BioWare's fourth big Dragon Age game will be mainly set in Tevinter, an as-yet-unvisited land within the franchise's world of Thedas.

That's according to the studio's hulking BioWare: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development book, which I picked up over the weekend.

For fans of the Dragon Age series, this confirmation will come as little surprise. The location was set up in the final scene of Dragon Age Inquisition's excellent Trespasser expansion - although this was over six years ago now, and many other plans for the future of the series have changed in the interim.

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RuneScape developer Jagex has been bought again.

This time it's US private equity giant Carlyle Group that's snapped up a majority stake in the Cambridge games studio.

The Carlyle Group did not disclose the terms of the transaction, but The Daily Telegraph reported the value of the deal is expected to be more than the $530m (£390m) paid for Jagex when it was acquired from its previous Chinese owners by a US holding company in 2020.

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I'm pretty sure there's a line somewhere in Melville where he suddenly announces he's not that keen on penguins. In my head I really think it's Melville - maybe Moby-Dick or The Encantadas. The line, as I half-remember it, suggests there is something uniquely unlovable about penguins, something slightly uncanny and nasty.

The line is always accompanied by a footnote admitting that, yes, Melville was clearly wrong about this one. We love penguins. Take a poll. Penguins are universally lauded. The thing they do with the rock. The eyebrows on some of them. The strong chocolate bar synergy for UK fans. We don't even feel tricked when their awkwardness on land gives way to muscular elegance in the water. The awkwardness flashing into elegance at the moment of impact actually seems to suggest contiguous virtues.

There are no penguins in Nuts - or if there are, I missed them. But I thought about Melville's take on penguins because Nuts is all about squirrels - and squirrels, I suddenly started to realise, are not universally lauded. It seems at times that we can't decide about them. They are cute and sprightly and move in a lovely fountain-pen ripple, sure, but up close there are those surprising sharp teeth, and so many of them! There are those glossy, inscrutable eyes. And then someone will say, "Oh, you know the grey squirrels killed all the red ones," and then, maybe a little involuntary shudder?

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A prominent FIFA pro player has retired from competitive play after EA banned him for a "mum joke".

25-year-old British FIFA pro Harry Hesketh was banned for February's Europe regional qualifier event because of language he used during a Twitch broadcast on 12th December 2020 in reference to his opponent's mother.

Hesketh made the lewd comment during a livestream after he lost heavily to 14-year-old FIFA wonderkid Anders Vejrgang during an online match.

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UPDATE 28 JAN 2021: CD Projekt has issued a hotfix for Cyberpunk 2077's game-breaking Takemura bug.

Hotfix 1.11, which is now available on PC, consoles and Stadia, addresses two issues that appeared after Patch 1.1.

The first change is to item randomisation, which has been restored to the previous state. A save/load loot exploit related to this will be investigated further, CD Projekt said in the patch notes.

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Following the Christmas break, I can't stop playing Destiny 2. My love for Bungie's genre-defining shooter has been on and off since the original's arrival in 2014, usually coming and going when friends and colleagues do - and for some time I've been the last one standing on the Eurogamer team.

2020 was an interesting year for the game, with a sense that Bungie struggled to find its feet post-Activision and in making the transition to free-to-play and a seasonal model work, but it's come out the other side in the best shape for years.

The foundation for this is November's Beyond Light expansion, introducing the stunning new setting of Jupiter's moon Europa, which combines vast, frozen wastes with mysterious underground facilities composed of spawning, glossy corridors.

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Assassin's Creed Valhalla players have discovered a secret powerful weapon hidden in a pile of rocks. Well. Kind of.

The secret Nodens' Isu Arc bow unlocks for players who repeatedly hit a small pile of rocks near Brunson Turret in Northumbria. In the lake to the north, there's a small island, and on there, you'll find the rock ore pile you need.

YouTuber JorRaptor takes you through the steps right here (thanks, Kotaku) and it's been verified now by a number of players:

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A number of professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players have been punished for breaching the Esports Integrity Commission's - ESIC - anti-corruption rules.

"ESIC issues sanctions against 35 players for betting-related offences & extends bans for 2 players previously sanctioned in October 2020," ESIC reported. "ESIC will continue to investigate further offences in Australia, NA and Europe in cooperation with law enforcement."

"Sanctions issued in today's release are not for match-fixing," the organisation adds. "However, ESIC is of the view that there is a high possibility that it will issue match-fixing charges arising from the ongoing investigations, potentially including against players sanctioned today."

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The seed to the world of Minecraft's fabled Herobrine has been discovered.

The seed was found last week by andrew_555, aka Kminster, who kicked off their search on 5th September, 2020. Kminster admitted it "probably about 50 hours in total for developing/writing the code", but eventually stumbled upon the world on 16th January.

"Ever since the first Herobrine Creepypasta, people have faked his world multiple times", teases the video description (see below). "So we used our seed cracking knowledge from Pack.png and the Minecraft panoramas to find the seed once and for all!"

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Details of an upcoming Collector's Edition for Dying Light 2 have reportedly been leaked, intimating the game - which currently only sports a nebulous "2021" release window - might be coming sooner rather than later.

On New Year's Eve developer Techland reminded fans to "keep your heads up for 2021" and in early January, said "exciting news" was on the way, but otherwise, details have been pretty sparse.

While the "exciting news" has yet to be confirmed, an eagle-eyed Resetera poster has shared details of an unannounced Collector's Edition, which reportedly popped up on Czech retailer Xzone.cz before being unceremoniously yanked again. It was still available via cache for a few hours thereafter, too, but seems to have been scrubbed out now... albeit not before the internet spotted and screencapped, though.

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