Activision Blizzard moved to pause legal proceedings following a messy tussle between California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), which had launched the original lawsuit against the publisher, and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) - which had previously announced an $18m settlement deal with Activision as part of its own investigation into the company. The DFEH objected to the settlement, claiming it would cause “irreparable harm” to its own lawsuit if approved by the court, and the EEOC retaliated by revealing the DFEH’s case was led - until very recently - by two of its own former lawyers, which would make the DFEH’s objection a conflict of interest and a potential legal issue regarding the conduct of those attorneys....

All three games will be available from 5th July until 1st August. And, as a reminder, you have until 4th July to add the current line-up of God of War, Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl to your collection. ORIGINAL STORY 26/6/22: July 2022’s PlayStation Plus freebie offering will include Crash Bandicoot 4 and The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan. That’s according to Dealabs poster billbil-kun, who - as ever - has the scoop on what titles are next heading to Sony’s PlayStation Plus free game line-up next month....

Finding various quantities of them results in various Lucky Emblem rewards, and finding them all helps you unlock end-game content - including a secret ending and valuable Orichalcum +. On this page: Not only that, but you’ll need to track down a certain number of them if you wish to view the secret ending to Kingdom Hearts 3 - all 90 if you’re playing on Beginner, 60 on Standard and on 30 on Proud mode....

Such effortlessness might be boring, were it not for the effort put in by the designers at HAL Laboratory to keep presenting new ideas to keep you entertained. Kirby, at its best, is a procession of new toys to tinker with, new mini-games to be distracted by and new enemies to ingest so that you might take on their powers. They’re bountiful things, the maximalist approach part of their magic....

Judge also praised developer Santa Monica Studio for its patience and support while he recovered. While spilling the beans, Judge added he almost quit when Cory Barlog told him he would not direct the sequel. In a heartwarming response, Barlog appeared to confirm Judge’s rehab was indeed a contributing factor. Barlog had previously taken personal responsibility for the delay as the development team received criticism for the decision. The studio’s official position is: “We remain focused on delivering a top-quality game while maintaining the safety and wellbeing of our team, creative partners and families....

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is now £40, Metroid Dread and New Pokemon Snap are £35 (beating their previous best price of £37 from Very and Currys), and Super Mario Maker 2 is just £30. Nintendo Switch game deals Super Mario Odyssey - £36.99 at Currys Animal Crossing: New Horizons - £36.99 at Currys The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD - £36.99 at Currys Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - £36....

The Hollywood Reporter said that five gamers filed an antitrust class action in California that alleges Valve requires developers and publishers enter into a “Most Favoured Nation” clause. A Most Favoured Nation clause is a retail parity clause in which a supplier agrees to treat a particular customer no worse than all other customers. MFNs are under increased scrutiny from authorities across the world, including the European Commission. The lawsuit alleges a developer or publisher must agree the price of a PC game on Steam will be the same price as on other PC platforms....

Exhausting - but I love it for its exhaustiveness, its galactic breadth, width and depth, and that only makes League of Legends: Wild Rift even more of a surprise. Wild Rift is mobile-only for now - still in open beta and still in only a few places (playable here in Europe, but crucially not yet in North America or China) - and coming to consoles somewhere down the line, and it’s very good....

There are many other reasons to look forward to the Pokémon Go event. You’ll be given the opportunity to catch as many Ledyba as you can, with the possibility of catching a 100% perfect IV stats Ledyba. Ledyba’s Spotlight Hour falls on a fairly quiet day in Pokémon Go. It’s just before this year’s Pokémon Go Anniversary Celebration however, which will have plenty for trainers to do that week. On this page:...

Everything is oversized, as though we’ve stepped through the glass at the carnival’s hall of mirrors. Doors aren’t entryways, but mouths of caves. Each step on the staircase is a mini-mountain to scale. Later, when plastic aberrations shuffle in the darkness and you shatter the empty skulls of malevolent puppets with a hammer that’s bigger than you are, you’ll realise it’s not just the world that’s too big, but the risks, too....

A survey on the official Twitter feed has asked fans if they would like to be “able to interact with [their] animal companions?” There are then three options presented for you to choose from. These are: “Yes”, “YES” (an important use of all capital letters there for emphasis) or “Yes (in the next update)!” Of course, this poll could still just be a little bit of fun from the developers, but this seems unlikely - and something the Disney Dreamlight Valley team would otherwise be told off for erroneously dangling on a stick....

That’s according to Twitter account PlayStation Game Size, which revealed Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was listed as releasing in “Early March 2023” on PlayStation Network’s internal database. The game’s PlayStation store page has since been updated, though, and now reads “date to be determined”, so watch this space. Whenever it does release, though, we do know it will be coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Follwing a series of leaks, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was officially unveiled in May with a new trailer (which you can see above)....

A listing on the Australian classification database concerning Mario and co.’s upcoming football frenzy has listed Next Level Games as the game’s developer. Meanwhile, Nintendo is listed as its publisher. In addition to this, the listing clarifies the game’s rating as PG, as it includes some “Mild Violence”. This news is not surprising for fans of Mario Strikers. Next Level Games also oversaw the development of Super Mario Strikers on GameCube and Mario Strikers Charged on Wii....

It’s a first-person building and raiding game that takes place in a hellish, post-apocalyptic wasteland, with players building towering industrial outposts filled with traps to protect genetic material - and then infiltrating the outposts of others to steal the precious resource. It certainly feels like a departure from the popular horror multiplayer game, both in its genre and its aesthetic. But there are more similarities than you might think. To begin with, Meet Your Maker has a certain horror undertone to it - albeit now in science fiction....

For those in Europe who are keen to get their hands on the mini retro console, you will be able to do so from the 27th October. If you are keeping track, this is the same day as the Genesis Mini 2 in North America. To accompany this release date announcement, Sega has also lifted the lid on all the games that will be available on the console. Included in this catalogue is the FMV Night Trap, which tasks players with keeping a watchful eye on a sleepover, all the while ensuring that vampires can’t infiltrate the festivities....

World Update 6, as we already knew, arrives on 7th September and aims to drastically enhance Flight Simulator’s rendition of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Alongside visual upgrades, it’ll introduce around 100 famous handcrafted landmarks, four new airports - Lübeck, Stuttgart, Klagenfurt and St. Galle - plus new discovery flights, landing challenges, bush trips, and more. That “and more” was elaborated on during tonight’s Xbox Gamescom Showcase, and takes the form of a new pilotable plane: the Junkers JU-52....

Details of other features were sketched out today at Minecon Live, where we also heard word that Minecraft’s various PC offerings would be brought together as part of one PC launcher. This will let you load Minecraft Java and Bedrock editions from one place, with the two also coming to Xbox Game Pass for PC in November. 2022’s The Wild Update will focus on improving the game’s overworld biomes, while also adding the new Deep Dark biome underneath your current map....

Modder Garden of Eyes worked with modder Zullie the Witch, who created the Dark Souls 3 first-person mod, to create Bloodborne’s first-person mod. Trailer is below: As you’d expect, Bloodborne’s combat looks and feels entirely different in first-person, where you don’t have as comprehensive a view of the action afforded by a third-person perspective. The bosses in particular look extra scary up close! Here’s how it works: the mod adds a new headpiece, dubbed Great One Hat, which is earned at the very start of the game....

Precisely what will feature remains a mystery, but, alongside those aforementioned “exciting reveals”, Capcom is also promising new gameplay, a look at some new monsters, and other currently unspecified treats. If your interest is suitably piqued, proceedings kick off at 3pm in the UK/7am PDT on 10th May via Twitch, and Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak’s director, Yoshitake Suzuki, will be on presenting duties. Capcom’s previous Sunbreak digital event was a biggie, giving us a release date, a look at some new monsters, as well as an introduction to the expansion’s new hub area - the bustling port town of Elgado Outpost - and its new map, The Citadel....

We all have a sound which reminds us of our gaming childhood. For me, it’s the Artisans theme in Spyro The Dragon. For Frank Ocean, evidently, it’s the Street Fighter 2 opening beep. It’s this sound which opens his debut album Channel Orange, a narrative album about a conflicted adolescence whose only constant was video games. This beep follows the distinctive start up sound of the original PlayStation, before Ocean takes us on a journey of unrequited love, drug addiction, coming out, religion, Hurricane Katrina, and existential dread....