Category: Video Gaming

With the release of The Mandalorian season 3 just over six weeks away, after a two-year hiatus, Lucasfilm dropped a new trailer on Monday, giving us a glimpse of what’s next in the adventures of Din Djarin and Grogu.

The third season of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni’s Star Wars series takes place after 2022’s ostensible side-story, The Book of Boba Fett, moved things on significantly for the unlikely pairing of armored bounty hunter and cute Force baby. Grogu has left behind his Jedi training with Luke Skywalker to reunite with Din (Pedro Pascal, currently starring in The Last of Us). Din, for his part, has been expelled from his cult, the Children of the Watch, for allowing himself to be seen without his helmet. Only a return to Mandalore can reinstate him as a true Mandalorian, seemingly setting up an odyssey to the Mandalorian homeworld in season 3.

Din still has the legendary Darksaber, too, which supposedly entitles him to rule Mandalore, but Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan will probably have something to say about that. Alongside Sackhoff, Carl Weathers returns to the show’s cast as Greef Karga, and it looks like both have sizable roles to play in the next chapter of the wandering space Western. Giancarlo Esposito is back too, as the dastardly Moff Gideon, and veteran character actor Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future’s Doc Brown) joins the cast. Oh, and Babu Frik is back.

The Mandalorian season 3 premieres on Disney Plus on March 1.

Mum, get the camera! It’s finally happened – a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD is selling for less than £50. The winner of this impromptu contest is Kingston’s NV2, an expectedly budget drive that still manages to deliver some fairly impressive performance according to independent reviews. To squeak in under the £50 mark, you’ll need to use code JAN10 at the checkout at Ebay.

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Gotta go fast!

Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) 2023 wrapped up over the weekend, following a week of incredible speedruns and raising just over $2.6 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation during that time. Even though the event was held virtually this year, there were still plenty of moments that were stunning to watch. Here’s a little speedrun of our own that breaks down the 15 wildest moments at AGDQ 2023.

If we’re going to talk about speedrunning, then you have to mention the fastest character in video games, Sonic the Hedgehog. This skip by Speck in Sonic Unleashed looks outstanding. What makes it even more ridiculous is that it was a crucial part of beating the TAS run. For the uninitiated, this is essentially the equivalent of a human beating a chess supercomputer.

World Drivers’ Champion Max Verstappen described the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual event that took place this past weekend as “a clown show” after technical issues caused multiple red flags and disconnections that eventually led him to retire from the race.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual (opens in new tab) was launched in 2020 after the Covid-19 pandemic forced the postponement of the real-world Le Mans. The online race, which features drivers from around the world all competing remotely, was designed to be as close to the physical event as possible. It has very strict rules and requirements: Among other things, at least two of the drivers on each four-person team have to be FIA-licensed (or equivalent) professional drivers. Verstappen actually raced in that debut event in 2020, as did fellow F1 driver Lando Norris.

“You know how fuzzy memories can be.” It’s a convenient and hand-wavy line delivered by the new character Lim, warning the Straw Hat Pirates of the impending adventures into some of One Piece’s most popular story arcs. Likewise, One Piece Odyssey can be a fuzzy experience. It oscillates between being thrilling and tedious. The promise of discovering “what if…?” scenarios is enticing for longtime fans, but it rarely follows through in a meaningful way. And as a potential introductory point for new fans, One Piece Odyssey falters as most of the context and characters in the core story flashbacks are stripped away. While I’m conflicted about my time with One Piece Odyssey, it’s a testament to the series’ RPG outing that I’m fond of the overall adventure despite some glaring holes throughout.

One Piece Odyssey’s wholly original content starts slow but builds intrigue well every time I return to the island of Waford. That’s where elastic outlaw Monkey D. Luffy and his notorious crew find themselves stranded. Trouble finds them quickly as a stoic girl named Lim uses her powers to separate Luffy and his friends from their strength and abilities, storing them in mystical cubes scattered around the island. Along with her caretaker, an explorer named Adio, Lim helps restore the Straw Hats’ power. To do that, they must enter a world of memories to recover what was lost. 

These early hours introduce not only turn-based battles but also exploration. Most Straw Hat crew members can be switched between while traversing the world, each with unique and valuable skills that fit naturally with the character. Being a rubber man, Luffy can stretch his arms to grapple to areas in the environment not accessible to other characters or snag sparkling trinkets in the distance. Likewise, Chopper’s small frame allows passage into tight spaces only he can fit. Crafting systems, such as cooking healing items with Sanji and forging accessories with Robin, are delightful touches that extend the characters’ ship roles meaningfully into the gameplay. Combined with the authentic dialogue between the crew, One Piece Odyssey wonderfully realizes who these characters are.

With a mix of sketched and realistic textures, One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda’s style translates spectacularly into the character models and world. Areas like Alabasta and Water Seven are well-realized, along with the creatures and funky-looking characters inhabiting them. The signature attacks of the crew, like Zoro’s sword techniques or Chopper’s transformational Devil Fruit powers, are killer in motion. The anime’s Japanese VO cast also adds a welcome level of authenticity, making Odyssey feel like another chapter of the anime. While the addition of English VO or the anime’s score and theme music would have been appreciated, what’s there works well.

The attention to detail is on full display in Odyssey’s turn-based battles, which like Luffy, have an abundance of flexibility. Maybe too much. Combat feels grand, splitting the crew into multiple micro-battles, usually making them fight their enemies before helping elsewhere unless ranged or AOE abilities are on hand. The process of picking off enemies and then consolidating the full force to clean up the surviving foes is satisfying, as is completing bonus objectives that reward additional experience. What helps make fights a little too easy is the option to swap the position of any character at any time with no penalty, as long as they haven’t attacked. Exchanging the places of Nami and Brook, who are supposed to be tied down in different zones, feels like cheating. The battle system has a lot of potential but not enough restraint to make it truly special. 

While the initial adventures into Memoria drag, the second half picks up considerably as the action and the stakes in Memoria and on Waford hit a fever pitch. Much of the content Odyssey revisits is underwhelming, and void of context for the events at hand, save for some lore dumps in the game’s menus. Still, critical moments in the final hours had me in awe, thanks to fun hypothetical situations with characters that didn’t happen in the canon story. I wish more of those moments were spread throughout One Piece Odyssey to make better use of the wonderful settings and characters on hand.

I have reservations about the experience as a whole – however, I can’t help but smile thinking about this adventure with the Straw Hats. It nails the core cast of characters, the Memoria areas are fun to revisit, and the revelations surrounding Waford, Lim, and Adio ultimately satisfy. Of course, I can’t thoroughly recommend this voyage for someone new to One Piece, but seasoned pirates will find a worthy adventure on the horizon.

My dog is undeniably a good boy, but he’s never saved my life in a videogame. He could learn a trick or two from MissMikaa’s dog, who apparently knows when to step in and move her Elden Ring character away from a fiery death.

MissMikaa is the streamer who last week simultaneously beat Elden Ring with a controller and a dance mat, which should give you some clue as to how he rendered canine assistance.

Without further ado, here’s the moment where “Yoshi” stepped up to the plate:

My dog is better at Elden Ring than you? Yoshi was on a mission looking for treats when he valiantly went up against a dragon and put my character in a spot where I didn’t die to his fire! HERO pic.twitter.com/kLHPwlqcTt

— MissMikkaa (@MissMikkaa) January 15, 2023

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Yes, that is a clueless dog wandering onto a dance mat while Mikaa is AFK, walking her character behind a rock just before a dragon can fully engulf her in flame, then casting a contemptuous look at the camera because he didn’t find the treats he was apparently looking for. I’m not convinced he wasn’t just checking out that portrait of himself.

If you’re after more pet appreciation, here’s Lauren Morten’s round up pets that developers have immortalised in their videogames.

Cheers for the spot, GamesRadar.

For a limited time, Amazon is offering the excellent Wingspan board game for only $38.81. That’s a substantial 40% off the original retail price of $65. If you missed the deal on Black Friday, this is another chance for you to pick up a highly rated and very accessible board game for a deal-worthy price.

Wingspan Board Game for $38.81

Wingspan from Stonemeier Games is an incredibly good board game. So good in fact that we deemed it the best board game of 2019. Wingspan looks like a deceptively simple game; the endgame goal is to attract as many birds as you can to your wildlife preserve and help them proliferate. There are only four actions you can perform: draw a bird card, play a bird card, get food, and lay eggs. Sounds simple enough, right? Well let’s just say these four actions mask an incredibly complex engine-building game with which you will have to juggle between bringing new birds into the fold and keeping your existing birds well stocked and in a breeding frenzy. Wingspan is infinitely replayable, and you’ll find yourself developing and honing new strategies with every subsequent playthough.

It certainly helps that this is a very accessible game for both casuals and enthusiasts. The board game design is gorgeous, featuring over 170 detailed bird illustations by Elizabeth Hargrave, charming game board backdrops, and cute little tokens and egg minatures. The rules are easy to follow, and each game lasts about an hour, so you won’t need to carve out a huge chunk of time to play it. When we deemed it the best board game of 2019, we valued it against its original retail price; at 40% off this is a steal.

If you believe the rumor mill, the next Sims 4 Expansions Pack is a reboot of The Sims 3: Generations. That pack added weddings, high school graduations, new kids’ activities, and relationship drama to the game. With all the speculation about what might be coming, here’s what Simmers are hoping to see this year.

Improved Relationship Mechanics

Family dynamics have come a long way since the initial release of The Sims 4, but there’s still a lot more EA could do to add richness and variety to family relationships. The family tree, for example, only shows five total generations, including the current (youngest) one. This makes ongoing Legacy Challenges and multigenerational family storytelling difficult.

Another limitation of the family relationships in The Sims 4 is that Sims will only recognize their immediate family members out in the world. This isn’t a huge deal in early saves, but once you have a couple of generations of a Sim family, you can run into some awkward kissing cousins situations.

A Sims 4 Generations Pack could expand the family tree by having extended family members interact in unique ways. Children who are cousins, for example, could have a higher starting relationship but be more prone to arguments like siblings. Each family could have a fun uncle, an outcast cousin, and other unique family traits to keep things interesting.

Expanded Life Stages

EA started drumming up hype for a new life stage — infants — way back at the Behind the Sims Summit in Oct. 2022, so we already have that to look forward to. But they could expand on multigenerational gameplay in other ways, too.

Currently, the elder life stage is a little bit underdeveloped. Yes, elders can retire from their jobs and continue to collect a paycheck, freeing up their time to do whatever they want. However, there’s nothing unique about elder activities. Anything a young adult Sim can do, an elder Sim can do, and vice versa.

EA could flesh out the elder life stage by giving them unique activities, locations, and objects, like a bingo hall, mobility aids such as canes and walkers, dentures, and more. One of the graphics from the 2023 roadmap video seems to refer to teeth, adding to speculation about elder activities.

It would be fun to see a new life stage between children and teenagers, too — tweens. Yes, as a parent, I can tell you that the bridge between childhood and adolescence has a totally different landscape than either of the other two life stages. And as a former middle schooler, I know how bizarre and complex social interactions between tweens can be. A middle school update could be a clever addition to the High School Years Expansion Pack.

New Neighborhood

The Behind the Sims Summit teased that new worlds would be coming to The Sims 4 in 2023. Early concept art shows families of Sims out and about interacting in exciting new ways. A parent carries a baby in a sling on their back while a child rides a bicycle next to them. A parent and child walk hand in hand past an adult enjoying the outdoors.

Sure, the existing Sims 4 neighborhoods have plenty of family-friendly activities to do. There are parks with playgrounds, chess boards, and even pet agility courses. But getting families of Sims to do something together is actually really hard. You can send them to the park together, but once they get there, they all go off and do their own thing.

EA’s concept art suggests that a Generations Pack or update could add new family-friendly community lots with more interesting activities and interactive ways to play with families of Sims. Parents could teach their children how to ride bikes or push their babies around town in cozy little prams.

Party Time

Parties and social events are a key part of the Sims 4 universe, helping Sims build new relationships, complete Aspirations, and earn rewards. Sims can host social events to celebrate birthdays and weddings, dinner parties to show off their cooking skills, and house parties for any reason at all.

A Generations Expansion Pack could bring new family-centered social events to the game. Sims could have bachelor and bachelorette parties to celebrate the bride or groom-to-be. Friends could throw baby showers for pregnant Sims to help them prepare for the new arrival. Families could host annual reunions to get all the distant relatives together for a cookout. And, of course, a Sim funeral could bring together friends, family, lovers, and enemies of departed Sims, producing some interesting encounters.

Wants That Work

Wants have been part of the Sims franchise since The Sims 2. But in The Sims 4, they’re still very broken. They’re repetitive and usually irrelevant to a Sim’s actual situation, and to top it all off, completing them only earns a tiny handful of Reward Points. Many Simmers have turned off the Wants and Fears system entirely — and repeatedly, because it’s so broken, it turns itself back on mid-game.

A Generations Expansion or other family-themed update could revamp the Wants and Fears in a way that makes players turn them back on — on purpose! The Sims 3: Generations Expansion Pack added mid-life crises to the game; Wants and Fears that showed up when young adults turned into adults and became aware of their own mortality.

EA could go in new directions, too, adding more wants relevant to a Sim’s life stage and situation. Pregnant Sims could have Wants around getting things in order for the new baby. Teen Sims could have fears associated with the social complexities of high school. More relevant Wants and Fears could push Simmers to play in ways they otherwise wouldn’t, bringing new life to the Sims world.

Family Fashion

Children’s fashion got a big update with the First Fits Kit in 2022, and teens got some cool new outfits in the High School Years EP. But elders still have the same not-so-old clothes as young adult Sims. Don’t get me wrong — I’m all for fashion-forward seniors, but not every elder wants to dress like a runway model.

A Generations EP could bring us new fashion for different ages and stages. I’d love to see elders in orthopedic shoes and hair bonnets, hand-knit sweaters, and a housedress like the one your grandma wore that gave you eight aunts and uncles. With the new infant life stage that we’ve already been promised, we might even see some cute new outfits on the itty bitty babies strolling about town.

Sims Stories

While researching for this article, I was stunned to learn that The Sims 4 already has a built-in memory system in the in-game screenshots. When viewing your screenshots and selfies in-game, you can choose to make them a memory, and affected Sims will react to it from time to time. But in eight years of playing, I’ve literally never seen it, so it clearly could have a larger role in-game.

A Generations Expansion could beef up the memory system, tying it into the existing Sentiments to add new levels of nuance to Sim family dynamics for Simmers who love the storytelling aspect of the game.

Another story-enhancing feature could be more Sim randomization opportunities. Yes, being able to control every aspect of a Sim’s life is nice, but some Simmers (like me) need a little nudge to shake things up now and again. Many Community Challenges, such as the Random Legacy Challenge, depend on online random trait generators to randomize Sim traits.

A Generations update could build a randomization system into the game at key points — such as when a new baby is born or a Sim becomes an adult and enters a midlife crisis — to keep Simmers on their toes.

What are you looking forward to from The Sims 4 in 2023? Do you think Generations will be the next Expansion Pack? What are your favorite rumors about the Sims 4 roadmap? Let us know in the comments below!

The repeatability of the Predator franchise is its true strength. Who needs an overarching canon when all a movie needs is some fun characters, good action, and the answer to a question like “How would a Roman legion react to a Predator attack?” From such humble questions come instant cult classics like Prey, which pitted an aspiring Comanche warrior against the alien hunter.

But this year, writer Ed Brisson and artist Kev Walker have shown that there’s no wrong time period for a Predator story, not even the future.

Brisson and Walker’s Predator comic has come to a close with its sixth issue, which is annoying, because I would have followed their protagonist forever: Theta, lone child survivor of a Predator attack, who cuts a bloody path across an alien-filled galaxy in her obsolete, sentient science vessel, racking up Predator kills and injuries on a quest to find and execute the one that killed her family.

What else is happening in the pages of our favorite comics? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of the books that our comics editor enjoyed this past week. It’s part society pages of superhero lives, part reading recommendations, part “look at this cool art.” There may be some spoilers. There may not be enough context. But there will be great comics. (And if you missed the last edition, read this.)

Normally the last thing I want a Hollywood executive to do is remember that they own a company that publishes comic books, much less print media, lest they start trying to mess with it. But I’m making an exception for Predator (2022), the comic.

I really do hope somebody at the Walt Disney corporation knows that Marvel Comics creatives just handed them a rock solid Predator spinoff for pennies on the dollar: What if Prey took place in a Star Wars-style universe?

Image: Denis Culver, Hayden Sherman/DC Comics

Speaking of concepts that deserve continuation: “Arkham Academy” is currently an ongoing short in the DC anthology Batman: Urban Legends, and jeeze louise I wish this was an ongoing already. A group of incarcerated children and sidekicks of supervillains is sent to Arkham Asylum for a new super-juvenile detention program, only to realize it’s a front. They’ve actually been trapped by the Court of Owls — Gotham’s Eyes Wide Shut-style illuminati — in an attempt to create the next generation of supervillains and ensure that the chaos in the city never stops.

Image: Kelly Thompson, Meredith McClaren/Image Comics

The best #1 I read this week was Black Cloak from writer Kelly Thompson and artist Meredith McClaren. I’ve always got room for another hard-boiled crime story set in a fantasy world, especially one as snappy and well executed as this. (P.S.: The Lagoon is full of mermaids with gulper eel mouths.)

Image: Sabir Pirzada, Francesco Mortarino/Marvel Comics

I have to admit that Dark Reign is not grabbing me, except for one thing. And that’s the way that artists and writers are choosing to play with the really weird — and yet, storied Marvel Comics — concept of a New York City where all inanimate objects have been brought to cartoonish demonic life, like an evil version of the castle in Beauty and the Beast.

Like here, where Kamala Khan’s Jersey City mosque just grew some limbs and ran away because it was tired of listening to congregation infighting. This is very weird and very good.

Image: Zeb Wells, Ed McGuinness/Marvel Comics

On the other side of the spectrum, there’s J. Jonah Jameson’s bed, which will absolutely be appearing in my nightmares this weekend.

Golf Story was one of the biggest surprises in the Switch’s extremely strong first year on the market. Thanks to Golf Story’s charming, nostalgic presentation and novel sports/RPG fusion, Sports Story has long been one of my most anticipated sequels. Unfortunately, its unfocused nature and frustrating gameplay are only overshadowed by a pervasive lack of polish that prevents Sports Story from being worth your time. 

As the name suggests, Sports Story expands the world to include other games while creating a more sweeping and ambitious story. As sports go, golf remains the most prominent; everything in the story is told through the lens of a golf-crazed world, and that often plays to the title’s strengths. Stepping back onto the links, selecting the right club and ball for the job, and teeing off across the eight courses on offer (as well as dozens of minigames) is still as fun as it was in the previous title. The approachable three-click meter usually plays well, and considering the distance, surface, and wind direction to deliver a perfect shot never ceases to satisfy. In these fleeting moments, I’m reminded why Golf Story was such a success. Sadly, despite golf being the best sport in the game’s stable, the less-enjoyable sports and tedious story too often distract from this glaring strength.

Sports Story adds activities surrounding BMX, tennis, cricket, volleyball, fishing, running, and baseball, but only a few are more than diversions. Tennis takes up perhaps the most time, but it doesn’t live up to golf’s superb blueprint. In addition to requiring far too precise character placement and swing timing, I also encountered moments where the game would simply give the point to my opponent, even when I clearly scored. The other sports are mostly relegated to minigames, with BMX serving up a mix of enjoyable races against the clock and frustratingly tough obstacle courses. Each time a different sporting event appeared, it made me glad when Sidebar Games returned to the world of golf.

Sadly, the story side of the equation is not much better than the sports side. On top of that, it takes up a disproportionate amount of the more than 20 hours I spent in-game. Where Golf Story used this part of its game to lay on the charm and humor, Sports Story’s dialogue is mostly tedious and unfunny. Save for a few enjoyable bits, the jokes fell flat most of the time, and I never felt invested in the narrative arcs. Not only that, but the constant reliance on fetch-quests meant I spent too much time trying to find the abstract solution of who I was supposed to talk to or what I was supposed to interact with. The more focused dungeons have some simple-yet-enjoyable golf-focused puzzles, but they’re only a small percentage of the overall time spent exploring.

An unignorable lack of polish accentuates all these problems. I rarely went more than a couple of hours without the game crashing me back to the Switch home screen, and on a couple of occasions, I lost a significant amount of progress. Perhaps more substantially, the game doesn’t run well; the frame rate drops and gameplay stutters are annoying when I’m exploring the overworld, but when they happen in the middle of the timing-based backswing in golf or precise gameplay of tennis, they result in me missing a pivotal shot or losing a point. These ever-present problems combine with less frequent issues like quests not properly completing, dialogue not triggering, and my character clipping through the environment, truly hammering home just how buggy Sports Story is. At one point, my character began levitating over the map when I went to cast my fishing rod, allowing me to bypass blockades and essentially break the mission progression chain.

Even if Sports Story was polished and bug-free, it would still fall strikingly short of the first title in the series. The new sports don’t play well, the fetch quests are tiresome, and the story is tedious and less charming than that of Golf Story. What remains of the retro golf experience is fun, but the whole game feels like a textbook example of being unable to deliver on lofty ambitions.

If you can’t get enough of The Last of Us after watching the series premiere on HBO Max, PlayStation is celebrating this big moment by offering a two-hour trial of PS5’s The Last of Us Part I for all PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers.

PlayStation Plus Premium is the highest level of PlayStation Plus and, in the U.S., it costs $17.99/month. In addition to Game Trials, subscribers also get access to cloud streaming, access to a growing library of PS1, PS3, PS4, PS5, and PSP games, cloud saves, monthly games, discounts, and more.

Watched #TheLastOfUs premiere on HBO Max?

Continue Joel and Ellie’s journey with a game trial for The Last of Us Part I available now with PlayStation Plus Premium: https://t.co/vANYKjiXN2 pic.twitter.com/1r41EDgu2S

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) January 16, 2023

• PC
• PlayStation 3
• + 2 more
• PlayStation 4
• PlayStation 5

The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic action shooter game developed by Naughty Dog. Joel, a brutal survivor, and Ellie, a brave teenaged girl who is wise beyond her years, must work together if they hope to survive their journey across the US.

• PC
• PlayStation 3
• + 2 more
• PlayStation 4
• PlayStation 5

The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic action shooter game developed by Naughty Dog. Joel, a brutal survivor, and Ellie, a brave teenaged girl who is wise beyond her years, must work together if they hope to survive their journey across the US.

One of the best modern fighting games out there, Guilty Gear Xrd: Rev 2, is receiving a hugely important rollback netcode update on January 20.

What this means is that the game, one that has a fond place in the hearts of many a fighting game player, will have a far less frustrating online experience with less lag and freezes. That is, as long as it is implemented well.

The news comes via the official Guilty Gear Twitter account, and as you may have imagined has gone down a treat among the community of the game who can be found in droves in the comments of the announcement. For many, especially those with substandard internet connections, this essentially makes the game playable online where it had been a frustrating experience before.

This comes as the latest of rollback updates to older Arc System Works games. Back in December of 2021, they proudly announced both Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle and Blazblue: Central Fiction would be receiving an overhaul to their online infrastructure. Not only that, but Dragonball FighterZ also got its own rollback announcement during Evo 2022. So what’s the deal here?

For one, every time one of these games gets a rollback update, the game shoots up in concurrent players. With the news that these games have actually become more or less playable online for a wider net of players, people flock to try it out. More players means more sales, and of course more money. By implementing rollback, Arc System Works (or any dev who does follow suite) revitalise a game they’d otherwise expect little revenue from.

Also it goes a long way in terms of community favour. The fighting game community is small, especially when compared to the playerbases of FPS or RPG franchises, so earning positive points with the players goes a long way in securing excitement for upcoming projects.

We can safely assume that Arc System Works cares about rollback, so there’s little to be worried about when it comes to future titles. Compare this to Bandai, who has yet to announce such a feature for Tekken 8, and the difference in anxiety from players is tangible.

But what do you think? Will you be downloading Rev 2 with the rollback patch? Let us know below!