The city-building and real-time strategy revival returns after more than a decade in the wilderness (The Settlers 7 launched back in 2010). A closed beta will be held via the Epic Game Store and Ubisoft Connect next week, from Thursday 20th to Monday 24th January, which you can sign up for via thesettlers.com. Today’s trailer, above, treats us to a look at some of the environments available to explore, specialised Settlers, plus a glimpse at a story campaign and multiplayer battles....

Set beneath the North Sea in an alternate 1970s world, the project will channel the personal losses of its dozen developers at indie outfit Parallel Studio. Under the Waves’ development is being assisted by Quantic Dream, the studio famous for various lawsuits, and also Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Becom Human. Parallel Studio has had access to Quantic Dream’s motion capture and voice recording facilities, as well as its teams working on animation, quality assurance and localisation....

UE5 takes the established Unreal Engine 4.27 and adds full support for a number of key next generation technologies. We’ve already seen these in action, of course. Lumen is Epic’s take on a fully real-time global illumination solution, eliminating the need to rely on static, pre-calculated ‘baked’ lighting, leaning into hardware accelerated ray tracing where appropriate. Nanite is UE5’s virtualised micro-polygon technology, delivering incredibly granular detail from assets of motion picture quality and the elimination of geometry ‘pop-in’....

Medvedev, who defeated World number one Novak Djokovic 6-4 6-4 6-4 in the grand final last night, threw himself to the court floor, lying on his side with his tongue hanging out. The audience would be forgiven for not having a clue that Medvedev was performing a celebration from a video game (it sort of looks like he’s collapsing with exhaustion), but in his post-match interview he confirmed what he was going for, saying: “Only legends will understand what I did after the match is L2 plus left....

Angels of the Zariman focuses its multitude of new additions around the lore-critical Zariman Ten Zero, an Orokin ship that vanished during a Void-Jump accident. Front and centre of the update is a new instalment in Warframe’s single-player, story driven Cinematic Quest saga, which this time sets the scene by taking Tenno aboard the Zariman Ten Zero. Then, once the mission is complete, players will gain access to Chrysalith, a new social hub onboard the Zariman, which introduces a range of new NPC, side missions, and objectives....

This is a Cold War SMG with a competitive Time to Kill (TTK), but with a few downsides that make it tough to use in a practical sense. Although the UGR hits hard, it’s held back by its small magazine size of 30 (though you can extend it to 36 with a specific magazine attachment). With that in mind, we recommend sticking to solos or duos if you plan on using this weapon in Warzone, because you’ll likely run out of ammo quickly every time....

Morin – who will “help lead NetEase Games Montreal to create a new IP, powering NetEase’s mission to become one of the biggest video game publishers in the world” – brings 24 years of “AAA” experience after having “played a key role in shaping the critically acclaimed Watch Dogs franchise at Ubisoft and vastly contributed to the Far Cry series”. NetEase stopped short of revealing what new project Morin will be working on but says he joins other “major talent hires” including some from Quantic Dream, Jackalope, and Nagoshi Studio....

Set in the fractured fantasy world of Evenor, players take on the role of Wayfinders as they embark on a quest of “endless action and adventure” to restore their home from a foul, consuming force known as the Gloom. Airship (which made Ruined King: A League of Legends Story and Darksiders Genesis) says each playable Wayfinder comes with its own unique story, play style, and abilities - which can be augmented by using Echoes from fallen foes - with players able to wield arcane magic, mystical tech, and “cunning” weapons as they embark on hunts and expeditions to new locations....

At the moment there isn’t a lot in terms of discounts - games are rarely cheap before they even come out - but we’ve checked to see where’s got the best offer and laid it all out for you below. So far, The Game Collection is offering the best price, but we’ll be sure to update this page as circumstances change and we learn more approaching launch day. Happy hunting....

So why is this card so hotly anticipated? Put simply, it brings the advancements of AMD’s bleeding-edge RDNA2 GPUs like the RX 6900 XT down to an entry-level price point, targeting the high refresh rate 1080p displays that are among the most popular new purchases. The RX 6600 is also reasonably future-proof, thanks to HDMI 2.1 support, 8GB of VRAM and RT capabilities. It’s theoretically the same price as Nvidia’s competing RTX 3060, which admittedly does perform better in many games but remains hard to find....

So why is this card so hotly anticipated? Put simply, it provides around 10 to 15 percent better performance than the RTX 3080 while costing less than the RTX 3090 - the latter of which is now only really useful if you can make use of its 24GB of VRAM or the weighty heatsink on the 3090 Founders Edition. More importantly though, it’s another high-end graphics card in a market where these are simply impossible to find, so the prospect of any new stock is still quite tempting if you can afford the high asking price....

It may sound like a you need to hunt down a particular character location, but you’ll actually need to search for an item instead. Completing this Fortnite task will reward you with 15k XP, which will then help you towards unlocking the new Battle Pass skins. Where to find the coolest player on the island in Fortnite Congratulations! You’re the coolest player on the island. So how do you find yourself?...

Yet at the other end of the spectrum, indie games currently have an obsession with frogs and witches. But why? What is it about frogs and witches? Watch on YouTube Eurogamer Newscast: Was Starfield really a disappointment? The Wholesome Direct in particular was chock full of the little green critters and spellcasters. Paper Animal RPG is a cute riff on Paper Mario; Schim is a clever puzzle game about a frog-esque shadow creature hopping through shadows; A Frog’s Tale is an adorable turn-based pixel RPG....

Echos! One of the great tricks of Wicca is the ability to rewind time and then fight alongside an echo of yourself. At heart, Wicca’s a tower defence game, even if it never truly feels like one. Step back enough though, and there it is: creeps move along a path and you have to wear them down before they get to the end of it. Summoning echoes is one of the most thrilling ways of doing this....

Announced during today’s Nintendo Indie World showcase, Wildfrost looks like a cross between Hearthstone and Slay the Spire. It’s being developed as a collaboration between Deadpan Games’ Will Lewis (maker of Steam and Switch roguelike Caveblazers) and artist Gaziter. Wildfrost is set “in a world on the brink of destruction”, the game’s description reads. “Using deck-building tactics, you’ll head into the frost to battle through enemies to reach the Sun Temple, banishing the Wildfrost and returning peace to the world....

Stories we cover include Sony’s astonishing financial results and the confirmation the PlayStation 5 is being sold at a loss, the exact height of Resident Evil Village’s super tall vampire lady, ongoing drama in the world of Cyberpunk 2077 mods, and of course Google’s decision to shut down Stadia’s first-party game development operation. The big story we focus on this week is the revelation that MLB The Show is PlayStation Studios’ first ever Xbox game....

For the uninitiated, the aim of Wordle is to work out a daily five-letter word within six guesses. The fewer the guesses, the better - and if you fail to guess it at all, you’ll break your streak. The latter is why working out today’s Wordle answer is such a priority, as players pride themselves on keeping their streak going. So why gamble on a risky final guess when you can learn a few clues and, failing that, get the definitive answer?...

As detailed back in April, Dragonflight’s first major addition is a new location known as the Dragon Isles, the long-hidden ancestral home of dragonkind. This, in turn, brings four new areas - the Waking Shores starting zone, the expansive Ohn’ahran Plains, the frozen Azure Span, and the majestic Thaldraszus - complete with new dungeons and raids. Dragonflight also introduces a new playable race-class hybrid (a first for WoW) known as the Dracthyr Evokers, which can switch between human and draconic forms....

Meet The Go-Getters Club, a grade school class of 11 children who are on their way to Kamakura near Tokyo for a school trip when a meteor strikes nearby. When they come to, the children leave pods (!) and find themselves in a theme park (!!!) underwater (!!!!) where a flying mascot called Pielope tells them they have to play a death game to make it out alive. It’s an important spoiler of sorts to note that the death game, once the driving force in the game’s marketing, comprises the first half hour of nearly 20, so if you go in expecting another Danganronpa, this is a likely deliberate misdirect....

Speaking as part of a wide-ranging New York Times interview, Spencer said he would like Xbox and other console makers to be able to work together on these ideas. “Something I would love us to be able to do - this is a hard one as an industry - is when somebody gets banned in one of our networks, is there a way for us to ban them across other networks?...