Auto Added by WPeMatico
The developers of multiplayer aerial combat sim War Thunder have apologised after a picture of the real-life Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, which killed seven crew members when it exploded just 73 seconds after launch in 1986, was used in artwork promoting the game’s recent Seek & Destroy update.
The end of EA’s decades-long FIFA deal in 2022 means there’s currently a FIFA-shaped hole in the world of video games that isn’t quite filled by EA’s not-FIFA replacement EA Sports FC 24 and is yet to measure up the efforts of whoever the footballing organisation gets to make the next officially licensed FIFA game. So, naturally, FIFA is looking to help plug that gap in the meantime by hosting a virtual World Cup in car-football game Rocket League.
Open-world zombie adventure Days Gone might not technically feature any zombies, but at least the discourse around a potential sequel is constantly reanimating. Via Xitter, the original game’s creative director John Garvin has encouraged fans to “never say never” about a Days Gone 2, while reminding us that a full outline for the game had already been completed prior to his departure from developers Bend Studio in 2020.
Even with the caveat of “I’m not holding my breath”, Garvin’s take is an altogether more hopeful one that that of fellow Bend alumni and Days Gone game director Jeff Ross, who in May tweeXed a collage of popular PlayStation characters – sans his own post-apocalyptic motorcycling hero, Deacon St. John. “A lot of people still ask me if there will ever be a Days Gone sequel, so I submit this poster as evidence it will never happen”, Ross wrote, along with an apparent pop at Sony Interactive execs (including Hermen Hulst, co-CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment) for never being “fans” of the game.
I have recently moved to an area that’s surrounded by forest, or at least, by swathes of greenery that feel like forests when you’re far enough inside them, even if they don’t meet whatever quantifiable definition is currently in vogue. My dreams are ablaze with scenes of sunlight percolating through shifting layers of beech and oak, with visions of dirt paths winding through bramble. Now, here comes Engraving to transform all those dreams into nightmares.
Among Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree‘s more fearsome bosses is the Dancing Lion, a festive prancing terror inspired by Chinese Lion dances. Looking at it, you might expect this costumed nuisance to be another grafted abomination, its layers of papier-mache, binbags and repurposed carpets hiding a rippling quilt of flesh and bone, perhaps a real lion that has been shaved and stitched to its theatrical double. The truth is more appalling still: it’s just two guys in a lion suit. They aren’t even sewn together mouth to backside, like in the Human Centipede. Way to bait-and-switch, From!
Despite an overwhelmingly strong reception with critics, Shadow Of The Erdtree is currently sitting at a ‘mixed’ review rating on Steam, with nay-sayers citing performance issues and overbearing enemy design. The Elden Ring DLC is currently metacritic’s highest rated expansion of all time at 95, beating out the The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s Blood And Wine’s 92. However, roughly a third of the 41,000 user reviews on Steam are negative.
Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week – our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! I do not have a completely true fact to share about books with you this week, because I just read a book telling me that sharing facts about books is actually destroying the online book facts industry. Check back next week, by which time I may have finished another book debunking these claims. This week, it’s the developer behind Sluggish Morss, Dujanah, and the upcoming Judero, Jack King-Spooner! Cheers Jack! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?
An eclectic collection for your pile of shame, although Jack joins this column’s pile of shame with all the other guests who’ve failed to name every book ever written. Will we somehow track down someone for next week who recognises this most secret of goals? The faithful shelf-heads among you may have noticed I’ve changed the fifth question, as is my want. Maybe I’ll change some other questions too, just to keep you guessing. Or maybe I won’t, but doesn’t the possibility I might fill you with a thrilling uncertainty about what the future might bring? Book for now!
PowerWash Simulator’s next paid crossover after Warhammer 40,000, Back to the Future and Spongebob Squarepants will sprinkle a little something in its tank of water. That something, of course, is 19th-century literature, as developers FuturLab let us wash our way through their take on the surreal world of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
After years of anticipation, Elden Ring’s first – and only – expansion Shadow of the Erdtree is finally out as of today. While there are plenty of intriguing secrets hiding in the new corner (it’s a big corner) of the Lands Between, Steam Deck players might stumble upon a not-so-welcome new discovery too, courtesy of a bug that can make your game unresponsive.
Ubisoft revealed a remastered Beyond Good & Evil 20th anniversary edition this week, out on 25th June, but that’s not the Beyond Good & Evil many are hungering for. Beyond Good & Evil 2 was announced back in 2008, around 16 years ago. I remember writing about that trailer of Pey’j the porcine mechanic eating a fly for a blog somewhere. “Fly-eating mechanics confirmed?” I probably scribbled, in the blessed innocence of youth.
