Gaming

The Horizon Forbidden West gameplay trailer is an eye candy

Feels like watching a high budget CGI film

Published

May 28, 2021

I’m sure this is true for most games that were released over the last four or five years, but after taking time to really watch the Horizon Forbidden West gameplay trailer, I couldn’t help but smile and just marvel at how far gaming presentation has come.

For context, I started playing games on a the Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom). Titles like Super Mario Bros, Battle City, Tetris, and many others introduced me to gaming. Over the course of my childhood I also experienced playing on the Game Boy and the Sega Genesis through classmates, friends, and other relatives.

But our next console, which came at the cost of my older brother’s college fund (priorities, right?), was the original PlayStation. This would influence and largely shape my thoughts and feelings towards gaming.

The three Final Fantasy main line titles: Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX, had me captivated with the fantastic world-building and deep gameplay and good story-telling. Metal Gear Solid II helped me lived out my action-hero dreams. And Spider-Man by Neversoft and Activision made me love my favorite superhero even more.

I’m a sucker for vast worlds and great storytelling. And the cut-scenes on the aforementioned games that felt like rewards for beating certain sections of the game had me asking, “I wonder what it would be like if the gameplay looked like the cut-scenes?”

Well. We’re here now. We’ve gone from awkward pointed polygons to photo-realistic games. We’ve been here for a while but it’s still a sight to behold.

Horizon Forbidden West

The Horizon Forbidden West trailer began with Aloy speaking with an injured ally. She learns that Erend — a major supporting character in the first game Horizon Zero Dawn — has been captured. She sets out to free her comrade and what ensues is the rest of the gameplay.

From here the trailer showcases a little bit of combat, a little bit of traversal (that holographic hang glider looks hella cool), and a lot of jaw dropping visuals.

The sprawling environment, the robot dinosaurs called Machine, and the beautiful… uhm… horizon, and the dialogue and the voice acting — these all contribute to a game presentation that had me looking back and just appreciating where we are now.

Of course, it helped that while moving around, and even during combat, the game’s HUD was barely there. Leaving us to really soak in the visuals and be immersed in the story.

We’re so spoiled. Games really look like actual CGI films now. And the Horizon Forbidden West gameplay reveal is just the perfect showcase of everything I’ve come to love about story-driven games: fantastic world-building and deep gameplay and good story-telling.

Watch the Horizon Forbidden West GamePlay Reveal

Gaming

You can play SNES games on this Nike shoe

The project celebrates the SNES’s 35th anniversary.

Published

November 27, 2025

Luigi Leonardo

Image source: Gustavo Bonzanini / Instagram

Have sneakerheads gone too far? While we’ve seen gaming-related collaborations before, no one has gone so far as to stick an actual console inside a sneaker before. But, then again, there’s a first time for everything. To celebrate the console’s 35th anniversary, a designer has packed a playable Super Nintendo Entertainment System (or SNES) inside a pair of Nike Air Max 90 sneakers.

Most collaborations of the same type usually incorporate inspired visuals onto the shoe. Some, for example, just add a console’s colors into the shoe’s design. The SNES-inspired show goes beyond by adding the console (or a version of it) into the shoe.

Designer Gustavo Bonzanini, who designed the SNES-packed shoe, added a small Raspberry Pi Zero W into the shoe’s tongue. The microcomputer was then programmed to emulate 16-bit games like Super Mario World. It even has the classic RCA cables so you can plug into an old TV for that additional nostalgia.

View this post on Instagram

The one thing it can’t do, however, is have a wired connection to the classic SNES controllers. Instead, Bonzanini customized the controller to have wireless connectivity. It’s a touch of modernity but ultimately adds to how impressive the effort is.

To top it all off, the console-slash-shoe can power gameplay for up to 30 minutes. It’s tiny, but it’s an art project after all.

That said, it’s not for sale. As cool as it is, the SNES Nike is only to celebrate the console’s 35^th birthday.

If you really wanted to, it’s not too difficult to play SNES in today’s age. Nintendo even offers the console in its Nintendo Switch Online subscriptions.

Gaming

Assassin’s Creed Shadows gets Attack on Titan-themed content

The story is available only until December 22.

Published

November 26, 2025

Luigi Leonardo

Ubisoft is no stranger to quirky DLCs, especially for the Assassin’s Creed franchise. One of its most infamous is Assassin’s Creed III’s The Tyranny of King Washington, which imagines an alternate reality (or as alternate as an Assassin’s Creed entry can get) where George Washington became a dictator. Now, the franchise is getting even wackier with an official tie-up with Attack on Titan.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the ongoing entry for the series. The title has players go on a journey of revenge in medieval Japan as the stealthy Naoe and the brutal Yasuke. Since launching, the game has gotten an expansion which adds an epilogue to the story. Today, a new update adds more content and a timed story.

A chunk of the update was already revealed previously. It contains a new story that has Naoe and Yasuke learn each other’s skills (or a version of them, at least). Adding to that story is a new quest tied to the popular Attack on Titan series. It also comes with custom gear and mounts based on the series.

Naoe and Yasuke travel to the enigmatic Crystal Cave to help a strangely garbed woman named Ada. A cult is threatening to initiate a deadly experiment on one of Ada’s friends, which might see the arrival of an actual Titan in medieval Japan. The story’s trailer ends with a brief tease on the aforementioned monster.

Though most of the update is for keeps, the Attack on Titan content will be available only from now until December 22.

Entertainment

Ubisoft confirms Far Cry live-action anthology series

Published

November 26, 2025

Luigi Leonardo

Months ago, Ubisoft accidentally announced that it is working with FX on a live-action adaptation of the Far Cry series. Today, the publisher finally confirmed the news and attached some notable names to the project.

Confirmed directly by the publisher via an official announcement, Ubisoft announced that FX has ordered a series based on the first-person adventure series. The show will be an anthology series with different characters and stories for every season. With that description, it sounds a lot like The White Lotus but with more guns.

The games themselves follow this same format. Each game has a different setting and set of characters. The last, for instance, featured Giancarlo Esposito as Anton Castillo, the dictator of a fictional South American country named Yara.

Helming the live-action project are two big names for Hulu: Noah Hawley and Rob Mac. Hawley recently earned his flowers through the recently concluded first season of Alien: Earth. Meanwhile, Rob Mac has been earning success after success with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

With those two helming the series, the upcoming Far Cry adaptation has the potential to make a name for itself in the videogame adaptation scene. These days, adaptations are rocking the airwaves with notable adaptations including Fallout and The Last of Us.