December 2022

With the arrival of Marvel’s Midnight Suns, you’re given the opportunity to join the fight in pushing back Lilith and Hydra, preventing the end of the world due to mystical forces. As often as these epic clashes are in the never-ending battle against evil, the world could always use more heroes. While the game already features 13 different heroes, and more to come via DLC, expanding the party will give players more options when dealing with the enemy. Here are 10 characters we can’t believe aren’t in Marvel’s Midnight Suns.

Only James Gunn could have made the journey from low-budget flops to the head of DC movies at Warner Bros. Despite his artistic sensibility and being a cinema fanboy at heart, the writer/director has always struck a chord with fans from his generation and beyond. Earlier in his career, he got his start by making cult films. As his reputation rose, so did the popularity of his pop cultural status.

Only James Gunn could have made the journey from low-budget flops to the director of DC movies at Warner Bros. Despite his artistic sensibility and being a cinema fanboy at heart, the writer/director has always struck a chord with fans from his generation and beyond. Earlier in his career, he got his start by making cult films. As his reputation rose, so did the popularity of his pop cultural status.

Today James Gunn has rapidly risen to the top of the list of Hollywood’s most-known names. As a filmmaker, writer, and producer who wears many hats, Gunn has substantially influenced the filmmaking of titanic studios Marvel and DC. With the recent announcement that Gunn has been named co-CEO of the DCU, he will play a significant role in determining the brand’s on-screen persona.

There is no question that Gunn will fit the role since he spent the entirety of his career working his way up the Holly studio system. With that, here are his films ranked from worst to best, which built him into CEO head status.

In the wake of Microsoft’s ongoing acquisition of Activision Blizzard, one of the most contentious arguments against it has been Call of Duty’s continued presence on PlayStation platforms. Xbox head Phil Spencer has repeatedly promised that the juggernaut franchise will still appear on its main rival’s platforms, but that hasn’t stopped Sony from touting the loss of the series as anti-competitive to stop the deal from going through. After saying he had no problem keeping Call of Duty on Sony hardware for the long term, Spencer has now extended and formalized that promise to Nintendo and Valve. 

Last night, Spencer announced on Twitter that Microsoft has entered a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty back to Nintendo. In a follow-up tweet, Spencer states the series will remain on Steam as well. Of course, all of this hinges on the approval of the publisher’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which continues to be scrutinized in ongoing approval processes from government regulators. 

Genshin Impact’s new in-world card game is a personal attack on what remains of my free time. The rules are simple to learn, but the strategy is incredibly tough to master. And I can’t stop trying new decks. I want to apologize to every one of my coworkers who got sucked into Marvel Snap this year. I’m one of you now,…

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Like everyone else, I watch The Game Awards for a few reasons: to see “world premiere” trailers, to find out which obvious favorite wins Game of the Year, and to learn how Geoff Keighley is going to cash in his Hideo Kojima friendship coupon this year. But what fascinates me is never the latest AAA trailer or the new…

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2022 was a huge bummer of a year for a lot of reasons, and buggy video games only exacerbated that feeling. It really does suck to shell out $60 or, as is quickly becoming the norm, $70 on something that is fundamentally broken at launch, especially if that something was created under exploitative working conditions.

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A few months ago, the growing presence and influence of gambling sites on Twitch motivated the platform’s top personalities to threaten to strike. Pressure from top streaming celebrities like Pokimane pushed the Amazon-owned site to ban crypto gambling site Stake.com and others that “aren’t licensed in either the U.S.…

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Dwarf Fortress’s enormous graphical overhaul, and accompanying Steam release, has seen the 16-year-old game receive triumphant reviews. Currently sporting 4,634 “Overwhelmingly Positive” reviews on Steam, people are delighted. But one person is dubious. Posting to the roguelike game’s discussions on Steam, they asked,…

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The Sonic Frontiers soundtrack is now streaming online. Back when Sega discussed the soundtrack, it noted a physical version would appear in December 7, 2022 in Japan. A worldwide release of sorts was promised soon after. Well, now services like Amazon Music, Apple Music, and Spotify all offer it online.

Composer Tomoya Ohtani revealed this would be a 150-track soundtrack. At the time, he noted that each Cyber Space and Guardian’s Battle in Sonic Frontiers would have its own song. All 150 are available to hear via sources now. Services like Spotify even sort the tracks by the six albums they appear on. The tracks also note if they were used with cutscenes, Cyber Space stages, Guardians, or at other specific times. For example, the ones you might hear when fishing with Big the Cat are labeled as “Fishing Vibes,” “Jingle: Land a Catch,” and “Jingle: Land a New Catch.”

As for other Sonic Frontiers news, new characters are on the way. Sega released a roadmap of free updates heading to the game. A number of additions will appear in 2023. The last one will involve Tails, Knuckles, and Amy Rose becoming playable characters alongside Sonic.

Sonic Frontiers is on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC, and the soundtrack is streaming now.

The Stardew Valley 1.5 mobile update may yet appear on Android and iOS devices before 2022 ends. Eric “Concerned Ape” Barone offered another update on the patch on Twitter. In it, he noted he is “committed” to it showing up on both platforms in December.

Here is the full statement regarding the update.

Mobile players: Just want to reassure you that I am still committed to seeing the 1.5 update released this month. The mobile porting team is working very hard to make this happen. I'll be sure to let you know ASAP if there is a release date or any other information

— ConcernedApe (@ConcernedApe) December 7, 2022

Concerned Ape's regularly taken to Twitter to discuss progress on the Stardew Valley 1.5 mobile update. Back in February 2021, he committed to bringing the patch to those platforms. In November 2022, an update said it was still on track for a release this year.

The 1.5 update brought a number of new features to Stardew Valley. Ginger Island appears as a new location. You can also bring ostriches to your farm and start growing crops like bananas and pineapples.

HoYoVerse shared the newest Genshin Impact Collected Miscellany video to go over the skills in the moveset of Scaramouche, now known as the Wanderer. Each of these segments features a notable character discussing the Talents and passives of a character while people can see them in action. While Dainsleif (Yuri Lowenthal) is often the narrator, this time someone else showed up. Klee's mother Alice talks about him in the new Genshin Impact video.

Things begin by going over his Strum the Swirling Winds Exploration Talent. This means ascending bow and catalyst weapons is less expensive with him. After that, it gets into combat. His Yuuban Meigen normal and charged attack involves wind blades and wind pressure. His Hanega: Song of the Wind Elemental Skill sends him hovering into the air, though he can no longer perform plunging attacks in the Windfavored state. His Elemental Burst Kyougen Five Ceremonial Plays deals AOE Anemo damage. Once he gets his first ascension, the Jade-Claimed Flower passive offers his Elemental Skill buffs if Cryo, Electro, Hydro, or Pyro are present.

Here is the full Wanderer: Any Way the Wind Blows trailer going over Scaramouche's new skills and moveset.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12SZu2t6Ak8&ab_channel=GenshinImpact

It turns out isn't just the release date for the new Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC. Nintendo added something for anyone with the game. A free update for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe added a Custom Items feature. This lets people pick and choose items that appear.

In certain multiplayer modes, you can pick which items will and won’t appear in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Custom Items screen. This applies to multiplayer modes. Not every online one allows it. However, offline VS will. The page shows a 4x6 grid of the 22 items available in-game. You can select which ones in the grid you’d like to see during a race. It is also possible to turn them all off, all on, or randomize which ones show up.

A new Custom Items feature is now available for all #MarioKart 8 Deluxe owners via a free update. Use it to choose which items appear in offline VS Races and certain online modes! pic.twitter.com/zkFIUtqbi3

Cast your mind back to the early 90s and you may recall two aliens with a love for funk music crash landing on earth. These aliens were ToeJam and Earl, and their initial crash landing here (all via the Sega Mega Drive) resulted in their names being elevated to somewhat of a cult status in the industry.

Now, over 30 years since their first landing, ToeJam and Earl will soon be coming to a new medium. Yes, these two aliens will be joining the likes of Lara Croft, Nathan Drake and Mario, who have all made the transition to the big screen.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, a new feature film from Amazon based on ToeJam and Earl's video game escapades will be heading our way sometime in the future. This upcoming project will be written by Amos Vernon and Nunzio Randazzo, whose previous work includes Hotel Transylvania 4. Meanwhile, basketball player Stephen Curry will also be producing the project through his production company Unanimous Media.

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There's now an accompanying Blizzard interview to go with this piece, in which we talk about the build I played and much more besides.

I had my doubts. I had questions circling in my head since I first played Diablo 4 at BlizzCon 2019 - was it really that long ago? - and I've had questions about the need for a big new Diablo at all. But after 10 hours with it from the beginning of the game, I can see what kind of shape it's taking, and I like it. I like the tone, I like the mechanics, I like the world. There are some things I can't see but overall this is, plainly, the next generation of Diablo.

Curiously, it's the world that really stays with me most about it. Perhaps this shouldn't be a surprise given that an open-world is one of the big new things about Diablo 4, and at every PR-beat, Blizzard has told us how much it wants the world to feel dark, like the earlier Diablo games. Diablo 3 had a more cartoon edge to it, a kind of Warcrafty tinge.

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After its first trailer, the Super Mario Bros movie is becoming one of the most expected movies of 2023, even if some other actors could’ve been a better voice for Mario. The movie might still have some surprises up its sleeve, as it looks like there will be more known characters in the film than the trailer suggests.

The Twitter user @kikaim has shared an image showing all the toys you will be able to get with the McDonald’s Happy Meal in Japan, and it has a character nobody was expecting.

Days Gone is perhaps among my least favorite game from a Sony first-party studio during the PS4 era, and I doubt I’m alone in that sentiment. It was critically panned at launch, earning mediocre scores more or less across the board despite holding such immense promise in the years leading up to its anticipated release. Rather understandably, that all left a bit of a sore spot for writer/director of Days Gone, John Garvin, who has taken to Twitter today (and not for the first time) to explain exactly what he believes the root cause of its lukewarm reception was.

Apparently, it was nothing the game did especially wrong but mostly that it was done dirty by woke games media who never actually finished playing it. Sounds reasonable.

Garvin’s remarks are actually part of a thread in which he was highlighting Day Gone’s PC score on the aggregation website Metacritic. It’s several marks higher than the original PS4 version and, just as on PS4, holds a better user review score than critical — something that is often pointed to by enthusiasts as evidence that the critical reception was overly harsh.

Now, it’s certainly true that Days Gone has enjoyed an almost cult-classic renaissance since its wobbly launch. For many, the game’s open-world design, replete with hours of side-quests and challenges set in post-apocalyptic anarchy was apparently a recipe for hours of harmless entertainment.

It’s crazy to think that 2022 is merely weeks away from concluding. It’s that time of the year when we look back at what we’ve gained, and what we’ve lost, and it’s safe to say this year was full of gains and chock full of losses. This year started with an absolute bang with Elden Ring, Horizon Forbidden West, and Destiny 2: The Witch Queen burning holes in your wallet, making your bank statement cry, and battling for the game of the year. Not to mention Kratos is back with his greatest entry to date, we played as a cat in a sad city, and there were plenty of rats on my screen to make me want to cry.

However, we also have suffered through many titles that have not come close to the potential they shined upon their reveal. This list will focus on said titles, ten to be exact, and keep in mind that this list is subjective. If you found enjoyment in these titles, continue to do so. However, this grouping of titles did not live up to the expectations that were set, whether it be brand-new ideas or a fresh take on established ideas. Here are ten of the biggest video game disappointments of 2022.

If you haven't heard, Microsoft are currently trying to buy Activision Blizzard. Competition regulators from the UK, the EU and the US have been questioning the deal, so in an attempt to reassure them last month Microsoft apparently offered Sony a ten-year commitment to keep selling Call Of Duty on Playstation. Today, Xbox Head Phill Spencer announced that they've made a similar 10-year CoD commitment to Steam and, uh, Nintendo, on which no CoD games currently exist.

Nintendo have signed, while Valve CEO Gabe Newell says his company won't bother with a legal agreement, in part because they don't believe in "requiring any partner to have an agreement that locks them to shipping games on Steam into the distant future".

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Last time, you decided that mantling is better than cool swearing, and by a considerable 'flipping' margin. I can't say I disagree but ooh, hark at you, aren't you practical. You'd be lost in cool conversations behind the school bike sheds. We must move on. This week, I ask you to being tossed to the winds of fate or telling fate to do one. What's better: randomised item stats and perks, or saving everyone?

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2023 is shaping up to be a great time for wartime RTS games. If Men Of War 2 and Company Of Heroes 3 weren't enough to keep you busy on the WW2 side of global historical conflicts, Petroglyph Games' The Great War: The Western Front will also be stepping into the trenches of WW1 at some point next year as well – literally, in this case, as planning, digging and capturing these muddy lines of defence will play a vital role in both its pre-combat Theatre Commander mode and busy real-time strategy battles. Recently, I got to play through one of its RTS battles, but what I found was a strategy game quite unlike its WW2 rivals.

In some ways, this shouldn’t be surprising. As Petroglyph Games’ lead designer Chris Becker tells me over email, “WW1 is known for being a war of attrition and a battle of inches,” leading to fewer sweeping power plays when it comes to securing a victory. Indeed, your main concern here isn’t so much the winning of each individual battle, but maintaining your side’s National Will, which Becker says will be "in constant fluctuation" throughout the campaign – and with both the Allies and Central Powers to pick from here, that could mean very different things depending on who you choose. "It’s essential that players continue to monitor this, as the relentless toll that the war will take on National Will can result in overall victory or defeat," says Becker. "Authenticity is at the heart of this, we wanted to truly represent what 'victory' meant in the war - even with success, there is cost."

The Lands Between is ringing its calling bell once more. Fans awaiting Elden Ring’s PvP-focused update 1.08 can now jump in to challenge each other in epic showdowns that are sure to show off some of the most impressive builds out there. The update arrives with some expected opportunities for direct, 1v1 challenges,…

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In case you missed it, it is now possible to get one of five free Holowear as a Pokemon Unite holiday log-in gift. When people log into the game in December 2022, they can get a free outfit for one of five different Pokemon. This can be claimed once until December 26, 2022.

When you log into Pokemon Unite, you get the option to get one Holowear Selection Box (Holiday) as a free login gift. It contains the following five outfits. Each one involves the designated Pokemon putting on a Santa hat. After you get the box, you can find it in your Item Box in the menu.

• Holiday Style: Blastoise




• Holiday Style: Dragonite
• Holiday Style: Garchomp
• Holiday Style: Gardevoir
• Holiday Style: Mamoswine

The giveaway does take into account a user potentially not owning one of the five characters. If someone wants, they can get 10 Holowear Tickets (HT) instead of an outfit. However, be advised that styles people can acquire with tickets at Zirco Trading start at 18 HT each.

Pokemon Unite is available for the Nintendo Switch and mobile devices, and the holiday log-in Holowear gift is being doled out until December 26, 2022. As a reminder, Urshifu joined the roster in December 2022.

The Special Investigation Department of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office arrested Yuji Naka, co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, due to being suspected of insider trading again during his time working at Square Enix. Naka is one of the two suspects of purchasing stocks of Ateam Entertainment Inc., co-developers of Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier, prior to the game’s release. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

Yuji Naka along with Taisuke Sasaki, a former Square Enix employee, was arrested a second time on December 7, 2022. They are suspects in two different insider trading scandals. The individuals involved are accused of buying roughly 120,000 shares of Ateam stock between January and February 2021, after learning about the development of Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier. The value of the stocks amount to approximately 144.7 million yen.

The individuals were originally arrested earlier in November 2022 for insider trading involving Aiming Inc. and Square Enix, developers of Dragon Quest Tact.

Though you can technically use them to deal damage, most shields in Elden Ring are, well, meant for doing things shields tend to do, like blocking and parrying. In the case of the Coil Shield, though, there's a very special skill attached that can be a lot of fun for poison-based builds--and it looks cool to boot. If that sounds fun to you, read on to find out where you can pick it up.

The Coil Shield explained

The Coil Shield is a small shield that requires 10 Strength and 10 Dexterity to wield. Its unique weapon skill is Viper Bite, which can be activated to deal a bit of damage and inflict poison buildup on enemies, making it a truly unique shield.

The Coil Shield's item description reads:

Armament designed for gladitorial combat. rises above its peers as a particularly showy specimen. The sculpted bronze snake is a poisonous breed, boosting the weilder's resistance to poison.

Where to find the Coil Shield

The Coil Shield can be found inside Volcano Cave, which is embedded in the side of Mt. Gelmir northeast of the Ninth Mt. Gelmir Campsite. Once inside, you'll need to proceed past the Site of Grace within and fight the first pack of Demi-Humans and then head through the right path with a torch.

The Callisto Protocol didn't have the smoothest launch, suffering from some performance issues in certain scenarios. A new patch is out now on console that includes bug fixes and improvements, along with a new graphics feature on Xbox Series X.

People playing on Microsoft's beefiest console will now see ray-traced reflections. Even more improvements are coming, too. "We are working daily on optimizations for all platforms and are listening to your feedback," developer Striking Distance said on Twitter. "Thanks for your patience."

Studio head Glen Schofield commented on the patch, too, saying the developer is "listening, fixing, tweaking, and updating." The full patch notes do not seem to have been made available, but we'll add them here if they are.

This was The Callisto Protocol's second patch this week, following an earlier update that included improvements for PC performance. Players on PC should now see fewer instances of stuttering, with more optimizations in the work to improvement the experience further.

NPD's monthly report for November is here, which means we now know what games sold the best last month. Though the data doesn't have a lot of surprises, there's one name in the top 5 that might give you pause: Sonic Frontiers.

Yes, while everyone's favorite hedgehog hasn't starred in many acclaimed games lately, the "open-zone" Sonic Frontiers has sold a lot of copies, and it garnered a fairly positive critical reception, as well. However, number one is definitely no surprise--Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become one of the best-selling games in the franchise ever, which is no mean feat. It even passed Elden Ring to become the top-selling paid game of 2022 in the US, though it's only been out for a little more than a month.

God of War Ragnarok comes in at number two, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet at number three, Sonic Frontiers at number four, and Madden NFL 23 at five. FIFA 23, NBA 2K23, Gotham Knights, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Mario Party Superstars round out the top 10, in that order. The only other new game on the list is Tactics Ogre Reborn, coming in at number 17. Elden Ring is number 11. It's worth noting that Pokemon only includes physical sales, as well as Mario Party.

Given that NPD predicted Elden Ring as the top-selling premium game of 2022, the emergence of Modern Warfare 2 as the new number one is quite an achievement. Number three on the year is Madden NFL 23, four is Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, and God of War: Ragnarok is five.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic players will soon benefit from a 50% XP boost starting on December 13.

The event, called Joyous Journeys, increases all XP gains, whether it's from killing monsters or turning in quests, up to the expansion's max level of 80. A similar event ran prior to Wrath of the Lich King Classic's September 26 release, allowing players to speed-level new characters or level-up the expansion's new Death Knight class prior to the expansion's launch.

This latest event will last until January 16, 2023, giving players over a month of increased XP gains. As Blizzard notes, the event is a "great time to finish leveling a character, create a new one, or invite friends to join you in your adventures." Unlike modern WoW, where hitting max level in a new expansion can take mere hours, leveling in WoW Classic is a much longer process often measured in days of playtime as opposed to an afternoon.

Wrath of the Lich King Classic's launch didn't go smoothly at first, with massive server queues forcing many players to wait for hours before getting to log in for the first week or two of the expansion. Those issues have largely been resolved now that Wrath of the Lich King Classic has been live for over two months.

Splatoon 3 entered Chill Season, the first major update, on December 1. And with it comes a modified Salmon Run called Big Run, scheduled to start on December 9 at 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET. The limited event will run over the weekend and end on Sunday, December 11 at 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET.

Big Run will feature waves of Salmonids invading the amusement park Wahoo World stage, and players will need to team up against the invaders. This is the very first Big Run, and it will be a recurring event.

All players who fight in Wahoo World will get a locker decoration, as well as increased Catalog Points and Bonus Rewards. Final rewards will be based on the player's rankings, so those who score more will earn more. Players' points will be tallied after Big Run ends.

Chill Season also saw the arrival of two new maps, Brinewater Springs--a hot spring location--and Flounder Heights, an apartment complex. New weapons are also joining players' arsenal, including 10 weapons from past Splatoon games.

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, which just recently concluded its first-ever Twitch drop promotion, is now giving away even more free goodies for watching WoW-content on the streaming platform.

To celebrate the upcoming "Race to World First," in which top guilds from around the world will compete to be the first to complete Dragonflight's new Vault of the Incarnates raid, Blizzard is offering an in-game mount, pet, and toy that can be earned simply through watching WoW on Twitch.

From now until December 13, players will be able to claim the Cenarion Hatchling pet by watching four hours of WoW: Dragonflight content on Twitch. Another four hours watched will award the Swift Windsteed mount. Players will need to have linked their Battle.net account with their Twitch account to begin earning the drops, and the Cenarion Hatchling will need to be claimed before progress towards unlocking the Swift Windsteed can be earned.

Paragon: The Overprime, a sort-of sequel to Epic Games' canceled third-person MOBA Paragon, is now available in early access form. It has arrived just a week after another Paragon successor, titled Predecessor, launched in early access.

The free-to-play Paragon: The Overprime comes from Korean developer and publisher Netmarble and features Paragon's roster of characters and assets, along with new, original additions and gameplay elements. It's available both on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Thanks to better availability of the PlayStation 5, sales of consoles in the US during November jumped significantly. The NPD Group reported that hardware sales during November jumped by 45% to $1.3 billion during November.

This uptick in sales was attributed primarily to a "significant increase in PS5 volume" compared to November 2021, the NPD said. The PS5 was November 2022's best-selling console platform for unit and dollar sales, and the Switch was No. 2 during the month by both metrics.

For the year 2022 so far, the Switch has sold the most units and the PS5 led the way for overall dollar sales due in part to its higher price point compared to the Switch.

The NPD Group said nothing about how the Xbox platform performed during November 2022. The system surely did solid numbers, too, given the aggressive price discount of the Series S for Black Friday that dropped the price to just $250 (or less, depending on where you're shopping).

The PS5, as well as the Switch and Xbox Series X|S consoles, have been increasingly easier to find lately at brick-and-mortar and online stores alike. The systems were especially hard to find in 2021 and the beginning of 2022, but thankfully stock situations have improved.

On the games front, Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II was November's best-selling game in the US and has now surpassed Elden Ring to become 2022's best-selling game overall.

I haven't been active in fandom spaces for years now, but lurking on the edges of social media forums dedicated to games I find cool does technically fall under the remit of my job. And let me tell you, the lead-up to a night like The Game Awards is always something else. Fringes of the Tomb Raider fanbase were getting hyped for the announcement of the next game because… well, it just feels like about time, right? The same went for Life Is Strange, but then, Life Is Strange fans have been predicting the imminent reveal of LIS3 literally on a weekly basis ever since True Colors launched, so they're bound to be right eventually. Ace Attorney stans were using numerology to predict that AA7 would finally get announced. Incredible scenes of completely baseless hype, and despite myself, I wanted to believe.

I genuinely daren't check in on any of those conversations today, because, honestly, it wasn't a massive night for long-running franchises, and I don't think I can handle the lamentations. And, while I'll admit that my initial skim of the trailers for familiar names came up a tad short, I'm not at all disappointed, because it looks like 2023 is going to be a stellar year for devs doing something cool with a new IP while learning a lot from their older projects.

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What first comes to mind when you think of Fallout 76? The buggy launch in 2018? A big wasteland to hang out with your mates? How about the fan-made art galleries available in-game? Well, if that’s not wacky enough, meet The Wasteland Theatre Company, a collective of players who have organised, directed and performed a series of live shows in Fallout 76. Back in April, the company produced a version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in-game using a stage they built themselves. In the spirit of the holidays, the group reconvened to tackle another literary classic: Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, benefitting a children's hospital.

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Earlier this year I compared the MMO Lost Ark to grey carpet, in the sense that the MMO Lost Ark is exactly like a grey carpet: trendy yet drab. At the time I'd been in the market for a new – and entirely necessary - underfoot experience, so I turned to a local Carpet Man to procure said plush. In the end he seemed pleased that I rebelled against the majority and opted for a sunny corn colour.

But the latest Armored Core VI trailer from this year's Geoff Awards had me in a contemplative mood. "Perhaps", I thought, "Carpet Man would appreciate FromSoftware's use of grey". Even though there isn't a fuzzy floor surface to be seen, could the trailer have triggered grey's redemption arc?

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Speaking as a grown-ass man, I love trains. Not to the extent that I will ever bother to learn anything about them, or to identify one with any more specificity than “the pointy type”, “the blunt type” and “the chugga chugga choo choo all-aboard type”, but to the far milder extent that I simply enjoy watching them whizz around the place like big metal worms, and hearing their various little noises and honks. It’s trains!

Just as a train might be lured into a station with the promise of fresh passengers (which are like treats to trains), I have been drawn inexorably toward Choo-Choo Charles, a ramshackle joke-game about a scary train that chases you around. Marooned on a perpetually dark island, you’re stalked by a monstrous locomotive with a set of great big spider legs and an unquenchable thirst for human blood.

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In the same way that shoulderpads sometimes become cool again, and everyone is buying over-sized hair scrunchies like wot I used to have when I was 11, games journalists are destined to be trapped in repeating discourse cycles of ever-decreasing size. This is why I will often specifically advise people to never, ever pitch me opinions about BioShock. Any opinions about BioShock have already been had. There are no more opinions to have about it.

My state of peace in this area was just scuppered by that utter bastard Ken Levine, the creative director and writing lead on both BioShock and BioShock Infinite, when he revealed some of the new game by his studio Ghost Story Games (aka The Developers Formerly Known As Irrational). As observed by everyone who saw the reveal at The Game Awards last night, Judas is basically BioShock in space. The bad news is that this will put more fuel in Thomas The Take Engine, but the good news is that, if it is indeed like BioShock, we can save ourselves a lot of time. When Judas comes out please just return to this article and insert a specific title and delete options as applicable.

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It's been a full year since ex-BioWare boss Aaryn Flynn and his new studio Inflexion announced Nightingale at The Game Awards. In case you've forgotten, Nightingale is a PvE crafting survival game with a strong Victoriana vibe, but since our chat with them back at Summer Games Fest in June, and an early access delay into the first half of 2023 to accommodate the switch to Unreal Engine 5, we haven't heard too much about the game.

I got to natter with Flynn, director of production Leah Summers, and art director Neil Thompson earlier this week, ahead of the debut of a new trailer for Nightingale at The Game Awards this evening. They filled me in on how the game's blend of fairies and reality-hopping realmwalkers has progressed over the past year - and it turns out that players have had a lot to do with it.

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