Photo by JC Olivera / Getty Images At this point, you cannot talk about how amazing 2023 has been for the quality of games released this year without also mentioning how it’s been utterly disastrous for the people who made them. But that’s exactly what Geoff Keighley did during this year’s Game Awards.The numbers vary, but estimates say anywhere between six and seven thousand workers have lost their jobs just this year. No level of studio size or success has been spared. And those who have been let go are now being forced to contend for an ever-dwindling number of open job postings. “This has been one of the most volatile periods in the games industry in the last 15 years,” said Jakin Vela, executive director of the International Game Developers Association, in an... Continue reading…

YouTube’s new comment moderation feature lets you take a break from commenters without removing your existing video comments. | Image: YouTube YouTube has introduced a new moderation tool for creators that allows them to pause comments, preventing any new comments from being added to videos while preserving those that have already been posted. In a blog post published on Thursday, YouTube said the feature enables creators to “take a break from managing comments if they become overwhelming” and provides some flexibility over how comments are managed.Before this update, YouTube creators only had two options for moderating what would otherwise be a complete commenting free-for-all: either hold comments for manual review before publishing them, or completely disable all comments on a video. YouTube says the Pause feature is rolling out now — we’ve asked the company for... Continue reading…

JavaScript is the most in-demand programming language right now, and it enables developers to create beautiful and functional cross-platform apps when used alongside Node.js — a JavaSript runtime environment. To get started with JavaScript, you can use ChatGPT to help you start coding, but you'll still need a package manager like Yarn or Node Package Manager (NPM) to develop and share code. While NPM was the default package manager for Node.js for a long time, Meta developed Yarn as a more efficient and stable alternative.

Image: Larian Studios Baldur’s Gate 3, which just won Game of the Year at the 2023 Game Awards, is now available to purchase on Xbox Series X and S. You can buy it now for $69.99.The Xbox version of the game has been in the works for a little while. A few weeks after the hugely-successful PC launch of the game in August — and just before the release of the PS5 version — Larian Studios announced that it would be bringing Baldur’s Gate 3 to Microsoft’s consoles, though without split-screen co-op on the Xbox Series S.At the time, Larian also said the Xbox version only allows cross-save between the Steam and Xbox Series consoles, so if you’re hoping to move your PS5 save over to Xbox, you may be out of luck. (Although I’m sure somebody will test the PS5 to... Continue reading…

While it may seem like the internet everywhere is the same, sites and services can differ quite a bit in content and price. While streaming services like Netflix are some of the best examples, a lot of sites change their prices based on which country you access them from. One major example is airlines, which can offer lower prices in certain countries than others. By connecting to a VPN server hosted in another country, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to save on flights, especially those provided by airlines headquartered in that country. If you want to save on flights, you’ll need some patience and one of the best VPNs with servers in a lot of different countries.

Image: Capcom Things are about to get a little bit wild in the world of Monster Hunter. At The Game Awards this evening, Capcom revealed the latest entry in the franchise: Monster Hunter Wilds.There aren’t a lot of details yet about what makes this one different from past MonHun titles, and the game isn’t expected to launch until 2025. It’s slated for the PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X / S. There’s at least a very beautiful trailer to watch full of lots of mounts to ride and monsters to hunt (obviously). More news on Wilds is expected in the summer of 2024.MonHun has been on a roll in recent years. The launch of Monster Hunter World in 2018 saw the franchise break out and become a global hit, and it was followed by a live-action film, the Switch spinoff... Continue reading…

Image: Hello Games A decade ago, at the Spike Video Game Awards, Hello Games made a splash by announcing the wildly ambitious sci-fi exploration game No Man’s Sky. This evening, at the 2023 edition of The Game Awards, the studio did it again, revealing Light No Fire. This time, instead of offering a massive universe of different planets to explore, the game is focused on a single, incredibly detailed world.According to Hello’s Sean Murray, the game has been in development for the last five years by a small team. He describes it as “the first real open world” with no boundaries, which also has an online multiplayer component. From the trailer it appeared to have elements like crafting and mining, and also the ability to ride flying mounts.Here’s the... Continue reading…

Image: Embark Studios The Finals is a unique new shooter where everything is destructible. It’s available now on PS5, Xbox Series S / X, and PC. Continue reading…

Image: Marvel Entertainment Arkane Lyon is making a game based on Marvel’s Blade franchise, the studio announced at The Game Awards 2023 on Thursday.The game was revealed in a brief cinematic trailer, so we didn’t get any gameplay of the title or any details about when it might be released. But Arkane Lyon studio director Dinga Bakaba said that it would be an “immersive third-person action adventure,” so we can look forward to that. The trailer’s description also notes that it’s single-player and that it’s set in Paris. A press release notes that Arkane Lyon has “just begun” development, so we might be waiting a long time to see it.Arkane Studios, which is one of many big developers under Microsoft’s increasingly-large empire, had a big stumble with the release... Continue reading…

Microsoft's new Outlook for Windows now has support for voice dictation, allowing users to write emails using their voices. The Outlook Windows and Mac clients have had the feature for a long time, but now, by rolling it out to the new Outlook app for Windows, Microsoft further narrows the gap in offerings between the two.

Image: Square Enix Square Enix already let us know that it was working on DLC for Final Fantasy XVI. But during the Game Awards, we learned it was working on not one but two DLC chapters with one of them available... right now. Watch the trailer here.The first DLC, Echoes of the Fallen, is a new story chapter that takes place before the final battle. It features the whole gang working together (honesty, I choked up to see it) to investigate — what else — more messed up crystals. In the DLC, Clive will also be able to wield the iconic buster sword weapon from Final Fantasy VII as well as earn a chiptune version of the FFXVI song “Away”. It’s available right now, but I haven’t been able to find a link in the PlayStation store yet.The other DLC, The Rising... Continue reading…

The Core i9-13900K is one of the most powerful gaming processors out there, which is why it needs an equally competent cooling solution to maximize its performance. The thermal paste is a critical component of your cooling solution which is often overlooked as most PC builders use the same thermal paste that came with their CPU cooler. However, investing in an aftermarket thermal paste is ideal if you want to maximize the performance and longevity of your CPU. Moreover, it can substantially increase the overclocking potential of your processor as well. Keeping this in mind, here is a selection of the very best thermal pastes that you can buy for the Core i9-13900K processor.