Key Note Gaming

EVE Vanguard, Fenris Creations' most recent attempt to bring on-the-ground FPS gameplay to the massive, shared, persistent universe of EVE Online, has changed quite a bit since I first laid hands on it last year. From the presentation to the basic movement and gunplay, it's becoming a lot clearer what exactly our disposable warclones will be doing on the wreckage-strewn surfaces of EVE's countless planets, and how that will translate back to Avalon, the station where our consciousness exists between missions. I got a chance to play the latest build, which is launching today as Operation Avalon, in a closed playtest with a handful of devs and "VIPs," and talked to game director Scott Davis and creative lead Jamie Stanton about what's coming. The big news? If all goes according to plan, Vanguard will be connecting up to EVE Online 24/7 by the end of this year. That's just over the galactic horizon, though. Operation Avalon is a more focused slice of what...

John Romero has commented on the layoffs that have impacted Microsoft-owned id Software as part of sweeping cuts to the Xbox business. Yesterday, Microsoft gaming boss Asha Sharma announced the most “significant” restructure in Xbox history , with 1,600 staff let go immediately, and another 1,600 staff to follow over the course of the current financial year. As part of the restructure, four studios are leaving Xbox to new management, and one is now in consultation over its future. ZeniMax Media, which operates Bethesda, was hit hard by the layoffs. ZeniMax Online Studios has suffered significant cuts, forcing the remaining developers of The Elder Scrolls Online to rethink future content . And id Software is also heavily affected. The developer of Doom has lost 95 staff, according to former Bethesda Studios project lead Jeff Gardiner . Among them is principal character artist Denzil O’Neill , who worked on Doom The Dark Ages, Doom Eternal, and Doom over the course of 12 years at the stu...

Staff at Obsidian Entertainment are reportedly concerned about the studio’s future projects after it was hit hard by Microsoft’s Xbox layoffs. Yesterday, Microsoft gaming boss Asha Sharma announced the most “significant” restructure in Xbox history , with 1,600 staff let go immediately, and another 1,600 staff to follow over the course of the current financial year. As part of the restructure, four studios are leaving Xbox to new management, and one is now in consultation over its future. According to Kotaku , around 60-70 people were cut from Obsidian, which is the first-person role-playing game specialist behind Avowed, The Outer Worlds, Grounded, Pentiment, and, most famously, Fallout: New Vegas . Some of the staff who are leaving were Obsidian veterans. Kotaku quotes one person who said they were unsure how Obsidian’s “huge list of projects” could continue following the cuts to the business. Obsidian has yet to announce a new game following the commercial failure of both Avowed and...

We’re halfway through the year, so that means a new booster set for the beloved Disney Lorcana card game. Attack of the Vine! is the thirteenth set since the TCG was released three years ago, with pre-release events starting July 17th and the wide release on July 24th. Time flies, and now the game is digging deep into the Pixar library and bringing back dual-color cards in a big way. In addition, the set focuses less on introducing new keywords and more on further supporting some classifications and varying the kinds of shifts or upgrades that characters can do based on the cards I’ve seen so far. As mentioned in IGN’s Attack of the Vine! exclusive reveals , Pixar continues to be featured in Lorcana, with characters from Monsters, Inc., Turning Red, and Up making their debut in the Disney card game. Alongside these popular Pixar characters is the introduction of the Team classification, which emphasizes the joining of two separate characters into a powerful duo. For instance, we reveal...

A pair of Pokémon card thieves have been caught after their getaway van broke down and they were found holding £71,000 of stolen stock (around $95,000). The two brothers, Keith and Shane Johnson, pled guilty to burglary at a court in Birmingham, UK last week, with the former sentenced to 29 months in jail. His brother will be sentenced later this month, Cheshire Police stated . Neither man appears to be a criminal mastermind. The Johnsons first targeted Celestial Collectibles, a store that specializes in rare Pokémon cards and merchandise in Warrington. Police were alerted after the break-in was spotted. Escaping in a Ford transit van, the duo's scheme was halted after the vehicle broke down — leaving the brothers to get out and push it to where a second getaway van was waiting. This second vehicle was then found parked outside their house. Despite this, the brothers went on to target a second business, The Graded Gallery in Rugby. Again, more Pokémon card stock was stolen and the...

Academic researchers investigating how people use ChatGPT to generate fiction accidentally stumbled upon a super user repeatedly requesting stories featuring pregnant characters from Doki Doki Literature Club (as spotted by Automaton and reported on by ITMedia ). In Walsh et al’s “ AI Fiction in the Wild ” study, University of Washington and University of Colorado Boulder researchers analyzed the WildChat dataset. It should be noted that WildChat is a set of over half a million anonymous English language conversations between users and ChatGPT, compiled with consent for use in research. “The most prolific user in the WildChat fiction dataset and the clearest example of an infinite story demander began a fanfiction narrative in the Doki Doki Literature Club! Universe,” observed the researchers on page 10 of their paper . This super user prompted stories featuring various high school girls from Doki Doki Literature Club being pregnant. Natsuki unexpectedly going into labor was a common...