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Nintendo and Illumination have finally graced us with the trailer for the Super Mario Bros Movie. It’s not a very long trailer, and Mario himself says less than 10 words, so I’m not sure it’s enough to make a judgement on actor Chris Pratt’s performance as Mario. However, Jack Black as Bowser and Keegan Michael Key as Toad both sound decent. And the animation looks amazing — that counts for something. I think our collective expectations were so low that even a passable film with a vaguely Chris Pratt-sounding lead will be enough.

In other news, we finally got a look at Need For Speed Unbound, which will launch three years after the last title. Fans have been pleading for EA to finally reveal this game for so long, I think they may actually have outstripped the Dragon Age fans in that regard. At the very least, fans won’t have to wait long, as the game is planned for a December launch (assuming it doesn’t get delayed, but knock wood).

CD Projekt Red seems to be emboldened by the renewed interest in Cyberpunk 2077, as it has announced five new games, three of which would be developed by the company’s internal development teams. If they’d announced that this time last year, they’d have been mocked into a figurative fine powder — and admittedly, I would have been right at the forefront of that. For now, I’m just hoping the company doesn’t run its employees ragged trying to get all of these projects completed. We all saw how that went when 2077 launched, and we don’t want a repeat.

As for me, I shall be spending my weekend not playing Overwatch 2. Quite aside from the queueing problems, I think I’m just a bit done with this franchise. It’s a shame, because it once meant so much to me, but I’m just not excited for it anymore, and I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe once the crowds calm down, I’ll give it a spin out of obligation. In the meantime, I’m still happily exploring Slime Rancher 2 and finishing Return to Monkey Island.

What to play this week

What’s new:

  • Overwatch 2
  • Dakar Desert Rally
  • Marauders
  • Alfred Hitchcock — Vertigo

New on subscription services:

  • Chivalry II (Xbox Game Pass)
  • Medieval Dynasty (Xbox Game Pass)
  • The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season (Xbox Game Pass)
  • The Walking Dead: Season Two (Xbox Game Pass)
  • Hot Wheels Unleashed (PlayStation Plus Essential)
  • Injustice 2 (PlayStation Plus Essential)
  • Superhot (PlayStation Plus Essential)
  • Lord of Rigel (GeForce Now)
  • Priest Simulator (GeForce Now)
  • Barotrauma (GeForce Now)
  • Black Desert Online – North America and Europe (GeForce Now)
  • GRIS+ (Apple Arcade)
  • Gin Rummy Classic+ (Apple Arcade)
  • Spider Solitaire: Card Game+ (Apple Arcade)

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