If you love summer, it might be difficult to countenance the idea that someone else might hate it, but unfortunately, there are many of us who can’t stand the hot weather and long days.
You might be one of them, of course, and if you are, then you can take solace in the fact that the nights are beginning to get darker, however slowly. Summer doesn’t last forever, whatever Bryan Adams might think.
There’s also plenty of gaming news to keep you distracted, so here’s what’s been happening this week in the world of gaming.
A screenshot from BioShock 4 leaks online
If you’re a fan of Ken Levine’s immersive sim series BioShock, then you’ll be excited to learn that a screenshot from its fourth instalment apparently leaked online earlier this week.
Levine isn’t involved in BioShock 4 (name not final, obviously), but the screen sure looks a lot like BioShock; a player points a gun at an incandescent tower of some sort with a moody, dark sky in the background.
It’s testament to the world we’re living in right now that a single screenshot is enough to start tongues a-wagging, but that’s exactly what the BioShock 4 screenshot did.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 7 won’t be its final update
Are you sad to say goodbye to Larian’s critically-acclaimed CRPG Baldur’s Gate 3? If so, then you’ll be happy to know that the upcoming seventh patch for the game won’t be its last.
Larian has said that more features, including a photo mode and crossplay, will be added to the game in future updates, so while we won’t be getting any more meaty DLC, this isn’t the last we’ve heard from Baldur’s Gate 3.
Here’s hoping that whatever Larian works on in the future is just as high-quality as the latest adventure in the iconic CRPG series.
That weird Emio teaser is a new game in an old series
When Nintendo released a mysterious teaser trailer for something called Emio, the rumour mill began to churn. Was it a new Bloober Team game? A new Silent Hill? Something altogether different?
That last option is perhaps the closest one to the truth, as Emio turned out to be…a new Famicom Detective Club game. Yes, you read that right.
Famicom Detective Club is an adventure game series from (when else?) the Famicom days, and Emio – The Smiling Man is its latest instalment, set to arrive on the Switch in August.
EA Sports FC 25 launches on September 27th
At this point, it’s debatable whether or not a release date for the latest EA Sports FC title is news; after all, the arrival of these games is as regular and dependable as the tides.
Still, it’s one of the most popular franchises in the world, so if you’re a fan, it is now safe to get excited for EA Sports FC 25, which arrives on September 27th.
As ever, the game will be gracing last-gen consoles as well as current-gen machines, so don’t worry if you still haven’t made the leap to the PS5 or Xbox Series X/S yet.
Splitgate 2 is officially happening
Portal shooter Splitgate is getting a sequel, developer 1047 Games announced this week. The imaginatively-titled Splitgate 2 is currently set for a 2025 release.
It’ll offer you a choice between three factions, all of whom will have slightly different playstyles, and you’ll be able to customise your loadout within those factions as well.
Like the first Splitgate, this followup will be free to play, so you won’t have to spend any cash on deciding whether or not you want to make this one your new live-service obsession.
Mortal Kombat developer’s mobile division apparently laid off
Sad news this week for fans of games like Mortal Kombat: Onslaught, as several employees working at developer NetherRealm announced that they had been laid off.
In fact, it sounds as though the studio’s whole mobile division may have been given the boot. At the very least, several mobile employees are no longer working at the company.
NetherRealm hasn’t publicly commented on the layoffs yet, but they’re almost certainly linked to some of Warner Bros’ recent decisions, which include a Discovery merger and a failed live-service gamble for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Paramount has canned the Halo series
Rejoice, ye sceptics; the Halo TV series has been cancelled after just two seasons, leaving its future in significant doubt.
The show’s producers have, however, expressed interest in continuing its run, suggesting that this might not be the last we see of the series’ controversial interpretation of the Halo universe.
Hopefully, if the show does get a third season, it’ll manage to make a few more Halo fans happy, although as with fans of pretty much any property, that might be a difficult prospect.
Xbox and the FTC get into a fight
This week, the FTC declared that Xbox’s new Game Pass tier is a “degraded product” because it offers no day-one games in contrast to its predecessor, Xbox Game Pass Console, which did.
Xbox has since replied to the FTC’s comments, calling them “misleading” and that Game Pass Standard is not, in fact, a degraded product because it offers players multiplayer functionality.
It looks like the FTC and Xbox might be in for a long fight with this one, just like they were over the Activision Blizzard merger that arguably kicked off all this animosity in the first place.
Bethesda has officially unionised
Another studio has announced its decision to formally unionise, and this time, it’s Skyrim and Starfield producer Bethesda.
The union was formed alongside the Communications Workers of America, and Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reports that Microsoft has recognised said union, making it the first “wall-to-wall” union at Microsoft.
More and more studios are deciding to unionise, and their decisions make sense; with positions in the industry less certain than ever, securing rights and ensuring a fair and balanced dialogue with employers has never been more important.
