Bloat was clearly on all our minds in the afterglow of the christmas season, so we did an entire podcast about the concept. But we’re not talking about being full of mince pies, here: we’re on about video game bloat. The scourge of modern times, that has turned what used to be a fun escapist hobby into the full time job of icon janitoring. Games are so rammed with the dreaded “content” now that dev cycles are starting to be measured in decades instead of years....

Developed by Complex Games, Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters will pit the Grey Knights against the forces of Chaos in a turn-based tactical RPG. In the game, players will experience the combat of the 41st millennium, following the journey of the Grey Knights in a narrative penned by New York Times bestselling author, Aaron Dembski-Bowden. Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters will release on PC in 2022 on Steam and the Epic Games Store....

With this new update, Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate players can now access seven new playable characters based on various folklore and historical characters. Each new character has their own special weapon and Sacred Treasure, as well as a type which you can use to work out what type of combo they’d be suited to. Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate - New characters You might recognise some of the names from Warriors Orochi 3, while the others are new original characters for Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate....

According to the developers of Warzone, this means improving and fixing what is already released, and Season Two “is aimed at doing just that.” Currently, the team is focusing on the Warzone experience by addressing current frustrations and tackling requests from the community. These current plans include quality of life changes to make the game more accessible and “less frustrating.” This will include over 30 improvements coming at Season Two’s launch, and include improvements to vehicle handling, parachutes deploying at a lower vertical height, increased player mantle height, and collision fixes for both vehicles and players....

As a member of hacker group DedSec I’m trying to recruit an Albion Security pig to the cause - it turns out being a fascist is mentally draining and they’re looking to defect. But first I have to do something for them. Their friend is ill and the NHS has been gutted to the point it’s almost impossible to get an appointment. This is post-Brexit London, after all. She needs her meds, and my man in the chair - an AI back at the DedSec hideout - knows where we can find some....

Today marks the return of publisher Nacon’s own Direct-style presentation. This year’s Nacon Connect is a livestream featuring a number of anticipated reveals. It all kicks off today at 10am PT, 1pm ET, 6pm UK. Perhaps the most anticipated is the gameplay debut of Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, the first entry in the iconic racing series in years. We’re also looking forward to an updated look at Spiders’ action RPG Steelrising, the recently-delayed The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, something new from Blood Bowl 3 and more....

For some reason the company is hosting it a bit late this time, so it may be a bit dark in your region when it airs. It kicks off at 2pm PT, 5pm ET, and 10pm UK. The presentation will last around 40 minutes and it will focus on games coming in the first half of this year. We might hear more about Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe, which is out in March, and Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, out in May....

Shortly after the release of Resident Evil Village, industrious modders everywhere quickly began working on some of the more simple projects. PC players should all be familiar with model swaps, which replace existing assets with those from other games/movies/pop culture. One of the most terrifying applications of this came in the form of the Mini Me Chris mod, which turned Chris Redfield into Ethan and Mia Winters’ baby from the opening few minutes of the game....

Nestled in the retro area of the exhibition hall in front of a row of black, plasticy LCD TVs sat a young boy of about 10 years old. Interested in what was passing for retro in this modern era, I hung around for a minute as the loading bar finished spinning and what I saw filled me with hollow, existential dread. Next to the Pac-Man cabinets and CRTs with Super Mario Bros and Sonic the Hedgehog flickering on their screens, the kid wasn’t playing Arkanoid, or Asteroid, or any other -Oid, but Batman: Arkham Asylum on a PS3....

Vampire The Masquerade fans have been on a singular emotional rollercoaster over the past couple of years. A full decade and a half after 2004’s Bloodlines became a cult hit — popular due to the sheer depth of its world, story, and characters, and in spite of its many technical flaws — we learned that we were getting the sequel most had stopped daring to hope for. As most people are now well aware, development on Bloodlines 2 has become mired in difficulties....

20 years have in some ways gone by in the blink of an eye to the extent that a console platform this old can still feel like the newcomer trying to prove itself. The reality is that Xbox bullishly made a place for itself at the table in part thanks to some tremendous exclusive launch titles. They were so good, the memories are crystal clear in my mind. 20 years ago the internet was a very different place....

But instead of any of that, Microsoft is opting to hold a livestream focused on celebrating anything and everything Xbox. Though the company has said no new game announcements will be made at the show, it has still urged us all to tune in, so expect plenty of surprises. To help you kill time until the jubilations kick off, we’ve collected all the information you need to know about today’s event below....

As part of a new development in the messy enquiry into whether Microsoft should be allowed to acquire Activsion Blizzard, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has published Sony’s response to the authority’s Issues Statement, and it revealed quite a lot of important information about the subscriptions arms race the two platform-holders are engaged in. “Game Pass leads PlayStation Plus significantly,” Sony writes in its reply to the CMA. “Microsoft already has a substantial lead in multi-game subscription services....

Games with Gold for August are Darksiders 3, Yooka-Laylee, Lost Planet 3, and Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Xbox Live Gold members will have access to these games for a limited time as part of Games with Gold, as will Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members. Darksiders 3 will be available from August 1 to 31. In it, Fury, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, is bound and determined to hunt down the Seven Deadly Sins in an open-ended, living world....

Telstra, a large telecom company in Australia, has advised customers to update their details in anticipation of Xbox Series X pre-orders “opening soon.” Telstra is Microsoft’s partner in the country for Xbox All Access, a subscription programme that allows customers to own an Xbox console and Live Gold and pay the price in monthly instalments. Those who registered to receive information about Xbox Series X from Telstra got the message today, as seen on Reddit (via Press Start)....

In mid-February, Microsoft announced the first set of backwards compatible titles to take advantage of FPS Boost, a feature that improves legacy games with higher, steadier framerates to make games visually smoother. Working on a system level, the feature boasts the ability to boost Xbox One games so they run at up to four times their original frame rate. If you were waiting for a favorite legacy title of yours to get this treatment, though, there may be disappointment ahead....

The studio behind platformer series Yooka-Laylee Playtonic has opened its own publishing label. The brilliantly-named Playtonic Friends will apparently help studios release “fresh, creative and compelling” titles. It is already working with three studios: Awe Interactive of BPM: Bullets Per Minute fame, New York-based Fabraz and OK Golf developer Okidokico. “The knowledge that we were coming up to our sixth birthday triggered lots of typical Teams calls amongst the staff here at Playtonic,” Playtonic boss Gavin Price said....

The image of Sanders sitting on his fold-out chair, arms crossed, mask on, and sporting his infamous mittens has become burned into the consciousness of anyone that’s been on the internet over the past few weeks. A plethora of memes have circulated showing off the US Senator for Vermont sitting at the Biden inauguration, but perhaps the most laudable effort comes from User619 and JoeMashups who have managed to get Sanders into the game, modding him over fellow chair-loving combatant Azwel (thanks, NME)....

Yet, that’s not to say it’s perfect. If we were to label it anything, we’d have to file this cult curio under ‘flawed masterpiece’. This is a game that meanders. It’s a story of teeny tropes and towering titans that bores as often as it excites, and thanks to its auto-attack system – ripped wholesale from an MMO – it features one of the most bizarre combat systems in gaming....

In a video posted earlier this month (via PCGamesN), 82-year-old Curry describes her frustrations over comments she has received critizing her gaming ability and knowledge of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - a title she is passionate about and has been streaming for years. “My health isn’t very good. My blood pressure is going insane," says Curry at the start of her vlog. “My stress level is way too high....