Video Gaming – Page 740

Google Stadia Has Released One Final Game Ahead of Its Shutdown On January 18 – IGN

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Google Stadia is officially shutting down on January 18, and the team behind the video game streaming service has gifted the world Worm Game, the final title that will be released for the platform and one that was used to test many of Stadia’s features before it launched.

Worm Game can be played now by anyone with a Google Chrome browser, and it is very much inspired by the classic game Snake. It’s not the most advanced game graphically, but it does have multiple levels, the ability to change the color of your worm, and four modes – Campaign, Arcade, Multiplayer, and Build.

It’s also important to note that, if you’d like to try Worm Game, you need to do so by January 18 as it will become unplayable when Google Stadia is officially shut down.

It’s a rare glimpse behind the curtain of game development, and it is a fascinating look at how the team helped bring Stadia to life.

“Play the game that came to Stadia before Stadia came to the world,” The Stadia Platform Content team wrote. “‘Worm Game’ is a humble title we used to test many of Stadia’s features, starting well before our 2019 public launch, right through 2022. It won’t win Game of the Year, but the Stadia team spent a LOT of time playing it, and we thought we’d share it with you. Thanks for playing, and for everything.”

Alongside Worm Game, the Stadia team has one other surprise in store for those who invested in the failed platform, as it will be releasing a “self-serve tool to enable Bluetooth connections on your Stadia Controller” next week. We don’t have the exact details as to how it will work as of yet, but those will come “on release.”

Google Stadia launched in 2019 and is a cloud gaming service that allows users to stream video games, including such AAA titles as Cyberpunk 2077 and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, to devices that have Google Chrome. It doesn’t matter how powerful the device is either, as everything is run on Google’s cloud service.

Google announced in September 2022 that Stadia would be shutting down in January 2023, but it made the generous gesture of refunding “all Stadia hardware purchases made though the Google Store, and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia Store.”

While Stadia may not live to see another month, the tech behind it will live on as Google has already began offering it as a white-label product. This means other companies can use the technology without saying, “hey, this is run by Google Stadia!” AT&T has already taken advantage of this when it offered Batman: Arkham Knight to its users for free.

To learn much more about the rise and fall of Google Stadia, be sure to check out our in-depth look at what happened to a platform that Google promised would be the “future of gaming.”

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

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Adam Bankhurst

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January 13, 2023

In Just 8 Weeks, Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Has Already Surpassed Sword & Shield’s Total Retail Sales in Japan

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Move aside Galar Region, it’s all about Paldea now.

Published on January 13, 2023
Grace Black

Home » News » In Just 8 Weeks, Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Has Already Surpassed Sword & Shield’s Total Retail Sales in Japan

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’s release was an exciting day for many Poke-fans around the world. Despite some flaws, the games have received high praise and have been complimented for taking a big step in the correct direction for what fans want in Pokemon games of the future.

In fact, Pokemon Scarlet & Violet have been such a big hit that the total retail sales have already passed the previous games, Pokemon Sword & Shield.

Total retail sales Pokémon Scarlet / Violet in Japan have surpassed those of Pokémon Sword / Shield, that’s 8 weeks vs 3 years.

Including digital sales are of at least 6m, but I’d bet they’re closer and maybe even over 7m. pic.twitter.com/d9HXq5xu9L

— Game Data Library (@GameDataLibrary) January 12, 2023

This is huge, considering Sword & Shield has been out for three years, and Scarlet & Violet are only eight weeks into their lifespan. Game Data Library noted in the graph above that the newest games in the franchise reached over 4.5 million sales; if you include digital sales, that total exceeds 6 million and is likely to be closer to 7 million.

Mentioned further down in the comments by Game Data Library is a chart comparing Scarlet & Violet sales to some of the fastest-selling games in Japan. At the eight-week mark, Scarlet & Violet has outsold Pokemon Black & White, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Pokemon Gold & Silver.

Considering there’s been lots of big news in the Pokemon community lately, such as Ash leaving the anime series, new Pokemon GO events, and the number of Pokemon created excelling 1000. For more on the franchise, be sure to check out all of our other related content down below.

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Grace Black

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January 13, 2023

Skull and Bones shows off new gameplay, and it’s still not very impressive

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Just two days after delaying Skull and Bones (opens in new tab) yet again, this time into early 2023-24, Ubisoft has posted a new developer stream showcasing the oft-delayed pirate adventure’s “narrative gameplay.” The video takes players through an “investigation,” described by narrative director Joel Jannise as “a way to tell a story through a series of steps.”

“The player follows a trail of something that they think is going to be interesting and likely going to lead to some kind of treasure or some kind of score,” Janisse explains in the video. “But it also tells a story about our factions and our world, and we do that by finding, for example, messages in bottles, scraps of lost journals, sometimes talking to different characters in the world, and through that we’re able to tell a story.”

The investigation seen in the video is centered on a beef between a brother and sister, both of whom believe they’re the proper heir to the throne of a small kingdom. You, as a pirate, don’t particularly care about the politics of the situation, but thrones come with crowns, and crowns are worth a lot of money.

The action begins with a mission to plunder a local settlement, and this is where I start to tune out. The act of plundering is simply a matter of pulling up close enough to the port in question, pushing the “plunder” button, and then sailing around within a bounded area blasting at enemy ships while a timer ticks down, signaling the progress your off-screen crew is making.

“The fantasy here is, as we’re out here fighting and holding our ground, they’re in the settlement scampering around, stealing whatever they can get their hands on, and looking for the thing that in this case we’re looking for, which is the next clue in our investigation,” Janisse says. And I think that really nails one of my core issues with Skull and Bones: It is purely a fantasy, because I can’t partake in it—I can’t even see it happening.

The same thing happens later on in the investigation, when Janisse and senior community developer Alexis Cretton opt to investigate a shipwreck they’ve discovered: They pull up to it, push the “loot” button, and the item on board immediately appears in their inventory.

Even the sailing, the most basic, central element of Skull and Bones, doesn’t seem very impressive. Ships look light and floaty in the video, with no sense of mass or inertia, and not very reactive to the water; it’s also impossible to explore ships properly—you can’t go below decks, for instance, or into the captain’s cabin.

It all just seems so dull. My pirate fantasy isn’t to interact with menus and timers, it’s to swashbuckle! Ideally in the most ridiculous ways possible. I said after a July 2022 gameplay reveal that watching Skull and Bones just makes me want to play Sea of Thieves (opens in new tab), and that’s still very much the case. Janisse said Ubisoft has “worked really closely with historians, as well as language and culture experts, to make sure that we’re being accurate,” which is fine—but what about the fun? Skull and Bones has three different types of sea shanties to reflect the authenticity of the game’s languages and lore; Sea of Thieves lets you play your own instruments, dance, drink to excess, and vomit on your teammates.

You can also, if you like, do stuff like this (opens in new tab):

I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of pirate adventure I want to dive into. (And don’t worry, he’s fine. It’s a big sky adventure for Virgil!)

It’s impossible to make concrete judgments about a game based solely on videos. But Skull and Bones is drifting, Ubisoft is in trouble (opens in new tab), and at a time when it needs to put its best foot forward, this really doesn’t impress. Ubisoft said earlier this week that the most recent Skull and Bones delay “will help us in providing further polish and balancing,” but what I see in this video isn’t a lack of polish, it’s a lack of interesting gameplay.

Skull and Bones is back to having no release date, but is expected to be out early in Ubisoft 2023-24 fiscal year. That puts it sometime after April 1.

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andy.chalk@pcgamer.com (Andy Chalk)

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January 13, 2023

Halo Infinite Dev Reveals Hit Pokémon-Inspired Forge Mode Is Also A Great QA Tool

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Halo Infinite Forge mode is proving to help the game in more ways than anticipated. It was recently revealed that a fan-made Forge mode called Digletts (yes, like the pokemon) is extremely useful when it comes to helping the dev team.

According to Kotaku, John Junyszek, a 343 Industries community manager, recently published a tweet asking fans what their favorite Forge game was. Linz, a Halo competitive player, responded with Digletts, and it was there that Junyszek revealed that this mode has helped the team with shot registrations and when it comes ” to latency and networking.”

Fun Fact! This minigame has recently helped our team further test and investigate various shot registration situations, especially in regards to latency and networking. Since it’s a curated environment without many variables, it’s helped us investigate specific scenarios. https://t.co/M9mS7SeNux

— John Junyszek (@Unyshek) January 12, 2023

In Diglett’s mini-game, players are dropped into a hole in the ground that they can’t escape from and have nothing but a sniper rifle surrounded by other players. Whenever they decide to stand up and peek out from the hole, they leave nothing but their head exposed for other players to shoot them in the head.

For more GameSpot news, check out these stories:

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors.
GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

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January 13, 2023

TouchArcade Game of the Week: ‘TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge’ – TouchArcade

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I say this quite often, but this was one of those weeks where it was almost painful to have to pick just one new game to be Game of the Week. There were a number of really cool games released this week, so be sure to check them out, but at the end of the day there was no way I wasn’t going with one of my favorite games released on other platforms last year, TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge from Tribute Games and Dotemu, which has now made its way to mobile this week courtesy of Playdigious as part of the Netflix Games library.

First off, the beat ’em up genre is one of my very favorites. I admit that I’m biased having grown up through the arcade era of the ’80s and ’90s when that was a dominant genre, and in this day and age I can say that it’s not a genre that’s aged particularly well. The classics that people like myself hold in such high regard are actually quite shallow, repetitive, and unfairly cheap when it comes to difficulty. That was fine when one of the design targets of these games was to get kids pumping quarters into a machine, but it doesn’t hold up so well today.

Back then though those negative aspects didn’t matter. It was all about teaming up with a buddy or three and playing as some of your favorite characters beating the snot out of your most hated villains. I routinely replay through these old games just for a quick nostalgia hit. The Simpsons Arcade Game, X-Men, Final Fight, and of course the original TMNT arcade games. And plenty more. I typically get 30 minutes to an hour of fun before the shallowness starts to wear thin, especially if I’m not playing co-op with someone else. It’s good for what it is, but like I said, it hasn’t aged all that well.

That’s not to say that there haven’t been deeper or more complex beat ’em ups released in the decades since, but I think it was really 2020’s Streets of Rage 4 that really brought the genre into a more contemporary setting. It showed us that combat could be more nuanced and strategic rather than button mashy. Unique game modes and progression systems showed that a beat ’em up didn’t need to be just some 20-minute linear campaign and instead it could actually offer a ton of meaningful replay value. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’m also a major fan of Streets of Rage 4 (which is also phenomenal on mobile), and it’s from this same cloth that TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge is cut.

Ok, this has been a whole lot of words and I haven’t even talked about the game in question yet, but being that it was one of the marquee releases of last year on other platforms there should be no shortage of reviews or info should you need to seek it, including our own glowing review and our interview with the developers on bringing it to mobile. This is still the full fantastic game that is on other platforms already, but with excellent touch controls implemented as well as full physical controller support. There’s also some truly impressive online matchmaking that seems to always be populated with other people to play with, which feels exceedingly rare for a mobile game.

If I have to come up with a drawback for TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, it’s that it requires having a Netflix subscription in order to play on mobile. That will no doubt turn off some people who either don’t have Netflix or would just rather pay upfront for the game the old-fashioned way, but that’s the world we’re living in nowadays. Thankfully the Netflix Games library is truly incredible and arguably a reason itself to subscribe to Netflix if you don’t already given how many great games you can play in return, but if it’s still a dealbreaker for you I can only urge you to seek out another platform to play TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge because games that exude this level of sheer joy and playfulness don’t come around all that often.

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Jared Nelson

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January 13, 2023

Amelia Dimoldenberg’s interview with Andrew Garfield shows professional flirting at work

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Amelia Dimoldenberg has become the queen of cringe, and for good reason. The journalist and comedian made a name for herself conducting grimace-inducing interviews and going on awkward dates with musicians and celebrities on her YouTube series, Chicken Shop Date. Now, she’s back on everyone’s mind again as a handful of interviews shared between her and the actor Andrew Garfield, have charmed the internet. To me, I’m obsessed with the interviews, but they also demonstrate why Dimoldenberg and her unique voice make her one of the most delightful up-and-coming figures to watch.

The first interview now enshrined in internet virality takes place at the 2023 Oscars, at which Dimoldenberg served as the official red carpet host. Upon meeting Garfield on the scene, he opens up the conversation with an absolutely swoon-worthy greeting, “I only ever want to see you,” after which to which he corrects to, “I only ever want to see you in these kinds of situations.” Throughout the conversation, the two go back and forth about each other’s horoscope sign compatibility. Wheezing and and giggling, the two barely get a single coherent sound-byte in — it’s lovely and cute and everything you’d want out of an Andrew Garfield moment.

After that clip took off, fans quickly noticed that this has not been the only cute interaction between the two. In another interview between her and Garfield, we see her charm the actor in perhaps the least likely way possible: by talking about his armpit. In the interview, Dimoldenberg and Garfield share pleasantries, but after some commotion around them, she tells Garfield he’s special because of his armpits which is perhaps a reference to his GQ shoot. Garfield questions her decision to bring it up, but Dimoldenberg insists, “No I think it was my favorite image.” Afterwards Garfield replies, “Really?” and she says, “It’s the background on my phone.” He says, “I don’t know what that says about you.” But she just says back, “You look hot!”

Fans have started to project their own narratives onto the clips, saying that there could be some sort of budding romance between the two or that the interactions are inherently romantic. Of course, when we look at these posts hurriedly squished into our one of many endless social media feeds, all we see is the flirting part. What’s less visible is that this moment is actually the culmination of a carefully honed interviewing voice Dimoldenberg’s has been working on for years through series like Chicken Shop Date.

In Chicken Shop Date Dimoldenberg goes on a date with someone — like an actor or musician — and asks them questions. It’s part-interview part-date and Dimoldenberg sits in the role of awkward first encounter perfectly. The interviews play like an uneasy conversation between tweens that may or may not know various social cues. The gold of her content is when she will lean into perhaps the most cringe-worthy moments, and lets an interview subject sing an old and poorly-written rap or perhaps admit to Daniel Kaluuya’s face that she’s into him without directly telling him she’s into him.

This is the voice and background she brings to her red carpet interviews like with Garfield. And it works! By watching her flirt with Garfield, I get to blush and giggle my way through watching them talk. It’s great, and it just goes to show that after years of doing this that the entire awkward bit really shines and it’s already given us one of our favorite celebrity moments of 2023.

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Ana Diaz

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January 13, 2023

John Carpenter Hints at an Upcoming Dead Space Film, But He’s Not Involved – IGN

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Horror film legend John Carpenter really, really loves Dead Space. The director of The Thing, Halloween, and Escape From New York has talked about it extensively in the past. And amidst his love of the series, Carpenter may have just inadvertently teased a film adaptation before it was ever officially revealed.

In an interview with Variety, the publication nudged Carpenter on his past remarks about wanting to make a Dead Space film. In response, Carpenter backpedaled pretty significantly on the idea that he might be involved, but at the end let slip that “another director” was involved…implying such a thing exists in the first place.

“I’m a big video game fan, so I played all the [Dead Space] games,” Carpenter said. “I was down looking at the new digital cameras, the RED, and happened to mention to them that I would love to do a ‘Dead Space’ film. That just went around, and everybody said, ‘Oh, when are you gonna do it?’ I’m not gonna do it. I think they already have another director involved. And they haven’t asked me to do it. So until someone asks me, I wouldn’t do it. But there’s a new version of the ‘Dead Space’ video game coming out in January, and I’m there.”

It sounds like even if he’s not directing, Carpenter will be front and center as a fan for both the upcoming game, and whatever film adaptation may or may not be cooking. Elsewhere in the same interview, he said that a “perfect day” for him would involve getting up late, watching the news, playing a video game, watching basketball, and going to bed. Sounds pretty good.

Carpenter won’t have too long to wait. The remake of Dead Space is planned for release on January 26, 2023. An official launch trailer dropped just yesterday, and we just wrapped up a month of Dead Space IGN First content including revealing the first 18 minutes of gameplay, showing off graphics comparisons with the original, and a deep dive into how the story has been rewritten and improved.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

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Rebekah Valentine

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January 13, 2023

AMD’s Ryzen 7 5700X is down to £185 at Amazon UK – a great CPU deal

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AMD’s cheapest eight-core Ryzen 5000 processor has hit a new price low at Amazon UK, making it a great time to grab the Ryzen 7 5700X to upgrade your machine from an older Ryzen model – or build a shiny new one. The CPU is now £185, a 44% drop from its £329 RRP and even cheaper than it was yesterday.

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January 13, 2023

Creating the Sci-fi Roguelike Shoulders of Giants – Xbox Wire

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**Pre-order Shoulders of Giants today on the Xbox Store, available January 26**

After almost three years of development, we’re overjoyed to announce that Shoulders of Giants is now available for pre-order. The game will be released on January 26, 2023, on Xbox! Check out the newest trailer above featuring a mix of single-player and co-op mayhem.

One of the very first ideas we had when we started making Shoulders of Giants, was the silhouette of a smaller character riding on the back of a much bigger character. And then we thought, what if you could control both of these characters at once? How would that work? Would that be fun?

It took a lot of experimentation and prototyping to find the sweet spot, and an experience that felt fresh yet familiar. We thought, what if we split up types of combat between these characters, one character does all the melee, and is a big powerful mech? And the other character perched atop its back a small, nimble, gun wielding frog?

Once we found this combination, we knew we had found the core of the game. The next question we asked ourselves was, what type of world would these characters be in? What would their goal be in the game?

We have always been huge fans of science fiction, and knew we wanted a world where there was a dark force these heroes had to overcome, the classic theme of dark versus light. But how could we actually take this theme and create an interactive way for the player to experience it?

We imagined after an intense boss battle having the entire world transform from barren and dark, to vibrant, lush and full of life in a cinematic way. We experimented with real-time ways the player could do this, and found it to be fun and exciting and it became a pillar of the players abilities.

Speaking of abilities, the last core idea behind the game was that we wanted Shoulders of Giants to feel like a colorful playground with a huge arsenal of sci-fi gadgets and weapons for the player to explore and tinker with.

Players encounter weapons and abilities like a firework-shooting grenade launcher, a giant stomping shoe, a surfable shield, and much more. The core combat is all about experimenting with different combinations of equipment to find that amazing combo that keeps things feeling fresh and exciting.

While combat is the main gameplay pillar, we knew that we wanted a story for the game to take place in and for the characters and world to feel grounded too. The forces of entropy have taken over the universe, it is the players job to combat this dark force and to restore order and balance back to the universe.

As you beat more levels and save more worlds from the forces of entropy, you will build up your heat meter, allowing you to access increasingly difficult levels. As you pass certain heat thresholds, you will unlock special story boss encounters as you make your way to the final boss.

Along the way, you will acquire new weapons for both Froggie and the heroic Robot of the Galaxy as well as new pieces of armor, XP to spend on your skill tree, and dyes to further customize the look of your characters.

While you can customize your own frog and robot with dozens of cosmetics that are unlockable in-game, the four above can only be acquired as a bonus for pre-ordering the game:

This pre-order bonus includes four color sets, so you and up to three co-op friends can save the universe in style right from the start of the game.

Even better, the game is 20% off during this pre-order period. For more information, check out the game’s store page and official website, or join our discord.

Shoulders of Giants

Moving Pieces Interactive

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

$19.99

$15.99

Simultaneously control a sword-wielding robot and a gunslinging space frog in Shoulders of Giants, an explosively colorful sci-fi roguelike. Play alone, with a friend, or as part of a four-person team, cutting through waves of enemies on a quest to rescue the galaxy!

The forces of Entropy are spreading chaos through the stars, corrupting living planets and urging on the heat death of the universe. Led by the psychic Owl, one scrappy team of space survivors are fighting to restore the balance. A mysterious mech! A sharpshooting amphibian! Together they must cut through waves of enemies and restore light and life to the galaxy!

Pre-order the game for access to limited-edition dye sets with special visual effects. Dazzle your friends!

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Patrick McAvena, Developer at Moving Pieces Interactive

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January 13, 2023

Sick, Netflix’s Noise, and every other movie you can stream from home this weekend

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This week’s pretty light on the “new movies to watch at home” front, but there are still plenty of options for you to choose from.

There’s Sick, the COVID-themed slasher movie from the minds of Scream and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning. There’s also Netflix’s Mexican drama Noise, the aviator drama Devotion on Paramount Plus, and new documentaries on Netflix and Hulu alike.

Here are the new movies available for you to watch at home this weekend.

Netflix

Noise

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Netflix

Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 45m
Director: Natalia Beristain
Cast: Julieta Egurrola, Teresa Ruiz, Erick Israel Consuelo

Not to be confused with Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s 1985 absurdist comedy-drama novel, this Mexican drama follows the story of Julia (Julieta Egurrola), a mother desperately searching for her missing daughter as the country is wracked by widespread violence against women.

Dog Gone

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

A man (Rob Lowe) wearing glasses, a white t-sthirt and blue jeans laying in a patch of grass and playing with a dog.

Genre: Family drama
Run time: 1h 34m
Director: Stephen Herek
Cast: Rob Lowe, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Susan Gallagher

Based on a true story, this movie follows a father and son who search for their lost dog, Gonker. Yes, the real dog’s name was also Gonker, because that’s the kind of thing you can’t make up.

The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

A long-haired man in a red shirt wearing a gray bandanna on his head and a backpack speaking to a microphone in a parking lot.

Genre: True crime/documentary
Run time: 1h 25m
Director: Colette Camden

This documentary recounts the story of Caleb Lawrence McGillvary, aka “Kai the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker,” an itinerant happy-go-lucky hitchhiker who became a internet sensation following a TV interview that went viral after he saved a woman from a violent attack. That fame was short-lived, however, when McGillvary was arrested mere months later in the wake of a grisly murder. Totally unrelated side note, but: He kind of looks like Zack de la Rocha from Rage Against the Machine, right?

Hulu

The Drop

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

A woman in a white dress (Jillian Bell) sits next to a smiling main wearing a blue blazer and gray slacks (Utkarsh Ambudkar) seated at a dinner table.

Genre: Cringe comedy
Run time: 1h 32m
Director: Sarah Adina Smith
Cast: Utkarsh Ambudkar, Jillian Bell, Gene Farber

Produced by the Duplass brothers, this “cringe comedy” is about the aftermath of a married couple dropping a baby during a visit to a tropical wedding.

Riotsville, USA

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

A group of protestors holding up signs while a row of soldiers stand in front of them with a turret gun aimed above the crowd.

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 31m
Director: Sierra Pettengill

Using archival footage filmed by the U.S. government, this documentary tells the story of fictional towns erected by the U.S. military officials with the intent of training soldiers against rioters and the perceived threat of a possible insurgency during the civil unrest of the 1960s.

Peacock

Sick

Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock

A woman wearing sunglasses and a blue face mask sits behind the wheel of a vehicle with a passenger beside them wearing a purple face mask.

Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 23m
Director: John Hyams
Cast: Gideon Adlon, Marc Menchaca, Bethlehem Million

This COVID-themed slasher movie has serious creative bona fides, written by Scream scribe Kevin Williamson and directed by John Hyams (Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning). A group of friends decide to “quarantine” (read: party) at an isolated cabin, where a killer stalks them.

Paramount Plus

Devotion

Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus

Genre: Biographical war drama
Run time: 2h 19m
Director: J.D. Dillard
Cast: Jonathan Majors, Glen Powell, Christina Jackson

This aviator drama tells the true story of naval pilots Jesse Brown and Tom Hudner, and their friendship and feats during the Korean War. Glen Powell, who also starred in Top Gun: Maverick in 2022, returns to the skies for this one, joined by Jonathan Majors. It’s rare to watch two nascent superstars in one project, but here’s your chance!

VOD

The Old Way

Where to watch: Available to rent for $19.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

A man with an overgrown moustache (Nicolas Cage) wearing a cowboy hat and dark brown duster coat aiming a pistol.

Genre: Western/action
Run time: 1h 35m
Director: Brett Donowho
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Ryan Kiera Armstrong

Nicolas Cage stars in this Western as an old gunslinger who is visited by the son of a man he once murdered. Long removed from his violent past, Cage’s character is now a father with a young daughter. What happens when his old life catches up with his new one? You’ll have to watch The Old Way to find out.

Door Mouse

Where to watch: Available to rent for $19.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

A woman with hair poofs (Hayley Law) holds out two drawings while seated behind a table.

Genre: Drama/thriller
Run time: 1h 37m
Director: Avan Jogia
Cast: Hayley Law, Keith Powers, Donal Logue

Hayley Law (Riverdale) stars in this stylish neo-noir thriller as a burlesque dancer and aspiring comic book artist investigating the disappearance of her friends. What she finds is a seedy underbelly of corruption and vice that threatens to engulf her as well — that is, if she doesn’t fight back.

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Toussaint Egan

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January 13, 2023

Released Today, The Last Google Stadia Game Is A Piece Of History

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Image: Google

If you haven’t heard, Google Stadia is shutting down and closing shop next week. But before the never-quite-successful game streaming service dies, it has provided one neat (and free) little gift you can only play for a few days before it all goes offline.

Launched back in 2019, Google Stadia was a costly and massive investment from Google into the world of video games. Powered by the cloud aka a bunch of servers and off-site computers, Stadia’s big promise was instantaneous gaming on the go. No more updates or expensive consoles. And while it sometimes worked, the high cost of games, lack of features, small library, and internet costs ended up dooming the service. Sure, some superfans logged thousands of hours into it, but for most, it just wasn’t what they wanted or needed from a video game platform.

So it wasn’t surprising that in September of last year, Google announced the end of Stadia. In five days, on January 18, the video game streaming service will shut down. With the end so near, it seemed unlikely that Stadia would receive any new game releases. Yet, Google has published one final game. But don’t expect some big open-world RPG or remake. Instead, the final Stadia game is Worm Game, an internally developed title used to test Stadia long before it became a public service.

We probably were never meant to see or play this Snake-like test game as it sports fairly rudimentary graphics and kinda ugly menus. But in the final days of Stadia, it appears the devs working on the project were able to provide its community one final treat. Even better, anyone can play Worm Game as it’s free. (Which makes sense considering the Stadia store stopped working already.)

The game’s store page features this nice and touching description of the game and what it was used for:

Play the game that came to Stadia before Stadia came to the world. “Worm Game” is a humble title we used to test many of Stadia’s features, starting well before our 2019 public launch, right through 2022. It won’t win Game of the Year, but the Stadia team spent a LOT of time playing it, and we thought we’d share it with you. Thanks for playing, and for everything.

Is Worm Game some incredibly important or amazing thing? Not really. However, it’s still really cool to get a peek behind the scenes, and thanks to videos of Worm Game, this little piece of test software will be somewhat preserved for folks to look back at years from now.

In other cool End Of Stadia news, Google has confirmed that starting next week, it will start allowing players to unlock the Bluetooth functionally of its Stadia controller.

This is a nice way to make the controller—which has one of my favorite modern D-pads on it—more useful and easier to hook up to more devices. I doubt the devs who worked on Stadia for years were planning for the controller to be the only thing left of Stadia in 2023, but here we are.

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Zack Zwiezen

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January 13, 2023

A New League of Legends Spinoff Just Leaked – IGN

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A League of Legends spinoff title for PC and consoles is reportedly in the works.

First reported by Polygon, the leak comes from South Korea’s games rating committee. According to the leak, the game is titled Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story and has been rated for PC and console.

Riot Games’ New Action Game for PC – The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story has been leaked by South Korea’s Game Ratings Committee.
Players play Sylas to save Demacia. pic.twitter.com/UeD17TlynN

— SΞVΠ (@osevno) January 13, 2023

The game could apparently star Sylas on a quest to save Demacia. Demacia is one of the kingdoms in League of Legends, ands has often been depcted as a kingdom in turmoil. Sylas is a champion who was added to League of Legends back in early 2019. Also known as Sylas the Unshackled, the character’s basic attack in League of Legends whirls chains around him, damaging nearby enemies.

His equipment could lend itself nicely to an action title, with chain whips evoking memories of God of War’s Kratos or Castlevania’s Simon Belmont. The character also uses stone and steel magic attacks, and as you level the character up, Sylas can also Hijack the powers of opponents. We’ll have to wait and see what the gameplay looks like when and if it’s officially revealed.

This leaked title isn’t the only League of Legends spinoff we know about. Project L is Riot’s League of Legends fighting game, which rescently resurfaced with new gameplay. The fighting game will be free to play, and Riot has said the game will not reward players with NFTs. And, players are also looking ahead to Convergence: A Leageue of Legends Story launching sometime in 2023.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

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Logan Plant

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January 13, 2023

‘Go Rally’, ‘NEScape!’, and Today’s Other New Releases and Sales – TouchArcade

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Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for January 13th, 2023. It’s the end of the week, and we’ve got several new releases to look at before it heads off into the record books. Honestly, it feels more like a mop-up today. Not a whole lot of exciting stuff in the line-up. We summarize it all anyway, because that is what we do around here. After that, it’s the list of new sales and all of the discounts set to expire over the weekend. Let’s get to business!

New Releases

Go Rally ($20.00)

Oh hey, I recognize this one. These overhead racers are always neat, and I think it’s a good way to approach rally racing in particular. This one has a full career mode with one hundred tracks set in various locations around the world. You also have a wide selection of vehicles to choose from and can customize their paint to give them a slightly personal touch. The only rub is that you can get this on your mobile device for three bucks, and I’m not really seeing what makes up the other seventeen dollars here because it sure seems to be the same game. Try it on your iPhone or iPad first and I guess if you love it enough to have it on your Switch as well, then let fly.

DUSK ’82 ($4.99)

This was previously available as some kind of pre-order bonus for DUSK or something, I think. Anyway, here it is separately. It’s an 8-bit style action-puzzler that uses a lot of familiar elements from DUSK but presented in a very different fashion. It’s pretty decent if you’re into this genre, and the five dollar price is just right.

Salamander County Public Television ($7.99)

You’ve been hired to work at a public television station, but somehow everyone except you and a couple of other people has disappeared. It falls to you to keep the station running, and that involves playing twenty-five weird minigames. The game description is very proud to point out that almost everything is a stock photo, which I think absolutely works for that public television feel. If you’re looking for something odd today, this might be your ticket.

Dragon Fury ($24.99)

For a second I thought this might be a reissue of the Genesis/Mega Drive pinball game of a similar name, and I got a bit excited. I would pay twenty-five bucks for that. I don’t know if I would do the same for what this actually is. It’s a one-on-one fighting game with what initially seems to be a massive roster of characters to choose from. Unfortunately, it’s mostly cosmetic. There are only a small number of moves shared amongst the generic aliens, vampires, pirates, and so on. At least it has support for two players via local multiplayer. I honestly wasn’t sure that feature would be there when I first looked at this.

Memorrha ($19.99)

Explore the remnants of a mysterious culture, solving puzzles and piecing together clues in this first-person adventure. Reviews on other platforms are not particularly good, with many citing the repetitive nature of the main puzzle type and the generally obtuse nature of the game. I haven’t played it myself yet, but with that price tag you may want to go read the words of someone who has if you’re thinking of buying it.

NEScape! ($9.99)

Escape room games probably need some kind of gimmick to stand out these days, and this one definitely has an eye-catching one. It’s an actual indie NES game running on the Switch and it looks and sounds the part, but it plays more or less like a modern escape room adventure. Collect items, solve puzzles, and enjoy the atmosphere. I’ve mostly had my fill of this type of game at the moment, but I will admit that the presentation speaks to me here.

Pixel Game Maker Series BombMachine Gunzohg ($5.99)

A fairly straightforward side-scrolling action game for one or two players via local multiplayer. There’s an emphasis on getting through stages quickly, and there are some secret goodies to find for those who go digging around. Your mechanized character’s moves are powered by its energy, so you have to make sure you don’t use it carelessly or you could wind up in a pinch. Seems pleasant enough for the price.

Puzzle by Nikoli S Heyawake ($4.99)

Another interesting puzzle game in the Nikoli S series from Hamster. This type of puzzle is called Heyawake, which roughly translates to “room division”. You have to color in spaces in each room according to the number, following some specific rules. It’s a little tricky to get the hang of at first, but it works really well once you do. It’s also rather novel. I don’t think we have any other puzzlers of this type on the eShop, and that’s not something I get to say often these days.

Snake Game ($3.99)

Well, it’s Snake. Four different variants, but all of them Snake. Eat the bits that appear, don’t run into your tail. You know it, I know it, but I need to get this paragraph just a little longer so it doesn’t mess up my formatting. There we go.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

As Friday sales lists go, this one is fairly bland. Still, there are some good discounts in there depending on your tastes. WRC 9 runs like a dog but for four bucks some folks will get a lot out of it. Tinykin‘s cheaper than it has ever been, and it’s a must-have for 3D platformer fans. Not too much in the weekend outbox to fuss about, but if you’re looking to pick up The House of Da Vinci 2 now is probably the moment.

Select New Games on Sale

Super Crush KO ($3.70 from $14.99 until 1/20)
X-Force Genesis ($2.00 from $7.00 until 1/20)
Lone Ruin ($13.49 from $14.99 until 1/26)
SkateBIRD ($4.99 from $19.99 until 1/27)
Chasing Static ($11.99 from $14.99 until 1/30)
Legendary Eleven ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/31)
Hunting Simulator ($3.99 from $39.99 until 2/1)
Hunting Simulator 2: BH Edition ($14.99 from $49.99 until 2/1)
My Little Riding Champion ($8.99 from $29.99 until 2/1)
Tennis World Tour ($2.99 from $29.99 until 2/1)
V-Rally 4 ($14.99 from $49.99 until 2/1)
WRC 9 Official Game ($3.99 from $39.99 until 2/1)
Roguebook ($12.49 from $24.99 until 2/1)
Cricket 22 ($24.99 from $49.99 until 2/1)
Crysis Remastered ($11.99 from $29.99 until 2/1)

Crysis Remastered Trilogy ($27.49 from $49.99 until 2/1)
SpiderHeck ($11.99 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Tinykin ($19.99 from $24.99 until 2/2)
Justice Sucks ($15.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Maze Blaze ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/2)
Trash Sailors ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Undungeon ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Strikey Sisters ($2.99 from $9.99 until 2/2)
Kuukiyomi 3 ($2.49 from $4.99 until 2/2)
Streets of Rogue ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Hello Neighbor ($9.99 from $39.99 until 2/2)
Totally Reliable Deliv. Service ($7.49 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Party Hard ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Party Hard 2 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Mr Shifty ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/2)

Graveyard Keeper ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Graveyard Keeper UC Edition ($19.99 from $39.99 until 2/2)
SpeedRunners (43.74 from $14.99 until 2/2)
The Final Station ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Community Inc ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Kill It With Fire ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Phantom Trigger ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Punch Club ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Clustertruck ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/2)

Sales Ending This Weekend

Cats Puzzle ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/14)
The House of Da Vinci 2 ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/14)
Adventure Field 4 ($3.99 from $9.99 until 1/15)
Demon Hunter: Ascendance ($1.99 from $14.99 until 1/15)
Demon Hunter: Revelation ($1.99 from $14.99 until 1/15)
Demon Hunter: RoL ($1.99 from $14.99 until 1/15)
Lost Grimoires 3 TFW ($1.99 from $14.99 until 1/15)
Lost Grimoires 3: SoM ($1.99 from $14.99 until 1/15)
Lost Grimoires Stolen Kingdom ($1.99 from $14.99 until 1/15)
Paper Cut Mansion ($15.99 from $19.99 until 1/15)
Project Knight 2: DoS ($3.59 from $8.99 until 1/15)
West Water ($4.39 from $10.99 until 1/15)
WorldWide Flight Simulator ($17.49 from $24.99 until 1/15)

That’s all for today and this week, friends. We’ll be back next week with a pretty darned exciting assortment of new games. Two Personas! Personae? Fire Emblem Engage! Some other things that I can’t remember because I am too excited about Fire Emblem! Plus all the usual reviews, sales, and other things we’ve come to enjoy on this journey we take together. I hope you all have a lovely weekend, and as always, thanks for reading!

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Shaun Musgrave

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January 13, 2023

Category: Video Gaming

About Starscape:

How to run Starscape roblox script / Exploit /Code / Hack and cheat

Wordle hint

A Wordle hint for Saturday, January 14

Pre-order Shoulders of Giants today on the Xbox Store, available January 26

Shoulders of Giants

Netflix

Noise

Dog Gone

The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker

Hulu

The Drop

Riotsville, USA

Peacock

Sick

Paramount Plus

Devotion

VOD

The Old Way

Door Mouse

New Releases

Go Rally ($20.00)

DUSK ’82 ($4.99)

Salamander County Public Television ($7.99)

Dragon Fury ($24.99)

Memorrha ($19.99)

NEScape! ($9.99)

Pixel Game Maker Series BombMachine Gunzohg ($5.99)

Puzzle by Nikoli S Heyawake ($4.99)

Snake Game ($3.99)

Sales

**Pre-order Shoulders of Giants today on the Xbox Store, available January 26**