Month: September 2024

After the FTC submitted a filing criticizing Microsoft’s Game Pass price increases, the Xbox parent company responded with a letter of its own to the US Ninth Circuit Court, first spotted by Tom Warren of The Verge. In it, Microsoft argues that the new cheapest console Game Pass tier is actually a better deal for consumers despite the $3 per month price hike, because it also unlocks online multiplayer functionality now⁠—otherwise $10 a month on Xbox.

“Earlier this month, Microsoft announced changes to its gaming subscription service, Game Pass, to provide consumers valuable options at different price points,” the letter begins. “Microsoft is offering a new service tier, Game Pass Standard, which offers access to hundreds of back-catalog games and [emphasis theirs] multiplayer functionality for $14.99 a month.

“It is wrong to call this a ‘degraded’ version of the discontinued Game Pass for Console offering. That discontinued product did not offer multiplayer functionality, which had to be purchased separately for an additional $9.99/month (making the total cost $20.98/month). While Game Pass ultimate’s price will increase from $16.99 to $19.99/mon…

If, like me, you think Final Fantasy XIII is an elite-level FF series then I’ve got good news for you—you’re 100 per cent correct and have superb taste in games. Give yourself a pat on the back, you legend.

If you don’t think Final Fantasy XIII is an elite-level FF series then, um…well, this is a bit awkward. Yeah, I got nothing… sorry. Maybe just leave this article and go read PC Gamer’s write-up of the other best deals in the 2024 Steam Spring Sale.

Unbelievers left? Let’s proceed with the other piece of good news—the entire Final Fantasy XIII series is currently discounted by 60% in the Steam Spring Sale, meaning that regardless of if you’ve previously stepped into the shoes of Final Fantasy XIII heroine Lightning (what a gal!) and now want to relive those adventures, or if it’s a series that passed you by originally, now is a great time to jump into its epic Fabula Nova Crystallis world.

I’ve personally played and enjoyed all three Final Fantasy XIII games (indeed, I’m currently replaying the epic concluding game in the series, Lightning Returns), and can vouch that this is some top-tier Final Fantasy-ing and exce…

The team behind the Skyrim Together Reborn multiplayer mod has turned its attention to something new: HogWarp, a multiplayer mod for Hogwarts Legacy.

Hogwarts Legacy is a big, sprawling game, and its setting and story—a tale of kids attending a massive, ancient magic school—is a natural fit for some sort of multiplayer component. Yet it’s strictly a singleplayer game.

That may not be the case forever, though. HogWarp, like Skyrim Together, is designed to give players the ability to congregate and play together in the famed school of magic. And it’s not just an idle dream: Even though Hogwarts Legacy only went into full release on Friday, the Together Team has already shared a video of a test build in action. There’s not a whole lot going on, but that’s definitely two students running around in one Hogwarts.

Mod maker Yamashi told me in a Discord chat that the focus of the mod is “on co-op and roleplay.” The goal at this point is to enable up to eight people to play together, although that could change depending on how development unfolds.

“Our aim is to figure out how to do the basics such as spawning characters with the player’s appearance, a…

Delightfully strange and just generally delightful game World of Horror has finally released, leaving early access development on October 19 2023. It celebrates with a deliciously good trailer freshly scored by composer Joseph Bailey that shows off what’s best about World of Horror: scared teenagers trying to save the day, moody scenes of dark landscapes, and terrifying critters coming up out of absolutely nowhere to murder you.

World of Horror is a game about saving the Japanese fishing town of Shiokawa, and probably the world by extension, from impending doom under the gaze of some dark and eldritch god. It’s cosmic horror in the vein of Junji Ito, but where you’re the desperate protagonist trying to figure out how to slow or halt or even just survive the abstract and not-so-abstract terrors that suddenly show up in your everyday life.

“We’re stoked to announce the game has finally left Steam Early Access today, and we are also able to offer everyone the original Early Access price one more time as part of today’s Steam Daily Deal!,” said publisher ysbryd games in the release announcement. 

“The Old Gods are reawakening, clawing their way back into a wor…