‘50%’ ordered 12-month subscriptions After years of giving people free rein to play online, Nintendo decided to get with the competition and monetize it on the Switch. “Switch Online” has been a thing since September 18, heralding the aforementioned premium price for online play as well as a suite of NES games (withthe potential for official modded ROM hacks, something Nintendo left out of the promotional materials before launch), cloud saves and other smaller extras....

Spirit of the radio Oxenfreemight be a scary game, but to me, it’s also a summer game. It’s about the in-between parts of your life, as you move from one major milestone to the next, and all the regrets and emotions that kick up in that time. So ifOxenfreewas a summer vacation ghost story,Oxenfree II: Lost Signalsis a haunted summer gig. Set five years after the first game,Oxenfree IIfollows Riley Poverly’s return home to the coastal town of Camena....

Persona 4was so friendly, love-sim-y and kind of gay in places, so this newly revealed box art forPersona 4 Arenathrows me off a bit. I mean, I like it well enough. I’m totally digging the creeper eye that Teddy is giving the two in the foreground. It’s just that my dream cover would have been less confrontational. It would have had the gang eating eating ramen and high five-ing each other at the mall food court or something....

‘It is a discussion about niche and mass market’ It was reassuring to hear that some people within DICE were interesting inworking onBattlefield: Bad Companyagain. I quite like straight-facedBattlefieldgames — their multiplayer, anyway — but theBad Companytitles have such a wonderful personality to them. A quote from Patrick Bach about the series, however, doesn’t inspire much confidence. Speaking toOXM, the executive producer ofBattlefield 4said “When we did the originalBad Companyand the sequel, we got a lot of criticism....

Ubisoft gets a bingo on its multiplat scorecard Ubisoft has announced thatRayman Legendswill be coming to PC on September 3 in North America, joining its sister versions on Wii U, PS3, Xbox 360, and PS Vita. Anybody preordering the digital version on PC will also getRayman Originsfor free. The game’smultiplatform status and resulting delaywas quite the controversy,upsetting Wii U fansas it did. At least today’s announcement can come without a similar nasty surprise....

Time Crisis Housemarque continues its campaign to show off the weird, unsettling, and fascinating universe of its upcoming chrono-adventureReturnal. The Resogundeveloper has released a new trailer for the PS5 exclusive, specifically focusing on the hi-tech firepower that will help Selene redress the balance against an army of grotesque alien horrors. DespiteReturnal‘s third-person shooter gameplay, Housemarque is bringing its experience in visually spectacular shmups to the battle, with the new adventure featuring bullet-hell chaos alongside screen-shattering special effects and a huge arsenal of futuristic weaponry....

Last week, Sony published an interview with Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann that included some controversial comments about the use of AI in game development and the potential for Naughty Dog’s next game to shake up the gaming industry. Now, the interview has been banished to the Internet Archive. Sony has retracted the entire interview, and if you attempt to pull it up, you’ll instead find a message that says: “In re-reviewing our recent interview with Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann, we have found several significant errors and inaccuracies that don’t represent his perspective and values (including topics such as animation, writing, technology, AI, and future projects)....

A starter guide for the secret-filled sequel 30 hours intoSpelunky 2, I’ve beaten the game exactly once – and come close countless other times. While much of that time was admittedly spent exploring potential branching routes and figuring out what’s up with certain elusive NPCs, straight up, I didn’t see the credits until my 400th or so run. Coming in, I knew I’d be rusty at spelunking, and I expected a long period of acclimation before I could quickly, reliably, efficiently carve through the sequel’s procedurally-generated deathtraps, but goddang!...

Uh, sure! Final Fantasy XIVhas sent ripple effects through the industry ever since its “Reborn” phase roughly seven years ago. Square Enix proved to the industry that you could truly “save” a game that was in peril: and I say this as someone who witnessed the original incarnation ofFFXIVfirst-hand. It really was a miracle what that team pulled off, recreatingXIVinto not only one of the best MMOs of all time, but one of the strongest RPG campaigns ever made....

Trailer! Maybe I’m crazy, but whistling to get guards’ attention doesn’t seem too stealthy.Styx: Master of Shadows, from developer Cyanide Studio, is slated for a PC release. You’ll play as the titular Styx, an ancient goblin infiltrating a miles-high tower guarded by humans, elves, and monstrous scientific experiments. As an ancient goblin who is a master of stealth and murder, I’m not sure how the RPG elements — gaining new abilities are you progress up the tower — make any sense....

Any board and card game fan knows what it’s like to be the family expert, expected to bring a new game along that will hit the right combination of tactics and fun to entertain everyone. Here’s our tried and tested list of ten games that are great for family gatherings, gifts for relatives, and after-dinner gaming! These games are always a hit at our holiday celebrations, and you could even bring them to work at Christmas parties without fear of shocking your boss....

I put more stock in the Lollipop Guild’s assessment of game writing TheWriters Guild Awardshas been giving games writing awards for a number of years now. I’m always confused. Past winners includeDead Head Fred,Star Wars: The Force Unleashed,Uncharted 2,Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood,Uncharted 3, andAssassin’s Creed III: Liberation. Only two of those sort of make sense to me. This year’s nominees, the winner of which will be announced February 1, are: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black FlagBatman: Arkham OriginsGod of War: AscensionThe Last of UsLost Planet 3...

Earlier today, Hamza Aziz (Dtoid Community Manager) and I were talking abouttonight’s live stream ofBlack Ops. I asked “will we be playing the Wii version?” Hamza’s response — “No, we’ll be playing good version.” Of course, Hamza was just trying to get my goat, but I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people genuinely share that sentiment. Though no official footage for the Wii version ofBlack Opshas been released by Activision, I think a lot of gamers just assume that it’s not going to be as fun....