Latest news with #KennethShepard
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Some Switch 2 Games Will Support A USB Mouse
Well, this is neat. Apparently, some Switch 2 games will support you just plugging in a USB mouse and playing that way instead of using a controller or the Joy-Con's mouse-like features. I'll be curious to test this out when the console arrives next month. When the Switch 2 was announced, we learned you can flip one of the console's Joy-Con on its side and use it as a mouse. It's a really cool idea that might help RTSes and RPGs play better on Nintendo's upcoming console. Our own Kenneth Shepard played around with the Switch 2's Joy-Con mouse features and walked away sold on the tech, saying it works pretty well assuming you have a table and a comfy setup. But if you just want to use an actual USB mouse, well, it seems like that will be an option, too, at least in some games on Switch 2. On May 22, as spotted by Wario64 on Twitter, Koei Tecmo uploaded an official gameplay stream of Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening CE running on Switch 2. About 10 minutes into the gameplay demo, the game's producer Michi Ryu pulled out a USB mouse, plugged it into the console, and started playing the game with it. 'Once you connect the USB mouse, a message will appear in the top left indicating that the mouse is connected,' said Ryu via English subtitles. 'When the USB mouse is connected, it takes priority over the Joy-Con 2.' During the demo, the producer also demonstrated that you can switch between the Joy-Con and the mouse instantly as often as you want, letting you use them both at the same time. Kotaku has pinged Nintendo for more details about the Switch 2 supporting USB mice. I also asked them if the console will support USB keyboards. If so, that would make the Switch 2, which launches on June 5, even more of a direct competitor to the Steam Deck. Either way, I'm excited that the console will support more control options, as that allows more people to play in whatever way works best for them. . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Split Fiction Is A Smash Hit By Every Metric And A Lesson To EA And Others
As I write this sentence, the latest co-op adventure game from Hazelight, Split Fiction, hasn't even been out for 48 hours. Yet based on player count numbers, Metacritic rankings, reviews, and player ratings, it is already one of EA's most successful and critically acclaimed games in years. And hopefully, EA and other publishers learn a thing or two from the co-op game's success. After being revealed just 12 weeks ago at the Game Awards in December, Split Fiction launched on March 6 to rave reviews. Our own Kenneth Shepard found the game to be incredibly inventive and well-made, calling it a 'victory lap' from studio Hazelight which has been producing excellent co-op games for about a decade now. I've been playing it with my wife over the last few days and I have to agree. It's a truly incredible game that is packed with hundreds of cool moments and ideas. And it seems we aren't alone in loving Split Fiction because looking around at ever publicly available metric on hand, the game is a smash hit. First, lets look at Metacritic, which is a useful if flawed metric of how well a game is doing overall with critics across multiple sites and outlets. The review aggregator has Split Fiction, as of March 7, sitting at 91 on PS5 and 92 on Xbox and PC. That's damn impressive, and it's enough to make it 2025's highest-rated game thus far. But it's also a big deal for publisher EA, as Split Fiction is EA's first video game to score a 90 or higher on Metacritic in 13 years. The last time that happened was in 2012 with Mass Effect 3. Next, we can look at Steam and how many people are playing the game on Valve's popular PC storefront. According to the ever-reliable SteamDB, just a few hours after launch, Split Fiction had over 190,000 active concurrent players. Wowza! That means it was as popular as Steam giants like GTA V, Rust, and Marvel Rivals. That high number also set a record for EA. Split Fiction's peak player count of 197,000 is the second highest concurrent number EA has achieved on Steam. Only Apex Legends, a free-to-play battle royale shooter, has done better. It should also be noted that unlike most other EA games, Split Fiction (like 2024's Dragon Age: The Veilguard) doesn't require you to install and use a separate EA launcher to play. This is further proof that ditching third party launchers is a smart move for any publisher. EA and Hazelight are also probably really happy that Split Fiction is receiving positive reviews from players on Steam. The new co-op game currently has a 94 percent positive user rating on Steam. That makes it EA's fifth most well-reviewed Steam game, only slightly behind another Hazelight co-op banger, It Takes Two. While we will have to wait and see how well Split Fiction sells, all the currently available data shows that this is a huge home run for EA. It's yet more evidence that smaller, more focused games (relative to stuff like GTA 6 and Starfield) can succeed and blow up in a big way. And you don't need to spend three years marketing a game for it to find success. I also think that EA made a smart move when it decided to not lock Split Fiction behind some third-party launcher on PC. Instead, you buy the game on Steam and just play it. Simple, easy, and a much more appealing offer for the sometimes fickle PC playerbase. And let's not forget that Hazelight (an independent studio, but one which relies heavily on EA's money) being able to spend a decade now making smaller co-op games has allowed the team more time to learn and improve at their craft collectively, which means future games are likely to be better. Now, will EA and other publishers watching learn a lesson from Split Fiction's success? Will they allow studios more chances to make smaller games and not burn millions on years of marketing or lay off people the moment something doesn't hit as big? Probably not. But it would be nice to see someone out there learn a lesson from Split Fiction's home run success. . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Legendary Studio Monolith Shuttered, Assassin's Creed Shadows Leaked, And More Of The Week's Top Stories
This week, Warner Bros. shuttered Monolith, the legendary studio responsible for games ranging from 2000's The Operative: No One Lives Forever to 2017's Middle-earth: Shadow of War. The closure means that the studio's promising Wonder Woman game, first revealed in 2021, has been cancelled as well. In other news, Assassin's Creed Shadows has leaked a month prior to launch, a gorgeous new 2D, pixel-art game based on Terminator 2 was revealed, and we got a look at what the Pokémon franchise has in store this year. All these stories and more await in the pages ahead. Monolith Productions revealed it was making a Wonder Woman game back in 2021. Now,publisher Warner Bros. Games has announced that the project has been canned, and the studio best known for the Middle-Earth: Shadow of War games is being shut down as well as part of larger cuts. The shakeup comes after 2024's Suicide Squad bombed and platform fighter MultiVersus failed to make a comeback. - Ethan Gach Read More Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 players have been accusing various loading screens and calling cards from the game of being AI-generated since it came out last fall, but it was only ever based on vibes and the occasional very convincing piece of seemingly obvious AI slop. Now Activision has admitted to using AI-generated assets in the hit multiplayer shooter on its Steam page. - Ethan Gach Read More It's that time of year when Pokémon fans get to have an early Christmas. It's Pokémon Day, which commemorates the anniversary of the launch of the original Pokemon Red and Green in Japan in 1996. Each year, The Pokémon Company puts on a livestream to talk about upcoming games, updates on current ones, and other projects within the franchise. Last year's was a little lowkey because it was the first year in a while that Game Freak didn't release a new RPG or DLC, but this year, the studio is releasing Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the second installment in the Legends subseries set in Kalos. That wasn't the only announcement, although things were still pretty quiet. If you want to watch the full livestream, you can check that out below. If you just want the highlights, read on: - Kenneth Shepard Read More It looks like at least a few people have got their hands on physical copies of Assassin's Creed Shadows ahead of the game's official March 20 launch. Reportedly, one player streamed themselves playing the next entry in Ubisoft's long-running franchise online. (No spoilers are included below.) - Zack Zwiezen Read More It's looking like a good Game Pass harvest this year, especially because Microsoft's backlog of big first-party Xbox games like Doom: The Dark Ages and Fable are coming in 2025. But tons of other cool stuff is headed to the subscription service as well, and a bunch of them were announced during the company's ID@Xbox showcase on Monday. - Ethan Gach Read More Terminator 2D: No Fate, a newly announced game based on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, looks like a rad retro-inspired side scroller. And you luckily won't have to wait too long to play it. - Zack Zwiezen Read More Oh no. A new Sims 4 update went live yesterday, and it seems to have added a very disturbing bug. According to some players online, kids are now walking around with big pregnant bellies in The Sims 4. Yikes. - Zack Zwiezen Read More It's only been a month since Pokémon TCG Pocket's Diamond and Pearl-inspired Space-Time Smackdown expansion released, and it looks like the mobile card game's next set of cards is already here. A promo for a set called Triumphant Light, starring the god Pokémon Arceus, leaked earlier this week. Now fans with unfinished collections are already freaking out about all of the new cards they'll need to collect. - Ethan Gach Read More After a year of waiting, we finally got our first look at Pokémon Legends: Z-A during the annual Pokémon Presents showcase. The Switch game seems like a significant departure from the untamed open zones of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, which is exciting because we don't know what to expect. The stream gave us a trailer as well as a general breakdown, and we skimmed through both to see what details we could find. Here's everything we noticed. - Kenneth Shepard Read More Forza Horizon 5, which launched over four years ago on Xbox and PC, is making the leap to PlayStation 5 soon, but because it's 2025, the game will lock 'early access' to Xbox's open-world driving sim behind a pricey special edition. It's the next evolution in publishers holding games hostage for extra money. - Zack Zwiezen Read More For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Elden Ring Nightreign Impressions, Marvel Rivals Layoff Reactions, And More Of The Week's Top Commentary
We've been playing quite a bit of Obsidian's great new first-person RPGAvowed lately, and we have thoughts about the companions who fight by your side during your journey. Also, we share our impressions on Elden Ring Nightreign after spending time with its recent network test, and look at how the internet reacted to the surprising news of layoffs hitting the team behind hugely successful hero shooter Marvel Rivals. Read on for these and more of the week's top takes. In case you didn't notice, the console wars—the decades-long battle between mulitple companies and their plastic game boxes—ended a few years ago. And while Sony continues to fight on with its PlayStation despite the war being over, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer recently confirmed that, yeah, it's all over, and the company is no longer trying to steal users away with exclusives. - Zack Zwiezen Read More On February 18, NetEase laid off Marvel Rivals development team members, including game director Thaddeus Sasser, just two months after its incredibly successful launch. The hero shooter has been such a runaway success that the news blindsided people across the video game industry. According to a statement the company issued to Game File, NetEase made these cuts 'for organizational reasons and to optimize development efficiency for the game.' The layoffs specifically affected the support team based in Seattle while the 'core' Guangzhou-based team 'remains fully committed to delivering an exceptional experience.' - Kenneth Shepard Read More 'Another win, but who's counting?' It's the stupidest thing a person could say after a fight. No one. No one was counting. Including you, Kai, unless you think 'another' is a numeral. Recognizing a win in no sense implies tallying anything. It doesn't make sense. Stop saying it, man. Just stop saying it. In fact, unless you've got something useful to say, maybe don't say anything at all? - John Walker Read More Avowed is officially out for everyone today, February 18. Obsidian's latest RPG in the Pillars of Eternity universe is pretty damn good, and fans who paid up for the game's Premium Edition have been playing it a few days early. The aspect I'm most looking forward to in Avowed, beyond the character creator, is a companion who shares a voice with one of the most beloved characters in Mass Effect. - Kenneth Shepard Read More A surprising contradiction sits at the heart of PC gaming: the medium's most open platform is nevertheless dominated by a single storefront. That storefront belongs to Valve, it's called Steam, and despite plenty of challenges in the two decades since it launched, no one has yet come close to unseating the Counter-Strike maker's grip on the PC gaming market. Amazon was one of the companies that tried, and one of its retired VPs recently explained his take on why nobody has succeeded. - Ethan Gach Read More Elden Ring Nightreign looks like Elden Ring, the 2022 FromSoftware hit,and it seems like it should play like Elden Ring, an action-RPG about fighting massive bosses in a cursed open world. And in a lot of ways it does feel cut from the same cloth as its predecessor, but there are also some very important ways in which it doesn't. The biggest of those is speed. - Ethan Gach Read More When I played Hazelight's last game, It Takes Two, back in 2021, it was with an ex who'd had different ideas about where our relationship should go than I did. This made playing as a squabbling, estranged couple in a co-op platformer more fitting for that moment in my life than I could have anticipated. So it's funny that Hazelight's upcoming co-op game, Split Fiction, also feels timely, this one due to its obvious disdain for corporate slop and art theft at a time when nearly every creative field, including the one I work in now, is dealing with the fallout of AI. - Kenneth Shepard Read More The Human Torch is joining the Marvel Rivals roster tomorrow, February 21, and before the fire-flinging hero has even joined the scrap, fans are already scared. Part of Marvel Rivals' appeal is that its heroes are powerful, destructive, and unconcerned with the petty matters of balance and fairness. The Human Torch seems to continue this trend, as some of the early playtests have shown the flying hero to be a devastating menace. - Kenneth Shepard Read More When you've been on the internet as long as I have, you get the distinct displeasure of watching cycles of toxicity repeat themselves ad nauseam, usually over things that don't matter in the grand scheme of things. The world is on fire and rather than devoting energy to important matters, a subset of the internet will create and participate in online campaigns to harass developers who made a video game they didn't like. These campaigns go beyond reasonable criticism and veer into attacks on people's personhood, and sometimes include gleeful celebrations of people losing their jobs after layoffs. - Kenneth Shepard Read More Following the success of Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred, along with the recurring seasonal themes and fresh start opportunities, enjoying the grind brought to us by Blizzard Entertainment is easier than ever. But sometimes it's not enough. Say, for example, you finish a season early. What then? Well, you could roll a new character and grind to max level a second time…or you could swap games for a bit while you wait for the next Diablo 4 season start date. That's likely some time in April, so what to do with the next month? Here are a bunch of other ARPGs to enjoy. - Brandon Morgan Read More For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
