Battlefield 6’s second beta weekend kicks off today, with EA making some playlist and matchmaking tweaks

The dawn of the second Battlefield 6 open beta weekend is here. Before it got underway, EA made a few tweaks based on feedback from last week’s bout of FPSing about, with the headliners being some playlist changes and the introduction of custom match searching.

It’s no massive reinventing of the big battlewheel, but hopefully should make a positive impact on the time folks have in this bit of the beta, which sees the Empire State map debut alongside week one’s offerings. Rush and squad deathmatch modes are also joining the fray.

Read more

I have spent the morning learning about a recently deceased horse thanks to Umamusume: Pretty Derby

Around a week ago, 146,000 people mourned the death of a horse they’d never met. This might be the best single thing that has ever happened in videogames, although I don’t imagine the horse would give a shit. Grass Wonder was a famous Japanese racehorse, but it’s likely the majority of those that mourned his death online are only fans of Japanese horse racing by proxy.

Read more

Football Manager 2026 revealed, after last year’s edition was left in the changing rooms

Whack out your not-at-all-weird-to-own spreadsheet of teenagers with incredible left feet, a Football Manager thing has happened. Namely, Football Manager 2026 has been announced by developers Sports Interactive, with a quick trailer. There’s no release date as of yet.

If you recall, Football Manager 2025 ended up being delayed and then cancelled, the studio admitting at the time that “the overarching player experience and interface is not where we need it to be.” Refunds were issued to folks who’d pre-ordered the touchline-prowling sim, and the devs shifted their focus on to Football Manager 2026.

Read more

Mafia: The Old Country now has a first-person driving mod that’s ideal for capo cruisin’, when it’s not utterly terrifying

To me, the best part of Mafia: The Old Country is getting really into the idea of pretending you’re living in 1900s Sicily and drinking in the gorgeous vistas that the game’s world offers up like sips of wine. You can imagine, then, how keen I was to give its new first-person driving mod a go.

Having already knife-fought my way through the main story, I thought this sounded like a pleasant change of perspective to take in when motoring around the Valle Dorata, hoovering up the last of those Explore Mode collectibles. I wasn’t wrong either, the mod’s great. Well, when it’s not accidentally showing you the back of Enzo’s teeth and eye sockets.

Read more

Valve explain why using PayPal for Steam purchases isn’t currently an option in a whole bunch of countries

If you’ve tried to pay for something on Steam via PayPal over the past month and a bit, only to be told you can’t, Valve have now offered an explanation as to why, pointing to a bank that previously handled PayPal transactions in certain currencies as having suddenly terminated its support.

Folks in affected countries first noticed notifications informing them PayPal was “currently unavailable” in their part of the world around a month ago. There’s been a steady stream of Reddit posts from folks who’ve gotten to checkout and been told this since then.

Read more

Krafton claim former Subnautica 2 leads have “resorted to litigation to demand a payday they haven’t earned”

Subnautica 2 publishers Krafton have issued their response to the lawsuit filed against them by the game’s former lead developers. If you’re wondering whether things have cooled off a bit between the two parties now we’re in Saul Goodmanville, think again, because the second paragraph of the response sees Krafton accuse the leads of having “resorted to litigation to demand a payday they haven’t earned.”

It’s an almost impossible task at this point to sum up the Subnautica 2 saga in less than a War and Peace length novel, but here’s my attempt to give you the abbreviated version. Krafton delay the game from a 2025 early access release to 2026 and fire three leads on it: Charlie Cleveland, Max McGuire, and Ted Gill. The company accuse those leads of abandoning their duties and argue the game wasn’t ready for early access. The leads disagree and file a lawsuit. A big part of what makes the disagreement so noteworthy is a $250 million bonus to be paid to Unknown Worlds staff if the game hit certain targets by the end of 2025, which Krafton have now said they’ll still pay out a fraction of. Annnnddd breathe.

Read more