Fortnite, you might have heard, is quite popular. And now, another reminder of just how notably popular it is: a peak of over 2.3 million concurrent viewers watched Fortnite's World Cup Solo Finals, which took place in New York this weekend.

It's an achievement that, says Epic, makes it the most-watched competitive gaming event of all time "excluding China". But the reality is that the final tally of spectators is likely to be much higher; the 2.3 million figure only accounts for people tuning in via Twitch and YouTube, and not those watching in-game or on other social media and streaming services.

Those that stayed the course for Sunday's Solo Finals got to see 16-year-old Kyle 'Bugha' Giersdorf secure his place as champion, winning him a hefty $3 million USD prize and a well-earned moment in the spotlight after seeing off almost 40 million challengers. A day later, Giersdorf appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to chat about his impressive win.

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Monster Hunter World fans hoping for the best but fearing the worst regarding the upcoming Iceborne expansion's PC release date finally have some concrete, if not exactly joyous, news. Capcom has revealed that Iceborne won't be arriving on Steam until January next year.

We already knew there'd be a bit of a wait, of course; Capcom previously announced that PC players would be able to experience Iceborne "this winter", some time after the expansion's 6th September release on PS4 and Xbox One. Most were hoping that would mean a PC launch this side of the new year - but I guess there's some tiny solace in the fact that Iceborne's arrival is marginally speedier than the six tortuous months it took the base game to reach the platform.

It's going to be a difficult wait too, if early indications are anything to go by. Iceborne is a huge offering, said to rival the size of the core game in terms of content. There's a new story, picking up after the end of the main quest, a snowy new biome known as Hoarfrost Reach, and a new, punishingly tough high-level rank known as Master Rank, analogous to previous games' G Rank.

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A new Humble Bundle has just launched that can offer some considerable value if you've ever been tempted to immerse yourself within the grand strategy of Crusader Kings 2.

From my outsider's perspective, it's always seemed like an impenetrable series, though the number of stories I've heard from players who get it suggests there's an intricate and absorbing game there once you've cracked it.

So, considering the fact that you can pay just 82 pence to get the Crusader Kings 2 base game and the first five DLC expansions, I'm more tempted than ever to take the plunge and see how my lord might fare in medieval Europe.

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Released out of nowhere just last week, the first three numbered Doom games are now available across current generation consoles. On the surface, this is tremendous news, but it didn't take long before the complaints began - and rightfully so, as while Panic Button's Doom 3 conversion is a tremendous piece of work, the conversions of Doom and its first sequel are seriously sub-par.

And that's both astonishing and deeply sad. The original Doom remains one of the finest games ever made. With a perfect blend of brilliant map design, finely tuned gameplay and a gorgeous presentation, it's a game I've continued to return to for decades and I know I'm not alone on that. The notion of a compromised port seems all the more baffling bearing in mind how many times this game has been ported to other systems. In fact, since its original release in late 1993, Doom has been converted across to just about everything with a CPU... and that includes game consoles.

Ported by Nerve, the latest conversions of Doom and Doom 2 should be much better than they are. Or starters, the developer has a long history with id Software games and, in fact, it was founded by an ex-id software employee. Nerve is also responsible for the original Xbox Live Arcade release of Doom, among others. Gripes about these ports first started to emerge when it came to light that the games could only be played if you set-up a completely unneeded Bethesda account. It's a terrible decision that has dominated the conversation around the game and even kicked off a meme cycle, but from my perspective, it's the tip of the iceberg. In bringing Doom back to modern platforms, Nerve has seemingly ported the codebase to C# while using Unity as a shell of sorts. This approach could be useful for porting the game to other platforms, but it seems unnecessary.

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One of the joys of last year's Monster Hunter World was how it introduced a whole new audience to the charms of Capcom's long-running series - that delicious loop of combat, conquest and then popping back home to craft a new set of trousers out of whatever giant beast you just felled so you can go back out to the wilds and do it all over again. There's another part of that loop, though, that's just as essential to it all - the part where you're humbled by a new beast that appears at the top of the food chain, and the part where you lick your wounds and make plans about how to exact your revenge and craft some new trousers as proof of your abilities.

Humbled? Actually, maybe that should be humiliated, which would be a more fitting a term for lapsed players like myself getting to grips with the opening hours of the forthcoming Iceborne expansion. You'll need to have completed the main campaign and reached Hunter Rank 16 to step foot on the new landmass the expansion introduces - called Hoarfrost Reach, it's out beyond a chilled ocean to the north west of the existing map - and even then you'll need to have polished off your skills. The first scrap you have, against the all-new beast Beotodus, can get pretty serious.

And so you'll be turning the air blue well before Hoarfrost Reach's chill air turns your fingers azure, because Beotodus is an absolute bastard. With an appearance like the chilled-out cousin of Cephadrome, he's a snow shark - a snow shark! - who speeds along underneath the tundra, his fin tearing through as a tell of his presence. So yeah, Beotodus is mostly concealed, has a hell of a hide and to make things even more entertaining to deal the most damage you'll have to get him to expose his hindlegs. It's a little on the tricky side.

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If you don't have either Xbox Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate, it's about time you looked into it, because they're putting Slay the Spire on it next month - and some other games too, I guess.

Microsoft has announced August's line-up, which offers a little something for everyone, from witty party games to delightful roguelike adventures.

On 1st August, Game Pass for console will get Ashes Cricket and Pandemic. The former is a fast-paced cricket game that boasts a "realistic and authentic" experience, while the latter sets you as a member of an elite disease control team whose goal is to save the world from deadly infections.

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Destiny 2 Solstice of Heroes is the game's summer event before the arrival of the game's third year - and with it, the Shadowkeep expansion.

As well as giving the Tower a makeover, an influx of new cosmetic items to buy from the Eververse store, Elemental Buffs and a new European Aerial Zone event to participate in, you'll also have the opportunity to earn Solstice 2019 armour through a series of challenges.

On this page:

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EA Sports has "no plans" to put an age limit on in-game spending, saying it's up to platform holders to manage that side of regulation. It also has "no changes" planned for FUT packs in light of increasing governmental scrutiny, "no plans to change" with regards to putting a cap on purchasing FUT packs, and said allowing progress to carry over from one to the next is "not something we've considered in the short-term". Adding women's football players to pre-existing clubs in FUT is also "not something we're doing in FUT 20", according to the developer.

That rather steadfast position was made clear at a dedicated FUT presentation, during EA's FIFA 20 event held in Berlin last month, at which Eurogamer was present. (We also saw more of the Volta mode and changes to standard 11v11 gameplay - more on that soon.)

During the FUT presentation itself Garreth Reeder, lead producer on FIFA Ultimate Team, spent some time explaining the various additions to the mode, including Season Objectives, new house rules sub-modes aimed at the casual player, and some menu tweaks, fielding questions from the press in attendance. Most of those questions, from both the gaming and international, mainstream press, got the same answer.

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The highly-anticipated sequel to Zombieland releases this October, and with it comes its very own game for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch.

Zombieland: Double Tap - Road Trip is a top-down co-op shooter based off of the Zombieland sequel, and you'll be able to play it on 15th October, three days before the film hits the cinemas.

The game allows local play for up to four players to fight through mobs of zombies as one of the main characters from the films - Tallahassee, Columbus, Wichita and Little Rock. It'll feature a story mode (set after the first film) and horde mode, as well as weekly challenges and unlockable characters from the new film.

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UPDATE 12/8/19: EA will announce its under-wraps Need for Speed game this Wednesday, 14th August at 3pm UK time. That's pretty zoom!

That's according to a new countdown clock which has popped up on EA's Need for Speed website, spotted by fans over the weekend.

Following its online reveal, EA will be bringing its new racer to Gamescom next week. The publisher has previously said the game will launch before the end of the financial year.

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