Both Madden NFL and EA Sports FC have been locked in for the Switch 2, so what can sports enthusiasts expect when they kick off?
EA has recently told Eurogamer how “both experiences are being built specifically for the new handheld platform”. As for how exactly this translates in terms of feature and visual parity – while not a direct answer, EA says its general aim across platforms is to “always” deliver a consistent player experience “as much as the hardware allows”.
Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week – our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! While cleaning under my bed recently, I once again discovered my copy of the smallest physical book I have ever owned. It’s a tiny handheld edition of the I Ching. What a wonderful thing. I mean, I haven’t actually read it, but wisdom is owning at least one very small book, is what I assume the gist is.
One of the many games revealed alongside the Switch 2 was Drag x Drive. As Nintendo describes it, this is the “next-generation of 3-on-3 sports” utilising the new Mouse Mode feature on the Joy-Con 2.
Multiple outlets have now had the chance to go ‘hands on’ with this upcoming release – so first up are our thoughts, including our impressions of the new control method:
Howdy folks, and welcome to another edition of Box Art Brawl!
We’re still thinking about the Switch 2 , which was the subject our big bumper BAB last weekend. We compared all of Nintendo’s first-party titles with box art for the new console, and just barely squeaking out a win with 42% of the vote was Donkey Kong Bananza! Mario Kart World was extremely close however, and at the time of writing this, is sitting at 41%. Both are excellent.
In case you didn’t already know, the Nintendo Switch Online app will carry over to the Switch 2 when it launches this June.
If you are wondering what the UI might look like when it eventually shows up on the new hybrid system, Nintendo’s official Japanese website has now shared a sneak peek. As you can see, there’ll be a huge “welcome” banner with Mario and the gang on bootup and the usual options lined up down the side.
It’s coming up to a year since V Rising received its 1.0 release, and ahead of that anniversary developer Stunlock Studios shared a trailer earlier this week for the game’s first big update, Invaders of Oakveil. The update itself will be free (nice!), and introduces a whole new area to explore, the titular Oakveil Woodlands, a woodsy area where “corruption” is spreading (not nice).
You can cancel your Elden Ring Nightreign pre-order, you can hold off on picking up a Switch 2 for that inevitable The Duskbloods release, because there’s a pretty good reason to return to the original Dark Souls. Earlier this week, modder extraordinaire Yui released the Dark Souls Remastered seamless co-op mod, which, if you can believe it, allows you to play through the game in online co-op with minimal interruptions.
As one HBO primetime show ends (farewell, The White Lotus), another must rise to take its spot. Two years after The Last of Us first aired on Max, the video game adaptation starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey is returning for a second season.
The Last of Us game and the first season of the show both end with a cliffhanger that has… consequences. Anyone who’s already played The Last of Us Part 2, myself included, is probably feeling as much terror as excitement at the thought of witnessing what comes next on screen. In IGN’s review of Season 2, Simon Cardy acknowledges that it was “always going to be a challenge to adapt The Last of Us Part 2’s sprawling, twisting story into a television show,” so it makes sense that the story will continue over a third season.
If you’re planning to tune in for the premiere of The Last of Us Season 2 or still need to catch up on Season 1, check out the details below.
How to Watch The Last of Us Season 2
The Last of Us Season 2 premieres on Max on Sunday, April 13, 2025. Standalone Max subscriptions start at $9.99 and can be bundled with Hulu and Disney+.
Season 2 Episode Release Dates
The Last of Us Season 2 will run for seven episodes total, two fewer episodes than Season 1. New episodes will be released on Max every Sunday at 9pm EST/6pm CST. Here’s the full release schedule:
Episode 1:“Future Days” – April 13
Episode 2: TBA – April 20
Episode 3: TBA – April 27
Episode 4: TBA – May 4
Episode 5: TBA – May 11
Episode 6: TBA – May 18
Episode 7: TBA – May 25
Catch Up on the First Season
The entire first season of The Last of Us is streaming on Max, with individual episodes available to rent or purchase through Prime Video. HBO also released a limited edition 4K steelbook of Season 1:
The Last of Us Season 3 Has Already Been Confirmed
The first season of The Last of Us show adapted the entirety of the first game with some creative liberties. Season 2 brings us to the storylines of The Last of Us sequel, which will be split up across the next two seasons.
The Last of Us Season 2 is led by the original game’s creator, Neil Druckmann, and Craig Mazin (Chernobyl), both of whom feature as writers alongside Haley Gross, who co-wrote The Last of Us Part 2 game. Each individual episode has its own director, with the full list including Mark Mylod (Succession, The Menu, Game of Thrones), Peter Hoar (It’s a Sin, Daredevil, Doctor Who), and Stephen Williams (Lost).
Here’s the main cast starring in the new season of The Last of Us:
Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller
Bella Ramsey as Ellie
Gabriel Luna as Tommy
Rutina Wesley as Maria
Kaitlyn Dever as Abby
Young Mazino as Jesse
Isabela Merced as Dina
Danny Ramirez as Manny
Ariela Barer as Mel
Tati Gabrielle as Nora
Spencer Lord as Owen
Catherine O’Hara as Gail
Jeffrey Wright as Isaac Dixon
Joe Pantoliano as Eugene
Alanna Ubach as Hanrahan
Ben Ahlers as Burton
Hettienne Park as Elise Park
Robert John Burke as Seth
Noah Lamanna as Kat
Don’t be surprised if you don’t recognize some of these names; several original characters are being introduced in the new season. You can check out our full breakdown of which characters are new or returning for more details.
Bungie has shared new gameplay for Marathon, a new team-based FPS extraction shooter.
Players work in crews of three to take down rival Runner teams, scavenge for resources and gear, and extract safely.
Marathon launches on Xbox Series X|S on September 23, 2025.
Bungie has unveiled a first look at Marathon, its upcoming sci-fi extraction shooter, as well as some brand-new details about the game. In a showcase today, the studio debuted gameplay, as well as a stylish cinematic short about the Marathon universe.
Even better – Bungie shared that there’s not much longer to wait – Marathon releases on Xbox Series X|S on September 23, 2025.
Become a Runner
In Marathon, you are a Runner, a mercenary who has traded your human form for a host of enhanced cybernetic abilities. Each playable Runner features a loadout of unique skills to compliment how you play – whether you want to run in guns blazing or take a more tactical approach. You’ll also be able to customize your Runner with implants and weapons at the start of the game, and with resources you’ll find during runs.
In teams of up to three players, you’ll drop into a zone where the goal is to loot as much as possible and get out alive. You’ll be up against several threats, including AI security forces and other teams, that you’ll need to deal with in some way. If you survive, everything you’ve collected is yours to keep for future runs. For extra challenge seekers, there’s also an option to run a match solo, take down teams alone, and extract with all the loot by yourself.
Bungie brings decades of satisfying FPS shooter experience to the table in Marathon from its previous work on Halo, and its ongoing work on Destiny 2. Marathon seeks to blend a dynamic, tactile FPS experience with seasonal content, giving you and your friends new mysteries to unravel about Tau Ceti IV and the abandoned Marathon ship that hangs above.
The World of Marathon
The studio also shared a cinematic short that gave us a deeper look at the cutthroat world of Tau Ceti IV where Marathon is set, directed by award-winning director Alberto Mielgo (“Love, Death & Robots”, “The Witness” episode). The short features several playable characters from the Marathon roster and sets the stage for the lost colony where your runs will take place. Check out the short here.
A massive ghost ship hangs in low orbit over a lost colony on Tau Ceti IV. The 30,000 souls who call this place home have disappeared without a trace. Strange signals hint at mysterious artifacts, long-dormant AI, and troves of untold riches.
Become a Runner in Bungie’s upcoming sci-fi PvP extraction shooter, Marathon. You are a cybernetic mercenary venturing into the unknown in a fight for survival and fortune where any run can lead to greatness.
Add Marathon to your wishlist now to get the latest updates and news.
This weekend Bungie revealed Marathon’s sci-fi-fueled gameplay to the world. The studio, celebrated for its sublime first-person gunplay and ever-expanding gameplay, is venturing into the extraction-shooter genre when the game launches on September 23. The Marathon premise is simple and enticing: load up your Runner with valuable gear, compete with other players to secure more loot, and risk it all trying to extract with all the goods.
I had the opportunity to catch up with Marathon Game Director Joe Ziegler hot off the heels of this reveal, diving deeper into the details around Bungie’s next game. We cover lots of ground, including Bungie’s approach to a new genre, tapping into the power of PS5, the game’s bold art style, and more.
Tim Turi: Congratulations on the big gameplay reveal! How are you and the team feeling following the event?
Joe Ziegler: It’s pretty exciting. The term I’ve been using a lot is “nerve-cited.” It’s a labor of love we’ve been working on for a few years now, and that definitely comes with the passion that we’ve poured into it, iterating with our audiences, and this desire to produce something amazing to play and to see.
Having it touch real players’ hands for the first time is thrilling, because we do this to excite and entertain them in amazing ways, but also nerve wracking. You know, you question a lot of decisions you made. You’re really hoping that all the things that you’ve thought of are really what players care about. And we feel like we’re there, but we’re really excited to see what players have to say.
During the development of Marathon, were there specific moments or experiences that made the Bungie team realize it was onto something special?
So many of them are these unpredictable moments. Moments where you thought one thing was going to happen, but another thing happened. In our game, you’re traveling to this mysterious world where danger could lurk around every corner. Sometimes you turn a corner and you’re face to face with the United Earth Space Council (UESC), these really brutal and dangerous opponents inside of our game. Or sometimes you’re just traversing across the map and bullets are whizzing by from another crew that has seen you. And some of those moments get extremely exciting, because you don’t think you’re going to make it out of it, and you turn the tables, or you just barely eke by, and you find your way out to the exfil. When you get out, you’re just shaking with an awesome intensity that you’re going to remember for a long time.
What’s the backstory behind the name “Marathon?”
In the original (1994) game, “Marathon” is the name of the colony ship sent out from Earth by the UESC. They sent it past the reaches of our solar system to establish the first colony on a system called Tau Ceti. And so the UESC Marathon is kind of a weird ship built into an asteroid-like moon, and then sent out to make the long journey. …if you were to make me guess, I’d assume that “Marathon” refers to the fact that it was a 500-year journey, and was an appropriate name for a very, very long commitment of travel.
We’re using the Marathon name [for this new 2025 game] because of the legacy of the IP. We’re taking a lot of those familiar IP elements, the UESC Marathon ship as well, and bringing it to light in modern day. We’re reinterpreting a lot of things, but there are a lot of familiar elements as well, such as the ship and Tau Ceti, that I think fans from the past will really enjoy seeing.
Bungie is famous for its pitch-perfect gunplay. How do you go about being true to that legacy while making Marathon’s FPS action feel like its own thing?
A lot of it comes from the nature of the game and the types of decisions that you want players to be making and how you want them to make those decisions. This game is very much about survival. And in survival-style games, a lot of the pressure is on you to manage resources, be adaptive, and be situationally aware. What we’re doing with our gunplay and our systems is we’re taking a lot of that familiar action base that players really enjoy, and we’re adding intense survival layers on top. For example, you don’t regenerate health automatically very quickly, but you have consumables that help you heal. Part of that is to create moments where you make decisions to either go into battle or fall back. You have to think about the resources that you’re carrying.
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Do you have a message for any players curious about extraction shooters, but are a little nervous or intimidated by the risk/reward?
I will definitely say that this game is challenging and intense, but it’s very rewarding. As you learn it you’ll feel yourself developing survival skills that you may not have experienced before, that begin to make you feel masterful. We have also designed this game to feel really natural on controllers as well. There are a lot of PC extraction shooters where mouse and keyboard are a little bit more common, and so in designing for that what we’re trying to do is get the interface and gameplay finickiness out so you can play it naturally. We want you to be able to focus on adapting and learning those survival skills to pull off memorable runs.
Obviously players are risking their valuable loadouts in a given match. Can you tell us about any persistent progression elements?
We want to make sure the players feel like they get something for their time spent in every match. Some of that is going to be experience-based. For example, leveling your runner level in any given season. Some of that will be related to upgrades provided by factions. As you gather materials or get currencies, you’ll be able to increase some of your overall character stats. So you might get a little bit more stamina, or you might be able to loot boxes a little bit faster. Some of it will also increase the options that you have to purchase from an in-game item store called the Black Market. You can use the currency you collect in game to purchase different weapons, implants, and upgrades based on what you unlock inside of that upgrade tree. So as you play the game you’ll see a lot of your options grow.
What ways is Bungie taking advantage of PlayStation 5 technology for Marathon?
We definitely have haptic support for [DualSense wireless controllers], which is pretty fun when you get into some of those gunfights and you feel feedback on your fingertips. We’re also supporting the Tempest 3D Audio engine, so you’re going to hear a lot of immersive audio.
In addition, a lot of the rendering technology on the PS5, and especially on the PS5 Pro, is really awesome. So we’re planning some awesome usage of PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution), and some additional support in upscaling and resolution. So if you have a PS5 or PS5 Pro you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how we deliver on the console.
Marathon’s art style is not quite like anything else out there right now. Can you walk us through what makes it so striking and unique?
Our aesthetic is hugely inspired by graphic design and a lot of modern product design trappings. But I think what really sets us apart is whenever I look at a [Marathon] image, I go, “I think I understand it,” or “I think I don’t… but I really like it.” There’s something really enticing about visuals that look so bold and graphic like something you’d see in print but also pulled onto the screen and mixed with this technological sci-fi shaping. That, and also put against a very organic background and the contrast of all these things really pops.
It’s a mixture that I don’t think we’ve seen a lot of before, and we’re really excited by it, because it creates all those visual contrasts and conflicts that go together to help the tone of the game, which is really about paranoia. It’s about intensity. It’s about not knowing the truth you know, seeking to find it, and constantly being wrapped into a rabbit hole of information. You don’t know what’s true or false. So all those things kind of come together really nicely through the art style as well.
Is there anything else you’d like to make sure the PlayStation audience takes away from this big reveal?
If you’re a person who really enjoys getting into survival experiences. If you’re a person who really enjoys testing your mettle with other players inside of that space trying to do the same. And if you’re a player who really, just wants to go on a thrilling ride that you never know the outcome of… I think this is going to be a game for you. Especially because we’ve focused so much on making this an experience that translates across platforms really well. I’m especially excited to see PlayStation players come in and experience the genre and our offering inside of it. We’ve poured a lot of passion and love into [Marathon], and we’ve played it a lot, and we played a lot for fun too. So we’re excited to have them join our community, show us what’s good, and show us how good they can be.
Marathon launches September 23 on PS5, Steam, and Xbox Series X|S.
