Paradox Interactive's streak of game delays continues with the news its Chinese-Room-developed Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is now targeting a release in the "first half of 2025", rather than its previously announced "late 2024" window.

In a post on its website, Paradox called the delay a "proactive decision" derived from its commitment earlier this year to deliver "high-quality games" to its players. "Though [Bloodlines 2] is in a good enough place that we could have maintained our planned release window," it wrote, "Paradox and The Chinese Room collaboratively decided to prioritise polish."

Paradox says the delay will "create a quality assurance buffer, giving more time between testing and launch, ensuring we release the game when it's ready." More specifically, The Chinese Room will use the time to expand Bloodlines 2's story, providing twice as many endings as its predecessor, and to "adjust certain areas" such as Fabien - the voice in its protagonist's head.

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A flurry of Pokémon news has confirmed a launch date for the long-awaited Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, and a look ahead at what's next for Pokémon Go.

Pokémon TCG Pocket, a digital version of the phenomenally-popular trading card game, will go live via the iPhone App Store and Google Play for Android worldwide on 30th October.

As previously announced, you can open two packs of Pokémon cards for free per day - just enough to get you hooked - and it's interesting to see the pack-opening mechanic front and centre in the game's trailer below.

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Nintendo's sales for Switch hardware and software have seen big declines as the console nears the end of its life.

In its latest earnings report, Nintendo stated a 46.3 percent decline year-on-year of console sales, while software has declined 41.3 percent year-on-year.

However, this is largely due to the huge success Nintendo had in 2023. The release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie "energised" game sales, while the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom boosted both software and hardware sales.

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Pokémon Go's upcoming addition of Dynamax mechanics has been something of an open secret - and now we're able to see how some elements will look in-game for the first time.

Fans of Pokémon Go have peered inside the popular mobile game's files to find visual elements of the upcoming Dynamax system, which also offer clues as to how Dynamax Pokémon will be obtained.

For the first time since Pokémon Go's launch all the way back in 2016, new locations look set to appear on the game's overworld map - currently labelled as "stations". These gym-like structures look like they'll host raids for Dynamax Pokémon.

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Nintendo's sales for Switch hardware and software have seen big declines as the console nears the end of its life.

In its latest earnings report, Nintendo stated a 46.3 percent decline year-on-year of console sales, while software has declined 41.3 percent year-on-year.

However, this is largely due to the huge success Nintendo had in 2023. The release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie "energised" game sales, while the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom boosted both software and hardware sales.

Read more

Pokémon Go's upcoming addition of Dynamax mechanics has been something of an open secret - and now we're able to see how some elements will look in-game for the first time.

Fans of Pokémon Go have peered inside the popular mobile game's files to find visual elements of the upcoming Dynamax system, which also offer clues as to how Dynamax Pokémon will be obtained.

For the first time since Pokémon Go's launch all the way back in 2016, new locations look set to appear on the game's overworld map - currently labelled as "stations". These gym-like structures look like they'll host raids for Dynamax Pokémon.

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Cities: Skylines 2 has found a delightfully straightforward solution to the very real-world problem of greedy landlords demanding excessive rent payments. The city-builder sequel will simply delete all its virtual leeches in its next patch, helping to bring down the cost of living in your digital metropolis.

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Cities: Skylines 2 has found a delightfully straightforward solution to the very real-world problem of greedy landlords demanding excessive rent payments. The city-builder sequel will simply delete all its virtual leeches in its next patch, helping to bring down the cost of living in your digital metropolis.

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If you are looking to get your hands on Dave the Diver's free Godzilla DLC, there is a limited time you will be able to do so.

This DLC adds three new missions to Dave the Diver, each of which will be available after chapter five's close. There are also new dishes to discover, and a number of Godzilla figures scattered throughout the ocean for players to collect.

You can see a little teaser for Dave the Diver's Godzilla DLC in the video below.

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Pokémon Go developer Niantic is taking feedback following the mixed reaction to its recent player avatar refresh.

The game's new-look avatar system went live last week, and replaced all in-game character designs with a more adjustable default option, which now has sliders for weight and specific body parts, as well as more options for skin tones and hair styles.

But the change has received a lukewarm response, with criticism of how the new avatar's faces look, and the sudden change in art style. Over the weekend, the main Pokémon Go reddit was flooded with complaints, while one player who claimed to have been part of an internal beta test where concerns were raised ahead of time said these had not been properly taken on board.

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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, after the success of Amazon's Fallout TV series, we discuss the TV and movie adapatations of video games we'd love to see next.

Not every video game series fits an adaptation, and even the ones which do might need some work. You need to adapt the game's story well - such as in HBO's The Last of Us - or find space to tell your own narrative without contradicting the game's own.

So which games do we think might fit the bill? Well, we have a few ideas - and how to go about them. Joining me this week to discuss are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy. And if you're reading this, Jeff Bezos, please do give us credit whenever you're commissioning TV series with our ideas - thank you.

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Cities Skylines 2 publisher Paradox Interactive and developer Colossal Order have issued a stark apology for the state of the game and the release of its recent DLC, admitting to fans: "We let you down".

"We see and understand the disappointment," the companies behind the city sim sequel write in their joint statement - a message which repeatedly apologises for the missteps which led to Cities Skylines 2 being released in such a state, and announces that anyone who purchased the Beach Properties DLC would be refunded. Work on any future paid DLC has now been postponed indefinitely.

"We asked for your patience and support, and you've shown those," the statement reads. "In return, we let you down. We thought we could make up for the shortcomings of the game in a timeframe that was unrealistic, and rushed out a DLC that should not have been published in its current form. For all this, we are truly sorry."

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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, after the success of Amazon's Fallout TV series, we discuss the TV and movie adapatations of video games we'd love to see next.

Not every video game series fits an adaptation, and even the ones which do might need some work. You need to adapt the game's story well - such as in HBO's The Last of Us - or find space to tell your own narrative without contradicting the game's own.

So which games do we think might fit the bill? Well, we have a few ideas - and how to go about them. Joining me this week to discuss are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy. And if you're reading this, Jeff Bezos, please do give us credit whenever you're commissioning TV series with our ideas - thank you.

Read more

Cities Skylines 2 publisher Paradox Interactive and developer Colossal Order have issued a stark apology for the state of the game and the release of its recent DLC, admitting to fans: "We let you down".

"We see and understand the disappointment," the companies behind the city sim sequel write in their joint statement - a message which repeatedly apologises for the missteps which led to Cities Skylines 2 being released in such a state, and announces that anyone who purchased the Beach Properties DLC would be refunded. Work on any future paid DLC has now been postponed indefinitely.

"We asked for your patience and support, and you've shown those," the statement reads. "In return, we let you down. We thought we could make up for the shortcomings of the game in a timeframe that was unrealistic, and rushed out a DLC that should not have been published in its current form. For all this, we are truly sorry."

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A pair of scientists working in the Antarctic have managed to get their remote research station added as a location in Pokémon Go.

The duo discovered they both played the game after each had individually attempted to get the continent's most isolated research base added as an in-game PokéStop.

Speaking to The Independent, Australian scientists Raimon Hennessy, 29, and Pete Rizzo, 60, explained how they had then managed to gain the attention of Pokémon Go maker Niantic via reddit, which then aided in getting the Davis Research Station added in-game.

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While Cities: Skylines 2 has made progress on the performance front, not everything about the troubled citybuilder is on the up. In fact, player reception to the recently released Beach Properties DLC has proven so un-sunny that both developers Colossal Order and publishers Paradox Interactive have issued a joint statement apologising for the state it launched in.

The letter, addressed to Cities fans and signed by Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen and Paradox Interactive deputy CEO Mattias Lilja, also promises refunds for anyone who bought Beach Properties. Or, in the case of those who got it through snapping up Skylines 2’s Ultimate Edition, compensation in the form of three Creator Packs and three radio stations. The contentious DLC is also going free to anyone who’s yet to put money down.

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Six months is a long time. In that half-year you could fully grow a patch of delicious strawberries, plant the seeds, then grow another. Or you could squirm through three and a half successive Liz Truss premierships. Or, as Cities: Skylines 2 developers Colossal Order have done, you could take the technical mess of your long-awaited citybuilding game and reconstruct it into something that performs... okay, not well, but better.

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Nintendo hasn't announced which of its many development studios or partners is making Princess Peach: Showtime, this spring's biggest new Nintendo Switch game, and doesn't seem likely to before it debuts later this month.

"The development team will be credited in the game credits," a Nintendo spokesperson simply told me today when I enquired which developer had made the game.

There's no reason why Nintendo has to say who has made the game, of course, but fans have said it feels odd that the answer remains a mystery, just a few weeks away from Princess Peach: Showtime!'s 22nd March debut, after press have already played a preview build of the game, and following the launch of this week's public demo.

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Nintendo has released a free demo for Princess Peach: Showtime! ahead of its full release later this month.

The demo can be downloaded now on Switch. It begins at the start of the game and offers two levels to play, featuring Swordfighter Peach and Patisserie Peach.

If you've missed it so far, the game has players as Peach helping to save a theatre by playing dress up in various costumes that provide different powers.

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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss the shocking news that the next big Pokémon game is mysteriously set to arrive in 2025. Hey, that sounds a lot like the intro to last week's episode, when we were discussing Switch 2! Say, could Pokémon Legends: Z-A also be set to arrive on Nintendo's next console?

It's been a long time since Nintendo didn't launch a major Pokémon game or expansion in a calendar year, and Pokémon Legends: Z-A's arrival in 2025 certainly looks suspicious - as does yesterday's reveal of the game without any look at actual gameplay.

So, have we just been given another piece of the Switch 2 puzzle? What do we expect to see in the mysterious Z-A when it is fully revealed? And how many bad French-themed Pokémon ideas can we come up with? With me this week are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale, Victoria Kennedy and Liv Ngan.

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Happy Pokémon Day 2024! This year's celebrations have been capped off with a relatively short Pokémon Presents livestream, showcasing what's in store for the franchise this year and beyond - including Pokémon Legends: Z-A.

Though there was no mention of a main game releasing this year, there's a couple of substantial projects to look forward to. Here's a roundup of everything announced during Pokémon Presents for Pokémon Day 2024.

First up, those of you still enjoying Pokémon Scarlet and Violet can challenge a mighty Venusaur, Blastoise, and Charizard in upcoming Tera Raid battles. Mighty Venusaur will be available from tomorrow, 28th March, for a week, after which mighty Blastoise and mighty Charizard will follow.

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The "biggest regret" of the developer behind Cities: Skylines 2 is the game's ongoing lack of modding support, Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen has said.

Writing in the studio's latest developer diary, posted on publisher Paradox Interactive's forum, Hallikainen also detailed the changes Colossal is now looking into based on player feedback.

The city-builder sequel released in October last year on PC and was immediately criticised by players for its performance issues and, yes, missing official mod support. In response to fan complaints the game's launch had been a "mess" and a "disaster", Hallikainen admitted Colossal would "much rather be in a different position than we are in the moment, but we cannot change the past".

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Mario vs Donkey Kong for Switch is a classic remake of the Game Boy Advance original, reimagining each stage in higher fidelity, turning interstitial stills into animated videos and even adding some additional content. Digital Foundry's John Linneman and Tom Morgan had the chance to play through the game on both platforms recently, summarising the differences between the two versions and the quality of the remake overall.

The deliberate resemblance between the two versions is evident even from the start screen, with Mario and Donkey Kong staring at each other from opposite corners of the screen on both Game Boy Advance and Switch. From here, there's a similar save data screen, then you're straight into a cutscene - with essentially a series of stills for the GBA version that have been turned into fully realised and high-quality 16:9 video for Switch. This sequence ends and Donkey Kong squeezes into a keyhole on both versions, starting the first level proper.

Looking at that first screen, it's clear that it's a 1:1 remake with the same tiles, background and scale - but the wider screen of the Switch allows us to see further to the right of these relatively small puzzle stages. Even the interface is nearly identical, with lives in the upper left and time in the upper right - just the score has been removed from the top centre for a cleaner presentation.

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Few outside of Nintendo foresaw how huge last year's Super Mario Movie would turn out to be. It was a proper blockbuster phenomenon, and a reminder that when it comes to video game characters, the Mushroom Kingdom remains home to the most universally recognisable cast around. Still, it doesn't feel like chance that Nintendo seems to have smartly scheduled its subsequent year of Switch game launches with follow-up adventures for all of that film's supporting cast: a Luigi's Mansion 2 remake, a new Mario vs. Donkey Kong, and - no less than 18 years after her last solo outing - a fresh vehicle for Peach.

If you played the slightly odd Super Princess Peach on Nintendo DS, there are happily few hangovers here. Gone, thankfully, is the need for Peach to power-up by picking one of four emotional states for her to display (joy! gloom! rage! calm!), replaced here instead by 10 costumes which, in a sort of Mario-like manner, bestow a limited range of extra abilities. Princess Peach: Showtime is set within a theatre, and the conceit of being able to star in 10 multi-act plays based around each of these costumes is a smart one. At its best, there are shades of Luigi's Mansion 3 here - in the themed stages lying behind different doors, accessible from the theatre's multi-level lobby hub - and even Paper Mario, as elements of each stage are constructed with charm from tactile scenery, such as wooden prop grass and trees.

But while the set dressing may seem somewhat familiar, the game's opening suite of levels feel something of a more amateur production aimed at a younger audience, especially considering how low the difficulty of said levels are pitched. Arriving at the Sparkle Theatre for a night out with her Toad footmen, Peach's evening is interrupted by the arrival of the game's villain, a sorceress named Grape, and her minions, the Sour Bunch. With most of the theatre locked down, Peach must clear each of its many stages and spread cheer to the Theets - the theatre's disheartened acting troupe - mostly with a simple button press. When powered up, Peach can also perform the appropriate themed action befitting her current costume with the same button press.

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Few outside of Nintendo foresaw how huge last year's Super Mario Movie would turn out to be. It was a proper blockbuster phenomenon, and a reminder that when it comes to video game characters, the Mushroom Kingdom remains home to the most universally recognisable cast around. Still, it doesn't feel like chance that Nintendo seems to have smartly scheduled its subsequent year of Switch game launches with follow-up adventures for all of that film's supporting cast: a Luigi's Mansion 2 remake, a new Mario vs. Donkey Kong, and - no less than 18 years after her last solo outing - a fresh vehicle for Peach.

If you played the slightly odd Super Princess Peach on Nintendo DS, there are happily few hangovers here. Gone, thankfully, is the need for Peach to power-up by picking one of four emotional states for her to display (joy! gloom! rage! calm!), replaced here instead by 10 costumes which, in a sort of Mario-like manner, bestow a limited range of extra abilities. Princess Peach: Showtime is set within a theatre, and the conceit of being able to star in 10 multi-act plays based around each of these costumes is a smart one. At its best, there are shades of Luigi's Mansion 3 here - in the themed stages lying behind different doors, accessible from the theatre's multi-level lobby hub - and even Paper Mario, as elements of each stage are constructed with charm from tactile scenery, such as wooden prop grass and trees.

But while the set dressing may seem somewhat familiar, the game's opening suite of levels feel something of a more amateur production aimed at a younger audience, especially considering how low the difficulty of said levels are pitched. Arriving at the Sparkle Theatre for a night out with her Toad footmen, Peach's evening is interrupted by the arrival of the game's villain, a sorceress named Grape, and her minions, the Sour Bunch. With most of the theatre locked down, Peach must clear each of its many stages and spread cheer to the Theets - the theatre's disheartened acting troupe - mostly with a simple button press. When powered up, Peach can also perform the appropriate themed action befitting her current costume with the same button press.

Read more

The Pokémon Company is bringing its hugely popular Pokémon Center pop-up store back to London for four days this April, with promise of more exclusive Pokémon merchandise.

The Pokémon Center's return to the UK coincides with this year's Pokémon Europe International Championships, which take place at ExCeL London from 4th to 7th April. The store will be open at the venue from 10am to 8pm every day except Sunday, when it's set to close at 4pm.

Previous Pokémon Center pop-ups in the UK have attracted huge crowds, and The Pokémon Company is clearly expecting similar attention this time around. It notes that while entry to the store is open to the general public and won't require a competitor or spectator badge, reservations are mandatory - even for badged attendees. More information on the reservation process is set to be shared "closer to the event".

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Nintendo has revealed some more of Peach's transformations in Princess Peach: Showtime!.

Following on from last month's reveal of Ninja Peach and Cowgirl Peach, Nintendo has shown off four more roles Peach can don in the upcoming Switch game.

Take a look at the second transformation trailer showing Figure Skater Peach, Dashing Thief Peach, Mermaid Peach, and Mighty Peach.

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The Switch is safely into its Vegas residency era now. So safely, in fact, that with the greatest hits out of the way it's offering up some deep cuts and B-sides. I am all for this. Following on from the Super Mario RPG remake, here's Mario vs. Donkey Kong, a gentle reworking of an old Game Boy Advance charmer. It's lovely stuff.

And it's interesting, too. It makes one think. Not just because it's Mario at its most puzzley, with each mini-challenge playing out like the weird equivalent of a Mario Sudoku or some other newspaper brainteaser. It makes me think because it's another reminder of how Mario, of all game series, is sort of a language that players like me have spent the last few decades learning to speak.

As with language, I'm still learning to recognise how much of the grammar I didn't consciously know that I understand, as it were. What I get in a game like this, then, is a series of actions and reactions I am surprised to learn I can anticipate. Ice will cause me to slide, sure. But when precisely did I learn that a certain kind of block will cause me to teleport, while another will vanish if a switch is flipped? Elsewhere, from a truly ancient part of my brain I somehow retained the information that I will climb up faster if I'm holding two ropes, but descend faster if I'm only holding one. This kind of recall? From a man who regularly calls his dog "doghead", because her precise name cannot be grasped in the moment? (It's Cricket - I just checked.)

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