Gaming

STALKER 2 has officially gone gold, with developer GSC Game World proudly announcing the news on X. The term 'gone gold' is more old school from the 90s and 2000s where the developer finishes the master copy of the game, and it gets sent off for the mass production of physical discs.

It has been over 17 years since the release of the original STALKER back in 2007, with the last entry in the franchise being STALKER: Call of Pripyat in 2009. GSC Game World's first proper attempt at developing STALKER 2 started immediately, with the game announced in August 2010 for a tentative release in 2012... well, 12 years later, STALKER 2 has gone gold.

The Ukranian developer was dissolved in December 2011, which saw STALKER 2 cancelled. However, Evgeniy Grygorovych, the brother of GSC Game World's original founder Sergiy Grygorovych, resurrected the studio from the dead in late 2014. STALKER 2 was announced in May 2018, with a release window of 2021... and 3 years later, STALKER 2 has gone gold.

NVIDIA has made some big changes to GeForce Now and the middle plan most gamers will be using - and while there are upgrades here, a choice to limit playing time has caused a storm of controversy.

Team Green has changed the Priority subscription - which is the middle ground between the premium Ultimate subscription, and the Free tier - to rename it as the Performance plan to reflect that it now supports up to 1440p resolution. Previously, these members were streaming at 1080p, and also ultra-wide is now supported, too.

On top of this, those using the new Performance membership will be able to save in-game graphics settings in the cloud, so those options will be applied permanently to avoid messing about and having to change them all the time.

As part of its latest Quarterly Earnings report for Q2 2025, Take-Two Interactive has confirmed that the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI will launch in Fall 2025. This means the game will debut on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles between September, October, and November 2025.

With the GTA franchise now selling over 435 million units, with 205 million of that attributed to Gran Theft Auto V, there's no doubt that GTA 6 is easily one of the most anticipated games of all time. Based on the hype, it is simply a question of 'how big will it be,' especially when you factor in that the PC version probably won't arrive until late 2026 at the earliest.

Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two Interactive, confirmed the release window and stated that Borderlands 4 and Mafia: The Old Country will be out before March 2026. There's also a bit of a BioShock tease with the franchise highlighted as one of 2K's "industry-leading" IPs.

A new patent (spotted by Tech4Gamers) from Sony outlines a new controller design with a dedicated button that will allow PlayStation gamers to 'rewind' gameplay. The patent explains that PlayStation gamers who press the button will be presented with a gameplay timeline, which they can scroll, bookmark, relive, and share.

Sony notes that it could be used as an information tool for gamers who want to relisten to conversations in an RPG again for hints or figure out where that place was where they found an item or discovered something new. Where it gets wild is that the rewind feature could even let you replay and relive your favorite moments, boss battles, and encounters.

As a new patent, the wording is very clinical and matter-of-fact, with Sony confirming that "accessing recent gameplay while the player is playing a video game is difficult" and technically challenging. So, the assumption is that this tech will probably find its way into the PlayStation 6 and the next iteration of the DualSense controller.

Have you seen the new Unreal Engine 5-powered game Empire of the Ants from Microids and developer Tower Five? It's a real-time 'strategic' experience that takes place at the microscopic level with some truly stunning ant-sized wildlife visuals. Today, it's out for PC via Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store, with support for DLSS 3 Frame Generation, Super Resolution, and Reflex.

Another game out this week is Frontier Developments' Planet Coaster 2, the sequel to the popular theme park sim that lets you build and customize roller coasters while setting prices for things like corn dogs and giant cups of soda. It's another new PC game with DLSS 3 Frame Generation, Super Resolution, and Reflex support - with the addition of DLAA, the AI-based anti-aliasing mode for boosting image quality.

Although the game has received positive reviews from the press, the feedback from the PC community is mixed. Some claim that the UI and other elements like park density have been simplified or cut back due to the game launching simultaneously on consoles. If you're interested in picking it up, it's worth keeping that in mind.

Rockstar has been cooking when it comes to mission design in Grand Theft Auto 6, with recent leaks teasing next-gen NPC behavior, with mission designs being tweaked to provide gamers with more freedom than ever before in GTA 6 when it drops in 2025.

In the most recent episode GTVIoclock on YouTube, the team chatted with a former game designer at Rockstar Games, who said that GTA 6 will see Rockstar once again raising the bar with realism and NPC behavior. The ex-Rockstar developer also discussed GTA 6's new mission design, saying that it will be what makes the game good, and that players will have more freedom than ever before.

GTA 6 is reportedly in the bug-fixing phase of development, and with nearly a year passing since the massive GTA 6 official announcement trailer, here's hoping that we get a deeper look at the game (its mechanics, freedom, NPC behavior, graphics, and more) in the weeks leading into Christmas.

Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro is out today, and the developer of No Man's Sky has praised the new console in no uncertain terms, while observing how good the game looks in the new 8K @ 30FPS mode in the PS5 Pro enhanced version (an alternative to a 4K @ 60FPS option).

Yes, thanks to a new (free) upgrade that's just arrived for the game, those with an 8K display can enjoy what promises to be a relatively smooth 8K experience given the amount of pixels and detail on offer here, thanks to PSSR upscaling, naturally.

Wccftech reports that Hello Games called the PS5 Pro an "incredible feat of engineering" and singled out PSSR as a definite highlight here, as part of a press release about the cross-save update for No Man's Sky that also covered the PlayStation 5 Pro patch.

It's official: Nintendo has confirmed that the Nintendo Switch successor, the Nintendo Switch 2, will be backwards compatible. This means it will be able to play all current and existing Switch games, including digital purchases.

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa took to social media to make the announcement. He also confirmed that Nintendo Switch Online, the company's online service that includes access to classic games from retro Nintendo hardware, will be available on day one.

"At today's Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch," Shuntaro Furukawa wrote. "Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well."

Blizzard is hosting a special Warcraft Anniversary Direct next week on November 13 (10:00 am PT, 1:00 pm ET) to celebrate the franchise's 30th anniversary. The broadcast will be streamed live on Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok and will feature several Warcraft developers "reflecting on the last 30 years" of the iconic franchise and a look at what's in store for the future.

Per Blizzard's announcement, the focus will be on current games - World of Warcraft, Classic, Hearthstone, and Warcraft Rumble. However, a new data leak from Blizzard's internal servers has revealed that the studio is currently testing 'Warcraft II: Remastered Internal Alpha.' With employees playing the game, the odds are that it will be announced and possibly released during next week's Warcraft Anniversary stream.

Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and its expansion Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal were released for MS-DOS in 1995 and 1996, respectively. Both games presented the finest real-time strategy (RTS) gameplay of the early PC gaming era.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has sat down for an interview on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast, where he discussed, among other topics, how he was a top Diablo IV player.

At the beginning of the podcast, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk discuss the benefits of playing video games, which Musk attributes to the difficulty of the game he playing. Musk says that when he's playing a difficult video game, it takes 100% of his focus, and by performing an activity that forces him to consume 100% of his focus, he is able to alleviate other stresses in his life. Rogan compares the experience to bowhunting and the many moving parts of the bow and how it requires all of his focus to perform the action correctly, and through this intense focus comes a sense of mental clarity.

During this conversation, Musk mentions that he is one of the world's best Diablo IV players and points to the leaderboard rankings, which states his name in position 20 for the fastest precise time of The Pit. For those that don't know, The Pit is end-game level content in Diablo IV that puts players up against some of the toughest hoardes of monsters in the game. The goal is to beat The Pit and reap the rewards in the form of gear upgrades. Completing a Pit run in the fastest time possible is an indication of Diablo IV competency, and Elon Musk's time of 2 minutes and 45 seconds is currently the 20th-best time in the world, according to Helltides.com.