“I can’t believe that other people are trying that”.
Ahh, here we go, the Nintendo Switch 2 coverage you’ve been waiting for: the new red cartridges still taste bad. Finally, we can all rest now.
GameSpot bravely put this question to Takuhiro Dohta, the director of the Switch 2 and Programming Management Group Senior Director. And he confirmed that, yes, that gross-tasting coating is back. “I do not advise that you do ” Dohta told the publication.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
In My Little Universe, you’re the architect of your own cosmos. Armed with three trusty tools (pickaxe, axe, and sword), you’ll brave nine unique planets, each filled with mysteries, resources, and monstrous threats. Every hex of land you summon unlocks new biomes – from misty grottos to towering mountains – each holding secrets and challenges waiting to be uncovered.
Here the trees regrow faster than you can chop them, sharks have a personal vendetta against swimmers, and that broken spaceship of yours isn’t as useless as it looks. Whether you’re a lone explorer or teaming up with friends, these essential tips will transform you from a clueless castaway into a universe-dominating pro.
Think of Booster Cards as your golden tickets to bending the rules of the universe. Every action – mining, chopping, or smacking enemies – brings you closer to unlocking these game-changing perks. Want to swim like a torpedo? There’s a card for that. Prefer enemies to ignore you until you strike first? That’s an option too. Just remember: death (or those overzealous sharks) will strip them away, so use them wisely.
And speaking of death – don’t stress. Unlike most survival games, My Little Universe treats your demise like a quick coffee break. You’ll respawn instantly, keeping all your resources and upgrades. The only penalty? Losing one random Booster Card. So if you’ve stacked three incredible buffs, maybe rethink that lava dive.
Early players make one critical mistake: ignoring their wrecked starter ship. Big oversight. Once you’ve found your tools, use a pickaxe against that “useless” hunk of junk and see what happens. Trust us – it’s worth the effort.
Meanwhile, keep an eye out for resource piles scattered around planets. These freebies are a lifesaver when you’re short on materials. And if you’re drowning in wood but desperate for coins, track down the mysterious trader NPC. He’s your go-to guy for resource swaps.
Don’t forget to collect twinkling stars – they unlock flashy cosmetics.
Let’s get one thing straight: you can’t block attacks. Dodging is your best friend. Master the timing, and you’ll dance through enemy strikes like a space-faring ninja. Mess up? No worries – your health regenerates automatically after a few seconds.
Now, about those sharks. Sure, you could attempt an early swim to distant islands. But the universe loves punishing overconfidence. Get eaten and kiss your Booster Card goodbye. Pro tip: Swim faster than your co-op partner. It’s every explorer for themselves. Super Pro Tip: you can catch a shark!
Bosses? They’re no joke. A Level 1 sword will make fights feel like a dental appointment. Upgrade to Level 5, and you’ll slice through enemies like a cosmic blender. Same goes for tools—higher tiers mine twice as fast. Prioritize upgrades unless you enjoy watching progress bars crawl.
Playing with friends? Shared resources and universal upgrades mean you’ll blaze through planets – when you’re not sabotaging each other. Assign roles: one mines, one fights, and one “volunteers” as shark bait.
For an extra challenge, toggle Manual Controls in the settings. Now every action – chopping, mining, dodging – requires precise button presses. Suddenly, spiders feel like personal enemies, and mining becomes a rhythm game.
Unlike most games, you don’t have to beat My Little Universe to uncover its secrets. Head to the Credits section in the menu anytime – there’s more there than just a list of names.
My Little Universe is out now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows PC.
SayGames
EXPLORE!
9 mythical worlds and 65+ different dungeons, from mythology-inspired lands to hostile alien worlds await you and your friends. Filled with wonder and plunder, challenges and adversaries, your task is to restore these beautiful worlds to their former glory!
GATHER RESOURCES!
The worlds are filled with rich minerals ready to be harvested by your trusty tools, and mythical artifacts of untapped power guarded by powerful foes. Use more than 70 different gatherable resources to recreate lands long lost to a mysterious threat.
RISE UP TO THE CHALLENGE!
The universe won’t be restored that easily, and each challenge requires the proper tools for the job. Equipped with your trusty pickaxe, sharp sword, and sturdy axe, you’ll be thrown against 150+ different adversaries including mythical creatures, alien horrors, and even demigods!
UPGRADE YOUR GEAR!
With each planet comes new challenges and because of that, you have to stay prepared by upgrading to the newest and freshest tools, which will always keep you one step ahead of your opponents! Improve your weapon, tools, and armor up to 30+ levels!
Just Enjoy The Adventure.
Get entranced by the game’s cozy atmosphere, enjoy the relaxing soundtrack, and fall in love with the simplistic yet charismatic visuals. After all, it’s all about the journey and the friends we make along the way!
The post My Little Universe: the Explorer’s Survival Guide appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Michael Sarnoski, director of A Quiet Place: Day One, is reportedly set to write and direct the live-action adaptation of Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding.
Per Deadline, Sarnoski will write and direct the Death Stranding adaptation with A24 and Kojima Productions producing, alongside Square Peg. Sarnoski directed and wrote for both the A Quiet Place spin-off Day One and 2021’s Pig, starring Nicolas Cage. He’s also the writer/director for the upcoming The Death of Robin Hood, another A24 project.
Few details were given about what the live-action adaptation of Death Stranding would entail. The original 2019 game sent players out into the wasteland to try and reconnect a scattered America amid an extinction-level event, in a world haunted by nightmarish creatures and strange happenings. It’s already good movie fodder before you factor in Hideo Kojima’s cinematic tendencies.
Death Stranding also featured a star-studded cast that included Norman Reedus in the lead role of Sam Bridges, as well as Léa Seydoux, Mads Mikkelsen, Guillermo del Toro, and Margaret Qualley. It’ll be interesting to see if these actors reprise their roles for the live-action adaptation.
There’s still more for Death Stranding in store though, as Kojima Productions recently confirmed Death Stranding 2: On the Beach will launch later this year on June 26, 2025 on PlayStation 5. The next game in the Death Stranding saga also picked up some more stars, including the likes of Luca Marinelli and Elle Fanning.
Hopefully this particular Kojima-linked project forges ahead, as the Metal Gear Solid movie is still reportedly being worked on despite slowing updates. With all the stars and cinematics though, Death Stranding certainly seems poised to make the jump to live-action.
Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.
A Minecraft Move just hit theaters over the weekend and is already seeing record-breaking success at the box office. This video game movie has had the support of various toy marketing campaigns from the very beginning, like Minecraft Movie LEGO sets as well as McDonald’s toys targeted specifically at adults. But if you’re in the market for a Nerf gun after seeing the movie in theaters, you also already have quite a few options.
Amazon is offering new discounts on a variety of Nerf Minecraft weapons based on actual Minecraft weapons. Each of these Nerf picks have the ability to shoot darts, even if they don’t necessarily appear to be able to. They are also all fairly cheap compared to other Minecraft toys on the market right now.
There are four Nerf Minecraft deals at Amazon right now, and almost all of them are at their lowest prices of 2025. The best deal within this list is the Minecraft Pillager’s Crossbow, which has only recently droppped to its lowest-ever price of $19.99. This is one of the most affordable Nerf crossbows you can buy, and it also doubles as a wonderful Minecraft gift.
Outside of this blaster, there’s also the Nerf Minecraft axe and hammer, which are each under $20 and at their lowest prices in 2025. While they don’t function as effectively as a standard Nerf gun, they look awesome and are still able to fire darts.
The last Nerf Minecraft option that is on sale is the Sabrewing Motorized Blaster. Although it is arguably the coolest thing on sale right now, it is nowhere near its lowest price of 2025. It is, however, still priced below $20 and is the most enticing actualy Nerf Blaster on this list. It also has the largest dart capacity at eight darts.
After you’ve secured a Nerf Blaster, grabbing some extra darts or rounds is always a good idea. If you’ve ever played with one of these before, you know that ammo goes missing way too quickly. Luckily, a range of nerf darts are on sale. Big 100 packs for an epic war with friends or smaller, ultra-cheap sets to replace a few missing darts are all discounted right now. Just be sure to grab the right ammo.
Slimes to the left of me, zombies to the right.
Canadian developer Brace Yourself Games first hit the spotlight with Crypt of the NecroDancer, a rhythm-based roguelike, all the way back in 2015. Dungeon crawling to a relentless beat became the new dance craze sweeping the nation, and it was warmly welcomed into the Switch indie canon with the 2019 Zelda tie-in Cadence of Hyrule.
This time, Brace Yourself has teamed up with Tic Toc Games for a fun spin-off that trades dungeon crawling for guitar shredding. It’s still rhythm-based and still builds to mind-bending, chaotic action, but it’s also still surprisingly puzzley, like Guitar Hero had a baby with Ikaruga. And there’s zombies. It’s not often that a game makes you feel like you’re solving a puzzle, dodging traffic, and playing a gig all at once, but Rift of the NecroDancer likes to keep you busy.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Monster Energy Supercross 25 – The Official Video Game – Special Edition and Monster Energy Supercross 25 – The Official Video Game – Dirt Master Edition are out now in early access for Xbox Series X|S and the Standard Edition will be available for everyone on April 10, 2025. I can’t wait to see all of you take the route for the Supercross elite in this new and completely improved game. Today, I want to talk to you about one of the most ambitious and challenging aspects of the game, which made us sweat but filled us with pride once the results started to arrive: Neural AI.
We started using our Neural AI, A.N.N.A (Artificial Neural Network Agent), in our games starting from 2019, but research began before then. Neural AI is a specific kind of AI that can simulate realistic behavior. To do that, it must train and test the tracks to learn the best trajectories to become as fast as possible. Over the years in Milestone we have seen incredible results, with AI capable of controlling vehicles in a realistic manner. But up to this Supercross chapter, A.N.N.A. has only been on tarmac surfaces.
As mentioned before, A.N.N.A. was used in the past in the MotoGP
and RIDE franchises, to race in situations that were intense and crowded. But tracks were made of tarmac, a very regular surface. Supercross tracks are much more compressed, short, and full of tight corners. They have a completely different rhythm thanks to the variety of jumps, like steps up, tabletops, walls, and more. Each jump has its own best way to do it, and once they are inserted on a track, riders must figure out the order of things and adjust based on what comes after those jumps, with the goal of being the fastest.
When we had to set the AI to handle all the different elements that make up Supercross tracks, we were worried it wouldn’t be able to deal with all the variables it had to calculate during a lap around a dirt track. But right after the first tests, we knew that we were in the right direction. Programming a Neural AI takes a lot of time, and implementing A.N.N.A. in Supercross 25 is one of the factors that made us take two years to develop the next game.
When our AI is running during a race, it has to take into account a bunch of different factors, like track design, speed, balance, trajectory, other AI controlled riders, and, most importantly, players, who are the main unpredictable element on the track. It can handle all that complexity thanks to a lot of rigorous training. We wanted to include in the game the current Supercross season for the first time, but we had to start working on the AI way earlier due to timing reasons.
First, we calibrated the Agents on the new physics system, then we introduced tracks from the past to the AI so it could learn what a Supercross track is and what makes it up. To achieve the best level of realism, we immediately added an extra obstacle to our Agents: dynamic terrain. In real Supercross, ruts are deep furrows in the ground created by the bikes’ passage. They change the feel and the looks of the track significantly. Usually, if you change one thing about a track after the AI has learned it, it can’t find the original layout, and it gets lost. But with dynamic ruts, the tracks evolve every lap, so we had to teach A.N.N.A. how to handle this extra challenge, and it responded really well. Now it can adjust its trajectory and strategy based on the ruts present at that specific moment of the race.
When the 2025 Supercross tracks arrived, we made A.N.N.A. run on them and we had amazing results. It was already a Supercross expert, able to handle and interpret the modules and variations of the tracks. The only exception was with elements it had never seen before, because every year the sport evolves, and track designers introduce original and interesting sequences. We had to teach it those extra modules, even making it go against its previous learnings. We were so impressed by the results we have achieved with this training system. Of course, we still made some fine-tuning, especially adjusting the difficulty of the AI based on the player’s skill, but we had confirmation of how intelligent A.N.N.A. is, and this Supercross chapter is just the beginning for even more spectacular achievements.
The air section is a huge part of Supercross, and in Supercross 25, we gave to both players and AI full control of the in-air motion thanks to the dual stick, which allows managing both the rider’s and the bike’s weight. We have taught A.N.N.A. the technique and made it train on all kinds of jumps. We were surprised when we saw that it could find and apply the best technique on a jump before we could! For example, there was a jump where the quickest way to make it was through a scrub — a particular bike maneuver that slices the air and allows shorter airtime. While I was still trying to understand how to perfect this trick for maximum efficiency, A.N.N.A. had already figured it out, with a top-notch execution. This has pushed us to become even better while playing against it!
Neural AI is going to be available also on UGC tracks for the first time and we have applied the same principle we used for the 2025 season. The Agents are smart and, as I like to say, they have studied a lot of textbooks. They have the knowledge and the ability to adapt to a new environment using the skills they have obtained through training just like a real rider. We are super happy with how they have responded, and we will keep working to make them even more prepared and precise.
Thank you for your time. It’s always great to talk about these amazing achievements. The game is now available for everyone, and we can’t wait to see what spectacular stunts you will pull off. See you on the track!
Monster Energy Supercross 25 – The Official Video Game – Special Edition and Monster Energy Supercross 25 – Dirt Master Edition are out now in early access on Xbox Series X|S; Standard Edition available April 10, 2025.
Showdown – Dirt Master EditionMilestone S.r.l.
Showdown – Dirt Master Edition!You will get:
– Monster Energy Supercross 25 Full Game
– Monster Jam Showdown Full Game*
– Monster Energy Supercross 25 – Season Pass to make your Supercross experience jump higher and higher, as soon as its content becomes available
– 2 Customization DLCs: Stars & Stripes Pack and Touchdown Pack
– 3-day early access
*playable from April 7th 2025
Get ready for the official 2025 Supercross season with Monster Energy Supercross 25!
Experience the thrill of racing on newly designed tracks that replicate real-world events and compete against the latest roster of professional riders: forge your path in a revamped career featuring intense competitions, rivalries, and strategic choices.
Thanks to Unreal Engine 5, enjoy a renewed gameplay experience with realistic physics and dynamic track evolution, making every lap unique and challenging. Master the flow with open tutorials, a comprehensive wiki, and Neural Technology riding aids.
Customize your experience with advanced editors and share your creations across platforms.
Plus, enjoy full crossplay support for global competition in immersive online multiplayer modes regardless of the platform, whether you’re competing in casual races or battling for the top spot in ranked leaderboards.
All contents included in the Season Pass will be released by September 2025.
Milestone S.r.l.
Get ready for the official 2025 Supercross season with Monster Energy Supercross 25!
Experience the thrill of racing on newly designed tracks that replicate real-world events and compete against the latest roster of professional riders: forge your path in a revamped career featuring intense competitions, rivalries, and strategic choices.
Thanks to Unreal Engine 5, enjoy a renewed gameplay experience with realistic physics and dynamic track evolution, making every lap unique and challenging. Master the flow with open tutorials, a comprehensive wiki, and Neural Technology riding aids.
Customize your experience with advanced editors and share your creations across platforms.
Plus, enjoy full crossplay support for global competition in immersive online multiplayer modes regardless of the platform, whether you’re competing in casual races or battling for the top spot in ranked leaderboards.
All contents included in the Season Pass will be released by September 2025.
Milestone S.r.l.
Get ready for the official 2025 Supercross season with Monster Energy Supercross 25!
Experience the thrill of racing on newly designed tracks that replicate real-world events and compete against the latest roster of professional riders: forge your path in a revamped career featuring intense competitions, rivalries, and strategic choices.
Thanks to Unreal Engine 5, enjoy a renewed gameplay experience with realistic physics and dynamic track evolution, making every lap unique and challenging. Master the flow with open tutorials, a comprehensive wiki, and Neural Technology riding aids.
Customize your experience with advanced editors and share your creations across platforms.
Plus, enjoy full crossplay support for global competition in immersive online multiplayer modes regardless of the platform, whether you’re competing in casual races or battling for the top spot in ranked leaderboards.
The post Learn How Milestone Taught Its Neural AI to Race Off Road appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Reburn’s posh-looking near-future shooter La Quimera now has a release date – April 25th 2025. Which is mighty soon for an FPS project we first heard about this very February, though nothing to be alarmed by – it’s been in development since around 2020.
In case you missed it, Reburn are a rebrand of Metro studio 4A Games Ukraine – they’re not to be confused with 4A Games in Malta, who are still working on the Metro series. La Quimera doesn’t look much like Metro. I compared it to Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Cyberpunk 2077 in our announcement post, and the below trailer’s worth of exosuit punching and heatvision railgunnery is doing nothing to dissipate that characterisation.
In these days of combing online imagery for symptoms of genAI “hallucination”, it’s easy to forget that once upon a time, mutant video game visuals were beautiful. There’s a whole genre of art dedicated to them. Here to remind us is Babushka’s Glitch Dungeon Crystal, a gorgeously scruffy 2D platformer in which an old lady explores a big magic cellar, hitting graphics card malfunctions with a broom. Think Animal Well, but both you and the simulation aren’t as young as you used to be.
Microsoft has created a playable “interactive space inspired” by Quake II using AI, and it’s sparked a vociferous debate online.
As spotted by PC Gamer, the demo is powered by Microsoft’s recently announced Muse and the World and Human Action Model (WHAM) AI system, and “can dynamically create gameplay visuals and simulate player behavior in real-time,” which means a semi-playable environment has been generated entirely through AI and without an in-game engine.
“In this real-time tech demo, Copilot dynamically generates gameplay sequences inspired by the classic game Quake II,” Microsoft explained. “Every input you make triggers the next AI-generated moment in the game, almost as if you were playing the original Quake II running on a traditional game engine. Enjoy the experience, share your thoughts, and help shape the future of AI-powered gameplay experiences.
“This bite-sized demo pulls you into an interactive space inspired by Quake II, where AI crafts immersive visuals and responsive action on the fly. It’s a groundbreaking glimpse at a brand new way of interacting with games, turning cutting-edge research into a quick and compelling playable demo.”
All that sounds pretty impressive, but the demo itself is… well, less so.
After The Game Awards boss Geoff Keighley shared a brief video of the demo in action on X / Twitter, hundreds of people responded, with few having anything positive to say.
Microsoft has created an AI-generated replica of Quake II that you can play in browser.
“Every frame is created on the fly by an AI world model.”
Play it here:https://t.co/WGQymDOmsj pic.twitter.com/35MX5aHPbF
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) April 5, 2025
“Man, I don’t want the future of games to be AI-generated slop,” said one Redditor. “There will be a point where it will be easier to use AI, and then all the greedy studios will do it exclusively. The human element will be removed.
“And the worst part is gamers will buy it. They buy skins for 100 dollars. They will buy whatever you sell them.”
“Microsoft’s boast that they want ‘to build a whole catalog of games that use this new AI model,’ despite it not being clear if the current technique will ever even be capable of letting you turn around without moving to a random point on the map let alone come up with an original game, really typifies what’s wrong with AI and the tech industry,” added another.
“I had a better experience literally just imagining the game in my head,” said another commenter.
Not everyone was so quick to dismiss it, however.
“I don’t know why everything has to be doom and gloom,” said a more cheery respondent. “It’s a demo for a reason. It shows the future possibilities. Having an AI that is able to create a coherent and consistent world is crazy. But this cannot be used to create a full game or anything enjoyable. You cannot play this. Seems like a tool for early concept/pitching phase. This can also bring improvement in other fields in AI as what it is doing is impressive.
“This is not even a product yet but a demo showing how much they’ve improved from just a few months ago.”
Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney had a rather different response:
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 5, 2025
Generative AI is one of the hottest topics within the video game and entertainment industries, which have both suffered massive layoffs in recent years. It has drawn criticism from players and creators due to a mix of ethical issues, rights issues, and AI’s struggles to produce content audiences actually enjoy. For instance, Keywords Studios attempted to create an experimental game internally using entirely AI. The game failed, with Keywords citing to investors that AI was “unable to replace talent.”
Still, that hasn’t put off a number of video game companies from using generative AI in the development of their products. Activision recently disclosed the use of generative AI for some Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 assets as part of new requirements on Steam, amid a backlash to an “AI slop” zombie Santa loading screen.
And last month, Horizon actor Ashly Burch addressed a controversial AI Aloy video that leaked online, using it to call attention to the demands of striking voice actors.
Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
There are at least hundreds, probably thousands, and possibly tens of thousands of potential houses in first-person labyrinth puzzler Blue Prince. I am genuinely tempted to review them all, but I am not a realtor and Graham’s kneecaps inflate when a review strays above 2000 words, so I’ll settle for describing just four. The first is the house you discover. It waits eternally behind doors that give you a choice of three, semi-randomised rooms when you reach for the handle, each “drafted” on a 9-by-5 grid map that is blank save for the opening foyer and the antechamber skulking at the far end. Every time you enter the house, the layout wipes itself clean and must be filled in again.
