I started writing this piece as a sort of “oh, this was cool!” bit of game archaeology after seeing a post from Scott Krol – who shares consistently fascinating bits of ephemera on video and tabletop games – on the physical bits that came with 1984’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy adventure game.
“Infocom, known for their brilliant text adventures, was the first company to put physical items in with their games,” writes Scott. “In fact, Infocom were attributed as the first to coin the term “feelies” for physical goodies that came with the game”.
We love the little GWPs (gifts with purchase) that Lego likes to drop with certain special sets from time to time, and this latest one is an absolute doozy for us Nintendo fans.
The Switch 2 isn’t just getting brand new games, but its online service will also be receiving a special update adding the GameCube library. While it’s set to start with only a handful of games, Nintendo has already teased some others.
Still, we’re sure there are many other requests – so Alex and Zion have now chimed in with 10 games Nintendo Life would like to eventually see show up on this classic Nintendo library. This includes both first and third-party games as well as some safe picks and dream releases.
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! I’m currently reading Dorothy Parker, who did more for the language than I’d previously though. I’m having quite regular moments of “oh, she said that”. More proof, if any were needed, that the soul of wit is as much depression and alcoholism as it is brevity.
This week it’s game city design expert and author of Virtual Cities, Konstantinos Dimopoulos! Cheers Konstantinos! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?
We are back with another edition of Box Art Brawl! Are you ready to rank some cover art?
Last time, we took a look at 1080° Avalanche for the GameCube, and the results were an absolute blowout. The European / North American design took a staggering win, claiming 80% of the vote and leaving the Japanese variant with the remaining 20%. Oof, an avalanche indeed.
Oblivion Remastered has enjoyed a hugely successful launch, with over 4 million players and a ‘very positive’ user review rating on Steam. However, if there’s one issue that continues to crop up, it’s performance problems.
No platform is spared of issues: whether it’s PS5, PS5 Pro, or either Xbox Series machine, all struggle with traversal hitches while roaming the open world. Secondly, there’s major sub-60fps frame-rates, where I’ve also discovered that performance slowly degrades with more playing time – quite possibly down to a memory leak. And finally, software freezes are the icing on the cake, with all PlayStation and Xbox platforms crashing to the system menu on loading a save one too many times.
How does this manifest itself in-game? According to DF, a “charged” playthrough with more continuous play time behind it performs worse than a fresh boot. Cycling through saves also introduces bugs in the charged play through, Morgan revealed. And this is particularly curious: this also leads to the camera position being too high while riding horseback. You can fix this by resetting the game.
The discovery of performance degrading over time as a result of a potential memory leak is of particular concern. The crashes on loading a save too many times is a significant issue, too.
The hope of course is that Bethesda addresses these problems sooner rather than later, especially as players spend more time with the expansive fantasy role-playing game and are more likely to run into these performance problems.
“It’s a dire position for any remaster to be in and developer Virtuos needs to address the game’s stability – the crashes – as a priority,” Morgan continued.
Digital Foundry asks some tough questions in its analysis, suggesting Oblivion Remastered was “rushed to market.” There also seems to be a discrepancy between versions, with a hotfix released for Xbox Series X so far unavailable for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro.
That’s a damning assessment of Oblivion on console, but what about PC? DF had already issued its analysis of the PC version, calling its performance “dire.” It’s worth checking out DF’s analysis in full for more.
Despite the performance issues, Oblivion Remastered is a hit. It became the third best-selling game of 2025 in the U.S. after just one week on sale, having shadow-dropped on April 22. Oblivion Remastered trails only Monster Hunter: Wilds and Assassin’s Creed: Shadows at the top of the 2025 sales chart.
Oblivion Remastered, developed by remake specialist Virtuos using Unreal Engine 5, has a long list of visual and feature improvements. It runs at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, as you’d expect, but other changes are more meaningful. Everything from the leveling systems to character creation, and combat animations to in-game menus have been improved. Meanwhile, there’s lots of new dialogue, a proper third-person view, and new lip sync technology. The changes are going down well with fans, some of whom believe Oblivion Remastered would be more accurately described as a remake. Bethesda, however, has explained why it went down the remaster route.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The Arc System Works fighter Guilty Gear Strive was released on Switch earlier this year, and at EVO Japan this weekend a new DLC fighter has locked in a release date.
Unika will be arriving on 27th May 2025 as part of the Season 4 character lineup. More details about this new character will be released closer to her launch later this month.
Nintendo’s new Mario Kart World game arrives on the Switch 2 next month and if you’re planning on getting a physical copy, this is what you can expect when you flip over the back of the box art.
