The PlayStation VR2 was expensive when it launched in early 2023—and today, it is still expensive. But you can save $100 from its $549.99 listing price from Amazon, Walmart, or Best Buy, bringing the current $449 price down to the lowest it has been since its release. The deal comes during Sony's Days of Play sale, where you can also find the PlayStation 5 widely available for $449.99, among other PlayStation deals.
The PlayStation VR2 is exactly what it sounds like: a VR headset for your PS5. It is the second version of the PlayStation VR with big upgrades that justify the $150 price increase, including an improved 2,000 by 2,040 resolution HDR OLED screen, a 110° field of view (that's 10° more than the VR1), pass-through view technology so you can see your play area (and not break your TV), and much-improved PSVR 2 Sense controllers with haptic feedback and adaptive triggers that will make your games feel more immersive (the headset also vibrates). The setup is also much easier, with just a USBC cable needed to be plugged into the console. IGN gave the headset an "amazing" 9 out of 10 score on their review.
It's not perfect, though. One of the biggest disappointments is that there is no backward compatibility with the original PlayStation VR, meaning you'll have to buy the same games again to play them on the PlayStation VR2.
Sony has been slowly releasing more games to be compatible with the VR2 headset. Right now, there is a good selection of games available, with more on the way.
Enlarge/ After nearly four years of the PS5, a lot of people are still using their old PS4s. (credit: Sony)
If you're still getting use out of your aging PS4 after nearly four full years of PS5 availability, new data from Sony shows you are far from alone. The Japanese electronics giant says that both the PS4 and PS5 currently have about 49 million monthly active users, suggesting a significant number of PlayStation players have yet to spend $400 or more to upgrade to the newer console.
Despite the parity in active consoles, Sony also points out that the PS5 is responsible for significantly more gameplay hours than the PS4: 2.4 billion for the new system compared to 1.4 billion for its predecessor (it's unclear what time period this comparison covers). Sony's monthly user numbers also include any console "used to play games or [access] services on the PlayStation Network," so an old PS4 that serves as a convenient Netflix box in the spare bedroom would still inflate the older system's numbers here.
With big exclusives like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Helldivers 2 already out, it’s almost time to see what PlayStation has in store for the rest of the year. Sony has officially announced when it next State of Play livestream will take place, and it’s coming a lot sooner than you might expect.
Sony took to X (formerly Twitter) and the PlayStation Blog to share that the next State of Play will premiere tomorrow, Thursday, May 30. The event will kick off at 3 p.m. PT (6 p.m. ET / 11 p.m. BST). The show is expected to last more than 30 minutes, though Sony hasn't shared an exact event timeline. However, the PlayStation parent company said that it will showcase updates for 14 different PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR2 titles, including PlayStation Studios games set for release this year.
You can tune into the latest State of Play on PlayStation’s YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok channels, respectively. It is unclear exactly what PlayStation will highlight with its time slot, though there have been rumors and leaks about a new Astro Bot game. It’s also possible we could learn more about the PlayStation 5 Pro, which has generated a ton of rumors these past few months.
Considering that PlayStation recently appointed two new CEOs, Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino, this State of Play will hopefully give us some idea of the company’s strategy for the rest of the year. In the comments section for the State of Play announcement, fans are expressing hopes for new information regarding Insomniac's Wolverine game as well as PS VR2 support for PC.
Make sure to tune into the event tomorrow, especially if you’re excited about anything that PlayStation has in the works. I’ll certainly be watching to see what Sony has in store for gamers in 2024.
The PlayStation 5 Slim has been hard to come by since its release, spurring some shoppers to pay over-market prices from other sellers. But for now, there seems to be ample supply during PlayStation's ongoing Days of Play sale.
Currently, the PlayStation 5 Slim is on sale for $449 (originally $499.99) after a $50 discount from Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy. The PlayStation 5 Slim Digital Edition is also available for $399 (originally $449.99).
As mentioned, consoles tend to sell out quickly, so keep an eye on stock if you plan to buy, and consider acting quickly. The PlayStation store is the only one offering the PlayStation 5 with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Bundlefor $449at the moment, with Best Buy's supply already running dry. If you're a PlayStation Plus member and you buy the console or a PS VR2 headset through Sony, Sony will include 12 months of Netflix Premium as long as you make the purchase between May 29 and June 12. The offer applies to new and existing Netflix subscribers.
If you already have the older PS5 and are wondering about upgrading to the slim version, keep in mind that it offers more than just a sleeker design (about 30% slimmer, according to IGN's review). The PS5 Slim also has 1TB of internal storage space, which results in an additional 181GB of usable space when compared to the original PS5. This addresses two of the biggest cons of the original PS5: the bulkiness and lack of storage space compared to the Xbox Series X.
The PS5 Slim can be oriented both horizontally and vertically, but if you choose the latter, you'll need a vertical stand, which costs $29.99.
Enlarge/ Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann, seen here not questioning the accuracy of a PR interview. (credit: Getty Images)
Sony has taken down an interview with Naughty Dog Studio Head Neil Druckmann (Uncharted, The Last of Us) that the company now says contains "several significant errors and inaccuracies that don't represent his perspective and values." The surprising move comes after Druckmann took the extreme measure of publicly questioning a portion of the PR interview by posting a lengthy transcript that conflicted with the heavily edited version Sony posted online.
The odd media saga began last Thursday, when Sony published the interview (archive here) under the heading "The Evolution of Storytelling Across Mediums." The piece was part of the Creative Entertainment Vision section of Sony's corporate site, a PR-driven concept exploring how Sony will "seamlessly connect multi-layered worlds where physical and virtual realities overlap to deliver limitless Kanto—through creativity and technology—working with creators." Whatever that means.
Druckmann's short interview started attractingattention almost immediately, primarily due to Druckmann's apparent promotion of using AI tools in game development. Such tools "will allow us to create nuanced dialogues and characters, expanding creative possibilities," Druckmann is quoted as saying. "AI is really going to revolutionize how content is being created, although it does bring up some ethical issues we need to address."
Enlarge/ Is this an aspirational image for mass shooters? (credit: Activision)
The families of multiple victims of the 2022 mass shooting at Uvalde's Robb Elementary School are suing Activision in a California civil court, alleging that the company's Call of Duty games act as a "training camp for mass shooters."
The lawsuit (as obtained by Polygon) compares Activision's Call of Duty marketing to the cigarette industry's use of now-barred spokescartoon Joe Camel, putting the gaming company "in the wildly lucrative business of training adolescents to become gunmen." The Call of Duty games "are chewing up alienated teenage boys and spitting out mass shooters," the lawsuit alleges, and in Uvalde, the games "knowingly exposed the Shooter to the weapon, conditioned him to see it as the solution to his problems, and trained him how to use it."
Meta platforms is also a party to the lawsuit for "explicit, aggressive marketing" of firearms to minors via Instagram.
Fans of Bring Me The Horizon have been fervently searching for secrets and clues hidden within an 'M8 Artificial Reality game' subtly teased in a recent music video by the band.
Near the video's conclusion, a character emerges, briefly greets viewers, and then abruptly instructs them to search for a specific code.
Although the discovery of the hidden game thrilled many, excitement was momentarily dampened when the game's website was swapped out for a warning urging visitors not to hack into the system.
Bring Me The Horizon Hidden M8 Artificial Reality Game
Bring Me the Horizon, a British rock band formed in Sheffield in 2004, is celebrated for embedding hidden meanings, easter eggs, and clues in their music. With the release of their latest album, 'POST HUMAN: NeX GEn,' the band has notably deepened this practice, incorporating even more intricate layers of secrets into their songs.
In one of the music videos from this album, a character named 'M8' appears and begins to greet the viewer but is abruptly stopped by a 'fatal-error'. M8 then directs the viewer to find the 'serial number' located on the side of its head.
A curious listener appeared to have further analyzed the video segment in the video and discovered a hidden spectrogram containing a QR Code, sharing an image file on the rock band's subreddit.
Fans further discovered that the QR code led to the URL domain of a hidden clandestine hacking-themed website, containing the M8 Artificial Reality Game.
[caption id="attachment_72429" align="alignnone" width="233"] Source: /r/BringMeTheHorizon subreddit[/caption]
The M8 Artificial Reality domain then instructed users to enter a hidden serial code, which fans discovered through the use of several other clues. The site contained unreleased tracks, password-protected files, and various mysteries for fans to uncover.
[caption id="attachment_72432" align="alignnone" width="2800"] Source: multidimensionalnavigator8.help[/caption]
As news of the hidden website spread, fans swiftly set up a dedicated Discord server and collaborated using a Google Doc to unearth all the site’s secrets.
However, their excitement was brief. Hackers soon tried to extract further secrets from the website using unconventional methods, leading developers to temporarily shut down the site and issue a warning to fans.
Warnings Over Hacking Attempts
After the hacking attempts, cautionary messages from M8, the album's virtual guide, expressed dismay at the intrusion, stressing on how such actions undermined the spirit of collective exploration.
These messages were delivered through both the website which was temporarily replaced with the warning for 2 hours as well as through email.
[caption id="attachment_72445" align="alignnone" width="2800"] Source: archive.org[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_72448" align="alignnone" width="276"] Source: BringMeTheHorizon ARG Discord[/caption]
The developers appeared to indirectly condemn these attempts through the creative use of the M8 character, without specifying the nature of the intrusion or identifying the perpetrators.
Some fans however, upon receiving the email after their explorations, found the message warnings unexpected for what they believed were legitimate interactions.
The community believed that these selective few hackers ruined the experience for others, with it's discord server noting the downtime in it's FAQ.
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Bring Me The Horizon's foray into alternate reality gaming showcases the creative potential of digital media in music and album promotion. As fans continue to work together to unravel the remaining mysteries and solve the puzzles within the ARG, it remains to be seen what other surprises await them on the hidden website.
The hacking attempts and the subsequent warnings serves as a reminder that while ARGs can be an engaging and immersive experience, it is essential to respect the developers' intentions and play fair to ensure everyone can enjoy the journey together.
Media Disclaimer: This report is based on internal and external research obtained through various means. The information provided is for reference purposes only, and users bear full responsibility for their reliance on it. The Cyber Express assumes no liability for the accuracy or consequences of using this information.
They wanted to make money by selling cheating tools to Destiny 2 players. They may have ended up setting US legal precedent.
After a trial in federal court in Seattle last week, a jury found cheat-seller AimJunkies, along with its parent company Phoenix Digital and four of its employees and contractors, liable for copyright infringement and assigned damages to each of them. The jury split $63,210 in damages, with $20,000 to Phoenix Digital itself and just under $11,000 each to the four individuals. That's just under the $65,000 revenue the defendants claimed to have generated from 1,400 copies of its Destiny 2 cheats.
Bungie's case appears to have gone further than any other game-cheating suit has made it in the US court system. Because cheating at an online game is not, in itself, illegal, game firms typically lean on the anti-circumvention aspects of the 1998 Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). That's how the makers of Grand Theft Auto V, Overwatch, Rainbow Six, and Fortnite have pursued their cheat-making antagonists. Bungie, in taking their claim past settlement and then winning a copyright claim from a jury, has perhaps provided game makers a case to point to in future proceedings, and perhaps more incentive.
Enlarge/ But... but I was just about to check out Tacoma. (credit: Getty Images)
With Valve's Steam gaming platform approaching the US drinking age this year, more and more aging PC gamers may be considering what will happen to their vast digital game libraries after they die. Unfortunately, legally, your collection of hundreds of backlogged games will likely pass into the ether along with you someday.
The issue of digital game inheritability gained renewed attention this week as a ResetEra poster quoted a Steam support response asking about transferring Steam account ownership via a last will and testament. "Unfortunately, Steam accounts and games are non-transferable" the response reads. "Steam Support can't provide someone else with access to the account or merge its contents with another account. I regret to inform you that your Steam account cannot be transferred via a will."
This isn't the first time someone has asked this basic estate planning question, of course. Last year, a Steam forum user quoted a similar response from Steam support as saying, "Your account is yours and yours alone. Now you can share it with family members, but you cannot give it away."
Enlarge/ VideoCardz' leaked image of a ROG Ally X, seemingly having gone through the JPG blender a couple times. (credit: VideoCardz)
Asus' ROG Ally was the first major-brand attempt to compete with Valve's Steam Deck. It was beefy and interesting, but it had three major flaws: It ran Windows on a little touchscreen, had unremarkable ergonomics, and its battery life was painful.
The Asus ROG (Republic of Gamers) Ally X, which has been announced and is due out June 2, seems to have had its specs leaked, and they indicate a fix for at least the battery life. Gaming site VideoCardz, starting its leak reveal with "No more rumors," cites the ROG Ally X as having the same Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU as the prior ROG Ally, as well as the same 7-inch 1080p VRR screen with a 120 Hz refresh rate.
VideoCardz' leaked image, seemingly from Asus marketing materials, with the ROG Ally X's specifications. (credit: VideoCardz)
The battery and memory have changed substantially, though. An 80-watt-hour battery, up from 40, somehow adds just 70 grams of weight and about 5 mm of thickness to the sequel device. By increasing the RAM from 16GB to 24GB and making it LPDDR5, the ROG Ally X may be able to lend more of it to the GPU, upping performance somewhat without demanding a new chip or architecture. There is also a second USB-C port, with USB4 speeds, that should help quite a bit with docking, charging while playing with accessories, and, I would guess, Linux hackery.
You might feel like you’re years late to the game, but actually, you’re lucky: You’ve got eight years' worth of catching up to do, and the Switch library is one of the best in gaming history—particularly if you look beyond beloved first-party properties like Mario, Zelda, and Pokémon to the massive library of indie titles available for download with a single click. (And usually for a great price—especially if you wait for a good sale.)
Here are 25 of the best to get you started—from platformers, to puzzle games, to RPGs. And you’re only scratching the surface.
Animal Well
IGN rating: 9
This just-released puzzle platformer has already garnered rave reviews, if not instant classic status. It's an ingenious twist on the "metroidvania" format: You play as a nondescript blob wandering a darkened forest atmosphere, and your only goal (at first, anyway) is to figure out how to progress to the next screen by solving increasingly complex environmental puzzles. That all sounds simple (and familiar) enough, but what sets Animal Well apart is its singular atmosphere (the pixel graphics are deceptively simple), excellent and ever-changing play mechanics, and quirky sense of humor.
A cross between a role playing game and an interactive novel, Disco Elysium is as difficult to describe as it is to get out of your head once you've started wandering down its myriad winding narrative rabbit holes. You play as a detective who has lost your memory and must navigate a fictional seaside city still recovering from a war years in the past. Through conversations with NPCs that involving branching conversational choices, you come to learn more about your past and discover your place in a strange world where reality (or your sanity) are less than reliable. This isn't a game for people who love a lot of action and combat, but it is unmatched as an example of interactive storytelling.
Buy it digitally ($39.99) | Buy a physical copy ($25.50)
Pentiment
IGN rating: 10
Originally an Xbox exclusive, this unique role-playing game puts you in control of Andreas Maler, an artist in 16th-century Germany who becomes embroiled in a succession of murder mysteries that you can solve by investigating the possible subjects through exploration and conversations. The narrative is uniquely open, allowing you to weigh the evidence you collect to decide who to accuse of the crime—whether you think they did it, or you just think they are most deserving of being punished. All of this unfolds via gorgeous 2D graphics based on the style of medieval paintings, manuscripts, and woodcuts, giving the impression you're playing one of the protagonist's artworks come to life.
A standout success from the early days of indie console gaming, Braid has finally made its way to the Switch in an anniversary edition with significantly overhauled graphics but the same tried-and-true play mechanics. Braid is a puzzle-based platformer (or a platforming-based puzzler?) in which you play as a boy name Tim trying to save a princess, though the story is a lot more complex than it seems on the surface, with lots of text boxes that reveal the hero's inner thoughts and motivations. But that's all window dressing for the gameplay itself, which requires you to use a series of evolving time-manipulating mechanics to solve increasingly complex environmental puzzles. If it feels a little familiar in 2024, it's still a fantastic game.
If you grew up with the early '90s point-and-click adventures from companies like Sierra Games, you'll adore The Case of the Golden Idol, a throwback detective story in which you attempt to solve an archeological mystery spanning four decades by exploring crime scenes, collecting clues, and piecing together the story as you go. You can play in either "exploration" more, which unfolds like one of those aforementioned vintage point-and-click titles as you pore over moments "frozen" in time and across history; or "thinking" mode, which opens a menu of fill-in-the-blank sentences that allow you to add in words collected in exploration mode to uncover the game's backstory. (Confused? Here's a video that explains how it plays out.) This is a game that will test your wits and ask you to use deductive reasoning to figure out what's going on—it's more reflective than active, but still entirely satisfying.
Have you ever played Mega Man? Shovel Knight is kinda like that. Did you ever play Duck Tales? Shovel Knight is also kinda like that. You play as the titular warrior (guess what your weapon is) on a quest to save your best friend from a group of villains calling themselves the Order of No Quarter. As you progress through each of their themed stages, you’ll navigate unique terrain and perfect your skills—which you’ll need to defeat the boss at the end. And once you’ve finished playing as Shovel Knight, you can replay the game as one of the baddies (most of whom don’t turn out to be quite as evil as they seem). More than simple reskins, these are (almost) entirely new adventures with their own play mechanics and control quirks. I couldn’t stop playing until I had finished all four of them.
Buy it digitally ($39.99) | Buy a physical copy ($31.45)
Fez
IGN rating: 9.5
Fez is one of the most mind-expanding games I have ever played, a hybrid of platformer and puzzler in which you play a little dude living in a two-dimensional world who suddenly gains the ability to see in three dimensions. As a player, this means you have the ability to, with a tap of the shoulder button, rotate the world on its axis; when viewed from a different angle, platforms that once seemed out of reach are an easy jump away, and hidden doors are revealed around the back side of a tree trunk. You set off on a quest to explore your new, wider world—and to save it—and you’ll need to use your new abilities to their fullest if you want to figure out how to do it. There are no enemies to defeat, only interlocking levels to navigate and traverse between, and a handful of nigh-impossible puzzles to solve. There’s even an alien language you can learn to decode (or, if you value your sanity, you can just look up hints online). Also, the music totally slaps.
The gorgeous rhythm game-slash-interactive music video plays like a dream (because, conceptual spoiler alert, it kinda is one): You play a young woman chasing (or running from) a bunch of stylish baddies across forests and cityscapes, training your reflexes and tapping buttons at just the right moment in time to the synth pop soundtrack, which sounds like a whole album’s worth of Chvrches B-sides. If you just want to race through it, you can finish it in about two hours, but the gameplay and the tunes are so addictive you’ll be coming back again and again, stretching for that high score.
Buy it digitally ($12.99) | Buy a physical copy ($24.99)
The Messenger
IGN rating: 8
Like Shovel Knight,The Messenger takes one of the best games of the ‘80s and betters it by fixing everything that was broken or frustrating about it. This time, the original model being iterated upon is Ninja Gaiden, a classic NES platformer in which you play as a ninja fighting to avenge the death of his father by jumping, flipping, climbing walls, and stabbing a countless number of infinitely generating enemies. It was one of my favorite games as a kid (I was so into the story I even read the novelization), but I was never good enough to beat it, even with the help of a Game Genie, because it’s fiendishly difficult. The Messenger offers basically the same gameplay, but with helpful additions like more frequent save points and the ability to enhance your armor and weapons. Sure, it’s easier, but it’s hardly easy—and the kooky storyline, rife with self-aware humor commenting on the inherent absurdity of gaming in general, only makes it better.
The product of a single developer, Joakim Sandberg, Iconoclasts has all the platforming polish of a game produced with a big team, but the idiosyncratic quirks that suggest a singular vision at work. You play as a young engineer in a techno-dystopian world where mechanical know-how is outlawed and the ruling class controls access to energy-supplying “ivory” with literally religious fervor. OK, so the story is a bit of a head-scratcher (I’ve finished the game and barely understand it), but the gameplay is absolutely fantastic: A Mega Man-influenced Metroidvania in which you use your stun gun and wrench to blast and whack enemies and solve complex environmental puzzles. I loved every minute of it.
If you love Zelda-likes, Death’s Door is one of my favorites, and was one of the best games of 2021. In this isometric adventure, you play as a soul-collecting crow in the employ of Death himself. When your latest reaping goes wrong, you become an unwitting investigator into a vast conspiracy that spans life and death as you make your way through three dungeons to collect enough soul power to open “death’s door.” The game offers a marvelous mix of exploration and combat—perhaps a bit too much of the latter; unless you’re a lot better than I am, you’ll need to grind your way through scores of regular baddies to upgrade your spells, defenses, and weapons until you are strong enough to take on the big bosses. But the oddball humor, quirky characters, and melancholy atmosphere will make doing so a pleasure.
Buy it digitally ($19.99) | Buy a physical copy ($19.99)
Celeste
IGN rating: 10
Celeste is a breathless platformer in which you play a young woman facing fears both literal and metaphorical as she climbs to the summit of a mystical mountain. There’s not much more to the story than that, yet this award-winning game has one of the most affecting narratives I’ve ever experienced, probably because making my way to the emotional ending involved powering my way through some of the well-designed, punishingly difficult, yet somehow never frustrating platforming I’ve ever experienced. The game is built on a single, deceivingly simple mechanic—your character’s ability to string together multiple jumps before your stamina drops and forces you to touch solid ground again—that you’ll have to master with precision if you hope to make it to the summit. Best of all, if you ever get stuck, the game allows you to access a deep menu of accessibility options that can help you across a rough patch. (Though I found finally clearing a screen after dozens of deaths or more—my total death count for the entire game was in the thousands—so satisfying, I never turned them on.)
Buy it digitally ($19.99) | Buy a physical copy ($34.99)
Hades
IGN review: 9
This is tops on every list of the best indie games of the past decade, and with good reason. You play as Zagreus, a child of Hades (yes, that one), on a hopeless quest to fight off the endless hordes of hell, escape the underworld, and reunite with your mother on Earth. And when I say hopeless, I mean it: By design, you’re going to die a lot playing this game (repeated failure being a hallmark of the “rogue lite” genre; each time you die, you’ll carry over some of your strength, loot, and experience to the next run). While a game designed to kill you over and over and over and over might sound like a slog, Hades makes it fun as, each time you set out to be slaughtered, you’ll suck a little less, and progress a little farther. And that’s not even taking into account the fantastic story, which develops slowly over time as you talk with (and occasionally slaughter) your fellow citizens of hell; the narrative is unparalleled for the genre, presented with pitch-perfect voice acting and memorable character designs.
Buy it digitally ($24.99) | Buy a physical copy ($29.99)
Cuphead
IGN review: 8.8
If Hades didn’t turn you into a glutton for punishment, Cuphead will finish the job. It’s a “run and gun” shooter in which you play as a guy with a cup for a head. (Just go with it—the game’s old time-y cartoon visuals and humor are half of the fun, and even spawned an animated Netflix series). You’ve accidentally sold your soul to the devil, and you have to work for him as a bounty hunter if you want to get it back. This entails taking on 16 bosses (90% of the game is boss fights), each more frenetic than the last. As you progress, you can upgrade your weapons and gain more health, and you’ll probably need it: Claiming each boss’s soul requires quick reflexes, a good memory for patterns, and a lot of determination—before I hit a wall after a dozen or so victories, I’d died something like 300 times. It’s the hardest game I’ve ever played.
If you prefer a puzzle game that will put you in a Zen state (or maybe activate your OCD), this recent release is a winner. Each of its many puzzles presents you with a scene of objects in disarray—a messy toolbox, or an overcrowded bookshelf. It’s up to you to decide how to put them back in order. How you go about it will depend on how your brain works, and what says “organized” to you; every puzzle has multiple solutions, and finding one that works is like scratching an itch—entirely satisfying, until it triggers another itch a little to the left.
I don’t know how to describe this game, and watching the video above is probably only marginally helpful. But basically, you are an undead demon assassin guy and you have to make your way through hundreds of precariously designed levels as quickly as possible by using the powers granted to you by a mountain of weapons, which you activate by burning through a deck of playing cards, in the hopes of winning a place in heaven. Sacrificing a particular gun/card will grant you a special move, from an extra jump to a burst of smashing speed, to help you traverse the hazardous terrain. The point is to finish as fast as you can. No, I don’t understand it either, and I’ve already played it. But once you’ve oriented yourself, it’s a good time—and the story is fun too.
Buy it digitally ($24.99) | Buy a physical copy ($39.99)
Golf Story
IGN rating: 7.5
A chill RPG built around golf was not exactly on my list of must-haves when I got my Switch, and yet here we are. You play a determined golfer who has one last shot at living out their dreams of glory on the greens—but doing so will mean exploring, traversing, and conquering eight unique courses that mimic the sort of lands you’d venture through on a traditional fantasy adventure. It’s just that this time, instead of battle monsters and summoning demons to fight battles for you, you’re teeing off and perfecting your putt—in between side quests you can take on to help out the weird characters you meet along the way. Because while you might not expect much in the way of plot from an ostensible sports game, this one isn’t kidding about the word “Story” in the title. This one is packed with funky humor and otherworldly vibes that will appeal to Earthbound fans. Stardew who?
OK, fine. I’ll mention this one too; Stardew Valley is ostensibly a farming sim, but it’s so much deeper than that. It’s a game you can basically play forever. As Brendan Hesse put it on this site:
Players sew and grow crops, mine for ore, fish, and even battle monsters in the surrounding wilderness, then sell their harvests to upgrade their homes and tools. Along with the farming sim and light action-RPG gameplay, you also venture into town to mingle with the townsfolk, taking on errands and side-quests for them. You can even date and marry several of the characters.
Developed by just one guy, who goes by the moniker ConcernedApe, this game has made its creator something like $30 million, and he deserves every penny of it.
Buy it digitally ($14.99) | Buy a physical copy ($36.80)
Cave Story
IGN rating: 8.5
Don’t let Cave Story’s super simple graphics fool you—this game is no relic of the 8-bit era, but a loving tribute to (and arguable improvement upon) old school adventure platformers like Metroid and Castlevania—and, like Stardew Valley and Iconoclasts, it was developed and programmed over five years by a single game designer, Daisuke Amaya. You play as a robot that has lost his memory, and you must travel through an underground landscape seeking an escape, and to solve the mystery of your origins along the way. Controls that seem stiff at first eventually reveal themselves to be perfectly calibrated as you upgrade your weapons and obtain new equipment that will soon have you zipping your way back through areas that kicked your ass the first time through.
A “choose your own path” interactive narrative in which you play as a 1930s actress whose star is fading—a passenger on a cruise ship a few hours out of port in New York City whose husband has gone missing...because you pushed him overboard during the night. It’s up to you to navigate the ship, and your conversations with your fellow passengers, such that your crime remains undetected until you disembark. With an arch sense of humor and a branching narrative that allows multiple paths to victory, it’s the cozy interactive mystery you didn’t know you were missing.
Buy it digitally ($14.99) | Buy a physical copy ($26.99, also includes 80 Days)
Untitled Goose Game
IGN rating: 8
In this game, you play as a curious goose with a penchant for creating havoc in and around a formerly idyllic village community. As you waddle around from place to place, you are given checklists of random tasks to complete, from collecting an entire place setting from an outdoor restaurant to locking a hapless gardener out of his yard. Figuring out how to complete them requires creativity and a grasp of cause-and-effect logic bordering on the absurd. And when that gets too frustrating, you can take a breather and run around honking at children and stealing a shopkeeper’s wares. It’s pure chaos with feathers.
Buy it digitally ($19.99) | Buy a physical copy ($22.49)
What Remains of Edith Finch
IGN rating: 8.8
A somber, rewarding psychological journey, What Remains of Edith Finch is a interactive narrative in which you explore the broken history of a family across generations, the story unfolding in episodic chapters as you explore the family home. It might be a stretch to call it a game, as you mostly progress through it in a straightforward manner, without getting caught up on any obstacles along the way, but meandering around the estate under your own steam gives the haunted story—possibly involving a family curse that has claimed one generation after another—a truly immersive quality.
A decidedly lo-fi puzzler that wears its grainy aesthetic like a badge of honor, The Return of the Obra Dinn is an atmospheric first-person detective game that takes you aboard the titular vessel, which has returned from a journey minus all of its passengers. It’s up to you to explore the ship and find out everything you can about who was aboard it and what happened to them. In defiance of video game cliche, there are no light up arrows or glowing objects to guide your investigation, meaning you’ll have to be both creative and thorough in your search to solve the mystery of what befell the ship.
This game was a lifesaver after I finished Death’s Door and was desperate for another, similar experience. Like that earlier game of the year contender, Tunic is a Zelda-esque adventure starring a small, adorable animal who sets off on a magical quest that’s pure vibes (when it isn’t maddeningly tough combat and complex puzzle-solving). The quirky twist here is that all of the in-game signs and speech are printed in an incomprehensible non-language, which means you have to work extra hard to figure out how to navigate the land and clear the many roadblocks standing in your way. It can be frustrating at first, but once you get the hang of it, the game cracks open and becomes a truly satisfying action-adventure experience—familiar, but wholly different.
Buy it digitally ($29.99) | Buy a physical copy ($44.99)
Hollow Knight
IGN review: 9.4
Left off of the original version of this list and its absence pointed out in the comments (as expected), Hollow Knight is one of the most successful and fanatically worshipped indie games of recent years, and deservedly so. It’s a sprawling Metroidvania adventure in which you play a cute little bone knight exploring a post-apocalyptic world in search of his past, facing impossibly complex environmental puzzles and fiendishly difficult combat. With an artful aesthetic that seems like a cross between Tim Burton and classic Disney animation, it’s truly worth getting lost in (which is good, because finishing it will take you dozens of hours).
Buy it digitally ($14.99) | Buy a physical copy ($34.99)
This article was originally published in December 2022 and updated in May 2024 to add new context, additional titles, as well as score ratings and links to IGN reviews.
It has been a tumultuous run for Netflix's popular adaptation of The Witcher novels and games. A series of setbacks and controversies led to a long delay after the show lost its star, Henry Cavill. Now a brief season four teaser gives us our first look at Cavill's replacement in the role of Geralt of Rivia, Liam Hemsworth.
The video above reveals little about the direction for the season beyond establishing that, yes, Hemsworth is now Geralt, and here's what it looks like. He looks the part, though it's hard for some fans to imagine him matching Cavill's pitch-perfect presence and delivery for the character.
See, Cavill is famously a passionate gamer. He's talked at length about his deep fandom of Warhammer 40K, his experiences playing World of Warcraft, and yes, his experiences with 2015's immensely popular open-world RPG The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. He even has appeared in a video building a gaming PC.
Reverse-engineering tools, rising jailbreaking activities, and the surging use of AI and ML to enhance malware development were among the worrying trends in a recent report.
AI and ML are making life easier for developers. They’re also making life easier for threat actors.
Enlarge/ "Look, everybody! It's the one thing that ties the whole story together! And it's pointing us toward this legacy dungeon, inside which must surely lie safety and salvation. Let us go forth." (credit: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
There are lots of ways to enjoy Elden Ring, beyond the core attack/dodge/survive gameplay. You can obsess over builds, appreciate the mastery of speedrunners and grand masters like Let Me Solo Her, or mix and match the huge variety of armor in pursuit of Fashion Souls. And then there is lore. There is so much of it, and most of it has the consistency of campfire smoke.
Elden Ring tells its backstory (written in part by George R.R. Martin) primarily through item descriptions and environmental hints. The scraps of narrative that do exist stand unsteadily against unreliable narrators, contradictions, cut content, and lovably enthusiastic fans who take small hints to their illogical extremes. Developer FromSoftware and primary creator Hidetaka Miyazaki do almost nothing to disprove misunderstandings or reward accurate conclusions, although they appreciate the energy. Miyazaki will just casually tell IGN that there's a "small element" that hasn't been discovered, offer nothing more on that, and leave fans like me craven with an unmet need for conclusion.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree story trailer.
I love this and cherish the way FromSoftware will never in my lifetime confirm my hopes or expectations. So with the surprise arrival of an honest-to-goodness story-based trailer for the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, due out June 21, I was given yet another feast of vague notions and evocative images.
Enlarge/ In the recent past, you'd have to rely on your kid sibling to deliver Minecraft commentary like "Oh no, it's a zombie. Run!" (credit: Microsoft)
Longtime gamers (and/or Game Grumps fans) likely know that even single-player games can be a lot more fun with a friend hanging out nearby to offer advice, shoot the breeze, or just offer earnest reactions to whatever's happening on screen. Now, Microsoft is promising that its GhatGPT-4o-powered Copilot system will soon offer an imitation of that pro-social experience even for Minecraft players who don't have any human friends available to watch them play.
In a pair of social media posts Monday, Microsoft highlighted how "real-time conversations with your AI companion copilot" can enhance an otherwise solitary Minecraft experience. In the first demo, the disembodied copilot voice tells the player how to craft a sword, walking him through the process of gathering some wood or stone to go with the sticks sitting in his inventory. In another, the AI identifies a zombie in front of the player and gives the (seemingly obvious) advice to run away from the threat and "make sure it can't reach you" by digging underground or building a tower of blocks.
Real time conversations with your AI companion Copilot, powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o. pic.twitter.com/Ug7EWv2sah
These kinds of in-game pointers aren't the most revolutionary use of conversational AI—even a basic in-game tutorial/reference system or online walkthrough could deliver the same basic information, after all. Still, the demonstration stands out for just how that information is delivered to the player through a natural language conversation that doesn't require pausing the gameplay even briefly.
TCL's proof-of-concept panel is all the more impressive for not sacrificing resolution in the name of its high frame rate—many current 480 Hz monitors tend to top out at 1080p resolutions or offer "dual mode" options for higher resolutions at lower maximum refresh rates. And while recent advancements in pixel-flipping times have enabled TCL's LCD prototype, Blur Busters estimates that 1,000 Hz OLED displays could be commercialized as soon as 2027.
The apparent impending breaking of the four-digit refresh rate threshold got us thinking: Are we finally approaching a point of diminishing returns in monitor-makers' long-running battle of the Hz? Or is 1,000 Hz just the latest stepping stone to realms of motion smoothness yet unimagined by most gamers?
You can get Fallout 76 for Xbox One or Series X|S on sale for $5.99 right now (reg. $69.99). Play solo or multiplayer online in the biggest world map yet and explore the prequel to the other Fallout games where nuclear war hasn’t yet hit the world. You can make a new Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform (CAMP) settlement, solve mysteries, and complete limited-time challenges to earn digital prizes. To play online, you need an Xbox Live account and a Game Pass Core or Ultimate subscription (sold separately).
You can get a Fallout 76 CD key for Xbox One or Series X|S on sale for $5.99 right now (reg. $69.99), though prices can change at any time.
Enlarge/ Battles get a wee bit involved as you go on in Songs of Conquest. (credit: Coffee Stain Publishing)
There are games for which I have great admiration, pleasant memories, and an entirely dreadful set of skills and outcomes. Heroes of Might & Magic III (or HoMM 3) has long been one of those games.
I have played it on just about every PC I've owned, ever since it chipped away at my college GPA. I love being tasked with managing not only heroes, armies, resources, villages, and battlefield positioning but also time itself. If you run around the map clicking to discover every single power-up and resource pile, using up turn after turn, you will almost certainly let your enemy grow strong enough to conquer you. But I do this, without fail. I get halfway into a campaign and the (horse cart) wheels fall off, so I set the game aside until the click-to-move-the-horsey impulse comes back.
With the release of Songs of Conquest in 1.0 form on PC today (Steam, GOG, Epic), I feel freed from this loop of recurrent humbling. This title from Lavapotion and Coffee Stain Publishing very much hits the same pleasure points of discovery and choice as HoMM 3. But Songs of Conquest has much easier onboarding, modern resolutions, interfaces that aren't too taxing (to the point of being Verified on Steam Deck), and granular difficulty customization. More importantly for most, it has its own stories and ideas. If you love fiddling with stuff turn by turn, it's hard to imagine you won't find something in Songs of Conquest to hook you.
About the "research" link:
"Lying and deception are important parts of social interaction; when applied to storytelling mediums such as video games, such elements can add complexity and intrigue. We developed a game, "AlphaBetaCity", in which non-playable characters (NPCs) made various false statements, and used this game to investigate perceptions of deceptive behaviour. We used a mix of human-written dialogue incorporating deliberate falsehoods and LLM-written scripts with (human-approved) hallucinated responses. The degree of falsehoods varied between believable but untrue statements to outright fabrications. 29 participants played the game and were interviewed about their experiences. Participants discussed methods for developing trust and gauging NPC truthfulness. Whereas perceived intentional false statements were often attributed towards narrative and gameplay effects, seemingly unintentional false statements generally mismatched participants' mental models and lacked inherent meaning. We discuss how the perception of intentionality, the audience demographic, and the desire for meaning are major considerations when designing video games with falsehoods."
Yin, M., Wang, E., Ng, C., & Xiao, R. (2024, May). Lies, Deceit, and Hallucinations: Player Perception and Expectations Regarding Trust and Deception in Games. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-15).
Enlarge/ The RetroArch app installed in tvOS. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)
Apple’s initial pitch for the tvOS and the Apple TV as it currently exists was centered around apps. No longer a mere streaming box, the Apple TV would also be a destination for general-purpose software and games, piggybacking off of the iPhone's vibrant app and game library.
That never really panned out, and the Apple TV is still mostly a box for streaming TV shows and movies. But the same App Store rule change that recently allowed Delta, PPSSPP, and other retro console emulators onto the iPhone and iPad could also make the Apple TV appeal to people who want a small, efficient, no-fuss console emulator for their TVs.
So far, few of the emulators that have made it to the iPhone have been ported to the Apple TV. But earlier this week, the streaming box got an official port of RetroArch, the sprawling collection of emulators that runs on everything from the PlayStation Portable to the Raspberry Pi. RetroArch could be sideloaded onto iOS and tvOS before this, but only using awkward workarounds that took a lot more work and know-how than downloading an app from the App Store.
Enlarge/ Valve has its own canon of games full of artifacts and concepts worth emulating, as seen in a 2018 tour of its offices. (credit: Sam Machkovech)
"Basically, fast-paced interesting ADHD gameplay. Combination of Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, Valorant, Smite, Orcs Must Die."
That's how notable Valve leaker "Gabe Follower" describesDeadlock, a Valve game that is seemingly in playtesting at the moment, for which a few screenshots have leaked out.
The game has been known as "Neon Prime" and "Citadel" at prior points. It's a "Competitive third-person hero-based shooter," with six-on-six battles across a map with four "lanes." That allows for some of the "Tower defense mechanics" mentioned by Gabe Follower, along with "fast travel using floating rails, similar to Bioshock Infinite." The maps reference a "modern steampunk European city (little bit like Half-Life)," after "bad feedback" about a sci-fi theme pushed the development team toward fantasy.
Since the launch of Android in 2008, Apple’s iOS has lagged significantly behind its Google-powered competition in one respect: retro gaming. While some companies, particularly Final Fantasy creator Square Enix, regularly bring their older games to the App Store via official mobile ports, the best fans of Sonic or Mario used to be able to get through the App Store were freemium games like Sonic Dash or Super Mario Run.
Sometimes, you want something a little meatier. And Android fans would agree—since the platform’s launch, it’s been open to game emulators, which can mimic old consoles using software to play games from the ‘80s, ‘90s, and in some cases the ‘00s and beyond.
As Apple gears up the iPhone to be a modern gaming powerhouse with fully functional versions of games like Resident Evil Village, it seems like the company is finally ready to address this blind spot. Emulators can be tricky for relations with game publishers, even if they’re technically legal, but in an update on April 5, Apple finally changed its rules to allow them on the App Store, provided they don’t distribute copyright-infringing material.
Since then, a small but dedicated group of developers has stepped up to bring retro gaming to the most popular mobile platform in the US. Here are the best game emulators for iPhone—and best of all, they’re all free.
RetroArch is the most powerful emulation program on the App Store, but technically, it’s not an emulator at all. Instead, it’s a front end for running various emulation "cores" distributed by other developers. Think of RetroArch like a menu, where each core is a different console you can pick off the menu and then customize to your liking.
Because of all these options, it can be a little confusing to navigate. RetroArch’s interface is bare-bones, and while it can be dressed up with various themes, it will still sometimes dump dozens of concepts on a page at once while doing little to explain them.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt/Lifehacker
The upside is that, right from when you download it off the App Store, you’ll be able to play games from a list of 70+ consoles, including popular mainstays like the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation 1. Most will work out of the box, but some might require a BIOS (or operating system) file, or at least suggest adding one or two for added compatibility.
That’s the rub with emulators: They can’t distribute information protected by copyright, so you’ll need to provide it yourself. Emulation enthusiasts assure that making backup files of games you own is legal according to U.S. law, although the practice has yet to face much legal scrutiny.
But RetroArch makes it more difficult to load up your own files than most competing programs. Rather than picking from a list of games, all displayed with pretty box art, the general process is to Open RetroArch, select Load Core, pick the system you want to play (there might be multiple cores for each system, with varying levels of performance and accuracy to original hardware between them), click Load Content, then click Open and select your game from your file browser.
That’s a lot to do every time you want to play a game, and might require you to do some research beforehand about which core to use. And there’s more—once you get into a game, there’s dozens of settings to tweak, including “Frame Throttle” and “Latency.”
For the most part, you can ignore these, but while you can mitigate the pain with features like Favorites and Playlists, it can still be a little overwhelming.
Enthusiasts are sure to love the granular control, though, as setting can even be set on a per-core basis. Everyone else can at least be assured that there’s easy access to basics like touch controls and save states (which can save a game anywhere, separate from its in-game save function) while you’re playing, which you can do in either portrait or landscape mode.
RetroArch is the best choice to get the most tweaks and consoles at your fingertips, and is worth a download just as a backup, since it might be the only way to play certain games. But if you’re looking for something more user-friendly, there are other options.
Delta was the first emulator to really take off on the App Store, and functions like a stripped-down but more user-friendly version of RetroArch. It also supports a number of cores, but only one for each console, and for just a select number of mostly older systems.
These include the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo, the Nintendo 64, the Game Boy Color, the Game Boy Advance, and the Sega Genesis. Again, you’ll need to provide game files yourself, and in the case of the DS, BIOS files.
But once you’ve gone through those steps, setup is much simpler than in RetroArch. You simply need to add a game to Delta’s main menu once, through a + icon in the top-right corner that will let you browse either iTunes or your files, and Delta will add it to a menu for the appropriate console, complete with box art.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt/Lifehacker
From there, just click on the game’s icon and it’ll boot up. You’ll see touch controls that will work in both portrait and landscape mode, and have access to basic functions like save states and a “hold button,” which can keep a specific button continually held down when you play (useful for games like Super Mario World).
In the app’s settings menu, you’ll also be able to add cheat codes, change the opacity of the touch controls, and even connect to a DropBox or Google Drive folder to load games from there.
It’s generally a smoother experience, and frankly, it's also cuter. Delta has a very Gamecube-purple color across all its menus, and the touch controls for each system come with great theming, which you can also swap out for custom options if you want.
If all you want to do is play old Nintendo games, Delta might be your best bet, as it’s similar to Retroarch but doesn’t require a computer engineering degree to use.
PPSSPP is actually available in Retroarch as a core, but if all you want to do is play PSP games, it’s your best bet.
That’s because it’ll give you everything Retroarch does, but like Delta, comes with an interface that’s simpler to navigate.
The catch is that it only works in landscape mode, but since PSP games are widescreen anyway, that’s probably want you’ll want to use regardless.
The UI here isn’t as clean as Delta's, but it still offers a simpler basic process than RetroArch (and the menu is cute too, since it resembles an actual PSP menu). To play a game, just open the app, click Load, and browse your files for your game. PPSSPP will add it to the Games menu, and after playing it, it will show up in the Recent menu for later use.
Once in a game, click the ^ arrow at the top of the screen for save states as well as more advanced options that you can set per game. Like with RetroArch, there’s some real vocab here, like “Disable culling” and “Skip GPU Readbacks,” but you can generally ignore these, and experts will like the extra options.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt/Lifehacker
The only real flaw with the app is that it’s not as powerful as on other systems, since Apple’s coding restrictions have prevented developer Henrik Rydgård from adding in features like RetroAchievements and Vulkan graphics support. In a blog post, Rydgård said he was working on bringing these back, but that performance might always lag behind the version of the app on other systems, as Apple doesn’t allow the Just-in-Time recompilers that can help retranslate code for smoother play.
Still, given the power behind modern Apple devices, this shouldn’t be a problem for most. The biggest problem I had when playing Mega Man Maverick Hunter X was the touch controls, but as with all other emulators on this list, you can use an external controller instead if you wish.
Note that you will eventually see a paid version of PPSSPP on the App Store, but if it’s like past PPSSPP releases, it won’t come with any extra features. Instead, buying it is just a way to support Rydgård’s work.
Gamma is a hard sell, but if you really don’t want to deal with RetroArch, it might be a good choice for you. It’s another single purpose emulator, this time for PS1 games, and it generally works like Delta. In fact, while talking to The Verge, Delta developer Riley Testut said Gamma is based on his work, with permission.
It should be a slam dunk, with a similar easy setup process that just involves pressing a + in the top right corner, adding the game file, and automatically having it populate a list with included box art. There’s even a service for linking to a Dropbox or Google Drive folder, plus the ability to use various skins with the touch controller. Gamma can also play without a BIOS, though adding one can improve performance.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt/Lifehacker
The problem is the ads. When booting a game and while idling on the main menu, Gamma will play ads that can last up to a minute, and it just completely kills momentum. The app will also ask to track your activity when you first load it up, which can be a little frightening.
There’s a way around this, which requires turning off wifi and network data while using Gamma. But that’s a lot to do just to play games from the ‘90s.
What emulators aren’t on iOS?
Even with these four options, iOS still lags behind Android when it comes to emulation. RetroArch, as complicated as it may be, covers most bases, but systems like PS2, Gamecube, Wii and even Nintendo Switch are still unrepresented on the device, even as they’re playable elsewhere.
We might never see these systems come to iPhone, thanks to the limitations pointed out by Rydgård, but with general support up to PSP, alongside ports of modern AAA games like Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, the iPhone is in stronger contention to be the best gaming phone than ever before.
In recent years, we've reported on multiple efforts to reverse-engineer Nintendo 64 games into fully decompiled, human-readable C code that can then become the basis for full-fledged PC ports. While the results can be impressive, the decompilation process can take years of painstaking manual effort, meaning only the most popular N64 games are likely to get the requisite attention from reverse engineers.
Now, a newly released tool promises to vastly reduce the amount of human effort needed to get basic PC ports of most (if not all) N64 games. The N64 Recompiled project uses a process known as static recompilation to automate huge swaths of the labor-intensive process of drawing C code out of N64 binaries.
While human coding work is still needed to smooth out the edges, project lead Mr-Wiseguy told Ars that his recompilation tool is "the difference between weeks of work and years of work" when it comes to making a PC version of a classic N64 title. And parallel work on a powerful N64 graphic renderer means PC-enabled upgrades like smoother frame rates, resolution upscaling, and widescreen aspect ratios can be added with little effort.
The Nintendo Switch 2 rumor mill seems to have been churning almost since the Switch originally launched, yet for the last seven years, Nintendo has been mostly silent on the issue. The company did recently break its silence on its plan for its newest console, but, surprise: It still didn't reveal much.
With a lack of any official intel, it's easy to dismiss any new claims as mere speculation. Still, I think some Switch 2 rumors are more solid than others, and may actually give us a glimpse into what Nintendo has planned for what is possibly the most anticipated new console in years.
Nintendo confirms the Switch 2's existence
The best rumors aren't rumors at all: On Tuesday, May 7, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa posted on X (formerly Twitter), revealing the company would, "make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year."
That doesn't tell us much, but it is the first time the company has publicly acknowledged the existence of the Switch 2. Plus, we now have some timeline for some official Switch news: By the end of this fiscal year, we'll get at least a glimpse into what Nintendo is planning for its newest console.
If the original Switch is any indicator, we may get quite a bit of information on the initial announcement: The Switch's first reveal video showed off its now-famous ability to "switch" from TV to handheld mode, as well as its ease as a portable multiplayer machine. Hopefully, any Switch 2 news offers us at least the same level of insight.
Rumors with a bit of credibility
Last month, writer Ramón Varela dropped a breakout piece for Spanish outlet Vandal that included several claims that hadn't circulated before. Those claims were then corroborated and expanded upon by Mobapad, a company that makes Switch controllers and accessories.
While all rumors should be taken with a grain of salt (and a massive one at that), there is reason to put stock in Vandal's reporting. The outlet's piece on the "Switch Pro" in 2021 actually got many of the details correct, for what turned out to be the Switch OLED. While Vandal was incorrect in predicting the Switch OLED would output 4K when connected to a TV, it accurately reported Nintendo would increase the display size without increasing the size of the console, and that the company would use an OLED panel for the display rather than an LCD. It also correctly claimed the upgraded stand would resemble a Microsoft Surface's stand, and that the dock would have USB 3.0 ports, as well as an ethernet port.
That's not to say you can expect every claim in Vandal's latest report to be true. But it's good to know the rumors aren't coming from a source with zero credibility, and it certainly helps that a Switch accessory maker can back some of them up.
Old Joy-Cons, new connections
The rail design of the current Switch Joy-Cons is iconic: You align the Joy-Con's rail with the corresponding rail on the Switch, then slide and click it into place (hence, the Switch's famous "click" sound effect).
For the Switch 2, it seems likely Nintendo is sticking with a similar Joy-Con design, which makes sense: Detachable controllers are a fun way to make a portable console instantly multiplayer—although I hope they've figured out a way to prevent stick drift going forward. However, one big difference is the new Joy-Cons may connect with magnets, rather than by rail. Vandal doesn't share many details about how this magnetic tech actually works, but Mobapad says they're made with "magnetic suction" and use an electrical current. Perhaps there's some type of locking mechanism that clicks into place once the magnets do, similar to the locking system in the current Switch.
In any case, switching to a magnetic connection rather from a rails option would likely mean your old Joy-Cons wouldn't be fully compatible with the Switch 2, unless Nintendo or a third-party made magnetic rail attachments for them. That said, Mobapad believes the current Joy-Cons will be compatible at least via Bluetooth, and both outlets think the existing Pro Controller will be as well.
Mobapad also says the Joy-Con buttons are getting an upgrade. The SL and SR buttons are supposedly going to be metal, and Nintendo is adding a third button to each of the Joy-Cons. In addition, there will be a new function button below the HOME button on the right controller.
Vandal says that the latest rumors don't definitively say one way or another whether the Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with original Switch games, but report that manufacturers "believe and assume" that the console will be backwards compatible.
I'm with the manufacturers here: If Switch 2 isn't backwards compatible, that sounds like a disaster for Nintendo. The Switch was the first Nintendo console since the GameCube that wasn't backwards compatible with the generation before it. (It would've been difficult to fit a Wii U disc in the Switch's cartridge slot anyway.) But seeing as the Switch 2 is a likely spiritual successor to the OG Switch, it would be silly to expect customers to upgrade to the latest console generation without an option to play their existing Switch library.
Nintendo, you already made us buy all the best Wii U games as Switch ports. Please don't make us do it again.
Beefier hardware
Specifics on hardware specs are still pretty hard to come by in the Switch 2 rumor mill, but we do know the Nvidia is likely to be involved. An unnamed source told Reuters back in February that Nintendo was planning to use a custom Nvidia chip for the Switch 2, while a previous Vandal report indicates Nintendo is planning to use an Nvidia chip based on the GeForce RTX 30 series. If rumors are to be believed, this chip is known as the T239, a customized version of the existing T234 chip.
Vandal believes the hardware will support DLSS (deep learning super scaling), which uses AI to create upscaled frames, and that the Switch 2 will support ray tracing, a modern lighting technique that produces realistic lighting environments. These changes, plus a rumored 4K output, would definitely put the Switch 2 well above the original in the graphics department. And if outlet Centro LEAKS is to be believed, the Switch could also launch with 12GB of RAM. (Centro corroborates many of Vandal's leaks, as well.)
Even if we had the exact hardware specs in-hand, we wouldn't know for sure how powerful the Switch 2 really could be. That's because Nintendo will likely underclock the chip to balance the system's power with its portability, as it does the current Switch. If Nintendo allowed us to use the SoC's full potential, it would likely drain the battery too quickly and overheat the system. You can overclock your Switch, improving performance in demanding games like Tears of the Kingdom, but it isn't recommended.
All that to say, it's safe to assume the Switch 2 will increase the graphical performance of the current Switch, but the difference will not necessarily be seismic, especially if you're coming from a Sony or Microsoft console, or even the possible PS5 Pro. But Nintendo has never prioritized having the best quality graphics: As long as the next-generation of Nintendo's IP looks and plays great, and there continues to be support from third-party developers on the platform, the Switch 2 will do what it's supposed to.
Games should look good in handheld mode, too: Mobapad says the system will come with an 8-inch display, larger than even the 7-inch display on the Switch OLED. and 1080p resolution. All current Switches have a 720p display, so even though the Switch 2 won't run at 4K in handheld mode, it should look crisper than anything we've seen so far. That said, many outlets, including Centro, believe the Switch 2's display will be LCD, not OLED. That's a bit surprising:
The Switch 2 is likely not coming this year
If you're waiting to pick up an OLED Switch because you think the Switch 2 is right around the corner, you might be waiting a while longer. Vandal and other sources believe Nintendo is planning on a early 2025 launch, which would put the gap between console generations at eight years. That would track with Furukawa's promise of an announcement by end of this fiscal year.
Vandal says that accessory manufacturers believe Nintendo is waiting until they have a larger catalog of games for the Switch 2 before launch, which isn't a bad strategy: Nintendo launched the 3DS without enough killer games, and it tanked the handheld's first year. (It was also too expensive, but that's a story for another day.)
Whatever's Nintendo's reasoning for holding off on the Switch 2, it likely won't be on shelves in the immediate future, or in time for the holidays. If you've been holding out, you're missing out on a lot of great games, so unless you're OK waiting up to another year, you may want to pick up a Switch.
So far, this is nothing out of the ordinary. But near the bottom of the boilerplate, the listing notes that "this title has been converted from the PlayStation 2 version to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 consoles and provides newly added features [emphasis added]." That's a marked difference from earlier "PS2 on PS4" downloadable releases, which only say that they were "converted from the original PlayStation 2 version to the PS4 system."
Ars Technica AI Reporter and tech historian Benj Edwards has co-written a book on the Virtual Boy with Dr. Jose Zagal. In this exclusive excerpt, Benj and Jose take you back to Nintendo of the early '90s, where a unique 3D display technology captured the imagination of legendary designer Gunpei Yokoi and set the stage for a daring, if ultimately ill-fated, foray into the world of stereoscopic gaming.
A full list of references can be found in the book.
Nearly 30 years after the launch of the Virtual Boy, not much is publicly known about how, exactly, Nintendo came to be interested in developing what would ultimately become its ill-fated console. Was Nintendo committed to VR as a future for video games and looking for technological solutions that made business sense? Or was the Virtual Boy primarily the result of Nintendo going “off script” and seizing a unique, and possibly risky, opportunity that presented itself? The answer is probably a little bit of both.
As it turns out, the Virtual Boy was not an anomaly in Nintendo’s history with video game platforms. Rather, it was the result of a deliberate strategy that was consistent with Nintendo’s way of doing things and informed by its lead creator Gunpei Yokoi’s design philosophy.
Enlarge/ Timely art from the game Traverser, soon to be published by developer Gatling Goat Studios. (credit: Gatling Goat Studios/Adult Swim Games)
Warner Bros. Discovery has spent at least two months threatening more than a dozen indie games developers with the "retirement" of their games, with little to no response as to why they couldn't do something simple and much better for the games' players and creators.
Late last week, one of the Adult Swim Games creators impacted by Warner Bros. Discovery's (WBD) seeming shutdown posted on X (formerly Twitter) that he received an email from Warner Bros. indicating that his Duck Game was "safe." "[T]he game is being returned to corptron along with [its] store pages on all platforms," Landon wrote. The same went for Owen Deery, whose notice from WBD about his game Small Radios Big Televisions brought attention to the media conglomerate's actions and who posted that his game, too, will have its ownership and store listings returned to him.
Enlarge/ Artist's conception of NetEase using a legal contract to try to stop a wave of negative reviews of its closed alpha. (credit: NetEase)
The developers of team-based shooter Marvel Rivals have apologized for a contract clause that made creators promise not to provide "subjective negative reviews of the game" in exchange for early access to a closed alpha test.
The controversial early access contract gained widespread attention over the weekend when streamer Brandon Larned shared a portion on social media. In the "non-disparagement" clause shared by Larned, creators who are provided with an early download code are asked not to "make any public statements or engage in discussions that are detrimental to the reputation of the game." In addition to the "subjective negative review" example above, the clause also specifically prohibits "making disparaging or satirical comments about any game-related material" and "engaging in malicious comparisons with competitors or belittling the gameplay or differences of Marvel Rivals."
In a Discord post noticed by PCGamesN over the weekend, Chinese developer NetEase apologized for what it called "inappropriate and misleading terms" in the contract. "Our stand is absolutely open for both suggestions and criticisms to improve our games, and... our mission is to make Marvel Rivals better [and] satisfy players by those constructive suggestions."
Enlarge/ Sometimes you gotta get your nose in there to remember the distinct aroma of 1980s RPG classics. (credit: Akupara Games)
There are people who relish the feeling of finally nailing down a cryptic clue in a crossword. There are also people unduly aggravated by a puzzlemaster's puns and clever deceptions. I'm more the latter kind. I don't even play the crossword—or Wordle or Connections or Strands—but my wife does, and she'll feed me clues. Without fail, they leave me in some strange state of being relieved to finally get it, yet also keyed up and irritated.
Cryptmaster, out now on Steam, GOG, and Itch.io for Windows, seems like the worst possible game for people like me, and yet I dig it. It is many things at once: a word-guessing game, a battle typing (or shouting) challenge, a party-of-four first-person grid-based dungeon crawler, and a text-prompt adventure, complete with an extremely goofy sense of humor. It's also in stark black and white. You cannot fault this game for a lack of originality, even while it evokes Wizardry, Ultima Underground, and lots of other arrow-key-moving classics, albeit with an active tongue-in-cheek filter.
Cryptmaster announcement trailer.
The Cryptmaster in question has woken up four role-playing figures—fighter, rogue, bard, and wizard—to help him escape from his underground lair to the surface, for reasons that must be really keen and good. As corpses, you don't remember any of your old skills, but you can guess them. What's a four-letter action that a fighter might perform, or a three-letter wizard move? Every time you find a box or treasure, the Cryptmaster opens it, gives you a letter count, then lets you ask for clues. "SMELL," you type, and he says it has that wonderful old-paper smell. "LOOK," and he notes that there are writings and drawings on one side. Guess "SCROLL," and he adds those letters to your characters' next ability clues. Guess wrong, well, better luck next time.
Enlarge/ This peaceful, pastoral scene actually represents a ton of hard work! (credit: Slavic Magic)
Do you ever look around at modern civilization and boggle at the sheer complexity of it all? Do you ever think about the generations of backbreaking labor needed to turn acres and acres of untamed wilderness into the layers of interconnected systems needed to provide basic necessities—much less luxuries—to both early settlers and their generations of descendants?
All that infrastructure work is much harder to take for granted after playing Manor Lords. The Early Access version of the game—which netted a million Steam sales in its first 24 hours last month—forces you to do a lot of the heavy lifting that many other city builders tend to gloss over. And while there are still a lot of Early Access rough spots, what's already there can make you appreciate just how hard it is to build a functioning society from nothing but raw materials and hard labor.
Let go of my hand
In many other city builders, you act as something of a detached, bureaucratic god. Lay down some roads, set aside some zoning, and watch as the microscopic masses automatically fill in the details of the housing, commerce, and industry needed to create a functional society.
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Source: /r/BringMeTheHorizon subreddit[/caption]
The M8 Artificial Reality domain then instructed users to enter a hidden serial code, which fans discovered through the use of several other clues. The site contained unreleased tracks, password-protected files, and various mysteries for fans to uncover.
[caption id="attachment_72432" align="alignnone" width="2800"]
Source: multidimensionalnavigator8.help[/caption]
As news of the hidden website spread, fans swiftly set up a 
Source: archive.org[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_72448" align="alignnone" width="276"]
Source: BringMeTheHorizon ARG Discord[/caption]
The developers appeared to indirectly condemn these attempts through the creative use of the M8 character, without specifying the nature of the intrusion or identifying the perpetrators.
Some fans however, upon receiving the email after their explorations, found the message warnings unexpected for what they believed were legitimate interactions.
The community believed that these selective few hackers ruined the experience for others, with it's discord server noting the downtime in it's FAQ.
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Bring Me The Horizon's foray into alternate reality gaming showcases the creative potential of digital media in music and album promotion. As fans continue to work together to unravel the remaining mysteries and solve the puzzles within the ARG, it remains to be seen what other surprises await them on the hidden website.
The 
