying and fair. Based on community feedback, the team has implemented a range of balancing and quality-of-life updates, and introduced new server regions. Mithril is also planning to introduce new active and passive skills for each individual class to expand gameplay options.

Dungeonborne is now available to download for free in Early Access on Steam. A ‘Mithril Edition’ DLC upgrade is available for players who want to support the game and development team for 9.99USD/7.99GBP (subject to regional pricing) that will grant players two cosmetic items to carry on their adventures as well as Bandages, Healing Potions and Throwable Flasks. If you’re keen on joining the community and finding like-minded players to group up with, you can check out the game’s official Discord channel, and follow their X (Twitter) page for new updates as the team continues developing the game during Early Access.

AI Limit Hands-On Preview: Can A Wicked Cool Art Style Set This Soulslike Apart?

The thing that immediately stands out when roaming derelict buildings and creepy aqueducts in AI Limit is just how stylish and crisp everything looks, and as it turns out, that killer presentation goes quite a long way. Sure, it’s yet another soulslike with the same old bonfire checkpointing system, punishing combat encounters, and super gross bosses that really need to take a chill pill, but I’ve gotta admit, the anime-inspired, sleek and cartoonish art style really won me over, and I could see this becoming my next sweaty fascination – y’know, maybe as a nice chaser in between Shadow of the Erdtree sessions.

Like countless genre peers, AI Limit makes no apologies about its inspiration; this is a soulslike through and through. You’ll gather materials from fallen enemies to spend on stat upgrades, find weapons and equipment in every monster-filled corridor to customize your fighting style and abilities, and, of course, die a whole heck of a lot when some tanky boss with serious anger management issues uses your face as a doormat. Classic soulslike stuff!

And at least in the hour-long demo I played, AI Limit seems content to follow that blueprint to a tee, offering pretty much no novel tweaks on the formula or reasons to play this one over the piles of games like it. With one notable exception, that is: the endlessly impressive and hard to look away from art style.

That might not sound like enough of a differentiator to keep one’s interest, and yet I found it to be the primary reason I was so eager to claw my way through each deadly zone to see what awesome-looking thing awaited me in the next area. In the same way the Persona series follows the traditional JRPG playbook very closely but sets itself apart by oozing style and unrivaled swagger, AI Limit really did stand out to me in many of those same ways. Whether it was the sleek and interesting UI or combat animations that made me feel like I was the main character in an action-packed anime as I cut down the enemy with ease, I found myself nodding my head in appreciation even when every other aspect was fairly by the numbers.

I’m definitely intrigued by its fantastic presentation enough to add it to my list of soulslikes I’m excited to play.

I will say though, it’s a bit surprising that, despite all the style AI Limit has going for it, the protagonist, at least in the demo, is woefully inexpressive. With no dialogue and a deadpan look on her face at all times, there’s not much beyond some neat looking outfits and sweet combat animations for me to go on. She doesn’t even make any kind of noise when she takes damage or dies, which just feels odd. I mean, I get that this lady’s supposed to be a robot, but why even give her a human appearance if you aren’t going to give her any humanity? Here’s hoping these details merely didn’t make it into this early build of the game.

The demo confined me to an early area that seemed pretty clearly intended as an introductory tutorial zone, but even so I managed to find some new weapons to try out and outfits to try on, and fooled around with one of AI Limit’s precious few unique mechanics, the Sync Rate meter, which is charged up by attacking things and loses power when you take hits or use special abilities that consume it, like firing an electric railgun I found lying around. Most importantly, the Sync Rate meter also determines how much damage your weapons do, rewarding you for keeping the meter full, and punishing you for depleting it, which made for a pretty interesting tradeoff.

AI Limit might not be immediately groundbreaking at first blush, but I’m definitely intrigued by its fantastic presentation enough to add it to my list of soulslikes I’m excited to play. With a release date planned for later this year, it seems I won’t have to wait too much longer.

EA Releases College Football 25 Team Builder Along With Full Details on How to Get Custom Teams in Your Game

With College Football 25 set for wide release on Friday, EA has released its promised Team Builder feature that will allow players to create their own custom teams.

EA detailed the new feature in a lengthy post, including how it incorporates alternates, stadiums, and more. The Team Builder tools are accessible via browser, with custom teams available to be downloaded in-game. If you’re not feeling particularly creative, you can also download creations made by your friends or other creators.

Custom teams are compatible with College Football 25’s Dynasty Mode, meaning you can create your own school and build them into a collegiate superpower like Michigan or Georgia. Up to 16 custom teams can be imported per dynasty, where they will replace an existing team of the commissioner’s choice.

Team Builder was a heavily-requested feature by fans, who remembered it fondly from previous iterations of the NCAA franchise. EA responded by going as far as to hire one of its original architects, senior engineer Chris Markuck, who returned to help lead development on College Football 25’s version of Team Builder.

Elsewhere, College Football 25 is off to a very strong start, ranking at #3 for US daily active users on Xbox and #4 on PS5. EA servers were slammed by as many as 700,000 fans, with more to come once it leaves early access. Fan feedback has been mostly positive, though our current review-in-progress is currently a bit more mixed on the experience.

“Right now, EA College Football 25 feels like a college quarterback who left school for the NFL too soon, got drafted way higher than he should have because a team was desperate, started under intense scrutiny from a fanbase and an owner who are tired of losing all the time, and then flamed out of the league because he just wasn’t ready for prime time,” we wrote.

Stay tuned for our full review, and make sure to check our complete guide to College Football 25.

Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.