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  • "Game development legend" Overwatch art director Bill Petras has unexpectedly died
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    "Game development legend" and Overwatch art director, Bill Petras, has died unexpectedly. Read more
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  • Fortnite movie reports are "false", says Epic boss
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    Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney has snuffed out reports that a Fortnite movie is the "next" video game to get a silver screen adaptation. Read more
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  • A Minecraft Movie opens with biggest US domestic opening weekend ever for a video game adaptation
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    A Minecraft Movie has generated $301m worldwide - that's 233m - on its opening weekend. Read more
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  • Rise of the Ronin team apologises as players blast "horrible" optimisation
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    Rise of the Ronin developer Team Ninja has "sincerely apologised" for "inconveniences" with its Steam port.In a brief statement posted to X/Twitter, Team Ninja confirmed that it was "investigating reported issues" with the game and is preparing a patch to "fix or improve some of this issues", which is expected to go live on Thursday 10th April.Xbox currently has more first-party games coming to PlayStation 5 this year than Sony.Watch on YouTubeRise of the Ronin released on Steam on 11th March 2025, and it's currently sitting on a "mixed" user score, with just 57 percent of the 3118 reviewers opting to award it a positive rating.Like many other PC ports of late, much of the criticism is aimed squarely at the game's "horrible" optimisation, including issues with enemies loading in for bossfights, missing NPCs, invisible walls, and missing assets like ladders."I really like the gameplay, the combat, maybe the exploration (it has its issues, though) but I can't recommend this game in good faith when it has some of the most terrible optimisation ever," explained one player. To see this content please enable targeting cookies."Not only that, but they managed to update the game to make it both look AND perform worse in an attempt to band-aid fix the performance issues, effectively ruining something I could at least enjoy before.""A shame, the game seems quite good, but the port is just not worth paying any money for," opined another. "Performance is abysmal, frame rates above 60 fps lead to issues and bugs, and the only way to get a frame rate close to anything playable is to set lots of graphical options to the lowest, leading to a very poor image. I would love to play the game, but nobody should be paying for a port in a state like this."We awarded Rise of the Ronin four out of five stars in Eurogamer's review, saying: "[Developer] Team Ninja borrows the open-world familiarity and historical tourism of Assassin's Creed while adapting its own breed of hardcore action for the mainstream."
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  • Buying physical copies of Nintendo Switch 2's "upgraded" games? You should probably read this
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    Buying physical copies of Nintendo Switch 2's "upgraded" games? You should probably read this"This is needlessly convoluted."Image credit: Eurogamer/Nintendo News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on April 5, 2025 Physical copies of OG Switch games upgraded for Nintendo Switch 2, like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Metroid Prime 4, will seemingly ship with original Switch 1 cartridges.That's according to a Nintendo support representative in the UK, who reportedly confirmed in writing that the Switch 2 "enhanced" editions themselves will have to be downloaded separately via "download codes" and then applied to the original version on the cart.Nintendo Switch 2 Hands-On Preview: Mario Kart World Impressions & More!Watch on YouTubeWhilst the exact question posed to the customer rep is not provided, Does It Play on X/Twitter tweeted an image of an email response allegedly taken from a customer services conversation that reportedly stated: "Yes, we can confirm that the upgrades will be download codes. Thank you for your understanding". To see this content please enable targeting cookies.As Wario64 rightly points out, this wouldn't be the first time a customer service rep unwittingly gave out inaccurate information - so we've reached out to Nintendo for confirmation - and there's nothing on the box art we've seen thus far that suggests a separate download is required."And it's weird they would be codes when Nintendo is pivoting to game key carts instead of download codes of retail games," Wario64 added. "I know game key carts are different, I'm highlighting it because it shows Nintendo is offering that solution instead of download codes for Switch 2 games, so offering a code for the upgrade pack doesn't make sense (they could put the upgrade pack as a license on the cart)."As a commenter points out, it all feels "needlessly convoluted", although others suggest it's "part of the plan"."Pretty simple. If you resell the Switch 2 key cart, then the new person will have to purchase the upgrade pack. More money for Nintendo. Sounds like part of the plan," opined one.We'll try and clear things up as/when Nintendo comes back to us.ICYMI, Stateside Nintendo fans will have to wait a little bit longer before they can pre-order a Switch 2 after Nintendo of American confirmed that US preorders - which were scheduled to go live on 9th April - will now be delayed "in order to assess the potential impact of [President Trump's] tariffs and evolving market conditions".Eurogamer has confirmed with Nintendo that there are no current plans to adjust the ongoing pre-order process here in the UK.For more on the upcoming console, here's everything announced at the Switch 2 Direct, including pricing, games, and more.
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  • The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered: how the PlayStation game was ported to PC
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    The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered: how the PlayStation game was ported to PCDF speaks with key figures from Nixxes and Naughty Dog.Image credit: Naughty Dog Interview by Alex Battaglia Video Producer, Digital Foundry Additional contributions byWill JuddPublished on April 5, 2025 The Last of Us Part 2 recently launched on PC, bringing the second part of the well-known Naughty Dog PlayStation adventure to a whole new audience. Port developers Nixxes build on the work previously done by Iron Galaxy for Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us Part 1 on PC, bringing new features and familiar limitations in almost equal measure. We recently spoke to some of the key figures at Naughty Dog and Nixxes about the work they've done on the new port, which does launch in a much stronger state than its predecessor. Those figures include Naughty Dog's programming director Travis McIntosh and game director Matthew Gallant and a host of developers from Nixxes: PC product director Coen Frauenfelder, principal optimisation director Wessel de Groot, junior graphics engineer Yana Mateeva, and senior director of development and studio head Jurjen Katsman. As usual, the interview below has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Enjoy! When did the project for The Last of Us Part 2 on PC begin? What are the origins of the current release?Travis McIntosh: It was more than a year ago, maybe a year and three or four months ago, and actually Nixxes wasn't available at the beginning. We always planned on working with them, but initially we worked with Iron Galaxy to produce an initial PC version. Some time in the fall of last year, Iron Galaxy rolled off, with Nixxes joining the project. We had a three or four month transition period and then they kind of took over lead development of the project around October, where they were the sole partner that we were working with, and they have done the bulk of the technical work. We've been talking throughout - at least once a week, sometimes three times a week, sometimes more. The bulk of the technical details have been done by them, with us standing over their shoulder and saying, "Hey, fix that. Fix that." Here's our full PC tech review of The Last of Us Part 2. Watch on YouTubeWhat are the origins of the Naughty Dog engine on PC? It ships on DirectX 12, but presumably it must have existed in some prior form. Did anything on PC exist before porting begun, like a live editor, or did it need to be produced from the ground up? Travis McIntosh: Obviously the work on The Last of Us Part 1 for PC helped with this. But if you want to start all the way at the beginning, before we had a PC version at all, there was almost no PC code. When we do PlayStation games, we are as low level as we can - as close to the metal as possible - and focus completely on a single platform. So there was very little PC support at all in the project. That all had to be brought up for Part 1 on PC, then on Part 2 we had to move that all over with Iron Galaxy. Nixxes joined us and started on the engine work when we were in the transition phase between porting over what we did for Part 1 to Part 2. The engine hadn't changed that much between projects. So a lot of the lessons and technology that we built or learned on Part 1 got moved over to this project. So from the Nixxes perspective, what were the key changes you wanted to make from Part 1 to Part 2?Coen Frauenfelder: Well, of course, we have our own way of doing things for all of us at Nixxes. We wanted to bring over a lot of our knowledge that we already have, making sure that the game runs stably and performs very well. So we actually looked into what was already available, and building on that we brought over a lot of our own work. That took quite some time, but our experience helped a lot. Travis McIntosh: I wanted to call out one thing that they did that really was awesome, in my opinion, the new PSO [shader] compilation scheme that's in this game versus what we had in Part 1 on PC. So that was all Nixxes' expertise, and I think it shows off how much better the experience is in this game.That is actually our next question. Could you briefly describe how the new system gathers and compiles PSOs and how it differs from the previous system?Wessel de Groot: In terms of gathering, it's pretty much the same. We just let QA play the game and collect the PSOs. But the new system doesn't do any pre-compilation in the main menu - it's all hidden in the background and done during gameplay. The initial loading screen waits for all the PSOs to compile and, once that's ready, lets go of the loading screen. Those are the basics of the new system.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. So how do you exactly balance the load between compiling shaders in the background while keeping reasonable frame-rates and frame-times during gameplay?Wessel de Groot: We try to minimize PSO threads in the background when gameplay is running and make the process as non-intrusive as possible. Also, if PSOs are not ready on time, then we actually skip the draw, and then we just bump the priority of that PSO compile. On the next frame, it's hopefully done, and then we can actually show the object.I've noticed thread utilisation go up when you regain control after a cutscene, which I presume is PSOs being crunched in the background. Does it happen every time after a cutscene, or what triggers it?Wessel de Groot: It's based on streaming. So whatever new stuff is streamed in, then the PSO compiles start.OK, that makes sense, because we've seen similar utilisation when moving between areas - sometimes 20 seconds of compiling in the background when moving into a new area on a lower-end CPU. Another change is the addition of dynamic resolution scaling - what was it like adding that in? Yana Mateeva: Oh yeah, it was interesting. The actual engine lent itself quite well to implementing dynamic resolution scaling. So on that front, it was not a very super difficult experience and it worked quite well. We did have some challenges with certain effects, which we did have to tweak specifically for PC to make them really compatible with dynamic resolution scaling. But yeah, it comes with the territory.Here's how The Last of Us Part 2 fares on PS5 Pro. Watch on YouTubeWhat cross-game libraries, other than dynamic resolution scaling, did Nixxes bring to this project? Coen Frauenfelder: We brought a lot of them! We're supporting DirectStorage, so we have our own libraries for that, and they also help a lot with streaming overall in the game. Besides that, all game inputs are going through our systems, as well as display handling and upscalers. Could you talk about the changes to streaming, vis a vis DirectStorage?Coen Frauenfelder: Actually, the system lends itself very well to DirectStorage. We're just using CPU decompression, without GPU decompression. The new system gives us a lot of benefits - more room, better scalability on streaming things in faster.Jurjen Katsman: One thing to maybe add is that we are using different compression algorithms which decompress really fast with low CPU usage, but use a little more disk space. We'd rather not spend too much time on unloading and decompressing in the background, so we make different trade-offs compared to PS5. At SIGGRAPH 2020, there was a lot of presentations on the low-level work on PS4, but on PC with things like Shader Model 6, you do get wave intrinsics and asynchronous compute. Is the game using any of the more "low-level" features that are possible with DX12?Wessel de Groot : We are using async compute and wave intrinsics. I'm not sure how it specifically compares to Part 1, because I didn't work on that one. Jurjen Katsman: I think it's worth mentioning that while some of those concepts exist and can be used, it doesn't necessarily level the playing field with the PS5. Certainly using async compute with the PS5, where you know exactly what the hardware is and what things pair well together, and there's less driver in the middle, we've always found it to be a lot more beneficial on consoles than it is on PC, unfortunately. Travis McIntosh: It's just great on PS5, there's almost nothing between us and the hardware. It's just we know what we're going to get, and we can build our command lists and just send them off and know exactly what's going to happen. And props to Nixxes for figuring out how what might happen on 100,000 different configurations. Shadow quality is one area where The Last of Us Part 2 on PC pushes past the PS5. Image quality is another. | Image credit: Digital FoundryGoing back to PSO compilation, in past ports there was a long shader burn for each sub-section of the game that would load. Even in the Uncharted games, switching between Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy would make the PSO compiler begin again. Where are the wealth of PSOs coming from? Does the game just have a lot of shaders, or is it the state permutations from stuff you are not sure will be displayed? Travis McIntosh: There's no PSO loading or compilation on PS5, so the way we designed the engine is to give artists the most control and the ability to make the game look its best. Artists can tweak shaders on a very granular level, and because of that, we have way more shaders than we would if we were building a PC port from scratch. So it is a very large number of different permutations and that's always been the challenge. And I think with how Nixxes handles it, it's pretty seamless for most consumers.It's a night-and-day difference; loading chapters and getting into the game is much faster. Are PSOs the largest contributing factor in load times? Jurjen Katsman: We have some numbers that we check internally, but yes most of the loading time is PSO compilation, so loading for the second time is massively reduced. The PC version can be much faster loading than the PS5 version, depending on your PC. So in terms of challenges, you did mention the amount of shader permutations, but also the low level work that helps the game run well on PS5. What are the challenges in translating that to PC where things are less bare metal, and more abstracted?Coen Frauenfelder: It's a new engine to us, so that's always a challenge. Once you get a version of the game running, you have to consider what you want to keep, what you need to pay more attention to to ensure the game is running perfectly. Wessel de Groot: One thing is the spin locking. That is cheap on the console, but on Windows, that can be very problematic for performance. That's one thing that we addressed for this port in particular.'Our original review of the PlayStation 5 version of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered.Watch on YouTubeDid you switch to mutex? Wessel de Groot: No, because that also has to do with the way that this job system works: it uses fibres. I'd say it's one of the better job systems I've worked with in my career. So it's a nice, well-optimised engine in that regard, which can't really use a mutex due to the way fibres work. So we had to come up with a sort of a different construct for that. I think we managed quite well there.That seems to be a change from the previous port, where even standing in an alleyway with nothing visibly happening, you could see extremely high CPU utilisation. Travis McIntosh: Part of it is our fault - on PS5, no one cares what the CPU utilisation is. The job system was originally constructed to just always use everything, every second, and so moving that to PC, Nixxes was super helpful in helping to optimise utilisation as people on PC do care about it. It was challenging to reduce that as we never had to worry about it on console. Looking towards the future, I imagine Naughty Dog will eventually want to bring other titles to PC. From the Nixxes perspective, are there any engine features that you'd like to see in future work that target PC more specifically? Coen Frauenfelder: It's probably quite difficult to talk about that, but I could see us focusing on ray tracing in the future.We like to end these interviews with a familiar question: what was your favorite aspect of working on this project? What was it like working on this versus something like the PC version of Ghost of Tsushima? The PC specs here are perhaps a little optimistic, with our testing revealing the RTX 3060 and Ryzen 5 3600 struggle to hit 60fps at medium settings - which are in some cases worse than on PS4. | Image credit: SonyYana Mateeva: For me, it was entirely different, just because we started from scratch with Ghost of Tsushima and then we had to build it all up, whereas here we actually got quite a well-executed product already. We had to really think, "How can we improve this?" We were quite involved in, for example, tweaking the scalability for the game. Can we maybe make a better user experience? And that was quite an interesting part of the project for me. Matthew Gallant: I don't know if this is quite the angle you're wanting on this, but we do have a bunch of new stuff in the PC version of the game. We have the new maps for "No Return". Bill and Marlene are playable. And for players who choose to optionally link their PSN account, we have the jacket from Intergalactic, Jordan Mun's jacket. We're very excited that we got those into the PC version of the game. Travis McIntosh: I personally just love ultra-widescreen. I love big wide screens at home. I played this game plenty, but I never got to play it like that, so that was really fun. Coen Frauenfelder: Yeah, for me, it is actually very simple. It's a beautiful product. I love The Last of Us. I played it, I think, on every platform that it came out on. Being able to work on that with Nuaghty Dog was a dream come true. But that's a personal thing. Wessel de Groot: Yeah, same. It's one of my favorite franchises, so being able to work on that and seeing how it works internally was really awesome.Jurjen Katsman: For me, what was the most different about this one is that we took something that had already been taken somewhere else by another partner. That makes you focus on deciding on what the added value we provide is. We things would we have done differently. You have to be on the look-out. You have to ask, "Did we miss something, something we didn't touch at all?" So it was a very different experience. But nonetheless, I really appreciate Naughty Dog reaching out to us and working with us on this project, because, as Coen said, this is certainly a project that we would have never expected to ever work on back in the Square Enix days in 2020 when this came out.
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  • What we've been playing - office nightmares, games with kids, and Tetris building games
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    What we've been playing - office nightmares, games with kids, and Tetris building gamesA few of the things that have us hooked this week.Image credit: Eurogamer / Galactic Cafe Feature by Robert Purchese Associate Editor Additional contributions byTom OrryPublished on April 5, 2025 5th AprilHello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing. This week, Bertie gets his starchiest white shirt on and descends into the corporate purgatory of The Stanley Parable, cleansing himself in the nearest river in between, while Tom O both dips back into Avowed and tries Split Fiction with his son.What have you been playing?Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We've Been Playing archive.The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, PCEven the trailers for The Stanley Parable are genius.Watch on YouTubeI have a remarkable ability to allow things to completely pass me by - just whoosh! they're gone. Perhaps I'll do a masterclass on it one day. "One simply turns their head in the opposite direction and hey presto, the world passes them by." Oh now I've given it away.It's how I found myself only this week playing seminal 2013 indie banger The Stanley Parable, partially because Lottie loves it and appears as if summoned whenever someone even slightly references it, and also because I was told it was a lot like Severance, the TV show. And it is by the way - it's exactly like Severance, but I ended up writing a thing about that which I don't want to echo here.What I wanted to say here was that The Stanley Parable absolutely holds up. It feels as refreshing and magical and intelligent to me in 2025 as I expect it did to people in 2013 - as I know it did to people in 2013, because they wouldn't stop going on about it. And I don't think that's a given. A game like that has to work harder in 2025, partially because of the legacy that precedes it, partly because it's aging, and partly because there are that many more intelligent indie games around it. That The Stanley Parable should still shine so bright is borderline remarkable.-BertieAvowed, Xbox Series X / Split Fiction, PS5 ProSplit Fiction is great. The end.Watch on YouTubeIf there's an annoyance I have with Avowed (other than the ghosting visuals when moving the camera), it's the difficulty I have working out where to go, to get to where I want to be. I've started taking on some side quests having been focusing mainly on the central storyline, but it's thrown some map markers way out beyond where I've been before. I often head over in the direction of a marker, only to find that the door I go through takes me to an area that is locked off from where I need to go, so I end up going down blind alleys and retracing my steps back again.My solution has been to make a quick exit to the open world outside of whichever built up area I'm in, then go what I presume is the long way round to the marker. I know GPS-style navigation isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I feel Avowed would benefit from having it.I've also put a couple of hours into Split Fiction alongside my son. I wasn't really sold on the art direction in the pre-release footage, it coming across as a little bit generic, but in the heat of the action it's perfectly solid and changes things up frequently. We managed to complete the pig section just before we called it a night, and it was a lot of fun, if rather traumatic. I'm not sure what was more disturbing, though, the twerking pig or the meat grinder. But we're looking forward to seeing what happens next.-Tom ORiver Towns, PCRiver Towns is much more like Tetris than I realised.Watch on YouTubeI've had this one earmarked for a while, but I was completely wrong - I now realise - about what kind of game it would be. What I thought it would be was a cosy building game about making settlements alongside rivers, and it sort of is that, but much more immediately it's a kind of Tetris game. And I like that because I know that.The premise is really simple: lay down pieces of a town shaped as Tetronimoes are, with the hope of fitting them in perfectly to a confined space by the side of a river. Place them perfectly and you'll get a big score. It really is that simple. A town literally pops into being, as in a pop-up picture book, as you lay the pieces down.You follow a dried out river across an overland map, gradually restoring life and activity as you go, and the complexity gently increases. I now have two types of building - two factions, sort of - that I need to place away from each other so as not cross-contaminate, and I get bonus points at the end for whichever faction is larger. It's like playing against myself, which is odd.I've only had a brief blast at it so how it develops from here, I don't know, but the introduction is strong - immediate and tactile and pleasant. I like it.-Bertie
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  • Watch Nintendo's second Switch 2 Treehouse: Live presentation here
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    Nintendo is about to kick off its second Treehouse: Live stream, giving us a look at some of the upcoming games and enhancements coming to Switch 2. Read more
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  • FromSoftware's focus hasn't shifted to multiplayer, Miyazaki says, despite Elden Ring: Nightreign and The Duskbloods
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    FromSoftware's focus hasn't shifted to multiplayer, Miyazaki says, despite Elden Ring: Nightreign and The DuskbloodsPlus, more details on the Switch 2 exclusive.Image credit: FromSoftware News by Ed Nightingale Deputy News Editor Published on April 4, 2025 FromSoftware boss Hidetaka Miyazaki has confirmed the studio hasn't shifted to focus on multiplayer games.The studio is best-known for its single-player games, from its Soulsborne games to the hugely successful Elden Ring. Yet that game's follow-up, Nightreign, is an online co-op roguelike, while the studio's Switch 2 exclusive Duskbloods has been confirmed as a PvPvE game following its reveal earlier this week at the Nintendo Direct."As previously mentioned, this is an online multiplayer title at its core, but this doesn't mean that we as a company have decided to shift to a more multiplayer-focused direction with titles going forward," said Miyazaki in an interview with Nintendo.The Duskbloods Nintendo Direct | Nintendo Switch 2Watch on YouTube"The Nintendo Switch 2 version of Elden Ring was also announced, and we still intend to actively develop single-player focused games such as this that embrace our more traditional style."However, he stated he's always found the PvPvE structure "very interesting", adding: "It allows for a broad range of game-design ideas, while also letting us leverage our experience of designing challenging enemy encounters."Elsewhere in the interview, Miyazaki provided more details on The Duskbloods. At first it was designed for the original Switch, but development changed to the newer console as its "focus on online features allowed us to stay as true to the original vision as possible". Gun fights will be more prevalent in The Duskbloods | Image credit: FromSoftwareAs for characters and setting, player characters are known as "Bloodsworn" and have super-human abilities through the power of special blood."As a general concept, they're similar to vampires, but they are not portrayed as the horrifying monsters you might associate with traditional vampirism," said Miyazaki."We tried to extract the sort of romantic aspects we found interesting from concepts such as vampires and 'blood' and reinterpreted them as the Bloodsworn."He continued: "In The Duskbloods, the Bloodsworn are competing for something known as 'First Blood'. As human society reaches an end, First Blood flows in an event known as the 'Twilight of Humanity'. The Bloodsworn are summoned to the Twilight of Humanity across a variety of different times and places in a bid to obtain First Blood."Due to this, there is no fixed era or location in which The Duskbloods takes place. There are more traditional Gothic- or Victorian-style maps as well as those depicting the closing years of the early modern period, like the one glimpsed in the trailer with the train running through it."As a result of the special blood, basic actions are dynamic and superhuman, like sprinting, super jump, and double jump."Also, and while this isn't directly related to the Bloodsworn themselves, the setting allows for the depiction of firearms and such, and every character is equipped with some means of attacking from a distance," confirmed Miyazaki. "I feel this is one of the game's unique aspects when compared with our previous titles. I hope these new action elements are one area that players will enjoy."Players will choose from over a dozen specific characters to play as, each with their own identity and unique weapons. As for the gameplay loop, Duskbloods has a hub area from which up to eight players can join a match. On their return, they receive rewards to customise their character further. Matches are generally last player standing, though victory conditions will differ in certain cases - taking down a boss, for instance.Further, how players conduct themselves is as important as direct combat, Miyazaki explained. "The Duskbloods implements 'Victory Points', which are responsible for ultimately deciding the outcome of a match," he said. "To obtain Victory Points, direct combat is of course important, but it's not the only way. Some players may prefer to earn points by avoiding direct combat and instead engaging in more opportunistic behavior. How you earn points is entirely up to you."Additionally, each character can summon an entity to assist in combat, giving players a high degree of freedom when it comes to how they fight - and win." It's this enemy that intrigues me most... | Image credit: FromSoftwareThere's also an event system to dynamically alter the course of a match - something FromSoftware has similarly implemented in Nightreign.Another interesting addition are "roles" for each player, outside of the main mission of obtaining First Blood. For instance, players may need to defeat a specific opponent, or seek another player as their companion. Roles are assigned by blood customisation.Indeed, character customisation is also where players will find the typical lore fragments of Souls games. By customising a character, players will alter their "blood history and fate", slowly revealing their story. Image credit: FromSoftwareOh and the winged rat from the trailer? That's your new hub friend, providing expert advice between matches. Miyazaki joked this is FromSoftware doing "something a little Nintendo-esque in the spirit of the partnership".He added: "We tried something cute for a change. Although I will say this character is actually an elderly gentleman."The Duskbloods was revealed at the Switch 2 Direct earlier this week, where it initially drew favourable comparisons to Bloodborne. For more on the new console, check out Eurogamer's hands-on preview with Switch 2.
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  • Binding of Isaac creator's long-awaited cat breeding game Mewgenics gets dumbfounding live-action trailer
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    Binding of Isaac creator's long-awaited cat breeding game Mewgenics gets dumbfounding live-action trailerRelease date news coming soon.Image credit: Edmund McMillen/Tyler Glaiel News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on April 4, 2025 It's been one hell of a wait, but Binding of Isaac creator Edmund McMillen's extremely long-awaited cat breeding game Mewgenics is almost upon us. And with a release looming (comparatively speaking, at least), its first proper trailer is here - and, wow, is it something.Mewgenics (or Mew-Genics as it was originally known) first surfaced back in 2012. It was described as a cat-themed "cross between The Sims and Pokmon with a sprinkling of Animal Crossing and a dash of Tamagotchi", and was supposed to be developer Team Meat's long-awaited follow-up to Super Meat Boy - until it was quietly shelved just a few years later.Since then, a lot more has happened. After McMillen and Team Meat development partner Tommy Refenes opted to go their separate ways, McMillen went on to create the hugely successful The Binding of Isaac Rebirth, plus other acclaimed oddities like The End is Nigh and Isaac spin-off The Legend of Bum-bo. In 2018, however, McMillen revealed he'd decided to resurrect Mewgenics, and development has been ticking along ever since.Mewgenics trailer.Watch on YouTubeWe've had a steady stream of updates since then, including confirmation Mewgenics has changed considerably since its original inception 13 years ago. It's now something like a cat-themed tactical RPG, split between breeding and combat, and is currently scheduled to launch this year. But while McMillen says there won't be any release date news just yet, we do have one hell of a live-action trailer to tide us over. It tells the heartwarming story of a struggling couple and the rutting cat-things that brought them closer together. And there's even some gameplay in there too, but given everything else going on - including the catchy little song it's all set to - you might need to watch a few times to take it all in.Revealing the trailer in a post on Steam, McMillen offered a brief development update, explaining Mewgenics is currently undergoing a bit of polishing ahead of a more thorough showing next month. And as for a release date? McMillen said there'll be more news on that next month too. In the meantime, it's available to wishlist on PC.
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  • Here's a closer look at Kirby and the Forgotten Land's remixed and expanded Switch 2 worlds
    www.eurogamer.net
    Here's a closer look at Kirby and the Forgotten Land's remixed and expanded Switch 2 worldsArriving in new Star-Crossed World edition.Image credit: Nintendo News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on April 4, 2025 What better way to start winding down from a busy week of Switch 2 news than with a look at the ever-adorable Kirby and the Forgotten Land, now strikingly remixed as part of an expanded edition coming to Nintendo's new console later this year? 'Go outside!' you might suggest, or 'Lie on my face and hum!', but for the purposes of this story it's Kirby, and we now have a clearer idea of what's coming in his previously announced Switch 2 enhanced edition.Nintendo's calling its Switch 2 spruce-up Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World (let's be thankful we aren't getting tariffs on letters too), and it includes everything seen in the original Switch release - which we gave four stars to back in 2022 - alongside a bunch of new stuff. On the technical front, Kirby also gets a bump from 30fps to 60fps, and it'll be play at 1080p in handheld mode and 1440p docked.The real draw, though, is the new content, which takes the form of a remixed campaign known as Star-Crossed World. As revealed during Nintendo's Treehouse livestream, this begins with a choice of difficulty - Wild Mode or Spring-Breeze Mode - with an on-screen message warning it's "a bit wilder and more challenging" than the base game. On the plus side, it rewards more coins. And, it's worth noting the new content is fully playable in co-op - one player taking on the role of Kirby, the other Bandana Waddle Dee - just like in the original version.Kirby and the Forgotten Land's Switch 2 additions (starts around 1:47:00)Watch on YouTubeStar-Crossed World essentially play out across the base game's map, albeit with each level apparently heavily remixed to suit the expansion's 'mysterious crystal comet comes crashing down causing havoc' theme. Once again, for instance, Kirby's adventure begins on the shore of a sandy cove, but now it's littered with star-like crystals - and some these, crystal flowers, cause previously unseen pathways to form when struck.Before long, Treehouse's demonstration reaches the overgrown city seen in the base game. Only this time - after a massive meteor crashes into a towering skyscraper - the streets are corrupted with shimmering blue hues and crystal protrusions. Some of them have even infected familiar enemies, giving them dainty little crystal mohawks and tougher attacks. And it doesn't take long for the new content to diverge from the original stage's route; rather than leading Kirby through the now-blocked streets, he follows a path of winding platforms up the exterior of a skyscraper, until the city - and the base game's familiar path - stretches out far below.It's a similar story for the remixed version of the dilapidated fairground level shown next, which soon takes players away from ground level onto a vast crystal rollercoaster track winding high above the park. At one point, we see the return of the Mouthful Pipe power-up, as Kirby hurtles with increasing speed along the coaster's dips and rises, but the Treehouse crew stressed new power-ups also come into play. There's an adorable Mouthful Spring power-up transformation, for instance, letting Kirby bounce much higher than usual and slam heavily down.Star-Crossed World also features new mini-bosses alongside tweaked variants of familiar foes, and it all points to an expansion that looks to diverge in some surprising ways despite it utilising existing levels. It's not entirely clear whether every base game stage has been remixed for the new campaign or if it's just a small selection, but Treehouse notes it'll be possible to access both variants on the overworld map once unlocked to make it easier to switch between modes.Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World comes to the new console on 28th August, and it'll also be available as a paid upgrade for anyone that owns the Switch original - although prices have yet to be confirmed. It's just one of several games getting the enhanced Nintendo Switch 2 Edition treatment, with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom also confirmed, alongside Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Super Mario Party Jamboree, and Pokmon Legends: Z-A. Free (albeit less substantial) Switch 2 updates are also promised for some other Switch 1 games.So that's that. And if you've yet to catch up with the deluge of Switch 2 news announced this week, why not put the kettle on, grab yourself a custard cream, and settle down to read everything we've learned about Switch 2 so far? And if you're hungry for more after that, Eurogamer's Switch 2 hands-on impressions are over here.
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  • Nintendo delays US Switch 2 pre-orders due to tariffs
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    UPDATE 4.40pm: Eurogamer has confirmed with Nintendo that there are no current plans to adjust the ongoing pre-order process here in the UK. Read more
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  • South of Midnight: a well-crafted 60fps experience on Xbox Series consoles
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    South of Midnight: a well-crafted 60fps experience on Xbox Series consolesAn accomplished presentation on both consoles - and PC.Image credit: Compulsion Games Face-off by Thomas Morgan Senior Staff Writer, Digital Foundry Published on April 4, 2025 Developer Compulsion Games continues its impressive streak of eye-catching, visually creative projects with South of Midnight. Following its work on 2013's Contrast and 2018's We Happy Few, this time we pivot to a gothic fantasy setting inspired by American deep south myths. It's a unique premise, and the third game from the studio to champion an aesthetic of some kind - with South of Midnight's twist being that it plays out using a stop motion style. To complete the effect, the game puts an arbitrary frame-rate cap in place, most notably in its cutscenes, simulating the staccato motion of an actual animated feature. It's an Xbox and PC exclusive at present, too - so how do the Series X and Series S versions compare in their delivery of this visual style, and what's the scope of the PC release's scalability? South of Midnight is a single-player, circa 12 hour adventure that fits the bill for a Game Pass release perfectly. Compulsion Games focuses on three core pillars of gameplay here: platforming, combat and physics-based puzzling. Our lead Hazel's abilities as a spell-caster give us plenty options in control for each, letting us glide through the air, push, pull and apparate scenery into existence, and even snare enemies in battle. In every aspect, this idea of manipulating the world with threads is well realised, with a satisfying flow to movement once her abilities expand on a skill tree. There are higher difficulty settings, but I found it a pleasant ride as-is on the default mode. It's linear, no question - and there's even an optional trail to the next objective if a hint is needed - but given the deluge of open-world extravaganzas as of late, it's refreshing to have a more guided experience for a change. In terms of its tech, there's no official line on whether this is using Unreal Engine 4 or 5, but, looking at the PC install directory, there are crashdump files which heavily suggest UE4 as a base. The highlight this time though is South of Midnight's stop motion animation style. To break this effect down, all cut-scenes run at 30fps on Xbox Series X, Series S and even PC. There's no way to opt out on any platform, but it's justified given it forms the basis of the game's idiosyncratic visual style. Within this 30fps update, certain elements are chopped even down further for effect; facial movements run at 15fps, creating the illusion of face plates being swapped every other frame. Meanwhile, most of Hazel's body movements run at 30fps, though some other elements - like the creatures roaming the land - appear to move at 15. The full Digital Foundry video review of South of Midnight and its unique stop motion animation, as narrated by Captain Morgan. Watch on YouTubeAll combined, the stop motion effect is convincing in its delivery, creating an otherworldly, off-kilter movement that suits the story well. We've seen this technique used in other UE games too, most recently with Hi Fi Rush's vivid imitation of a Saturday morning cartoon. Likewise, it authentically captures the anime influence on Ark System Works' Guilty Gear Strive, with pre-fight sequences running at eight, 10 or 15 frames per second - or higher. South of Midnight goes a further step though, by extending this to the controllable gameplay itself in some respects. To be clear, gameplay runs at 60fps - as it should, given the focus on timing-sensitive combat and platforming - and all camera motion conforms to a 60Hz refresh too. Still, you'll notice Hazel's running motion and the world's creatures use a form of decimated animation to lock movements at 30 or 15fps. If you're not a fan of the result, you can disable the stop motion effect outright in the menus on Xbox and PC, though this toggle will not affect the cutscenes.To the comparisons, and this is remarkably straightforward. The big difference between Series S and Series X is their resolution targets. On Series X resolution scales from 1080p to 4K internally, while Series S runs at a lower 540p to 1080p range. This is then upscaled on each machine to a fixed output resolution, 4K on Series X and 1080p on Series S, using what appears to be Unreal's TAAU method. Alas this means that Series S does take a hit to image quality, especially in one early storm sequence where any flash of lightning reveals the raw pixel structure for a few frames. Thankfully, in other chapters the Series S release holds up better. The differing resolutions have a knock-on offect on depth of field, and shadow quality looks to have been cut back very marginally on Series S, but other visual settings are matched between the two machines.A quick look at PC is also illuminating. Even with all settings locked on ultra on PC and the resolution fixed at a native 4K, the Series X version still spits out a competitive image in side-by-side comparisons. Shadow quality is really the main dividing point this time, with PC pushing cleaner, crisper shadows further to the distance. The PC edition also offers up options for DLSS upscaling and frame gen. My RTX 4080 setup comfortably maxes the game out at 4K and ultra settings with frame-rates between 65 and 80fps, with upscaling and frame generation boosting that figure substantially to 100-120fps. The game does seem to suffer from a degree of UE4 stutter, despite a short shader compilation step on first launch, with the appearance of 'weaver' characters triggering a hitch even at a capped 60fps. Hopefully this can be fixed by a patch, as the rest of the game runs smoothly.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The state of console performance is also remarkably clear-cut, with both Series X and S running at a stable 60fps for the vast majority of gameplay - with no alternative graphics modes as we've often seen in this console generation. The approach makes sense for the game's linear setting, but Compulsion still deserves props for delivering a great single mode experience. Coming straight after examining the likes of Assassin's Creed Shadows and Atomfall, more open-world affairs with RT tech, it's a relief to see a game that doesn't lump Series S users with a 30fps cap as well. There are a few small rough points elsewhere, but they're hardly game-breaking. Firstly, much like on PC, there are moments during traversal that hitch on occasion. Encounters with the ghostly weavers characters early in the adventure appear to be the cause, always triggering a small hiccup on both Series X and Series S in the same spot. It's infrequent, but sticks out given the general success of the push to 60fps. Secondly, there are sub-60fps drops in very specific areas. When Series X or S bottom out their DRS ranges, the game lurches into the mid-50s for a spell, such as during the opening chapter run during the storm, and a specific combat encounter in chapter 4. The game remains well within the VRR range, if your display supports it, but even without this feature drops are a rare enough to be overlooked in play. The final point relates to the cutscenes. Of course, the 30fps caps and 15fps animation aren't indicative of GPU limits on either machine, but the 30fps cap is incorrectly frame-paced. That makes these scenes animate more erratically than is perhaps intended, though the stop motion effect still works well despite it. It's a welcome surprise, then. South of Midnight tells a fish out of water tale with a commendable sense of style. The stop motion effect is well-executed, helping to elevate the mystique of its Deep South folklore. Hitting 60fps on both Series X and Series S isn't to be taken for granted either, with a great single-mode experience that delivers a good blend of fidelity and performance. The game's frame-rate delivery is solid, barring a few streaming hitches early on, even rarer sub-60 drops in battle and some frame pacing oddities. The one notable catch for Series S is the resolution drop, but it still holds up well given its 4TF profile. All of which makes South of Midnight an easy one to recommend right from the get-go, regardless of which Xbox you own - and especially given it's on Game Pass from day one.
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  • Tekken 8 receives "emergency patch" in response to Season Two balancing backlash
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    Tekken 8 receives "emergency patch" in response to Season Two balancing backlash"The result is a disconnect between what the community wants and the tuning results."Image credit: Bandai Namco News by Ed Nightingale Deputy News Editor Published on April 4, 2025 The developers of Tekken 8 will release an "emergency patch" later this month, in response to players furious over the balance changes brought to the game's second season.Even before the second season, Tekken 8 was criticised by players for its aggressive gameplay that lacked the more technical aspects of previous entires. In the patch notes for the latest update, released earlier this week, Bandai Namco acknowledged the prevalence of "one-sided match developments" and detailed a string of changes intended to re-balance the game.However, community feedback to the changes has been overwhelmingly negative, leading to an "emergency patch" and other fixes on the way.Tekken 8 - Anna Williams Gameplay TrailerWatch on YouTubeThe patch - scheduled for mid to late April - will tweak two moves in particular for Paul and Jack-8, which both have unintentional uninterruptable effects."The causes of the two high-priority issues shown in the image have been identified, and fixes are currently underway," a thread on social media reads."Additionally, we are also working on identifying and fixing the causes of other behaviour-related character issues and a malfunction in the Options settings."The patch will additionally "include some of the adjustment items previously announced in the patch notes under 'Future Adjustments', notably the throw break chip damage change."Further changes are also promised, based on feedback from the community.Tekken boss Katsuhiro Harada wrote on social media: "In any case, it is clear to me that the result is a disconnect between what the community wants and the tuning results. I understand that whatever words I may be accused by the community about it, that is not the essential issue and it is not the time to worry about it. We have our Battle & Tuning team working around the clock to read through all the feedback logs from the community and work on future policies and changes for the better."To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Perhaps, though, these changes are arriving too late. Many pro players are already threatening to leave the game entirely due to the balance issues (thanks IGN)."I have been optimistic about this game and the balancing direction since release but it feels like enough is enough and we've definitely reached that point. This does not feel like Tekken AT ALL," wrote pro player JoKa on social media."Characters getting buffed even in the slightest is not the way along with more stance-based transitions where 50/50 situations are enhanced. Some of the new moves added are insane with little to no counterplay. Characters getting their weaknesses patched and identities being removed by homogenisation is lazy balancing. Oki being gutted and heat just getting buffed makes no sense. Combo damage is too much across the whole roster. I definitely think the sidesteps are better but does that really matter when moves exist with crazy tracking/hitboxes? Chip damage is still excessive with most heat smashes remaining the same. Removing strategy in favour of more 50/50 situations isn't interesting gameplay and is moving away from the foundation of Tekken."Other players have described it as the "worst patch in Tekken history", or have been left "really sad" as they consider the future of the game.Over on Steam, recent reviews have dropped to "Overwhelmingly Negative" due to the changes."No one literally no one asked for these changes, even new players never asked for more offense in a game that clearly lacks defensive options and is easy to mash button and win like in most Tekken games," reads one review. Another describes it as "the most disappointing iteration of the franchise".Season Two also sees Anna Williams return to the roster, as the first new fighter of this season's Character Pass.When Anna's design was first revealed, Harada responded to fan feedback to curb toxicity.
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  • Nintendo Switch 2 doesn't actually run original Switch games natively
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    Nintendo Switch 2 doesn't actually run original Switch games natively"We decided to take on the challenge of using new technology."Image credit: Nintendo/Eurogamer News by Victoria Kennedy News Reporter Published on April 4, 2025 Nintendo's upcoming Switch 2 console doesn't actually run the original Switch's games natively, as the two hardwares are incompatible.One of the first things that we knew for absolute certain about the Switch successor was that it would be backwards compatible. "At today's Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch," company president Shuntaro Furukawa said in November.But, while this means Switch 2 owners will still be able to play most of the games from the original Switch's library, this isn't possible because the two consoles are compatible at a hardware level, which would have been handy. Rather, it's all possible thanks to a workaround Nintendo has managed to implement.Nintendo Switch 2 Hands-On Preview: Mario Kart World Impressions & More! Watch on YouTubeDuring a recent Ask the Developer Q&A, Nintendo's Kouichi Kawamoto said the Switch 2 team always wanted the new system to play the original console's games, but "were told there'd be technical challenges" getting it to work."When we first started Switch 2 development, the focus was on enhancing its performance as hardware, namely, expanding its capacity," added Takuhiro Dohta. "So, compatibility was a lower priority."But, it was still something the team wanted to ensure, and in the end the Switch 2 developers settled on "the challenge of using new technology to run Switch games".Said Dohta: "If we tried to use technology like software emulators, we'd have to run Switch 2 at full capacity, but that would mean the battery wouldn't last so long, so we did something thats somewhere in between a software emulator and hardware compatibility."The team goes through many checks to make sure original Switch games run smoothly on Switch 2, but the developers noted "it might not be that all Switch games run perfectly" in time for the console's launch this summer.This method of playing older games explains why a few titles have some compatibility issues, though fixes are in the works. And while only one Switch game is completely unplayable on Switch 2, others will still require the use of original Joy-Con due to specific controls or peripherals."But we will continue our efforts so that we can support as many Switch games as possible," Kawamoto said. Image credit: EurogamerFor more, our Tom has already taken the upcoming console for a spin. You can read his thoughts on his time with the Switch 2 in Eurogamer's feature: Nintendo Switch 2 hands-on reveals a proper generational upgrade, though its biggest new idea remains unproven.Meanwhile, here's everything announced at this week's Switch 2 Direct, including pricing and more.
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  • Switch 2 game sizes revealed: how much internal storage will you need?
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    Nintendo has revealed the size of its Switch 2 games, so you can calculate how much storage is required. Read more
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  • Marvel's Rivals developer feels "pressure" to keep up the excitement, as it gears up for Hellfire Gala season two
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    Marvel's Rivals developer feels "pressure" to keep up the excitement, as it gears up for Hellfire Gala season twoFrost-y reception.Image credit: NetEase News by Victoria Kennedy News Reporter Published on April 4, 2025 The Marvel Rivals team has admitted it's feeling "pressure" to keep the game exciting as it prepares its second season, which boasts a Hellfire Gala theme."Since the launch of season one, we've been deeply contemplating how Marvel Rivals can continuously deliver fun and engaging experiences for you all," Marvel Rivals creative director Guangyun Chen shared in an accompanying Dev Vision video. The developer noted that "discussions on social media have certainly added some pressure on us to keep the game as exciting as it has been since December", but the team wants to ensure it fulfills "everyone's fantasies about Marvel Super Heroes".Hellfire Gala was initially a 12-part X-Men comic book storyline, and is now making its way to the free-to-play shooter. "After the intense Eternal Night saga and defeat of Dracula, Emma Frost has prepared a lavish celebration, inviting everyone to don their best attire and venture to the Mutant haven of the Living Island Krakoa for the annual Hellfire Gala," the Marvel Rivals team teases.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The Death of Console Exclusives Is Inevitable and I Don't Know How I Feel About It. Watch on YouTubeOf course, things don't go to plan, and Ultron eventually pops up and crashes the festivities. "Attending heroes must spring into action to protect Krakoa's greatest treasure from his grasp."Season two kicks off on 11th April. Following this season, players will notice the developer shifting to a "two-month format", and each month a new hero will make their debut.As for the second season specifically, you may have surmised given that official blurb, when it launches, Emma Frost will join the roster of heroes, in a Vanguard role. She is a telepathy master, and can "adeptly utilise her telepathic and diamond abilities as the situation demands, standing at the forefront to shield her allies and obliterate her foes". Ultron will also be arriving as a playable hero, but later in the season.Meanwhile, as far as maps are concerned for the second season of Marvel Rivals, the first one coming is - understandably - Hellfire Gala: Krakoa. This map will feature the gala itself, which the development team describes as "grand" and full of "dreamy botanical landscapes and beautiful fireworks" (which, honestly, every party should have).This season will also introduce some adjustments to the Marvel Rivals' Team-Up Abilities, while the developer is "implementing weekly missions alongside the existing daily missions and challenges, which will help active players fully claim all rewards from the Battle Pass by the end of the season".You can check out the various patch notes for Marvel Rivals here. Meanwhile, you can watch a teaser for season two below.eason 2: Hellfire Gala Official Trailer | Krakoa Welcomes You April 11! | Marvel Rivals. Watch on YouTubeBack in February, it was announced Marvel Rivals had amassed over 40 million players since its launch. Despite this success, NetEase laid off an unspecified number of the Marvel Rivals development team earlier this year.Following this, the Marvel Rivals publisher said the layoffs were a "difficult decision" made to "optimise development efficiency" for the game.
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  • Trump tariffs will "have a real and detrimental impact" on games industry, says US trade group
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    Trump tariffs will "have a real and detrimental impact" on games industry, says US trade group"[This] is not the end of the story".Image credit: Nintendo News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on April 3, 2025 The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which represents all major gaming companies in the US, has responded to US president Donald Trump's sweeping trade tariffs, saying the measures will "have a real and detrimental impact" on the games industry.Trump imposed wide-reaching trade tariffs earlier this week, with some of the highest levies targeting countries which also happen to be critical centres of video games hardware manufacturing. Vietnam, for instance - where much of Nintendo's hardware production now takes place - was hit with 46 percent tariffs, while China's reach as high as 54 percent.Speaking with Game File's Stephen Totilo, ESA senior vice president Aubrey Quinn said the increased costs associated with these tariffs "are going to have a real and detrimental impact on the video game industry". Quinn also noted the way parts are sourced and devices are shipped means, "Any one product that a consumer would buy is likely to be subject to many of the tariffs announced, all compounded on top of one another."Nintendo Switch 2 Live Reaction - How Much Will It Cost?Watch on YouTubeThe situation could also worsen, Quinn suggested, as countries affected by the tariffs begin to take retaliatory measures. "I think what we heard yesterday is not the end of the story," she added, "not for the United States, not for other countries."Tariffs have already been a major talking point following Switch 2's reveal, with analyst Daniel Ahmad noting, "Nintendo shifted its manufacturing to Vietnam to avoid tariffs and with today's reciprocal tariff announcements they're likely going to end up paying tariffs anyway." Ahmad also suggested the console's higher US cost compared to Japan "is likely a calculated move on Nintendo's part, driven by tariff impacts, the weak Japanese yen, and local market conditions."There've also been fears Switch 2, which is priced at $450 in the US, could see its cost eventually rise to as much as $600 if impacted by the Trump administration's tariffs. However, Ahmad argued it's "unlikely that Nintendo will raise the price of the console at this point, but it's also unlikely to see a price drop in the next five years."Back to Quinn, though. When asked if video game manufacturers should consider producing more goods in the US to lessen the effect of tariffs, she concluded, "I think every company, every industry... needs to think about what's best for consumers, best for business, and best for employees. Supply chains are complicated and, certainly, supply chains don't change overnight. Everything that is considered or decided can't be a quick turnaround and can't be a knee-jerk reaction to any particular announcement."
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  • Prime Gaming members get 22 more games in April
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    Prime Gaming members get 22 more games in AprilMafia 3! Minecraft Legends! More!Image credit: Amazon News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on April 3, 2025 April's upon us, meaning it's time to toss March's Prime Gaming offerings aside and ready ourselves with open arms for a brand-new batch - with this month bringing 22 more titles to Prime Gaming members, including Mafia 3, Minecraft Legends, Thief Gold, and Genesis Noir.April offerings - as is Prime Gaming's way - arrive across four scheduled content drops, with Amazon's first five titles available right now. This initial bunch brings Mafia 3's open-world crime capering, Minecraft Legends' colourful real-time strategy action, Mega-Man-inspired platforming with Gravity Circuit, dino-themed farming in Paleo Pines, and more.Then, looking further ahead into April, Prime Gaming subscribers can brace themselves for Endless Space's 4X sci-fi strategy, Genesis Noir's wonderfully moody cosmic adventuring, acclaimed digital board game adaptation Gloomhaven, dark fantasy action-adventure Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, and Looking Glass Studios' retro stealth classic Thief.You'll find the full list of April's titles (plus the digital stores they can be grabbed from) below.Available now:Mafia 3: Definitive Edition [GOG Code]Minecraft Legends [Xbox and PC via Microsoft Store Code]Gravity Circuit [Amazon Games App]Paleo Pines [Amazon Games App]Clouds & Sheep 2 [Amazon Games App] 10th AprilDreadOut 2 [Amazon Games App]Endless Space Definitive Edition [Amazon Games App]God's Trigger [GOG Code]New York Mysteries: Power of Art Collectors Edition [Legacy Games Code]Projection: First Light [Amazon Games App]Faraway: Directors Cut [Amazon Games App] 17th AprilGloomhaven [Epic Games Store]The Last Spell [GOG Code]Genesis Noir [Amazon Games App]Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain [GOG Code]Berserk Boy [GOG Code]The Last Show of Mr. Chardish [Epic Games Store] Wild Country [GOG Code] 24th AprilThief Gold [GOG Code]Troublemaker [Epic Games Store]Kraken Academy!! [Amazon Games App]Priest Simulator: Vampire Show [Epic Games Store]Alongside all the above, Prime Gaming subscribers in the UK, US, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and Poland get access to a rotating selection of titles via Amazon's cloud gaming service, Luna. This month, these include SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated, Hot Wheels Unleashed, Bee Simulator, Thymesia, and The Jackbox Party Pack 6. That's in addition to Luna regulars Fallout New Vegas: Ultimate Edition, Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition, Fortnite, and Trackmania.
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  • PSA: The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered's new 2.0 update is reportedly wiping character upgrades
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    PSA: The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered's new 2.0 update is reportedly wiping character upgradesEllie warning.Image credit: Eurogamer/Sony News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on April 3, 2025 It's a big day for The Last of Us. Not only does Part 2 Remastered make its debut on PC, all platforms receive a sizeable 2.0 update, adding new No Return maps and more. Unfortunately, where the 2.0 update giveth, it's seemingly also taking away, with players reporting their character upgrades have been wiped - suggesting you might want to download with caution.Naughty Dog celebrated 2.0's arrival earlier today on social media, but players quickly moved in to report the skill tree upgrades and gun holsters they'd previously acquired for Ellie and Abby during their campaign play-throughs had now vanished into the ether, with seemingly no way to restore them. It's a similar story over on the Last of Us subreddit, where multiple posters have - with barely concealed wails of anguish - reported upgrade disappearances across in-progress first play-throughs, new game plus runs, and permadeath mode.Naughty Dog, for its part, is yet to acknowledge the reports on any of its official channels, but it seems like it would be wise to avoid downloading the update or firing up the game until there's clarity on how widespread the issue is and whether a fix is possible/incoming.Digital Foundry takes a look at The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered on PC.Watch on YouTubeThe Last of Us Part 2 Remastered's 2.0 update for PS5 and PC was announced at the end of March, promising a range of new additions to the game's roguelike No Return mode, including two new characters - The Last of Us Part 1's Bill and Marlene (sporting the Smuggler and Risk-Taker playstyles respectively) - four new maps, and new Trophies.As for Part 2 Remastered's PC port, it seems to have been generally well-received by players, with the Steam release currently enjoying a Very Positive rating. That's in sharp contrast to the somewhat disastrous PC release of The Last of Us Part 1 in 2023, which was rapidly slapped with a Mostly Negative rating as players flocked to highlight a host of technical issues - resulting in a string of patches as Naughty Dog admitted it hadn't deliver "the quality [players] expected".Digital Foundry has also cast its expert eye over The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered's new PC release, calling it a "better" port compared to its predecessor, despite "some frustrating elements and a buggy feeling that's hard to shake".Away from the game, the promotional chatter around season two of HBO's live-action The Last of Us adaptation has reached fever pitch as its 13th April start date nears. Most recently, Kaitlyn Dever - who's playing Abby in the show - discussed how she was determined to "do this character justice and make the fans proud".
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  • Dragon Age creator's Stray Gods studio unveils demonic deckbuilder Malys
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    Dragon Age creator's Stray Gods studio unveils demonic deckbuilder MalysKickstarter campaign coming soon.Image credit: Summerfall Studios News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on April 3, 2025 If you found yourself bopping along in admiration to 2023's Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, you might be interested to hear Dragon Age creator David Gaider's Summerfall Studios has announced its follow-up game. It's a "demonic roguelite deckbuilder" called Malys, and a Kickstarter campaign is coming soon.Malys casts players a Noah, a former-priest-turned-demon-hunter, who's on a mission of vengeance to exorcise the infernal forces running rampant in a festering night-time city. "Expose, endure, and expel evil from the innocent possessed," teases Summerfall. "Confront your past, forge precarious alliances, and uncover the truth."At the centre of all this demonic mayhem is the titular Malys, a being of "extraordinary cunning and power" and Noah's primary target. As players hunt the demon down, they'll deploy their deck of arcane tricks, finding unique combinations and strategies to withstand the city's horrors and expose the rot within. And if death wins out, they can always try, and try again.Eurogamer goes hands-on with Switch 2.Watch on YouTubeMalys is written by Gaider - perhaps best known as the lead writer on BioWare's original Dragon Age trilogy - and it's promising to deliver a "unique take on a familiar genre, pushing the boundaries of roguelite storytelling and delivering a satisfyingly moody experience".And that's pretty much all we know so far. Malys' crowdfunding campaign starts later this month, and Summerfall says the Kickstarter will enable it to "work closely" with backers to "ensure Malys is the best game it can be". The game itself is planned to release on PC this year.Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale called Summerfall's Stray Gods "fascinating but flawed" in his three star review, but it was interesting enough that Malys should be worth keeping an eye on.
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  • Switch 2 has "10x the graphics performance of the Nintendo Switch", claims Nvidia
    www.eurogamer.net
    Switch 2 has "10x the graphics performance of the Nintendo Switch", claims NvidiaAs it confirms DLSS support and more.Image credit: Eurogamer/Nintendo News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on April 3, 2025 We've learned an awful lot about Switch 2 over the last 24 hours or so, but not so much - as is Nintendo's usual way - when it comes to the technology driving the thing. Now, though, Nvidia, which designed the console's GPU, has talked a little about Switch 2's abilities, claiming it has "10x the graphics performance" of the original Switch.Nvidia discussed Switch 2 - and confirmed various bits of information which have circulated following Nintendo's recent hands-on event for press - in a post on its website, referring to the console's processor as a "custom" design featuring "dedicated RT Cores and Tensor Cores", alongside AI-driven enhancements. Those Tensor Cores, it claims, "boost AI-powered graphics while keeping power consumption efficient", while the RT Cores "enhance in-game realism with dynamic lighting and natural reflections".Nvidia also reiterated HDR and AI upscaling - via DLSS - are supported on Switch 2, and that the console's GPU is capable of 4K visuals (at an unspecified maximum frames per second) while docked, and up to 120fps at 1080p in handheld mode. Variable refresh rate via G-Sync is also supported while in handheld mode for "ultra-smooth, tear-free" gameplay. "With 1,000 engineer-years of effort across every element - from system and chip design to a custom GPU, APIs and world-class development tools," it continued, "Switch 2 brings major upgrades."Eurogamer goes hands-on with the Switch 2.Watch on YouTubeSome of the Nvidia's chatter was either confirmed or hinted at during yesterday's Switch 2 Direct, of course - with the likes of 4K and 120fps both referenced during Nintendo's announcement enhanced upgrades for various original Switch titles are coming. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, for instance, supports 4K and 60fps with HDR in Quality Mode, and 1080p/120fps with HDR in Performance mode.As for Nvidia's claim Switch 2 has "10x the graphics performance" of the original Switch, it certainly sounds impressive, but Digital Foundry was perhaps more cautious in its evaluation of Switch 2's potential real-world performance when sharing its initial analysis of the console. "As an opener for the deluge of games to come, Switch 2 lands where I would expect it to based on what we've seen so far," Richard Leadbeatter wrote. "Personally, I went into the presentation expecting a machine with overall performance in line with Steam Deck, but early indications do suggest something more potent - at least in docked configuration."It'll be a while yet before Digital Foundry gives Switch 2 the full hands-on treatment, but until then there's plenty more to read about and plenty more to see, particularly as Nintendo delves deeper into some of the console's launch window titles over the few days. Switch 2, of course, arrives on 5th June, and some stores have already begun taking pre-orders in the UK.
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  • The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered: a better PC port, but systemic issues remain
    www.eurogamer.net
    The Last of Us Part 1 made it to PC in somewhat disastrous fashion, though later upgrades did improve the game substantially. Today marks the release of The Last of Us Part 2, and we were interested to see whether porting specialists Nixxes were able to deliver a better experience on launch - and how many legacy issues remain. Part 2 certainly makes a more positive first impression, without the extreme issues that caused us to recommend against buying the first game on launch, but there are still some technical continuities here that drag the package down. Nixxes came in late to the port's development to add in their own fixes, which are evident, but some things are still taken wholesale from the previous port handled by Iron Galaxy. A great example is the game's options menu, which looks to sport a different look but actually delivers the same mix of settings as the previous port - with some new additions including DLSS frame generation and dynamic resolution scaling, the latter from Nixxes libraries. As with the prior game, there are plenty of tweakables here, but there's minimal scaling above and beyond the capabilities of the PlayStation 5 release. Screen space shadows and contact shadows are some of the few notable additions here, and do provide a small bump to visuals - helped by the higher overall image quality allowed on the PC platform by running at arbitrary resolutions. If you want to see how The Last of Us Part 2 plays out on PC - and to see the various issues we encountered... well, here you go.Watch on YouTubeThe Last of Us Part 2 is also almost uniquely demanding in terms of the amount of GPU horsepower required to equal the PS5 version, in comparison to other releases that have targeted both PS5 and PC. The official system requirements suggest an RTX 3060 for 1080p 60fps gameplay, but these medium settings correspond to graphics that are worse in many ways than that of the PS4 release. For example, SSR exhibits full-size crosshatching not found in the PS4 release, and there are similar visual downgrades for flashlight bounce lighting, subsurface scattering and more. If we instead adopt PS4-equivalent settings, you might be surprised what level of GPU horsepower are required to simply double the frame-rate of the 30fps PS4 release. The RTX 3060 falls below 60fps in many scenes, despite the GPU ostensibly having 12.74TF of theoretical compute and 360GB/s of bandwidth versus just 1.84TF and 176GB/s on PS4. Even ignoring "flopflation" from dual issue FP32 on Ampere GPUs, we are looking at a GPU that has ~3.5x the level of compute, even at its non-boosted clocks. That's a huge outlier relative to other ports, and users have to adjust their expectations accordingly. This also applies to the CPU side of things, though things have at least improved versus TLOU Part 1. Nixxes has changed how streaming is done by using DirectStorage CPU decompression with a different compression format, as well as preventing the engine from spin locking CPU threads, which is a huge no-no on Windows. That means the CPU is not faltering as often in P2, but this is still what we'd consider to be a CPU-intensive game. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. One element of this is due to how shaders are compiled. In previous Naughty Dog games on PC, shader compilation occurred in the main menu over multiple minutes, whereas in Part 2, a short shader compilation step occurs on first boot, with the rest of the shader compilation proceeding asychronously as the game world streams in. As new objects are loaded in as you walk forwards, the associated shaders precompile before the objects and materials are visible, with the game using less utilised CPU threads for this task. This manifests as sudden, extremely high CPU utilisation as you cross an invisible threshold in-game. It's nice that you don't have to wait for ages in the menus, but it does have performance consequences. Even without asychronous shader compilation, it's still possible to encounter frame-time disruption on CPUs like the mainstream-grade Ryzen 5 3600 as data is loaded in. For example, when crossing a field, we see consistent frame-time spikes above 25ms, and sometimes above 33.3ms - with 16.6ms being the required frame-time for 60fps. The basic loading behaviour here is strangely heavy on the CPU for a game that was initially designed to target a 1.6GHz tablet CPU and a 5400RPM hard drive. Of course, the first time you visit a given area, you will get more intense frame-time disruption, the game is trying to load in new data and compile shaders in the background. Running through the intro area with Abby, for example, frame-times are erratic and there are frequent bounces above 30ms. Despite Nixxes' upgrades, Part 2 unfortunately runs a lot worse on a Ryzen 5 3600 class CPU - one that's significantly stronger than the PS4's CPU, mind you - than similar vintage games. DF contributor Mohammed also documented similar frame-time spikes on a more mid-range Ryzen 7 5700X3D CPU, and I also saw frame-time spikes on the extremely high-end Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Shadow quality is one of the few areas, beyond overall image quality, where the PC version of The Last of Us Part 2 is noticeably improved versus the PS5 release. Contact shadows and screen-space shadows have been added. | Image credit: Digital FoundryBeyond frame-time hitches across all CPUs tested, I also saw some strange behaviour on occasion. On the Ryzen 5 3600 system, the game completely ground to a halt - 0fps - and they suddenly started again. I had a similar experience on the Steam Deck. On the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, we also saw big stalls when traversing through the game. The latest Ryzen 9000 X3D processors from AMD generally seem to exhibit much worse performance than you would expect, with the 9800X3D running only 20 to 25 percent ahead of the 3600 at a curiously fixed ~85fps with most of the CPU running at idle. As a Steam Deck release, TLOU P2 has a dedicated Steam Deck performance profile, but even using gamescope it's hard to attain a locked 30fps, with rough frame-pacing and spikes to 66ms or higher. On a more fundamental level, the camera doesn't move smoothly with frame health this poor, making the game look jerky even at a nominal 30fps. Given the exhibited CPU performance, I recommend using a frame cap. Using 60Hz v-sync on the Ryzen 5 3600 gives the CPU enough breathing room to hit 60fps fairly consistently - though it doesn't solve the issues related to shader compilation and data streaming. VRR, by constrast, has to deal with such a wide swing in frame times that the experience doesn't feel smooth at all. If you're planning to use VRR, I suggest not using the in-game frame-rate cap, which seems to consistently break VRR and exhibits uneven camera movement. Unfortunately, instituting a frame-rate cap elsewhere has a deleterious effect on load times - eg using Special K to enforce a 60fps cap causes load times to quadruple. If you can ignore that, Special K with VRR enabled and v-sync disabled provides the smoothest experience, while traditional v-sync is even more consistent and doesn't suffer from load time issues, though input latency is worse. SettingPS4 ProPC Optimised(~RTX 3060)PS5 PerfPC Optimised(~RTX 4070)Level Of DetailMediumMediumVery HighVery HighTexture QualityHighHighVery HighVery HighVisual Effects QualityHighHighHigh/ Very HighVery HighTexture Filtering2x16x4x16xShadow QualityCustomCustomCustomCustomSpotlights Shadow ResVery HighVery HighVery HighVery HighPoint Lights Shadow ResHighHighHighHighAmbient ShadowsHighHighHighHighDirectional Shadow ResHighHighHigh/ Very HighVery HighDirectional Shadow Distance~HighHigh~HighHighScreen Space ShadowsOffHighOffHighDynamic SSSOffOnOffOnContact Shadow QualityOffOffOffHighImage Based LightingOnOnOnOnBounced LightingOnOnOnOnAOQualityQualityQualityQualitySSRHighHighHighHighReal-Time ReflectionsHighHighHighHighCloud Shadow ReflectionsOnOnOnOnSub-surface ScatteringOnOnOnOnRefraction QualityVery High?Very HighVery High?Very HighDepth of FieldHighHighHighHighMotion Blur QualityMediumMediumMediumMediumParticle DensityHigh/Very HighVery HighVery HighVery HighVolumetric EffectsLowLowMediumMediumLens FlareHalf ResHalf ResHalf ResHalf ResBefore launching into optimised settings, I want to briefly cover some smaller issues I discovered that proved visually distracting. For example, there are numerous shadows in the distance on PS4 Pro that don't load in until they are extremely close on PC. Flickering was also not uncommon, with textures such as blood stains on the floor. The last issue I want to mention is related to upscaling, specifically DLSS. For some reason, DLSS and DLAA in this title are of a lower quality than you may be used to, with even DLAA showing obvious ghosting on vegetation and particles, areas where it usually excels. In this case, I recommend users of Nvidia graphics cards use the newer Transformer model for DLSS, eg by using the DLSS override feature in the Nvidia app. With visual bugs out of the way, let's talk settings. Given the heaviness of the game in general, I recommend lower-end GPUs like the RTX 3060 or 4060 keep to around the PS4 Pro quality level, but with texture filtering ramped up 16x and with screen space shadows on as that is a nice quality win. Then, leverage VRR or an upscaler of your choice to hit your desired level of smoothness. GPUs at the RTX 4070 level and above can use PS5 performance mode settings, with the same upgrades to screen-space shadows and AF. Thanks to Mohammed again for working on these PlayStation-equivalent settings for us to ensure this article was ready for the game's release.Beyond this, I have the feeling that there is more to come from The Last of Us Part 2 on PC. It's a better game on launch than Part 1, but with some frustrating elements and a buggy feeling that's hard to shake. Beyond the disappointingly high GPU requirements, the biggest complaint here are the frame-time spikes that occur even on high-end kit, which seems incongruous with the game's cinematic presentation. It's hard to know what kind of resources Nixxes has at its disposal for post-launch improvements, but I hope that these issues are at least on their radar and we see a similar trajectory of improvements as the last release.
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  • GTA 5 arrives on PC Game Pass this month for first time, in Enhanced edition
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    Grand Theft Auto 5 will arrive on PC Game Pass later this month in its new Enhanced edition. Read more
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  • South of Midnight review
    www.eurogamer.net
    South of Midnight reviewDeep.Image credit: Xbox Game Studios Review by Chris Tapsell Deputy Editor Published on April 3, 2025 Few still-perfectly-decent games have felt as desperate a disappointment as this one. South of Midnight is gloriously pretty, a game of sumptuous environmental detail and rich attention. It's one of the best sounding games I've played in an age, with a highly unique, artfully implemented original score woven into its sound design. And it's also extremely well acted, a cut above the vast majority of video games in emotional authenticity and heft. But goodness me can it get tiresome to play.South of Midnight reviewDeveloper: Compulsion GamesPublisher: Xbox Game StudiosPlatform: Played on Xbox Series X/SAvailability: Out 8th April on PC (Xbox, Steam), Xbox Series X/S (Game Pass)The premise here in South of Midnight, the latest from Canadian studio Compulsion Games, who last released We Happy Few in 2018, is that you are a freshly minted Weaver. Weavers are rare, magical warrior-healers of the deep South - but crucially, their healing powers are less physical than metaphorical. Weavers heal the world of generational trauma, and they do this, largely, by battering the absolute life out of about six to twelve enemies in small combat arenas arranged in groups of four.We'll come back to the issues with that, because thematically this is all genuinely lovely stuff. South of Midnight builds itself upon a collection of largely under-told, underappreciated fairytales and snippets of Cajun, Creole, and other deep south folklore. All of these are woven - pardon the pun in advance - into a quite literal tapestry of thread-based themes. Healing an area, or being, involves clearing 'tangles' and untying 'knots'. Enemies, when you defeat them, can be 'unravelled' for a trickle of healing and small cooldown boost. Abilities are appropriately named, as are protagonist Hazel's weapons, and indeed characters. Hazel's mother, who you spend the entire game in search of after she's swept away in its opening hurricane set-piece, is named Lacey.Here's a South of Midnight trailer.Watch on YouTubeThis unfolds through chapters of a kind of fairytale storybook, and as far as audio-visual renderings of fairytale worlds go, South of Midnight's is genuinely one of the very best I've encountered. The environments are frequently gorgeous in their maximalism, playing with proportion and scale in that nauseating way all the best, properly authentic fairy tales can. You'll quickly move from swirling gnarls of outsized bramble to looming, slanting country mansions - so many spooky mansions - and sickly-sweet garden blossoms. You'll regularly be blasted with godly beams over grand vistas - you could play this with sunglasses at times - but just as often drawn to one particularly well-formed bush, or a cluttered kitchen, rusted-out sign, damp outdoor sofa or patch of flouncy, faded wallpaper.It's worth laying out the structure a bit. South of Midnight is strictly linear, although there are two forms of collectibles dotted very frequently down very short detours off to your sides. One of these is Floofs, the game's only spendable resource used for skill tree upgrades; the other is readable scraps of lore, for fleshing out its often incredibly grim story. To find these you'll be doing bits of very light platforming and environmental puzzle-solving, split between the most linear - albeit still beautiful - corridors, and occasional, slightly more open breakout areas.These are, frustratingly, where South of Midnight's problems start to creep in. These more open areas are again wonderfully rendered, mixing strangeness, sadness, and a curious timelessness to fantastic effect. This is as much an expedition through the deep south's historical horrors as it is its fantasies, from company houses and scrip exploitation, to prohibition, religion and beyond.A quick aside: notably, despite the setting and the explicit focus on past traumas, for the vast majority of South of Midnight slavery itself is only loosely skirted and euphemised. It's tricky to know how to take this - an act of creative cowardice, or an attempt to shine a light on its infinite cultural ripples? Hazel, for her part, regularly alludes to both it and more everyday segregation, but again never outright says it, or addresses this head-on. Multiple sequences with the ghost of the Last Weaver, a woman who helped people "escape", for instance, never actually says what they were escaping from. Perhaps the inference is obvious enough, and perhaps South of Midnight's aim is to be more celebratory of the overlooked cultures it builds its story on, which is commendable. But there does come a time where avoiding a topic of such gravity feels awkward, at the very least.Back to exploration, and darting about these areas feels less rewarding in practice than it might sound. A minor quibble of mine is how regularly you're interrupted as you move around, usually in the form of camera-yanking asides - look over there! There they are! What's that?! - and, in the early game, via an incredibly overbearing sequence of multi-page tutorial pop-ups. Puzzles, more importantly, are incredibly simple, in part because their solutions are often a factor of their actual presentation. You'll see the blue-white glow of a ball of Floofs, for instance, on a distant ledge. Nearby in your periphery is a highlighted clump of branches with RT labelled on it. Pressing RT blasts the branches away and clears a path which, ultimately, leads to the Floofs. Repeat.South of Midnight structures itself in such a way that none of the environment is interactable in any way other than the exact thing you need for the solution, and so instead of any kind of creative thinking or problem solving, you just need to look for the crate, branches, tunnel, grapple point or whatever else and press the button prompt when you see it. Often you see that thing first and simply follow it to find your reward. Coupled with bland and wafty platforming - follow the painted ledges, avoid the spikey things (which are only faintly challenging to avoid in moments because of said wafty controls), do Titanfall-style wall-running and put the controller down to look at your phone while auto-gliding through a wind tunnel - and exploration as a whole is generally a letdown.These open areas and the question of how South of Midnight structures itself also tie into its other, even bigger problem, which is its combat. As Victoria mentioned, with prescient concern, in her preview, South of Midnight follows a pretty rigid format once it gets going. You make your way to an area, then must find and clear out four nearby combat arenas to fill up a bottle of historical anguish and bring that bottle to a nearby bottle tree (again, another deftly-pictured nod to folklore). Doing so will heal a particular creature or area and then, frustratingly, you'll just get plonked on the path to another area where ultimately you do the exact same thing again.As for that combat, there are again unfortunately a number of issues. One is a classic of wobbly combat systems, in the camera - but crucially here this ties into the wider combat system's design as well. Enemies in South of Midnight are called Haints, and they come in various forms, from gangly, scarecrow-like grunts that dash and slash with vicious tenacity to horrible globs that pump out little self-detonating drones; giant hulking monsters that rip up the ground; ranged, betentacled artillery enemies; and those enemies that make the other ones invincible until you kill them first.This is all fine, if not particularly new. The issue comes with the novel system of 'unravelling' that I mentioned earlier. After defeating an enemy you can perform a kind of execution move to unravel it for a short time, which heals you a little but also, importantly, reduces the cooldown of your essential, but otherwise rarely-useable abilities. The problem is, defeating enemies often knocks them back a bit, which means they're regularly by the arena's wall. Unravelling them yanks the camera focus to their corpse, which then means you're facing the wall. And enemy attacks, often extremely tricky to time, then come flying in at you with your back turned. The result is this very awkward loop of killing something, pausing for a clunky execution animation that pauses time around you, then slowly, slowly drifting the camera back around to look at what's about to shank you in the back.You can, alternatively, use the lock-on function, which helps for whipping the camera around at breakneck speed but is then a nightmare to accurately direct to the right enemy once several are clumped together. All of these problems then start to cascade. Enemies are all massive damage sponges, even the basic grunts (roughly counting, they take upwards of twelve hits, each a separate press of X, your one attack button) which means combat generally drags on too long and feels highly button-mashy. Abilities are so infrequently available and so awkward to properly target that you end up just using whatever cools down next at whatever's relatively easy to hit. Synergy is minor - there are a handful of unlocks on the tree that give you some slight bonuses for combining one or two, but the depth here is negligible. Refreshing your abilities with unravelling foes often puts you in more peril than simply dodging around the arena (all of these are flat ovals of the same size, by the way - no Doom-like verticality and visual interest here) and waiting to be allowed to press LB again.The result, ultimately, is a groan every time one of these comes up, and given the vast majority occur as compulsory parts of another four-step clear-the-area-of-corruption routine, they have the knock-on effect of spoiling the dramatic tension that South of Midnight otherwise works so hard and does so well to cultivate.And that dramatic tension deserves its proper credit, because it can so often be sublime. South of Midnight's performances, for instance - from Adriyan Rae as Hazel right the way through its supporting cast, from the chuckling Catfish narrator to a pained former partner of her mother - are the most natural and believable I've heard in video games for some time. The anguish - and there's so much anguish in South of Midnight - is sincere, but so are the little jokes, asides, and under-the-breath comments of Hazel. Despite all the dragging impact of actually playing it I felt a continuous urge to push through and see more of them, and find out their eventual fates.Likewise, helping to sweep you through the flatter parts is an extraordinary original score, overseen by Olivier Deriviere. These follow a structure, again, but with structure like this so rare in video game music it has the opposite effect to the rigidity of the game itself. As you travel through a new area, for instance, a faint children's choir will chant single words or syllables, in time with your usage of platforming abilities. Then they'll build to a rhythm of their own, then more of a proper melody, a song and finally another song more explicitly in the voice of the troubled being you're trying to battle or save. It's a mash of southern sounds, from New Orleans-style brass bands to guitar and banjo blues, or prohibition-era jazz, little bursts of each often working their way into sound design as well as music.And then there's the story itself, which perhaps feels secondary to the little sub-stories woven through it. Go into this game expecting the darkest of possible fairytale warnings - think a lot of young children, coming to trauma or harm in a lot of different, increasingly twisted ways. This is true to the source material, both original fairytales as a whole and the ones drawn upon directly here, which historically were often remade by their tellers in the newfound context of slavery to emphasise the need for wit and strategy for survival. Even as South of Midnight skirts the issue itself, the novelty of these tales - or more specifically: the very fact they're novel to me and likely many others, really - lends them incredible weight alongside the sad beauty of how they're depicted.Clearly the aim here has been to make something broad, to bring this story and its amplification of southern culture to as many people as possible. But in the process the joy of more rewarding interactivity, or more uniquely defined identity beyond the familiar platforming and fighting patterns, has been lost. So, again, the overwhelming sense here really is one of disappointment. Not that South of Midnight is a disappointing game - far from it - but that it's such a shame for it to get so close to being something so genuinely special. This is a game of just remarkable craft - we've not even mentioned the stop-motion style of animation! It's lovely - and likewise remarkable attention, thought, and care. If only just a little more of that care had been afforded to the playing of it.A copy of South of Midnight was provided for review by Xbox.
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  • Watch Nintendo's first Switch 2 Treehouse: Live presentation here
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    The first of Nintendo's two Switch 2 flavoured Treehouse: Live presentations is about to kick off. Read more
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  • Switch 2's full reveal analysed: how powerful is Nintendo's new hardware and is DLSS being used?
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    Switch 2's full reveal analysed: how powerful is Nintendo's new hardware and is DLSS being used?Pixel throughput on Switch 2 Special Edition games suggests it's over five times faster than its predecessor. Feature by Richard Leadbetter Technology Editor, Digital Foundry Published on April 3, 2025 With the initial reveal of the Switch 2, there was the sense that Nintendo was intent on evolution, not revolution - but yesterday's fleshed out showing showed that the firm is still capable of surprises, both in terms of the hardware feature set and also in the presentation of many of its games.Let's begin on the hardware side of things where the full capabilities of the 7.9-inch display were finally revealed and proved impressively robust bearing in mind Nintendo's usual aversion to higher end features. The display may be LCD in nature, but in every other spec point, the firm has delivered. First of all, there's the inclusion of HDR - transformative to a game's presentation as any one with a decent TV or even Steam Deck OLED can attest. The potential here is considerable and could have industry-wide ramifications: a mainstream console ships with an HDR display as standard, which should - in theory, at least - guarantee take-up of the feature.Beyond that, there's both 120Hz and VRR (variable refresh rate) support. In practise, Switch 2 titles have the potential to scale up to 120fps - assuming the game is performant enough. And if it's not? Well, that's not a write-off by any means: games can run with unlocked frame-rates and barring unfortunate stutter (which not even VRR can fix), they should still present in a smooth manner. We just have to be a little realistic here: Switch 2 is still a resource-constrained piece of mobile hardware operating with a highly constricted power budget, so it'll be interesting to see just how close Metroid Prime 4: Beyond gets to its mooted 720p 120fps target in handheld form.Digital Foundry's red-hot take on Switch 2's 'proper' reveal. The whole team was deployed in getting together the facts, figures and performance tests. Note that the Tony Hawk Pro-Skater 3+4 footage is now - understandably - confirmed to have been sourced from the PC version.Watch on YouTube0:00:00 Introduction0:01:22 Displays: 120Hz VRR HDR 1080p internal display, 4K60/1440p120 docked display output0:10:09 Battery and battery life0:11:55 Controller changes: GameChat, magnetic attachment, mouse control, Pro controller upgrades0:18:14 Storage: 256 GB internal, MicroSD Express support, Game Cards and Game-Key Cards0:26:27 Game compatibility: games with support issues, Switch 2 upgrades and Switch 2 Editions, GameCube backwards compatibility0:38:15 Pricing: Console prices, game prices, and value0:46:45 First party games: Mario Kart World0:52:31 Kirby Air Riders0:53:57 Donkey Kong Bananza0:57:02 Third party games: The Duskbloods1:00:39 Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, FF7 Remake, Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3+41:08:56 Closing thoughts on the presentation and systemThe 120Hz VRR display also offers up other opportunities - the chance for games typically targeting 30fps to instead use a higher, smoother, arbitrary frame-rate: 40fps or thereabouts being the obvious choice. The only issue I'd like to highlight here is that the harder developers push the hardware for higher frame-rate, there has to be a trade in terms of graphical fidelity and/or battery life, which allows me segue seamlessly to the next crucial spec point: the size of the battery itself.For many, the key comparison point for Switch 2 is Valve's Steam Deck and here, the specs look troubling. A 5220 mAh battery is a considerable improvement over the 4310 mAh in the original. However, the new console's battery capacity translates to around 19.3 Wh up against an equivalent 40 Wh in the original Steam Deck and 50 Wh in the OLED model. With Nintendo promising a minimum two hours of battery life for Switch 2, that means that all functions of the handheld will consume 10 watts. Just the APU in Steam Deck consumes 15W and fully unlocked and including all system components, I've seen the Valve system consume around 28W - almost three times as much power.In a handheld form factor, power translates into performance, so the efficiency of the silicon itself (not to mention its raw compute power) combined with bespoke game integrations from developers are going to be key in getting decent mobile experiences - but to be clear, running triple-A fare on a 10W power budget is going to be quite the challenge! We didn't see much mobile footage in the presentation (but we did catch a glimpse of Cyberpunk 2077 which operated at 960x540 in the tiny amount of content we did see) but I'm reasonably confident that the handheld experience should pan out - not least based on the absolute miracles we've seen over the years on the original Switch.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Looking at the software side of things, let's begin by discussing the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition versions of existing Switch titles. This kicked off with a highly impressive demonstration of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond which operates at 4K resolution at 60fps when docked (or 1080p at 120fps, of course). The crystal clear nature of the 4K footage does somewhat put into perspective the conjecture that the trailers seen thus far were running on Switch 2. Clearly they weren't based on this pristine showing! Taking a Switch 1 900p game to a presumed native 4K represents a 5.76x boost to pixel count, which is quite the thing. We didn't see any evidence of DLSS or any other kind of upscaling, by the way, but it can't be ruled out at this early stage.Looking at the Zelda titles, a 900p30 resolution on Switch 1 presents at 1440p60 on Switch 2 - a 5.12x boost to pixel throughput. I'd say that's very impressive but I am reminded of the Gamescom 2023 rumours discussing a 4K DLSS Breath of the Wild demo apparently shown to developers. There's enough good sourcing out there to suggest that this demo is really and does exist, but demos and shipping titles are two very different things - as are retail units and 'target' hardware. Based on the computational cost of DLSS, the concept of 4K upscaling on a mobile processor like Switch 2's T239 does seem unlikely.Looking at the actual first party titles designed specifically for Switch 2, it's great to see that Nintendo is firmly committing to its new platform. Yes, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond could be considered a cross generation release, but the new Mario Kart World with what we think is a pseudo-open world design couldn't be delivered to anything like the same degree on older Switch hardware. 60 frames per second is a given, and the footage we saw from what must be the docked mode rendered at 1440p resolution - albeit with no visible anti-aliasing. We're also hearing reports from the hands-on event happening right now that there's a 1080p mode that runs at 120fps. The nature of the open world itself is still up for debate, but our bet would be on a Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit style arrangement where the tracks are 'baked in' to one coherent, interlocking environment. Obviously the whole nature of the environment is a world apart from prior series offerings and view distances looked great, while the quality of materials and lighting also sees key improvements.We put this T239 video together back at the tail-end of 2023. Apart from the deep learning accelerator (DLA) having been ruled out for Switch 2, the information here on the Switch 2's processor should still stand up.Watch on YouTubeDonkey Kong Bananza also looks great - and perhaps a little more ambitious with a native 1080p rendering resolution. 60fps is maintained with only occasional drops based on this preview footage, but it's clear that both the improved CPU and GPU are being asked to do a whole lot more based around the physics on display. Amusingly dubbed online as 'Red Faction Gorilla', it's nice to see Nintendo concentrating on remarkably destructive environments reminiscent of Red Faction's classic 'geomod' technology, but it is still a 3D platformer, with the developers pivoting towards a Kong design more clearly inspired by the movie (something also seen in Mario Kart World).The third-party titles look very interesting indeed and give us a completely different perspective on the Switch 2's potential capabilities. With Nintendo titles, we have games built specifically for the hardware, factoring in both the strengths and weaknesses of the design. For third-parties, porting over existing games, there are additional challenges. Even so, we got a glimpse of a creditable rendition of Cyberpunk 2077, operating between 720p and 1080p with dynamic resolution scaling while targeting 30fps (though we did notice dips). Assuming the mobile footage is actually of the handheld mode, resolution there was 540p - but again, dynamic resolution scaling would be a fair assumption. Reports from the hands-on event don't seem to be particularly favourable, however.We didn't get to see too much of Unreal Engine 5 though, the engine of the current generation. Split Fiction doesn't tap into the high-end features of the technology, but nevertheless ran at 30fps vs the 60fps of the other console versions with considerable cutbacks to the graphics. Meanwhile, we had just the tiniest of glimpses of Fortnite running on the new console, with what looked like a locked 1080p in the footage we saw and operating at 60fps. There's not a whole lot we can tell from the tiny clip we were given, but we think we can rule out UE5's ray tracing-based Lumen global illumination technology. Cyberpunk 2077 in docked mode here appeared to render dynamically between 720p and 1080p, capped at 30fps but with some performance drops in challenging areas.Moving on, Final Fantasy 7 Intergrade is certainly worth of extra study - it seems to be running at a native, locked 1080p in the clips we saw, while being capped to 30fps. In other respects, it looks pretty close to the existing PlayStation 4 version of the game. That said, inconsistent frame-pacing was noted, which we'd like to see fixed.There's a lot more to discuss further down the line - not least the exclusive The Duskbloods but we'll end with the game that actually kicked off the partner presentation: Elden Ring. As first impressions go, FromSoftware failed to hit the mark with a highly choppy presentation. Something just doesn't look right with the footage, which seemed to present with obvious stutter. However, running the video through our tools, a fairly consistent 30fps is achieved with only a couple of performance drops. Our theory? The game could have been captured at 60fps with the trailer edit exported at 30fps, losing half of the visual information.Assuming Elden Ring on Switch 2 has the same inconsistent frame-pacing as the PS4 version, or an unlocked frame-rate, decimating the frame-rate of the capture would result in exactly the kind of jerky camera motion seen here. What we can say at least is that the game presented here at native 1080p, just like PS4. And just like The Duskbloods actually, which curiously seemed to run at a consistent 30fps with none of the judder seen in the Elden Ring asset. Final Fantasy 7 Remake looked impressive overall. Every shot we counted came in at native 1080p, with a 30fps performance level - albeit with wonky frame-pacing.As an opener for the deluge of games to come, Switch 2 lands where I would expect it to based on what we've seen so far - but there are two omissions that caught our attention. First of all, Nvidia's DLSS upscaler was expected to be a secret weapon of sorts for the new Nintendo machine and while my colleague, Tom Phillips, tells me that DLSS has been confirmed based on the developer presentation he's seen, we didn't see much - if anything - in the presentation to suggest that DLSS is in play on any of the titles we saw. Perhaps DLSS is more computationally expensive than more vanilla upscalers. Perhaps the mooted 'lightweight DLSS' for Switch 2 isn't ready yet. Or maybe the development tools don't support it yet - we'll just need to wait and see.Secondly, and perhaps more understandably, it's understood that ray tracing hardware support is built into Nintendo's T239 processor - but we didn't see any evidence of that in any of the games either. RT comes with a considerable performance hit, of course, so this isn't exactly a huge surprise: when dealing with mobile hardware, every GPU cycle is precious. All we know for now is that both RT and DLSS are supported. Without going into much in the way of detail, Nintendo has confirmed it.Overall, the Switch 2 reveal went down well with the Digital Foundry team. Personally, I went into the presentation expecting a machine with overall performance in line with Steam Deck, but early indications do suggest something more potent - at least in docked configuration. Nothing beats the hands-on experience though, something we'll have to wait a little while for, but we're looking forward to checking out the various media that's set to appear in the meantime. We'll update with more as and when we can.
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  • Is Switch 2 actually cheaper than the original console cost in the UK, and what's the situation with Switch 2 pricing globally?
    www.eurogamer.net
    Judging by reactions online across the world, the cost of the Switch 2 and its software has proven to be controversial. Perhaps Nintendo knew this, considering it didn't include the price in the actual Direct presentation.Here in the UK, the console will cost 395.99, or 429.99 bundled with Mario Kart World, when it launches on 5th June. That's compared to the 280 launch price of the original Switch, and 310 launch price of the OLED.It's the increase in the cost of games themselves, though, that's proven most shocking. Mario Kart World, for instance, will cost 74.99 for a physical copy, or 66.99 digitally. That's an increase from 49.99 for most brand new original Switch games.Nintendo Switch 2 Live Reaction - How Much Will It Cost? Let's Find Out!Watch on YouTubeDonkey Kong Bananaza, meanwhile, is slightly cheaper: 66.99 for a physical copy and 58.99 digital. There's the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour game too, which will cost 990 yen according to the Japanese website - that's around a fiver.It should also be noted that some Switch 2 physical game cards won't actually include the full game, but include a download key instead. As for the difference between physical and digital pricing, this appears to be a shift towards pushing digital games - especially with the addition of the sharable Virtual Game Cards Nintendo revealed last week.Still, accounting for inflation, the Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle works out cheaper in the UK than the original Switch with a copy of Breath of the Wild in 2017.To directly compare the consoles alone, 280 for the original Switch works out at 367.40 today with inflation, still cheaper than Switch 2. However, throw in the big launch game and it's a better deal - an original Switch with a separate copy of Breath of the Wild cost 340 at launch in 2017, which works out at 446.13. That's pricier than the Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle.Over in Europe, the Switch 2 console costs 469.99, or 509.99 for the Mario Kart World bundle. That's equivalent to the cost in the UK.It's a different story in other parts of the world, however.In Japan, for instance, Nintendo will be selling a region-locked console at a lower price, in a bid to stop importers due to the weak yen.The Japan-only console will cost 49980 yen (around 258.95), but will only play Japanese games in Japanese language, with a Japanese Nintendo account.A more expensive Switch 2 with multilingual support will also be available at 69980 yen, around 362.57. That's still slightly cheaper than in the UK, though doesn't account for import costs.As for the price of Mario Kart World in Japan, it'll be 9980 yen compared to the cost of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the original Switch at 6578 yen. As Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Kantan Games, wrote on social media, that's 52 percent more expensive, which is a higher jump than the 33 percent rise from $60 to $80 in the US.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.As for the console itself in the US, it costs $450, but there are fears this could rise to as much as $600 if impacted by new tariffs from the Trump administration.Tariffs - taxes charged on products when they enter the country - could be as much as 46 percent on products from Vietnam, which is where the majority of Switch 2 manufacturing has taken place, Kotaku has reported.David Gibson, analyst at MST Financial, confirmed to The FT: "Export data combined with finished product codes confirms that Nintendo shipped finished Switch 2 [from Vietnam] across five days in January for a total of 383,000 units with all of them going to the USA."He added: "I suspect this occurred to test the distribution system and get ahead of the risk of tariffs. I expect the numbers to have ramped-up significantly in February and March."Wrote Niko Partners director of research and insights Daniel Ahmad on social media: "Nintendo shifted its manufacturing to Vietnam to avoid tariffs and with todays reciprocal tariff announcements they're likely going to end up paying tariffs anyway."Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis also suggested to IGN Nintendo "probably had a range of pricing for the US market in play up until the last minute due to the uncertainty on import tariffs", which is why the price wasn't included in the Direct.However, analysts don't believe the pricing will impact sales of Switch 2 initially."Based on what we're seeing across the market, sales to higher-income or more affluent households likely won't be impacted by this pricing," Circana analyst Mat Piscatella told IGN. "And, of course, we have the price insensitive super enthusiasts that will do and pay whatever it takes to acquire the Switch 2 at launch. Therefore, because of the limited quantities that will be available during the launch year, I do not anticipate this pricing to hinder year one sales volumes."The true test will come in year two, as supply is likely to become more readily available, and the addressable market will be forced to widen. So, we'll have to see what happens over the next 9-12 months."And compared with Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro at 699.99 and Valve's Steam Deck OLED at 479.00, the price of Nintendo's new console still appears reasonable.Of course, this all depends on whether consumers are able to pre-order, as Nintendo is enforcing strict criteria on pre-orders from its own Nintendo store in a bid to reduce scalping. That's based on playtime and the requirement of a Nintendo Online account.In the meantime, multiple online UK retailers have already gone live and sold out of Switch 2 stock, without the need to meet Nintendo's criteria.For more on the new console, here's everything announced at the Switch 2 Direct.
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