The First Descendant is an almost aggressively pedestrian looter shooter - neither exceptional nor terrible. It combines ideas well but is held back by shameless drive toward microtransactions and apparent lack of identity: part Destiny, part Warframe, lots of fanservice. While the visuals and cooperative systems are strong, its gunplay and movement feel pretty average, and overall inconsistent quality and monetisation model won’t appeal to everyone. Worth a quick go if you wanna turn your brain off for a while.

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.

Finally! The Elden Ring DLC trailer is here. H U M A N I T Y R E S T O R E D

Balatro absolutely rules. And this is coming from someone with abject disdain of poker… Traditional poker hands are your basic tools, but that’s about as far as the connection goes. The rest of Balatro is a wickedly clever, psychedelic, insta-classic roguelike through which you’ll devise cunning ways to break the game. Cards and modifiers are tightly designed, crisply defined and delightfully synergistic. Again, Balatro just rules. Play it.

According to a new report, FROMSOFT is now the sole owner of the Elden Ring IP, no longer sharing rights with Bandai Namco. This change was seemingly facilitated via investments from Sony and Tencent.

Apparently Tencent is developing a mobile adaptation of Elden Ring - with a desire for gacha elements - according to sources. The company acquired licensing rights in 2022 and has initiated a small team to prototype the game, although progress has been slow. This sounds… kinda disgusting, and currently hard to believe.

Naughty Dog have released Grounded II: Making The Last of Us Part II, a documentary exploring the game’s creation. The film, featuring Neil Druckmann, Halley Gross, Ashley Johnson, Troy Baker and a bunch of other Naughty Dogs, spans two hours. There’s a discussion about a potential Part III toward the end. 👀

As discovered by a sleuth on Reddit, and soon thereafter seemingly confirmed by a (since removed) tshirt store listing, Hideo Kojima is partnering with A24 on a live action Death Stranding film. Details about the adaptation remain undisclosed, but Kojima has previously stated that if this were to ever happen, he would be deeply involved in production. Absolutely no idea how this would work, and not super keen on it given how much of the point of the game - moreso than most, IMO - is… you know, the player interacting with it, but we’ll see! Update: Confirmation and more info has been provided by Kojima Productions.

Epic continues to push the Fortnite-as-a-platform strat. Understandably not as deep as LEGO Fortnite, but a fun little racing game with a big emphasis on drifting and obstacles reminiscent of Mario Kart, and wild courses à la Trackmania. Be prepared to feel like Schumacher as you first place Bronze and Silver ranks only to be met with your first decent human opponents and summarily crushed. Fun though!

What I thought would be a quick, relatively low-effort brand collaboration turns out to be a remarkably fleshed out exploration/building/survival game with an incredible level of polish. A bit of Minecraft, a tiny bit of Animal Crossing, and even rolling in combat - sooo, we’re a soulslike now? Fun game, and the fact that Epic remade over 1,200 skins to suit the LEGO-verse is crazy in itself.