Australia may be the next country to take legislative action against loot boxes in videogames, as MP Andrew Wilkie has introduced a bill calling for a mandatory adult classification (opens in new tab) for any game that contains a “gambling-type feature.”

Introduced on November 28, the bill says loot boxes come in many forms but share some common characteristics, including that they can offer competitive advantages in games and may also have resale value, which collectively confers on them “significant value for players.”



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Namco’s beloved Ridge Racer series saw its first entry in 1993, the culmination of years developing lesser-known arcade driving cabinets. The game saw huge success, as part of which Namco designed a super-deluxe version that featured a full-scale car that controlled a version of the game played on an enormous screen. It was so big, and so special, that few were ever installed, even fewer survive: and one of the last known remaining examples had, after running for decades, seemingly been left to rust and rot in Blackpool.

Much more detail on these predecessor cabinets and the road to Ridge Racer can be read on the excellent Arcade Blogger (opens in new tab). The showpiece cabinet was called Ridge Racer Full Scale, where players sat inside a red Eunos Roadster chassis and controlled the same car on-screen, naturally using the in-car wheel, gear stick and pedals. You even used the ignition key to start it up, and fiddling with the car’s instruments reflected what was happening in-game. In front of the car is a 10 foot wide triple screen, and as you play fans blast air and in-built speakers play the engine noises and background music. The Ridge Racer Full Scale was an absolute beast, with a $250,000 price tag to match.



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Last week saw the long-awaited release of Levitation (opens in new tab), an expansion-style mod for Half-Life Alyx. Developed over the past two years by solo mapper Shawn ‘FMPONE’ Snelling, Levitation aims to match Valve’s exceptionally detailed mapping style and deliver around three hours of additional running and gunning through City 17’s crumbling streets. Despite a couple rough edges, I think it nails it, but still leaves me with some complex feelings.

Levitation picks up with Alyx shortly after the main game’s end, pushing the young freedom fighter back into the streets of City 17 on another mission for the resistance, this time with a new extradimensional handler watching her progress. No expense has been spared in recreating Valve’s storytelling style, including the return of Russell and the G-Man in speaking roles. Russell in particular gets a great soundalike in Joey Bracken, and while his script is a little more on-the-nose than in the original game, I still got a few good laughs out of his nervous banter.



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Russia’s FSB, the federal security service, shot and killed three men in the Voronezh region of Russia on November 23. Russian state media subsequently reported on the incident and claimed the FSB had eliminated a terrorist cell, and the FSB released an official statement describing the group as (machine translation) “a clandestine cell of supporters of the Ukrainian nationalist ideology.”

But it now looks like things were not so simple, and that the individuals shot may have been killed in a case of mistaken identity because they roleplayed as characters from the videogame S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl.



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An update for AMD’s ROCm general-purpose GPU software has reportedly revealed the specs for Navi 32 and Navi 33, (opens in new tab) the next graphics chips likely to be released in the RDNA 3 series, otherwise known as Radeon RX-7000 series. Exactly where the new chips will slot into AMD’s new Radeon RX 7000-series (opens in new tab) is the really big question.

Are these chips the basis of the upcoming Radeon RX 7800 and 7700 GPUs? Hold that thought while we consider the new information that’s emerged. Buried deep within an ROCm file called “performance.hpp” are references to both Navi 32 and Navi. But the really critical numbers listed in the file are 60 and 32, and we’re talking CUs or Compute Units. To make sense of those numbers, the Navi 31 chip inside the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT and XTX graphics cards runs 96 CUs.



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Battle passes now go hand in hand with most multiplayer games. Pay a little money, get a lot of content, everyone wins theoretically. So with the arrival of Overwatch 2, I got stuck in and started earning its goodies. I got sprays, emotes, player icons, sprays again, skins, and voice lines, and yes even more sprays. I’ve finished the battle pass now, and I’ve even earned a couple of those special name tags you can put under your name to show everyone you’ve spent a lot of time in Overwatch 2 this season. So why do I feel nothing for Overwatch 2’s battle pass?

Loot boxes are a terrible way to get people to invest a lot of money and time into games, and experts like the NHS mental health director claim they push children into gambling (opens in new tab). We have covered how bad loot boxes are time (opens in new tab) and time again (opens in new tab). They’ve even been banned in some regions. Recent studies have reported that even with the majority of players spending money in a safe way, 9.4% of the selected group did have indicators of excessive, obsessive, or problematic gambling behaviours paying for loot boxes in FIFA (opens in new tab). And now I’ve professed my support for loot boxes being eliminated from lots of games, I’m going to have to admit I really miss them in Overwatch. 

It’s a bit embarrassing, but as awful as they are, the alternative hasn’t been doing it for me. After spending a lot of time in Overwatch 2 and the season one battle pass (prestige levels excluded), I can’t say I feel much pleasure in getting the 80 levels of goodies. I’m not immune to the excitement a battle pass can give me and I’ve been dedicated to chomping through them before, but there are a couple of big reasons why it was more of a slog this time. 

(Image credit: Tyler C. / Activision Blizzard)

Skin-t



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The Stay a While quest in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is a side quest you’ll find in The Waking Shores. Unlike Rapid Fire Plans (opens in new tab), you won’t need to move from where you pick up this quest to complete it. Figuring out what you need to do—and the order you need to do tasks in—can be a little tricky though.

Not to be confused with the “Stay awhile…” dialogue options you often find with major characters to help tie up any loose ends in story beats, this quest focuses on the NPC Veritistrasz and their own personal history with the Dragon Isles and its denizens. So, with that in mind, here’s how to complete the Stay a While quest in WoW: Dragonflight. 

WoW Dragonflight: How to complete the Stay a While quest 



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World of Warcraft: Dragonflight has finally arrived, letting players take to the skies with their new dragonriding mounts—or in some cases, on the power of their own massive wings. Despite being on one of Europe’s busiest realms, the lack of queues tricked me into thinking it would be a smooth launch, and then I spent the next hour in limbo, hoping Blizzard would rescue my character. 

Like a lot of players, simply getting to the Dragon Isles proved to be my greatest challenge late last night. My first attempt saw me and the rest of the zeppelin’s passengers deposited back in Durotar. My second attempt led to me being disconnected and my poor Evoker trapped between Kalimdor and the Dragon Isles. My support ticket was deleted within 10 minutes.



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Remember Phil Spencer telling everyone he’d be open to “a longer term commitment (opens in new tab)” with Sony over access to Call of Duty? Well, looks like he meant it. Sources tell Reuters (opens in new tab)that Microsoft is gearing up to offer concessions to EU regulators regarding its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, consisting mainly of a 10-year offer to Sony to keep CoD on PlayStation.

Microsoft has already talked publicly about a deal like this before. Last week, it came out that Microsoft had apparently offered Sony a 10-year CoD contract (opens in new tab) directly, which Sony refused to comment on. It now seems that Microsoft is willing to put that contract to the regulators themselves, letting them decide if it would be sufficient to settle their jitters.



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Stuck trying to complete the Rapid Fire Plans quest in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight? This quest is pretty straightforward once you know where in The Waking Shores you need to look. Unfortunately, picking up the quest doesn’t automatically mark the locations of the enemies on your map, so you’d be forgiven for not knowing where to go to find them.

Rapid Fire Plans is a sidequest in the Waking Shores, so you might miss it entirely if you’re sticking with the main campaign—I stumbled across this small quest hub while I was searching for Dragon Glyphs (opens in new tab). However you find it, if you’re having trouble getting started, this guide has you covered. Here’s how to complete the WoW: Dragonflight Rapid Fire Plans quest in The Waking Shores.  

WoW Dragonflight Rapid Fire Plans: How to complete this quest 



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