Hardcore Gamer News, Tips, Tricks, Ideas

There have been a lot of games with inspirations from other sources out recently. We’ve seen racing games like New Star GP take inspiration from Sega classics while Battlebit Remastered has completely reinvigorated many players’ love for OG Battlefield with a low-poly look. One thing we haven’t seen is anything on the market really inspired by Titanfall’s fast-paced blend of shooting, wall-running and platforming blended into a first-person shooter – until now.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a decade since Final Fantasy XIV launched and grew to become one of the most successful MMOs of all time. For those of us around in the early days, it’s no secret the game was in rough shape. So much so, that developers basically nuked the 1.0 product and spun the “great reset” as an important piece of lore instead. Now, Final Fantasy XIV has made amazing strides in gameplay, story and overall aesthetics while continuing to respond positively to player feedback along the way. The title is so celebrated around the world that even brands outside the gaming industry are excited to represent an important anniversary in the game’s history.

Kobe Bryant will be on the cover of NBA 2K24, which will launch on September 8 across PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC platforms. This mode will be available for all platforms mentioned.

Gamescom has really hit the ground running this year. It’s only been one day since the event kicked-off, and already there’s all manner of exciting new info and video for both major games like Tekken 8 and more minor projects such as RoboCop: Rogue City. Fans have also seen a few surprise announcements, one of which being Tormented Souls 2. As good as its predecessor is, it’s probably safe to say that nobody saw this coming.

When discussing the top action films of the ’80s it would nothing short of a criminal act to omit RoboCop. The combination of satirical humor mixed with impressive (for the time) robot special effects and some gratuitous violent scenes led for an incredibly memorable film that still holds up today. The idea of a cyborg super cop violently enforcing the law endless legions of scumbags lends itself well to a video game setting. The upcoming RoboCop: Rogue City pays tribute to the 1987 cinematic triumph.

This weekend, All Elite Wrestling will be hosting not only their largest event ever, but what will likely go down as one of the largest events in pro wrestling history: All In at Wembley Stadium in London.

The concept of “wilderness” is an odd one in the days of Google Maps and satellite imagery for just about every square inch of the planet, but looking down from a great height will never be the same as being there.  The map is not the terrain, and while there’s no place on Earth people haven’t been, there’s plenty we only passed through on the way to somewhere else, big and wide and empty.  The roads and freeways that connect people to where they want to be are countless miles away, and the only remaining evidence of a human touch may be a ruin here or an overgrown path there.  It’s not that the land is hostile to human effort, but rather completely indifferent, worn down by weather leaving behind jumbles of rocks, hills, rivers and other inconvenient features.  Traveling in the wilderness isn’t for standard cars, but rather big metal beasts designed for power rather than speed, and while it was fun to explore in Snowrunner, it’s about time to take a new approach to offroad exploration.

Today, Sony officially announced and named the PlayStation Portal remote player and it will launch by the end of the year. The retail price for the remote play device is slated at $199.99 and pre-orders will begin soon. The PlayStation Portal offers an 8-inch LCD screen that will run at 1080p resolution at 60 FPS. Smaller screens don’t require as many pixels due to the lesser area that needs to be covered, so 1080p for this will bring out excellent visuals. Players can expect the key features of the DualSense wireless controllers with adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. It will also include a 3.5mm audio jack for wired audio.

Hyper Light fans rejoice, as developer Heart Machine’s follow-up adventure to Hyper Light Drifter gears itself up for Steam Early Access next year. Originally announced for 2023, recent developments with the title require a bit of delay. While not a direct sequel to the first Hyper Light title, this new adventure plans to touch upon details from its predecessor while expanding the lore of the world to be bigger than before. Hyper Light Breaker plans to be its own story contained within the universe that also sees us traveling to a different land. With a focus on online co-op action with roguelite elements, players will enter the Overgrowth: a forgotten land that harbors brutal monsters, high-end gear and a plot to overthrow the ominous Abyss King. Players will walk through procedurally-generated worlds that offer limitless replayability. In an Early Access development update from Heart Machine, Creative Director Alx Preston explains that the team is hard at work continuing to test different iterations of their product, ” we have a lot of wild ideas we want to put into the game — which is exciting and thrilling since the format and tech we created allows so much possibility.”

Back in 1993, developers Trilobyte made history when they released The 7th Guest, one of the first computer games to only be released on CD-ROM. An adventure game about navigating a haunted house and solving puzzles in order to solve a mystery, its use of full-motion video, 3D graphics, and its soundtrack by George “The Fat Man” Sanger helped it stand out and become a massive hit back in its day…even if by today’s standards, it can feel rather dated in certain areas. But now Vertigo Games are bringing back The 7th Guest, and to another revolutionary bit of gaming technology: VR. The 7th Guest VR was showcased at Gamescom Opening Night Live’s pre-show, and you can check out its trailer below.

Since its humble beginnings in arcades nearly 30 years ago, Namco’s Tekken series has done things a bit differently from the norm while maintaining a sky-high level of quality for mainline games. Today, Bandai Namco announced that the upcoming eighth mainline entry will feature an all-new mode for the franchise – which is saying something given the many modes this series has pioneered over the years. The new arcade quest will allow players to create a new avatar and customize it as much as they want to participate in new challenges to improve their skills. The new trailer didn’t show off a lot of what the flow of the mode will be, but it does seem like it will enable skills to be learned and then tested out in tournaments.

NetherRealm Studios today dropped a new trailer for Mortal Kombat 1 showcasing the reimagined versions of two klassic characters.

Well we’re always on the look-out for an announcement or two that makes us sit up straight and immediately go “……what?!” And while Gamescom’s Opening Night Live presentation was a little light on brand new reveals this year, it didn’t stop developer Coal Supper from unveiling what might’ve been the oddest but subsequently most eye-catching and interesting reveals of today’s showing. Coming in the form of the self-described “comedy slapformer” Thank Goodness You’re Here.

The much-anticipated Alan Wake II is only a couple of months away at this point, feeling so soon all of a sudden despite a lengthy wait. Among the unique draws of Remedy’s latest horror game is the use of dual protagonists in the form of writer Alan Wake and FBI agent Saga Anderson. And while the last bit of gameplay we saw from Summer Game Fest focused on Saga, a larger focus was put on Alan this time around during the new trailer that debuted during Gamescom Opening Night Live, and as Saga’s adventures are in the real world, Alan finds himself dealing with the surreal realm of the Dark Place.

This year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live wasn’t home to many world premieres this time around, but to this writer, the world premiere of Dustborn stood out quite a bit…largely because it was baffling as to why it was being labelled as a world premiere. A road trip adventure form Red Thread Games, Dustborn was first announced in June of 2020 back at the Future Games Show during that time. Later on in December of the same year, it was announced that Quantic Dream would be publishing the game, one of their first forays into publishing, complete with a teaser on their YouTube channel. And yet now here we are, with the latest trailer for the game being called a “reveal Trailer” despite already being revealed and Geoff Keighley calling it a world premiere. What was up?

Out of the numerous open-world survival crafting games either already out or in the works, Inflexion Games’ Nightingale seems to be one that’s somehow pretty prominent, yet still feels like it flies under the radar at times. So it was to see the game appear during Gamescom Opening Night Live, with the news of an Early Access release date. The date was announced via a new trailer that you can check out below, which also showcases a lot of new gameplay elements as well.

Sledgehammer Games today revealed a look at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III’s first campaign mission as well revealing when players can get their hands on the beta.

Heading into Gamescom Opening Night Live this year, Geoff Keighly told us to head in with realistic expectations, stating that a lot of the titles showcased tonight would be games that were already announced and/or due for a release later this year. So needless to say, when the second game showcased during the event turned out to be a world premiere for a game coming out next year, it was quite the surprise. Even more of a surprise when it was revealed to be Little Nightmares III, a sequel to Bandai Namco’s horror puzzle-platformer series, which was an unexpected reveal, even with confirmation last year that it was in the works, thanks to a job ad.

Bungie today dropped the details and launched the latest season for Destiny 2: Lightfall.

Bungie today officially revealed details and a release date for the final chapter in the Light and Darkness saga, Destiny 2: The Final Shape.

Today, 2K has revealed the details surrounding two if its modes for the upcoming NBA 2K24. This is specifically for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S console versions of the game. NBA 2K24 launches on September 8 for these two platforms, while the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC begin to take a back seat on the development cycle. The PC version is still tied to the previous console generation version of the title. MyNBA introduced the Eras last year, which was a fantastic move and NBA 2K24 will build on this. The LeBron Era has been added so players can rewrite history through the 2010s. A new automatic aging transformation has been added for this era player once the Modern Era is reached.

There are a lot of first-person shooters on the market, but not many of them focus on a single-player adventure. Immortals of Aveum does just that and changes things up from the norm by using Unreal Engine 5.1 to power the experience. Ascendant Studios was created under the EA Originals banner and has aimed to make a story-driven FPS with a magic-centric attack system in a fantasy-style setting, but in a modern-ish world. The world of Aveum is a bit different as even at the start, you have a pair of mischief-makers in Jak and Luna interrupting a play to steal some money and try to make the most of their lives instead of being a so-called “bridgerat”.

Bugs may suck but apparently robo-bugs are even worse.  Not only do they overrun the galaxy but the logical solution would be robo-spiders, and nobody wants that.  Instead, and with great relief, the feline pilots of the Whisker Squadron have it covered, flying through infested worlds to blast apart every buggy metal critter The Swarm can throw at them.  Which, as it turns out, is quite a lot.  Starting from the outskirts and flying straight to the heart of The Swarm’s hold on its planets, the Whisker Squadron is ready to exterminate the invaders with every laser, missile, and electro-bolt at its disposal.

NHL 24 will be launching on October 6 for PlayStation 4|5, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One and details have emerged about the technical aspect for the game already. Today, EA Sports has released the first Deep Dive trailer for World of Chel. If you are unaware about the World of Chel, this is the game that surrounds a created avatar as players work to get the avatar to the best of their ability. The development team is touting this year’s World of Chel as the most dynamic version of the mode to date. Customization and personalization play a key element in this mode as well, and working as a team is extremely important especially in the EASHL.

There have been a few Paper Mario clones on the market, but none of them have quite nailed the combat flow of the fist two entries. Bug Fables came the closest of matching the tone and art style, with the combat coming pretty close as well. One thing that hurt it though was the all-bug cast and that making it a little harder to get into the story and the attempted drama.

The problem with gods is they never give a clear indication of what it is they want.  Good times and clear skies with just the right amount of rain?  The gods are happy and all is at it should be.  Storms tear through and decimate the settlement?  The gods are angry at… something.  Could be anything, really.  In the case of the builder his tribe decided that the things he was creating had to be the cause, so they promptly exiled him to a faraway island.  The small tribe living there took him in on the condition he gets to work, and seeing as his skill is throwing things together it’s not long before his new home starts getting a bit more lively.

Next week marks the start of one of the biggest Gamescoms in recent years, as Nintendo, Xbox and many more AAA and indie developers and publishers will be attending the European video game trade fair.

The shuttering of Mega Man X Dive meant that the long-running international mobile and PC game could seemingly be lost to time alongside so many other free-to-play games over the years. Fortunately, Capcom announced the debut of Mega Man X DIVE Offline earlier this year to keep the game alive and playable for years to come. Having played it on PC, I found DIVE to be an interesting what-if kind of game because of how it was structured. You had stages and missions set throughout the history of the X series, but using a high-fidelity polygonal art style that resembled the one used for Maverick Hunter X on the PSP — only if it was more modern interpretation of that art style.

It’s been over 20 years since the Jet Set Radio series has seen a new entry and supplied gaming with a style-filled, funky adrenaline rush. Thankfully, Team Reptile has been hard at work for years to create a spiritual successor that plays some of the hits of the past, but does its own thing as well in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Since the moment it was first shown off in motion, it was clear that that the team was looking to take the best of what worked about Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future (which we covered in our Graveyard) and improve upon it when possible, and it looks we’ve seeing that come to fruition here.

Larian Studios has announced a shift in its strategy for deploying patches in response to issues encountered during the release of the latest hotfix for Baldur’s Gate 3. The studio rolled out the game’s fourth hotfix on Wednesday, only to face a build error resulting in new crashes. Consequently, the hotfix had to be temporarily rolled back to rectify the issue.

The highly anticipated Path of Exile: Trial of the Ancestors is just around the corner, and we’ve gathered all the essential details to ensure you’re fully prepared for the launch day. From important timings to exclusive in-game opportunities, here’s everything you need to know to dive right into this thrilling new chapter.

There used to be something but now there’s nothing, other than endless dunes covering the ruins of a lost civilization.  The only signs of life are a few shrubs and a dying tree growing above a shallow spring, the last holdouts of  nature in a land that’s actively hostile to survival.  The desert is home to nothing but ghosts and tumbleweeds, and somehow against all hope a single person who just may be able to stave off the creeping sand’s near-inevitable erasure of everything that had been there before.  While the tiny spring can barely be considered an oasis it still provides a place to work from, and with the help of a friendly guiding spirit the young adventurer can start on bringing a little bit of life back to the dying land.

For those that have space on an empty wall and elect not to go the route of putting in a television, Samsung has a solution for you. The Freestyle is a portable projector that measures up to 100 inches at FHD resolution. What is new in the second generation of this projector is the inclusion of its Gaming Hub into the device. With the ability to sync up a Bluetooth controller, users will have access to over 3,000 games with its built-in Tizen OS. The device can go as small as 30 inches at 1080×1920 resolution and includes a cradle stand that allows for foration of 180 degrees for floor-to-ceiling viewing. It’s also designed for 360-degree sound and even add a personal portable battery.

Sledgehammer Games and Activision today lifted the lid on the latest entry in the Call of Duty franchise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.

Splashback real quick to 2015 when Splatoon launched on the Wii U which quickly became a brand new hit for Nintendo. A sequel released years later on the Switch delivering exciting new content. Now, we are already on the third installation of the series. Splatoon 3 debuted in September of last year and because an anniversary is approaching soon, Nintendo revealed what’s in store for the celebration.

2K has officially announced the fifth and final DLC pack for WWE 2K23. The Bad News U Pack is headlined by Mr. Bad News himself, Wade Barrett. Barrett currently is the WWE RAW commentator, but was a five-time Intercontinental Champion and a former King of the Ring winner. He also entered WWE with the Nexus over fifteen years ago, which would be the first form of the NXT brand that fans know today. There are five total WWE Superstars available in this pack in total with one female WWE Superstar included.

GameMill announced NASCAR Arcade Rush in June, and had a few screenshots to show off then – but no video. The images made it clear that the NASCAR license would be used fairly well to do things like recreate cars and reimagine well-known tracks, but there wasn’t much to go off of beyond the name and concept. Now, we have a much clearer picture of what the final product will look like and it’s even more promising than it seemed before.

Today marks one of the biggest updates to Lost Ark in 18 months. The long awaited August patch is the finale to the summer roadmap, and it is one heck of an update that hopefully brings back and attracts more players. Obviously the biggest two additions will be the new raid tier and the Aeromancer Specialist class, but there’s a lot of quality of life and adjustments that will make the game better in the long run.

Today, EA has announced what new updates are coming for NHL 24. The game is officially slated to release on October 6 as the season officially starts on October 10. NHL 24 will release on PlayStation 4|5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. A lot of new tech is being implemented into NHL 24 with a focus being on physics and fatigue. Players of HUT and WOC can expect improved cross-play capabilities, HUT Moments to recreate historic moments and a real time objective-tracking system with player progress updates in-game. The big changes that looks to overhaul how the game is played is aimed at the on-ice action.

The thing about factory games is the final product doesn’t really matter.  What’s being built, what’s its purpose?  Who cares!  The goal of making a thing isn’t so important as the process of its construction, with a million bits and pieces all whirring along in sync, each machine hand-placed in a system that makes perfect sense to the builder but is utterly incomprehensible to anyone else.  There’s an order to the systems that’s satisfying to watch, and whatever the outcome may be is less important than that it all functions as designed.  The original Shapez is a game about using factory elements to mine, cut, manipulate and stack basic shapes into a specific configuration, and the sequel is more of the same but much shinier and with a few wrinkles to the landscape to shake up production.

Today, 2K has released its first gameplay trailer that showcases the new ProPLAY technology in NBA 2K24. ProPLAY will only be available on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of the game. With this technology, every bit of animation ranging from dribbling and rebounding to blocks, passes and even free throws have been captured in real-time scenarios and translated to the game. This will look to heavily increase the realism from what many already herald as the most realistic sports game on the market. Fans will recognize Kevin Durant’s unique jumpshot, Stephy Curry’s explosive dribble movies and Nikola Jokic’s paint work.

EA has officially announced NHL 24 to the world and has revealed its cover athlete. There will be two versions of the game, both a standard edition and an X-Factor Edition as both will have separate covers. This year, the series has dubbed Cale Makar, the defenseman of the Colorado Avalanche, to be the cover star for this year’s title. He will be the fifth defenseman to grace the cover of the game joining P.K. Subban, Dion Phaneuf, Chris Pronger and Scott Stevens. Subban was the last defenseman to make the cover back in 2019, and he is the first Colorado Avalanche player to make the cover since Peter Forsberg back in 1998.

The cyberpunk future is never going to be a nice place.  Life is cheap, corporations dominate all, and the sky is blotted out by spires insulating the rich from those living in the gutters.  The transhumanism bit is always a nice perk, of course, but enhanced senses and strength don’t really make up for what’s been lost, especially when upgrades are pricey and money is scarce.  Cyberpunk is a techno-nightmare, and every year its horrors are a little less far-fetched.  Even so, Johnny Turbo’s chainsaw-leg goes a long way towards making that future at least a little bit attractive.

In the final major outlook of the year, Amazon Game Studios has detailed its roadmap for September, October, November and December, showing off some rather exciting additions and changes. They are even adding additional content in the August update next week which will do a lot for players who login every day. These include some surprises such as dailies being reduced to us getting the recently released (in Korea) Souleater class surprisingly soon.

In a couple of months, the newest entry in Ubisoft’s historical open world franchise, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, will be transporting players to ninth century Baghdad as they take on the role of former street thief Basim.

Madden NFL 24 releases in just about a week for consoles and for PC and with a lot of changes on the horizon, today EA released a deep dive for the return of Superstar Mode into the game. Based on feedback players have provided in response to career modes in recent years, the fanbase strictly wants Superstar Mode. While Face of the Franchise has been more narrative-driven since its arrival a few years ago and had evolved to more of a career mode, Superstar Mode will bring back a lot of elements for starting an NFL career.

Devolver Digital is a company with a grand sense of humor about itself and the gaming industry alone, and recently, they got to showcase that humor when it comes to announcing video game delays, via the first ever Devolver Delayed Showcase. In a quick three-minute video, the publisher announced what titles would now be moving to a 2024 release date, all in a presentation that satirized the style and tone of Nintendo Direct presentations to a perfect degree. As usual, you can check out the whole presentation below, in all its quick glory.

There are a lot of arcade-influenced racers on the market, but few that would actually completely work in an arcade. New Star GP is one such game. In the vein of classics like Virtua Racing and Daytona USA for arcade fans and Hotshot Racing, it’s a checkpoint racer with some twists because it’s a PC game. As a result of the platform it’s on, it’s available in early access for a lower price point – $17.99 gets you the game with all of its current content and future free updates as well. One problem a lot of the classic arcade racers have had was a lack of content – outside of games like the OutRun games and home conversions of Daytona adding in more tracks, they usually are a bit lean while Hotshot had some big free content updates over the years to keep it fresh.

Sledgehammer Games and Activision today revealed the reveal date for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III alongside details about what content from Modern Warfare II will carry forward into the sequel.

Today, 2K has released its first release for player ratings for NBA 2K24. The game is slated to release on September 8 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC. With the cover athlete being granted to Kobe Bryant and four different versions available that include the NBA 2K24 25th Anniversary Edition, NBA 2K24 Black Mamba Edition, NBA 2K24 Kobe Bryant Edition, and the NBA 2K24 WNBA Edition, none of the actual top players will be gracing this year’s title from the NBA. There are twelve initial reveals that range from a 98 overall down to a 94, so there will not be a 99 overall player at launch.

The end of the world was never going to be the actual end of the world, unless humanity somehow dropped a black hole into the center of the planet or something similarly over the top.  All the horrors of the end fade into nothingness after a few decades, and while the damage may take a while to heal nature adapts to the new environment, growing in the ruins while every part of those that died is used as fertile grounds for new life.  And then in the drowned city of Cosmopolis a single upbeat hipster tech-bro wakes up from his sleeping capsule with barely a memory to call his own, and only a few small hints to indicate who he might have been and his relation to humanity’s final days on the planet.  The worst is long in the past and the world is finally peaceful, so maybe he can make a nice, pleasant little home above the flooded remnants of civilization.

After a little over a year in early access, Randwerk’s destruction builder title, ABRISS – build to destroy, will be seeing a full release on September 5 for PC. It’ll be releasing at an initial price point of $16.99 on Steam for its first couple of weeks and will evventually settle at a price of $19.99 for those who miss the initial window. Of course, those who’ve already purchased the early access version of the game will be upgraded to the full release free of charge.

During a special Pokémon presentation, we got a new look at upcoming DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. There are two expansions for the games both of which lead you on new, exciting adventures. The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero consists of part 1: The Teal Mask and part 2: The Indigo Disk.

During the February Nintendo Direct, the first new Samba de Amigo game in over 20 years was announced for the Switch in the form of Party Central. Due out on August 29, this offering will get both a physical and digital release – but it’s not the only Samba de Amigo game on the market. Apple Arcade devices will get a version of the game with exclusive features and songs. The Apple Arcade version features the franchise’s first story mode, and unfortunately the in-store trailer doesn’t show any of it, alongside exclusive songs like “The Edge of Glory” by Lady Gaga, Psy’s “Daddy”, and “The Walker” by Fitz and the Tantrums.

Over the weekend at EVO 2023, some news arose from the recently released Street Fighter 6. The first comes in the way of a new collaboration with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There is currently a new movie in theaters, but from the looks of it, this collaboration will focus on the traditional style of the Ninja Turtles rather than what is in the movie. Starting on August 8, players will be able to style their custom avatars with TMNT gear an emotes. Players also have access to new Titles, Stamps, and custom in-game mobile wallpaper and camera frames. World Tour and Battle Hub can also have custom avatars to represent each of the Turtles.

EVO 2023 has come and gone over the weekend and there was some new revealed for Tekken 8. Unfortunately, that news is not a release date as that has yet to be given for the title. However, a returning fighter and a brand new fighter were revealed, as only returning fighters have been announced so far. Harada and Michael Murray would make these announcements on stage during the EVO 2023 event. These two additions also go along with the addition of fighter Claudio Serafino that was added just a few weeks ago. These two gameplay trailers also show off some unannounced stage locations, and some of these really bring out the detail of the Unreal Engine 5.

The latest free update for Gran Turismo 7 will add four new cars to the game, and one of which isn’t conventional. Players will now have the option to purchase a 1958 C1 Chevrolet Corvette, a 2020 Maserati MC20, the Toyota GR Corolla MORIZO Edition ’22, and finally a 2021 Toyota Ambulance Himedic. The Toyota GR Corolla MORIZO Edition will be available for players to sample in Round 7 of the Toyota Gazoo Racing GT Cup on August 27. It can also be driven in practice mode for testing. Those that do enter this cup and register a time in the Points Ranking will be gifted a car on August 28.

Sledgehammer Games and Activision today announced the next entry in the Call of Duty franchise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.

Rockstar Games today announced that a port of the original Red Dead Redemption is coming to PS4 and Switch.

During the EVO 2023 tournament over the weekend, there was quite a bit of fighting game news revealed. Warner Bros. Games and NeatherRealm Studios revealed three more characters for its upcoming Mortal Kombat 1 game that is set to release on September 19. All three of these characters hail from different realms and have been combined into one story-related trailer that has been named The Banished. There is gameplay and story elements revealed here and it also offers a new Kameo Fighter, which brings the total announced to four fighters in this trailer.

Ultra Pro Wrestling’s team has a big trailer set for later this month, but before that, they decided to announce one more big legendary free agent DLC member to the roster – and it’s arguably the biggest one yet. “The Enforcer” Arn Anderson will be joining the roster and he’s one of pro wrestling greatest wrestlers and promos of all-time and yet hasn’t been put into video games nearly as much as he should have. Despite being under WWE contract for the better part of 20 years, he wasn’t in even a handful of games – but was at least included alongside his Dangerous Alliance partner Larry Zbyszko in 2K’s games in 2K17 and before as DLC in 2K16.

EA has revealed the changes coming to EA SPORTS FC 24, the new soccer game that will featured licensed teams and leagues from around the world. While it dropped the FIFA partnership, the series will aim to keep everything that has made the previous titles stellar. The Matchday Experience will make the menus more immersive and go into more detail during each match. This will include more stats and cut scenes to bring the full immersion of major soccer matches to life. HyperMotionV Insight Overlays will bring in Intelligent Broadcast Augmented Reality to help with insights to better understand opponents.

This week, Nintendo shared their financial reports for the first quarter of the fiscal year, and it has turned out to be one of the publisher’s most profitable quarters to date driven by the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Shmup fans are getting a new set of arcade classics later this month with the launch of Toaplan Arcade Shoot ‘Em Up Collection Vol. 2. This collection will be bringing four more arcade shooters to PC, and each will be fully enhanced with a suite of new features. The games being brought forward this time include: Hellfire, Flying Shark, Slap Fight and Fire Shark. Let’s take a closer look at each.

Baldur’s Gate III has been one of the most highly-anticipated titles ever since it was announced a few years ago. It’s the follow up to Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn, which was released all the way back in 2000. Given the amount of time that has passed since the two original Baldur’s Gate games combined with the fact that both of them have Metacritic scores in the 90s, it’s a safe assumption that expectations for the follow up are sky high. But after spending close to three years in Early Access, fans can now dig into the finalized version of Baldur’s Gate III on PC. Console players will have to wait a bit longer, as Baldur’s Gate III won’t be arriving on PlayStation 5 until September 6. It seems Mac OS and Xbox Series X|S users will also be able to take part in Baldur’s Gate III, but their release date is currently TBD.

It’s hard to overestimate how strong a developer Treasure used to be, back when it was producing a few new games a year.  While there were a couple of misfires like Stretch Panic, Treasure put out one classic after another even if the sales were rarely there to reward the quality.  Sin & Punishment, Bangai-O, Guardian Heroes, Mischief Makers, Gunstar Heroes, Astro Boy: Omega Factor, and more were must-have games, but eventually the company wound down.  The only thing Treasure does nowadays is the occasional port of its back catalog to new platforms, which is a little disappointing but also exciting thanks to its rich gaming history.  The latest port was announced today and it’s one of the greatest games Treasure ever developed, Radiant Silvergun, coming to Steam.

Halfway through the year, June has emerged as perhaps the busiest month for video game releases in 2023, with three highly anticipated sequels all launching within weeks (or even days) of one another.

Today, EA has released its first gameplay video for Madden NFL 24, which will release on PlayStation 4|5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X and PC on August 18. The video showcases the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowwood Stadium during a night game. This means Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes, the two previous cover athletes for the series. There are two people playing against one another (CleffTheGod and Dez) using the Competition setting, not Arcade or Simulation. This showcases a good bit of the changes and the look for the coming game. There is about 25 minutes of gameplay on the video.

Today, NVIDIA has announced that a soon to be released title is receiving some of its AI technology for graphical and performance improvements. Baldur’s Gate 3 will launch on August 3, and for those with NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU’s that support the tech, you will have access to two technologies at launch. The game has exited early access and this may have not been part of the game during that, but DLSS 2 and DLAA will be available for the game. NVIDIA DLAA will help to smooth out image quality while DLSS 2 will help boost in-game performance.

Sony’s Japan Studio was a long-running developer that developed other developers.  Rather than a development studio in a traditional sense, it worked with smaller studios to bring games to whatever consoles Sony had available at the time.  It oversaw titles as diverse as Ape Escape and Elemental Gearbolt on the PS1, Ico and Flipnic on PS2, Afrika and Demon’s Souls on PS3, etc.  Basically it was all over the place, and while not everything it oversaw was a smash hit at the very least games with the Studio Japan logo were almost always interesting.  One of the series under its banner was Patapon, which covered three games between 2008 and 2011 on the PSP plus saw the first two games remastered for the PS4.

When it really comes down to it, how much more geometry is actually needed than the standard cube?  Granted, pyramids have four faces of equilateral triangles but they don’t stack particularly well, as opposed the cube’s nice and regular six sides and ninety-degree angles everywhere.  Throw a couple million cubes on the screen and you can do practically anything, although in the case of Endlight that can feel a bit overwhelming.  Each level has a straightforward goal to fly through ten glowing gold square hoops, but the hundreds of thousands of cubes making up the mesmerizing level geometry all pulse and undulate in new patterns for each area.

There have been dozens of Disney games over the years, but few Nintendo-centric ones. The NES era brought with it Mickey Mousecapades, while the Wii had the original Epic Mickey exclusively. Disney Illusion Island is the first Mickey-centric game in years and features Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, and Goofy on a four-player co-op 2D platforming adventure. The adventure goes for a light-hearted vibe with a unique art style – which is something we rarely see in a Disney game. The art style resembles a bit of the Duck Tales reboot, with a more vibrant and vivid color palette.

Hot on the heels of the latest reboot Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons two classic Double Dragon titles have been announced for release on modern consoles. The two games in question are Double Dragon Advance and Super Double Dragon. Double Dragon Advance is an enhanced remake of Double Dragon, originally release in the arcade in 1987. It was released about twenty years ago for Gameboy Advance which added characters from Double Dragon II: The Revenge along with four new stages to extend the short length of the game. The story pits Billy and Jimmy Lee against the Black Shadow Warriors on a quest to save Billy’s captured girlfriend Marian.

Recently, the Yakuza series hit the PC for the first time in DRM-free form via GOG. Now, the second-newest release in the series is available to enjoy on PC without having to be online or have DRM impede the experience in any way. the second-newest release in the series is available to enjoy on PC without having to be online or have DRM impede the experience in any way. While most of the franchise has been a beat-em-up, Like a Dragon was the first entry to really mix things up a ton thanks to it featuring Ichiban Kasuga as its main character – a charismatic, but low-ranking yakuza member who loves JRPGs like Dragon Quest and as a result, fights in turn-based battles with flashy attacks.

For quite some time, speculations and rumors have been swirling around the gaming community regarding the potential release of a Red Dead Redemption remaster.

Over the past month, EA has offered closed beta tests for the upcoming Madden NFL 24. The game will launch on August 18, a few weeks before the NFL season starts and right in the middle of the NFL preseason. With these beta tests, the developers were able to listen to feedback and, as you can see from the list below, has addressed and tweaked quite a few aspects for this year’s officially licensed NFL simulation game. Again, most of this covers the current generation version of the game as the last generation will be lacking a good bit of features and updates that Madden NFL 24 will offer this year. Check out the list below. The developers have previously stated that they look at the Madden Reddit forum and check X (Twitter) and YouTube comments for feedback.

Xbox may be doing away with its monthly rotation of free games for subscribers at its lowest tier, but Sony is still going strong with a new trio of PS5 and PS4 games for PlayStation Plus subscribers at any tier, including one of their own first-party releases.

Two years after hitting the PlayStation 5 to rave reviews, Ratchet and Clank are not only making their debut on PC – but doing so with their most-ambitious entry yet with Rift Apart hitting the PC via Steam. We have seen several PlayStation console-exclusives hit the platform over the past few years – with rave reviews coming out for both Spider-Man: Remastered and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and work being needed to get The Last of Us Part I into a good state.

It’s only been a couple of months since LEGO 2K Drive has been released, and while the core game was a riot and full of content to enjoy, the game has been made even better thanks to a new free update. We have seen creation suites expand the lifespan of games for years and in the case of 2K games in particular, being able to share creations online is something that gives games many years of extra playtime. Speaking from experience, WWE 2K19 remains in my regular rotation due to its creation suite being so well-crafted and now LEGO 2K Drive has a chance to have an even longer lifespan.

Last month, Bethesda provided their deepest look yet at their upcoming sci-fi RPG, Starfield, as a dedicated presentation that immediately followed the Xbox Games Showcase.