Bethesda has announced the next major update for Fallout 76, and it's all about fishing. Season 21, which has the excellent name "Gone Fission," releases on June 3.

Gone Fission allows players to cast their lines into any region in Appalachia, and the waters are filled with a "plethora of fish." Some of these include the Noxious Sawgill, the Bloodwhisker, and the Glowing Gulpy. Bethesda also confirmed that rare axolotls will rotate each month. Check out the Season 21 trailer below.

Season 21 also includes a variety of fishing-themed rewards, including the Gone Fission Neon Sign, the Houseboat, and the Basket of Dead Fish. The rewards can be displayed at your C.A.M.P. You can redeem the rewards with season tickets.

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Ahead of Diablo 4 Season 9's arrival on the game's public-test server on May 27, Blizzard has revealed players will be able to build their own spells next season.

Titled Sins of the Horadrim, players in Season 9 will be able use the new Horadric Spellcraft system to tailor-make a powerful spell to their liking. As detailed by Blizzard, spells will consist of three components--Catalysts, Infusions, and Arcana.

Catalysts are the base power of the spell, with Blizzard describing it as the "foundation." There are six Catalysts to choose from, like Disintegrate and Propulsion, that will give the spell its form and function.

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Bethesda Game Studios has released update 1.15.216 for its sci-fi RPG Starfield. This month's patch isn't the most flashy, but it adds some important features like Very Low display settings and an increase in the file size limit for Creation Kit mods.

Adding Very Low display settings is meant to improve Starfield's performance on low-end PCs. As the game has struggled with performance issues since launch, these new display settings should at least make playing Starfield a much smoother experience for some people. Many Starfield players will likely care about the bug fixes and improvements to Creation Kit more, though. Mod creators can now add new icons to Starfield, upload creations that are up to 2 GB in file size, and bundle their mods on the Creation Store.

Bethesda also used this update to highlight a new mod from Kinggath Creations, a professional modding group known for its Creations in other Bethesda games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. It's called Watchtower and adds a whole new storyline to Starfield where you have to take on the titular new faction, which sees you as a threat to humanity. Watchtower also brings some gameplay features, such as the ability to call orbital strikes.

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When you're running a respectable drug empire in Schedule 1, space quickly becomes limited as you race to fill the available real estate with grow setups, mixing stations, and packing stations. Maximizing your income is the real aim of the game here, so that leaves precious little space for the horde of employee beds required to get a little help with labor. Now, in its open beta, Schedule 1 will no longer require employees to be registered to beds.

Instead, you'll be able to place a locker, which has a much smaller footprint, and removes the possibility of employee pathways becoming entangled, leading to some very confused, and very stuck, NPCs. Solo developer TVGS does mention in the patch notes that existing employees will still need to be assigned to beds for "compatibility reasons" but that any new employees can use lockers instead.

Of course, the obvious solution is to fire everyone, remove their beds, place lockers, and rehire them--if you can be bothered.

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Sega has announced the Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Master Crafted Edition, and it's not coming to PlayStation 5--at least not right away. The new version is coming for Xbox Series X|S and PC, but there is no word yet on a potential release for the PlayStation 5.

The game launches on June 10, and it'll be available through Xbox Game Pass. On PC, people can buy it through Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Given the day-one launch for Game Pass, some are theorizing that Microsoft might have cut a deal with Sega for this. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer previously talked about trying to give players a choice about where they play their games, as opposed to doing "slimy platform things to force you to do what I want." Space Marine is a Sega-published game, however.

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Nintendo has revealed four new games coming to Nintendo Switch Online's Game Boy library today, May 23. They are Kirby Star Stacker, Survival Kids, Gradius: The Interstellar Assault, and The Sword of Hope.

Kirby Star Stacker is the highest-profile addition. Originally released by HAL Laboratory in 1997, it is a puzzle game with gameplay similar to Tetris Attack or Pokemon Puzzle League. Players have to match blocks that look like Rick, Coo, and Kine from Kirby's Dream Land 2. The Super Famicom version of this game came to Nintendo Switch Online in 2023, but now the original release also has a place as part of Nintendo's subscription service.

Survival Kids is another notable inclusion this month because it's a Konami franchise about to be reimagined for Nintendo Switch 2. The original Survival Kids is a cult classic that tasks players with surviving on a deserted island. If you enjoy modern survival games, they owe a lot to games like Survival Kids that helped trailblaze some of the genre's mechanics. While the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Survival Kids looks like a lighthearted, cooperative reinterpretation of the series' formula, it's nice to have the rare Game Boy original available through Switch Online now.

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The release date for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is drawing closer, and as you'd expect, the marketing machine behind it is starting to shift into a higher gear. We've already seen a few trailers for the game, and over in Japan, employees from Kojima Productions were handing out free Death Stranding 2 tissue packs to help promote the game.

The twist here is that these packs reportedly contain a QR code on them (via Reddit), and scanning it will take you to an unlisted YouTube video on the developer's channel. The clip here is only 40 seconds long and it contains brand-new footage, but don't get too hyped up unless you're a fan of post-apocalyptic environmental ASMR.

In case you can't click the video above, all you're missing out on is a brief clip of an open prepper shelter waiting for a brave deliveryman to come pick up some cargo. At the very least, it's a nice look at the more arid terrain that you'll be able to explore in Death Stranding 2.

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Nintendo will need your phone number to use Switch 2 GameChat, the new social hub for the upcoming hybrid system. The company states that the mobile digits are an "additional security measure" for using the feature that provides online voice chat and sharing gameplay streams with friends.

Eurogamer spotted the small text on Nintendo's website detailing that text-message verification is a requirement for using GameChat on Switch 2. The company adds that the phone number associated with your Nintendo Account is utilized for this security check. For players younger than 16, a parent or guardian must enable GameChat functionality.

While the current Switch doesn't ask for a phone number for voice chat, a separate mobile device is still needed to talk with friends through the Nintendo Switch Online app. This will eventually get renamed to the Nintendo Switch app sometime this month and will be where you find Zelda Notes in the enhanced Switch 2 Editions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

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Nearly three decades ago, Nintendo's Super Mario 64 paved the way for 3D platforming as we know it. It's still a popular title in the modding community, and one of the latest creations has put a lot of Minecraft's functions into Super Mario 64's Mushroom Kingdom.

The Super Mario 64 Minecraft mod was created by Arthurtilly, who posted a video of the mash-up on YouTube. The mod is still in an early phase and there aren't any creatures or other characters in the game besides Mario in the current build. But he can create and destroy various bricks, just like players in Minecraft can.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the mod is that it actually works on a real Nintendo 64, with some accommodations for the system's limitations. Another nice touch is the way the music shifts each time Mario moves from one area to another. It's not a full recreation of everything that Minecraft has to offer, but Arthurtilly's commentary indicated that more features will be added to this mod at a later date.

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Pokemon Go is setting the stage for its big Go Fest 2025 celebration, with numerous events and gatherings lined up over the next few weeks. Ahead of the global Go Fest event in late June, the mobile game will also bring back all of the legendary giants for an Ancients Recovered event, giving players another chance to snag the elusive Pokemon.

The event kicks off at 10 AM local time on June 23 and runs until 8 PM local time on June 27. During that time, the legendary giants will all return to the game as five-star Raid bosses, with different Pokemon available each day of the event. You can see the full Raid schedule below:

June 23

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Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones is celebrating its 20-year anniversary today, May 23, 2025. Below, we look back at how its villains were unusually sympathetic, lending weight to the story.

It's one of the most haunting scenes in any Fire Emblem game. A soldier and temporary king, Orson, is seen talking with the reanimated corpse of his wife, Monica. She only says one thing--"darling"--over and over again.

Orson, one of the many antagonists in Fire Emblem Sacred Stones, was a man devoted to Monica long before the campaign of the game began. He's only present during a short part of the story, but he leaves a major impression once the credits roll after the game's 30 chapters come to a close. While you'll first meet him as a playable character, he eventually betrays Ephraim, Eirika, and the other heroes in order to (as he believes) save his wife's life.

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Following the recent closed test for FBC: Firebreak, game director Mike Kayatta from Remedy has revealed some of the changes that the studio is making to the game based on fan feedback.

Kyatta said Remedy has received lots of important and helpful feedback so far, and this will result in major changes to weapon balance. "Guns are upgradable in Firebreak, but we now think we went too far with how weak they felt at the earliest levels," Kyatta said. "In response, we are making all level-one guns radically more powerful, while adjusting other parts of the game to maintain the challenge balance."

Kyatta added that it heard from players that the double-barrel shotgun did not feel quite right, and the studio agrees, so it's making some changes to "make sure it meets the expectations of its shooting style." The developer also mentioned how "everything" related to general combat intensity and difficulty levels has been overhauled. "Among other things, we're tying different enemy types to different threat levels, adjusting wave frequency and composition, and removing awkward lulls in the action," Kyatta said.

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After Bungie was hit with plagiarism allegations for its Marathon revamp, more information has been revealed about other problems within the company. Aside from a toxic work environment coming from the top of Bungie, company heads were pitching to give Destiny 2 a subscription service on top of already paying for a PlayStation Plus membership.

Former Bungie employees spoke with Save State Plus, claiming that leaders were quick to shut down ideas and would publicly belittle staff.

"Everything happening to Bungie is because of greed," said a former Destiny 2 developer, which was the focus point for many former employees. When higher-ups pitched a subscription model for Destiny 2, it was only allegedly shut down due to the staff's "vehement" opposition. That would mean players would pay for a sub on top of other necessary subs like PS Plus, depending on your platform. Bungie's leadership followed that up by reportedly holding a meeting where the staff were given a "monetization scolding" for not enabling enough microtransactions.

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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has dropped its case against Microsoft that sought to block the company's blockbuster $75.4 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The deal was already approved, but the FTC was appealing the decision.

A memo from the FTC states that, "The Commission has determined that the public interest is best served by dismissing the administrative litigation in this case. Accordingly, it is hereby ordered that the complaint in this matter be, and it hereby is, dismissed."

Microsoft president Brad Smith said this was a "victory for players across the country and for common sense in Washington, D.C."

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Next month, the entire run of Pokemon the Series: XY will be available to watch on Netflix. This includes the first series--as well as Kalos Quest and XYZ--and like previous Pokemon animated projects, XY is a loose adaptation of the Pokemon X and Y games released for the Nintendo 3DS handheld console.

Once again starring Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu, XY is set in the Kalos region of Pokemon and several characters from the game make an appearance here. Traveling alongside his new friends Clemont--the Gym Leader of Lumiose City's Gym--and Bonnie, Ash explores the region, uncovers new Pokemon, and discovers the power of Mega Evolution. Team Rocket also makes several appearances, but as you'd guess, their schemes are quickly foiled by the end of each episode. The series will be added to Netflix on June 1 (via Comic Book).

Overall, you can expect to binge on a lot of Pokemon animation here. The first series ran for 48 episodes, Kalos Quest ran for 45 episodes, and XYZ wrapped up the saga with a run of 47 episodes. There were a handful of special episodes, as well as feature-length movies set during this era of Pokemon. The series is available on DVD, just in case the episodes don't appear on your local Netflix, due to licensing restrictions.

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Doom: The Dark Ages excels at making players feel like an unstoppable tank, but developer Id Software is looking to make the game more challenging. What's interesting here is that Id will make use of what it calls "Tunables," a system that allows it to update parts of the game without needing to release a patch.

While Tunables can't fix complex systemic, content, or code-related bugs, they can adjust parts of the new Doom game to create subtle but noticeable changes. Overall, players wanting to test their mettle on Nightmare difficulty can expect to start sweating, as enemies like the Cosmic Baron and Hellknight will start doing more damage. Id says that it wanted to increase the threat level of these enemies on Nightmare difficulty, and as an example, missing a parry on the Agaddon Hunter's overhead slash will break your shield and leave you vulnerable for a short period.

"There are systems under the hood that are designed to give players a better chance to survive when near death, and those systems were being too generous," Id explained. "Players were able to brute-force their way through situations that should've resulted in costing a Life Sigil or death, and we want to make sure we are keeping the player in check and asking for better tactical decisions. These changes will have an impact on player survivability and will be more noticeable the higher up the Damage Scale slider you go."

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Google has released a new AI video generation tool, and it's clearly very familiar with what Fortnite gameplay looks like. The advanced AI tool generated some very convincing Fortnite footage in response to a simple prompt, churning out a clip that's almost indistinguishable from the real thing.

Veo 3, the latest video generation model from Google DeepMind, released this week, and already is creating some concerningly realistic footage with its added capacity to generate lifelike audio. The AI tool is also showing a blatant disregard for intellectual property--which may be of more concern to many of the companies that have been quick to implement AI technology.

As picked up by IGN, X user Matt Schumer posted a short clip generated by Veo 3 that shows a streamer winning a game of Fortnite. While it looks a little odd to have the streamer's face cam superimposed over a shot of a computer monitor, rather than direct gameplay footage, the clip is otherwise indistinguishable from real Fortnite gameplay.

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A big new update for SteamOS is here, after months of development in beta. SteamOS Version 3.7.8 includes a lot of fixes and improvements on a system level, and will also introduce a battery saver feature for the Steam Deck for the first time.

The new battery saver option is called Battery Charge Limit, and can be found under the Power submenu in Settings. The feature allows users to set a maximum charge limit for their Steam Deck, with a maximum of 80% charge recommended for devices that are usually left on charge, or that rarely have their battery fully depleted.

This kind of feature, designed to prolong the working life of lithium-ion batteries, is already commonly implemented in devices like mobile phones and laptops, and now is starting to become more common in the gaming space. Nintendo recently revealed that the Switch 2 will have a similar feature, which will stop the hybrid handheld console from charging once it reaches 90%.

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Minecraft: Roll for Adventure - The Temple of the Charged Creeper

$16 (was $20) | Releases July 8

Preorder at Amazon

Soon there will be a new way to interact with the world of Minecraft. The No. 1 best-selling game of all time is getting its own pen-and-paper RPG. Slated to release July 8, Minecraft: Roll for Adventure - The Temple of the Charged Creeper is a hardcover gamebook that will introduce players to the grand universe of tabletop RPGs. Amazon is offering a 20% preorder discount that drops the price of the budget-friendly gamebook to only $16.

While Roll for Adventure sounds like one of the cooler tabletop Minecraft experiences released since the video game debuted back in 2011, it's far from the only one. Over the years, Minecraft has been turned into a variety of popular board and card games. In fact, one of the best Minecraft board games, Builders and Biomes, is getting a Junior version geared toward younger fans on August 1.

We've rounded up all of the notable Minecraft tabletop games you can buy now. After reading about the games, you can then check out the sprawling universe of Minecraft novels, comic books, and reference books at the bottom of this story. The list includes several discounted Minecraft novel box sets and exciting upcoming releases such as Minecraft: The Ultimate Mobstopper's Collection Gift Box.

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With only three months left until the release of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, Konami has taken to YouTube to share the game's opening movie. In addition to giving us a whole lot of new footage to swoon over, the three-minute clip also features a new recording of Cynthia Harrell's iconic ballad, "Snake Eater." And yes, she still absolutely knocks it out of the park.

Though the song is fairly similar to the original recording, the overall mix feels a bit softer this time around, with the bass in particular standing out as less intense. The opening visuals, however, are substantially different. Whereas the original opening featured almost psychedelic visuals and was more enigmatic in tone, the new version focuses on showing off some of the game's most iconic moments, including a pivotal confrontation between Snake and The Boss.

That said, you can rest assured that one of the more beloved parts of the opening is being kept intact. According to the video's caption, fans will still be able to enjoy the "interactive elements from the original, included in the in-game version of the opening," such as using the analog stick to control the snakes that appear on screen.

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