Gaming

Bandai Namco has announced that it will debut the story trailer for Shadow of the Erdtree today at 11 AM ET / 8 AM PT. There’s exactly one month until the highly anticipated DLC to 2022’s Game of the Year finally launches and there are a whole lot of messed up lil’ dudes FromSoftware has to show off between then and now.

In its purchase of Shiver Entertainment — which previously ported Hogwarts Legacy and Mortal Kombat 1 to the Switch — from troubled gaming conglomerate Embracer Group, Nintendo says:

By welcoming Shiver’s experienced and accomplished development team, Nintendo aims to secure high-level resources for porting and developing software titles. Going forward, even after it becomes a part of the Nintendo group, Shiver’s focus will remain the same, continuing commissions that port and develop software for multiple platforms including Nintendo Switch.

Another tidbit from the FAQ:

At initial launch, Super Resolution will be available in a limited number of games available through the Xbox app for Windows PC: 7 Days to Die, BeamNG.drive, Borderlands 3, Control, Dark Souls III, Dying Light, The Forest, God of War, Resident Evil 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Skyrim SE, Sons of the Forest, Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, Unturned, Warframe, and The Witcher 3.

Is that just Microsoft putting its best foot forward, or do games need patched individually?

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II launches tomorrow and the developers at Ninja Theory have released a new launch trailer detailing all the trials and tribulations Senua will experience on her journey. There’s fights against demons, a lot of crying, and a particularly harrowing burning at the stake. After all the game is called Hellblade and not “Very Nice Spring Day Blade” for a reason.

Ken and Roberta Williams are some of the most influential video game designers ever, and also founded a video game publisher that did a whole lot more — until Sierra On-Line became a victim of massive accounting fraud and dramatically collapsed.

Vice’s Waypoint published this must-read feature story about it, before it, too, became a victim. Now, an authorized Sierra documentary is coming:

Despite the studio’s closure, Arkane Austin is squeezing out one final update for its vampiric shooter Redfall. This follows the final patch for Hi-Fi Rush from Tango Gameworks, which was also shut down.

Post-apocalyptic wastelands are all the rage right now, and soon that will extend to Fortnite. When the game’s Greek mythology season ends next week, it will give way to something that will hopefully make the wait for Fallout 5 a little easier.

FromSoftware’s monster designs have really nailed the inherent horror of living in ambulatory sentient meat sacs and this new one from Shadow of the Erdtree is just...

That is a uterus, y’all and if it means Shadow of the Erdtree will tread the “transformative horrors of childbirth” like Bloodborne did, I am so on board. I cannot wait for June 21st, my uterus is ready.

Anbernic’s Game Boy Advance SP homage goes on sale tomorrow for $65, and the just announced $339 Ayn Odin 2 Mini is a dead ringer for PlayStation Vita but with Qualcomm, Wi-Fi 7 and a 1080p mini-LED screen. Then on Saturday, Ayaneo will reveal its takes on the original Game Boy and Game Boy Micro.

Choices, choices!

2003’s Need for Speed: Underground is the latest modded RTX Remix game, with over 1,000 additional light sources and almost completely ray-traced lighting. (Headlight ray tracing is TBD.)

2005’s Most Wanted was more my jam, but this looks great. More about it (and downloadable files) here. Also see: ray traced Half-Life and Half-Life 2, and more listed here.

From Polygon’s exploration of the “unlikely, lasting place in gaming history” held by Kim Kardashian: Hollywood:

Headley drew Kardashian, and Zabbal illustrated a background, like Beverly Hills — “a postcard for the location,” which he described as not necessarily accurate, but a “lovely broad impression with a tight, cool palette.”

This early art — Headley’s depiction of Kardashian — was what hooked Kardashian herself. “Kim said many times, ‘I saw that they really got me when I saw how they drew me,’” de Masi said.

After plenty of teases and licensing news, EA is showing off the official covers for its NIL-enabled College Football 25 game, which is returning after a decade-long break. Even if they don’t have the backup QB from Texas, EA has signed the starter, as its cover features Quinn Ewers alongside Michigan running back Donovan Edwards, and Colorado wide receiver/defensive back Travis Hunter.

Headquartered in Poland, Elsewhere Entertainment — an all-new internal studio at Activision — is working on a new “narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise.” Elsewhere includes developers credited on The Last of Us, Uncharted, Destiny, Cyberpunk, and more. Activision’s new studio announcement comes just a week after its parent company, Microsoft, closed three Bethesda studios. It also follows job postings about a new Activision IP.

After the official reveal of Assassin’s Creed Shadows yesterday, some players noticed on the game’s PSN page that an internet connection would be required to play this single player game. In response, Ubisoft has put out a new statement clarifying that you’ll only need an internet connection to download the game and that the rest of it can be played wholly offline.

The developers of Drag Her, the drag queen fighting game, has announced they are ending development and disbanding the team. In the announcement, the team wrote that despite a successful Kickstarter and solid fan support, they couldn’t secure enough funding to bring their vision of Drag Her to life. But not all is totally lost. The developers plan on releasing Drag Her in its current state on Steam for free May 16th.

Ubisoft’s Cécile Russeil is EVP in charge of Communications, Corporate Affairs, Diversity, Inclusion, Accessibility, Human Resources, and Legal. So anything and everything the company does to fix that toxic workplace we heard about in 2020, which led to some changes and more recently to arrests — it’s all on her. Sounds like a monster job.

Auto-translated from Japanese:

Nintendo DS CRT Ver. Finally completed!!! (📚🍣) Two 14-inch CRTs (SONY Trinitron) are used. (S terminal output)

The sound and picture quality are both amazing! However, the problem is that you can’t carry it in your pocket... That’s why we named it DS Heavy. (Total weight: 28KG)