Microsoft also brought the Division 2 and other games to the service.

Dozens of PS4 games can now be emulated for the first time.

Marc Simonetti is a French concept artist and illustrator. Best known for his work on GRR Martin’s books “A Song of Ice and Fire”, and his Iron Throne, he’s also illustrated some of the most well-known fantasy and SciFi novels, such as The Discworld by Terry Pratchett, The Royal Assassin trilogy by Robin Hobb, Terry Goodkind’s “Sword of truth”, or Dune Saga by Frank Herbert.He’s also worked for many video game companies such as Activision, Ubisoft, Magic The Gathering, EA, Square Enix, and King Isle Entertainment. He has just released an art book, “Coverama,” and is currently working on several projects, including long feature films and concept art for video games, as a freelancer.His most recent work as a concept artist, which includes creating visual development and staging dramatic lighting and designs, is featured in Aladdin, Maleficent 2, Aquaman 2, and the upcoming Transformers Movie, Rise of the Beasts, among many others. He also serves as the Art Director at DNEG, one of the world’s leading visual effects and animation studios.

Netflix has no shortage of options when it comes to science fiction programming and experimental anthology series, but Love, Death + Robots is an especially beautiful love letter to science fiction’s chameleonic nature and endless versatility. The unpredictable animated anthology series combines sci-fi with comedy, horror, fantasy, mystery, and romance as it brings gripping genre literature to life through a modern lens. In doing so, Love, Death + Robots doesn’t just celebrate science fiction; it helps it evolve. Sci-fi is a revelatory storytelling genre that can open the audience’s mind and forever change their perception of reality. The best of it probes, inspires, and admonishes, which is exactly what Tim Miller (Deadpool) and Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3) strive for in Love, Death + Robots, now in its fourth season. Nothing is off-limits in the series, whether it’s a cat-fueled dystopia, gladiatorial combat atop dinosaurs, or a poet’s feud with Satan. The show aims to create the same level of jubilation in its viewers as those who discovered these short stories for the first time. Pretty much all the vignettes have been based on short stories that Tim’s read throughout his life,” explains Nelson, Love, Death + Robots’ supervising director. “We have hundreds of these stories just piled up.” There’s a true passion for the source material that helps Love, Death + Robots excel. This enormous collection of genre classics gets carefully selected as each new season takes shape.  “We try to curate the perfect mix. So we have a little something for everybody,” creator Miller elaborates. This has been one of the secrets to Love, Death + Robots’ success. Each collection of episodes is truly unique and feels like a pulpy paperback of short stories. In fact, Love, Death + Robots has even published collections of each season’s stories. “All the money goes to the authors,” Miller proudly adds. “We want people to read the stories! Forget about making them into movies.” Love, Death + Robots has resonated with science fiction fans who appreciate captivating and concise storytelling. That being said, Love, Death + Robots is also a visual extravaganza that pushes just as many boundaries in animation. Four seasons in, the series “Often, we choose the director and the animation studio according to their specialty,” Nelson explains as she continues to break down the meticulous nature of this process. “If we have two tentpole episodes that look a certain way, then we want to make sure that those episodes are going to look vastly different from each other.” For instance, Titmouse’s impressionistic work on Volume IV’s “How Zeke Got Religion” actively enhances the story. “You need to find their thing,” Nelson adds in reference to Love, Death + Robots’ roster of animation studios and what they each bring to the table. “It’s important for us, especially for this series, to make sure that we’re really showcasing the whole breadth of animation,” asserts Nelson. “Sometimes these directors are very much pioneers in what they do, and no one else is doing what they do. That’s why we end up working with them.” Photo-realistic 3D animation, stop-motion, traditional 2D visuals, and stop-motion are just some of the animation styles on display in Love, Death + Robots. The series has even increasingly dipped its toe into live-action stories that blur the lines between reality and animation. “Rarely do you see such a showcase of animation like this,” Nelson says. “This is a way to show new ideas, new looks, and new innovation by different directors and studios around the world.” Miller reiterates that it’s a deeply collaborative process where the animation studios have just as much agency as the storytellers.  “We push it in the initial direction, and then the directors come in and do their pitch.” The final product becomes a synthesis of ideas that are built upon ambition and taking risks. “We try to give them as much freedom as we can,” Miller emphasizes. This relationship has paid off well, earning the animated series 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Short Form Animated Program and Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation. The series’ latest batch of episodes is likely to add to this already impressive collection of accolades. Love, Death + Robots’ 45 episodes provide a broad, brave mix of everything that science fiction and animation have to offer. However, the series continues to look forward and is determined to surpass these heights. “We’ve got a lot of stories,” boasts Miller. “I have the next season—seasons, actually—picked out.” And while there were previously spin-offs and off-shoots in consideration, Love, Death + Robots is the perfect incubator for these stories, whether they’re two minutes or 20 minutes. “The beauty of the show is that we’d never get some of these ideas made if we were asking to do a feature,” admits Miller.  Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Love, Death + Robots plays by its own rules and continues to redefine anthology storytelling. It’s still the only series where fans can alternate between a string puppet rock concert and Russian Civil War soldiers fighting ancient supernatural evils. “There’s still a lot of room to do new and innovative things that we haven’t done before,” Miller insists. “Although we always seem to end up with too many cat stories. I can’t really explain that.” Four volumes of Love, Death & Robots are available to stream on Netflix now.

The longtime Luke Skywalker thinks Star Wars should start looking forward and prioritizing its newer cast of characters.

These MS-DOS games paved the way for some of the greatest innovations in the medium.

Dotemu is on a pretty good run. The video game studio and publisher has been around since 2007, and much of its history is largely working on remakes and remasters of older games. But it’s also been involved with major hits in the form of sequels and new games that are in the spirit of older classics, including Streets of Rage 4 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge.All of that work is culminating in what looks to be a promising 2025, with three new but classics-inspired games: Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, a new side-scroller for the series; Marvel Cosmic Invasion, an arcade-y beat-’em-up; and Absolum, an original beat-’em-up with roguelike elements. Absolum. Image: Dotemu“We’re open to everything,” CEO Cyrille Imbert tells The Verge. Despite his title, Imbert says his job involves acting like an executive producer to bring together concepts that answer specific needs for franchises.Before Shredder’s Revenge’s 2022 release, for example, there hadn’t been a good side-scrolling TMNT game for “a while,” he says. (Turtles in Time, which helped inspire the game, came out in 1991.) “We were convinced that there was a need for that.” There was: the game sold 1 million copies in its first week, developer Tribute Games said at the time.Dotemu takes on “most of the risk” of a project based on an existing franchise, Imbert says, meaning that while the company needs to convince a franchise owner to get on board, Dotemu typically finances everything and is responsible for finding a studio to execute a concept.“From A to Z, we are in control of the project, but we take the risk from A to Z as well,” explains Imbert. “Sometimes the studio will also participate financially, but it’s fairly rare, or it’s usually a minority of the total spending.” Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. Image: DotemuWith the new Ninja Gaiden game, for example, Imbert says he was familiar with the 3D iterations of the franchise on Xbox, and he also saw the success of recent action-platformers like The Messenger. So, he started conversations with Koei Tecmo, and then worked with The Game Kitchen, the developer of Blasphemous, on a pitch. “That’s the story, basically,” Imbert says.For Marvel Cosmic Invasion, Imbert says that following Streets of Rage 4, “lots of people” had been asking for a new X-Men game that was like what you used to find in arcades. “We knew there was a need and that people would really like it,” he says, especially if it got a similar treatment as Streets of Rage 4 or Shredder’s Revenge. The idea was “very obvious” to the Tribute Games team as well, so Dotemu and Tribute made a pitch to Marvel Games.Absolum, as a fully original game, is different from its other titles. From a pure business perspective, it’s a way for Dotemu to diversify its lineup so that the company doesn’t rely entirely on licensed games. Internally, the Dotemu team felt like they could do their own thing, and by making it inspired by classics, it would still fit in Dotemu’s lineup, Imbert says. They also wanted to work with Guard Crush, which worked on Streets of Rage 4, on another beat-’em-up.It all adds up to what’s going to be a busy year for the company. It has three games that show the different approaches it has to making these kinds of experiences, and all of them were chosen for a specific reason. “That’s how we’re going to be proud of what we do.”See More:

The Sony Days of Play sale is underway, and it includes the first official price cut for the PS5 Pro. The console has dropped by $50 to $650 in the US for the sale, which runs from May 28 to June 11. This is the first time Sony has discounted its Pro-level console. Retail partners like Amazon are matching the discount as well. If you don't have a PS5 already and can afford the Pro model, it's definitely the way to go to get the best PlayStation experience. It earned a score of 88 in our review, and it might have scored even higher if not for the price and the lack of a built-in disc drive. There are other discounts on consoles in the US and Canada as part of the sale. A bundle of either the standard PS5 or Digital Edition with a copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 starts at $400/$510 CAD (for the Digital Edition). Sony says that will save you $120/$160 CAD compared with buying them separately. The PS5 standard and digital versions will be on sale in Europe and Asia too, starting at €400/£340/¥65,980. It’s worth noting that Sony has considered raising the prices of PS5 hardware to offset the cost of tariffs. Microsoft this month jacked up the prices of Xbox consoles recently for that reason. So if you’ve been on the fence about getting a PS5 or PS5 Pro, now might be the time to snap one up. Elsewhere in the Days of Play sale, accessories are getting discounts. You can save on the PlayStation VR2 ($50 off), PlayStation VR2 and Horizon Call of the Mountain bundle ($50 off), Pulse Explore earbuds ($30 off), DualSense Edge controller ($30 off), PlayStation Access controller ($20 off) and the DualSense controller ($20 off). Things like PS5 console covers and external storage drives will get price cuts as well. You will, of course, be able to snap up PS5 games for fewer dollars than usual. MLB The Show 25, the brilliant Astro Bot and Lego Horizon Adventures are among the many first-party games getting discounts. If you haven't played The Last of Us Part II and don't want to wait a year or two before finding out where the story of HBO's adaptation will go after that (somewhat unsatisfying) season finale on Sunday, you might like to snap up the remastered edition of the misery simulator, which will be included in the sale. Hundreds of other games will be featured. The list includes several Assassin's Creed titles, Grand Theft Auto V, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Balatro. On top of that, movies will be on sale through Sony Pictures Core Elsewhere, some PlayStation Plus plans are 33 percent off for new subscribers. Upgrading to the Extra or Premium tiers may cost you a third less than usual as well. That stinks for long-term PS Plus members who’d like to add another year or two (especially after recent price increases in several regions), but that’s standard practice for plans such as these as companies try to boost subscriber numbers. Speaking of which, Sony is adding an extra few games to the PS Plus Game Catalog for Extra, Premium and Deluxe members. They are: Another Crab’s Treasure (PS5, May 29) Skull and Bones (PS5, June 2) Destiny 2: Legacy Collection (PS5 and PS4, June 4) Grand Theft Auto III (PS5 and PS4, June 10) Another Crab's Treasure is a delightful Soulslike that was one of my favorite games of 2024. One of the best things about it is an accessibility option that gives you a giant pistol that can one-shot any enemy. Skull and Bones landed last year after years of delays and I'd say that "at no extra cost" is the best way to try it. Destiny 2: Legacy Collection includes hundreds of hours of gameplay with all of the expansions from the game's Light and Darkness Saga, except for the last chapter, The Final Shape. As it happens, the latest batch of monthly PS Plus games (which all PS Plus subscribers can claim and keep in their libraries as long as they maintain the membership) includes Destiny 2: The Final Shape, which will be available on May 30 for PS4 and PS5. The other titles, which you can claim starting on June 3, are NBA 2K25 (PS5 and PS4), last year's remake of Alone in the Dark (PS5) and the Jet Set Radio-esque Bomb Rush Cyberfunk (PS5 and PS4). That's a solid lineup! In addition, two bona fide all-timers are joining the Classics Catalog on June 5 for PS Plus Premium/Deluxe subscribers. Myst and its sequel Riven will be available to members on PS4 and PS5 at no extra cost. Premium/Deluxe subscribers will have access to two more game trials from May 28: Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (PS5) and Sid Meier’s Civilization VII (PS5 and PS4). Update, May 28, 12:53PM ET: Sony pushed back the date that it's adding Destiny 2: The Final Shape to the PS Plus Monthly games list from May 28 to May 30. This story has been updated accordingly.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/the-ps5-pro-is-50-off-in-sonys-days-of-play-sale-144517873.html?src=rss

Switch too.This is it: Switch 2 launches this month!Switch 1 will live on, of course (and we're still excited to play Rhythm Heaven Groove and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream next year), but all eyes are on Nintendo's new console, with its brand new games and its updates to existing classics. Yes, yes, we've all played Breath of the Wild to death, but do you think that's going to stop us gliding in for a cheeky 4K replay?Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Guillermo del Toro keeps transforming old classics for Netflix. He previously directed his vision of the animated favorite Pinocchio; now he’s tackling one of the most famous horror tales of all time: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.For del Toro, this has been a dream project for many years — or maybe decades. He’s been talking about it publicly since at least the 2000s, and after several stabs at the project fell through at various other studios, he finally got to make his dream a reality at Netflix, who funded his version of the Gothic horror classic with an impressive cast that includes Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, and Jacob Elordi as Frankenstein’s Monster. The parallels between Victor Frankenstein pursuing his quixotic dreams of creating life, and del Toro’s own endless quest to create his cinematic vision are already getting me extremely excited for this film. Who doesn’t love a good horror allegory for the act of moviemaking itself?The first trailer for the film confirms that GDT’s Frankenstein will premiere later this year on Netflix. It also confirms that this thing looks like pure unfiltered del Toro Gothic horror. Check out the trailer below to see for yourself:READ MORE: The Best Movie Trailers of the Last 10 YearsHere is the film’s official synopsis:Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro adapts Mary Shelley’s classic tale of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein premieres on Netflix in November. Suddenly I am extremely hungry for a pretzel shaped like Frankenstein’s Monster’s head.Get our free mobile appThe Best Horror Movies of the Last 10 Years (2015-2024)These modern horror movies are sure to keep you up at night. Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky