"What if Larian had shut down after Divine Divinity?": Star Trek Online exec scorns publishers who close teams like BioWare in favour of "AAA veteran" start-ups and AI "magic beans"

Breaking up established game development teams in favour of "AAA veteran" start-ups and "magic bean" technologies is like "setting fire to millions of dollars of property and equipment", in the words of Star Trek Online executive producer Thomas Marrone. He thinks it's "wildly irresponsible and self-sabotaging", and that videogame company shareholders should be absolutely furious about it.

Marrone's comments come in response to EA closing BioWare yesterday, but he takes aim at closures and layoffs across the industry. He notes that many of the most successful teams owe their accomplishments to lessons learned from screw-ups, and suggests that if big game publishers just want "number to go up", they should get out of the game-making trade and pour all their cash into investment funds.

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Cyberpunk 2077's new dual wielding has already been modded to include shotguns and rifles, provided you're down to get "janky and wildly overpowered"

It was only ever going to be a matter of time, but I'm still surprised just how quickly Cyberpunk 2077 modders have taken pistol dual wielding mechanic the RPG's Edgerunners 2 update has just added in, and opened it up to include any gun Night City has to offer. Yep, twinning shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, or any combo of those is now possible. Though, you'll have to make peace with the fact enemies will struggle to match your firepower.

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Robot smashing catharsis game Virtue and a Sledgehammer is out next week, but there's an experimental visual novella prologue you can play right now

Virtue and a Sledgehammer looks like a satisfying game. There is perhaps no more wonderfully chunky and impact frame friendly a weapon than the reliable sledgehammer, and when put into a game with a description like, "Most people resort to therapy. But you chose the brave option. A sledgehammer," then of course I have to give it a look. Unfortunately, I still have to wait a week to check out the full thing. Fortunately, a prologue to the game just dropped for free that offers a tantalising, and quite different, experience.

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Mass Effect 5 was aiming to offer a "level of autonomy and choice" that could vault it into orbit with Larian and CD Projekt's top RPGs, former dev says post-cancellation

Following EA's decision to shut down BioWare, the game that would've been the fifth entry in the Mass Effect series is being dumped out of an airlock, never to become a finished article that'll reach players hands as its creators envisioned. The larger tragedy is, of course, the job losses and the closure of a studio with a legacy befitting RPG royalty, but it's still sad that next Mass Effect will never come out, and some of the folks who worked on it have begun offering some insight into what the team were hoping to accomplish.

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EA is shutting down RPG veteran Bioware "to align talent and investments where we see the greatest opportunities for players and long-term growth"

Venerable RPG studio Bioware announced on it is shutting down after more than 30 years of making RPGs. The studio is responsible for making the original Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Anthem.

As part of the announcement Bioware also say that "development on the next Mass Effect project is ending."

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MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ review - superlative playing power with familiar Windows handheld caveats

Welcome to my review of the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, a handheld PC that went on sale four months ago. And if you think that’s bad, tell it to the 2025-spec Lenovo Legion Go 2 I’ve left, neglected and unappraised, in the dusty heights of my utility cupboard.

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Subnautica 2's next major update adds "the scariest region we've ever done", together with frog mechs and a very welcome tweak for dashing

Bracingly moist open world survival game Subnautica 2 is embarking on the "voyage to early access 2.0" - this being developer Unknown Worlds' excitable term for the next round of updates, which will include a new region, creature, and Tadpole chassis, plus some tweaks for biomods and creature behaviour.

I like Subnautica 2 and am happy that Unknown Worlds appear to be enjoying some stability, after all the firings and ChatGPT-abetted lawyer-wrestling over publisher earn-outs, but I really hate "early access 2.0". I know other teams use nomenclature like this, but seriously, what even is time any more? You can't make a sequel to something you haven't finished! It's 8.30 in the morning, Unknown Worlds, and I already have a migraine. Let's hurry on to the talk of spooky new regions.

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