Launching a live service would have required “all our studio resources” “We know this news will be tough for many, especially our dedicatedThe Last of UsFactions community, who have been following our multiplayer ambitions ardently,”reads the statement. “We’re equally crushed at the studio as we were looking forward to putting it in your hands. We wanted to share with you some background of how we came to this decision. “The multiplayer team has been in pre-production with this game since we were working onThe Last of Us Part II– crafting an experience we felt was unique and had tremendous potential,” it continues....

Need a hint for today’s Connections? Read our guide for help with Connections #187 This guide is for a previous day! Looking for today’s solution? Check out theConnections hint and answers for Thursday 12th December! Want a hint for Connections today?Piggybacking off the monumental success of daily puzzle gameWordle, the New York Times has another fantastically popular word game out now. It’s calledConnections, and if you haven’t played it before, now’s the time to start....

Poetry in slow motion Gaze down the sights of today’s Advent Calendar window and you’ll find time is a tricksy, malleable concept that’s all slow-motion power slides and extraordinary grenade explosions. Just mind the gibs on the floor there. Wouldn’t want to stain your boots. So why not sit back and savour today’s timeless entry. It’sTrepang2! James:I’ll admit to not having playedF.E.A.R., overwhelmingly the biggest inspiration for Trepang2 and its slow-mo shootery....

January

Stuck on today’s Wordle word for December 15? Read our hint or find the answer below! This guide is for a previous day! Looking for today’s solution? Check out theWordle hint and answer for Thursday 12th December! Need a hint for today’s Wordle answer?We have you covered with a list of hints to help you maintain that precious streak. Every day,Wordlepresents its legions of players with a deviously simple quandary: can you guess the right five-letter word within just six guesses?...

Half-vampires abroad on the burning streets of Paris Arkane Lyon’s studio director Sebastien Mitton has shared three concept artworks for theDeathloopdeveloper’s adaptation ofMarvel’s Blade, a third-personactionadventure set in Paris, which wasannounced last week during the Keighleys. On the surface the artworks give away little, but thankfully, I am a Vampire of News, equipped with supernatural vision and insight. Why not come inside my den and let me regale you with some speculations?...

Simple pleasures Confession time, readers. Before a couple of weeks ago, I had never played the originalDoom. As a child, my family didn’t have much money and I didn’t get my first laptop until I was 16. Thus, I missed out on a lot of what are now considered PC staples. With dread, I’m often met with the accursed exclamation, “You’ve not playedinsert gamebefore?” followed by a good dose of judgment....

What the opening level of every mainline Doom game says about its place in FPS history Video game openings have always been a source of fascination for me. As a player, you’re excited by the prospect of the game to come - the sights you’ll see, the challenges you’ll face - and first impressions can make or break your entire perception of what a game is versus the one you had stored in your head before switching it on....

Tile by fire Normally when writing up a new game, I’d tell you how to play it. Today, I’m going to be massively self-indulgent and ask you to tell me. The game in question isDungeon Sweeper, a nifty free Itch.io browser puzzler made with the Godot engine that, as the name suggests, has a certain amount in common with Windows classicMinesweeper. OK, I’ll tell you a little: you click map hexagons to expose forests, villages, paths, lakes and, yes, dungeons, with more biomes becoming available as your score increases....

I’ll see your shonen hero and raise you a weaponised kangaroo If you have no idea what Suikoden is - or why I’m yelling at myself – it’s an acclaimed if slightly forgotten RPG series from Konami and Hudson Soft, whose core gimmick is that you can recruit scores of named characters, and pit them against each other in both party-based battle and full-on army combat. It’s also known for having sumptuous writing, even by RPG standards....

Larian boss Swen Vincke shares what he would have said in full “I’m really sorry to hear so many of you were let go,” Vincke wrote ina Xitter thread. “It’s a sad thing to realize that of the people who were in the original meeting room, there’s almost nobody left. I hope you all end up well.” It would have been one of the show’s few references - indeed, I think itsonlyreference to job losses following a year of mass videogame industry layoffs, with corporations such asMicrosoft,Epic,Sony,Embracer Group,Unity,CD ProjektandSEGAdismissingthousands of staffin a bid to make “efficiencies” following a boom period partly fostered by Covid-19 lockdowns and social distancing measures....

Meteor Lake mobile chips officially detailed Intel have finally confirmed the full lineup and specs for their 14th genMeteor LakeCPUs, which for now is comprised entirely of ultrathin laptop chips with the newCore Ultrabranding. I appreciate that a PC gaming site might not be the most natural home for this information, considering both that these are not technicallygaming CPUsand that that Meteor Lake’s most hyped-up feature is more of a productivity aid: a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for client-side AI work....

The 34WR50QC is a great value performer at $150+ below MSRP. Ultrawide monitors often come at a premium, but right now you can pick up a 34-inch gaming monitor for just $199 - just in time for the winter holidays where you’ll have a chance to snuggle up and play some video games! That’s a phenomenally good price for a 3440x1440 LG model with a 100Hz refresh rate and FreeSync/G-Sync Compatible support for gaming....