The exciting thing about Rockstar games is not that they have the most advanced technology behind them, the best stories, or the most avant-garde game systems. It's the extraordinary amount of work the studio invests into the little details that make up its big worlds. Red Dead Redemption's dynamic horse testicles (they shrink when it's cold) are a frequently-cited example of that commitment to the particulars.A pair of videos purported...

Warren Spector is one of the industry's most storied developers, particularly among fans of immersive sims. His leading roles on games like Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Deus Ex—and you know what, even Invisible War and Deadly Shadows, which are probably better than you think—established him as one of the field's most admired and enduring names. And now, after doing it for more than 40 years, he's calling it a...

Cyberleek, the group or person (it's not clear which) behind today's big Grand Theft Auto 6 leak, claims it's not just doing it for the lulz. In a manifesto calling out industry practices it finds objectionable, Cyberleek warned that it will continue targeting publishers who violate its edicts."Publishers sell licenses and call them purchases," the document states. "They ship unfinished games and call them living services. They lock content on...

Chromite isn't actually rare in Palworld, but you've got to have a specific tool (or pal) to mine it, which is different from most other resources. To save you from the guesswork, I'll show you how to use a metal detector to get Chromite initially and also a passive farming solution for bigger hauls so you're set up to make your first batch of Hexolite when you're ready.Palworld Chromite location...

It might not be as flashy as a new game or a GPU upgrade, but assuming you've not already migrated to Linux, improvements to Windows can mean improvements to our day-to-day quality of life. On that front, Microsoft has actually been making headway over the past few months, and has now set to improving a couple of things that have irked Windows 11 users since the inception of the latest...

My biggest financial blunder occurred at the ripe old age of six. It wasn't failing to buy up property in 2008, nor was it failing to swipe a popular domain name, although those probably would have come in handy. No, the mistake that haunts my nightmares was six year old Elie bringing an immaculate Umbreon Undaunted holo to the playground, despite my dad telling me not to because it was...

In a PlayStation State of Play video today, Phantom Blade Zero developer S-Game has finally shown off glimpses of a game world it's largely kept secret up to this point, with eight individual maps that "seamlessly connect into a single world."In my demos of the game over the last year and a half, S-Game has stressed that the areas I got to play and the bosses I fought were all...

Blizzard principal artist and lead designer Jay Huang used to make his living creating the "props" that make up World of Warcraft's living spaces. Now he designs the systems that allow players to do the same thing with WoW's new player housing feature.The game's recent patch 12.1, The Curse of Ula'tek, added a huge pile of new housing decor and features for players to create with. For example, it added...

In a recent video on his YouTube channel, legendary developer Tim Cain weighed in on one of the great RPG debates: Turn-based, or real time? But Cain doesn't see it as a zero sum game, instead staking out a sensible, radical moderate position on a topic that can prompt forum knife fights.One unique aspect to Cain's perspective: He zoomed out to "real time" period, not just the OG Baldur's Gate-codified...

First reported by Game Informer, Warner Bros. Discovery provided the slightest of acknowledgements that a sequel to 2023's Hogwarts Legacy is in the works as part of a recent letter to its shareholders.It's the sort of victory lap / "Gentlemen, to money!" deal you usually expect of the form, and I cannot overstate how tiny the HogsLegs mention is. "We expect Games [capitalization theirs] to more meaningfully contribute to segment...