Tintin Reporter – Cigars of the Pharaoh is coming to PC and consoles in 2023

French publisher Microids has announced Tintin Reporter – Cigars of the Pharaoh for PC and consoles. The adventure game will be released in 2023 forPS5,PS4,Xbox Series X/S,Xbox One,Nintendo SwitchandPC. A teaser trailer for the game, which is being developed by Spanish studio Pendulo Studios, can be viewed below, along with the first screenshots. The game is inspired by Cigars of the Pharaoh, the fourth volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comic series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé which has sold over 250,000,000 copies....

July 9, 2025 · 2 min · 241 words · Phillip Rangel

Valve and 5 Steam publishers have been fined €7.8 million for anti-consumer practices

The European Commission has fined Valve and five publishers of Steam games €7.8 million ($9.4m) for anti-consumer geo-blocking practices. Geo-blocking is the practice of restricting access to content or products based on which country a person is in. In this case,Valve,Bandai Namco,Capcom,Focus Home Interactive,Koch MediaandZeniMax Mediawere found to have prevented consumers from activating and playing around 100PC gamesbased upon their geographical location. “Today’s sanctions against the geo-blocking practices of Valve and five PC video game publishers serve as a reminder that under EU competition law, companies are prohibited from contractually restricting cross-border sales,”saidEuropean Commission executive VP Margrethe Vestager....

July 9, 2025 · 1 min · 210 words · Tracy Cox

Valve’s Valley of Gods ‘put on hold’ as developers diverted to Half-Life: Alyx

Valve has officially put Campo Santo’s next game, In the Valley of Gods, on hold as it diverts resources to VR project Half-Life: Alyx. In the Valley of Gods was to be the next project from the acclaimed Firewatch developer, which was acquired byValvein 2018. The adventure game’s debut trailer advertised a 2019 release date which will no longer be met, Campo Santo co-founder Jake Rodkin toldPolygon. He said in a statement: “To fans looking forward to In the Valley of Gods, it’s probably clear that the optimistic ‘2019’ at the end of the announcement trailer isn’t going to be accurate....

July 9, 2025 · 2 min · 313 words · Carlos Adams

Warzone Best Bullfrog Loadout – Season 3

In this guide to theWarzone Best Bullfrog LoadoutforSeason 3, we show you how to build the best class for the Cold War SMG that’s aggressive and highly accurate. Following theCall of Duty: Warzone Season 3 update, many of the game’s weapons have been improved to be more effective. This rebalancing has allowed certain weapons to shine through, such as theBullfrog, an accurate SMG with a high ammo count. Prior to the Season 3 update, theBullfrogwas still a great choice, but due to the overpowered FFAR 1, there wasn’t much reason to use anything else....

July 9, 2025 · 5 min · 1012 words · Miss Morgan Mathews

Watch Battlefield 2042’s short film ‘Exodus’, which sets the scene for the game

EA has published a short film detailing the lore behind Battlefield 2042. Exodus provides a closer look at what started the game’s No-Pat Civil War, as well as introducing its cast of playable No-Pat characters. That includes Battlefield 4’s Kimble “Irish” Graves, played by Michael K. Williams, who returns as a playable No-Pat Specialist in 2042. Exodus also introduces “Oz,” who clashes with Irish over the future of the No-Pats....

July 9, 2025 · 2 min · 242 words · Anthony Rojas

Watch: Mario movie cast performs Super Mario Bros theme with Miyamoto

The cast of the upcoming Super Mario Movie has performed an acapella version of the Super Mario Bros theme with Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto. Appearing on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Keegan Michael-Key, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black and Fred Armisen performed a medley of music from the original game. The song concludes withShigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, performing the melody that plays when a player dies in the game....

July 9, 2025 · 2 min · 311 words · Robert Knight

Xbox and PlayStation don’t expect to launch new consoles until at least 2028, documents reveal

Microsoft and Sony don’t expect to launch next-gen consoles until 2028 at the earliest, newly published documents have suggested. Both companies discussed potential launch timing for new consoles in statements published on Wednesday as part of UK regulator theCompetition and Markets Authority’s ongoing investigationintoMicrosoft’s proposed acquisition ofActivision Blizzard. The CMA has expressed concerns about the impact the $68.7 billion dealcould have on PlayStation’s ability to competegiven that the merger would see Microsoft gain ownership of the Call of Duty series....

July 9, 2025 · 3 min · 532 words · Justin Harper

Xbox is now testing no Live Gold requirement for Warzone, Fortnite and more

The need to have an Xbox Live Gold subscription to play free-to-play multiplayer games on Xbox looks set to be dropped soon. Currently,XboxLive Gold is required to play Xbox games online, including free-to-play titles likeWarzone,FortniteandRocket League, which are available at no extra cost on rival platforms. Microsoftsaid in January that it intended to drop the Xbox Live Gold requirement for free-to-play games “as soon as possible in the coming months”....

July 9, 2025 · 2 min · 310 words · Thomas Reyes

Xbox studio hires Apex Legends weapon designer

New Xbox studio The Initiative has made Apex Legends’ weapon designer the latest recruit to its growing development team. The Initiative is a first-party Xbox game studio based in Santa Monica, California. The company was announced in June 2018, with a mandate to create “ambitious and innovative game experiences” forXbox. Sean Slayback was most recently principal weapons designer atRespawn, for which he designed and implemented weapons and was responsible for all player-facing aspects of weapon feel, including recoil and handling....

July 9, 2025 · 2 min · 269 words · Jeffrey Johnson

Zelda Musanokir Shrine guide

Zelda Musanokir Shrine is one of the dozens of shrines in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom that are a bit more difficult than they may seem. Tucked away in the middle of the Lost Woods, even getting o this shrine is difficult, and to do so you’ll have to progress through the main story, and go on the quest for theMaster Sword. Once you arrive at the Dekku tree, you’re going to want to make sure you do this shrine so that you have a guaranteed way to return to the area quickly later....

July 9, 2025 · 1 min · 161 words · Alyssa Berger

‘Game of the Year front-runner’ – Astro Bot Reviewers Roundtable

Join VGC’s Jordan Middler, Andy Robinson, and Chris Scullion as they discuss Astro Bot. In this Reviewers Roundtable podcast, the crew go over their favourite parts ofTeam Asobi‘s new game. This discussion is spoiler-free, and only refers to things that have been included inPlayStation‘s pre-release marketing. That being said, there’s a moment in the podcast that we discuss a surprise that we feel shouldn’t have been shown in trailers. If you’d like to skip that moment, we provide a timecode in the description of the podcast video, which you may watch below....

July 9, 2025 · 2 min · 234 words · Lisa Frank

‘Xbox, it’s time you stopped taunting us with custom consoles we can’t buy’

I’m a bit of a sucker when it comes to a fancy controller design. Over the years I’ve happily double-dipped and bought a new controller, even when my current one is working perfectly well, just because I think it looks cool. As a faithful Celtic FC supporter I’ve visited theXbox Design Labon no fewer than three occasions to make my own green and white controllers – first forXbox Onecontroller, then a Series X controller, then an Elite Series 2 controller....

July 9, 2025 · 5 min · 982 words · Sandra Alvarez

A Capcom Spotlight and Monster Hunter Wilds Showcase double-bill is coming next week

Capcom has announced that it will be holding a double-bill of online presentations next week. On February 4 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 10pm GMT,Capcomwill be presenting its next Capcom Spotlight presentation. This will last 20 minutes, according to Capcom, and will include “the latest info on Onimusha: Way of the Sword,Street Fighter 6, Capcom Fighting Collection 2 and Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics”. Following immediately after the Capcom Spotlight is aMonster Hunter WildsShowcase, a 15-minute presentation hosted by the game’s producerRyozo Tsujimoto....

July 8, 2025 · 2 min · 315 words · Taylor Johnson