Players’ Voice voting opens for The Game Awards 2023

The Game Awards 2023 takes place on December 7, and as usual, Geoff Keighley will serve as host.Voting for the Player’s Voice awardhas opened, and the list of impressive nominees will make picking the best tough this year. The award is 100% determined by fan votesand occurs over three rounds. The first round is open and there are 30 games to choose from. You’re allowed to pick ten titles you want to make it to the next round....

May 20, 2025 · 2 min · 314 words · Antonio Serrano

PlayStation 5’s beta program is getting underway, so sign-up now if you’re interested

The PS5 beta will let you try new features early Did you participate in Sony’s PlayStation 4 beta program? I never did, but I followed along from afar to keep tabs on upcoming features in those updates. Now, it’s the PS5’s turn. PlayStation 5 owners in the United States, Canada, Japan, UK, Germany, and France cancurrently sign-upfor the PS5 console beta program. Not everyone will get in. “By signing up to take part in upcoming system software beta programs, you could be among the first to put new features to the test and provide essential feedback that will help guide their development,” according to the PS5 System Software Beta Program site....

May 20, 2025 · 2 min · 228 words · Trevor Kerr

Pokemon Ultra Sun and Moon will be getting Poke Bank compatibility later this month

It’s probably a balance thing but launch would have been good Pokemon Ultra SunandMoonare out today, but after booting it up you might notice a missing feature — Poke Bank support. Yep, right at launch you won’t be able to access Pokemon from other games via the one-stop bank shop (that you still have to pay a nominal yearly fee to use), but it is coming, thankfully. Whereas the original releases took several months to support the crucial app, Nintendo has revealed that the pair ofUltragames will be getting it later this month....

May 20, 2025 · 1 min · 154 words · Sarah Stanley

PowerWash Simulator jets onto PlayStation and Switch January 30

It’s Grime Time It’s almost time to break out the rubber gloves and the big ol’ bucket, as FuturLab has announced a release date for the PlayStation and Nintendo Switch ports of its ultra-satisfying releasePowerWash Simulator—the viral cleaning sim hits the console platforms on January 30,as noted on PlayStation Blog. For those less inclined, (or less uncleaned),PowerWash Simulatorlaunched on PC and Xbox platforms in the summer of 2022 to immediate success, having taken the simple act of jet-washing houses, cars, playgrounds, trailers, and other locations and vehicles and turning it into a surprisingly compelling, relaxing, and enjoyable digital pastime....

May 20, 2025 · 2 min · 226 words · Mark Pittman

Psst: Need a cheap 20GB hard drive for your Xbox 360 Arcade?

How does $29.99 sound for a 20GB hard drive? Not bad, eh? As you know, the Xbox 360 Arcade bundle is nicely priced, but some of that low price is due to the absence of a hard drive. And not having one means missing out on high-def video downloads and other features. This deal atXbox.comis a great way to add one on for cheap. Okay, so it’s refurbished, but you can’t complain at $29....

May 20, 2025 · 1 min · 102 words · Lisa Long

Q-Games’ perplexing The Tomorrow Children goes free to play

Log in before November 2 for a Halloween costume Q-Games’ hard-to-pin-downThe Tomorrow Childrenhas been out on PlayStation 4 since early September, but that was only if youponied up $20 for a Founders Pack. Starting this week, as promised, the labor-centric cooperative town-builder will be offered as a free-to-play title. There’s also a new Frontier Pack ($20) with: “the Bourgeoisie papers, Lv1. Arms License, Lv1. Tools License, EagleCorp Jetpack, 3 avatars, and 500 Freeman dollars ($25 value)....

May 20, 2025 · 2 min · 238 words · Andrew Gutierrez

Retro City Rampage has a birthday, you get the gifts

WiiWare and Steam giveaways for this weekend Retro City Rampagewas released a year ago this week, and has gone on to great success. According to VBlank Entertainment’s Brian Provinciano “It’s moved 180K units now (more revenue this year than last year!), quite up since my GDC talk!” It’s great to see a game defy hype-driven “all the sales happen in the first month” trends and see evergreen success through word of mouth and the growing prominence of it’s developer....

May 20, 2025 · 1 min · 203 words · Adam Glass

Rift is now fully free-to-play this week

Creative Director of Rift ensures players it’s ‘not pay-to-win’ In case you haven’t heard during the madness that is E3, Trion World’s MMORiftis now fully free-to-play as of yesterday, having previously employed a “lite” version of the game that limited players to level 20. The claim is“experience the entire game world; every dungeon, every zone, and every level and get full access to all current and future game updates.” Essentially, they’re going to be making money from their store, which sells faction changes, mounts, boosts, and more....

May 20, 2025 · 1 min · 175 words · Beth Stewart

Rock Band’s Fender Stratocaster revealed

The fine folks over at Brian Crescente’s Hair Palace have snagged a couple of images ofRock Band‘s sexy Fender Stratocaster periphial, and I have, in turn, re-snagged them. From what I can tell, the Strat looks to be pretty substantial and those who pined for a heavy, less toy-ishGuitar Heroaxe will surely welcome it with open arms and willing fingers. The fact that the buttons aren’t raised, and that you actually press them down into the neck will no doubt add to the natural feel that Harmonix was shotting for....

May 20, 2025 · 2 min · 353 words · Deborah Williams

Rust: Console Edition looks pretty good all things considered

There’s a beta test right now but it’s very limited 2020 wasa quiet yearfor the still-happening PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions ofRust, but big plans are in motion this year. Double Eleven put out a new trailer forRust: Console Editiontoday, thanked fans for their ongoing support, and sent out the first batch of closed beta keys. No release date, though. [Update: Double Eleven is now aiming for a Spring 2021 release forRust: Console Edition, and the studio shared a handful of new screenshots....

May 20, 2025 · 2 min · 226 words · Julie Villarreal

Sand dumped all over NYC in the name of Wii Sports Resort

In an effort to promote the forthcoming release ofWii Sports Resort, Nintendo spent a bazillion dollars turning part of New York City’s Time Square the game’s fictional setting, Wuhu Island. Leading up to the event, Nintendo issued about fourteen press releases, to make sure no one missed that it was happening. We didn’t — we sent Samit, our resident NY, who we haven’t heard from all day long. Maybe he’s drowning in sand....

May 20, 2025 · 2 min · 217 words · David Lawrence

Stick these Metro 2033 screenshots down your pants

THQ seems to be on a roll lately with highly promising games. Having just released Vigil’sDarksiders, the publisher more commonly associated with MMA and Disney licenses is starting to put out some pretty solid original games as well, andMetro 2033is one of them. Metro 2033seems to blend the Russian claustrophobia ofCryostasiswith the post-apocalyptic premise ofFallout, and so far, all signs point to it being a very good title indeed. These brand new screens help to demonstrate the bleak atmosphere of the game....

May 20, 2025 · 1 min · 119 words · Richard Hodges

Tecmo Koei’s E3 line-up is short but sweet

The Japanese unified power of Tecmo and Koei is only bringing four games to E3 this year. No portable stuff. No Wii stuff. Just serious games. I’m all for theFirst of the North Stargame.Ken’s Revenge, coming to the Xbox 360 and PS3 and inspired by the popular manga and anime, will be on the show floor.Quantum Theory,one of two of Tecmo Koei’s original IPs for the show, is also coming to both consoles....

May 20, 2025 · 1 min · 170 words · Brenda Huber