Eurogamer

Developer WashBear Studio's relentlessly adorable (and highly enjoyable) dinosaur park management sim Parkasaurus will be welcoming a host of aquatic exhibits for the very first time come the arrival of its newly announced Sea Monsters expansion "soon".

Parkasaurus, if you're unfamiliar, takes obvious inspiration from the likes of Theme Park and DinoPark Tycoon, giving players all the tools they need to build and staff their very own dino-flavoured tourist attraction. Crucially, that involves providing the perfect habitats for a wide variety of adorable prehistoric creatures, with each dinosaur having specific terrain, water, food, privacy, and scenery requirements.

And once that's done, it's time to throw open the doors for an endless procession of guests, and they in turn have their own needs to be fulfilled - from places to eat to places to poop - if they're going to continue to spend, spend, spend. And hopefully not get eaten.

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Developer WashBear Studio's relentlessly adorable (and highly enjoyable) dinosaur park management sim Parkasaurus will be welcoming a host of aquatic exhibits for the very first time come the arrival of its newly announced Sea Monsters expansion "soon".

Parkasaurus, if you're unfamiliar, takes obvious inspiration from the likes of Theme Park and DinoPark Tycoon, giving players all the tools they need to build and staff their very own dino-flavoured tourist attraction. Crucially, that involves providing the perfect habitats for a wide variety of adorable prehistoric creatures, with each dinosaur having specific terrain, water, food, privacy, and scenery requirements.

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UPDATE 31/3/22: Following the actually quite exciting discovery of raytracing support in the latest Minecraft Preview build on Xbox, Microsoft has admitted the feature was "inadvertently included" and that players shouldn't expect to see it on consoles in the "near future".

"The previous Minecraft Preview build available to Xbox Insiders inadvertently included prototype code for raytracing support on Xbox consoles," Microsoft said in a message posted to the official Minecraft Twitter account.

It added the "early prototype code" has now been removed from Minecraft Preview and that its recent appearance "doesn't signal near future plans to bring raytracing support to consoles."

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UPDATE 31/3/22: Following the actually quite exciting discovery of raytracing support in the latest Minecraft Preview build on Xbox, Microsoft has admitted the feature was "inadvertently included" and that players shouldn't expect to see it on consoles in the "near future".

"The previous Minecraft Preview build available to Xbox Insiders inadvertently included prototype code for raytracing support on Xbox consoles," Microsoft said in a message posted to the official Minecraft Twitter account.

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E3 has officially ditched its digital-only event this year, which, following the cancellation of its in-person show back in January, means there'll be no E3 at all in 2022.

E3's 2022 started to look shaky in January, when show organiser the ESA confirmed it wouldn't be holding a physical event this year due to potential risks from covid - though several journalists subsequently suggested it had actually been scrapped before Christmas - marking the third year in a row E3's in-person component has been cancelled.

Instead, there were reports the Entertainment Software Association was once again planning a digital offering in place of this year's live show - in a similar manner to last year's virtual event - but the organisation has now confirmed E3 will be skipping 2022 entirely.

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E3 has officially ditched its digital-only event this year, which, following the cancellation of its in-person show back in January, means there'll be no E3 at all in 2022.

E3's 2022 started to look shaky in January, when show organiser the ESA confirmed it wouldn't be holding a physical event this year due to potential risks from covid - though several journalists subsequently suggested it had actually been scrapped before Christmas - marking the third year in a row E3's in-person component has been cancelled.

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Developer Heart Machine has unveiled Hyper Light Breaker, a fully 3D rogue-lite spin on its acclaimed 2016 action-adventure Hyper Light Drifter that's coming to PC early next year.

While Hyper Light Drifter served up a tautly designed single-player adventure blending rich exploration with challenging melee combat in a strikingly presented top-down, 2D world, Hyper Light Breaker looks like a very different take on the same universe.

It all unfolds in the Overgrowth, a new "vast, ever-changing" (and fully 3D) world consisting of massive, open biomes and deep labyrinths - which players can navigate using the likes of wall-dashing, hoverboarding, and gliding. Here, they'll be able to "defeat brutal monsters, create new builds, survive the mysterious Crowns and overthrow the almighty Abyss King."

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Developer Heart Machine has unveiled Hyper Light Breaker, a fully 3D rogue-lite spin on its acclaimed 2016 action-adventure Hyper Light Drifter that's coming to PC early next year.

While Hyper Light Drifter served up a tautly designed single-player adventure blending rich exploration with challenging melee combat in a strikingly presented top-down, 2D world, Hyper Light Breaker looks like a very different take on the same universe.

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Microsoft is reportedly set to plug a gap in its Game Pass line-up by launching a new family plan, enabling five users to access the service using one subscription, later this year.

That's according to Windows Central's Jez Corden, who, citing "trusted sources familiar with with Microsoft's efforts", reports the family plan has been in the works for some time as Microsoft navigated issues around royalty distribution and third-party licenses. Those kinks are presumably close to being ironed out now, however, with Corden suggesting an official unveiling may happen relatively soon.

As for what the family plan might offer, it'll reportedly enable five users in the same country to access Game Pass' entire library using a single membership, with the cost said to be "far cheaper" than paying for five individual subscriptions.

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Microsoft is reportedly set to plug a gap in its Game Pass line-up by launching a new family plan, enabling five users to access the service using one subscription, later this year.

That's according to Windows Central's Jez Corden, who, citing "trusted sources familiar with with Microsoft's efforts", reports the family plan has been in the works for some time as Microsoft navigated issues around royalty distribution and third-party licenses. Those kinks are presumably close to being ironed out now, however, with Corden suggesting an official unveiling may happen relatively soon.

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Closing in on seven years after the launch of its hugely successful Kickstarter, Castelvania spiritual successor Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is still ticking off stretch goals, with its latest update delivering its third and final promised playable character - which turns out to be a cameo crossover from Ubisoft Montreal's fondly remembered fantasy platformer Child of Light.

"Aurora has lost her way and awoken in a strange, dangerous new land," explains developer ArtPlay in a new Kickstarter update. "Armed with the Sword of Matildis and accompanied by the loyal Igniculus, she must find a way to escape."

Upon downloading today's free 1.30 update, players can take Child of Light protagonist Aurora (who joins existing playable characters Miriam and Zangetsu, plus "bonus" character Bloodless) on a gothic romp through Bloodstained's familiar castle, making use of her sword, companion Igniculus - who can slow opponents or heal Aurora - and her directional Light Ray skill, which damages any enemies caught in its beam.

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Closing in on seven years after the launch of its hugely successful Kickstarter, Castelvania spiritual successor Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is still ticking off stretch goals, with its latest update delivering its third and final promised playable character - which turns out to be a cameo crossover from Ubisoft Montreal's fondly remembered fantasy platformer Child of Light.

"Aurora has lost her way and awoken in a strange, dangerous new land," explains developer ArtPlay in a new Kickstarter update. "Armed with the Sword of Matildis and accompanied by the loyal Igniculus, she must find a way to escape."

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The SteelSeries Arctis 7P+ wireless gaming headset debuted in October 2021 and has already firmly positioned itself as one of the best gaming headsets on the market right now.

Digital Foundry called the Arctis 7P+ the best wireless gaming headset thanks to its comfortable design, impressive durability and excellent sound quality. The previous Arctis 7P offers similar performance and design for less, but is harder to find now and doesn't have as good battery life or USB-C charging like the 7P+.

Having the best sound quality can really make a difference when gaming, no matter what you're playing. Whether it's getting the upper hand by hearing everything happening around the map in competitive games like CS:GO and Valorant, or immersing yourself in rich and vibrant open-world RPGs like Horizon: Forbidden West or Elden Ring.

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The SteelSeries Arctis 7P+ wireless gaming headset debuted in October 2021 and has already firmly positioned itself as one of the best gaming headsets on the market right now.

Digital Foundry called the Arctis 7P+ the best wireless gaming headset thanks to its comfortable design, impressive durability and excellent sound quality. The previous Arctis 7P offers similar performance and design for less, but is harder to find now and doesn't have as good battery life or USB-C charging like the 7P+.

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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss PlayStation's big new subscription revamp. With a keen eye on Xbox Game Pass and a need to reform its own Plus and Now offerings, Sony laid out its plans - to a mixed response.

Sony's approach clearly differs from Microsoft - it sees no need to bundle in its £70 games on day one. But does this then create confusion for PlayStation fans down the line? When will new games join the Premium service?

Chatting with me about PlayStation Plus - and also Nintendo's delay to Zelda - are Eurogamer news reporters Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy. Join us to hear what we think this might mean for Wind Waker and Twilight Princess ports, and whether we'll be subbing to PlayStation Plus Premium...

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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss PlayStation's big new subscription revamp. With a keen eye on Xbox Game Pass and a need to reform its own Plus and Now offerings, Sony laid out its plans - to a mixed response.

Sony's approach clearly differs from Microsoft - it sees no need to bundle in its £70 games on day one. But does this then create confusion for PlayStation fans down the line? When will new games join the Premium service?

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We've already covered Death Stranding: Director's Cut last September, when Hideo Kojima's unique epic received a range of tech and content upgrades for its PlayStation 5 debut. Chief amongst them was the ability to play the game at a targeted 60 frames per second - something that wasn't possible on the PS4 original, even though Kojima Productions originally designed the game for this performance target. The Director's Cut is now available on PC but the upgrade isn't quite so marked. After all, 60fps was on the table for PC users from day one, the port was exceptional and the DLSS implementation opened the door to great performance at high frame-rates.

Obviously, the content improvements of the Director's Cut make their way across, but is there anything new from a technical perspective? Well, the original Death Stranding port's 'default' graphics settings effectively delivered PS4 Pro quality to PC, with only limited upwards scalability. In the case of the Director's Cut, default now delivers the same improved visuals as PS5, which basically means that draw distance has been pushed out a touch while everything else remains much the same.

The Director's Cut also ships with a more refined version of DLSS - version 2.3.7, according to the files. This reduces and eliminates the occasional ghosting trails seen in the initial release. It's worth pointing out that DLSS .dll downloads are readily available for download, and there's nothing stopping you replacing the .dll in the original release for improved DLSS image quality. Eventually, the game will also have XeSS image reconstruction upscale, but we should not expect that until desktop Intel Arc GPUs arrive in the summer.

We've already covered Death Stranding: Director's Cut last September, when Hideo Kojima's unique epic received a range of tech and content upgrades for its PlayStation 5 debut. Chief amongst them was the ability to play the game at a targeted 60 frames per second - something that wasn't possible on the PS4 original, even though Kojima Productions originally designed the game for this performance target. The Director's Cut is now available on PC but the upgrade isn't quite so marked. After all, 60fps was on the table for PC users from day one, the port was exceptional and the DLSS implementation opened the door to great performance at high frame-rates.

Obviously, the content improvements of the Director's Cut make their way across, but is there anything new from a technical perspective? Well, the original Death Stranding port's 'default' graphics settings effectively delivered PS4 Pro quality to PC, with only limited upwards scalability. In the case of the Director's Cut, default now delivers the same improved visuals as PS5, which basically means that draw distance has been pushed out a touch while everything else remains much the same.

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For me, 65 percent size keyboards are perfect. They straddle the line between compact and functional, with the arrow and navigational keys I rely on daily but without the cruft I don't, like the numpad or Function row. They're ideal for working on the go, often perfectly matched to the size of laptop keyboards, and provide tons of mousing space. Best of all, this form factor has seen an explosion of popularity, with even the biggest gaming brands exploring this brave new world once inhabited solely by mechanical keyboard enthusiasts.

Here are six of our favourite 65 percent size mechanical keyboards, based on hundreds of hours of building, testing, tweaking, gaming and typing over the past decade.

Simply choose a keyboard you like the sound of from the list below, or scroll on for our full recommendations - plus a quick FAQ section at the end! As always, if you have any questions or comments, then do let me know via the comments or the Twitter link at the end of the article, as I'm always keen to make these guides as useful as possible.

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This year's Pokémon Go Fest will return to hosting in-person events in three select cities, as well as a two-day global event you can play wherever you are.

The global event will be held on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th June, and also offer a "bonus finale event" on Saturday 27th August.

Sandwiched in the middle of all that will be three distinct city-focused events held in Berlin, Seattle and Sapporo.

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This year's Pokémon Go Fest will return to hosting in-person events in three select cities, as well as a two-day global event you can play wherever you are.

The global event will be held on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th June, and also offer a "bonus finale event" on Saturday 27th August.

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Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt, developer Sharkmob's free-to-play battle royale spin on the long-running RPG series, is getting its full PlayStation 5 and PC launch on 27th April.

Bloodhunt (not to be confused with Big Bad Wolf Studio's upcoming RPG Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong, Paradox Interactive's troubled Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, or indeed 2019 visual novel Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York) was announced toward the end of 2020 and had a limited Steam early access run the following year.

It is, all in all, pretty much exactly what it sounds like, casting participants - either playing solo or in a team of three - as vampires and setting them loose across the rain-soaked, moon-drenched streets and rooftops of Prague. All players have access to basic vampire trickery such as the ability to scramble up walls, but the characters they choose (from one of several vampire clans) inform the additional supernatural powers they're able to deploy. Oh, and there are lots and lots of guns to loot too, if you'd just rather just do the shooty thing.

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Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt, developer Sharkmob's free-to-play battle royale spin on the long-running RPG series, is getting its full PlayStation 5 and PC launch on 27th April.

Bloodhunt (not to be confused with Big Bad Wolf Studio's upcoming RPG Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong, Paradox Interactive's troubled Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, or indeed 2019 visual novel Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York) was announced toward the end of 2020 and had a limited Steam early access run the following year.

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Vermintide follow-up Warhammer 40,000: Darktide will launch on Tuesday 13th September.

The four-player co-op game builds on Vermintide 2's melee combat with the addition of "deep and balanced gunplay", developer FatShark has said.

You'll need a mix of melee and ranged combat to fight off Darktide's new menagerie of monsters, which you glimpse in the new trailer below:

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Vermintide follow-up Warhammer 40,000: Darktide will launch on Tuesday 13th September.

The four-player co-op game builds on Vermintide 2's melee combat with the addition of "deep and balanced gunplay", developer FatShark has said.

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A recent job listing has revealed Sony's recently acquired studio Firesprite is working on a new AAA horror game.

The listing in question was shared on ResetEra and reads: "We are looking for a Narrative Director to join our development team for a AAA narrative driven horror-adventure game in Unreal 5. 

"The Narrative Director is responsible for the project storytelling, helping establish & consider the game's universe and lore, with responsibility for the quality implementation of narrative content for project milestones and ultimately the game's release."

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A recent job listing has revealed Sony's recently acquired studio Firesprite is working on a new AAA horror game.

The listing in question was shared on ResetEra and reads: "We are looking for a Narrative Director to join our development team for a AAA narrative driven horror-adventure game in Unreal 5. 

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"It'll be a game for freaks," said Ben Esposito of Neon White in a gameplay trailer when it was announced for Nintendo Switch last July.

Really, it's a game for people who like fun, campy, melodrama alongside their speedrunning. In a video preview of the game, Esposito describes Neon White as a speedrunning first person shooter meets visual novel that's "nostalgic but not in a superficial way".

"We really wanted to make a game that felt cool and it really felt like the self-indulgent Y2K anime game of our dreams," he says.

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"It'll be a game for freaks," said Ben Esposito of Neon White in a gameplay trailer when it was announced for Nintendo Switch last July.

Really, it's a game for people who like fun, campy, melodrama alongside their speedrunning. In a video preview of the game, Esposito describes Neon White as a speedrunning first person shooter meets visual novel that's "nostalgic but not in a superficial way".

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Let me get this out of the way quickly: Superfuse looks really good. It's basically a Cel-shaded action RPG in the cut of Diablo. Four-player co-op or single-player fun. There's a comic book presentation - and a comic book plot, about people who have become gods and whatnot - which means that gorgeous comic book panels pop up during cut scenes and the designers have been wonderfully bold with the application of halftone. I am a fan of halftone. And from hubs you are despatched to various procedurally wrangled dungeons to splatter sci-fi horrors and take on bosses and pick up loot. Repeat.

All of this looks great. I had a build for a while and was very happy splattering and looting - doing the inventory Tetris thing and the skills-bar glissando. Mutant crabs. Horrible shambling monsters. And me at the heart of it, a Berserker class who seemed to be lamping people for the sheer luminous joy of it all. (The voice acting is supremely charismatic, incidentally - courtesy of Eli Harris in this case, I think.)

Right. That's out of the way. Now I want to talk about the point where I almost fainted with happiness. Reader, it's to do with skills.

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Let me get this out of the way quickly: Superfuse looks really good. It's basically a Cel-shaded action RPG in the cut of Diablo. Four-player co-op or single-player fun. There's a comic book presentation - and a comic book plot, about people who have become gods and whatnot - which means that gorgeous comic book panels pop up during cut scenes and the designers have been wonderfully bold with the application of halftone. I am a fan of halftone. And from hubs you are despatched to various procedurally wrangled dungeons to splatter sci-fi horrors and take on bosses and pick up loot. Repeat.

All of this looks great. I had a build for a while and was very happy splattering and looting - doing the inventory Tetris thing and the skills-bar glissando. Mutant crabs. Horrible shambling monsters. And me at the heart of it, a Berserker class who seemed to be lamping people for the sheer luminous joy of it all. (The voice acting is supremely charismatic, incidentally - courtesy of Eli Harris in this case, I think.)

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Nintendo has announced three new Switch Online games for March, and they include the 90's run and gun platformer Earthworm Jim 2.

Not many could slow their fall from a great height by ballooning out huge quantities of snot to make some kind of bogey-chute, but Earthworm Jim could. Now, he is back once more, thanks to this recent update from Nintendo.

Earthworm Jim 2 can be played through the Nintendo Switch Online's SNES app.

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Nintendo has announced three new Switch Online games for March, and they include the 90's run and gun platformer Earthworm Jim 2.

Not many could slow their fall from a great height by ballooning out huge quantities of snot to make some kind of bogey-chute, but Earthworm Jim could. Now, he is back once more, thanks to this recent update from Nintendo.

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A choreographer is suing Epic Games over dance moves included in an old Fortnite emote.

Kyle Hanagami, a choreographer who has worked with Britney Spears, Justin Bieber and J-Lo, filed suit against Epic regarding the "It's Complicated" emote, which was released within Fortnite back in August 2020.

Lawyers for Hanagami have said the emote uses copyrighted dance moves from a 2017 video set to Charlie Puth's "How Long" (thanks, Kotaku) without credit or compensation.

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A choreographer is suing Epic Games over dance moves included in an old Fortnite emote.

Kyle Hanagami, a choreographer who has worked with Britney Spears, Justin Bieber and J-Lo, filed suit against Epic regarding the "It's Complicated" emote, which was released within Fortnite back in August 2020.

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The Old West has always been weird, hasn't it? A bloody daydream of plunder and desolation, heroism and nihilism, reincarnated in a thousand motley forms across generations of books, films, folk songs and campfire stories. Videogames have certainly taken it in some peculiar directions. Think of Media.Vision's Wild Arms series for PS1, where six-shooters are ancient relics wielded by chosen adventurers, or the pre-patch version of Red Dead Redemption, with its cursed physics and flying centaurs, or the dreamy vestiges of frontier life you encounter while trudging the plains of Where The Water Tastes Like Wine.

WolfEye's Weird West mixes this vast, rancid legacy with outright fantasy elements sourced partly from the likes of Lovecraft and partly from the studio founders' previous Dishonored games. This very much isn't your classic rootin' tootin' cowboy yarn. Head out into the wilds and you'll find raucous villages of pigmen and ghost towns that absent-mindedly manifest from the foundations up. Dip into the caves and you'll encounter ravenous mutants and blue-stone temples where cultists debate visions of the apocalypse.

Magic is an everyday concern: town deputies sling lightning and fireballs alongside bullets. Stores are happy to trade in ectoplasm and cursed goblets alongside deerskin and copper. Quests alternate gritty pulp novel conceits with otherworldly enigmas: one moment you're squeezing a barkeep for information on a posse of kidnappers, against a backdrop of tinkling piano; the next, you're trying to make sense of a captive meteor. The realm is divided not just between settler communities and indigenous Americans, but factions of cannibals, werewolves and witches, all of them being manipulated by an off-screen illuminati of cowled figures who might as well call themselves game designers.

The Old West has always been weird, hasn't it? A bloody daydream of plunder and desolation, heroism and nihilism, reincarnated in a thousand motley forms across generations of books, films, folk songs and campfire stories. Videogames have certainly taken it in some peculiar directions. Think of Media.Vision's Wild Arms series for PS1, where six-shooters are ancient relics wielded by chosen adventurers, or the pre-patch version of Red Dead Redemption, with its cursed physics and flying centaurs, or the dreamy vestiges of frontier life you encounter while trudging the plains of Where The Water Tastes Like Wine.

WolfEye's Weird West mixes this vast, rancid legacy with outright fantasy elements sourced partly from the likes of Lovecraft and partly from the studio founders' previous Dishonored games. This very much isn't your classic rootin' tootin' cowboy yarn. Head out into the wilds and you'll find raucous villages of pigmen and ghost towns that absent-mindedly manifest from the foundations up. Dip into the caves and you'll encounter ravenous mutants and blue-stone temples where cultists debate visions of the apocalypse.

Read more

Nintendo has shown its fan-favourite Mii characters back in Nintendo Switch Sports.

When the game was announced back in February, many fans were perturbed by the new-look in-game characters, compared to the Miis used in Wii Sports.

But Miis will be playable, on top of a load of customisation options for the new characters to tweak their face, hair, and outfits.

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Nintendo has shown its fan-favourite Mii characters back in Nintendo Switch Sports.

When the game was announced back in February, many fans were perturbed by the new-look in-game characters, compared to the Miis used in Wii Sports.

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Another new patch has been released for Horizon Forbidden West. (Please note some of the following fixes may contain story spoilers for the game.)

As with previous patches, this latest update continues to address bugs and improve the game's graphical performance. However, most excitingly for the completionists among us, it also addresses an issue preventing players from getting the 100 percent completion notice in their notebook. Huzzah!

While Guerrilla is continuing to improve upon Horizon Forbidden West's graphical output, with this patch bringing improvements related to sharpness within the game, the team is continuing to make adjustments "to the game's content with the goal to reduce visual shimmering."

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