Amazon has made the unprecedented decision to withdraw its struggling free-to-play team-based shooter Crucible from general release, and it will now, a little over a month after its initial launch, re-enter a period of closed beta testing.

Despite being Amazon's first foray into video games, Crucible released on Steam to remarkably little fanfare back in May, and while it managed to attract decent interest initially, concurrent player numbers have steadily fallen to peaks of less than two hundred players a day.

Amazon and developer Relentless' initial, and rather surprising, response was to retire all but one of Crucible's three modes, leaving only Heart of the Hives intact. "Focusing on one mode allows us to refine the design of core systems without the compromises we needed to make to support three game modes", Relentless explained at the time.

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Earlier this year, Bethesda announced it would be introducing a season-pass-style progression system to its online multiplayer nuke'-em-up Fallout 76, and those holding their breath in anticipation of its arrival can finally exhale: the inaugural Seasons update is out today.

Each Season presents Fallout 76 players with 100 progression levels to climb by earning S.C.O.R.E. points through Daily and Weekly challenges. A new reward is doled out at each rank, and Bethesda says these can include unique armour, C.A.M.P. items, weapon skins, Power Armour paints, photo frames, consumables, Perk Card Packs, Atoms, and more.

Fallout 76's first Season is officially titled The Legendary Run and promises over 40 cosmetic items to unlock. There's a bit of a retro space theme for this one, influencing not just the presentation (the progression screen is done up to resemble a Captain Cosmos board game) but also the rewards too, as detailed on the Seasons webpage.

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Monster Hunter World: Iceborne's previously delayed fourth major content update - which pits hunters against formidable elemental-shifting black dragon Alatreon - finally has a release date, and will be making its way to Xbox One, PS4, and PC next Thursday, 9th July.

Alatreon - whose arrival in Iceborne was teased at the start of the year, when Capcom hinted that players could look forward to the return of a "fan-favourite" creature as part its 2020 development roadmap - originally debuted in Monster Hunter 3, and was set to make its mark on Iceborne, complete with craftable weapons and armour, in May.

However, Capcom was ultimately forced to delay Alatreon's arrival due to "coronavirus related impacts on production", which, it noted, would also affect voiceover production, meaning the update's Italian, Spanish, and French voice work will be replaced with "simplified recordings".

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Kickstarter backers of The Wonderful 101: Remastered are facing long waits for their physical copies of the game - more than a month after its digital version went on sale.

Production of the game's physical copies and other Kickstarter rewards has been delayed due to the current global pandemic, developer Platinum Games and distributor Yetee previously told backers.

Those left waiting for their copy have been gifted a Steam key for the game instead.

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UPDATE 1/7/20 4.05pm UK: Crytek has delayed the gameplay reveal and release date of Crysis Remastered following feedback to yesterday's leaks.

The game's launch (leaked yesterday as 23rd July) will be pushed back several weeks as Crytek polish the game further.

"Your passion for the Crysis franchise deserves an undeniably high-quality game, and we are committed to delivering just that," Crytek wrote in a statement posted to Twitter this afternoon. "To ensure we meet that commitment, we will need to delay the launch date (all platforms) and trailer premiere by a few weeks.

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Harmonix has developed many games about recreating and performing music. This time around, the Guitar Hero and Dance Central studio wants players to get creative. Fuser is all about creating mashup remixes out of popular songs, either in a campaign, freestyle mode or multiplayer.

After preview events earlier this year, this is the first extended hands-on with Fuser, giving me a full four days with 31 songs, two campaign missions and the freestyle mode.

You manage four channels - each song is divided into drums, a bassline, and a melody instrument such as synths or strings and vocals. Each of these categories is mapped to a fixed button, so you always press the right-hand button for the vocal track, the left hand one for drums and so on. As intuitive as the controls are, Fuser is immediately a lot. Unlike previous Harmonix games, which have you focus on your instrument by relegating the crowd and your avatar to the background, there's a whole music festival virtually standing between you and your table. Initially, I had a good giggle at the idea that attendees at a huge festival like that would dare to shout "I want country!", but it's just one of the ways in which gameplay doesn't really fit the rest of Fuser's ideas. The skill it asks of you lies in dividing your attention between crowd requests, in-game tasks and, oh yeah - making actual music.
Fuser is such a departure for Harmonix not only because it ditches the dexterity challenge of classic rhythm gaming, but because the developer is actively trying to reach players who either aren't interested in music gaming as a test of skill, or are unable or unwilling to invest in peripherals by basing everything around your controller only.

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Microsoft has joined a growing list of companies which have "paused" advertising on Facebook.

That's according to a Bloomberg report, which cites an announcement made internally by Microsoft marketing exec Chris Capossela.

In the past week, numerous big brands such as Coca-Cola, Honda, Unilever, Ford and Starbucks have all publicly stated they will - temporarily, at least - no longer spend their advertising money on the social network.

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After three years and 13 battle royale seasons, Fortnite is finally losing its Early Access label across all modes.

It comes as Epic Games signals a winding down of the game's original Save the World portion, which will soon shift to a recurring annual schedule offering "long term replayability".

"Development of new content will slow down after this official release," Epic said, while Save the World's main story is now "complete" - dousing fan hopes of any further major expansions.

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Infinity Ward has released a sweeping weapon balance update as part of today's big Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone patch - and the Grau has finally been nerfed.

The Grau was the undisputed most-popular weapon in Warzone, and with good reason. This devastating, meta-dominating assault rifle is easy to handle, easy to control, and powerful at a variety of distances. It had come to dominate battle royale - to the point where most players would call it in - or at least try to call it in - via a loadout drop.

But Infinity Ward - as promised - has taken a look at the Grau and significantly nerfed it. Not only has its damage range been reduced, but it's had a slight increase to high frequency recoil, and reduced recoil compensation and decreased range on the popular Tempus 26.4" Archangel and FSS 20.8" Nexus barrel attachments.

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If there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that every game is improved by kicking off with its own theme song, and Mr. Driller Drill Land's got one of the best - sugary, stirring and with just the right touch of sentimentality, it lets you know full well you're about to have a very good time indeed. And boy does the resulting game deliver on that.

Coming at the end of an outrageously prolific period for Namco's Project Driller team, Mr. Driller Drill Land was the fourth game in as many years for the Mr. Driller series. Four short years in which a team clearly enamoured with its own creation had poured their hearts into this colourful offspring of Namco classics Baraduke and Dig Dug, with Drill Land acting like a consolidation of all that had gone before in the Driller series. A small shame, then, that it never made its way out of Japan upon its first release on Nintendo's GameCube in 2002.

A minor miracle, then, that Bandai Namco has revived Mr. Driller Drill Land for a sumptuous remaster for Switch, and given it a global release too. It's a gorgeous thing - the vector artwork has scaled up beautifully for the Switch, and on a portable screen this thing just pops. That snack-sized gameplay sits just perfectly on Nintendo's Switch, too, with short sessions backed up by an in-game economy that sees you investing in items and objects in Drill Land's theme park to help you progress. If you've never played a Mr. Driller game before there's probably no better place to start than this compendium of all that's great and good about the series.

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