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Take-Two CEO Addresses Grand Theft Auto 6 Price, and the Possibility for More L.A. Noire

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Speaking at iicon today, a new conference for video game executives , Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick addressed the much-debated question of how much Grand Theft Auto 6 will cost. He declined to confirm the game’s price, but hinted away from the potentially super-premium price point that has been floated in the past. “Consumers pay for the value that you bring to them, and our job is to charge way way way less of the value delivery,” Zelnick said. “How you feel about something you buy is the intersection of the thing itself and what you pay for. Consumers need to feel like the thing itself is amazing and the price they were charged was fair for what they got.” He went on to mention that game pricing has actually gotten cheaper over the years, a reference to the fact that major game releases have been priced at $60 or at most $70 for more than a decade, as compared to greater rates of inflation seen in the wider economy. “If you look at it through that lens, that doesn’t make a whole...
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Helldivers 2 Machinery of Oppression Update 6.2.2 Makes Big Balance Changes, Adds Two New Biomes

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Hot on the heels of promising action and communication after players had delivered “fair” and “painful” criticism , Arrowhead has released yet another patch for Helldivers 2 , this time making significant balance changes and adding two new biomes. Helldivers 2 Machinery of Oppression update 6.2.2 (patch notes, courtesy of Steam , are below), goes live alongside the new Exo Experts Warbond, which comes with new exosuit designs well-suited for close combat and fire-based offense. Patch highlights include two new biomes, one new enemy variant, a major Exo Suit rebalance, an enemy rebalance, sidearm and stratagem rebalances, and — always fitting for Helldivers 2 — bug fixes. Of the big fixes, a few stand out: Enthusiastic Mirth emote sound has been fixed, laughter is once again permitted on the battlefield. We have restocked the fireworks for the celebration when players have completed the tutorial (good job, you have earned them) One of the new biomes is a lush forest planet — a ...
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New Forza Horizon 6 Details Discussed in Developer Discord Q&A

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Playground Games design director Torben Ellert has answered an assortment of questions about next month’s Forza Horizon 6 in a community-oriented Q&A hosted on the official Forza Discord server. The questions covered a broad range of topics, from the new touge battles to multiplayer elements. Touge battles are one-on-one events at five preset mountain passes around the map. In single-player mode each has a specific opponent who you’ll find parked near the start of the route. Touge battles are not linked to festival progression, and we’ll be able to race them at any time while in single player. There will also be an online championship, which will effectively be a constant supply of one-on-one battles, rotating around the five routes. The Festival Playlist will be available as soon as you earn your way into the Horizon Festival (which should only take around an hour from the start), but it’s been confirmed that cars from elapsed Festival Playlists will be made available after t...
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The CyberPowerPC RTX 5070 Gaming PC Drops to Just $1399 and Now Includes a Free Copy of Pragmata

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Despite the rising prices of graphics cards and DDR5 RAM, there are still good deals to be found on prebuilt gaming PCs. B&H Photo is offering one such excellent deal this week. The CyberPowerPC Gamer Supreme Liquid gaming PC with RTX 5070 GPU is on sale for $1399 with free shipping. This is a well-equipped prebuilt that pairs the GPU with an AMD Ryzen 7 processor and a generous amount of RAM and storage. I saw it on sale about a week ago, but it sold out within the day. As of this article, it's available for "special order" with an estimate shipping date of 1-2 weeks. For a limited time, get a digital download code for Capcom's recently released Pragmata on Steam while supplies last. This promotion ends on May 12. Full details and redemption instructions are on Nvidia.com . CyperPowerPC RTX 5070 Gaming PC for Just $1,399 The CyberPowerPC Liquid Gamer Supreme gaming PC is equipped with a liquid-cooled AMD Ryzen 7 8700F CPU, GeForce RTX 5070 12GB GPU, 32...
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Helldivers 2 Dev Promises Action and Communication After Players Deliver 'Fair' and 'Painful' Criticism During Reddit AMA

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Arrowhead Games said it has heard the "fair" but "painful to read" criticisms from the Helldivers 2 community and has made the promise to take action with more frequent communication in the future. Johan Pilestedt, who previously served as studio CEO before switching his role to chief creative officer in May 2024, got in touch with fans of the PlayStation shooter with a Reddit AMA during the weekend. He said his goal was to address the "hate, misinformation, and disappointment" within the growing r/HelldiversUnfiltered subreddit and then spent time replying to some of the most common complaints from the community. Although it's unclear if the Helldivers 2 AMA itself did anything to ease the tension, what was clear was that it had opened the floodgates for disappointed players to air their frustrations. After the event concluded, the Arrowhead developer signed off with a lengthy message in an attempt to provide comfort to those who feared the stu...
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Pokémon Champions Producer Acknowledges Visual 'Limitations' Amid Ongoing Fan Scrutiny of Series' Graphics

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The Pokémon Company technical director Masaaki Hoshino has acknowledged continued fan scrutiny of the series' visuals, seen most recently in criticism for Pokémon Champions . Hoshino is a veteran of the Pokémon series, who worked on Pokémon Yellow before a long stint at Japanese fighting game developer Bandai Namco. This then led to him returning to work on Pokémon as producer on its more traditional fighting game spinoff Pokkén Tournament, developed by Bandai Namco, before its MOBA spinoff Pokémon Unite, and finally Champions itself. Champions launched earlier this month to a wave of feedback that expressed disappointment for the game's relatively basic feature set and small Pokédex roster . And, yet again, there was criticism of the game's visuals — as there has been for various mainline Pokémon game entries over the past decade. "Yes, as a Pokémon fan, I naturally understand the various discussions currently taking place within the fan community," Hoshino...
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Blast Blade Brings a New Dimension to Platform Fighters

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Blast Blade from Silent Bark games is a 3D platform fighter that puts you behind the wits and weapons of warriors and magic users. You and up to four contenders face off in one of many dynamic arenas, but unlike traditional fighting games, there are no hit point bars for you to chip away at. The only way to win is to build up your opponents’ damage percentage until they’re vulnerable enough to be blasted out of the ring and over the horizon by a powerful attack. Blast Blade's mechanics are simple and easy to grasp. There’s no need to memorize complex character moves that require on-the-dime execution. You can move freely on the land and in the air, which lets you dodge your foes' hard-hitting attacks while taking advantage of openings to get your own hits. As you pummel your opponents, you build up an Ultimate gauge. Once it’s full, you can unleash a massive attack that sends them flying. One strategic hit is all it can take to turn the tables when you’re inches from defeat....
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