May 2022

Elden Ring has now been played with a Fisher Price controller.

New Zealand streamer Rudeism (aka Dylan Beck) is known for his controller tinkering and, after a jokey Twitter post from Wario 64, took on the challenge of modifying the kids controller.

Over two weeks, he modified the Fisher Price controller into a working Xbox controller and showed off his creation with a spot of Elden Ring.

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Oh, I remember this. Move the sofa. Push back the chairs. And then every game begins with something that takes me back almost 40 years, to Music and Movement at infants school. Find a space, reach out your arms to make sure you don't touch anything and knock anyone over. You're ready. Just the thought of this is enough to bring back the smell of every school hall that has ever existed: floor polish, dust, feet.

But that isn't how this would smell. This would smell of pot pourri and corporate perfume wafting in from hidden vents. This would smell of marshmallow and candied fruit and sandalwood. That's one of the biggest surprises of Nintendo Switch Sports, actually. For me at least. How beautiful it all is.

The latest game in the Wii Sports series contains six games, three new, three returning, which might seem a little too slim a collection on paper, even after you factor in Golf, which is arriving in Autumn as a free update. This was all known in advance. What I didn't register, though, is that the game unfolds across a sort of idealised urban campus, with each sport having its own grounds.

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An Italian voice actor may have dropped a big spoiler for the Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel.

Pietro Ubaldi, the voice of Daruk in the original game, was interviewed by fan site Lega Hyrule (via Resetera) and dropped a little nugget of information.

Spoilers follow.

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Air Adventures celebrates not just flying-type Pokémon, but the release of Mega Latias and Mega Latios into Pokémon Go.

If you’re planning on conducting these legendary Mega Evolutions, then we recommend visiting our Mega Evolutions guide since this feature has recently been reworked.

Throughout Air Adventures, you can find event-exclusive field research tasks and complete Electrify the Sky - a timed research quest.

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Trying to launch a new game show must be like trying to launch a new chocolate bar: absolutely terrifying. The established ones are thoroughly established indeed - they have survived changing trends, changing tastes, changing decades. If a game show (or a chocolate bar) is successful it becomes part of the fabric of life, part of the unquestioned background clutter of the world. That sounds like a difficult thing to achieve.

Now and then, though, Netflix throws a new game show our way. And I always get a bit excited. There is something plush and lavish about a new game show. It is fun to see money spent on something that has rules, of course, and I also love game show set design - the massive screens, the blue spotlights pointed to the heavens, as if the arena for Who Wants to be a Millionaire doubles as the alien landing zone from Close Encounters at weekends.

I spent this weekend watching a couple of Netflix's new offerings. I'm not sure either worked - to return to the chocolate bar analogy, I think we've got a Maverick here rather than a Twix. But it was good to see them. And I have hope. And when I read about Netflix struggling with growth and experts saying, "chuck in news programs and sport," part of me thinks: but that will turn it into regular TV! Just double-down on lavishly over-produced game shows that would never find a spot in the normal channels instead.

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The arrival of Halo Infinite Season 2 sees the biggest update to the game since its launch back in late 2021.

Season 2 will introduce several significant additions to multiplayer in Halo Infinite, including new modes and maps, as well as a new Battle Pass and unlocks to work towards.

This season also paves the way for several campaign updates, such as campaign co-op, but those will be available later in the year ahead of Season 3. In short - this is a multiplayer-focused update, but there's plenty to dig into!

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Sony has announced its PlayStation Now lineup for May, the final one of its kind ahead of the move to Sony's new-look subscription service next month.

The PlayStation Now games for May are PS4 titles Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, Soulcalibur 6 and Blasphemous. These games are available to play through Now from today and appear to be remaining for the foreseeable.

So, what can you expect from these new additions?

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Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics will continue to assist with the development of Microsoft's big budget Perfect Dark reboot, despite the company being sold by publisher Square Enix.

Microsoft's main Perfect Dark studio, The Initiative, confirmed yesterday that its co-development agreement remained in place with Crystal - despite the latter changing hands.

On Monday, Square Enix announced it was selling off its western development studios - including Crystal Dynamics, Guardians of the Galaxy studio Eidos Montreal, as well as Square Enix Montreal - and IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain for just $300m.

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Square Enix are to sell most of their Western studios and intellectual property such as Tomb Raider, Deux Ex, Thief and Legacy Of Kain to Sweden’s Embracer Group for $300 million (£240 million) in cash, it has been announced. The studios being sold to Embracer include Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal and Square Enix Montréal, but not the UK-based Square Enix Collective. This means Square will retain publishing rights to IP including Life Is Strange, Just Cause and Outriders.

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Back in March 2021, when the Intel Arc Alchemist graphics cards still went by their architecture title of Xe HPG, Intel launched a digital scavenger hunt to drum up interest in these upcoming desktop GPUs. This ran for so long and so quietly that I’ll admit I forgot it was happening, but it’s now concluded, and prize info sent to the 200 winners contains the first real hints at what these mysterious gaming cards will cost.

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Look, I know I'm already running late on a series I revived only last week, but Monday was a bank holiday so we're reconvening later than usual to admire screenshots and clips of upcoming indie games. This weekend, my eye was caught by a rocketjumping skeleton, a little guy of meat, and some very nice clours.

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It’s May 3, which means tomorrow is May 4, which means that tomorrow is all about Star Wars. Because May 4 makes for a great play on of “May the Force be with you” by way of “May the 4th,” Disney and many other companies celebrate tomorrow as a Star Wars day, and the same goes for Fortnite. 

Like in years past, this year’s May the 4th celebration in Epic Games’ battle royale will bring lightsabers, stormtroopers, new cosmetics, and more to the game. However, the Star Wars celebration won’t encompass just tomorrow because Fortnite is keeping its Star Wars content in the game for two weeks until May 17. 

“Star Wars Day is going on in Fortnite, but not just May the 4th: Star Wars items from years past are unvaulted May 3 until May 17, 2022,” an Epic Games blog post reads. “Use these items in special Quests to unlock an Empire Banner. Also, every non-Battle Pass Star Wars Outfit that’s been in the Item Shop will return from a galaxy far, far away.” 

Lightsabers

Lightsabers are back on the island. This time, you can pick up Luke Skywalker’s green lightsaber, Kylo Ren’s red cracked-kyber-crystal lightsaber, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s blue lightsaber, or Mace Windu’s purple lightsaber. 

Spotify has built its own metaverse of sorts by launching its own interactive island in Roblox.

This makes the music streaming giant the first brand of its kind to have a presence in the popular online game. Spotify Island, as it's called, is described in a press release as “a paradise of sound where fans and artists from all over the world can explore a wonderland of sounds, quests, and super special merch.”

Essentially, it serves as the company’s take on an online community that will allow users to interact with participating artists such as virtual meet-and-greets, concerts, and more. Players can also complete quests, unlock exclusive artist-branded content, and even create their own music via virtual beatmaker stations. 

I took a tour of the island during a hands-on demo. The vibrant forest area, painted predominantly in Spotify’s shade of green, is essentially a platforming-focused amalgamation of all things Spotify and music in general. I jumped, bounced, and rail-grinded across the neon-tinted world that sports a “little person in a big world” theme thanks to its building-sized trees and massive vines. One tree hollow was lined with music keys that produced musical notes when I pressed against them. Surfing on a glitter-studded pathway emitted its own melody.  

If you've ever been playing Elden Ring and thought "you know what, I wish I was Darth Vader with a lightsaber right now", you're in luck.

Thanks to modders, Elden Ring players on PC can be the Sith Lord or equip a lightsaber - just in time for Star Wars day.

Modders drs32 and XeIerate have teamed up to create a Darth Vader mod that replaces the confessor armour, available on Nexus Mods.

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Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Interactive will sit around "breakeven" point for the next two years, soon-to-be-new owner Embracer has said.

Financial details for the two companies have been made public as part of Square Enix's sale. The Final Fantasy publisher is offloading both for just $300m - a figure which seems miniscule compared to other recent games industry mergers and acquisitions.

"We firmly believe that the studios will excel under Embracer's operating model and ownership," Embracer wrote in a note to press, adding that the studios would continue to "breakeven" for the "the upcoming two financial years driven mainly by sales of the back-catalogue titles".

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Last month, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier tweeted that Blizzard was coming out of its "dry spell" and was set to release "a bunch of new games", with an accompanying link to tonight's mobile Warcraft announcement. Here, Schreier stated that this particular game was "one of two" mobile Warcraft projects in development.

Schreier then went into more detail about these games on ResetEra, saying: "Yup there are (at least) two Warcraft mobile games in development. One Pokémon Go, one other Clash-ish one. Heard good things about both."

However, it has now been confirmed that the Pokémon Go-like Warcraft game has in fact been cancelled.

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Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger believes the global chip shortage will continue into 2024.

Speaking to CNBC, Gelsinger said the shortage could continue due to constrained availability of key manufacturing tools.

"That's part of the reason that we believe the overall semiconductor shortage will now drift into 2024, from our earlier estimates in 2023, just because the shortages have now hit equipment and some of those factory ramps will be more challenged," he said.

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A publisher's perspective: we haven't had one of those on the Eurogamer Podcast yet, not until today! And publishing is an area there are many misconceptions about. Are they goodies, are they baddies? We just don't know! And how does signing a game, and marshalling it out of the door, work?

My guest today started their own label five years ago in the hope of doing things differently, and things have gone very well. Today, No More Robots employs 13 people and is responsible for games like Hypnospace Outlaw, Descenders, Not Tonight, and Yes, Your Grace. Good games.

In fact, the recently-announced Dreamsettler, a spiritual successor to Hypnospace Outlaw, became the company's most Wishlisted game - an important metric for predicting how a game will ultimately do. Well, it used to be, anyway, but more on that in the chat.

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Mega Latios is making its Pokémon Go debut during the new Air Adventures event in the Season of Alola.

To get Latios Mega Energy and get a Mega Latios, you must take part in Mega Raids to defeat the Gen 3 variant to add it to your Pokédex.

This is a tough Pokémon to take on solo, so we recommend teaming up with other trainers and knowing the best Mega Latios counters, and the Mega Latios weakness to cath the Pokémon, and maybe even get a Shiny Latios if you're lucky.

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Last week, Nintendo issued a warning for parents, asking them to ensure that their children always stand far enough away from the TV screen to avoid hitting it, and far enough away from others to avoid any unintentional fisticuffs.

But alas, even after this warning, and the Wii-era experiences predating this time in our lives, it turns out that many still need to be reminded about the Joy-Cons handy little wrist straps, and why they are actually there. Specifically, when taking part in Nintendo's latest offering: Switch Sports.

Nintendo Switch Sports came out several days ago, and in that time, many have been streaming their own exploits in the fitness themed world it provides. However, while these streams have given many a small taster of the sports that they too could try if they decide to purchase the game, they have also given us a peak into the lives of some Nintendo rebels, who choose to forgo safety warnings.

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The development of Shenmue III seemed like a long shot. Eighteen years passed between the latest entry and Shenmue II. For almost two decades, fans were unsure if their favorite brawler would ever return. Then the seemingly impossible happened: Yu Suzuki's Shenmue III Kickstarter campaign amassed more than $7 million and over 69,000 backers. The third chapter in Ryo Hazuki's revenge quest was released in 2019 to mixed critical reception and performed "fine" financially. Suzuki recently voiced enthusiasm for Shenmue IV but primarily wants the game to be more accessible for newcomers.

According to VGC, Suzuki spoke about Shenmue IV at a special event in Yokosuka, the city where the story takes place. Suzuki said that Shenmue IV was created with longtime fans in mind, which might've inadvertently alienated newer players. Despite being satisfied with overall reactions to the game, Suzuki felt that it wasn't a good entry point. Currently, there are "no concrete plans" for Shenmue IV, but Suzuki wants to make sure that it can appeal to a broader audience.

Reviewed on: PC
Platform: Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC
Publisher: straka.studio
Developer: straka.studio
Release: May 3, 2022
Rating: Teen

Billed as a union between Soulslikes and Tetris, Loot River delivers this intriguing combination with style. Every moment swings between slick puzzle-solving and smooth action. Players should expect to continually die in Loot River’s darkly atmospheric levels, with each death setting you back to square one. However, the thrilling gameplay and rippling pixel art make it hard to resist one more run.

I begin on a raft; a pitiful mattress and discarded junk are scattered around me. I know I am in the Sunken Village, a miserable-looking place with rotting wood decks floating atop murky waters, but not much else. The tone and cryptic story scream Dark Souls, especially when I find a note: “This is no kingdom; it’s a tomb.”

However, the first time Yamauchi floated it, the idea sank.

Sony simply wasn’t interested.

Nintendo cult classic Mother 3 still hasn't reached the west, and now its producer has been asked why.

Discussing the long-requested threequel with former Nintendo Treehouse employees Kit and Krysta on their new podcast (thanks, Nintendo Life), producer Shinichi Kameoka was asked directly why Mother 3 had never seen the light of day outside of Japan.

"Personally, I think the biggest selling point of Mother 3 is [creator] Shigesatao Itoi's unique writing style," Kameoka replied, "translating the charm and nuances of his writing into other languages is quite a challenge, and maybe that's why it's taken so long to consider international releases of Mother 3."

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Microsoft's Xbox Series S is ideal for those who want to jump into the next generation on the cheap and don't mind going all-digital. The Series S is currently on sale on Amazon for just £227, down from the usual £249. That's a great price for this compact yet powerful device, and the first time we've seen a next-gen console significantly below its UK RRP.

The Xbox Series S is also an ideal companion for Xbox Game Pass, with its low cost leaving you with space to get in Game Pass Ultimate, which now includes EA Play for access to a host of games on PC and console. It's £11 a month, but you can get your first month for a pound here.

The Series S is a great upgrade for those still on Xbox One or even Xbox One X, with similar resolutions but with double the frame rates. The SSD built into the Series S and Xbox's Quick Resume setting also mean incredibly snappy loading times, and instant swapping if you've got a few games on the go at once. Compared to the Xbox Series X, you do have a little less storage to play with, but you're also saving a fair bit of money that you could use to pick up an expansion card when they're on sale down the line.

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Xbox has detailed the new games that will be making their way onto Games Pass over the coming month.

From today (3rd May), subscribers will be able to have a go of Loot River, via Cloud, console and PC. This dungeon crawling action roguelike combines "tense, real-time combat with spatial block-shifting" and players will have the chance to explore "procedurally generated labyrinths" while casting spell and besting the world's "abominations".

Then, on 5th May, users will be able to dive into the black and white vistas of Trek to Yomi (Cloud, Console, and PC), as well as Citizen Sleeper (Cloud, Console, and PC).

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Valve now has almost 2400 games playable on its Steam Deck handheld.

Of that total, 1261 are Verified and 1145 are at least Playable - according to data recorded by Boiling Steam.

Verified games are those that run flawlessly. At the time of launch, only 399 games were Verified; then at the start of March we reported 1000 games were Verified.

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Mega Latias is making its Pokémon Go debut during the new Air Adventures event in the Season of Alola.

To get Latias Mega Energy and get a Mega Latias, you must take part in Mega Raids to defeat the Gen 3 variant to add it to your Pokédex.

This is a tough Pokémon to take on solo, so we recommend teaming up with other trainers and knowing the best Mega Latias counters, and the Mega Latias weakness to catch the Pokémon, and maybe even get a Shiny Latias if you're lucky.

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It started with an unheard-of request. Reggie Fils-Aimé wasn’t yet president of Nintendo of America. Heck, he wasn’t even an employee—but rather, interviewing for a job. Yet he wanted to speak with Satoru Iwata.

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Since Mass Effect: Andromeda takes place an entire galaxy away, it makes sense that there’s very little in terms of character overlap between the game and the original trilogy. Sure, there are plenty of references to people like Liara and Shepard, but we don’t actually get to see them.

Interestingly enough, there is one beloved character from the original Mass Effect trilogy that is in Andromeda, but they can only be unlocked using a mod that fixes a couple of broken missions in the game. As you can see in a post to the official subreddit below, user Larsonpl showed off the face that Mordin Solus is actually in the game.

In this entertaining, yet somewhat sad, clip Ryder can be seen hallucinating after taking a medicinal plant while on a mission on Kadara, despite SAM’s warnings not to. While on his trip, the Pathfinder hears and sees Mordin Solus’ back, as SAM sings a slightly altered version of the Salarian’s famous “The Very Model Of A Scientist Salarianian” song from Mass Effect 2.

Today NIS America revealed a new trailer of the upcoming turn-based tactics JRPG Disgaea 6 Complete.

The trailer focuses on explaining all the systems you need to know to face the challenges of the game.

You can check it out below.

Disgaea 6 Complete will launch for PS5, PS4, & PC on June 28. You can check out the original announcement and another one. The game is already available for Nintendo Switch.

Here’s how NIS America describes it officially:

“Zed is a boastful zombie who wallows on the lowest rung on the Netherworld ladder alongside his sister Bieko. When a God of Destruction threatens their way of (un)life, Zed must harness his unique ability of Super Reincarnation to stand against the approaching menace. Along the way, he will unite with twisted and colorful denizens of different Netherworlds, face challenges around and within, and see if even an undying hooligan like himself can defy the odds!

Ageing zombie-ridden survival platformer Dying Light is receiving one final free update to its Hellraid mode on May 5th, Techland have announced, and it will let you take magic items into the city of Harran. Hellraid’s cursed arcade cabinet will sell you wands in its shop and let you carry them back to the main game, usually known more for its face-eating. It’s a shame Dying Light’s protag Kyle Crane isn’t silent or I could’ve role-played this as Sooty.

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Today I visited a virtual launderette to do my virtual laundry in Roblox, lining up alongside online strangers who were also washing their virtuasmalls. After loading the machine, filling my powder, and carefully selecting then starting my cycle, I watched through the door for 12 minutes as my washing sloshed and spun. And then I watched another players's washing in disgust. Visiting this laundry simulation has made me realise I have strong opinions on how other people run their imaginary washes. You wouldn't believe the laundry crimes I've seen.

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Post-apocalyptic Canadian wilderness simulator The Long Dark will receive its first paid updates since the game went into early access in 2014, Hinterland Studio’s founder Raphael van Lierop has revealed in a developer diary. Expect new regions, challenges and changes to the way the game plays from later this year, although Hinterland haven’t yet specified what form these will take. Van Lierop also announced that he will step aside as project lead on The Long Dark. Katie Sorrell, lead designer on the game’s Story mode, will be taking over.

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Sonic Prime is an upcoming animated Netflix series that was first announced in February 2021. We haven’t heard much of a peep about it since, and though we’re still waiting for a proper trailer, a new promotional video provides the first glimpse of the show. 

Netflix released a trailer montage promoting its upcoming slate of kid-friendly animated shows. Sonic Prime pops up at the very end, with Sonic sprinting and collecting rings across Green Hill Zone. Sonic also speaks, giving fans the first sample of voice actor Deven Mack’s performance. You can catch the clip at the 1:49 mark. 

Unfortunately, Sonic Prime still doesn't have a premiere date. We only know that the show consists of 24 episodes and centers on Sonic fighting to save a multiverse from supposed doom. Netlfix's official description of the series pegs it as a "journey of self-discovery and redemption." Other cast members include Ashleigh Ball, Shannon Chan-Kent, Brian Drummond, Vincent Tong, Ian Hanlin, Kazumi Evans, and Adam Narada.