Cities: Skylines and BattleTech developers will announce new games next week



Publisher Paradox Interactive will have an announcement stream next week showing off what their internal and published studios will be up to in 2023, including reveals of at least two brand new games and a teaser for a third. Those two new games will be from Harebrained Schemes, the studio behind the Shadowrun RPG trilogy and Battletech; and Colossal Order, the developers behind runaway city-building hit Cities: Skylines.

Cities: Skylines has been a wildly successful game, stepping into the void left after the collapse of the SimCity franchise. Skylines went on to sell more than 12 million copies by early 2022, all while spawning a thriving modding scene and selling dozens of DLC packs and expansions. Battletech, meanwhile, was a strategy gaming dark horse leveraging a once-thriving game setting, beating all expectations of quality. It’s lead to a five-year renaissance for the nearly 40-year-old setting of tabletop and computer games including the venerable MechWarrior series.



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Naoki Yoshida says Final Fantasy 16 won’t be on PC 6 months after release



We’d heard that Final Fantasy 16 is a six-month timed exclusive on PlayStation 5, but Square Enix has been frustratingly vague about a PC version. In a post on Playstation’s Japanese blog (in Japanese (opens in new tab)), producer Naoki Yoshida said that though he would like to release a PC version it simply wouldn’t be ready in just six months. The entire team has been focused on optimizing the PS5 version.

“I’ve caused a bit of a stir with my remarks the other day, but I’d like to touch on the PC version. First of all, it is true that FINAL FANTASY XVI is a six-month limited time exclusive on the PS5 platform. However, it is a completely different story that the PC version will be released in half a year. I will make it clear, but the PC version will not come out in half a year,” said Yoshida, via machine translation.



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Somebody tossed at least $100K of Magic: The Gathering cards in a landfill


This past weekend a Reddit user going by LATIN0 posted an image of what they estimated to be six pallets of Magic: The Gathering card (opens in new tab)s that had been dumped at their local landfill. What would be a treasure trove to a dedicated player was taken as a curiosity by LATIN0, who only knew the game existed from a decade of Reddit use. So they snapped a picture, dumped their trash, and moved on with their life. Later, they posted the quirky picture to Reddit alongside a few more pictures (opens in new tab) of opened sealed packs.

All without knowing that the retail value of those pallets and boxes was, at a conservative bent, something to the order of $100,000. Depending on contents, however, that could easily have been more than $250,000 worth of MTG cards, containing as it did a mix of Secret Lair, Modern Horizons 2, and Unfinity cards spanning 2019 through the end of 2022. That higher figure is if more of the valuable cards like Modern Horizons, which retail for near twice the price of a regular MTG pack, or the nicer Secret Lair cards were present. Either way, it doesn’t matter now—you can’t take stuff from a landfill, so almost all of the cards got left there by LATIN0 and their coworkers.

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(Image credit: LATIN0 via Reddit)


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How to get Defiant Keys in Destiny 2’s Season of Defiance


Destiny 2’s Defiant Keys are a new type of seasonal item that the appropriately named Season of Defiance introduces to the game. Unlike previous seasonal currencies that you could earn from doing just about anything, each Defiant Key is a specific consumable item that you can only get through certain means. 

Spending a key at the end of a Defiant Battleground activity gets you some seasonal rewards, and you can even improve what drops from the chest by upgrading the War Table in the HELM. This way you can get extra Defiant Engrams, War Table reputation, or just some more gear. Here’s how to earn Defiant Keys in Destiny 2’s new season.

How to get Defiant Keys 

Complete activities to earn Defiant Keys (Image credit: Bungie)

Forget about those Seraph Keycodes, Map Fragments, and Treasure Coordinates from the previous Destiny seasons: Defiant Keys are the new way you unlock extra rewards at the end of the seasonal playlist activity Defiant Battleground. As before, these chests give you seasonal gear—more importantly, they have a chance to give out a red border version of a seasonal weapon if you have a key, letting you extract a craftable pattern when you collect enough.



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Diablo 4 beta start dates and times



After many, many years of waiting, Diablo 4 (opens in new tab) will finally be playable soon. The first of two Diablo 4 betas starts in a little over two weeks. The Diablo 4 early access and open beta periods take place over two weekends. It will give you a chance to try each of the game’s five classes and explore its initial open world area.

Blizzard says (opens in new tab) you might “encounter performance issues, outages, and come across things that simply don’t work,” during the betas. It provided system requirements for PC players that are listed below.



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Where to find the flashlight in Sons of the Forest


I survived a whole week in Sons of the Forest before finding a flashlight, and I really wish I’d gotten it sooner. For one, I finally have a use for all the batteries I’m finding in cannibal camps, but more importantly I can scour the island’s bone-chilling caves and actually see where I’m at (the lighter and torch just weren’t cutting it).

Like all of the forest’s greatest discoveries, the flashlight awaits you at a gruesome scene: a man hanged from a cliff by a rope, surrounded by alcohol. His unfortunate end is our reward.

Sons of the Forest flashlight: Where to find it

sons of the forest flashlight guide

(Image credit: Endnight Games)

The flashlight can be found at one of the purple point-of-interest markers visible on your GPS at the start of the game. You’re looking for the marker just northwest of the central snowy mountains, near the end of a north/south river. There’s a foot trail that leads directly to it, but consider cutting through the trees to avoid nearby cannibal camps. 

Keep your GPS out and, once you get close, it’ll start beeping. The closer you get the more it beeps. If you approach from the west you’ll probably see the hanging body first (or you might miss it entirely like me, as he kinda blends in with the cliff face):

sons of the forest flashlight guide

(Image credit: Endnight Games)

Poor guy. Anyways, I snapped this screenshot about eight seconds after eating a human leg. Below his hanging body is some free alcohol (used for molotov cocktails), but we’re not getting anything else from him until we cut him down.

Walk around the cliff on either side until you find a slope to the top. Return to the beeping marker, this time from the top of the cliff, and you’ll find a small boulder with the rope tied around it (and more booze). Give the boulder a few swings of the axe to cut the rope.

sons of the forest flashlight guide

(Image credit: Endnight Games)

Return to the bottom of the cliff, and next to his body you’ll find the flashlight. Loot the body itself and you’ll also find a GPS locator (opens in new tab), which I promptly offered to my three-armed pal Virginia (opens in new tab) so I could finally see her on the map like Kelvin.



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Heck yeah, Sons of the Forest update adds weapon hotkeys



As survival game Sons of the Forest continues to dominate the Steam charts (opens in new tab), developer Endnight Games has been working on making the early access experience a bit smoother for players. A new hotfix arrived today, and while it’s a small one it addresses a couple of big requests from the community.

Sons of the Forest (opens in new tab) didn’t have a hotkey system at launch, so players could only get an item into their hands by opening their inventory and clicking on the item they needed, or by adding items to their backpack, then holding their backpack up and choosing the item or weapon they wanted from that. The system wasn’t exactly user friendly and felt a bit awkward, especially when being chased around by enraged cannibals.



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After 4 years, Destiny 2’s Cayde-6 finally gets the memorial he deserves



It’s Lightfall day, and players are already finding new details in Destiny 2’s latest expansion. Those who visit the Tower before jetting off to Neomuna will notice some redecorating that has occurred in the time since the game went offline for maintenance. Near Zavala you’ll find the new Monument to Fellowship, and with it a memorial to a long-departed NPC.

Cayde-6 was the Nathan Fillion-voiced joker of the Vanguard—the de facto leaders of the Guardians. His death was the inciting incident of Destiny 2’s first expansion, Forsaken, and was teased heavily in the run-up to its release back in September 2018. It was a dramatic moment for fans: the first major on-screen character to die his final death in the fight against the Darkness.



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How to get water and a water flask in Sons of the Forest


Like any good crash landing survival adventure, your first order of business in Sons of the Forest is going to be figuring out how to get water along with securing a food source by learning how to fish. You’ve got several options for staying hydrated on the island: drinking right from a convenient stream, using the 3D printer to make a flask, slurping down those energy drinks. Importantly: There is no water collector in Sons of the Forest as of its early access launch.

Here are all the water sources (and other thirst meter refills) you can find:

  • Freshwater streams and ponds
  • A water flask
  • Energy drinks
  • Yarrow flowers

How to get water right from a stream 



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All Destiny 2 Season of Defiance Eververse items and Lightfall exotics


The Destiny 2 Season of Defiance is here, and with it a whole storeload of ornaments for both the new exotics arriving in Lightfall as well as beloved older weapons and armour that might make a bit of comeback now Strand has arrived. If you include the stasis bow from the season pass and the exotic from the upcoming Realm of Nightmares raid, there are a lot of new weapons to claim.

That’s not even mentioning the sparrows, ships, and ghosts on offer if you want a little Lightfall style and are willing to part with some real cash in order to purchase the Silver to acquire them. Either way, here’s every new Season of the Defiance Eververse item, as well as all of the exotics that arrived with Lightfall, both in the expansion, and as part of the season.

Eververse armour sets

(Image credit: Bungie)

Limitless Subversion set (Hunter)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Cogent Beat set (Titan)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Technologic set (Warlock)

Exotic armour

(Image credit: Bungie)

Cyrtarachne’s Façade (Hunter helmet): This exotic helmet gives you Woven Mail when you use the Strand grapple ability, providing flinch and overall damage resistance—except for getting shot in the head, that is.

(Image credit: Bungie)

Speedloader’s Slacks (Hunter legs): Dodging boosts reload speed, handling, and airborne effectiveness for you and nearby allies. While active, final blows strengthen the buff up to five stacks.

(Image credit: Bungie)

Swarmers (Warlock boots): These Warlock boots spawn Threadlings when you destroy a Strand Tangle, either by shooting one, or by picking it up and throwing it. Your Threadlings also unravel targets that they damage.

(Image credit: Bungie)

Ballidorse Wrathweavers (Warlock gloves): These gloves make your Stasis Winters Wrath shockwave deal increased shatter damage, and give an overshield and increased stasis damage to allies caught in range of it.

(Image credit: Bungie)

Cadmus Ridge Lancecap (Titan helmet): Diamond Lances create Stasis Crystals on impact when thrown, with more crystals created by hitting bosses and vehicles. While using a Stasis subclass behind your rally barricade, rapid precision hits and final blows with a Stasis weapon create Diamond Lances.

(Image credit: Bungie)

Abeyant Leap (Titan boots): These Titan boots improve the Drengr’s Lash Strand aspect, allowing it to spawn two additional lashes when you use a barricade that seek out targets and suspend them in the air. Hitting targets with the lashes gives you woven mail.

Exotic weapons

(Image credit: Bungie)

Verglas Curve (Stasis bow): Kind of like a Stasis Ticuu’s Divination but the opposite way around. Final blows with this bow grant Stasis arrows that you can then hip-fire at enemies to freeze them and create Stasis crystals.

(Image credit: Bungie)

Final Warning (Strand sidearm): This Strand sidearm could be compared to the smart pistol from Titanfall, where you hold down the trigger to mark targets and load bullets, before unleashing a volley of shots. Hitting a marked target with a fully charged burst unravels them.

(Image credit: Bungie)

Deterministic Chaos (Void machine gun): This rhythm-based LMG weakens enemies every fourth shot with a Heavy Metal round. The fourth Heavy Metal round you fire makes targets volatile on impact.

(Image credit: Bungie )

Winterbite (Stasis glaive): This heavy-slot stasis glaive fires a frost orb that floats above enemies, freezing them. Its kinetic melee attack also deals extra damage and slows targets when it’s loaded.

Exotic ornaments

(Image credit: Bungie)

Thanatic Instinct (Hunter legs universal ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Siedr (Young Ahamkara’s Spine ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Acolyte’s Ambition (Wormhusk Crown ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Astrotracts (Warlock legs universal ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Occisor Dracanum (Sunbracer’s ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Phoenix Renascence (Dawn Chorus ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Potentiate Treads (Titan legs universal ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Augmented Auspice (Synthoceps ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Hjorprimul (Loreley Splendour ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Shiro’s Watch (Trespasser ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Calefactor (Forerunner ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Chronos Exegesis (No Time to Explain ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Heat Sink (Erianna’s Vow ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

O Fortune Mine (Bad Juju ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Archon Prime (Outbreak Perfected ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Whaler’s Whim (Wish-Ender ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Alhidade (Crimson ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Karesansui (Jade Rabbit ornament)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Omnipotentia (Tractor Cannon ornament)

Exotic ghosts, sparrows, and ships

(Image credit: Bungie)

Clean Lines Shell (Ghost)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Vice Cruiser (Sparrow)

(Image credit: Bungie)

Synthowl (Ship)



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