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Logitech releases an updated to their wireless charging mousepad, the Powerplay 2

by: John -

I've been using the original Logitech Powerplay mousepad forever and it's served me quite well. It's kept my Logitech wireless mice charged and ready to go and serves as a nice little mousepad. Mine's getting pretty long in the tooth though as the edges are starting to come up.

Today, Logitech is unveiling their update to it, aptly named Logitech Powerplay 2. The Powerplay 2 is thinner than the original, coming in at 3.5mm in thickness and Logitech says they also increased the size of the charging area by 15 percent. It's cloth on top so it has a soft feel to it.

It's also $20 cheaper than the original coming in at $100. Some changes that people might not like though are the now fixed cable to the pad, removal of the RGB logo, and the separation of the the wireless receiver as you now have separate puck that you have to plug in to use it. That seems like a weird change to me as the original one was nice and compact and all in one.

Even with those changes, it's probably time I update mine. I am a little disappointed in hearing some of the updates, but we'll see how it is once I get my hands on one.

It will be available on March 11, but you can pre-order it right now.

Happy Birthday! Hunt: Showdown 1896 turns seven

by: Rob -

Hunt: Showdown 1896 celebrates seven years of players mucking through the swamps of the bayou and scrambling the slopes of the mountains of turn of the century Colorado and is bringing goodie bags. On now through March 3rd the in-game store is getting exclusive bundles, discounts, and daily deals. Each day will have a 50% discount on a featured item, a special 48 Blood Bond offer, and a rotating selection of other discounts on items ranging from 20% to 40%. There is also a new collection of songs from the game to get you in the mood for your next hunt even when you're not exactly in the game. Check it out on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7lMPUiEMdCC8zBlLUBQ9Ev 

If you are curious as to what players been up to over these seven years, Crytek is happy to post the following data points on the journey so far: 

  • 1,010 Hunters have been delivered a mortal blow by a horse
  • 33,569 Hunters died due to a Dog Cage
  • 94,429,355 Targets have been hunted to their demise
  • 16,527,398,805 total monsters have been slain

So get back in the Hunt, I had a great time reviewing the reinvention into the 1896 version of the game all enjoy now. Just watch out for those horses I guess? (Dog cage I get it but I mean honestly, who dies to a horse?)

Fatal Fury: City of Wolves lays out the DLC plans

by: Jeremy -

Just as the open beta is drawing to a close, Fatal Fury: City of Wolves is starting to really lay out the plans for it's first year. In anticipation of the game's April release, the first season of DLC characters have been revealed. The following characters will flesh out eh games playable roster throughout the rest of 2025 and into 2026:

The following characters will be joining post-launch:

  • Andy Bogard (Summer 2025)
  • Ken Masters (Summer 2025)
  • Joe Higashi (Fall 2025)
  • Chun-Li (Winter 2025)
  • Big Boss (Early 2026)

It's great to see that the Street Fighter collaboration is continuing with this new game. The game has a solid roster to start with, consisting of 17 characters, and these additions add some really great variety eve if they're characters we already know. You can check out the announcement of all 5 in the trailer below:

 

 

I played 100+ matches of Fatal Fury: COTY

by: Joseph -

Let me start this off by saying I am not the most pro centric fighting game player. I know moves, and combos, and tech, but I don't lab enough. I usually play those games to escape. I've entered one tournament, and got demolished. With that being said, and hopefully understood, this preview is from a casual perspective, and from a casual perspective, this game may not be for us. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is finishing up on their first beta, at the time of this posting. 

The beta came with a full online mode. This consisted of ranked and casual matches, and with the ability to create rooms. The tutorial is only for Rock Howard, and you learn all the basics, and techniques with him. Naturally, a lot of the online rankings were him, with a couple of Vox, and Kain sprinkled here and there. There is no training mode, but that stopped absolutely no one from cracking the game wide open. With a free cross play, and people owning more than one platform, it was easy to create a room, and practice your face off. I didn't do that, let's move on. 

Fatal Fury hasn't released a stand alone game in 28 years, so when City of the Wolves was announced, fighting game fans were interested. When they knew they were getting a beta, they were more interested, only to find out a couple of things didn't tickle their Reppuken. The rollback netcode was ok for the beta, and I'm sure there will be another, for the constant pauses between matches, and the matchmaking taking a while. There's another worry, and this is for us casuals. 

This game, once people got the hang of it, saw me take a 16 hit 60% life bar reduction, with very little resources used. The rev up system is used for EX moves, and if you used those moves too much, you overheat. It's not wise to be over heated, but that doesn't stop you from smacking people around KOF XV style. SPG is also a major problem in this game, as you get even more added to your repertoire. This game is in beta though, so I want to save all my metrics and thoughts until the full release is in our hands. 

Right now, though, this one may be for the pros. And not even the people who are intermediate at these games I think will stand a chance. I wavered back and forth on this, championing the speed of the game, and the movement, which is still faster than Mortal Kombat 1. It still feels very KOFXV, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the damage needs scaled badly. Also, stay out of the corner. It's not safe. And Ken, when he crosses over this Summer, is going to be an absolute problem. 

The Queue is Queue-ing - Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 Coming to PS and XBox This March

by: Kelly -

Pick your jaws up off the floor, Rollercoaster Tycoon stans, because I had to do the same thing.

Atari just announced the upcoming release of Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 for Playstation 4|5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Mark your calendar, put it in your planner, type it into your palm pilot, the release date for the new platforms is set for March 20th.

Now that we've gotten past the logistics, let's talk about the game and features...

This is the same game we've come to love on the other platforms, Windows PC and Mac via Steam, the Epic Games Store, and GOG, and for the Nintendo Switch. If you haven't seen or played that, allow me to introduce you. RCT3 has the same amusement park development themes we've loved since the classic days, but has since launched into current day by enhancing the visuals and eliminating the pixels (although who didn't love the pixelated vomit on the walkways?!).

Gone are the days of watching your coasters from a birds eye view, with RCT3 you have the opportunity to POV the coasters as they run with the CoasterCam. There's also the opportunity to park plan so granular, you even get to develop your own firework show and coordinate it to music. 

If you've got what it takes to singlehandedly manage amusement parks - or if you just enjoy clicking on the guests and seeing what they think about your genius - then go ahead and watch the trailer and daydream about visiting the parks like I do... It's literally how I've spent my entire winter thus far.

iRacing reveals new career mode details for NASCAR 25

by: Jason -

A new NASCAR video game is on its way to PC and consoles, but before you roll your eyes at the prospect of another middling NASCAR game, you should know that the folks at iRacing are the ones making it. If you’re not a big racing sim fan, iRacing is regarded as one of the best – if not the best – racing sim developers on the planet. So, not to puff them up too much, but NASCAR fans who have been starving for years for a decent game are excited to see what they have cooking with NASCAR 25, which is planned for release this Fall.

Today, the iRacing team has shared new details about the game’s career mode, thanks to a new developer diary video featuring racing legend and NASCAR 25 Executive Producer Dale Earnhardt Jr. For starters, the game will feature four NASCAR racing series – the NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series, Craftsman Truck Series, and the ARCA Menards Series. Career mode will see you starting off in the ARCA Menards Series after building your car in your backyard garage. As you experience more success, you will get to sign contracts, earn money, hire racing team staff, expand your facilities, and make public appearances to build your reputation as one of the best drivers NASCAR has to offer.

It’s mostly developers talking about the game, with some snippets of the game here and there, but you check out the new video below. I can't wait to do 180 miles-per-hour and turn to the left later this year!

Relive, rewrite and create history with WWE 2K25's Bloodline Showcase mode

by: Nathan -

WWE 2K25 comes out in a few weeks and today 2K gave us all the details on this year's Showcase mode which will focus on The Bloodline. 

Showcase mode has gotten a number of changes with some of the biggest being that "Slingshot Tech" is finally gone. Instead of the game annoyingly switching to actual footage of the matches, everything will happen in game. The annoying stock movie soundtrack music that would play during matches is now gone and replaced with actual commentary. Finally the Showcase will be broken up into three separate sections where you can relive classic matches, change the outcomes of classic matches and then play a section of Dream matches that we never got. 

A full breakdown on the latest Ringside Report on 2K's official website also lists all the matches we will be playing this year including the following.... 

Relive History

  • Yokozuna vs. Hulk Hogan - King of the Ring '93
  • Rocky Maivia vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley - Thursday Night Raw 2/13/97
  • The Usos vs. The New Day - Hell in a Cell '17
  • Solo Sikoa vs. Carmello Hayes - NXT 2.0 9/13/22
  • Nia Jax vs. Lyra Valkyria - King and Queen of the Ring '24

Change History

  • The Headshrinkers vs. The Steiner Bros - Wrestle Mania IX
  • Rikishi vs. Stone Cold - No Mercy '00
  • Umaga vs. John Cena - New Year's Revolution '07
  • Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match - Money in the Bank '17
  • Naomi vs. Bayley - Super Showdown '20
  • Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins - Royal Rumble '22

Create History

  • Peter Maivia vs. George Steele
  • 3 Minute Warnings vs. AOP
  • The Wild Samoans vs. The Dudley Boys
  • The OG Bloodline vs. Solo Sikoa's Bloodline - War Games
  • The Islanders vs. The Street Profits 

Completing these matches and the objectives within will unlock Legends, arenas, My Faction cards and more. This is something I'm actually excited about because Showcase mode had a lot of issues in the past couple of years and it seems like 2K is actually listening to the community with these changes. 

WWE 2K25 launches on March 14th for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Series X, PC. 

Upcoming roguelike deckbuilder Inkborn has a new combat demo to check out on Steam

by: Russell -

Acram Digital's upcoming roguelike deckbuilder game Inkborn over on Steam is currently geared for a Q2 2025 launch. In Inkborn you're "trapped in a twisted origami world full of mysterious creatures brought to life by an unknown force". Naturally to defeat these creatures you'll use the power of cardboard. Your arsenal is a deck of cards with various abilities that you can upgrade and improve over the course of the game. Inkborn isn't the first game to take the deckbuilder concept and turn it into a roguelike game but I'm typically down to check out these kinds of games despite my inability to properly strategize my deck as I go.

If you're curious about how something like that works, Acram Digital has created a Combat Demo for Inkborn over on Steam that allows you to check out several combats while learning the mechanics. I checked it out and it works pretty well, though don't be surprised if it takes you several tries to clear all seven battles the demo throws at you. You'll have to learn card combos, choose the right cards to add to your deck after each battle, and select the best upgrades you can to survive. If you need some help, the creators uploaded a gameplay video of the demo.

 

Mor(e)phin updates for Rita's Revenge

by: Joseph -

Digital Eclipse seems to roll out all the good news at once. After the amazing physical edition news from their gold series, they've followed up with a massive update for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind. Digital Eclipse is also passing some of the credit to you, the people. Hopefully you'll be satisfied. 

Coming later this week, The Power Blast update should hit all systems. This includes upgradable rangers via unlockable stat points. You can upgrade up to three stats as you see fit, Strength, Defense and Speed. Morphers change the over all replayable experience. You can change the enemy damage, the gravity, and you can turn that whole forementioned stat upgrade thing off altogether. 

The update adds a special move called the Power Blast that knocks back enemies at the cost of a little vitality. It's better than losing it all, though. Quick recovery will also be part of this combat overhaul, letting you recover after getting knocked down, and not hearing those repetitive quips the rangers have. 

Remappable controls round off the update, with a little bit more news that online improvements are still coming. Digital Eclipse warns that the 6 players on 6 different machines will cause more latency, but if you want it, they're working on giving it to you. The Cowabunga Collection would like a word. You can see the full details here. Rita's Rewind is available on pretty much everything. 

The Commanders of Final Fantasy’s MtG set have been revealed

by: Jeremy -

The Commanders who will headline the upcoming Magic the Gathering set based on Final Fantasy has been revealed by IGN. The site recently got to drop the exclusive news and reveal the four headliner Commander from the upcoming set’s four Commander decks that will release alongside it. The four characters taking these lead roles are (in the form of their card names):

  • Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER: a Naya-based (white, red, green) hasty Commander that is equipment based. The card favors equipment and gives you card draw for having equipment attached to your attacking creatures.
  • Terra, Herald of Hope:  a Mardu (white, black, red) Commander that focuses on self-milling and graveyard recursion.
  • Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian: an Abzan (white, blue green), counter-based Commander focusing on distributing and moving counters of all types.
  • Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed:  an Esper (white, blue, black) Commander that grants you card draw when your opponents lose life.

The four Commander decks will launch in June, alongside the full set and be available in both standard and Collector’s Edition (all foil) formats. Each one will, as usual, have a secondary Commander included in the deck, which will be revealed at a later date. I really do appreciate that they seem to be keeping the set in line with standard, Magic mechanics and not introducing anything crazy (thus far). Now, if I can just get a Chocobo with Mount, I will be VERY happy!

You can check out the first images of the announced cards and decks below, courtesy of IGN.