Author: David Smith

David Smith is the former games and technology editor at The AU Review. He has previously written for PC World Australia. You can find him on Twitter at @RhunWords.

NBA 2K22 cover

There are six, count ’em, six NBA 2K22 cover athletes

Despite only being one video game, NBA 2K22 will launch with a whopping six cover athletes across its many different editions. The standard edition will feature two-time NBA All-Star Luke Dončić, while icons like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dirk Nowitzki and the great Kevin Durant will grace the cover of the NBA 2K22 75th Anniversary Edition. You…

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Mashd N Kutcher

Mashd N Kutcher made another lockdown jam about video games

Brisbane-based dance duo Mashd N Kutcher‘s new track is a bit of a lockdown banger. The duo made the song in partnership with Turtle Beach, a brand known for creating consumer-grade gaming headphones. The song, appropriately titled WHEN U COLLAB WITH TURTLE BEACH samples sounds commonly heard in the life of a gamer day-to-day. The…

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all trailers State of Play

All the trailers from today’s PlayStation State of Play

We’ve rounded up all the trailers from today’s PlayStation State of Play broadcast in one convenient place! There were some surprise announcements, like a sequel to beloved PSVR hit Moss and new looks at previously announced titles like Lost Judgment. However, Sony saved the best for last with a nine-minute look at Arkane Studios’ upcoming…

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State of Play Australian times

Where to catch Friday’s PlayStation State of Play in Australian times

PlayStation has announced the next episode of its State of Play broadcasts will kick off, in Australian times, Friday morning, July 9. The broadcast will be largely dedicated to Arkane Studios’ upcoming PS5 exclusive Deathloop.  Sony says this segment will run about nine minutes out of the twenty-minute broadcast. For more on Deathloop, you can…

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Switch OLED

Nintendo announces new OLED Switch hardware

The long-rumoured “Switch Pro” turned out to be real — kind of. Nintendo calls it the Nintendo Switch (OLED Model), complete with parentheses right there in the name because who would Ninty be without a little idiosyncrasy. Handheld clarity The OLED screen itself measures 7 inches (or 17.78cm) across. For those hoping the system would…

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Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles Preview: New evidence comes to light

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is finally coming to the West. The package collects both The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles 2: Resolve. Both games made their debut in Japan on the Nintendo 3DS in 2015. Both games were ported to iOS and Android in 2017. Neither game ever launched…

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Space Jam game

Space Jam: A New Legacy: The Game revives classic the Shaq-Fu brawler

Space Jam: A New Legacy is getting a video game tie-in that recalls the greatest arcade sports games of the 16-bit era. It’s a 2D, pixel art, side-scrolling beat-em-up in the vein of Shaq-Fu and Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City. Space Jam: A New Legacy: The Game was developed by Digital Eclipse. DE is the…

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Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life Preview: You’re full of Tall Tales, Sparrow

This week Sea of Thieves will launch A Pirate’s Life, one of the game’s most impactful updates ever. The update, which launches in tandem with its Season Three content drop, is a set of five new Tall Tales all centred around Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Tall Tales are the Sea of Thieves version…

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Rift Apart

Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart Review: A preview of the generation to come

As a gamer in his late thirties, Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart makes me wish time travel was real. I’d rush back to find my 15-year-old self, show him these visuals and watch his brain meltdown in real-time. Previously on Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart is the sixteenth entry in the Ratchet & Clank series…

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Breath of the Wild 2

First look at The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 gameplay is here

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2. The trailer Nintendo’s E3 Direct audience held their breath for, hoping to see. After its Zelda Direct earlier in the year left the community cold, Nintendo’s E3 drop couldn’t disappoint. And it didn’t. Franchise lead Eiji Aonuma appeared to introduce a number of Zelda products —…

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Advance Wars Switch

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp revives beloved series on Switch

Perhaps the second biggest surprise of Nintendo’s E3 Direct presentation was Advance Wars is coming to the Switch. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is not a new title, but instead a ground-up remake of the classic Game Boy Advance strategy titles. It will be the first new title in the series since 2008’s Advance Wars: Dark…

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Metroid Dread

Metroid Dread returns series to its 2D sci-fi horror roots

One of the biggest surprise announcements during this morning’s E3 Nintendo Direct was Metroid Dread. It’s a brand new, 2D Metroid game starring series heroine Samus Aran that leans into the series’ original horror roots. Dread by name and dread by nature, the game sees Samus working her way through a facility patrolled by hunter-killer robots….

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Mario Party Superstars

Mario Party Superstars collects the series’ best boards and games

Mario Party Superstars is a collection of the franchise’s greatest hits. Nintendo says the game stacked full of fan-favourite boards and minigames. What does that truly mean? We’ll tell you. It means this game has undergone rigorous community testing to ensure every minigame is a friendship ender, guaranteed. The Mario Party series is a competitive…

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Kazuya Smash Bros

E3 2021: Tekken‘s Kazuya coming to Super Smash Bros Ultimate

The first announcement off the rank at this morning’s Nintendo E3 Direct was that Tekken mainstay Kazuya is coming to Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Tekken developer Bandai Namco was one of the primary devs on Smash Ultimate, and hasn’t had many of its own characters in the game so far. Kazuya joins Pacman as the…

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The Outer Worlds 2

The Outer Worlds 2 drops most self-aware trailer, coming 2022

Obsidian Entertainment has confirmed development is underway on The Outer Worlds 2. It is the sequel to the studio’s Game of the Year winning Fallout-style RPG. The trailer walks the viewer through a litany of tropes associated with trailers seen at E3, usually for games not that far into development. It’s a great time. You…

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Forza Horizon 5

E3 2021: Forza Horizon 5 heads to Mexico, next-gen racing is here

Forza Horizon 5, the Xbox Series X|S’s graphical showpiece, has arrived. This fifth instalment in the popular open-world racing title takes Horizon Festival to Mexico. This will be the first time the Horizon series has returned to the Americas since the original game. According to developer Playground Games, “(f)un, freedom, and beauty” are the watchwords…

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Redfall

New Arkane game Redfall an Xbox exclusive

The next game from Arkane Studios is Redfall. It’s a 4-player co-operative multiplayer game in the vein of Left 4 Dead, except instead of zombies you’ll be battling vampires. Because this is an Arkane game, it’s fair to assume that level construction and player agency will be core facets of Redfall‘s design. Arkane is known…

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Guardians of the Galaxy

E3 2021: Guardians of the Galaxy game coming from Eidos Montreal

Eidos Montreal is making a single-player action game around Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. The game puts players in control of Peter Quill, Star Lord, as he and the still newly-formed Guardians eke out a living in some of the galaxy’s sketchiest locales. The Guardians roster consists of the same line up from James Gunn’s…

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Sea of Thieves Jack Sparrow

Sea of Thieves Season 3 brings new Tall Tales starring Jack Sparrow

Sea of Theives adding Jack Sparrow might be the one of the most desired, but unexpected, moves Rare’s pirate game has ever made. Developer Rare has partnered with Disney to create a crossover event fans have hoped for since launch. Season 3 will introduce A Pirate’s Life. a series of five story-driven Tall Tales that…

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Stalker 2

New STALKER 2 trailer finally gives a look at gameplay

STALKER 2 is a game fans have spent decades waiting for. At times, the wait for gameplay footage has felt much longer. No more. The gameplay trailer debuted during the Xbox Bethesda E3 showcase early this morning. There’s a lot to break down here, from radioactive biomes to the little fiefdoms carved out among the…

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Starfield

E3 2021: Your first look at Starfield is here at last

After years in development, Bethesda has finally given the first glimpse at Starfield. Bethesda’s first new RPG IP since Fallout 3, Starfield is a science fiction RPG and will be the first to use Bethesda’s updated Creation Engine 2. The crux of the trailer, which does not show gameplay, is that you are an interstellar explorer….

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Mario Rabbids Sparks Hope

E3 2021: Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope announced, E3 is good again

Mario, Peach, Luigi and the Rabbids have taken to the stars in Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, the sequel to the biggest surprise hit of 2017. Touching down on a mysterious new planet, the team encounters a new foe, Cursa. And so the battle begins anew. For those who may have forgotten, Mario + Rabbids…

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Far Cry 6 E3

New Far Cry 6 trailer lets Giancarlo Esposito chew the scenery

Ubisoft has dropped yet another trailer for Far Cry 6 during its E3 2021 presentation. The most memorable part of any Far Cry game is obviously the villain. When you have an actor as talented as Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, The Mandalorian) in your cast, you let them chew the scenery. That’s exactly what this case…

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Riders Republic

Riders Republic still looks like complete chaos

Riders Republic, Ubisoft’s frenetic take on open-world competition games like Forza Horizon, is coming this September. A brand new trailer, giving the most detailed look at the game to date, dropped during this morning’s Ubisoft Forward E3 stream. The game revolves around extreme sports. Just a few featured in the trailer — snowboarding, hang gliding…

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Rainbow Six Extraction

E3 2021: New Rainbow Six Extraction trailers

After going dark throughout the pandemic, Rainbow Six Extraction has returned at last. Extraction, which dropped its old subtitle, Quarantine, for obvious reasons, is a Left 4 Dead style co-op shooter. Teams are small, only 1-3 players, with Operator characters, pulled from the popular Rainbow Six Seige. Unlike Left 4 Dead, however, what you are going…

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Two Point Campus

Two Point Campus lets you create an education system that actually works

Two Point Campus, the sequel to 2018’s Two Point Hospital, will arrive in 2022. The game was announced this morning during the Summer Game Fest kickoff live stream. A management sim about building and running a thriving university empire, the game continues in the same vein as TPH and the game that inspired it, Bullfrog’s…

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Jurassic World Evolution 2 announced, life has found a way

Frontier Developments has announced Jurassic World Evolution 2, a sequel to its 2018 park management hit. The game will launch as a tie-in to Jurassic World Dominion. The trailer depicts two new biomes that will hopefully come to the finished game. The first, and briefest glimpse, is of a windswept desert landscape. The second, much clearer…

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Metal Slug Tactics

E3 2021: Metal Slug Tactics reinvents classic arcade shooter with strategy

Metal Slug Tactics is an XCOM-style tactics game by Dotemu and Leikir Studio. It combines the pixel art style of the classic arcade shooters with modern, top-down tactical gameplay. The move to turn-based tactics might seem like a strange one given Metal Slug‘s origins as an arcade cabinet staple. We chose to see it as…

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Tiny Tina's Wonderlands

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands takes Borderlands into high fantasy

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is a brand new spin-off of Gearbox Software‘s beloved Borderlands series. It was announced during today’s Summer Game Fest Kickoff Live broadcast. The game boasts a giant cast including Andy Samberg, Wanda Sykes and Will Arnett. It appears to be a full-game expansion to fan-favourite Borderlands 2 expansion, Tiny Tina’s Assault on…

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Prime Matter

E3 2021: Koch Media unveils Prime Matter, new game publishing arm

Media outlet Koch Media has unveiled its brand new video game publishing label, Prime Matter. The label, which will shepherd titles like Payday 3 and Encased to release enters a market increasingly devoid of mini-major publishers. The sizzle reel, embedded below, spotlights a number of the games in Prime Matter’s portfolio. Some, like Kingdom Come:…

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