 New Pokémon Snap is coming our way faster than Deoxys in its Speed form, so it won’t be long until players can once again take pictures of their favourite pocket monsters. Thanks to a tie-in printer peripheral from Fujifilm, people can even print them out! We’ve all shelled out on a variety of add-ons over the years, but is there one which really stands the test of time? We have our picks, so let us know yours in the comments.
 A pair of Zappers and a copy of Ghost Squad made for a decent night in. Sam | PlayStation VR I’m a bit of a sucker for faddy peripherals. I loved Guitar Hero and Rock Band before their inevitable demise. I’ve played more than my fair share of Kinect games. But when it comes to an add-on that best stands the test of time, PlayStation VR is the one. PS VR opens the door to a whole new library of games. Some are better than others, naturally, but there are more quality experiences attached to the headset than any other peripheral. PC virtual reality headsets might offer higher end experiences (for an added premium), but the hardware regularly refreshes and games don’t always support all headset brands. It can be far more expensive and inconvenient, as compared to PS VR and its continued universal support across all recent PlayStation consoles. While Oculus Quest cuts the wires (and I love it for that), it’s a platform all its own in place of an add-on. It also doesn’t offer greats like Skyrim VR, Resident Evil 7 and Until Dawn: Rush of Blood. All that said, Sony’s headset is probably the greatest gaming peripheral yet.  Sony's next-gen PS VR and its fancy controllers will surely supplant its predecessor as the greatest gaming peripheral. Liam | N64 Rumble Pak With rumble being a standard feature on most controllers these days, it’s weird to look back and think of the N64’s Rumble Pak as a big deal, but it kind of was, at least at the time. I remember getting this thing bundled together with an oversized copy of Lylat Wars (known as Star Fox 64 everywhere else) and marvelling at how every impact and charge shot in-game was suddenly brought to life through the N64’s unsightly gamepad. Not only did it add an extra layer of depth to Lylat Wars’ already stellar gameplay (and other games as well, for that matter) but the Rumble Pak also gave the ‘pad a nice weighty heft thanks to its size and bulk. Slapping this thing into the attachment slot at the back of the controller really felt like you were gearing up for a futuristic adventure. Although gamepad designs have significantly evolved over the years to more subtly incorporate rumble features, I do strangely miss the status symbol of the Rumble Pak, especially when you had to constantly battle two other siblings for possession of it.  Bulky, but a great bit of tech. What's your favourite gaming peripheral? Let us know below.
 Tetris, Super Mario Bros and Pac-Man are all classics that got the online battle royale-esque multiplayer treatment on Nintendo Switch. With so many franchises either under Nintendo’s belt or just a few carefully placed jabs away, it got us pondering which game should be the next big thing on its online service. What would your pick be? Let us know in the comments.
 Adventure Mode's giant enemies would also keep things interesting. James | F-Zero Since the Nintendo 64 days, there hasn’t been enough love for the F-Zero franchise. Despite the attempt to bring back the series in the GameCube era (back in, if you can believe it, 2003), there hasn’t been a release since. Imagine a bit of a Burnout twist on the game, focusing on the destructive elements of the futuristic, gravity-defying racer and up the player count and track scale to match. You could keep races to a single lap to keep the competition snappy, and even give players an opportunity to interfere with the remaining racers after they are knocked out. With Nintendo’s form in Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros., you could even throw in some franchise crossovers in there, to give more variety to the choice of racers. One reason these online multiplayer games take off is because they appeal to the streaming audience. In this case you’ve got a base concept which is fairly straightforward - racing - and the opportunity for fancy visuals you don’t usually get to show off on Nintendo hardware. The racing genre on Switch doesn’t have to just be limited to one franchise, why not give the sci-fi take on track-based competition another go and bring back one of the most under-appreciated series in Nintendo’s floating-wheelhouse?  Come on, Nintendo, show the Captain some love! Sam | Snake Snake might be more synonymous with old Nokia mobiles than Nintendo platforms, but Snake 99 would be a perfect fit for the established formula. Just like Tetris and Pac-Man before it, it’s a simple and renowned title that could neatly transition into the competitive multiplayer space while staying accessible. For those that don’t know, Snake sees players take control of the titular serpent and eat food to grow in size. It requires some imagination - the graphics consist of just dots and lines - but the gameplay loop is nonetheless endlessly engaging. The battle royale-flavoured 99 series adapts classic games to feature offensive capabilities. In Tetris completed lines are sent to opponents’ screens, while gobbled ghosts are sent to haunt other players in Pac-Man. As for Snake 99, eating food could send pixelated poop to obstruct other users. It wouldn’t even have to overtly be poo, as Nintendo probably wouldn’t like that. It could just be a different coloured dot to differentiate between edible and inedible pixels. A lot of people have fond memories of playing Snake on the go, which is a scenario that the Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite easily accommodate.  Solid choice. Which game would you like to see get a battle royale mode on Switch Online?
 Capcom’s recent Resident Evil 25th anniversary celebrations got us thinking about the long-running survival horror series’ best moments, which, naturally, immediately set our skin crawling. There are tons of games, but just one iconic moment to choose. What stands out to you? Let us know in the comments below.
 Things don't end well for Steve. Sam Resident Evil is one of my all-time favourite franchises and picking just one highlight from a lifetime of fandom is incredibly hard. As such, I’ve settled on a bit of a cop out. I have fond memories of playing my older brother’s copies of the original trilogy, then commandeering RE4 to complete countless playthroughs. I was far too young, but it was almost unavoidable while sharing a bedroom with my years-older sibling and his teenage tastes. Although the series has gone somewhat off the rails at times, recently, Resident Evil is back at its best. RE7 and the upcoming Village (based on its playable demo) both offer a great new take on the franchise, though it’s reliving those old memories in the excellent remakes that’s most special to me. Resident Evil 2 (2019) is an exceptional remake of a classic entry. Yes, I’m choosing an entire game rather than a specific moment - there are too many highlights to pick between in that game alone! The introductory zombie in the petrol station, battling lickers inside the police department, evading the Tyrant’s constant pursuits. There’s never a dull moment during the perfectly-paced campaign.  Leon's first day at work is pretty rough, he even misses his own welcome party. Liam I have a complicated relationship with the Resident Evil series, so I have mixed feelings when it comes to celebrating its anniversary. The original game, which I first encountered around 7, absolutely terrified me and probably led to my irrational fear of zombie games. Having grown up in a Nintendo household, I thought I was safe from the series until RE2 somehow ended up on N64. Still not brave enough to play myself, but a little bit older and tad more curious, I would watch (from a safe distance, of course) as my older brother tackled Raccoon City’s zombie problem and almost, almost, found myself enjoying it. There were other missteps; a brief dabble with RE3 on a borrowed PlayStation, and years later I bought and quickly returned a copy Resident Evil 0 on GameCube after incorrectly thinking I had matured enough to brave its content. It wasn’t until Resident Evil 4 that I played and enjoyed a Resident Evil game. The focus on action over horror definitely helped, but it was the Chicago Typewriter unlock that made things really fun. Watching my brother blitz his way through enemies and bosses with the ridiculously overpowered submachine gun was both hugely entertaining and cathartic and is definitely my best memory of the series.  "Stranger, Stranger! Now that's a weapon." What's your favourite Resident Evil memory? Let us know below.
 With Microsoft beefing up framerates on some of the Bethesda games it’s adding to Game Pass, we’ve been thinking about the difference a good FPS can make. As the console experience continues to diverge, a reliable framerate is harder to come by than you might expect – sometimes even if you have been lucky enough to get your hands on a PS5 or Xbox Series X|S. We’ve got a few ideas, but what game would you like to revisit with a lightning-fast framerate? Let us know in the comments.
 A BF3 mini revival ahead of the next Battlefield would be very cool. Sam | Deadly Premonition 2 Last year’s sequel to Deadly Premonition wasn’t particularly well received due to some social and technical mishaps. While updates have altered the offending scenes and (ever so slightly) improved the low frame-rate, FPS Boost would make for a great final push. The original Deadly Premonition is a glorious mess, and the sequel is no different. DP2: A Blessing in Disguise understandably wasn’t afforded as many free passes as its predecessor, however. Now an established cult classic franchise with the backing of Nintendo, a lot of players seemed to skip the Switch-based sequel on principle. Skateboarding around the fictional town of Le Carré, Louisiana is like watching a slideshow. Francis York Morgan is no Tony Hawk to begin with, but he moves at a crawl set to a music track that sounds as if the developers typed “radical” into a stock library. Now don’t get me wrong, I find that juxtaposition hysterical, but it immediately puts a lot of people off. Although FPS Boost is an Xbox feature, applying it to Deadly Premonition 2 would open the underrated title up to a whole new audience. Arguably, there’s far more value in that than refining games that already run at a steady 30 frames per second.  Even Francis got a headache from the dodgy framerate. James | Borderlands 3 While it only suffered a few performance issues, as I noted when I tackled Borderlands 3 for our review, they turned out to be consistent enough for me to put the game down and not jump back in. It’s difficult to get a consistent framerate in an open world of course, but there’s so much that draws me back to the colourful world of Pandora, and I think a framerate jump would do the trick. Mayhem might be Borderlands’ middle name – if it had one – but when you’ve got a bandit in your sights, or you’ve unlocked a mountain of loot, raining down around you from a felled boss, it brings the whole experience down if you encounter stuttering. There’s plenty of visual effects which would benefit from a more consistent FPS as well, since the technicolour wares of the various gun makes, as well as ammunition itself in some cases, tend to make a point of filling the screen with as many particles and visual noise as possible. Even better, some of the hard work has already been done to get the game spruced up for next (soon to be current) gen consoles, so there must be a way to crunch the data, or perhaps sacrifice some resolution, to give those on Xbox One and PS4 just as shiny an experience.  Rob | GoldenEye I'm sure you've all taken a sneak-peak at the recently leaked (def, eh?) Xbox remaster footage, yeah? If not, you really should: it'll have your nostalgia juices flowing in no time. As I've mentioned many times before, the N64 era was/still is my most memorable time in gaming. There were several reasons for that, but none drove my love for the platform more than GoldenEye. I have endless memories of all-night multiplayer sessions with friends; of the hours I ploughed into the incredibly challenging single-player campaign; and the cast of characters with those wondrous cardboard Brosnan/Bean/Coltrane faces. GoldenEye will forever be in my personal top-10 list, unquestionably. What was always questionable, mind, was the tendency for the action to dip into the 9-frames-per-year mould - Jungle, we're looking at you... The opportunity to play the game with remastered graphics and a stable 60 FPS - the original was around the 15/20 mark - would be a dream-y come true-y. Picture it now, chums: slip-sliding down from that infamous vent to bash the guard on the can in Facility; running from shotgun-wielding Cossacks in Statue; dying endlessly attempting to best 00 difficulty on Control; or the cat-and-mouse runaround of Cradle. That's just the single-player, too: imagine just how wonderful a consistent 60FPS online experience could be. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it'll ever be officially released. Boo Microsoft. Boo Nintendo. Boo MGM and the Broccoli's.  There were no images of the original GoldenEye on Gamespress, only the Daniel Craig remake. Boo Gamespress. What game would you like to see receive an FPS boost? Let us know below.
 With last week’s announcement of Aliens: Fireteam re-igniting our love for the co-operative shooter and more media being streamed into our eyes than you can shake a TV Licence at, we wondered what other shows or films might make for a half-decent game tie-in. It’s a delicate balance of course, as you need characters you can latch onto, but none that are clearly overpowered, since that would upset the team dynamic. Do you have any ideas? Leave them in the comments.
 There's a Starship Troopers RTS currently in development, but no co-op shooter. James | The Boys While the recent track record with superhero games isn’t great (Marvel’s Avengers left me a little lukewarm) there’s another way to go about it, enter The Boys. There’s still a hint of superhero magic, but not so much that you get overwhelmed by it, as in The Boys the superpowers are on the opposing team. Not to mention, they are actually a team, albeit a dysfunctional one (like most online co-op games I’ve played, honestly). The best co-op shooters manage to give the individual characters just enough character, without everyone wanting to be one. Take Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher, he might be a crack shot with a shotgun, but perhaps he lets his temper get the better of him now and again, making him unreliable, so using him is a bit of a gamble. There’s certainly some balance issues to bear in mind. A flat out fight between a ragged band of ne'er-do-wells with the odd baseball bat isn’t going to do much when there’s superpowers to contend with, so perhaps a bit of Hitman-inspired infiltration will be the name of the game. Imagine sneaking into Vought Tower and pulling off a synchronised attack...  Every fight's a boss fight when you're going up against superheroes. Sam | Creepshow There’s a definite trend for bringing back old horror franchises as multiplayer and/or co-op games right now. An ideal candidate to join the growing roster would be Creepshow, the 1980s anthology series recently revived by AMC streaming service Shudder. Every episode features two standalone, tongue-in-cheek tales of terror. Its constantly rotating cast, locations and antagonists would make for a completely bonkers and incredibly varied gaming experience spread across separate levels. One minute players would be battling suburban ghosts at Halloween, next werewolves and Nazis in occupied France, then shrinking down to battle murderous miniatures in a doll’s house. The madness wouldn’t end there, either, with regenerating aliens, trickster genies, a world-eating blob and more left to eliminate. It’d be an excellent candidate for DLC expansions, too. The developers could be endlessly creative and run with almost any idea they had. As levels would be standalone, there’d be no need to worry about how to sustain the seed of something special. Lots of promising plans end up on the cutting room floor because they don’t fit a conventional story arc, which wouldn’t be an issue here.  A miniature co-op shooter actually sounds quite fun. What franchise do you think would make a good co-op shooter? Let us know below.
 It’s taken 530 days, but Nintendo finally got around to giving us another full-fat Direct presentation. Rumours of Zelda re-releases were abound in the past few weeks, and though we did get some news, it’s not what most expected. While there were notable absences as well, nary a mention of Metroid or a new Mario Kart, there was still plenty to natter about. So, without further ado, over to our crack team. Don’t forget to leave your own musings in the comments.
 Motion-controlled archery was a Wii era highlight. Sam After enduring such a long wait for a proper Nintendo Direct, the latest showcase was pretty underwhelming. It was longer than the Nintendo Direct Mini presentations we’ve been seeing, sure, but it wasn’t any more exciting. The highlight for me was No More Heroes 3. We already knew it was coming, so its appearance didn’t really bring the surprise factor that viewers crave, but it looks to be a lot of fun. Added extraterrestrials might just make it the wackiest entry yet, which is really saying something. Here’s hoping that Suda 51 goes all out with his captivating brand of craziness! Hades getting a physical release is good to see, but I’m holding out hope for PS5 and/or Xbox Series X|S ports instead. Still, if they never materialise this will be my version of choice. Skyward Sword HD was the only other game of note. Nintendo is charging full price for a remaster again, which we’re all accustomed to by now, but it’ll be nice to revisit the classic Zelda formula. After all, it’s much better than the new one that Nintendo borrowed from Ubisoft...  In the real world, perfectly normal. In a hack and slash game featuring aliens, definitely weird. Rob Ever the Nintend-optimist, I tuned into the long-awaited Direct full of hope, promise and an expectation of ports galore. The former and the middler were sadly lacking, but the latter was out in full force once more. I steered clear of Skyward Sword's original Wii release because of a deep, burning hatred of motion controls, so am relieved to hear that a stick/button control scheme has been implemented for the HD remaster. This will almost certainly lead to me picking the game up, although I am a tad disappointed that, at this stage at least, it appears to share more in common with the Twilight Princess HD remaster over the superlative, dreamy Wind Waker Wii U update. The announcement of Splatoon 3 throws up questions for me, too. Namely, will there actually be anything new in this iteration? I adored the first game, yet have largely been left nonplussed by the second. The trailer began by hinting at some sort of desolate world - could this be part of the single-player campaign? Will we get numerous new multiplayer modes? For me, this is what the series needs to move forward. Finally, my personal highlight: Mario Golf: Super Rush. Multiplayer options? Check. Colourful, charming course? Check. A full story mode? Check. You had me at golf, Mario. Book your tee-off time for June 25. FORE!  Avert your eyes, Rob! James Other than being beside myself at the lack of a Metroid Prime 4 update, this Direct was fairly as expected, if underwhelming after the comparatively long wait. A new step onto the golf course with Mario Golf: Super Rush would have been a huge cause for thrills back in the day, but these days there’s a smattering of fairway fare already available to scratch that itch now and again. The first thing that really moved the excitement needle was the news that Fall Guys is coming to Switch, though that quickly dissipated when I remembered Nintedo’s online approach, and I was vindicated with an Xbox announcement the following day. Perhaps a few ports? Apex Legends, Plants Vs Zombies: Battle For Neighborville and even Outer Wilds seem like an interesting distraction, but all things I would have already fallen into elsewhere. What about Splatoon? The sequel (Splatoon 2) was my first foray into being a squid now (well, then) but, like Rob, the potential of a dash of singleplayer adventure in Splatoon 3 is intriguing, especially after the previous game toyed with solo play a bit in DLC which I never got around to. I’ll take it.  Speaking of ports, could we please have Metroid: Prime Trilogy for Switch, Nintendo? What was your Nintendo Direct highlight? Let us know below.
 Mario’s latest leap onto the Nintendo Switch is a re-release of Super Mario 3D World from the Wii U. It also includes the all-new Bowser’s Fury add-on, which got us wondering which other old games might benefit from a new slice of gameplay. Which game from days gone by has you keen to take another bite of the cherry? Let us know in the comments.
 Getting this on Switch might take some work, it doesn't even fit the page properly. James | Dragon Age: Origins Being a huge fan of “classic” BioWare you might think I’d be content with the upcoming Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, but in fact I have a yearning for the more fantasy setting of Dragon Age. With the next installment (possibly a soft reboot?) already on the way, it’s very unlikely, but having not been on Xbox 360 at quite the right time, I missed the much-lauded inception of the series. Given the gameplay improvements noted even in the mired sequel, to get an exciting new area would make the already substantial DA:O (especially accounting for Awakening, its existing expansion) rival the likes of Skyrim in terms of fantasy RPG scope. More isn’t always better, so it would need to be driven by a compelling story - a must-have for all BioWare adventures worth their salt - but with the breadth to explore within the genre there’s surely plenty of ideas left on the table. BioWare’s more recent output has hardly been knocking it out of the park, so a return to familiarity could be just what fans need, and a perfect alternative to the sci-fi adventures of Mass Effect.  Many of us Mass Effect aficionados missed out on BioWare's fantasy epic. Sam | Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater MGS3 is an all-time classic that already has an HD re-release under its bandana. The chronological sequel, however, does not. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is a mainline entry in the iconic series that most players missed. Hell, I owned it and never finished it because playing with a single analogue stick was plain gruelling. If the PSP game was released as DLC for the MGS HD Collection, or bundled with a remastered version of Snake Eater, that problem would be solved. It’s a long shot with Konami at the helm, but handheld stablemate Peace Walker held up incredibly well on consoles. Accounting for that and the fact that MGS3 has already received a lauded visual remaster, which unfortunately belongs to a tie-in pachinko machine, there’s real potential here. In terms of all-new content, Portable Ops sees players rejoin Big Boss six years after the events of Snake Eater. What better reason could there possibly be to bridge the gap between entries via a new expansion? With Sony rumoured to be pursuing a purchase of dormant Konami IP, maybe the PlayStation manufacturer will see this dream become a reality on PS5.  Would it need a name change if it came to home consoles? What old favourite game would you like to see revived with some new DLC? Let us know below.
 With the revelation that Lady Dimitrescu from Resident Evil Village’s demo is not 8ft, as some had estimated, but a suitably 9ft 6inches tall, according to Art Director Tomonori Tanako on Twitter, we’ve been thinking about the other (literally) big bads in the world of games. Size isn’t everything of course, and some of the most fearful creatures are small and unassuming, but here we’re focusing on those nightmares which are larger-than-life. What springs to your mind? Let us know in the comments. In the meantime, here’s what haunts our every dark winter’s night…
 Compared to Toon Link and Young Link, Gohma is huge. Sam | Dragon God from Demon’s Souls Having recently been acquainted with Lady Dimitrescu via the Resident Evil 8 demo on PlayStation 5, she’s certainly an imposing and oddly seductive figure. The “tall vampire lady” didn’t leave quite the same impact as another recent boss encounter on PS5, though. While the likes of Bowser and Shao Kahn are all-time classic big baddies, they’re also way too obvious. In a similar vein, a lot of boss fights against large enemies essentially take the same obvious form. That can’t be said of the Dragon God in Demon’s Souls. The Dragon God is really something to behold. It’s a magnificent, ancient creature that I didn’t have any immediate inclination to kill. The boss battle itself plays on that fact, having players utilise stealth in order to fire two ballistae and pin the deity down. Cutscenes accompanying both shots are tragic, but don’t compare to what comes next. With its shoulders pinned and its weary head on the ground, players must hack at the Dragon God’s face to finish it off. The old beast barely fights back, despite its power being such that its hot breath alone is enough to kill. Dragon God is just one of several unconventional boss battles in Demon’s Souls, which helped to cement it as my favourite console launch title.  A boss that refuses to fight back certainly sounds like a change of pace from the regular Souls baddies. James | GLaDOS from Portal While the more inspired turn for GLaDOS came in Portal 2 when she(?) spent time as a potato, there’s no denying the physically-imposing impact of meeting her(?!) for the first time in your first go-round at Aperture Laboratories. Not content with being a huge robotic arm with a HAL9000-esque central eye, the lasting impression of GLaDOS really comes from the ever-increasing sense of dread as the plot unfolds; a fun and innocent puzzle game slowly becomes a horrific ordeal in which you couldn’t even trust baked goods. Nothing is sacred. Being in complete control of your environment, GLaDOS also torments with deceptively murderous turrets and, occasionally, fire to motivate you to your goal. It’s difficult to be angry though, since peeling back the layers of lore reveals an AI built using the uploaded consciousness of Caroline, lab assistant to the mechanical maniac’s creator. How immediately the player warms to this mostly unseen and yet omnipresent foe is a testament to GLaDOS’ staying power as a killer villain, and the reveal of her full physical form more than lives up to the anticipation of finding out who’s been pulling the strings. Sadly it’s unlikely we’ll see much more of GLaDOS, since Valve famously can’t count to three, but here’s hoping there’s more puzzles with the same sort of depth on the horizon.  Our favourite power-hungry robot. And look, there's GLaDOS, too! What's your favourite big baddie? Let us know below.
 It was 2013 when EA triumphantly announced its 10-year exclusive deal with the Star Wars licence and now it seems all that may be coming to an end. Last week's news brought us the Lucasfilm Games brand, a new Ubisoft Star Wars game from the creator of The Division series and, perhaps most excitingly, a teaser trailer for an Indiana Jones game from Bethesda. As we ponder what it all means, leave your own musings in the comments.
 Throw Indy's hat on him and we're pretty much there. Liam I’m slightly more optimistic than Sam when it comes to Ubisoft’s and Lucasfilm Games’ untitled Star Wars project. I’m happy to acknowledge that the former does tend to recycle a familiar set of features in their games, but I don’t find it so much of an issue if I’m enjoying the overall story and gameplay. The fact that it’s being developed by The Division makers Massive also gives me hope. While I wasn’t a huge fan of bullet-sponge bosses and loot grinding, I did thoroughly enjoy exploring the in-game world and hunting down snippets of surprisingly decent story. Even if it turns out good rather than great, I still think it’ll be fun to play just because I enjoy Star Wars. EA’s Battlefront reboot took, quite rightly, a bit of flak for lacking content, but that didn’t stop me from having fun using iconic blasters and running around as a Stormtrooper. As for the Indiana Jones game, we’ll just have to wait and see. I expect we’ll be getting something similar to the Tomb Raider reboot and the Uncharted games, which is no bad thing. Its iconic hero and (hopefully) 1930s setting would certainly give it a unique selling point.  The Division also had a lot of snow. Hoth setting confirmed! James However much you like or loathe The Division, the Snowdrop engine that powers it is a marvel to behold, especially when it comes to snow. A third-person, more Splinter Cell-inspired espionage outing or perhaps one where you explore one of Star Wars' many sprawling locales seems very much in Ubisoft's wheelhouse. The track record may not be...ahem...stellar...but a bit of lightsaber magic here and a "maclunkey" there could push the experience from a good game to a great game. Indiana Jones is a different kettle of fish. Comparisons to both Uncharted and Tomb Raider will be difficult to avoid, but we know Machine Games can deliver an action-based narrative, so that's what's got me most excited. The future of other notable franchises is even more exciting. Surely ideas for a game based on The Mandalorian must already be in development as we speak, and who could resist the chance to be the Galaxy's hottest gunslinger?  Don't know what 'maclunkey' means? This guy gets it. What are your thoughts on the newly announced Lucasfilm games? Let us know below.
 The gaming world is looking altogether more bright than the real one as we usher in 2021, with fresh consoles on the market and developers beavering away to bring a slew of new titles for us all to escape into. But what will be the big surprises? Will we see a resurrection of Ouya? Will Google give up on Stadia? Will Sega suddenly reveal a secret new console? Anything could happen (probably), so we set about coming up with some outlandish (and relatively land-ish) predictions for the New Year. Let us know yours in the comments, then come back in 2022 and see how everyone fared.
 Real reality is a bit rubbish, so more VR would be most welcome. James | Game Pass gobbles up more publishers While it would be obvious to say we’ll see more Bethesda games on Xbox Game Pass this year, the real get will be when other publishers start jumping on the bandwagon. We’ve already seen EA join up EA Play with the service, and if they see a huge boost in player numbers for their back catalogue, it won’t be long before the likes of Ubisoft in particular are knocking at the door. Imagine having the chance to revisit all those Assassin’s Creed games, some of them even enhanced for Series X|S for good measure. If they’re feeling particularly ambitious they could even make them available on the cloud, giving the fledgling xCloud service some more third-party titles to flex its muscles with. Game Pass is already a powerhouse of content, and no doubt Microsoft’s first party studios will put out titles this year, but tying in with other sources could push it over the top, considering it’s already firmly in no-brainer territory for Xbox owners. For PlayStation, I could see their PlayStation Plus Collection, a smattering of PS4 titles bundled together for PS5 owners, being a springboard for turning PlayStation Plus into primarily serving as Sony’s own take on Game Pass. That’s when competition really starts forcing both console-makers to develop the services to keep drawing in new players, which is only good news.  Jedi: Fallen Order was one of the highlights of the EA Play/Xbox Game Pass merger. Sam | Slim pickings Although many hoped that 2021 would be a fresh new start, so far, it’s been more of the same. As a result, developers will most likely continue to work from home and production schedules will be impacted. 2020 saw high-profile games like Marvel’s Avengers and Cyberpunk 2077 pushed out to capitalise on a captive audience. What seemed like a sound business strategy on paper in fact saw them crash and burn, all while the likes of Fall Guys and Among Us dominated the scene. More recently, titles like Rust and Escape from Tarkov are enjoying explosive growth. With gamers evidently content to transition away from conventional AAA releases, developers and publishers need to be very careful in 2021. More games following in the footsteps of Halo Infinite and issuing lengthy delays could help to win back the audience, when the time is right. If life does eventually get back to normal this year, I also can’t see anyone rushing to launch their game soon thereafter. After being locked down with little to do but play video games for months on end, people are sure to seek out other pastimes for at least a little while.  We'll wake you when we need you, Chief (which will probably be sometime next winter). |
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