The first major update forAssassin’s Creed Shadowsis almost here, packed with features fans have eagerly awaited. Among them is the return of an iconic ability from past titles, making it easier than ever to travel across Japan. This feature is none other thanAssassin’s Creed’sbeloved auto-follow mechanic, which I personally found invaluable in past titles likeOdyssey. Its absence inShadowswas notably felt, with countless players expressing their desire for its return on severalReddit threads....

Time to go save the world again Square Enix’s latest traditional 3DS JRPG,Bravely Second, was playable on the Tokyo Game Show floor this year, and I had a chance to go hands on with it. This is the first time the game has been released to the public, so I was eager to see what had changed sinceBravely Default. The actual demo proper was brief, taking me a little under ten minutes to clear in its entirety....

Haldo! I’m Zalno! You might know me! If this is your first time reading the C-Blog recaps, this is where we recap all the blogs the Destructoid community wrote during that week. We love to celebrate everything the community does. Heck, a good chunk of the main writers were once just bloggers like Lord Spencer and I! Of course, it’s not limited to just blogging. We also have artists, musicians, poets, and other wonderfully creative people in our community....

That affects quite a few games, actually BioShock 2,Batman: Arkham Aslyum/City, and now Capcom’s PC lineup — yep, Games for Windows Live is on the way out. The companyhas confirmedthat the Microsoft service will be removed. It seemed inevitable, but there we go. “As GFWL will be closing down, the client will be removed from games and you will still be able to play your games,” said a Capcom support rep....

Oil up At a recent visit to the YouTube Space in New York, funnyman Conan O’Brien demoed virtual reality games likeTilt Brush,Job Simulator, andThe Thrill of the Fight. The results are, well, just look at that image! I certainly laughed. If you like Conan’s sense of humor in general but are growing a little tired of thoseClueless Gamersegments, this isn’t one. It’s more akin to his usual on-location bits. While there’s no way to perfectly capture what VR is like in-person without wearing a headset yourself, all things considered, this is a particularly good showcase for the technology....

Beats the hell out of a meth hound We’re giving away Packs of the Yeth Hound forNeverwinterin today’s contest! You know who doesn’t like free stuff? Jerks! And rich people. There are interesting correlations between those two sets of people (while not necessarily any causation), to say the least. Don’t be a jerk, though — take some free stuff from us. Today we’ve got some rare Pack of the Yeth Hound bundles to give away to deck out your character inNeverwinter....

Rock Band isn’t the only franchise to stop DLC In a shocking turn of events, after 275 straight week of DLC, Harmonix announced thatRock Bandwould cease offering new content. Now, it seems as if its other major franchise,Dance Central,will be following suit“for the near future” after developing a song library of over 200 tracks. Just like their reasoning forRock Band, Harmonix cites that it is moving forward with “several new titles,” and it’s choosing to focus on those instead....

So no more MotorStorm then? The life ofDriveclubhas not been easy. Fromdelaystobroken promises, what was to be a flagship title for the PlayStation 4 has become somewhat of a joke — whether actually deserved or not. And even though we can debate if the full blame of what happened belongs to developer Evolution Studios, what is known is that the company has recently been hit with a “number of layoffs.” Sony confirmed the news withEurogamerand also mentioned that the focus of the studio will be updating the game as a service while still trying to launch the long-awaitedPlayStation Plus edition....

The official ratings reveal ofEA FC 25is yet to take place, but if you’re someone who believes in social media rumors, Portuguese icon Cristiano Ronaldo will have an 86-rated base item inside the game. This rumor appears from reliable leaker and content specialist AsyFutTrader, who posted the information on their X account. Ronaldo is the latest in a series of popular footballers whose cards have reportedly been leaked. I still have doubts about the actual in-game stats, and these have not been officially released yet, so I’d advise reserving judgment until the developers fully reveal them....

Despite some growing pains, it’s a good time to fall off inflatables Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockoutis free-to-play now, for close to a week. Over the last weekend, I spent hours getting back in; acclimating to the new model, browsing the new rewards, and marveling at all that’s changed since I dropped off. And despite some early wrinkles, I can’t really deny it. It’s a good time to be back intoFall Guys....

Will be cross-platform with all versions At Square Enix’s “The Future” event this morning, Square announced thatFinal Fantasy XIV: A Realm Rebornis headed to PS4 in 2014. At E3 this year, the PS3 version will be available for hands-on. Square is working with Sony to make sure everyone is happy, so PS3 version players will be able to play with PS4 players. Ultimately it will be cross-platform between PS3, PS4, and PC....

In both senses of the word We’ve already seen a little bit of what to expect from Dontnod’s upcoming action role-playing gameVampyr, through both ateaser videoand someconcept art. Both showed a dark world, in both the feasting-on-the-blood-of-humans and the it-is-night-time-and-there-are-few-lamps senses. With the first set of screenshots released today, theLife is Strangedeveloper is really sticking to that idea. Maybe it’s just my setup here with a lot of natural light bouncing off my screen, but these screens are so dark I can hardly tell what’s going on in them without pressing my face up against the monitor....

What’s something that new players might overlook in a game you know really well? A simple but thought-provokingTwitter prompthas gotten gamers to share their best nuggets of advice for video games — any of them! — and I’m so here for it. The conversation kicked off withFablelead writerAnna Megillasking people to think of a game they know really well and then share some insight that would be helpful for new players who haven’t sunk in a ton of time and energy yet....