Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 is only a few months away and today they release another behind the scenes feature confirming another skater in the game. This time however it's not a new skater making their debut but the confirmation of a classic skater making their return. 

Bam Margera, star of Jackass and Viva La Bam and made his debut in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, will be returning in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 although it seems that he will be returning as a secret skater. This is interesting because secret skaters were a staple of the original series but sadly there weren't any when Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 was released. I really hope this means that there will be even more secret skaters in game when the game releases. 

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 releases on July 11th for PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Series X and PC.

Back in 2002, Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution was in development for the Game Boy Advance but was cancelled due to WayForward not being able to find a publisher. Over two decades later and we now have the second...err, sixth Shantae game with Limited Run games publishing the game on actual Game Boy Advance cartridges. If you don't have a GBA or don't want to purchase a new GBA game in 2025, Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution will be hitting PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC this summer. A few years ago I played through the other five games in the series and I'm looking forward to this one hitting modern system.

According to D&D Beyond—that's the official Dungeons & Dragons website where you can build characters, etc.—the Artificer is the least-chosen character class across all character classes. From most popular to least popular it goes:

• Fighter
• Rogue
• Barbarian
• Wizard
• Paladin
• Warlock
• Cleric
• Ranger
• Bard
• Druid
• Sorcerer
• Monk
• Artificer

Among a million other reasons, this could be because the Artificer is only available to play if you (or your Dungeon Master) has purchased Eberron: Rising from the Last War or Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron. That's because the Artificer was originally a class unique to the Eberron game world. 

While Artificers are no longer unique to Eberron in D&D 5e, Artificers were still excluded from the 2024 D&D Player's Handbook. You can find all the classes listed above, but for the Core Rulebooks commemorating D&D's 50th Anniversary, Artificer was once again not included.

All of this leads to the economic irony that it will now cost you $19.99 to play the least-played character class in D&D 5e. 

Its starting-at-$20 price tag is about to raise the value of this shunned class in the Eberron: Forge of the Artificer Rules Expansion. "Rules Expansion" is newish terminology, but it will operate similar to expanded rules like Tasha's Guide to Everything, Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, or even the new Miyazaki-inspired Obojima: Tales from the Tall Grass.

Here's what will be in Eberron: Forge of the Artificer:

• 4 revised Artificer subclasses and 1 new subclass: the Cartographer
• 5 revised species, 17 backgrounds, and 28 feats
• New spells, bastions, and 9 magic items
• 3 distinct, genre-based campaign templates and 1 map for building fantasy noir, political thriller, and pulp adventure campaigns in the world of Eberron
• 25 new monsters, each inspired by a campaign model

Forge of the Artificer is available for pre-order now, with a release date of August 19, 2025. But as with all things on D&D Beyond these last couple years, pre-ordering will probably get you a week or two of early access before it hit the open market.

Zen Studios has NO IDEA what they have done with the creation of their Pinball FX VR platform: they have caused a war amongst some of the GN staff. There are a few of us who are constantly battling it out for the top spot on the scoreboards for the various VR tables (more on that coming VERY soon).

The war is about to get even more intense as Zen has just announced that the next pack of tables for your VR-game rooms is set to drop on May 15, 2025… next week! Hitting the platform that day will be the first three Williams table packs, which will bring a total of nine classic pinball tables to life in our headsets. The packs releasing contain the following:

• Williams Pinball Volume 1
  • The Getaway: High Speed 2
  • Junk Yard
  • Medieval Madness

• Williams Pinball Volume 2
  • Attack from Mars
  • Black Rose
  • The Party Zone

• Williams Pinball Volume 3
  • The Champion Pub
  • Safe Cracker
  • Theatre of Magic

I am particularly excited for Theatre of Magic, which was one of my favorite tables growing up. These nine, plus the two new Tomb Raider tables, I guess we had better start clearing room for these in my house (because the AR view is the BEST way to play these)!

Huge news from today's Pinball Bytes - the semi-regular direct program from Zen Studios. In a surprise announcement, Zen Studios revealed that it is bringing a new Tomb Raider pinball pack to all of its pinball platforms, including Pinball FX VR. 

Hey, thanks for the shoutout at the 5:30 mark!

The new pack includes two tables, Tomb Raider Pinball: Adventures of Lara Croft and Tomb Raider Pinball: Secrets of Croft Manor, which will be coming on Zen Pinball World, Pinball FX, Pinball FX VR, and Legends Pinball 4K.

It is particularly thrilling that the Tomb Raider pack will be arriving on Pinball FX VR, which has become pretty much my favorite VR application of all time. I cannot begin to say how many hours I have in Pinball FX VR, and the Gaming Nexus gang has regularly been engaging in friendly score competitions across the various leaderboards. With this announcement (and the fact that Zen Studios also announced nine Williams tables coming May 15), I can't see that stopping any time soon. 

This also leads to some pretty intriguing questions about the VR arcade itself. Are there going to be new rooms added to display all the new tables? Is there a new dedicated Tomb Raider room? And what about new soundtrack music to play on our old-school tape deck? I'm excited to learn the answers.

Click below for some of each table's features (cribbed directly from today's press release). Tomb Raider Pinball will be releasing on June 15 and will be playable on (deep breath) PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, Meta Quest, and Legends Pinball 4K. 

There was palpable fear in the Destiny community that Bungie's newest IP, Marathon, was marking the beginning of the end for their most beloved IP, Destiny 2. However, those fears were pretty much put to bed during yesterday's livestream and announcement for the next chapter(s) in the Destiny storyline. It's not just that Bungie promised "years" more in content, it's that they are also showing a clear plan to fill the gap left by the destruction of the Witness - the over-arching big bad that has been working behind the scenes and then into the spotlight for the entirety of the game thus far. The Witness is dead, and thus closes the saga of Light and Dark but now we finally see the Nine stepping out of the shadows and enter into the Fate Saga. The Nine are beings that existed before even the Witness and before the Traveller brought the light to the Sol system. They've been teased or referenced often throughout these last ten years; each of the Nine representing a celestial body in the system - the eight planets (sorry Pluto, you didn't make the cut) and the sun itself. While much of the detail in the story will wait for it to play out, the narrative team clearly have a plan and have filled the world by somehow raising the stakes ever so higher by asking the very question "are we bound by fate?"

Which brings us to The Edge of Fate, the next expansion set to release July 15th. This past year the game has pretty much been in maintenance mode. There was content, three "Episodes" told in three Acts per Episode; but most of that narrative fell flat. Things are picking up again with players jumping into the newest mode, Rite of the Nine, ahead of the next Expansion's release with new loot to earn and an event that most I've heard describe as extremely fun and rewarding. I haven't actually dipped in myself, but hope to this weekend after my schedule clears up a bit. 

The table below lays out the upcoming content drops and points out what is free to all vs. what is behind the next expansions, which are now planned to be on more of a 1/2 year cadence with the first in about 2 months followed by the next one, Renegades - a Star Wars inspired expansion, in early December. Major updates are planned in between expansions which will provide new stuff for everybody.  

It's been about a year since we saw our first real glimpse of Grand Theft Auto VI, but this new trailer really blows it away. The look and fidelity of the new trailer is absolutely amazing. From the character models, recreation of Florida, to how realistic the lighting looks, Rockstar looks to have gone to the next level in making a Grand Theft Auto game visually stunning.

The two main characters are Jason and Lucia, a couple that looks like they going to get in a lot of trouble. The interactions between characters are really well done and feel very natural. The other cast of characters look like they'll exhibit some of that unique Florida flavor that we've seen in the news.

It's sure a big update from how the original Vice City looks. The game was recently delayed until May 26, 2026 so while it's disappointing that we'll have to wait one more year for it, it looks like it'll definitely be worth the wait. That is, if you're s console player. Us PC folks will probably have to wait until 2027. Until then, check out one truly great trailer for what should be one of the biggest games of 2026.

Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation’s Studio Business Group, penned a PlayStation Blog post today announcing a brand-new team has been formed under the PlayStation Studios umbrella. The new studio is called teamLFG and was previously an incubation team within Bungie working on a multiplayer project that has been circulated under the working title of “Project Gummybears” in the past. teamLFG is now a full-fledged development studio comprised of developers who have previously worked on games like Halo, Destiny, League of Legends, Fortnite, Roblox, and Rec Room.

There’s no word on when a proper reveal of this exciting-sounding multiplayer project will take place, but the studio shared a bit more about what we can expect from the game in its very first press release:

“Hello, world. It’s a delight to meet you, and we’re very grateful to be joining PlayStation Studios.

Our studio is headquartered in Bellevue, WA, with team members working both on-site and remotely throughout the U.S. and Canada. We are a team composed not just of industry veterans who have shipped titles like Destiny, Halo, League of Legends, Fortnite, Roblox, and Rec Room, but also industry newcomers with fresh creative perspectives and skills. We are passionate about exceptional action-based gameplay, moment-to-moment game feel, and richly social virtual worlds. 
 
The “LFG” in “teamLFG” stands for “Looking For Group.” We are driven by a mission to create games where players can find friendship, community, and belonging. We want our players to feel excited when they log on to discover their teammates already hanging out online. We want our players to recognize familiar names and to make myths and memes out of each other. We want our players to love remembering that one time where they pulled off That Play that changed the whole story of the match. As we say on the team – dat’s da good stuff.
 
We will make immersive multiplayer worlds propelled by action games that players can learn, play, and master for countless hours. We want to build our games with our communities, inviting players to be a part of our development process through early access playtests. It’s critical that we stay nimble enough to react to player feedback, not just in our lead-up to launch, but throughout live service as we continue to grow the game and community for years to come. 
 
Our first game is a team-based action game that draws inspiration from fighting games, platformers, MOBAs, life sims, and frog-type games.  Players will inhabit a lighthearted, comedic world set in brand-new, mythic, science-fantasy universe. We can’t wait to reveal more. 

‘Til then, we’ll do our best! Thanks for reading.”

– teamLFG

There are a lot of games starting to roll out. Like a lot. As such, it can be tough to catch the titles flying under the radar. Having keenly kept my ear to the gaming streets, I'd like to offer one for your radar, dear readers. With just two days until it releases on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, action-RPG Empyreal has shared a new look at the characters you will interact with and assist throughout the game. As part of an expedition to an alien planet, you join several other expeditioners on a journey to explore a mysterious Monolith. Each member of your team will need your help in various ways, with each quest having multiple endings and differing rewards, depending on the outcome of your adventures. It sounds like some quests may even mean life or death for members of the crew.

You can check out the brand-new trailer below, which also includes a few snippets of gameplay. Empyreal will cost $29.99 at launch, with a 10% discount on Steam, where you can also download a free demo.

The AC-130 levels in the Call of Duty series are some of the more memorable set pieces. But can they be extracted into a standalone game in and of itself? That's what Metal Thunder, and the lone developer behind the game, is trying to answer with a resounding YES! 

Ever wished CoD's AC-130 missions were a full game? So did I, and that’s how Metal Thunder was born! Blast off the insurgency! #IndieDev #Roguelite #Survivors #AC130

— Tolga Coskun (@tolgatron.bsky.social) November 16, 2024 at 7:58 PM

The publishers describe the game as a mix of those CoD levels with an enemy horde rogue-like akin to a Vampire Survivors. Take down waves of nemeses threatening your base from the safety on high of a flying fortress and use level-ups on your arsenal of weapons to prep for stronger waves to come. The randomization in the waves promise to provide greater replay-ability, and the "Very Positive" Steam Reviews seems to suggest Tolga is on target. 

Metal Thunder is currently in Early Access over on Steam. No firm release date has yet been announced.