Best Cloud Gaming Services

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Best Cloud Gaming Services

The dream of cloud gaming is the ability to play PC or console games on any device, anywhere, regardless of how low-power your hardware is. It promises you won't have to worry about updates, patches or upgrades. And the dream has come true to a large extent, making streaming games a reality. 

Cloud gaming has come far since the hype train left the station in 2018. There's still no guarantee that you'll have a seamless, consistent experience, but it has reached the point where it feels like you can sit down and start playing without getting bogged down by glitches -- at least most of the time. 

Network issues remain, but Wi-Fi 6 and 6E and 5G cell service have helped smooth over the rough spots. It's still not a great option, however, if you live in or travel to places somewhere with poor connectivity or if your broadband costs are exorbitant.

But from a gamers perspective, there are really only five major options dedicated to gaming, as opposed to general PCs-as-a-service, like Shadow, or closed-network solutions, like console remote play or Steam Link: Xbox Cloud Gaming (part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, one of our top game subscription services), Nvidia GeForce Now, PlayStation Plus Premium, Amazon Luna and Google Stadia. 

And of those five, only Xbox and GFN really deliver on the promise, though Luna has its high points. The only non-PlayStation that PlayStation Plus Premium works on is PCs. And while Stadia's got strong underlying technology, Google seems more interested in making money off the platform rather than a consumer service, and it's effectively let it languish.

The two top choices are completely different from one another as well. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate streams games from its subscription library, while GeForce Now streams games you already own, as long as they're supported. If you can afford it and already have a large library, they complement each other nicely.

Lori Grunin/CNET

Xbox Game Pass delivers something for everyone who plays games, making it a great option for many types of gamers. Though the feature is still technically in beta, it also delivers robust cloud gaming with the $15-a-month Game Pass Ultimate subscription tier ($1 promo price for the first month). In addition to all the Game Pass perks, it can stream to any device via dedicated apps (PC, some TVs, Android phones), browsers (for iPads, iPhones and Chromebooks) or Xbox. 

The library has close to 500 games, almost 400 of which are playable via the cloud, and that includes EA Play, with cloud support for quite a few of its games. That makes it one of the largest cloud-capable libraries available. And Game Pass offers some Xbox Game Studios games on day one -- the Studios produce a fair number of games -- and Microsoft says later this year it plans to expand support to allow you to play games you own via the cloud if they've left the service.

Some features, such as the frustrating "play with touch," feel like they're still in beta. Plus, as with many libraries, games come and go, and sometimes come again. It's also limited to 1080p at 60fps. 

Read our Xbox Game Pass review. 

Lori Grunin/CNET

Because of its smart set of plan options, solid performance and big and growing list of supported games, along with Nvidia's aggressive strategy for its data center and GPU businesses -- the bedrock on which GeForce Now is built -- it's a great choice for gamers who've amassed large game libraries and want to play them in more places. GeForce Now distinguishes itself from the competition because, in addition to a host of already free-to-play games, it lets you play games you've already paid for. It works primarily with Steam and Epic Games Store, but also GOG, and supports launchers for Ubisoft Connect and Origin. In other words, unlike all the others it doesn't require that you buy a special version of a game or stream games from a subscription library. 

It works, via an app or web browser, on Android; Windows and Mac OS; Chromebooks; Chrome, Safari (for iPad and iPhone) and Edge web browsers; and Some TVs natively, all TVs via Nvidia Shield. Plus, with a browser it can be coaxed to run on more novel devices as well, such as the Xbox or Valve Steam Deck. 

Pricing starts at free, basic 1080p streaming for hour-long sessions and ramps up to as much as $20 a month ($16.70 if you pay six months up front) for all the perks, including streams up to 4K/60fps HDR or 1440p/120fps for 8-hour sessions, ray tracing, priority server access and access to the highest-power servers.

Read our GeForce Now review. 

Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

Given that it's the oldest service -- Sony launched PlayStation Now in 2014, then bought the assets of OnLive in 2015 -- you'd think Sony would have added a lot more capabilities. When it relaunched in a tiered plan model in June 2022, it incorporated a relatively large catalog of older titles and a refreshed version of PS Now, available in the $18 per month Premium plan ($10 per month if you pay annually). 

The non-console cloud gaming is strictly for PCs and only for a small subset of the catalog (and they're all PS4 or earlier games), via an app. And it doesn't include some of the desirable features of the service, such as the limited-time game demos, or features offered by other services, such as better-than-1080p quality and day-one availability.

Like Xbox Game Pass Ultimate's Cloud Gaming, though, you can stream games to your console if you're strapped for storage space or want to try before you buy. 

How to Play PS Plus Premium Games on Your PC

Sarah Tew/CNET

Amazon Luna is less than two years old, and has expanded since it launched, but it seems to get no love from its parent company. It's nearly impossible to find the service on Amazon's site, though you'll see lots of promotion for the optional Luna Controller. You don't need Amazon's controller to play games through Luna, but the controller can connect directly to your Wi-Fi network for the lowest latency possible.

It works through an app (PC, Mac, Fire TV and Fire Tablet) or browser (PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android phone).

What makes it stand out is the large number of kid-friendly titles and its relatively granular parental controls for managing what they can or can't play. It's also joined at the hip with Prime Gaming, so you get the time-limited freebies and perks, plus integrated broadcasting via Twitch. Since it comes with a Prime subscription, if you're already a member you really don't lose anything.

It can get expensive, fast, though. The service is modeled after Prime Video. As a Prime member, you get access to the base games and the Luna Plus channel, which is essentially the core game library of a little more than 120 games-- you can also subscribe to it separately for $10 per month, with a seven day free trial. They're mostly older titles, without many AAA games. 

The rest comes in add-on channels, which currently include family ($6 a month), retro ($5 a month), Jackbox games ($5 a month) and Ubisoft Plus (a whopping $18 a month for less than 40 games). So if you're not a Prime member, the total monthly cost can range from $10 to $44. Quality tops out at 1080p and 60fps.

And unlike other services, you can't buy individual games in order to continue to play them via the cloud (like Stadia Pro) or locally (without losing progress) when they leave the rotation.

Read our Amazon Luna preview

Lori Grunin/CNET

Stadia will be three years old in November, but it seems like Google still hasn't figured out what to do with it as a service. The underlying technology is solid, but the service feels like it hasn't evolved at all in the interim, still offering only 51 titles for the subscription tier. Google shuttered its game studio over a year ago and in March the company launched its Immersive Stream for Games platform, which third parties can license in order to create their own streaming offerings .

There are only two tiers for Stadia: free and Pro. You can try Stadia Pro for a month free, and after that it's $10 a month. If you "buy" a Stadia game, you don't need to maintain your subscription to play it, but it will only play via Stadia. It runs in Chrome and it supports 4K and 60fps for a few of the titles.

It operates via an app on compatible Android phones, browsers (Chrome for PC and Mac, Safari for iPhone and iPad) or on a TV via a Chromecast Ultra.

One benefit of Google's push for third-party licensees is that Stadia has accumulated a nice-sized library of free game trials that you can play without an account. They're not very long -- they range from 30 minutes to 2 hours -- but they include higher-profile titles like Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Far Cry 6.

More essential reading for gamers

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Beyond Axie Infinity: 'Web3 Games' Hope to Convert Crypto Skeptics

Beyond Axie Infinity: 'Web3 Games' Hope to Convert Crypto Skeptics

The moment Chris saw Axie Infinity, he was hooked. He was once an avid gamer, playing hours of League of Legends every day, but stopped after deciding he was sinking too much time into an unproductive hobby. Axie Infinity promised something different. Inspired by Pokemon, it's a video game about training and battling monsters. That sounds like hundreds of other games, but one element distinguishes Axie Infinity. It's built on the blockchain.

Axies are the Pokemon of Axie Infinity, but they're owned as nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. A cryptocurrency called Smooth Love Potion is earned by battling these Axies. Players can also breed Axies, then either sell or battle with them. Chris, who declined to give his real name and goes only by the pseudonym Cryptobarbarian, felt he could justify playing video games again -- as long as it paid.

"It was fun for the first few weeks, but it gets boring really fast," the 28-year-old said. From there, he said, Axie Infinity became purely about making money.

Axie Infinity is a browser game. Accessing it is free, but you need to buy a team of three Axies to play. At its peak of popularity, bottom-tier Axies cost around $350 each, meaning playing the game once required a four-figure investment. The game allows Axie owners to lease out their monsters to other players, however. A longtime crypto investor, Cryptobarbarian told me he bought $30,000 worth of Axies and loaned them out in return for 40% to 70% of the profits. (CNET wasn't able to verify his purchases.)

The strategy paid off at first. Axie Infinity was a hot ticket in CryptoTown, generating over $15 million a day last August. But thanks to a combination of poor in-game economics, inflation threatening the real world's economy and a $600 million hack reportedly caused by a fake job posting, the price of Axies and the game's Smooth Love Potion cryptocurrency collapsed. The same monsters that cost hundreds of dollars last year now fetch under $10.

"I got around 100 players playing for me with high-end Axies," Cryptobarbarian said to me over Twitter, "which overall cost around $100,000 at the height and are now worth nothing."

To gamers, stories like this provide ample reason to reject "Web3 gaming," a term referring to the integration of NFTs and cryptocurrency into games. The significant carbon footprint of ethereum and bitcoin adds to the resentment. Be it Ubisoft bringing NFTs into Ghost Recon or Square Enix launching Final Fantasy 7 NFTs, gamers have fiercely resisted the blockchain coming anywhere near their industry.  

Three Axies in Axie Infinity. 

Sky Mavis

The fear is that crypto and NFTs will deform gaming into a side hustle, transforming its purpose from entertainment to moneymaking. Play-to-earn titles such as Axie Infinity prove the point; they're not games as much as they are financial speculation with the veneer of a game.

"I've never met anyone that played it just for fun," Cryptobarbarian said of Axie Infinity, "only to make money." 

But Axie Infinity doesn't represent the future that many Web3 developers envision for gaming. Video game firms, both small and large, are developing titles they hope will clean the slate of Web3 gaming. All are on carbon-neutral blockchains such as polygon or solana, which are far more efficient than ethereum. (Whether they're as secure is an open question.) The goal isn't to make titles that entertain crypto speculators, but rather to make games fun enough that people can justify playing them regardless of whether they earn crypto. 

"I've long been a believer that gaming is one of the consumer internet categories that is most likely to bring on mainstream adoption of crypto," said Amy Wu, head of gaming at FTX Ventures, the investment arm of the FTX crypto exchange. "But I also believe when you have a hit game with Web3 elements, it's very likely that the majority of players will never actually trade those tokens. They're just playing the game."

Free to play, play to own

The upcoming wave of Web3 games will range from free-to-play mobile titles to big-budget AAA games for PC and console. On the simpler end of the scale is Shatterpoint. With an art style inspired by Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it's an action RPG for Android and iOS that, on paper, looks like many top App Store games. There's a single-player campaign plus a PvP multiplayer mode. You earn new weapons and gear as you progress and, much like Fortnite and Call of Duty, the multiplayer is broken up into different "seasons."

But these seasons, segmented by "the shattering" in the game, is where the blockchain comes in. Players will be given a certain list of goals each season. If they complete one -- say, being one of the first 100 players to reach level 50, or staying atop of the PvP leaderboard for a certain amount of time -- their character will be converted into an NFT. Only a limited amount of NFTs will be minted per season. 

There are two reasons why players might want to bother scoring an NFT. The shattering acts as an in-game reset, so any gear you've collected will vanish. NFT characters, of which there will be a limited amount each season, are permanent. However your character looks when it's minted into an NFT, with whatever combination of gear equipped, that's how it'll look in perpetuity. The second benefit is that these NFTs can be sold on a marketplace -- if there's a market for them.

A screenshot from Shatterpoint. 

Estoty Games

There are three crucial elements that make this model sustainable, says Shatterpoint developer Benas Baltramiejunas. First, the game is free to play -- unlike P2E games like Axie Infinity, which requires the upfront cost of three Axie NFTs. Second, none of the items retained as an NFT can resemble "pay to win" mechanics. There can only be cosmetic benefits to owning it, not a competitive edge. Last, and most important, the game is designed with the assumption that most people playing won't be interested in minting their character as an NFT. It has to be fun for them too.

"We're using the NFT approach to create a bit of competitiveness, to incentivize players to play," he said. Shatterpoint is monetized by traditional microtransactions and from taking a small cut of NFT sales -- 2.5% is the traditional cut creators take. Baltramiejunas hopes that focusing on NFTs will result in both better game design and fairer prices. If developers can create a compelling game, revenue can theoretically be sorted out organically through whatever the player base sets as the value of the NFTs. 

"In free-to-play games you have whales which account for 10% of the player base but 90% of the revenue," Baltramiejunas said. "If you only have those microtransactions for monetization, you are only focusing on those whales during the content creation, and you're leaving everybody behind. However, with NFT integration, you don't need to monetize that aggressively. The market decides." 

NFT brands expand into gaming

While Shatterpoint is a mobile game that produces NFTs, the coming years will see many examples of the reverse: NFT collections turning into games. NFT drops, such as the famed Bored Ape Yacht Club, are doubling as crowdfunding platforms that produce games. Creators earn millions in royalties from sales, and use that money to expand the brand, theoretically boosting NFT prices in the process. Some brands are expanding into TV and film. Many are dabbling in gaming.

One such example is My Pet Hooligan. It's a product of AMGI Studios, an animation studio where former Pixar animator Colin Brady serves as chief creative and technology officer. The studio sees Unreal Engine 5 and blockchain technology as the next technologies that will drive entertainment, Brady told me at the recent NFT.NYC conference. 

AMGI Studios' goal of 2021 was to use Unreal Engine 5 to create an animated film for Netflix at half of the traditional cost. While the film was being greenlit, Brady explained, AMGI technical lead Kevin Mack approached him about starting an NFT collection. 

The result was My Pet Hooligan, a set of 8,888 3D rabbits. "We sold out in less than a minute, and all of a sudden people started saying, 'hey, when movie? When TV show? When video game?'" Brady said. The studio, filled with Unreal Engine programmers, already had a game in the works. 

The result is Rabbit Hole, a sandbox game that looks like a mix of Grand Theft Auto and Ratchet and Clank. Rabbit Hole is currently in closed alpha, available only for My Pet Hooligan NFT holders with only one map functional. The build of the game I saw at NFT.NYC was intriguing. It was certainly incomplete, with noticeable frame-rate issues, but had the clear foundation of a fun sandbox game.

My Pet Hooligan NFTs on the OpenSea marketplace.

AMGI Studios/OpenSea

Rabbit Hole will eventually be available for PC and console. Brady says the goal is to reach 1 million players by the end of the year.  To encourage the type of in-game socialization seen among players of Fortnite and Roblox, the studio developed a companion facial-recognition app for phones. If you perch your phone where a webcam typically is on a computer, it'll track your face and replicate all facial movements on your on-screen Hooligan.

Unlike Shatterpoint, which will integrate just NFTs, Rabbit Hole will use both NFTs and crypto. It will have a play-to-earn mechanic -- or play and earn, as technical lead Kevin Mack prefers to say -- in the form of in-game currency Karrots. These will be used to buy clothing, dances and more for the Hooligan avatars, but it doubles as a cryptocurrency that can be exchanged for ether or bitcoin. You can earn money playing Rabbit Hole, but Brady said it's not going to be life-changing cash. 

Then there's the NFT element. This is primed towards holders of the 8,888 My Pet Hooligan NFTs. While players who download the game will start with a generic Hooligan, My Pet Hooligan owners will be able to use their NFT as an avatar in the game. 

If the game gets popular enough, Mack said, there will be a certain prestige to owning one of these avatars. But he recognizes that to make that happen, the team has to make a game that people actually want to play.

"Superman No. 1 is valuable because Superman was a great comic," he said. "I think the NFT space for a while started to get that a little backward, where they thought the things were valuable just because they were collectable." 

To infinity...

Of all the NFT brands expanding into games, Bored Ape Yacht Club is the biggest. BAYC creators Yuga Labs are developing Otherside, a "metaverse" MMORPG. The term "metaverse" is nebulous, but in this case it refers to an open world where items are owned as NFTs and in-game currency is crypto that can be exchanged for dollars. Details on Otherside are scant, but Yuga has a huge warchest for it. The game's map will be made up of 200,000 plots of land, which players can buy and own. Over $350 million was raised from selling land back in May. 

Otherside may be the Web3 game with the highest budget, but perhaps the most ambitious is Star Atlas. 

In development since 2020, the Eve Online-inspired Star Atlas is crafted like a traditional AAA game. Michael Wagner, CEO of Star Atlas development studio ATMTA, told me there are around 200 developers working on the game. It's scheduled for release in 2026. 

Like Eve Online, Star Atlas is half game, half space simulator. Players ride spacecraft through the galaxy, socializing and battling with each other, exploring exoplanets, mining lands and meteors for resources and so on. 

Games like Eve Online are giant, big enough for players to lose themselves in for years. Star Atlas hopes to mimic that feat. On the way to doing so, it uses almost every new tool Web3 offers.

It starts with funding. Wagner said $185 million in revenue was raised in 2021, through the sale of an Atlas token and NFT ships, with a "substantial margin" of that funding development. In the game, ships, items and land will be owned as NFTs. There will be a comprehensive crypto economy built atop the game, which Wagner says will allow for not just a market, but a labor economy too. The economy isn't just in the game; part of Star Atlas will be built on the blockchain, meaning elements will be open source. People will be able to develop apps on top of this data, for things like spacecraft maintenance or resource management. 

Part of Star Atlas' economy will involve taxation. Just like in real life, a certain percentage of all sales will go to a treasury. There will be a DAO, or decentralized autonomous organization, in which token holders can vote on how these funds are used, be it to fund a new marketing campaign or a user engagement campaign. Then there will be another DAO specifically for the game itself, where token holders can vote on changes to the game, like additional features or ways to balance combat. 

"We've structured the economics of the DAO such that we don't lose control in the near term," Wagner said. "But in the future, it would even be possible for them to vote us out as the principal developer of the game and bring in somebody new if they think they could deliver the product in a superior fashion to us." 

Risks and rewards

The potential of Web3 gaming is tremendous, but its challenges are enormous. An examination of Star Atlas alone highlights many issues Web3 developers are likely to face.

First and foremost, making video games is hard. Making high-quality AAA games is harder still, even for veteran game studios, and the Star Atlas game alone is audacious in its ambition. The Web3 components offer additional opportunity for failure: An imbalanced economy, for instance, has the potential to completely break the game. Then there's security and regulation. Crypto has been a digital Wild West for years, with scams endemic. Regulators are slowly changing that. It's an open question whether Web3 gaming can survive in a regulated environment. 

"In many countries, consumer protection is the No. 1 driver of regulations. Given gaming is so mainstream, it will be a topic," said FTX Ventures' Wu. "100%, these assets are going to be regulated."

The final issue is the very commodity that fuels crypto tokens and NFT projects: hype. Games are often promised on NFT project road maps before a single second of development has been undertaken. As Brady noted, it took less than a day for My Pet Hooligan holders to demand the announcement of a game, movie or TV show to sustain hype and lift the NFT value. Vaporware is sure to be common.

Games will need to be developed in a way that insulates players from the crypto-rich speculators. Speculators outbidding each other can artificially raise the value of in-game items, which blocks players who actually want to play the game from accessing them. Recall the speculative bubble that caused the cost of entry to Axie Infinity to inflate to over $1,000.  

"I'm personally not interested in someone who's paying $100,000 for an NFT," said Brady. "That's a certain echelon. That's not normal society. I'm only interested if this helps every person."

Of all the developers I spoke to, a recurring theme was mistrust of any games company that promises a regular income, or dangles the possibility of earning enough money to quit the rat race. "Play-to-earn is not sustainable and is going to die off," said Baltramiejunas. Instead, the goal is for Web3 games to be more engaging than the games you play today, with the benefit of some pocket money on the side.

"If the game was good I would be satisfied with a little money as long as it's not totally a time waste," said Cryptobarbarian, reflecting on how much money he'd need to earn to justify playing games again.

"If I could earn some lunch money with it, that would be nice. But I think that will take at least a few more years before it happens." 

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Arcade1Up Infinity Game Table review: The digital board game coffee table you didn't know you needed

Arcade1Up Infinity Game Table review: The digital board game coffee table you didn't know you needed

I spent all afternoon playing Monopoly, backgammon and Sorry! with my family, sitting around the coffee table. We previously did this a lot, but we've done it a lot more since the games were actually embedded in the table, no cardboard box or plastic tokens needed. 

We have tons of board games in our house and tons of iPads and game consoles that can play games, too. And yet, we all still ended up loving the most unlikely game console to enter our living room: a giant 24-inch screen embedded in a tablet with metal legs. The Infinity Game Table is, most definitely, a table. And it's also a game platform. 

True to the "infinity" name, the game table has, so far, kept out a steady trickle of new games since I started playing. Most are Hasbro-based, but some, like Ticket to Ride and Pandemic, are welcome additions. They also cost extra ($10 each for those, and anywhere from $3-$8 for others). The Infinity Game Table includes over 50 games for free. The 62-game (and counting) total library is a much bigger bundle of games than any of Arcade1Up's other cabinets, and it's what makes the idea appealing as a long-term purchase. And as I look back at a strange year in tech, this game table remains one of my favorite (if imperfect) throwback game experiences.

Space for coffee, tea and backgammon: the Infinity Game Table.

Scott Stein/CNET

Arcade1Up's Infinity Game Table isn't perfect and it doesn't have all the games I'd want to play on it. And it's way too expensive for most people to consider. But, it still made us smile a lot around my home after a week. Oddly enough, it became a fixture for a while. And then, like many things, we sometimes grew bored and moved on. New games kept us coming back, sometimes. Over a couple of months, it occasionally became more table than a game console.

Arcade1Up has become popular for its arcade cabinet re-creations, which have anywhere from a couple to a dozen retro games per cabinet. They're specialty/novelty devices. I've hesitated on getting an arcade machine for my home, but on a recent vacation, our rental home had a Ms. Pac-Man cocktail table in the living room. The kids were wowed, even though they literally play games everywhere else every single day. It made us sit down and have some fun. It felt weirdly relaxing, too.

The Infinity Game Table does the same for board games, sort of. CNET's Bridget Carey got an exclusive look and playtest with the table when it was unveiled earlier this year and I felt both fascinated and skeptical. The table comes with a large number of games that can be downloaded and none of them are things you couldn't find for a few bucks (or for free) on your iPad. There are a lot of Hasbro games (Monopoly, Sorry!, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble -- I'll get to those in a second). There are more generic ones like Sudoku, backgammon, chess, checkers and solitaire.

The whole idea of this table isn't new. There used to be giant interactive tablet-tables a decade ago. Those cost a ton. There are iPads now: you could put those on a table. Think of the Infinity Game Table as a dedicated touch-screen board game coffee table, starting at $650. Unnecessary? Sure. Janky at times? Absolutely. And... I sort of love it.

Everything's touchscreen on the Infinity Game Table and it works pretty well.

Scott Stein/CNET

How is it as a game console?

Arcade1Up collected a whole bunch of board games for the table, which can be downloaded one by one to the onboard storage. There's enough space for all available games so far. But they don't come preloaded: You need Wi-Fi access to set it up and download the games. The 24-inch, 1,920x1,080-pixel LCD screen isn't the best -- colors sometimes don't look that vivid -- but it's good enough to see from all angles. The touch response feels good, at least. And, weirdly, this table has rumble feedback. In some games, a loud buzzing shakes the table. That doesn't come into play too often (the game of Operation uses it when you mess up, or Battleship when you sink a ship) and I could have done without it.

There's a power button and volume on the side of the table, like a tablet. The tabletop can be detached from its legs and put on your own table, if you want, too. I preferred keeping the legs on.

You need to set up a user name and account with the Infinity Game Table and while all the games right now seem to be free, future games can cost extra. Two new premium games, Ticket to Ride and Pandemic, are available for $10 extra each. Many games on the table are available free with purchase, but the future of games on this table may be a la carte add-ons, like a game table app store.

Some of Monopoly's controls and settings could have been better, but we still play it a ton.

Scott Stein/CNET

The existing batch of Hasbro games and more generic games are a mixed bag. They allow anywhere from two to six players and some are well designed for the tabletop experience: Monopoly places cards and controls all around the table edge and Sorry! is easy to control from any of the four sides. Some games like Candyland and Chutes and Ladders seem a lot less optimized, running only in vertical mode for some reason. Trouble and The Game of Life are natural successes, while games like Clue and Pandemic feel a little complex, and sometimes hard to figure out on the touchscreen.

Most games don't have customized controls and they don't have individual family player profiles or a way to keep track of games played and games won. Graphics and animations are also a lot less modern than anything on an iPad, at times. Dice roll animations and more animated games like Hungry Hungry Hippos hint that the processor on this game table isn't so hot compared to your average computer or phone. 

But they work. And sitting around the table is something truly different than gathering around a game system like the Switch. I love Nintendo's Switch board game collection, Clubhouse Games. But it means sitting around the TV or a tiny Switch screen. With us huddled at a table together, the vibe changes. It does feel communal. And special.

The table comes with some folding cardboard screens to hide tiles or cards in some games. Arcade1Up may be looking at phones as second screens for the table down the line.

Scott Stein/CNET

Some games are really fun. Others, though, are totally lame-feeling. Operation is turned into a maze game where you drag items with your finger to an exit. Simon is a giant touchscreen pattern-matching game. A weird sumo-wrestling game that just appeared this week feels like a terrible ancient Flash game.

Battleship is addictive. Backgammon is fun. Sorry! is great. Again, though, so few customizations. Backgammon seems to only start with player 2, and I can't swap sides, or layouts, or board designs. There's no doubling cube. I just go with the flow. Again: many games feel like old touchscreen game ideas from 10 years ago. They could use a lot of updates and finesse.

The Game Table isn't that tall (look at the table behind it). But it's fine with a sofa.

Scott Stein/CNET

How is it as a table?

This table is my first gaming furniture review. So... is it a good table? Strangely enough, yes. Arcade1Up's cabinets take some time to construct. The Infinity Game Table is a lot simpler: just snap in the metal legs and you're basically set. The 24-inch model was manageable enough for me to put together by myself. (There's a larger-screened version but it's also in the table footprint, just with less bezel around the screen).

The glass-topped table feels solid to lean on and the legs feel sturdy too (with rubber feet on the bottom). There are plastic-rubber bumpers around the table edge, which I appreciated, because of kids and hitting things by accident. 

The table is pretty easy to assemble: the metal legs just snap into the back.

Scott Stein/CNET

But the table is also lower and smaller than I expected. It works best as a coffee table by your sofa. Regular chairs are a bit too high to pull up to it without leaning in too much. It does snuggle next to our sofas pretty well, though.

The display is surrounded by a pretty large bezel of black space on the table. On a regular tablet, it would be ugly. Here, it's a great free space for drinks and snacks. I put some coasters on the table and enjoyed morning coffee and backgammon with my wife. Of course, I'm worried about spills and crumbs too, but the table surface is at least smooth and uninterrupted by holes or buttons, so it should be easy to wipe clean.

The table has USB ports, SD card storage and room for a battery. But be ready to snake the power cord to an outlet in your living room.

Scott Stein/CNET

Then there's the power cord. The table needs to be plugged in all the time to use, much like Arcade1Up's other cabinets and cocktail tables, which means snaking that multi-foot power cord somewhere where it won't be seen. I couldn't find a way to do that in a living room, so it was left exposed along on the floor (at least it's long enough to reach across to a nearby outlet). There's a slot for a battery to charge up the table for a few hours of gameplay at a time, but the battery wasn't included with the table I tested. (There are also two USB ports, oddly, and an SD card slot for memory storage expansion, although the 16GB of onboard storage held all the available games with room to spare.)

There's a jigsaw puzzle app, too, which wasn't as good as I hoped... and yet it's also meditative and addictive.

Scott Stein/CNET

It's become a little in-home vacation

I miss this thing not having more serious games, like Catan, or Hive, or any of the other cool indie games I love. Puerto Rico? Carcassonne? Azul? Pyramid Arcade? Mansions of Madness? That's what my massive board game collection is for. Or, my iPad. It's what keeps the Infinity Game Table from feeling infinite. And I wonder if Arcade1Up has bitten off more than it can handle with a game platform this ambitious. At least other arcade cabinets made by the company stick to a well-known list of retro games... Would this have been better as just a Hasbro Game Table? How much would have I wanted to play it then?

And yet, we loved it. It's something different and it's made us play more, even though games literally surround us. Maybe it's having a free table ready to go, clean and clear, and all ready to run. Maybe it's the novelty. And of course, this is as much a novelty item as any Arcade1Up machine.

But it also feels like the sort of thing I'd have found in the corner of a hotel lobby when I used to travel more, or in a rental home, or in the corner of an arcade. Something that would be fun to try for a while and lose myself in. At home, it removes us from our space for a bit, makes it feel like we're doing something special, immersive, arcade-like. I'd love for this table to be more, but it's a clever idea that feels more logical now than I ever expected it to.

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This Impressive Midrange HP Laptop is a Steal at $420 ($130 Off)

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This Impressive Midrange HP Laptop is a Steal at $420 ($130 Off)

You don't need to drop thousands on a pricey ultrapowerful laptop to get a dependable machine that's equipped with everything you need for both work and play. There are plenty of affordable midrange models with specs that are more than sufficient for the needs of most people, and right now you can snag one at a discount. Today only, Best Buy is offering $130 off this 15.6-inch HP laptop, dropping the price down to just $420 until 9:59 p.m. PT (12:59 a.m. ET) tonight. 

With these specs, this HP laptop is a competitive model even at full price. It boasts an impressive 12GB of high-bandwidth RAM, as well as a 256GB M.2 solid-state drive, the same style used on powerful next-gen gaming consoles. Plus, it's equipped with an AMD Ryzen 5 5500U six-core processor and an AMD Radeon GPU. It has a full HD, 15.6-inch, antiglare display as well as a 720p built-in webcam, so it's ready for video calls right out of the box. It's also plenty versatile with two USB-A ports, a USB-C port, an HDMI port and an SD card reader. At 3.75 pounds, it's a little on the heavy side, but at 0.78-inch thick, this model is still slim enough to slip into your bag and take on the go. And it gets up to nine hours of battery life on a single charge for work without interruption.

Read more: Best Laptop for 2022: Here Are 15 Laptops We Recommend

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Once you manage to get your hands on a PlayStation 5, you'll be burning to play as many next-gen games as you can grab. But nobody wants to be stuck choosing this over that and deciding which paltry few games you can manage to fit on the PS5's limited prebuilt storage. 

Fortunately, you won't have to. Sony unlocked the PS5's extra internal storage drive slot in the summer of 2021. This option wasn't available when the PS5 launched in fall 2020, but now you can access that extra space to beef up your console's current storage capacity. Just grab the best M.2 SSD for your gaming needs and you can experience all the benefits of that extra storage boost.

Before the mass availability of solid-state drives and before the beta, you could still add an external drive for PS4 games, but only play PS4 games from it. You could store PS5 games on a portable SSD, but you couldn't play them. 

Read more: PS5 Review: Exclusive Games Power Sony's Console

However, it can be hard to find a superfast M.2 drive, especially one with a built-in heatsink. That's an essential feature to prevent overheating. So if your solid-state drive doesn't have one, you'll have to add it manually. We've made some suggestions below to help with that process.

We've tested several drives, including the 4TB Seagate FireCuda 530, which we installed in this how-to feature, and you can find those transfer time results below. 

Joe Kaminski/CNET

Samsung's high-end M.2 drive was a logical first choice for a lot of PS5 modders... but the original version didn't include a built-in heatsink, which is required for operation. Sure, you could buy a separate one and attach it, but that's a few extra steps.

Conveniently, this excellent Samsung 980 Pro SSD is now available with a heatsink, which makes it an all-in-one package. There are two current configurations, a 1TB model and a 2TB model, with the price roughly doubling for the larger model. 

Dan Ackerman/CNET

I recently got my hands on a big 4TB Seagate FireCuda 530, which includes a built-in heatsink, a requirement for an internal PS5 drive. The 1TB version is usually around $250, while the 4TB version is upward of $900. Note that due to its popularity, this particular Seagate FireCuda drive has frequently been out of stock, so grab one when you can. 

After I installed and set up the drive, I tried transferring a few games from the default drive to my new SSD. Call of Duty, which is nearly 200GB, transferred in about 2 minutes, 30 seconds. Returnal, around 50GB, transferred in about 40 seconds. 

Scott Stein

Corsair recently announced this PS5-compatible M.2 drive. This particular SSD comes with a heat sync. We're currently testing the 2TB version and will update this soon with more details from our hands-on testing. A 1TB drive sells for $145, while the 2TB is $290.

Dan Ackerman/CNET

Normally I'd stick with M.2 drives with built-in heat sinks, so make the entire upgrade process easier. But I'll make an exception for this PNY XLR8 drive, because PNY also makes a separate PS5 SSD cover panel, complete with built-in head sink. 

Just slot the slim M.2 drive in the slot, then screw the new cover panel over it and you're all set. The 1TB drive is around $140 right now, and the cover is an extra $20. We've tested the drive and added its transfer time scores to the chart below. 

This is the PNY heat sink and cover combo, which makes it easy to install an M.2 drive that doesn't have its own heat sink. 

Dan Ackerman/CNET

The drives above have all been tested, and you'll see there's not a lot of difference in performance between them. The most notable thing is that writing to the M.2 drive is a lot faster than writing back to the internal PS5 drive. 

PS5 M.2 file transfer time (in min:sec)

	Console to M.2	M.2 to Console
FFVII (81GB)
Seagate FireCuda 530 (4TB)	1:05	6:00
Samsung 980 Pro (1TB)	1:08	5:56
Corsair MP600 Pro LPX (2TB)	1:04	5:54
PNY XLR8 CS3140 (1TB)	1:16	6:11
Spider-Man: Miles Morales (39GB)
Seagate FireCuda 530	0:33	2:57
Samsung 980 Pro	0:31	2:53
Corsair MP600 Pro LPX	0:33	2:54
PNY XLR8 CS3140 (1TB)	0:40	2:53

Below are some additional drives and accessories that we have not tested yet, but should all work fine. 

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Amazon

Besides the Samsung and Seagate versions, this Western Digital drive is probably the most popular M.2 choice for the PS5. It also includes the needed heatsink built in, which I frankly recommend as a much easier way to get your console storage upgraded. 

The WD Black comes in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB sizes, although I can't see going through all the effort required to open the PS5 and install these for a mere 500GB of extra space, especially with some games getting close to 100GB in size. 1TB seems like the best bang for your buck, as the 2TB drive costs more than the PS5 itself. 

Samsung

This is the original Samsung 980 Pro 1TB drive that needs a separate heatsink. If you've got one and can attach it, it's a less expensive option and easy to find. In fact, the price on this model has even dropped by a few dollars. 

The advantage of adding an M.2 internal drive to your PS5 is that you can both store and play PS5-native games from it. Regular external hard drives can store PS5 games, but not play them. (Both store and play PS4 games.)

Amazon

If you're going down the add-your-own-heatsink route, this is one of the most popular parts for PS5 owners. Gamers have reported that it's a perfect fit for the PS5's M.2 slot, especially when paired with the Samsung 980 SSD. 

To attach a heatsink like this, you usually need some thermal tape to connect the heatsink to the drive. In this case, there's an included thermal pad that sticks the two parts together. That's important because without the right kind of thermal management, the M.2 drive could get too hot in the tightly constricted PS5 internal drive slot. 

FAQs

We update this list regularly, and below are answers to some of the most common PS5 M.2 SSD questions.

Does my M.2 drive need a heat sink?

Yes. Sony requires a heat sink (basically a chunk of metal) to dissipate heat and prevent the drive from overheating. Some M.2 drives include a built-in heat sink, others need to attach manually via tape or adhesive. 

What games will run from a PS5 M.2 drive?

Unlike an external drive connected via USB-C, an internal M.2 drive can both store and run PS5 and PS4/PS Plus games. An external drive can store both, but only play PS4/older games. 

How we test PS5 M.2 drives

To test these M.2 SSD drives for the very specific purpose of storing and playing PS5 games, our primary concern is data transfer speed. All the drives compatible with the PS5 will play and load games seamlessly. The only time you're likely to notice the drive in action is when transferring full games either to or from it. 

To test the speed of these drives, we downloaded specific games onto the PS5 internal drive, then transferred those games to the newly installed M.2 drive. Then we transferred the same games back to the internal SSD. The games we use for this test are Final Fantasy VII Remake, at 81GB; and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, at 39GB. We used a stopwatch to time the transfers and listed each result in the chart above.

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We're still a little ways away from the PlayStation VR2, but there are plenty of PSVR games you can play right now on the PlayStation 5. You will, of course, need the original PlayStation VR headset to play them.

The PSVR has held on as a surprisingly good doorway to a wide collection of the best VR games, including a number of Sony exclusives. So while you wait for the PlayStation VR2, you can hook up the existing PSVR to the PS5 and enjoy VR games. Some of them even benefit from better load times and graphics, too.

The PlayStation VR lives on with the PS5... and a few extra accessories.

Scott Stein/CNET

Some words of advice: The PSVR headset is older tech that requires a complex, cabled box and an older PS4 camera, which will plug into the PS5 with an extra dongle adapter you'll have to get from Sony. Also, most PSVR games won't work with the new PS5 DualSense controller (with a few exceptions, like Star Wars Squadrons). For most gamepad games, you'll need to dig up an older PS4-era DualShock 4. 

Sony's PSVR has other optional gear, too: wand-like PS Move controllers (which you need for some games) and a light-gun-like VR Aim controller. For the sake of keeping this list simple, I left off games that only work with those; below are some excellent titles that just need a DualShock 4 to work.

Also, a lot of these games also can work without a PSVR headset. They're VR optional, but the headset adds a different level of immersion that's often really compelling, with the downside of a lower-res display than you'd get on a 4K TV.

Sony Interactive Entertainment

The best Sony VR exclusive game, and a must-play if you get a PSVR headset. The same team that made Astro's Playroom -- the game that's baked into your PS5 that shows off the amazing tricks of the DualSense controller -- also made this showcase for the PSVR headset. It plays like a wonderful VR version of a Mario-type platformer. I like it even more than Astro's Playroom.

PlayStation

An art piece exploration puzzle game involving fantastic alien worlds, impossibly strange creatures and a simple interface that will have you exploring what to do. It's a great game to soak in some atmosphere. And really, it's so strange -- and beautiful.

More VR and gaming advice

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Summer Game Fest 2022: All the Announcements and Reveals

Summer Game Fest 2022: All the Announcements and Reveals

Summer Games Fest is almost here!

Summer Games Fest

We didn't have E3 this year, so we pinned all of our video game dreams on Summer Game Fest, AKA Keigh3. That was probably a mistake.

Unfortunately Summer Game Fest was a little bit of a bust, but we've only got ourselves to blame. Geoff Keighley himself warned us to manage expectations, stating the show would mostly focus on existing, already announced games. He was right. It did, and it was a bit of a grind.

Please find below all the games as they were announced in our liveblog of the event. If you want to check out all the trailers from the event, head here.

June 9, 2022, 10:51 AM PDT

Hello everyone!

By Mark Serrels

Well it's morning where I am (3.50am in Australia). Looks like they've already announced that Last of Us remaster officially. 

That's always felt like a weird one to remaster for me. Didn't it recently get a PS4 upgrade? Maybe it's the new Doom. Beggars can't be choosers I suppose.

June 9, 2022, 11:02 AM PDT

Alright here we go...

By Mark Serrels

It has begun. We are live. Mr. Charisma Geoff Keighley is presenting. 

Again... Keighley is bracing folks for disappointment. I have a feeling this could be a bust.

June 9, 2022, 11:04 AM PDT

Street Fighter 6

By Mark Serrels

Street Fighter 6 is first up, showing off proper footage of a game in progress. Looks good, but yeah Street Fighter has had this sorta style since the big reboot with Street Fighter 4. 
Looking forward to playing this for a couple of hours, getting wrecked online and never touching it until the next one.

Here's Guile. 

June 9, 2022, 11:07 AM PDT

WORLD PREMIERE...

By Mark Serrels

Wait is this a new Alien game? I'm struggling here. Dunno what this is...
Yep it's an Alien game. 
Honestly though, don't people realise we want an Alien Isolation sequel? Why do we keep getting regular shooter style games when we really want a game that mimics the pacing of Alien. 
Aliens Dark Descent it's called, release date 2023. Looks bad, sorry. I'm not keen.

June 9, 2022, 11:10 AM PDT

Callisto Protocol

By Mark Serrels

Geoff reminding everyone they broke news of this game last year.
It's funny, even though I reckon that Alien game will be bad, there something in Callisto Protocol that's got me a little more excited. I think it's the Dead Space vibe. 
This game looks good. Looks like it has its own aesthetic and weight. 

It's a bit full on though. Far out. December 2 2022 is the release date. Can't remember if that's breaking news or not.
We're now getting a live gameplay demo.
Again, Dead Space vibes off the charts here. Which makes sense as it's being made by Glen Schofield's studio, who was one of the original creators of Dead Space back in the day.

This game is stupidly violent. Wow. Looks good. I will play this.

June 9, 2022, 11:21 AM PDT

Modern Warfare 2

By Mark Serrels

We've got a look at this game already live on our site, which you should check out.
They seem to be showing off one of the levels CNET man Oscar got to see during that preview event. At that event the team seemed really keen on selling this as a genuine evolution for the series. Back in the day Call of Duty always felt like a leap forward visually for shooters. I can't lie, this new demo gives me the same feeling. It just looks incredibly polished. 
I mean it's still very much Modern Warfare though. I mean... it's very much the same stuff we've been doing for decades now.

June 9, 2022, 11:25 AM PDT

Just in general...

By Mark Serrels

Feels like this very much could be low key. We're dedicating a lot of time to games that wouldn't get a lot of time, say, at a Microsoft or Sony E3 presentation.
Maybe Geoff really meant it when he told us to temper our expectations.
That said, I absolutely agree with Lucy James, dungarees are back. 

June 9, 2022, 11:29 AM PDT

Flashback 2

By Mark Serrels

Oh wow, Flashback is getting a sequel, set for release in December 2022. Apparently it continues the story of the original, which I've long forgotten.

June 9, 2022, 11:31 AM PDT

Witchfire

By Mark Serrels

Man, this looks pretty good. Sorta like they dropped a dude with guns into Dark Souls. 

June 9, 2022, 11:33 AM PDT

Fort Solis

By Mark Serrels

Man a lot of games with DARK SPACESHIP AESTHETIC. I guess its a vibe shift.
This is Fort Solis and looks kinda cool. Seems to be very performance and story driven, especially given the cast -- which includes the only video games voice actor most people can name, Troy Baker. 

Baker says the VERBS speak for themselves. Sounds like there's gonna be exploration elements, which I like. And -- like I guessed -- very narrative driven. To be honest, I'm keen on this.

June 9, 2022, 11:38 AM PDT

Routine

By Mark Serrels

Okay another spooky ass game set in a decaying futuristic space. There's robots and it's very horror focused. It's called Routine. 
I guess Im keen.

June 9, 2022, 11:41 AM PDT

The Rock

By Mark Serrels

CUT TO THE ROCK, SHIRTLESS IN THE GYM, PROMOTING ALL HIS STUFF.

Honestly though, The Rock is lame now, I'm just gonna say it. His Instagram is the worst and this segment is The Rock's insta gone into overdrive.

He's literally going through the list of things he's in or sponsored by.

Oh... he's here to show a Black Adam trailer. 

June 9, 2022, 11:43 AM PDT

The Immovable

By Mark Serrels

I feel bad, I mostly missed this trailer because I was being mad about The Rock.

June 9, 2022, 11:50 AM PDT

Stormgate

By Mark Serrels

New game, new thing here. Can't lie this isn't very inspiring. Another dark sci-fi game. Robots and demons fighting. Very generic. 
Apparently there's a 2023 beta. I don't even know what this game is.
Oh wait, a guy is here to explain.
Looks like it's an RTS and that was just a cut-scene style trailer. Looks like this is done by ex-Blizzard folks, which I guess bodes well.

June 9, 2022, 11:53 AM PDT

Highwater

By Mark Serrels

Finally, some color. Highwater's whole thing is "the world ended on a sunny day". Almost looks like a modern top down JRPG from the 90s but not? Hard to explain. I'll embed the trailer here. It kinda looks interesting.

June 9, 2022, 11:55 AM PDT

American Arcadia

By Mark Serrels

American Arcadia seems to be set in a weird dystopian future. Kinda cool. 

June 9, 2022, 11:57 AM PDT

Goat Simulator 3

By Mark Serrels

Holy crap, Goat Simulator? This is honestly such an incredible trailer. Highlight of the show so far. No gameplay, just an amazing trailer that made me laugh out loud. Coming out later this year on the Epic Store.
Apparently that trailer was a parody of the Dead Island trailer from a while back. Deep cut.

June 9, 2022, 12:00 PM PDT

Marvel's Midnight Suns

By Mark Serrels

Sorry I can't muster a single shred of energy for this. I guess there's new characters and what not, but this is just another cinematic trailer and I'm not into it. 

I guess Hulk is the big reveal here from this trailer, but meh.

Comes out October 2022.

June 9, 2022, 12:02 PM PDT

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course

By Mark Serrels

Cuphead is hitting June 30, which is THIS MONTH. 
Cuphead rules and this is well timed with the Netflix show. We've got new gameplay footage here, which looks as great as you'd expect, because -- once again -- Cuphead is very cool.

June 9, 2022, 12:05 PM PDT

Neon White

By Mark Serrels

Apparently a game where you play as assassins fighting for the chance to ascend from hell to heaven. Seems like a mad, hyper paced first person parkour game with... cards? Not much to go on here. Seems weird. That's cool I guess.

June 9, 2022, 12:07 PM PDT

Midnight Fight Express

By Mark Serrels

Midnight Fight Express is being made by a single person based out of Poland? Wow. This has big Hotline Miami vibes. Hotline Miami is one of my favourite games ever, so hell yeah to this.

June 9, 2022, 12:10 PM PDT

Warframe

By Mark Serrels

I don't play this game, so please forgive my mad ignorance on this one. 
They're unveiling a fresh look at The Duvari Paradox. 

June 9, 2022, 12:12 PM PDT

Honkai Startrail

By Mark Serrels

Another game in space. I am exhausted.
This one at least looks a little different. It's got a cel-shaded anime aesthetic and is very JRPG. Also seems to feature steampunk elements and a teenager playing a guitar. Seems interesting. Who even knows.

June 9, 2022, 12:14 PM PDT

Zenless Zone Zero

By Mark Serrels

This one was announced a couple of weeks ago, but I think this is our first look. 
Zenless Zone Zero seems to be an action game, with the same anime, cel shaded aesthetic as the last game we saw. Sure, why not. Both of these games are from the creators of Genshin Impact, should have mentioned that before.

June 9, 2022, 12:16 PM PDT

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge

By Mark Serrels

This was announced at a previous Geoff Keighley thing, and it looks cool. Features six players, adding Casey whatshisname and Splinter as playable characters.
This one comes out June 16, so you'll be able to play it like next week.

June 9, 2022, 12:21 PM PDT

One Piece Odyssey

By Mark Serrels

I love One Piece, but I've never played a game based on a manga that wasn't mediocre. 
This is an RPG written by the series creator Oda though... that could potentially change things.

I have to say though, I don't really like the way this game looks. Doesn't feel very One Piece if I'm being honest.
Coming 2022.

June 9, 2022, 12:23 PM PDT

Soul Hackers 2

By Mark Serrels

They showed off a gameplay trailer and a release date -- August 26.

June 9, 2022, 12:26 PM PDT

Metal Hellsinger

By Mark Serrels

This is a bullet hell FPS with a mad metal soundtrack. Sounds like someone's dream game and I respect that out. You can play this one already -- a demo is out now. It has a crazy soundtrack with heaps of people who are famous in that genre. Not my thing, but absolutely knock yourself out.

June 9, 2022, 12:29 PM PDT

The Quarry

By Mark Serrels

We've got a launch trailer for The Quarry, the successor to Until Dawn, which was absolutely AMAZING.
I've been hankering after this one. The trailer looks great. I cannot wait to play this game. Luckily I won't have to wait long. 
This one seems to be really... funny? It's literally out tomorrow.

June 9, 2022, 12:31 PM PDT

Nightingale

By Mark Serrels

This is a weird, dark fantasy thing with cards? Heaps of games have cards now I guess. It features some really cool enemy design and you can build towns. I have no idea what the hell is going on here I'll be honest with you. I wish this show would end.

June 9, 2022, 12:34 PM PDT

Saints Row

By Mark Serrels

They're announcing a "boss factory" thing? I guess it's like a mad customisable character creator tool where you can mess about and build your own character ahead of the game's release? This thing looks serious. A huge part of Saints Row is creating the wildest character possible. This is a great idea I think.

You can download it now.

June 9, 2022, 12:36 PM PDT

Warhammer 40k: Darktide

By Mark Serrels

There are so many Warhammer games it can be tough to figure out which ones are good. I don't know if this one is good. Is it good? It looks okay! It's got a wild sense of scale and you face off against genuine hordes. Heaps of enemies.

Comes out Sept 13.

June 9, 2022, 12:38 PM PDT

Layers of Fears

By Mark Serrels

This is a horror game made in the Unreal 5 engine, which everyone knows is the spookiest engine.

This doesn't look that great to be honest.

June 9, 2022, 12:41 PM PDT

Gotham Knights

By Mark Serrels

Looks like we're getting a new look at Gotham Knights, which is another game I'm not that excited about. God I'm old.
We're getting our first look at Nightwing. 
To be totally honest, this game could potentially be good. Co-op Arkham Asylum isn't a terrible idea. I just always feel like co-op waters this type of game down. 

June 9, 2022, 12:44 PM PDT

The Last of Us Part 1

By Mark Serrels

Looks like Neil Druckmann from Naughty Dog is here to announce the remaster. Shame it leaked because this would have been a nice surprise.

Looks like they're announcing a Last of Us multiplayer game, a standalone game. They've got concept art here and Druckman is really trying to sell the scale of it. It's coming out next year. 
They're talking about the upcoming HBO Last of Us show now. Druckmann got to direct an episode -- very cool.

June 9, 2022, 12:49 PM PDT

The Last of Us on HBO

By Mark Serrels

Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker are here now. They're gonna be in the show, which is pretty cool considering they played Joel and Ellie in the original. Very tight lipped on exactly what they're gonna doing on the show.

June 9, 2022, 12:56 PM PDT

And that's it...

By Mark Serrels

Oh my lord. That really was a bit of a bust. 

I guess the big announcement was The Last of Us and that got leaked. Either way, there was almost nothing significant to speak of. Folks tuning in for Elden Ring DLC or Death Stranding 2 will have to wait I guess.
Either way, thanks for sticking around. Have a good one. I'm signing off!

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