Made a pigeon themed, PS1-styled fighter called Pekken this weekend. That’s what Stories Untold dev NoCode has been up to lately, prototyping a fighting game called Pekken. Specifically, Pekken is a 2D, PS1-era beat ‘em up that sees two pigeons beating each other into pâté. Presumably in a break from developing Observation, NoCode’s upcoming sci-fi thriller, McKellan showed off footage of Pekken on Twitter, stating, “Made a pigeon themed, PS1-styled fighter called Pekken this weekend. What’s mor

Bandai Namco has announced Project Z, a new action RPG set in the Dragon Ball universe. The game is being developed by CyberConnect 2, formerly known for its Naruto Shippuden series of games. Whether it’s a new story about Goku or a retelling of the Dragon Ball Z tale, is unknown. The announcement was accompanied by a trailer that features what appears to be either in-game or in-engine footage. There’s no firm release date, but Namco Bandai have stated that Project Z is coming later this year, s

Tencent has used model Mei Yan’s likeness in its battle royale game Ring of Elysium without her permission, Yan says. She posted screenshots of a trailer for Ring of Elysium’s paid-for Adventurer Pass, which appears to have photoshopped different outfits onto Yan’s original picture. You can see a comparison shot below—the original is on the right, with the image used for Lynn on the left. “People have been paying for this Adventurer Pass, and are therefore paying to have access to this skin. I’v

PC remains the most popular gaming platform among developers, and its lead over consoles and mobile is growing, according to a Game Developers Conference survey of nearly 4,000 developers. Smartphones/tablets were the next most popular platform at 38%. “Again we see PC on top and increasing its lead year-over-year, while dev interest in other platforms remains relatively steady,” the report said. The survey also revealed what developers thought of PC store fronts such as Steam, GOG and the Epic

Players have been unable to log in to the game, or have faced an infinite load screen when moving between in-game areas. In a blog post, BioWare’s head of live service Chad Robertson denied that the issues were caused by BioWare under-planning for server capacity. The problems were caused by a “spike in players entering the game” when the demo launched, which led to issues that BioWare didn’t see during internal testing. Performance has also been boosted in subsequent builds, which should solve

Subnautica: Below Zero is a followup to last year’s outstanding underwater sci-fi survival game, set in a different region of the same planet after the events of Subnautica. One way it will not differ is how it’s released: Subnautica made its debut on Steam Early Access in 2014 in a far-from-complete state, and Unknown Worlds said that Below Zero will follow the same path, beginning on January 30. It will be available in early access on Steam, the Epic Games Store, and Discord (not listed there

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a game about two children in 14th-century France struggling to escape the soldiers of the Inquisition in a world overrun by deadly swarms of plague-ridden rats. The video focuses primarily on the game’s central characters, Amicia and her young brother Hugo, children of a noble family who are left to fend for themselves when their parents are killed. Interestingly, the children in the game are voiced by actual children, Charlotte McBurney and Logan Hannan. “Both are im

Set to go live at 9 am PT this morning, the Anthem VIP demo isn’t letting many players in right out of the gate. In the initial rush to play, the servers have been overwhelmed, with players (including the entirety of our staff) receiving a message stating, “We’re sorry, but the EA servers reached max capacity. Servers are getting SLAMMED for the #AnthemGame VIP demo right now. A bummer, for sure, but I’m guessing we’ll get in soon enough and could possibly see a small extension to the VIP demo p

You’ll be able to get a free Metroidvania fix next month when 2D action romp Axiom Verge temporarily sheds its price on the Epic Games Store. I’m far too impatient for games like Axiom Verge, which I hear is pretty tricky, labyrinthine and full of death at the hands of alien nasties. Andy’s Axiom Verge review should tell you everything else you need to know. Axiom Verge joins the superb Shovel Knight as a game that doesn’t just borrow the aesthetic of retro games, but understands why they worked

Following the announcement earlier this month, a closed beta is now available for Patreon backers. It’s expected to run for a week or two, building up to an open beta. In the closed beta, players will be able to invite friends into their game and start private sessions, fight each other, travel wherever they want—separately or together—and join each other in quests. A separate launcher is required to use the mod, as well as an account on the Skyrim Together site and a linked Patreon account. It’

AlphaStar, an AI designed by Google DeepMind specifically to master StarCraft 2, looks like it’s well on its way to succeeding. Fed on data from past matches and games with StarCraft 2 players, DeepMind thought the AI was up to the challenge of taking on a pro. AlphaStar is a Protoss player, but the AI’s first match-up was against Zerg pro, Dario “TLO” Wünsch. Unlike TLO, MaNa is one of the world’s best Protoss players, but again the AI prevailed. A Reddit AMA with DeepMind, MaNa and TLO will ta

Netflix is reportedly developing a Resident Evil TV series, according to Deadline. The studio behind the upcoming series, Constantin Film, also produces the long-running movie series. A showrunner has yet to be picked, but the show plans to expand the Resident Evil universe’s mythology and follow the inner workings of the Umbrella Corporation. That hasn’t made them necessarily better than the movies, they’re not great, but if you’ve got a hunger for that Resident Evil lore, they might fill you u

“After hearing player feedback and discussing within the development team we are making changes to a cutscene and some dialogue in Shadow Heritage to better reflect the nature of the relationship for players selecting a non-romantic storyline. These changes, along with renaming a trophy/achievement, are being made now and will be implemented in an upcoming patch,” Ubisoft wrote. We are pleased that Ubisoft has listened to LGBTQ players and will be making changes to Assassin’s Creed. This is an i

We’ve previously described Atomic Heart as an “offbeat Soviet-era shooter,” and also “strange” and “weird,” but all we’ve actually seen of it so far are a few brief, bizarre clips that look like—well, the truth is, I don’t even know. And now, courtesy of IGN, we can finally lay eyes on some proper gameplay—and as promised, it is weird. “The protagonist of the game is a Soviet KGB officer and his Party sends him to the facility 3826 and are waiting for the report.” Naturally, they also come equip

Generation Zero is an open-world co-op shooter set in a 1980s Sweden overrun by giant death robots that’s being developed by the studio that did Mad Max and the Just Cause games, and if that concept doesn’t have you immediately intrigued then we probably don’t have anything more to talk about. But if it does, then you’ll also be interested to hear that it’s been slated for release on March 26. (Apparently, for all their technological advancements, Generation Zero’s termination machines haven’t y

Parker “Interro” Mackay is a prominent member of the Rainbow Six Siege community and well-known ambassador for the game. The teamkilling policy was also changed to ban players after two teamkills and lock them out of any matchmaking. He believes that, if Ubisoft sets a better example for the most visible players of the game, there would be a ripple effect. Players have been asking for a similar feature as far back as the game’s release, but Ubisoft has never commented on it . As a consequence, S

We need more road trip games. The latest is Road to Guangdong, from Just Add Oil Games and the publisher of Jalopy. Heading to Early Access in May, it follows aunt and niece Guu Ma and Sunny as they take a trip across ‘90s Guangdong. The car will need to be maintained and repaired along the way, but what’s a road trip without some breakdowns? Sunny and her aunt are on the road to rekindle their relationship with the rest of their family.

Grimdark space tactics romp Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 tears out of the warp today, launching along with a trailer that you can watch above. It looks quite a bit beefier than it’s predecessor, with a trio of sandboxy grand campaigns and all 12 of the tabletop factions. All three grand campaigns are now fully playable, and if you played in the beta, your campaign progress will carry over. There’s campaign co-op, too, though it’s still in development. Another grand campaign is also in the works,

Last Oasis is an upcoming Early Access survival MMO where players will have to compete over fleeting resources in Earth’s last hospitable strip of land. And they’ll do that by constructing Walkers, wooden landships propelled by sails and mechanical legs. They look incredible and I’ve never been so up for hours of chopping down trees and refining resources. The larger Walkers need a crew, so survivors will need to band together in clans and form alliances to create armadas and engage in clan warf

Buoyed by recent support from streamers like Summit1g, Rare’s open world pirate game has regularly been at the top of the Twitch charts lately. According to the latest dev diary, the game has seen an uptick of new users as a result, and perhaps hoping to continue the trend of new players, Sea of Thieves is on sale until January 31 for 50% off. That’s $30 or £24.99. We’re pretty fond of Sea of Thieves here at PC Gamer, too: Tyler made it his personal pick for our Game of the Year Awards, though h