Flutter have announced that PokerStars VR, an innovative virtual reality (VR) product created by its PokerStars brand, has rebranded to Vegas Infinite as part of a full-scale overhaul of the free-to-play social casino videogame. After almost five years at the frontier of the category as PokerStars VR, Vegas Infinite represents the next generation in the game's evolution as a virtual entertainment destination. 

The launch includes a brand-new and bespoke 3D virtual cityscape for players to enjoy as they explore Vegas Infinite's personal player suites, luxury casinos and exclusive rooftops escapes. Vegas Infinite will also soon be available on a new platform, with PC players able to join others on Steam VR and Meta Quest VR, with no headset required. 

Flutter prides itself on driving product innovation across its global portfolio of brands. Through its distinctive Flutter Edge, where product and technology capabilities are shared across the Group, brands like PokerStars can consistently develop their offering by incorporating expertise and insight from other parts of Flutter. 

Since PokerStars VR first launched in 2018, giving players the ability to sit down with friends at a virtual poker table, chat in real time, and interact with their surroundings in a selection of environments, the product has experienced continual development, only accelerated since Flutter's acquisition of the brand in 2021. As part of this, the team has added blackjack, roulette, slots, craps, and the proprietary Rocket Rush to an extensive in-game portfolio, while bringing poker fans Spin & Go poker, MTTs and the flagship poker tournament series, the Metaverse Poker Tour (MPT).

The virtual destination has also grown to include personal suites and dressing rooms, a luxury casino floor in Casino One, The Gallery casino exclusive to high-rollers, and The Rooftop, a subscriber-only rooftop escape overlooking the soaring Vegas Infinite cityscape. Player safety has also been a focal point during development, with Vegas Infinite using ToxMod, an AI live chat monitoring tool, to assist its dedicated moderation team.

Players also have access to a range of in-game safety tools including the option to take time out from games, set spending limits, issue player reports, and customise the extent of their interaction with others in-game. James O'Reilly, PokerStars Director of VR & Innovation, said: "As we approach our fifth anniversary, it's incredible to think how far our game has come.

“From a cutting-edge experiment in applying virtual reality to the poker table, we've grown to become a living entertainment destination with a full suite of games and experiences played in otherworldly environments that are home to an avid community of players. Today, we're much more than poker and much more than VR. Vegas Infinite is where we're taking our players next and there's lots more in store."

According to new data released in 2023, there are approximately 3.09 billion active video gamers worldwide.

And while starting a video game is the easiest step, finishing it requires determination, time and sometimes, a good gaming chair. With that in mind, BestCasinoSites.net sought to find out which video games are the hardest and easiest to beat by analysing Steam data.

Key findings: 

• Only 1.5% of players have beaten Baldur's Gate 3 so far.
• Mafia II: Definitive Edition, DOOM 3, and Path of Exile are amongst the hardest games to beat. 
• Resident Evil and The Walking Dead are the most ‘beatable’ game franchises!

The most ‘beatable’ video games

Resident Evil and The Walking Dead are the most ‘beatable’ game franchises!

Resident Evil 3 - Remake is the easiest video game to beat – with 69% of people completing the game story. The Remake of the 1999 original came out in 2020 and it follows the protagonist Jill Valentine in her quest against Nemesis T-Type. The average time to beat the story is 5.3 hours and 25.9% of people have started the game (got the first achievement) but not beaten it. 

But Resident Evil 3 is not the only game in this series that makes the top 10! In fact, Resident Evil 4 – Remake is the fourth most completed game (64.2% completion rate), and Resident Evil Village is the seventh most completed game (62.4% completion rate).

The apocalyptic setting seems to be a win amongst players, as the second most completed game is The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, with a main game completion rate of 68.2%. While the first and second games in The Walking Dead franchise follow protagonist Clementine in her fight for survival during the Zombie apocalypse, the spotlight in The Walking Dead: A New Frontier is around an original character named Javier "Javi" Garcia. The average time to beat the story is 8.34 hours and only 23.10% of people got the first achievement in the game but didn’t stick around to beat it. 

The fight against the undead continues, with The Walking Dead: Season Two in third place for the most completed video games (64.3%), The Walking Dead: The Final Season in fifth place (64.1%), and The Walking Dead: Michonne - A Telltale Miniseries in sixth place (64%). 

The least ‘beatable’ video games

Released on August 3^rd of this year (2023), Baldur’s Gate 3 took the gaming world by storm, delivering an immersive Dungeon & Dragon-like gameplay, which earned them a 10/10 rating on Steam, out of a whopping 213,233 current reviews. 

That being said, currently only 1.5% of gamers have beat the main game story. This can be due to several factors, from the freshness of the game release to the extensive world that allows the players to get lost in it for hours. Currently, it takes players around 39 hours to complete, and 81.80% of gamers have started the game (got the first achievement) and haven’t yet completed it!

In second place is Mafia II: Definitive Edition, released in 2020, with a main game completion of only 2.9%. This is followed by DOOM 3, with only 3.7% of players beating the game and Path of Exile, with only 4% of people beating the game. 

Methodology: 

• BestCasinoSites.net performed a study to discover which games have the highest/lowest rate of completion among players.
• Games on Steam were the focus of this study, as Steam has a large library of games with achievements, whose data is widely accessible. Data on all games currently on steam was obtained from Kaggle.com.
• Games to be analysed were filtered to have a linear single player story. Through the use of the game IDs, Steam’s API was used to obtain data on achievements, such as the % of players who have obtained each one.
• In addition, only games with a pegi 18+ tag were included, as identified either on the game store page, or from https://pegi.info/
• Next, astats, an achievement recording tool, was scraped. Astats features tags for achievements, denoting if they are a story achievement or not. By combining the data from astats and Steam, we were able to obtain the % of people who have completed the story of each game. In addition, data on the length the game takes to beat was gathered.

MCM Comic Con, the epic celebration of all things pop culture, is excited to reveal the first wave of out of this world panels that will be taking to the stage this Autumn.

The excitement for MCM London Comic Con 2023 continues to build as they have announced even more new guests joining the already stellar line-up!

The wait is finally over – MCM Comic Con, the ultimate celebration of pop culture, is making its highly anticipated return to the NEC Birmingham from Friday 1^st – Sunday 3^rd December!

The voice behind Nintendo's famous character Mario, Charles Martinet, is to step down from the role, the gaming giant has announced. The actor has voiced the Italian plumber in the video games since 1996, starting with Super Mario 64.

However, he did not voice the titular character in this year's movie. That honour went to Chris Pratt. Nintendo announced the news on X, saying it had been an "honour" working with Martinet, 67.