In the Total War: Warhammer games, some of your armies have procedurally generated lords with randomized names and perks, while others are led by Legendary Lords, bespoke characters often drawn from the setting’s history. At first the only heroes you could have roaming the land solo or embedded in those armies were randomized ones, leaving characters from the fiction who weren’t really generals absent excluding the occasional text event or temporary summoning.

Since then, a handful of Legendary Heroes have made their way into the games, most notably Felix and Gotrek from the popular series of books, but also the wood elf mage-queen Ariel, Venerable Lord Kroak on the lizardmen side, and several others. That trend is set to continue in Total War: Warhammer 3, according to Creative Assembly principal writer and narrative designer Andy Hall in an interview with The Rookery (opens in new tab), though we should expect plenty more “Warhammer celebrities” to appear as lord choices too.

“We have done some Legendary Heroes now and they proved quite popular,” Hall said, “so we will certainly continue with that category. With Legendary Lords they’re your avatar in this world, they’re meant to be you’re roleplaying as them, so it makes sense to try and bring as many of those Warhammer celebrities into that role as possible. Even if, like Deathmaster Snikch, they’re typically not generals, they’re loners. But again, we’re following in the footsteps of the tabletop. They do that as well.”

On the subject of DLC, Hall didn’t commit to anything specific, but did describe potential additions to Cathay and Kislev’s roster as “a fair assumption to make”. When asked what area we should expect to see get attention next, he replied, “Cathay, just like its Earth counterpart, is a massive space. It’s a massive area and we’ve just touched the bit near the Great Bastion and a little bit on the west leading into the Mountains of Mourn. There is so much more of Cathay to look at if you’re looking for new areas to expand. But we’re also looking at all the other races, we’re well aware that some of the races that have been released early, very early, need some love too.”

When asked whether we should expect new kinds of DLC we haven’t seen before, Hall answered affirmatively, but refused to be drawn on details. “It’s fair to say Warhammer 3 is a new game and we’re looking at the way we do things,” was all he said.

If you were hoping Creative Assembly might have changed its mind on adding more races in the far corners of the Warhammer World since the last time Hall said “probably never” then prepare for disappointment. On the subject of Nippon in particular, he said, “Don’t hold your breath. We’ve got a massive roadmap for Warhammer 3, we’re still at the beginning of that roadmap as well, but are brand new races on it? Not at the moment.”

Cathay’s addition was made possible through a combination of circumstance and necessity, it seems, helped by the popularity of Total War: Three Kingdoms in Asia and the things Creative Assembly learned from it. “Cathay was like this neat situation,” he said, “we had experience with an eastern audience, we needed some good guys for all the daemons we were facing, so it was like a confluence of scenarios.”

While we’re expecting a Chaos dwarf race pack to be announced any day now, it sure would be nice to get a bunch more Legendary Heroes further down the road. Warhammer’s full of colorful characters like the dwarf brewmaster and champion Josef Bugman, the dark elf assassin Shadowblade, and Gambo Hartstock, inventor of the gourmet artillery piece known as the Halfling Hot Pot.

Total War: Warhammer 3 is currently free to play for the weekend on Steam (opens in new tab), as well as being part of a franchise sale with discounts up to 75%. You’ve only got about half a day left to get in on that, however, as it ends on March 13.


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A sprawling Darkest Dungeon mod will release this month, with Black Reliquary (opens in new tab) set to release on March 24, 2023. The mod is a total conversion mod with the thumbs-up of the original Darkest Dungeon developers at Red Hook, and the list of changes is… really big. It’s foremost a gameplay overhaul and entirely new campaign with a new setting, new characters, new narration, new music, new enemies and facts, trinkets, and new player heroes.

The story will follow a band of heroes as they delve into the Black Reliquary, a monolithic structure in a desolate desert known only as The Valley. Here’s how the developers describe it: “Abandon what you think you know. The Valley does not know mercy or sympathy, and the trials ahead of you will be unlike anything you have faced before! Find yourself in your new home aboard the Flameseeker airship, and reunite with an old acquaintance from many years past, as you join forces to assault the oppressive and mysterious Black Reliquary.”

There’s both a story-driven release date trailer and extended gameplay trailer for Black Reliquary, both highlighting the incredibly amount of new art and design that has gone into a free game expansion. Which, to be honest, isn’t even what this is. This is some kind of free sequel that fell through a crack in reality from another dimension.

It is a lot, and has been in the works for years. It’s one of those rare mods so thoroughly developed and extensive that it’s getting its own Steam (opens in new tab) page rather than be consigned to a Workshop, an honor rarely accorded to mods outside of those for decade-or-more-old games like Half-Life 2.

Shout out to the dude playing the new narrator, who—at least in these trailers—really nails the gravelly narration one takes for granted as part of the Darkest Dungeon milieu.

That and all the art is really what makes me say this feels like a sequel. Not a sequel in the 2020s sense, where its been five or six years since the first, but in the 1990s sense where the Sequel would reuse the engine and some art, overhaul systems, and then go forward confidently into release like a year later max.

Black Reliquary be available completely free via Steam to those who own Darkest Dungeon, the Shieldbreaker DLC, and the Crimson Court DLC. You can find Black Reliquary on Steam (opens in new tab). The Black Reliquary team funds the custom art involved in the mod via Patreon (opens in new tab), and you can follow the mod’s development on Twitter (opens in new tab).

Check out the gameplay trailer, below.



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On an average day about a dozen new games are released on Steam. And while we think that’s a good thing, it can be understandably hard to keep up with. Potentially exciting gems are sure to be lost in the deluge of new things to play unless you sort through every single game that is released on Steam. So that’s exactly what we’ve done. If nothing catches your fancy this week, we’ve gathered the best PC games (opens in new tab) you can play right now and a running list of the 2023 games (opens in new tab) that are launching this year.

Figment 2: Creed Valley

Steam‌ ‌page‌ (opens in new tab) ‌
Release:‌ March 10
Developer:‌ Bedtime Digital Games
Launch price:‌ ‌$21.24 |‌ ‌£18.69 |‌ ‌AU$31.02

The surrealistic 2017 action adventure outing gets a sequel, blending Zelda-like exploration and puzzle-solving with musical boss fights. Protagonist Dusty represents “The Mind’s courage” and is responsible for fending off a gaggle of determined Nightmares, who have wreaked havoc on the land’s “Moral Compass”. As you can probably tell, there’s a cerebral narrative backbone here—in more ways than one—but the presentation is tempered with bizarre humor and an art style that doesn’t look much like anything else. There are some fascinating twists here: the world can be explored in two states, “open-minded” and “closed-minded”, and unlike the first game, two-player local coop is supported—though one of you will need to be a bird.

Hellscreen

Steam‌ ‌page (opens in new tab)‌ ‌
Release:‌ March 10
Developer:‌ Jamie D
Launch price:‌ ‌$18 |‌ ‌£15 |‌ ‌AU$26.50

Hellscreen’s big contribution to the first-person shooter genre is a rear-view mirror. It’s not just for keeping track of what’s going on behind you, either: you can even shoot via the damn thing, which impressed Ted (opens in new tab) when he played it back in January. With that single twist, Hellscreen morphs from boomer shooter nostalgia bait into something more distinctive, though even without the rear view mirror it’s a gorgeous looking game. This is an Early Access affair; the first episode is included, with the second and third scheduled to release next year, though other small improvements will be made on an ongoing basis. Also, there’s a free demo.

Romancelvania

Steam‌ ‌page (opens in new tab)‌ ‌
Release:‌ March 8
Developer:‌ The Deep End Games
Launch price:‌ ‌$25 |‌ ‌£21 |‌ ‌AU$36.50

As the name implies, this is a Metroidvania, but you can romance the baddies. Protagonist Drac has lived a miserable loveless century, but as a contestant in a “monster reality-dating show” his hopes of finding love are sparked anew. While there are plenty of stock standard baddies to tackle in Romancelvania, the bosses are who you’ll have the chance to either “romance, befriend or eliminate”. This is a shamelessly cheesy affair: expect to explore areas with names like Booty Bay and Smashmounds. A Steam reviewer summarizes it as “The Bachelor meets Castlevania”, which seems about right to me.

vivid/stasis

Steam‌ ‌page (opens in new tab)‌ ‌
Release:‌ ‌March 8
Developer:‌ Team Vividstasis
Launch price:‌ ‌Free

Launched into Early Access last week, vivid/stasis is a fascinating mystery game with rhythm action elements. The story focuses on Tsuki Tasogare, who along with her friends, is trying to solve the mystery of her disappeared sister. Across several chapters the story becomes stranger and more conspiratorial, but it’s all held together by the rhythm action, which is soundtracked by the likes of Tanchiky (opens in new tab) and Silentroom (opens in new tab). Do note that the current Early Access build doesn’t include all planned story material, and that it likely won’t be completed until mid-2025. Still, whether you wait for the full game or play it as its made, vivid/stasis will always be free.

Looking Up I See Only A Ceiling

Steam‌ ‌page‌ (opens in new tab) ‌
Release:‌ March 9
Developer:‌ silver978
Launch price:‌ ‌$1.79 |‌ ‌£1.52 |‌ ‌AU$2.65

Here’s a brief narrative-driven psychological adventure game “about a stressed girl who wants to explore her ceiling”. That’s the description supplied on the Steam page, but you should probably expect something a bit weirder and unsettling than that précis lets on. Indeed, several Steam reviewers have drawn comparisons with Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk (opens in new tab). This one has three endings, appealingly strange hand drawn art, and should only take you a couple of hours to complete.


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The phrase “Super Mario FPS” conjures up a certain image for me: a custom Counter-Strike: Source gun game map maybe, or a really edgy Doom WAD like the so-rad-they-took-it-down Bikini Bottom Massacre (opens in new tab). Something in the spirit of, ahem, “tribal” tattoo Mario (opens in new tab), basically. Developer Sean Noonan’s Super 1-1 (opens in new tab), on the other hand, is more of a wholesome, good-hearted take on the concept.

We first reported (opens in new tab) on Noonan’s concept back in 2019, and the developer gave it a full release early the next year. Nintendo’s crack legal division seemed to give it a stay of execution, and that looked like the end of things until just this week. On March 11, Noonan published an update to Super 1-1 that adds new collectibles, back-end tweaks, and rendering updates. The full changes are listed here:

  • Updated project from 4.26 to 4.27
  • Significant project cleanup
  • Added some new coin locations
  • Updated all models, animations, textures, effects and materials
  • Added foliage in the form of grass tufts, small rocks and other small details
  • New and improved water (!)
  • New and improved sky (!)
  • Fixed numerous LOD’s
  • Fixed a bunch of shadow issues
  • Fixed depth of field
  • General performance improvements
  • Improved character controls
  • Additional game options
  • Added mouse control to in-game menus
  • Made trees “fun” 😀 [Editor’s note: they have eyes that turn to follow the player as they pass now]

I remember being tickled by the concept three years ago, but I never actually loaded Super 1-1 and tried the game⁠—it’s great! Mario’s movements translate really well into first-person, and you’re armed with a plunger-launching cannon that gets stronger as you collect mushrooms, an honestly pretty inspired bit of FPS weapon design that meshes perfectly with the Mushroom Kingdom. I also love seeing 3D platformer collectathon-style design hammered into an FPS⁠—it reminds me of the incredible Doom: The Golden Souls (opens in new tab) series of WADs.

For the sake of professional pride and journalistic integrity, I had to uncover its hidden level as well⁠—only I couldn’t find out how anywhere. Alpha Beta Gamer (opens in new tab)‘s video on Super 1-1 shows them loading into it directly after 100%ing the base level, so I tried that, and then I tried it again in under five minutes all to no avail.

Shout out to xVioletRain (opens in new tab) on YouTube, who included the instructions how on their three-year-old speedrun video that I was only the 120th person to watch. You just put in the Konami Code on the start screen with your keyboard (up up down down left right left right B A). It’s a cute, fully-linear sky level sort of deal, reminiscent of a lot of 3D Mario secret levels. I’m glad I saw it, and my great struggle to do so made it all the sweeter.

God willing, the demo’s nearly four years online means that Nintendo’s Terminator-like legal team will continue to abide its harmless existence. Super 1-1 is a fun and inventive project, and I recommend checking it out yourself on itch.io (opens in new tab).


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46 players have been banned from Dota 2 (opens in new tab) Esports events, seemingly resulting from an investigation following allegations of cheating in January’s Chinese regional Winter Tour of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC). The list includes the entirety of the team Knights, which was accused of using a vision hack to cheat their way to a third-place finish in the DPC matches.

That finish qualified Knights for $27,000 and a spot in the recent Lima Major (opens in new tab). Knights’ performance once there was notoriously poor, however, absolutely bombing with a 1-15 record in that tournament.

Knights had rebranded as “Antarctic Penguins” just after their appearance in Lima, dropping most of its old roster, though all of its new roster was included in the ban list. Antarctic Penguins technically retains a slot in the upcoming Spring Tour regionals in China, though it’s not clear at this time if they will participate.

The bans were handed out for “interference with fair competition” according to the statement posted by Perfect World Esports on Chinese social media platform Weibo (opens in new tab). 21 were permanent bans, which bar the recipients from any official Dota 2 tournament. 13 more were two-year suspensions, while 12 were one-year suspensions, also from official Dota 2 tournaments.

The specific findings of the investigation and the reasons for the differing penalties were not publicly disclosed. PC Gamer has reached out to Valve for comment. Perfect World Esports is the regional publishing partner for Valve in China.

These big bans follow a massive wave of 40,000 public Dota 2 cheating (opens in new tab) bans doled out by Valve late last month. Those bans were a honey pot of sorts where Valve became aware of the cheat, figured out how to detect it, and let people cheat for a bit to collect as many jerks as they could in the banhammer’s impact area.

Kinda convenient timing on the part of the cheating esports competitors, though. They’re just in time to have missed being included on the list of big esports scandals we just did (opens in new tab).


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In the morning of March 12, STALKER developer GSC Game World uploaded a statement (opens in new tab) to Twitter describing a security breach at the company. GSC lays the blame at a “community from a Russian social network,” and warns of potential leaks and spoilers for the upcoming STALKER 2. As reported by GameRant (opens in new tab), this seems to be in response to a post from the account Вестник «Того Самого Сталкера» (opens in new tab) (auto translate: “Herald of ‘The Same STALKER'”) on the Russian social media platform VK.

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GSC says that an employee “account for a collective work-with-images application was hacked,” and alludes to previous cyberattacks on the company relating to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, where GSC is based. “Our unwavering commitment to supporting our country remains unchanged⁠—we will continue to do everything possible to support Ukraine, and this won’t change in the future under any circumstances.”

The developer goes on to caution fans about STALKER 2 leaks, and requests that they avoid disseminating such material: “In the event of any leaks, we ask that you refrain from watching or distributing information about STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl. Outdated and work-in-progress materials may dilute the impression of the final idea that we have put into the game.”

The offending VK account initially scans as the sort of fan community you’re likely to find on any social media platform. It has 11,000 followers and, ironically, its rules prohibit “illegal content,” as well as “politics and political overtones.” I would argue that the STALKER 2 development materials obtained via hacking constitute the former, while the account holder’s demands of GSC are, well, pretty political:

  • “Change your mind, rethink your attitude towards players from Belarus and Russia, apologize for the unworthy attitude towards ordinary players from these countries.
  • We suggest unbanning the NF Star profile in your official Discord – you banned me for nothing, because of this I had to stop holding back.
  • A separate issue is the return of ru-localization. Fans are waiting for it from your official company. It is not necessary to spoil the game for people because of politics.”

I think what most stands out to me is how much this rhymes with fan outrage moments we’ve seen in the past⁠—talk of “avoiding politics” and “unban me from your Discord immediately” seems to crop up any time someone makes a localization change to a Japanese release or puts a gay character in their videogame. Here though, it’s in the context of a 21st century European land war. “It is not necessary to spoil the game for people because of politics” indeed.

GSC Game World will almost assuredly not budge on these points, and in response to its statement on Twitter, the Herald published more concept art obtained in the hack. GSC’s mention of a “work-with-images” application, as well as the account’s publishing of exclusively images so far, leads me to believe that it does not have more substantial materials like development documents, video, or an in-progress build, but we likely won’t have to wait long to see how big the hack was.

Last August, a Russian streamer and STALKER fan leaked footage of an unreleased console version of the first STALKER (opens in new tab), citing similar pro-Russia motivations to today’s leak. For more on how the Russia-Ukraine war has impacted the games industry, PCG associate editor Joshua Wolens recently did a deep dive on the motivation behind Western scrutiny of Atomic Heart developer, Mundfish (opens in new tab), which is headquartered in Cyprus but seems to have many of its operations in Moscow and St. Petersburg.



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You’ll find all the hints, tips, and help you need to make every Wordle (opens in new tab) day a breeze on this very page. Spend some time improving your general game with our guides and advice, take a look at a helpful clue for today’s Wordle, or simply save your win streak with the answer to the March 12 (631) puzzle. 

I’ve definitely felt worse about fumbling the last guess: getting today’s yellows to make any sense at all was something of a minor miracle in itself. I may not have found the answer in time, but at least I was close enough to almost touch it.

Wordle hint

(Image credit: Josh Wardle)

A Wordle hint for Sunday, March 12

This word’s most often used to describe a baby emerging from the body of its parent, but it can also refer to the beginning of any new idea, movement, or situation. There’s only one vowel to find today. 

Is there a double letter in today’s Wordle? 

No, you won’t find any double letters in today’s puzzle.  

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day 

Anyone can pick up and play Wordle, but if you want to do it well and make all of your guesses count, these quick tips will help get you started on your Wordle winning streak: 

  • Choose an opener with a balanced mix of unique vowels and consonants. 
  • The answer may contain the same letter, multiple times.
  • Try not to use guesses that contain letters you’ve already eliminated. 

Thankfully, there’s no time limit beyond ensuring it’s done by midnight. So there’s no reason not to treat the game like a casual newspaper crossword and come back to it later if you’re coming up blank. Sometimes stepping away for a while means you can come back with a fresh perspective. 

Today’s Wordle answer

(Image credit: Future)

What is the Wordle #631 answer?

Finish the weekend with a win. The answer to the March 12 (631) Wordle is BIRTH.

Previous answers

The last 10 Wordle answers 

Past Wordle answers can give you some excellent ideas for fun starting words that keep your daily puzzle-solving fresh. They are also a good way to eliminate guesses for today’s Wordle, as the answer is unlikely to be repeated. 

Here are some recent Wordle solutions:

  • March 11: EXTOL
  • March 10: REVEL
  • March 9: WHERE
  • March 8: REGAL
  • March 7: HORSE
  • March 6: PINKY
  • March 5: TOXIC
  • March 4: TREND
  • March 3: SQUAT
  • March 2: ABOVE

Learn more about Wordle

(Image credit: Nurphoto via Getty)

Wordle gives you six rows of five boxes each day, and you’ll need to work out which secret five-letter word is hiding inside them to keep up your winning streak.

You should start with a strong word (opens in new tab) like ARISE, or any other word that contains a good mix of common consonants and multiple vowels. You’ll also want to avoid starting words with repeating letters, as you’re wasting the chance to potentially eliminate or confirm an extra letter. Once you hit Enter, you’ll see which ones you’ve got right or wrong. If a box turns ⬛️, it means that letter isn’t in the secret word at all. 🟨 means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. 🟩 means you’ve got the right letter in the right spot.

You’ll want your next guess to compliment the first, using another “good” word to cover any common letters you might have missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn’t present in today’s answer. After that, it’s simply a case of using what you’ve learned to narrow your guesses down to the correct word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words and don’t forget letters can repeat too (eg: BOOKS).

If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips (opens in new tab), and if you’d like to find out which words have already been used you can scroll to the relevant section above. 

Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle (opens in new tab), as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle (opens in new tab), refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn’t long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures (opens in new tab). Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes. 


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Bleak Faith: Forsaken is a recently released soulslike from indie developer Archangel that resembles a cybergoth take on the FromSoftware formula. How close it is to FromSoftware games, particularly Elden Ring, has become a point of contention as, since its release on March 10, players have begun pointing out just how familiar some of its animations are.

For instance, here’s a comparison of Bleak Faith’s claymore attacks with those of Elden Ring’s uchigatana and straight sword (opens in new tab). And here’s a compilation of more animation similarities (opens in new tab), including a character who seems to have some of Malenia’s moves, and another who apparently has those of an Abyss Watcher from Dark Souls 3.

While plenty of games have used animations that took inspiration from elsewhere, as with Genshin Impact’s widely noted similarities to Nier Automata, these do seem to be in a different category. Rather than resembling FromSoftware games, they look like they’ve been extracted directly from them using the DSAnimStudio (opens in new tab) program beloved by modders, and then tweaked slightly.

On both Discord (opens in new tab) and the game’s Steam forum (opens in new tab), Archangel Studios addressed the accusations, explaining that some of Bleak Faith’s animations are assets purchased from the Epic Marketplace and linking to the profile of an Unreal Engine asset-seller named PersiaNinja (opens in new tab). One of the assets sold there, labeled PN Axe Animations, closely resembles the moveset of Bloodborne’s Hunter Axe.

“The marketplace was used to fill in generic art and was still edited to fit in the general needs of the art direction,” a developer named Roia said on Steam (opens in new tab), estimating that “about 10% of the total game art is from there.” On Archangel’s Discord, another developer going by ubermensch42 said that, “The only other things from the Epic Marketplace that I use is for generic VFX that was a waste of time to make since I’d make things that looked virtually the same anyway, and things that are so generic (like some rocks) that didn’t require artistic direction.”

That didn’t do much to make the complaints die down, and later today ubermensch42 added, “I’ve submitted a ticket raising the concerns of the community to the Epic Customer Service and outlining the animation accusations. We decided to be preemptive as a sign of good faith and a generally very pleased customer at the Epic Marketplace. We’ll let you know what they say about it and will respond accordingly.

“And a second point, we’re not judges or versed in what is and isn’t allowed, or who owns the rights to any of these animations. This is why we reached out, to get some confirmation about the person who makes these animations.”

At the same time, a separate issue was raised on Twitter (opens in new tab), where it was pointed out that Bleak Faith’s perk illustrations are AI-generated art and have the distinctively bland look that comes with it. The developers replied (opens in new tab) there as well, saying they would replace the art. “We hear you about it,” they wrote, “we’re working on new icons currently. It was somewhat of an oversight but also a decision that came from an honest place. We value the feedback however and will have redone perk icons up today!” 



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Atomic Heart, the FPS with the lustful fridge, launched with no field-of-view controls in the options menu. The usual wailing and gnashing of teeth followed. Once Atomic Heart mods appeared, a custom FOV slider mod quickly became the most popular, being downloaded over 19,000 times. For the sake of comparison, even the NSFW Nude Twins mod (opens in new tab) has only been downloaded 5,800 times so far. 

As of the latest patch, that FOV mod is no longer necessary. (Whether the nude mod is necessary I leave up to the individual reader reader.) Patch 1.3.4.0 has added FOV settings as well as ultrawide fixes, and disabled mouse acceleration. The full patch notes (opens in new tab) go into more detail, and you can read them below.

The developers promise that further updates are on the way, and will include more options for resizing the UI and subtitles, as well as remapping controller inputs. Steam Deck support is apparently on the way as well. 

Given this is a Russian-made game that deals explicitly with Russian history and national identity, it’s been controversial. In his review of Atomic Heart, Rich Stanton wrote, “The game on the one hand pines for the era where Russia led the space race, and the names of its cosmonauts travelled the world, and on the other is clear-eyed about what kind of system that was, and how its principles are still being used to subjugate a population under the guise of comradeship. The names of great Russians pop up again and again in the supporting cast in tribute, as they’re used to tell a story of over-reach and ultimately the wider theme of man’s inhumanity to man. I can’t imagine finishing this game and thinking it’s presenting Russia as some wonderland ruled by wise people for the common good.”

Here are the full patch notes for version 1.3.4.0, which include a variety of bug fixes, as well as improvements to graphics and sound.

  • VISUAL AND AUDIO
  • Improved VFX for Vov/a6 death in frozen state
  • Add sounds for jumping in Limbo
  • Fixed an issue with an incorrect displaying of PM in the NORA Repair Vendor with installed cartridge
  • Fixed some environment collisions before the final boss fight
  • Fixed an issue with an incorrect flickering lighting at the bottom of the screen when moving around the Chelomey location
  • Fixed an issue with P-3 body flickering in the Sechenov Center cutscene
  • Fixed an issue with cartoons not playing sometimes
  • Fixed an issue with an incorrect loading of the first location in the VDNH
  • Fixed an issue with an incorrect loading of the boiler room after loading
  • Fixed an issue with culling of plant in the Pesticide location
  • Fixed an issue with the lighting in a hotel in the Village
  • Added aiming sounds for MP “Revolver-type bolt frame” upgrade
  • Fixed an issue with a sound in an elevator in the VDNH
  • Fixed an issue with an environment culling in the Maya PlisetskayaTheater
  • Fixed an issue with a sound of the Testing Ground (POLYGON 8) exit door
  • Fixed an issue with an A-pose of mutant corpses
  • Fixed an issue with a sound in an elevator in the Algae Workshop of the Vavilov Сomplex
  • Fixed an issue with an incorrect loading of the last puzzle room in the Magnetic Shock Absorption Zone
  • QUESTS
  • Improved quest markers in the VDNH
  • Fixed an issue with Tereshkova not going further if you stand close to the gate
  • Fixed an issue with an incorrect Plych spawn in the Pavlov Complex morgue
  • Fixed an issue with an elevator in the Testing Ground (POLYGON 10)
  • Fixed an issue with a Candle in the Testing Ground (POLYGON 10)
  • Fixed an issue with an incorrect Rotorobot spawn in the VDNH
  • Fixed an issue with missing objects
  • Fixed an issue with a save in the Vavilov Complex tunnels
  • Fixed an issue with a deadlock when hitting the Plyusch in the Maya Plisetskaya Theater with a Swede’s circle attack
  • Fixed an issue with getting stuck in the Testing Ground (POLYGON 1)
  • Fixed an issue with an incorrect quest item picking while having a huge amount of resources
  • Fixed an issue with a quest item turning into the MARC (“Fat Boy”) ammo
  • Fixed an issue with a start of the Limbo location
  • Fixed an issue with a crash when loading autosave in the Algae Workshop
  • Fixed an issue with a сrash after death from the Natasha’s missile
  • Fixed an issue with the “She sells mustache on a seashore” quest updating
  • Fixed an issue with the Black Vova’s health bar after an autosave
  • Fixed an issue with an elevator doors in the Seed Bank of the Vavilov Complex
  • Fixed an issue with a door in the Testing Ground (POLYGON 11)
  • Fixed an issue with not being able to re-enter after the exit through the main entrance to VDNH right before the door closes
  • Fixed an issue with a door not opening at the start of the Limbo in the Pavlov Complex
  • Fixed an issue with doors not opening after killing the Plyusch and all the mobs in the Testing Ground (POLYGON 9)
  • Fixed an issue when player is loaded through an autosave on the level border on the transition from an entrance to tunnels in the Vavilov Complex
  • Fixed an issue when part of the Sechenov’s Office area in the Chelomey is not loading when going up in an elevator
  • Fixed an issue when part of the Ceremonial Ramp area in the VDNH isn’t loading
  • Fixed an issue when it’s impossible to interact with the Candle in the boiler room of the Thermarium if it’s pushed behind the pipe support
  • GAMEPLAY / OPEN WORLD
  • Fixed an issue with the Windbender Power Generators and Dandelion CCTV System being not repaired by the Pchelas
  • Fixed an issue with a missing KS-23 receipt
  • Fixed an issue with the P.E.A.R. terminal not responding to interaction in a locked room in the VDNH
  • Fixed an issue when it’s impossible to open map in the open world
  • Fixed an issue when you can not get out of the car in some cases
  • Fixed collisions in many places to prevent being stuck in an environment
  • Fixed an issue with an inaccessible Chirper in the Pesticide location of the Vavilov Complex
  • Fixed an issue with consumable items in the weapon selection wheel
  • Fixed an issue with displaying of the uninstalled PM upgrades
  • Fixed an issue with displaying of the uninstalled MARC (“Fat Boy”) upgrades
  • Fixed an issue with a loot disappearing after loading the save
  • Fixed an issue when pieces of dead frozen enemies become lootable
  • Fixed an issue with missing map objects in the Friendship of Peoples Park in the VDNH
  • Fixed an issue with falling down under the map when jumping onto the reflector at the end of the Magnetic Shock Absorption Zone
  • ACHIEVEMENTS
  • Fixed an issue with an achievement progress saving
  • Fixed an issue with the progress of achievements after restarting the game
  • Fixed an issue with unlocking the “Scanner” achievement
  • Fixed an issue with unlocking the “Atomic Heart” achievement
  • Fixed an issue with unlocking the “Lord of War” achievement
  • Fixed an issue with finding/crafting MP not forwarding the “Lord of War” achievement
  • Fixed an issue with the progress of the “Hothead” achievement
  • Fixed an issue with unlocking the “Clean-up” achievement
  • UI
  • Fixed an issue with the NORA Repair Vendor UI
  • NORA Repair Vendor storage UI improvements for the 16:10 and 21:9 ratio monitors
  • Improved HUD notifications for sending items to the storage
  • Improved skill activation HUD
  • Fixed an issue with a stuck display of the received loot
  • STABILITY
  • Improved performance in some areas
  • Improved stability – fixed some rare crashes
  • PC-ONLY
  • Mouse acceleration disabled
  • Fixed an issue with a soft lock when pressing space many times during the use of the NORA Repair Vendor


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When Google shut down underperforming game-streaming service Stadia, the company announced a plan to keep the tech underlying it alive in the form of “Immersive Stream for Games”, which it licenced out so other companies could let their customers play games online. One high-profile result was Resident Evil Village’s demo you could play in a browser, but the same tech was behind AT&T letting subscribers play Batman: Arkham Knight and fitness-bike maker Peloton launching a game called Lanebreak (turns out, virtual cycling games are big business).

In the midst of promoting a bundle of tools Google Cloud offers game publishers (opens in new tab) to support their live service games, reporter Stephen Totilo mentioned that the Stadia tech is no longer available to license (opens in new tab).

“We are not offering that streaming option,” Jack Buser, director of game industry solutions at Google Cloud, told Totilo, “because it was tied to Stadia itself. So, unfortunately, when we decided to not move forward with Stadia, that sort of [business-to-business] offering could no longer be offered as well.”

What Google’s currently pushing to remind everyone it’s committed to being part of the games industry now is a platform called Agones, which was developed in conjunction with Ubisoft. Agones was showcased at the Game Developer’s Conference in 2019 (opens in new tab), and combines game servers, engine integration, and a suite of metrics and player-monitoring tools. As well as Ubisoft it’s apparently being used by Yager, Niantic, Unity, and other companies looking to get into live service multiplayer games.

Jack Buser, who was formerly the director for games at Stadia before taking his current position at Google Cloud, was quoted as saying, “It was at that moment when we basically had to make decisions about Stadia that we realized that, at Google Cloud, we are at our best when we’re helping other people build this stuff, not necessarily building it ourselves.”

Even as games like Knockout City, Rumbleverse, and Ubisoft’s Hyperscape have had to shut down at most a couple of years after launching and Square Enix announced that Marvel’s Avengers won’t be supported past September, publishers seem determined to blithely continue chasing the service-game gravy train. Assassin’s Creed Infinity will reportedly be turning the series into a live service game that spans multiple historical settings, Blood Bowl 3 has seasonal updates and a battle pass, and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League looks like it’ll be a looter-shooter with gear scores and cosmetics that are earned via, yes, a battle pass. 



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