Happy Pokémon Day, You Freaks

The latest Pokémon Presents happened on the 27th, with most of the shown updates focusing on mobile titles.

• Pokémon Go will get a crossover event with the latest season of the anime to coincide with its release outside Japan.
• Pokémon Sleep adds the Legendary Beasts to the roster of napping monsters, starting with Raikou in March, with Entei and Suicune coming later.
• Pokémon Masters will add two new pairs: Silver and Shiny Mega Tyranitar and Geeta and Glimmora, plus reruns of older powerful characters and a new photo editor.
• Pokémon Cafe Remix gives the Paldean starters new outfits, new chances to add either Koraidon or Miraidon to your cafe, and the ability to collect Gimmighoul coins for a chance to get Gimmighoul and Gholdengo on your team.
• Pokémon Unite adds Miraidon to its roster, with Falinks and Ceruledge debuting in the coming months.

The final two announcements were the big ones: First, Pokémon TCG Online game gets a new mobile client. They swear it is not going to be NFT-related.

Finally, the next mainline Pokémon title, Pokémon Legends: Z-A, was announced. Players return to Generation 6’s Kalos region for a game supposedly all set in Lumiose City, X/Y‘s central hub. Mega Evolution will also return. Z-A is scheduled to launch in 2025.

So Back to the Bad

Playstation plans to lay off around 900 people. These cuts include staff at Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Guerilla Games, and the complete shuttering of their London studio. Firesprite, another subsidiary of Playstation that saw cuts, cancelled the production of live service Twisted Metal game.

EA has also laid off a large swath of their employees: five percent of their workforce in total. Battlefield studio Ridgeline Games folded into another Battlefield focused team, Ripple Effect, and a rumored Mandalorian game from Respawn was cancelled.

Embracer Group continues to shed weight across their properties. Saber Interactive, developers of the continuously in question Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake, reportedly will be sold to private investors for $500 million. There is also talk that Gearbox will be sold as well, with an official announcement due in the coming days. Gearbox recently shifted focus purely to Borderlands games, with a fourth mainline entry and a sequel to Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands still in development.

Maybe Some Good?

Toys for Bob, previously downsized by Microsoft after the Activision acquisition, is going independent. No reports on what this fully entails, but they are attempting to keep an active relationship with Microsoft, potentially meaning they will continue to work on Crash, Spyro, and potentially Tony Hawk titles.

Alan Wake creators Remedy have acquired full control of…Control. The studio purchased the rights to the franchise from 505 Games ahead of the eventual sequel that is still in development. as well as another project codenamed “Condor“, which is a multiplayer PvE spin-off of Control.

In other news…

Stardew Valley also has its own anniversary to celebrate, and ConcernedApe confirm that a 1.6 update to the PC version of the game will be coming March 16.

Critical Role is holding a public open beta playtest of their tabletop roleplaying game, Daggerheart, and playtest packets will be available on March 12.

Terminator: Survivors, an open-world survival game, is set to release this fall.

Nintendo sues the creators of Yuzu, a popular Switch emulator. While emulators have been proven to be legal, Nintendo’s case focuses on Yuzu’s circumvention of Switch game encryption as well as promotion of piracy, as the emulator’s Patreon saw a doubling of profits once Tears of the Kingdom leaked online.

Jen Cohn, the voice actor for Overwatch character Pharah, came under hot water when she called for Palestine to be “freed from Hamas” on a livestream. Her statement, which sidelines the very real genocide being perpetrated by Israel, has led to Overwatch fans calling for the character’s recasting.

The post The Bulletin: Zygarde Finally Has A Game appeared first on Gamesline.

Howdy, Partners

Microsoft’s announcement last week that four of their games would be coming to other consoles came true, as both Grounded and Pentiment were confirmed for Switch andPlaystation consoles. (While Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves were announced for the PS5.

Epic Mickey is being remastered for Switch, Playstation, Xbox, and PC, with new visuals and updated gameplay. No release date was confirmed.

The original Monster Hunter Stories game, originally a 3DS exclusive, is getting remastered for Switch, PS4, and PC this Summer.

A new game in the Ender Lilies universe, Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist, was announced for this year.

Gundam Breaker 4 will release this year for Switch, Playstation, and PC.

Sega’s releasing a new Super Monkey Ball, Banana Rumble, with four player co-op and 16 player battle race modes. This will be Switch exclusive and launches June 25th.

Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, is confirmed for October 10th. We can accept this Nintendo Direct farm game representation.

Suika Game, the viral puzzler, is getting a new multiplayer mode. Local mode is available now, and online multiplayer will release later. It is paid DLC, and a bundle of the DLC and the base game is available.

Shin Megami Tensei V is getting a new version, subtitled Vengeance. This new version will have a brand new route that splits right at the start of the game, adds another 80 hours of gameplay, and has updates to demon interaction. It’ll be out on Switch, but will also be getting released on Playstation, Xbox, and PC, and maybe finally run at a good frame rate.

Penny’s Big Breakaway, the 3D platformer via ex-Sonic Mania devs, is out now! (Right friggin’ now!) It’s available on all consoles.

A release of Star Wars Battlefront has been announced that bundles both of the classic original titles into one! There are new characters and maps as well, plus 64-player matches. This will be hitting every console and PC as well.

Game Freak’s 3DS sleeper hit Pocket Card Jockey got a Switch port available now. It’s really good, if you like card games, please check it out!

Switch Online’s classic games got an update, with five Rare titles added. Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll, R.C. Pro-Am, Battletoads in Battlemaniacs, Killer Instinct, and Blast Corps. are all available today. In Japan, the GBA Switch Online roster got MOTHER 3. Keep dreaming, MOTHER fans. Maybe some day. (Just go replay the fan translation, John knows he will.)

Another Japan exclusive (so far) announcement was the RPG REYNATIS from FuRyu. Its staff is absolutely packed, and John agree with the below Tweet—this better get localized.

The last announcement was a new Endless Ocean, subtitled Luminous. The old Wii games were a delight for the senses, so we are sure this will be a treat as well. There will even be up to 30 player multiplayer as well. It drops May 2nd.

There were a few other reveals, such as a date for the new Contra and Aggro Crab’s new Crab-based Soulslike, so check the rest of the Direct here.

Other Reveals

IGN also had a few reveals lined up, mostly trailers for previously announced games. However, the big new announcement was a port of the Game Boy Advance title Ninja Five-O. This is exciting, as Ninja Five-O is a solid title that many haven’t experienced due to its massive aftermarket price. Now more people will be able to experience this fun title thanks to Limited Run.

Beloved MOBA Gigantic is coming back—this time as a $20 release. The Rampage Edition will release April 9th, with a closed beta starting today.

The League of Legends fighting game, previously known by the codename Project L, is officially named….2XKO. Pronounced with each letter/number separately. Two Ecks Kay Oh. What’re we doing?

Tekken 8’s developers confirm that the game will soon receive a microtransactions shop, certainly concerning players.

The Borderlands movie got its first trailer. We’re sorry for showing you this, but news is news—and this isn’t even the worst bite this week! At least Jamie Lee Curtis gets to cosplay.

Elden Ring‘s expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, has been confirmed to release June 21st. New weapons, areas, and characters were shown off in the below trailer.

Continuing Losses

Creator of Suikoden and director of its spiritual successor Eiyuden Chronicle Yoshitaka Murayama passed away on February 6th. He was 55 years old.

Toys for Bob, the Activision subsidiary behind the recent Spyro and Crash games, laid off 36 people. Rumors said the entire studio shut down, but instead they cut around a third of their staff and went fully remote. This followed the massive 1,900 layoffs Microsoft enacted throughout their gaming sphere after the Activision acquisition went through.

Nijisanji EN vtuber Selen Tatsuki was publicly fired after a lengthy absence, which was revealed to have been due to a self harm. Now rebranded as Dokibird, she has re-entered the Vtuber space and has regained success. Nijisanji released multiple statements on the matter, but only ended up fueling further anger at them.

Kazumasa Habu has stepped down as producer of Digimon titles at Bandai Namco. There is still a new Digimon Story game in development without his involvement.

Mane6, developers of indie fighting game Them’s Fightin’ Herds, were fired from development on the game while mid-quality assurance for the last two characters in their season pass. The characters were released in an unbalanced, broken, buggy state, and it has been confirmed that further development is not planned. Promised story mode additions will not be made.

Maximum Entertainment, the current owner of the Them’s Fightin’ Herds IP, is ending active development on the fan-inspired My Little Pony fighting game, reportedly shifting their focus onto an Avatar: The Last Airbender 2D fighting game set for 2025 and Diesel Legacy, set for this year.

In other news…

Larian Studios achieves several more wins from the 27th D.I.C.E. Awards, ending on a high note by ultimately winning another Game of the Year award for Baldur’s Gate 3. Unlike the limitations that they dealt with at The Game Awards, the recipients were able to take their time in their winning speech to call out the current melancholic and unsustainable state of the games industry.

Hosts of the show this year, Greg Miller of Kinda Funny Games and Stella Chung, were also not privy to holding back on cracking scathing jokes against executives who were in attendance.

Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 also walks away from the 51st Annie Awards winning Best Character Animation in a Video Game.

2B from Nier: Automata has been released as a playable fighter in Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising.

Lady Gaga has come to Fortnite, with her music being added to the Festival mode and a new skin so you can play as Mother Monster and shoot Peter Griffin.

IGN’s Creators Guild has been voluntarily recognized by Ziff Davis. There’s still more work to be done by the union, but this is a huge step in the right direction.

And finally, a beta version of Hotel Mario has been found by YouTuber Game Pak Rat at a thrift store. This beta has unused dialogue and clear versions of old speech, meaning YouTube Poop just got DLC, baby.

The post The Bulletin: Nintendo News and Borderlands Blues appeared first on Gamesline.

A new week, a new episode of the Gamesline Podcast. This week, John and Rose are hopped up on Game Fuel and ready to talk about all the news between what they’ve been playing. John’s been playing Fate/Samurai Remnant while Rose has been playing that as well as Lies of P, the Crymachina Demo, Blasphemous, and Armored Core VI.

In the news, Best Buy seems to be phasing out physical media, the Lolipop Chainsaw Remake has become a remaster, and we now know who’s replaced Charles Martinet as the voice of Mario. The Microsoft Activision acquisition has officially become a thing and so has the PS5 Slim. And of course how could we forget the most important news of the week, the return of Mountain Dew Game Fuel.

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @TheGamesline, @john_michonski, and @Horngal.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at gamesline.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or directly to our RSS feed.

Edited by Lorelai

The post The Gamesline Podcast Ep. 21: Sliding Over on Game Fuel appeared first on Gamesline.

It’s that time again, time to catch up with John and Rose as they talk about the week in gaming. John Samurai’d his way to Otakon with Maverick last week then got himself a CRT so he could experience classic PS2 games the way they were meant to be enjoyed as he continues to try to make his way through Rain Code. Rose has been reading a ton of Fate when she’s not playing Ghost Trick, Pikmin 4, or Tactics Ogre Reborn.

In the news, Mario Kart and Splatoon are back online, Red Dead Redemption is getting ported to Switch and PS4 and Feminist Frequency is shutting down. Kai Cenat caused a riot in NYC, Anthony Fantano and Activision are beefing, and Evo was a massive night for announcements.

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @TheGamesline, @John_Michonski, and @Horngal

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at gamesline.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or directly to our RSS feed.

Edited by Lorelai

The post The Gamesline Podcast Ep. 13: EVOtakon appeared first on Gamesline.

Anthony Fantano, the Internet’s Busiest Music Nerd, has gotten entangled in a court case with Activision over a popular meme audio he created. The audio, in which he shouts that there’s too many slices of pizza, was uploaded to Tik Tok’s audio library and was used by thousands for memes, but Activision used it for an ad promoting the new Crash Bandicoot party game. Fantano threatened legal action, and Activision answered similarly. This raises the question of if Fantano uploading the audio to the audio library meant brands and companies could use it as well without financial compensation.

Yuka Kitamura, composer of FromSoftware titles such as Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring, has left the company. She will now be working as a freelance composer.

Labor’s Continued Struggles

Kickstarter has updated their AI use policy. Now, if a “creator” uses AI in their project, they must attribute how they used AI, and that will be listed on the project’s page.

eBay has been charged with refusing to recognize the union TCGPlayer, the card sale website they bought in 2022, voted to form earlier this year.

Last week, Project Moon of Limbus Company fame ended the contract of one of their artists due to threats levied by right wing incels. Now, the CEO of the company, Kim Jihoon, spoke on Twitter, saying that anyone who claims the firing was unjust will be met with potential legal action.

Anita Sarkeesian’s Feminist Frequency project, in which common tropes in media was criticized from a feminist viewpoint, is shutting down after fifteen years. While often surface level and not without faults in its critique, Feminist Frequency’s Tropes vs Women in Games series did usher in a variety of new voices into games criticism, and changed the landscape of video games forever.

More Standard Game Announcements

Treasure’s beloved SHMUP Radiant Silvergun is coming to Steam on August 18th.

Nintendo rumors abound, one big and one small. The small one first, as LEGO is seemingly gearing up to announce some Animal Crossing sets in the near future.

As for the big rumor, the next Nintendo console is supposedly gearing up for announcement. Prominent leakers are saying the new console will be similar to the Switch, with an eight inch LCD screen and 512GB internal memory. Backwards compatibility with the Switch is still up in the air, but said leakers are claiming it will release sometime late in 2024.

And hey, it’s Evo right now, so we’ll tell you more fighting game news next week. The one thing that got in under the door was Under Night In-Birth 2 Sys:Celes, the full sequel to French Bread’s non-Melty Blood hit.

The post The Bulletin: Practice What You Preach appeared first on Gamesline.

Returning from a week off, the Gamesline Gang returns for a long episode running down mostly the news we missed! The Limited Run Showcase, Genshin voice actors getting their pay withheld, the Microsoft and Activision update, and talk about the strikes happening across the world.

Plus, John is struggling with Rain Code‘s writing (spoilers in this episode), Elvie is bummed at the quality of the suitors and their dialogue in Love Shore, Maverick’s chilling Shin-chan’s Summer adventure, and lots more!

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @TheGamesline, @lvmaeparian, @john_michonski, and @MaverickDrifter.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at gamesline.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or directly to our RSS feed.

Edited by Maverick and Scott B

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It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for another episode of the Gamesline podcast. This week, Scott, Maverick, and Lorelai sit down to talk about how they’ve all been playing Final Fantasy XVI. Scott also played a whole lot of the Addison Rae event in War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius to keep himself sane after reviewing and streaming AEW: Fight Forever. Lorelai also spent some time in the Diablo 4 endgame and digging into the new Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty DLC Battle of Zhongyuan.

In the news, we had some games announced at the Sonic Central presentation, Niantic is closing it’s LA studio, Unity and Steam are taking a stand against AI assets, Skullgirls updated some old content to remove objectionable material, and the Yakuza titles had a bunch of credits removed from the GOG version of the games. Mattel is releasing a Barbie themed Xbox to celebrate the movie coming, Hopefully we’ll also get some more Horse Adventures. Apparently Microsoft considered acquire Bungie and Sega, Annapurna Interactive is making Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth, Daedalic Entertainment is also shutting down internal game development and shifting to publishing. A judge in the Microsoft Activision case also revealed that the next Call of Duty game was coming in November while Bloober Team is done making psychological horror games.

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @TheGamesline, @FKASocks, @Maverickdrifter and @judgementscythe.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at gamesline.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or directly to our RSS feed.

Edited by Lorelai

The post The Gamesline Podcast Ep. 9: Addison Rae’s Final Fantasy Doordash Tacos appeared first on Gamesline.

Sonic Central

Another year, another Sonic Central presentation to talk about all things Sonic new and old, commemorating the birthday of blue blur on June 23:

Sonic Origins Plus is now available to play, and Amy’s classic design too!

Sonic Frontiers will get new free content, such as new moves and a New Game+.

Sonic Prime returns for another season on Netflix, alongside with a new mobile game of the series that will be published under Netflix Games.

A plethora of various Sonic merchandise was also shown off during the presentation, from apparel to toys. San Diego Comic-Con this year will have a popup Sonic the Hedgehog-themed restaurant. And a third Sonic movie is definitely on its way!

All of this is timed with the Sonic Symphony World Tour kicking off, beginning in London. The tour will be proceeding to take stops in the cities of Paris, Los Angeles, Sau Paulo, Tokyo, Boston, and Chicago.

Cutting Ties

Niantic is closing its Los Angeles studio, laying off over 200 employees. The Pokémon Go has unfortunately not been doing so hot lately, in which support for the just recently released NBA All-World will be ceasing and development for a prospective Marvel: World of Heroes is canceled. Company founder John Hanke explains that the company has not been seeing the revenue it needs to meet its expenses and will instead be honing in on focusing on its current library, which still includes Pikmin Bloom, Peridot, and Monster Hunter Now. 

Unity cuts ties with Atlas 3D Asset Creator with accusations that it has been sourcing from AI-plagiarized assets. Meanwhile, Steam specifies that it won’t allow games that use copyright-infringing AI assets, and policies regarding the matter still seem to be under review. 

A recent Skullgirls update edits and alters some artwork to remove and reduce fanservice and Nazi-approximate imagery. 

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, developer of the Yakuza and Like a Dragon games, appears to have scrubbed the credits of multiple staff members in the GOG release of several Yakuza titles. 

Activations, Aggressive or Otherwise

Barbie is everything, and that includes being a gamer girl! Accompanying the marketing of the upcoming Barbie movie directed by Greta Gerwig, Xbox has collaborated with the Mattel brand to release a series of limited designed controller plates and a console deck inspired by the Barbie Dreamhouse.  There is also a special bright pink Xbox with “Barbie” plastered on it.

Annupurna Interactive announces Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth, the first new video game incarnation as part of the Blade Runner IP in a long while. 

A internal memo leaked suggesting that Microsoft almost considered acquiring Bungie and Sega. Microsoft is still currently pending for approval in its acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, and Canada’s Department of Justice has chimed recently on the deal, saying that the purchase “is likely to” lead to less competition in the gaming industry. 

And oh yeah—

Twitter’s community is potentially on the verge of collapsing. As always, remember that you can continue to follow what we do here and many other places, such as Tumblr, Twitch, YouTube, and more recently, TikTok. And join our Discord server with other fellow members of the Gamesline community, where something is always happening!

The post The Bulletin: Pinks and Blues appeared first on Gamesline.

Another week on the Games Grind as John, Maverick, and Solon all sat down to talk about the hot new (uhh….Millennial Shooter?) Slayers X. Later, Street Fighter 6 continues to impress with its ridiculous world tour mode, and Solon has finally finished the mainline path of his incredibly ambitious Xenoblade Chronicles journey.

In other news: the Pokémon competitive scene has been running into some snags, professional League of Legends players are striking, Yuji Naka is probably going to prison, and Nintendo has actually pulled a sequel to 1-2-Switch! out of their basement.

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @TheGamesline, @john_michonski, @MaverickDrifter, and @ChorbySP.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at gamesline.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or directly to our RSS feed.

Edited by Lorelai

The post The Gamesline Podcast Ep. 6: We Are All X Slayers appeared first on Gamesline.

New Games Coming Down The Track:

Zelda is out! The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Breath Of The Wild 2 if you’re nasty) is real and in folks’ hands. Immediate reviews are glowing as you’d expect, but it’s hard to tell what that really means this early in. Press around it has been highly guarded and handled by Nintendo as well as by deliriously ebullient fans whose identity depends on this game being a massive success. Luckily for you, Scott is live tonight playing it for the first time on GameslineTV. Come in tonight and see the Takes of a Gamer.

Hollow Knight: Silksong has been delayed once again to… later this year? It’s unclear currently when it will be released but there is still much to be done to prepare for a release way larger in scale than the original Hollow Knight. Will they be able to meet the lofty demands of fans? The pressure is clearly on and this is a sign they are taking it seriously.

Growing up, I played a TON of games on Kongregate and FlashGames. Some were regrettable, and some were jmtb02’s Achievement Unlocked series. A fun lampoon of the burgeoning design trope of the era. Now, Armor Games announced the blue platforming elephant has returned after a decade of absence in The Elephant Collection. And somewhere deep inside my soul, a younger me has lit up again for the first time in a decade.

Private Division is officially publishing a new action-adventure game by Game Freak. It’s not Pokémon though. Project Bloom is the codename for this new IP they have just started development on. While that may sound exciting, Game Freak’s track record has been shaky outside of Pokémon‘s unflappable IP with the lackluster Little Town Hero (2019). Private Division also has struggled as a publisher through many of its releases leading to a lackluster library, especially the recent Kerbal Space Program 2. So we’ll see if they can turn out anything from this vaguely potent combination.

“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to create new IP that is bold and tonally different from our prior work,”

Kota Furushima, Director at Game Freak. 

Is French-Bread cooking again? The Korean Ratings Board seems to have rated what could be a sequel to Under Night In-Birth. There is a lot of speculation surrounding a sequel to clearly the greatest fighting game ever made but it may be titled Under Night In-Birth 2: Systacelles based on Gematsu’s report. Either way, your Eltnum loops better not be caught lacking anytime soon or my scrub ass Merkava will eat you.

Finally, Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon teased a new Mortal Kombat-related project on the way. Is this Mortal Kombat 12? The clock’s second-hand stops before striking twelve. Perhaps we’re moving past a twelfth entry and returning to another reboot of the franchise, but that’s the only heads or tails I can make of whatever this is suggesting. If you have ideas, let us know on your favorite social media, Discord, or in the comments below!

Merging The Green and Blue Lodge

Outside of new games announcements, we continue to follow Microsoft’s efforts in the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. The EU’s European Commission may be finalizing it’s decision as soon as next week to allow the merger of the two corporations to happen. If that were to happen, it would make the current score Yes from China, Japan, and the EU’s trade commissions and a No from the UK and the US’s federal commissions. What does this mean for the $69B acquisition? It’s still too early to say, but Microsoft and Activision are exhausting all possible avenues before they finalize a deal. One thing is for certain, both corporations are so desperately hungry for this merger.

ASUS has revealed all the details to their Steam Deck competitor: The ROG Ally. The base price $599 version features an AMD Ryzen Z1 processor, 7-inch 150hz display, and 512GB Storage. This makes it stronger than the Steam Deck for a very comparable price. Pre-orders are up now (I won’t affiliate link you here, I promise) and it sounds like other than a very short battery life that this will be some substantial competition for the previously unchallenged mobile PC gaming space.

The developers of narrative game Open Roads has officially removed any recognition of the Fullbright name from their game. This follows reports of employee mistreatment from Fullbright’s co-founder Steve Gaynor in 2021. Gaynor was removed from development shortly after the reports were published, but Open Roads is now pushing forward with less baggage. The team is currently referred to as “The Open Roads team”.

In lighter news, Mark Frost confirms he did consulting on The Legend Of Zelda: Link’s Awakening while working on Twin Peaks?? In an Iwata Asks blog posted on Nintendo’s website around 2006, Zelda-series director Takashi Tezuka spoke about how he was inspired to make a followup to A Link To The Past by the runaway success of the surreal serial drama. I don’t know how Collider found this old blog post or how Mark Frost found the Collider piece, but he quickly tweeted out his collaboration on the project which confirms this whole story. This is a fascinating new wrinkle that somehow ties the beach-loving Marin to the beach-lying Laura Palmer.

The post The Bulletin: Games That Aren’t Zelda? appeared first on Gamesline.