It's been a while since I've done a GN Unplugged video and this is actually the first of two I'll be doing in a short period of time. This time around I was sent the first expansion for the Shards of Infinity deck building game, called Relics of the Future, by Ultra Pro and Stone Blade Entertainment to check out. This is not a full set and requires the base game to play (a link to my video on the original game is in the video description over on YouTube). That being said, for a first expansion it looks pretty good as it comes with twenty-four new center row deck cards, the eight titular relics (two for each character, meaning character selection is now important [it wasn't in the base game]), and rules for how to play with three players, teams of two, or even a single player by themselves.

Italian developer Storm in a Teacup has announced that their upcoming horror adventure Close to the Sun will launch exclusively on the Epic Games store, later in 2019. This comes as no surprise as the studio has swapped the Unity engine out for Epic's Unreal 4. Close to the Sun follows a young woman named Rose, who boards the Helios, a massive alternate history vessel created by Nicola Tesla, in search of her sister Ada. Close to the Sun bears a strong resemblance to Bioshock, even using Bioshock's title font for its logo. It remains to be seen however if Close to the Sun will have the nuanced, hard-hitting gameplay of Bioshock, or if it will just be another "run away from the monsters" puzzler like so many other horror titles these days. The game will launch at a budget price of $29.99. Color me intrigued and cautiously optimistic about this one.

It’s a quiet week here at Gaming Nexus. Dave has returned to his natural (virtual) state in VR, happily throwing aside the 2D conventions he was stuck with for the past couple weeks. Chuck continues to reap the benefits of having an Xbox Game Pass by grinding through the long-awaited Crackdown 3. Randy is still yelling loudly in the Gaming Nexus Slack channel about his alien-paranoia first-person shooter/mining/builder Genesis Alpha One. It’s possible the only thing that will tear him away from that is today’s “everybody else” launch of Anthem. And while John works weekends so he can save up his lunch money for a foldable phone, he also finds time to test out this newfangled Ray Tracing technology.

So, what are you playing?

Dave Gamble
I have regained VR capabilities on the PC, so I'm jumping back in with both feet. I have been putting off trying Elite: Dangerous in VR because I haven't played with it for a couple of years and don't relish the idea of going through the steep learning curve. Most of that learning was attempting to remember where I had mapped all of the controls to my HOTAS, though, so this time around I'm using VoiceAttack and an HCS Voicepack. They have many to choose from, but I went with William Shatner based on a sample I heard on YouTube:

Player: "These guys are too tough for us. We need to get out of here!"

Shatner: "Scaredy cat!"

On the console, well, the Red Dead Redemption 2 news is not good. I finally finished Chapter 6, so...well...the news is not good. On the plus side, I'm looking forward to finally being able to visit Blackwater. I'm going to need some time, though, to adjust to my new realities.

Charles Husemann
This weekend I'm planning on continuing my grind through Crackdown 3. So far it's not bad, but it feels like more of a benefit of having Game Pass than a game I would recommend spending $60 on. The weapons are fun and the some of the Terry Crews voiceover work is amazing, but the rest of the game is a bit on the meh side and not the huge leap many were expecting. Orb collecting is still fun. I'm just not sure this is a game I would recommend for everyone.

Outside of that I might spend some time with Anthem. I was impressed with the beta but I'm thinking I might wait for a patch or two before plunking money down on the game.

Randy Kalista
Tuesday's announcement of Darkest Dungeon II has me firing up O.G. Darkest Dungeon again. I'm not a grimdark kinda guy. I'm not a Lovecraftian horror kinda guy either. But Darkest Dungeon's narrator still snarls its way into my dreams. Were I a character artist, I'd just copy Darkest Dungeon's style and call it a day. And if I needed to slowly chip away at a player, one lingering mental affliction at a time, I'd do it with a sequel to this particular game. Judging from the ominous mountain in the reveal, it looks like Red Hook Studios is going to show Capybara Games how to make people dread going Below.

Cue up the wavering theremin UFO music. Get me my Stanley Kubrick Space Odyssey outfit. Pin some 1950's space travel posters to my wall. Genesis Alpha One still has a lot of my attention. Some games are better than others at disguising the repetition in their gameplay. I'm not even saying Genesis Alpha One does that. But it's such a satisfying loop for me. Take a cargo lander to an alien planet's surface. Farm for resources, fend off xenos. Return to my customizable mothership. Watch the bots carry crates of minerals to storage for supply, or from the storage to the refinery, or use resources from the refinery to craft ammo and restock my gun cabinet, or build a second set of crew quarters, or to clone a new crew member, or assign that crew member to the bridge in order to hyperdrive to the next solar system and scan the sector for a "Genesis Candidate"—a repopulation-ready  planet. If not, we've got 300 more planets to check, Commander.

John Yan
So, my time's kinda limited with my other ongoing projects, but I hope to jump into some Metro Exodus to test out NVIDIA's Ray Tracing and DLSS features that were put into the game. I'm also going to give Battlefield V a little try for the same reasons. I'd like to see how well the card does with the features that NVIDIA's been touting for six months now.

If you're like me, you might have seen the Pokemon: Let's Go games and thought to yourself "these just seem like watered down versions of Pokemon Yellow", and you're somewhat right. The games do feel easier than the original Gen 1 games, plus with the new catching mechanic that's pretty much Pokemon GO on the Switch, you might still be on the fence about picking it up. Luckily for you there's now a demo for Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee/Pikachu on the Nintendo Switch eShop.

According to the official website for Pokemon: Let's Go, the demos will let you explore Viridian Forest, battling trainers and catching Pokemon with a random partner, either Eevee or Pikachu. This will give you a taste of how catching Pokemon will work in the game, and since winning trainer battles normally gives you a few extra Pokeballs, you should have quite a few chances of catching something to help you get a feel for how it works. Thankfully Zubat and Onix doesn't spawn in Viridian Forest because...well, let's just say cave areas in the full game will give your arm a work out.

Read on for the official press release including info for Trials Rising, The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame, demo information for Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn, plus some current eShop sales.

Now that Fallout 76 has been out for 100 days, Bethesda has outlined what the 2019 roadmap will be for the game all the way through this Fall.  Included will be new game modes, quests and features in Spring 2019 (dubbed Wild Appalachia), a new game mode in Summer 2019 (Nuclear Winter) and a main quest, events, features and more in Fall 2019 (Wastelanders).  Here is a breakout of the Spring 2019 updates:

And here is the entire roadmap outlined for the year.  As more details emerge, we will pst for each season, but you can check out what is expected after the jump as well as on the official roadmap post.

With new games and card comes new drivers from NVIDIA. Getting ready to jump into Anthem today and have a NVIDIA card? Don't forget to update your drivers.

Version 419.17 WQHL drivers are out now which are optimized for both Anthem and DiRT Rally 2.0. The big release, of course, is Anthem so if you want the best experience right now for that game on the PC, hit up GeForce Experience and upgrade your drivers.

Today, NVIDIA announced the availability of the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti for those who want a mid-high type card but don't want any of the ray tracing or DLSS capabilities.

The card 1536 CUDA cores and features 6GB of DDR6 memory. As you can probably guess from the GTX naming convention, it's got no RT or Tensor cores, but it is built on the Turing architecture. NVIDIA is saying it's 1.5X faster than the GTX 1060 and with the removal of said cores, they can offer the card at a MSRP of $279.99.

I am a little confused as to why they named it the GTX 1660 Ti but, hey NVIDIA has their reasons. Rumors abound a 1650 variant will be launching later, so NVIDIA's going with the 1600 number line going forward. 

There won't be a founder's card so all the cards will be from different vendors and they come in all shapes and sizes. You can see from the pics below a nice variety of sizes and designs. Prices also range from the MSRP up to around $330 depending on the design and features. 

So, for gamers who want a new card without the RTX features, here you go. There should be plenty of reviews with benchmarks right now to let you know if the card is worth the price.

Reggie Fils-Aime has been with Nintendo for 15 years, 13 of them being the President and COO. On April 15, 2019, Reggie will spend his last day there.

Reggie will be retiring and Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America's Senior VP of Sales and Marketing will be taking over. 

For the better part of the last 15 years, Reggie has been the face of Nintendo here in the United States. He's helped launch many successful products such as the Wii, 3DS, and the Switch. He's done a phenomenal job the past 15 years and I know many of us will miss him.

Enjoy your retirement in a few months Reggie. You've certainly earned it.

Ever since Epic Games announced their new store and strategy to take market share from Steam, they have been giving away a free game every two weeks.  Having just wrapped a two-week freebie of Axiom Verge, the store front how has Thimbleweed Park for free from now until March 7th.

While the Age of Empires game has been around for over 20 years, last year the game was updated and released on Windows 10 with the name Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. With its one-year anniversary in the books as of yesterday, the development team celebrated with announcement of a new patch (the 8th) and a teaser of some announcements likely pertaining to what is expected to come next for the franchise.  The patch notes can be found on the official site, or after the jump.

As for the tease, there will be news on Age of Empires coming across an episode of Inside Xbox this march.

Age of Empires will have a segment on Inside Xbox in March! Make sure to tune in here when we go live, because we’re going to have some very exciting announcements!

While this may be news related to the previously announced Age of Empires IV being developed by Relic, it could be anyone of a number of things.  So I guess you will have to hit up Mixer for the Inside Xbox show when it goes live next month.  Meanwhile, here is the Age of Empires IV announce trailer to whet your appetite.