Cozmo Designs

Necromunda: Hired Gun, a new Warhammer 40K FPS from Focus Home Interactive and Streum On Studio, has suddenly appeared on the Windows Store with a release scheduled for June 1st, 2021. Spotted by Idle Sloth on Twitter, Hired Gun is a "fast-paced" FPS set in the depths of Necromunda, the same leather-clad, mohawk-sporting 40K destination that housed last year's Underhive Wars. In Hired Gun, you're taking on the role of a lone bounty hunter, pitted against the brawny gangers and hair-metal warrior women of the Hive City's depths. It doesn't look like you're quite alone, mind. Your hunter has a pet cyber-dog, armoured up and ready to chew off limbs. The listing describes a game with "endless" weapon and augment customisation, levelling up, and a grappling hook (always good), lending a bit of a Dishonored feeling to the game.

In November 2020, Respawn banned 419 top-ranked Apex Legends players for taking advantage of a glitch to beat up low-ranked players. The swing of the banhammer pleased players who were tired of being abused, but it doesn't appear to have been much of a long-term deterrent: Respawn security analyst Conor Ford revealed on Twitter earlier this week that more than 700 accounts ranked from Gold to Predator had been banned over the weekend. "700+ accounts used for cheating in ranked (Gold-Pred) have been permanently banned since last Thursday," Ford tweeted. "This does not, and will not, include any accounts that used an infinite heat shield exploit. Love you all." 700+ accounts used for cheating in ranked (Gold-Pred) have been permanently banned since last Thurdasy. This does not, and will not, include any accounts that used an infinite heat shield exploit. Love you all March 16, 2021

A digital-only artwork has sold at Christie's auction house for an eye-watering $69m (£50m) - but the winning bidder will not receive a sculpture, painting or even a print. Instead, they get a unique digital token known as an NFT. Where Bitcoin was hailed as the digital answer to currency, NFTs are now being touted as the digital answer to collectables. But there are plenty of sceptics who think it is all a bubble that is going to burst.

More than 3,000 UK email servers remain at risk from the global Microsoft Exchange email flaw, officials believe. The National Cyber Security Centre said it estimated 7,000 servers had been affected by the flaw in the UK and only half had been secured. It said malicious software had been detected on 2,300 machines but it had helped businesses remove it. The agency said it was "vital" that all affected businesses took action to secure their email servers. The announcement reveals the scale of the problem among UK companies for the first time since the global security flaw emerged last week. Ransomware groups have begun using the flaw to install their malicious programs, the NCSC warned - though there was no evidence of widespread ransomware attacks on UK companies so far. Once installed, ransomware locks away a user's data behind strong encryption, making the computer system unusable. The group then demands payment to unlock it - and if demands are not met, will steal or delete the data.

One month after its release, Tarsier Studios' creepy puzzle-platformer Little Nightmares 2 has already sold over a million copies across all platforms. Added to the original, the Little Nightmares series has now shifted over five million copies in total. "We're very proud of the success of Little Nightmares and really grateful with how fans have embraced the universe through the games and the comics, putting their minds to work to find the wildest theories about Little Nightmares", said Herve Hoerdt, senior vice president marketing, content and digital at publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe. In the sequel you play a new protagonist, a boy named Mono wearing a paper bag mask. As in the first game you run a gauntlet of gigantic, twisted versions of ordinary adults, including a snake-necked teacher and a doctor who crawls across ceilings. We gave Little Nightmares 2 a score of 76 in our review, with Stacey Henley writing, "It's not about making you scream, it's not even really about making you frightened. It's about taking the idea of a nightmare, all the unusual fears our brains can vomit up in the night, and mixing them together with one core idea: nobody likes being chased by something bigger than them."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgrbXe-CMaE&feature=emb_title Halo Infinite's world isn't quite as open as some have speculated, according to an in-depth Ask343 developer stream posted last night. That was just one of dozens of insights provided during the 40-minute AMA, which covered everything from weather systems and vehicle reworks to the tiny critters that'll populate the ringworld's ecosystem. Speaking to tensions raised by a very Ubisoft-looking map screen in last year's reveal, gameplay director Troy Mashburn explained that Master Chief won't be out "gathering leather" or crafting new items. Instead, he cites missions like The Silent Cartographer, a level in the first Halo that effectively gave you free reign over a small island—letting you approach fights from different angles or else avoid them entirely. The team wants to stretch this ethos across the entire game. Citing an instance in Halo 5 where a level transition would take a Scorpion tank away from you at a gate, Mashburn explains that Infinite imagines a scenario where not only do you get to keep the tank, but you could use it to bypass the gate entirely—sneaking around to blow up enemy armour before they even know you're around.