Just like old times. Ninja Gaiden was near impossible to beat on the original NES. And though Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound isn't as hard with regenerating enemies, and bounce back on damage, it's going to be a challenge. Luckily, with the love from DotEmu and The Game Kitchen, our antagonist has a few new tricks up his shozoku.

The demo takes you through four entire levels. Two of the levels are advanced tutorials. It teaches you all the attacks and wall jumps you need. You can hang from the ceiling, and you get an invincible roll dodge. Later on, it shows you that you eventually team up with the enemy for even more attacks, and you can actually use her to get to other places. 

This article contains nothing I want you to know without playing it. I want you to go to Steam right now, and play this for yourself. It's really good, the controls are tight, and if you finish the demo, you can really test your Ninja Gaiden skills. The demo is only available until June 16th.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound releases July 31st for everything, and it was just announced that the Playstation 5 and Nintendo Switch are getting physical copies, but only if you want to hold out until September 12th. 

Tired of the same old sports games, you say? Looking for a fresh take on the genre, are you? Allow me to introduce Clutchtime: Basketball Deckbuilder, a roguelike deckbuilding basketball game inspired by Balatro and one solo Serbian developer’s love for basketball, coming to Steam on July 24^th.

Melding sports and deckbuilders sounds like mixing oil and water, but the new trailer for Clutchtime has sold me on the unlikely marriage. It’s simple, really. Each basketball term is a card that you play, whether on offense or defense: pass, shoot, steal, rebound, block, timeout, and even complaining to the referees. But even if you have zero basketball knowledge, you can still pick up Clutchtime and understand the game’s mechanics.

A free demo is available now on Steam if you’d like to try it for yourself. Clutchtime is also being optimized for Steam Deck at launch, and it does look like a delightful Deck game. Check out the key feature rundown and trailer below:

Key features of Clutchtime™: Basketball Deckbuilder:

• Get'cha Head in the Game: Clutchtime takes the deckbuilder genre and gives it a unique spin, with each team having a starting deck of five starter players with three cards representing their skills.  Players will use these to formulate their decks around real-life basketball plays and team synergy strategization.
   
• Two Modes to Take On: Play through two different game modes — “Elimination”, where players take on tournaments in true roguelike style, or “Classic”, a typical basketball season where players can lose some games, but have to qualify for the playoffs to compete for the Championship title
   
• Never Let Them Know Your Next Move: Watch for random events during the season where players can upgrade cards, trade with other teams, duplicate favorite cards, and more!
   
• It’s Like You’re Really There!: Clutchtime’s audio features unique mixing. The developer attended live games to record audio, mixing it into the soundtrack to give the feel of a live basketball arena while playing. The crowd is dynamic and reacts to the current noise level in the game, so any block, dunk, or other fancy move will trigger the fans' cheering.

A new gameplay deep dive for Chrono Odyssey has detailed a staggering amount of content for the MMORPG. The nearly 18-minute video showcases combat, boss fights, the open-world, and a litany of quests and challenges that you’ll be able to engage with in the dark fantasy world of Setera. You can expect a hefty dose of boss fights, raids, platforming challenge levels, bounty hunts, time portal challenges, and more. It looks filled to the brim with things to do, and that’s exactly the way an MMO should be, right?

The Unreal Engine 5 title is getting a PC-only beta beginning on June 20^th, during which you can get a taste of the game’s three character classes – Swordsman, Ranger, and Beserker – as well as Setera. The beta will run for 72 hours only, so do make haste if you intend to try it out.

Watching the new gameplay video, I can’t help but get massive Diablo-meets-MMO vibes from Chrono Odyssey. I’m still desperately looking for an MMO to grab me and not let go. Could Chrono Odyssey be my white whale? Time will tell.

We still don’t have a release date for Chrono Odyssey, but it’s coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in addition to PC when it’s ready to roll.

It's no secret the numbers are down for Destiny 2. After regularly hitting 300,000 concurrent players on Steam during major releases of new content the daily player count is something closer to 20-25,000 these days. We are about a month away form the release of The Edge of Fate, the next major expansion to the Destiny universe, so it makes sense to be in a lull; and with the conclusion of the 10-year light and dark saga having been realized with the latest major expansion, The Final Shape, it makes sense that this lull would be a historic low. 

What Bungie aims to do to boost some numbers through these doldrums is give away free loot. Because if there is one thing Destiny players love, it's free loot. As detailed in the latest TWAB (I know it's called a TWID now but #foreverTWAB), starting July 8th and every day for the week leading up to The Edge of Fate's release, you can earn a Nonary Engram for just logging in. This coincides with the "lootapalooza" detailed in the bullet points below. What's a Nonary Engram? It's a new engram that can be turned in for "hand-picked cosmetic rewards spanning multiple years of Destiny 2 content. Some are newer, like Holochips, while some are a blast from the past – like Crimson Days emotes." Starting July 1st, you can also purchase Nonary Engrams using Nonary Manifolds - the currency you get for completing the Rite of the Nine dungeon. Speaking of which, from the TWAB:

• From now through July 15
  • Completing all encounters in any Rite of the Nine dungeon in a single run will award extra drops from the final boss
  • Completing all encounters in any Rite of the Nine dungeon at Eternity or Ultimatum difficulty in a single run will award an armor piece
  • These are on a knockout list; each clear will grant a new armor piece until you’ve completed your set.
• From June 17 until June 24
  • Increased currency drops will be active for all dungeons.
• From June 24 until July 8, all dungeons are available, and one will have increased currency rewards and a chance for weapons to drop from enemy kills, as well as increased loot from the final boss chest when completing all encounters in the featured dungeon:
  • Week of June 24: Spire of the Watcher
  • Week of July 1: Ghosts of the Deep
  • Week of July 8: Prophecy
• New: Starting June 24, the Emissary will offer a handful of Exotics for players looking to round out their Exotic weapon arsenal.
  • More will be added each week through The Edge of Fate launch.
• From July 8 until July 15, "lootapalooza" will begin
  • Increased currency rewards and weapon drops from enemies in all dungeons.
  • New: Even more increased loot from the final boss chest when completing all encounters.

With all the negativity surrounding Marathon right now, a lot of players are pretty upset with Bungie and blame them for neglecting Destiny to an extent to focus on other projects that are not exactly planning out as hoped. Hopefully free loot, and cosmetics at that - something Bungie usually tries to monetize rather than give away, as well as increased rewards will be a welcome token of appreciation for those still sticking with the Destiny franchise.  

Next week the extraction shooter Hunt: Showdown 1896 is going to be enjoying a number of updates and upgrades. First of all the new event, Judgement of the Fool, releases and with a whole new way to experience the gameplay. The Fool's Hideout is a looter's paradise offering not only valuable in game rewards like the bounty token and restoration kits but also lets you purchase trait boosts and wager Pledge Marks for more. The 2.4 update that releases with the event brings back an overhauled DeSalle map.

I liked the Hunt: Showdown 1896 very much even though it helped me realize I'm just not an extraction shooter player at heart. It takes a special breed to really enjoy the highs takes of the genre, but I gave it an 8.5 in my review. Judgement of the Fool and the Update 2.4 patch arrive on June 18th. More details about the above and the 100 other UI fixes, audio improvements, AI tweaks, and meta adjustments can be found in the official press release. 

The world's much simpler when you presume everyone is guilty. 

The Nintendo Switch 2 is a great success. Its launch last week saw high demand and high availability as they sold over 3.5 million units in its first four days. In those four days, the Switch 2 outsold every other console in the same time frame.

This goes to show what can happen when you have stock on hand to meet demand. While it's currently sold out in some places, it's still possible to find one on retail shelves in some areas. The Switch 2 is a solid upgrade over the previous Nintendo handheld and it goes to show how strong a brand Nintendo is with its record setting pace.

Nintendo expects to sell 15 million by next April and they're off to a pretty good start to meet that goal. With Nintendo owning 5 of the top 10 best selling consoles/handhelds of all time, it looks to be a given right now that Nintendo will add another one in the upper part of that list.

Techland recently announced an August 22^nd release date for Dying Light: The Beast alongside a gameplay trailer at Summer Game Fest, but they weren’t quite done. Yesterday, the studio shared a 30-minute gameplay walkthrough of the open-world zombie survival game, and it’s definitely worth a watch.

Dying Light: The Beast bring back original protagonist, Kyle Crane, who has been subjected to a decade of experimentation that granted him unusual powers has a half-human, half-zombie…thing. The new gameplay deep dive is our best look yet at what’s new in The Beast, including graphical improvements, a dynamic weather system, emergent gameplay opportunities, the brutal melee combat, and, of course, that lovely parkour system.

I stopped watching at the 11:30 mark, because I don’t need to see anything else – I’m in. I should probably find the time to finish Dying Light 2 while I wait for August 22^nd, when Dying Light: The Beast releases on PC, PlayStation 5 (with PS5 Pro enhancements), and Xbox Series X|S.

Nintendo announced today, that a spinoff game based on the Squid/kid shooter Splatoon is coming to the Nintendo Switch 2. The trailer didn't reveal much beyond you taking the role of a mechanic with Deep Cut by your side. As soon as it shows off a little of the Spirhalite island, the trailer cuts, promising more info as it comes. 

Splatoon 3 is still going strong though, with a full update coming to Switch 1 and 2. Update 10.0 will be free on June 12th, and will bring 30 new weapons with it. They're based on previous weapons from Splatoon 1 and 2. Speaking of Splatoon 1, the Urchin Underpass returns to the game.

Freshness caps are being raised, and you will be able to earn new badges for your splatting prowess. In addition, Series Weapon Power will improve the match making by matching you with someone with similar power based on the weapons you use.

Nintendo Switch 2 will see updated visuals all around. All for the free. Check out the out of nowhere trailer below.  

One of the launch titles for Nintendo Switch 2 was a sequel to the Puyo Puyo Tetris crossover. Easily titled Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S, the game has both Puyo Puyo and Tetris all in one game, meaning you can play versus someone in either game, or you can pit your Puyo Puyo skills against someone's Tetris skills. 

Up to 4 players can join the chaos, either against each other, or in a new feature that allows two players to control one board, against two other players. You'll have 12 different ways to play, but you will also have different rule sets to choose from, bringing variations a plenty. This is another game that allows you to use mouse controls to politely yell at your friend to put the pieces in the right place! 

Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 is out right now to add to the collection of the Switch games you probably already have. I'm enjoying my Switch 2, but mostly for the games I already have. 

The Hiss has been giving the first responders on the FBC: Firebreak team some trouble. The Hiss shows up, plasters Post-It Notes everywhere (which is apparently a very bad thing) and forces the Firebreak team to clean it all up. With bullets. Lots of bullets. But also with unidentifiable equipment that looks like it was thrown together after a HAZMAT response rig tipped over on the highway.

Conventional weapons are cool, I guess. But if we're blasting bad guys with firefighting foam and, like, negatives from an old slide photo reel (?), and electrified hydraulic presses (?), then I'm in for a good time. Some of these things might be real. But I work at a fire department and I'm not recognizing most of this stuff. Maybe that's because I'm just an EMS supply guy.

The biggest barrier to entry is finding two other friends to handle the three-player co-op. There are also random players you can be thrown together with. But fighting fires—the Hiss—is more fun with friends. 

You will also run into "corrupted items" that need to be brought back under Federal Bureau of Control, uh, control. If you've played Control, this is an exciting prospect. "Corrupted items" are haunted, basically. But in Control, these are often some wacky items. This trailer shows a stoplight. Maybe not spooky on paper. But can you imagine the chaos a haunted stoplight could create? Put it down, Firebreak team! Also, maybe deal with that sticky-note leaf blower of a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

FBC: Firebreak will be my first co-op shooter since maybe Left 4 Dead, so it's been a while. Firebreak launches June 17 on Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Additionally, it'll be on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, PlayStation Plus & Premium—all on launch day.