We’ve covered the EVGA Z20 mechanical keyboard a couple of times here on the RPS Deals beat, thanks to its quality design, full-size layout and extremely low asking price, and now we have an alternative deal for those that prefer the lighter feel and softer sound of membrane keyboards.
The EVGA Z12 is the firm’s rubber dome offering, and it’s down to £20 at Amazon UK, a heavy reduction from its £60 RRP and a few quid less than it’s been over the past few months.
Feeling the burn.
Nintendo has posted its end-of-year report for FY2023 and as of March 2023, the Switch family of systems has sold over 3 million since the last quarter, bringing the lifetime total number of units sold to a cool 125.62 million.
Back in February the total stood at 122.55, which took sales past the milestones set by both the Game Boy (118.69 units) and Sony’s PlayStation 4 (117.2). The Nintendo DS is still ahead in the ranks of best-selling video game consoles, though, with a whopping 154.02 million lifetime sales to its name. And Sony’s PS2 tops the table with 155 million.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
“It’s definitely going to be something very fresh”.
The Zelda series has always had a dedicated community of speedrunners and later this week on 12th May they’ll be returning for Tears of the Kingdom.
IGN recently spoke to Breath of the Wild speedrunners ‘Player 5’ and Tom “Tallest Thomas” Rasmussen – asking them how they feel about starting over in Tears of the Kingdom and to get an insight into what they’re expecting in the early days of the sequel.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
A new Kickstarter with a Switch port goal.
If you have fond memories of the Nintendo DS generation, you may want to take a look at the Kickstarter campaign for Reflectile – a stylish new precision puzzle game by indie developer Joe Aquiare.
A Switch port has been promised if the project can reach $35,000 USD, and it’s currently at around $8,500 (with a target goal of $15,000 for the initial PC release) with 11 days remaining. You’ll take control of a small tile that must reach a goal at the end of each level. It’s described as a “minimal, stylish, and challenging top-down puzzle game” that’s deceptively simple.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
It’s almost summertime—(yeah, where has the time gone?!) As E3 is canceled, don’t fret; there will be plenty of exciting video game announcements and reveals to come this June. From IGN’s own Summer of Gaming event to the Xbox Showcase, be sure to mark your calendars accordingly so you don’t miss a beat. Here are 10 of the biggest events you can look forward to this summer, with more details to come!
IGN’s Summer of Gaming is returning for its fourth year this June for a multi-day event filled with tons of game and developer content. IGN is excited to share exclusive reveals, interviews and more; (see what was announced last year). As part of our Summer of Gaming programming, tune in on June 8th for Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest stream and all of our analysis!
Guerilla Collective’s Showcase will officially kick off June’s games events on June 7th. If it’s anything like last year, there’s a “truckload” of announcements to expect. There were a whopping 40 new trailers and game announcements from Guerrilla Collective in 2022!
We’re proud to bring you the official date of the amazing Guerrilla Collective event we have planned this summer:
? Wednesday, June 7th @ 9AM PST | 6PM CET!
More info below:
➡️ https://t.co/lj68oroG0y pic.twitter.com/p8JidwbnGQ— Guerrilla Collective (@GuerrillaCollec) April 19, 2023
Summer Game Fest is still on for 2023, and has been confirmed for Thursday, June 8, Noon PT/3p ET. It’s once again a free livestream hosted by Geoff Keighley, with big partners and anticipated announcements to come throughout June 8th-9th. Be sure to check back here on IGN.com for the Summer Game Fest stream and catch our real-time reactions as part of June’s Summer of Gaming event!
See what’s next in video games when @summergamefest goes live!
?Thursday, June 8, Noon PT/3p ET
?Free livestream from @youtubetheater pic.twitter.com/cxpZlQk0fq— Summer Game Fest (@summergamefest) March 30, 2023
Future Games Show (FGS) is still a go for June 10th and is one of Future’s three total gaming showcases of the year. If you’re wondering what Future Games Show is all about, FGS debuted in 2020 with a mission “to celebrate the most exciting, unusual and innovative upcoming games across all formats”. For June 2023, you can expect gameplay footage from indies and the like, with some new surprises and “tweaks to the show format” according to their site.
Final Fantasy fans can anticipate a pre-launch celebration stream for FFXVI on June 11 at 3:00 p.m. PT / 6:00 p.m. ET, hosted by Square Enix. More details to come, but you’ll definitely want to mark your calendars for this special sneak peek around the 16th chapter of this anticipated franchise release (June 22). Catch up on the latest Final Fantasy 16 Showcase from Sony State of Play.
As usual, Xbox will be hosting its summer showcase (and extended showcase again, perhaps?) this June. Here’s what went down last year with almost three dozen games announced during Microsoft’s event; from Starfield to Forza Motorsport to Redfall and more!
Immediately following the Xbox Showcase will be Starfield Direct. After a couple of delays, Starfield is confirmed to launch in September 2023 for Xbox Series X/S and PC, and people are stoked!
Join us for #StarfieldDirect following the Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday, June 11 https://t.co/Igj84qH7AT
— Xbox (@Xbox) March 8, 2023
According to PC Gamer’s announcement, the start time for the PC Gaming Show will be shared at a later date, and will be broadcast on Twitch and other platforms on June 11th.
See the latest from Ubisoft during their livestream on June 12th. Ahead of the event, catch up on everything announced from Ubisoft Forward in Fall 2022 to give you an idea of what’s to come still. Reveals in September 2022 included a sneak peek into the future of Assassin’s Creed, Rayman coming to Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, and Skull and Bones Trailer showing ship customization to name a few.
While last year’s summer showcase contained several announcements for the Meta Quest 2 and major VR headsets, this showcase should focus on VR games. Although we’re not likely to get any new VR headset announcements, if VR is your jam, you’ll want to see what VR games will be announced. Timing TBD.
You can expect truly wholesome aesthetics shown again this year at the Wholesome Direct event, including new trailers in tandem with new release dates and windows. 2022’s Wholesome Direct event showed off 90+ games in total, with three new games announced including Bubblegum Galaxy. What new cozy games can we look forward to this time around?
Today is your last chance to submit for Wholesome Direct 2023! https://t.co/2WSSDLrNjm
— Wholesome Games (@_wholesomegames) March 31, 2023
With a new, big release coming up on May 12th for Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, it’s hard to imagine what fans will care about even more than Zelda come June! This event is TBD at the moment, but there were a ton of announcements from September’s Nintendo Direct event to recap if you need an idea of what news comes from these showcases.
Although unconfirmed for now, if Sony comes through again with a showcase in June, we’re likely to see a handful of new reveals for PSVR2 and PS5, along with new character reveals and new looks at upcoming releases like we did in February’s State of Play event. Earlier this year, we got the news about new Street Fighter 6 fighters and saw new Suicide Squad gameplay to name a couple of the bigger highlights.
What are you hoping to see this summer from these gaming events? Let us know in the comments.
Capcom announced that it will be hosting an open beta for Street Fighter 6 from May 19-21. It will contain the same content as the closed beta test from December 2022 and the released version will be updated with further character balances.
Those who want to participate in the open beta will need to register a Capcom ID and link their desired platform, as PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S are included. The available playable characters are Luke, Jamie, Ryu, Chun-Li, Guile, Kimberly, Juri, and Ken. The available stages include Metro City Downtown, Genbu Temple, Carrier Byron Taylor, Tian Hong Yuan, Macho Ring, and Training Room.
You’ve all been asking!
Play the Open Beta for #StreetFighter6 from May 19-21. Experience the content from Closed Beta Test #2, including 8 characters and various ways to play online!
? https://t.co/cUsf8PXM5j pic.twitter.com/HhlqCDCCA4
— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) May 8, 2023
There are also a variety of different modes to play online with, such as ranked matches, casual matches, open tournaments, and more. Additionally, cross-play functionality will let players from separate platforms enjoy the game with each other.
Street Fighter 6 will continue to be supported following its launch on June 2. Rashid from Street Fighter 5 will start off the game’s first year of DLC characters starting in the summer and newcomer A.K.I. will join in November. Ed from Street Fighter 4 and Akuma from Street Fighter II Turbo will be added in Winter 2024 and Spring 2024, respectively.
In IGN’s Street Fighter 6 final preview, we said, “Street Fighter 6 is shaping up to be the whole package, and certainly the most fully featured a Street Fighter game has ever been at the beginning of its lifecycle.”
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey
After porting the original Doom RPG onto PCs last year, GEC.inc, has followed up with the sequel.
GEC.inc announced on Twitter today that it has ported Doom 2 RPG to PC. Originally released in early 2010 for the iPhone and iPod Touch, the Doom 2 RPG is set one year after the events of the first game. It focuses on group consisting of two space Marines and a scientist investigating a demon-infested research facility on the Earth’s moon.
Doom 1 & 2 RPG stands out from the rest of the series, known for fast-paced first-person shooting and a lot of gory demon-slaying antics. In contrast, the Doom RPG games still take place in the first-person perspective, but utilizes turn-based RPG mechanics.
Doom 2 RPG at last. Yes Doom 2 RPG finally on PC as promised years ago come true today.
You can play it now, download link from Doomworld:https://t.co/afPq0BQ2J1 pic.twitter.com/PJXWR5ariB— GEC.inc (@inc_gec) May 7, 2023
While there is a store listing on the app store for Doom 2 RPG, it is not playable on recent versions of iOS. Even searching for the game on the App Store, you won’t find it. However, the store listing on a web browser notes that it will run on Macs that have macOS 11.0 installed and are powered with an Apple processor such as the M1 chip.
In our original review for Doom 2 RPG, which we gave an 8, IGN’s Levi Buchanan noted that Doom 2 RPG’s battles “come fast and furious but are paced well with story segments and puzzle play.
Doom 2 RPG’s PC port is available on DoomWorld, at no cost, and GEC.inc confirmed the port supports touchscreen behavior like the original version of the game, with support for gamepads like an Xbox wireless controller.
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
I don’t have to tell you The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom comes out May 12, because the very subject of this article self-selects people who already know that. I also don’t have to tell you about how the Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED model is still available pretty much everywhere, but the Tears of the Kingdom Pro Controller and the Tears of the Kindgom Collector’s Edition sold out fast and probably aren’t coming back.
But hey, at least you can still get the Tears of the Kingdom Link amiibo, right?
Well, yes. You can get the Tears of the Kingdom amiibo at Best Buy and GameStop, but it’s already sold out at Amazon. And those Link amiibo reprints? They’re also hard to come by. In fact, pretty much everything The Legend of Zelda-related seems to be in short supply (other than the OLED Switch, which is both hugely popular and widely available).
As an excercise in torture, I guess, I went ahead and built up a list of every Legend of Zelda amiibo, ever, and threw in links (pun intended) where you can see them for sale and decide not to buy them. Well, I take that back: you’re free to buy them, but with very rare exceptions they’re all two or more times their original price. People don’t even know what role amiibo might play in Tears of the Kingdom, but just in case, they’re buying them anyway.
So far, the Link Tears of the Kingdom amiibo is the only new amiibo we know of for the new Zelda game. However, if you look at the release schedule of the amiibo around Breath of the Wild, you see a whole lot more than just one. Either Nintendo has a bunch more scheduled, and they’re afraid of spoiling the game, or they just won’t make any more than one. I’m leaning towards the first possibility myself. Time will tell.
An itch the Switch can’t fix.
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they’ve been chewing over. Today, Nile is pining for something a little smaller and simpler on his commute…
Not too long ago, my niece taught me something heartening about the staying power of old tech.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
It’s funny how some aspects of game design are so ubiquitous that we stop questioning them, or even noticing them. After decades spent playing video games, I know that if I look behind the waterfall, there’s likely to be some sort of shiny goodie to collect. If I head left rather than right at the start of a level, I’m bound to find a juicy secret. There are conventions. Traditions. I can’t remember a time when games didn’t have giant lifts – and yet, I’m not entirely sure why they’re there. I’m not talking about the regular kind of lifts that you pile into, usually at the end of a level, to transition from one part of the game to another; those ones have historically been used to hide lengthy loading times, like the interminably long lifts of Mass Effect.
What I mean is the lifts that are essentially tennis-court-sized moving platforms, usually with little more than a flimsy guard rail around the edge to stop elevator enjoyers from plunging down the shaft. Even more specifically, I’m talking about the diagonally moving elevators that trundle slowly into the depths, often to some nefarious laboratory. There’s a good example in the Resident Evil 2 remake, where you fight the final boss on an inclined elevator as it slowly, ever so slowly, descends towards the train that will grant your escape. So where did these giant elevators come from? And why do developers keep putting them in their games? I set out to answer both questions, and went somewhere unexpected.
