Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Battle Stadium May Have a Very Big Problem

The final rotation of free games on the Epic Games Store for the month of January 2023 are now available. For the most part, January has been a pretty decent month on the Epic Games Store when it comes to free titles. Games such as Kerbal Space Program, Divine Knockout, and Shadow Tactics: Blade of the Shogun – Aiko's Choice have all been doled out in recent weeks. And while some fans have been hoping for a better pair of games to end the month, the Epic Games Store is instead handing out some forgettable titles.

Nintendo has issued a new warning to Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite, and Nintendo Switch OLED owners. The portability of the Nintendo Switch presents a variety of problems that don't particularly manifest with PlayStation or Xbox consoles unless we are talking about the couple of times PlayStation released portable machines. The portability is perhaps the biggest selling point of the Nintendo Switch though. In other words, the minor problems that come with portability are both worth it for Nintendo and those who buy the console. That said, if you're a Switch owner and you do take advantage of the Switch's portability by bringing it everywhere, then Nintendo wants you to be aware of condensation.

Yesterday's Xbox Bethesda Developer Direct had a handful of announcements, but the biggest was easily Hi-Fi Rush. Developer Tango Gameworks shocked fans with a colorful new game unlike anything it had released in the past. Even better, the game was made available shortly after the presentation on Xbox Game Pass and Steam, allowing players to try Hi-Fi Rush last night. While reviewers were not given the game ahead of time, player response has been overwhelmingly positive thus far. It remains to be seen whether players will continue to stick with the game, but it looks like Xbox has a big hit on its hands!

PlayStation has made a critically-acclaimed PS4 game, which also happens to be one of the best strategy games on the PlayStation console, just $2.99 for a limited time. Normally the game costs $19.99, so this represents a massive savings of 95 percent. As you would expect, this is the cheapest the game has ever been, at least on PSN. Developed by legendary strategy game developer Firaxis and published by 2K Games, the game in question is none other than 2016's XCOM 2.

Toxicity is a very big problem with online gaming, and companies are constantly looking for new ways to make things more welcoming. A newly discovered patent from PlayStation indicates that the company is attempting to do just that, with a system that would reward players for good behavior, and punish those that make games less enjoyable for others. Rewards would include things like medals and "virtual points," while toxic players would have their actions reviewed by a human moderator, and players would be given a chance to appeal any potential punishments.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Warzone 2 will be getting some absolutely massive changes in the upcoming season 2 update. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 both launched last fall and were incredibly successful commercially, but some fans had strong opinions about the ins and outs of the games. Both games made rather significant changes to the ways they played relative to their predecessors, some of which were pretty controversial and led to frustrated players. Call of Duty: Warzone 2 got the biggest changes of them all with a much more tactical experience that included more menus, faster TTK, and changes to loadouts and buy stations. This really ruffled a lot of feathers and Infinity Ward is now going out of its way to make changes to the game, resulting in a slight delay to season 2's release.

The PlayStation 5 is about to lose another exclusive game that launched with the console back in late 2020. In the years since the PS5 first released, many titles that initially arrived alongside the console have started to come elsewhere. Games like Bugsnax, Godfall, and even Sackboy: A Big Adventure have since been released for platforms Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PC. And while some of the PS5's exclusives will surely remain exclusive forever, one title is being unshackled from the PlayStation ecosystem next week.

The first big PS5 exclusive of 2023 is out and it's looking increasingly like a rare flop for PlayStation. When you think of PlayStation and exclusive games, you think of high-quality games and series like Bloodborne, The Last of Us, God of War, Uncharted, Marvel's Spider-Man, and Death Stranding. Last generation, some of the best games were PlayStation exclusives. So far, it looks like this success will continue with the PS5 if the likes of God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbbiden West, Demon's Souls, and more are indicators. Yet, not every PlayStation exclusive can live up to this quality. And when the exclusive is made via a second-party or third-party developer, the consistency often suffers. One of the biggest recent flops, Babyon's Fall, came the way of a third-party deal PlayStation made with Square Enix. Fast-forward and Square Enix has delivered PlayStation another flop in the form of Forspoken.

Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S users have been surprised with a new freebie to celebrate the release of Dead Space. One of the small, but important features the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S currently have that the PS5 does not have is customizable backgrounds. Well, customizable to an extent. The PS5 background can't be changed at all, unlike the PS4, which had incredible customization options. The background customization options on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S don't allow for the same freedom as the PS4, but they do allow Xbox users to choose from a range of different static and dynamic backgrounds. There isn't a plethora of options, but there are options, including some game-specific options. To this end, a new Dead Space dynamic background is now available, and like the other backgrounds, it's free to download and use.

One of the best N64 games -- and one of the best games of all time across all platforms -- is now available for free, but not for everyone. While the N64 didn't sell as well as its competition or even well compared to some other Nintendo consoles, it, like every Nintendo console, except maybe the Wii U, boasts a very impressive library littered with incredible exclusive games. One of the greatest examples of this is GoldenEye 007, which was re-released today via Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X this week. And if you have Nintendo Switch Online or Xbox Game Pass, you can play the re-release for no extra charge. How long it will be available via the pair of subscription services, hasn't been clarified.

Before Pokemon bids a fond farewell to Ash Ketchum and Pikachu as the stars of the anime adaptation, the television series is giving the anime protagonists the chance to reunite with some major players from the series' past. One of Ash's traveling companions, who first hit the scene during Pokemon: Black And White, is Cilan, who has returned to Ketchum's life as Pokemon: Aim To Be A Pokemon Master looks to have Ash step down so that the likes of Liko and Roy can take his place in the future of the franchise.

This is a different kettle of fish. A pet fish did some online shopping and shared its owner’s credit card information while playing a video game, according to reports. Japanese YouTuber Mutekimaru, aka Maurice, runs a channel that features his Siamese fighting fish, or betta, playing Pokémon video games on a Nintendo Switch gaming console. A malfunction during a recent game of Pokémon Violet, however, returned the device to its home screen. Due to movements the fish made, the fish was able to open the Nintendo eShop on the screen and spend $4 of Maurice’s money to purchase points.  The spendthrift pet also exposed its...

Steam is reportedly getting a few classic PS1, PS2, and PS3 games and one of the best series in gaming history. The report comes the way of leaker Oops Leaks over on Twitter, who has proven reliable in the past. According to the leaker, the "classic" Metal Gear Solid games "should be coming to Steam this year." The leaker adds they have received "multiple signs that this will happen," but has "no clue which games and versions" will be exactly included. Unfortunately, this is the extent of the report.

An Xbox insider says things are not going well in Starfield land nor are they going well when it comes to Redfall either. One leaker who had accurate info about the new Hi-Fi Rush game just before it was officially announced has suggested that Redfall is in rough shape and that Starfield, the highly anticipated space RPG from Bethesda, is doing even worse. These rumors follow the release date announcement for Redfall which is now scheduled to release in May with Starfield to come some time afterwards.

Microsoft's big acquisition of Activision Blizzard is a deal which Xbox boss Phil Spencer said he's "more confident "in now compared to around a year ago. These comments come amid conversations with regulatory boards and other bodies that have been looking into the deal to see if it was too big of an acquisition to go through as it was presented. Spencer gave no firm indication of when he feels the deal might go through (assuming it does) but did remind us of the timeframe Microsoft established previously as well as where we are now in that timeframe.

One unexpected (but unsurprising) beneficiary of the mass revolt against Wizards of the Coast's proposed changes to the Open Gaming License - Pathfinder. Today, Paizo revealed that the current print run of the Pathfinder 2E Core Rulebook had sold out at its warehouse, with a supply that was meant to last eight months lasting just two weeks due to a surge in demand. A new print run of the Core Rulebook hardcover has been ordered, with an estimated delivery date of mid-April. The Pathfinder 2E Core Rulebook has also sold out at Amazon and most other major online book retailers. Paizo noted that the Pocket version of the Core Rulebook, which has smaller dimensions and a paperback cover remains available at their warehouse.

Xbox is planning a big summer showcase for later this year. Xbox is one of the most interesting gaming companies out there because they have not been doing things that other platform holders are doing, for better or worse. They've focused on big services like Xbox Game Pass and instead of trying to compete with PlayStation for big cinematic, prestige games, they've opted to focus on more casual experiences with things like multiplayer and co-op at the forefront. Xbox has also gone out of its way to buy major publishers like Activision and Bethesda to help deepen its first-party offerings both for Xbox Game Pass, but as a platform as a whole. With that said, many were disappointed with the fact that 2022 had pretty much no major first-party releases on Xbox.

Call of Duty is reportedly considering bringing back Blackout, the series' first battle royale mode. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 was a pretty untraditional Call of Duty game. It continued the hero shooter formula from Black Ops 3, but largely dropped the advanced movement. It completely cut out the campaign, despite having had one at one point. Perhaps most notably, it also included a battle royale mode known as Blackout. The mode was a fairly interesting attempt at the then fairly new genre, but it didn't catch on for a variety of reasons. The competition was a bit better at creating a deeper experience, Blackout didn't get a ton of support, and a lot of people just jumped off of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 pretty quickly.

A new Star Wars Jedi: Survivor deal has been announced that offers the upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sequel for "free." Free is in quotations because while it's technically true, there's a hefty purchase required to unlock the deal, much like "free" PlayStation Plus games or Xbox Game Pass games, but on steroids. That said, if you're in the market for a new CPU, it's a good deal. You will specifically need to buy an AMD Ryzen 7000 CPU though. When you purchase any Zen 4 chip you will get, courtesy of AMD, a PC code for the game, for free.

Gameplay from what's said to be a multiplayer project in Guerrilla Games' Horizon universe leaked online this week to show off a somewhat unexpected direction for the acclaimed series. The gameplay in question consists of just over 12 minutes of footage presenting a decidedly different style compared to what's seen in the mainline Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West games. We know already that Guerrilla Games is indeed working on a multiplayer project set within this Horizon universe, but the developer of course hasn't said anything yet about this particular leak.