Grotto. You live in a dingy little cave, the locals look at you with varying levels of distrust and suspicion, and occasionally your campfire will perk up and talk to you when no one’s looking, its yellow flames turning an ominous shade of blue as it whispers dread-filled words about failure and the beating heart of the mountain into your ear. It’s unclear how you ended up like this, but day after day you’re tasked with consulting the handful of stars visible through a crack in the cave’s ceiling to dole out advice to the local tribespeople, a group of anthropomorphic animals known only as The Brutes.
Said advice comes in the form of 24 constellations you can discover by looking up and drawing shapes in the sky with your mouse. You’ll need to give one of them to each Brute that asks you a question, but when every constellation has its own fortune-cookie-like meaning attached to it, finding the right one to answer their question successfully can be a challenge. As the toad man Ouuch tells you at the start, if you ask three separate people what the word ‘blue’ means to them, you’ll get three separate answers. Sometimes, your intentions will be misinterpreted, while others will willfully ignore you. But one thing Grotto always manages to do is to keep you coming back for more. Once you’ve set this car crash of consequences in motion, it’s very hard to tear your eyes away.
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Twitch source code and data leak was a file called “do_not_ban_list.” While not as black and white as the name suggest, the file sheds light on the otherwise opaque way Twitch has enforced its rules when streamers break them.
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Crysis Remastered Trilogy is out, complete with all the angry nanosuit men, angry alien squids, and solitary angry Cockney bloke of the originals – now with 8K support.
Minecraft Live 2021, where we got details about all of the new additions, including frogs, fireflies, and mangrove swamps. This will be the first Minecraft update in 2022, and will be the next major update after 
Total War: Warhammer 3, Creative Assembly today demonstrated with a nine-minute video dramatically recapping a battle between the two. The third game in their fantasy real-time strategy series has needed to invent and fill out a lot of armies not present in the tabletop game, so it’s interesting to see them in action. Got some nice colours and weird warmen, at the very least.
New World players have found an exploit that lets you turn invincible, which is certainly not the sort of exploit you want in your PvP-focused MMORPG. According to players who’ve encountered the bug, it’s pretty easy to replicate, and folks are calling for wars to be disabled until there’s a fix. Amazon Games say they’re aware of the problem and are investigating, so hopefully they’ll patch the game soon to make sure everyone’s staying vincible.
Apex Legends is adding a second spooky murderbot to its roster, one that both Apex and Titanfall 2 fans might recognise. Ash is a simulacrum (human consciousness in a freaky robot) who was previously a baddie in Titanfall 2. Since May this year, she’s been overseeing Apex’s new 3v3 Arenas mode – you know, that ominous voice that tells you to crush your enemies. But in the battle royale’s next season, Escape, she’ll be joining the fight herself.
New World, which isn’t ideal. These are tickets to adventure, to discovery, to that sweet, sweet EXP. But the more time I spend with the game, the more I’m beginning to loathe them. It’s got nothing to do with what you actually do in them, it’s the getting there that’s the problem. I have to run my little legs ragged and I’m tired. I’m so very tired of it.