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map

Someone walks to the edge of Minecraft's map.

The Longest Minecraft Journey Ever Just Reached The Edge Of The Map

by admin October 6, 2025

A man completes an absurd but humanity-affirming journey in Minecraft. Control finally gets Hideo Kojima’s voiceover on console. And the first indicator of Ghost of Yotei sales is a potentially impressive one. Welcome to the latest Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news and culture. My co-author, Zack Zwiezen, is out on vacation to parts unknown for a while so in the meantime, you’re stuck with me. The good news is that I’m closer than ever to getting the Platinum in Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. The bad news is the Birds blew their chance to go 5-0 this weekend. I’m glad I only looked up to watch occasionally while grinding the Deep Dungeon. The Eagles might not cruise to another Super Bowl, but at least I did get Ramza to learn Zodiark.

A record-breaking Minecraft hike has finally been completed

Streamer KurtJMac’s “Far Lands or Bust Marathon Subathon” finally saw its goal of reaching the glitched edge of the Minecraft map realized over a decade later, Polygon reports. The Far Lands is the infamous end of the game that appears as a bizarre swiss-cheese wall of stone and dirt reaching up to the sky. It’s no small task for people playing in survival mode without cheats. While not the first person to reach this milestone, KurtJMac’s virtual hike holds the record for longest Minecraft journey ever.

It’s also raised over $525,000 for charity since he started streaming the trek back in 2011. The stream is currently trying to raise $50,000 for UNRWA USA which provides aid to Palestinian refugees. You can see KurtJMac’s reaction to finally reaching his journey’s end at around 3:43:00 in the video below, when the Far Lands suddenly appear out of an ocean-y mist as he’s sailing.

The original Crysis has joined the GOG preservation library

“We’re thrilled to announce that the Crysis Remastered Trilogy has joined our catalog, and the original Crysis is now part of the GOG Preservation Program, ensuring it will always run hassle-free on modern systems,” the storefront announced. “Each remastered title is available separately as well, DRM-free and at great discounts, so that you can experience the evolution of one of gaming’s most iconic shooters, from the jungles of the Lingshan Islands to the streets of New York City, in their definitive modern form.”

Battlefield 6 promises a 120fps mode

MP1st reports that an email EA sent to currently registered players is promoting an extra-responsive framerate on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. “Up to 120FPS or high-fidelity visuals,” it reads, indicating the higher frame rate will be linked to the game’s Performance Mode.

An Interplay cofounder and the first video game champion ever needs your help

Rebecca Heineman won the national championship Space Invaders tournament in 1980 and later cofounded RPG powerhouse Interplay (The Bard’s Tale, Fallout) with Brian Fargo and others. She’s credited on dozens of games, from Wasteland to Heroes of Might and Magic IV, and she’s now trying to crowdsource funds for medical treatment following a diagnosis of an aggressive form of cancer.

“This is the fight for my life. Please help me,” Heineman wrote on her new GoFundMe page (via PC Gamer). “I want to keep creating games and comics and I need your help to beat this cancer.”

Ghost of Yotei was number one in the UK last week for boxed copies sold

That’s via Game Business author Chris Dring who said Sony’s open-world samurai adventure beat out the second week of EA Sports FC, traditionally the best-selling game across all of Europe every year. It also sold three times what Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 did on Switch, but was still 40 percent behind where Ghost of Tsushima was in 2020. Reasons for that drop-off could be the busier release calendar right now, and the fact that there are fewer PS5 units out in the wild at this point than there were PS4s when Tsushima was released.

The Control Ultimate Edition free update is finally out on console

The new content includes the mission “Dr. Yoshimi Tokui’s Guided Imagery Experience” which features a voiceover by Death Stranding director Hideo Kojima. Players also get access to costumes that were originally pre-order bonuses, as well as new performance settings for both PS5 and Xbox Series X/S including uncapped framerates, VRR and 120Hz display, and HDR support.

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October 6, 2025 0 comments

An image of Civlization 7's Napoleon in his Revolutionary and Emperor personas.

Product Reviews

Civilization 7’s latest update brings improved map generation, a better UI, and a ‘full rework of Napoleon’, but it hasn’t moved the needle on its divided Steam rating

by admin October 4, 2025

Civilization 7 received a beefy update this week, as Firaxis continues to work on its latest and most divisive entry in its series of historical 4Xs. Update 1.2.5 brings a host of tweaks and adjustments, shuffling maps, improving the UI, and expanding strategic options around city-states. Plus, like a certain Duke who gave his name to a certain rubber footwear, it also gives Napoleon a proper sorting out.

Map generation is the primary target of update 1.2.5, with Firaxis responding to complaints that the sequel’s landmasses were predictable and dull. To fix the issue, Firaxis says it has “started from scratch and created a new base algorithm for making maps” in Civ, while simultaneously introducing two extra map types. “Continents and Islands” serves as the new map default for single-player, mixing up larger and smaller landmasses of various sizes, while “Pangaea and Islands” situates the bulk of the action on one giant geographical inkblot, with splashes of separate terrain in and around it.

As for those aforementioned UI improvements, these focus primarily on settlement development. The changes provide more detailed upfront information on the production menu, add clearer yield indicators for building placement, improve the visual language for “growth events” to help you decide between improvements or specialists, and implement a complete reformat for constructible tooltips. According to Firaxis, the changes should help players decide “what to build, where to put it, and how to grow your empire”. In other words, how to play the videogame Civilization.

Sid Meier’s Civilization VII – Official Launch Trailer – YouTube

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Elsewhere, update 1.2.5 adds two types of city-state—namely Diplomatic and Expansionist city-states—while suzeraining either of these provides new player options. Firaxis has also implemented a broader “strategic balance pass”, replacing most percentage stacking bonuses with numerical bonuses to curb power snowballing, adding a cost-progression mechanic for buildings, and adjusting the gold economy to make managing your finances a bit more challenging.

Finally, there’s that Napoleonic makeover. Apparently, the French general wasn’t living up to his reputation among Civ fans, so Firaxis has boosted the power of both his Revolutionary and Emperor personas. The former variant now gains extra rewards when he goads other leaders into attacking him, while the latter receives bonuses for sanctioning other leaders.

It seems like a substantial update, but it doesn’t appear to have done much to improve Civilization 7’s standing among players. In fact, the game’s recent Steam reviews have a lower positive percentage than the overall rating—43% compared to 49%. This doesn’t seem to have much to do with the update one way or another—the key issue is that a lot of players fundamentally don’t like Civilization 7’s Age Transition concept, where you basically switch factions at the end of each age.

What effect this will have on Civilization 7’s long-term prospects remains unclear. Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick doesn’t seem concerned, stating in August that the sequel is selling in line with expectations and that Civilization “has always been a slow burn”. This didn’t stop Firaxis from laying off a bunch of people last month, though game sales seem to have zero bearing on whether or not layoffs occur these days, with job security seemingly based wholly on vibes.

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October 4, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Battlefield 6 Devs Have A Fun Button That Blow Up The Whole Map

by admin September 19, 2025

I recently got to play more Battlefield 6, but this time on the game’s two biggest maps, and I had a blast playing in these big ol’ stages. But when I got a chance to speak to the devs behind Battlefield 6, I had to ask a strange question: Do you all have a button that lets you blow up everything that is destructible in the franchise’s famously destructible maps? The answer was yes, and there’s a good reason why.

During a Zoom interview with DICE producer Jeremy Chubb and design director Shashank Uchil, we talked about all the work that goes into making a big Battlefield map and how much effort they put into remaking the iconic and beloved Operation Firestorm map, which will be available in BF6 at launch. But, when our conversation veered into talking about how to balance maps that can blow up in all kinds of ways, I had to ask if they had a tool or button that lets them destroy everything in one click. So I asked and got a blunt answer:

“Yeah,” said Chubb. I then asked if it was fun to hit that button, and both Chubb and Uchil replied, with laughter in their voices, that yes, it was indeed fun to hit that big button.

“It is fun!” Chubb told Kotaku while laughing more. “It usually causes some big meltdowns in teams working on performance because we designed the maps not to be instantly triggered, like every instance of destruction [all at once]. And [the button was pressed] a few times, and there were some raised eyebrows about what we were doing for sure.”

When I mentioned that EA should release GIFs of the maps completely blowing up after hitting that button, Uchil said that was a “good idea.” So you’re welcome, EA marketing team.

The reason for BF6‘s big red button

You might be wondering why there’s a button in Frostbite, the engine BF6 is built on, that lets you blow up an entire map instantly. The answer is so that the team can easily playtest the map in its most destroyed state to make sure it’s still fun and balanced.

“So…think of the map as [having] three different states, right,” explained Uchil. “The map starts out in a pristine state, or however it is meant to be at the beginning. And then, as the map progresses, it gets more and more destroyed. And towards the end, if everybody’s using a rocket launcher or C4, you hit peak destruction. And like I said, the game has to be good in all three phases, the pristine phase, the in-between phase, and the final phase.”

According to Uchil, the “big red button” is the best tool for quickly testing that final phase of each map.

“You can see what is the worst-case scenario,” said Uchil. “Is there enough cover? Do we need to add some more things? Do we need to bring some more assets so in the final stage, it’s still fun to play? So yeah, that’s why we have the big button.”

At this point, I was fully distracted by the idea of the button, and asked if anyone had ever pressed it by accident. That doesn’t seem to have happened, and because the maps weren’t built to instantly explode, it could lead to problems if it did.

“I mean, we have times when you can crash a bunch of things,” said Uchil. “The destruction is meant to happen in parts. But if everything explodes at the same time, then it would melt down your computer.”

Now I hope someone is able to mod Battlefield 6 after it launches on October 10 and either activate this button as part of a wild mod or recreate its functionality. I really just want to hit a big button and make an entire map go ka-boom. That sounds like a blast. And after talking to the devs, it seems they agree.

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September 19, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Creation of Hollow Knight: Silksong’s Pharloom map reveals cut areas & major changes

by admin September 18, 2025

As part of the Game Worlds exhibition at ACMI in Melbourne, Australia, we got to see the breakdown of Pharloom’s creation for Hollow Knight: Silksong. We learned just how significantly it changed throughout the course of development.

Hornet was originally planned as an additional character to swap to in 2017’s Hollow Knight. As plans changed and ambitions grew, however, Team Cherry morphed the bonus content into a separate, full-fledged game.

Eight years later, that game is finally upon us as Silksong launched to record-shattering, and well, platform-shattering success. Though despite the sales and critical acclaim, many details surrounding its development timeline remain a mystery.

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Slowly but surely, select tidbits are now coming to light, and we just got our best look yet at what really went down over the near-decade-long stretch.

Featured in ACMI’s new Game Worlds exhibition in Melbourne, Australia – which Dexerto was invited to attend ahead of its public opening – Silksong is not only playable, but a great deal of behind-the-scenes information is on display too. It’s here that we learned of Pharloom’s twists and turns from 2017 to what we see today.

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ACMI / DexertoThe spotlight was certainly on Silksong at ACMI’s new Game Worlds exhibit.

How Silksong’s map evolved over eight years of development

Next to interactive 3D maps, sprawling charts of boss code, and hand-drawn artwork, one particular feature in the exhibit caught my eye. An interactive timeline charting Pharloom’s evolution from the very first sketch all the way through to the final rendition in today’s 1.0 build.

All the way back in the same year Hollow Knight launched, Team Cherry planned for verticality in its next sprawling adventure. The initial layout seen in that sketch was topped by the ‘City of Song,’ a location housing the final boss chamber. Clearly, this is what we now know as The Citadel. Merely a month later, that name change seemingly came into effect.

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By November 2017, many of the map’s bigger spaces were starting to take shape. However, certain areas in this older version didn’t quite make the cut. In particular, we can see an area called the Red Coral Gorge on the left-hand side.

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There’s no way of telling what this area may have looked or played like, but based on the name and the vibrant blue visuals, it likely focuses on water-based mechanics and enemies.

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After four years in development, the Red Coral Gorge was ultimately removed from the map in September 2021. For what reason? Who’s to say. And there’s no guarantee we’ll ever see what might have come from this unique playspace.

Seven years ahead of Silksong’s release, the first iteration of the Moss Grotto can be seen on the map. Meanwhile, everyone’s favorite, Bilewater, joined the mix in June 2019. Though it wasn’t until August 7, 2025, that the entire map of Pharloom was locked into place.

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You can see highlights from the full timeline below.

“So we have a plan…” Team Cherry’s William Pellen told ACMI. “But the plan is never so calcified that it can’t bear a change of course two weeks later, or two months later, or two years later.”

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September 18, 2025 0 comments

Borderlands 4 combat radar compass: All four Vault Hunters stood back to back firing weapons. Harlowe is in the bottom left, Vex in the bottom right, Amon in the top left, and Rafa is in the top right.

Gaming Gear

Your first move in Borderlands 4 should be to turn on this classic map setting

by admin September 11, 2025

The biggest change in Borderlands 4 is undoubtedly the shift towards a full open-world. Long gone are the days of separate zones; now we can walk from end to end with no interruptions—besides killing hordes of bandits, of course. However, this change has always made navigation that much more complicated, as we’re not restricted by closed-off locales and predictable corridors anymore.

Because of this, Gearbox made the baffling decision to remove the traditional minimap in favour of a compass at the top of the screen. Sure, the compass is useful for getting your bearings, but it’s also completely useless in pinpointing enemies in combat. There’s a psycho to your northeast, but they could be standing right in front of you or ten blocks away. See what I mean?

Luckily, tucked away at the bottom of the ‘gameplay’ tab in the settings menu is the radar display. This isn’t quite the minimap of old, which would give you the exact layout of the area, but it will help you track the exact location of enemies in combat relative to your own position.

(Image credit: Gearbox)

Plus, you can use the combat radar alongside the compass to have the best of both worlds. With the radar enabled, enemies will no longer be marked on the compass, making it way less cluttered than it is by default. So, use the radar to track your enemies, and the compass to track your quest objectives and other open-world activities with no messy overlap.

Whether you’re a Borderlands veteran or not, try it out and see what I mean immediately—it’s a great boost to your situational awareness. Really, the radar should be enabled by default, as most people are going to completely gloss over this option and needlessly struggle on with the compass. It’s not optional in my eyes.

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September 11, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Missed a map in Silksong? Don’t worry, there’s an easy way to grab it

by admin September 5, 2025

There’s nothing worse than missing a map in Hollow Knight: Silksong and stumbling around the area blindly hoping you’ll eventually find a bench of a Bellway fast travel point. Just like the original, you should grab map items early, such as the compass and quill, since they’re pretty much vital for tracking your location.

Unless, that is, you actually enjoy map reading and inferring your location through local landmarks—I doff my hat to you if so.

The good news is that if you miss a map in Silksong and fail to find resident cartographer Shakra in her new spot, then you can still get the map quite easily. All you need to do is head back to Bone Bottom, jump up the platforms marked with gold rings on the right side of the town and hit the ring tied to the post in Shakra’s usual spot two times. This will make Shakra return, where she’ll offer you whatever map you somehow managed to miss.

Similar to Cornifer in Hollow Knight, Shakra is on her own journey through Pharloom, so she can jump around to new locations when you hit certain progression points or enter new areas, making it tricky if you miss her in one place and accidentally stumble into an entirely new region on your wanderings.

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If you hit the ring to the right of Bone Bottom up the platforms, you can summon Shakra(Image credit: Team Cherry)She’ll sell maps for locations where you’ve missed her and she’s moved(Image credit: Team Cherry)

I can confirm this because I entirely missed her in the Far Fields, accidentally falling down a hole and having to find Hokers for the Seamstress before even being allowed to leave the area. When I did emerge from the bottom of Far Fields, I found that the location Shakra’s rings were leading me to was completely empty.

Thankfully, though, I could still grab the map from her in Bone Bottom, so make sure to check back with her whenever you’re in town—especially if you find yourself falling down any rabbit, or bug, holes, which is honestly one of the most enjoyable things about these games. It’s also handy if you don’t have enough Rosaries and need a little more cash to purchase the map later on.

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September 5, 2025 0 comments

A screenshot from Hollow Knight Silksong showing the protagonist Hornet with map-seller Shakra

Gaming Gear

Silksong newcomers, I can’t stress to you enough that you should buy all of Shakra’s map items ASAP

by admin September 5, 2025

For the brave among us who are diving into Silksong without having played Hollow Knight, some of the game’s quirks will seem a bit opaque. One of these quirks is the map system, or rather, the seeming lack of it. It’s definitely not uncommon for exploration-focused platformers to have obscure or downright useless maps, but for a while Silksong seems like it might not even have one at all.

Don’t worry though: not only does Silksong have a map, but it can be very useful so long as you cough up some rosaries ASAP. After about an hour in Silksong you’ll encounter the NPC Shakra in The Marrow—listen out for the lovely yodelling. After some dialogue they’ll offer to sell you a bunch of map-centric stuff, and your first instinct might be to ignore it. Of course this metroidvania will just plot out my map as I explore it, right? Nope: not only do you have to buy maps, but you have to buy map markers and other useful icons, such as those demarking resting places.

Oh, and you also have to buy the ability to see yourself on the map.

Even though Shakra’s gear might seem expensive in total, you should 100% buy it all up as soon as you meet them. It’s going to make early exploration a lot more relaxed and rewarding, and if you don’t do it straight away, you’ll probably eventually realise that you should have.

Shakra has two maps: one of The Marrow (where Shakra is) and one of Mosslands (from where you’ve come). Buy them both so you know where you’ve been and where you should explore next.

Then buy the Quill, which will help you distinguish explored from unexplored areas on the maps you’ve bought. Perhaps most importantly, buy the Compass: this will let you see where Hornet is on the map. If you don’t have the Compass, you have to figure out where you are based on the shape of rooms and that’s… imprecise. For the Compass to work you have to equip it in the menu, at a resting place.

You should prioritise according to this list, in my opinion:

Map of The Marrow (50 rosaries)
Map of Mosslands (50 rosaries)
Compass (70 rosaries)
Quill (50 rosaries)
Bench pins (60 rosaries)
Shell marker (40 rosaries)

By the end your map should look like this. See how useful it is? It shows you where save points are, and the faint lines to the right are areas I’ve yet to explore, but for which I own a map. Hornet’s head marks where I’m standing right now.

(Image credit: Team Cherry)

That’s 320 rosaries in total, which will feel like a lot this early in the game. Honestly, you can skip the shell markers if you want—you won’t really need those for a while—and if Shakra disappears from The Marrow you’ll find them later on. But if you’re feeling short of rosaries, go left and up into a new screen. Follow left up here, and you’ll find a wealth of enemies who grant a lot of rosaries, and even a rosary bead. It’ll take about five minutes of grinding to get enough to buy out Shakra, assuming you came in with a bit as well. If they fail to respawn when you exit and re-enter the room, there’s a resting spot to unlock easy access to nearby: resting respawns them more reliably. For more info on getting rosaries, this how to get Silksong rosaries guide is all about it.

Anyone who played Hollow Knight will know that buying map items as early as possible comes highly recommended, and it’s nice to see that Silksong grants access to some crucial QoL items—like the Quill and Compass—earlier than its predecessor. As much as I love getting lost, I also like to have the tools to get un-lost. You’re definitely going to need them going forward.

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September 5, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

9-Minutes Of Battlefield 6 Battle Royale Mode Leaks Showing Off Massive Map

by admin September 2, 2025

When will Square Enix finally announce the Final Fantasy 9 remaster everyone is convinced exists? Will this month’s rumored Nintendo Direct finally be the big one that gives us a peak at all the big new games the company has planned for Switch 2? And will the new Marathon player test be as leaky as Battlefield 6‘s? Welcome to a special Labor Day edition of Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news and culture. I just flew back from PAX West 2025 on a red eye and can’t fall asleep yet so here we go!

Battlefield 6 battle royale leak shows swimming, sledgehammers, and more

Roughly nine minutes of new footage of Battlefield 6 recently leaked showing off more of its battle royale mode. The map looks massive and the gameplay shows swimming and shooting while in the water. There’s also a dual-purpose ladder gizmo and smashing through a concrete wall with a sledgehammer.

Will it be better than Warzone? Will anyone care? “Can’t wait to play 1 single round of this then go back to the real Battlefield and never touch it again,” wrote one fan on Reddit.

September Nintendo Direct rumors intensify

According to podcast host and industry leaker NateTheHate, rumors of a mid-September Nintendo Direct are accurate. “Yes, there is a Nintendo Direct in September,” he posted over the weekend. “When: The second week of the month, in the latter half on or around Sept 11 or 12th.” That’s a week before the previous rumored date.

Where the hell is that Final Fantasy 9 remaster?

Producer Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida has been a busy man. Alongside getting philosophical about modding in Final Fantasy 14 and opening up PAX West with a story time about how the Mario Bros. arcade game taught him about PVP, he’s also penned a short Q&A celebrating the 25th anniversary of FF9. He’s still not tipping his hand about the long-rumored remaster, but he did confess he’s still searching for the meaning of life just like Vivi.

Fairgames lost its game director

Daniel Drapeau left the PlayStation studio Haven to join Warner Bros. Montreal. It comes a few months after studio manager Jade Raymond left as well amid a reported delay of the multiplayer heist game due to poor internal feedback.

Bungie’s super-secret Marathon test will pay $500

That’s according to emails sent out to some fans, TheGamePost reports. They have to play the sci-fi extraction shooter at least one hour every day for a month. Clearly concerned about leaks, the test will also reportedly take place on Bungie’s internal development servers rather than Steam. Players even have to submit their IP addresses to Bungie for clearance.

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September 2, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Black Ops 7’s co-op campaign culminates in a DMZ-like ‘Endgame’ activity for 32 players in an open-world map, plus it has unlockable weapon camos

by admin August 20, 2025

Call of Duty is aiming for its next campaign to be a part of the “connected” experience of the overall live-service game, starting with Black Ops 7.

During a media briefing event last week, Treyarch revealed that the BO7 campaign is playable for up to four players in co-op, played over 11 standard, explosive set-piece missions. Not only that, but you will be able to unlock campaign-specific weapon camos (including four Mastery camos), reticles, player cards, and other cosmetics, all while earning XP to progress your overall level and even individual battle passes. There will even be daily and weekly challenges to complete.

Image via Activision

The campaign stars David Mason and his Spectre One team, including Mike Harper, Eric Samuels, and newcomer Leilani Tupuola, with support from BO6 character Troy Marshall who is now several decades older in this story. Some sort of red, hallucinogenic gas seems to be the main catalyst for weird visions and trippy missions, given what little gameplay I was shown.

Once that story’s 11 standard missions are completed, however, a new “Endgame” experience will unlock, featuring an open-world Avalon map for up to 32 players to explore and fight enemies in. Gamers will be able to fly into the battle royale map-like zone to fight AI soldiers and robots, complete missions, and rank up their operators with new abilities and a level-up system called Combat Rating.

Increasing your Combat Rating (max level 60) will give players access to higher-tier areas of the map, but here’s the catch: if you die, you wipe and have to start all over again, similar to games like Modern Warfare II’s DMZ mode or Escape From Tarkov. That’s right, wiping as a squad will reset your progress for that operator.

Each individual, playable operator also has their own abilities and skill specializations that can be unlocked and leveled up, such as a Grapple Hook, Mega Jump, or Drone Charmer that spawns quad-rotor drones to take down enemies.

Treyarch says that Endgame will be the “final proving ground where all of your campaign progress is tested in a new environment.” Progress is tied to “shutting down Guild activities” as you “move into the hardest regions.”

Image via Activision

A lot about Endgame is still being kept secret for now, but players looking to expand their BO7 experience and unlock everything it has to offer may find some real fun in this new co-op experience to play alongside multiplayer and Zombies modes.

BO7 launches for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC later this year.

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August 20, 2025 0 comments