Larian's latest community update for Baldur's Gate 3 comes alongside the studio's third Panel from Hell livestream, but if you want the short version, here it is: Patch 5 will go live on July 13 and is focused on mechanical changes based on community feedback rather than new content, and studio head Swen Vincke says full release will be "hopefully somewhere in [20]22."What's in Patch 5? A whole lot. First, dice-rolling will get a fancy interface that shows modifiers being added after the roll (hallelujah!), and asks if you want to cast spells like guidance to influence the outcome. You can even ask party members to assist with their own spells, but in multiplayer mode the other players might turn you down.Camping has had an overhaul, and now you'll need to spend supplies for every long rest rather than taking a free nap after every fight. My habit of hoarding all the cheese scattered around will suddenly pay off. Campsites will also reflect your surroundings in patch 5, rather than always looking like that one spot of forest near the beach, and some new cutscenes can play out there including a cute-looking one if you manage to recruit both a dog and owlbear cub as pets.Combat changes include the separation of jump and disengage so they're separate actions, with disengage as a full action. That brings Baldur's Gate 3 more in line with tabletop D&D, and is something players have been demanding, as is the new option to cancel spells that require your spellcaster's concentration, and a toggle for non-lethal attacks to let you knock enemies unconscious. "You can still rob them blind," says Vincke, "but you don't have to kill them. It's better for your karma."Another addition will be secret miniquests based on each character's background to reward them for playing to type. A character with the Noble background will be rewarded for hiring ogres as bodyguards, while an Urchin will be rewarded for talking those ogres into working for free. Or, for stealing a toe ring. The rewards are inspiration points, which can be spent to reroll d20s. Once you've got a stockpile of four inspiration points, any more will convert to 25 XP.One last sizeable change is the addition of NPC barks for various actions, like Minsc shouting "Go for the eyes, Boo!" every time you told him to attack in the original Baldur's Gate, as is permanently etched in my mind. Apparently in Baldur's Gate 3 the things characters say will change depending on where you are in the story and their character arcs, and over 800 barks have been recorded just to cover the Early Access slice of the game.Smaller changes include some tweaks to spells, enemy AI, and now when you find Shadowheart—the cleric you eventually have the option of recruiting—imprisoned in the tutorial you get an option to free her. Which is nice. Also the bug that made some buckets edible has been fixed.Patch 6 will be more of a "new content" patch, and Larian is already working on it. It'll be here "faster than you think" according to Vincke.

We are thrilled to announce that The Witcher Remake is being worked on!

Experience the true meaning of joyful chaos in Warcraft Arclight Rumble, a mobile action strategy game developed by Blizzard Entertainment.

CD Projekt has confirmed that a new Witcher game is in development, "kicking off a new saga for the franchise."The new game will be built using Unreal Engine 5 rather than CD Projekt's REDengine, which the studio said will begin "a multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games.""It covers not only licensing, but technical development of Unreal Engine 5, as well as potential future versions of Unreal Engine, where relevant," CD Projekt said. "We'll closely collaborate with Epic Games’ developers with the primary goal being to help tailor the engine for open-world experiences."CD Projekt said that the change to the new engine was made to help streamline the development process.  "From the outset, we did not consider a typical licensing arrangement; both we and Epic see this as a long-term, fulfilling tech partnership," CD Projekt Red CTO Paweł Zawodny said. "It is vital for CD Projekt Red to have the technical direction of our next game decided from the earliest possible phase as in the past, we spent a lot of resources and energy to evolve and adapt REDengine with every subsequent game release. "This cooperation is so exciting, because it will elevate development predictability and efficiency, while simultaneously granting us access to cutting-edge game development tools. I can’t wait for the great games we’re going to create using Unreal Engine 5!"  The studio also confirmed that despite the shift to a new engine, the new Witcher game is not planned as an Epic Games Store exclusive.

Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday it would buy videogame publisher Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in cash, the largest deal in the sector.

Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 have been delayed from 2022 to possible 2023 release dates, Blizzard Entertainment announced Tuesday.

Developers over at Riot Games are broadening their strategies when it comes to countering behavior they don't like, and are going to trial new penalties for players who leave or engage in AFK behavior during matches. According to Riot, about 9% of players worldwide engage in consistent AFK behavior.Riot defines AFK as two behaviors that waste time for others: people who idle during matches and people who just up sticks and leave the match entirely. Right now, the worst those players can get is a queue delay: "Queue Delays are a speed bump on an offending player’s way to their next few games: Upon clicking the play button, the queue blocks them behind a short timer. The purpose of this is to change behavior," says Riot.Now, however, players can get escalating penalties of between 1 day and 14 days of a queue lockout. That means no playing at all: They're removed from the player population entirely. "We're removing the player from the population for a while so they can't continue to AFK in games," says Riot.For now, the new punishments are being trialed in specific regions, as Riot is concerned about certain region-specific connectivity problems. (The SEA region, at least in other MOBAs, is infamous for connectivity issues that players can't control.) Players who would be immediately subject to the new punishments have been reset to a lower tier, so they have a change to change their ways before the new punishments are levied.You can read the whole developer log, with stats, on the League of Legends site.Nice spot, Eurogamer.

Battlefield 2042, which was slated to release on October 22, has been delayed. Electronic Arts announced today that because of "unforeseen challenges" created by the Covid-19 pandemic, it has elected to push the game to November 19."Building the next generation of Battlefield during a global pandemic has created unforeseen challenges for our development teams," DICE studio general manager Oskar Gabrielson said in a statement. "Given the scale and scope of the game, we had hoped our teams would be back in our studios together as we move towards launch. With the ongoing conditions not allowing that to happen safely, and with all the hard work the teams are doing from home, we feel it is important to take the extra time to deliver on the vision of Battlefield 2042 for our players."

Overwatch is finally testing the new Deathmatch map Malevento, a peaceful Italian town with a very dark secret and potentially even a curse.

Amazon’s upcoming PC MMO, New World, is getting an open beta ahead of its September 28th release date, Amazon Games announced.