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The gifting season is right around the corner, so give the gift of a well-groomed nether region with this video's sponsor, Manscaped, and their newly updated Lawn Mower Ultra. Enjoy new features like improved blades, better battery, wireless charging, and a sexy digital display screen, and get 15% off plus free shipping when you use offer code SkillUp at checkout over at manscaped.com. Click below or stick around to the end of the video to learn more. Gamers, we've finally reached the crash through or crash phase of the big AI rollout. Where companies are no longer trying the softly approach, they're holding your nose, prying open your jaw, and pouring it straight down your gullet. And there's no better
example of that than Epic Games' big AI pivot. Bloomberg had the scoop on this one, revealing that Epic are mandating the use of AI tools to add the finishing touches to their Disney licensed game that they've been working on for quite some time, which is supposedly slated now for March 2027, having been delayed a number of times before. Bloomberg reported that Epic staff were informed, quote, "No more handwritten code," end quote, but it certainly doesn't stop there. According to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg, the team working on the project has reportedly been told to make all art, quote, "Generated with full AI workflows," end quote. Bloomberg sources at Epic say the decision was
management underestimated the time and resources needed to make the game on schedule. A very strange position for management to find themselves in, given they've spent the last eight years running the world's most successful live service video game, one that reaches millions of people every day and has a legendary reputation for content creation cadence. Honestly though, this is a pivot we should have seen coming since Epic is no stranger to using both tool-based and generative AI in the development process. Unreal Engine has a swathe of AI-powered tools, and who could forget the generative AI voice Darth Vader companion in Fortnite, the one that players made say some interesting things, let's put it that
way. Trying to get out ahead of the story, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney commented on social media saying, quote, "We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration. The aim isn't to do the same stuff with fewer people, but to enable everyone here to build more and better stuff, and to bring the benefits to all teams using Unreal," end quote. One person responded by saying, quote, "Your inability to read the room is really astounding, Tim," end quote, to which Sweeney replied, quote, "Much of the room wants it to be 2016 again, but it's not. Our job as the provider of
tools and technology to much of the industry is to design for the present that is and the future that will soon be. Personally, I'm optimistic about it and see it as empowering for creators." End quote. Difficult to overstate the importance of this for a number of reasons. If we focus on just Epic's output as a game maker, Fortnite is still unspeakably massive even if it wasn't what it once was. It has a direct line into the young teenage audience who are aging into various user-generated games all while offering a range of experiences from the classic Battle Royale right up to massive concert events and IP crossovers. Fortnite is
still a very powerful cultural force and the people making it are now going to be utilizing AI in both back-end development and the stuff we actually see like art and presumably sound, music, and more. But perhaps the bigger impact will be the way that this ends up reshaping the most widely used game engine in the world, Unreal. This is a tool that a huge proportion of Western game developers rely on and while it's already incorporated many AI features, the fact that Epic are talking this way suggests the engine will transform to be even more AI-powered in the future. That's going to have huge implications on the way that games are made and what we as consumers end up experiencing. In
a way, Epic's announcement is more an acknowledgement of a reality than a desire to reshape it. The fact is AI is already widely used across game development. Just last month, Tokyo Game Show was held and the industry body that ran that event ran a survey revealing that 85% of Japanese game development respondents were using AI tools in their game development process. Another survey published by the Japan Online Game Association and Kadokawa ASCII Laboratories found that 100% of respondents working on online games were utilizing AI. I mean, it was just last week that we covered the fact that Capcom has announced that RE Engine will transform into an AI-powered game making tool with a focus on its code being more
readable by AI agents supported by more automation for bug testing. Hell, just this week, Yuji Horii, the creator of the Dragon Quest series, released an AI-vibe coded game that he made in 30 minutes saying, quote, "The Portopia Serial Murder Case on a PC, I came up with the story myself, drew the pictures myself, did the programming myself, and created the game all by myself. And now, by using AI, even if I can't draw pictures or program, I can just give instructions to the AI and create a decent game all by myself. It's truly astonishing. End quote. Is it though? That really is a question we don't have time for now, but it neatly brings us to another frontier in the AI rollout,
decompilations. A huge amount to unpack with this one, so best to start with the fundamentals. Decompilation is about breaking a game down into its most basic components, so it can then be recompiled at higher resolutions or on another platform or with new things added, etc. It's by no means a new practice, as hobbyists have been doing it for years now with different games for different reasons, but mainly to get console games running on PC as native ports. This is, as you would guess, a very manual, very lengthy process for humans to do, but it becomes much less manual and much less lengthy when you ask Skynet to do it.
This past month has seen an explosion of AI decompiled games appearing online, many of them playable in browser, and many of them splicing together different games. There's one out there that sees Spider-Man web swinging through the Arkham Knight Gotham City, and another one that has Minecraft Steve fighting an Elden Ring boss. And I'm showing you mock-ups here because this stuff is a huge gray area when it comes to legality, and I do not want to get my channel deleted, thank you very much. So, this is exploding really quickly, so fast in fact that some of the industry's biggest players are already saying, "If you can't beat them, join them." For example, this past week we saw the team
at Skate, owned by EA, officially acknowledge the re-Skate mod, which started as an AI-driven decompilation of Skate and gives the ability to play offline, add custom maps, run community servers, and allows it to run on the Steam Deck. EA acknowledged the existence of this mod thing, and yet they didn't try to shut it down, which clearly indicates that they are viewing this as some sort of experiment with keeping an eye on to see where all of this goes. But Xbox isn't being so cautious, as they've come out and thrown their full weight directly behind this new trend in a pretty stunning announcement. Xbox boss Asif Shamma sent out a memo on the 13th of October to announce a new Xbox division called Xbox
Labs. Quote, "In recent weeks we've seen games rapidly decompiled and rebuilt to run on hardware they were never originally designed to support. Windows PC builds have been translated to run on Apple silicon or ported to run inside a browser through WebAssembly or WebGPU, the latter now approaching 90% global browser support. Perhaps more surprisingly, we've seen many of the biggest games in the world have been remixed into the source code of another. To explore these possibilities, I've asked Scott to stand up Xbox Labs, a small group of game makers, engineers, and scientists whose job it is to turn emerging ideas into things our players and developers can experience. We'll build in the open, learn from what people do, and measure success by
whether more people are playing and creating." End quote. The Scott she mentions here is Scott Van Vliet, the current chief technology officer over at Xbox. She continues on, quote, "I think Xbox has an important role to play here. Coding became the first major workload for agents because they can write, run, and test software. Games share many of those same properties, and people spend more than 72 billion hours a year playing Xbox games, roughly five times the estimated time spent writing code worldwide. Our priorities aren't changing. We remain committed to the four C's, to making great games, to our hardware, and being responsible stewards of IP in the communities built around
it. Labs gives us ways to explore new technology without abandoning the work already underway." End quote. With Asha's extensive AI background at Microsoft, this doesn't surprise me. But what does this mean for Xbox and games in general moving forward? User-generated content has been an extremely lucrative model for games like Roblox and Fortnite, and you have to wonder if Xbox will try to hone this decompiling tech into something they can use across their portfolio of IP. Because let's not forget, Xbox has a dizzying amount of IP at this point. And if you could create a tool set that lets you splice it together in different unexpected ways, then I'm sure at least the Roblox and Fortnite kids might be
interested in that, since IP-based user-generated content has been some of the most lucrative content over the past decade. So that's the company that owns the largest game engine, Epic, and the largest non-platform holding Western game publisher, EA, and the largest IP holder in the industry Xbox all announcing in the same week that they are embracing AI either a little or a lot. It really does feel like something has changed here and I suspect that game companies are going to be talking about AI usage very differently from this point on. It's funny that this rise of AI seems tied with the exact moment that VR has its last gasp before being relegated to the footnotes of history.
Again, Valve Steam Deck release was the inhale part of that last gasp. A headset releasing with absolutely no games to play, shipping into an environment where most of the VR focused game studios have shut up shop. The headset itself has a few issues and doesn't quite hit the quality bar of things like the Deck Controller and Machine. But the big issue is that there's just nothing new to play on this thing and no promise that there will be anytime soon. The exhale part of that last gasp is surely the news this week that Meta has acquired a significant number of patents from Sony related to augmented, mixed and virtual reality. Meaning that Sony sold them off because they no longer
felt they need to keep them. The listing for these acquisitions was first spotted by Korean outlet ZDNet who reported that there were five different listings in which Meta acquired of extended reality patents totally 43 separate patents. This week videogames.com has verified the existence of these patents with the acquisition finalized between June and September of 2026. But that process began in December of last year. The 43 patents listed by the US Patent and Trademark Office might just be a drop in the bucket in the list of over 400 global patents from countries like Japan, China and France that Meta may be seeking as part of this transfer. So what does this mean for PSVR? Well, nothing good to be honest. Patents
themselves have been sold by Sony Group Corporation not Sony Interactive where PlayStation's operations live. Sony paused production on the headset all the way back in 2024 and funnily enough, it's the only piece of hardware to get a price drop from 550 US dollars down to 400 US dollars in early 2025. It's not like Sony were really doing anything to prop up the PSVR side of their business anyways. While the PSVR 2 is a very solid piece of kit, the software options available specifically from the Sony first-party side are pretty abysmal. We only have two games, Horizon Call of the Mountain and Firewall Ultra as dedicated experiences for the peripheral. Although VR support was added for games like Gran
Turismo 7 and other flat-screen titles, I don't think that's enough to bring anyone into the PSVR ecosystem or VR ecosystem in general as the hype for this subset of peripherals has all but died in the last few years. Meta seems to think differently though, despite laying off most of their VR game dev teams in January of this year. On top of reporting 19.2 billion US dollars in operating losses last year, they're set to launch their newest VR/AR gamble, the Meta VR glasses in the first part of 2027. These seem much more focused on like content consumption and productivity and a little bit of gaming, but I don't know, it's a bit of a weird product. Who knows what Meta has planned
for all these patents, but it has been super interesting to see how the conversation has fully 180'd on VR being the future of gaming. Now all people want to do is put Mario into Elden Ring and watch him fling Margit the Fell Omen around by his tail. And you know what? Fair enough. I don't want to see that, too. Here's something else that's dying, physical media. But while Sony are already shoveling dirt onto the casket and Xbox is keeping their cards close to their chest, the big N are declaring for the people saying they have no intention of abandoning physical media anytime soon. In an interview with Brazilian content creator Quello during this year's Brazil Game Show, Bill van Zyl,
vice president of Nintendo Latin America, answered a question about Nintendo shying away from physical games by saying, quote, "Look, historically, we've been very agnostic, right? We go off what the consumer prefers and take that into account very heavily. We also have a platform that just launched. We're barely just a year into the Nintendo Switch 2 and it's got both, you know, digital, but it also has physical. It has that capability. So there's no plans to ditch physical. We know how much the fans like it as well. So yeah, our position has been to be agnostic."
End quote. That's all well and good, but it's important to remember the huge caveat in all of this, which is Nintendo's game key cards. Although some games are released fully on the cartridge itself, many of them come in game key card form, which is a physical cartridge that only carries the license for the software, not the software itself. This can sometimes be a necessity due to the size limitation of cartridges, but it can also be because publishers just prefer not to put the data on the cart, which is a real shame, and I think really disrespectful to the consumer who has gone out of their way to procure this physical object. Either way, the Switch 2 is early in its life cycle, and Nintendo has always been
rather slow to move when it comes to new tech. So, I think we can be sure of at least another 5 to 7 years of physical releases from Team Red. After that though, man, you just never know in this day and age. Hey, speaking of all digital, Rockstar, GTA 6's console release is only three underwear changes away. But, good news for PC fans, some reporting suggests that a PC port may only be six to seven underwear changes away, aka the first quarter of 2027. GamesBeat is claiming that GTA 6's PC version will arrive in the first quarter of next year, suspiciously close to its console release. A console-first, PC-later rollout has been Take-Two and Rockstar's cadence for all of their
releases, with the PC version of GTA 5 releasing a year and 7 months after its console launch, while Red Dead 2 got its PC version after a year. Maybe Take-Two is recognizing the changing landscape as PC gaming has become much more prevalent in the last decade. But, if this is true, I wonder what it'll mean for console sales, especially since the game is digital, no matter where you get it. Let's be real though, I still think people would buy it on console first and then PC later, even if there was like a week between the two releases. So, Take-Two's bean counters can still count on that sweet, sweet double-dip revenue,
no matter when they choose to release it. So, what kind of news did I leave this week? Well, the Triple-I Initiative happened, and as a result we got dozens of new trailers for indie games, way too many to mention here, of course. So, if you are interested in indies, do take some time to check it out, but here are some of the highlights. Souldiers is a first-person roguelike that we enjoyed when it first came out in early access a couple of years ago now. That one has announced a release date for 1.0, October 28th, and it's coming to all platforms. Outward is another game we've been privy to in the past. It's basically a cross between an action RPG and a survival game, and its sequel, Outward 2, announced a release date for
early access, February 8th next year, PC only. Meanwhile, the Among Us team showed up to announce their new game, Among Us Story: On Guard, which is a single-player narrative mystery game based on the universe. It'll be really interesting to see if their chops translate to this genre as well, but I reckon they've probably given themselves plenty of time and resources to get it right. This one's out on February 17th next year for PC, Switch to iOS and Android. A couple of new games that caught the team's eye. In the past we've spoken a lot about the Czech studio Amanita Design. They make really lovely looking hand-drawn games and this week they announced Machinarium 2, which is the sequel to the game that really put
them on the map in the first place. No release date yet, however. Meanwhile, The Escapists is one of those series that's quietly massive, but you might not have any idea unless you're a part of the fandom. It's basically a prison escape strategy simulator and they announced a third entry for release sometime next year. Separate to the AAA showcase, Xbox announced a release date for Forza Horizon 6 on PS5. It's coming out on January 26th, 2027. There were previously some reports that it was going to get pushed out of 2026 and Xbox started saying, "Nope, that's not true." But clearly it was and it does kind of make sense though, since that PS5 port release will now line up nicely with the
game's first paid expansion. And the last one I mentioned is Warhammer Survivors because it looks sick as hell. This is another one of those Vampire Survivors likes and it's being made by the Boltgun developers and it has a release date of November 10th for all platforms, so not long to wait now. All righty, so what came out last week? Well, friends, there were so many damn games that came out over the past week just going to get through as many of them as we can. Wish me luck. Silver Pines was that Metroidvania meets Twin Peaks survival horror game. It landed at a mighty 87 on OpenCritic and a very positive rating on Steam. GameSpot gave this one an eight out of 10 and said,
quote, "It feels like a unique concoction that stands out all on its own," end quote, with many outlets expressing very similar sentiment, making this one of the highest rated indie releases of the year. A big congrats to the team behind it. Clive Barker's Hellraiser Revival didn't fare as well at a fair 73 on OpenCritic, but still hanging onto a very positive sentiment on Steam thanks to plenty of film fans singing the praises of its adaptation. Critic reviews ranged from five out of 10 to nine out of 10, so do dig deep and assess what your relationship to this might be. Landing in the middle, TechRadar gave it a seven out of 10 saying that it quote, "Gets the themes and look absolutely nailed
down, but with a constantly on story it betrays itself as players will find themselves quickly desensitized," end quote. Jumping over to Jonathan Blow's latest puzzle epic Order of the Sinking Star, it's a strong 83 on OpenCritic, overwhelmingly positive on Steam. Again, a pretty wide range on these reviews from sixes to 10s. GameSpot landed at an eight out saying that it quote, "Might work better had it been more curated into playing its massive pile of puzzles, but the occasional frustration and overcomplication is an affordable price of admission to play around with so many fun ideas, end quote. Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen now, Austin actually reviewed this one on the channel. He recommended it and so did
many others since it sits at a mighty 85 on OpenCritic, currently very positive on Steam. I'll drop a link to Austin's review below the like button, but IGN gave this one an 8 out of 10 saying quote, Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen is an engrossing expansion full of interesting new characters, vibrant enemies, and the wonderful wreckage of a bygone civilization, end quote. Moving on now to Valer Mortis, how did that first-person Souls-like go? A strong 80 on OpenCritic for this one with Eurogamer giving it four out of five stars saying quote, minor complaints aside, Valer Mortis is a delight, a gloriously entertaining Souls-like whose fluid foundational combat and cleverly designed enemy encounters would probably
be enough on their own, but then one more level goes further, the exhilarating parkour, the thrilling sense of momentum that shapes everything from the intricate level design and memorable bosses to the sword and gunplay elevating it further. Valer Mortis might not be your usual Souls-like, but it's a bloody good time, end quote. We're not even close to done, ladies and gentlemen, so hold on to your butts. Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is next. It's the revival of the classic Konami series, though this time it's being developed by Evil Empire, one of the studios that helped with Dead Cells and the folks behind Rogue Prince of Persia. Austin also reviewed this one for us earlier this week, so I'll leave
a link to that in the description below as well, but on OpenCritic it landed at a mighty 85, though some critics are divided on its Metroidvania elements. GameSpot actually gave this a 10 out of 10 here. Here's what the reviewer had to say quote, every element in Castlevania: Belmont's Curse works so well both independently and as part of the whole. Flexible combat, beautifully acrobatic traversal, fine-tuned environmental puzzles, wide cast of interesting characters, and eye-catching visual panache all wrapped within a smart terror system that lets the ideas complement each other. Belmont's Curse
feels destined to be regarded alongside Symphony of the Night as one of the best Castlevania games and one of the best Metroidvania games of all time, end quote. Man, that is a big call. Planet Zoo 2 now, and that seems to have landed really well with critics, a mighty 84 on OpenCritic. There are only about 10 reviews at the time of writing. Everyone was playing Castlevania, I guess. Early Steam reviews are also mostly positive. Steam user Duskfall gave us a handy TLDR after 8 hours by saying, quote, "A huge improvement over PZ1 that feels familiar in all the right ways, held back only by launch bugs like poor climbing animal pathing, size for brushes/paths, and a
broken franchise mode." End quote. Taking a look now at Warhammer 40K Boltgun 2, and if you played the first one, you might be expecting the second one to be just as excellent. And look, you'd be right. Reviews for this one landed at a mighty 84 on OpenCritic with eights and nines across the board for what's been written so far. IGN gave it an 8 out of 10 saying, quote, "Warhammer 40K Boltgun 2 carries the torch of the original, amplifying its exhilarating gameplay with a compelling new character, detailed enemy and world designs, and level branches that offer a surprising touch of complexity in their objectives. Technical hiccups can lead to moments of frustration that may stunt
progress or the flow of action in a few ways. However, the snappy pacing helps keep things moving, and context-specific character barks inject personality to round out the gorgeous mess you make in battle. Whether you're a Warhammer die-hard, a classic shooter fan, or simply boomer shooter curious, Boltgun 2 is a genuine blast and well worth your time." End quote. Taking a quick look now at a few games that have just released on Steam at the time of writing and don't have a ton of critical reviews. Starting with the early access release of roguelike fighting game very positive on Steam after about a day in the wild, under 100 reviews at the time of writing, but 100% of them are
positive. Steam user Chris has about 5 hours under their belt at this point, and they write, quote, "Genius idea, incredible execution." End quote. Enough said, I guess. Thank you, Bus Driver, is the first game from Double Fine to be released after being jettisoned by Xbox. A short experimental game about driving a bus and keeping your passengers in check by slapping the [__] out of them. Been out for less than a day at the time of writing, but it is very positive with 88% on Steam. Steam user Furia gave it a thumbs up after finishing it and said, quote, "Stressful and chaotic, but a ton of fun. It's a small game, I got 100% in
5 hours, and there isn't a ton of replay value once you beat it, but it's still a good time." End quote. Worth noting that this one costs just five freedom bucks, making it a pretty good deal, I think. We said last week that Zen off-roading sim Over the Hill wouldn't really need help getting noticed, as this team has made some really great driving games in the past, and we were totally right. Out for less than a day, almost 10,000 peak and current players, over 350 reviews, 95% of them positive. Steam user Telemans on Steam has seemingly been playing this one basically non-stop since it's dropped, and said, quote, "I play a lot of off-road and trucking games, and quite frankly, there aren't
many games this year that I would recommend more than Over the Hill. It's one of those games where you set off towards something in the distance, get distracted about 10 times along the way, and end up somewhere completely different, and that's what makes it so good." End quote. I've actually been playing this one myself in the background, and I've been really loving it. I think maybe that has something to do with the fact that it's a busy, stressful period, and this game is just so damn relaxing. I think it's really great. So, if you're at all curious, I really do recommend checking it out.
It's kind of like Death Stranding, but if the cars made the game better, rather than worse. But, that's a whole other tangent, so let's not get sidetracked. Finally, we'll take a look at Bluey's Happy Snaps. At the time of writing, this one isn't out yet, and there are no reviews, but Aaron on our team has managed to play a couple of hours of this one, and he says it might be peak. Here's what he had to say, quote, "Hey, did you like the wholesome fun of Toem and Pokémon Snap? That is basically what this game is, but with a hard lean into creating detailed, toy box-like areas to either do photo challenges, find
unmarked secrets, or just mess around with all the interactables. You can tell the team who made this have actually played video games with young kids before, and know they just like to mess around, and it's the best Bluey game to date for that audience, by far. It's also the least janky, goes hard on actually looking like the cartoon, and best of all, strongly encourages kids to go outside and touch grass as part of its gameplay loop. As in, hey, did you like doing that stuff in game? Well, you can do it in real life. And here's how." That's some good Nintendo-ass philosophy in action right there. End quote. Jesus, that was a lot of games, but much like the donuts in that machine Homer gets
strapped to in hell, they keep coming. So, what's coming out this week? We'll kick off with a couple of horror and horror-adjacent games, since October is certainly the right time for it. Tenebris Somnia is a new horror game from the folks at New Blood Interactive, developed by a team out of Argentina that has more experience in film than they have in games. You can probably tell because the big hook here is that even though it's a 2D pixel art survival horror game set in the vein of, like, you know, Clock Tower on the SNES. It also has full live-action cutscenes, which are going to be, if the trailers are any indication, absolutely terrifying. It comes out on February
16th for all platforms. If you're interested in that, by the way, we've got a big behind-the-scenes feature story about the Tenebris Somnia team over on our website this week at videogames.com. So, if you are a supporter, do go and check that out. I'll leave a link to it below the like button. Also coming out on Friday is Penguin Colony, an adaptation of the Lovecraft story At the Mountains of Madness. This isn't your typical cosmic horror game set in Antarctica. This one sees you play as various penguins as they waddle, swim, and slide through their homeland while gradually uncovering the aftermath of a Nazi expedition gone horribly, horribly wrong. It's narrated by Linval Brown, best known for also narrating Disco
Elysium, and is developed by the folks behind the cyberpunk photography game Umurangi Generation, which won the Independent Games Festival Grand Prize back in 2021. PC only for this one. Jumping over to next week, games are going to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism, space. Rest in peace, Tim Curry, we'll never forget you. Things kick off with Star Trek: Outpost Unknown on Tuesday, the 20th of October. This one is the colony management and building game with a narrative twist where you'll have to set your crew up for survival, and it's based on the recent Strange New Worlds era. PC only for this one. Also out on
Tuesday is the 1.0 release of Devolver Digital's Micro Park. You might remember this one as the mission-based looter shooter that's basically Borderlands without the jokes. It released just over a year ago now into early access, and has earned a very positive sentiment on Steam in that time. It launches on both PC and PS5 with support for four-player co-op. Speaking of co-op, We Were Here Tomorrow is the new game from developer Total Mayhem, who has been making the We Were Here series for quite some time now. And look, technically, I actually don't think it is set in space, but it's sci-fi stealth, so it may as well be.
The series has been pretty well regarded in the past, so if you're finished up with Orbitals and the Hayes Like Catalog, this one should probably be on your radar for you and your player two. Though I believe it's online co-op only. PC, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles for this one. Moving right along now, on Wednesday, October 21st, we've got some character action in the form of Stupid Never Dies, which comes from a studio founded by Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who was a producer at Capcom who worked on games like Dragon's Dogma and Devil May Cry. The stick here is that even though you're a wimpy little zombie, you can eat your enemies and absorb their power.
Basically, this guy's like a kind of messed-up Kirby with 11 different combat styles to tap into throughout the game. The studio was also one of the many studios that was funded by NetEase. Though, if recent news is any indication, it'll probably be one of the last projects we'll see from the international spending spree. PC and PS5 for this one only. Last one for October 22nd is a bit more familiar and family-friendly. For the JRPG nerds out there who don't already have enough on their plate, Final Fantasy Resonance is coming to all platforms. This one is a new adaptation of the mobile game Brave Exvius, which actually came out 10 years ago now. Though, Resonance repackages it into a premium product with HD-2D art,
featuring plenty of series favorite characters to boot. All platforms for this one. And finally, rounding out the next 7 days is Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, Nintendo's second collection of motion-controlled sports games for the Switch era. Though, this one is exclusive to the Switch, too. If you remember Wii Sports, and who doesn't, this is the game that's carrying on the approachable, family-friendly torch for the series with lots of familiar competitive sports games. Resort adds a bit of Mario Kart world into the mix, setting everything in a big island resort where you can explore and collect [__] in free roam using prop planes, jet skis, and skateboards. Other sports include boxing, table tennis, archery,
bowling, golf, and thumb wrestling with online competitive multiplayer for the hardcore folks out there, as well as local play for your grandma. Ed played about an hour of this one at a previous session last week and tells me that it's a really good time with stuff like archery feeling really nice to play with a high skill ceiling, actually. Thumb wrestling was apparently surprisingly competitive, and bowling remains an all-time classic. No surprises there. All right, so we talked already about the triple-A announcements earlier in the show, and Steam Next Fest is coming up. So, we're going to use this as an excuse to talk about some indies that are a bit further afield, but you can
play their demos right now. So, put this on your radar. Are you a millennial that likes those sad, grainy PS2 games like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus? Then you should probably check out Prison of the Husks, a retro Souls-like from a solo developer that leans hard into the dreamy nostalgia of a bygone era in both its aesthetic and world-building. You play as a soul that's found a new home in a life-size doll, exploring a desolate gothic town as you look for your beloved, whoever or whatever that is. On the way, you'll fight enemies using melee, ranged, and magic tools, while also being encouraged to switch your loadout to get the one-up on different enemies, and rely on your skill alone.
No levels or RPG stuff here. Prison of the Host just announced a release date for 27th of January next year, and it will be coming to both PC and PS5. Plus, it has a free demo available right now on Steam. If you do want to check that out, we've actually left a link to it over in our Steam Curator page, which also has links to all of the other put this on your radar stuff we've recently covered. I'll leave a link to all of that below the like button. This past week, I haven't been able to refresh a single social feed without hearing the words Scrib Dune. That's right, we have a new best boy, and his name is Bitty Blaze, the defective front man of Star Wars Galactic Racer. Mr. Blaze is the Glub
Shitto de Jour, which sounds like something you'd order at a fancy French restaurant, but in actuality, it's just an excuse for people to post memes online. And post they have. For example, what if instead of racing, Bitty picked up a shotgun and went to battle against the forces of hell? Hell yeah. Or what if instead of racing speeders across the sands of Jakku, Bitty was racing sandworms across the spice field of Arrakis? Yes, please. Or what if instead of competing in ruthless blood sports, Bitty was color commentating them? Score! The possibilities are endless, which is why Star Wars HQ themselves have given him official recognition, blazing out on their official handle, quote, "My work meeting notes: one, Bitty Blaze, two,
Ding Dong Pookie, and three, Scrib Dune." End quote. Love to see it. Everyone is won over by this weird, unpleasant, ugly little guy, and it really makes you think, I wonder what the voice actor looks like. Probably kind of weird, too, right? Well, not so much. In the immortal words of Squidward, "Oh, no. He's hot." George, what do you mean I'm your favorite Glub Shitto of all time. Stop it. Stop it, you. One of these fine days I'll tell the others. Hi. My name's Richard Summers-Calvert. Actor and voice of former model, uh jazz musician, and most annoying pod racer in the galaxy. Beep please. I am overwhelmed and
overstimulated. I've had a lot of messages from people just saying, "Look, why aren't you at Comic-Con?" If I'm there, you know what I can do for you? I can scream at you. All right, everyone, that's the show for the week and we're getting to the October endgame now with plenty to look forward to like Phantom Blade Zero, that Crimson Desert DLC, World of Warcraft forever dropping on November 4th, and that Ocarina of Time remake dropping on November 5th. Don't forget to check out my preview for that if you haven't already since I've definitely come around to the visuals a lot more since they were first revealed. I think a lot
of other people have too with Nintendo releasing more footage of the game. It's going to be a really fun couple of weeks, so I hope you'll join us either here on the show or on our website this week at videogames.com, but ideally both because we cover plenty of cool stuff on the website that we don't have time for here and we think you'll like it. Just like you liked this video, right? If so, I trust you've clicked the like button and that you're already subscribed and we thank you for that. Have a great week. Take good care of yourself and a big thanks to this video's sponsor, Manscaped.
We're getting dangerously close to the silly season and there's nothing sillier than waiting until the last minute to do all your gift shopping. Everything's sold out and if it isn't, it's super expensive. Better to get it over with early and what better gift to give the man in your life who has everything than a shaver that will let him shave everything or at least his balls. That's right, this video is sponsored by Manscaped, the undisputed leader in male grooming, and the reason they're number one is because of their flagship product, the best ball shaver in the business, the Lawn Mower Ultra. And believe it or not, this thing just got a major refresh making it even better than
it was before. The Lawn Mower Ultra Gen 6 has all the features you'd expect from the Lawn Mower range, things like changeable heads, waterproof convenience, USB-C charging, and more, but there's very little that hasn't been improved with this update. Take those changeable blades, for example. You can still get a really close shave with the foil blade, only now it's been redesigned for better functionality when going in either direction. Meanwhile, the trimmer blade still focuses on longer hair, and it now uses a black ceramic blade paired with a stainless steel cutter, which improves cutting performance and helps everything glide more efficiently. And both the foil and trimmer blades have Skin Safe
technology, which helps reduce nicks and cuts. What about charging? Well, in addition to USB-C, it also supports wireless charging, and the battery life has been improved, giving you up to 100 minutes of use before needing to recharge it. Speaking of which, you can track that usage with the all-new digital display screen, which shows you exactly how much battery is left, while also supporting other features like a travel lock toggle, so the thing won't go off in your luggage. If you're already using a Lawn Mower, then this is a serious upgrade. And if you've never tried Manscaped before, the Lawn Mower Ultra Gen 6 is easily the most advanced body groomer they've ever made. Better
blades, smarter features, longer battery life, and an overall grooming experience that's faster, easier, and a whole lot more comfortable. So, don't leave it till the last minute. Start your holiday shopping right now, and get 15% off plus free shipping when you use offer code SkillUp at checkout over at manscaped.com. The Gen 6 is brand new, so it's the perfect time to jump in and get the most advanced shaver Manscaped has ever released. And that 15% off plus free shipping when you use offer code SkillUp is a great excuse to treat yourself or someone you love, since Manscaped stuff always makes a fantastic gift. A big thanks to Manscaped for sponsoring the video, and thank you for watching it.
