Hot on the heels of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s disappointing “gameplay” reveal, the pre-order pages for the game have gone up on Ubisoft’s official store. The usual run of editions are all here, of course, including the Gold and Ultimate Editions - which come with the Season Pass. Those who pre-order the Season Pass, or any version that includes it, will unlock a bonus mission - presumably at launch. The German Ubisoft store actually let slip what that mission is going to be....

Sony brought out plenty of big guns during the PS5 games showcase, including the cute little robot Astro. Instead of a sequel to Rescue Mission, Japan Studio has been working on Astro’s Playroom. Astro’s Playroom is essentially a series of playable tech demos, and comes pre-loaded on every PS5. It’s a 3D platformer that features four worlds, each inspired by one of the PS5’s components. Having Playroom in the name sort of gave this away, because Playroom was itself the PS4’s pre-loaded experience....

While we’re lacking details on exactly what we can expect, the main new map we see appears to be in some sort of sandy industrial outpost, with a large chasm where you can jump your Warthog over a deadly lake of lava. The season’s main art features three unique spartans wearing new armour we see in action throughout the trailer. We see a bright blue visor on one spartan, paired with a distinctive new chest piece with extra ammo strapped to the front....

In the lead-up to the launch of Back 4 Blood, the new game from the people who co-created the subgenre, I went back to re-experience Left 4 Dead. I wasn’t impressed. Left 4 Dead is still fun, but in sort of the same way a PS2 game can be: pretty engaging for an hour or two before you realise how hard it is to give up years of design, visual and production value progress for a nostalgia kick....

Baldur’s Gate 3 released through Early Access on October 6, and since that time, a couple of hotfixes have been released. Yesterday, the team released the first patch for the game, along with some player stats related to death. According to the stats, there’s a “huge spike” in deaths around the arena where you first meet Gale. While traditionally a non-combat encounter, players can enter into combat at any moment if they so wish....

DICE just dropped the trailer for the sixth chapter of Battlefield 5’s Tides of War post-launch content plan. Into the Jungle builds on the recently released Pacific content, and kicks off with update 6.0 on Thursday, February 6. Chapter 6 launches with the new Solomon Islands map, a close-quarters affair from the design team behind BF1’s Argonne Forest. Solomon Islands is available on Conquest and Breakthrough. Chapter 6 will also see the release of new weapons, including the Type 11 LMG for Support and M2 Carbine for Assault....

Once the deal goes through, Microsoft will own the IP for Call of Duty, Warcraft, Candy Crush, Tony Hawk, Diablo, Overwatch, Spyro, Hearthstone, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, StarCraft and many, many more going forward. Who knew that’d we’d all live to see the day that Crash Bandicoot would become an Xbox mascot. Wild. The deal is not finalised yet, and there’s no word on when it’ll be all tied up....

“The dream is real!” wrote Liz Albl earlier this week. “So happy to announce I’ve joined Cloud Chamber as Narrative Lead on BioShock.” Albl already has a number of writing credits under her belt, having written on games like Ghost of Tsushima, Far Cry 5, Watch Dogs: Legion, and more. It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about this fourth entry in the BioShock series, most of which has just been a lot of he-said, she-said rather than anything actually concrete....

Bleeding Edge, Ninja Theory’s multiplayer melee action game, began life as a MOBA, complete with genre staples like towers and minions for players to control. Creative director Rahni Tucker revealed this interesting fact in a new Q&A. However, being a very action-heavy game, the team realised it’s going to be hard for players to focus on the action while managing the strategy element of controlling minions and so on. Third-person action is Ninja Theory’s core competency, after all, so the team decided to instead refine those elements of the game....

According to the developer, it has decided to “take a step back” and “pause on planning” the event, going on to say it was a tough decision, but the “right one” to make. The reason stated for the cancellation is that Blizzard wants to put its energy toward supporting its teams and progressing development of it games and experiences. It was also stated the company will use this time to “reimagine what a BlizzCon event of the future could look like....

According to Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno, the studio has been working on the horror title for “more than a year.” “We’re doing this with a very famous gaming publisher,” Babieno told GI.biz. “I can’t tell you who. I can’t tell you what the project is, but I’m pretty sure when people realize we’re working on it, they will be very excited.” He also goes on to state that its future projects will be more action-focused and in a first-person perspective like The Medium....

That’s according to modder Lance McDonald, who posted on Twitter that From Software’s trippy horror RPG is still locked to 30fps like it was on PS4 via the PS5’s backwards compatibility. Meanwhile, a number of other From Software titles have had a performance bump on Sony’s new machine. 2016’s Dark Souls 3 and last year’s ninja slasher Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice both run at 60fps on PS5, an improvement over the previous console generation....

The developer and publisher have today announced that Season Pass 2 for Borderlands 3 is on the way. According to the developer, the next Season Pass includes two DLC add-ons – each of which will feature more content for players to enjoy and more items for them to use. Borderlands 3 Season Pass 2 will add two new expansions to the game in the form of Designer’s Cut and Director’s Cut, and will add a slew of new skins to the playable Vault Hunters in the title (though we don’t get to see these new cosmetics just yet, sadly)....

The recent launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s Season 2 introduced a new feature to the game: Regiments. Those are essentially clans; groups where players can all carry the same clan tag and get other benefits such as double XP for one hour each day. Registering a Regiment name changes the colour of the associated tag to gold, indicating that it’s unique. Unfortunately, players quickly discovered that you could change the colour of the tag to one of several other colours....

If you’re excited for this event, we’ve got the exact date and time that Operation Monarch goes live across US and EU timezones so you can jump into the action as soon as possible. Warzone Operation Monarch release date Operation Monarch goes live May 11 across all regions, following a short update you’ll have to download before getting into the thick of it. Once you do download it, you’ll immediately be able to experience the new content present on Caldera, including the monstrous new guests to the tropical island....

In a tweet today, the official Call of Duty Twitter account announced the delay to the season in a rather passive fashion, saying: “We’re giving everyone an extra day to unlock tier 100… but can you get there? Season 5 is now launching Thursday 8/12 at 9 PM PT.” As per Activision, this is “due to a testing issue that was discovered earlier this week.” For anyone keeping track, that’s 6pm ET / 9pm PT / 5am BST....

Watch the reveal for Call of the Sea below. Here’s the blurb from publisher Raw Fury. “Having landed on a nameless, strange island paradise that was his last known location, your search will lead you to the discovery of remnants of a lost civilisation as you try to unlock puzzles and secrets that will reveal clues to the fate of your husband’s ill-fated expedition. But in the course of your search you soon come to realise that not everything on the island is as it seems… An otherworldly tale of mystery and self-discovery, Call of the Sea is a love letter to the adventure game genre that follows one woman’s desperate journey – a journey driven by love and longing....

Monster Hunter World: The Board Game was first shown to the world in 2020, and plans to give players a physical, tabletop spin on the 2018 video game. The core objective and gameplay loop is more or less the same; team up with other hunters, track down massive enemies, slice bits off them, wear the results. The Kickstarter for the game is set to kick off on April 20 and run until April 30, giving you just 10 days to pledge to the project if you want to get hunting IRL....

Right now, this special Animal Crossing Gift Box is only available at Best Buy in the US. But, for $50, you’ll get a lot of really neat Animal Crossing stuff. With coasters, a glass, and a mold for ice cubes, you’ll be able to fix yourself a great AC-themed drink real quick. Put on your new Animal Crossing cap and socks, and chill with it outside in the beautiful spring weather....

We’ve previously been introduced to Wasteland 3’s upcoming location – a new area that’s located in the southwestern portion of Colorado. The factory complex called Steeltown is where all of the tech that keeps Colorado running is manufactured. But there’s a dark side to the hub, too. Steeltown keeps the Patriarch in power and builds trucks, armor, weapons, and robots – but something’s wrong. Rangers have found the township in a state of disarray: striking workers, bandit raids, and a peculiar isolation hint at something going wrong in Steeltown....