Introduced in Battlefield 2042, Portal is a mode that allows players to create custom game modes, and for Battlefield 6, it's getting a big overhaul. UX director Alan Pimm said in a new interview that Battlefield Studios is putting a lot of investment into Portal for this year's game in part because fans want a game they can keep playing over and over again and finding new things along the way.

"People don't just want a game that they can complete," Pimm told VideoGamer. "They want one that they can grow, that they can evolve, or they can make their dreams come true."

Portal is similar to Fortnite's Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) and Halo's Forge. For Battlefield 6, the developer is expanding what's possible and allowing users to create entire maps, and these maps and modes will provide XP like you'd get in the official playlists. However, anyone hoping to create a map with an XP exploit shouldn't expect that to work. The Portal mode will displays warnings within the editor to alert creators about whether or not their creation will allow for genuine XP gain or not.

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H.P. Lovecraft is responsible for a long list of classic horror stories that continue to be highly influential in the world of literature, film, television, and video games. The author's blend of unsettling cosmic horror with sci-fi/fantasy and Gothic settings--almost always with an ample dose of weird--is so recognizable that the word Lovecraftian is used to describe stories inspired by his work. Stories like The Call of Cthulhu and At the Mountains of Madness are still well-worth reading nearly 100 years after they were first published. Those stories and the rest of Lovecraft's writings are now available in a premium box set that looks absolutely stunning.

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society worked with publisher Weldon Owen--an imprint of Insight Editions--to craft a comprehensive two-volume collection called The H.P. Lovecraft Experience Deluxe Box Set. It releases today (August 5) and is available on Amazon for $95 (was $100).

The H.P. Lovecraft Experience Deluxe Box Set (Hardcover) $95 (was $100)

This is almost certainly the most stunning Lovecraft collection you can find at a major retailer or bookstore.

The 1,888-page collection is spread across two striking, dark green volumes hardbound in leatherette to resemble high-quality books from Lovecraft's time. The cover and spines have foil-stamped insignias and lettering.

The H.P. Lovecraft Experience includes all of the author's work, so this is a one-stop shop for his novels, novellas, short stories, and other writings.

The two books are packaged inside a sculpted display case featuring a new 3D depiction of Cthulhu. When we say 3D, we mean that Cthulhu rises from the surface of the case, which makes the cosmic entity more terrifying than it already is.

The oversized display box houses more than just the two books, though. The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society created a brand-new Reader's Guide that examines 10 of Lovecraft's short stories. The guidebook was written by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman, the co-founders of the Lovecraft Historical Society, and should be an interesting read for newcomers and experienced readers alike. The Reader's Guide matches the look of the two main volumes, but it's sized like notebook. The format here keeps with the overarching theme of the collectibles.

All of the supplements are tied to Miskatonic University, a fictional Massachusetts college that plays a major role in many of Lovecraft's stories, including all of his work related to the Cthulhu.

Big Lovecraft fans will probably want to frame their diploma from Miskatonic University that's included here--but only after you follow The Undergraduate Course Book, presented as a small booklet. Other Miskatonic-themed collectibles you'll find in the box include a bookmark, a library card, a patch, and a decal.

The H.P. Lovecraft Experience is also available as a Kindle ebook for $20. Obviously, you'll miss out on the collectibles and premium presentation, but you'll still get both volumes and the Reader's Guide.

See at Amazon The H.P. Lovecraft Experience Deluxe Box SetGallery More Lovecraft Box Sets & Collections

Since most of Lovecraft's work is in the public domain, you can read many of his horror stories for free online. You'll also find a dizzying number of Lovecraft collections on Amazon. But keep in mind that Lovecraft being in the public domain means that there are a lot of terribly designed editions created by random people across the world.

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When Epic Games revealed on Saturday that a Spartan from Halo would be on the upcoming battle pass, we figured that was the season's big collab announcement, but boy were we wrong. It turns out we're getting both a Power Ranger and Megazord on the pass, along with a bundle of other Power Rangers in the item shop, and Epic revealed this news with a pretty awesome live-action trailer in which the Power Rangers battle the bug invasion that will be plaguing the Fortnite island in the new season. You gotta see this.

In addition to the Power Rangers themselves, this teaser includes looks at three new weapons that will be introduced in the new season, as well as what we'd guess is a new battle pass skin--a girl with robot arms who controls them with a gamepad, which should pair well with the recent Ron-troller skin. The new weapons include the Swarmstrike rocket launcher, which launches a bunch of rockets at once, a new laser pistol, and a rather large new mini-gun that the Red Ranger uses quite acrobatically.

This blast of news confirms a couple big recent leaks: that the Green Ranger, Tommy Oliver, would be the skin at the end of the linear pass, with a Megazord skin being the mid-season pass skin, arriving on September 16. And it's likely that we'll see a big player-controlled Megazord, a la the current Superman power, on the Battle Royale map around then as well. The description for the trailer reveals that there will be a bundle of Power Ranger skins that will drop in the item shop containing the Red, Black, Yellow, Pink and Blue Rangers. And, perhaps most importantly, the bundle includes a jam track of the show's old theme song.

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Dying Light: The Beast was recently delayed to September, but to temporarily satiate the fanbase's bloodlust for seeing digital zombies brutally maimed, developer Techland has released a new trailer for the game. That's a very loose description if we're being honest, as this new teaser is essentially a highlight reel of gore that shows off a variety of methods for inflicting brutal damage on the infected around you. If you're squeamish and you don't want to lose your lunch, then you might want to look away, as this sizzle reel of ultraviolence doesn't hold back.

Techland says that the "primal brutality" of Dying Light: the Beast isn't just for show, as it's meant to mirror protagonist Kyle Crane's thirst for revenge. After being imprisoned for a decade and subjected to brutal experiments, Crane's got some pent-up frustration that he needs to let go of, and it looks like carnage is his catharsis, thanks to his new rage-fueled powers.

"We've dramatically increased the body horror to give you this feeling of fighting for pure survival and Kyle's hunger for revenge," Dying Light franchise director Tymon Smektała said in a press statement. It's one thing to see a health bar go down; it's another entirely to see the flesh peel away from bone or have a burnt and destroyed faces only inches away from you--that’s how nightmares are made!"

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Armor is a key component to your survival in Minecraft, and there are various types you can craft. There are several material types and Minecraft armor pieces you can craft to survive against all the deadly mobs and bosses. In this guide, we'll discuss each armor type as well as how you can craft, upgrade, and repair them.

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• All armor types in Minecraft

Minecraft armorAll armor types in Minecraft

Minecraft's armor sets consist of four separate pieces of gear:

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Flint is a vital crafting component for your survival in Minecraft, especially if you're looking to make arrows or flint and steel. In this guide, we'll show you the best ways to find and stock up on flint in Minecraft.

Table of Contents [hide]

• How to mine for flint

How to mine for flintGravel and flint mined with a shovel

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Film and TV adaptations of video games are a big trend in Hollywood at the moment, but if you ask the performance director of Baldur's Gate 3 Aliona Baranova (who also voiced Corinna the Squirrel), there's not enough being done to get video game actors in these adaptations. In particular, it's a frustrating point when considering how much fandom drives the success of certain productions.

Speaking at FanX's Tampa Bay Comic Convention (via Collider), Baranova said that it's "a shame that the video game audience is being overlooked when it comes to screen projects. We see from you guys how dedicated you are … and I feel like that's been neglected at the moment by filmmakers [and] studios."

She went on to note how dedication from fans, particularly from queer communities, can really lift a film or show up. "There was a medical drama I did in the UK … Maternal. I’ve seen that it’s been translated into Chinese, all my scenes have been found, translated into Chinese, and put on Bilibili and watched thousands of times," Baranova said. She also noted how other Baldur's Gate 3 stars have found a lot of support, like the voice of Shadowheart, Jennifer English, who "had a short film at the BFI that premiered … she posted a story on Instagram, and last minute, 60 people travelled to come and support her."

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Battlefield 6 was officially revealed last week, bringing with it several key changes, including a major update to how cross-play works. The game will feature a "preferred input" matchmaking system, where players using controllers (on Xbox and PlayStation) are primarily matched with other controller users. Likewise, PC players using a mouse and keyboard will be grouped. Cross-play between the two input types will only occur when needed to fill lobbies. This new system aims to reduce input-based advantages while still maintaining quick matchmaking.

According to producer Alexia Christofi, the game will prioritize keeping players within their preferred community. It will expand to mix platforms when regional player counts are too low for stable matchmaking. This approach is designed to improve fairness in matches while still ensuring low lags and fast match creation. Cross-play will still be fully toggleable in the settings for players who want more control.

Eyy not quite, it's crossplay on or off - but if crossplay is on we treat it as console preferred crossplay, so we'll try and matchmake you with others playing on console before falling back to full crossplay if we can't find you a match with only/mostly console players.

— Alexia Christofi (@Lex_mate) August 2, 2025

In Battlefield 2042, cross-play between console and PC was fully enabled by default, which led to imbalanced matches, resulting in uneven gameplay experiences. Battlefield 6 builds on this by treating cross-play as a fallback option rather than the default setup.

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Battlefield 6 carries a hefty file size, but it's not as large as some might have imagined. The game's Steam page revealed that the game requires between 55GB and 80GB of storage space, which, even at the high end, is smaller than some modern games.

A spokesperson for EA told PC Gamer that the discrepancy in file sizes for Battlefield 6 on Steam comes down to how players can pick and choose which components of the game they want to install. For example, players can choose to only install single-player or multiplayer, if they wish.

The exact file sizes for Battlefield 6's various installable components were not made clear, nor do we know if the same option will be available on console, or the file sizes for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. GameSpot has contacted EA in an attempt to get more details.

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Players have been hunting ghosts in Phasmophobia for almost half a decade now, and developer Kinetic Games is ready to send them out to hunt on a new map called Nell's Diner.

As the name implies, Nell's Diner is a retro-styled restaurant that has seen some better days. For the living, there are booths and counter seating available. As for the ghosts, their plans for the kitchen are probably not going to pass a health inspection. The size of the map isn't going to be much larger than the houses that are already in the game.

Phasmophobia's new map is giving us some Twin Peaks vibes.

While Kinetic Games won't release Nell's Diner until later this year, the studio has revealed that the much-anticipated reworking of the Grafton Farmhouse map will be coming to Phasmophobia on August 12.

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Following hot off the heels of last week's Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, the gaming giant has announced an Indie World Showcase that's set to take place on August 7, later this week. According to the announcement post, there'll be "roughly 15 minutes of new announcements and updates on indie games coming to Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch." The showcase is set to premiere at 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET, and you'll be able to check it out on any of the official Nintendo YouTube channels.

This marks the first Indie World Showcase following the launch of the Switch 2 in June, but it's not exactly clear what might show up. Just don't go expecting Hollow Knight: Silksong--that game, which was absent from last week's Partner Showcase, could appear in a traditional Nintendo Direct rather than the more low-key Indie events, as it's widely anticipated. The first Switch 2 Direct even featured it as part of a sizzle reel back in April.

The last Indie World Nintendo held was an entire year ago, which featured announcements like DLC for Sea of Stars, collaborations coming to Balatro, a Shrek pack for PowerWash Simulator, and a surprise drop for Pizza Tower.

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Fleshy architecture has been a popular choice for developers looking to create uncomfortably squishy levels, but the original team behind System Shock 2--Looking Glass--might have taken things a little too far back in the '90s. According to System Shock 2 artist Nate Wells, the structures inhabited by the hostile aliens known as The Many had a surprising origin, as the art assets included photos of another developer's colonoscopy.

"When we were working on The Many, if you remember, it has this very biological vibe to it," Wells said to Nightdive's Locke Vincent in the studio's Deep Dive podcast (via PC Gamer). It's this fleshy mass that has taken over the Rickenbacker. We did these things called 'sphincter doors,' this sphincter that opens up. I was making the doors and doing the concept. I think I was searching through some gross biological [images], like endoscopy sort of stuff. [Looking Glass producer] Josh Randall approached me and said he had a video of his colonoscopy."

Wells said that Randall gave him images from his colonoscopy video, and he used a frozen frame "from somewhere in his large intestine" to create a base texture for the sphincter doors in the game. "If you look at those doors, you're seeing Josh Randall's colon⁠--audio genius Josh Randall's colon," Wells said.

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Battlefield 6's multiplayer producer Jeremy Chubb has discussed the franchise's legacy and what the teams at Battlefield Studios are trying to achieve with the new game, and specifically around the trademark destruction elements.

Chubb told PC Gamer that 2010's Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was a high point for the series with regards to "comprehensive" destruction elements, and the team is keen to try to get back to those roots with Battlefield 6.

"When you look for excellence in our legacy, [Bad Company 2] is where you find it," Chubb said. "That game particularly delivered on a level of fidelity and a sort of intimate destructive experience. Blasting out a single wall, bringing down a partial building, or entire buildings. It was comprehensive, and it felt like the identity of that game more than anything else."

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Battlefield 6's open beta already reached about 10,000 concurrent players on one platform, despite the servers not even going live until August 7. Insider Gaming noticed that Battlefield 6's open beta reached a peak concurrent player count on Steam of 9,463 on Monday, August 4.

That's the day that preloading for the Battlefield 6 open beta began, so it's understandable that the game client would see a big spike in users. People aren't actually playing the game yet, however, as the servers don't go live until August 7. In any event, this many people logging in to the game on a single platform days before public availability appears to be a sign that the open beta could put up some big numbers.

Preloading for the Battlefield 6 beta is available on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S as well, along with the EA app, so the Steam numbers represent just a fraction of the total audience.

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Since its debut near the end of March, Grow a Garden has been a breakout hit on the Roblox platform. Now, players will be able to cook the vegetables they grow and earn rewards in the game's latest update.

The new update revolves around Chris P, a literal pig who has his own kitchen. Chris P's thought balloon reveals what he's craving at any particular moment, from candy to pizza. And if players are able to satisfy Chris P's cravings, then they'll be able to get an assortment of new seeds, new gear, and new in-game pets.

Some of the new seeds added to the game include onions, jalapenos, crown melon, and tacofern. Grow a Garden has also revamped its trading capabilities. Previously, some players were allowed to essentially rob their trading partners by disconnecting before coming through with their end of the bargain. Now, players need to get a trade ticket from the gear shop in order to complete a transaction.

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War! Intrigue! Nations and Mega Corporations vie for control over an ancient weapon discovered in the near future. You must pilot the mecha “Gigas” and survive against endless waves of enemies in order to achieve victory. Gigantes Ex Machina is a rogue-lite mecha action shooting game. Beloved gameplay mechanics such as a randomized power-up leveling system will welcome both new and experienced players into this exciting world! Be immersed in thrilling audio fidelity to the myriad gunfire, explosions and pulsating sound effects as you race across the battlefield!