Welcome to 9to5Toys Electrified Weekly – the best place to find all of this week’s best deals and new releases to electrify your life and protect Mother Nature. We’ve got an even more jam-packed Black Friday collection this week, which you won’t want t...
We have teamed up with Satechi to offer 9to5 readers exclusive early Black Friday sale pricing on the entire collection of the brand’s wonderful charging accessories, keyboards, and more. This time around we are taking things up a notch with a solid 30...
GSC Game World has announced that STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl has officially gone gold. This means the game is done, and a master copy has been sent for mass production (the game will be released on physical discs for Xbox, in addition to digital). In theory, this means no more delays are in order, although there's a famous precedent: CD Projekt RED's Cyberpunk 2077, which was confirmed to have gone gold on October 5, 2020, ahead of its planned November 19, 2020 launch date. However, on October 27, the Polish developer was forced to announce a short delay to […]
We won’t belabor the point because if you’re a normal person with normal mutuals, chances are your timeline is already doing that—this week sucked, and so will the next four years.Read more...
At Gamescom 2024, I caught up with Rich Lambert, Game Director for Elder Scrolls Online at ZeniMax. This wasn't the first time I interviewed Rich - I met him in person at E3 2019, and then we had a number of remote interviews over the past five years or so. This year, though, is special for the MMORPG, which has turned 10. ZeniMax is doing several celebrations with the community throughout the whole year, with the excuse that the console version launched around a year after the PC version. With the release of Gold Road, the yearly expansion (or Chapter, […]
The SaGa series is far from being the most popular JRPG series ever, but it has managed, over the years, to garner a cult following thanks to its unique features that set it apart from the vast majority of JRPGs, such as unique progression mechanics, and open-ended scenarios closer to traditional role-playing games developed in the West. Despite the lack of widespread recognition and success, the series has continued, and Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven could be the breakthrough the series by Akitoshi Kawazu has been seeking since its inception in 1989, thanks to some choice improvements to […]
Over the years, Path of Exile has become a solid action role-playing game, as developer Grinding Gear Games has done everything it could to listen to players' feedback and improve their game as much as possible. Its sequel, Path of Exile 2, seems to be going in a similar direction, addressing the remaining issues that couldn't be addressed in the now-dated original to provide players with a hardcore action role-playing game experience that could potentially rival that of the more popular Diablo series. During Gamescom 2024, I had the chance to try out the first 30 minutes or so of […]
Goichi Suda, more commonly known as Suda51, and Shinji Mikami require no introductions. Over the long years of their careers, they released seminal titles that have had a lasting impact on video games and contributed to shaping the medium as we know it today. The No More Heroes series, Killer 7, the Resident Evil and Dino Crisis series, the original Devil May Cry, and Viewtiful Joe are only some of the games the two Japanese developers either created or helped make that have influenced many of the games that came after them. Besides the aforementioned Killer 7, Suda 51 and […]
FANTASIAN Neo Dimension, in some ways, is the closing of a circle that began back in 1986 with the release of the original Final Fantasy. After leaving Square back in 2003 following the launch of the tenth entry in the series that changed JRPGs forever, Hironobu Sakaguchi founded Mistwalker, releasing multiple solid titles over the years, including Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, created in collaboration with Dragon Ball's Akira Toriyama and Slam Dunk and Vagabond's Takehiko Inoue respectively. The latest game from the studio is FANTASIAN, which was launched a while back for the Apple Arcade service and is now […]
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake has been in the works for quite some time, and it took a few years since its announcement to get a first proper look at the very first entry in a series of remakes that will allow players to experience the entirety of the Erdrick trilogy on modern gaming hardware. With the game right around the corner, Square Enix offered us a chance to try out the game during Gamescom in a short session that did not fail to show how the game is setting out to be among the best HD-2D games ever released. […]
At Gamescom 2024, I had the chance to speak to Derek Qiu, Head of Overseas Operations for Once Human, the 'New Weird' free-to-play survival game published by NetEase and developed by Starry Studio. The game launched on PC on July 10 and immediately registered strong player numbers. Qiu discussed the upcoming features and updates, answered some questions from the Once Human community, and confirmed that the mobile and console launches are on the way. The plan is to merge everything into a single unified community thanks to cross-play. Tell me about the recent launch. How is it going so far? […]
About a year ago, publisher Fulqrum and developer Dreamate unveiled New Arc Line, a new cRPG set in a setting that mixes steampunk with magic and fantasy. Its premise and features have intrigued me from the get-go, so I was very interested in checking it out at Gamescom 2024. It was originally billed as a hands-on demo, but it turned out to be a presentation. Still, I learned quite a few new things about the game, which is still slated to launch before the end of the year on PC (the console versions may come later, as you'll read below). […]
STALKER 2 has a final release date of November 20, after many delays. The development team at GSC Game World is currently polishing the game as much as possible ahead of that date, but they also have a plan for post-launch support that includes free updates and the announced story DLCs. Moreover, three major features will be introduced to STALKER 2 after launch. The first is a technical one, hardware ray tracing, which Lead Producer Slava Lukyanenka told me is unlikely to be ready for November 20. Slava Lukyanenka: We are going to have software ray tracing. As for hardware ray […]
At Gamescom 2024, I had the amazing opportunity to speak with veteran developer Tim Willits about Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2, Saber Interactive, and the industry as a whole. Willits worked at id Software for 24 years, eventually becoming Studio Director. He left the Texan developer in July 2019 and became Chief Creative Officer at Saber Interactive only about a month later. Of course, the main focus of our chat was the impending launch of Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 (due on September 9, with a full year of post-launch roadmap already revealed), but we also discussed ongoing issues within […]
The developers at GSC Game World are in the final stretch of development for STALKER 2 after going through lots of hardships. At Gamescom 2024, I interviewed PR Specialist Zakhar Bocharov and Lead Producer Slava Lukyanenka to discuss what's left before launch, and the optimization of the Xbox Series S version (with the help of the Xbox team) stood out. Slava Lukyanenka: Well, our team is mature enough to take care of many aspects of the game themselves. Yet, the Xbox team knows best how the Xbox performs and what's better to do in a case like we need to go […]
Monster Hunter Wilds is, without a doubt, one of the most anticipated games releasing next year on PC and consoles, and the excitement was palpable during Gamescom 2024, with extremely long lines to try out the game for the very first time since its announcement. During the show, I also had the chance to try out the next entry in the CAPCOM series, playing through a single-player quest that acted more as a tutorial before jumping into a more challenging multiplayer quest focused on hunting the powerful Alpha Doshaguma. From a gameplay perspective, there isn't a whole lot to say […]
At Gamescom 2024, I caught up with Rich Lambert, Game Director for Elder Scrolls Online at ZeniMax. This wasn't the first time I interviewed Rich - I met him in person at E3 2019, and then we had a number of remote interviews over the past five years or so. This year, though, is special for the MMORPG, which has turned 10. ZeniMax is doing several celebrations with the community throughout the whole year, with the excuse that the console version launched around a year after the PC version. With the release of Gold Road, the yearly expansion (or Chapter, […]
The SaGa series is far from being the most popular JRPG series ever, but it has managed, over the years, to garner a cult following thanks to its unique features that set it apart from the vast majority of JRPGs, such as unique progression mechanics, and open-ended scenarios closer to traditional role-playing games developed in the West. Despite the lack of widespread recognition and success, the series has continued, and Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven could be the breakthrough the series by Akitoshi Kawazu has been seeking since its inception in 1989, thanks to some choice improvements to […]
Over the years, Path of Exile has become a solid action role-playing game, as developer Grinding Gear Games has done everything it could to listen to players' feedback and improve their game as much as possible. Its sequel, Path of Exile 2, seems to be going in a similar direction, addressing the remaining issues that couldn't be addressed in the now-dated original to provide players with a hardcore action role-playing game experience that could potentially rival that of the more popular Diablo series. During Gamescom 2024, I had the chance to try out the first 30 minutes or so of […]
Goichi Suda, more commonly known as Suda51, and Shinji Mikami require no introductions. Over the long years of their careers, they released seminal titles that have had a lasting impact on video games and contributed to shaping the medium as we know it today. The No More Heroes series, Killer 7, the Resident Evil and Dino Crisis series, the original Devil May Cry, and Viewtiful Joe are only some of the games the two Japanese developers either created or helped make that have influenced many of the games that came after them. Besides the aforementioned Killer 7, Suda 51 and […]
FANTASIAN Neo Dimension, in some ways, is the closing of a circle that began back in 1986 with the release of the original Final Fantasy. After leaving Square back in 2003 following the launch of the tenth entry in the series that changed JRPGs forever, Hironobu Sakaguchi founded Mistwalker, releasing multiple solid titles over the years, including Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, created in collaboration with Dragon Ball's Akira Toriyama and Slam Dunk and Vagabond's Takehiko Inoue respectively. The latest game from the studio is FANTASIAN, which was launched a while back for the Apple Arcade service and is now […]
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake has been in the works for quite some time, and it took a few years since its announcement to get a first proper look at the very first entry in a series of remakes that will allow players to experience the entirety of the Erdrick trilogy on modern gaming hardware. With the game right around the corner, Square Enix offered us a chance to try out the game during Gamescom in a short session that did not fail to show how the game is setting out to be among the best HD-2D games ever released. […]
At Gamescom 2024, I had the chance to speak to Derek Qiu, Head of Overseas Operations for Once Human, the 'New Weird' free-to-play survival game published by NetEase and developed by Starry Studio. The game launched on PC on July 10 and immediately registered strong player numbers. Qiu discussed the upcoming features and updates, answered some questions from the Once Human community, and confirmed that the mobile and console launches are on the way. The plan is to merge everything into a single unified community thanks to cross-play. Tell me about the recent launch. How is it going so far? […]
About a year ago, publisher Fulqrum and developer Dreamate unveiled New Arc Line, a new cRPG set in a setting that mixes steampunk with magic and fantasy. Its premise and features have intrigued me from the get-go, so I was very interested in checking it out at Gamescom 2024. It was originally billed as a hands-on demo, but it turned out to be a presentation. Still, I learned quite a few new things about the game, which is still slated to launch before the end of the year on PC (the console versions may come later, as you'll read below). […]
STALKER 2 has a final release date of November 20, after many delays. The development team at GSC Game World is currently polishing the game as much as possible ahead of that date, but they also have a plan for post-launch support that includes free updates and the announced story DLCs. Moreover, three major features will be introduced to STALKER 2 after launch. The first is a technical one, hardware ray tracing, which Lead Producer Slava Lukyanenka told me is unlikely to be ready for November 20. Slava Lukyanenka: We are going to have software ray tracing. As for hardware ray […]
At Gamescom 2024, I had the amazing opportunity to speak with veteran developer Tim Willits about Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2, Saber Interactive, and the industry as a whole. Willits worked at id Software for 24 years, eventually becoming Studio Director. He left the Texan developer in July 2019 and became Chief Creative Officer at Saber Interactive only about a month later. Of course, the main focus of our chat was the impending launch of Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 (due on September 9, with a full year of post-launch roadmap already revealed), but we also discussed ongoing issues within […]
The developers at GSC Game World are in the final stretch of development for STALKER 2 after going through lots of hardships. At Gamescom 2024, I interviewed PR Specialist Zakhar Bocharov and Lead Producer Slava Lukyanenka to discuss what's left before launch, and the optimization of the Xbox Series S version (with the help of the Xbox team) stood out. Slava Lukyanenka: Well, our team is mature enough to take care of many aspects of the game themselves. Yet, the Xbox team knows best how the Xbox performs and what's better to do in a case like we need to go […]
Monster Hunter Wilds is, without a doubt, one of the most anticipated games releasing next year on PC and consoles, and the excitement was palpable during Gamescom 2024, with extremely long lines to try out the game for the very first time since its announcement. During the show, I also had the chance to try out the next entry in the CAPCOM series, playing through a single-player quest that acted more as a tutorial before jumping into a more challenging multiplayer quest focused on hunting the powerful Alpha Doshaguma. From a gameplay perspective, there isn't a whole lot to say […]