❌

Reading view

Is a blizzardy Skyrim return persuading me to retry Elder Scrolls Online? Not really, but naval combat and underwater exploration might

I'll be honest right off the bat. As a single player Elder Scroller, the Elder Scrolls Online's never managed to hook me for more than a few hours. I've given it a couple of goes, usually during periods when it's gone free to play, but have always bounced off its vast MMOiness. Might the slew of fresh additions coming across the next couple of years be able to change that and finally convince me to spend significant time with ESO in the same way I have Fallout 76 in the past few years? The answer could be yes, if the naval combat and underwater exploration Zenimax have just revealed are as fun as they sound on paper.

Read more

  •  

The Long Dark comes to an end today, except it's not "the end" only "an end"

Well, the time has finally come. After releasing almost a decade ago, The Long Dark finally wraps things up today with today's release of Wintermute's fifth and final episode, The Light at the End of All Things. It's been a long time coming (the free episode update was originally slated for the end of 2025), but it marks the end of a tough, cold journey. Sorry, what's that? It's "not the end, but also an end"? Oh, my mistake!

Read more

  •  

Ubisoft sued for shutting down The Crew's servers by major French consumer group backed by Stop Killing Games

A major French consumers group is taking Ubisoft to court over the publisher's ending of online support for The Crew in March 2024, rendering the notionally singleplayer-friendly open world racer unplayable. They're acting with the backing of the Stop Killing Games movement, who want publishers at large to stop yanking servers and taking games offline.

Read more

  •  

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided developers Eidos Montreal lay off 124 staff, as well as "parting ways" with long-time studio head

Eidos Montreal, developers of the most recent two Deus Ex entries, have laid off 124 staff. At the same time, they've announced that they're "parting ways" with veteran studio head David Anfossi, who'd been in that post for just under 13 years.

Read more

  •  

Skyblivion devs are "on the hunt" for some "final, vital" veteran hands to get the Oblivion remake mod over the line this year

With the first few months of its latest target release year drawing to a close, the modders behind Skyblivion are looking to make some "final" and "vital" veteran additions to their team in order to get the ambitious remake of Oblivion in Skyrim's engine over the line. This comes after a delay late last year, which saw Skyblivion's arrival pushed to 2026, following some accusations from a former dev that it was being rushed out of the door.

Read more

  •  

"0.63 is the perfect default delay": Bungie, Respawn and Firaxis game developers talk NPC barks, grenade timing and other questions of craft

Much of the time, using social media is like fondling a wasp's nest, but sometimes, sometimes, social media is Nice. For example, Firaxis narrative director Cat Manning recently started a Bluesky thread "of small practical pieces of advice developers just starting out or unfamiliar with a genre might not know". The replies and quote-posts include thoughts from people with credits on fairly big games.

Inevitably, they run the gamut of approachability. At one end of the spectrum, you have Apex Legends engineer Jay Stevens jauntily observing that "a navmesh is a very handy thing to have, even in a multiplayer game without NPCs", which I maybe half-understand, and sounds like it could be the opening to a Broadway song of some kind. More digestibly, you have former Marvel's Avengers and current Legacy of Orsinium developer Keano Raubun commenting that the "biggest bang for buck in (open world RPG) game writing will always be NPCs having funny ambient conversations amongst themselves".

Read more

  •  

Epic's mass layoffs left a programmer with terminal brain cancer without life insurance, but Tim Sweeney says the company will "solve" the problem

Epic Games' mass layoffs led a programmer with terminal brain cancer to lose his life insurance, leaving him and his family struggling to find new coverage. Following news of the situation breaking, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has said the company have reached out to the programmer - Mike Prinke - and that they "will solve the insurance".

Read more

  •  

What are we all playing this weekend?

There is a significant danger that this article will have aged terribly. You see, I asked everyone what they were playing this weekend on Thursday, rather than the usual post-lunch scramble on a Friday. You see, I took Friday off to travel to Wales to spend a long weekend with my family. Who knows what happened between my polling of the team on Thursday and Friday? Perhaps Valve surprise released Half-Life 3 and everyone is playing that instead. Maybe they all went off videogames in the interim.

I can only hope they thought to go into the CMS and update the article accordingly. Otherwise, I'll look like a right plonker.

Read more

  •  

Only a "skeletal crew" are left working on Fallout: London, and the massive mod's next DLC will miss a planned April release window

Around the turn of the new year, Fallout: London developers Team FOLON teased plans to drop the second of the brilliantly British Fallout 4 mod's second DLC in early 2026, assuming no hiccups got in the way of those plans. Sadly, it seems that's exactly what's happened, necessitating the "skeletal crew" still working on the mod to push Last Orders beyond a projected April release window.

Read more

  •  

Following Epic's mass layoffs, a bunch of Fortnite modes are going offline and arcade racer Horizon Chase Turbo's downloads will be pulled

Epic Games have announced that they're laying off over 1000 staff today, March 24th. In the wake of that news, the publishers have announced that three Fortnite modes are being permanently sunsetted. Meanwhile, one of the studios Epic own - Horizon Chase developers Aquiris - have announced plans to pull downloads for the first two games in their arcade racing series offline later this year.

Read more

  •  

"I'm sorry we're here again," says Epic Games CEO as Fortnite maker lays off over 1000 employees

Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite and the Unreal Engine, have announced plans to lay off more than 1000 staff. In a company-wide letter, CEO Tim Sweeney blamed both "industry-wide challenges" and "challenges unique to Epic", including a downturn in Fortnite's popularity.

In addition to the layoffs, the company have made more than $500m in cuts by reducing contracting, marketing, and closing open roles. Sweenet says this puts the company "in a more stable place."

Sweeney, a strong advocate of AI, says the layoffs "aren't related to AI".

Read more

  •  

"All was well until it wasn't" is a summary of both freshly revealed Minecraft Dungeons 2 and pretty much every story ever told

Diablo-ish Minecraft spin-off Minecraft Dungeons has a sequel, and said sequel's coming out at some point in 2026. What's it about? Well, Mojang say, "all was well until it wasn't". Wait, lads, that's pretty much the setup for every sequel and arguably story humanity's ever produced. Aye, Mojang say, but the mild-mannered villagers are on fire, so you'd better get your diamond sword polished.

Read more

  •  

Elder Scrolls Online previews Season Zero, plus future seasons and a return to Skyrim

This afternoon, Elder Scrolls Online studio ZeniMax Online took the wraps off of more content coming over the course of 2026, including the Night Market.Β Ahead of the reveal today, we attended a press event to introduce more details for the upcoming Season 0, as well as tease a bit of what’s coming beyond that in […]
  •  

Wisdom of Nym: Evaluating the big additions of Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail thus far

One of the things that I observed ages ago about Final Fantasy XIV’s Dawntrail expansion was that our patches were each adding one big new thing aside from what’s expected. Sure, a given patch would have the new raid (alliance or normal) and new dungeon and so forth, but in addition you get one thing. […]
  •