New Horizons took the world by storm back in March with its dependable gameplay and lovable characters, in which players build and maintain their own little island community in real time. If you ever needed a nice escape to get through long holidays or winter nights, this would be it. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - buy from John Lewis for £36.99 John Lewis haven’t made it clear how long this deal will last for, but it’s worth grabbing because it seems unlikely you’ll get a copy for a significantly lower price at any time in the immediate future....

Yesterday, a claim the next Assassin’s Creed game would be set in the Aztec era gained traction online, sourced from a Twitter user who had previously leaked details of fellow Ubisoft series Far Cry. Now, Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier has debunked the Aztec claim - while also corroborating Eurogamer’s reporting earlier this year that Baghdad would be featured in the franchise’s next title. “The next AC game is Rift, which is set in Baghdad,” Schreier wrote on reddit....

The offer is part of the platform’s regular Free Play Days scheme open to anyone with an Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. You can start playing now, and keep playing until Monday, 10th January at 8am UK time. If you like what you’ve played, there are also discounts on Battlefield 2042’s four editions - with a third off a Standard Edition copy. Turn-based sci-fi battler Star Renegades and Lovecraftian open world The Sinking City are also available to try....

The mode, which seems to cobble together familiar elements from the likes of The Division’s Dark Zone and Escape From Tarkov while serving them up in Battlefield style, got its reveal via a new trailer with DICE working to fill in the gaps in a pre-briefing. Tying into Battlefield 2042’s near future sci-fi setting, the data drives you’re looking to extract are from the downed satellites whose demise plunged the world into a state of tension and conflict....

The furore around the game’s voice actresses has been raised once more after new claims surfaced disputing that original Bayonetta voice actress Hellena Taylor was offered just $4k to work on the third game. The debate has fired up both passion and negativity on all sides: towards Taylor, Platinum Games, and Hale, who was somewhat unwittingly dragged into the fiasco. Watch on YouTube Bayonetta 3 – Bewitching action gameplay! “Finally, I hope that everyone involved may resolve their differences in an amicable and respectful way,” Hale said in a previously tweeted statement....

If you’re unsure of what telly to go for, and more integrally, where to find the best deals, stay right here - we’ve been updating this article throughout Black Friday and will keep doing so as Cyber Monday rolls on. In terms of dividing this up, we’re going to things by screen size, which should keep things easy if you’re aware of how big your current TV is that you may end up replacing....

Pros: Good sound stage, compact design, convenient controls. Cons: Can’t drive high-impedance headphones, no speaker output, potentially buggy software. Epos, the company formerly known as Sennheiser’s gaming division, has turned out something of a treat on its first attempt. The GSX 300 sound card is compact and relatively inexpensive at around £70, but it produces a great expanded sound stage and offers an immersive simulation of 7.1 surround sound on stereo headsets....

The choir performed a series of songs that together tell the story of Rapture, the iconic underwater city from the first entry in the game series. The likes of Andrew Ryan, Brigid Tenenbaum, and Sander Cohen all feature, singing classics like Proud Mary - the lyrics switched to “rolling underwater”, of course. The performance swept the board at the competition, winning the biggest awards: Musicianship, Showmanship and Best Soloist. While it doesn’t follow the plot of the game, it does feature fantastic costumes reminiscent of the game’s 1950s art deco setting....

Specifically, Bohemia has called for players and content creators to “use their game footage responsibly”, “refrain from using clickbait video titles” and “always state clearly that the video originated from a video game” rather than footage from a real-life conflict. Arma 3 gameplay videos have a history of being mistaken for real-world footage - even by professional news organisations - and this problem has only increased since the current conflict in Ukraine has begun, Bohemia said....

The player, Luca Leone, regularly streamed the game using cheats on his Twitch channel miffysworld, for which Bungie repeatedly banned him. Leone created 13 separate accounts in an attempt to evade bans, with each account violating the game’s Limited Software License Agreement. Leone sent threatening messages from his Twitter account, about his desire to “burn down” Bungie’s offices and declaring certain Bungie employees were “not safe” as he intended to move to their neighbourhood - including community manager Dylan Gafner....

Previously, the Destiny maker had said the franchise’s original area - which returned in Destiny 2: Beyond Light last autumn at about a half of its base size - would grow over time. There was no suggestion it would ever get its Destiny 1 Year 3 Rise of Iron expansion set in the connecting Plaguelands zone, but Bungie did say it would build out Destiny 2’s stripped back Cosmodrome area until it was at “roughly Destiny 1 Year parity”....

Not long after it emerged the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of CD Projekt’s sci-fi epic were in a terrible state did reports come in that some had found success nabbing a refund. CD Projekt was then forced to apologise for not showing Cyberpunk 2077 on PS4 and Xbox One before launch and, in the same breath, suggested anyone who wanted a refund would be able to get one without bother....

First up is Oro, the hermit character who made his series debut in Street Fighter 3. In Street Fighter 5, Oro holds his pet turtle in one hand to make sure he fights with one arm only. Oro comes out this summer. Rose, who debuted in Street Fighter Alpha, uses tarot cards to either buff herself or debuff her opponent. Rose comes out 19th April. And finally, here’s Akira Kazama, who joins Street Fighter 5 as a guest character from Rival Schools....

It’s the first time the Company of Heroes series will have ever been available on console - although when exactly these new versions will arrive is still to be confirmed. Company of Heroes 3 will launch for PC on 23rd February. Tonight, Sega said to expect its PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions later down the line - with exact timing to be revealed next year. Tonight’s news of Company of Heroes 3 console versions does not come as a complete surprise....

Creative Assembly first revealed it was working on a sci-fi shooter back in September 2018, calling it an “ambitious multiplayer title” and a “fresh take on the FPS genre” that would enable players to “embrace a variety of creative playstyles”. Almost four years later, that project has now been named as Hyenas, a “ballsy entry into the most competitive genre in gaming”. “In Hyenas, the world is broken… literally,” explains Creative Assembly....

2007’s original Crysis got the remaster treatment last Autumn, bringing various tweaks and enhancements for modern-era machines, and 15th October will see the game’s two sequels - or, more specifically, their single-player campaigns - getting a similarly thorough spruce-up. Crytek promises improved lighting, high-definition textures, plus visually enhanced characters, weapons, and environments, with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S running the games between 1080p and 4K at 60fps using Dynamic resolution....

Originally released in 2015, Undertale tells the story of a child who tumbles into the Underground, a strange world beneath the Earth’s surface. What follows is a game of big heart and wilful idiosyncrasy that’s earned it a legion of fans - and countless memes - over the years. “Undertale dances happily in the footsteps of Shigesato Itoi’s Mother series, and like those games before it, it’s a JRPG that’s endlessly playful and inventive,” said Eurogamer’s Martin Robinson when he reviewed the PlayStation Vita version back in 2017....

Made by modder Catmino, the mod offered swaps for a variety of characters in Cyberpunk 2077, along with an explanation for how to do the whole process manually. It seems CDPR took issue with one specific model swap, the Johnny Silverhand joytoy file, which allowed players to have sex with Keanu Reeves’ character. CDPR told me it doesn’t mind modders using model swaps for most of the fictional characters in the game, but draws the line at using real-world likenesses in explicit scenes without that person’s permission....

Dauntless patches roll out every two weeks, after a change developer Phoenix Labs made in early 2019, with the aim to deliver “more meaningful, stable patches with an extra week between them”. In the meantime, you can read more about Dauntless crossplay, Switch and mobile versions. NEW TO DAUNTLESS True cross-play. Slayers can now play Dauntless with friends regardless of which platform they use. You can also use your Epic Games account to access your progress on any system....

The free-to-play action-adventure game has players as handlers aiming for peace between humans and dinosaurs (will they ever learn?). Players will use their combat skills to save dinosaurs from enemies and then fight alongside them. The trailer below shows plenty of combat, as well as a nice variety of dinosaurs to acquire. Gotta catch ’em all, I suppose. Players will save the dinosaurs from extinction by travelling North America and rescuing them from mercenaries, poachers, and evil science labs....