Author: Harvey Randall
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They’re putting DRM in trains, now: Hired hackers Dragon Sector take to the Chaos Communication Congress stage and explain how they caught a manufacturer red-handed
You wouldn’t download a train—but you might conceivably want to repair one. Those worries have led to a massive controversy in Poland, as train manufacturer Newag has come under fire for likely adding DRM-style protection to stop its vehicles from being repaired at competitor facilities. As laid out by Notes from Poland, the manufacturer’s trains…
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WoW’s next patch drops in just under 2 weeks: game-wide dragonriding, follower dungeons, and worgens coming home
World of Warcraft’s been on a bit of a roll with its patch cadence this past year. As Heather Newman pointed out earlier this week, Blizzard’s seemingly turned a corner with the game—though whether it keeps that momentum going into 2024 and The War Within is another thing entirely. While Shadowlands saw a horrific 218…
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MultiVersus fans weren’t hallucinating—the phantom Belgian McDonalds stickers were for a real promotion, which (possibly) confirms a mystery 24th character
Last month, the MultiVersus rumour mill span itself into a frenzy over some stickers plastered in Belgian McDonalds, which appeared early—like some kind of hallucination you experience when you’re severely dehydrated, only the water in this case is a platform fighter most people had a good time with that randomly shut down for months. As…
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Final Fantasy 14 suspends player housing demolition across Japanese servers, following major earthquake
Square Enix has suspended its housing demolition process in Final Fantasy 14, following an earthquake in the Noto Peninsula of Japan on New Year’s Day. The 7.6 magnitude earthquake has left thousands without power or shelter. The scale of the disaster is not yet clear, although the BBC reports at least 80 confirmed deaths. Due…
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After 5 years, NCSoft officially grants a licence to popular City of Heroes private server Homecoming: ‘Your accounts and characters are safe’
If you were like me, the shutdown of the GOAT superhero MMORPG City of Heroes broke your heart into itty-bitty pieces—it also probably made you happy to see people playing it again when it was revealed that the game code had been salvaged in 2019. Homecoming—alongside a bunch of other servers—promised a return to the…
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After 34 years, a 13 year-old prodigy has become the first person to ‘beat’ Tetris by reaching the holy grail of high-level play: a ‘true killscreen’
Over three decades have passed since Tetris made its debut on the NES in 1989. Since then, a holy grail has lied just out of reach—the “true killscreen”. Now, a young prodigy has managed to reach it: after 34 entire years, a flesh-and-blood person has finally beaten Tetris. Some explanations are in order: a killscreen…
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A fresh easter egg in WoW teases The War Within, double-confirms that yes: the big sword stuck in the planet is still important
The War Within arrives this year—promising to finally address Battle for Azeroth’s biggest dangling plot thread: the giant bloody sword that’s sticking out of the planet. We know this because of some subtle hints from the expansion’s cinematic trailer, like when the camera pans to the giant bloody sword. The one that’s sticking out of…
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The CCP softens its stance on live service games after plummeting stocks, reportedly removes official responsible for the panic
The Chinese Communist Party—who had taken aim at free-to-play monetisation schemes just before the holidays—softened its stance. This was after “nearly $80 billion in market value” bled from Tencent (League of Legends) and NetEase (Diablo: Immortal). The draft rules intended to target the live service giant’s favourite toys (such as daily login bonuses) while also…
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‘We begged for more information, more details … all flatly declined’: former Blizzard community development manager tears into Bobby Kotick over Overwatch 2’s Steam launch
Activision-Blizzard’s transfer over to the growing empire of Microsoft has been a bit of a drama, to say the least—but it’s all over now, its curtains called with the departure of the company’s former CEO Bobby Kotick, exiting stage right. Kotick has been a controversial figure in gaming, quickly building up a reputation as a…
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![‘If [money] is an issue, pirate it and buy a copy later’: the devs of our favourite surprise horror hit want you to play it spoiler free—by any means necessary](https://sportominal.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/01/KqHgsVaFPpAexZXZfGJQJc-1200-80.png)
‘If [money] is an issue, pirate it and buy a copy later’: the devs of our favourite surprise horror hit want you to play it spoiler free—by any means necessary
Slay the Princess is one of our favourite unexpected hits from this year. It’s a choose-your-own adventure style narrative game about a dutiful mission to (you guessed it) slay a princess. I’m too much of a wuss myself, but PC Gamer senior editor Robin Valentine highly recommended it back in November, calling it the year’s…