Hunt: Showdown is oppressive to the extent that fear is oppressive, turning vines into snakes and the wind into spirits. But the game never lets you catch your breath and realize that the spider slithering up your leg is just a shadow, and the sudden darkness around you is no sign that you’re dying, but that sunset has come and gone without you noticing.

Even if you were entitled to a few seconds looks, the PvPvE first-person shooter makes sure that your every natural angst comes true. The 19th-century Louisiana bayou in which it is set is a sweltering, humid stage for betrayal and cosmic horror, and the bounty-hunting game’s new boss – she’s the fifth and first to be female. – Rotjaw only makes it more punishing. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be Hunt: Showdown, Developer Crytek told me in an email.

Hunt: Showdown’s first female boss

“If it’s not scary and you’re not nervous from the start of a game, [worrying] about other hunters and things that gnaw at night then it’s not Hunt,” said narrative director Richard Danksy.

Rotjaw is a biter by birth. The frighteningly sized alligator smacks its deadly mouth at you despite the twisted metal cage constricting it (she wears it more like a sundress than a lapel for her powerful, bloated body). She came with the game Tide of Shadows Live Eventwhich runs until August 23 and adds story content and new weapons.

But while Rotjaw is fresh meat, ever since Hunt was released in 2018, its developers “knew [a gator] was an essential element for the dark bayou setting we wanted to create,” says lead character artist Hugo Guerra.

The idea just needed to be refined. At first, “we struggled with the technical aspects of implementing Rotjaw within the confines of our game,” Guerra explains. Crytek was sure he wanted Rotjaw to be Hunt’s first “wild target”, meaning he wouldn’t be confined to an enclosed space. “compound” area like the existing bosses. “It added an extra level of complexity in terms of rigging and navigation.”

Finally, the team made a technical breakthrough in 2022. Rotjaw was able to start clinging to its final form after Crytek created “a quick mock-up that served as a proof of concept” and decided to “[dive] head first in development,” Guerra continues.

She didn’t have to struggle too much – some things about her were predetermined. “A good antagonist should fit well into Hunt’s core loop,” says design director Dennis Schwarz. “It’s not just about fighting them, it’s also about tracking them down and securing your[[[[bounty token reward, on which other players can try to kill you]. “Most of the drama of Hunt: Showdown takes place in its PvP elements, making bosses “first and foremost enablers and keepers of the world.” [bounty] everyone wants to claim.

Bosses “cannot be too easy, but also not too hard for players to kill. At the end of the day, […] coming up with a plan on how to extract their bounty is what matters,” continues Schwarz.

Fight Rotjaw

Hunters who find Rotjaw will quickly discover that she likes to bite. Then she likes to rip, bark, and send sky-blue electricity around her like she lives in a protective storm cloud, not a vulnerable stream of gray water.

She gently turns around after a few well-timed attacks, but those willing to read her story might feel bad about it. Rotjaw is “very motherly, nurturing and protective,” says Danksy. “We’ve never had a female target before, so the time seemed right to add one.”

Early concept art like this helped establish just how awesome Rotjaw is in-game. Image: Crytek

A mutant alligator might not be your perfect mom, but her character model should inspire some empathy anyway. While Rotjaw only insidiously emerges at night or under a newly added sheet of rain from Hunt, players can still see the dull reflection of the shattered metal cage that failed to contain her, but weighed her down.

“Often we combine different elements in our monsters to create something new and fresh,” said art director Stefan Heinrich. “That’s where the idea for the cage came from, along with the partially rotten, skeletal appearance of the alligator. One can only imagine the kind of horrific experiences that were inflicted on this poor creature that filled her with so much rage.

When encountering, Rotjaw appears to have black holes for his eyes, but you can see them fill with sky-blue electricity if you get too close. Electricity crackles around its wide-open mouth as well, and the bayou heightens the danger. But you, his money-loving enemy, keep approaching.

Rotjaw’s been through some shit before. She is sensitive to it. So, as you work your way through Hunt: Showdown to find her first female target, make sure you don’t underestimate her. You could shed blood in its water.

Remember when we thought star field was going to be a $60 role-playing game coming out in 2022? Good time. While we have to wait until September 6 to gain heightexplore its 1,000 worlds, and listen to its 250,000 lines of dialogue, we now have a much better idea of ​​what you’ll actually be doing in the game. And at today’s Xbox showcase, Bethesda pulled back the curtain again further, giving us our best look yet at what will likely be one of the biggest games of 2023.

There will be a more Starfield-focused show later on Sunday, but for now, you can check out a fully in-game trailer that…sounds like Fallout?

Official Starfield Story Trailer

And here is the longest deep dive in the Starfield Direct:

Starfield Direct – Deep Dive into Gameplay

What we know about Starfield

As you may already know, achieving liftoff seems to be a key concept in all of this. Unlike most portrayals of space travel, it looks like Starfield will show a grittier, more dangerous approach. This is not futuristic Star Trek. Humanity travels through the stars, but in a precarious way.

Much like other Bethesda games, the focus is on player choice. It has a classic Bethesda dialogue system, as well as a persuasion system influenced by your stats. You can choose a career background for your character as well as personality traits that will influence your build, but Todd Howard assures players that the system is pretty relaxed when it comes to allowing for different playstyles. traits that give you advantages, but each comes with some type of disadvantage to balance it out. It’s very convenient, but in many ways Bethesda wrote the playbook to begin with. And if nothing else, one reason to be excited is that this isn’t a re-release of Skyrim and it’s been a while since Bethesda released an original game!

Learn more: Everything we know about Starfield, from its world to your companions

In an interview with IGN, Howard said the developer has put off its next fantasy RPG for a bit in favor of exploring a new world, which it hasn’t been able to do in a long time. Unfortunately, this vast expanse of space not going to have a lot of sex in it. Boo.

Also, Starfield will have a very sleek controller it’s probably one of Xbox’s finest accessories to date.

Todd Howard pointed out that Bethesda didn’t have the technology to create something like this until now, allowing them to “realistically” generate the world around you.

Highlights of Bethesda’s Starfield Showcase

During Starfield’s longest showcase, Bethesda’s gameplay of a character arriving at a base, where they quickly began gunning down enemies for some XP. And then the looting began. There seems to be plenty to collect and customize, with a particular focus on food. They call the vibe of it all “NASA punk”, which you can do whatever you want. Oh, and there’s a photo mode.

The space gameplay, meanwhile, was very reminiscent of No Man’s Sky. We see a ship land on a planet, where the biggest city Bethesda has ever built (according to them) is. Their hope is to try to tell as many stories as possible in one area. We also got to meet some of the factions, including the obligatory humanity-focused one.

However, just because we’re in space doesn’t mean we can’t embrace a different aesthetic. There is civilized space, and then there are things beyond, where everything goes. We got a glimpse of a city that looked straight out of a western, and moments later something that looked like cyberpunk. Each planet will have its own gravity, and sometimes this gravity can affect you while you are shooting.

“We are pushing our cities and settlements further than we have ever done before,” Bethesda said.

Each time you level up, you get a skill point that you can use to rank up skills. You can do challenges to earn skill points. One skill, for example, lets you control the minds of aliens while another lets you boost your jet all over the place. Another skill lets you hit really, really well. But you can also sneak through the world, crawling through air vents if that’s what you prefer. Or you can blow things up. There seems to be a skill tree for almost every approach.

You can buy a ship, customize that ship, and even hire a crew to operate it. Some teammate interactions can turn into romance, although the conversation that was shown did feel a bit wooden. I guess it’s because the dialogue isn’t as fleshed out as a full-fledged companion. Just like companions, most crew members can lend a hand in the field.

Space game in Starfield

During space combat, you can redirect energy from your shields to your weapons to boost them. After destroying ships, you can loot them in the air. You can turn them into scrap metal or board enemy ships themselves. The gameplay revealed that enemy ships will often have things to shoot inside them, but if you prevail you can take control of the actual ship.

What systems will Starfield launch on?

In related news, you should know that Starfield is an Xbox console exclusive, though it will also release on PC and Steam. by Bethesda Pete Hines wants you to know he’s so sorry about itbut hey: that’s what happens when you’re bought out by Microsoft for billions of dollars.

Kotaku covers everything about Summer Game Fest, from Thursday’s main show to other events happening throughout the next week. Whether you like larger-than-life triple-A games or intimate, offbeat indies, you can follow all things SGF here.

I can’t imagine how daunting it must be to start creating a Diablo-style action RPG. Not only are they so few in number, but those that are known are behemoths. Diablo, obviously, then Titan Quest, Torchlight, Grim Dawn… Who would deliberately want to step into its shadow, especially with Diablo IV coming out next week for a chorus of stellar reviews. Now imagine trying anyway, when there are only two people making the game. It’s Ghostlore, which just came out on Xbox Game Pass, and wow, it succeeds.

To be a Diablo-like, there are a few checkboxes. You need an isometric perspective, thousands of enemies to attack with an ever-increasing number of skills, portals to shops, and most importantly, a nearly endless amount of loot. All of these demands are incredibly difficult for any developer, requiring not only a frightening sheer volume of content to create, but also a cobweb of aspects to balance perfectly. I can immediately see why most wouldn’t try. And that only adds to my respect for developers Andrew Teo and Adam Teo (unrelated), who were undeterred.

Ghostlore achieves all of the above, only slipping slightly in difficulty, and even adds a few unique twists to the format. This is largely due to a lot of common sense when it comes to range.

Bringing action RPG to Southeast Asia

Described as an “Eastpunk” game by its creators, Ghostlore draws inspiration from South Asian folklore, including the mythologies of Singapore, Malaysia, China and Indonesia, set in a particular blend of the modern world and planes and forests infested with monsters. Rendered in beautifully drawn sprites, the world has a smart 90s look, while playing like a classic ARPG, delivering all the enemy- and loot-busting antics you’ve come to expect from the genre. Ghostlore then adds unique enemies, including an intriguing bonus system and the ability to combine classes to create new sets of skills and attacks.

For the most part, you know what you’re getting here. There is a central town with quest givers, merchants and that person who will remove the gems from your gear or the gear from your gems. You then go off to different grayed out regions, exploring, attacking and looting, leveling up, changing speed, getting mad that you just found a better shield just after spending all your money and gems to upgrade your current one, and blowing health and mana potions like a tense wizard.

Screenshot: Andrew Teo/Adam Teo/Kotaku

But between these familiar aspects lie some really interesting ideas. (Don’t hate me if you’ve seen them elsewhere – they were new to me.) The first is the Glyph system. Glyphs can be found among the loot in large quantities, each with a boost property, such as, for example, “+12% increase in minion HP” or “+81 MP”. These are placed in a tiled grid next to your inventory, in which new spaces unlock as you level up. (By the end of the game, I had 49 of the total 60 open.) However, you can also find Compound Glyphs, which are five-tile shapes, pentominoes if you will, which then enhance the properties of all other glyphs that fall into their tiles. It’s a mini-game in itself, trying to fit your best compound glyphs into the best possible arrangement in the grid. And for min-maxers, it’s manna from heaven.

Another fantastic idea that I want to see copied everywhere is the way Ghostlore handles classes. At first, you choose from one of six – Sentinel, Feral, Exorcist, Hashashin, Geomancer, and Adept – then unlock slots in another grid that allow you to choose from their selection of skills. You can swap them whenever you want and quickly unlock more slots to include more skills. Or, you can choose to insert a skill modifier or class bonus, the former empowering other skills on that grid row, the latter being unlocked for every four filled tiles of that class. But it gets much more interesting when you reach level 15.

At this point, you can add a second class to your character and thus also access all of their skills. But in a splendid feature, if you place particular skills from either class next to each other in the grid, they combine to create a third ability, unique to that specific class combination. Place Summon Sentinel Crows next to Feral Unleash, and the two combine to create Summon Sunbirds. They are more powerful creatures, used to help when attacking enemies. Or place the Exorcist’s Exorcise next to the Dervish of Hashashin, and the result is Summon Taming Sari, and a collection of possessed blades fighting alongside you. Reach level 30 and you can add a third and final class, and start making even more combinations in your skill grid.

Screenshot: Andrew Teo/Adam Teo/Kotaku

The trouble with Diablo likes

So many aspects to tweak will delight those who play Diablo-likes to meticulously hone their characters. But also, for those who just want to hit stuff with a stick, anything is possible to use with a more sloppy attitude and I just hope that helps.

This brings us to Ghostlore’s big problem: difficulty. There’s not enough. It’s important to read this knowing that I’m usually the person who advocates for better easy modes, or is furious at the difficulty of spike-shaped bosses, so it’s not about bravado or elitism. It’s been way too easy for way too long, so much so that for the first 25 levels I never used a health potion. (I’m level 39 now, playing post-game content.) In this genre, it’s not necessarily a terrible problem, given how many players play ARPGs almost like idle games, something to click while listening to a podcast. But it’s definitely more fun once it starts to get more complicated. (It should be noted that there is a permadeath mode, however.)

Complete the main story, however, and you’ll gain access to entirely new areas that offer a much higher degree of challenge, which is beautiful. There’s also local co-op, and of course the replayability of trying out different class builds.

Ghostlore clicked for me just like Titan Quest, but on a smaller scale. But that’s also a selling point here – it’s not going to take over your life like Diablo IV might next week, but rather give you a shorter burst of fun and for a fraction of the price.

I rarely watch a video game trailer more than once. Still, with Bungie’s Marathon reboot/sequel/whatever, I found myself looping its sleek, sleek trailer. It’s not just because the trailer slaps, but because Bungie teases seems to be one of the coolest shooters released in years.

On March 24, shortly before a Spider-Man 2 trailer set off an all-new “puddle“, Bungie (Halo, Destiny) has revealed its next great first person shooter: Marathon. If that name sounds familiar, that’s because it’s actually Bungie returning to one of its oldest franchises, the Mac-only shooter trilogy, Marathon. You can read more about these ancient games, their beloved lore, and how it connects to Halo and modern extraction shooters in this piece from our very own Claire Jackson.

However, I’m not here to talk about lore, history, Marathon fandom, or anything related to the Bungie mythos. No, instead, I just want to gush for a few paragraphs about how refreshing and impressive the look and trailer of this game is compared to most other shooters and games available today. And I don’t seem to be the only one loving this trailer as it has already reached 18 million views on YouTube.

PlayStation / Bungie

Marathon has one of the best game trailers of 2023

From the moment the the intense electronic music of the trailer starts at the beginning, I was engaged. Then we see someone in a radiant-looking sci-fi outfit running through a tunnel, while shots of brightly colored robot insects create complex android-like beings. What’s going on here? I don’t know, But did you just hear that sick piece in the music?

Either way, the running character exits the darkest tunnels and enters an incredibly bright world where we see he’s also sporting vibrant colors, including a glowing neon pink helmet. The music builds as the camera zooms closer and closer to the runner. Things seem tense as the music turns into a digital mess, then BAM! That’s all she wrote for this racer as they are pulled from afar by a slick, paper-white looking android. Our now-dead runner is seen collapsing in slow motion into what appears to be a milk-like substance, their inky blue blood mixing and swirling in the water around their corpse. As the robot sniper snatches something from the dead runner, the music plays back, fades out and BAM! Bungie Reveals This Vibrant Trailer Was For A New Marathon.

“Vibrant” is really the key word here. Everything in this trailer pops in a way that I haven’t seen in most other shooters released in recent years. Many modern shooters seem focused on realism, which can be beautiful, but also a bit lackluster. The popular color scheme that we typically see on shooters is also starting to mix up shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield. Or they all look a little too much like Fortnite, which, while colorful, is no longer visually distinct. I really appreciate these modern shooters despite everything. But with Marathon, things are different.

In fact, it’s more than colorful. It’s almost garish with all of its pinks, yellows, greens and blues clashing in almost every image. Yet everything is balanced by hyper-realistic lighting, materials, textures, and models. The color palettes are amazing to look at and a few of us at Kotaku couldn’t help but watch the trailer.

Marathon’s new art style is fresh and bold

Bungie calls Marathon’s art style “graphic realism,” as mentioned in a recent behind-the-scenes video about the rebooted shooter. Bungie developer Emily Katske expands on the game’s art further, saying it’s “bold, colorful [and] stylized.”

Game director Christopher Barret, in the same video, also says that the team wanted the art to be “beautiful” and “vibrant”, “mysterious” and “familiar”, “but also weird”.

Bungie

Normally, I’d roll my eyes a bit at this kind of conversation, but after seeing the trailer and concept art for this new version of Marathon, yes, I get it. Balance is key, however. Bungie needs to carefully balance when and where to “compose [things] up to 11 inches and when to step back a bit so people don’t get overwhelmed trying to play.

It’s a risky option, taking a beloved franchise and reworking it into something bold. It’s also quite different from the original Marathon games, which featured more sober or grimy textures and Doom-like sprites. I’ve already spotted longtime Marathon fans upset with this more colorful and stylized new direction. And until we actually play the final game, we won’t know if any of this will actually work. Was it a big, costly mistake? Or a huge bet that lands perfectly? No idea!

But the trailer, concept art, and overall style of Marathon have me more excited than I thought to play this upcoming extraction shooter. I’m not even a fan of this kind of online FPS, but I want to see more Marathon so badly that I’ll give it a try. As long as I can waddle around Bungie’s amazing new world for a few minutes before I get killed, I’ll be happy to play and explore Marathon on every outing.

I was on board with 2K Lego player by the time I heard we were getting an open-world Lego racing game, with the ability to build your own vehicles. And after playing almost 12 hours so far, I’m still having a lot of fun with the game. But it’s impossible to ignore the nagging feeling that he really wants me to spend money on his in-game store .

Announced in March, Lego 2K Drive is the first game resulting from an agreement between 2K and Lego back in 2022. The two companies apparently decided to glue their names together and add “drive” to the end to create what might be the most boring video game title of 2023. Luckily, the video game itself is much, much more fun than its lackluster title, which feels less like a wacky open-world racer filled with cool bonuses and more like a bad sports game featuring a sport I’ve never heard of but is popular nonetheless.

Bland name, but fun Lego racing

Get past the bland name and Lego 2K Drive comes out of the gate firing on all cylinders with thrilling CG cutscenes and a fairly short but fun tutorial. It makes a good first impression. And the moment the game gave me full control, I was impressed with what I saw. Lego 2K Drive takes place in a brick-built world filled with side missions, mini-games, collectibles and so on, so many Lego vehicles. It is very colorful and beautiful. And massive! 2K Drive’s open world is divided into a few different biomes, each with their own theme, characters, missions, and vehicles. Playing this game is like playing in the basement of the rich kid you knew in elementary school who owned all the Lego sets. Lucky bastard. But now I, Zack, have all the cool bricks and sets to play with!

The basic setup behind the main story mode is that an evil racer hates you – for reasons the game doesn’t jokingly state – and you have to earn the big trophy to prove you’re the best driver. To stand a chance of that big win, you’ll need to earn a bunch of flags by beating your rivals, leveling up to unlock new races, rank up, and eventually advance to the big final tournament. There’s not much to the actual story, but the writing is similar to recent Lego movies, sometimes making me smile and rarely boring. And I think kids will enjoy the wackiest moments.

But to win the big trophy and prove yourself to your evil rival, you’ll have to do more than drive Lego-built cars on different tracks, as piloting boats and mastering off-road vehicles are also on your agenda. And like cars, all are built of bricks. However, you are not actively choosing between each type of vehicle. Instead, when you race, the game automatically switches between your car, boat, or off-road ride of your choice. This streamlines what could have been a boring part of 2K Drive, and also means you can explore the entire Lego-filled world of Bricklandia at your leisure.

Driving really fast and hitting a river? Keep driving and you’ll turn into a boat! Take a sharp turn on a paved road and over dunes? Don’t worry, the game will swap your car for a jeep in no time. It takes the open-world driving of Forza Horizon and makes it even more arcade and exciting because you can literally go anywhere at any time.

All the bricks and cool stuff in the world can’t save a racing game with bad driving physics or poor controls, and thankfully Lego 2K Drive avoids those pitfalls and is a joy to play. Once I mastered the drift and jump controls, I was masterfully dipping, swinging, and soaring around the world like a Lego pro. And on Xbox Series X, performance was smooth as butter, making it easy to enjoy all the high-speed action.

Lego 2K Drive’s disappointing microtransactions

The moment the bricks start to fall from this creation is when you start digging into the menus, where you’ll come across a full store with a season pass. While the game features an amazing, in-depth, and easy-to-use vehicle builder, allowing you to create almost anything you can imagine, it also has some disappointing microtransactions.

Technically, you can just drive, have fun, unlock cars, build your own creations, and never really interact with the in-game store. But, if you don’t want (or can’t) build something like an ambulance or a giant hamburger car, the store has official Lego builds that you can buy and use in the game. However, all of these cars cost $10,000 Lego Bux. And after playing for 12 hours, I only reached around $8,000.

This is the part where 2K Games, while twirling its mustache, would probably say: don’t worry, you can buy Bux if you want. That’s true, of course, but it’s so out of place in this otherwise colorful game of creativity and madness.

And the way the economy is balanced, it really does feel like you’ll have to shell out the cash if you want to buy more than one of these premade cars without grinding for hours. It’s also unfortunate that the in-game store has packs of Lego pieces for sale. These are cheaper than cars (luckily) and the game builder offers lots of free coins (and you earn more by completing missions), but the fact that some bricks and items are locked behind a paywall, even the one you can bypass via grinding is frustrating.

Screenshot: 2K Games / Lego / Kotaku

The other big part of Lego 2K Drive is the multiplayer, which I barely pushed as there weren’t many other players online while I was playing the game before it was released. Online racing is similar to single-player racing, but with the added drawback that your opponents may have spent hours figuring out how to build the ideal, perfect racing car. Or a giant cock. Or maybe they just spent real money and bought a car using Bux. Until the game is released in the wild, it’ll be hard to say how multiplayer will shake out, but I have a few concerns.

It’s such a shame that such an enjoyable and fun open-world sandbox is tied to things like a season pass, premium currencies, and expensive in-game purchases. Maybe 2K will tweak some levers to make it easier earning and unlocking new cars – which would be nice – but until then the specter of greed will still be there, nagging me as I build, smash and race.

Big changes are coming to Destiny 2 this year and some of them fled earlier in the month. Bungie now thinks it knows who is responsible and has taken action, banning popular Twitch streamer Ekuegan Teko-Agbo from the game he plays for a living. The content creator says he’s innocent, though, and no one really knows what to make of the whole episode.

Every once in a while, Bungie hosts a secret meeting with star players and content creators from around the world. Destiny 2 Community to preview upcoming changes and get feedback on the state of the game and its future. These summits are invite-only and strongly NDA, but that hasn’t stopped apparent screenshots of a PowerPoint presentation from the most recent from being leaked to Discord on April 5 by a user called Freezing Dart. The slideshow apparently revealed upcoming content, weapons, and gameplay changes. A week later, Bungie took the unprecedented step of publicly acknowledging the leak.

“Community interaction and engagement is at the heart of Bungie and our games,” he tweeted April 14. “For years, we’ve invited creators and other community members to confidential summits to provide their input on the future of Destiny. It’s a beloved part of the process, but one that relies heavily on trust.

The studio continued:

Breaches of this trust could prevent us from organizing more summits. We take these violations very seriously and are taking steps to reinforce our policies with those invited to these internal meetings.

He didn’t mention Ekuegan by name, but the streamer later confirmed that Bungie chose him as the source of the leak in an interview with Paul Tassi from Forbes. The veteran player known in the community for his skills and achievements in the game said he won’t be playing it again after the ban and proceeded to remove some VODs from past Destiny 2 streams. Yet he says he is innocent and has no knowledge of the leak, despite practically attending the summit in question.

What seems to have singled out Ekuegan as the leaker are desktop icons in the leaked computer screenshots that match his own. He told Tassi that was the explanation Bungie gave him, and he even suggested that he might have been framed. “I’m in so many NES [at the moment], why would I violate it? It’s part of the job,” Ekuegan told Tassi. “I spent 14,000 hours on this game, many hours helping people in Grandmasters.”

One possibility is that the leaks were expertly photoshopped to incriminate Ekuegan despite coming from someone else. Another possibility is that someone else used their computer to produce the leak. It’s Tassi’s theory, and that would reconcile people’s perception of Ekuegan as an honest and dedicated figure in the Destiny 2 community with all the evidence Bungie has. It would still be a violation of his NDA, but it would make more sense for Ekuegan to blow up his career to momentarily and secretly impress a small Discord channel.

Ekuegan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other big Destiny 2 streamers and content creators were also in disbelief. I saw Ekuegan as nothing but kind to me and the community,” wrote Gladd. “It’s a pillar. I trust him; take it for what it’s worth. At the very least, Bungie needs to take a closer look at this. Destiny 2 Lore YouTuber Byf was more concise“No idea what to think. The whole situation sucks.

It is not known when or if answers will be provided. Bungie didn’t elaborate beyond its first two tweets and didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the meantime, Ekuegan is still streaming other games and said he was working to clear his name. “I’ve come to a place where I’m happy with who I am in life,” he tweeted. “I personally know the truth, I know who I am and I am happy to know it. Only God can Judge Me.”

Update 4/17/23 10:24 PM ET: Bungie released a new statement late Monday night saying it had “irrefutable evidence” showing a pattern of Ekuegan leaking confidential Destiny 2 information for several years now.

“We are very disappointed to have learned of this information and wish things had turned out differently with this individual,” the studio wrote. “We do not take these steps lightly and we are confident in our decision. This is our last communication on this subject.

Diablo IV is still a few months away, but Blizzard is already crushing some of the game’s most popular classes ahead of its June 6 release date. The studio published a new blog on its website reflecting on the game’s recent beta and shared what is essentially a full set of patch notes that it will implement ahead of Diablo IV’s launch. While there aren’t many hard numbers, you can at least get an idea of ​​where some of the game’s character classes will be by the time fans can play them again.

What is Blizzard doing to my precious little necromancer angel?

Late March, Blizzard said necromancers and wizards were the most popular classes among beta players. This was especially important for the Necromancer, as the class was only available during one of the game’s two testing periods, while the Sorcerer was available for both. Kotaku’s Levi Winslow has used Necromancer the most, and said the class was “really busted” thanks to his ability to revive dead skeletons to fight alongside them. While Blizzard’s new blog indicates that these dead minions will die more often, there are no specific numbers or any mention of a smaller skeletal headcount being imposed on players. The developer notes that the increased vulnerability of the dead will make raising them “a more active element” in the Necromancer’s game, rather than something you can just set and forget.

Sorcerer debuffs seem less comprehensive, with Chain Lightning dealing less damage and particularly reduced effectiveness against bosses. But beyond that, the class gets buffs with abilities like Charged Bolt and increased Lucky Hit chance for the Meteor Skill enchantment bonus.

While players will benefit from a few changes in the final game, some enemies will as well. The Butcher, an enemy who gave some players a hard time during beta, can be reworked before the game launches. The blog states that the team has “re-evaluated” the difficulty of the enemy, and that it “will present a greater challenge in World Tiers III and IV.” So it looks like it might get easier on the lower difficulties, but even harder on the higher ones.

What’s happening in the Diablo IV pre-release patch notes?

Beyond the balance changes, Blizzard is also tweaking the layout of Diablo IV’s dungeons to prevent rollbacks, which it says was a common complaint during betas. Here’s the full list of patch notes for the curious:

Layout of dungeons

One of the most common comments received by Blizzard is that players feel like they are backtracking a lot in certain dungeons. The team optimized several dungeons across all zones to minimize the need for backtracking. Here is a list of dungeons specifically in the Fractured Peaks area that have received layout updates: Caldera Gate Profiled Catacombs Derelict Lodge Forbidden City Hoarfrost Demise Immortal Emanation Kor Dragan Barracks Maulwood Rimescar Caverns

Developer Note: Our main focus with the layout changes was to reduce certain types of rollbacks that hurt a player’s experience. An example of this change is that players previously had to enter side rooms to interact with structure objectives, which required them to retread the same path. Now, many of our structure objectives have been repositioned along the main dungeon pathways, making them easier for players to reach and allowing them to easily explore the dungeon after defeating the structure.

Dungeon Events

The chance of an event appearing inside a dungeon has been increased from 10% to 60%.

dungeon game

To reduce the need to backtrack, a small number of scattered monsters will seek out the player to help them achieve the Kill All Monsters objective.

When the Animus is gathered, the player and nearby allies:

Gain 10 resources. Reduce all active cooldowns by 1 second. Animus drop time reduced from 3 seconds to 0 seconds. Rescue time reduced from 3 to 1.5 seconds. Ancient’s Statue, Bloodstone, Mechanical Box, or Stone Carving, you will receive a Momentum buff granting a 25% increase in movement speed to you and nearby allies. Pedestals had their channel time reduced from 2 seconds to 0 seconds. The pedestal now fully restores health, resources, potions, and resets cooldowns for all nearby players. All doors now ping the minimap when opened.

Developer’s Note: While our dungeons offer a variety of objectives to complete, player feedback indicated that completing each objective was tedious. We hope that providing bonuses, such as increased mobility while carrying certain objective items, will streamline and vary the objective completion experience. This adjustment is only a starting point, and we intend to extend this philosophy to keys in a future update.

General

Effects like Stun and Freeze can be applied to elite monsters twice as long before they become unstoppable. Class skills revised to confirm that all classes have access to enough skills that remove control impairing effects. Many Legendary Powers have had updates to their effectiveness.

Barbaric

Added flat 10% passive damage reduction for the Barbarian class. Some skill tree passives have had their damage reduction effects reduced to compensate. The Whirlwind skill now deals more damage and consumes more Fury.

Druid

Companion skills will now deal greatly increased damage. All ultimate skills have had their cooldowns reduced. Usability improvements have been made to Maul and Pulverize.

Necromancer

Summoned minions will die more often, forcing players to use corpses more often. Many Book of the Dead bonuses have had their stats increased. The damage inflicted by the skill Corpse Explosion has been reduced. The brightness of Skeleton Warriors and Mages has been reduced.

Thug

Subterfuge skill upgrades have had their bonuses increased. Several passive skills have had their bonuses increased. All Imbue skills have had their cooldowns increased.

Wizard

Charged Bolt damage increased and mana cost to cast decreased. Decreased Chain Lightning damage and reduced its effectiveness against bosses. Decreased the enchantment bonus cooldown of the skill Incinerate. Firewalls will now appear more frequently under enemies when using its enchantment bonus. .Increased lucky hit chance for Meteor skill enchantment bonus.

Developer’s Note: Whenever we make changes to our classes, it’s with the goal of making them impactful and powerful, as well as their skills. Your feedback has helped us maintain this ideal. Some players noticed that certain Skills were too powerful. One of our goals for skills is to make them interesting to wield and interactive in terms of items and combat feel. We’ve made a few changes to help with this, such as the Necromancer’s minions. We’ve made a change that makes them more vulnerable in combat, which will make raising the dead a more active part of Necromancer gameplay. Launch is just the first step in our class balancing journey, and you can expect more updates that iterate on this pillar of Diablo IV.

user interface

Fixed an issue where the embedded screen reader would not read key prompts, game option details, and other UI text. Fixed an issue where actions could not be bound to the mouse wheel. Fixed an issue where Evade could not be bound to the right analog stick on the controller. Chat will now display on the left side of the screen when using the centered action bar configuration. A character’s stats will be displayed by default when players click the Materials and Stats button in their inventory. Movement and interact inputs can now be mapped to a button while the primary attack input is mapped to a secondary button. The sans serif font used in the game has been replaced with a new serif font.

Met

Fixed several issues that allowed bosses, such as the Butcher, to become unresponsive. The Butcher has been re-rated for difficulty and will present a greater challenge in World Tiers III and IV. were re-evaluated for character difficulty in melee, resulting in changes to attacks and combat mechanics.

Cellars

Increased the chance of a dungeon event occurring in caves. Vaults will now consistently reward a chest upon completion. Fixed an issue where caves would be prematurely marked as completed. Fixed an issue where the guaranteed elite monster would be missing from a cave.

General quality of life

Fixed an issue where players could increase attack speed by canceling attacks early. Fixed an issue where characters were not immune and untargetable after loading into an area. The Reset Dungeon button has been disabled. Fixed an issue that caused Gale Valley and Serac Rapture to have fewer monsters than intended until campaign quests in those territories were completed.

Diablo IV’s open beta is finally over, which means we won’t get a chance to play the loot RPG again until it releases on June 6. Now that most everyone at Kotaku has had a chance to experience hell (or at least the emissaries you meet at the start of the game), we decided to get a few people together to chat about what we liked, what makes us optimistic and what left us a little wary during our time at Sanctuary.

Ethan Gach, Senior Reporter: I wasn’t really thinking about Diablo IV until 2023. After this beta, it’s probably the game I’m most looking forward to this year after Starfield and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It was completely unexpected, even if it is, at first glance, much more Diablo.

Learn more: Diablo IV is the perfect empty head, shitty game

Eric Schulkin, video editor: The most Diablo, Ethan. Like you, I hadn’t thought much about Diablo IV this year. It loomed in the background of my mind like the presence of a First Evil. It was nice to get a glimpse with this beta of how hopelessly obsessed I would become with the full release of the game in June.

Levi Winslow, Editor: Obsessed totally describes my weekend with the beta, TBH. Like you two, Diablo IV wasn’t something on my radar. I knew it was coming, of course, but I didn’t think I’d become so enamored with the idea of ​​killing Hellspawn until I had some time with the game. Now, weirdly, it is all I can think of. Guess digging through hell is going to take up a lot of my time in June. What courses did you all take during your time with the beta?

Ethan: I played very briefly with Druid and Necromancer, but mostly just stuck with my Barb, which is extremely annoying but I feel oddly compelled to redeem. I can definitely see the potential at higher levels, but this is definitely the least “interesting” class I’ve tried.

Eric: I played a lot of Rogue which, in my humble opinion, is awesome. Setting up caltrops and traps, choosing when to hang back and use my bow while dashing around added variety to fights for me. We will see how I feel through several acts. I also spent some time with the Necromancer.

Learn more: Let’s talk about Diablo IV’s most controversial change

Levi: This time I played with the Necromancer. I still think the Rogue Is Dope, but IDK, something about the Necromancer is really broken. Summon a gang of skulls to aid you in battle (at one point I had seven skeleton warriors with me, dark fools), siphon health from enemies through blood arts, plant curses that deal damage and status effects, which could be paired with passive abilities to deal even more damage and status effects… Necro feels OP at early levels. Some of my power started to diminish as I approached level 20, but even then the necromancer was working! It felt good to be a goth, hellish girl. Possibly my favorite class right now. Speaking of OP classes, what do you think of Blizzard’s comments regarding the inequality of each character at the start? Have you noticed a power difference?

Learn more: Diablo IV Classes Won’t Always Be Balanced, According to Blizzard

Ethan: It definitely takes a while for the Barbarian to connect, but I also like that the classes have unique power curves. I’m used to MOBAs like Dota 2 where sometimes it takes a while for your investment in a build to pay off. Much of this will certainly be mitigated by playing co-op.

Eric: Yeah. At this point, some Diablo classes and builds are better suited to being in a group. Especially early in the game, which is what I think this comment from Blizzard was getting at. Don’t expect everyone to have the same level of strength right from the start. The Rogue is your classic damage dealer, but it also has survivability options outside of standard evasion, so I always felt like I could handle whatever the game threw at me.

Levi: I agree that it’s kind of obvious that not all classes would feel equal in power from the start. I’m not sure it would make such a fun experience anyway. That said, I think there are two classes in particular – the Necromancer and the Rogue – that have some early game advantages, particularly when it comes to their damage and handling options. However, things changed around level 20. My partner and I played much of this beta in couch co-op, with me as a necromancer and her as a druid. By the time we both reached level 20, I saw that she was beating bosses a bit faster than me. The damage difference wasn’t astronomical or anything, but I could tell she was hitting a bit harder than me. Still, there’s no such thing as rolling eight-deep hell and just jumping fools. It’s my favorite thing.

Ethan: What else has impressed you in the beta so far? I think my understated favorite thing is the incredible soundtrack that leans very hard into sinister fatalism. Here, I smack skulls and compare rolls of armor while violins cry like I’m in the middle of a black-and-white WWII movie. Diablo III’s mood swing does a lot of work to make me feel like there’s a world worth investing in here beyond the multicolored loot slot.

Eric: You can tell in real time and the care was put into making that mood shift happen as the eerie, dark goth vibes were immaculate. Hearing the goats bleat their last breath never gets old, it turns out. I was very impressed by the overworld. Discovering the dark corners of the Diablo IV map has been a truly satisfying experience. The caves, dungeons, side quests and fortresses added a lot of richness to the gameplay and felt well designed. I didn’t like Destiny-esque world events, as they dragged my frame rate while playing on PC, and I sometimes felt pressured to participate in them as I was funneled through areas of the map while advancing through the main campaign.

Levi: Yeah, I agree, world events have also been the bane of my PS5’s existence. Every time I started one, the frame rate dropped to near stop-motion levels. It wasn’t good, and it probably didn’t help that I was playing co-op most of that weekend. That said, I think the world was the most impressive part. The gravity of the narrative juxtaposed with the lushness of certain environments left a lasting impression on me. The variety of locations, the characters you meet and how they interact, the way the evil slowly unfolds as you progress through the story – Diablo IV has an evocative world I could get lost in . I called it the perfect podcast game. I still feel that way, but that certainly doesn’t mean there aren’t dead roses to stop and smell once in a while. The world is teeming with life in every corner, which inspired me to turn over as many stones as possible.

Learn more: Diablo IV: Blizz explains the lack of co-op couch on PC

Ethan: All of that is why I wish there was a way to play offline, or the social aspects were more siloed. Having random strangers running down a bespoke city street can break the illusion, but most of the time it only led to weird rubber band issues and other connectivity issues in line. Have any of you run into the issue where your character can’t run to the next instance as if caught on a treadmill at invisible breaks on the map?

Eric: Yes, several times. When I tried to flee from the main center of Kyovashad or a small settlement, my character could not advance further. I wish there was an offline mode or even a way to opt out of these world events.

Levi: It definitely needs an offline mode. There have been so many instances where my partner has said to me, “What’s going on right now? as our characters raced in place trying to leave towns and settlements. Knowing the games, I thought it was frustrating albeit hilarious. My partner? She didn’t have the same patience, finding the rubber band more frustrating than hilarious. The dichotomy of the two of us. That said, it wasn’t really a problem after the end of Saturday until the start of Sunday. I didn’t experience the issue as much as the beta slowly ended. Hopefully this will be smoothed out in the full game. Speaking of the full game and as we begin to wrap up, is Diablo IV a day one buy for you all? I think my partner is invested enough that I pick it up when it comes out on June 6th. She’s a fan of Gauntlet Dark Legacy and we’ve played Minecraft Dungeons through hell and back, so another couch co-op dungeon crawler is going to be big for us.

Learn more: Diablo IV’s Butcher is leaving Shooketh players

Ethan: I think the beta, while a good first impression, is just a small preview of what this game could be, so I’m curious to see how the final product will fare. Will the game feel polished or look like an Early Access release? Just a few months ago, some developers told the Washington Post that there was internal pressure to potentially crush to release the game by June. And the biggest question will be about monetization. The real-money auction house was such a bad idea that it initially killed all the goodwill and momentum of Diablo III. The game eventually recovered, but it was a huge misstep. Hopefully Diablo IV avoids this and keeps seasonal microtransactions live as far as possible. I hope that’s what Diablo Immortal was for.

Eric: I’d like to believe I’d have the self-discipline to wait those first few weeks and see what state the game gets into, but really, who am I kidding? I’ll also be a day one purchase, helping the people of Sanctuary with their collective mommy issues. The beta showed me enough of what I was looking for in a new Diablo game.

Levi: And we all have mommy issues, especially when succubus mommy Lilith comes knocking on the door. Yeah, the beta was a good look at the depravity of Sanctuary. I’m glad to see how far this hell goes.

Although the Diablo IV Early Access beta ended on March 20, another one will run from March 24-26. This window gives you access to the five classes, two of which, the Druid and the Necromancer, were initially unavailable. Although neither has anything in common, other than their propensity to kill evil shit, one thing you might have noticed if you jumped into Sanctuary last weekend is how unbalanced they were. According to Blizzard, that’s quite the point.

Learn more: Diablo IV is the perfect empty head, shitty game

Diablo IV is the fourth entry in Blizzard’s long-running isometric action-RPG. Following the events of Diablo III, this new game puts you in control of a baby angel-demon bent on putting a lid on the flaming bottle of Hell. He’s not totally reinventing the wheel. Instead, it’s the perfect podcast game, something you can skim through with your brain at the end of a long day. I enjoyed the handful of hours I put into the early access beta, and I’m thrilled with the progress I’ve made with what I’ve dubbed my Shadow Rogue to carry over to the open beta this weekend. But maybe the reason I had so much fun with Diablo IV was because of my class choice, and Blizzard seems to reaffirm that.

All that muscle and yet no power

In an interview with the British culture and entertainment site NME, Diablo General Manager Rod Fergusson said that not all classes in the game should be equal in power at the same time. Some are better than others, but not forever.

“There’s a lot of balance there, but the thing about balance is that it’s a balance in time, not a balance in the moment,” Fergusson said. “Not all level five classes should have the same power. Due to the enchantment specialization, wizards will have the most skills of all classes because [with] Barbarians having four weapons, they will have the most legendary slots of all classes. When you take this for each of them, there will be different moments in time [where] a barbarian is in some ways a bit underpowered compared to some of the other classes in, say, the first 10-20 levels. Phew. Ouch, even.

However, Fergusson’s comment makes some sense – “some” being the operative word here. There’s no reason for a wizard to feel as strong as, say, a druid in the early levels of the game. departure. Still, that the Barbarian is an idiot at the start of Diablo IV is a bummer, especially considering that the course starts with the strongest.

Muscles will get a buff, however

The community also seems to feel this, essentially noting that Barbs muscles are all for show. On the game subreddit there were people saying the barbarians for to feel weak, have trouble beating bossesAnd lack of mobility. Twitter gamers echoed the same sentiment, saying the class is “grossly malnourished.” It will not always be so. Fergusson clarified that when the Barbs reach the middle and end of the game, especially with the number of legendary weapons they can hold, the tanky class can begin to embody demons and fiends.

“But when you get to level 30-40 and legendaries drop a lot, barbarians can be super strong,” Fergusson said. “Then there are things around the skills gap, which I think are built into it. I think the agility and mobility of a rogue is harder to play than a necromancer who has 12 skeletons fighting alongside him that he can just dispatch and fight.

Learn more: Report: Diablo IV devs say June release date will lead to more crunch

And talk to GamesRadar+, game director Joe Shely reiterated Fergusson’s point, saying Barbs players will see a few tweaks that should make mid-to-late play less frustrating and more satisfying in the long run. Bless.

“We don’t want a player creating a Barbarian to feel weak at low levels,” Shely said. “So we have to balance the class so that their strength at the end of the game is realized in that they are powerful, but not make the game unfair at low levels. Of course, with a game like Diablo IV, the classes aren’t balanced so everyone has exactly the same power level 35, 36, 37 and beyond. Their set [power] need to be balanced against each other, and they need to be balanced, especially late game, midgame in general, and early game.

Learn more: Let’s talk about Diablo IV’s most controversial change

Kotaku has contacted Blizzard for comment.

There’s comfort in knowing that the class known for its strength should see some tweaking to prove that muscle doesn’t make up for something. Still, it sucks to know that players who opt for the Swole class will struggle in the early levels of Diablo IV. Sorry to all the Barbs out there.

Strategy specialists Paradox had a big day today, wrapping up a slew of new projects slated for release over the next two years, including new games and expansions to existing games.

CITIES: SKYLINES 2 ANNOUNCED

Biggest news first: Cities: Skylines, the world’s first city builder and a game that’s kind of eight years old now, gets a sequel. The first trailer is unfortunately entirely cinematic, so there’s not much to take from it, but the accompanying press release has a little more information:

A modern take on the city-building genre, Cities: Skylines II lets players create and maintain cities that come to life like never before, with fully realized transportation and economy systems, a wealth of options construction and customization and advanced modding capabilities. . Revealed during the Paradox Announce Show 2023Cities: Skylines II evolves the city-building genre, allowing players to build the cities of their dreams with the most open-ended city-building sandbox on the planet.

OK, so it’s not. It doesn’t really tell us anything either, especially what it’s going to do that we can’t already do in Cities: Skylines. Ah well, at least it will be prettier! Maybe!

Cities Skylines II | Trailer I

CRUSADER KINGS III: TOURS AND FILMING

Crusader Kings III is getting a new expansion called Tours and Tournaments, which, like the game’s latest major update, Royal Courtfocuses more on the character and the RPG side of the game than on its broader strategic content.

There’s a lot more info on it herebut basically:

By gathering an entourage, selecting options for your journey, and hiring a Caravan Master, you are ready to hit the road and travel to activities across the world. The travel system is integral to the activities, with the host and guests traveling to reach them – creating a stronger sense of place when you see your route mapped out and your character moving directly across the map.

The expansion will add three major events for you to travel: Grand Tournaments, Grand Weddings, and Grand Tours, each of which allows you to strut around your kingdom, meet people, and give the player even more menus that appear asking you to choose a dialogue/action choice.

It will come out at the end of spring.

Crusader Kings III: Towers and Tournaments – Trailer

THE LEAGUE OF LIGHTERS

It looks cool ! It’s a whole new thing, a “turn-based tactical strategy game set in an alternate 1933”, which is a longer way of describing what was surely its elevator pitch, which is “It’s Indiana Jones x XCOM”.

The League of Lamplighters – Trailer

Since this trailer contains no gameplay, here’s a second:

The Lamplighters League – First Look at Gameplay

The game is expected to release on “PC and Xbox Series X and S consoles in 2023”.

EUROPA UNIVERSALIS IV

The venerable strategy classic Europa Universalis IV gets its 2168th expansion with Domination, which “features new mission trees, new government reforms, new domain management, and new events for several of the game’s great powers.”

This means that powers like Britain, Spain and France have been given “new life and balance, with greater historical depth, more promising rewards and branching mission trees so that the choices of players can have a dramatic impact on the course of history”.

Europa Universalis IV: Domination | Trailer

Paradox also made a bunch of smaller announcements for smaller titles, like a Surviving the Aftermath expansion and “Mechabellum, a sci-fi auto-battling game where players take on ever-growing armies of mechs, robots, and heavy weapons”. which you can view here.