Gears of War: E-Day director says the new shooter will absolutely be doing more linear levels instead of Gear 5's open-ended maps - games news - NewsLocker (2024)

Gears of War: E-Day is ditching Gears 5's open-world levels for a more linear experience.That's according to Gears creative director Matt Searcy, speaking to GamesRadar+ during a group interview at Summer Game Fest 2024. The director revealed that Gears of War: E-Day, the new prequel game taking place years before the original third-person shooter, is set in the city of Kalona, a brand new location for the Gears of War franchise."We've worked on Gears now in our studio for like, 10 y

Building Relationships is "like A Short Hike but stupid" and it's the most wholesomely kinky dating sim I've ever played

When I walked into Summer Game Fest Play Days, I was not expecting my first appointment to involve a very strange game asking me whether I'm a top or a bottom. The developer sitting next to me was kind enough to pretend not to see while I answered, and while I'll avoid oversharing here, the encounter did immediately endear me to the delightfully quirky and wholesomely kinky vibes of Building Relationships.You might've seen Building Relationships during the Day of the Devs broadcast, when develop

Helldivers 2 tweaked one of its most popular Stratagems because players weren't using it as Arrowhead intended

Developer Arrowhead Game Studio recently deployed a mega-patch for Helldivers 2, bringing in over 100 changes, tweaks, and buffs to everything from weapons to the Galactic War Table. But one of the game's most popular Stratagems was changed to better fit how players were using it, rather than how Arrowhead intended for it to be used.Helldivers 2's Orbital Precision Strike is a Stratagem that calls down - you guessed it - an orbital strike onto a single location. Unlike the Orbital Laser, the too

One of Steam Next Fest's biggest survival games makes a compelling promise: "Imagine DayZ or Rust but you're a duck"

"Imagine DayZ or Rust but you're a duck," is the irresistible premise behind one of Steam Next Fest's biggest survival games.Duckside is the survival sandbox that's trying to teach ducks worldwide some self-defense. In the same way that Palworld uses the 'Pokemon-but-with-guns' premise to its advantage, Duckside has all the scavenge-y-craft-o-survival bits you'd expect from the genre, but this time it's the ducks that have guns. Want to make your game stand out? Just give your pets some deadly w

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The Game Boy Color is once again my favorite handheld thanks to this gorgeous AMOLED touchscreen mod

The Game Boy Color is one of my favorite handhelds of all time, and I’ve found a mod that’ll help give it a second wind in 2024. While traditional display upgrades require messing around with the original panel, there’s a new drop-in solution that adds an AMOLED touchscreen to Nintendo’s portable. That’s right, you can now arm your 26-year-old console with the same screen tech as your smartphone, arming it with better visuals than modern replicas.I was origina

Despite Elden Ring's triumphs, director Hidetaka Miyazaki still hasn't made his "ideal fantasy RPG" - so how much better can FromSoftware games get?

FromSoftware's Hidetaka Miyazaki has said he still hasn't created his "ideal fantasy RPG" - despite putting out groundbreaking future-classics over and over - which begs the question: how much better can these games get?Hidetaka Miyazaki is one of gaming's most recognizable names for a reason. FromSoftware practically kickstarted an entire subgenre with Miyazaki in the director's chair for Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and most recently, the studio's magnum opus, Elden Ring. One

Dragon Age: The Veilguard's "web-like" skill trees were "heavily influenced" by Final Fantasy 10 and 12's RPG progression

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is set to have sprawling skill trees for each class that take inspiration from Final Fantasy 10's Sphere Grid and Final Fantasy 12's License Board.In an interview with RPG Site, Dragon Age: The Veilguard director Corinne Busche explained that skill trees unlock a few missions into the game. "The skill tree is absolutely enormous and it is bespoke for your class," Busche said, "...imagine almost a gigantic spider web-like visual, and if I'm a mage right at the very cente

Shadowheart from Baldur's Gate 3 was originally "more sassy" and had to be "heavily dialed down" after one of the devs said "I really don't like" the character

Shadowheart, the fan-favorite cleric from Baldur's Gate 3, was originally a much more sassy character before being "heavily dialed down" due to internal feedback.Shadowheart's sassiness and hot temper are two of her most defining traits that make her one of the more popular Baldur's Gate 3 romance options, but at some point in the game's Early Access period, it sounds like she was downright mean. GamesRadar+ had the chance to attend a panel at the BAFTA's: An Evening with Baldur's Gate 3 event,

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Surprise! Doctor Who episode 7 finally reveals the show's Big Bad – and only one of your theories was right

Doctor Who told us way back in The Devil’s Chord that there’s always a twist at the end. In more than one sense, it was right.Susan Twist – the actress who plays the mysterious woman seen across time and space this season – features heavily in ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’. But there’s also a surprise Big Bad reveal, one that has been the subject of countless theories and endless speculation online. So, who are they? And what does it mean for Doctor

After making Stardew Valley on a "hand-me-down" Costco computer, Eric Barone says his one big splurge was an actually good PC

Stardew Valley creator Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone developed the massively successful farming sim on a cheap prebuilt PC from Costco that was handed down to him by his father, but he later upgraded to a custom rig he built himself.Barone appeared on the latest episode of the My Perfect Console podcast and was asked if he indulged in any "extravagances" in the wake of Stardew Valley's runaway popularity. He addressed a similar sentiment in May, saying he hadn't bought anything "extravagant" and st

Helldivers 2 dev says there's still time to get the new Stratagem even after we chose to save the children, but GM Joel says we "never will"

Helldivers 2 players can give themselves a hearty pat on the back after choosing to save thousands of sick children instead of liberating the planet Marfark and getting a new Stratagem, but now there's a seemingly insurmountable challenge to overcome.The latest Helldivers 2 major order presented freedom fighters a very difficult choice: Drop down into Vernen Wells to save the children trapped in Super Citizen Anne's Hospital for Very Sick Children; a heroic task but one without any real reward b

New HeroQuest starter set is like Avalon Hill’s answer to Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion

Talisman and HeroQuest are two beloved fantasy board games classics, and thanks to upcoming expansions and new editions, they can find their audience all over again with a new generation of players.
The games’ publisher, Avalon Hill have quite the legacy behind them and they’re not slowing down in their pursuit of producing and refining some of the best board games in the genres of strategy, wargames, and adventure RPGs. So, the team had plenty to share regarding upcoming Avalon Hill

League of Legends players protest $500 skin with a forced boycott, perma-banning Ahri to stop anyone using her new cosmetic

League of Legends players are making good on their attempt to forcibly boycott a $500 cosmetic by banning the champion it's available for.Signature Ahri is a particularly fancy skin, designed to commemorate League of Legends' all-time esports great Faker. Trouble is, the fanciest version costs $500, and players aren't happy about the potentially slippery slope that could set Riot sliding down. The concern is that if it's willing to charge this much now, it'll be happy doing this again in future,

Astro Bot was the most-wishlisted game from Summer Game Fest - beating Doom: The Dark Ages and Gears of War: E-Day

Astro Bot has beaten both Doom: The Dark Ages and Gears of War: E-Day to claim pole position as the most-wishlisted game from Summer Game Fest 2024.That's according to IGN research data, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz. Of all the games either shown off or revealed for the very first time over the past two weeks or so, it's Team Asobi's Astro Bot that's become the most-wishlisted game of anything showcased at Summer Game Fest 2024.When acquiring the data, over 43,000 users' purchase intentions

Netflix's Ultraman: Rising director says not knowing everything about Ultraman is kind of the point: "There's a mystery to him that I love"

The new Netflix animated sci-fi movie Ultraman: Rising might at first seem somewhat imposing. Even a cursory look online will reveal that Ultraman as a franchise has been around for decades with a storied history in Japan. But while that's all true, and there's plenty more Ultraman where Rising came from, the folks that made Rising have a simple answer to whether you need to know about Ultraman to get what Rising's doing: You don't.The movie follows baseball star and reluctant superhero Ken Sato

Destiny 2: The Final Shape debuts as 2024's best-rated game, beating Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Balatro

Despite being an expansion, Destiny 2: The Final Shape is the year's highest-rated release so far.Bungie did the seemingly impossible and closed out the Light and Darkness Saga (which had been enduring for 10 years) with a bang in the game's eighth expansion, the Final Shape. Guardians everywhere finally went head-to-head with the big baddie the Witness, but the bigger triumph came from how damn good the whole package is.Destiny 2: The Final Shape currently enjoys an aggregate score of 93

Helldivers 2's buff-filled patch may have unintentionally upped the difficulty: "Wait a moment ... you're saying the game is more difficult now?"

Helldivers 2 received a huge new patch this week with over 100 tweaks to improve the game, including an alteration to the enemy spawn rate that was supposed to revert an unpopular change rolled out in April. Unfortunately, it seems it may not have worked as intended.In April, patch 01.000.300 increased patrol spawning when less than four Helldivers played together, but this was quickly met with outcry. Rather than making the spread of managed democracy a more enjoyable time, it had the exa

Stephen King has broken his silence on Netflix’s new number one movie with an "amazing" ending

He has spoken! Everyone's favorite social media film critic Stephen King has shared his verdict on Netflix’s new French shark movie Under Paris, and it sounds like he approves.King, as he usually does, took to Twitter to share his opinion on the new fin-tastic horror flick. "I thought UNDER PARIS would be a jokey movie, like SHARKNADO, but Twitter convinced me to give it a watch, and it's really quite good," said the legendary author. "The last 25 minutes were amazing."That’s pretty

Arcane Season 2 isn't the end of Riot's animation push, and fans are already theorizing where in the League of Legends universe we're heading next

Arcane, League of Legends' excellent anime spin-off, will end with Season 2 - but with news that Riot and animation studio Fortiche haven't finished telling stories in its universe, fans are already theorizing where future series might be set."Arcane is just the beginning of our larger storytelling journey and partnership with the wonderful animation studio that is Fortiche," Arcane co-creator Christian Linke told fans. "From the very beginning, since we started working on this project, we had a

Evil Dead Rise director sets next horror movie project for 2026 release – and it's a team up with James Wan's Atomic Monster and Blumhouse

Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin has announced his next horror movie and it's a team up between James Wan's Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The filmmaker has confirmed when it's set to arrive in cinemas, too: April 17, 2026.For now, that's all we know about the project, though Cronin promises it to be "wickedly entertaining and terrifying". He announced the news on social media on June 14, with a screenshot of the film's screenplay with the title scribbled out."I am super excited to be gathering

Elden Ring gets huge quality-of-life features patch right before Shadow of the Erdtree, including an inventory change I've wanted for years

The day before Shadow of the Erdtree launches next week, Elden Ring will receive a new patch with some significant quality-of-life features, including an inventory change that denotes all new items.FromSoftware just announced that Elden Ring will get a new update next week on June 20, the day before Shadow of the Erdtree's launch. As seen below, one of the big features of the new patch is that "newly obtained items will be marked with a '!'" and a brand new inventory tab called 'Recent Items' wi

Elden Ring publisher tries to cram the RPG's entire story into a 4-minute catch-up video for Shadow of the Erdtree, actually does a pretty solid job

Ahead of the launch of the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, Elden Ring's publisher, Bandai Namco, has posted a short video to give players a refresher on the events of the base game, and while it's a solid recap of the Tarnished's journey across the Lands Between, it might not be the official, in-depth lore explanation many of us probably wanted.Elden Ring's story isn't exactly… easily digestible, and chances are that if you approached the action-RPG casually and just focused on having a

Xbox's big multiplatform olive branch Sea of Thieves was last month's most-downloaded PS5 game

Former Xbox exclusive pirateventure Sea of Thieves was, funnily enough, last month's most popular game on PS5 in both Europe and North America.Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that its hefty lineup of first-party exclusives would start to cross the console divide and release on PlayStation, which is now simultaneously the company's rival and partner. Medieval whodunnit Pentiment, rhythmic whack 'em up Hi-Fi Rush, bug-sized survival game Grounded, and multiplayer pirate sim Sea of Thi

The covers of the upcoming issue of Total Film have been revealed, and they promise a must-see superhero team-up, as Deadpool and Wolverine unite under the banner of the MCU. Deadpool & Wolverine sees Ryan Reynolds' irreverent supe step into his destiny as the self-appointed 'Marvel Jesus', with a new variant of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine begrudgingly along for the ride. Both feature on the newsstand cover of the new issue which is landing on shelves on Thursday, June 20, with subscribers due

Final Fantasy 14's Yoshi-P shoots down speculation he's remaking FF9 - and that he'd morph the turn-based JRPG into an action game, thank you very much

No, Naoki Yoshida and the Final Fantasy 14 gang aren't working on the long-rumored Final Fantasy 9 remake, and even if he was, he wouldn't change the turn-based battle system.The long-gestating rumors of an alleged Final Fantasy 9 remake have been doing the rounds once again over the past few days. In the latest Letter From the Producer live showcase, just below, Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida has addressed the rumors of the Final Fantasy 9 remake head-on, flatly denying that he's invol

The Boys creator talks a potential spin-off for season 4's best new character: "Who wouldn’t want to?"

Jeffrey Dean Morgan made his series debut on The Boys season 4 – and creator Eric Kripke wouldn't mind giving him his own spin-off show."Hey, man, if Jeffrey wants to do it, and it works out, who wouldn’t want to [do a] Jeffrey DeanBoysspinoff?" Kripke told Deadline.Morgan plays Joe Kessler, a CIA Case Officer who hadn't run into Butcher for some 11 years – though the two definitely have a long history. The actor's casting was announced back in 2022, with Kripke say

Assassin's Creed Shadows will reportedly launch from the Animus Hub, previously known as Assassin's Creed Infinity

Assassin's Creed Infinity, the still mysterious connective tissue that'll soon tie all Assassin's Creed games together, has now been renamed to the Animus Hub.Ubisoft couldn't really describe Assassin's Creed Infinity without confusing everyone back when it was first announced in 2022. At the time, the company revealed that Infinity would be a "hub that will unite all our different experiences and our players together in meaningful ways," and might even "bring back standalone, multiplayer

$843 million lawsuit against Valve already has its own website: "The Steam Claim" accuses the biggest store in PC gaming of "overcharging" players

Valve is being sued in the UK for a whopping £656 million ($843 million) in a compensation lawsuit alleging that millions of PC players could have been overcharged on Steam.Vicki Shotbolt, the children's digital rights campaigner heading the case alongside law firm Milberg London, accuses Valve of "rigging the market and taking advantage of UK gamers."According to Shotbolt, the developer and digital distribution company is "shutting out" all competition in the PC gaming market as it

Spider-Verse composer says he's not sad that the trilogy is ending, but is up for returning for the spin-off TV shows

Given how beloved the Spider-Verse movies are, most fans are likely not ready for the trilogy to come to an end with upcoming threequel Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (which is currently in production but doesn't have a release date after previously being indefinitely delayed). However, the same can't be said for composer Daniel Pemberton who admits that he is now ready to say goodbye to these films.Having composed the scores for Into, Across, and currently working on Beyond, Pemberton has

Amazon is serving up some fantastic Nintendo Switch OLED bundles this weekend

The Nintendo Switch OLED may have been on the shelves for over two years, but it’s only just starting to see its own discounts. Rather than saving £10 or £20 on the console by itself, though, Amazon is offering up some fantastic bundles this week, offering over £50 off a console and game together.These aren’t cheap games, either. We normally see smaller releases included in Nintendo Switch OLED deals; think more Sparks of Hope, Just Dance, and Minecraft - game