Days Gone developer Bend Studio has lost two of its senior leads, John Garvin and Jeff Ross. Both developers announced their departure from the studio on Monday after being with the studio (formerly known as Eidetic) since the mid-90s. The pair have worked on several video games in the past, most notably the PlayStation classic Syphon Filter and its sequels. Both Ross and Garvin made their announcements of departure from Bend Studio just minutes apart from each other, and have moved on to other goals. READ MORE: What Happened to Unreal Tournament? Jeff Ross first announced on Twitter that he'd be leaving Bend Studio this week and moving to Chicago. Just minutes later, John Garvin would also announce his exit from the studio, stating that he hadn't actually been with the developer since the release of Days Gone a year ago, choosing to focus on personal projects like painting, writing and publishing. The pair have been instrumental to the rising success of Bend Studio, with Ross serving as the director of both Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Resistance: Retribution. Meanwhile, Garvin's contributions include the aforementioned Syphon Filter games where he served as its creative director. With the loss of two senior leads at Bend Studio, the remaining talents are still in assured hands. It remains to be seen if a sequel to Days Gone will come to light, or if they'll move onto a new project (with some fans asking for a return of the Syphon Filter series). PlayStation's massive list of first-party studios continues to grow with creative teams like Bend Studio, Insomniac Games, Sucker Punch Productions, Naughty Dog, Santa Monica Studio, and many more headlining their newly announced PlayStation Studios collective. We'll surely hear more about Bend Studio's future projects, but for now, they've lost a couple of talented directors.

Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription – available on both console and PC – continues to provide incredible value, with all Microsoft-published/exclusive games available at launch, paired with a rotating selection of third-party games, ranging from “indie” to “AAA”, covering a myriad of genres. Its rapid and continued growth within the Xbox ecosystem all but guarantees subscription-based gaming services are likely to become a competitive aspect for all console manufacturers going forward. This feature exists to keep you up to date with new arrivals, games leaving the service, and highlight a few titles we’d recommend each month. New arrivals on Xbox Game Pass* Control (Console) – 3 DecemberDOOM Eternal (PC) – 3 DecemberHaven (Console, PC) – 3 DecemberSlime Rancher (Console) – 3 DecemberVa-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action (PC) – 3 DecemberYes, Your Grace (Console, PC) – 3 DecemberDragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition (Console, PC) – 4 DecemberCall of the Sea (Console, PC) – 8 DecemberMonster Sanctuary (Console) – 8 DecemberUnto The End (Console, PC) – 9 DecemberAssetto Corsa (Console) – 10 DecemberGang Beasts (Console) – 10 DecemberGreedFall (Console, PC) – 10 DecemberSuperhot: Mind Control Delete (Console) – 10 DecemberYooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (Console, PC) – 10 December * Games currently part of the subscription can be bought-to-own with a 10% discount but, take note, this only applies to the base price and does not stack with other discounts. Greedfall Leaving Xbox Game Pass on December 15** eFootball PES 2020 (Console – 11 December)Age of Wonders: Planetfall (Console, PC)Infinifactory (PC)Metro: Last Light Redux (PC)MudRunner (Console, PC)Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker (Console)Pathologic 2 (Console, PC)The Turing Test (Console, PC)Ticket to Ride (Console, PC)Untitled Goose Game (Console) ** Games leaving the subscription service are available at a 20% discount but, take note, this only applies to the base price and does not stack with other discounts. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition Our recommendations GreedFall I’ve always had a soft spot for Spiders’ janky RPGs since playing Of Orcs and Men on the Xbox 360 back in 2012, however, the quality of their games since then has been variable. Thankfully, Greedfall is their best attempt to date, imitating the world design and role-playing structure of late 2000 RPGs like BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins and CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Despite some modern sensibilities, it ditches an open-world for interconnected zones, hosting unique quests and loot off the beaten path. The tutorial is particularly old-school - locking you into a microcosm of the rest of the game and highlighting how your narrative choices and skillset will affect quest outcomes - before you’re released onto the island of Teer Fradee to start the adventure in earnest. The gameplay feels distinctly classic, which is why it feels so fresh in comparison to its contemporaries. Control Remedy fell off the radar for a while, after the muted response to the criminally-underrated Quantum Break, but returned in impeccable form with Control. It’s another cinematic, narrative-driven, third-parson shooter that places you in the boots of Jesse Faden, who fights her way through the mysterious “Oldest House”, to purge a malevolent entity known as the “Hiss”, while digging into her own past. Despite the gripping narrative, it’s the gameplay that shines, providing you a wide assortment of abilities as you push through distinctly unsettling and creepy environments. It remains to be seen if this is just the base game or “Ultimate Edition”, as there are also two excellent expansions worth playing if you enjoy it. Superhot: Mind Control Delete Simple in concept but brilliant in execution, Superhot: Mind Control Delete is a thoughtful puzzle game disguised as a first-person action game. Time moves when you do, so you need to watch bullet trails to avoid instant death, line up your own shots on moving targets, toss objects at enemies to stun them and steal their weapons, and, if you survive, watch the action played back in real-time. It’s an incredibly addictive gameplay loop, and Superhot: Mind Control Delete is the latest release with even more levels, weapons, and abilities to tackle. Starting 3 December, there’s a new promotion offering a 3-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription for PC and console, only for new subscribers though, for R15.90 (before it goes up to R149/month).

If we're talking about influential multiplayer first-person shooters of a bygone era, we need look no further than Epic Games' Unreal Tournament series. First released in the early 2000s, Unreal Tournament went on to spawn several sequels and achieve high status within the multiplayer world and the then-young rising esports scene. However, developer Epic Games have shifted gears on the series ever since, placing their focus and attention on other projects as the Unreal Tournament brand slowly faded into the background and made way for successors in the arena shooter genre to shine. What exactly happened to Unreal Tournament, and will we ever see it again? Let's explore. Unreal Tournament wasn't actually the first of its kind. Before the first entry released in 1999, Epic Games designed a first-person shooter called Unreal which acted as an exhibition piece for their new Unreal Engine. Unreal would later spawn a sequel and expansion pack, Unreal II: Awakening, before morphing into the multiplayer-focused Unreal Tournament. Epic Games, along with Digital Extremes, were still finding their footing with the Unreal Engine, but Unreal Tournament's unprecedented success earned them critical acclaim and recognition in the gaming industry - enough that it would spawn a few sequels, Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004 (arguably the most popular entry in the franchise), and finally Unreal Tournament 3. The first nail in the coffin was Unreal Tournament 3. While it received praise from critics at the time and also sold over a million copies, it released at a highly competitive time in the first-person shooter genre. Unreal Tournament 3, despite its name still carrying plenty of weight and legacy, failed to trade blows with more demanded shooters in the genre like Call of Duty. Fan reception was mostly mixed, though, as fans felt that the magic of the Unreal Tournament series was lost somewhere in the mix of Epic Games implementing more modern design choices and over-complicating its simple and successful formula of the past. With Epic Games shifting gears (no pun intended) towards Gears of War, it would be several years before Unreal Tournament would re-appear in the gaming spotlight. In 2014, Epic Games would attempt to revitalize the franchise with the now-abandoned Unreal Tournament. Development of the project had actually progressed well, as it even received a pre-alpha build that would remain in a playable state. Unfortunately, Epic Games halted development of the project in December 2018 as several staff members working on the game were migrated over to Fortnite Battle Royale (an extremely lucrative move for the company). Unreal Tournament also had a few things to contend with in the modern gaming scene if it ever were to get a proper resurgence, though. Epic Games' attempts to revive Unreal Tournament failed due to a number of factors, but we can't help but look at the landscape of the crowded first-person shooter genre, especially the multiplayer scene, at the time. Unreal existed at a time when the first-person shooter genre was still trying to find its feet. Sure, following 1993's release of Doom, we had a number of similar shooters burst onto the scene in the 90s - with Unreal Tournament being one of them - but the competition was far less cluttered to allow Epic's tentpole shooter to shine. In 2014, the market had become saturated by a number of shooters each with their own strengths, catering to a larger variety of gamers. It was always going to be an incredibly steep uphill climb for Unreal Tournament, and with the release of competitive multiplayer shooters like Blizzard's Overwatch, it may have simply been the right place at the wrong time. The "wrong time" still stands till today. I believe it's incredibly difficult for any older shooter to revive itself in such a competitive market of major shooters dominating the gaming world every second month. Competitive multiplayer has also evolved to wildly ambitious heights, and it's still difficult for any new shooter to even find its footing in the esports scene now (see Rocket Arena, Valorant, and a number of other projects). Though they hold stable fanbases and recurring players, they still fall in the shadow of bigger multiplayer machines like Overwatch and Call of Duty. For Unreal Tournament to be revived and receive the same attention, it would need to at least compete with these titles. Sure, DOOM's revival in 2016 may have been the exception, but it placed a stronger emphasis on its single-player content that allowed it to thrive beyond its middling multiplayer efforts (the same could be applied to DOOM Eternal). Unless Unreal Tournament returns with a single-player campaign (for which it's not exactly known for), a multiplayer-focused return would need to shine extremely bright and somehow find its footing again in the upper echelon of multiplayer shooters. As difficult a task as that is right now, is there still room for Unreal Tournament to thrive again? The answer isn't that simple. Epic Games' cancellation of the latest Unreal Tournament revival serves as a reminder of just how priorities may shift in development according to the market. Fortnite is undoubtedly Epic's big money-maker, and to top it off, the Unreal Engines have become acclaimed across gaming development. Epic Games are perfectly nestled in a position where they've chosen the high road, and understandably so. If it meant leaving Unreal Tournament in its untimely grave, that's the risk-and-reward play they've chosen. But I leave the question to you: would you be open to seeing Unreal Tournament revived yet again?

On the weird and wonderful side of gaming news today, a news station in Oregon, USA has mistakenly featured a screenshot of Red Dead Redemption 2 in their user-submitted nature photography section. This shouldn't come as a big surprise as Red Dead Redemption 2 sports some of the most realistic graphics in a video game to date, but it looks like a fan has taken it upon themselves to show just how their local news can be fooled by its visual fidelity. The submitted screenshot from Rockstar's open world game got placed alongside real-world photographs showcasing the beautiful county nature. READ MORE: Tom Holland to Present at The Game Awards 2020 Oregon news station NewsChannel 21 hosts a segment called 'Out & About', which highlights user-submitted photography of stunning nature. However, a post recently appeared on Reddit to show how a proud father's daughter was the mastermind behind a Red Dead Redemption 2 screenshot appearing on NewsChannel 21's segment. "My daughter sent another picture into our local TV station… from Red Dead Redemption 2 for their 'Out & About' segment…" the post reads. "And once again they fell for it!" A girl keeps sending my local news station screenshots of the landscape from Red Dead Redemption 2 for their “Out and About” news segment... and they keep putting it on the news thinking it’s a photo. Bella, I salute you. pic.twitter.com/Km5HGz3A4t— queenie (@frenziedandfine) November 29, 2020 The local news station would later upload the clip for the world to enjoy (and as you might expect, gamers flooded the comments section to point out the screenshot): Apparently, this isn't the first time that the culprit has done this and gotten away with it, but it is the first time that they've provided a clip to support their claim - which is absolutely hilarious. However, who can blame the news station? Red Dead Redemption 2's stunningly realistic graphics could very easily be confused for the real thing, though some fans have called the station out for not doing proper background checks. Either way, having a video game screenshot up on a local news station for real-world nature photography just goes to show how far graphics have come in video games. Red Dead Redemption 2 is now available for PS4, Xbox One and PC.