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If you’re looking for the fastest and easiest way to get free spins in Coin Master you’ve come to the right place. This guide contains daily links where you can get free coins and spins in Coin Master. Use these spins to get coins fast and build your villages quickly and easily without spending any money at all. Free Spin Links for Coin Master So what do you need to do to get the Free Coins and Spins? Simply head to the buttons below while you’ve got the Coin Master game open on your phone and it will instantly be transferred to your game. Each code that we post has been tested for safety and is taken directly from the developers of Coin Master who dispense these codes on various social media channels. New Coin Master Links Each day we’ll post new codes, but don’t be afraid to try previous days codes as from time to time they do still work later. If you run out of free code links and still need some more ideas to get spins and coins, you can check out our checklist at the bottom of this article that reveals some alternative ways to getting free spins and coins in Coin Master. Below you’ll find each day’s group of Coin Master Free Spin and Coin links below the date. The more recent the links, the more likely they are to work. If you receive a different amount of spins and coins by clicking on these links, that may be connected to your level so keep on playing to increase the gains. Feel free to let us know on social media if you find that a link is no longer working and good luck in your village building quest. 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Get the latest Blade Ball codes and redeem them for free rewards fast!

Updated: March 28, 2025 We searched for new codes! Whenever I get nostalgic about PE classes, Blade Ball makes me feel that familiar adrenaline rush that used to accompany every dodgeball match. Well, back in the day, we didn’t have cool features such as customizable swords and explosions in our regular boring dodgeball games—features that make this Roblox experience incredibly addictive and fun. Just like in the real deal, mastering gameplay in Blade Ball is somewhat challenging at first, particularly when your opponents have powerful skills such as Wind Cloak and Freeze and you don’t. The game offers a ton of features to unlock but never enough coins. Thankfully, with some help from Blade Ball codes, you will get your hands on some of that sweet currency and other exclusive Skins and Swords. And if you don’t want the fun to end just yet, check out our Roblox Fireworks Playground Codes for more free rewards in that game as well. All Blade Ball Codes List Blade Ball Codes (Working) RAMADAN—Redeem for a free Spin (New) XMAS—Redeem for 3 Reindeer Spins (New) SPOOKYSEASON—Redeem for a free Spin DELAYBALL—Redeem for a free Sword 4BVISITS—Redeem for a free Sword SHARKATTACK—Redeem for a free Spin SUMMERWHEEL—Redeem for a free Spin BPTEAMS—Redeem for a free Spin SUMMERSTARTSHERE—Redeem for a free Spin REBIRTHLTM—Redeem for x1 Rebirth Ticket DRAGONS—Redeem for x1 Dragon Ticket ENERGYSWORDS—Redeem for a free Spin ROBLOXCLASSIC—Redeem for x1 Hacker Ticket GIVEMELUCK—Redeem for x4 Luck Boost GOODVSEVILMODE—Redeem for the Free Good vs Evil Crate DUNGEONSRELEASE—Redeem for 50 Dungeon Runes FROGS—Redeem for a Spin GOODVSEVIL—Redeem for a free Spin BATTLEROYALE—Redeem for a Storm Ticket RNGEMOTES—Redeem for a Spin FREESPINS—Redeem for a free Spin Blade Ball Codes (Expired) EASTERHYPE ZEROGRAVITY GALAXYSEASON FALLINGLTM TOURNAMENTSW LAVAFLOOR LUNARNEWYEAR ELEMENTSPIN FREEHOURLY SENTINELSREVENGE HAPPYNEWYEAR MERRYXMAS WINTERSPIN LIVEEVENTS VISITS_TY RRRANKEDDD WEEK4 SORRY4DELAY UPDATETHREE 1MLIKES HOTDOG10K 10KFOLLOWERZ 500K 200KLIKES FORTUNE 50000LIKES ThxForSupport 1000LIKES 5000LIKES 10000LIKES SITDOWN Related: Roblox Pixel Piece Codes How to redeem codes in Blade Ball To redeem codes in Blade Ball, follow the instructions below: Image: Attack of the Fanboy Launch Blade Ball on Roblox. Click on the Extra icon in the top left corner of the screen. Choose Codes when the drop-down menu appears. Enter your code into the Redeem Code text box. Press the checkmark icon to claim your rewards. How can you get more Blade Ball codes? If you want to look for codes on your own and get new updates directly from the developer, join the Blade Ball Discord Server. Devs occasionally release codes on their X account (@Blade_Ball), so feel free to give them a follow. The official YouTube channel (@Blade-Ball) exists, but the developers are not very active on there at the moment. However, the easiest way to catch the latest codes is to bookmark this page and visit it occasionally. We are constantly looking for and collecting new codes in one place, so you don’t have to waste your time and energy. Why are my Blade Ball codes not working? If you tried redeeming codes manually, you probably met Roblox players’ number one enemy—typos. Always double-check the spelling of your codes and be careful with the details, such as capitalization. Copying and pasting codes directly into the game is an excellent way to avoid this problem. It’s also possible that the code you’re trying to redeem has expired. Developers often don’t specify expiration dates for every code, so an expired one can overstay its welcome on our Working list. If you find a code that no longer works, let us know in the comments, and we’ll investigate the issue. Other ways to get free rewards in Blade Ball The more rounds you play, the more freebies you’ll get. If you click the Quests button on the left side of the screen, you’ll open a menu with three Daily Quests. That way, you can claim some extra Coins simply by progressing through the game. Tasks are usually pretty straightforward, such as completing a certain amount of matches. You can get even more Coins and Wheel Spins by playing the game for a particular amount of time. Press the Extra button in the top left corner of the screen, then click on Playtime Awards in the drop-down menu to claim your rewards. What is Blade Ball? Blade Ball is Roblox’s unique twist on dodgeball, where players can dive into competitive multiplayer matches using special abilities. The goal is simple: hit and block the ball and be the last player eliminated from the Arena. Focus and timing are the key if you want to rise through the ranks. Unlock new abilities and find the ones that most suit your game style. In need of more Roblox codes? Check out our Roblox Codes section for more free goodies in the most popular experiences across all genres!

During a Women’s History Month event at the White House on March 26, President Donald Trump raised eyebrows by calling himself the “fertilization president” while announcing the launch of a new Republican Women’s Caucus in Congress. The caucus, which Trump said will be led by Senator Katie Britt (R-AL) and Representative Kat Cammack (R-FL), is part of a broader push to spotlight women’s issues as the 2024 election approaches. “We’re gonna have tremendous goodies in the bag for women too,” Trump told the crowd, adding, “Between the fertilization and all the other things we’re talking about, it’s gonna be great,” according to journalist Aaron Rupar. Trump: "We're gonna have tremendous goodies in the bag for women too. The women, between the fertilization and all the other things we're talking about, it's gonna be great. Fertilization. I'm still very proud of it, I don't care. I'll be known as the fertilization president and… pic.twitter.com/TjLuL8lb19 — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 26, 2025 It’s not the first time Trump has linked himself to fertility. At a Fox News town hall in 2024, he referred to himself as the “father of IVF” after an audience member raised concerns that abortion bans could threaten access to fertility treatment. “I said, explain IVF, very IVF, very quickly. And within about two minutes, I understood it,” Trump said at the time. “We’re totally in favor of IVF.” His recent comments reference an ongoing legal and political debate stemming from a February ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court, which classified frozen embryos as protected under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. That decision prompted some IVF clinics to pause services, fearing legal consequences. While the ruling didn’t explicitly ban IVF, it added new uncertainty to the procedure’s legal status in certain states. Trump said Britt had reached out to him directly about the ruling, describing it as an “emergency.” In February, he signed an executive order pledging to expand IVF access and reduce treatment costs, but the order offered no concrete implementation plan. It instead directed agencies to submit recommendations. Last October, Vice President Kamala Harris responded to Trump’s town hall remarks with sharp criticism, calling them “quite bizarre” “What is he talking about?” she said to PBS News. “His abortion bans have already jeopardized access to it in states across the country — and his own platform could end IVF altogether.” As Trump continues to frame himself as an advocate for fertility treatment, critics point to inconsistencies between his rhetoric and the broader implications of reproductive policies supported by his party. With IVF and reproductive rights emerging as key issues in 2024, Trump’s unusual framing—and self-appointed titles—are likely to keep drawing attention as both public scrutiny and political stakes intensify. Sources: FOX 32 Chicago, Johns Hopkins, The White House, PBS News

Andrew Tate, the controversial online personality currently facing legal scrutiny in multiple countries, has been accused of sexually violent behavior by his girlfriend, Bri Stern. The alleged incident took place on March 11 during a stay at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where Stern says she was nearly choked unconscious during a sexual encounter. According to a police report filed by Stern, the encounter escalated despite her pleas for Tate to stop. Sources told TMZ that Stern described losing control of her body and consciousness as the choking intensified. “The more she struggled, the more violent he got,” the report alleges. “She felt everything getting fuzzy, like she was fading into unconsciousness.” Stern claims the assault stopped only after Tate finished having sex and fell asleep. She then retreated to the bathroom to document her injuries, which reportedly included facial bruising. Medical records reviewed by TMZ show she was later diagnosed with post-concussive symptoms at a hospital in New York. Stern did not immediately report the incident. Sources say she waited until Tate had left the country for a court appearance in Romania before going to the police, citing safety concerns. She has since blocked him on all social media platforms, according to the same sources. Tate, who was arrested in 2022 alongside his brother Tristan for allegedly running a criminal enterprise in Romania, is currently facing ongoing sexual assault lawsuits in both the U.S. and the U.K. Neither Tate brother has been convicted of any crime to date. The allegations from Stern come amid growing public scrutiny of Tate’s behavior toward women—both in private relationships and in connection with his business dealings. According to recent reports, Tate had expressed interest in managing Stern for content creation on adult platforms like OnlyFans, raising further concerns about coercive control. The Beverly Hills Police Department has not issued a public statement on the investigation. As the case develops, it adds another layer to the legal and public controversy surrounding Andrew Tate, whose online following remains massive despite ongoing criminal proceedings and multiple allegations of abuse. Source: TMZ

What should have been a joyful night out in Dallas ended in violence for 27-year-old Canada Rinaldi, an Oklahoma bride-to-be who was brutally attacked just four weeks before her wedding. The assault occurred around 2 a.m. Sunday in the Deep Ellum, Dallas TX neighborhood as Rinaldi and her friends were walking to their Uber after a night out. According to a GoFundMe campaign launched by a member of her bridal party, Rinaldi was knocked unconscious, suffering a broken nose, three broken teeth, and a deep facial wound requiring eight stitches. Dash cam footage from a nearby Lyft driver captured the moment a man struck Rinaldi before fleeing the scene. Police have not confirmed the suspect’s identity but have reportedly identified a possible person of interest. Rinaldi told PEOPLE the development gave her “a lot of peace of mind.” Image: Canada Rinaldi She doesn’t remember the attack. “I only remember walking to my Uber and then being in and out of the ambulance and hospital,” she said. “It’s just shocking. It’s just hard to believe. It just feels like a lot of my experiences were taken away from me.” The incident also left another member of the party injured. Kelly Peralta, Rinaldi’s future aunt-in-law, was punched while trying to shield her from the attacker. “We started walking across the street to get into the Uber, and that’s when he came from behind and punched Canada,” she recalled to NBC 5 DFW. Just a day before the assault, Rinaldi had told friends she was having “the best trip of her life,” according to the GoFundMe page. That joy quickly turned into what the campaign described as “a terrifying and traumatizing night.” Despite the trauma, Rinaldi remains focused on healing. “I’m doing well,” she said, noting that her face is healing faster than expected. “I will be almost, if not fully, healed on the outside by the wedding depending on how my nose heals.” Still, the emotional aftermath lingers. “I feel like I’m not excited to plan my wedding anymore,” she admitted. “But I will still have the best day of my life with the person I love, no matter what I look like.” The GoFundMe campaign has raised over $12,900 to help cover medical costs and emotional recovery, offering a glimpse at the overwhelming support Rinaldi has received. “She is now trying to heal—not only physically, but emotionally and financially—when she should be counting down the days to her wedding,” the page reads. As of now, the Dallas Police Department has not released additional details about the investigation. Sources: GoFundMe, WFAA, NBCDFW

Updated: March 27, 2025 We searched for new codes. Gamers hoping to find themselves engaged in high-octane combat with some JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure flare should look into the Roblox experience Sakura Stands as quickly as possible. Alongside plenty of combat to partake in against NPC’s and other players, gamers also have the chance to get plenty of experience to level themselves up. Are there any codes for Sakura Stands that will give players a bit of a boost, or will they find themselves at the mercy of Killer Queen? Let’s get ready to live out our lives in this new world, and prepare ourselves for the ultimate form of combat. All Sakura Stand Codes Players will find all of the currently available codes for Sakura Stand below, alongside some questions asked by players of this experience. All Sakura Stand Codes (Working) MeltingSnow – 500 Tokens (New) SnowInSummer? – 500 Tokens (New) SakuraBallZ – 1k Tokens (New) LordOfSakuraStand – Ornament (New) SpookySpookyPlushie – 400 Candy Corn PinPinponpon – 500 Tokens TheCornBuff – 201 Candy Corn StupidBug – 200 Candy Corn MerryChristmas – 1k Tokens IMustBeTheReasonWhy – 1k Tokens TrickOTreat – 1 Token GodGivenBurger – 2,000 Tokens LobsterActivity – 2,000 Tokens ChxmeiSavedTheDay – 1,000 Tokens SakuraStandSocialExperiment – A random reward between 1-1,000 Tokens (New Servers Only) FreeSFCValuePack – 1,000 Tokens AMMDEVSFROMHEAVENSTANDOMG – 750 Tokens DigitalCash – $10,000 SakuraFinallyAddedStand – Free rewards (Requires Mastery 3) EarlyD4C – Add 50% to Red mist gate (Requires Mastery 3) SFCSpecialCoupon – 500 Token (Requires Mastery 3) RolandAndFriends – 500 Token KuzmaToldMeToAddThisCode – 199 Tokens On ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. – Add 50% to Red mist gate (Requires Mastery 3) dolor ipse est amandus – Add 50% to Red mist gate (Requires Mastery 3) Accipere dolorem est amare – Add 50% to Red mist gate (Requires Mastery 3) GiftFromSFC – 500 Tokens SFCOpen4Business – 1.5k Tokens (Requires Mastery 3) Kafk-ISTHATTHEREDMIST – 1k Tokens (Requires Mastery 1) Kaiju-8 – 500 Tokens batheski – 1500 Tokens and Secret Ska shirt ArrivalOfTheSkaFilmShirt1 – 300 Tokens FreeAdjucha – Spawn 1 adjucha (5 adjuchas limit per server) (Requires Mastery 3) fidgetspinner.io – Free rewards SuddenShutdown – 500 Tokens 2monthsdelay – Free rewards (Requires Mastery 10) theSTARRK – Free rewards AnArbiterAwakens – Free rewards fixedcutscenewowowowowowowoowowowowow – 300 Tokens shutdownmb – 300 Tokens tenthousand – Boosts (Requires Mastery 5) 115KLikess – x2 EXP, 1 Stand Arrow, and 15k Cash 110KLikes – x2 EXP and 1 Token CLASSICAUDDY – random 500 – 1,500 Tokens ThisFateWasFatedForTheFatedFate – the Will of Fate title 105KLikes – 2,000 Tokens justice – Boosts (For new servers only) 100KLikes – 1,001 Token (For new servers only) BugsFix2 – Boosts BugsFix – Boosts SorryforShutdown – 250 Tokens and 75 Snowflakes TYForFollowing – Free Boosts HolidayEvent – Free Boosts FOURTHSHUTDOWN – 1000 Tokens AuddyCOOKED – 895 Tokens HeIsGONE – 1 Token WHISPERTEAM – 1000 Tokens sorryguys – 900 Tokens All Sakura Stand Codes (Expired) CodeBugFix – x2 EXP SukunaFingerIncident – x2 EXP How To Redeem Codes In Sakura Stands Players hoping to redeem a few codes in Sakura Stands may be confused about how to actually redeem the codes that are available to them, and it is easy to understand why. The Code Redemption Menu is hidden away, but follow these steps and you’ll be ready to redeem in no time. Access the Menu in the bottom, left corner of the screen Click on Settings in the new menu that has appeared on the screen Scroll to the bottom of Settings to find the “Enter Code Prompt” Enter the code and press Enter Why Aren’t My Sakura Stands Codes Working Players will want to ensure that they’ve typed the codes in exactly as they were typed on this page, and make sure to follow the capitalization. If a code is expired, this experience will let you know that it is no longer valid, but if it says the code isn’t working, there could be a small typo preventing you from claiming your bonuses. Where To Get More Sakura Stands Codes The developer of this experience is not very active on Social Media, so joining the Sakura Stand Discord Community is likely to be the easiest way to claim some new codes as soon as they go live for this particular game. Also, make sure that you have bookmarked this page, as we will be checking for new codes quite often. What Exactly Is Sakura Stands? Sakura Stands is an action game, based loosely on the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure franchise. Players will be able to power themselves up, as well as earn plenty of unique and powerful allies from not only this franchise, but others such as Jujutsu Kaisen and more. Players can also partake in PVP battles, either in a group or via 1 on 1 battle that can be prompted at any time. Those searching for a new action title that have tired from other experiences, such as Blox Fruits may fall in love with this title. It offers quite a competitive nature, and plenty of things to do, such as side quests and a story to follow alongside. Roblox is available now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Mobile Devices, and PC.

Meghan Markle is showing fans what life looks like post-royalty—and Prince Harry is the one behind the lens. In a recent Instagram Story, Meghan posted a brief video of birds flying in a tight V formation across a clear blue sky. It’s visually stunning. But what makes it stand out is the caption: “Flying into the week with my family ”. Followed by a quiet credit: “Thanks to my H for capturing this.” The nickname “H” isn’t new. Meghan first used it publicly in the couple’s 2019 ITV documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, a moment that stood out because she wasn’t just talking about her husband—she was talking about survival, happiness, and why that distinction matters. “It’s not enough to just survive something,” she said then. “That’s not the point of life. You have got to thrive.” Image: Meghan Markle’s Instagram This latest clip continues that same throughline—soft moments that hint at something deeper. Life after royal duties hasn’t just been about peace and quiet. It’s been about control. Their terms. Their timing. Their lens. Meghan also shared footage from the kitchen, making an elaborate banana split breakfast with longtime friend Kelly McKee Zajfen. “When one of the besties reinvents a banana split for breakfast,” she wrote. The shot: candid, casual, not over-produced. Intimate without feeling staged. These posts come as Meghan ramps up promotion for her lifestyle brand—originally called American Riviera Orchard, now rebranded as As Ever. In an interview with People, she acknowledged how messy the process has been. “There are tons of twists and turns—even with the name. I was figuring it out in real time.” She doesn’t pretend to have it all figured out. “I appreciate everyone who gave me the grace to make mistakes and figure it out—and also to be forgiving with myself through that. It’s a learning curve,” she said. Sources: People

Just days after his wedding, a 44-year-old groom says he’s already considering divorce—accusing his new wife of betraying his trust by secretly asking guests for money behind his back. In a candid Reddit post that’s gone viral on r/AITAH, the groom shared how what was supposed to be a joyful celebration spiraled into emotional turmoil, leaving him feeling “angry,” “betrayed,” and deeply disillusioned. “My trust is broken,” he wrote. “We lost friends and people that I care about. I don’t see how therapy can fix this.” At the heart of his frustration was a secret campaign his 42-year-old wife allegedly launched months before the wedding: sending emails to guests asking for financial contributions—despite the couple’s agreement not to pressure anyone for money. The groom said he was completely unaware until a friend backed out of attending, revealing the ongoing requests. “She said okay but still turned around and did it anyway,” he explained. “This has been going on since the holidays, and she never included me in the emails.” The fallout was visible at the ceremony itself. According to the groom, several guests failed to show, leaving “a chunk” of empty seats in the church. “That wasn’t a great feeling,” he wrote, describing the moment as a black cloud over what should’ve been the happiest day of his life. The financial betrayal wasn’t the only point of tension. In the days leading up to the wedding, the bride reportedly dyed her hair a drastically different color—something the groom said made her look like “someone else.” He also voiced discomfort with the revealing design of her wedding dress, noting that both of their families come from “very traditional” backgrounds. While he labeled these issues as merely “aesthetic,” they contributed to the growing unease. “I just wanted our wedding to be an occasion to share our happiness,” he said. “Instead, it felt like a financial obligation to some of our guests.” The Reddit post quickly sparked debate. Most users rallied behind the groom, calling his wife’s actions a serious breach of trust. “To request money from guests is straight up weird,” one commenter said. Another added, “A wedding should be a celebration of love, not a fundraising event.” Comment byu/EstimateSeparate2647 from discussion inAITAH Still, a few users urged him not to rush into a divorce. “Maybe this is a one-off thing that she can learn from,” one person wrote, suggesting counseling before making any final decisions. Others weren’t so empathetic to the husband, citing his pointed distaste of his bride’s wedding dress. Comment byu/EstimateSeparate2647 from discussion inAITAH As the story continues to make waves online, it highlights the complex challenges couples face when values clash—especially during high-pressure milestones like weddings.

An Air France flight bound for the Caribbean was forced to turn around mid-air on Friday after a passenger misplaced their phone, delaying the journey for hundreds of travelers. Flight AF750 had departed Paris Orly Airport at around 12 p.m. en route to Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe when the crew made the decision to reverse course. The plane had been flying for nearly two hours and had just crossed into the Atlantic before looping back and landing at Orly at 2:37 p.m., according to flight tracking data from FlightAware. The reason? A missing mobile phone. According to The Standard, the aircraft turned around after an unsuccessful search for the passenger’s device—though neither Air France nor aviation officials have confirmed the specific circumstances that prompted the unscheduled landing. After a nearly two-hour delay on the ground, the flight took off again at 4:13 p.m. and ultimately completed the nine-hour trip to Pointe-à-Pitre. The detour likely added several hours to the journey, frustrating passengers and raising eyebrows over aviation priorities. The airline has yet to release an official statement, and it’s unclear what steps were taken to locate the missing phone—or how passengers responded to the sudden diversion. The incident comes amid growing scrutiny of electronic devices on flights. Air France’s policy requires mobile phones to be kept in airplane mode during key phases of flight and stipulates safety standards for lithium-ion batteries. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has reported 236 battery-related incidents on aircraft since 2006—with 85 occurring in the past year alone—highlighting the ongoing risks posed by misplaced or malfunctioning devices onboard. While the missing phone was never found mid-air, its impact grounded a plane, disrupted schedules, and left an entire cabin wondering: could it really have been that serious? Sources: FlightAware, The Standard, People

In a sorrowful development for music enthusiasts, Jesse Colin Young, the renowned frontman of the iconic 1960s counterculture folk rock band The Youngbloods, has died from a heart attack. This information was verified by TMZ, which stated that the Aiken County Coroner’s Office in South Carolina has determined the cause of death to be heart-related issues caused by atherosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease. The coroner’s report indicates that Young passed away at 3:13 PM on Sunday at Aiken Regional Medical Center, with the cause of death being classified as natural. Jesse Colin Young was 83 years old when he died. Reports suggest that emergency responders were summoned to Young’s residence earlier that day, and he was taken to the hospital, where he was declared dead soon after arriving. This news serves as a sobering reminder of how fleeting life can be, particularly for artists whose creations have profoundly influenced multiple generations. Photo by Getty Images/Bob Riha, Jr. The Youngbloods, most famous for their timeless anthem Get Together, became emblematic of the 1960s folk rock movement, embodying the era’s ideals of peace and love. In addition to his work with the band, Young had a flourishing solo career that further highlighted his musical abilities. Fans have flooded social media with messages of sympathy and personal stories about Young’s impact on music. As an artist, he not only motivated a generation with his songs but also leveraged his influence to advocate for themes of togetherness and harmony. A significant figure in the music world, Young’s passing marks the end of an influential voice that championed a countercultural ethos—using his art and lyrics to bring attention to social issues. As Jesse Colin Young leaves this world, fans are left to honor the enduring songs and meaningful lyrics that still motivate and comfort. Rest in peace, Jesse. Sources: TMZ, Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times

In a surprising development, Sean “Diddy” Combs has publicly shown his support for Kanye West during a challenging period in the rapper’s personal and professional life. Diddy recently reached out to Kanye for a sincere and emotional conversation, especially in the wake of the media storm surrounding Kanye’s divorce from Kim Kardashian. The conversation, which reportedly happened over a prison phone due to Diddy’s current legal issues, highlights a friendship that has stayed strong despite the chaos surrounding both men. Details of the call were leaked by The Shade Room, revealing that Diddy encouraged Kanye to return to the stage and start making music again, even with all the controversies surrounding them. Diddy reportedly expressed his eagerness to be released from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn so he could “be able to hug” Kanye once more. In a particularly touching moment, Diddy also warned Kanye to “be careful” of the “wicked sh*t out there.” This advice is likely connected to the recent developments in Kanye’s custody battle with Kim Kardashian, as she has been trying to change their joint legal custody agreement concerning their children. Kanye’s recent actions have caused concern, especially his public statements that many have called antisemitic, as well as his promotion of a casting call that involved Nazi imagery. Over the past few months, Kanye has faced criticism for his controversial comments, which included taking back an apology to the Jewish community and praising Adolf Hitler in various interviews. Photo by Kevin Mazur/Child2014/WireImage While Diddy has expressed support for Kanye, many are questioning whether he knew about Kanye’s bold casting call, which sought Black individuals with Diddy’s skin tone who would be willing to wear Swastikas for an upcoming stage project. The casting notice included specific requirements that caused alarm: participants had to be “not fat,” have “shaved heads,” and possess “Diddy’s skin tone or darker.” Related: ‘At Ease Wearing Swastikas’: Kanye Takes Down Request For Stylish Individuals Resembling Diddy The implications of this casting call have not been ignored, as it continues to spark outrage and controversy in the media. Kanye seems to be balancing on a fine line, mixing artistic expression with provocative themes that have led to significant backlash in recent months. As of now, Kanye has removed the casting call from X (formerly Twitter), continuing a pattern of him retracting controversial statements made on social media. Critics argue that these recent actions might be an attempt to take advantage of the current cultural climate, similar to the controversies surrounding figures like Elon Musk and Diddy himself, who is currently dealing with serious legal problems related to racketeering and sexual assault. Sources: Marca, Page Six, The Sun

Meghan Markle’s much-anticipated Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, premiered on March 4, but the response has been far from positive. Despite the initial excitement surrounding the Duchess of Sussex’s solo project, which focuses on her passion for cooking, gardening, and hosting, the show has been met with disappointing viewership numbers and widespread criticism. Streaming data shows that With Love, Meghan reached only 526,000 households, a significant drop compared to her previous projects. For example, the docuseries Harry & Meghan attracted a massive 2.1 million households, and Markle’s revealing interview with Oprah Winfrey also garnered a great deal of attention. This sharp contrast in audience interest has led to questions about whether Markle can maintain her appeal without her connection to the British royal family. Royal expert Kinsey Schofield, who hosts the To Die For Daily podcast, discussed these concerns in an interview with Fox News Digital. He said, “With Love, Meghan lacked the one thing that makes her interesting – the in-laws who refused to give her any access to them because they considered her untrustworthy.” Schofield pointed out that much of the public’s interest in Markle is closely tied to her relationship with the royal family, suggesting that viewers are less interested in her independent projects. Photo by Samir Hussein/WireImage The criticism goes even further. Schofield noted that while Markle has built her brand around being a victim of mistreatment by the royals, her attempt to rebrand herself as a lifestyle figure, similar to “Betty Crocker,” has been met with skepticism. “I think people have seen for themselves who Meghan Markle is, and they don’t like her,” he said. “On top of the real lack of authenticity, they’ve already made up their minds about her and don’t have the patience to be convinced otherwise.” Other experts agree with Schofield’s assessment, arguing that Markle and Prince Harry’s relevance is largely dependent on their ties to the royal family. Many believe that the British Royal Family is the “real star” of Netflix, with content about them performing much better than projects focused solely on the Sussexes. The criticism of With Love, Meghan comes at a particularly sensitive time for the couple, who are reportedly undergoing a “professional separation.” This move seems to be an attempt to revive their individual careers, especially after Prince Harry’s recent documentary, Polo, also failed to attract a large audience and didn’t make it into Netflix’s top 10. At the same time, Markle independently launched her lifestyle brand, As Ever, which has added to the speculation about the state of their relationship amid ongoing divorce rumors. As the Sussexes navigate their careers outside the royal family, it’s unclear whether Markle can change public opinion or recapture the spotlight without the draw of her royal connections. For now, one thing seems clear: authenticity and a connection to their past roles may be key to their future success. Sources: Fox, Daily Express

In a revealing episode of Bill Maher’s podcast, Club Random, former CNN anchor Don Lemon opened up about his experiences with sexual harassment during his career. The nearly two-hour discussion touched on media bias, political views, and Lemon’s unique perspective as a gay Black man. Lemon shared that he faced harassment from both men and women throughout his career, underscoring the complexities of workplace dynamics. “I’ve been harassed by women and men in the work,” he told Maher. “There are some things that are really egregious, but not everything is Harvey Weinstein-level.” One of the most uncomfortable recollections came from a moment he experienced at CNN’s cafeteria in Atlanta. A female colleague allegedly tweaked his nipples, playfully stating, “Oh, it’s cold in here!” Lemon recalled how he firmly pointed out the double standard of such behavior. “OK — you realize if I did that, they’d be walking me out the door right now?” he said. Lemon also disclosed another incident involving a different female coworker who harassed him outside the office environment. He described her as going through a divorce and noted, “It was just bizarre.” He hesitated to report the harassment to management, fearing that her higher status in the company might undermine his claim. “I wasn’t sure if I’d be believed,” he explained. Under Maher’s prodding for more details, Lemon recounted more about this particular colleague, mentioning that he felt pressured during social events. “Remember, this was a while ago, and there was no Uber or anything like that. If you are in Atlanta, the taxis aren’t available,” he said. When he attempted to leave a gathering, he was met with resistance, with the woman insisting, “Stay in the guest room.” Though Lemon didn’t elaborate on the specifics of this encounter, he noted that the aftermath was complicated, stating the CNN employee was “so mean to me afterward.” He reflected on his ability as a man to assert himself, saying, “As a man, I could say, ‘No, I’m not interested,’” but added that he recognizes the challenges women face in similar situations. The conversation took a deeper turn when Lemon revealed a personal trauma: he was molested as a child. This experience, he shared, has shaped how he navigates power dynamics. “But also someone who was molested as a child is a different thing,” he said, causing Maher to emphasize the weight of his admission. “Because you know how to deal with it, and you know what’s really important or not. And you know, like, who has the power.” As he pondered the balance of power between genders in such scenarios, Lemon concluded that he prefers to handle these situations without involving HR. “I figure as a man, I have the power to say, ‘I don’t want to,’” he explained. Sources: USA Today, Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap/YouTube

In a high-stakes battle that has taken a dramatic turn, Drake finds himself embroiled in legal disputes with his label, Universal Music Group (UMG), following a heated diss track exchange with Kendrick Lamar. The Canadian rapper has labeled UMG’s actions as cowardly after they released Lamar’s controversial track, Not Like Us, igniting tensions that have bubbled over into court. Drake has filed a lawsuit against UMG, claiming that they knowingly released a track that includes the line “certified pedophile,” which he argues is false and defamatory. According to reports from TMZ, UMG has responded by stating that Drake is “only suing after losing the rap battle” and emphasized that both artists have engaged in an ongoing feud, each releasing multiple tracks aimed at the other. UMG also pointed to Drake’s own releases that include intense critiques of Lamar, including serious allegations that question Lamar’s personal life. The label’s court documents assert that Drake escalated the dispute by dropping a second recording to compel a response from Lamar. UMG, in their filing, not only denies the defamatory nature of “Not Like Us” but is also seeking an immediate dismissal of the lawsuit. They highlighted that commentators have recognized Lamar as the “winner” of the rap battle, a verdict that poses a significant blow to Drake’s reputation. On social media, the fallout from this ongoing legal drama has sparked a flurry of opinions from fans. One user wondered why people “act like Drake is so important” when “he’s just a rapper.” Others voiced their thoughts on his handling of the situation, with one calling him “a poor loser who can’t admit that he lost. Even though the whole world knows,” while another warned UMG lawyers to “stay off Twitter” amidst the uproar. Adding another layer to this already complex narrative, Drake has cited security threats stemming from Lamar’s track and expressed concerns about his safety. He claims the diss has negatively impacted his brand and image, pointing to a series of shootings near his Toronto home, including an incident where one of his security guards was injured by gunfire. Allegations have also emerged that UMG labeled Drake’s diss track a “chart-topper” to maximize its reach, including potential promotions during the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Sources: Hollywood Reporter, Variety, TMZ

The Murfreesboro Police Department (MPD) confirmed that reports about an active gunman on Broad Street near Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) were not true. The police department addressed the false claim on social media, asking residents not to share the misleading post. The original post had said, “A gunman is active on Broad Street near Middle Tennessee, SWAT present.” However, MPD quickly clarified that this information was wrong. “This information is not accurate,” the department stated in its message. (Murfreesboro Police Dept.) According to MPD, the confusion was caused by an incident involving a search warrant carried out by the Special Operations Unit at a home in the area. Police confirmed that a man and a woman were arrested during this operation but stressed that they do not pose any threat to the community. “This situation was handled by our Special Operations Unit and does not involve any ongoing danger to the public,” MPD explained. Given how quickly misinformation spread, the department emphasized the importance of checking such claims before sharing them. MPD’s warning highlights the potential consequences of spreading unverified reports, especially when it comes to public safety. As the community processes this news, MPD continues to have a presence in the area to ensure public safety and provide correct information. The department’s efforts to address false narratives show its commitment to maintaining trust and transparency with the public. Source: WSMV, Rutherford Source

A new website called “DOGEQUEST” has sparked widespread attention due to its controversial actions, as it claims to publish private information about Tesla owners throughout the United States. The site features a searchable map that supposedly shows the names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of these owners. It also states that it will remove someone’s information if they can provide evidence that they no longer own a Tesla. However, the accuracy of the data on the site is uncertain. According to a verification report from 404 Media, while some of the people listed on the website do seem to be actual Tesla owners or supporters, it’s not clear if all the entries are accurate. “We found that some locations on the map don’t match their real-world addresses,” the report mentioned, which has led to doubts about the site’s trustworthiness. This release of information by DOGEQUEST comes at a time when protests against Tesla are increasing, creating a sense of intimidation for many Tesla owners. Every weekend, protests called “Tesla Takedown” are happening across the country, and there have been reports of vandalism at Tesla dealerships, vehicles, and supercharger stations. There are also accounts of Tesla drivers facing hostility, with even Cybertruck owners being verbally harassed in public. New from 404 Media: a site called 'Dogequest' claims to be doxing Tesla owners across the U.S. Verified that at least some of the people in there are Tesla/Musk supporters. Comes as Trump has said that violence against Tesla would be domestic terrorism www.404media.co/dogequest-si… — Joseph Cox (@josephcox.bsky.social) 2025-03-18T01:04:20.348Z The backdrop to these protests is the changing perception of Tesla in the market. Since former President Donald Trump took office, Tesla’s stock has dropped significantly, falling by 44 percent. As of Monday, the stock was down nearly 5 percent. In what seems like an effort to support the brand, Trump recently praised Tesla cars in front of the White House, while both he and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have tried to discourage the protests. Trump even suggested that violent acts against Tesla dealerships could be considered domestic terrorism, adding to the tense atmosphere surrounding Tesla’s public image. The DOGEQUEST website describes itself as the “ultimate hub for enthusiasts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).” It includes an interactive map of what it calls DOGE landmarks and makes questionable claims about its ability to connect Tesla owners through shared contact details. “Using our advanced artificial intelligence algorithms,” the site claims, though it doesn’t explain how it collects its data. Critics have highlighted the site’s provocative design elements, such as a cursor shaped like a molotov cocktail. In a section encouraging users to creatively express their protests, the site implies that anyone wanting to vandalize a Tesla doesn’t need a map to do so, potentially encouraging illegal activities. The DOGEQUEST site states: “If you’re looking for a Tesla to express your artistic side with a spray can, just step outside—no map required!” This statement raises serious ethical concerns about the possibility of promoting unlawful behavior. In its policy section, DOGEQUEST includes a statement about data removal, promising to delete a user’s information if they can prove they’ve sold their Tesla. Sources: 404media, Joseph Cox/Bluesky

A recent report from the enterprise security company Cato Networks has sounded a warning about the security risks tied to generative AI chatbots. The findings, outlined in the 2025 Cato CTRL Threat Report, show that even people with very little technical know-how can take advantage of AI models to create harmful software aimed at stealing sensitive information stored in web browsers. The report explains that a researcher, who Cato says had “no prior malware coding experience,” managed to use AI tools like DeepSeek R1 and V3, Microsoft Copilot, and OpenAI’s GPT-4o to build “fully functional” Chrome infostealers. These dangerous tools are made to pull out saved usernames, passwords, and other private data from Chrome. “The researcher created a detailed fictional world where each gen AI tool played roles — with assigned tasks and challenges,” the report says. “Through this narrative engineering, the researcher bypassed the security controls and effectively normalized restricted operations.” Photo by Cesc Maymo/Getty Images Cato has named the method used in this attack “Immersive World,” a process that highlights weaknesses in widely used chatbot models. While DeepSeek models are already known for their weak security measures, the fact that the Immersive World technique works so easily even against systems with strong safety teams, like those at OpenAI and Microsoft, is worrying. “Our new LLM jailbreak technique […] should have been blocked by gen AI guardrails. It wasn’t,” said Etay Maor, Cato’s Chief Security Strategist, stressing how serious the issue is. Cato’s report mentions that it has shared its findings with the relevant companies. OpenAI and Microsoft confirmed they received the report, but DeepSeek did not respond. Google also acknowledged the findings but chose not to review the critical code when Cato offered it. Keeping an eye on threats from generative AI has become more important than ever, as the report describes the ability to manipulate these systems as an “alarm bell” for cybersecurity professionals. It shows how easily someone can become a “zero-knowledge threat actor,” meaning they need very little expertise to carry out successful cyberattacks. There are increasingly few barriers to entry when creating with chatbots. This means attackers require less expertise up front to be successful. To reduce the risks from AI-powered threats, Cato recommends using AI-based security strategies. Focusing on training that keeps up with the changing cybersecurity landscape can help teams handle the challenges brought by generative AI tools. Sources: PRNewswire, ZDNet, infosecurity-magazine

In a startling revelation, former ‘Bachelor’ star Sean Lowe has opened up about a series of traumatic incidents involving his rescue dog, Moose. Just three months after welcoming Moose into his home, Lowe faced three vicious attacks that left him severely injured and requiring medical attention. Lowe recounted the ordeal during an Instagram video alongside his wife, Catherine. The incident occurred last Thursday while they were barbecuing with friends. In a moment of distraction, Lowe ran inside to address a fire alarm but returned to chaos. That’s when the nightmare began as Lowe explained, detailing how Moose turned aggressive during the brief moment of inattention. In a description that might make any pet lover cringe, Lowe revealed when he grabbed a towel to wave the smoke away from the alarm, Moose suddenly nipped his finger aggressively, then started sinking his teeth into Lowe’s shoes before ripping into his arm. He emphasized that this wasn’t a simple defensive bite from a frightened dog. “I don’t mean bite and run off like a lot of dogs do when they’re scared or defensive. I mean [he] attacks me. And I feel him kind of ripping into the flesh of my arm, and at this point, I am doing everything I possibly can just to fend this dog off. … I know I’m bleeding badly. And my friends don’t know what’s going on.” He shared. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sean Lowe (@seanloweksu) After managing to push Moose into the backyard, Lowe faced another attack when the dog returned for more after managing to get into the backyard. The injuries were serious, with Lowe recalling that the cut on his wrist was so deep that blood was “squirting several feet.” His friends quickly rushed him to the emergency room, where he received stitches on both arms. Unfortunately, the terror did not end that day. Moose escaped the next morning and targeted Lowe yet again, leading to another wrestling match and another trip to the ER for more stitches. Despite the trauma inflicted by Moose, Lowe acknowledged that the dog was not at fault, explaining that Moose had experienced a lot of trauma before being adopted by his family. However, with three children in the household, Lowe noted that they made the difficult decision to return the dog to a shelter.

Indie wrestler Vince Steele, who was known in the wrestling ring as The Jurassic Juggernaut, has died after experiencing a medical emergency during a match on Sunday. He was 39 years old. Steele was participating in a four-way match at the Brii Combination Wrestling (BCW) event when he suddenly had a “cardiac event,” as reported by PWInsider and Fightful. This led to immediate action from emergency medical teams. BCW issued a statement addressing the seriousness of the situation. “During yesterday’s event, Vince suffered a medical emergency in the ring. We want to express our deepest gratitude to the Ridgefield Park Police Department, who were on the scene within minutes and immediately provided emergency medical assistance,” the organization said in a social media post. “Despite their rapid response and the best efforts of first responders, we tragically lost Vince. This is an unimaginable loss, and we ask for patience and respect as we process this tragedy. We will share more details in the coming days on how we plan to honor Vince’s incredible legacy.” According to people who were there, it took about 45 minutes for emergency responders to arrive. During that time, medical staff at the venue worked to help Steele while the audience looked on with concern. We are heartbroken to learn about the passing of “The Jurassic Juggernaut” Vince Steele. Our thoughts are with his family, his friends, and his fans. Rest In Peace, big man. You will forever be missed. pic.twitter.com/4wCzfSf47A — Coastal Championship Wrestling (@CCWAliveTV) March 16, 2025 Steele had been a prominent figure in the wrestling world since he started his career in 2004. His death has created a significant gap in the wrestling community, where both his colleagues and fans are deeply saddened by his passing. Wrestler Emily Jaye, who was at the BCW event, shared her thoughts on the tragic incident: “Today was one of the most traumatizing things I’ve ever witnessed. Thank you for everything you did in wrestling and out.” Another wrestler, Vincent Michaels, shared his sorrow on social media, calling the day “the worst day of my career.” He added, “Vince Steele gave everything to pro wrestling and today he gave his life for it. Every single wrestler/referee/crew on hand did everything they could to keep him going and they should be proud of that. I know I am.” Steele leaves behind his wife and three children, which underscores the deep impact of his loss not only on the wrestling community but also on his family. As tributes continue to come in from fellow wrestlers and fans, the wrestling world is remembering Steele for his contributions both inside and outside the ring. BCW is expected to announce plans in the next few days to honor Steele’s legacy. Source: Vincent Michaels, NDTV, The New York Post, Dailymail

In an unexpected twist of transatlantic relations, the White House has firmly declared that there are no plans to return the Statue of Liberty to France, dismissing a recent call from a French member of the European Parliament. During a press briefing on March 17, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded sharply to a proposal made by French politician Raphaël Glucksmann, stating, “Absolutely not,” when asked about the statue’s return. Leavitt’s response came after Glucksmann expressed his belief on March 16 that the United States no longer exemplifies the values represented by the iconic monument. “Give us back the Statue of Liberty,” Glucksmann demanded during a speech, later adding, “It was our gift to you. But apparently you despise her. So she will be happy here with us.” Leavitt, 27, didn’t shy away from elaborating on the historical significance of the Statue of Liberty, subtly reminding those listening of the U.S. and France’s alliance during World War II. “My advice to that unnamed low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now,” she said, reinforcing the sentiment that the statue remains a representation of American values, as opposed to its perceived detachment. While Glucksmann’s comments seemed to echo a broader critique of American policies and values today, Leavitt suggested that France should show gratitude instead. “They should be grateful,” she remarked, positioning the conversation around the statue as not just historical, but a matter of current dynamics in U.S.-France relations. The Statue of Liberty, which was unveiled on October 28, 1886, was originally a gift from France to the United States, intended as a symbol of freedom, inspiration, and hope. Its significance is underscored by details such as its crown, which represents light with spikes evoking sun rays, and a tablet inscribed with the date of American independence. Politically, Glucksmann’s statement about the statue’s return appears to lack grounding in legal reality. According to Politico, the statue is formally a property of the U.S. government, rendering any demands for its return more symbolic than actionable. The uproar over comments regarding the statue could also have implications for diplomatic relations between U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, who met in February to discuss several pressing international issues, including aid to Ukraine. Sources: Politico, AP News

John Cena shocked the wrestling world on Monday night during his return to WWE’s Monday Night Raw, taped in Brussels, Belgium, where he announced his retirement from wrestling, revealing feelings of disenchantment with his fans. Entering the arena to a mixed reception of cheers and boos, Cena quickly addressed the audience, expressing frustration over what he perceives as a tumultuous relationship with WWE fans. “For 25 years, I have been the victim of an abusive relationship,” he stated. “All I did was work hard and win. And what did I get for it? I got hate… Not one of you sons of bitches ever asked me how I feel.” The 46-year-old wrestler, actor, and television personality then declared a complete break from his fanbase. “I don’t need you. I don’t care about you, and you don’t matter to me,” Cena declared, leaving the audience in stunned silence. This dramatic statement underscores a significant shift in Cena’s narrative that has defined his career as the WWE’s perennial “good guy.” When someone is properly grounded in life, they shouldn't have to look outside themselves for approval. — John Cena (@JohnCena) March 17, 2025 Moments later, Cody Rhodes entered the ring, addressing Cena’s comments with pointed criticism. “They’ve given you their worst, but they’ve also given you their best for 25 years,” Rhodes said, defending the fans. “They did that because you were special. You could take it, you could carry it. But who are you now? This whiny b****?” The confrontation between Cena and Rhodes not only reflected Cena’s emotional turmoil but also set the stage for their highly-anticipated match against each other at WrestleMania 41, scheduled for April 19. The WWE is known for its dramatic storylines, and this latest twist adds another layer of intrigue as Cena transitions to what he has framed as the “next chapter” of his career. Cena’s remarks have stirred up conversation among fans and professionals alike about the pressures athletes face in the public eye and the sometimes overwhelming expectations placed on figures like Cena, who have been elevated to icon status. His candid expression of discontent may resonate with many who have felt the weight of public opinion. Cena’s career with WWE has spanned over two decades, during which he has been a cornerstone of the company’s brand. His unexpected statements tonight may not only redefine his legacy within the sport but also impact the narrative of his rivalry with Rhodes leading into WrestleMania. Sources: Men’s Journal, John Cena/X

San Diego Sheriff’s investigators are currently looking into a case of vandalism that took place at the Tesla dealership in Encinitas on Monday morning. Antisemitic symbols and offensive language were found written on several vehicles and the outside of the dealership, which led to a response from local law enforcement. The vandalism included swastikas and other offensive words that were written on the glass front of the dealership and at least one car, as shown in pictures shared by someone in the community. This recent incident is part of a troubling trend of similar acts of vandalism targeting Tesla vehicles, dealerships, and charging stations across the country. This incident happened at a time when Tesla CEO Elon Musk is facing increasing criticism. Musk has been making significant changes to the organization during his time as the head of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. Wendy Gelernter, a member of the activist group Swing Left Take Action San Diego, explained that their group is not specifically focused on Tesla but rather on political issues. “Our real activism is directed against Trump. We want him to fire Elon. We want him to dismantle DOGE, and we want him to return the power of the purse to Congress,” Gelernter said. The group recently held a protest outside the Encinitas Tesla dealership, which attracted hundreds of people who were concerned about possible cuts to important social programs like Medicare and Social Security. Gelernter explained the goal of the protest, which was to make the public aware of their concerns: “That was the main purpose of this rally, was to bring to the public’s attention what we think are very dangerous and damaging actions.” She added that the event was meant to be peaceful and strongly condemned the vandalism that happened afterward. “We’re against any form of vandalism. It goes against everything that we’re there for, which is to avoid damage, and to avoid danger, and to avoid confrontation,” Gelernter said, emphasizing the group’s dedication to non-violence. Right now, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department is actively investigating the vandalism. Authorities have confirmed that they have surveillance video related to the incident, which involved damage to several cars and windows. So far, no arrests have been made, and law enforcement is asking the public for any information that could help with their investigation. Sources: CBS, Fox

In a story that serves as a warning to parents, a mother from Lancashire, England, has shared her experience after her daughter ended up in the hospital due to drinking a slush ice beverage containing glycerol. Kim Moore, who is 35 years old, is now encouraging other parents to think twice before letting their young children enjoy these popular frozen drinks. Moore took her two daughters, Marnie, who is 4, and Orla, who is 6, to a children’s party in 2020, where she purchased refillable slushies for them. However, just ten minutes after Marnie started drinking hers, things took a worrying turn. “We ended up buying two one-liter refillable cups… but Marnie didn’t drink the full cup, probably only half,” Moore recalled. Soon after, she noticed her daughter becoming “really agitated” and then falling asleep. “I just thought she was over-tired,” she explained in an interview with Kennedy News and Media, which was published in the Daily Mail. Five minutes later, when Moore tried to wake Marnie up, she realized something was seriously wrong. “She wasn’t waking up and was actually unconscious,” Moore said. Feeling panicked, Moore knew she had to act fast. “I think it was mum’s instinct that I knew something wasn’t right,” she stressed. “She was floppy and completely unconscious.” When they arrived at the hospital, doctors discovered that Marnie’s blood sugar levels were dangerously low. The little girl was then transferred to another hospital, where she stayed for three days. “I had no clue what had caused it. She was unconscious for around 25 minutes while they brought her blood sugars up,” Moore shared. Photo: Kennedy News and Media The doctors determined that Marnie was suffering from glycerol toxicity, which was directly caused by the slush ice drink. Glycerol is a sweetener often used to give slushies their smooth texture, but it can cause serious side effects. According to Moore, symptoms of glycerol toxicity include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, confusion, and loss of consciousness. “Looking back, she had every single symptom of glycerol toxicity,” Moore admitted. “I was in absolute fear. If I hadn’t taken her to hospital, it may have had a different outcome.” Thankfully, Marnie fully recovered after her hospital stay. However, Moore is now strongly opposed to the sale of slush ice drinks to young children. “So many places promote free slushies…but you’re promoting poison,” she said. “I don’t think these slushies should be allowed at all. I personally wouldn’t allow my child to drink one at all. It’s not a risk I’m willing to take.” She added, “I don’t think they should be sold to kids 12 and under in all honesty. I wouldn’t wish what we went through on our worst enemy. It was awful.” This concerning incident follows a study published on March 11 in the Archives of Disease in Children, which reported that at least 21 children between the ages of 2 and 6 in the U.K. and Ireland have been hospitalized after consuming slush ice drinks containing glycerol over the past 15 years. The study found that 93% of these children became ill within 60 minutes of drinking the slushies. The researchers recommend that children under 8 avoid these drinks entirely. The Food Standards Agency supports this warning, advising that children aged 4 and under should “not consume” slush ice drinks containing glycerol due to potential side effects like headaches and nausea, especially if consumed in large amounts. Sources: Archives of Disease in Children, People, Daily Mail

In a break from the usual way spring football is handled, Colorado’s head coach, Deion Sanders, is pushing for a joint spring game with Syracuse. Instead of the standard scrimmage where the team plays against itself, Sanders wants to raise the level of competition by having his team face another school. This idea has caught the attention of Syracuse’s head coach, Fran Brown. On March 17, Brown responded to Sanders’ proposal on Twitter, writing, “@DeionSanders we will come to Boulder for 3 days .” The tweet quickly went viral, gaining over 857,300 views, 1,200 retweets, and 8,900 likes in just one hour. This strong reaction shows that both coaches are excited about the possibility of making this game happen. Later that same day, during a press conference, Sanders explained his reasoning behind wanting a joint scrimmage. He highlighted the benefits of playing against an unfamiliar opponent. “To have it competitive, playing against your own guys kind of gets monotonous,” he said. “You really can’t tell the level of your guys because it’s the same old, same old — everybody kind of knows each other.” Joint practices and games are more common in the NFL, where teams often practice together before preseason games. Sanders believes this approach could bring new insights to college football, giving teams the chance to face different styles and strategies. However, he also acknowledged that emotions can sometimes get out of hand during these matchups, leading to on-field conflicts. Photo by Bryan Bennett/Getty Images Sanders is committed to making the spring game a big success. He emphasized, “We’ve got to sell this thing out and pack this thing because the way the trend is going, you never know if this is going to be the last spring game.” He expressed a strong desire to keep the tradition alive, saying, “I would like to play the spring game. Actually, I like to play against another team in the spring.” This move toward innovation comes at a time when many college programs are stepping away from traditional spring games. Concerns about player retention and tampering, driven by the NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) era and the transfer portal, have led to this shift. So far, 19 Power Four programs have canceled their spring games, replacing them with showcase events instead. For example, Nebraska’s head coach, Matt Rhule, was one of the first to announce the cancellation of his spring game, citing worries about tampering. Other programs, including Texas, Oklahoma, USC, and Florida State, have followed suit. With the current state of college football undergoing significant changes, Sanders’ idea for a joint practice could offer a fresh approach while bringing more attention to the spring football season. Colorado is coming off its first winning season since 2015 and is preparing for challenges in 2025, including the potential loss of key players like Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, who are expected to enter the NFL Draft. Meanwhile, Syracuse finished the 2024-25 season with an impressive 10-3 record, including a bowl game victory over Washington State. However, their success came with a cost, as quarterback Kyle McCord is leaving for the NFL. Sources: SI, Fran Brown/X, On3

A reporter for The Washington Post is under close examination because of past comments she made on social media that have led people to question whether she can remain fair and unbiased when covering the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. Heba Farouk Mahfouz, who works in the newspaper’s Cairo office, has been criticized for statements she made online in which she called Israel an “illegal state” and shared opinions that are strongly against Zionism. Mahfouz’s posts, most of which were written between 2012 and 2014, include very strong and harsh language directed at Israel. In one post, she said, “If my anti-Zionist views hurt your Zio-Nazi feelings, FUCK OFF & SHUT THE FUCK UP!” She also added, “Call me a Nazi, call me a terrorist, call me backward, but still, fuck your illegal ‘state’ of #Israel.” These comments have caused a lot of negative reactions, especially from readers who doubt her ability to report fairly on Israel and its conflicts with Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group. In other comments, Mahfouz described Zionism as “racism” and suggested that Israel “despises #African #Jews and any dark skinned Jew.” She also made a controversial comparison between the Holocaust and how Israel treats Palestinians, writing in one post, “‘Never again,’ said the Zionist settler who is killing Palestinians now in a genocide.” Adding to the concerns about her professional role, Mahfouz has shown support for Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups that are often seen as hostile to Israel and declared terrorist organizations by the U.S. In May 2013, she wrote, “always forever will be with the resistance as long as it is against the Zionist entity.” In another post, she said, “With the resistance always and forever,” specifically referring to her support for these groups as long as they are fighting against Israel and not other Arab groups. https://twitter.com/efischberger/status/1899549551671062659? Mahfouz started working at The Washington Post in August 2016, not long after she described herself as “anti-Zionist” on her Twitter profile—a label she later removed after joining the newspaper. A spokesperson for The Post told Jewish Insider that the newspaper is “aware of the alleged social media posts” and is currently looking into the situation. The spokesperson also said that more information would be shared if there are any updates. Eitan Fischberger, a writer and activist who supports Israel, was the first to uncover many of Mahfouz’s posts last week, which sparked a public debate. After these posts came to light, Mahfouz locked her account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, though some of her statements have been saved through screenshots. Since the October attacks, Mahfouz has written or contributed to 13 articles focusing on Israel and Gaza, which has further fueled concerns about whether her personal views might influence her reporting. The scrutiny of her past social media activity comes at a time when the newspaper’s leadership is dealing with internal dissatisfaction and external criticism about its editorial decisions and coverage, particularly regarding perceived anti-Israel sentiments. Source: JewishInsider, DNI.gov (1), DNI.gov (2)

Kanye West, the Grammy-winning artist formerly known as Ye, has sparked significant backlash after issuing an open casting call that raises eyebrows for its extremely specific and controversial requirements. The announcement, made in a now-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter), sought participants for a “Hooligan choir” that will perform a track from his upcoming 2024 album, Vultures. In the casting call, West explicitly stated that he is looking for “all males” who are “NOT FAT,” with the “skin complexion of Sean Combs and darker.” Additionally, he made the shocking demand that participants “MUST BE COMFORTABLE WEARING SWASTIKAS.” The call also asked for those “With shaved heads or must be willing to shave head if approved.” The provocative nature of West’s casting call has led to widespread criticism before it was taken down. Many commentators are raising concerns over the implications of combining Nazi symbols with a tribute to the hip-hop artist Diddy, with whom West has a complex history. Notably, West has previously referred to Diddy as his “twin” in a separate now-deleted post earlier this year. Photo by Matthias Nareyek/Getty Images This isn’t the first time West has made headlines for his divisive statements. The artist made headlines back in February 2025 when he openly declared his alignment with Nazi ideology during an interview. This statement followed a tumultuous few years in which West faced significant backlash for his antisemitic remarks, which began in October 2022. As brands cut ties with him over his comments, he attempted to make amends with the Jewish community, issuing an apology in December 2022. However, he recanted that apology in February 2025, leading to renewed outrage. Kanye’s recent actions seem to align with public sentiments about the deeply troubling implications of his rhetoric. Critics argue that West is capitalizing on current social tensions for publicity, particularly given recent surges in extremist ideologies in popular culture. Interestingly, he is not alone in courting controversy; tech mogul Elon Musk has also faced backlash over antisemitic comments in the past. In the wake of West’s casting call, numerous social media users quickly condemned him. Some have pointed to the juxtaposition of calls for “Hooligans” with overtly racist symbols as a deeply troubling mix of pop culture and hate speech that should not be entertained, particularly in an artistic setting. Sources:

In a surprising turn of events, Jason Brown, the former college football coach who gained fame through his prominent role in Netflix’s highly praised documentary series Last Chance U, has taken legal action against the streaming giant, seeking $30 million in damages. The lawsuit, filed this week in Los Angeles County, focuses on claims that Netflix and the show’s producers used selective editing to portray him in a negative and unflattering manner. Brown, who served as the head coach at Independence Community College during the filming of the series, argues that the way he was depicted damaged his reputation and hurt his financial opportunities. He asserts that the producers intentionally manipulated footage to make him appear as “a volatile, abusive tyrant for their financial gain,” which he believes has severely harmed his career. According to legal documents, Brown agreed to participate in Last Chance U in June 2017 after producers assured him that the show would present him in a positive light. He claims that an executive even told him, “Colleges will be calling you after this airs.” However, Brown says the opposite occurred. Netflix Brown alleges that, over the course of his two seasons on the show, the narrative took a sharp turn. Instead of opening doors for future coaching opportunities, the series portrayed him in a negative way, which he says led to a significant loss of income. He points to a specific incident in February 2019, when he sent a text message to a student referencing Hitler. Brown claims the show dramatized this moment in a way that caused him to lose substantial opportunities. He says that out of the $600,000 in offers he received from NCAA programs and XFL teams, all were withdrawn after the show premiered. The lawsuit outlines Brown’s financial losses, including $10 million for lost income, $10 million for damage to his reputation, and $5 million for emotional distress. He is also seeking $5 million in punitive damages, arguing that Netflix and the producers deliberately misrepresented him in a harmful way. He believes the negative depiction not only hurt his career but also took a toll on his personal well-being. Brown is not the only one who has raised concerns about Netflix’s portrayal of individuals in Last Chance U. Other former stars of the show, including Ronald Ollie, John Franklin III, and DeAndre Johnson, filed similar lawsuits in February, accusing the streaming platform of misrepresentation and harm. As of now, Netflix has not made any public statements regarding the lawsuit or the controversy surrounding it. Sources: TMZ

The online community is deeply saddened by the sudden and unexpected death of Philip Enewally, who was widely known by his YouTube username, P2istheName. Authorities are currently looking into the details surrounding his passing, but at this time, they do not believe that any criminal activity was involved. The authorities are treating the 26 year old’s sudden death as natural causes. This comes after a thorough investigation. According to law enforcement sources, Enewally collapsed outside his apartment building in Los Angeles on the afternoon of Friday, March 15. Witnesses said they saw him lying on the ground near the mailboxes, which led the property manager to call 911 for help. Emergency medical teams arrived quickly, but despite their attempts to save him, Enewally was declared dead at the location where he was found. Police have stated that “there were no immediate signs of drugs or alcohol” at the scene, which has led investigators to consider the incident as likely due to natural causes, at least for now. A source close to the investigation confirmed his death is being treated as from natural causes, though this could change as more information becomes available. View this post on Instagram A post shared by P2 (@p2isthename) The Los Angeles County Coroner has completed an autopsy, but they are still waiting for the results of toxicology tests, which may provide more information about what caused his death. As news of Enewally’s passing continues to spread, fans and other content creators have been sharing their shock and sadness on social media. Enewally, who was just 26 years old when he died, became well-known for his videos featuring gameplay from NBA 2K and Fortnite. Over time, his channel expanded to include a wider variety of gaming content, including many Let’s Plays. Beyond his YouTube career, he also started his own clothing brand, WallyCo, which helped him connect even more with his audience. RIP P2istheName. Sources: Yahoo, TMZ

Chelsea Football Club has shown its support for defender Wesley Fofana after he faced a wave of racist abuse on social media, especially on Instagram, following the team’s defeat to Arsenal on Sunday. This situation has led to strong criticism from the club, shedding light on the persistent problem of racism in sports. Fofana shared some of the offensive messages he received in an Instagram story, which led to a quick response from Chelsea. The club released a statement saying: “Chelsea Football Club is appalled and disgusted by the recent rise in online racial abuse towards our players. The abuse Wes Fofana has been subjected to following yesterday’s fixture is abhorrent and will not be tolerated. Wes and all our players have our full support.” The club also stressed its dedication to tackling this issue by adding, “We will work with the relevant authorities in identifying the perpetrators and take the strongest possible action.” It has been reported that Chelsea has already contacted Instagram to ask for the abusive content to be removed as soon as possible. The club’s players, staff, and sporting team have also shown their support for Fofana during this difficult time. Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images In the match against Arsenal, Fofana was part of several controversial incidents, including a clash with Declan Rice that might have led to a red card. He ended up receiving a yellow card for his actions during the game, which intensified the reactions from fans and online commentators. This incident occurs at a time when there is a worrying increase in online racism targeting athletes. The club’s statement highlights a growing concern in the sports community about the safety and well-being of players, especially in the face of harassment on social media. As the discussion about racism continues, Chelsea FC is taking a strong position, reaffirming their commitment to protecting their players. Sources: The Guardian, Daily Mail, Yahoo Sports

Julian Lewis, the newest quarterback to join the Colorado Buffaloes, has been making waves not just for his skills on the field but also for some fun and light-hearted moments during practice. Recently, during a team huddle after practice, head coach Deion Sanders jokingly stopped Lewis from leading the team out of the huddle. This happened because Sanders remembered that Lewis had thrown an interception earlier in the session. This playful exchange was caught on video and quickly went viral, showing off Sanders’ ability to balance holding players accountable while keeping things fun and engaging. As Lewis was about to break the huddle and lead the team off the field, Sanders teased, “Oh you out then,” which got the whole team laughing. Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images Lewis decided to join the Buffaloes after changing his commitment from USC last fall. This move shows his confidence in the direction Colorado is heading under Sanders, who has brought new energy and success to the program. Speaking to the media for the first time since committing to Colorado, Lewis shared his thoughts on why he chose the Buffs. “Honestly, I think looking at it; it was the building process of the organization, the program just trying to build up from Coach Prime getting here to them building their record and doing all the stuff they’ve done. It was hard to pass up the opportunity to come here under Prime,” said Lewis. As Sanders gets ready to transition to the NFL, the race for the starting quarterback spot at Colorado is becoming more intense. Lewis is part of a competitive group, going up against Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter, who already has a solid college football resume, with 1,886 passing yards, 15 touchdowns, and six interceptions in 2024. Interestingly, Lewis chose to reclassify and graduate high school early, joining the class of 2025. He believes this decision will help him grow as a player. “That was always the goal, to skip that last year of high school football,” he explained. “I felt like high school football didn’t have much more for me, even if it meant me coming in (to a college program) and competing for a job young. I felt it would be best for me to get in here as early as possible.” Despite the growing competition, Lewis has been enjoying his time with the team so far. “Of course, everybody thinks it is a quarterback battle and stuff like that, but we have such great quarterbacks in the room and great personalities,” Lewis said. “I just love being around the guys daily and being happy to be here.” As the Buffaloes keep preparing for the upcoming season, all attention is on the quarterback competition and how Lewis will develop as a potential leader under Coach Prime’s guidance. With spring practices in full swing, fans are excited to see how the young quarterback handles the early stages of his college career, especially with all the excitement surrounding Colorado’s football program. Source: SI

Man Set on Fire in Times Square in Shocking Incident, NYPD Investigating In a deeply troubling event early Sunday morning, a man was intentionally set on fire in New York City’s famous Times Square, leading to an ongoing police investigation to find the person responsible. The incident happened around 4 a.m. local time at the corner of West 41st Street and 7th Avenue, very close to the busy Times Square Tower. According to the New York Police Department (NYPD), the 45-year-old victim was found completely covered in flames and was quickly taken to New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. As of Sunday afternoon, he is said to be in stable condition. The NYPD shared details about the shocking event, saying, “Based on statements made by the victim, there is reason to believe that the victim knew the perpetrator.” So far, no arrests have been made, and the person who is believed to have carried out the attack ran away from the scene, leaving investigators to piece together information about who he might be. Dakota Santiago / FreedomNewsTV Reports suggest that the interaction between the victim and the attacker started at a nearby food cart. Witnesses say the suspect might have used something taken from the food cart to help start the fire that burned the victim after he went into a nearby club. Video released by The New York Post shows the aftermath, with the victim sitting in an ambulance while someone he knows talks to the police. Sources told the Post that as the flames covered him, the victim was able to run about 100 feet before a bystander stepped in with a fire extinguisher. Despite how serious the incident was, he is now being treated for his injuries. The NYPD is working hard to follow leads and is reviewing security camera footage to identify the attacker, who was said to have run north of Broadway right after the attack. This fire-related incident is part of a worrying pattern in the city, reminding people of a similar event just a few months ago when a 67-year-old man was found on fire in Penn Station. Officials reported that he suffered serious burn injuries on December 27. Adding to the disturbing nature of these events, just days before the man in Penn Station was set on fire, a woman was reportedly attacked by someone who lit her on fire while she slept on a stopped subway train on December 22. In that terrifying case, witnesses said the attacker sat calmly nearby as the woman suffered from her injuries. Sources: People, The New York Post

In a surprising and tragic series of events, Quinterius Chappelle, a 24-year-old airman currently serving at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, has been arrested and charged with the second-degree murder of Sahela Sangrait. Sangrait’s remains were found almost seven months after she was reported missing, sparking a joint investigation that has deeply affected the local community. On March 15, authorities announced the arrest, with the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) confirming that Chappelle was taken into custody on federal charges related to Sangrait’s death. According to jail records reviewed by PEOPLE, Chappelle was placed in the Pennington County Jail on March 14 at 11:41 p.m. local time. The investigation into Sangrait’s death gained significant attention earlier this month when a hiker found her body in an area south of Hill City, South Dakota. This discovery led police to thoroughly examine the details surrounding her disappearance. The PCSO stated that investigators determined Sangrait was killed at the Air Force base and noted that “due to the jurisdiction of the crime, the case will be prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office.” This investigation has been a collaborative effort involving several law enforcement agencies, including the Rapid City Police Department, the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations. GoFundMe Sangrait’s remains were identified as those of the missing 21-year-old woman shortly after the hiker reported finding a “badly decomposed body” to authorities on March 4. Sangrait was last known to be staying with a friend in Eagle Butte before she disappeared on August 10, 2024. She had plans to travel to California at the time. In a heartbreaking development, a GoFundMe campaign was launched after police confirmed her identity to help cover funeral expenses. The page described Sangrait, who was affectionately called “Shy,” as a “beautiful, inclusive, and mesmerizing spirit” who “faced life’s challenges head-on with a smile on her face.” The description also highlighted her intelligence, humor, and the positive impact she had on those around her, stating, “We are all so lucky to know her.” As the investigation moves forward, many are eager for more information about this tragic case, which has raised questions about the events leading up to Sangrait’s death and the actions that resulted in Chappelle’s arrest. At this time, it is unclear whether Chappelle has hired a lawyer to address the charges against him. Source: People, CBS News, Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, GoFundMe

In the world of mixed martial arts, undefeated fighter Dustin Lampros is making waves not just for his skills in the ring but also for his extraordinary efforts outside of it. While gearing up for his upcoming title fight at Shamrock FC on March 22, Lampros shared details about his unexpected mission to tackle child predators in his community during an interview with TMZ Sports. Lampros, who boasts an impressive 9-0 record, started this important side project two years ago after a friend introduced him to the grim realities of child exploitation. This revelation ignited a passion within him. “When he exposed it to me and brought me into that world, I instantly felt motivated to do something,” Lampros told TMZ. “I looked at him right away and said, ‘Let’s do it, let’s help down here in the community.’” At first, their plan was simple—they wanted to see how they could make a difference. But their efforts quickly grew, leading to significant involvement in the community. “At first, it was kind of like, ‘let’s see what we can do.’ Then it kind of snowballed from there,” he explained. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dustin Lampros | Scrappy (@scrappy135mma) So far, Lampros estimates that they’ve successfully caught around 50 individuals involved in predatory behavior. While he hasn’t had to physically confront anyone, the situations have been far from safe. He described one tense moment: “A kid pulled out a little box-cutter knife, and he’s just holding it in his hand, and then we didn’t notice it until about 20-30 seconds later,” he recalled. The danger escalated further when a suspect tried to leave the scene: “I had a hunch he was going to grab something, and he did. He grabbed a handgun,” Lampros said. Fortunately, these encounters haven’t turned violent, but Lampros emphasized that safety measures are always a top priority when dealing with such high-risk scenarios. As an MMA fighter, Lampros is used to physical confrontations, but he uses that same energy to create a positive impact in his community. “I’ve had one time where a guy wouldn’t talk to me, and he just walked back to his car, and he said, ‘You better not follow me to my car,’” Lampros shared, highlighting the risks involved in his mission. Looking ahead, Lampros is set to step back into the ring at Shamrock FC 362 next Saturday, where he’ll defend his undefeated record. His dual role as a fighter and community advocate is capturing attention, with fans eager to follow his journey both inside and outside the Octagon. As Lampros prepares to face new challenges, whether in the fight world or in his community work, one thing is clear: he’s not just fighting for championships; he’s fighting for those who can’t fight for themselves. Source: TMZ

In a recent interview, Ashanti, the Grammy-winning singer and actress, talked about her new role as a mother and her plans for the upcoming “Bring It on Tour” in the UK and Ireland. The singer and her partner, rapper Nelly, welcomed their son, Karem “KK,” eight months ago. “This is a new chapter for me. Family first — being married and having a child,” Ashanti said during her conversation with Revolt. “My mind is thinking bigger and better and more out of the box, obviously.” Ashanti shared how her outlook on life has changed since becoming a mother. She mentioned that she has written a children’s book and is excited to explore more opportunities in creating content for children. “I kind of want to just dive into the lane of children now. I really do because it’s just so natural,” she said, recalling her past experience working at a daycare center. “I loved kids before, but now it’s like [times] a million.” Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images When asked about the most important lesson Karem has taught her, Ashanti replied, “Patience.” As she gets ready to go on tour with fellow artists Sean Paul and Fat Joe, Ashanti is figuring out how to balance her career and her new responsibilities as a mom. She acknowledged that this will be her first tour as a mother, which brings its own set of challenges. “Obviously, we need extra hands. There’s definitely going to be extra bags because I already travel with too much luggage,” she admitted. Ashanti emphasized the importance of planning each day with KK as she adjusts to this new phase of her life. “We’re going to be a lot more cognizant of time and [spend more time] preparing, because you just never know what’s going to happen,” she explained. The singer also talked about being extra protective, saying she wants to keep her baby safe from germs: “I’m definitely in Mama Bear protective mode, wanting to protect the baby.” Earlier this month, in a separate interview with People, Ashanti reflected on her journey into motherhood, calling baby KK a “blessing” and an “angel.” “It’s amazing,” she said. “My life is amazing right now. I’m super blessed, so happy. I’m insanely in love with him.” Although new parenthood often comes with sleepless nights, Ashanti and Nelly are enjoying this new chapter of their lives. Nelly, 50, joined Ashanti in sharing how their lives have changed since the arrival of their son. He mentioned that he has been able to get some rest, while Ashanti joked that she hasn’t had much sleep yet. As Ashanti prepares for the tour, she remains focused on her family while making sure her fans can still enjoy her performances. With KK joining her on the road, she is ready to embrace both her role as a mother and her career as a musician, balancing the two with passion. The “Bring It on Tour” promises to deliver exciting live performances while showcasing this new chapter in Ashanti’s life as a mother. Sources: People, Revolt

In a strange and unusual turn of events that is far from your typical convenience store robbery, local police are searching for four suspects who are accused of stealing CBD oil from a Citgo gas station while carrying pythons. Authorities have shared surveillance video in the hopes that someone can help identify the people involved. According to the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, two women and two men walked into the Citgo and reportedly took CBD oil worth $400. The suspects are thought to have escaped in a four-door sedan, which had its trunk held shut with bungee cords—a detail that caught the attention of law enforcement. Raval and his brother were working at the store during the robbery and saw the strange event happen right in front of them. “They were just waving [the pythons] around and putting them on the counter,” Raval said, describing what he saw. Madison Co Sheriff’s Office Raval pointed out how unusual the robbery was, especially the shocking way the suspects used snakes to scare people. “I think they planned to successfully come here and rob the store. The snake is a weapon, you know,” he added. He also mentioned that he believes the suspects might have taken more items if there hadn’t been so many customers in the store at the time. The pythons, which are not venomous, can grow to be anywhere from 22 inches to 33 feet long and can weigh up to 250 pounds. They are known for killing their prey by squeezing them, which makes these snakes a very unusual choice of weapon for a robbery. “The snake is a weapon, you know,” Raval repeated, stressing how serious the situation was. As the investigation continues, authorities are asking anyone with information about the robbery or the suspects to come forward. If anyone recognizes the individuals, they are encouraged to call Crime Stoppers at 731-424-8477. So far, police have not provided any updates on leads or possible arrest. Sources: People, NY Post, WREG-TV

In a moment that has fans talking nonstop, Michigan baseball player Mitch Voit caused a stir with a controversial celebration during the Wolverines’ game against USC on Sunday. After hitting a remarkable RBI triple, the junior second baseman seemed to imitate a drug-related gesture, sparking heated debates both online and offline. The incident happened in the second inning when Voit hit a pitch hard, sending the ball far into center field. He ran past second base and dove head-first into third. While celebrating the play, which drove in three runs, Voit was seen putting his nose to the chalk line and making a motion as if he were sniffing something, a gesture many interpreted as a reference to cocaine use. Michigan baseball players are used to playing in the snow pic.twitter.com/O8SrlX8gH2 — Noah Bieniek (@NoahB77_) March 16, 2025 One user, Noah Bieniek, joked, “Michigan baseball players are used to playing in the snow,” adding another layer to the discussion about Voit’s actions. While some have applauded Voit for his creativity and enthusiasm, others have criticized the gesture as inappropriate due to its potential implications. Reactions to the celebration have been divided, though so far, there is no sign that Voit will face any disciplinary action from the university or the Big Ten Conference. On the field, the Wolverines dominated with an 11-0 victory over the Trojans, with Voit having an outstanding performance, going 3-for-3 and driving in four RBIs. Fans cheered for the team’s win, even as the debate over Voit’s celebration continued to grow. Sources: TMZ, Noah Bieniek/X, Dailymail

In an honest and open post on social media, Justin Bieber has shared his thoughts about feeling unsure of himself and the difficulties of handling negative emotions. On March 16, the famous singer used Instagram to talk about hate and mental health, admitting that he often felt like he was “drowning” while trying to deal with these feelings. Bieber wrote in all capital letters, “I was always told when I was a kid not to hate,” explaining how being told to hide these emotions made him feel alone and like he couldn’t safely admit to having them. “I think we can only let hate go by first acknowledging its there,” he said. “How couldn’t we feel hate from all of the hurt we have experienced?” This thoughtful post is one of several recent updates that have connected with fans, who have been worried about his well-being in recent times. Just a few days earlier, on March 13, Bieber opened up more about his struggles, saying, “People told me my whole life ‘wow Justin u deserve that’ and I personally have always felt unworthy.” He shared that he often felt like a fraud, adding, “Like when people told me I deserve something, it made me feel sneaky like, Damn if only they knew my thoughts.” The 31-year-old musician also admitted that he often feels “unequipped and unqualified most days,” a feeling that many people who deal with imposter syndrome can relate to. Image via Justin Bieber Bieber’s recent posts come as fans have become increasingly concerned about his health and well-being, especially after noticing changes in how he looks and acts. On March 8, he shared a post saying, “We have nothing to prove today, just the gift of life today to accept and [receive]. Nothing is owed to us and we [don’t] owe anyone anything ,” which seemed to address these concerns. Despite the growing rumors and speculation, a representative for Bieber has denied any issues with his health. Someone close to the couple also responded to rumors about drug use, calling the claims “exhausting and pitiful.” They emphasized that the accusations are not true and that “people are committed to keeping negative, salacious, harmful narratives alive.” On a more personal note, Bieber has been enjoying his new role as a father after the birth of his son, Jack Blues, in August 2022. The child is shared with his wife, Hailey Baldwin Bieber. Fans have shared their hope that the singer is on a path toward healing as he deals with the challenges of fame, mental health, and family life. Sources: People, Justin Bieber/Instagram, TMZ

In a deeply disturbing case that has gripped the public, Maureen Rickards, aged 50, has been found guilty of murdering her 65-year-old husband, Jeremy Rickards, and then burying his body in their backyard in Canterbury, Kent. The horrifying details came to light during a trial at Maidstone Crown Court, where the jury carefully considered the evidence presented against her. Jeremy Rickards was reported missing after his daughter received a series of puzzling messages from his phone. At first, Maureen claimed that her husband had gone to Saudi Arabia, but later she suggested he might have planned to end his own life. This prompted his daughter to contact the authorities about his disappearance. Jeremy’s body was eventually found buried in a duffle bag in the couple’s garden on June 26, 2024. During the trial, testimonies revealed a grim picture of the couple’s home life. Witnesses reported hearing strange noises, with one tenant stating they “heard something heavy being hauled down the stairs at night.” A neighbor, Oksana Kandaurova, also recalled noticing a strong, unpleasant smell while working in her garden, describing it as “from rubbish or an animal corpse”. Photo: CPS / SWNS; Kent Police / SWNS The prosecution pointed to a history of domestic abuse leading up to Jeremy’s death. A post-mortem examination showed that he had suffered serious injuries, including “recent rib fractures” and evidence that he had been “strangled weeks before”. In a particularly chilling detail, it was revealed that Maureen had recorded herself making threats against Jeremy, saying she would “do him harm or kill him.” James Fisher of the CPS described Maureen as “a callous abuser” who created a “web of lies” to cover up her husband’s murder. “She subjected her partner to a campaign of sustained abuse, before viciously murdering him,” he said. Fisher stressed that despite her efforts to manipulate the story of her husband’s disappearance, justice had finally been served: “Maureen lied about the cruelty and violence she inflicted on Jeremy … [she] has never taken responsibility for her actions nor shown any remorse for murdering Jeremy.” The trial also revealed that after Jeremy’s death, Maureen used his bank cards to purchase groceries and cleaning supplies, all while pretending he was still alive and away. Police discovered that Jeremy’s body had initially been hidden in a closet in the couple’s bedroom, where investigators found large amounts of blood, consistent with the victim lying on the floor. Sources: Crown Prosecution Service, BBC News, People

On March 17, 2025, officials in New York City are taking action to help a man who was seen in a viral video eating a dead rat, which has raised serious concerns about his health and safety. The video, which was filmed in The Bronx and shared on social media, has shocked and confused many people who have seen it. A spokesperson from City Hall has confirmed that they are working to find the man, whose identity is still unknown, and are coordinating with the Health Department to provide assistance. The spokesperson emphasized that the situation could be very dangerous for the man’s health. “We’ve got to ensure that he’s not at risk,” the spokesperson said. The video, which has now gained widespread attention, shows the man sitting on the sidewalk and calmly eating the rat, leaving onlookers stunned. According to a tweet, who recorded the incident, a woman nearby was visibly shocked and said, “This is fucking unbelievable. Look at this sh*t”. A stunned NYC woman can’t believe her eyes as she watches a man casually munch on a dead rat, exclaiming in disbelief, “This is fucking unbelievable. Look at this sh*t.” pic.twitter.com/HE7s4xuvRu — Global Dissident (@GlobalDiss) March 15, 2025 The disturbing incident, which took place on March 15, has sparked conversations about the challenges of urban life and public health. Witnesses were horrified as they watched the man bite into the rat, adding to the shock of the video that has since gone viral. Kathleen Corradi, New York City’s Director of Rodent Mitigation, highlighted the potential health risks, explaining that rats can carry pathogens, which are microorganisms that cause diseases. “Rodents can carry ectoparasites, which are leeches that infest the outer layer of your skin,” Corradi added. In response to this event, Corradi advised the public to avoid any contact with rodents or their droppings. She also recommended wearing protective gear, such as gloves or masks, when dealing with dead rodents to reduce the risk of exposure to harmful substances. The unsettling video has brought attention to ongoing urban issues, including the control of rodent populations and the importance of public health measures. City officials are now focused on locating the man who ate the rat and ensuring he gets the help he may need. Sources: TMZ, GlobalDiss/X, Yahoo

Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) are familiar with Jacob Batalon as the endearing Ned Leeds, Peter Parker’s best friend in the “Spider-Man” series. However, outside of his superhero adventures, Batalon has also gained a unique reputation in the meme world as the “CEO of Sex.” In a recent interview with ScreenRant, he opened up about this unexpected title and shared details about his latest project, Novocaine. When asked how he feels about being called the “CEO of Sex,” Batalon responded, “It’s an honor. I feel like people come to me for sex advice all the time. Honestly, not sure it kind of seems like it was like an ironic thing? But also, I’m not going to turn it down. Also, my fiancée was just like very much intrigued by it.” His straightforward remarks show not only his amusement but also a sense of pride in this playful nickname, which originated from the meme community where absurdity is celebrated. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Marvel Updates (@updates4marvel) It’s worth noting that Batalon is not actually a CEO; the title is purely a humorous invention by internet users, often used in a joking manner. Some versions of the meme even playfully suggest fictional sequels like “Sex 2,” highlighting the creativity and silliness that thrive online. In Novocaine, which Batalon is currently promoting, he plays Roscoe Dixon, a gaming friend to the film’s main character, Nathan “Novocain” Caine. “This role again sees me as the friend character, but I enjoy these types of roles,” Batalon said, making it clear that he doesn’t feel limited by these kinds of parts. He has also taken on the role of an unconventional lead in Reginald the Vampire, demonstrating his ability to play a variety of characters beyond just the sidekick role. As the MCU continues to grow, fans have been speculating about the future of Batalon’s character. Many are curious if Ned Leeds might transform into the Hobgoblin, a notorious villain from Spider-Man’s comic book history. This speculation has gained momentum after the multiverse events in No Way Home, which have opened up new possibilities for the franchise. When questioned about the rumors of a potential Hobgoblin storyline, Batalon has kept his answers vague. However, he has shown interest in exploring such a direction. “There’s been a lot of talk, and I’d be interested to see where things go,” he hinted in another interview. Despite the ongoing rumors, nothing has been officially confirmed, leaving fans excited to see what the future holds for the MCU. Source: ScreenRant/YouTube, Complex

Amiga Games

Ah, Hugo! That brings back some memories. The whole concept of using a telephone to control a game on live TV was pretty groundbreaking at the time. Did you ever play it, or was it more of a nostalgic curiosity for you?

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Yoomp! is likely a well-known IP among retro gaming enthusiasts, though it was relatively new to me since I never followed the Atari scene closely. While Indie Retro News and others have covered it multiple times across various platforms, it never truly caught my attention—until talk of an Amiga version surfaced (go figure! :-p). The game has been out for a while now and continues to receive updates, which is fantastic. Even better, it now has a collector’s box for those of us who love having a physical edition to proudly display on our shelves.

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Twelve years ago, I wrote an article about the Trojan Phazer Light Gun—an incredibly popular piece that continues to attract a lot of views, likely due to the growing interest in the Retro Light Gun market. This follow-up write up explores the current state of Light Gun games on the Amiga and highlights the black Trojan / Magnum Phazer gun I purchased in Denmark a couple years ago.

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Have you ever imagined combining the mechanics of Vampire Survivor with the retro aesthetics and style of a classic like Robotron? Geometry Survivor may be another entry in the one-stick, no-button "auto-shooter" genre, but it manages to feel refreshingly unique, thanks to its 80s-inspired graphics and, even more so, its excellent music.

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Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com! Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or download here Hey, everybody! Sid, Kristen, Brett, and I are back this week to discuss the new take on Pac-Man Shadow Labyrinth, the wonders of hand-tracking in PlayStation VR2, what it’s like to learn how to walk in Baby Steps, and their most played games […]

Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com! Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or download here Hey, everybody! Sid, Kristen, Brett, and I are back this week to discuss the new take on Pac-Man Shadow Labyrinth, the wonders of hand-tracking in PlayStation VR2, what it’s like to learn how to walk in Baby Steps, and their most played games on PlayStation. Stuff We Talked About Next week’s release highlights: Koira | PS5 Croc: Legend Of The Gobbos Remastered | PS5, PS4 The Last of Us Part II Remastered | PC Shadow Labyrinth — Release Date (July 18 for PS5) Into Black (PS VR2) — Announcement Blog (coming soon) Masters of Light (PS VR2) — Hand-tracking update Baby Steps — Hands-on report Our top five most-played games on PlayStation PlayStation Plus Monthly Games April RoboCop: Rogue City | PS5 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre | PS5, PS4 Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory | PS4 The Cast View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Sid Shuman – Senior Director of Content Communications, SIE View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Kristen Zitani – Senior Content Communications Specialist, SIE View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Brett Elston – Manager, Content Communications, SIE View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image O’Dell Harmon Jr. – Content Communications Specialist, SIE Thanks to Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music. [Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]

Last week, we asked you to take a leap into Assassin’s Creed Shadows and share epic moments of dual protagonists Naoe and Yasuke using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights: TakaSanGames shares Naoe in traditional Assassin white, in front of the Hidden Ones symbol Evo_Pixel shares Yasuke striking with his katana in the rain […]

Last week, we asked you to take a leap into Assassin’s Creed Shadows and share epic moments of dual protagonists Naoe and Yasuke using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights: TakaSanGames shares Naoe in traditional Assassin white, in front of the Hidden Ones symbol Evo_Pixel shares Yasuke striking with his katana in the rain domo_vp shares Naoe framed by candlelight Yuric83 shares Yasuke in ornamental armor emerging from shadows calisarah1998 shares Naoe approaching a large red gate Milz_VP shares Yasuke wearing a samurai mask in the morning fog Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week? View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image THEME: Assassin’s Creed Shadows – Landscapes SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on April 2, 2025 Next week, we’re focusing on the beautiful environments of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Share landscapes across the seasons of Japan using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Baby Steps was first revealed to the world in June 2023, and upon first viewing it, I didn’t know what to think. Surprises are few and far between when you have been gaming for over 30 years, but the reveal trailer left me with perplexing emotions. I was in a mental tug-of-war between, ‘I’ve never […]

Baby Steps was first revealed to the world in June 2023, and upon first viewing it, I didn’t know what to think. Surprises are few and far between when you have been gaming for over 30 years, but the reveal trailer left me with perplexing emotions. I was in a mental tug-of-war between, ‘I’ve never quite seen something quite like this’ and, ‘Does this concept really have a leg to stand on?’ Well, after about an hour of playing the game, I was ten toes down. The game starts with a snippet of exposition. You’re a grown man named Nate living at home, and without warning, you’re thrown into the game world. You’re taught how to walk and tasked with making it out of a cave that serves as the tutorial area, and then you take the first steps into the open world, with one goal in mind: make it to the mountain in the far off distance. To the ends of the earth This wasn’t a mountain separated by cut-scenes and different hub areas, but a specific geographical goal I would have to advance to in real-time, creeping closer with every step. This realization swept me off my feet. “It started on a much smaller course,” Said Bennett Foddy, one of the creators of Baby Steps. “But just as a test, I made a level that was 100 meters wide, and it was immediately clear to us that that was going to make for much more interesting gameplay, involving strategic route-finding as well as tactical foot placement. And surely it wouldn’t be that hard to make an open-world game!” Step-by-step Once the shock of the world’s scope wore off, I instantly bypassed the direct route for something more interesting that caught my eye and headed for what appeared to be a carousel in the distance. Since there is no map or waypoints here, where you go depends on you as the player. With campfires in the distance serving as markers for the ‘true’ direction you should head toward. As I walked through mud, puddles, sticks, and stones, the DualSense controller features began to shine, as every texture was met with the appropriate sensation and the oddly satisfying crunch of the earth and other material under my feet. “There’s a cutting-edge experimental music system that works in sync with the walking sim,” Foddy said. “I think we’ve woven a pretty thought-provoking story from Nate’s situation as well. And the game is packed full of other surprises.” Since I breezed through the earlier tutorial and started making tracks through a bizarre, seemingly desolate carnival, I spied a mysterious object atop the carousel, which led me to my first challenge: conquering medium—to medium-high ledges and slippery surfaces. The object called me like a moth to a flame, and I spent some time figuring out how to raise my knees high enough for a step big enough to clear the ledge and how wide of a step to take to complete the motion without falling over. Though it was only a minute or two, I felt like I had conquered a tough boss battle. What awaited me at the top of the spiral slope? A hat. A simple hat, yes, but one that held surprises, that I’ll let you discover for yourself. Baby Steps has dozens upon dozens of collectibles to find, and the purpose they serve is part of the journey. Though none of them will help you walk better – that’s always in your hands (or rather, feet). But don’t worry—the devs assured me the game is something to enjoy for players of all skill levels. That’s the beauty of the open world. If you fail or fall, you can always head toward another point of interest or stumble upon the unexpected. “I have had a pretty good time in the past putting out difficult games and not turning too many players away,” Foddy said. “But we’ve tried pretty hard to make a game that looks hard but plays pretty chill. Probably we’ve made it too easy.” Break a leg There are no checkpoints, you can’t die, and no fast travel. The only change is your ability to walk up straight and the terrain. While there is a story and a definitive end to the narrative, you can explore and see what you can find after the credits roll. Like many open-world games, how much you’re willing to learn about the world and Nate will depend on the player. I saw Nate as nothing more than a vehicle to experience the world, but after a few discoveries and a cryptic note or two, my desire to find out the who, what, where, when, and why of his strange predicament became my first priority. While my time was brief, it was still enough to meet a handful of supporting characters, some of whom can be completely missed. There was always a new thread to follow and the proverbial/literal mountain to climb. I asked the team if Nate’s journey had some grander subtext, or if he was just a guy with an objective to complete. “Everyone has days where they’re feeling a little awkward,” said Foddy. “A little clumsy, maybe a little lost and confused. I think we can all relate a little. But as for his glutes, that’s a power I could only dream of having.” I didn’t expect to be so enamored with a game where every step you take can be challenging, but I was. I was willing to spend ten minutes or an hour to get that item slightly out of reach or to find out what that out-of-place structure was in the distance. While I have no idea what’s out there in Baby Steps, I’m looking forward to seeing where my feet will take me.

The wait is over! Masters of Light is now one of the first games to introduce full hand tracking on PlayStation VR2, pushing the boundaries of immersive gameplay like never before. As the creator of Masters of Light and co-founder of Coven, I’m beyond excited to bring this revolutionary update to PlayStation fans. Learn specific […]

The wait is over! Masters of Light is now one of the first games to introduce full hand tracking on PlayStation VR2, pushing the boundaries of immersive gameplay like never before. As the creator of Masters of Light and co-founder of Coven, I’m beyond excited to bring this revolutionary update to PlayStation fans. Learn specific gestures to teleport, block meteors and fight! Harness magic with your own hands Imagine stepping into the world of Masters of Light and casting spells with nothing but your hands—no controllers needed. This is the power of PS VR2’s new hand tracking technology, allowing you to unleash beams of light, summon shields, and control energy like a true celestial warrior. Every flick of your wrist, every precise movement, translates into real-time spellcasting, making battles feel more intuitive, immersive, and exhilarating than ever. Masters of Light features high energy first person combat where focus, timing and strategy are keys to victory. A new standard for immersion When we first envisioned Masters of Light, our goal was to make players feel truly empowered. From the very beginning, we built our combat system around fluid, natural gestures—inspired by self defense moves. Now, thanks to PlayStation VR2’s advanced tracking capabilities, players can experience the game as we originally imagined: with pure hand movement, free from controllers. Frantic hand tracking moves will keep you physically engaged in the fights. You WILL break a sweat! The evolution of Hand Tracking in VR At Coven, we’ve been developing hand-tracking games for years, pushing the technology forward with every project. Bringing this feature to PS VR2 was an incredible challenge, but also a dream come true. This would have not been possible without the support of our incredible porting team, VR Monkey. Here is what they have to say: “Implementing the hand tracking in two and a half months was a challenge, since officially Unity hasn’t added PS VR2’s hand tracking support. So one of our developers (Thanks Eric Gregory) created an in-house plugin that took advantage of Sony’s new state of the art tracking system to make hand tracking run at 60 frames per second (currently the highest available on the market). After that, we could harness the powerful gesture detection system of the PlayStation 5 to recreate all of the game’s powers and interactions in a week’s work. We’ve refined the system to make sure every motion is responsive, every action feels powerful, and every battle is a seamless blend of strategy and skill.“ New enemies and superpowers are unlocked as players progress in the game, climaxing in insane battles that will leave you breathless. Play your way With this new update, Masters of Light now offers multiple control options: Hand tracking mode – No controllers, just pure hand movements for spellcasting and navigation. PS VR2 Sense controller mode – Experience the game with the precision and feedback of adaptive triggers and haptics. Whether you prefer the tactile power of controllers or the freedom of true hand-tracked gameplay, the choice is yours. Use the “shockwave” gesture to push away all the enemies at once. Reactivate ancient crystals with your inner light to open Gates to other constellations. A galactic battle awaits If you haven’t joined the fight yet, now is the perfect time. Step into the role of The Wanderer, a being of light battling against the encroaching darkness. Travel across stunning cosmic landscapes, uncover ancient secrets, and challenge the black hole’s core in a fight to save the galaxy. With 36 action-packed levels, leaderboards, and the intense Grand Master difficulty mode, there’s always a new challenge to conquer. Hidden in the 36 levels are ancient ruins that can be reactivated by the player to unlock pieces of the lore. Join the revolution Hand tracking on PS VR2 marks a huge leap forward for virtual reality, and we’re honored to be among the first to bring it to PlayStation fans. Whether you’re a longtime VR player or diving in for the first time, Masters of Light delivers an experience that’s intuitive, thrilling, and truly next-gen. Are you ready to wield the power of light with your own hands? Masters of Light is available now on PlayStation VR2—download the update and step into a new era of VR gaming today! Play Video

Picture yourself stranded alone on an alien planet. With no-one around to help, and no-one coming to the rescue, your only salvation lies in the endless darkness of a sprawling cave system. Would you dare face the dangers that lurk in the dark? Welcome to the world of Into Black, a VR action/exploration game about […]

Picture yourself stranded alone on an alien planet. With no-one around to help, and no-one coming to the rescue, your only salvation lies in the endless darkness of a sprawling cave system. Would you dare face the dangers that lurk in the dark? Welcome to the world of Into Black, a VR action/exploration game about a deep space scavenger trying to repair his ship and escape a mysterious alien planet. You scour the caves for resources to upgrade your gear and rebuild your ship, all while fighting off hordes of deadly alien creatures. And while the game features a fully voice-acted story campaign, playable solo or in co-op with up to 3 friends, as well as a standalone battle royale mode, the true heart of Into Black is the sense of exploration as you navigate the darkness and uncover wonders and dangers beyond reckoning. PS VR2 owners will soon get to experience this sense of exploration first hand, but rest assured, this is no mere port. By utilising the power of the PS VR2 hardware, we’ve been able to reshape the world of Into Black into something truly next level. Let there be light As the name implies, so much of Into Black is about the interplay of light and dark as they explore the underground expanse, so much so that one of the first items we give players is a torch. That exploration is now much more vivid and alive with the use of real-time shadows. Sweep your torch over a prowling insectoid grunt, and see its spider-like silhouette thrown up against the cave wall behind it. Observe inadvertent puppet shows as your co-op crewmates dash around, each with their own torch throwing its own shadows. The immersive feel of shadows stretching out and parallaxing along the ground as you pass by cave openings, swinging your torch side to side as you look for valuable resources, is second to none. And of course, the other side of this equation is the darkness itself. New HDR lighting and volumetric effects, as well as the deeper blacks of the PS VR2 OLEDs, adds a richer sense of foreboding to the depths of the caves, and makes exploring them a true journey into the unknown. The Devil is in the details But what is the point of ultra-realistic lighting if there’s nothing to see when lit? That’s why the world of Into Black has also been given a full visual overhaul. We’ve rebuilt the cave environments with a much higher geometric density, giving them gorgeous new depth and complexity, especially when seen in tandem with the improved lighting. We’ve also enhanced the textures and detail maps, to give increased fidelity to the visuals. We also wanted to enhance the feeling of life in the caves, so we used some of the new processing power to dramatically increase the amount of atmospheric flora and fauna in the caves. Whether it be unidentified airborne creatures circling high overhead amongst the stalactites, fields of grass, or swarms of alien fish swimming through massive coral structures, the caves you are exploring are not only full of danger and treasure, but also life. Combine all this with higher resolution, eye-tracked foveation, and a smooth 90Hz refresh rate, and you have the cleanest, most striking version of Into Black yet. Once more, with feeling Sure, visuals are great and all, but there’s more to a game than just how it looks. All new headset haptics, and, most importantly, adaptive triggers of the Playstation VR Sense controllers offer a whole slew of new immersive capabilities for Into Black. Feel the impact of every pickaxe swing, and the kick of the shotgun blast. Get rocked by a swipe from a colossal rock golem, or by the errant throw of a buddy’s grenade. We all know the magic of VR is in the immersion, and with so many tactile feedback options now at our disposal, that feeling of being there is deeper than ever before. A little about us As a veteran VR studio, The Binary Mill takes pride and joy in bringing fun and exciting experiences such as Rush, Mini Motor Racing X and Gun Club VR to enthusiasts of all types. Our previous game, the award-winning Resist (available on PS VR2 April 10) will also give PS VR2 players the ability to swing through a dystopian city and battle for the fate of humanity like never before. With Into Black we wanted to allow our players to feel the thrill of discovery. And with Into Black on PS VR2, we feel like we’ve truly delivered on that promise, and we hope you’ll join us on this journey into the unknown. You can wishlist Into Black today and be ready to descend into the depths when it launches on PlayStation VR2 soon!

Shadow Labyrinth is the forthcoming 2D action platformer from our team at Bandai Namco Studios where players will control Swordsman No.8, summoned to a mysterious planet by the enigmatic Puck to complete a mission where others have failed. The two will discover secrets and battle huge bosses in their struggle to survive. The concept of […]

Shadow Labyrinth is the forthcoming 2D action platformer from our team at Bandai Namco Studios where players will control Swordsman No.8, summoned to a mysterious planet by the enigmatic Puck to complete a mission where others have failed. The two will discover secrets and battle huge bosses in their struggle to survive. The concept of a dark Pac-Man game is bold new ground for the brand, delivering a unique experience that existing and new PAC players will be excited to dig into. Shadow Labyrinth emerges from the darkness on July 18. Gamers may have noticed that Puck looks quite a bit like Pac-Man, and there’s the amazing visual of a huge foreboding and dark Pac-Man chomping down on the body of a downed foe. But Shadow Labyrinth’s inspiration from Pac-Man is more than skin deep, our team worked to build from the ground up with careful consideration of what it means to be a Pac-Man game. The iconic maze is second only to Pac-Man himself when considering the core factors of a Pac game. We wanted to apply that principle to our game where the characters are just as important as the place where we find them. Arcade Pac-Man’s maze is immersive, and we wanted to bring that to life on a broader scale. The map of this mysterious planet when viewed zoomed out is itself a massive maze, and like the original Pac-Man, you must get familiar with the maze to best your enemies. The original arcade game’s maze was set upon a background of darkness, Shadow Labyrinth takes this one step further by having our story take place in the depths of outer space on a dark and mysterious planet where survival means tougher challenges in deeper levels. You either reach the end or are consumed trying. When you approach a Pac-Man arcade machine you are greeted by a joystick, so we thought, controlling Pac-Man is quite simple, right? It’s just a joystick. But as you progress through each level the on-screen action of dodging Ghosts gets intense. Shadow Labyrinth gives players a variety of actions and weapons to use, but we wanted the player inputs to feel natural, not overwhelming – like that simple joystick. We also wanted to give the player as much choice as possible, letting them choose which direction they would like to explore first. Like original arcade Pac-Man, the action in Shadow Labyrinth gets seriously intense and we felt that an approachable control scheme and the flexibility to explore the directions they’re curious about would help deepen player immersion similar to the original arcade game. There are in fact 3 modes of play in Shadow Labyrinth. Controlling Swordsman No.8 is all about weapon use and artfully dodging, and Mini Puck mode is all about exploring hidden and out of reach pathways. These in themselves feel very Pac-Man, but the 3rd mode of play is effectively Shadow Labyrinth’s version of a Power Pellet: GAIA, the robotic giant with devastating force. Using GAIA, players can damage enemies that might have otherwise been too strong, break through barriers (a reference to the arcade game Super Pac-Man), and actually eat enemies. But just like a Power Pellet, this power is not endless, and must be used strategically to, as Pac-Man fans say, “turn the tables” on your enemies. Pac-Man is always eating Dots, Power Pellets, and Ghosts to level up and keep going. We wanted to expand on the core concept of consuming in Shadow Labyrinth to include eating to defeat foes but also eating as a means of powering up. In the game, you can choose to eat enemies instead of slashing them until defeated. If you do choose to eat them then you’ll gain different resources depending on the enemy you’ve eaten. These resources can then be used to acquire and upgrade your abilities. So, in Shadow Labyrinth too you must eat to progress, not only to get further but also to grow from prey to the apex predator. But where are the Ghosts? We didn’t forget them. In Shadow Labyrinth, amongst many of the vile creatures you must destroy or be haunted by are the G-Hosts: parasitic organisms that have taken over monsters and machines of the planet to create something new and terrifying. These encounters serve as formidable boss battles fitting for the primary antagonists of the arcade original. You’ll encounter the G-Hosts based upon Pac-Man Ghosts such as Pinky, never revealed until now, as twisted boss battles. Shadow Labyrinth takes inspiration from the legacy of games in the genre as well as being built using the DNA of Pac-Man. But eagle-eyed gamers have already started to notice clues that Shadow Labyrinth takes place in the larger chronology of the UGSF (United Galaxy Space Force) timeline: a shared universe that connects many of Bandai Namco’s space-themed games. As players explore the massive map of Shadow Labyrinth’s world, they’ll encounter some familiar looking enemies like those from the Dig Dug series, Bosconian, and more. Shadow Labyrinth comes to PlayStation 5 on July 18!

The Battle Royale map that started it all is back! Prepare to drop into Verdansk in a huge launch event celebrating the return of the map. Featuring authentic, back-to-basics gameplay with the latest in fan-favorite mechanics, there’s a wide variety of features coming to the game. Season 3 begins on PS4 and PS5 with Multiplayer […]

The Battle Royale map that started it all is back! Prepare to drop into Verdansk in a huge launch event celebrating the return of the map. Featuring authentic, back-to-basics gameplay with the latest in fan-favorite mechanics, there’s a wide variety of features coming to the game. Season 3 begins on PS4 and PS5 with Multiplayer and Zombies content coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on April 2 at 9AM PT, followed by the launch of Verdansk in Call of Duty: Warzone 24 hours later on April 3 at 9AM PT. Play Video Verdansk, rebuilt from the ground up Like we never left: 150 players. The original announcer. Shooting during freefall. Original Infil cinematics. All before you hit the ground running. Original game mechanics: Original Supply Boxes, Floating Loot, Armor Satchels and Buy Station menus, coupled with current Loadouts and Perks, with High Value Loot Zones across the map where some premium loot resides. QOL updates: A variety of quality-of-life updates also hits Call of Duty: Warzone, including Squad Redeploys at Buy Stations, Attachment descriptions during Weapon Inspects, detailed death recaps in game, a HUD flag so you know exactly when your Loadout is available to buy, and more. Game modes, events, rewards Game modes Play a variety of modes including returning favorites and new ones: Battle Royale Plunder Quads Bootcamp Plus, get in on the brand-new Battle Royale Casual playlist at launch, featuring 28 players and up to 120 bots, the perfect arena to warm up before the main event. Return to Verdansk launch event Reassemble the Squad and drop back into your former stomping grounds for an exciting homecoming. The Return to Verdansk Event takes the form of a series of challenges scattered across 12 distinct zones within Verdansk. Crack all 12 safes to earn the infamous Kali Sticks melee weapon. Login, Get the Kilo 141 The Kilo 141 Assault Rifle is back and ready to tear it up across Verdansk for old times’ sake. Players will automatically unlock the Kilo 141 for use in Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone after logging in to Call of Duty: Warzone following the launch of Season 3 on April 2. More Verdansk-era Weapons: In addition to the Kali Sticks and Kilo 141, players can earn two more classic Verdansk-era weapons. Get the CR-56 AMAX Assault Rifle and HDR Sniper Rifle, both earnable in the Season 3 Battle Pass. New multiplayer, Zombies content Don’t miss out on the Season 3 content coming to Black Ops 6 on April 2. Play multiplayer maps including a remaster of Firing Range and modes like Demolition and Sharpshooter. Plus, explore a diabolical mansion in the woods in the new Zombies map, Shattered Veil. Season 3 launch intel, Black Ops 6 free trial Black Ops 6 Multiplayer, Zombies, and General game content drops a day early on Wednesday April 2, 9AM PT. Call of Duty: Warzone content launches across all platforms 24 hours later, on Thursday April 3, 9AM PT. Free trial: Play all of Black Ops 6 during 24-Hour countdown Pre-load the game, then access Black Ops 6 as a premium player or via a Free Trial with the entire Season 3 premium game accessible for 24 hours, allowing you to grind out some of the new weapons, including the Kilo 141, CR-56 AMAX, and HDR. Season 3 launches April 2.

Protect the streets of Detroit, survive a family of horror icons, and turn digital detective with April’s PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup. RoboCop: Rogue City, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory will be available to PlayStation Plus members from April 1.  Let’s take a closer look at the games.  […]

Protect the streets of Detroit, survive a family of horror icons, and turn digital detective with April’s PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup. RoboCop: Rogue City, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory will be available to PlayStation Plus members from April 1. Play Video Let’s take a closer look at the games. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image RoboCop: Rogue City | PS5 Become the legendary part man, part machine, all cop hero and bring justice to the dangerous, crime-ridden streets of Old Detroit. With your powerful Auto-9 or one of a range of weapons available, eradicate criminals throughout this explosive first-person adventure. Your cyborg strength and cybernetic abilities can be upgraded as you progress, to make you an even more formidable law enforcement officer. Explore open areas and complete your objectives according to your own sense of justice. Finding evidence, interrogating suspects and maintaining public order are just some of your daily tasks as a police officer. But don’t take decisions lightly: your choices can determine the fate of citizens and the result of your mission. Your investigation leads you right into the heart of a shadowy conspiracy in an original story that takes place between RoboCop 2 and 3, with striking locations to explore and familiar faces to meet. Peter Weller, the original RoboCop actor, is even back on duty to voice the cybercop. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image The Texas Chain Saw Massacre | PS4, PS5 Take on the role of one of the notorious Slaughter family, or their victims, in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, a third-person asymmetrical horror experience based on the groundbreaking and iconic 1974 horror film. As a victim you must use your wits and stealth to stay out of the Family’s reach and find the tools you need to lead to your eventual freedom. Slaughter Family players must seek out, track down, and stop their guests from escaping. Players of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre can finally find out if they have what it takes to survive. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory | PS4 After being accused of a crime he didn’t commit, Keisuke Amazawa has no choice but to dive into the Digital World and investigate to prove his innocence. Even if that means joining a group of hackers and helping them to solve the troubles threatening this mysterious universe. Discover the mysterious backstory to the events that happened in Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth as you dive into a deeper and darker adventure, at crossroads between real and digital and experience the perfect mix between Adventure, Raising and Battle with over 320 Digimon to discover. All three games will be available to PlayStation Plus members on April 1 until May 5. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Last chance to download March’s games PlayStation Plus members have until March 31 to add Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Sonic Colors: Ultimate and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection to their game library.

Gran Turismo players! Update 1.57* for Gran Turismo 7 available as of Wednesday, March 26 at 10:00pm PT / March 27 at 5:00am GMT / 2:00pm JST.  Three new cars added this month Aston Martin Vintage ‘18 (Can be purchased from Brand Central) This lightweight cornering machine has been called the best Aston Martin ever.  […]

Gran Turismo players! Update 1.57* for Gran Turismo 7 available as of Wednesday, March 26 at 10:00pm PT / March 27 at 5:00am GMT / 2:00pm JST. Play Video Three new cars added this month View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Aston Martin Vintage ‘18 (Can be purchased from Brand Central) This lightweight cornering machine has been called the best Aston Martin ever. The ‘Vantage’ name had long been used by Aston Martin to represent their high performance model grades, but in 2005 the Vantage became its own separate model. Relatively compact for an Aston Martin model and equipped with a V8 engine, the car would become a hit being the best handling front-engine rear-wheel drive model in the line-up. The next generation Vantage introduced in 2017 carried on the core concepts of the model. Though sharing a platform with the DB11 V8, the Vantage body has a shorter wheelbase and is 120 kg lighter which results in a cornering machine that has been lauded as the best handling car in the history of Aston Martin. The powerplant is a Mercedes-AMG 4L V8 producing 502 BHP. With a 0-62 mph time of 3.7s, and a top speed of 195 mph, the car is also capable of supercar speeds. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Mazda CX-30 X Smart Edition ‘21 (Can be purchased from Brand Central) This crossover SUV from Mazda features a revolutionary new engine design. During the sport utility vehicle (SUV) boom that swept across the globe during the 2010s, Mazda introduced their CX-3 and CX-5 models, however there was a significant size difference between the two. The CX-30 is a crossover SUV designed to fill that gap in the line-up between the CX-3 and CX-5. While relatively compact, measuring 4,395 mm in length, 1,795 mm in width and 1,540 mm in height, the CX-30 still exhibits Mazda’s flowing, streamlined ‘KODO Design’ aesthetics in its exterior. On the front mask, the signature wing stretches out to the sides, joining the left and right headlights together, while the ripple across the side of the body exquisitely reflects the light as it moves across. The car is provided with a choice of 3 powertrains: The 2L gasoline direct injection ‘SKYACTIV-G’, the 1.8L direct injection diesel ‘SKYACTIV-D’ or the ‘SKYACTIV-X’ a 2L gasoline direct injection engine which uses a revolutionary spark-controlled compression ignition (SPCCI) system. The ‘CX-30 X Smart Edition’ grade seen here was introduced in 2021, based on the ‘SKYACTIV-X’ model. One of the major selling points of this model are its wealth of driver assistance equipment included as standard, like the Active Driving Display which projects information onto the windscreen, and the Smart Brake Support automatic emergency braking system. The introduction of this model grade also saw improvements to the SKYACTIV-X system itself, with automatic models receiving increased throttle pedal resistance to improve driving feel. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Renault Kangoo 1.4 ‘01 (Can be purchased from Brand Central / Used Cars) A popular leisure activity vehicle that started life as a commercial van. In France, there has been a long-running trend of ‘fourgonnette’ style vehicles, small commercial vans, with a number of bestsellers emerging over the years. One such car which stemmed from this trend was the Renault Kangoo, originally debuting in 1997. When developing the Kangoo, alongside optimizing its performance as a commercial vehicle, Renault also added some features that would give it some potential to be an MPV for personal leisure as well. This model included sliding doors for the rear passenger seats and separate rear seats that could be individually adjusted. This strategy proved to be a success and the Kangoo became the forerunner of the ‘ludospace’ leisure activity vehicle segment. The roughly 4 m long body provided abundant cargo space, making it the go-to model for outdoors activities. The Kangoo was available with a variety of different power units to fit its purpose, but the model featured here uses the 1.4L gasoline engine. At only 73 BHP, it offers the bare minimum in power, but the ability to use all the power available is in the true spirit of French automobiles. And with its soft suspension, this makes for an unusually exhilarating driving experience. Café / Extra Menus The following Menu will be added to the Extra Menus section: Extra Menu No. 45: Suzuki (Collector Level 35 and above) World Circuits (Event) The following new events have been added to ‘World Circuits’: Sunday Cup: Brands Hatch Indy Circuit European Clubman Cup 600: Deep Forest Raceway Reverse Japanese FF Challenge 450: Tokyo Expressway – Central Counterclockwise Play Video View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Gran Turismo Sophy The next-generation racing AI agent, Gran Turismo Sophy has evolved into “GT Sophy 2.1” and is now available in ‘Custom Race’ (PS5 version only) ‘GT Sophy’ can now be selected as the rival AI in Custom Race on all GT Sophy supported tracks and layouts in World Circuits. Scapes ‘The Faroe Islands’ has been added as a featured curation in Scapes. *Internet connection and Gran Turismo 7 game required for update.

PlayStation Store’s Spring Sale begins tomorrow, Wednesday March 26. For a limited time* you can enjoy deep discounts of up to 75% off across a wide selection of games and add-ons. That includes Elden Ring (40% off), Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – Cross-Gen Bundle (30% off), Baldur’s Gate 3 (20% off) and many […]

PlayStation Store’s Spring Sale begins tomorrow, Wednesday March 26. For a limited time* you can enjoy deep discounts of up to 75% off across a wide selection of games and add-ons. That includes Elden Ring (40% off), Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – Cross-Gen Bundle (30% off), Baldur’s Gate 3 (20% off) and many more*. What other games are included? Well, it’s a list so big we can’t fit everything in this PS Blog post, but we can give you an early preview of some of the titles which will feature below. When the promotion goes live tomorrow, head to PlayStation Store to discover the full lineup as well as your regional discount pricing. A Plague Tale: Innocence A Plague Tale: Requiem Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown – Season Pass ACE COMBAT™ 7: SKIES UNKNOWN – TOP GUN: Maverick Ultimate Edition Alan Wake 2 Deluxe Edition Alan Wake Remastered Alien: Rogue Incursion Alone in the Dark – Digital Deluxe Edition Ambulance – Deluxe Edition Anno 1800 Arizona Sunshine® 2 Deluxe Edition ARK: Survival Ascended Arken Age ARMORED CORE 6 ASIA/EU/NA ARMORED CORE 6 Deluxe Edition ASIA/EU/NA Assassin’s Creed Mirage – Standard Edition Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – Season Pass Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – Ultimate Edition Assassin’s Creed Origins Assassin’s Creed Origins – Gold Edition Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – Complete Edition Assassin’s Creed Valhalla PS4 & PS5 Assassin’s Creed® Valhalla – Season Pass Assetto Corsa – Season Pass Assetto Corsa – Ultimate Edition Assetto Corsa Competizione Assetto Corsa Competizione PS5 Astroneer Atomic Heart – Premium Edition Atomic Heart – Standard Edition Atomic Pass Avatar – Frontiers of Pandora Avatar – Season Pass Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Ultimate Edition Back 4 Blood: Standard Edition PS4 & PS5 Back 4 Blood: Ultimate Edition PS4 & PS5 Baldur’s Gate 3 Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Batman: Arkham Collection Batman: Arkham Knight Batman: Arkham Knight Season Pass Battlefield 1 Battlefield 2042 Battlefield 2042 (PS5) Battlefield 4: Premium Edition Battlefield V Bendy and the Ink Machine Bendy: Studio Collection Beyond the Dawn Edition Big Helmet Heroes – Base Game BioShock: The Collection Blasphemous 2 Blasphemous 2 – Mea Culpa Bluey: The Videogame Bob’s Tall Tales BodyCamera Shooter Borderlands 3 PS4™ & PS5™ Borderlands 3: Super Deluxe Edition PS4™ & PS5™ Borderlands Ultimate Edition DLC (SP1/SP2) Brothers Remake Builders Beach and Ball Clothing Pack Bully (Canis Canem Edit) Burnout Paradise Remastered Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – Gold Edition Call of Duty: Ghosts – Gold Edition Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare – Legacy Edition Call of Duty: WWII – Gold Edition Call of the Wild: theAngler Cat Quest III Chivalry 2 King’s Edition Chivalry 2 Special Edition PS4 & PS5 Cities: Skylines – Season Pass Cities: Skylines – Season Pass 2 Civilization VI Anthology Upgrade Conan Exiles Conan Exiles – Architects of Argos Pack Conan Exiles – Blood and Sand Pack Conan Exiles – Complete Edition October 2021 Conan Exiles – Debaucheries of Derketo Pack Conan Exiles – Isle of Siptah Edition Conan Exiles – Jewel of the West Pack Conan Exiles – People of the Dragon Pack Conan Exiles – Riders of Hyboria Pack Conan Exiles – Seekers of the Dawn Pack Conan Exiles – The Imperial East Pack Conan Exiles – The Riddle of Steel Conan Exiles – The Savage Frontier Pack Conan Exiles – Treasures of Turan Pack Conan Exiles – Year 1 DLC Bundle Conan Exiles – Year 2 DLC Bundle Conan Exiles: Isle of Siptah Crash Bandicoot™ 4: It’s About Time Crash Bundle 2021 Anniversary Crash Bundle 2021 Quadrilogy Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled – Nitros Oxide Edition Crusader Kings III: Fate of Iberia Crusader Kings III: Friends & Foes Crusader Kings III: Northern Lords Crusader Kings III: Royal Court Crusader Kings III: Royal Edition Crusader Kings III: Tours & Tournaments Cult of the Lamb: Cultist Edition Cyberpunk 2077 Cyberpunk 2077 — Phantom Liberty DayZ DayZ Cool Edition DayZ Frostline Dead by Daylight – Gold Edition Dead by Daylight: Dungeons & Dragons Chapter Dead by Daylight: Castlevania Chapter Dead by Daylight: Resident Evil Chapter Dead by Daylight: Project W Chapter Dead by Daylight: Special Edition PS4™ & PS5™ Dead Cells: Medley of Pain Bundle Dead Island 2 – HAUS (DLC 1) Dead Island 2 – SoLA (DLC 2) Dead Island 2 – Ultimate Edition (formerly Gold) / Release Dead Space Deadside Deadside Supporter Pack Deadside: Deluxe Edition Deadside: Deluxe Upgrade Deep Rock Galactic Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles Character Pass Demon Slayer The Hinokami 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Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com! Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or download here Hey, everybody! Sid, Kristen, Brett, and I are back this week to discuss the new take on Pac-Man Shadow Labyrinth, the wonders of hand-tracking in PlayStation VR2, what it’s like to learn how to walk in Baby Steps, and their most played games […]

Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com! Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or download here Hey, everybody! Sid, Kristen, Brett, and I are back this week to discuss the new take on Pac-Man Shadow Labyrinth, the wonders of hand-tracking in PlayStation VR2, what it’s like to learn how to walk in Baby Steps, and their most played games on PlayStation. Stuff We Talked About Next week’s release highlights: Koira | PS5 Croc: Legend Of The Gobbos Remastered | PS5, PS4 The Last of Us Part II Remastered | PC Shadow Labyrinth — Release Date (July 18 for PS5) Into Black (PS VR2) — Announcement Blog (coming soon) Masters of Light (PS VR2) — Hand-tracking update Baby Steps — Hands-on report Our top five most-played games on PlayStation PlayStation Plus Monthly Games April RoboCop: Rogue City | PS5 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre | PS5, PS4 Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory | PS4 The Cast View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Sid Shuman – Senior Director of Content Communications, SIE View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Kristen Zitani – Senior Content Communications Specialist, SIE View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Brett Elston – Manager, Content Communications, SIE View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image O’Dell Harmon Jr. – Content Communications Specialist, SIE Thanks to Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music. [Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]

Last week, we asked you to take a leap into Assassin’s Creed Shadows and share epic moments of dual protagonists Naoe and Yasuke using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights: TakaSanGames shares Naoe in traditional Assassin white, in front of the Hidden Ones symbol Evo_Pixel shares Yasuke striking with his katana in the rain […]

Last week, we asked you to take a leap into Assassin’s Creed Shadows and share epic moments of dual protagonists Naoe and Yasuke using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights: TakaSanGames shares Naoe in traditional Assassin white, in front of the Hidden Ones symbol Evo_Pixel shares Yasuke striking with his katana in the rain domo_vp shares Naoe framed by candlelight Yuric83 shares Yasuke in ornamental armor emerging from shadows calisarah1998 shares Naoe approaching a large red gate Milz_VP shares Yasuke wearing a samurai mask in the morning fog Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week? View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image THEME: Assassin’s Creed Shadows – Landscapes SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on April 2, 2025 Next week, we’re focusing on the beautiful environments of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Share landscapes across the seasons of Japan using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Baby Steps was first revealed to the world in June 2023, and upon first viewing it, I didn’t know what to think. Surprises are few and far between when you have been gaming for over 30 years, but the reveal trailer left me with perplexing emotions. I was in a mental tug-of-war between, ‘I’ve never […]

Baby Steps was first revealed to the world in June 2023, and upon first viewing it, I didn’t know what to think. Surprises are few and far between when you have been gaming for over 30 years, but the reveal trailer left me with perplexing emotions. I was in a mental tug-of-war between, ‘I’ve never quite seen something quite like this’ and, ‘Does this concept really have a leg to stand on?’ Well, after about an hour of playing the game, I was ten toes down. The game starts with a snippet of exposition. You’re a grown man named Nate living at home, and without warning, you’re thrown into the game world. You’re taught how to walk and tasked with making it out of a cave that serves as the tutorial area, and then you take the first steps into the open world, with one goal in mind: make it to the mountain in the far off distance. To the ends of the earth This wasn’t a mountain separated by cut-scenes and different hub areas, but a specific geographical goal I would have to advance to in real-time, creeping closer with every step. This realization swept me off my feet. “It started on a much smaller course,” Said Bennett Foddy, one of the creators of Baby Steps. “But just as a test, I made a level that was 100 meters wide, and it was immediately clear to us that that was going to make for much more interesting gameplay, involving strategic route-finding as well as tactical foot placement. And surely it wouldn’t be that hard to make an open-world game!” Step-by-step Once the shock of the world’s scope wore off, I instantly bypassed the direct route for something more interesting that caught my eye and headed for what appeared to be a carousel in the distance. Since there is no map or waypoints here, where you go depends on you as the player. With campfires in the distance serving as markers for the ‘true’ direction you should head toward. As I walked through mud, puddles, sticks, and stones, the DualSense controller features began to shine, as every texture was met with the appropriate sensation and the oddly satisfying crunch of the earth and other material under my feet. “There’s a cutting-edge experimental music system that works in sync with the walking sim,” Foddy said. “I think we’ve woven a pretty thought-provoking story from Nate’s situation as well. And the game is packed full of other surprises.” Since I breezed through the earlier tutorial and started making tracks through a bizarre, seemingly desolate carnival, I spied a mysterious object atop the carousel, which led me to my first challenge: conquering medium—to medium-high ledges and slippery surfaces. The object called me like a moth to a flame, and I spent some time figuring out how to raise my knees high enough for a step big enough to clear the ledge and how wide of a step to take to complete the motion without falling over. Though it was only a minute or two, I felt like I had conquered a tough boss battle. What awaited me at the top of the spiral slope? A hat. A simple hat, yes, but one that held surprises, that I’ll let you discover for yourself. Baby Steps has dozens upon dozens of collectibles to find, and the purpose they serve is part of the journey. Though none of them will help you walk better – that’s always in your hands (or rather, feet). But don’t worry—the devs assured me the game is something to enjoy for players of all skill levels. That’s the beauty of the open world. If you fail or fall, you can always head toward another point of interest or stumble upon the unexpected. “I have had a pretty good time in the past putting out difficult games and not turning too many players away,” Foddy said. “But we’ve tried pretty hard to make a game that looks hard but plays pretty chill. Probably we’ve made it too easy.” Break a leg There are no checkpoints, you can’t die, and no fast travel. The only change is your ability to walk up straight and the terrain. While there is a story and a definitive end to the narrative, you can explore and see what you can find after the credits roll. Like many open-world games, how much you’re willing to learn about the world and Nate will depend on the player. I saw Nate as nothing more than a vehicle to experience the world, but after a few discoveries and a cryptic note or two, my desire to find out the who, what, where, when, and why of his strange predicament became my first priority. While my time was brief, it was still enough to meet a handful of supporting characters, some of whom can be completely missed. There was always a new thread to follow and the proverbial/literal mountain to climb. I asked the team if Nate’s journey had some grander subtext, or if he was just a guy with an objective to complete. “Everyone has days where they’re feeling a little awkward,” said Foddy. “A little clumsy, maybe a little lost and confused. I think we can all relate a little. But as for his glutes, that’s a power I could only dream of having.” I didn’t expect to be so enamored with a game where every step you take can be challenging, but I was. I was willing to spend ten minutes or an hour to get that item slightly out of reach or to find out what that out-of-place structure was in the distance. While I have no idea what’s out there in Baby Steps, I’m looking forward to seeing where my feet will take me.

The wait is over! Masters of Light is now one of the first games to introduce full hand tracking on PlayStation VR2, pushing the boundaries of immersive gameplay like never before. As the creator of Masters of Light and co-founder of Coven, I’m beyond excited to bring this revolutionary update to PlayStation fans. Learn specific […]

The wait is over! Masters of Light is now one of the first games to introduce full hand tracking on PlayStation VR2, pushing the boundaries of immersive gameplay like never before. As the creator of Masters of Light and co-founder of Coven, I’m beyond excited to bring this revolutionary update to PlayStation fans. Learn specific gestures to teleport, block meteors and fight! Harness magic with your own hands Imagine stepping into the world of Masters of Light and casting spells with nothing but your hands—no controllers needed. This is the power of PS VR2’s new hand tracking technology, allowing you to unleash beams of light, summon shields, and control energy like a true celestial warrior. Every flick of your wrist, every precise movement, translates into real-time spellcasting, making battles feel more intuitive, immersive, and exhilarating than ever. Masters of Light features high energy first person combat where focus, timing and strategy are keys to victory. A new standard for immersion When we first envisioned Masters of Light, our goal was to make players feel truly empowered. From the very beginning, we built our combat system around fluid, natural gestures—inspired by self defense moves. Now, thanks to PlayStation VR2’s advanced tracking capabilities, players can experience the game as we originally imagined: with pure hand movement, free from controllers. Frantic hand tracking moves will keep you physically engaged in the fights. You WILL break a sweat! The evolution of Hand Tracking in VR At Coven, we’ve been developing hand-tracking games for years, pushing the technology forward with every project. Bringing this feature to PS VR2 was an incredible challenge, but also a dream come true. This would have not been possible without the support of our incredible porting team, VR Monkey. Here is what they have to say: “Implementing the hand tracking in two and a half months was a challenge, since officially Unity hasn’t added PS VR2’s hand tracking support. So one of our developers (Thanks Eric Gregory) created an in-house plugin that took advantage of Sony’s new state of the art tracking system to make hand tracking run at 60 frames per second (currently the highest available on the market). After that, we could harness the powerful gesture detection system of the PlayStation 5 to recreate all of the game’s powers and interactions in a week’s work. We’ve refined the system to make sure every motion is responsive, every action feels powerful, and every battle is a seamless blend of strategy and skill.“ New enemies and superpowers are unlocked as players progress in the game, climaxing in insane battles that will leave you breathless. Play your way With this new update, Masters of Light now offers multiple control options: Hand tracking mode – No controllers, just pure hand movements for spellcasting and navigation. PS VR2 Sense controller mode – Experience the game with the precision and feedback of adaptive triggers and haptics. Whether you prefer the tactile power of controllers or the freedom of true hand-tracked gameplay, the choice is yours. Use the “shockwave” gesture to push away all the enemies at once. Reactivate ancient crystals with your inner light to open Gates to other constellations. A galactic battle awaits If you haven’t joined the fight yet, now is the perfect time. Step into the role of The Wanderer, a being of light battling against the encroaching darkness. Travel across stunning cosmic landscapes, uncover ancient secrets, and challenge the black hole’s core in a fight to save the galaxy. With 36 action-packed levels, leaderboards, and the intense Grand Master difficulty mode, there’s always a new challenge to conquer. Hidden in the 36 levels are ancient ruins that can be reactivated by the player to unlock pieces of the lore. Join the revolution Hand tracking on PS VR2 marks a huge leap forward for virtual reality, and we’re honored to be among the first to bring it to PlayStation fans. Whether you’re a longtime VR player or diving in for the first time, Masters of Light delivers an experience that’s intuitive, thrilling, and truly next-gen. Are you ready to wield the power of light with your own hands? Masters of Light is available now on PlayStation VR2—download the update and step into a new era of VR gaming today! Play Video

Picture yourself stranded alone on an alien planet. With no-one around to help, and no-one coming to the rescue, your only salvation lies in the endless darkness of a sprawling cave system. Would you dare face the dangers that lurk in the dark? Welcome to the world of Into Black, a VR action/exploration game about […]

Picture yourself stranded alone on an alien planet. With no-one around to help, and no-one coming to the rescue, your only salvation lies in the endless darkness of a sprawling cave system. Would you dare face the dangers that lurk in the dark? Welcome to the world of Into Black, a VR action/exploration game about a deep space scavenger trying to repair his ship and escape a mysterious alien planet. You scour the caves for resources to upgrade your gear and rebuild your ship, all while fighting off hordes of deadly alien creatures. And while the game features a fully voice-acted story campaign, playable solo or in co-op with up to 3 friends, as well as a standalone battle royale mode, the true heart of Into Black is the sense of exploration as you navigate the darkness and uncover wonders and dangers beyond reckoning. PS VR2 owners will soon get to experience this sense of exploration first hand, but rest assured, this is no mere port. By utilising the power of the PS VR2 hardware, we’ve been able to reshape the world of Into Black into something truly next level. Let there be light As the name implies, so much of Into Black is about the interplay of light and dark as they explore the underground expanse, so much so that one of the first items we give players is a torch. That exploration is now much more vivid and alive with the use of real-time shadows. Sweep your torch over a prowling insectoid grunt, and see its spider-like silhouette thrown up against the cave wall behind it. Observe inadvertent puppet shows as your co-op crewmates dash around, each with their own torch throwing its own shadows. The immersive feel of shadows stretching out and parallaxing along the ground as you pass by cave openings, swinging your torch side to side as you look for valuable resources, is second to none. And of course, the other side of this equation is the darkness itself. New HDR lighting and volumetric effects, as well as the deeper blacks of the PS VR2 OLEDs, adds a richer sense of foreboding to the depths of the caves, and makes exploring them a true journey into the unknown. The Devil is in the details But what is the point of ultra-realistic lighting if there’s nothing to see when lit? That’s why the world of Into Black has also been given a full visual overhaul. We’ve rebuilt the cave environments with a much higher geometric density, giving them gorgeous new depth and complexity, especially when seen in tandem with the improved lighting. We’ve also enhanced the textures and detail maps, to give increased fidelity to the visuals. We also wanted to enhance the feeling of life in the caves, so we used some of the new processing power to dramatically increase the amount of atmospheric flora and fauna in the caves. Whether it be unidentified airborne creatures circling high overhead amongst the stalactites, fields of grass, or swarms of alien fish swimming through massive coral structures, the caves you are exploring are not only full of danger and treasure, but also life. Combine all this with higher resolution, eye-tracked foveation, and a smooth 90Hz refresh rate, and you have the cleanest, most striking version of Into Black yet. Once more, with feeling Sure, visuals are great and all, but there’s more to a game than just how it looks. All new headset haptics, and, most importantly, adaptive triggers of the Playstation VR Sense controllers offer a whole slew of new immersive capabilities for Into Black. Feel the impact of every pickaxe swing, and the kick of the shotgun blast. Get rocked by a swipe from a colossal rock golem, or by the errant throw of a buddy’s grenade. We all know the magic of VR is in the immersion, and with so many tactile feedback options now at our disposal, that feeling of being there is deeper than ever before. A little about us As a veteran VR studio, The Binary Mill takes pride and joy in bringing fun and exciting experiences such as Rush, Mini Motor Racing X and Gun Club VR to enthusiasts of all types. Our previous game, the award-winning Resist (available on PS VR2 April 10) will also give PS VR2 players the ability to swing through a dystopian city and battle for the fate of humanity like never before. With Into Black we wanted to allow our players to feel the thrill of discovery. And with Into Black on PS VR2, we feel like we’ve truly delivered on that promise, and we hope you’ll join us on this journey into the unknown. You can wishlist Into Black today and be ready to descend into the depths when it launches on PlayStation VR2 soon!

Shadow Labyrinth is the forthcoming 2D action platformer from our team at Bandai Namco Studios where players will control Swordsman No.8, summoned to a mysterious planet by the enigmatic Puck to complete a mission where others have failed. The two will discover secrets and battle huge bosses in their struggle to survive. The concept of […]

Shadow Labyrinth is the forthcoming 2D action platformer from our team at Bandai Namco Studios where players will control Swordsman No.8, summoned to a mysterious planet by the enigmatic Puck to complete a mission where others have failed. The two will discover secrets and battle huge bosses in their struggle to survive. The concept of a dark Pac-Man game is bold new ground for the brand, delivering a unique experience that existing and new PAC players will be excited to dig into. Shadow Labyrinth emerges from the darkness on July 18. Gamers may have noticed that Puck looks quite a bit like Pac-Man, and there’s the amazing visual of a huge foreboding and dark Pac-Man chomping down on the body of a downed foe. But Shadow Labyrinth’s inspiration from Pac-Man is more than skin deep, our team worked to build from the ground up with careful consideration of what it means to be a Pac-Man game. The iconic maze is second only to Pac-Man himself when considering the core factors of a Pac game. We wanted to apply that principle to our game where the characters are just as important as the place where we find them. Arcade Pac-Man’s maze is immersive, and we wanted to bring that to life on a broader scale. The map of this mysterious planet when viewed zoomed out is itself a massive maze, and like the original Pac-Man, you must get familiar with the maze to best your enemies. The original arcade game’s maze was set upon a background of darkness, Shadow Labyrinth takes this one step further by having our story take place in the depths of outer space on a dark and mysterious planet where survival means tougher challenges in deeper levels. You either reach the end or are consumed trying. When you approach a Pac-Man arcade machine you are greeted by a joystick, so we thought, controlling Pac-Man is quite simple, right? It’s just a joystick. But as you progress through each level the on-screen action of dodging Ghosts gets intense. Shadow Labyrinth gives players a variety of actions and weapons to use, but we wanted the player inputs to feel natural, not overwhelming – like that simple joystick. We also wanted to give the player as much choice as possible, letting them choose which direction they would like to explore first. Like original arcade Pac-Man, the action in Shadow Labyrinth gets seriously intense and we felt that an approachable control scheme and the flexibility to explore the directions they’re curious about would help deepen player immersion similar to the original arcade game. There are in fact 3 modes of play in Shadow Labyrinth. Controlling Swordsman No.8 is all about weapon use and artfully dodging, and Mini Puck mode is all about exploring hidden and out of reach pathways. These in themselves feel very Pac-Man, but the 3rd mode of play is effectively Shadow Labyrinth’s version of a Power Pellet: GAIA, the robotic giant with devastating force. Using GAIA, players can damage enemies that might have otherwise been too strong, break through barriers (a reference to the arcade game Super Pac-Man), and actually eat enemies. But just like a Power Pellet, this power is not endless, and must be used strategically to, as Pac-Man fans say, “turn the tables” on your enemies. Pac-Man is always eating Dots, Power Pellets, and Ghosts to level up and keep going. We wanted to expand on the core concept of consuming in Shadow Labyrinth to include eating to defeat foes but also eating as a means of powering up. In the game, you can choose to eat enemies instead of slashing them until defeated. If you do choose to eat them then you’ll gain different resources depending on the enemy you’ve eaten. These resources can then be used to acquire and upgrade your abilities. So, in Shadow Labyrinth too you must eat to progress, not only to get further but also to grow from prey to the apex predator. But where are the Ghosts? We didn’t forget them. In Shadow Labyrinth, amongst many of the vile creatures you must destroy or be haunted by are the G-Hosts: parasitic organisms that have taken over monsters and machines of the planet to create something new and terrifying. These encounters serve as formidable boss battles fitting for the primary antagonists of the arcade original. You’ll encounter the G-Hosts based upon Pac-Man Ghosts such as Pinky, never revealed until now, as twisted boss battles. Shadow Labyrinth takes inspiration from the legacy of games in the genre as well as being built using the DNA of Pac-Man. But eagle-eyed gamers have already started to notice clues that Shadow Labyrinth takes place in the larger chronology of the UGSF (United Galaxy Space Force) timeline: a shared universe that connects many of Bandai Namco’s space-themed games. As players explore the massive map of Shadow Labyrinth’s world, they’ll encounter some familiar looking enemies like those from the Dig Dug series, Bosconian, and more. Shadow Labyrinth comes to PlayStation 5 on July 18!

The Battle Royale map that started it all is back! Prepare to drop into Verdansk in a huge launch event celebrating the return of the map. Featuring authentic, back-to-basics gameplay with the latest in fan-favorite mechanics, there’s a wide variety of features coming to the game. Season 3 begins on PS4 and PS5 with Multiplayer […]

The Battle Royale map that started it all is back! Prepare to drop into Verdansk in a huge launch event celebrating the return of the map. Featuring authentic, back-to-basics gameplay with the latest in fan-favorite mechanics, there’s a wide variety of features coming to the game. Season 3 begins on PS4 and PS5 with Multiplayer and Zombies content coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on April 2 at 9AM PT, followed by the launch of Verdansk in Call of Duty: Warzone 24 hours later on April 3 at 9AM PT. Play Video Verdansk, rebuilt from the ground up Like we never left: 150 players. The original announcer. Shooting during freefall. Original Infil cinematics. All before you hit the ground running. Original game mechanics: Original Supply Boxes, Floating Loot, Armor Satchels and Buy Station menus, coupled with current Loadouts and Perks, with High Value Loot Zones across the map where some premium loot resides. QOL updates: A variety of quality-of-life updates also hits Call of Duty: Warzone, including Squad Redeploys at Buy Stations, Attachment descriptions during Weapon Inspects, detailed death recaps in game, a HUD flag so you know exactly when your Loadout is available to buy, and more. Game modes, events, rewards Game modes Play a variety of modes including returning favorites and new ones: Battle Royale Plunder Quads Bootcamp Plus, get in on the brand-new Battle Royale Casual playlist at launch, featuring 28 players and up to 120 bots, the perfect arena to warm up before the main event. Return to Verdansk launch event Reassemble the Squad and drop back into your former stomping grounds for an exciting homecoming. The Return to Verdansk Event takes the form of a series of challenges scattered across 12 distinct zones within Verdansk. Crack all 12 safes to earn the infamous Kali Sticks melee weapon. Login, Get the Kilo 141 The Kilo 141 Assault Rifle is back and ready to tear it up across Verdansk for old times’ sake. Players will automatically unlock the Kilo 141 for use in Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone after logging in to Call of Duty: Warzone following the launch of Season 3 on April 2. More Verdansk-era Weapons: In addition to the Kali Sticks and Kilo 141, players can earn two more classic Verdansk-era weapons. Get the CR-56 AMAX Assault Rifle and HDR Sniper Rifle, both earnable in the Season 3 Battle Pass. New multiplayer, Zombies content Don’t miss out on the Season 3 content coming to Black Ops 6 on April 2. Play multiplayer maps including a remaster of Firing Range and modes like Demolition and Sharpshooter. Plus, explore a diabolical mansion in the woods in the new Zombies map, Shattered Veil. Season 3 launch intel, Black Ops 6 free trial Black Ops 6 Multiplayer, Zombies, and General game content drops a day early on Wednesday April 2, 9AM PT. Call of Duty: Warzone content launches across all platforms 24 hours later, on Thursday April 3, 9AM PT. Free trial: Play all of Black Ops 6 during 24-Hour countdown Pre-load the game, then access Black Ops 6 as a premium player or via a Free Trial with the entire Season 3 premium game accessible for 24 hours, allowing you to grind out some of the new weapons, including the Kilo 141, CR-56 AMAX, and HDR. Season 3 launches April 2.

Protect the streets of Detroit, survive a family of horror icons, and turn digital detective with April’s PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup. RoboCop: Rogue City, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory will be available to PlayStation Plus members from April 1.  Let’s take a closer look at the games.  […]

Protect the streets of Detroit, survive a family of horror icons, and turn digital detective with April’s PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup. RoboCop: Rogue City, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory will be available to PlayStation Plus members from April 1. Play Video Let’s take a closer look at the games. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image RoboCop: Rogue City | PS5 Become the legendary part man, part machine, all cop hero and bring justice to the dangerous, crime-ridden streets of Old Detroit. With your powerful Auto-9 or one of a range of weapons available, eradicate criminals throughout this explosive first-person adventure. Your cyborg strength and cybernetic abilities can be upgraded as you progress, to make you an even more formidable law enforcement officer. Explore open areas and complete your objectives according to your own sense of justice. Finding evidence, interrogating suspects and maintaining public order are just some of your daily tasks as a police officer. But don’t take decisions lightly: your choices can determine the fate of citizens and the result of your mission. Your investigation leads you right into the heart of a shadowy conspiracy in an original story that takes place between RoboCop 2 and 3, with striking locations to explore and familiar faces to meet. Peter Weller, the original RoboCop actor, is even back on duty to voice the cybercop. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image The Texas Chain Saw Massacre | PS4, PS5 Take on the role of one of the notorious Slaughter family, or their victims, in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, a third-person asymmetrical horror experience based on the groundbreaking and iconic 1974 horror film. As a victim you must use your wits and stealth to stay out of the Family’s reach and find the tools you need to lead to your eventual freedom. Slaughter Family players must seek out, track down, and stop their guests from escaping. Players of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre can finally find out if they have what it takes to survive. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory | PS4 After being accused of a crime he didn’t commit, Keisuke Amazawa has no choice but to dive into the Digital World and investigate to prove his innocence. Even if that means joining a group of hackers and helping them to solve the troubles threatening this mysterious universe. Discover the mysterious backstory to the events that happened in Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth as you dive into a deeper and darker adventure, at crossroads between real and digital and experience the perfect mix between Adventure, Raising and Battle with over 320 Digimon to discover. All three games will be available to PlayStation Plus members on April 1 until May 5. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Last chance to download March’s games PlayStation Plus members have until March 31 to add Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Sonic Colors: Ultimate and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection to their game library.

Gran Turismo players! Update 1.57* for Gran Turismo 7 available as of Wednesday, March 26 at 10:00pm PT / March 27 at 5:00am GMT / 2:00pm JST.  Three new cars added this month Aston Martin Vintage ‘18 (Can be purchased from Brand Central) This lightweight cornering machine has been called the best Aston Martin ever.  […]

Gran Turismo players! Update 1.57* for Gran Turismo 7 available as of Wednesday, March 26 at 10:00pm PT / March 27 at 5:00am GMT / 2:00pm JST. Play Video Three new cars added this month View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Aston Martin Vintage ‘18 (Can be purchased from Brand Central) This lightweight cornering machine has been called the best Aston Martin ever. The ‘Vantage’ name had long been used by Aston Martin to represent their high performance model grades, but in 2005 the Vantage became its own separate model. Relatively compact for an Aston Martin model and equipped with a V8 engine, the car would become a hit being the best handling front-engine rear-wheel drive model in the line-up. The next generation Vantage introduced in 2017 carried on the core concepts of the model. Though sharing a platform with the DB11 V8, the Vantage body has a shorter wheelbase and is 120 kg lighter which results in a cornering machine that has been lauded as the best handling car in the history of Aston Martin. The powerplant is a Mercedes-AMG 4L V8 producing 502 BHP. With a 0-62 mph time of 3.7s, and a top speed of 195 mph, the car is also capable of supercar speeds. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Mazda CX-30 X Smart Edition ‘21 (Can be purchased from Brand Central) This crossover SUV from Mazda features a revolutionary new engine design. During the sport utility vehicle (SUV) boom that swept across the globe during the 2010s, Mazda introduced their CX-3 and CX-5 models, however there was a significant size difference between the two. The CX-30 is a crossover SUV designed to fill that gap in the line-up between the CX-3 and CX-5. While relatively compact, measuring 4,395 mm in length, 1,795 mm in width and 1,540 mm in height, the CX-30 still exhibits Mazda’s flowing, streamlined ‘KODO Design’ aesthetics in its exterior. On the front mask, the signature wing stretches out to the sides, joining the left and right headlights together, while the ripple across the side of the body exquisitely reflects the light as it moves across. The car is provided with a choice of 3 powertrains: The 2L gasoline direct injection ‘SKYACTIV-G’, the 1.8L direct injection diesel ‘SKYACTIV-D’ or the ‘SKYACTIV-X’ a 2L gasoline direct injection engine which uses a revolutionary spark-controlled compression ignition (SPCCI) system. The ‘CX-30 X Smart Edition’ grade seen here was introduced in 2021, based on the ‘SKYACTIV-X’ model. One of the major selling points of this model are its wealth of driver assistance equipment included as standard, like the Active Driving Display which projects information onto the windscreen, and the Smart Brake Support automatic emergency braking system. The introduction of this model grade also saw improvements to the SKYACTIV-X system itself, with automatic models receiving increased throttle pedal resistance to improve driving feel. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Renault Kangoo 1.4 ‘01 (Can be purchased from Brand Central / Used Cars) A popular leisure activity vehicle that started life as a commercial van. In France, there has been a long-running trend of ‘fourgonnette’ style vehicles, small commercial vans, with a number of bestsellers emerging over the years. One such car which stemmed from this trend was the Renault Kangoo, originally debuting in 1997. When developing the Kangoo, alongside optimizing its performance as a commercial vehicle, Renault also added some features that would give it some potential to be an MPV for personal leisure as well. This model included sliding doors for the rear passenger seats and separate rear seats that could be individually adjusted. This strategy proved to be a success and the Kangoo became the forerunner of the ‘ludospace’ leisure activity vehicle segment. The roughly 4 m long body provided abundant cargo space, making it the go-to model for outdoors activities. The Kangoo was available with a variety of different power units to fit its purpose, but the model featured here uses the 1.4L gasoline engine. At only 73 BHP, it offers the bare minimum in power, but the ability to use all the power available is in the true spirit of French automobiles. And with its soft suspension, this makes for an unusually exhilarating driving experience. Café / Extra Menus The following Menu will be added to the Extra Menus section: Extra Menu No. 45: Suzuki (Collector Level 35 and above) World Circuits (Event) The following new events have been added to ‘World Circuits’: Sunday Cup: Brands Hatch Indy Circuit European Clubman Cup 600: Deep Forest Raceway Reverse Japanese FF Challenge 450: Tokyo Expressway – Central Counterclockwise Play Video View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Gran Turismo Sophy The next-generation racing AI agent, Gran Turismo Sophy has evolved into “GT Sophy 2.1” and is now available in ‘Custom Race’ (PS5 version only) ‘GT Sophy’ can now be selected as the rival AI in Custom Race on all GT Sophy supported tracks and layouts in World Circuits. Scapes ‘The Faroe Islands’ has been added as a featured curation in Scapes. *Internet connection and Gran Turismo 7 game required for update.

PlayStation Store’s Spring Sale begins tomorrow, Wednesday March 26. For a limited time* you can enjoy deep discounts of up to 75% off across a wide selection of games and add-ons. That includes Elden Ring (40% off), Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – Cross-Gen Bundle (30% off), Baldur’s Gate 3 (20% off) and many […]

PlayStation Store’s Spring Sale begins tomorrow, Wednesday March 26. For a limited time* you can enjoy deep discounts of up to 75% off across a wide selection of games and add-ons. That includes Elden Ring (40% off), Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – Cross-Gen Bundle (30% off), Baldur’s Gate 3 (20% off) and many more*. What other games are included? Well, it’s a list so big we can’t fit everything in this PS Blog post, but we can give you an early preview of some of the titles which will feature below. When the promotion goes live tomorrow, head to PlayStation Store to discover the full lineup as well as your regional discount pricing. A Plague Tale: Innocence A Plague Tale: Requiem Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown – Season Pass ACE COMBAT™ 7: SKIES UNKNOWN – TOP GUN: Maverick Ultimate Edition Alan Wake 2 Deluxe Edition Alan Wake Remastered Alien: Rogue Incursion Alone in the Dark – Digital Deluxe Edition Ambulance – Deluxe Edition Anno 1800 Arizona Sunshine® 2 Deluxe Edition ARK: Survival Ascended Arken Age ARMORED CORE 6 ASIA/EU/NA ARMORED CORE 6 Deluxe Edition ASIA/EU/NA Assassin’s Creed Mirage – Standard Edition Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – Season Pass Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – Ultimate Edition Assassin’s Creed Origins Assassin’s Creed Origins – Gold Edition Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – Complete Edition Assassin’s Creed Valhalla PS4 & PS5 Assassin’s Creed® Valhalla – Season Pass Assetto Corsa – Season Pass Assetto Corsa – Ultimate Edition Assetto Corsa Competizione Assetto Corsa Competizione PS5 Astroneer Atomic Heart – Premium Edition Atomic Heart – Standard Edition Atomic Pass Avatar – Frontiers of Pandora Avatar – Season Pass Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Ultimate Edition Back 4 Blood: Standard Edition PS4 & PS5 Back 4 Blood: Ultimate Edition PS4 & PS5 Baldur’s Gate 3 Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Batman: Arkham Collection Batman: Arkham Knight Batman: Arkham Knight Season Pass Battlefield 1 Battlefield 2042 Battlefield 2042 (PS5) Battlefield 4: Premium Edition Battlefield V Bendy and the Ink Machine Bendy: Studio Collection Beyond the Dawn Edition Big Helmet Heroes – Base Game BioShock: The Collection Blasphemous 2 Blasphemous 2 – Mea Culpa Bluey: The Videogame Bob’s Tall Tales BodyCamera Shooter Borderlands 3 PS4™ & PS5™ Borderlands 3: Super Deluxe Edition PS4™ & PS5™ Borderlands Ultimate Edition DLC (SP1/SP2) Brothers Remake Builders Beach and Ball Clothing Pack Bully (Canis Canem Edit) Burnout Paradise Remastered Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – Gold Edition Call of Duty: Ghosts – Gold Edition Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare – Legacy Edition Call of Duty: WWII – Gold Edition Call of the Wild: theAngler Cat Quest III Chivalry 2 King’s Edition Chivalry 2 Special Edition PS4 & PS5 Cities: Skylines – Season Pass Cities: Skylines – Season Pass 2 Civilization VI Anthology Upgrade Conan Exiles Conan Exiles – Architects of Argos Pack Conan Exiles – Blood and Sand Pack Conan Exiles – Complete Edition October 2021 Conan Exiles – Debaucheries of Derketo Pack Conan Exiles – Isle of Siptah Edition Conan Exiles – Jewel of the West Pack Conan Exiles – People of the Dragon Pack Conan Exiles – Riders of Hyboria Pack Conan Exiles – Seekers of the Dawn Pack Conan Exiles – The Imperial East Pack Conan Exiles – The Riddle of Steel Conan Exiles – The Savage Frontier Pack Conan Exiles – Treasures of Turan Pack Conan Exiles – Year 1 DLC Bundle Conan Exiles – Year 2 DLC Bundle Conan Exiles: Isle of Siptah Crash Bandicoot™ 4: It’s About Time Crash Bundle 2021 Anniversary Crash Bundle 2021 Quadrilogy Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled – Nitros Oxide Edition Crusader Kings III: Fate of Iberia Crusader Kings III: Friends & Foes Crusader Kings III: Northern Lords Crusader Kings III: Royal Court Crusader Kings III: Royal Edition Crusader Kings III: Tours & Tournaments Cult of the Lamb: Cultist Edition Cyberpunk 2077 Cyberpunk 2077 — Phantom Liberty DayZ DayZ Cool Edition DayZ Frostline Dead by Daylight – Gold Edition Dead by Daylight: Dungeons & Dragons Chapter Dead by Daylight: Castlevania Chapter Dead by Daylight: Resident Evil Chapter Dead by Daylight: Project W Chapter Dead by Daylight: Special Edition PS4™ & PS5™ Dead Cells: Medley of Pain Bundle Dead Island 2 – HAUS (DLC 1) Dead Island 2 – SoLA (DLC 2) Dead Island 2 – Ultimate Edition (formerly Gold) / Release Dead Space Deadside Deadside Supporter Pack Deadside: Deluxe Edition Deadside: Deluxe Upgrade Deep Rock Galactic Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles Character Pass Demon Slayer The Hinokami Chronicles Deluxe Edition Destiny 2: Legacy Collection 2024 Destiny 2: Lightfall Destiny 2: The Final Shape Destiny 2: The Final Shape + Annual Pass Destiny 2: The Light & Darkness Collection Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Devil May Cry 5 + Vergil Devil May Cry 5 Deluxe + Vergil Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition Devil May Cry HD Collection Devil May Cry HD Collection & 4SE Bundle Diablo® II: Resurrected™ – Standard Diablo® IV Base Game + Vessel of Hatred Bundle Diablo® Prime Evil Collection – Upgrade Digital Deluxe Edition DiRT Rally 2.0 DiRT Rally 2.0 – Year One Pass DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods – Part One (Add-On) DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods – Part One (Standalone) DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods – Part Two (Add-On) DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods – Part Two (Standalone) Dragon Ball FighterZ Dragon Ball FighterZ – FighterZ Pass 3 Dragon Ball FighterZ (PS4 product) Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot – Deluxe Edition Dragonage: The Veilguard – Deluxe Edition Dragon’s Dogma 2_FullGame Dreamcore DREDGE – Digital Deluxe Edition DREDGE – The Iron Rig DREDGE: Expansion Bundle Drug Trader Simulator – Urban Dealer Dying Light – Platinium Edition Dying Light 1 + Dying Light 2 Bundle Dying Light 2 Stay Human PS4&PS5 ELDEN RING Expeditions – Supreme Edition Expeditions: A MudRunner Game Fallout 4 – Season Pass Bundle Re-Launch Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition Fallout 76: Gleaming Depths Deluxe Bundle Fallout 76: Gleaming Depths Upgrade Far Cry 3: Classic Edition Far Cry 5 – Gold Edition Far Cry 6 – Season Pass Far Cry New Dawn Far Cry Primal – Apex Edition Far East Furniture Pack FINAL FANTASY FINAL FANTASY I–VI Bundle FINAL FANTASY VI FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH Digital Deluxe Edition FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE & REBIRTH Digital Deluxe Twin Pack FINAL FANTASY XIV Online – Complete Collector’s Edition Ex5 FINAL FANTASY XIV Online – Complete Edition Ex5 FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail – Collector’s Edition FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail – Standard Edition FINAL FANTASY XVI COMPLETE EDITION For The King 1 & 2 Bundle For The King II Forspoken Forspoken Digital Deluxe Upgrade Forspoken: In Tanta We Trust (Story DLC) Funko Fusion Funko Fusion – Invincible Pack Funko Fusion – Mega Man Pack Funko Fusion – The Walking Dead Pack Funko Fusion – Wicked Movie Pack 1 Funko Fusion – Wicked Movie Pack 2 Funko Fusion & Wicked Movie Pack Bundle Gas Station Simulator Goat MMO Simulator Goat Simulator 3 – Multiversal Traveler’s Edition Goat Simulator DLC Bundle Goat Simulator: GoatZ Goat Simulator: Payday Goat Simulator: Waste of Space God of War III Remastered Gotham Knights Grand Theft Auto V: Premium Edition Grounded GTA Online + Single Player Unlock PS5 GTA Trilogy PS4 & PS5 Digital Bundle Guilty Gear -Strive- Hell Let Loose Hell Let Loose – Ultimate Edition HELLDIVERS™ 2 Hello Neighbor Hello Neighbor 2 Hello Neighbor 2 Definitive Edition Hello Neighbor Bundle Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek Hello-copter DLC HITMAN World of Assassination Hunt: Showdown – Azure Arsenal Hunt: Showdown – The Rat Hunt: Showdown 1896 – Ghost Face Rampage Hunt: Showdown 1896 – Starter Edition Hunt: Showdown 1986 – Premium Edition Insurgency: Sandstorm Insurgency: Sandstorm – Gold Edition Insurgency: Sandstorm – Year 1 Pass Insurgency: Sandstorm – Year 2 Pass (SP setup) Insurgency: Sandstorm – Year 3 Pass (SP setup) Interior Decorator Pack JOJO’S BIZARRE ADVENTURE ALL-STAR BATTLE R DIGITAL DELUXE EDITION Just Cause 3 Kingdom Come: Deliverance – DLC Collection Kingdom Come: Deliverance – Royal Edition Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 L.A. 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Advances in physical AI are enabling organizations to embrace embodied AI across their operations, bringing unprecedented intelligence, automation and productivity to the world’s factories, warehouses and industrial facilities. Humanoid robots can work alongside human teams, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) can navigate complex warehouse environments, and intelligent cameras and visual AI agents can monitor and optimize Read Article

Advances in physical AI are enabling organizations to embrace embodied AI across their operations, bringing unprecedented intelligence, automation and productivity to the world’s factories, warehouses and industrial facilities. Humanoid robots can work alongside human teams, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) can navigate complex warehouse environments, and intelligent cameras and visual AI agents can monitor and optimize entire facilities. In these ways, physical AI is becoming integral to today’s industrial operations. Helping industrial enterprises accelerate the development, testing and deployment of physical AI, the Mega NVIDIA Omniverse Blueprint for testing multi-robot fleets in digital twins is now available in preview on build.nvidia.com. At Hannover Messe — a trade show on industrial development running through April 4 in Germany — manufacturing, warehousing and supply chain leaders such as Accenture and Schaeffler are showcasing their adoption of the blueprint to simulate Digit, a humanoid robot from Agility Robotics, and discussing how they use industrial AI and digital twins to optimize facility layouts, material flow and collaboration between humans and robots inside complex production environments. In addition, NVIDIA ecosystem partners — including Delta Electronics, Rockwell Automation and Siemens — are announcing further integrations with NVIDIA Omniverse and NVIDIA AI technologies at the event. Digital Twins — the Training Ground for Physical AI Industrial facility digital twins are physically accurate virtual replicas of real-world facilities that serve as critical testing grounds for simulating and validating physical AI and how robots and autonomous fleets interact, collaborate and tackle complex tasks before deployment. Developers can use NVIDIA Omniverse platform technologies and the Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD) framework to develop digital twins of their facilities and processes. This simulation-first approach dramatically accelerates development cycles while reducing the costs and risks associated with real-world testing. Built for a Diversity of Robots and AI Agents The Mega blueprint equips industrial enterprises with a reference workflow for combining sensor simulation and synthetic data generation to simulate complex human-robot interactions and verify the performance of autonomous systems in industrial digital twins. Enterprises can use Mega to test various robot brains and policies at scale for mobility, navigation, dexterity and spatial reasoning. This enables fleets comprising different types of robots to work together as a coordinated system. As robot brains execute their missions in simulation, they perceive the results of their actions through sensor simulation and plan their next action. This cycle continues until the policies are refined and ready for deployment. Once validated, these policies are deployed to real robots, which continue to learn from their environment — sending sensor information back through the entire loop and creating a continuous learning and improvement cycle. Transforming Industrial Operations With Visual AI Agents In addition to AMRs and humanoid robots, advanced visual AI agents extract information from live and recorded video data, enabling new levels of intelligence and automation. These visual AI agents bring real-time contextual awareness to robots and help to improve worker safety, maintain warehouse compliance, support visual inspection and maximize space utilization. To support developers building visual AI agents, which can be integrated with the Mega blueprint, NVIDIA last year announced an AI Blueprint for video search and summarization (VSS). At Hannover Messe, leading partners are featuring how they use the VSS blueprint to improve productivity and operational efficiency. Accelerating Industrial Digitalization The industrial world is now experiencing its software-defined moment, with visual AI agents and digital twins as the training ground for physical AI. Join NVIDIA and its partners at Hannover Messe to discover how AI agents and real-time simulation, powered by NVIDIA’s Three Computer Solution, are reshaping industrial workflows and driving innovation, automation and efficiency in manufacturing. Read the technical blog to learn more about the Mega blueprint for industrial robot fleets. See the blueprint in action on this interactive demo page. Stay up to date by subscribing to NVIDIA news, joining the Omniverse community and following NVIDIA Omniverse on Instagram, LinkedIn, Medium and X. Explore the new self-paced Learn OpenUSD training curriculum that includes free NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute courses for 3D practitioners and developers. Featured image courtesy of Accenture, Agility Robotics and Schaeffler. See notice regarding software product information.

A new resident is moving into the cloud — KRAFTON’s inZOI joins the 2,000+ games in the GeForce NOW cloud gaming library. Plus, members can get ready for an exclusive sneak peek as the Sunderfolk First Look Demo comes to the cloud. The demo is exclusively available for players on GeForce NOW until April 7, Read Article

A new resident is moving into the cloud — KRAFTON’s inZOI joins the 2,000+ games in the GeForce NOW cloud gaming library. Plus, members can get ready for an exclusive sneak peek as the Sunderfolk First Look Demo comes to the cloud. The demo is exclusively available for players on GeForce NOW until April 7, including Performance and Ultimate members as well as free users. And explore the world of Atomfall — part of 12 games joining the cloud this week. Cloud of Possibilities Live the life of your dreams in the cloud. In inZOI — a groundbreaking life simulation game by Krafton that pushes the genre’s boundaries — take on the role of an intern at AR COMPANY, managing virtual beings called “Zois” in a simulated city. The game features over 400 mental elements influencing Zois’ behaviors. Experience the game’s dynamic weather system, open-world environments inspired by real locations and cinematic cut scenes for key life events — and even create in-game objects. inZOI lets players craft unique stories and live out their dreams in a meticulously designed virtual world. Dive into the world of Zois without the need for high-end hardware. Members can manage their virtual homes, customize characters and explore the game’s dynamic environments from various devices, streaming its detailed graphics and complex simulations with ease. A Magical Gateway Sunderfolk’s First Look Demo has arrived on GeForce NOW, offering a tantalizing look into the magical realm of the Sunderlands. Designed as a TV-first experience, this shared-turn-based tactical role-playing game (RPG) enables using a mobile phone as the gameplay controller. Up to four players can gather around the big screen and embark on a journey filled with strategic battles. This second-screen approach keeps players engaged in real time, adding new layers of immersion. With all six unique character classes unlocked from the start, players can experience the early hours of the game, experimenting with different team compositions and tactics to overcome the challenges that await. Let the magic begin. Accessing the demo is a breeze — head to the GeForce NOW app, select Sunderfolk and jump right in. Explore the Sunderlands, engage in flexible turn-based combat and help rebuild the village of Arden to get a taste of the full game’s depth and camaraderie. Gather the gaming squad, grab a phone and prepare to write a completely new legend in this RPG adventure. The First Look Demo is only available on GeForce NOW, where members can enjoy high-quality graphics and seamless gameplay on their phones and tablets, along with the innovative mobile-as-controller mechanic that makes Sunderfolk’s couch co-op experience so engaging. Epic Adventures Await Enter a world where danger lurks in every shadow. Blending folk horror and intense combat, Atomfall is a survival-action game set in an alternate 1960s Britain, where the Windscale nuclear disaster has left Northern England a radioactive wasteland. Players explore eerie open zones filled with mutated creatures, cultists and Cold War mysteries while scavenging resources, crafting weapons and uncovering the truth behind the disaster. GeForce NOW members can stream it today across their devices of choice. Look for the following games available to stream in the cloud this week: Sunderfolk First Look Demo (New release, March 25) Atomfall (New release on Steam and Xbox available on PC Game Pass, March 27) The First Berserker: Khazan (New release on Steam, March 27) inZOI (New release on Steam, March 27) Beholder (Epic Games Store) Bus Simulator 21 (Epic Games Store) Galacticare (Xbox, available on PC Game Pass) Half-Life 2 RTX Demo (Steam) The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II (Steam) One Lonely Outpost (Xbox, available on PC Game Pass) Psychonauts (Xbox, available on PC Game Pass) Undying (Epic Games Store) What are you planning to play this weekend? Let us know on X or in the comments below. Which game do you think deserves a sequel? — NVIDIA GeForce NOW (@NVIDIAGFN) March 26, 2025

The reliability of the electric grid is critical. From handling demand surges and evolving power needs to preventing infrastructure failures that can cause wildfires, utility companies have a lot to keep tabs on. Buzz Solutions — a member of the NVIDIA Inception program for cutting-edge startups — is helping by using AI to improve how Read Article

The reliability of the electric grid is critical. From handling demand surges and evolving power needs to preventing infrastructure failures that can cause wildfires, utility companies have a lot to keep tabs on. Buzz Solutions — a member of the NVIDIA Inception program for cutting-edge startups — is helping by using AI to improve how utilities monitor and maintain their infrastructure. Kaitlyn Albertoli, CEO and cofounder of Buzz Solutions joined the AI Podcast to explain how the company’s vision AI technology helps utilities spot potential problems faster. Buzz Solutions helps utility companies analyze the massive amounts of inspection data collected by drones and helicopters. The company’s proprietary machine learning algorithms identify potential issues ranging from broken and rusted components to encroaching vegetation and unwelcome wildlife visits — before they cause outages or wildfires. To help address substation issues, Buzz Solutions built PowerGUARD, a container-based application pipeline that uses AI to analyze video streams from substation cameras in real time. It detects security, safety, fire, smoke and equipment issues, annotates the video, then sends alerts via email or to a dashboard. PowerGUARD uses the NVIDIA DeepStream software development kit for processing and inference of video streams used in real-time video analytics. DeepStream runs within the NVIDIA Metropolis framework on the NVIDIA Jetson edge AI platform or on cloud-based virtual machines ‌to improve performance, reduce costs and save time. Albertoli believes AI is just getting started in the utility industry, as it enables workers to take action rather than spend months reviewing images manually. “We are just at the tip of the iceberg of seeing AI enter into the energy sector and start to provide real value,” she said. Time Stamps 05:15: How Buzz Solutions saw an opportunity in the massive amounts of inspection data utility companies were collecting but not analyzing. 12:25: The importance of modernizing energy infrastructure with actionable intelligence. 16:27: How AI identifies critical risks like rusted components, vegetation encroachment and sparking issues before they cause wildfires. 20:00: Buzz Solutions’ innovative use of synthetic data to train algorithms for rare events. You Might Also Like… Telenor Builds Norway’s First AI Factory, Offering Sustainable and Sovereign Data Processing Telenor opened Norway’s first AI factory in November 2024, enabling organizations to process sensitive data securely on Norwegian soil while prioritizing environmental responsibility. Telenor’s Chief Innovation Officer and Head of the AI Factory Kaaren Hilsen discusses the AI factory’s rapid development, going from concept to reality in under a year. NVIDIA’s Josh Parker on How AI and Accelerated Computing Drive Sustainability AI isn’t just about building smarter machines. It’s about building a greener world. AI and accelerated computing are helping industries tackle some of the world’s toughest environmental challenges. Joshua Parker, senior director of corporate sustainability at NVIDIA, explains how these technologies are powering a new era of energy efficiency. Currents of Change: ITIF’s Daniel Castro on Energy-Efficient AI and Climate Change AI is everywhere. So, too, are concerns about advanced technology’s environmental impact. Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and director of its Center for Data Innovation, discusses his AI energy use report that addresses misconceptions about AI’s energy consumption. He also talks about the need for continued development of energy-efficient technology. Subscribe to the AI Podcast Get the AI Podcast through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Google Play, Castbox, DoggCatcher, Overcast, PlayerFM, Pocket Casts, Podbay, PodBean, PodCruncher, PodKicker, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher and TuneIn.

GTC 2025 is a wrap, but what’s next in AI is lifting off now. Just take a look… Wrap-Up: Key Points From the GTC Keynote 🔗 Here are the major points NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang covered in his keynote: We’re at a $1 trillion computing inflection point. AI computing demand is accelerating rapidly, Read Article

GTC 2025 is a wrap, but what’s next in AI is lifting off now. Just take a look… Wrap-Up: Key Points From the GTC Keynote Here are the major points NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang covered in his keynote: We’re at a $1 trillion computing inflection point. AI computing demand is accelerating rapidly, driven by the rise of reasoning AI and agentic AI. The scale and complexity of AI workloads are transforming data center investments worldwide. NVIDIA Blackwell is in full production, delivering 40x the performance of Hopper. The Blackwell architecture significantly enhances AI model training and inference, enabling more efficient and scalable AI applications. And the next evolution of the NVIDIA Blackwell AI factory platform, Blackwell Ultra, will be coming to systems in the second half of this year. NVIDIA will follow an annual rhythm for the buildout of AI infrastructure. Each year will bring new GPUs, CPUs and accelerated computing advancements, including the upcoming NVIDIA Vera Rubin architecture, designed to drive performance gains and efficiency improvements in AI data centers. AI infrastructure, including photonics and AI-optimized storage, is set to revolutionize the industry. Advanced networking and storage solutions will improve AI scalability, efficiency and energy consumption in large-scale data centers. Physical AI for industrial and robotics is a $50 trillion opportunity. AI-powered robotics and automation are set to transform manufacturing, logistics, healthcare and other industries, with the NVIDIA Isaac and Cosmos platforms leading the way. Watch the replay: Quantum Day: NVIDIA CEO Announces Quantum Computing Lab, and NVIDIA Tech Key to Advancing Quantum Innovations, Industry Leaders Say NVIDIA is diving deeper into quantum computing with plans to open a dedicated research lab in Boston, founder and CEO Jensen Huang announced Thursday as he kicked off a series of panels at GTC featuring industry leaders. “It will likely be the most advanced accelerated computing, hybrid quantum computing research lab in the world,” Huang said. The panels at GTC’s inaugural Quantum Day highlighted the critical role accelerated computing will play in advancing the nascent technology. While technologies and approaches to quantum development vary, panelists agreed that GPUs and quantum systems will work hand in hand to unlock new breakthroughs. NVIDIA’s new lab will serve as a hub for collaboration with leading researchers from institutions such as Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others. The facility aims to accelerate innovation in quantum computing, a field with vast potential for revolutionizing industries from cryptography to materials science. The event, moderated by Huang, included three panels and a long list of companies building quantum systems. Guests included: Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave Ben Bloom, founder and CEO of Atom Computing John Levy, cofounder and CEO of SEEQC Krysta Svore, technical fellow at Microsoft Loïc Henriet, CEO of Pasqal Matthew Kinsella, CEO of Infleqtion Mikhail Lukin, Joshua and Beth Friedman University Professor at Harvard University and cofounder of QuEra Computing Pete Shadbolt, cofounder and chief scientific officer of PsiQuantum Peter Chapman, executive chair at IonQ Rajeeb Hazra, president and CEO of Quantinuum Rob Schoelkopf, cofounder and chief scientist at Quantum Circuits Simone Severini, general manager of quantum technologies at AWS Subodh Kulkarni, CEO of Rigetti Théau Peronnin, cofounder and CEO of Alice & Bob They discussed quantum computing progress on reaching double-digit numbers of logical qubits, as well as challenges, such as the needs to reach triple-digit qubits for practical applications and to scale to millions of qubits in the years ahead. Learn more about quantum computing. AI Is Changing the Game — Literally AI is revolutionizing live sports, unlocking new ways to engage fans, optimize operations and enhance player performance, said sports industry leaders on a panel at GTC. “AI has been in sports for many years, but the [industry] continue[s] to be early adopters of the latest innovations,” said Sepi Motamedi, senior product marketing manager at NVIDIA. For the National Hockey League and La Liga, Spain’s premier football league, AI isn’t just a tool — it’s a game changer. La Liga has cameras in all its stadiums, retrieving over 3 million data points per match, according to Javier Gil Fernandez, head of AI implementation and development at the league. Meanwhile, the NHL is piloting optical tracking to capture players’ skeletal movements. “The amount of data is incredible, and it’s just going to keep growing,” said Dave Lehanski, executive vice president of business development and innovation at the NHL. Beyond data, AI is reshaping fan experiences. “Wouldn’t it be great if AI automatically served up game storylines in real time?” Lehanski asked. AI-powered video analysis will let fans instantly search, summarize and relive key moments. As AI integration deepens, the sports industry faces challenges — from legal hurdles to regulation. But one thing is clear: “If the industry understands AI and can leverage it fully, we will be good to go,” Fernandez said. The future of sports is fast, smart and AI-driven. British Member of Parliament Shares UK’s Sovereign AI Vision Sovereign AI — a nation’s capacity to develop and deploy AI using domestic infrastructure, datasets and workforces — was a key theme at GTC, highlighted in a half-day summit headlined by government and industry leaders from countries including Brazil, Denmark, India, Japan, Thailand and the U.K. In decades and centuries past, the availability of resources including coal, oil and electricity “defined which governments and countries grew and which did not,” said Peter Kyle, a U.K. member of parliament and secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, at the summit. “Today, we find ourselves in the midst of another epochal shift. Who swims and who sinks will depend on compute.” Kyle outlined the U.K.’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, which aims to expand compute capacity for AI research at least 30x by 2030 and will transform currently unused facilities and land to develop data centers for building AI models trained on the country’s rich datasets in healthcare and other domains. The U.K. government’s Isambard-AI supercomputer, which features 5,448 NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips to deliver a whopping 21 exaflops of AI performance, represents the progress already made toward the nation’s sovereign AI goals. With the emergence of the new test-time scaling law of AI development, Kyle noted, there’s much more ahead. “The computer is only as good as the people who are using it and the data that you put into it,” Kyle said. To “take on the great challenges that will define the century to come will require more than just brute capacity. Building bigger or faster is simply not enough — in the age of compute, states must build smarter, too.” NVIDIA Omniverse-Powered Moon Machines to Explore Lunar Surface Across the rugged, cratered landscape of the moon, a coordinated fleet of autonomous machines — drones, excavators and haulers — seamlessly navigates the harsh vacuum of space, working in sync to map, extract and transport valuable resources. This concept for the future of lunar exploration was laid out by Lutz Richter, a space robotics expert, in a captivating presentation at GTC. Richter, representing premier IT consulting and digital services provider SoftServe, described how his team has helped simulate and model this multi-robot system using the NVIDIA Omniverse platform for physical AI. “We think space will benefit a lot from the advanced simulation and modeling tools offered by Omniverse,” Richter said. The drones would scour the lunar surface, using high-resolution sensors to identify regions of interest for ice extraction. The ground-based excavator would then meticulously dig into the regolith, with SoftServe’s advanced soil mechanics simulation optimizing the process of unearthing the icy deposits. Once loaded, the hauler vehicle would transport the cargo back to the lunar outpost. Richter also showcased SoftServe’s work simulating the drones’ ability to explore lunar caves. The drones use real-time visual simultaneous localization and mapping to navigate the complex terrain and chart potential ice reserves hidden within. By integrating robotics with Omniverse’s powerful simulation and collaboration tools, SoftServe drives a groundbreaking approach to lunar resource exploration. Democratizing Immersive Experiences With AI At the XR Pavilion, hosted at the Tech Interactive science and technology center, GTC attendees explored immersive demos of digital twins, 3D rendering and virtual reality experiences. If the frequent smiles and exclamations of “wow” are an indication of where things are headed with these visual AI technologies, there’s a lot to look forward to. Robotics Experts Discuss Outlook for Humanoids Speaking to a crowd at San Jose Civic Center, a panel of robotics industry executives weighed in humanoid robot development and what the future holds for making them a reality with consumers. Panelists discussed the role of large language models, simulation and improvements in robotics hardware in helping develop specialized humanoid robots. “We have some of the most extraordinary founders on some of the best robot hardware I’ve ever seen,” said Jim Fan, principal research scientist and senior research manager at NVIDIA. “I think hardware has become a lot better and a lot cheaper.” Aaron Saunders, chief technology officer of Boston Dynamics, said that physics-based simulations have been groundbreaking for the field of robotics. “The closure of the sim-to-real gap is a big deal,” he said. Learning by experience is the main change that has happened in robotics, noted Deepak Pathak, cofounder and CEO of Skild AI. “What has changed is completely how we approach robotics,” he said. Panelists also talked about the importance of data sources in training models. “Now we get this global data the way we get an internet, and you can solve all the problems we have today, and all we need is a lot more GPUs,” said Bernt Børnich, founder and CEO of 1X. Robots Galore on the Show Floor From helpful humanoids to robotic arms supporting surgeries, deliveries and industrial processes, physical AI advancements are on full display with interactive demos at GTC. How Low-Cost, Self-Driving Microscopes Can Transform Public Health Manu Prakash is on a mission to empower community health workers and citizen scientists around the world with AI-powered microscopes that help detect malaria and other diseases. Prakash is cofounder of microscopy company Cephla and an associate professor at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. He’s integrating AI into low-cost microscopes that can be deployed in grassroots healthcare environments for real-time disease monitoring at scale. “This is the first machine that can do something like this in real time,” he said, demonstrating live how Octopi, Cephla’s modular robotic microscopy platform, can rapidly analyze red blood cells to detect malaria parasites. “One of the phenomenal aspects of this is we can train it not just for malaria — we can train it for any disease.” Prakash and his team found that deploying their pipeline on the NVIDIA Jetson Nano module accelerated image processing by 5x compared with using desktop computers — enabling them to examine about 3 million red blood cells per minute. By enabling rapid, low-cost disease detection that can be used by community health workers, Prakash hopes to advance the capabilities of global public health organizations to better tackle challenges such as the emergence of antibiotic-resistant disease strains. Beyond malaria, his team has collaborated with researchers to adapt their AI pipeline for other disease areas. One organization was able to train an AI pipeline to detect four types of sickle cell disease within just six months. Another trained a pipeline to detect if individuals are actively spreading tuberculosis. “Sometimes, instruments with a little bit of intelligence can go an astronomical distance,” Prakash said. How AI Is Unlocking a New Era of Creativity in Filmmaking AI is making filmmaking more accessible and changing how filmmakers bring their visions to life. Speaking at GTC, Haohong Wang, general manager at TCL, shared how AI-powered tools like Runway, Sora and MineStudio are unlocking faster workflows, new artistic possibilities and a more accessible future for content creation. AI Meets Creativity: Traditional filmmaking can be slow and expensive. Wang predicts that AI-generated content budgets could make it possible to create filmed content at less than 10% of today’s costs, making high-quality storytelling available to more filmmakers. But it’s not just about savings. AI allows artists to experiment with new visual styles in real time, letting them generate entire scenes instantly, explore new storytelling techniques and break traditional production barriers. Directing AI: AI filmmaking still struggles with consistency, camera control and human movement, Wang noted. Many directors feel they lack the same control as traditional filmmaking. The solution: a structured 3D workflow. By digitizing AI-generated assets — characters, environments and animations — filmmakers can blend the best of AI and traditional techniques, ensuring precise control over cinematography and visual consistency. Content Flywheel: Wang described AI filmmaking as a “flywheel model,” where easier content creation fuels audience growth, attracts advertisers and drives demand for more creative work. “So you can see there’s a loop [so] that the advertising money will eventually go back to the creative community,” Wang explained. “Once this opportunity is there, more and more creatives will join to use AI to produce more original content and get more audiences, get more advertisers.” While some in Hollywood remain skeptical, Wang believes growing adoption will make AI a standard tool for filmmakers — just as CGI now is. A Sneak Peek: To show that potential, Wang showed clips from “Next Stop Paris,” a hybrid live-action and AI short film. The story follows two strangers on an adventure — and a twist reveals AI has been shaping the narrative all along. Healthcare VP Kimberly Powell Highlights Life Sciences Leaps Addressing a packed crowd at the Montgomery Theater yesterday, Kimberly Powell, vice president of healthcare and life sciences at NVIDIA, underscored no less than nine GTC announcements delivering industry advances. The news included the new NVIDIA DGX Spark AI supercomputer, NVIDIA AgentIQ, the MONAI multimodal and agent framework, NVIDIA Holoscan 3.0, NVIDIA Isaac for Healthcare and partner moves from Sapio Sciences, Cadence and Epic, which is accelerating AI with NVIDIA NIM on Microsoft Azure. And those were only just some of the highlights. “Many of you have chosen to release some of your most important breakthroughs here at GTC, with several dozen new product announcements and critical breakthroughs,” said Powell. She discussed the role of accelerated computing in medical imaging and genomics, as well as in the introduction of the world’s largest biology foundation model, Evo 2, trained on 9 trillion nucleotides, the building blocks for RNA and DNA. Powell said that biology represents an unsolved problem that’s now positioned to benefit from leaps in progress from AI. “We are starting to experience some exponential levels of biology intelligence by being able to represent biology in a computer,” she said. Powell also discussed the role of AI in drug discovery, the development of AI agents for use in clinical trials and the introduction of physical AI for medical devices. “We’re at this next frontier where not only do we have digital agents but we’re going to have physical agents where we’re going to embody AI into physical things,” said Powell. Read more about how AI is advancing healthcare and watch the talk replay — virtual registration is free. Unlock Peak AI Performance With NVIDIA DGX Cloud Benchmarking Achieving peak AI performance requires more than just powerful hardware. Understanding how hardware and software impact AI workload performance is crucial for technical validation and business planning. To help organizations make data-driven decisions and maximize GPU utilization, NVIDIA launched NVIDIA DGX Cloud Benchmarking — a suite of tools that empowers users to optimize their AI workload and infrastructure investments effectively. DGX Cloud Benchmarking includes three key components: Performance Recipes: Standardized benchmark scripts and baseline results that enable AI platform performance validation across a diverse set of AI workloads. Performance Explorer: An interactive tool that provides performance data across AI workloads. Expert guidance and best practices: Work with NVIDIA to simplify the optimization process. By providing standardized benchmarks and actionable insights, DGX Cloud Benchmarking helps AI teams optimize their workloads, reduce costs and accelerate innovation. NVIDIA collaborates with cloud service providers to co-engineer and optimize performance across the entire stack and deliver highly performant AI platforms. This ensures that optimizations are based on real-world scenarios, leading to significant performance improvements over time. DGX Cloud Benchmarking is designed to evolve with the AI industry, incorporating new models, hardware platforms and software optimizations to ensure customers have access to the latest performance insights. Whether you’re an AI development team, or an IT team or a cloud service provider validating infrastructure performance, DGX Cloud Benchmarking provides the tools needed to unlock peak AI performance. Learn more about DGX Cloud Benchmarking. NVIDIA Expands Benefits for Startups As part of a significant expansion of benefits for members of the NVIDIA Inception program for cutting-edge startups, NVIDIA is offering qualified members up to $100,000 in NVIDIA DGX Cloud credits for dedicated NVIDIA H100 GPU capacity. Members approved for this benefit will also have access to expert office hours that provide technical guidance and support. With DGX Cloud, a unified AI platform, Inception members can use NVIDIA software, services and AI expertise to build, customize and deploy applications on their preferred cloud. Other new and enhanced benefits — encompassing nearly $300,000 in credits and discounts — offer unparalleled access to cutting-edge technology from NVIDIA Cloud Partners (NCPs), NVIDIA Partner Network independent software vendors (ISVs) and select Inception members. These offers can help Inception startups and members of the NVIDIA Connect program for ISVs build and scale their businesses, fostering innovation and growth across diverse industries. NCP Offers and Additional Benefits NCPs such as Nebius, Scaleway and Lintasarta are offering free cloud credits to eligible Inception members, helping them reduce costs and foster innovation. Yotta and Lambda are providing Inception and Connect members with cloud credits to boost scalability and speed time to market. Companies adopting NCP services will benefit from enhanced local support, expanded GPU allocation and access, advanced technical capabilities and hands-on assistance, access to local data centers, and flexible pricing and billing to meet the distinct needs of small and growing companies. New and expanded NCP collaborations will include onboarding and technical support through training and webinars, as well as access to regional events and opportunities for go-to-market support. Inception members will also gain access to top tools and software from companies like AI21, Beamr, Bria, DeepChecks, Lightning AI, RGo Robotics, Tabnine and Weights & Biases. Members of the NVIDIA Connect program for ISVs will also gain access to select benefits, available only through the Inception and Connect member benefits catalog. Join the NVIDIA Inception and NVIDIA Connect programs. Additional partners and exclusive offers will be added regularly. Companies using and showcasing NVIDIA technology to build compelling tools and services for startup and developer audiences can learn more about the programs and fill out a partner benefit proposal. Research Giants Bill Dally, Yann LeCun Share the Stage at GTC Two luminaries in AI research — Bill Dally, chief scientist at NVIDIA, and Yann LeCun, chief AI scientist at Meta and a professor at New York University — took the stage today at the San Jose Civic auditorium to share their vision for the field’s future. Dally asked LeCun to share his thoughts on artificial general intelligence, the impact of AI on scientific research, his current work on world models and the qualities needed to foster innovation. LeCun predicted that artificial general intelligence, or AGI — which he prefers to call advanced machine intelligence, because “human intelligence is superspecialized, so calling it general is a misnomer” — will be viable in three to five years. He emphasized the importance of open-source projects to support the development of diverse AI assistants. “We need assistants that are extremely diverse,” he said. “We need to speak all languages, understand all the cultures, all the value systems, all the sectors of interest. So we need a platform that anybody can use to build those assistants, a diverse population of assistants — and right now that can only be done through open-source platforms.” LeCun also spoke about his work at Meta to develop world models that can understand, reason and plan around physical environments. “What you need is a predictor that, given the state of the world and an action you imagine, can predict the next state of the world,” he said. “And if you have such a system, then you can plan a sequence of actions to arrive at a particular outcome.” Dally noted that building world models like these will require significant AI infrastructure powered by NVIDIA GPUs. “Keep them coming,” LeCun quipped. “We’re going to need all the computation we can get our hands on.” Wrap-Up: Key Points From the GTC Keynote Here are the major points NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang covered in his keynote: We’re at a $1 trillion computing inflection point. AI computing demand is accelerating rapidly, driven by the rise of reasoning AI and agentic AI. The scale and complexity of AI workloads are transforming data center investments worldwide. NVIDIA Blackwell is in full production, delivering 40x the performance of Hopper. The Blackwell architecture significantly enhances AI model training and inference, enabling more efficient and scalable AI applications. And the next evolution of the NVIDIA Blackwell AI factory platform, Blackwell Ultra, will be coming to systems in the second half of this year. NVIDIA will follow an annual rhythm for the buildout of AI infrastructure. Each year will bring new GPUs, CPUs and accelerated computing advancements, including the upcoming NVIDIA Vera Rubin architecture, designed to drive performance gains and efficiency improvements in AI data centers. AI infrastructure, including photonics and AI-optimized storage, is set to revolutionize the industry. Advanced networking and storage solutions will improve AI scalability, efficiency and energy consumption in large-scale data centers. Physical AI for industrial and robotics is a $50 trillion opportunity. AI-powered robotics and automation are set to transform manufacturing, logistics, healthcare and other industries, with the NVIDIA Isaac and Cosmos platforms leading the way. Watch the replay: Read more details about the keynote below and stay tuned for more insights and sessions throughout the conference, running through Friday, March 21. Dive In: NVIDIA Founder and CEO Jensen Huang’s Keynote at GTC Welcome to NVIDIA Huang kicked off the keynote by bringing the audience “into NVIDIA’s headquarters,” with a stunning visual of its lobby that seemed to embrace the audience. He began by talking about where NVIDIA started 25 years ago, with GPUs. He described the growth of AI over the past decade, including the emergence of agentic AI — which can reason how to solve a problem, plan and take action. AI at an Inflection Point Huang then outlined the development of AI able to reason “step by step by step” and discussed how demand for inference and reinforcement learning is driving demand for AI computing. Demand for GPUs from the top four cloud service providers is surging, as AI is going through an “inflection point.” Huang said he expects the value of data center buildout to reach $1 trillion. NVIDIA CUDA Ecosystem NVIDIA CUDA-X GPU accelerated libraries and microservices are now serving every industry, Huang explained. In the future, Huang said, every company will have two factories: one for what they build and another for AI. Ticking through a sampling of NVIDIA’s role in a variety of endeavors, he announced that NVIDIA is going to open-source its cuOpt decision optimization platform. The installed base of CUDA is now “everywhere,” he said. “We have reached the tipping point of accelerated computing — CUDA has made it possible.” General Motors, NVIDIA Collaborate on AI AI needs infrastructure, Huang explained. AI is now going out “to the rest of the world,” in robotics and self-driving cars, factories and wireless networks. One of the earliest industries AI went into was autonomous vehicles, Huang said. “We build technology that almost every single self-driving car company uses,” he added, whether in the data center or the car. Huang announced the next step of that journey: GM, the largest U.S. automaker, is adopting NVIDIA AI, simulation and accelerated computing to develop next-generation vehicles, factories and robots. He also announced NVIDIA Halos, a comprehensive safety system bringing together NVIDIA’s lineup of automotive hardware and software safety solutions with its cutting-edge AI research in AV safety. Data Centers and Inference Next up: Huang spoke about data centers. He reported that the NVIDIA Blackwell platform is in full production, sharing a shot of systems from a broad range of industry partners. “How is this not beautiful,” Huang said. He described how Blackwell supports extreme scale-up. “The reason why we wanted to do this is to solve an extreme problem,” Huang said, “and it’s called inference.” Inference, Huang explained, is token generation, which will be critical to businesses. AI factories that generate these tokens have to be built with extreme efficiency and performance. And demand for tokens will only grow, with the latest generation of reasoning models able to think through and solve increasingly complex problems. To further accelerate inference on a large scale, Huang announced NVIDIA Dynamo, open-source software for accelerating and scaling AI reasoning models in AI factories. “It is essentially the operating system of an AI factory,” Huang said. NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra Huang described how Blackwell delivers a “giant leap” in inference performance. “You want to make sure you have the most energy-efficient architecture you can possibly get,” Huang said, showing how Blackwell does more work, using less power than the previous generation. “The more you buy, the more you save,” Huang said, drawing laughter from the audience. “It’s even better than that — the more you buy, the more you make.” Huang then rolled a video showing how a new NVIDIA Omniverse Blueprint can help plan a 1 gigawatt AI factory, letting engineers design, test and optimize a new generation of intelligence manufacturing data centers using digital twins. Then, he announced the next evolution of the NVIDIA Blackwell AI factory platform, NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra, coming in systems the second half of this year. NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra boosts training and test-time scaling inference — the art of applying more compute during inference to improve accuracy — to enable organizations everywhere to accelerate applications such as AI reasoning, agentic AI and physical AI. NVIDIA Vera Rubin Paying tribute to astronomer Vera Rubin, Huang outlined a roadmap that will deliver data center performance gains for years to come, Huang offered new details on the next-generation NVIDIA Rubin Ultra GPU and NVIDIA Vera CPU architectures, packed with innovations. “Basically everything is brand new except for the chassis,” Huang said. Systems built on Rubin Ultra, including the Vera Rubin NVL 144, will arrive in the second half of next year. And due for the second half of 2027: systems built on Rubin Ultra. “You can see that Rubin is going to drive the cost down tremendously,” Huang said. NVIDIA Photonics Huang shifted to discussing how NVIDIA will help customers scale out to ever larger systems. Key to that is tightly integrating photonics — networking technologies that rely on transmitting data using light rather than electrical signals — into accelerated computing infrastructure. Enabling AI factories to connect millions of GPUs across sites while reducing energy consumption and operational costs, NVIDIA Spectrum-X and NVIDIA Quantum-X silicon photonics networking switches fuse electronic circuits and optical communications. “This is really crazy technology,” Huang said. NVIDIA photonics switches integrate optics innovations with 4x fewer lasers to deliver 3.5x more power efficiency, 63x greater signal integrity, 10x better network resiliency at scale and 1.3x faster deployment compared with traditional methods. DGX Spark and DGX Station Enabling AI developers, researchers, data scientists and students to prototype, fine-tune and inference large models on desktops, NVIDIA unveiled DGX personal AI supercomputers powered by the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell platform. Describing it as the perfect Christmas present, Huang announced DGX Spark — formerly Project DIGITS — and DGX Station, a new high-performance NVIDIA Grace Blackwell desktop supercomputer powered by the NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra platform, bringing the power of the Grace Blackwell architecture to the desktop. Users can run these models locally or deploy them on NVIDIA DGX Cloud or any other accelerated cloud or data center infrastructure. “This is the computer of the age of AI,” Huang said. Agentic AI Transitioning into a discussion of the future of agentic AI, Huang announced the open Llama Nemotron family of models with reasoning capabilities, designed to provide developers and enterprises a business-ready foundation for creating advanced AI agents that can work independently or as connected teams to solve complex tasks. Built on Llama models, the NVIDIA Llama Nemotron reasoning family delivers on-demand AI reasoning capabilities. NVIDIA enhanced the new reasoning model family during post-training to improve multistep math, coding, reasoning and complex decision-making. Physical AI and Robotics Describing robots as the next $10 trillion industry, Huang said that by the end of this decade, the world is going to be at least 50 million workers short. NVIDIA offers a complete suite of technologies for training, deploying, simulating and testing next-generation robotics. In a video, Huang announced the availability of NVIDIA Isaac GR00T N1, the world’s first open, fully customizable foundation model for generalized humanoid reasoning and skills. NVIDIA also announced a major release of new NVIDIA Cosmos world foundation models, introducing an open and fully customizable reasoning model for physical AI development and giving developers unprecedented control over world generation. “Using Omniverse to condition Cosmos, and Cosmos to generate an infinite number of environments, allows us to create data that is grounded, controlled by us and yet systematically infinite at the same time,” Huang said. He also introduced the Newton open-source physics engine for robotics simulation, under development with Google DeepMind and Disney Research, before he was joined on stage by a blue robot that emerged from a hatch on the floor, beeping and booping at Huang. ‘Let’s Wrap Up’ Huang wound up his talk by emphasizing several major themes. First, Blackwell is in full production — “and the ramp is incredible, customer demand is incredible,” Huang reported. “And for good reason, because there is an inflection point in AI, the amount of computation we have to do in AI is so much greater as a result of reasoning AI, and the training of reasoning AI systems and agentic systems.” Second, Blackwell NVL72 with Dynamo offers 40x the AI factory performance of NVIDIA Hopper, and “inference is going to be one of the most important workloads in the next decade as we scale out AI.” Third, NVIDIA has an “annual rhythm” of roadmaps, so the world can plan its AI infrastructure. NVIDIA is building three AI infrastructures: one for the cloud, a second for the enterprise and a third for robots. Countdown to Keynote at GTC The SAP Center is waking up, bathed in a soothing purple glow. A sea of attendees flows in — developers, researchers, business leaders — filling the space with a charge of anticipation. Up on the big screen: the pre-show with Acquired podcast hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, who are interviewing industry figures from the GTC show floor. Earlier today they even got a drop-in from NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang. It’s almost time. At 10:00 a.m. PT, Huang takes the stage, setting the tone for everything unfolding at GTC. Crowds in the arena will feel it — the shuffle of last-minute arrivals, the glow of smartphone screens. Those tuning in remotely won’t miss a moment. Watch the keynote live. The future of AI, accelerated computing and everything in between is about to be unveiled. Stay with us — we’re just getting started. Keynote Today: Tune In Early for the Preshow With Acquired The excitement starts long before NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang takes the stage. Catch the “Live at NVIDIA GTC With Acquired” broadcast now, featuring luminary speakers who’ll offer fascinating insights into NVIDIA’s remarkable journey over the past three decades. State of AI Art: How Artists Bring AI, Robots Into Creative Process https://blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/trim-art-video.mp4 “Consumption,” a piece by BREAKFAST, on display at GTC. Artists over millennia have created with every medium available — fruit and vegetable dyes, blocks of marble, acrylic paints, cameras, rendering software, 3D printers. They’re now harnessing AI and robotics to build immersive experiences that reflect on the ways people respond to and interact with technology. In a GTC panel discussion hosted today by Heather Schoell, creative director of AI strategy at NVIDIA, four artists shared how they use AI and robotics in their creative processes. The integration of robotics in art “is a very logical continuation in what is a very long spectrum of humans and our relationship to our tools,” said panelist Catie Cuan, founder of consumer AI company Zenie and a postdoc at Stanford University, where she leads art and robotics efforts at the Stanford Robotics Center. A former professional dancer, Cuan’s works include an eight-hour duet with a robot arm and a symphony of dancing robots that played sounds as they moved. Another panelist, Alexander Reben, was OpenAI’s first artist in residence. He’s used large language models, visual generative AI models and NeRFs to create 3D sculptures. Interactive art by two of the panelists — Zolty, a kinetic and robotics artist known as BREAKFAST, and Emanuel Gollob, a doctoral researcher at the University of Arts Linz, Austria — is on display at the main entrance of GTC. BREAKFAST works with real-time data to create large kinetic art sculptures that are on display aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship and the Fontainebleau hotel in Las Vegas. The studio’s piece at GTC, titled “Consumption,” runs on an NVIDIA RTX GPU and features robotic arches that move in response to real-time data about water usage, including rainfall, reservoirs, groundwater levels and municipal supplies. Gollob’s robotic installation, called “Doing Nothing With AI,” uses generative robot control, brainwave measurements and reinforcement learning to move in a way that guides a participant wearing an EEG headband to do nothing and enjoy a moment of inaction. Left to right: Reben, Gollob, BREAKFAST, Cuan and Schoell Panelists Discuss Energy Efficiency in the Age of Generative AI To a packed room of attendees, panelists held an illuminating discussion on AI, energy and climate issues today at GTC. Josh Parker, senior director of corporate sustainability at NVIDIA, was joined by Lauren Risi from the Wilson Center, David Sandalow from Columbia University and Bernhard Lorentz of Deloitte. “In the world of climate change, there’s an enormous amount of things that AI can do,” said Sandalow. “How can you mobilize AI tools to mitigate climate change?” The industry experts addressed concerns about energy efficiency with the rise of generative AI and the uptick in data centers. “NVIDIA GPUs are delivering 100,000x better energy efficiency over the past decade,” said Parker, summing up the energy efficiency gains from NVIDIA GPUs. BMW Group Shows Off 3D Collaboration for Battery Assembly Factories Avatars allow BMW Group to fly into battery assembly stations, observe and ask questions interactively. BMW Group presented the latest updates to its 3D AppStore today at GTC. The 3D AppStore, BMW’s cloud streaming service for high-end visualization, is now making it possible to support the automaker’s battery assembly process across various factories worldwide. It allows engineers, designers and others to work in the digital environment collaboratively. “With the avatars, they see the factory scene and can be in there together, and then you can basically just ask what is happening here, and the AI gives you a detailed description of what the station here is doing,” said Xaver Freiherr Loeffelholz von Colberg, product owner of 3D AppStore at BMW Group. Offering a glimpse into the future of automotive design and manufacturing, BMW has two more speaker sessions on Thursday, March 20. Explaining Tokens — the Language and Currency of AI GTC attendees are likely to hear a lot about tokens — the language and currency of AI. Tokens are units of data processed by AI models during training and inference, enabling prediction, generation and reasoning. The faster tokens can be processed, the faster AI models can learn and respond. Get up to speed on tokens, tokenization and the ways enterprises can boost revenue by lowering cost per token in our explainer article. GTC 2025: Real AI, Real Problems, Real Solutions AI is confronting humanity’s toughest challenges head on. See it unfold next week at the NVIDIA GTC conference in San Jose, California. From transformative healthcare sessions like “Revolutionizing Cardiac MRI Analysis and Diagnosis With AI” and “Designing the Future: Protein Engineering, AI and Responsible Innovation” to environmental breakthroughs in “Autonomous Systems and Remote Sensing for Better Earth Data,” “The Role of AI and Accelerated Computing in Understanding and Mitigating Urban Climate Change” and “Enhancing Photovoltaic Power Prediction With High-Resolution Weather Forecasting From NVIDIA Earth-2,” the impact is tangible and global. A surgical robot demonstrates its dexterity at GTC 2024. The Future Rolls Into San Jose Anyone who’s been in downtown San Jose lately has seen it happening. The banners are up. The streets are shifting. The whole city is getting a fresh coat of NVIDIA green. From March 17-21, San Jose will become a crossroads for the thinkers, tinkerers and true enthusiasts of AI, robotics and accelerated computing. The conversations will be sharp, fast-moving and sometimes improbable — but that’s the point. At the center of it all? NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote, offering a glimpse into the future. It’ll take place at the SAP Center on Tuesday, March 18, at 10 a.m. PT. Expect big ideas, a few surprises, some roars of laughter and the occasional moment that leaves the room silent. But GTC isn’t just what happens on stage. It’s a conference that refuses to stay inside its walls. It spills out into sessions at McEnery Convention Center, hands-on demos at the Tech Interactive Museum, late-night conversations at the Plaza de César Chávez night market and more. San Jose isn’t just hosting GTC. It’s becoming it. The speakers are a mix of visionaries and builders — the kind of people who make you rethink what’s possible: Yann LeCun – chief AI scientist at Meta, professor, New York University Frances Arnold – Nobel Laureate, Caltech RJ Scaringe – founder and CEO of Rivian Pieter Abbeel – robotics pioneer, UC Berkeley Arthur Mensch – CEO of Mistral AI Joe Park – chief digital and technology officer of Yum! Brands Noam Brown – research scientist at OpenAI Some are pushing the limits of AI itself; others are weaving it into the world around us. Want in? Register now. Check back here for what to watch, read and play — and what it all means. Tune in to all the big moments, the small surprises and the ideas that’ll stick for years to come. See you in San Jose. #GTC25

Generative AI is unlocking new capabilities for PCs and workstations, including game assistants, enhanced content-creation and productivity tools and more. NVIDIA NIM microservices, available now, and AI Blueprints, coming in April, accelerate AI development and improve its accessibility. Announced at the CES trade show in January, NVIDIA NIM provides prepackaged, state-of-the-art AI models optimized for Read Article

Generative AI is unlocking new capabilities for PCs and workstations, including game assistants, enhanced content-creation and productivity tools and more. NVIDIA NIM microservices, available now, and AI Blueprints, coming in April, accelerate AI development and improve its accessibility. Announced at the CES trade show in January, NVIDIA NIM provides prepackaged, state-of-the-art AI models optimized for the NVIDIA RTX platform, including the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Series and, now, the new NVIDIA Blackwell RTX PRO GPUs. The microservices are easy to download and run. They span the top modalities for PC development and are compatible with top ecosystem applications and tools. The experimental System Assistant feature of Project G-Assist was also released today. Project G-Assist showcases how AI assistants can enhance apps and games. The System Assistant allows users to run real-time diagnostics, get recommendations on performance optimizations, or control system software and peripherals — all via simple voice or text commands. Developers and enthusiasts can extend its capabilities with a simple plug-in architecture and new plug-in builder. Amid a pivotal moment in computing — where groundbreaking AI models and a global developer community are driving an explosion in AI-powered tools and workflows — NIM microservices, AI Blueprints and G-Assist are helping bring key innovations to PCs. This RTX AI Garage blog series will continue to deliver updates, insights and resources to help developers and enthusiasts build the next wave of AI on RTX AI PCs and workstations. Ready, Set, NIM! Though the pace of innovation with AI is incredible, it can still be difficult for the PC developer community to get started with the technology. Bringing AI models from research to the PC requires curation of model variants, adaptation to manage all of the input and output data, and quantization to optimize resource usage. In addition, models must be converted to work with optimized inference backend software and connected to new AI application programming interfaces (APIs). This takes substantial effort, which can slow AI adoption. NVIDIA NIM microservices help solve this issue by providing prepackaged, optimized, easily downloadable AI models that connect to industry-standard APIs. They’re optimized for performance on RTX AI PCs and workstations, and include the top AI models from the community, as well as models developed by NVIDIA. NIM microservices support a range of AI applications, including large language models (LLMs), vision language models, image generation, speech processing, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)-based search, PDF extraction and computer vision. Ten NIM microservices for RTX are available, supporting a range of applications, including language and image generation, computer vision, speech AI and more. Get started with these NIM microservices today: Language and Reasoning: Deepseek-R1-distill-llama-8B, Mistral-nemo-12B-instruct, Llama3.1-8B-instruct Image Generation: Flux.dev Audio: Riva Parakeet-ctc-0.6B-asr, Maxine Studio Voice RAG: Llama-3.2-NV-EmbedQA-1B-v2 Computer Vision and Understanding: NV-CLIP, PaddleOCR, Yolo-X-v1 NIM microservices are also available through top AI ecosystem tools and frameworks. For AI enthusiasts, AnythingLLM and ChatRTX now support NIM, making it easy to chat with LLMs and AI agents through a simple, user-friendly interface. With these tools, users can create personalized AI assistants and integrate their own documents and data, helping automate tasks and enhance productivity. For developers looking to build, test and integrate AI into their applications, FlowiseAI and Langflow now support NIM and offer low- and no-code solutions with visual interfaces to design AI workflows with minimal coding expertise. Support for ComfyUI is coming soon. With these tools, developers can easily create complex AI applications like chatbots, image generators and data analysis systems. In addition, Microsoft VS Code AI Toolkit, CrewAI and Langchain now support NIM and provide advanced capabilities for integrating the microservices into application code, helping ensure seamless integration and optimization. Visit the NVIDIA technical blog and build.nvidia.com to get started. NVIDIA AI Blueprints Will Offer Pre-Built Workflows NVIDIA AI Blueprints, coming in April, give AI developers a head start in building generative AI workflows with NVIDIA NIM microservices. Blueprints are ready-to-use, extensible reference samples that bundle everything needed — source code, sample data, documentation and a demo app — to create and customize advanced AI workflows that run locally. Developers can modify and extend AI Blueprints to tweak their behavior, use different models or implement completely new functionality. PDF to podcast AI Blueprint coming soon. The PDF to podcast AI Blueprint will transform documents into audio content so users can learn on the go. By extracting text, images and tables from a PDF, the workflow uses AI to generate an informative podcast. For deeper dives into topics, users can then have an interactive discussion with the AI-powered podcast hosts. The AI Blueprint for 3D-guided generative AI will give artists finer control over image generation. While AI can generate amazing images from simple text prompts, controlling image composition using only words can be challenging. With this blueprint, creators can use simple 3D objects laid out in a 3D renderer like Blender to guide AI image generation. The artist can create 3D assets by hand or generate them using AI, place them in the scene and set the 3D viewport camera. Then, a prepackaged workflow powered by the FLUX NIM microservice will use the current composition to generate high-quality images that match the 3D scene. NVIDIA NIM on RTX With Windows Subsystem for Linux One of the key technologies that enables NIM microservices to run on PCs is Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Microsoft and NVIDIA collaborated to bring CUDA and RTX acceleration to WSL, making it possible to run optimized, containerized microservices on Windows. This allows the same NIM microservice to run anywhere, from PCs and workstations to the data center and cloud. Get started with NVIDIA NIM on RTX AI PCs at build.nvidia.com. Project G-Assist Expands PC AI Features With Custom Plug-Ins As part of Project G-Assist, an experimental version of the System Assistant feature for GeForce RTX desktop users is now available via the NVIDIA App, with laptop support coming soon. G-Assist helps users control a broad range of PC settings — including optimizing game and system settings, charting frame rates and other key performance statistics, and controlling select peripherals settings such as lighting — all via basic voice or text commands. G-Assist is built on NVIDIA ACE — the same AI technology suite game developers use to breathe life into non-player characters. Unlike AI tools that use massive cloud-hosted AI models that require online access and paid subscriptions, G-Assist runs locally on a GeForce RTX GPU. This means it’s responsive, free and can run without an internet connection. Manufacturers and software providers are already using ACE to create custom AI Assistants like G-Assist, including MSI’s AI Robot engine, the Streamlabs Intelligent AI Assistant and upcoming capabilities in HP’s Omen Gaming hub. G-Assist was built for community-driven expansion. Get started with this NVIDIA GitHub repository, including samples and instructions for creating plug-ins that add new functionality. Developers can define functions in simple JSON formats and drop configuration files into a designated directory, allowing G-Assist to automatically load and interpret them. Developers can even submit plug-ins to NVIDIA for review and potential inclusion. Currently available sample plug-ins include Spotify, to enable hands-free music and volume control, and Google Gemini — allowing G-Assist to invoke a much larger cloud-based AI for more complex conversations, brainstorming sessions and web searches using a free Google AI Studio API key. In the clip below, you’ll see G-Assist ask Gemini about which Legend to pick in Apex Legends when solo queueing, and whether it’s wise to jump into Nightmare mode at level 25 in Diablo IV: For even more customization, follow the instructions in the GitHub repository to generate G-Assist plug-ins using a ChatGPT-based “Plug-in Builder.” With this tool, users can write and export code, then integrate it into G-Assist — enabling quick, AI-assisted functionality that responds to text and voice commands. Watch how a developer used the Plug-in Builder to create a Twitch plug-in for G-Assist to check if a streamer is live: More details on how to build, share and load plug-ins are available in the NVIDIA GitHub repository. Check out the G-Assist article for system requirements and additional information. Build, Create, Innovate NVIDIA NIM microservices for RTX are available at build.nvidia.com, providing developers and AI enthusiasts with powerful, ready-to-use tools for building AI applications. Download Project G-Assist through the NVIDIA App’s “Home” tab, in the “Discovery” section. G-Assist currently supports GeForce RTX desktop GPUs, as well as a variety of voice and text commands in the English language. Future updates will add support for GeForce RTX Laptop GPUs, new and enhanced G-Assist capabilities, as well as support for additional languages. Press “Alt+G” after installation to activate G-Assist. Each week, RTX AI Garage features community-driven AI innovations and content for those looking to learn more about NIM microservices and AI Blueprints, as well as building AI agents, creative workflows, digital humans, productivity apps and more on AI PCs and workstations. Plug in to NVIDIA AI PC on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X — and stay informed by subscribing to the RTX AI PC newsletter. Follow NVIDIA Workstation on LinkedIn and X. See notice regarding software product information.

Time to sharpen the blade. GeForce NOW brings a legendary addition to the cloud: Ubisoft’s highly anticipated Assassin’s Creed Shadows is now available for members to stream. Plus, dive into the updated version of the iconic Fable Anniversary — part of 11 games joining the cloud this week. Silent as a Shadow Explore 16th-century Japan, Read Article

Time to sharpen the blade. GeForce NOW brings a legendary addition to the cloud: Ubisoft’s highly anticipated Assassin’s Creed Shadows is now available for members to stream. Plus, dive into the updated version of the iconic Fable Anniversary — part of 11 games joining the cloud this week. Silent as a Shadow Take the Leap of Faith from the cloud. Explore 16th-century Japan, uncover conspiracies and shape the destiny of a nation — all from the cloud. Assassin’s Creed Shadows unfolds in 1579, during the turbulent Azuchi-Momoyama period of feudal Japan, a time of civil war and cultural exchange. Step into the roles of Naoe, a fictional shinobi assassin and daughter of Fujibayashi Nagato, and Yasuke, a character based on the historical African samurai. Their stories intertwine as they find themselves on opposite sides of a conflict. The game’s dynamic stealth system enables players to hide in shadows and use a new “Observe” mechanic to identify targets, tag enemies and highlight objectives. Yasuke and Naoe each have unique abilities and playstyles: Naoe excels in stealth, equipped with classic Assassin techniques and shinobi skills, while Yasuke offers a more combat-focused approach. Navigate the turbulent Sengoku period on GeForce NOW, and experience the game’s breathtaking landscapes and intense combat at up to 4K resolution and 120 frames per second with an Ultimate membership. Every sword clash and sweeping vista is delivered with exceptional smoothness and clarity. A Classic Reborn Fable Anniversary revitalizes the original Fable: The Lost Chapters with enhanced graphics, a new save system and Xbox achievements. This action role-playing game invites players to shape their heroes’ destinies in the whimsical world of Albion. Make every choice from the cloud. Fable Anniversary weaves an epic tale of destiny and choice, following the journey of a young boy whose life is forever changed when bandits raid his peaceful village of Oakvale. Recruited to the Heroes’ Guild, he embarks on a quest to uncover the truth about his family and confront the mysterious Jack of Blades. Players shape their hero’s destiny through a series of moral choices. These decisions influence the story’s progression and even manifest physically on the character. Stream the title with a GeForce NOW membership across PCs that may not be game-ready, Macs, mobile devices, and Samsung and LG smart TVs. GeForce NOW transforms these devices into powerful gaming rigs, with up to eight-hour gaming sessions for Ultimate members. Unleash the Games Crash, smash, repeat. Wreckfest 2, the highly anticipated sequel by Bugbear Entertainment to the original demolition derby racing game, promises an even more intense and chaotic experience. The game features a range of customizable cars, from muscle cars to novelty vehicles, each with a story to tell. Play around with multiple modes, including traditional racing with physics-driven handling, and explore demolition derby arenas where the goal is to cause maximum destruction. With enhanced multiplayer features, including skills-based matchmaking and split-screen mode, Wreckfest 2 is the ultimate playground for destruction-racing enthusiasts. Look for the following games available to stream in the cloud this week: Assassin’s Creed Shadows (New release on Steam and Ubisoft Connect, March 20) Wreckfest 2 (New release on Steam, March 20) Aliens: Dark Descent (Xbox, available on PC Game Pass) Crime Boss: Rockay City (Epic Games Store) Eternal Strands (Xbox, available on PC Game Pass) Fable Anniversary (Steam) Motor Town: Behind the Wheel (Steam) Nine Sols (Xbox, available on PC Game Pass) Quake Live (Steam) Skydrift Infinity (Epic Games Store) To the Rescue! (Epic Games Store) What are you planning to play this weekend? Let us know on X or in the comments below. If you could go on a vacation to any video game realm, where would you go? — NVIDIA GeForce NOW (@NVIDIAGFN) March 19, 2025

The power and utilities sector keeps the lights on for the world’s populations and industries. As the global energy landscape evolves, so must the tools it relies on. To advance the next generation of electricity generation and distribution, many of the industry’s members are joining forces through the creation of the Open Power AI Consortium. Read Article

The power and utilities sector keeps the lights on for the world’s populations and industries. As the global energy landscape evolves, so must the tools it relies on. To advance the next generation of electricity generation and distribution, many of the industry’s members are joining forces through the creation of the Open Power AI Consortium. The consortium includes energy companies, technology companies and researchers developing AI applications to tackle domain-specific challenges, such as adapting to an increased deployment of distributed energy resources and significant load growth on electric grids. Led by independent, nonprofit energy R&D organization EPRI, the consortium aims to spur AI adoption in the power sector through a collaborative effort to build open models using curated, industry-specific data. The initiative was launched today at NVIDIA GTC, a global AI conference taking place through Friday, March 21, in San Jose, California. “Over the next decade, AI has the great potential to revolutionize the power sector by delivering the capability to enhance grid reliability, optimize asset performance, and enable more efficient energy management,” said Arshad Mansoor, EPRI’s president and CEO. “With the Open Power AI Consortium, EPRI and its collaborators will lead this transformation, driving innovation toward a more resilient and affordable energy future.” As part of the consortium, EPRI, NVIDIA and Articul8, a member of the NVIDIA Inception program for cutting-edge startups, are developing a set of domain-specific, multimodal large language models trained on massive libraries of proprietary energy and electrical engineering data from EPRI that can help utilities streamline operations, boost energy efficiency and improve grid resiliency. The first version of an industry-first open AI model for electric and power systems was developed using hundreds of NVIDIA H100 GPUs and is expected to soon be available in early access as an NVIDIA NIM microservice. “Working with EPRI, we aim to leverage advanced AI tools to address today’s unique industry challenges, positioning us at the forefront of innovation and operational excellence,” said Vincent Sorgi, CEO of PPL Corporation and EPRI board chair. PPL is a leading U.S. energy company that provides electricity and natural gas to more than 3.6 million customers in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Rhode Island and Virginia. The Open AI Consortium’s Executive Advisory Committee includes executives from over 20 energy companies such as Duke Energy, Exelon, Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Portland General Electric, as well as leading tech companies such as AWS, Oracle and Microsoft. The consortium plans to further expand its global member base. Powering Up AI to Energize Operations, Drive Innovation Global energy consumption is projected to grow by nearly 4% annually through 2027, according to the International Energy Agency. To support this surge in demand, electricity providers are looking to enhance the resiliency of power infrastructure, balance diverse energy sources and expand the grid’s capacity. AI agents trained on thousands of documents specific to this sector — including academic research, industry regulations and standards, and technical documents — can enable utility and energy companies to more quickly assess energy needs and prepare the studies and permits required to improve infrastructure. “We can bring AI to the global power sector in a much more accelerated way by working together to develop foundation models for the industry, and collaborating with the power sector to y apply solutions tailored to its unique needs,” Mansoor said. Utilities could tap the consortium’s model to help accelerate interconnection studies, which analyze the feasibility and potential impact of connecting new generators to the existing electric grid. The process varies by region but can take up to four years to complete. By introducing AI agents that can support the analysis, the consortium aims to cut this timeline down by at least 5x. The AI model could also be used to support the preparation of licenses, permits, environmental studies and utility rate cases, where energy companies seek regulatory approval and public comment on proposed changes to electricity rates. Beyond releasing datasets and models, the consortium also aims to develop a standardized framework of benchmarks to help utilities, researchers and other energy sector stakeholders evaluate the performance and reliability of AI technologies. Learn more about the Open Power AI Consortium online and in EPRI’s sessions at GTC: Accelerate Energy Transformation With Industry Domain AI Models — Arshad Mansoor, president and CEO of EPRI Energy Transition: Impact of Generative AI in the Power Ecosystem of Generation, Transmission and Distribution — Swati Daji, executive vice president and chief financial, risk and operations officer at EPRI To learn more about advancements in AI across industries, watch the GTC keynote by NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang: See notice regarding software product information.

The roots of many of NVIDIA’s landmark innovations — the foundational technology that powers AI, accelerated computing, real-time ray tracing and seamlessly connected data centers — can be found in the company’s research organization, a global team of around 400 experts in fields including computer architecture, generative AI, graphics and robotics. Established in 2006 and Read Article

The roots of many of NVIDIA’s landmark innovations — the foundational technology that powers AI, accelerated computing, real-time ray tracing and seamlessly connected data centers — can be found in the company’s research organization, a global team of around 400 experts in fields including computer architecture, generative AI, graphics and robotics. Established in 2006 and led since 2009 by Bill Dally, former chair of Stanford University’s computer science department, NVIDIA Research is unique among corporate research organizations — set up with a mission to pursue complex technological challenges while having a profound impact on the company and the world. “We make a deliberate effort to do great research while being relevant to the company,” said Dally, chief scientist and senior vice president of NVIDIA Research. “It’s easy to do one or the other. It’s hard to do both.” Dally is among NVIDIA Research leaders sharing the group’s innovations at NVIDIA GTC, the premier developer conference at the heart of AI, taking place this week in San Jose, California. “We make a deliberate effort to do great research while being relevant to the company.” — Bill Dally, chief scientist and senior vice president While many research organizations may describe their mission as pursuing projects with a longer time horizon than those of a product team, NVIDIA researchers seek out projects with a larger “risk horizon” — and a huge potential payoff if they succeed. “Our mission is to do the right thing for the company. It’s not about building a trophy case of best paper awards or a museum of famous researchers,” said David Luebke, vice president of graphics research and NVIDIA’s first researcher. “We are a small group of people who are privileged to be able to work on ideas that could fail. And so it is incumbent upon us to not waste that opportunity and to do our best on projects that, if they succeed, will make a big difference.” Innovating as One Team One of NVIDIA’s core values is “one team” — a deep commitment to collaboration that helps researchers work closely with product teams and industry stakeholders to transform their ideas into real-world impact. “Everybody at NVIDIA is incentivized to figure out how to work together because the accelerated computing work that NVIDIA does requires full-stack optimization,” said Bryan Catanzaro, vice president of applied deep learning research at NVIDIA. “You can’t do that if each piece of technology exists in isolation and everybody’s staying in silos. You have to work together as one team to achieve acceleration.” When evaluating potential projects, NVIDIA researchers consider whether the challenge is a better fit for a research or product team, whether the work merits publication at a top conference, and whether there’s a clear potential benefit to NVIDIA. If they decide to pursue the project, they do so while engaging with key stakeholders. “We are a small group of people who are privileged to be able to work on ideas that could fail. And so it is incumbent upon us to not waste that opportunity.” — David Luebke, vice president of graphics research “We work with people to make something real, and often, in the process, we discover that the great ideas we had in the lab don’t actually work in the real world,” Catanzaro said. “It’s a tight collaboration where the research team needs to be humble enough to learn from the rest of the company what they need to do to make their ideas work.” The team shares much of its work through papers, technical conferences and open-source platforms like GitHub and Hugging Face. But its focus remains on industry impact. “We think of publishing as a really important side effect of what we do, but it’s not the point of what we do,” Luebke said. NVIDIA Research’s first effort was focused on ray tracing, which after a decade of sustained work led directly to the launch of NVIDIA RTX and redefined real-time computer graphics. The organization now includes teams specializing in chip design, networking, programming systems, large language models, physics-based simulation, climate science, humanoid robotics and self-driving cars — and continues expanding to tackle additional areas of study and tap expertise across the globe. “You have to work together as one team to achieve acceleration.” — Bryan Catanzaro, vice president of applied deep learning research Transforming NVIDIA — and the Industry NVIDIA Research didn’t just lay the groundwork for some of the company’s most well-known products — its innovations have propelled and enabled today’s era of AI and accelerated computing. It began with CUDA, a parallel computing software platform and programming model that enables researchers to tap GPU acceleration for myriad applications. Launched in 2006, CUDA made it easy for developers to harness the parallel processing power of GPUs to speed up scientific simulations, gaming applications and the creation of AI models. “Developing CUDA was the single most transformative thing for NVIDIA,” Luebke said. “It happened before we had a formal research group, but it happened because we hired top researchers and had them work with top architects.” Making Ray Tracing a Reality Once NVIDIA Research was founded, its members began working on GPU-accelerated ray tracing, spending years developing the algorithms and the hardware to make it possible. In 2009, the project — led by the late Steven Parker, a real-time ray tracing pioneer who was vice president of professional graphics at NVIDIA — reached the product stage with the NVIDIA OptiX application framework, detailed in a 2010 SIGGRAPH paper. The researchers’ work expanded and, in collaboration with NVIDIA’s architecture group, eventually led to the development of NVIDIA RTX ray-tracing technology, including RT Cores that enabled real-time ray tracing for gamers and professional creators. Unveiled in 2018, NVIDIA RTX also marked the launch of another NVIDIA Research innovation: NVIDIA DLSS, or Deep Learning Super Sampling. With DLSS, the graphics pipeline no longer needs to draw all the pixels in a video. Instead, it draws a fraction of the pixels and gives an AI pipeline the information needed to create the image in crisp, high resolution. https://blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/DLSS4.mp4 Accelerating AI for Virtually Any Application NVIDIA’s research contributions in AI software kicked off with the NVIDIA cuDNN library for GPU-accelerated neural networks, which was developed as a research project when the deep learning field was still in its initial stages — then released as a product in 2014. As deep learning soared in popularity and evolved into generative AI, NVIDIA Research was at the forefront — exemplified by NVIDIA StyleGAN, a groundbreaking visual generative AI model that demonstrated how neural networks could rapidly generate photorealistic imagery. While generative adversarial networks, or GANs, were first introduced in 2014, “StyleGAN was the first model to generate visuals that could completely pass muster as a photograph,” Luebke said. “It was a watershed moment.” NVIDIA StyleGAN NVIDIA researchers introduced a slew of popular GAN models such as the AI painting tool GauGAN, which later developed into the NVIDIA Canvas application. And with the rise of diffusion models, neural radiance fields and Gaussian splatting, they’re still advancing visual generative AI — including in 3D with recent models like Edify 3D and 3DGUT. NVIDIA GauGAN In the field of large language models, Megatron-LM was an applied research initiative that enabled the efficient training and inference of massive LLMs for language-based tasks such as content generation, translation and conversational AI. It’s integrated into the NVIDIA NeMo platform for developing custom generative AI, which also features speech recognition and speech synthesis models that originated in NVIDIA Research. Achieving Breakthroughs in Chip Design, Networking, Quantum and More AI and graphics are only some of the fields NVIDIA Research tackles — several teams are achieving breakthroughs in chip architecture, electronic design automation, programming systems, quantum computing and more. In 2012, Dally submitted a research proposal to the U.S. Department of Energy for a project that would become NVIDIA NVLink and NVSwitch, the high-speed interconnect that enables rapid communication between GPU and CPU processors in accelerated computing systems. NVLink Switch tray In 2013, the circuit research team published work on chip-to-chip links that introduced a signaling system co-designed with the interconnect to enable a high-speed, low-area and low-power link between dies. The project eventually became the link between the NVIDIA Grace CPU and NVIDIA Hopper GPU. In 2021, the ASIC and VLSI Research group developed a software-hardware codesign technique for AI accelerators called VS-Quant that enabled many machine learning models to run with 4-bit weights and 4-bit activations at high accuracy. Their work influenced the development of FP4 precision support in the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture. And unveiled this year at the CES trade show was NVIDIA Cosmos, a platform created by NVIDIA Research to accelerate the development of physical AI for next-generation robots and autonomous vehicles. Read the research paper and check out the AI Podcast episode on Cosmos for details. Learn more about NVIDIA Research at GTC. Watch the keynote by NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang below: See notice regarding software product information.

NVIDIA this week recognized 14 partners leading the way across the Americas for their work advancing agentic and physical AI across industries. The 2025 Americas NVIDIA Partner Network awards — announced at the GTC 2025 global AI conference — represent key efforts by industry leaders to help customers become experts in using AI to solve Read Article

NVIDIA this week recognized 14 partners leading the way across the Americas for their work advancing agentic and physical AI across industries. The 2025 Americas NVIDIA Partner Network awards — announced at the GTC 2025 global AI conference — represent key efforts by industry leaders to help customers become experts in using AI to solve many of today’s greatest challenges. The awards honor the diverse contributions of NPN members fostering AI-driven innovation and growth. This year, NPN introduced three new award categories that reflect how AI is driving economic growth and opportunities, including: Trailblazer, which honors a visionary partner spearheading AI adoption and setting new industry standards. Rising Star, which celebrates an emerging talent helping industries harness AI to drive transformation. Innovation, which recognizes a partner that’s demonstrated exceptional creativity and forward thinking. This year’s NPN ecosystem winners have helped companies across industries use AI to adapt to new challenges and prioritize energy-efficient accelerated computing. NPN partners help customers implement a broad range of AI technologies, including NVIDIA-accelerated AI factories, as well as large language models and generative AI chatbots, to transform business operations. The 2025 NPN award winners for the Americas are: Global Consulting Partner of the Year — Accenture is recognized for its impact and depth of engineering with its AI Refinery platform for industries, simulation and robotics, marketing and sovereignty, which helps organizations enhance innovation and growth with custom-built approaches to AI-driven enterprise reinvention. Trailblazer Partner of the Year — Advizex is recognized for its commitment to driving innovation in AI and high-performance computing, helping industries like healthcare, manufacturing, retail and government seamlessly integrate advanced AI technologies into existing business frameworks. This enables organizations to achieve significant operations efficiencies, enhanced decision-making, and accelerated digital transformation. Rising Star Partner of the Year — AHEAD is recognized for its leadership, technical expertise and deployment of NVIDIA software, NVIDIA DGX systems, NVIDIA HGX and networking technologies to advance AI, benefitting customers across healthcare, financial services, life sciences and higher education. Networking Partner of the Year — Computacenter is recognized for advancing high-performance computing and data centers with NVIDIA networking technologies. The company achieved this by using the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform, DGX platforms and NVIDIA networking to drive innovation and growth throughout industries with efficient, accelerated data centers. Solution Integration Partner of the Year — EXXACT is recognized for its efforts in helping research institutions and businesses tap into generative AI, large language models and high-performance computing. The company harnesses NVIDIA GPUs and networking technologies to deliver powerful computing platforms that accelerate innovation and tackle complex computational challenges across various industries. Enterprise Partner of the Year — World Wide Technology (WWT) is recognized for its leadership in advancing AI adoption of customers across industry verticals worldwide. The company expanded its end-to-end AI capabilities by integrating NVIDIA Blueprints into its AI Proving Ground and has made a $500 million commitment to AI development over three years to help speed enterprise generative AI deployments. Software Partner of the Year — Mark III is recognized for the work of its cross-functional team spanning data scientists, developers, 3D artists, systems engineers, and HPC and AI architects, as well as its close collaborations with enterprises and institutions, to deploy NVIDIA software, including NVIDIA AI Enterprise and NVIDIA Omniverse, across industries. These efforts have helped many customers build software-powered pipelines and data flywheels with machine learning, generative AI, high-performance computing and digital twins. Higher Education Research Partner of the Year — Mark III is recognized for its close engagement with universities, academic institutions and research organizations to cultivate the next generation of leaders across AI, machine learning, generative AI, high-performance computing and digital twins. Healthcare Partner of the Year — Lambda is recognized for empowering healthcare and biotech organizations with AI training, fine-tuning and inferencing solutions to speed innovation and drive breakthroughs in AI-driven drug discovery. The company provides AI training, fine-tuning and inferencing solutions at every scale — from individual workstations to comprehensive AI factories — that help healthcare providers seamlessly integrate NVIDIA accelerated computing and software into their infrastructure. Financial Services Partner of the Year — WWT is recognized for driving the digital transformation of the world’s largest banks and financial institutions. The company harnesses NVIDIA AI technologies to optimize data management, enhance cybersecurity and deliver transformative generative AI solutions, helping financial services clients navigate rapid technological changes and evolving customer expectations. Innovation Partner of the Year — Cambridge Computer is recognized for supporting customers deploying transformative technologies, including NVIDIA Grace Hopper, NVIDIA Blackwell and the NVIDIA Omniverse platform for physical AI. Service Delivery Partner of the Year — SoftServe is recognized for its impact in driving enterprise adoption of NVIDIA AI and Omniverse with custom NVIDIA Blueprints that tap into NVIDIA NIM microservices and NVIDIA NeMo and Riva software. SoftServe helps customers create generative AI services for industries spanning manufacturing, retail, financial services, auto, healthcare and life sciences. Distribution Partner of the Year — TD SYNNEX has been recognized for the second consecutive year for supporting customers in accelerating AI growth through rapid delivery of NVIDIA accelerated computing and software, as part of its Destination AI initiative. Rising Star Consulting Partner of the Year — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is recognized for its growth and commitment to providing industry-specific solutions that help customers adopt AI faster and at scale. Through its recently launched business unit and center of excellence built on NVIDIA AI Enterprise and Omniverse, TCS is poised to accelerate adoption of agentic AI and physical AI solutions to speed innovation for customers worldwide. Canadian Partner of the Year — Hypertec is recognized for its advancement of high-performance computing and generative AI across Canada. The company has employed the full-stack NVIDIA platform to accelerate AI for financial services, higher education and research. Public Sector Partner of the Year — Government Acquisitions (GAI) is recognized for its rapid AI deployment and robust customer relationships, helping serve the unique needs of the federal government by adding AI to operations to improve public safety and efficiency. Learn more about the NPN program.

AI has been shaping the media and entertainment industry for decades, from early recommendation engines to AI-driven editing and visual effects automation. Real-time AI — which lets companies actively drive content creation, personalize viewing experiences and rapidly deliver data insights — marks the next wave of that transformation. With the NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell GPU Read Article

AI has been shaping the media and entertainment industry for decades, from early recommendation engines to AI-driven editing and visual effects automation. Real-time AI — which lets companies actively drive content creation, personalize viewing experiences and rapidly deliver data insights — marks the next wave of that transformation. With the NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell GPU series, announced yesterday at the NVIDIA GTC global AI conference, media companies can now harness real-time AI for media workflows with unprecedented speed, efficiency and creative potential. NVIDIA Blackwell serves as the foundation of NVIDIA Media2, an initiative that enables real-time AI by bringing together NVIDIA technologies — including NVIDIA NIM microservices, NVIDIA AI Blueprints, accelerated computing platforms and generative AI software — to transform all aspects of production workflows and experiences, starting with content creation, streaming and live media. Powering Intelligent Content Creation Accelerated computing enables AI-driven workflows to process massive datasets in real time, unlocking faster rendering, simulation and content generation. NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell GPUs series include new features that enable unprecedented graphics and AI performance. The NVIDIA Streaming Multiprocessor offers up to 1.5x faster throughput over the NVIDIA Ada generation, and new neural shaders that integrate AI inside of programmable shaders for advanced content creation. Fourth-generation RT Cores deliver up to 2x the performance of the previous generation, enabling the creation of massive photoreal and physically accurate animated scenes. Fifth-generation Tensor Cores deliver up to 4,000 AI trillion operations per second and add support for FP4 precision. And up to 96GB of GDDR7 memory boosts GPU bandwidth and capacity, allowing applications to run faster and work with larger, more complex datasets for massive 3D and AI projects, large-scale virtual-reality environments and more. Elio © Disney/Pixar “One of the most exciting aspects of new technology is how it empowers our artists with tools to enhance their creative workflows,” said Steve May, chief technology officer of Pixar Animation Studios. “With Pixar’s next-generation renderer, RenderMan XPU — optimized for the NVIDIA Blackwell platform — 99% of Pixar shots can now fit within the 96GB of memory on the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPUs. This breakthrough will fundamentally improve the way we make movies.” © Lucasfilm Ltd. “Our artists were frequently maxing out our 48GB cards with ILM StageCraft environments and having to battle performance issues on set for 6K and 8K real-time renders,” said Stephen Hill, principal rendering engineer at Lucasfilm. “The new NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition GPU lifts these limitations — we’re seeing upwards of a 2.5x performance increase over our current production GPUs, and with 96GB of VRAM we now have twice as much memory to play with.” In addition, neural rendering with NVIDIA RTX Kit brings cinematic-quality ray tracing and AI-enhanced graphics to real-time engines, elevating visual fidelity in film, TV and interactive media. Including neural texture compression, neural shaders, RTX Global Illumination and Mega Geometry, RTX Kit is a suite of neural rendering technologies that enhance graphics for games, animation, virtual production scenes and immersive experiences. Fueling the Future of Streaming and Data Analytics Data analytics is transforming raw audience insights into actionable intelligence faster than ever. NVIDIA accelerated computing and AI-powered frameworks enable studios to analyze viewer behavior, predict engagement patterns and optimize content in real time, driving hyper-personalized experiences and smarter creative decisions. With the new GPUs, users can achieve real-time ingestion and data transformation with GPU-accelerated data loading and cleansing at scale. The NVIDIA technologies accelerating streaming and data analytics include a suite of NVIDIA CUDA-X data processing libraries that enable immediate insights from continuous data streams and reduce latency, such as: NVIDIA cuML: Enables GPU-accelerated training and inference for recommendation models using scikit-learn algorithms, providing real-time personalization capabilities and up-to-date relevant content recommendations that boost viewer engagement while reducing churn. NVIDIA cuDF: Offers pandas DataFrame operations on GPUs, enabling faster and more efficient NVIDIA-accelerated extract, transform and load operations and analytics. cuDF helps optimize content delivery by analyzing user data to predict demand and adjust content distribution in real time, improving overall user experiences. Along with cuML and cuDF, accelerated data science libraries provide seamless integration with the open-source Dask library for multi-GPU or multi-node clusters. NVIDIA RTX Blackwell PRO GPUs’ large GPU memory can further assist with handling massive datasets and spikes in usage without sacrificing performance. And, the video search and summarization blueprint integrates vision language models and large language models and provides cloud-native building blocks to build video analytics, search and summarization applications. Breathing Life Into Live Media With NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell GPUs, broadcasters can achieve higher performance than ever in high-resolution video processing, real-time augmented reality and AI-driven content production and video analytics. New features include: Ninth-Generation NVIDIA NVENC: Adds support for 4:2:2 encoding, accelerating video encoding speed and improving quality for broadcast and live media applications while reducing costs of storing uncompressed video. Sixth-Generation NVIDIA NVDEC: Provides up to double H.264 decoding throughput and offers support for 4:2:2 H.264 and HEVC decode. Professionals can benefit from high-quality video playback, accelerate video data ingestion and use advanced AI-powered video editing features. Fifth-Generation PCIe: Provides double the bandwidth over the previous generation, improving data transfer speeds from CPU memory and unlocking faster performance for data-intensive tasks. DisplayPort 2.1: Drives high-resolution displays at up to 8K at 240Hz and 16K at 60Hz. Increased bandwidth enables seamless multi-monitor setups, while high dynamic range and higher color depth support deliver more precise color accuracy for tasks like video editing and live broadcasting. “The NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition GPU is a transformative force in Cosm’s mission to redefine immersive entertainment,” said Devin Poolman, chief product and technology officer at Cosm, a global immersive technology, media and entertainment company. “With its unparalleled performance, we can push the boundaries of real-time rendering, unlocking the ultra-high resolution and fluid frame rates needed to make our live, immersive experiences feel nearly indistinguishable from reality.” As a key component of Cosm’s CX System 12K LED dome displays, RTX PRO 6000 Max-Q enables seamless merging of the physical and digital worlds to deliver shared reality experiences, enabling audiences to engage with sports, live events and cinematic content in entirely new ways. Cosm’s shared reality experience, featuring its 87-foot-diameter LED dome display in stunning 12K resolution, with millions of pixels shining 10x brighter than the brightest cinematic display. Image courtesy of Cosm. To learn more about NVIDIA Media2, watch the GTC keynote and register to attend sessions from NVIDIA and industry leaders at the show, which runs through Friday, March 21. Try NVIDIA NIM microservices and AI Blueprints on build.nvidia.com.

As generative AI capabilities expand, NVIDIA is equipping developers with the tools to seamlessly integrate AI into creative projects, applications and games to unlock groundbreaking experiences on NVIDIA RTX AI PCs and workstations. At the NVIDIA GTC global AI conference this week, NVIDIA introduced the NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell series, a new generation of workstation Read Article

As generative AI capabilities expand, NVIDIA is equipping developers with the tools to seamlessly integrate AI into creative projects, applications and games to unlock groundbreaking experiences on NVIDIA RTX AI PCs and workstations. At the NVIDIA GTC global AI conference this week, NVIDIA introduced the NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell series, a new generation of workstation and server GPUs built for complex AI-driven workloads, technical computing and high-performance graphics. Alongside the new hardware, NVIDIA announced a suite of AI-powered tools, libraries and software development kits designed to accelerate AI development on PCs and workstations. With NVIDIA CUDA-X libraries for data science, developers can significantly accelerate data processing and machine learning tasks, enabling faster exploratory data analysis, feature engineering and model development with zero code changes. And with NVIDIA NIM microservices, developers can more seamlessly build AI assistants, productivity plug-ins and advanced content-creation workflows with peak performance. AI at the Speed of NIM With RTX PRO Series GPUs The RTX PRO Blackwell series is built to handle the most demanding AI-driven workflows, powering applications like AI agents, simulation, extended reality, 3D design and high-end visual effects. Whether for designing and engineering complex systems or creating sophisticated and immersive content, RTX PRO GPUs deliver the performance, efficiency and scalability professionals need. The new lineup includes: Desktop GPUs: NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition, NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition, NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell, NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell and NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell Laptop GPUs: NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell, NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell, NVIDIA RTX PRO 3000 Blackwell, NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell, NVIDIA RTX PRO 1000 Blackwell and NVIDIA RTX PRO 500 Blackwell Laptop GPUs Data center GPU: NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition As AI and data science evolve, the ability to rapidly process and analyze massive datasets will become a key differentiator to enable breakthroughs across industries. NVIDIA CUDA-X libraries, built on CUDA, is a collection of libraries that deliver dramatically higher performance compared with CPU-only alternatives. With cuML 25.02 — now available in open beta — data scientists and researchers can accelerate scikit-learn, UMAP and HDBSCAN algorithms with zero code changes, unlocking new levels of performance and efficiency in machine learning tasks. This release extends the zero-code-change acceleration paradigm established by cuDF-pandas for DataFrame operations to machine learning, reducing iterations from hours to seconds. Optimized AI software unlocks even greater possibilities. NVIDIA NIM microservices are prepackaged, high-performance AI models optimized across NVIDIA GPUs, from RTX-powered PCs and workstations to the cloud. Developers can use NIM microservices to build AI-powered app assistants, productivity tools and content-creation workflows that seamlessly integrate with RTX PRO GPUs. This makes AI more accessible and powerful than ever. NIM microservices integrate top community and NVIDIA-built models, spanning capabilities and modalities important for PC and workstation use cases, including large language models (LLMs), images, speech and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). Announced at the CES trade show in January, NVIDIA AI Blueprints are advanced AI reference workflows built on NVIDIA NIM. With AI Blueprints, developers can create podcasts from PDF documents, generate stunning 4K images controlled and guided by 3D scenes, and incorporate digital humans into AI-powered use cases. Coming soon to build.nvidia.com, the blueprints are extensible and provide everything needed to build and customize them for different use cases. These resources include source code, sample data, a demo application and documentation. From cutting-edge hardware to optimized AI models and reference workflows, the RTX PRO series is redefining AI-powered computing — enabling professionals to push the limits of creativity, productivity and innovation. Learn about all the GTC announcements and the RTX PRO Blackwell series GPUs for laptops and workstations. Create NIMble AI Chatbots With ChatRTX AI-powered chatbots are changing how people interact with their content. ChatRTX is a demo app that personalizes a LLM connected to a user’s content, whether documents, notes, images or other data. Using RAG, the NVIDIA TensorRT-LLM library and RTX acceleration, a user can query a custom chatbot to get contextually relevant answers. And because it all runs locally on Windows RTX PCs or RTX PRO workstations, they get fast and private results. Today, the latest version of ChatRTX introduces support for NVIDIA NIM microservices, giving users access to new foundational models. NIM is expected to soon be available in additional top AI ecosystem apps. Download ChatRTX today. Game On Half-Life 2 owners can now download a free Half-Life 2 RTX demo from Steam, built with RTX Remix and featuring the latest neural rendering enhancements. RTX Remix supports a host of AI tools, including NVIDIA DLSS 4, RTX Neural Radiance Cache and the new community-published AI model PBRFusion 3, which upscales textures and generates high-quality normal, roughness and height maps for physically based materials. The March NVIDIA Studio Driver is also now available for download, supporting recent app updates including last week’s RTX Remix launch. For automatic Studio Driver notifications, download the NVIDIA app. In addition, NVIDIA RTX Kit, a suite of neural rendering technologies for game developers, is receiving major updates with Unreal Engine 5 support for the RTX Mega Geometry and RTX Hair features. Learn more about the NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell GPUs by watching a replay of NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang’s GTC keynote and register to attend sessions from NVIDIA and industry leaders at the show, which runs through March 21. Follow NVIDIA AI PC on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X — and stay informed by subscribing to the RTX AI PC newsletter. Follow NVIDIA Workstation on LinkedIn and X. See notice regarding software product information.

AI is fueling a new industrial revolution — one driven by AI factories. Unlike traditional data centers, AI factories do more than store and process data — they manufacture intelligence at scale, transforming raw data into real-time insights. For enterprises and countries around the world, this means dramatically faster time to value — turning AI Read Article

AI is fueling a new industrial revolution — one driven by AI factories. Unlike traditional data centers, AI factories do more than store and process data — they manufacture intelligence at scale, transforming raw data into real-time insights. For enterprises and countries around the world, this means dramatically faster time to value — turning AI from a long-term investment into an immediate driver of competitive advantage. Companies that invest in purpose-built AI factories today will lead in innovation, efficiency and market differentiation tomorrow. While a traditional data center typically handles diverse workloads and is built for general-purpose computing, AI factories are optimized to create value from AI. They orchestrate the entire AI lifecycle — from data ingestion to training, fine-tuning and, most critically, high-volume inference. For AI factories, intelligence isn’t a byproduct but the primary one. This intelligence is measured by AI token throughput — the real-time predictions that drive decisions, automation and entirely new services. While traditional data centers aren’t disappearing anytime soon, whether they evolve into AI factories or connect to them depends on the enterprise business model. Regardless of how enterprises choose to adapt, AI factories powered by NVIDIA are already manufacturing intelligence at scale, transforming how AI is built, refined and deployed. The Scaling Laws Driving Compute Demand Over the past few years, AI has revolved around training large models. But with the recent proliferation of AI reasoning models, inference has become the main driver of AI economics. Three key scaling laws highlight why: Pretraining scaling: Larger datasets and model parameters yield predictable intelligence gains, but reaching this stage demands significant investment in skilled experts, data curation and compute resources. Over the last five years, pretraining scaling has increased compute requirements by 50 million times. However, once a model is trained, it significantly lowers the barrier for others to build on top of it. Post-training scaling: Fine-tuning AI models for specific real-world applications requires 30x more compute during AI inference than pretraining. As organizations adapt existing models for their unique needs, cumulative demand for AI infrastructure skyrockets. Test-time scaling (aka long thinking): Advanced AI applications such as agentic AI or physical AI require iterative reasoning, where models explore multiple possible responses before selecting the best one. This consumes up to 100x more compute than traditional inference. Traditional data centers aren’t designed for this new era of AI. AI factories are purpose-built to optimize and sustain this massive demand for compute, providing an ideal path forward for AI inference and deployment. Reshaping Industries and Economies With Tokens Across the world, governments and enterprises are racing to build AI factories to spur economic growth, innovation and efficiency. The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking recently announced plans to build seven AI factories in collaboration with 17 European Union member nations. This follows a wave of AI factory investments worldwide, as enterprises and countries accelerate AI-driven economic growth across every industry and region: India: Yotta Data Services has partnered with NVIDIA to launch the Shakti Cloud Platform, helping democratize access to advanced GPU resources. By integrating NVIDIA AI Enterprise software with open-source tools, Yotta provides a seamless environment for AI development and deployment. Japan: Leading cloud providers — including GMO Internet, Highreso, KDDI, Rutilea and SAKURA internet — are building NVIDIA-powered AI infrastructure to transform industries such as robotics, automotive, healthcare and telecom. Norway: Telenor has launched an NVIDIA-powered AI factory to accelerate AI adoption across the Nordic region, focusing on workforce upskilling and sustainability. These initiatives underscore a global reality: AI factories are quickly becoming essential national infrastructure, on par with telecommunications and energy. Inside an AI Factory: Where Intelligence Is Manufactured Foundation models, secure customer data and AI tools provide the raw materials for fueling AI factories, where inference serving, prototyping and fine-tuning shape powerful, customized models ready to be put into production. As these models are deployed into real-world applications, they continuously learn from new data, which is stored, refined and fed back into the system using a data flywheel. This cycle of optimization ensures AI remains adaptive, efficient and always improving — driving enterprise intelligence at an unprecedented scale. AI factories powered by NVIDIA for manufacturing enterprise intelligence at scale. An AI Factory Advantage With Full-Stack NVIDIA AI NVIDIA delivers a complete, integrated AI factory stack where every layer — from the silicon to the software — is optimized for training, fine-tuning, and inference at scale. This full-stack approach ensures enterprises can deploy AI factories that are cost effective, high-performing and future-proofed for the exponential growth of AI. With its ecosystem partners, NVIDIA has created building blocks for the full-stack AI factory, offering: Powerful compute performance Advanced networking Infrastructure management and workload orchestration The largest AI inference ecosystem Storage and data platforms Blueprints for design and optimization Reference architectures Flexible deployment for every enterprise Powerful Compute Performance The heart of any AI factory is its compute power. From NVIDIA Hopper to NVIDIA Blackwell, NVIDIA provides the world’s most powerful accelerated computing for this new industrial revolution. With the NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra-based GB300 NVL72 rack-scale solution, AI factories can achieve up to 50X the output for AI reasoning, setting a new standard for efficiency and scale. The NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD is the exemplar of the turnkey AI factory for enterprises, integrating the best of NVIDIA accelerated computing. NVIDIA DGX Cloud provides an AI factory that delivers NVIDIA accelerated compute with high performance in the cloud. Global systems partners are building full-stack AI factories for their customers based on NVIDIA accelerated computing — now including the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 and GB300 NVL72 rack-scale solutions. Advanced Networking Moving intelligence at scale requires seamless, high-performance connectivity across the entire AI factory stack. NVIDIA NVLink and NVLink Switch enable high-speed, multi-GPU communication, accelerating data movement within and across nodes. AI factories also demand a robust network backbone. The NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand, NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet, and NVIDIA BlueField networking platforms reduce bottlenecks, ensuring efficient, high-throughput data exchange across massive GPU clusters. This end-to-end integration is essential for scaling out AI workloads to million-GPU levels, enabling breakthrough performance in training and inference. Infrastructure Management and Workload Orchestration Businesses need a way to harness the power of AI infrastructure with the agility, efficiency and scale of a hyperscaler, but without the burdens of cost, complexity and expertise placed on IT. With NVIDIA Run:ai, organizations can benefit from seamless AI workload orchestration and GPU management, optimizing resource utilization while accelerating AI experimentation and scaling workloads. NVIDIA Mission Control software, which includes NVIDIA Run:ai technology, streamlines AI factory operations from workloads to infrastructure while providing full-stack intelligence that delivers world-class infrastructure resiliency. NVIDIA Mission Control streamlines workflows across the AI factory stack. The Largest AI Inference Ecosystem AI factories need the right tools to turn data into intelligence. The NVIDIA AI inference platform, spanning the NVIDIA TensorRT ecosystem, NVIDIA Dynamo and NVIDIA NIM microservices — all part (or soon to be part) of the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform — provides the industry’s most comprehensive suite of AI acceleration libraries and optimized software. It delivers maximum inference performance, ultra-low latency and high throughput. Storage and Data Platforms Data fuels AI applications, but the rapidly growing scale and complexity of enterprise data often make it too costly and time-consuming to harness effectively. To thrive in the AI era, enterprises must unlock the full potential of their data. The NVIDIA AI Data Platform is a customizable reference design to build a new class of AI infrastructure for demanding AI inference workloads. NVIDIA-Certified Storage partners are collaborating with NVIDIA to create customized AI data platforms that can harness enterprise data to reason and respond to complex queries. Blueprints for Design and Optimization To design and optimize AI factories, teams can use the NVIDIA Omniverse Blueprint for AI factory design and operations. The blueprint enables engineers to design, test and optimize AI factory infrastructure before deployment using digital twins. By reducing risk and uncertainty, the blueprint helps prevent costly downtime — a critical factor for AI factory operators. For a 1 gigawatt-scale AI factory, every day of downtime can cost over $100 million. By solving complexity upfront and enabling siloed teams in IT, mechanical, electrical, power and network engineering to work in parallel, the blueprint accelerates deployment and ensures operational resilience. Reference Architectures NVIDIA Enterprise Reference Architectures and NVIDIA Cloud Partner Reference Architectures provide a roadmap for partners designing and deploying AI factories. They help enterprises and cloud providers build scalable, high-performance and secure AI infrastructure based on NVIDIA-Certified Systems with the NVIDIA AI software stack and partner ecosystem. NVIDIA full-stack AI factories, built on NVIDIA reference architectures. (*NVIS = NVIDIA infrastructure specialists) Every layer of the AI factory stack relies on efficient computing to meet growing AI demands. NVIDIA accelerated computing serves as the foundation across the stack, delivering the highest performance per watt to ensure AI factories operate at peak energy efficiency. With energy-efficient architecture and liquid cooling, businesses can scale AI while keeping energy costs in check. Flexible Deployment for Every Enterprise With NVIDIA’s full-stack technologies, enterprises can easily build and deploy AI factories, aligning with customers’ preferred IT consumption models and operational needs. Some organizations opt for on-premises AI factories to maintain full control over data and performance, while others use cloud-based solutions for scalability and flexibility. Many also turn to their trusted global systems partners for pre-integrated solutions that accelerate deployment. The NVIDIA DGX GB300 is the highest-performing, largest-scale AI factory infrastructure available for enterprises that are built for the era of AI reasoning. On Premises NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD is a turnkey AI factory infrastructure solution that provides accelerated infrastructure with scalable performance for the most demanding AI training and inference workloads. It features a design-optimized combination of AI compute, network fabric, storage and NVIDIA Mission Control software, empowering enterprises to get AI factories up and running in weeks instead of months — and with best-in-class uptime, resiliency and utilization. AI factory solutions are also offered through the NVIDIA global ecosystem of enterprise technology partners with NVIDIA-Certified Systems. They deliver leading hardware and software technology, combined with data center systems expertise and liquid-cooling innovations, to help enterprises de-risk their AI endeavors and accelerate the return on investment of their AI factory implementations. These global systems partners are providing full-stack solutions based on NVIDIA reference architectures — integrated with NVIDIA accelerated computing, high-performance networking and AI software — to help customers successfully deploy AI factories and manufacture intelligence at scale. In the Cloud For enterprises looking to use a cloud-based solution for their AI factory, NVIDIA DGX Cloud delivers a unified platform on leading clouds to build, customize and deploy AI applications. Every layer of DGX Cloud is optimized and fully managed by NVIDIA, offering the best of NVIDIA AI in the cloud, and features enterprise-grade software and large-scale, contiguous clusters on leading cloud providers, offering scalable compute resources ideal for even the most demanding AI training workloads. DGX Cloud also includes a dynamic and scalable serverless inference platform that delivers high throughput for AI tokens across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, significantly reducing infrastructure complexity and operational overhead. By providing a full-stack platform that integrates hardware, software, ecosystem partners and reference architectures, NVIDIA is helping enterprises build AI factories that are cost effective, scalable and high-performing — equipping them to meet the next industrial revolution. Learn more about NVIDIA AI factories. See notice regarding software product information.

As quantum computers continue to develop, they will integrate with AI supercomputers to form accelerated quantum supercomputers capable of solving some of the world’s hardest problems. Integrating quantum processing units (QPUs) into AI supercomputers is key for developing new applications, helping unlock breakthroughs critical to running future quantum hardware and enabling developments in quantum error Read Article

As quantum computers continue to develop, they will integrate with AI supercomputers to form accelerated quantum supercomputers capable of solving some of the world’s hardest problems. Integrating quantum processing units (QPUs) into AI supercomputers is key for developing new applications, helping unlock breakthroughs critical to running future quantum hardware and enabling developments in quantum error correction and device control. The NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center, or NVAQC, announced today at the NVIDIA GTC global AI conference, is where these developments will happen. With an NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 system and the NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking platform, the facility will house a supercomputer with 576 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs dedicated to quantum computing research. “The NVAQC draws on much-needed and long-sought-after tools for scaling quantum computing to next-generation devices,” said Tim Costa, senior director of computer-aided engineering, quantum and CUDA-X at NVIDIA. “The center will be a place for large-scale simulations of quantum algorithms and hardware, tight integration of quantum processors, and both training and deployment of AI models for quantum.” The NVAQC will host a GB200 NVL72 system. Quantum computing innovators like Quantinuum, QuEra and Quantum Machines, along with academic partners from the Harvard Quantum Initiative and the Engineering Quantum Systems group at the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering, will work on projects with NVIDIA at the center to explore how AI supercomputing can accelerate the path toward quantum computing. “The NVAQC is a powerful tool that will be instrumental in ushering in the next generation of research across the entire quantum ecosystem,” said William Oliver, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and of physics, leader of the EQuS group and director of the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering. “NVIDIA is a critical partner for realizing useful quantum computing.” There are several key quantum computing challenges where the NVAQC is already set to have a dramatic impact. Protecting Qubits With AI Supercomputing Qubit interactions are a double-edged sword. While qubits must interact with their surroundings to be controlled and measured, these same interactions are also a source of noise — unwanted disturbances that affect the accuracy of quantum calculations. Quantum algorithms can only work if the resulting noise is kept in check. Quantum error correction provides a solution, encoding noiseless, logical qubits within many noisy, physical qubits. By processing the outputs from repeated measurements on these noisy qubits, it’s possible to identify, track and correct qubit errors — all without destroying the delicate quantum information needed by a computation. The process of figuring out where errors occurred and what corrections to apply is called decoding. Decoding is an extremely difficult task that must be performed by a conventional computer within a narrow time frame to prevent noise from snowballing out of control. A key goal of the NVAQC will be exploring how AI supercomputing can accelerate decoding. Studying how to collocate quantum hardware within the center will allow the development of low-latency, parallelized and AI-enhanced decoders, running on NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchips. The NVAQC will also tackle other challenges in quantum error correction. QuEra will work with NVIDIA to accelerate its search for new, improved quantum error correction codes, assessing the performance of candidate codes through demanding simulations of complex quantum circuits. “The NVAQC will be an essential tool for discovering, testing and refining new quantum error correction codes and decoders capable of bringing the whole industry closer to useful quantum computing,” said Mikhail Lukin, Joshua and Beth Friedman University Professor at Harvard and a codirector of the Harvard Quantum Initiative. Developing Applications for Accelerated Quantum Supercomputers The majority of useful quantum algorithms draw equally from classical and quantum computing resources, ultimately requiring an accelerated quantum supercomputer that unifies both kinds of hardware. For example, the output of classical supercomputers is often needed to prime quantum computations. The NVAQC provides the heterogeneous compute infrastructure needed for research on developing and improving such hybrid algorithms. Accelerated quantum supercomputers will connect quantum and classical processors to execute hybrid algorithms. New AI-based compilation techniques will also be explored at the NVAQC, with the potential to accelerate the runtime of all quantum algorithms, including through work with Quantinuum. Quantinuum will build on its previous integration work with NVIDIA, offering its hardware and emulators through the NVIDIA CUDA-Q platform. Users of CUDA-Q are currently offered access to Quantinuum’s System H1 QPU hardware and emulator for 90 days. “We’re excited to collaborate with NVIDIA at this center,” said Rajeeb Hazra, president and CEO of Quantinuum. “By combining Quantinuum’s powerful quantum systems with NVIDIA’s cutting-edge accelerated computing, we’re pushing the boundaries of hybrid quantum-classical computing and unlocking exciting new possibilities.” QPU Integration Integrating quantum hardware with AI supercomputing is one of the major remaining hurdles on the path to running useful quantum hardware. The requirements of such an integration can be extremely demanding. The decoding required by quantum error correction can only function if data from millions of qubits can be sent between quantum and classical hardware at ultralow latencies. Quantum Machines will work with NVIDIA at the NVAQC to develop and hone new controller technologies supporting rapid, high-bandwidth interfaces between quantum processors and GB200 superchips. “We’re excited to see NVIDIA’s growing commitment to accelerating the realization of useful quantum computers, providing researchers with the most advanced infrastructure to push the boundaries of quantum-classical computing,” said Itamar Sivan, CEO of Quantum Machines. The NVIDIA DGX Quantum system comprises an NVIDIA GH200 superchip and Quantum Machines’ OPX1000 control system. Key to integrating quantum and classical hardware is a platform that lets researchers and developers quickly shift context between these two disparate computing paradigms within a single application. The NVIDIA CUDA-Q platform will be the entry point for researchers to harness the NVAQC’s quantum-classical integration. Building on tools like NVIDIA DGX Quantum — a reference architecture for integrating quantum and classical hardware — and CUDA-Q, the NVAQC is set to be an epicenter for next-generation developments in quantum computing, seeding the evolution of qubits into impactful quantum computers. Learn more about NVIDIA quantum computing.

AI deployments thrive on speed, data and scale. That’s why NVIDIA is expanding NVIDIA-Certified Systems to include enterprise storage certification — for streamlined AI factory deployments in the enterprise with accelerated computing, networking, software and storage. As enterprises build AI factories, access to high-quality data is imperative to ensure optimal performance and reliability for AI Read Article

AI deployments thrive on speed, data and scale. That’s why NVIDIA is expanding NVIDIA-Certified Systems to include enterprise storage certification — for streamlined AI factory deployments in the enterprise with accelerated computing, networking, software and storage. As enterprises build AI factories, access to high-quality data is imperative to ensure optimal performance and reliability for AI models. The new NVIDIA-Certified Storage program announced today at the NVIDIA GTC global AI conference validates that enterprise storage systems meet stringent performance and scalability data requirements for AI and high-performance computing workloads. Leading enterprise data platform and storage providers are already onboard, ensuring businesses have trusted options from day one. These include DDN, Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Hitachi Vantara, IBM, NetApp, Nutanix, Pure Storage, VAST Data and WEKA. Building Blocks for a New Class of Enterprise Infrastructure At GTC, NVIDIA also announced the NVIDIA AI Data Platform, a customizable reference design to build a new class of enterprise infrastructure for demanding agentic AI workloads. The NVIDIA-Certified Storage designation is a prerequisite for partners developing agentic AI infrastructure solutions built on the NVIDIA AI Data Platform. Each of these NVIDIA-Certified Storage partners will deliver customized AI data platforms, in collaboration with NVIDIA, that can harness enterprise data to reason and respond to complex queries. NVIDIA-Certified was created more than four years ago as the industry’s first certification program dedicated to tuning and optimizing AI systems to ensure optimal performance, manageability and scalability. Each NVIDIA-Certified system is rigorously tested and validated to deliver enterprise-grade AI performance. There are now 50+ partners providing 500+ NVIDIA-Certified systems, helping enterprises reduce time, cost and complexity by giving them a wide selection of performance-optimized systems to power their accelerated computing workloads. NVIDIA Enterprise Reference Architectures (RAs) were introduced last fall to provide partners with AI infrastructure best practices and configuration guidance for deploying NVIDIA-Certified servers, NVIDIA Spectrum-X networking and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software. Solutions based on NVIDIA Enterprise RAs are available from the world’s leading systems providers to reduce the time, cost and complexity of enterprise AI deployments. Enterprise RAs are now available for a wide range of NVIDIA Hopper and NVIDIA Blackwell platforms, including NVIDIA HGX B200 systems and the new NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPU. These NVIDIA technologies and partner solutions are the building blocks for enterprise AI factories, representing a new class of enterprise infrastructure for high-performance AI deployments at scale. Enterprise AI Needs Scalable Storage As the pace of AI innovation and adoption accelerates, secure and reliable access to high-quality enterprise data is becoming more important than ever. Data is the fuel for the AI factory. With enterprise data creation projected to reach 317 zettabytes annually by 2028*, AI workloads require storage architectures built to handle massive, unstructured and multimodal datasets. NVIDIA’s expanded storage certification program is designed to meet this need and help enterprises build AI factories with a foundation of high-performance, reliable data storage solutions. The program includes performance testing as well as validation that partner storage systems adhere to design best practices, optimizing performance and scalability for enterprise AI workloads. NVIDIA-Certified Storage will be incorporated into NVIDIA Enterprise RAs, providing enterprise-grade data storage for AI factory deployments with full-stack solutions from global systems partners. Certified Storage for Every Deployment This certification builds on existing NVIDIA DGX systems and NVIDIA Cloud Partner (NCP) storage programs, expanding the data ecosystem for AI infrastructure. These storage certification programs are aligned with their deployment models and architectures: NVIDIA DGX BasePOD and DGX SuperPOD Storage Certification — designed for enterprise AI factory deployments with NVIDIA DGX systems. NCP Storage Certification — designed for large-scale NCP Reference Architecture AI factory deployments with cloud providers. NVIDIA-Certified Storage Certification — designed for enterprise AI factory deployments with NVIDIA-Certified servers available from global partners, based on NVIDIA Enterprise RA guidelines. With this framework, organizations of all sizes — from cloud hyperscalers to enterprises — can build AI factories that process massive amounts of data, train models faster and drive more accurate, reliable AI outcomes. Learn more about how NVIDIA-Certified Systems deliver seamless, high-speed performance and attend these related sessions at GTC: Unlock the Power of NVIDIA Certified Systems: Live Q&A With Experts Everything You Want to Ask About NVIDIA Enterprise Reference Architectures *Source: IDC, Worldwide IDC Global DataSphere Forecast, 2024–2028: AI Everywhere, But Upsurge in Data Will Take Time, doc #US52076424, May 2024

AI agents are transforming work, delivering time and cost savings by helping people resolve complex challenges in new ways. Whether developed for humanitarian aid, customer service or healthcare, AI agents built with the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform make up a new digital workforce helping professionals accomplish their goals faster — at lower costs and Read Article

AI agents are transforming work, delivering time and cost savings by helping people resolve complex challenges in new ways. Whether developed for humanitarian aid, customer service or healthcare, AI agents built with the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform make up a new digital workforce helping professionals accomplish their goals faster — at lower costs and for greater impact. AI Agents Enable Growth and Education AI can instantly translate, summarize and process multimodal content in hundreds of languages. Integrated into agentic systems, the technology enables international organizations to engage and educate global stakeholders more efficiently. The United Nations (UN) is working with Accenture to develop a multilingual research agent to support over 150 languages to promote local economic sustainability. The agent will act like a researcher, answering questions about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and fostering awareness and engagement toward its agenda of global peace and prosperity. Mercy Corps, in collaboration with Cloudera, has deployed an AI-driven Methods Matcher tool that supports humanitarian aid experts in more than 40 countries by providing research, summaries, best-practice guidelines and data-driven crisis responses, providing faster aid delivery in disaster situations. Wikimedia Deutschland, using the DataStax AI Platform, built with NVIDIA AI, can process and embed 10 million Wikidata items in just three days, with 30x faster ingestion performance. AI Agents Provide Tailored Customer Service Across Industries Agentic AI enhances customer service with real-time, highly accurate insights for more effective user experiences. AI agents provide 24/7 support, handling common inquiries with more personalized responses while freeing human agents to address more complex issues. Intelligent-routing capabilities categorize and prioritize requests so customers can be quickly directed to the right specialists. Plus, AI agents’ predictive-analytics capabilities enable proactive support by anticipating issues and empowering human agents with data-driven insights. Companies across industries including telecommunications, finance, healthcare and sports are already tapping into AI agents to achieve massive benefits. AT&T, in collaboration with Quantiphi, developed and deployed a new Ask AT&T AI agent to its call center, leading to a 84% decrease in call center analytics costs. Southern California Edison, working with World Wide Technology, is driving Project Orca to enhance data processing and predictions for 100,000+ network assets using agents to reduce downtime, enhance network reliability and enable faster, more efficient ticket resolution. With the adoption of ServiceNow Dispute Management, built with Visa, banks can use AI agents with the solution to achieve up to a 28% reduction in call center volumes and a 30% decrease in time to resolution. The Ottawa Hospital, working with Deloitte, deployed a team of 24/7 patient-care agents to provide preoperative support and answer patient questions regarding upcoming procedures for over 1.2 million people in eastern Ontario, Canada. With the VAST Data Platform, the National Hockey League can unlock over 550,000 hours of historical game footage. This supports sponsorship analysis, helps video producers quickly create broadcast clips and enhances personalized fan content. State-of-the-Art AI Agents Built With NVIDIA AI Enterprise AI agents have emerged as versatile tools that can be adapted and adopted across a wide range of industries. These agents connect to organizational knowledge bases to understand the business context they’re deployed in. Their core functionalities — such as question-answering, translation, data processing, predictive analytics and automation — can be tailored to improve productivity and save time and costs, by any organization, in any industry. NVIDIA AI Enterprise provides the building blocks for enterprise AI agents. It includes NVIDIA NIM microservices for efficient inference of state-of-the-art models — including the new NVIDIA Llama Nemotron reasoning model family — and NVIDIA NeMo tools to streamline data processing, model customization, system evaluation, retrieval-augmented generation and guardrailing. NVIDIA Blueprints are reference workflows that showcase best practices for developing high-performance agentic systems. With the AI-Q NVIDIA AI Blueprint, developers can build AI agents into larger agentic systems that can reason, then connect these systems to enterprise data to tackle complex problems, harness other tools, collaborate and operate with greater autonomy. Learn more about AI agent development by watching the NVIDIA GTC keynote and register for sessions from NVIDIA and industry leaders at the show, which runs through March 21. See notice regarding software product information.

The telecom industry is increasingly embracing AI to deliver seamless connections — even in conditions of poor signal strength — while maximizing sustainability and spectral efficiency, the amount of information that can be transmitted per unit of bandwidth. Advancements in AI-RAN technology have set the course toward AI-native wireless networks for 6G, built using AI Read Article

The telecom industry is increasingly embracing AI to deliver seamless connections — even in conditions of poor signal strength — while maximizing sustainability and spectral efficiency, the amount of information that can be transmitted per unit of bandwidth. Advancements in AI-RAN technology have set the course toward AI-native wireless networks for 6G, built using AI and accelerated computing from the start, to meet the demands of billions of AI-enabled connected devices, sensors, robots, cameras and autonomous vehicles. To help developers and telecom leaders pioneer these networks, NVIDIA today unveiled new tools in the NVIDIA Aerial Research portfolio. The expanded portfolio of solutions include the Aerial Omniverse Digital Twin on NVIDIA DGX Cloud, the Aerial Commercial Test Bed on NVIDIA MGX, the NVIDIA Sionna 1.0 open-source library and the Sionna Research Kit on NVIDIA Jetson — helping accelerate AI-RAN and 6G research. Industry leaders like Amdocs, Ansys, Capgemini, DeepSig, Fujitsu, Keysight Technologies, Kyocera, MathWorks, Mediatek, Samsung Research, SoftBank and VIAVI Solutions and more than 150 higher education and research institutions from U.S. and around the world — including Northeastern University, Rice University, The University of Texas at Austin, ETH Zurich, Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, HHI, Singapore University of Technology and Design, and University of Oulu — are harnessing the NVIDIA Aerial Research portfolio to develop, train, simulate and deploy groundbreaking AI-native wireless innovations. New Tools for Research and Development The Aerial Research portfolio provides exceptional flexibility and ease of use for developers at every stage of their research — from early experimentation to commercial deployment. Its offerings include: Aerial Omniverse Digital Twin (AODT): A simulation platform to test and fine-tune algorithms in physically precise digital replicas of entire wireless systems, now available on NVIDIA DGX Cloud. Developers can now access AODT everywhere, whether on premises, on laptops, via the public cloud or on an NVIDIA cloud service. Aerial Commercial Test Bed (aka ARC-OTA): A full-stack AI-RAN deployment system that enables developers to deploy new AI models over the air and test them in real time, now available on NVIDIA MGX and available through manufacturers including Supermicro or as a managed offering via Sterling Skywave. ARC-OTA integrates commercial-grade Aerial CUDA-accelerated RAN software with open-source L2+ and 5G core from OpenAirInterface (OAI) and O-RAN-compliant 7.2 split open radio units from WNC and LITEON Technology to enable an end-to-end system for AI-RAN commercial testing. Sionna 1.0: The most widely used GPU-accelerated open-source library for research in communication systems, with more than 135,000 downloads. The latest release of Sionna features a lightning-fast ray tracer for radio propagation, a versatile link-level simulator and new system-level simulation capabilities. Sionna Research Kit: Powered by the NVIDIA Jetson platform, it integrates accelerated computing for AI and machine learning workloads and a software-defined RAN built on OAI. With the kit, researchers can connect 5G equipment and begin prototyping AI-RAN algorithms for next-generation wireless networks in just a few hours. NVIDIA Aerial Research Ecosystem for AI-RAN and 6G The NVIDIA Aerial Research portfolio includes the NVIDIA 6G Developer Program, an open community that serves more than 2,000 members, representing leading technology companies, academia, research institutions and telecom operators using NVIDIA technologies to complement their AI-RAN and 6G research. Testing and simulation will play an essential role in developing AI-native wireless networks. Companies such as Amdocs, Ansys, Keysight Technologies, MathWorks and VIAVI are enhancing their simulation solutions with NVIDIA AODT, while operators have created digital twins of their radio access networks to optimize performance with changing traffic scenarios. Nine out of 10 demonstrations chosen by the AI-RAN Alliance for Mobile World Congress were developed using the NVIDIA Aerial Research portfolio, leading to breakthrough results. SoftBank and Fujitsu demonstrated an up to 50% throughput gain in poor radio environments using AI-based uplink channel interpolation. DeepSig developed OmniPHY, an AI-native air interface that eliminates traditional pilot overhead, harnessing neural networks to achieve up to 70% throughput gains in certain scenarios. Using the NVIDIA AI Aerial platform, OmniPHY integrates machine learning into modulation, reception and demodulation to optimize spectral efficiency, reduce power consumption and enhance wireless network performance. “AI-native signal processing is transforming wireless networks, delivering real-world results,” said Jim Shea, cofounder and CEO of DeepSig. “By integrating deep learning to the air interface and leveraging NVIDIA’s tools, we’re redefining how AI-native wireless networks are designed and built.” In addition to the Aerial Research portfolio, using the open ecosystem of NVIDIA CUDA-X libraries, built on CUDA, developers can build applications that deliver dramatically higher performance. Join the NVIDIA 6G Developer Program to access NVIDIA Aerial Research platform tools. See notice regarding software product information.

Global telecommunications networks can support millions of user connections per day, generating more than 3,800 terabytes of data per minute on average. That massive, continuous flow of data generated by base stations, routers, switches and data centers — including network traffic information, performance metrics, configuration and topology — is unstructured and complex. Not surprisingly, traditional Read Article

Global telecommunications networks can support millions of user connections per day, generating more than 3,800 terabytes of data per minute on average. That massive, continuous flow of data generated by base stations, routers, switches and data centers — including network traffic information, performance metrics, configuration and topology — is unstructured and complex. Not surprisingly, traditional automation tools have often fallen short on handling massive, real-time workloads involving such data. To help address this challenge, NVIDIA today announced at the GTC global AI conference that its partners are developing new large telco models (LTMs) and AI agents custom-built for the telco industry using NVIDIA NIM and NeMo microservices within the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform. These LTMs and AI agents enable the next generation of AI in network operations. LTMs — customized, multimodal large language models (LLMs) trained specifically on telco network data — are core elements in the development of network AI agents, which automate complex decision-making workflows, improve operational efficiency, boost employee productivity and enhance network performance. SoftBank and Tech Mahindra have built new LTMs and AI agents, while Amdocs, BubbleRAN and ServiceNow, are dialing up their network operations and optimization with new AI agents, all using NVIDIA AI Enterprise. It’s important work at a time when 40% of respondents in a recent NVIDIA-run telecom survey noted they’re deploying AI into their network planning and operations. LTMs Understand the Language of Networks Just as LLMs understand and generate human language, and NVIDIA BioNeMo NIM microservices understand the language of biological data for drug discovery, LTMs now enable AI agents to master the language of telecom networks. The new partner-developed LTMs powered by NVIDIA AI Enterprise are: Specialized in network intelligence — the LTMs can understand real-time network events, predict failures and automate resolutions. Optimized for telco workloads — tapping into NVIDIA NIM microservices, the LTMs are optimized for efficiency, accuracy and low latency. Suited for continuous learning and adaptation — with post-training scalability, the LTMs can use NVIDIA NeMo to learn from new events, alerts and anomalies to enhance future performance. NVIDIA AI Enterprise provides additional tools and blueprints to build AI agents that simplify network operations and deliver cost savings and operational efficiency, while improving network key performance indicators (KPIs), such as: Reduced downtime — AI agents can predict failures before they happen, delivering network resilience. Improved customer experiences — AI-driven optimizations lead to faster networks, fewer outages and seamless connectivity. Enhanced security — as it continuously scans for threats, AI can help mitigate cyber risks in real time. Industry Leaders Launch LTMs and AI Agents Leading companies across telecommunications are using NVIDIA AI Enterprise to advance their latest technologies. SoftBank has developed a new LTM based on a large-scale LLM base model, trained on its own network data. Initially focused on network configuration, the model — which is available as an NVIDIA NIM microservice — can automatically reconfigure the network to adapt to changes in network traffic, including during mass events at stadiums and other venues. SoftBank is also introducing network agent blueprints to help accelerate AI adoption across telco operations. Tech Mahindra has developed an LTM with the NVIDIA agentic AI tools to help address critical network operations. Tapping into this LTM, the company’s Adaptive Network Insights Studio provides a 360-degree view of network issues, generating automated reports at various levels of detail to inform and assist IT teams, network engineers and company executives. In addition, Tech Mahindra’s Proactive Network Anomaly Resolution Hub is powered by the LTM to automatically resolve a significant portion of its network events, lightening engineers’ workloads and enhancing their productivity. Amdocs’ Network Assurance Agent, powered by amAIz Agents, automates repetitive tasks such as fault prediction. It also conducts impact analysis and prevention methods for network issues, providing step-by-step guidance on resolving any problems that occur. Plus, the company’s Network Deployment Agent simplifies open radio access network (RAN) adoption by automating integration, deployment tasks and interoperability testing, and providing insights to network engineers. BubbleRAN is developing an autonomous multi-agent RAN intelligence platform on a cloud-native infrastructure, where LTMs can observe the network state, configuration, availability and KPIs to facilitate monitoring and troubleshooting. The platform also automates the process of network reconfiguration and policy enforcement through a high-level set of action tools. The company’s AI agents satisfy user needs by tapping into advanced retrieval-augmented generation pipelines and telco-specific application programming interfaces, answering real-time, 5G deployment-specific questions. ServiceNow’s AI agents in telecom — built with NVIDIA AI Enterprise on NVIDIA DGX Cloud — drive productivity by generating resolution playbooks and predicting potential network disruptions before they occur. This helps communications service providers reduce resolution time and improve customer satisfaction. The new, ready-to-use AI agents also analyze network incidents, identifying root causes of disruptions so they can be resolved faster and avoided in the future. Learn more about the latest agentic AI advancements at NVIDIA GTC, running through Friday, March 21, in San Jose, California.

The quick-service restaurant industry is a marvel of modern logistics, where speed, teamwork and kitchen operations are key ingredients for every order. Yum! Brands is now introducing AI-powered agents at select Pizza Hut and Taco Bell locations to assist and enhance the team member experience. Today at the NVIDIA GTC conference, Yum! Brands announced a Read Article

The quick-service restaurant industry is a marvel of modern logistics, where speed, teamwork and kitchen operations are key ingredients for every order. Yum! Brands is now introducing AI-powered agents at select Pizza Hut and Taco Bell locations to assist and enhance the team member experience. Today at the NVIDIA GTC conference, Yum! Brands announced a strategic partnership with NVIDIA with a goal of deploying multiple AI solutions using NVIDIA technology in 500 restaurants this year. World’s Largest Restaurant Company Advances AI Adoption Spanning more than 61,000 locations, Yum! operates more restaurants than any other company in the world. Globally, customers are drawn to the food, value, service and digital convenience from iconic brands like KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger & Grill. Yum!’s industry-leading digital technology team continues to pioneer the company’s AI-accelerated strategy with the recent announcement of Byte by Yum!, Yum!’s proprietary and digital AI-driven restaurant technology platform. Generative AI-powered customer-facing experiences like automated ordering can help speed operations — but they’re often difficult to scale because of complexity and costs. To manage that complexity, developers at Byte by Yum! harnessed NVIDIA NIM microservices and NVIDIA Riva to build new AI-accelerated voice ordering agents in under four months. The voice AI is deployed on Amazon EC2 P4d instances accelerated by NVIDIA A100 GPUs, which enables the agents to understand natural speech, process complex menu orders and suggest add-ons — increasing accuracy and customer satisfaction and helping reduce bottlenecks in high-volume locations. The new collaboration with NVIDIA will help Yum! advance its ongoing efforts to have its engineering and data science teams in control of their own intelligence — and deliver scalable inference costs, making large-scale deployments possible. “At Yum, we have a bold vision to deliver leading-edge, AI-powered technology capabilities to our customers and team members globally,” said Joe Park, chief digital and technology officer of Yum! Brands, Inc. and president of Byte by Yum!. “We are thrilled to partner with a pioneering company like NVIDIA to help us accelerate this ambition. This partnership will enable us to harness the rich consumer and operational datasets on our Byte by Yum! integrated platform to build smarter AI engines that will create easier experiences for our customers and team members.” Rollout of AI Solutions Underway Yum!’s voice AI agents are already being deployed across its brands, including in call centers to handle phone orders when demand surges during events like game days. An expanded rollout of AI solutions at up to 500 restaurants is expected this year. Computer Vision and Restaurant Intelligence Beyond AI-accelerated ordering, Yum! is also testing NVIDIA computer vision software to analyze drive-thru traffic and explore new use cases for AI to perceive, alert and adjust staffing, with the goal of optimizing service speed. Another initiative focuses on NVIDIA AI-accelerated restaurant operational intelligence. Using NIM microservices, Yum! can deploy applications analyzing performance metrics across thousands of locations to generate customized recommendations for managers, identifying what top-performing stores do differently and applying those insights system-wide. With the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform — available on AWS Marketplace — Byte by Yum! is streamlining AI development and deployment through scalable NVIDIA infrastructure in the cloud. The bottom line: AI is making restaurant operations and dining experiences easier, faster and more personal for the world’s largest restaurant company.

NPR explores the latest in games and gaming culture — from the latest digital titles to what's on our tabletops.

At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, indie studios showed off ambitious games made by small development teams.

At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, indie studios showed off ambitious games made by small development teams. (Image credit: Annapurna Interactive, Mighty Yell)

Assassin's Creed Shadows, out Thursday, might be big enough to reverse Ubisoft's crumbling fortunes. But the game faces headwinds.

Assassin's Creed Shadows, out Thursday, might be big enough to reverse Ubisoft's crumbling fortunes. But the game faces headwinds. (Image credit: Ubisoft)

Game studios have cranked out surprising hits ranging from cooperative platformers to historical epics. NPR staff and contributors round up the latest from a promising 2025.

Game studios have cranked out surprising hits ranging from cooperative platformers to historical epics. NPR staff and contributors round up the latest from a promising 2025. (Image credit: Hazelight Studios, Capcom, Obsidian Entertainment)

Fight for America! is a new art installation about democracy that invites audiences to play a war game — battling over the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Fight for America! is a new art installation about democracy that invites audiences to play a war game — battling over the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Image credit: J. Elon Goodman)

The original launched in February 2000 and spawned one of the most successful franchises in video game history. NPR's Susan Stone went hands-on with The Sims shortly after its debut.

The original launched in February 2000 and spawned one of the most successful franchises in video game history. NPR's Susan Stone went hands-on with The Sims shortly after its debut. (Image credit: Ryan Anson)

Developer Gareth Damian Martin tackles gig work, trauma and communities in crisis in the follow up to the acclaimed game Citizen Sleeper.

Developer Gareth Damian Martin tackles gig work, trauma and communities in crisis in the follow up to the acclaimed game Citizen Sleeper. (Image credit: Fellow Traveler)

Pop culture critic Linda Holmes doesn't want battles or competition in her games — but she loves a satisfying puzzle she can figure out at her own pace. Sound like you, too? Here are recommendations.

Pop culture critic Linda Holmes doesn't want battles or competition in her games — but she loves a satisfying puzzle she can figure out at her own pace. Sound like you, too? Here are recommendations.

Eric Barone, the creator of Stardew Valley, keeps updating his video game. And has no plans of stopping.

Eric Barone, the creator of Stardew Valley, keeps updating his video game. And has no plans of stopping. (Image credit: Eric Barone)

Will GTA6 actually come out this year? Is a new Nintendo console coming? Huge games are creeping on the horizon, including a high-stakes Assassin's Creed title and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.

Will GTA6 actually come out this year? Is a new Nintendo console coming? Huge games are creeping on the horizon, including a high-stakes Assassin's Creed title and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. (Image credit: Rockstar Games/Ubisoft/Hazelight/Nintendo)

Each week, guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: A documentary about yacht rock, Colouring's new album, the game Pentiment and an action movie about TSA.

Each week, guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: A documentary about yacht rock, Colouring's new album, the game Pentiment and an action movie about TSA. (Image credit: Netflix)

Games. Culture. Criticism.

This is a transcript excerpt covering the score awarded to Stories from Sol: the Gun-Dog on the So Videogames podcast, Episode 430.

This is a transcript excerpt covering the score awarded to Stories from Sol: the Gun-Dog on the So Videogames podcast, Episode 430. Let’s start it off with Stories from Sol: the Gun-Dog. I talked about this last episode and spoiler it’s a banger. As a quick recap, you can go back to last episode to hear all the details, but basically it is a visual novel done in a old school Japanese PC style, which kind of reminds me a little bit of Snatcher and a little bit like Phoenix Wright in some ways, but mostly like Snatcher, if people are familiar with that. But basically it’s kind of a faux retro throwback visual novel. There’s a couple different presentation types, black and white or monochrome or full color, but basically you play a character who is a officer in a space sci fi navy. You’re getting shipped out to, I don’t know, Jupiter or something like that, in order to go on a test run for something, and you’ve got a little bit of a checkered past. You got into some combat, but there were problems with your Gundam-style mech, and so your whole crew died while you were forced to sit on the sidelines and watch because you couldn’t fly your mech into battle. That messed you up a little bit. So you’ve got some baggage. Other people remember how that went down and they’ve got some some umbrage to take out against you. But regardless, you go in the ship and you think you’re going to be doing some kind of a military thing in visual novel style. You meet people on the ship, you talk to them. Everybody’s got a really cute portrait. Music is absolutely on point. Very retro, but very cool. Lots of appropriate themes that really convey the emotion of each scene. The animations are very emotive, and I think they’re very indicative of what kind of person each character is. Just from a couple frames, you can kind of get their vibe. This person is silly. This person is angry. This person is kind of flirty. A lot is being communicated with the visuals, which I think is really great. It’s always good to to show more than you tell. I will say that although the writing is telling, it’s very economical. It’s to the point, but also descriptive, very personable and funny. It’s really hard to be funny when you’re doing games and games writing, but they nail it here. The writing is just outstanding. Every character has great dialogue, strong personality, very clear storytelling, which I think is also a feat in itself. And just so many little warm human moments that very easily could not have been there. So I really want to give special shout out to the writing. I think it’s just outstanding. I’m not going to give away the whole thing here, but needless to say, what you think is going to be a generic mission out in the stars to do some military stuff quickly turns into something else. I’m not going to… I’m not going to give away the whole plot, but let me just say it quickly turns into a murder mystery. And so there’s kind of a genre switch. You have to do things that you didn’t think you were going to have to do. The game unfolds in a surprising way, and it all works. It really works so well. Graphics are on point. There are little mini games to engage in that could only be done in the the realm of video games. I mean, everything about it just really comes together. I think the story choices, the way they’re presented is really good and clear. I think the UI is really excellent. Overall, I think it’s just really outstanding. I had a couple of problems with the story flow that I was talking to the developers about and I believe they’ve really gone to back to the drawing board and patched some of that stuff. But overall I just had like a marvelous time. I really couldn’t put this game down. I had the just just the most enjoyment with it. It was fun. It was reminiscent of of good stuff from the past, but it also was modernized. It’s not just a nostalgia trip, it’s a really tight piece of work that anybody who likes sci fi stories or visual novels can enjoy. It just really moved along at a good pace, and I appreciate that. It’s very tough to do a good visual novel that really leverages its medium, but this one succeeds in every aspect. I just I just could not get enough of this one, and I am very excited to see what these developers do next. This one, basically, it’s my strongest recommendation. For fans of visual novels, they just don’t come better than this, so Stories from Sol: the Gun-Dog gets top marks from me. And I did finish this by the way. Stories from Sol: the Gun-Dog is… it’s just really the shit. I give it a solid 8.5 out of 10 and my highest possible recommendation for visual novel fans. It’s just a blast. And if you like this show, there’s a real good chance that you are going to like this game as well. So kudos! Stories from Sol: the Gun-Dog is an 8.5 out of 10 Disclosures: This game is developed by Space Colony Studios and published by Astrolabe Games. It is currently available on PC, PS4/5 and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 7 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game (was/was not) completed. There are no multiplayer modes. Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, Language and Mild Blood. The official description reads: This is a visual novel/adventure game in which players assume the role of an officer engaging in various space missions. Players use point-and-click mechanics to reveal clues, interact with crew members on a ship, and advance the storyline. Some scenes depict brief instances of violence: characters in a fist fight; mech suits shooting, punching, stabbing each other; ship guns firing on enemy craft—sequences are highlighted by screen-shaking effects, impact sounds, and mild explosions. Some characters are depicted with small bloodstains and bullet wounds on their bodies. The game contains several references to alcohol, primarily centered around a recurring character’s alcohol dependency; a whiskey bottle is featured prominently on her desk. The words “bullsh*t” and “a*shole” appear in the game. Colorblind Modes: There no colorblind modes available in the options, although players have three distinct color schemes to choose from. Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue is subtitled (see examples above) but it cannot be resized or altered. There are no audio cues needed for gameplay. This game is fully accessible. Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. There is no control diagram. Moving the cursor is done by left stick or d-pad. Confirm/cancel are mapped to the face buttons. There are no realtime elements, so time pressure is not a factor.

This is the first real episode using the new recorded-in-pieces-during-the-course-of-a-week format, let me know what you think! The games covered this week are: Assassin’s Creed: Shadows Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Star Wars Battlefront 2 The Moose’s Ocean Outing Fights in Tight Spaces Expelled! Split Fiction …And more! You can also hear the show on iTunes and Spotify! Please send feedback and mailbag questions to SoVideogamesPODCAST (at) gmail (dot) com, or post them in the comments section below. Thanks!

If I’ve taken one lesson from the Steam spring sale, it’s that there are a lot of deck-building roguelikes out there. In fact, there are too many for my wallet to handle.

If I’ve taken one lesson from the Steam spring sale, it’s that there are a lot of deck-building roguelikes out there. In fact, there are too many for my wallet to handle. Make no mistake, the subgenre has proliferated in recent years because the mechanics blend together so well. The luck of pulling the right card at the right time and collecting the best additions to a deck lends itself to the luck-based try-die-repeat formula of roguelikes. However, the genre is getting quite saturated, and new entries have an even tougher uphill battle to be noticed alongside megahits like Balatro and Slay the Spire — but based on the seven hours I spent with its demo, Shuffle Tactics might just be a real contender. The kingdom of Asteria has been infected by a dark magic known as Glimmer, and it’s up to the protagonist (multiple characters are unlockable) and whatever motley sidekicks they can find along the way to save the kingdom. Shuffle Tactics applies the deck-building roguelike formula to the tactics RPG genre with enough personality and mechanical crunch to stand out from the rest. The first big pull is presentation. Shuffle Tactics features 16-bit pixel graphics that hearkens back to the best tactics RPGS of yesteryear, or even some recent entries like Triangle Strategy. The animations are smooth and detailed, and I was especially impressed by the final blow cinematics that top off a boss battle — these flourishes are a nice little treat after typically grueling fights. Graphics aside, I think the big sell are the mechanical systems in Shuffle Tactics. Each card is accompanied by a bevy of keywords that indicate buffs or debuffs that can be chained together in effective combos. These buffs don’t just add strength, but often more complex interactions like “Bloodlust,” which increases the power of a card based on how many enemies have been damaged, or “Sadist,” which means the card will do more damage to a target if they’re below half health. There are also elemental interactions – ice becomes water, and water makes enemies ripe for an electric attack. On the other hand, fire can warm them up and take off that “wet” status, but it can then give them some burning damage. These interactions can be daunting at first — players will need to take time to read the descriptions for keywords by highlighting them on each card, and figuring out how to maximize buffs and debuffs to maximum effect takes some effort. Keep in mind, so far I’ve only explored the first character – the next character to be unlocked has a completely different scheme involving totems and elemental effects. Of course, as a roguelike, the player will unlock additional cards and charms that add even more effects, and this is where the real joy of roguelikes comes in— figuring out ways to absolutely break the game. For instance, starting character (the Doberknight) has a sword he can throw and call back. The cards for each the throw and the return — two separate actions — always appear in the card draw. Add a charm that gives “Aegis” (a keyword that blocks the next attack) and you can stack up a near-invincible killing machine. Figuring out how these systems work together is a skill the player will need to work on, but it fully aligns with the spirit of the genre, with players growing more powerful with each subsequent run due to their knowledge and cleverness expanding with each attempt. As the current build is a preview, I did run into a few bugs and balancing issues (enemy numbers and their buffs can get wildly out of control) but these are things that I imagine developer Club Sandwich will nail down before a full release. It’s also obvious that there’s a lot more content than what’s on offer in the demo, but there’s enough meat in this slice to get a good taste of the full meal yet to come. Shuffle Tactics is shaping up to be a treat for fans of deckbuilders, roguelikes and tactical RPGs. Its mechanical complexities and unique keyword systems offer satisfying depth that won’t hold the player’s hand. For anyone who enjoys this sort of challenge, it’s one to take notice of. Download the Steam demo on PC now

HIGH A wonderful aesthetic and gameplay loop. 

LOW Weird holdovers from its mobile origins.

WTF Why the hell did this game open with a plane crash?

The Tide Is High But I’m Holdin’ On HIGH A wonderful aesthetic and gameplay loop. LOW Weird holdovers from its mobile origins. WTF Why the hell did this game open with a plane crash? Hello Kitty Island Adventure was originally released in 2023 for Apple Arcade, the exclusive subscription service offering games for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV — it’s the tech giant’s own version of Microsoft’s GamePass. Based on Sanrio’s most popular character, Hello Kitty, the title combined elements of life simulators such as the ever-popular Animal Crossing and standard adventure-platforming games. After little over a year of mobile exclusivity, HKIA finally has a console release with the Nintendo Switch. Players start by creating their avatar, choosing between a limited selection of face, clothing, and color options, with more to be unlocked later. I created a brown dog in a green shirt, and then the story began. The player’s avatar starts on an airplane with Hello Kitty and her friends, all of whom are on their way to a mysterious island where they intend to open up shops or find spots to relax. All is good until the plane is about to crash and everyone on board is forced to jump out, only to land on their destination. The game is played from an isometric point of view and the island can be fully explored. Players are tasked with completing quests given to them by an array of characters, with an interesting and surprisingly addictive gameplay loop. Quests are varied and involve different tasks, such as exploring the island, finding new tools, and trying to reach higher friendship levels with the population. For example, an early mission tasked me with looking for folks who were scattered across a section of the island after the crash. It was there I met with a few familiar faces — My Melody (a pink and white rabbit who opened up a furniture store) and Badtz-Maru, a penguin who has a comic book shop on the docks. Talking to them introduces players to the concept of leveling up their friendship, which is achieved by completing quests with specific characters or giving them gifts. The latter part of that process is one of the most prevalent aspects of play, as players can give NPCs items from their inventories. Everyone on the island has interests such as sweets or items for crafting. For example, Hello Kitty loves and will accept pineapples from the player. The gift-giving option is an easy way to raise friendships but comes at a cost, as players can only gift things three times per day. I suspect this was a holdover from its roots as a mobile game and to prevent players from jumping a bunch of levels by simply unloading multiple gifts at once. Thankfully, there are other ways to level up friendships (such as completing quests) so this method being nerfed isn’t an issue. Reaching certain friendship levels nets rewards such as customization items, new items, and even brand-new quests. Completing tasks on the island is enjoyable, and I liked how each one led to some discoveries or new thing to try. For example, one quest had me exploring the island for yellow gear that opened a gate. One piece was across a huge body of water, so I had to complete a quick favor for My Melody, whose expertise in her furniture store allowed her to fix a bridge which then enabled me to cross the water. There is an abundance of things to do, and as someone who isn’t big into life simulator games because of their lack of direction and goals, I appreciate Island Adventure’s more focused approach to progression. Completing quests nets the player tons of rewards, like customization options, crafting recipes for new items, and even furniture for the player’s home, and these were a great motivator. Another aspect I loved is the focus on platforming and adventure gameplay. There’s a jump button that makes moving around the island easier, and some areas require light platforming and a few simple puzzles to solve, similar to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s shrines. There’s nothing deep about the platforming elements and it won’t dethrone Mario, but it does add variety to Hello Kitty‘s open-ended island to explore and the seemingly inexhaustible supply of things to unlock. Presentation-wise, HKIA is a winner with a bright and colorful aesthetic throughout. The island is full of charm, and the biomes looking great. I also appreciated that the character models are expressive, with the dialogue matching their personalities. My only knock is against the few moments of slowdown that happen when walking around the island, though long loading times can be an issue as well. None of it is anything major to disrupt my enjoyment, but the issues are still a little annoying nonetheless. I’m a huge fan of licensed games and I was definitely in need of a calm experience. Hello Kitty Island Adventure fit the bill and ended up being a good time, as it kept me engaged with a satisfying gameplay loop and cute looks. As the weather outside remains frightful, taking a trip to this tropical paradise and meeting a few new friends is a great choice. Rating: 8 out of 10 Disclosures: This game is published and developed by Sunblink. It is available on PC, PS4/5, iOS and Switch. This copy was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on Switch. Approximately 10 hours were spent in single-player and the game was not completed. There is multiplayer. Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E. According to the site: This is an adventure game in which players help Hello Kitty and friends restore a mysterious island. Players explore the island, interact with friends, complete quests, and engage in various activities (e.g., cooking, fishing, gardening). Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are not present in the options menu. Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are subtitles and visual cues such as button prompts and a minimap. These elements cannot be resized but the game is fully accessible without sound. Remappable Controls: The controls cannot be remapped. There is no control diagram. B is to jump, X is to use an item, A is to speak or interact with NPCs and Y is to give gifts. The bumpers and triggers are used to navigate menus and open up quest lists.

HIGH An exceptional narrative and combat system that builds upon years of experience.

LOW Some slowdown and visual quirks.

WTF I urge all readers to watch Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai before playing this game

Big In Japan HIGH An exceptional narrative and combat system that builds upon years of experience. LOW Some slowdown and visual quirks. WTF I urge all readers to watch Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai before playing this game For almost two decades, gamers have been well-acquainted with Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series. The first nine mainline releases saw players inhabit virtual recreations of historical settings in small-scale, open-ended environments that focused on stealth-based gameplay and stories that involve Dan Brown-esque shadow societies and conspiracies. In 2017, Ubisoft changed directions and the series has since shifted into an open-world, action role-playing style, rivaling modern juggernauts such as The Witcher III and Red Dead Redemption II. As a longtime fan of the series, the current iteration is one I’ve grown fond of, with my own review of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla praising its deeper focus on exploration and strong combat suite. However, even after putting over 100 hours into Valhalla, I still felt that it (and the series as a whole) needed a little more to push itself into greatness and Shadows is that attempt. Played from a third-person perspective, Shadows is an action-RPG set in feudal Japan. During this time (the end of the Sengoku period), conflicts have broken out while major advancements in wartime technology (like the introduction of guns) have turned the tide of battle. Players are introduced to the two protagonists, Naoe and Yasuke. The former is a ninja who’s been training her whole life among her people in the Iga Province. The latter, based on the real historical figure of the same name, is an African who was granted the title of Samurai. Without revealing too many narrative details, both characters meet in dire circumstances and form an allyship to liberate Japan from a wave of oppressors. The storytelling in Shadows is one of its strongest suits, providing a much darker and deeper narrative the series has seen in years. This era in Japan was known for death and destruction, and the story covers that with a gravity I wasn’t expecting. Themes center around the aftermath of war, the tolls that vengeance takes on people and how race and class affect worldview are all prevalent and handled well. It also helps that the two main characters are charming and fleshed out — Naoe’s brash attitude clashes with Yasuke’s more thoughtful personality, making their dynamic work. The grand scope and wonderful character of this piece recalls the likes of Akira Kurosawa’s oeuvre of samurai films (Throne of Blood, Seven Samurai, etc.) while the over-the-top violence reminded me of Kenji Misumi’s classic Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance or Takashi Miike’s excellent remake of 13 Assassins. Those cinematic allusions also play a huge part in the story’s presentation, as every cutscene is well-directed and featuring solid cinematography and the inclusion of black bars above and below the screen to add some flair, giving that “widescreen” look. With the story being the best the series has seen in ages, I’m also happy to report that the gameplay is exceptional, with innovations and changes made to combat and stealth. Players control both Naoe and Yasuke in their journey through Japan and are able to switch between them freely after an extended period with Naoe at the beginning. Rather than each character being a simple aesthetic choice, each provides a different style, different skill trees and different approaches to combat, allowing players to build Naoe and Yasuke how they want. For example, I decided that Naoe should be an excellent assassin and focused on those skills in her tree. She was able to perform a double assassination with a hidden blade, had an arsenal of tools like kunai (a small blade) that could be thrown to dispose of enemies quickly and quietly, and a smoke bomb to get out of dangerous situations. At one point, I even found armor that allowed me to inflict more damage at night, adding to my plan of sticking to the shadows. Naoe can also go prone and crawl on the floor, sneaking through bushes and under structures to catch enemies off guard. If I did have to get loud using Naoe, I made sure she was an adept fighter and upgraded her katana skills. Combat as a shinobi is a fast dance of careful dodges, parries and quick sword attacks. The stamina meter from Valhalla is gone, allowing players to attack without the cumbersome feeling of managing a meter. Yasuke isn’t so graceful, but he brings a more brutal style of play. A trained samurai, Yasuke mostly uses weapons like katanas or kanabō (spiked clubs) in fights to delivers slower, yet more powerful attacks. His abilities include a kick that can send opponents flying or knocking them down after running into them. Despite not being able to sneak as easily as Naoe, I enjoyed walking into an enemy outpost and taking on a large group of enemies. This boldness pairs excellently with gnarly finisher moves, with plenty of heads and limbs being chopped off. Other major upgrades to combat include the importance of lights and sounds, as players are able to extinguish candles to conceal themselves in the dark and being careful when sneaking around to avoid creaky floorboards. After the last few entries in the AC series deemphasizing stealth in exchange for action, being able to play Shadows as a full-blown stealth title is a treat. Supporting this is that quests are dynamic, with many ways to complete them. For example, Naoe had to assassinate someone in a house. I managed to successfully sneak past the guards, find a suitable vantage point and threw a knife from a safe distance before anyone had seen me. I completed the quest and faced no alarms or opposition. As mentioned, Shadows does an excellent job in storytelling and presentation to make the experience feel cinematic, and it also helps that the visuals are gorgeous, with character models and facial animations looking good. However, the real star of the show is Japan itself. Riding through winding hills on horseback is a treat, as mountains on the horizon paint a gorgeous picture. The same goes for standing in a dense forest full of bamboo. Shadows’ Japan is smaller than Valhalla’s England, which in turn makes it more dense with detail. The overall presentation is amazing and during my time, I only encountered minor moments of slowdown and a few weird clipping instances. Assassin’s Creed Shadows feels like the culmination of years of reworking the series into a full-fledged RPG. With smart changes to the overall flow of combat and a narrative that rivals some of the best triple-AAA experiences available today, Shadows is not only the best AC in well over a decade, but arguably one of the finest action-RPGs of the decade so far. Fans and doubters alike owe it to themselves to take this trip to Japan. Rating: 8.5 out of 10 Buy Assassin’s Creed Shadows: PS5 – Xbox – PC Disclosures: This game is published and developed by Ubisoft. It is available on PC, PS5, and XBX/S. This copy was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PS5. Approximately 30 hours were spent in single-player and the game was not completed (still playing). There is no multiplayer. Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language. The site reads: This is an action-adventure game in which players follow the stories of a shinobi assassin (Naoe) and a samurai (Yasuke) as they navigate turbulent clan wars during Sengoku-era Japan. Players explore open-world environments while performing missions (e.g., searching for items, infiltrating enemy compounds) and using stealth to kill human targets. Players use swords, throwing/concealed blades, and occasional guns to kill various enemies (e.g., ninja, guards, soldiers, samurai) in melee-style combat. Battles are highlighted by screams of pain and frequent blood-splatter effects. Some finishing moves allow players to decapitate or dismember enemies, with brief slow-motion effects. Cutscenes depict further instances of violence: captives beheaded; characters shot at close range. The words “sh*t” and “a*shole” appear in the game. Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are present in the options menu. Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are subtitles and visual options available in the game, all of which can be adjusted. This game is fully accessible. More on the accessibility can be read here. Remappable Controls: The controls can be remapped.

HIGH Racking up a massive combo by narrowly missing trees while sailing down a hill.

LOW Seeing that combo disappear after one mistake.

WTF Why does running over a rabbit net me a new parka?

Ski Free HIGH Racking up a massive combo by narrowly missing trees while sailing down a hill. LOW Seeing that combo disappear after one mistake. WTF Why does running over a rabbit net me a new parka? SNØ Ultimate Freeriding is an infinite runner (skier?) with an emphasis on organic movement. Controlled from a third-person perspective, players steer a lone skier down a procedurally generated mountain with the sole objective of gaining the highest score possible. Watercolor trees, glowing sunsets and purple nighttime skies compose a vivid world that is immediately appealing. The painterly flora contrasts wonderfully with the crisp snow and, despite my many runs, I never tired of simply observing the environment. A failed run almost became a treat in the sense that they were opportunities to see what vistas the next incarnation might hold. Building on this artistic styling is the diegetic soundscape – with the exception of a wooden clap that signifies a scoring combo, all sound emerges from the world itself. The soft brush of the skis is only interrupted by the hushed winds as a skier launches from a drift, adding musicality and rhythm to the play. These naturalistic aural elements marry nicely to the core mechanics. Controlling the skier is a flexible, almost imprecise process of leaning and carving through rocks and valleys. Players can crouch to gain speed, release to propel off a ramp and, once airborne, deploy a parachute to sail over rocky areas and tricky obstacles. Each movement is heavily influenced by momentum, and learning when to come out of a lean to thread a cluster of trees is a necessary skill for success. There are two primary methods of gaining points – performing tricks in mid-air, and closely skirting obstacles. The more tricks and close shaves, the higher the point and combo multiplier. The real challenge is locking that score in, as several solid seconds must pass after the last scoring maneuver for the points to count. A single wipe-out ends a run, and this tension between building the biggest combo possible or being satisfied with a safer, smaller total forms the backbone of competitive play. There were many times I flew too close to the sun (or tree) only to see 50,000 points go down the drain. Despite the score chase, finding the rhythm is the real joy of SNØ Ultimate Freeriding, and as the mechanics finally clicked I found myself more entranced by the grace of my skier spinning through the air than by the points I might earn. These moments of beauty became my motivation and, coincidentally, I began climbing the leaderboards. When I tried thinking tactically, planning my movements in advance, scraping by every tree I could to boost my score, I was rarely successful. Freeing myself from that drive allowed instinct to guide my slalom, and suddenly navigation became more natural, and the time between restarts got longer and longer. The developers clearly intended this, as an appropriately titled “Zen Mode” fully foregrounds the aesthetic play by eschewing the score chase altogether. Unfortunately, my journey towards alpine enlightenment was ultimately cut short by a lack of content. SNØ Ultimate Freeriding bills itself as a minimalist experience, although this was a bit too literal for my taste. Evidenced most prominently in the courses themselves, there are only a handful of templates – rocky, forested and spacious. While this limited palette is leavened by the beautiful visuals, after a handful of runs I felt as though I had seen all that SNØ Ultimate Freeriding had to offer. Though I was left wishing for more, this hardly condemns SNØ Ultimate Freeriding. The tactile control feels unique, and I found real joy in learning the subtleties of a successful descent. The moments where I could get on its level – wind whistling as my skier weaves around rocks and trees I was barely aware of – were singular, and this harmony between aesthetics and mechanics was more than enough to justify my time. Rating: 6.5 out of 10 — Ryan Nalley Buy SNØ: Ultimate Freeriding on Steam Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Gauntlet Games. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 6 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode. This game does not have an end state, but all modes were played. Outside of leaderboards, there are no multiplayer modes. Parents: At the time of this review, this game has not been rated by the ESRB. The gameplay consists entirely of steering a skier through downhill, mountain courses. There is no violence, although every run ends when the skier crashes. When crashing the skier may spin or flop around in a ragdoll fashion, but there is no blood or gore. The visuals are highly stylized and not particularly realistic. Beyond the crashes, there is no other content that might be considered objectionable. Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game has no dialogue and does not offer subtitles. All audio cues have an accompanying visual component. The majority of my time was played without sound, and I experienced no issues during these sessions. This game is fully accessible. Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable. This game offers two primary control schemes, but the buttons are not independently remappable.

In this episode, Brad talks about slightly reworking the show before covering: Monster Hunter Wilds Centum Sorry We’re Closed …And more! You can also hear the show on iTunes and Spotify! Please send feedback and mailbag questions to SoVideogamesPODCAST (at) gmail (dot) com, or post them in the comments section below. Thanks!

HIGH Intuitive and rewarding combat. Wonderful hand-drawn aesthetics, epic story.

LOW Some glitches and visual bugs.

WTF Why are the mole people living in a more modern age?!

Winter Is Coming HIGH Intuitive and rewarding combat. Wonderful hand-drawn aesthetics, epic story. LOW Some glitches and visual bugs. WTF Why are the mole people living in a more modern age?! More than a decade ago, the genre-defining Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls were lauded by gaming media for how deftly they captured the joy of struggle and triumph, offering hard-earned victories to all willing to commit. Instead of handholding, they counted on the player’s persistence to figure out intricate combat mechanics while providing all the necessary tools. Developers expanded on this by reverse-engineering the 3D-oriented Souls formula and applying it ”back” onto 2D titles, producing more condensed, challenging experiences in a genre that had already engraved “old school to the core!” on its chest. This feedback cycle has been repeating ever since and gifted us many worthwhile titles like Salt and Sanctuary, Blasphemous 1 & 2, Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, and so on. Unfortunately, it’s been tough to keep track of all of them, and I’m sad to say that the original Tails of Iron slipped past me. I’d like to rectify that omission now with this review of Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter, which caught me off-guard with pure excellence — it exhibits so much spine, heart, and soul that it swiftly climbed to the top ranks of my favorite 2D soulslikes. As the campaign begins we control Arlo, the young prince of a rat kingdom who finds his hands full with the harrowing task of having to rebuild his sovereign state after vile bats attacked it viciously and killed the king. Presented via a soothing narrator’s voice, these events transpire in the tutorial, putting us in the shoes of an inexperienced rat “knight” whose knees are shaking at the sight of leathery wings. Even two-dimensional, the aesthetics were potent enough to make me dread coming across the bat armies — the mandatory “soulslike tutorial boss that can’t beat” introduced me to how hungry, wild, and ferocious they are. Some can fly, some charge up heavy attacks that make them leap to the other end of the screen, some employ ranged weaponry, and more. Even as a small rat, the assortment of armaments Arlo has access to does even the scales effectively. Aside from a shield, he can equip three weapons at once — one one-handed and one two-handed sword, spear, or axe, alongside a bow, crossbow, or pistol. Later on, as he get things under control in the castle’s courtyard he can unlock various upgrade paths for any of those weapons, enriching them with elemental properties and slowly turning him into a tactician, first and foremost. These tactics are valuable — for instance, bands of armed frogs wield lighting-infused spears and also apply poison with their ranged attacks. Of course, this makes them weak to the remaining options — fire and ice. Therefore, consulting the in-game bestiary and knowing where an enemy’s weaknesses lie is key. Later on, our rodent hero acquires elemental magic which can engulf multiple foes at once if used correctly. This combination of mean, medieval-looking edged weapons and elemental spells never lost their appeal for me, even after a dozen hours. The tempo of play is also key. While Tails of Iron 2 doesn’t feature a stamina bar, one really shouldn’t press the strike button willy-nilly. Arlo’s attack animations take time to complete and propel him forward, meaning whiffed attacks expose his back to foes on screen. All of the enemies are quick-footed, capable combatants and they’ll swiftly outsmart sloppy players. Arlo is always just a second or two away from the “You Died” screen, and his survival hinging on his ability to mind his surroundings. Something else to note is that an enemy’s basic, heavy, and ranged attacks are all clearly telegraphed on screen. Enemies flash with a white tint before hurling an arrow, which signals us to raise a shield and block all damage. Yellow flashes herald incoming melee attacks that can either be dodged or parried, and red flashes happen before unblockable strikes that can only be dodged. Making matters even more manageable, enemies never exploit their numbers to an unfair degree and their attacks never overlapped to the point where there wasn’t a safe space to be found onscreen. However, the visuals sometimes did obscure an enemy attack flash — white flashes against white backgrounds were difficult to keep track of, which is my biggest gripe. At this point, I’ll say a word about the difficulty — it’s not a cakewalk. Arlo’s health will never reach far enough to carry impatient players, and progress hinges on learning the interesting combat mechanics. Still, I never felt cheated upon respawning at any of Tails of Iron 2’s gracefully spaced-out checkpoints. All of Tails of Iron 2’s aspects ooze a keen understanding of fundamental design values, adding up to a triumphant, intensely satisfying result. It’s a top-tier experience not to be missed by any one who enjoys a challenging 2D soulslike — just watch out for those bats! Rating: 8.5 out of 10 Disclosures: This game was developed by Odd Bug Studio and published by United Label. It is currently available on Switch, PS4/5, XBX/S, PC and macOS. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch Lite. Approximately 15 hours of play were devoted to the game, and it was completed 100% (all achievements were unlocked). There is no multiplayer. Parents: This game has received a “T” (“Teen”) rating by ESRB and contains Blood and Gore, Mild Language, Use of Alcohol, and Violence. While the game’s visuals are hand-crafted 2D stills and sprites and all of the characters are anthropomorphic rodents, insects, and birds, Tails of Iron 2 features tons of violence and tells a bittersweet story of revenge and honor. It is pretty tough too, so I’d say the “Teen” rating is on point here. Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue in this game is shown via textboxes following the slow pace of the recorded narration, so they’re easy to keep track of at all times. While the font size can’t be changed, the text is readable enough without obscuring the action on-screen. In addition, all enemy attacks are clearly telegraphed with enemies signaling when they will strike next and in which general direction. This game is fully accessible. Remappable Controls: This game offers a controller diagram and players can freely remap any action to any button.

HIGH Think The Office, but with cults and the occasional demon.

LOW The combat mechanics feel floaty.

WTF A vampire priest purging demons – just another day in Poland.

The Power Of Orlok Compels You! HIGH Think The Office, but with cults and the occasional demon. LOW The combat mechanics feel floaty. WTF A vampire priest purging demons – just another day in Poland. I’ve always found the absurd to be wildly entertaining. Maybe that’s why Priest Simulator: Vampire Show pulled me in like an unholy sermon I couldn’t walk away from. It didn’t ask if I was ready, it just threw me headfirst into the madness. This isn’t about quiet reflection or slow world-building. It’s about being a vampire-killing priest in modern-day Poland, armed with a cross, a shotgun, and an attitude problem. The world is bizarre, the humor dark and unhinged, and the gameplay a chaotic mix of first-person combat, exorcisms, and satire-heavy storytelling. From the moment I loaded in, I knew Priest Simulator: Vampire Show was different. The aesthetic was grimy in the best way, like a cursed VHS tape found in a church basement. The mockumentary-style presentation, complete with character interviews and absurd cutscenes, only added to its unhinged charm. It’s a fever dream wrapped in a game engine. It plays like a traditional FPS but with a religious twist. Instead of just mowing down enemies, I was purging them using holy relics and an arsenal of weapons that ranged from crucifixes to hammers. Telekinesis let me hurl objects at enemies, sending them flying across the room like an exorcism scene gone horribly wrong. That said, while the combat was indeed entertaining for a while, it did start feeling repetitive — apparently there are only so many ways to punch a demon in the face before it loses its charm. I must also discuss the exorcism mechanics. Some moments were brilliantly chaotic, like wielding a massive censer to banish a demon before watching it erupt into a glorious burst of light. But at times, these sequences felt frustrating. Certain exorcisms required precise movement or interaction, and when clunky controls got in the way (like fumbling with weapon swaps mid-fight or getting stuck on debris) it turned what should have been intense moments into tests of patience. When everything clicked, though, it was pure, ridiculous fun. One moment I was sprinting through a decrepit town, blasting vampires with holy energy, dodging fireballs, then leaping into a car to run down a demon mid-exorcism. It was the kind of over-the-top, “is this really happening?” gameplay that made me laugh out loud. Despite the chaos, the story somehow managed to stay engaging. The writing is sharp, dripping with satire that pokes fun at organized religion, pop culture, and everything in between. One mission had me hunting down sacrilegious graffiti artists, while another involved illegally selling holy water on the side. The experience thrives on its irreverence, and it works because it never hesitates to go all-in on the absurdity. It’s not all exorcisms and face-punching, though. PS:VS also let me renovate my own church, turning it into something more than just a place of worship. Upgrades range from practical restorations to, well, installing an aquarium or a DJ booth. It’s weird, but in a way that fits perfectly within this offbeat world. Musically, Priest Simulator: Vampire Show leans into its eerie, industrial vibe. The soundtrack pulsed with a strange energy that made every moment feel just a little off-kilter. It wasn’t exactly pleasant, but that seemed to be the point. Haunting choirs mixed with distorted synths made it the background score to a church rave gone wrong, and anyone expecting angelic hymns was in the wrong place. At its best, Priest Simulator: Vampire Show is an unapologetic, genre-mashing ride through the absurd. It didn’t hold my hand, and it definitely didn’t take itself seriously. On the other hand, the longer I played, the more the gameplay loop started to wear thin. The novelty of the premise carried me far, but the repetition and occasional mechanical hiccups chipped away at my enthusiasm. Even so, the sheer commitment to weirdness made it hard to walk away completely. For those who thrive on the bizarre, this one’s worth a trip to the confessional. — Faiq Ilhan Rating: 7.5 out of 10 Disclosures: This game is developed by Asmodev and published by Ultimate Games S.A. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 6 hours was devoted to the game, and it was not completed. There is no multiplayer mode. Parents: This game is unrated by the ESRB. In it, players will attack enemies with guns, blades, telepathic powers. The game also strongly parodies the topic of religion. There are swear words littered throughout normal dialogue. Colorblind Modes: Colorblind Modes are not present. Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles, but subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. Audio is needed to complete the game, but there are visual cues like highlighted items along with text hints on-screen. Controls: Controls are remappable, with interchangeable hotkeys. It plays similarly to an FPS game where the left mouse click controls the left hand and the right mouse click controls the right hand.

Prior to this writing, I was starting to lose momentum after a few games left me questioning why I bother spending my time this way, but I’m glad to say that even in its relatively unpolished state, Hyper Light Breaker offers an experience that is both challenging and rewarding in equal measure -- it also doesn't hurt that it's total eye candy, rendered in gorgeous cel-shaded 3D that manages to capture the essence of its acclaimed neon-coated 2D predecessor, Hyper Light Drifter.

Hyper Light Breaker, Heart Machine’s long-awaited open-world RPG mixed with roguelite progression and soulslike combat should appeal to fans of Risk of Rain and/or Elden Ring. It’s currently available in Early Access on Steam. Prior to this writing, I was starting to lose momentum after a few games left me questioning why I bother spending my time this way, but I’m glad to say that even in its relatively unpolished state, Hyper Light Breaker offers an experience that is both challenging and rewarding in equal measure — it also doesn’t hurt that it’s total eye candy, rendered in gorgeous cel-shaded 3D that manages to capture the essence of its acclaimed neon-coated 2D predecessor, Hyper Light Drifter. The player starts with a pre-assigned character known as Vermillion — an especially lithe and dashing Breaker affixed with a curious blue monkey tail — and given a brief tutorial to learn the basics of movement (jump, dash, strafe) as well as combat (melee attacks, ranged attacks, parrying) before finally embarking on their quest to defeat the Abyss King. Their first stop is the Cursed Outpost, which serves as the hub area for players to invite or join other players to form Breaker teams. They can also purchase, sell or upgrade weapons, gear and enhancements as well as interact with NPCs like Pherus Bit, captain of the Breakers, who can decode lore fragments, expand player abilities and perform other tasks between runs, here called “cycles.” A cycle consists of gathering prisms (floating geometric power sources that function like keys, found by defeating enemies or unlocking chests) to gain access to each of the three Crowns (minibosses of which there are currently only two, so one of them will always be a duplicate). It will then (theoretically) culminate in a battle with the Abyss King. The player will start a new cycle with four “rezs” (lives) and a slough of rewards including (but not limited to) currency, loot and skill points if they successfully complete a run and return via telepad to the Cursed Outpost in one piece. Conversely, there are severe penalties for losing all of their rezs before completing the cycle. At the time of writing, the boss arena for the Abyss King remains inaccessible, which makes the payoff for finishing a cycle underwhelming. However, for me, open world games should always be more about the journey and less about the destination — and what an awesome journey it is, especially with some companions there to help. I played solo at first to get my sea legs, as I’d heard the learning curve is a bit steep in the beginning — and that was no exaggeration. I only lasted about 10 minutes before getting ravaged by a pack of cyborg dogs and, in classic soulslike fashion, everything faded to black before a red text appeared, informing me that I was indeed “DEAD.” Determined to redeem myself, I jumped right back in but still had a hard time getting even a single prism before derezzing, so I joined a Breaker team and learned a lot from watching other players, and even more so when I started playing with friends who could explain what they were doing. Among other things, I quickly gathered that many gameplay nuances were not included in the tutorial but could be gleaned from entries in the codex that players can choose to read — things such as dashing upwards in addition to double jumping to get to points that would otherwise be impossible to reach. Before long, I found that there were so many ways that I could navigate the world, express myself through combat and tweak my loadouts, which made the whole experience more dynamic than I initially realized. Like any roguelike worth its salt, the gameplay loop may be technically repetitive, but it also manages to feel fresh every time, with each run offering different enemies (or at least enemies that deal different kinds of damage) varied loot drops, lore fragments, and such, and no cycle is exactly like the last. Thanks to recent patches, Hyper Light Breaker continues to evolve as the devs gather more feedback and other information from players, mostly for the better. The addition of executions makes combat feel even more satisfying, and the recent addition of a character called Ravonna offers both aesthetic appeal and well as default weapons and stats that are better suited for a more aggressive play style than the others. However, not every tweak seemed like a step in the right direction, such as the decision to add fall damage and drowning damage. Also strange is the new inability to use a hoverboard (the character’s means of travel) whenever enemies are nearby. These additions were both unnecessary and unwelcome — rather than adding appreciable challenge, these things just feel petty. As stated earlier, Hyper Light Breaker is still in Early Access, so there’s plenty of time for further tweaking. There are a few changes that I hope they make in future patches throughout the spring. Besides more content and nudges, I did notice several glitches and bugs that will likely be addressed before the game hits 1.0 — things like enemy AI freezing, or enemies falling beneath the level or getting stuck in mid-air. Beyond these obvious fixes, I’m curious to see how the market area in the Cursed Outpost will expand, what the placeholder NPCs will allow the player to do or any other changes that the devs may have in store. And of course, the biggest question remains — when will we finally be able to go toe-to-toe with the Abyss King himself? Until then, I’ll probably focus on other games I’ve been meaning to play (or start reviewing) but if the legacy of Hyper Light Drifter is any indication, my guess is that Hyper Light Breaker won’t disappoint either. Buy Hyper Light Breaker — PC

Fixes, Tutorials and Guides for Games

Minecraft is a popular sandbox video game enjoyed by millions worldwide, but it seems like Minecraft Launcher Error Code 0x87e5003a is giving headaches to a wide range number of fans. If you are facing this error, don’t worry; this guide will walk you through some proven methods to fix it and get you back to […]

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Minecraft is a popular sandbox video game enjoyed by millions worldwide, but it seems like Minecraft Launcher Error Code 0x87e5003a is giving headaches to a wide range number of fans. If you are facing this error, don’t worry; this guide will walk you through some proven methods to fix it and get you back to your block-building adventures. What is Minecraft error code 0x87e5003a? When encountering the Minecraft Launcher Error Code 0x87e5003a, users are often met with a pop-up error message indicating that the game failed to start, accompanied by the error code. This particular error code emerges and presents the gamer with the following message: “This game is already running. If you just quit the game, it should be ready to launch again in a moment”. While this could potentially be a passing glitch, more often than not, this generally indicates that the ability to partake in the game will remain unavailable even following a waiting period. How can I fix Minecraft Launcher Error Code 0x87e5003a? Check the live status Force closing the game Use an old Minecraft Launcher Reinstall Minecraft 1. Check the live status Open a web browser on your device. In the search bar, type Minecraft server status or a similar query and press Enter. From the search results, select a reliable website or service that offers real-time or updated information about Minecraft server status. Popular options include Minecraft Server Status or Mojang Status. On the chosen website, you may need to enter the server address (IP address or domain) you want to check. Click on the Check or Submit button to initiate the server status check. The website will then provide you with details about the server’s current status, whether it’s online, offline, or experiencing any issues. Review the information presented on the website to understand the current status of the Minecraft server. It might also display additional details about server performance and any ongoing incidents. If you want to cross-reference the information, you can also check official Minecraft community forums, social media accounts, or other community-driven platforms for updates on server status. 2. Force closing the game Time needed: 2 minutes It seems like forcing closing any active related instances is one of the best solutions to get rid of our today’s issue. Use the following keyboard shortcut: Windows + X Choose Task Manager. Make sure you’re in the Processes tab. Search for Minecraft or Minecraft Launcher, then select it, and click on the End task button. Restart your PC or console and check if you managed to get rid of the Minecraft Launcher Error Code 0x87e5003a. 3. Use an old Minecraft Launcher If the error persists on your display, you might consider utilizing the previous version of the Minecraft launcher. If you lack familiarity with this option, you can access the Minecraft alternatives to acquire comprehensive details, along with discovering alternative Minecraft launchers. 4. Reinstall Minecraft Hit the Windows key, then type Control Panel, and open the first result. Under the Programs section, choose to Uninstall a program. Locate and click on Minecraft in the list of installed apps, then click on the Uninstall button, just as we show you with the LoL example in the picture below. Follow the on-screen prompts to remove Minecraft from your system. After uninstalling, open the Microsoft Store and search for Minecraft. Click on the Install button to download and install Minecraft again. Once the installation is complete, launch the game to see if the error is resolved. Related articles: Minecraft Won’t Update: How to Force it to Update Properly Minecraft Packet Loss: How To Fix & Avoid It For Good Minecraft Error Code Creeper: Fix It Effortlessly Minecraft Error 403: How To Fix It Using Quick Solutions Minecraft Exception_Access_Violation 0xc0000005: How To Fix By following the methods mentioned in this guide, you should now be able to fix the Minecraft Launcher Error Code 0x87e5003a. Now, you can dive back into the fascinating world of Minecraft and enjoy your adventures without any hindrance. Happy gaming! In case you encounter any additional questions, feel free to leave a comment in the dedicated section below. The post Minecraft Launcher Error Code 0x87e5003a: Try These Fixes appeared first on Games Errors.

Fortnite has captivated millions of players with its exciting gameplay and vibrant world. However, encountering errors, like Fortnite Error code 0, can be frustrating and disrupt your gaming experience. It seems like this error is pretty popular among worldwide users, so have no fear! There are plenty of solutions to fix it without effort. In […]

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Fortnite has captivated millions of players with its exciting gameplay and vibrant world. However, encountering errors, like Fortnite Error code 0, can be frustrating and disrupt your gaming experience. It seems like this error is pretty popular among worldwide users, so have no fear! There are plenty of solutions to fix it without effort. In this comprehensive guide, we will walk you through various troubleshooting steps to help you fix Error 0 and get back to the Battle Royale action. How can I fix the Fortnite error code 0? Before getting into our main solutions, we recommend trying these fast fixes: Check your system specifications to see if it is meeting at least the minimum requirements to run the game. Because this error might occur due to missing or corrupted files, you should verify the integrity of game files in Epic Games Launcher. Now, in case you didn’t manage to solve the problem, move to the following solutions: Check the game server status Update the game Reset network settings Temporarily disable your antivirus software or any unnecessary apps 1. Check the game server status Navigate to the official Epic Games status website and check if the Fortnite status is Operational. You can also try to visit the official Fortnite social media channels and search for any notifications pertaining to server downtime or scheduled maintenance. If there’s a server issue, you may need to wait until it’s resolved. In the meantime, you can follow Fortnite’s social media for updates. 2. Update the game Open your Epic Games Launcher client. From the bottom left window pane, choose Settings. Go to the Manage Games section, then ensure to checkmark the box next to the Allow Auto-Updates option. Expand the menu for Fortnite, then make sure it has its Auto-update box checked. 3. Reset network settings Time needed: 3 minutes Resetting your network settings seems to be one of the most efficient solutions to fix Fortnite error code 0. Use the following keyboard shortcut to open Windows Settings: Windows + I. From the left window pane, click on the Network & Internet option. Then, look at the right side of the window and choose Advanced network settings. Now, navigate to Network reset. Once you reach the new window, click on the Reset now button. In the pop-up window, confirm the process by clicking on Yes. Wait a bit, then restart your PC. 4. Temporarily disable your antivirus software or any unnecessary apps Simultaneously press these keys: Windows + X. Select Task Manager from the pop-up menu. Make sure you’re in the Processes tab. Select each app/program you don’t necessarily need, then choose to End task. The error code 0 in Fortnite could refer to a variety of issues, such as problems with game files, network connectivity, or other technical glitches. Some users might suggest disabling antivirus software as a way to rule out the possibility that the antivirus is interfering with the game’s functionality. Related articles: How to Make Fortnite Run Better on PC: 7 Expert Tips to Try Fortnite This Client is Not Compatible: Why & How to Fix Fortnite Successfully Logged Out: Fix It in 3 Minutes Fortnite Unexpected Error Occured on Xbox: How to Fix Fortnite Update Stuck at 100% Xbox One [Easy Fix] Fortnite Error code 0 can be a minor setback, but with the troubleshooting steps provided in this guide, you should be able to fix the issue and jump back into the action-packed world of Fortnite. The below comment section is dedicated to you, so make sure you use it in case of having any other related questions or curiosities. The post Fortnite Error Code 0: Fix It Now appeared first on Games Errors.

Fortnite is a highly popular and addictive online battle royale game played by millions of players worldwide, but the 0xc0000005 error seems to sometimes generate headaches among fans. Like any other software, it can encounter various errors and issues that disrupt the gaming experience. The 0xc0000005 error is one of the most common occurrences for […]

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Fortnite is a highly popular and addictive online battle royale game played by millions of players worldwide, but the 0xc0000005 error seems to sometimes generate headaches among fans. Like any other software, it can encounter various errors and issues that disrupt the gaming experience. The 0xc0000005 error is one of the most common occurrences for some players. If you’re facing this error while trying to play Fortnite, don’t worry! This guide will walk you through several troubleshooting steps to help you resolve the issue and get back into the game. What is error code 0xc0000005 in games? Error code 0xc0000005 is a common Windows error that can occur when running various applications, including games. This error is officially known as the Access Violation error and indicates that an application attempted to access a memory address that it was not allowed to access. In simpler terms, it means that a program tried to read or write to a memory location that it doesn’t have permission to use, resulting in a crash or termination of the application. There are several reasons why this error can occur in games: Corrupted Game Files: If some game files are corrupt or missing, the game may try to access an invalid memory location, triggering the 0xc0000005 error. Outdated or Incompatible Drivers: Graphics drivers, audio drivers, or other hardware drivers that are outdated or incompatible with the game can lead to memory access issues. Faulty RAM: Problems with your computer’s RAM (Random Access Memory) can cause memory access violations in games, resulting in the error code 0xc0000005. Third-Party Software Interference: Certain third-party software, such as antivirus programs or system optimizers, may interfere with the game’s memory allocation and cause access violation errors. Compatibility Issues: Some games may not be fully compatible with certain versions of Windows or specific hardware configurations, leading to access violation errors. How can I fix the error code 0xc0000005 in Fortnite? Before going deeper into the main solutions, we suggest first ensuring these quick steps: Check if your system meets at least the minimum requirements to run Fortnite. Verify the game files on Epic Games Launcher, by using our expert guide. Now, if none of the above options worked, let’s discover some additional solutions you can try to get rid of the Fortnite 0xc0000005 Error. Update your drivers Run an SFC scan Scan PC with Windows Defender Disable third-party software 1. Update your drivers Time needed: 5 minutes Simultaneously hit the Windows and X keys, then choose Device Manager from the shown menu. Now, look for the Disk drivers section, then double-click on it. Once the section is expanded, right-click on the needed component, then choose to Update driver. Now, choose to Search automatically for drivers (Just as we show you in the example below). Wait until the process is completed, then check if our today’s issue is gone. 2. Run an SFC scan Hit the Windows key, type cmd, then choose to Run as administrator. In the opened window, type the following code, then press Enter: SFC/scannow Because the process might take a while, we recommend being patient until it is completed. 3. Scan the PC with Windows Defender Navigate to Windows Settings by using this keyboard shortcut: Windows + I. Go to Privacy & Security, then to Windows Security. Choose Virus & threat protection. Scroll down until you see the Current Threats option, then choose to perform a Quick Scan. You can also go for Scan options. There, you’ll find multiple alternatives from which you can choose. Initiate the scanning process. After completion, restart your system and follow additional instructions for virus removal in case any is detected. Then, run Fortnite and check if you’ve managed to get rid of the 0xc0000005 error. 4. Disable third-party software Open Task Manager by pressing simultaneously the following keys on your keyboard: Ctrl + Shift + Esc. There, make sure you’re in the Processes tab. Then, look for any app or program you don’t necessarily need or use while running Fortnite, and choose to End Task. Related articles: How to Make Fortnite Run Better on PC: 7 Expert Tips to Try Fortnite Successfully Logged Out: Fix It in 3 Minutes Fortnite This Client is Not Compatible: Why & How to Fix Fortnite Unexpected Error Occured on Xbox: How to Fix Encountering the Fortnite 0xc0000005 Error can be frustrating, but armed with the right troubleshooting steps, you can swiftly overcome this hurdle and get back to the exhilarating world of Fortnite. In case of facing any additional questions, feel free to use the comment section listed below. The post Fortnite 0xc0000005 Error: Try These Fixes appeared first on Games Errors.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) is a cornerstone of the CoD franchise, offering intense multiplayer action and a gripping campaign. However, the gaming experience can sometimes be ruined by various errors, one of which is the notorious Dev Error 12502. This technical problem can stop players in their tracks, leaving many to wonder […]

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) is a cornerstone of the CoD franchise, offering intense multiplayer action and a gripping campaign. However, the gaming experience can sometimes be ruined by various errors, one of which is the notorious Dev Error 12502. This technical problem can stop players in their tracks, leaving many to wonder about its nature and, more importantly, how to fix it. In this guide, we’ll explore what Dev Error 12502 is and provide you with reliable methods to get you back into the action as swiftly as possible. What is Dev Error 12502 in MW3? Dev Error 12502 is a common issue that players of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 might encounter. This error generally signifies a problem related to the game’s files or settings that prevents it from running smoothly. It can be triggered by a variety of factors, including corrupted game files, outdated graphics drivers, or incorrect game settings. How Can I Fix MW3 Dev Error 12502? To resolve Dev Error 12502 and restore your gaming experience, consider the following preliminary solutions: Run the game as an administrator Close unnecessary background tasks Repair the game files Table of contents 1. Update the game 2. Adjust Your System’s Paging File Size 3. Disable Game Overlays 1. Update the game Updating your game is a crucial step in resolving MW3 Dev Error 12502, as developers often release patches to fix bugs and improve game performance. Here’s how you can ensure that Modern Warfare 3 is up to date: Open Your Game Launcher: Begin by launching the platform you use to play MW3, such as Steam, Battle.net, or your console’s home screen. These platforms typically manage game updates automatically. Navigate to Your Game Library: In your game launcher, locate your library or list of owned games. Here, you’ll find Modern Warfare 3 among your collection. Check for Updates: Highlight Modern Warfare 3 and look for any prompts or options indicating an available update. Launchers like Steam and Battle.net display update statuses directly on the game’s library entry. For consoles, selecting the game usually prompts an update check. Initiate the Update Process: If an update is available, you’ll typically see an “Update” button or similar. Click or select this to start downloading the update. On consoles, updates may start automatically upon selecting the game or may require you to confirm the update. Wait for the Update to Complete: Download and installation times will vary based on the update’s size and your internet connection speed. Ensure the process completes without interruption. On PC, avoid using other bandwidth-intensive applications to speed up the download. Launch the Game: After the update is installed, open MW3 to check if Dev Error 12502 has been resolved. Updated game versions often include fixes for common errors and might resolve your issue directly. Keeping MW3 and your game launcher updated ensures you have the latest content and fixes. If automatic updates are disabled in your launcher, consider enabling them to automatically receive these improvements in the future. 2. Adjust Your System’s Paging File Size Adjusting your system’s paging file size can be an effective way to fix MW3 Dev Error 12502, especially if the error is related to insufficient system memory. Follow these detailed steps to adjust your paging file size for Windows: Press Windows Key + R: This will open the Run dialog box. In the box, type sysdm.cpl and press Enter. This command opens the System Properties window. Navigate to Advanced System Settings: Once the System Properties window is open, click on the “Advanced” tab. Here, you’ll find performance, user profiles, and startup and recovery options. Access Performance Settings: Under the Performance section, click on “Settings” to open the Performance Options window. This window allows you to adjust various settings related to your computer’s performance. Modify Virtual Memory: In the Performance Options window, switch to the “Advanced” tab, and then click on “Change” under the Virtual memory section. Virtual memory is where your computer supplements its physical RAM by temporarily storing data on the hard drive. Adjust Paging File Size: By default, the “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” option is selected. Uncheck this box to manually adjust the paging file size. Then, select the drive where your game is installed (typically the C: drive). Set Custom Size: After selecting the drive, choose the “Custom size” option. Here, you will input the initial size (MB) and maximum size (MB) for your paging file. It’s recommended to set the initial size to the amount of RAM your system has and the maximum size to double the amount of RAM. However, these values can vary based on your system’s specifications and the requirements of the game. Apply and Set: After entering your custom sizes, click on “Set” and then “OK” to apply the changes. You may be prompted to restart your computer for the changes to take effect. Restart Your Computer: Save any open files and close all applications, then restart your computer. This will ensure that the changes to the virtual memory settings are properly applied. Launch the Game: Once your computer has restarted, try launching MW3 again to see if the Dev Error 12502 has been resolved. Adjusting the paging file size can help accommodate games that require a lot of memory, like MW3, especially if you’re running several applications simultaneously or have limited RAM. If you’re unsure about the best settings for your system, it’s a good idea to consult Windows’ recommendations in the Virtual Memory window or seek advice from a knowledgeable source to avoid system instability. 3. Disable Game Overlays Disabling game overlays can significantly improve game performance and potentially resolve MW3 Dev Error 12502. Many gaming applications provide overlays that offer convenient features like FPS counters, instant messaging, and live streaming, but they can also cause conflicts or use valuable resources. Here’s how to disable the most common game overlays: For Nvidia GeForce Experience: Launch Nvidia GeForce Experience: Open the GeForce Experience application on your computer. Access the Settings: Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner to go to the settings. Disable In-Game Overlay: Find the “In-Game Overlay” option and toggle it off. This will disable the overlay that GeForce Experience provides in games. For Discord: Open Discord: Start the Discord app on your PC. Go to User Settings: Click on the cog icon near your username at the bottom left to access settings. Navigate to Overlay Settings: Select “Overlay” in the App Settings section. Toggle Off the Overlay: Ensure the “Enable in-game overlay” option is toggled off to disable Discord’s game overlay. For Steam: Open Steam: Launch the Steam client. Access Settings: Click on “Steam” in the upper left corner, then “Settings”. Find the In-Game Settings: Go to the “In-Game” tab in the settings menu. Disable the Steam Overlay: Uncheck the box labeled “Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game”. For Xbox Game Bar (Windows 10/11): Open Settings: Press the Windows key and type “Settings”, then press Enter. Navigate to Gaming: Click on “Gaming” to access the game bar settings. Go to Xbox Game Bar: Select “Xbox Game Bar” from the side menu. Toggle Off: Ensure the “Enable Xbox Game Bar for things like recording game clips, chatting with friends, and receiving game invites” is set to Off. For AMD Radeon Software: Launch AMD Radeon Software: Open the software through your desktop or search function. Access the Settings: Look for the gear icon or a similar settings menu. Disable Overlay: Find the overlay option and toggle it off to disable AMD’s overlay feature. After disabling these overlays, restart your game to see if Dev Error 12502 persists. Turning off these features can not only solve compatibility issues but also free up resources for a smoother gaming experience. If you’re not using a particular overlay feature, keeping it disabled during gameplay is generally a good practice. Conclusion Tackling Dev Error 12502 in Modern Warfare 3 feels a bit like detective work, doesn’t it? You’ve got your list of potential problems—outdated game versions, mischievous system settings, those sneaky overlays—and it’s all about patiently ruling them out one by one. The key is to keep calm and troubleshoot on, starting with the basics like ensuring your game is up to date, then maybe diving into the more techy stuff like tweaking your virtual memory settings if needed. And, if you ever feel lost, remember that Activision’s official support is like the detective’s handbook, always there to guide you with the latest insights. By methodically following these steps, you’re not just trying to fix an error; you’re ensuring your gaming setup is as robust as can be, ready for uninterrupted action. Here’s to smoother gaming ahead! The post How to Fix Dev Error 12502 in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 appeared first on Games Errors.

The Call of Duty series has been a staple of the first-person shooter genre, offering players intense combat scenarios and a rich, narrative-driven experience. However, like any complex games, it’s not immune to technical problems. One such issue that has been a thorn in players’ sides is the MW3 Dev Error 5433, especially within the […]

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The Call of Duty series has been a staple of the first-person shooter genre, offering players intense combat scenarios and a rich, narrative-driven experience. However, like any complex games, it’s not immune to technical problems. One such issue that has been a thorn in players’ sides is the MW3 Dev Error 5433, especially within the game’s zombie mode.. This error can abruptly halt your gaming session, leaving you searching for solutions. What is Dev error 5433 in Modern Warfare 3? Dev Error 5433 in Modern Warfare 3 typically indicates an issue within the game’s system that prevents it from operating correctly. Such errors usually relate to problems with game files, graphics settings, system configurations, or compatibility issues with hardware or drivers. How to fix Dev error 5433? To fix Dev Error 5433, try disconnecting and then reconnecting your internet connection. This quick fix has helped some users, although it may not be a long-term solution. Additionally, run the game as an administrator and remove unnecessary background tasks. Table of contents 1. Verify the game files 2. Update the game 3. Update Windows & Drivers 4. Set Game Priority to High 5. Optimize your internet connection 1. Verify the game files Corrupted game files are a common cause of MW3 Dev Error 5433. Regularly checking the integrity of your game files can help prevent this issue. Here’s a simplified process: Open your game launcher and locate the executable file for MW3. Right-click on the file and choose “Properties.” Navigate to the “Local Files” tab within the Properties window. Select the option to “Verify the integrity of game files.” Allow the launcher to check and repair any corrupted files. Restart your game after the verification process to see if the error has been resolved. This method ensures your game files are intact and can often clear up errors related to file corruption. 2. Update the game Ensuring your game is up to date is another key strategy in resolving MW3 Dev Error 5433. Game developers frequently release updates that fix bugs and errors. Follow these steps to update the game: Open the game launcher (like Steam, Battle.net, or the console’s home screen). Navigate to Modern Warfare 3 in your game library. Look for any available updates. If there’s an update option, select it to initiate the update process. Wait for the update to download and install, which may take some time, depending on the size of the update and your internet speed. Once the update is complete, launch the game to see if the error persists. Keeping the game updated ensures you have the latest fixes and game improvements, potentially resolving the Dev Error 5433 and enhancing your gaming experience. 3. Update Windows & Drivers Keeping your operating system and drivers up-to-date is crucial for fixing MW3 Dev Error 5433. Updates often include patches for software bugs that could be causing the error. Here’s how to go about it: Update Windows: Go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update, and click on “Check for updates.” Install any available updates and restart your computer. Update Drivers: Specifically, your graphics card drivers should be kept up to date. You can do this by visiting the manufacturer’s website (e.g., NVIDIA, AMD, Intel) and downloading the latest driver for your model. Alternatively, you can use the device manager in Windows to check for driver updates. These updates can enhance system compatibility and performance, potentially resolving the Dev Error 5433 in MW3. 4. Set Game Priority to High Adjusting the game’s priority to high in your system’s task manager can potentially resolve MW3 Dev Error 5433 by allocating more system resources to the game. Here’s a simplified guide: Launch Modern Warfare 3. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open the Task Manager. Go to the “Details” tab, find the game process (it might be listed as ModernWarfare3.exe or something similar). Right-click on the game process, hover over “Set priority,” and then select “High.” This action tells your computer to prioritize MW3’s operations over less critical processes running in the background, which could smooth out performance issues and mitigate the dev error. 5. Optimize your internet connection Optimizing your internet connection can play a critical role in preventing MW3 Dev Error 5433, especially in online play where a stable connection is vital. Here’s how to ensure your internet is in the best shape for gaming: Wired Connection: If possible, use a wired connection instead of Wi-Fi. Ethernet connections are generally more stable and offer faster speeds. Restart Your Router: Simply turning your router off for a minute and then back on can refresh your connection and improve stability. Limit Bandwidth Usage: Ensure no other devices are using the network for bandwidth-heavy tasks like streaming or downloading large files while you play. Update Router Firmware: Check your router’s manufacturer website for firmware updates that can improve performance and security. Adjust Game’s Bandwidth Settings: Some games allow you to limit how much bandwidth they use. Lowering these settings can make your connection more stable. Use a Gaming VPN: A VPN designed for gaming can sometimes reduce ping and packet loss by routing your traffic more efficiently than your ISP. Contact Your ISP: If you consistently have connection issues, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may be able to help optimize your connection or troubleshoot problems on their end. By following these steps, you’re not just addressing Dev Error 5433 but also enhancing your overall online gaming experience. Fixing Dev Error 5433 on PS5 Restart Your PS5: Sometimes, a simple restart can clear temporary glitches causing the error. Check for Game Updates: Ensure MW3 and your PS5 system software are up to date. Go to the game on your dashboard, press the options button, and select ‘Check for Update.’ Rebuild Database: Boot your PS5 in Safe Mode and select the ‘Rebuild Database’ option. This can fix issues without deleting your data. Reinstall the Game: If the error persists, try uninstalling and then reinstalling MW3. This can resolve corrupted game data issues. Improve Internet Connection: Use a wired connection if possible and restart your router to ensure a stable online experience. Adjust PS5 Settings: Some users find that tweaking network settings or restoring default settings in the PS5 can help. These steps target the common causes of Dev Error 5433 on PS5, focusing on system and game software health, as well as network stability. Conclusion Navigating through the annoyance of Dev Error 5433, whether on PS5 or PC, requires a mix of system checks, game updates, and internet optimization. Each suggested solution targets a potential root cause, from software glitches and outdated files to unstable network connections. Implementing these fixes not only aims to resolve the specific error but also enhances the overall gaming experience by ensuring your system and network are optimized for performance. Remember, persistence is key; if one solution doesn’t work, move on to the next until you find the right fix for your situation. Happy gaming, and may your sessions be error-free! The post MW3 Dev Error 5433: How To Fix It Easily appeared first on Games Errors.

Many believe that Gaming and Esports industry has taken a hard hit as the offices reopened after COVID-19, and the downfall of this industry has begun. While we can say this about just the Esports industry, the Gaming industry is still booming, and if you are wondering how big it is, you can have a […]

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Many believe that Gaming and Esports industry has taken a hard hit as the offices reopened after COVID-19, and the downfall of this industry has begun. While we can say this about just the Esports industry, the Gaming industry is still booming, and if you are wondering how big it is, you can have a look at the comparison between the revenue generated by the Movie Industry, which is widely considered as the wealthiest entertainment sector vs. Gaming Industry. Gaming vs. Movie Industry Revenue: Which Is Bigger? Gaming vs. Movie Industry Revenue Comparison. (Image via S-GAME/Universal Pictures) As per the report by SuperData Research, the Gaming Industry was valued at $159.3 billion in 2020; however, on the other side, the Movie Industry was worth $19.1 billion, which makes the Gaming Industry around eight times bigger than the Movie Industry. Moving forward in 2022, even though the global games market took a small hit of -5.1%, as per Newzoo, it was still the second biggest entertainment industry after the TV industry as it was worth $182.9 billion and once again surpassed the revenue generated by the Movie and Music Industry combined. Global Games Market Revenue in 2022. (Image via Newzoo) Some of the highest-selling video games include Animal Crossing, GTA 5, Minecraft, Call of Duty, and more; however, mobile games had the highest percentage of revenue (around 50% in 2022, as per Newzoo) among all. The reason behind this is the portability of mobile devices and their affordability compared to other gaming devices available out there. There are a bunch of other factors that contribute to the success of the Gaming Industry in comparison to the Movie Industry. One of the biggest factors is the immersive and attractive experience games offer. Unlike watching movies, playing video games will let you control your character in the game and experience the stories as you like, making it a more immersive experience than just consuming content through eyes and ears. Apart from this, it’s a social platform that will connect players from around the world and let them make friends across countries which is not possible in movies. Even in 2023, Activision Blizzard’s Diablo 4 made over $666 Million in just five days after its launch that became their fastest-selling game till date, while on the other hand, Modern Warfare 2 grossed $1 billion in 10 days after it got released, giving us an idea on how well the industry is performing. Global Games Market Revenue Forecast till 2025. (Image via Newzoo) Not only this but as per Newzoo’s report, the Gaming Industry will be worth $206.4 billion by 2025. Thus, it is safe to say that the Gaming Industry massively dominates the Movie Industry and is only projected to grow in the coming years. Related articles: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: What is Different? Japanese Games VS Western Games: Understanding the Key Differences Diablo 4 Monetization: Microtransactions Discovered by Fans Diablo 4 Release: 5 Most Irritating Issues You May Encounter The post Gaming vs. Movie Industry Revenue: Striking Revenue Gap Revealed appeared first on Games Errors.

Apex Legends vs Fortnite. Which one is more popular and better? This question can arise in your mind. But, without proper analysis, it’s not possible to answer. Both of these games are known for their amazing multiplayer experience. But that’s not the complete story. We have looked far deeper than you can imagine and found […]

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Apex Legends vs Fortnite. Which one is more popular and better? This question can arise in your mind. But, without proper analysis, it’s not possible to answer. Both of these games are known for their amazing multiplayer experience. But that’s not the complete story. We have looked far deeper than you can imagine and found many surprising facts. In this analytical article, you will learn about fantastic stats, facts, and graphics that will satisfy your curiosity. Note: We’re excited to share an excellent article comparing Apex Legends and Fortnite. Our dedicated writer spent an incredible 10 hours crafting this outstanding research piece. The extensive research and knowledge poured into this exceptional article will captivate you. Apex Legends vs. Fortnite: A complete overview of Popularity Before we dive deeper, we should have some idea about the nature of these two games: System requirements Both of these games have apparent system requirements that give us a clear idea about the optimization level of these titles. Here are the system requirements for Apex Legends: Processor: Core i3 6th Gen/AMD FX-4350 or Better RAM: 6GB Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 640/Radeon HD 7730 Disk Space: 22 GB+ Operating System: Windows 7 or higher After knowing the required specifications, you can see that a PC with basic hardware can run Apex Legends without any problem. Even the obsolete Windows 7 OS is also compatible. Though we don’t know for how long Windows 7 support will exist. Looking at Fortnite, we can see that this game is also compatible with PCs with basic hardware. Here are the system requirements for Fortnite: Processor: Core i3 3rd Gen RAM: 8GB Graphics Card: Intel HD 4000 on PC/AMD Radeon Vega 8 Disk Space: Not specified, but maybe around 40 GB Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit or Mac OS Mojave 10.14.6 Unlike Apex Legends, Fortnite doesn’t run on Windows 7. Also, it needs more disk space. But AL needs at least 6th gen Intel core i3 processor, whereas Fortnite can be played using the older i3 3rd gen processor. In fact, gamers can play both of these titles on very basic computers with minimum GPU power. Gameplay Mechanics Although both of these titles have many similarities, some key differences have made them unique from each other. Apex Legends is a First-Person shooter game, while Fortnite is Third-Person. This characteristic has created many more contrasts, particularly in the shooting, movement, and overall game mechanics. Fortnite has a built-in defense against enemy shootings. But, in the AL, the player needs to be more skillful to protect themself from enemy shooters. The movement mechanics in Fortnite is very basic. You can easily move and play. However, in Apex Legends, a gamer must be an expert and do more to move and fight. Both of these titles with cross-platform play capacity. Also, these two are getting regular updates which improve the stability and add new features to the game. Now, at this point, AL and Fortnite are not the same compared to the time when these were released. Total number of gamers Currently, Apex Legends have a total of approximately 136 million registered accounts and 114,580,698+ active players. On the other hand, Fortnite holds an estimated around 550 million registered accounts and 234,546,282+ active gamers. We have tagged a gamer active if he/she has played the game within the last 30 days. We may not get the whole story after seeing the active players. So, we have made some very specific statistics that represent the changes in the number of total players over the years in different ways. Source: ActivePlayer.IO, EsportsDriven Total number of registered gamers over the last 4 years: Here are the data of total registered player accounts in Million since 2019: Year Apex Legends Fortnite 2019 70 250 2020 90 350 2021 100 390 2022 130 450 2023 136 550 For your convenience, we have featured a graph that gives you a clear view of the total number of players in millions on both Apex Legends and Fortnite. The number in the above graph represents the total number of registered players in both games. This statistic may not be 100% accurate as no precise data is available on the official sources. So, based on the many unofficial sources and our analysis, we have estimated these numbers. The latest data is not precisely available on any recognizable forums or sources. So, we have made our estimation for 2023’s data in some cases. Source: reuters.com, Business of Apps, Statista The number of active gamers changes every month: In the following graph, you can see the number of active players over the years in every month. It shows the trend of the popularity of Fortnite and Apex Legends. The above graph is clearly showing that Apex Legends is slowly gaining popularity. On the other hand, Fortnite is losing its place even though it’s still the most popular battle royal game and far ahead of AL. However, to understand the scene from an even closer position, you should look at the other factors featured in the next parts of this post. Peak players by year: We may see different data if we look at the number of players who are active in the peak hour. Year Apex Legends Fortnite 2020 13,093,785 191,302,008 2021 67,563,911 338,845,462 2022 99,458,463 312,730,506 2023 17,333,097 71,906,471 The following smooth line graph shows the trend of active peak players over the last three years. However, we can exclude the 2023 part, as it’s the middle of the year. The above statistic clearly shows that if we exclude 2023, the number of active peak players of Apex Legends’ is increasing. But the opposite is happening for Fortnite. This information is based on the data available on ActivePlayer.IO. We have used data till April 2023. Average time spent by players: There is no exact data available about the average time spent by players on both of these games. However, according to various unofficial sources, on average, for both Apex Legends and Fortnite, gamers spent a few hours a week on these games. In Fortnite, most of the active players spend 6-10 hours a week; on Apex Legends, it’s around 7 or 8 hours. Platform preferences: Both Fortnite and Apex Legends are available on mobile, PC, and console. If we look at Fortnite, we can see that 69% of players play it on Console, which includes both Xbox and PlayStation. The PS is the most popular platform for this title, with around 40% of gamers. 46% of the players play on smartphones, and 28% play on PC. This percentage seems wrong to you. It is because some players play this title on both PC and Console or even all of these three platforms. Apex Legends’ player count per device has not yet been released by any official or unofficial channel. So, we are unable to give you an insight. Geographical distribution for Apex Legends and Fortnite: Undoubtedly, these two games are very popular around the world. In the USA, Apex Legends has 38.92% of its total number of players; for Fortnite, it’s 21.63%. We have also collected the percentage of other mentionable countries as well. Based on it, we can easily find an estimated number of gamers playing these titles in specific countries. And we did it. After calculation, we have found the following data Country Apex Legends Fortnite USA 44M 51M UK 8.2M 12.1M Russia 6.7M 18M Brazil 6.3M 13M For your convenience, we have made the following graph. It will help to understand the popularity of these two games in the countries mentioned in the above table: We can see that both of these games are very popular in the USA. Apex’s user count is particularly closer to Fortnite in this country. So, we don’t know if Fortnite can hold its position in the United States of America in the upcoming years or not. Demographical distribution for Apex Legends and Fortnite: 62.7% of Fortnite players are young. They belong to the 18-24 years age group. The 25-34 years age group’s percentage is 22.5, and the 35-44 is 12.7. On the other hand, Apex Legends doesn’t have this many statistics available. However, according to various sources, most of the players are below 18. The 18-34 age group has a significant number of players. The Apex Legends also don’t have any clear statistics on player count based on gender. But, it is indeed a male dominant FPS multiplayer where a significant number of gamers are also female. In Fortnite, 72.4% are male players, and 27.6% are female. Source: Exploding Topics Number of tournaments and prize pools for Apex Legends and Fortnite Each year, gamers attend tournaments for both Apex Legends and Fortnite. Some of these events are official. Here are some interesting stats and graphs about these events: The total number of tournaments: According to the Esports Charts, both Apex and Fortnite had many official and unofficial tournaments. The following tables show the number of tournaments for these two games from 2019 to 2022. Year Fortnite Apex Legends 2019 58 28 2020 109 155 2021 54 268 2022 72 293 2023 7 73 The above table shows that the number of Apex Legends tournaments is increasing each year. Even as of May 2023, this game has more tournaments held compared to Fortnite. In the following column chart, we have excluded the data from 2023. It will help to compare the number of the tournament for these two games over the last few years. Source of information: Esports Chart’s Apex Legends and Fortnite page. Prize Pool: Apex Legends vs Fortnite: If we look at the total prize pool per year for these two popular multiplayer games, we find the following data: Year Apex Legends Fortnite 2019 $2.1M $51.9M 2020 $6.6M $5.24M 2021 $5.3M $5.75M 2022 $1.71M $12.62M 2023 $2.27M $0.5M We can see that the tournament prize pool is very attractive for these two games. Fortnite is ahead. But Apex Legends’ ones are also impressive. The above data is based on the information found on Esports Chart. There may be errors as no precise information is available now. Revenue and Profit Margins: Since the release of Apex Legends, EA has made over 2 billion USD revenue from this game. Fortnite is much ahead. It’s making several billion a year. Here is the list of revenue in billion for these two popular battle royal games per year: Year Apex Legends Fortnite 2019-2020 0.4 5.1 2020-2021 0.6 5.8 2021-2022 1 6 The following scatter chart will help to understand the increasing trend in terms of revenue: For this statistic, we have used information from Thcsngogiatu.edu.vn, Demand Sage, Epic Games, and Statista. We have excluded the year 2023 as no complete data is available for this year yet. There is no clear information about the profit for these two titles. However, It’s hard to determine which one is more successful in increasing revenue. According to The Verge, Fortnite made $9 billion in revenue in its first two years, which is much higher than Apex’s 2 Billion in the first three years. During that period, Battle Royal games experienced a sudden spike in popularity which is also a factor. Most popular skin and character Two of these Battle Royal games have a wide range of choices when it’s skin and characters. If we look at the Apex Legends, Pathfinder, Octane, Wraith, Bangalore, Bloodhound, and Ballistic, are the most picked characters. On the other hand, if we look at Fortnite, The Foundation, Jonesy, The Visitor, Leviathan, Midas, The Reaper Fortnite Skin, Drift, etc., are very popular. Source: Dexerto, SportsKeeda, Fiction Horizon. Most viewed and streamed content If we look at the most viewed content for Fortnite, we find Travis Scott and Fortnite Present: Astronomical (Full Event Video) as the most watched content on any platform. It has gained 204 Million views. On Twitch, Fortnite Esports (0.372M views) and Kid jerks off in the Fortnite arena (0.86M views), getting the highest views. For Apex Legends, 【悲報】釈迦、漏らす – Twitch (1.99M views), LOVE_FuryXD Dies!?! (0.46M views); these are the two most popular Twitch content. If we compare the top 3 most watched videos on Twitch related to these two battle royale games, we can see the following data: Rank Fortnite Apex Legends 1 863,669 1,984,064 2 372,305 459,372 3 351,263 331,306 For your convenience, here is the graphical representation: To get an even better idea, we can have a look at the following graph based on the average views in thousand on Twitch: The above graph shows how the average monthly view counts have changed over the last three years. We can see that since January 2020, Apex Legends’ content has gotten more average views than Fortnite. Source: twitchmetrics.net and buzzrank.io, TwitchTracker Average Time-to-Kill (TTK) and Time-to-Survive (TTS) Determining the average TTK and TTS for these two games is tricky, as these depend on several factors. For Apex Legends, killing a player with 200 HP health takes 2.7 seconds on average and 2.4 seconds for 175 HP. For Fortnite, no such information is available right now. If we look at the Time-to-Survive data on Apex Legends, it may vary from player to player. Generally, a player’s survival time can be from a few seconds to several minutes. Fortnite is from a few to 20+ minutes, depending on many things. Factors that work behind the Popularity Apex Legends: We will find some interesting facts behind the scene of Apex Legends’ popularity. These are: Surprise release and announcement: Apex Legends was launched suddenly and surprised everyone. At that time, Fortnite and some other battle royal games were going through prime time. Apex Legends was a new addition with many unique and different features. That attracted young gamers. As a result, it gained a large player base within a few weeks of its release. Influencer partnerships: EA has partnered with many influencers and streamers for Apex Legends. This battle royal game was a very attractive choice for their many followers. Free-to-play model: Since Apex Legends was launched as a free-to-play game, anyone could test this title. Therefore, this title got a considerable player base within a short time. Other factors: Else, active social media presence, developer responsiveness to the players’ feedback, in-game rewards, and the amazing gameplay mechanisms developed by Respawn Entertainment hugely contributed to Apex Legends’ popularity. Fortnite: Like Apex Legends, Fortnite also got the advantage of being a free-to-play game. Apart from this, the following factors also have a significant role in its popularity: Early access and beta testing: The Fortnite beta was released before releasing the full version. That created hype among battle-royale lovers. Celebrity endorsements: To gain more player base, Epic Games have made deals with several mentionable celebrities like DJ Marshmello, Keanu Charles, Travis Scott, and many other people. Often we saw that gamers were playing Fortnite with celebrity skins and faces. In-game events and collaborations: Fortnite held many in-game events and collaborated with many popular franchises, including Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, etc., to bring their skins, themes, and characters into the game. Community Engagement: Epic Games’ engagement with the Fortnite community effectively increased player engagement. Cross-platform: One of the coolest things is Fortnite is available on multiple platforms, and gamers can have a cross-play facility, which also has increased its popularity. Else, cultural impact and social media integration, in-game challenges, community-created content, etc., have made a huge impact on Fortnite’s popularity. Fortnite has made a huge contribution to the increasing battle royal game in the industry. Apex Legends is not too far. While Epic Games is still enjoying the benefits of owning the most popular battle royal title even in 2023, EA is making its strategy to make its title more attractive and unique. We may see many interesting changes in the upcoming years when we compare Apex Legends vs Fortnite. But, the truth is Fortnite is still the most played and popular battle royal title in the industry. The post Apex Legends vs. Fortnite: Assessing Popularity in 2023 appeared first on Games Errors.

Packet loss severely impacts Counter Strike 2 and its players globally. Experiencing high ping and packet loss while playing CS2 can lead to frustrating delays and lagging. Aware of this problem, I made this guide to show you how to fix CS 2 Packet Loss. Unfortunately, I dealt with this problem a few times since […]

The post Fix CS2 Packet Loss Easily [Simple Instructions] appeared first on Games Errors.

Packet loss severely impacts Counter Strike 2 and its players globally. Experiencing high ping and packet loss while playing CS2 can lead to frustrating delays and lagging. Aware of this problem, I made this guide to show you how to fix CS 2 Packet Loss. Unfortunately, I dealt with this problem a few times since CS:GO turned into Counter Strike 2, but the solutions below helped me fix it in no time. What causes packet loss in CS2? Playing CS2 can be incredibly frustrating if you’re experiencing high ping and packet loss. These issues can cause lag and delay, making it difficult or impossible to play the game smoothly. Various factors could cause packet loss: Server issues Slow and unstable internet connection Corrupted game files DNS server issues Too many programs running in the background How do I fix packet loss in CS2? To fix packet loss in CS2, first make sure that your internet connection works as it should without any interruptions. We recommend starting with these simple steps: Check the Counter Strike 2 service status page. If servers have issues, you must wait until the servers are fully operational. Power cycling your network device. Ensure that your internet connection is steady and without any interruptions. Check with your ISP to see if the issue is on their side of the connection or above them in the network distribution company. Verify and repair game files. If you still encounter packet loss in Counter Strike 2, apply these tips: Update your network driver Flush your DNS Use launch options for the game Use a VPN 1. Update your network driver Packet loss in CS2 may indicate that you are using an outdated network driver. I encountered this problem on one of my older devices. To fix it, update your network driver as follows: Press the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box. Type; “devmgmt.msc” and hit Enter to open Device Manager. Double-click on the Network adapters to expand. Right-click on your network card, and select Update driver. Follow the on-screen guide for installing the latest network driver. Disclaimer: We are affiliated with the following Driver Update Tool. We suggest utilizing PC HelpSoft to streamline the laborious process of updating your computer’s system drivers. This tool automates the task, guaranteeing a quicker and more dependable solution without requiring manual updates or scouring the internet for authentic drivers. ⇒PC HelpSoft 2. Flush your DNS If you are experiencing packet loss in Counter Strike 2, you can attempt to resolve the issue by flushing your DNS to clear the cache. This will remove any saved IP addresses and DNS records that may be causing connectivity issues. Follow these steps: 1. Press Win+R to show the Run dialog box. 2. Type; “cmd” and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter keys to open Command Prompt as administrator. 3. Type “ipconfig /flushdns” and press Enter. 4. Type “ipconfig /registerdns” and press Enter. 5. Type “ipconfig /release” and press Enter. 6. Type “ipconfig /renew” and press Enter. 7. Type “netsh winsock reset” and press Enter. 8. Reboot the PC, launch CS2, and check if the issue is gone. 3. Use launch options for the game Time needed: 1 minute We recommend entering commands in the game launch options that promote an efficient and stable connection to optimize the communication between your PC and the CS2 server. Open Steam launcher Right-click on the CS2 and choose Properties. Set Launch Options Enter the following command in the Launch Options: rate 128000 cl_cmdrate 128 cl_interp 0 cl_interpratio 1 cl_lagcompensation 1 Relaunch Steam Play CS2 to check if the issue is gone. 4. Use a VPN Improve your gaming experience with a reliable VPN like ExpressVPN. It can lower ping, avoid packet loss, and provide fast and stable connectivity. Choose from many servers in different countries for playing with friends online. It should be noted that a VPN can solely enhance your ping if your ISP imposes limits on your connection. 1. Download and install ExpressVPN. 2. During installation, provide your email address; you will get the code to access your ExpressVPN dashboard. 3. Click on Sign In. 4. Connect to a desired server. 5. Launch CS 2 and check if the issue is gone. Do you still have CS2 packet loss? Then, consider these extra methods: Update Windows to the latest version. Update DirectX, .NET Framework, and VCRedist. Update CS 2 Close unnecessary apps and downloads that are running in the background. Temporarily disable Windows firewall or antivirus. If you use WiFi, disable any devices that reduce your bandwidth. Use a wired connection instead of a wireless one. Use public DNS servers like Google’s. Reinstall CS2 Perform clean boot. Conclusion If you’re playing CS 2 and experiencing packet loss, it’s recommended that you first check for any server or internet connection issues. Other possible solutions include flushing your DNS, updating your network driver, using launch options for the game, disabling any unnecessary background apps, or utilizing a trustworthy VPN service. If you have any additional solutions, feel free to add them to the comments. We will test them on our devices, and add them to the list. The post Fix CS2 Packet Loss Easily [Simple Instructions] appeared first on Games Errors.

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Leaks have repeatedly claimed that a ground-up remake of the beloved 2000 RPG is in active development at Square Enix.

Leaks have repeatedly claimed that Square Enix is actively working on a remake of Final Fantasy 9, and it seems the company may be preparing to begin talking about the long-rumoured project in an official capacity. Final Fantasy 9 is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year (July 7 being its original Japanese launch date), and Square Enix has launched a website to commemorate the same. Interestingly, on the website, the company also says it is “preparing various projects” to celebrate the classic RPG’s release. Earlier this year, prominent leaker NateTheHate claimed Final Fantasy 9 Remake was in active development, and could be targeting a 2026 release. Whether that means we can expect an announcement anytime soon remains to be seen. A Nintendo Switch 2-focused Direct is scheduled for later this week- perhaps we’ll hear something then? We can keep our fingers crossed, if nothing else. Stay tuned for more updates.

The entire trilogy is reportedly set to be produced together in New Zealand from November 2025 to April 2027.

Nintendo and Sony Pictures have remained awfully tight-lipped about their planned live action Legend of Zelda film since announcing it in late 2023, but new details seem to have emerged nonetheless. Production Line – a production tracking website operated by the Film and Television Industry Alliance – reports that production on a planned trilogy of live action The Legend of Zelda films is set to begin later this year. The three movies will seemingly be produced together, with production scheduled to run from November 2025 to April 2026. Interestingly, a brief narrative summary of the project is also provided, suggesting that the movie’s story will feature a number of elements that series fans will find familiar, including the Triforce, dungeons, and more. The summary reads, “The Legend of Zelda follows Link, a young warrior destined to protect the magical kingdom of Hyrule from the forces of darkness. The land is under threat from Ganon, a ruthless warlord who seeks the Triforce—an ancient relic said to grant limitless power. To stop him, Link must embark on a perilous journey, battling monstrous creatures, exploring treacherous dungeons, and solving intricate puzzles to uncover sacred artifacts that can aid him in his quest.” The Legend of Zelda movie is being directed by Wes Bell (Maze Runner, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes) with series creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Avi Arad (Spider-Man, Venom, X-Men, Uncharted) serving as producers. As Nintendo recently announced, the movie will release worldwide on March 26, 2027.

Naughty Dog and PlayStation's acclaimed action-adventure title is set to launch for PC later this week, on April 3.

There’s plenty to look forward to for The Last of Us fans in the coming weeks, with the second season of HBO’s adaptation set to premiere on April 13, and The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered’s PC launch set to precede it later this week. Ahead of that launch, Naughty Dog has confirmed another crucial tidbit. Taking to Twitter, Naughty Dog announced that The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered will be officially Steam Deck Verified on launch, which means the game is fully optimized for the portable device. Many guessed (or hoped, at least) that this would be the case, especially after the action-adventure title’s PC requirements were revealed earlier this month, but it’s good to have confirmation, at the very least. The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered launches for PC on April 3. It will also feature new content for the roguelike mode No Return, which will also be released for free for the game’s PS5 version on the same day. The Last of Us Part II Remastered for PC is officially Steam Deck Verified ahead of its release on April 3! 🎮✅ Pre-purchase now: https://t.co/p2tDhmSdGa pic.twitter.com/3AnnTIvE3G — Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) March 31, 2025

The remaster is built on Unreal Engine 5, and promises improved environmental details, reflections, 4K textures, and more.

Frogwares is busy with The Sinking City 2, but it has a surprise for fans of the original – a full remaster on Unreal Engine 5. The Sinking City Remastered will be coming to PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S, with console owners of the first game receiving a free upgrade. A trailer isn’t available, but you can check out various screenshots below. On top of all the benefits from the jump to Unreal Engine 5, The Sinking City Remastered will feature “enhanced” locations with more details and objects, 4K textures, better reflections, and support for DLSS, FSR and TSR. And, of course, there’s a Photo Mode to help players capture all this beauty. There’s no release date, but stay tuned for official gameplay of the remaster in the coming months. As for The Sinking City 2, it has four days remaining on its Kickstarter and amassed nearly $473,000 in crowd-funding, over four times the original goal.

Here are the best weapons in The First Berserker: Khazan.

The First Berserker: Khazan has dozens of weapons to choose from, split over three distinct weapon categories–Dual Wield, Greatswords, and Spears. These broad categories also define the potential to level their associated Skill Trees, which unlock a variety of moves and abilities. Weapons can be standalone, or part of a set. Since all weapons within a given category do the same damage numbers when at the same quality and level, the only real distinction is going to be any special attributes a weapon may have. This guide has a small selection of some of the best weapons based on their fixed attribute, and their locations in The First Berserker: Khazan. Dual Wield Fallen Guardian’s Dual Wield This Dual Wield from the Fallen Guardian Set allows you to learn Ruthless: Blast to enhance the Ruthless: Strength skill from the Dual Wield Skill Tree. After slaying an enemy with Ruthless, you can continue your frenzied attack automatically onto the next nearest enemy. Various random pieces of the Fallen Guardian Set will drop from both Volbaino in Charnak Mountain Range Region’s Phraugh Village, and Specter of Bhangau in Bhangau Residence, a sub-location also within Phraugh Village. Beastslayer’s Dual Wield Part of the Beastslayer Set, this Dual Wield unlocks the skill Phantom: Shadow Sword Dance from the Dual Wield Skill Tree, and enhances the Phantom: Sword Dance Spirit Skill. The Phantom will appear and strike at the enemy every time you brink guard correctly, and occasionally when you take damage as well. Various random pieces of the Beastslayer Set will drop from Shactuka in Linon Mine, a location in the Pell Los Plateau region. Bloodthirsty Fiend’s Dual Wield This Dual Wield Bloodthirsty Fiend Set piece allows you to learn the skill Phantom: Bloody Sword Dance from the Dual Wield Skill Tree, which improves upon the standard Phantom: Sword Dance skill. With most attacks, there is a chance for a phantom to appear, and which will attack your adversaries right along with you. Various random pieces of the Bloodthirsty Fiend Set will drop from Skalpel in Vaisar Gate, a location in the Heart of Pell Los Region. Greatsword Soul-Cleaving Greatsword From the Soul Eater Set, wielding this Greatsword will boost damage by 3% for 3 minutes each time you slay an enemy. While miniscule initially, it does stack up to ten times, for a total increase of 30% attack damage. Various random pieces of the Soul Eater Set will drop from both the Blade Phantom boss in Charnak Mountain Range Region’s Stormpass, and Keshta the Unyielding. Fugitive Mage’s Greatsword This Fugitive Mage Set piece unlocks the Scorching Earth Spirit Skill in the Greatsword Skill Tree. This move begins with a small explosion and follows up with a massive arc of a swipe with the Greatsword. Consumes a hefty 5 Spirit each time. Various random pieces of the Fugitive Mage Set will drop from Bellerian in Rephalan Mountains, a location in the Heart of Pell Los Region. Neglected Greatsword This Greatsword from the Ashen Wolf Set allows you to learn Titanic Descent: Eruption from the Greatsword Skill Tree, and adds to the Titanic Descent: Explosion skill. Using Titanic Descent to successfully strike at a target will cause an eruption of energy that does area of effect damage to nearby enemies. Various random pieces of the Ashen Wolf Set will drop from Yetuga in Mount Heinmach, a location in the Charnak Mountain Range Region. Spear Nameless Mercenary’s Spear From the Mercenary Set, this Spear unlocks the Spirit Skill Buster Spear in the Spear Skill Tree. This powerful attack begins with you leaping up in place and hurling your spear at an enemy from range. Aside from the base 2 Spirit consumed, it can be further charged with an extra 1 Spirit to significantly boost the damage and range of the skill. Various pieces of the Mercenary Set will drop from random enemies.. Formless Warrior’s Spear This Deep Shadow Set Spear unlocks the Assault: Skyfall skill that improves upon Assault: Descent from the Spear Skill Tree. After leaping into the air, Khazan will descend into a shockwave attack with a fairly wide area of effect, and consumes 1 spirit. Various pieces of the Deep Shadow Set will drop from random enemies.. Crushed Dreams Spear From the Crushed Dreams Set, this Spear will boost brink guard damage by 4% for 10 seconds at a time. While quite a short duration, it does stack up to five times, for a total increase of 20% brink guard damage. Various random pieces of the Crushed Dreams Set will drop from both Elamein in El Ravaca Village, and Remnant of Elamein in Darion Castle. Those are some of the most powerful skills to be unlocked through weapons in The First Berserker: Khazan.

Here are the best weapons in Atomfall and how to upgrade them.

There are dozens of weapons to be found and used in Atomfall, spread across three major groups–melee, ranged, and throwable. While many of the ranged weapons are merely quality-tier variants of the same selection of guns, there are also some unique weapons of note. This guide is a selection of the best weapons and where they can be found, as well as how to go about upgrading them in Atomfall. Modified JM-3 Skethermoor Secluded Cave 41.2E, 79.4N Head into the door barring this cave and bear left and left again when you reach the water-filled section. Squeeze through the gap and find the Modified JM-3 lying on the ground to the right of the corpse here. This semi-automatic rifle does high damage at a very high rate of fire with high accuracy. As a unique weapon, it cannot be upgraded with the Gunsmith skill, but with those stats it doesn’t really need to be anyway. Terrier .22 Rifle Slatten Dale 27E, 75N Among the dilapidated ruins in this area, look for the building with the attached water mill. To the left of its entrance, next to the yellowed wooden crate, is a crawl space into the building next door. Enter it, and find the Terrier .22 Rifle propped up against a stool in a side room to the left of the tripwire. Some Outlaws may also be carrying this. This Rusty variant is a bolt-action, single-shot rifle that does low damage, but has high accuracy. Enfield LMG Skethermoor Skethermoor Camp Armoury 39.5E, 71.4N Report to Grand Sims in order to be able to enter Skethermoor Prison. Next, collect the Armoury Key lying on the desk in Access Control at 41.0E, 71.3N. Head to the Armoury and use the key on the card reader to unlock the doors. Enter and turn left into the caged area to find the Enfield LMG held upright in a gun rack. This Stock variant is an automatic light machine gun that does high damage, but with low accuracy and a high recoil. Cricket Bat Slatten Dale Wyndham Village Wyndham Hardware Village Shop Either loot it off of Outlaws in Slatten Dale, or purchase it from Morris Wick at the Wyndham Hardware Village Shop. This large melee weapon has an average attack speed, but does high damage, outpacing the ponderous Mace and Axe. Bow Check out at 16 minutes in the video below to find the location of the trader. Casterfell Woods Trader Camp Rumoured Location Billy Gorse 21.5E, 89.6N Barter for the Bow as well as some Arrows with Billy Gorse at the rumoured location of his Trader Camp. Can also be looted from enemies, such as those located in Casterfell Woods at 19.9E, 84.2N. This ranged weapon is silent but deadly, doing high damage, and mastery of it can be improved through acquiring the Bow Mastery Manual and unlocking its skills–Bow Focus, Draw Control, and Draw Speed. How To Upgrade Weapons Upgrading weapons requires the Gunsmith skill which is unlocked by acquiring the Crafting Manual. This skill manual can either be extorted from Morris Wick, or found within the Data Store Delta Store Room inside The Interchange. The Gunsmith skill itself will require 7 Training Stimulants to unlock. Non-unique ranged weapons come in three quality tiers—Rusty, Stock, and Pristine. In order to upgrade a weapon through tiers, you need 2 counts of the same weapon from the same quality tier. The crafting recipe for the upgraded tier is automatically unlocked the first time you acquire the lower tier weapon. Aside from the weapons themselves, you will require certain crafting ingredients–Gun Oil and Scrap–in varying quantities based on the weapon itself. Those are some of the best weapons and their locations in Atomfall.

Movies like Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro were huge inspirations for Sandfall Interactive.

While French studio Sandfall Interactive had revealed some of its inspirations behind the gameplay of upcoming turn-based RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 earlier this month, it turns out that the inspirations go even deeper. Speaking to Giant Bomb, creative director Guillaume Broche has revealed that, among other things, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was also inspired by the works of Studio Ghibli. When asked about the studio behind inspired by Japanese culture and its media, Broche revealed that the studio had seen Studio Ghibli’s movies “probably 25 times.” Broche also said that that the game’s composer, Lorien Testard, was also inspired by the music from the movies like Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki’s Delivery Service, which was composed by Joe Hisaishi. When it comes to the art style of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Broche also spoke about how the developers wanted to capture the sense of adventure and wonder that is often present in the works of Studio Ghibli. He brings up movies like Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle as examples of the sense of wonder that the studio is going for. “Our director is not huge on Japanese culture, so every time we discuss this it’s like he brings his own, more Western influence,” said Broche. “And I try to bring him more like Eastern influences, and it creates like this kind of weird mix that we have.” Sandfall Interactive co-founder and game producer François Meurisse previously spoke about some of the gameplay inspirations for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Among many other things, the RPG is seemingly inspired by games like the classic turn-based Final Fantasy, with Meurisse specifically naming Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9 and 10. There are also influences from Sekiro: Shadow’s Die Twice, especially when it comes to defensive options since players will be able to parry attacks with properly-timed button presses. “Those are big childhood games for Guillaume [Broche], our game director,” Meurisse said, talking about Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9, and 10. “He wanted to have like kind of feeling that he imagined would have remained in modern Final Fantasy-like games, if they had kept doing turn-based stuff. But he mixed also lots of different inspirations. Definitely Final Fantasy and JRPGs are the preeminent gameplay heritage we have. The defense system is more inspired by Sekiro and From Software games. It has this kind of rhythm element and a more real-time component in it. More skill-based.” Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is slated for release on April 24. The game will be coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. It is turning out to be a highly-anticipated title, with the studio revealing that it had crossed the one million wishlists milestone earlier today. The release date of the game is also more or less set in stone at this point, since the studio had announced just last week that it had gone gold. For more details about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, check out one of its more recent character trailers that focused on the mage Lune.

The Spirit of the North 2 Signature Edition includes a host of extra goodies, including an artbook that also features details on the lore.

Developer Infuse Studio and publisher Silver Lining Interactive have announced that Spirit of the North 2 will be coming to PC (via Steam), PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on May 8. The release date was announced alongside a new trailer, which you can check out below. Along with the game’s release date, the Signature Edition of Spirit of the North 2 was also unveiled. Slated for release on PC and PS5, Spirit of the North 2 Signature Edition will be a physical release of the game that also includes a host of physical goodies. Spirit of the North 2 Signature Edition will include the game itself, a signed, full-colour art and lore booklet, two embroidered patches, four metal character pins, two art cards, and two mystical Runescript cards. All of this, along with a copy of the game, will be packed into an oversized collector’s box that features exclusive cover art made for the Signature Edition. The Signature Edition will be available exclusively from Silver Lining Direct, and is priced at €64.99 for either the PC or the PS5 version. The standard edition of Spirit of the North 2 is priced at €24.99 on PC and €34.99 on PS5. Spirit of the North 2 was announced all the way back in October 2023. In the game, players take on the role of a fox that is on a journey through a ruined world to try and restore the guardian beasts. Along the way, the fox, accompanied by a raven, will have to deal with the dark shaman Grimnir. The core gameplay in Spirit of the North 2 will feature quite a bit of exploration. Through this, players will also be able to upgrade their abilities by finding magical runes hidden all over the world. There will also be quite a bit of side content in the form of optional challenges and secrets that players can find. The original announcement trailer gave us a look at the kinds of environments that players will get to explore throughout the world, ranging from labyrinthine ruins, snow-capped mountains, and dark and dank crypts. While not too much in the form of more details have been revealed for Spirit of the North 2, the developers at Infuse Studios have said that players will have to deal with enemies through puzzle-based encounters. In Spirit of the North 2, players will be able to explore the untamed Northern Isles where they will be able to uncover ancient mysteries and even get new abilities as they cleanse the land around them of its corruption. The studio has stated that it will take players more than 16 hours to finish the main story of Spirit of the North 2. It is unknown whether that play time also includes optional content that players can discover. As its name might imply, Spirit of the North 2 is a sequel. Its predecessor, aptly dubbed Spirit of the North, was released back in November 2019 on PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. For more details, check out our review of the PS4 version of the title.

The unorthodox action-adventure reaches a new milestone ahead of the launch of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach on June 26th for PS5.

With Death Stranding 2: On the Beach coming up this Summer, Kojima Productions has announced a new milestone for its predecessor. It’s crossed 20 million players after launching worldwide in 2019, up from the 19 million+ announced last November. However, sales numbers have yet to be updated since the five million+ announced in 2021 for PS4 and PC. The action-adventure title has also been released for PS5, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Xbox Series X/S and joined subscription services like Game Pass (which it left in 2023) and PlayStation Plus Extra. As for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, it launches on June 26th exclusively for PS5. Pre-orders are open, with the Digital Deluxe Edition providing 48 hours of advanced access. Kojima Productions’ latest story trailer showcased several new features like sandstorms, new tools and extensive combat. Check out our feature for five things should know or learn more about what makes it so visually arresting. DEATH STRANDING has surpassed 20 million players worldwide!To everyone who built bridges, paved roads, and delivered cargo—here’s a massive “Like!” 👍All your connections made this incredible milestone possible. 🤝Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to everyone who has played. 🙏 — KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS en (@en.bsky.kojimaproductions.jp) 2025-03-31T10:01:47.963Z

The creative director for Assassin's Creed Shadows has indicated that players want ways to further increase the game's difficulty.

With a little over a week having passed since the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, creative director Jonathan Dumont has revealed that the game’s development team is looking into ways to offer players more challenging experiences. Speaking to GamesRadar at GDC 2025, Dumont said that player feedback about wanting harder difficulty options isn’t falling on deaf ears. According to Dumont, the team working on updates for Assassin’s Creed Shadows is “always listening and monitoring what players are doing,” in order to bring out timely bug fixes and other potential features down the line. Dumont also spoke about how the studio is “actively looking at” ways at “making even a tougher difficulty for some of our players.” While he didn’t go into detail about what this harder difficulty would entail, it would be an interesting exercise, considering the hybrid mix of RPG and stealth gameplay that Assassin’s Creed Shadows provides. “How challenging do you want it,” asked Dumont. “But we’re looking at these things and monitoring what people say about the game.” He also spoke the variety in feedback that Ubisoft has been getting for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and how the development team can’t take every suggestion into account for future updates. “Obviously, we can’t do everything, but there are things that we’re going to be actioning on, and just for the next updates, there are quite a bit of bug fixes and little feature enhancement stuff that is coming in,” said Dumont. “I can’t just make a list. There’s quite a bit of it. So the team is always working to improve the game, and hopefully, people will be able to see the difference when they’re playing Shadows in the upcoming months.” Assassin’s Creed Shadows hit PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on March 20. Leading up to its release, however, there was quite a bit of uncertainty about the game because of its release date getting constantly delayed. In another interview, Dumont revealed that the development team actually used the delays to further polish up Assassin’s Creed Shadows. “Not really,” responded Dumont when asked if the reception of Star Wars Outlaws had anything to do with the game’s myriad delays. “We were basically trying to make the most polished game that we [can].” He went on to say that the delays were because, “our game was there, so just making sure that we don’t have bugs and that the experience is clean for people.” Dumont also spoke about a few additions the team was able to make to Assassin’s Creed Shadows thanks to its delays, including additional character moments that further help develop relationships. “It’s kind of cool also that we were close to launch, and then we get this extra time to do the things that typically you’re doing at the end,” he said. For more details on Assassin’s Creed Shadows, check out our review. And as for why it might be so popular, check out our thoughts. In the meantime, also take a look at our guide about the best legendary gear sets from the game and where you can find them.

The Best Anime RPG Games For Girls

Last night, I had the chance to see the dress rehearsal for Sailor Moon Super Live in Pittsburgh, and it was a surprisingly fun and memorable experience! A Night of Good Food & Magical Nostalgia The evening started off with an amazing dinner at Gaucho Parrilla Argentina—highly recommend it if you’re ever in Pittsburgh! Great...

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The Long Wait is Over: AIR Officially Releases in English A Shocking, Unbelievable Surprise Imagine my utter shock, surprise, and amazement when I clicked to start exploring a Steam queue—and there it was. I had heard nothing about its release, and just days or weeks ago, I was literally chatting with a friend about how...

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2025: The Best Year EVER for Gamer Girls! OMG, fellow gamer girls, I have NEVER been this excited for a year in gaming! 2025 is absolutely stacked with amazing releases, re-releases, and next-gen consoles that will make our hearts burst with happiness! Whether you’re into visual novels, JRPGs, or cozy simulation games, this year has...

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So you may be wondering why I haven’t updated my website lately. I’ve been using most of my free time to create AI Generated Music using an app called Suno AI. I have been using Suno for about 6 months now and here are my thoughts and some of my favorite creations so far. I’m...

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Omg, I loved Here with Tom Hanks! Critics and fans might give it low ratings, with scores around 20-30% out of 100, but I’m here to say, don’t let that fool you! This movie is not garbage at all—it’s thought-provoking, moving, and exactly the type of film that makes you think. If you’re the type...

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Do not read this review if you do not want to hear spoilers for the new 2024 Joker 2: Joker folie à deux. Again this will contain spoilers Leave now this is your last warning. Spoiler Warning: This review contains major spoilers and personal reflections on Joker: Folie à Deux. We went to see Joker:...

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Apple’s recent event was packed with exciting new releases and updates across its product lines. Here’s a roundup of everything announced, including details on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, the new Apple Watch models, updated AirPods, and iOS 18. iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro We’re all excited about the new color options...

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Hold onto your hats, ghost lovers! The ending of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is so bonkers it’s igniting some of the wildest theories on the internet. Did Lydia really marry Beetlejuice? Is Astrid a figment of Lydia’s imagination, or—get this—is Lydia actually dead and doesn’t know it? Spoiler Warning! This article is packed with juicy details and...

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Introduction: When I first heard about A Ghost Story (2017), the hype was real. The critics were raving, the trailer hinted at deep existential themes, and the movie seemed to have collected awards like a ghost in a haunted house. But does it live up to the buzz? I dove in, prepared for an emotional...

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Welcome to Fields of Mistria, a game that captures the essence of ’90s JRPGs and fuses it with the best elements of farming sims to create a unique, cozy experience. From the moment you step into its pixel-perfect world, the game feels like a nostalgic journey back in time, yet it offers a fresh twist...

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Nintendo recently announced that Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, the popular mobile game, will be shutting down its online services on October 31, 2024. While this news may come as a disappointment to many fans, there’s a silver lining—your progress and campsite aren’t going anywhere. Nintendo is launching a new offline version of the game, allowing...

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Sailor Moon Cosmos has finally landed on Netflix in North America, and for fans of the beloved franchise, this marks a monumental moment. Whether you’ve been a Sailor Moon devotee since the 90s or are just now discovering the magic, this two-part film adaptation of the final arc, known as “Sailor Stars,” promises to be...

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The Debate Over Machine Language Translations: A Look at Hanaemu Kare to & Bloom on the Japanese Nintendo eShop The world of otome games is vast and full of unique titles that often remain exclusive to Japan. As an avid fan of this genre, I’ve always faced the challenge of accessing games that never make...

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The Ultimate Guide to the Best Laptops for InZoi – Perfect for Gamer Girls As the release date for InZoi draws near, it’s time to start thinking about upgrading your gaming setup to ensure you’re ready for the ultimate experience. Whether you’re a casual gamer or a hardcore enthusiast, having the right laptop is essential...

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Top 20 80s Anime with Complex Relationships and Tragic Romance The 1980s was a golden era for anime, offering a range of series that delved into the depths of human emotions, complicated relationships, and often tragic romances. For fans of intricate storytelling, these anime are a must-watch. Here are the top 20 80s anime that...

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I’ve had the Steam Deck since its launch, and it’s been a mostly positive experience. However, a few quirks and challenges remain. Here’s my take after using it for a few years. Finding The Sims 4 CC Custom Content Mod Folder One thing that many players, especially Sims 4 fans, might wonder is where to...

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Welcome to Geeky Sweetie! Today, we’re diving into The New Denpa Men on the Nintendo Switch, a delightful free-to-play RPG that offers a unique blend of adventure, customization, and cozy gameplay perfect for female gamers who love a touch of whimsy and creativity in their games. Personal Experience and Unique Denpa Men My Starter Denpa...

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Twisters Review: A Storm of Mixed Emotions “Twisters” brings the whirlwind of storm-chasing back to the big screen with a new cast and a fresh take on natural disasters. As a standalone sequel to the 1996 classic “Twister,” it attempts to capture the heart-pounding excitement and drama that made the original a beloved hit. One...

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The Gaming Blog

  Ang Here at The Stew, we have a turnover rate that would make any corporate grindhouse proud. To that end, we have to keep the ground chuck flowing, which of course brings us to our newest gnome. Why don’t you tell us about yourself Chuck? It’s Stewart actually. Anyway, as they say, I was […]

Ang Here at The Stew, we have a turnover rate that would make any corporate grindhouse proud. To that end, we have to keep the ground chuck flowing, which of course brings us to our newest gnome. Why don’t you tell us about yourself Chuck? It’s Stewart actually. Anyway, as they say, I was born wherever gnomes are born, usually in winter. I was introduced to RPGs at a pretty young age, sort of against my will. My big sister Brie and her friends were introduced to the game via the HeartQuest novels and forced me to play Muddfoot, their characters’ pack mule and torch bearer, sometimes by literally sitting on me and refusing to let me leave. Stewart Ang Brie huh? Do you keep in contact with her much anymore? I’m surprised that an introduction to the hobby like that didn’t turn you sour to the whole game. What inspired you to keep going? Well, there were occasional fun moments, and truth be told, I had a crush on the DM. Her name was… god, this was so long ago… Julienne. Well, she asked me to help her collate her notes after the game one session, and that, as they say, was that. You should have seen the look on Brie’s face when in the middle of a hard fight deep in the dungeon, Muddfoot the pack mule just walked away carrying all the party’s loot, the map to the surface, and of course the only light source. This was back in the day when PCs needed a light source to see and monsters never did, so that fight didn’t exactly work out in their favor. Stewart Ang Sounds like you played with a lot of intriguing folks. And I think the young love angle is adorable. Several of the Gnomes met their partners through gaming. So after that, how did you end up on the other side of the screen? Well, after Julienne let Muddfoot get away with all the treasure and leave the party to die, Brie and her friends gave me the silent treatment for weeks. For Julienne though it was even worse. They pretty much “Mean Girls”ed her for the rest of high school. DnD was such a big passion for her, and with few friends left, she and I kept meeting at the local library to play. But she had a hard time DMing after that. It made her miss everyone too much, so I suggested she make a character and I ran games for her. She made a tough as nails fighter type, I don’t remember the character name. I wasn’t a very good GM, who is to start with? But I got better with practice. Stewart Ang So what ever happened to her? You must have been pretty good friends after that, Well, like many high school friends, college happened. She was a few years older than me remember, so she went off to school… University of Michigan I think, and by the time I graduated, we had mostly lost touch. I did hear that she published some RPG stuff of her own, but I don’t really think it would be fair to her to dredge up ancient history just because I want to name drop, so we can leave all that alone. Stewart Ang That’s very thoughtful of you Stewart. So where did your GM career go after she left for Michigan? I ran a few pick up games during the last few years of high school, tried a few new systems. I think I had the distinction of “running” a Traveller game where every single character died in character creation. But for the most part, the people I tried to run for didn’t really “get” how I was trying to run. This was back in the 80s, where everything was hack and slash dungeon crawls, but of course I had been introduced to the hobby indirectly through romance novels. When I was running solo campaigns for Julienne I was half just DMing the way I had seen her DM for Brie and her friends and if I’m honest, half trying to flirt with her by having NPCs flirt with her character. That’s generally a bad idea, but it worked because we were somewhere between good friends and crushing on each other so neither of us minded. Anyway, picture it if you can: a table of teenage boys playing hack and slash dungeon crawl in the late 80s, they come to the temple for healing and the DM, another teen boy starts RPing the priestess flirting with one of their characters. It did not go over well. Stewart Ang Honestly, that sounds downright revolutionary for the era. Maybe unwanted flirting RP wasn’t quite the way to do it, but I don’t think that style of play would be commonplace till the early 90s. I think it’s one of those unique little islands of play that came about pre-internet. Every game table had their own reading of the rules and the intent of play and aside from writing into trade magazines and talking with locals at your FLGS, who was to say if you were right or not? Stewart Ang So you weren’t well received in high school, but where did you go from there? By the time I got to college I had learned that not everyone wants to flirt, but people are generally cool with other relationship building, so I was leaning on that as a major component of my games. Then it was 91’ and the lid blew off the whole “Lounge around wallowing in RP Angst” scene and I was in my element. I had never been a proper goth. I was a pretty upbeat kid, and I never really got the fashion, I don’t know how many eye rolls I got for mixing a black dress shirt with a wallet chain, but it didn’t matter because if people wanted to play in my game, they had to make fun of my abysmal fashion sense out of earshot. Stewart Ang So now with the flood of modern narrative based games, what are your current favorites? What are you running these days? Right now I’m running Brindlewood Bay. Think Murder She Wrote meets Call of Cthulhu. I’ve fiddled with a handful of PbtA games. I like their easy narrative lens and their focus on the actions of the characters and the consequences of those actions. Stewart Ang Now that you’re a gnome, what kind of content are you planning on adding to the stew? I figure I’ll start with what I know best: Building NPCs that will make players want to emotionally invest themselves. Building complex relationship webs, maintaining headspace and rapidly switching between NPCs, that sort of thing Stewart Ang And to think, all this started because your sister’s friends used to sit on you. Well, you know, play your cards right… Stewart Ang And that reminds me. I have a conduct agreement you have to sign.

In November, I paused my Mutants in the Now game because my campaign’s content clashed with the rising political climate, and I was not in a place where I thought I could run the game and maintain my self-care. Time has passed, and having done some work on myself to better protect and manage myself […]

In November, I paused my Mutants in the Now game because my campaign’s content clashed with the rising political climate, and I was not in a place where I thought I could run the game and maintain my self-care. Time has passed, and having done some work on myself to better protect and manage myself and self-care, I feel like I am in a place to run the game again. But that was nearly 4 months ago. So, how do you dust off an old campaign and start it up again? Let’s talk about it. Taking An Extended Hiatus Plenty of campaigns take breaks. My group used to take a holiday hiatus between Thanksgiving and Christmas every year and restart our games in January. Others will take a break during convention season, during the semester, or some time when their day job has high demands. I think an extended hiatus is something that lasts more than a month; about the time for everyone to unload the memories and knowledge of the system and setting from their short-term memories. That is the challenge with coming back from an extended hiatus: at one point in time, the system, setting, and the ongoing story was fresh in your mind, but now that has all faded. How do you balance the game being new-ish while also being somewhat familiar? Take into account that this game has history, and you might not all remember it. How to Re-start A Campaign Ok, so we are going to dust off an old campaign and restart it. Just how do we go about doing this? There is no true way but there are some things you should think about. Interest Level This was kind of assumed at the onset of the article, but to be proper, the first thing you need to do is to determine if your group is interested in returning to the game. This can be a simple discussion, nothing complicated or fancy here. Confirm that the group is excited about coming back to the campaign. If you have time, discuss what things are exciting about coming back to this campaign. Is it a chance to return to the characters? Is it unfulfilled stories from the original run? Is it revenge against someone in the first campaign? Jot down what these are, because they will inform you of what you should work into the restart. Re-learn the rules Next up, time to re-learn the rules. Depending on how long you have played the system in the past and your level of mastery, you are going to need to invest some time relearning the system. Crack open the books and get reading. If you are restarting a campaign in a system that you play all the time, then this won’t be an issue, but if your campaign is in a system that you do not play often, you are going to restart your system mastery journey. Some of it will come back to you quickly. Some of it will take a bit more work. There is a good chance you will discover a mechanic that you were doing wrong in the past campaign. Review what has happened At the same time or after you review the system, find your notes about the old campaign and review them. Depending on how you prep your sessions, your campaign management, your in-session note taking, and how your players took session notes, you could have few or many sources of information to review. Here is a short list of possible sources: Session Prep (what you prepped for the game)- this could also be published adventures Session Notes (any notes you took about the session while you were running it) Campaign Notes NPC lists Player notes/journals Recordings (for those that record their sessions) Go through those materials and make yourself familiar with what previously happened. Make a note of events that never had consequences addressed, NPCs who may have an agenda to fulfill, etc. These are things you can use in the new campaign to help tie it to the old one. Re-Orient the Players Similar to the work above, you also need to get your players back up to speed on the campaign. You may not want them to access all the same materials you were looking at, so you may need to create some kind of summary for them or have a time when you can get together and recap what happened previously. For them to be able to resume play in the new campaign, it will help if they can remember details from the previous campaign. For them to be able to resume play in the new campaign, it will help if they can remember details from the previous campaign. Clean up your campaign notes For those of us who do keep campaign notes, if they are not all neat and complete, now is a good time to do a little campaign maintenance and clean up your notes, write down any campaign elements that got created during sessions but never made it into your campaign materials, etc. This is also a nice time to perhaps do some world-building and create some new elements based on what has previously happened. Start a new Arc It has been my experience that after a long hiatus you should not resurrect an old story arc, but rather start a new one at a time after the previous one. If you were able to end that previous arc cleanly before your hiatus, then this will be the natural thing to do. But if your hiatus happened in mid-arc, you should still consider doing a new arc. The reason is that the tension you were building in the previous arc is likely gone, and any conclusion to that arc will be anti-climatic. Instead, get together and narrate an ending to that arc that makes sense, and then start a new one. I like to start a new arc after several months or years from the last arc. It gives you some distance from the previous (old) arc and room for some things to evolve. Also, it gives the feeling that not much has happened during the time you were not playing. You first adventure back Having dusted everything off and gotten everything restarted, it’s time for your first session of the new campaign. Here are a few quick tips to make your return as successful as possible: Introduce the characters Take time at the start of the game for the players to re-introduce their characters. Do it like you were playing a new game: name, description, role, etc. Introduce the setting Your first adventure should re-introduce the players to the setting. Do a little of this up front with some kind of Previously in this campaign… But also work in various campaign elements (locations, events, NPCs) throughout the adventure. Let them go to their favorite locations, have a conversation with their favorite city guard, etc. Give them the time and the scenes to re-immerse into the setting. Practice the rules In your first adventure, make sure you take the rules out for a spin. Include all the base rules for the game: some skill checks and light combat. Give the players a chance to roll some dice, look things up on their sheets, and get re-familiarized with the system in a low-stakes (see below) story. Do a one-off adventure before your arc Walk before you run. Have your first adventure be a stand-alone story before you immerse them in a new arc. Let them spend that first adventure getting reacquainted with the system and the setting before you kick off a new arc. This adventure should be like a tutorial for a video game: a bit of excitement but nothing too dangerous. Welcome back to the land of the livin’ Campaigns go on extended hiatuses for all sorts of reasons, and bringing one back requires a bit of care. Take time to refresh yourself on the story, setting, and past events. Help your players do the same. Take the time when re-starting the campaign to do a bit of campaign maintenance. Then for your first session back, ease the players back into the system and setting with a low-stakes one-shot that helps everyone to re-learn the game and setting. Do all that, and your old campaign may be new again. Have you brought back a campaign from the past? How did you do it?

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/CG_209_AIandYou_final.mp3 Join Ang and special guest, Charles Cohen, as they talk about emerging AI technology and its place in the RPG space. Links: Your D&D Party is Too Big  

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/CG_209_AIandYou_final.mp3 Join Ang and special guest, Charles Cohen, as they talk about emerging AI technology and its place in the RPG space. Links: Your D&D Party is Too Big

This is the final article in my adventure design series. Over a year ago, I put out a call on social media for ideas that people wanted me to include in the series. I guess my list of ideas (the previous 11 articles) was comprehensive enough because I only received one idea from Michael Morton, […]

This is the final article in my adventure design series. Over a year ago, I put out a call on social media for ideas that people wanted me to include in the series. I guess my list of ideas (the previous 11 articles) was comprehensive enough because I only received one idea from Michael Morton, and his request was for me to write an article about node-based design when it comes to adventures. Many articles have been written on this very in-depth topic. Because there are so many ideas packed into this single topic, I’m barely going to scratch the surface. Given that this is a high-level overview of how to approach node-based design, I’ll link off to other resources at the end of this article. The Basics Break your story into distinct scenes. At a high level, node-based design is breaking your story into distinct elements, locations, encounters, and/or NPCs the PCs will interact with. Each node represents a scene that plays out and leads to the next node (or set of nodes if the PCs have a decision to make). If you design a scene that has no “next steps” outcome for the PCs, then you need to circle back to your adventure design and figure out why the node is a dead end. After all, if it’s not the last node in the design, there needs to be forward movement in the storyline the PCs are following and telling along with you. Why Node-Based Design? It’s highly effective in complex stories and mysteries. This approach is highly effective when there is a powerful mystery element to the story. The PCs will start with one major question (the story hook) that will lead them down pathways between nodes that will open up more questions, answer some previous questions, and guide them to wanting to find answers for the new queries that have arisen. If, at any point, the PCs run out of questions to answer or mysterious elements to explore/discover, then they’ve missed something, information wasn’t presented properly, or the adventure’s design failed to expose those new questions to the party. This approach can also be used when there are increasingly powerful and more organized opponents in the way. As obstacles increase in potency, the PCs will be working their way up the “food chain” of bosses and their mooks. The Night’s Black Agents approach of the Conspyramid is a great and classic example of how node-based design can be applied to a whole series of bosses, lieutenants, mooks, and other NPCs the party will encounter throughout the story. Previous Article: Back to Front or Top to Bottom Work from back to front. When detailing your nodes, I suggest you start at the last node the PCs will encounter and work your way toward the opening scene (node). This will help you keep your ideas organized and allow you to place the proper clues. If you haven’t designed node #3, it is more difficult to put the proper clues in place in node #2 to guide the PCs to traverse to the proper node. Also, if you have a bifurcating pathway through your nodes, this will allow you to properly sprinkle in the right clues and rumors to allow the PCs to make educated decisions about which pathway to follow through the nodes. For more detailed information about designing “back to front,” check out this article in the series. Previous Articles: The Meat of Each Node Add some meat to each node. My articles on Story Hooks, Thematic Environments, Thematic Bosses, Thematic Mooks, Supporting and Opposing NPCs, and Clues, Rumors, and Connective Tissue all apply on how to build each individual node. Many elements from one node can bleed to the next, or they can remain entirely distinct from one another. How you approach building each node is entirely up to you, but I recommend that the flow between themes in the nodes make sense to the players as they guide their characters between each node. Don’t suddenly jump from a romantic node to a horror-themed node unless the “logical exit” from the romance is somehow horrific in nature. Railroad vs. Player Decisions Linear works, but don’t railroad. Many people view a single line of nodes as a railroad situation. This can be true, so be careful in how you present each node, each node’s exit, and what comes in the next node. Railroading, at its most base level, is removing or negating PC agency. If they can’t make decisions or their decisions always lead from A to B to C regardless of what they do, this is most likely railroading. This is why I recommend avoiding linear node-based design. Instead, go with nodes that have multiple exits to allow for PC decisions to matter. Each set of clues can lead to decisions down different paths the PCs might want to take. Yes, this will increase the load on your adventure design efforts as you may create nodes that are never visited. That’s perfectly fine, but be aware of this. This awareness will prevent you from spending extraordinary time on nodes that might be skipped. While I’m thinking about linear design and decisions, I do recommend that the first 2-4 nodes be linear in nature. This will allow for the story to gain momentum, be a guided experience, and get the players accustomed to their characters, your GMing style, each other player’s play styles, and so on. It lowers the mental effort needed from the players if they don’t have many decisions to make. Keep these nodes small and brief if possible, though. Chokepoints If you have a key node (remember nodes are scenes) that must happen during the course of the story, don’t allow the PCs to choose pathways that bypass this key node. Bring them back to what is called a “chokepoint” in the story. If node 5 can lead to one of nodes numbered 6, 7, or 8, but you need them to encounter something or someone in a latter node, then each of those three paths will focus in on bringing the PCs to the chokepoint, so they must pass through node 12 at a later time. Floating Clues and Information Quantum clues are sometimes necessary. Another option to chokepoints is to “float” your clues or information. Don’t lock down information that is absolutely necessary to a single node or location. If the PCs happen to bypass or miss the vital node, then they will miss out on critical information that will play a part later in the game. An option is to “float” your clues, rumors, and information in a manner where they can be dropped into almost any logical node where the PCs are currently having a scene. This is akin to the “quantum ogre,” but it’s in the benefit of the party and the story to ensure the information they need will be encountered at the proper time. Other Resources Here are those resources I mentioned that I’d link to: The Alexandrian: Node-Based Scenario Design Halfway Station 3.0: Conspyramids and Vampyramids The Bardic Inquiry: I Tried Node-Based Design in my Mystery TTRPG Campaign, Here is What I Learned Conclusion I hope this brief overview of node-based design helped you out. Thanks to Michael for the suggestion. I would have never thought of this topic on my own! Series Conclusion I hope you had a great time in this year long exploration of adventure design. I learned quite a bit coming up with the detailed thoughts for each article, and I hope you learned along with me. This has been quite the experience for me, and I greatly enjoyed the entire process and adventure that we’ve gone on together. This all started as I got to my man-child’s bus stop too early and had time to kill. This entire series almost leaped from my forehead fully formed in just a manner of seconds. Fortunately, I keep a pen, pencil, and notepad in my center console. I snagged the pen and paper and hastily scribbled down ideas. The funny thing is, I was still scratching out ideas when the bus arrived, and my son had to wait on me to finish capturing my thoughts before I drove him home. That’s okay. He knows I’m a writer and is used to waiting a little bit for me as I finish jotting notes that capture my ideas.

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/CG_208_The-Han-Cluster-with-Tracy-Sizemore_Final.mp3 Join Jared and Tracy Sizemore as they discuss her Savage Worlds setting The Han Cluster, an optimistic sci-fi roleplaying game. Links: Han Cluster Website Backerkit for Han Cluster

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/CG_208_The-Han-Cluster-with-Tracy-Sizemore_Final.mp3 Join Jared and Tracy Sizemore as they discuss her Savage Worlds setting The Han Cluster, an optimistic sci-fi roleplaying game. Links: Han Cluster Website Backerkit for Han Cluster

I generally don’t use published material for my games; I have always enjoyed running my material. From time to time and depending on the game, I find that the published material can either be better than what I think I can create (in the case of Dungeon Crawl Classics) or I don’t have a good […]

I generally don’t use published material for my games; I have always enjoyed running my material. From time to time and depending on the game, I find that the published material can either be better than what I think I can create (in the case of Dungeon Crawl Classics) or I don’t have a good feel for how the situation of the game should work, and I want to see how the publisher did it, so I can learn (as in the case of Triangle Agency). Last week, I needed to prep a published adventure for the first time in a while, and I thought we could talk about it. What is Prep? I feel like prep is often misunderstood. When people lament about it on the Internet, they evoke images of reams of paper or a cascade of words in a document. Some bash it, saying that the OneTrueWay is to abolish prep. All of that is garbage. Prep is what you need to do to feel comfortable running the game and the story. Prep is dependent on the person and the game. It is everything you need it to be. Prep can take on many forms based on what it takes for you to feel comfortable. Prep is dependent on the person and the game. It is everything you need it to be. Regarding the misconceptions above, most people do not take an active role in streamlining their prep or have learned their prep from someone else. If that sounds like you, check out Never Unprepared and make prep your own. End stump. Published Adventures We all know what a published adventure is, and most of us have used them at some point in the hobby. Nothing wrong with them; there are many great published adventures in the world. What a published adventure does for you is present you a story in the way of the game’s Situation. It is made for a generic group of characters and, in many cases, makes assumptions about who those characters may be. It can be a time-saver because someone has written the story and prepared maps or other components for you. There are some disadvantages. The first is that it was created for a generic group of characters, so it lacks any specificity to the characters in your game. Also, it was created external to you, meaning that your brain did not build this story from an idea through the prep, so you have to get the material into your head to understand what is going on. Quick note. Published adventures can come in a physical format (Book) or electronic format (PDF, VTT, etc). Some of the techniques I am going to mention work the same with both of these, using similar tools. Unless specified, you can use the advice below for either format. Prepping Published Adventures Prepping published adventures requires three activities to make the material playable. These can be worked on at the same time or can be done separately, but they all need to be completed. Integration into your Group and Campaign If the material you are running needs to be part of your campaign, you are going to have to do some writing to integrate this material. This can take the form of two activities: Bookending the story – You will need to create an on-ramp and an off-ramp for the story so that your characters can enter the story, and when they complete it, they can move to the next story. Customizing the material – Depending on the game and your characters, you may need to do some editing of the material to make it fit your group. For example, if your group does not have a Cleric, but the published material requires one for an encounter, you will need to make a few edits to make that encounter work for your group. For bookending, I use whatever platform the rest of my campaign info is stored in. For me, that is OneNote. I will write my on-ramp and off-ramp material in OneNote and refer to it during the game. For any edits, if the edits are small, I may put a post-it note in the text with the edit, or if the edit is more substantial, then I will take it into OneNote and rewrite the scene. Load The Story Into Your Head The next activity is to get the published story into your head. You need to have a broad understanding of the story in your head so that as you are reacting to the characters’ actions, you have an idea of the consequences of their actions on the greater story. When you write your own material, you are synthesizing it in your head organically, and by the time you have finished your prep, that material is loaded. For a published adventure, you need to upload the material. For that, you need to read, read, read. Reading the material will make you familiar with it. You don’t have to commit it to memory, but the better you understand it, the better you will be able to determine what to do when players take actions within the story. I typically do a surface read, where I don’t worry about memorizing anything but rather get a feel for the story, what it’s about, its structure, any twists, etc. Closer to game day, I do some deeper readings, making sure I understand how each encounter works, if there are any special rules, etc. Create A Reference Document The third activity is that you need to prepare the document to be a table reference. Here is a major shortcoming for published adventures. Published adventures come traditionally from a print publishing background – they are books. As such, they were laid out the way books are laid out, columns, paragraphs of texts, pages, minimization of white space, etc. That is great for reading. We are conditioned to read material that is formatted in such a way. When we are at the table, though, we need a reference document. We need something that we can scan in order to find information quickly. If we are in the middle of adjudicating a combat, or moving the spotlight between characters, or the dozen other things we do in the game, and we need to find that specific rule about the trap door in room 12 on floor three — what page, paragraph, and column is that in? This kind of searching can create dead air at your table and impact the flow of play, the tension of scenes, etc. Worse, if you can’t find the info you need you run the risk of skipping it or making a mistake and needing to do some ret-con to fix things later. Reference documents are sparse, with bullet points, simple facts, and white space to make the text less dense. It is a formatting that is conducive to scanning glances and quick lookups. Rarely is material published in this format. When you prep your own material, you develop your style of writing out the adventure. My prep in OneNote is written as a reference document to be used in the game. It heavily uses bullet points, simple tables, and headers. It contains the information germane for the scene. Sadly, I do not know of any publishers who want to create both the text version of the game and a reference document for play (hey…if you know one who does, shout them out in the comments, and let’s give them the duly deserved praise). So you need to do something to the published text to make it a reference document. For this, I typically use highlighters and different colors for different things (green for text to read out to the players, yellow for rules, etc). In more extreme cases, and when my time was far more plentiful, I would make my own reference document in OneNote, but those heady days are long gone. To be fair, you don’t need to do this activity, you can rely on your ability to scan full text and find things in a timely manner or just commit the whole story to memory. For me, I do not like to memorize things, and I do not like the time it takes me to read through a document to find specific info. Read Twice…Highlight Once Published Adventures are a great way to run stories for your group. You are purchasing the imagination and work of a team of people. To make it useful for your game, you need to integrate it and customize it for your group, become familiar with the story, and make a reference document to aid in running the story. Make no mistake, it’s prep, and it can be just as much prep as someone who is writing their own games. How do you prep published adventures? What are your tricks for making the published text into a reference document?

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GC_207_With_Great_Power_Final_V02.mp3 Join Ang along with Jared and guest Andy Jaksetic as they talk about the immense responsibility of running Super Hero RPGs to the best of your abilities! From street level to cosmic, they talk about all the various types of super heroes you can bring to your table. Links: Origins Game Fair Untold Stories […]

https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GC_207_With_Great_Power_Final_V02.mp3 Join Ang along with Jared and guest Andy Jaksetic as they talk about the immense responsibility of running Super Hero RPGs to the best of your abilities! From street level to cosmic, they talk about all the various types of super heroes you can bring to your table. Links: Origins Game Fair Untold Stories Project Untold Stories Project Twitch Specatculars Setting Book Pinnacle Entertainment Group

To get your PCs to move from one scene to the next logical scene, you need a series of connective tissues. These can come in the form of clues, rumors, lies, truths, and red herrings. Each one of these serves their own purpose and come from a variety of sources. Some of these will come […]

To get your PCs to move from one scene to the next logical scene, you need a series of connective tissues. These can come in the form of clues, rumors, lies, truths, and red herrings. Each one of these serves their own purpose and come from a variety of sources. Some of these will come from evidence found via investigative efforts. Some of these will come from conversations with NPCs. Some of these might even be sourced by overheard conversations. At the end of each scene, the PCs should have some hint as to where to move next. Without these hints (or strong suggestions), your adventure will grind to a halt. If the party has gained a piece of connective tissue, but they’ve forgotten about it or downplayed its significance, it’s perfectly fine to remind them of their discoveries without pointing to the next scene directly. Clues Clues are generally found through investigation of a scene. Clues are generally found through investigation of a scene. These can be notes or letters left behind from the NPCs that occupied the space before the PCs barged in and took over the space. These can also be symbology, left over magical efforts, evidence of past encounters at that location, or deliberate hints left for the PCs to follow. Let me delve into evidence for a moment. This can be your typical crime scene things like blood splatter, murder weapons, footprints, fingerprints, DNA, and the like. However, make sure each piece of evidence narrows the mystery a little bit. Footprints can clearly mark that the shoe is of a certain size, perhaps of a certain make, and might be scarred or contaminated in a certain way to narrow suspects. Likewise, DNA samples can be easy to gather, but take an excruciatingly long time to analyze. In your games, it’s fine for the PCs to pull some strings or use some advanced technology (or magic) to expedite the analysis to keep the game moving forward. Rumors Rumors are bits of information nested in truth. Rumors are bits of information nested in truth the PCs receive from NPCs. The rumors don’t have to be totally true, but they need to be mostly true. If a rumor is mostly false, this falls into the arena of a red herring (read below) and may cause the players to make improper decisions on their next steps. Rumors are generally verbal in nature and can be couched in their deliver with some doubt or hesitancy to clearly show that the NPC giving the information is not absolutely certain of the details. Lies People lie. NPCs can lie, too. There will be times the PCs encounter NPCs that don’t want the PCs to succeed. This will lead to the NPC in question delivering an outright lie to the PCs to get them off track. If you decide to employ this approach of lying to the PCs, make sure the pathway down the wrong information is resolved quickly and with the obvious truth. You don’t want to waste precious time at the table with the PCs following a lie. Truths Call out the truth. There will be times that an NPC or a note or a missive or a clue found will be the absolute truth. Hang a lantern on these facts and do your best to impose upon the PCs that these are truths, not rumors or lies. However, don’t tip your hand and allow them to 100% know that this information is to be trusted in their heart. If the PCs know the truth of the matter to be absolutely true, then they will close all doors to other options. This is rarely something you want. You want to keep the story options open. Also, dropping a 100% known truth on the party might feel a little like railroading to the players. While this is not always true, this is a feeling you want to avoid. Red Herrings Don’t. Just don’t. Don’t! Red herrings are intentionally misleading sets of information that push a character (or group) down the wrong path. While this is perfectly acceptable (and even rewarding) in literature and movies, this can backfire on your game. This is because in literature a single author has total control over what the characters do and how they react to red herrings. In your games, you have no control over how the PCs act/react to red herrings you throw their way. This can completely derail your adventure by having the players treat a red herring as a truth and chasing that trail to waste endless hours of your game time. In short, don’t blatantly lie to your PCs with incorrect information. You clearly can have an NPC with motivations to do so lie to your characters, but there should be some hints that the NPC is untrustworthy. Gentle Suggestions Meta conversations are okay to guide things in the right direction. Lastly, you can have a meta-game or “out of game” conversation between you (the GM) and the players to remind them of clues, hints, and rumors that they’ve encountered thus far. There are plenty of times the players will lose track of information you’ve given them. This is especially true if you have a game that’s heavy on investigation and clue gathering. You don’t have to be blunt about it, but something along the lines of, “You seem to recall that George the Snitch dropped you a note about his arch enemy. Do you remember what that note said?” If they do, great. If not, you can gently guide them in the right direction.

Lydia Suen and Meric Moir have worked on properties as varied and diverse as Arkham Horror, Achtung! Cthulhu, Star Trek, The Expanse, and most recently Brotherwise Games and Dragonsteel Production's Cosmere RPG, the game that brings together fantasy author Brandon Sanderson's expansive universe of stories into a single game line and the game that raised over $2 million dollars within hours of its Kickstarter launch.

In a recent episode of Panda’s Talking Games, Senda and Phil discussed the best ways to handle known characters from established properties – your Han Solos and Scott Summers and Gandolfs, etc – at your table. The episode is fantastic (as always) and you should totally go check it out. Meanwhile, I had the opportunity to talk about licensed TTRPG games from the other side of things when I sat down with two of the writers working on some of the biggest IPs in the TTRPG industry right now: Lydia Suen and Meric Moir have worked on properties as varied and diverse as Arkham Horror, Achtung! Cthulhu, Star Trek, The Expanse, and most recently Brotherwise Games and Dragonsteel Production’s Cosmere RPG, the game that brings together fantasy author Brandon Sanderson’s expansive universe of stories into a single game line and the game that raised over $2 million dollars within hours of its Kickstarter launch. We talked for over an hour about wrangling such an impressive universe into a playable game, the power of fandoms, and what to do about canon at your table. The following is just some of our discussion. Game Settings VS Licensed Property Settings We start by talking a bit about process. Both Lydia and Meric have worked on a wide range of properties, and I wanted to know more about the similarities and differences when writing for a setting built for an RPG versus a setting that was a book or TV series before it was a game. “Research is always the first step,” Lydia said. “I don’t think you should work on a licensed IP if you don’t enjoy research,” she said. “Because you need to understand the setting in and out. I like to figure out what elements of the setting are based on real-world locations or cultures and what parts of the setting are very much their own creation because I want to understand all of those inspirations so I can build a better game.” Meric added that when talking about game settings versus fiction settings, there’s a fair amount of research that goes into either, but that writing for settings that were originally created for games like D&D or writing for games that are based in history like Achtung! Cthulhu is easier because history books and game books are written in a way that’s meant to be referenced, but when writing for a game like Star Trek or a Sanderson novel, the setting information is mixed in with the narrative. “A throwaway line in one book of the Cosmere can change something that you’ve spent months working on,” Meric said. “You have to find ways to turn those lines into something that’s digestible but also gameable.” Meric pointed out that while writing for historical games gives you an abundance of material to draw upon, it can also be more emotionally taxing. “When I was working on the Vive La Resistance book for Achtung! Cthulhu, I had to take significant breaks in between coming up with what the Nazis were doing.” When trying to distill a property as expansive as the Cosmere, it can be a daunting task to know where to focus your efforts. “You have to trust your instincts and lean into the parts of the setting that are interesting to you,” Lydia said. “Especially if there are parts of the setting that people haven’t seen much of yet. If you have an idea for how to bring them to the forefront, you should go for it.” Loading the Canons As Senda and Phil pointed out in their podcast, how closely you want to stick to canon is an important discussion to have at your table. “It is so hard when you’re playing in worlds that have established canon and trying to make your own story that doesn’t feel like it’s exactly the canon but respects the canon,” Meric acknowledged. “Yeah,” Lydia said. “You can’t just tell your usual D&D, Wednesday night game group, ‘Hey, can you just download these thousands of pages of novels into your brain by next week? Thanks!'” For the Cosmere RPG, the game writers are constantly asking themselves, “What do people need to be able to play in this space?” To that end, they created The Stormlight World Guide, which is a wide overview of the world of Roshar, the first location for the Cosmere RPG’s setting. It gives you details on lands and people that are only hinted at in the novel and gives players and GMs the opportunity to build their own stories within the canon without impeding on the ground the novels cover. “We really wanted to make sure the Cosmere RPG was accessible to folks without needing to read the novels.” That’s why they also have a section of the rulebook dedicated to canon and continuity that gives you ways of talking to your group about your game’s relationship to canon. That way, if you have a table full of Sanderson mega-fans who know all of the information inside and out and want to play a strictly canon game, you can. Or if you have folks who are new to the setting and don’t want to feel awkward because they don’t know the difference between sapphire wine and orange wine, then you can take a looser grip and riff on the setting in ways that allow you to play with minimal knowledge (or even make the setting completely your own thing)! “Also,” Lydia made sure to state. “If there’s anything in the setting you don’t like or anything that makes people in your group uncomfortable, you can just leave it out completely.” Interestingly enough, though, there is a completely 100% canon adventure coming out via the Kickstarter in the near future – Stonewalkers. Meric had the very cool opportunity to work on the adventure. The outline, originally written by Brandon Sanderson and Dan Well, was given to the team at Brotherwise with a beginning and an ending and about three pages of story beats. Then, the designers got to ask, “How do we turn this into a game?” All of the locations and challenges in the adventure are canon to the Stormlight Archives. Lydia explained. “Even though the books are long, there’s still fun little lore nuggets that Brandon doesn’t have time to cover, so this adventure pulls some of those together in really interesting ways.” And, of course, there’s handy advice for GMs who want to keep the story of Stonewalkers as canon as possible because, at the end of the day, players are going to be players. “We know diverging from canon is going to happen at your table. We give you the tools to either support that divergence or get your group back on track by the end.” The Power of Fandom Meric talked about going to the massive Brandon Sanderson convention he attended in December. “This was my first year at Dragonsteel Nexus,” he said. “I got to interact with a huge number of fans, and having hundreds of people reacting in real-time at these panels was really energizing.” “It’s been cool while working on the Cosmere RPG,” Lydia said. “Because the fanbase has been very encouraging, and they see our team’s passion.” She went on to add, “I consider myself a fan, and I think that’s an important part of what helps me do my job well and helps me meet the needs of the primary audience—the fans.” And, of course, it’s that fandom that closed out the successful Cosmere RPG Kickstarter campaign with over 52,000 backers collecting over $14 million, making it the most successful tabletop Kickstarter to date. When those fans bring that all energy to the table — some pretty epic stories are bound to happen. — Lydia Suen is a thematic game designer with a background in developmental editing. She is best known for her work on the Cosmere RPG, Arkham Horror RPG, and Adventures in Rokugan. Lydia specializes in working with established IPs but also enjoys building settings and systems from scratch. Bold introspection, horror, and unfettered whimsy are hallmarks of her work. Meric Moir is a digital marketing manager at an international engineering company, a MacEwan University graduate from the sadly defunct Professional Writing (PROW) program, and a constant storyteller and worldbuilder. He’s written TTRPG content for The Expanse RPG, Star Trek Adventures, Achtung! Cthulhu, and the Cosmere RPG, and he runs an actual play channel called Sky Hammer Press. Find him on BlueSky @skyhammerpress.bsky.social

When George from Three Sails Studios approached me with a beautiful-looking game that focuses on the exploration and research of magnificent creatures instead of battling them, I could not contain my excitement. That premise sounds incredible and we really don’t have enough non-combat-focused RPGs. I created characters, read through the rules, and asked some questions […]

When George from Three Sails Studios approached me with a beautiful-looking game that focuses on the exploration and research of magnificent creatures instead of battling them, I could not contain my excitement. That premise sounds incredible and we really don’t have enough non-combat-focused RPGs. I created characters, read through the rules, and asked some questions to the creator, who quickly provided me with answers and gave me everything I needed to fully understand the system. I knew coming in that this would be a project that is still in the making, some things might change or aren’t fully finished, so that is something you should take into consideration from this review. Here I want to highlight the reasons why I believe this game to be cool to talk about and help fund. However, I will also talk about the things that I believe could need some polishing so you (the reader) know what you are getting into if you intend to buy a copy. Mappa Mundi – An Exploration + Ecology RPG is a zero-combat RPG system focused on exploring and documenting a living world, parallel to our own, filled with monsters, creatures, and cultures that have been isolated for more than a century by cataclysmic environmental shifts. Created and designed by George Francis Bickers, with writing and development by Jeremy Blum and artwork by Joel Kilpatrick, Mappa Mundi is a collaborative storytelling game built on player agency and creativity, using an intuitive rules-lite system that mechanically invites players to shape the world around them at all stages of the game. What makes Mappa Mundi stand apart? Mappa Mundi is a game that wears its convictions on its sleeve. The rights of the environments, non-human persons, and cultures to determine their own existence, to exercise their own agency, and to be treated with respect are central to the experience of the game. The appeal to players and those running the game of approaching existential challenges through non-violence and respect has really hit home, and as the designer, I’ve gone to great efforts to ensure that players and tables feel that this world responds to them as they respond to it. The game poses players with a singular challenge: how do you help a world emerging from its near extinction without doing further harm to it? The responses to this challenge we’ve seen in our playtesting and from community feedback have been nothing short of beautiful. Mappa Mundi is a game that trusts its players, and that trust is paid back in dividends around the table. I hope you enjoy the experience yourself! Mappa Mundi knows very well that most games focus mostly on combat and it goes in with a very different approach. In the same vein as Pokemon, you have the core games about trapping them and using them for battle, you have the Pokemon Snap and Pokemon Ranger games (sadly neither got to be a full long series) that have the player doing exploration and research. This game is exactly that. The fact that you don’t have combat doesn’t mean there won’t be any dangers or fail-state. In fact, you can’t even die in Mappa Mundi (unless the GM and player agree on it). However, the game looks for every encounter with these magnificent monsters to feel like a boss battle. The ground trembles, you must detect as many of the behaviors of the individual before it notices you and escapes, or feels intimidated by you and tries to confront your group in self-defense. The Mappa Mundi Institute doesn’t abide by causing damage to these individuals, so you better manage the situation with utmost care. In a similar vein to when we are watching those documentaries of people trying to get close to a cheetah to catch the best camera angles and study them, Mappa Mundi has your characters put themselves into danger in a ton of different ways. These monsters are often linked to Fate (the magic of this world) that interacts with the environment as well. This grabs that research gathering and pushes the danger in it up to eleven! The Three Phases Most of the game revolves around the three phases. These can either last a few minutes or even be stretched out to entire sessions if you are going for a bigger, more interesting monster to research. The Research Phase has plenty of what we have already seen in other games, so it is the Journey and Encounter Phases that will show us more of what this game is mostly about. Research Phase The Research Phase involves the members of the Mappa Mundi Institute (the player characters) having to talk with the people who know about the creature they are tracking and may be causing a problem. Similar to when you are running a mystery, the research in this phase is all about gathering clues. These may have to do with the lands you will have to traverse to encounter the Monster, the flora and fauna you may find on the way, and any details that could be of use about the creature, allowing you to gather more information about it in the last of phases. Similar to the most popular RPGs, this part of the game involves plenty of talking with NPCs, using skills, and rolling dice. There is not much structure to this phase apart from that, being closer to games like D&D and Pathfinder in the way you interact with the system. I believe this doesn’t take the players’ hands as much and allows for plenty of things and problem-solving to occur during it. However, that also means it will require more prepping to be done. During the research, depending on the bits of knowledge the players get, the GM will grab cards from the Journey Deck (a tarot-sized deck filled with landscape cards) and set them apart. Depending on how the skill goes, a card can achieve a side it will be in, thus affecting the player characters in the Journey Phase. By talking with one of the designers, I was told that the prep needed for your full three phases is choosing which monster they will find and which cards make sense for the player characters to find in this section depending on the encounter monster and the environments it moves in. With the game leaning so much into a narrative game sort of approach, I was surprised to see it have binary ability checks that mostly rely on you passing a check or not, over things such as Powered by the Apocalypse Moves, for example. I feel the game could benefit from having skill checks that helped the story move forward and mechanize a bit more the roleplay elements. The way skills work (more on them below) does work around this problem a bit. Journey Phase Once the players feel they have enough knowledge about their travel, they begin their journey. This is when the cards the GM set aside come into play. If the player characters got an information piece about one of the biomes to travel correctly, you place the card in the deck rightwise. If they found a wrong piece of information or didn’t find anything about one of the biomes prepared to be on their way, you place it inverted. While journeying, the GM will take out one of the previously chosen top cards from the deck and show it to the players on the side it was placed (rightwise or inverted). Depending on the side, you know how difficult traversing through that biome is going to be. All cards have a section in the book that tells you more about what they usually mean and more specific details about it depending on which region from the book setting you are playing in (the book provides different regions that take inspiration from different locations from Eurasia in general. There are many cultural consultants in the book, so I like to think that these locations were managed with a lot of care). After checking out the adventures being played in Actual Plays and the way they are written, it has me thinking that unless you are really good at coming up with things on the spot, you will also have to think as a GM of possible problems and things that occur if you get a reversed card. During the Journey Phase, players and GMs will “shape” the world. This is a system that the game relies a lot on, which is pretty much a systemized way of having the players describe the surroundings and the things they encounter in each of the biomes they travel. This collaborative narration mechanic has everyone making each section more interesting, and you can’t step over other people’s shaping. You have to add to it. I believe that this is a style of play that doesn’t work for all TTRPG groups, but for those who do, it will be amazing. I know groups that prefer to have the GM detail everything they find and encounter; this will not work as much for them, especially because shaping doesn’t give you any mechanical benefit. However, as indicated by the creators, while the Narrator may intend a cliff to be very difficult to climb, a clever player can Shape handholds into it, thereby making it easier for everyone to climb. This makes it so there are some possible mechanical benefits to be obtained from it, and you as a GM will have to step up and make it so the players can’t ease their path as a landslide. So… again, with the right kind of players this works in a sublime way. I do have a nitpick about the cards, which play a pretty important role in the game. Having them be tarot-sized and having a reverse side makes it weird that they are not used in the game mechanics as tarot cards are read. Instead of being used as a deck of tarot cards, they are used more as handouts for inspiration to the players. There is no randomness in them as regards the side they will be drawn on, or the order they come up in the game. That is mostly predetermined by the GM, chosen during the Research Phase. Encounter Phase Even though there can be some mini-encounter phases during the Journey Phase, like getting the research details from a bear of this region, the Encounter Phase is when you finally do get to meet the Monster. I felt a bit weird that the designers decided to name these creatures ‘Monsters’ when there is such a negative association with that word. However, after a chat with George, he let me know the following: The etymological root of the term Monster comes from Latin, monstrum, which means ‘divine omen (especially one indicating misfortune), portent, sign’ Given that our Monsters are manifestations of Fate, we consider them to be portents, signs, omens of Fate. The Research and Journey phases before will shape what the Encounter Phase will be like. Judging from the adventures and streams, I could get that depending on the decisions taken while doing the Journey, you may not be able to find all Behaviors of a creature. This works in a similar manner to how in videogames you can get an S score or a C in a level if you don’t get to do it as optimally. It sort of gives a video-gamey element. But what is a Behaviour? This is what you come to get from a Monster, that is all the ways the Monster behaves, which strange properties they have, the way they mate, etc. You need to collect as many of these pieces of information via seeing them in action, graphing them out, collecting samples or whatever you can get. All Monsters have 8 Behaviors, some of them tiered at times, meaning you need to get a certain Behavior to unlock more. Characters can use their skills or interactions in order to capture these details. Interactions are specific skills you have in your class to gather the benefits. An example of a Tiered Behaviour could be a fish Monster who only comes out at night and glows in the water. Chroniclers must first reveal its Nocturnal Behaviour before they can witness its Luminescent Behaviour. Depending on the cards’ side you draw in the Journey Phase, you get how you will encounter the Monster in this phase. If most are inverted, the Monster has the Aggressive Posture. If most are rightwise, then it will have a Passive Posture. In addition to that, the Journey Phase can alter Threads, which is a tiered way to classify things in the game, but for this particular case, it is how you will encounter things in this phase. For example, if you take time to rest during the journey, a thread could get severed, meaning that an NPC you could have found to help you during the Encounter Phase is found dead instead of alive. Again, I believe this means you will have to do some extra preparation for the session in order to have these interesting things ready. Layout The book itself is quite big, filled with art, and with many quality-of-life choices. I REALLY like the way they handled the layout. However, I do have some notes about it. The book is divided into colored sections. The rules, setting, character creation, etc., are all assigned different colors, which cover the borders of the book. This is fantastic in a physical product, as you can quickly find the section you are looking for by seeing the color from its side. The margins don’t take up much space, so they don’t affect the amount of content on the pages. The fonts are really good choices, as well as font size, making it easy to read. However, there was a decision taken in which practicality was put over looks. The skills section for each class displays many skills that are all blocks of text. These were made so that if you have a physical book, you can get a spread view of all the ones from your class at once instead of having to flip through pages. While incredibly practical, it ends up looking like a huge chunk of text all together. Since the first time I saw it I told the creators about it – they know of it and have improved it. It’s a thing that might not be a problem for many, but I know it will scare some people off. The rest of the book has a really good balance of art and text, making every page catchy and beautiful to flip through. I do think they nailed the layout. It is all about being concise and grouping stuff in a way that is very simple to read and find, such as having the rules all together in just 6 pages that you can get in three spread views. Art Just LOOK AT IT! It’s glorious, majestic even! If you told me the book only had the art in it, I would still buy it. Every single art piece displays a colorful, incredibly imaginative image. While I believe a few pieces that I am pretty sure are final could have been done differently to look better, most of them fill me with lots of ideas, and I believe that a book that goes all in to create a mechanic to have both players and GM improvise a world on the spot relies on its art to make it work. As for the Monsters, even though I don’t have the art for most of them at the moment of writing this early review, they look impressive. I don’t know if they were taken from legends or out of the minds of the designers, but they give incredible Monster Hunter and Shadow of the Colossus vibes and that’s everything I want in a game of this style. Having to enter their habitat and research them already feels like it is going to be a lot of fun! Character Mechanics Classes and Skills Character creation is pretty straightforward and with plenty of depth. The skills mechanic the game provides helps the players have something that the character is immediately so good at you don’t need a roll (most of the time). These are narrative abilities that intentionally have names that make it extremely easy for you as a player to immediately get what the skill is about. If in doubt, you can check the text out to get the details, but it is pretty straightforward. As you level up, you can get new skills from a skill tree section, similar to videogames. This adds plenty of replayability to create cool character builds, without it being so crunchy that one is the better choice, as these all are narrative skills. On top of the skills, the characters have abilities: Traversal, Observation, Deduction, and Exploration. These work just like the Kids on Bikes, Ryuutama, and similar games, having one die associated with an ability, that you roll to surpass a difficulty. Character Development The game offers many different ways your character can grow, aside from just having a Level. One very cool thing in fact is that the game rewards you more for failing than succeeding! When enough successes and failures have been accumulated, the player may upgrade that Ability’s die as long as they’ve done the following: Succeed on a number of relevant Ability Checks equal to the number of faces on the new die (six times for D6, eight times for D8, etc.). Fail a number of relevant Ability Checks equal to half the number of faces on the new die (three times for D6, four times for D8, etc.) On top of that, you can get expertise with certain things. These you get when you use your skills, making the skill used get points. This will later allow you to buy more skills within the branch being followed in the skill tree. Lastly, a character may get specializations and endorsements. As your character grows, they may end up getting more specialized in something, having it increase in level. This way, you can finally end up with an endorsement as well, which is like a capstone specialization, granting you more cool stuff you can unlock. There’s plenty of stuff to keep track of as you play, allowing you to improve your character in numerous ways. In essence, it feels video-gamey, which might be cool for some people and not that great for others. I personally do enjoy this much variety and would love to try out the different kinds of characters you can create within one same class, or Starting Licences, as the game names them. These are Archivist, Diviner, Fixer, and Guardian. Injuries The game of Mappa Mundi can’t kill your character. Nothing in the system can cause it. However, you may still get injuries, minor and severe, as well as fall unconscious. Unless you as a player want to retire your character, you can keep on playing them. Still, these injuries your character may receive, with the GM determining how big they are, have mechanical effects in the game, forcing to make certain decisions, and challenging players. For this very reason, the Journey Phase has a very good chance of hurting a character, which will cause you to think wisely about how to face the Monster during the Encounter Phase. Not being able to die doesn’t mean you can’t get serious injuries that may complicate your gameplay. Additional details These things aren’t big enough to deserve a section of their own in the article, but I still wanted to showcase them because I think they are important: The game has ten different regions, which along with the monsters, take most of the pages of the book. These are detailed and filled with inspiration to create very different stories in each of them, taking inspiration from locations from our real-world Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Mapping and chronicling are vital in this game. The character sheet has plenty of space for characters to take notes of everything they find. If they do, the game rewards them by unlocking Behaviors from monsters and similar stuff. In addition to that, the game comes with blanked-out maps from all regions, for the players to map out and create their own version of the world. The difficulties for the ability checks are set by the GM, who is encouraged to use the die size the player is using when setting it. It is arbitrary, and unless impossible for the player character, the GM will determine a difficulty that the player character should be able to reach with the die they are using. The game will launch with 4 pre-written adventures as tutorials, teaching players and the GM how to play before you create your own stories together. Some of these have already been streamed in Actual Plays, in case you want to see how the game is in action (see in KS page below). The game comes with a 70-card tarot deck. This is beautifully illustrated, showcasing a plethora of biomes the player characters can encounter, and includes one card for each of the game’s 30 Monsters. Conclusion Mappa Mundi is a perfect game for those looking to play something akin to Monster Hunter, Shadow of the Colossus, Pokemon Snap, or Pokemon Ranger, not focusing at all on combat and being very much about research and being awed by everyone’s descriptions at the table. This is not the kind of game for those looking to battle those huge monsters, those who want the GM to be the only one narrating and adding story elements, or those GMs who would rather improvise every session. In addition to that, the gameplay style is very particular, which makes it in my opinion a weird choice if you are looking for a game that can fit a continuing plot. I know the many locations in the world have many factions, but I can’t say for sure if they can work as a rival BBEG or similar thing. Still, the game while finished may receive some last changes before release. This is what I have got from reading the rules so far. If I had to give a personal recommendation, I feel this game would be much better appreciated physically over digitally, considering the way the layout works and how beautiful the art is. GO BACK MAPPA MUNDI IN KICKSTARTER IT’S ALREADY FUNDED!

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With the era of the original Switch just about to set below gaming’s horizon, Nintendo has hit the internet with a curtain call of a Direct for the portable console.

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AMD TechTalk provides insight on data center to edge innovation that helps IT managers optimize today's deployments and tomorrow's infrastructure planning. Hosted by AMD's director of server competitive marketing, Jim Greene, and featuring leading technologists from AMD and the industry, AMD TechTalk features discussion on servers, cloud computing, AI, HPC and more.

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The post DOOM: The Dark Ages – Going Hands-on with Story, Sandboxes, Mechs, and Dragons appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Category: Games March 31, 2025 DOOM: The Dark Ages – Going Hands-on with Story, Sandboxes, Mechs, and Dragons Joe Skrebels, Xbox Wire Editor-in-Chief As the third part of what you might call a trilogy, I went into my first hands-on for DOOM: The Dark Ages with some expectations. While they have their differences, DOOM (2016) and DOOM: Eternal had lain the groundwork – I felt like I knew what id Software had in store for me, even if this prequel story and its new medieval sci-fi aesthetic might put it in a different context. Three hours later, my expectations had been blasted to pieces like so much Arachnotron meat. DOOM: The Dark Ages retains the core hallmarks of id’s recent games – pulse-pounding combat, gloriously Grand Guignol aesthetics, and music as ear-rattling as its guns – but it pushes the structure of DOOM far beyond what we’ve known before. I was able to play slices of four distinct sections of The Dark Ages, each designed to show me a different facet of the game, and each revealing quite how wild this will get. Let me walk you through each one. Story Mission “Before he became a hero, he was the super weapon of gods and kings.” So reads the text slate that opens DOOM: The Dark Ages. It’s an absurdly badass mission statement for the game that follows. But, playing just the opening stretch of the game, it pays off multiple times. This section showed off the most familiar form of DOOM. A cutscene (yes, there are cutscenes for the story now, not just codex entries) introduces the demon-beleaguered planet of Argent D’Nur, the questionably benevolent god-race known as the Makyrs, and our familiar lead character kept captive to be unleashed on hellish threats. And from there, I’m handed a shotgun and a shield, and told to do what a DOOM Slayer does best. You’ll feel right at home with this, until you don’t. Levels remain tightly knotted, oscillating from cramped corridors to wide-open arenas built for athletic combat. Your guns sre, of course, hideously powerful and there’s still a focus on attack being the best form of defence, with specific moves rewarding health and ammo, forcing you to fight to survive. Some fights effectively rely on a rhythm of parries and attacks, turning a fight with a Cyberdemon into a close-range slugfest – it feels magnificent. But begin digging deeper, and you’ll see how things have changed. That shield is the most evident example – enemy projectiles are now plentiful, forcing you to block as much as dodge. But don’t think this is a more static game as a result – blocking also opens up the ability to shield charge enemies, closing gaps and dealing huge area-of-effect damage. Parrying is even better – certain enemy attacks are marked with green effects, and blocking within a parry window can stun enemies, shatter their defences, and earn more charges for your devastating melee attacks. Some fights effectively rely on a rhythm of parries and attacks, turning a fight with a Cyberdemon into a close-range slugfest – it feels magnificent. Soon, I’m given even more utility in the form of the Shield Saw – my shield can now be thrown like I’m some horrifically violent Captain America, bisecting weak enemies and stunning larger ones. It can also be used to solve puzzles, opening up DOOM’s classic secret areas. And if all of this didn’t feel fresh enough, I’m then introduced to a full upgrade system. This is less about old-school RPG stat-buffing, and more about giving you extra options to take on the forces of hell. For example, I add the ability for my Shredder (a fully automatic gun that fires rail spikes) to embed its ammo in enemies, and then detonate them when I throw my Shield Saw into the target, building new abilities not just into my gun, but across my moveset. Every single weapon, both ranged and melee, has an upgrade tree – I want to see how gross these can get. Taken all together, you can see how The Dark Ages lives up to the idea that you’re playing as a super weapon. This is pure power fantasy, placing you in the big, green boots of a one-man army who’s going to war with everything. And that’s before your super weapon gets into, well, an even bigger super weapon. Mech Mission If you’ve watched the trailers for The Dark Ages, then you know you’ll be getting a mech along the way. The Atlan, as it’s known, allows you to take an earthquaking step into the battlefield to take on Hell’s biggest threats – and in practice, it’s a way of transforming the on-foot experience into something new. As you might expect, this is a slower, but stronger approach to DOOM combat. Your Atlan trades mostly in melee – basic attacks involve throwing punches at titanic demons, building up a combo meter that can be traded in for one of two special moves, a stunning stomp, or a knockout blow. You’ll need to balance those combos with dodges – taking one hit from an enemy sets your combo meter back to zero so, with a rhythm familiar from the parry system, you’ll need to avoid what you can to keep the punishment coming. And, just as I was getting used to all this, an orbital drop delivered me a set of Empire State Building-sized miniguns, to add some truly berserk flair to the end of the level. It’s ludicrous, in the best possible way. Think of the mech as a side dish to The Dark Ages’ main meal – it’s a complement to the regular on-foot combat, mixing things up while feeling similar enough not to feel out of place. Dragon Mission Here’s where things took an even less expected turn. My next mission involved me summoning a cybernetic dragon, hopping into a saddle equipped with heavy ordnance, and taking to the skies. In this section of the game, I’m defending a flying city under attack from a demon fleet, with the goal of taking down four separate Hell Carrier ships. Your dragon is a free-flying beast, equipped with dodges and afterburners, able to maneuver through the skies however you see fit. Like, the mech, it’s strong enough to take on titans – but how you do it is quite different. After locking onto an enemy, you can strafe around them. Your basic attacks do a small amount of damage, but each successful dodge supercharges your guns, letting you stun your prey, before sending your dragon to perform a gruesome finisher. Initially, it feels like this is another Atlan-like diversion, a way of providing a different kind of combat – but when it comes to the flagships themselves, it goes further. Each ship needs to be taken down in a specific way – first you take out its various gun batteries, and subsequently its shield generator with your dragon’s moveset. This then opens up a landing spot. With a click of the right stick, your dragon lands, the Slayer hops off, and you realize that each ship is a miniature level to progress through on foot. You barrage through the innards of the ship, eliminating the demons inside, before reaching its engine. Shield charging the engine destroys the ship, and sees you skydiving through an explosion and back onto your dragon to repeat the feat. This mix of flying and on-foot gameplay feels incredible – and each new ship changes the make-up enough that it doesn’t fall into a predictable pattern. I’d call this the most revolutionary change to DOOM’s make-up, if it wasn’t for the next section. Sandbox Mission This is where The Dark Ages truly breaks free from expectation. In my final (and longest) section of the demo, I’m placed into id’s take on a sandbox open zone and told to approach it however I’d like. My solitary goal is to close five demon-spewing portals, but how I do it, and what diversions I take, are entirely up to me. Over the course of an hour, I’m repeatedly reminded that I’ve never played a DOOM game like this before. As you’d hope for, this sandbox sequence is stacked with optional goals – heavily protected artillery batteries to take out, caches of gold to spend on upgrades, and more. At one point, I’m simply running somewhere, when a cathedral-sized tentacle bursts out of the ground and begins to attack – this isn’t a scripted moment, or even an objective I’m given, it’s just another surprise hidden along the way. But the core objectives themselves hold surprises, too. In that first story mission, closing portals was simply a case of clearing an arena, but it’s never quite the same in this case. Some portals transport me to a dungeon, requiring me to solve puzzles in order to find my way to the energy source powering them. Others introduce Leader enemies – overpowered beasts who are invulnerable to my attacks until I kill enough of their followers, and come with permanent upgrades after your victory. Along the way, I find new guns, augmenting my armory with new options. It’s restlessly, relentlessly inventive, as if id has been waiting for an opportunity to transplant new ideas into the DOOM format. And that’s the key takeaway from my full session with DOOM: The Dark Ages – this feels like a developer brimming with enthusiasm, not just for DOOM itself, but for what DOOM could be. I was expecting a new story, new guns, and new demons – I wasn’t expecting new genres. I cannot wait to find out what else this team has in store. DOOM: The Dark Ages launches for Xbox Series X|S, PC (via the Xbox app for Windows PC, Steam, and Battle.net), PlayStation 5, and cloud on May 15, 2025. It will be available day one with Game Pass. DOOM: The Dark Ages Premium Edition Bethesda Softworks ☆☆☆☆☆ 7 ★★★★★ $99.99 Pre-order Get a head start on slaying demons with the Premium Edition, including up to 2-Day Early Access* and the campaign DLC**. You’ll also receive the Digital Artbook and Soundtrack, and the Divinity Skin Pack, which includes matching skins for the DOOM Slayer, dragon and Atlan. INCLUDES: – Base Game (digital code) – Up to 2-Day Early Access – Campaign DLC – Digital Artbook and Soundtrack – Divinity Skin Pack *Actual play time depends on purchase date and applicable time zone differences, subject to possible outages. **DLC availability to be provided at a later date. BECOME THE SLAYER IN A MEDIEVAL WAR AGAINST HELL DOOM: The Dark Ages is the prequel to the critically acclaimed DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal that tells an epic cinematic story worthy of the DOOM Slayer’s legend. In this third installment of the modern DOOM series, players will step into the blood-stained boots of the DOOM Slayer, in this never-before-seen dark and sinister medieval war against Hell. DOOM: The Dark Ages is a dark fantasy/sci-fi single-player experience that delivers the searing combat and over-the-top visuals of the incomparable DOOM franchise, powered by the latest idTech engine. STAND AND FIGHT As the super weapon of gods and kings, shred enemies with devastating favorites like the Super Shotgun while also wielding a variety of new bone-chewing weapons, including the versatile Shield Saw. Players will stand and fight on the demon-infested battlefields in the vicious, grounded combat the original DOOM is famous for. Take flight atop the new fierce Mecha Dragon, stand tall in a massive Atlan mech, and beat demons to a pulp with the newly enhanced glory kill system. Only the Slayer has the power to wield these devastating tools of mayhem. REIGN IN HELL Bound to serve as the super weapon of gods and kings, the DOOM Slayer fends off demon hordes as their leader seeks to destroy the Slayer and become the only one that is feared. Witness the creation of a legend as the Slayer takes on all of Hell and turns the tide of the war. DISCOVER UNKNOWN REALMS In his quest to crush the legions of Hell, the Slayer must take the fight to never-before-seen realms. Mystery, challenges, and rewards lurk in every shadow of ruined castles, epic battlefields, dark forests, ancient hellscapes, and worlds beyond. Armed with the viciously powerful Shield Saw, cut through a dark world of menace and secrets in id's largest and most expansive levels to date. DOOM: The Dark Ages Standard Edition Bethesda Softworks ☆☆☆☆☆ 85 ★★★★★ $69.99 Pre-order BECOME THE SLAYER IN A MEDIEVAL WAR AGAINST HELL DOOM: The Dark Ages is the prequel to the critically acclaimed DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal that tells an epic cinematic story worthy of the DOOM Slayer’s legend. In this third installment of the modern DOOM series, players will step into the blood-stained boots of the DOOM Slayer, in this never-before-seen dark and sinister medieval war against Hell. DOOM: The Dark Ages is a dark fantasy/sci-fi single-player experience that delivers the searing combat and over-the-top visuals of the incomparable DOOM franchise, powered by the latest idTech engine. STAND AND FIGHT As the super weapon of gods and kings, shred enemies with devastating favorites like the Super Shotgun while also wielding a variety of new bone-chewing weapons, including the versatile Shield Saw. Players will stand and fight on the demon-infested battlefields in the vicious, grounded combat the original DOOM is famous for. Take flight atop the new fierce Mecha Dragon, stand tall in a massive Atlan mech, and beat demons to a pulp with the newly enhanced glory kill system. Only the Slayer has the power to wield these devastating tools of mayhem. REIGN IN HELL Bound to serve as the super weapon of gods and kings, the DOOM Slayer fends off demon hordes as their leader seeks to destroy the Slayer and become the only one that is feared. Witness the creation of a legend as the Slayer takes on all of Hell and turns the tide of the war. DISCOVER UNKNOWN REALMS In his quest to crush the legions of Hell, the Slayer must take the fight to never-before-seen realms. Mystery, challenges, and rewards lurk in every shadow of ruined castles, epic battlefields, dark forests, ancient hellscapes, and worlds beyond. Armed with the viciously powerful Shield Saw, cut through a dark world of menace and secrets in id's largest and most expansive levels to date. Related Stories for “DOOM: The Dark Ages – Going Hands-on with Story, Sandboxes, Mechs, and Dragons” Category: Games A Minecraft Movie DLC Now Available in the Minecraft Marketplace Category: ID@Xbox The Chaos Theory of the DCF Universe Category: Next Week on Xbox Next Week on Xbox: New Games for March 31 to April 4 The post DOOM: The Dark Ages – Going Hands-on with Story, Sandboxes, Mechs, and Dragons appeared first on Xbox Wire.

The post A Minecraft Movie DLC Now Available in the Minecraft Marketplace appeared first on Xbox Wire.

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At first glance, Bunny Battle Nemesis, Tony and Clyde, and Cruz Brothers may seem like three wildly different games. A futuristic war waged by alien rabbits, a crime-fueled bullet hell, and a brutal fight circuit where warriors fight for blood. But in the DCF Universe, nothing happens in isolation. The smallest spark can send shockwaves […]

The post The Chaos Theory of the DCF Universe appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Summary Unleash chaos across three worlds as part of a greater cosmic storm. Discover the hidden connections between three DCF games as you challenge fate itself. Fight for blood, blaze through a crime-fueled bullet hell, and defend an alien kingdom. At first glance, Bunny Battle Nemesis, Tony and Clyde, and Cruz Brothers may seem like three wildly different games. A futuristic war waged by alien rabbits, a crime-fueled bullet hell, and a brutal fight circuit where warriors fight for blood. But in the DCF Universe, nothing happens in isolation. The smallest spark can send shockwaves across worlds. A trickster god’s prank, a heist gone wrong, and a fighter chasing glory in the Pride Fists tournament. It twists fate in ways no one could predict. And now, in the Triple Trouble Bundle, you are at the center of this storm. And this storm is not just about stabs, slashes, jabs, blasts, and empty clips. Broken noses, flying teeth, and shattered ribs. It is about more than just blood splats, shotgun blasts, and smashed bottles. High-speed chases, bank heists, and last-second dodges. And it’s much more than the smell of gunpowder burned in the morning mixed with sweat, blood, and tears. The DCF Universe goes beyond all the violence and the endless struggle for survival. It is about proving one’s worth in the eyes of the Allfather, Orochi. As the creator of existence, Orochi established that only those warriors who embody honor, courage, and perseverance may enter his realm and cross the gates of Valhalla. But this is not just a myth buried in this cosmic lore. It is something players can unravel firsthand in Cruz Brothers, the first game released from the DCF Universe. Through the in-game collectible DCFU Cards, players unlock fragments of the universe’s secrets, revealing how Orochi and the Creator Gods gave birth to existence and, eventually, to the homo sapiens. Creator Gods? Sounds a bit over the top, right? But don’t worry, you will be seeing them all over this bundle. They have been heating things up since Cruz Brothers and now they are causing even more trouble in Bunny Battle Nemesis. Legends say that one morning, Loki Orochison woke up and thought, “What a laugh we’d have if I freed one of my sister’s Maidens and sent her off to cause some chaos? Too right, mate?” But let’s just say, the Leporidae are not laughing. And that Maiden was Amanda. Once a prisoner among the Maidens, now, she has invaded the Leporidae Kingdom. Not to thank Loki for his trickery, but to take revenge on the one who bound her in chains, the Goddess of Death, Hell Ella, by striking at her beloved children, the Leporidae, on their own planet. Now, the Leporidae warriors are fighting for their survival, standing against Amanda and her Mamba Rangers who threaten their home planet. And you, as the player, will be their guiding hand on the battlefield of Bunny Battle Nemesis. You can also fight back by stepping into the shoes of Valentina, another of Hell Ella’s Maidens. But unlike Amanda, she has not gone rogue. In fact, she is deeply grateful to Hell Ella for saving her from a cruel fate, one that played out far from the Leporidae Kingdom, in a world of outlaws, chaos, and relentless gunfights in Tony and Clyde. You see, in the DCF Universe, nothing happens in isolation. The Triple Trouble Bundle isn’t just a collection of games, it is three different perspectives on a storm of chaos. A fighter proving their worth in the Pride Fists tournament, outlaws carving their own path in a crime-fueled bullet hell, and an alien kingdom resisting a war sparked by a trickster god. Each battle is a challenge against fate itself. Are you ready to face the storm? The DCF Universe Triple Trouble Bundle is available now on Xbox. DCF Universe Triple Trouble Bundle DCF Studios ☆☆☆☆☆ 3 ★★★★★ $19.99 Get it now One purchase. Three explosive experiences. Are you ready for trouble? Step into the DCF Universe, where chaos reigns, battles never end, and every fight is part of something bigger. Take on intergalactic war in Bunny Battle Nemesis, unleash pure outlaw mayhem in Tony and Clyde, and rise as a legend in the brutal arenas of Cruz Brothers. Three games, one connected universe filled with action, attitude, and unstoppable madness. Suit up, lock and load, and let the trouble begin! The post The Chaos Theory of the DCF Universe appeared first on Xbox Wire.

The post Next Week on Xbox: New Games for March 31 to April 4 appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Category: Next Week on Xbox Next Week on Xbox: New Games for March 31 to April 4 Mike Nelson, Xbox Wire Editor Published March 28, 2025 Welcome to Next Week on Xbox! In this weekly feature we cover all the games coming soon to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows, and Game Pass! Get more details on these upcoming games below and click their profiles for further info (release dates subject to change). Let’s jump in! Vagrus – The Riven Realms Lost Pilgrims Studios ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $29.99 $26.99 Get it now Vagrus – The Riven Realms – March 31 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery Embark on a perilous journey across a realm forsaken by the gods and devastated by an arcane cataclysm. Accompanied by a hardy crew, you must trade, fight, and explore your way to success as the leader of a traveling company in Vagrus, an award-winning turn-based post-apocalyptic fantasy RPG. Blankspace Penguin Pop Games LLC ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Blankspace – April 2 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery Blankspace is an escape room visual novel with point-and-click elements. Interact with Beryl, investigate your surroundings, solve puzzles, and find your way out of a strange-looking room! Dagger Froggy Eastasiasoft Limited ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Dagger Froggy – April 2 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery Strategically choose from a variety of buffs and spend coins to unlock up to 15 frogs with unique gear and armaments. Increase movement speed, max out weapon power, and take advantage of other enhancements. As you earn permanent upgrades, additional challenging stages become available. Can you survive them all? Little Ant Adventure Old School Vibes ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Little Ant Adventure – April 2 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S Little Ant Adventure is a charming 2D platformer where you guide a brave ant through three vibrant worlds filled with traps, enemies, and challenges. With 15 hand-crafted levels, hand-drawn animations, and an immersive soundtrack, even the smallest hero can overcome great obstacles! Ninja Escape Danger JM Neto Game Dev ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Ninja Escape Danger – April 2 A retro pixel art platformer that delivers intense action and precise challenges. With stylized, green-toned visuals, it captures the essence of classic games as you control a swift ninja trying to escape from a deadly dungeon filled with traps. Use your sword to defeat enemies and your dash to evade deadly hazards. Quick reflexes and precision are essential to survive in this unforgiving world. Poly Match Ocean Media ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Poly Match – April 2 Show everyone who is the best in polygon shape in games and collect all the unique pictures in the one poly artbook! All you need is to swipe to rotate the poly puzzle and find the correct angle at which the figure will be complete. Create unique poly art masterpieces and challenge yourself inside a polysphere world! Sol Dorado Heist (Xbox Series X|S) Sometimes You ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $9.99 $7.99 Pre-order Sol Dorado Heist – April 2 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S After waking up with amnesia, Alex Thorn finds herself lost and confused in a room she doesn’t recognize. A weird flashback tells her that she somehow has been robbing casinos with a mysterious criminal known as The Silent Ace. The police are now on her tracks, and The Silent Ace is about to rob the biggest casino in town: The Sol Dorado. Autopsy Simulator Team17 ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Autopsy Simulator – April 3 Play a middle-aged pathologist whose life has taken a turn for the worse. After a career downfall and the loss of your beloved wife, you live each day shattered and exhausted. One day during a routine post-mortem, you find a relic of your past hidden inside a body. Now, it feels like something just won’t let go… Bee Flowers Bundle – Xbox + Windows Afil Games ☆☆☆☆☆ 1 ★★★★★ $10.49 Get it now Bee Flowers: Royal Garden – April 3 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S Immerse yourself in the enchanting world of Bee Flowers, a delightful puzzle game where you guide busy bees through hexagonal grids to pollinate vibrant fields of flowers. With its relaxing mechanics and progressively challenging puzzles, the game offers the perfect blend of strategy and serenity. Caligo (Xbox Series X|S) Sometimes You ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $9.99 $7.99 Pre-order Free Trial Caligo – April 3 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S An atmospheric walking simulator where you must look and listen. Caligo is the darkness everyone descends into one way or another, and to each of us it’s something different. For some it’s a short but exciting adventure, some will see it as a place to relax. Yet others will be reminded of their worst nightmare, while for a few, it might come as a revelation. One thing is certain however: everyone will have to answer one big question. Fantasy Tower Defense Ocean Media ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Fantasy Tower Defense- April 3 A horde of horrible monsters is attacking your kingdom. Build your towers fast and survive all the waves. If arrows or stones are not enough, use elements to your advantage and slay them all. Build towers on the free spots and they will automatically attack monsters that come near them. Use different combinations of towers and elements to your advantage. If you still feel pressured, use spells and upgrade your towers to maximum. Sociable Soccer 25 Tower Studios ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Sociable Soccer 25 – April 3 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery Embrace the excitement of the world’s favorite sport in Sociable Soccer 25, appearing on Xbox for the very first time this season. With its vast array of features, extensive real-world player roster and intuitive gameplay, the game sets the stage for a footballing adventure like no other. Alien Cat Story Desert Water Games ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Alien Cat Story – April 4 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S Get ready for an amazing adventure on an alien planet, full of dangers, puzzles and unexpected allies in the game Alien Cat Story. Only you can help the cat fix his ship and leave this dangerous world. Chippy's Stash Afil Games ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Chippy’s Stash – April 4 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S Winter is coming, and Chippy, the cleverest squirrel in the forest, needs to stash his precious acorns! In Chippy’s Stash, a charming tile-based puzzle game, you must help Chippy push acorns into hollow tree stumps, overcoming obstacles that will test your wit and strategy. Is this Game Trying to Kill Me? Sometimes You ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $19.99 $15.99 Pre-order Free Trial Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? – April 4 A mix of horror and first-person puzzler. You are trapped inside a cabin deep in the forest, and its owner offers to play a computer game in exchange for freedom. But the cabin and the game are much more connected than you might think. Traps from the game begin to appear in reality, and your actions in the cabin affect the computer game. And very soon you realize that the stake in this game is your life! Light-It Up QubicGames S.A. ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $4.99 $3.99 Pre-order Light-It Up – April 4 In this big, dark world, you’re a little stickman with a huge mission. Get ready to ignite the excitement and light your way through an epic adventure! Light up each figure, bringing it to life with vibrant colors. Get ready to test your reflexes and agility as you navigate through this colorful world of shapes and light! My Little Universe SayGames ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $14.99 $11.99 Pre-order My Little Universe – April 4 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery / Xbox Play Anywhere The universe is vast and filled with adventures, mysteries to solve, and enemies to fight… who knows, you might even meet a few friendly faces along the way. Better yet, invite up to three of your friends to join you in the split-screen local co-op mode because it’s always more exciting with friends! Project 13: Nightwatch Dolores Entertainment ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Project 13: Nightwatch – April 4 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery An intense and immersive game experience where you take on the role of an Observer tasked with guarding the Motherbase of the Project 13 Organization. Your mission is clear: prevent any “Observator Prisoner”, each potentially containing a dangerous anomaly, from infiltrating the Project 13 Headquarters. Equipped with a high-tech binocular, your keen observation skills are the key to success. The Renovator: Origins Axyos Games ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $14.99 Pre-order The Renovator: Origins – April 4 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery The Renovator: Origins is a first-person psychological horror game. Explore the mysterious world of art, where each exhibit contains the mysteries and secrets of its era and its creator. The game will immerse you in the past and another world that is behind the paintings. You play as the son of a restorer, a museum worker who died tragically. While searching for the memorabilia, the door suddenly closes, and strange things begin to happen. The hero is waiting for immersion in the world of art and the paranormal. Royal Romances: The Power of Chosen One CE Xbox Legacy Games ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Royal Romances: The Power of Chosen One – April 4 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery With the power to command the dragons, the Chosen One could be a great hero… or foe! Old friends, a settlement of fairies, and many ancient creatures will come to your aid as you explore the magic forest and search for hidden objects in your quest to restore splendor and tranquility to the kingdom. See all there is to uncover in this magical world and be the force to tip the scale of fate! Related Stories for “Next Week on Xbox: New Games for March 31 to April 4” Category: Next Week on Xbox Next Week on Xbox – New Games for March 24 – 28 Category: Next Week on Xbox Next Week on Xbox – New Games for March 17 to 21 Category: Next Week on Xbox Next Week on Xbox: New Games for March 10 to 14 The post Next Week on Xbox: New Games for March 31 to April 4 appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Hi, I’m Pavel Kalinichenko, CEO of Stamina Zero, and I’m excited to introduce you to Little Droid, a handcrafted pixel art Metroidvania coming to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One on April 10, 2025. In Little Droid, you take control of a small but determined droid, navigating a mysterious world filled with danger, puzzles, and […]

The post Little Droid Faces Danger April 10 – Pre-Orders Begin Today appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Summary Retro-inspired 2D action-platformer filled with secrets and danger. Explore mysterious corridors, upgrade your gear, and battle powerful enemies. Coming to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows PC. Hi, I’m Pavel Kalinichenko, CEO of Stamina Zero, and I’m excited to introduce you to Little Droid, a handcrafted pixel art Metroidvania coming to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One on April 10, 2025. In Little Droid, you take control of a small but determined droid, navigating a mysterious world filled with danger, puzzles, and secrets. Every move counts as you manage your energy, battle relentless enemies, and overcome tricky platforming challenges. Exploration is key—each ability you unlock, from double-jumping to dashing, opens new paths to hidden upgrades and secret areas. The environments, from forgotten ruins to flickering machinery, are handcrafted with care, bringing a unique atmosphere to every part of the world. Combat is fast and rewarding. Enemies won’t go easy on you, so you’ll need quick reflexes and smart decision-making to survive. But it’s not just about fighting—you’ll need to explore carefully, solve environmental puzzles, and manage your energy wisely. For the console release, we worked hard to optimize performance, refine visuals, and introduce an optional easier difficulty mode—making sure Little Droid remains true to its challenging metroidvania roots while being accessible to more players. If you love uncovering hidden paths, facing tough challenges, and exploring richly detailed pixel art worlds, Little Droid is for you. Little Droid launches on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One on April 10, 2025. Pre-order today for $5.99 on the Microsoft Store. Little Droid Stamina Zero LLC ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $5.99 Pre-order Little Droid is an adventure platformer that takes you to a world of mysteries, tough enemies, and hidden dangers. The journey is packed with challenges, requiring careful battery management to keep the droid energized at crucial moments. Explore a richly detailed environment, collect weapons to overcome various obstacles, and uncover secrets as you pursue the source of a mysterious signal. Game Features: • Metroidvania-style exploration, unlocking new areas with each gained ability. • A high difficulty level designed for players who seek a rewarding challenge. • Beautiful, hand-crafted 2D pixel art that brings the atmosphere to life with intricate details. The post Little Droid Faces Danger April 10 – Pre-Orders Begin Today appeared first on Xbox Wire.

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The post A Minecraft Movie: New Trailer and Tickets on Sale appeared first on Xbox Wire.

The post Drive Out the Darkness with Sea of Thieves’ Destiny-Inspired Lightbearer Cosmetics appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Category: Games March 27, 2025 Drive Out the Darkness with Sea of Thieves’ Destiny-Inspired Lightbearer Cosmetics Kelly Lombardi, Product Marketer, Sea of Thieves Calling all Guardians! Today brings the latest content update to Sea of Thieves, and with it, some radiant new additions to the Pirate Emporium – Lightbearer items, inspired by the world and characters of Destiny, have arrived! Whether your pirate is as silent as a Hunter, mighty as a Titan or wise as a Warlock, they’ll find a ship set to suit their style, complete with Collector’s cosmetics and a Ship’s Crest. An array of matching weapons and a costume set to round out the range ensures you’ll be ready to take on whatever otherworldly foes may stand in your way. At first glance, venturing across the solar system may seem like a far call from securing swag in a tropical pirate paradise — so how did this celestial collaboration come to be? Adam Park, Director of Brand & Licencing at Rare, sheds light on the partnership: “As we’ve seen with our other cosmetic crossovers and our Tall Tales, our teams are always looking for opportunities to bring other worlds into Sea of Thieves and put a unique spin on them, no matter where the inspiration comes from. Even though it might not seem like an obvious choice, Destiny’s classes and co-operative play presented a ‘crew-like’ bond that we thought was a great fit, along with some striking iconography, vivid art style and a sense of being mythical in tone and scope.” Handily, there were already plenty of accomplished Guardians at Rare with a deep understanding of the Destiny universe, though the team completed more than their fair share of Quests while gathering ideas. If you want a sense of how much the team at Rare wanted to make this happen, just know that they’ve been working with Bungie on this idea since 2023! Once plans were agreed, the next step in making the Lightbearer collection a reality was to create concept pieces for ship sets, weapons and clothing. Andria Warren, Director of Creative Operations at Rare, oversaw their development. “Working with Bungie to bring Destiny 2 into Sea of Thieves was a creatively rich and deeply collaborative process. From the earliest concept sketches to finalising designs that honoured both universes, every step challenged us to think differently. We explored how iconic Destiny elements could be reimagined through a Sea of Thieves lens, translating tone, visual language, and character into something that felt fresh but unmistakably faithful. It pushed our teams creatively in the best possible way, and the result is something we’re truly proud of!” Working alongside the Destiny team to iterate and refine the various Lightbearer items culminated in one of Sea of Thieves’ most comprehensive collections. “Partnerships like this can take a lot longer than people realise to make happen,” Park muses, “But when you see the results it really does showcase the talent and hard work of everyone involved. We’re sure the Lightbearer items will be a big hit with Destiny fans old and new, and can’t wait to see people making creative use of them as they go about their adventures. Good luck, Guardians!” You can check out the trailer below to see the full Lightbearer assortment, and then visit the Pirate Emporium to gear up and get ready for battle – the seas are counting on you! Related Stories for “Drive Out the Darkness with Sea of Thieves’ Destiny-Inspired Lightbearer Cosmetics” Category: Games DOOM: The Dark Ages – Going Hands-on with Story, Sandboxes, Mechs, and Dragons Category: Games A Minecraft Movie DLC Now Available in the Minecraft Marketplace Category: ID@Xbox The Chaos Theory of the DCF Universe The post Drive Out the Darkness with Sea of Thieves’ Destiny-Inspired Lightbearer Cosmetics appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Attention, fellow Ghoul Hunters! Welcome to the Zone. Or shall I say: welcome to your final demise? Because according to my studies, only one in a hundred Ghoul Hunters will survive in the Zone! Deadly Distortions, dangerous mutants, heavily-armed bandits, and yes, the cursed Visitations! They are here to claim your life and your soul. […]

The post Tunguska Is Here on Xbox: How to Survive in the Zone as a Ghoul Hunter appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Summary Choose your preferred tactics for each battle. Great variety of items and weapons. Live a fulfilling life in the Zone with crafting, farming, cooking, and tons of quests and stories. Attention, fellow Ghoul Hunters! Welcome to the Zone. Or shall I say: welcome to your final demise? Because according to my studies, only one in a hundred Ghoul Hunters will survive in the Zone! Deadly Distortions, dangerous mutants, heavily-armed bandits, and yes, the cursed Visitations! They are here to claim your life and your soul. But fear not: the Cossacks are here to help! We’ll provide you with the best gears and training (for a small fee, of course), and we’ll always have your back. Now, if you can spare me a few minutes, I’m sure a few tips and tricks can get you started. Don’t Get into Fights Unless You Have to You may trust your grandpa’s Makarov and sawed-off double-barrel, but what are you up against? AK’s, sub-machine guns, AS-Val, SVD, oh and even RPD and PKM – bad guys armed to the teeth who don’t even bother to loot rookies like you! So here’s my advice: stick to the shadows, sneak past your foes, and learn to take them down quietly with a garrote. But when you get a hold of those big toys, work on improving your skill level with each kind, and find weapon attachments to unleash their true power. Take Good Care of Your Gears Life in the Zone is not your dream vacation. Your armors will degrade. Your devices will run out of battery. Your guns will jam. Remember, your life depends on your gears working flawlessly, so use a repair kit to maintain them after every battle! You can bring any worn-out weapon and armor to our workbench for repair – free of charge, as long as you know how to fix them. Always Keep Your Eyes Peeled for More Loot There are always supplies in every nook and cranny for you to find. Food, ammo, medicine, serums, ingredients, they are all crucial to your survival in the Zone. Especially iodide pills for radiation, and Vodka for Tunguska Syndrome – if you need more, come see our trader and we’ll cut you a good deal. Don’t forget: you can craft almost everything you need in the Zone. Cooking, farming, loading bullets, brewing serum, and even distilling alcohol for the serum lab (and of course, for escaping from your troubles and sorrow!), you can essentially live a life here. Finally, Bring All Your Spoils to The Cossacks After all, you are here to be Ghoul Hunters, right? Remember: bullets don’t do you any good – they’ll just rip up all those mutated body parts that you’ll need to make money with. On the other hand, melee weapons give you the best chance to harvest high quality serum ingredients. Just bring them to us and we’ll make you rich, because the Cossacks make the best serums! So join us now, and we’ll fight together, hunt together, and prosper together, only in Tunguska: The Visitation today on Xbox! Tunguska: The Visitation – Complete Edition Rotorist Workshop ☆☆☆☆☆ 10 ★★★★★ $39.99 Get it now Seek fortune as a Ghoul Hunter in an abandoned Soviet Exclusion Zone. Use your grit and ingenuity to survive deadly radiation, mysterious anomalies, and poisonous mutants. Go in guns-blazing, or stay in the shadows – your choice. Uncover the dark secrets of Tunguska from the Soviet era. Venture across desolate villages, abandoned facilities, toxic swamps, and ominous tunnels in this top-down adventure RPG, in a realm cursed by the mysterious Tunguska Event in 1908. Inspired by the novel Roadside Picnic, Tunguska is one man's vision and creation of a new post-Visitation zone: a place not just full of horror and danger, but also the freedom and opportunities sought after by many near the fall of the USSR. SURVIVAL Tunguska: The Visitation is 3D top-down action shooter, infused with moderate survival elements such as food, medicine, body energy, character stat buff, hazardous environments, and inventory management. The slow-paced, methodical gameplay inspires critical thinking and strategic planning. A perk-based skill system lets you decide on how to build expertise – be it combat-heavy, stealthy, crafty, or just an all around survivor of the Zone. COMBAT Put your grit to the test with real time melee brawls and gunfights. With a large arsenal of weapons, you can be creative and come up with the best approach for each combat scenario. Stick to the shadows and use distractions, if being stealthy is up your alley. CRAFTING The Zone is not a barren place. Collect wild herbs, grow crops, and hunt for wild animals to collect ingredients for cooking and brewing. Use the workbench to craft ammunition and repair your gears. COMPLETE EDITION Includes: main game, Ravenwood Stories, Shadowmaster, New Game+, and Slaughterhouse. The post Tunguska Is Here on Xbox: How to Survive in the Zone as a Ghoul Hunter appeared first on Xbox Wire.

The post Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone Season 03: Critical Launch Intel You Need to Know appeared first on Xbox Wire.

The post Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone Season 03: Critical Launch Intel You Need to Know appeared first on Xbox Wire.

The post Exploring the Stunning Cel-Shaded Art Style of The First Berserker: Khazan appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Category: Games March 27, 2025 Exploring the Stunning Cel-Shaded Art Style of The First Berserker: Khazan Jimbo Kim, Brand Manager, Nexon America Summary The First Berserker: Khazan is now available for Xbox Series X|S. This hardcore ARPG, set in the Dungeon & Fighter universe, features immersive 3D cel-shaded animation and unforgettable boss encounters. Born to rage –embark on Khazan’s journey of revenge to become the first berserker. With today’s worldwide release of hardcore ARPG The First Berserker: Khazan, set in the iconic Dungeon and Fighter (DNF) universe, we want to highlight one of the game’s standout features — its breathtaking 3D cel-shaded art style. This visually striking direction combines cinematic realism with stylized animation, offering players a completely new and immersive experience within the DNF universe. A Fusion of Realism and Stylization The art direction for The First Berserker: Khazan introduces a powerful combination of photorealistic textures and 3D cel shading, giving the game a look that is both immersive and visually striking. The photorealistic textures create depth and grounding in the world, while the cel-shading technique brings a vibrant, animated quality that ensures the game retains the dynamic, expressive appeal of the DNF universe. For those not familiar with the universe, it is a dynamic and action-packed world where ancient legends clash with dark forces in a fight for survival. Known for its fast-paced, combo-driven combat and deep character customization, the game immerses players in a realm steeped in rich lore and myth, making each battle feel like a piece of a larger, epic narrative. This innovative fusion of styles is designed to appeal not only to long-time fans of the series but also to newcomers, who will find the art style instantly engaging. It maintains the visual identity of DNF while pushing boundaries to create something that feels both modern and timeless. Immersive Boss Encounters Boss encounters in The First Berserker: Khazan are elevated by the game’s art style, with each boss meticulously designed to reflect its power, personality, and role within the story. These larger-than-life characters are not just imposing figures; they are key components of the narrative, with their designs serving to enhance their storytelling impact. The stylized visuals play a crucial role in making each boss battle, such as Blade Phantom, feel like a cinematic event. The game’s use of 3D cel-shading enhances the visual drama by emphasizing the bold outlines, vibrant colors, and high contrast, which help bring the bosses to life in a striking and exaggerated way. The detailed design of Blade Phantom, with his fluid movement and imposing presence, is crafted to heighten the intensity and emotional weight of the fight. These visuals ensure that each encounter feels like a significant, high-stakes moment, where the player can feel the gravity of the battle through both the gameplay and the stunning visual presentation. The visual design of the bosses is central to their role in the game, making each fatal encounter more than just a challenge, but an unforgettable moment in the story. The Power of Cel-Shading The decision to use 3D cel-shading helps create a visually striking art style that complements the narrative and emotional tone of the game. The bold outlines and vibrant colors, characteristic of cel-shading, bring out the dramatic aspects of the world and its characters. The high contrast visuals amplify the emotional weight of key scenes, helping players immerse themselves more fully in the story and feel a deeper connection to the game’s events. This visual approach not only enhances the game’s aesthetics but also supports the storytelling by making it more engaging and expressive. This art style allowed the team to play with intensity in ways that wouldn’t be possible with traditional approaches. The result is a game that visually communicates the high stakes and drama of Khazan’s story, making each moment feel alive and powerful. For more information, visit the official homepage for The First Berserker: Khazan. The First Berserker: Khazan Deluxe Edition Nexon Korea Corporation ☆☆☆☆☆ 302 ★★★★★ $69.99 Get it now [DELUXE EDITION Bonus] The First Berserker: Khazan DELUXE EDITION includes the following content: 1. The First Berserker: Khazan (main game) 2. Hero's Weapon Set ・ Hero's Dual Wield ・ Hero's Spear ・ Hero's Greatsword 3. Hero's Armor Set ・ Hero's Helm ・ Hero's Wristguards ・ Hero's Pauldrons ・ Hero's Leggings ・ Hero's Combat Boots 4. Digital Artbook ・ The digital artbook features concept art from The First Berserker: Khazan. It can be accessed from the in-game main menu screen. * The Hero's Weapon and Armor Sets are The First Berserker: Khazan DELUXE EDITION exclusive items and cannot be obtained through alternative means at a later date. * The Hero's Weapon and Armor Sets can be used cosmetically. These sets can also be upgraded and/or have their options adjusted, allowing for continued usage. * Clear Mission 2 and open the reward barrel in the Crevice to obtain the Hero's Weapon and Armor Sets. * Updating to the latest version of the game may be required to access this content. [About This Game] Experience the brutal action of The First Berserker: Khazan, a hardcore Action RPG adventure set 800 years before the events of the Dungeon Fighter Online (DNF) Universe. You will experience the vast universe and journey to the continent of Arad and discover the untold story of General Khazan. Master deep and immersive combat mechanics while you engage in strategic battles against a diverse array of foes and bosses. Will you embrace the path of the First Berserker and embark on Khazan's path of revenge? THE FIRST BERSERKER The Great General Khazan is falsely branded a traitor and mercilessly tortured. After narrowly escaping death, Khazan forms an unlikely alliance with the ghostly entity Blade Phantom, gaining otherworldly powers. Witness Khazan’s journey for revenge and learn his path to becoming the first berserker in the DNF Universe. BATTLE-HARDENED GENERAL Khazan is a master of combat, wielding an arsenal of dual-wield weapons, spears, and great-swords with unmatched prowess. Collect, upgrade, and combine these weapons with various armor sets to create your own unique combat style. Develop Khazan's abilities through multiple in-depth skill trees, allowing players to customize their playstyle and specialize in different combat techniques. While challenging for hardcore gamers, the two difficulty settings and variety of combat and skill mechanics make the game approachable for players of all skill levels. LEGENDARY BOSSES Khazan engages in unforgettable boss battles, where each foe presents distinct attack patterns, exploitable weaknesses, and unique abilities. These battles require strategic thinking, precise timing, and a deep understanding of the combat system, encouraging players to adapt and learn quickly. By mastering Khazan's versatile weapons and skills, players can effectively customize their tactics to conquer various boss types and navigate diverse combat scenarios. ANIME MEETS AAA The First Berserker: Khazan’s striking 3D cel-shaded graphics bring the world of Arad to life with the vibrant look of animated films. The essence of the Dungeon and Fighter Universe is captured and reimagined with a unique blend of bold, cel-shaded art and realistic textures, creating an immersive visual experience. The First Berserker: Khazan Nexon Korea Corporation ☆☆☆☆☆ 216 ★★★★★ $59.99 Get it now [About This Game] Experience the brutal action of The First Berserker: Khazan, a hardcore Action RPG adventure set 800 years before the events of the Dungeon Fighter Online (DNF) Universe. You will experience the vast universe and journey to the continent of Arad and discover the untold story of General Khazan. Master deep and immersive combat mechanics while you engage in strategic battles against a diverse array of foes and bosses. Will you embrace the path of the First Berserker and embark on Khazan's path of revenge? THE FIRST BERSERKER The Great General Khazan is falsely branded a traitor and mercilessly tortured. After narrowly escaping death, Khazan forms an unlikely alliance with the ghostly entity Blade Phantom, gaining otherworldly powers. Witness Khazan’s journey for revenge and learn his path to becoming the first berserker in the DNF Universe. BATTLE-HARDENED GENERAL Khazan is a master of combat, wielding an arsenal of dual-wield weapons, spears, and great-swords with unmatched prowess. Collect, upgrade, and combine these weapons with various armor sets to create your own unique combat style. Develop Khazan's abilities through multiple in-depth skill trees, allowing players to customize their playstyle and specialize in different combat techniques. While challenging for hardcore gamers, the two difficulty settings and variety of combat and skill mechanics make the game approachable for players of all skill levels. LEGENDARY BOSSES Khazan engages in unforgettable boss battles, where each foe presents distinct attack patterns, exploitable weaknesses, and unique abilities. These battles require strategic thinking, precise timing, and a deep understanding of the combat system, encouraging players to adapt and learn quickly. By mastering Khazan's versatile weapons and skills, players can effectively customize their tactics to conquer various boss types and navigate diverse combat scenarios. ANIME MEETS AAA The First Berserker: Khazan’s striking 3D cel-shaded graphics bring the world of Arad to life with the vibrant look of animated films. The essence of the Dungeon and Fighter Universe is captured and reimagined with a unique blend of bold, cel-shaded art and realistic textures, creating an immersive visual experience. The First Berserker: Khazan DEMO Nexon Korea Corporation ☆☆☆☆☆ 238 ★★★★★ Get it now This is the demo version of The First Berserker: Khazan. The demo contains the first two missions from the game. Progress made in the demo can be carried over to the full game via your save file. Difficulty settings can be adjusted after clearing Mission 1. The First Berserker: Khazan is a hardcore action RPG based on the Dungeon Fighter Online (DnF) universe, Nexon's flagship IP with more than 800 million players worldwide. Set 800 years before the events of DnF, the game unfolds on the continent of Arad and explores the untold story of Khazan, the first Berserker. Players will experience Khazan's legendary journey firsthand as they master intricate and engaging combat mechanics and strategic battles that bring his epic tale to life. [Game Overview] 1. Epic Boss Fights and Action-Packed Gameplay The First Berserker: Khazan captures the essence of Dungeon Fighter Online with its blend of flashy hack-and-slash combat and hardcore difficulty, delivering polished, high-impact action. Intense boss battles maximize tension, while hard-earned victories provide a deep sense of accomplishment, offering players a thrilling combat experience. 2. A Gripping Story of Revenge In the 89th year of the Pell Los Empire, the Great General Khazan is falsely accused of treason and banished to the snowy mountains. Having narrowly escaped death, Khazan embarks on a quest for vengeance. Witness his growth as he uncovers the conspiracies that led to his downfall, masters lost combat skills, and unveils the truth about the empire. 3. 3D Cel-Shaded Graphics Built with Unreal Engine, the game's 3D cel-shaded style captures the essence of animated films. The continent of Arad has been reimagined through a striking blend of bold, cel-shaded art and realistic textures, offering a vivid and immersive experience. [Game Features] 1. Dynamic Item Collection and Progression System Khazan wields a wide range of weapons with unmatched skill, including dual-wield weapons, spears, and greatswords. Collect and upgrade these weapons, along with various pieces of armor, and complete gear sets to develop your own distinct combat style. 2. Vast Skill Combinations Each weapon comes with a variety of skills that can be combined to create a combat style that's entirely your own. Go beyond simple attack and defense mechanics and experience gameplay that rewards strategy and creativity. The First Berserker: Khazan is the ultimate experience for players looking for a hardcore action RPG with an incredibly immersive story. Join Khazan as he overcomes the challenges that lie before him and becomes the legendary Berserker. Related Stories for “Exploring the Stunning Cel-Shaded Art Style of The First Berserker: Khazan” Category: Games DOOM: The Dark Ages – Going Hands-on with Story, Sandboxes, Mechs, and Dragons Category: Games A Minecraft Movie DLC Now Available in the Minecraft Marketplace Category: ID@Xbox The Chaos Theory of the DCF Universe The post Exploring the Stunning Cel-Shaded Art Style of The First Berserker: Khazan appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Gaming news, reviews, previews, and coverage from around the world

Square Enix has launched a new Final Fantasy IX portal to celebrate the PlayStation RPG’s 25th anniversary this year. This includes a new anniversary illustration by Toshiyuki Itahana and links to new merchandise like a new vinyl album FINAL FANTASY IX 25th Anniversary Vinyl – Timeless Tale – which includes a new recording of the […]

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SaGa fans can pick up a new release starting today with the surprise drop of SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered, announced during a recent Nintendo Direct. This remastered version is an enhanced release of the 1999 classic and is out now across Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, iOS, and Android. The game focuses on […]

The post SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered gets a surprise shadow drop release today appeared first on Nova Crystallis.

Following the success of last year’s Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, Square Enix has lifted the curtain on the much-anticipated followup, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake. The game will combine both full remakes of the original titles respectively when it launches across Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC some time this […]

The post Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake gets its first teaser trailer appeared first on Nova Crystallis.

War of the Visions Final Fantasy Brave Exvius will end service May 29, 2025 according to an announcement posted on the game’s official site today. Developed by Gumi, it launched five years ago this day, the game is a sequel to another smartphone RPG Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, but features grid based strategy RPG combat. […]

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The second major content patch following the launch of Final Fantasy XIV‘s Dawntrail expansion arrives Tuesday, March 25, 2025. Patch 7.2 will continue the main scenario in Seekers of Eternity, from its conclusion in Patch 7.1. During the main scenario, players will take on the Expert Dungeon The Underkeep and a trial versus a familiar […]

The post Where to unlock content and features in Final Fantasy XIV 7.2 appeared first on Nova Crystallis.

In the 86th Letter from the Producer Live broadcast conducted by the Final Fantasy XIV team, producer/director Naoki Yoshida and global community producer Toshio Murouchi shared a look at the next major patch “Seekers of Eternity” (referred to as Patch 7.2) and the content and features that will be added therein. Catch the brand-new trailer below, which highlights the […]

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I give much credit to the PR crew of MainFrames…they do a darn good job selling this game. This marketing push makes it a real shame that most of the

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I give much credit to the PR crew of MainFrames…they do a darn good job selling this game. This marketing push makes it a real shame that most of the high expectations raised were not met, at least in my case. At its core, I frankly didn’t find this platformer all that clever. At times, I found it awkward and, even worse, dull more than I care to admit. So, despite multiple assurances, I was somewhat quick to “press the escape key” and “log off” after I played enough for review. Will that be the case for you? I think the answer to that question depends on two things. First, if you are going into this game blind, with no expectations, I think that’ll help. But second, and perhaps more importantly, what era comes to mind when you think of platformers? If you think of the ’80s and ’90s like me, I can see MainFrames being MehFrames. But if you think of a more recent timeframe, say 2010 and beyond, you might genuinely click with what approaches a hodgepodge of ideas. A puzzle platformer, MainFrames is described as a “cozy outing.” This more recent classification has crept into gamedom as players seemingly desire to add as many subgenres as possible. Cozy can (and does) mean wildly different things to different gamers. But I suspect the majority wouldn’t associate it with the precision platforming found in MainFrames. In fairness, there are plenty of settings to reduce the challenge, from infinite jumps and spins to even invincibility. And you will be jumping a lot in this platformer, which nostalgically takes place inside a chunky pixel art computer monitor (think Thomas Was Alone, but not as good). The platforming itself is basic in a sense but far from simple—unless you tweak the accessibility settings to the extreme (which is understandably discouraged in-game). Still, the flexible approach for more forgiving platforming is admirable. The first few screens teach you the minimum before leaving you to your own devices. Some controls seem unintuitive, though you can remind yourself what they are from the pause menu. The means to adjust them to your liking is appreciated; it’s something all games should have in this day and age. In MainFrames, much of what appears on the early screens seems to reappear in later ones with only slight variations. Collectibles are easy to miss on the first pass, and without a record of them they’re even easier to overlook altogether, even for completionists. When fresh elements get introduced, while platform-like, they don’t always fit within the world presented. At times—such as during some screen transition attempts—I couldn’t tell if the game was glitching or if a design choice was intentional. One example is the respawn system, which often feels nonsensical. Sometimes, it’s easier to attempt a jump knowing I’ll fail because the game will respawn me right next to the exit. The overall impression Mainframes leaves me with is one of muddledness, albeit executed with a sincere passion. It throws in ideas about platforming, collecting, and environmental manipulation. But maybe some of the excess should’ve been left on the cutting room floor so the rest could be more polished and its potential better realized. While I admit a measure of satisfaction in getting past the trickiest parts, there is nearly equal amounts of relief, which is not a good ratio. The difficulty spikes (even with accessibility options) never feel “cozy.” For an old-school platformer fan like me, MainFrames overstayed its welcome, even with its old-school aesthetics (save the lo-fi music). But I could see this becoming something of a cult classic for newer platformer fans who are more comfortable with its mix of experimental approaches. The post Review: MainFrames (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

This week on the Pure Nintendo Podcast, Jemma, Kirk, and Trev discuss the latest Nintendo Direct, breaking down our favorite games heading to the Nintendo Switch in 2025 and even

The post Nintendo Direct breakdown! Pure Nintendo Podcast E105 appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

This week on the Pure Nintendo Podcast, Jemma, Kirk, and Trev discuss the latest Nintendo Direct, breaking down our favorite games heading to the Nintendo Switch in 2025 and even 2026. Last week, we chatted with Nick from Turtle Flip Studio about game development, how the Switch 2 could change things for devs like Nick, along with a look at the team’s first Switch game, Which Way Up. This week, we continue our countdown to the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct. In fact, this is our final episode before all is revealed by Nintendo on April 2. Needless to say, we’re very excited. But Nintendo – as ever – surprised us all last week with a Nintendo Direct dedicated to the current Nintendo Switch. In this week’s episode, we break down the highlights, from the games we’re excited about to the new features Nintendo mentioned. Which Nintendo Today theme do you think we chose? With over 100 episodes down, we’re excited to bring you more Nintendo content over the coming months and years. There’s so much to look forward to in 2025 alone with the Switch 2 fast approaching, so tune in every Monday for the latest dose of all things Nintendo. And don’t forget to follow us on Blue Sky to keep up to date with our news, and support us over at Patreon.com/PureNintendo! You’ll receive a magazine in the mail for your trouble. Until next time, game on everyone! Support the show! We’d love your support! Please support the Pure Nintendo Podcast by leaving us a review on Spotify or liking this episode on YouTube, it means a lot to us. And be sure to tune in each and every Monday for more Nintendo-related goodness. It’s all happening on the Pure Nintendo Podcast! You can find our podcast on: Spotify Apple Amazon Or view the entire collection! The post Nintendo Direct breakdown! Pure Nintendo Podcast E105 appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

This week’s Nintendo Switch eShop roundup comprises a handful of SNES titles, along with some tunes for Nintendo’s music app, more sales to tempt us, and a list of new

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This week’s Nintendo Switch eShop roundup comprises a handful of SNES titles, along with some tunes for Nintendo’s music app, more sales to tempt us, and a list of new titles to boot. The Switch Online collection continues to expand with four new entries, all hailing from developer Koei during the golden age of the SNES. Nobunaga’s Ambition and Nobunaga’s Ambition: Lord of Darkness kick things off, originally released in 1993 and 1994 respectively. Both feature battles set in Japan’s Sengoku period as you set about reuniting the regions. Next up is Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV Wall of Fire, a 1994 SNES title set in China. This turn-based strategy title is based on the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Continuing your trek around the world with Koei is Uncharted Waters: New Horizons. This European-based title is a sailing and trading game and was first released in 1993. Meanwhile, the Nintendo Music app is also expanding. This week’s addition is (strangely) only part of a soundtrack, providinig 23 tracks from Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Where are the other tracks? Maybe they’ll join the app at a later date. There’s still a long list of new titles heading to the Switch eShop this week, including Which Way Up: Galaxy Games. We interviewed Turtle Flip Studio, developer of the game, on last week’s episode of the Pure Nintendo Podcast, so check that out and stay tuned for our upcoming review. So, that’s what’s happening on the eShop this week. Which titles pique your interest? Let us know what you’re playing this week! Nintendo Switch Online (SNES) NOBUNAGA’S AMBITION – NOBUNAGA’S AMBITION is a game set in Japan’s Sengoku period, a turbulent age when feudal warlords battled for control of the country. As the ruler of a fief, you’ll choose your own path to conquest: Will you wage war on neighbors, rely on diplomacy, use economic subterfuge, or send ninja assassins? Harness all of your ingenuity and resources to unite Japan! NOBUNAGA’S AMBITION will be available on March 28 for Nintendo Switch Online members. Note: This title supports up to eight players using a single Joy-Con controller. You can use Controller 1 or Controller 2 regardless of the number of players. NOBUNAGA’S AMBITION: Lord of Darkness – In this fourth entry in the NOBUNAGA’S AMBITION series released for the Super NES console in 1994, you are a Sengoku Daimyo intent on unifying all 48 feudal states, from Tohoku to Kyushu. The flow of the game, in which you gather state power, ready your military, and win battles to expand your influence, has been expanded to include the dimensions of culture and technology. Collect tea items and give them to your generals as rewards. Raise their intelligence by holding tea ceremonies, giving them an advantage in diplomacy and trade ability. You can also increase the technological power of your feudal domain to gain the ability to manufacture rifles and warships that will give your military a boost in battle. NOBUNAGA’S AMBITION: Lord of Darkness will be available on March 28 for Nintendo Switch Online members. Note: This title supports up to eight players using a single Joy-Con controller. You can use Controller 1 or Controller 2 regardless of the number of players. Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV Wall of Fire – It’s the Second Han Dynasty, and China is on the verge of collapse. The landscape is dominated by court-family infighting and emerging powerful warlords. This struggle for power has brought an era known as the Three Kingdoms, complete with constant warfare among China’s most courageous and skillful heroes. As a ruler during these difficult times, it’s up to you to unify a country torn apart by rebellion. Expand your kingdom by building a strong military, or try outsmarting your rivals during negotiations. With powerful weapons, including automatic firing crossbows and catapults, you can engage your opponents in field battles or castle battles. But don’t forget: A ruler’s strength is also measured by the economic power of their kingdom and the happiness of its people! Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV Wall of Fire will be available on March 28 for Nintendo Switch Online members. Note: This title supports up to eight players using a single Joy-Con controller. You can use Controller 1 or Controller 2 regardless of the number of players. Uncharted Waters: New Horizons – Uncharted Waters: New Horizons is a game set in the Age of Discovery, the golden era of European global exploration during the early 16th century. Select one of six characters to play as, each with different backgrounds and motivations. Discover treasures, like rare animals and monuments, at over 130 destinations while commanding a fleet and avoiding enemies on open waters. At ports, recruit new members to your fleet, purchase new ships and upgrades, gather useful info on your next target, and settle disputes by challenging adversaries to duels. Set sail across the world’s oceans for adventure! Uncharted Waters: New Horizons will be available on March 28 for Nintendo Switch Online members. Nintendo Music A New and Noteworthy World – The powerful pink puffball from Planet Popstar takes the stage! 23 tracks from the Kirby and the Forgotten Land soundtrack are available now on Nintendo Music, the smart-device app for Nintendo soundtracks**. Set the tone for your adventures near or far with tunes like “Running Through the New World,” “Northeast Frost Street” and “Moonlight Canyon.” Keep an eye (or ear) out for the remaining tracks from the game, which will be released by the end of this year! Nintendo Music is exclusively for Nintendo Switch Online members. For more info, visit: https://www.nintendo.com/us/switch/online/nintendo-switch-online/nintendo-music/. Nintendo eShop sales Check out the full list of deals on the eShop available this week at https://www.nintendo.com/store/sales-and-deals. Also new this week on the Nintendo Switch eShop Alice in Dinerland Anime Dance-Off – Dungeons and Dancers Arcade Archives SENKYU Azure Haven Blue Wednesday Bubble Ghost Remake Bubble Wizard Saga Care Bears : Unlock The Magic Colorizing: Sunrise Cookie Cutter: Overkill Edition Cozy Hunt Cozy Land Croc Legend of the Gobbos – Available April 2 CRYKEN part1 Dagger Froggy – Available April 2 Dance Mania Debug Girl Destind: Mr. Almost Right Distant Bloom Escape Game The House Under Rain Fantasy Jigsaw Puzzle Fight Legends: Mortal Fighting Fuel Station Simulator GladMort Happy Hike – Available March 29 Hungry Brain Challenge! I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream Internet Caffe Manager 2025 – Available March 28 Jennifer Wilde: Unlikely Revolutionaries Kara Fantasy – Available March 28 Kemono Heroes Kumakichi&Nyanzou Birth ☆ Destruction God DX Little Red Riding Hood: Endless Zoom Tale Pet & Dog Simulator Polarity Remastered Shadow of the orient Sol Dorado Heist – Available April 2 Space Battle – Available April 1 SPACE TRUCK SIMULATOR – Available April 1 Star Leaping Story Steampunch The Eightfold Path The Running Toaster Tiny Lands – Deluxe Edition Twilight Monk Two-Sided Runner Unblock Now Urban Car Driver Simulator: City Explorer Challenge – Available March 29 Wheel of Words: Crossword – Available March 28 Which Way Up: Galaxy Games Zombie Blocks: Pixel Shooter Gun – Available March 28 Zombie Strike Force The post SNES classics, Kirby tunes, sales and more join this week’s eShop roundup appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

No Sleep For Kaname Date - From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES is coming to Nintendo Switch on July 25th. And if you're not familiar with the series, Spike Chunsoft is providing some financial incentives to help you catch up.

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One of the slicker looking titles in yesterday’s Nintendo Direct was definitely No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES. This latest entry in the AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES is coming to Nintendo Switch on July 25th. And if you’re not familiar with the series, Spike Chunsoft is providing some financial incentives to help you catch up. As part of their Publisher Sale, AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES and AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES – nirvanA Initiative, are up to 90% off. That puts the former at only $3.99 in the U.S. Nintendo eShop while the latter will run you $8.99. The sale on these and other Spike Chunsoft titles lasts up to April 11th. But let’s stay focused on No Sleep For Kaname Date for now. The player takes on the role of Kaname Date, the protagonist, and once again teams up with the AI-Ball, Aiba, to tackle a mysterious case and rescue Iris, an internet idol who has been forced to take part in a dangerous escape game. No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES introduces a new gameplay element: “Escape”. As with previous games, in “Investigation”, players will examine crime scenes and listen to testimonies. In “Somnium”, players enter the dream worlds of suspects and key witnesses. In the new “Escape” sections, players will solve puzzles to break out locked rooms. By moving between these three sections, players can obtain the necessary clues to solve the case. Game director Kazuya Yamada (Spike Chunsoft) wrote the scenario while Kotaro Uchikoshi, the previous scenario writer, continues to oversee as the series director. In addition, Yusuke Kozaki returned as character designer with Keisuke Ito composing the music. Speaking of the game and his role, Uchikoshi-san stated, “From the beginning, I trusted the development staff, but I was filled with awe at the quality, which far exceeded my expectations. The core element of this game, the ‘escape game,’ is not just a collection of puzzles; it has been intricately woven with a deep thematic significance, and its difficulty is perfectly balanced…! I believe both core and casual players will definitely enjoy it. This game is a heartfelt anthem of love created by the staff who love the ‘AI’ series, for all the fans who also love the ‘AI’ series.” Not sure if you’re in that group? You’ve got four months and a $13 investment to find out. For more information on No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES, keep your eye on spike-chunsoft.co.jp/pages/datekaname/en/ (and Pure Nintendo, of course). The post Spike Chunsoft’s big sale before No Sleep… appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Stunt Flyer was quietly released on the Nintendo Switch in February 2025, and it’s easy to see why this one flew under the radar. By all appearances, it’s a budget

The post Review: Stunt Flyer (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Stunt Flyer was quietly released on the Nintendo Switch in February 2025, and it’s easy to see why this one flew under the radar. By all appearances, it’s a budget Pilotwings with a kiddie focus. And honestly, that’s not too far off the mark. But it’s also a relaxing game that gets elevated with two-player simultaneous co-op. You and a friend fly as Jimmy and Sophie (and a handful of other pilots) through a world that looks like it wants to be Wuhu Island 2.0 in all but name only. In truth, the lack of originality invites comparisons that Stunt Flyer can’t live up to, even with unlockable islands. But once I accepted it for what it was (a game lacking originality and polish compared to the title it aimed to emulate), I had some short-term fun. That said, there is real aimlessness in the affairs. While I appreciated the exploration, I eventually longed for more structure. Stunt Flyer has familiar missions (shooting, taking pictures, races, etc.), but they vary sizably in entertainment value and seem to be scattered about without much thought. Finding scattered rings to gain experience was fun, but after collecting 100, it seemed to cease serving any function except pointless busy work. It’s a balancing act blending missions with the freedom to do what you want, and Stunt Flyer struggles with it. Aesthetics don’t provide much lasting help either. The game has one main music track. Though pleasant, you’ll grow tired of it as you search for more to do. Visually, it looks like a higher-res Wii game. Come to find out it is just that, first released on Wii with a slightly longer name and a plastic peripheral. Over 13 years later, its age is showing. I stress again that playing with a friend is where Stunt Flyer flies the highest. Split-screen allows each to do their own thing but also cooperate on missions. How much lasting power it has is a fair question, though. My wife and I had our fill in less than an hour, and I was forced to preserve on my own for this review. Stunt Flyer runs out of gas when playing solo, but split-screen co-op elevates it slightly. How much lasting power this has might depend on your desire to earn achievements, improve mission times, or simply chill for a spell. Even with the budget price, I’d wait for a sale or just boot up Pilotwings 64 on Switch Online. The post Review: Stunt Flyer (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

A surprise entry in today's Nintendo Direct was ATLUS's announcement that Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army is being reborn as RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army.

The post Solve RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army this June appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

There were some big announcements in today’s pop-up Nintendo Direct, as well as some surprises. One such surprise was ATLUS’s announcement that the PlayStation 2 action RPG Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army is being reborn as RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army. The remaster will come with an overhauled battle system, enhanced graphics, full voiceover added to the main story, and various quality-of-life enhancements when it’s released digitally and physically for Nintendo Switch and other platforms on June 19th. In RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army, a young heiress approaches the Narumi Detective Agency with a strange request…to kill her. Without any further explanation, the girl is kidnapped. Apprentice detective Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, who moonlights as a Devil Summoner assigned to protect the Capital, is on the case. Raidou investigates all across the city, which includes entering the Dark Realm–a dangerous juncture between the real world and the netherworld where demons abound. Become Raidou Kuzunoha and work with your ally demons to unravel the mysteries that block your path. What was once a missing persons matter soon spirals into a conspiracy that will shake not only the Capital, but the entire nation. In addition to appearing in the Nintendo Direct, ATLUS hosted a “The Return of Raidou Kuzunoha | World Spotlight” special premiere that showed a first look at the game and an interview with the game director, Kazuyuki Yamai (Shin Megami Tensei, Devil Summoner). You can check that out on YouTube to get further details about the game’s narrative, updates, and enhancements. A title recruitment campaign has started in which titles for Raidou created by fans will be implemented in-game in free DLC available after launch. The campaign is being hosted on the ATLUS West’s channel on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and Facebook. More information on RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army—including details on the Digital Deluxe edition—is available at sega.com. Information on the special Collector’s Edition from Limited Run Games will be shared at a later date. The post Solve RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army this June appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Without the cave exploring and monster fighting typical of farming sims, Sugardew Island focuses solely on growing and selling crops, as well as restoring peace to the land. Is that enough to keep players engaged?

The post Review: Sugardew Island (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Sugardew Island is a farming simulator game along the lines of Stardew Valley, only a bit easier. Without the cave exploring and monster fighting, Sugardew Island focuses more on growing and selling crops, as well as restoring peace to the land. You start the game on a deserted island on which people and animals are no longer friends. Without their harmony, the island is overgrown with weeds, trees, stones, and thorns. On the island is an older man who gives you the island’s back story and teaches you how to restore the harmony. In the middle of the island is a large tree, known as the harmony tree. Here is where you pick up quests. Once quests are completed, you gain new crops, animals, tools, and buildings, allowing you to upgrade your farm and earn more money. To complete quests, you have to gain enough harmony and turn it into the harmony tree. For example, starting quests require you to collect 25 harmony. Harmony is earned through selling your crops, so it’s important to farm every day. You have many tools to be able to do so. Like many other farming sims, you have a hoe and a water bucket to till soil and water crops. You also have a pickaxe to break stone and an axe to chop down trees, both of which help clear up space to farm. Crops take a couple days to grow, some longer than others, and can be harvested once fully grown. Once you have crops, you can take them into your store and sell them. This can only be done once a day, so it’s important to have all the materials you want to sell ready before you open your store. Forest spirits will come in and pick up items but won’t always buy them. Some creatures come ready to pay, but others come with their minds not made up. If this is the case, you can negotiate with them. That sometimes works, and even earns you some extra money through tips, but sometimes they’ll leave empty handed. With each item you sell, you also earn harmony. Along with selling your crops at your store, you can sell them to the element people who live on your island. You gain more friendship with them each time you complete one of their orders. Once you have gained enough energy to complete a quest and have turned it into the harmony tree, you not only get a reward, but another part of the island opens. There are different areas you can unlock, all associated with animals such as deer, bunnies, owls, etc. You can pet the animals when these areas are open, and, in return, they’ll drop extra seeds for you. This is helpful as it’s less money you have to spend on crops. Although Sugardew Island is a cozy game, which a lot of people tend to enjoy, it doesn’t have much to offer. It is fun and full of cute and cuddly creatures, but that’s about it. The whole game revolves around buying crops, growing crops, selling crops, using your earnings to unlock more crops, and repeating the cycle. Without a sense of adventure or challenge, the game can grow boring quickly. However, I think this can also be the appeal of Sugardew Island. Maybe you have a child who likes the concept of farming sims but can’t quite grasp the depth of farming/adventure sims. If so, this is a perfect starting game. And for adults who like to relax and avoid games with tough battles and relationships, Sugardew Island works. The post Review: Sugardew Island (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

GDC 2025 was held in San Francisco last week, and First Break Labs was there to show off their upcoming releases. Pure Nintendo wasn't on hand for a visit, but we did hop onto Discord for a demo of two games they'll be sending our way: ILA: A Frosty Guide and Baseless.

The post First impressions with First Break Labs’ upcoming Switch lineup appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

GDC 2025 was held in San Francisco last week, and First Break Labs was there to show off their upcoming releases. Pure Nintendo wasn’t on hand for a visit, but we did hop onto Discord for a demo of two games they’ll be sending our way: ILA: A Frosty Guide and Baseless. Developed by Barcelona-based Magic Rain Studios, ILA: A Frosty Glide is an open world adventure with a very cozy approach to gameplay. You play a young woman, ILA, who has lost her kitten, Coco. Luckily, ILA is a witch-in-training, so she has some skills at her disposal as she sets out to rescue her lost cat. Even luckier that some of those skills happen to involve a skatebroom. Focusing on cozy exploration, players will acquire new acquire new skills for ILA as she explores the environment. These skills will unlock access to new areas, allowing her to work her way to the summit. Of course, there are numerous collectibles to be obtained, too, including hats, capes, and customized skatebrooms. And as ILA progresses, story elements will unveil the history of her relationship with Coco. I was able to observe a nice chunk of gameplay, and was struck by how the game’s color palette and soundtrack (composed by Joaquim Scandurra (Sku)) help to set the comfortable vibe. ILA: A Frosty Vibe is more adventure and discovery than action, encouraging players to take everything in as they work their way through. You can’t die, although some of the environmental puzzles appear to offer a decent challenge. ILA: A Frosty Glide is coming to Switch and other platforms in Q3 of this year. The second game I observed was Baseless from Fermenter Games, an individual developer from New York. This one is a twin-stick shooter in which you must shoot to move. Sound challenging? That would definitely appear to be the case. In Baseless, players will use their weapons to propel them in the opposite direction, hopping from planet to planet and taking out enemies while doing so. Gravity will affect players from all directions, but you’ll need to use your weapons to prevent yourself from drifting dangerously far from…the danger. Many enemies will need to be wiped out (or other objectives completed) in order to advance. Thankfully, though, the weapons are powerful, and there are friends to adopt along the way. Like ILA, Baseless also has a cozy color palette. The action, however is anything but cozy. The demo was frenetic, but I could tell from some of the slicker moves that mastering the controls and the available weaponry will be quite rewarding. And those colors! Baseless should be quite the looker on your OLED Switch or TV screen when it arrives in Q3 2025. We’d like to thank First Break Labs for taking the time to lead us through these two games, and we look forward to exploring them further as we await their release. In the meantime, you can learn more about ILA: A Frosty Glide and Baseless, along with First Break Labs’ other published titles, at firstbreaklabs.com. The post First impressions with First Break Labs’ upcoming Switch lineup appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

It's surprisingly fun to think of your dream theme park, and then actually build it and see other people's reactions to it. Just in case you're not familiar with the RollerCoaster Tycoon series, that's exactly what you do.

The post Review: RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

RollerCoaster Tycoon was one of my favorite games when I was younger. Building and sim management games have always appealed to my creative side. It’s surprisingly fun to think of your dream theme park, and then actually build it and see other people’s reactions to it. Just in case you’re not familiar with the RollerCoaster Tycoon series, that’s exactly what you do. And whilst the title might suggest otherwise, there is far more to this game than roller coasters. The original RollerCoaster Tycoon game was released in 1999 and was very popular amongst Windows computer users. The sequel was released in 2002, and thus the cycle began. In RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic, you get a merger of these two games, including all of the different parks, themes, scenarios, rides, and more. So, there’s plenty of content to keep you busy. While most people bought the game for it’s fun, creative appeal, there’s a lot more to it than that. I’m sure when you think of building a theme park you’re thinking of all the fun stuff like rides, attractions, and food. But we often forget there is always someone working behind the scenes to make sure everything runs smoothly. In this instance you are not only the designer, you’re the manager. You will need to hire staff, adjust fees and ticket prices (so you’re actually turning a profit), make sure your customers are happy and entertained, and, of course, make sure your park stays clean. It can be a bit overwhelming for first timers, but once you get familiar with the process it gets better. It’s rewarding when you’ve finished building your park and the crowd rushes in and everything comes to life, especially when it’s successful. You start out with basic parks. There’s a good selection when you first start up the game, but to unlock the rest of the parks you will need to complete objectives. Each park has a set objective. An example would be to have at least 300 guests visit your park at the end of year one, with a park rating of at least 500. Once you complete this objective you can unlock the next park, and so on. There are tons of parks to play around in, and a lot of customization when it comes to the rides and overall look of your park. When you add a new ride/attraction, you can choose the price of admission and the amount of times customers get to ride, you can do test runs, you can change the colors of the ride, etc. For how old these games are, they do give you a fair amount of creative freedom. I will say that the game does get a little repetitive over time. A lot of the objectives you have to complete to move on to the next park are similar. But I always had fun whenever I started with a clean slate and just focused on building an awesome park. The most obvious negative thing about this version of RollerCoaster Tycoon is the absence of a mouse or touch controls. I’m an avid console gamer, but for games like this and The Sims, a mouse and a keyboard are the best and most convenient option. I was also very disappointed to find out that the touch screen was unusuable as well. I’m assuming by what I’ve read online that this might change in a future update, so I’ll cross my fingers for now. However, upon further investigation, I did find the full control scheme for the Switch, with shortcuts included in the controls menu. Learning some of those button shortcuts can save you time and frustration during a complicated build, but using a joystick as the cursor will be the death of me. Especially when modifying terrain, laying down paths and placing roller coaster tracks. As far as visuals and graphics go, I’m a huge fan of the retro style. I’ve played the pixel versions and the 3D versions of RollerCoaster Tycoon, and I gotta say I prefer the vintage graphics. I think it’s a fitting visual style for this type of game, and there’s a lot of unexpected detail in this tiny pixel world. You can rotate the camera and zoom in and out freely (with the handy button shortcuts of course). The only issue I noticed was some lag when you zoom out too much or speed up time. There is a slight load in some spots, but nothing game-breaking. The carnival style music can get a little annoying at times, but overall it sets the mood for the theme park…theme. You can adjust this in the settings if it starts to bug you, like it did me. RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic is an addictive blast from the past. I had just as much fun playing this version as I did when I was a kid, and now I’m experienced enough to actually create a successful theme park and appreciate everything that goes on behind the scenes. While there are a few downsides—like controls and repetitive objectives—the pros outweigh the cons. Overall, it’s a fun experience if you have the time and patience to really dig in. If you’re a fan of management sims or world building games, this is definitely one to add to your list. The post Review: RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

A stealth puzzle game with an intense sense of intrigue, The Stone of Madness takes place in the grim setting of a 17th century Spanish monastery. The game tells the

The post Review: The Stone of Madness (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

A stealth puzzle game with an intense sense of intrigue, The Stone of Madness takes place in the grim setting of a 17th century Spanish monastery. The game tells the story of five playable prisoners trapped within the monastery under the watch of brutal guards and harsh nuns, with only unfortunate asylum patients for company. The game begins with an engaging and well-crafted tutorial. You start off as Alfredo, a sharp-witted priest whose personal investment in the wellbeing of his fellow patients drives him to follow guards escorting a traumatised young woman through the building. Clear instructions show you how to sneak through the forbidden areas of the monastery and make use of Alfredo’s particular skills to avoid detection and reveal clues to the mystery. You are introduced to other core characters, learn their backstories, as well as how to switch between the different characters to make best use of their different abilities. Each character has weaknesses as well as skills, and you have to keep an eye on their mental health throughout the day. As well as being an interesting gameplay mechanic, this cleverly gives each character’s story a function within the gameplay and makes each of them feel more grounded and human. Their fears are not uncommon; the little girl, Amelia, is afraid of scary gargoyles, while the ethically-driven priest, Alfredo, is traumatised by seeing evidence of violence and suffering. This focus on their mental wellbeing as much as their physical health ties neatly into the torturous aspects of the historical setting and ramps up the tension at the heart of the game. Once the tutorial ends, The Stone of Madness enters a day-night cycle. Each morning, you can select up to three of your five playable characters to tackle the tasks of the day. Half the day you are free to roam the accessible areas of the monastery largely unimpeded, so long as no guards see you committing forbidden actions like unlocking doors or looting boxes. After a set amount of time, the monastery is haunted by animas, an element that makes great use of the game’s spiritual setting, which deal much harsher punishments than the human guards. You can stay out beyond curfew, but you’re much more likely to be caught and punished. In the evening, your characters have additional skills, including healing their mental and physical resources, crafting useful items, and bartering with the guards for either items or a blind eye the next day. Strategising to keep your team alive overnight is as necessary as the thought required to survive the day. Navigating the monastery is in itself a puzzle. There are multiple ways you can take advantage of your characters’ skills to distract the guards and access various blocked areas of the building to hunt down the information you need. The tasks you have to complete are clearly recorded in your logs, but you have to figure out how to do that yourself. Deciding where in the monastery to look, to whom to speak, and which characters will be best suited to those investigations is left largely down to you. Not long into the game, you get the choice of giving the titular stone to one of two characters. This choice determines which of two narratives your game will follow. Each offers an equally rich mystery that requires your skill in sleuthing and strategy to unravel. The game indicates roughly how long each storyline will take, with a percentage tracker in your save slot showing your process. The puzzles are often challenging, which is only compounded by the necessary stealth. It can get frustrating knowing what you need to do, but being scuppered by the fierceness of the guards. At times, however, that works in the game’s favour by heightening the sense of desperation integral to the setting. Ultimately, finding solutions is massively rewarding, and the sense of chipping away at a seemingly overwhelming force certainly feels like a core element of the game. The Stone of Madness is a stunningly designed game. As well as the story being a deep mystery and the characters rich with personality, the visual art is gorgeous throughout. The monastery you explore is beautiful, with a design that showcases the glory of the era’s religious architecture. It’s impossible to miss the cruelty etched in the face of the Mother Superior as she patrols the corridors or the anguish in the eyes of the tortured monastery inmates. The visuals are only enhanced by immensely impressive animated cutscenes that are nothing short of cinematic. Overall, this makes for an absorbing and intriguing game with a fantastically ominous atmosphere. However, my copy of The Stone of Madness suffers from some kind of bug that causes it to crash. The trigger is unclear as, over the course of a few weeks, it has crashed at the end of the in-game day or when trying to switch between characters and, most recently, when using one particular move. I hope the devs are aware of this and are working on a fix because right now it crashes consistently in the same place preventing me from continuing with the story, which I would very much like to do. Once this is patched out, I’m confident this is going to be a uniquely interesting and well-crafted game. For the time being, it feels tragically incomplete. The post Review: The Stone of Madness (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

All Steam news, all the time!

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Added missing files for Taunt: The Travel Agent Added No Hat styles for the Cozy Cover-Up Added VScript support for HIDEHUD_MATCH_STATUS flag to hide the Match Status panel Added a borderless window option to video settings Added bicubic lightmaps (from Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update) Added radial fog (from Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update) Added support for Steam Networking Made the default server name for listen servers include the player's name Made the game launch in native resolution by default instead of 640x480 Client-side prediction fixes (these fix 'jank'/rollback in certain situations) Fixed a prediction bug where if the player was moved on the client, their input-based movement for that tick was not taken into account in non-player actions Improved prediction for walking on props and other entities Made certain client-side entities only trigger local prediction errors e.g. If the viewmodel experiences a prediction error, the player will not experience a prediction error Fixed prediction of viewmodel sway Fixed a prediction error regarding weapon idle animations Fixed certain breakable props not gibbing correctly Fixed an issue where certain variables like position would not be updated correctly to match the server in certain situations Fixed the player's base velocity (eg. conveyors, moving items etc.) getting subtly out of sync from client/server Fixed players being able to spam duel cancellation messages for a duel that doesn't exist Fixed not being able to join community servers via Steam invites or game info Fixed lighting position discrepancies for cosmetic items, weapons, and viewmodels (community fix from ficool2) Fixed Equipped label overlapping attribute icons in the loadout menu (community fix from Lindon) Fixed an issue with props and team colors when taunting with Australium weapons Fixed the Voices from Below effect not working when taunting with the Highland Hound set equipped Fixed player voice commands being abruptly ended when the player enters shallow water Fixed incorrect number on the Geneva Contravention achievement icon Fixed the Military Style for The Surgeon General to stay properly semi-visible at all angles Fixed some classes missing the BLU team material for That '70s Chapeau Fixed the Spanish-Latin America option being displayed as English in the Settings menu Fixed the MOTD dialog not working for Spanish-Latin America Updated attribute descriptions for The Scottish Resistance and the Stickybomb Jumper to use 'stickybomb' instead of 'pipebomb' Updated equip_region settings for The Little Bear, The Heavy-Weight Champ, The Grand Duchess Tutu, and the Combat Slacks to fix unnecessary conflicts Updated the Spooky Night and Ominous Night Unusual taunt effects to fix a visual bug (Thanks Kiffy!) Updated koth_overcast_final to improve optimization Updated ctf_applejack Added block bullets to some stores Unblocked a window at mid, allowing Snipers to shot across the middle hut Removed the missing texture in BLU spawn Gave a chicken a friend, because friendship is magic Updated cp_fortezza New radio model for spawn rooms Changed sentry shack ammo pack on last to a medium Adjusted health pickups throughout the map Changed kill volume on cap A double doors to be more consistent with visuals Improved bot support (Thanks Star Bright) Detail pass Updated pl_patagonia [Stage 1] Fixed some RED bots stuck forever trying to make an impossible jump on the stairs outside spawn Fixed the cart not capping the first point on extremely rare occasions [Stage 2] Improved optimization Fixed a nodraw floor near the first BLU spawn train bridge waterfall Fixed 3D skybox looking pitch black for players using mat_hdr_level 2 [Stage 3] Improved optimization Fixed wrap assassin baubles colliding with a solid func_brush bounding box outside BLU spawn Removed the platform above the open choke of the last point Added an additional path to the window overlooking the open choke of the last point Fixed RED bots getting stuck on a solid fence outside the RED spawn Fixed 3D skybox looking pitch black for players using mat_hdr_level 2

Foundation is Now Available on Steam and is 25% off!* Foundation is a grid-less, laidback medieval city-building game with a focus on organic development, monument construction and resource management. *Offer ends February 7 at 10AM Pacific Time

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Fixed the Battle Balaclava's "No Gloves" style hiding the Heavy's hands Fixed broken materials for The Westcoat's "Ugly" style Added smoke effect to The Checkered Past Update the Buck's Brim's "Bad" style Fixed broken materials Added smoke effect Updated cp_fortezza Detail improvements Improved clipping Updated koth_cachoeira Fixed players being able to get stuck in certain displacements Various clipping improvements throughout the map Various miscellaneous fixes (Thanks Midnite!) Improved bot navigation (Thanks Katsu!)

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Updated the Brain Cane to fix problems with the texture and phong value Updated The Battle Music Added missing Hat style Fixed the models due to clipping on Heavy's ears and misalignment on Engineer Improved and strengthen the Noise Cancellation Updated the materials to fix it not being shiny Updated the backpack icon to reflect the materials change Updated cp_gravelpit_snowy Fixed potential incompatibility with external VScript files (thanks Le Codex!) Re-implemented cubemap reflections in ice cave Fixed perch spots Updated vsh_distillery, vsh_maul, vsh_nucleus, vsh_outburst, vsh_skirmish, and vsh_tinyrock Restored Hale's resistance to knockback back to 75% Reduced bonus flame damage against Hale from 50% to 25% Hale can now do 1 extra Brave Jump before the Jump Fatigue kicks in (thanks Wendy) Weighdown is no longer blocked by the Jump Fatigue (thanks Wendy) Removed area-of-effect of Hale's normal punches (thanks Wendy) Demoman shields now absorb 70% of Saxton Punch! damage (compared to normal 50%) to make the following launch into the stratosphere survivable Fixed Hale taking mini-crits from Direct Hit and Reserve Shooter while underwater (thanks Bradasparky) Fixed airborne mini-crits of Direct Hit and Reserve Shooter applying against the wielder (thanks Bradasparky) Fixed Hale being able to stomp while underwater (thanks Bradasparky) Fixed Sweeping Charge not working against underwater opponents Fixed the bug that prevented Quick-Fix from mirroring a patient's wall climbing (thanks Bradasparky) Fixed Hale's faulty ground detection (thanks Bradasparky) Fixed Baby Face's Blaster's loss of boost not applying correctly (thanks Whurr and MilkMaster72) Fixed the voice lines refusing to play sometimes Updated pl_patagonia Stage 1 Fixed the cart going under the elevator in extremely rare occasions (Thanks Shocked) Fixed sometimes hearing outside soundscapes inside blue spawn Fixed being able to build in a very high rooftop after point A Fixed being able to build in blue spawn Cart elevator is no longer the glitchiest thing in the universe Fixed cart not rolling back after completing the elevator descent sequence Now, if the cart is rolling into the elevator in overtime, the round timer will be set to 5 seconds left, to avoid unfair loses for blue. Timer will resume once the cart reaches the bottom (Thanks I. C. Wiener). Stage 2 Removed rollback from the train container ramp in last point (Thanks b4nny) Gave blue more high ground for last point Added an additional dropdown for blue for last point Fixed being able to be teleported into red spawn as blue after capping point A Removed long hill rollback before point C Fixed bots getting stuck on the closed train doors after cap B Fixed being able to leave stickies inside blue last spawn Fixed being able to get stuck in the point C shortcut door for red. If you get trapped, it will kill you. Fixed a pop-in issue relating to areaportals below point B Fixed being able to enter the last blue spawn as red Birdie (Thanks Explocivo808) Stage 3 Added a fenced section for the long wood cover wall in last point (Thanks b4nny) Mirrored the window sniper spot in last point choke Fixed being able to build behind a displacement rock wall in last point Removed troll teleport spot in last point ending ramp All Stages Slightly lowered sun brightness and slightly raised skylight brightness Improved skybox transitions The cart no longer tries to defy the law of physics Ninjaneers have more freedom to be ninjas The bots have learned how to play the map Gave the cart another coronación de gloria

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Updated the Dapper Noel to fix an issue with the mesh Updated vsh_maul Fixed broken areaportals Changed some props in the upper area that could be mistaken for a large ammo pack

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Added missing No Gloves style for the Consigliere's Coverup Added missing Versus Saxton Hale kill icons Added some tournament medals Fixed Taunt: Curtain Call voice lines overlapping with other Spy voice lines Fixed the Playful Aurora and Frisky Morning Unusual effects not moving correctly Updated Aurora Skies Unusual effect to fix a timing issue Updated the Necroprancer to fix an issue with the materials Updated the Dusk Duster to fix an issue with the materials Updated the Dapper Noel Remade normal map to be compatible with OpenGL Re-baked Diffuse & updated backpack icon to reflect above changes Removed misplaced ambient occlusion Fixed problematic face flexes Fixed an issue where Engineer's beard was protruding from his goggles Fixed an issue with the jigglebones being disabled Rigged Sniper's hat to be compatible with his melee taunt Updated Scrooge McDoc Transparent lenses are rigged to the correct bone (prp_glasses instead of bip_head) so it should now work correctly with taunts that move the glasses Improved scarf rigging and positioning to allow for better compatibility with shirt cosmetics Updated the backpack icon Updated koth_overcast_final Fixed an issue with the models/materials Added back snow coverings (now using displacements) to some props that were missing them Fixed misaligned textures in various places Fixed weird lighting bug on a wall in blue spawn Fixed 'Hotel' sign not displaying properly Added back indicators under some health and ammo kits that were missing them Updated cp_fortezza Removed sniper window leading into last Fixed Engineer being able to build in some doors Fixed some props being solid Slight art pass update Updated vsh_maul Players can no longer hide from Saxton in the dark Fixed props inside other props Fixed z-fighting brushes Fixed missing particle effects for the water feature Fixed orientation of water feature particles Minor lighting changes around the cinema Adjusted LOD change distances for Cinema sign Updated VSH logic Grounded levitating props Aligned misaligned textures Fixed mis-textured walls Clipped upper metal beams Fixed clip brushes sticking out from walls that could be walked on Players will now be pushed off of the fire bell Adjusted cinema sign shadow Used spell check on Saxton's Package sign Updated how music is activated and deactivated Fixed clipping on the hanging big ornaments

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Happy Smissmas 2024! All players who play TF2 during the event will receive a Stuffed Stocking as a gift! Stockings contain goodies for good little Mercenaries. Featuring 6 new community maps: Overcast, Fortezza, Penguin Peak, Patagonia, Cutter, and Maul Added the Winter 2024 Cosmetic Case Contains 23 new community-contributed items The Festivizer can be found as a bonus drop when opening the case Added 3 new community-contributed taunts to the Mann Co. Store Taunt: Fore-Head Slice Taunt: Peace! Taunt: Curtain Call Added 18 new community-created Unusual effects 9 new effects for Unusual hats 9 new effects for Unusual taunts All cosmetic and taunt cases will grant Smissmas 2024 Unusual effects instead of their normal Unusual effects during the event. This does not include crates. Mann Co. Store winter sale! Smissmas runs through January 7th, 2025 General Fixed a client crash when previewing imported items in the Workshop dialog Fixed showing an error model when equipping the Scottish Resistance Fixed The Executioner not hiding the Scout's dog tags Updated the Mountebank's Masque to fix a problem with the materials Updated/Added some tournament medals Updated vsh_distillery, vsh_nucleus, vsh_outburst, vsh_skirmish, and vsh_tinyrock General Added the gamemode intro movie (made by Lacry, thanks) Improved the delivery of VSH-related voice lines for Soldier, Engineer and Sniper Updated some VSH-related voice lines for Saxton, Soldier, Engineer and Sniper (thanks The Rat Man) Added Hale's kill icons Visual improvements to Hale's Ability HUD (thanks Funicular) Added a visual cue signaling an upcoming Saxton Punch! Minor visual improvements to Saxton Hale and his particle effects Fixed the boss bar sometimes starting invisible Fixed a rare crash caused by seeing blood decals on Hale while playing on low graphics quality settings Fixed a rare bug when Hale's Ability HUD textures become missing Balance Changes - Saxton Hale Added Brave Jump Fatigue. Each consecutive jump will be less powerful, requiring a short break to restore to full strength Weightdown ability is disabled during Jump Fatigue Increased Hale's health by ~100HP per opponent Adjusted Hale's health formula against 24+ opponents - Hale now gains 2000HP for every opponent past 23 (thanks Megascatterbomb) Hale's resistance to knockback reduced from 75% to 35% Head Stomp damage now scales with Hale's downward speed, dealing between 64 and 193 damage (previously dealt flat 195 damage) Balance Changes - Mercenaries Explosives and fire now deal 50% more damage against Hale The 40% minigun damage penalty now applies to full crits only Broken Demoman shields now retain the charge ability Demoman shields now absorb only 50% of the incoming damage upon breaking (a would-be-lethal blow will leave the Demo at 1HP) Greatly decreased sticky trap damage reduction Removed Scottish Resistance's 20% damage penalty Baby Face's Blaster now loses 20% of its boost upon Wall Climbing Updated vsh_tinyrock (additional changes) Improved performance Fixed odd clipping at one of the spawns Updated vsh_distillery (additional changes) Improved performance Updated vsh_nucleus (additional changes) Fixed setup time ending five seconds too early Improved detailing in some areas Improved clipping on staircases Increased control point capture time to 15 seconds Removed collision on some lights Changed damage model and damage amount of the toxic waste pit and puddles Updated vsh_skirmish (additional changes) Fixed setup time ending five seconds too early Fixed an issue where Engineers could build in the crocodile pit Fixed not being able to wall climb certain trees in the main arena Fixed some lighting issues on stalactites and other props Parts of Hale's intro sequence no longer play while waiting for players Improved optimization and detailing in some areas Improved clipping on spiral stairs (Thanks Aar!) Updated security system Updated cp_brew The shortcut from RED spawn to the "A" point now has a nobuild trigger Added floor indicator for the health kit in the "A" point wooden shack Adjusted "A" point wooden shack to allow more breathing room Fixed getting stuck on the "A" gate's frame Fixed teletrap near "A" point ditch route Fixed being able to place buildings inside an out-of-bounds room outside "A" point Fixed some stuck spots near "B" point Fixed being able to shoot through a crack in the BLU forward spawn Fixed floating props in the diner Fixed one way door not forcing itself closed Cleaned up some collisions and clipping across the map Improved lighting on all of the archways Updated koth_krampus Fixed missing trees in skybox Improved look of waterfall texture near full health-kit Fixed minor visual errors Minor NPC clipping changes Fed krampus some oats Updated pl_emerge Switched on the cart light Fixed RED players being able to sit on the edge of an exit of BLU's starting spawn Fixed some doors showing incorrect textures Fixed the final capture point displaying an incorrect string Fixed the map occasionally playing incorrect ambient sounds Minor visual and performance tweaks Updated cp_carrier The Carrier now has full crits rather than mini-crits The Carrier now uses the robot voice lines Improved hearability of the Carrier's voice lines and footsteps Fixed visual bugs with the boss bar Fixed the Carrier sometimes becoming invisible while taunting Fixed animation glitches when a Demoman Carrier holds a Stickybomb Launcher Fixed occasional phasing through the elevator platform at BLU spawn Decreased size of the frog

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Improved matchmaking performance Improved matchmaker behavior for users with less-than-ideal ping levels. The matchmaker should now be quicker to put you in the best available region. Improved matchmaker decision making for cross-region parties Added error messages when being ejected from the matchmaking queue due to connectivity or authentication failures, rather than the queue simply silently vanishing Fixed the matchmaking settings dialog frequently failing to display any datacenters Fixed multiple cases of in-progress casual matches abruptly terminating or failing to be assigned any new players if the game server ever loses connection to Steam Updated the Mountebank's Masque, Courtier's Collar, and Harlequin's Hooves cosmetic items to fix issues with their paint regions Updated cp_gravelpit_snowy Fixed a script issue Improved performance Improved clipping

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Fixed the Guano and Batbelt cosmetic items hiding the Scout's dog tags Fixed The Beacon from Beyond incorrectly hiding a bunch of bodygroups Fixed the Quoth cosmetic item hiding the Scout's headphones Fixed some broken materials for some props_farm gib models Adding "Hat" style for the Fuel Injector Updated the Clue Hairdo to fix broken smoke effect Updated koth_synthetic_event Edited nav mesh to minimize the Toastmaster running diving into the grinder/death pit Updated pd_farmageddon Revoked scarecrow gym membership which lowered their health from 500 to 350 Updated zi_atoll, zi_blazehattan, zi_devastation_final1, zi_murky, zi_sanitarium, and zi_woods Fixed an exploit allowing some players to respawn as a human or play as a human on the Zombie team

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Reverted BLU Scout pants fix because it conflicts with too many existing cosmetics Updated the Fleet Commander again to fix import problems from the previous update Updated the Phantom Plague and Haunting Haze Unusual effects to fix sometimes spawning away from the player Updated cp_freaky_fair Fixed issues related to the gamemode logic Reapplied check that was mistakenly removed to check if the player is actively buying upgrades in a station or not Implemented new custom system to refund upgrades to hopefully address inconsistencies both in-round and across rounds Implemented logic to handle mismatches in recorded vs actual currency values when leaving the upgrade trigger and having not accepted de-bought upgrades Reverted code to do with Ghosts and Sentry busters to fix bugs related to their effects not de-applying Implemented a way to force kill players to address edge cases where you could survive as the sentry buster past their explosion (Thanks MilkMaster!) Improved the logic which checks if you can apply a new potion effect to yourself to address bugs where effects can overlap Fixed sniper and demo shields not having their upgrades cleared Fixed canteens not having their values cleared when refunding whilst not equipped Increased the height of the skybox Increased last point capture time from 6s to 7s Changed some clipping to stop giants from building on roofs Smoothed out a divot (Thanks Midnite!) Updated zi_atoll, zi_blazehattan, zi_devastation_final1, zi_murky, zi_sanitarium, and zi_woods General Re-encoded all Zombie Infection sound effects as .WAV This fixes issues with sound effects not playing correctly and spewing errors in the console Bug fixes Fixed a bug that caused Sniper's Spit Pool to deal much more damage than intended Fixed a bug that caused team names to not display correctly when playing on mp_tournament mode Fixed a bug where Engineer would sometimes scream like a charging Demoman while throwing an EMP Grenade Zombie Changes Sniper's Spit Pool damage vs Survivors no longer stacks when standing in multiple zones Zombie Heavy is no longer immune to Critical Hits Zombie Heavy's max health raised to 525 (from 450) Zombie Pyro's max health raised to 250 (from 175) Zombie Pyro now drops a medium health kit on death Survivor Changes Crossbow weapons no longer have a flat damage multiplier against Zombies The B.A.S.E Jumper can no longer be deployed if you are one of the last three survivors Jumper Weapons can no longer store reserve ammunition Updated zi_murky (additional changes) Added more respawn room triggers around the new spawn zones

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Added missing list of authors for arena_lumberyard_event Fixed the Crook Combatant hiding the Scout's dog tags Fixed some sound script entries not playing because they were looking for .wav instead of .mp3 Fixed BLU Scout using the incorrect team color pants Fixed some props_farm models using an incorrect surfaceprop setting Updated the large version of the backpack image for The Fast Learner to be consistent with the small version Updated the schema entries for The Hound's Hood and the Thrilling Tracksuit to remove unused settings Updated a couple of the community console images to fix missing nomip/nolod settings Updated Freaky Fair's expert contract to be "Win a round on Freaky Fair" Updated the Fleet Commander and Delldozer to fix import problems from the previous update Updated arena_lumberyard_event Fixed mini-crits being removed from the last player standing if they used the Crit-a-Cola Added missing navigation mesh Fixed areaportal windows in spawn fading in too early Fixed cases where players would get stuck on the setup doors Adjusted prop fades Updated cp_darkmarsh Lowered spell spawn timer (from 180 seconds to 120 seconds) Spells that spawn outside respawn rooms will disappear after 30 seconds of not being picked up Added several more pumpkin bomb spawn points Fixed portcullis doors turning pitch black when opening Lowered RED respawn wave time for the last point (from 10 to 8) Updated tow_dynamite Fixed an ammo pick-up differ on BLU side Added a missing wagon wheel on BLU side Added Tug of War objective strings Made the jump pad's deathpits deeper A new critter has arrived Updated pd_circus Fixed spell books being prompted despite none spawning in the map Reduced points per player from 6 to 5 Reduced distracting lighting and details around the inaccessible areas of the circus Fixed being able to place teleporters too close to spawn doors Fixed erroneous collisions Fixed small displacements cutting through walls Fixed some gaps in geometry

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Fixed an issue with Blazehattan contracts Fixed an issue with Outburst contracts Fixed an invalid Soul Gargoyle location on Mann Manor Fixed players not being able to select a class and spawn after watching an intro video Recompiled props_farm\box_cluster03.mdl to fix a problem with the material Updated the Dusk Duster to adjust the rigging a bit to reduce distortion Updated the Triboniophorus Gentlemannus Fixed clipping Updated texture to fix mipmapping Added jigglebone Added attachment for genteel smoke effect Updated the Clue Hairdo to fix a rim mask problem with the 'Case Open' style Updated the Fleet Commander Fixed white seams when moving camera away from character Improved position of Style Selection camera by deleting unused bones Updated the Delldozer to fix a problem with the specular map for the Re-Mastered and Re-Engineered styles Updated The Witch Doctor to fix a problem with the diffuse textures and normal maps Updated Taunt: Commending Clap to fix some issues with sounds and timing Updated zi_atoll, zi_blazehattan, zi_devastation_final1, zi_murky, zi_sanitarium, and zi_woods Reduced Zombie Engineer's EMP Grenade Cooldown from 10 seconds to 9 seconds Adjusted Zombie Pyro's death explosion to briefly ignite players hit by the blast Fixed a bug that allowed Zombie Medic to spawn infinite dispenser entities (Thanks Psychicpie!) Fixed Zombie Heavy's ability appearing as an active instead of a passive on the HUD (Thanks NeoDement!) Fixed a bug that caused Zombie Heavy's knockback effect to trigger on afterburn damage when quickly swapping from Pyro to Heavy Updated zi_blazehattan (additional changes) Fixed top roof having no collisions, causing players to 'sink in' Made the brick decoration near the wooden ramp slightly lower to make jumping to the top roof easier Removed some redundant clip brushes Changed the round timer from 6 minutes to 3 minutes 30 seconds Fixed missing textures behind the windows of the warehouse building Fixed rendering issue in the A Gate zombie spawn (Thanks Midnite!) Fixed several instances where players could stand on top of clip brushes and in high places (Thanks Midnite!) Fixed floodlight stuck spot near B Gate (Thanks Midnite!) Fixed troll teleporter spots (Thanks Midnite!) Fixed telephone pole collision (Thanks Midnite!) Added no-build triggers on top of barrel clusters at the top of the containers for consistency Added barrel clusters and wood debri on top of the red container with the floodlight to make it more apparent engineers can't build there, as well as to provide cover for zombies Various small changes Updated tow_dynamite Doubled the chances of a Jump Spell drop Fixed the main gates killing players when touched on the side Fixed the main gates killing you prematurely before they are fully closed Fixed HUD textures going missing on occasion (Thanks Aar) Fixed the rooftop fire being too strong Fixed multiple locations that allowed players to build out of bounds Fixed an overly aggressive propfade in front of spawn Fixed edge bugs on multiple roofs that allowed players to remain alive Updated vsh_outburst Improved performance Fixed menu images Fixed a minor visual issue Fixed being able to stick to the invisible walls Updated koth_sawmill_event Reduced the amount of skeletons that spawn Added a new pathway to the secret underworld exit Redid some detailing near Reds base Improved lighting near some shacks near mid Fixed clipping for a shack Reworked where Soul Gargoyles spawn, now favoring Mid more often Made some new greener water for Mids lumber place New spectator cams Updated cp_freaky_fair Fixed issues related to the gamemode logic Fixed players being able to retain upgrades on their weapons by putting them in their loadout before the round changes and then switching back to them Fixed some currency bugs related to players having upgrades pending but not accepted, and then leaving the upgrade trigger Fixed players being able to retain their upgrades when switching classes inside the upgrade trigger after having refunded Fixed character upgrades being occasionally set to incorrect quantities Changed uber and kritz potions so they use the equivalent lakeside conditions to allow Medics to switch weapons and maintain their effects Fixed players being able to put a class into a massive debt Several minor fixes Merasmus is very talkative, so we asked him to talk a bit differently Merasmus will only sometimes say something after he already talked about his financial problems during the first seconds of setup time Merasmus will no longer say something that is too long to say before he needs to announce something else, he will say something different now Merasmus now has more things to say Merasmus will now announce overtime, stalemate and last control point being captured instead of the Administrator Made changes to the upgrades Ghost Potion: ghost spooking radius reduced from 512 hu to 384 hu Ghost Potion: ghost spooking frequency increased from 5 to 7 secs (this is a nerf) Sentry Firing Speed: removed redundant 3rd level Disposable sentry: Maximum amount reduced from 4 to 3 Crit boost on kill: Now disabled Shield Recharge Rate bonus: Maximum level reduced from 4 to 2 Shield Recharge Rate bonus: Price increased from $150 to $250 Rocket Specialist: Price increased from $300 to $450 Rocket Specialist: Maximum level reduced from 4 to 3 Crit damage resistance: Resist reduced from 30% to 25% per level (this is a nerf) Crit damage resistance: Maximum Resist reduced from 90% to 75% (this is a nerf) Thermal Thruster impact stun: Price increased from $600 to $750 Explosive Headshot: Price increased from $350 to $450 Mad Milk and Jarate speed on target debuff: Debuff reduced from 35% to 25% Mark For Death: Price reduced from $500 to $300 Fixed several roof spots players were able to stand on (Thanks Midnite!) Fixed several teleporter stuck spots (Thanks Midnite!) Fixed floating pumpkins and planks (Thanks Midnite!) Fixed several spots that could be abused to spawncamp enemy team (Thanks Midnite!) Removed some visible dev textures (Thanks Midnite!) Removed stool from the arcade that was blocking the path previously Fixed being able to deal splash damage through metal grates Clipped the attic in respawn room to prevent players from getting and building there Clipped several beams in the lobby room Fixed missing wooden board near Red respawn room door Moved Merry-Go-Round sound source closer to make it louder Brightened several dark spots Closed the tree gap

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Fixed broken path for community_maps_5 in the ConTracker Renamed Team Blackout war paint to Blackout Fixed the names of the Delightful Doves, Ravenous Ravens, and Vicious Vampires Unusual effects Updated Toxic's second objective to be 'Collect a Halloween Pumpkin on Toxic' Updated the School Nuisance to update the backpack icon and fix some clipping issues on the LODs Updated the Sear Seer to fix a paintability problem with the 'Dusk - No Lenses' style Updated the Heavy Rain Unusual taunt effect to improve visual quality of the effect in dark environments Updated cp_darkmarsh to reduce fog intensity Updated zi_atoll, zi_blazehattan, zi_devastation_final1, zi_murky, zi_sanitarium, and zi_woods Fixed missing overlay material for Sniper's Spit ability Fixed missing particle effects for Pyro's Dragon's Breath ability Fixed a bug that would cause players to get stuck in spectate mode when attempting to join a game in progress

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Updated vsh_outburst to fix a problem with sounds not playing correctly Added missing strings for the new Strange Filters

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Scream Fortress XVI has arrived! Featuring 7 new community maps: Toxic, Darkmarsh, Freaky Fair, Dynamite, Circus, Outburst, and Blazehattan Added the Terrifying Trove Case Contains 21 new community-created cosmetic items that make up the Terrifying Trove Collection Has a chance to give a taunt Unusualifier as a bonus item Added 4 new community-contributed taunts to the Mann Co. Store Taunt: Crushing Defeat Taunt: Peace Out Taunt: Commending Clap Taunt: The Punchline Added 22 new community-created Unusual effects 12 new effects for Unusual hats 10 new effects for Unusual taunts Added the Scream Fortress XVI War Paint Case Contains 12 new community-created War Paints that make-up the Scream Fortress XVI War Paint Collection Has a chance to give a taunt Unusualifier as a bonus item All players who launch the game will receive a Soul Gargoyle if they don't already have one Grants access to Merasmissions and Halloween item transmutations Tracks Merasmissions completed and souls collected All Halloween Contracts have been reset, allowing them to be completed again Added new Contracts for this year's featured community maps Completing a Halloween Contract will give players a classic Halloween item and the chance for a Terrifying Trove Case Continue last year's event by collecting the souls of dead players for your Soul Gargoyle by killing enemies, doing map objectives, or collecting the Soul Gargoyles that spawn in the maps All cosmetic and taunt Cases will grant Halloween 2024 Unusual effects instead of their normal Unusual effects during the event. This does not include Crates. Join Halloween matches by using the Special Events category in Casual Scream Fortress XVI runs through November 7th, 2024 General Added UI scaling based on resolution for better HiDPI support Fixed the reload speed attribute in Mann vs. Machine not scaling projectile speed and gravity correctly for the Huntsman (community fix from Marxvee) Fixed the damage bonus attribute in Mann vs. Machine not scaling correctly for the Huntsman (community fix from Marxvee) Fixed not being able to pickup currency in MvM if it's on a teleporter Fixed Keyless Winter 2016 Case not playing the special winter case sound Recompiled some skybox models to fix UV issues Updated the Scariest Mask EVER to fix some issues with clipping Updated Sapped Unusual effect to fix the animation playing at the wrong speed Added check to prevent copying a disguise target's action slot item when disguised as them Exposed CTFBaseBoss::SetResolvePlayerCollisions() for VScript users Updated/Added some tournament medals Updated Sapped Unusual effect to fix the animation playing at the wrong speed Updated several maps to fix localization issues Updated zi_murky, zi_devastation_final1, zi_atoll, zi_woods, zi_sanitarium General Changes Zombies no longer spawn instantly- their respawn timer is now dependant on the map Changed team names to "Survivors" and "Zombies" (Instead of "RED" and "BLU") Note: this change is only visible in casual mode or servers with mp_tournament set to 1 Survivor Spy can now disguise as a Zombie and will be seen as a Zombie by the enemy team (Thanks Sprinkles!) Note: disguised Survivor Spies will still be highlighted by Zombie Spy’s “Reveal” ability The Pomson 6000 now puts Zombie abilities on cooldown on hit Survivor Pyro can now destroy Zombie Engineer's EMP Grenade by hitting it with the Homewrecker Walking in to Zombie Sniper's Spit now consumes the Spycicle and prevents initial damage Standing in Zombie Sniper's Spit now emits additional sound effects and a burning green HUD overlay Added new kill icons for every zombie attack Zombie Changes Removed the out-of-combat speed buff from all Zombies Zombie Pyro Zombie Pyro has a new ability - "Dragon's Breath" Fires a Dragon's Fury fireball The initial cast of the fireball can reflect projectiles and airblast enemies Zombie Pyro now deals mini-crits to burning players on melee hit Zombie Pyro now creates a small explosion on death, knocking back enemies in a 125 hu radius Zombie Pyro no longer emits a Gas Passer cloud on death Zombie Demoman Added new sound effects to telegraph Zombie Demoman's Blast Charge ability Zombie Heavy Zombie Heavy's health reduced to 450 (from 600) Zombie Heavy now drops a Medium Health Kit on death Zombie Sniper Zombie Sniper's Spit damage vs buildables is now reduced by half Zombie Sniper's Spit now applies a screen overlay to players standing in the pool Zombie Medic Zombie Medic now emits health like a dispenser to nearby Zombies Zombie Medic can no longer attack while using Heal Added a new sound effect for Zombie Medic's Heal ability Zombie Spy Zombie Spy no longer emits particle effects while cloaked, making him fully invisible when not attacking. Jumpscare warning! Zombie Scout With other zombies getting slower, Zombie Scout's speed stands out more than ever before Bug Fixes Fixed a bug that allowed Zombie Demoman to survive his own Blast Charge (Thanks gasous nebule!) Fixed a bug that caused Zombie Demoman to not receive kill credit when killing players with Blast Charge Fixed a bug that caused Zombies to not gib correctly Fixed a bug that caused Zombie cosmetics to persist on RED players after the round restarts Fixed a bug that caused Zombie Sniper's Spit Pool to nudge players slightly in certain circumstances Fixed a bug that caused players to have the incorrect player skin when respawning at round start Fixed a bug that would cause players to become stuck in spectate mode when attempting to join a game in progress Fixed an issue with "game_text" entities not being correctly cleared after round reset Updated zi_murky (additional changes) Survivors now spawn across the map in multiple small groups instead of all at the sewage plant Added a life preserver shop to connect to the lonely shack in the southern end of the map Added a new dock network with a series of platforms leading to the roof of the central boathouse Added a small ramp to the left-most sewer pipes Removed some awkward ladder-ramps and replaced them with proper docks De-cluttered the roofs across the map Removed the floating large medkit Removed expensive reflections from the water Reduced color correction intensity Clipping improvements Updated zi_atoll (additional changes) Set a culling distance to most props Added occluders on the lighthouse to improve performance Updated zi_woods (additional changes) Fixed the announcer not being silenced when time is added Updated zi_sanitarium (additional changes) The roof is now accessible Added several routes to the roof Slightly reduced the intensity of the fog Added more pumpkin bombs Raised the skybox height Updated cp_gravelpit_snowy Improved performance by combining props Improved clipping Increased volume of laser gun finale Miscellaneous improvements Updated koth_sawmill_event Fixed an overlay Updated koth_undergrove_event Fixed several out-of-bounds exploits in the Underworld (thanks MN!) Adjusted overworld pumpkin bomb placement and increased maximum bomb count to 6 Fixed an incorrect texture on RED's side Updated koth_synthetic_event Moved spells away from mid Detail adjustments Clipping fixes Very minor lighting changes Updated pd_mannsylvania Added even more Bats! Added more spawnpoints for pumpkin-bombs Added new nag voiceline for if Dracula does not receive any blood donations Removed setup time, replaced it with a normal countdown instead Increased duration of the Vampire Powerup after leaving Dracula's Castle from 15 -> 20 seconds Decrease dropped blood bag timer from 15 -> 10 seconds Decreased respawn wave times for the losing team from 4 -> 2 seconds Decreased respawn wave times during a neutral gamestate from 4 -> 2 seconds Changed the main spawn doors to have windows Removed Rare Spell spawn by the graveyard area, replaced with Common Spell Health and ammo pickup adjustments Clipped stairs by the Castle's exit portal Minor visual updates Updated ctf_applejack Fixed the projectile weapons from not working inside the buildings Removed bullet collision from the intelligence room handrails Removed the prop jump up to the sniper balcony, to help snipers feel more comfortable there Removed the vents with missing textures Fixed the bug with being able to get stuck in the blue shed Fixed a stuck spot in mid shed (ty Midnite!) Fixed a texture being weird in the intel rooms Fixed a black displacement in the red intel yard Removed the collision from the food in the red spawn table Updated cp_ambush_event Fixed exploit where players were able to build into RED 1st base (Thanks MN!) Improved lighting at RED base in stage3 Fixed lantern being clipped into cliff wall in cavern at stage1 Fixed odd shadows cast by some props Fixed coffin from being non-solid in stage2 Fixed spawncamping spot in stage2 at RED indoor exit Fixed few hovering lamp props Fixed some prop fading too soon Fixed rare issue where players fell of directly to lava on underworld teleportation Clipped few crates to make it easier to jump on them Updated arena_lumberyard_event Recreated the game mode in VScript Significantly increased server performance Instead of using the best-of-seven round system on top of casual's best-of-three system, the map will simply run 15 traditional game rounds like ZI and VSH Updated the healing ghost appearance for RED team Text pop-ups are now drawn in chat instead of in the middle of your screen Reduced volume of the incoming spell Removed the random Skeleton King and the Horseless Headless Horseman Removed the rare spell given to the last player standing Converted some medium health kits into small health kits Removed small health kits from the second story of both churches Fixed a pumpkin bomb that was stuck in the terrain Updated pl_embargo Fixed an exploit that allowed BLU to teleport to RED spawn (thanks Jameson) Fixed the lack of countdown at the end of the round

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Fixed regression with some .mp3 files not playing Updated description for the Backpack Expander Updated some tournament medals Updated the Desk Engineer cosmetic item Fixed clipping with the Gunslinger Fixed clipping with Engineer's buckle Fixed rotation in the paint preview Fixed skin parts being tinted green from texture compression Updated the Daring Dell cosmetic item Fixed rotation in the paint preview Fixed shading artifacts on the helmet Updated The Big Star cosmetic item Fixed rotation in the paint preview Fixed various instances of clipping with the player model Updated mismatched backpack icon Fixed parts of the textures Updated koth_cachoeira Players can no longer shoot through the metal fence

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Increased the maximum number of backpack slots to 4000 (from 3000) Fixed record/stop .dem file exploit that was used to reveal cloaked Spies Fixed Robot Destruction death notice events not properly highlighting when the local player kills a robot Fixed regressed self-illum setting for the Earbuds Fixed hearing the deflection sound when deflecting arrows that are already stuck in something (community fix from Marxvee) Fixed a problem with .mp3 sounds not playing if they were very short Fixed arrows instantly breaking when being fired by an invulnerable player with the projectile penetration upgrade in Mann vs. Machine (community fix from Marxvee) Updated tf_zombie_spawner entity to support setting team numbers for the zombies (defaults to the original behavior if no team is set) Updated Taunt: Unleashed Rage to fix incorrect outro timing Updated Taunt: Can It! to fix MvM bone Updated koth_sawmill_event Removed stray spell Updated koth_megaton Fixed rockets being able to quite literally crash the beach party (Thanks again, ficool2!) Updated pl_cashworks Updated menu photo to match map changes Removed strange texture glitch at RED spawn 1 Added shutter for drop exit at RED spawn 1 RED spawn 2 big door can't be stickied anymore Removed collision on some lamps Added minor visual changes in BLU spawn and final cap side route Fixed minor clipping issues Updated koth_cachoeira The sightline from the helicopter has been blocked off Fixed missing door texture (Thanks Hoppkins!) Various miscellaneous fixes (Thanks Midnite!)

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Updated Taunt: Can It! to fix missing flies particle effect Updated the backpack image for the Impact Impaler Updated Violent Viridian Unusual effect to fix a visual bug Updated/Added some tournament medals Updated cp_hadal Fixed control point capture messages Fixed door locking in RED spawn after C capture Removed unintended buildable areas Increased capture time on final point Improved directions around the map Updated pl_embargo Reduced respawn time on Last for RED from 34 to 22 seconds Asked Botlers to speak and explode more quietly Minor visual fixes Updated koth_megaton Improved performance by up to 20%, with more significant improvements possible depending on system specs (Thanks ficool2!) Fixed the grates around the capture zone allowing blast damage to pass through Fixed a few cases of alpha painted displacement seams Improved lighting on several models, especially on the rocks throughout the map Fixed surfaceprop on BLU's metal plates Fixed several pixelwalks along thatch roofing and exteriors of the team buildings Improved clipping throughout Fixed a support beam intersecting with spawn doors Fixed a few instances of visible displacement holes in the perimeter dropoff Added a unique kill icon for the end of the round Fixed floating spawndoor motors Plus... all you need for a beach party! Updated pd_atom_smash Fixed the Casual Administrator overriding the Scientist Fixed some floating lights Updated koth_sawmill_event Removed the spells in the underworld since players could spawn camp with them too easily Increased the time players get crits and health from the underworld after leaving Added some additional effects to the secret exit from the underworld

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Updated pl_embargo to fix visual glitches

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Updated the Loyalist's Coronet Unusual effect to fix team BLU particles in the team RED effect Updated the Rainbow Reverie, Warp Drive and Overdrive Unusual effects to work better with larger hats Updated the Rainbow Reverie Unusual effect to add a fade in when spawning and make the refract more noticeable Updated the Dragonflies' Embrace, Dragonflies' Nature, and Dragonflies' Lucent Unusual effects to fix trailing issues on the grass and ground particles Updated the Distress Signal and Carioca's Call Unusual effects to fix some issues with overlapping sprites Updated the Desert Wind and Monsoon Season Unusual effects Fixed the wind flickering on moving taunts Fixed the tumbleweed having incorrect physics Updated the wind and dust to trail slightly on moving taunts Updated the Control Patrol cosmetic item Reduced the size of the glasses Lowered the hat slightly on Soldier's head Fixed UV map issue with LODs Updated the Justice Johns cosmetic item Slimmed down the legs and raised socks cuffs to reduce overall thickness of the legs Fixed rigging issue with boot laces Updated the Pathfinder cosmetic item Slimmed down the arms slightly Adjusted shoulder and armpit rigging to reduce stretching of the vest Adjusted mesh transition from forearms to hands Fixed some clipping issues around where the shirt collar meets the zipper Raised the zipper pull tab for better compatibility with other Soldier cosmetics Updated ctf_doublecross Fixed an incorrect team-colored material in the BLU base for real this time Updated pl_enclosure_final Fixed a clip wall blocking a dropdown in stage 3 Updated pl_embargo Minor visual and clipping improvements Fixed the cart's missing outline Added an extra Botler to the playable space Fixed the paint splat overlay not applying to players within the explosion range The ambient music inside the casino now respects the music volume settings Improved player visibility against certain walls (Thanks Arthur) Added the kill icon to the helicopter blades Fixed an override of a TF2's base texture Fixed being able to block the cart shortly after point A (Thanks Aar) Fixed getting stuck in a door near C while it closes Fixed indoors fog sometimes getting applied outside (Thanks Phe) Increased respawn time for RED on the last point Fixed the client crash related to custom models Improved performance on the last point Updated koth_cachoeira Engineers can no longer build inside the cliffs Fixed teleporter stuck spot under the control point Adjusted respawn waves Minor visual improvements Various clipping fixes Improved performance Updated ctf_applejack Improved clipping Brought some stairs Improved tree collision Added more chickens Improved detail Fixed Ol'Betsy (Thanks Aar!)

Riot Games has released new details on their officially licensed Riftbound: League of Legends Trading Card Game, including its first wave of products.
Read this article on TechRaptor

Riot Games has released new details on their officially licensed Riftbound: League of Legends Trading Card Game, including its first wave of products. Read this article on TechRaptor

Pocketpair has once again unveiled its unholy Palworld dating sim, but will it turn out to be an April Fools' joke this time as well?
Read this article on TechRaptor

Pocketpair has once again unveiled its unholy Palworld dating sim, but will it turn out to be an April Fools' joke this time as well? Read this article on TechRaptor

Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding has passed another major player milestone ahead of the sequel's impending release in June.
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Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding has passed another major player milestone ahead of the sequel's impending release in June. Read this article on TechRaptor

Monster Hunter Wilds has hit another major sales milestone, developer and publisher Capcom has announced, and it's broken another company record too.
Read this article on TechRaptor

Monster Hunter Wilds has hit another major sales milestone, developer and publisher Capcom has announced, and it's broken another company record too. Read this article on TechRaptor

If you like your samurai with added shame, then the next Bushido themed warband is for you. You can learn all about them in our Passing the Night review.
Read this article on TechRaptor

If you like your samurai with added shame, then the next Bushido themed warband is for you. You can learn all about them in our Passing the Night review. Read this article on TechRaptor

Wizards of the Coast has released a new Chaos Vault Secret Lair drop. The Chaos Vault Oishii Tokens drop contains cute-looking Japanese food.
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Wizards of the Coast has released a new Chaos Vault Secret Lair drop. The Chaos Vault Oishii Tokens drop contains cute-looking Japanese food. Read this article on TechRaptor

Bandai Namco has shared some fun stats regarding Elden Ring Nightreign's recent network test, including the number of times players killed its Nightlord.
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Bandai Namco has shared some fun stats regarding Elden Ring Nightreign's recent network test, including the number of times players killed its Nightlord. Read this article on TechRaptor

HoYoverse has revealed that Honkai: Star Rail Version 3.2 arrives across all platforms in April, bringing two new 5-star characters and more.
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HoYoverse has revealed that Honkai: Star Rail Version 3.2 arrives across all platforms in April, bringing two new 5-star characters and more. Read this article on TechRaptor

Nintendo has announced the release date for the upcoming live-action Zelda movie, but it's going to be a while before you can see it.
Read this article on TechRaptor

Nintendo has announced the release date for the upcoming live-action Zelda movie, but it's going to be a while before you can see it. Read this article on TechRaptor

Atelier Yumia, the latest game in the Atelier series of JRPGs, has hit a new sales milestone and become the series' fastest-selling game into the bargain.
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Atelier Yumia, the latest game in the Atelier series of JRPGs, has hit a new sales milestone and become the series' fastest-selling game into the bargain. Read this article on TechRaptor

We review Atomfall - a hardcore survival, a challenging adventure that offers up plenty of choice without all the hand-holding.
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We review Atomfall - a hardcore survival, a challenging adventure that offers up plenty of choice without all the hand-holding. Read this article on TechRaptor

The latest patch for Path of Exile 2, called Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt, is arriving and comes with new classes!
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The latest patch for Path of Exile 2, called Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt, is arriving and comes with new classes! Read this article on TechRaptor

Games Workshop recently held their AdeptiCon 2025 Preview event, announcing several products across their ongoing tabletop miniature franchises.
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Games Workshop recently held their AdeptiCon 2025 Preview event, announcing several products across their ongoing tabletop miniature franchises. Read this article on TechRaptor

Post-apocalyptic roguelike deckbuilder As We Descend has been delayed until May, but its demo has been updated for even more language support.
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Post-apocalyptic roguelike deckbuilder As We Descend has been delayed until May, but its demo has been updated for even more language support. Read this article on TechRaptor

Stunlock Studios has announced the release date for V Rising update 1.1, also known as Invaders of Oakveil, and it's arriving in April.
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Stunlock Studios has announced the release date for V Rising update 1.1, also known as Invaders of Oakveil, and it's arriving in April. Read this article on TechRaptor

Nintendo held a new Nintendo Direct presentation focused on the original Switch today, and we've got everything revealed during that show right here.
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Nintendo held a new Nintendo Direct presentation focused on the original Switch today, and we've got everything revealed during that show right here. Read this article on TechRaptor

Mantic Games has announced the Halo Flashpoint Rise of the Banished tabletop expansion. It is available for pre-order right now.
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Mantic Games has announced the Halo Flashpoint Rise of the Banished tabletop expansion. It is available for pre-order right now. Read this article on TechRaptor

A pause function has been added to Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, allowing you to actually pause the game during solo play (but not multiplayer).
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A pause function has been added to Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, allowing you to actually pause the game during solo play (but not multiplayer). Read this article on TechRaptor

The Triple-i Initiative indie showcase, led by former Dead Cells support studio Evil Empire, is returning in April for more indie shenanigans.
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The Triple-i Initiative indie showcase, led by former Dead Cells support studio Evil Empire, is returning in April for more indie shenanigans. Read this article on TechRaptor

Hello Games has released the Relics update for space sim No Man's Sky, introducing fossil assembly, giant stone guardian enemies, and more to the game.
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Hello Games has released the Relics update for space sim No Man's Sky, introducing fossil assembly, giant stone guardian enemies, and more to the game. Read this article on TechRaptor

A new Nintendo Direct show has been revealed for tomorrow, and it'll feature around 30 minutes of info about upcoming Switch games.
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A new Nintendo Direct show has been revealed for tomorrow, and it'll feature around 30 minutes of info about upcoming Switch games. Read this article on TechRaptor

Mobile strategy RPG War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is to shut down permanently in May, Square Enix has revealed.
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Mobile strategy RPG War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is to shut down permanently in May, Square Enix has revealed. Read this article on TechRaptor

Sony and Polyphony Digital have announced Gran Turismo 7 Update 1.57, and it's bringing a classic British car and more later today.
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Sony and Polyphony Digital have announced Gran Turismo 7 Update 1.57, and it's bringing a classic British car and more later today. Read this article on TechRaptor

Free League Publishing launched a Kickstarter campaign for Alien RPG Evolved Edition. The campaign was fully funded within 15 minutes.
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Free League Publishing launched a Kickstarter campaign for Alien RPG Evolved Edition. The campaign was fully funded within 15 minutes. Read this article on TechRaptor

Explore how steampunk and Samurai traditions collide in TechRaptor's preview of tactical RPG Shadow of the Road.
Read this article on TechRaptor

Explore how steampunk and Samurai traditions collide in TechRaptor's preview of tactical RPG Shadow of the Road. Read this article on TechRaptor

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has been delayed once again, this time to October, but World of Darkness head Marco Behrmann says the game is "done".
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Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has been delayed once again, this time to October, but World of Darkness head Marco Behrmann says the game is "done". Read this article on TechRaptor

GeoGuessr is coming to Steam, so it won't be long before you can challenge a friend to completely fail to guess a location via Valve's platform.
Read this article on TechRaptor

GeoGuessr is coming to Steam, so it won't be long before you can challenge a friend to completely fail to guess a location via Valve's platform. Read this article on TechRaptor

Capcom has revealed the release date for Monster Hunter Wilds Title Update 1, and it's bringing a fan favorite monster and more next week.
Read this article on TechRaptor

Capcom has revealed the release date for Monster Hunter Wilds Title Update 1, and it's bringing a fan favorite monster and more next week. Read this article on TechRaptor

Our Atomfall Guide will teach you the basic mechanics of the game, explain the HUD, and give you a walkthrough for the first hour of the game.
Read this article on TechRaptor

Our Atomfall Guide will teach you the basic mechanics of the game, explain the HUD, and give you a walkthrough for the first hour of the game. Read this article on TechRaptor

This guide will tell you what happens when you make the Atomfall GEN ERA or GEN MOVE Choice and the long-term consequences of your actions.
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This guide will tell you what happens when you make the Atomfall GEN ERA or GEN MOVE Choice and the long-term consequences of your actions. Read this article on TechRaptor

These impressions will be spoiler free After years of speculation and multiple delays, The Assassin’s Creed franchise finally made it to Japan. With the stealth gameplay and assassination combat style, it only made sense to incorporate ninjas and samurai into the Assassin’s Creed world. In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you play as a dual protagonist, the […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/a-tale-of-two-warriors-assassins-creed-shadows-impressions/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

With the growing popularity of mobile and cloud gaming, many have been on the hunt for the perfect controller. The Backbone and Razer Kishi have done a great job making mobile gaming more portable and accessible but I always felt like something was missing. The MCon controller from Ohsnap aims to address everything that is […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/is-the-mcon-the-best-smart-phone-controller-yet/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

Every year CES comes around and every year, LG has a great booth. They may be one of the most consistent companies when it comes to showing technology at the trade show. For years they have continued to improve incrementally and this year it has really paid off. From transparent televisions and projectors to small […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/lg-at-ces-2025/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

Six Days in Fallujah was originally announced in 2009. It is a first-person shooter based on the 2004 conflict in Iraq. It was met with much opposition because it is based on modern real-world events. This may not seem like a big deal in 2024 but things were slightly different in the years following 9/11. […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/real-warfare-with-six-days-in-fallujah/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

Mad Catz, the company known for their fight sticks, is releasing a new force feedback racing wheel. The Mad Catz M.2.X. Pro force feedback racing wheel is the perfect plug-and-play solution that works with your consoles and PC. In the box you get the racing wheel, a six speed shifter, foot pedals and all the […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/level-up-you-racing-experience-with-the-mad-catz-m-2-x-pro-racing-wheel/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

When Fortnite was initially released in 2017, it was a PVE defense game that didn’t seem like it would be around for long. With the growing popularity of games in the battle royale genre, Fortnite decided to throw its hat in the ring. Soon it would become not only the most popular battle royale but […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/how-fortnite-hurt-the-gaming-industry/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

https://youtu.be/Cagxj2RchQI?si=_fFf3fs_fsh7d0Fq Many people have a gaming franchise that changed their life in some way. I have life-long friendships that have been formed while playing games like Mario Kart and Golden Eye late into the night. Halo is the franchise that shaped a good portion of my gaming life. Halo 2 strengthened my passion for the […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/what-halo-infinite-should-have-been/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

https://youtu.be/EVSbA2Yxx2k?si=G2KXmPguAB_45u5n Meta recencetly heald their Meta Connect conference and announced some excited things if you’re into VR and AR. The Meta Quest 2 was once the hottest item in their lineup be we have some new tech on the horizon. It looks like the Meta Quest 2 is no longer being sold but it may […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/should-you-buy-a-meta-quest-3s/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

https://youtu.be/a2CCRgycbLI?si=3juhSUwirUTpKWoJ There have been rumors for years about what is next for Halo. Today during the Halo World Championships, we got our answers. 343 Industries will now be known as Halo Studios. This is exciting because it let’s the fans know that Xbox/Microsoft has not given up on the franchise. The long rumored move to […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/what-is-the-future-of-halo/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

It may surprise many, but there has never been a Power Rangers arcade beat ’em up game. (I know right!?!?!) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is a passion project from people who felt the Power Rangers deserved their shine. You and four friends can join up to go against classic enemies from the Power […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/mighty-morphin-power-rangers-ritas-rewind-developer-interview/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

Going into PAX West 2024, I knew that I was going to enjoy ‘Jay and Silent Bob: The Chronic Blunt Punch’, but I did not know it was going to be my game of the show. Some may remember the retro style ‘Jay and Silent Bob: Mall Brawl’ game that was released in 2020. Well, The […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/jay-and-silent-bob-the-chronic-blunt-punch-pax-west-2024/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

Ash Habib has a true passion for boxing and Undisputed is his love letter to the sport. ‪@PlayUndisputed‬ aims to be both a technical and fun boxing game. The game is currently in early access and will have over 70 boxers, you can also create your character in a deep career mode. I had a […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/undisputed-at-pax-west-2024/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

Star Wars games have been around for longer than many gamers have been alive at this point. You have played as clone troopers, Jedi, fighter pilots, and now in Star Wars Outlaws, you will be playing as a scoundrel. This is a slightly more grounded story than the ones many players have experienced before and […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/is-star-wars-outlaws-any-good-review-in-progress/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

There has been some rumor and speculation that we would be getting a PS5 Pro as soon as this year. We are halfway through the year and past ‘E3’ season and there is still no word. With the lack of console price drops, is the mid-gen refresh still a thing? There are some people who […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/where-is-the-ps5-pro/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

I’ve been playing the Marvel Rivals for a couple of weeks and there are a ton of things to dissect here. The game is a ton of fun but it is definitely not perfect. If you enjoy games like Overwatch, then this will definitely be a game for you. The gameplay loop is very similiar […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/is-marvel-rivals-any-good/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

In Hive Jump 2: Survivors, try to survive as long as you can against what seems like endless waves of aliens. With many weapons and jumpers to unlock, be prepared for hours of fun. This is a smaller game that packs a big punch. Hive Jump 2 takes a lot of the weapons and enemies […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/lets-play-hive-jump-2-survivors/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

The long rumored price increase of Xbox Game Pass has finally been confirmed and we have a detailed breakdown of the pricing structure. With these new prices and a new tier, is this still the best deal in gaming? I believe that there are a couple of different ways to assess the value of Game […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/the-price-of-xbox-game-pass-is-going-up/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

If you missed it, Xbox is bringing its cloud gaming services to Amazon Fire TV devices. There have been talks about an Xbox streaming device for years now. With the partnership, will we still get streaming hardware from Microsoft? Is this the best way to get Xbox games in more homes? Let’s talk about it.The post https://thegamefanatics.com/xbox-cloud-gaming-is-coming-to-amazon-devices/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

Ubisoft just released season 1 of XDefiant and it comes with a ton of content. If you are not aware, XDefiant is a free-to-play shooter that ties in characters and abilities from various Ubisoft games. XDefiant Preseason was originally released in May of 2024 and it garnered a lot of attention. Some even went as […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/xdefiant-season-01-is-here/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

Nintendo’s most recent direct delivered a ton of games and I am sure there was something for everyone here. From HD Remakes to long awaited sequels, Nintendo made sure that there was a reason for lapsed players to dust off that Switch. Now I have to admit, I am one of those lapsed players who […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/nintendo-gave-the-people-what-they-wanted/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

During the most recent Xbox showcase, they announced three new SKUs of the Xbox Series X|S consoles. While we didn’t get an announcement of a new handheld like many were hoping there may still be a possibility in the future. Phil Spencer was questioned about this during IGN live and he seemed excited about the […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/what-is-the-future-of-xbox-hardware/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

If you are not familiar, SolForge Fusion is a CCG (Collectable Card Game) created by Richard Garfield (Magic The Gathering) and Justin Gary (Ascension). It started as a physical card game and it is now making its way over to Steam. I have been having the best time in its single-player campaign mode. It reminds […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/a-collectable-card-battler-lets-play-solforge-fusion/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

For those who are not aware, Gigantic was originally released in 2017. It is a third-person MOBA Hero hero shooter originally developed by Motiga and published by Perfect World Entertainment. I had a ton of fun with the game when it was originally released but unfortunately, the servers shut down a year late. Now, in […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/gigantic-is-back-and-you-should-be-playing-it/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

Most people who have used a PC or had some sort of laptop bag have heard of Targus. They are a well-known name in the PC peripheral space and have been around since 1983. Targus has continued to innovate when it comes to laptop bags and things like PC docking stations. We saw a ton […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/targus-targets-sustainability-and-innovation-with-their-ecosmart-line-of-products/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

Many people are most familiar with Moon Studios from their games in the Ori universe. Those games are filled with some of the best and most complex platforming mechanics and amazing art. With No Rest For The Wicked, Moon Studios is partnering with Private Division for a totally new experience. They will be applying their […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/no-rest-for-the-wicked-launch-trailer/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

People have questioned the benefit of Game Pass since its original release in 2017. Subscription services can have amazing benefits for the consumer but does it negatively impact developers? The amount of content that is available continues to grow (along with the prices of said content) but people’s time and budgets continue to stay the […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/are-subscription-services-like-xboxs-game-pass-good-for-developers/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

When we say that Shidosha has an interesting taste in games, we are not exaggerating. Are you into bullet hell shooters? How about dating sims? Well if that piques your interest, Kamikaze Lassplanes may be a game you need to check out. This may not be the style of game you expect from a Polish […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/a-plane-dating-sim-kamikaze-lassplanes-pax-east-2024/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

No Love Lost is a new extraction shooter from Ratloop Games Canada. You are dropped onto an alien world and have to compete against not only the enemy team but the environment as well. The concept of an extraction shooter is not new but the team-based competitive elements make things feel a little fresh. There […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/a-colorful-competitive-extraction-shooter-no-love-lost-pax-east-2024/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

PAX continues to deliver new and unique gaming experiences. This year, one of our favorite games was Heartworm, a PS1 style horror game with Tank controls. Inspired by games like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Dino Crisis, Heartworm aims to scratch that nostolgic itch that some many people have been feeling. You play as Sam, […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/a-ps1-styled-masterpiece-heartworm-pax-east-2024/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

Digital Extremes held their most recent Devstream live during PAX East 2024, celebrating 11 years of Wareframe. One of the most exciting bits of news was the deeper look into the upcoming Warframe 1999. This included a new cinematic trailer launching later this year: Jade Shadows. Here you are introduced to the 57th Wareframe, Jade […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/warframe-and-soulframe-make-an-apprearance-at-pax-east-2024/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

It’s been a while since we first got word that the great Amy Hennig was working on a new Black Panther and Captain America game. After creating something like Uncharted, many couldn’t wait to see what was next from Amy. Her highly anticipated Star Wars game was canceled so many were delighted when they got […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/get-a-closer-look-at-the-new-black-panther-and-captain-america-game-marvel-1943/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

I have been on the search for a decently priced wireless keyboard and there is no shortage these days. Our friends over at Mad Catz sent over their S.T.R.I.K.E. 11 mechanical keyboard for us to try out. The first thing you will notice is its unique design. The red and black colorway is striking (no […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/mad-catz/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

Nanoleaf has been one of the market leaders in the gaming lighting space for years now. They have a variety of products to level up not only your office space but your entertainment system. The Nanoleaf 4D kit is definitely one of the best led kits that I have tried. The camera takes the immersion […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/level-up-your-set-up-with-nanoleaf/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the next big game set for release and the rumor mill has been set ablaze with talks of Xbox going multi-platform. We take a few minutes to talk about our past with the Final Fantasy franchise and Brandon gives us his thoughts on what he thought of the State of […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/final-fantasy-7-rebirth-and-whats-next-for-xbox-lets-chat/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

AR and VR were some of the bigger topics during this year’s CES. Last year I was able to go hands-on with the Pimax Portal but this year it was all about the Pimax Crystal. The Pimax Crystal has some of the highest quality when it comes to VR headsets on the market. Each eye […]The post https://thegamefanatics.com/the-pimax-crystal-8k-vr-headset-ces-2024/ appeared first on The Game Fanatics,.

iPhone and iPad Games

Welcome to the latest episode of The TouchArcade Show! We were short on time this week so it’s a bit …

Continue reading "Nintendo Switch Part Deux – The TouchArcade Show #611"

Welcome to the latest episode of The TouchArcade Show! We were short on time this week so it’s a bit of a short one, but we really wanted to discuss Nintendo announcing the Switch 2. Yes, if you haven’t seen yet they’ve officially unveiled the Switch successor’s hardware in a new video, and it looks pretty sweet. There’s also LOTS we don’t know yet so it’s fun to kind of speculate what we’ll be in store for when it launches this year. Don’t worry though if the new Switch isn’t your thing, we also talk about a handful of totally random topics just like we always do. Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated! As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer. Stitcher: The TouchArcade Show via Stitcher Radio for Podcasts RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-611.mp3

Oh hello there. Yes, we ARE still alive, thank you for asking. We took an unintended month-long hiatus due to …

Continue reading "Where Have We Been!? – The TouchArcade Show #610"

Oh hello there. Yes, we ARE still alive, thank you for asking. We took an unintended month-long hiatus due to me starting my new job as well as the holidays being as hectic as they always are, but we’re back and with any luck we should be able to settle into a mostly regular recording schedule from here on out. I know I’ve said that before, but here’s to hoping! At any rate, this week’s show is mostly just me and Eli catching up after not really talking for an entire month, but we do keep things slightly on topic by talking about some Apple Intelligence stuff and the latest games that I’ve been playing on Steam Deck lately. It’s good to be back, enjoy the show! Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated! As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer. Stitcher: The TouchArcade Show via Stitcher Radio for Podcasts RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-610.mp3

In this week’s TouchArcade Show we’re all over the map, as usual. We kick things off with my experience going …

Continue reading "Polar Express is SCARY – The TouchArcade Show #609"

In this week’s TouchArcade Show we’re all over the map, as usual. We kick things off with my experience going on the Polar Express train ride thing, as well as my experience rewatching the Polar Express movie for the first time in 20 years. We then dip into some Apple Vision Pro discussion, and Eli tips me off on a very cool pair of AR glasses called the Even G1. This leads into some Apple Intelligence talk, as I have only just now upgraded my Mac and signed up to enable the Apple Intelligence stuff on my Apple devices. I’m living on the cutting edge over here! We then jump into a couple of reader emails before talking about an actual video game for once; in this case it’s Mario & Luigi: Brothership on the Switch. All that and more! Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated! As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer. Stitcher: The TouchArcade Show via Stitcher Radio for Podcasts RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-609.mp3

In this week’s exciting new episode of The TouchArcade Show we kick things off with a lengthy discussion about Eli’s …

Continue reading "Remember Payphones? – The TouchArcade Show #608"

In this week’s exciting new episode of The TouchArcade Show we kick things off with a lengthy discussion about Eli’s new toy: A fancy 3D printers. Yes, he bought one, just like I predicted he would last week! I then relay the awkward discussion I had with my young kids trying to explain what payphones were. Man, I feel old. We also hit on some recent Apple Arcade news and then finish up talking about the sad state of affairs that is the streaming industry. Is going back to buying physical DVDs the answer? All that and more in this week’s show. Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated! As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer. Stitcher: The TouchArcade Show via Stitcher Radio for Podcasts RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-608.mp3

In this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show I give a recap of the past 2 weeks of my life, …

Continue reading "They Put the Power Button WHERE!? – The TouchArcade Show #607"

In this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show I give a recap of the past 2 weeks of my life, which included my 5-year old son breaking his arm and all that ensued as well as taking the first step towards becoming an instructional aide in my local school district. Hooray careers! We also talk about the latest Apple scandal, which appears to be #MacMiniPowerButtonGate. We also touch on the Arcane TV show, the poor experience of going to an Apple Store, get to some listener emails which–once again–leads to a pedophile discussion, and more. Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated! As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer. Stitcher: The TouchArcade Show via Stitcher Radio for Podcasts RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-607.mp3

In Episode 606 of The TouchArcade Show we kick things off talking about my plans for this weekend, which has …

Continue reading "Back When AOL WAS the Internet – The TouchArcade Show #606"

In Episode 606 of The TouchArcade Show we kick things off talking about my plans for this weekend, which has resulted in this week’s show being a bit shorter than normal. We also go over some more updates on our Patreon situation, which has been trending upwards lately. Thank you for the support! We briefly touch on the latest version of iOS 18 before hopping into listener emails which leads into some interesting discussion, as always. Like, is the internet more dangerous now for kids than it was when I was growing up in the ’90s? We weigh in! Finally Eli gives us a rundown of his Dungeons & Dragons situation and the hardships between physical and digital ownership. Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated! As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer. Stitcher: The TouchArcade Show via Stitcher Radio for Podcasts RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-606.mp3

In this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show, it’s kind of a weird one! We kick things off talking about …

Continue reading "Just Don’t Huff Anything! – The TouchArcade Show #605"

In this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show, it’s kind of a weird one! We kick things off talking about whip-its and huffing duster. Yeah. We then switch to an update on what’s going on with our Patreon and some of the new stuff we’ve posted there this past week. What do YOU think about it? Let us know! We also talk about Eli’s home audio woes, read a listener email with some key insight into the whole Roblox situation, and much more. Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated! As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer. Show Notes: VERY disturbing video of the guy addicted to computer duster, watch at your own risk! Matthew Struggles With Addiction to Inhaling Air Duster | Intervention | A&E [YouTube] Stitcher: The TouchArcade Show via Stitcher Radio for Podcasts RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-605.mp3

In this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show we kick things off with some discussion about AR/VR devices like Apple’s …

Continue reading "Terrorizing Pasadena – The TouchArcade Show #604"

In this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show we kick things off with some discussion about AR/VR devices like Apple’s Vision Pro and Meta’s recently revealed Orion AR glasses. Also, whatever did happen to that whole Metaverse thing Zuck was so obsessed with? We then take a wild turn and talk about the “Piss Bandit" that has been (allegedly) terrorizing folks in Pasadena, and hit on other current events like the Epic vs. Google ruling and the insane stuff happening with Roblox. We wrap things up with some listener emails and an update on how things are going with our new Patreon content strategy. Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated! As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer. Show Notes: Introducing Orion, Our First True Augmented Reality Glasses [Meta] Amazon Echo Frames Store Page [Amazon] ‘Piss Bandit’ Keeps Leaving Big Bottles of Piss Around Pasadena [Vice] Google must crack open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge [The Verge] Roblox: Inflated Key Metrics For Wall Street And A Pedophile Hellscape For Kids [Hindenburg Research] Stitcher: The TouchArcade Show via Stitcher Radio for Podcasts RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-604.mp3

Hello! We are still in a transitional phase of moving the podcast entirely to our Patreon, but in the meantime …

Continue reading "A Phoenix from the Ashes – The TouchArcade Show #603"

Hello! We are still in a transitional phase of moving the podcast entirely to our Patreon, but in the meantime the only way we can get the show’s feed pushed out to where it needs to go is to post it to the website. However, the wheels are in motion for transitioning not just the podcast but some of the content we’d normally post to TouchArcade onto Patreon. That kicks off today with a Game of the Week post. Spoiler: It’s Balatro. We plan on having a mixture of content available to both free and paid Patreon supporters, as well as some stuff that will be exclusive to paid supporters only. The Game of the Week will likely be one of those paid-only articles, but for this first one it is available to everyone for free. Check it out to get a taste of what the “new" incarnation of TouchArcade might end up looking like. Oh yeah, and the podcast. This week’s show is episode 603 and we talk about Hurricane Helene, Eli’s Homekit woes (and resolution!), the new iPhone 16 Pro which is now in Eli’s hot little hands, the usefulness of the weird new side button, new phone cases, listener emails, and more. It’s a jam-packed XL episode clocking in at almost 90 minutes, enjoy! Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated! As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer. Stitcher: The TouchArcade Show via Stitcher Radio for Podcasts RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-603.mp3

This is a post that I’ve known was coming for quite some time, but that doesn’t make it any easier …

Continue reading "TouchArcade is Shutting Down"

This is a post that I’ve known was coming for quite some time, but that doesn’t make it any easier to write. After more than 16 years TouchArcade will be closing its doors and shutting down operations. There may be an additional post here or there in the coming weeks as we try to honor any previously agreed to obligations, and a proper farewell post is in the works too, but as of now our normal daily operations have ceased. The reason we’re shutting down probably isn’t a surprising one: Money. Many of you who have followed TouchArcade for a long time are well aware that we’ve had financial troubles for many years now, and to be frank I think it’s a miracle that we’ve been able to last as long as we have. The truth of the matter is that a website like ours just doesn’t make money anymore. To our own detriment we’ve resisted things like obnoxious in-your-face advertising, egregious clickbait headlines, or ethically questionable sponsorships, which sadly are the types of things that actually still make money in the internet of today. There are a number of other reasons that have contributed to us reaching this point, but I’d rather not get into all that right now. TouchArcade was an institution for many millions of people over the past 16 years, and it was my full-time job for the last 14+ years. A solid third of my life. In many ways it is like one of my children, and having to say goodbye to it is very difficult to do. I’d really rather focus on all the great times we had than dwell on the things which we cannot change. Also, as a man with a wife and two young children, and a mortgage, and all that other fun adult stuff, this is the end of my livelihood, and despite them being “freelancers" in a technical sense that is true for the other two people who have been the beating heart of TouchArcade, Shaun Musgrave and Mikhail Madnani. Which brings me to my next point… PLEASE HIRE US! The job market is not great anywhere, and finding new work is tough, especially in the games industry. If you are reading this and you have a need for very capable game industry veterans such as ourselves, please reach out. Jared Nelson – That’s me! Obviously I have more than 14 years of experience working right in the very thick of the mobile gaming boom here at TouchArcade. Writing, editing, managing staff, traveling to conventions. I’ve pretty much done it all. I also have a pretty varied work history previous to TouchArcade, including in management roles, that I think gives me a really well-rounded set of skills. You can contact me on LinkedIn or by email at jared [at] toucharcade [dot] com. Shaun Musgrave – Shaun has been with TouchArcade for a bit over 11 years, but has been in professional games media for more than 25 years overall. He is hands down one of the most gifted writers I have ever encountered, and if we needed a review for a big, important game and needed it by a very tight deadline Shaun was always dependable. He also uses his vast, almost uncanny knowledge of video game history to find interesting angles to write about games that only he could find. Shaun lives in Japan and is fluent in both Japanese and English, making him a great candidate for localization work as well. Please reach out to him at muzkind [at] hotmail [dot] com. Mikhail Madnani – As part of TouchArcade for more than 7 years, Mikhail has been the workhorse of our staff. Posting the bulk of what you would see on a day to day basis, there is no possible way our website could have kept running for so long without Mikhail’s contributions. An expert at sniffing out interesting news stories and then posting them in a timely fashion, but also able to put together huge features like in-depth interviews and multi-platform reviews. His coffee-laden header images are legendary as well. If you need someone who can reliably and consistently post video game-related content, then I cannot recommend Mikhail highly enough. Reach out to him at hello [at] failgunner [dot] com. So What Happens Now? If there is some sort of silver lining to all of this, it’s that for the foreseeable future all of the content that has ever been posted to TouchArcade will remain online and accessible to all. More than 33,000 published articles, including more than 4,000 game reviews, not to mention all of our yearly Best Of content and Game of the Year picks. These should hopefully all continue living on into the future for reference purposes and just to look back and see how drastically the mobile gaming landscape changed over the last decade and a half. We are also hoping to continue with our Podcast, The TouchArcade Show, which very recently just celebrated its 600th(!) episode. There are a couple co-hosts who have come and gone during the course of the podcast (shout out to Brand and Mike!) but myself and Eli Hodapp have been a constant presence on the show since the very beginning, and it’s really crazy that we’ve both spent 13+ years of our lives putting out hour-long podcasts on a (nearly) weekly basis. Related to that, you may be wondering about our Patreon. The support from our Patreon has far and away been the biggest contributor to TouchArcade continuing to exist since we launched it in June of 2015, almost a decade ago. Our thoughts are to pivot the Patreon contributions towards keeping the podcast going, and perhaps occasional posts or special features written by the staff here. Perhaps a random “SwitchArcade" or a review about a particularly high-profile mobile game launch. Maybe we could even squeeze in a Game of the Year for this year? It’s just a nugget of an idea right now, but it would be pretty cool to see TouchArcade be able to live on even in that small way. Whatever the case ends up being, I will explicitly change the verbiage of our Patreon to state that it’s no longer about supporting the website, and if people choose to stop contributing then that is totally understandable. If people are giving us money monthly I want to be absolutely transparent about what it’s going towards. Anyway, look for more news about this in the coming weeks, and at the very least be sure to follow along as a free member on our Patreon to stay in the loop. Also if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me at tips [at] toucharcade [dot] com or leave a comment below. Well, that about does it, I think. I speak for all of us who have contributed to running TouchArcade over the past 16 years–from the co-founders Arnold Kim and Blake Patterson, to the first full-time hire and future Editor in Chief Eli Hodapp, and to the dozens of other writers and freelancers who have helped make TouchArcade what it is–we just want to give a sincere thank you for ever reading our site, listening to our podcast, or attending one of our events. It has been an absolute pleasure to have such a wonderful audience who appreciated what we did so much and we will all forever be grateful for the time that we were able to spend together.

For our last full controller review on TouchArcade, I’ve been using the Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition …

Continue reading "Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition Controller Review – Customizable, Comfortable, but Lacking in Ways"

For our last full controller review on TouchArcade, I’ve been using the Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition for PC and PlayStation across my Steam Deck, PS5, and PS4 Pro for over a month now. Before I interviewed PDP Victrix about the controller and arcade sticks, I was very curious about the controller for its modular nature and also because I’ve wanted to try out another “Pro" controller after adoring the Xbox Elite (1st generation) and DualSense Edge over the years. Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition Controller – what’s in the box Usually, controllers just ship with a cable and sometimes a charging stand. In the case of the Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition, you get the controller, a braided cable, a high quality protective case to house the controller and everything else it ships with, a replacement fightpad module with a six button layout for fighting games, two gates, two replacement analog stick caps, two d-pad caps, a screwdriver for use with the controller, and a blue wireless USB dongle. The items are all neatly placed within the case which is very good quality on its own. Unlike the normal Victrix Pro BFG controller, some of the items with this one are themed to match the new Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition aesthetic. Keep this in mind as I don’t see replacements available officially for this, but I hope they start selling them soon. Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition Controller compatibility On paper, the Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition Controller supports PS5, PS4, and PC. I don’t use Windows anymore, so I was curious if this would work on Steam Deck out of the box. Since I prefer the PlayStation button prompts in games, I set it to PS5 and plugged in the dongle into my Steam Deck Docking Station. It worked without issue and without needing any update. On the console side, if you want to play wirelessly, you need the same dongle and to set the toggle to PS4 or PS5. I had no issues playing with it on my PS4 Pro in PS4 mode and on my PS5 in PS5 mode. In fact, since I don’t have any PS4 controller that works outside of arcade sticks with PS4 support, this is a very good bonus to have for when I want to test something on PS4 to compare with PS5. Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition Controller features The big draw of the Victrix Pro BFG controller is the modular nature letting you work with a symmetric stick layout, asymmetric stick layout, change things up for fighting games with the fightpad, adjust the triggers, thumbsticks, and also the d-pads. The aim with this design was to allow you to adjust the controller depending on the game you’re playing. As an example, I’d use the symmetric stick layout when playing Katamari Damacy Reroll, but I might swap to the Xbox-style asymmetric layout while playing DOOM Eternal. Being able to adjust the trigger stop is also great as I can change that when playing a racing game with analog trigger support and also go for the shortest stop when playing a game with digital trigger support. Beyond that, the multiple d-pad options are very nice, but I’ve been trying to stick to the default diamond shape one to get used to it, and I like it a lot. I wouldn’t use it for platformers though, but the other d-pad options work well here. Since this is an official PS5 and PS4 licensed controller, it is worth noting that this has no rumble, no haptic feedback, no adaptive trigger support, and no gyro/motion control support. I don’t care about gyro much, but no rumble at all is disappointing since you have sub $30 controllers now offering decent rumble, though they aren’t PS5 compatible. I’ve been informed that third party wireless controllers for PS5 might have restrictions for rumble as well, and I’ve seen more reports from folks using other third party controllers here. Either way, this is disappointing. The Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition ships with 4 paddles or well paddle-like buttons. I wish there were proper paddles you could remove though. I mapped two of them to L3 and R3 and the ones above to L1 and R1 since I use those the most in games like Monster Hunter World and also hate pressing the sticks. Having four buttons here is very good though. Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition Controller look and feel Visually, I love the gorgeous and bright highlights and colors used on the Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition. It isn’t as elegant as the default black model with purple highlights, but for a themed controller it looks very good with its light blue, pink, purple, and Tekken 8 branding. The Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition feels very comfortable, but it is a bit too light for my liking. The material on the main controller body ranges from feeling premium to just fine. It is a far cry from the premium feeling DualSense Edge, but that controller has that ugly glossy front plate that ruins things. The grip on this controller makes a big difference, and I’ve had 8 hour sessions with the controller wired without getting tired of holding it. It being light pays off here. Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition Controller on PS5 On PS5, there are a few things to keep in mind. This is an officially licensed controller, but you can’t turn on your PS5 with it. This seems like a limitation for 3rd party controllers on PS5, but is an annoyance to keep in mind. Beyond that, haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, and gyro are not available here. Aside from that, it has touchpad support and all the buttons I use on a DualSense controller including the share button. Victrix Pro BFG on Steam Deck Like I mentioned above, the Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition works out of the box on Steam Deck with the dongle plugged into the official Docking Station I use. It even correctly is recognized as a PS5 Victrix controller with the share button working for capturing screenshots and the touchpad working as it should in PC games that have PlayStation controller support. This was great to see as some games don’t even recognize my DualSense correctly. Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition Controller battery life The huge advantage the Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition Controller or the normal one has over the DualSense and DualSense Edge is the battery life. It lasts multiple times longer than the DualSense and the DualSense Edge on a single charge. It also helps that the logo on the touchpad indicates when the battery is low. This is good for playing on Steam Deck as other controllers don’t really visually indicate when the battery is low. Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition Controller software The software is something I couldn’t test as it is only available on the Microsoft Store and I don’t use Windows anymore. Thankfully, it works out of the box with Steam Deck, PS5, and PS4. The one thing I was hoping to see is if the controller would work on iOS. I tested wirelessly with the dongle on my iPad, wired on my iPhone 15 Pro, and also wired on my iPad Pro with no luck. Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition Controller negatives Right now, it has a few big negatives. These include no rumble, the low polling rate, not shipping with the Hall Effect sensors, and it requires a dongle for wireless, at least for the model I have. The lack of rumble might not be an issue for some, but for a “Pro" controller, the polling rate is disappointing. There are multiple videos on YouTube showcasing this and why it is a problem as well. Comparatively, the DualSense Edge wired is massively better with its response. As for the Hall Effect sensors, I’m glad Victrix now sells the new modules, but why do new purchases of the controller not just ship with those in the first place? Also if I were to buy either of the module color options available for my Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition Controller, it wouldn’t fit with the aesthetic and will not have PS5 face buttons. Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition Controller Review Having gotten well over a hundred hours of use out of the controller per platform across games like UFO 50, Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, Persona 3 Reload, and many more, I can safely say that I love using the controller, but the few issues are annoying to see given its price point. In a lot of ways, the Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition has the potential to be one of the best controllers in years if it sees some fixes and changes for a potential successor. Right now, there are a few too many caveats involved for its high asking price that make sure it is very good, but not amazing. The big issues holding it back right now are the lack of rumble (which seems like a restriction from Sony), dongle requirement, additional cost involved for Hall Effect sticks, and the polling rate. These might not matter to some folks, but for a “Pro" controller priced at $200, I expected a bit more. Victrix Pro BFG Tekken 8 Rage Art Edition Review Score: 4/5 Update: Added more information for the lack of a rumble feature.

In this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show, we talk about the site’s closure and what that will mean moving …

Continue reading "Is This Goodbye? – The TouchArcade Show #602"

In this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show, we talk about the site’s closure and what that will mean moving forward. We plan to still do this here podcast, but there are a few logistical things to figure out first. Most likely we will be pivoting to have our Patreon be the new home of the podcast, so be sure to at least join up as a free member over on our Patreon so that you’ll be sure to get any news or updates regarding the future of the show. And, just because it wouldn’t be a TouchArcade Show without off-topic banter, we weigh in on the hock tua girl’s new gig and give you our thoughts about all of Apple’s new gadgets that were launched this month. And we read emails! Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated! As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer. Stitcher: The TouchArcade Show via Stitcher Radio for Podcasts RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-602.mp3

A lot of folks got into the SaGa series a long time ago through its many releases on prior console …

Continue reading "Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven Interview With Game Producer Shinichi Tatsuke and Steam Deck Hands-On Preview"

A lot of folks got into the SaGa series a long time ago through its many releases on prior console generations. For me, Romancing Saga 2 on iOS was actually my gateway into the series nearly a decade ago, and I remember struggling with it quite a bit initially because I kept playing it like a normal JRPG. Fast forward to today, I adore the SaGa series as you can see in the photograph at the bottom of this article, and I was surprised to see Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven, a full remake of Romancing SaGa 2, announced for Switch, PC, and PlayStation a little while ago. For today’s double feature, I’ve been playing Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven on Steam Deck through an early demo code and I’ve also had a chance to interview Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven Game Producer Shinichi Tatsuke who was behind Trials of Mana’s remake. We discussed Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven, learnings from Trials of Mana, accessibility, potential ports to Xbox and mobile, coffee, and more. This interview was conducted on a video call. It was then transcribed and edited for brevity in the case of some portions. TouchArcade (TA): How does it feel having worked on a remake of Trials of Mana, a beloved game, and now working on Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven, a remake of another classic and beloved game? Shinichi Tatsuke (ST): Yeah, so both trials of manna and the romancing SaGa series are entries from the pre-square enix merger. It was when Square Enix was Squaresoft. These are both considered legendary titles from square. I do feel that it’s an incredible honor for me to handle the remakes of these two incredible titles. Both romancing SaGa 2 and trials of manna, when we remade these titles, it’s been 30 or almost 30 years since the original release. There was a lot of opportunity for us to kind of improve with the remake. So it was very fun to work on. So romancing SaGa 2, as you may know already, it’s a very unique game that has a lot of unique systems. So these systems are not only considered unique back then, we felt that these are still considered unique today too. So we felt that even remaking this title, even though it’s been more than 30 years, we felt that it would still be a great title to remake because of its uniqueness. It would still be considered unique for the modern players. TA: Romancing SaGa 2, the original game, was very challenging. When I played it, I think I got a game over in the first 10 minutes, and that was a nice wake up call for me with it being my first SaGa game. The remake, Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven, has multiple difficulty options. I wanted to know what were the challenges for you to stay true to the original while still making it accessible? This is likely going to be the first SaGa game for a lot of people with its modern graphics. ST: I think you bring up a great point because as you mentioned, the difficulty of the SaGa series is very well known throughout the fanbase and again, this is something that you probably already know, but the SaGa series has a lot of hardcore fans in Japan and outside of Japan as well. And there are a lot of people that would claim that the difficulty of SaGa is what makes the game, that’s what it’s essential for the SaGa title, for the SaGa series. But on the other hand, we have a lot of people that also feel that there’s a very, I guess, high barrier to start playing the SaGa title, because they feel that the SaGa titles are too difficult for them. So there are a lot of people that say they know about the SaGa series, but have never tried it out before. And when you ask them why, usually the answer is, oh, because it sounds like it’s too difficult. So because of that, we wanted to cater to both of these groups of fans. So the newcomers that haven’t yet to try the SaGa title, the SaGa series, but also for the hardcore fans. And one of our solutions that we thought was going to be a solution was to present the new newly added difficulty system. So we have the normal mode and the casual mode. So the normal mode is more catered for the standard RPG fans, but we also have the casual mode for people who just want to experience the narrative or the story of the game. So in the development team, we also had the core SaGa fans as well so that was our collective decision and solution to come up, solution to kind of resolve this situation where we have a lot of newcomers or people who haven’t played the SaGa title yet, trying to try, we wanted to try to hook them in by adding this difficulty, adding these new difficulty settings. So this is kind of a metaphor, but when you add, when you have spicy food, so in Japan, the curry is typically very spicy. So what you would do to kind of alleviate that ease to spice is that you would add honey sometimes. So the very spicy curry would be the original Romancing SaGa 2, where it’s just really, really difficult for a lot of players. So we kind of added the honey and the honey being the difficulty option. So like the casual mode. So to make that, to make it easier for our players. TA: One more question about the difficulty here. How was it like trying to deliver the original experience for veteran fans, but also offering some quality of life improvements into the gameplay and just the game in general? How did you decide which features to bring in to modernize the game, but also keep it very challenging for long time fans? ST: Our belief is that the SaGa series is not just all about the difficulty. it’s not just all about how difficult the games are. It’s more so how difficult it was to understand the game. For example, in the original release, there were a lot of elements or a lot of data that weren’t visible for the players. One of the examples being the weaknesses of enemies. The weaknesses did exist in the game, but it wasn’t really presented to the players, so players had to figure that out. This also applies to other stats like defenses. Again, it exists in the game, but it’s not displayed for the players. Players had to figure it out on their own to get an understanding of these aspects of the game. We thought that this wasn’t necessarily really difficult, it was just really unfair to the players. That’s something that we wanted to really improve on, because this is going to be a remake for the modern audiences, so we wanted to get rid of those unfair elements and make it fair and enjoyable for the players. That’s why in this remake, the weaknesses are going to be actually displayed for the players, unlike the original. There are, again, player areas that we’ve adjusted that just made it too difficult in the original. In order to make it fair and more enjoyable for the modern audiences, we made improvements and focused on that area. TA: When I started playing Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven on Steam Deck, because I’m playing it on PC right now, it is really good and it impressed me quite a bit with how well it runs. That got me thinking about Trials of Mana, because I played that on PlayStation 4 and Switch, and then I eventually played that on mobile also. I wanted to know, has the team been working to optimize the game specifically for Steam Deck? Editor’s Note: This was asked before the game had an official Valve rating of Steam Deck Playable. ST: Yes, so as you have already experienced the demo of the game on your Steam Deck, the full game, the full release, is going to be compatible with the Steam Deck as well, and it will be playable on the Steam Deck. TA: Can you comment on how long the development was for Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven? ST: I can’t really provide the details of that, but I can say that we started the main development towards the end of 2021. TA: What learnings from Trials of Mana remake did you take into Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven to make sure that this is also a remake which fans love? ST: Because of our experience working on Trials of Mana remake, we felt like we did develop a good understanding of what the players want and what players would enjoy out of remake titles. One of the examples being the soundtrack of the game. We learned that players generally prefer arrangements that are not too different from the original tracks. They would rather prefer something that’s more faithful to the original arrangement. Something not too different to the original. But that being said, back then, the original tracks were released, or the original title was released on older platforms like the Super Famicom, but then we’re releasing the remake on the modern platforms like the PlayStation 5 and whatnot. The technical limitations are very different between these two eras, so we were able to utilize that and then make the quality of the arrangements higher. The general direction of the tracks are going to stay the same, however, the overall quality has been refined for these remakes. That’s the area that we learned and we adapted into the Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven. Another thing that we learned was that players generally would prefer to, or there are a lot of players that also just prefer the original soundtrack and not the newly arranged tracks. We added an option in Trials of Mana remake that players can switch from two different arrangements of tracks. They can either choose the original tracks as is, or they can choose the newly composed or newly arranged tracks for the remakes. We added that system in Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven as well because we learned that players really loved that choice. Having that choice offered to them for the music was really well regarded, so we added that in Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven as well. There’s also a couple of different areas that we worked on newly that’s not something that we did on Trials of Mana remake. One of the examples is the graphics. The characters are typically a bit shorter on the Mana series because the graphic style is a bit more on the adorable side. In SaGa, we can’t really keep the same aesthetics in the graphics. The characters are going to be a bit taller in this remake compared to the others. Even when you look at the backgrounds as well, for the Mana series, we added shadow effects into the textures of the backgrounds. Again, SaGa is going to have a different worldview. We wanted to keep it a bit more serious. In order to do that, in order to keep things realistic, like that’s more suitable for the SaGa franchise, we utilized the lighting effects to add these shadows and not the textures like we did for Mana. Even though there were a lot of areas that we were able to utilize and bring in as is for the SaGa remake, there were a lot of areas that we worked on newly as well. A lot of different knowledge experiences, know-hows that we were able to use, but also new stuff that we figured out on our own with this remake. At this point, I thanked him and the team for making the “Romancing SaGa 2 Primer" video where he introduced the game in English. I was very happy with that video and I’ve shared it with a lot of my friends who haven’t played a SaGa game before. TA: Trials of Mana remake eventually came to mobile. I wanted to know if there are any plans to bring Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven to mobile or Xbox in the future. ST: We do not have any plans to release on those platforms at the moment. TA: My final question is how do you like your coffee? ST: I don’t drink coffee because I’m not a fan of bitter drinks. I can’t drink beer either. I’d like to thank Shinichi Tatsuke, Jordan Aslett, Sara Green, and Rachel Mascetti for their time and help with this interview and preview access over the last few weeks. Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven Steam Deck Impressions When I was offered a Steam key for Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven to try out the demo beforehand, I was equal parts excited and worried. I was excited because the reveal trailer looked excellent, but a bit worried because I had no idea if it would be a good experience on Steam Deck pre-release. Thankfully, Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is not only great on Steam Deck OLED out of the box, but the few hours I spent with the demo made me not even want to bother getting the game on PS5 or Switch to play. It is that good on Valve’s handheld. But what about the remake and how it feels to play? I’m going to cover my early thoughts here. Right off the bat, Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven looks great and sounds fantastic on Steam Deck. This remake also properly introduces the basics of battle, stats, and more gradually. If you’ve played Romancing SaGa 2 before, there are some changes through quality of life improvements with information, how combat flows despite being turn-based, and also the new audio options. If you never played the original, Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is shaping up to be a lovely modern entry point into SaGa in general for newcomers. The visuals definitely make it more approachable, but this is very much Romancing SaGa 2 with a fresh coat of paint and some new features. Playing on the difficulty meant to be like the original still is challenging. As for the remake’s visuals and feel, it is a lot better than I expected. I loved Trials of Mana’s remake, but I think Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven will end up the better remake overall. This may be because I love the original game a lot more than Trials of Mana, but only time will tell on that when I get access to the full release. It also helps that at least on Steam Deck, the PC port is quite a bit better than I expected. When it comes to sound and language options, you can toggle between the new remake soundtrack or the original, English or Japanese audio, and also various graphics options. The PC port of Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven lets you adjust screen mode (windowed, borderless, exclusive fullscreen), screen resolution (800×450 and more with 720p support on Steam Deck), frame rate (30 to unlimited), toggle v-sync, toggle on dynamic resolution, use graphics presets, toggle anti-aliasing, adjust texture filtering quality, adjust shadow quality, and adjust 3D model rendering resolution. I set most things to maximum or high with shadows on medium and still got a near-locked 90fps on my Steam Deck OLED at 720p. On the audio side, I stuck to English for my first playthrough. The voice acting is good, but I will likely play the full game with Japanese first to see how I feel when I get it. I might even do English on console and Japanese on Steam Deck. Either way, a lot of care and effort has gone into not only making Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven feel modern, but also retain its SaGa-ness. I’m looking forward to digging into the full game when I can, and also seeing how the demo feels on consoles. Right now, Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is a game you should have on your radar if you enjoy RPGs. I hope this leads to more folks trying out other SaGa games as well, but Square Enix needs to give us SaGa Frontier 2 next. Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven launches on October 24th for Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS5, and PS4 worldwide. A free demo will be available on all platforms today and I recommend trying it out. You can keep up with all our interviews here including our recent ones with Sukeban Games here, FuturLab here, Shuhei Matsumoto from Capcom about Marvel Vs Capcom here, Santa Ragione here, Peter ‘Durante’ Thoman about PH3 and Falcom here, M2 discussing shmups and more here, Digital Extremes for Warframe mobile, Team NINJA, Sonic Dream Team, Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, and more. As usual, thanks for reading.

When I first wrote about boomer shooters last year on Steam Deck and also on Switch, aside from New Blood …

Continue reading "Andrew Hulshult 2024 Interview: DOOM IDKFA, Blood Swamps, DUSK, Iron Lung, AMID EVIL, Music, Guitars, Cold Brew Coffee, and More"

When I first wrote about boomer shooters last year on Steam Deck and also on Switch, aside from New Blood and Nightdive, the most common name was Andrew Hulshult who has done some amazing music over the years. He recently was involved with the DOOM + DOOM II re-release that included his IDKFA soundtrack with new music for DOOM II, and having wanted to interview him for a while now, I finally had a chance to chat with him on call for a few hours to discuss game soundtracks, composition, bands he likes, guitar strings, pickups, cold brew coffee, his first film soundtrack, games he’s playing, and a lot more. This interview was done on video call and then it was transcribed and edited for brevity. Just like my interview with Dave Oshry from New Blood, this one was more casual than usual, and this is likely the longest interview on TouchArcade so strap in and grab a cold brew. TouchArcade (TA): So for those unaware, tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do. Andrew Hulshult (AH): Yeah, my name’s Andrew Hulshult. I’m a composer and sound designer for mainly video games, but I’m starting to move over into film as well. I like to just write music by myself sometimes when it’s not for a game or film. But that’s primarily what I do. I work in the game and film industry doing sound design, soundtracks, and sometimes voice acting. TA: How did you end up working on the canceled Duke Nukem project and also Rise of the Triad 2013? AH: Duke Nukem 3D Reloaded was actually just kind of like, I think that was 2010. That’s, I’m reaching back here a little bit. So I think Frederik at the time, Frederik Schreiber, the guy who runs 3D Realms now, or I think he still does, basically he was remaking maps in the middle of Unreal Engine 3 of like some of the original Duke 3D maps and posting them on Gearbox forums, which I think one of them that got a lot of hits was like all of the 3D renders of like Hollywood Holocaust, which is like E1M1 for Duke 3D. That caught my attention as well. I was like, wow, that looks really neat. You know, like I reached out on the forums, I was like, hey, do you need any music? Maybe this would be fun. Like, I really liked Duke 3D back in the day. And he said, yeah, sure. You know, like if you want to remake some of the stuff and hand it off to me. So I just did some of that. I just had gear laying around and I wanted to kind of learn how to do this anyway. So I just dove in head first and started kind of remaking some of the old Duke 3D tracks. That kind of spawned into, you know, not a lot, not a lot was done in Duke 3D Reloaded. It was just like, you know, like some odds and ends stuff. Somehow that turned into Apogee, Terry Nagy, head hunting us and saying, hey, I have an IP that I’d really like you to work on called Rise of the Triad if you guys want to give it a try. And he had an investor with him at the time who was interested named Dave Oshry And this was a very long time ago. And it’s crazy. Like all those people now are like, you know, on the, we were all on the forefront of like the retro FPS revival stuff. But basically after Duke 3D Reloaded, yeah, Apogee came, said, hey, we’re interested. And Fred said yes on our side. And we started making Rise of the Triad 2013. TA: It was funny you mentioned Dave Oshry because when I finally got an interview with him, I think it was easier for me to meet Iron Maiden than get that interview, but after getting that done, I had New Blood covered. I recently also interviewed Nightdive about The Thing, but I needed to complete the trifecta for boomer shooters: Andrew Hulshult. Now that’s finally happening. We both laugh. TA: I remember in a prior interview you did, you mentioned how when you were doing the 3D realm stuff, you weren’t aware of how much you were in demand in the industry. So when that door closed, suddenly you had like a, like thousands of opportunities and stuff like that. But, and obviously you’ve gone on to do some of like some huge titles since then. Obviously Doom Eternal DLC is the one which a lot of people think about you. For me, it’s like other titles like Nightmare Reaper and Dusk and stuff like that. I want to know how you’ve changed as a musician and as a professional from back then to now. AH: Oh, that’s a great question. Man, starting off in the industry with, you know, doing the whole stuff with Interceptor, like where we were, what we were just talking about, it was a completely fresh experience as a musician. So you don’t know what you’re getting into. And then a lot of times you’re like, I don’t even know what I should be getting paid, you know, like you have an idea, but you’re not, you don’t know. And so like wading through those waters is interesting and also dangerous territory. But the stuff that I have learned has been all from, you know, tripping on agreements as you go forward. You sign an agreement, you go for it, you make the money, and on the back end you’re either like, this didn’t really work out, or you’re like, hey, this worked out, we need to make sure that we do this again, you know. It’s learning the entire time. Because this is the thing that I feel like musicians get hung up on a lot, which is, you know, they just, they want to make really, really awesome, beautiful art for games. And like, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. You should, that should be the core principle that you do. But you have to make sure that you get paid so that you can continue to do it. Because otherwise you burn yourself out and you don’t want to work in the industry anymore. And that, to go back to what you were talking about with, I didn’t know how much, like how in demand I was. I was right at that point. I was about to walk away from everything right after the whole stuff with 3D Realms. I was done with games. I was like, you know what, like there’s not a lot of avenues here and I’m just getting more bitter as time goes on. And the last handful of things I’ve worked on have just bombed so why am I putting all this effort into this? I should try and do something else. And I didn’t realize until I stepped out from 3D Realms how many people wanted to hire me. And like, it’s one of those weird things where like, I’m sure you can probably relate. When you have a job, like a day job, if you’ve ever just held like a simple, simple day job, you can get sucked into that entire cycle of that job and nothing else matters around. So an example of this would be, I worked for a music retailer for about 15 years, okay. I was doing well for them. They wanted to give me my own stores. I was working on management. And the cycle that comes with that where you get so wrapped up in the business of that makes you lose focus of lots of other things in life. And that’s kind of what happened to me while I was working with 3D Realms. That’s nothing bad about them. It’s just when you’re working for a company rather than working for yourself, it turns into that. From the start to now has been like just a crazy learning process. You do have to walk on landmines. You do have to get blown up a couple of times until you figure out what works and what doesn’t. Stepping out from 3D Realms after they said, hey, we don’t have the cash to pay you. It’s like, oh, okay, I guess I’ll go figure this out now. And then all of a sudden, DUSK, you know, like that’s literally the next thing that and AMID EVIL were the very next things that I worked on. It was crazy. TA: Obviously you get a lot of questions about game music, but what is like, since you brought up this whole thing about how you’ve changed, what is the biggest misconception that people both in the industry and like the players have about video games music right now? AH: The biggest misconception. Oh, that anybody can do it and it’s a small part. laughs It’s like, you can’t just throw anything in there. Like, man, it’s I’d say that from a public like standpoint of I don’t play games that much and I’m casual kind of thing, some of my friends and some of my family are like, you have the easiest job. I’m like, you have no f***ing idea. You know, walk in my shoes for a day and let’s talk again. Yeah, it’s really difficult because you, you really have to trick yourself into getting into whatever atmosphere or whatever world someone else has painted already. Right. Like they’ve already built everything out. This is their vision. You have to step into it and you have to step into it with respect to their design philosophies. And you also have to have the confidence to say, well, this is what I think we should do and why we should do it. And there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of social confidence that’s needed to do a gig like this. It’s complex in a lot of different ways. The art side of it is hard enough, like pulling shit out of thin air, is difficult already, but then, um, explaining to people why you want to go this direction and sometimes even arguing to get that direction can be a hassle in and of itself. So yeah, I’d say the biggest misconception is that it’s easy and that it’s not easy. I swear to God, so many times my friends are like, ah, you’ve got the easiest job. I’m like, no, man, I live, I, I threw a hundred pound boxes from 6 AM to 4 PM. And sometimes I miss that. Whiskey and coffee fueled half of the @RiseoftheTriad OST. Most songs were composed between 9pm and 3am. The more you know — Andrew Hulshult (@AndrewHulshult) September 30, 2015 TA: So I also want to talk a lot about your gear, but before that, I think we should discuss some of the game specific things. So let’s start with ROTT 2013. I’ve just sent you a tweet right now, which I wanted to reference. This is quite an old one (linked above). Well, I actually didn’t know much about this soundtrack until recently. I had heard about it and I had heard that a lot of my friends bought that release. They said that it wasn’t that great. I played the original on DOS but not the 2013 version, so I didn’t really hear it all in-game until the Ludicrous Edition and when folks made a big deal about it having Andrew Hulshult’s music. I decided I wanted to properly try it then. I wanted to talk about your thought process between like, you know, redoing those tracks and coming up with your own flare on them, because anyone who, at least any fan of yours, if they listen to that, they know it’s your music. It’s not like, oh, this is just like him doing a cover of someone else. It still feels like it’s you. AH: The first and foremost thing was to make sure you respect your elders. I wanted to make sure that whatever I did obviously served the fanbase and by proxy served everything that Lee Jackson had written. Lee Jackson and Bobby Prince, as far as I’m concerned, that’s the de facto composers for FPS. The originators. You’re already stepping into something well established back in the day. People are very familiar with this. If you f*** it up, you are toast. That was my first professional gig. Stepping into that kind of pressure. Just really what it came to, it was all really natural. I heard these songs and I saw the game and what they’re making and I’m like it is kinda jank, but it is fun. It is ridiculous. ROTT is so ridiculous. I was like man, I was talking to Dave and Fred about it. What if we did like rock and metal stuff predominantly? That’s the kind of music I listen to all the time. They said let’s try it. Even Terry was like you should do it. Really they just kinda gave me free reign to give it a try on some of these things. The first one I did as a demo to work on it was “Goin Down the Fast Way" and I remember I handed that to Terry. Terry is awesome and he has been great to me for my entire career. Never had a bad piece of advice from him. He is the CCO for Apogee by the way. I remember handing him the very first demo of “Goin Down the Fast Way". His comment coming back to me was “It is in the right direction but it sounds like a diarrhea of sound" Because it wasn’t mixed correctly. I was just excited to hand him something. I was like ok this is one of those moments where I’m going to have to learn how to accept feedback even if it is not from a musician and I know that they mean well. I remixed a couple of things and I think this is what he was talking about and I sent it back to him and he said it was way better and it was awesome. Ok cool, this guy doesn’t just hate me. It kind of just came from the heart. All the soundtracks I work on, it’s me. Even if it is stepping into someone else’s shoes, I have to remember that the source material comes first, then you put your influences on. So the source material is the structure of the house but you can put up whatever walls you want and paint on it, and hang and decorate, but just make sure that the house is still the same house that people remember. Now to address the Tweet above, Whiskey and coffee fueled half of the Rise of the Triad soundtrack. Most songs were composed between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. That’s true. Here’s one little tidbit with it too. Terry Nagy, the guy I was talking about, the CCO from Apogee, he would regularly take me down to a bar called Hula Hands. And he would buy the drinks and then he would just take me home and be like, “Alright, now go write some more songs." It was awesome. I miss those days. TA: This reminds me of that one track in IDKFA where you used a tremolo to replicate a specific sound and it was the perfect way to do it. AH: That was Dark Halls in DOOM. It has the tremolo guitar that’s supposed to be the rolling bass synth from that sound. I love that song. TA: After ROTT 2013, another game I didn’t really play until recently was Bombshell and I literally only bought that game because of your soundtrack. I got it when I was researching boomer shooters for an article and was looking at the games I don’t own. I bought it and didn’t really care for much of it, but the music was great. I kind of think of that soundtrack with Nightmare Reaper where they feel like just metal albums from Andrew Hulshult rather than dedicated game soundtracks. Was this the point in your career where you realized you’re really good at bringing metal into these kinds of games? It felt like a turning point. AH: That’s that’s a great question too like actually yeah like right around that time I was experimenting a lot with just you know making big atmospheric like synth stuff and like orchestral as you can hear on that soundtrack if you got far enough, laughs, but also like for the for the bigger fights and stuff, I really wanted to start dialing up you know my own sound and my own writing and you know I’d already done the cover stuff I wanted to want to show people what what I could do and so yeah that is kind of really where my introduction to like my own original pieces started coming into place, so yeah that is actually right. I never even thought about that that is where that started and also like I mean I gosh that’s if I think about it, that was 2013 is the end of 2013 is when development started on that, and it originally started as a Duke Nukem game before the lawsuit, and I had an eight string by that time. I was tuning down big time at that point, and there’s a lot of stuff that never made it maybe I’ll put that up on Twitter at some point but there’s a lot of stuff that never never showed up on it because it was a little too aggressive you know but that stuff would later show up in DOOM you know. laughs TA: When just discovering your music many years ago, everything was really good metal, and this was probably around the time I was mainly listening to metal before I started broadening my horizons. I went through this phase when I was learning guitar and I started listening to more Dream Theater and then got a seven string guitar, and eventually got into Meshuggah. It got me thinking about how when I listen to your music now, you manage doing unique things for each game and make the songs fit the game properly. It isn’t just metal anymore so there’s no worry about being typecast. Did you have that fear that everyone is just going to expect metal from you when you’re behind a specific soundtrack? AH: Oh man. You just saying that just out loud makes me wow. I still worry about that sometimes. There are moments where I’m like am I getting typecast at this point, and you saying, yeah I don’t have to worry about that anymore, I’m like oh thank god I heard it from someone else where they were you know like, because I don’t want to be like I don’t want to be like straight up known as metal guy you know like I love metal I love playing it I’ll make those records all day long as people as long as people will listen to it and even if they won’t I’ll probably make them, but yeah I like to paint with different brushes like especially when I get older, like I really enjoy mixing sound design with guitars. I like mixing sound design with orchestral instruments, I like just going full hand on my Eurorack synth stuff over here and just getting lost. As a musician I’m fortunate enough at this point where I can just experiment, and I know I can find, I have the confidence now after working on all these games and having some success with it where I know if I get lost I can find a way out because I’ll find something that I like, and chances are if I like it, I can probably show it to some people who will dig it as well. I’m so glad to hear that you’re like I know that I can get some variety. laughs TA: I mean if someone just heard DUSK and I’d say if they heard DUSK even that is pretty different. I mean if someone’s not into metal maybe they think dusk sounds the same as bombshell but you can totally tell that DUSK was trying to be like this middle ground of what you like and Nine Inch Nails’ Quake. I think it has one of my favorite guitar tones in gaming right now, and it’s still pretty timeless. I want to move to AMID EVIL. I love the soundtrack to the main game, but I want to ask about the DLC for two reasons. Now the first thing is kind of like a personal topic because I believe you were going through a family emergency during the time when you were recording the soundtrack, right? When I was playing Dragon Quest VIII on the 3DS and my grandfather was in the hospital before he passed away, whenever I think about Dragon Quest VIII now it reminds me of that. So do you go through the same thing with the AMID EVIL DLC music? AH: I don’t think I’ve been able to sit down and digest it that way yet. But I know exactly what you’re talking about and I’m sure that is what I will absolutely go through. Yeah, to harp back to what you’re talking about, to what you’re referencing, my father had a heart attack. And it was just out of nowhere. And it was on, gosh, I think it was on New Year’s Eve. It was like 9 PM on New Year’s Eve. It was the year before it was released And I was halfway, I was like midway through working on that soundtrack. And it just scared the shit out of me. As anybody would. Your father’s dying And he ended up having like a, all four valves around his heart were like 90-95% clogged. So yeah, he had to have a quadruple bypass. And thankfully, We have a really, really good heart hospital right next to us. And they’re at an age now where they’re on Medicare. I think it’s Medicare. I can’t remember. It’s like once you’re past 64 at a certain age in this country, you can get on Medicare. And you know, like health stuff isn’t as much of a nightmare as it normally is. But they got great care, got taken care of. But it was months. It took months for all that stuff to happen. And there’s like so many things that happened in between that. Like this was right in the middle of COVID. So like whenever he got, it was right in the middle of the big Omicron spike for the world. So as soon as he got admitted, he couldn’t get to an actual emergency room. He had to sit in another room for like two or three days and they actually had to sedate him for a few days before they could transfer him to another hospital to get looked at. Like it was just crazy. And I was out of my mind. I was crazy at that point. And so once they got to a point where they said we’re going to do surgery and he came out of surgery, I just needed something to occupy myself. Otherwise, I was going to self-destruct. So I started writing a lot on the AMID EVIL stuff and started really finding that old like playing with a band and writing songs for you kind of vibe going in. And a lot of that stuff in a AMID EVIL, the stuff that’s like got a lot of energy behind it, that is pretty personal for me. There’s a lot of emotions on that soundtrack. There’s also something else that I haven’t talked about in public yet and I’m not going to talk about it here that I started working on that has a lot of that as well. And that’ll still be a while before that pops up. But I’d say that that was my main outlet for a while. You have something to look forward to. But yeah, like that soundtrack let’s wrap it up. That soundtrack did have a lot of tension and a lot of emotions tied to my father almost passing away and me trying to wrap my head around that. You’re right. I hadn’t thought about that. TA: The other thing about the AMID EVIL DLC is this specific song I want to touch on: Splitting Time. This song is interesting for a few reasons. It reminds me of some of my favorite game trailers like the song used in the Nioh 2 launch trailer, I’m not sure if you’ve seen it. But more interesting than that is I was playing Street Fighter 6 with a friend of mine and listening to this in the background and he asked me if I was listening to Killer Instinct music? I said it was the AMID EVIL DLC and he wanted to know who made it. It reminded me quite a bit of Mick Gordon’s non DOOM music. We spoke about Killer Instinct and my friend said “they should get Andrew for a new Killer Instinct album" and I wanted to ask if Killer Instinct influenced that song? AH: No I didn’t actually. But there might be little hints of that back and forth because gosh, there are moments when I went back to that Killer Instinct reboot because I thought Mick did such a great job on it. Where I’m like, man, the production here is exactly what I have been trying to do for like a handful of years, And like that soundtrack was just really inspiring to listen to. I think he’s just, he’s a brilliant composer. TA: That’s another game I bought because of the soundtrack because when I played DOOM 2016, I was like I need to play more games with this guy’s done the music for and everyone was like Killer Instinct. I was like I’ve never heard this. I didn’t own an N64. What the hell is this game? I bought it and liked the music a lot more than the game. AH: That whole soundtrack slaps, man. He did a fantastic job on that. When you realize @AndrewHulshult put his whole bussy into the Nightmare Reaper OST instead of saving it for DUSK 2 pic.twitter.com/tU1AsySok0 — Dave @ Home (@DaveOshry) October 11, 2023 TA: OK, so now let’s go to Nightmare Reaper a bit. I already mentioned how this could be your own metal album. I don’t even think it needs to be related to this game. And this is another game I just bought because the music was so good. And I was like there’s kind of like this disconnect between what I expected in the game and after I heard the music, because I heard the music before playing the game and I was like, OK, I need to get used to this. But so before I ask you about your thought process between doing the music, I want to just bring up this other tweet (linked above) from New Blood’s Dave Oshry, which is interesting for Nightmare Reaper. When I saw that Tweet, I knew I had to bring it up whenever I interviewed you in the future and here we are. Laughs AH: Whenever Bruno reached out to me, Bruno is the developer of Nightmare Reaper. Whenever he reached out to me, we just literally started talking about some of our favorite bands and we would just go off back and forth because he showed me a game that he was making. I was like, “That looks cool." I was like, “Well, let me know if you’re ever interested." And then we just started talking about music. He’s like, “Would you be interested in working with me on this?" And I said, “Yeah, I think that would be cool." And he literally was like, “I just want this to be like a metal record from you." I was like, “Really?" He was like, “Yeah." He’s like, “You’ve got good influences." He’s like, “I just want it to sound like you just made a straight metal record." I was like, “Well, it can’t be just that." I was like, “But it’ll be mostly that." You still need to like, we need to, it needs to still be for a game. Because otherwise you’d have me, you know, screaming over top of everything as well. But yeah, it is pretty close to something I would have written at that time. You know, as you go with a, as time moves on, tastes change. And you know, but like at that time, for sure, that’s what you would have gotten for a metal record. I think that’s pretty close, yeah. TA: How do you manage doing that and also keeping the soundtrack dynamic for a game then? AH: Um, play through it a lot of times where you can figure out where you can have rests and lulls. And where somebody’s gonna possibly just walk around and look for things. And then try to write something that you yourself would not get bored of. And that’s still interesting in terms of like, you know, like an ambient track or like a low energy track that still moves a little bit. Just music to explore to, right? And then try and make a piece that complements what that is, but is super high energy or, uh, just higher energy for it. So like, so that those two can work together. You really have to think of it as like, you’re gluing two or three different pieces together. Because like Prodeus has like three pieces. It has an ambient, it has a light combat, and it has a heavy combat. And they’re structured in triggers throughout that game. So I have to think of how this ambient works with this low combat song and then work with this high combat song. Or this heavy combat song. And do they all move well between each other, um, if you were to just crossfade them at random times, you know? Because that’s what the engine is going to do. So yeah, it’s like, I don’t know, you just, you gotta take one of those pieces of music, build it out first, and then think about the other piece. TA: Since you brought up Prodeus, that was the next game I was going to ask about. I don’t even remember what happened with Prodeus when it launched on Steam, because I remember being sent a code for it and just tried it out for review, but was blown away by the music. I remember I even joked about that when I wrote about boomer shooters. At the time, it felt like everything boomer shooters was all about New Blood, Nightdive, and Andrew Hulshult. So Prodeus feels like metal, industrial, bass heavy, and punchier in general. It works well with the aesthetic but I think Cables and Chaos is my favorite. You’ve spoken a lot about Prodeus, but I wanted to know what your favorite track is from that and whether you can give us an interesting anecdote from composing which people might not know about? AH: Cables and Chaos is definitely my favorite one. Like, for sure. Like, that was the moment. Um, so, like, they originally only wanted me to work on, like, the music that first shipped. Not a lot of people know that I went through, like, this whole nightmare where I had to pull the entire soundtrack down across the entire, like, all this digital distribution and put it back up with all the songs because originally there was only, like, ten pieces of music with Prodeus. And then when they were getting closer to release they were like, “Hey, we want to… we want to… we want, like, ten more." And I was like, “Oh, uh, okay. Well, I’ve already put out the soundtrack. We already agreed on this, so this is weird." So, um, they showed me what else they were working on in terms of, like, the levels and everything that I hadn’t seen and I was like, “Good lord, these look incredible!" So I got really inspired with that and made a ton of really just more aggressive pieces of music which turned into things like Chaoscaster, Cables and Chaos, uh…I’m just trying to think of the other ones. Dystopian Dimension. That whole soundtrack is awesome. Like, that whole soundtrack, like, it was built in an interesting time where it’s…it was… half of it was pre-pandemic and the other half was during isolation during pandemic. So, it’s got these really interesting tangents of, uh, the second half of the record’s way more aggressive than the first half. Just because, like, I don’t know, I was at home and I’m like, I can’t get anything out. Like, in terms of my outlet, I can’t go out. I can’t do this. So, like, all of my energy was focused on how aggressive can I make the rest of this, you know? Like, and then we finally get to put it out. I think that was 2022. Here’s one thing from Prodeus that I thought was super neat. So, Spent Fuel is one of the only times that I’ve been…Well, it was one of the first times I’d done it at the moment. Where I’d taken an idea and I was like, how do I write a concept around this? And really, like, the map they showed me was just, you know, green sludge and radiated bullshit everywhere. It looked like Chernobyl. And, um…I was like, man, I really want to find ways to take things like Geiger counters, uh, and, uh, pulses from, from, uh, from fission reactions and, like, maybe even the sound of the, uh, the flash that happens in the video whenever they’re testing the atomic bomb stuff. Like, anything that’s gamma or uh, radiation that is audible, I want to take that and make a piece of music with it. So, there literally are all of those things in that piece of…that piece of music. So, there is the sound of a nuclear reactor turning on, doing what’s called a pulse, uh, for the first time. And that’s actually used in part of the beat. The Geiger counters used as portions of the beat that kind of sounds like a drum machine a little bit. I reversed the sound of, uh, the atomic bomb, the initial flash hitting the camera, making this “bzzz" sound. I reversed that and made it pulse back and forth through the beat. And then, you know, later on the music is like a lot of guitar stuff to go with it and everything, but all that stuff that’s going on with the synthesizer is all based around, you know, like radiation. And I was like, “Ah, this is cool!" Whenever I got done with it, I was like, “Finally!" I had an idea, like a concept idea for a piece of music that stems from like a real life thing and put it all together. So that was like, that’s one of the standout moments for me on that soundtrack. I was really proud of that. TA: Can you say anything about the DLC music or is that just up to the devs for them to release? AH: Uh, that’s up to the devs for them. TA: Anything that’s different or interesting or should we just expect another banger soundtrack? AH: I’m not sure if they’re going to use the base game stuff or if they want me to work on anything new. I have my suspicions that they’ll give me a shout probably somewhere in the near future, but I haven’t heard from them yet. TA: I think in a recent interview where you spoke about the Iron Lung soundtrack, which you’re doing, obviously you can’t talk much about it, but I, don’t want to know about the soundtrack specifically, I’ll wait for the movie to come out, but I want to know three things: How is it working on a movie soundtrack? How is it working with Markiplier? How has the budget available for the soundtrack changed how you’re able to approach music composition? AH: So the first one was, how’s it working on a movie soundtrack? Completely different. Like, I thought that, I thought that I’d be able to walk in and just be like, “Eh, this won’t, this’ll be simple." Oh. Like, it’s just as challenging as the game stuff, but in a completely different direction. Where I would know exactly to talk to a developer about “Let’s put a piece of music here, let’s put a piece of music here, let’s do that." I can do that with Mark, but they’re completely different conversations. One is, you know, I know exactly what’s supposed to be happening in the game here, this is, you know, you’re picking up this weapon, or you’re, this adventure is happening in front of you, this is the tone. The other is a film that I may get something out of, but Mark may be intending for a different emotion. So we have to talk about those things back and forth before I make a piece of music. So it’s really interesting. It’s a fun challenge, to be honest with you. The second one was working with Mark? Mark is awesome. He is so much fun to work with. He hears things that I don’t hear, uh, brings things up in, in my own music, where I’m like, “Oh, I didn’t even think about that." And he’s very much, um, a musician without, like, being a musician. Like, he doesn’t, he doesn’t write, like, as far as I know, he doesn’t write a bunch of music, like, on the regular, but he understands it very, very well. And will, uh, regularly make decisions when I hand him a piece of music, and he’s like, “Okay, this is, you know, sometimes we will have to cut these back and forth, but I promise you, like, like, to make it work for a scene." He’s like, “But I promise you, we’ll do it as best as we can, or I’ll do it as best as I can." I’m like, “Uh, you know, like, maybe I should just recompose the scene." And every time he cuts something to, like, possibly make it, like, a tiny bit shorter, I’m like, “No, that’s exactly what I would have done. Like, how are you this good at editing this stuff?" Like, it’s, it blows my mind. Um, so he’s been fantastic to work with. The third is about the budget for the movie soundtrack and how it changes how it affects composition? Budgets were a lot bigger. I’ll just, I’ll just keep it at that. They were, they were, they were much bigger. Um, just because of how much, it wasn’t, like, due to, um, you know, like, “Oh, you’re working on a film now." It was, it was because of how much music we went through. Um, I wrote demos with them on the set. So, like, they flew me down to Austin and Mark said, “Hey, you know, why don’t you just write music while I’m doing scenes?" I’m like, “Wow, that sounds actually really, really f***ing cool, yeah." So, I would go down there about once every two weeks and spend about two or three days there, just sitting at, uh, sitting out front while they’re, they’re doing scenes, and I’d be writing music with my headphones, just watching on a monitor, you know, what’s going on in front of me, like, 50 feet in front of me. And so, there was a ton of music from that, and there’s a lot more music that came afterwards that we wrote, and in fact, um, I’m actually about to jump on a call because I think they need one more, one more piece of music. I’m gonna jump on a call in like two hours, ’cause I think they need one more piece of music. Um, but it’s, it’s just been a lot. There’s a lot there. And it’s picking the emotions that go where. So, like, there would be, I wrote all these songs for, you know, um, catching a vibe of depression, and these songs for catching a vibe of anger, and these vibes for tension, and this, and this, and we have this giant palette to just choose from and pick where we want things to go, and that’s what, that’s what Mark’s been doing. So, yeah, it’s, it’s pretty much, I mean, financially, the exact same thing as, that I would agree on with games, but it’s just, there’s the volume that, like, we’ve done with stuff is like, whoa, that’s a lot! So, yeah. So, yeah, it’s been great. It’s helped me out a ton. I’d love to work with Mark again after this. TA: Going from your first movie soundtrack, let’s talk about your first chiptune album, which was Dusk 82. So, was that actually the first time you did any sort of chiptune remixing or composition or arrangement, I should say? AH: Yeah, the first real one, like, I mean, like, you could, you could argue that, like, the Rad Rodgers stuff has some of that on there, but that’s, like, closer to synth wave more than anything else, I feel like. And, like, that kind of retro feel. So, yeah, this was the first real time that I, like, approached, like, a chiptune. Like, this is, you have to stay within these boundaries of limited technology. And it was literally, like, you know, choose your, choose your sine wave. Do you want, you want sine, or choose your audio wave. Do you want sine, square, or, you know, triangle? So, it’s one of the three. Just building, like, drum kits based off of that and, like, white noise and everything. And, yeah, that was, that was interesting. Like, when David approached me about that, I was like, “You wanna do what?" You know, like, completely make, like, the Dusk soundtrack and chiptunes of, like, why don’t we just, like, choose a handful of, like, the hits and go from there. Like, the ones that people remember the most, you know? And that was fun. Uh, that was super cool. Just bouncing those back and forth off Dave and David. But, yeah, that was, that was the first time I ever did that. And it was, it was pretty cool. I’m glad people like it. TA: I think, uh, Dusk 82 was, like, this free pre-order bonus with the Nintendo Switch release. So when I started playing that, I was like, “Wait, did they actually do this for the soundtrack?" And then I looked it up and I’m like, “Of course they did!" I know obviously you’re, like, super busy with, like, a ton of projects, but if you had, like, unlimited time and resources, would you do a chiptune demake of any of your other albums? And if you would, which one would you pick? AH: Gosh. Which one would be the most interesting is really the, uh, the question there. I think the one that would be the most interesting if I were to do that would be probably AMID EVIL. Because there’s so much going on in some of those, it would be, it would be a lot of fun to go back and, like, hear some of those melodies that are, like, on, like, all string sections and stuff, and here I’m taking all the way down to, like, 8-bit, you know? I think that that would fit really well too. But yeah, if money wasn’t an issue. Yeah, and time. Time’s the biggest one there. TA: Speaking of time and money, I was going to ask you about remastering one of your old soundtracks, like bringing it to the modern Andrew Hulshult sound. You mentioned that you’d do ROTT 2013 if they paid you to remaster it. AH: There’s a ton of work involved in that. Doing that just for IDKFA was a ton of work. Like, that was months of getting that together. Um, yeah, I’d love to do that for ROTT if Apogee would be interested in it, but, like, it’s a time thing more than anything else. I think it’s a time thing for them, and it’s a time thing for me. I mean, they’re literally down the street, so, like, they can open up that conversation anytime they want, and it’s just a matter of when, you know? When’s the right time. TA: WRATH: Aeon of Ruin, I think is a game you composed a long time ago, at least in gaming, like, a few years ago, and it finally released this year. That’s a soundtrack where if anyone hears it, I think they probably wouldn’t expect it to be you when they listen to the soundtrack, and that’s one of the things I love about it, because here, like, he does more than just metal, like, you need to get that into your head, like, that feels like one of those things. How was it working on that soundtrack? AH: It was interesting back and forth. Jeremiah, the developer on that, the original developer, at first, I think he’ll be okay with me saying this, at first we did not, we didn’t see eye to eye on things, because I wanted straight up, like, almost no guitar at all, Quake, Like, this is what you’re going for, this is the audience, we need to harp even further into this, and he wanted some guitar mixed in there, and like, we would butt heads back and forth on it quite a bit, until we finally came to like a mutual understanding, and I started hearing him out a little bit more, and he started hearing me out, and I was like, okay, okay, I think we’re all good on this. But yeah, it was, that one was a little, a little more tough, just because the, like, the development cycle was, wasn’t, you know, as people know, like, didn’t, it didn’t go as great, like, towards about halfway through, maybe a little, even a little earlier than that, and I could see some of that happening in real time, just because I know all those guys, so like, it was unavoidable. So that’s, that’s hard to make art for when you know that the product itself is having some problems. But I think Christalynne Pyle did a good job with wrapping everything up towards the end of it, which was a task in and of itself, for sure. But, I don’t know, there were some weird ideas pitched out there at one point, where like, I think Fred wanted like, like straight up, like really over the top metal tracks at one point. I think they even had a trailer at one point where I was like, this is not the tone of this game. I don’t know where you guys found that music, but like, this is, this is not that. But I’m glad that everything in the end was able to have some cohesiveness and, and meld together. I really wish that we had time to do some action tracks, like, for that game. Like, I feel like there are moments where that could have, that could have been helpful, but also at the same time, that’s a big what if. You know, like, because there’s two things that you have to take into consideration. Which is, that’s the Quake engine. It’s like the OG Quake engine. You know, what are the limitations that we’re working with here? Can we dynamically swap music, and is it going to work well, just as well as you’ve heard in other titles? And number two, um, would that take people out of it? Because everybody remembers like the OG Quake having like, you know, every map had its song. Well, I say that. It was a disc running that just played a bunch of music. But basically, every map had a song for it. So, yeah, there’s, there’s a handful of things there. But I like the soundtrack. I think it’s cool. I think it’s, it’s, it’s got some really interesting moments in it where like, one of them where I was, I just said, “F*** it, whatever. We’re gonna, we’re gonna bow a guitar through a bunch of pedals and see what that comes out like." That’s one of my favorite pieces from that. I think that’s towards the end. But, um, yeah, it was a little bit of a struggle, but I’m glad I still went through it. I had fun, and I think that everybody that worked on it was pretty proud of it by the end. TA: Now, DOOM Eternal’s DLC. How did it feel for you doing IDKFA and now doing official DOOM music? Like, it’s your soundtrack with David Levy? Did id Software actually talk to you about IDKFA beforehand? AH: I know that IDKFA was, was passed around that studio a whole bunch, cause I, I’d get, um, DMs from people that work there that are now, like, I consider great friends, where they would reach out in, like, 2015, and 2016, and, like, all the way back as 2014, where they would be saying, you know, hey, I’m working at id right now, I just want you to know that I’m listening to your, to your music while I work, and I was always just like, oh, holy cow, that’s crazy, you know? Um, and I, you know, as far back as that, I was just like, hey, if you ever, you know, if you ever, if you ever need music, let me know, you know? So, but, like, never, never, you know, like, pushing like, the button or the boundaries, cause like, I think it was announced that Mick was working on there in, like, 2015? Like, it was like the year before, or something like that, when they really started showing some of the music, and I was like, oh, they’ve, they’ve, they’ve got that handled, okay, cool. So, um, but I was always interested in, in finding a, a way to work with that studio, cause I love DOOM, and, like, it’s really is, like, the core of my DNA wanting to work in games, is DOOM, and like, Duke 3D, um, so, yeah, I always wanted to work with them, and IDKFA, I kinda looked at almost as a resume, like, I was like, I’m gonna put this out there, if it gets popular enough, it’ll speak for itself, and it did exactly that, because, uh, in, gosh, that was, that was right at, like, quarter one, quarter two of 2020, when, when they approached me, I think it was, actually it was, I think it was quarter two of 2020, and said, hey, we, uh, we are in a position where we need, we need music, where we need music, and, uh, we need it quickly, and would you be up to the task for this? They fully were, they knew what they were asking was, was a tall order, in a short period of time, and they said, you know, we can absolutely use the base game stuff, but we wanted to at least reach out and, and ask you, because we, we feel like we can trust you, cause I, I’d made relationships with, with, uh, with Marty, some light ones with Hugo, with Chad Mossholder, their sound guy, I knew all of those people by then, and, um, I was like, hey, you know what, it’s, it’s like 35 or 40 days, f*** it, we, let’s do it, it was like, this sounds like a challenge, I’m totally up for it, and, you know, I had to keep my composure the entire time, but in the inside I’m like, oh my god, you know, like, I’m working on an official DOOM game, uh, and when, but when we got done with that, like, I don’t know, it’s one of those weird moments where you go, holy cow, we went from, uh, you know, a mod project, uh, all the way to the official thing, and it’s just, it’s insane, it’s, it’s crazy, I keep running into those portions of my career, I hope they never stop, there are, something always surprises me like that. TA: I think it’s safe to assume that a lot of people who tell you they love your music bring up Blood Swamps from DOOM Eternal’s DLC. Because I think every person I see on YouTube is like, everyone’s just doing Blood Swamps, it seems like the most popular thing and all, and for you that’s probably a weird feeling because you have this song which a lot of people love or something which you’re really proud of, but you can’t stream it or buy it legally. Can you comment on that in any form? What do you tell people who ask about buying your music from DOOM Eternal’s DLC? laughs AH: Well, Bethesda and id own all that stuff, they paid me well for it, so like I was happy to do all that, um, that’s not like a bullshit PR thing, like, for real, they took care of me. They own all that, so you know, if they, if they ever choose to put that stuff out, that would be awesome, I’d totally embrace it and get behind it with that, but sometimes studios do that, sometimes they don’t, and it’s just completely up to their call, but I will tell you that they have no problem with you, you know, grabbing it off YouTube or anything like that, so do that to your heart’s content, throw it on your phone, whatever you want to do, they just, they’re just glad that you like the stuff, and so am I, to be honest, but hey, hopefully one day we can get an official release, like, that would be cool. TA: Yeah, because I have the DOOM 2016 vinyl soundtrack, and I’d love to have DOOM Eternal music on vinyl as well. Anyway that’s something I’ve been thinking about because it’s probably a difficult situation for you to be in, because people would who want to support you, like, obviously they can buy DOOM Eternal and buy the DLC and stuff like that, but it’s an unfortunate situation for fans, is all, like, I’ll leave it at that. AH: It’s not really like a weird situation at all. I’m totally okay with whatever, Bethesda and id want to do with that, because they were completely up front, they’re like, we’re gonna own this, what we choose to do with that is…Yeah, yeah, and I was like, yeah, that’s fine, I just want to help, I want to make like, a cool DLC for everybody that’s stuck at home, and I want to write like, some kick-ass music for it. And, so there’s no feelings of like, you know, oh, this is weird because this isn’t out, or anything like that. I know people are gonna rip it out of the game, I know, like, so do they, and like, that’s fine. But, you know, hopefully, I would like to see an official release one day, but that is completely up to them, and I will respect whatever they want to do, because they’ve been nothing but awesome. TA: Now let’s just talk about Blood Swamps for a bit, because like, everyone loves the riffs and stuff like that, so, what was your thought process in creating that song? Did they ask you to make something that fit with the base game or tell you to just go wild and be Andrew with the music? AH: They told me to go wild and just be me, which I was like, that felt pretty dangerous to me, because I was like, man, the, you know, what’s established here from Mick? I’m like, that’s pretty strong. Like, that’d be like somebody walking into another DUSK soundtrack, you know, like, for the Indie Shooter, and then being like, we’re gonna do all synthwave, you know, like, no, that’s not how that works. You have to serve what came before you. You have to show respect to what came before you. And that’s really important for the fans before anybody else. Doesn’t matter with an executive producer, doesn’t matter with the musician, doesn’t matter with the artist. It’s for the fans. Like, you have to make sure that whatever you’re going to do is going to, they’re gonna go, okay, cool, yeah, I understand, you know, why you chose this. So really, for me, looking at it when they were like, hey, you just be you, do whatever you want, what you think serves Doom the best. I was like, well, that’s a no-brainer. I’m gonna, I’m gonna, you know, I’m gonna source some inspiration from 2016 and Eternal, and then write what I would want to write. So, the colors that I’m painting with are familiar, but the writing that I’m using, what I’m using to paint, or the picture I’m painting is different. So there’s some familiarity there. Because, you know, like, Blood Swamps is quite a bit different than stuff that you would hear on 2016 or Eternal. It’s a little bit more, this is, uh, this is like almost like a traditional metal song. And like, in fact, uh, I remember handing that over to Chad the first time and him being like, “Oh, metal. Alright." And I was like, “Really? That’s like, you’re surprised. But, um, the, uh, it’s just a little bit more almost traditional. But, um, yeah, there’s, like, it was nice having David and Chad to bounce stuff off of. Because where I would hand them something, like Blood Swamps was originally like just guitar, just, just bass, and just drums. And it started, I started adding things in at, uh, after talking to, um, to Chad and David quite a bit. Where they would be like, you know, “Have you thought about any sound design stuff?" I’m like, “Well, what did you, you know, what are you thinking? Show me the instruments that you’re working with and, you know, like, let’s just talk stuff out." We’d have like hour long conversations every single day. And we would all just learn from each other. It was, it was so cool. But, yeah, like Blood Swamps comes from a point, I just remember, I have to write something that if this is the only DOOM game I work on, it has to be just, like, way out there. Like, I have to, I have to, I have to just take my shot. And it has, I have to rip out all of the barriers that are like, “Hey, should I do this? Shouldn’t I do this? Who gives a f***?" Just, just just write the fastest, most aggressive thing that you can think of at this point in time, and we’ll go from there. And that’s what, that’s what Blood Swamps was. And then everything else came after it, I was like, “Okay." It was like, “We can do different things now." You know? TA: I think you mentioned how you had a few weeks to do the DLC soundtrack, but because you had the support system of those two, it was all possible in the end. I think you mentioned that in one of the other interviews. AH: Yeah, because David was handling, like, on the first DLC, he was handling the cutscene work, and he had his own, like, stuff where he was working on a boss, and a level, and then I got these two levels, so they split up the work evenly between us on both DLCs. And there’d be so many times where I’d call David or Chad and just be like, “Hey, how are you doing today?" You know? And one of us would be like, “Oh my God, I don’t know where to go." You know? And we would just talk back and forth, and somehow we would give each other ideas. It was magical. Like, it was crazy. Just after talking to David, if I had nothing in my head on what I should write, after talking to David or to Chad, I’d be like, “I know what I need to do now." It was cool. TA: Going back to IDKFA a bit, you mentioned how much work you had to put into revisit and, like, Remaster the original soundtrack. What did you think about revisiting those songs? Like, did you feel like, you know, maybe I should have done something differently? Or were you like, “No, I’m happy with this. I just want to preserve it for fans of IDKFA." AH: Yeah, it was more of a, it was a little tiny bit of, “I want to do things a little differently." But, like, I’m talking to really, really small degrees. It was more about preservation than anything else. And if something was being destructive while trying to preserve it, those were the things that I would try to eliminate. An example of that is there was a lot of compression on the original IDKFA. Just because I was still in my early 20s at that point, early to mid 20s at that point, mixing in an apartment that isn’t, like, acoustically sound or anything like that. So I’m making mix decisions that aren’t the greatest, but still hold up. Like, that album still sounds great, but just some of the compression side, like, on the master of it, is a little aggressive. So when I went back this time around, I actually went through every single one of those songs one by one and just gave it a little bit more head room, a little bit more breathing room, so that if you listen to it enough times, you’re not going to get, like, ear fatigue or something like that. That’s really what I was concerned about. And that’s all of the Doom 1 stuff from the original IDKFA all got that treatment where the threshold has been raised just a little bit so that it sounds a little bit more open and natural. And I replaced a couple snares here and there, and maybe like a kick drum and a bass, but they’re so small I still haven’t seen anybody notice them. TA: You should revisit Metallica’s St. Anger and do this for all the fans. AH: It is impossible to fix that! laughs There’s been bands that have done that. I’ve re-recorded that entire record and I see it on YouTube every now and then. I’m like this is… this would have been a cool record if it would have sounded okay, and maybe some structure changes were different, but yeah, it’s whatever. TA: I think when Metallica did Death Magnetic, they had the Guitar Hero Metallica stems which people used to mix it better than the actual album. How does this keep happening? AH: James attests to it. Those guys are so big that they legitimately have final say on everything that they do. So whenever they’re touring and you already have Tinnitus and you’re mixing in a tent, I remember them talking about “Yeah, no shit, the guitars are bright." I was listening to mixes in a tent and making mix decisions on the road. I’m like, “Oh, that makes a lot more sense now." Like, oh my god. Because the Guitar Hero mixes do sound way better. TA: This reminds me of when I watched Deafheaven and how amazing they sounded live. You have so many bands that release albums with brickwall mastering ruining the sound of an otherwise good album. It is a shame that some bands don’t get outside help for things like mastering. AH: Yeah, it’s…I mean I still do my own mastering stuff so I’m the start and finish with all my stuff but I totally get it whenever I see a band that has a record that’s just completely smashed. I’m like, “Yeah." If I was just a musician who really knew how to play guitar and that’s about it or really knew how to play drums and that’s about it, I understand how this happens. It’s just a bunch of guys in the room going, “Louder! This needs to be louder." laughs TA: So you revisited IDKFA’s original DOOM 1 music, but you also did almost a complete Doom II soundtrack. I think there was one track which was on YouTube or two tracks. When you were doing these new songs, how did it feel for you because now you’ve come so far ahead as a musician and did you feel tempted to make it a modern Andrew Hulshult album versus trying to be Doom II? How did you approach that? AH: Man. This whole IDKFA thing with id’s blessing has been an incredible experience. It feels like I’m closing a chapter of my career with the fans because IDKFA is what got me so many jobs and so much recognition beforehand. Well, IDKFA and Rise of the Triad, but IDKFA was a big one and I still get people that are like devs that reach out that are like, “I know you from the DOOM stuff." And I’m like, “What? DOOM Eternal?" They’re like, “No, IDKFA. I played that DOOM WAD." And I’m like, “Oh my god." So I still get jobs because of that. So whenever I sat down… Whenever Marty Stratton sent me an email about a year and a half ago to ask if I had time to sit down at QuakeCon last year and talk about some things, I was like, “Uh oh. Something’s either gone terribly wrong or he just wants to hang out." So we sat down and he was like, “Hey." He’s like, “I have an idea." And I was like, “What’s that?" He’s like, “What if we give you a license for the DOOM soundtrack for IDKFA so that you can put that out on all of the streaming platforms yourself and do whatever you want and you give us a license to do with what we’re working on, which was the DOOM and DOOM II remasters." And I was like, “That sounds cool." I was like, “I’d love to finally get that out on official sites and everything." And he was like, “Oh, it’s awesome." He’s like, “I was hoping you’d say that because this would just be so cool to have this as a selectable thing. Like to go from the Bobby Prince to this if people wanted to." And I was like, “Yeah." And I’ve been doing that with soundtracks recently anyways. About halfway through that whole thing, we were just trading war stories about the industry and just getting along. And I was having a blast. I was thinking, “Man, this is really going to be closing a chapter in my career." I was getting a little emotional. I was like, “I’ll tell you what." I was like, “I’ll do you one better." I was like, “Why don’t we finish DOOM II and make it the real deal?" People have asked for it forever. I’m like, “That would really poke my audience." They’d be like, “Holy shit! Doom 2 is finally finished!" And he was like, “If you’re up for it, yeah, absolutely." He’s like, “We’ll get you a license for anything that you do on that as well so that you can put that out as well." So, yeah. It was…walking into doing DOOM II was so much fun. Every step of the way. Adam Pyle, the guy that worked with me on Quake Champions, was the guy that I bounced all my mixes off of. He told me at the beginning, he said, “Hey, you know, do whatever you want." He’s like, “It’s you. It’s the reason people want to listen to it, so I don’t really have much of a say." I was like, “Bullshit!" I was like, “You worked with me on Quake Champions. I’m going to bounce every mix that I do off of you, and I want to hear feedback from you." It’s like, “I respect your opinion because we got stuff like we did on Quake Champions because we talked back and forth." So we did. I’d send him… I’d finish Running from Evil and send it to him, and he’d go, “This sounds great, or, you know, like, what if you did this?" It was only a couple times where he was like, “What if you did this?" I was like, “Oh!" They were always cool ideas. But I really respect Adam’s ability to throw out things every now and then. He’s just a great person to bounce mixes off of. So, just doing those one after another and getting to the end of it. Once it was all wrapped up, I’m not going to lie, once it was all together, I was just in my office and I was like, “Oh my god!" Having a moment where I had a grown man cry where I was like, “I can’t believe that this is happening. I can’t believe that, number one, I’m going to be part of the original DOOM in an official capacity. Number two, they’re going to ask me to talk at QuakeCon, like, live on stage and announce everything. And number three, they gave me a license for all this stuff so that I can put it out and I can actually make some money off of it. That doesn’t happen with a big studio. They don’t just go, “Here’s the soundtrack. Have fun." I don’t know. It’s just still so crazy. It hasn’t really sunk in for me still. I’m still in that weird spot where I’m like, “Yeah, this is out there. We’re promoting it." And once that’s over, I’m sure I’ll be like, “Oh my god." You know, like, “Holy cow." But it’s been fun. The DOOM II stuff, I wanted it to be something a little bit more fresh on where I’m at as an artist. I didn’t want it to be exactly like IDKFA, like the original DOOM I stuff. Because if I were to do that, I’d have to go back and completely remix all of DOOM I stuff, which I was like, “No, that has to be preserved. People know what that is." So you can’t touch that. That’s already done. So I thought, “Okay, well what if I just gave them how I would do DOOM II right now?" Which is exactly what it is. All that stuff is like, “Yeah, f*** yeah." Those are the exact decisions that I would make with synths, with guitars, with drums. I think everything slams. I think it sounds great. So it’s just a picture from 2011, 2012 with the original IDKFA. It got officially released in 2016, but it started working on it as far back as back. So it’s a picture of where I was as a musician, that far back. And then this one is a picture of 2024. So you get it’s kind of like a time capsule. TA: Was The Healer Stalks one of the new songs because it definitely feels like modern Andrew Hulshult? AH: Yeah, that was the second one written. I think I almost went in chronological order doing that entire soundtrack. TA: You and I have both been playing DOOM since the 90s. When I started learning guitar and playing a lot, I started thinking about the DOOM soundtrack and some of the songs definitely have bits that remind me of other band music like Pantera. When you did IDKFA and just heard the music in general, what did you think of that and how does it feel revisiting some of those songs now? Stuff like A New Level and This Love from Pantera instantly spring to mind. laughs AH: Yeah. Some of that stuff’s pretty close. Like sometimes, right? But it’s different enough where you’re like, oh, okay. Yeah. But yeah, there’s definitely some inspirations that were taken from like thrash metal for sure. Because I mean, like they always talked about Romero having on like Slayer and Metallica and all that stuff like playing while they were making the game. So it only makes sense that they’re like, you know, hey, make something similar around this. I don’t know exactly how that story went. I wasn’t there. I was like, you know, I was like four. But that makes complete sense in my head. And yeah, going back and listening to them like, yeah, it’s there somewhere in the ballpark of it for sure. Like TA: So after DOOM II, have you gotten people saying, when are we getting an IDKFA version of Quake and stuff? Because you did one song, right? AH: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did the theme. I think I did that just for fun. And I think I honestly did that as people were, I saw a bunch of forum posts. It was either forum posts or Discord about people not sure like about me on DUSK of all things. Like it wasn’t even like a fully announced game, but they were like, “I’m not sure Andrew". And I was like, OK, you know what? I was like, f*** you. I’ll just remake the Quake theme. And then you’ll see if I’m the right person for the f***ing job. laughs And so I put that out and people were like, oh, and I remember like a bunch of the comments were like, oh yeah, okay, he can work on DUSK. TA: Do you listen to that soundtrack often? The original Quake? AH: Oh, man. I don’t listen to it. Listen to it. But like every time I go fire up Quake, which is about like once twice a year. A little more than that if I’m playing multiplayer with friends. That’s the thing I look forward to the most besides like the level design is the soundtrack just because it’s so out there. Reznor did such a good job on that. It’s incredible. God, I wish it’s a pipe dream, but I’d love to work with him on something and Atticus Ross on something at some point. That would be crazy. But they’re like way up there, you know. TA: Their movie soundtracks are amazing. I’ve actually been watching some of the movies just because they’ve done the music because I think the audio design in The Social Network is incredible. I think they did like the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles thing, which I still need to watch. AH: It’s so cool when artists step out of their comfort zone like that, where it’s like you’re known for like you’re angry and depressing music and then it’s like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It’s like now I’m interested. Yeah. TA: Going back to your music, we covered Blood Swamps being the most popular song which people bring up when they meet you and stuff. I saw this interview with Final Fantasy 14’s composer Masayoshi Soken who was asked about a song which he really liked, but no one actually brings up, and that he thinks deserves more attention. He said Game Theory. I want to know what’s that for Andrew Hulshult. AH: Splitting Time. Like whenever you brought that up, I was like, oh yeah, from the AMID EVIL DLC. I mean like it’s well it’s DLC. So like by nature, DLC doesn’t get as much attention, you know. But like the AMID EVIL DLC altogether before I talk about the music, the DLC is incredible. Like that’s my that’s one of my favorite things I’ve worked on like in recent memory. Like all the music’s great. Like it was , it was a joy to put it all together. All the sound design, all the traps and everything. It’s just an incredible DLC. If you don’t have it, you should go get it. That’s not me shilling and just oh go buy the game. Like it’s f***ing awesome. They did an incredible job. TA: Everyone should buy that game and DLC. AH: Well, I don’t want to look like a shill. If you like it, you like it. Like if you don’t, if you don’t dig it, don’t buy it. You know we’re not not here to like, you know try and sell a bunch of stuff. But like splitting time finishing up that piece of music. It felt like a real moment where I don’t know. I felt like kind of a shift as an artist where I was. I was way more comfortable with a lot of the more aggressive sound design elements being mixed in with compositions and finding ways to make them gel better. And everything really came together on that track and out whenever halfway through I was like, this is the final boss track. I was like I don’t care what you’re designing. I’m like, this is the final boss track. And you know, two seconds after they started listening to it, they’re like, oh yeah, this is the final boss track. We hadn’t even made the character yet. I was just like, here it is. That one hung around for a long time. And yeah, that’s I feel like that song is very much a good indicator of where I am musically right now. TA: Now let’s get a bit into the weeds. Let’s talk about your current guitar setup, your pedals, your amps, string gauge, pickups, I want to know whatever you’re using. AH: So the guitar I’m using the most is a Caparison Dellinger 7. I actually just had a pickup swap on it where I put some Seymour Duncans. I think I put an SH5 in the bridge and an SH2 in the neck on this one. Specifically because the SH5 on it has a really interesting thing where it doesn’t emphasize the low mids a whole bunch but they still cut through really well. So whenever you’re sitting there and like, you know, like chugging on stuff and you have to track that four times, it just sits a lot better in the mix than if you were to just use like stock pickups. There’s nothing wrong with Caparison stock pickups. They’re great. They’re super, super punchy. But for my mixing style I just, I know what I want in terms of pickups so I just, I swap those out. I also did the same thing actually last week with the 8 string. This is a Caparison Brocken 8 string. I don’t think they make this anymore. I swapped out the pickups on this one as well to a gosh, what is it? It’s Duncan. They’re really, really famous 8 string pickups by Duncan. And I can’t remember what they’re called now. TA: I didn’t know Seymour Duncan even had 8 string pickups. AH: They do 8 and like, I was originally going to get some Fishman Fluences for it because they seem like they would hold the top end in the midrange a little bit better but after I don’t know, I’ve just always been a Seymour Duncan guy. And after finding a couple that I really liked at a shop called Tone Shop up the street from me. I was like, man, I really want to put these in my 8 string and they have a tech there that’s just incredible at what he does with all my guitars. So I was just like, hey, order those and I’ll just leave the guitar with you and like a week later they came back and I was like, yeah, that’s exactly what I wanted, sounds incredible. I’ve got my Caparison 7 and 8, and I still have all the guitars that I’ve had over the years for the most part. I’ve got another Schecter 8 string here that is a really cool color. It’s super neat, like, it actually changes from blue to purple. TA: I think it is called Prism or something like that. John Petrucci has something like that on one of his guitars. AH: But yeah, this one has like the EMGs in it and it’s a cool guitar. It still plays great. Like, I still like it. But let me show you something that’s actually pretty sweet. So I still have, I bought this in like 2004. And I still have it. This is the guitar that I actually wrote all of IDKFA or most of it on and I wrote all of, I tracked all of Rides of the Triad with. It’s just a Schecter C6. It’s like just stock. It even still has the plastic in the back which is crazy. But yeah, this is like, I still have this guitar. I was like I was so close to going up to id, like which is just on the street for me and being like after IDKFA was finished, I almost was just like, here, you guys, you need this. You know, like, hold on to this or something. Like this is the one. But like, I don’t know. It’s not like a mainline DOOM game, you know? Like, it has to be something like a mainline game where I’d be like, I wrote this on this guitar here. You know, if you want this, it feels like it belongs to you. And also, part of me is like, no, don’t do that. Like, hang on to it. TA: Ok now string gauges. AH: For string gauges, 10 to 59 on 7 strings. And on 8 strings, I think it’s 10 to 65. And then typically on 6 strings, I just like 10 to 46. TA: Do you use D’Addario strings? I use them mostly. AH: I use D’Addario for the most part, but I bounce back and forth sometimes to Ernie Ball. TA: What about your amp setup and your pedals and stuff like that? AH: So amps, I’ve sold almost every amp I’ve ever owned. I had a JC-120. I had a couple of those Crate Blue Voodoos way back in the day. The ones that were like, yeah, the ones that were, were basically copies of those Ampeg tube amps that they made a long time ago. I had a Valve State 8100. I had a bunch of amps and a bunch of VHT cabinets as well too. And I sold all of them years ago. I’ve really just been like working inside the box for the most part with like neural DSP plugins into an RME interface and I also went as far as getting one of these recently, which is a Neural DSP Quad Cortex. So basically this is all of their plugins built into like a really nice processor. But for a project I’m working on recently they were like, hey you need an amp. And I was like, yeah, you’re probably right. I do need an amp. So I went and bought this and I plug it into two 100 watt Seymour Duncan power stages. Okay. They’re like, they’re these little tiny like 100 watt power amplifiers. They’re solid state power amplifiers. And I run the stereo out from that thing into the left and right side of those and those go into two Engel 2×12 cabinets. Which, okay, Engel 2×12 cabinets are awesome. Ever since I heard a Rammstein record that used them I always wanted to grab one because I was like, god, those things sound huge. TA: I wasn’t sure about this because a friend of mine said he was sure AMID EVIL was recorded on an Axe FX Ultra. AH: Any guitar stuff I’ve done has used either Native Instruments Guitar Rig from way back in the day. Like IDKFA used a ton of Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5 and Guitar Rig 4. But pretty much everything since DUSK has used Neural DSP for guitar work. It’s just me plugging directly into my RME UFX and sometimes I’ll use pedals going into it like the Exotic BB Preamp but most of the time it’s just a dry DI signal getting manipulated inside the box. So, the ones that got the most use on DUSK were the Moogerfooger low pass filter. Believe it or not, like anytime you hear the sound of something becoming kind of lo-fi or anything. It was always run through this filter. It was pretty cool. But the thing I like about it the most is the drive circuit on it. Like I don’t even like it that much as like a filter filter. The drive section on it is just so aggressive that it’s a really interesting sound and like that sound that you hear on the DUSK soundtrack which is like all of the really high high end that’s like really high energy. It’s almost like the Nine Inch Nails stuff. A ton of that comes just from driving the front end of this thing. And same way with the Fulltone Catalyst. But yeah, it’s just a few of them. I think there’s one more that I use a lot. I don’t think I have it here. It’s the ZVEX Fuzz Factory which is just an insane sounding pedal. It just sounds like garbage. And that’s why I like it. It just sounds like you are destroying a signal which is perfect. I’m cool. That sounds cool. That’s a great effect. I like that. TA: You’ve accomplished a lot in your career so far with recognizable music. As a musician, how have you been learning to improve your own skills like programming drums, software, and how do you balance doing that while you have a lot of folks who want to work with you on new projects? AH: Every day is just like I don’t know. If you’re not teaching yourself something every day, this is my train of thought. If I’m not trying to sound better in my own head, whatever I think is better, I’m wasting my time. So if I feel like the drum kit I’ve used like two or three times on two to three different records, if I’m like that feels stale. If I then go if it feels stale and I know the ends and outs of it and how to make it sound good then I need to change that drum kit. I need to find something different and work with it and see if I can get some different sounds out of it. So I’ll change instruments and just purposefully put myself in positions where I don’t know where I’m at or what sounds good with it just so that I can find my way out of it. It’s kind of like limiting yourself, like putting yourself in a box that’s really important as an artist to make sure that you are working within a certain scope of things and going hey, you know, here’s something that’s completely unfamiliar, get used to it and this is what you have to work with. So, yeah, like I don’t know, just constantly challenging myself is part of who I am for the most part. So, it’s just how it always goes. TA: I’m glad you brought that specific bit up because in another interview of yours you mentioned how once you got to your thirties the most important thing became getting good sleep which a lot of people take for granted in their twenties. So my question is that trying to have a routine is very important even if you can’t stick to it 100%. What does a day in your life look like right now? AH: A day right now looks like about, a typical day is about anywhere between 6 to 7 hours of sleep which is about what I need I’ve found out, like it’s like somewhere around there, sometimes 8 and then randomly I’ll have days where it’s like, oh you need like 11 hours I don’t know why, but I feel fine waking up completely recharged with like 6 and a half to 7 and a half hours of sleep. So what I’ll do every morning is I’ll wake up, I’ll go take a shower immediately, like that’s the only way I can start my day is like I feel like I’ve got to it feels like I’m washing off yesterday I don’t know how else to explain that and then I gotta have a coffee and then I gotta start writing things on a whiteboard that’s right over beside me to the left because otherwise I’m just gonna spin my wheels all day long and think, oh I should do this, I should do that, I’ll be thinking about everything I need to do and then never actually do anything. I don’t know if that’s ADD, ADHD or whatever that’s undiagnosed, I’m sure it is to some degree which I’ll get to that at some point but until then I have the whiteboard and as long as I write stuff down on it on what I want to do that day, I’ll knock it all out, every single piece of it. But what’s super important for me to do is just plan out the day early on and then everything just comes to it afterwards. The other thing that’s kind of new for me too is around like 4 o’clock typically I’ll now try and do, this has been within the last 3.5 months, I’ll try and do about 20 to 30 minutes of cardio. Just because I feel like for some reason elevating my heart rate really takes me from hey I could focus before to now I’m super laser focused and can get through whatever I need to and it also puts me in a much better mood if I’m having a shit day. TA: You’ve previously mentioned that you love playing Cities Skylines. Did you play Cities Skylines 2? laughs AH: Yeah, but you know like I haven’t gone back to it yet. I need to try it again at some point. But oh boy like it needed some more time in the oven whenever I tried it. Like no offense to them. I was just like wow. TA: I mean you probably tried it on like your proper gaming PC. I just like to play Steam games on a Steam Deck and I could get it at 5 fps or something after a bit of playing. AH: Even with the 3080 I think I was at points I was sitting there at like 35 frames a second. I’m like really? With the 3080? This is where we’re at huh? Okay. TA: Do you still play Hunt: Showdown and did you try the new Hunt: Showdown 1896 update? AH: Yeah. They had some really interesting choices with their UI that they just pushed with this one that a lot of people aren’t in favor of. I’m getting a little more used to it as time goes on. But man there are some things they need to hammer out with it. But yeah I still play that like a couple times a week with my buddies in New Blood. Like with Dylan who’s working on Gloomwood. I’ll play it with David every now and then. I’ll play it with Mason who’s the developer on Faith. Like we’re all, just like we all just hang out. We’re all just friends. So Leon, me and Leon play it I think the most. Leon’s the lead on AMID EVIL. But yeah like New Zealand and America playing an online fps game is a wild thing but we have a great time doing it. TA: Before we wrap up, I want to know your favorite bands and artists right now in and out of video games. AH: I’m pretty boring on this one to be honest with you. I need to branch out a little more. Favorite bands outside of video games right now like for sure and they’ve sat there for a while is Gojira. I really like their mixing. I like how tight they are live. I like their choices on composition. I don’t feel like they write a bad song. I could throw out the obvious ones. Metallica is another one just because James Hetfield’s right hand is like what inspired me to play guitar. Like how fast you can do those things is crazy. Outside of or in video games I’d still say I still think and it’s going to be a weird choice because you’re like well you write all this aggressive music. What is Jesper Kyd? That guy is just like great on everything he touches and everything he touches is always unique. But I always go back to his early stuff like the Hitman franchise because it’s just so strange and like it really suits those early games really well. If you listen to it outside of it, it feels like a really weird cold kind of soundtrack. Even from the very first game which has a lot of interesting things like almost drum and bass choices. It still feels like a cold front. You know, like a Hitman. And I always just find that stuff fascinating. How he was able to take so many different genres of music between all those games and still make them fit correctly for that character. So yeah and I think he worked on the Darktide stuff more recently which I need to give a listen to. Everybody’s told me that’s incredible but I don’t know I was knee deep in like four active developments whenever that game came out. So I just haven’t given it a chance. TA: Hypothetical situation, if you had no time or budget constraints, if you could compose for any single game and any single movie which would you pick? AH: So let’s see for any game if it had the right direction I’d really like to take a shot at like a Duke game. Because I feel like that is an IP that could be brought back if it’s brought back in the right way. And you have to think that’s really going to be dictated by whoever the creative production is at the time. So if it was done in the right way I’d love to step into that. Either that or I’m going to throw another one out to you. I’d love to work on Minecraft. Just like chill out you know. Like just make something that’s completely chill. So those are completely two opposite sides of the spectrum. But as far as a movie, man, that’s a great question. Let me think about it for just a second. Man on Fire. Like I love Denzel Washington’s work as number one: as an action hero I think he’s great. But number two whenever he is able to have enough time to put drama into things. And like either I don’t know how else to explain it other than he does a f***ing crazy fantastic job. Either Man on Fire or American Gangster. One of those two soundtracks I think I could do would be great to work on. Because there’s so many different emotions between both of those films. It’s a big roller coaster that doesn’t go up and down once. It goes up and down and does like a loop. And like you know, it takes you side to side. Like both of those films do that really well. 01:48:40.760 –> 01:48:42.760 TA: You have a lot of bands you’ve been listening to for a long time like Metallica. What are your thoughts on their recent or new albums? AH: I can find things I like on like the records that they put out because like I’m a die hard. Even with this last Megadeth record. I could still find stuff that I like I can chew on. No problem. Absolutely. But you know these guys aren’t going to write like another Master of Puppets. That comes around once in a lifetime. You know what I mean? And they struck it four times. Like with Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets and …And Justice for All. So like to even just get that is crazy. But I do find things that I like on all their newer stuff. Like I think What was the 2016 record that they had? Hardwired to Self Destruct. Yeah I think that that actually had some real moments of really really good writing on it. Specifically the last track. I felt like Hardwired was a great track. But I also thought Moth into the Flame was written super well. There’s a handful of just really really really good writing on that record. On 72 Seasons, there’s still a handful that I really like. But they don’t sync as much for me. And I’m not sure if it’s because I’m looking for something faster or not. Which that’s just not where they’re at at the moment. That’s not what they’re writing. And that’s okay. I will say the last track on that record I feel like is perfect. It’s so good. I can’t remember what it’s called off the top of my head at the moment. I’m terrible with song names sometimes. It’s crazy. It’s like 11 minutes and it feels like a 5 minute and 30 second song. I remember listening to it the first time. I was like gosh. There’s so much emotion thrown into this song that it’s just a joy to listen to. I love it when I can tell that someone really dumped all their emotions onto something. That’s when it really strikes a chord for me. But yeah even the last stuff from Slayer, there’s things that I can find that I enjoy. but I know I’m not going to get the revolutionary record that we had growing up. That’s okay. I’m just glad they’re still making music. And it’s still pretty sick. TA: What’s the most random piece of music memorabilia that you’ve held onto for a long time? AH: I had a friend that I worked with a long time ago who fell on hard times at one point and he was friends and and like worked with Pantera for a long time. And he was like man he’s like I’m trying to get rid of this stuff I’m like why don’t you just hold on to it and like like here’s here’s you know here’s some cash if you need some cash to get by. He’s like no no no he’s like you hold on to it just pay me for it. I was like okay so I’ve got this vinyl of the Great Southern Trendkill that’s one of the original vinyl releases, but I also have a plaque that came like it was given to one of their either their sound or their lighting crew at one point and it’s like for the tour in Japan for the Great Southern Trendkill that same time. And I was like where did you get this you know like what the hell. And he’s like yeah we just you know had him and I knew the guy and he had like five or six of them that they gave him by accident so he gave me one. I was like oh okay all right. So I have both of those things in my closet they’ve hung out with me for like gosh I want to say 15 16 17 years now but those old ones will never go away. Some people keep expensive booze in a decanter. Teah and I keep home made cold brew coffee. pic.twitter.com/7DJlgWcjaB — Andrew Hulshult (@AndrewHulshult) October 10, 2020 TA: Ok for my last question, how do you like your coffee? I usually ask this at the end, but I remember an old Tweet of yours (linked above) made me even more curious about your answer. AH: Yeah man I like the cold brew stuff. I loved hot coffee forever but like cold brew I don’t know the longer I go the easier it is to just sit on a desk and sip on. I don’t have to be like that’s hot. I can just be like no we’re just getting all of the caffeine all at once if I want to. So cold brew coffee. Cold brew black. I’d like to thank Andrew Hulshult for his time and help with this interview over the last few weeks. You can keep up with all our interviews here including our recent ones with FuturLab here, Shuhei Matsumoto from Capcom about Marvel Vs Capcom here, Santa Ragione here, Peter ‘Durante’ Thoman about PH3 and Falcom here, M2 discussing shmups and more here, Digital Extremes for Warframe mobile, Team NINJA, Sonic Dream Team, Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, and more. As usual, thanks for reading.

Back in December, I reviewed Square Enix’s monster collecting RPG Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on Switch. I loved …

Continue reading "‘Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince’ iOS Review – Much Better Than Switch, but Lacking in Two Ways"

Back in December, I reviewed Square Enix’s monster collecting RPG Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on Switch. I loved my time with it despite its many technical issues. I expected it to hit PC like Dragon Quest Treasures, another Nintendo Switch exclusive, but I didn’t expect a mobile release. Square Enix’s newest release of Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on iOS, Android, and Steam brings all prior paid DLC into the game at a lower entry point, but removes one feature. This is the online real-time multiplayer battles. Beyond that, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on Steam and mobile is already a massively better experience just on value with its lower price point and the content included, but is the game worth your time in this crowded release period and with its premium price? That’s what I aim to answer with my Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince mobile review also covering the game on Steam Deck. If you aren’t familiar with Dragon Quest Monsters itself, it is a spin-off series of the main Dragon Quest games featuring turn-based combat, but instead of the main player fighting, you capture, breed, and raise monsters to fight for you. When I played Dragon Quest Treasures, I enjoyed it, but was told that it is a “Monsters-lite" game so when Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince was announced for Switch, I was excited to play it. I ended up loving it as you can see from my review linked above, but I think it is a very strong monster collecting RPG with turn-based combat regardless of if you like Dragon Quest or not. What made Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince more interesting, is in how it feels like a side story and prequel to Dragon Quest IV. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince also had a seasonal feature where the monsters changed depending on the season and area you’re in. When it comes to the story, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, the bits from IV already made it more interesting than the usual spin-off, but I found myself focusing more on getting my own dream monster party rather than worrying about the narrative. I’m super pleased with how well thought out the mechanics are and how the large zones, hundreds of monsters, and combat made me want to keep playing it more even on Switch when I first beat it let alone now on iPhone, iPad, and Steam Deck. Beyond the normal turn-based battles and recruiting new monsters, Synthesis in Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is like Shin Megami Tensei’s fusion, and there is just so much you can do with skills here. The seasons here don’t just change monsters, but also areas you can explore with map changes. This means a water body that you can’t cross will be frozen in one season letting you access a new secret. Combat in games like this can get monotonous so I’m glad to see the many quality of life features here like the tactics menu that plays out similar to the original Persona 3, direct commands, and more. You aren’t here to just defeat enemies, but also scout them to bring to your party and become stronger. I didn’t end up testing the online multiplayer on Switch much, so I can’t comment on how big a loss that is here, but it is a game mode being cut nonetheless. If you did play it on Switch, keep that in mind as it is the only area the mobile and Steam versions are lacking compared to Switch. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince already shipped with a lot of content, but the DLC only elevated the experience. This DLC was sold in the Digital Deluxe Edition or as standalone DLC for the base game. Just the DLC was over $25 on Switch, so having the full base game with all DLC included for $24 on mobile makes it an amazing deal, but I’ll get to that in a bit. This DLC included The Mole Hole, Coach Joe’s Dungeon Gym, and Treasure Trunks. The Mole Hole was a dungeon that lets you scout (recruit) monsters you’ve fought before and it made min-maxing a lot easier during the game. The DLC was also good to speed things up since you could also easily scout monsters who only appear during a specific season or through synthesis. The Coach Joe’s Dungeon Gym DLC has randomly generated maps and they are meant to be postgame challenges rather than experienced while playing the game. The final DLC is just a chest that can be opened once an hour with 10 items in total. This is like a cheat DLC if you may. I didn’t think it was good to have useful game modes or content in paid DLC, but that isn’t a problem anymore with all of it included on iOS, Androidl, and Steam in the base asking price. Now let’s get to the mobile port features. With Square Enix, you can never be sure what features will make it into the final game. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince does not have controller support. This is beyond disappointing since the game is literally a console title ported to mobile. I tried 6 different controllers without any luck to be sure. Aside from controller support, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on iOS has cloud saves and a few graphics options. The cloud saves work well. When it comes to controls, I was surprised at how well Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince felt with touch controls. It uses a floating joystick on the left for movement and a jump button mainly while exploring. The one minor issue you might run into is some touch targets being a bit small on the non Plus/Max phones. These aren’t an issue on iPads at all though. The controls feel good, but Square Enix should’ve left full controller support in since this is a console game ported to mobile after all. One of my only real issues with Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on Switch was on the technical side. The frame rate was rough at launch with visuals not being great either. The former got addressed to some degree unlike Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, but the latter never got fixed. On iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 12, and even iPad Pro, I had no major issues with the visuals or performance. There are some hiccups on iPhone 15 Pro when running at the highest graphics quality setting and moving through some locations, but it isn’t remotely as bad as on Switch. The game feels massively better to play on iOS. Check out the comparison below for the low and high graphics options on iPhone 15 Pro: There aren’t specific visual or frame rate settings on mobile outside of the resolution option in display settings. This lets you play at low, medium, or high graphical quality options. These presets also affect other settings like the frame rate limit and post-processing. This setting can only be changed from the title screen on mobile while you can adjust it on the fly on PC. I stuck to the high setting on all my iPhones. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince sadly has some minor performance issues even on iPhone 15 Pro as I mentioned above. The low setting seems unusable with how blurry it gets. On my 2020 iPad Pro, the high preset has more regular frame drops than iPhone, and it also seems to be running with some tweaked settings. Overall, even the older iPad Pro runs it well, but not as good as iPhone 15 Pro as expected. Every device I tested on including the iPhone 12 ran it a lot better than Nintendo Switch. Visually, it looks a lot cleaner than Switch even on older iOS devices when played at high. Square Enix didn’t just do a bare-bones port here. It has fullscreen support during gameplay on my iPhone 15 Pro, and even has a pattern or artwork to fill the screen during areas with pre-rendered or static 16:9 elements. This pattern or artwork is mainly used on my iPad Pro since it doesn’t support fullscreen there for gameplay. This also applies to Steam Deck to make up for that aspect ratio in parts. I’m glad to see Square Enix put in the work here to make sure it still looks good regardless of aspect ratio. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince Steam Deck impressions On Steam Deck, regardless of my settings, I couldn’t get Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince to run at a locked 90fps even at the low preset when played at 800p. I decided to opt for a 60fps target, and that was a lot easier to achieve. One oddity is the game not letting you adjust resolution when playing on Steam Deck normally. You can do this by forcing the resolution from the game’s properties before launching it. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on PC lets you adjust graphical quality (low, medium, high), anti-aliasing (off, low, medium, high), maximum frame rate (30 to uncapped), toggle v-sync, and adjust display mode (windowed, fullscreen, borderless). If you play at 60fps, I recommend setting your Steam Deck OLED refresh rate to 60 to avoid jitter as well. Having now played Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on iOS, iPadOS, Steam Deck, Switch OLED, and Switch Lite, there’s no doubt that the Switch version is the worst of the lot despite the online mode being removed from mobile and Steam. The massive increase in performance and better visuals with all DLC included at a much lower asking price only makes it better. One thing to note is that the game is marked as Steam Deck Playable and not Verified because Valve says some in-game text is small and may be difficult to read. I didn’t have any issues with this, and I feel like Valve has marked games with smaller text as Verified before. Either way, you can safely buy this one to play on Steam Deck. If you skipped Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on Switch, the new mobile and Steam ports are the way to go. While the mobile version lacking controller support is disappointing, it is still a game I see myself playing regularly with its improvements over switch and fantastic core gameplay loop. Having all the DLC included means you will have enough content to last you even longer. If you do value controller support in a game like this, the Steam Deck is the way to go. Hopefully we see Square Enix keep bringing more Dragon Quest games to mobile in the future. Right now, the iOS version of Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is easily one of the best mobile releases of the year.

Over the years, I’ve been able to interview some of my favorite developers ever including a few I never though …

Continue reading "Sukeban Games 2024 Interview: Christopher Ortiz AKA kiririn51 Talks .45 PARABELLUM BLOODHOUND, Inspirations, Fan Reactions, VA-11 Hall-A, The Silver Case, and Much More"

Over the years, I’ve been able to interview some of my favorite developers ever including a few I never though would be possible, but it isn’t often I get to talk to one of the few people responsible for what is likely my favorite game of all time. That’s where Christopher Ortiz AKA kiririn51 of Sukeban Games comes into the picture. We’ve covered their titles on TouchArcade for years because at one point VA-11 Hall-A was even supposed to come to iPad (and I asked about that later in this interview). With Sukeban Games’ newest project, .45 PARABELLUM BLOODHOUND, officially announced, I had a chance to have a long chat with Christopher Ortiz about the game, fan reactions, VA-11 Hall-A, inspirations, Suda51, The Silver Case, and also coffee of course. TouchArcade (TA): Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do at Sukeban Games. Christopher Ortiz (CO): I’m Chris, I’m a game creator and I do way too much in this company. I like to hang out with friends and eat delicious food when I’m not locked in. TA: I last spoke to you in 2019 around the time VA-11 Hall-A hit PS4 and Switch following its prior release on PS Vita and its debut on PC. Even back then, as a fan of the game, it was wild seeing so much merchandise and promotion in Japan. You recently visited Japan for Bitsummit. How has it been for you visiting Japan and seeing the reception to VA-11 Hall-A and now your new project, .45 PARABELLUM BLOODHOUND? CO: Japan is like my home away from home even if its government doesn’t like it, so that’s a homecoming for me. Very emotionally charged. I also haven’t been at a game event as an exhibitor since Tokyo Game Show 2017; that was 7 years ago. That’s 7 years of roaming game events and being like “I want that” “I want some of this energy”. Now I feel like a pro-wrestler that’s coming out of retirement to a brand new world and industry; I’m lost, confused, not knowing if I still have it… but I was worried about nothing. People didn’t forget about us and still support the studio no matter what, so I’m never taking shit for granted, or letting these memories slip away. This will be my fuel to move forward. TA: I consider VA-11 Hall-A one of my favorite games of all time, and I replay it each holiday season. When you worked on it many years ago, did you ever expect to see it grow this big and even get multiple figures with a new one coming for Jill soon? CO: I didn’t expect the game to sell more than 10-15k copies, but we definitely knew we had something special brewing, or else we wouldn’t have pushed through with it. It’s just that the scale of said success was a little overwhelming and I think we’re still recovering from some of its unexpected side-effects. TA: VA-11 Hall-A is now playable on PC, Switch, PS Vita, PS4, PS5 (through back compatibility). Whatever happened to that iPad version that was announced years ago? Are ports like that up to Ysbryd or do you also have some involvement? I’d love to see it hit Xbox as well if that’s possible. CO: I actually playtested a build for iPad but it didn’t go anywhere for whatever reason. Maybe I failed to respond to an email. You’d have to ask the publisher. TA: Many years ago, Sukeban Games were just Kiririn51 (yourself) and IronincLark (Fer). How has the team changed since then? CO: We’re currently six people. Some have come and go, but overall we want to keep a small and tight operation. TA: Leading into this question -> How has it been working with MerengeDoll? CO: Merenge’s a trooper. She has this supernatural ability to pull ideas directly out of my brain and give them visual shape, so it’s always been a pleasure to work with her. It sucks that some of the projects she was working on as main artist got canned for reasons beyond our power, but it is what it is. The day will come when people will get to see Merenge’s true power. There’s still a lot of Merengedoll in 45pb so that’s cool as hell. TA: Can you talk about how it was working with Garoad on the music on VA-11 Hall-A? Just like the game, the soundtrack is one of my favorites ever. CO: Michael and I always had similar music tastes and influences, so the process was very free-form. He’d make a track, and I’d love the shit out. Repeat the process until the soundtrack is ready to go. Sometimes I would send him a song I liked as a reference, sometimes he’d create a completely original song that would inspire images in the game, then the images would inspire more music. This synergy gave the game a firm identity that stands the test of time in my opinion. TA: I didn’t realize it until recently, but VA-11 Hall-A kind of became one of those indie games that had a very vocal fanbase and got a good amount of merch that keeps selling out. I think the vinyl box sets are also on multiple pressings now and that SLUT shirt keeps selling out. A good friend of mine recently bought it as well. How much input do you have in the merchandise? Is there anything you want to see made that hasn’t happened yet? CO: I don’t have much input on merch creation. I mostly give the thumbs up or down once a whole chain of people already made the hard choices beforehand. Would like to be a little more involved for 45pb now that I know what I’m dealing with. TA: I still have a few more questions before getting to your new game. Let’s go back to 2019 for a second. Playism’s JP release of VA-11 Hall-A included a fantastic art book cover. I really wish I could get that piece of art signed by you and framed. Can you talk about the inspiration for it and how you pay homage to your favorites like that in your work? CO: Back when I drew that cover I was going through really tough times; even though I hadn’t fully realized yet. We were very focused on surviving the collapse of our country and many other things. During this time, at our old office, we’d listen to a lot of Gustavo Cerati; his album Bocanada to be more precise and its tunes managed to keep us going in the face of uncertainty. So when I was asked to draw a new piece for the artbook I couldn’t help but pay homage to it. I admit now that it’s a little too overt and I would do it differently now, but I’m still proud of it. In fact, I’ve been reconsidering my approach to inspirations a lot in the past few years, and this will be obvious once people play 45pb. TA: You and Fer have spoken a lot about VA-11 Hall-A over the years, but I cannot pass up a chance to talk about how amazingly written and designed the characters are. Looking back at the work you put into it, did you expect certain characters to become as popular as they did? CO: I expected Stella to be the most popular one since her gifs would often go viral before release, but you can never predict this sort of thing. And it’s like I said before; I sort of knew certain things were gonna be a hit, I’m just unable to properly articulate why I thought that way or why it worked, and at this point I rather not know. The moment a hunch becomes a science the magic disappears. Formulas are terrible in this line of work. You gotta let things flow; Let them become their own beautiful thing. TA: I’ve joked with friends about how N1RV Ann-A is my “Silksong", but I have no problem waiting as long as it takes. I still enjoy revisiting VA-11 Hall-A often. Do you go back and try out whatever you had done for N1RV Ann-A or VA-11 Hall-A while working on unrelated projects? CO: I like jotting down lore and characterization stuff for a rainy day. I love to draw Sam, I love coming up with new designs, characters; playing around with the general looks of the game, ideas for shots during cinematics; one liners, environments, atmosphere. I even like to imagine “what if this didn’t have to be a bartending game?” and other extreme musings, but that’s about the extent of the mindspace I dedicate to it currently. Once we’re done with 45pb Nirvana’s development will pick up dramatically, though that really depends on if the spark is still there by then. So far it has no signs of extinguishing. TA: As a huge Suda fan myself, I’m curious what you thought of No More Heroes 3 and Travis Strikes Again? As much as I love No More Heroes 3 (more than 11 playthroughs), I think Travis Strikes Again might just be Suda’s most “Suda" game yet. CO: I REALLY like No More Heroes 3’s combat, but I wasn’t a fan of its writing. Maybe it was COVID, and game development is really tough; especially with the hardcore deadlines they had. But in general I think it wanted to be one thing at the start and then had to become another in order to be shipped. It’s a shame, and it is what it is. I just hope they only make new original games from now on and forget about sequels and reboots. Re-releases are OK; especially of the lost media kind, like Frog Minutes or the 25th Ward back in the day. As for Travis Strikes Again, I agree it’s the best of the newer games. Feels like reading someone’s diary sometimes and that’s the kinda art I enjoy. I guess I didn’t see much of that in 3 outside of continuing some plot threads from TSA. TA: What are your thoughts on Grasshopper Manufacture under Netease and the remasters announced? Suda even mentioned today that he’d love to bring Flower Sun and Rain to Steam. CO: Netease is a big corporation so my hope would be that Grasshopper gets all the money and time they need to cook. TA: VA-11 Hall-A’s journey from PC to PS Vita was quite something, and it involved many parties across regions. I remember buying the Japanese release just for the box art with no English included for publisher reasons. When it came to Switch and PS4, I think you wanted the JP release to have English so anyone could import it. How has it been for you now in Argentina trying to get your own game’s merchandise and merchandise in general? It is a pain over here with delays and extra import fees. CO: I simply don’t import anything these days. I don’t wanna bother with Argentinian customs. Protectionist policies are stupid. Sure, make all electronics more expensive to import so the local market has a chance to compete, but there’s no Argentinian PlayStation to compete with, is there? There’s no Argentinian Steam, and so on. Only idiots come up with this sorta policy. Brazil does the same shit as well. Would be cool if they stopped. TA: You’ve worked in PC-98 and PSX aesthetics a few times. When .45 PARABELLUM BLOODHOUND was announced, I was floored by how it looked like the perfect game I’d want from you. The reception has been largely positive, but I can’t imagine what you and the team went through leading into its reveal with N1RV Ann-A and such. Can you talk about how the last few months have been for yourself? CO: We’ve been locked in and doing our thing. No crunch, all fun. We party, we feast, we travel. We touch that proverbial grass. Lots of insecurities and self-doubt for sure. We even tried to downplay things and manage expectations before the reveal, bracing ourselves for possible apathy from the crowd because it’s not Nirvana. But when it came to actually putting in the work there was no hesitation. I’m happy the announcement worked out, but now we gotta buckle up and finish the story. TA: .45 PARABELLUM BLOODHOUND has been revealed, people can wishlist it on Steam, and I immediately thought of Vagrant Story x Sukeban Games’ Vibe when I saw the trailer. How has it been interacting with fans discussing it online and offline? CO: It’s been incredibly fun, even though there’s so many comparisons with old games. Not that I mind but there’s been some ridiculous comments out there that boggle the mind. One thing that surprised me was the amount of fanart right after the reveal. That shit was great. A fan even brought us a drawing that we proudly displayed on our table at Bitsummit for everybody to see. Our crown jewel By @TumugiV !!! Thank you as always!!!!! pic.twitter.com/N1hbLMY25Q — Sukeban Games (@SukebanGames) July 21, 2024 TA: Probably too soon but when can I buy the key art as a poster and get it signed? CO: Maybe on release. TA: What were your main inspirations for .45 PARABELLUM BLOODHOUND from a visual and gameplay perspective? CO: When coming up with the actual gameplay for 45PB there was a unique concern. People know Sukeban as a Visual Novel/ADV developer because of Va11halla, and I wanted a sort of bridge between that audience and something more action-focused. I saw Parasite Eve’s battle system, but instead of saying “I want more of that” I thought “This is a good solution to my predicament” thanks to the hybrid of real time and turn-based gameplay. And that’s pretty much the way we work. Rather than wanting to imitate something, or wanting more of it, I look to games of the past in order to solve modern problems. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time. For the visuals, I remember roaming the streets of Milan in 2019. I was ultra depressed, and didn’t actually have a country to live in at the time so I was also in a state of limbo. The mix of modern structures and old buildings, then juxtaposed to all the neon lights and LED screens along the river had my imagination running wild. For me that was the genesis for the game’s look. This marriage between the old, the new and the decadent. The cherry on top was when I moved to Buenos Aires and found a similar atmosphere, except it included that South American roughness and texture that’s absent in Cyberpunk worlds (which tend to be mostly inspired by east asian aesthetics), so I decided to lean on that to create something unique. TA: Tell us a little bit about the team working on it including the composer, and how long it has been in the works. CO: We’re two people working on it day-to-day (me and the programmer), plus Merenge helping with additional character and production design. The composer this time around is Juneji, who has been doing a LOT of work with us over the years. We have this massive stash of incredible music that he’s made, but it remains unfortunately private due to circumstances with failed projects. Same with Merenge’s art. There’s been some hella demoralizing moments since it’s hard to work on things for so long, pouring your soul into them only to see them crumble in front of you, but we’ve remained a tight group over the years and one of my goals is that the world can finally witness their talents on a large stage. I owe them that much. We also added an old friend in a producer/babysitting role and it’s helped us to not neglect important non-game stuff. As for how long it’s been in development: Technically since 2019 but the current iteration is roughly 2 years old. Before that it was all experiments until we arrived at the right “moment to moment” gameplay. TA: .45 PARABELLUM BLOODHOUND had a teaser, gameplay, and now has a steam page. Are there any plans to offer a demo on PC in any of Valve’s demo fests on Steam in the near future? CO: It’d be a pain in the ass to maintain a demo for this particular game so we rather keep those for offline events. Never say never though. TA: A lot of my friends who love VA-11 Hall-A are excited for .45 PARABELLUM BLOODHOUND. Will it be accessible for everyone or is it too soon to say how the difficulty will be handled? CO: It’s too soon to explain, but as I’ve mentioned before, the battle system itself is meant to be a bridge between vibes-based players and action-oriented players. Not that I’m trying to satisfy both, but rather ease one type of player into a new system. TA: What is your favorite aspect of .45 PARABELLUM BLOODHOUND right now? CO: As a game? definitely the atmosphere and the script. I sometimes play it for leisure on my Steam Deck while tryna sleep and wonder “Damn, what’s gonna happen next?” only to be like “you wrote this shit! you know where it goes!”. Also the combat is fun as hell once it opens up after the first chapter. Chaining skills and upping the tempo of combat after pulling off sick tricks makes for addictive gameplay. This will make sense later unless we fumble it. TA: Can you give us an interesting development / design anecdote for .45 PARABELLUM BLOODHOUND and VA-11 Hall-A? CO: So I mentioned the influences of cities like Milan and Buenos Aires in the creation 45PB’s world, but one thing that people might have noticed by looking at very early screenshots was that it used to feature some locales reminiscent of Hong Kong. I actually scrapped a lot, if not all of it, in favor of the “South American Cyberpunk” I’m aiming for after a conversation I had with a friend from China. I was consulting with him about getting the fonts and the text of the billboards just right so it felt authentic, but then my mind broke and I began asking to myself “Why go through all this effort trying to be authentic when I can just leverage my own culture?” and it’s a sort of mantra I’ve been following ever since. I find terms like “cultural appropriation” silly, but the word “appropriation” by itself is something I’ve been contending with a lot. “Is it my place to tell this type of story?” “Is it okay if these characters speak this or that way?” and so on. Not that it limits my creativity or that I’m afraid of hurting sensibilities; I frankly don’t give a shit. I just think that more original works can be born if we leverage what makes us unique instead of trying to make more of what we like. It’s all about balance. TA: Since the announcement, you’ve no doubt had folks asking for a console version when we don’t even have a release year for .45 PARABELLUM BLOODHOUND, but I wanted to know if there was any thought into working with a publisher or will this be self-published? CO: We want to self-publish on PC and let other companies handle consoles. We’re in the process of finding the right partner for this. TA: What were the inspirations behind Reila Mikazuchi’s design and character? CO: I don’t know if I’ll get in trouble for this but I admire actor and singer Meiko Kaji a lot. I love her movies, you name them: Prisoner Scorpion, Stray Cat Rock, Lady Snowblood, Jeans Blues. Something in her look is so captivating and I wanted my own Meiko Kaji for 45PB. I needed a character design that can say a lot with just the eyes. Someone who can project that inner pain and tragedy effortlessly, so using Meiko Kaji as a point of reference was a must. As for the writing, every time I come up with characters they’re always a composite of several people I know and myself. So as to not ruin your impressions of her, I shall keep these inspirations a secret. TA: How many iterations did you go through for her final design which rules by the way? CO: I always had in mind the main look of long, black hair and pale skin. Plus the third eye. The thing that took me the most work was coming up with the outfit. She was wearing a suit at first actually! Then I wanted her to have a jacket, but finding the right type of jacket was a challenge. I gave her a biker jacket but it looked weird and I had to experiment a lot until I stumbled upon the current design. Merenge helped me with some accessories, such as the shoes, gloves and the logo on the back of the jacket. TA: VA-11 Hall-A saw VA-11 Hall-A Kids and Sapphic Pussy Rhapsody released following the game. Ahead of .45 PARABELLUM BLOODHOUND, should we expect any smaller projects like that? CO: Never say never but our plan with this game is to release it, let it be and move on to something new. No DLC or anything like that. Ports to future platforms are always on the table but that’s the extent of it. If A24 or someone else wants to make a movie about it I’ll listen. TA: What does a day in your life look like right now? CO: Right now I’m a little f***ed up. I’m usually a good boy who works from 9am, takes a little lunch break then locks in again until 4 or 5pm, but sleep escapes me lately so I’m just trying to contend with that in whatever way I can. The key is to not stress over not having much sleep. As long as shit gets done it’s all good. When I’m not working I try to catch a movie at one of the many small cinemas in my neck of the woods, or go outside and take a walk and buy books I’ll take forever to read. Buenos Aires has this magic that inspires me to go outside and have low key adventures. Can’t get too crazy because this is still latin america and we don’t f*** around, but I love it here and being surrounded by so much culture, great food, and a crazy clubbing scene keeps me sane. Especially when there’s friends around. I owe them a lot for my mental health even if I’m a huge recluse sometimes. I’m the type to uninstall messaging apps for a minute when I really need to be alone. TA: What have you been playing lately that you’ve enjoyed a lot? CO: There’s so many video games. This year I really loved Children of the Sun and Arctic Eggs. Late last year I was really into The Citadel, Lethal Company and RoboCop: Rogue City. I’m now in the process of going through The Evil Within, which feels like a lost Grasshopper game sometimes. There’s the Elden Ring expansion, and I also recently replayed Kane and Lynch 2 with a friend and had a blast as always. That game is so f***ed up in the right ways. We need more grit like that. TA: What do you think of the current state of indie games? CO: Every time I go to a game event I’m always madly inspired by all the unique games I see at the indie spaces and that energy is partly what kept me going despite all our production hiccups. That sense of community. That we all have this burning desire to create for the sake of creation. That shit is great. I f***ing love indie games and I think they’re better now more than ever. BUT… I worry that we are trying to lean too much on familiar concepts and inspirations. Games like Arctic Eggs do it right in that it’s trying to look like an old PSX game, but there were no PSX games like Arctic Eggs. Then there’s games that feel so blatant in their desire to be like one of the classics that I’m like “weren’t we supposed to be the creative ones?” not to mention the over reliance on “Roguelike” mechanics and such. But it’s not all bad. There’s some really cool shit all the time; especially on places like itch.io. It’s just that humans in general can be creatively bankrupt regardless of production scale. There’s triple A slop, there’s indie slop. There’s no escaping the slop. Being indie doesn’t make you inherently more creative and that’s okay. There’s always room for growth as long as we’re cognizant about our shortcomings. TA: Are you looking forward to playing any specific game this year? CO: I’m really looking forward to Slitterhead. Dunno if they’ll be out this year but there’s also Sonokuni, Elation For The Wonder Box 6000, Studio System: Guardian Angel, Eating Nature (from the Arctic Eggs dev)… There’s a lot I’m excited about. My Twitter feed is an endless stream of cool indie games I doubt will ever see the light of day but the attempt is appreciated nonetheless. TA: Obviously scheduling and such, but if we managed doing this interview on a call, I’d have taken this chance to nerd out about The Silver Case with you. I’m glad I listened to my friend and powered through it because that typewriter sound was too much for me. I adore The Silver Case and I know you love it as well. What elements from it inspired you the most and what’s your favorite track from the soundtrack? CO: The Silver Case has always been one of those games that felt like a white whale to me. It was so utterly inaccessible that my mind pretty much created its own Silver Case by trying to fill the gaps. I used to browse this creepy Suda51 fansite way back in the day and I was always searching for every bit of info on this inscrutable-ass game, so when it actually released in a language I can understand I was afraid I wasn’t gonna like it but I think it was much more than I could ever have imagined. In that sense, the way Silver Case inspires me is tightly related to this need to fill gaps. The space between the real Silver Case and what I was imagining it to be is where a lot of the ideas for the presentation in games like Va11halla or The Radio Wave Bureau were born. I can’t choose a single favorite song if I’m being honest. The whole soundtrack has such a vibe. Could be the Sayaka Baian theme that plays in Kamuidrome, but tomorrow it could be the opening theme, then the next day another one. TA: Did you end up trying it out on console or just playing it on PC? CO: I bought and played the game on every platform. TA: The Silver Case’s original box art and aesthetic is probably the only thing I love as much as that in VA-11 Hall-A. What elements from its visual style had you curious back then? CO: Definitely the stoic look of every character. Takashi Miyamoto is my goat along with Yoshitoshi Abe. For Va11halla I had to be very expressive with the characters because that’s what the story commanded, but ever since I was a kid I always had an affinity towards designs that say a lot with minimal facial expressions. Two of my favorite films are Patlabor 2 and Ghost in the Shell, and Serial Experiments Lain is also one of my favorites, so you can probably tell where I’m coming from with this. I was also so transfixed by the UI. I could go on and on about this subject, but I’ll always lament that The Silver Case didn’t create a movement after its release. Visual Novels could look so much better if we had 1% the imagination of that original Grasshopper team. I’m not sure, but I think the look was done by Akihiko Ishizaka who would go on to work on Killer7 and Danganronpa. I wish he was still working with GhM. Or maybe he still does and I’m talking out of my ass. TA: I think you’ve met Suda more than once now. How has that been for you and has he played VA-11 Hall-A? I know Travis Strikes Again has a VA-11 Hall-A tshirt that is the objectively best and only one everyone should use. CO: I’ve met the guy twice and I’ll always lament not knowing enough japanese to just talk and talk all day with him. We share a lot of common interests, though the generational gap can be felt when he starts yapping about Japanese media from the 70s. I do know he played my game but I’ve no clue if he actually enjoyed it. Will have to ask if I ever see him again. TA: Are you still up for this if the opportunity arises? CO: There’s a story behind this that I’ll have to sit on for a while longer. TA: My current game of the year for 2024 is Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. I know you loved Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but did you end up trying Infinite Wealth/8 or Gaiden last year? CO: I love Like a Dragon so much but I didn’t play Gaiden, and Infinite Wealth seemed like too much of a commitment when I played at launch. The game was throwing mechanic after mechanic at me in a way that made me feel overwhelmed. Like there was too much game ahead of me, so I put it off for the time being. Maybe once I’m in the mood again I’ll give it a honest shot. TA: VA-11 Hall-A has always been perfect to play on a portable. I loved it on Switch and recently found a mod that adds full controller support to the PC version. I’ve been revisiting it on Steam Deck. Have you had a chance to try it on Steam Deck yet? CO: I did and saw it sort of works but not quite. I wish I could go back and tweak it but it’s not technically feasible. The Game Maker version we used doesn’t even work properly on modern Windows and it’s the reason we haven’t been able to do any sort of fix or update to it. Aside from simply not having the time to deal with all that mess we made (at a technical level). TA: Honestly I still have a lot more I want to discuss with you, but I think I should save that for part 2 or a future interview. Let me end this with one final question. How do you like your coffee? Go into as much detail as you can. If not coffee, talk about your favorite beverage. CO: I like my coffee black like a moonless night. Even better if it’s accompanied by cheesecake on a beautiful afternoon. TA: Probably not smart, but it is nearly 2 AM and sending these questions over made me want to replay The Silver Case. Next time we talk, let’s do a dedicated discussion on The Silver Case. CO: Absolutely! I’d like to thank Christopher Ortiz for their time and help with this interview over the last few weeks. You can keep up with all our interviews here including our recent ones with FuturLab here, Shuhei Matsumoto from Capcom about Marvel Vs Capcom here, Santa Ragione here, Peter ‘Durante’ Thoman about PH3 and Falcom here, M2 discussing shmups and more here, Digital Extremes for Warframe mobile, Team NINJA, Sonic Dream Team, Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, and more. As usual, thanks for reading.

Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics ($49.99) As a fan of Marvel, Capcom, and fighting games back in the …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Review Round-Up: ‘Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection’, ‘Yars Rising’, & ‘Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland’"

Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics ($49.99) As a fan of Marvel, Capcom, and fighting games back in the 1990s, Capcom’s line of fighters based on Marvel’s characters were like a dream come true. Starting off with the excellent X-Men: Children of the Atom, these games just kept getting bigger and better. Moving on to the wider Marvel Universe with Marvel Super Heroes, then the at-the-time unbelievable crossovers between Marvel and Street Fighter, on to the over the top Marvel vs. Capcom, and then the wildly over-the-top in all the right ways Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Capcom kept raising the stakes. That wasn’t the end of the series, but it takes us up to the end of what is covered in Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. Oh, and you get Capcom’s excellent Punisher belt scrolling beat ’em up as some extra mustard. A fantastic set of great games. This collection appears to have been handled by whoever did the Capcom Fighting Collection, and in most respects it has similar features and extras. That unfortunately extends to only having a single save state across the entire collection, shared by all seven games. That was annoying enough in a collection full of fighting games, but it’s even worse with a beat ’em up in here where you might want to, you know, save your progress independently of whatever you’re up to in the fighters. Oh well. Everything else here is as you would want it. Lots of options like visual filters and gameplay options, great extras including an extensive array of art and a music player, and rollback online multiplayer. New to this set is NAOMI hardware emulation, and whoever Capcom had on the job did it well. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 looks and plays great. I’m not going to knock it for this, but I do want to say that I wish some of the home versions were included. The PlayStation EX versions of the tag-team based games are different enough that it would be neat to have them in here, and the Dreamcast version of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 has a lot of fun extras that make it a superior choice for home play for the solo player. I also wouldn’t have minded if Capcom had tucked its two Super NES Marvel games in here, even if they aren’t the greatest of games. Well, the collection’s name says Arcade Classics, and unlike with Blizzard it seems the word is being properly applied here. Marvel fans and fighting fans alike have a reason to rejoice with this fine collection. The games are superb, they’ve been treated with care, and you get a good suite of extras and options. Only having a single save state shared between the games is a serious bummer, but otherwise I can’t find much to pick on here. Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is another must-have compilation from the folks at Capcom, and it plays great on the Switch. SwitchArcade Score: 4.5/5 Yars Rising ($29.99) I’ll admit that I was pretty skeptical of this game from its announcement. I like Yars’ Revenge a lot. One of my favorite 2600 games. So when I read that WayForward had been tapped to make a Metroidvania-style Yars game starring a young hacker with a bare midriff code-named Yar, I felt like I had accidentally surfed over to a parody site. Just the perfect storm of “why", you know? So do I have to eat those words? Yes and no. First and foremost, this is a good game. WayForward does a solid job with this kind of thing, and so it did here. Looks and sounds good, plays well, and the map layouts are fine enough. In true WayForward fashion, the bosses tend to drag on too long, but it’s not a deal-breaker. Commendations must also be given to WayForward for doing its best to handle a bit of a tough ask in trying to connect this game to an ancient single-screen shooter. You get to play Yars’ Revenge-style sequences fairly often, the abilities you earn are evocative of the original game, and it connects to the relatively fleshed-out lore as well as it can. It still feels like a massive stretch, but I suppose Atari has little choice but to try to make long passes like this one. Its classic library can only be Recharged so much, after all. It just feels like a game that is torn between two audiences with very little overlap, and I’m not sure if that was the right call versus doing something wholly original. Still, while the argument can rage on about whether or not this made sense conceptually, there’s no doubt the game itself is enjoyable. I don’t think the finest in the genre have much to worry about, but if you’re looking for a Metroidvania game to sink your teeth into over the course of a weekend or so, you won’t have a bad time with Yars Rising. And who knows? Maybe they follow up on this once or twice and it all feels natural. SwitchArcade Score: 4/5 Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland ($24.99) I’m a few years too old to have much nostalgia for Rugrats, though not so old that I didn’t watch it with my younger siblings from time to time. Like, I know the names of the main characters and the theme song. Don’t ask me about the movies or the grown-up versions, and certainly don’t ask me to recall any specific episodes. I know the Rugrats, but I have no special warm and fuzzies for the brand. With that in mind, I didn’t really know what to expect from Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland. I heard someone say it was like Bonk, and that does fit Tommy’s physical build if nothing else. Well, only one way to know for sure. I started up the game, picked Tommy, and went into the tutorial stage. First thing to hit me was the crisp visuals. Crisper than the show, if my memory serves. The next thing to hit me was the awkward placement of the controls. Luckily, there’s an option for that. The music was the Rugrats theme, so that all checks out. There were some Reptar coins to collect, and some simple puzzles and enemies to deal with. Alright, no problem. Platformer with some exploration in the levels, a tried and tested formula. Not very Bonk-ish, but that was never promised. At a certain point Tommy had taken a few hits, so I decided to swap over to Chuckie to enjoy his full life meter. I then noticed that he had a very familiar jump. A very high but somewhat hard to control jump. Surely they didn’t? I swapped over to Phil, who had a low jump, then to Lil who could… float. They did. They really did! Folks, this is a Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA)-inspired game! Sure enough, the enemies I had just been stomping on could also be picked up and thrown. There were also blocks I sometimes had to pick up and pile up to reach higher places. Slightly non-linear stages with lots of verticality! Stages where you have to dig in sand, and you know Phil is the expert digger of the bunch. Awesome. I mean, there are some homages to other platformers in here, but the main gameplay evokes what is probably one of the higher-selling classic games that never gets riffed on. Not bad, not bad at all. The boss battles are even interesting and enjoyable. After playing for a while, I even noticed I could swap the visuals and soundtrack between the spiffy modern versions and NES-level 8-bit renditions. It plays well either way, and both styles have their merits. Oh, and you can use a filter. There if you want it. But yes, creative and fun. Inspired by a game I love quite a lot. Uses its license well. You can play multiplayer! Aside from the control issue, the only gripe I have is that it’s a bit too short and simple. Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland is a better game than I expected it to be. It’s a quality platformer in the style of the Western Super Mario Bros. 2, with some extra elements and features to keep it from being too close to its source. The Rugrats license has been implemented well, though I did find myself wishing it had voice acting for the cut scenes. A little on the short and breezy side to be sure, but worth a play for fans of platformers and the Rugrats alike. SwitchArcade Score: 4/5

For a lot of folks who have been following Capcom’s fighting games over the years, the Marvel vs Capcom Fighting …

Continue reading "Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics Review – Switch, Steam Deck, and PS5 Covered"

For a lot of folks who have been following Capcom’s fighting games over the years, the Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics announcement was unbelievable given recent events and the reception of the last Marvel vs Capcom game. As someone who has only played Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, I had always wanted to play the earlier games given the praise a few of them got from competitive and casual players. I’d be lying if I said I also wasn’t just excited to hear the Marvel vs Capcom 2 music officially because it is that good. So here we are months after its announcement, and Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is available on Steam, Switch, and PlayStation with Xbox coming in 2025. Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics games included Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics ships with seven games included. They are: X-MEN CHILDREN OF THE ATOM, MARVEL SUPER HEROES, X-MEN VS. STREET FIGHTER, MARVEL SUPER HEROES vs. STREET FIGHTER, MARVEL vs. CAPCOM CLASH OF SUPER HEROES, MARVEL vs. CAPCOM 2 New Age of Heroes, and THE PUNISHER which isn’t a fighting game, but a beat ’em up. These are based on the arcade versions so you don’t need to worry about missing features like some older console ports here. These include the English and Japanese versions so yes, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter does include Norimaro in this collection when you choose the Japanese version for that game. This review is based on me having played Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics for about 15 hours on Steam Deck (both LCD and OLED), 13 hours on PS5 (via backward compatibility), and about 4 hours on Nintendo Switch. I’m not qualified enough to talk about the ins and outs of the games included here because this collection was my first time playing them, but I will say that the fun I’ve had with Marvel vs Capcom 2 pre-release has more than justified the asking price to the point where I want to buy both console physical releases just to own a physical version of it. Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics new features If you played Capcom Fighting Collection, the interface and front-end of Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics will feel familiar. In fact, it even has the same issues that collection has, but I’ll get to that a bit later. Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics includes online and local multiplayer support, local wireless support on Switch, rollback netcode for online play, a training mode, customizable options for games, an important option to reduce white flashes or light flickering per game, various display options, and a few wallpaper options. Outside the games, the training mode included (you can access this per game), includes hitboxes, inputs displayed, and other options making it even better for newcomers. Speaking of newcomers, Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics has a new one button super option that you can enable or disable when you play online and search for other players. Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics museum and gallery Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics also includes a robust museum and gallery with all the game soundtracks (more than 200 tracks) and more than 500 pieces of artwork. Having played Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics online with a friend who is also covering it, he let me know how a lot of the artwork in this collection has never been public before. For me, it is all new, but I thought that was notable for longtime fans. It is worth noting that things like sketches or design documents don’t have translations on them for any Japanese text. As for the music, I’m glad we finally have an official way to listen to these soundtracks in 2024, but I hope this is the first step to getting a vinyl release or streaming releases for them. How is the Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics online multiplayer experience with rollback netcode? Before getting into the online experience, the options menu features its own network settings letting you enable or disable microphone, voice chat volume, input delay, and connection strength on PC. On Switch, you can only adjust input delay. The PS4 version lets you adjust input delay and connection strength with no voice chat options. I assume folks will use the PS5 and PS4 native voice chat options here instead of an in-game one. It is disappointing to see the Switch version lack a connection strength option as of the build I have. Pre-release, I only managed testing the online on Steam Deck wired and wirelessly with another player who was also on Steam. In our experience, Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics online is similar to Capcom Fighting Collection on Steam, but massively improved over Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection. You can adjust input delay and cross region matchmaking as well. We tested most of the games and also did a bit of co-op in The Punisher. It just works despite the distance between us. Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics ships with matchmaking support for casual matches, ranked matches, and also leaderboards including a High Score Challenge mode. I also want to note that when you rematch when playing online, the cursors remain correct so you can pick whoever you were playing as before in games like Marvel vs Capcom 2 instead of having to manually move the cursor each time to select your team. Little things like this add up to make the collection feel like a lot of love went into ensuring the best possible experience for players including ones learning the games for the first time. Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics issues My biggest complaints with Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics are with how it has just a single save state (quick save) for the entire collection. This isn’t one single save state per game, but one for the entire collection. I was hoping this issue from Capcom Fighting Collection wouldn’t carry over but here we are. Another minor complaint and settings not being universal or an easy apply or toggle the light reduction or adjust visual filters at once. Having options per game is good, but I would’ve liked to just enable light reduction and turn off the filter for every game at once. Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics on Steam Deck – Verified already I first tried Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics on Steam Deck and it works perfectly out of the box. Given it is Steam Deck Verified I shouldn’t be surprised, but you can never tell with new games until you try them yourself. When played on the Deck itself, Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics runs at 720p and it supports 4K when docked. I played at 1440p for the most part docked and then 800p handheld. It is still 16:9 though with no 16:10 support. The Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics PC graphics options are under the PC Settings menu in options. These let you adjust resolution, display mode (fullscreen, borderless, windowed), and toggle v-sync. Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics on Nintendo Switch While Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics looks fine on Switch, the biggest downgrade from other platforms is the load times. Going in and out of games on Steam and PS5 is almost instant while the Switch version has loading for basically everything. This adds up and since I’ve been playing it on all three platforms at once, it was very noticeable. I hope the connection strength option is added eventually as well since PlayStation and PC have it. The Switch version does support local wireless while the others do not though. Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics on PS5 I wish Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics was native on PS5 rather than played via backward compatibility because PS5 Activity Card support would’ve been amazing to get in and out of different games from the dashboard. Barring that, it looks excellent on my 1440p monitor and loads quickly even when played off an external hard drive. You can move it to the SSD for even faster loading. I have no complaints with the PS4 version on PS5. Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is one of Capcom’s best collections yet across everything and not just fighting games or arcade games. It offers superb extras, fantastic online play on Steam, and it has been a joy to experience these games for the first time. I just wish there was more than one save slot for the entire collection for save states. Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics Steam Deck Review Score: 4.5/5

Later this month on September 27th, NIS America will release FuRyu’s action RPG Reynatis for Switch, Steam, PS5, and PS4 …

Continue reading "Reynatis Interview: Creative Producer TAKUMI, Scenario Writer Kazushige Nojima, and Composer Yoko Shimomura discuss the game, coffee, and more"

Later this month on September 27th, NIS America will release FuRyu’s action RPG Reynatis for Switch, Steam, PS5, and PS4 in the West. Ahead of the launch, I had a chance to talk to Creative Producer TAKUMI, Scenario Writer Kazushige Nojima, and Composer Yoko Shimomura about the game, inspirations, collaborations, how the project came into being, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, coffee, a potential Xbox release, and much more. This interview was conducted in parts with TAKUMI’s portion being done on video call with Alan from NIS America translating and then it being transcribed and edited for brevity. The portion with Kazushige Nojima and Yoko Shimomura was done over email and is towards the end of this interview. TouchArcade (TA): Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do at Furyu right now. TAKUMI: I’m a director and producer at Furyu. A lot of my work involves creating new games and working on brand new projects. For Reynatis specifically, I’m the person who came up with the main idea for the game. I produced it, I directed it, and I saw pretty much everything through from the beginning to the end so anything and everything related to Reynatis, I handled everything. TA: I’ve been playing FuRyu’s games through many publishers in the West from the 3DS days, leading into PS Vita, PS4, PS5, PC, and mostly on Nintendo Switch. It feels like Reynatis has the most hype around it from any game which I’ve seen from FuRyu. How does that make you feel as a creative producer? TAKUMI: First of all, I’m very happy. I take it very positively. I’m just simply pleased that people like it so much. About the buzz and attention it is getting, it feels like it’s actually more from abroad than inside Japan. I’ve been checking things out on Twitter and I noticed that a lot of times whenever they post information about the game, when they post trailers, when they post things like that, a lot of the comments that they’re receiving are from people outside of Japan. And so he says it seems like the fan base for this game abroad is large, or will be large. And it also seems like, as you mentioned, up till now, this game has been receiving more feedback and more positive user interaction than any other FuRyu game in the past. So I’m really pleased to see how it seems to be being received in the West so far. TA: Okay, so the game is obviously available now in Japan for people who live there to buy on console. How has the response been from players in Japan for the game? TAKUMI: As someone who’s liked Final Fantasy Kingdom Hearts and things like that, I feel that the fans of those works, basically the works of Tetsuya Nomura in particular, seem to have really latched onto the game. They really appreciate what I’m doing and I really get the sense that they kind of understand everything. I’ve seen that as they’ve been playing the game, they’ve been noticing things and seeing how the story progresses and being like, “Oh, yeah, that’s how it should be," or, “Yeah, I kind of expected that to happen." And so they’ve gotten really excited and really delved into the world of Reynatis. They’ve also, kind of without really even being prompted, have kind of taken things farther to the next level, like, “I wonder where he’s going to take the story from here. I wonder what’s going to come next. I wonder…" All these little sub things that he hadn’t really had a chance to maybe flesh out or think about yet are things that the fan base has already decided to move forward with and already decided to start thinking about what’s going to come in the future. Of course a creator, that makes me feel incredibly pleased and also kind of gets my creative juices flowing as it were, too, to think about what I want to do next. On the gameplay side of things, FuRyu games always kind of have areas that stand out a little bit more than others or have things about them that make them kind of unique and very FuRyu you could say. A lot of players have come to appreciate those things, too, and really enjoy those things as well. So for the people who really have always appreciated FuRyu games and have played them up until now and enjoyed them, they seem to be liking and enjoying the game as well. So far on both of those fronts, it seems that user reaction has been positive and people have really been enjoying it. TA: I’m glad you mentioned Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy because from when the game was revealed, a lot of my friends who are hardcore Kingdom Hearts fans and who have been following Final Fantasy for a long time, everyone brought up Final Fantasy Versus XIII’s trailer and everyone’s trying to draw parallels with that and talking about how is this connected here, is that connected there? Can you comment on whether Final Fantasy Versus XIII’s trailer and that whole hype cycle over there had any influence on the project. TAKUMI: So that question is a sensitive question, it’s a sensitive topic. There’s things that I can and cannot say in regards to it, but one thing I want to point it specifically is that as a fan of Nomura-san’s work and as someone who saw that original trailer for Versus XIII, and purely wondered what would this game have been like, what kind of game would this have been, how would it have played, and all these things like that running through my head, as a fan, I wanted to put myself on the same level as other fans. And as a representative of that fan base, I wanted to create my own take on it. If this game would have come out, maybe it would have turned out like this. So that feeling in terms of how Reynatis is related to Final Fantasy Versus XIII, you could say it’s something like that. I can’t speak too much beyond this little window of speaking, but I have talked to Nomura-san. They’ve talked about several things about this,and the idea is that Nomura-san knows what he’s thinking and the things that they’ve talked about. As a fan and as somebody who really loves these works, I really wanted it to be from one fan to all the other fans out there. I feel like that group of fans who did love those games, that’s who Reynatis is for. At the end of the day, all that really comes from that specific title is the inspiration. So seeing that initial trailer and that initial thought of “I wonder what this would be like" was an inspiration, certainly, for Reynatis. Reynatis is something that is wholly his own. It’s something that totally came from me as a creator. It is dyed in my own color as a creator. Everything that I wanted to express as a creator is what’s in this game. It’s not a copy or a rip-off of something else that’s come before, something that might have existed. It’s completely wholly my own. This was simply an initial spark of inspiration to make me think about what this world would be. Everything else about this world that is Reynatis is something that I made myself and created myself. TA: So out of the many FuRyu games I’ve played over the years since Lost Dimension and stuff like that, my favorites are The Caligula Effect 2, Crymachina, and The Alliance Alive. Every single game usually has I’d say 75% of it is really good with memorable story, music, and stuff like that. But there are some aspects which fall short, and we usually see either technical shortcomings or some people might not like the gameplay or something like that. So I wanted to know if you’re happy with the current state of the game because I know there are updates planned. TAKUMI: The game originally came out on July 25th in Japan, and from there, we had an actual play session where we streamed it, and there were people watching on Twitter, commenting, and since then, people have had a chance to play the game and receive their comments. Obviously, to recreate the game, or to do things on a fundamental level, that’s impossible, but obviously, small things that we can brush up, as we are going through, for example, boss balancing, the amount of time that enemies come out, little quality of life features that kind of have to do with those things, all of those things will be addressed in the updates that are coming out. There’s an update coming out on September 1st in Japan, and then either with that, or a little bit before that, we plan to, again, start addressing some of those issues Beyond that, obviously, if there’s any bugs or any kind of technical flaws or things like that, those are all intended to be addressed to over the coming months, because the last DLC is scheduled to come out in May, and so up until that time point, we are going to continue to work on the feedback that we’ve received, and implement as much as we can, as is reasonable and possible, into the game. One thing I also want to point out is that specifically for players in the West, the version of the game that you be getting, essentially, will be a version that’s been refined and brushed up, compared to everything that’s come out in Japan, so please look forward to the best version of the game when it does come out here in the West. TA: So I read the NIS America translated Famitsu interview with Takumi-san, Yoko Shimomura, and Kazushige Nojima in two parts (here and here). It was the two-part long interview and was really nice. So first, thank you to NIS America for translating that officially for us. Secondly, I wanted to touch on the part about how you approached both of them because it was very interesting and funny. I wanted to just ask you about that. How did you approach them directly? Is it just something like you messaged them or do you approach their representatives or the companies at all? TAKUMI: It was pretty much what I said in the interview. Most of this was direct. I reached out to them directly. I didn’t contact them through a company. I didn’t do super formal emails or uptight things. The thing about Shimomura-san specifically is that Furuyo had actually done some work with her in the past on some other titles, so I kind of had an in there, but even still I ended up reaching out to her through X / Twitter. For Naora-san, who was the illustrator for the game, it was a PM to him on X / Twitter. Kaburagi-san, who also did the illustrations, I spoke with him on X. Nojima-san, they did a lot of LINE. Even once the project had begun, a lot of the communication was still done via PMs and via private messaging and things like that. At no point was it ever really a very formal thing. I would just kind of reach out to people as necessary and say, “hey, what do you want to do about the music?" or something like that. It’s a lot rougher than you might have imagined in terms of how a company normally performs its business. TA: That’s hilarious. It makes sense why you contacted them because they are very talented folks, and while the premise and game seem interesting, I wanted to know what prior works of theirs made you reach out to them individually? What are your favorite works by them? TAKUMI: Well, basically, I’ve been playing Kingdom Hearts since I was a kid. I think the big part is that my personality and values were formed by Kingdom Hearts. So, when it comes to Shimomura-san’s music, I have a strong image of Kingdom Hearts. And then, in connection with that, I’ve been playing titles like Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X. I think Nojima-san’s scenario has a strong feeling from that. I think I’ll just say that I wanted to do Nojima-san’s scenario with Shimomura-san’s music. for Shimomura-san, obviously, most people think of Kingdom Hearts. It’s a really, really special game. It’s a series that I started playing when I was little. It influenced my values and who I am as a person. So, that was someone that I really wanted to work with specifically. In terms of Nojima-san, obviously, I’m a big fan of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy X, and works like that. I wanted to work with them because I just wanted to work with them. I liked their work and he wanted to work with them. TA: I wanted to know, before the game started production, what games did you play that maybe inspired some aspects of this thing? Did you start doing research and playing more action games from other developers to see how they are? TAKUMI: I’m honestly an action game fan to begin with. So, whether it be older titles, whether it be more recent titles, I feel like I’ve played them all. Whether you’d want to call that research or not is kind of something different, but I have played them and I have enjoyed them and obviously, there’s a lot of things that I’ve taken inspiration from, you could say, from within that. However, one thing I want to point out really specifically is that, and this is something you know as someone who’s played many FuRyu titles, is that FuRyu size-wise and scale-wise doesn’t have the budget to do something like a Final Fantasy VII Remake or a Rebirth. That’s just on another level. When I was creating the game and thinking about what I wanted to do, I thought carefully about what would be fun for the players. What will the players enjoy? Let’s make that and then let’s also try to make everything within the game something that’s fun. So for example, even beyond the gameplay, you have the scenario, you have the story, you have all of these things that individually are disparate, but all of them together are what makes Reynatis the experience that it is. I want players to experience it as a whole and not so much as an action game solely, for example. If you compare Reynatis to something like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, it’s obviously not going to compete on that level. Where it can compete is on this level as an entire package, as a game experience that is the sum of its parts beyond being some specifically one thing. TA: Can you talk about how long Reynatis has been in production? TAKUMI: About three years, give or take. TA: So how was it working for the team during the pandemic? TAKUMI: The pandemic was just at its peak. I think it was a time when we couldn’t meet face to face and talk about it. But I don’t think I was in that much trouble. The development company that was actually developing it was basically all-in-one, and we were able to work with the top development team. If we had been able to communicate with them, I think we could have made the game without any problems. After the pandemic actually settled down, we were able to meet face to face. We were able to communicate while eating together. I don’t think there was a big problem in terms of development because we couldn’t meet face to face because of the coronavirus. Things kind of kicked off right at the beginning of the pandemic, specifically when it was really difficult to go out and actually meet people. Truthfully, at the very beginning, we didn’t have a lot of opportunity to actually meet face to face and talk about things.However, A, as time went on, and B, because we were having lots of meetings and things like that, the people that we were working with to develop it, all of them actually were in the office. Because we had a good direct line of communication with the development staff, the head of the development staff, we felt like there were no issues there. Also, as the project continued, things loosened up, and so I was able to meet people face to face. We were able to go out to eat and talk and have meetings and things like that. So things proceeded smoothly. Even in the midst of the beginning of the pandemic, when it was more difficult to meet people, I don’t feel that it really impacted the work negatively. We were able, and I specifically was able to do my work without any problem, and things proceeded well. So there were really no issues from that sense in regards to the pandemic situation. TA: So one of the things I noticed is, before the game was officially revealed for localization, there was a lot of hype around “NEO: The world ends with you. Everyone was speculating if this is part of the same universe or what’s happening And now we have an official collaboration, which is officially licensed and stuff like that. So I wanted to know two things: As a fan, play NEO :The World Ends with you and how did you approach Square Enix for the collaboration? TAKUMI: I played the original on DS in the beginning. I played the smartphone game that only lived for a brief period. I played Final Remix when it came out on Switch and then of course NEO: The World Ends With You as well. I’m a simple fan just like everyone else when it comes to the series. I have played them all. For the collaboration, I did go directly to Square Enix as a company and approached them from an official capacity as a company. Thinking in the console game space, looking at collaborations between companies it’s very rare. All I can think of is that there was a collaboration between Capcom and Konami using Metal Gear Peace Walker and Monster Hunter 2G. Aside from that, I can’t really think of anything else in terms of console creators coming together to make it. Because this is something that hasn’t really happened before, it had to be a bit more official. On the flip side, because it hasn’t happened before, there was really nobody I could talk to internally to be like, “Hey, so how do I go about approaching this? How do I go about making it happen?" I got a lot of feedback like “Oh, that’s impossible. You can’t do that." However, I have the kind of personality where I’m very strong and straightforward with things. I said “No, no, no, look, if it’s not impossible, there’s a way to do this. I’m going to find a way to do this." The simplest thing in that case was to drop the plan, to go to Square Enix directly and say, “Hey, look, I’m making this game. I really like The World Ends With You. The setting for my game is also Shibuya. Is there anything we can do together?" That’s basically how the collaboration came about. TA: Can you comment on what platforms Reynatis was always planned for? What was the lead platform? TAKUMI: All of the platforms were decided from the beginning, but as you mentioned, you have to come up with a lead platform. In this case, it would have been the Switch and so the Switch was the main, and then the others came out from there. TA: In the past, whenever I played FuRyu games, regardless of how much I liked them, the lead platform usually has some technical issues. I remember playing The Legend of Legacy on 3DS, which had a lot of technical issues, but now it’s perfect when you play it on modern platforms. Reynatis is a very visually striking and good-looking game from its trailers. So I was just wondering how it would run on Switch. TAKUMI: I understand where you’re coming from. Even though the Switch is the lead platform, honestly speaking, this game pushes the Switch to its limits. Within me, there’s two rules I have to fulfill for this game. One is the producer, and the other is the director. As the producer, I have to be more mindful of things like unit sales. How many players are going to purchase and play the game? So within that, obviously, it makes the most sense that you release a game on as many platforms as you possibly can to maximize those elements. On the flip side, as the director and as a player myself, it would have been great to focus on maybe one platform like PS5 or something to really push things to the next level. But at the same time, that’s a balance that I have to maintain within all things. There was a lot of internal struggle within how to handle that. But at the end of the day, the balance was essentially taken within those two elements of myself that I had to do. I’m happy with what came out. TA: So far, FuRyu games release on consoles in Japan and get ported to PC for the Western releases. Has Furyu ever considered doing PC internally in Japan for these games? TAKUMI: Actually, there was a title that came out recently that we did internally on PC. So it is something that we have been thinking about and working internally on. So yes, games are coming out made by us specifically for PC platforms. At this point, Mr. Sonobe, FuRyu Localization Coordinator, added that FuRyu has established a partnership with NIS (America) to sell full-priced console RPGs due to their expertise in translation, promotion, and sales capabilities. TA: The reason I ask is because we’ve seen a lot of promotions in Japan for Steam versions from publishers there. Like SEGA does with competitions for Like a Dragon and Steam Deck. Obviously you need to release on Switch, but you now also have a high end handheld PC. I see a lot of interest for Steam versions. Do you see more people recently asking for PC versions in Japan? TAKUMI: Please take this as my opinion specifically and not a representative of the industry. For me and the people around me, the two worlds are very different. There’s the world of console gaming, as we call it, and then there’s the world of PC gaming. Those worlds don’t necessarily meet, and it seems like the players of one specific place, like console or PC, generally want to keep their play experiences limited to that space specifically. If you were to divide it up into three things, you would have consoles, you would have PCs, and then you would have smartphones. And so these are kind of the three arenas that exist. And these are kind of the three arenas that people generally tend to stay in when they’re developing and releasing games. I don’t even necessarily know people who play on PC who have a Steam Deck or who want to play specifically on it. If they want to play a console game, they would play it on console if they had the desire to do so. That’s kind of where I feel the industry is specifically in Japan. TA: Because you mentioned smartphones, I think FuRyu has one title which is available in the West on smartphones through another partner, Arc System Works, which is The Alliance Alive Remastered. I believe it uses NIS America’s translation for English. Do you have plans as FuRyu to do more smartphone ports of premium games? TAKUMI: As a company we don’t have a plan to make games specifically for smartphones. It is more that our division specifically is focused on making console games and we believe that consoles are a place that can provide specific experiences that can only be provided by console games. The reason you saw something like The Alliance Alive Remastered come out on smartphones, was because we felt that it would be appropriate and because we thought it would still play well on the smartphone. For something like a super hardcore action game or something that would require more intricate controls, that wouldn’t really be suitable to be on smartphones so it wouldn’t happen. Our plan and goal going forward is to develop first for console and to bring out the best we can do in the console gaming space. IF that work is suitable enough to be brought to a smartphone, and still be able to be played well, and it doesn’t lose any of its intrinsic fun that you have from playing on console, then we will think about it in the future, but it kind of is on a case by case basis. TA: So I play FuRyu games on multiple platforms, but there’s one platform that hasn’t seen FuRyu support much. This question isn’t just from myself, but also from readers who usually want to know why some games aren’t coming to Xbox. only myself, but a lot of our readers also usually ask us to check in on the possibility? I know there could be many reasons for why, but I still wanted to ask you directly about this if there are plans to do Xbox Series X versions of these games from FuRyu? TAKUMI: Personally, I would like to do Xbox versions of the games but the reality is that in Japan there’s not enough demand from consumers. There’s not enough recognition from consumers for the platform itself to be able to justify being able to make an Xbox version. To talk about things from a development standpoint, you have to understand that adding another platform to the development cycle means you have to account for that within the schedule. Within that as well, the development team has to have the experience to be able, having worked on that platform, to be able to develop it appropriately for that platform. Because the team doesn’t have that experience, it suddenly becomes a very high hurdle to clear and be able to make this game. I would definitely like for us to be able to do it. I find it would be something that would be interesting. It’s just the reality of it that it’s a difficult thing to do for the reasons I mentioned. TA: Reynatis is coming out in the West in a few weeks. I wanted to know what you’re most excited to see when players get their hands on the game in the West? TAKUMI: I really want players to enjoy playing the game for a long time. Nowadays, you kind of have an issue that when a game comes out, it’s not uncommon for spoilers to get posted, whether that be videos or things like that. We’ve worked really hard to make sure that those spoilers don’t get out there. One of the ways that they’ve avoided having things spoiled is by having this– we talked about it a bit earlier–but by having this free DLC release schedule going forward that will bring up new story content and secret story content. There’s going to be one that comes out October 1 that will be global. NIS America will release the game in the West in September. So players will kind of have to catch up first, but after that, they get to experience everything in real time with the Japanese player base as well as the updates come out. I hope that this is something that encourages people to keep playing the game and to play it for a long time to come and to really enjoy what they’re playing and seeing all the secrets and things that they have, because these are things that, again, are going to be not spoiled because it’s all coming out at the same time once the game gets released in the West. TA: One of my favorite aspects of FuRyu games is always the art and music. That’s usually consistently very good. I wanted to know, are there any plans after all the DLC is out to have a Japanese release of the full art book covering everything and a full soundtrack? TAKUMI: At the moment there are no plans specifically to do either of the things that you mentioned, but in regards to the music I really think Shimomura-san made a fantastic soundtrack and I would love to be able to get that out there to people in some fashion. So, hopefully we can do it, but there are currently no plans. TA: Unrelated to Reynatis which we’ve covered a lot, I wanted to know what you’ve been playing outside of work in the last year, like in 2024, which you’ve enjoyed a lot, and what platforms you’ve been playing on? TAKUMI: So for this year, I played Tears of the Kingdom and I played Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Generally speaking, due to everything going on with Reynatis, I have a feeling that I didn’t get to play as much as I would have liked for everything else, but those are the two ones that I remember playing the most. Platform-wise, I probably played most on PS5. As an addition, I’m a huge Disney fan and I’m also a big fan of Star Wars. All the information coming out about the new Star Wars materials has gotten, like, kind of reawakened that fire that I have, for the Star Wars property, so I’ve really been enjoying Jedi Survivor. TA: What project that you’ve worked on so far is your favorite. If it is Reynatis, talk about another one as well. TAKUMI: So I’ve only worked on two games: Trinity Trigger and Reynatis. To talk about Trinity Trigger, I was only the director on that game so I didn’t have the opportunity to do anything on the Producer’s role so thinking about the broader scope of things and how to reach out to customers on that. That’s something I felt was an area missing for me. I really wanted to do it. As a result of having that feeling on Trinity Trigger, I was able to, when the time came to Reynatis, I was able to take on the role of Producer, Creative Producer, and Director and therefore I was able to do everything that I wanted to do in this game. To oversee every single aspect of it. By the same token, because Trinity Trigger was the first game I had worked on and I directed, I was able to do a lot of what I wanted to do with it. It is of course a title to him that remains really deep in his memory, but the game that I have the most affection for is Reynatis. TA: For a lot of people, when they see FuRyu’s games, there are quite a few available on current platforms. Reynatis has the most hype. What would you like to say to folks who are excited for this who have not played a FuRyu game before? TAKUMI: One of the things that I feel is most representative of FuRyu titles in general, is that they all have a very strong theme. If you look at each and every one of these games, the theme is very strong. The message reaching out to people is very strong. Reyantis is no different. This might be a rough or harsh way to put it, but if there are people who feel that they are weak, if there are people out there who feel like they are being put down by society, they can’t live and carry out their lives like they want to, I want you to play Reynatis. One of the big themes in the game is that within Japanese society itself, there’s a very famous expression that you’ve probably heard many times before: “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down" People in Japan have a tendency to go with the flow, and supplement themselves into what the rest of society wants them to do or say, and as a result of that, many people kind of feel really pressured and they’re stifled within what they actually want to do. Whether it be in Japan or outside, if you feel that way, this is absolutely the game for you. The message within this is very strong and I feel like it will resonate with people who feel like they maybe are put down by society or that they are not a place they want to be in society. Going back to what we spoke about before, while the game might not be able to compete in the arena of graphics or richness in setting, the game does have a message that resonates just as strongly as for Final Fantasy VII if not more. I believe it can compete and beat it in that. I think that because the message in the game is so strong, it will remain in people’s hearts and minds and it will be something that will be a really positive and memorable experience for them. I hope people pick up the game for those reasons. This part of the interview with Yoko Shimomura and Kazushige Nojima was conducted over email. TA: How did you get involved in the Reynatis project? Yoko Shimomura: Via a sudden attack from TAKUMI. (laughs) TA: What have you learned composing for games for many years now and how do you implement these learnings in your future compositions and recent ones like Reynatis? Yoko Shimomura: It’s difficult to put into words. I think that experience does become a new power, but I mainly compose via feeling, so turning that into words is difficult. TA: My favorite soundtracks done by you are definitely LIVE A LIVE, Radiant Historia, and Street Fighter II. I’m very curious about the Reynatis soundtrack. What has been your favorite part of working on it so far? Yoko Shimomura: Thank you! The night before recording, even though I was totally worn out mentally and physically, I just had more and more compositions flowing out of me, which was fun. (laughs) I was really ablaze with the idea, “I’m definitely going to finish this!" TA: As a composer you have a very distinct style that when someone hears a work by you, they know you composed it. How do you feel that your style is recognizable through multiple iterations of technology? Yoko Shimomura: I wonder! I get told that a lot, but I don’t really understand it myself. People have said that in the past, my compositions tended to be different based on the work, so there isn’t really a feel that they were all composed by me. I think maybe my style hadn’t quite come out yet. TA: Were you inspired by any other games when working on the Reynatis soundtrack? Yoko Shimomura: I wasn’t influenced by any other work in particular. TA: You’ve worked on the scenarios of many of my favorite games of all time. How do you approach different games today compared to how you worked in the 90s? Kazushige Nojima: It depends on the game genre. For games where the narrative comes first, players today want a character who is a convincing portryal of a fully-fledged person, rather than a character that is an avatar for the player, as was common in the past. In that case, it then becomes important to give the world the character inhabits a sense of presence. I do like those old games that were more akin to a fairytale, though. I’d like to work on one again in the future. TA: How did you get involved with this project? Kazushige Nojima: I received a call from my old acquaintance, the composer Ms. Shimomura. She asked if it was OK to share my contact info with TAKUMI. Things started from there. TA: Is it influenced by Versus XIII in any way? Kazushige Nojima: I didn’t think it was when I was writing it, but I can’t say for certain. TA: Having now seen the game’s scenario all the way, what is your favorite aspect of it, and what do you think fans of your other work should pay attention to here? Kazushige Nojima: It’s difficult to answer this while avoiding spoilers. I think that Marin’s change in mannerisms [throughout the course of the game] is well-depicted. TA: What have you enjoyed playing this year and have you played Reynatis yet? Kazushige Nojima: I’ve been doing nothing but dying in it, but I’ve enjoyed ELDEN RING. I’ve also enjoyed Dragon’s Dogma 2. Embarassingly enough, I’m only partway through REYNATIS. Sure enough, I’m just not good at action games, so for the games I mentioned, I’m enjoying the atmosphere of their worlds. I think the game I’ve played the most of is Euro Truck Simulator. TA: So now the last question is for everyone here. How do you like your coffee? TAKUMI: I don’t actually like coffee. *laughs* I don’t like things that are really bitter. I generally go for iced tea or black tea. If I’m going to drink coffee, I’m going to put a ton of cream, milk, or sugar to drink it. It is kind of funny that in university, I worked at Starbucks so I had to know a lot about coffee, so it is kind of funny that way. Alan Costa: I like coffee with milk or soy milk. If I’m drinking iced coffee, I like just an americano with just ice and no sugar. The two responses below were via email. Yoko Shimomura: I like iced tea. I drink it all the time. I like doubling up [on the bags] to make it strong. Kazushige Nojima: Black. And strong. I’d like to thank TAKUMI, Alan Costa, Chihiro MacLeese, Mr Sonobe, Anna Lee, and Lottie Diao for their time and help with this interview. Editor’s note: I unfortunately lost the recording I took myself where the other attendees from NIS America and FuRyu mentioned how they had their coffee and could only include these two. You can keep up with all our interviews here including our recent ones with FuturLab here, Shuhei Matsumoto from Capcom about Marvel Vs Capcom here, Santa Ragione here, Peter ‘Durante’ Thoman about PH3 and Falcom here, M2 discussing shmups and more here, Digital Extremes for Warframe mobile, Team NINJA, Sonic Dream Team, Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, and more. As usual, thanks for reading.

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for September 6th, 2024. Well, this is the last one. You’ll …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku’, Plus New Releases, Sales, and Good-Byes"

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for September 6th, 2024. Well, this is the last one. You’ll see one more special from me next week with a few reviews that have specific embargo dates, but this is the final regular SwitchArcade Round-Up for TouchArcade by yours truly. We’ve been at this for several years and I wish I could have seen the Switch through to its end with these articles, but circumstances dictate another course. We’re going out with another chunky one, with a pair of reviews from our pal Mikhail, a pair of Shaun reviews, a handful of new release summaries, and the usual lists of new and expiring sales. Let’s ride one last time! Reviews & Mini-Views Fitness Boxing feat. HATSUNE MIKU ($49.99) After Imagineer’s success with the Fitness Boxing games that led to the hilarious but good Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star, I didn’t know what IP the team would work with for a new fitness game. When Fitness Boxing feat. HATSUNE MIKU was announced, I thought it was a smart collaboration, but was curious to see how the game felt after Fist of the North Star. I’ve been playing it over the last few weeks alongside Ring Fit Adventure and I’m impressed with Fitness Boxing feat. HATSUNE MIKU in many ways. If you’re new to the Fitness Boxing series, these games, as the name suggests, use boxing and rhythm game movements to get you into shape through daily exercises, mini-games that also get you sweating, and more. With Fitness Boxing feat. HATSUNE MIKU, everyone’s favorite vocaloid gets in on the action and there’s even a separate dedicated mode for her songs in addition to the normal songs included in this release. Keep in mind that this is a Joy-Con only game so you can’t play it with a Pro Controller or any third party accessories as far as I’m aware. As with other games in the series, there are difficulty options, a free training mode to do as you please, warmups, and tracking with reminders and the systemwide alarm that can remind you even if your Switch is in sleep mode. There are cosmetics you can unlock through the points you earn by playing as well. I can’t comment on the DLC yet, but as for the base release, I liked Fitness Boxing feat. HATSUNE MIKU more than Fist of the North Star aside from one issue. The audio in Fitness Boxing feat. HATSUNE MIKU is great, but the main instructor’s voice isn’t great. I ended up turning this voice down because it felt out of place with the rest of the game, and just sounded a bit weirdly directed. Just like the Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star release from Imagineer, Fitness Boxing feat. HATSUNE MIKU is a solid fitness-focused game that does a great job of bringing Miku to the world of Fitness Boxing to try and appeal to her fans. While it is a competent fitness game with its daily workout, customization, and tracking, I feel like it would be better as a complement to something like Ring Fit Adventure or your own other exercise routine rather than being the sole exercise you do during the week. -Mikhail Madnani SwitchArcade Score: 4/5 Magical Delicacy ($24.99) Magical Delicacy from sKaule and Whitethorn Games is one I hadn’t paid much attention to until a friend of mine linked me to an Xbox Game Pass announcement for it. Since then, I’ve played it on Switch as well, but feel like it needs a bit more time in the oven. I adore Metroidvania-style platformers and cooking games, but it feels like Magical Delicacy takes the good bits of both genres while not putting them together in the best way possible. This results in a game I adore in parts, but one where the flaws hurt a bit more. You play as Flora who is a young witch in a story that’s equal parts mysterious, magical, and wholesome. Your aim is to cook meals and craft for various folks, and I was surprised at how well the exploration was implemented aside from the backtracking that annoyed me sometimes. I expected it to be lacking compared to the cooking and crafting, but the team nailed the Metroidvania elements. There are some issues with ingredients in the crafting and in how inventory is managed. This is made a bit worse by the UI that I took a while to get used to with interaction. Magical Delicacy makes a great first impression with its gorgeous pixel art visuals, lovely music, and tons of settings. The latter includes UI scale and text options that are both very useful when playing on Switch in handheld mode. I feel like Magical Delicacy would have benefited a lot from an early access release or will from potential updates. When it comes to the Switch version, it plays very well aside from some seemingly frame pacing-related hiccups. It has good rumble as well. Having played it on Xbox Series X, this is definitely a game I’d play more on a portable so a Switch or Steam Deck version would be best. I just play the genre more on handhelds. Magical Delicacy is a game I should’ve loved given it is basically a blend of a Metroidvania and a crooking/crafting game, but it feels a little undercooked (I couldn’t resist) in parts thanks to some inventory and backtracking issues. While it is a very good game right now that feels at home on Switch, a few quality of life updates and polishing will make it an essential. -Mikhail Madnani SwitchArcade Score: 4/5 Aero The Acro-Bat 2 ($5.99) A lot of companies tried their hand at the whole mascot platformer thing in the 16-bit era in the wake of Sonic the Hedgehog‘s explosive success. Like, the sheer number of them is just baffling. Even more than I remembered. Not many of them managed to see sequels, but Aero The Acro-Bat is part of that elite few. How each member of that club got there is its own story, but in Aero’s case it seems to have been a combination of the first game going over well enough, and sheer force of will to try and make fetch happen. Sadly, fetch did not happen. Aero spin-off Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel launched several months after Aero 2, but outside of that Aero was never seen in another original title again. Does that make Aero The Acro-Bat 2 a bad game? I don’t think so. It doesn’t seem like it was a big enough success to merit another follow-up, at the very least. But then again, Sunsoft’s parent company had recently lost a ton of money on a bad investment involving golf courses, and that certainly put it in a fiscally conservative mood for a while. Either way, I don’t think the fault can be placed on the quality of the game. It’s as good as the first game was, with all that implies. A more polished experience that in shedding some of those rough edges loses some of its character, but a decent enough platforming romp. I was fully expecting this release to be in Ratalaika’s usual emulation wrapper, but much to my surprise there’s been an upgrade in the presentation. This feels a lot more tailor-made for the game, and in terms of both options and extras I think this is a far better experience overall. Box and manual scans, achievements, a gallery of sprite sheets, a jukebox, a bunch of cheats, and more. I frankly have no complaints at all about how the game plays and the suite of features here. The only nit I will pick is that you only get the Super NES version of the game here. I feel like the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive version should have been included too, just to keep everyone happy. Those who enjoyed Aero The Acro-Bat should naturally give Aero The Acro-Bat 2 a shot. I even think those who were slightly put off by the first game’s quirks might have a better time here. I really have to commend Ratalaika for stepping up its game with the emulation wrapper for this release. Perhaps I’m being greedy, but I’d love to see the first game updated with a similar interface just for consistency. A fine release for Aero fans and those on the look out for 16-bit platformers to play, and one that makes me optimistic for the remaining reissues of this series. SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5 Metro Quester | Osaka ($19.99) I got quite a bit of enjoyment out of the original Metro Quester when it released a while back. It’s a bit of a bear to get into, but once you understand its rules and what you have to do, it’s an immensely satisfying dungeon-crawling turn-based RPG. Experimenting with party builds to try to find the optimal team was a task I truly enjoyed taking on. With that in mind, I was very happy to see that there was another game in the series coming. Metro Quester | Osaka feels a little more like an expansion pack than a proper sequel, but I’m more than happy with that given how much I got out of the original. The story here is a prequel to the original game, and we’ve moved to Osaka as a setting. You get a whole new dungeon to explore, and some new character types to do that exploring with. Osaka is a much wetter location, so you’ll need to use your canoe to travel over the water in places. With the new dungeon comes new weapons, skills, and enemies to deal with. Definitely more to chew on here for those who have wrung out the original game, and if you had a good time there then you will enjoy this one, too. That said, this game shares much of its broader mechanics with the original Metro Quester. If you need an explanation, please check out my review of that game for more details. Short version: turn-based combat, top-down dungeon exploration, and a whole lot of inching your way outward a little further each time before having to head back to camp. You know, the good stuff. Those who are careless will find themselves in hot water very quickly, as planning and cautious play is practically a necessity in this game. Those who found themselves fully absorbed in Metro Quester will find plenty to enjoy in Metro Quester | Osaka, and new players should probably just skip right to this game. It’s more of an expansion pack than a sequel, but that in no way should be taken as a bad thing. Rather, it just seems like the designer wanted to send players on another adventure that pushes out the existing systems in some fascinating ways. It’s certainly a game you’ll have to be patient with to get the most out of, but those willing to invest the time will enjoy the dividends. SwitchArcade Score: 4/5 Select New Releases NBA 2K25 ($59.99) NBA 2K is back… in 25 form! You know, I find myself wondering something. What happens to the name of this series when we hit the year 2100? NBA 2K100? Just feels weird. We’ll have to talk about that when the situation arises, I suppose. Apparently this year’s version has improved gameplay, a new feature called Neighborhood, and some nonsense about MyTEAM. I’m not going to pretend to know what’s going on here, so instead I will just toss out the amount of space you’ll need on your memory card for this game and then move on. Here we go. 53.3 GB! Shogun Showdown ($14.99) Got room in your heart for another riff on Darkest Dungeon? This one has a Japanese-inspired setting, and there are a few bits in here that change things up a little. Setting all of that aside, this is very much a familiar style of game and I think it’s a decent enough example of such to be of interest to those on the hunt for another one. Aero The Acro-Bat 2 ($5.99) Well, there’s a review up above this section, but in case you’re in the habit of skipping down the page, let me fill you in. This is the somewhat more polished sequel to the successful Aero The Acro-Bat, all done up in Ratalaika’s emulator wrapper. Said wrapper was given additional effort for this release, and it looks good! The version of the game included is the Super NES one, and you can play the North American release or the Japanese one. I wish the Genesis/Mega Drive version was in here, but I can’t imagine Aero fans being unhappy with this overall outside of that. Sunsoft is Back! Retro Game Selection ($9.99) Sunsoft is back! Okay, Sunsoft has been back for a while now, and you probably don’t need a trio of heretofore non-localized Famicom games to sell you on that. So instead let the games sell you on themselves, as you get a trio of unique and varied titles in this bunch. A side-scrolling action platformer, an adventure game, and an action-RPG of sorts. I reviewed this set a couple of days ago, so I advise checking that out if you need more details. Short version: if you like weird old games, this is a good pick-up. Sales (North American eShop, US Prices) Some fun stuff in the inbox today, including a really good price on the Cosmic Fantasy Collection. A little dear at its normal price, but at 40% off I think it is worth considering for retro RPG fans. I’ll also call out the enjoyable platformer Tinykin, which is at its lowest price yet. Have a good look through those lists and see what catches your eye. Select New Sales Zombie Army Trilogy ($8.74 from $34.99 until 9/12) Zombie Army 4: Dead War ($14.99 from $49.99 until 9/12) Wild Seas ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/12) Chants of Sennaar ($14.99 from $19.99 until 9/13) The House of Da Vinci 3 ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/13) Warhammer 40k: Boltgun ($15.39 from $21.99 until 9/13) Toziuha Night: Dracula’s Revenge ($1.99 from $4.99 until 9/16) Monkey Barrels ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/19) Banchou Tactics ($15.99 from $19.99 until 9/19) Transiruby ($10.49 from $14.99 until 9/19) Picontier ($19.99 from $24.99 until 9/19) Kamiko ($1.99 from $4.99 until 9/19) Fairune Collection ($3.99 from $9.99 until 9/19) Alchemic Dungeons DX ($3.19 from $7.99 until 9/19) Ninja Smasher! ($6.39 from $7.99 until 9/19) Ninja Striker! ($1.99 from $3.99 until 9/19) Great Ambition of the Slimes ($9.59 from $11.99 until 9/19) Shinobi Non Grata ($11.99 from $14.99 until 9/19) Let’s Build a Zoo ($7.99 from $19.99 until 9/20) Owlboy ($8.74 from $24.99 until 9/20) Hakuoki: Wind & Blossom ($44.99 from $49.99 until 9/20) Omen of Sorrow ($7.99 from $19.99 until 9/20) Dungeonoid 2 Awakening ($4.49 from $8.99 until 9/20) The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt CE ($23.99 from $59.99 until 9/22) Knights of Grayfang ($10.49 from $14.99 until 9/26) Gale of Windoria ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/26) Justice Chronicles ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/26) Armed Emeth ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/26) Jinshin ($10.49 from $14.99 until 9/26) Alphadia Genesis ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/26) Grace of Letoile ($10.49 from $14.99 until 9/26) Tinykin ($6.24 from $24.99 until 9/26) Despot’s Game ($4.99 from $19.99 until 9/26) Cosmic Fantasy Collection ($29.99 from $49.99 until 9/26) Cosmic Fantasy ($15.90 from $26.50 until 9/26) Cosmic Fantasy 2 ($15.90 from $26.50 until 9/26) Spirittea ($15.99 from $19.99 until 9/26) Punch Club 2: Fast Forward ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/26) Railway Empire 2 ($37.49 from $49.99 until 9/26) Lil’ Guardsman ($11.99 from $19.99 until 9/26) Potion Craft Alchemist Simulator ($11.99 from $19.99 until 9/26) Euphoria ($1.99 from $14.99 until 9/26) Of The Red, the Light, & Ayakashi ($25.06 from $50.13 until 9/26) Modern Combat Blackout ($1.99 from $7.99 until 9/26) The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa ($8.99 from $14.99 until 9/26) Arrest of a Stone Buddha ($8.99 from $14.99 until 9/26) Fading Afternoon ($16.99 from $19.99 until 9/26) Astor: Blade of the Monolith ($14.99 from $24.99 until 9/26) Tamarak Trail ($8.99 from $14.99 until 9/26) Rigid Force Redux ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/26) Yaga ($6.24 from $24.99 until 9/26) Rabi-Ribi ($13.99 from $19.99 until 9/26) Sales Ending This Weekend Dead in Vinland: True Viking ($2.79 from $27.99 until 9/7) Gunslugs ($4.79 from $7.99 until 9/7) Gunslugs 2 ($4.79 from $7.99 until 9/7) Heroes of Loot ($4.79 from $7.99 until 9/7) Heroes of Loot 2 ($5.99 from $9.99 until 9/7) Meganoid ($5.39 from $8.99 until 9/7) NOISZ re:||COLLECTION G ($19.99 from $24.99 until 9/7) Phoenotopia: Awakening ($6.99 from $19.99 until 9/7) Space Grunts ($8.39 from $13.99 until 9/7) Stardash ($5.99 from $9.99 until 9/7) Superhot ($9.99 from $24.99 until 9/7) Dormitory Love ($24.49 from $34.99 until 9/8) Dying Light: Definitive Edition ($9.99 from $49.99 until 9/8) Fur Squadron ($2.79 from $6.99 until 9/8) Tchia: Oleti Edition ($23.44 from $34.99 until 9/8) That’s all for today, this week, this month, this year, and forever, friends. I haven’t been very loud about this, but this is not only the end of the SwitchArcade Round-Up, but also of my eleven and a half years at TouchArcade. I’ll still be writing here and there at my blog at Post Game Content as well as putting up exclusive articles on my Patreon, but other than that I think I’m hanging up the ol’ webs on this specific kind of work. Twenty-six years in this end of the business is a good run, and I’m ready for new challenges. Do look for me at one of the aforementioned places, hit me up on BlueSky and say hi, and if you’re a fancy executive looking to hire a very seasoned writer, I’m your guy. With that said, I will extend the highest possible gratitude to all of TouchArcade’s readers for being with me on this leg of my life’s journey. I treasure all of you more than you can know. I wish you all the sincerest happiness in your lives, and forever and always – thanks for reading.

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. If you missed my Warhammer 40000: Space Marine 2 Steam …

Continue reading "Steam Deck Weekly: NBA 2K25, ARCO, ODDADA, DATE a LIVE Ren Dystopia, Star Trucker, Skull and Bones, & More Reviews With New Verified Games"

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. If you missed my Warhammer 40000: Space Marine 2 Steam Deck review, read it here. Today’s article focuses on Steam Deck impressions and reviews for many games I’ve been playing over the last few weeks with the Steam Deck Verified games and one notable set of discounts on right now. Steam Deck Game Reviews & Impressions NBA 2K25 Steam Deck Review While many scoff at yearly sports releases, I’ve always been a fan of 2K’s NBA games despite the issues. NBA 2K25 is notable for a few reasons. The first is that this is the first time since the PS5 generation began that the PC version of NBA 2K25 is actually the “Next Gen" version rather than being based on the older consoles. The second reason is that the official PC FAQ confirmed that NBA 2K25 is optimized for Steam Deck. While it doesn’t have an official rating from Valve yet, this was great to see. Now that I’ve played NBA 2K25 on Steam Deck and also both consoles thanks to review codes and buying a disc, I’m more than pleased with the game, but it has some of the usual issues you’d expect. If you’ve been playing NBA 2K on PC for a few years, the standout features of this year’s entry are the ProPLAY technology for improved gameplay which has only been on PS5 and Xbox Series X prior to NBA 2K25. WNBA also makes its PC debut with NBA 2K25 alongside the MyNBA mode. If you ended up skipping the last few years of NBA 2K games on PC in the hope of getting the full experience, NBA 2K25 is it for sure, and I hope it does well enough se we keep seeing not only the Next Gen version on PC, but also 2K doing good work on Steam Deck. On PC and Steam Deck, NBA 2K25 has 16:10 and 800p support which is already a good sign. Beyond that, it has AMD FSR 2, DLSS, and XeSS support, but I disabled this. I’ll get into why a bit later. You can also adjust v-sync, dynamic v-sync that targets 90fps during gameplay and 45fps outside that (including The City), toggle HDR (yes it works on Steam Deck), texture detail, overall quality, and two shader options. I recommend letting the game cache all the shaders on initial boot for the best possible experience during gameplay. For some reason, NBA 2K25 on Steam Deck does a quick shader cache on each boot. It isn’t too long but is notable. The NBA 2K25 PC graphics options have an advanced menu with many options including shader detail, shadow detail, player detail, crowd detail, NPC density, volumetric effects, reflections, era filters, global illumination, ambient occlusion, TAA, motion blur, depth of field, bloom, and max anisotropy. This is quite a feature packed PC port when it comes to settings. I left most on low or medium with turning off the upscaling since it made gameplay look a bit too blurry. The main settings I left at medium were player level and shader detail. I also capped the game to 60fps at 60hz using the Steam Deck quick access menu. This provided the best and most stable experience with better clarity than the defaults. Speaking of the default, if you don’t care about adjusting any settings, the game has a Steam Deck visual preset which works fine out of the box, but it looked a bit too blurry for my liking. This is what made me play around with the settings over the last few days. I was curious if NBA 2K25 is playable offline. I know many of the modes require an internet connection but what happens if you try booting up the game when not online? When trying this on my Steam Deck OLED in airplane mode with wifi turned off, the game booted up but didn’t let me load MyCAREER or MyTEAM. There’s a Connect option in the menu to retry connection, but I could get into quick play and eras fine while offline. I noticed some load times were quicker when offline as well. When looking at the console versions, NBA 2K25 is a much better experience than Steam Deck technically, but I find myself playing it more on Valve’s handheld after years of enjoying these games on Switch and more-recently on Steam Deck. The biggest differentiator is the load times. Even on my Steam Deck OLED’s internal SSD, NBA 2K25 doesn’t load as fast as PS5 or Xbox Series X. It isn’t as bad as older systems, but this was a notable difference. Beyond that, keep in mind that there is no crossplay for the PC version with both consoles. As with every recent NBA 2K, the microtransactions are still a problem. This is important if you want to play some of the modes that have a focus on them. If you just want to get this to have a great looking and playing basketball game, they might as well not exist, but keep that in mind when you make your purchase since NBA 2K25 is a $69.99 game on PC as opposed to being priced lower for the last few years. With NBA 2K25, the Steam Deck now delivers a fantastic portable basketball experience at feature parity with PS5 and Xbox Series X. With a bit of tweaking, it looks and runs great, and I’m glad to see 2K finally bring all the features to PC after many years. If you own a Steam Deck and were hoping for a good experience with NBA 2K25, 2K and Visual Concepts have delivered. Just be aware of the microtransactions in some of the game modes though. NBA 2K25 Steam Deck review score: 4/5 Gimmick! 2 Steam Deck Impressions If you’re not familiar with Gimmick! 2 yet, read Shaun’s review of the Switch version here. I was curious to see how it felt on Steam Deck. As of this writing, Gimmick! 2 hasn’t been tested by Valve, but it runs fine out of the box. In fact, it even has a mention of Steam Deck and Linux fixes in its newest patch. Gimmick! 2 is currently capped at 60fps on Steam Deck, and I even recommend forcing your Steam Deck screen to 60hz if you play on an OLED to avoid any jitter issues. There are no graphics options at all, but it does seem to support 16:10 display by default for the menus at least. When I forced the game to run at 1080p on the Steam Deck’s own screen, I wanted to make sure the game wasn’t stretching the visuals like some others do. I can confirm it indeed supports 16:10 properly after making sure of the aspect ratio of the UI and other elements. This only applies to menus though as the actual gameplay runs at 16:9. While I was hoping to see Gimmick! 2 support above 60fps, it isn’t a deal breaker or even close. I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets Steam Deck Verified soon because it runs perfectly out of the box. As for the game itself, I definitely agree with Shaun’s review linked above. I’m just glad to see Gimmick! 2 run so well out of the box on Steam Deck. Arco Steam Deck Mini Review Arco is a game I adored from the get go, but it felt like it was a few updates away from greatness. The dynamic turn-based RPG with pixel art visuals and a lovely story hit PC and Switch a few weeks ago, and it has gotten a major update on Steam already fixing most of my issues. As of this writing, the update isn’t live on Switch and I decided to review the Steam Deck version since that is the most up to date right now. When looking at Arco trailers, you might think it is just a nice looking tactical game. Well, it is a lot more than that, and the combat system is very interesting. In fact, the audio and story surprised me the most. Arco has you experiencing different stories with characters that have unique gameplay styles (in a way). While it is a turn-based affair, there are real-time elements. I saw someone call it Superhot meets a pixel art tactical RPG and I feel like that isn’t giving you the full picture, but it is a glimpse into the kind of blend of gameplay you can expect here. On Steam Deck, Arco ships Verified from the get go, and I had no issues playing it on both my Steam Decks. It is capped to 60fps as far as I can tell and has 16:9 support only. The current build on Steam Deck includes an assist mode (beta) letting you skip combat, get infinite dynamite, and more. These are good to have if you want to skip the combat, but I’m happiest about the option to skip the first act when replaying the game. On paper, Arco seemed like it would be very good, but I didn’t expect to love it as much as I do now. It feels dynamic across the board with superb visuals, music, and a lovely story. If you want an interesting tactical RPG with a memorable story, get Arco right now. There’s even a free demo you can try on Steam right now. Arco Steam Deck review score: 5/5 Skull and Bones Steam Deck Steam Deck Mini Review Skull and Bones is an interesting release to cover. It launched on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC earlier this year, but wasn’t on Steam until just over a week ago. Having never played it before, I wasn’t sure what to expect aside from a friend of mine telling me he enjoyed it despite its many flaws on Xbox. I was also curious to see how it felt on Steam Deck as a current generation console title, but Ubisoft posting about it being playable gave me some hope. For this review, I’m focusing on the Steam Deck port more than the game. On Steam Deck, Skull and Bones has an official Valve rating of being Playable. On booting it up for the first time, you have to login to your Ubisoft Connect account and this process isn’t smooth because the interface feels sluggish. I was hoping it would just pick up my details since I logged into Ubisoft Connect for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, but I had to do it again for Skull and Bones. Beyond that, the tutorial runs fine, but I wanted to get more stable performance. I set it to a 30fps frame rate limit and it runs at 16:10 and 800p. I opted for FSR 2 quality upscaling as well, though performance is more stable with the performance upscaling preset. I left everything else on low aside from textures which I set to high. I found this delivered a good experience overall. As for Skull and Bones as a game itself, I’m still early on since I’ve only played it for just over a week now, but I see the potential here. If Ubisoft keeps supporting it, it will be an easier recommendation. It is already a better experience than before looking at what was added in recent updates. Skull and Bones is a hard game to recommend at full price, but I do recommend checking out the free trial. I enjoy naval combat and open world Ubisoft games, and Skull and Bones with all its updates so far is good, but it has potential to be better. If you do plan on playing Skull and Bones on Steam Deck, keep in mind that it is an online only experience. I will likely grab it on console to also play there with cross progression. Skull and Bones Steam Deck review score: TBA ODDADA Steam Deck Review I love interactive toys like Townscaper because they are excellent at letting me spend a few minutes trying to create something cool. When ODDADA was announced, it felt like the next great interactive toy for me, and that’s exactly what it ended up being with a small caveat in its controls. ODDADA is not technically a game, but a music maker hybrid that feels like a game. The aesthetic reminds me of Windosill in a way, but it really is a gorgeous and elegant little toolbox with a plethora of ways for you to create something special. You interact with it using a mouse or touch controls on Steam Deck, and slowly progress through the different levels and instruments working your way to the end. The randomness element makes it so every creation sounds and feels different. On Steam Deck, I mentioned ODDADA has no controller support yet, but it runs perfectly at 90fps out of the box. There are a few graphics options like resolution, v-sync, and anti-aliasing toggles. You don’t need to worry much about settings in this one, but the text in the menu is a bit small for Steam Deck. Aside from the lack of controller support, I have nothing bad to say about ODDADA. I would argue that even with full controller support, it will play best with touch or mouse controls, but I know some folks prefer a controller across the board. If you enjoy music, art, or just want to make your own music with a lovely little game, ODDADA is for you. In its current state, ODDADA doesn’t have controller support, but it plays perfectly with touch controls on Steam Deck. The team is working on getting it Steam Deck Verified so keep that in mind if you plan on purchasing it now or later. ODDADA Steam Deck review score: 4.5/5 Star Trucker Steam Deck Mini Review Sometimes, a game is released blending two genres together in a way that might not satiate either fanbase. These situations can result in a game that doesn’t hit as hard for anyone, but there’s also a chance that it manages to capture a new audience. I feel like Star Trucker is one of those with how it tries to do automobile simulation and space exploration at once, but without going too deep into either of those genres. This one hasn’t been rated by Valve, but I didn’t have any issues playing it on Proton Experimental right now. Your aim in Star Trucker is to explore space, take on jobs, earn money, and unlock more to do on the massive galactic map. It includes many difficulty options and the ability to tweak things as you like before starting a new game. While I love the gameplay loop, the real highlights are the visuals, writing, and voiced banter on the radio. On PC and Steam Deck, Star Trucker lets you adjust video mode, resolution (16:10 support included), refresh rate, v-sync, graphics quality, render scale, shadow quality, temporal anti-aliasing, ambient occlusion, mesh detail, and light shafts. I opted to use a custom preset with low shadows but left everything else at normal. I also turned off temporal anti-aliasing. This was good enough for a 40fps or so target. I’m sure someone will find a better compromise in visuals for improved performance, but I was happy with this while playing. The major issues holding Star Trucker back are the controls that took me a good while to get used to. I hope these see some improvements in updates. Star Trucker surprised me with its blend of truck simulation and its setting in a way I didn’t think was possible. This feels like a game catering to what I enjoy a lot in automobile simulation and exploration games. While it might not be for everyone, I’ve enjoyed playing Star Trucker quite a bit ever since I got review code on Steam Deck. I hope the developers optimize it a bit more for Valve’s handheld though. Star Trucker Steam Deck review score: 4/5 DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia Steam Deck Mini Review Originally released in Japan on PS4 only back in 2020, Sting and Idea Factory’s DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia has made its way to the West only on Steam, and it is a great follow up to DATE A LIVE: Rio Reincarnation. If you’re not familiar with it, Date A Live is a light novels series from Koshi Tachibana with illustrations by Tsunako. DATE A LIVE: Rio Reincarnation was a great introduction to that world, and every fan of that release needs to play DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia. DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia has you playing as Shido who has a dream about a girl named Ren, and this is where the narrative begins with multiple paths and returning characters. There are many choices to make as you’d expect, and it is all accompanied by very good art from Tsunako. DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia feels more lighthearted across the board, and it serves as a perfect compliment and follow-up to DATE A LIVE: Rio Reincarnation. I’m just surprised it took this long to see it released in English. DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia runs perfectly on Stema Deck out of the box. I didn’t need to change anything. It has 16:9 support at 720p and plays all cut-scenes without issues out of the box. I recommend checking the system settings to ensure the confirm button is set to A and not B. Also make sure it isn’t stretching the 16:9 image to 16:10 in fullscreen mode. DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia is an easy recommendation for fans of DATE A LIVE: Rio Reincarnation with its lovely art, music, and memorable characters. I don’t recommend playing it before Rio Reincarnation though. DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia Steam Deck Review Score: 4/5 Total War: PHARAOH DYNASTIES Steam Deck Review Impressions I can’t recall the last time I’ve seen a free game update or re-launch get a new store page on Steam, but that’s what happened with Total War: PHARAOH DYNASTIES. When SEGA reached out asking if I wanted to try the update early, I figured it would just be early access to the update, but not a brand new app on Steam. I always thought Total War: PHARAOH was good and had potential, but it clearly wasn’t ready for a full price launch when it debuted. Fast forward to today, Total War: PHARAOH DYNASTIES is exactly what the original should’ve been, and it is an easy recommendation on PC, but the Steam Deck version has some caveats. Total War: PHARAOH DYNASTIES builds on the original by nearly doubling the main campaign content, adding in four new factions, the Dynasty system, and tons of improvements to existing areas of the game. If you already own Total War: PHARAOH, Total War: PHARAOH DYNASTIES will feel like a sequel in some ways, but also an enhanced re-release in others. It is a great game right now. On Steam Deck, Total War: PHARAOH DYNASTIES still doesn’t have controller support, but it is playable with the trackpad and touch controls. I’m still playing it on and off to see how it feels, but my initial impressions are very positive as someone who enjoyed the original Total War: PHARAOH but thought it needed more work. Pinball FX Steam Deck Impressions Shaun has been talking about Zen Studios’ Pinball FX series so much over the years, that I’ve always wanted to check it out on a handheld. I ended up getting some of the tables for older games on Switch before, but with the new digital version of the game simply titled Pinball FX out on Steam since last year, I was curious how it would play on Steam Deck. When the two new DLC tables were released, I downloaded the game on Steam Deck to see how it and the DLC tables felt. What surprised me the most is the PC port features, and how it plays on Steam Deck. I’ve not played every single DLC table so I can’t comment on how the game will run there, but having access to a lot of PC graphics options including proper HDR support on Steam Deck makes it hard to not recommend at least downloading the free client to see how you find it. As for the gameplay, I’ve played about 7 tables since getting the game, and I love this release. I’m looking forward to covering more of these tables in the future, but Pinball FX feels like a love letter to the world of pinball. While not a review, Pinball FX is absolutely worth your time on Steam Deck. Even if you don’t want to buy anything, I recommend grabbing the free to play version on Steam to access a few of the tables at no additional cost. This will let you see how the game looks and runs on Steam Deck as well as sampling a bit of the many tables available as paid DLC. New Steam Deck Verified & Playable games for the week I’m surprised Black Myth: Wukong is marked Unsupported and not Playable given it performs better than a lot of Verified games. I’m glad to see Hookah Haze and OneShot: World Machine Edition Verified this week. I’m looking forward to playing them both. Black Myth: Wukong – Unsupported (Read my review here showing it is playable) F1 Manager 2024 – Playable Hidden Through Time 2: Discovery – Playable Hookah Haze – Verified METAL SLUG ATTACK RELOADED – Verified OneShot: World Machine Edition – Verified Slash Quest – Verified Syberia – Verified Toree’s Panic Pack – Verified Volgarr the Viking II – Playable Steam Deck Game Sales, Discounts, and Specials Check out the Games from Croatia sale with discounts on the amazing Talos Principle series and much more this week. This sale is on until Monday morning. That’s all for this edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. As usual, you can read all our past and future Steam Deck coverage here. If you have any feedback for this feature or what else you’d like to see us do around the Steam Deck, let us know in the comments below. I hope you all have a great day, and thanks for reading.

Apple just announced October 2024’s new Apple Arcade games with NBA 2K25 Arcade Edition () as the headliner. Following yesterday’s …

Continue reading "‘NBA 2K25 Arcade Edition’ Headlines October 2024’s New Apple Arcade Releases With Three App Store Greats"

Apple just announced October 2024’s new Apple Arcade games with NBA 2K25 Arcade Edition () as the headliner. Following yesterday’s news about Balatro, Apple confirmed that NBA 2K25 Arcade Edition will release on October 3rd with three App Store Greats. NBA 2K25 Arcade Edition is notable because it marks the debut of The Neighborhood on iOS letting you explore the immersive world, outdoor streetball courts, NBA legends recruiting, a new badge system, and more with limited-time quests planned. Check out the NBA 2K25 Arcade Edition gameplay screenshot below: Alongside NBA 2K25 Arcade Edition, we have Smash Hit+, Furistas Cat Cafe+, and Food Truck Pup+ joining Apple Arcade as App Store Greats. I’ve only played the first of those before so I will be checking out the others assuming I can stop playing Balatro+. If you’d like to sign up to get the new games, check out NBA 2K25 Arcade Edition here on Apple Arcade. With Balatro+ and NBA 2K25 Arcade Edition this is definitely the best month in a while for the service. What do you think of the newly revealed Apple Arcade games?

Well here it is, friends. This will be the last of my retro game eShop lists, mostly because I am …

Continue reading "The 10 Best PlayStation 1 Games on Nintendo Switch – SwitchArcade Special"

Well here it is, friends. This will be the last of my retro game eShop lists, mostly because I am running out of retro consoles with a good variety of games to choose from. I’ve left one of the best for last, though: the PlayStation. Sony’s first whack at the ol’ console market succeeded beyond any expectations, and it’s little wonder it built a library so full of great games that we still see re-releases to this day. Sure, these games gave Nintendo a black eye a quarter of a century ago, but it’s all smiles now for everyone who can enjoy them on their platforms of choice. We’ve got ten of our favorites here, in no particular order of course. On with the PlaySta-Show! Klonoa: The Door to Phantomile – Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series ($39.99) Klonoa is a really great game that probably didn’t get as much attention as it deserved, but got enough that it didn’t go totally unnoticed. Probably one of the more successful 2.5D platformers on the console, even. You play as a little floppy-eared cat-creature who is navigating the world of dreams to stop a dangerous threat. Vibrant visuals, snappy gameplay, interesting bosses, and a surprisingly impactful story for what it is. The second game, originally released on PlayStation 2, isn’t quite as good as the first, but you have to get them as a set anyway. Final Fantasy VII ($15.99) This is one of the big ones, isn’t it? The Japanese RPG that finally woke the wider Western market up to the genre, Square Enix’s biggest success ever, and one of the main instruments of the PlayStation’s rocket to the top of the business. Sure, there is that remake of Final Fantasy VII out there, but I hope by now that people realize what that really is. If you want to play the original Final Fantasy VII story, you’ll have to risk getting your eye poked out on some sharp polygons. Still a very good game, and it’s not hard to see why so many people took to it the way they did. Metal Gear Solid – Master Collection Version ($19.99) Another very big name from the PlayStation, Metal Gear Solid dragged a franchise that was more or less dormant into the spotlight of a much bigger stage. The Metal Gear Solid series got a lot sillier over time, and perhaps started gazing into its own belly button a little too deeply. But it’s hard to argue with this first game, which feels less like a bizarre trip through Kojima’s philosophical musings and more like an episode of GI Joe. It doesn’t hurt that it’s a very fun game to play, either. And hey, if you enjoy it enough, both of the PlayStation 2 follow-ups are available on Switch too. G-Darius HD ($29.99) Alright, let’s venture into the weeds again just a little bit. G-Darius took Taito’s classic shoot ’em up series into 3D, and it’s amazing just how well it made that transition. Sure, those chunky rough-textured polygons haven’t aged as well as the sprites in the 2D games, but there’s a real charm to them. The vivid colors, enjoyable enemy-catching mechanic, and creative bosses make for one heck of a solid shooter. Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition ($19.99) I could almost fill this entire list with Square Enix games, but I’m going to leave it with this one and Final Fantasy VII just to give other games a chance. Chrono Cross had an impossible job: follow up one of the most well-liked Japanese RPGs ever made. And no, it couldn’t quite manage that task. People today do not speak of Chrono Cross the way they do Chrono Trigger, and that’s fair. But pull it away from that comparison and you’ll find a really clever and gorgeous RPG with a huge cast of (admittedly poorly developed in the main) characters to recruit and play with. Also, one of the best video game soundtracks of all time. Feel free to @ me, I’m right. Mega Man X4 – Mega Man X Legacy Collection ($19.99) I love just about every Mega Man game to some extent, but I am well aware that my vision is clouded by bias stemming from a severe case of childhood nostalgia. As such, when it comes to recommending games in the series with clearer eyes, there are only a few games in each series I feel good about putting in the hands of non-fans. With the Mega Man X series, it’s just two games: Mega Man X and Mega Man X4. While I enjoyed the games between them, X4 just feels like it has itself put together better than most of its siblings. This was a short-lived slice of balance, because things went off the rails again with the next game. But hey, don’t take my word for it – buy the Legacy Collections and see for yourself! Tomba! Special Edition ($19.99) You know, there were a lot of games published by Sony as first-party releases that it ended up not owning. I always assumed Tomba was as much a first-party property as Crash Bandicoot was, but… oh wait, I guess it was. Anyway, Tomba! is a really interesting platformer. It incorporates a lot of adventure game elements, but the action is on point too. Just don’t forget that that creator of Tomba! is the same guy behind Ghosts ‘n Goblins. It might seem breezy at first, but it’s going to challenge you as it goes on. Very neat game, and I’m glad it’s available again. Grandia – Grandia HD Collection ($39.99) Okay, technically Grandia was a SEGA Saturn game first, but the PlayStation port was clearly used as the basis of this HD release so I’m putting it here. Grandia comes from many of the same people who made Lunar, and it channels much of its spirit. In a time period where many RPGs were taking heavy cues from Evangelion, Grandia dared to be a bright and cheerful adventure. It also has a very satisfying combat system that builds on what Game Arts was doing with the Lunar games in strong ways. The other game in this set isn’t too shabby either. Tomb Raider – Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft ($29.99) Another true icon of the PlayStation era, Lara Croft had five adventures on the PlayStation by the time the console reached its end. The quality varied from game to game, and some of them were stronger at some things and weaker at others. If you asked me to pick the best one, I think I’d have to go with the original. It was more focused on actual raiding of tombs and less on action, and I think that was putting the best foot forward as far as the Core Design period of the franchise went. But this is another chance to make up your own mind, because you get the first three games here whether you like it or not. moon ($18.99) Let’s finish up with a deeper cut. Originally only released in Japan, moon was something of a deconstruction of the contemporary RPG. Indeed, its creators refer to it as an anti-RPG. In practice, it’s more of an adventure game than anything else, and it is very… punk? Can I call it punk? There are parts of the game that aren’t very fun at all, but it’s also not trying to be fun all the time. There’s an interesting message to this game if you see it through, and I’m glad we finally got to see this come out in English. And that’s the list, friends. Are there any PlayStation 1 games you enjoy on the Switch? Feel free to sound off down in the comments and let us know what you’re thinking! It’s always interesting to hear the opinions of others on this kind of thing. I hope everyone has enjoyed this series of articles as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. As always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for September 5th, 2024. Thursday already, eh? Where does the time …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘Emio – The Smiling Man’, Plus Today’s New Releases and Sales"

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for September 5th, 2024. Thursday already, eh? Where does the time go? We’re going in hard on the reviews again today. I have two for you, covering Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate. Our pal Mikhail chimes in today too, with his looks at Nour: Play With Your Food, Fate/stay night REMASTERED, and TOKYO CHRONOS & ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos TWIN PACK. We then move into the finest new releases of the day, then sweep up with the lists of new and expiring sales. Ah, Thursday. I shall miss you when it is Friday. Let’s go! Reviews & Mini-Views Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club ($49.99) It seems like the latest trend is making sequels to decades-dormant franchises. Video games, always trying to be like Hollywood. Nintendo has rather unpredictably decided to resurrect Famicom Detective Club, a series mainly known in the West through the “blink and you’ll miss it" remake of the first two games that came out on Switch a couple of years back. I feel like there may be a connection here. At any rate, for the first time this millennium we have a brand new Famicom Detective Club adventure! That’s nifty. The challenge with bringing back an old brand is in deciding how faithful to the original the new game should be. The risk of being too faithful is that the game could be seen as old-fashioned or out of date, but change too much and there’s a chance fans could be completely turned off. Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club leans more toward maintaining the style of the recent remakes, themselves hewing quite closely to the originals. It’s an odd blend, to be sure. The visuals are as good as anything you would see in similar games from modern times, and the story certainly pushes a little further than what the Nintendo of the 90s would have done even in Japan. But the gameplay feels very old-school, and I think that is a determining factor in whether or not you enjoy this game. A student is found dead with a paper bag over his head that has a smiling face on it. This digs up some old unsolved murders from eighteen years ago that featured a similar calling card, which raises all manner of questions. Then there is the urban legend about Emio, a killer who promises to give his victims an eternal smile. Has a previous killer resurfaced after all this time? Is it a copycat? Is there really any such thing as Emio? The cops are stumped, so it’s time to call in the Utsugi Detective Agency! Using the powers of going around to places and badgering people, you’ll do what the law enforcement was powerless to: find the truth! Basically, you’re searching around every scene for clues, talking to all of the people you meet (sometimes you need to press the issue and ask multiple times to get what you want), and trying to find the connections you’ll need to solve the case. Think of the sections of Ace Attorney outside of court and you’re not too far off the mark. Depending on how well you take to this kind of gameplay, you mind find parts of the game to be annoying or a slog. There are certainly bits I feel could have been handled more smoothly, and it feels like specific chains of logic needed just a little more signposting. Well, this is a Cat Hair Mustache genre, and I suppose by that standards Emio isn’t doing anything particularly egregious. And you know what? That’s where I’m going to leave it. I have some criticisms of the story, but I enjoyed it on the whole. It was engaging, twisty, and well-written. Some of the plot beats didn’t hit me the way it seems they hit others, but I can’t really talk about that in detail without ruining the story. And I really don’t want to do that, because this is a tale that is best experienced fresh. I liked more than I didn’t, and when it picks up it really picks up. Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is not the sort of thing we typically see from Nintendo, but if there was any rust on the team it assuredly doesn’t show. It’s perhaps a little too adherent to the original games in its mechanics, and while the plot is mostly excellent there are some times where the pace falls off or things resolve in ways I didn’t find as satisfying as I would have ideally hoped for. Still, these are minor complaints for what is otherwise a thoroughly enjoyable mystery adventure. Welcome back, Detective Club. Don’t stay away so long this time. SwitchArcade Score: 4/5 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate ($29.99) We’re starting to get a nice little set of TMNT games on the Switch, aren’t we? You can enjoy the Konami classics in the Cowabunga Collection, get an incredible modern take on the arcade beat ’em up formula with Shredder’s Revenge, bring the modern arcade home in Wrath of the Mutants, and now satisfy your urge for something with a little more home console flavoring in Splintered Fate. There are a couple more on the way, too. We’re swimming in Turtles! With Turtles? Turtles, they’re everywhere. So how is this one? Not too shabby, actually. I mean, if you’ve played this on Apple Arcade then you know the deal, and if you’re reading this site then the odds are somewhat decent you have. But just in case, let’s go over the broad pitch. Basically, imagine taking a TMNT-style beat ’em up and blending it with Hades. Alright, that pretty much does it. You can go it alone in the usual roguelite style, or play with up to four players via local or online multiplayer. Mikhail and I did the online multiplayer thing together and it worked rather well, so that’s a good way to go. The game is fine when you’re on your own, but adding more people predictably improves the experience. That’s TMNT for you. Anyway, some kind of shenanigans occur with Shredder and a mysterious power. Splinter is in trouble, and the Turtles have to try to figure out how to save him. When all you have is a katana, every problem looks like a Foot Soldier. Slice, dice, and/or bludgeon whatever enemies come in front of you, dash tactically to avoid attacks, pick up some perks that you can enjoy in your current run, and collect another currency to score some permanent upgrades. If you die, it’s back to the lair to try again. Roguelite beat ’em up. But with the Turtles, so it’s automatically better than it would be without them. It isn’t particularly inspired, but it does its job well enough. I wouldn’t call Splintered Fate a must-have in general, but TMNT fans will probably enjoy this twist on the usual fare. The multiplayer is well-implemented, and it’s good to see that important TMNT element wasn’t passed over despite this being the kind of game that is usually played solo. Those without an affinity for the Turtles can find better roguelite games to play on the Switch, but with this being such an intensely competitive genre on the platform it’s to the credit of Splintered Fate that it can manage to keep pace at all. Not bad. SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5 Nour: Play With Your Food ($9.99) When Nour: Play With Your Food originally released on PC and PS5, I was a bit surprised to see it not also released on Switch and mobile. It felt like a perfect fit for touchscreens as an experimental food art experience. I played it on PC and liked it quite a bit, but this isn’t a traditional game for everyone. If you enjoy playful sandbox-like experiences and love food, you will likely find a lot to love in Nour: Play With Your Food, but the Switch version is a bit lacking. If you’re new to Nour: Play With Your Food, it has you playing with specific food types across different stages with interesting music and a lot of over the top nonsense (compliment). It feels like a combination of an interactive app made for those who love food and art equally. Initially, you only get access to the basics, but I found myself surprised at how much the developers added to let you literally play with your food as the name suggests. This is when I realized why it might not be as easy to play on a touchscreen. I am disappointed in the lack of touchscreen support on Switch though. Aside from that, Nour: Play With Your Food was a bit of a heavy game on Steam Deck as well, and you can see the cutbacks on Switch to have it run decently. The biggest issue is the load times being long both docked and handheld on Switch. Nour: Play With Your Food is worth experiencing if you love food, art, and interactive apps. While the Switch version isn’t the best way to experience it, Nour still feels best on a portable, and I hope it does well enough to get more DLC or even a physical release. We don’t see many releases like this in gaming, but games like Nour and Townscaper are the perfect compliment to more-involved RPGs and story-driven games. -Mikhail Madnani SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5 Fate/stay night REMASTERED ($29.99) Fate/stay night REMASTERED launched about a month ago on Nintendo Switch and Steam worldwide. I was hoping to have it covered sooner, but the month has been really busy and Fate/stay night itself is very long. Before covering the game itself, I want to take you on a bit of a journey. Many years ago, a close friend convinced me to watch Fate/Zero as one of the first few anime I watched from start to finish. Back then, I wanted to experience more from the universe, but there wasn’t really something interesting I could officially play in English. I ended up importing the PS Vita version of Fate/stay night Realta Nua just to own it, and since then have basically been playing whatever Fate-related release or Type Moon property we see in the West. This includes Fate/EXTELLA, Fate/Samurai Remnant, watching Fate/stay night, and even trying out Fate/Grand Order for a bit. All of that led to me being very glad that Aniplex brought over Witch on the Holy Night and Tsukihime‘s remake recently, but there was the one game I was hoping we’d see released in English somehow. I didn’t bother with fan translations, and kept hoping we’d see Fate/stay night in English. Here we are. It still feels unreal that this is in English and on Switch. But is it worth your time and money? Well I can save you some time and say absolutely on both fronts with a few caveats. Fate/stay night REMASTERED is a remaster of the 2004-released Type Moon visual novel covering the story of Emiya Shirou, the Holy Grail war, and more. This is basically the best entry point into the Fate universe, and I know there are many who have only experienced it through anime and other games so far, so this is now a chance to see the origin of the series as it was meant to be. Fate/stay night REMASTERED even with its few quality of life features is still a 55+ hour experience at least, and that makes the low asking price shocking. I get that this is a remaster of an older game, but the volume of text and work done really makes it one of the best value releases on the eShop this year. If you already played the original versions of Fate/stay night in Japanese, Fate/stay night REMASTERED does a lot to improve the experience. Obviously it adds English, but the 16:9 support is welcome. It also feels like a lot more work went into this than I initially expected. I’ve been playing a bit of the PS Vita release to compare, and the developers of this remaster have done a great job at making Fate/stay night look good on modern displays, but don’t expect the gorgeousness of Tsukihime‘s recent remake. While I love Fate/stay night itself, I’m glad that the developers actually put in touchscreen support on Nintendo Switch. I played most of Fate/stay night REMASTERED on my Switch Lite (which is sadly busted now) and then synced it to my Switch OLED to play at home and also docked. It feels perfect on Nintendo’s hybrid system. Hopefully it gets more platform releases in the future like iOS and PS5 so more can experience it. Speaking of more platforms, I also played a good amount of Fate/stay night REMASTERED on Steam Deck. It works perfectly out of the box. If you were wondering where to play Fate/stay night REMASTERED assuming you owned a Steam Deck or Switch, get it wherever you want but make sure you play it. It is that good. There’s nothing really holding Fate/stay night REMASTERED back right now aside from no physical release on Switch, and I hope it does well enough to get one in the future to go on my shelf with Witch on the Holy Night and Tsukihime. Fate/stay night REMASTERED is basically an essential for visual novel fans and I still can’t believe it is not only available in English, but also on both Switch and Steam. The low asking price makes it an even easier recommendation. While it may not look as good as Tsukihime‘s recent remake, Fate/stay night REMASTERED is still worth your time, and I’m glad I finally got to play it in English after all these years of owning the Japanese PS Vita release. -Mikhail Madnani SwitchArcade Score: 5/5 TOKYO CHRONOS & ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos TWIN PACK ($49.99) As someone who didn’t bother with VR outside of borrowing a PS VR headset on PS4 Pro years ago, I know I’ve ended up missing out on some great games. When looking at what my friends who own current VR headsets talk about, in addition to games like Thumper or Beat Saber, I used to see rumblings of TOKYO CHRONOS and ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos mentioned. Both were praised for their stories and also for being full experiences in VR. I never got to experience the stories until TOKYO CHRONOS & ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos TWIN PACK hit Switch through Izanagi Games just over a month ago. When you first boot up TOKYO CHRONOS & ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos TWIN PACK on Switch, you get to choose which game you want to play. The first game has you experiencing the story of high school friends in an alternate version of Shibuya, lost memories, killers, and more. If you’ve played many visual novels or adventure games, the narrative here will feel very predictable in parts, but it isn’t bad. It has good visuals and I feel like trying it out in VR after seeing how it feels on Switch just for the novelty of a full visual novel in VR. ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos on the other hand is a lot better with its production, music, writing, voice acting, and characters in general. It also goes beyond being a pure visual novel in parts, and I love when developers do this. Punching above your weight in a visual novel usually makes for a more memorable experience when coupled with important story beats. ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos is the standout of the two, but I think the pack is definitely worth buying if you’re ok with the controls and movement in the demo. Aside from some aspects of the stories not hitting as hard, the Switch version has some performance issues when it comes to camera movement. These aren’t a dealbreaker, but it is distracting having that happen during first person and other encounters. The rest of the Switch features more than make up for it though with touchscreen support (my favorite feature in adventure games) and good rumble. TOKYO CHRONOS & ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos TWIN PACK is a great experience on Nintendo Switch with its touch controls and rumble support added to make it even more immersive. I’m glad I got to finally experience these stories since I never owned a VR headset, and I hope to see more from this team in the future. If you enjoy sci-fi stories, I urge you to download the demo at least to see how this one feels on Switch. -Mikhail Madnani SwitchArcade Score: 4.5/5 Select New Releases Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku ($49.99) This might be the winner for the title that does the most clear and concise work in explaining a game’s content. At least for 2024, anyway. So yes, this is Fitness Boxing. Featuring Hatsune Miku. It has 24 songs from Miku and friends, plus 30 more from the Fitness Boxing series. Plenty of tunes to punch it out to, in other words. Mechanically, it looks like the other games in the series. No surprise there. Pick it up if you want a Fitness Boxing game featuring Hatsune Miku. Gimmick! 2 ($24.99) I reviewed this yesterday, but in case you missed that, allow me to bring you up to speed. This is a very faithful follow-up to the original cult favorite, building on its foundations a bit, bringing in a slick new presentation, and still as hard as that piece of a Subway pizza sub you lost under the sofa back in the 90s. If you don’t mind a challenge and enjoy clever platformers, you’ll want to check this one out. Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost ($29.99) Are you tired of switching between games based on whether you feel like playing a rhythm game or a bullet hell shoot ’em up? Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost is here to save you from the inconvenience! There are two modes in this game, and it kind of feels like peanut butter and chalk in some sense. But the Touhou theme ties them together, and for fans of the property I’m sure it will pass muster. At least you know the music will be good? EGGCONSOLE Hydlide MSX ($6.49) We’ve already seen one version of Hydlide release in EGGCONSOLE, but here’s another one for good measure. It came after the one we have, but before the NES one. It falls somewhere in between them as a result, and I suppose if you are a Hydlide super-fan then you’ll want to grab as many versions as they release. For everyone else, I’m not sure how much more you’ll get out of this MSX version if you already played the PC-8801 release. Arcade Archives Lead Angle ($7.99) Well, at least Hamster’s mixing it up a little. This is a 1988 Seibu Kaihatsu release, a follow-up to Empire City 1931. It’s one of those gallery shooters that were all the rage at the time, though I can say with some confidence that Lead Angle was not all the rage at the time. It’s a decent enough example of the genre though, so if you enjoy this sort of game you probably shouldn’t be too quick to push the plate away. Shooting gangsters! You don’t see that kind of theme all that often anymore either, come to think of it. Sales (North American eShop, US Prices) Not much excitement going on today, but No Man’s Sky is never a bad choice. The rest of the good games in the inbox are frequently on sale, so do what you will with them. Oddly, one could say the same about the outbox. I’ll leave all of that business to you today, as I don’t have any strong feelings on the matter. Select New Sales No Man’s Sky ($23.99 from $59.99 until 9/17) The Last Campfire ($1.99 from $14.99 until 9/17) XALADIA: Rise of the Space Pirates X2 ($8.09 from $17.99 until 9/18) Scars of Mars ($15.99 from $19.99 until 9/18) Die for Valhalla ($3.59 from $11.99 until 9/25) Moonlighter ($3.74 from $24.99 until 9/25) Thea: The Awakening ($5.39 from $17.99 until 9/25) Children of Morta ($5.49 from $21.99 until 9/25) Dungeon of the Endless ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/25) Yes, Your Grace ($2.99 from $19.99 until 9/25) Hypnospace Outlaw ($4.99 from $19.99 until 9/25) Nowhere Prophet ($2.49 from $24.99 until 9/25) Soccer Story ($7.99 from $19.99 until 9/25) Family Man ($1.99 from $19.99 until 9/25) South of the Circle ($6.49 from $12.99 until 9/25) Wingspan ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/25) Sales Ending Tomorrow, September 6th Ambition: A Minuet in Power ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/6) Dance of Death: Du Lac & Fey ($2.39 from $15.99 until 9/6) Fear Effect Sedna ($1.99 from $19.99 until 9/6) Galak-Z The Void Deluxe ($2.99 from $14.99 until 9/6) Kingdom Rush ($5.49 from $9.99 until 9/6) Kingdom Rush Frontiers ($5.49 from $9.99 until 9/6) Kingdom Rush Origins ($8.24 from $14.99 until 9/6) My Time at Portia ($4.49 from $29.99 until 9/6) PowerWash Simulator ($17.49 from $24.99 until 9/6) Skulls of the Shogun ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/6) Suhoshin ($4.49 from $14.99 until 9/6) The House of Da Vinci 2 ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/6) Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 4 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/6) Ty the Tasmanian Tiger HD ($10.49 from $29.99 until 9/6) Violet Wisteria ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/6) What the Fork ($4.49 from $17.99 until 9/6) That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow to finish things up, with more reviews, new releases, and sales to look at. Hey, did you know? I have an at-the-moment dormant blog that is going to get active again soon. You can find it at Post Game Content. If you like reading Shaun’s thoughts on games, you’ll certainly find some there. I hope you all have a thrilling Thursday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Back in April, the Razer Nexus (Free) app on iOS and Android was updated with support added for an unannounced …

Continue reading "Razer Kishi Ultra Mobile Controller Review – The Best Mobile Controller in 2024?"

Back in April, the Razer Nexus (Free) app on iOS and Android was updated with support added for an unannounced “Razer Kishi Ultra" controller boasting features like analog stick deadzone customization and more. Since then, Razer has announced and released the Razer Kishi Ultra with support for more than just phones. The Razer Kishi Ultra is also the most expensive mobile controller as far as I’m aware, but it offers more features than expected for specific devices. Having used the Razer Kishi and the Backbone One including the new USB-C versions for years now, I didn’t think I needed a new controller, but the Razer Kishi Ultra changed my mind in a way the Hori Split Pad Pro did on Nintendo Switch a few years ago. Razer Kishi Ultra – what’s in the box The Razer Kishi Ultra box included the controller itself, a few sets of rubber cushions to use depending on your device, a sheet of stickers, and an instruction booklet. For the price point of $149.99, I expected to have a carrying case or at least a pouch included. Beyond that, the box and casing for the controller in the box are good quality as usual from Razer. The Razer Kishi Ultra rubber cushions come in pairs that are properly labeled for use with iPhone (Pair A), iPad Mini 6th generation (Pair B), and Android (Pair C). If you use a case, you don’t need to use any of these rubber cushions. Razer Kishi Ultra compatibility – iPhone, Cases, Android, and iPad Mini While most mobile controllers, especially the telescopic ones, only support iPhone and Android, the Razer Kishi Ultra also supports tablets like the iPad Mini 6th generation. We’ve also recently had some telescopic controllers ship with bluetooth support, but as for USB-C, this one seems to have some of the best compatibility. For the purpose of this review, I tested the Razer Kishi Ultra on my iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 14 Plus, and wired on my iPad Pro. I didn’t test on Android or Windows, but I did try it on my Steam Deck wired. It is detected as a generic Xbox gamepad, but it did work when I was playing NBA 2K25 on Steam Deck yesterday for review and it also supports decent rumble in games like Bakeru that I tested with. Razer Kishi Ultra buttons, d-pad, and triggers Before getting to the new features, how does the Razer Kishi Ultra actually feel and perform? I was a bit worried about the d-pad, but it ended up working great when I played games like Garou: Mark of the Wolves ACA NeoGeo or even newer ones like Hades and Hitman Blood Money Reprisal. Beyond the d-pad, the shoulder buttons and triggers work well just like Razer’s older controller. The analog sticks are comfortable and smooth to use with the face buttons being clicky albeit with more travel distance which I didn’t expect after the original Razer Kishi. Overall, I have no complaints with the Razer Kishi Ultra d-pad, buttons, or triggers after considerable use including some sessions lasting a few hours where I played Zenless Zone Zero while charging my phone through the passthrough charging here. In terms of feel, the textured finish isn’t rubbery, but it works well for a grip and remains very comfortable to hold even for a few hours. I don’t usually care for Chroma stuff on controllers, and just like the Razer Kitsune, I would’ve preferred if the lights could somehow match the gameplay on screen. Razer Kishi Ultra – new features The main draw of the Razer Kishi Ultra is the full-size form factor. Instead of feeling like a compact mobile controller as we’ve seen with Razer’s prior release or the Backbone One, the Razer Kishi Ultra is a full-size one that feels like you’re holding your phone in the middle of a good quality console controller. This may not be a plus for some looking for a compact solution, but it isn’t meant to be that. The full-size form factor makes this the comfiest mobile controller I’ve used by far. The other features are the Chroma customization through the app, haptics (for Android and Windows), and virtual controller mode (Android only). The virtual controller mode is good for Android games since we see some notable ones skip adding controller support outside iOS on mobile like Genshin Impact. Aside from the new features, the Razer Kishi Ultra has a 3.5mm headphone jack, passthrough charging (15W), and the L4 and R4 shoulder buttons. Razer Kishi Ultra features missing on iOS – haptics and virtual controller mode The haptics and virtual controller mode are only available on Android (or Windows as well for the former) and not available on iOS. I don’t really care about virtual controller mode, but I hope Razer can work on something to enable the haptics in some way for iOS devices as well. I love haptic feedback on PS5 and HD Rumble on Switch, so having something that tries to do similar things on iOS would be nice. Razer Kishi Ultra price point – is it worth it? I already think most folks are better off getting a PS5 or Xbox controller to play wirelessly on iOS as the best possible and cheaper option. If you do want a good controller that has a telescopic form factor and attaches onto your phone, the most popular options are already $99.99 so the Razer Kishi Ultra at $150 is definitely a more premium controller. Is it worth that much more? If you’re ok with the current Razer Kishi and Backbone One price point, this is definitely worth the extra price for the comfort, but the lack of the haptics makes it feel like a lesser experience on iOS compared to Android where you get the fully featured experience. It remains to be seen if the joysticks on this one don’t drift over time as well. Razer Kishi Ultra – the best mobile controller in 2024? If you’ve not read my review of Razer’s older controller, check it out here. Moving from that more compact form factor that I’ve gotten used to for years across Razer and Backbone products to this big one has been interesting. Just like the Hori Split Pad Pro for Nintendo Switch, I find myself wanting both a full-size controller and a more compact one for iPhone. The Razer Kishi Ultra is easily the comfiest mobile controller I’ve ever used, but I wish it was easier to travel with. I worry about how it might end up in my bag unless I carry it in the big box it ships with. I don’t know if the Razer Kishi Ultra will replace my normal Kishi or Backbone One when I travel, but I’m definitely only using it when I play at home. At the asking price, I was hoping for hall effect analog sticks though. I’ve had drift issues with multiple controllers over the years and while it hasn’t happened to the Razer Kishi Ultra yet (or the Razer Kishi itself), but I can’t say how things might be in a few more months. This is more of a thing to keep in mind when you buy it. Having now covered the Backbone One and Razer Kishi models, I definitely want to try out the GameSir lineup as they seem more than worth checking out. Hopefully in the near future. Razer Kishi Ultra 2 wishlist When thinking about what I’d like to see in an updated Razer Kishi Ultra, aside from hall effect sticks, I’d like some of the sharper edges like the passthrough charging port to be smoothed out a bit. Beyond that, while I love the L4 and R4 buttons as options, I vastly prefer having paddles on the bottom of the controller since they feel more natural to use. It would be good to have those as options given the premium price. Maybe even L5 and R5 as paddles on the bottom with remapping available in the Razer Nexus app. The final thing I want is a carrying case for this to come with the controller. When looking at the pro level controllers on console, they usually come with a nice hard case. Granted this one doesn’t cost as much as a DualSense Edge or Victrix Pro BFG, but it would be a nice addition to the package that wouldn’t cost too much. Razer Kishi Ultra review If you’re used to playing on traditional PS5 or Xbox Series controllers or basically any full-sized controller and don’t enjoy using the compact Joy-Con size buttons and sticks we usually see in mobile controllers, the Razer Kishi Ultra is perfect for you with its comfortable grip, great d-pad, and face buttons. The lack of full feature support on iOS is disappointing, but this is a great addition to the mobile controller space, and I hope Razer can build on this through the years while also offering a carrying case so I don’t have to worry about anything happening to this in my bag when I go out. Razer Kishi Ultra review score: 4.5/5 Amazon Link: Razer Kishi Ultra If you’re curious about the book in the header image, it is Andy Kelly’s upcoming book titled Perfect Organism: An Alien: Isolation Companion that I’m currently reading for review. You can pre-order it here. Disclaimer: TouchArcade may earn a small commission from purchases made using the affiliate links above.

In the latest look at retro game offerings on the Nintendo Switch, I’ve opted to take a different approach. You …

Continue reading "The 10 Best Game Boy Advance & Nintendo DS Games on Nintendo Switch – SwitchArcade Special"

In the latest look at retro game offerings on the Nintendo Switch, I’ve opted to take a different approach. You see, there aren’t quite so many distinct Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS ports on the Switch as some other consoles. I know, it surprised me too! So they’re going to be sharing a list, much like how they shared a few years on retail shelves. While you can find plenty of great games from the Game Boy Advance in the Nintendo Switch Online app, we’re instead looking at those games that dare to exist in the wilds of the Switch eShop. We’ve got ten of our favorites here, four from the Game Boy Advance and six from the Nintendo DS. No particular order, of course. On with the show! Game Boy Advance Steel Empire (2004) – Over Horizon X Steel Empire ($14.99) We’ll start off with a decent little shoot ’em up, Steel Empire. While the original Genesis/Mega Drive version is the better game in my opinion, this isn’t a bad take at all. Worth playing just to compare with the other version, and it’s certainly a breezier experience in some ways. Steel Empire is a pretty cool game no matter how you play it, and it’s one that even those who don’t normally get into shooters tend to enjoy. Mega Man Zero – Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection ($29.99) While the Mega Man X series started to flounder on home consoles, the true successor to the Mega Man crown was rising up on the Game Boy Advance. Mega Man Zero is the start of an excellent series of side-scrolling action games, and one that perhaps didn’t figure out how to present what it wanted to do in the smoothest way. Those rough edges would get sanded off as the series went on, but the first game is where you want to start. Feel free to continue on from there. Mega Man Battle Network – Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection ($59.99) Yes, I’m double-dipping on Mega Man here. But I think it’s warranted here, because Mega Man Zero and Mega Man Battle Network are very different kinds of games, and both are very good at what they do. This one is an RPG with a unique battle system that manages to incorporate a bit of action to go with the more strategic elements. The core concept of this whole virtual world existing inside of electronic devices is a clever one, and the game doesn’t do things halfway with it. The returns diminished harder on this series than they did with Zero, but there’s plenty of fun to be had here. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow – Castlevania Advance Collection ($19.99) Another collection where you’ll probably just want to run the whole board, but if I have to pick one best one it’s clearly Aria of Sorrow. When I’m in the right mood, I’d rather play this than even the amazing Symphony of the Night. The soul collecting system encourages grinding, and the gameplay is so fun that I don’t even mind that. Throw in an unusual setting and some fun secrets and you’ve got a real winner here. One of my favorite third-party Game Boy Advance games full-stop. Nintendo DS Shantae: Risky’s Revenge – Director’s Cut ($9.99) The original Shantae was something of a cult hit, but the low distribution numbers meant that relatively few people had a chance to play it. It was with the DSiWare release of Shantae: Risky’s Revenge that the Half-Genie Hero had a chance to make a bigger splash, and she certainly did that. Indeed, this established Shantae so well that she hasn’t missed a console generation since. This game kind of sits on a fuzzy line since it was sort of built from the ashes of a Game Boy Advance game that never released. Curiously, that game will be getting a release soon and might fit this list when it does. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy ($29.99) Look, if you’re really bothered about the lists being imbalanced, you could (and maybe should) count this as a Game Boy Advance game. That is the console where it originated after all, it just wasn’t localized at that time. Anyway, you probably know Ace Attorney. Fun adventure games that blend on-location investigations with overly dramatic court scenes. Goofy humor, but rather good stories. This first game completely knocks it out of the park, and while I might prefer later installments I wouldn’t be able to argue against anyone who said this was the best. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective ($29.99) From the creator of Ace Attorney, Ghost Trick is just as well-written but has its own cool gameplay hook. You’re a ghost and need to use your abilities to save people, all with an eye to figuring out the truth behind your own untimely demise. This game is a complete wild ride and I recommend everyone play it from start to finish. It was a bit slept on in its original Nintendo DS form, and I’m glad to see Capcom hasn’t given up on it. Reward them for their tenacity. The World Ends With You: Final Remix ($49.99) The World Ends With You is, quite frankly, one of the top games on the Nintendo DS. Ideally, it’s the place where you should play the game. It’s just so tightly built around that hardware and its capabilities that none of the ports have been able to get just right. Still, time marches on. The Switch version of this game will do just fine if you don’t want to dig up a working Nintendo DS, and you really should play it somewhere. Why not here? A great game in just about every possible way. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow – Castlevania Dominus Collection ($24.99) The Castlevania Dominus Collection just released not long ago, and it collects all of the Nintendo DS Castlevania games. This is another case where all of the games are worth playing, and I’m picking Dawn of Sorrow simply because having its gimmicky touch controls replaced with more fitting button controls makes for a significant improvement. But really, play all three of the Nintendo DS games in this collection. They’re all great in their own ways. Etrian Odyssey III HD – Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection ($79.99) This is another franchise that in some ways can’t exist easily outside of the DS/3DS ecosystem. But Atlus made a good attempt here, and I think the results are playable enough. Each of the Etrian Odyssey games stands alone, and they’re all pretty substantial RPGs. Etrian Odyssey III is the largest of the three, and while it’s more than a little wooly, it’s well-worth sinking your teeth into. And that’s the list, friends. Are there any Game Boy Advance or Nintendo DS games you enjoy on the Switch? Feel free to sound off down in the comments and let us know what you’re thinking! It’s always interesting to hear the opinions of others on this kind of thing. As always, thanks for reading!

Feral Interactive’s tease seemingly was about Total War: Empire from Creative Assembly and SEGA because the developer just announced that …

Continue reading "‘Total War: Empire’ Is Coming to iOS and Android This Fall From Feral Interactive"

Feral Interactive’s tease seemingly was about Total War: Empire from Creative Assembly and SEGA because the developer just announced that it will be coming to iOS and Android this Fall with release date and pricing to be announced shortly. Feral Interactive also confirmed that Total War: Empire will feature intuitive touch controls for phones and tablets, a redesigned UI, new quality of life improvements, and more. If you’ve not played it yet, Total War: Empire takes the franchise to the 18th century Age of Enlightenment and it is considered one of the best games in the series. Watch the Total War: Empire mobile iOS and Android announcement trailer below: Ahead of Total War: Empire hitting mobile this Fall, you can try it out on Steam right now in its definitive edition release here. Total War: Empire on mobile will also be the first time (on mobile) the series will feature real-time naval battles. I can’t wait to see how it looks and feels on modern iOS devices. I also hope we get news for all the DLC and pricing soon. Have you played Total War: Empire before and what do you think of the trailer today for its iOS and Android release?

Balatro from developer LocalThunk and publisher Playstack is finally coming to mobile later this month on iOS, Android, and also …

Continue reading "‘Balatro’ Is Coming to Apple Arcade and Also iOS as a Standalone Premium Release Beginning September 26th"

Balatro from developer LocalThunk and publisher Playstack is finally coming to mobile later this month on iOS, Android, and also directly on Apple Arcade. Yes, this will be a premium release on iOS and Android, but also one available as a “+" version on Apple Arcade from day one. The Poker-inspired roguelike Balatro has sold over 2 million units across PS5, Switch, Steam, PS4, and Xbox platforms in less than six months, and I can’t wait to see how it performs on mobile with more planned including a major free update in 2025 bringing new ideas and strategies. Balatro will be launching for $9.99 on mobile and you can watch the mobile announcement trailer ahead of its September 26th release date below: If you’ve not played Balatro yet, read my 5/5 review of it here on Switch and check out my feature on the best games of the year so far on Switch where I included it here. I also interviewed LocalThunk about the game, the mobile release, and more. Read that here. You can pre-order Balatro on the App Store for iOS here and pre-register for it on Android here. The Apple Arcade version is here. Have you played it before and will you be getting one of the best games of 2024 later this month on mobile?

It has been pointed out to me that perhaps I could be fairer to other Marvel games. I’m always covering …

Continue reading "Check Out The Latest Events In ‘Marvel Future Fight’ & ‘Marvel Contest of Champions’"

It has been pointed out to me that perhaps I could be fairer to other Marvel games. I’m always covering Marvel Snap (Free) whenever it gets any kind of update, but the others tend to get relegated to the Best Updates articles on Mondays. That… is a valid point! And thus, let us enjoy a Marvel Minute and see how other Marvel games are faring at the moment. It turns out that both Marvel Future Fight (Free) and Marvel Contest of Champions (Free) have some cool events going on at the moment. Let’s have a look-see! First up, over in Marvel Future Fight, it’s Iron Man time! You know Tony. He’s always concocting new suits, finding bigger and better guns to deal with whatever the situation presents. This particular event is inspired by Invincible Iron Man, and has some new threads for Tony and Pepper. Here’s what you can look forward to in this event, straight from the update notes: “Invincible Iron Man has joined Marvel Future Fight. Beat the enemies with upgraded suits! 1. New Uniforms Added! – Iron Man, Rescue 2. New Tier-4 Advancement! – War Machine, Hulkbuster 3. The New World Boss: Legend+ Added! – Returned the Black Order, ‘Corvus & Proxima’ 4. The New Custom Gear, ‘C.T.P. of Liberation’ Added! 5. Getting 200 Crystals Event – Obtain 200 crystals by linking your e-mail account!" Okay, now over to the ever-popular fighting game, Marvel Contest of Champions. New events for this game typically bring some new playable fighters with them, and at this point in the game’s life some of these cuts are getting very deep indeed. I don’t think we’ll ever see a Marvel fighting game again with a roster this varied. Like, Count Nefaria? Seriously? As an old-butt Marvel fan from a very long time ago, I like seeing these less common characters show up at all, let alone as playable characters. Over to the update notes to give you the full skinny on all of this: “NEW CHAMPIONS Count Nefaria Count Luchino Nefaria was the descendant of a long line of Italian noblemen, and used his wealth and connections to become a powerful leader within the Maggia crime syndicate. He furthered his rise to power by subjecting himself to scientific experiments that granted him superhuman abilities, but cost him his life. He was later resurrected as a being made entirely of Ionic energy, rendering him effectively immortal as long as he drains other Ionic beings to maintain his power. Shathra Daughter of the Elder Goddesses Oshtur and Gaea, Shathra comes from the world that would come to be known as Loomworld. Shathra was tasked with creating the Celestial Map of Humanity, however, after being outdone by her younger sister Neith, she became enraged with jealousy and spite towards her sister and the Great Web she had designed. Consumed by her vengeance and envy, Shathra gave into her feral nature to tear down everything her sister created, one Spider at a time. NEW QUESTS AND EVENTS Event Quest – Lupus In Fabula There has been an undertaking to overthrow The Collector’s ship! The Summoner is being called in to evict these evil-doers! But as they make it deeper into the ship they also find themselves deeper in trouble as each villain seems to be making their own plans for how best to make the most of The Collector’s treasures. Will The Summoner be able to manage these miscreants? Or will they go down with the ship? Find out in LUPUS IN FABULA! Side Quest – Ludum Maximus The Maestro has declared four months of celebratory games to honor his return. The festivities begin with the Circus Maximus, an onslaught of games and challenges hosted by Count Nefaria. The Count will not accept anything less than the best, the mightiest, the greatest of games. So dare to enter LUDUM MAXIMUS! Nefaria knows that a true battle is a mix of skill and luck, so 5x weekly Maps will open which present randomized Paths filled with fearsome foes! Act 9; Chapter 1 Glykhan has self-destructed but the sinister plotting of Ouroboros is far from over. However clues for where to head next seem few and far between. Luckily (depending on your definition of luck) Superior Kang has some secrets to share in the form of holo-tapes scattered around Battleworld. Mister Fantastic and Doctor Doom send The Summoner on an intel retrieval mission, but they aren’t the only ones looking for answers. Will the past come back to haunt The Battlerealm? Find out in Act 9 – Chapter 1: THE RECKONING Glorious Games Introducing our third Saga: Glorious Games! To celebrate the history of the Contest and his triumphant return, The Maestro has declared four months of celebratory games. Each month of the Saga will revolve around a different element of games, starting with September’s Circus Maximus and culminating in the celebration of December’s Grand Banquet! Featuring a classical antiquity aesthetic, an exciting Champion chase, surprise Champion reworks and brand new kinds of Events and Quests, Glorious Games is sure to usher in our 10-year anniversary celebration in style! Realm Events Get ready to work alongside every Summoner in the Battlerealm! Realm Events are a brand new type of Event in which points will be contributed on a global level. Milestone rewards can be claimed once global and individual point contribution thresholds have been reached. For those more competitively-inclined Summoners, ranked rewards will also be up for grabs, including an exclusive and unique player title." And that’s that. Let it never be said that Shaun was not interested in a level playing field. Kind of. Anyway, both of these events look very cool in their own ways, and if you haven’t played these games before or fell off a while back, this might be another good opportunity to give them both a try. I mean, I know I’m going to try out Count Nefaria. Look at him! He’s so nefarious! He cavorts with nefarious fellows! Hadouken? More like Ha-Don’t-ken! Okay, sorry. I’ll leave now. Enjoy!

Beginning today, Apple will have released one new Apple Vision Pro game, one App Store Great, and upgrading an App …

Continue reading "NFL Retro Bowl 25, Monster Train+, and Puzzle Sculpt Release Today on Apple Arcade Alongside Major Game Updates This Week"

Beginning today, Apple will have released one new Apple Vision Pro game, one App Store Great, and upgrading an App Store Great to an Apple Arcade Original (as a standalone release) alongside some notable udpates. NFL Retro Bowl 25 () (Edit: No longer an update) will let players create their own dynasty using official NFL teams and players featuring official retro art, attributes, stats, and contracts. Since this was announced, I was surprised at how much interest I saw for it online. I don’t follow the NFL much, but I didn’t expect as much of a positive reaction to the NFL Retro Bowl 25 announcement. Hopefully it ends up well when it goes live as an update later today. Alongside NFL Retro Bowl 25, App Store Great Monster Train+ has launched on Apple Arcade including The Last Divinity DLC from the get go. Check out a screenshot from NFL Retro Bowl 25 below: Puzzle Sculpt is a Vision Pro-only set to launch today on Apple Arcade letting players solve puzzles in their own living room by removing blocks to reveal a cute collectible in a cube. As for this week’s notable updates, Hello Kitty Island Adventure has the Jam Jamboree on with Petunias appearing in the Merry Meadow as a festive flower. Rabbids Multiverse has new cards, outfits, seasonal events, and quality of life improvements with this week’s update. Wylde Flowers has its Magical Creatures update now live with jewelry crafting, secrets in the lighthouse, and more. Disney Spellstruck adds Hercules with a limited time event, a high contrast event, and more. What the Car brings in yet another update with a “Meet the Developers" special, scissors, bear improvements (yes), and more. What do you think of this month’s new Apple Arcade additions? Update: It looks like they launched NFL Retro Bowl 25 as a new app and not an update.

After tackling the best party games on Switch in 2024, the recent release of Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom …

Continue reading "The Best Switch Visual Novels and Adventure Games in 2024 – From Fata Morgana and VA-11 Hall-A to Famicom Detective Club and Gnosia"

After tackling the best party games on Switch in 2024, the recent release of Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club being as amazing as it is pushed me to write about what I consider the best visual novels and adventure games on Switch to play right now. I’ve included both because some games are pure visual novels while some are adventure games (and not visual novels). This list has quite a few games from across regions and release years, and I hope you find something you end up loving here. As usual, this list is in no particular order. Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club ($49.99) + Famicom Detective Club: The Two-Case Collection When Nintendo not only remade both Famicom Detective Club games back in 2021, I couldn’t believe it. They were amazing adventure games, and my only complaint really was the lack of a physical release back then. Fast forward to 2024 and Nintendo has released Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club physically and digitally as a brand-new entry in the series, and I’ve been floored playing it. Not only does it feel like a true series entry which might be a negative to some, but this might be one of the most lavish productions I’ve seen in a game like this ever. I don’t want to get into spoilers, but the ending is shockingly good and it really justifies its M rating. I definitely didn’t expect to have a new Famicom Detective Club game in 2024 on my top games of the year list, but Nintendo managed to do that with Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club. Download the demo now. If you’d rather play the first two games before Emio, grab the Famicom Detective Club: The Two-Case Collection. If you are ok with some old school design and gameplay for adventure games, you will adore these. VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action ($14.99) If you’ve been reading the few “best Switch games" lists I’ve been doing this year, you’ve seen me feature VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action twice before already, but as you know, I’m not going to pass up an opportunity to write about one of my favorite games of all time. VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action is notable for its story, music, aesthetic, and most-importantly the characters. Having played it multiple times over the years on every system, it also feels right at home on Switch, and is a game I recommend to everyone literally. I don’t care if you like point and click adventure games or not. Go ahead and mix drinks and then change some lives. The House in Fata Morgana: Dreams of the Revenants Edition ($39.99) The House in Fata Morgana: Dreams of the Revenants Edition is the definitive edition of one of my favorite stories in any medium. It includes the original game and much more to deliver a stunning version of a masterpiece in storytelling. This one is a pure visual novel, and I’m glad that after its many releases, it found a lot of success on Switch, where it plays best. If you want to play something that will stay with you for a long time, this gothic horror experience will do much more. It also happens to have some of the most incredible music ever. Coffee Talk Episode 1+2 ($12.99 + $14.99) Ok this one is cheating since the games are sold separately on the eShop and the physical releases I imported from Japan are also separate, but since there’s a bundle of both games sold in North America on Switch, I’ve included both Coffee Talk games as one entry here. I love them both, and while they didn’t hit the same highs as VA-11 Hall-A, Coffee Talk perfectly satiated what I wanted from a game set in a coffee shop, and delivered a very relaxing experience with a great story. If you enjoy coffee and listening to interesting people with great pixel art and music, this is for you. Type Moon’s visual novels: Tsukihime, Fate/stay night, and Mahoyo (Variable) This is another entry where I’m cheating. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to include just Tsukihime or Witch on the Holy Night (Mahoyo), but then the recent release of Fate/stay night Remastered made things even harder. Instead of worrying too much, I’ve included all three as essential visual novels in this article on Switch. They are all very long but very good. If you’ve wanted to sample a classic visual novel, go with Fate/stay night, but I recommend Tsukihime’s remake on Switch to everyone. Witch on the Holy Night is probably the game to play after these two in terms of quality. PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo ($19.99) Square Enix’s PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo reminds me of Nintendo’s Emio in a way that I’m surprised it even exists, let alone turned out this good. I went into it with no expectations, but was blown away by the narrative, its delivery, and even some wall breaking that I enjoyed quite a bit early on. Square Enix released one of the best mystery adventure games I’ve played with amazing characters, great art, and interesting mechanics here, and it is worth your time if you want a fantastic new horror adventure game. Gnosia ($24.99) People call Gnosia a sci-fi social deduction RPG, but it is more of an adventure and visual novel hybrid for me. Your aim here is identifying the Gnosia among a group using information you gather and then vote to put the Gnosia into cold sleep. You and your crew both improve over time, and aside from some RNG issues to get two specific outcomes, Gnosia was a fantastic experience. I liked it so much on Switch that I bought the physical release on both Switch and PS5 in addition to getting it on Steam. This one might not be for everyone, but it remains one of the nicest surprises in the genre. Steins;Gate Series (Variable) Spike Chunsoft’s Switch releases of the Steins;Gate series, especially Steins;Gate Elite, are as important as Fate/stay night when it comes to introducing newcomers to visual novels to the genre. While I still hope the publisher brings over the original version of Steins;Gate, Steins;Gate Elite is an easy recommendation for those who watch anime and want to get into a great visual novel. The Steins;Gate games are must plays only after you experience the original story in Steins;Gate Elite. I’ve cheated here as well by including multiple games, but my list my rules. AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES and nirvanA Initiative (Variable) AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES and nirvanA Initiative from Spike Chunsoft brought Zero Escape creator Kotaro Uchikoshi and No More Heroes character designer Yusuke Kozaki together for an incredible set of two adventure games that honestly feel too good to be true when it comes to the budget behind them with the quality they delivered on story, music, and characters. While a lot of folks lament the lack of Zero Escape on Switch, I think the two AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES games are absolutely worth experiencing at full price, and gems of the Switch library. Don’t make us wait too long for a new game in the series please. NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD ($19.99) When it comes to adventure games or visual novels, I’m often recommended games where a friend will say “trust me and just play it but don’t look up anything about it". One such game was NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD when I first played it on PC. It is an adventure game with multiple endings that can flip flop between disturbing horror and wholesome moments. It revolves around the daily life of a young girl trying to be the best streamer. I liked this one enough to pre-order the Switch limited edition from Japan, and I’m glad I did so. It is unforgettable. Ace Attorney Series (Variable) Capcom has now brought the entire Ace Attorney series to Switch with the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy (1,2,3), Apollo Justice Trilogy (4,5,6), The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (1+2 of those), and the two Ace Attorney Investigations games in this week’s Ace Attorney Investigations Collection release. I would say there are no excuses now, but this adventure game series is beloved for a reason and it has spawned a fanbase that has lasted for years since the DS debut in the West. If you are new to the series, I recommend The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles as the best entry point even above the original trilogy which feels dated in ways. Either way, you can now play the entire series on one handheld, and I love that. Spirit Hunter: Death Mark, NG, and Death Mark II (Variable) Another series rather than a single game? Yes. Aksys Games and Experience Inc’s Spirit Hunter trilogy is now fully available on Switch, and it manages to blend horror adventure and visual novel elements with one of the most striking art styles I’ve ever seen. It is a bit harder to recommend this series given how grotesque some of the designs are, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget some of the images I’ve seen while playing the Spirit Hunter games with their excellent localizations and stories. I hope we see a new entry in the next few years. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim ($59.99) 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim isn’t a pure adventure game, but one that has real-time strategy battles. I usually try and include a fantastic game at the end and the double whammy of not being a full adventure game and also being one of the best games I’ve played in a decade has me ending this feature on Vanillaware and Atlus’ sci-fi masterpiece 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. I first played this on PS4 and enjoyed replaying it from start to finish on Switch thanks to the OLED screen in handheld mode. Regardless of where you play it, you need to experience 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. If you made it this far, you’ve realized that this isn’t a top 10 but more, and the games are ones I recommend playing at full price. I didn’t want to cut out something I like a lot to hit an arbitrary number of games featured and that’s why I even included some full series here instead of just individual games. That’s my list of the best visual novels and adventure games on Switch to play in 2024. If you have a game you think I should’ve included, please let me know in the comments below. I’m always on the lookout for more amazing stories in two of my favorite genres that feel perfect on Switch. As always, thanks for reading! Note: I’m working on a separate list of otome games since there are too many good ones in that subgenre.

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for September 4th, 2024. The long summer has more or less …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘Ace Attorney Investigations Collection’, Plus New Releases and Sales"

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for September 4th, 2024. The long summer has more or less come to an end. It was sometimes hot and uncomfortable, but we had some good times that are worth remembering. I’m a little older and a little wiser than I was at the start, and I’m grateful I got to make that journey with all of you. As we head into another new season in our lives, I just want to say that no matter what happens from here you were all the best summer pals a person could ask for. In today’s article? Tons of reviews! A few new releases! Some sales! Let’s get this done! Reviews & Mini-Views Ace Attorney Investigations Collection ($39.99) One thing I will say about the Nintendo Switch generation of gaming: it’s given us second chances at a lot of fish that got away from us in the past. Trials of Mana! Live A Live! The original Fire Emblem! And now, the one and only Ace Attorney game that remained unlocalized comes to us by way of the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection, a set including Miles Edgeworth’s two post-Trials & Tribulations adventures. One thing this series has proven good at is building on plot threads established in previous titles, and the second Ace Attorney Investigations title does this quite well. It’s one of those sequels that makes the original better in hindsight, and it’s amazing to finally have it officially in English. The Ace Attorney Investigations games, in focusing on Miles Edgeworth, show us how things look from the prosecution’s side of things. Outside of a couple of new gimmicks, things aren’t all that different mechanically. Search for clues, question witnesses, and try to crack each case. Still, the very different and rather cool presentation helps liven things up, and Edgeworth as a protagonist certainly lends the narration a particular feel. The pacing has less structure to it than the usual Ace Attorney games, and that can sometimes make some cases feel exhausting, but by and large I think anyone who enjoys the main games in the series will be happy with this sub-series. If you find the first game to be a bit of a drag, stick it through to the second. It’s a lot better, and as mentioned it makes some of the things you suffer through in the first game make more sense. In terms of bonuses, this feels more like the Apollo Justice set than it does the others. A gallery mode is on offer with art and music to enjoy, a story mode lets you chill out and let the game beat itself, and you have the option to switch between the original graphics/soundtrack and the fancy new stuff. There’s a dialog history you can access if you miss something that was said, which is something that should be a stock feature in games like this. I’m glad to see it. The two games in Ace Attorney Investigations Collection offer an interesting contrast, and taken as one whole I think it’s a great experience overall. Getting the second game localized officially is amazing, and the suite of options and extras make for an excellent package. With this, every Ace Attorney game outside of the weird crossover with Professor Layton is now available on the Switch. If you like the series enough to have picked those up, you’ll definitely want to grab this as well. SwitchArcade Score: 4.5/5 Gimmick! 2 ($24.99) It is enormously odd to see a sequel to Gimmick!. I just want to say that before moving on. One of Sunsoft’s later games for the NES, Gimmick! didn’t even manage to get a release in the West outside of Scandinavia. Here we are thirty years later, and not only is the original game more widely available than ever, we now have a follow-up. This game was developed by Bitwave Games with no involvement from the original creator, but it’s incredibly faithful to the original anyway. Maybe too faithful in ways for some tastes, but there’s nothing wrong with a first sequel hewing closer to the line than farther. Six very lengthy levels of challenging physics-based platforming await you here, and as with the original you’re going to be up against the wall pretty quickly. There’s an easier mode this time, however, so those who want a slightly less bumpy ride can opt for it. Indeed, if you want to play the normal (Gimmick) difficulty, you’ll have to pass a little test right off the hop. The way protagonist Yumetaro’s star attack works is quite familiar also, with it serving as weapon, vehicle, and all-purpose puzzle solver all at once. One new element comes in the form of collectibles, often serving as rewards for completing more difficult sections that aren’t necessary for progression. These take the form of new customization options, but simply completing the more demanding tasks feels good in and of itself. It’s not a terribly long game if you just try to bolt through the whole thing, but it’s going to be a tough one either way. In that respect, it’s also quite similar to the original. You’ll die a lot here, often in spectacularly stupid ways, but generous checkpointing keeps the aggravation from boiling over. Well, most of the time. The adorable look and lively music also try to keep the fire from burning too hot, but don’t for one second underestimate Gimmick! 2. For all of its small concessions, this game understands that part of what made the original game so memorable came from its challenge. Platforming mastery is a must, and you’ll need to make clever usage of Yumetaro’s star and the enemies to make it much farther than the first level. Gimmick! 2 defies the odds by being a very good follow-up to a decades-old game made by another team entirely. It builds on the original game in some smart ways, but it never feels like it’s paying too much homage to be its own thing. If you enjoyed the first game, you’ll be thrilled with this. Platformer fans who aren’t put off by a high level of challenge will also want to check it out. That said, if you’re looking for something easy-going, don’t be fooled by the look of Gimmick! 2. It’s just as tough of a nut to crack as its predecessor, even with an easier difficulty setting. SwitchArcade Score: 4.5/5 Valfaris: Mecha Therion ($19.99) Valfaris: Mecha Therion takes a real risk with its game design, dropping the action-platformer set-up of the original game in favor of shoot ’em up action along the lines of Lords of Thunder. The most surprising thing is that it kind of works. Indeed, the biggest problem is that it’s sometimes a bit too much for the Switch’s aging hardware to do proper justice to. I don’t think anyone can really be blamed here. This is just where we’re at in the console’s lifespan now, I think. It’s not terrible, mind you. If this is the only option you have, you’ll still get a kick out of Mecha Therion‘s intense action, rocking soundtrack, and creepy visuals. There’s a fun juggling act going on in Mecha Therion thanks to how the weapons are set up. You’ve got your usual gun, but when it runs out of energy it weakens significantly. You’ve got a melee weapon that you can use to slice bullets and enemies, which recharges your gun energy. Finally, there’s a rotating third weapon or item. You start off with a lock-on missile attack, but you’ll have access to others. You can also dash, an offensive and defensive maneuver depending on the situation, and it has its own cooldown. With how many enemies and obstacles the game throws at you, mastering the rhythm of keeping your weapons ready and fending off shots is essential and satisfying. Don’t come into Valfaris: Mecha Therion expecting a similar kind of game as the first, but you can look forward to a similar vibe. It’s a heavy metal shoot ’em up with a style all its own, and it thankfully avoids many of the traps that so many games that try something different in this genre end up falling into. You’ll get better performance on other platforms, and in this genre that’s important, but this Switch conversion will absolutely do the job should it be your console of choice. SwitchArcade Score: 4/5 Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash ($44.99) Saying a licensed game is for the fans feels like a truism. Of course it’s for the fans. Some do a better job of pleasing that bunch than others, but typically speaking fans of the property used in a licensed game will get more out of it than non-fans. Which boils all of this down to two main questions. First, just how much fan service is baked in? In Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash, I can say that there is enough to please those who enjoy the exploits of these horse-girls. Indeed, I think that is the one thing the game does best. The writing is good and fits the property, and there are lots of meta-systems built in that reward you with things for the fans. The second question pertains to whether or not there is anything here for non-fans. Regrettably, I can’t be as positive here. You get a small number of half-baked mini-games to play, and while the presentation is solid there just isn’t much to do here if you aren’t really into Umamusume. You just play the same four mini-games again and again, watching a story unfold that only fans are going to properly enjoy. One of those mini-games offers so little interaction that I hesitate to even count it. The other three are better, but they just don’t have the staying power that a party game needs. The best part of all of this is an unlockable mini-game, and even that is a meager meal. Even for fans of the property, Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash feels like it emphasizes the wrong things at great expense. I think a great job has been done here in terms of serving the look, sound, and world of Umamusume, and the wide array of unlockables might be enough to keep those dedicated to the horse-girls interested for a while. But it fades far too fast, and if you’re lacking that attachment to start with, you’re probably going get tired of this well before the final furlong. SwitchArcade Score: 3/5 Sunsoft is Back! Retro Game Selection ($9.99) I think when Western game enthusiasts think of Sunsoft, if they think of Sunsoft at all, they probably think of games like Blaster Master, Batman, or Fester’s Quest. Recently some of the publisher’s rarer treasures have gotten a new shot at fame, bringing Ufouria, Gimmick!, and Trip World into the light. Even short-term mascot Aero the Acro-Bat and his buddies are getting play again. But there is a whole other side to Sunsoft that is less well-known in the West, and what makes it amusing is that it is what the company is mainly known for in its home country of Japan: charmingly rough-around-the-edges 8-bit games. Sunsoft is Back! Retro Game Selection aims to change that, offering up three such games in one very reasonably priced package. In this collection, you get the straightforward side-scrolling platforming of Firework Thrower Kantaro’s 53 Stations of the Tokaido (just rolls off the tongue, don’t it?), the adventure game Ripple Island, and the slightly hard to categorize action game The Wing of Madoola. All three games are delivered in a wrapper with most of the basic features you would want. That includes save states, rewind, some display options, manual scans, and a little art gallery for each game. Perhaps the most amazing thing is that all three games have been fully localized, all the way down to their title screens. For Ripple Island, that was no small task! This is the first time we’ve seen these games get an official release in English, and that’s worth celebrating on its own. So how are the games? A real mix, friends. 53 Stations is a frustrating game due to how your weapon is awkward to use against the swarms of enemies that appear, but there is a real charm to it thanks to how hard it leans into its theme. Ripple Island is a good adventure game, and I would lightly recommend it to anyone who enjoys that genre. The Wing of Madoola is the most ambitious game of the three, and it sometimes feels like it misses as often as it hits, but it’s worth putting some time into. None of these will make the list of top NES games by any means, but I wouldn’t call any of them bad either. Vexing, perhaps. Sunsoft fans and those who like digging into the margins of console libraries will get a real kick out of Sunsoft is Back! Retro Game Selection‘s offerings. Each game has been handled with care, and it’s great to see some games that missed their shot at localization back in the day finally get a chance. Hopefully this is just the first of a series of such collections, but even if this is all we get, it’s nice to see another side of this once-mighty publisher’s library of classics. SwitchArcade Score: 4/5 Select New Releases Cyborg Force ($9.95) If you like run, but also gun while running, you might want to give Cyborg Force a look. It’s a very tough action game in the vein of things like Metal Slug and Contra, and you can play alone or bring a buddy along for some local multiplayer fun. This has been out for at least a few months on a number of other platforms, including the NEOGEO, so you can probably find some feedback out there if you’re in need of it. I think fans of this genre will be into it, at the very least. Billy’s Game Show ($7.99) I know, this looks like a Five Nights rip-off at a glance. Thematically, it kind of is. But this is actually more one of those games where you’re moving around trying to find stuff while a weird creep stalks you. You have to hide or run away when he shows up, because you have no way to stop him. You’ll also need to watch out for traps and keep the three generators running, because you do not want the power to go out. Not my kind of thing, but it might be yours. Mining Mechs ($4.99) A very descriptive title that doesn’t leave me with much to add. Use mechs to do some mining. Collect ores and treasures, sell them, buy upgrades or better mechs that allow you to make even further progress underground. The deeper you go, the more dangerous it gets. As you reach certain profit levels, the story will progress. Not the fanciest of dining, but for a fiver I imagine you’ll get a fair amount of enjoyment from it. Sales (North American eShop, US Prices) A tiny inbox, with very little worth getting fussed about. I know, I know. I don’t get to decide that. The outbox has some treats worth mulling over, however. I’ll let you comb through those lists. It is important to learn to find things on one’s own sometimes, I think. Select New Sales Nora: The Wannabe Alchemist ($1.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Deflector ($1.99 from $22.99 until 9/10) Sky Caravan ($1.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) The Blind Prophet ($1.99 from $24.99 until 9/10) They Know ($1.99 from $6.99 until 9/10) Conjured Through Death ($4.49 from $14.99 until 9/15) Dark Days ($1.99 from $7.99 until 9/24) Another Bar Game ($3.89 from $5.99 until 9/24) Cook Serve Delicious ($4.41 from $12.99 until 9/24) Blood Will Be Spilled ($2.99 from $14.99 until 9/24) Feudal Alloy ($3.39 from $16.99 until 9/24) Sales Ending Tomorrow, September 5th Adventure Bar Story ($15.99 from $19.99 until 9/5) Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed ($14.99 from $29.99 until 9/5) Anomaly Agent ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/5) Avenging Spirit ($2.99 from $5.99 until 9/5) Bug & Seek ($11.24 from $14.99 until 9/5) Burst Hero ($5.99 from $11.99 until 9/5) Cat Quest II ($3.74 from $14.99 until 9/5) Corpse Party ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/5) Deadcraft ($5.99 from $19.99 until 9/5) Dice Make 10! ($3.59 from $3.99 until 9/5) Eldgear ($12.99 from $19.99 until 9/5) Evil God Korone ($3.35 from $3.95 until 9/5) F1 Manager 2024 ($27.99 from $34.99 until 9/5) Fairy Elements ($8.99 from $14.99 until 9/5) Freedom Planet 2 ($18.74 from $24.99 until 9/5) Genso Chronicles ($9.74 from $14.99 until 9/5) Gibbon: Beyond the Trees ($1.99 from $14.99 until 9/5) Hide & Dance! ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/5) Magical Drop VI ($14.99 from $29.99 until 9/5) Marchen Forest ($6.99 from $34.99 until 9/5) Mom Hid My Game! ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/5) Mom Hid My Game! 2 ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/5) My Brother Ate My Pudding! ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/5) Port Royale 4 ($17.49 from $49.99 until 9/5) SCHiM ($17.49 from $24.99 until 9/5) Silent Hope ($13.99 from $39.99 until 9/5) Super Toy Cars Offroad ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/5) The Sinking City ($5.99 from $49.99 until 9/5) Untitled Goose Game ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/5) Wing of Darkness ($5.99 from $29.99 until 9/5) WitchSpring R ($35.99 from $39.99 until 9/5) Yggdra Union: WNFA ($19.99 from $24.99 until 9/5) That’s all for today, friends. There are still more reviews coming this week, so do look forward to those. Plenty of new releases coming to the eShop in the next couple of days, which is about what you would expect from September. Let’s try to reconvene tomorrow, but if we get separated somehow and are trying to find me, you can always head on over to my personal blog Post Game Content. It’s rarely updated, but something tells me I’ll be back into the swing of it soon. I hope you all have an amazing Wednesday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Let’s dive in earlier this month to make up for last month’s slightly late edition. A new month and season …

Continue reading "The Best ‘Marvel Snap’ Meta Decks – September 2024 Edition"

Let’s dive in earlier this month to make up for last month’s slightly late edition. A new month and season is upon us, and I’m ready to help you out with some deck-building advice to keep you competitive in Marvel Snap (Free). Truth be told, I feel like the game got into a decently balanced zone over the course of the last month. A new season means new cards though, so it’s all about to go topsy-turvy again. Let’s do our best to figure out where things are going, shall we? Remember as ever: today’s winning deck could be tomorrow’s crunchy brown leaves. These guides are one way to keep your finger on the pulse of the scene, but they aren’t the only method you should be using. Note that most of these decks are the best of the best at this point in time. They assume you have access to a full range of cards. I’ll once again be including the five strongest Marvel Snap decks of the moment, and I’ll throw in a couple more decks that don’t need things that are too hard to get and are just sort of fun to play with. You know, a little variety and all of that. I would go as far as to say that most of the Young Avengers cards didn’t really make a big splash. Kate Bishop hit her mark, as she is wont to, and Marvel Boy definitely made a difference for fans of 1-Cost Kazoo decks, but the rest were kind of all over the place. You’ll see them here and there, but they haven’t shaken things up yet. I can’t say the same for the freshly launched Amazing Spider-Season, as it looks like it and the new Activate ability are coming in like a wrecking ball. Next month is going to look very, very different, I’m certain. Kazar and Gilgamesh Included Cards: Ant-Man, Nebula, Squirrel Girl, Dazzler, Kate Bishop, Marvel Boy, Caeira, Shanna, Kazar, Blue Marvel, Gilgamesh, Mockingbird So it has come to this, eh? Never thought I would see the day when Kazoo was among the top decks, but the Young Avengers have made it happen. At its heart, this is a very familiar deck. Get a bunch of low cost cards out there and then buff them with Kazar and Blue Marvel. The new tricks here are Marvel Boy adding more buffs and Gilgamesh benefiting big-time from all of that. Kate Bishop and her arrows can help fill spaces for Dazzler if needed, and her arrows will help bring down the cost of your other heavy hitter, Mockingbird. A very nice deck with strong performance. We’ll see if it can hang in there. Silver Surfer Still Never Dies, Part II Included Cards: Nova, Forge, Cassandra Nova, Brood, Silver Surfer, Killmonger, Hope Summers, Nocturne, Sebastian Shaw, Copycat, Absorbing Man, Gwenpool Silver Surfer is still flying high, with a few tweaks to react to balance changes and new cards. If you’ve been playing a while, you know how this goes. You’ve got the classic Nova/Killmonger pair for boosting your cards a bit once you have some out there. Forge ideally boosts Brood so that its clones will be stronger. Gwenpool boosts cards in your hand, Shaw gets beefier as he gets buffed, Hope lets you get more Energy, Cassandra Nova grabs power from your opponent, and the Surfer/Absorbing Man combo is there finish things off in style. Copycat steals Red Guardian’s spot, as she has proven an extremely useful general-purpose tool. Spectrum and Man-Thing Ongoing Included Cards: Wasp, Ant-Man, Howard the Duck, Armor, US Agent, Lizard, Captain America, Cosmo, Luke Cage, Ms. Marvel, Man-Thing, Spectrum Even the Ongoing archetype is up here at the top, which is another interesting outcome. You’ve got some generally useful cards here, all with Ongoing abilities. That means Spectrum will give them a nice final turn buff. The Luke Cage/Man-Thing combo is also a very nice one, and Luke will even protect your cards from US Agent’s powerful effect. The other good point of this deck is that it’s pretty easy to play, and I have a feeling Cosmo is going to become even more useful than he already was with things going the way they are. Discard Dracula Included Cards: Blade, Morbius, The Collector, Swarm, Colleen Wing, Moon Knight, Corvus Glaive, Lady Sif, Dracula, Proxima Midnight, MODOK, Apocalypse The classics are the order of the day right now, is the theme. Here’s the very reliable Apocalypse-flavor Discard deck, with the only real change from the standard being the presence of Moon Knight. He got better after his buff. Anyway, your big cards here are Morbius and Dracula, and if everything goes well you’ll end up with nothing more in your hand than Apocalypse on that last round. Dracula will eat him, you’ll get a Mega-Drac, and Morbius should be morbing all over the place with all that discarding you’ve been doing. Collector might even be a bit cheeky if you go to town on Swarms enough. Destroy Included Cards: Deadpool, Niko Minoru, X-23, Carnage, Wolverine, Killmonger, Deathlok, Attuma, Nimrod, Knull, Death Yes, it’s the Destroy deck. Very, very close to the traditional one even. Attuma has grabbed a spot here thanks to his recent change. A very successful buff, that one. Destroy Deadpool and Wolverine as much as possible, get extra energy with X-23, finish up with a nice Nimrod swarm or drop Knull if you’re feeling cute. Weird to see this kind of deck without Arnim Zola, but counter-measures are getting too common these days I suppose. And now, a couple of fun decks for those still climbing up the collection ladder or who simply want to try something different. Darkhawk Is Back (Did He Ever Leave?) Included Cards: The Hood, Spider-Ham, Korg, Niko Minoru, Cassandra Nova, Moon Knight, Rockslide, Viper, Proxima Midnight, Darkhawk, Blackbolt, Stature I have always liked Darkhawk, despite him being unspeakably goofy from virtually his first appearance. So I’m glad he’s a competitive card in Marvel Snap, to the point that I like to tinker around with decks using him. This one has the classic combos, with Korg and Rockslide adding cards to your opponent’s deck. It also has some spoiler cards like Spider-Ham and Cassandra Nova, plus a couple of cards that will cause your opponent to discard and make Stature cheap to play. Yay, Dorkhawk! Budget Kazar Included Cards: Ant-Man, Elektra, Ice Man, Nightcrawler, Armor, Mister Fantastic, Cosmo, Kazar, Namor, Blue Marvel, Klaw, Onslaught If that Kazar deck up there looks nice but you’re just starting out, you might as well practice with this beginner-friendly variant. No, it probably won’t win as reliably as the fancy version. But it will teach you how this kind of combo works, and that’s valuable experience. You still get that nice Kazar and Blue Marvel mix, with a flavorful Onslaught on top to spike the football. And that’s it for this month’s deck guide. With the latest season and whatever balance changes Second Dinner opts to make during the course of the month, I’m sure things will look quite different come October. That Activate ability really changes up the flow of games, and Symbiote Spider-Man is looking to be a complete beast. As ever, it’s also going to be interesting to see what cards and decks Second Dinner feels like addressing with balance changes. It’s interesting to see the classics on top again, but I can’t imagine it will stay that way. For now… happy snapping!

Mobile games don’t have to make sense, as evidenced by the enduring popularity of a franchise that sees players catapulting …

Continue reading "‘Foxy’s Football Islands’ Offers Up Something Very Different on Mobile"

Mobile games don’t have to make sense, as evidenced by the enduring popularity of a franchise that sees players catapulting birds (which can fly) at pigs (green). But even in the topsy-turvy world of mobile game concepts, Foxy’s Football Islands is gloriously out on a limb. The hypercasual gameplay spans a number of different genres, including football, building, collection, and multiplayer tit-for-tat. These genres aren’t natural bedfellows, any more than a fox is an obvious choice for a football game, but it all works like a dream. Here’s how it all works. Your first port of call is an island called Aztlan, a lush green habitat dotted with palm trees and building sites. Tap on one of these sites and you’ll begin construction on a building. Once that building is finished, you can tap again to upgrade it, and again, and again, all over the island, until every building has reached its final form. Then you move to the next island, earning stars that determine your place on the leaderboards. But hold up. It’s not that simple. Construction is an expensive business, and you’ll need to keep filling your coffers with gold coins to finance the work. And what’s the easiest way to earn coins fast? That’s right: by playing football. The soccer part of Foxy’s Football Islands sees you taking shots at a goal – or, more specifically, at targets nested within a goal. To take a shot, you slide your finger up the screen in the direction of the target. Unless, that is, there’s wind over the pitch, in which case you have to adjust for the gusts. Some targets move, too, requiring you to lead your shots. Hitting a target can have a number of different results, the most common of which is a great cascade of coins. The size of this cascade depends on the amount you stake. While a basic shot uses up one unit of energy (more on that later) it’s possible to double or treble the ante in exchange for proportionately greater rewards – as long as you don’t miss. You’ll also get to attack another player’s island, either at random or in a targeted fashion, destroying one of their buildings and setting them back in their quest to overtake you on the leaderboards. Sometimes you’ll bring up a moving target, opening the way for a major payday, and on other occasions you’ll obtain a special glove that lets you block a single attack on your own island. There are familiar elements in Foxy’s Football Islands, including an energy system that limits the number of shots you can take (unless you pay for more), gems for buying coins, a tiered upgrade system, and so on. But it’s the way the game manages to bring together a vast range of different genres that really helps Foxy’s Football Islands really stand out. One minute you’re enjoying a physics-based football game, and then next you’re expanding your territory by ploughing coins into the construction of an Aztec pyramid or an Ancient Egyptian monument. The multiplayer is equally varied, combining the extremely devious with the extremely wholesome. For instance, when you’re not taking revenge on players who have aggrieved you or targeting your friends for lols you’re trading the adorable relics that you obtain throughout the campaign. We’re not sure whether Foxy’s Football Islands is a nasty game with a nice streak or a nice game with a nasty streak. Either way, there’s nothing else quite like it. To play the game for yourself, head to the Google Play Store or the App Store and download Foxy’s Football Islands for free right now. Sponsored Content This article is sponsored content written by TouchArcade and published on behalf of Frank’s Football Studios to promote Foxy’s Football Islands. For questions or comments, please email ads@toucharcade.com

While most fans have been looking forward to Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 or basically a sequel to Warhammer 40,000: …

Continue reading "Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Steam Deck Review (in Progress) – GOTY Contender, but Play It Elsewhere for Now"

While most fans have been looking forward to Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 or basically a sequel to Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine for many years, I wasn’t really aware of the first game until I played Total War: Warhammer and was looking into other Warhammer 40,000 games. Since then, I’ve played many of them, with my favorites being Boltgun and Rogue Trader. I did end up playing some of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine on Steam Deck many months ago to see how it felt. Having played many of the Warhammer 40,000 games on PC and even console more recently, I was excited to see how Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 felt after that amazing reveal it had. Over the last eight days, I’ve put in about 22 hours into Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 across my Steam Deck and PS5 making use of cross progression and also testing out the online. This Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Steam Deck review is an in progress one for two reasons. The first is I cannot score a game like this without testing out cross platform multiplayer and also the online in general with public servers. The second is because Focus and Saber have confirmed that they are working on official Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Steam Deck support and aiming to have it out by the end of the year. Having seen how amazing Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine looks and plays on Steam Deck, and because Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has cross progression, I was very curious to see how it plays on Steam Deck if at all. There’s good news and bad news right now, and I’m going to cover all of that in this Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Steam Deck review in progress with the gameplay, online co-op, visuals, PC port features, PS5 features, and more included. Note that the screenshots in the article with the performance overlay or fps displayed are from my Steam Deck OLED while the 16:9 screenshots are from my PS5 playthrough. My testing has also been done on Proton GE 9-9 and Proton Experimental (bleeding edge). Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is a third person action shooter that is equal parts brutal, gorgeous, and fun, and this also applies to newcomers to the world of Warhammer 40,000. After a brief but well thought out tutorial-like intro segment that introduces you to the basics of combat and movement, you arrive at your main hub, the Battle Barge. This is where you choose your missions, game mode, adjust cosmetics, and much more. The moment to moment gameplay is superb with the controls and weapons all feeling perfect. I’m sure some will gravitate to using ranged more, but I adore the melee weapons and how visceral the combat feels up close. I never got tired of the executions and just plowing through tons of fodder enemies before the more powerful foes appear. The campaign is super fun solo and with a friend (or two) in co-op, but I hate any sort of defense missions. Thankfully I wasn’t too bothered by the implementation here. When playing with a friend of mine who lives in another country, I kept thinking how Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 felt like a big budget take on a co-op shooter from the Xbox 360 era that we don’t really see much of these days. It managed to get its hooks in me just like Earth Defense Force or the recent Gundam Breaker 4 have done, and I really hope Saber and Focus can somehow work with SEGA to give the original game’s campaign a modern facelift. Before going further, my knowledge of Warhammer 40,000 is through the Total War Warhammer, Dawn of War, Boltgun, and Rogue Trader more or less. With that said, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has been refreshing to play and is one of my favorite co-op experiences in years. It is too soon to say if this is my favorite Warhammer 40,000 game, but I just want to save this review draft and get back to playing right now. I’m addicted to playing with a friend in Operations mode while trying out the different classes and slowly progressing through the missions and unlocks. I don’t want to definitively say this since I’ve not played Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 once the full game launches with randoms, but what I’ve experienced in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 co-op so far is superb. I cannot wait to properly try out the online this week once the game launches with cross progression and cross platform online. Visually, I can only comment on how Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is on PS5 and Steam Deck, and it is definitely a looker in the 4K mode on PS5 when played on my 1440p monitor. While it has always looked good in trailers, I’m floored at how good the environments look and also how much work has clearly gone into making everything feel alive not only with the massive number of enemies in the swarms, but also the texture work and lighting. This is all complemented by stunning direction for the main character voice acting and all the gear and customization options included. You can tell a lot of care went into making it so that you can show off your creativity with the customization options and more. There’s also a photo mode you can access during singleplayer letting you adjust frames, expressions, characters visible, FOV, and much more. One thing to note is that if you do this on Steam Deck right now, some of the frames or effects don’t look too good when using FSR 2 and a lower resolution. On PS5 though, the Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 photo mode is amazing. On the audio side, I didn’t know what to expect from the music. Ideally, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 would have shipped with Bolt Thrower’s Realm of Chaos, but that likely wasn’t an option. I know bringing this up is like when I wished God of War (2018) had some Amon Amarth music. That tangent aside, the real star of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2’s audio is the voice acting and general sound design. This is top tier stuff. The music is very good so far, but I’ve not heard anything (so far) that I would want to listen to a lot outside the game. It works perfectly in-game though. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 PC graphics options So how is the Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 PC port? I’ve only played it on Steam Deck of course, but I can still cover what features it includes. When you boot up Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, it installs Epic Online Services, but there is no need to link your Epic account. I have one, but didn’t bother linking it. As for the Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 PC graphics options, you can adjust display, display mode (windowed, borderless, and fullscreen), resolution (800×600 and above), render resolution (native, dynamic to hit the fps target), quality, balanced, performance, and ultra performance), resolution upscaling type (TAA or FSR 2 on Steam Deck), dynamic resolution target, toggle v-sync, adjust brightness, motion blur intensity, fps limit (30, 60, 90, 120, unlimited), and then change many quality-related settings. The Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 visual quality settings include four presets that adjust the following: texture filtering, texture resolution, shadows, screen space ambient occlusion, screen space reflections, volumetrics, effects, details, and cloth simulation. As mentioned in the blog post linked above, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 on PC ships with DLSS and FSR 2 support. FSR 3 is planned for post-launch. I imagine the game will benefit from this on Steam Deck whenever it ships. I also hope the team adds full 16:10 support when the ultrawide update ships because the game is 16:9 only now. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 PC control options On the control side, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has keyboard and mouse controls in addition to full controller support. Initially, I wasn’t able to get it to display PlayStation button prompts on Steam Deck by default, but turning off Steam Input fixed this. I noticed an adaptive trigger option under control settings, and this made me try disabling Steam Input. This menu also lets you remap keyboard and mouse bindings. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 displays PlayStation button prompts when I use my DualSense controller over Bluetooth, and it even supports Adaptive Triggers wirelessly on PC. This isn’t too common so I thought it was worth highlighting. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Steam Deck performance Before getting to the visuals and performance, I want to note that I had some freezing (only while booting up the game) on the default Proton or Experimental (bleeding edge), but I did not have any freezing when using Proton GE 9-9. Aside from that, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is playable (technically) on Steam Deck with no config change needed. The bad news is that it is a bit too much for Valve’s handheld right now. When playing at 1280×800 (it still is 16:9) and using the low preset with FSR 2.0 at Ultra Performance, it still cannot hold a locked 30fps. There are regular dips to the mid 20s in tense combat, and it can even go lower. Even when playing at a lower resolution, it drops below 30fps. For a game like this, that isn’t close to ideal. I hope it can eventually reach a stage where it can run at 30fps, but it isn’t possible right now as far as I can tell across the 10 hours I played on my Steam Deck OLED. When using the dynamic upscaling for a 30fps target and the low preset, it can hit the 30s, but it drops to the low 20s often. This mode does still look very good on the Deck’s own screen, but as you can tell, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is too much for Steam Deck right now. It also sometimes doesn’t exit out correctly requiring you to manually force close the game when you hit quit. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Steam Deck multiplayer impressions With all that aside, I wanted to make sure Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is playable online on Steam Deck. We sometimes have games where the developers add some anti cheat that blocks online play on Proton or Linux. Thankfully, I can report that Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 works perfectly online. I tested with a friend in Canada and we had a blast for a few hours playing in co-op. The only issue I had was some internet related disconnection, but since these are pre-release servers, I will be waiting to test out the game in a more public environment with randoms and friends once the game launches. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 PS5 features – DualSense, Activity Cards, and Performance Mode Since I also played Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 on PS5, I wanted to cover how it feels on a current console for those who play on Steam Deck and consoles like I do. I’ve only tried the performance mode so far, and it feels mostly great. Don’t expect a locked 60fps though, and there seems to be some dynamic resolution or upscaling happening because I noticed it got very blurry in two big fights in the operations mode with a friend. Aside from that, I have no qualms in recommending Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 on PS5 right now based on the time I’ve put into it, but I want to make sure the online works cross platform before giving it a definite recommendation. The load times are fast and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 also has PS5 Activity Card support for different modes and getting back into your save file saving time from the PS5 dashboard. As of this writing, there is no gyro support on PS5. If this changes, I will update this section, but sadly I didn’t see anything hinting at it in the build I’ve played pre-release. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 cross save progression explained While this may change with the full launch, I’ve been able to take my Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 progress across Steam and PS5. There is some sort of two day cooldown period before you can sync it back or to another platform. I reached out to Focus to check if the final build will let you do it again immediately or still have the cool down. Is Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 worth it for solo play only? This is a question I cannot fully answer yet because the servers are not as populated as they will be at launch. I will be updating this once I’ve played with randoms and seen how the matchmaking works in the Operations (PvE) and Eternal War (PvP) modes. Speaking of Eternal War, I’ve not been able to test that yet. I will be doing so to update this review in the near future. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 features I want to see in updates and patches Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is clearly going to get a ton of post-launch support through updates and DLC, and the main thing I want to see aside from improvements to Steam Deck performance is proper HDR support. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is gorgeous and the texture work, materials, and lighting would pop even more with HDR. Aside from that, I’m pleased with the DualSense implementation of triggers and vibration, but haptic feedback would be great. The blog post mentions haptics won’t be in “at launch" and I hope that means it is planned for later. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is an easy game of the year contender so far. While I still need a bit of time to test the online when cross play is available from launch day, the gameplay is sublime and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 looks and sounds superb across the board. Having played it on PS5 and Steam Deck with cross progression, I don’t recommend playing it on Valve’s handheld right now. It gets an easy recommendation on PS5 though. I will be updating this with a full score once I’ve gotten enough time with the multiplayer and some patches. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Steam Deck Review Score: TBA

With August in the rear-view mirror, taking the Young Avengers with it, we’re about due for another season in Marvel …

Continue reading "Swing Into ‘Marvel Snap’ With The Amazing Spider-Season"

With August in the rear-view mirror, taking the Young Avengers with it, we’re about due for another season in Marvel Snap (Free). And indeed, a new one has kicked off today! What is the theme, you might be wondering? Why it’s the best kind of Marvel theme! The deadly… the terrifying… the Amazing Spider-Season! BONESAW IS READY! Sorry, Bonesaw isn’t in this season. Maybe someday. But there are some cool new cards and locations, so let’s check them out! This season is a bit of a doozy as it is introducing a new type of card ability: Activate. With Activate, you choose when to fire off the card’s ability. It’s like an On Reveal that you can trigger at any time, while also dodging things that affect On Reveal abilities. The Season Pass card naturally takes advantage of this new feature, and so far he is looking like a real doozy. If you want to see the folks at Second Dinner introduce the new season, I’ve linked the video below. Read on for my summary. Symbiote Spider-Man is the new Season Pass card. He’s 4-Cost 6-Power, and he has an Activate ability that absorbs the lowest cost card at the location and copies the text of that card. If that includes an On Reveal ability, it will fire off again as though the card was just played. Combine with Galactus for HIJINKS. I’ll be really surprised if this card survives the season without being nerfed, but he sure is a whole lot of fun already. Now for the rest of the lot. Silver Sable is 1-Cost 1-Power, but she has an On Reveal ability that steals two power from card at the top of your opponent’s deck. Decent as a standalone, really useful in combinations with certain locations and other cards. Next, the star of the hit film Madame Web. She has an Ongoing ability that allows you to move one of the other cards at her location elsewhere once per turn. Next, Arana. Another 1-Cost 1-Power card, and she’s our next Activate ability user. Activate her to move the next card you play to the right and give it +2 Power. She’s going to be a staple of move decks, I’m sure. Rounding out our Spider-Friends is Scarlet Spider, the Ben Reilly variety. He’s a 4-Cost 5-Power card, and he has an Activate ability too! Use it to spawn an exact clone to another location. Power him up, then multiply him! Clones don’t have feelings! As for the new locations, there are two. The Brooklyn Bridge is a big part of Spider-Man lore, and it’s certainly due for an appearance in Marvel Snap. The gimmick with this location is that you can’t place cards there two turns in a row. You’re going to have to get creative to dominate this spot! The other location is Otto’s Lab, and it works a lot like Otto himself. The next card you play there will pull a card from the enemy’s hand to the location. Ooh, surprises! THE DIE IS CAST! And that’s the lot for the new season! Some very interesting cards this time around, and that new Activate ability is sure to create some fascinating possibilities. We’ll have our September deck guide up very soon, as we could all use a little help in handling this wall-crawling menace and his friends. What do you think of this season? Any cards you’ll be playing? Are you buying that Season Pass? Let us know in the comments!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for September 3rd, 2024. In today’s article, I have a few …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘Castlevania Dominus Collection’, Plus Today’s Releases and Sales"

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for September 3rd, 2024. In today’s article, I have a few more reviews for you. Some lengthy thoughts on Castlevania Dominus Collection, a look at Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn, and some quick critiques of a pair of Pinball FX tables that recently arrived as DLC. After that, we check out the new releases of the day including the quirky and cool Bakeru, then roll into the latest sales and expiring discounts for the day. Let’s get into it! Reviews & Mini-Views Castlevania Dominus Collection ($24.99) Say what you will about Konami in the modern era, but it has been absolutely killing it with most of its classic collections. Castlevania in particular has been enjoying a great deal of love in this regard, with Castlevania Dominus Collection being its third on modern platforms. This time around, the focus is on the Nintendo DS trilogy of games in the franchise. The development chores have again been handled by M2, with the usual excellent results. But there’s more here than meets the eye, and with everything taken into account this may well be the most essential Castlevania collection yet. I’m getting ahead of myself, though. Let’s talk about the main course first. The Nintendo DS era of Castlevania was a historical one in some ways for the franchise, and not all of them good. On the positive side, all three of the games had a unique identity and make for a surprisingly varied trio. Dawn of Sorrow is a direct sequel to Aria of Sorrow. It hit very early in the Nintendo DS’s life, and is thus cursed to some stupid touchscreen gimmicks that have thankfully been mitigated in this release. Portrait of Ruin shoves the touchscreen nonsense into a bonus mode, relying on an interesting dual-character gimmick to distinguish itself. Order of Ecclesia really mixes things up, with considerably higher difficulty than its predecessor and a design that calls back to Simon’s Quest of all games. All good games. Great even? Would recommend. On the negative side, this was the last gasp of the run of exploratory Castlevania games created by Koji Igarashi, who gave the series a kick in the pants with Symphony of the Night when it needed it most. Returns were diminishing, and Konami thought it had a better play in MercurySteam’s Lords of Shadow. Well, hindsight is 20/20 I suppose. Were these games so distinct from each other because IGA wanted to stretch his creative legs, or was it a desperate attempt to find something that would stick with an increasingly disinterested audience? We’ll never know. I do remember at the time many people were feeling exhausted with this type of Castlevania, and I will shamefully admit that despite buying them on day one every time and playing the heck out of them, I was also feeling like the series was falling into a rut. Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone? So, weird thing here is that these games don’t appear to be emulated, but are instead native ports. That allowed M2 to do neat things like replace the annoying touchscreen seals in Dawn with far more manageable button presses, and show you not only the main screen and the status screen at all times, but also the map as a third screen. What is this, a Nintendo TS? There are still some very DS-like aspects to these games, but they all had to work with a controller for docked mode, and so they all do. This actually makes Dawn of Sorrow a lot better, and I would now put it within my top five Castlevania games of all-time. In terms of options and extras, there is plenty here. For general options, you get a choice of which region of each game you’d like to play, the ability to swap confirm/cancel button mapping, and the choice of whether you want the left stick to be mapped to character movement or the touch cursor. The latter is important for one of the bonus modes in Portrait of Ruin. There is also an incredibly adorable credits sequence where one of the unsung heroes of the series achieves his dreams. Make sure you watch them. There’s a nice gallery where you can view some art, manual scans, and box art for each of the three DS games. You can also listen to the music from all of the included games, and when the music is this good you know that’s a treat. You can even make your own custom playlist of tunes. Once in-game, you can make use of save states and a rewind feature, remap the controls as you like, adjust how the three screens are laid out, choose from a handful of background colors, and adjust the levels on the different audio elements. There is also an exhaustive compendium for each game, with information on equipment, enemies, items, and other points of interest. Pretty much anything you would need to enjoy these games to the maximum. About all I could ask for is perhaps a few other screen arrangement options that allow me to make the play area bigger, but that’s a very minor nitpick. This is a great way to enjoy three very cool games, and for the price it’s an absurd value. But wait! There’s more! The absolutely dreadful arcade Castlevania game, Haunted Castle, has been included here. I’m not sure why it was left off the first collection and shunted to the otherwise shooter-heavy Konami arcade collection, but here it is. Here too you get a variety of options, including the virtually necessary option for unlimited continues. Seriously, this game is brutally unfair. Good music, a terrific opening that sees Simon in a snazzy tux, but the game itself is horrible and completely irredeemable. Or… is it? The last extra, and it feels ridiculous to call something so substantial an extra but it’s M2’s wording not mine, is a complete remake of Haunted Castle. Much like when it took on the task of remaking Castlevania: The Adventure with Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth on the Nintendo Wii (please reissue all of the Rebirth games), M2 basically took a look at the original game and decided to make a good one instead. Haunted Castle Revisited takes a lot of cues from the arcade original, but it really does its own thing virtually from top to bottom. Yes, we have a new Castlevania game! A very good one! It’s tucked away in the Extras tab of a Nintendo DS collection, but it’s here! If you like Castlevania, you really should buy Castlevania Dominus Collection. There’s an entire new Castlevania game here and it kind of rules. You also get what you’re ostensibly buying the collection for with the three Nintendo DS IGAvanias, presented in as fine a form as you could hope for. The original Haunted Castle is also here. If, on the other hand, you don’t like Castlevania, we are not friends. And finally, if you don’t know Castlevania, you should pick up all three of the collections and get to the good times. Another absolutely stellar showing from Konami and M2. SwitchArcade Score: 5/5 Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn ($19.99) I’ve been through a bit of a roller coaster with Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn. I’ve enjoyed all of Tengo Project’s releases so far, and I believe its versions of Wild Guns and The Ninja Warriors are definitive in every way. I had a few issues with Pocky & Rocky, but overall that was also a very enjoyable romp. Shadow of the Ninja seemed like a different kettle of fish in a lot of ways, however. The Tengo Project team members didn’t have much to do with the original game, and this was an 8-bit game being updated rather than a 16-bit one. I also personally don’t think the original game is as good as Wild Guns, The Ninja Warriors, and Pocky & Rocky were. As a result, when this remake was announced I was a little hesitant. Then I had a chance to play the first little part of the game at the Tokyo Game Show last year, and I enjoyed that well enough to get excited again. Now that I’ve played through the game a few times, I’ve settled somewhere in the middle. I think relative to the other games from this developer, Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn is a bit less well-rounded. The improvements from the original game are many, from the excellent presentation to a more refined weapon and item system. You don’t get any fun new characters in this one, but the two existing playable characters have been differentiated. It is, as one would expect, better than the original game while maintaining the important aspects of its spirit. If you loved Shadow of the Ninja, you’ll really love this. If on the other hand you’re like me and only found the original to be a decent action-platformer, you probably won’t land much further from that mark with Reborn. Having access to both the chain and the sword at all times is a great improvement, and the sword on the whole is more useful than it was in the original game. The new inventory system is cool, adding a little spice to a game that needed something like that. The presentation is excellent, and you would never know it was based on an 8-bit game. There are a couple of rude difficulty spikes, and I think this is actually a more challenging game on the whole than the original. Perhaps that’s necessary, as it’s not a very lengthy affair overall. It’s the best Shadow of the Ninja you could play, but it is still Shadow of the Ninja. Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn is another solid effort from Tengo Project, and in some ways is the most substantial improvement over its predecessor of any of their releases yet. Whether or not you should pick it up is really going to depend on how you feel about that original game, because the core is still very much in line with that NES title. Those without any prior experience will find an enjoyable but not essential action game here, one that very much subscribes to an 8-bit design sensibility. SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5 Pinball FX – The Princess Bride Pinball ($5.49) Just a couple of quick Pinball FX DLC reviews, partly to celebrate the massive update Pinball FX has received that finally makes it properly playable on Switch. To go with that, two new tables were released as DLC: The Princess Bride Pinball, and Goat Simulator Pinball. The former is based on the cult classic movie, and it includes not only real voice clips but also video clips from the film. Now that’s the kind of thing I want to see in these licensed tables, Zen. Mechanically speaking, this table feels like something you could actually see a real physical version of. Relatively straightforward to learn, relatively authentic to the license, and satisfying to score attack on. Zen Studios doesn’t always hit with its licensed tables, often missing things like music, real voices, and likenesses. The Princess Bride Pinball is one of the better ones in that regard, and I think any fan of the movie who isn’t allergic to pinball would do well to check it out. It’s not the most innovative of tables, relying on a lot of well-worn design choices, but I think that too fits. A good time for newcomers or veterans alike. SwitchArcade Score: 4.5/5 Pinball FX – Goat Simulator Pinball ($5.49) Then we have Goat Simulator Pinball, and this one understands its license equally well. That means this is a very odd table in a lot of ways, and it certainly could only exist in video game form. You’ll get involved in a lot of silly goat-related incidents, adding effects to your ball to trigger various elements of the table. It’s a little bewildering at first, but stick with it and you’ll be rewarded. More of a table for the veteran players, I think. Goat Simulator fans with no pinball experience will probably have some difficulty getting a handle on it enough to see some of the funnier antics. Goat Simulator Pinball is another solid piece of DLC from the folks at Zen Studios, who have made so many tables by now that they likely relish a chance to do something off-the-wall like this. It’s a tricky table to learn, but once you do you’ll get to see some truly wacky stuff. Fans of the Goat Simulator games who can stick with the game long enough to learn the ropes will be rewarded, but it’s going to take a bit more work to get there than with some other tables. SwitchArcade Score: 4/5 Select New Releases Bakeru ($39.99) If you read my review yesterday, you’ll know I really enjoyed this breezy, charming 3D platformer from the fine folks at Good-Feel. Play as a tanuki named Bakeru who is on a mission to save Japan from an evil overlord who has trapped people in an eternal festival. Battle enemies, get interesting Japan trivia from hidden poo, collect souvenirs, and maybe even laugh here and there. The framerate in this Switch version is inconsistent, so tech heads may want to play it elsewhere. If you don’t mind that aspect, this is a nice game to play on your Switch. Holyhunt ($4.99) This is a top-down arena-based twin-stick shooter. It describes itself as a love letter to 8-bit games, but I don’t really remember seeing many games like this back then. At any rate, it looks amusing enough for what it is. Shoot, shoot, dash, dash, get new gun, repeat. Watch out for bosses. That kind of thing. Shashingo: Learn Japanese with Photography ($20.00) I don’t normally include these language-learning things since we’re more game-focused here, but this one at least seems to have some additional effort put into it. You go around, take pictures of things, and learn the Japanese names for them. Would I spend twenty on it? Probably not. But everyone learns in different ways, and this might be how you learn. Sales (North American eShop, US Prices) Some decent games in the inbox today, including OrangePixel’s selection of great pick-up-and-play titles. Alien Hominid is enjoying an extremely rare discount, and you can also scoop up Ufouria 2 at a nice price. Over in the outbox, titles from THQ and Team 17 are finishing up their latest discounts. Check out their publisher pages as I’ve only included a handful for each. Have a gander through both lists, as ever. Select New Sales Space Grunts ($8.39 from $13.99 until 9/7) Meganoid ($5.39 from $8.99 until 9/7) Stardash ($5.99 from $9.99 until 9/7) Gunslugs ($4.79 from $7.99 until 9/7) Gunslugs 2 ($4.79 from $7.99 until 9/7) Heroes of Loot ($4.79 from $7.99 until 9/7) Heroes of Loot 2 ($5.99 from $9.99 until 9/7) Warhammer 40k Dakka Squadron ($1.99 from $19.99 until 9/9) Castle Crashers Remastered ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/10) Alien Hominid HD ($9.59 from $11.99 until 9/10) Alien Hominid Invasion ($15.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Conscript ($17.59 from $21.99 until 9/15) Overdelivery ($1.99 from $7.99 until 9/15) Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption ($2.99 from $19.99 until 9/16) Agent Intercept ($7.99 form $19.99 until 9/16) Secret Files Tunguska ($2.09 from $14.99 until 9/16) Secret Files Puritas Cordis ($2.09 from $14.99 until 9/16) Secret Files Sam Peters ($2.02 from $6.99 until 9/16) Lost Horizon ($2.09 from $14.99 until 9/16) Lost Horizon 2 ($2.09 from $14.99 until 9/16) Zombo Buster Advance ($1.99 from $3.99 until 9/16) Skautfold Usurper ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/17) Nuclear Blaze ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/17) Helvetii ($5.09 from $16.99 until 9/17) Heidelberg 1693 ($4.49 from $14.99 until 9/17) Sophstar ($6.49 from $12.99 until 9/17) Harmony’s Odyssey ($2.99 from $14.99 until 9/17) Ufouria 2: The Saga ($17.49 from $24.99 until 9/17) Promenade ($12.49 from $24.99 until 9/17) Shinorubi ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/17) Last Night of Winter ($6.99 from $9.99 until 9/17) Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge ($15.99 from $19.99 until 9/18) Nobody Saves The World ($9.99 from $24.99 until 9/23) Summer in Mara ($7.99 from $19.99 until 9/23) Guacamelee 2 ($4.99 from $19.99 until 9/23) Railbound ($2.59 from $12.99 until 9/23) Sales Ending Tomorrow, September 4th Capes ($29.99 from $39.99 until 9/4) Fates of Ort ($4.49 from $14.99 until 9/4) Floogen ($1.99 from $3.99 until 9/4) Fluffy Horde ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/4) Gum+ ($1.99 from $7.99 until 9/4) Hopping Girl Kohane EX ($16.74 from $24.99 until 9/4) Kingdom Come Deliverance ($29.99 from $49.99 until 9/4) Kona II: Brume ($11.99 from $29.99 until 9/4) Metro 2033 Redux ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/4) Metro Last Light Redux ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/4) Outward Definitive ($23.99 from $39.99 until 9/4) Overcooked Special Edition ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/4) Rolling Car ($1.99 from $7.99 until 9/4) Stunt Paradise ($5.19 from $7.99 until 9/4) Tiny Pixels Vol 1 Ninpo Blast ($3.99 from $4.99 until 9/4) Worms WMD ($5.99 from $29.99 until 9/4) Yoku’s Island Express ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/4) That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with more new releases, more sales, and perhaps some news. Maybe a review? No promises. I think we’re officially in the season of TOO MANY GOOD GAMES, so hold on to your wallets and enjoy the fun. It’s probably the Switch’s last holiday ride, so let’s make it worth the while. I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home has been a very interesting game to follow pre-release. I say this not only because …

Continue reading "‘Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home’ iOS Review – A Great Start, but Needs More Work"

Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home has been a very interesting game to follow pre-release. I say this not only because it is a premium mobile-first Harvest Moon game, but also because the reactions from my friends who are longtime fans of the series have gone from apathy to interest with every bit of gameplay shown. Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home launched recently on iOS and Android as a mobile-exclusive entry in Natsume’s Harvest Moon series, and I’ve been playing it for about a week and a half now on iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro for review. Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home is a very good farming simulation game, but one that is held back by a few issues right now. A lot of fans of the Harvest Moon series of games from Marvelous have been around since the SNES or N64 days, but I only got into it on 3DS with Story of Season. Back then, I had no idea about the name change and that Marvelous’ releases would be called Story of Seasons while Harvest Moon would be the name used by Natsume going forward. I’m making that clear now because I don’t want people confused about what Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home is and also to give you my history with the series before getting into how I feel about Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home ($17.99). If you’re new to farming and life simulation games, Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home takes you back from the city to a calming village where you fish, farm, interact with many NPCs, partake in festivals (that need to be unlocked), and even find a companion. The village of Alba, your new home, is dense and cozy (sorry but I had to), and I’m glad it isn’t a big open location because those usually result in a lot of empty spaces when it comes to life simulation games. If you’ve played many in the genre, think of Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home as one that focuses more on the characters with a bit less depth when it comes to farming. After a short tutorial explaining the basics of movement and a bit of farming, you unlock the map and main menu letting you save just about anywhere (this is very important for a mobile game), and this is where you get into the flow of Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home where you try and finish quests for NPCs, upgrade your tools, gather, mine (this unlocks a bit later), and of course farm through the game’s main chapters. The more I played Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home, the more I realized that the developers understood what makes life and farming simulation games great, but fell short in some ways. These may or may not affect newcomers to the genre, but those who have played many recent games will find them lacking. The potential partners are likely the weakest aspect of Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home. They just aren’t as interesting as other games in the genre. If you don’t care about that aspect, Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home is quite a polished entry in the genre. Approaching Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home from a general life simulation game enthusiast’s perspective feels different though. While other platforms are spoiled for choice with tons of games from big and small developers, we don’t really see much like that on mobile, but that doesn’t make up for some of the flaws here, especially at a much higher price point. I think this is a very solid base that the developers can build on to the point where it would even be a great fit for PC and consoles. The only “mobile" aspect of Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home right now is the touch control option. Visually, aside from the performance and load times that I will cover below, Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home looks very good. Some characters look generic, but the interface, farm, building layout, and everything looks good. I also appreciate that Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home supports fullscreen on iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro. It really feels like a game properly tailored to mobile with its visuals and controls. While Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home does look nice visually for the most part, it is lacking when it comes to the character designs. This applies to your own character with customization options that should’ve been more detailed and also the main NPCs in the town. A lot of them feel lifeless even during cut-scenes. Barring that, I like the aesthetic a lot, and Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home looks excellent on my iPhone and iPad. The one disappointment is in performance. Right now, Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home is capped at 30fps on my iPhone 15 Pro and iPad Pro. I was expecting above 60fps let alone 60fps, but it isn’t possible to play at a higher frame rate now. The load times are also not as fast as they should be. On the audio side, I was pleased with the music and sounds in Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home. Nothing stood out to the point where I’d listen to it outside the game, but it sounded good and the music changes were appropriate to the gameplay. When Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home was announced as a mobile-exclusive game, I was curious how it would control. The developers have done a fantastic job with the touch controls here letting you play by tapping to move, dragging to move, and more. Interacting with objects or characters, farming, and navigating menus all feel good. Some text and touch targets feel a bit too small on iPhone, but they are fine on iPad. I would’ve loved some haptic feedback on iPhone though for using tools and even fishing. Maybe this can be added in a future update. If you’ve played the two best life simulation games on mobile: Stardew Valley and My Time at Portia, Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home feels closer to the former, but it isn’t as polished. I dislike bringing up other games in the same genre to compare, but I’m doing it here specifically for the mobile port. Those two games were built for PC/console and brought over to mobile while Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home was built for mobile and yet it doesn’t feel as tailored to the platform in its features. Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home is a mobile-exclusive game, and while I appreciate the touch control scheme, it has a few issues right now when it comes to features. The lack of cloud saves is beyond disappointing. When I first downloaded Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home on my iPhone, I played it for about three hours before picking up my iPad to see how it feels there. I found no way to get the save across, and still haven’t been able to move saves across devices. The lack of controller support is also disappointing for a game like this. The developers did a great job with touch controls, but it would be nice to have controller support for when I play on iPad. I would also like some quality of life features for movement, like we’ve seen in recent games in the genre. As a newcomer to Natsume’s new Harvest Moon games but a fan of all the recent Story of Seasons and other life simulation games, Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home ended up being worth playing, but it needs a few updates and features to be truly essential at full price. I have no issues with developers wanting to charge premium prices on mobile, but Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home lacking basic features like cloud saves and controller support definitely makes it harder to recommend alongside a few other design issues. If the developers continue working on this, it will be one of the best in the genre on mobile, and I’m glad to see them take a chance on a premium mobile life simulation game because that is very rare.

Summer holidays might be over, but fans of Gunship Battle: Total Warfare are still in for a treat as Joycity …

Continue reading "‘Gunship Battle: Total Warfare’ Launches Massive Sky Ace Update"

Summer holidays might be over, but fans of Gunship Battle: Total Warfare are still in for a treat as Joycity released one of the game’s most impressive updates that introduces Sky Ace alongside numerous QOL enhancements and a special event to keep things as exciting as possible this fall. Sky Ace is a classic 2D puzzle shooter that pays homage to the legendary shooters of console gaming with an unquestionably high level of polish and prestige. It also has its own storyline. With the help of a famous cast of fighter jets, players will be able to engage in aerial battle against enemy troops in Sky Ace and retrieve lost allies and locations. Players control their fighter jets left and right against a barrage of guided missiles and fast-moving enemy incursions as they shoot and strafe their way through simple calculation-based tasks. This vibrant, engaging feature combines the thrill of solving puzzles with traditional shooter action. But Sky Ace is not the only thing to look forward to and we are sure that players will enjoy the enhanced unit, the inventory navigations, rings that provide fast access to more easily control essential features at log in. Additionally, a new statistics tool has been implemented to let players confirm, use, and increase things more quickly. Together with input from both new and experienced players, these improvements significantly improve player convenience on all fronts. And to mark this special occasion, Joycity also decided to treat the GBTW with a special event that awards all players with an exclusive Jet, the ‘F-35 Sky Pro’ when they successfully complete specific Sky Ace stages. You can find out more about this major update on the official website or on the game’s Facebook page for the latest developments. Gunship Battle: Total Warfare is available for free on the Google Play Store or App Store. Sponsored Content This article is sponsored content written by TouchArcade and published on behalf of Joycity to promote the new Sky Ace update for Gunship Battle: Total Warfare. For questions or comments, please email ads@toucharcade.com

[youtube] Netflix has just showcased its full Netflix Geeked Week 2024 trailer alongside the announcement of tickets going up for …

Continue reading "Netflix Geeked Week Trailer Teases More Game News for Event on September 16th"

[youtube] Netflix has just showcased its full Netflix Geeked Week 2024 trailer alongside the announcement of tickets going up for sale on the official website. Netflix has been announcing and releasing new games at a regular pace for a while now, and the next releases will be SpongeBob: Bubble Pop and the original Monument Valley (Free). Today’s new trailer for Geeked Week 2024 includes a tease for more games news including but not limited to (as far as I can tell) Monument Valley and more. I’m curious to see what else we get at the event. Watch the full trailer below: I hope we see some more premium indie game ports get announced for Netflix because the year has been bonkers good for indie game releases, and I’d love to replay some of them on iOS. If you somehow haven’t played Monument Valley on mobile and would like to on Netflix, you can sign up here for it on iOS. Aside from games, the event will have updates on many shows and there will also be an in-person event on the 19th in Atlanta with a Games Lounge to play some of Netflix’s latest mobile games. What would you like to see at the event?

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for September 2nd, 2024. I think it’s a holiday today in …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘Bakeru’ & ‘Peglin’, Plus Highlights From Nintendo’s Blockbuster Sale"

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for September 2nd, 2024. I think it’s a holiday today in the United States, but here in Japan it’s Monday as usual. That means I’ve got some goodies for you, and in our typical week-starting fashion that means a bunch of reviews. Three written by yours truly, and one from our pal Mikhail. I take a look at Bakeru, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, and Mika and the Witch’s Mountain. Mikhail dives once more into Peglin, a game he can speak to better than anyone else at TouchArcade Towers. Beyond that, we’ve got a bit of news from Mikhail, and a massive list of deals from Nintendo’s Blockbuster Sale. Let’s get to it! News Guilty Gear Strive Nintendo Switch Edition Coming January 2025 Arc System Works has done it. They’re bringing Guilty Gear Strive to Nintendo Switch on January 23rd with 28 characters included and rollback netcode for online battles. It won’t be crossplay sadly, but should be good for playing offline and with other Switch owners. I adore the game on Steam Deck and PS5, and will definitely try this one out. Check out the official website here. Reviews & Mini-Views Bakeru ($39.99) Bakeru is not Goemon/Mystical Ninja. It is made by some of the people who worked on that series. There are some superficial similarities. But it is not Goemon, and coming into it expecting Goemon is both a disservice to Bakeru and yourself. Bakeru is Bakeru. Goemon is still on the milk carton, to the upper-left of the Sunset Riders. Expectations set, let’s talk about this game instead. Bakeru comes to us by way of Good-Feel, a studio that has frequently worked with Nintendo on games in the Wario, Yoshi, and Kirby franchises. Most recently, it developed Princess Peach: Showtime!. Its specialty appears to be in cute, low-friction, well-polished platformers. Guess what Bakeru is? Bad things are going down in Japan, and a little goober named Issun stumbles on some assistance in the unlikely form of a tanuki named Bakeru. With his mighty abilities to change forms and wield a taiko drum and drumsticks, Bakeru might just be the guy for the job. You’ll tour Japan prefecture by prefecture, whacking baddies, grabbing cash, talking to poop, and looking for secrets. You’ve got more than sixty levels to play here, and while I wouldn’t say they’re all super-memorable, it’s an easy-going experience that remains rather engaging throughout. I genuinely enjoyed the collectibles in this game more than those in most platformers I’ve played, just because they usually reflect the location you’re in. Lots of little nuggets about Japan, and some things that even a long-time resident like me didn’t know. Boss fights! Okay, this is one part where I’ll allow comparisons to Goemon. Or any other Good-Feel game, I suppose. This is a development team that understands the value of a good boss battle, and gosh are they fun here. Creative spectacles that nicely reward the player for winning. Indeed, Bakeru takes a lot of creative swings for what is essentially a straight-up 3D platformer, and I will admit some work out better than others. Well, that’s how this kind of thing goes. I genuinely appreciated the ones that worked out well, and I can forgive the ones that didn’t. I kind of fell in love with this game despite seeing all of its flaws as I went along. It’s that sort of game. Intensely likeable. The only real fly in the ointment here is the performance on Switch, something I believe Mikhail talked about in his look at the Steam version of the game. The framerate is quite variable here, at times climbing up to 60 fps but frequently dipping considerably when things get busy. With the full admission that I am not a person that tends to be bothered by inconsistent framerates, I will say that it wasn’t enough of an issue to dampen my enjoyment of the game. But if you are more sensitive to that than I am, I want to make it very clear that there are still problems here despite the improvements since the Japanese launch last year. Bakeru is a highly endearing little 3D platformer, one with a well-polished design and lots of fun ideas to spice things up during its relatively lengthy adventure. It really commits to its bit, and that part of it is almost infectious. Some framerate issues keep this from being all it could be on Switch, and I think people who come into this expecting Goemon are going to be disappointed by the fact that it’s not even trying to be that, but otherwise this is a highly-recommended title to close out your summer with. SwitchArcade Score: 4.5/5 Star Wars: Bounty Hunter ($19.99) There was a lot of merch put out around the releases of the films in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Video games were a big part of that, and it’s kind of impressive how many Star Wars games we saw put out in that era after going entire generations of consoles with only a handful. And while the movies weren’t exactly critical darlings, it’s inarguable that they opened up a lot of new story-telling avenues. Remember Boba Fett? The guy with the cool armor who got knocked into a living pit by a guy who couldn’t even see? Well, here’s his dad! He also has cool armor, and is also defeated in a very undignified way. But maybe you’re wondering about how his life was before we met him in Attack of the Clones? Star Wars: Bounty Hunter fills in that story, whether you asked for it or not. This is the tale of Jango Fett, a bounty hunter so cool and awesome that an entire army ended up being cloned from him. The finest in the galaxy! Don’t ask what happened ten seconds after he had to face off against a Jedi Master. Cool armor! Besides being the number one manhunter in the business, what else made him fit to be the model for the clone army? That’s what this game is about, actually. Jango’s try-out for the job, if you will. He is sent to hunt a Dark Jedi by the totally innocent Count Dooku, and if he picks up a few extra bounties on the way, more’s the better. That’s pretty much how this one goes. You take on each level with a particular target in mind, but there are optional targets you can find, mark, and bring in dead or alive. You get access to a wide array of weapons and other toys, including the iconic jetpack. It’s pretty interesting at first, but the gameplay doesn’t really change things up enough as it goes on so it’s quite repetitive over the long haul. It has a lot of problems you would expect from a 2002 video game, an era where some of this stuff was still being figured out. Targeting is an absolute mess. Cover doesn’t work as well as you might hope. Level designs are often trying to be open but somehow end up feeling cramped and badly sign-posted. Even in its time, this was an average game at best, tied to the worst Star Wars movie. Well, at least that’s not the worst Star Wars movie anymore. In some ways age has not been kind to Bounty Hunter, but Aspyr has done what it could to improve it without changing too much. The game looks and runs better than it ever did, and the new default control scheme is a lot better. Nothing was changed in how it saves your progress mind you, so be prepared for the very real possibility of having to start the lengthy stages over if you mess up too much. Oh, but you can unlock a Boba Fett skin, so that’s neat. If you were ever going to play this game, this new version is the way to do it. There’s a certain nostalgic charm to Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. There is a particular flavor to games from the PlayStation 2/GameCube/Xbox generation of consoles, and this game is absolutely steeped in it despite the nips and tucks made by Aspyr in the porting process. And it’s really in that capacity that I can most confidently recommend it, when I think about it. Are you in the mood to time travel back to 2002 and play a thoroughly rough-edged yet genuinely earnest action game? Here you go. If on the other hand you lack that proclivity, this might be a bit too much Jank-o Fett for you. SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5 Mika and the Witch’s Mountain ($19.99) After some horrible video games based on Nausicaa, Hayao Miyazaki put his foot down in a very Miyazaki way and essentially forbade any further games based on his work. Did that extend to all of Ghibli? I’m not sure, the story isn’t clear on that. It seems likely, since we have not seen even one video game based on a Ghibli movie since then. I respect that, but it does mean I will never have my epic Porco Rosso open world flying game. It happens. Game studios Chibig and Nukefist clearly had another Ghibli movie in mind when they made Mika and the Witch’s Mountain, and I’ll trust your reasoning skills enough to sort out witch on your own. You’re a rookie witch, ready to get going on witchy things. The teacher you were sent to see decides to chuck you off the mountain top, breaking your flying broom. Get back up and she might help you out, but your broom isn’t going to bring you there in its current condition. The good news is that there is a town nearby with someone who can fix brooms and even make new ones. The bad news is nothing is free in this world, so you’ll have to take up a job delivering packages to earn some scratch. Zipping around on your broom makes that kind of a job a bit easier and a lot more fun, and the town in question has a lot of things that need delivering. That’s pretty much how it goes. There are some side jobs you can do, but most of the time you’ll be going back and forth in the world trying to get things where they need to go, when they need to go, and hopefully with a minimum of damage done in the process. It works well enough, and the vibrant world and interesting cast of characters contribute greatly to the experience. The Switch is clearly struggling with all of this at times, and the resolution and framerate both take regular hits depending on what part of the world you’re in and what’s going. I would imagine this would play better on more powerful hardware, so if you have that option you might want to take it. Otherwise, people who can forgive some technical flaws (and we’re Switch owners, I imagine most of us are getting good at that) will probably be able to roll with the punches here. Mika and the Witch’s Mountain wears its inspiration on its sleeve, and it is so dedicated to its core gameplay mechanic that it can wear a little thin before the game is up. It also suffers from some performance issues on the Switch. With all that said, I can’t say I didn’t have some fun zipping around on my broom, delivering packages to a bunch of quirky characters. This is one of those games where if you think the concept sounds good, you’ll probably like what you get well enough. SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5 Peglin ($19.99) About a year ago, I reviewed the early access version of Peglin on iOS. We also featured it as our Game of the Week when it hit mobile. Peglin, a pachinko roguelike, has always had a lot of promise, and things have only gotten before for it through major updates over time. Last week during Nintendo’s Indie World and Partner Direct combo, Peglin was announced and released for Switch. I thought the team had just brought the current game to Switch, but I didn’t realize it was actually 1.0 until a few hours later when I got the game. Peglin hit 1.0 last week on Steam and mobile as well alongside the Switch debut, and it definitely is a more complete experience now, but Peglin is a great game for a very specific kind of person. Your aim is to, well aim, your orb to target specific pegs on the board. This lets you damage enemies (above the board) and you make your way towards the end of each zone map like you would in Slay the Spire. There are events, bosses, shops, tons of battles, and more in Peglin, and it is very difficult early on. As you make your way through the zone, you can upgrade or unlock new orbs, heal, and collect relics. You don’t just need to get your orb to a specific portion of the board at the bottom though. Peglin’s strategy is aiming so you correctly use critical or bomb pegs depending on the situation with enemies. You can also refresh the board by hitting a specific peg. There’s a lot to take in at the start, but it all clicks soon and you will be humming the songs even when you aren’t playing Peglin. Having played Peglin on Steam and mobile, I was curious to see how the Switch port would feel. It is mostly great when it comes to performance. The aiming isn’t as smooth as on other platforms, but I got around this by using touch controls. Aside from that, the load times are longer than mobile and Switch. These aren’t huge issues given how some recent Switch ports ship in a miserable state, but it is worth keeping in mind if you own multiple platforms and are curious where to buy Peglin. I’d say Peglin is best on Steam Deck, but the second place is close between mobile and Switch. While the Switch has no achievements, there’s a system in place inside Peglin to track those. I like it when developers do their own achievements since the Switch lacks them on a systemwide level. You can ignore these as usual, but I liked the addition here. One feature I wished to see in 1.0 was cross save across platforms. This likely isn’t feasible for a small developer, but some way to carry over or unlock things on Switch from mobile/PC would’ve been nice. Other than that, my only issues with Peglin on Switch have to do with the load times and aiming not being smooth. Hopefully these can be improved over updates because more free updates are coming as confirmed by the developers at Red Nexus Games. I already thought Peglin was fantastic even in its early access state. While some balance issues hold it back a bit, it is an essential on Switch if “pachinko x roguelike" sounds good to you. I also love that the developers made full use of the Switch hardware features by adding good rumble, full touchscreen support, and button controls making it so that you can play however you want. Now we just need a physical release. -Mikhail Madnani SwitchArcade Score: 4.5/5 Sales (North American eShop, US Prices) Okay, wow. A lot of stuff on sale, and while I’ve got a lot of it here this is only scratching the surface. I’ve put together another article with what I think are the best picks from the sale, so keep your eyes open for that as well. Anyway, good luck with all of that. I’ll meet you at the bottom. Select New Sales Avenging Spirit ($2.99 from $5.99 until 9/5) NOISZ re:||COLLECTION G ($19.99 from $24.99 until 9/7) Fur Squadron ($2.79 from $6.99 until 9/8) Agnostiko Origins ($13.74 from $24.99 until 9/9) Sonic Mania ($7.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle ($13.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Puyo Puyo Tetris ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap ($5.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Super Bomberman R ($19.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) The Red Strings Club ($2.99 from $14.99 until 9/10) Goat Simulator The GOATY ($5.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) Downwell ($2.00 from $2.99 until 9/10) Sayonara Wild Hearts ($7.79 from $12.99 until 9/10) Ghostbusters: The Video Game ($7.49 from $29.99 until 9/10) Hotline Miami Collection ($6.24 from $24.99 until 9/10) Torchlight II ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Huntdown ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions ($7.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Streets of Rage 4 ($11.24 from $24.99 until 9/10) Disc Room ($3.74 from $14.99 until 9/10) Kathy Rain: Director’s Cut ($4.94 from $14.99 until 9/10) Mayhem Brawler ($6.79 from $19.99 until 9/10) TMNT Shredder’s Revenge ($16.24 from $24.99 until 9/10) Gal*Gun Returns ($16.49 from $49.99 until 9/10) Gal*Gun Double Peace ($13.19 from $39.99 until 9/10) Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection ($15.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Infernax ($13.39 from $19.99 until 9/10) Rise of the Third Power ($11.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Astroneer ($11.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) Lair Land Story ($5.99 from $14.99 until 9/10) Return to Monkey Island ($12.49 from $24.99 until 9/10) Shiro ($2.19 from $4.99 until 9/10) Horgihugh And Friends ($14.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) Card Shark ($7.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Pac-man Museum+ ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Sonic Origins ($14.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) Sonic Frontiers ($20.99 from $59.99 until 9/10) Sonic Superstars ($29.99 from $59.99 until 9/10) Escape Academy: Complete Edition ($17.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) Gunbrella ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/10) Unicorn Overlord ($41.99 from $59.99 until 9/10) Terra Nil ($14.99 from $24.99 until 9/10) Reverie Knights Tactics ($6.24 from $24.99 until 9/10) Windjammers 2 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Two Point Hospital: Jumbo Edition ($7.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Blizzard Arcade Collection ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak Deluxe ($24.49 from $69.99 until 9/10) Gloomhaven: Mercenaries Edition ($7.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Fae Farm ($41.99 from $59.99 until 9/10) Mr. Sun’s Hatbox ($8.99 from $14.99 until 9/10) Best Day Ever ($5.99 from $14.99 until 9/10) Willy Morgan & the Curse of Bone Town ($7.49 from $24.99 until 9/10) FEZ ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/10) Tales of Kenzara: ZAU ($13.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Make Way ($8.99 from $14.99 until 9/10) ARK: Ultimate Survivor Edition ($24.99 from $49.99 until 9/10) Cult of the Lamb Cultist Edition ($14.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) Life is Strange 2 ($12.79 from $31.99 until 9/10) Strayed Lights ($5.19 from $12.99 until 9/10) Rakuen: Deluxe Edition ($19.99 from $24.99 until 9/10) Valrithian Arc: Hero School Story 2 ($11.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Stones Keeper ($8.79 from $19.99 until 9/10) Bat Boy ($8.99 from $14.99 until 9/10) Jack Jeanne ($29.99 from $49.99 until 9/10) Bandle Tale: League of Legends Story ($12.49 from $24.99 until 9/10) Song of Nunu: League of Legends Story ($14.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) Convergence: League of Legends Story ($14.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) The Mageseeker: League of Legends Story ($14.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) Vanaris Tactics ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/10) The Last Spell ($14.99 from $24.99 until 9/10) Charon’s Staircase ($2.99 from $24.99 until 9/10) The Vale: Shadow of the Crown ($14.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Dungeon Drafters ($19.99 from $24.99 until 9/10) Pentiment ($11.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Demon Slayer KnY – Sweep the Board ($41.99 from $59.99 until 9/10) Tetris Effect: Connected ($19.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Boomerang X ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Tenderfoot Tactics ($8.99 from $14.99 until 9/10) CEIBA ($4.39 from $9.99 until 9/10) LEGO Marvel Super Heroes ($9.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Tears of Avia ($2.99 from $14.99 until 9/10) Vengeful Guardian Moonrider ($11.04 from $16.99 until 9/10) Dorfromantik ($11.99 from $14.99 until 9/10) Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi ($29.99 from $59.99 until 9/10) Persona 3 Portable ($11.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Persona 4 Golden ($11.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Persona 5 Royal ($29.99 from $59.99 until 9/10) Persona 5 Strikers ($17.99 from $59.99 until 9/10) Persona 5 Tactica Digital Deluxe ($39.99 from $79.99 until 9/10) Astebros ($7.79 from $12.99 until 9/10) Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble ($37.49 from $49.99 until 9/10) GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon ($14.99 from $24.99 until 9/10) Ys Origin ($5.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Archetype Arcadia ($20.09 from $29.99 until 9/10) Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster ($24.99 from $49.99 until 9/10) The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood ($10.79 from $17.99 until 9/10) Solar Ash ($15.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Adore ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Prison City ($7.99 from $9.99 until 9/10) Two Point Campus ($7.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) OMNIMUS ($4.39 from $9.99 until 9/10) Ring Racer ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/10) RWBY: Arrowfell ($14.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) The Dragoness: Command of the Flame ($11.69 from $17.99 until 9/10) Die After Sunset ($13.39 from $19.99 until 9/10) Outer Wilds ($14.99 from $24.99 until 9/10) COCOON ($14.99 from $24.99 until 9/10) The Talos Principle ($4.49 from $29.99 until 9/10) Alien: Isolation ($14.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Dicefolk ($11.24 from $14.99 until 9/10) Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown ($23.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Heads Will Roll: Reforged ($14.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Eternal Threads ($14.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Paper Trail ($13.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Spellbearers ($10.04 from $14.99 until 9/10) Wrath: Aeon of Ruin ($20.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) Spy x Anya: Operation Memories DE ($45.49 from $69.99 until 9/10) Luxor Evolved ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) MotoGP 24 ($29.99 from $49.99 until 9/10) Reigns: Beyond ($3.24 from $4.99 until 9/10) The Mildew Children ($6.99 from $9.99 until 9/10) Class of Heroes 1 & 2: CE ($27.99 from $34.99 until 9/10) Tengoku Struggle: Strayside ($34.99 from $49.99 until 9/10) Plague Inc: Evolved ($5.09 from $14.99 until 9/10) Catherine: Full Body ($9.99 from $49.99 until 9/10) Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark ($7.49 from $29.99 until 9/10) Spyro Reignited Trilogy ($15.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Wobbledogs ($8.19 from $19.99 until 9/10) Adventure Academia: TFC ($17.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) McPixel 3 ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/10) Crypt of the NecroDancer ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Her Majesty’s Spiffing ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/10) South Park: The Stick of Truth ($7.49 from $29.99 until 9/10) Into the Breach ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/10) Raging Loop ($10.49 from $29.99 until 9/10) Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series ($9.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Rogue Legacy ($2.99 from $14.99 until 9/10) Rogue Legacy 2 ($13.74 from $24.99 until 9/10) Valkyria Chronicles ($4.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Valkyria Chronicles 4 ($5.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) Minit ($2.49 from $9.99 until 9/10) Contra Anniversary Collection ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Castlevania Anniversary Collection ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Castlevania Advance Collection ($11.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Reigns Game of Thrones ($1.99 from $3.99 until 9/10) Spirit Hunter: Death Mark ($19.99 from $49.99 until 9/10) Spirit Hunter: NG ($24.99 from $49.99 until 9/10) Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II ($34.99 from $49.99 until 9/10) SEGA AGES Sonic the Hedgehog ($2.39 from $7.99 until 9/10) Darkest Dungeon ($7.49 from $24.99 until 9/10) GRIS ($3.39 from $16.99 until 9/10) The Lara Croft Collection ($19.99 from $24.99 until 9/10) Gorogoa ($4.49 from $14.99 until 9/10) Enter the Gungeon ($4.49 from $14.99 until 9/10) Exit the Gungeon ($2.49 from $9.99 until 9/10) Ion Fury ($6.24 from $24.99 until 9/10) Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid ($4.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Power Rangers: BftG Super Edition ($12.49 from $49.99 until 9/10) Minecraft Legends Deluxe Edition ($29.99 from $49.99 until 9/10) Minecraft Dungeons Ultimate Edition ($24.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Parasite Pack ($3.19 from $7.99 until 9/12) Rider’s Spirits ($4.19 from $5.99 until 9/12) Shockman Collection Vol. 1 ($7.69 from $10.99 until 9/12) Cities Skylines ($9.99 from $39.99 until 9/12) Empire of Sin ($9.99 from $39.99 until 9/12) Demon’s Tilt ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/12) Shadowrun Trilogy ($9.99 from $39.99 until 9/12) Date Z ($13.49 from $14.99 until 9/14) Gerda: A Flame in Winter ($6.99 from $19.99 until 9/14) Cardfight! Vanguard Dear Days ($48.99 from $69.99 until 9/20) West of Loathing ($4.18 from $11.00 until 9/20) Shadows Over Loathing ($15.87 from $23.00 until 9/20) Adventure Field Remake ($2.99 from $4.99 until 9/20) MADiSON ($20.99 from $34.99 until 9/20) Frowntown ($7.79 from $12.99 until 9/20) Infantry Attack: Complete ($2.99 from $10.99 until 9/20) 100 Demon Fantasia ($5.99 from $9.99 until 9/20) Shadow Gangs ($14.39 from $23.99 until 9/22) Suicide Guy: The Lost Dreams ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/22) Sales Ending Tomorrow, September 3rd Balatro ($13.49 from $14.99 until 9/3) Blade of Darkness ($2.75 from $14.99 until 9/3) Door Kickers ($1.99 from $11.99 until 9/3) Kamitsubaki City Ensemble ($3.59 from $3.99 until 9/3) Neodori Forever ($1.99 from $4.99 until 9/3) That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with more reviews, some new releases, more sales, and perhaps some news. The typhoon has fizzled out, giving way to hot temperatures and sunny skies. I suppose I’ll take it for a day or two. I hope you all have a magnificent Monday, and as always, thanks for reading!

It’s that time again: eShop sale time! Nintendo’s calling this one the Blockbuster Sale, so I’m sure we can expect …

Continue reading "The Best Nintendo Switch eShop Sales From The ‘Blockbuster Sale’"

It’s that time again: eShop sale time! Nintendo’s calling this one the Blockbuster Sale, so I’m sure we can expect a lot of VHS tapes and stale candy. Hm? Oh, it means big games. Alright, that does make some sense. At any rate, there are a ton of games on sale right now, too many to really deal with on your own. As ever, TouchArcade is here to help you out with a list of fifteen hot discounts you should consider. No first party games, but there are still a ton of great games to pick from. No particular order as usual, so let’s get into the deals! 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim ($14.99 from $59.99) A unique blend of side-scrolling adventure and top-down real-time strategy gameplay, 13 Sentinels tells the story of thirteen individuals from various points in time who must battle against invading kaiju in an alternate 1985. They do that through use of their Sentinels, large mechs designed for taking down giant monsters. It has a very good story and the presentation is at the level we’ve come to expect from Vanillaware. The RTS bits are… somewhat less good, but they’re not bad. A sleeper hit that is well worth checking out at this deeply discounted price. Persona Collection ($44.99 from $89.99 until 9/10) If you need to fill a few months’ worth of free time, this will be the best forty-five bucks you could spend. You get Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal, all excellent RPGs and great Switch ports. That works out to fifteen bucks per game, and each of them will easily keep you busy for hours on end while also teaching you the important value of friendship as a means of defeating any evil. It totally works in real life, too! JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R ($12.49 from $49.99) I’ll start with a proviso: if you mean to seriously get into JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R, you’re probably better off heading over to one of the other platforms where it runs at 60 fps. This Switch port is solid enough to play, however, and JoJo fans will likely have a good time with it. This is a quirky fighter in a lot of ways, and it’s well-suited to the license. Something a little different if you’re tired of the usual Capcom fighters and Mortal Kombat games. Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1 ($41.99 from $59.99) Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 could have been better than it is, particularly with regards to performance and game options. It has received a number of updates to improve it, however, and for what it is, it’s an easy title to recommend. You get a bunch of absolutely top-tier games to play and some really cool extra materials to dig through. Sure, there isn’t much new here for people who have played these games before. But for those craving Metal Gear on the go, or those who somehow haven’t dug into these titles in the past, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is a fantastic value with this tidy discount. Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown Deluxe Edition ($41.99 from $59.99) Ace Combat 7: Unknown Skies is an excellent port of a high-quality action game, and it fills a gaping hole in the Switch’s library almost perfectly. It’s more approachable than you might expect, and it’s very easy to get sucked into both its story and gameplay. It’s unfortunate that the multiplayer seems to have a handful of oversights and balance issues, but you’ll get your time and money’s worth out of the campaign and its many unlockables all on its own. Definitely one to add to the collection for those feeling the need for speed. Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection ($39.99 from $79.99) Hm, I guess this is an Atlus list now. The excellent Etrian Odyssey series came to Switch with these HD remakes of the first three games. These are awesome, challenging games that just kept upping the ante with each new installment, and trying to buy the Nintendo DS cartridges now can get very expensive indeed. The signature mapping feature doesn’t work as smoothly here as it did on the DS, especially if you’re playing docked, but it’s as good as it can be. Plus, you can use auto-mapping if you don’t want to deal with it. At half the usual price, you get a lot of game for your buck here. Darkest Dungeon II ($31.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Embrace the fact that Darkest Dungeon II isn’t interested in building on the original game’s structure but rather in doing its own thing, and you’ll be able to enjoy the charms of this moody, chunky roguelite. Its merits are many, from its distinctive style to its combination of traditional story-telling bits and the magic of emergent, personalized stories. Roguelite fans will want to check it out, even if Darkest Dungeon fans might feel like pushing away from the table and going back to the original. Braid: Anniversary Edition ($9.99 from $19.99) One of the poster children of the indie boom that kicked off in the late 00s, Braid came back with a big splash in this fancy Anniversary Edition. You get a nicely remastered version of the original game, with one of the best developer commentary features seen in a game so far. Braid might not have the punch it once did, but only because so many games that followed were so heavily inspired by it. Even if you’ve played it before, the discounted price should be enticing enough for a replay. Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Definitive Edition ($11.69 from $17.99) Might & Magic – Clash of Heroes: Definitive Edition doesn’t add very much to the original, but it was already a strong game that stands for itself quite well in modern times. Dotemu did a capable job of bringing it to the Switch, and it fits the platform almost as well as it fit the Nintendo DS. If you’re looking for a cool puzzle game that offers both a substantial single-player mode and enjoyable multiplayer gameplay, you’ll likely be quite satisfied with what this game has to offer. Life is Strange: Arcadia Bay Collection ($15.99 from $39.99) While the Switch versions of the games in Life is Strange Arcadia Bay Collection suffer from a number of visual and technical flaws compared to other platforms, the games themselves still shine as brightly as ever. It’s hard to say what the future holds for this franchise, but if you’re new to it all and just want a quick and slightly dirty way to explore its origins, picking this up at its sale price is a fine enough way to do that. Loop Hero ($4.94 from $14.99) Loop Hero is as hard to put down as the finest of idle games, but with enough meat on its bones to make it feel like your input actually matters. It’s the kind of game that has something to offer no matter how much or how little time you have to throw at it, and one that will likely keep you coming back now and then to play again. While it isn’t the most challenging of affairs, it’s certainly engaging and full of enough surprises to keep your interest over the long haul. Death’s Door ($4.99 from $19.99) Death’s Door is one of those nice combinations of a superb presentation and strong gameplay. The game could coast well enough on either of those points, but it hits them both and is excellent as a result. There’s nothing overly deep about the gameplay mechanics, and its brand of action is going to be familiar to most. The most impressive bits are the bosses, which require strong pattern recognition and good reflexes. The gorgeous sights and sounds along the way add tremendously to its atmosphere, doing their part to keep the player pulled into this unusual, compelling world. Action-RPG fans will certainly want to give this a go. The Messenger ($3.99 from $19.99) This is the lowest price yet for the Switch version of this popular indie action game, and it’s so low that I can’t imagine anyone not wanting to give it a punt. What seems like a straightforward ninja action game gets bigger and more ambitious as you go, and it juggles things relatively well as it does so. It’s not a perfect game, and I feel like its star has faded a bit over time, but it’s one of those indie games that everyone with any love for 8-bit and 16-bit classics should at least try out once. Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged ($14.99 from $49.99) Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 – Turbocharged is just as fun of an arcade racer as the first game, and the various tweaks and improvements to the formula makes it a far smoother experience. Some players might run into some issues with the challenging post-game content, but that’s why it’s in the post-game. If you enjoyed the first game, you’ll probably like this one even more. Series newcomers should feel comfortable jumping immediately to this sequel, too. For fifteen bucks, it’s hard to go wrong if you like racing. Pepper Grinder ($9.74 from $14.99) Pepper Grinder is an enjoyable, unique platformer with a zippy pace, interesting mechanics, and some cool level designs. The boss battles are a bit clunky and only subtract from what is otherwise a very tight experience. It’s also worth noting that the game is quite brisk in its run-time, so do take that into account before buying. I personally think it ends a little too soon, but that’s not a terrible problem for a game to have, especially with a little shaved off the sticker price. And those are our picks from the Blockbuster Sale on the Nintendo Switch eShop. There are plenty more great games on sale right now besides these, so make sure to check your wishlists and dig into the pages for your favorite publishers just to be sure you aren’t missing anything. If you have any sales you’d like to share, please hit those comments below. Thanks for reading!

Following developer TRAGsoft bringing monster collecting game Coromon to mobile after it debuted on PC and Switch, we are getting …

Continue reading "Roguelite ‘Coromon: Rogue Planet’ in Development for Release on iOS, Android, Switch, and Steam in 2025"

Following developer TRAGsoft bringing monster collecting game Coromon to mobile after it debuted on PC and Switch, we are getting a roguelite spin-off in the form of Coromon: Rogue Planet (Free) due next year for not only Steam and Switch, but also iOS and Android. Coromon: Rogue Planet aims to blend in the turn-based combat of the main game with roguelite gameplay to deliver an endlessly replayable monster collecting gameplay loop. The Steam page mentions “10 ever changing biomes", 7 different playable characters, over 130 monsters, and more. Watch the Coromon: Rogue Planet official announcement trailer below: The original Coromon is a free to play game on mobile. I’m curious to see how Coromon: Rogue Planet ends up on mobile when it does arrive and also whether it hits alongside the Switch and Steam versions. As of now, you can wishlist Coromon: Rogue Planet on Steam here. I haven’t played Coromon in a while, but the gameplay in Coromon: Rogue Planet sounds more interesting. It feels like the perfect pick up and play game based on the Steam screenshots as well. Until this one is out, you can grab the original for free on iOS here. What do you think of Coromon: Rogue Planet so far and did you play Coromon?

Hello everyone, and welcome to the week! It’s time once again for our look back at the noteworthy updates of …

Continue reading "Best iPhone Game Updates: ‘Peglin’, ‘Brawl Stars’, ‘Genshin Impact’, ‘Royal Match’, and More"

Hello everyone, and welcome to the week! It’s time once again for our look back at the noteworthy updates of the last seven days. You know it’s one of those weeks when Shaun has to throw more than one free-to-play matching puzzle game update in the list. Don’t worry, we have some cool stuff in the mix too. And you get to see Shaun kick King Robert, an activity we all enjoy. Of course, you can keep an eye out for updates yourself by participating in the TouchArcade forums. This weekly summary is just here to fill you in on the things you might have missed. Let’s go for it! Peglin, Free I know it’s somewhat rare for me to do this, but I’m giving out the coveted UMMSotW award to the first game in the list this week. Peglin‘s 1.0 update allows you to challenge up to level 20 in Cruciball, battle a new Slime Hive mini-boss, and take advantage of a whole ton of tweaks, bug fixes, balance adjustments, and other improvements. This game didn’t really need much in the way of updating, but I’ll take it anyway. Brawl Stars, Free Brawl time! Stars time! Dare we say… Brawl Stars time?! Yes, we dare. SpongeBob. SpongeBob is here in a new event, and that is cool. A couple new Brawlers coming in the form of Moe (Mythic) and Kenji (Legendary), and a handful of new Hypercharges for various characters. All of this will roll out over the course of the next couple of months in the usual Brawl Stars fashion, but the SpongeBob stuff should be kicking off rather soon if it hasn’t already by the time you read this. stitch., What more would one expect from an update to the soothing and satisfying stitch but more Hoops to play? That’s just what you get here, this time with a bit of a martial arts theme. Sort of, anyway. Like with any good puzzle game, it doesn’t really matter as much what the theme of the puzzles are so long as you get more of them. So yes, update your app and go do some Hoops. You’ll feel better. Genshin Impact, Free I guess this game is called Genshin Impact: Natlan Launch now. Nothing to be done about it. You’ve got a new region, Natlan, and three new characters to go with it: Mualani, Kinich, and Kachina. New weapons as well, of course. Plenty of new events and stories to take on, and some new artifacts too. Regular players likely know by now what to expect from Genshin Impact updates, and while this one is a little bigger than the usual one, it’s very much in line with previous ones in the broad strokes. Temple Run: Puzzle Adventure, Alright, here we go. At least this one is on Apple Arcade, so it’s not completely free-to-play. It sure is a matching puzzle game update, though. There are one hundred new levels to play in this Temple Run spin-off, which is quite a lot as these things go. The tournaments have also been refreshed, as usual. That’s about all, but I’m sure it will keep many players busy for a bit. Maybe even until the next update? I’ve seen how people who play games like these chew through levels, so I’m not super-confident about that! Jetpack Joyride 2, In this very special update to the Apple Arcade sequel to Halfbrick’s mega-hit auto-runner: Barry Steakfries escapes to the one place that hasn’t been corrupted by capitalism – SPACE! It’s a shame that leaving that be would ruin the formatting for the article. Really best as a mic-drop reference, but if I do that things will look very messy, so I have to stand here and ramble a bit so that everything stays properly in its place. Tim Curry, folks. He’s a treasure. We were graced by his many performances, big and small. Much love to Mr. Curry, who I am 99% sure is reading this. Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop, Moving right along, it’s another matching puzzle game. But to be fair, this is one the all-timer matching puzzle games. At least in it’s original form, anyway. As for this particular version, there are new character episodes for Sig, Carbuncle, and Rafisol in the Adventure Mode. Meena has been added as a playable character, minus an episode of her own. An additional seven music tracks are available in the shop, all arrangements of fan favorite tunes from previous entries. Add in some bug fixes and that’s that. Hearthstone, Free Hearthstone time! This one is usually pretty good with its update notes, so let’s open the ol’ paperwork and see what’s in front of us. Hm. Well, we’ll make do. Battlegrounds Season 8, Trinkets & Travels, is incoming. All the kinds of new stuff we’ve seen in previous seasons, which is nice. The Trinket Shop is here, with Buddies taking a hike. Two times per game you can buy Trinkets with Gold, which will affect the rest of the match. That seems troublesome for balancing, but I suppose that is where Hearthstone is at by this point. Toon Blast, Free The first of the two actual obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle game updates for this article is Toon Blast. There’s a whole new episode here, giving you fifty new levels to play. Some business involving bees, or happiness, or the combination thereof. Bees are pretty cool, even if I am a little scared of them sometimes. They’re cool little buddies that help the ecosystem, and I’d give them tiny hugs if not for the pointy ouchy bit. Hang in there, my bug friends. We’ll get through it all together. Royal Match, Free I don’t know which is more preferable to me: King Robert perishing permanently and never appearing again, or King Robert continually perishing and returning to perish again, in a perpetual and heckish cycle of pain. One hundred new levels. A new jousting arena. That seems to have some potential. I love that one ad where they have swapped King Robert in for the freezing pregnant lady and her child, like we’re supposed to care about this garishly garbed monarch who’s a little chilly. Burn your velvet robes to warm your flesh, you decadent old ogre. That about wraps it up for last week’s significant updates. I’m sure I’ve missed some, though, so please feel free to comment below and let everyone know if you think something should be mentioned. As usual, major updates will likely get their own news stories throughout this week, and I’ll be back next Monday to summarize and fill in the blanks. Have a great week!

Among Us (Free) has done loads of crossovers and collaborations over the years, but one I didn’t expect at all …

Continue reading "‘Among Us’ Is Collaborating With ‘Ace Attorney Investigations’ for Its Newest Free Cosmetic DLC Out Next Week"

Among Us (Free) has done loads of crossovers and collaborations over the years, but one I didn’t expect at all just got announced for next week. Later this week, Capcom is releasing the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection for PC and consoles bringing remasters of both games to modern platforms. Read my preview covering the Switch and PC versions here. Among Us is bringing in Miles Edgeworth from those games as a free cosmetic DLC on September 9th as a collaboration with the Ace Attorney series. Check out the promo art for Miles Edgeworth in Among Us below: Among Us x @aceattorneygame let's hope ur accusations aren't ludicrous. Miles Edgeworth is coming to Among Us as a free cosmetic drop on Sept 9th! pic.twitter.com/6XHdrD29zi — Among Us PAX West (@AmongUsGame) September 1, 2024 If you’ve not gotten Among Us yet, it is available for free on the App Store for iOS here and Google Play for Android here. Check it out on Nintendo Switch here and Steam here. Here’s our forum thread for the game. Ace Attorney Investigations Collection releases on September 6th for PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and Steam worldwide. Hopefully it comes to mobile in the near future as well. Have you been playing Among Us often on mobile and what do you think of the current state of the game?

One thing I love is when a game can successfully blend two fairly different types of gameplay into one cohesive …

Continue reading "TouchArcade Game of the Week: ‘Ocean Keeper’"

One thing I love is when a game can successfully blend two fairly different types of gameplay into one cohesive package. I’m thinking of games like the Blaster Master series with its vehicle-based side-scrolling platforming that’s coupled with cool top-down on-foot sequences. Or heck, a recent favorite like Dave the Diver with its roguelike diving portions blended with restaurant management. Well, Ocean Keeper from developer RetroStyle Games is another one of those games that successfully blends two sets of different mechanics together, and it does so with a gameplay loop and upgrade path that has you coming back over and over again. The basic gist of Ocean Keeper is that you’ve crashed onto a strange underwater planet in your big cool mech. You’ll need to dive down into underwater caves to harvest resources, but you can’t spend too long down there because waves of enemies are approaching and you’ll need to man your mech to defend against them. The mining portions play out from a side-view and involve digging out rocks to unearth various types of resources or special artifacts. Mining also earns you coins, for some reason. As mentioned you only have a short window to mine before enemies show up. Once you’re back in your mech things turn into a top-down twin-stick shooter with light tower defense elements as you attempt to fend off multiple waves of all types of crazy underwater creatures. All your resources go towards upgrading both your miner and your mech, and there is no shortage of branching skill trees to work your way through for both. This is a roguelike so if you die during the enemy encounter portion your game is over and you’ll lose any upgrades or abilities you unlocked during that particular run. However, there are also persistent upgrades and customizations you can unlock in between runs so this is the type of game you always feel like you’re making progress in even if you have a bad run or two. You can also expect the layouts of the overworld and the caves to be different each time you play. This is probably a good time to mention that Ocean Keeper starts off kind of slow, and you definitely will have some real clunker runs in the beginning. Just power your way through and before you know it the upgrades start flowing, your skills begin to improve, you start to get a better grip on the flow of the game, and before long you’ll be a whirling underwater mech of destruction. The synergies between the weapons and upgrades are really the heart of the game and it’s endlessly fun to try different builds or different tactics as you progress. I wasn’t quite sure about Ocean Keeper when I first started since things do start out so slow, but man once things pick up it’s been hard to want to play anything else.

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. If you missed my Gundam Breaker 4 Steam Deck review, …

Continue reading "Steam Deck Weekly: Visions of Mana and More Reviews, Reynatis Preview, Age of Mythology Retold Steam Deck Impressions, News, and More"

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. If you missed my Gundam Breaker 4 Steam Deck review, read it here. Today’s article has Steam Deck impressions and reviews for Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash, Visions of Mana, Gori: Cuddly Carnage, Bloons Card Storm, and more. This week also sees a few notable new Steam Deck Verified games and the usual slew of sales and discounts. Let’s get into the reviews and impressions first. Steam Deck Game Reviews & Impressions We are officially in the very busy season of the year, and I’m going to try and cover as much as I can this week through a few scored reviews and impressions of games on Steam Deck with one preview as well. Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash Steam Deck Impressions Over the years, we’ve seen Cygames try and expand its Umamusume property through indirect ways with DLC in its other games, through the anime, and more. Umamusume: Pretty Derby itself is finally getting localized this year as well on mobile, and Cygames has released a party game based on Umamusume with Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash. I need a bit more time for my full review of Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash when I’ll likely also cover the Switch version, but I’ve been playing Cygames’ first ever official Umamusume: Pretty Derby release in the West on Steam Deck ahead of its launch this week. Until then, I wanted to give you an idea of how Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash is on Steam Deck. Out of the box, Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash seems to run at full 16:10, but it is stretched. I recommend going into the settings and changing the resolution to 720p and display mode to full screen so it displays correctly. One thing to keep in mind is Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash currently has some video playback codec issues resulting in a color bar pattern for some videos. I tested 3 different Proton GE versions including 9-9 with no luck as the game wouldn’t load some modes unless I used Proton Experimental. Aside from the videos, Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash runs fine at its 60fps target. I’m looking forward to playing more of it for my full review that hopefully covers the console versions as well. As of now Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash doesn’t have a Steam Deck rating from Valve, and I imagine it will be marked unsupported until the cut-scene issue is addressed. Reynatis English Release Preview Reynatis from NIS America and Furyu is set to release on September 27th for Steam, PS5, PS4, and Switch following its Japanese debut. Ahead of its launch, I had a chance to attend a preview event for the game to check out some of the English build. Usually, I don’t bother doing hands-off previews, but I’ve been curious to see how the English localization is, and also learn more about this release. Since this was a hands-off preview, I can’t comment on how the game feels or how it is on PC, but Reynatis is shaping up to be one of Furyu’s more ambitious games with its story, setting, and seemingly smooth combat. Over the years, I usually end up clicking with Furyu game stories and soundtracks, but one or two aspects always feel lacking. With Reynatis, I’ve been interested in the narrative and combat as well. Reynatis takes place in a recreation of modern-day Tokyo and the different perspectives make it seem like it will be unique. I won’t comment on much of the gameplay until I try it out for myself, but the English localization so far seems very good. I am a bit disappointed at no English dub though. A lot of folks likely are interested in Reynatis because it has music by Yoko Shimomura and a scenario from Kazushige Nojima both of whom are well known to Square Enix fans for their work on Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and more. If we do get a demo in the near future, I recommend trying it out to see how you find it for yourself. I’m looking forward to playing Reynatis myself hopefully soon for review, but it definitely feels like this might end up one of Furyu’s better games in recent years. While the story and setting are definitely highlights, I’m very interested in seeing how the combat system feels. Stay tuned for more Reynatis coverage in the near future. Visions of Mana Steam Deck Review When Visions of Mana was announced, I was very happy to see the series back after we saw the superb Collection of Mana and then the remake of Trials of Mana released across multiple platforms. When I tried the demo for Visions of Mana, I was concerned because there were some aspects that didn’t work for me at all, but I was hopeful. Fast forward to today and Visions of Mana is available on PS5, Xbox Series X, and Steam. I’ve been playing it on both Steam Deck and PS5 for review, and it ended up surprising me in a good way, but I feel like it would have benefited from a few months of polish and tweaking when it comes to its general movement. I’m going to focus on the game on Steam Deck in this review, but also cover how it feels on PS5. If you’re new to the Mana series, you can still start with this one. Visions of Mana is a new game in the series covering the Mana Tree and more. If you, like me, have played prior games, this will feel great in some ways, but you might be let down in parts, especially for the story. Visions of Mana’s strength is in its gorgeous world, the combat, and general gameplay. It is a huge step up over Trials of Mana in its scope and visuals, just like Tales of Arise felt in a way when it was released. The issues I have with Visions of Mana are to do with its general feel. The movement and camera never feel good. While I managed fixing this on PS5 with the camera distance and movement speed, I wish it was snappier in general. On the PC port side, Visions of Mana is quite bare-bones. You can adjust screen mode, resolution, frame rate target (30fps to unlimited), toggle v-sync, adjust FSR 2, and just “graphics settings" presets. These presets are low, standard, and high. It doesn’t tell you what the three options change, but it does affect draw distance, post-processing, and more. While the game boots up seemingly fullscreen at 16:10, it is actually stretched. Don’t be fooled into thinking the game supports the native resolution. Changing the display mode from borderless to windowed or fullscreen will have it adjust to 16:9 where the elements and screen are not stretched. A friend of mine recommended trying out forcing a lower resolution in the demo to get better performance, but that seems to come with its own issues where the resolution options bug out even when you go back to forcing native or higher resolution on the Deck’s own display. Visions of Mana is currently rated as Steam Deck Playable by Valve, but it has notable performance issues right now. Regardless of the settings I used when it comes to frame rate target or upscaling, I couldn’t get a locked frame rate even targeting 30fps with it dropping below in crowded areas. When using the low preset and different upscaling methods for testing purposes, the game runs above 60fps in parts, but it also drops below 30fps. Some areas just stutter in general, and even playing on Ultra Performance upscaling with the really low image quality isn’t enough. Visions of Mana’s art style really doesn’t work with heavy upscaling so I would not recommend it. After spending about 5 hours just testing out different settings across my save files in Visions of Mana, I settled on playing with FSR set to quality and the high preset for a 30fps target with drops below to the high 20s. If you’re ok with around 30fps and regular drops below to the high 20s, Visions of Mana is fine on Steam Deck, and looks excellent on the handheld’s screen when playing at the high graphics preset. I would recommend downloading the free Visions of Mana demo to try out the different graphics options, but note that the final game runs a bit differently. It is still worth checking to see how the aesthetic scales on Steam Deck with different settings used. Visions of Mana needs more optimization right now on PC in general though. I’d also love for the PC port to actually see more detailed graphics options added so that players can adjust things individually rather than relying on console-like modes. On the control side, Visions of Mana has support for controller and keyboard + mouse inputs. You can also change the controller glyphs which is always a welcome option. Speaking of console, Visions of Mana on PS5 is great after some tweaking. The default camera movement and distance felt awful. Having changed it to zoomed out and the camera speed to 10 resulted in a massively better feeling experience. The default gave me motion sickness in parts. I would also recommend toggling on auto-run. If you, like me, play on both current consoles or Steam Deck, I would grab Visions of Mana on PS5 for sure over Steam Deck until it gets some patches on the latter. Visions of Mana has higher highs but also lower lows than Trials of Mana, but it is a game I’m glad I got to experience by the end. If you enjoyed Trials of Mana and games like Tales of Arise specifically on the gameplay side, Visions of Mana is worth your time. I just wish the movement and PC port were better. In its current state, it is excellent to have a modern Mana game and Visions of Mana delivered on that front. Just don’t expect it to reach the highs of Secret of Mana. While it is rated Steam Deck Playable by Valve, I recommend playing it on PS5 rather than Steam Deck with how bare-bones the PC port is in its current state. Visions of Mana Steam Deck review score: 3.5/5 Gori: Cuddly Carnage Steam Deck Review When I first saw promotional art for Gori: Cuddly Carnage, I thought it would be a short horror game. I didn’t expect it to be a blend of Ratchet & Clank, Cyril Cyberpunk, and an action game with a ton of early 2000s humor sprinkled across. If that sounds good to you, just go download the demo because it is great. Gori: Cuddly Carnage has you playing as a badass cat in an action platformer that happens to have better combat than any recent game in the genre. While the aesthetic might not work for some, I found it perfectly suits the writing and was impressed by the smooth animations and visuals throughout my time playing it. On PC, Gori: Cuddly Carnage lets you adjust graphics presets (low, medium, high, very high), resolution, display mode, FOV, frame rate target (30fps to unlimited), toggle v-sync, toggle motion blur, toggle ray tracing, upscale method (off, DLSS, XeSS), and also adjust the quality for anti-aliasing, shadows, textures, effects, and post-processing. The PC version is quite a feature packed port for a game like this, and it controls perfectly on Steam Deck with good rumble as well. On Steam Deck playing at the very high preset with no upscaling used, expect to play with a 30fps target. I didn’t want to settle for just 30fps of course. Using the medium preset with no upscaling is good for playing with 45fps at 90hz on Steam Deck OLED. If you want to aim for 60fps or higher, I recommend playing with higher visuals but XeSS. Taking things all the way down at the low preset and XeSS set to ultra performance results in 90fps with some drops. It doesn’t look bad even now, but it is definitely a visual step down from native anti-aliasing. I also had access to Gori: Cuddly Carnage on PS5, and that version is just as impressive as the PC version with multiple performance modes including a ray tracing mode, 120fps mode, and more. It also has good DualSense support. When it comes to the game itself, Gori: Cuddly Carnage has some camera issues that affect platforming sections and also a few boss battles that annoyed me. While the latter could just be certain encounters not clicking with me, I hope the former can be addressed. Overall, I’m very pleased with how Gori: Cuddly Carnage is on Steam Deck, and expect it to get Verified very soon. The game itself surprised me with its quality, and it is one I won’t forget for a while. It excels with its fun gameplay, good writing, and great combat and feels right at home on Steam Deck from start to finish. It is just held back by a few annoyances. Gori: Cuddly Carnage Steam Deck review score: 4/5 Bloons Card Storm Steam Deck Gameplay Impressions When I learned about Bloons Card Storm, a collectible card game set in the Bloons game universe, I was curious about it. I had access to a Steam preview build of the game ahead of its full launch later this year on mobile and Steam, and it has been an interesting experience. Having played the Bloons games on iOS with touch controls, I wasn’t sure what to expect with Bloons Card Storm, but it feels right at home on Steam Deck with touch controls. As of now there is no controller support in the preview build, but it plays perfectly with touch controls. As for the game itself, Bloons Card Storm feels like a nice addition to the crowded genre. I played a few levels of the PvE mode and like how the team brought over Bloons characters and abilities to this world. If you’re new to Bloons, I recommend playing the super popular Bloons TD 6 or TD Battles 2 before, but you can still play and enjoy this one. I just hope the monetization is handled well when it launches because I can’t see what the in-game store is selling right now. I can safely say that it runs and looks great on Steam Deck even in its early preview build. Hopefully it gets controller support at or around launch though. It is shaping up to be a nice and accessible card game, and the cross platform multiplayer means I’m definitely going to get a few friends to give it a shot at launch. Age of Mythology: Retold Steam Deck Gameplay Impressions I’ve been very excited for Age of Mythology: Retold because I played the original a ton back in the day. The action RTS bringing together gods and monsters was already great on PC, but this remake had me more interested because it was coming to console day one. You might be wondering why that matters for a Steam Deck review, and I need to go back a bit to Age of Empires coming to Xbox for that. When Microsoft brought Age of Empires II Definitive Edition to Xbox, it played wonderfully with full controller support and a fantastic port. The company sadly did not bring this controller support to the PC version and I’ve had to rely on using the trackpad on Steam Deck to play Age of Empires II Definitive and also Age of Empires IV. I ended up playing both of those more on Xbox because I really love the controller support. It isn’t as good as playing with a mouse and keyboard for some specific areas, but I played enough of these games with a keyboard and mouse when they first released. Age of Mythology: Retold had a beta test on Steam, and when I tried it out, I was glad to see it included controller support even on Steam. This was enough for me to pre-order the game’s Premium Edition a few days ago to play on Steam Deck. So far, Age of Mythology: Retold feels great on Steam Deck, after making one change. By default, Age of Mythology: Retold is marked as Steam Deck Playable by Valve, but I actually couldn’t get it to boot up at all on my Steam Deck OLED or LCD models. It kept freezing or crashing. Moving to GE Proton 9-9 fixed this issue for me. I haven’t played enough to do a full review yet, but I’m glad at how good Age of Mythology: Retold feels and looks on Steam Deck right now. I’m looking forward to playing it more over the coming weeks. As for the best graphics settings for Age of Mythology: Retold on Steam Deck OLED, I need a bit more time to see how it performs later on. Right now, I’ve settled for 45fps at 90hz with a combination of medium settings with FSR 2 set to quality. It is going to be interesting to see how it fares later on in the campaign. Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn Steam Deck Gameplay Impressions Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn is Tengo Project and NatsumeAtari’s newest remake of a classic, and it is a damn fine release overall. Shaun is working on a full review of this one, but I wanted to cover how it feels on Steam Deck and also Xbox briefly. Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn on PC lets you adjust resolution and screen mode (borderless, windowed, and fullscreen). It only has 16:9 support, but the aesthetic absolutely shines on Steam Deck with the particle effects and crisp animation work. As for the PC port itself, there are some control issues if you want to use a keyboard, but I played Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn on Steam Deck only and it felt right at home on Valve’s handheld with fast loading and no performance issues. While Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn’s source game isn’t as amazing as the likes of Pocky and Rocky or even The Ninja Warriors like we’ve seen from Tengo Project in the past, it has gotten an excellent release that runs and looks perfect on Steam Deck and Xbox Series X. I also enjoyed playing it online through Steam Remote Play Together with a friend of mine in another country. If you aren’t sure about this one yet, I recommend downloading the demo and trying it out for yourself. News and Trailers Let’s start this week’s section with a brand-new extended showcase for Atlus’ upcoming RPG Metaphor: ReFantazio. It continues to look amazing and I can’t believe it is only a little over a month away. Watch the trailer below: Following that, Square Enix just posted new details for the upcoming Romancing SaGa 2 remake titled Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven coming to Steam and consoles this October. Check out some new screenshots here and one showcasing Glimmer below: Now let’s shift gears to the Nintendo Indie Direct + Partner Showcase that had 99% games coming to or on Steam. I’ve included the highlights here. Marvelous USA had an impactful trailer for Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma coming to Switch and Steam in Spring 2025. Watch it below: Bandai Namco announced Tales of Graces f Remastered for January 2025 release on Steam and all consoles with visual upgrades and DLC included. Watch the trailer below: Konami and M2 have released Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia in one collection out now on Steam and all consoles. I’ll be reviewing this one next week so stay tuned for that. Capcom announced Capcom Fighting Collection 2 featuring Capcom Vs SNK, Power Stone, and 6 other games coming in 2025 to Steam, Switch, and PlayStation. Capcom also announced that the Marvel Vs Capcom collection launches in under 2 weeks. The excellent Cuisineer from Marvelous USA is coming to Switch and other consoles early next year alongside a big update for the Steam release. I’m definitely getting the physical edition. The Ghibli-inspired action-adventure game Europa was showcased for Switch during the Nintendo Indie World showcase and will launch on October 11th for Switch and Steam. Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land, the next mainline Atelier game is coming to Steam and all consoles including Xbox, a series first, in early 2025, and it looks incredible. Tetris Forever is the new Gold Master Series release from Digital Eclipse coming this year featuring more than 15 playable classic games from the series’ history. Some have never seen a release outside Japan before. PowerWash Simulator is going deeper into the madness with the Shrek Special Pack coming soon for Steam and all consoles. FAIRY TAIL 2 from Gust and Koei Tecmo is finally coming to Steam, Switch, and other consoles beginning December 11th. Watch the trailer below: Fantastic Games: Presented by Day of the Devs will be taking place from September 20th to 22nd, and the full list of games and developers has been revealed. I’m excited for quite a few of those, and I even have played a few of those already (but I can’t say which ones yet!). Channel: Death by Night City, Big Sir Games darkwebSTREAMER by We Have Always Lived in the Forest Fear the Spotlight by Cozy Game Pals and Blumhouse Games Five Nights at Freddy’s: Secret of the Mimic by Steel Wool Grunn by Sokpop Collective Hollowbody by Headware Games Holstin by Sonka Horses by Santa Ragione Karma: The Dark World by Pollard Studio, Wired Productions and Gamera Games Pinball M (DLC) by Zen Studios Post Trauma by Red Soul Games and Raw Fury Skate Story by Sam Eng and Devolver Digital Tom the Postgirl by Oopsie Daisies SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream got two new character trailers this week. Check out the Yui and Oberon trailers below: D3 Publisher launched the first DLC pack for Earth Defense Force 6 in the form of Earth Defense Force 6 – Lost Days DLC 1. It is out now on Steam and PS5. Super Evil Megacorp posted a roadmap for TMNT Splintered Fate following its launch on Apple Arcade and Switch revealing that it will be Steam Deck Verified and more. Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival is coming to Steam and current consoles on November 7th with 120fps support and more. It plays amazing on Steam Deck already. Try the demo here. Panic’s newest showcase aired a few days ago and it is absolutely worth watching if you like interesting games. Ahead of Tokyo Games Show, SEGA and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio announced the next RGG Summit for September 20th at 3 AM PT. You can watch it below when the event begins: Pinball FX brings in Goat Simulator and The Princess Bride as DLC tables this week on Steam and other platforms. Stay tuned for my coverage of both of these and the game itself in the near future: The first DLC for That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles, “A Strange Fate" is now available with Hinata as a new playable character and an original story by the original author. Watch the launch trailer below: SYNDUALITY: ECHO OF ADA has a new trailer with closed network test sign ups now live. Sign up here and watch the trailer for it below: The final bit of news is The First Descendant’s Season 1: Invasion now available bringing in a new descendent: Hailey, battle pass rewards, new dungeon invasions, and much more. New Steam Deck Verified & Playable games for the week A lot of interesting additions this week with the newly released Castlevania collection and Gundam Breaker 4 being marked as playable alongside Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics getting Verified ahead of its launch in under two weeks. I’m also glad to see the upcoming Dragon Quest Monsters release and Regency Solitaire II get tested by Valve. Age of Mythology: Retold – Playable Castlevania Dominus Collection – Playable DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: The Dark Prince – Playable GUNDAM BREAKER 4 – Playable MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics – Verified Pool Panic – Verified Regency Solitaire II – Verified Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse – Verified The Elder Scrolls Online – Playable Visions of Mana – Playable Steam Deck Game Sales, Discounts, and Specials The notable sales of the week include a Tales of franchise sale where I recommend Tales of Berseria as the best game in the series on Steam followed by Tales of Arise, Kingdom Come Deliverance at 90% off, and Red Dead Redemption II at 60% off on Steam. Note that for Red Dead Redemption II, you can’t buy the Steam version outside Steam while you can for the other games I’ve mentioned here. That’s all for this edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. As usual, you can read all our past and future Steam Deck coverage here. If you have any feedback for this feature or what else you’d like to see us do around the Steam Deck, let us know in the comments below. I hope you all have a great day, and thanks for reading.

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 30th, 2024. In today’s article, we have a handful …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Round-Up: ‘Umamusume: Pretty Derby’, ‘Super Dark Deception’, Plus Today’s Other Releases and Sales"

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 30th, 2024. In today’s article, we have a handful of new releases to look at as we bid farewell to August. A few decent ones, and a few unique ones. Outside of that, there isn’t much more than the lists of new sales and expiring discounts. This has been a busy week for me in many ways, but we should be back to the normal routine next week. Let’s get to what we’ve got! Select New Releases Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash ($44.99) I say thee neigh, Umamusume! Everyone’s favorite horse-girls arrive on Switch with this party game for up to four players via local or online multiplayer. There are four different minigames to play, and you get a full story mode with twenty-five playable characters to enjoy. It’s unbridled excitement for fans of the series, so if that’s you it’s time to start horsing around with your friends. I give you free rein to be as sore of a winner as you like, but get ready to hoof it if they get mad about it. Super Dark Deception ($17.99) Take Dark Deception, and then imagine how that would look as a sprite-based 2D game. Would it look like Super Dark Deception? Maybe not, but someone’s idea of it clearly did because here we are. Try to escape the mazes with your life intact, using anything and everything at your disposal to avoid being killed by the roaming creatures that go bump in the night. At launch, the game only includes the first chapter, consisting of four levels. More will be added over time as free DLC, but do consider that relatively low amount of content and admittedly uncertain future before purchasing. Forest, Fields and Fortresses ($4.99) A tile-placing puzzle game where you’re building a kingdom one piece at a time. There are two modes of play here. One is a puzzle mode where you have a set number and type of pieces and need to place them in such a way that you’ll earn enough gold to pass. The other mode is called Adventure Mode, where you can unlock and use a variety of starting maps and a random assortment of pieces to build with. Not bad at all if you’re looking for an affordable bit of puzzling fun today. Date Z ($14.99) A choice-based visual novel dating sim where you have to find a date by Friday or die. Well, no pressure there. There are five potential partners to woo, and naturally a bunch of different endings to uncover. I was ready to write it off as another in the big pile of games like this, but then I saw the above screenshot. How do I not include a game with that kind of screenshot on its store page? Bedrotting ($14.99) Well, this is a horror game premise I haven’t seen before. You play as a young girl who has been in a car accident. While your body is fine, your mental state isn’t. You can’t seem to get up out of your bed, basically. You need to survive for twenty days, which means eating, using a bucket as a toilet, and doing whatever you can to keep yourself together. That last bit becomes a very big problem as strange visions start to appear. Are they real? Your imagination? Does it matter? One for the enjoyers of creepy games, I’d say. Sales (North American eShop, US Prices) Not quite as interesting a list of new sales as yesterday’s, but if you’re looking to fill up on Pinball FX tables a number of them are discounted right now. Retro City Rampage DX and Shakedown: Hawaii are at their lowest prices yet, and that may be of interest to some. Over in the weekend outbox, the latest sale from Limited Run Games is wrapping up. Grab what you must. Select New Sales WitchSpring R ($35.99 from $39.99 until 9/5) Dice Make 10! ($3.59 from $3.99 until 9/5) Bug & Seek ($11.24 from $14.99 until 9/5) The House of Da Vinci 2 ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/6) Kingdom Rush ($5.49 from $9.99 until 9/6) Kingdom Rush Origins ($8.24 from $14.99 until 9/6) Kingdom Rush Frontiers ($5.49 from $9.99 until 9/6) Dance of Death: Du Lac & Fey ($2.39 from $15.99 until 9/6) Charlie Brown Christmas Pinball DLC ($2.74 from $5.49 until 9/9) Marvel Pinball Collection 1 DLC ($11.99 from $23.99 until 9/9) Tiny Thor ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/12) Cilla ($5.59 from $6.99 until 9/12) The Legend of Dark Witch ($3.49 from $6.99 until 9/12) The Legend of Dark Witch Ep. 2 ($8.99 from $9.99 until 9/12) Brave Dungeon + Dark Witch Story ($4.49 from $8.99 until 9/12) Forward To The Sky ($9.79 from $48.99 until 9/13) Wall World ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/13) The Oregon Trail ($17.99 from $29.99 until 9/19) Sherlock Holmes The Awakened ($9.99 from $39.99 until 9/19) Mercenaries Saga Chronicles ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/19) Shadows of Adam ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/19) Retro City Rampage DX ($3.49 from $14.99 until 9/19) Shakedown Hawaii ($3.49 from $19.99 until 9/19) Rise: Race the Future ($6.59 from $16.49 until 9/19) Speed Overflow ($7.79 from $12.99 until 9/19) Path to Purge ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/19) Sales Ending This Weekend Another Crab’s Treasure ($23.99 from $29.99 until 8/31) Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore ($11.99 from $19.99 until 8/31) Cosmic Star Heroine ($3.74 from $14.99 until 8/31) Dark Quest 3 ($7.59 from $18.99 until 8/31) Geometry Survivor ($1.99 from $4.99 until 8/31) Hot Wheels Unleashed ($5.99 from $39.99 until 8/31) Hot Wheels Unleashed GotY Edition ($11.99 from $79.99 until 8/31) Jurassic Park Games Collection ($17.99 from $29.99 until 8/31) Night Trap ($3.74 from $14.99 until 8/31) Oddworld Soulstorm ($17.49 from $49.99 until 8/31) Operation Wolf Returns ($10.49 from $29.99 until 8/31) The House in Fata Morgana ($19.99 from $39.99 until 8/31) Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery ($13.96 from $19.95 until 9/1) That’s all for today, this week, and this month, friends. As mentioned in the opening paragraph, this was an unusually busy week for me beyond my work here on the site. I apologize if things have seemed a bit light as a result. We’ll be back to the normal schedule next week, and that means plenty of reviews, new releases, sales, and some news. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and as always, thanks for reading!

In our tour through retro games available to buy on Switch, we’ve worked our way through the NES, Game Boy, …

Continue reading "The 10 Best Super NES Games on Nintendo Switch, Plus 5 We’d Like to See – SwitchArcade Special"

In our tour through retro games available to buy on Switch, we’ve worked our way through the NES, Game Boy, and SEGA Genesis selections among other more recent console libraries. This time we’re taking a look at the games that originated with Nintendo’s 16-bit console, the Super NES. While you can find plenty of great games from the console in the Nintendo Switch Online app, we’re instead looking at those games that dare to exist in the wilds of the Switch eShop. We’ve got ten of our favorites here, plus five more games that we’d like to see. No particular order, of course. Oh, and to cut off potential comments at the pass: Mega Man X isn’t here because I feel the input lag in the Legacy Collection hurts it too badly. Stone-cold classic, just not a great play experience on Switch. On with the show! Sparkster – Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked ($29.99) A very rare case of a Konami franchise born on a SEGA platform, Rocket Knight Adventures was a game Super NES owners could easily envy. While that game never came to Nintendo’s console, a version of the sequel did. Sparkster is the name of two distinct games, and the Super NES offering bearing that title is probably the better of the two. Not quite up to the original game, but plenty of fun. Rock ‘n Roll Racing – Blizzard Arcade Collection ($19.99) Before Blizzard became a household name for joking about phone ownership, it was making some very good console games. Also a pretty iffy Justice League fighting game, but we’re not here to talk about that. Instead, we’re talking about the highly enjoyable isometric racer that fused exciting gameplay with a fantastic licensed soundtrack. This game alone is worth the price of admission for this collection, but you get a handful of other cool Super NES games with it. Top Racer – Top Racer Collection ($19.99) More popularly known under the title Top Gear, Top Racer is one of the better choices in the racing genre on the Super NES. It rides the line between arcade and sim very well, and the soundtrack is absolutely outstanding. You get all three of the games in this set, and I’d argue the second game goes toe-to-toe with the first. The third game… well, how about those first two games, eh? Secret of Mana – Collection of Mana ($39.99) Square Enix seems to favor remakes with its Switch takes on its Super NES classics, and while those aren’t technically against my rules for these lists I think I’ll go with a purer choice. Secret of Mana can be found in the excellent Collection of Mana alongside the Game Boy original and the Super NES third game in the series. The emulation was handled by M2, so it’s working just as it did back in the day, bugs and all. Secret of Mana is a thoroughly enjoyable action-RPG, despite its many rough edges. You get to save Christmas at the behest of Rudolph! What more do you need? A fluffy dragon you can ride in a Mode 7 overworld map? Well, you get that too! TMNT IV: Turtles in Time – TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection ($39.99) The 16-bit generation was the era of beat ’em ups, and Turtles in Time jostles with Streets of Rage 2 for the title of king among the many challengers. It looks almost as good as the arcade game, plays even better, and leans into its time-traveling gimmick in a lot of fun ways. One of the best games on the Super NES full-stop, and I’m glad we’re able to buy it on modern consoles for the time being. Contra III: The Alien Wars – Contra Anniversary Collection ($19.99) Lots of Konami here again. It occupies a lot of spots in these lists, but it has earned it. Here’s the third Contra game, and the first to have no roots in the arcades whatsoever. It aims for a more futuristic setting and feel, and in true Konami style it pushes the hardware in a variety of fun ways. Sure, those Mode 7 overhead levels don’t play quite as well as you might like them to, but there’s no denying the style that runs through this entire game. Super Castlevania IV – Castlevania Anniversary Collection ($19.99) For some people, this is the best action-based installment in the Castlevania series. I’m not sure I’m fully on-board with that, but this is one heck of a great game. The visuals, sound effects, and music create an incredible vibe, and Simon’s overpowered whip skills make you feel like a real pro. The Super NES would see a lot of great action games, but few of them are as confidently showy as this one. A highly memorable game, and if you’re looking for a somewhat fairer entry point into the series this is one of the better choices. Zombies Ate My Neighbors – Zombies Ate My Neighbors & Ghoul Patrol ($14.99) Okay, Konami published this back in the day, but it’s really a Lucasarts title. A really unique one, at that. A stage-based top-down action game with tons of wacky enemies, locations, and tools you can find and use, Zombies Ate My Neighbors offered an experience you couldn’t find anywhere else on the console. Play alone or pull in a friend, especially if you want to make an actual go at beating this tough game. Aladdin – Disney Classic Games Collection ($29.49) The debate rages on about which 16-bit console version of Aladdin is better, but the nice thing about the Disney Classic Games Collection is that it doesn’t force you to choose. Both are here, have fun. Since this is a Super NES list, we’re talking about that version of the game. Directed by Shinji Mikami, who later got up to some zombie nonsense, this version of Aladdin can’t match the authentic presentation of the Genesis game, but makes up for it with some excellent Capcom platforming action. A bit of a breezy affair, but that’s not so bad sometimes. Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move (16-Bit Console Version) ($7.99) Let’s squeeze a puzzle game in here to finish things out. Call it Bust-A-Move, call it Puzzle Bobble, either way you’re in for a good time. Shoot the bubbles, make the matches, and try to clear the field before you get squashed. A charming presentation and some devilish stage designs make this a hard one to put down. Sure, the sequels have a lot more to offer, but you can have plenty of good times with this version all on its own. And… 5 Super NES Games We’d Like to See on Switch Chrono Trigger I mean, of course. One of the best games on the console, and cited by many as the finest game in the genre. It’s a bit silly that it isn’t on Switch, even if there are probably good reasons for it. Well, this is a wishlist. I don’t care about reasons! I want results! Bring me pictures of Chrono! Er, bring me Chrono Trigger on Switch! SimCity The theme of these picks is going to be licensing issues from here on out, though I have to believe SimCity is somewhat possible. All we need is Electronic Arts and Nintendo to come together to make it happen, and it’s not like it hasn’t happened before. Why don’t we have any SimCity on Switch? Mysterious stuff. Give me this one and I’ll forget about how you parked the IP in the river, EA. For a while, anyway. Terranigma The one that got away for North American Super NES owners. Quintet’s run on the Super NES was outstanding, and I’d love to see all of them available to buy again. If I had to pick just one, it’s this one. A very enjoyable action-RPG with a story that will definitely stick with you, wrapped up in a gorgeous package that rivals what Square was doing on the console in a lot of ways. I’m hoping this can one day slip out of the vault it’s currently trapped in, even if that place isn’t on the Switch. U.N. Squadron There’s something about U.N. Squadron that tends to click with people who aren’t usually into shoot ’em ups. Maybe it’s the manga/anime-born style. Perhaps it’s the lenience afforded by the life bar. The cool jets? Maybe it’s the cool jets. Whatever the case, it would be amazing to see this game get a reissue. It’s tied up with a license which probably makes things difficult, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Capcom makes it happen someday. Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage The author’s bias on full display here, wow. Maximum Carnage? That iffy beat ’em up based on the comic event where Spider-Man defeats Carnage with the literal power of friendship? Yes. I love this game. It is stupid and kind of bad and I love it. I want it, even if I have to put up with it being packaged with Separation Anxiety or something. Get Green Jelly on the phone, patch Marvel into the conference call, find whoever bought the husk of LJN/Acclaim, and get it done. And that’s the list, friends. Are there any Super NES games you enjoy on the Switch? Any you would like to see? Feel free to sound off down in the comments and let us know what you’re thinking! It’s always interesting to hear the opinions of others on this kind of thing. As always, thanks for reading!

HoYoverse’s Honkai Star Rail (Free) version 2.5 update titled “Flying Aureus Shot to Lupine Rue" was just showcased during a …

Continue reading "‘Honkai Star Rail’ Version 2.5 “Flying Aureus Shot to Lupine Rue” Update Releases on September 10th, New Trailer Showcased During Livestream"

HoYoverse’s Honkai Star Rail (Free) version 2.5 update titled “Flying Aureus Shot to Lupine Rue" was just showcased during a livestream. It will release on September 10th for iOS, Android, PS5, and PC. This update’s highlights are the Wardance ceremony, many new enemies, new characters: Feixiao, Lingsha, and Moze alongside the silkpunk saga in the Shackling Prison reaching its climax, and also reruns of Black Swan and Kafka (!). Topaz will be returning for a rerun in part 2 of version 2.5. Watch the newest Honkai Star Rail version 2.5 update trailer below: If you’ve not played the game yet, you can download Honkai Star Rail on the App Store for iOS here, on Google Play for Android here, and here on the Epic Games Store in addition to its regular PC version. Check it out here on PS5. Have you been playing Honkai Star Rail recently and what do you think of 2.5 so far?

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 29th, 2024. We’ve got another big plate of new …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Round-Up: ‘Emio: The Smiling Man’, ‘Gundam Breaker 4’, Plus Today’s Other Releases and Sales"

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 29th, 2024. We’ve got another big plate of new releases to check out today, and that’s going to be the bulk of the column as it usually is on Thursdays. We also have a relatively hefty list of new sales to delve into, and that’s really about it. We can’t have Nintendo Directs every day, after all. Let’s get to the games! Select New Releases Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club ($49.99) After a few decades without any sequels, Famicom Detective Club is back. This new case is very faithful to the original games, for better or worse. You get an entirely new mystery to unravel, and in terms of the presentation it’s relatively similar to the remake releases in Switch a little while back. Can you solve the latest serial murder case? I’ll be giving it a try in my review, coming soon. Gundam Breaker 4 ($59.99) Mikhail has already written a veritable book on this game in his review, so I’ll just direct you towards that if you want a full breakdown of the gameplay and how it performs on Switch. The short version is that you’re building and battling Gunplas, and while this Switch port is obviously going to falter behind the others in terms of performance, it does the job well enough that if it’s the option in front of you, it’s more than fine. Anyway, go read Mikhail’s review. It’s a goodie. Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn ($19.99) Tengo Project has had a very good run with its remakes/re-imaginings so far. Wild Guns Reloaded, The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors, and Pocky & Rocky Reshrined brought back some 16-bit cult favorites with a lot of awesome extras. Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn sees the team applying its touch to an 8-bit game, and as you might imagine it’s quite a bit more different from its source material than the aforementioned games. Still, if you’re fixing for an action-platformer with a classic style, this will serve you. I’ll be reviewing this early next week, so watch for that. Valfaris: Mecha Therion ($19.99) This is a follow-up to Valfaris, but don’t expect more of the same kind of gameplay you saw in that game. No, this is a 2.5D side-scrolling shoot ’em up, and it’s decent enough. I think some people were caught off guard by the genre shift and were put off as a result, but embrace the change and you’ll find plenty to enjoy. Yes, this is another one I’ve got a review coming up for. Funny how that works! Nour: Play With Your Food ($9.99) I’d like to pretend I know what’s going on with this game, but I really don’t. Those sure are some nice images of food, though. And you’re meant to play with all of that? Take some pictures, I guess? Look for secrets? Maybe I’ll dispatch our pal Mikhail to investigate this further. It seems like his sort of thing. Monster Jam Showdown ($49.99) If you like monsters, or you like jam, then… I have no idea if you’ll like this game. It’s about Monster Jam, the monster truck thing. No preserves or strawberries or goblins at all. Well, what can you do? It has support for multiplayer, both local and online, and seems to have plenty of modes and such to play around with. It seems to have met with a middling reaction on other platforms, but monster truck fans don’t have a whole lot of choices in front of them, I suppose. If that’s you, do what you must. WitchSpring R ($39.99) I think this is a remake of the original WitchSpring, but I might be wrong about that. WitchSpring to me was always the mobile “we have Atelier at home" series, and in that capacity and at that price point, it served its role well enough. Now that it’s getting very near to the price of an actual Atelier game, I’m not sure if I’m quite so on board with it. But if you’re willing to give it a go, it does look like the nicest WitchSpring game so far. Depths of Sanity ($19.99) Oh, this is one of those undersea exploration games. Those always have an interesting vibe to them. This one leans into the fantastical horror side of things, as you might expect from the title. You’re trying to figure out what happened to your missing crew, and you’ll have to poke around a big, dangerous interconnected underwater world to sort it all out. Yes, there will be fighting. This one is well-regarded on other platforms by fans of exploratory action games, and I suspect it will find an eager following on the Switch as well. Voltaire: The Vegan Vampire ($19.99) Kids, am I right? Voltaire is rebelling against his vampiric daddy by taking up a vegan lifestyle to prove there are other ways to live than biting necks. Daddy doesn’t dig that, and is going to try to teach his son a lesson. What this amounts to is farming, of course. This is the Switch, after all. But also some action, because you’re going to need to fend off daddy’s attempts to mess things up for you. I’m a little bit burnt out on this genre at the moment, but if you’re more energetic about picking up a hoe than I am you might want to check this one out. Marble Abduction! Patti Hattu ($11.79) One of those marble roller games, this one with seventy stages and eighty marbles to collect. There are some secret collectibles to find, and special challenges that will score you some of the rarer marbles. The usual appeal is here of trying to go as fast as you can without flying off the track, so if that’s your thing then here is a heaping helping of it. Leo: The Firefighter Cat ($24.99) We’ve seen a few firefighting games on the Switch so far, but most of them aim for a somewhat realistic style. But you know what? Kids can often be interested in firefighting too, and there might be something in a firefighting game more geared towards their tastes. There are twenty missions here, and it seems to have the main details you would want to see in this kind of thing. I doubt it’s Fancy Feast, but it will probably do the job for the right kind of kid. Gori: Cuddly Carnage ($21.99) And on the opposite end of the cat game spectrum, here is a grotesque action game about a hoverboarding cat who slices and dices his foes with glee. Early reports seem to indicate that the game itself is decent enough, but this Switch version suffers from a lot of technical issues that drag down the overall experience to a meaningful degree. Not to the point where there isn’t any joy to be had in it, but worth thinking twice about if you’re bothered by framerate issues at the very least. Arcade Archives Finalizer Super Transformation ($7.99) You know, I consider myself a relatively knowledgeable fellow when it comes to video games. But every once in a while, Hamster pulls out a game for Arcade Archives that I really have no memory of, and this 1985 Konami vertical shooter fits that bill. The gimmick here is that instead of a ship, you’re a transforming robot hero of some sort. Let’s call it a Blundam. Grab power-ups to change your form or activate various powers. As shooters go, this is very much a post-Xevious pre-Tiger Heli affair. There’s a charm to that, if that’s the flavor you’re after. EGGCONSOLE Xanadu Scenario II PC-8801mkIISR ($6.49) A very early example of an expansion pack for a video game, Xanadu Scenario II gives you a whole new underworld to explore. Since this was originally an expansion and not a new game, the gameplay mechanics and many other elements are identical to the first game. It’s naturally more difficult too, so you’ll likely want to finish the first game before trying this one. The most noteworthy thing about it? This game features the debut of the legendary video game composer Yuzo Koshiro, then just 18 years old. That might be reason enough alone to drop the cash for this depending on your tastes and interest in gaming history. The Backrooms: Survival ($10.99) A bit of horror, a bit of survival, a bit of roguelite, and overall a game that many players have enjoyed over on PC. You can play with up to ten players online, and that’s really the ideal experience for this game. Playing solo, it’s going to be more of a specific taste thanks to its repetitive-by-design nature. Can of Wormholes ($19.99) You are a sentient tin can, and you need to deal with worms in a variety of ways in this clever little puzzle game. You get one hundred hand-crafted puzzles to solve, and the game is really sharp about sprinkling in new ideas as you go so that it never gets stuck in a rut. Something of a whiff of Stephen’s Sausage Roll about it, and that is in no way a bad thing. A real winner for puzzle game fans, if you ask me. Ninja I & II ($9.99) A pair of modern NES games running under emulation that are essentially a ninja spin on Wario Ware-style microgames. All of them are competitive, so you’re either pulling in a friend for local multiplayer or going up against a CPU that may or may not drive you up the wall. Kind of neat to see game like these running on NES specs, if nothing else. Dice Make 10! ($3.99) Sometimes these unassuming titles can be a lot of fun, and this is one that does it for me. You have two modes of play here, one with Tetris-style falling blocks and the other where you’re just placing pieces like those wood block puzzle games. Regardless of which version you play, your goal is make rows or columns where the faces of the dice add up to ten or multiples of ten. They’ll clear out, and on you go with the next line. Yes, I like it. Very good. Sales (North American eShop, US Prices) It’s the 30th anniversary of The King of Fighters, and Hamster and SNK are celebrating with a sale on every single game in the series on Arcade Archives. Time to finish your collection if you haven’t got them already. There are also a ton of Pixel Game Maker Series games at their lowest prices yet, so if you’ve been holding off on those, perhaps now is the moment. Nothing too thrilling outside of those, but you might as well check while you’re at it. A few good indies in the outbox, so I recommend giving that a scan as well. Select New Sales Kamitsubaki City Ensemble ($3.59 from $3.99 until 9/3) Floogen ($1.99 from $3.99 until 9/4) Rolling Car ($1.99 from $7.99 until 9/4) Fluffy Horde ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/4) Gum+ ($1.99 from $7.99 until 9/4) Stunt Paradise ($5.19 from $7.99 until 9/4) My Time at Portia ($4.49 from $29.99 until 9/6) SpongeBob Krusty Cook-Off ($4.94 from $14.99 until 9/9) PPA Pickleball Tour 2025 ($29.99 from $49.99 until 9/11) Talisman: Digital Edition ($2.99 from $5.99 until 9/12) Mystic Vale ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/12) Baron of Blood ($4.95 from $9.90 until 9/12) Fighting Fantasy Legends ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/12) Deathtrap Dungeon ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/12) White Eternal ($3.24 from $6.49 until 9/12) ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters ’94 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12) ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters ’95 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12) ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters ’96 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12) ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters ’97 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12) ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters ’98 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12) ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters ’99 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12) ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters 2000 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12) ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters 2001 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12) ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters 2002 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12) ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters 2003 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12) Kittey 64 ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/12) Last Bloody Snack ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/12) PGMS Cat and Tower ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/12) PGMS Cat and Castle ($3.74 from $4.99 until 9/12) PGMS Pentacore ($6.59 from $9.99 until 9/12) PGMS BombMachine Gunzohg ($3.95 from $5.99 until 9/12) PGMS Pearl Vs Grey ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12) PGMS Hunter of Devil ($3.74 from $4.99 until 9/12) PGMS Lunlun Superherobabys DX ($3.74 from $4.99 until 9/12) PGMS Storm Swordsman ($5.27 from $7.99 until 9/12) PGMS Project Nosferatu ($8.99 from $14.99 until 9/12) PGMS Ninja Runner ($2.50 from $5.00 until 9/12) PGMS Ninja Sneaking R ($3.59 from $5.99 until 9/12) PGMS Ninja Sneaking VS ($3.60 from $6.00 until 9/12) PGMS Angel’s Gear ($7.49 from $9.99 until 9/12) PGMS Angel’s Blood ($5.99 from $9.99 until 9/12) PGMS Ninja Otedama R ($3.59 from $5.99 until 9/12) PGMS Tentacled Terrors ($8.99 from $11.99 until 9/12) PGMS Loplight ($3.29 from $4.99 until 9/12) PGMS ClaM KNight ($2.99 from $5.99 until 9/12) PGMS Jetman ($5.99 from $9.99 until 9/12) PGMS Lab ($4.19 from $6.99 until 9/12) PGMS Steel Sword Story S ($5.99 from $9.99 until 9/12) PGMS Arcanion: Tale of Magi ($6.59 from $10.99 until 9/12) PGMS Shiba Mekuri ($2.74 from $5.49 until 9/12) PGMS Buraigun Galaxy Storm ($8.99 from $11.99 until 9/12) PGMS Block Slime Cave ($3.50 from $7.00 until 9/12) PGMS Game Battle Tycoon ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/12) PGMS MessiahEnd Refrain ($2.99 from $4.99 until 9/12) PGMS Oma2ri Adventure ($2.47 from $4.95 until 9/12) PGMS Dandan Z ($5.99 from $9.99 until 9/12) PGMS Cham The Cat Adventure ($5.49 from $10.99 until 9/12) PGMS Verzeus ($7.91 from $11.99 until 9/12) PGMS Oumuamua ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/12) PGMS Jewelinx ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12) Sushi Battle Rambunctiously ($13.99 from $19.99 until 9/13) My Incubi Harem ($2.99 from $4.99 until 9/13) Hot Blood ($7.49 from $9.99 until 9/13) Jenny LeClue Detectivu ($2.99 from $24.99 until 9/18) Asterix & Obelix Slap Them All ($12.49 from $24.99 until 9/18) The Sisters 2 Road to Fame ($14.99 from $29.99 until 9/18) Noob: The Factionless ($19.99 from $39.99 until 9/18) New Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja ($11.99 from $29.99 until 9/18) Garfield Lasagna Party ($15.99 from $39.99 until 9/18) Muv-Luv Remastered ($26.99 from $29.99 until 9/19) Muv-Luv Alternative Remastered ($35.99 from $39.99 until 9/19) Sales Ending Tomorrow, August 30th #BLUD ($19.99 from $24.99 until 8/30) 8th Millennium: WAtPG ($7.49 from $29.99 until 8/30) Alpha Particle ($3.39 from $9.99 until 8/30) Batman: The Enemy Within ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/30) Batman: The Telltale Series ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/30) Empire of Angels IV ($6.79 from $19.99 until 8/30) Enter Digiton: Heart of Corruption ($2.39 from $7.99 until 8/30) Forager ($6.99 from $19.99 until 8/30) Hell Well ($2.49 from $4.99 until 8/30) Midnight Fight Express ($11.99 from $19.99 until 8/30) Mineko’s Night Market ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/30) Moonscars ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/30) OBAKEIDORO ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/30) Puddle Knights ($2.99 from $9.99 until 8/30) Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic ($6.99 from $9.99 until 8/30) Slay the Spire ($8.49 from $24.99 until 8/30) Space Mercenary Defense Force ($3.49 from $4.99 until 8/30) Super Woden GP ($5.99 from $11.99 until 8/30) Supraland ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/30) Surmount ($9.89 from $14.99 until 8/30) The Last Dragon Slayer ($3.74 from $14.99 until 8/30) The Last Worker ($3.99 from $19.99 until 8/30) Thunder Ray ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/30) Unpacking ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/30) Void Bastards ($8.99 from $29.99 until 8/30) That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow to finish up the week, with the remaining new releases, sales, and major news items on the schedule. Maybe some reviews? Perhaps. We’ll see. There’s a huge typhoon blowing through here this week, and I should acknowledge there is a chance I won’t be able to get to my office to do tomorrow’s article. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I hope you all have a thrilling Thursday, and as always, thanks for reading!

This week, Apple Arcade sees a major game update for Apple Vision Pro and a few notable updates. Castle Crumble …

Continue reading "Castle Crumble for Apple Vision Pro Is Now Available on Apple Arcade Alongside Big Updates for Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop, Crayola Adventures, and More"

This week, Apple Arcade sees a major game update for Apple Vision Pro and a few notable updates. Castle Crumble [apprice url="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/castle-crumble/id1616814625"] for Apple Arcade has been updated to be a fully universal game with support for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro. Apple is treating this like a new release ahead of September’s game launches. Read about those here. As for the regular game updates, the highlights include Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop bringing in three new character episodes, Meena as a playable character, and seven new BGM songs from the series. Crayola Adventures has a new micro story added with Video Games Day celebrations going on with Lights Camera Action and Pixel Madness. The Koala Face accessory is also available in-game. Time to Puyo-Party with even more Playable Pals! #PuyoPuyoPuzzlePop Update 1.5.0 has arrvied! Join additional playable characters and jam to 7 new BGM selections! #PuyoPuyoPuzzlePop is available now on @AppleArcade!https://t.co/PFEStkKxeO pic.twitter.com/e29H0op4k9 — Puyo Puyo Official (@PuyoOfficial) August 28, 2024 SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit brings in its next Tale of the deep with Karate Island where you can play as Sandy. Jetpack Joyride 2 brings in a new event taking Barry to outer space looking for a new signal. stitch. brings in new hoops featuring Taekwondo. The final notable update is Zookeeper World bringing 12 new puzzle stages. With the updates done, head over to our forum threads for Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop here, Castle Crumble here, Crayola Adventures here, SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit here, and Zookeeper World here. For all other Apple Arcade related things, check out our dedicated Apple Arcade forum for discussion on the service and every game included here. What do you think of Apple’s newly released games and updates recently?

Last month, GungHo announced a new casual RPG for mobile in the form of Disney Pixel RPG (Free), due later …

Continue reading "Casual RPG ‘Disney Pixel RPG’ From GungHo for iOS and Android Gets New Gameplay Trailer, Listed for October 7th"

Last month, GungHo announced a new casual RPG for mobile in the form of Disney Pixel RPG (Free), due later this year. Today, Gungho has released (via Gematsu) the first trailer for Disney Pixel RPG. Disney Pixel RPG aims to let players explore with pixel versions of Disney characters across multiple worlds with battles, action, rhythm, and more challenges. It features an original story taking you on a journey with Mickey Mouse and other characters with many customization options. Watch the first gameplay trailer for Disney Pixel RPG below: Disney Pixel RPG is currently listed for October 7th on the App Store, but this should be treated as a placeholder date since it was originally listed for early September as a placeholder and that has already changed. Disney Pixel RPG is set for release this year on iOS and Android as a free to play game with in app purchases. Check out the official English website for Disney Pixel RPG here. If you’d like to play Disney Pixel RPG, you can pre-order it on the App Store for iOS here and pre-register for it on Google Play for Android here. What do you think of Disney Pixel RPG so far based on its debut trailer? Update: Added new English trailer.

Earlier this month, Bandai Namco Entertainment and developer Ganbarion revealed Dragon Ball Project:Multi, the franchise’s first 4v4 team based battle …

Continue reading "‘Dragon Ball Project:Multi’ Gets New Character Trailers Showcasing Super Saiyan Goku, Krillin, and Piccolo"

Earlier this month, Bandai Namco Entertainment and developer Ganbarion revealed Dragon Ball Project:Multi, the franchise’s first 4v4 team based battle game, with a regional closed beta planned. Today, Dragon Ball Project:Multi has gotten three new character trailers with the closed beta now available in select regions. The new trailers focus on three characters focusing on their gameplay. Watch the Dragon Ball Project:Multi Piccolo trailer below: Watch the Dragon Ball Project:Multi Super Saiyan Goku trailer below: Watch the Dragon Ball Project:Multi Krillin trailer below: Dragon Ball Project:Multi still doesn’t have a release date or window yet, but the closed beta is available now until September 3rd at 5:59 AM UTC on iOS, Android, and Steam. You can currently wishlist Dragon Ball Project:Multi on Steam here. The Dragon Ball Project:Multi regional closed beta is available in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the United States. Check out the official Dragon Ball Project:Multi English website here. What do you think of Dragon Ball Project:Multi and the new character trailers?

Square Enix just announced that Final Fantasy Brave Exvius (Free) is shutting down on October 30th (this year) following its …

Continue reading "‘Final Fantasy Brave Exvius’ Is Shutting Down on October 30th"

Square Enix just announced that Final Fantasy Brave Exvius (Free) is shutting down on October 30th (this year) following its debut back in June 2016. Since launching on mobile, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius has seen many collaborations including ones with some of Square Enix’s best games like NieR: Automata and also its other titles like Final Fantasy XV. It is being shut down because Square Enix says that it will be “difficult to maintain the app experience." Following this announcement, in app purchases will no longer be offered but you will be able to use anything you’ve bought until service ends. Bundles will no longer be sold as well. [Important Notice] Thank you for playing FINAL FANTASY BRAVE EXVIUS. We regret to announce we have made the difficult decision to discontinue the FINAL FANTASY BRAVE EXVIUS app service as of October 30, 2024 23:59 (PDT). Please see details here: https://t.co/vcL5Dn8xe4 pic.twitter.com/W6U9QArq5O — FINAL FANTASY BRAVE EXVIUS (@FFBE_EN) August 29, 2024 On October 30th at 23:59 PDT, service will end and accounts will be deleted. If you’d like to play Final Fantasy Brave Exvius until then, you can grab it on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. Read our review of the original game launch here. If you’d like to check out discussions from the game’s launch until now, check out our very old forum thread here. Have you played Final Fantasy Brave Exvius before and what do you think of today’s announcement?

Each and every day new mobile games are hitting the App Store, and so each week we put together a …

Continue reading "Out Now: ‘Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home’, ‘Ocean Keeper Mobile’, ‘Ogu and the Secret Forest’, ‘Death Travelers’, ‘Snake.io’, ‘RWBY: Arrowfell’ and More"

Each and every day new mobile games are hitting the App Store, and so each week we put together a big old list of all the best new releases of the past seven days. Back in the day the App Store would showcase the same games for a week, and then refresh those features each Thursday. Because of that developers got into the habit of releasing their games throughout Wednesday or very early Thursday in order to hopefully get one of those coveted features spots. Nowadays the App Store refreshes constantly, so the need for everyone to release all on the same day has diminished. Still, we’ve kept our weekly Wednesday night format as for years that’s the time people knew to check TouchArcade for the list of new games. And so without further ado please check out the full list of this week’s new games below, and let us know in the comments section which games you’ll be picking up! Death Travelers (Free) iTunes Description The Afterworld needs your help to stop it from collapsing! Travel the Afterworld’s various realms to save lost souls. Dodge and destroy obstacles along the way while stabilizing it with the resonance of music. Build your base, upgrade your car, unlock various abilities, play new music, and above all have some fun! Can you save the lost souls and stabilize the Afterworld? Forum Thread: Death Travelers (by Death Travelers LLC) Dusk of Dragons: Survivors (Free) iTunes Description Survive in a Medieval Fantasy World with Dusk of Dragons: Survivors! Immerse yourself in a thrilling survival sandbox where you’ll face extreme weather, hunger, traps, and hordes of zombies. As a true survivor, you’ll need to master the wilderness and outwit the undead. Forum Thread: Dusk of Dragons: Survivors (by COREGAMES) Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home ($17.99) iTunes Description Head back to your roots and leave the city life for your childhood village of Alba in Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home, where the freshest fish and tastiest veggies are grown and caught by the local farmers and anglers! However, with its population getting older and younger villagers leaving for the big city, Alba Village has seen better days, so can you help turn it from a village on the decline to one of prosperity? With its beautiful surroundings, Alba definitely has the potential, so work hard to bring tourists and even new residents to this sprawling green village! Reunite with your childhood friend and other familiar faces to help put Alba on the map! Forum Thread: Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home (by Natsume Inc) MMC KENKEN Math (Free) iTunes Description Stretching the ability to make fun becomes academic ability – Solving puzzles in a fun way improves academic ability The hit teaching material that has sold over 2.5 million copies has been turned into game software as “Daizen"! A total of 3,000 math puzzles for children and adults to learn while having fun. Forum Thread: MMC KENKEN Math (by Tetsuya Miyamoto / KenKen Puzzle LLC / Gakken / MAGES.) Ocean Keeper Mobile (Free) iTunes Description A roguelike shooter with a top-down view where you play as a Miner whose spaceship has crashed on a planet, filled with underwater monsters! Use the time between each attack to power up your diver, mech, or weapon. Build automatic turrets, use drones to gather resources and improve your skills to increase your chances of survival. Discover mysterious locations and fantastic undersea deep biomes. EACH time you explore the underwater worlds, the layout changes, making every journey unique. You never play the same scenario twice in this drill dungeon core roguelite. Forum Thread: Ocean Keeper Mobile (by RetroStyle Games) Ogu and the Secret Forest (Free) iTunes Description Explore the wonderful world with baby Ogu! ‘Ogu and the Secret Forest’ is a 2D adventure game with hand-drawn characters and various types of puzzles. Befriend bouncy characters and defeat strange creatures to unravel the mystery of the charming world. Forum Thread: Ogu and the Secret Forest (by Sinkhole Studio Inc.) RWBY: Arrowfell (Free) iTunes Description Dive into an explosive new RWBY action-adventure! Instantly switch between all four members of Team RWBY — Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long — and use their signature weapons and Semblances to battle the Creatures of Grimm and other foes in this in-canon story set during RWBY Volume 7. Featuring voiceovers from RWBY’s original cast, all-new cutscenes from the team behind the show, and a brand-new theme song by Jeff Williams and Casey Lee Williams, RWBY: Arrowfell lets you explore Atlas and the surrounding areas to solve environmental puzzles, slay massive bosses, power up with Skill Points, and interact with characters such as Penny, Winter, and General Ironwood, as well as the enigmatic new team of Huntresses, Team BRIR! Only Team RWBY can protect Remnant from a mysterious new threat in RWBY: Arrowfell! Forum Thread: RWBY: Arrowfell (by Crunchyroll) SlidewayZ: A Musical Journey (Free) iTunes Description Welcome to SlidewayZ, a new kind of sliding block puzzle! Slide adorable character pieces through fun worlds to collect soothing classical music. Easy to learn and fun to play, SlidewayZ adds a new twist to sliding block puzzles with moves from games like chess and other classic board games. A gentle soundtrack of Classical music helps you unwind from the stresses of the day. Perfect for commuting or a quick brain break, no internet connection required! Filled with collectables, beautiful art and engaging gameplay, SlidewayZ will provide hours of low-key puzzling fun! Forum Thread: SlidewayZ: A Musical Journey (by DiG-iT Games) Snake.io (Free) iTunes Description It’s a snake-eat-snake world: Slither around the screen to collect energy, grow bigger and devour your competition in this fast-paced arcade game. You’ll start out as a small snake in each round. Eat energy pellets to expand your size, and surround or cut in front of other snakes to explode them into (edible) segments. But watch out — because they’ll be trying to do the same to you. In this reptilian battle royale, how long can you stay in one piece? Forum Thread: Snake.io (by Kooapps) Spidersaurs (Free) iTunes Description Alert! Alert! The nightmarish dinosaur-spider hybrids known as Spidersaurs have run amok and only you (and a friend in co-op mode) can stop them! Created by InGest Corp to provide the meat and muscle that humanity needs to end world hunger, the Spidersaurs are now on the loose, leaving it to two former taste-testers – officer-in-training Adrian and punk-rocker Victoria – to use their awesome firepower to overcome six stages of ferocious run-‘n’-gun action. Blast through a sweltering jungle, an infested laboratory, the heart of a live volcano, and more! The tangy food source with a bite is biting back, but by grabbing power-ups, gaining new abilities, and obliterating everything in sight, you can send these mutant monstrosities back to the stone age. Forum Thread: Spidersaurs (by WayForward)

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 28th, 2024. Gosh, that presentation yesterday sure had a …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Round-Up: ‘Pizza Tower’, ‘Castlevania Dominus Collection’, Plus Today’s Other Releases and Sales"

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 28th, 2024. Gosh, that presentation yesterday sure had a lot of good stuff in it, didn’t it? A bunch of shadow dropped games, too. That means our usually quiet Wednesday is anything but, and that’s not a bad thing. We’ve got a bit of news, a look at all the new games on the eShop today, plus the usual lists of new and expiring sales for the day. Lots to see, so let’s get going! News The Partner/Indie World Showcase Had Plenty to Offer Sandwiching together two slightly smaller versions of the usual types of Directs was an interesting choice, and it means we got a bunch of announcements. I can’t go through all of them here, but highlights included some shadow drops we’ll talk about in the New Releases section, Capcom Fighting Collection 2, the Suikoden I & II remakes, Yakuza Kiwami, Tetris Forever, MySims, Worms Armageddon: Anniversary Edition, new Atelier and Rune Factory games, and many, many more. I’d advise just setting aside some time and watching the video. Skim if you must. Plenty of great games there for a variety of tastes. Select New Releases Castlevania Dominus Collection ($24.99) One of the many cool shadow drops from the Direct was a third Castlevania collection. This one includes the three Nintendo DS games: Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia. It also includes the absolutely rancid arcade game, Haunted Castle, and as an extra, a remake of Haunted Castle by the folks at M2. It’s a lot better. As you would expect from this developer, this is a top-notch treatment that features great emulation and pretty much all of the features you’d want. An absurd value for the price. Pizza Tower ($19.99) The Wario Land-inspired frenetic platformer dashes on to the Switch with this Direct shadow drop. Make your way through the five massive floors of the Pizza Tower in order to destroy it and save your restaurant. If you miss Wario’s handheld adventures, you’ll really want to grab this. If you have no strong Wario feelings but like platforming, you should also give this a look. We’re hoping to review this one, but we’ll have to see how things go. Goat Simulator 3 ($29.99) The shadow drops continue. Look, it’s a Wednesday. If it weren’t for these, we wouldn’t have much at all. Anyway, Goat Simulator 3. You know how Goat Simulator works by now. I can’t verify how this game runs on Switch, but I know more powerful consoles struggle with it in places. So, you know, proceed with caution. Though I suppose even if it does run badly, it might just play into the whole sh**post nature of the game. Well, I leave it to you to decide. Silly goats doing silly things in an open world, may or may not make your Switch vomit blood. Peglin ($19.99) I know it’s cliche to armchair quarterback and talk about companies leaving money on the proverbial table, but I genuinely think Electronic Arts made a giant mistake by not putting Popcap’s games on the Switch in some form or another. Maybe even a collection? Well, they didn’t. They aren’t going to. And so we must scratch that itch in other ways, and for my fellow Peggle fans I can’t recommend Peglin enough. This one has been available on mobile for a while, and it’s just as good here on Switch. It’s basically Peggle blended into a turn-based RPG roguelite. We’ll have a review of this soon in case you need more details. Doraemon Dorayaki Shop Story ($20.00) How can Kairosoft spice up its now incredibly well-worn formula for simulation games? Well, I suppose one way is to add a license to the mix. That’s what we’ve got here with Doraemon Dorayaki Shop Story, a standard Kairosoft shop sim featuring the characters from the popular Doraemon manga and anime series. A decent effort has been made to do the license justice, and you might even spot some characters from the manga artist’s other works popping in as customers. Cute. Pico Park 2 ($8.99) More Pico Park for the Pico Park fans out there. Up to eight players can join in via local or online multiplayer, and this is one game where the rule of the more, the merrier is in full effect. Play through a bunch of puzzle stages that require some sharp thinking and cooperation to solve. One for those who didn’t get their fill with the first game, but not really different enough to be likely to pull in anyone new. And that’s fine. Kamitsubaki City Ensemble ($3.99) An affordable little rhythm game featuring music from Kamitsubaki Studio. Hit the notes, follow the story, enjoy the tunes. Not the fanciest dining, but for that price it doesn’t have to be. SokoPenguin ($4.99) Yes, that’s a Sokoban-style crate-pushing puzzler starring a penguin, alright. One hundred levels. You know if you want it or not. Q2 Humanity ($6.80) More quirky physics-based puzzles, over three hundred this time around. You’ll have to make use of your character’s abilities in addition to drawing to solve the problems now. Up to four players can get in on the fun, either via local or online multiplayer. Sales (North American eShop, US Prices) Mostly NIS America games in the inbox today, but you can also score some deals on Balatro, Frogun, and The King of Fighters XIII Global Match if you want. The outbox has a fair bit in it, so you’ll probably want to have a careful look through there and see if there’s anything you want. Select New Sales Bilkins Folly ($12.59 from $19.99 until 9/2) Balatro ($13.49 from $14.99 until 9/3) MLB The Show 24 ($19.79 from $59.99 until 9/10) Frogun ($8.99 from $14.99 until 9/11) Frogun Encore ($11.04 from $12.99 until 9/11) Death Road to Canada ($4.49 from $14.99 until 9/11) Demon Gaze Extra ($17.99 from $59.99 until 9/12) The King of Fighters XIII GM ($15.99 from $19.99 until 9/12) Lapis x Labyrinth ($7.79 from $29.99 until 9/16) Raiden III Mikado Maniax ($14.99 from $29.99 until 9/16) GrimGrimoire OnceMore ($24.99 from $49.99 until 9/16) Void Terrarium 2 ($19.99 from $39.99 until 9/16) Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails ($24.99 from $39.99 until 9/16) Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles ($24.99 from $49.99 until 9/16) Saviors of Sapphire Wings/Sword City ($17.49 from $49.99 until 9/16) Disaster Report 4 ($17.99 from $59.99 until 9/16) Labyrinth of Galleria: TMC ($24.99 from $49.99 until 9/16) The Cruel King & the Great Hero ($13.49 from $29.99 until 9/16) R-Type Final 2 ($19.99 from $39.99 until 9/16) The Legend of Legacy HD ($34.99 from $49.99 until 9/16) Poison Control ($3.99 from $39.99 until 9/16) Labyrinth Legend ($5.99 from $14.99 until 9/16) Giraffe and Annika ($9.99 from $29.99 until 9/16) LA-MULANA ($4.99 from $14.99 until 9/16) LA-MULANA 2 ($9.99 from $24.99 until 9/16) The Princess Guide ($3.99 from $39.99 until 9/16) Ys VIII Lacrimosa of DANA ($19.99 from $39.99 until 9/16) Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory ($4.99 from $39.99 until 9/16) Fallen Legion: Revenants ($9.99 from $39.99 until 9/16) RPG Maker MV ($14.99 from $49.99 until 9/16) Happy Birthdays ($7.99 from $39.99 until 9/16) Penny-Punching Princess ($3.99 from $39.99 until 9/16) The Longest Five Minutes ($3.99 from $39.99 until 9/16) Disgaea 4 Complete+ ($17.49 from $49.99 until 9/16) Sales Ending Tomorrow, August 29th A Cat & His Boy ($1.99 from $2.99 until 8/29) Alan Wake Remastered ($14.99 from $29.99 until 8/29) April’s Diary ($3.74 from $14.99 until 8/29) Astebreed ($3.99 from $19.99 until 8/29) Bio Inc. Redemption ($10.49 from $14.99 until 8/29) Botany Manor ($22.49 from $24.99 until 8/29) Crashout Xtreme ($2.49 from $9.99 until 8/29) Cyber Citizen Shockman ($4.19 from $5.99 until 8/29) Dead Cells Castlevania Bundle ($18.89 from $31.49 until 8/29) DoDonPachi Resurrection ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/29) Double Dragon & Kunio-kun Bundle ($19.99 from $39.99 until 8/29) DRAINUS ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/29) Ebenezer & the Invisible World ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/29) Escaping a Fireworks Factory ($2.00 from $4.90 until 8/29) Espgaluda II ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/29) Gematombe ($4.49 from $14.99 until 8/29) Gnosia ($17.49 from $24.99 until 8/29) Gunman Tales ($2.09 from $6.99 until 8/29) Gynoug ($3.49 from $6.99 until 8/29) Hero of Fate ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/29) Kero Blaster ($2.99 from $9.99 until 8/29) Kowloon High-School Chronicle ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/29) Matchpoint: Tennis Championships ($31.99 from $49.99 until 8/29) Mighty Goose ($7.99 from $19.99 until 8/29) Moonshine Inc ($15.99 from $19.99 until 8/29) My Little Universe ($6.74 from $14.99 until 8/29) Noel the Mortal Fate ($9.99 from $24.99 until 8/29) OnlyUP! ($5.27 from $7.13 until 8/29) Operation Steel ($5.99 from $9.99 until 8/29) Overboss ($13.49 from $14.99 until 8/29) Pogo Joins the Circus ($2.49 from $9.99 until 8/29) Radiant Silvergun ($7.99 from $19.99 until 8/29) Red Colony ($2.99 from $6.99 until 8/29) Red Colony 2 ($2.99 from $6.99 until 8/29) Red Colony 3 ($2.99 from $6.99 until 8/29) Remote Life ($9.49 from $18.99 until 8/29) Retro Mystery Club Vol.1 ($7.90 from $9.90 until 8/29) Retro Mystery Club Vol.2 ($7.90 from $9.90 until 8/29) Retro Revengers ($7.90 from $9.90 until 8/29) River City Saga: Three Kingdoms ($20.99 from $29.99 until 8/29) Satay Shop Tycoon ($3.74 from $14.99 until 8/29) Smashing the Battle ($2.49 from $4.99 until 8/29) Smashing the Battle Ghost Soul ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/29) Spy Bros. ($4.79 from $7.99 until 8/29) Super Sean 007 ($2.49 from $9.99 until 8/29) Taboo Trial ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/29) The Good Life ($15.99 from $39.99 until 8/29) The Ouroboros King ($6.99 from $9.99 until 8/29) The Sokoban ($8.99 from $17.99 until 8/29) UNO Ultimate Edition ($7.99 from $19.99 until 8/29) Vera Blanc: Supernatural Mysteries ($5.59 from $7.99 until 8/29) Within the Blade ($3.29 from $10.99 until 8/29) That’s all for today, friends. Tomorrow is Thursday, and that means we’ll have another pretty big day for new games. The new Famicom Detective Club is among them, but there are other big names in there too. We’ll have summaries of the games worth summarizing, plus whatever sales and major news items roll in over the course of the day. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Fans of Jujutsu Kaisen and beautiful, anime-inspired JRPGs received a special reason to rejoice this week following the announcement that …

Continue reading "BILIBILI GAME Will Launch ‘Jujutsu Kaisen Mobile’ Worldwide Before the End of 2024"

Fans of Jujutsu Kaisen and beautiful, anime-inspired JRPGs received a special reason to rejoice this week following the announcement that Jujutsu Kaisen Phantom Parade, the mobile game adaption of the acclaimed manga series, will finally receive its global release before the end of 2024. This announcement was part of Juju Fest 2024, which featured several notable reveals for fans of Jujutsu Kaisen, including a Hidden Inventory movie slated for 2025 and a Season 2 Guide Book set to be released for Japanese audiences in October. However, the most significant revelation was that publisher BILIBILI GAMES would be bringing Jujutsu Kaisen Phantom Parade to players across all regions this year, with pre-registration already underway. Jujutsu Kaisen Phantom Parade is free-to-play and you can pre-register right now via the game’s official website as well as stay up to date with the game’s latest developments via Discord, Twitter/X, and Facebook. But, if you’re only just now hearing of Jujutsu Kaisen Phantom Parade and would like to know what it’s all about then here’s a quick breakdown of what lies in store. Gameplay Overview Developed by Sumzap, Inc. and initially launched in Japan by TOHO Games in 2023, Jujutsu Kaisen Phantom Parade gives players the chance to immerse themselves in a dark and mystical world where gifted sorcerer’s battle cursed spirits to keep humanity from being destroyed. The core gameplay involves players forming teams of four sorcerers from various classes, such as tank, support, and damage dealers, and engaging in turn-based battles against cursed spirits. Players will have the opportunity to utilize the abilities of beloved characters like Yuji Itadori, Megumi Fushiguro, Nobara Kugisaki, and Satoru Gojo, all of which faithfully capture the character traits that fans have grown to love through the manga and anime series. Jujutsu Kaisen Phantom Parade allows players to revisit several pivotal moments from the first season of the tv anime, while also introducing an entirely new storyline set in the Fukuoka Branch Campus, offering a fresh and unique narrative experience. Pre-registration Rewards Pre-registration for Jujutsu Kaisen Phantom Parade is currently in progress, and participants will be rewarded with exclusive bonuses upon the game’s release. The exact rewards they receive will depend on the game hitting the following key milestones: 1 million pre-registrations: Cube x500 2 million pre-registrations: Cube x1000 3 million pre-registrations: Cube x1000 5 million pre-registrations: Cube x2000 8 million pre-registrations: Cube x3000 10 million pre-registrations: [Redrawable!] SSR-Character-Guaranteed Gacha Ticket x1 There’s little doubt that the game will hit the 10 million mark, but just to ensure it gets there, pre-registered players will also receive Cubes worth 25 draws to go alongside their re-drawable SSR-Character Guaranteed Gacha Ticket. Sponsored Content This article is sponsored content written by TouchArcade and published on behalf of BILIBILI GAMES to promote the global launch date for Jujutsu Kaisen Phantom Parade. For questions or comments, please email ads@toucharcade.com

Yesterday during the Nintendo Indie World Partner Direct whatever it is called for the double feature, Red Nexus Games’ pachinko …

Continue reading "The Huge ‘Peglin’ 1.0 Update Is Now Live on iOS, Android, and Steam Following Switch Launch Yesterday"

Yesterday during the Nintendo Indie World Partner Direct whatever it is called for the double feature, Red Nexus Games’ pachinko roguelike Peglin (Free) got announced and released on Switch. I didn’t realize it was then that it hit 1.0 on Steam as well. I got it on Switch and while we need a bit more time for our review, Peglin has also finally hit 1.0 on iOS and Android following its Switch launch yesterday and Steam update a few hours later. The highlights of this include the final Cruciball levels (17-20), a new forest miniboss, a new rare roundrel relic, tons of balance adjustments, gameplay changes to how dull pegs work, bestiary research rate changes, and much more. Read the full patch notes from the game’s Steam news story here. Watch the gameplay trailer for Peglin below if you’ve not played it yet: With Peglin hitting 1.0 today, it is still planned to get more updates, and I can’t wait to see what else the team does with over time. If you’re interested in playing it right now, read my review of Peglin on iOS here from its launch last year. You can also read my interview with Red Nexus Games here covering the game, pricing, and a lot more. Peglin on mobile is a free to try game, and you can grab it on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. We featured it as our Game of the Week when it launched. Check it out on Steam here and Switch here. Head over to our forum thread for more impressions and discussion around the iOS version. Have you played Peglin before on mobile or PC, and what do you think of this huge update?

It looks like SNK is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the superb The King of Fighters series with a big …

Continue reading "All of SNK’s The King of Fighters ACA NeoGeo Games Are Discounted on iOS and Android, Switch Later Today"

It looks like SNK is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the superb The King of Fighters series with a big discount on the complete set of ACA NeoGeo games on mobile and Switch (coming later today). Many years ago, Hamster started releasing SNK’s older games through its ACA NeoGeo lineup. These saw a few useful emulation features arrive for classic games on consoles over the years. We started seeing these hit mobile at half the price ($3.99 compared to $7.99 on console) published by SNK as well. While the pricing was already great, you can now buy all the games in The King of Fighters ACA NeoGeo series of releases on mobile at just $1.99 each. ACA NeoGeo The King of Fighters game discounts list on mobile: The King of Fighters 94 ACA NeoGeo ($3.99) The King of Fighters 95 ACA NeoGeo ($3.99) The King of Fighters 96 ACA NeoGeo ($3.99) The King of Fighters 97 ACA NeoGeo ($3.99) The King of Fighters 98 ACA NeoGeo ($3.99) The King of Fighters 99 ACA NeoGeo ($3.99) The King of Fighters 2000 ACA NeoGeo ($3.99) The King of Fighters 2001 ACA NeoGeo ($3.99) The King of Fighters 2002 ACA NeoGeo ($3.99) The King of Fighters 2003 ACA NeoGeo ($3.99) Check out the games on Android here. I own a few of these on iOS, but all of them barring 96 on Nintendo Switch. The Switch eShop deals should go live in a few hours today in North America with the deals already being up in other parts of the World on Switch and PS4. Check out the official website for the series on mobile here. What’s your favorite recent ACA NeoGeo release and are you grabbing any of the KOF games today with this sale?

Following pre-installation going live earlier in the week, HoYoverse has just released the major Genshin Impact (Free) version 5.0 “Flowers …

Continue reading "‘Genshin Impact’ Version 5.0 Update Is Now Available Worldwide on iOS, Android, PC, PS5, and More"

Following pre-installation going live earlier in the week, HoYoverse has just released the major Genshin Impact (Free) version 5.0 “Flowers Resplendent on the Sun-Scorched Sojourn" update on mobile, PC, and PlayStation worldwide. The highlights of this update include the new nation: Natlan which is open to early and mid-game players, new characters like Mualani, reruns for Raiden Shogun, and much more. The first Genshin Impact 5.0 banner features: Mualani, Kachina and Kaedehara Kazuha while banner 2 has Kinich and Raiden Shogun. Read about the improved visuals in Genshin Impact 5.0 here and the full patch notes for the update here. Watch the new Genshin Impact trailers for Mualani and more below: If you pre-installed the update on iOS, you should be able to play without downloading much, but the game will take a bit of time to split up old resources once you login. If you’d like to play Genshin Impact and don’t own it yet, you can download it for free on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. The PC version is available on the official website here and the Epic Games Store. If you play on iOS, with iOS 14.5 or iPadOS 14.5 and later, you can use PS5 and Xbox Series X|S controllers to play Genshin Impact. We featured Genshin Impact as our Game of the Week when it released and awarded it our 2020 Game of the Year. I also featured it as one of the best iOS games to play with a controller. What do you think of Genshin Impact 5.0 so far?

When Square Enix released the monster collecting RPG Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on Switch last year, I loved …

Continue reading "‘Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince’ Is Coming to iOS, Android, and Steam on September 11th With All DLC Included From the Switch Release"

When Square Enix released the monster collecting RPG Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on Switch last year, I loved my time with it. It had technical issues, but the charm and gameplay loop elevated it well beyond other Dragon Quest spinoffs on the platform bringing up to the same level as the superb Dragon Quest Builders 2. I always expected Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince to be ported to PC soon after just like Dragon Quest Treasures, but I didn’t even consider it hitting mobile anytime soon. Today, Square Enix announced that the Switch-exclusive Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince ($29.99) is coming to iOS, Android, and Steam on September 11th with all prior DLC included. This means the Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince Digital Deluxe Edition content will also be included. Watch the trailer for Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince below: Square Enix has also posted comparison images of the game on mobile, Switch, and Steam on the official Japanese website. Check out one of them below: The store pages also confirm that the network mode for Online Battles from the Switch version where players battle one another in real time will not be included in the Steam and mobile versions. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is currently available on Nintendo Switch priced at $59.99 for the standard edition and $84.99 for the Digital Deluxe Edition. Having loved this on Switch, I’m looking forward to replaying it for review on iPhone, iPad, and Steam Deck for the new platforms launch on September 11th. It is great to see Square Enix bring more Dragon Quest to mobile soon after the original platform launch. I expected we might see this one by 2027 on mobile given delays between console and mobile these days for the series like we saw with Dragon Quest Builders. It is priced at $29.99 on mobile and $39.99 on Steam. Check it out on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here where you can pre-register for it. Have you played Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince before on Switch or will you try it out on mobile and Steam in two weeks when it releases? Update: Added comparison image and website information.

About two and a half years ago we were treated to a lovely gaming experience titled Dungeons of Dreadrock from …

Continue reading "‘Dungeons of Dreadrock 2’ Announced, Launching on Nintendo Switch in November with Mobile and PC Versions to Follow"

About two and a half years ago we were treated to a lovely gaming experience titled Dungeons of Dreadrock from developer Christoph Minnameier. The game was a dungeon crawler inspired by the likes of classics such as Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder, but played from a top-down perspective rather than a first-person one. It also had a more puzzle-like focus in the designs of its 100 different levels, each one a different floor in the dungeon you were descending in order to rescue your brother. Dungeons of Dreadrock was quite challenging, with some levels almost feeling like logic puzzles as you sussed out when exactly to activate a trap or how to approach a certain batch of enemies. We loved the game in our review, and Dungeons of Dreadrock went on to release on basically every other gaming platform where it was similarly well-received. And now we’ve got a sequel to look forward to. Say hello to Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 – The Dead King’s Secret. That red background and big ‘ol Switch logo with the familiar finger snapping sound is an indication that this time around this new Dungeons of Dreadrock game is targeting Nintendo’s platform first, and according to the game’s website it’ll be launching on the Switch’s eShop on November 28th of this year. Fear not though! A PC version is also planned, and in fact can be wishlisted on Steam as we speak, and iOS and Android versions are also in the cards. It’s not super clear exactly when we’ll be getting Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 on mobile, but it makes me happy just knowing that it’s coming. Once more news on release dates for other platforms materializes we’ll be sure to update you.

Back in April we took a look at the trailer for Super Farming Boy from developer LemonChili. It took the …

Continue reading "‘Super Farming Boy’ Available for Pre-Order on iOS with 20% Discount, Launch Planned for Next Year"

Back in April we took a look at the trailer for Super Farming Boy from developer LemonChili. It took the basic idea of a cozy farming game–planting crops, harvesting, building out your own little dream property–and amped it up with lighting fast arcade-style gameplay mechanics and a devious antagonist to fight against. They dubbed it “Harvest Moon on steroids" and I got that same sort of vibe from watching the trailer. You play as a boy with super powers (your name is literally Super) so you’re able to zip around your farm harvesting crops, and the act of harvesting can trigger cool combos and chain reactions. Check out the trailer if you missed it before. Anyway, I love the idea of a farming sim turned up to 11, and this week LemonChili has announced a more specific roadmap for the release of Super Farming Boy and have even put the iOS version up for pre-order on the App Store. The launch isn’t exactly close, and the plan as of now is to release in Early Access in Q2 of next year with a full launch to follow afterwards. That’s definitely a while away, but if you’re really sure this is the type of game that’s up your alley then pre-ordering the mobile version now will net you a 20% discount off the price, so there’s some incentive. You can also check out how the game is shaping up thanks to a playable Windows demo on both Steam and Itch.io. Whether you feel like taking the plunge on the pre-order or not, Super Farming Boy is definitely one you’ll want to keep your eye out for next year.

JOYCITY has launched an exciting new update for Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War, inviting everyone to join in …

Continue reading "‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War’ Adds Cross-Server Battles in Latest Empire Invasion Update"

JOYCITY has launched an exciting new update for Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War, inviting everyone to join in on thrilling conquests against other Captains all over the world. In particular, the Empire Invasion event offers server-versus-server competitions that will have you vying for first place in exchange for valuable pirate treasure. Gear up for an all-out sea brawl – can you fight to stay afloat and sink those enemy ships across servers? After the matchmaking phase, you’ll need to clear missions in the Eve Festival preliminary round to enjoy some handy buffs for the final battle. This includes server-wide perks and the ability to switch between servers – a handy trick to have up your sleeve when you’re conquering the opposing Empire’s territories. During the Invasion Conquest, victorious Captains can switch to the opposing server and wreak havoc in Port Royal, while defenders need to hold their ground and remain in their Empire to see if they can survive the attack. Whoever wins the Empire Invasion Port Royal Conquest will not only grab bragging rights but will also nab awesome in-game goodies such as special base skins to boot. If all that sounds absolutely fabulous to you, you can head on over to Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War’s official website and start your naval dominance today. Sponsored Content This article is sponsored content written by TouchArcade and published on behalf of JOYCITY to promote the latest update to Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War. For questions or comments, please email ads@toucharcade.com

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 27th, 2024. In today’s article, we kick things off …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Round-Up: Today’s Nintendo Direct, Full Review of ‘EGGCONSOLE Star Trader’, Plus New Releases and Sales"

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 27th, 2024. In today’s article, we kick things off with a bit of news. After that, we’ve got one review for you to snack on. Just my look at the latest EGGCONSOLE release from last week, and the regulars probably know how that’s going to play out. After that, we have just one new release to take a gander at. Luckily, it’s a good one. We finish things up with the usual lists of new and expiring sales, and they’re okay as well. I have no idea what’s in that Direct tonight, so maybe it will make for a more exciting Tuesday? That is a mystery I cannot solve as I write, but you already know the answer to as you read. Let’s get into it! News Check Out Today’s Nintendo Direct/Indie World Showcase As recently prophesized by the once-in-a-while-correct insiders, Nintendo has scheduled a Nintendo Direct for August at nearly the last minute. We’re getting 40 minutes in total, split between a Partner Showcase and Indie World Showcase. Don’t expect any first-party stuff, and definitely do not expect anything about the Switch’s successor console. As you read this, the presentation should be long since finished. You can watch it above, and I’ll summarize the most important points tomorrow. Reviews & Mini-Views EGGCONSOLE Star Trader PC-8801mkIIsr ($6.49) It always comes down to two questions with these non-translated EGGCONSOLE releases. First, how is the game itself? Second, can it be enjoyed without understanding Japanese? Star Trader is an interesting game, though not what I would call a great one. Falcom fused a Japanese-style adventure game format with some side-scrolling shoot ’em up stages, and it doesn’t do either of those things amazingly well. The adventure game side at least has some nice art, and it’s interesting to see a shoot ’em up try to tell a story in this way. You’re mostly talking to people and picking up quests, the successful completion of which will earn you money you can use to upgrade your ship. This is important, because you’ll need to keep that cash coming in to stay on top of the action segments. As for the shoot ’em up parts… well, the PC-8801 wasn’t very good at scrolling the screen smoothly. So what you get here is a very choppy experience, and one that I’m not sure would even be all that great if things were moving at a normal clip. I’m not sure which part of the game is meant to serve the other, but in the end Star Trader is more interesting than it is good. Which naturally brings us to the second question. As you might expect, the adventure game segments are text-heavy and require some informed input from the player to achieve the best outcomes. If you can’t understand them, you’re not only missing out on half of the game, but you’re likely hobbling yourself for the other half because you’ll fail to earn enough credits to keep your ship up to date. You can brute force this one better than some EGGCONSOLE releases, but it’s not going to be a good time. Star Trader is an interesting piece of gaming history, showing a developer working outside of the lane we usually associate them with. Unfortunately, what joy could be had from poking at this curio is severely dampened by the fact that there is a ton of Japanese text in here that most Western players won’t be able to read. You might still get something out of messing around with it, but it’s hard to recommend it with much vigor. SwitchArcade Score: 3/5 Select New Releases Crypt Custodian ($19.99) A top-down action-adventure game about a recently-deceased cat named Pluto who, after a bad meeting with the Afterlife Guardian, is banished from the palace of the afterlife and sentenced to eternally clean. Dang. Explore, fight enemies with your broom, meet weird characters, battle bosses, expand your abilities, and so on. You know how this kind of game works. You know what? This is pretty good. If you enjoy this genre, I’d say you should give it a go. Sales (North American eShop, US Prices) If you like colorful shoot ’em ups with some quirky mechanics, I recommend checking out the Dreamer games and Harpoon Shooter Nozomi. I’ve enjoyed all three of them. Over in the outbox, buy 1000xRESIST. Do it. Other things to consider: Star Wars games, Citizen Sleeper, Paradise Killer, and Haiku, the Robot. Maybe some Tomb Raider, as a treat. Check those lists! Select New Sales Return ($10.49 from $13.99 until 9/2) Summer Daze: Tilly’s Tale ($2.99 from $14.99 until 9/9) Please Fix the Road ($5.99 from $9.99 until 9/9) Ticket to Ride ($26.99 from $29.99 until 9/9) King ‘n Knight ($9.59 from $11.99 until 9/9) Spiritfarer ($7.49 from $29.99 until 9/9) Harpoon Shooter Nozomi ($6.98 from $9.98 until 9/16) Like Dreamer ($5.99 from $11.99 until 9/16) Cosmo Dreamer ($4.10 from $8.20 until 9/16) Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate ($8.99 from $59.99 until 9/16) Gluck ($5.59 from $6.99 until 9/16) Love Love School Days ($4.19 from $10.49 until 9/16) Ugly ($6.79 from $19.99 until 9/16) Replik Survivors ($3.44 from $4.99 until 9/16) Sales Ending Tomorrow, August 28th 1000xRESIST ($15.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Citizen Sleeper ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Genesis Noir ($4.49 from $14.99 until 8/28) Haiku, The Robot ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Heads Up! Phones Down Edition ($1.99 from $39.99 until 8/28) Legend Bowl ($18.74 from $24.99 until 8/28) MythForce ($14.99 from $29.99 until 8/28) Paradise Killer ($5.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Star Wars Battlefront Collection ($28.00 from $35.01 until 8/28) Star Wars Bounty Hunter ($14.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Star Wars Episode I Racer ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/28) Star Wars Jedi Academy ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Star Wars Jedi Outcast ($4.99 from $9.99 until 8/28) Star Wars KotOR ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/28) Star Wars KotOR II: Sith Lords ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/28) Star Wars Republic Commando ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/28) Star Wars The Force Unleashed ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Super Mutant Alien Assault ($1.99 from $9.99 until 8/28) Suzerain ($4.49 from $17.99 until 8/28) The Pale Beyond ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Times & Galaxy ($17.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Tomb Raider I-III Remastered ($22.49 from $29.99 until 8/28) That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow to talk a bit about whatever was in that Direct, plus have some new games, sales, and perhaps a review or two on top. I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Action adventure game RWBY: Arrowfell from WayForward is now available on mobile through the Crunchyroll Game Vault. RWBY: Arrowfell, developed …

Continue reading "‘RWBY: Arrowfell’ Now Available on Mobile Through Crunchyroll Game Vault"

Action adventure game RWBY: Arrowfell from WayForward is now available on mobile through the Crunchyroll Game Vault. RWBY: Arrowfell, developed by WayForward, is an action adventure game featuring Ruby Rose, Weiss, Blake, and Yang using their signature weapons and Semblances to take on Grimm and more enemies. It has the original cast included, new cut-scenes from the show creators, and more. Shaun wasn’t too hot on RWBY: Arrowfell when it hit Switch, but he did say it is worth playing if you like the show. Read his review here. Watch the RWBY: Arrowfell Crunchyroll Game Vault trailer below: Check out RWBY: Arrowfell on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. If you have an active Crunchyroll Mega or Ultimate membership right now, you can play RWBY: Arrowfell at no additional cost today. While it didn’t have the best reviews on PC and console, I’m happy to see more WayForward titles hit mobile. I’m excited to try it out today since I skipped the original release. What do you think of today’s new Crunchyroll Game Vault release and have you played RWBY: Arrowfell before?

Usually, updates for premium priced ports on mobile are good to have for optimization or compatibility reasons, but Capcom’s newest …

Continue reading "Capcom Updates ‘Resident Evil 4′, ‘Resident Evil Village’, and ‘Resident Evil 7’ on iOS With Online DRM"

Usually, updates for premium priced ports on mobile are good to have for optimization or compatibility reasons, but Capcom’s newest update pushed out an hour ago for Resident Evil 7 biohazard (Free), Resident Evil 4 Remake (Free), and Resident Evil Village (Free) on iOS and iPadOS adds an online DRM that checks purchase history when you launch the games. This checks to see if you own the game or DLC and then proceeds to the title screen. If you click no, the game will close. If you’re connected to the internet, this takes a few seconds before you can get back to your save, but you cannot boot up any of these three games and play it offline. You will need to be online for the purchase check on launching the game. This is unfortunate, and frankly is awful because the games are all now worse off with online DRM as opposed to being playable and launchable offline before. I tested this with all three games before updating them and verified that they did launch and work offline as of the update prior to today. With today’s update, you see the alert above or a similar one and clicking no closes the game. If this doesn’t matter to you, that’s fine, but I’m not a fan of online DRM like this being patched into a game people have already paid for before. Hopefully Capcom can find a better solution for checking purchases or do it once in a while and not on every launch. Stuff like this makes it harder to recommend Capcom’s premium priced ports. If you’ve not gotten the games yet, they are free to try, and you can grab Resident Evil 7 biohazard on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, here. Check out Resident Evil 4 Remake here on the App Store and Resident Evil Village here. Read my reviews of them here, here, and here. Do you own the three modern Resident Evil games on iOS and what do you think of this update for all three?

Back in early 2016 when I was looking for import-friendly games on PS Vita, I used to often see Gundam …

Continue reading "Gundam Breaker 4 Review – Steam Deck, Switch, and PS5 Tested"

Back in early 2016 when I was looking for import-friendly games on PS Vita, I used to often see Gundam Breaker mentioned. If you’ve never heard of the series before, think of them as hack and slash action games with RPG elements, deep customization, and a pure unadulterated love of Gunpla. Around the time I was looking into the series, Bandai Namco announced an Asia English release for Gundam Breaker 3 on PS4 and PS Vita, and I decided to buy both versions. I ended up loving it as my first Gundam game. Since then, I’ve imported and played Gundam Breaker 1 and 2 on PS Vita, and also gotten basically every Gundam game released in English across platforms. To see Gundam Breaker 4 announced earlier this year and confirmed for a global multi-platform simultaneous release remains one of 2024’s biggest surprises. Fast forward to today and Gundam Breaker 4 is finally here on Steam, Switch, PS4, and PS5. Having put in about 60 hours across platforms, I adore Gundam Breaker 4, but it has a few issues right now. Gundam Breaker 4 is a very important release not only because of the game itself, but because of how far we’ve come with the series in the West. So what makes Gundam Breaker 4 a big deal? Gone are the days of waiting for an Asia English release to import. Gundam Breaker 3 was an Asia English release not released in the West, and just on PlayStation. I can’t recall the last Gundam game that had an English dub option, but here we are with a dual audio option and multiple subtitle options (EFIGS and many more). But what about the game itself and the different platform versions? I’m going to cover all of that in this extended review that will also take you on a journey of me starting my first Master Grade Gunpla (Gundam Plastic Kit if you’re new to this) after building some High Grade (easier and smaller kits) before. Gundam Breaker 4’s story ranges from getting the job done to some highs and lows. The lows are when I felt like certain pre-mission dialog was going on a bit too long, and the highs were in the latter half of the game when there are interesting character reveals and also more interesting dialog. If you’ve not played a single game in the series before, Gundam Breaker 4 still does a good job of bringing you up to speed, but you might wonder why the appearance of certain characters is a big deal later on. The embargo only allows me to talk about the first two chapters of the story, and it feels like a straightforward affair during those two. I ended up liking the main characters quite a bit by the end, but my two favorite characters appear much later in the story. The real draw of Gundam Breaker 4 is not the story though. It is building your own perfect Gunpla, improving it over time, getting better gear, and becoming stronger to tackle higher difficulties and more quests. When you begin, you get the basics, but what the team really underold in the promotion is the customization aspect. It is incredible. Not only can you adjust individual parts like left and right arms, but you can also adjust ranged weapons for each arm, melee with dual wielding, and adjust the individual part size and scale. This means you can even use SD (super deformed) parts on your normal Gunpla and either have it look like this weird frankenstein suit or scale things to your liking. Beyond the actual parts for each main category in assembly, the customization in Gundam Breaker 4 takes things further with builder parts that let you add even more things to your Gunpla. Some of these even have their own skills. Speaking of skills, you have EX and OP skills to use in combat. These depend on your parts and weapons. Later on, you also unlock ability cartridges that have their own specs that give you buffs or debuffs. As you go through the missions breaking parts and earning S-rank reward parts, you also get materials. These can be used to level up your parts. Each mission in Gundam Breaker 4 usually has a recommended parts level indicating how suitable it is for your current gear. In addition to materials you earn to upgrade parts, you start earning materials to increase part rarity later on. This lets you upgrade for more skills as well, and you can use older or lesser part skills when you upgrade and cannibalize those older parts. During the main story, I spent a bit of time on the optional quests to earn money or parts, but feel like the game is balanced enough where you won’t really need to grind during the main story on the standard difficulty at least. Speaking of the difficulty, you unlock three higher difficulties as the main story progresses, and these up the challenge and part level recommendation quite a bit. If you do plan on skipping most of the optional quests during the main story, make sure to keep an eye on the new unlocks because some of the optional quest types are a lot of fun, especially the survival mode. Outside of all of this, you can also adjust the paint of your suit which lets you color schemes you’ve unlocked through progression or from DLC. If you put time into Gundam Breaker 4, there’s a ton of stuff for you to get out of it, and I’m floored by how much has gone into this. When you’re done with paint, you can work with decals and weathering effects as well. Gundam Breaker 4 is the real deal for Gunpla enthusiasts, but does it play well? Having enjoyed everything Gundam Breaker 4 has to offer in its gameplay through story missions, side content, and boss fights aside from one specific mission type, I think the team nailed it. I never got bored of combat even though the normal difficulty is on the easier side. I kept swapping out weapons and trying the various types before settling on a greatsword style weapon for the rest of my playthrough. Everything feels varied enough, and the individual skills and stats make for a fresh experience throughout. When it comes to the bosses and minibosses, I love having them appear on the stage in the Gunpla boxes and then breaking out before fighting you. This never gets old, and seeing one of the Gunpla kits I built appear as a boss later on was awesome. Most boss fights involve targeting weak points, damaging the many health bars, destroying shields, and the usual. I did have trouble with one particular boss’ weak points using specific weapons, but I changed to a whip and sorted it immediately. The only real hard boss fight in the story was dealing with two of a specific boss at once. I won’t get into details for spoiler reasons, but I did struggle with the AI in one specific fight. Visually, Gundam Breaker 4 ranges from great to fine. The environments look lacking early on, but I found the variety good overall. Most of the work went into making sure the Gunpla kits and animations look the best, and it shows. The developers clearly weren’t trying to go for a realistic art style here, so don’t expect something like Gundam Evolution or even how some bits of Gundam Breaker 3 looked. The aesthetic in Gundam Breaker 4 works well and it scales as it should on lower end hardware. The effects look great, and the scale of many boss fights is awesome. The music in Gundam Breaker 4 ranges from forgettable tunes you won’t think of outside the game to a few really great songs in specific story missions. I am disappointed in no way to set music from the various anime and movies here. Usually we’d see some anime music pack DLC or a premium bundle for Asia and Japan, but I’ve not seen any of that yet in the game or announced. I also don’t see a way to load custom music like in Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs Maxiboost ON on PS4. The voice acting has been a pleasant surprise. I played through the game completely with English on one save, and also spent about a dozen hours with the Japanese voice option on another platform save. Both were very good and I found myself liking the English more during missions because I hate reading small subtitles during action battles when I’m focusing on fighting enemies. So far, aside from one mission type really annoying me (thankfully not too prevalent) and a few bugs, I’ve had no real issues with Gundam Breaker 4. If you are new to this series and aren’t a fan of replaying missions to grind out better gear and drops, you may find things repetitive. I’ve always viewed Gundam Breaker like Earth Defense Force and Monster Hunter where after finishing the story, I spend time building my perfect Gunpla. As for bugs, I ran into one where certain names wouldn’t save or two I think are Steam Deck-specific. The first is that returning to the title screen from in-game takes way too long. The second is one specific mission that crashed for me only when playing on my monitor. I replayed it on the Deck itself and it was fine. It might just have been relating to the performance penalty I see in some games docked, but I can’t say for sure. The one aspect I’ve not touched on so far is the online. Pre-release I managed to play a good amount of the network test on PS5 and Switch, but I only managed to test a bit of the retail release on PS5 with a friend who is reviewing that version. The PC version’s servers have not been online pre-launch at all, so I cannot test if the online works fine on Steam Deck yet. I will be updating this once servers go online and I’ve managed testing the PC version on Steam Deck with friends online. At this point, you’re probably wondering about the Gunpla I was building. I made some progress and got through 5 sets of runners, but made a mistake with one small part. I panicked and almost broke it while trying to separate things. This is where my guitar pick came into the picture and saved me. I ended up stopping with my RG 78-2 MG 3.0 about halfway done. Once the review embargoes of this week are over, I’ll get back to it and finish it. Now let’s get to the platform differences and features. Gundam Breaker 4 PC port controls – keyboard, mouse, and controller support Gundam Breaker 4’s on PC is the only version of the game that supports above 60fps. The PS5 version is capped at 60fps and the Switch version hovers around the 30fps mark. The Gundam Breaker 4 PC release also has mouse and keyboard support in addition to controller support with multiple button prompt options. When playing on the Deck itself, it displayed Xbox button prompts. When using my DualSense controller over the Dock on my monitor, Gundam Breaker 4 showed PlayStation prompts correctly. It also auto switches between keyboard mouse and controller prompts based on your input. The only controller-related issue I ran into is the game not correctly detecting when I’ve reconnected a controller. I tested this on my DualSense and 8BitDo Ultimate controllers wirelessly. Gundam Breaker 4 ships with three controller presets and a custom option. You can adjust the keyboard mouse and controller settings independently. One setting I recommend changing immediately or after you try out the first few missions is camera sensitivity and distance. You can do this in Player Mode from the game settings. I found the default too slow and close. Gundam Breaker 4 PC graphics settings and display options Gundam Breaker 4 supports multiple resolutions and frame rate caps. On the Steam Deck itself, it sadly doesn’t support a full 800p and runs at 720p and 16:9. On the frame rate side, it can go from 30fps to 360fps and unlimited on PC. I set it to 120fps when playing on Steam Deck since I played it almost exclusively on my Steam Deck OLED. You can also toggle v-sync. On the graphics side, you can adjust the quality of textures, anti-aliasing, post-processing, shadows, effects, and also adjust brightness and toggle motion blur. Gundam Breaker 4 Steam Deck performance – does it work out of the box? I played Gundam Breaker 4 with Proton Experimental (bleeding edge) as I normally do for untested games, but I also tested it on the default Proton. It works perfectly out of the box and even invokes the on-screen keyboard for text input. I have confidence in this being Steam Deck Verified pre-launch or soon after. The 35 hours I put into it on just my Steam Deck OLED prove that. When playing with all settings at High aside from shadows, Gundam Breaker 4 easily hit 60fps, but I wanted more. For this, I turned things to medium and played at 80-90fps almost across the board. A few late-game missions saw drops to the high 60s during gameplay, but otherwise I had no issues in actual gameplay. In-engine cut-scenes do take a hit to performance and run in the 50-70fps range for me on Steam Deck. I did run into one issue where the assembly section suddenly dropped to 1-3fps for a few seconds before shooting back up to 90fps. This didn’t happen more than three times total, but I couldn’t figure out what caused it. If this is a Proton related issue, I hope Valve can fix it. The only visual issue I had when playing on the Deck itself is some of the icon glyphs and menus had either smaller than expected fonts, or they weren’t as crisp as they should’ve been. I noticed this even on Switch so it likely is an issue with the game being designed for a higher res and bigger screen. Not a dealbreaker, but worth pointing out. Gundam Breaker 4 Switch vs PS5 – what to buy? On the console side, I didn’t have time to test Gundam Breaker 4 on my PS4, so I focused on the Switch (Lite and OLED) and PS5 versions. Gundam Breaker 4 on PS5 looks amazing and runs basically perfectly at 60fps in the time I put into it, but I didn’t reach the few missions in the story towards the end that were more visually demanding. I also didn’t reach here on Switch, but I put nearly two dozen hours into the Switch version to see enough of how it runs there. Check out a comparison of the opening tutorial mission on PS5 and Switch in the screenshot comparison below: The biggest downgrades on Switch aside from the performance are with resolution, detail, and reflections. This applies not only to the stages, but also the Gunpla parts. During the network tests, a friend of mine pointed out how the Switch version looked like an HG Gunpla while the PS5 version looked like an RG in some scenes. If you built Gunpla you will understand this, but for everyone else, it just means Gunpla in the Switch version ends up lacking in many details like decals, lining, and even weathering effects in specific situations. They do appear, but I think the lower resolution and draw distance makes it so that they are invisible sometimes. This is one of those changes you won’t realize until you see the game outside Switch. I honestly expected this to run at 120fps on PS5 given the visuals. Playing Megaton Musashi at 120fps was good as a recent release. Maybe the developers capped this to 60fps for multiplayer reasons with the PS4 version, but I’m not sure. Aside from the 60fps cap, Gundam Breaker 4 has decent rumble support and even has PS5 Activity Card support to load into your save quicker. Since the review embargo prevents me from showing anything beyond chapter two in the story, the screenshot below is from when I just began playing showing the Activity Card implementation for story mode. I hope this supports online play and lobbies in the future as well. Speaking of loading, the Switch load times are really long compared to PS5 and Steam Deck. Even running the game off the SD card on my old Steam Deck LCD had much faster load times than Switch. If you only care about portability, you obviously won’t bother with the PS5 version, but the Switch port currently has one major issue that makes me hesitate to recommend it. The assembly section and diorama mode feel very sluggish. While the main lobby or hub is also sluggish, the performance in missions is better albeit still not a perfect 30fps. I saw drops even in early missions from 30fps, but again, this is a lot better than I expected given some recent Switch ports. I would be ok with this given the hardware if the assembly section ran better considering you will be spending a lot of time there after each mission. Diorama mode also needs more optimization on Switch with how sluggish it feels. If you played Gundam Breaker 3 on PS Vita, you will be more than fine with the Switch version, but I was hoping for a better port all things considered. Since there are more content updates planned, I hope we see some optimization on this front. For those who own multiple platforms, I only recommend the Switch version if you exclusively want to play portably and don’t own a Steam Deck. Speaking of portable play, I enjoyed Gundam Breaker 4 on my Switch Lite aside from the text size in some menus. Gundam Breaker 4 is also sadly the final game I reviewed on it before the screen developed some LCD-related issues. Is the Gundam Breaker 4 Ultimate Edition worth it? I had access to some of the DLC included in the Gundam Breaker 4 Deluxe Edition and Gundam Breaker 4 Ultimate Edition. I can’t comment on the story DLC yet since it isn’t available, but the early unlocks aren’t game changing. You get level 1 parts for the suits listed on the store page, but I found the builders parts to be better as early DLC to help you get started. Beyond that, the Diorama content doesn’t seem to be fully available right now, but there is some content from the DLC I had access to, and it was really good for posing Gunpla and using the cel-shaded filter as well. Having tried the Diorama mode a lot across my playthroughs on all platforms, photo mode enthusiasts and those who enjoy those kinds of modes in games will find a lot to love here. Having more items and accessories in this mode will be good, but you could get those separately I assume. I love how Gunbarrel Strike Gundam – Gundam Breaker Ver looks, so having those parts was nice. I liked the design enough to order the collector’s edition the moment pre-orders went up as well. Is Gundam Breaker 4 worth it for the story? I’ve seen some folks excited to play Gundam Breaker 4 for its story, and while it is a fine story, you really are here for customization, battles, and building your ideal Gunpla. If you want a story-focused game instead, look at Megaton Musashi. Both games have their strengths and weaknesses, but I ended up clicking with the gameplay in Gundam Breaker 4 more as a fan of the older games. When I got my review codes for Gundam Breaker 4, I had a fun idea of starting the MG 78-2 Version 3.0 kit and building it alongside the game to finish both at the same time, but sadly there are too many other games releasing for me to be able to do that. Not only was it great to play a new Gundam Breaker alongside building my newest Gunpla kit, but there’s a new found appreciation I have for the work that goes into designing these kits now after moving to an MG and also an RG from HG kits. I’ve also been lucky enough to have some friends who are super helpful with Gunpla tips for decals, panel lining, and also what to do when stuck. I look forward to finishing this kit and then working on my RG next. The wait for Gundam Breaker 4 has been super long, and I didn’t even think we’d see a new game in the series after New Gundam Breaker, but here we are. Gundam Breaker 4 is real and it is spectacular in almost every way. It is my favorite Steam Deck game this year since Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance, and one I look forward to playing online and offline over the coming months with all the DLC planned. Gundam Breaker 4 Steam Deck review: 4.5/5

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 26th, 2024. In today’s article, we get the week …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Round-Up: ‘Fragrant Story & Papaya’s Path’, Plus Today’s Other Releases and Sales"

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 26th, 2024. In today’s article, we get the week started with a somewhat lighter edition than we usually go with. No reviews today as I’m a bit busy on other projects, which means we just have a few new releases to go through plus the usual lists of new and expiring sales. Well, at least one of the new releases is interesting. The sales lists aren’t too shabby either. I’ll have some reviews tomorrow, hopefully. Let’s head on in and check out what we’ve got! Select New Releases Fragrant Story and Papaya’s Path ($7.99) Ah, the sordid tale of Fragrant Story, one of the would-be final Nintendo 3DS releases. There’s a lot of confusion out there around this game, so let me sort it out. Despite being a seemingly star-studded tactical role-playing game, those who bought the game on its release were surprised to get a game that lasted all of twenty minutes. The real story? Nintendo’s deadline for 3DS releases was coming quickly, so the developer pushed an unfinished game to the eShop. It was later updated into its intended from, a far more substantial game that lasts more than ten hours. So don’t worry if you see anything about this game being ridiculously short. It’s not. This version has the updates already packed in, and is a pretty solid pick-up for eight bucks if you’re into the genre. Quack Jump ($3.99) A simple platformer, but a functional one. It tries to keep things fresh through its 40-level run by sprinkling in new gimmicks as you go. For four dollars, it’s amusing enough. Underground Station ($7.90) Something of an idle game where you’re trying to repay your debts by working in a dungeon. It doesn’t look very fancy, but on a day where we have to wade through Moist Editions of AI-generated bikini anime girls, we take what we can get. Sales (North American eShop, US Prices) Okay, let’s check that inbox first. Another sale from Limited Run Games, which is nice if you’re missing any of their quirky releases. Most of TROOOZE’s junk is on sale, of which I’ve listed only a few. Some Team 17 sales, too. Over in the outbox, the recent somewhat rare sale on the Front Mission remakes is drawing to a close. You might want to add them to your collection if you’re interested, because it seems like they’re discounted far less frequently than Forever’s other games. Select New Sales Jurassic Park Games Collection ($17.99 from $29.99 until 8/31) The House in Fata Morgana ($19.99 from $39.99 until 8/31) Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore ($11.99 from $19.99 until 8/31) Night Trap ($3.74 from $14.99 until 8/31) Cosmic Star Heroine ($3.74 from $14.99 until 8/31) Phoenotopia: Awakening ($6.99 from $19.99 until 9/7) Enoh ($5.49 from $19.99 until 9/13) CosmoPlayerZ ($5.49 from $10.99 until 9/13) Knowledge Keeper ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/13) Three Minutes to Eight ($2.99 from $14.99 until 9/13) Fall of Porcupine ($7.99 from $19.99 until 9/13) Star Gagnant ($22.80 from $38.00 until 9/13) Moon Dancer ($13.29 from $18.99 until 9/13) Re:Touring ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/13) Life of Slime ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/13) Cybertrash STATYX ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/13) Awesome Pea 3 ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/13) Itorah ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/13) Pizza Tycoon ($2.09 from $14.99 until 9/13) Lacuna ($1.99 from $19.99 until 9/13) Alien Survivors: Starship Resurrection ($10.49 from $14.99 until 9/13) World War: Battle of the Bulge ($10.49 from $14.99 until 9/13) World War: D-Day Part One ($8.99 from $14.99 until 9/13) World War: D-Day Part Two ($8.99 from $14.99 until 9/13) Out Racing: Arcade Memory ($10.49 from $14.99 until 9/13) Last 4 Survive: The Outbreak ($8.99 from $14.99 until 9/13) Modern War: Tank Battle ($1.99 from $14.99 until 9/13) Counter Delta: The Bullet Rain ($1.99 from $14.99 until 9/13) Haunted Dawn: Zombie Apocalypse ($1.99 from $14.99 until 9/13) Urban Warfare: Assault ($11.99 from $14.99 until 9/13) Operation Scorpion: Takedown ($11.99 from $14.99 until 9/13) Hamster on Rails ($5.99 from $14.99 until 9/14) Ultimate Chicken Horse ($6.74 from $14.99 until 9/14) Our Field Trip Adventure ($3.99 from $14.50 until 9/15) Overcooked! All You Can Eat ($15.99 from $39.99 until 9/15) Worms Rumble ($2.99 from $14.99 until 9/15) The Survivalists ($2.49 from $24.99 until 9/15) Blasphemous 2 ($14.99 from $29.99 until 9/15) Moving Out ($7.49 from $24.99 until 9/15) Sales Ending Tomorrow, August 27th Aeterna Noctis ($8.99 from $29.99 until 8/27) Arise: A Simple Story ($2.99 from $19.99 until 8/27) ATONE: Heart of the Elder Tree ($1.99 from $14.99 until 8/27) Badland: GotY Edition ($1.99 from $5.99 until 8/27) Bang-On Balls: Chronicles ($9.99 from $24.99 until 8/27) Blazing Beaks ($1.99 from $14.99 until 8/27) Bus Driving Simulator 22 ($2.99 from $27.99 until 8/27) Chippy & Noppo ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/27) Cult of the Lamb ($12.49 from $24.99 until 8/27) Descenders ($4.99 from $24.99 until 8/27) Everdream Valley ($9.99 from $24.99 until 8/27) Flame Keeper ($3.99 from $11.99 until 8/27) Front Mission 1st: Remake ($17.49 from $34.99 until 8/27) Front Mission 2: Remake ($23.44 from $34.99 until 8/27) Gamedec: Definitive ($2.99 from $29.99 until 8/27) LOUD: My Road to Fame ($1.99 from $7.99 until 8/27) Nine Parchments ($4.39 from $19.99 until 8/27) Ready, Steady, Ship! ($8.99 from $14.99 until 8/27) Red Wings: American Aces ($1.99 from $11.99 until 8/27) Soundfall ($4.49 from $29.99 until 8/27) Summum Aeterna ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/27) SuperEpic: The Entertainment War ($1.99 from $17.99 until 8/27) Terra Flame ($15.99 from $19.99 until 8/27) Tools Up ($1.99 from $19.99 until 8/27) Trine 2: Complete Story ($3.73 from $16.99 until 8/27) Trine 3: Artifacts of Power ($4.39 from $19.99 until 8/27) Trine Enchanted Edition ($3.29 from $14.99 until 8/27) War Titans ($1.99 from $14.99 until 8/27) Xiaomei & the Flame Dragon’s Fist ($8.99 from $14.99 until 8/27) That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with more new releases, more sales, and perhaps some reviews and news. It really depends on what else I’ve got to deal with. Wish me luck in getting things done in a timely manner. I hope you all have a magnificent Monday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello everyone, and welcome to the week! It’s time once again for our look back at the noteworthy updates of …

Continue reading "Best iPhone Game Updates: ‘TMNT Splintered Fate’, ‘Subway Surfers’, ‘Another Eden’, and More"

Hello everyone, and welcome to the week! It’s time once again for our look back at the noteworthy updates of the last seven days. Lots of big names in the list this week, though one heavily skewed towards free-to-play stuff. Some Apple Arcade games as well, naturally. Still, it’s a good mix of games with some interesting updates to consider. Of course, you can keep an eye out for updates yourself by participating in the TouchArcade forums. This weekly summary is just here to fill you in on the things you might have missed. Let’s go for it! Subway Surfers, Free Sydney is a city, and Sydney is the center of a couple of updates this week. Apparently in the world of Subway Surfers, there is a veggie revolution happening. Veggie, not Vegimite. Collect Veggie tokens, build a bean burger, and unlock Billy Bean. On top of this, you can look forward to a bunch of green-themed characters, boards, and bundles. Oh, I see. It’s a whole “green" thing. Okay, that’s fun. Save the planet, kids. It’s the only one we’ve got. Mars isn’t happening anytime soon. Tiny Tower: Tap Idle Evolution, Free Out with the Olympics event, in with the summer event. It’s still summer! So says the calendar, so says the temperature. Anyway, the gist of this event is that you serve up VIPs and roll the dice to earn event points, and at certain thresholds you get rewards. Each week is its own thing, and at the end you’ll get rewards based on your overall progress across all weeks. Different VIPs are worth different amounts of points, and you know the pay to win option is real here. But hey, free stuff. MARVEL Puzzle Quest: Hero RPG, Free I don’t talk enough about Marvel Puzzle Quest, but that’s more because it trucks along consistently and quietly. As with other Marvel games, this one was doing an event tied in with Deadpool and Wolverine. It’s over now, and all the sweeping up has been done. That includes a rebalance for Old Man Logan, complete with a new costume. The latest PVP Season of Mind has come to a close, so keep your eyes out for the next one. Hm. I’m now realizing this update is mostly clean-up, but at least you’re thinking about Marvel Puzzle Quest now. ANOTHER EDEN, Free The King of Fighters! In addition to being a pretty good little RPG in its own right, Another Eden has been home to some truly strange collaboration events. Is The King of Fighters the strangest? Probably not, but it’s up there. On top of that cross-over, this update adds a new Parallel Time Layer Ally, the Thornbound Witch Shanie. Is Mai here? Let me check the paperwork. Yes, she is. Good. Terry, Kyo, Mai, and Kula. Good enough. I’ll give this the UMMSotW award for this week because Mai is cool. Temple Run: Legends, The relatively recently-launched stage-based Temple Run game already has a nice little update to enjoy. The new Outfit System does pretty much what you would think it does. Unlock new Outfits to equip to the characters to change their looks. But wait, there’s more! Those Outfits have some useful new traits to give you a variety of advantages during your runs. Wacky looks that work for you? If only real life was like that! Instead people just point and laugh, which is not an advantage at all. TMNT Splintered Fate, Those Toitles are at it again! Splintered Fate launched on other platforms recently, and it seems the developers have decided to bring over some of the improvements for those versions over to the mobile release. Couch co-op! Cross-platform online multiplayer! Improved controller interfaces! All that, plus some nice upgrades to the graphics, audio, and more. It’s like getting extra cheese on your pizza without asking for it! Disney Dreamlight Valley, The Princess and the Frog is in the spotlight in the latest version of Disney Dreamlight Valley. Tiana is here to set up a restaurant and a new Stall, and apparently Remy is somewhere around too. Makes sense. Cooking is kind of his thing. You can also get a New Orleans style parade going on. That’s fun. I always like seeing Disney movies outside of the biggest hits get some representation in games like these. Outlanders, Okay, let’s try to parse the update notes for Outlanders. Always a challenge. Volume VI of Outlanders Chronicles is here, giving you six new playable leaders and following the rise and subsequent fall of a community. Something to do with a comet not appearing when it should have. Maybe they’re one of those weird cults? Well, I’m not about to bother them to find out. They seem sad about it. You, however, can feel free to bother them by checking out this latest version of the game. SimCity BuildIt, Free Here’s our other Sydney-themed update today, and it’s also somewhat focused on the whole green angle. Okay, that’s fine. Captain Planet would certainly approve, and I never mess with someone with a green mullet. Add buildings like the Beam Wireless, Green Exchange, and Flower Bud to your city. There are also some limited-time structures like the Sydney Zoo and Paper Bag. Jump in on this Mayor’s Pass Season and liven up your city with these new sites. Sights? Sites and sights. Merge Mansion: Mystery & Story, Free The obligatory free-to-play matching puzzle game update of the week is our closer this time, and I’ve picked Merge Mansion. A new area is available in the form of the Speakeasy. Wait, are those legal? Like Grandma would care. Some improvements have been made to the Landing Room and Lounge, a new Mystery Pass offers an intriguing new pet, some balance adjustments have been made, and a whole mess of events have been seeded in that you’ll see pop up in the coming weeks. Add in some bug fixes, and that’s about it for this one. That about wraps it up for last week’s significant updates. I’m sure I’ve missed some, though, so please feel free to comment below and let everyone know if you think something should be mentioned. As usual, major updates will likely get their own news stories throughout this week, and I’ll be back next Monday to summarize and fill in the blanks. Have a great week!

Niantic and Capcom just detailed the next major update coming to Monster Hunter Now (Free). Monster Hunter Now Season 3 …

Continue reading "‘Monster Hunter Now’ Season 3 To Add Magnamalo, Heavy Bowgun Weapon, Cooking, and More on September 11th"

Niantic and Capcom just detailed the next major update coming to Monster Hunter Now (Free). Monster Hunter Now Season 3 “Curse of the Wandering Flames" sees Magnamalo arrive as the first Monster Hunter Rise original monster joining the Monster Hunter Now roster. Alongside Magnamalo, two other monsters join in the action including my favorite: Rajang. The final monster addition is Aknosom. Monster Hunter Now’s Season 3 update also brings in a new weapon, the Heavy Bowgun, cooking as a feature, and more. I’m curious to see how Magnamalo and Rajang are in-game as I adore hunting both of them in Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak and Monster Hunter World: Iceborne for Rajang. Check out Magnamalo’s artwork for Monster Hunter Now below: Check out some of the new gear from the update below: If you’ve not played Monster Hunter Now recently or are planning to just start playing, I put together tips and tricks for the game, details on the weapons, special skills, the current monsters list, my wishlist for future update monsters, and more. You can grab Monster Hunter Now on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. The in app purchases include different sets of gems and upgrades. Check out the official website here. What do you think of the current state of the game and are you looking forward to Teostra next month?

At Anime NYC this weekend, Aniplex USA shared more details for its upcoming 3D action RPG Alterna Vvelt: Blue Exorcist …

Continue reading "3D Action RPG ‘Alterna Vvelt: Blue Exorcist Another Story’ From Aniplex Gets a New Trailer Ahead of Its Launch on Mobile and PC"

At Anime NYC this weekend, Aniplex USA shared more details for its upcoming 3D action RPG Alterna Vvelt: Blue Exorcist Another Story (). Alterna Vvelt: Blue Exorcist Another Story is in development for iOS, Android, and Windows release this year. Alterna Vvelt: Blue Exorcist Another Story is based on the Blue Exorcist IP, and the story of the game features new original characters showcased in the game’s new trailer. In addition to this new trailer, pre-orders and pre-registrations have gone live for the game. Alterna Vvelt: Blue Exorcist Another Story sees you taking on the role of an exorcist assigned to the Special Investigations Unit in the Japanese branch of the Knights of the True Cross. Watch the new trailer below: Alterna Vvelt: Blue Exorcist Another Story doesn’t have a confirmed release date yet, and the App Store page also confirms that the date listed there is a placeholder. If you’d like to try Alterna Vvelt: Blue Exorcist Another Story, you can pre-order it on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. Check out the official website here where a lot of the pre-registration reward tiers are detailed. Alterna Vvelt: Blue Exorcist Another Story is due this summer on iOS, Android, and Windows. What do you think of Alterna Vvelt: Blue Exorcist Another Story so far?

Netflix recently announced more games coming to its service in the coming months, but an unannounced (as far as I’m …

Continue reading "‘SpongeBob: Bubble Pop’ Is a New Bust-a-Move-Like Coming to iOS and Android Through Tic Toc Games, Nickelodeon, and Netflix"

Netflix recently announced more games coming to its service in the coming months, but an unannounced (as far as I’m aware) casual Bust-a-Move-like game in the form of SpongeBob: Bubble Pop has gone up for pre-order on the App Store and pre-registration on Android. SpongeBob: Bubble Pop (Free) from Tic Toc Games and Nickelodeon is due on September 17th going by the App Store listing, and it aims to offer players hundreds of puzzles where you match colors and free sea snails to save Bikini Bottom. It will include boosters, various unlocks, SpongeBob cosmetics, a skill crane to earn even more costumes, and more. Check out some screenshots from it below: If you’d like to play SpongeBob: Bubble Pop at launch, you can pre-order it on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. If we get a gameplay trailer, Ill post about it, but I think everyone knows what to expect from a game like this. I’m curious if we see more games announced at Netflix Geeked week in the near future. What do you think of SpongeBob: Bubble Pop and Netflix bringing more casual games like this to its service?

HoYoverse has begun pre-installation for the major Genshin Impact (Free) version 5.0 “Flowers Resplendent on the Sun-Scorched Sojourn" update for …

Continue reading "‘Genshin Impact’ Version 5.0 Update Pre-Installation Now Live, New Trailer Released"

HoYoverse has begun pre-installation for the major Genshin Impact (Free) version 5.0 “Flowers Resplendent on the Sun-Scorched Sojourn" update for on supported platforms. If you’ve not followed the game recently, Genshin Impact 5.0 brings in the sixth nation: Natlan, new characters like Mualani, reruns for Raiden Shogun, and much more. The update will launch beginning August 28th for mobile, PC, PS5, and PS4 with the game launching on Xbox Series X this November. The first Genshin Impact 5.0 banner features: Mualani, Kachina and Kaedehara Kazuha while banner 2 has Kinich and Raiden Shogun. This update is also supposed to bring in updated visuals. Read about that here. Watch the new Genshin Impact trailer for Kachina below: You can pre-install it by tapping the pre-install resource package button. The download size is 2.67GB on iOS and about 16GB on PC. If you’d like to play Genshin Impact and don’t own it yet, you can download it for free on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. The PC version is available on the official website here and the Epic Games Store. If you play on iOS, with iOS 14.5 or iPadOS 14.5 and later, you can use PS5 and Xbox Series X|S controllers to play Genshin Impact. We featured Genshin Impact as our Game of the Week when it released and awarded it our 2020 Game of the Year. I also featured it as one of the best iOS games to play with a controller. What do you think of Genshin Impact 5.0 so far?

In this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show I talk about how I finally ended up getting sick after weeks …

Continue reading "Ok I’m Actually Sick Now – The TouchArcade Show #601"

In this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show I talk about how I finally ended up getting sick after weeks of being teased with it, and then I really bum out the vibe of the show sharing my horrible cat-sitting story. We then go into the fiasco that is the latest Overcast update which really screwed the pooch for Eli’s podcast listening lifestyle, and touch on some of Apple’s latest upcoming changes in the EU region. We also hit on some more iOS 18 beta talk and finish things off by going through some listener emails, which is always a blast. Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated! As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer. Stitcher: The TouchArcade Show via Stitcher Radio for Podcasts RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-601.mp3

I’m a simple man. Give me an old-school first-person dungeon crawler and I’m a pretty happy guy. Make one centered …

Continue reading "TouchArcade Game of the Week: ‘Labyrinth: The Wizard’s Cat’"

I’m a simple man. Give me an old-school first-person dungeon crawler and I’m a pretty happy guy. Make one centered around rescuing a cat and, oh boy, now you’re really speaking my language. Throw in a really unique touchscreen control scheme that I’ve never seen in a game of this type before and we’ve got a winner winner chicken-that-you-found-in-a-barrel dinner. That accurately describes Labyrinth: The Wizard’s Cat from developer ZombiSoft, who appears to be just a single person named Anders Gustavsson. There are some rough edges here, and some negative things to note, but by and large I’m just having a super good time with Labyrinth: The Wizard’s Cat and I’m excited to see where it takes me. So as the story goes, you’re an apprentice wizard who is tasked with finding the runaway cat of your mentor wizard, and you graduating to become a full-blown wizard hinges on you completing this mission. Just when you think you’ve cornered the adorable little feline you find yourself transported to a dungeon labyrinth filled with traps and enemies. You also spot the kitty roaming around and so your mission now becomes more difficult as you try to make your way through this dungeon alive as well as rescue your boss’s pesky little cat. Now, Labyrinth: The Wizard’s Cat isn’t a highly complex game by any means. There’s some light RPG elements in the form of leveling up and finding cool new weapons and gear, but there’s no party system or any extensive character progression. It reminds me a lot of Questlord in that it’s a pretty simple affair mechanically but the story, the visuals, and the personality of the game compel you to keep moving forward. Also, just because this game is bright and colorful and has a fairly straightforward design don’t think it’s some pushover. The game actually gets rather difficult rather quickly, but thankfully you can save anytime and anywhere, which is something you should practice doing often. The really neat feature here is the control scheme. You can choose between virtual arrows or swipe gestures for directional movement, which is pretty par for the course. But if you lay a second thumb down on the screen you can free look in any direction. It takes a little getting used to but the swipe gesture movement coupled with the free look gesture combines to make for a very satisfying touchscreen control scheme. It almost feels like you’re playing a first-person shooter at times, once you get comfortable and start zipping around to and fro, but you’re actually still playing a game with grid-based movement. My small nitpicks are that I really wish this game had an option to play in portrait, and the swipe detection for movement is a bit finicky. It recognizes short, fast swipes as opposed to longer ones, and before I figured that out I was having a really frustrating time thinking the game wasn’t detecting my inputs. Probably something that can be smoothed out in an update. Overall though, despite being a bit basic overall and having some rough edges, Labyrinth: The Wizard’s Cat is a very enjoyable retro dungeon crawler, which is something we don’t get too many of nowadays. If that’s not worth a couple of bucks then I’m not sure what is.

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. I delayed publishing this because Gamescom 2024 is on right …

Continue reading "Steam Deck Weekly: Gamescom 2024 Steam Deck News, Reviews Including Bakeru and SCHiM, New Verified Games, Discounts, and More"

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. I delayed publishing this because Gamescom 2024 is on right now with news from Geoff Keighley’s Opening Night Live, game announcements, show floor information, and more. If you missed my Black Myth: Wukong Steam Deck review, read it here. Today’s article has Steam Deck impressions for Bakeru and Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, reviews of a few notable indies, Shaun’s take on the Warhammer 40K: Boltgun DLC, bundles, new Steam Deck Verified games, and more. Let’s get into the reviews and impressions first. Steam Deck Game Reviews & Impressions Bakeru Steam Deck Review When Bakeru was released in Japan, a friend of mine imported it and praised it quite a bit. I tried the demo and was turned off by the technical issues. It was charming, but not enough to put up with no localization and performance issues on Switch. When it leaked on the eShop, I was hoping we’d see performance improvements or a port to PC. We ended up getting both more or less. Bakeru’s Switch release in the West is improved over the Japanese launch version, and it is also now on PC with an excellent port. Bakeru is an action platformer from Good-Feel who are most known for the Yoshi games and also more-recently Princess Peach Showtime from Nintendo. The studio has done some games outside Nintendo brands, and the newest in this line of non Nintendo games from Good-Feel is Bakeru. Shaun will be doing a full review for this one, but so far Bakeru feels and plays great on Steam Deck. On Steam Deck and PC, Bakeru lets you adjust display mode (windowed and borderless only), resolution (with full 16:10 support), toggle v-sync, adjust frame rate cap (Note that v-sync off means the game runs at 60fps. Turn it on if you would like to play at your monitor’s refresh rate or at 90fps on Steam Deck OLED), anti-aliasing (off, FXAA, SMAA), adjust filtering quality (trilinear, 2x, 4x, 8x, and 16x), and draw distance (low, medium, high). I played Bakeru on both my Steam Decks. My LCD is running the newest SteamOS beta. On that, I had zero issues with the game and it ran at a locked 60fps at maximum settings. On Steam Deck OLED running the public build of the OS, I only had some issues at 90fps. This seemingly wasn’t related to the settings, but something in the game because I had some shader-related or traversal stuttering in parts, but they only happened initially. I imagine Bakeru will be Steam Deck Verified soon as it runs perfectly if you play at 60fps and near-perfectly at 90fps. The one issue I ran into pre-release that Spike Chunsoft and the developers already fixed is button prompts being incorrectly displayed. This had the game showing Switch positions instead of Xbox ones when using my 8BitDo Xbox controller or the Steam Deck itself. I’m glad this was resolved pre-release as the game has no port issues, and it is dramatically better than the Switch version. When using a DualSense, it correctly showed PlayStation prompts with the proper labels and positions as well. Bakeru is a good platformer that I recommend playing on PC over Switch right now. The Switch version, despite performance improvements over the Japanese demo, still has too much variance in its performance to be an easy recommendation. The HD Rumble there is nice, but everything else holds it back. On PC, you miss out on the HD Rumble, but Bakeru runs a lot better across the board, and I’ve been enjoying digging into it over the last week. Stay tuned for Shaun’s full review of the Switch version in the near future. Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Steam Deck Review There have been many game franchises that I completely missed out on over the years. The Sam & Max series of games is one of those. When I was offered a code to play Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, I figured now was the time to finally play these games with the new remasters. If you’re just here for the game itself, I urge you to read Shaun’s Switch review here. I’m going to focus on how it plays on Steam Deck. Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse is the final game in the episodic Sam & Max main trilogy. This new remaster is amazing in basically every way. This includes how it controls, looks, sounds, and feels. It even has many accessibility options to make things go smoothly if you’re new to this kind of adventure game. You can toggle different hint levels and disable flashing in the accessibility settings. On the graphics and display side, you can play Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse at higher resolutions when docked on Steam Deck, but performance doesn’t hold close to 60fps if you play at 4K. I recommend sticking to it in handheld mode for a 60 or higher experience. You can adjust the graphics quality, texture quality, anti-aliasing, toggle v-sync, and adjust display mode and resolution in the graphics settings. With Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, I’m glad I finally got around to playing these games. Not only are they all absolutely worth your time and money, but they play superbly on Steam Deck. I’d love for the remasters to hit iPad, but until then the Steam Deck is my favorite way to play Skunkape Games’ remasters. SCHiM Steam Deck Review Given the sheer amount of releases lately, I didn’t get around to playing SCHiM much at launch. I’m glad I finally rectified that because it is equal parts charming and gorgeous, and it has been the perfect game to relax with as a break from the longer upcoming games I’m playing for review right now. Developers Ewoud van der Werf and Nils Slijkerman have released a brilliant take on a 3D platformer using light, shadow, and more for puzzles, and it is all elevated by excellent audio. Aside from the striking aesthetic, what really carries SCHiM through its four or so hours long runtime is the animation work and sound design. As you work towards solving the various puzzles in the game, every interaction has a lovely little animation, and it all feels beyond polished when played at a rock solid 90fps on Steam Deck OLED. The blend of the shadows and lights for puzzles also are enhanced by the screen in handheld mode. So SCHiM runs perfectly out of the box on Steam Deck at 90fps, but how about docked? When played at 720p docked, it nearly does a locked 144fps. Playing at 1080p results in well over 100fps at all times. SCHiM supports 16:10 as well which is great to see on Steam Deck. I have no complaints with it aside from the fact that it might seem short for its price to some, and that there really is no evolution of the mechanics over the course of the game. While this isn’t a dealbreaker, it does hold SCHiM down from perfection. SCHiM is a lovely abstract take on games like Frogger for the modern era. Come into this expecting a work of art with excellent audio design more than a complex puzzle game. I enjoyed just about every level despite the mechanics not really evolving. I enjoyed it enough on Steam Deck to order a physical copy of the Switch version from Japan already. This is definitely worth your time if you enjoy delightful, gorgeous, and relaxing puzzle games. SCHiM Steam Deck review score: 4.5/5 Gestalt: Steam and Cinder Steam Deck Review Gestalt: Steam and Cinder is another game I wish I got around to playing sooner like SCHiM above. It has been on the review backlog for a bit now, but having played it, this action platformer is fantastic. Not only does it nail the aesthetic with its blend of 16 and 32-bit visuals, but the sound design, story, and gameplay are sublime. What initially drew me to Gestalt: Steam and Cinder, is the steampunk visual style in pixel art. I adore the character designs, but wasn’t sure another action platformer would be able to hit hard enough for me in recent years. Having played it, the story is very good, but without getting into spoilers, I feel like there’s more to this tale. Hopefully we see some story DLC in the future. On the gameplay side, Gestalt: Steam and Cinder felt a bit easier than I expected outside of two bosses I had trouble with. Nothing major though, and the responsive controls help across the board. Gestalt: Steam and Cinder ships Steam Deck Verified, and it is perfect on Valve’s handheld. The only thing I’d like to see, if feasible, is support for 90fps. Right now, the game is capped at 60fps and 16:9. I tested this on both my Steam Decks docked and in handheld mode. Given how crowded the genre is, I know most people roll their eyes when they see another action platformer, but Gestalt: Steam and Cinder is one you cannot afford to miss. It is one of the best in the genre with its excellent gameplay, narrative, music, and slick visuals. Gestalt: Steam and Cinder is also perfect on Steam Deck from start to finish. Gestalt: Steam and Cinder Steam Deck review score: 4.5/5 Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun – Forges of Corruption Expansion Steam Deck Review The original Boltgun was a refreshing surprise for me when it was released last year. While I’m not as into first-person shooters as deeply as some, I can certainly enjoy a good boomer shooter. Give me fast, furious action with some interest levels to explore, a satisfying selection of weapons, and challenging enemy encounters and I’m there. Boltgun had all of that, all dressed up in a Warhammer theme that if nothing else helps the world feel like it extends outside of the borders of the game. A thoroughly enjoying game to play through, and one that left me properly sated… or did it? While I thought I had had my fill of Boltgun, I was actually quite happy when Forges of Corruption was released. I guess I was still hungry. This expansion gives you five more levels of carnage to engage in, and they run on the larger side. You get two new guns to play with, one being an enhanced flamethrower and the other a rocket launcher. Sure, can’t argue with that. You also get some new enemies to try those toys out on, and you’ll need every edge you can get to deal with them. When compared to the original game’s levels, Forges of Corruption‘s stages favor more wide open spaces. This puts your mobility skills to the test, as you’ll have to keep on moving to avoid getting surrounded or cornered. If you haven’t mastered the dash already from playing the main campaign, you’ll need to get up to speed fast here. It’s an interesting change-up from the more compact design that the base game relied on so much. The enhanced flamethrower’s spread can really help you out here, and rockets always prefer open spaces. Difficulty-wise, these levels are mostly going to be a relative breeze for those who played through the first game. The last one is a real beast though, and you’re going to have to use everything you’ve learned to overcome it. Which is to say that while you can play this expansion without finishing the main game, you really should leave it for after. All-up, it takes a few hours to get through it all. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun – Forges of Corruption keep the party rolling with a set of new stages that show off a slightly different design intent than those of the original. The new weapons and enemies are appreciated, and the level design makes the most of both. I do wish there was something more interesting going on visually here, and the difficulty curve isn’t as smooth as it was in the base game. Still, those looking for more Boltgun challenges to tackle will find them here.-Shaun Musgrave Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun – Forges of Corruption Expansion Steam Deck review score: 4/5 News and Trailers Let’s begin the massive (and fast-paced) news section of this week with a brand-new trailer for my most anticipated game of 2025: Monster Hunter Wilds. The trailer has the game looking better than before, and I’m getting more excited reading all the details from hands-on gameplay sessions people have at Gamescom. Watch the third Monster Hunter Wilds trailer below: The next bit of news I’m excited for is Final Fantasy XVI, the best singleplayer Final Fantasy game since XII, is coming to Steam in a few weeks with pre-orders and a demo now live. It is sadly pretty rough on Steam Deck, but I hope things improve. Terry Bogard launches on September 24th in Street Fighter 6 as the second DLC for the Year 2 Pass. His gameplay trailer looks incredible. While not directly Steam-related, Capcom is also bringing Resident Evil 2 to GOG on August 27th. I couldn’t get Resident Evil 1’s GOG release to work on Deck, but I hope this one works. Capcom also released a demo for the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection on Steam and consoles. Check it out here. Read my preview of the full game here. Silent Hill 2 from Konami got a new story trailer, and this is the first trailer that’s been liked by a friend of mine who is a huge fan of the series. This will be my first Silent Hill game, so I’m excited to try it. Square Enix released a new “Final" trailer for Visions of Mana ahead of its launch next week. I can’t wait to talk about the full game soon. A few days ago, Cygames released the big Version 1.50 update for Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising on Steam and consoles bringing in big balance adjustments, the new DLC character Versusia, and in-game content included with Battle Pass Round 5. Watch the trailer below: Persona 3 Reload’s expansion Episode Aigis is adding Joker as a boss fight. I didn’t expect that one, but I’m looking forward to playing the DLC very soon. Atlus will host a new ATLUS Exclusive showcase for Metaphor: ReFantazio on August 28th at 8 PM. It will be on YouTube. I’m looking forward to playing this hopefully soon for review. Atlus also revealed the English voice cast for the game. Check it out below: Protagonist – Caleb Yen Strohl – Stewart Clarke Hulkenberg – Kristin Atherton Gallica – Alejandra Reynoso Heismay – Phillipe Spall Junah – Emma Ballantine Eupha – Emily Burnett Neuras – David Monteith Louis – Joseph Tweedale More – Greg Chun Grius – Gordon Cooper A new trailer for Metaphor has also gone live, and it is the best one yet for the game ahead of its launch in October. Watch it below: SEGA released a new trailer for Sonic X Shadow Generations that makes me wish the game was out sooner. We need anime music videos based on this for sure. Tempest Rising from 3D Realms got a new PvP teaser trailer this week at Gamescom 2024. It looks superb. Check out the footage below: A game I’m excited to play later this year, Slitterhead from Bokeh Game Studio, got a new story trailer this week. Watch it below: A game most thought wouldn’t release this year, The Plucky Squire from Devolver Digital, launches on September 17th with a lovely new trailer you can watch below. I’m excited to try this out on Steam Deck and Switch. Devolver Digital is also launching Sumerian Six, the real time tactical stealth game via Steam, on September 2nd. Raw Fury is releasing the horror survival game Post Trauma on October 29th. Check out its release date trailer below: Blizzard is celebrating Warcraft’s 30th anniversary in Overwatch 2 with a new skin for Widowmaker as Sylvanas next month. Check it out below: Action adventure game Unknown 9: Awakening from Bandai Namco launches on October 18th for Steam and consoles. Pre-orders are now live with a new gameplay trailer you can watch below: Eternal Strands, set to launch in 2025, got a new gameplay trailer at Gamescom 2024 from Yellow Brick Games. Watch it below: Superhero-themed visual novel Sacrifice Villains from Shiravune is set to release on Steam this year. It will be priced at $19.99. Check out the Steam page here. Little Nightmares III also had a new trailer during Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024. It releases on Steam and all consoles next year. Diablo IV’s Vessel of Hatred expansion got a new trailer showcasing the Mercenary companions ahead of the expansion’s launch this October. Inti Creates is releasing a demo for Card-en-Ciel on September 4th for Steam. Alongside this news, a new gameplay trailer has been released. Watch it below: A sequel to Wilmot’s Warehouse is set to release on Steam on October 23rd in the form of Wilmot Works It Out. I loved the original and cannot wait to play this. Risk of Rain 2’s Seekers of the Storm DLC launches on August 27th for PC and consoles. I’ll be checking this one out on Steam Deck. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II launches on February 11th, 2025 and a new gameplay showcase this week makes me wonder if this will even run on Steam Deck with how good it looks. I’ll definitely try it. Watch the showcase below: Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves from SNK launches on April 24th, 2025 for Steam, PS5, PS4, and Xbox Series X. The launch price is a special edition with the first pass. Watch the new trailer showing off the amazing Mai Shiranui and the release date showcase below: Level Infinite streamed its recent “Into the Infinite" showcase featuring updates from its partners covering games like Soulframe, Warframe, and much more. Watch it below: https://www.youtube.com/live/KAIFQ8TZCp8 Sharkmob’s Exoborne had a new trailer released during the showcase above as well. Watch it below: Civilization VII from Firaxis and 2K launches for Steam and all consoles on February 11th, 2025 with pre-orders now live. Check out the gameplay trailer below: 2K also revealed two other games for 2025, and they’re big ones. Borderlands 4 and Mafia The Old Country are in development for Steam and consoles for 2025 release. Watch the trailers below: Arc System Works has revealed new details for Double Dragon Revive including the composers and story details. The composers include Raito and many more. Check out the website here. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle launches on Steam and Xbox on December 9th with pre-orders now live on Steam. I’m looking forward to playing this. The newest Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream trailers focus on Leafa and Sinon. Watch them below: Delta Force, the first person multiplayer shooter, previously known as Delta Force: Hawk Ops launches later this year for PC via Early Access on Steam from Level Infinite. It is also set to come to iOS and Android and consoles. Amazon Prime is doing a series on video games titled Secret Level with a focus on specific games over 15 episodes. These include Armored Core, Spelunky, New World: Aeternum, and more. It is set to begin streaming this December. Speaking of New World: Aeterum, a new video series based on the game can now be watched ahead of the game’s launch on October 15th: Marvel Rivals from NetEase Games launches as a free to play game on December 6th for Steam and consoles with all heroes included for free. Starfield’s Shattered Space DLC launches on September 30th for Steam and Xbox. A new update is also available now on all platforms. Akatsuki Games released a new trailer for the extreme action game Tribe Nine ahead of its launch on Steam and mobile. Free to play third person MOBA Predecessor is now available on Steam and consoles from Omeda Studios. Watch the trailer for it below: Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO gets another trailer showing off more of the game in its “50 days from now" trailer. Watch it below: Path of Exile 2 launches on Steam and consoles via Early Access on November 15th. Watch the new trailer from Grinding Gear Games below: Dying Light: The Beast is a standalone open world game that’s free for owners of Dying Light 2 Ultimate Edition. It is set to release in the future. Idea Factory International announced that Date A Live: Ren Dystopia releases on September 5th for Steam. I’ll be reviewing this one. Check it out on Steam here. Torn Banner Studios (Chivalry 2) announced that the UE5-powered shooter No More Room in Hell 2 will launch in Steam early access this Halloween. Watch the trailer below from Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024: Warner Bros Games also showcased a new Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns gameplay trailer focussing on Cyrax who is a part of the new DLC. Tokyo Xtreme Racer from Genki is a new entry in the long-running series coming to Steam in 2025. I’m glad to see this because a friend of mine is a huge fan. Watch the trailer below: Square Enix released a new trailer for Life is Strange: Double Exposure showcasing Max’s powers. Watch it below: New Steam Deck Verified & Playable games for the week This week, Yakuza 4 and Devil Blade Reboot are the highlights for new Verified games, and EA’s anti-cheat issues continue to make more games unplayable on Steam Deck. Check out every notable game tested by Valve since the last article below: #BLUD – Verified Atlas Fallen – Unsupported Battlefield 1 – Unsupported (new anti-cheat issues) DEVIL BLADE REBOOT – Verified EA SPORTS Madden NFL 25 – Unsupported (new anti-cheat issues) Eastward – Playable Flatout 3 – Playable hololive treasure mountain – Verified Isles of Sea and Sky – Verified LISA: The First – Unsupported Metropolis: Lux Obscura – Playable Mika and The Witch’s Mountain – Verified Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2: Deluxe Edition – Unsupported (new anti-cheat issues) Pocket Bravery – Playable shapez 2 – Playable Skull and Bones – Playable SNK VS. CAPCOM SVC CHAOS – Playable SPY×ANYA: Operation Memories – Playable Squirrel with a Gun – Verified Sword of Convallaria – Unsupported Teeny Tiny Trains – Playable The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker – Playable THE LAST BLADE – Playable Tomba! Special Edition – Playable Wild Bastards – Verified Yakuza 4 Remastered – Verified Steam Deck Game Sales, Discounts, and Specials The highlights of the week when it comes to sales and discounts are the Steam Rhythm Fest until August 26th with discounts on games like Crypt of the Necrodancer, Trombone Champ, and DJ MAX RESPECT V, and also the new Capcom Resident Evil Humble Bundle. Next week, following the Rhythm Fest, the Isometric Games Sale begins with many discounts from publishers and developers including Owlcat Games. Check out a trailer for the event below: That’s all for this edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. As usual, you can read all our past and future Steam Deck coverage here. If you have any feedback for this feature or what else you’d like to see us do around the Steam Deck, let us know in the comments below. I hope you all have a great day, and thanks for reading.

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 23rd, 2024. It’s the end of another week, and …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Round-Up: ‘Thermonuclear’, ‘Magnus Trilogy’, Plus Today’s Other New Releases and Sales"

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 23rd, 2024. It’s the end of another week, and we’re creeping ever closer to the end of the month and the season. In the world of Switch, sometimes a slow Thursday means a big Friday. Well, not this time. We’ve got a few new releases to look at amidst the junk, plus the usual lists of new sales and expiring discounts for you to consider. Things will be busier next week, but only a little. September can’t come soon enough. Let’s finish up the week! Select New Releases Operation: Polygon Storm ($14.99) A relatively basic real-time base defense game, just from a slightly different point of view than the one we usually see in this genre. I wouldn’t exactly call it visually impressive, but the destructible environments do add a little spice to an otherwise straightforward take. Not my genre of choice, but if it’s yours then you might want to give it a closer look. Thermonuclear ($7.99) Set in a distant future where a third World War has broken out, Thermonuclear casts you as a member of a megacorporation out to claim victory. You have access to a powerful new technology called Thermonuclear, an advanced combat cyborg. Guide your cyborg through procedurally-generated stages, engaging in turn-based strategic combat with the enemies found within. You’ll upgrade your cyborg as you go, and if you’re lucky you might just be able to take down the Allfather AI and save the world. If not? Well, you can always try again. Seems decent from what I’ve seen so far. Magnus Trilogy ($8.99) A series of visual novels in the Magnus series, bundled together in one simple package. These lean more towards the bizarre and psychological end of the curve. At the very least, you can’t argue with the price per title here. Not for everyone, but some will get a lot out of this. Sales (North American eShop, US Prices) An intriguing assortment of new sales, but a short enough list that I’ll mainly leave it to you. What I will mention is that PowerWash Simulator is not only featuring a discount on the main game, but also all of its paid DLC packs. Now is the time to stock up if you don’t already own them. In the weekend outbox, Team 17’s got a round of titles finishing up their sales. They’ll certainly be back on sale again soon, but maybe you want them now? Choices to make. Select New Sales Botany Manor ($22.49 from $24.99 until 8/29) Puddle Knights ($2.99 from $9.99 until 8/30) Batman: The Telltale Series ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/30) Batman: The Enemy Within ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/30) Fuga: Melodies of Steel ($19.99 from $39.99 until 9/2) Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 ($23.99 from $39.99 until 9/2) Kingdom Come Deliverance ($29.99 from $49.99 until 9/4) Outward Definitive ($23.99 from $39.99 until 9/4) Metro 2033 Redux ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/4) Metro Last Light Redux ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/4) Kona II: Brume ($11.99 from $29.99 until 9/4) F1 Manager 2024 ($27.99 from $34.99 until 9/5) Adventure Bar Story ($15.99 from $19.99 until 9/5) Anomaly Agent ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/5) Ambition: A Minuet in Power ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/6) Skulls of the Shogun ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/6) Galak-Z The Void Deluxe ($2.99 from $14.99 until 9/6) PowerWash Simulator ($17.49 from $24.99 until 9/6) Fear Effect Sedna ($1.99 from $19.99 until 9/6) Suhoshin ($4.49 from $14.99 until 9/6) Ty the Tasmanian Tiger HD ($10.49 from $29.99 until 9/6) Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 4 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/6) Hampuzz ($3.49 from $6.99 until 9/11) Yeah! You Want Those Games, Right? ($7.99 from $9.99 until 9/12) Carry Onward ($2.99 from $4.99 until 9/12) Abyss of the Sacrifice ($11.99 from $39.99 until 9/12) Starward Rogue ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/12) Commandos 2: HD Remaster ($14.99 from $19.99 until 9/12) Commandos 3: HD Remaster ($20.99 from $29.99 until 9/12) Incredible Mandy ($5.99 from $14.99 until 9/12) 4 The Elements ($7.19 from $8.99 until 9/12) Lunar Axe ($3.99 from $4.99 until 9/12) TMNT Wrath of the Mutants ($17.99 from $29.99 until 9/12) Frogue ($3.99 from $4.99 until 9/12) Toridama2: Brave Challenge ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/12) The Fall of Elena Temple ($2.39 from $2.99 until 9/12) Omega Labyrinth Life ($17.99 from $59.99 until 9/12) Funghi Explosion ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/12) A Dark Room ($2.79 from $6.99 until 9/12) Samurai Maiden ($29.99 from $59.99 until 9/12) Beholgar ($2.99 from $9.99 until 9/12) Raccoo Venture ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/12) Time Rift ($2.99 from $9.99 until 9/12) Doomsday Hunter ($8.99 from $17.99 until 9/12) Super Trunko Go ($2.99 from $9.99 until 9/12) WorldNeverland: Elnea Kingdom ($8.99 from $29.99 until 9/12) Zero Tolerance Collection ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/12) The Tale of Clouds & Wind ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/12) Sales Ending This Weekend All Noobs Must Die ($1.99 from $12.99 until 8/24) Demon Turf ($12.49 from $24.99 until 8/24) Full Metal Sergeant ($7.99 from $9.99 until 8/24) Mystic Academy: Escape Room ($5.49 from $10.99 until 8/24) Right and Down and Dice ($5.99 from $11.99 until 8/24) Venari Escape Room Adventure ($4.19 from $5.99 until 8/24) Blasphemous ($6.24 from $24.99 until 8/25) Blast Brigade vs. The Evil Legion ($11.99 from $19.99 until 8/25) DREDGE ($16.24 from $24.99 until 8/25) Overcooked 2 ($6.24 from $24.99 until 8/25) Rack and Slay ($5.09 from $5.99 until 8/25) That’s all for today and this week, friends. We’ll be back next week with more new games, more sales, more reviews, and some news. I have a lot of things I need to get done this weekend, so wish me luck in doing them. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday, and as always, thanks for reading!

For our next dive into the retro games available on Switch, we’re going all the way back to 1989. Er, …

Continue reading "The 10 Best Game Boy and Game Boy Color Games on Nintendo Switch, Plus 5 We’d Like to See – SwitchArcade Special"

For our next dive into the retro games available on Switch, we’re going all the way back to 1989. Er, and then to 1998. We’re heading back to the old monochrome beast and its colorful successor: the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. While there is a robust selection of games from these handhelds in the Nintendo Switch Online app, we’re instead looking at those games that dare to exist in the wilds of the Switch eShop. We’ve got ten of our favorites here, plus five more games that we’d like to see. No particular order, of course. Time to Play It Loud! Shantae ($9.99) Once a genuine scarcity that would cost you hundreds of dollars to get your hands on in any legal capacity, Shantae is now quite readily available in digital form. This game is considerably rougher than its sequels, but it pushes the Game Boy Color hardware in a lot of interesting ways, providing a platformer with a bit more to it than the average Game Boy hop-and-bop. Wow, I haven’t seen the term “hop-and-bop" in something like twenty-five years. Well, there you go. Shantae: it’s pretty good fun. Trip World DX ($19.99) Here’s another game that would have cost you a pretty penny to play officially until very recently. Trip World is an interesting platformer from Sunsoft that offers up a short but sweet experience. This release of the game does a full-on colorization job while also including a number of extras to dig into. It’s an excellent way to play this quirky, charming tale. Final Fantasy Legend II – Collection of SaGa Final Fantasy Legend ($19.99) Time to wade into the compilations, and we’ll start with one that is all Game Boy games: Collection of SaGa. You get all three games in the Final Fantasy Legend series here, and they’re all really good handheld RPGs. I’m picking out Final Fantasy Legend II to highlight here, simply because I think it’s the best of the three. It has plenty of the weird mechanics that make SaGa games so interesting, but feels more well-rounded and approachable than the first game. Probably the best turn-based RPG on the system pre-Pokemon. Final Fantasy Adventure – Collection of Mana ($39.99) Going hand in hand with the Final Fantasy Legend games, Final Fantasy Adventure is the game that kicked off the long-running Mana series. As such, you’ll find it in the Collection of Mana with the two Super NES follow-ups. Again, all games worth playing. This action-RPG provided an excellent alternative to the superb Link’s Awakening on the system, with a snappy pace and some surprisingly ambitious storytelling. It’s been remade a couple of times, but there’s nothing quite like the original. TMNT III: Radical Rescue – TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection ($39.99) Konami did some great Game Boy games, and it has made a handful of them available through its various collections. The Cowabunga Collection has all three of its original Game Boy TMNT games included, and I think they all have their merits. The open-ended, pseudo-Metroidvania TMNT III: Radical Rescue is the pick of the bunch, though. Plenty of action as you would expect, but the additional layers from exploring the world, rescuing your brothers, and finding all the upgrades makes this one you can really sink your teeth into. Operation C – Contra Anniversary Collection ($19.99) After the somewhat tepid attempt to bring Castlevania to the Game Boy via Castlevania: The Adventure, one would be forgiven for thinking there was little hope the tense run-and-gun action of Contra would survive the transition. Surprisingly, Operation C turned out to be really awesome. Sure, you can’t play with another player. Strictly a solo affair. But it’s fast, fun, and challenging in the way you want a Contra game to be. Perhaps there was hope for Konami action-platformers on the handheld after all! Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge – Castlevania Anniversary Collection ($19.99) How’s that for foreshadowing? Yes, after mostly biffing the first Game Boy Castlevania game, Konami turned things around in a big way with Belmont’s Revenge. This is an excellent Castlevania game, one that easily hangs with the home console entries even if it can’t quite surpass them. Given it was sandwiched by some less-than-great games, it’s possible many players skipped out on this one thinking it would be the same. If you haven’t played it yet, here’s a handy way to do that. Ninja JaJaMaru: The Great World Adventure – Ninja JaJaMaru: Retro Collection ($14.99) Ninja JaJaMaru: The Great World Adventure isn’t the best game in this bunch by any means, but I think it’s an important representation of some of the more off-beat titles that filled out the library around the releases from huge publishers. Some proper work was put into this reissue, too. It has a new localization and has been colorized, giving a nice spit-shine to a game that might not have topped anyone’s lists for such an effort. While The Great World Adventure is the only Game Boy game in the lot, this collection is an interesting one to poke at in general. Xtreme Sports ($9.99) WayForward’s most famous wholly-original property on the Game Boy Color is obviously Shantae, but Xtreme Sports is no slouch either. Essentially a collection of sports mini-games tied together with an open world, Xtreme Sports is a lot better than it has any right to be. The graphics are good, the gameplay is great for pick-up-and-play grazing, and those looking to completely finish everything will find a stiff challenge ahead of them. The Rescue of Princess Blobette – A Boy and His Blob Retro Collection ($9.99) Another game that is here more for its unique feel than anything, The Rescue of Princess Blobette brings the home computer-esque puzzle-adventure gameplay of the NES original to the small screen quite well. In some ways it’s a more polished game than its predecessor, delivered in a more compact and well-paced form. If you like games that take some figuring out due to occasional bits of opacity, you’ll love this one. And… 5 Game Boy and Game Boy Color Games We’d Like to See on Switch Batman: The Video Game Yes, it’s kind of weird that Batman is using a gun the whole way through this early Game Boy action game. But it’s also weird that Keaton’s Batman gleefully murders bad guys, so let’s just call it a sign of the times. The important thing is that this is another really great Sunsoft Batman game, and while I know the odds of any of these movie-based Batman games ever resurfacing are next to nil, I will never stop asking. Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal I’m generally avoiding games that I think might show up on Nintendo Switch Online at some point, which means most first-party Nintendo stuff is out. I really hope I’m wrong about this, but something tells me that while the Pokemon spin-offs will probably keep appearing in the subscription service, the mainline games won’t. Thus, I formally request the ability to purchase and play these fine Game Boy RPGs on my Switch. Gradius: The Interstellar Assault I waffled between including this or the excellent R-Type DX, but ultimately we have R-Type Dimensions on Switch to scratch that itch, whereas Gradius: The Interstellar Assault only exists in Game Boy form. For a platform whose display should have made it terrible for shooting games, the Game Boy had a good handful of excellent ones. This was Konami’s second kick at the Gradius can on the platform, and while that first one was fine this one really kicked things into gear. Honestly, I just kind of want a Gradius collection in the vein of Konami’s Contra, Castlevania, and TMNT ones. If that happens, this game ought to be in there. Metal Gear Solid Lots of Konami in this article, I’m coming to realize. Anyway, this is arguably the best third-party Game Boy Color exclusive. Just about everything that was great about the PlayStation Metal Gear Solid was somehow squeezed into this completely original adventure. This game completely blew me away at the time thanks to that fidelity, and it still impresses me today. Yes, much of the template was laid down in the MSX2 Metal Gear 2, but it’s cool to see something like this on a Game Boy Color. Maybe this will show up in the next Metal Gear collection? Dragon Warrior Monsters Pokemon spawned a lot of imitators, but to be fair to Dragon Quest it had monster-catching elements in the main games before Pokemon arrived. So, you know. We forgive you, King. Dragon Warrior Monsters is one of the better Game Boy games inspired by Pokemon‘s success, and I think it would be terrific to see it available on Switch. And you know what? It is available on Switch, but only in Japan. Come on, Square Enix. Just drop the Western ROM in the wrapper and help some Dragon Quest fans out! And that’s the list, friends. Are there any Game Boy or Game Boy Color games you enjoy on the Switch? Any you would like to see? Feel free to sound off down in the comments and let us know what you’re thinking! It’s always interesting to hear the opinions of others on this kind of thing. As always, thanks for reading!

Playtonic Friends just announced that Victory Heat Rally from developer Skydevilpalm is coming to mobile through Crunchyroll and also on …

Continue reading "‘Victory Heat Rally’ From Skydevilpalm and Playtonic Friends Is Coming to PC and Crunchyroll for Mobile on October 3rd"

Playtonic Friends just announced that Victory Heat Rally from developer Skydevilpalm is coming to mobile through Crunchyroll and also on Steam this October. Victory Heat Rally is an arcade racer with stylish visuals. I aims ot be a 2.5D pixel perfect racer featuring 12 drivers, solo play, multiplayer, a world tour mode, and more. It also features tons of customization across paint jobs, parts, and more. Playtonic Friends also confirms that Victory Heat Rally will be playable on Switch at Gamescom. Watch the Victory Heat Rally release date announcement trailer for mobile through Crunchyroll and Steam below: While the mobile page isn’t up yet, you can wishlist Victory Heat Rally on Steam here. Victory Heat Rally is confirmed to have 4 player splitscreen, but I’m unsure if this is just Steam or also on mobile. If you have an active Crunchyroll Mega or Ultimate membership right now, you will be able to play Victory Heat Rally when it releases at no additional cost on October 3rd. This is definitely one of the better Crunchyroll Game Vault announcements as it is a day one release alongside PC. I’m excited to check it out. What do you think of today’s announcement and the Crunchyroll Game Vault releases so far?

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 22nd, 2024. In today’s article, we continue to bear …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Round-Up: ‘Rise Eterna War’, ‘As Per My Last Email’, Plus Today’s Other Releases and Sales"

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 22nd, 2024. In today’s article, we continue to bear witness to the slow yet clear decline of Switch releases in this eighth year. It’s Thursday, but we don’t even have a dozen games worth mentioning today. Even among the ones we have, there isn’t anything that is jumping out. Sure, it’s August. Things are going to pick up soon. But it’s still odd to see such dry Thursdays, even at this time of the year. At least the sales are healthy. Let’s have a look at all of that! Select New Releases Verne – The Shape of Fantasy ($14.99) Play as Jules Verne, who has been brought into a world sprung from his own imagination, in this adventure game. He’ll join forces with Captain Nemo as they try to fend off an evil force determined to destroy all imagination, which I reckon would be pretty bad. Solve puzzles, engage in dialogue, and enjoy the story. An interesting premise, and that’s a big part of the battle when it comes to this genre. Rise Eterna War ($9.99) A prequel story to Rise Eterna, this looks to be a base defense-style game to me. Build your team and use your limited resources to deploy them against the enemy. Seems fine for what it is, even if what it is isn’t terribly novel. With more than forty stages to play, it will keep you busy for a few days at least. As Per My Last Email ($6.29) One of those stress relief games. You’re an office worker and you have a sledgehammer. You can break pretty much everything in the office. Go for it. Play the ten-level campaign mode, or enjoy the infinite Mayhem Mode as you like. The affordable price is about right for the experience on offer. Ring Sculptors ($14.99) A choice-based narrative adventure where you pick from nine different characters and try to survive a trip to the Ring Sculptors’ base. On top of making choices at various points, there are also stats to manage, dice rolls to try to luck out on, and plenty of endings to uncover as a result. Argol – Kronoss’ Castle ($8.99) This is a side-scrolling action-platformer in the vein of games like Castlevania or Valis. You play as a sword-wielding warrior on a quest to vanquish evil. Or at least I presume that’s the story, anyway. All I know is that there is a fellow named Kronoss and his castle must be stormed. A decent game with a pretty lively soundtrack backing it. Nothing I’d run down the street yelling about, but it might scratch an itch. Ataraxie ($4.99) An affordable Metroidvania-style game starring a mummy. It’s really rough around the edges, but for the price you might not mind. I at least appreciate the novel protagonist. Shame about the ropey collision detection, though. Arcade Archives The Ninja Kids ($7.99) Taito’s 1990 beat ’em up featuring puppet ninjas is the latest Arcade Archives release. Up to four players can join in on the fun via local multiplayer, and that’s probably the best way to enjoy this one. Even going alone, the wacky tone makes this an enjoyable game to play through. The mechanics aren’t as tight as in the better titles in this genre from Capcom or Konami, but there’s some charm in the janky nature of it all. Tales from Toyotoki: Arrival of the Witch ($29.99) Here’s a visual novel with some simulation elements. Maybe it isn’t right to call it a visual novel because of those elements? Forgive me if my choice of words isn’t on point. Your character ends up homeless on a mysterious island, and soon runs into a witch that is having some problems of her own. They decide to work together, and they’re eventually joined by several others. Can this rag-tag group survive Toyotoki Island and grow along the way? Play to find out! I should write box copy, I swear. EGGCONSOLE Star Trader PC-8801mkIISR ($6.49) When you think of Nihon Falcom, you definitely think of… shoot ’em ups? Okay, maybe not. But this one did happen back in the day, and as you might expect it’s not an orthodox take by any means. There are adventure game scenes mashed in with the shooting action here, and your skill at handling trading will determine your available funds for upgrades. Naturally, this is all in Japanese. EGGCONSOLE and all that. If I think it’s even remotely playable for someone who can’t understand the language, I’ll do a review soon. Sales (North American eShop, US Prices) Another sale for 1000xRESIST. Buy 1000xRESIST. Maybe Freedom Planet 2 and Haiku, the Robot too, depending on your tastes. The latest sales from id Software and Inti-Creates are finishing up today, so fill your boots while you can. Check those lists! Select New Sales 1000xRESIST ($15.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Times & Galaxy ($17.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Super Mutant Alien Assault ($1.99 from $9.99 until 8/28) The Pale Beyond ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Suzerain ($4.49 from $17.99 until 8/28) Paradise Killer ($5.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Genesis Noir ($4.49 from $14.99 until 8/28) Citizen Sleeper ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Haiku, The Robot ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Ebenezer & the Invisible World ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/29) Freedom Planet 2 ($18.74 from $24.99 until 9/5) Deadcraft ($5.99 from $19.99 until 9/5) Silent Hope ($13.99 from $39.99 until 9/5) Untitled Goose Game ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/5) Corpse Party ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/5) Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed ($14.99 from $29.99 until 9/5) Wing of Darkness ($5.99 from $29.99 until 9/5) SCHiM ($17.49 from $24.99 until 9/5) Marchen Forest ($6.99 from $34.99 until 9/5) Violet Wisteria ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/6) Oops, I Said Yes?! ($20.99 from $29.99 until 9/9) even if TEMPEST Dawning Connections ($34.99 from $49.99 until 9/9) Pirate Bloopers ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/11) Sales Ending Tomorrow, August 23rd Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 ($14.99 from $29.99 until 8/23) Berserk Boy ($14.00 from $20.00 until 8/23) Blaster Master Zero 3 ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/23) Bloodstained Curse of the Moon 2 ($5.99 from $14.99 until 8/23) CounterAttack: Uprising ($4.49 from $14.99 until 8/23) Dead End City ($9.89 from $14.99 until 8/23) DOOM ($7.99 from $39.99 until 8/23) DOOM 3 ($3.99 from $9.99 until 8/23) DOOM 64 ($1.99 from $4.99 until 8/23) DOOM Eternal ($9.99 from $39.99 until 8/23) Dragon Marked for Death ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/23) Fireside ($11.99 from $14.99 until 8/23) For The Warp ($1.99 from $17.99 until 8/23) Froggie ($2.99 from $4.99 until 8/23) Gal Guardians: Demon Purge ($13.74 from $24.99 until 8/23) Gunvolt Records: Cychronicle ($10.49 from $14.99 until 8/23) Little Kitty, Big City ($19.99 from $24.99 until 8/23) Luminous Avenger iX 2 ($12.49 from $24.99 until 8/23) PuzzMiX ($2.99 from $3.99 until 8/23) QUAKE ($3.99 from $9.99 until 8/23) Quake II ($3.99 from $9.99 until 8/23) Sally Face ($8.99 from $14.99 until 8/23) TES V: Skyrim ($29.99 from $59.99 until 8/23) TES V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition ($34.99 from $69.99 until 8/23) Umbraclaw ($17.49 from $24.99 until 8/23) Wolfenstein II: TNC ($5.99 from $39.99 until 8/23) Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze in the Deepblue ($20.39 from $29.99 until 8/23) That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with the remaining releases for the week, plus whatever sales and major news items roll in during the course of the day. We’ve been getting so many thunderstorms lately around here. Hot and sunny during the day, stormy in the evening. Very odd, and not conducive to the laundry schedule. Oh well. I hope you all have a thrilling Thursday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Each and every day new mobile games are hitting the App Store, and so each week we put together a …

Continue reading "Out Now: ‘Punch Club 2: Fast Forward’, ‘Labyrinth: The Wizard’s Cat’, ‘TENSEI’, ‘Vampire: The Masquerade – Shadows of New York’, ‘Auto Pirates: Captains Cup’, ‘Jenny LeClue – Detectivu’ and More"

Each and every day new mobile games are hitting the App Store, and so each week we put together a big old list of all the best new releases of the past seven days. Back in the day the App Store would showcase the same games for a week, and then refresh those features each Thursday. Because of that developers got into the habit of releasing their games throughout Wednesday or very early Thursday in order to hopefully get one of those coveted features spots. Nowadays the App Store refreshes constantly, so the need for everyone to release all on the same day has diminished. Still, we’ve kept our weekly Wednesday night format as for years that’s the time people knew to check TouchArcade for the list of new games. And so without further ado please check out the full list of this week’s new games below, and let us know in the comments section which games you’ll be picking up! Auto Pirates: Captains Cup (Free) iTunes Description Auto Pirates is a competitive player vs world strategy game where you choose your crew, equip your ship and battle, earning plunder based on your global rank. Earn plunder and collect trophies for your exploits on the seas and create the perfect pirate hideout for your crew. Combine pirates from four fantasy factions with magical relics and a multitude of ships to optimize your strategy or create crazy hijinks. You can shoot, board, blast, burn, sink or push your opponents to get the upper hand and go for the top 1% prize. Forum Thread: Auto Pirates: Captains Cup (by Featherweight Games) Baron of Blood (Free) iTunes Description Baron of Blood is a 2D pixelart platformer game in which you have to fight your way through numerous levels and defeat different monsters. Collect coins to buy powerful items. 24 different levels in 5 different zones and boss fights await you and offer an exciting and varied gameplay. Hidden diamonds and various achievements will keep you busy even longer after you finish the game. Forum Thread: Baron of Blood (by Castle Village Games) Cube Farm (Free) iTunes Description -no ads or pay-to-win mechanics -quick sessions, break from scrolling -endless progression with prestige bonuses -time slows at higher layers, with larger harvests -dynamic produce market with supply and demand -pets to collect, feed, train, and battle Forum Thread: Cube Farm (by Tarot Focus) Dadish Collection ($8.99) iTunes Description Three great games in one! He’s a dad AND a radish! Join Dadish on his quest to rescue his missing kids in three classic platforming adventures. Dadish Collection combines Dadish, Dadish 2 and Dadish 3 in one rad package. Forum Thread: Dadish Collection (by Tomas Young) Demon Squad (Free) iTunes Description A long time ago, the demons had lost the war and scattered away. “Now, they shall gather for the revival of the Demon Lord and the demon race" 1. Team idle RPG that takes strategy to new levels Train 3 demons to form the ultimate squad! Auto or manual control. Utilize both options to conquer the battlefield! Forum Thread: Demon Squad (by SuperPlanet) Fish Hero! (Free) iTunes Description Discover a world as a fish outta water! A physics, parkour adventure! Launch yourself up a collection of biomes as a lonely fish to become Fish Hero! Explore a unique world as a fish out of water. Good Luck! Forum Thread: Fish Hero! (by Henry Mead) Going Up ($1.99) iTunes Description Going Up is a strategy game where you control groups of lifts in a skyscraper to deliver passengers before they lose their patience. Optimise elevator movement as you deal with a fussy cast of passengers—impatient CEOs, mean soldiers and confused tourists. There is no one solution to elevator optimisation: every stage will have its unique bottlenecks, passengers and problems. Forum Thread: Going Up (by Dylan Kwok) Jenny LeClue – Detectivu ($6.99) iTunes Description Jenny LeClue is a thrilling story of mystery, adventure and growing up. Set in the sleepy town of Arthurton, the game is filled with memorable, complex characters and rendered in a unique aesthetic. Embrace the choosiness and shape the metanarrative. You are not the only guiding hand shaping Jenny’s destiny, but your choices will help her unravel the tangled mystery and become the detective she was born to be. Forum Thread: Jenny LeClue (by Mografi) Labyrinth: The Wizard’s Cat ($1.99) iTunes Description Enter the dungeon and help the master wizard to find his missing cat in this oldschool dungeon crawler game with nice retro pixel art graphics. Make your way deep into the dungeon. You will explore levels filled with challenging enemies and various traps & puzzles. Discover powerful magical items and weapons and fight your way through hordes of enemies in this real time combat dungeon crawler. Forum Thread: Labyrinth: The Wizard’s Cat (by Anders Gustavsson) LEVELS II (Free) iTunes Description This is a dungeon where treasures slumber. Level up and strengthen adventurers, defeat monsters blocking your path, and gather treasures. # New Feature: Tile Appearance Rules In previous LEVELS, the color and level of appearing tiles were determined randomly. However, in this game, the next appearing tile is determined based on how the player moves the tiles. Forum Thread: LEVELS II (by flow Incorporated) Lyra 2 (Free) iTunes Description Lyra 2 is the sequel to a simple, relaxing, minimalist puzzle game that offers endless levels. The only goal is to clear the level, there are no timers, no achievements, no distractions, just the number of cleared levels going up. Are you looking for a game that you can just relax and play without thinking too much, a game that you can play anytime, anywhere? Lyra 2 is here for you. Forum Thread: Lyra 2 (by Cold Hours) Overboss ($3.99) iTunes Description Become a villain in this retro-inspired board game. Draft terrain tiles, recruit monsters, build your dungeon, and become the OVERBOSS! Forum Thread: Overboss (by Goblinz Studio) Phantom Rose 2 Sapphire (Free) iTunes Description Unique roguelike deckbuilding adventure. Explore, fight, and collect powerful cards. ◆ A Special Card Adventure Phantom Rose is an indie game by solo developer & artist makaroll. Craft your deck with cards obtained by defeating Phantoms. There’s no random card draw during battle. Instead, manage your card’s cooldown to defeat your foe swiftly and efficiently. Forum Thread: Phantom Rose 2 Sapphire (by Studio Maka) Punch Club 2: Fast Forward (Free) iTunes Description You’ve spent your whole life living in the confines of your overbearing mothers garage, your father mysteriously vanished before you were born. But hey, you had plenty of time to work out and dream about the wonders of the world. Sucks to be you though, people eat slime, corruption is rife and everyone wants to fight you… But maybe you can find your father and become the ‘dark fist’ people whisper about, somehow you could actually be humanity’s savior, the one who uncovers the super secret secrets of the Goodness Corporation… Or not. It’s a choose your own adventure, stay in the garage if you want. Forum Thread: Punch Club 2: Fast Forward (by TinyBuild) TENSEI ($2.99) iTunes Description An experience of self-discovery set in soothing Zen landscapes. “Tensei" is an ultra-casual endless action game. Leap and fall over and over in the style of a brush flowing across paper, and go on a relaxed journey into the sky. Leave the hectic routine of life behind for a chance to enjoy this deeply immersive experience. Forum Thread: TENSEI (by NEURON AGE) Vampire: The Masquerade – Shadows of New York ($4.99) iTunes Description **Vampire: The Masquerade – Shadows of New York** is a visual novel set in the rich universe of Vampire: The Masquerade, and is the continuation of the story started in **Coteries of New York.** You don’t need to have played **Coteries** to appreciate and understand the story behind **Shadows of New York.** While Coteries was a general introduction to the world depicted in the 5th Edition of the hit tabletop role-playing game, Shadows presents a more personal and unique tale. Forum Thread: Vampire: The Masquerade – Shadows of New York (by Plug In Digital)

Back in October last year, Feral Interactive announced that cross platform multiplayer was in the works for Company of Heroes …

Continue reading "‘Company of Heroes’ Mobile Multiplayer Beta Announced for Next Week on Android, Full Update Coming to iOS and Switch As Well"

Back in October last year, Feral Interactive announced that cross platform multiplayer was in the works for Company of Heroes ($14.99) on iOS, Android, and Switch. If you’ve not played it yet on mobile or Switch, read my iOS here and Switch review here. Today, Feral Interactive confirmed that the first Company of Heroes mobile multiplayer beta will take place only on Android from August 29th until September 3rd. A full FAQ is here covering what you need to know about the test. Watch the Company of Heroes Collection Switch trailer below: The FAQ also confirms that the update with full multiplayer will be shipping simultaneously on Switch, iOS, and Android using learnings from the Android test. The test is only on Android since the Google Play Store has a better functionality for opt-in betas. As of now, the multiplayer update has no release date. If you’ve not kept up with the game on Switch and mobile, read my interview with Feral Interactive here. If you’ve not bought the base game yet on mobile, Company of Heroes is available on the App Store for here and on Google Play here. Check out our forum thread for it here and the official website for the mobile conversion here. Have you played Company of Heroes on mobile or Switch yet and will you be checking out the Android beta next week?

Following yesterday’s big Disney Dreamlight Valley update on Apple Arcade and other platforms, a few more notable games on Apple’s …

Continue reading "Apple Arcade Weekly Round-Up: New Content and Feature Updates Are Now Live for TMNT Splintered Fate, Temple Run: Legends, Vampire Survivors, Simon’s Cat, and More"

Following yesterday’s big Disney Dreamlight Valley update on Apple Arcade and other platforms, a few more notable games on Apple’s gaming service have gotten big updates. Alongside its standalone release, Vampire Survivors+ got a new stage, secrets, character skins, and more. Read about this update here. TMNT Splintered Fate on Apple Arcade now supports couch co-op on the save device and also online co-op with cross platform support. This is great since it is also coming to Steam following its Switch release. Temple Run: Legends adds support for a new Outfit system with the ability to unlock new cosmetics, powerful traits, and more. Outlanders’ Volume VI of the Outlanders Chronicles: Wandering Stars is now live with six new playable leaders and more. Simon’s Cat – Story Time has a Summer Search Party on for daily rewards when you find beach balls in the gardens. SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit concludes the latest Tales of the Deep in this week’s update. The final notable update of the week is Disney Coloring World+ bringing in the Muppets in a new coloring pack featuring Kermit, Fozzie, and more. With the updates done, check out our forum threads for Outlanders here, SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit here, Simon’s Cat – Story Time here, Disney Coloring World+ here, and TMNT Splintered Fate here. Head over to our dedicated Apple Arcade forum for discussions on the new and older releases on the service. What do you think of the state of Apple Arcade right now and this week’s updates?

Nintendo just announced that Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (Free) is shutting down on November 28th at 3 PM UTC. Animal …

Continue reading "‘Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp’ Shutting Down This November, New Paid Game Set To Release With Save Transfer"

Nintendo just announced that Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (Free) is shutting down on November 28th at 3 PM UTC. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp debuted on iOS and Android nearly seven years ago, and it has since received multiple content and feature updates. From November 28th, you will no longer be able to play this version of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, but the team is developing a version of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp for mobile with save carrying over. This will be a flat-fee paid version of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. Social aspects from the original game will not be available here. Details for the new paid app are here. A full release date announcement for the paid app will be made around October. Check out the full announcement below: We have an important announcement for everyone playing the Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp app. Please see the following page for details as well.https://t.co/JGacPgXFyo pic.twitter.com/RHZt5u7SPU — Pocket_camp (@Pocket_Camp) August 22, 2024 While this is good news for those playing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp since we rarely see games like this get paid standalone releases, I can’t help but be annoyed that Nintendo didn’t do something like this for Dragalia Lost. That game deserved so much better. At least I still have the music from it. Either way, you can play Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on iOS and Android right now ahead of it shutting down in November. I’m curious to see how the paid version feels when it launches. Check out our forum thread for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp here. Do you still play Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp regularly and what do you think of today’s news?

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 22nd, 2024. In today’s article, we’ve got a handful …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Round-Up: ‘Mika and the Witch’s Mountain’, Plus Today’s Other Releases and Sales"

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 22nd, 2024. In today’s article, we’ve got a handful of new releases to check out. That’s unusual for a Wednesday, but I suppose it makes up for the slowness of the last couple of days. After summarizing those, it’s time for the lists of the latest sales and expiring discounts. Star Wars and Capcom, if one must make long stories short. Let’s get to those games! Select New Releases Mika and the Witch’s Mountain ($19.99) If you’ve ever been watching Ghibli’s classic Kiki’s Delivery Service and felt like playing a video game version, you might be into what Mika and the Witch’s Mountain is offering. I mean, it isn’t Kiki, but it’s clearly inspired by it. You play as an apprentice witch who has to fly around on her broom to deliver all kinds of packages to the various residents of a mountain town. The game has a nice, colorful vibe and I’m certainly going to be investigating it further to see if it lives up to its initial potential. My Lovely Empress ($19.99) A lovely wife, a lovely daughter, and now a lovely empress? Phew. In this game you play as an Emperor who reigns over a massive empire. Seems like you’ve got it all, but your wife passes away and suddenly none of it matters anymore. Still, you’ve got to keep things running. This is a simulation game of sorts, but one with a heavy narrative bent that will eventually lead to you having to make a critical choice. The previous games in the series have been fascinating despite their rough edges, and I expect this will deliver in the same way. Cyber Mission ($9.99) I’d call this a run-and-gun action game, but it’s probably better classified as a fly-and-gun action game. You play as a cyber trooper who is on a mission to destroy hostile alien forces. If you don’t feel like being a one-trooper army, you can grab a friend or family member for some local co-op multiplayer. Looks like a pretty good time for those enjoy things like S.C.A.T. or Contra, and reasonably priced to boot. Mangavania 2 ($4.99) More Mangavania for those who want it. A gentle reminder that these games are not Metroidvanias, just linear stage-based platformers with very light exploratory elements. If that’s your thing, this does that. Not terribly well, mind you. But it does it. That’s all I’ve got to say about that. White Eternal ($6.49) After his friend goes missing during the harsh winter, Simon sets out from his mountain town to try to find out what happened to them. This is a turn-based RPG where you explore a land cursed to harsh winters (Winnipeg?), seeking out allies and battle monsters as you go. You can actually get in battles where you have as many as sixteen party members. Neat! The description promises over twenty hours of gameplay, which would be quite a lot of game for the price. Sales (North American eShop, US Prices) Bounty Hunter is already on sale? Wow. Well, that’s good news for Star Wars fans, who likely already own everything else in that sale. We also have a good selection of the usual Capcom stuff, a sale on the Tomb Raider remasters, and a very deep discount on the Switch version of Heads Up!. Over in the outbox, don’t forget to stock up on Picross. Everyone needs more Picross! Have a look through both lists. Select New Sales Star Wars Bounty Hunter ($14.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Star Wars Battlefront Collection ($28.00 from $35.01 until 8/28) Star Wars The Force Unleashed ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Star Wars Republic Commando ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/28) Star Wars Episode I Racer ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/28) Star Wars Jedi Academy ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/28) Star Wars Jedi Outcast ($4.99 from $9.99 until 8/28) Star Wars KotOR ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/28) Star Wars KotOR II: Sith Lords ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/28) Tomb Raider I-III Remastered ($22.49 from $29.99 until 8/28) MythForce ($14.99 from $29.99 until 8/28) Heads Up! Phones Down Edition ($1.99 from $39.99 until 8/28) Street Fighter 30th Anniversary ($9.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) Ultra Street Fighter II TFC ($19.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Capcom Fighting Collection ($15.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Capcom Fighting Bundle ($19.99 from $59.99 until 9/10) Monster Hunter Generations Ult. ($9.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak ($19.99 from $59.99 until 9/10) Resident Evil Revelations ($7.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Resident Evil Revelations 2 ($7.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Resident Evil 0 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Resident Evil ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Resident Evil 4 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Resident Evil 5 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Resident Evil 6 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Mega Man Legacy Collection ($7.99 from $14.99 until 9/10) Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 ($7.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Mega Man X Legacy Collection ($7.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 ($7.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Mega Man Zero/ZX Collection ($9.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) Mega Man Battle Network Collection ($29.99 from $59.99 until 9/10) Mega Man 11 ($9.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective ($19.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Shinsekai Into the Depths ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Okami HD ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Ghosts n Goblins Resurrection ($9.99 from $29.99 until 9/10) Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/10) Capcom Arcade Stadium Bundle ($15.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium Bundle ($15.99 from $39.99 until 9/10) Disney Dreamlight Valley Gold ($45.49 from $69.99 until 9/10) Sales Ending Tomorrow, August 22nd A Fragile Mind ($2.99 from $5.99 until 8/22) Bunny Garden ($19.54 from $22.99 until 8/22) Conjured Through Death ($2.24 from $14.99 until 8/22) Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania ($6.99 from $9.99 until 8/22) Football Manager 2024 Touch ($19.99 from $49.99 until 8/22) Hard Racing Stunt Car Driving ($1.99 from $4.99 until 8/22) Hero’s Hour ($8.99 from $17.99 until 8/22) Inkulinati ($17.49 from $24.99 until 8/22) Insurmountable ($18.74 from $24.99 until 8/22) Life of Delta ($6.99 from $19.99 until 8/22) Love on Leave ($12.49 from $24.99 until 8/22) Maid of the Dead ($15.99 from $19.99 until 8/22) Pickleball Smash ($7.99 from $39.99 until 8/22) Picross LogiartGrimoire ($15.99 from $19.99 until 8/22) Picross S Genesis & Master System ($7.99 from $9.99 until 8/22) Picross S8 ($7.99 from $9.99 until 8/22) Picross S9 ($7.99 from $9.99 until 8/22) Plantabi Little Garden ($4.54 from $6.99 until 8/22) Sentimental Death Loop ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/22) Smurfs Kart ($13.99 from $39.99 until 8/22) Starward Rogue Complete ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/22) Survivor Castaway Island ($11.99 from $29.99 until 8/22) The Night of the Rabbit ($14.99 from $19.99 until 8/22) Trinity Fusion ($14.99 from $19.99 until 8/22) Ultimate Racing 2D 2 ($6.69 from $9.99 until 8/22) You Suck at Parking ($6.79 from $19.99 until 8/22) That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with the big Thursday new releases. Should be some goodies in there. I hope, anyway. August. It’s rough. We’ll also have whatever sales and major news items that arrive during the course of the day. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Digital Extremes has released the next big update for Warframe in the form of The Lotus Eaters update. This update …

Continue reading "‘Warframe’ Prologue Quest for Warframe 1999 The Lotus Eaters and Sevagoth Prime Now Available"

Digital Extremes has released the next big update for Warframe in the form of The Lotus Eaters update. This update brings in a prologue quest for Warframe 1999 which is due this Winter. Alongside that update, Warframe also adds in Sevagoth Prime access from today. If you’ve not played Warframe in a while, The Lotus Eaters is the game’s next story beat available a free narrative chapter. As for Sevagoth Prime access, this includes cosmetics, the Epitaph Prime weapon, and much more. You can collect the required blueprints to craft Sevagoth Prime for free or buy it from the Warframe Marketplace. Digital Extremes also confirms new Jade Shadows TennoGen with a deluxe Ares Skin for Warframe Styanax, the Rhodora Syadana backpiece, and more. Check out the Warframe patch notes here and key art for the update below: Check out Sevagoth Prime art below: Watch the newest game trailer below: If you’ve not played Warframe in a while, read my interview with Creative Director Rebecca Ford about Warframe Jade Shadows and more here. If you’d like to play Warframe on iOS now, you can get it on the App Store for iOS here. Check out the official Warframe Mobile iOS website here. You can pre-register or check out the Android website for the game here. You can also read my interview with Warframe Creative Director Rebecca Ford & Mobile Product Lead Jussi Elonen about the game, cross platform support, controls, and a lot more from launch here. I featured Warframe Mobile as one of the best mobile games of 2024 so far as well. What do you think of Warframe so far if you’ve played it on iOS and what would you like to see added in the next update?

Last week, Gameloft announced the next major and free Disney Dreamlight Valley update for PC and consoles alongside Disney Dreamlight …

Continue reading "‘Disney Dreamlight Valley’ Dapper Delights Update Now Available for Apple Arcade, Consoles, and PC"

Last week, Gameloft announced the next major and free Disney Dreamlight Valley update for PC and consoles alongside Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition () for Apple Arcade in the forming of the Dapper Delights update. This update has now gone live alongside Act III of A Rift in Time. A Rift in Time is the paid expansion for PC and consoles, but it is included in the Apple Arcade release. Today’s update brings in Tiana from Disney’s The Princess with you trying to help set up her own restaurant: Tiana’s Palace. A Rift in Time Act III brings in Rapunzel, EVE, Gaston, and Oswald joining in for a final confrontation with Jafar. Watch the new Disney Dreamlight Valley Dapper Delights update launch trailer below: If you’ve not gotten it yet, you can download Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition on Apple Arcade here. Read my review of Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition here. It is also available as a paid game with the expansion pass sold separately or in a bundle on all other platforms including Switch and Steam. It plays great on Steam Deck if you’re curious about that version. Check out the official website here for details on the expansion pass and more. Head over to our forum thread for Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition here. We also have a dedicated Apple Arcade forum for discussion on the service and every game included here. What do you think of Disney Dreamlight Valley if you’ve been playing it recently and will you be getting back for this update today?

Another mobile reveal from Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024 was the latest trailer for the open world dress up game …

Continue reading "Open World Dress Up Game ‘Infinity Nikki’ Gets New Trailer With Closed Beta Sign Ups Now Live, Pre-Registrations Also Available"

Another mobile reveal from Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024 was the latest trailer for the open world dress up game Infinity Nikki (Free) from developer Papergames. This was announced for mobile and PC a little while ago, and was also confirmed for PS5 which seems like the home for free to play games these days on the console side. The newest reveal for Infinity Nikki includes a trailer and also pre-registrations going live. The full game for Infinity Nikki will also have English voice over and the German localization is available for those to try out at the Gamescom showfloor. Sign-ups for the global Closed Beta Test are also now live. Watch the newest trailer for Infinity Nikki below: Infinity Nikki will launch with text support for English, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Japanese, Korean, German, French, Thai, Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Italian, and Indonesian. Audio support will be available for English, Chinese (Simplified), and Japanese. If you’d like to sign up for the closed beta, you can do so here. A release date has not been announced so treat the date listed on the App Store page as a placeholder for now. You can pre-order Infinity Nikki on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. Pre-registration for console is not live yet. As a different premise than usual for an open world game, I’m curious to try this one on iOS and PS5. What do you think of Infinity Nikki so far?

Following its announcement recently, Netflix’s upcoming multiplayer game based on Squid Game, Squid Game: Unleashed, has gotten its first reveal …

Continue reading "‘Squid Game: Unleashed’ Gets Full Trailer at Gamescom 2024, More Games Announced for Netflix"

Following its announcement recently, Netflix’s upcoming multiplayer game based on Squid Game, Squid Game: Unleashed, has gotten its first reveal gameplay trailer during Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024. Squid Game: Unleashed is a 32 player showdown featuring challenges from the show in addition to new ones for the game. There will be daily missions and events inspired by the brand’s universe. Squid Game: Unleashed is in development at Boss Fight (a Netflix Game Studio) and Season 2 of the show arrives this December. Watch the first Squid Game: Unleashed gameplay trailer below: Alongside that, Netflix also revealed other games coming to the service in the near future including the Monument Valley series. These include recently-released games like Diner Out and Ludo King: Netflix with more coming soon like Battleship, Roller Coaster Tycoon, and Snake.io. So far, Netflix has been killing it with quality releases on mobile. I hope the service continues to bring premium quality titles and also older games to the service while not just adding engagement focused releases like other gaming services have been doing these past months on other platforms. What do you think of the current slate of Netflix Games titles arriving this year and will you be trying any of the new games?

During Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024, HoYoverse had reveals and new information for each of its main games. Genshin Impact …

Continue reading "Gamescom 2024: Zenless Zone Zero, Honkai Star Rail, and Genshin Impact See New Announcements and Trailers"

During Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024, HoYoverse had reveals and new information for each of its main games. Genshin Impact (Free) will see its major 5.0 update release next week bringing in the brand new region and much more. For Genshin Impact, HoYoverse’s big reveal was that it is coming to Xbox Series X on November 20th. Alongside this news, a new look at Natlan was also revealed in the Gamescom 2024 trailer for Genshin Impact. Watch it below: Zenless Zone Zero (Free) just had its major 1.1 update launch, the first big one for the game since launch, and Gamescom 2024’s trailer had a tease of the new region coming in version 1.2. This will be the base for the next chapter of the Zenless Zone Zero story. The trailer also highlighted some of the Zenless Zone Zero 1.1 characters. Watch it below: Honkai Star Rail (Free) had a trailer showcasing Feixiao, who is joining the game in the near future. Feixiao is a female warrior from the Xianzhou Yaoqing who will be added to Honkai Star Rail in version 2.5. The trailer also had new information about the upcoming Honkai Star Rail Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] collaboration. Watch it below: You can grab Genshin Impact on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. The PC version is available on the official website here and the Epic Games Store. It is coming to Xbox Series X on November 20th. Grab Honkai Star Rail yet for iOS here, on Google Play for Android here, and here on the Epic Games Store in addition to its regular PC version. Check it out here on PS5. You can download Zenless Zone Zero on the App Store for iOS here and on Google Play for Android here. Check out the links to the PS5 and PC versions here. What do you think of HoYoverse’s reveals?

I did not have Another Eden, beloved mobile role-playing game, having a crossover event with The King of Fighters, legendary …

Continue reading "Legendary Fighting Series ‘The King of Fighters’ Crosses Over into ‘Another Eden’ with the “Another Bout” Event that Kicks Off August 22nd"

I did not have Another Eden, beloved mobile role-playing game, having a crossover event with The King of Fighters, legendary fighting game series from SNK, on my Bingo card, but here we are! Actually I shouldn’t be surprised, as Another Eden crossing over with popular IPs from all walks of the universe is nothing new, and they always do a fantastic job with it. This latest crossover, which is titled Another Bout, is no exception. Aldo gets a mysterious invite to a fighting tournament, and before he knows it him and his party are transported into the world of The King of Fighters, where they get to fight alongside some of the series’ most recognizable and beloved characters: Terry Bogard, Kyo Kusanagi, Mai Shiranui, and Kula Diamond. Together you’ll play through a brand new branching story with the ability to unlock the King of Fighters characters for use throughout the rest of Another Eden. The Another Bout event really leans into its fighting game crossover by providing a new battle arena where you can pick a team of 3 fighters and fight against another team of 3. Skills have been replaced with actual fighting game-style input combos, and you’ll need to learn to chain your moves together in order to unleash your Special Moves. At the end of it all you’ll face off against Rugal, longtime King of Fighters boss and tournament mastermind. The Another Bout crossover event in Another Eden officially kicks off this Thursday, August 22nd across PC, iOS, and Android, so be sure to check it out.

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 20th, 2024. In today’s article, I’ve got a couple …

Continue reading "SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse’, Plus the Latest Releases and Sales"

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 20th, 2024. In today’s article, I’ve got a couple more reviews for you. I’ve got my take on the lovely remaster of Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, plus my thoughts on the rather messy Elrentaros Wanderings. Then there’s one new release to check out, plus the usual lists of new and expiring sales. Not a very busy day today, but that works out well for my schedule. Let’s go! Reviews & Mini-Views Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered ($19.99) Ten years ago, you would never have expected things to end up the way they did for Telltale Games. Having just wrapped up The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead: Season Two, the adventure game publisher seemed like it was nigh unstoppable. Just a few years later, everything fell apart. And here we are in 2024, happy to see any of those pieces picked up and made available again. For all of Telltale’s problems, there was really something to the games it released. Adventure games were finally part of the popular conversation again, and it was in no small part thanks to Telltale’s work. That’s why I’m happy to see what I feel is the heart and soul of Telltale Games fully available on Switch via this release. To a great extent, Sam & Max Save the World brought Telltale into the eyes of many players. The follow-up, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space kept the ball rolling. The last of the trilogy, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse feels in some ways like the end of a particular era. Scant months later, Back to the Future: The Game would launch its first episode, and it laid down the track that Telltale would drive on for the next several years. Big licenses, a focus on character relationships, and less of a focus on traditional puzzle-solving. Nothing wrong with that, of course. I just happen to like what Telltale was up to before that. So, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse. The first two Sam & Max seasons from Telltale came off like the developer was trying to find its feet. Good, to be sure. But sometimes lacking in confidence, and the games seemed to be put together on a shoestring budget. The Devil’s Playhouse was different. The writers were clearly comfortable with these characters enough to take them places. Telltale had sharpened its skills significantly and had more money to put into projects. It shows. The story here is excellent. Irreverent, funny, and smart the way you would hope a Sam & Max game would be, but with a slightly darker tone that adds a bit of spice. The puzzle design is refined without being toothless. The locations you visit are well-realized. The last episode (remember episodic games?) doesn’t quite stick the landing, but it’s hard to be too upset about it given the quality of the rest. This Remastered version follows in the footsteps of the last two. In cooperation with members of the original team, the visuals have been enhanced in a number of ways. The lighting is more interesting, the lip-flap is better, and there have even been some adjustments to the cinematography. It’s not too strong by any means, maintaining the feel of the original release. It’s Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse as you perhaps remember it, not how it actually was. I’ve been quite pleased with how these remasters have been handled thus far, and I didn’t expect the team to drop the ball here. A fine job all-around, one the whole team can be proud of. Out of all the things that could be salvaged from the defunct original form of Telltale Games, the Sam & Max trilogy was just about the highest on my list. Now, with this excellent remaster of The Devil’s Playhouse, that job is complete. If you’ve never played a Sam & Max game before, feel free to slide on in with Sam & Max Save the World and see it through to the end of The Devil’s Playhouse. It’s quite the wild ride. If you have played these games before, the enhanced presentation might just convince you to go for a replay. They quite literally don’t make them like this anymore. SwitchArcade Score: 4.5/5 Elrentaros Wanderings ($39.99) Sometimes it feels like a game is just a few smart tweaks away from greatness. And then there are games like Elrentaros Wanderings. The basic premise is solid enough, and one that gets the engine running when you find out this game is from Rune Factory’s creator. You’re an amnesiac wanderer who comes across the town of Elrentaros. The people there are friendly, if a little one-note, and they have all kinds of work for an adventurer like yourself. Dungeon work, mainly. As time progresses you can get closer with the townspeople and deepen your bonds with them. So far, not so unusual. But then you beat a boss, and suddenly you’re in a school setting in modern Japan. All the townspeople of Elrentaros are there, but they’re acting differently and don’t seem to know you. What is going on? That’s a good hook. Good enough to keep me happily playing despite how tired I was getting of running the uninteresting dungeons again and again, trying to complete objectives and get my gear in shape. Bored of seeing the same enemies, just in a new color palette. If I beat that next boss, I can move towards resolving this mystery. If I keep talking to these uninteresting townspeople, maybe I can see where this all goes. I wish I could say it was worth it in the end, but it wasn’t. A decent story, but not one worth the slog of playing through this game. Anyway, the basic loop here follows a fairly standard looter dungeon crawler template. Dive into the dungeon, battle enemies, get some new gear, dive in again, and so on. There are multiple dungeons to tackle here that each culminate in a boss battle. What’s different here is that powering up your character is more a matter of completing particular tasks in each dungeon and reaping the rewards. You won’t know what those tasks are on your first run, and you really do need to check off those lists to keep your character strong enough to push forward. At a bare minimum, you’ll be doing each dungeon twice. Beyond gear and more direct power-ups, you’ll also get your hands on gifts that you can offer up to the townspeople to win their favor. That pursuit has its own rewards, so you don’t want to neglect it either. The problem is that just about none of this is very interesting. The townspeople aren’t very deep or well-written. The dungeon layouts are bland and certainly aren’t better on subsequent runs. The enemies are cool the first time you see them, but you’ll be seeing them again and again in slightly different colors. The battle system offers little to sink your teeth into, and the loot fails to hit the spot the way it ought to in a game like this. The story is spread far too thin across the gameplay, a meager oasis in a vast, exhausting desert of repetition. I was enjoying this game early on, patient to see how things unfolded as it went on, but the reward never came. I think if you are okay with a pure grind, Elrentaros Wanderings might not turn you off the way it did me. But if you have even the slightest allergy to excessive banality, then this game is likely to have you heading for the hills. Its few good ideas are squandered by watering down the broth too much, stretching far too little content far too far. Not without any merit, but thoroughly disappointing. SwitchArcade Score: 2.5/5 Select New Releases Stumble Guys (Free) Here’s a Switch version of Stumble Guys, the game that seems to have wrested the ball away from Fall Guys and ran with it. Up to thirty-two players compete online in a variety of events and modes. The game is free to start, just like on other platforms. But there are a wide range of ways to spend your real cash, so don’t you worry about that. Anyway, it’s free, it’s here, try it if you want or walk on past if you don’t. Sales (North American eShop, US Prices) Not a whole lot to get excited about today, beyond Dadish and company being on sale. All good games, from Dadish on down. Buy and enjoy. Over in the outbox, the main thing of note is Kairosoft’s latest sale wrapping up. It won’t take but a minute to check those lists, so you might as well do just that. Select New Sales Rack and Slay ($5.09 from $5.99 until 8/25) Sagres ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/26) Gravity Oddity ($1.99 from $14.99 until 8/26) Warhammer 40k Dakka Squadron ($1.99 from $19.99 until 8/26) Guilt Battle Arena ($1.99 from $9.99 until 8/26) Chippy & Noppo ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/27) Soundfall ($4.49 from $29.99 until 8/27) Last Encounter ($1.99 from $14.99 until 9/2) Ultra Foodmess ($1.99 from $3.99 until 9/2) Dadish ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/10) Dadish 2 ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/10) Dadish 3 ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/10) Dadish 3D ($2.99 from $14.99 until 9/10) Daily Dadish ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/10) Super Fowlst ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/10) Super Fowlst 2 ($2.00 from $10.00 until 9/10) Molecano ($1.99 from $8.00 until 9/10) Sales Ending Tomorrow, August 21st 50 Pinch Barrage ($4.29 from $4.99 until 8/21) 8-Colors Star Guardians + ($2.49 from $4.99 until 8/21) Attack of the Karens ($2.49 from $4.99 until 8/21) Cafe Master Story ($6.00 from $12.00 until 8/21) Children of Morta Complete ($7.99 from $26.99 until 8/21) Claire: Extended Cut ($2.99 from $14.99 until 8/21) Goliath Depot ($3.49 from $6.99 until 8/21) High Seas Saga DX ($6.00 from $12.00 until 8/21) Oh!Edo Towns ($4.62 from $14.00 until 8/21) Pocket Stables ($3.96 from $12.00 until 8/21) Whitestone ($3.99 from $19.99 until 8/21) That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with more new games, more sales, perhaps some news, and maybe even a review? I wouldn’t bet too much money on that last one, but who knows? I have a family thing tonight, and so I’m cutting out a little early today. Don’t tell the boss! I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Gamescom is kicking off in Cologne, Germany as we speak, and during their Opening Night Live event they’ve already revealed …

Continue reading "‘Monument Valley 3’ Coming to Netflix Games in December, ‘Monument Valley 1 & 2’ Heading to the Service in the Coming Months As Well"

Gamescom is kicking off in Cologne, Germany as we speak, and during their Opening Night Live event they’ve already revealed some major news across all of gaming. One of the big announcements that pertains to us in the mobile gaming world is the official unveiling of Monument Valley 3 from developer ustwo, which will be arriving as part of the Netflix Games library on December 10th. We’ve known that Monument Valley 3 was in the works since at least July of 2019 so it’s very satisfying to see some real news about when we’ll be able to get our hands on this latest entry in the legendary puzzle game series. Here’s the announcement teaser. As you can see, it’s not just Monument Valley 3 that’s heading to Netflix Game, but the previous two entries will also be making their way to the service. The original Monument Valley will hit Netflix next month on September 19th with the sequel Monument Valley 2 making its way to Netflix on October 29th. It’s been clear for a while now that Netflix Games is not messing around when it comes to bringing high profile titles to their mobile library, and Monument Valley 3 is certainly another one to add to the list. The trailer also says to expect more news about the game during the Netflix Geeked Week which is set to take place from September 16-19th, so look for some more about Monument Valley 3 then.

When thinking about the classics or games I’d recommend people play on mobile, Mini Metro is one of the best …

Continue reading "Exclusive: Dinosaur Polo Club Interview – CEO Amie Wolken on Mini Metro, Mini Motorways, the Team, Free DLC, Working With Apple, Ports, and More"

When thinking about the classics or games I’d recommend people play on mobile, Mini Metro is one of the best by far. Sure, it is on other platforms, but having played it just about everywhere, the iOS version is my favorite. When Dinosaur Polo Club announced and released Mini Motorways, I was curious if it would manage to deliver something amazing again. The team did. Since then, we’ve seen both games get multiple updates including a collaboration between them. A few weeks ago, I had a chance to talk to Dinosaur Polo Club’s new CEO Amie Wolken about the studio, the Mini series, canceled projects, coffee, expanding the studio, working with Apple, Nintendo, the future, and more for an exclusive interview. This was conducted on a video call. It was then transcribed and edited for brevity in the case of some portions. TouchArcade (TA): Before getting to the things you’ve been doing recently, can you tell me a little bit about what you’re doing right now at Dinosaur Polo Club. Amie Wolken (AW): I’ve come on board as the new CEO and it means working with the team to set strategy and vision for the next few years, and to really get them humming on the next project that they’re working on. TA: You previously were the Studio Director at Weta Workshop’s games studio and you worked on Tales of the Shire as Lead Game Programmer. How was it working at the game studio and also how was it working on Tales of the Shire which is supposed to finally be coming out later this year? AW: It was amazing. I was the Lead Game programmer on Tales of the Shire and before that, I had been working closely with the Magic Leap and Weta Workshop collaboration working in the augmented reality space. I’d been focused on the technical side of things and after Weta Workshop went on its own journey of game development after the Magic Leap collaboration, we decided to pursue Tales of the Shire as our first game as an independent game studio and it was amazing to be there from the ground up working on the Prototype. TA: Since you joined earlier this year, I think it was April, how involved have you been with the two current live game projects: Mini Metro and Mini Motorways. I ask because both of them still get updates despite Mini Metro being really old now. It is getting a lot of great support. AW: I try to stay involved over only in the periphery. The game teams know best what their games need, and so my role is more to support them to make sure that they have what they need to make the games great, and to work closely with them on long-term strategies for those games. What does the studio need out of those games and then really enable the teams to just do their good work on the games itself. TA: How did you end up getting in touch with Dinosaur Polo Club to basically take over as CEO? When I was looking at when you took over, everyone was very positive from the start looking at reactions from developers around. AW: So I saw the role advertised, and I’ve also known quite a few people who worked at dinosaur Polo Club over the years. So a couple of people let me know that they were looking for a new CEO and so I applied. So I just went through their application process. Yeah. TA: Did you play a lot of Mini Metro and Motorways before taking over? AW: I did not. In fact, I think I played Mini Metro when I applied for the job. I thought I better play the games. *laughs* TA: What does the day in your life look like right now as CEO of Dinosaur Polo Club? AW: That’s a good question and honestly it changes all the time. Recently and after a few months of being in the job, I thought that the studio could benefit from sort of a few weeks of tools down and coming together as a team, and working on sort of high level studio goals. So actually a lot of my time over the past couple of months has been working on that. We called it a studio pause, and we put tools down on the games, and we really focused on coming together as a team and trying to envision the future that we wanted as a studio. So a lot of work was done around that and then there’s a lot of work around budgeting and finance, making sure that we’re compliant, and making sure that we have good practices and processes in the team. So policies, making sure that leadership development is well supported and it really kind of depends on what the team needs at the moment. Working with the teams on pitching upcoming products and projects. TA: So when you joined Dinosaur Polo Club, I saw “Foster great culture and games" mentioned a few times. Obviously the studio pause seems like one of the major steps to having great culture to get everyone together and stuff. But I was curious what other things are planned for this year on that front to help grow the team? AW: I mean, we always take growing the team and onboarding quite seriously. So having good recruitment processes and practices to make sure that you’re finding people who want to come on the same journey as the studio is on, and part of that means having a clear idea of where you’re kind of going as a studio, and exactly like you said, the pause was really designed to make sure that everyone in the studio, because we’re a small studio at 30 people, so everyone is on the same page with the way we’re going, which means that everybody can be ambassadors for who we are, and what we’re creating together, and it also helps to speed up decision making processes because everybody is on the same page about where we are going and we’re going there together. Now we’ve actually got a lot of really great information and the pause as well. So we generated a lot of really good ideas for what we could do going forward, and part of what I’ll be doing is looking at that and carrying forward some of the ideas that came out of that around how we sort of live our values and what it means to be part of Dinosaur Polo Club, and what it means for us to create an impact in the world in the way that we want to do it sustainably and looking after our people while we make games. The future and for the rest of this year I suppose, a significant portion of that will be taking what we’ve learned in the pause and applying that in practice going forward. TA: So you’ve been there since April till right now. That’s less than six months. How have you grown with the team? How does it feel for you and have you accomplished what you wanted to in a few months? I know it is a very short time for this kind of question, but given the positive sentiment around the studio and announcements, I was curious how it has been for you over the course of this period. AW: It has been great. I do feel like I have grown with the team over the last few months. A lot of my time, especially in the first couple of months, was just listening to the team trying to figure out where everyone was at, trying to figure out where the pain points were. Everything that you put out you try to look at the positives. Every team has things that they can work on and Dinosaur Polo Club is no different. The first few months were listening to the team, figuring out where I could have the biggest impact, and then the pause was sort of what came out of that. TA: Before asking specific questions about the games, since you’ve been the CEO for a few months, have you been involved with any of the teams working with Apple and other platform holders? Dinosaur Polo Club has Mini Motorways which is one of the best Apple Arcade games right now even though it is also on other platforms. Have you been working with Apple in any way or is that another team at the studio? AW: I have been involved in conversations with Apple on a regular basis. TA: I first played Mini Metro on iOS many years ago. Since then the game has been ported to a lot of platforms. Mini Motorways launched directly as an Apple Arcade exclusive and that made its way to Nintendo Switch and Steam. I still feel like the games are best on a nice big touch screen like an iPad because you get the gorgeous visuals and you have direct interaction with them. I wanted to know if you could comment on how the games have been doing outside mobile because it feels like these are very much designed for touch screens? I know some folks play them with a controller or a mouse as well on Switch or Steam. AW: It’s not something I’m really super close to. I don’t think it’s any surprise that the games do play really well on the touchscreens, but there is a wide audience that are enjoying the games, and we try and make sure that we’re designing the games to support those audiences too, and all of the controls that we support. But I agree, I think that there is some nice synergy there with the touch screen in there and iPads and iPhones. TA: A few weeks ago, Dinosaur Polo Club announced that it was working on a game which has now been canceled called Magic School. This announcement was interesting for a few reasons. Obviously having a game canceled is never a good thing, but the phrasing of the announcement and the response has been very positive with how you all are trying to take the best from the situation and move forward. How was it working towards that announcement for you and the team? AW: I wasn’t actually involved in making the decision to cancel. I was there for the tail end of it, but that decision had already been made as I was onboarding. So I don’t want to speak closely to it. I think there are other team members who are much closer to that decision and that project then been, but I have been there to talk to the team as they sort of process the impact of canceling a project that had been worked on for years, and that is significant. It was a piece of work that many people care deeply about and had poured their creative hearts and souls into, so we’re always very conscious of that, and I think that’s a big part of why you want to share as well the efforts that have gone into a project that doesn’t necessarily make it to launch, but had a huge potential, a huge amount of talent, and effort that went into it, so it is a pleasure to be able to share those when you can. I’m really glad that we were able to do that for the team who worked on it and for the studio as a whole as well. TA: Getting back to Apple Arcade. Can you comment on whether anything has changed in the last few months for how your work with Apple or things still going smoothly and is everyone happy with the arrangement you have with them? Mini Motorways still gets updates so it is still ongoing. I also wanted to know if there are any plans to do any more projects with Apple? AW: Yeah, that’s probably not something that I can comment on right now, but I can say that we’ve got an incredible relationship with Apple and we really enjoy working with them. TA: You said you played Mini Metro when you were working on getting this role and stuff, but since joining, have you started playing them and giving any feedback to the team directly? AW: No. Even though I have been a game developer, and because I’ve not been a game developer of this style of games, or involved in developing the Mini games, I’m super tentative to have creative opinions unless they are looking for creative opinions from lay people who are under NDA. That is where I really try to power the team who are the creative masterminds behind the Mini series, and sometimes the weight that your opinion can carry as a CEO, certainly in my situation would far outweigh any actual practical relevance of my opinion. TA: You mentioned since taking over that Dinosaur Polo Club is a small studio. Is there any need to grow the studio? AW: We’re pretty good. We do have a small plan for bringing on new people as we start developing more products as well. We have an ambition to remain a small studio. So, in terms of studio size, we would love to not grow Beyond say 40 to 45 people. That is kind where we want to go in terms of the kinds of games that we make. We want to make sure that we stay small. We want to make sure that we can still know everybody’s names. We know everybody that we work with and focus on making games within that capacity and excelling at that rather than expanding and expanding. TA: Mini Metro is on iOS, Android, Apple Arcade, PC, Switch and PS4. Mini Motorways is on Apple Arcade, Switch, and Steam. Are there any plans to bring them to Xbox and also to bring Mini Motorways to PlayStation and have you noticed any demand to bring your games to more platforms? AW: It hasn’t featured highly in the conversations that I’ve had in the studio. That’s not to say that there isn’t demand or there hasn’t been conversations, but it’s just that they haven’t been conversations that have been a high enough priority in the last few months for it to be raised with me. TA: You said that you were happy with how the team has been handling Mini Metro and Mini Motorways. Has anything changed since you took over where the team now feels like it can do more with the games? Both games are pretty great as it is. AW: I think everybody can expect that Mini Motorways will continue to have some exciting updates. The team is working on an update plan and the strategy is fully behind supporting Motorways to continue to be supported and content updates. So I think people can expect to see cool things coming out of Motorways. TA: That leads into my next question well. Both games are successful critically and they’ve gotten a ton of post-launch support through free content updates. Has there been any consideration to doing a paid expansion for any of them? AW: No, we’re pretty set on the free content update strategy. TA: So basically have a premium game and support it for years and build your audience who wants to keep supporting you as a publisher? AW: That’s right. TA: How do you like your coffee? AW: I drink oat flat white. I’d like to thank Amie Wolken from Dinosaur Polo Club and also Noah Vaca and Yunah Smirnov from Stride PR for their time and help here. You can keep up with all our interviews here including our recent ones with FuturLab here, Shuhei Matsumoto from Capcom about Marvel Vs Capcom here, Santa Ragione here, Peter ‘Durante’ Thoman about PH3 and Falcom here, M2 discussing shmups and more here, Digital Extremes for Warframe mobile, Team NINJA, Sonic Dream Team, Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, and more. As usual, thanks for reading.

Earlier this year, Feral Interactive’s superb iOS version of Alien: Isolation (Free) was updated to change the game’s business model …

Continue reading "‘Alien: Isolation’ for Android Is Now a Free To Start Release Just Like iOS Letting Everyone Try Two Missions for Free"

Earlier this year, Feral Interactive’s superb iOS version of Alien: Isolation (Free) was updated to change the game’s business model to be free to try with a single in app purchase for the full game unlock. Today, Alien: Isolation on Android has been updated to be a free to try game just like the iOS version. With this, Android players can sample the first two missions. After that, a single in app purchase will be required to unlock the full game for $13.49. Those who own the game already should see no change. For new customers, the saves from the first two free missions will carry over to the full game once the full game unlock purchase is complete. Watch the new trailer for Alien: Isolation on iOS and Android below: I featured Alien: Isolation as one of the best games to play with keyboard and mouse on iPad, and I assume it plays well on Android tablets as well. If you’ve not gotten it yet on iOS, read my glowing review of the game here covering the game at launch. We featured it as our Game of the Week as well when it launched. The full version of Alien: Isolation on mobile includes all seven DLC packs in its unlock price of $14.99. You can grab Alien: Isolation for free on the App Store here and on Google Play here. Check out our forum thread here. Have you played Alien: Isolation on mobile yet or will you be trying it today for free?

I’ve been a big fan of SIGONO’s OPUS series of narrative adventure games for a long time. If you’ve not …

Continue reading "‘OPUS: Prism Peak’, the Newest Entry in the Amazing ‘OPUS’ Series, Gets New Gameplay Screenshots"

I’ve been a big fan of SIGONO’s OPUS series of narrative adventure games for a long time. If you’ve not checked it out yet, OPUS: The Day We Found Earth (Free) is a great place to start but OPUS: Echo of Starsong, the newest release, is brilliant as well if you want to try a newer game. Read my review of the mobile version of that release here. Following its reveal back in January last year, SIGONO’s latest project, OPUS: Prism Peak, is shaping up to be another excellent narrative adventure game. With Gamescom 2024 beginning today, SIGONO has shared new screenshots for OPUS: Prism Peak in addition to a gameplay trailer that I missed from a few weeks ago. Watch the newest OPUS: Prism Peak gameplay trailer below: Check out a new screenshot from OPUS: Prism Peak below: OPUS: Prism Peak will feature multiple endings and it has you playing as a photographer using your camera to find your way back home from an ethereal realm. The music in OPUS: Prism Peak will be from Triodust and Audio Textural with a story from Brian Lee who wrote OPUS: Echo of Starsong. While OPUS: Prism Peak hasn’t been announced for mobile yet, my interview with Scott Chen, co-founder of SIGONO and executive producer of the OPUS series, mentioning Echo of Starsong on iOS being like returning home gives me hope to see this one on mobile as well at some point. You can wishlist OPUS: Prism Peak here as of now. It hasn’t been officially announced for more platforms yet. Have you played the OPUS games and what do you think of OPUS: Prism Peak so far?

Back in May, Dysmantle ($9.99) from 10tons Ltd. got its final major content update on Steam. Dysmantle version 1.4.0 titled …

Continue reading "Dysmantle’s Final Major Update Is Now Live on iOS Bringing In Ark Level 4, Night Terrors, Link Towers, and Much More"

Back in May, Dysmantle ($9.99) from 10tons Ltd. got its final major content update on Steam. Dysmantle version 1.4.0 titled “The Final Patch" brought in Night Terrors, Link Towers, Ark level 4, and more on PC as the team started working on porting it to other platforms. Earlier today, Dysmantle 1.4.0 hit iOS and it isn’t live on Android as of this writing. After day 24 in-game Night Terrors are a new enemy type for the base map. The Frore and Hibernus regions have been expanded and DLC owners will be able to use Link Towers to travel between base and DLC maps thanks to today’s update. Dysmantle was one of our favorite games of 2022, and with all of its paid DLC and updates, it is even better. With it being content complete, now is a great time to jump in. Watch the Dysmantle Pets & Dungeons DLC trailer below: If you’ve not gotten it yet, we featured Dysmantle as our our Game of the Week when it hit iOS. Dysmantle has you trying to escape the island by breaking everything for materials, fight creatures, survive, build outputs, and more. You can grab the iOS version of Dysmantle for $9.99 (or regional equivalent) usually with it being discounted once in a while. If you’d like to play Dysmantle on iOS, you can grab it here on the App Store. It is available on Android here. Check out the official website for Dysmantle here. Make sure to head over to our forum thread for more discussion around it here. Have you played Dysmantle yet and will you be trying out the final content update this week?

One of the biggest advantages to PC gaming is having access to multiple generations of game releases. We’ve seen entire …

Continue reading "Musou Games on Steam Deck – Samurai Warriors, Dynasty Warriors, Warriors Orochi, Empires, and Much More Tested on Steam Deck OLED"

One of the biggest advantages to PC gaming is having access to multiple generations of game releases. We’ve seen entire franchises released over time, and in many cases, Steam has more entries in a single franchise than consoles where said franchises began. With Omega Force and Koei Tecmo’s Musou or Warriors games, I usually enjoy playing them on a portable, and have played tons on PS Vita, 3DS, and Nintendo Switch over the years. The Steam Deck changed things, but Koei Tecmo’s older ports are not the best. This got me thinking of an article and here we are. There is a very specific kind of person I’m aiming to help with this feature, and I’ve gotten every Koei Tecmo published Musou/Warriors game installed on my Steam Deck to see how they run (or don’t run) today. I also want to help those with multiple platforms decide if they should play a game on Steam Deck or another platform here. What is a Musou game or Warriors game? For a lot of newer fans of the genre including myself with Hyrule Warriors on 3DS, Koei Tecmo and Omega Force’s Musou or Warriors games basically are hack and slash action games where you play as a character plowing down hundreds of enemies on a battlefield, but also doing things like taking down captains (more powerful enemies), capturing forts, taking down bosses, and much more. Over the years, we’ve seen Omega Force bring this formula to many collaboration projects like Fire Emblem Warriors and Hyrule Warriors for Nintendo, One Piece Pirate Warriors for Bandai Namco, and even bring elements from the Warriors games to action RPGs like Dragon Quest Heroes for Square Enix and Persona 5 Strikers for SEGA/Atlus. Basically, the Warriors games are the best podcast games or mindless fun games as far as I’m concerned, and I’ve been playing every single one that was released after getting into the genre. My testing setup for Musou games on Steam Deck I played all of them on my Steam Deck OLED, used an external controller as well to see how the games handle those, and then tried different Proton versions to see if performance improves or issues are fixed. I’ve also specified Valve’s rating if applicable for every game featured here. Note that the Steam Deck Verification system is not even close to perfect, and hopefully this article helps you realize that and also find your next favorite Musou. Samurai Warriors 4 DX Samurai Warriors 4 DX is Steam Deck Verified. On my Steam Deck OLED, out of the box Samurai Warriors 4 DX runs with a 60fps target, but drops to the mid 40s often during busy combat when played at 720p. I turned everything low or off and had it running around the 50s in the test area. I then turned everything on and used the high preset. This is good for a 30fps target because the game hovered between 30 and 40fps. As of this writing, a locked 60fps is not possible at 720p as far as I can tell. I hope this can be improved in patches. The high and medium presets look very good on the handheld screen. Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition is Steam Deck Playable for not setting the native res by default. On my Steam Deck OLED, Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition defaulted to a very low resolution. After setting it to 720p, everything went smoothly at 60fps. I didn’t need to change anything, but I turned shadows down as usual since I always do in most games to ensure the performance doesn’t drop later on. Touken Ranbu Warriors Touken Ranbu Warriors is Steam Deck Verified. Touken Ranbu Warriors runs fine across the board including cut-scenes. I played at 720p and medium graphics quality on Steam Deck. It runs and looks a lot better than the Switch version, and this one also targets 60fps. I don’t really have much to say about this one aside from the Steam Deck is my favorite way to play it by far. If you like Touken Ranbu, this one is worth getting, but there are better Warriors games on this list to consider before getting this one as a newcomer. Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires is listed as Steam Deck Unsupported. Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires using Proton GE boots up and plays the videos on the title screen, but lacks controller glyphs. I expected this to run a bit better than Dynasty Warriors 9 given it is on Switch as well, but it isn’t an amazing experience. When playing at the low preset and 720p, I saw at most 40fps outside combat. I would not recommend playing Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires on Steam Deck if you have access to the home console versions, but if you want to play on a portable, this is better than Switch, but that’s a low bar given how it runs and looks there. I recommend this one on PS5 or Xbox Series X at this stage. Samurai Warriors 5 Samurai Warriors 5 is listed as Steam Deck Unsupported. Before Samurai Warriors 4 DX released on Steam, this was my favorite Warriors game on the platform. I still love it, but I hadn’t played it since launch year on PC. Revisiting it showed me that it can run ok and look very good, but the performance is a bit iffy. A friend of mine recommended using Proton GE, so I ran it with 9-9 and turned shadows to low. This helped a lot and it stayed almost locked at 60fps in the three maps from the campaign I revisited to test from my old save. This test definitely made me want to play more Samurai Warriors 5. It is superb. DYNASTY WARRIORS 7: Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition DYNASTY WARRIORS 7: Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition is Steam Deck Playable and not Verified because some text may be small, the resolution is not set correctly by default, and because it shows keyboard and mouse prompts on Steam Deck. After setting DYNASTY WARRIORS 7: Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition to 720p it seemed to run perfectly at 60fps, but it started dropping to the mid 50s in the opening stage. I didn’t have any other issues, but there is no Steam Cloud save support. My 30 hour save file from when I used to use a Windows laptop is sadly gone. I can forgive a lot of port issues, but the lack of Steam Cloud is beyond awful in games like this. Despite that, if you are ok with a manual backup, DYNASTY WARRIORS 7: Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition is superb value and it runs a lot better than expected on Steam Deck. Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate Warriors Orochi 4 (Ultimate with the DLC) is Steam Deck Playable for not setting the display resolution by default correctly. Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate can have an issue where it doesn’t display anything, and you can resolve this by forcing fullscreen off by playing the game in Desktop Mode first and then going back to Game Mode on Steam Deck. Aside from that, and it didn’t happen to me, but did happen to a friend, Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate out of the box runs at around 30fps, but if you set it to the low graphics settings from the title screen and run it at 720p, it holds a locked 60fps in the missions I tried. Thankfully, this one does have Steam Cloud support so my save carried over from when I played it before. Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate runs and looks a lot better than the Switch version even at the lowest settings. Dynasty Warriors 9 Dynasty Warriors 9 is Steam Deck Unsupported. This is the big one. Not in terms of its importance, but because Dynasty Warriors 9 is one of the worst-performing games I’ve ever played on console back on PS4 and Xbox One. It is just about good on PS5 and Xbox Series X via backward compatibility. Playing on Steam Deck is not a great experience out of the box. Switching to Proton GE (9-9 in my case) helps, but it still was stretched up and down for some reason regardless of the display mode I chose. Not only are controller glyphs missing even with that, but the default medium preset has it running at about 20fps often with some video playback issues. Turning things to low or off resulted in it running at about 5 or 10fps more, but still not great with how much it was fluctuating. It also didn’t help that the game seems to think I’m playing the trial when I own all the season passes and the base game on Steam. I’ll need to revisit this one later, but I’d skip this on Deck right now. Warriors All-Stars Warriors All-Stars is listed as Steam Deck Playable for not setting the display resolution by default and having a launcher that requires the touchscreen. It does not have Steam Cloud support. After setting Warriors All-Stars’ launcher to 720p, the game refused to display anything but a small dot on Proton Experimental and whatever I used. I realized fullscreen was the issue. Turning fullscreen off in the launcher fixed this. On the default settings, Warriors All-Stars runs at between 40 and 60fps. Playing at low resulted in a smooth 60fps. Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada is listed as Steam Deck Unsupported. Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada cannot get to a locked 60 regardless of the setting. In fact, even when using Proton GE to get improved performance, it hovers in the mid 30s. Other than the subpar performance at even low settings, Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada runs fine on Steam Deck. This is fine if you want to play at 30fps. Berserk and the Band of the Hawk Berserk and the Band of the Hawk is listed as Steam Deck Unsupported. Just like Spirit of Sanada, I set Berserk and the Band of the Hawk to low, and while that had issues, this one plays fine at 60fps on my Steam Deck OLED in the early parts. The later stages get more chaotic and see drops, but this runs better than the PS4 version by a lot. I used Proton Experimental and disabled fullscreen. That’s basically all I had to do to get Berserk and the Band of the Hawk to run on Steam Deck. Arslan: The Warriors of Legend Arslan: The Warriors of Legend hasn’t been tested by Valve yet. Arslan: The Warriors of Legend has a launcher you navigate with a touchscreen. Beyond that it works fine on Steam Deck and with an external controller outside cut-scenes that displayed a color bar pattern by default. Playing with GE Proton 7-20 resulted in cut-scenes working, but there was no audio in them. I then tried GE 9-9 and had no luck with audio in cut-scenes. Barring the opening cut-scenes, the game seems to hover around 40fps. Not great and without cloud saves, it is hard to recommend on Steam Deck right now. Samurai Warriors 4-II Samurai Warriors 4-II is listed as Steam Deck Unsupported. Without changing any compatibility, Samurai Warriors 4-II doesn’t boot up on Steam Deck. I swapped to GE Proton 9-9 and then Experimental and still had no luck. Going back to Proton 7 had it finally load for me. Samurai Warriors 4-II does not have Steam Cloud support and it also only displays keyboard and mouse button prompts on Steam Deck. When it comes to performance and visuals, it looks good, but performance is erratic. Particle effects during combat tank the frame rate from 60 to the 30s often, and it has shader-related issues as far as I can tell. It can run at 60fps for parts of a battle, but it varies too much. Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires is Steam Deck Unsupported. Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires surprisingly has Steam Cloud support. I say surprisingly because this game is nearly 10 years old, and older Koei Tecmo ports were not good. Either way, after launching the config and disabling fullscreen, I had no trouble playing Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires on Steam Deck with no change to any settings. Performance in the battles I tested was also solid. The only issue is it displays keyboard and mouse button prompts. I couldn’t figure out how to make it display controller prompts as of this writing. DYNASTY WARRIORS 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition DYNASTY WARRIORS 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition is Steam Deck Unsupported. After disabling fullscreen through the config launcher, DYNASTY WARRIORS 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition loads correctly with cut-scenes and audio playing as they should. DYNASTY WARRIORS 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition also displays only keyboard and mouse prompts for some reason. This one sadly does not have Steam Cloud support. If you do own a Nintendo Switch, I’d recommend playing it there despite the fact that DYNASTY WARRIORS 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition runs better on Steam Deck only because all the DLC included on Switch makes that a massively better value proposition right now. I used to play DYNASTY WARRIORS 8 on console, but moved to PC and have gone back to playing it on Switch to treat it as my main platform for that game. Bonus Persona 5 Strikers Persona 5 Strikers is currently Steam Deck Unsupported. Persona 5 Strikers is not a Musou/Warriors game, but it has elements from those games. The reason I’ve included it as a bonus is because it isn’t a traditional Warriors game, but I’ve had a lot of folks ask me about this one when I talk about Warriors games in recent years. On trying to boot it up for the first time, I thought my Steam Deck froze. I waited a whole minute and it was stuck on a black screen. I switched to using Proton GE (9-9) and Persona 5 Strikers finally booted up with cut-scenes and audio playing correctly. I had no issues testing different points of my old save from when I reviewed the game years ago on Steam Deck after that. One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 is currently Steam Deck Playable by Valve for not showing the correct button prompts on Deck. If you’re wondering why I’ve featured One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 and not 4 here, well the latter is region locked and I tried buying a Steam key for it, but that didn’t activate. I do own One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 so I may as well test that as I enjoyed it a lot on Nintendo Switch a few years ago and on PS Vita before. One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 does not have Steam Cloud support. It seems capped to 58 fps regardless of the settings I used. I also couldn’t find a way to get this to show controller prompts on Steam Deck. Just like Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends, at this point you’re getting a better experience in One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 by playing on Switch despite the frame rate being variable on Nintendo’s hybrid system. Which is the best Musuo game to buy on Steam Deck? As of now there isn’t a single answer. My top three for Steam Deck are Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition, Samurai Warriors 4 DX, and Samurai Warriors 5. The first two are cheaper and offer more value with DLC included, but I love coming back to Samurai Warriors 5, and having a great version on Steam Deck makes me not want to touch my Switch save anymore. Is the Steam Deck the best portable for Musou games? Well, yes and no. Almost all the multi-platform ones are best on Steam Deck compared to Switch, but there are three particular Nintendo collaboration games that are on Switch (and N3DS for one). Hyrule Warriors Definitive, Fire Emblem Warriors, and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes are excellent Warriors/Musuo games that you can’t play on PC. Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity is a technical mess that I do not recommend. Hopefully it runs better on the Nintendo Switch successor whenever that launches. A combination of older Koei Tecmo ports being lacking, some Proton issues, and some features missing mean the PC versions of some of these games in general are not the best way to experience them. Since I own all the Musou/Warriors games from the PS4 and later on all platforms, I usually have a different platform I use for some of them. As an example, Samurai Warriors 4 was best on PS4, but the DX version on Steam Deck is now my favorite. Warriors Orochi 4, I’d play on PS5 or Xbox Series X, but I’ll play Warriors Orochi 3 on Steam Deck. I play Dynasty Warriors 8 and One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 on Switch for the good ports and massive value with all DLC included. Dynasty Warriors 9 I don’t really play anymore outside of listening to the music. Hopefully this helped any Musou fans who own a Steam Deck or are considering getting one to play these games. I can’t wait for Dynasty Warriors: Origins in 2025. The big takeaway for Musou fans who own a Steam Deck, is that you need to spend some time fixing some of the older ports to run well on Steam Deck.

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A new special edition of The Last of Us is rumored for PS5, priced at 119.99 Euros or 109.99 Dollars, to be available for pre-order soon, likely coinciding with the TV show’s second season.

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Exo Rally Championship is about as extreme as off-road racing can get as you race all-terrain vehicles across moons and alien planets.

Currently in development by Exbleative (creator of Exo One) Exo Rally Championship sees off-road racing meeting interstellar extremes in the galaxy’s most dangerous motorsport. The game challenges drivers to conquer procedurally generated alien worlds/moons plagued by violent weather, jagged terrain, and crushing … Read More

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The Abbess Garden is a chilled out gardening game that transports players to a cozy private garden in 17th-century France.

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Dreadline: Net Quota is a co-op horror fighting game where players team up to brave treacherous waters while attempting to pay off mounting debts to a mysterious merchant.

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Terminull Brigade features a fast-paced blend of roguelike action and hero shooting during a virtual rebellion in a dystopian digital universe.

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HR: Human Remains is a bureaucratic horror adventure where a human office clerk has to lead their company to success in a world ruled by demons.

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Divinum is a side-scrolling action adventure that blends intense combat mechanics with metroidvania exploration as a blessed warrior defends her homeland.

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Wildgate promises a unique twist on PvP multiplayer shooters by combining tactical spaceship combat with first-person action.

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Each match … Read More

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The Lost Isle is a procedurally generated open-world survival game set in a medieval fantasy realm filled with monstrous beasts.

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In Stormforge players wield an arsenal of melee, ranged, and magical weapons to battle sinister enemies draining the land’s lifeforce. The game’s core mechanic revolves around harnessing storm energy, crafting epic equipment, and building resilient bases that can … Read More

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Quarantine Zone: The Last Check is a Papers, Please inspired game that puts players in command of humanity’s final defensive line during a zombie apocalypse.

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Skyformer blends factory-building and first person survival as players are put in control of a robot tasked with terraforming the alien planet Xenion.

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Crosswind is a seafaring survival MMO that plunges players into a thrilling alternative Age of Piracy as a betrayed captain seeks revenge in a vast open world.

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Based on the acclaimed tabletop board game of the same name, Frosthaven is a dark fantasy tactical RPG based on the board game of the same name.

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Gunboat God is a very stylish and addictive boat-based shoot ‘em up where you blast your way through quick-fire missions to become a Gunboat God!

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Wildcard blends real-time PvP action with strategic card collecting and MOBA elements as players fight for fame and fortune in the galaxy’s most thrilling competition.

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In Warborne Above Ashes players step into the role of Driftmasters and take part in massive battles that aim to redefine faction-based warfare. It allows for up to 100 players per team 100v100 team as players fight for control of the … Read More

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The gameplay in Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era promises to blend exploration, castle management, and tactical battles, offering a vibrant fantasy world teeming with secrets, mythical creatures, and … Read More

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Crunda is a delightful physics-based speedrunning platformer where you race across a trail on a super squashy asteroid belt.

In Crunda you are a square-shaped reporter on the trail of a big scoop. In each level you need to make your way to the exit flag as quickly as possible, picking up the required amount of stars on the way. This requires you to jump … Read More

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