Halloween is just a few exciting days away, and after that, the long march to Christmas begins, so there’s plenty to look forward to in the regular calendar.
What about the world of gaming news, though? Well, this week has been a relatively quiet one; there haven’t been too many earth-shattering revelations in the gaming world, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any news at all.
Let’s take a look back at the week in gaming news and see what’s been going on with some of the biggest (and smaller) companies in the industry.
Spider-Man 2 isn’t getting any story DLC
Technically, this news was revealed last week, but it’s worth reminding you of, so we’re including it in this week’s round-up.
In a blog post discussing the PC release of Spider-Man 2 (previously a PS5 exclusive), developer Insomniac confirmed that the game won’t be getting any post-launch story-based DLC.
Of course, that doesn’t mean Insomniac isn’t working on some kind of standalone expansion a la Miles Morales, but it does mean you won’t be getting any bite-sized additions to Miles and Peter’s adventure, unfortunately.
Yet another game is getting Castlevania DLC
These days, it feels like everything is getting Castlevania DLC; from Dead by Daylight to Dead Cells, games both big and small are getting in on the vampire-killing action.
Well, this week, news of another game to get the Castlevania treatment arrived. Vampire Survivors is teaming up with the Belmonts to slay Dracula, which makes a certain kind of sense.
The DLC arrives on Halloween (because of course) and brings tons of spooky new content to the game.
Nintendo’s weird Switch Online playtest has leaked
Of course, just a few hours after Nintendo’s strange Switch Online playtest began, players leaked the details of what they were experiencing, and it looks bizarre.
The “game” – if, indeed, it can be called that – is essentially a sort of collaborative planet-building experiment, wherein players work together to populate a planet with custom-built structures.
Each player gets their own little bubble in which to construct whatever they like, and outside of those bubbles is a communal construction space where everyone can contribute to what’s being built. We don’t know if this will be released outside the playtest yet, but it’s fun to imagine that it will!
You can try out Monster Hunter Wilds in November
Are you looking forward to the latest Monster Hunter game, Monster Hunter Wilds, which arrives in February? If you are, then you’ll be happy to know you can playtest the game next month.
An open beta playtest for Monster Hunter Wilds begins on November 1st, but if you’re a PlayStation Plus member, then you can try the game out on PS5 a few days early on October 29th.
The playtest will contain the full character creator, as well as a free-roam mission and the beginnings of Monster Hunter Wilds’ expansive story campaign.
Apparently, Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still happening
This week, we got some halting news about the gaming world’s most ephemeral project (or one of them, anyway), as Ubisoft confirmed to Eurogamer that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still in development.
Not only that, but the studio appointed a new creative director to the project recently in the form of Fawzi Mesmar, a Ubisoft veteran who’s been working on the game for some time.
Whether or not this results in a major acceleration of development isn’t clear yet, but hopefully, Ubisoft can get its act together and release a finished game sometime in the future.
Yooka-Laylee remaster coming to “Nintendo”
News about the hotly-anticipated Switch successor is so thin on the ground that we’ll take what we can get wherever we can get it, and happily, a tiny sliver of hope on that front appeared this week.
Playtonic’s upcoming Yooka-Laylee remaster, cannily titled Yooka-Replaylee, got a new trailer this week, and in that trailer, the studio says the game is coming to “Nintendo”, stopping short of announcing a release for Switch.
That likely indicates that Yooka-Replaylee will come to the Switch 2, whatever that console ends up being called. Surely it’s just a matter of time before some overexcited publisher leaks the whole thing?
Microsoft’s CEO gets a massive payrise
Microsoft released a new financial summary this week, and in an additional statement accompanying that summary, it was revealed that CEO Satya Nadella is about to get a huge payrise.
Despite the fact that the company has been hit by hundreds upon hundreds of layoffs this year, Nadella’s pay will jump by a massive 63%. He’ll rake in $79.1 million this year.
Although that sounds like a lot, Nadella actually asked for a reduction in his cash incentive owing to cybersecurity issues, so the final amount could have been even more “impressive”.
Netflix’s Tomb Raider adaptation is getting a second season
It was officially announced this week that Netflix’s animated Tomb Raider show will get a second season, and that Lara will be joined by an old friend on the adventure.
While not much information is currently available regarding the new season, it has been revealed that Lara will be travelling around the world alongside her friend Sam, and she’ll be facing off against a “dangerous and enigmatic billionaire”.
The show received relatively positive reviews from critics, although many admitted there was room for improvement, so let’s hope that the second season implements some of those changes.
Sonic x Shadow Generations sells a million
Sonic x Shadow Generations, the latest flagship 3D platformer in the Sonic series, managed to sell a million copies on launch day, Sega announced this week.
The sales milestone will no doubt be encouraging for Sega, especially when taken in conjunction with strong sales for another recent release, Atlus and Studio Zero’s JRPG Metaphor: ReFantazio.
In an uncertain industry where many projects are being cancelled, it’s nice to see games doing well, and hopefully, this means we’ll see more entries in the Sonic and Metaphor franchises for years to come.
