Eurogamer.net: June 19, 2020 at 04:24AM - Rockstar stops hackers spawning KKK in Red Dead Online

Following in the footsteps of GTA Online, Red Dead Online has faced problems with hackers for a good while now - and more recently, things took a severe turn for the worse. Community members noticed a marked increase in hackers spawning Ku Klux Klan NPCs, often accompanied by a barrage of racist slurs, and took to Twitter and Reddit to express their concerns.

As reported by Polygon, it seems Rockstar Games has finally found a way to stop hackers being able to spawn KKK into online sessions. Dataminer Tez2 found that the game now checks if you are online, detects if an event is trying to spawn peds with KKK models, and instantly deletes it. Rockstar later confirmed to Polygon that the cheat had been disabled.

KKK NPCs appear in Red Dead Redemption 2's story mode, but hackers were able to use mod menus in Red Dead Online to find the KKK models ("peds") and spawn them into the game world, something which is no longer possible.

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Eurogamer.net: June 19, 2020 at 04:08AM - Retailers are selling off loads of 3DS games from just £2

For most, the Nintendo 3DS has probably been relegated to the back of the cupboard now the Switch has taken the limelight. However, you may want to dig it out again now a couple of retailers are running a huge clearance sale on loads of 3DS games.

Both Amazon and Argos have a variety of 3DS games on offer, with prices starting at just £1.99. Naturally, at that end of the spectrum, we're dealing with some serious bargain bin stuff like Yo-Kai Watch. Still, for only a little more cash you can start getting games from the Professor Layton, Paper Mario and Legend of Zelda series for just £7.49.

There's even much-maligned spin-off Metroid Prime: Federation Force for £4. I'm half-tempted to get it just to have something Metroid-related in my life again after the deafening silence on Metroid Prime 4 over the last few months. Although, it might just be safer to play through the Metroid Prime trilogy once again on the Wii.

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Eurogamer.net: June 19, 2020 at 04:02AM - Disintegration review - a quirky but troubled sci-fi shooter

Back at last year's E3 - an event that now feels like a lifetime ago - I had a chat with V1 founder Marcus Lehto to pin down what Disintegration was all about. Due to the game's dystopian sci-fi setting and Lehto's background as the co-creator of Halo, I came away thinking Disintegration's narrative had the potential to explore some fascinating topics, including post-humanism and the threats to our world today.

In the end, Disintegration doesn't ever delve too far into these ideas: but what I didn't expect was a silly yet genuinely convincing shooter hidden beneath the surface.

Disintegration bills itself as a first-person shooter with real-time strategy elements, half campaign and half multiplayer, set in a future version of Earth ravaged by every bad thing under the sun. Climate change, pandemic, war - all things so alien to us here in 2020... The premise is that swathes of the Earth's population have chosen to "integrate" in order to survive the harsh conditions: a process of transplanting someone's brain into a robot body to preserve their consciousness. It was intended to be a temporary measure, but a nefarious group called the Rayonne decided integration was actually the future of humanity. The motives for which aren't really established at the start of the campaign, unfortunately, but at least you can tell they're bad guys from their glowing red eyes. As Romer Shoal - a celebrity who previously convinced people to integrate - you and your band of robot outlaws team up to take down the Rayonne using a combination of your Gravcycle (a weaponised hoverbike) and ground units, each of whom boast special abilities and can be commanded to attack specific enemies.

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Eurogamer.net: June 19, 2020 at 03:44AM - EA-published Rocket Arena arrives next month

EA has scooped up Rocket Arena for launch on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One next month.

Originally announced a year ago, this mash-up of Overwatch-style heroes and Quake-style rocket gameplay is a three-versus-three shooter from new developer Final Strike Games.

Combat is entirely centred on rockets, as the game's name suggests, while each hero has a unique special ability. New heroes will be added for free over time.

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Eurogamer.net: June 19, 2020 at 03:12AM - Here's over an hour of new Baldur's Gate 3 gameplay

Larian livestreamed over an hour of new Baldur's Gate 3 gameplay last night - and it looked great.

Larian boss Swen Vincke played the hotly-anticipated fantasy role-playing game live, showing off new narration, the tweaked user interface and player choice. During the presentation, the viewers could decide which path to take: venture into the underdark or kill the hobgoblin Dror Ragzlin. I won't spoil the result!

What I will spoil, however, are some of the improvements that have been made to the game during development this year. For example, the narrator that leads players through the game has changed to present tense/second person narration from past tense.

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Eurogamer.net: June 19, 2020 at 02:36AM - Cyberpunk 2077 PS4 will get a free upgrade for PlayStation 5

Cyberpunk 2077's PS4 version will be playable on PlayStation 5 as soon as the game launches, developer CD Projekt Red has said.

Anyone with a PS4 copy will be able to play that on PS5 and receive a free update to improve the game's visuals on Sony's next-gen machine.

The news, confirmed last night in an investor call, follows CD Projekt Red's announcement in February it would support Microsoft's Smart Delivery initiative for Xbox - meaning the free upgrade will work the same there for Xbox One copies on Xbox Series X.

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Eurogamer.net: June 19, 2020 at 02:03AM - Google Stadia timed-exclusive Crayta out in July

Stadia timed-exclusive Crayta comes out 1st July 2020, Google has announced.

This "First on Stadia" game is a bit like the streaming service's answer to PlayStation's Dreams. Crayta is a set of tools that lets users create games that can support up to 20 players.

The game launches with State Share Beta, an early version of the Stadia feature called State Share. Here, players hit a button to generate a link to share their in-game creation, then others use the link to start playing and collaborating. The video below shows how it works:

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Eurogamer.net: June 19, 2020 - The Double-A Team: The thrilling convenience of Torchlight

I spent a lot of last week zooming around in Disintegration, which is a fascinating and pretty lovely game. It's lovely because everything in it feels so good, and because - not an insult - there is a warming, comforting Double-A-ness to it in its sparsity and its obvious desire to get the most out of absolutely everything. And it's fascinating because... well.

Disintegration feels a bit like Halo 2 to me, or rather the Halo 2 that might have been. It takes the lovely tree-scattered setting of Halo, the flat metallic heft of the classic Spartan weaponry and the precision staging of the encounters, and it then throws in a big new idea: you scoot around and direct troops in a sort of blend of FPS and RTS. Halo 2's big idea was dual-wielding (and dual leads). Disintegration feels like the Halo 2 we might have gotten if everyone had been more able to explore new ideas - which, given Bungie's background, would also have been old ideas.

Disintegration is made by ex-Bungie people, and in this respect it sort of seems to parallel the work of the team at Runic Games. In Torchlight 2 - the numbers are about to get confusing - we got both another version of Diablo 2, which some of the core team had helped make, and also a glimpse of an alternate version of Diablo 3. Torchlight 2 felt like the Diablo 3 these veterans might have made, the same way that Disintegration reminds me of a mirror-world Halo 2.

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Eurogamer.net: June 18, 2020 at 05:30PM - Here's a very brief next-gen Dragon Age 4 tease

There wasn't much for BioWare fans in tonight's EA Play stream, save for the briefest of glimpses at some new Dragon Age locations running on next-gen consoles.

Featured in EA's quick showreel of next-gen projects, BioWare's snippet was quite clearly Dragon Age related.

One shot is of a gnarled tree in a snowy environment, its base surrounded by what look like offering jars.

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Eurogamer.net: June 18, 2020 at 04:52PM - 10 years later, EA has finally announced a new Skate

After a decade of waiting, EA finally has a proper new Skate game in production.

EA said very little about it during its not-E3 EA Access livestream, though it sounds the full experience - not a mobile game, or HD re-release.

It's a busy year for skateboarding games, with the genre set for a mini-revival. Alongside Skate, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2 is due to launch this September, while newcomer SkaterXL arrives next month.

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Eurogamer.net: June 18, 2020 at 04:44PM - Star Wars Squadrons can be played completely in VR

Set in the years after Return of the Jedi, Star Wars Squadrons puts you in the boots of both New Republic and Empire pilots, as you dogfight in space battles from within the cockpit of various famous ships.

As well as the X-Wing and TIE-Fighter, the game includes six other ships of different classes. The interceptor class is repped by the TIE Interceptor and A-Wing. Support ships include the TIE Reaper and U-Wing. Finally, bombing ships comprise the TIE Bomber and Y-Wing.

You'll begin in single-player mode playing as a pilot from both sides - getting to know your ships from the inside out. Cockpit sensors and screens act as your HUD, with readouts for things like power management and shields. You'll fight as part of a squad of diverse fighters from various races in a story which reflects the changing power of balance in the galaxy.

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Eurogamer.net: June 18, 2020 at 04:30PM - Lost in Random is the next game from the developer of Fe

Looking like a Tim Burton animation with a helping of Little Nightmares, Lost in Random is the next game from Fe studio Zoink Games.

It's being published under the EA Originals label in 2021.

The action is set in a dark fantasy world where a young girl is accompanied by a literal dice with arms and legs which acts as her companion.

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Eurogamer.net: June 18, 2020 at 10:55AM - Demon's Souls PS5: a remake worth waiting a generation for?

We've waited a long time for this - a whole console generation in fact - but a revamped rendition of Demon's Souls is finally coming, spearheading the line-up for Sony's next generational leap in gaming. This is indeed Bluepoint Games' mysterious project, first teased by the developer back in March 2018 on these very pages, and it's a big deal. First released as a PS3 platform exclusive back in 2009, From Software's Demon's Souls laid the template for the Soulsborne games to follow and based on the PlayStation 5 reveal we saw last week, we're in for a treat with its remake.

So what should we expect from the masters of the remaster? The game's debut was a teaser at best, with only minimal footage to look at along with a small selection of screenshots. However, what's clear is that even for a launch title, we should be seeing a satisfying workout for the new console architecture. Everything from its lighting, to model quality to volumetric effects are touched upon in the remake process. It points to a grand showcase of the PS5's capabilities, delivered in pristine, native 3840x2160 resolution - with a twist we'll touch on later. Published details on the new engine are sparse, but the PlayStation blog confirms some major technical details, stating that, "in addition to beautiful shadow effects and ray-tracing, players can choose between two graphics modes while playing: one focused on fidelity and one focused on frame-rate". Beyond that, it's down to us to take a closer look at the reveal asset, with a view to ascertaining Bluepoint's approach in modernising the game.

Looking at the reveal teaser, it opens with an eerie sequence of landscapes, with Bluepoint matching the pre-rendered CG sequence of the original game shot-for-shot. This is possibly another pre-rendered intro, though interestingly, the sepia tone of the PS3 classic is lost in favour of a more natural colour palette. It brings more richness, more vibrance, to the showing of the Dragon God boss. Later scenes show off other major enemies: the Storm King, the Framelurker and the Tower Knight, right up to more typical enemies like the Reaper and gargoyles - these are snippets of Bluepoint's new engine at work with what is almost certainly actual in-game capture. Given that each is a match for the original game in terms of frame composition - and even timing - to the PS3's boss intros, it's a fascinating glimpse into how in-engine rendering compares across the generations.

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Eurogamer.net: June 18, 2020 at 09:18AM - Blizzard bans 74,000 World of Warcraft Classic botters

Blizzard has banned 74,000 World of Warcraft Classic botters, but admitted it faces an uphill challenge in fending off cheaters.

WOW Classic has been beset by bots for months now, with players complaining to Blizzard that they're ruining the game and its virtual economy. There's a great article over at Wired that digs into WOW Classic's botting problem.

Now, Blizzard has taken the unusual step of detailing its battle against WOW Classic botters with a forum post that revealed during the last month in the Americas, Oceania and Europe regions, the company has closed or suspended over 74,000 WOW accounts that were found to be in violation of its End-User License Agreement.

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Eurogamer.net: June 18, 2020 at 09:15AM - Cyberpunk 2077 delayed again to November

Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed again and will now come to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on 19th November.

This marks the second delay for CD Projeckt's highly anticipated open-world cyber-thriller. It was initially due to arrive this April but saw its launch postponed to 17th September in order to give the developer the "precious months we need to make the game perfect".

In a new statement announcing the game's freshly revised release date of 19th November, CD Projekt wrote, "Those of you who are familiar with the way we make games know that we won't ship something which is not ready. 'Ready when it's done' is not just a phrase we say because it sounds right, it's something we live by, even when we know we'll take the heat for it.

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Eurogamer.net: June 18, 2020 at 07:54AM - Dirt 5 current-gen out early October 2020, next-gen to follow

Dirt 5 launches on PC via Steam, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 9th October 2020, Codemasters has announced.

The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions follow later, Codemasters said.

Codemasters released a new trailer showing all-encompassing video game voice actors Nolan North and Troy Baker discussing their roles on the game, which includes a story-based five-chapter career mode.

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Eurogamer.net: June 18, 2020 at 07:33AM - In Poland, This War of Mine will join school reading lists

The brilliant and haunting This War of Mine has become the first video game to be placed on the official school reading list in Poland.

This War of Mine is renowned for its unflinching look at the human cost of real-world conflict, and in particular the terrible experiences of Bosnian civilians during the Siege of Sarajevo.

Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki confirmed the game would join the country's list of recommended books for students studying sociology, ethics, philosophy and history, GamesIndustry.biz reported.

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Eurogamer.net: June 18, 2020 at 05:55AM - The Game of Thrones board game is getting a digital version

Remember Games of Thrones? Well, the popular board game version of the books which inspired the TV show is, in turn, being turned into a video game.

Game of Thrones: The Board Game launches for PC later this year and, according to Dicebreaker, looks set to offer a close reproduction of the tabletop experience.

Players control one of Westeros' many houses on their quest for the Iron Throne. You can make secret agreements with your friends. You can betray your friends. It sounds like the perfect family board game for Dominic Raab this Christmas.

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Eurogamer.net: June 18, 2020 at 03:35AM - Horizon Forbidden West launches 2021 on PlayStation 5

It doesn't come as a huge surprise, but PlayStation has now confirmed Horizon Forbidden West will be a 2021 game for PlayStation 5.

There's a deeper dive into the new lands featured in the sequel in this three-minute developer video, which mentions some of the new tribes and machines on offer.

The map is larger than the original, Guerrilla Games says, and will have "virtually" no loading thanks to the PS5's SSD.

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Eurogamer.net: June 18, 2020 at 02:48AM - Minecraft's big Nether Update arrives next week

The Nether Update, Minecraft's biggest addition in years, will finally arrive next Tuesday, 23rd June.

That date applies to the game's Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows 10, iOS and Android editions, as well as the classic Java version of the game on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Up until now, the Nether has been a fairly uninhabitable hell dimension - and one that hasn't changed a great deal since it was first introduced.

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