The option allows Edge to suggest a sponsored BNPL payment method when customers begin entering their card numbers into retail sites - even if specific sites do not offer it natively. Microsoft has signed a deal with third-party BNPL company Zip (previously Quadpay) to feature the sign-up option on retail checkout pages at browser level, for any purchase Edge detects between $35 to $1000. Think how a browser may suggest a previously-used credit card when paying currently....

Last night, Minecraft developer Mojang posted a blog laying out a clear policy on NFTs, which it said created “models of scarcity and exclusion that conflict with our guidelines and the spirit of Minecraft”. “To ensure that Minecraft players have a safe and inclusive experience, blockchain technologies are not permitted to be integrated inside our client and server applications, nor may Minecraft in-game content such as worlds, skins, persona items, or other mods, be utilised by blockchain technology to create a scarce digital asset,” Mojang confirmed....

The PC port of one of the best games of the year so far - at least I thought so in our Monster Hunter Rise review - will be coming on 12th January 2022, with a demo arriving as soon as 13th October. There will be support for 4K resolution and ultrawide monitors, improved framerates and textures plus refined keyboard and mouse controls. The Sunbreak expansion that’s coming to both PC and Switch next summer also got a proper run out, with Yoshitake Suzuki at the helm of the add-on....

First seen in Monster Hunter 2, newer players will likely not have been on the receiving end of this crab’s punishing hammer blows. Of Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak’s new monsters, this was the first that made us really stop and reevaluate our armor. Whether you’re about to take it on for the first time or you’re looking for that last item drop for weapons and armor, there are several Shogun Ceanataur strategies and weaknesses to be aware of, including how to get the many ways to get a Heavy Ceanataur Leg, Monster Slogbone and Fine Black Pearl....

Alba shares a similar focus on good deeds and community spirit as UsTwo’s antique restoration game Assemble with Care, but fashions a much more open-ended adventure around that feel-good core, casting players as young girl Alba as she whiles away the summer on the sprawling Mediterranean island of Pinar del Mar, her best friend Ines in tow. “However, when Alba finds out about plans to build a garish hotel on the site of the island’s nature reserve,” explains UsTwo, “she sets out to stop it!...

To put those numbers into a different perspective, that is over 30 percent of Activision’s entire workforce (which, is roughly 9800), and close to half of its total developers (6800). “We are working on the most ambitious plan in Call of Duty history, with over 3000 people now working on the franchise and a return to the Modern Warfare setting that delivered our most successful Call of Duty title ever,” Activision wrote in its 2021 annual report (via Tweak Town)....

In other words, I was always going to want to take a look at Mythforce, the first-person, co-op, roguelite stab ’em up from Beamdog. Knowing that this was too big a job for one woman, I sent out a message to a hand-picked team of specialists, triggering a humorous montage of their beeping communicator watches interrupting their everyday lives and them having to, I dunno, hand off their cats to random strangers before rushing away to answer the call to action....

Blood Origin isn’t Netflix’s first Witcher prequel, of course; last year saw the streaming service release an animated movie called The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, focusing on Geralt of Rivia’s friend and mentor Vesemir. Blood Origin, though, goes some considerable way further back in the series’ timeline, telling a story set 1,200 years before Geralt and the events we’re familiar with from Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s books, CD Projekt’s games, and Netflix’s existing TV show....

Catching every fish, bug and sea creature will only allow you to complete two Museum exhibits and unlock two of the Golden Tool DIY recipes. On this page you’ll find every creature that is arriving and leaving your island, as, while the Critterpedia may contain the details for each creature you collect, it only does so after you’ve caught it for the first time, which can make completing your collection difficult....

That’s according to Kotaku, which reports that newly appointed studio boss Nick Baynes is leading development on a brand-new Mafia game, codenamed Nero. The project is said to be a prequel to the Mafia trilogy - which would suggest a return to the prohibition era action of the very first Mafia game, if not even earlier. Additionally, Hangar 13 will reportedly be ditching its Mafia 3 engine - used in the recent Mafia 1 remake - in favour of Unreal Engine 5....

Keep an eye on the Pokémon YouTube channel at 2pm UK time for “the latest news”. The game is set for release on 18th November, so expect more information to be divulged in the run-up to release. Watch on YouTube Check out Grafaiai, a very territorial Pokémon! The last new video was in August, which focused on competitive play and introduced new Pokémon Cyclizar who fans believe may be a pre-evolution of the game’s legendary ‘mon....

Wordle - which challenges players to puzzle out a daily five-letter word within six guesses using colour-coded clues - was released last October by developer Josh Wardle. Initial interest was modest, but its popularity has skyrocketed in recent weeks, growing from 300,000 users around the middle of January to millions of players. Unsurprisingly, its that massive audience that has brought Wordle into the New York Times’ orbit. Announcing its acquisition of the game for a price “in the low seven figures”, the publication said the purchase “reflects the growing importance of games, like crosswords and Spelling Bee, in the company’s quest to increase digital subscriptions to 10 million by 2025....

The content will be made available as part of the Maverick Replicant bundle. The bundle itself is a part of the Year 7 Season 4 content update for Rainbow Six Siege. At the end of the teaser video for the bundle, someone wearing a familiar pair of boots walks forward with the caption “A YoRHa soldier is approaching… glory to mankind!” overlaid. It looks like Nier: Automata protagonist 2B will also be involved in the bundle in some way....

No that’s not me trying to avoid spoilers, that’s an official requirement by Nintendo when you agree to download the playtest. On the My Nintendo page where you can pick up a code, this small bullet point is listed under important information: “Participants are forbidden from sharing information about the Online Play Test publicly, including the sharing of screenshots or video footage from the game on social media.” It isn’t clear what exactly the consequences are if you do share anything, although Nintendo will likely issue takedown requests to any content shared on social media platforms or video hosting sites....

The information once again comes courtesy of French forum Dealabs, which correctly posted September’s offerings before they’d been formally confirmed by Sony last month. And once again, the moderation team says it satisfactorily reviewed evidence of the leak in order to let the post remain online (thanks, VGC). Hell Let Loose - a multiplayer tactical first-person shooter video game that sees players fight in battles of the Western and Eastern Fronts of World War 2 - has been out on PC since the summer, but isn’t coming to consoles until next month....

This is particularly true of the dictionaries I love best: speciality dictionaries. Do you have a Rhyming Dictionary? You must get one - it’s a life-changer, a kind stranger, a park ranger. Ditto a dictionary of historical terms, a dictionary of etymology. Spread out: I have a Who’s Who in Ancient Egypt which is pretty well thumbed. And my favourite? The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Words, by George Stone Saussy III....

Hudson Hawk is a Bruce Willis action-comedy from the early 1990s. Now, there are three warning signs in that sentence. In escalating order of seriousness here we go: Bruce Willis. Early 1990s. Action-comedy. Bruce Willis is a warning because he’s either brilliant or terrible. You either get Die Hard or that movie where he’s part of the yacht police. Early 1990s? A warning because anything could happen back then. Anything!...

Card tricks are great of course. The magician takes a new deck and cuts an ace. They get you to pick a card and then it appears upside down in the pack, in your next hand, stuck in your pocket, tucked behind the clock on the mantlepiece. All of this is brilliant. It’s magic! But you need an audience. And, as the saying goes, you can only do it once really....

An announcement on the Japanese Pac-Man website says that the collaboration between Fortnite and Pac-Man will start from 2nd June. From then, players will be able to purchase items with a ‘Pac-Man’ motif. So, perhaps we won’t be seeing entire Pac-Man skins gobbling their way through Fortnite’s map next month, but time will tell. However, please note that, at the time of writing, Epic has not reacted to this recent post from the Pac-Man site, so things may be subject to change....

That’s according to the Hollywood Reporter, which says Bandai Namco is teaming up with Wayfarer Studios (the company behind Disney+ biopic Clouds) to bring Pac-Man to cinemas. Details are limited right now, but the movie is said to be based on an original idea by Chuck Williams, who’ll produce alongside Tim Kwok on behalf of Lightbeam Entertainment. If that name seems familiar, Williams previously served as a producer on 2020’s Sonic the Hedgehog adaptation, and like that film, Pac-Man will forego an all-CGI production in favour of the live-action route....