As the 400 employees of GSC Game World, creators of the hit video game Stalker, filtered into their Kyiv office in January 2022, most didn't even notice the strange buses parked around the corner. While tensions were growing with their neighbours across the border, the frost-coated shlep to the office felt almost normal. Or so they told themselves. As whispers of war spread throughout the country, regular reassurances from their business partners – and President Zelenskiy – made it seem foolish to worry. Life, they were told, would carry on as usual.

If last week was the week of E3 rumors, this is the week of delays. Phoenix Point, Metro: Exodus, and Skull & Bones were all pushed back this week, meaning the first few months of 2019 are already looking busy. This is gaming news for May 14 to 18. Let's get the Call of Duty news out of the way first, if only because there's a lot of it. This week was the Black Ops IIII reveal event, and the biggest news? That's not entirely unexpected, given Activision did the same with Destiny 2 last year. I guess we should probably expect all major Activision games to be Battle.net