Double trouble.
We are back, back, back with another edition of Box Art Brawl!
Last time, we matched up two Game Boy covers for the weird Tetris sequel, Hatris, and oh boy was it a close contest! The colourful Japanese design just about clinched it in the end, taking 51% of the vote over North America’s 49%. Talk about a photo finish!
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“Another patch” is also scheduled.
Vampire Survivors recently rolled out new DLC titled ‘Ode to Castlevania‘ on the Switch. It seems there were some bugs in the initial build, but a patch has now been released addressing some of the problems.
There are some fixes for crashes, respawns, missing unlocks and more. Here’s the full rundown from the official Vampire Survivor’s account:
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This also includes remakes, remasters and new seasons.
Ahead of the nominees being revealed for ‘The Game Awards’ this year, it seems there’s some debate online about the new eligibility rules.
According to the FAQ on the official website, “expansion packs, new game seasons, DLCs, remakes and remasters” are now eligible to be nominated across “all categories”. This also factors in if the jury deems it “worthy of a nomination” and also considers the overall “newness” of the content, price and value.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Feel the beat in 2025.
Earlier this year, it was announced the team behind the Patapon would be releasing a new rhythm side-scroller roguelike on the Switch in 2025 called Ratatan.
Following the successful Kickstarter, we’ve now got a brand new reveal trailer showcasing a good chunk of gameplay.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Half-Life 2 just turned 20-years-old, and to celebrate Valve updated the game with some new features. They also produced a documetary in which several of its development team look back on their work on the game and its episodic expansions – including the never-released Episode 3.
The documentary includes in-progress footage of the episode in action for the first time, and it shows an ice gun and a new liquid enemy type.
Half-Life 2 just turned 20 years old, and to celebrate Valve have released an update for their classic first-person shooter. In brief: they’ve recorded developer commentary; they’ve added Steam Workshop support; Episodes One and Two are now part of the package; and there are some bug fixes and new graphics options.
Grab it before the end of the weekend (November 18th at 6pm GMT) and it’s also free to keep on Steam.
The weekend is officially here, and we’ve rounded up the best deals you can find! Discover the best deals for Sunday, November 10, below:
The Samsung S90C is a 2023 model (superseded by the S90D for 2024) and was considered one of the best OLED TVs on the market last year, superior to even the LG C3. The S90C uses Samsung’s proprietary quantum dot (QD) OLED panel. QD OLED panels are brighter than traditional OLED panels without losing the color accuracy, range, and wide-viewing angles that OLEDs are known for. Compared to a traditional LED LCD TV, an OLED TV offers superior image quality, near-infinite blacks, near-infinite contrast ratio, and near-instantaneous response times.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is the first Mario & Luigi title on Nintendo Switch, acting as the first new entry in the series in over nine years. Developed by Acquire, this is the first 3D entry in the series, with plenty of new mechanics to discover. Join Mario and Luigi on this adventure to reconnect the world of Concordia and set sail to many islands on Shipshape Island!
This weekend at Best Buy, you can save on the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme model, where it’s priced at $499.99. This handheld device is perfect for exploring your Steam library on the go, with PC Game Pass support also easily accessible. If you’re a My Best Buy Plus member, you can save an additional $50 off this deal, scoring the ROG Ally for $449.99.
The recently released Monster Hunter Stories Collection includes both Monster Hunter Stories and Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin. This marks the first time that players can experience the first game with the Japan-exclusive Title Updates, in addition to full voice acting. Jump into the world of Monster Hunter in a new light with this collection!
Metroid Dread was the grand return of 2D Metroid on Nintendo Switch, with developer MercurySteam teaming up with Nintendo EPD to craft the long-awaited next chapter in Samus Aran’s story. Challenging puzzles, fun boss fights, and wide exploration combine to create one of the best games on Nintendo Switch. Don’t miss your chance to pick it up at a discount this weekend.
As part of Best Buy’s early Black Friday sales, you can save $250 off this M2 MacBook Air. With 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage, this is a very solid option for those looking to either upgrade their current Mac or enter the ecosystem for the first time. This model includes features like TouchID for login, a display capable of up to 500 nits of brightness, and Apple Intelligence support.
Persona 5 Royal is by far one of the most beloved games of the last ten years. With a vibrant cast of characters and impressive narrative, there are well over 100 hours of gameplay here to discover. The turn-based combat system the Persona series is known for feels better than ever, with new mechanics to customize your gameplay the way you like it.
“If the original fans aren’t satisfied, the remake will ultimately be considered a failure”.
Booting up Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake and hearing the Overture — known as Loto / Erdrick’s Theme in Dragon Quest III — played by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra for the first time, it’s hard not to be washed over by a wave of warmth.
Whether you’ve played DQ III before or not, there’s a real sense of magic, history, and nostalgia that comes with the game. The beautiful HD-2D visuals and the game’s cosy narrative structure lend themselves to a bygone era of classic RPGs, and this remake faithfully recreates that experience over 35 years after the original’s release.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Earlier this week, Xbox boss Phil Spencer once again mentioned that an Xbox handheld is potentially in the works, but that it is still a few years out. While that timeline sucks, it does mean Microsoft has time to really make it into something awesome that can compete with top-end handheld gaming PCs like the Steam Deck or Asus ROG Ally X.
What we do know is that Phil Spencer has gone on record saying he “think(s) being able to play games locally is really important”, which suggests that any Xbox handheld that comes out won’t follow the same playbook as the PlayStation Portal, which could only play games streamed from your PS5. Unfortunately, that’s about all we really know about what the handheld console would actually be, but that doesn’t mean I can’t sit here and dream about what I’d like to see out of a potential Xbox handheld, even if I do have to wait a couple years to get my hands on it.
Let’s face it, Xbox consoles become more like Windows 11 every single day – hell, there’s even ads on the home screen now – so why not go all the way and make the presumptive Xbox handheld run Windows 11. This would open up the platform to hundreds of games that the Xbox Series X simply can’t run, plus, it would allow (or force) Microsoft to create a version of Windows 11 that’s navigable with a controller.
Microsoft has certainly created weird one-off UIs for Windows before. After all, this is the same company that created Windows RT, plus versions of Windows 7 and 8 that ran on Windows phones – remember those? It could be argued that all of those disparate versions of Windows were complete disasters, but as long as it’s optional, it could be a great way for Microsoft to get more Windows users, while also letting people that don’t like navigating a traditional desktop ignore the more arcane elements of Windows 11.
If Microsoft makes its Xbox handheld a Windows device with a gamepad-friendly UI – and that’s a big if – it would be super cool if it would also make it available for anyone to implement on their gaming PCs. I personally have a gaming PC set up in my living room, and I have to have a keyboard and mouse nearby to use it, especially when I’m trying to play a game that’s not on Steam. A controller-friendly Windows UI would do wonders there. It would also make using handheld gaming PCs much easier, now that more of them come running Windows 11.
Manufacturers like Asus and Lenovo have created ways to navigate the operating system with the controllers, but they’re not awesome. Essentially, both of them have ways to emulate mouse input when you’re interacting with the desktop. This works most of the time, but there have definitely been times where it’s stopped working for one reason or another and I’ve had to fumble around with a touchscreen, and Windows 11 is notoriously awful for touch displays. I’m no engineer, so I don’t know how hard it’d be to implement, but I’d love to have a toggle somewhere in Windows 11 settings to enable a ‘controller mode.’
The main reason an Xbox handheld running on Windows 11 instead of a standalone operating system would be appealing is because it’d let you run whatever you wanted, rather than just what’s on the Xbox Store. Letting people play any game they own on Steam, Epic, or one of the countless PC gaming platforms would be incredible. I don’t know about you, but these days, I just want to play my game on whatever device I’m using at any given moment, and the more open the Xbox handheld’s OS is, the more it’ll let me do that.
Microsoft has already indulged my need to play games on a billion little devices with its Play Anywhere program that essentially lets you buy a game on PC and then play it on Xbox Series X, with your saves carrying over. The problem is that it only supports certain first-party games.
Even if Microsoft has it locked to the Xbox store by default, at least give us access to the BIOS so we can install an unlocked version of Windows ourselves. It took Microsoft a few years to learn that lesson with Windows 10S and RT, let’s hope that it applies those lessons to the Xbox handheld, too.
The one thing that keeps me playing games on the Xbox Series X instead of my gaming PC is Quick Resume. There’s something to be said about having multiple games that are essentially suspended, that you can swap between at will. This is awesome when you’re stuck on a boss and you want to take a break with a different game, then come back with a clear head without losing any progress. I want that on Windows, especially for a handheld system.
Most of the time, when you put a gaming PC in sleep mode while it’s running a game, that game will still be running when you wake it up. This is essentially what happens when you tap the power button on your ROG Ally. However, it’s not perfect, and there are times where things will break in your game when you wake your system from sleep. So, the capability is technically there for something like Quick Resume, it would just need to be implemented.
While the AMD Z1 Extreme is awesome for handheld gaming PCs, we’re still waiting for AMD to create a next-generation version of it. What makes the Z1 special is that it’s specially engineered for the needs of a handheld gaming system. It has awesome graphics performance, but doesn’t draw too much power, allowing you to play games on battery for a few hours. The trade-off, though, is that it’s not great at moving above 1080p on medium settings in most games.
The AMD Z1 Extreme is using a Zen 4 CPU core, along with an RDNA 3 GPU core. We already have Zen 5 processors on the market, like the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, but we’re still waiting for RDNA 4 to show up. With how late in the year we are, my bet is that AMD will show off its next-generation graphics tech at CES 2025. If that happens, we should see the Z2, or its equivalent, some time in mid-to-late 2025.
Microsoft being Microsoft, though, it’s entirely possible that it could work with a chipmaker like AMD to create custom silicon to bring the Xbox handheld to the next level, which would make it stand out in a market that’s becoming increasingly saturated with new handhelds all the time.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
Time to rewrite history.
Running a budding kingdom is hard, but it is made even more difficult by being surrounded on all sides by a host of potential enemies, all vying for land, resources, and power. Few video games have managed to recreate that pressure as well as Koei Tecmo’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, with Romance of the Three Kingdoms 8 Remake becoming the most balanced version of one of the best games in that franchise. Somehow, they’ve made the tedium of bureaucracy feel fun and addictive.
Like the rest of the series and the novel that inspired it, Romance of the Three Kingdoms 8 Remake — which originally launched in Japan on PC in 2001 before arriving in the West a couple of years later on PS2 — follows a heavily romanticised version of Chinese history. The period from around 220 to 280 AD was a time of huge upheaval for the region, with multiple figures competing for control. That conflict gave birth to figures such as Lu Bu, Dong Zhuo, and Cao Cao, all of whom have become immortalised in novels, films, and, most relevant for us, video games.
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