Following the release of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, an undertaking by a bunch of Ubisoft studios based all over the world, union protests at one of said studios have kicked off over plans to lay off staff now the remake's out of the door. Ubisoft Barcelona, the studio in question, were reported last month to be set for a restructure that'd see them focus solely on Rainbow Six games going forwards.
While there's never been any shortage of characters who'll pay you to splatter some brains across the desert with your trusty anti-mat rifle in Fallout: New Vegas, a new mod adds a whole extra faction based around being a post-apocalyptic assassin. They're dubbed the Dark Family, and you get no prizes for guessing which robed gang of Elder Scrolls dagger-enthusiasts they're based on.
Having recently parted ways with former owners Xbox as part of the console maker's mass cuts, South of Midnight and We Happy Few developers Compulsion Games have announced they're seeking opportunities to collaborate with other studios. Likely to help them keep the lights on until they've got a new game of their own well on its way, Compulsion look to have turned their focus towards landing a co-development or support gig on someone else's project.
Warning: Spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3 lie ahead.
Shagging Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3 might say various things about your taste in blokes, but it's understandably the way a lot of folks go. Not everyone's got the nerve to admit that they want to cast some spells with Gale's other wand. Anyway, a veteran BG3 modder's now come to the aid of those who reckon one of the white-haired fang lad's endings concludes a bit too abruptly for their liking, and without enough final hugs.
Games Done Quick, the speedrunning organisation behind events like Games Done Queer and the yearly Summer Games Done Quick, have cancelled a stream sponsored by Metal Slug developers SNK following backlash to the fighting game studio being majority owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Games Done Quick apologised for the "oversight", and wrote that they "failed to conduct the level of review" they should have when deciding whether to accept the sponsorship deal.
Sundays are for waking up before the sun and getting a bike ride in before the tarmac gets hot enough to cook an egg. Any sensible person would skip the bike ride altogether, but I, a nonsensical person, have agreed to a ride across the country at the end of the month and I'm currently not able to manage 40 miles a day, let alone a hundred. So, I have to get them gains.
Still, should I get back home unsizzled by this heatwave sun, I can celebrate with a tarmac-fried egg and lazy perusal of some of this week's best gaming (and non-gaming) reads.
Digital Extremes's venerable looty-shooty mechabody extravaganza Warframe is finally getting a full second solar system, after a warm-up flashback tour in last year's The Old Peace expansion. The developers have just screened a first look at Tau, home of the game's Sentients faction, during a presentation at Tennocon, the annual Warframe and Soulframe expo.
What does Tau harbour? In brief: lots of noir theming. The first of the system's two initial areas is a ringed city, Fornax, whose occupants are plagued by corrupting rain and addicted to a substance called the Bloom. Fornax is home to Brysko, a chain-smoking, trenchcoated "Chimera Warframe" with an inner monologue reminiscent of a Raymond Chandler detective (he's actually voiced by Critical Role's Matt Mercer). Before you read on, seasoned Warframblers, please understand: I am trying to phrase all this in the language of everyday mortals. I'm sure I'm getting all sorts of lore wrong.
