Greenwood, the Manchester United player, was arrested on 30th January on suspicion of rape and assault of a young woman. In a statement to Eurogamer, Konami confirmed his removal until further notice. “In light of the serious allegations made against Mason Greenwood, the player will be removed from our football titles until further notice. “Specifically for PES 2021 on mobile, users cannot newly obtain the player, but existing owners are unaffected....

2021’s bundle was impressive enough from a content perspective, gathering up the likes Eurogamer’s Essential-rated Widermyth, linguistics adventure Heaven’s Vault, Viking strategy Northguard, top-down action-adventure Hyper Light Drifter, plus Surviving Mars, Murder by Numbers, 20XX, and a load more. It was absolutely unmissable from a value perspective, however, amounting to around £650 worth of games for anyone that donated £35 or more. Unsurprisingly, plenty of people took Jingle Jam up on the offer, bolstering their Steam libraries with ample video game goodies and contributing to a range of good causes in the process, with donaters able to select from a shortlist of 14 charities that included the likes of Special Effect, War Child, and Cancer Research UK....

“We know that AFKs and leavers are some of the most disruptive behaviours you face, so we’re happy to be coming to you today with an update around AFK and Leaver punishments.” wrote BarackProbama and TimTamMonster in s blog on the game’s official website. Bundling both idle “AFK” behaviour and intentional quitters together as one single nuisance, the pair said that the team was introducing a number of new “prongs” to manage the issue, including new penalty “tiers” and a means of “shielding” players from repeat offenders....

The footage in question was shot in downtown Calgary and shows Military forces moving through the city’s streets. As the trucks make their way through, red flares go off from the nearby buildings and celebratory gunfire can be seen and heard. The extras making up the crowds on these streets appear to be shouting “Freedom!” and “Fuck FEDRA!”. You can check out the footage for yourself below. The footage shown suggests this scene will depict the Pittsburgh Quarantine Zone before the events of The Last of Us, around the time the Hunters (a group of hostile survivors) overthrew FEDRA (the QZ’s original ruling faction) and ultimately took control of the zone....

But it’s not top-down like a lot of twin-sticks. It’s a side-on 2D platformer, and one with a control scheme that at first took me quite a lot of getting used to. Enemies come at you quick in the game’s small arenas, so keeping your distant is crucial. Revita maps a jump and dash to the left bumper and trigger respectively, in the standard control method that it encourages you quite strongly to use....

Having a good gaming headset is important in making sure you only hear what you need to, and Logitech makes some of the best gaming headsets around thanks to the audio drivers they use, the comfort of their design, and that you also get some really good quality microphones attached to them. Buy Now The G Pro X features DTS Headphone:X 2.0 surround sound so you’ll be able to hear everything happening in your game, plus the passive noise-cancelling ear cups make sure that’s all you’ll be hearing....

Both EA and Respawn have confirmed that new-gen versions are in the works, though fans have eagerly been awaiting details. Now a tweet from PlayStationSize, which trawls the PSN for updates, suggests that a PS5 version could be imminent, with a download size of over 80GB. Of course, the game is already available on PS5 through backwards compatibility with the PS4 version. But a native PS5 version is yet to be released, just like main rival Call of Duty: Warzone....

Now, finally, the sequel is here, promising a substantially expanded scope alongside a reworked, more flexible combat system. Tech-wise, we’re looking at another outing for Ubisoft’s Snowdrop game engine, the toolset best-known for powering The Division and its sequel. Gameplay is solid, but it comes at a cost: Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope lacks the same level of visual accomplishment as its predecessor. It’s all about the gameplay enhancements with this one, which are substantial....

It’s comfort gaming, yes, but it’s also comforting to spend time with something that flies so close to perfection. Whether it’s the exquisite rhythm of its racing, pulled along by ribbons of triple-tier drift boosts, speed-up pads and pirouetting tricks, or its sugar sweet palette that ensures it’s prettiness hasn’t dimmed a jot, Mario Kart 8 remains a thing of wonder. When Nintendo announced, coming up to five years since the release of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Switch, that it was following that up not with Mario Kart 9 but with more Mario Kart 8 I wasn’t exactly disappointed....

Showing is perhaps better than telling, so I’d recommend digging into the video embedded below, but the bottom line is that the performance mode is arguably the best way to play. Just like PS4 Pro, it’s running at 2160p checkerboard with a dynamic resolution window that extends as far as it needs to in order to sustain the crucial 60fps target. Essentially, the more mayhem you unleash, the lower typical resolution is likely to be - expect values in the 1800p range in the heat of the action, dropping to 1440p when all hell truly breaks loose....

Since December 2019, Sakurai has been sharing screenshots from the debug version of the game each day. Earlier this month he noted he’d soon be running out of screenshots. Now that day has come. Watch on YouTube MultiVersus vs Super Smash Bros Ultimate - DF Tech Review So what’s the final screenshot? A Smash Ball. “This concludes the daily Smash Ultimate screens I’ve been posting since Dec 2019. Thank you for your support!...

Dread Mode is basically a one-hit-kill affair, where even the slightest knock will down Samus for good. Rookie Mode, meanwhile, will offer you “increased recovery” for an easier ride. A further free update will arrive in April, meanwhile. This will add a new boss rush mode which will do exactly as you’d expect: let you relive every big encounter in Metroid Dread, one after the other, to truly test your mettle....

McGinty passed away peacefully surrounded by his family, his son Jobey wrote in a post which shared numerous memories of his father (thanks, VGDensetsu). “My Dad was an incredible artist, as everyone knows,” he wrote. “And in true artist fashion, he was also never satisfied with his final work. Just a couple weeks ago, he said he needed ‘just one more hour on a few pieces’ in order to ‘really finish them’....

There’s no qualifier of timed exclusivity here. There’s no mention of which games. “This is the next step in building an industry-leading first party studios team, a commitment we have to our Xbox community,” Xbox boss Phil Spencer wrote today in an Xbox Wire post to mark the historic $7.5bn deal being finalised. “With the addition of the Bethesda creative teams, gamers should know that Xbox consoles, PC, and Game Pass will be the best place to experience new Bethesda games, including some new titles in the future that will be exclusive to Xbox and PC players....

The news comes as part of Microsoft’s response to the FTC’s lawsuit against its planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard. In the filing, Microsoft defends its position by turning the spotlight back onto Sony, detailing a handful of “prominent” games the company alleges have been barred from release on Xbox. Whilst the filing acknowledges that “exclusivity strategies are not uncommon in the games industry”, Microsoft seems to take issue with Sony’s partnerships with third-party publishers, namely From Software, Square Enix, and Konami....

If true, it means players will not only be able to stream games to their PC and mobile devices, but also play them on TVs, all without the added expense of buying consoles or their expensive accessories. Exactly what the service will look like remains to be seen; maybe we’ll find out more at the new Xbox and Bethesda Games showcase, which is set for 12th June at 6pm UK time?...

This figure includes shipments of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Master Edition, Capcom said. Capcom put the success of the game down to a few factors, including a series-first worldwide simultaneous launch in January 2018. It helped that Monster Hunter World is brilliant. Monster Hunter: World became Capcom’s best-selling game of all time within a month of its release. In the three-and-a-half years since, Monster Hunter World sales were boosted by Capcom promotions and the release of the Iceborne expansion....

Customisable cards featuring Mario and his Mushroom Kingdom pals are available for birthdays, Valentine’s, thank yous, congratulations and Christmas, Nintendo UK announced today. Zelda designs featuring Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time are also available. (Yes, there is one with Navi saying “Hey! It’s Your Birthday!”) Animal Crossing additions include Mother’s and Father’s Day cards featuring alpaca couple Reese and Cyrus, and others featuring Tom Nook and Isabelle....

At the time of writing, its player count is sitting at a comfortable 49,486, with a peak of 144,456 today. These numbers currently put it ahead of other popular (although admittedly older) games such as Monster Hunter Rise, Destiny 2 and Fifa 22. And while games such as Ark: Survival Evolved and Rust do have a higher player count, MultiVersus’ peak is still significantly above either (Ark has a peak of 96,205, while Rust has a peak of 92,423)....

It follows the disappearance of the store in several countries across mainland Europe, where a similar maintenance message popped up admitting downtime lasting “a few weeks” (thanks, Nintendo Life). Nintendo has not given any further details of the maintenance it has planned, or why it is happening now. However, fans have pointed to the imminent release of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, due this Friday, 29th July, and the server issues faced by the US version of My Nintendo when orders opened for the game’s Special Edition last month....