David Smith is the former games and technology editor at The AU Review. He has previously written for PC World Australia. You can find him on Twitter at @RhunWords.
Yesterday we brought you the announcement of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the 12th mainline entry in the popular stealth action series. This morning, Ubisoft released the game’s first trailer. The four-minute cinematic sets a grim and bloody mood. Set in The Viking Ages between 793–1066 AD, Scandinavian forces have settled in England and have begun building…
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Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will become the 12th entry in the popular stealth action series. Ubisoft announced Valhalla this morning via an art stream hosted by artist Bosslogic, real name Kode Abdo. The game moves the series from the isles of Ancient Greece seen in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey to somewhere more Scandinavian. Fans have been requesting a…
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A number of major spoilers for The Last of Us Part II have leaked online. The leaks Videos showing pivotal moments from the game appeared online overnight. Those videos were quickly spun into detailed lists containing the game’s plot, characters, and ending. How accurate many of the details are, and how old the leaked footage…
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Free games. Are there two more beautiful words in the English language? We’re no linguists, but we don’t reckon there are. As the world commits to staying at home in isolation, we naturally turn to video games as a way to pass the time. But as the economy crumbles and jobs disappear every day, it…
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2K has moved incredibly quickly on XCOM Chimera Squad. It was announced out of the blue in mid-April, and launch day was only a week later. 12 hours after the announcement, I had a review copy installed on my home PC. Fast is Chimera Squad‘s watchword. It has a much higher resting heart rate than…
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Crysis Remastered is coming. Confirmation came via a leak from its official site. At this time, the site has not gone live with the announcement. Here’s the blurb straight from the site: “Crysis Remastered brings new graphic features, high-quality textures, and the CRYENGINE’s native hardware – and API-agnostic ray tracing solution for PC, PlayStation, Xbox,…
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Gamescom, the largest video games convention in the world, will not take place this year. The decision to cancel the 2020 event comes after the German government announced a ban on all major events until August 31. Gamescom was scheduled for August 22-24, meaning it only just fell within the bounds of the event ban….
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We’ve been waiting for a new entry in the XCOM franchise to be announced for a while now. Following the announcement that XCOM 2 would be coming to Nintendo Switch in May, fans began to feel like maybe they wouldn’t be waiting long. We’re not sure even they could have predicted an announcement would come…
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Minecraft is getting a bit of a makeover. The PC version of the ever-popular building game will soon support high end Nvidia RTX graphics cards. The update will allow the game to take advantage of the RTX series’ raytracing functionality. Raytracing, for those who aren’t familiar, is a new way of modeling in-game lighting. Rather…
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I did not expect to have as much fun with Minecraft Dungeons as I have. I’ve been a fan of the Diablo-style ARPG for many years and one of my favourite things to do is inspecting new takes on the formula, poking around to see how they stack up to the genre’s eternal grandfather. It’s clear…
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PlayStation have revealed its next generation wireless controller. Dubbed DualSense, the controller will ship with the PlayStation 5 console later this year. The reveal came via a post on the official PlayStation blog. The post details the controller’s capabilities and the thinking behind its design. Let’s break it down Its overall design is a stark…
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The Last of Us Part II has been delayed indefinitely. The news, while unsurprising, still comes as a blow to fans staring down the barrel of a year spent in Covid-19 enforced isolation. The announcement came through from PlayStation earlier this morning: Update: SIE has made the difficult decision to delay the launch of The…
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Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths presents one of the stranger crossover ideas we’ve seen all year. Wizards of the Coast’s ever-popular card game Magic: The Gathering will add a series of cards based on popular Toho Co monsters like Godzilla, Mothra, King Caesar and more. The cards will be a special feature of the upcoming Ikoria:…
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Doom Eternal is a lot of fun. It’s a game that looks directly to the wildly popular Doom 2016 for its cues on just about everything. It introduces a suite of new mechanics that give combat greater depth. It asks you to face your enemies head-on and to never shy away from the challenge. Rip….
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E3 2020 is officially cancelled. The Entertainment Software Association pulled the plug over concerns relating to the coronavirus outbreak. The ESA will explore other avenues for replacing the show, including the possibility of an “online experience.” The full statement from the ESA, available on the E3 website, reads: After careful consultation with our member companies…
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Microsoft have announced a series of live-streams on Xbox Series X that will replace its now-cancelled slate of GDC 2020 talks. The live-streams, called Game Stack Live, will broadcast a series of panels on Mixer over two days. One of these panels is titled “Xbox Series X + Project xCloud = New Chapter in Gaming.”…
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In January, we brought you a report that Guerilla Games’ Horizon Zero Dawn was headed to PC. That report has now been confirmed in a PlayStation Blog Q&A with Herman Hulst, the head of PlayStation Worldwide Studios. “Yes, I can confirm that Horizon Zero Dawn is coming to PC this summer,” says Hulst in the…
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One of the most beloved aspects of 2016’s DOOM was its furious, hypnotic heavy metal soundtrack. Composed by Melbourne producer Mick Gordon, it perfectly complemented the game’s hellish atmosphere and balletic combat. With DOOM Eternal now only weeks away, metal fans are primed to hear Gordon’s new material. Part of that new material may surprise: Gordon…
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For a hundred dollar gaming headset, the Turtle Beach Ear Force Recon 200 represents pretty solid value for money. I’ve had an up-and-down experience with Turtle Beach’s headsets over the years but with the Recon 200, it looks like it may have turned over a new leaf. Strong hold The moment you put the Recon…
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Beloved video game franchise The Last of Us is becoming a new HBO series. The game’s writer and creative director Neil Druckmann, and Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin will develop the series. Carolyn Strauss and Naughty Dog president Evan Wells will executive produce. The series will be a co-production between Sony Pictures Television and PlayStation Productions….
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When your goal is to remake a game like Final Fantasy VII, where do you even begin? Lets set aside its legendary status and the pressure of delivering on such a project. Consider instead the more intricate moving parts — its characters, mechanics and systems, its visuals, art direction, and score. Its sheer size presents…
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Kazuhisa Hashimoto, legendary Konami programmer and creator of the famous Konami Code, has died at the age of 79. Hashimoto’s death was announced composer Yuji Takenouchi on Twitter. Takenouchi’s tweet states that Hashimoto died on February 25 and that he hopes his friend will “keep making games in heaven.” Hashimoto was a staple at Konami…
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Players who own Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox One will receive a free upgrade to the Xbox Series X version. The upgrade is possible thanks to the Smart Delivery tech built into the new console. Smarter not harder Smart Delivery, announced today among a list of new info for the Xbox Series X, lets users play…
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When they said the Xbox Series X was a monster, they weren’t kidding. Xbox head Phil Spencer has detailed a laundry list of tech specs for the forthcoming game system via the official Xbox Newswire blog. The key theme? Power and speed. Here’s a taste: Let’s break down a few of the new items Phil…
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Half-Life: Alyx, the newest entry in Valve’s legendary Half-Life series, has set its release date. The first new Half-Life game in 13 years will launch on March 23, 2020. Valve revealed the release date via their official Twitter overnight, along with preorder bonuses for anyone who has purchased a Valve Index. The Index is Valve’s…
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The rumours were true. IEM Melbourne is real. For the last few years, IEM has been held at Sydney’s Olympic Park. It’s the Aussie leg of the world’s biggest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament. IEM Sydney drew sellout crowds and became known for its electric, competitive atmosphere. In August, IEM becomes the headline event at the…
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BioWare has announced that it will be redesigning its embattled online shooter Anthem from the ground up. According to an official blog post from BioWare general manager Casey Hudson, the decision has been made to perform a larger overhaul of the entire game rather than focusing a series of smaller updates or expansion packs. Hudson…
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Are you a gun at FIFA 20? If so, you’ll want to get involved in this month’s #PSPlusPlays competition on your PS4. So what do you have to do to get involved? Just complete this month’s challenge: Showcase your best one-two pass play with a mate in FIFA 20. Nail it, and you could win yourself…
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You may have seen a lot of online chatter about Warcraft 3 Reforged lately. If you’re one of the nearly 27,000 people who downvoted the game on Metacritic, you will almost certainly not agree with the content of this review. Because here’s the thing: Warcraft 3 Reforged simply isn’t all that bad. Are there some…
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Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath first released back in 2005 on the original Xbox. Released in what was then the late-January dead zone, Stranger’s Wrath was critically adored but sank commercially when Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords launched around a fortnight later. I was one of the few that bought Stranger’s…
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