Year: 2023

BlueTwelve Studio’s cat-based adventure game Stray has received an ESRB rating for Xbox consoles, suggesting its time as a PlayStation console exclusive could be coming to an end.

As spotted by VGC, the new listing on the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) website rates Stray for the Xbox One and Xbox Series, unsurprisingly at the same E10+ rating as the PlayStation and PC versions.

No official announcement has been made by publisher Annapurna Interactive or Microsoft, however, though the ESRB rating an Xbox version certainly suggests it exists. A reveal could come during the June 11 Xbox Games Showcase though, or during the wider Summer Game Fest event for which Annapurna is listed as an official partner.

Our spotlight deals for the day include the Link amiibo being back in stock at Amazon, this time for £19.99 (it was £29.99 when it was first listed at Amazon). If you paid £29+ for it from Amazon during the preorder phase, try having a chat with Amazon customer service to see if they’ll refund the difference (otherwise say you’ll just return the preorder for a full refund, and buy the amiibo again at a reduced price). We also want to spotlight the new Tears of the Kingdom Collector’s Edition guide preorders for £29.99 as well, or there’s the paperback edition for £19.99 (the release date is June 16).

With The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom finally out, everyone is finally coming to terms with just how absolutely massive this game really is. We’ve been hard at working preparing a thorough IGN Tears of the Kingdom Walkthrough and Strategy Guide based on hundreds of hours of gameplay, which includes the important shrines puzzle guides.

Tears of the Kingdom has a whopping 152 shrines hidden across its massive map, and we’ve not only catalogued all of them, but we’ve got a handy rundown right here of the most sought-after shrines with their locations and a brief overview of the shrine solutions.

When it comes to controllers, Nintendo is top dog, cream of the crop, king of the hill. But, there are corners of the game controller market that even Nintendo doesn’t dominate in. That’s where we come in, having collectively tested each of the below Nintendo Switch controllers we recommend for some specific use cases. (However, we still mostly recommend Nintendo-made stuff — it’s just that well-designed.)

Whether you’re playing Tears of the Kingdom, you need some ergonomic assistance, or even just use the Switch as a Smash Bros. box, we’ve got you covered with these well-tested recommendations.

Brendan O’Brien, the actor credited with coming up with the original voice of Crash Bandicoot, has died. He was 60.

O’Brien’s death was reported in an obituary on Legacy.com, where he was remembered for his talents as both a musician and an actor. It included a brief passage about his time on Crash Bandicoot.

One of his proudest moments was coming up with the original voices for the “Crash Bandicoot” video games during the Naughty Dog years of 1996 to 2004. He encouraged nostalgic Crash fans in their own pursuits and loved signing their memorabilia. Like music, designing character voices for animation, radio and video games came naturally to him.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom delivered equal parts open-world adventure and virtual Lego set with its weekend launch, and its community hasn’t run out of ideas yet. While some players are busy bothering Koroks, others are turning Link into Tony Hawk.

Tears of the Kingdom players are having a blast – sometimes literally – with Link’s arsenal of options using the Ultrahand. The new ability allows him to piece together objects in the world with the Hylian equivalent of sticky tacky, leading players to create bridges, vehicles, and even strange new iterations of their own armor.