Redacted Review – Prison Break

You wouldn’t know just from looking at it–with its vivid, comic book-esque art style and irreverent punk-rock tone–but Redacted (officially styled as [REDACTED]) actually takes place in the same sci-fi universe as 2022’s The Callisto Protocol. While that was a third-person survival-horror game trying to capture the same magic that Dead Space bottled up over a decade and a half ago, Striking Distance Studios has taken a wildly different approach with this spin-off, repurposing various elements from its debut game to create an isometric roguelike dungeon crawler.

It’s a drastic shift for the young series, ditching the grisly melodrama and Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em combat of The Callisto Protocol by pivoting to referential humor and twin-stick shooting. It still feels i…

CoD- Modern Warfare 2 Leak Suggests Three Popular Characters Could Arrive In Season 3

Season 2 Reloaded went live in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 on March 15, and now data miners are already digging through the game files for hints of what’s to come in future updates. Some leakers are suggesting a few highly-demanded characters will finally be introduced as playable operators for Season 3 or beyond. Come from Sports betting site VPbet

A Call of Duty leaker known as Task Force Leakers 141 has tweeted claims that placeholders for three operators were added with the Season 2 Reloaded update, with these operators being Alejandro Vargas, Valeria Garza, and Alex Keller. The data mining apparently uncovered voice lines and loading screen artwork for all three operators.

NZXT's Capsule Mini Wired USB Mic Will Let You Plug And Play For Cheap

The NZXT Capsule microphone was launched in 2021 and is a decent mid-tier wired USB microphone. Its selling point has been the “plug-and-play” feature–meaning you don’t need to download any software to use the mic, and it’s fairly straightforward to get it set up. Now NZXT is launching a smaller version of the NZXT Capsule, aptly called the Capsule Mini.

The Capsule Mini features 24-bit resolution and a single cardioid polar pattern Come from Sports betting site VPbet . This means the microphone picks up what’s closest to it and reduces background sounds, making it a good mic for streaming or podcasting. The Capsule Mini is $70 (standard Capsule is $130).

The Mini also has a slightly…

Ori Dev's No Rest For The Wicked Hits Steam Early Access April 18

No Rest For The Wicked–the action-RPG from Ori developer Moon Studios–will be available to play very soon Come from Sports betting site VPbet . The studio has revealed it’s coming to Steam Early Access on April 18, giving players the chance to check out its animation- and timing-based combat system, “soft class” system, and customizable hub city.

In a Wicked Inside presentation detailing the combat, early access plans, and endgame content, Moon Studios explained just how its approach to the action-RPG genre differs from other games. Combat draws inspiration from multiple sources, including fighting games, and it seems that a certain very popular series by From Software was an influence, as well. Spacing and timing are…

BetMGM expands sports betting app; to debut at Nationals Park via Washington Nationals’ multi-year partnership

Hot on the heels of its PFL alliance and BetMGM has expanded coverage of its sports betting app to include Washington, D.C. after partnering with Major League Baseball (MLB) team, Washington Nationals. The agreement makes it the sole mobile sports betting app available at the National League East Division club’s home, Nationals Park. Come from Sports betting site VPbet

Part of an exclusive multi-year partnership deal the sportsbook platform of MGM Resorts International (MGM:NYSE) agreed with the MLB franchise back in January 2021, the collaboration also includes the first-ever BetMGM Sportsbook connected to a stadium, with a retail book due to open at the baseball park located in the capital city of the United St…

Genting Malaysia announces early reopening of Resorts World Genting and non-gaming properties due to relaxed COVID-19 restrictions

This week, Genting Malaysia announced that Resorts World Genting reopened on February 16, a few days earlier than expected. The company will open its Resorts World Langkawi and Resorts World Kijal non-gaming properties on February 19. The venues had been closed due to the local Movement Control Order. The COVID-19 restrictions of the order have now been relaxed, which allowed for the early reopening.

Back to Work

Resorts World Genting was shut down on January 22 due to restrictions put in place by the Order. The integrated resort was supposed to stay closed through February 18. However, the property reopened at 6 pm on February 16.

Upon reopening, the operator noted that some facilities, hotels, attractions, and other options will have revised hours of operation. Some …

London’s Iconic Crockfords Casino Closes After 195 Years For The Lack of High Rollers

Crockfords Casino, the iconic London property owned by the Genting gaming group, closes after 195 years of operations. The legendary home to high rollers closes over the owner’s allegations that the city of London fails to attract premium gamblers from around the world.

Legendary High Rollers Venue Closes:

The Crockfords Casino has hosted exclusive clientele of aristocracy and royalty for almost two centuries to be now closed as the pandemic and other circumstances continue to take their toll. As reported by Daily Mail, the casino representatives blame the so called ”tourist tax” which terminated the VAT reimbursements to foreign tourists’ purchases when the UK left the European Union in 2021.The m…

Xbox Game Pass Has Tons Of Games Coming Out Soon, Including Many Day-One Launches

Microsoft has announced the next wave of Game Pass titles coming to the service, and it includes two day-one new launches out today, October 31, and a handful more to come in November.

The pair of day-one Game Pass launches for today, October 31, include the battle royale music game Headbangers: Rhythm Royale for console, cloud, and PC. The other is the climbing game Jusant from Life Is Strange and Remember Me studio Don’t Nod. October 31 also sees the release of the open-world RPG Wartales, which is set in a medieval world.

Xbox Mini Fridge Gets "World Premiere" Trailer At E3 2021

Microsoft is really leaning into the meme that the Xbox Series X looks like a fridge. The company capped off its E3 2021 briefing on Sunday with a brand-new trailer for the Xbox Mini Fridge. Yes. Really.

The “world premiere” trailer spotlights the fridge and its design for the first time. Honestly, it’s a delight. “For the first time in Xbox history, a new system that leaves others cold,” says the text in the hype video below, which stresses that the fridge is, in fact, a real thing that Microsoft will sell.

The design of the fridge is what you’d expect–it looks just like the Xbox Series X itself, except it’s a fridge. It appears to be able to hold about 10 12oz cans. Check out the trailer for yourself below.

Michael Rumbolz To Take Over As AGA’s New Chairman From January 2024

The American Gaming Association (AGA) Board of Directors has selected the executive president of the Board of Everi Holdings Inc. Michael Rumbolz to officially become the latest president of AGA. In addition, he will replace Jim Allen, CEO of Seminole Gaming and President of Hard Rock International, who has performed the presidential duties since the beginning of last year, aka January.

Rich experience:

Rumbolz will officially begin his term from the beginning of next year, that is, in January. Also, his tenure will last for 2 years. Commenting on his future role as president, Rumbolz commented: “I am grateful for the opportunity to help shape gaming’s future as the AGA’s next chair. From stopping illegal gambling to evolving responsib…

Nolimit City Partners With Evolution for Bulgarian Market Entry

Nolimit City, a reputable software developer and high-end slot games supplier, has announced multiple strategic partnerships with Bulgarian gaming operators. The latest B2B partnership with Evolution, the owner of the One Stop Shop platform, will enable Nolimit City to enter the Bulgarian market and make its content available to players in the European country for the very first time.

New Market Entry:

The developer’s market debut represents a milestone for both Nolimit City and players from the jurisdiction as the supplier’s wide array of titles is now included in Evolution’s platform offerings to facilitate instant access to the content promising an unparalleled player experience. As the innovative provider’s growing librar…

Wayne Brady Shares He Privately Welcomed a Son With His Ex-Girlfriend

Wayne Brady Shares an Update on His Dating Life Since Coming Out as Pansexual

Wayne Brady has a new family member in the mix.

The Whose Line Is It Anyway? star shared that he and his ex Tina recently welcomed a son, Val Henry.

“I happen to have a 6-month-old son that people don’t know about,” Wayne explained during a confessional in the July 24 premiere of his reality TV show Wayne Brady: The Family Remix. “Tina and I dated during the pandemic on and off and then we broke up.”

“When I first found out Tina was pregnant, I was floored,” he continued. “It was not on my bingo card: 51-year-old dad—brand new kid. I didn’t see it coming. So, was I happy? No, because I was in shock.�…

At long last, the Steam Deck UI has replaced Steam’s Big Picture mode-

It’s been a long time coming, but Valve has finally taken Steam’s old Big Picture mode—with all its blurry visuals and tabs that straight-up don’t work—and replaced it with a new, Steam Deck-inspired UI. It came as part of a hefty Steam client update released yesterday, and in my testing seems to work pretty well, but some users are reporting a few kinks that still need to be worked out.

I’ve put some pictures of the new UI below, and it’ll be incredibly familiar to anyone who’s futzed around with a Steam Deck. It’s pretty much just the standard interface of Valve’s handheld blown up to fit the dimensions of a proper TV. The mode now drops you straight into a list of your recently-played games, rather than letting you pick between Store, Library, and Community (the fir…

Precision performance- Don’t miss with this carbon fiber gaming mouse

’10 years ago, we were just a couple of friends in my apartment trying to figure out what we wanted to do’- the studio at the heart of the boomer shooter boom reflects on its first decade-

New Blood Interactive and its longtime members have an almost “elder statesman” position in the boomer shooter scene⁠—the indie FPS milieu that celebrates design and aesthetic trends from the ’90s and early ’00s. That status hardly came about overnight, though.

“10 years ago, we were just a couple of friends in my apartment trying to figure out what we wanted to do,” founder Dave Oshry told me in an interview covering the studio’s decade anniversary, as well as the release of an SDK and visual remaster for its 2018 FPS, Dusk. “There was never a plan other than to hang out with friends and try to make games, which was the same thing I was trying to do 10 years ago. It just turns out that that’s actually the way to stay together.”

“Most of the stuff we did for the …

Boo, Intel’s faux 14th Gen isn’t going to deliver the peak cheap gaming CPU we were teased with-

Aww, it was looking so good for a second there; for the briefest moment it looked like Intel was going to make its Raptor Lake Refresh range of processors really count. Sadly, it seems like, aside from a barely relevant 200MHz clock speed bump on the upcoming 14th Gen chips, we’re not going to see the major re-spec of the new CPU lineup earlier rumours had promised.

We reported a few weeks ago on the supposedly leaked core counts of the new range of Intel processors which had been presented by a RedGamingTech video. It claimed the Raptor Lake Refresh was going to deliver higher core counts, almost across the entire CPU stack. 

And those promised extra cores weren’t supposed to be just the lower-rent Efficient cores either, with a selection of 14th Gen chips actually get…

Palia studio Singularity 6 is the latest studio to suffer layoffs-

Singularity 6, the studio behind the cosy MMO Palia, is the latest developer to suffer layoffs. Just under 50 developers, around one third of the company, have been let go according to Polygon reporter Nicole Carpenter.

Environmental artist Daphne Fiato tweeted “Whelp, I’ve been laid off,” following up with “49 people Thanos snapped”. Other Singularity 6 folk joined to reveal they’d also been laid off, including Brian Ernst who tweeted they’d been with the developer for five years. One developer revealed via LinkedIn that they’d been given the news while on vacation, according to MMORPG.com.

Singularity 6 is yet to publicly address the layoffs, with its last Twitter post happening on April 3, one day before they occurred. It’s the same situation for the official Palia accoun…

Payday 3’s first update is delayed to mid-October ‘to ensure its stability,’ more server maintenance is coming this weekend-

It’s another bump in the road for beleaguered heist-shooter Payday 3 as Starbreeze Studios has delayed an update that was expected to go live today and says it also needs to do yet more server maintenance.

“We’re extremely sorry for this, but we’ve chosen to delay today’s planned patch to ensure its stability,” Starbreeze tweeted. “The patch needs some changes that would require us to go through console certification again. We hope to be ready to deliver this one for mid-October.”

The update delay is the latest in a series of misfortunes and missteps that have plagued Payday 3 in its first two weeks since launch. Matchmaking problems made it difficult to get into the game, even for people who didn’t want to play online, thanks to the always-online requirement. That led to a …

President of Blizzard Mike Ybarra casually sinks hopes of a pirate themed WoW expansion with a two-word tweet-

There’s been whispers on the high seas about where World of Warcraft’s going after Dragonflight—with some theorists already loading up their cannons with hopes for a seafaring-themed expansion.

This was due to a few factors—several transmog sets seem to be hinting at an oceanic direction for WoW, such as the Waveborne Diplomat’s Regalia and the more recent Seafarer Pack. If this sounds a touch crackpot, Blizzard did do something similar before the announcement of Dragonflight with its Dragon Pack, which was released December 2021 before the expansion’s announcement in April 2022. 

There’ve also been some other in-game hints—the prevalence of pirate factions on the Forbidden Reach, as well as (courtesy of Youtube channel Taliesin & Evitel) an in-gam…

Team Group showed me some blazingly fast Gen 5 SSDs, pink DDR5, and a host of wacky cooling solutions to keep it all in check-

I’m sometimes asked why we don’t often recommend Gen 5 NVMe drives (although, to be fair, we do recommend one). Alright, I don’t get asked it that often I guess, but the answer remains the same as it was when they first came out—they’re very fast, but so are Gen 4 drives, at least for gaming. 

More than that, they’re pricey, again compared to Gen 4. And then there’s the kicker—they also have a tendency to run very, very hot.

Team Group’s Computex 2024 booth had some fresh examples of the speedy little drives, including a T-Force Pro SSD with a quoted 14,173 MB/s read and 12,757 write rate, apparently soon to be available in 8 TB configuration. I asked how much it might potentially cost, and one of the booth reps laughed knowingly, before shaking their head.<…

Acclaimed indie studio Vlambeer springs back to life 4 years after declaring ‘the end of Vlambeer’-

Few things seemed like more of a closed book to me than Vlambeer, the developer of Luftrausers, Nuclear Throne, and Ridiculous Fishing. A studio made up of Jan Nijman and Rami Ismail, Vlambeer shut its doors in September 2020 after 10 years in business, and announced “the end of Vlambeer” in a short, straightforward Twitter post. It was time for both its members to move onto new things.

Or not. Because in another post on Twitter yesterday, Nijman put out a “videogame company acquisition announcement” revealing that he now owns “100% of Vlambeer.” In a tweet around the same time, Ismail announced that he had “sold my 50% of my old games studio Vlambeer to co-founder [Nijman].” Vlambeer, it seems, is back from the dead, albeit without Ismail’s involvement.

Per a blog …

Stunned devs left scrambling for livelihoods in wake of yesterday’s layoff bloodbath- ‘In the end the contributions didn’t matter’-

The entire game industry is still reeling from yesterday’s bombshell announcement that Microsoft—hot on the heels of its $69 billion acquisition of Activision—would be laying off 1,900 employees across Activision-Blizzard and Xbox. Inevitably, Twitter is awash with reactions highlighting the human cost, both from dazed devs waking up in a world in which they no longer have jobs, and from others wondering what this all means for the months and years ahead.

The posts by former Blizzard devs are too many to count. “After years of applying,” wrote former QA learning specialist Cole McElwain in a much-retweeted post, “I finally secure a job at Blizzard. I move to California and am welcomed with an incredible team. I couldn’t be more excited to start…

“Four mont…

Ultra niche Skyrim mod lets you become the most potent mage of all- the fist wizard-

Somewhere in a filing cabinet is a contract. On that contract is my name and the name of my employer—PC Gamer’s publisher Future PLC—and a job title: “news writer”. And look, if someone assassinates the JFK of videogames* I’ll be there to break it down for you, but personally? I think my true job is telling you about tiny, mini, minute, trifling little mods that I find very amusing and intensely niche. And guess what, friends? I’ve got another one for ya.

ELAF Left Hand Shield Bash is a mod from a creator named—get this—ELAF, and it rectifies one of the venerable RPG’s most glaring oversights: that players and NPCs cannot use their unarmed left fist to absolutely batter interlopers who get within punching distance. In Todd Howard’s world, the left …

Total War- Pharaoh’s big free update map is far, far larger than I would have thought-

Creative Assembly has posted new bits of maps and a more details on the large, free update coming to Total War: Pharaoh, including a look at its revised and expanded map that will now include the Aegean and Mesopotamia, adding Assyria, Babylon, Mycenae, and Troy as playable cultures with about 150 new and reworked units between them.

With more than twice the factions (from 95 to 189!) and nearly double the provinces (from 181 to 349!) for a very respectable map size, Total War: Pharaoh is truly looking a lot more like what PC Gamer’s Fraser Brown called it on announcement. This may well be a proper “Total War: Bronze Age” by the time they’re finished.

“This expansion renders the world approximately 1.8 times larger than the current map, offering players a vast expanse to con…

Adobe’s generative AI art tool and Google Bard are joining forces-

The AI arms race is heating up. Adobe is bringing its generative art tool, Firefly, to Google Bard. This will allow Google’s experimental chatbot to generate images based on user prompts, much like OpenAI’s Dall-E tool. 

Adobe Firefly’s beta launched in March. Aside from being your typical text-to-image generator, it allows users to edit images on the fly. Also coming to Bard is Adobe Express, a free photo editing software that’s popular among mobile users because it comes with pre-made design templates you can use to make social posts.

This means that you can generate an image from text with Google Bard, then edit and save it in one place. According to the press release, Firefly will become the “premier generative AI partner for Bard, powering and highlighting text-to…

WoW’s new specialisation turns death knights into 13 million DPS boss scourges, as long as you bring 22 of them along-

Blizzard’s new specialisation, the augmentation evoker, has continued to stir up the game’s meta in weird and interesting ways. It acts as a support DPS, with most of its damage coming from buffs to its allies—a completely new playstyle for an MMO approaching its 20th birthday.

It’s super powerful—nearly a must-have for high-level content. Yet it’s been causing spats in lower-level groups due to DPS meter weirdness and the inevitable baggage of a pick-up-group community used to their personal performance being priority number one.

This bumpy introduction continues with a zany experiment documented by WoWhead. Guide writer, evoker specialist, and streamer Jereico has been cooking up a hotfix-causing strat, bringing two death knights into a raid with 22 augmentatio…

Wordle hint and answer #616- Saturday, February 25-

Solve today’s Wordle in a flash with our wide range of hints, tips, and practical advice. Find guidance with the February 25 (616) clue, brush up on your general Wordle knowledge with our guides and archive of past answers, or skip straight to the good stuff and read today’s answer—it really is up to you.

A good guess that turns over five greys may be a lot of practical help, bringing focus to my Wordle and definitively ruling out several avenues of inquiry, but it doesn’t do a whole lot for my confidence, especially when it’s halfway down the board. 

Wordle hint

A Wordle hint for Saturday, February 25

Today’s answer is nice and straightforward. You’re looking for a multiple of five today, specifically one at the higher end of common s…

Wordle hint and answer #634- Wednesday, March 15-

Need a hint for today’s Wordle? Then you’ve come to the right place. Scroll a little way down the page, and you’ll find a fresh clue to help with the March 15 (634) puzzle, and if you’re still stuck, the answer’s waiting just below that. 

Is there anything more cruel than carefully narrowing down the possibilities, entering what you’re sure is going to be the winning guess, and then seeing four, not five, letters turn green? I was in no danger of losing today’s Wordle because of this mis-guess, but it was frustrating to see it take an avoidable extra go. 

Wordle hint

A Wordle hint for Wednesday, March 15

The most common use of today’s answer is to describe the act of brushing a floor (or a chimney) to remove dirt and k…

You can play my favorite RPG of 2021 for free this weekend and nab it for 75% off if you have a good time-

Though Owlcat Games just released the Warhammer 40k CRPG Rogue Trader, it’s still been hard at work updating its previous game, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. The game’s just started a free weekend lasting until December 17th, while it will also be on sale for 75% off until the 21st.

WotR is a massive zero-to-hero fantasy campaign based on the Pathfinder tabletop module of the same name. If you’re looking for another RPG obsession after Baldur’s Gate 3, this one’s got a lot more of that old school crunch (it’s “crusty” as my girlfriend would say), but I like that kind of thing.

There’s a ton of fat that could have been trimmed. For example, until recently, the game’s poison-based Assassin prestige class was pretty screwed in a campaign where nearly everything’s…