Gaming

Originally announced in October of 2022 when the PC version was celebrating its 25th anniversary, Age of Empires Mobile, developed by TiMi Studio Group and World’s Edge, will finally be released on October 17th.

Ahead of the launch, the game is now available for preorder on both the App Store and Google Play.

APU, audio, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth drivers are now available, according to Valve. Just note that the audio driver is only for audio over headphones or Bluetooth — speaker drivers are coming later.

Personally, I’m still waiting for Valve to release the long-promised ability to dual-boot Windows.

Originally released earlier this year, Bull Airs is opening up preorders again on August 16th for its heavily customized Nike Air Jordan 1 sneakers that draw inspiration from the original Game Boy and the Game Boy Color.

You can get either ShoeBoys design or a mixed pair for $350, or save $100 by dropping $600 on a bundle that includes a pair of each.

But it’s not Elder Scrolls VI. Instead, Bethesda’s sword and board series is getting its own version of Fallout Shelter called The Elder Scrolls: Castles. You’ll be tasked with building the perfect medieval domicile with all the amenities to keep your subjects happy, healthy, and therefore, less likely to stab you.

The Elder Scrolls: Castles launches on iOS and Android on September 10th.

Trombone Champ: Unflattened, which is launching this fall, looks just as silly as the flatscreen game.

Colombian singer-songwriter Karol G will be the star of Fortnite Festival’s fifth season, which launches tomorrow. Like with other Festival seasons, there will be themed items based on the artist that you can acquire.

Epic Games also will be hosting a playable Karol G concert inside Fortnite (made by Magnopus, the team behind the recent Metallica show) that debuts on August 23rd.

Nvidia has partnered up with modding repository CurseForge to support 25 of the most popular WoW Addons — including options for UI customization, combat, action bars, and quest helpers — for Ultimate and Priority subcribers of the cloud streaming service.

The mods are pre-installed ready for launch, always updated to the latest release, and don’t require users to have a CurseForge account.

Acer to The Verge, today:

We are offering a two-year extended warranty for affected 13th and 14th Gen Intel Core desktop processors causing instability issues. While we are working closely with Intel to address the situation through microcode updates, customers experiencing such issues should contact their nearest Acer service center.

I think that’s just about everyone. Now we see if everyone makes exchanges difficult... or easy.

Lenovo previously had an unsatisfactory answer, but it’s come around:

For affected processors, we will honor Intel’s 2-year processor warranty extension and recommend customers impacted by any CPU instability issues to contact Lenovo service for support.

Fuller statement in our big story:

Previously only available in purple or aqua, the $29 Playdate Cover that magnetically attaches to the crankable handheld to protect its unlit screen is now available in a third option: the Pizza Cover.

It looks like a miniature pizza box without the grease stains or a delicious late night snack inside, and is now available through the Playdate website in “limited quantities.”

Ok, so it’s only been 10 years since the last Dragon Age game launched. But after years of development updates, high-profile departures, and layoffs that saw long-time Dragon Age veterans leave the studio, BioWare is finally ready to reveal when we can expect Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Tune in to YouTube tomorrow at 12 PM ET for a brand new trailer and release date information.

You’ll be able to play this new version of Sony’s narrative / horror game starting October 4th on PS5 and PC. In addition to updated visuals (built using Unreal Engine 5), the game will offer “revised cinematography,” a reworked prologue, and new collectibles, according to a PlayStation blog post.

But note that on PC, you’ll need a PlayStation Network account, like with God of War Ragnarök.

What’s more impressive than Saudi Arabian gamer Ibrahim Al-Nasser’s collection of hundreds of retro consoles is that 444 of them are actively connected to a single TV.

The setup includes over 30 RCA switchers for the older hardware and at least 12 HDMI switchers. A detailed spreadsheet lets Al-Nasser know which switcher needs to be powered up to play a specific console.

Valve is making this change and its recent upgrades for game demos in part because it saw a lot of Steam store pages that were becoming advertisements for other Steam store pages. (There will still be a section in store pages with dedicated link fields.) Valve also wanted to help reduce confusion around “prologue” games.

If you’re on the hunt for a wireless controller with extensive compatibility and ‘90s design aesthetics, the new 8BitDo Pro 2 Special Edition could mark the end of your search.

It features Hall effect joysticks, support for the Switch, iOS, macOS, Windows, Android, and SteamOS, can store and quickly switch between three customized profiles, and comes in a new transparent green or blue finish.

To help celebrate the 15th anniversary of the game, Lush has released a collection of 13 different soaps, bath bombs, and shower gels that look straight out of the Overworld.

Available now online, the collection ranges in price from $5.50 for a TNT Block bath bomb, to $20 for an Ender Dragon Egg bath bomb that dissolves to reveal dragon-shaped soap inside.

The PlayStation Store listing for Rockstar’s western briefly described an unannounced PC version of the game. The apparent mistake was corrected, but not before Eurogamer noticed — and The Internet Archive grabbed a snapshot.

According to that archived page, the game will get everything from last year’s console updates, plus “increased resolutions and framerates, multiple displays, and other accessories, plus spatial surround sound.”

It’s submitted Rocket League Sideswipe and the Epic Games Store, too, and it expects to launch the store on iOS in the EU “soon,” according to a post on X.

She played both Ash’s companion and Team Rocket’s female lead from 1997 to 2015 across TV, film, and commercials. She also voiced some Pokémon like Jigglypuff and Goldeen, including in the Smash Bros. games.

Her sister Laurie Orr and her “Ash” co-star Veronica Taylor both confirmed the news. Here’s her IMDB page with other roles, including Your Lie in April and Hunter x Hunter.

Correction: Lillis was 55, not 46.

In addition to revealing a new Marvel-themed Fortnite season, Disney and Epic Games also announced at D23 that three Disney villains (Maleficent, Cruella de Vil and Captain Hook), three Incredibles characters (seemingly Mr. Incredible, Mrs. Incredible, and Frozone), and two Star Wars characters (IG-11 and Moff Gideon — and a new Grogu backbling) are coming to the game.

Disney invested $1.5 billion in Epic Games earlier this year.

The infamous horror game collaboration between Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro drummed up enormous hype before the project was cancelled amid game developer Konami’s fallout with Kojima.

PS4 owners who managed to install P.T. before it was removed in 2015 can still enjoy playing the demo while we mourn what could have been the best Silent Hill game released since 2001.

During the Horizons: Disney Experiences panel at this year’s D23 event, Kevin Feige announced that Marvel’s next collab will, unsurprisingly, revolve around Doctor Doom. But the most promising thing about the event’s trailer is the number of X-Men (like Emma Frost) who popped up.