"Departures are necessary," Crystal Dynamics say as they yet again lay off Tomb Raider staff, but they're "fully committed" to the reboot and sequel

Tomb Raider developers Crystal Dynamics have announced their fourth round of layoffs in 12 months. A total of 20 staff across development and central operations roles have been let go this time, with Crystal Dynamics emphasising they're still "fully committed" to Tomb Raider: Catalyst and Tomb Raider: Legacy Of Atlantis.

In March last year, 17 Crystal Dynamics staffers were given their marching orders, with an unspecified number of others being let go in August, and "just under 30" following in November.

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Valve say Counter-Strike 2's reloading needed "higher stakes", so you now dump all the ammo left in a clip when you reload early

Bang. 29 bullets left. Bang, bang, bang, rattatata. 14 bullets left. I'd better reload, in case someone comes around that corner and I need a full clip on hand to empty into then. NO. THINK ABOUT THE BULLETS YOU'RE USING, Valve yell from their giant Steam-powered tower looming high above the battlefield. I look at my magazine and notice that following the latest Counter-Strike 2 update, it now bears a post-it note saying that if I reload early, the leftover ammo will be lost to the mists of time.

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Our early verdict on Crimson Desert: bad bugs, great cats, and an open world that could use a big bucket of yellow paint

Reviews of Crimson Desert, the new open world fantasy RPG from Black Desert Online studio Pearl Abyss, are surfacing across the internet as you read these words. Out on 19th March, it's the story of Kliff McDuff of the Greymanes, who is trying to rally his scattered comrades following a vicious attack by their rivals, the Black Bears. It's one of those Much-Anticipated games, possibly because it appears to have inhaled the entire third-person action genre, with mechanics that range from sorcerous air-hopping through momentum-based damage to Dynasty Warriors-style crowd control. Predictably, this glut of ideas can feel a smidge… inelegant and unwieldy.

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Nvidia DLSS 5 critics have the tech "completely wrong", CEO Jensen Huang insists, arguing it's somehow "very different than generative AI"

As you're probably aware, Nvidia unveiled DLSS 5 earlier this week, showing off the tech via a slideshow of game characters' face being transformed by its neural rendering into the sort of unnervingly yassified visages you get in dodgy internet ads nowadays. Naturally, the overwhelming response from players the company and its partners had seemingly assumed would be wowed by the tech has landed on a scale capped by annoyed sighs and middle fingers.

It's ok, though. Nvidia boss Jensen Huang has now said those whose socks haven't been blown off are just "completely wrong" about what DLSS 5 is.

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A day after Unknown Worlds' ousted CEO gets reinstated, Subnautica 2 gets an early access release date

Welp, it's only been a day since we got wind that a judge has ordered Krafton to reinstate the former leads of Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds into the same positions, but here we are with the news that the deep sea exploration survival game now has an early access release month.

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Helldivers 2 update is set to unleash new missions to combat Illuminate alien exostorms and battle some fresh squid enemies this week

Update: Arrowhead have just shared a graphic outlining what's coming in the next couple of months of Helldivers 2 updates. April's Terminid-themed update 6.2 will deliver two new biomes, fresh galactic war campaigns, and a new enemy variant. May's update 6.3, meanwhile, will come with a single new biome and its own fresh galactic war twists. Both months'll also boast the usual warbond and bug fixing patches.

Arrowhead have opted against sharing too much in terms of what the future holds in Helldivers 2 so far, ostensibly to avoid galactic war spoilers, but it looks like this sort of roadmap - which is deliberately short on specific details - will be commonplace going forwards.

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MSI plan 15-30% price hikes for their hardware, report claims, as the memory crisis' consequences continue to rumble back to your wallet

RAMnarök, the ongoing memory shortage which keeps fuelling price hikes and has had us watching whether Steam Decks are out of stock like hawks, continues to cause headaches. MSI are reportedly planning to hike up the prices of their hardware by 15 to 30% as a result of the shortages.

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