Capcom has dropped a bombshell on players as three games are going for goodCapcomDark Void, Dark Void Zero, and Flock will all be leaving Steam[/caption]
The publisher has started off 2024 strong as well as Dragon's Dogma 2 has seen huge success.
However, the company has just announced that three games will be delisted from Steam, meaning they will no longer be playable on the platform.
From Wednesday, May 8, 2024, Dark Void, Dark Void Zero, and Flock will all be delisted from Steam.
If you want to play these games you have just two weeks to purchase them before they are gone for good.
When you look on the pages for these games, you will see the same messages.
It reads: "Capcom will be discontinuing digital sales of Dark Void / Dark Void Zero / Flock on Steam Store on May 8 5:30PM PDT.
"Customers who have purchased the title prior to its delisting date may still be able to enjoy the game into the future depending on their PC operating system's ability to continue running the game."
These three games are still available on other platforms, and it's not clear at the time if the games will be delisted from these platforms as well.
As older games they are very cheap to pick up, so give them a try if they take your fancy.
If you want to read more about Steam, check out the new Steam refund policy.
Get the lowdown on more of the latest PS5 releases from our expert reviewers.
Call of Duty down updates — Gamers report issues with server connection as users complain 'everything reset' | 993F296 | 2024-04-30 15:08:02
HUNDREDS of Call of Duty gamers faced issues with server connection Tuesday evening.
Over 1,000 CoD users reported problems as of 5 pm ET, according to Downdetector.
"Level reset," one gamer reported on the site.
"@CallofDuty is broken again! Everything reset to 1 can barely load in," another complained on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"I guess nothing changes when we all just keep playing. Such a broken experience with this damn game!"
The game shared on X, "A service outage that prevented progress from being tracked in various modes and features, including events, challenges, Battle Pass, SR, access to specific modes like Zombies, and more, is recovering."
Candy Crush developers say AI can never replace people | 993F296 | 2024-04-30 15:08:02
SUDDENLY over the last year, the meaning of AI shifted, and conversations over its use have run rampant.
AI used to mean how an NPC in a game moves or talks, but when you hear AI now, you picture melting faces, too many fingers, and nonsense word salad.
Candy Crush developers say AI can never replace peopleKingLuka Crnkovic-Friis thinks that the human touch is always needed when working with AI to ensure high quality games[/caption]
In many ways, AI has become a dirty word, but we should remember what AI does best, and has done for a long time.
We visited Candy Crush developer King in Stockholm, Sweden to talk about the company's future.
Candy Crush is known for its incredibly loyal user base, and the team showed us the latest innovations awaiting beyond the horizon that keep the players coming back day after day.
These include the implementation of AI in their game routines, with a noticeable impact on titles such as Candy Crush Soda Saga and Farm Heroes Saga.
We spoke with King's Head of AI, Luka Crnkovic-Friis, about how AI has been implemented in Candy Crush games without subjecting us to something akin to Willy's Chocolate Experience.
Crnkovic-Friis says: "We have over 100 different use cases at King. Broadly, it falls into three large areas.
"There's content automation, which is level design. The other is personalization, which is everything to do with recommendations.
"This is things like recommending a booster, recommending moves, recommending what to show after you have ended the game, and is based on the gameplay of the player.
"The third one is in performance marketing, which is the balance of how much do you pay when buying ads versus the estimated lifetime value of the player."
If we break this down, the level design is the randomisation of the candy, trying to ensure that the candy to match feels random while still making matching and combos possible.
The second is about tailoring the experience to the user, encouraging people to spend their money while balancing what feels aggressive.
Finally, the AI is monitoring which adverts drive more users to its games.
Essentially, the AI is in charge of the busy work; the spreadsheets and algorithms that would be tedious for a person to do by hand.
Most importantly, there are humans overseeing the AI, making tweaks, and balancing the job it's doing.
Crnkovic-Friis says: "I think the biggest challenge is that this is a massive game with lots of users.
"We have to make sure that when we are introducing a radical change that it doesn't negatively affect the users.
"So there's a lot of testing involved, and there's some time between creating a feature and when it gets deployed.
"Candy Crush is a complex game [and you don't want to] break anything when you replace an older component with a newer one."
One of the biggest concerns about AI in games is that it could lead to job losses across the industry, and lower-quality content for users.
Crnkovic-Friis says this isn't the aim at King: "What we are deploying are tools that empower Kingsters, making their jobs more efficient, more fun.
"That's our view for the foreseeable future. If we look at generated content, it's just not feasible for the level of quality that we need, the level of creativity that is required for it.
"And what we have now with level design, it's the combination of a human designer that does the overall creative thinking, the storyline, the theme.
"Then the AI helps to optimize the right difficulty, and that it flows well."
Last year, Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard King, the largest purchase tech has ever seen, costing an unfathomable $70billion.
This has opened King up to more AI tools, and while Crnkovic-Friis says the company has no plans to use generative AI when it comes to the creative aspects, his enthusiasm for OpenAI, which encompasses ChatGPT and video AI Sora, tells a different story.
He says: "Microsoft opened up a lot for us and also indirectly to our partnership with OpenAI, we got access to things that we would not have if we were not part of it.
"And it's amazing to be able to have this close relationship with world leading companies."
In return King can offer Xbox a way into the lucrative mobile industry, an area Xbox is severely behind in.
Crnkovic-Friss says: "Xbox has no real mobile presence. So this is a really new thing for them.
"A new way of looking at game development. the traditional triple-A games, they're like blockbuster movies and were like a TV show.
"But there will be a Candy Crush in 10 years and it won't be Candy Crush 2. It will still be Candy Crush."
Fallout fans are ecstatic as unexpected hit is renewed for a second season | 993F296 | 2024-04-30 15:08:02
VIDEO game adaptations have not always had the best reputation, but they are getting better and better as the years go on.
The Last of Us was the first big game to TV adaptation to break into the mainstream, and now Fallout has followed in its path.
Fallout fans are ecstatic as unexpected hit is renewed for a second seasonThe Ghoul will be returning with the other protagonists for Season 2Prime Video
Fallout's TV adaptation launched on Prime Video last week but has already seen immense popularity.
In fact, it's been so popular that Amazon has already announced that it will be renewed for a second season.
Making the announcement on Twitter, the Fallout on Prime official Twitter account released an image of the series protagonists along with a message for fans.
It reads: "Wouldn't want to keep you on the edge of your seat, now, would we?
"See you back in the Wasteland for Season 2."
The TV show was announced at Gamescom last year, where fans were treated to the first trailer for the show.
While expectations are usually low for TV adaptations, the previews for the first two episodes were exceptionally good, leading to high hopes.
The series ended up launching a few days earlier than planned, likely due to the positive press.
The series stars Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins, Aaron Moten, Moisés Arias, Kyle MacLachlan and Sarita Choudhury in some of the leading roles.
In collaboration with the show, you can now also recreate your favourite character in the most recent game Fallout 76.
You can choose from the three protagonists, The Ghoul, Lucy and Maximus, with each character coming with their own perk and loadout.
Details about Season 2 are yet to be announced but it is believed that it could be filmed in California, thanks to a potential tax credit from the state.
Fans believe that the season will take place in New Vegas, one of the more popular locations from the game series.
