Lego Atari 2600 Discounted To Best Price Yet, But You Should Hurry
If you’re nostalgic for the Atari era, the Lego Atari 2600 is an extremely cool building kit that accurately recreates the unique design of the iconic console. Normally $240, the Lego Atari 2600 is currently on sale for only $168 at Amazon, which is the lowest price ever at the retailer. As such, we wouldn’t be surprised to see this deal sell out. In fact, it already sold out at this price at Kohl’s, the retailer Amazon is matching.
This is a great set for that rainy afternoon, as there are over 2,500 pieces in the box. Once you’ve assembled it, you’ll have a replica console with functioning switches, a brick-built Atari joystick designed to move like the original controller, and even several cartridges to display.
It’s worth pointing out that this is an Atari console in looks only, but the other retro surprise includes a hidden gaming room straight out of the ’80s. This a small diorama and includes small details like a retro landline phone, TV, posters, and a boom box.
The buildable cartridges are also based on real games like Asteroids, Centipede, and Adventure. The cartridges can be stored in a case and built into mini 3D vignette versions of the games. Finally, the console includes a switch to toggle for color or black-and-white television sets.
Christopher Nolan Is Writing His Next Movie – Report
Fresh off big-time Oscar wins, Christopher Nolan is reportedly already toiling away on his next movie script. The Oppenheimer filmmaker just received golden statues for Best Picture and Best Director at the 96th Academy Awards over the weekend.
According to Puck.news, Nolan is busy penning the screenplay to his next film. Previously, the Dark Knight Trilogy director provided clues about what’s next for him, noting it won’t be small. “I’m drawn to working at a large scale because I know how fragile the opportunity to marshal those resources is,” he said earlier this year to Time Magazine.
Oppenheimer ended up becoming the highest-grossing biopic ever at the box office, in addition to Nolan’s biggest non-Batman movie in the US. The drama won seven Oscars over the weekend, as it was the big winner of the night.
In February, Nolan expressed interest in exploring a new genre for himself: horror. The director openly discussed that “a really exceptional idea” is needed to make a horror movie work, and he hadn’t quite put his finger on a narrative to pull it off.
There is also the James Bond reboot. Nolan is an unabashed fan of the film franchise and chatted last year about whether he would tackle a 007 project–though later said “no truth” to rumors he’s attached to Bond. And then, if you really want to think outside the box, Nolan has admitted to loving the Fast & Furious movies. With the filmmaker now working with Universal, the studio behind that franchise, maybe anything is possible.
New Helldivers 2 Patch Makes Chargers Easier To Kill, If You’re Brave Enough
A new patch for Helldivers 2 has gone live and has introduced some big changes for some of the toughest Terminid enemies in the game. After Bile Titans and Chargers became significantly more challenging to battle following a recent balance update in Helldivers 2–and a nerf for the magic trio combo of the Breaker shotgun, Railgun, and shield generator backpack–Arrowhead has fine-tuned the spawn rate of these titanic monsters.
These Terminids had begun popping up in greater numbers during missions on higher difficulty levels, leveling teams as they shrugged off attacks with their mostly bulletproof design, but Arrowhead says that this “spawn spike” has been addressed. “We have reduced the spawn rate of Chargers and Bile Titans on difficulties 7 and up,” Arrowhead explained in the Helldivers 2 patch notes. “In addition, we have reduced the risk of spawn spikes of Chargers and Bile Titans.”
Now Playing: Firearms Expert Reacts to Helldivers 2’s Guns PART 2
Those gigantic bugs are still dangerous enemies to deal with even when they’re fewer in number, but for Chargers, Arrowhead has made that armored enemy easier to deal with if you’re prepared to stand your ground. Chargers now have reduced health on their heads, and a well-placed shot from a Recoilless Rifle or an EAT-17 rocket delivered directly to the noggin will be an instant kill.
Helldivers 2 has continued to evolve since it launched last month on PS5 and PC, and recent changes have seen mechs added to the game after players completed a challenging campaign to unlock them.
Helldivers 2 Patch 1.000.102
Enemies
- The amount of heavily armored targets that spawn on higher difficulties, especially for Terminids, has been a big discussion point online and internally. The intent is for groups to have to bring some form of anti-tank capability but not to the degree previously needed.
- To that end, we have reduced the spawn rate of Chargers and Bile Titans on difficulties 7 and up. In addition, we have reduced the risk of spawn spikes of Chargers and Bile Titans.
- Please note that we have changed the distribution of enemy types, not reduced difficulty. Expect other enemy types to appear in greater numbers instead.
- We are humbled by the community’s ability to find things like Chargers “leg meta” in our game, however, spending your heavy anti-tank weapons on legs instead of the obvious weak point seems counter to expectation.
- We are not changing anything regarding the Charger’s legs, we are however lowering the health of the Charger’s head. It should now be at a point where a well-placed shot from a Recoilless Rifle or EAT-17 instantly kills a charger.
- Together with the unfortunately undocumented change of last patch that increased the armor penetration ability of less well-placed shots for EAT-17s and Recoilless Rifle shots, Chargers should now be easier to handle by well-equipped groups.
Gameplay
- “Electronic Countermeasures” operation modifier, which had a chance of giving you a random stratagem instead of the one you input, has been removed in order to be reworked, and will be reintroduced in a future iteration. We found that this modifier wasn’t communicated clearly enough and overall caused more frustration than excitement with the way it was currently implemented. This change was made in 1.000.100 but was unintentionally omitted from the patch notes.
Fixes
- Fixed missing text on several HUD / UI elements.
- Fixed several subtitle / VO mismatches in the news videos.
- Fixed various crashes that occurred mid-gameplay and when deploying to missions.
Known Issues
- Game crashes when attempting to use a stim while inside an Exosuit.
- Pink artifacts may appear in the sky when setting off large explosions.
- Automaton Dropship seemingly disappears and slides in after being shot down.
- Shots from arc-based weapons may not count toward kills in post-mission stats.
- Players cannot unfriend other players befriended via friend code.
- Cross-platform friend invites might not show up in the friend requests tab.
- Players may be unable to select loadout or return to ship when joining a multiplayer game session via PS5 Activity Card.
- The Exosuit can destroy itself with rockets if it fires while turning.
- Text chat box display is obstructed by the cinematic letterboxing during extraction.
- Some people are unable to accept friend requests. This is mostly an issue with cross platform
TopSpin 2K25 Release Date, Playable Pros, Early Access, And Different Editions Announced
2K Sports has confirmed more details for TopSpin 2K25, the company’s first new entry in the professional tennis series in 10+ years, including its release date, player roster, different editions, and more. Hangar 13, the studio behind 2K’s recent Mafia games, is developing the title.
TopSpin 2K25 releases on April 26, but people who buy the Deluxe or Grand Slam edition can get started three days earlier, beginning April 23. The game will be available across PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Tennis legends Roger Federer and Serena Williams grace the cover of the standard edition, with Carlos Alcaraz, Iga Świątek, and Francis Tiafoe headlining the cover of the deluxe edition.
There are 24 playable pro tennis players in the game, and John McEnroe does the voice work for the game’s training mode. The game features single-player and multiplayer elements, and has all four Grand Slam tournaments–the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.
The game has 48 courts, including 15 real-life venues; outdoor courts have day and night options. The full list of players and courts was not announced by 2K Sports.
Like in 2K’s other sports games, TopSpin 2K25 will have a MyPlayer element where players can create a character and complete challenges to unlock attributes and gear over time. 2K also confirmed the game’s soundtrack will include Dillon Francis’ remix of the Fall Out Boy tune “Heartbreak Feels So Good.” The song debuts March 15 and appears on the in-game soundtrack along other songs to be announced later.
Everyone who preorders TopSpin 2K25 gets the Under the Lights pack, which comes with alternate outfits for Federer and Williams, alongside other content.
Here are the different TopSpin 2K25 editions:
- Standard Edition — $60 for PS4, and Xbox One; $70 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S
- Standard Cross-Gen Digital Edition – $70 on PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Comes with the standard edition across console generations within the same family.
- Deluxe Edition — $100 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Includes the standard edition (with dual entitlement), as well as the Under the Lights Pack, the New Wave Pack, and the Rookie Rise pack–this includes a MyPlayer “boost” and 1700 VC. This also includes three-day early access to the game.
- Grand Slam Edition — $120 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Includes everything mentioned above, as well as the Grand Slam Champions pack, which comes with a Championship racket and a Champion serve. It also includes an All Access Pack that gives you six post-launch “Centre Court” seasons’ worth of content, as well as eight cosmetic items. Details around the Centre Court Pass will be announced later.
2K’s last big tennis game was 2011’s Top Spin 4, which featured Andre Agassi, Serena Williams, and Rafael Nadal on the cover.
Some of 2K’s other major sports franchises include the NBA 2K, PGA Tour 2K, and WWE 2K series, among others. Those franchises are known for their use of microtransactions, which have been criticized by fans and hugely lucrative for parent company Take-Two, so it’ll be interesting to see how TopSpin 2K25 handles that.
Exclusivity Is AAA Games’ “Achilles’ Heel” Says Former PlayStation Boss
Shawn Layden, the former CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, has never been shy about sharing his thoughts on the state of the industry, and this time he’s taking aim at console exclusive titles. In an interview with GamesBeat, the industry veteran has called AAA console exclusives an “Achilles’ heel,” saying companies need to consider how the market has changed.
“When your costs for a game exceed $200 million, exclusivity is your Achilles’ heel,” Layden said, agreeing that releasing games across platforms is essential to market growth. “It reduces your addressable market. Particularly when you’re in the world of live service gaming or free-to-play.”
“Another platform is just another way of opening the funnel, getting more people in. In a free-to-play world, as we know, 95% percent of those people will never spend a nickel. The business is all about conversion. You have to improve your odds by cracking the funnel open,” Layden continued. “Helldivers 2 has shown that for PlayStation, coming out on PC at the same time. Again, you get that funnel wider. You get more people in.”
The same is true for single-player games, Layden adds, though to a lesser extent. “If you’re spending $250 million, you want to be able to sell it to as many people as possible, even if it’s just 10% more.” The rising cost of game development is something Layden has spoken on before, calling it an “existential threat” to the industry and advocating for a return to AA-style games that are smaller in scope.
In the GamesBeat interview, Layden also calls for more innovation especially in the console space, seeing a need for the industry to attract a new audience. “We’re not going to attract them by doing more of the shit we’re doing now,” he says. “If 95% of the world doesn’t want to play Call of Duty, Fortnite, and Grand Theft Auto, is the industry just going to make more Call of Duty, Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto? That’s not going to get you anybody else.”
Now working as an advisor for companies including Tencent, Streamline Media Group, and NFT-focused gaming startup Readygg, Layden often weighs in on the state of the industry, giving his advice as a veteran. The former PlayStation CEO wasn’t a fan of Microsoft’s purchase of Activision-Blizzard, and has warned of the influence of major companies like Netflix, Google, Apple, and Amazon on the gaming ecosystem. Despite his warnings and advice, Layden commented relatively optimistically on the mass layoffs in the industry, saying he doesn’t believe the industry’s demise is anywhere close.
PlayStation-Partnered Studio From Ex-COD Devs Has Closed
Deviation Games, the studio founded by Call of Duty veterans Dave Anthony and Jason Blundell back in 2021, has closed, according to a LinkedIn post by Deviation’s head of HR. The studio had partnered with Sony to develop a new IP that would have been a PlayStation exclusive.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of Deviation Games,” the post from Deviation chief HR officer Kriste Stull reads. “I want to express my deepest gratitude to our entire team. Thank you for all your hard work, dedication, and contributions to Deviation; I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have worked with each and every one of you.”
Stull also announces that Deviation will be holding a networking event for its former employees, encouraging other studios and companies who are currently hiring to attend.
The AAA studio was initially formed on the heels of the pandemic-led gaming boom, boasting over 100 employees within its first year of operation. Ambitious from the start, early quotes from Deviation’s founders were highly optimistic about the future of the studio.
“It’s absolutely mind-blowing,” Anthony said of the Sony partnership in a GamesIndustry.biz feature. “We have never been in a situation like this before, where we’ve got everything we could possibly ask for. From day one of the studio we have complete financial security for years and years to come.” Later in the piece he clarified that Deviation Games was a “a fully independent studio” that was “independently backed and financed” outside of Sony’s influence.
Deviation expanded rapidly with the opening of a second studio in Canada in 2022, but later that year co-founder Jason Blundell parted ways with the company. A round of layoffs followed in 2023, and now the company has announced it will be closing its doors for good, before its debut game was able to be announced.
Sony, who was set to partner with Deviation on its debut game, is one of many companies in the industry that has been cutting back on costs in the last year, including cancelling projects and undergoing layoffs of its own. Last year it announced it would be halving its plans for live service games on PlayStation, and earlier this year cut 900 jobs, as well as cancelling a number of planned games.
