Baldur's Gate 3 made D&D's lead designer change one of the RPG's deadliest NPC-killers because it was excruciating to use - games news - NewsLocker (2024)

D&D's lead designer says he's changing some of the tabletop RPG's spells because they were so annoying in Baldur's Gate 3 - including one infamous spell that's responsible for a good chunk of inadvertent deaths.In a new video, D&D lead designer Jeremy Crawford explains some of the changes coming in with the game's new 2024 Player's Handbook. Some of those changes, he revealed, were brought about specifically because of his time with Baldur's Gate 3.One of those changes is to Cloud

Elden Ring devs suggest a fix for PS5 framerate issues, but an expert FromSoft dataminer says it won't do a damn thing to help

The new Elden Ring patch suggests a fix for some of the RPG's framerate issues. Trouble is, however, that 'fix' doesn't seem likely to help a whole lot.Elden Ring patch 1.12.3, which dropped early today, features a section dedicated to "possible unstable performance fixes." Previously, publisher Bandai Namco had suggested that PC players might want to check their mouse to help with framerate issues, but now it's turned its attention to the PS5. In the notes, it suggests that "unstable framerate

The Acolyte showrunner responds to review-bombing of her Star Wars show: "I think it's pretty expected"

The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland has responded to the review-bombing of her new Star Wars show – and she thinks it's "concerning" but "expected". "Oh, yes. Everybody knows what review-bombing is like. Truly when the show first came out, my publicist was like, 'OK, with the review…' I was like, 'Does anybody take that seriously anymore?'" Headland told Collider.'Review-bombing' is when a group mobilizes online to post multiple negative user reviews of a show or movi

As Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero's classic-style quick-time events are teased, fighting game fans fear for their controllers: "DualSenses are like 70 bucks I need y'all to chill"

It looks like fighting game fans might want to invest in a spare controller or two, because Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is set to bring back the controller-destroying quick-time events that veteran Budokai Tenkaichi fans will remember well, including the notorious stick-spinning one that's already got many concerned about potential drifting issues.We already knew that Clashes were coming back in Sparking! Zero. Historically, they've seen players compete in high-pressure QTEs when two power

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Mass Effect actor says he doesn't mind if you play as his female counterpart, because you'll be forced to listen to him anyway

The voice actor behind the male version of Commander Shepherd says he's not worried if you choose to play as FemShep instead, because he voices so many of the game's NPCs that you'll end up hearing him no matter who you pick.Speaking to PC Gamer, Mark Meer said that when people tell him they've only played as 'his' version of Commander Shepherd, he hits back with "'why are you denying yourself the excellent performance of Jennifer Hale?'" Hale, of course, voices the female version of Shepherd, a

Who is Webweaver? The Boys' latest Supe, explained

Warning! This article contains spoilers for The Boys season 4, episode 6. If you've yet to tune in, and don't want to know anything that happens, turn back now!With two new recruits joining The Seven, Victoria Neuman's kid showcasing her tentacle powers, and cameos from a few of the Gen V lot, there are more Supes in The Boys than ever. The most recent episode, season 4, episode 6, introduced another, too: the Spider-Man-esque Webweaver.But who is he? If you've yet to watch the aforementioned sp

The Boys season 4 episode 6 recap and Easter eggs: an alt-right co*cktail party takes a nasty turn

The Boys season 4 episode 6 – which is suitably titled 'Dirty Business' – has the challenging task of following on from the pretty wild events of the last installment. As you may recall, last week's episode was total farm-ageddon as the team battled a group of seriously V-d-up animals, Hughie lost his dad and Vought news anchor Cameron Coleman was beaten to death by The Seven.This week, the titular team infiltrate an alt-right co*cktail party, which quickly takes a pretty nasty turn &

Monaco 2 Preview — Sneaking in a new dimension

Platform:PC
Publisher:Humble Games
Developer:Pocketwatch GamesThe first Monaco released in 2013 at a point when Xbox Live Arcade had hit its stride, and there was a new appetite for the type of creative and unique game that existed below the huge budget triple-A, high-fidelity experience. Those kinds of games vastly outnumber the big-budget experiences we are familiar with today, but in 2013 we were discovering such experiences and marveling at their ingenuity. The competition is stiffer for Mo

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If you thought Tek Knight was bad in The Boys season 4 episode 6, he is way worse in the comics

Well, The Boys season 4 episode 6 was an interesting viewing experience, to say the least. But aside from the abundance of strange sexual displays and awkward scenes, you may be wondering, what is up with Tek Knight, and why does he have a… hole fetish?Warning: this article includes some major spoilers for The Boys season 4 episode 6, so make sure you have seen that before you read on!So… that happened. In The Boys season 4 episode 6, we were treated, or rather subjected, to

Helldivers 2 gets a selection of excellent fleet upgrades, including one that'll reduce the cooldown of all Stratagems thanks to the power of paid bathroom breaks

A handful of new Super Destroyer upgrades are now available for liberty-loving Helldivers 2 players, including one that will reduce the cooldown of your Stratagems thanks to "enthusiasm enhancement initiatives" like paid bathroom breaks. Super Earth's Ministry of Defence is so generous.Rolled out today along with the deployment of a new patch, there are six new fleet upgrades to unlock. In no particular order, these are Advanced Crew Training, Cross-Platform Compatibility (which isn't what

Barely 6 days after Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail's Early Access launch, devs line up sweeping job changes targeting the Viper's "busyness," the Monk’s "inadequate performance," and much more

Square Enix is changing up several jobs in Final Fantasy 14 following a wave of Dawntrail feedback from Early Access and beyond.Director and producer Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida explains in a new blog post that we're getting specific tweaks to Viper, Monk, and a good few more, alongside sweeping changes to tanks over patches 7.01 and 7.05.For the Viper job, Yoshida says the team has received feedback "pertaining to the busyness of their skill rotation." As such, the directional requirements are bein

Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail reached "a record number of concurrent users" for a total the MMO hasn't seen since the release of A Realm Reborn 11 years ago

Final Fantasy 14 has seen the most-ever concurrent players since A Realm Reborn's release over a decade ago.Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail launched in full earlier this week, bringing about the MMO's next overarching adventure. Writing on the Lodestone, game director Naoki Yoshida reveals that Dawntrail's launch has seen Final Fantasy 14 "able to reach a record number of concurrent users we've not seen since the release of A Realm Reborn in 2013."This was seemingly even with server congestion during

Win a copy of Nineteen Eighty-Four companion novel Julia

George Orwell’s 1948 classic dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four now has a companion volume, one which retells events from a different point of view, with a feminist slant.The work of Sandra Newman, Julia centres on a woman we’ve previously only seen from the perspective of Orwell’s protagonist, showing us her view of life under Ingsoc and the watchful eye of Big Brother – in the process filling in her background, her character, and her motivation for entering into a doo

Heat director joins Letterboxd and shares his 14 favorite movies – and, predictably, he has great taste

Following in the footsteps of Mike Flanagan and Martin Scorsese, Heat and Miami Vice director Michael Mann is the latest filmmaker to make an account on film review social media site Letterboxd.The director quickly made a list of his top flicks, titled "14 Favorite Films in no particular order (except Potemkin)". As well as plenty of classics – like Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 silent epic Battleship Potemkin, in the list's top spot – from legendary directors like Francis Ford Coppola an

Win a Blu-ray of Night of the Eagle

The latest entry in StudioCanal’s Cult Classics range is the 1962 film Night of the Eagle. Based on Fritz Leiber’s novel Conjure Wife, and written by Richard Matheson (author of I Am Legend) and Charles Beaumont (a regular contributor to The Twilight Zone) this suspenseful supernatural horror is set in the world of academia.Peter Wyngarde plays the rationalist professor who discovers that his wife (Janet Blair) has been practising witchcraft to help advance his career. After th

You're gonna need a bigger shelf, because Lego Jaws just arrived

The Lego Jaws set has officially broken cover, and it's a monster.A diorama with almost 1,500 pieces under its belt, the Lego Jaws set has two different display options; you can either let the shark loose on the heroes' boat (the Orca, complete with minifigures for the beast to chow down on) or show it off on its own stand.No matter how you choose to terrorize the brick seas, Lego Jaws will be available to pre-order from early August for $149.99 / £129.99 at Lego. If you're a member of the

Hideo Kojima teases Tokyo Game Show appearance, and all signs point to Death Stranding 2 as Xbox skips the event and PlayStation returns for the first time since the PS5 reveal 5 years ago

Tokyo Game Show 2024 has announced the full list of companies showing up to its "largest ever" trade show with both physical booths and online showings. Among the confirmed 731 exhibitors that are setting up a whopping 3,190 booths are Capcom, Konami, and Sony Interactive Entertainment, which hasn't made a TGS appearance for five years.Sony hasn't physically been present at Tokyo Game Show since 2019, the year the publisher released Death Stranding, meaning it's skipped the show every year for t

Soulslike veterans are being outmatched by the true Elden Lord: this 8-year-old who destroys Radahn on his first attempt at a "very low level"

Elden Ring is undoubtedly a difficult game, but one eight-year-old Elden Lord is putting Soulslike veterans to shame with his incredible action RPG skills, after successfully beating Starscourge Radahn in a single attempt with no help at all.In a very wholesome video posted by his dad, Twitter user @jnoe33, you can see the young Tarnished in action, dodge rolling and jumping over Radahn's attacks with ease, and slashing away at the boss at every safe opportunity. Watching how expertly he moves h

Shadow of the Erdtree fans feel vindicated after Elden Ring patch reveals a Spirit Summon was actually healing bosses: "Tiche really was healing the f***ing enemy!"

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree players weren't seeing things after all, as new patch notes have revealed one of the RPG's strongest Spirit Summons was quietly healing bosses.Black Knife Tiche is one of the more popular Spirit Summons in the whole of Elden Ring, nearly going toe-to-toe with the legendary Mimic Tear in terms of power and popularity. She's quick, can actually dodge attacks from stronger foes, and can crucially cast an incantation on bosses that greatly reduces their maximum HP.U

Prolific Japanese outsourcing studio that's quietly worked on Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Resident Evil for over 44 years is in trouble due to game cancellations

Game cancellations and the generally shakey state of the industry is hurting at least one prolific outsourcing studio in Japan.Tose isn't a studio you're likely familiar with, but stick around and watch the credits for any number of heavyweight games from Japan and you'll be sure catch its name sliding up the screen. Tose have co-developed, supported, and ported countless games from the NES and Game Boy era to the PS5 and Nintendo Switch, including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Dragon

Original Sue Storm star would jump at the chance to reprise Fantastic Four role in MCU

Fantastic Four will soon be joining the MCU, with a whole new line-up of stars playing Marvel's First Family. However, one of the original stars of the 2005 adaptation has admitted she would love to return to the role in some way.Jessica Alba, who played Sue Storm alongside Chris Evans, Ioan Gruffudd, and Michael Chiklis, shared that she has nothing but good memories from her time as a superhero. "I loved those movies and [it] also changed my life, that series," Alba told Entertainment Tonight.&

I've tracked down the best 4th of July gaming deals for you, from PC to tabletop

Quick menu(Image credit: Future)1. Laptops & PC2. Monitors & TVs3. Components & storage4. Keyboards & mice5. Handhelds6. Retro7. Tabletop
I've spent literal years sifting through sales on the lookout for a bargain, and I often find that 4th of July gaming deals are… well, they're not great. But this year's offerings? There are a few diamonds in the rough.First up to the plate is the MSI Katana 15, a 4070 gaming laptop that very rarely dips below $1,200. And here it i

Cult Amazon sci-fi series with great Rotten Tomatoes score canceled after two seasons

Prime Video has dropped Outer Range after just two seasons, despite the show pulling in glowing reviews and an impressive Rotten Tomatoes score.In the sci-fi drama, Dune star Josh Brolin plays Royal Abbott, a rancher who finds himself stumbling across an "unfathomable mystery" at the edge of the Wyoming wilderness. As it continues, it sees Abbott and his wife Cecilia (The Conjuring's Lili Taylor) forced to wrestle with the disappearance of daughter-in-law Rebecca, their ostentatious neighbors, a

Step aside, Butcher: Diablo 4 Season 5's PTR introduces Burning Butcher, an even more menacing version of the classic foe

Prepare yourselves, Diablo fans – Diablo 4's upcoming fifth season is set to give a makeover to one of the action RPG's scariest classic enemies, The Butcher, and he's looking more menacing than ever in his spicy new form.Although Season 5 isn't actually out yet, and isn't expected to be until early August, its Public Test Realm server was live from June 25 up until July 2, giving players a full week to get a taste of what's in store. Some of those bravely delving into the depths soon foun

The Jsaux ModCase is one of my favorite Steam Deck accessories, but there’s a 4th of July deal on the Asus ROG Ally version that slaps

As you’d expect, I’ve been browsing 4th of July handheld deals and found a pretty nifty Jsuax ModCase offer. The discount takes the form of a power bank bundle that just so happens to include the Asus ROG Ally version, but you’re getting the whole lot for $5 less than buying the 20,000mAh bank on its own. Simply put, you’ll be able to spend less on a modular case that can wear an external battery like a jetpack, which in turn will help protect your pricey handheld and inc

Stranger Things season 5 is closer than ever as cast and crew celebrate being halfway through filming

Stranger Things season 5 is officially halfway done, so the final installment of the hit Netflix show is even closer to arriving on our screens."Week 24. Happy halfway to the best cast and crew ever," showrunner Ross Duffer wrote on Instagram, alongside a photo of the huge team behind the series. In the next slide, Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike Wheeler in the show, drops a marble into a jar that marks the number of weeks spent filming."Alright, Finn, halfway. You're putting the marble in. How do

Star Wars fans might have figured out how the Sith will be covered up in The Acolyte, and it's bad news for Sol

The Acolyte has a pretty big mystery on its hands: how can there be a Sith openly operating 100 years before the events of The Phantom Menace without the Jedi Order noticing?Well, some Star Wars fans might have figured it out – and it's not looking good for Master Sol."Why do I get the sinking feeling that… Sol is going to be the one blamed for the massacre on Khofar?" writes one fan on Twitter."Something is going to happen to Bazil & the twins, & a 'rogue Jedi'

A Rey and Kylo Ren moment in The Last Jedi inspired The Acolyte, as well as one of the best action films ever made

The Acolyte episode 6 deepened the relationship between Osha and Qimir, after the recently unmasked Sith took her to an unknown island to try and convince her to become his pupil. The dynamic between them, as well as the persistent use of Kylo Ren’s score, has lead to some major comparisons with another Star Wars pairing: Rey and Ben Solo.And according to a new interview with showrunner Leslye Headland, there was a link between the characters. Speaking to Collider, she explained: "With Kyl

The First Descendant servers buckle as brief connection issues add to performance woes and microtransaction complaints from fans

Popular new Steam game on the block, The First Descendant, was briefly unavailable to play due to server issues, adding another wrinkle to a less-than-ideal launch.Developer Nexon first acknowledged the issue on Twitter the other day, apologizing for the "inconvenience caused" by the connection error. An hour later, the developer revealed that the issues stemmed from an MS Network error, and as such, the developer would need to wait for recovery, which just about happened an hour later. Se

Elden Ring's busted Perfume Bottles and most overpowered weapon are no more thanks to a new Shadow of the Erdtree patch

A new Elden Ring patch just nerfed Shadow of the Erdtree's most overpowered weapon, and also tweaked a crucial Ash of War.Elden Ring patch 1.12.3 went live earlier today, July 4, making changes like resetting the positions of the Golden Hippopotamus and Commander Gaius when you re-fight them.Elsewhere though, the patch also changed the Bloodfiend's Arm, fixing a bug where the Arcane scaling with the colossal weapon was higher than intended, and reducing the status build-up from the weapon'