Please don’t. Rumours started last week about an Elden Ring TV show or film adaptation, and George R. R. Martin has added fuel to the fire in his ‘not a blog’.

Oh, and about those rumors you may have heard about a feature film or television series based on ELDEN RING… I have nothing to say. Not a word, nope, not a thing, I know nothing, you never heard a peep from me, mum mum mum.   What rumor?

As much as I’d love to see this done well, I think it’s more likely it won’t be… if it even can.

Ever wondered what Wordle would be like if it was a dark, absurd and funny dungeon-crawler? Look no further! What a strange little game. Evokes a tonne of nostalgia, but capitalises on modern game sensibilities. Great music, excellent voice acting (and a crazy amount thereof!) and chock-full of charm. Won’t be for everyone just by virtue of being so different, but absolute worth checking out.

Apart from the obvious gacha repulsion, the major things stopping me from enjoying Genshin were laborious movement and unsatisfying combat. Wuthering Waves attempts to remedies these, with almost over-the-top traversal abilities, and more impactful (albeit still button-mashy) combat. That said, even ignoring how unashamedly they’re ripping Genshin, I still struggle to get properly into it. Several hours in, it feels like 90% of that has been spamming ‘advance dialog’, the VO is hilariously flat, and the story isn’t particularly compelling. Ultimately, if you’re into the genre, it’s worth checking out - and even if you’re not, it’s a fun braindead way to spend some time before the F2P grind becomes too harsh.

It’s always a real treat to hear from Nintendo in this context, and at GDC 2024, developers of ToTK spoke about crafting an enriched Hyrule via emergent gameplay in an entirely physics-driven world, and advanced sound design. Technical Director Takuhiro Dohta, Lead Physics Programmer Takahiro Takayama, and Lead Sound Engineer Junya Osada share their design approaches and hurdles their teams overcame during development - absolute legends. In true Nintendo style, even the presentation itself is fun. Hugely insightful and wildly impressive. Watch it here.

[Early Access] All of the Hades fundamentals are still here, but Melinoë definitely has her own identity which makes for a slightly more deliberate flow of combat, which is great. There are a bunch of new systems, all of which are interesting and interplay well. What can one say about Supergiant? Jen Zee’s art is incredible as always, Logan Cunningham and Darren Korb have absolutely killed the VO and music. The writing is heartfelt, engaging, funny. And of course, above all, the gameplay loop is tight, satisfying and addictive. Truly the best way to kill Time.

Hades II is now available in early access on Steam and the Epic Games Store, already offering more content than its completed predecessor. The first major update, including a new Underworld section, customisation for The Crossroads hub, and a new weapon, will take some months to release, per Supergiant’s announcement.

For all its egregious fan-service, turns out Stellar Blade is actually pretty good. You can tell Sekiro is there in its DNA somewhere - with a mild emphasis on parries - but I wish combat was a bit less forgiving and hack-n-slashy. There are a myriad of ways to approach each encounter, which is fun but again, lightens the difficulty a fair bit. I also wish there were more varied environments, which feel a bit samey at a certain point. Overall though, fun game with great music, cool enemies, boss designs and an engaging-enough story.

[Early Access] What’s not to like? Isometric soulslike combat, an incredibly dense world packed with verticality and hidden areas, combined with randomised loot to reward exploration. Impactful sound, great music, well-written characters, lore and… some of the best art I’ve seen in a game - every frame a painting. So far, the devs are showing what good looks like for an early access title, responding to feedback and frequent patches. Love.

I love that Team NINJA are always trying stuff out - since Nioh through Wo Long and now Ronin, they’re obviously keen to experiment. Unfortunately, while their previous ones have been hits, this one is a bit of a miss. Any real sense of a soulslike is gone, making way for aggressively mid Ubisoft type openworld checklist activities. The bloated scope reveals a lack of polish. Exploration is a chore and unrewarding. Combat is fun at first, but quickly becomes pretty mindless (and amazingly, from these guys, super easy). I hope they try the openworld stuff again, but for me this aint it.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 continues the legacy of its predecessor with expansive open-world exploration and super dynamic combat. I would’ve liked a bit more enemy variety, and the overall narrative is slightly underwhelming, but neither materially impacted my enjoyment. It certainly has its quirks, but after giving myself over to it, I experienced a sense of adventure not felt since BOTW or Elden Ring.