Report: Xbox to release handheld in 2025, next gen consoles 2027 | This Week in Videogames - video Dailymotion

Metatube

Thank you Surfshark for sponsoring this video. Go to https://surfshark.com/skillup for 4 extra months of Surfshark -- Can't believe we're talking about next gen when it feels like this gen hasn't even started.   My split fiction review: https://youtu.be/hajChij56Xo -- #thisweekinvideogames #Xbox #battlefield -- If you want to check out Child of Clay (or any other game I profile in the 'Put This On Your Radar segment) you can find a link to it on my Steam Curator page:  https://store.steampowered.com/curator/28625128-Skill-Up-Curates.../ -- News collation and run-sheet by Edmond T. Written and voiced by Ralph P. Edited by Stuart K and Austin B. -- You can find all the Skill Up reviews, previews and episodes of This Week in Videogames over on Spotify (where you can listen ad-free if you're a Spotify premium subscriber): https://open.spotify.com/show/2w3Injyqj2VoxOxQg6ESbl?si=c1fd44e1ff9a442b  If you want to check out the Friends Per Second Podcast, you can find all the links to it here:  https://linktr.ee/friendspersecond -- Thanks for taking the time to watch the video. If you'd like to support the channel even more, the best way is through my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/skillupyt -- Grab 12% off any SteelSeries peripheral by using offer code SKILLUP at checkout: https://steelseries.pbj2.net/c/2446303/1266556/2390 -- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/skillup.bsky.social   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skillupyt/?hl=en

Transcript

00:00This video is brought to you by Surfshark VPN. Stick around to learn more about how Surfshark

00:04lets you browse the web freely and securely, plus get an additional 4 months for free when

00:08you sign up using offer code SKILLUP at surfshark.com forward slash skill up.

00:13Gamers, hope you have been having a fantastic week. Me, it s been pretty damn good. I ve been

00:17playing plenty of Monster Hunter Wild since I didn t have time to get to it in February,

00:20and I can confirm that the Kinseg Glaive remains the GOAT weapon. I know this because I ve been

00:25forcing myself to use a Switch Axe on this playthrough, and nothing against it, but it

00:29doesn t hold a candle to my pole vault stick, and I genuinely cannot understand how so many of you

00:33have played Monster Hunter with your feet so firmly planted on the ground all the time.

00:37I had been planning to actually review Monster Hunter Wild this week,

00:40but I had to put it down because Code for Assassin s Creed Shadow came in,

00:43and I m currently playing through that one right now. Obviously can t say anything about

00:46it yet since I m under embargo, but the review for that one will go up sometime next week,

00:50so if you d like to know the minute that review is live, be sure to subscribe and

00:53ding the notification bell, or click the follow button over on Spotify,

00:56since you can also watch Skill Up videos over there now as well.

00:58Alright, lots to get to this week, so ain t nothing to it, but to do it, here comes the news.

01:02Biggest story of the week is one we cannot verify, so it s important that you take it with

01:06a grain of salt, but it does fit within the general contours of what is likely true,

01:10given everything that Phil Spencer has said in the past. I m referring of course to the

01:13Windows Central report that the Switch 2 might not be the only new handheld console releasing

01:18this year, as Microsoft allegedly has plans to release an official Xbox handheld this year,

01:23and has much bigger hardware plans in the years to come.

01:26So we all know that across all the Steam Deck competitors, like the Asus ROG Ally and the Lenovo

01:30Legion Go, many of them are running Windows 11 under the hood. Microsoft has in the past

01:34partnered with some of these manufacturers to make out-of-the-box Xbox Game Pass support a

01:38big selling point for them, which you can t do on the Steam Deck unless you sideload Windows onto it,

01:42which you can absolutely do, but it s kind of a pain in the arse and honestly,

01:45SteamOS is a way better experience, so most people just don t bother.

01:48Now Windows Central reportedly has sources telling them that Microsoft has been actively

01:52working with a PC gaming manufacturer like Asus or Lenovo or MSI, though we don t know which,

01:58to make a quote Xbox branded gaming handheld, surprisingly slated for later in 2025 if plans

02:04are met end quote. Codename for this project is Kennen, and Windows Central is being told that it

02:08will look quote unmistakably Xbox, complete with an official Xbox guide button and Xbox

02:13design sensibilities end quote. Couple this together with some announcements from Microsoft

02:17at the beginning of the year, saying that they were working on Windows UI adjustments that would

02:20be more Xbox like for handhelds, and you can definitely see all the pieces coming into place.

02:25Add to that the fact that Valve has started licensing its OS to these manufacturers to

02:29make third party Steam Decks, letting people get away from the Windows ecosystem, and you

02:32can imagine Xbox feels like they re gonna get kicked out of this party unless they act sooner

02:36rather than later. That s not all Windows Central sources had to say, apparently in addition to the

02:40partnered handheld coming in 2025, Microsoft are allegedly also on their way to developing their

02:45next generation of hardware, a project that has been quote fully greenlit all the way up to CEO

02:50Satya Nadella end quote, and it will feature not only a successor to the Xbox series consoles

02:55and new controllers, but Microsoft s own Xbox gaming handheld as well. Now this phase is planned

03:00for 2027, and even though there have been comments from Xbox executives in the past suggesting they

03:05ve been thinking about a handheld device for quite some time, it seems like they haven t been able to

03:08fully commit themselves until now. If these reports are true, then it seems like they re looking for a

03:13way to strike while the iron is hot with the handheld PC gaming wave, while also doing their

03:17due diligence on the internal projects, and if all that peters out before they re too far in,

03:21well, they wouldn t have lost too much. Also, remember that Xbox hardware roadmap

03:24that leaked as part of Microsoft s beef with the FTC during the acquisition lawsuit? That

03:28presentation suggested a bunch of stuff that kinda lines up with these reports too,

03:32meaning the fact that their next hardware generation was planned for 2028, and that it

03:36would focus on leveraging the cloud a lot more, which is certainly where they re headed right now

03:40given the whole this is an Xbox thing. That said, that same roadmap also pointed to a cylindrical

03:44Xbox Series X refresh in 2024, and that never ended up happening, so as always, keep in mind

03:49that these things can and probably will change behind the scenes, and to take all of this with

03:53a big grain of salt. But let s say for the sake of argument that all of this is true. Are these

03:58inspired moves likely to drive market share and big gains for Xbox, or are they misguided plays

04:03likely to keep Microsoft in 3rd place? Honestly, here s my take, I don t really think all of this

04:07matters that much, especially not to Microsoft. What I mean by that is, Microsoft is a trillion

04:13dollar corporation that spent 70 billion dollars to buy Candy Crush and Call of Duty. When these

04:18people think about profits, they re aiming for hundreds of billions of dollars from enterprise

04:22products and AI. You think Microsoft s C-suite really cares about a 3rd party manufactured

04:27handheld with some Xbox stickers on it? How much margin is in that? Even next gen hardware,

04:31Microsoft are clearly more interested in getting you to play games through xCloud than they are

04:35their dedicated devices. I ve said this multiple times before, but I really do believe that Xbox

04:39hardware will transition into the Microsoft Surface category of hardware, in the sense that

04:43it ll exist as an optional way to engage the Microsoft ecosystem, but it won t be core to

04:48Microsoft s business. Do they want you to buy a Surface laptop to use Microsoft Word? Sure they do,

04:53why not? But do they care if you re using Word on a Dell or IBM Thinkpad? No, they don t give a fuck.

04:58The only hardware Microsoft cares about these days is their cloud infrastructure,

05:01which powers every part of their business, from enterprise to AI right through to gaming. That s

05:06hardware that Microsoft gets to charge you monthly to access, and that s far more appealing to them

05:10than a box they sell you once every 7 or 8 years at a profit margin of around $100.

05:14While we re talking about handheld hardware, it s probably worth mentioning this little

05:17tidbit about the Switch 2. This past week, The Verge spotted FCC filings for Nintendo s upcoming

05:22hardware, which is par for the course for electronics manufacturers as they let regulatory

05:25bodies know everything is in order and up to code. The details include the fact that Switch 2 will

05:29continue to support Near Field Communication aka NFC, aka the wireless tech that makes amiibos work

05:35and it will be in the right joycon like it was in the original Switch. Another neat fact is that

05:39the console will be charged via either the bottom USB-C port or the new top USB-C port, and it will

05:44also support the faster Wi-Fi 6 protocol. Wi-Fi 6 is actually really good if you can be close enough

05:50to a router to use it. Who knows, maybe the Nintendo eShop might go from a 6 minute load time

05:55down to a brisk 3 minutes. That d be nice. For the big N to the big P, and by P I mean

05:59PlayStation of course. Sony s favourite son Neil Druckmann said a bunch of stuff about

06:03Naughty Dog s next project Intergalactic The Heretic Prophet, and he did so in a Sony organised

06:08creator on creator chat between him and film director Alex Garland. From what we can gather,

06:12it feels like Intergalactic is still relatively early in its development cycle, which in today s

06:16AAA terms means we could only be like 4 years into an 8 year development cycle. Druckmann said

06:22that Naughty Dog still has quote a ways to go and I m very excited to see where it goes. These things

06:26are so complex and big and there s so many people involved, I still don t know exactly what this

06:30thing is going to look like at the end. I have a theory, I have an idea, but it s still evolving and

06:34changing as we make it end quote. Other details include the fact that one of the key themes of

06:38Intergalactic is loneliness, as you ll be a lone bounty hunter exploring a planet that s long been

06:43cut off from the rest of the galaxy. And finally, Druckmann quipped that after Naughty Dog made

06:47everyone really mad with The Last of Us Part 2, the team wanted to make a game that touched on

06:50less controversial topics like quote faith and religion end quote. Hey, we got a comedian over

06:56here. While we re talking about game makers with a sense of humour, we gotta check in with

06:59Mr. Next Level shit, Mr. Fuck the Oscars himself, Joseph Farris, seemingly the only person who

07:05remembers that co-op campaigns are great actually. It turns out that all those sales and Game of the

07:09Year awards for Hazelight s last co-op adventure It Takes Two were not a fluke because Split Fiction

07:13has been having a hell of a run since its launch last week. We talked a little bit about Monster

07:17Hunter Wilds achievements last week, and while Hazelight are definitely not at that sort of

07:21Capcom level yet, they are still absolutely killing it and we have to give them a huge round of

07:25applause for that. Split Fiction debuted with an open critic aggregate score of 90, which has

07:30pushed it to the top of 2025 s most universally acclaimed games right next to Kingdom Come

07:34Deliverance 2. On Steam it clocked a historic concurrent player count of 260,000 players,

07:39and Hazelight announced that it had sold one million copies of Split Fiction in just the first

07:4348 hours. We ll talk about this again in the review roundup at Man. You have to remember that

07:47for every copy of Split Fiction sold, there are at least two people playing it, possibly even more

07:52given the friend pass situation, so they ve done extraordinarily well. On that note, Farris has

07:57been out there on the publicity circ and has been dropping bits of insight into his values as a

08:00designer and creator. Over on the Fall Damage channel he reacted to a bunch of YouTube comments,

08:05one of them brought up his position on in-game spending, or rather the lack of it in Hazelights

08:09games. Here s what he had to say quote I think those kind of shifts affect the design of how

08:13the game should be done. Every time you make a design decision based on you making more money

08:17in the game I think it s a huge problem and it s stopping our industry from being more creative

08:21end quote. Couldn t agree more. Love to see it. And hey, if you can t get enough of Joseph Farris

08:26saying shit like this, then you should absolutely check out this week s episode of the Friends Per

08:30Second podcast, because wouldn t you know it, he is our guest. I can confirm that the man is just

08:35as batshit insane in person as he is in front of a game awards crowd, and I mean that in the most

08:39complimentary way possible, because his passion, his conviction, his insight, there s no turning

08:44off that faucet at any point, and the conversation we had was one of my favourites that I ve had in

08:47the entire time we ve been doing the podcast. If you d like to check that out, it will be live on

08:50the channel this weekend, also available wherever you get your podcasts, I ll leave a link to that

08:54below the like button. While we re on podcasts, man you could make like a 26 episode documentary

08:58podcast about Disco Elysium s developer Zaum who just publicly announced their next project,

09:04an espionage RPG called C4. By the sounds of things it s got all the things that make Disco

09:08Elysium great, a big focus on characters, dice rolls, a deep introspective narrative,

09:13and an espionage plot that s more slow horses than James Bond. Now an announcement like this

09:17should be an unmitigated cause for celebration, were it not for the fact that the kind of stuff

09:20that s been going down at Zaum and those in its orbit has been an absolute shitshow to say the

09:25least. We ve thought about covering it in depth on this show before, but it s almost impossible to

09:28do it justice. Importantly though, what you need to know is that all the key creatives behind the

09:32original Disco Elysium are no longer at Zaum, after reportedly being ousted over legal disputes,

09:38allegations of mismanagement and toxic workplace behaviour, as well as through various layoffs and

09:42cancellations. The company is basically Zaum in name only and a place to sell incredibly expensive

09:48Disco Elysium merch, go check it out. The several offshoots of the Disco team and a bunch of

09:52outsiders who are hungry to be attached to the one true spiritual successor to Disco Elysium,

09:57all seem to be playing a real life battle royale with each other, switching sides, going rogue,

10:01trying to knock each others projects off the field by strategically timing competing game

10:05announcements and fighting each other in court to keep players from playing the projects they

10:09re working on. The most well-funded of these outfits, Longzhu, has just launched a Kickstarter

10:13for their own successor called Hopetown, which was announced at the same time as Zaum s new game.

10:18Longzhu seemingly has the most tenuous links to the Disco legacy, who still has plenty of weight

10:22to throw around thanks to their big investor backer who has zero connection to Disco Elysium,

10:26and who also apparently got himself banned from the Disco Elysium subreddit.

10:30Man I m really not doing any of this justice, but that s hopefully just some indication

10:34that all of these Disco Elysium projects seem to be like poison chalices right now,

10:38so tread very carefully around the mall no matter how much you love the original.

10:41Oh and I should probably mention that the lead Disco Elysium creatives, lead writer Robert

10:45Kurvitz and artist and designer Alex Rostov are involved in none of these new projects.

10:49Last we heard they got their own thing going backed by NetEase, which is a little worrying

10:54given all the news about them recently, and they piped up recently to give their blessing to an

10:57altogether different game inspired by Disco Elysium, but in no way associated with the

11:02legacy of it called Rue Valley. Oh man that was all so complicated, but you know what isn t

11:07complicated? Shooting shit with a gun and flying helicopters into infantry to see what happens.

11:14That s right baby, Battlefield is back. That big big playtest for the next Battlefield got

11:18underway last week, and even though the public playtesters that got invited were all under very

11:22strict NDA, wouldn t you know it, there was some leaked gameplay. Just a quick search on social

11:27media or reddit will give you a glimpse into the next Battlefield, even as I speak, because

11:31weirdly enough EA has been pretty lax about taking these clips down. You wanna know why?

11:36Well we don t know for sure, but I think it s because it actually makes the next Battlefield

11:40game look pretty damn good and EA are perfectly fine with that. There s no denying this series

11:44was in pretty rough shape thanks to 2042, but a lot of what has been leaked from the footage has

11:48the very sceptical Battlefield community feeling very excited. It seems a lot more grounded and

11:52modern feeling, the HUD looks really nice, the class system is back, and there s much

11:56requested features like being able to drag your allies to cover to heal them. We re not showing

11:59you any of the footage here because we d like our YouTube channel to stay up, but just know that the

12:04vibes for this one seem to be on point, and here s hoping the 20 studios they ve committed to this

12:08project manage to keep the ball up in the air until launch. A quick lightning round to finish

12:12off, Blizzard announced that Blizzcon is coming back in 2026! It hasn t been one of these since

12:162023, and this once beloved convention has been a bit on and off over the last few years on account

12:21of the whole COVID thing, as well as the whole Activision Blizzard is in court for being a really

12:25fucked up place to work thing, and they re probably confident that 2026 will be a worthwhile

12:29year for them to bring it back in a big way, especially since this will be the first after

12:33being completely acquired by Microsoft. Speaking of Microsoft, Forza Horizon 5 is

12:37arriving on PS5 next month, and it s been discovered that yes, you will need to register

12:41a Microsoft account in order to play it, and then use your PSN account to play online.

12:46Man, look at the kind of dystopian world the games industry has built for us. This isn t a

12:49huge surprise when you think about it, but it doesn t make it any less annoying, and I m sure

12:53if the PSN store had reviews this would not be going down well. Sony is getting a small

12:57taste of their own medicine right here. Speaking of Sony and messed up technological

13:00experiments, they have just secured the rights to distribute the next Resident Evil live action

13:04movie. This is supposed to be a reboot film for the series, and it s being directed by

13:08Zach Kreger who did Barbarian, and co-written by Shea Hatton who wrote John Wick 3 and 4.

13:13Sony is so confident in this one they ve already set a date for it, 18th of September 2026.

13:17From reboots to Respawn, word on the street is that Apex Legends developer Respawn has

13:21cancelled a multiplayer FPS project they are in the midst of incubating. Apparently,

13:25this was the project that the developers who were working on a now-cancelled Star Wars FPS

13:29moved onto, and now this has gone down the drain too, with a small handful of developers being

13:33laid off. I m sure this kind of stuff happens all the time, but it s sad news regardless,

13:36and I sure hope that project wasn t Titanfall 3, because we don t need any more sadists in our

13:40lives. Speaking of sad news, Discord is apparently in talks to go public. Yep, that s right.

13:45Though that would be terrible. If you thought all the Discord Nitro stuff was useless,

13:49I hope you re ready for more, because what this glorified IRC program really needs is

13:53public shareholders to pressure management to put ads in it or dumb shit like that.

13:57Discord hasn t confirmed or denied these reports. It s probably only a matter of time.

14:00Ori and No Rest for the Wicked developer Moon Studios is now fully independent,

14:04the company has just announced. They were previously under Take-Two s Private Division

14:07label for No Rest for the Wicked, but when Take-Two was selling off Private Division,

14:11it apparently wanted to hold onto this one and this one only. Well, seems like whatever the

14:14reason was, Moon Studios put in a good offer, because now it s completely theirs again.

14:19Really glad to hear this, to be honest. No Rest for the Wicked, even in its early access,

14:22is just brilliant, and I m looking forward to them getting the game over the finish line.

14:26And finally, ending on a nice story, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has reached a milestone of 6 million players,

14:30a great piece of news for a game and a studio that had everything working against it. A real

14:34world invasion, plague of technical issues at launch, having to get this game running on Xbox

14:38Series S. By gosh, they have done it, and I m sure the Game Pass deal helped them out a bunch too.

14:43I said it in my review, but this is a game that s very likely only going to get better with age,

14:47and I m glad GSC Gameworld is getting these sorts of wins early in the game s life cycle.

14:50So what got announced or delayed this week? Well, we gotta start with the most self-indulgent

14:54announcement of the lot, which is of course Hideo Kojima s personally edited 10-minute trailer

14:59for Death Stranding 2, just to announce the release date of June 26th, exclusive to PS5.

15:04And what a trailer, oh my god, no one does it like this man. He gave us a look at the new actors

15:09Kojima is now BFFs with, which include Korean action powerhouse Ma Dong-seok, the legendary

15:14Deborah Wilson, and real-life husband and wife Alisa Chung and Luca Marinelli.

15:18A few years ago, Kojima said Marinelli could absolutely play Solid Snake in a film if you

15:22put a bandana on him, and god damn wouldn t you know it, at the end of this trailer,

15:26the guy puts on a Solid Snake-ass bandana and commands a bunch of skeleton soldiers,

15:30for the whole thing cuts to what is basically a Metal Gear Solid boss fight. In fact, there is a

15:34whole lot of action and gunplay in this trailer, which feels like Kojima trying to convince people

15:38that this sequel is a lot more than just a walking simulator. Regardless of what this game ends up

15:42being, this looks absolutely incredible. I haven t even played it yet, and I very strongly

15:48recommend it. I m joking of course, but man, I m never going to be able to hide my Kojima

15:52fangirlism, and trailers like this remind us why Kojima is still in a league of his own.

15:56Moving on to other news now, and the Nacon Connect showcase went down last week.

16:00The French publisher announced not one, but two games based on Cthulhu mythos. The first one is

16:05The Mound, Omen of Cthulhu, which is based on the HP Lovecraft novella of the same name.

16:10This one s a 4 player co-op game that follows a group of explorers who land on an island in

16:13search of treasure in a lost city, and wouldn t you know it, there s monsters. Who d have thunk

16:17it in a Cthulhu game. The Mound is also being developed by an outfit called Ace Team, who have

16:21been responsible for some pretty wild games in the past. They did the first person melee fighting

16:25game Xenoclash, as well as the wacky boulder rolling series Rock of Ages. This seems like

16:29a much more toned down idea for them, but you never know, these cosmic horror hallucinations

16:33can get pretty wild. This one s due out in 2025 for all platforms bar Switch.

16:37The other Cthulhu game announced is The Cosmic Abyss. This one s set in the near future,

16:41where you play an Interpol agent investigating the disappearance of people on a mining station

16:45out in the middle of the Pacific, and wouldn t you know it, there s monsters. And possibly even

16:49Cthulhu itself. This action adventure game is a bit further out, it s later for 2026 for all

16:53platforms bar Switch. Hey, did you ever play Styx? That was a neat little AA game that had

16:57some pretty great stealth design, where you played as a 100 year old arsehole of a goblin. They re

17:02making another one of these, which is a nice surprise, it s called Styx Blades of Greed.

17:05This one s boasting larger metroidvania style open worlds, with lots of ways to tackle objectives

17:09like mine control. Could be interesting, it s due out at the end of the year for all platforms

17:13bar Switch. Robocop is back baby, hopefully still Sans Jetpack. The developers of Rogue City likely

17:18sat down to watch that Carl Urban Judge Dredd film at some point, because Robocop Rogue City

17:22Unfinished Business seems exactly like that except with a different 80s law enforcer. This is a

17:27standalone expansion to Rogue City where you need to fight your way to the top of a big corporate

17:31tower that has been taken over by gangs. Say no more, I m absolutely in. This one s due out

17:353rd quarter of the year for all platforms bar Switch. So those were all the new games that

17:39came out of the Nacon Connect, but get this, I don t know if this was timed strategically,

17:43but Frogwares, the Ukrainian developer behind The Sinking City 2, re-announced the game last

17:48week. They launched a kickstarter at the same time, which was fully funded in just one day,

17:53and at the time of writing they had blown past their goal by 300%. Now these guys had a big

17:57publishing dispute with Nacon in 2020 over the first Sinking City game,

18:01accusing Nacon of withholding royalties, fighting over the rights to the IP and suing them for a

18:05bunch of damages. Tough situation for a Ukrainian dev with, you know, everything else going on right

18:10now. They finally resolved and settled that dispute at the beginning of 2024 with Frogwares

18:13seemingly coming out on top with the IP rights to The Sinking City. Now with this massive

18:17kickstarter success, I can t help but think this is a very well-earned and well-timed victory

18:21line for Frogwares, wishing the team all the best as they settle into a fully funded dev cycle.

18:25If you re a beat em up fan, you ve probably got good things to say about Streets of Rage 4,

18:28which was a continuation of Sega s classic beat em up series, but handled in a slick modern retro

18:33way. Anyway, the devs behind that are now working on their own original IP, which is starting to

18:36become a bit of a trend, and it s called Absalomne. This takes the classic multiplayer beat em up

18:41format and sees how it might work as a roguelike, with a high fantasy world and some really nice

18:45looking art and animation. Some of the initial previews for this one are very glowing, but

18:48there s no release date for this one just yet and it will head to all platforms bar Xbox.

18:52Last new game announcement now, and it comes from the beautiful land down under,

18:55more specifically Bris Vegas, aka Brisbane. One of the standout indie game studios in that city

18:59was Defiant Development, who made a game called Hand of Fate, a really unique roguelite action

19:04RPG dungeon crawl that mixed deck building elements too. It released during that first

19:07golden age wave of roguelikes over 10 years ago now. Defiant Development are no more,

19:12but a lot of those folks have now announced Hordes of Fate, which is looking to continue the series,

19:16only reimagined as a vampire survivors like autoshooter. Be interesting to see if this

19:20one has legs, not sure where we re at with the survivor clones thing these days, but maybe

19:24there s still some room for experimentation. This one s due out Q3 PC only. Couple of delays now,

19:29just as last weeks episode was going up, NetEase announced that the PS5 and Xbox series versions

19:34of their free to play shooter Frag Punk would be delayed due to an unforeseen technical issue,

19:39though the PC version still went out as planned. They didn t give us a new release date,

19:42but knowing our luck it ll probably be out by the time this video goes live.

19:45Killing Floor 3 was also delayed with no specific date this week. It was originally due later this

19:50month, but apparently feedback from the recent beta they ran was so bad that they decided to

19:54massively rework some stuff. A key item being the fact that they locked perks behind specific

19:58characters and no one liked that. That rework is coming on top of stability issues and UI UX

20:03issues and weapon feel and yeah, probably the right call to delay this one. We can kill those

20:07flaws when the game s good and ready. So what came out last week? Well,

20:10Split Fiction certainly made a huge splash, 260,000 concurrent players on Steam, 1 million

20:16copies sold in the first two days, and don t forget you can basically play this game for free

20:19so long as you know someone who owns it, so those sales numbers are all the more impressive.

20:23The reviews no doubt held because critics were unanimously in love with this thing,

20:27even if, like me, they were a little bit iffy on the writing and characters,

20:29that s because the rest of the package is just so damn good. You can watch my review for this

20:33on the channel right now if you haven t already, link below the like button, but let s take a look

20:36at what the other critics are saying. Split Fiction is currently sitting at a mighty 90 on

20:40Open Critic which at the time of writing puts it alongside Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 as the best

20:44game of the year. PC Gamer gave this one an 87 saying quote An incredibly inventive,

20:49rapid-fire co-op adventure that never breaks its stride, despite its dull protagonists.

20:54It s hard to imagine another game cramming so many surprises and script flips into a single

20:5715-hour romp, but I thought something similar when I played It Takes Two. Clearly Hazelight

21:02isn t done trying to push how much it can keep us on our toes. While these two stand out as the

21:05studio s most similar games, Split Fiction is absolutely trying to aim higher. More intense,

21:10more variety, more flash and spectacle. And it s paid off. This is the studio s best game and one

21:15of the greatest co-op games around end quote. Gamespot actually gave this one a rare 10 out of

21:2010 calling it quote A love letter to creativity, to stories, games, and the people who make them.

21:25It s funny, dark, joyous, childish, tender, cheesy, thrilling, and remarkable. All this

21:30combined with gorgeous environments, fantastic gameplay, and sheer spectacle make Hazelight

21:34Studios newest release an early contender for the best game of 2025 end quote. So yeah,

21:38find a friend to play this one with, you absolutely will not regret it.

21:42Next up, Frag Punk is basically yet another bite of the free-to-play competitive scene from NetEase

21:46through their Bad Guitar Studio, and it seems to be getting a pretty good reception so far.

21:49Steam reviews are mostly positive, with 72% of the 14,000 reviews giving it a thumbs up.

21:54Some interesting perspectives on this one. The big feature for Frag Punk are its wild modifiers,

21:58which seem like either a lot of fun if you re playing casually, or the worst thing in the

22:02world if you re someone who loves competitive ranked play. Here s Steam user Weaselbee who

22:06s played it for 14 hours, quote This game is fun as hell. Shard cards are almost like

22:10roguelike modifiers per round that keep you wanting to play more, because each round will

22:13be different. The menu is a labyrinth of more menus, but it s all for cosmetic bullshit.

22:17Stick to the play button and you want to keep playing, end quote.

22:19On the flip side, here s Steam user Psycho who has played this game for 36 hours and has a

22:24very different perspective, quote I had high expectations for Frag Punk. I was excited for

22:28a fresh, competitive FPS with its own unique concept, cast and gameplay. Instead, we got a

22:32weird Apex-Valorant hybrid that can t decide what it wants to be. Is it a slow-paced tactical shooter

22:37like Valorant, or a high-octane, fast-paced game like Apex? It tries to be both and ends up failing

22:42at both. The gameplay feels disjointed, the mechanics are unsatisfying and the identity of

22:46the game is completely lost, end quote. Of course, the good thing about this one is it is free to

22:49play, so if you re at all curious, give it a whirl and decide for yourself. It s out right now on PC

22:53Moving on to Suikoden 1 and 2 Remastered. This is the re-release of Konami s cult-favourite

22:59JRPG series from the PlayStation 1 era, and its remastering is either very faithful or too

23:04faithful depending on who you ask. It s got a strong 81 on Open Critic, here s GameSpot who

23:08gave it 6 out of 10, quote This is a package of two great games that is serviceable. Outside of

23:13some interface issues that are mostly artifacts of the game s age, there s nothing wrong with

23:16Suikoden 1 and 2. In fact, they remain as excellent as ever. But it s hard to get rid of the nagging

23:21feeling that this remaster feels uneven between the weirdly contrasting visuals and the general

23:25lack of quality of life improvements beyond the bare minimum. Suikoden is a phenomenal series,

23:30these two games really deserve to be reintroduced with the red carpet, not the tacky doormat,

23:34end quote. Meanwhile, here s RPGsite who called out all of the same issues as GameSpot and took

23:38a glass half full approach and ultimately scored it a 9 out of 10, quote The end result is a project

23:43that, like another pixel remastered project before it, these are games that play and look just like

23:47you remember them and somehow even a bit better. Slight quality of life changes compliment rather

23:51than complicate the gameplay, end quote. Next up is Wonderstop which is the cozy

23:55t-shop management game from Annapurna and Stanley Parable creator David Rendon,

23:58which deals with some really heavy shit. The big hook here is that you ve got a reluctant

24:02protagonist, an ex-fighter called Alter, who is suffering from some massive burnout and very

24:06resistant to slowing down and resting and generally doing all the cozy game stuff. It seems to have

24:10struck a big chord with some critics despite the very light life simulator mechanics. It s got a

24:14strong 79 on OpenCritic, here s The Gamer who scored it 4.5 out of 5, quote Wonderstop balances

24:20the discomfort brought on by seeing a game strike so true at the heart of burnout while being an

24:25absolute pleasure to play, full of delightful secrets and a healthy helping of whimsy. I m

24:29awed at how well it s all balanced and how, despite some occasionally schlocky dialogue,

24:33it so effectively gets its point across, end quote. Ed s been playing through this one actually,

24:37here s what he had to say, quote As someone who s both experienced massive burnout and also a bit

24:41resistant to cozy life simulators, Wonderstop s approach was very interesting. The reluctant

24:45protagonist, the constant conversations around motivation and perfection, self-worth and rest,

24:50all within a surreal setting that never quite makes sense. It s not a game with a loop you can

24:54completely lose yourself in, or a story that you can tie up neatly in a bow. It s a constant,

24:58messy state of limbo in basically all respects, which is clearly the point it really makes you

25:03think, which is honestly a big compliment, end quote. So what s coming out this week? Well on

25:07Thursday, March 13th, we finally, FINALLY have the release date of Midnight Murder Club. This

25:13is Sony s latest bet in the whole live service multiplayer thing. Now this one has a pretty good

25:17schtick, it s the one where it s a team deathmatch game in a pitch black mansion, where you re

25:20equipped with a flashlight for seeing, a revolver for shooting and proximity chat for talking with

25:25your team, only the other team can hear you if they re close by and they can see your flashlight

25:29trails and they can get the jump on you if you re not careful. There s a whole bunch of traps and

25:33modifiers you can use to get the upper hand, and it seems like it could be a lot of fun with the

25:36right people. Sony is doing the whole guest pass thing here that gives you the best possible chance

25:40to play it. One owner can invite 5 other people to play. Let s see if they can recreate that

25:46split fiction magic. PC and PS5 for this one, and crossplay is supported. On Friday, March 14th is

25:51WWE 2K25 for all platforms bar Switch. Now this is another 2K game with that amazing paid early

25:57access thing that everyone loves, so technically you could have been playing it last week if you

26:00wanted to. Now I don t know shit about wrestling, but I do know these games were really bad for a

26:04long period until 2K finally changed developers and they got noticeably better. Strong critic

26:08reviews for this one ahead of release, but the Steam reviews tell a different story with a lot

26:11of talk about bugs and 2K s infamous in-game spending. We ll check back in on those reviews

26:16next week. Jumping ahead to next Tuesday, the 18th, Pathologic 3 Quarantine is coming to PC.

26:21Man, talk about a game series with a cult following. Pathologic 2 was a brutal open

26:26world horror survival RPG about the playing, but it had a lot to offer and certainly a bunch of

26:30people loved the hell out of it, and it clearly did well enough because here s the sequel, and it

26:34looks slightly less fucked up based on the marketing materials. And finally 33 Immortals

26:38is that 33 player co-op action roguelike from Thunder Lotus, the folks behind the excellent

26:42Spiritfarer. This one s due out in early access on March 18th and looks really intriguing. Here

26:47s the thing though, this game is only releasing on Xbox and the Epic Games Store on PC. It s

26:52coming to Xbox Game Pass as well, but man when you need to fill a lobby with 32 other people,

26:57the last thing you want is to be restricted by, you know, the underdog marketplaces. Hopefully

27:02it doesn t prove too much of a barrier, definitely wishing all the best to the team for this one,

27:06but let s also hope that it arrives on Steam for 1.0, yeah?

27:09Alright enough with those bright particle effects and saturated colours, put this on your radar.

27:14Did you finish playing Indiana Jones The Great Circle yet? Okay cool, now play Children of Clay,

27:36a bite-sized psychological horror game where you play an archaeologist trying to learn more about

27:40this ancient artifact you got your hands on that is in no way fucked up, not even a little bit.

27:47This one has a neat stop motion aesthetic that somehow makes it all the more unsettling,

27:50but this piece of rock could shuffle across the table and jump out at you at any moment.

27:54Maybe it will, who s to say? This one s good to sit down with late at night,

27:58and it only takes 20 minutes to play through all of it, and here s the best part,

28:02it s free to play, and if you like it enough, you can drop a couple of bucks for a little

28:05making of booklet. If you re interested to check this one out, you can follow a link to

28:08it over on our Steam Curator page, which also has links to all of the other Put This On Your

28:12Radar stuff I ve recently covered, I ll leave a link to all of that below the like button.

28:15So what a free stuff time now, and did you get that crazy My Little Pony fighting game on the

28:18Epic Game Store last week? Good, that ll be available on Friday, and following that,

28:22Epic s offering up Mortal Shell, which is a Souls-like clone that is, okay, it s alright,

28:26it looks nice, it s got atmosphere, it s short and it s free, not exactly best in class but a

28:31solid effort with some nice ideas, and honestly, it s a pretty good Souls gateway if you re on

28:35the fence about these sorts of games. Now Donkey Kong 94, that s a good video game,

28:40I don t care what the haters say, this is one of the new offerings for Nintendo Switch Online this

28:43month, and it s basically the sequel to the OG Donkey Kong, where you play as Mario,

28:47chasing DK through a bunch of platforming levels to try to get future Mayor Pauline back. If you

28:52played some of the more recent Mario vs Donkey Kong games on Switch or Game Boy Advance, this

28:55is essentially the genesis of that style of game. The other offering on Nintendo Switch Online is

28:59the very first Picross game, Mario Picross, if you don t know what the hell Picross is,

29:03it s kind of like Sudoku where you chip away at a board to reveal a picture,

29:07people who are into Picross just can t stop talking about Picross, the folks who made this

29:11game are still making Picross all these years later, there are like 15 of these games on Switch,

29:16so they must be doing alright. And finally, it s a new month so it s time to check in on what s

29:19happening with Prime Gaming, and let me tell you, it s not bad. Right now you can get GOG codes for

29:24Saints Row The Third, Mafia 2 Definitive Edition, as well as an Epic Game Store code for Crime Boss

29:29Rocket City. A bad game, which is a guilty pleasure for multiple people I know, later in

29:33the month you can expect bangers like The Forgotten City, Wolfenstein, The Old Blood,

29:37Legacy of Kane Defiance and a bunch more, but we ll keep bringing those up as they become available.

29:41Our feelgood story for the week is actually one from my homeland, though not from my home city.

29:45In Melbourne, there s a shop that sells only fries. That s it, just fries, with or without

29:50salt, with or without toppings, with or without Vegemite. That s a joke by the way, we don t put

29:54Vegemite on our fries, we do have our limits. Anyway, the name of the shop is Lord of the Fries,

30:00and if that name makes you think of Lord of the Rings, then you my friend are an absolute bellend,

30:05but you might just be dumb enough to be a senior executive at the Embracer-owned Middle Earth

30:09Enterprises. Yes, the company that s closed more game studios in the past three years than any

30:13other publisher is now trying to shut down independent chip shops because they actually

30:18took Lord of the Fries to court aiming that their name infringed on the Lord of the Rings IP.

30:24I really do wish I was making this up. Of course, Lord of the Fries is a play on another book title,

30:29William Golding s 1954 classic Lord of the Flies. And if Golding were to crawl out of his grave and

30:34declare some beef with Lord of the Fries, I d say the man had a point, but Middle Earth Enterprises,

30:40hell no. Luckily, the judge ruled in favour of the chip shop, saying that Lord of the Fries was a

30:45variation on the trademark the business had used for 15 years, and also that Middle Earth Enterprises

30:49had cherry-picked examples suggesting that Lord of the Fries had deliberately made design choices

30:54to capitalise on the similarity between the two names. So in essence, the judge told Middle Earth

30:58Enterprises to take a long walk into a big volcano, and a local chip shop in downtown Melbourne

31:03successfully bested the video games industry equivalent of Sauron. Poetry, really.

31:07And with that, ladies and gentlemen, I m off to play some more Assassin s Creed Shadows ahead of

31:10the review next week. One like equals one good luck to me for finishing this game before the

31:15embargo. And like I said, don t forget to hit subscribe on YouTube or follow on Spotify so

31:19you ll know the minute that review goes live. Thanks as always for watching, and a big thanks

31:22to this video s sponsor, Surfshark. VPN is the kind of thing that you hear about and you go,

31:27eh, that s not for me. But chances are good that a VPN is actually very helpful to you,

31:31for a variety of reasons. And I know that because I ve been using this video s sponsor,

31:35Surfshark VPN, for years now, and I m constantly surprised by how often it comes in handy.

31:39More than anything else, I appreciate the safety that comes from Surfshark VPN,

31:43since it encrypts your data to keep your personal information safe. If you re playing games,

31:48Surfshark VPN will hide your IP address, which, depending on the game, might have been accessible,

31:52opening you up to DDoS attacks. The thing I use it for the most, though, is sidestepping geolocks.

31:57Surfshark VPN lets you browse the internet without being locked out of things based on your location.

32:02That applies to streaming services who geolock certain TV shows or movies, but it also applies

32:06to online shopping, since prices can often be different from one geography to the next,

32:10and so Surfshark VPN can help you get the best possible price when making a purchase.

32:15I actually use the full suite of Surfshark products, and there s quite a few of them

32:18that offer even more security and protection. Stuff like an antivirus, an anti-malware tool,

32:23real-time reports if a company that has some of your personal data gets hacked,

32:27and even a masked email generator that lets you create dummy emails when you want to sign up to

32:31something but you don t want to hand over your actual email address. Best of all, all of this

32:35is incredibly cheap. I really recommend clicking the link below to see just how inexpensive it is

32:40to properly protect yourself online. For real, if this gives you access to just one regional pricing

32:45discount, that ll probably go a long way towards this paying for itself. It s insane value given

32:50the freedom, discounts, and peace of mind, and if you use offer code SKILLUP at surfshark.com

32:55forward slash skillup, you can get an additional 4 months for free. That s surfshark.com forward

33:00slash skillup, using offer code SKILLUP at checkout for 4 additional months free. Thanks

33:05Surfshark for sponsoring the video and thank you for watching it.

Report: Xbox to release handheld in 2025, next gen consoles 2027 | This Week in Videogames

Category

Transcript

Recommended