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With every new generation of Xbox, Microsoft has made significant improvements to get the console ready for the future of gaming, but apparently the company still feels as if batteries are a part of that future. The Xbox Series X will reportedly continue to use non-rechargeable batteries, despite its competition dropping them years ago. Like the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One before it, the Series X will also require AA batteries to power its controller....

There’s a Painkiller game in development from Saber Interactive (yay!). We know absolutely nothing about it (nay!). The original Painkiller is a gothic horror FPS developed by People Can Fly. When it was released in 2004, it was a graphical powerhouse. Whether the new one will live up to its legacy remains to be seen. And there will be lots of those, too - remains… to be seen… because it’s gory and you kill things....

With every major expansion in Destiny, Bungie has changed up the items that most vendors sold, giving players new armor, weapons, and cosmetics to purchase or chase after with the launch of new content. With Forsaken, Destiny 2’s first major expansion, Bungie is doing the same thing for many vendors, and today Bungie detailed which items players will need to get before Forsaken launches to round out their collections. Many Destiny 2 vendors will be refreshing their stock when Forsaken launches this fall....

Few games have ever delivered experiences as intense and morally challenging as 11-Bit Studios’ survival sim This War of Mine, so much so that the game, with its tales showing war from the perspective of civilians, was recently added to the recommended reading list in Polish schools. Now it’s easier than ever for people to experience those stories, thanks to a new update for the Nintendo Switch version of the game....

Since we were first introduced to the series in 1998, Grand Theft Auto has continued to innovate and display remarkable longevity in an industry where game turnover is extremely rapid. The series’ most recent release, Grand Theft Auto V, has been a mainstay on monthly NPD charts since it launched nearly four years ago in September 2013, mostly due in part to developer Rockstar’s exceptional dedication to constant seasonal and gameplay updates for the online community....

TimTheTatman became a meme this week after he couldn’t win a single game of Fall Guys. Now that he has, others are accusing him of cheating. Considering the number of people who have played Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout over the course of the past few weeks, we shudder to think how many shows have been played. However, for many players, Crowns continue to be incredibly hard to come by. Players earn Crowns in Fall Guys by winning shows, and that is more difficult than it seems....

Respawn Entertainment’s Dusty Welch and Joel Emslie discuss how the decision was made to make the original Titanfall console exclusive to Xbox systems. The original Titanfall blew away those in attendance at E3 2013, taking home numerous Game of the Show awards from various publications. As the first new game from acclaimed Jason West and Vince Zampella since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, there was significant hype behind the game....

Todd Haynes is more of a conductor than the director of The Velvet Underground. He tells the story of the band in chronological time, but fills in the blanks by presenting a performance piece of historical art. This is Haynes’ first documentary. It is the first time he hasn’t put a fictional spin on the musicians he’s committed to celluloid. Haynes built a story for David Bowie to sit in for Velvet Goldmine, recharacterized Bob Dylan sixfold in I’m Not There, and cast a Barbie Doll as Karen Carpenter in his 2015 biopic Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story....

A strong premise, design philosophy, or tone of story is a valuable thing in the ever-changing world of video games, and for the most part, developers don’t like moving away from a proven formula before they’ve fully plumbed its depths. But occasionally, the choice isn’t up to them. So more often than not, development teams turn to the notion of a “spiritual successor” - a continuation of the same themes or mechanics of their previous project, but a new name....

Torchlight 3 features a twist on combat with a new Relic system, where its roots are clearly laid in the previous game’s Charge Bar. Max Schaefer, Echtra CEO and Torchlight franchise creator, passionately described how the new system gives you far more control to store and unleash your power at the best possible time. The original Charge Bar mechanic was introduced in Torchlight 2, where you built up temporary charge through combat to activate special abilities....

There has been a great deal of speculation over the last few weeks that this year’s Call of Duty release would be the third Black Ops installment of the franchise. A couple weeks ago, digital games research company SuperData let slip the next Call of Duty would, in fact, be Black Ops 3. Then earlier this week, developer Treyarch shared a Snapchat video that hinted at the game’s release. With the cat pretty much already out of the bag, Treyarch today released a new teaser trailer that confirms our suspicions....

[UPDATE January 4th 1:38PM - Mrdeadmoth’s channel has once again be banned.] Twitch streamer MrDeadMoth has had his ban lifted after an alleged domestic abuse incident occurred during a livestream in early December. MrDeadMoth, whose real name is Luke Munday, was arrested following the incident and still faces a trial, but Twitch deemed his online punishment served and his channel is free to go live once again. As one would expect, the debate surrounding the ban has been heated....

Since its release, TikTok has quickly become one of the most popular apps available today, with nearly 1 billion active users. The app’s immense popularity has seen the rise of TikTok celebrities, not unlike what was seen with Vine, with the likes of Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae skyrocketing to fame. Traditional celebrities and brands, including PlayStation, have also flocked to the platform. However, TikTok’s worldwide success may soon face a major hurdle, as the United States government is apparently looking into banning the app entirely....

Valve promised to make three major announcements this week, and so far they’re keeping to their word. After previously announcing a new SteamOS to bring PC gaming to living rooms in the near future, the company has now unveiled their plans for not just one Steam Box, but an entire line of Steam Machines tailored to both the OS and the Steam architecture. The Steam Machines will be built to a wide range of specifications, sizes and designs to best suit each customer’s own needs, tastes and price range, and will be coming from several different manufacturers, with the first systems shipping to beta testers in 2014....

2020 has been a wild year, to say the least. As we approach the eve of the next generation of video game consoles, and Microsoft makes leaps and bounds with its Project xCloud streaming technology in a way that Stadia never will (sorry, Google), exclusivity in video games and content continue to rear its ugly head. Now more than ever, we should put a stop to this practice and embrace inclusivity over exclusivity....

As part of a company-wide restructuring effort, several hundred jobs are being eliminated across AT&T’s WarnerMedia division, which includes HBO, Warner Bros., and Turner Broadcasting. HBO is expected to lay off 150 to 175 staffers in these layoffs, and Warner Brothers could fire as many as 650. The layoffs come in the wake of the release of AT&T’s Q2 financial report, which listed substantial losses in revenue for all WarnerMedia companies....

Warner Bros. is set to release a new adaptation of Dune from Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve. The studio released the first official trailer for Villeneuve’s Dune earlier this week and now a new video compares scenes from the preview to sequences from director David Lynch’s feature film adaptation. Based on Frank Herbert’s novel of the same name, Lynch’s Dune starred Kyle MacLachlan as lead character Paul Atreides along with an ensemble cast that included Virginia Madsen and Max Von Sydow....

We won’t know for sure until it premieres on August 21 but, on paper at least, HBO’s House of the Dragon is the ideal Game of Thrones prequel concept. The series, which will depict the massive Targaryen Civil War known as the Dance of the Dragons, has just about every element you’d be looking for in a Thrones followup. Like its parent series before it, the story at the center of House of the Dragon once again focuses on family, power, and the contradictory interplay between those two concepts....

Consoles have come a long away since their early graphics, with some games sporting almost life like images that couldn’t be done even ten years ago. But when compared to PC games, there’s one area that they’ve been lagging behind in, and that’s frame rates. The PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X are both slated to release in early November this year, and possibly one of the most intriguing features of the newest consoles is the promise to up frame rates, with a few games that are promised to run at 120 frames per second....

Tabletop roleplaying game creative platform RPG Writer Workshop recently announced that it’s leveling up and dual-classing into a new identity, the Storytelling Collective, scheduled to officially launch on January 11, 2021. The RPG Writer Workshop will continue earning XP as its own program within the Storytelling Collective, with the new identity being adopted to better represent the expanded storytelling mediums the Workshop community has grown to showcase. The Storytelling Collective (StoCo) announcement was made by the program’s creator Ashley Warren via her company’s Scribemind website....