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  • Switch 2's magic C Button shows Nintendo is still in the business of doing things its own way
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    One thing's clear. The Switch 2 is launching into a very complex environment. Just a look at today's Nintendo Direct, or rather the comments scrolling on the side of the IGN feed over on YouTube. Someone wants a proper 3D Donkey Kong game. Someone else wants Waluigi in Smash. Someone wants Jet Set Radio - I promise that one was not me - someone else wants a full-blown sequel to Twilight Princess.Actually, looking at the Nintendo Direct itself, you can see a bit of that complexity. You'll be able to play Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 on the Switch 2. Surely the kind of thing you might lead with, or at least put right near the start? Yes, sure, but then you'd bring up the uncomfortable reality of a world that already has the Steam Deck in it. Best bury this stuff a little, before it serves as a reminder that Nintendo's no longer the only bunch out there that have the full video game experience you can enjoy while sat on the bus.I registered all these thoughts watching today's Direct, just as I registered the thoughts at certain moments that this really didn't feel like a classic Nintendo console unveiling. Aren't the other guys the ones who spend time talking about HDR visuals? Is it Nintendo to spend that much time talking about SD cards or the new fan? That third-party reel towards the end was one DoorDash namecheck away from being a Geoff Keighley production. Is Nintendo losing its nerve - or, with a console that is in so many ways so similar to its last console, did it just not have that much new to say right now? Image credit: NintendoOn balance, I don't think that's the case. I think the really big thing was up-front after the Mario Kart World reveal - in a way, it was a part of the Mario Kart World reveal, but we'll get to that in a moment. It's the C Button, which, yes, does sound like the kind of thing you say when you're trying to swear in the presence of children. It's what the C Button does. It's chat. It's audio and video chat. But it's all done in a very Nintendo way.By which I mean Nintendo's looked at a part of the world very closely, and has delivered a solution in a distinctly Nintendo manner. I'm not sure that I personally would have understood the area they are working in if I didn't have an eleven-year-old child, because I'm 46 and, like many people post-Covid, deeply eager to never log onto another video conference ever again. But I share a house with someone who uses technology - and games - in a very different way. Someone who sees video chats and online chat of all kinds as part of their everyday reality. This is who Nintendo is thinking of.To put it another way, I've long realised that my daughter relates to games in a very different way to me. To her, and her school friends, games are social spaces, an extension of the playground chat. They chat at school. They chat on the bus home from school. And then they get home and they continue to chat in Fortnite or Among Us or Minecraft. Are they chatting about the games? Sometimes, but most often they're just chatting about anything. These games are part of the way they socialise, a bit like the FaceTime skincare routine chats they'll go on to have later in the evening. Image credit: NintendoThis is what that C Button is all about. You're playing games together, so chat makes sense. But even if you're playing different games, or just watching one of you play a game, it still makes sense for this kind of player. The C Button is basically the party line from Mean Girls - it just happens that people are much more likely to communicate through consoles than landlines in 2025.I love the fact that you don't have to play the same games as each other in Nintendo's GameChat. It seems to speak to the way focus shifts when you're chatting with friends - what are you doing? What about you lot? What are you doing now? - and it speaks to the simple joy of just being together regardless of what you're actually up to. Image credit: NintendoFold in Mario Kart World, though, and it becomes even more interesting. When I heard that you'd be able to go off road and explore in Mario Kart World, I thought: fun, but a bit weird. What's everyone else you're playing with going to be doing? Turns out they'll be doing their own stuff, connected to you but not connected via GameChat. The Switch 2 is weaponising aimless free time, in the same way that Twitch or Discord does.I know none of this is new, and despite the example I've used of my daughter and her friends, none of this is unique to school kids and Gens Z and Alpha. All kinds of people use games as spaces to meet up in. But it's fascinating to see Nintendo get in on the act - Nintendo who often arrives late, having cooked up very distinct ideas. Maybe Nintendo hasn't lost its nerve after all.
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  • Fortnite and other games have compatibility issues with Switch 2
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    While the Switch 2 is backwards compatible with original Switch games - and some are even receiving an upgrade - there are still a number of games with compatibility issues on the new console, including Fortnite. Read more
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  • Final Fantasy 7 Remake is coming to Switch 2
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    Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade is coming to the Nintendo Switch 2, though no release date was given. Read more
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  • Switch 2 is getting a new 3D Donkey Kong platformer
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    The Switch 2 is getting a brand new 3D Donkey Kong platformer. Read more
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  • The Last of Us Part 2 game director has no problem with PC mods, even if that means Shrek Ellie
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    The Last of Us Part 2 game director has no problem with PC mods, even if that means Shrek EllieSpore blimey.Image credit: Dreamworks/Naughty Dog/Eurogamer News by Victoria Kennedy News Reporter Published on April 2, 2025 Naughty Dog has shared a few thoughts about modding ahead of The Last of Us Part 2's PC debut.As we all know, PC gamers love a mod or two. Often within moments of a PC release, we are soon being met with the likes of Shrek and Thomas the Tank Engine taking centre stage, be it in a horror flavoured series like Resident Evil or the space bound Starfield.But, what do developers think of mods in their games? Well, in the case of The Last of Us Part 2 Remasters game director Matthew Gallant, he is all for them and appreciates mods can make an experience more "comfortable" for players. Additionally, he understands that with games, unlike with films or books, "there's kind of like a gradient of authorship within the medium".Xbox currently has more first-party games coming to PlayStation 5 this year than Sony.Watch on YouTubeSpeaking with GameInformer, Gallant said The Last of Us Part 2's PC release will open up "the game in a way that wasn't previously possible". He added it will be "an interesting journey to see what players do with the game now that it's kind of on this very, open-ended ecosystem" which means Naughty Dog will have "a lot less control" over it."But I feel like, in general, where we're at is wanting to meet players where they are. Were interested to see what players modify in the game. And, I think, [Naughty Dog head of techTravis McIntosh] said this in an earlier interview - sometimes that's a clue to us to say, 'Oh, we should have thought of that. Oh, that's an interesting option,' that sort of thing," Gallant said."But that's maybe the kind of the balance between, like, 'Yes, we're very, concerned about creating a player experience'. You coming along with a story. And we really want to tell you that story in the best way possible. But we're okay if telling that story in the best way possible means you're tweaking a bunch of things to make it the right experience for you."The developer said simply, if players need to make some changes that allow them "to have a good, comfortable time", then the team supports them.When further asked if this frame of mind would still apply if players decided to turn The Last of Us Part 2's Ellie into Shrek, Gallant said the team just enjoys seeing the community engage with titles "in whatever way that expresses themselves in terms of funny edits or whatever is going to open up this game on PC". So, if that means Shrek Ellie, I guess that means Shrek Ellie."I think part of what's interesting with games as a medium is that we actually don't have total complete authorship in the way that someone writing a book or directing a movie there's kind of like a gradient of authorship within the medium," the game director explained."Games are pretty extreme, where the player [brings] a lot of themselves to the experience and how they play and the experience they have where they choose to go, completes the story that's told through the medium of video games. I'm maybe stretching the metaphor a little bit here, but that's kind of where my head goes to people taking any of our games and appreciating it or engaging with it in some way that maybe to us is strange, or to us is, maybe we wouldn't want to do that We're just thrilled the players love these games or want to engage with them at the end of the day." Image credit: Naughty DogThe Last of Us Part 2 will release on PC tomorrow, 3rd April, and is officially Steam Deck Verified. You can check out the various PC specs and whatnot here for The Last of Us Part 2 here.Elsewhere in The Last of Us news, earlier this week it was reported that another "PS5 special edition" for the series is on the way.
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  • Call of Duty will allow players to turn off crossplay in an effort to limit cheating
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    Call of Duty will allow players to turn off crossplay in an effort to limit cheatingActivision admits majority of cheaters are on PC.Image credit: Activision News by Ed Nightingale Deputy News Editor Published on April 2, 2025 Activision is amending crossplay functionality in Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Season 3 to allow players to restrict matchmaking to consoles only.Effectively, this means console players can turn off crossplay with PC players across all the game's major multiplayer modes, in an effort to limit cheating.While removing crossplay was already available in the game's ranked modes, the new options will extend this to all multiplayer modes.Verdansk Launch Trailer | Call of Duty: WarzoneWatch on YouTubeActivision's focus this season is a "commitment to taking down cheat makers, banning bad actors, and ensuring a great player experience", the publisher aid.In an blog post detailing updates to Ricochet, Activision's anti-cheat tool, the company admitted the majority of cheaters are PC players - although over 60 percent of cheating reports are actually against console players."Console cheating is possible, but our data has consistently shown it represents an extremely low population of detected cheaters when compared to PC, which means that this large volume of cheater reports are inaccurate even if the KillCams may have made it seem like the player was cheating," the update reads.This is why Activision is now extending its crossplay options to further separate PC and console players, as detailed in its Season 3 Update.Multiplayer Ranked Play, Call of Duty: Warzone Ranked Play, and Multiplayer Unranked will now have the following three options:On: Enables matchmaking with all gaming platforms when playing in the selected playlists.On (Consoles Only): Enables matchmaking only with other consoles when playing in selected playlists.Off: Restricts matchmaking to your current gaming platform only in selected playlists.While the Consoles Only option "may" negatively impact queue times, Activision admits the third option "will" negatively impact queue times.Activision also notes that if a party all belong to the same console, the settings will match those of the party leader. Further, players who have selected Crossplay Off and then create a party across mixed platforms will have their settings temporarily adjusted accordingly.While the news is a win for console players, it does mean PC players may be left with a higher likelihood of playing against cheaters.That said, Activision is actively battling cheating in the game. Since Black Ops 6 launched, "over 20 cheat makers and dozens of cheat resellers are out of business due to these efforts," it said. "And were not slowing down."Further, 23 percent of cheaters are removed before they even begin a match.Activision is now adding an additional anti-cheat layer to Ricochet, though isn't sharing details for security reasons.Back in January, Activision stated it had banned 136,000 ranked play accounts across both Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone.Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Season 3 will begin tomorrow, 3rd April, and adds the classic Verdansk map.
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  • Switch 2 Nintendo Direct live: everything announced as it happens
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    Today's the day. This afternoon, Nintendo will air a Switch 2 dedicated Direct broadcast from which we expect a release date and price for the new console, as well as a look at some of its upcoming games. And as ever, we'll be watching, reporting and reacting to the broadcast live, as it happens, right here.Set your Alarmo clocks for 2pm BST / 3pm CEST / 9am EDT / 6am PDT. The show is expected to be an hour long.Nintendo, remember, has already unveiled the form factor of Switch 2, which surprise surprise, looks a lot like the existing Switch, only bigger. Lurking within, though, are significant changes, such as Joy-Con that magnetically snap to the side of the machine, USB-C ports, a mysterious C button, rumoured mouse-like Joy-Con functionality, and, of course, more powerful innards. But as Digital Foundry noted, while forensically picking over the Switch 2 details, we're still not sure exactly how powerful it is. Questions remain. Will they be answered today?The previous reveal also gave us a glimpse of a new Mario Kart game, which notably teased the possibility of 24-player races. Will we see more of that game today? And what of Nintendo's other first-party games for Switch 2 - are there any, and if there are, which ones will they be? Big, legacy franchises, or smaller things? I also wonder what kind of third-party support Nintendo has attracted for Switch 2.But the biggest questions are of course price and release date. How soon will the console come out? There's a widely held belief Switch 2 is imminent, though the console's public hands-on tour runs until June. Is that when it will finally arrive? And how much will it cost? There's talk of a $400 price point, which puts it $100 above what Switch 1 launched at, and talk of $70 games. But will these figures be born out?There's lots to discover, and we'll be building up to the reveal throughout the day here. Excited?Today's Switch 2 Nintendo Direct broadcast will be here.Watch on YouTube09:44 amUTCthemightyant says: What are everyone's last minute hardware predictions. Price? Resolution desktop and handheld? OLED? HDR? VRR?Mine are 399 / 1440p upscaled to 4K on TV, 1080p handheld / no OLED / HDR /no VRR.No doubt all wrong and will age like milk. lol.Well look: I'll just pin these here and then we can all publicly see how well you did. You are most welcome! Robert Purchese09:42 amUTCMeanwhile, Nintendo has lifted the lid slightly on the mysterious "C" button on the Switch 2. A new video posted on the Nintendo Today app shows it being pressed and sounding a little jingle and then... Well, that's as much as we were allowed to see. Could it be a shortcut button to capture gameplay, or to get to social features on the console, and what might they be if there? But what do you do! | Image credit: Nintendo Robert Purchese09:38 amUTCGood morning! Are you feeling aflutter with excitement? The time is nearly here. I suppose more to the point: will you be immediately pre-ordering one if, as Rogueywon points out, the opportunity immediately opens following the Direct? Robert Purchese
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  • Nintendo's final Switch 2 tease shows mysterious C button
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    The Switch 2's most mysterious button has been teased by Nintendo, ahead of the new console's full unveiling in just a few hours. Read more
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  • Extensive footage of EA's new The Sims "game concept" surfaces online
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    Extensive footage of EA's new The Sims "game concept" surfaces onlineOoh, Rene.Image credit: EA News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on April 2, 2025 The Sims 4 might be tootling along merrily, but it's now over ten years old and fans are getting increasingly impatient for clarity on what's next for the franchise - particularly given EA's somewhat confounding communications on the matter. Amid all this, extensive footage of EA's new The Sims "game concept" have now surfaced online, fuelling all sorts of disappointment as fans ponder a reality where the future of The Sims is, in fact, just a tacky looking mobile game.To recap, EA first began discussing its "next generation" Sims game, codenamed Project Rene, back in 2022. This, many assumed, would be The Sims 5 - until, that is, EA announced Project Rene wasn't The Sims 5, that The Sims 5 wasn't happening, and that whatever Project Rene was would instead co-exist alongside The Sims 4. It also teased a bunch of "cosy games, social and collaborative based gameplay, [and] mobile narrative games" coming under The Sims banner, before revealing Project Rene (whatever it was) would begin playtesting soon.In the six months since then, playtest footage has sporadiaclly leaked online, leaving fans largely unimpressed. And it seems unlikely the sudden influx of new gameplay footage (as flagged by PC Gamer) will change that, given the bland visuals, endless reward-incentivised to-do lists, and front-and-centre currency focus feels more like a free-to-play mobile wallet squeezer than a truly "next-generation" The Sims game. City Life Game with Friends gameplay.Watch on YouTubeEA describes the playtest - officially titled City Life Game With Friends over on Google Play - as "small parts of a larger game concept". And the newly shared footage focuses on the same multiplayer-enabled plaza location we've seen in numerous leaks before, only now festooned with even more garish free-to-play style window dressing as players stroll around, strike up conversations, and hand out a few muffins. It's not especially inspiring stuff - and given EA's refusal to clarify the nature of the project, it's unclear how horrified fans should actually be.All this, of course, comes as developer Krafton's highly anticipated The Sims competitor InZoi launches into Steam early access. And while I wasn't particulary impressed with InZoi during my time with it last month, it's unlikely anyone's going to be dazzled by anything resembling EA's City Life Game with Friends when Krafton's game is around.
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  • ZeniMax union "overwhelmingly" votes to authorise strike if Microsoft contract negotiations drag on
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    ZeniMax union "overwhelmingly" votes to authorise strike if Microsoft contract negotiations drag on"Paying your employees a liveable wage as a multi-trillion dollar company is the least they could be doing."Image credit: Eurogamer. News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on April 1, 2025 Members of the ZeniMax Workers United union - which is made up of more than 300 quality assurance workers across ZeniMax Studios - has "overwhelmingly" voted to authorise union leadership to call for a strike if no resolution is reached following two years of unsuccessful contract negotiations with Microsoft.ZeniMax Workers United, which is part of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), became the first union ever to be voluntarily recognised by Microsoft in 2023. At the time, members - who've worked on the likes of Fallout, Starfield, and Doom - said they'd push to end sudden periods of crunch, unfair pay, and a lack of growth opportunities within the company.But two years on, ZeniMax Workers United says it's still to successfully negotiate a first contract. According to the union, its bargaining committee has so far failed to reach an agreement with Microsoft over "better wages, workplace improvements, and key concerns, including a lack of remote work options and the company's replacement of in-house quality assurance work with outsourced labour without notifying the union."Last December saw union members in Maryland and Texas stage a one-day walkout amid concerns around Microsoft's outsourcing and its return-to-office policies, and the CWA additionally filed an unfair labour practice charge against Microsoft for unilaterally outsourcing work. However, that action could potentially escalate now more than 94 percent of ZeniMax Workers United members have voted to authorise union leadership to call for a strike if contract negotiations fail to reach a resolution."Paying your employees a liveable wage as a multi-trillion dollar company is the least they could be doing," union member and associate QA tester Aubrey Litchfield said in an statement companying today's news. "However when addressed at the bargaining table, Microsoft acts as though we're asking for too much. Our in-house contractors have been working on minimal wages with no benefits, including no paid sick time. Workers are choosing not to start families because of the uncertainty of finances. We've released multiple titles while working fully remote. When will enough be enough?"."Underpayment and costly [return-to-office] initiatives have caused many of us to put our lives on pause," union member and senior QA tester Zachary Armstrong added, "because our income does not match even the rising cost of living in the cities where ZeniMax insists we live and work to maintain employment... If Microsoft and ZeniMax continue to demonstrate at the bargaining table that they're unwilling to pay us fair wages for the value our labour provides to our games, we'll be showing them just how valuable our labour is."In a statement provided to The Verge in response to today's union announcement, Microsoft spokesperson Delaney Simmons insisted the company was "deeply committed to reaching a fair and equitable resolution that acknowledges the teams' contributions." Simmons also claimed "substantial progress" had been made over the course of the negotiations, and that "tentative agreements [had been reached] on a majority of the topics at the table"."We have presented a package proposal that we believe is fair," Simmons continued. "If accepted it would result in immediate compensation increases, even more robust benefits and is in alignment to the company's hybrid model of three days in office. We look forward to continuing this progress during negotiations."ZeniMax Workers United is just one of an increasing number of video game unions successfully established in the last few years, with workers at the likes of Activision, Blizzard, and Sega also now represented by unions. Additionally, last month saw the CWA announce the industry-wide United Videogame Workers - a direct-join union open to all freelance or full-time video game industry workers in the US or Canada.
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  • Humble Choice's April line-up brings Xenomorphs, nautical horror, and tomb raiding
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    Humble Choice's April line-up brings Xenomorphs, nautical horror, and tomb raidingThis month's charity is One Tree Planted.Image credit: Eurogamer News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on April 1, 2025 With March now rapidly vanishing in the rear view mirror as we continue our race along highway 2025, Humble Choice has announced its April line-up, which this time brings a spot of classic tomb raiding, some seafaring terror, and even Xenomorph-flavoured tactics action.April's offerings are available to claim and keep right now - provided you've a Humble Choice subscription, that is - and the current selection lingers around until Tuesday, 6th May. But before it's all change, here's what you can download:Tomb Raider 1-3 RemasteredDredgeAlien: Dark Descent1000XResistNova LandsDiplomacy is Not an OptionDistant Worlds 2Nomad SurvivalHere's Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered in action.Watch on YouTubeSo there you go! Tomb Raider 1-3 are obviously bona fide platform classics, and last year's remaster is a lovely way to experience them, while developer Black Salt Games' Dredge - a strange blend of fishing and unnerving cosmic horror - is also a bit of a treat if you're so inclined.Alien: Dark Descent also has its fans, taking the iconic movie franchise and turning it into a surprisingly suspenseful top-down, real-time tactics game - and as for 1000XResist, Eurogamer called it an "intense and intimate narrative adventure" when it released last year.Moving further down the list, there's real-time 4X space strategy in Distant Worlds 2, furious medieval fantasy defense in Diplomacy is Not an Option, and a bit of cheery factory automation in Nova Lands. And finally for April, there's Nomad Survival, an "auto-attacking, wave clearing, time-based Roguelite" - which is to say it's basically Vampire Survivors in a different bow.As ever, five percent of each Humble Choice subscription is donated to charity, with this month's proceeds going to One Tree Planted - a non-profit focused on global reforestation. And for the sake of transparency, here's the usual note Humble is, like Eurogamer, owned by IGN.If April's Humble Choice offerings appeal, you'll find additional details over here.
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  • New Resident Evil film will be "unlike any of the previous" adaptations, says director, as Euphoria actor eyed for starring role
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    New Resident Evil film will be "unlike any of the previous" adaptations, says director, as Euphoria actor eyed for starring roleThe cat's Weskers.Image credit: Constantin Film News by Victoria Kennedy News Reporter Published on April 1, 2025 The upcoming Resident Evil movie reboot from Zach Cregger will be "unlike any of the previous films" in the franchise.That's coming from the director himself, who was speaking during Sony Pictures' CinemaCon presentation earlier this week.Everything We Know About Silent Hill f So Far. Watch on YouTube"There's a moment that comes in almost every Resident Evil game where you find yourself in a dark passageway, your health is almost zero and there's no way around," Cregger said (thanks, IGN). "You have to go through but you know there's something awful for you in the darkness."Continuing on, the director - whose previous work includes 2022's Barbarian, which our Matt describes as "wonderfully unpredictable" - added this is "a thrill that the Resident Evil games" have managed to perfect."My movie will be built in the spirit of those games and follows one central protagonist from point A to point B, as they descend deeper into hell," Cregger closed.As to who that central protagonist could be, The Hollywood Reporter states Euphoria's Austin Abrams (pictured below) is being eyed up for a role in the upcoming film, although nothing has been finalised. Cregger and Abrams previously worked together on upcoming horror film Weapons, which is scheduled to release later this year.Constantin Film is producing and co-financing Cregger's upcoming Resident Evil adaptation, with PlayStation Productions also on board. Sources told The Hollywood Reporter the reboot "is decidedly on the horror track", and will have "elements of a wilderness survival thriller". The Resident Evil film is currently set for release on 18th September, 2026. Image credit: Cindy Ord/Getty ImagesElsewhere in horror news, last month we got another teaser for the rather horrifying looking Silent Hill f.Silent Hill f is being developed by Neobards Entertainment (which has previously served as a support studio for Capcom's Resident Evil games), with creature and character design by Kera, and a script by When They Cry writer Ryukishi07.
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  • Monster Train 2 choo-choo-chooses a release date
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    Monster Train 2 choo-choo-chooses a release dateRolling onto PC and consoles.Image credit: Shiny Shoe News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on April 1, 2025 If you're a fan of locomotives and fiendish deck-building strategy roguelikes, you've probably long been in the grip of developer Shiny Shoe's massively acclaimed Monster Train. So you'll likely also be thrilled to hear its previously announced sequel finally has a release date - and is coming to PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch on 21st May.Shiny Shoe's original Monster Train released back in 2020, plopping players onto an infernal locomotive destined for the heart of a frozen Hell. Here, they were tasked with fending off Heaven's forces - and, crucially, protecting the train's burning pyre - through strategic bouts of real-time card battles playing out across multiple floors of the train. And good stuff it was too, still boasting an 'Overwhelmingly Positive' Steam rating four years after its release.Which brings us to Monster Train 2. This time around, Heaven and Hell's denizens have formed a makeshift alliance to bring down the powerful Titans - in an adventure taking players through Heaven, Hell, and the mysterious Abyss. To aid in their quest, Monster Train 2 introduces five new clans, new units, new upgrade cards, and dangerous new enemies. That's alongside the new Room and Equipment card types - the former providing special boosts to the train itself, and the latter providing bonuses to units when applied.Monster Train 2 release date trailer.Watch on YouTubeOn top of that, there's the new Covenant Outpost, which players can visit between runs. Here, they'll experience character interactions as the story plays out, and gain access to different features. There are unlockable Pyre Hearts, for instance, each said to add unique functionality to gameplay, alongside train customisation and an improved Logbook.Additionally, Monster Train 2's story is complemented by Dimensional Challenges - promising handcrafted challenges, new Mutators, and cosmetic rewards - as well as Daily Challenges, an Endless mode, plus the Celestial Alcoves where players can experience a "wide variety of random events... and maybe even a few surprises" from beyond the Monster Train universe.Monster Train 2 launches for Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch on 21st May. And if you're curious to see what's new, a demo's available now on Steam.
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  • Have we already played the Severance video game?
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    I don't think Severance would necessarily make a good video game, but every episode I watch makes me think about games. More specifically, it makes me realise what games do better than every other medium.Disorientation: it's a major theme in Severance. From the beginning, we, as an audience, long to know what's going on. That's the major compulsion loop in the series, figuring out what the purpose of Lumon Industries is, it's also the major motivation for the characters in it. What is the purpose of their number crunching? What are they working towards?What the series does so well, beyond being so well put together, so surprisingly funny and touching and absurd, is withhold information. The whole premise is that you can split one person into two people. You can put a chip in someone's brain that means they can be one person at work and another outside of it, and that you can keep those two people forever, permanently, apart. One cannot recall details about the other. Separation. Severance.A trailer for Severance, just in case you haven't seen it.Watch on YouTubeWe experience this disorientation separately in each version of the character: the one who drives to work and drives home, and the one who works at the company and exists in the time between. We follow, in particular, the Innies as they're called - the people inside the company - as they come to terms with their existence and start to push at the boundaries of it, start to explore corridors they're forbidden to explore. Start to see, as we do in the game Portal, I suppose, what's behind the set - what we're not supposed to see.But it's always second hand. We are never, as in Portal, the people experiencing it for ourselves. We always read the impact of the revelations through the characters' reactions, or hear them in their words. We can never be, as we can in a game, them. We can never be Mark S and gang exploring those clinical white corridors for ourselves, chased by regulations, pen-pushers and rules. And we can never feel the disorientation of the severance procedure, of being one person one moment, and another the next.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. This thought reminds me sharply of Before I Forget, a game about being a person living with dementia. This does attempt to show us what it's like to experience something ourselves. The house rearranges around us, and objects in our house are strange and incomprehensible. The life we once lived has become increasingly obscured. It's unsettlingly powerful.There's a play and a film that goes for a similarly disorientating experience, based on the same topic, called The Father, for which actor Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar. In it, we the viewer experience the world as the dementia-suffering father does, spun around by sudden jumps in timeline and shifting contexts as scenes flow into each other. It's wonderfully done; you should watch it if you can. But it's still not as immediate as being the character yourself.Severance wouldn't necessarily make a good game, I don't think, because it's designed to be told the way it is, and so much of the set-up depends upon the two versions of a character - the Innie and the Outie - not knowing what the other has done. I don't know how you could obscure that from the player if they played the two roles. But if you could solve that problem and adapt the idea: that's a game I would play. The Stanley Parable. There's a reason why the similarities to Severance in it are so strong. | Image credit: Eurogamer / Galactic CafeIn fact, I think I have played it. The 2013 office-based narrative mystery game The Stanley Parable is probably as close as anything will ever come to being Severance: The Game. In it, you are a character called Stanley who performs an absurdly mundane data entry task day in, day out, without complaint. That is until we, the player, turn up to control him, playing the part of his long dormant free will, I suppose. We start disobeying the Narrator-delivered rules and seeing what happens. It is parodic, mysterious, and unexpectedly funny. It's everything Severance also is.There's a reason for this: Dan Erickson, the creator of Severance, was directly influenced by The Stanley Parable when writing the show, among influences from a dozen other things. So baked into that show's DNA is that video game. Erickson doesn't expand on how, or in what ways the game influenced the show, but I don't know if he really needs to. To me, the blueprint of The Stanley Parable is plain in Severance to see.I love this. I love that we're talking about the creator of a major TV show being influenced by a relatively niche (because it's far from mainstream) game. I love that we live in a world where the people making major TV shows know games well enough that they would play The Stanley Parable at all. And I love that it's games influencing the creation of TV shows rather than only being adapted for them. The incredible success of The Last of Us and Fallout TV shows, and the animated series of Castlevania and soon Devil May Cry, have proved video games' value in financial terms, as intellectual property ripe for adaptation. But with Severance and The Stanley Parable, it feels as though games are also asserting themselves as a cultural force, and that they're justifiably being respected as one.
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  • New Elden Ring Nightreign playable character revealed
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    A new playable character in FromSoftware's forthcoming Elden Ring Nightreign has been revealed. Read more
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  • Doom: The Dark Ages hands-on tech preview - idTech 8 impresses hugely on PC
    www.eurogamer.net
    Doom: The Dark Ages is set to release this May, but last week I had a chance to sit down for several hours to play the game on a high-end PC. What I can say and show is limited, but the latest modern Doom and its idTech 8 underpinnings already look hugely impressive. There's plenty to praise here - as well as a few caveats that are worth bringing up. First, the engine. Machine Games' Indiana Jones showed just how capable modern versions of idTech have become, and The Dark Ages shares the same extremely realistic visuals - albeit in starkly different setting. Everything feels alive, with a tremendous amount of secondary animation - blowing trees and flags and pouring rain and storm clouds. Though I didn't get a chance to see the game at max settings - or in its upcoming path tracing mode - the game was running with standard RT enabled, including RT reflections (like Doom Eternal) and RTGI (like Indiana Jones). This looks nice, with more watery levels showing off full RT reflections with atmospherics layered on using SSR. There are plenty of reflective surfaces around despite the move to more naturalistic environments, but it's precisely that shift in tone that allows the RTGI to shine. This enables much more accurate and dramatic lighting across a huge space that's almost entirely lit by natural sources like flames and the sun. Here's the John Linneman video preview of Doom: The Dark Ages. Watch on YouTubeIt works well, as it did in Indiana Jones, but there's more of a focus here on destructible, physics-driven dynamic objects. Eliminating baked lighting means that these objects can blend more seamlessly into the environment, and allows for Crysis-style destruction that was absent from the prior two games. Wooden structures can be blasted away until they buckle under their own weight, leaving remnants that can be hacked at further to separate them into even smaller pieces. This makes arenas in the game feel much more active, with things changing and structures breaking apart as you engage enemies. Later sequences with a huge Doom mech take this even further, as you can stomp around destroying a massive city environment - very cool. There are also more realistic water effects, such as proper geometric ripples when you run through a body of water that nicely complement the RT reflections. You also get an interesting effect when swimming below the surface which I liked quite a bit. There also seems to be a virtualised geometry system similar to Unreal's Nanite, though I can't actually confirm this yet. In short, you won't see big chunks of the scene changing in terms of visual complexity as you move through the world, with more seamless changes that avoid noticeable pop-in. That said, this doesn't seem to work with grass and certain types of foliage, but it's still an interesting development - and hopefully one we get more detail on in the final game. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Apart from the level geometry itself, the number of on-screen enemies has increased dramatically - to levels unseen since the original sprite-based Doom games. Right at the beginning of a mission, for example, I counted more than 30 on-screen enemies, with more appearing as you fight. It's wild to consider that idTech 8 is able to handle dozens of enemies in this manner while also delivering a world with virtualised geometry, full RT lighting and reflections and robust physics simulation, all while targeting 60fps. I haven't played the game on consoles, but knowing id's prior work I have full confidence they'll get it to 60fps. The point is that The Dark Ages combines cutting-edge tech with very high levels of performance. How high remains to be seen, but this demo suggests we're in for a real treat. Beyond the tech and visuals, it's worth underlining how different the game plays to Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal. In the latter game, as you progress, battles can become quite long, often locking players into a single space as enemies pour in until you reach an arbitrary level of destruction that allows further progress. You spend a lot of time watching cool-down metres for various power-ups, and you need to leverage the glory kill and chainsaw systems to keep your health and ammo topped up - so you're watching these animations again and again, relinquishing control. I love the movement and flow of the game, but there are some issues with pacing that stood out. In Doom: The Dark Ages, this has changed completely. Smaller foes go down much quicker, sometimes in a single shot or two, though they're still viable threats that can eat away your health. You can also take out multiple opponents at once, eg with the shield that can crash into a mob and explode. Glory kills have been almost completely eliminated from normal enemies, with similar prompts that can appear but don't take control away from the player. Only in rare instances do you get the full glory kill experience, and normally it's deployed on big bosses - to the point that I don't think the term is even used any more. Similarly, chainsawing enemies is not necessary for regaining ammo. Different tech systems complement each other here, with the RTGI allowing for accurate lighting and shadows of destructible physics objects. See how blowing a hole in a section of wood replaces shadow with natural lighting. | Image credit: Bethesda/Digital FoundryAs a result of these changes, battles flow more smoothly. You'll need to change your strategy against different enemy types, but you don't lose control as in Doom Eternal. It actually feels like a marriage between classic Doom and modern Doom combat, which really impressed me. Similarly, abilities available on a cool-down feel more optional, though they're fun to use, and the game feels more free-form. There are fewer moments where you're trapped in a room, and you're able to sprint past some enemies - though they may follow you or simply stick around to trouble you the next time you enter a given area. One thing that doesn't really return is aerial moves and platforming, which is minimised here. The shield mechanics are also very interesting. You can bash enemies, throw your shield in combat or to solve puzzles, and there's also a block and parry system which doesn't feel obligatory but is fun to use. Some parts remind me of Returnal, with enemies shooting particles you can parry back, but it's not a scripted animation and you retain control. The options menu is also incredible, with settings to dial in gameplay exactly the way you like it. You can adjust things like game speed, enemy agression, particle speed and so on. I played most of the demo at 150 percent speed and had a blast. Water looks good from above or below, with geometric ripples on the surface and a beautiful look underneath. | Image credit: Bethesda/Digital FoundryThe game also changes quite a bit from level to level. The opening stage, which I couldn't capture, had a classic Doom gameplay loop - all about finding keycards to unlock new areas - and it still works well. There are also mech levels, where you're smashing city buildings and fighting giant demons. I don't kow how often these will appear in the game, but I enjoyed the sequences quite a bit. There are also dragon missions, where you can fly around freely in 3D space, locking onto and destroying enemies, or land to fight on foot for a while. It reminds me of vehicle missions in Halo or Titanfall 2. There's also a large open map. Marketing materials deliberately don't say "open world", and that feels fair - it's a larger level with objectives, bonus encounters, collectibles and even new weapons scattered around for the player to find. I still have a lot of questions about how the game will play out. There seems to be more of a focus on story here, with cutscenes at the beginning and end of missions I played. This is not The Last of Us by any stretch, and it's all action-orientated, but I did play is super promising. I do have some nitpicks about certain elements of the game as I played. For example, due to the focus on shield mechanics, there's no option to have a centred weapon in the classic Doom style. There's also no dot crosshair, which I prefer. The soundtrack also doesn't quite hit the highs of the Doom and Doom Eternal, with quite good individual tracks that don't seem to have as much impact while actually playing the game. One complaint, and one compliment. Left, it would be nice to have the option to tone down the brightly coloured projectiles and/or the full-screen red overlay at low health. Right, you do have interesting options to adjust the game speed, projectile speed, player/demon damage and enemy aggression to suit your preferences. | Image credit: Bethesda/Digital FoundryAnother minor complaint is the intensity of the colours of powerups, which obviously need to be easy to spot for gameplay reasons, but perhaps could be optionally toned down to better mesh with the environment. The entire screen staying red while your health drops below a certain level is also annoying. Thankfully, the HUD does have one awesome touch: a kind of simulation of the original Doom guy, complete with low frame-rate animation. Lastly, this is a weird complaint, but the game loads so fast on PC that the loading screens feel a bit pointless - even faster than Doom (2016), which is just wild. Therefore, having an option to disable loading screens entirely and just dip to black might make sense rather than requiring a key press after a second or two. Overall though, I hugely enjoyed my time with Doom: The Dark Ages, and while I still have some questions and concerns, this has a good chance of becoming the best of the three recent Doom titles. I guess we'll have to wait until May to be sure.
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  • Nintendo Treehouse: Live presentations announced, featuring hands-on gameplay of Switch 2 titles
    www.eurogamer.net
    Following on from its Switch 2 Direct tomorrow, 2nd April, Nintendo will also host two Treehouse: Live presentations. Read more
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  • Balatro creator impressed onlookers with his card skills at public event, without being recognised
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    Balatro creator impressed onlookers with his card skills at public event, without being recognised"Wow you must have played this before!"Image credit: Localthunk News by Ed Nightingale Deputy News Editor Published on April 1, 2025 The anonymous creator of Balatro, LocalThunk, impressed passersby at last month's Game Developer Conference with his card skills, but nobody recognised him.Balatro won several awards at GDC's Game Developers Choice Awards, including Game of the Year, Best Design, Best Debut, and Innovation Award. As a result of the nominations, the game had a booth on the show floor.LocalThunk himself played the game there, but managed to retain his anonymous status despite impressing onlookers at the booth.Balatro - Friends of Jimbo (Pack 3) | Reveal TrailerWatch on YouTube"One of my fav moments from GDC - they had a booth set up to play Balatro since it was an award nominee. I watched for a bit then I gave it a go myself. Crushed a white stake run," the developer wrote on Bluesky."Someone approached me as I was about to leave. 'Wow you must have played this before!'"'I guess you could say that'."He added: "Also this was actually the first and only time I have seen strangers play my game in real life. Have yet to see Balatro in the wild. So as far as I'm concerned y'all are just Truman Show-ing me."one of my fav moments from GDC - they had a booth set up to play Balatro since it was an award nominee. I watched for a bit then I gave it a go myself. Crushed a white stake runsomeone approached me as I was about to leave'Wow you must have played this before!''I guess you could say that' localthunk (@localthunk.bsky.social) 31 March 2025 at 19:42To see this content please enable targeting cookies.It's certainly a fun anecdote from a developer wishing to remain anonymous as a result of the game's success.As with previous awards shows, Playstack Communications Director Wout Van Halderen collected Balatro's wins on LocalThunk's behalf.In an interview last year, LocalThunk admitted he sometimes regrets Balatro's success, despite being grateful."Don't get me wrong - this has changed my life in a lot of amazing ways," he said. "I'm so grateful. But I do miss that time before. It was just a hobby that recharged my batteries. Sometimes I think, 'Maybe I would've been happier if I had never released this game to the public.'"The correct pronunciation of the game's name has also been revealed. Have you been pronouncing Balatro wrong?
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  • The Last of Us showrunner responds to criticism Bella Ramsey looks too young to play Ellie in season two
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    The Last of Us showrunner responds to criticism Bella Ramsey looks too young to play Ellie in season two"I'm interested in the emotional maturity."Image credit: HBO News by Victoria Kennedy News Reporter Published on April 1, 2025 The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin has addressed those criticising Bella Ramsey for not looking older as Ellie in the show's upcoming second season.Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Mazin said he understands "the difficulty that some people have where they say, 'She looked like she was 14 in season one. She still looks roughly the same to us, even though now she's 19'."Mazin added he appreciates Ellie in The Last of Us Part 2 does look "much older" than she did in the first game. However, when it comes to the show, he isn't "interested in the physical aspect" of Ellie's appearance.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Does Anyone Really Want Long Games Anymore? Watch on YouTube"Some people do change quite dramatically and some people don't," Mazin said. "I've been looking at Bella's face for years while editing, and I can see that she's certainly grown. I'm interested in the emotional maturity, and the change in personality."The Last of Us showrunner added he has "watched Bella grow and become independent and start to find her own two feet separate and apart from her parents", stating it's also about "how do I figure out how to be my own person now and test that full independence?"This is something he "[feels in] Ellie completely" when it comes to Ramsey's portrayal of the character."So, I understand where people are coming from, but when they watch this year, I think they're going to see the difference," Mazin closed. Image credit: Naughty Dog Image credit: HBOThe second season of The Last of Us is set to debut next month, and will comprise seven episodes. It will not cover the entirety of The Last of Us Part 2, with subsequent episodes expected to wrap up the narrative.Earlier this week, Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann weighed in on the 'Was Joel right' debate, following the end of the first game (and first series).
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  • Amidst Pokmon Go's $3.5bn sale, fans flock to Italy's first major meetup with mix of emotions over game's future
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    Amidst Pokmon Go's $3.5bn sale, fans flock to Italy's first major meetup with mix of emotions over game's futureInter the unknown.Image credit: Eurogamer Feature by Tom Phillips Editor-in-Chief Published on April 1, 2025 Milan's sunny streets and packed city squares feel a long way away from the corporate boardrooms in which Pokmon Go's future was recently decided - where it was agreed the game would be sold as part of a $3.5bn deal to the Saudi-backed Monopoly Go maker Scopely. Among the game's thriving community, which gathered in Italy's fashion capital over the weekend for a big City Safari meetup, there was a feeling of business as usual - though plenty of opinions on what might happen next.The Pokmon Go community, and in particular those who travel long distances to play together, is very switched on. For many players, this game is a way of life, a hobby that connects them with friends and acts as a companion to daily exercise. Recent stats revealed that around half of the game's regular audience play every day, and do so for an average of 40 minutes. (How many people play? 100 million people logged into Pokmon Go across 2024, with 20 million weekly players.) It wasn't a surprise, then, that everyone I spoke to across the past weekend in Milan was aware of the game changing hands, with a range of expectations for the result.Just a few streets over from the city's glamourous fashion district, where Ferraris crawl down the streets and park up behind gilded ropes, the city's packed Duomo cathedral square offered a more familiar crowd: thousands of Pokmon Go players milling about, toting backpacks, battery packs and sensible shoes. The weather was glorious - enough to consider breaking out the shorts - though the locals, more conditioned to the sunshine, continued on in padded coats.Pokmon Go's City Safari events are a more recent addition to the game's physical meetup roster, a simpler evolution of the Safari Zone concept - essentially, 'explore this area and catch as many rare creatures as possible' - now no longer limited to a particular park. Instead, City Safari gameplay stretches across a far wider area, allowing players to get involved wherever they walk, amidst whatever other bits of sightseeing they might want to do.I've played various Safari Zone events before, and was curious how gameplay would feel without a central park hub. I've also written in the past about how the city-based sections of Go Fests have sometimes felt the weaker portion - particularly in capital cities such as London and Berlin, though less so in Madrid - where the atmosphere suffered from players being spread too thin over too wide an area. In Milan, this was not a problem - the city centre felt just the right size and sufficiently able to cope with big pedestrian crowds, particularly between the centre's castle and cathedral. These areas were constantly full of players plodding about in cardboard Eevee hats, and it was clear the game's Italian community had come out in force. Image credit: EurogamerItaly has never hosted a big Pokmon Go event before, and there was huge excitement among locals I spoke with that their country had finally been given some of the spotlight. While Milan is situated far in the north of Italy - much easier to get to for those travelling from neighbouring countries - I saw meetups of groups from Rome, Bologna and Naples, posing for photos holding their local community flags. From further afield, players told me they had hopped on trains and planes from Switzerland, France and Germany. A couple of players I met told me they'd travelled from Belgium and the UK, respectively, after being in-game friends for five years, in order to walk the streets of Milan together.For those who made the journey, the event received a pretty warm reception. Rare spawns such as the alphabet Pokmon Unown were more common here than in recent Go Fests, with a good chance of finding their coveted Shiny versions. The region-exclusive Corsola - usually found lurking around the equator - and the UK-exclusive Mr Mime were also offered, alongside a costumed Eevee wearing a safari hat. The star of the show, though, was the brand-new release of Mudbray, a donkey Pokmon that's set to only be offered at Safari events for the foreseeable future. It replaces cute goat Pokmon Skiddo, which will finally get a wider release this summer after being a Safari exclusive for several years. Image credit: EurogamerThe main gripes I heard about the event were relatively minor. The overlap of a worldwide in-game event for three hours of the first day was an irritation for some, as it temporarily replaced some PokStop tasks that could otherwise award Safari-exclusive Pokmon. Safari Eevees were strictly limited in number, meaning that when you had found their special PokStop hiding places, this element of the event no longer had use. Finally, the game had a lack of raids on the event's first day, and no special raids for the event overall. While none had been advertised, and raiding is not typically the focus of a Safari event, players I spoke with justifiably pointed out that Niantic had been happy to sell an optional $5 raid-focused ticket add-on with nothing out of the ordinary to then use it for.As for the sale of Pokmon Go itself, opinions were mixed. One player I spoke with, who had helped organise a convoy of cars ferrying players from his Swiss community, said he expected the game would likely feel similar - although only because it was already trending towards increased monetisation from the more regular sale of in-game tickets. Others said it was too early to say what Scopely's impact might be, while a father travelling with his wife and son from the UK told me he was reassured somewhat by Scopely keeping the Pokmon Go development team intact and together under new ownership. One player told me they were pleased to see the game part ways from Niantic's mapping-focused mothership ("it can't get worse" under Scopely, they declared) while others expressed concern the game could receive in-game advertising similar to Monopoly Go - something Niantic has recently attempted to soothe fears about.Sensitivities to the sale clearly remain and, it seems, are being keenly watched. Simultaneous to the Milan event, Niantic issued an unusually detailed denial and explanation of a recently-datamined code fragment referencing in-game mobile advertising - something that spun players on social media into a panic. (The gist, Niantic said, was that this new snippet was part of a third-party code library update, rather than something new being deployed by its team to insert fresh advertising within Pokmon Go.) "We will not be bringing intrusive in-game ads to Pokmon Go," is Niantic's official response. "Not now, not ever."From what I saw, most Pokmon Go players seemed to leave Milan happy, flush with new creatures to boast about back home. Several players said they already had tickets to Go Fest, Pokmon Go's biggest annual meetup, which lands in Paris in three months' time. By then, Pokmon Go's sale will likely be completed and any immediate impact more visible. For now - well, give Pokmon players a city square full of their fellow fans, and they'll come.This article is based on a visit to Milan, for which Niantic assisted with accomodation.
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  • NieR: Automata revived the Japanese games industry, says former Sony exec Shuhei Yoshida
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    NieR: Automata revived the Japanese games industry, says former Sony exec Shuhei YoshidaThe "game that changed everything".Image credit: Square Enix News by Ed Nightingale Deputy News Editor Published on April 1, 2025 Former PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida has called NieR: Automata the "game that changed everything", as it was responsible for reviving the Japanese games industry on its release.Speaking to Japanese outlet AV Watch (via Automaton), Yoshida discussed how during the PS3 era, sales of Japanese games had declined and increasingly studios there were chasing "overseas tastes".That changed with NieR: Automata in 2017, released for the PS4. "I think Yoko Taro created it without paying any mind at all to making it sell overseas, but it was a tremendous success," said Yoshida.23 minutes of Nier: Automata gameplayWatch on YouTubeThe game proved Japanese studios could find success by creating Japanese-style games. "With NieR, everyone realised this," said Yoshida. "That it wasn't just something they could do, but something they had to do."As such, Japanese studios strove to "create based on their own culture and what they knew", realising this was the appeal of their work overseas."I think that the Japanese game industry revived after NieR, so much so that you could talk about pre-NieR and post-NieR eras. Simply put, I think that was the title that made everyone want to pursue Japanese-style games," said Yoshida.NieR creator Yoko Taro himself responded on social media, thanking Yoshida for the praise but crediting producer Yosuke Saito, who "ordered" him to make a game "that targets the Japanese market, without worrying about overseas reviews"."Or, to put it more precisely," said Taro, "I remember being told something like 'Yoko, you can't make games for overseas, so (at least) try to make it for Japan'." To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Saito then replied: "What I said at the time went more like this: Since we're Japanese people, there's no need for us to go out of our way to cater to people overseas. Surely, we'll be able to attract at least a million players among all the people out there who genuinely want to play a Japanese game made by a Japanese person (the one and only Yoko Taro)."Last year, Saito teased a possible new NieR project alongside Taro, though nothing further has been said since. "I've been talking about wanting to do something with Yoko and Okabe for some time now," he said at the time. "I'll have something a bit more put-together to say in the not-too-distant future, so please stay tuned. It might be NieR, it might not be NieR. [Laughs] That's about all I can say for now."Taro also compared NieR: Automata to Stellar Blade, stating: "Stellar Blade is a really amazing game. I'd say that it's much better than NieR:Automata."
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  • Embracer Group's Eidos-Montral studio confirms more layoffs, this time affecting "up to 75" people
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    Embracer Group's Eidos-Montral studio confirms more layoffs, this time affecting "up to 75" people"We don't have the capacity to entirely reallocate them."Image credit: Eurogamer/Embracer Group News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on March 31, 2025 Eidos-Montral, the Embracer-owned studio currently providing support on Microsoft's Fable reboot, is laying off "up to" 75 members of staff, saying it doesn't "have the capacity to entirely reallocate them to our other ongoing projects and services."News of the layoffs - which follows 97 job cuts at Eidos-Montral last year - was confirmed in a statement shared on social media. "Today, we informed our studio staff that we are going to let go up to 75 valuable members," the studio wrote, "as one of our mandates is coming to an end. It is not a reflection of their dedication or skills, but unfortunately, we don't have the capacity to entirely reallocate them to our other ongoing projects and services."These very talented, highly experienced experts are going to enter the employment market," the statement continued, "and we are working to support them through this transition. Eidos-Montral stays committed to deliver its other projects currently in development."Eidos-Montral's most recent game, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, released in 2021 when the studio was still owned by publisher Square Enix. Following its purchase by Embracer Group in 2022, however, it was reportedly set to work creating a new game in the Deus Ex series - a project that was canned last year amid a devastating programme of "restructuring" and cost cutting at Embracer Group that resulted in over 4500 job losses across the company.Since then, it's been confirmed Eidos-Montral is assisting Microsoft's Playground Games as the Xbox studio attempts to get its long-awaited - and recently delayed - Fable reboot over the finish line. Today's statement suggests Fable isn't Eidos-Montral's only project, but it's unclear what else the studio may be working on at present.Layoffs have continued to blight the games industry in 2025 following an already devastating few years which have seen over 25,000 employees lose their jobs since the start of 2023. So far this year, 1200 layoffs have been recorded, affecting workers across the likes of Unity, PlayStation, Ubisoft, Warner Bros. Games, Sumo Digital, Splash Damage, Bossa Studios, Night School, and Cyan, Inc. Results of a GDC State of the Games Industry survey shared earlier this year revealed one in 10 of the 3000 developers canvassed were laid off in 2024.
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  • Monster Hunter Wilds performance-related PC improvements coming this week, says Capcom
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    Monster Hunter Wilds performance-related PC improvements coming this week, says CapcomAs future plans detailed.Image credit: Eurogamer/Capcom News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on March 31, 2025 Monster Hunter Wilds has been an massive success for publisher Capcom, but not everybody's happy on PC, where the game has been repeatedly lambasted for its poor performance. Finally, however, a month after its release, Capcom has revealed a first round of performance-related PC improvements is coming later this week.Capcom shared the news in a lengthy post from Monster Hunter Wilds game director Yuya Tokuda over on the official Monster Hunter website. After thanking players for their support amid Wilds' impressive 10m sales milestone, Tokuda began detailing some of the improvements the developer is targeting in response to player feedback.The big one, for PC players at least, is the promise of improved game stability. "The team is continuing to identify stability issues and make improvements where possible," Tokuda wrote, "especially on the Steam version. This will be an ongoing process, where we'll aim to make continual steps forward in this area and respond to critical issues."Here's Alex with the full lowdown on Monster Hunter Wilds' PC release.Watch on YouTubeThe good news is Capcom's first round of performance-related PC improvements is set to arrive very soon - as part of Monster Hunter Wilds' Title Update 1 this Thursday, 3rd April. This'll include a promised reduction in VRAM usage, as well as an upgrade to the DirectStorage version on Steam - both of which "should result in an overall improvement in stability for our PC players", according to Capcom.Notably, VRAM usage and DirectStorage issues were both highlighted in Digital Foundry's review of Monster Hunter Wilds on PC, in which Alex Battaglia detailed the games "profound performance problems" and "substantial" technical issues. At the time, Alex advised "caution" for higher-end GPU owners, but flat-out recommended anyone with lower-end graphics cards "avoid" Wilds until Capcom could improve the situation - so hopefully this week's update will bring meaningful changes ahead of promised "continued improvements" in future patches.Away from PC performance, Tokuda highlighted some other areas the team is targeting. There's talk of weapon balance adjustments, for instance, which are set to be implemented "gradually" with each new title update. As for quality of life changes, Capcom says it's currently looking to make it easier for players to access information they require through UI/UX improvements, alongside "additional adjustments... to further enhance the overall feel of the game to curate an even smoother gameplay experience."Capcom says to expect changes making it easier to restock items, check skill information, participate in multiplayer quests, and use the Seikret. Additionally, improved camera behaviour during hunts is also on the developer's to-do list. More generally, the team is planning to "take a wider look at overall gameplay flow, which encompasses a range of things, such as the in-game economy, balance and other areas." This, it says, will "require more time for preparation".Alongside the aforementioned PC performance improvements, this week's Monster Hunter Wilds title update introduces a new social hub and a range of new monsters, including bubble dragon Mizutsune, a High Rank version of Zoh Shia, and the arch-tempered Rey Dau. Notably, Tokuda's blog stresses additional tough monsters are on the way, following criticism of Wilds' low difficulty at launch. May's update, for instance - which previously appeared to be relatively small in scope - will bring tempered variants of Gore Magala, Rey Dau, Uth Duna, Nu Udra, and Jin Dahaad. Additionally, more "challenging monsters will also appear in future updates"."We will continue to add new elements and content to make Monster Hunter Wilds even more enjoyable for all hunters through our free content updates," Tokuda concluded, "while at the same time making further improvements and adjustments to the game."
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  • Xbox's 2025 gaming handheld teased in new trailer
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    Following recent claims Microsoft's much-rumoured handheld Xbox will arrive later this year in collaboration with an unspecified "PC gaming OEM", hardware manufacturer ASUS has shared a teaser trailer suggesting the machine is real and set to be revealed soon. Read more
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  • IGN Live confirmed to run 7-8 June, with tickets on sale now
    www.eurogamer.net
    IGN Live confirmed to run 7-8 June, with tickets on sale nowIGN says to expect reveals, giveaways, demos, and celebrity guests - plus a t-shirt cannon if last year is anything to go by.Image credit: IGN News by Tom Orry Editorial Director, Gamer Network Published on March 31, 2025 IGN Entertainment (Eurogamer's parent company) has officially announced that IGN Live will run in LA from 7-8 June, 2025.The fan-focused event, which takes place during summer's video game event season, is being held in downtown Los Angeles at Magic Box @ The Reef. Currently the confirmed list of studios, publishers, and brands includes Netflix, 2K Sports, Lenovo, and Arcade1Up, with more set to be announced soon. IGN Live will feature playable games on PCs, consoles, and handheld devices, plus gameplay and trailer reveals, celebrity panels, merch giveaways, a live DJ and more. It's not just video games, either, with the show aiming to be a celebration of games, movies, TV, comics, collectables and more.Tickets can be bought now from IGN at a reduced price compared to buying at the door.Ticket prices are detailed below:Early bird, single day tickets: $15 USDEarly bird weekend/VIP tickets: $30Regular pricing, single day tickets: $25Regular pricing, weekend/VIP tickets: $40Single day tickets at the door: $30Weekend/VIP tickets at the door: $45Act early if you want the cheapest prices, with early bird tickets only available until 30th April. A VIP pass also includes a goodie bag containing exclusive items valued at $40. You can still save money on the door price if you buy tickets online after 30th April.If you can't make it to LA in June, IGN will be livestreaming the entire weekend event across IGN platforms, including IGN.com, YouTube, Twitch, social channels, and more.IGN Live 2024 saw a number of big-name guests and reveals including The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power cast, Xboxs Phil Spencer, Ubisoft discussing Assassins Creed Shadows, and Casper van Dien talking Starship Troopers: Extermination.For more information and to stay up to date on announcements, head over to ign.com/live.Sort-of-E3 replacement, Summer Game Fest, kicks off on 6th June, and it's fair to expect showcase videos from the major players at around that time, too, with reveals of games due this year and beyond.
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  • The Last of Us reportedly getting mysterious new physical PS5 special edition
    www.eurogamer.net
    While Neil Druckmann has previously said Naughty Dog won't be known as The Last of Us studio forever, the team sure does seem to be making the most of the franchise by churning out different editions of both Part 1 and Part 2. Read more
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  • Stardew Valley Baldur's Gate 3 mod praised by Larian boss has been yanked by Dungeons & Dragons lawyers
    www.eurogamer.net
    Stardew Valley Baldur's Gate 3 mod praised by Larian boss has been yanked by Dungeons & Dragons lawyersGale warning.Image credit: Xun/Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on March 31, 2025 Just weeks after an "amazing" Baldur's Gate 3-themed Stardew Valley mod drew praise from Larian Studios co-founder Swen Vincke, it's been targeted by Dungeons & Dragons company Wizards of the Coast's lawyers and hit with a DMCA takedown.The Baldur's Village mod released earlier this month after more than a year in development, giving players the chance to explore a new village north of Stardew Valley's Pelican Town populated by some "rather unusual" residents. Its Baldur's Gate 3-inspired additions included a romanceable Astarion, alongside a new tavern, and more.At the time, its creator, Xun, said the release was just the start, with a storyline for Halsin also planned alongside more "world-building, background stories, and gameplay". But even this initial version was enough to catch Larian boss Swen Vincke's eye, and he shared its release on social media, writing, "So much love went into this - amazing work!"11 Baldur's Gate 3 tips for D&D beginners.Watch on YouTubeUnfortunately, it seems Dungeons & Dragons' license holder Wizards of the Coast was less impressed by the whole thing, and Baldur's Village has now vanished from modding website NexusMods after the company's laweyers hit it with a DMCA takedown over the weekend.In a statement provided to PC Gamer, Nexus Mods described Baldur's Village - which remains "under moderation review" on the site at the time of writing - as an "an incredibly creative cross-over to Stardew Valley that the community loves|. It optimistically added, "Hopefully, this is an oversight from WotC, who often use external agencies to hunt down violating content, and they will revert their decision. Fingers crossed for Baldur's Village."Wizards of the Coast and parent company Hasbro have, of course, expressed considerable interest in continuing the Baldur's Gate franchise following the mega-success of Baldur's Gate 3 - despite the fact Larian won't be attached after it instead opted to focus on its own IP.Earlier this month, Hasbro insisted there are plenty of other developers "very interested" in continuing the series. "We're kind of working out our plans for the future and what we're going to be doing with that," it added. "And actually, in pretty short order, we're going to have some stuff to talk about around that."
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  • DF Direct: Do Switch and Switch 2 Virtual Game Cards point towards an "adorably all digital" future?
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    DF Direct: Do Switch and Switch 2 Virtual Game Cards point towards an "adorably all digital" future?We think not - because Nintendo has the most to lose from abandoning physical sales.Image credit: Nintendo/Digital Foundry Blog by Will Judd Deputy Editor, Digital Foundry Published on March 31, 2025 Ahead of Wednesday's Switch 2 reveal event, Nintendo announced a new feature for its Switch consoles: virtual game card. In short, you can now link multiple Switches together to share digital games, with a game that is ejected from the first unit then becoming playable on the second, without the hassle of setting "primary" and "non-primary" Switch devices. It could point towards Nintendo edging towards the same "adorably all digital" future espoused by Microsoft in leaked documents, but does it? To discuss this, and the rest of the week's tech news, Digital Foundry's John, Alex and Oliver assembled for DF Weekly #207. The discussion kicks off 40 minutes into the episode, with our panellists concluding that this isn't a move towards the digital-first approach taken by Microsoft and Sony, but rather a quality-of-life feature that comes into play just as owners of Switch consoles pick up a Switch 2. So what's the issue that Nintendo is trying to solve here? In short, right now you can nominate one Switch as your "primary" console, with all others being "non-primary". The primary console can play all games offline, but non-primary consoles have to be online to run games - which is a pain if you wanted to play a digital game on a flight or anywhere else with limited connectivity. DF Weekly #207 is perpetrated by John, Alex and Oliver, in a rare Rich-less episode. Watch on YouTube0:00:00 Introduction0:01:17 News 1: Nintendo Direct - Metroid Prime 40:11:02 Pokmon Legends: Z-A0:22:08 Patapon, Everybody's Golf, Tomodachi, Dragon Quest, Witchbrook, Shadow Labyrinth, Gradius, Marvel Cosmic Invasion0:33:02 Switch 2 C button leak and Nintendo Today app0:40:01 News 2: Nintendo introduces Virtual Game Cards0:54:01 News 3: Switch 2 game rollout revealed?1:00:33 News 4: Witcher 4, Intergalactic to arrive after 20261:09:51 News 5: Alex's Nvidia driver woes1:19:36 News 6: John's GDC thoughts1:32:44 Supporter Q1: What's your favourite GPU of all time?1:39:07 Supporter Q2: Will Valve release a Steam Deck 2 soon?1:44:31 Supporter Q3: Should PC settings be changed to improve branding?1:52:02 Supporter Q4: Could Xbox One have succeeded if it had been better introduced?2:00:12 Supporter Q5: Is disc degradation a concern with Blu-ray media?The new system seems fairly promising by comparison. Just as you can take out a physical Switch cartridge from your console and loan it to a friend or family member - or just put it in another Switch you own, eg travelling with a Switch Lite, - you'll be able to "eject" a virtual cartridge from one device and "load" it onto another, using a bespoke menu. You need internet connectivity to load and eject, but after a game is loaded, it's available thereafter regardless of conditions. Family sharing also looks to have been improved in the new paradigm, with a simple screen for lending a game to a member of your (up to eight person) Nintendo family group. Family sharing comes with more stringent requirements though, with a 14 day use window - after which the transfer has to be reauthorised - and requiring both Switches to be within physical proximity for the transfer to work. However, you can still use the old family sharing system if you prefer. The key thing here is that the virtual game card system lays the groundwork for a future where it's likely that most Switch 2 purchasers will already have an original Switch console of some flavour lying around - and one that should remain useful even after the new hardware debuts, with Nintendo seeming likely to adopt a similar cross-generation strategy to that of Xbox and Microsoft with their ninth-generation consoles. Now transferring digital games between those two platforms becomes much more manageable, and you can easily pass off your old Switch to a friend or family member if you're all-in on Switch 2. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Beyond this, it's worth looking at the current state of affairs when it comes to physical retail presence. You'd have to say that Nintendo is leading in this aspect, certainly in their home market of Japan, with Microsoft having almost wholly exited the sector and Sony also shifting towards a more digital-first outlook. That means that Nintendo has the most to lose from the switch to digital games, especially given their focus on an extremely wide target market that may be a little less comfortable with digital purchases - especially parents or grandparents buying games for children, a scenario where physical games have huge advantages. The new virtual game card uses a familiar metaphor that feels more intuitive at first blush than those of Nintendo's rivals, but it's hard to see the company abandoning its tried-and-tested approach to physical media any time soon. The rest of the Direct is well worth watching, with coverage of some other interesting titbits from the Nintendo announcements - including the Switch 2's C Button and potential game roll-out strategy. Elsewhere, Alex vents over the current state of Nvidia drivers, John shares his hands-on experiences from GDC and we have a series of cracking supporter questions, starting with what the best graphics card (and GPU generation) of all time is. It's obviously the RTX 5090 in terms of raw performance, but our hosts have slightly more retro tastes. Thanks to our supporters for submitting great questions as always, and if you're interested in getting involved yourself - and getting access to high-quality video downloads of everything we do, exclusive production notes each week and plenty more, check out the DF Supporter programme on Patreon!
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  • RuneScape: Dragonwilds is a new survival crafting game from Jagex
    www.eurogamer.net
    RuneScape: Dragonwilds is a new survival crafting game from JagexHere be dragons.Image credit: Jagex News by Lottie Lynn Guides Editor Published on March 31, 2025 Jagex is stepping beyond the realm of MMORPGs with the release of RuneScape: Dragonwilds - an open world survival crafting game. Best known as the developers behind the long running MMORPG RuneScape 3 and its spin off, Old School RuneScape, Dragonwilds will be mechanically different to these games but is set within the RuneScape universe.Alone or alongside three players, RuneScape: Dragonwilds will see you venturing to Ashenfall - a forgotten continent on Gielinor (the planet where RuneScape is primarily set), where you'll use magic and level up skills to carve out a life for yourself in the wilds. Here we find echoes of the MMORPGs, as it wouldn't be a game in the RuneScape universe without skills and the progression system will be on hand to supply you with new skills, crafting recipes and abilities to aid in your survival. Image credit: JagexTo see this content please enable targeting cookies. You'll also be able to wield Anima - also known as the living energy of the universe, source of all magic and what the Wilder Gods eat to sustain their eggs. Outside of what I'm sure you'll agree is very interesting RuneScape lore, Anima has a variety of uses in Dragonwilds, such as summoning axes for instantaneous tree cutting or repairing armor after a tough battle. Image credit: JagexSurvival won't be easy though. Ashenfall is home to forgotten secrets and legendary RuneScape monsters, which means there be dragons. Where there's dragons you can also reliably find fire, chaos and the increased chance of being eaten. The task of defeating the Dragon Queen is on your shoulders though, so best to get over any fears about the last fact pretty sharpish. Luckily, there does seem to be some popular RuneScape characters on hand to help (or at least, people who resemble them). Pretty sure I spotted the Wise Old Man wearing his definitely legally acquired party hat Left: A dragon. | Right: The Wise Old Man (possibly). Image credit: JagexOn the development of RuneScape: Dragonwilds, Jagex CEO Jon Bellamy has said: "From the very beginning, community feedback has been at the heart of RuneScape: Dragonwilds."Bellamy added closed alpha tests have already been conducted and Jagex will be "listening to player feedback when building the game throughout Early Access". RuneScape: Dragonwilds will launch in Early Access in Spring 2025. Though you can add it to your Steam wishlist today and, if you'd like to learn more, there will be a Twitch livestream covering the game at 5pm (BST) on Tuesday 15th April.
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  • Previously promised RoboCop VR game sounds super shady, as development halts following lack of official licence
    www.eurogamer.net
    Previously promised RoboCop VR game sounds super shady, as development halts following lack of official licenceMurphy's law.Image credit: Coffee Moth Games News by Victoria Kennedy News Reporter Published on March 31, 2025 A previously announced RoboCop VR title has been kiboshed after it transpired that the game wasn't officially licensed before its reveal.RoboCop: Streets of Anarchy, as it was known, was a VR game based on the sci-fi film which first made the rounds earlier this month, when it appeared on developer Coffee Moth Games' website.At this time, the game was said to be being created in partnership with Amazon-MGM and would promise an "original narrative and complex storylines interwoven with bombastic action".This INCREDIBLE Mod Makes HUNDREDS Of Flat Games Support VR! Watch on YouTubeHowever, fast forward a couple of weeks, and those promises are going to have to be left unfulfilled, as it turns out RoboCop: Streets of Anarchy wasn't actually officially licensed before its reveal.An Amazon MGM representative told UploadVR the company never actually entered into any agreement with Coffee Moth Games. "Furthermore, Amazon MGM advised that RoboCop isn't officially licensed with that studio, and the official website page for Streets of Anarchy has since been removed," UploadVR continued.The publication had previously been in contact with Coffee Moth Games, and a representative from the studio revealed they're actually an outsourcing company with no direct relationship to Amazon MGM. However, "the company responsible for contracting the rights from Amazon MGM contacted us for the game's development," the representative said. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.The landing page for RoboCop: Streets of Anarchy and the developer itself is currently locked away behind a password, and therefore can not be accessed by the public (I just tried).Eurogamer has reached out to Coffee Moth Games for further information.
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