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Northernlion streaming the game Computer Shrilow

Weeks after Silksong’s launch I can’t stop thinking about this streamer’s masterful troll campaign against its fans: ‘They made a whole game about getting to your car but you don’t have car keys, and you’re excited for that?’

by admin September 20, 2025

I’ve spent a not-insignificant portion of my waking hours the last few weeks thinking (and writing) about Hollow Knight: Silksong, but I may have actually spent more time replaying a description of the game from streamer Northernlion in my head over and over again like a Nick at Nite rerun.

While Silksong was the focal point of online gaming conversation from its late August release date announcement up until the launch of Borderlands 4, Northernlion not only cheerily avoided streaming it alongside other big Twitch channels, but spent the Silksong hype period roasting viewers who asked why he wasn’t playing it.

“Have metroidvania fans ever considered that walking back is not as much fun as walking forward? I guess I’m just a different kind of beast’,” he joked a few days before Silksong’s release. “You can do metroidvanias if you want, but once I finish with something I’m done with it. I’m moving on. Greener pastures. Oh, you need a double-jump to access that door up there? Well, I guess god doesn’t want me to go up there. I’ll be moving to the right. I’ll be moving to the right and jumping onto platforms that are approximately one times my height above me. That’s about it, man. That’s about it.”

In the early 2010s Northernlion amassed a fanbase on YouTube with let’s play videos of The Binding of Isaac, but in recent years has become better known for live interactions with his audience on Twitch streams. At some point his ability to riff on basically any topic started generating a consistent stream of viral goofs, rants, and unbelievable moments—enough to earn him a reputation as “your favorite streamer’s favorite streamer.”

So it was perfectly in character when, straight off the dome, he delivered a perfect stream-of-consciousness takedown of metroidvanias as the gaming equivalent of getting to your car and realizing you forgot your car keys.

You can watch it here, but I will now transcribe the quote in its entirety for your reading pleasure:

Northernlion HATES Silksong – YouTube

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“We will not be playing Silksong. Regardless of its reviews, we are being indifferent to Silksong. The reason is, I hate going back for stuff. I hate when I get to my car and then I forgot about my car keys. I’m like, what the hell, now I have to go back to the house?

“They made a whole game about getting to your car but you don’t have car keys, so now you have to go into your basement and get a fucking pogo stick that lets you jump up to the shelf where you’ve got your car keys, only oh wait, your garage door opener is inside something you have to become really tiny to get into, you have to get into your crawlspace to get the garage door opener, and then you go to click it but there’s no batteries, to get the batteries you’ve got to use the pogo stick to get a key that goes into a lock that unlocks to get the batteries but you don’t have the screwdriver to unlock the back of the garage door opener to put the batteries in so you’ve got a use a shovel to dig a hole, you gotta use your pogo stick and get really small in order to get to the shovel that you use to dig up the screwdriver to unscrew the back to put the batteries in to use the garage door opener to get into your car to use your car keys to drive to work.

“They made a game about that, and you can’t wait for it? You’re excited for that? Are you crazy?”

This is a perfect bit. It is immaculately conceived comedy with an unimpeachable narrative throughline that would leave stand-up comedians who’ve spent months polishing the delivery of worse jokes reeling. Per-second it has delivered me substantially more joy than any of the 20 hours I’ve put into Silksong so far, and I love the game.

The best part is that this is not just a bit; it’s a bit-inside-a-bit, just one moment inside the meta joke of games he plays instead of Silksong, as highlighted in this compilation of subsequent streams.

anything but silksong (Ragebait) – YouTube

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“i can’t believe in the middle of the ragebait he plays a puppygirl game out of no where,” reads one of the YouTube comments, reacting to Northernlion booting up a clicker game.

Northernlion’s fanbase has picked up his flair for multilayered and ironic reference-filled in-jokes, as another comment on that same video demonstrates:

“Pro tip: The Lion of the North frequently attempts to Ragebait against the current of the popular. If you do not have the prerequisite endurance or Thick Skin charm, counter by purposefully ignoring his cinema references or feigning absolute indifference towards it. The glass canon nature of this interaction will flip the Soyjak-Gigachad equilibrium to your favour, and soon enough NL will be the irate lion screaming at the calm and composed monkey that is you.”

You can no doubt find an army of YouTubers and Twitch streamers out there currently not playing Silksong, or making videos about why its difficulty is a crime against gamers. But only one who has the composure to blurt out “Shitsong!” and then segue to a diss of James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful. Truly a different kind of beast.

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September 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Silksong’s Second Patch Is Revealed But Don’t Get Too Excited

by admin September 17, 2025

Hollow Knight: Silksong hasn’t been out for even two weeks yet and it’s already getting its second patch. But for anyone still struggling in some of the game’s more brutal boss fights and platforming sections: don’t expect any more relief just yet. The Metroidvania Soulslike’s new update mostly takes aim at some of the smaller bugs fans are facing.

“We’re getting close to finalizing the second post-release patch for Hollow Knight: Silksong,” Team Cherry announced on Steam on Tuesday. “Where the first patch dealt mainly with critical issues, this next one focuses on a few still remaining, while also cleaning up some bugs around specific tools.”

While not live in the game on PC or console yet, players can test the fixes in the public beta branch on Valve’s storefront while the developers work on adding a few more fixes and improvements. Here’s the full patch notes so far for Silksong update 2:

– Added Dithering effect option in Advanced video settings. Reduces colour banding but can slightly soften the appearance of foreground assets. Defaults to ‘Off’.
– Updated Herald’s Wish achievement description to clarify that players must both complete the wish and finish the game.
– Fixed Savage Beastfly in Far Fields sometimes remaining below the lava.
– Fixed rare cases of Shrine Guardian Seth getting out of bounds during battle.
– Added catch to prevent Lugoli sometimes flying off screen and not returning during battle.
– Further reduced chance of Silk Snippers getting stuck out of bounds in Chapel of the Reaper battle.
– Fixed various instances of dying to bosses while killing them causing death sequences to play messily or out of sync.
– Fixed Shaman Binding into a bottom transition causing a softlock.
– Cocoon positions in some locations updated to prevent it spawning in inaccessible areas.
– Fixed Liquid Lacquer courier delivery not being accessible in Steel Soul mode.
– Fixed some NPCs not correctly playing cursed hint dialogues in certain instances.
– Fixed Pondcatcher Reed not being able to fly away after singing.
– Fixed Verdania memory orbs sometimes replaying layered screen-edge burst effects.
– Fixed the break counter not working for certain multihitter tools eg Conchcutter.
– Fixed Volt Filament damage multiplier not applying for certain Silk Skills.
– Fixed Cogflies and Wisps inappropriately targeting Skullwings.
– Fixed Cogflies incorrectly resetting their HP to full on scene change.
– Fixed Curveclaw always breaking on the first hit after being deflected.
– Fixed Plasmium Phial and Flea Brew sometimes not restoring as intended at benches.
– Various other smaller tweaks and fixes.

This patch will arrive as players continue to debate Silksong‘s difficulty and whether some of the more challenging sections are hard for a reason or just annoying for no reason. The game’s first patch took aim at some of these complaints, including making the dreaded Moorwing boss fight easier to survive. There’s also been some debate over whether Silksong is too stingy with Rosary Beads, its main currency for purchasing equipment, unlocking benches (save spots), and other important resources for the adventure.

Even some super fans of the original Hollow Knight claim to have bounced off the sequel due to the more punishing gameplay. Team Cherry hasn’t signaled yet if it plans to eventually make deeper changes to Silksong to address some of these concerns, or add difficulty settings to help struggling players experience more of its excellent world and story.

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September 17, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Tony Hawk Recreated THUG’s Classic Intro And Fans Are Excited

by admin September 16, 2025

It was just earlier this year that Activision published Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4, a remastered collection of two of the best games in the skateboarding series. But now, after a fun video from Hawk himself, fans are once again begging for a Tony Hawk’s Underground remake to join the series’ slate of recent re-releases.

Over the weekend, Tony Hawk posted a short video on his personal Instagram page. In it, the skateboarding legend re-created the intro cutscene found in the original PS2-era Tony Hawk’s Underground. Here’s the short video:

In the video, Hawk can be seen taking on the role of the player-created character, even wearing a similar outfit to the one sported by the default character. Using some nice editing, Hawk interacts with the game’s popular villain, Eric Sparrow, even calling him a bully at one point. At the very end, Hawk leaves and jokes, “Whoa! I can get off my board?!”, a reference to the fact that in THUG players could, for the first time in franchise history, hop off their skateboards and walk around levels.

But before you get too excited and assume Tony Hawk is teasing some future Underground remake ala THPS 3+4, calm down. The video is marked as “Not a THUG promo.” Hawk also claims that the reason he created this short bit of nostalgia bait is to have some fun and celebrate Video Games Day.

“In hopes of bringing some joy to your timeline: Happy Video Games Day from E.S. and me,” posted Hawk on Instagram.

And like, yeah, I get that he’s trying to make it clear this isn’t a teaser, but of course, the internet is going to internet. Many are already assuming or hoping that this Instagram post is actually the first bit of marketing for a full-on Tony Hawk’s Underground remake. And while I do think a Tony Hawk’s Underground remake is coming one day, I do believe Hawk here, and this is just him having fun with fans. The famous skater has said in the past that he would love a THUG remake, but made it clear that he doesn’t get to make that call. It’s all up to Activision, and considering the five-year gap between THPS 1+2 and THPS 3+4, I’d suggest fans go play THUGPro or something else while they wait for a THUG remake, because it’s likely many years away.

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September 16, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

10 Indie Genre Films We’re Excited for This Fall

by admin September 5, 2025

You’d be hard-pressed to be a movie fan if you didn’t find a big Hollywood release to be excited about this fall. Maybe it’s the return of the Avatar, Predator, or Tron franchises. Maybe it’s a new film from an iconic filmmaker like Edgar Wright, Guillermo del Toro, or Yorgos Lanthimos. Or, maybe you can’t wait to be scared by new films in the Conjuring, Black Phone, or Five Nights at Freddy’s franchises. Whatever the case, as usual, Hollywood tries to have something for everyone. But there’s always more.

Below, we’ve got 10 genre films that aren’t from major studios and often don’t have big-name stars, but we’re still excited to see them. There’s some horror, there’s some romance, there’s some animation, and more. But all could potentially be flying under your radar.

Rabbit Trap (September 12)

Dev Patel stars in this Sundance film about a couple who move to the woods only to discover a mysterious, otherworldly sound.

Night of the Reaper (September 19 on Shudder)

We love a good period slasher film, and Night of the Reaper, about a babysitter haunted by the titular slasher, sounds like it’s going to deliver exactly that.

Xeno (September 19)

Kevin Hart produced, but doesn’t star in, this story of a young girl and a mysterious creature who go off on an adventure.

Good Boy (October 3)

An adorable dog witnesses his owner encounter an escalating series of paranormal activities. No, not the movies.

V/H/S/Halloween (October 3 on Shudder)

In what’s basically become an annual tradition, the VHS franchise is back with another series of spooky anthologies, all themed around everyone’s favorite holiday.

Shelby Oaks (October 3)

A woman believes a new discovery may be the key to finding her long-lost sister and the demon potentially behind it all.

Deathstalker (October 10)

The latest film from director Steven Kostanski (The Void, PG: Psycho Goreman) is an epic fantasy horror adventure. Just the way we like them.

The poster for Queens of the Dead – IFC

Queens of the Dead (October 24)

Katy O’Brian stars in this neon-infused horror comedy about what happens when a group of people in a club realizes a zombie apocalypse is happening outside.

Eternity (November 26)

The Scarlet Witch, aka Elizabeth Olsen, returns. Only this time, she’s dead. And in the afterlife, she has to choose between her two husbands.

Scarlet (December)

A new anime from director Mamoru Hosoda, Scarlet follows a sword-fighting princess on an adventure through the afterlife. Originally set for wide release this year, it was recently pushed into next year, but it will get a small, awards-qualifying run sometime in December.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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September 5, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

After seeing 30 minutes of the new Bond game, I’m more excited for the shooting than the stealth

by admin September 4, 2025

007 First Light – State of Play Gameplay Deep Dive | PS5 Games [English] – YouTube

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I didn’t expect to be attracted to 007 First Light on the merits of its third-person shooting, but if you ask me, the gunplay was the best part of today’s extended gameplay demo.

At the start of the video, Bond infiltrates a hotel in much the way Agent 47 from IO Interactive’s Hitman games might, spying opportunities for non-violent distraction and deception everywhere he looks: negotiate with a guard, climb a wall, light a pile of leaves on fire, turn on a hose, jump into a flower bed (not the most Bond-like behavior, but it worked).

Tyler Wilde, US EIC

(Image credit: Future)

This week: Made yet another Baldur’s Gate 3 character despite not having finished the game with any of the six characters he’s already made.

Once inside, Bond strolls around talking to himself and triggering little in-engine cutscenes, and you get the impression that there’s only one way the mission can really go. When the video segues to a car chase, it makes this explicit with the text “Inevitably…” on the screen.

In the chase, too, it seems clear that Bond is always going to be several car lengths behind his target, regardless of how many shortcuts he takes: He and the femme fatale must arrive at their target’s abandoned car to initiate the next part of the mission.

It’s no surprise that there’s a linear story here, and that your freedom is in the details of how you perform each specific infiltration and accomplish each objective, but not being a big stealth lover in the first place, I might rather just bust into high society parties through the front door and skip filler car chases if it gets me to the shooting faster.

I got a lot more interested when Bond finally got his “License to Kill.” The agent handles SMGs and shotguns with relaxed composure, chucking them at guys when he’s out of ammo and targeting exploding barrels and fuel tanks when he doesn’t feel like aiming. The pyrotechnics are suitably over the top—I hate when I blow something up in a game and it leaves nearby enemies standing, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem here—and the puffs of white dust where bullets impact bodies are a nice action movie special effects touch.

Things reach their silliest when Bond boards a plane and remotely hijacks it, banking it left and right to squish guys with unsecured cargo crates. (These criminals really need some workplace safety regulations.) Like the car chase, it feels like something you might see in a Call of Duty campaign: Fun for the spectacle, but too choreographed to stand out as a great moment of interactive play.

I’m not really sure what’s going on in this screenshot from 007 First Light’s Steam page, but there’s a gun. (Image credit: IO Interactive)

I wanted to go back to the regular gunfighting, and the video does give us a little more to examine: After the unnarrated clips of the first mission, there’s about 10 more minutes of narrated gameplay, revealing the many ways Bond can infiltrate a gala through social manipulation and distractions.

Of course, he eventually starts punching and shooting again. There’s a little Max Payne to the gunplay—you can enter Bond-vision to slow down time—and a bit of Sifu to the hand-to-hand combat, which sees Bond throwing enemies into bookcases and whacking them with improvised weapons. There are some cute Bond flourishes mixed in, too, like when he KOs a goon and then catches his flung sidearm without missing a beat.

While it’s obviously more Bond-like to stroll around being suave than it is to murder dozens of guys John Wick style, I’m hopeful that I can opt to go loud relatively frequently, because if you ask me, Body Count Bond looks like a lot more fun than Non-Lethal Bond.

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September 4, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

John Wick Director Is Excited About Gears Of War Movie And Making His First War Film

by admin August 25, 2025

John Wick and Deadpool 2 director David Leitch’s Gears of War movie is progressing forward, with producer Kelly McCormick saying there is a “lot of energy” around getting the movie made due in part to the fact that a new game, Gears of War: E-Day, is coming out in 2026.

McCormick clarified, though, that the Gears of War movie for Netflix will not be ready in time for the game’s release date, whenever in 2026 that may be. “We won’t hit that release date, but maybe something that feels relevant to the release of the new game,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.

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Now Playing: Gears of War: E-Day World Premiere | Xbox Games Showcase 2024

McCormick and Leitch are married and run the production company 87North together. She added that Leitch is excited to make the Gears of War movie because it’s a genre he hasn’t done before: war. It’s also “a bit of sci-fi” that Leitch will get to make “in his own way,” McCormick said.

Leitch, a former stuntman who worked as Brad Pitt’s double in movies like Fight Club and Ocean’s Eleven, directed 2014’s John Wick with Chad Stahelski but was not credited due to Hollywood rules. He later directed Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Hobbs & Shaw, Bullet Train, and The Fall Guy.

As for Stahelski, he’s making movies based on the video games Ghost of Tsushima and Rainbow Six.

The Gears of War movie’s latest script is being written by Jon Spaihts, who previously wrote Prometheus, Doctor Strange, and Passengers, along with Dune 1 and 2.

There isn’t much known about the Gears of War movie, but the game’s official social media account reacted to The Hollywood Reporter interview, writing, “Oh hell yeah! This my kind of shit!”

Gears of War seemingly won’t be Leitch’s next film, so no one should expect it to come out soon. The director is preparing to shoot Amazon MGM Studio’s 2026 heist thriller How to Rob a Bank, which has Nicholas Hoult and Anna Sawai attached to star in it.

Wrestler-turned-actor Dave Bautista has lobbied for years to play Marcus, and he does bear a strong resemblance to the character, but no casting announcements for the Gears of War movie have been made. Meanwhile, Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski has previously been adamant that Chris Pratt shouldn’t play any role in the film.

For nearly two decades, Gears of War has been an Xbox exclusive. However, that is changing soon with the launch of Gears of War: Reloaded on August 26 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

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August 25, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Drowning in the sea of Opening Night Live game announcements? Here are the under-the-radar gems we’re most excited about

by admin August 21, 2025

At this point, it’s almost tradition that Gamescom Opening Night Live draws to a close with a collective sigh. Again I send my prayers to the stars that the OmniGeoff may one day concede – and this goes for the equally interminable likes of Summer Game Fest and The Game Awards – that shorter, more focused is always better. Imagine the sustained enthusiasm you could generate without all that flaccid, glassy eyed filler! And so in that spirit of relative brevity, here’s a quick list of some of the slighty under-the-radar announcements from this year’s show (and pre-show) that managed to get us quite excited.

Denshattack!

Denshattack! reveal trailer.Watch on YouTube

One of a couple of Opening Night Live standouts relegated to the pre-show warm-up, Denshattack! is the work of developer Undercoders. And it’s easy to imagine the studio’s pitch for this one as ‘what if Jet Set Radio but runaway trains?’, given its cell-shaded aesthetic and tricking, grinding action would be pretty familiar if it wasn’t for the fact it switches out skateboards for graffiti-strewn, gravity defying locomotives.

Story wise, it sees players rail-riding across Japan, traversing vibrant countryside and urban city sprawls, all in a quest to defeat the sinister Miraid&omacr; corporation. You’ll ollie and kickflip in a bid to win over rivals and rack up points, with everything from magical mecha girls to moving castles making an appearance too. It looks an absolute blast and it’s coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC next year.

Valor Mortis

Valor Mortis trailer.Watch on YouTube

I’ve fond memories of developer One More Level’s cyberpunk action-parkour adventure Ghostrunner. Or at least, I’ve fond memories of its first couple of hours, after which everything is lost in a bright red haze of pure fury. The point, though, is it was Pretty Good (Eurogamer’s Bertie Purchese said it more eloquently in his review), so there’s every reason to be curious about what One More Level is doing next now the Less Good Ghostrunner 2 is behind it.

And that, it transpires, is Valor Mortis – a gory “first-person action Soulslike” that’s arriving next year. I appreciate there’s a general air of Soulslike fatigue about these days, but Valor Mortis does at least attempt to carve its own niche with, firstly, that shift in perspective, and also a pretty distinctive set-up. It’s the 19th century and the Napoleonic Wars are raging; you’re a soldier in Bonaparte’s Grande Armée and also, regrettably, dead. Until, that is, you awaken on a battlefield ravaged by a mysterious supernatural plague, former friends and foe now twisted into awful abominations. Expect a combat-focused adventure incorporating the likes of parries, dashes, and some pretty brutal finishers when Valor Mortis comes to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC next year.

Death by Scrolling

Death by Scrolling announcement trailer.Watch on YouTube

For readers of a certain age, Ron Gilbert needs no introduction: he’s the writer and designer best known for his point-and-click adventures, including Maniac Mansion, Thimbleweed Park, and, of course, the legendary Monkey Island series. Every now and then, though, Gilbert strays outside of those genre bounds; there’s 2013’s puzzle-platform adventure The Cave, for instance – made in conjunction with Double Fine – and now there’s Death by Scrolling.

Developed by Gilbert’s Terrible Toybox studio, Death by Scrolling has the air of a top-down 16-bit RPG, but there’s seemingly a lot more to it – it is, after all, described as a “rogue-like vertically scrolling RPG”. Your ultimate goal – playing as one of several characters, each with their own unique perks and abilities – is to race upward through endless levels in order amass enough money to pay the Ferryman and escape Purgatory. That involves battling enemies, swiping gems, grabbing power-ups, completing side quests, and a spot of shopping, all while outsmarting the ever-pursuing Grim Reaper. There’s no release date for Death by Scrolling yet, but it’s coming to PC.

Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster

Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster announcement trailer.Watch on YouTube

Sorry to keep calling you out, people of a certain age (and I include myself in this increasingly withered demographic), but here’s another name that’s likely to get old-timers a-flutter. Outlaws, developer LucasArts’ fondly remembered – if, perhaps, oft-overlooked – Wild West FPS is making a return, courtesy of remaster specialists Nightdive Studios.

First released in 1997 – around the time LucasArts was dipping its toes in new genres after dominating the point-and-click scene for so long – Outlaws aimed to build on the success of the studio’s beloved Star Wars: Dark Forces by taking the FPS to hitherto unseen frontiers. Namely, the cowboy ones. According to Wikipedia, it was perhaps the first shooter to introduce a sniper zoom and one of the first to feature a gun reloading mechanic, but my own memories – which don’t extend much further than a well-worn cover disc demo – remain positive but decidedly hazy. Nightdive’s remaster, which also includes 1998’s Handful of Missions expansion, promises the likes of high-resolution textures, redrawn art, crossplay multiplayer, and gamepad support, and it’s coming to PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch this year.

Unbeatable

Unbeatable final trailer.Watch on YouTube

If you had a vague sense of déjà vu when Unbeatable popped up during Opening Night Live, you’re not the only one. A quick trip down memory lane (Google) confirms Unbeatable was first announced back in 2021, when it got a whole bunch of people, including me, excited for the very first time. It had a fantastic demo, released to promote what would go on to be a successful Kickstarter, after which it was time for developer D-Cell to knuckle down.

Four years later, and the rhythm adventure where “music is illegal and you do crimes” is back. Unbeatable promises “big emotions” and “arcade-flawless rhythm gameplay” as the story of Beat and her band unfolds, charting their efforts to gig and stay one step ahead of the cops. “Half the game is walking around and taking things at your own pace,” D-Cell says of Unbeatable’s story mode. “The other half is trying to keep up with ours.” It’s also got an “unlimited” arcade mode featuring a “entire double album” of music, alongside acoustic versions, and remixes. Unbeatable looks and sounds like a winner, and it’s coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, on 6th November.

Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes

Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes trailer.Watch on YouTube

The only thing I can remember about Battlestar Galactica, apart from that cool swishy visor thing the robots did in the original series, is that woman in red spending bloody ages pretending she wasn’t real. Which is to say I’m not exactly an leading expert. And yet there’s something about Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes that’s caught my eye. For starters, it’s by Alt Shift, the team behind well-received tactical rogue-lite Crying Suns, and it’s promising an interesting mix of turn-based and real-time action too.

Officially a “story-rich tactical roguelite”, Scattered Hopes plays out in two distinct halves. On one side, you – a Gunstar Captain attempting to rendezvous with the Battlestar Galactica – have a galaxy to traverse, navigating planets and points of interest turn-by-turn, all while dealing with tough dilemmas. You’ll need to juggle the sometimes opposing interests of different factions, perhaps, or manage dwindling resources, or try and identify impostors onboard. With every decision, the Cylons draw nearer, your choices impacting your chances of success when battle inevitably comes. At which point, real-time space combat (with tactical pause available) takes over, players deploying squadrons, missiles, and more in an attempt to last long enough to engage their FTL and scarper. It all sounds pretty neat and Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes is aiming for a Q1 launch on PC next year.

Bubsy 4D

Bubsy 4D trailer.Watch on YouTube

Okay, look, Bubsy might not exactly – or even remotely – be a byword for quality as far as video game platform mascots go, but credit where credit’s due; his name has managed to linger far longer (like a bad smell perhaps), compared to the largely forgotten likes of Socket, Rocky Rodent, Awesome Possum, and Vexx. After two so-so 2D platformers in the 90s and the absolute nadir that was Bubsy 3D in 1996, most would assume the titular bobcat would have hung up his jumping boots for good (pedants, please note I am aware Bubsy doesn’t wear shoes). Instead, he inexplicably returned two decades later for two more middling side-scrolling platformers. The legacy of Bubsy, to reiterate, is not great.

And yet! I’m absolutely fascinated by the prospect of Bubsy 4D, and not just because of the bobcat’s almost admirable refusal to bow out gracefully. Rather, this latest entry in the mascot’s dubious back catalogue is the work of indie studio Fabraz, which, if you’re unfamiliar, has made some pretty enjoyable games – including Demon Turf and Slime-San. Plus, it’s upcoming Demon Tides looks good too. So it’s an enticing pairing. As for Bubsy 4D, it’s got rolling, jumping, gliding, a bunch of evil sheep, a bunch of evil robot sheep, vibrant 3D worlds with a sort of old-school air to their design, and I really like the music in the trailer. Bubsy 4D doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s coming “soon”, and I am cautiously optimistic.

And those are our Gamescom Opening Night Live picks that might have got a little lost. Do feel free to add your own favourites in the comments below.

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August 21, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Nvidia’s native support for Logitech racing wheels for GeForce Now has me excited for sim racing on a budget

by admin August 20, 2025

Nvidia has announced a huge raft of changes and improvements to their GeForce Now cloud gaming service as part of their Gamescom 2025 announcements, but it’s actually one of the smallest sections that has me most excited.

As part of their extensive press release covering exciting updates such as RTX 5080 power for GeForce Now Ultimate subscribers and the ability to play games at up to 5K2K 120fps on supported screens, one of the footnotes near the bottom mentions the following:

Support for popular peripherals also grows, with native support for many Logitech racing wheels offering the lowest-latency, most responsive driving experiences.

That’s right, folks – GeForce Now now has native support for Logitech G29 and G920 racing wheels for playing the service’s selection of sim racing titles, granting important force feedback and more analogue controls versus a mouse-and-keyboard setup or even a controller. Indeed, this has been quite the popular request on forums for a number of years, so it’s pleasant to see Nvidia respond.

At a recent Gamescom event, deputy tech editor Will and I had the chance to go hands-on with a demo rig Nvidia had set up (pictured above) using a budget Logitech G920 wheel on a proper cockpit playing arcade racer The Crew Motorfest. It perhaps wasn’t the most hardcore sim racing setup in terms of game or gear, but it was still an effetive demo that proved out the concept.

I didn’t have any issues with the gameplay experience, in terms of stutters or input latency, and was largely impressed by what’s become possible with the cloud gaming space. Of course, with the venue in Cologne offering gigabit speeds to a regional data centre, it’s easy to see this as a best-case scenario that will have to be borne out in real-world testing on less capacious connections. The main thing was that the game’s force feedback was present and correct, whether I was drifting around roundabouts, running up the highway, or crashing off-road. Having used the G29 and G920 for several years at home, the cloud version didn’t feel any different.

Wheels such as this Logitech G29 are natively supported in GeForce Now.

The big thing for me is that it involved no computational power from the host device itself – in this instance, it was some form of small Minisforum mini PC, but Nvidia also had games running natively on LG TVs (4K 120fps with HDR is now accessible on 2025/2026 LG TVs with the new GeForce Now update) or off an M4 Mac Mini. Theoretically, this means all you need is a wheel, some kind of computer or device with support for the wheel, and a GeForce Now subscription, and you can be up and running – no need for a dedicated gaming or living room PC.

Of course, that is the whole point of cloud gaming, but it adds another string to your bow if you’re a current GeForce Now subscriber and you’ve felt the lack of a proper racing experience has been a sore miss. In addition, if you’ve already got a Logitech wheel from years ago and you want to jump into sim racing without the faff of a PC and such, then you can pay the subscription, and away you go.

An Nvidia representative told me that the technical difficulty was passing through effects such as force feedback in respective games over the cloud, while the reason they chose Logitech peripherals initially was due to the convenience of their G Hub software in part, which is running in a compatibility layer of sorts to get the wheels to work. They also chose Logitech because of the wide range of wheels they do, with the G29 and G920 being the only supported models at present, with more wheels to be supported in the future.

Before I go, I’ll provide a quick rundown of the other key additions for GeForce Now:

Implementation of Blackwell architecture – RTX 5080 is now the ‘Ultimate’ tier, bringing DLSS 4 MFG and so on, plus streaming at up to 5K 120fps.
‘Cinematic Quality’ mode for better extraction of fine detail in areas where the encoder would previously struggle.
More devices supported with native apps, including Steam Deck OLED at 90fps (to match the refresh rate), plus some 2025+ LG TVs at 4K/120fps.
Support for 1080p/360fps and 1440p/240fps streams for competitive esports title, involving Nvidia Reflex and sub 30ms response times. (We saw 17ms figures in Overwatch 2, for example.)
A GeForce Now installation of Fortnite integrated into the Discord app, providing a limited-time trial of GeForce Now’s 1440p ‘Performance’ tier, requiring only connection between an Epic Games and Discord account.
‘Install to Play’ feature in GeForce Now app, which more than doubles the playable titles to some 4500, giving access to over 2,000 installable games through Steam alongside Nvidia’s fully-tested ‘Ready to Play’ games. Installs must be repeated each session, unless you pay for persistent storage in 100GB+ increments.

It’ll be fascinating to see whether Nvidia continues to expand their peripheral support over time, as I’m sure flight sim fans could also benefit from a cloud-streamed version – especially with the CPU and GPU requirements that Flight Sim 2020 and 2024 entail.

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August 20, 2025 0 comments