Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl has received its third patch in less than a week, addressing crashes, memory leaks, and other issues. The update, which is 20GB on PC and 7.91GB on Xbox Series X/S, aims to improve the game's stability and fix a critical save file issue. Despite technical problems at launch, the game has sold over 1 million copies and remains popular, though it has become the subject of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Microsoft announced that most of the technical issues affecting Outlook and Teams services have been resolved, with full restoration expected by Tuesday. The outage, which peaked with over 5,000 user-reported problems, primarily impacted Outlook on the web for a small number of users. The company deployed a fix, leading to significant recovery, although some delays persisted. This incident follows a year of significant tech outages globally, though Microsoft's was less severe in comparison.
GSC Game World has acknowledged technical issues with the newly released Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl and is committed to addressing them through hotfixes and updates. The developer is actively monitoring player feedback and plans to release more substantial updates and free content in the future. The game's development faced challenges due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, leading to delays and staff relocations.
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is facing criticism ahead of its launch due to technical issues and severe bugs, with early reviews suggesting the game is "not ready for launch." Despite holding a 'Generally Favorable' 76 rating on Metacritic, concerns about high system requirements and performance issues, even on high-end PCs, are prevalent. Some players remain optimistic, recalling similar issues with the original games, while others are cautious, planning to utilize Steam's refund policy if necessary.
Silent Hill 2 Remake players are frustrated with ongoing technical issues on the PS5 Pro, ten days after the console's release. Despite numerous complaints on social media, neither developer Bloober Team nor publisher Konami have provided updates on potential fixes. Players have expressed disappointment over the game's performance, especially given its "Pro Enhanced" marketing. The game has sold over 1 million copies since its launch, making it potentially the best-selling Silent Hill game, but technical problems continue to overshadow its success.
PlayStation users are experiencing issues with the PS Stars loyalty program, where purchases made on the PS Store during the holiday season are not being converted into loyalty points as promised. This problem is widely reported by users on Reddit, including the author of the article. Sony is expected to address and resolve the issue promptly, and affected customers are advised to monitor the app for updates on their loyalty points.
Despite facing significant launch issues, Payday 3 and Cities: Skylines 2 have managed to achieve high sales on Steam, making it to the platform's top sellers list for 2023. Payday 3, which suffered from server problems and a lack of offline play, still made it to the bronze category, while Cities: Skylines 2, despite its technical issues, reached the silver tier. Both games are currently discounted in Steam's Winter Sale. Surprisingly, the free-to-play multiplayer FPS PubG Battlegrounds, followed by Counter-Strike 2, topped the list for generating the most gross revenue on Steam, not the highly anticipated Baldur's Gate 3.
Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters apologized for the technical issues that caused the "Love Is Blind" Season 4 reunion special to be delayed by 19 hours. The issue was caused by a bug that was introduced when implementing changes to improve live-streaming performance. Despite the delay, 6.5 million viewers watched and enjoyed the show. Netflix plans to continue using live as an option when it makes sense creatively and helps the breadth of content itself. The streamer is set to stream the SAG Awards live in 2024.
The Love Is Blind Season 4 reunion, hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey, was delayed due to technical issues and was not available to stream live as planned. The reunion eventually streamed for a Hollywood viewing party, but most viewers at home were unable to watch it. Netflix apologized and announced that the special would be available to stream at 12 p.m. on Monday. The streaming service has not provided any details about what caused the mishap.
Netflix's Love is Blind: The Live Reunion failed to start streaming at its planned 8PM showtime, leading to major consternation from the show's fans across social media. More than an hour later, subscribers were still encountering error screens when trying to watch the event. Finally, at around 9:30PM ET, Netflix posted a public apology and said the special would be filmed and made available on the service "as soon as humanly possible."
The live reunion of Love Is Blind season 4 was delayed by more than an hour due to technical issues on Netflix. The special will now be pre-recorded and posted on the streaming service later Sunday evening. The official watch party at The Vermont in Los Angeles was the only venue to see the special live. The Love is Blind account shared a post writing, "Love is late. It will be worth it."
