The death of physical media has been looming for decades now, essentially since the internet made digital downloads a viable option for purchasing games – or purchasing your licences to play games. While Nintendo got involved relatively quickly (for Nintendo, at least) with WiiWare and Virtual Console digital downloads, there’s still always been a strong link between this particular platform holder and the physical article.
And it’s not just the need to provide stocking-fillers for parents and grandparents of a younger-skewing demographic; perhaps Nintendo’s general preference for carts is also a factor. Cartridges have a more substantial, chunky physicality compared to discs – and even when the company went for optical media, the GameCube’s cute 8cm discs and the curved edges of Wii U games injected some personality. Carts, with their unique forms and chip-filled innards, somehow feel more than just a blank medium with some data burned in. Just me?
Free Play Days – Forza Motorsport and The Escapists
Kyle Ocean, Marketing Manager, Xbox
Spring is in the air and May kicks off with a double feature! The Escapists is available this weekend for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Standard and Core members to play from Thursday, May 1 at 12:01am Pacfic until Sunday, May 4 at 11:59pm Pacific.
Additionally, Forza Motorsport is free for all Xbox members to try during the same time (Xbox Game Pass Game Pass Ultimate, Standard and Core membership not required).
How To Start Playing
Find and install the games on each of the individual game details page on Xbox.com. Clicking through will send you to the Microsoft Store, where you must be signed in to see the option to install with your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Standard and Core membership. To download on console, click on the Subscriptions tab in the Xbox Store and navigate down to the Free Play Days collection on your Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
Keep The Fun Going
Purchase the game and other editions at a limited time discount and continue playing while keeping your Gamerscore and achievements earned during the event! Please note that discounts, percentages, and title availability may vary by title and region.
Free Play Days (Xbox Game Pass Membership Required)
Forza Motorsport Optimized for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Play Anywhere Immerse yourself in a world of competition in Forza Motorsport! Download and play the game for free this weekend with Xbox’s Free Play Days for All and get up to a 50% discount! Race over 500 cars and enjoy the latest game updates and features, including Proximity Radar, Drift mode, and more. Make every lap count across 29 world-famous tracks with fan-favorite locations Bathurst, Nürburgring Nordschleife, and Sunset Peninsula – each featuring live on-track scoring and dynamic time-of-day with weather. Invite your friends and we’ll see you at the track!
The Escapists The Escapists is an award winning prison break simulation that provides players the opportunity of experiencing a light-hearted insight into everyday prison life. Master the routine, plan your strategy then execute your Escape.
Don’t miss out on these exciting Free Play Days for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Standard and Core members! Learn more about Free Play Days here and stay tuned to Xbox Wire to find out about future Free Play Days and all the latest Xbox gaming news.
Last month, we had breakout runaway hits, indie darlings, and a few surprises. Which game spoke to you the most? Some of the big new releases included Blue Prince, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Forever Skies, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.
How does it work? At the end of every month, PlayStation Blog will open a poll where you can vote for the best new game released that month. After the polls close we will tally your votes, and announce the winner on our social channels and PlayStation.Blog.
What is the voting criteria? That’s up to you! If you were only able to recommend one new release to a friend that month, which would it be? Note: re-released games don’t qualify, but remakes do. We define remakes as ambitious, larger-scale rebuilds such as Resident Evil 4 (2023) and Final Fantasy VII Remake.
How are nominees decided? The PlayStation Blog editorial team will gather a list of that month’s most noteworthy releases and use it to seed the poll.
I’ve put way too many hours into Stardew Valley building my own cozy little farm. And although taking care of a farm is its own full-time job, I always try to find time to make every character’s favorite foods. The recipes in Stardew Valley can be pretty simple but the final pixelated result always looks appetizing to me. I’ve definitely imagined what each dish tastes like as I whip it up in the game, but I never really thought about making the recipes in real life until I came across the Stardew Valley cookbook.
The official cookbook for the game was written in collaboration with the game’s creator ConcernedApe (Eric Barone). As someone who loves Stardew Valley and cooking, I’ve put this video game cookbook at the top of my gift wishlist for 2025.
The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook – On Sale Now
The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook came out back in May 2024, so it’s been almost an entire year of me not knowing it existed. Thanks to all of that time, however, it is currently down to its lowest price ever on Amazon. At just under $20, it’s one of the cheapest gifts you could get for Stardew fan (other than the actual game).
The cookbook itself contains 50 recipes that are based on the actual in-game meals. Similar to the game, it’s ordered by season so you can follow along and make each recipe when the ingredients are most likely to be at their freshest. Included are a ton of original illustrations as well as recipes written in the voice of various characters from the game. You can check out a quick preview of what to expect in the slideshow below.
See more video game cookbooks
Altough the Stardew Valley cookbook is my favorite one of these, there are actually quite a few other video game cookbooks you can buy right now. There are options from Elder Scrolls, The Witcher, Fallout, and even Minecraft. You can preorder cookbooks made for Pac-Man (sure, why not) and Borderlands, both of which are coming out in 2025. This is a whole genre that is absolutely thriving.
Infinity Nikki has fallen from grace a touch, it seems. The dress-up RPG arrived on Steam last week, almost five months since it launched on the Epic Games Store, but it did so with quite a few caveats. For starters, the game’s latest update 1.5 arrived around the same time, leading to a plethora of issues with the game, quite notably frequent crashes. Then there’s also been a large number of Chinese players expressing their frustration with some of the changes on the game’s Steam forusm, namely the increase in cost of banners. This has led to the game hitting a Mixed rating on Steam, so the game’s dev has come out with a big ole apology literally asking for “one more chance.”
Helldivers 2 is gearing up for some news, and developer Arrowhead Game Studios seems confident it will impress. Or, as Arrowhead’s CEO is framing it, you might want to prepare yourself.
As spotted by VideoGamer, Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani was discussing Helldivers 2 in the game’s Discord when a user asked him if he could “offer up anything, however small, of what’s coming down the pipe.” His response?
“You’ll shit your pants.”
While not specific about what’s in store, it does at least give us an idea of the impact of what’s in store. And the possible consequences to our britches, too.
Jorjani took a few other questions, with some notable mentions of wanting to add more bladed weapons and some thoughtful responses to worries about content droughts. There’s some open transparency about the technical debt of something like Helldivers 2, and how the team handles it over time, that’s really cool to see alongside funny quotes about distressing your jeans.
There’s already been some tease about what’s to come, involving a flag with both a pointy end and a grippy section. Currently, Arrowhead said it is aiming for May 8 to announce its next Warbond, and there will be “more exciting news to come not long after.”
In a recent interview with IGN, Arrowhead’s production director Alex Bolle said the studio wants to be around for “years and years and years to come,” and that it’s continuing to work on developing Helldivers 2 while staying true to what the team wants to do.
“The more we figure out how to thrive in a live environment, and we still have a way to go to figure out a lot of things around that, the more we can let creativity loose on new systems that we would’ve never thought about a year ago when we released,” Bolle told IGN. “I’ve worked on live games before and it’s where you feel like you have something you can figure out: what if I would do this cool thing I’ve seen in other games and adapt it to our sauce, that still makes it true to ourselves? I’m looking forward to this moment.”
We’ll start to find out what cool things Arrowhead has in store for Helldivers 2 next week. You might want to bring some extra pants.
Back in the decidedly less macabre context of a week ago, I played a few matches of Apex Legends‘ Season 25, which centres around new legend Sparrow. His debut is scheduled for May 6th, barely enough time for EA’s ink to dry on their mass laying-off of the people that made him (fifth most played game on Steam, y’know, maybe tells you something). He’s Space-Italian, has a folding bow on his arm, and – fittingly for how I feel about this game right now – is a massive bastard.
Amazon UK is back with one of the only means that general Pokémon TCG fans can get packs from the Scarlet & Violet Prismatic Evolutions and 151 sets: an invite system.
After doing this ourselves, we got an email notification for both right away stating that the invitation requests were received. If you end up being picked within the next 12 months to purchase either collection, you will then be emailed a link that’s valid for 72 hours, of which you can use to buy your new cards and accessories.
Within those 12 months, you won’t need to request an invite again whenever Amazon UK makes any restocks, as yours will still be connected to each collection’s product page. Essentially, it’s a lottery where a decent amount of luck is required in order to grab one for yourself.
In return, however, you’ll have the chance to buy a collection that’s actually at a fair price compared to the higher prices for Prismatic Evolutions and 151 collectors have been having to deal with over the recent months, in light of their low supply vs demand.
The Prismatic Evolutions Accessory Pouch Special Collection includes both five booster packs and an Eevee accessory pouch for just £29.99. With Amazon’s current price of £16.49 for just one Prismastic Evolutions booster — on open, no-invite-required listings — you would need to pay £82.45 for five packs individually.
The same goes for the 151 Blooming Waters Collection. Charging you £79.99, you’ll get 12 booster packs, individual foil cards; Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Blastoise ex, and Venusaur ex; and an oversized Blastoise ex card for display as well.
Even when only taking the packs into account, individual boosters for 151 cost a massive £19.49 at Amazon UK — meaning you would have to put up £233.88 just to buy 12 without getting an invite.
Pokemon TCG’s major supply issues around sets like 151 and Prismatic Evolutions don’t seem like they’ll be letting up anytime soon. With that, keeping an eye out for invitation listings like these is one of the best ways to get new cards from them without needing to refresh retailer pages 24 hours a day, or applying for a bank loan.
With other new sets like Destined Rivals or Journey Together selling out almost instantly to scalpers as soon as they’re in stock, we wouldn’t be surprised if other retailers didn’t start applying an invite system as well, to give everyone a fair chance.
Ben Williams – IGN freelance contributor with over 10 years of experience covering gaming, tech, film, TV, and anime. Follow him on Twitter/X @BenLevelTen.
Demon-swarmed fantasy ARPG Path Of Exile 2 got a patch today that should have, in theory, increased the rarity of loot dropped for players across all parts of the game. Instead, the game began deleting their Skill Gems – the extremely important stones that players use to perform all manner of attacks, spells, and defensive magicks. The developers quickly shut down the servers and rolled back the game, leading to a five-hour outage and a bunch of players who are now even more annoyed than they have been in recent weeks. And trust me, that is annoyed.
Is it actually better than the original? Time to find out.
Hamster Co. has announced that Arcade Archives Super Xevious will release today (May 1st) on Nintendo Switch.
Those of you who remember the halcyon days of the early 1980s will know that Namco’s original Xevious made quite a splash when it hit arcades in 1982. However, this ‘Super’ variant from 1984 was, at the time of its release at least, considered a bit of a disappointment.
