Category: Video Games

Borderlands 4 Teased By Gearbox Founder Randy Pitchford

We may or may not have just gotten confirmation that Borderlands 4 is on its way.

No seriously, you decide. In an interview with IGN to talk about the upcoming Borderlands movie, Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford dropped a major hint about a new project he considers to be Gearbox’s best game to date. He made sure to dance around the game’s title, but for context, I had just asked him his personal favorite entry from the Borderlands series.

“Look, we haven’t even announced anything of it,” Pitchford said. “Clearly, we’re working on something. And I know what we’re working on, and holy shit… It’s the greatest thing we’ve ever done. And I can’t wait, but it’s not time yet. It’s not time yet. There will be a time.”

As for when we’ll get more details on this mysterious new project, fans are speculating it will be sooner than you might think. According to ComicBook.com, Borderlands players on Reddit did some sleuthing to predict when they think the game will be unveiled.

The theory starts with a clip posted Feb. 6 from the official Borderlands account on Twitter/X. “This is how it all started,” the caption reads, accompanied by a video that recaps the entire first game. Fans were hopeful in the comments that the video could be setting the stage for a Borderlands 4 reveal.

Exactly one week later, the account did the same thing for Borderlands 2. On Feb. 13, a nearly three-minute recap of the series’ second installment was uploaded to Twitter, generating further suspicion from Borderlands players that a new game is en route. “Ok… there’s gotta be a reason they’re doing these now right,” one fan asked in the comments.

By that logic, one redditor suggested it’s possible the Borderlands account will continue to release recaps of the remaining games (The Pre-Sequel, Tales From the Borderlands, Borderlands 3, New Tales from the Borderlands) leading up to PAX East, an event where Borderlands 3 was announced in 2019.

All signs seem to be pointing towards a new Borderlands game, and it makes sense — why wouldn’t Gearbox want to ride the hype train of its upcoming film adaptation. Plus, this past November, we even spotted Borderlands 4 mentioned among a leaked list of games in development on a now-deleted LinkedIn post.

But for now, we’ll just have to hold tight for an official reveal. And if the fan theories are right, hopefully March 19 yields some answers.

Helldivers 2 patch fixes quickplay and crash bugs as Arrowhead work on AFK kick option and login rate limits

Last night I tried to host a Helldivers 2 co-op mission and the “ready up” button froze up. I spammed it in a panic while the randos in my voice channel fumed at the delay. Then I popped us out of the drop pods, attempted to quit the game in embarrassment, and the PC promptly crashed. Another blow for managed democracy!

I’m hoping that the ready up problem is one of the “various UI issues [that] may appear when the game interacts with servers” which Arrowhead are addressing in a future Helldivers 2 patch. Before that, there’s patch 1.000.10, which fixes PC quickplay match-making bugs, gets rid of a crash issue when displaying mission rewards, and tunes civilian extraction mission difficulty, amongst other things. It’s live now, and the full changelog is below.

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Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Suggests New Call of Duty Games Will Hit Game Pass Day One

Will this year’s Call of Duty launch day one on Game Pass? Xbox boss Phil Spencer has suggested it will.

Speaking to Game File, Spencer said Microsoft plans for all Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax (Bethesda, MachineGames, iD Software, etc), and Xbox Game Studios games to launch on Game Pass “day one”. That means the games launch straight into the Xbox subscription service the same day they go on general sale.

“Our intent is the full portfolio of games from ZeniMax, Activision Blizzard and XGS — Xbox Game Studios — will be on Game Pass, day one,” Spencer said.

Microsoft has already announced the upcoming launch of Blizzard’s Diablo 4 into Game Pass, and there is a clear intent to get the Call of Duty back catalog into the library. But the suggestion new Call of Duty games launch straight into Game Pass as well is a somewhat surprising one, given Activision’s resistance to the idea in the past.

Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick had stated he didn’t agree with “the idea of a multi-game subscription service as a business proposition.” Then, speaking to IGN last year, Spencer responded to the opposing ideologies to say: “Well, there’s a different person making the decisions.”

It’s easy to see why Spencer would want new Call of Duty games to launch day-one on Game Pass — given their popularity they would no-doubt boost subscriber numbers. However, triple-A publishers have expressed concern about the impact on game sales. Sony, for example, currently does not release its first-party games day-one into its PlayStation Plus subscriptions, preferring to add them later on. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick also remains unconvinced by Game Pass. Speaking during a financial call, Zelnick said of releasing big games day-and-date on a Microsoft’s subscription service: “I still don’t think it makes sense. And I believe that it’s now becoming obvious that it doesn’t make sense. It’s just a lost opportunity for the publisher. So, I wouldn’t want to speak for my friend, Phil [Spencer], but our views remain unchanged.”

This year’s Call of Duty game is expected to be another entry in the Black Ops series and set in the Gulf War. Developed primarily by Treyarch, Call of Duty Black Ops Gulf War reportedly touches on the global political fallout after the Cold War. Expect a launch in October or November and, based on Spencer’s comments, straight into Game Pass.

For now, Spencer said work is being done to get existing Activision Blizzard games on Game Pass. “We’re doing the back end work to make them come to PC and console simultaneously,” Spencer said.

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.

Pokémon Scarlet And Violet’s Next Mass Outbreak Features A Mystery Pokémon

One that you can’t normally find in Paldea.

Ahead of Pokémon Presents next week, The Pokémon Company has announced a brand new Mass Outbreak event for Pokémon Scarlet & Violet.

This one is a little bit different, with increased spawns of Voltorb and Foongus as well as a special mystery Pokémon. It’s not clear exactly what this mystery Pokémon is just yet, but it’s apparently one that normally can’t be caught in the Paldea region. A lot of trainers are convinced it’s a Hisuian Voltorb.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Splatoon 3 Version 7.0.0 Arrives This Week, Here Are The Full Patch Notes

Side Order DLC out this week.

Nintendo has announced it will be rolling out Version 7.0.0 of Splatoon 3 for Switch this week.

It will include changes to DLC as part of the Side Order launch, Season and Catalog changes, changes to gear, multiplayer adjustments and much more. There’s also a bunch of bug fixes. Here’s the full rundown, courtesy of Nintendo’s support page:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Happy 10th Anniversary: Xbox Insider Program

Hi there, Xbox Insiders!

It’s official! On this day, ten years ago, we announced the launch of the “Xbox Preview Program”. We would later re-brand to the “Xbox Insider Program”, which we have all come to know and love. Our larger, more in-depth retrospective is still to come later this month, but we just wanted to take a moment to give a warm, heartfelt thanks to everyone who has contributed to the program over the last decade.

From every single Xbox Insider who has submitted feedback, joined a preview, or even just opened the app, to the nearly one hundred different employees that have left their individual, indelible mark on the program, everyone’s continued investment throughout this time has created a unique opportunity for Xbox fans around the globe to directly impact the future of Xbox.

So, again, to everyone, our deepest gratitude for your time. Thank you so much for being a part of Xbox Insider Program. Here’s to (at least) ten more years!

The post Happy 10th Anniversary: Xbox Insider Program appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Review: Bandle Tale: A League Of Legends Story (Switch) – A Cute Crafting RPG That Needs Untangling

Legends never die.

Last month, Riot Games announced a substantial number of layoffs within the company, and one of the casualties was the Riot Forge publishing arm. Over the last few years, Riot Forge partnered with various indie developers to produce a diverse lineup of single-player games set in the world of Runeterra, and these games all proved to be pretty good while being completely different from each other. Presumably, whatever projects it had in the works for the rest of this year have all been cancelled, making the latest release—a cozy RPG called Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story—the last hurrah of Riot Forge. Bandle Tale offers a decent, enjoyable take on a Stardew Valley-esque life sim, and though it has its issues, it feels like a good send-off for one of Riot’s most interesting initiatives.

Bandle Tale is set in the mystical realm of Bandle City, which is linked to the expansive land of Runeterra via magical portals. You play the role of a humble yordle living with their grandpa in the quiet region of Yarnville, which is mostly disconnected from other yordle settlements. Events kick off when you sneak out with your best friend to attend a party, where you inadvertently cause an enormous magical incident with a nearby portal that destroys the entire portal network and throws the entirety of Bandle City into disarray. Luckily, your character has been training for the past century in a magical form of knitting, so they set out to repair the damage done to the portal network and explore the other yordle settlements that they never got to see.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Elden Ring DLC Gameplay Reveal Trailer Confirmed for Wednesday

Our first look at Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will arrive in the form of a trailer tomorrow morning, FromSoftware and Bandai Namco have announced.

The game’s official X/Twitter account revealed the news in a social media post, promising to deliver a first look at the long-awaited DLC at 7 a.m. PST / 10 a.m. EST. The developers have not said what exactly it’ll show, but the video’s description at least promises a three-minute trailer.

Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC was announced around one year ago, promising to add on to FromSoftware’s already gigantic action RPG world. The only official information we’ve received since then, however, is a look at some appropriately foreboding concept art. The Dark Souls developer revealed in November 2023 that development on the new content was “proceeding smoothly” while players continued to wait patiently. However, tomorrow’s trailer will provide our most substantial look at the new adventure yet.

Tomorrow is proving to be a busy day for gaming fans. Just before we take a peek at Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Nintendo will debut a new Direct focused on some of its partners and the games they hope to release in 2024. The FromSoftware DLC, meanwhile, is still without a release date, but let’s hope we hear a concrete schedule tomorrow.

Elden Ring was released on February 25, 2022, meaning its two-year anniversary is just on the horizon. In our 10/10 review, we said, “Elden Ring is a massive iteration on what FromSoftware began with the Souls series, bringing its relentlessly challenging combat to an incredible open world that gives us the freedom to choose our own path.”

For more on Elden Ring, be sure to read up on the project’s recently announced mobile spinoff. While FromSoftware finalizes its work on the DLC, there’s always the chance we have even more from this world to look forward to.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.