Month: October 2024

Helldivers 2’s community has been asking for buffs to flamethrowers rather than the kind of nerf that fire weapons got alongside the Escalation of Freedom update, and Arrowhead looks to be delivering just that, having now provided more info on just how it’s gone about turning the in-game heat back up.The studio gave us a brief glimpse into its plans for the update, now dubbed Patch 01.001.007, last week. “We are also working towards additional improvements for the flamethrower weapons,” was all it wrote then, but here’s some info on what exactly those improvements will look like.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings “We’ve heard you loud and clear and Flamethrower damage is increased by 33%,” Arrowhead wrote in the first of a string of posts providing m…

Netflix has dropped a brand new teaser trailer for Castlevania: Nocturne season 2, and it sure does seem like everyone’s favourite vampiric blonde boy will play a big part.It’s Netflix Geeked Week, which means that the streamer has a whole bunch of announcements coming including things like Arcane, Black Mirror, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. But kicking off the event is some Castlevania: Nocturne news, most notably being that the upcoming second season of the animated series is coming to Netflix next year, January 2025. That’s only four months away, so you don’t have all that long to wait, even though it might be a bit difficult – a teaser trailer was released alongside the release date window, and while it didn’t show off too much of the second season, it did make it clear that everyone…

God of War Ragnarok is finally out on Steam, except it has launched to a Mixed rating on Steam, and yes, it is (mostly) because of that PSN requirement.I think it’s pretty clear by now that plenty of PC players do actually want to play PlayStation games, they just want to do it on PC. In turn, I also think it’s very clear that these same players don’t want to have to jump through any hoops just to play those games, other than the usual, still annoying ones, like paying for said video games. And yet here we are again, with PlayStation releasing another of its first-party titles on Steam, with players immediately being met with the fact they need to connect to a PSN account to play it at all. Infamously, earlier this year, Helldivers 2 was subjected to heavy review bombing following the deci…

The movie version of Shadow the Hedgehog is coming to Sonic X Shadow Generations, but most of Sega didn’t even know Keanu Reeves would be back for the game.Yesterday, during Sony’s most recent PlayStation State of Play, Sega showed off a bit of bonus Sonic X Shadow Generations DLC that features, unsurprisingly, Shadow, but surprisingly, it’s based on the events from the upcoming third movie – and it even has Keanu Reeves voicing the character. While only brief, the DLC looks incredibly fun, and Shadow’s model has been made to resemble his movie counterpart, and Reeves voicing this version is unexpected considering how unoften movie stars do video game voice over work like that. But, funnily enough, in a post from the official PlayStation Blog, series producer Shun Nakamura shared that most…

If you recently had your PS5’s homescreen shove a weirdly out-of-date or slightly irrelevant advert in your face when hovering over one of your games, there’s good news – you shouldn’t run into such a thing anymore. Why? Well, because PlayStation says it’s “resolved” a “technical error” that was causing what some had interpreted to potentially be a new advert system.The fact that hovering over the likes of Horizon Zero Dawn or Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales flicked up ads for Lego Horizon Adventures and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – with the latter citing a 2023 movie as “coming soon” – drew a lot of criticism on social media, with folks who like staring at homescreens unhappy that they could no longer do so without seeing this kind of thing.To see this content please enable ta…

Over the weekend, Chinese Tekken 8 player xiaochenchen (XCC) made a scorching run through the bracket at Thaiger Uppercut. To call this an unexpected result is an understatement. People know that there’s a fighting game space bubbling away in China, but fairly or unfairly, it’s not held in the same regard as other countries. XCC was set to potentially throw a brick through such misconceptions, but was unable to. Due to the rules of the Tekken World Tour, he was disqualified.Did he cheat? Did he conduct himself poorly in front of other competitors? Not at all. The Tekken World Tour rules, which apply to all events under its umbrella, does not include China as one of its included countries. Not only that, but it states that players from a country not listed outright cannot compete. It’s not …

Xbox Game Studios has a new head as of today, with former Rare studio head Craig Duncan taking over the role – but who is he, anyhow?The Verge reported today that current Xbox Game Studios head Alan Hartman is retiring after more than 30 years at the company this coming November. Hartman had only taken over the role last year after previous head Matt Booty had been promoted to president of game content and studios. Now taking over the role is Craig Duncan, who has been the studio head at Sea of Thieves and Banjo Kazooie developer Rare since 2011. Taking over his position are Joe Neate and Jim Horth as co-leaders, while Rare continues its work on Sea of Thieves and Everwild.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings “In his new role, Craig will continue to fo…

VariousThere are so many ways to be a Dungeons & Dragons fan these days. The tabletop RPG mainstay has been synonymous with pen-and-paper adventuring for 50 years now, and 2024 marks a major reworking of its core rulebooks to make the game more approachable. Anyone who’s played even just a couple of sessions knows how easy it can be to covet a friend’s set of custom dice, appreciate the care a Dungeon Master has taken in setting the right ambience for a crafted campaign, or even obsess over their choice of pen and notebook — after all, it’s what you’ll be spending a large chunk of time staring into as you ponder your character’s next heroic action.But what’s amazing is that you can be a huge D&D fan without ever touching a character sheet. D&D and the Forgotten R…

Traveller’s TalesAlice Jovanée (she/her) is a commerce writer, and she has been writing about gaming and tech since 2005. Prior to Polygon, she worked at publications such as The Verge.Regardless of how you feel about the current season of Rings of Power, if you’re looking for another way to satiate your Tolkien love you’ll definitely want to check out the current catalog of free games available to Amazon Prime members. Earlier this month, both Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor GOTY Edition, and Lego The Lord of the Rings were made available to Amazon Prime members for free through Sept. 30. However, you can now also pick up Lego The Hobbit for free through Oct. 23. Just head to the corresponding Prime Gaming page and you’ll be presented with a code that you can redeem on GOG.com fo…

Nintendo of AmericaCameron Faulkner (he/him) is Polygon’s commerce editor. He began writing about tech and gaming in 2013, and migrated from The Verge in 2023.One of the best unofficial October Prime Day deals has come early at Woot, where you can get a new Nintendo Switch OLED with either white or neon blue/red Joy-Con for $299.99 ($50 off). It’s not typical for this console to receive any kind of discount, so we’re usually skeptical that there’s something amiss when one pops up, like an iffy warranty, or that it isn’t the U.S. version, which includes a different power adapter. However, there are no strings attached; you’re just getting a great deal.Nintendo Switch OLED$300$35014% off$300Nintendo’s hybrid console still has plenty of staying power, especially with this year�…