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The Gambling Committee of the UK’s House of Lords has concluded in a report issued this week that loot boxes in video games should be classified as “games of chance”, which would put them within the purview of the Gambling Act of 2005. As such, the Lords called for loot boxes to follow the same regulations as gambling products. “The government must act immediately to bring loot boxes within the remit of gambling legislation and regulation,” the House of Lords said, as reported by The BBC....

Haldor is the exclusive source of a number of items in Valheim. This includes the ultra-rare crafting resource Ymir flesh, several unique pieces of armour, and — for some reason — all the game’s fishing tools. On this page, you’ll find information on Haldor’s location in Valheim, the items you can buy from him, and how you can acquire coins to pay him with. How to find Haldor the merchant in Valheim What can you buy from Haldor the merchant in Valheim?...

Riot’s free-to-play shooter Valorant officially launched this week after a couple of months of closed testing. Although game is only available on PC, Riot hasn’t completely forgotten about console players. “We are definitely prototyping that right now,” Valorant executive producer, Anna Donlon, told Gamespot when asked if a console version is on the cards. The developer, however, explained that it’s not just satisfied with making the game playable on consoles, the experience has to make sense on a controller....

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide developer Fatshark has revealed that the game’s release date is being pushed back to the spring of 2022. Darktide never had a solid release target before, but it was expected this year. The reason for this delay is one too common in the games industry: the ramifications of the coronavirus. Fatshark said building the game during the pandemic has been a challenge, and it needed more time to deliver a quality product at launch....

Bungie’s Witch Queen reveal stream is set to (unofficially) kick off gamescom week, and as such the company has said it’ll go live today at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET / 5pm BST. You can check it out below once it’s live. Before that, though, there’s a preshow that kicks off an hour earlier. You can watch both via the official Bungie Twitch channel. If you want to know what to actually expect… well, you’re out of luck....

Today is the day millions around the world get to see Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War multiplayer for the first time. Despite the game’s much later reveal in the year compared to previous games, Activision is not interested in skipping the big multiplayer reveal event. Black Ops Cold War’s multiplayer mode is headed up by Treyarch, who will be talking about all of its new modes and mechanical changes today in a livestream....

But it doesn’t always have to be about that, you could also use The Sims 4’s impressive building tools to recreate some unusual things. Our friends at Rock Paper Shotgun decided to challenge themselves to recreate Trevor’s untidy, ugly trailer from GTA 5 in The Sims 4. As Alice notes in the video, the biggest problem was recreating the grime seen in the original trailer. She managed to get around that by strewing about food and other objects, to recreate the general look of the inside Trevor’s home....

Last night, at the unholy hour of 2am GMT, Sky aired the first episode of HBO’s The Last of Us, a show that seems to quickly skyrocketing to the top of best live action video game adaptations based on reviews (clearly none of them have experienced the dated dance battle scene in Sonic the Hedgehog 2). None of us at VG247 have watched it yet, so we can’t tell you what it’s like, but we did like The Last of Us Part 1 a lot, with Tom giving it full marks in his review....

Like much else in Elden Ring, finding these talismans is often difficult - and that goes double for the Legendary Talismans you need for one of Elden Ring’s achievements. What are the best talismans in Elden Ring? Elden Ring’s talismans augment your abilities in a number of ways, from extending the reach of your arrows to buffing your lightning defense. Many of these are highly situational – for example, the Boltdrake Talisman won’t matter unless you’re facing a foe with lightning attacks – so we’ve opted for a few of the more universally helpful talismans....

What is Sniper Elite 5 Axis Invasion? Axis Invasion is a mode that simply allows you to invade other players’ games as an elite Jager sniper. You don’t choose who to invade, and the game matches you with other players seamlessly. You’ve probably seen a similar system in Dark Souls games, Elden Ring, and even non-FromSoft games like Deathloop. The major difference here is that you’re not highlighted in any particular way to the defender....

Konami’s latest spin on the card-dueling series shadow dropped January 19 for console and PC, and while mobile was promised, it was conspicuous only by its absence. It’s beginning to roll out in some regions, though, so it shouldn’t be much longer until Master Duel on mobile is available worldwide. When is YuGiOh Duel Masters out on mobile? Konami released Master Duel on mobile in Japan on January 27 and will be staggering the rollout in other regions....

As players flock to the game in hordes, everyone is still figuring things out while we await a comprehensive wiki to appear. In a lot of instances, finding and farming for certain resources has been troubling for players, namely with the likes of Unsullied Hearts, and also Dark Silver Ingots. We’ve put together the following guide to help you get your hands on plenty of Dark Silver Ingots, and we’ve also explained what you should be using these materials for in V Rising!...

With the cat finally out of the bag on the new and improved PS Plus, we wanted to know what you think. Specifically, whether you’ll be subscribing to PS Plus – and if so, which tier. Let us know in the comments, and use the poll embedded below to vote on an answer. You’ll be able to see what the community thinks once you’ve voted. For those that need a refresher, here’s how each of the three new PS Plus tiers break down:...

Launching in 2023 on Xbox, PC, PlayStation, and available day one on Game Pass, the Team Ninja melee extravaganza takes us to Three Kingdoms era of China as the Han Dynasty is crumbling to pieces. You, as a militia soldier fighting to survive the kerfuffle, will have to fend off demons and other dangers across this spectacular moment in history. Being based in Three Kingdoms China, combat is based on Chinese sword-based martial arts as you dash and weave between incoming attacks and strike at weak points....

SPOILER ALERT FOR THE LAST OF US – GAME AND TV SHOW – AHEAD But what if there was more of it? To catch you up, Episode 3 is pretty much the only episode we’re going to see Bill in – a character that lives far longer in the games. The episode, bookended by Joel and Ellie making their way across the ruined heartland of America, mostly focuses on Bill and his doomed romance with partner, Frank....

Microsoft announced today that it will have a physical presence at the German show, scheduled for August 24-28 in Cologne. The company will share updates on already announced games, coming to Xbox over the next year - which is pretty much what we got at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase in June. Xbox didn’t say, however, how many of those will be first-party games vs third-party and partner games....

Microsoft has revealed the financial results for its second quarter of FY21 (ended December 31). Gaming revenue, which encompasses Xbox and PC gaming, brought in $5 billion for the first time, a 51% growth. This was the result of a number of factors, including a new record for Xbox Game Pass. The subscription service now boasts 18 million members, up from 15 million in September last year. Xbox Live likewise saw plenty of activity, and it now has over 100 million monthly active users across all devices....

Tucked away in Microsoft’s official press release announcing its acquisition of Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax and all of its studios and IPs, was the reveal of a new record for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. Game Pass, across PC and Xbox, now has over 15 million members. This is up from 10 million in April, a whopping 50% increase. The news is hardly surprising. Xbox Game Pass has unquestionably been the best deal in gaming for a while, with Microsoft making it harder and harder for casual players to resist by investing in content - particularly new game launches, convincing EA to come on board, and even adding cloud streaming at no additional charge....

Sure, you’ve got an either monolithic or small and sleek new box. Plug that box in, however, and everything that awaits you eschews that typical shiny-new-console feel for a more simple sort of upgrade. You’re greeted by the same little power-up beeping from the One. Then comes the Xbox One dashboard. Granted, it’s the newest version that made its debut back in mid-October, but it’s still familiar. My first instinct is of course to flip through the menus: to change settings, to download a couple of games....

Of the 30 games for Xbox Series X/S available on day one, 20 will feature Smart Delivery and are upgraded automatically. There will also be “thousands of games” that are backward compatible across four generations. Here’s the list: Assassins Creed Valhalla (Smart Delivery) Borderlands 3 (Smart Delivery) Bright Memory 1.0 (Smart Delivery) Cuisine Royale (Smart Delivery) Dead by Daylight (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition Dirt 5 (Smart Delivery) Enlisted Evergate The Falconeer (Smart Delivery) Fortnite Forza Horizon 4 (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) Gears 5 (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) Gears Tactics (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) Grounded (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) King Oddball (Smart Delivery) Maneater (Smart Delivery) Manifold Garden (Smart Delivery) NBA 2K21 Observer: System Redux Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) Planet Coaster (Smart Delivery) Tetris Effect: Connected (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) The Touryst (Xbox Game Pass + Smart Delivery) War Thunder (Smart Delivery) Warhammer: Chaosbane Slayer Edition Watch Dogs: Legion (Smart Delivery) WRC 9 FIA World Rally Championship (Smart Delivery) Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Smart Delivery) Yes, Your Grace (Smart Delivery)...