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Team Fortress: Source 2 and Portal 64 Fan Projects Shut Down by Valve Takedowns

Team Fortress: Source 2, a fan project seeking to port Valve’s classic shooter to the Source 2 engine, is officially dead. The news was announced following a DMCA takedown demand from Valve that blocked the group’s GitHub repositories. It joins Portal 64, which was also canceled less than a week after the release of its “First Slice.”

The takedown was the “nail in the coffin” for the project, the announcement read, which had already have been on shaky ground before Valve stepped in.

“While we were discussing the project’s future internally recently, we already came to the conclusion to stop the development of the project due to the current state of the code being unusable anymore with s&box’s recent major engine changes, and that we overall moved on from it,” the announcement read.

“Sadly, this means this DMCA takedown is the nail in the coffin. We cannot bring it back and we’ve hit Valve’s attention, it seems like they definitely don’t want us to use their IP (which is totally fair and legal from them). From the bottom of our hearts at Amper, it’s been an honour to grow this project with all of you and the incredible team behind, we cannot be thankful enough for all your support and enthusiasms over the last 3 years. We’re so happy we got this far.”

In development since at least 2021, Team Fortress: Source 2 was envisioned as a new version of the classic game on Garry’s Mod spiritual successor s&box. With Team Fortress 2 now 17 years old and largely overrun by bots, Team Fortress: Source 2 was intended to inject fresh life into Valve’s beloved shooter. The team at one point had more than 20 volunteers helping to port assets from the base game and rebuild Team Fortress 2 mechanics.

Portal 64, meanwhile is being shuttered due to the project “depending on Nintendo’s proprietary libraries,” according to an update on the project’s Patreon. Like Team Fortress, Portal 64 sought to revive Valve’s 2007 classic, but on Nintendo 64 hardware. Its developer celebrated the release of its “First Slice” demonstrating its progress on January 5.

IGN has reached out to Valve for comment.

Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Blizzard Reveals Diablo 4 Season 3’s Release Date

Diablo IV’s next season is starting on January 23 according to an update on the game’s login screen.

Even though it doesn’t have a title, Blizzard has seemingly confirmed that Diablo IV Season 3 will be launching later this month. Many players have noticed that a banner on the game’s login screen, which used to read, “Season of Blood Ends January 23, 2024,” now reads, “Next Season Begins January 23, 2024,” indicating that not only will the seasons apparently change over immediately, but that Season 3’s right around the corner.

With less than two weeks (and fewer business days than normal) until the apparent launch date, this will be a significantly quicker turnaround than the transition from Season 1 to Season 2 late last year. For comparison, Season 2: Season of Blood, was announced months before its release on October 17.

Unlike previous season launches, Blizzard hasn’t announced anything like a Campfire Chat or a patch to indicate an imminent update for Diablo. That said, it’s worth noting that Microsoft officially acquired Activision-Blizzard in the months since Season 2’s announcement last August. With that in mind, it’s possible that we might see Diablo IV make a surprise appearance at the Xbox Developer_Direct presentation that’s scheduled for January 18.

At the time of writing, neither Blizzard nor the official Diablo social channels have mentioned any details about Season 3. We’ve seen other studios working on multiplayer and live service games — like NetherRealm Studios with Mortal Kombat and Epic Games with Fortnite — take this approach in the past to ensure dedicated players have enough time to play out the rest of the game’s season before it ends. We should have more details soon.

Stay tuned to our Diablo IV page to keep up with all the latest on Season 3, including news and walkthroughs.

Charlie Wacholz is a freelance writer at IGN.

Minecraft Legends’ next update will be its last, nine months after launch

Minecraft Legends, the real-time strategy spin-off from the blocky survival game, is bringing an end to its post-release content additions with one final update later this month. The endcap to Legends comes nine months after its release.

Critically Acclaimed ‘Motorvania’ Laika: Aged Through Blood Gets Last-Minute Switch Delay

Update: Originally releasing 11th January.

Update : Just a day before its expected release on 11th January 2024, publisher Headup has announced on Twitter that the Switch release of Laika: Aged Through Blood has been delayed.

The upcoming Motorvania, which launched on PC last year to very positive reviews, will be skidding onto the Switch eShop on a now-unspecified date. Headup has given a vague reason, saying that the team wants the game to be “in the best possible shape” for Switch.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Xbox Insider Release Notes – Alpha (2402.240108-2200)

Hey Xbox Insiders! We have a new Xbox Update Preview releasing to the Alpha ring today.

It’s important we note that some updates made in these preview OS builds include background improvements that ensure a quality and stable build for Xbox consoles. We will continue to post these release notes, even when the noticeable changes to the UI are minimal or behind the scenes, so you’re aware when updates are coming to your device.

Details can be found below!

System Update Details:

OS Version: XB_FLT_2402ZN25398.3402.240108-2200
Available: 2 p.m. PT – January 10, 2024
Mandatory: 3 a.m. PT – January 11, 2024

New Features and Experiences

We have exciting news! Alpha users can expect something new coming to their Xbox Update Preview.

Xbox Wireless Controller – Thumbstick Calibration

For users in the US who have independently replaced the circuit board on their Xbox Wireless Controller and Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 or users in all regions experiencing minor thumbstick issues, we now offer a user-guided self-calibration tool for thumbsticks through the Xbox Accessories App.

Note: The support article linked at the end of the experience is currently unavailable. This will be available in the future.

Fixes Included

Thanks to all the great feedback Xbox Insiders provide and the hard work of Xbox engineers, we are happy to announce the following fixes have been implemented with this build:

System

Various updates to properly reflect local languages across the console.
- Note: Users participating in Preview may see “odd” text across the console. To learn more visit: What’s This? Learn More About Pseudo-Loc in Preview.

Known Issues

While known issues may have been listed in previous Xbox Insider Release Notes, they are not being ignored! However, it may take Xbox engineers more time to find a solution. If you experience any of these issues, we ask that you please follow any guidance provided and file feedback with Report a Problem.

Audio

We have received reports of users experiencing intermittent issues with audio across the dashboard, games, and apps. If you have experienced issues, be sure you have the latest firmware updates for your TV and other equipment. If you’re unsure, you may need to contact the manufacturer for assistance.
- Note: If you continue to experience issues after applying the latest firmware updates, please submit feedback via Report a Problem immediately with the “Reproduce with advanced diagnostics” option, then select the category “Console experiences” and “Console Audio Output Issues”. Be sure to include as much information as possible:
  - When did the issue start?
  - Did you lose audio just in the game/app or system audio as well?
  - Does changing the audio format resolve the issue? If yes, what was the format before and after?
  - Does rebooting resolve the issue?
  - What does your setup include? Equipment, layout, etc.
  - And any additional information you can provide to reproduce the problem.

Networking

We are investigating reports of an issue where the console may not connect to their network as expected on boot. If you experience this, be sure to report the issue via Report a Problem as soon as you’re able.
- Workaround: Wait a minute for the connection to establish. If your console still hasn’t connected, restart your Xbox from the Power Center or the guide. Learn more here: How to restart or power cycle your Xbox console.

As always, be sure to use Report a problem to keep us informed of any issues you encounter. We may not be able to respond to everyone, but the data we’ll gather is crucial to finding a resolution.

If you’re an Xbox Insider looking for support, please visit the community subreddit. Official Xbox staff, moderators, and fellow Xbox Insiders are there to help with your concerns.

When posting to the subreddit, please look through the most recent posts to see if your issue has already been posted or addressed. We always recommend adding to existing threads with the same issue before posting a new one. This helps us support you the best we can! Also, don’t forget to use “Report a Problem” before posting – the information shared in both places helps us understand your issue better.

Thank you to every Xbox Insider in the subreddit today and welcome to the community if you’re just joining us! We love that it has become such a friendly and community-driven hub of conversation and support.

For more information regarding the Xbox Insider Program follow us on Twitter. Keep an eye on future Xbox Insider Release Notes for more information regarding your Xbox Update Preview ring!

The post Xbox Insider Release Notes – Alpha (2402.240108-2200) appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Vampire Survivors Developer Teases Big Plans for 2024, Addresses Online Co-Op and Cross-Save

Poncle, the studio behind the award-winning horde-defense game Vampire Survivors, has shared some of its future goals for the surprise hit in a new Steam post.

The UK-based indie studio has big plans for 2024 and beyond. Although most of what’s included in this preview of what’s to come addresses stuff we already knew about (like online co-op, cross-platform saves, the upcoming animated TV series), Poncle’s post also teases loose plans to work on other games.

After thanking players for sticking with and supporting Vampire Survivors and recapping everything Poncle accomplished in 2023, studio head Luca Galante dove into specifics about what’s down the pipeline. Details like a firm roadmap or release dates for any of these updates are pretty sparse here given Poncle’s relatively small size of 20 employees.

Galante addressed online co-op first. Although it’s been announced that developers are working on adding online co-op to the game, the post acknowledges that it’s a “huge challenge” to implement.

“We’ve got help now, and things are looking promising, but it’s still too early for us to be able to make any promises,” Galante wrote. “We’ll keep giving you tiny updates until hopefully we can confirm it’s actually going to happen.”

He then moved on to cross-platform save files, saying they’ve been in testing for a while before confirming that Poncle’s planning to launch cross-save functionality in public beta next month. At the time of writing, the public beta will only work on Steam and Android platforms but will eventually come to other platforms if all goes according to plan.

More Cross-Media Projects?

Meanwhile, following last year’s SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, it should come as no surprise that the Vampire Survivors animated adaptation is still a work in progress. Announced in April of last year, the collaboration between Poncle and Story Kitchen (a studio formed by people who’ve worked on projects like John Wick and the Sonic The Hedgehog movie), the only update here is that we’ll be getting more info at some point in 2024.

Galante added that they’ve “received a lot of proposals to collaborate on cross-media projects, but rather than jumping the gun we have preferred to wait to find partners that felt right, especially because to make anything that isn’t a videogame out of VS requires good ideas, creativity, and that quirky knowledge of the game, that is a very difficult triplet to get 100% right!”

The post also addressed VS content, with the promise that the next update — Version 1.9 — should release on all platforms in February.

Perhaps the interesting (and the most vaguest) announcement in this long post, however, is The Vampire Survivors Experiment. Poncle is working with indie developers from outside the studio on, “[Vampire Survivors]-adjacent experiments.” Galante’s very clear here that these experiments might not see the light of day, clarifying, “We don’t know when, or even if, we’ll be happy with the final results and be ready to share them.”

You can read Poncle’s full 2024 statement here.

Cosmic Collapse takes viral puzzler Suika Game to a galactic scale with colliding planets instead of fruit

Remember Suika Game? The charming puzzler blew up late last year thanks to its engrossing fruit-merging gameplay and colourful theme (and the help of a load of vtubers to boot). While the original was only on Nintendo Switch – although technically even that was a port of a game included on a projector, of all things – plenty of Suika clones quickly emerged to fill its watermelon-shaped hole on PC. The latest Suika-like is stepping things up another level by taking its chill combo-a-thon to a galactic scale with colliding planets and suns.

Major actors’ union SAG-AFTRA have raised hackles among a number of voice game performers after striking a deal with a company that wants to create AI replicas of actors’ voices for use in games, among other things. While the union claim that their agreement with Replica will allow for a “fair” and “ethical” approach to creating AI voices, it’s clear that a number of actors with credits in games from Baldur’s Gate 3, Mortal Kombat and Starfield to Apex Legends, World of Warcraft and Genshin Impact don’t agree.

If you want a gaming monitor that leaves no doubt that you are a very cool gaming person, look no further than this titanic 45-incher from Lenovo, the R45w-30. It’s £100 off today, making the price of admission to the really big monitor show just £699. For about twice the price of a good 1440p 165Hz monitor, you get a monitor the size of two 1440p 165Hz monitors – but, critically, with no gap in the middle.

Minecraft Legends Development Ends As Final Update Launches

After less than a year.

Mojang has announced that support for Minecraft Legends, the RTS spin-off of the open-world block-building phenomenon, is ending after less than a year.

In a post shared on the official Minecraft website, senior creative writer Cristina Anderca shares details on the now “final” Lost Legends update, Snow vs Snouts. But later on in the post, the writer details just what’s happening with Minecraft Legends in the future, stating that the team at Blackbird Interactive is going to be taking “a step back from development.”