Developer Daedalic Entertainment's Lord of the Rings: Gollum will no longer release this year, as originally announced, and is now due to arrive on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC in 2022.

Specifics regarding Lords of the Rings: Gollum have been limited since the action-adventure was announced back in March 2019, but we finally got a clearer idea of how things might play out last August, when Daedalic released the very first trailer and gameplay breakdown.

While the cinematic trailer wasn't giving much away, Daedalic did confirm it's shooting for "subtle tactical stealth", environmental puzzling, climbing challenges, and "fast-paced parkour action", all playing out across a mixture of open levels and more linear missions.

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Civilization 6's New Frontier Pass expansion will receive its fifth major content update this Thursday, 28th January, and one of its most notable additions - alternate China and Mongolia leader Kublai Khan - has now been detailed more thoroughly in a new First Look video.

Kublai Khan's inclusion in the New Frontier Pass was first announced last week, but developer Firaxis said it was saving the specifics of his leadership style for a later unveiling. With that day now here, Kublai Khan's unique ability has been revealed as Gerege, which provides an extra economic policy slot to any government while also granting a random Eureka and Inspiration whenever a trading post is established in another civ's city for the first time.

When leading China, Gerege can be used to "super-power innovation" by complementing the civilisation's unique ability to gain increased research costs toward technologies and civics whenever a Eureka or Inspiration is triggered. As the leader of Mongolia, however, Khan can capitalise on the civilisation's ability to immediately create trading posts whenever trade routes are established - meaning players will also get their Eureka and Inspirations straight away, unlike China, which must wait until a trade route finishes.

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Sea of Thieves is launching its new seasonal content schedule and battle-pass-style progression system this Thursday, 28th January, and, in preparation, Rare has served up a handily informative breakdown of everything in store, hopefully answering any lingering questions pirates may have before raising anchor and setting sail later this week.

Each season will last approximately three months, and each will begin by introducing a fresh dollop of content (in Thursday's case, a new voyage-type for the much-maligned Merchant Alliance), ongoing live events, and most notably, a new 100-level progression system.

Rare says Sea of Thieves' new three-month content release schedule will allow it to "craft more meaningful experiences...and return to a more predictable rhythm of release." However, it also notes the game will continue to receive smaller monthly updates, delivering bug fixes, quality of life improvements, and new stock for the Pirate Emporium.

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Fallout 76 has today received a substantial update that increases the game's stash limit.

The multiplayer-focused post-apocalyptic adventure has struggled with its stash limit ever since it launched back in November 2018. Players - particularly those focused on building bases - have long called for Bethesda to up the limit in order to make playing more efficient. It didn't help that Bethesda gave Fallout 1st subscribers unlimited scrapbox space for crafting components.

Today's update increases the stash limit by 50 per cent to a maximum of 1200 pounds. Other welcome changes include the addition of three new tabs in your inventory: new, armour and food/drink. These should help you stay on top of all the gear you've been collecting.

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Well, I suppose it was inevitable, but less than two months after the release of Cyberpunk 2077 PC modders have found a way to swap character models - and naturally, people are using it for naughty purposes. Yes, that includes creating a way for the player to have sex with Keanu Reeves' in-game character.

Over on Nexus Mods, a modder by the name of Catmino has uploaded several files allowing players to swap models in Cyberpunk 2077, along with an extended tutorial for how to do the process manually. The mod includes swaps for main characters such as Judy and Panam, along with swaps for Cyberpunk 2077's "joytoy" sex workers. Many of these files are for characters you can romance in the game, but the mod also includes swaps for characters the player wouldn't normally be able to romance, such as Goro Takemura... and Johnny Silverhand.

Although Johnny Silverhand has some sex scenes in the game, these are all viewed from the player's perspective, so modding the game is the only way to "romance" Silverhand yourself. By swapping Johnny into the place of a joytoy you can enter a sex scene with Keanu Reeves - of a sort. The model remains fully clothed and can be a bit glitchy, while you're also hearing the voice of the joytoy rather than Reeves. It's also just a bit awkward. Still, as one mod user put it, "this is as close as we can get to romancing Johnny".

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There are plenty of myths floating around the FIFA community. Players contend scripting is in the game - although developer EA Sports has always denied this. There are often accusations of pack weighting in favour of prominent players of the game. And then there's the curious case of Nick Pope's height.

Nick Pope is a talented goalkeeper who plays for Premier League club Burnley. According to Burnley's official website, he's 191cm tall. That's just over 6'3".

But! In FIFA 21 (and past FIFA games in which Pope has appeared), Burnley's number one is listed as 6'7". That's a tip-toe over 200cm.

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Call of Duty: Warzone has for some time now had an issue with its "pay-to-win" Roze skin - but right now it seems more popular than ever.

Last year the Rook skin was sold as part of the Season 5 premium battle pass (it was a tier 100 unlock) and it didn't take long for players to accuse it of being a "pay-to-win" microtransaction. The issue has to do with the way the outfit looks: it's entirely black without any reflective surfaces, which means it's very difficult to spot in dark areas of the game. Even Roze's eyes are surrounded in black facepaint.

Anyone who's played Warzone knows there are plenty of dark areas in the map to hole up in. Playing the battle royale in solos can feel like a particularly campy time. Add to this Roze's Rook skin, and you can end up in situations like this:

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UPDATE 28/1/21: Scavengers Studio has now suspended co-founder Simon Darveau and announced it will be audited by an external firm in response to these allegations. More on that in our latest coverage here.

ORIGINAL STORY 27/1/21: Scavengers Studio, developer of defunct battle royale Darwin Project and promising PlayStation 5 game Season, has responded to a report detailing alleged sexual harassment at the studio.

The claims centre on co-founder and former CEO Simon Darveau, whose behaviour is alleged to have created a sexist "boys' club" work environment, as detailed in a GamesIndustry.biz report.

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Konami has insisted it has not shut down its video game division amid an internal restructure that has led to the consolidation of its production divisions.

Yesterday it emerged that Konami had announced plans to dissolve its three production divisions "to respond to the rapid market that surrounds us". The announcement, made on Konami's corporate website, also revealed a personnel reshuffle that sees production division bosses in new roles.

This news was reported by some outlets as evidence that Konami was ditching video game development, but representatives for the company have since insisted this is not the case.

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Recently, I played a game called Pocket Watch. It's a game about being a duck on a tropical island and being trapped in a Groundhog Day-like, time-looping situation. It's super-cute, super-colourful, and actually, when you get into it, surprisingly deep and complex. And, hang on, it can't be - it was made in two weeks?!

That's what it looks like. Pocket Watch was made by a group called Sokpop, a young, trendy group turning out two new games a month. And this isn't some bold new idea Sokpop is intending to stick to: it has been doing it for three years already. There are 78 Sokpop games you can play. They're all bright, they're all colourful, they're all cheap (usually £3 each), and if they're half as good as Pocket Watch, probably well worth playing.

But how does Sokpop do it? How do you turn around a game like Pocket Watch in what appears to be two weeks? More to the point, why aren't more people doing it?

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