In what looks to be an annoying new trend, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II will require players to register a mobile phone number in order to play. This is a measure supposedly taken to increase security, something that Blizzard tried with Overwatch 2 before swiftly removing it following player backlash. This is all according to an updated article on Blizzard's website (thanks, VGC), which outlines the requirements quite starkly: "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, newly created Overwatch 2 accounts, and newly created Call of Duty: Modern Warfare accounts require a phone number." Under the eligibility and limitations subheading, the hits keep coming, stating, "Mobile phones with prepaid plans may not work with the phone notification service." On one hand, we get it, you need to do something about cheaters, and we give up our contact information to other companies and services like Google without much thought. That being said, with the abys...

Last week, publisher Spike Chunsoft regretfully informed customers that Valve-mandated game changes meant the first official English translation of  Chaos;Head Noah  would not be launching on Steam as planned. Now, the company says the visual novel  will  be coming to Steam later today, thanks to a change of heart from Valve's content review team. In a statement, the publisher said it was told that Steam's content review team had "re-examined" the game and will now allow it to launch on Steam "as is." That's a major reversal from last week, when Spike Chunsoft cited "Steam's guideline-required changes to the game's content" that "would not allow the game to be released to [the publisher's] standards." It also brings Valve more in line with Nintendo, which was already allowing the ESRB M-rated game to launch on the Switch without any apparent issues. We believe this decision is the result of the unwavering support from fans...

Pokémon Go developer Niantic won fans over during the pandemic by lessoning the requirement to catch from home. The developer has since faced backlash from loyal fans of the game as it restored mechanics to pre-pandemic levels. Now, Niantic finds itself in the thick of more backlash for tying an in-app price hike across Android and iOS in response to the recent change in Apple’s  App Store pricing tiers . Late in September, Apple announced plans to raise pricing tiers in multiple regions reliant on the Euro currency, including Chile, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Poland, South Korea, Sweden, and Vietnam. This change meant App Store items priced at €0.99 would set consumers back by €1.19, and purchases worth €9.99 would jump to €11.99. Eurogamer reports Niantic is now citing Apple’s changes as the reason for increased in-app purchase (IAP) prices. The price changes will go into effect on October 5 and will impact Pokémon Go players on iPhone and Android in the sam...

The City of London Police has confirmed that  GTA 6 hacker , an unnamed 17-year old, was previously arrested and violated his bail conditions. Law enforcement agencies have not publicly gone into specifics but journalist Matthew Keys confirmed via his sources that teen was indeed responsible for hacking Microsoft and Nvidia, for which he was arrested earlier this year. The hacker is part of Lapsus$ group, and additional arrests are expected. GTA 6 hacker is being charged with computer crimes alongside bail violation A statement from FBI, which was also pursuing the hacker, did not come through yesterday as originally expected. According to Keys, additional arrests are expected, suggesting that the teenager (identified only as A.K.) had assistance. Nevertheless, FBI’s statement is likely to follow the additional arrests. Keys further says that A.K. was the mastermind behind the recent Uber hack. The company confirmed as much last week, when it released a statement ann...

Sonic Frontiers is due to release on Switch on November 8th. While that is just a few short months from now, we are still being provided with more and more footage at an alarmingly fast rate (could we really resist a speed reference?) Today's 'TGS Trailer' continues this trend with a fresh look at the game's Titan Battles, as well as a sneak preview of the yellow hedgehog, Super Sonic, in action. We know the drill of these trailers by now. Running up walls?  Check . Bounce combat?  Check . Reluctance to show gameplay footage?  Check . The new trailer (found above) once again consists mainly of cinematic visuals, with Sonic doing his thing in the game's 'open world' landscape, taking on huge titans by running through a series of loops to gain speed boosts -  who would have thought it? There is also a dynamite blast from the past in the trailer's soundtrack. Accompanied by the track 'Vandalize' by ONE OK ROCK — which is the game's ending theme ...

What's the longest you've ever waited for a video game sequel? Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers was released all the way back in 1997 on the Sega Saturn, a first-person dungeon crawler JRPG made by developer Atlus. Four console generations later we finally have a sequel - Soul Hackers 2 - though it's really a standalone game with mostly thematic connections to the original. 25 years is a long time in computer graphics, and Soul Hackers 2 has a wide variety of tech it could potentially use - but early footage didn't exactly impress. There's little here to suggest that the current wave of consoles are being taxed by this Persona-lite release - and the knock-on effect of that seems to be that the last-gen machines get some shocking ports, especially the vanilla Xbox One. Soul Hackers 2 borrows its gameplay elements from other recent Atlus titles, so at a basic level, it's a turn-based RPG oriented around exploiting weaknesses, which is an enjoyable enough system but no...

  A new  Final Fantasy VII Remake  mod gives party member Barret Wallace  an updated aesthetic  that hews closer to the pre-development concept art created by famed illustrator Yoshitaka Amano. Although Amano’s paintings are known for imbuing the iconic role-playing series with a touch of ethereal elegance, his remarkable artwork is rarely mirrored within the  Final Fantasy  games themselves. That’s not to say the franchise doesn’t contain beautiful imagery, but it hardly looks like Amano’s one-of-a-kind illustrations. “I feel like what I add to the franchise is my approach differs from a game developer’s approach,” Amano told  Polygon  during  a 2017 retrospective  on the original  Final Fantasy VII . “And I think that gives the art more leeway—it isn’t limited to something that would fit into a game.” That’s probably why I’m so impressed by this  Final Fantasy VII Remake  mod. Not only is it inspired by Amano’s larg...