(Credit: René Ramos; Nintendo; Sora)The Best Games on Every Platform Animal Crossing: New Horizons Animal Crossing: New Horizons (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent No game may end up defining 2020 more than Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Nintendo’s adorable life simulator has always had its fans. However, with the real world under lockdown, countless players have flocked to their own virtual islands to find community. Paying a mortgage to a raccoon is a small price to pay for the freedom to relax in your own social life again. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re-Boot Camp 4.0 Excellent Fire Emblem isn't Nintendo's only awesome strategy series. If you prefer soldiers and tanks over knights and horses, check out Advance Wars and its terrific turn-based tactics. This remake includes campaigns from the first two Game Boy Advance games, offering hours upon hours of brilliantly designed missions. You can also design your own maps and play against friends online. Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re-Boot Camp review ARMS ARMS (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent ARMS is Nintendo's newest take on the fighting game genre. It combines cartoonish aesthetics, sci-fi weapons, and arm-stretching boxing into an accessible, offbeat fighter with a lot of variety. It's a polished, fun, competitive game that bears more than a passing visual similarity to Splatoon. Though time will tell if ARMS gains any momentum within the esports scene, the game offers plenty of opportunity to swing fists at your friends. Bayonetta 2 Bayonetta 2 (for Nintendo Switch) 4.5 Excellent Bayonetta 2 is another fantastic game that launched on the wrong system. Years later its initial release, Bayo 2 still stands as one of the best action games out there, and now that it's been ported from the Wii U to the Switch it can get the attention and devotion it deserves. Tight controls, robust challenge, and plenty of style make this stand out as a pinnacle of action games. Bayonetta 3 Bayonetta 3 (for Nintendo Switch) 4.5 Excellent Just when you thought Bayonetta couldn’t get any more bewitching, PlatinumGames delivers an absolute master class on video game action with Bayonetta 3. Besides Bayonetta’s familiar punches, kicks, and guns, you can further expand her combat options by summoning giant demons and directing their attacks. Meanwhile, the multiversal story is ridiculous, even by Bayonetta standards. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent If Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night's story of a demonic castle and a lone savior sounds incredibly familiar, it should: the game was spearheaded by Koji Igarashi, the big brain behind many revered Castlevania games. Bloodstained is an excellent Castlevania game in everything but name, hitting the same beats Symphony of the Night, Aria of Sorrow, and Order of Ecclesia did. If you're thirsty for a new, enjoyable Castlevania-like game that calls back to before Lords of Shadow rebooted the series and Mirror of Fate completely failed to capture any of its luster, this is the game for you. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon 4.0 Excellent Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon isn’t a hard-hitting, nonstop action game like the main Bayonetta trilogy. Instead, this is a relatively relaxed adventure game full of puzzles and gorgeous storybook visuals. Young witch Cereza teams up with a young demon, Cheshire, to tackle challenges neither could complete alone. Although the combat isn’t quite as complex as in the mainline Bayo games, there’s still plenty of flair to the faerie fights. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon review Bravely Default II Bravely Default II (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent Modern Final Fantasy games have become their own beasts, but games like Bravely Default II remind us why we fell in love with those classic Square Enix JRPGs. In battle, you can either perform multiple actions at once (Brave) or wait to save up for later turns (Default), which opens up many strategic possibilities. On Switch, the diorama world looks more beautiful and nostalgic than ever. Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent Crypt of the NecroDancer was a surprise indie hit in 2015, catching gamers' eyes and ears with its combination of roguelike randomized dungeon exploration with rhythm game beat-keeping. It hit the Nintendo Switch in 2018, and now it's back in a new and much more Nintendo-specific form: Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer, a title that injects rhythm game mechanics into The Legend of Zelda. This Switch game seamlessly combines Zelda and Crypt of the NecroDancer, creating a surprisingly accessible and thoroughly enjoyable experience played to the beat of Zelda's classic and music. Cassette Beasts 4.0 Excellent Pokémon doesn't have a monopoly on monster catching. Cassette Beasts is a stylish, indie RPG that puts its own spin on collecting creatures and pitting them against each other in combat. The open world has many quests, the fighting mechanics have the extra depth that experienced players crave, and the story veers off in cool, surreal directions. Most importantly, there are some great monster designs, like ghostly sheep and living bullets. Cassette Beasts review Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent Forget fancy new video games. Sometimes you just want to play chess, solitaire, or one of the other virtual vintage games that make up this classic compilation. Not only is this a convenient way to play some of history’s most enduring games with friends, but Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics does a great job educating you on that history, including the fascinating early Hanafuda history of Nintendo itself. Game Builder Garage Game Builder Garage (for Nintendo Switch) 4.5 Excellent If you thought Super Mario Maker was a great way to learn about game development, give Game Builder Garage a spin. This incredibly powerful 3D game creation tool lets you make anything from platformers to racing games to puzzle mysteries. Thorough, friendly tutorials explain the robust “Nodon” coding language, so even novices can create hitboxes and manipulate the Z-axis like pros. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent The Switch has gotten a reputation as a machine for game ports, and there's nothing wrong with that. The Wii U wasn't the massive hit the Wii was, but it still had several excellent games that went underappreciated in their time. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is one of them, a sequel to Donkey Kong Country Returns with even more challenge and variety. The Switch version of this game adds Funky Kong Mode, an easier setting and new playable character (Funky Kong himself) that makes the surprisingly brutal platforming feel a little less punishing. Hades Hades (for Nintendo Switch) Hades takes the punishing and divisive roguelike genre and masterfully twists it into one of the year's most addictive games. Fighting your way out of the Greek underworld with randomly changing skills and weapons feels incredible. The family drama at the game’s core gives you that extra narrative push to keep going. Plus, everyone is smoking hot. Indivisible Indivisible (for Nintendo Switch) While many role-playing games draw their influences from Western folklore, even RPGs made in Japan, Indivisible carves out a unique identity with a fresh Southeast Asian flavor. The 2D animation is exquisite, as we would expect from the developer of Skullgirls. Gameplay is a mix of nonlinear spaces to explore and enemies to defeat in tactical battles. Of the two types of play, the exploration sections impress us more. In these bits you find your way forward by using an axe to fling yourself up walls or by shooting arrows to blind sentries. That's just more satisfying than the frantic messes the fights, caught awkwardly between turn-based and real-time combat, can turn into.   Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe (for Nintendo Switch) 4.5 Excellent Kirby’s Return to Dreamland is a traditional, side-scrolling adventure compared to Kirby’s more radical outings. Still, it’s an excellent showcase of what makes even a normal Kirby game irresistible. This Deluxe version enhances the Wii co-op classic with a sweet, new art style; extra powers; and an original epilogue. Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe (for Nintendo Switch) review Kirby and the Forgotten Land Kirby and the Forgotten Land (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent Kirby and the Forgotten Land finally gives the pink puffball the epic 3D adventure that Mario, Link, and Samus got years ago. Float through the skies in creative levels bursting with secrets. Upgrade familiar powers, such as hammers and swords, into formidable new forms. Or just sit back and marvel at how Nintendo made the post-apocalypse look so cute. Kirby Star Allies Kirby Star Allies (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent Kirby games are always fun. Whether they're the simple platformers like Kirby's Adventure or weirdly gimmicky experiences like Kirby's Dream Course, every first-party experience with Nintendo's pink puff ball has been enjoyable. Kirby Star Allies is no different, with a lighthearted campaign filled with colorful friends and abilities, surprisingly challenging extra modes to unlock, and support for up to four players at once. Get on the Friend Train! The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (for Nintendo Switch) 4.5 Excellent Hyrule is in danger again, and Link must save it. That's been the theme for nearly every Legend of Zelda game, and it's still the case in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The series' basic premise and Link/Zelda/Ganon dynamic are present, but nearly everything else is different. The classic Zelda dungeon-exploration structure is replaced by a huge open world that's filled with destructible weapons, monsters, puzzles, and quests. Breath of the Wild's scope is one previously unseen in the Zelda series, and Nintendo executes the adventure-filled world with aplomb. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom - Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch – OLED Model, Nintendo Switch Lite 4.5 Excellent The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom turns Nintendo's epic franchise on its head in more ways than one. Instead of the swordsman, Link, you play as Princess Zelda. Likewise, you don't directly attack enemies; you summon useful items and foes to aid you on the mission. The game takes the creative, improv spirit of Breath of the Wild and applies it to a classic 2D top-down Zelda adventure with delightful results. Plus, it just looks adorable. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom - Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch – OLED Model, Nintendo Switch Lite review The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD (for Nintendo Switch) 3.5 Good No Zelda games are terrible, but no game polarizes the fan base quite like Skyward Sword. Fortunately, this HD remaster speeds up the pacing, enhances the graphics, and offers a button-based control scheme if you don’t care for motion controls. The structure feels especially linear in a post-Breath of the Wild world, but Zelda’s origin story is still worth experiencing. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch (OLED Model), Nintendo Switch Lite 5.0 Outstanding At launch, it was tough to imagine the Switch ever getting another game as good as Breath of the Wild. But years later, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom delivers everything we could have possibly wanted and more in this direct sequel to one of the greatest games ever made. Exploring the skies and underground caves makes Hyrule more vast than ever. New powers let you break the world apart and rebuild it as you see fit. Tears of the Kingdom is an irresistible, hypnotic adventure, and an absolute must-play for all RPG fans. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch (OLED Model), Nintendo Switch Lite review Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent Who knows what the future holds for Star Wars, but Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga provides a terrific toybox take on Episodes I-IX. The Lego recreations of all nine movies gives you plenty to experience as you blast baddies and solve Force puzzles. But what really makes this game so special is how it turns the entire Star Wars galaxy into an open world to explore, whether it’s on colorful planets or through the vastness of outer space in your trusty starfighter. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (for Nintendo Switch) review Luigi's Mansion 3 Luigi's Mansion 3 - Nintendo Switch Standard Edition What started as a weirdly specific parody of Ghostbusters and Resident Evil has become of one the finest Mario spin-off adventures. Luigi’s spooky journey throughout a haunted hotel is arguably the most visually stunning game on the Nintendo Switch. Along with sucking up ghosts, you can now slam them (back) to death and shoot plungers to pull apart the scenery. Your greatest, and grossest, tool has to be Gooigi. This slimy green doppelgänger expands your puzzle-solving powers and provides an easy option for younger co-op partners. Lumines Remastered Lumines Remastered (for Nintendo Switch) 4.5 Excellent Puyo Puyo Tetris is great for classic, competitive block-dropping, but it's a bit overly perky and anime-ish to really relax to. Lumines Remastered is the ultimate chill-out block-dropper, syncing the mesmerizing pattern matching to dozens of hypnotic electronic and trance tracks. Load it on your Switch, put on your favorite headphones, and space out while you build huge combos. Mario & Luigi: Brothership Mario & Luigi: Brothership - Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch – OLED Model, Nintendo Switch Lite 4.0 Excellent Mario & Luigi: Brothership revives a Mario RPG subseries as a grand nautical adventure. The plumbers sail the seas, reconnecting scattered islands and battling foes with familiar, frenetic turn-based combat. On Nintendo Switch, the visuals and animations turn Mario and Luigi into cartoon-like characters. Mario & Luigi: Brothership - Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch – OLED Model, Nintendo Switch Lite review Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent Before Minions, there were Rabbids, Ubisoft's manic, sublingual, noseless horde spawned from Rayman: Raving Rabbids. Then the weird, bug-eyed, rabbit-like creatures caused havoc in their own game series. Now, they're running around Mario's stomping grounds in Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. This strategy-RPG combines two cartoonish worlds with satisfyingly deep, XCOM-like gameplay for a very fun and strange experience. It's a combination of styles that work much, much better than you'd expect. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle proved that these two mascots could come together for excellent, approachable tactics gameplay. Sparks of Hope is more of the same, but even better. Equipping Sparks lets you further customize your squad’s strategic abilities. Wide open levels provide entertaining exploration between the skirmishes. Mario Golf: Super Rush Mario Golf: Super Rush (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent Leave it to Mario to find a way to make golf games feel fresh again. Mario Golf: Super Rush’s standout gimmick has golfers teeing off all at once, and then physically running across the course to take their next shot. You still have to plan smart strokes, but you also need to keep an eye on the clock. The lengthy, single-player adventure teaches you the ropes before you head online to face real challengers on the green. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (for Nintendo Switch) 4.5 Excellent Mario Kart 8 stood out as the best-looking Mario Kart game yet when it came out on the Nintendo Wii U. Instead of making a new Mario Kart for the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo brought Mario Kart 8 to its new game system. In the process, Nintendo threw in both previously released DLC packs and made some few welcome changes to its multiplayer options, justifying the game's full retail price. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the most robust game in the series so far, and with the optional portability of the Switch, it ranks as a must-own title. Mario Strikers: Battle League Mario Strikers: Battle League (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent Mario has played many sports throughout the years, but Mario Strikers: Battle League gives us the arcade soccer chaos fans have craved for more than a decade. It features fast-paced action, while allowing for depth and skill should you choose to push yourself. Customize your characters with stat-changing gear. Join online clubs to compete in ongoing seasons. And no one animates the Mario universe with as much style and attitude as the developers at Next Level Games. Mario Strikers: Battle League (for Nintendo Switch) review Mario Tennis Aces Mario Tennis Aces (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent You don't need to be a sports fan to enjoy Nintendo sports games. If a sport has "Mario" in front of it, it's probably going to be a fun, very unrealistic romp instead of a serious simulation. Mario Tennis Aces is an exciting tennis game not because of any realistic physics, but because of fast, responsive gameplay and strategic mechanics that make matches feel more like rounds in a fighting game than tennis sets. Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics - Nintendo Switch 4.0 Excellent Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics lets you finally relive six legendary 2D fighters starring Marvel superheroes and Capcom icons. From the humble X-Men: Children of the Atom to the over-the-top Marvel vs. Capcom 2, this is vital fighting game history. An art gallery, modern control options, rollback netcode, and the underrated Punisher beat 'em up sweeten the deal. Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics - Nintendo Switch review Metal Slug Tactics Metal Slug Tactics (for Nintendo Switch) Metal Slug Tactics trades the mainline series' fast-paced running and gunning for methodical, turn-based strategy gameplay. Still, it's just as action-packed as ever. Line up your units for devastating sync attacks. Enjoy the beautiful old-school sprite work. Plan your turns, hop into a giant tank, and obliterate foes. Metroid Dread Metroid Dread (for Nintendo Switch) 4.5 Excellent After nearly 20 years, Metroid Dread brings Samus Aran back to her 2D, bounty hunting roots for the true Metroid 5. In it, you explore a dense, dangerous new planet full of powers to pick up and enemies to eliminate. From uncompromising boss battles to terrifying chases, Dread more than lives up to its subtitle. If there's anyone strong enough to take down the terror, it's Nintendo's leading lady. Metroid Prime Remastered 5.0 Outstanding Metroid Prime is one of the best games ever made. It takes Super Metroid’s brilliant exploratory action and perfectly translates it to 3D with immaculate level design and immersive first-person shooting. This remaster, which ventures into the remake territory, includes everything that worked in the original, and ups the presentation to modern, beautiful standards. Plus, you can now play with dual-stick controls. Bring on Metroid Prime 4. Metroid Prime Remastered review Miitopia Miitopia (for Nintendo Switch) 3.5 Good Miis can do more than just play Wii Sports. In Miitopia, you use Nintendo’s cartoon caricatures to cast yourself, friends, and family as heroes and villains in a fast-paced, whimsical role-playing game. Turn yourself into a brave knight, while your buddy supports you as a pop star. The joke can’t quite sustain the whole runtime, but Miitopia is wildly entertaining.   Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent If traditional Monster Hunter is just too intense for you, Monster Hunter Stories 2 lets you experience this cutthroat world as a turn-based JRPG. Befriend monsters and take them into battle. Hatch eggs to expand your menagerie. Strategic battles draw upon familiar Monster Hunter concepts. And, of course, Rathalos is here. New Pokemon Snap New Pokemon Snap (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent The beloved Nintendo 64 spin-off finally gets the update it deserves. Instead of capturing Pokemon and forcing them to battle, New Pokemon Snap asks you to take beautiful photos of Pikachu and friends in their natural surroundings. The on-rails gameplay feels like a nonviolent version of a light gun game. The gorgeous graphics will inspire you to share your best pics online for the world to see. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent Imagine Super Smash Bros., but instead of playing as video game mascots, you control beloved cartoon characters beating each other senseless. That's Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl. From SpongeBob SquarePants to Ren and Stimpy to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the roster covers all eras of Nicktoon nostalgia. Beyond the ironic meme potential, "Nick Smash" features genuinely fantastic gameplay made by a team clearly passionate about this particular form of "platform fighting" games. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (for Nintendo Switch) review Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 01 Variety Kit Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 01 Variety Kit (for Nintendo Switch) 5.0 Outstanding Labo is a weirder concept than the Switch itself. It's based around building cardboard "Toy-Cons" in which you place the Switch's components to let you do new things with them. It's also surprisingly functional, entertaining, and educational. The Nintendo Labo Variety Kit has all of the parts you need to build several different Toy-Cons like a piano and motorcycle handlebars, and walks you through every step of the process. Just building the Toy-Cons is fascinating, but the Toy-Con Garage mode adds surprisingly robust programming options to let you create your own remote-controlled creations. Nintendo Labo: VR Kit 4.5 Excellent It took over 20 years, but Nintendo finally got over its fear of virtual reality after the disastrous Virtual Boy. The Labo VR Kit lets you build your own VR headset that uses the Nintendo Switch and a set of lenses to create a stereoscopic image, and then insert that headset into different Toy-Con controllers to play a variety of games. That's already a ton of fun for $79.99 (or $39.99 for a starter set that only includes one Toy-Con to build instead of five). Add a programming environment on top that lets you create your own 3D games, and you have an impressive package. No More Heroes III No More Heroes III (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent No More Heroes III, like the other games in Suda51’s hack-and-slash trilogy, is a punk art game. Sure, some parts may be “bad,” like the technical jank or empty open worlds. But it’s all in service of larger commentary on everything from schlocky movies to wrestling fandom to the video game industry itself. Plus, cutting aliens down to size feels legitimately fantastic, and really that’s what matters.  Penny's Big Breakaway 4.0 Excellent The creators of Sonic Mania deliver a new indie 3D platformer that feels like a forgotten Sega classic. Use your trusty yo-yo to swing and roll through colorful, tightly designed levels that test your momentum control. Bosses and other enemies are sometimes more annoying than fun, but the movement mechanics are a joy to master. Penny's Big Breakaway review Pikmin 3 Deluxe Pikmin 3 Deluxe (for Nintendo Switch) 3.5 Good Pikmin isn’t the most recognizable Nintendo franchise, but the approachable real-time strategy game carries as much magic as Mario and Zelda. This Wii U port offers more missions and ways to control your army of cute plant creatures. The campaign's local, co-op play opens all kinds of new strategies, too. Veterans of previous Pikmin wars may have seen most of this content before, but Pikmin newcomers should absolutely jump into this tiny, tactical, and tactile world. Pikmin 4 Pikmin 4 (for Nintendo Switch) 4.5 Excellent Pikmin has always been good, but the quirky real-time strategy game has never broken out of its cult status over the past 20 years. Hopefully, that all changes with Pikmin 4. The biggest and best Pikmin game yet, Pikmin 4 gives you new Pikmin to command, a cute and customizable dog companion, and many gorgeous areas to strategically explore whether above ground or in countless caves. The multiplayer could be better, but Pikmin 4 is a top-tier Nintendo game everyone should play. Pikmin 4 (for Nintendo Switch) review Pizza Tower Pizza Tower feels like a fever dream of 1990s cartoons, internet memes, and retro Wario Land games. Don’t let his pudgy exterior fool you. Protagonist Peppino Spaghetti has many incredibly fast and fluid platforming tools, including dashing and wall-running. You’ll need to master those tools to beat levels as fast as possible, without losing your mind. Pokemon Legends: Arceus Pokemon Legends: Arceus (for Nintendo Switch) 3.5 Good Pokemon Legends: Arceus finally gives the Pokemon franchise a long-awaited refresh. Taking place in the distant past of Diamond and Pearl’s Sinnoh region, Arceus lets you capture and study wild Pokemon in a world where humans still fear the creatures. Vast open fields, revamped battle mechanics, and an utterly addictive approach to exploration create the most immersive Pokemon experience yet. Pokemon Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee! Pokemon: Let's Go, Eevee! 4.0 Excellent If the traditional Pokemon RPGs are still just a bit too complex for you, consider the casual adventures Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee. This duo remakes the first-generation Pokemon Yellow, with bright, colorful, HD graphics, and a new capture mechanic based on Pokemon Go. In addition, there are trainer battles and turn-based combat for people who dig classic Pokemon. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Pokémon Scarlet - Nintendo Switch 4.0 Excellent Pokemon Sword and Shield and Pokemon Legends: Arceus experimented with expansive zones, but Pokémon Scarlet and Violet finally turns the monster-catching game into an open-world RPG. As we always suspected, the addictive Pokémon formula works brilliantly when you can go wherever you want, exploring towns and catching whatever monsters you encounter. Lingering technical issues keep it from reaching its full potential, but this is Pokémon's shining future. Pokemon Sword/Shield Pokemon Sword (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee were a nice warmup, but Pokemon Sword and Shield are the real home console Pokemon games we’ve been looking forward to playing. Travel across big, open landscapes to capture even bigger Pokemon. New expansions packs in 2020 give trainers even more regions to explore and more Pokemon to battle without having to buy a third version. The Pokedex will be complete before you know it.  Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown 4.5 Excellent Prince of Persia returns to its 2D roots with The Lost Crown, a standout entry in the crowded modern Metroidvania market. Everything just clicks. The massive map is a joy to explore. Clever puzzles make the most of inventive abilities. Deep combat systems allow satisfying expression. Challenging DLC further expands the adventure. And the presentation combines Persian flair with anime exuberance. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review Pokemon Unite Pokemon Unite (for Nintendo Switch) 3.5 Good If you’re curious about the MOBA genre, but scared of esports heavy-hitters like Dota 2 and League of Legends, then Pokemon Unite is the perfect place to get started. Two teams of five Pokemon battle each other in real-time to score goals across the map. This free-to-play game is also coming soon to mobile, so you’ll find plenty of aspiring Pokemon masters to challenge. Puyo Puyo Tetris Puyo Puyo Tetris (for Nintendo Switch) 4.5 Excellent Practically everyone in North America has heard of Tetris. Far fewer have heard of Puyo Puyo. Both are block-dropping puzzle games, but while Tetris has been Tetris for decades, Puyo Puyo has had many different tweaks and name changes in attempts to appeal to the west. It came out first as Puyo Pop, then received different licensed incarnations, such as Puzzle Fighter and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. Now, Puyo Puyo is making its mark here, thanks to Sega and a double-billing with Tetris. The pairing results in a title that's plump with game modes, unlockables, and solo and multiplayer options. Red Dead Redemption Red Dead Redemption (for Nintendo Switch) Grand Theft Auto put Rockstar Games on the map, but for many the team's true masterpiece is the epic, open-world Western saga known as Red Dead Redemption. John Marston's cowboy odyssey has the scathing tone you'd expect from the developer, but it also has heart and a sense of tragedy. The Nintendo Switch version perfectly maintains the original gameplay experience, from stylish shootouts to riding your horse across the empty desert. It also includes the Undead Nightmare DLC. Finally, a version of Red Dead you can play in a tent under the stars. Rebel Galaxy Outlaw Rebel Galaxy Outlaw (for Nintendo Switch) Rebel Galaxy Outlaw has enough action-packed, visually dazzling spaceship dogfights to excite any Star Fox fan. The real joy, however, is in the quieter moments, when you act out your galactic trucker fantasies by carrying cargo from space stations named after Texas towns. Improving your ship is a bit of a grind, but it’s a rewarding one. If you get bored, you can always shoot down pirates—or become one yourself. Rocket League Rocket League (for Nintendo Switch) Rocket League is soccer, with remote controlled cars and funny hats. It's amazing how compelling a game can be when the entire point of it is to use a car to knock a ball into a goal, but Rocket League nails it. Wild physics, colorful visuals, and simple game types you can keep coming back to while challenging friends and strangers make this one of the best pseudo-sports games on the Switch. Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (for Nintendo Switch) Platforming excellence comes to the Nintendo Switch courtesy of Yacht Club Games' Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove. This downloadable package includes the original Shovel Knight, one of 2014's top titles, as well as all the previously released DLC including the Plague of Shadows and Specter of Torment campaigns. If you long for some retro, 2D action, Treasure Trove a a game that you should not miss. Splatoon 3 Splatoon 3 (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent Splatoon 3 isn't much different than Splatoon 2 (which in turn wasn't much different from Splatoon 1). However, no other online team-based shooter delivers an experience quite like this. Inking the ground, splatting opponents, and transforming from squid to kid never felt this good. The wealth of solo, cooperative, and competitive modes will keep you busy. Keep the party going with the excellent, roguelike DLC Side Order. Splatoon 3 (for Nintendo Switch) review Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection (for Nintendo Switch) Street Fighter has been the biggest name in fighting games for decades, and Capcom is proud of that fact. While it really got going with Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection lets you play the original Street Fighter in all of its genre-building glory. And, after you realize how bad that first attempt was, you can play the much better sequels like Super Street Fighter II, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Street Fighter III: Third Strike. You're looking at a dozen games in this collection, with loads of extra content like soundtracks and sprite data. Streets of Rage 4 Streets of Rage 4 (for Nintendo Switch) Streets of Rage 4 pounds life back into the dead sidescrolling beat ‘em up genre. The gameplay may not have progressed that much since Sega’s trilogy in the 1990s, but taking down hordes of goons with your fists has never looked better thanks to a thoroughly modern illustrated art style. A risky new mechanic that burns health to power special moves, unless you avoid getting hit, adds some fighting-game flair.  Super Bomberman R Super Bomberman R (for Nintendo Switch) 3.5 Good Bomberman's return to console gaming was one of the most surprising moments in the Nintendo's January 2017 Switch game showcase. Considering that the little guy's now the property of Konami, a company that's more known for killing P.T. and warring with Metal Gear maestro Hideo Kojima than making video games, it was shocking to see Super Bomberman R announced as a Nintendo Switch launch title. Thankfully, this newest entry in the beloved, bomb-tossing franchise keeps the series' simple and addicting core gameplay intact, and adds tons of modes, collectible items, and characters to keep things fresh. Super Mario 3D All-Stars Super Mario 3D All-Stars (for Nintendo Switch) 3.5 Good This classic Mario collection combines Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy. They may not have received the radical visual overhaul of the original Super Mario All-Stars, but these are still three of the finest 3D platformers ever made—now playable in HD and on the go. Nintendo says this collection is a limited release, so get it while you can. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (for Nintendo Switch) 4.5 Excellent Super Mario 3D World seamlessly blends the free-roaming, open-ended platforming of Mario 3D’s adventures with the concentrated multiplayer mayhem of his latest 2D romps. It was great on Wii U, and now it's even better on Nintendo Switch. However, this package’s real star is Bowser’s Fury, an ambitious spin-off that reimagines what an open-world Mario game can be. Super Mario Bros. Wonder Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Nintendo Switch 4.5 Excellent In the beginning, all Super Mario games were wonderful 2D sidescrollers that dazzled us with their sheer imagination. But as Mario set his sights on 3D heights, the New Super Mario Bros. series turned 2D Mario into a safe and bland nostalgia franchise. No more! Super Mario Bros. Wonder fills 2D Mario to the brim with whimsy, creativity, and joyful confusion. Turn levels into psychedelic dreamscapes! Customize your abilities! Compete against friends online! Transform into an elephant! You can do all of this and more in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Nintendo Switch review Super Mario Maker 2 Super Mario Maker 2 (for Nintendo Switch) 4.5 Excellent Super Mario Maker 2 is a welcome update to the original Super Mario Maker. It adds a new skin, new themes, and plenty of new tools for making more creative and challenging Mario levels. You can create levels based on the graphics and mechanics of Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros., just like in the previous Super Mario Maker. These levels can use one of 10 different themes: Ground, Sky, Underground, Forest, Underwater, Ghost House, Desert, Airship, Snow, and Castle. Sky, Forest, Desert, and Snow are new to Super Mario Maker 2. For more variety, you can toggle each theme to its nighttime variant, which adds unique twists to the gameplay. And, of course, you can share your creations online. Super Mario Odyssey Super Mario Odyssey (for Nintendo Switch) 5.0 Outstanding In Super Mario Odyssey, the heroic plumber returns to open-world game design for the first time since the incredible Super Mario 64. Though Odyssey isn't as technically groundbreaking as its predecessor, the action-platformer is packed to the brim with hat-tossing combat. Yes, hat tossing. This time around, Mario has a new friend, Cappy, who lets Mario dispatch enemies with the flick of the wrist. And, even better, Mario can assume the identity of an enemy, gaining its abilities, by plopping Cappy on the foe's head. Super Mario RPG Super Mario RPG - Nintendo Switch (OLED Model), Nintendo Switch Lite, Nintendo Switch 4.0 Excellent Forget Paper Mario or Mario and Luigi. The original Super Mario RPG, a collaboration between Nintendo and Square Enix, first showed us that Mario’s charms could translate to a Final Fantasy-style adventure. This faithful remake offers gorgeous new graphics and increased accessibility. At last, find out who Geno is. Super Mario RPG - Nintendo Switch (OLED Model), Nintendo Switch Lite, Nintendo Switch review Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent Only video games can capture the simple pleasures that come from racing monkeys inside balls. Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania remasters hundreds of classic stages from Sega’s obstacle course series in a single, cool package. Don’t let the bright colors and friendly monkey faces fool you. Rolling your monkey to the goal demands an expert understanding of the game’s unforgiving physics. If you get too frustrated, take a break with Banana Mania's wacky, multiplayer mini-games. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (for Nintendo Switch) 4.5 Excellent Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has everything a fan of Nintendo’s crossover mascot fighting game could want. A faster pace better for competitive play. Every single character who has ever appeared in the series, including third-party icons such as Banjo-Kazooie, Cloud Strife, and Solid Snake. There's a new single-player mode chock-full of even more fan service. The theme song even has lyrics now.  Tactics Ogre: Reborn Tactics Ogre Reborn (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent The original Tactics Ogre enthralled fans in 1995 thanks to its deep strategy and strong narrative. If you missed out the first time, Tactics Ogre: Reborn gives you another chance to check out this lost classic, the prelude to Final Fantasy Tactics. Just don’t expect hugely revamped graphics. Telling Lies Telling Lies (for Nintendo Switch) Her Story was a test for the kind of interactive story game developer Sam Barlow could pull off with just FMV clips and a fake computer interface. Telling Lies is the Aliens to Her Story’s Alien. Instead of just investigating one woman’s interviews, you follow four different characters. Tracing a nonlinear mystery across so many different threads can get overwhelming. Fortunately, Hollywood actors Logan Marshall-Green, Alexandra Shipp, Kerry Bishé, and Angela Sarafyan make the clips compelling watches in their own right. Besides, we’re all pretty used at communicating through video chat these days.  Triangle Strategy Triangle Strategy (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent A tactical follow-up to the gorgeous Octopath Traveler, Triangle Strategy is a luxurious strategy role-playing game that rewards your patience. Soak in the atmosphere on the land. Become invested in the characters and political intrigue. Methodically think through every option during turn-based battles and feel like an absolute strategic genius.  Trombone Champ Trombone Champ (for Nintendo Switch) Rhythm games usually make you feel like an ultra-cool rock god. Not Trombone Champ. This zany title embraces the goofy charm of its titular instrument, delivering an experience that is both awesome and awkward. The purposefully bumbling controls make each song sound like a confused elephant putting on a concert, an effect that's multiplied in local multiplayer. A light progression system unlocks famous trombone players like baseball cards while trying to solve a sinister riddle. The game is also available on PC, but the Switch version deserves props for its hilarious motion controls that take the trombone simulation to the next level. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore (for Nintendo Switch) 3.5 Good While you wait for Persona 5 to come to the Nintendo Switch, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, a late Wii U port, is the next best thing. This bewildering crossover between Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei has players entering the entertainment industry of Japan’s stylish Shibuya and Harajuku districts. Of course, you also do battle against demons by summoning Fire Emblem characters through the power of song. A streamlined battle system and pop music tone should delight players who don’t even care about anime RPGs.  Unicorn Overlord 4.5 Excellent As a Vanillaware game, we’re not surprised that Unicorn Overlord has an unbelievably beautiful illustrated aesthetic. However, the game backs up its looks with deeply strategic role-playing gameplay that requires tactical thinking. Ogre Battle fans, this one’s for you. Unicorn Overlord review Void Bastards Roguelikes can be a polarizing genre as their repetitive nature, random elements, and punishing difficulty threaten to make the entire experience a waste of time. Void Bastards avoids this trap with a core gameplay loop that’s a joy to repeat and an addictive sense of progression stringing you along the whole time.Each new spaceship you raid is basically a tiny comic book-styled System Shock level with spooky enemies to shoot, machinery to hack, character traits to manage, and equipment to salvage. Use that equipment to construct permanent new weapons and perks that make you eager to start another raid. Our journey across the galaxy stretched on for hours because it’s so easy to say “just one more piece of loot.”Note that Void Bastards is published by Humble Bundle, which is owned by PCMag’s parent company, Ziff Davis. WarioWare: Get It Together WarioWare: Get It Together (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent WarioWare is one of Nintendo’s best and most shockingly self-aware franchises. It’s about Mario’s gross, evil doppelganger starting a shady game company to get rich. Fortunately for you, these “microgames” remain a pure blast of weird and wonderful bite-sized entertainment. The new gimmick here lets you and a friend tackle challenges with different characters whose unique move sets make you rethink your approach on the fly. Hurry up! Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition 4.0 Excellent This late-period Wii U gem finally returns to close out the Nintendo Switch era. A standalone entry of the Xenoblade saga, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition takes place on a lush open-world planet teeming with friendly and hostile creatures. Explore on foot or, eventually, by flying a giant mech. The dynamic RPG combat rewards smart timing and synchronizing party members. Along with improved visuals, this definitive edition adds a new epilogue story. Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition review

Next week, the former president of “Grant Theft Auto” maker Rockstar North launches his first title since leaving the Take-Two Interactive-owned video game developer and opening his own studio, Build A Rocket Boy: the AAA narrative-driven action-adventure thriller “MindsEye.” Published by IOI Partners, the team behind the “Hitman” franchise, the Unreal Engine 5-built game will debut June 10 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store with a $59.99 price tag for the standard edition. Related Stories Set in the near-futuristic city of Redrock, “MindsEye” puts players into the role of Jacob Diaz, a former soldier haunted by fragmented memories from his mysterious MindsEye neural implant, as he uncovers a conspiracy involving rogue AI, corporate greed, an unchecked military, and a threat so sinister that it endangers the very survival of humanity. Popular on Variety But the base story isn’t the biggest draw for “MindsEye,” which includes Build A Rocket Boy’s proprietary Game Creation System, that enables players to, well, “craft anything in their minds eye.” Per the studio, “Players can craft their own experiences using all of the ‘MindsEye’ assets, creating everything from custom missions to entirely new scenarios within the game’s expansive, richly detailed world. Whether you’re designing a high-speed chase through Redrock’s bustling cityscapes or a stealth mission in its industrial outskirts, it is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, ensuring that players of all skill levels can bring their imagination to life.” Benzies’ Edinburgh-based Build A Rocket Boy has promised “fresh premium content” will rollout monthly for the game, including regular releases of new missions, challenges and game assets. While “MindsEye” is the first title from Benzies since he launched BARB after leaving Rockstar in 2016 (Benzies was the lead “Grand Theft Auto” developer across the third through fifth games in the franchise, as well as “Grand Theft Auto Online,” and was in a legal battle with parent company Take Two over unpaid royalties from 2016 until 2019), it’s just step one in the prolific producer’s plan to shake up the gaming industry. “At Build A Rocket Boy, our vision goes far beyond a single title,” Benzies told Variety. “‘MindsEye’ is the first episode and central story around which ever-expanding interconnected episodes will span. We’re already working on future episodes, which will introduce alternate realities while maintaining it’s core themes of hope, redemption, and the intrigue of civilizations past and future, drawing from the lore and multiverse concepts.” See Variety‘s full interview with Benzies below, including the inevitable comparisons that will be drawn between “MindsEye” and the aesthetic of the “GTA” franchise, and his hopes for Rockstar Games’ highly anticipated and much-delayed “GTA 6.” Where did the concept for “MindsEye” come from? I pull a lot of inspiration from the real world. Watching the actions of humans – their foibles and their virtues. Watching the advancement of technology and how we adapt, or indeed, do not adapt. We’ve been moving to an automated world for many years now, and the impact on humans, especially with recent advancements in AI, which serves as good fodder for a story and even better for a video game. I think we all have this little nagging feeling about how humans and AI will blend together in the future—will it go smoothly, or will it turn sinister? We’re fans of all different types of media, and we’ve drawn influence from cinematic visionaries like Ridley Scott, Paul Greengrass, Christopher Nolan, and J.J. Abrams, and films like “The Bourne Identity,” “Memento,” and TV series “Lost” — they’re all exploring memory, perception, and control in their own ways. So, while we nod to those influences here and there, we wanted to build something that feels fresh, grounded in today’s world, but still asking the kinds of questions that have always made this genre powerful. With your “GTA” roots, obvious comparisons are already being drawn between the style and aesthetic of that franchise and “MindsEye.” Comparisons will always be made—it’s the way human beings pigeonhole concepts. But “MindsEye” isn’t built to fit into anyone else’s box. Many games share the same core elements: cars, guns, cities, and charismatic characters, and differentiation is even tougher in today’s entertainment landscape. Streaming, social media, and on-demand binge culture have fractured attention spans, and consumer mindshare is a brutal battlefield for all IP. Our industry continues to celebrate each other’s breakthroughs, and I’m proud that our collective innovation is advancing the medium of gaming, even if our paths diverge. As an independent studio we have the freedom to break ground in experimental new ways and the challenge is balancing innovation with familiarity—too much “new” risks alienating fans, too much “same” feels stale. It’s about nailing what makes your game’s world feel alive and urgent. “MindsEye” is about consequence and connection—it’s cinematic, reactive, and meant to feel like a world you’re not just playing in, but able to create in it too. We’re excited to see what they’ve crafted with “GTA VI ,” and I can’t wait to play it as a consumer for the first time. They’re always delivering something new, unique and at a scale that very few can pull off. What does MindsEye represent in BARB’s larger vision and long-term strategy? Are you plotting this out as a multi-game franchise or your first standalone? At Build A Rocket Boy, our vision goes far beyond a single title. “MindsEye” is the first episode and central story around which ever-expanding interconnected episodes will span. We’re already working on future episodes, which will introduce alternate realities while maintaining it’s core themes of hope, redemption, and the intrigue of civilizations past and future, drawing from the lore and multiverse concepts. It’s the future of entertainment to allow active participation so players feel like they have agency and can immerse themselves in our world as they want to. We are introducing three products in one game that will revolutionize AAA-quality interactive gaming and storytelling: “MindsEye” narrative story, Play.MindsEye, and Build.MindsEye. In our tightly crafted action-noir, “MindsEye” narrative story we have rips in time accessed through portals at strategic points throughout the game – so while you play as Jacob Diaz on his personal journey, players can also explore side stories and delve deeper into the backstories of characters they encounter along the way. In this way we are delivering companion content at the same time as the anchor content, weaving a rich narrative tapestry which will continue to evolve and expand giving greater depth to characters so you understand their personality and motivations. How do digital products Play.MindsEye (formerly named Arcadia) and Build.MindsEye (formerly Everywhere) tie in to plans for “MindsEye” and what BARB wants to offer gamers? In this new era of entertainment, where streaming platforms, boom-and-bust games, and an on-demand culture dominate, we’re pushing things in a new direction—with an interface that simplifies how we consume not just games, but all forms of entertainment. Consumers are moving away from 2D browsing into fully 3D, immersive experiences. Put simply, we’re shifting from passive interaction to active participation. As with all new products, things evolve. Arcadia was originally envisioned as our creation platform, but as we continued developing “MindsEye” and building out BARB’s ecosystem, it naturally grew into something more focused— Play.MindsEye and Build.MindsEye. Play delivers cinematic, high-intensity gameplay with missions and maps that constantly evolve. Build gives players intuitive tools to create their own content—no technical skills required, just imagination and intent. For BARB to fully realize our vision, we had to beta test our creation system with a community of builders in real-time and started with Everywhere while we were in stealth mode developing MindsEye. How did you settle on IOI as publishing partner? We’ve always found the way IOI handled the “Hitman” franchise interesting. They are one of the few publishers that have taken their single-player IP and increased their player count and amplified their community culture over time. From a technology point of view, their one executable approach for all of their content is very smart, and we always planned to have a similar approach, which encouraged us to join forces. This interview has been edited and condensed.

Next year will finally bring Grand Theft Auto 6 to gamers, and its impending launch is bound to take up much of the gaming space in 2026. The wait for GTA 6 has been a long one, but with a release date finally locked in and a more in-depth sneak peek from Rockstar, the game is finally starting to feel like a reality.

Xando Member Oct 28, 2017 38,006 With the launch of Call of Duty Season 4, Activision quietly put adverts inside loadouts for Black Ops 6 and Warzone, sparking a backlash in the process. Activision already has a bad reputation for the aggressive monetization of the premium Black Ops 6 and its free-to-play battle royale Warzone, but this latest move may have tipped some players over the edge. Following the launch of Season 4, adverts for weapon bundles can be seen in the build and weapon menus. These are unavoidable for players as they tinker with their loadouts. Elsewhere, Activision has added bundle and Battle Pass advertisements to the Events tab, another controversial change that has caused complaints. Here's a snippet of the response, sourced from across Call of Duty subreddits, Discords, and social media: I wouldn't even be mad if this was just in Warzone, a free game, but putting it in a pay-to-play premium title, with how expensive they're getting? F**k off. This game is still 80€ I get that they make most of their money from the store, but I feel like the bare minimum for a premium product would be to not have ads clogging the menus right? At this point it really feels like opening up a mobile game with how much more you see an option to buy anything in this game. Anyone who wanted this bundle would've checked the store and bought it. Putting it here isn't gonna make more people buy it, its justannoying. Just wait until they add pop up ads for bundles while you are playing the game. Click to expand... Click to shrink... More including some examples here: Activision Quietly Force Adverts into Call of Duty Black Ops 6 and Warzone Loadouts and Players Absolutely Hate It: 'At This Point It Really Feels Like Opening Up a Mobile Game' - IGN With the launch of Call of Duty Season 4, Activision quietly put adverts inside loadouts for Black Ops 6 and Warzone, sparking a backlash in the process. www.ign.com   Gaspode Member Jan 17, 2025 152 gross   MarcosBrXD Member Aug 28, 2024 1,779 Crazy one of the biggest IPs doing this   Wallace Member Oct 25, 2017 28,182 Midwest What a shit franchise.   Shirkelton Member Aug 20, 2020 6,976 Fuck that.   MinerArcaniner Uncle Works at Nintendo Member Oct 29, 2017 7,473 The revenue line has to keep going up. There's no such thing as "enough" with corporations.   Kinthey Avenger Oct 27, 2017 25,551 Poor Cod really needs the money to keep the lights on   skullmuffins Member Oct 25, 2017 7,615 oh, ads for in-game microtransactions. guess i'm not surprised. that's where all the money is these days.   Remark Member Oct 27, 2017 4,184 Yeah the ads are so bad this season. When you boot up the game in CoD HQ, theres a big ass button for Blackcell and BO6 and WZ are all the way on the right side of the menu. It's so annoying. Huge disrespect to the people who actually bought the game. I wish CoD HQ would go away, it doesn't even actually help with anything and actually hampers the UX experience in a lot of ways especially on PC.  Last edited: Today at 10:14 AM LiquidDom Avenger Oct 27, 2017 2,730 Wait it's just ads for the in-game purchases? Not outside ads that have nothing to do with the game? I don't have that much of an issue with it, still shit though.  Richietto One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 26,147 North Carolina Lmao what a joke   Loxley Prophet of Truth Member Oct 25, 2017 10,702 We're inching closer and closer to this scene from Ready Player One. "We estimate we can sell up to 80% of an individual's visual field before inducing seizures" View: https://youtu.be/KpPE85Jogjw?si=Di0mlmiF27KidwWs  Fabs Member Aug 22, 2019 2,780 This doesn't seem that different than like Fortnite advertising the shop updates in the main menu. It's fairly harmless.   Noisepurge Corrupted by Vengeance Member Oct 25, 2017 9,775 Fabs said: This doesn't seem that different than like Fortnite advertising the shop updates in the main menu. It's fairly harmless. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Fortnite doesn't cost 80$  OP OP Xando Member Oct 28, 2017 38,006 LiquidDom said: Wait it's just ads for the in-game purchases? Not outside ads that have nothing to do with the game? I don't have that much of an issue with it, still shit though. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Considering half of the in-game purchases are basically ads for some brands or characters that have nothing to do with COD it's basically the same thing   Remark Member Oct 27, 2017 4,184 Noisepurge said: Fortnite doesn't cost 80$ Click to expand... Click to shrink... To be fair, Warzone is F2P but that shit should be in there. Whether you buy the game or not, you have to go through CoD HQ which is so annoying.   Doskoi Panda One Winged Slayer Member Oct 27, 2017 17,314 CoD is so fucking trashy lmao. I will never understand how it remains so popular. It just gets worse year over yesr, even Warzone.   SunBroDave "This guy are sick" Member Oct 25, 2017 15,148 How else is COD supposed to make money   Decarb Member Oct 27, 2017 9,264 Fabs said: This doesn't seem that different than like Fortnite advertising the shop updates in the main menu. It's fairly harmless. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Not only is it in a full priced mode, but its also in the weapon customization menu where you least expect it.   Agni Kai Member Nov 2, 2017 10,037 Only Battlefield 6 can save us now. Hold the line, my friends. Hold the line.   jroc74 Member Oct 27, 2017 34,177 Yeah I dont think it needs to be this aggressive. LiquidDom said: Wait it's just ads for the in-game purchases? Not outside ads that have nothing to do with the game? I don't have that much of an issue with it, still shit though. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Fabs said: This doesn't seem that different than like Fortnite advertising the shop updates in the main menu. It's fairly harmless. Click to expand... Click to shrink... While trying to play the game tho? "Following the launch of Season 4, adverts for weapon bundles can be seen in the build and weapon menus. These are unavoidable for players as they tinker with their loadouts." Imagine getting hit with Shark Card ads while browsing the in game stores in GTA Online....please Rockstar dont do this. Noisepurge said: Fortnite doesn't cost 80$ Click to expand... Click to shrink... Also this.  BradleyLove Member Oct 29, 2017 1,661 Doesn't surprise me. I bought Forza Horizon for PS5 a few days ago and was shocked to encounter unskippable ads for DLC. The American obsession with forcing ads everywhere they can is horrible. This reply was brought to you by NEW Mountain Dew—new look, same bold refreshing flavour.  TransEuropaExpress Member Dec 6, 2017 11,420 US They should go all in and start doing random 5-minute commercial breaks in the middle of rounds.   Pyro God help us the mods are making weekend threads Member Jul 30, 2018 18,922 United States Really fucking gross.   Vourlis Member Aug 14, 2022 5,911 United States I...where are the ads? edit: Oh like advertising the bundles or whatever. Okay.  jroc74 Member Oct 27, 2017 34,177 BradleyLove said: Doesn't surprise me. I bought Forza Horizon for PS5 a few days ago and was shocked to encounter unskippable ads for DLC. The American obsession with forcing ads everywhere they can is horrible. This reply was brought to you by NEW Mountain Dew—new look, same bold refreshing flavour. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I either forgot how it was or just didnt know, because I played it on XSX when it launched. But I was and am shocked at the mtx in FH5.  shadowman16 Member Oct 25, 2017 41,804 I feel like this has already become too normalised because I honestly assumed we were talking about unrelated product ads... Meanwhile the examples above... honestly I kinda expected. Granted the article also points it out perfectly that if it were just in Warzone (free) it'd be... less bad, but charging however much for COD THEN pushing those ads on you... you just know people will crack. Not the worst example of ads in games though, I still give that to SFVI's Turtles costumes, aside the cost, having that damn song playing constantly in the battle hub for month(s) on end drove me nuts at the time.  Papaya The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 2,735 California The financial model for CoD is awful and lacks any sort of creativity. They just copied fortnite even though it doesn't work for a military shooter. They rarely release any good content because it either doesn't match the game's tone, or it sucks. It just doesn't lend itself well to skins, and other visual customization options. Or maybe they just don't know how to make good. Either way, I've never seen a more boring battlepass in my life. CoD can be a super fun action game, but it's never felt more hollow and lifeless. The best counter-example to "games are art" I've ever seen.  BestBrand Member Mar 5, 2025 457 Call of duty is the worst man. I may not even buy another COD again.   MerluzaSamus Member Dec 3, 2018 1,471 Argentina Agni Kai said: Only Battlefield 6 can save us now. Hold the line, my friends. Hold the line. Click to expand... Click to shrink... The game published by EA to gather obscene money on the fps market? That one Battlefield? Jokes aside, 'fraid this is going to be the norm long term, Fortnite normalized it and publishers with less restraint are going wild, same with AI. At least on the AAA market.  Lumination Member Oct 26, 2017 16,064 Who could have expected them giving the game away would have affected the revenue stream and business model of the game itself.   Geeko Member Oct 27, 2017 1,413 San Jose, CA Lame as hell. The problem is that the masses won't care about it and will still spend crap tons of money on this game thus continuing this constant bombardment of ads.   shadowman16 Member Oct 25, 2017 41,804 Agni Kai said: Only Battlefield 6 can save us now. Hold the line, my friends. Hold the line. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Gameplay wise, Hopefully Dice will take the time and make something truly special. However... I wouldnt expect much better from EA of all publishers. They are every bit as summy...  OP OP Xando Member Oct 28, 2017 38,006 My guess is this is only going to get worse as MS tries to make up the lost revenue from people playing via GP instead of buying   SP. Member Oct 27, 2017 8,578 I guess I thought it would be worse than the reaction seems to suggest… They're in-game micro transaction ads and for the most are for weapon skins which naturally don't seem that out of place in a weapon selection menu. It's not like they're advertising a Burger King Whopper in here. Obviously it'd be better if they weren't there at all but honestly if I played the game and saw these I wouldn't think it's anything out of the ordinary.  Ravelle Member Oct 31, 2017 20,432 Noisepurge said: Fortnite doesn't cost 80$ Click to expand... Click to shrink... It doesn't spam you with multiple windows to buy something either  Rosebud Two Pieces Member Apr 16, 2018 51,386 Wallace said: What a shit franchise. Click to expand... Click to shrink... .   Kyokanto Member Mar 4, 2025 493 For a second I thought this was going to be McDonald's ads or something lol. I wonder how far off that is… Still scummy as is.  Pop-O-Matic Avenger Oct 25, 2017 14,007 MarcosBrXD said: Crazy one of the biggest IPs doing this Click to expand... Click to shrink... Not really. CoD might move more money than most of the rest of the industry put together, but capitalism (especially at publicly traded mega corps like MS and ActiBlizz before them) demands that the line must always be going up, and there isn't really much CoD can do to grow the player base in any significant way in the short-to-medium term, so they're going to start trying out shit like this to get even more money out of the existing players so the line goes up and the shareholders can be happy.   Fabs Member Aug 22, 2019 2,780 Noisepurge said: Fortnite doesn't cost 80$ Click to expand... Click to shrink... Decarb said: Not only is it in a full priced mode, but its also in the weapon customization menu where you least expect it. Click to expand... Click to shrink... jroc74 said: Yeah I dont think it needs to be this aggressive. While trying to play the game tho? "Following the launch of Season 4, adverts for weapon bundles can be seen in the build and weapon menus. These are unavoidable for players as they tinker with their loadouts." Imagine getting hit with Shark Card ads while browsing the in game stores in GTA Online....please Rockstar dont do this. Also this. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Full priced games advertise their dlc in menus all the time. Is it because it's in a new place? Is this that different than having the paid operators in the menu for selection like they have in past CoD? Or when I play Street Fighter and I can't pick Akuma because he costs money? I get it if it was for McDonalds but this seems like rage bait.  Plexas Member Jan 24, 2025 289 Several trillion dollar company needs some money to survive, please understand.   Twister Member Feb 11, 2019 6,692 This franchise peaked with BO3. Everything after has been a disaster   Vertigo1 Member Jun 30, 2023 1,093 CoD will never be as good as it was in the 360 era, ever again.   Sordid Plebeian Member Oct 26, 2017 19,955 Yeah I remember seeing that AI store slop when I booted up S4, and they wonder why they're driving players away   Tommy Showbiz Member Jul 20, 2022 3,727 This is pretty corny, but I was honestly expecting ads for like Dr. Squatch and not just prodding you to buy in-game bundles.   Apathy Member Oct 25, 2017 13,538 So the biggest game, created by the biggest publisher, paced by the riches company in the world needs to slide ads into their paid games. Lovely   DarkJ Member Nov 11, 2017 1,918 Ai slop? Ads in the menus? In a fully priced game? Really just making sure I don't even look at the next game.  T88heon Member Aug 26, 2024 1,042 This is a profitability issue coupled with horrendous stewardship of the ip. If the retail side was profitable would they need to stealthily run ads in "COD" of all ip? 😬  DSync Member Oct 27, 2017 884 Black Ops 6 in 2025 after the most recent update for Season 4 > £70 for the base game > £100 for the "Vault Editon" > £50/60 for a year of PS Plus to play the game online > £10 for the Battlepass > £15 for the Battlepass plus tier skips > £25 for the "Blackcell" Battlepass > Free and Premium (Costs money) Battlepasses for the Seth Rogan Operator Weed event > £16-25 Weapon and Operator bundles > AI art in the emblems, calling cards, posters in certain levels > Ads for bundles in creating a Loadout > Server instability issues > Whole game crashes to desktop/homescreen when editing your loadout during a match > UI Menu lagging > Cheaters, hackers run rampant > Store will 100% work no matter what (Prices for everything may not be exact)  Pai Pai Master Member Oct 25, 2017 37,298 Atlanta GA AI crap and ads, yet people will still buy this shit in record numbers every year  

The big Leslie Benzies interview: MindsEye, Everywhere, and the double-edged sword of GTA How Build A Rocket Boy developed its debut project Feature by Samuel Roberts Editorial Director Published on May 30, 2025 As the producer behind the Grand Theft Auto games from GTA 3 through to GTA 5, as well as Red Dead Redemption and LA Noire, any project with Leslie Benzies' name on it is going to be a lightning rod for attention. MindsEye, the first game from Benzies' studio Build A Rocket Boy, is getting plenty of it – even if some of that attention has been less positive. MindsEye is a single-player third-person shooter with vehicle gameplay, set in a Las Vegas-style city called Redrock. It's a techno-thriller story about a former soldier called Jacob Diaz – but it's clear from visiting BARB in Edinburgh this week that the game is envisioned as a gateway into something much larger, both in the fiction of MindsEye, and for players who pick the game up. That includes a user-generated content platform called Build.MindsEye, where players on PC can create levels using relatively straightforward tools that incorporate any object in the game. When asked if third-person shooter levels or driving sections were the limits of the build side of MindsEye, the developers showed other examples of how they can be used, like massively increasing the proportions of a basketball, dropping it into the world, and functionally making an in-game version of Rocket League. Still, while MindsEye launches on June 10, 2025, for PC and consoles, many questions remain unanswered, including the future of its long-gestating Everywhere project. Benzies sat down with GamesIndustry.biz earlier this week to talk us through his vision for the game. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Image credit: Austin Hargrave What's your grand vision for MindsEye? What will it be at launch, and where is it going in the future? MindsEye is one story in an epic universe. The other stories take place at different time periods, and [at] different locations in the universe. This story is Jacob Diaz's story. There are also other stories within MindsEye, so we tell the backstories of other characters Jacob will meet. That's the way we're going to fill out the universe over time – so when you travel around, all the stories will be connected by one overarching theme, and each story will have different mechanics. And we'll give these mechanics to players within the creator tools. What will happen with the game after launch? [The studio] will support the game through Play.MindsEye, with continuous new content. Some of the content, like races, are made just for fun. But [with] most of the content, we'll try and incorporate it into the story. So once you've played the big overarching ten-year plan, you'll have a very good idea of what this universe looks like. We have plans to add multiplayer, [and] we have plans to make a full open world. And of course, we've also got to look at what players are creating, and incorporate that into our plans. Given the ease of the tools, we think there's going to be a high percentage of players who will jump in and give it a pop, see how it feels. Hopefully some will create compelling content we can then promote and make that part of our plans to push to other players. Is it best to think of MindsEye as the first game in a series of games? Or one game as part of a larger experience? MindsEye sits bang in the middle of our story. So, we're going to go back 10,000 years, then we're going to go forward a certain amount of time. It's the relevant piece of the puzzle that will have players asking questions of what the bigger story is. We've intentionally not released footage of huge parts of the game, because we don't want to spoil anything for players. But this story does take some unusual twists. What's your vision for the multiplayer component of the game? I guess there's two sides to the answer. The dream from the building side is to allow players the opportunity to create their own multiplayer open world games with ease. So anyone could pick up the game, jump in, drive around, stop at a point where they see something of interest, build a little mission, jump back in the car, drive again, build another mission. Once you've built a couple of hundred of these, you've built your own open world game. So, that's the build side. From our side, we want to [create] a place where people can socialise, play together, and engage in the stories that we build. So, we do have plans next year to launch an open world multiplayer game that takes place a year after MindsEye finishes. In the interim, we also have an open world free roam game that spans from when MindsEye finishes to the launch of the open world multiplayer game. All of these stories interconnect in a fairly unique and original way, which I think players like these days. They like the complexity of deeper stories. You're selling the base game at launch, with a pass for upcoming content additions. Do you have a vision for how you're going to package future stories in the overarching MindsEye experience? It depends on the scale of the story. Some will be free, and some will be paid. After you left Rockstar Games, what came next? What led to you building the studio? I spent a few years looking into some other things: going [into] some property development. Using some of the games experience, we made a thing called VR-Chitect, which allowed you to build houses and view them in VR. I spent a lot of time in Los Angeles at this point, and this is when the droughts were very bad. I got into [making] these machines that would suck water out of the air. Still sitting in my back garden in Los Angeles is this big clunky machine, it works like an air-conditioning unit. It could suck up one thousand litres of water. So I got involved with that. But there's really nothing like making games. The different types of people – the lawyers, the accountants, the programmers, the artists, the dancers, the singers – that bunch of people in one big pot, all working together, and turning something from a piece of paper into [something on the] screen – that's where I get my excitement. Since I was a kid, that's what I've wanted to do. I thought, 'I better get back into making games' because nothing else was as much fun. What was the journey towards creating MindsEye as your first standalone release? Your first game's always your hardest. You have to build systems, you have to build the team. Everything is new. You don't really see a lot on the screen until way down the line, because you're building underlying systems, physics systems, the gameplay systems. It's a slow start, but what you end up with is an engine, and obviously we use Unreal, which provides a certain level of support and building. On top of that, we've got to build our own stuff. [Plus], we have to pack up everything we build and present it nicely for the creator tools. So it adds this extra layer of complexity to everything. But now, given where we are, the speed that we can iterate, we can very quickly place enemies, place vehicles, place puzzles, whatever, and get a feel for a game. We've now got a great, experienced team – a lot of talented guys in there. In the old days, you'd get a game, stick it on the shelf, and you'd wave goodbye. It's not like that anymore. You're continually fixing things. When you release a game, you've suddenly got, not a hundred testers, but hopefully millions of testers. You've got to continually fix, continually optimise, and especially with the tools that we've got, we want to continually create new content. So MindsEye is a standalone game, and Everywhere is not mentioned anywhere on the Steam page. But obviously there's a strong 'build' component to this game, which was part of the Everywhere pitch. What does this mean for Everywhere, and what was behind the decision to package the game this way? This is all part of a bigger story and ecosystem that we've got planned. Everywhere is going to show up again pretty soon. Everything we're working on, there's a story behind it – a big overarching story. So Everywhere will come back, and it fits into this story somewhere. I can't tell you [where], because it would be a spoiler. But that's going to reappear soon, and it will all be a part of the same product. "I'm not sure it would've been smart as a company to say, 'we are going to compete with the biggest game on the planet'" Leslie Benzies, Build A Rocket Boy In terms of the tools, the tool doesn't really care what world you're building in. It sits separately. So any game we create, it will naturally work on top of it. But we're big fans of keeping everything thematically connected, or connected through a narrative, and you'll see it. The bigger story will become obvious, once you've played through all of MindsEye. Then you might start to see how it all connects together, to the Everywhere world. Has the landscape for something like Everywhere, or the build component to MindsEye, changed as platforms like UEFN have taken off or Roblox has become so huge? It's great to see these tools being used by people. I build a lot with my son, and when he builds, I see the excitement he gets. It reminds me of when I was a kid with my Dragon 32 computer, managing to get a little character moving on the screen – that excitement of, 'wow, I did that'. Giving that to other people is massive. It's still very difficult to build in Roblox. For example, when my son wants to do it, I have to jump in. I used to be a programmer, and I struggle to build in there. When he wants to run around and scream with his friends he's in Roblox; when he wants to build he'll jump into Minecraft, because Minecraft is a much easier system to build within. And I think we sit somewhere in the middle: you can get very high quality, fun games, but they're very easy to build. I think we're at the infancy of this in video games. We're at the very beginning of it, and we're going to see way, way more of it. It doesn't necessarily have to be presenting it to your friends, or to an audience. I think the process of creating for a human being is fun in itself. MindsEye has been positioned as a linear game. You are best known for creating open world games. What was behind the decision to make MindsEye a more linear, narrative-driven experience? I think certain stories are more difficult to present to players in an open world setting. Open world gives you freedom – you don't necessarily want freedom to portray a story. For MindsEye, it's a very set time in a character, Jacob Diaz's, life. You pick up as Jacob when he arrives in Redrock, and then you leave Jacob at a certain point in the future. And so, it'd be very difficult for us to have an open world in there. It's horses for courses: it depends what you're doing. But for Jacob's story, it had to be a linear game. Having said that, there are open world experiences in there, and we can build them through Build.MindsEye. There is a free roam open world mode, where you play [as] a different character and you see his time, from the end of MindsEye, to the point of our next big planned launch. Again, they're all connected through a narrative, and we really want to show the universe, show the stories that have taken place in the universe, the characters in that universe, and see how they've experienced the same experience but from different viewpoints. "The dream from the building side is to allow players the opportunity to create their own multiplayer open world games with ease" Leslie Benzies, Build A Rocket Boy Was there ever a discussion about creating a more traditional GTA competitor? In design, you look at a lot of different options. I'm not sure it would've been smart as a company to say, 'we are going to compete with the biggest game on the planet'. I'm not sure that would be the best business decision to make. We went through a bunch of different designs, and to tell our story, this is what we landed on. MindsEye is priced more like a game from a decade ago at $60, and it'll take around 20 hours to finish. Can you talk about how you settled on the game's length and scope, and how you made that decision around price? So you've got the MindsEye campaign, and yes, it'll be about 20ish hours. But you do have all this other side content: there's going to be this continuous stream of content. These days, there are so many different options for people. It's not just games: there's streaming TV, so many good shows out there. I don't think you can have filler content in games. I think people want the meat, and they want the potatoes. We've tried to make as much meat as we can, if that makes sense. I think that's a good length for a game. What you also find through data, is that [with] big games, people don't play them all. The majority of people – 60% or 70% of people – don't actually play games to the end. So when you're making something, I would prefer – I'm sure the team would say the same – [that] you had the whole experience from start to finish, and not create this 200-hour game. Create something that is finishable, but have some side things that will fill out the universe. A lot of the side missions on the play side of MindsEye do fill out the characters' back stories, or do fill out what was happening in the world. On price: the world's in a funny place. People are worried about the price of eggs. So value for money, I think people appreciate that when times are difficult. I was curious why you waited until quite late in the day to reveal the build element of the game, only because it seemed you were being quite church and state with how MindsEye is releasing versus what Everywhere is. So in general, we believe – and again, it goes back to the amount of information, the amount of options people have these days – I don't think you can have extended marketing times. It's very expensive, we're a start-up. I think you lose interest from people. There are so many things for people to do, that if you extend it, you're not punching through to the place you need to be. I've seen other games, nine years before launch, it's getting talked about. I'm not sure that's the way of the world these days. You'll see there are games that never go to market: the day of launch was the marketing campaign, and it worked very well. So I think we tried to compress ours down for that reason. On the MindsEye.Play [continuous content] part of it, yeah, maybe we should've got that out there sooner, but it is a nice little surprise to give players. That's the thing with marketing – you never know what's the right or wrong way to do it, you've got to go with your gut, your senses, and test it. Being who you are, it brings a certain level of expectation and attention. Do you find it a double-edged sword, launching a new studio and launching a new game, with your background? Yes. There's always comparisons, and I think that's how humans work. As kids, we're taught to put a triangle into a triangular hole, and a square into a square hole. I think we do that for the rest of our lives, and we like to describe something new as 'it's X plus Y, with a bit of Z in there'. It makes things easy for us. It's maybe humans optimising the way we communicate. So there are comparisons. It serves us well in some ways, it doesn't serve us well in others. Dave Grohl said it well when he formed the Foo Fighters: nobody's interested in the Foo Fighters, all they were interested in was Nirvana. The guys have built something very cool, and I just hope people can see it for what it's trying to be.

It's time to get busy bargain huntin' in the second-best time of the year—end of financial. I've scoured every store worth shopping in for the cheapest prices on the games worth caring about. I'm also all about hooking you up with the occasional free game. Check back tomorrow for yet more deals, as this list is a living one!This Day in Gaming 🎂Aussie bdays for notable games- Resident Evil – Code: Veronica (DC) 2000. Get- Monster Hunter Freedom (PSP) 2006. eBay- Rockstar Table Tennis (X360) 2006. Get- Urban Chaos: Riot Response (PS2,XB) 2006. eBay- Blur (PC,PS3,X360) 2010. eBay- Dead or Alive Dimensions (3DS) 2011. eBayContentsNintendoXboxPlayStationPCPC GearLEGOHeadphonesTVsNice Savings for Nintendo SwitchNintendo Switch players shouldn’t miss Sea of Stars (A$33.10), a love letter to SNES-era RPGs scored in part by Chrono Trigger composer Yasunori Mitsuda. Also worth grabbing is Zombie Army Trilogy (A$7.80), which lets you snipe Hitler’s undead minions. Because apparently that’s a thing.Sea of Stars (-35%) - A$33.10Rune Factory 5 (-50%) - A$37.30Sonic Colors: Ult. (-18%) - A$49.00Zombie Army Trilogy (-85%) - A$7.80Lego Harry Potter Col. (-80%) - A$8.90Expiring Recent DealsLego Skywalker Saga (-80%) - A$17.90Dead Cells (-50%) - A$18.70Jurassic World Evolution: Comp. Ed. (-80%) - A$16.90Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1 (-84%) - A$4.70Blasphemous (-75%) - A$9.30Expeditions: A MudRunner (-42%) - A$49Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card.Switch Console PricesHow much to Switch it up?Back to topExciting Bargains for XboxOver on Xbox Series X, Metro 2033 Redux is gloriously free and based on a Russian novel whose author let readers vote on major plot points in its early web-published form. 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(-75%) - A$14.90Expiring Recent DealsDoom: The Dark Ages (-17%) - A$99Roadcraft (-18%) - A$49Hot Wheels Unleashed (-29%) - A$39UFC 5 (-65%) - A$39Halo Infinite (-67%) - A$32.90Red Dead Redemption 2 (-73%) - A$24No Man's Sky (-60%) - A$35.90Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (-60%) - A$29.90Tiny Tina's Wonderlands (-90%) - A$10Or just invest in an Xbox Card.Xbox Console PricesHow many bucks for a 'Box?Back to topPure Scores for PlayStationPlayStation 5 users can score Persona 5 Royal (A$59.90), the definitive edition of a game whose dev team spent years mapping Tokyo’s train schedules to make the daily-life sim feel real. Or opt for Epic Mickey: Rebrushed (A$59), a cult favourite originally directed by Warren Spector, best known for Deus Ex.Ghost of Yōtei (-21%) - A$99Lego Horizon Adventures (-15%) - A$93.20Dragon Age: The Veilguard (-65%) - A$38.20Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Leg. Ed. (-44%) - A$100.60Persona 5 Royal (-37%) - A$59.90Epic Mickey: Rebrushed (-41%) - A$59PS4GTA Trilogy Def. 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Not bad for zero bucks.GOG FPS Sale (≤85%) -Thief II: The Metal Age (-100%) - FREE w/ Prime40K Gladius: Relics of War (-100%) - FREERed Dead 2 (-76%) - A$22Mafia Trilogy (-82%) - A$17.90Expiring Recent DealsSifu (-100%) - FREEGigapocalypse (-100%) - FREEDeliver At All Costs (-100%) - FREEHogwarts Legacy Del. 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He plays practically everything, often on YouTube.

Earlier this week, Google unveiled Flow, a tool that can be used to generate AI video with ease. Users can submit text prompts or give Veo, the AI model that Flow uses, the digital equivalent of a mood board in exchange for eight second clips. From there, users can direct Flow to patch together different clips to form a longer stream of footage, potentially allowing for the creation of entire films. Immediately, people experimented with asking the AI to generate gameplay footage — and the tools are shockingly good at looking like games that you might recognize. Already, one video has amassed millions of views as onlookers are in awe over how easily the AI footage could be mistaken for actual Fortnite gameplay. According to Matt Shumer, who originally generated the footage, the prompt he entered to produce this content never mentioned Fortnite by name. What he apparently wrote was, “Streamer getting a victory royale with just his pickaxe.” Uhhh… I don't think Veo 3 is supposed to be generating Fortnite gameplay pic.twitter.com/bWKruQ5Nox— Matt Shumer (@mattshumer_) May 21, 2025 Google did not respond to a request for comment over whether or not Veo should be generating footage that mimics copyrighted material. However, this does not appear to be an isolated incident. Another user got Veo to spit out something based on the idea of GTA 6. The result is probably a far cry from the realistic graphics GTA 6 has displayed in trailers thus far, but the gameplay still successfully replicates the aesthetic Rockstar is known for: We got Veo 3 playing GTA 6 before we got GTA 6!(what impresses me here is two distinct throughlines of audio: the guy, the game – prompt was 'a twitch streamer playing grand theft auto 6') pic.twitter.com/OM63yf0CKK— Sherveen Mashayekhi (@Sherveen) May 20, 2025 Though there are limitations — eight seconds is a short period of time, especially compared to the hours of material that human streamers generate — it’s undoubtedly an impressive piece of technology that augurs a specific pathway for the future of livestreams. We’ve already got AI-powered Twitch streamers like Neuro-sama, which hooks up a large language model to a text-to-speech program that allows the chibi influencer to speak to her viewers. Neuro-sama learns from other actual Twitch streamers, which makes her personality as malleable as it is chaotic. Imagine, for a moment, if an AI streamer didn’t need to rely on an actual game to endlessly entertain its viewers. Most games have a distinct beginning and end, and even live service games cannot endlessly produce new material. The combination of endless entertainment hosted by a personality who never needs to eat or sleep is a powerful if not terrifying combo, no? In January, Neuro-sama briefly became one in the top ten most subscribed Twitch channels according to stats website Twitch Tracker. That, and, an AI personality can sidestep many of the issues that are inherent to parasocial relationships. An AI cannot be harassed, swatted, or stalked by traditional means. An AI can still offend its viewers, but blame and responsibility in such instances are hazy concepts. AI-on-AI content — meaning, an AI streamer showing off AI footage — seems like the natural end point for the trends we’re seeing on platforms like Twitch. Twitch, for its part, already has a category for AI content. Its policies do not address the use of AI content beyond banning deepfake porn, but sexually explicit content of that nature wouldn’t be allowed regardless of source. “This topic is very much on our radar, and we are always monitoring emerging behaviors to ensure our policies remain relevant to what’s happening on our service,” a Twitch blog post from 2023 on deepfakes states. In 2024, ex-Twitch CEO Dan Clancy — who has a PhD in artificial intelligence — seemed confident about the opportunities that AI might afford Twitch streamers when Business Insider asked him about it in 2024. Clancy called AI a “boon” for Twitch that could potentially generate “endless” stimuli to react to. Would the general populace really be receptive to AI-on-AI content, though? Slurs aside, Fortnite’s AI Darth Vader seemed to be a hit. At the same time, nearly all generative models tend to spawn humans who have an unsettling aura. Everyone is laughing, yet no one looks happy. The cheer is forced in a way where you can practically imagine someone off-frame, menacingly holding a gun to the AI’s head. Like a dream where the more people smile, the closer things get to a nightmare. Everything is as perfect as it is hollow. Until the technology improves, any potential entertainer molded in the image of stock photography risks repulsing its viewers. Yet the internet is already slipping away from serving the needs of real human beings. Millions of bots roam about Twitch, dutifully inflating the views of streamers. Human beings will always crave the company of other people, sure. Much like mass production did for artisanal crafts, a future where our feeds are taken over by AI might just exponentially raise the value of authenticity and the human touch. But 2025 was the first year in history that traffic on the internet was determined to be frequented more by bots than people. It’s already a bot’s world out there. We’re just breathing in it.

Rockstar is one of the biggest gaming studios of all time, with the developer hitting their stride during the 2000s. The debut of Grand Theft Auto at the start of the millennium marked a major shift in the gaming landscape, turning open-world gaming into a coveted genre that countless fans can't get enough of.

The streets of Grand Theft Auto 6’s Leonida are bustling with all sorts of zany characters who help bring Rockstar’s satire of Florida to life. Typically, this fictional mass of non-playable plebs find a balance between being complete randos and looking realistic enough to be believable. Potentially, you could point to any character in the GTA 6 trailers so far and be able to find at least one human being IRL who looks uncannily familiar to that NPC; we’ve got a population of over 8 billion to work with here. But there are now two totally different instances where fans think that Rockstar lifted the likeness of two actual people. The first time transpired back in 2024, when Laurence Sullivan, a man known as the “Florida Joker,” threatened Rockstar with a lawsuit over a character he believed mimicked his viral mugshot from 2017. The character in question did bear some resemblances to Sullivan in that both of them clearly took cues from DC’s Dark Knight, but ultimately Florida Joker did not sue the makers of GTA 6. He did, however, demand millions of dollars in compensation in exchange for the “free marketing” he was providing them. To date, it does not appear that Sullivan was ever paid. That same trailer, which debuted GTA 6 for the first time, also included a Black character adorned with dreadlocks, a white tank top, and a hefty collection of gold chains. This prompted a response from a TikToker named zoeepoppyy, who posted a video back in 2023 while standing next to a still of the trailer. “They done cloned Tyrone,” the man said while sucking his teeth in disapproval. “C’mon, can I get paid?” he asked. zoeepoppyy pointed to details like his hair, his chain, his glasses, as well as facial features as evidence for the copycat. @zoeepoppyy Everybody know this me from GTA6 🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️😡 its going on 7 days i aint get paid yet whats going on i need everybody too say something #gta6 ♬ original sound – Zoee_poppyy Two years later, Rockstar released a second trailer for GTA 6 — and some things were different. One of these tweaks appears to be the same Black character who triggered the rip-off allegations. This time, however, the NPC is wearing a red hat, a lighter set of shades, a small mustache, and braids. Notably, both characters are wearing a white tank top and the same set of gold chains, the centerpiece of which displays some type of horned animal. Rockstar did not respond to a request for comment on whether or not this was intended to be the same character, or if the adjustments were made in light of the TikToker’s allegations. But judging from a Twitter post that has been viewed over 13 million times in the span of a few days, fans are convinced that Rockstar changed the character specifically because of the TikToker. Rockstar Games changed the appearance of a character from GTA 6 Trailer 1 after a Florida man claimed it was him and asked for money. pic.twitter.com/EX2MhqkNJA— GTA 6 Countdown ⏳ (@GTAVI_Countdown) May 19, 2025 While it’s possible both of these things are related, it’s also worth noting that games in development change all the time, for all sorts of reasons. Jason, one of the protagonists, saw a huge visual upgrade in between trailers for GTA 6. His first iteration leaned more in the generic direction of gruff, buzzcut main character. His latest version, on the other hand, is affixed with a daintier flow of locks that can grow heavy with sweat. You can even spot individual strands of arm hair from afar. Really, the entire trailer is full of impressive changes ranging from the background scenery and weather to minor details like physics and muscle deformation. That, and, Grand Theft Auto always seems to be ducking some sort of likeness controversy. Infamously, Grand Theft Auto 5 saw Lindsay Lohan sue Rockstar over a character named Lacey Jonas. In that case, the judge ruled that while some similarities were apparent that overall, “indistinct, satirical representations of the style, look, and persona of a modern, beach-going young woman that are not reasonably identifiable as plaintiff.”