This week is the week of Summer Game Fest and its entourage of accompanying showcases. As such, the feeling right now is of preparing for an avalanche. Join me as I play out the next few days in my head.
It’d be rune not to.
Rune Factory’s first entry arrived to a welcoming fanbase almost 20 years ago, and players have signed on for the adventures of a string of amnesiac protagonists, equal parts fighter and farmer, ever since. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma delivers on the promise of the series with another hero mysteriously connected to the land who, despite not having any memory of their life prior, can forge their destiny anew in a charming town filled with a cast of vibrant characters. After the lacklustre reception to Rune Factory 5, developer Marvelous Inc. offers up a totally fresh take on the Rune Factory formula in here that could push the series to even greater heights going forward.
Guardians of Azuma takes place in a brand new location for the Rune Factory series: an Eastern country that draws a lot of aesthetic inspiration from traditional Japanese culture. After choosing between two characters to play as (we picked Kaguya), we enter what is admittedly a pretty long opening sequence of cinematics and tutorials.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Our favourite Switch 1 eShop games released in May.
The summer is here, the Switch 2 is almost here, and that means it’s eShop Selects time for May.
This is our very last Switch 1 edition of our monthly feature — but don’t worry, things aren’t changing with the release of a new console. You’ll still be getting your monthly dose of eShop hidden gems that we’ve reviewed, but Switch 2 eShop exclusives will be joining the party too.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
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! Did you know that adopting language altered the position of the human larynx, making us more susceptible to choking on food? I learned this because I’ve finished Blood Meridian, and was reading McCarthy’s musings on the evolution of language as a chaser. Proof, then, that the only truly fitting way to leave this world is to die choking on a book. Perhaps this week’s guest can recommend a good one?
Switch too.
This is it: Switch 2 launches this month!
Switch 1 will live on, of course (and we’re still excited to play Rhythm Heaven Groove and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream next year), but all eyes are on Nintendo’s new console, with its brand new games and its updates to existing classics. Yes, yes, we’ve all played Breath of the Wild to death, but do you think that’s going to stop us gliding in for a cheeky 4K replay?
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Landing on Switch this year.
Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots was announced for the Switch earlier this year but at the time few other details were shared.
In a small development (via Wario64 on social media), the game has now been rated by the ESRB. At the very least it’s a sign the game’s release schedule is still on track. It’s rated ‘E10+’ for ‘Everyone 10+’ and contains mild language and mild suggestive themes. Here’s the official rating summary:
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
“Designed to prevent fragments scattering”.
Nintendo has uploaded the Switch 2 instruction manual and apart from all the warnings, there’s a small but notable detail about the system’s screen.
This new LCD panel has a pre-applied film layer which is “designed to prevent fragments scattering” in the event of damage. Nintendo advises users to “not peel it off”. Here’s the warning filed under the “careful usage” section of the manual:
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Joining the Expansion Pack next week.
GameCube returns next week as a Switch 2 ‘Nintendo Classics’ exclusive and it will start life with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, F-Zero GX and SoulCalibur II.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
The next Phasmophobia update, Chronicle, is due out next month with a newly revealed June 24th release date, and developer Kinetic Games have offered up some details on what it calls one of the game’s “biggest updates” so far. So, let’s have a look at what that entails! The key addition with this update is the arrival of sound evidence, which as you can probably guess is a new haunting paranormal proof type that you’ll acquire by using the newly added sound recorder.
Developer Rebellion Developments revealed a first look at Atomfall’s first DLC expansion yesterday. Titled Wicked Isle, it unsurprisingly brings you to an island called Midsummer Island that is, in fact, a bit wicked, but like, in the bad way, not in the something a teen in the 2000s would say about something they like kind of way. Specifically it’ll have a bit more of a folk horror vibe to it, which I’m certainly into conceptually. Lots of great folklore in the UK, as long as it’s not stepping over frequently trodden upon territory.
