Entertainment

It was the #1 most-played game yesterday evening, and it’s #1 again right now, as player counts for both it and Counter-Strike dip from their daily peaks of over 800,000 concurrents. As Polygon explains, not everyone’s clicking the banana continuously — you only need to click once every few hours. Guess I wasted 1335 clicks!

Screenshots for posterity:

“The Dark Souls of word processors. One typo, and it’s game over.” Play FromSoft Word here.

The show, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, is an adaptation of The Hedge Knight, a novella by George R.R. Martin. There will be six episodes in this initial season.

Here’s the show’s synopsis, from Warner Bros. Discovery:

A century before the events of “Game of Thrones,” two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros… a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne, and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.

After debuting The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, a game where Princess Zelda finally gets to save Link, Nintendo teased an upcoming Switch Lite with a swanky gold finish.

The back of the console features the Hylian crest, and when released on September 26th, it will include a 12-month Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership.

Ubisoft knows how to delay a game! Not only have we been waiting 15 years for BG&E2, we’ve also quietly snuck past the promised release window for Beyond Good and Evil: 20th Anniversary Edition. But the latter is close! The game’s trophies have leaked, and now this:

Everybody Hates Chris is one of the best sitcoms to ever grace television, and Comedy Central’s bringing it back with an animated revival that will see Chris Rock, Tichina Arnold, and Terry Crews reprise their original roles.

Paradox Tectonic, which employs 24 people, has been working on the game since 2019, but the studio is being shut down following the life sim’s cancelation, according to Paradox Interactive.

I asked if all Tectonic employees are being laid off and if any staffers will be offered other positions at Paradox, but spokesperson Jesse Henning declined to comment.

It will be available starting on June 25th and will update the original Backbone One controller with a translucent green shell (reminiscent of the Jungle Green N64), laser-etched buttons, an aluminum D-pad, and glow-in-the-dark Post Malone branding.

The Backbone One: Post Malone Limited Edition Controller will be limited to just 500 units, and that exclusivity is reflected in its $199.99 price tag.

Nintendo Switch Sports launched with a handful of games you’d kind of expect, like bowling, badminton, and swordplay, but after a free update dropping later this year, you’ll finally be able to shoot some hoops as well.

Finally, at long last, Ace Attorney sickos (including yours truly) will finally get what we’ve been asking for — a rerelease of Ace Attorney Investigations. It’s a spinoff series of the popular Ace Attorney games featuring Miles Edgeworth instead of Phoenix Wright as the protagonist. Crucially with this release, we’re finally getting a Western release of Ace Attorney Investigations 2. I cannot wait till September 6th to play on Switch, PC, PlayStation, and Xbox!

After arriving on PlayStation and Xbox, Stray is slinking its way to the Switch in time for the holidays.

Nintendo’s newest Mario Party game is here. Super Mario Party Jamboree features over 110 new minigames, 20-player online multiplayer, new locations, and new features that will undoubtedly infuriate your friends and family. And best yet, it launches October 17th, just in time for the family holiday get-togethers!

It will be part of four new titles being added to the Nintendo Switch Online service. The GBA classics, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (plus the Four Swords multiplayer expansion) and Metroid Zero Mission, and an additional “Mature 17+” title from the N64: Turok Dinosaur Hunter.

A new collection of Marvel and Capcom crossover arcade games is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Steam in 2024. Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection Arcade Classics will contain seven titles, including X-Men Children of the Atom and both Sega Dreamcast-era Marvel vs. Capcom 2D fighting games.

It’s about time Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is released from jail and easily available again outside of a pricey Arcade 1Up machine.

It’s been almost 14 years since Donkey Kong Country Returns launched on the Nintendo Wii (followed by a 3DS port in 2012), and next year an HD version of the game is coming to the Nintendo Switch. The game debuts on January 16th.

The game, first announced in 2021, is coming out on November 14th, 2025, and it looks incredible in a new trailer. It’s set to release on Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X / S, Steam, and Windows.

And that’s not all: an HD-2D remake of the first two Dragon Quest games is coming in 2025.

Fantasian is an RPG from Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi featuring composer Nobuo Uematsu that was previously only available on Apple Arcade. It’s coming out this winter.

After 10 years of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast is revamping the popular tabletop RPG with three new core rulebooks. The 2024 Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual kick off a new, non-numbered generation of the game when they launch September 17th, November 11th, and February 18th, respectively — with preorders available now.

Check out these snippets of art and pages from the upcoming books.

We knew Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy, a four-part animated miniseries airing September 13th, would play amusingly fast and loose with canon.

But an entire Dark Falcon with Darth Jar Jar and Darth Rey and a Beach Luke?! Amazing. That’s the leak from Clay Bricks, who says it’ll cost $179.99. “X-Fighters” and “Tie-Wings” are reportedly coming too.

Following on the reporting earlier this year from The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal profiles a teen influencer — whose mom is aware the account’s biggest fans are adult men.

Illinois has passed a law to protect child influencers, and more legislation is almost certainly forthcoming.

Sony confirmed in a CineEurope presentation that there’s a sequel to the Uncharted movie in the works, according to Variety. I hope this new one is more interesting than the first; I fell asleep watching it on an airplane, woke up 30 minutes after, and felt like I didn’t miss a beat.

Side note: I highly recommend playing Uncharted 4, which I beat last month.

This year’s Cannes Film Festival belonged to the madness of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, and now that Lionsgate has secured the film’s distribution rights, we can expect to see it in theaters on September 27th.

Disney’s “real” lightsaber wowed us with a glowing blade that extended and retracted, but since it refuses to sell it to Star Wars fans, the YouTube channel HeroTech made its own using LED strips, motors, and a magician’s cane. The effect is convincing, and if you’ve got the engineering skills you can even buy the plans to build your own.

For months, players have struggled to resolve the “high rent” notification popping up inside their cities. But now, developers say they fixed the issue by eliminating “virtual landlords,” who’ve apparently been driving up prices behind the scenes. Instead, rent is now equally paid by all renters, and they’ll automatically move out if it gets too high.