For the first couple of weeks I had my Switch 2 in hand, I've been mostly busy playing around with Mario Kart World and completing the lovely Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma for review. I haven't had much time to give the platform's other features much of a look beyond a quick glancing acknowledgement. But last week while traveling, my son and I booted up the GameCube emulation of Soul Calibur, and good lord, what a difference.

I always loved GameCube, just for being the quirky little guy that it was. I like the tiny discs, the weird shape, the off-kilter controllers. GameCube is just...fun. But it isn't exactly a graphics powerhouse. So when Soul Calibur booted up in 4K on Switch 2, running at however-many-the-hell-frames-per-second, I have to admit, it was kind of jaw-dropping. It says a lot about the game's original animations that it can run as smoothly and look as good as it does.

I bumbled around online and found this comparison video by YouTuber Cycu1, which is well worth a quick scrub through, as it clearly demonstrates the stark improvement of this game's performance (thanks, homie).

I wasn't super excited about the GameCube's inclusion in the Switch 2's subscription library, as I still have my original unit and a slew of games. But I gotta say, me and Windwaker now have an appointment, and I'm completely looking forward to Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, which I never got to play back in the day.

Longtime readers know that I'm not a resolution or FPS enthusiast - I frequently blather on about how I don't care very much. But sometimes, you just have to admit when something looks beautiful. And damn, these GameCube games look beautiful. 

Side note: Credit where it is due, my son completely whooped my behind at Soul Calibur. He took like 9/9 matches before I shamefully retreated. 

I've reported on this previously, but Offworld continues to progress their game, Starship Troopers: Extermination, with continued support in recent and upcoming patches. The latest update - Patch 1.5, also known as Phantom's Nest introduces new features, expands on existing game modes, and adds system improvements. Then the next planned patch - 1.6, coming around August promises even more with a new game mode, the first since Hive Hunt, as well as a new bug spawning system to ratchet up the intensity of every match. 

From the press release, highlights of Update 1.5 include:

• Hive Hunt expanded to 16 players, now featuring the new “Escort the Nuke” mission objective.

• Horde mode has been rebalanced, and wave progression is time-based, not tied to the number of Bugs you kill.

• New weapon: Morita II, with an unlockable modification—an experimental plasma launcher attachment that delivers high-impact, explosive firepower against Bugs (available to all classes upon reaching level 16).

• New weapon Mods added for the Morita XXX and TW-2-R Sp.L.I.T Shotgun (Slug).

• A major change to Galactic War mode, as well as bug fixes and quality of life improvements.

Patch 1.5 is out now for Startship Troopers: Extermination on PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and the Offworld shop, and for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. This is of course coming after patch 1.4 from about a month ago that also received particularly high praise. That patch even got it's own trailer which I will embed below. Sadly 1.5 is not releasing with as much fanfare, but hopefully will be enjoyed every bit as much. 

Let me be very very clear here. When we reviewed Split Fiction, we played the PS5 version, and we were absolutely blown away by it. We gave it a perfect 10 for the Ah-ha moment we had about the story. We also thought that though all the stages had familiar game mechanics, the ways in they were utilized were pretty innovative, especially with a two player split screen. I don't remember a time we said anything about the smooth, buttery 60fps. So there's that. 

Split Fiction runs great on the Switch 2, locked at 30 FPS, except for the cutscenes, which seem to run at 60fps. And this isn't with caveats. All the action, hit sparks, boss fights, sounds and lighting, are all here. Nothing looks worse or looks like it's missing from it's PS5 co-hort. And yes, if you have a Switch 2, and someone has a PC, you can still play the game with each other. You just cannot use the Switch 2's in game chat. You don't need a headset mic or anything, as the in console mic works just fine. Since Haze Light and EA sent us the copy, I instantly asked Crafternoon, who also has a Switch 2, to download the friend pass version, and after a quick set up, we were off and running. Seamlessly. 

To reiterate, if you have the game already, and someone has a Switch 2, you can definitely play that with them without them having to purchase it. So even if you're streaming it, and your viewers prefer a 60FPS buttery smooth experience, the Switch 2 user will still be able to keep up, and do all the things they need to do to complete their part of the game. Now to do this, you'll need to have an EA account to do cross platform, but again, it's pretty easy. It's getting a little repetitive, I know. I just want to take away reasons for the naysayers. 

Split Fiction for the Nintendo Switch 2 is just another way to experience a great game. And with 3.5 million Switch users out there, there's someone waiting to play it with you. Give it a shot. 

We're only three months away from the launch of Borderlands 4 and Gearbox has dropped the official story trailer. The trailer gives us a glimpse of the cruel reign of the Timekeeper which includes being implanted with a Bolt, "a spine-grafted cybernetic device used to dominate the populace". After crash landing on Kairos, the Vault Hunters are arrested and are give a Bolt of their own, keeping them trapped on the planet.

Borderlands 4 is now available for pre-order on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, and will launch on September 12th.

As owner of various VR headsets, the Windows Mixed Reality ones were some of the most fun ones I've owned. The Samsung Odyssey+ was and incredible headset at the time with its great OLED panels that made games like Elite Dangerous incredible to play with its deep blacks and vibrant colors. Sadly, Microsoft decided to stop supporting Windows Mixed Reality headsets in Windows 11 and many are now just sitting there collecting dust unless you do something like run Windows 10.

That is until this Fall. A Microsoft developer is looking to push out native SteamVR support for Windows Mixed Reality headsets thereby resurrecting a vast amount of older VR headsets out there, allowing them to be used in the latest Windows 11 version and experience some of the great games out and future games as well.

The video below shows it in action. Before this, you'd have to run another program that would enable Windows Mixed Reality headsets to be used. This developer's implementation would allow you to go straight into SteamVR and bypass the old requirement. 

This is will be such a nice addition and allow those with older yet capable equipment to play VR again. For those who own the HP Reverb G2, still one of the best for games like flight and racing sims, it'll be great to not have to buy new equipment to experience those types of games again.

The current way it's done will be limited to NVIDIA cards, but it looks like someone from AMD has reached out to the developer to see about making this work for those types of video cards as well. Fingers crossed everything works out smoothly and I'll be able to plug the ole Reverb G2 back into my PC for some Microsoft Flight Simulator in VR again.

A new 3v3 fighting game based on the hit comic and TV show Invincible called "Invincible VS" was announced last week at the Xbox Showcase and the studio behind the game, "Quarter Up" has released a developer deep dive and behind the scenes feature for the game. 

The team went through the entire show along with the comic to make sure that a lot of the moves, poses, backgrounds, were as true to the source material as could be and the game will feature a lot of easter eggs as well for fans to look for.  Of course this game is going to be absolutely brutal with plenty of blood and gore just like the source material and the game features what they are calling "Overkill" moves where if you defeat the opponent with a certain move it will kill the opponent in spectacular fashion with heads exploding, limbs being blown off.

I wasn't to thrilled with the offering of games for 2026 showed off at a lot of the presentations that week but this is one game that I am actually very excited about and will be keeping my eye on leading up to release. 

Invincible VS launches in 2026

Nintendo promised earlier this week that a 15 minute presentation will be broadcast live, June 18th. Well it did, and here are all the details. This game looks...well...I won't say that yet.

The presentation opens with Donkey Kong and a character named Oddrock. Then, at the very top of the presentation, Donkey Kong beats his chest so hard that the vibrations crack Oddrock open to reveal that it's Pauline! And Pauline will be joining Donkey Kong on an adventure that looks to be absolutely...bananas. There, I said it. 

Donkey Kong Bananza is set up around the premise that Pauline has been captured by a group of evil Kongs called the Void Company. With DK's help, Pauline is wanting to escape her captors, and get back to the surface, so she can become a singer, and you get hints of her music throughout the trailer. She's come a long way since being just known as "Lady" back in the day, and as cool as it was for her to be in Super Mario Odyssey, it's really cool to see her new look here. She's got freckles, y'all. 

Donkey Kong has so many attacks at the ready, but it's hard not to refer to him as someone who smashes through things. He can punch, dive punch, or do a destructive roll for basic attacks. He has hand slap to collect items, and tear off rocks to throw them at enemies. He can also swing those same rocks, and use them to double jump. Donkey Kong can even surf on them after he throws them. They showed something off where if he picked up something softer, these objects can be built into bridges. What is this game?

You can go anywhere, and smash through anything. Make your way down, or up through practically anything. There are Ancient Ruins, which are essentially side quests. Finding gold builds Bananergy. You can find maps, to give you a lay of the land. There's even a Skill Tree?!

Pauline can get special powers from the Elders of the game, and transform into the more powerful Kong Bananza. There were two more transformations shown, Ostrich Bananza, and Zebra Bananza, where the latter walked on water. and the former dropped eggs from above. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. This game looks smooth like a banana smoothie. And now I want a banana smoothie.  

Without getting too much into this, because yes, we don't want to spoil the "a-peel" of the game, you'll have to watch more below, so you can see details about sonar leading to banana gems, Eelevators, and Teeleportation, which are not misspellings, and even a 2-player mode, where the second player controls Pauline, and can sing our destructive notes. She can even change the power of her notes, and you can do this locally, or through gameshare. There were even Amiibo announced.

This presentation was much better than the one we got for Mario Kart World. I think you should take a look at it, so you can look in awe like I did. I would also advise you to not try to figure out where this fits in the ol' storyline. You canon folks can sure make yourselves mad for no reason. Play the game. Donkey Kong Bananza releases July 17th. Preorders are live. The game will be on the card, for those of you who care about that sort of thing, and the Amiibo with DK and Pauline will be released the same day. 

Announced earlier today, Atari is teaming up with Incredible Technologies to bring six Golden Tee games to all home consoles and PC. Titled Golden Tee Arcade Classics, Atari promises the same faithful arcade gameplay you're used to shoving dollar bills in to beat your friends at the local watering hole. Do people still say that? 

The titles announced are Golden Tee 3D Golf, Golden Tee '97, Golden Tee '98, Golden Tee '99, Golden Tee 2K, and Golden Tee Classic. Also included is Shuffleshot, and World Class Bowling. Personally, World Class Bowling is my jam. All these games will feature multiplayer for up to 4 players, local. It will be released on PC via Steam and GOG, PS4/5, Xbox One and Series, and Nintendo Switch 1/2

I know what you're thinking...where's the trackball? Depending on the platform, you'll be able to use the controller, gamepad, touch screen, touch pad, digital on screen trackball, keyboard (?) and mouse. There's a practice mode to see what works for you. There's also a new mulligan mode, for those bad putters. I need mouse controls for my Switch 2, Atari. 

This digital collection will arrive July 17th, with the physical version for the Playstation 5 and the Nintendo Switch, coming October 24th. You will get 3 mini arcade marquees with any physical preorder. The July 17 release will coincide with the 2025 Golden Tee World Championship held at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. If you want to try your luck, you could win over $200,000 in prizes. I didn't know this was even a thing! 

We've already been hyped by the soundtrack and seen the launch trailer and even been hyped even more by the soundtrack in wave 2, but did you know you can actually play Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 right now today? If you pre-order that is... Both the Digital Deluxe and Standard versions of the game can get you access to The Foundry Demo, which actually launched back on June 8th. It's still live though, and will remain so until the game's release next month. The demo features two skaters (Hawk and Rayssa Leal) and two parks (College and Foundry of course) and a limited soundtrack. If you prefer to wait you can also jump in with Games Pass as Tony Hawk 3+4 will be available day one there as well. Or if you want to jump right in to the soundtrack we've got a Spotify playlist of it embedded below.

More info about pre-orders can be found on the official site. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 is available on all the things: Playstation, Switch, Xbox as well as Games Pass, and PC through Steam or Battle.net. The official release date is July 11th. I've been looking forward to this since I dreamed of getting the maps from 3 back in my 1+2 next-gen update review, which itself was a follow up from Eric's full review that earned a 9. If that first remake was done so well I have high hopes for this second iteration. 

Remember Bop It? The children’s toy that was like Simon, but instead of tones it called out instructions like flick it, pull it, twist it, and, of course, bop it. That’s what we sounded like in FBC: Firebreak, except it was whack it, wet it, and shock it. That’s the “suggestive” part I was talking about.

Firebreak is a cooperative shooter for up to three players, and each player picks one of three kits. The Fix Kit repairs stuff. The Splash Kit soaks stuff. And the Jump Kit powers stuff. That’s the gist. But how it plays out in a mission turns a decently clever shooter into a chaotic chemistry experiment.

While John liked the Fix Kit and wielded a big wrench, he did not appreciate us telling him to “whack it.” Joseph, who said he's, "Splash Kit for life," embraced his role as the person that would “get me wet.” And with the Jump Kit, I had no problems giving things “The Shocker.” Yes, we're dumb, yes it’s funny, and somehow, it’s all vital to your survival.

These three roles—these three kits—form a lopsided love triangle. One kit benefits everybody. One kit hurts everybody. One kit doesn’t affect anybody directly, but the mission can’t function without them.

The Splash Kit is the firefighter medic. They put out fires in the environment, extinguish flames on teammates, and soak enemies to weaken or slow them—which is especially useful because enemies are stronger when they’re on fire.

The Jump Kit is the crowd-control wildcard, powerful and a little dangerous. Every zap can hurt enemies and friends alike. Shocking a teammate is bad. Shocking a soaked enemy? Good. Shocking a boss who’s just been drenched? Excellent. 

The Fix Kit is the puzzle solver—even if they're solving puzzles with two good whacks from a wrench. It doesn’t help or hinder your friends. But it brings helpful assets online better and faster than the other kits. Interacting with control panels, rebooting generators, and getting mission objectives back online is their job.

Firebreak doesn’t throw you into a shooting gallery. It throws you into an often burning building with malfunctioning fire suppression systems, aggressive mutant enemies, and a never-ending list of repairs and objectives. It’s loud, it’s messy, and everything is on fire—including your friends. 

The co-op synergy is the point of Firebreak. Yes, you can solo missions. But it's nowhere near as fun. The splash player preps targets for the shock player. The repair player needs everyone else to keep fires under control while they fix the next objective. Success depends on communicating and coordinating in real time—which is also where all the absurd, suggestive callouts happen. 

You’re not just shooting zombies, you’re cleaning up disasters. Enemies show up, and there are times when the only solution is bullets, bullets, bullets. But the game is equally happy throwing broken shower valves and fuse-blown ammo refill stations at you along the way.

The verdict so far is that Firebreak is scrappy and a little rough around the edges. The visual style walks a weird line between grounded and goofy. The environments are sometimes maze-like and signposting is sometimes insufficient. The pacing is decently erratic, with a reasonable amount of downtime between panic attacks. But all of that is made up for in personality—and laughs.

It’s the kind of game where the deeper the teamwork gets, the funnier it becomes. Like a reverse party game, it’s less about competing and more about coordinating under pressure—even if it's badly, at first. I refused to consult the developer’s walkthrough documents. John is smarter than me and watched a few gameplay videos. Joseph’s a natural and didn’t need help. And Jason? He was the most patient among us—PlayStation Network kicked him out of the game a dozen times. When he finally joined our triage trio, it booted him again after ten minutes.

By the end, we were nowhere near being a pro Firebreak team. And it was great.

It’s too early to say if Firebreak has staying power. But for now? We're happy yelling out whack it, wet it, and give it the shocker.