Big Fat Hairy Deal II? Microids, curiously driven by a passion for old school licenses,has announcedthat it has signed a deal to produce three —three— new video games based on Jim Davis’ comic book creation, Garfield. The superstar moggy joins Microids’ portfolio of retro IPs that already promised new games based onAsterix,Tintin, andThe Smurfs. “We are thrilled by this new agreement with ViacomCBS Consumer Products!” writes Microids editorial director Alain Milly in a press statement....

New York has a New Problem Draw Distance has released a debut trailer for its upcomingVampire: The Masqueradevisual novelShadows of New York.Headed to PC and consoles later this year, the gothic horror adventure is a standalone sequel to last year’s tale,Coteries of New York. Set in an alternate universe Big Apple,Shadows of New Yorkis the story of a young woman, outcast from her Lasombra clan, who ekes out a glum existence of chain-smoking woe....

Nothing major Pikmin 3: it’s pretty great! If you understandably missed it on Wii U for any number of reasons (if you didn’t have a Wii U, I’m sorry), it’s worth picking up on Switch. You do have a Switch right? I mean, the Switch is on its way to hit 100 million units sold eventually, so odds are you have one. Or a Switch Lite. Or maybe you’ll get an eventual hypothetical Switch Pro....

Simon Belmont makes the leap to coin-op This week’s release from the good folks over at Hamster returns to the formative years of one of gaming’s most-loved franchises, as Konami’s whip-crackin’ adventureHaunted Castlejoins the Nintendo Switch Arcade Archives range. Released in arcades back in 1988,Haunted Castlewas the firstCastlevaniatitle developed specifically for the coin-op market, following the home console success of 1986’sCastlevania andVampire Killer, and 1987’sCastlevania II: Simon’s Quest.A hodge-podge of lore and features from the monster-hunting series,Haunted Castlesees Simon Belmont battle through six stages in order to rescue his wife Serena from the evil Count Dracula....

Targeting 10 million consoles made by March 2021 Sony is making a concerted effort to boost production of its upcoming PlayStation 5 hardware, reportedly aiming to double the number of units produced by the end of 2020. As reported by business news outlet Bloomberg, Sony initially planned to create five million PS5 consoles by March 2021, but is now aiming for an optimistic 9-10 million units by the same date. It is believed that the industry giant raised the bar for itself after the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused home gaming to surge throughout the spring and summer of 2020....

Spidey is back and that means it’s time to web-swing around New York City like a real pro. The unique and fun way of traversing the city has always been a staple feature ofSpider-Man, and that’s still the case inSpider-Man 2. In the sequel, the suit also has new web wings that let the player glide around the city, bursting through the sky via gusts of wind. With so many fun ways of getting around, why would anyone ever use the fast travel feature?...

New titles from Rare’s record collection Purveyors of vinyl soundtracks iam8bit are to release three new LPs of classic games from British studio Rare. These new releases are next in line after the company’s previous records forPerfect Darkand the NESBattletoadstitle. First up is a double LP for cheeky Nintendo 64 titleConker’s Bad Fur Day, which features recognisable tracks such as “Sloprano” and “Rock Solid”, as well as featuring unreleased tunes by composer Robin Beanland and colorful sleeve art from Joey Spiotto....

Physical has it worse than digital Console players might be left waiting a little longer before they’re unleashed to start colony-saving and galaxy-exploring. Obsidian Entertainment informs us thatThe Outer Worldshas a pretty hefty day-one patch. Those who buy physical editions are certainly affected. The launch update, which is said to “include tweaks and optimization fixes,” weighs in at 38GB on Xbox and 18GB on PS4. Anyone who pops a disc into their console will be met with a prompt to initiate a decent-sized update....

Say you want this There’s currently a lot of buzz surrounding Bethesda’sRagebecauseit sure seems like a new game is going to be announced next Monday. The Smart Money is on a sequel or some narrative that makes use of the same post-apocalyptic setting. I am here to tell you about the Dumb Money, which also doubles as the “Holy Shit, That’d Be An Amazing Callback And It Won’t Make Them Any Money” Money....

A train station that looks more real than real life It feels like every few years, we all marvel at the new game graphics that are coming out and wondering to ourselves, “how could it get any better than this?” Somehow game devs still manage to one-up themselves every time, because I find myself yet again speaking those same words in awe and a little bit of existential dread. You see, I am quite afraid of the uncanny valley, and we have crossed so far into it that game graphics are indistinguishable from reality, thanks toUnreal Engine 5....

A light cheat code Weirdly, Nintendo has been coy about Blue Toad (who was replaced by Toadette) inNew Super Mario Bros. U Deluxeon Switch for months. Now thanks to its global launch, we know that he’s still actually in the game, albeit a bit hidden. As evidenced by this video from BeardBear, if you hit L or ZL while selecting Yellow Toad you’re able to swap to Blue. He operates like he always did in the Wii U edition, there’s just one caveat: he won’t appear in cutscenes (perhaps a holdover for when they were showing off the game and didn’t want to spill the beans)....

It’s a day-one Xbox Game Pass title, too If you’re able to carve out some time in the busy fall gaming schedule, I’d urge you to considerUnsighted— assuming you like cool sci-fi action-RPGs, I mean. You might look at some of the moments in this footage and feel a bit of déjà vu, but the key takeaway is thatUnsighted‘s badass-android action, which covers ranged and melee combat with plenty of room to fine-tune your preferred build, feels great....

He better not. John Wickwas one of the slickest action films of 2015 and was a tour de force or carnage and chaos. All of the bloodshed came from a very simple premise; what happens when you kill an assassin’s dog? The answer is murder. Lots of murder. And in a strange twist of fate,John Wick: Chapter 2was actually better than the first movie! It had better action, better-set pieces, and it fleshed out theJohn Wickuniverse even more than the original....