Tag: xbox series s

Cyberpunk 2077 to Be Available for Free as Part of Limited Trial on Current-Gen Consoles This Weekend

Cyberpunk 2077 will be available to play at no cost as part of a limited trial over the coming weekend, according to developer CD Projekt Red. The popular game will be free to play for a few hours on current generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony, but not for PC gamers. You will have access to the base Cyberpunk 2077 game — which will need to be downloaded in its entirety in order to access the trial. The Phantom Liberty expansion won’t be part of the trial this weekend.

According to details on the Cyberpunk 2077 website, the free trial will begin on March 28 at 4pm CET (8pm IST) and end on April 1 at 8:59AM CEST (12:29pm IST). You will be able to play the game on current-gen consoles — PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S — for five hours, during the trial period. CDPR says trial doesn’t include PC gamers due to “technical reasons”.

During the trial period, you can only play Cyberpunk within the five-hour period, after which you can purchase the game to continue playing. According to the developer, your save progress will carry forward to the full game, if you choose to buy Cyberpunk 2077 after the trial ends.

Five hours of gameplay is considerably short for a free trial, especially considering that the game will include several cutscenes with dialogues will take up a considerable amount of time of the limited time trial. If you already own the base game, you won’t be able to try the Phantom Liberty expansion as it isn’t part of the trial.

In order to try Cyberpunk 2077 as part of the upcoming trial, you’ll need to download the entire game — that’s a 99.3GB download on the PlayStation 5 and around 103GB on Microsoft’s current-gen consoles. You won’t need a subscription (like Game Pass) in order to play the title during the trial, and more than one player can try the game on one console, as long as they have a separate user account. 

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Next-Gen Xbox Will Be the ‘Largest Technical Leap’ for a New Console Generation, Says Microsoft

Microsoft shared new details about its plans for Xbox hardware, teasing the next generation of Xbox consoles and providing updates about its gaming business in a special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast Thursday. While the company confirmed that four Xbox-exclusive games would launch on PS5 and Nintendo Switch, it reiterated its commitment to developing Xbox hardware and exclusives titles on the platform. In the podcast, Xbox president Sarah Bond said that Microsoft was focussed on delivering the “largest technical leap” for a new console generation for the next Xbox.

Bond also confirmed that fans could expect new Xbox hardware later this year in the holiday season — likely to be the rumoured mid-generation refresh of the Xbox Series S/X consoles. “There’s some exciting stuff coming out in hardware that we’re going to share this holiday. And we’re also invested in the next generation roadmap,” the Xbox president said. “And what we’re really focussed on there is delivering the largest technical leap you will have seen in a hardware generation,” she added.

Xbox currently offers the Xbox Series X, its flagship current-generation console, along with the lower-end, digital-only Xbox Series S.

Back in September last year, leaked court documents from the Federal Trade Commission antitrust trial over Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard had revealed that the company was planning a mid-gen refresh for its Xbox Series X and Series S consoles sometime in 2024. The documents also included concept images of upcoming Xbox hardware, along with the platform’s roadmap for future releases.

According to the leaked concept images, Microsoft’s mid-gen refresh of the Xbox Series X is codenamed ‘Brooklin,’ an all-digital console that boasts the same peformance and features as the original one, except for the optical disc drive. The console appears to have a cylindrical design and an upgraded 2TB storage and will likely maintain the Series X’s pricing — $499, or Rs. 54,990. The leaked documents had claimed that ‘Brooklin’ would release sometime in October 2024. In addition to the console, Xbox also plans to launch an upgraded controller with gyro, haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, just like PlayStation’s DualSense controller.

In the podcast, where Bond was joined by Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer and Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty, the Xbox president did not disclose a launch window for the next generation of Xbox consoles, but Microsoft expects the next-gen Xbox and PS6 to launch in 2028, as also revealed by court documents from the FTC trial in June last year. “This term would, in any case, go beyond the expected starting period of the next generation of consoles (in 2028),” the company had said in the documents. The current generation of consoles — Xbox Series S/X and PS5 — was launched in 2020.

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Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Teases ‘Hundreds’ of Builds, Post-Launch Content

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is merely weeks away from launch and ahead of that, Rocksteady has teased ‘hundreds’ of build possibilities for its lead characters. The details come from the game’s official Discord server, where director Axel Rydby explained that the endgame portion was based around complete Mastery, forcing players to switch out builds based on rising difficulty. It’s too early to tell whether one could easily plough through fights with an overpowered build they found in the early game, but the developer has promised eight loadout slots for easy access to gear — all of which trigger unique status effects and can be upgraded.

“We really want you to feel like you can make each character your own, and build it to suit your playstyle,” Rydby said. “But if you take the leap and really play into the gear, you can find truly crazy powerful combinations.” Rocksteady is using the term ‘Afflictions’ to refer to status effects, created by popular DC Comics character Poison Ivy, whose revival was teased via an easter egg in Batman: Arkham Knight. Players will be able to imbue Deep Freeze onto their weapons to discharge icy damage to oncoming hordes, use the Diablo Blaze to burn them to smithereens, or use something called Venom Frenzy to lay out chaos, which I’m guessing is based on Bane’s abilities. Then there’s post-launch content, which brings in game-breaking combinations. Ivy herself is a ‘precocious toddler’ now, bearing genetically engineered toxic powers, but barely any memory of Task Force X. She died at the hands of Scarecrow’s toxins in the previous game and was reborn as a new flower.

Game Director Axel Rydby offers in-depth details about the build system
Photo Credit: Screenshot

Each character — Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark, and Captain Boomerang — comes with their separate Talent Tree, with unique skills tailored to their personality. Harley’s tree is composed of acrobatic moves for better traversal across Metropolis and explosion-based weaponry, whereas Deadshot’s is filled with critical damage skills that help you shoot the most precise and deadly bullets. Meanwhile, King Shark is melee-based, while the Australian loudmouth Captain Boomerang can blink around the map to get in and out of enemy range quickly. Regardless of what champion you pick, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League functions like a generic looter-shooter where the larger gameplay revolves around firearms. And while Rocksteady refrains from calling it a live-service game, all the elements are still there — a battle pass full of cosmetics, heavy grinding, and plans for progressive post-launch content.

This shift from making beloved single-player Batman games to a Games as a Service approach could have to do with parent company Warner Bros. trying to turn its biggest franchises into long-term products by encouraging buyers to play the same game for months on end. It’s an attitude that has been received poorly by gamers, and rightfully so. Elsewhere, a recent Bloomberg report confirmed that despite rumours of a failed Superman game pitch, Rocksteady was never making one. In fact, following 2015’s Batman: Arkham Knight, the studio worked on the Batman VR game and an unreported multiplayer game based on an original franchise. Currently, it’s unclear whether that title is still under production.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League launches February 2 across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X.

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Xbox Developer Direct to Showcase Indiana Jones Game, Avowed, Hellblade 2, More

Microsoft is returning with an Xbox Developer Direct next week, promising updates on the much anticipated Indiana Jones game, Obsidian’s upcoming fantasy RPG Awoved, and more. The presentation is scheduled to go live next Thursday, January 18 at 1:30am IST in India/ 12pm PT in the US, and will be available to watch on Xbox’s official YouTube and Twitch channels. True to the name, the event will include both gameplay footage and developer interviews to best illustrate upcoming titles in the ecosystem, a lot of which will be included with Xbox Game Pass. However, it is worth noting that despite the recently completed acquisition, don’t expect any Activision Blizzard games to be shown during the broadcast.

The standout here is MachineGuns’ Indiana Jones game, which was confirmed to be a PC and Xbox exclusive from the Microsoft vs US FTC trial in June. Announced just months after the company acquired ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion (about Rs. 62,264 crore), Indian Jones’ first gameplay trailer will likely put us in the shoes of the famous archaeologist with the whip and give out more details about the general premise of the title. This segment will run a little over 10 minutes. Meanwhile, developer Ninja Theory will take us on yet another behind-the-scenes trip into the world of Hellblade 2, charting a new path in Senua’s tale as she ventures into Viking Iceland to save innocents from a tyrannical rule. Hopefully, we get a solid release date this time — the team has been teasing its usage of Unreal Engine 5 for years now and understandably, players are getting impatient.

Obsidian is at the top of its league when it comes to writing branching RPGs, and fans are expecting to be stunned when they’re transported back to the fictional world of Eora, first introduced in the Pillars of Eternity series. In Avowed, Obsidian’s next RPG, you assume the role of a messenger tasked with investigating rumours of a spreading plague in the vibrant Living Lands, flush with intriguing characters, breathing environments, and absurd wildlife. Master spells, wield swords imbued with elemental magic, and make quick work of enemies through unorthodox methods. Given how much Baldur’s Gate 3 valued player agency and impressed gamers globally, Avowed has got some big shoes to fill. Then Oxide Games will show off some new Ara: History Untold gameplay, alongside ‘details about the inspiration, key features, and the road ahead.’

Shortly after the Xbox Developer Direct event, ZeniMax Online Studios has planned a broadcast for The Elder Scrolls Online, revealing the next big chapter that brings in a whole new zone, plot threads, and quality-of-life features. The show goes live at 2:30am IST in India/ 1pm PT in the US on the same Xbox channel. Elsewhere, there are rumours of Sea of Thieves coming to PlayStation and the Nintendo Switch systems — if true, we could learn more about it during the digital event.

The Xbox Developer Direct is scheduled for January 18 at 1:30am IST in India/ 12pm PT in the US.

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Hogwarts Legacy Sold Over 22 Million Copies in 2023, WB Claims; More Harry Potter Games in Development

Hogwarts Legacy, the RPG set within the Potterverse, sold over 22 million copies in 2023. Speaking to Variety, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment president David Haddad claimed that it was the best-selling game of the said year and that about 2 million of those sales were made during the Christmas holiday season, presumably owing to heavy discounts. Despite his statement, several developers in the industry, including Larian Studios (Baldur’s Gate 3) and Activision (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3) have yet to reveal the latest sales numbers; so, take the claims with a grain of salt.

“It brought Harry Potter to life in a new way for gamers where they could be themselves in this world, in this story,” Haddad said in the interview. “And that’s what the team at Avalanche set out to do when they were developing the game and I think that’s really why it resonated so well and remains the best-selling game of the year in the entire industry worldwide.” Going forward, WB will continue betting on well-established franchises and using its namesake to generate better sales. In fact, CEO David Zaslav touched upon this in November, with plans to heavily veer into a live service model that would transform the company’s biggest names into long-term products, dropping new content regularly and deep monetisation. This also includes free-to-play mobile games and MultiVersus, the fighting game featuring characters from WB properties, which is expected to undergo a full launch this year.

Launched in February 2023, Hogwarts Legacy got off to a great start, with players worldwide discovering secrets, while developer Avalanche enjoyed staggering sales, partly bolstered by the drama revolving around the boycott of author J.K. Rowling. Although the interest gradually decreased in the following months — the game failed to earn a single nomination at The Game Awards 2023 — WB still seems hellbent on expanding its Harry Potter portfolio with its Quidditch Champions game, which underwent a closed playtest last year. The magical sport was not included in Hogwarts Legacy, so it would be interesting to see how it plays out as a multiplayer entry. Could the company try to make it a live service affair? Only time will tell. Regardless, there are plans for more Harry Potter spin-off games.

So far, wizards around the world have brewed 819 million potions, harvested 1.3 billion magical plants, bested 4.9 billion dark wizards in combat, and rescued 593 million fantastical beasts in Hogwarts Legacy. As per Haddad, another key area of success was NetherRealm Studios’ latest fighting game Mortal Kombat 1, which he alluded to have garnered more players than any other entry in the fighter franchise in its ‘30-plus year history.’ Selling 3 million copies as of November, the fighting game featured some aggressive microtransactions — something gamers have always shown a dislike for. WB Games’ upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League also falls under the live service umbrella, causing longtime fans of developer Rocksteady to be sceptical of it.

Hogwarts Legacy is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and Nintendo Switch.

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GTA VI Hacker Gets Indefinite Hospital Sentence: Report

The hacker responsible for leaking in-development videos of Grand Theft Auto VI last year has been reportedly confined to a secure hospital — for an indefinite period. As per BBC News, an 18-year-old individual named Arion Kurtaj, who was part of the notorious cybercrime group Lapsus$, was deemed unfit to stand trial due to acute autism diagnosis. So, based on a mental assessment, the jury was asked to decide whether the heinous act was committed with criminal intent — resulting in the claim that the individual was ‘highly motivated’ to return to crime. As such, he has been sentenced to life in hospital indefinitely until he’s deemed as no longer dangerous to people.

Kurtaj was arrested back in September 2022 on suspicion of the Rockstar Games hack, during which he pled not guilty and faced trial for the crimes his cybercrime group committed against Nvidia and Uber. “The jury was told that while he was on bail for hacking Nvidia and BT/EE and in police protection at a Travelodge hotel, he continued hacking and carried out his most infamous hack,” the report states. The hack was seemingly carried out in a hotel room, which he performed using an Amazon Firestick, a television, and a smartphone. (His laptop was allegedly confiscated from a previous breach attack.) Having gained access to the company’s Slack group, he boldly threatened to release the GTA 6 source code within the next 24 hours unless Rockstar negotiated with him over the Telegram messaging app.

While not explicitly mentioned, Rockstar might have declined his requests, leading to Kurtaj releasing over 90 clips from the highly anticipated video game into the wilds, in what could be called one of the biggest leaks in gaming history. Earlier this month, the company dropped the first trailer for GTA VI, showing off some in-engine footage and a glimpse at our two leads, Lucia and Jason. That video garnered 62 million views within just 13 hours of release, causing Kurtaj’s defence team to argue that the leaks barely put a dent in the game’s success and that no serious harm was caused. However, Rockstar argued that the leak spoiled thousands of hours put into development and affected the team morale, causing $5 million worth of damage for recovery. In addition to Kurtaj, another unnamed 17-year-old male was convicted of partaking in the cyberattack on Nvidia and stealing cryptocurrency.

More recently, another AAA game studio Insomniac Games fell victim to a ransomware attack, with the responsible cybercrime group releasing 1.67TB of confidential data into the wild, including a fully functioning build of the upcoming Wolverine game, emails between employees and their personal information, presentations on future release slate, sales figures, and more. Game developers around the world have united to shower love and support to the affected and denounced hacks which could endanger people’s lives.

Grand Theft Auto 6 will launch on the current-gen PS5 and Xbox Series S/X sometime in 2025.

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Call of Duty: MW 3, Warzone Season 1 Is Out Now: New Maps, Drivable Trains, Zombies Story Mission, More

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and its Warzone component kicked off its Season 1 multiplayer today, marking its first major update since launch. The former gets three new maps as part of its 24/7 playlist, in addition to a 6v6 arena set in Rio, which will be available later in the season. As usual, there are some rewards for racking up kills without dying, granting players an EMP upon getting a 13 killstreak and the ability to summon mosquito swarms as cover on a 15 killstreak. There’s also a new perk called the Assassin Vest, which makes players immune to UAV scans and doesn’t pop skulls on the minimap upon performing an execution.

The three new maps take you to a coastal town in ‘Greece’, a blood-drenched close-quarters slaughterhouse called ‘Meat’, and a ‘Training Facility’ set in a warehouse that enables 2v2 gunfights. Building on that, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III brings back two fan-favourite modes — the All or Nothing equips players with throwing knives and an empty pistol, taking them with slowly upgrading armaments via killstreaks and perk activations. Then there’s the standard round-based Gunfight with small teams. Ranked Play is expected to drop later in Season 1, alongside promotional skins for the upcoming Denis Villeneuve movie Dune: Part 2 — Paul Atredis and Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen — and an in-game event titled ‘Trial of Power.’ There are no specifics of the event yet, but we can assume that the timing of the collaboration had to do with the film’s delay from November to March 2024 due to the Hollywood labour strikes. Still, a weird game to pick for promoting Dune 2.

Over on Warzone, Call of Duty’s long-running battle-royale mode, the brand-new Urzikstan map is now live, throwing you onto a greyish metropolis punctuated by lavish resorts, power mills, a military base, a luxurious mansion and more. Activision describes it as a point where the Middle East meets Europe — or to put it more bluntly in the game’s universe, it’s located on the ‘easter border of the Black Sea and bordering Al Mazrah.’ As previously reported, the map adds a few unique mechanics for traversal such as horizontal ziplines and a drivable train, whose speed can be controlled by players using dedicated levers. Of course, one could also flip the brakes by heading to the backside. With such major changes comes a new 1v1 Gulag called ‘Silo,’ which is entirely symmetrical but will be varied based on luck.

Season 1 also brings a new story mission to the Zombies mode, plopping a ‘massive gateway’ in the Exclusion Zone for players to investigate. Additionally, there’s a new battle pass, promising new weapon unlocks such as the XRX Stalker, RAM-7, and Stormender, which can be added to your loadout. The Call of Duty roadmap also reveals plans for Christmas-themed events and game modes, a skin for A-Train from the Amazon Prime Video series The Boys, and more — you can check out the complete patch notes on the official website.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone Season 1 is now live on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X.

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Everything You Need to Know About The Game Awards 2023: When and How to Watch in India, Nominees, and More

The Game Awards is back for its 2023 edition, signalling that time of the year when the industry and fans gather together to celebrate the best in video games. Marking the 10th iteration of the Geoff Keighley-hosted show, the annual event is held in high regard by developers worldwide, who will be competing in 31 categories that acknowledge games across genres. As usual, the ceremony will be spruced up by big announcements and trailers for upcoming titles, backed by a dedicated musical orchestra conducted by returning composer Lorne Balfe. There haven’t been as many leaks this year, so anticipation is high as gamers keep their fingers crossed hoping for the biggest reveals.

Given how the trailers and awards are spaced out, host Keighley once again expects The Game Awards to run for around three hours, albeit this year, Valve isn’t giving out free Steam Decks every minute to online viewers. Instead, the company is doing a sweepstake to hand out 100 Steam Deck OLEDs (1TB models) to the lucky few — residing in North America, Europe, and select Asian regions — who can all enter once the show goes live. There aren’t any big changes to the nominations this year, but Keighley has confirmed that the creators are moving away from using the ‘World Premiere’ card at the start of their announcements to treat every trailer or first look as ‘great game content.’

Security is also getting tightened, as we’ve seen two instances of stage crashers walking in to interrupt good moments and making absurd comments — the first one occurred during The Game Awards 2022 when Elden Ring lifted the trophy for Game of the Year, while the other occurred at Summer Game Fest, earlier this year. Understandably, Keighley hasn’t gone into the specifics of the beefed-up measures.

The Game Awards 2023: Date and time

The Game Awards 2023 kicks off on Thursday, December 7 at 4:30pm PT/ 7:30pm ET, just like last time. For India, this translates to early morning Friday, December 8 at 6am IST with plans to end at 9:30am — not the most comfortable time to catch up on the biggest gaming event of the year. The first thirty minutes of that runtime will be dedicated to a pre-show, hosted by Sydnee Goodman, serving as a way for smaller developers to showcase their games and content creators to talk about what they’re expecting from the show.

So if you’re only planning to watch the main show, tune in at 5pm PT/ 8pm ET in the US and 6:30am in India.

The Game Awards 2023: How to watch?

The ceremony will be held live from the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles with an in-person audience, but as always, there’s a simultaneous livestream planned. You can watch The Game Awards 2023 for free on its official Twitch and YouTube channels, in addition to major platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Facebook Live, Steam, TikTok Live, and Instagram Live. Of course, one could also watch it through other gaming livestreamers’ channels, who will have registered to co-stream the event and react to it. Viewers in India can also stream the show live on Disney+ Hotstar, MX Player, Voot, JioTV, and Loco, and can tune into YouTube Gaming for a Hindi-language feed.

Or you can just watch the embedded stream below:

In case you happen to miss The Game Awards live, a VOD will be published soon after the event ends and there are always 4K uploads of the trailers and biggest moments, available individually on its official YouTube channel.

What to expect from The Game Awards 2023?

One of the biggest reasons players tune into The Game Awards is to learn about any upcoming games and have their unrealistically high expectations checked. Larian Studios will finally unveil when Baldur’s Gate 3 will be coming to Xbox, which is still on track for release this month, as promised. The studio was initially facing trouble with incorporating split-screen co-op on the Xbox Series S due to its technical limitations, so it will be interesting to know whether the team decided to ditch it or maintain content parity. There’s also some exclusive Xbox reveals in store for us at The Game Awards, which many are hoping is a tease for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II news.

Meanwhile, SEGA has been sending letters to fighting game content creators around the world with the quote ‘New Era New Energy,’ promising some exciting stuff. Supermassive Games — best known for the choice-based horror titles like the Dark Pictures anthology — is collaborating with Behaviour Interactive to develop a single-player game based within the universe of Dead by Daylight. Staying with the horror theme, The Outlast Trials developer Red Barrels has planned an ‘important broadcast’ for us. Then, Epic Games prepares to show a trailer for Rocket Racing, a car racing game mode built within Fortnite, featuring all the exaggerated mechanics from Rocket League such as boosting and taking flight. The mode is expected to launch for free on December 8, but the publisher plans to show something at the awards show.

The Game Awards’ official Twitter account briefly teased a Hideo Kojima announcement using a side-eyes emoji, before getting deleted. This could very well be a trailer for Death Stranding 2, which was revealed at last year’s event via a cryptic teaser with returning leads Léa Seydoux and Norman Reedus. So yeah, its game director Hideo Kojima is also expected to make an appearance, having arrived in Los Angeles earlier this week. Fans also expect FromSoftware to drop a trailer and release date for the much-awaited Elden Ring DLC ‘Shadow of the Erdtree,’ announced last year, with hints pointing at a new explorable region and the presence of the Empyrian Miquella. While it was initially believed that the expansion would be out in early 2024, an interview from last week suggests that it’s ‘a little ways off’ but promises new battles and characters.

Reports claim Arkane Studios will showcase its next title at The Game Awards 2023, which is expected to be Dishonored 3 — details of which emerged from the Microsoft v US FTC court proceedings in September. We might also get another glimpse at Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the untitled Mass Effect game, Tekken 8, Hades 2, and more.

The Game Awards 2023 presenters

To honour the winners, Keighley loves mixing things up by inviting both game industry titans and Hollywood actors. Christopher Judge, who played Kratos in the God of War reboot games, is returning to the stage to present an award this year — presumably for Best Performance, given he was the winner last year. Other standout presenters include Anthony Mackie, whose show Twisted Metal is also competing in the Best Adaptation category; Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella; and famous DJ and EDM artist Zedd. Besides them, the lead cast of the Fallout series will be making an appearance at The Game Awards 2023 — specifically Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins, and Aaron Moten.

Alan Wake 2 fans are in for a treat as the Poets of the Fall band will be performing a musical piece live on stage, under its in-game alter ego Old Gods of Asgard. And as we all know, Keighley’s love for Muppets knows no bounds, so The Great Gonzo will also be around as a presenter.

The Game Awards 2023 nominees

As mentioned before, The Game Awards 2023 plays host to 31 categories, from which Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 are tied for eight nominations each, in addition to competing for the prestigious Game of the Year trophy. Other GOTY nominees include The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4 remake, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder — Keighley is strictly sticking to his six nominations rule, despite an extremely strong year for gaming. There are some strong contenders for Best Adaptation as well, with favourites being HBO’s The Last of Us and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

The nominee list also sparked some debate on what constitutes an ‘independent game’ when people online noticed that Dave the Diver, the pixelated roguelike about deepsea fishing and selling sushi, was nominated as ‘Best Independent Game.’ The thing is, despite its aesthetic, the game is developed by Mintrocket, which belongs to a massive South Korean publisher Nexon — making it technically not indie. Keighley addressed these concerns in a live Q&A stating that the word ‘indie’ could mean different to different people — “Does independent mean the budget of the game? Does independent mean where the source of financing was? Is it based on the team size? Is it the kind of independent spirit of a game, meaning kind of a smaller game that’s different?”, he said (via Kotaku), adding that the concern is justified.

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Cyberpunk 2077’s Final Major Update Brings Metro Service, Romantic Hangouts, Improved Bosses, More

Cyberpunk 2077 is getting the last major update before developer CD Projekt Red moves on to the next project. Dubbed ‘Update 2.1,’ the patch finally brings the long-requested metro system, the ability to hang out with romantic partners, radios, and a ton of quality-of-life changes. It drops alongside the Ultimate Edition on December 5 at 4:30pm IST in India/ 12pm CET in Europe. Bear in mind that this is a free downloadable update, so it won’t be included natively in the physical disc versions releasing on the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X. That said, the 2.0 Update released in September will be included across all versions, entirely overhauling the perk system and adding a range of tech augmentations, which weren’t present in the original 2020 version.

Once the update goes live, the protagonist V will be able to access the in-game metro service to travel between 19 destinations, punctuated across five railway lines. The public transit system can be accessed via a special card, and the players themselves can chill out on the seats and soak in the sights of Night City, amongst other NPC passengers busy staring at screens or napping. The feature was originally shown in the Cyberpunk 2077 cinematic trailer and three years later, becomes finally accessible after finishing the Konpeki Plaza sequence. Of course, one can always skip the travelling cutscene and just jump into the next location once the immersion starts getting repetitive. Your pocket will also be filled with a radio system, which lets you scroll through multiple frequencies and listen to the music you like while walking through the streets and in vehicles. The music will turn off during dialogue sequences, though.

Since its launch, Cyberpunk 2077 players have expressed their desire to just hang back and spend quality time with their in-game romantic partners. That’s now possible in Update 2.1, with V having the option to invite back people to ‘any of the apartments’ for an unlimited number of times, as long as the romance path has been completed successfully. Another thing that’s replayable is car races, which can be accessed by visiting red flag icons scattered across the map, to make big eddies. One must complete ‘The Beast in Me’ quest for this section to unlock, with CD Projekt Red claiming that the enemy racers’ AI has been made significantly smarter to make these experiences more thrilling and challenging. Adding to the immersion are sightseeing binoculars that let you observe various scenic vistas in the world of Cyberpunk.

Other major improvements include not-so-clunky bike combat, minor bug fixes, and better boss fights. It’s unclear what the developer means by that, though the patch notes detail that the ruthless Adam Smasher can now activate the Sandevistan perk, letting him blink around the map and get close to you before slashing down. A range of visual and lighting enhancements, weapon balance changes, new bikes to purchase, and vehicular tricks are all available in Update 2.1 — a complete list of which you can browse in the official blog post. Cyberpunk 2077 had a rocky launch in 2020, characterised by low framerates and bugs, forcing the developer to fix the game in the following years through numerous patches and hotfixes. It is in a far better state now, with the Phantom Liberty expansion earning it nominations in The Game Awards 2023.

Both Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition and its Update 2.1 release December 5 across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X.

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Grand Theft Auto 6 Map Leaks Are Reportedly From a Rockstar Employee’s Son

Just a day away from getting our first look at Grand Theft Auto 6, a leak has surfaced that claims to show footage from the upcoming game. As per GTABase.com on Twitter, TikTok account ‘azzarossi’ posted a video showing a quick panoramic view and scale of the alleged location GTA 6 is based in — a fictionalised version of Miami aka Vice City. The video also shows a Pißwasser billboard, an in-game beer brand that’s been ever-present in GTA games. While the account has since gone private, there is no way to verify whether the footage is real. The important landmarks, however, match with the massive data leak from last year, which exposed over 90 in-development clips into the wild.

The same TikTok user also posted a picture of himself alongside Aaron Garbut, head of development and co-studio head at Rockstar North, leading to speculation that the leaker could be the Rockstar Games employee’s son. While there’s still no evidence of the publisher taking down videos for copyright infringement, it’s kind of startling how the “my dad works at Rockstar/ Xbox/ PlayStation” meme turned out to be real for once. If true, the leaker has certainly got his father into big trouble at the studio for some online likes, despite having privated their account near-instantaneously. The last time the publisher dealt with leaks, an unnamed 17-year-old was reportedly arrested for hacking and being part of the group that claimed credit for the Uber leaks. Rockstar hasn’t released any statement regarding the leaks and now would also be a good time to block keywords on social media to avoid spoilers.

Meanwhile, the company is prepared to debut the first trailer for the next GTA game on Tuesday, November 5 at 7:30pm IST in India/ 9am ET in the US. While the internet is eagerly waiting for GTA 6, Rockstar has not revealed an official title for the game yet, so it could very well be a spin-off with a subtitle instead of being a numbered sequel. A countdown video is also now live on YouTube. There’s no word on a release window, but a May earnings report from Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two Interactive hints at a window within the 2025 fiscal year, which opens as early as April next year. Ambitions are quite high at the studio, which is said to be introducing its first playable Latina female protagonist and also increasing the number of enterable indoor locations for better immersion. There are reportedly two leads though, a crime couple that has been likened to the real-life Bonnie and Clyde, who went around robbing banks and stores during the Great Depression in America.

People online also tried matching the leaked clip with the real Miami City and found stark similarities between the two. Ahead of the GTA 6 trailer launch, Rockstar has altered its logo and got rid of its ‘Social Club’ branding, though its online multiplayer component still functions the same. Furthermore, the studio is launching its remastered Grand Theft Auto trilogy on Netflix on December 14, available to all subscribers and featuring graphical and mechanical upgrades.

Grand Theft Auto 6 will probably launch on the current-gen PS5 and Xbox Series S/X first, before heading to PC — as seen with previous Rockstar entries.

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