While at EVO, there was a line tat the Capcom booth to play as Sagat before the public had access to play as the long standing Ryu rival. There was a loophole though. If you wanted to play Sagat in Street Fighter 6 for the Nintendo Switch 2, you could skip the line. For some reason, there was hardly anyone who wanted to play the Switch 2 version, and I thought that was weird. So here's that footage. 

Then I wondered, why does Street Fighter 6 on the Nintendo Switch 2 get such a bad rep? I asked Capcom to send over a copy, and man, I kind of love it. I don't care that there are less people in the background. I don't care what Andrade Jr. looks like in the background. Sure, there are less people in the background, and the story mode runs a little less than expected during fights, but as far as online, and the other modes, the Switch 2 version runs pretty good for me. In handheld, it even runs at 120FPS, if you turn it on. Ignore my digs into the Nintendo 64, and a quick look at the new Shinobi game, and view that here. 

If you STILL don't believe me, Maximilian Dood did a deeper dive into the Nintendo Switch 2 version, and his video is here.  He calls it "crazy impressive", while calling out some caveats. And if you don't believe us, when we say this version holds up, then get it for yourself. You can get it now with seasons 1-2 characters, or the vanilla version. 

Evan and Stax led us in a live stream this morning while revealing the NBA 2K26 The City mode. There's a plaza now, instead of winding roads, and everything you can do, you can see, if you spin the camera around. While you spin that camera around, you will also notice that the City runs at 60FPS on the Playstation 5, and Xbox Series. Nintendo Switch 2 will also have The City, but will run at 30FPS, in case you cared. 

The parks are remastered, and feature some links to the past. There will be a 25% rep bonus for competing in the parks. Season one will be Skyline Park, and will change every 6 weeks. 2K gave us a look at other parks, Hamilton Station, City Heights, and courts from 2K16 like Old Town MyPark, Sunset Beach MyPark and Rivet City MyPark Championship

There will be Park MVPs. One designated player will get an MVP marker, will get 5x rep, 5x VC. You can seek them out, and take them down. You can also go on win streaks, and you are immortalized on that specific court. If you get more that 20 wins, you get 1000 VC for every win after 20. However, if you snap someone's streak, you can get all the VC earned per the win streak. Snap a 20 win streak, get 20,000 VC.

Crews can consist of up to 50 players. As far as customization, you can upload your logo, and you can receive your own crew rewards. You can assemble the avengers, and take another team down, or send a member of your crew to take down some streak breakers. Take your squad, and dominate the rewards. Active members reap the rewards. 

Leaderboards update daily, but now the top player will be displayed outside the parks. You can also see how you're ranked geographically. You can see how you stack up by country, or state, and you can check your progress. You can also check for crews rankings. 

Pro-AM Summit consists of 3V3 and 5V5 tournaments happen every three weekends.  If you play 10 games in the pro-am summit, you automatically qualify for the tournament. Your top 5 performances will be added to the leaderboard. And, as you know, the top team gets some good rewards. 

Proving Grounds has a new logo, and a new UFC looking court, with a full crowd. End of season rewards include the animated banner, and top ranked in proving grounds will receive 100,000 VC, and permanent unlimited skill boosts in one of the categories, meaning that you should probably shoot for top ranked every season. 

Street Kings is street ball in one place, instead of spread out all over the city. You can grab up to two people, and take down the bosses in the Street Kings mode.. Again, the rewards are plenty, and include a Shaquille O' Neal bobble head. But this is the street ball mode, and I'll be here most of the time. 

Challenges care thresholds you can meet while playing in The City mode. There are four categories. You had your daily challenges, and there are 3 that update every day. If you complete all three, you get double rep for 1 hour. If you have the pro pass, and hall of fame pass, you get additional bonus VC. There are starter challenges, for those casuals (like me), and these are sort of the tutorial challenges. Then there are lifetime challenges that update for the duration of the game which unlocks cap breakers, uniforms, and double rooms. These rewards don't reset, and stay with you for the lifetime of the game. Lastly, there are Season Challenges, for every single season, and if you know NBA2K, you know seasons are a plenty. 

Swap build is a new feature. The only way to explain this, is that if you have another build that you need to swap out, you can do it on the fly. No more do you have to quit the mode, or the server, go back to the main menu, get the right build, go back in, find that game, and then play. With swap build, it's a button, another button, and done. 

MyCourt is your own place. The court is fully customizable. You can change the wall, the court, the floor, the basketball hoop, and even put clothes on the mannequin. This is also where you can access the Learn2K module, where I will be. 

Evan wanted to make sure you knew that the REC, and the Theater are also returning after the MyCareer trailer aired. You're still MP. Deal with that. 

You can check out the 45 minute stream replay below, and read the developer diary as well. 

The reviews are pouring in, and Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is a couple of days out. I personally am still in love with Streets of Rage 4, so it's safe to say that with Lizardcube behind the ninjitsu, the game looks good, and if it's anywhere close to the demo, it's going to be a good time. 

On August 29th you will be able to play the whole thing on Playstation 4/5, Nintendo Switch 1 and 2, Steam, and whatever you're calling an Xbox nowadays. The launch trailer is below, with a little something I came up with before we even knew a Shinobi game was coming. I'm hoping Sega loves it. 

I had a chance to play a half-hour demo for Deadpool VR, the new superhero action game coming to Meta Quest 3 and 3S on November 18th. I played on Quest 3, and found the game to be ludicrously intuitive and smooth to play. It's clear that developers at Twisted Pixel and Oculus Studios have been polishing this thing up to a brilliant sheen; Deadpool feels poised to join Iron Man and Batman in the top tier of VR superheroes.

In the section of the game I played, Deadpool is storming a SHIELD helecarrier. The demo did not make clear what his intentions were, beyond killing a bunch of dudes and wrecking a bunch of stuff (the demo kinda drops the player into the action without a ton of context, though it does feel as though it takes place towards the beginning of the game). What the half hour makes clear is that Deadpool VR is absolutely nailing the feel of the character, both through the voice work by Neil Patrick Harris and the liberal and bloody use of Deadpool's twin pistols and katanas. 

Sorry, homies, you gotta click through to see the trailer. Age gating...what can you do?

This is one of those smart VR games that returns your gear to its holster whenever you drop it or throw it away, so you can easily reach behind your back to grab your katanas whenever a baddie gets too close (or you get bored and wanna chop some dude down the middle). Enemies also drop their weapons when you take them down, and they hover in the air for a few moments, allowing you to grab them for a quick combo. 

Toward the end of the demo, Deadpool gets access to a grapple gun, which allowed me to grapple all over a room while spraying guys below me with an endless hail of lead. The mechanic reminded me of the VR hijinks you can pull off in Sairento VR, combining double jumps, wall runs, and grappling to completely stymie your foes and take them down before they know what happened. It's a total hoot.

I can't say enough about Neil Patrick Harris' voice work. The developers absolutely picked the right guy to step into the red and black jumpsuit for this game, as Harris has the comedic chops to carry the endless prattling of Deadpool in a way that will soon have you forgetting other actors you've seen (and heard) in the role. Harris can deliver the sarcasm, references, and dirty non-sequiturs with the best of them. 

My time with the demo has be very jazzed to play the full game. From the trailer, it seems that there will be a lot more to Deadpool VR than just storming a SHEILD installation and chopping up a bunch of faceless bad guys (not that it wasn't fun). The game seems to be delivering the perfect combo of chaos, hilarity, and violence, and I'm absolutely excited to see what surprises the final game has in store when it hits late this fall.

You can wishlist Deadpool VR here. 

Streumon Studio, makers of Space Hulk: Deathwing and Necromunda: Hired Guns are cooking up something diabolically special with their next release, Daimon Blades. Streumon launched it’s first title, E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy back in 2011, and is returning to the same universe with Daimon Blades – though with a very different take.

Whereas E.Y.E. was something of a cyberpunk 4-player action game, Daimon Blades is going full dark fantasy. We got an early hands-off look at Daimon Blades, and in action, the game looks quite a lot like certain incarnations of DOOM, but with knights and swords instead of DOOM Guy and guns. Daimon Blades looks as though it plays fast – like, really fast – with players dashing all over the map, carving through demons with gushes of blood spraying in every direction.

Daimon Blades is retaining E.Y.E.’s 4-player structure, but it’s important to note that solo players can play the whole game offline if they wish. Solo or with friends, players queue up for expeditions from the small hub base into…well…hell, maybe? There is a roguelike structure in place, which allows teams to become more powerful during each run, while gathering loot and materials to bring back to the hub for more permanent progression. If you don’t find the right gear during a run, the crafting mechanics might get you where you want to be. Players can create weapons, skins, amulets, and rings.

Streumon is purposely leaving progression open-ended; players can create any sort of character they wish through upgrades and gear changes. There are no classes, and when I asked them if I might be able to create a healer, the answer was “Sure, probably.” You can horde your gear, and change focus as needed by swapping out your stuff.

Players can expect to die a lot in Daimon Blades, but dying isn’t necessarily the end of your run. Your magic weapons (the Daimon Blades, get it?) will resurrect you, but each time that happens, a “corruption” meter fills a bit more. If you allow it to fill all the way, it’s game over for real, and you lose a lot of your loot. But reach the dungeon’s end and you are queueing back up for another run, with the benefit of whatever goodies you escaped with.

I’m gonna be honest here – I didn’t think Daimon Blades would be my jam. I tend to prefer a slower pace in games, and ripping around a dungeon slashing dudes isn’t always my idea of a good time. But after seeing Daimon Blades in action, I gotta say, this game looks freaking bonkers, and I’m probably more excited to play it than any other game this fall. Keep an eye on this one, y’all. Just not too close, as those Daimon Blades might poke your eye right out.

Daimon Blades is scheduled to release on Steam Early Access on September 3.

During last Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 race at Daytona, iRacing Studios revealed the cover stars for NASCAR 25. Gracing this year’s key art will be back-to-back Daytona 500 champion, William Byron, reigning NASCAR All-Star Race champion, Christopher Bell, and 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion, Ryan Blaney. You can see the new cover art featuring all three drivers below.

The iRacing team also dropped the official soundtrack for NASCAR 25, and the biggest news is that the track list will include Molly Hatchet’s “Flirtin’ With Disaster”. They nailed that one. It’s a big-name soundtrack too, featuring artists such as System of a Down, Chevelle, Breaking Benjamin, Jelly Roll, and Killer Mike, among others.

NASCAR 25 launches October 14^th for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with a Steam release taking a P3 position at some point in the future.

As you probably already know by now, I was a part of NBA2k26 Community Day, courtesy of 2K/Visual Concepts. With it came a couple of interviews, and some in depth gameplay for this year's iteration of the game. The footage only contains a little bit of a WNBA game, and an NBA game, but there's more to come. 

To be honest about it, I did think the game moved a little smoother, and looked better. I had to get my rhythm shooting back into play, but once I did, I was off and away. This footage contains my filthy casual gameplay, and a little hint of what's to come. We attended a Golden State Valkyries game, and I must say, the W may have made a new fan out of me. 

For now, take a look at this, and look for more footage and details as we get ready for the release of NBA2K26. Early access starts on August 29th.  

For those of you who don't know, Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection already has their pre-orders up. We got an exclusive look at the Mortal Kombat Trilogy and we had quite the conversation with Stephen Frost from Digital Eclipse. He told me that he had more surprises for the game, and at Gamescom, they announced Mortal Kombat Mythologies, and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces. The video interview was admittingly not my best work, and is therefore omitted from this article. 

Unusual Suspect of the Games N Moorer family Q The Gift, put his own legacy on the line against another conglomerate. Kenny from YO! Videogames took part in Atari's challenge a Kreator, and needless to say, Q got absolutely Mortal Kombat Annihilated.  It was a deadly alliance, but ultimately, it was a trilogy of losses. He got beat by me, and then by me again, off camera. 

I'm sorry to waste such internet space, but here's the video from Vegas. At least he got a commemorative pin for his performance. He did beat me at Invincible VS, but you know...FRIENDSHIP!

I had no idea how badly I was missing out when I slept on StunForge and HypeTrain Digital's Nordhold when it initially released last March. Nordhold is currently sitting at an 80 on Metacritic, and Steam reviews are Very Positive, so evidently the word got out to the gaming public and I just missed it. Well, I'm here to rectify that situation.

Nordhold is a tower defense game, but don't let that deter you from trying it out. This is the deepest, most complex tower defense game I've ever played. It's like 30% tower defense, 30% economy management, 30% roguelike mechanics, and 10% cussing. The cussing comes from me.

Nordhold is the epitome of an "easy to pick up, tough to master" game. Yes, it is a tower defense game, and you do plop your towers along a procedurally generated path, and yes, they do shoot at mobs that march dutifully through whatever dire crucible you have assembled along the sides to kill them. But the game is so much more than that. Usually in tower defense games, you are protecting a gate, trying to keep a certain number of baddies from reaching it. Nordhold is the first game I've played that asks the question "What's on the other side of the gate?"

Turns out, there's a whole city over there. And in the city is a veritable ton of structures you can build, which either generate materials for your towers or perks for your playthrough. Oh, and you have to build houses and hire workers to produce your resources. And each structure offers a mountain of perks, some of which are only active for one run, and some of which are permanent. The economy in Nordhold is delicate - mismanage one resource or have a worker in the wrong mill for one wave, and you might be toast. You really, really have to pay attention.

At the end of almost every wave, the game offers roguelike-style perks, which can completely alter the mechanics of your towers, making or breaking your run. And at the end of each run (you are gonna die, a lot), you get Honor points, which can be used to unlock more permanent perks and bonuses. 

The whole thing feels a lot like a real-time strategy game with a tower defense game tacked onto it, all of it under a roguelike umbrella. The combination is explosively addictive. I'm to the point where a run takes me anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour, so that "one more run" feeling (present in spades) can easily chew up an afternoon before you know it. 

Nordhold came to my attention this week because the team behind it released a huge update, with a full new game mode that adds even more permanent perk options in the form of a massive skill tree that can be layered on top of the already insanely deep perk menu. There is a new tower type and all sorts of other goodies - including new power banners and skills, and an in-game skin shop (no microtransactions!). 

I really didn't know what I was doing yet in this video, but it still gives a taste of the gameplay.

Since I engaged with it, Nordhold has been gobbling up hours of my life, and I've been grinning the entire time. This game takes the tower defense genre and expands it in every possible direction. Nordhold is crystalized video game addiction, and I can't recommend it highly enough. 

There is so much content in the NBA 2K games nowadays, that each mode needs its own deep dive. Most recently, the team at 2K has shared what upgrades and changes to expect in the MyNBA and MyGM modes when NBA 2K26 launches on September 5th.

For starters, The Playoffs mode can now be played entirely online, meaning that you and your friends can set up and seed a 16-team playoff to play through in its entirety against each other. Under the hood, much improved simulation logic is being added in. So, if you’re someone who likes to simulate big chunks of a season (or an entire season) of a career, you’ll now have the freedom to toggle between three simulation options: normal, smarter, and faster. Smarter sims will use more advanced trade logic and variables to better mirror real-life strategies, but they will take longer to process. Conversely, faster sims will run through seasons more quickly, but the AI logic won’t have time to consider every possible outcome accounting for every variable.

Elsewhere, you’ll now be able to insert your MyPLAYER into a franchise roster if you please, and arena banners are now dynamic, meaning new ones will get added as your accomplishments stack up over the course of your career. MyNBA Directives improves upon GM goals from your team governor, rewarding you with a bigger budget for achieving specific goals, which can then be used to target premier free agents, or renovate your facilities. Along those lines, there is now a bigger emphasis on managing your facilities to provide boosts to player attributes, fan attendance, player recruitment, and more.

Looking more specifically at the MyGM mode, each NBA team will now have a scenario based off the real-world team that you’ll have to tackle as GM. For example, the Dallas Mavericks drafting Cooper Flagg number one overall and making him the new face of the franchise. A new MyGM Building will be your home base all team activities. Work with staff, watch team practices, and take care of tasks all in one place. And finally, MyGM mode can now be played “unranked”, allowing you to edit players, import custom rosters, and adjust gameplay sliders to create a custom experience.

I’m going to rest my fingers now. We’ve got one final Courtside Report to look forward to next week detailing the changes to The City so stay tuned.