Game Informer

While PlayStation owners are still waiting for Among Us to grace the platform, they have another social deception game to look forward to. First Class Troubles sports a similar whodunnit premise set in space, only this time you control 1950s-era characters aboard a luxury space cruise ship. The game launched in Steam Early Access earlier this year, and now it’s heading to PlayStation consoles.

First Class Trouble supports six players, with four playing the role of Residents while the remaining two are Personoids, which is a fancy term for “lying murderers.” Residents must work together to shut down the ship’s rogue A.I. while the Personoids sabotage that mission by killing Residents (discreetly or otherwise) without getting caught. As the trailer shows, you can take out other players in several amusing ways, such as setting them ablaze with a flamethrower, feeding them to giant carnivorous plants, or, if you’re feeling frisky, dropping a chandelier on their heads. 

Those asking whether Nintendo will be holding a Direct video presentation during the month of September have been answered by the house of Mario itself with an emphatic “Yes!” Tomorrow September 23, at 3 p.m. Pacific, Nintendo will show off roughly 40 minutes of gaming goodness.

The tweet announcing the Nintendo Direct points out the presentation will “mainly focus on [Nintendo Switch] games launching this winter.” We already know about fall games like October releases Metroid Dread and Mario Party Superstars, but don’t be surprised if those are touched on. Getting further into what some could consider “winter” (but is more late fall/holiday), Shin Megami Tensei V, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, and Advance Wars 1+2 Re-boot Camp all have launch dates in November and early December.

Tune in 9/23 at 3 p.m. PT for a #NintendoDirect livestream featuring roughly 40 minutes of information focused mainly on #NintendoSwitch games launching this winter. pic.twitter.com/feHBEKfHPG

Blizzard has lost one of Overwatch's leaders in Chacko Sonny, who served as executive producer on the franchise including a leadership role in Overwatch 2. The departure comes in the middle of a series of lawsuits against Activision Blizzard regarding civil rights and equal pay, including allegations it fostered a toxic workplace culture rife with sexual harassment and discrimination. 

Bloomberg reports that Sonny informed the team of his departure last week, and his last day is Friday, September 24. Sonny joined Blizzard in 2016 as a production director for Overwatch before moving up to an executive role two years later, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

Kena: Bridge of Spirits launched today, and it turns out that it’s pretty darn good. If you’re a Fall Guys fan with Kena-fever, you can express that love by snagging a pair of costumes themed after the whimsical adventure. 

Beginning today through September 23, you can purchase a Rot costume, making your jellybean competitor resemble the tiny companions who assist Kena on her journey. Then on September 24, a costume for Kena herself becomes available until the 26. Upper and lower costume parts for both outfits will set you back five crowns each. That means you’ll need to spend ten crowns to complete one set and 20 to grab both.  

It's that time of year again. The leaves are starting to turn. The pumpkin spice and Oktoberfests are flowing in the streets. Spirit Halloween stores are starting to appear in abandoned strip malls. Spooky season is here, and we're excited to kick off this festive time of year with a return to a Game Informer office favorite (or least favorite if you're a scaredy-cat like me). Join us for this week's regular Thursday stream, where we assemble the most fantastic group of GI ghost hunters and try to keep our composure while playing Phasmophobia.

The classic characters are all here. First up is the experienced ghost hunter Dan Tack, aka the fearless leader who will carry the crew in his backpack to victory. Next up is Marcus Stewart, the confident up-and-comer hungry to make his name in the ghost game. Bringing up the rear is resident scared boy Alex Stadnik, who doesn't know what he's signed up for and has a knack for maybe screwing over his Phasmophobia teammates (unintentionally, of course). But developer Kinetic Games' spooky experience features four-player co-op; who are we missing? That's right, folks, she's back! Liana Ruppert will be joining us for her final stream with Game Informer (for now) as we return to one of our favorite streaming games.

Pokémon Unite is making its big debut on mobile devices tomorrow. A new blog post highlights some changes coming to the game alongside the release on these additional platforms in preparation for the occasion. Producer Masaaki Hoshino breaks down some of the new features coming to Pokémon Unite with its latest update.

First and foremost is the launch on iOS and Android devices. With the expansion to other platforms comes “full cross-platform play and account linking across mobile devices and Nintendo Switch.” This means if you’re looking to play on your phone or tablet, your Switch progress will carry over through your account. Also, Pokémon Unite players on any device will be matched up with or against any players regardless of platform. It’s a very convenient set of features and smart to have day one with the mobile release.

Other additions noted by Hoshino include

After Square Enix jumped the gun by leaking the news a few hours early, we can confirm that Neo: The World Ends With You makes its way to PC via the Epic Games Store on September 28. The sequel to the fan-favorite RPG launched on PlayStation 4 and Switch in July, with the PC version slated to come later, though this may be unexpectedly sooner than some might have thought. Not that we're complaining. 

Neo takes place four years after the events of the original and stars new protagonist Rindo and his best friend Fret. The two teens are killed and find themselves caught in a new version of the Reaper’s Game that promotes team battles. Rindo leads his team, the Wicked Twisters, in a race to climb the rankings in order to win the game and, hopefully, be brought back to life. The game shifts from 2D to a fully 3D design, and the action-oriented combat lets you control all four of Rindo’s teammates simultaneously. You’ll still collect dozens of ability-granting pins and explore a larger version of Shibuya. 

Sure, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands might be a first-person looter shooter that features a few familiar faces from the existing Borderlands universe. However, the wild ride that examines the formula with a tabletop role-playing game lens has a lot of different components going into the mix, and it’s attempting to distinguish itself from the known template while still maintaining some of that raucous flavor.

If you’re a fan of wholesome experiences like A Short Hike, Lil Gator Game might be up your alley. This bright and happy title puts you in the scaly shoes of a cute gator donning a familiar outfit to explore a big island playground and make friends along the way. It comes from developer MegaWobble and Playtonic Friends, the publishing arm of the team behind the Yooka-Laylee series. 

Lil Gator must be a big fan of Link, sporting a stick, shield, and cap similar to Nintendo’s icon. He’s not off to save the world on a grand adventure, though. Lil Gator Game’s stakes are much lower, focusing more on befriending the island’s quirky denizens and solving their less cataclysmic problems. The Gator can climb surfaces, glide through the air using his shirt, and craft new equipment by collecting arts and crafts materials. While you can certainly hit things such as cardboard bad guys with your stick, Lil Gator primarily promotes discovery and puzzle-solving instead of combat. If you're in the market for a fun chill pill, take a gander at the trailer to see if Lil Gator Game hits the right notes. 

You’ll have to wait until 2022 to embark on this delightful-looking island getaway. Lil Gator Game is targeting PC and Switch.

As September begins winding down, there's no denying we're rapidly approaching gaming's holiday release season. While recent weeks brought us some amazing experiences like Deathloop and Tales of Arise, the next few weeks are absolutely jam-packed with highly anticipated releases the gaming community as a whole is looking forward to. 

As the busiest months of game releases approach, we're just as excited as you are to get our hands on the huge games of this holiday season. As such, we ran down a list of our staff's personal most-anticipated games. You can see the list of the games each editor is most looking forward to for the remainder of the year below. After checking out our picks, sound off in the comments about which game you're most excited about as we brace ourselves for the fall release slate.

Have you seen Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy? Sure, The Hobbit films were decent, but nothing tops watching Aragorn and co charge into legions of orcs or a horseback Gandalf quell the darkness of a burgeoning evil with his white staff. The Lord of the Rings has influenced a bevy of fantastical stories and video games. And while it’s easy to attest the trilogy’s critical and commercial success to visual effects, acting, and a genuinely epic screenplay, you can’t ignore Howard Shore’s musical contributions. The three-time Oscar winner left his mark on the fantasy genre forever and might continue his victory lap with the upcoming Lord of the Rings television series. Shore is in talks to return to the franchise, and I think he’d be a welcome addition. 

When Phasmophobia first hit Steam as an Early Access title last year, we emphasized that it was the perfect Halloween game. More than that, if you’re ever looking to live out any paranormal investigator phantasies alongside a crew of gutless pals, then the ghost-hunting “detective” game is for you. I scare easily and have still put dozens of hours into Phasmophobia, slowly creeping through its haunted domestic and liminal environments. From sudden temperature drops to flickering lights, the atmosphere is always intense, and death waits for you in every vacant classroom or unassuming bathroom. In celebration of its one-year anniversary, Phasmophobia is allowing players to explore (and, hopefully, survive) by themselves in a new single-player mode.

Our one year anniversary update is now out!

I would just like to thank everyone for their amazing support over the past year. It has been an incredible time!

You can read the full patch notes here: https://t.co/CFpUQyo1rK#Phasmophobia

From the moment Kena’s staff ignites with magnificent magic, the world around her sizzles with excitement, creating an enchanting atmosphere for one of the best adventure games I’ve played in recent memory. Kena: Bridge of Spirits is Ember Lab’s debut game, but it hits with the sophistication and beauty you’d expect from a studio that’s been doing this for decades.

With the confirmation of Jackbox Party Pack 8’s release date, we decided to take a fond look back at some of our favorite games from previous entries. However, we all know such a list would rightfully devolve into a Quiplash/Drawful/Trivia Murder Party lovefest, so we’re focusing on the best games to only appear once. Besides highlighting some fun one-hit wonders, maybe this list will entice the Jackbox team to revisit them in future installments. If any of these entries ever gets a “2” next to them, you know who to thank. Instead of ranking these games from best to least best, we're arranging them in numerical order of the Pack they appeared in.

Metroid might not have the widespread popularity of Zelda or Mario, but our enthusiasm for Nintendo's sci-fi action platformer rivals those blockbusters. Nintendo announced Dread only a few months ago, during the company's E3 2021 Direct presentation. Now we're less than a month from its October 8 release, so here is a quick overview of everything you need to know before playing Metroid Dread.

More than two months after the State of California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard over violations of the state’s “civil rights and equal pay” laws, the Wall Street Journal reports an investigation is underway through the SEC. This federal agency, known as the Securities and Exchange Commission, is looking into the Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publisher and has ordered subpoenas to high-ranking executives.

According to an article released today from The Wall Street Journal’s Kirstin Grind and Sarah E. Needleman, the SEC has “launched a wide-ranging investigation into Activision Blizzard Inc., including how the videogame-publishing giant handled employees’ allegations of sexual misconduct and workplace discrimination.” The subpoenas mentioned above have been issued to CEO Bobby Kotick and other senior executives at the company. What kind of info does the SEC want from the Activision Blizzard execs? From the sounds of Grind and Needleman’s reporting, quite a lot.

Sea of Thieves has a deluge (yarr harr harr!) of content updates coming this Thursday, September 23, with the arrival of Season 4. Of note, there are Siren Treasuries full of loot that players must do battle for. You can use sunken merfolk statutes to store the loot safely and utilize merfolk to the surface waters to retrieve it so that it doesn’t get stolen! There’s a lot more as well, including encrusted message bottles that lead to new treasures and rewards, new commendations, and some sweet coral stuff. Check out the trailer below for everything Season 4 has to offer!

With many games embracing seasonal content and continual updates, what’s something you’d love to see in Sea of Thieves? 

Fall officially begins this week, and with the temperature cooling, it’s a great time to stay indoors and plunge into video games. There are a ton of exciting projects coming out this year, and we thought it would be a great time to highlight some easier-to-miss titles. Like leaves from a tree, indies can fall onto the gaming scene in a flurry, sometimes making it difficult to get an idea of what is out there. This year, we are happy to help rake up a big pile of these independent titles for you to jump into. Over the next few months, we will take a look at what’s going on with these games. We’ll dive into what’s launching and tons of exciting indie scene news. From triple-I releases to lesser-known titles, get ready to celebrate fall’s indies.

Grab a Pumpkin Spice Latte, And Let’s Catch Up

There is already a heap of great indies available now as we head into the autumnal season. With unexpected, last-minute announcements and long-awaited releases, it's been an eventful few weeks. Here is a helpful round-up of indie news you might have missed alongside games to help kick off your fall festivities.

Toem

Platforms: PS5, Switch, PC

Director Swery65 and his development studio White Owls Inc. have finally set a release date for The Good Life, and it’s very soon. PLAYISM, the game’s publisher, released a trailer this morning (which you can watch above!) providing an overview of what The Good Life is about and announcing the launch date.

You play as Naomi Hayward, a photographer who has traveled from her home in New York to a small English town, Rainy Woods, in search of solving a mystery for a client. Rainy Woods is known as the “happiest town in the world,” but the town and its residents have a secret Naomi soon becomes wrapped up in; when the sun goes down, everyone turns into dogs and cats! During your time in the town, you’ll snap photos, investigate oddities, and take odd jobs from the townsfolk to earn an extra buck as you unravel what and who is behind the happenings in Rainy Woods.

The Good Life has been in production for quite a while, having had a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2019. Swery65, otherwise known as Hidetaka Suehiro, and his team at White Owls Inc. have previously released Deadly Premonition 2 and The Missing in recent years, although Swery65’s gameography goes deep into the previous console generations, including D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die, Spyfiction, Extinction, and Tomba 2.

Jackbox Party Pack 8 arrives October 14, giving fans a new batch of goofy party games just in time for all of those Halloween parties. The game is coming to PlayStation and Xbox consoles as well as Switch and PC. 

So what’s new in Party Pack 8? Five games, that’s what! You can check them out in the trailer above, but, in terms of returning favorites, there’s Drawful: Animate, a new spin on the beloved Pictionary-style game that now allows 3-10 players to create animated gifs. 

Job Job tasks 3-10 players with answering job interview questions by assembling responses using the likely stupid answers from other players. 

The Poll Mine is billed as the series’ first competitive team game. 2-10 players are trapped in a mine and the only way to escape is to correctly rank survey answers from your group. 

The Wheel of Enormous Proportions is a trivia game with 4-8 players answering questions dictated by spinning the titular giant wheel.

Pokémon fans have a new way to enjoy the wildly popular trading card game thanks to the newly revealed Pokémon TGG Live App. The free-to-play game provides a modernized online venue for players to collect cards, build decks, and take on trainers around the globe on desktop and mobile devices. 

You’ll start by creating and outfitting a custom avatar in a similar manner to Pokémon Go.  The game features side activities such as daily quests. You can get a good sense of the action in the teaser trailer below. The TCG Live App launches “soon” for PC, Mac, iOS, and Android, according to The Pokémon Company. Later this year, Canadian players can try the game early via a soft launch on mobile devices, while everyone can partake in a global open beta on PC and Mac.   

Over the summer, Atlas launched a website dedicated to Persona’s 25th anniversary, stating that seven exciting reveals were on the way, starting with the first one in September. New merchandise and Persona 6 were confirmed soon after, but yesterday marks the release of that first anticipated reveal video. Persona 5’s feline mascot – and newly appointed ambassador for the 25th-anniversary campaign – Morgana took to the stage to congratulate Atlus on its acclaimed run with its beloved JRPG/high school sim franchise. Here's what fans can expect to see in the coming months under the “Persona 25th Times” content banner (watch the video with closed-captions enabled if you can't understand Japanese!): 

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a new action RPG from Chinese independent developer Leenzee Games. The game draws heavy inspiration from FromSoftware titles like Dark Souls and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and tasks you with rescuing a country suffering from societal upheaval and a supernatural disease. 

The game takes place during the final years of China’s Ming Dynasty where Emperor Chongzhen has hanged himself. The power vacuum his death creates gives rise to bloody conflicts across the country as armies and other forces clash for control, leaving villages helpless to pillaging and wanton chaos. If that’s not bad enough, a mysterious and incurable disease known as “feathering” is causing people to grow feathers. Not only does this physically deform those afflicted, but it causes their minds break in unpredictable, often violent ways. 

Monster Hunter has been a nexus for crossover content from Capcom franchises to surprise collaborations with properties like The Witcher. Today we got confirmation of an incredible new Palamute layered armor that transforms your ridable hunting pup into Mega Man’s robotic dog companion. With at least one Capcom collab set for release this fall, I wanted to touch on some characters, weapons, or armor I’d like to see added into Monster Hunter Rise. Beware of spoilers for Resident Evil Village below!

While Monster Hunter World had a few guest monsters to hunt, we haven’t seen creatures from outside the series added to Rise yet. However, I think this next Capcom addition could be the perfect time to introduce an exciting new creature to hunt. One that's very different from those we've fought before. When it comes to imposing monsters, Lady Dimitrescu has many of the Capcom bosses kneeling at her feet. Standing at 9’6” tall, she’ll tower over any hunters in the field, though a little exaggeration in her height for effect wouldn’t hurt.

Capcom continues to collaborate within its internal brands, bringing another skin to Monster Hunter Rise. This time Mega Man 11 is the crossover title, offering a new Palamute layered armor featuring Rush. This robotic dog might be my favorite outside addition to the game yet! Check out Rush in action in the trailer below.

Monster Hunter’s dev team isn’t just slapping skins on characters and calling it a day. Putting the Rush armor on your Palamute transforms it into Mega Man’s canine companion, complete with the special moves for which he’s famous. Sprinting while riding on a Rush Palamute makes the dog levitate, turning his hind legs into rocket-propelled engines. Likewise, jumping off from him enables a spring animation, just like if Rush were helping Mega Man leap to a high platform. Hunters can even customize his color to make their personalized version of Rush.

Earlier this year, THQ Nordic released SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off for the Nintendo Switch, but if you can’t stop spending money on SpongeBob games then you might be interested in SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake. 

In Cosmic Shake, SpongeBob and Patrick encounter the mysterious fortune teller who hands the pair a container of Mermaid’s Tears, which are fabled to grant the wishes of those pure of heart. Unfortunately, SpongeBob and Patrick's enthusiastic string of wishes threaten to rip open the fabric of space and time, and now the undersea goofballs have to work together to rescue their friends and save Bikini Bottom’s iconic buildings.

According to THQ Nordic, Cosmic Shake also has the following key features:

THQ Nordic has announced a revival of the Outcast franchise with the upcoming release of Outcast 2: A New Beginning. Development started in 2018 with at least ten developers from the original Outcast team onboard, including the director and art director from that game.

Outcast 2 revives ideas from the original sequel that was being planned in 1999/2000. Due to financial issues with its publisher Infogrames, the project was shelved indefinitely. Appeal Studios, the team behind A New Beginning, wants to make a product that feels like a successor to the cult classic. Appeal is looking to implement a non-linear narrative an enticing world to explore.

Like the first game, Outcast 2 will take place on the planet of Adelpha, and players will step back into the shoes of Cutter Slade 20 years in the future. Due to an accident while escaping the planet, Slade was blipped out of time and found his way back decades later. To keep the world fresh, players will explore a different part of the planet and meet new inhabitants. Combat and movement have been updated, according to THQ Nordic. Outcast 2 is a third-person shooter at heart, with modular weaponry being a focus. However, Cutter will also receive magic-like “Talan powers” and a new mobility-enhancing jetpack.

Jagged Alliance hasn’t had a numbered entry in over 20 years, but that changes soon with the upcoming release of Jagged Alliance 3. THQ Nordic announced this new addition to the franchise today during the company’s 10th-anniversary stream. Helming this project is the team known for making games like Tropico 5, Victor Vran, and Surviving Mars, Haemimont Games based in Bulgaria.

Players will control a group of mercenaries brought to the land of Grand Shien to find a missing person. Though, merc missions are never easy. Your characters will have to navigate the region, meet the locals, and learn about Grand Shien and how you’ll end up impacting it throughout the game as you adventure. Conflicts play out in turn-based tactical battles where each mercenary in your squad brings their particular sets of skills to the fight. Whether you want to play stealthy, stabby, or with akimbo pistols blazing, there will be many unique strategies to implement.

THQ Nordic initially brought on Haemimont Games to tackle a side project in the Jagged Alliance series. But as the relationship grew, the project changed to being the first proper sequel since 1999. With the lineage of Jagged Alliance established, the team is bringing back past mercenaries to join your squad like Len and Tex. Each merc, old or new, can be leveled up and customized with perks, weaponry, and equipment.

Crypto is back to subjugate the Earth in Destroy All Humans 2! Reprobed, a remake of the PlayStation 2 and Xbox-era game originally developed by Pandemic. Like the remake of the first Destroy All Humans, Black Forest Games is handling the development duties this time around.

Set in the swinging '60s, Destroy All Humans 2 pits Crypto against the Soviet agents of the KGB as he attempts to capture, consume, and generally kill humanity. Our playable alien antagonist will have a myriad of weapons and gadgets at his disposal to complete missions. Of course, he’ll have his trusty flying saucer to wreak havoc on towns and abduct the residents for his nefarious schemes. Other weapons include the Gastro Gun, the Burrow Beast, and the Dislocator, a projectile weapon that bounces enemies far in the air and away from Crypto. Some of the technology at your disposal is being reworked to be more fun and balanced, including the previously mentioned Dislocator and the over-powered Free Love Goggles.

Battlefield 2042’s launch was delayed to November 19 which brought into question the launch timing of the game’s promised open beta and early access period. Freeman, the game’s lead community manager, took to Twitter to address these concerns, confirming that the early access period will now kick off a week prior to launch on November 12.

Early Access allows those who pre-ordered the Gold and Ultimate editions of the game a chance to dive into Battlefield 2042 a week early. Unfortunately, the dates for the public open beta remain undetermined but rumors have pointed to the launch taking place in either late September or early October. 

Thanks to everyone who have sent their messages of support this past 12 hours or so - it's deeply appreciated by all of us on the team 💛 #BATTLEFIELD

I'll be helping to answer questions as we move towards November 19th. To help clarify on the below

Early Access = 12th November https://t.co/GDwneaclZs

Net Ease and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment are bringing expansive wars in Middle-earth to the palm of your hands. Now announced to release next week, Lord of the Rings: Rise to War is described as a “Geo-Strategic Seasonal Wargame” for mobile devices.

Rise to War puts players in charge of massive armies and your favorite Lord of the Rings characters to take over swaths of the Middle-earth map. All the stars are here, and they can be your generals in battle. Recruit the likes of Gandalf the White, Galadriel, Aragorn, and Legolas to lead your armies to victory. Each has stats and specified roles like Control or Warrior, so choosing the correct characters for each battle is vital.

Lord of the Rings: Rise to War’s map will shift and change with each battle as players and their Fellowships or Warbands take over territory throughout a season.  According to a press release, players can form groups in “a multi-layer Fellowship social structure designed to foster collaborative strategies between players. Based on their choices to side with good or evil, players can form either Fellowships or Warbands with other players and take to the battlefields to triumph over their foes tile by tile.”

This Friday, we’re taking a short break from our Super Replay of Demon's Souls (we'll be back next week!), and instead, we'll be surviving World War 2 in the multiplayer beta for Call of Duty: Vanguard. You can watch us test our mettle against other players on Twitch at 2 p.m. Central. 

Sega and Atlus are set to unveil a new RPG during Day 2 of the Tokyo Game Show 2021, which is October 1. We already knew the companies would have the last presentation of the day according to the event schedule, and they’re gearing up to conclude the second round of livestreams with a bang. 

The publisher has set up a special website for the unannounced title that plays a Japanese-narrated cinematic of an ink quill drawing three fantastical-looking characters overlooking a scenic cliff. It also shows flashes of different characters and melancholy scenes, such as what appears to be a slain woman. The animation concludes by taking viewers to a homepage that currently has a countdown clock ticking down to the game’s reveal at TGS. Translated text of the video’s description simply states “This is a teaser trailer for Sega's new RPG, whose information will be unveiled online at the Tokyo Game Show 2021 on October 1, 2021 (Friday).”

Did you know this Saturday is Batman Day? Started officially in 2014, Batman Day comes around on the third Saturday of September and celebrates the first time Batman appeared in Detective Comics. Even though that date was actually sometime in June 1939, it doesn’t make us any less excited to honor the character of Batman. DC Comics is celebrating the occasion in a variety of ways, including special products releasing this week or making cool Batman stories available for fans to enjoy for free. Here are some of the ways you can enjoy the Dark Knight on his special Bat-day.

This week, DC released a massive anthology graphic novel made by a globe-spanning team called Batman: The World. 14 creative teams from 14 different countries came together to make this momentous book. Clocking in at 184 pages, Batman: The World features stories from each of these teams, including “a story from the award-winning duo of writer Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo (Batman: Damned, The Joker) in which Batman reflects on his time in Gotham, protecting his city and its inhabitants from all manner of threats,” according to a DC press release. Batman: The World was released this past Tuesday, September 14, so feel free to pick up these international Batman adventures at your favorite comic book store or digital marketplace. A free preview of the book is also available where comics are sold.

Today finally ushers in the official Standard 2022 rotation in Magic: The Gathering Arena. Rotation comes once a year with the release of Magic’s fall premiere set. This year Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, the first of two full sets on the horror plane scheduled for this fall, brings with it a revitalized constructed format. What exactly does rotation mean for players of the game, and why are people excited about this one in particular?

What Is Standard Rotation?

Once every year, Wizards of the Coast changes which Magic: The Gathering expansion sets are legal for the game’s Standard constructed format. This determines which pool of cards players can choose from when building 60-card decks for competitive play. Upon the release of Magic’s fall set (like Midnight Hunt’s release this year), a year’s worth of sets rotates out of legality to make room for the upcoming year of releases.

Welcome back to The Game Informer Show! This week, we're breaking down Blake Hester's Deathloop review impressions and why Arkane Studios has a Game of the Year contender on its hands. We also discuss Dying Light 2 delay news and Eastward, a charming pixel art game. On top of that, we're joined by the one and only James Willems, Co-Founder of Funhaus, to talk about his journey through the video game industry and hear more about his recent voice acting role in Psychonauts 2 and what it was like working with Double Fine. 

Wipeout Rush has been announced for iOS and Android. The first original Wipeout title since 2012’s Wipeout 2048, Rush is a full-fledged entry that combines the series’ classic hyper-speed racing with card-based mechanics.

As shown briefly in the trailer, players will collect and merge power-up cards for their anti-grave vehicles. According to IGN, Rush features a complete single-player campaign (told in comic book-style panels), and 12 championship cups. Rush also has five levels, and races perform at 60 frames-per-second on capable devices. 

The game is being published by Rogue Games. Its CEO, Matt Casamassina, gave a statement to IGN, saying in part “We hope fans will come to it with an open mind because—although different—we’re proud to bring the wipEout franchise back into focus with a fresh take on the formula.”

According to the trailer, Wipeout Rush is coming “soon”, though IGN reports an early 2022 launch. While it’s not coming to consoles like many fans would probably prefer, it’s nice to see the series have some kind of pulse. 

Sherlock Holmes is a mainstay in books, movies, TV shows, and even games. Stories about the legendary Consulting Detective are told and retold in different mediums with new twists and turns added to keep the narratives fresh in modern eras. Irish Studio Frogwares has been churning out Holmes games for years, as well as the Lovecraftian The Sinking City from 2019. The developer’s newest game turns back the clock in Sherlock's life to explore his youth before he became a notorious sleuth.

A new post on the PlayStation blog is dedicated to Frogware’s newest mystery-solver, Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One. As a 21-year-old Holmes, you explore an open world on the Mediterranean island of Cordona with your best friend Jon at your side. Sherlock is there in remembrance of the tenth anniversary of the passing of his mother, though he’ll no doubt be captured within a web of whodunits that the observant youth will have to solve.