Best Xbox Game Pass Deal UK: 2-Months of Game Pass Ultimate for £16

Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, and GTA San Andreas are all available on Xbox Game Pass, so this definitely isn't the time to let your subscription expire. Thankfully, I've found some excellent deals to keep your membership going for a little while longer.

I've found deals for both active and new Xbox Game Pass subscribers at the moment, both of which are incredible discounts, and well-worth stocking up on before the offer expires. Here's the absolute best Xbox Game Pass deals in the UK, available right now.

What is the Best Xbox Game Pass Deal?

Post-Cyber Monday sales, the best Xbox Game Pass deal right now comes in the form of a conversion trick. Right now, 3-months of Xbox Game Pass for PC is down to £15.99 on Amazon. This means if you're a current Game Pass Ultimate member, you can extend your current subscription at a reduced cost, as 3-months of Game Pass for PC will auto-convert to 2-months of Game Pass Ultimate (current members).

2-months of Ultimate would usually cost £21.98, so you're saving just under £6 in total. If you really want to maximise your savings, stack these Game Pass for PC codes, and get 4-months for £31.98 (saving you £11.98 in total), or 6-months for £47.97 (saving you £17.97).

I can personally confirm that this deal is active, and the conversion trick works perfectly, as I've tested it myself. Here are the relevant steps broken down for you as well.

How to Get 2-Months of Game Pass Ultimate for £16

1. Confirm you are a current member of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
2. Buy an Xbox Game Pass for PC (3-Month) Code - see here
3. Enter the code at the official Microsoft web store - see here
4. Microsoft will then auto-convert your membership to 2-months of Game Pass Ultimate

New Game Pass Users: How to Get 4-Months of Game Pass for £11.99

New Xbox Game Pass members can also secure a brilliant deal right now, all thanks to the Xbox Game Pass for PC sign-up offer. Just follow these steps if you're currently not a Game Pass member.

1. Confirm you are currently NOT a member of Game Pass Ultimate
2. Sign up to Xbox Game Pass for PC, 3-months for £1 - see here
3. Upgrade your membership to Game Pass Ultimate for £10.99 - see here
4. You will now have 4-months of Game Pass Ultimate for £11.99

66% Off Xbox Game Pass for PC Codes with Xbox Accessory Purchases

If you've bought any gaming accessories during the Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales, such as the Xbox 1TB SSD, make sure you take advantage of the discount code it has provided you with. This 66% code will get you an Xbox Game Pass for PC 3-month membership for just £7.99 (was £23.99).

This means if you convert it with your current Ultimate membership, you're getting 2-months of Ultimate for just £8. This is a huge discount, as 2-months would usually cost £21.98.

Will Halo Infinite be on Xbox Game Pass?

Halo Infinite's campaign will be available at no extra cost to current Xbox Game Pass subscribers. Halo Infinite's multiplayer is free-to-play, and is available for all Xbox users - so you don't need to be a Game Pass subscriber to play the online player-vs-player multiplayer.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

New World Is Being Overrun By Fishing Bots

Bots are becoming an increasingly large problem in Amazon's New World MMO, and this time they're coming for your fish, PC Gamer reports.

Bots are a problem when any MMO launches, to be sure, but players on the New World subreddit are reporting what appears to be an increase in bots reaching higher levels, suggesting issues with bot reporting and the issuing of bans.

"Over the last week I have seen a huge influx of bots on my server again," writes Reddit user JustDaveInTheLBC. "But they're all higher level now, 20's & 30's. They're out harvesting and mining in full effect. Are other servers seeing this again? I've reported the same bot three times in three days. It's starting to get really annoying competing for materials with bots."

YouTuber Gladd has even made a game out of spotting bots in the wild, analyzing their behavior and movement in-game. Gladd points out characters casting fishing poles into currently empty lakes and beelining between empty ore deposits. At one point, he runs into what appears to be a bot doing the same beelining motion, and then seconds later runs into another character exhibiting the same bot-like behavior. Literally seconds after that, he encounters a third identical character.

Other players are expressing anger with Amazon for seemingly allowing bots to do as they please despite players submitting multiple reports.

One Reddit user described a bot that has remained in the same spot fishing for 18 hours a day, and continues to impact item prices in-game despite "hundreds" of reports.

"On Mag Mell, it is impossible for ocean fish in Restless because literally every hotspot has a bot that has been camping it for weeks, and I have reported them daily," user Ralisti wrote on the New World forums.

Without more input from Amazon, it's difficult to tell how deep the bot problem truly runs. IGN has reached out to Amazon's PR for comment.

New World has suffered from a number of exploits that are impacting the in-game economy, including repeated issues with gold duplication, and an ongoing currency crisis. The latest update's changes have also sparked off plenty of player backlash, spurring Amazon to apologize. Despite the struggles of launching a new MMO, New World has climbed to the top of Steam's most-played games of 2021.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/bot for IGN.

Call Of Duty Fans Reveal Why They Aren't Buying Vanguard

Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.

This year's regularly scheduled Call of Duty entry — Call of Duty: Vanguard — doesn't appear to be doing as hot as previous Call of Duty games in terms of sales. One big reason why may be that everyone's just too busy playing other games.

GamesIndustry.biz, in collaboration with PAX and EGX, conducted a survey of 671 gaming convention attendees in recent months about their Call of Duty purchasing habits. Of those, 284 individuals said they had purchased a Call of Duty game in the last five years — but only 59 (21%) of that group said they had bought Vanguard.

Of the remaining group that had recently purchased a Call of Duty game but did not buy Vanguard, more than half of respondents (55%) said that they were too busy playing other games already.

In fact, a lot of respondents seemed to have other games on their minds. Thirty-four percent said they had played too much Call of Duty lately, and 14% said they were already happy with Call of Duty: Warzone. Another 11% said they were specifically waiting for another game to play, with some offering Battlefield 2042 and Halo: Infinite as examples.

Still others said they were put off by reviews (20%) or price (4%), not interested in WWII games (24%), did not want to support Activision Blizzard due to 'business practices' or 'treatment of employees' (6%), felt the community was full of cheaters (3%), thought the single-player mode wasn't good enough (2%), or thought the download size was too big (2%).

While this is a small sample of game enthusiasts, a seeming apathy toward Vanguard does seem to be reflected in early sales numbers. Vanguard sold fewer units at launch than last year's entry, Black Ops Cold War, in the UK and Europe, both in physical units (down 26%) and digital (down 44%). That said, in the same regions it remains the second-biggest game launch of 2021 (behind FIFA, as usual).

It's not getting the best review scores, either. While we thought Vanguard had a highly-polished campaign, said campaign is also very short and has a lack of variety, and its multiplayer didn't really distinguish itself from prior Call of Duties. And the critical consensus on Vanguard seems to be that it's just not quite as good as its Call of Duty brethren.

Meanwhile, fellow war shooter Battlefield 2042 is reviewing even worse, but last week was one of Steam's most-played games. Fortunately, the folks surveyed who were holding out for Halo Infinite look like they're in for something special.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Company of Heroes 3's Multiplayer Pre-Alpha Kicks Off Tomorrow

Company of Heroes 3's multiplayer pre-alpha kicks off tomorrow, November 30, allowing players to get their hands on the next installment of Relic's acclaimed World War II real-time strategy game ahead of its 2022 release.

According to Relic, the pre-alpha includes two factions — US Forces and Wehrmacht (Germany) — and will be playable from November 30 at 9 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. GMT through December 6 at 8 p.m. PT / 11 p.m. ET / 4 a.m. GMT.

Players will be able to experience early builds of two game modes — Victory Points and Annihilation — on four different maps: Twin Beaches (1v1), Pachino Farmlands (2v2), Torrente (2v2), and Aere Perennius (2v2). In addition to PvP, the pre-alpha includes solo and co-op modes versus AI opponents. CoH 3's new tactical pause feature will be available exclusively in the solo vs. AI mode.

Coming to PC sometime in 2022, Company of Heroes 3 is Relic's first new entry in the franchise since 2013. It's shaping up to be a solid return, according to our Company of Heroes 3 hands-on preview, which praised the RTS's "spectacular, layered warscape."

Jordan is a freelance writer for IGN.

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl Filled With Duplication Glitches

A recently discovered glitch in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl is allowing players to clone rare Pokémon at a rapid rate.

As reported by Kotaku, PanFro Games explained how the latest duplication glitch works. According to the video, you can clone entire boxes of Pokémon as well as the items they are holding with this exploit. Since a box can hold up to 30 Pokémon at a time, this is a pretty valuable glitch.

For the glitch to work, you have to have multiple PC boxes empty that would normally be filled with Pokémon. The glitch is paired with a previously discovered exploit known as the Menu Screen Glitch, which involves hitting specific buttons on a Pokémon's summary screen.

Then, upon entering the PC box you want to clone, pressing a specific sequence of buttons will allow you to clone the entire box, items and all. If you want to try this maneuver for yourself, PanFro Games walks through the entire process on YouTube. Unlike other recent exploits, there's no risk of losing any of your items during the process.

Nintendo put out a sizeable 3GB patch that addressed issues that were highlighted before launch when the games leaked. So, assuming a fix is in the works, we'll have to wait and see how long this exploit remains possible in the game.

We called the set of games great in our Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl review, saying, "If a good remake is defined by its loyalty to the original, then Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are very good remakes indeed."

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Skyrim Speedrunner Finishes Story In Just Over An Hour To Set New World Record

Skyrim speedrunner Nucular has beaten his own world record for running through Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, finishing the story in just one hour and 12 minutes. All the more impressive, this speedrun was completed without relying on glitches.

As reported by PCGamer, you can check out Nucular's full speedrun on YouTube. Nucular also detailed his speedrunning strategies in the comment section of his video. For example, he plays as a High Elf because they have the highest movement speed.

According to IGN's sister site How Long to Beat, it takes 33 and a half hours to complete the main story. So Nucular's new record is significantly faster.

Skyrim is celebrating its tenth anniversary this month, and speedrunning has been a part of the game's community since the very beginning. Before its launch in November 2011, Bethesda employees held an internal competition to see who could finish the game the fastest. The winner completed the game in 2 hours, 16 minutes, and 10 seconds. So, after 10 years, Nucular was able to cut that original time almost in half with his new world record.

Speaking of the game's tenth anniversary, Bethesda recently released The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition, which includes new and existing Creation Club content.

For more, check out our chat with Bethesda boss Todd Howard, where he dives into Skyrim's legacy, and what's coming next with Elder Scrolls 6 and Starfield.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

CD Projekt Red is Scaling Back Cyberpunk 2077 Support to Work On Expansion

CD Projekt Red has been gradually shifting to new projects while continuing to support Cyberpunk 2077. The studio is also allocating more resources to work on the game's expansion.

In CD Projekt Red's Q3 earnings report, it shows that the majority of the company was still supporting Cyberpunk 2077 up until the end of September this year. Now CD Projekt is focused on Cyberpunk 2077's impending expansion along with Gwent-related projects and projects involving Spokko, another studio under the CD Projekt umbrella.

Additionally, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt are still on track for their respective Q1 and Q2 2022 releases. This new version of The Witcher 3 will also contain extra items inspired by the Netflix adaptation of the series. They were originally both supposed to release during the second half of this year but were delayed to 2022.

CD Projekt will further support Gwent with more regular updates and content drops. A detailed roadmap of 2022 releases will be presented during the Gwent Masters Season 3 finale on December 5. Spokko's augmented reality game, The Witcher: Monster Slayer, is being worked on to improve its retention and monetization, with a content update coming soon too.

CD Projekt also mentions its Vancouver branch as well as its recent acquisition of Molasses Flood, as they will be working on future projects for the company. Molasses Flood was acquired last month and the studio announced that it is working on its own brand new project based on one of CD Projekt's IPs.

Currently, it's unclear what Cyberpunk 2077's expansion will be and whether it could implement something like multiplayer. We'll just have to wait and see until next year.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey