Gaming
Assassin’s Creed Shadows release date, trailer revealed
Carve your legacy starting November 15
Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the latest installment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, will release worldwide on November 15, 2024. Ubisoft made the announcement and dropped the title’s first trailer as well.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be available on Ubisoft+, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Amazon Luna, Macs with Apple silicon (via the Mac App store), and PC via Ubisoft and Epic Games.
Players may preorder the standard edition here for new-gen platforms, Mac, and PC. In addition, three more editions have been announced:
Gold Edition
- Base game
- Season Pass (bonus quest, unlockable content, two expansions)
- three days early access
Ultimate Edition
- Base game
- Season Pass
- Sekiryu Character Pack (Naoe and Yasuke outfit, weapon, trinket, mount)
- Sekiryu Hideout Pack
- 5 Skill Points
- Red and black photo mode filter
Collector’s Edition
- Base game
- Season Pass
- Ultimate Pack
- Steelbook
- World map
- Naoe and Yasuke figurine
- Life-sized Naoe Katana Tsuba
- Wall Creed Scroll
- 84-page collector’s artbook
- Two sumi-e lithographs
- three days early access
Carve your legacy
Ubisoft’s latest stealth action-adventure is set in 16th century Japan and features two playable characters. Players get to experience the intertwined stories of Naoe and Yasuke. An adept shinobi assassin from Iga, Naoe teams up with Yasuke, a powerful samurai of historical legend. They take down targets, encounter historical figures, and usher a new era for Japan.
Players can master two complementary playstyles. Each character features their own progression paths, skills, weapon options, and stats. There are plenty of ways to approach objectives. They may use Naoe’s refined infiltration mechanics with light, noise, shadows, and changing surroundings to avoid enemies. For larger groups of enemies, Yasuke is the more desirable option.
The title will feature renewed exploration mechanics, where players will build their own spies’ network to unveil new areas and hunt down targets. Allies with highly specialized skills and abilities can also be recruited during missions. Furthermore, the creation of customizable hideouts will enable players to enhance their network and train their crew.
While immersing in Naoe and Yasuke’s stories, gamers also get to explore a vast open world that reflects feudal Japan. It features a variety of landscapes, castle towns, bustling ports, peaceful shrines, and more. The graphics were built from the ground up, with the help of Ubisoft’s latest Anvil engine.
You may watch the announcement trailer below. Ubisoft will reveal the gameplay trailer in June, so it won’t be a long wait until then.
Gaming
Life is Strange: Reunion now available on consoles and PC
Max and Chloe return for an emotional finale
Bandai Namco Entertainment Asia and Square Enix have officially launched Life is Strange: Reunion, the latest entry in the narrative adventure series. Developed by Deck Nine Games, the title is now available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and the Microsoft Store. A physical PlayStation 5 edition is also available across Southeast Asia.
The launch comes with an official trailer, marking the return of one of the franchise’s most beloved storylines.
A long-awaited reunion
Set 11 years after the original events, Life is Strange: Reunion brings back Max Caulfield and Chloe Price as they reunite to solve a new timeline-spanning mystery. This time, the stakes center on a devastating inferno threatening Caledon University–Max’s workplace as a photography teacher.
Returning from a trip, Max discovers the campus engulfed in flames, with lives lost across the university. She survives only by using her Rewind ability, a power that allows her to reverse time.
The situation takes an unexpected turn with Chloe’s sudden arrival–an outcome tied to the timeline-merging events of Life is Strange: Double Exposure. Now dealing with fractured memories and an unstable sense of reality, Chloe once again finds herself relying on Max.
Dual perspectives, new gameplay dynamics
For the first time in the series, players can take control of both Max and Chloe, switching perspectives as the story unfolds.
Max’s Rewind power lets players revisit decisions, reshape conversations, and manipulate environments to solve complex, time-based puzzles. Meanwhile, Chloe brings her signature Backtalk ability, allowing her to push conversations in her favor and access situations Max cannot.
This dual-character approach expands both narrative depth and gameplay variety, offering different ways to uncover clues and influence outcomes.
A character-driven finale
Life is Strange: Reunion continues the series’ focus on grounded, emotional storytelling, with choices that carry meaningful consequences. The game builds toward a dramatic climax that aims to close out Max and Chloe’s journey.
As the final chapter in their story, Reunion positions itself as both a continuation and a conclusion–tying together years of narrative threads while delivering a new mystery shaped by time, loss, and choice.
Gaming
Nintendo will make it cheaper to buy digital games than physical
Physical releases will have the same price.
The days of lining up for a newly released game are well and truly over. Though some games still experience shortages in brick-and-mortar stores, such as the widely successful Pokémon Pokopia, gamers can get their titles digitally. Now, Nintendo is making digital releases more enticing by offering a tempting discount on the eShop.
Starting in May, Nintendo will start charging different prices for the physical and digital releases of first-party games. While physical releases will still have the same prices going forward, digital releases via the eShop will enjoy a discount.
The discount, of course, will likely depend on the title itself. Nintendo has already given the upcoming Yoshi and the Mysterious Book as the first example. The new platformer will cost US$ 70 from retailers. However, it will cost only US$ 60 on the digital eShop.
The company says that the new pricing scheme “simply reflects the different costs associated with producing and distributing each format.” With the prices of chips skyrocketing, it’s no surprise that the physical release is more expensive than the digital one.
To be more technical about it, Nintendo has started skipping a physical game card for a while now. The physical release of Pokémon Pokopia, for example, has only a game-key card or a code to download the game. In this format, physical releases are just pretty cases you can display on your shelf.
Also, digital releases do carry the added risk of getting delisted on the whims of the developers, the publishers, or Nintendo itself. It is, however, still a cheaper option, especially in a world where getting any discount is a welcome thought.
SEE ALSO: Nintendo sues the United States
Razer has officially unveiled the 2026 version of its Blade 16, doubling down on what it does best: squeezing high-end performance into an ultra-slim chassis.
This year’s refresh focuses on meaningful internal upgrades. That includes a new Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, faster LPDDR5X memory, and NVIDIA’s latest RTX 50 Series laptop GPUs — all while keeping the Blade 16 as the thinnest gaming laptop in Razer’s lineup.
Performance gets a serious bump
At the core of the new Blade 16 is the Intel Core Ultra 9 386H, featuring 16 cores and up to 4.9GHz boost clock. Razer claims a 33% increase in core count versus the previous generation, translating to stronger performance across gaming, content creation, and AI workloads.
There’s also an integrated NPU capable of up to 50 TOPS, enabling faster on-device AI tasks like image generation and live translation.
Memory gets a notable upgrade too. The Blade 16 now supports up to 64GB of LPDDR5X-9600MHz RAM, which Razer positions as the fastest available in a laptop today. The result: quicker responsiveness for heavy multitasking, creative apps, and AI-assisted workflows.
On the graphics side, NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 50 Series (Blackwell architecture) brings DLSS 4 and enhanced AI capabilities for both gaming and creator use cases.
Display and design stay premium
Razer isn’t fixing what isn’t broken. The Blade 16 retains its signature CNC-milled aluminum chassis, measuring just 14.9mm thick and weighing around 2.14kg.
The display remains a highlight. You get a 16-inch QHD+ OLED panel with a 240Hz refresh rate, now brighter and certified for VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack 1000. It supports full DCI-P3 coverage, Calman calibration, and NVIDIA G-SYNC, making it just as suited for creators as it is for competitive gaming.
Battery life and efficiency improve
Despite the performance gains, Razer is also pushing efficiency. Thanks to Intel’s newer architecture and system-level optimizations, the Blade 16 can hit up to 13 hours of productivity use and up to 15 hours of video playback under ideal conditions.
That’s a notable improvement for a machine in this class, especially given its slim form factor.
Connectivity and audio step up
The 2026 Blade 16 gets a future-ready connectivity suite, including Thunderbolt 5, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 6.0. There’s also a full set of ports, from USB-A to HDMI 2.1 and an SD card reader.
Audio gets an upgrade too. The six-speaker system now supports THX Spatial Audio+ with virtual 7.1.4 surround, aiming to deliver more immersive sound both on speakers and headphones.
Price and availability
The Razer Blade 16 configured with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 (16GB VRAM) and 32GB LPDDR5X-9600MHz RAM is priced at US$3,499.99 / €3,599.99 MSRP.
It is available now, exclusively via Razer.com and select RazerStores worldwide.
Still the Blade, just sharper
At a glance, the 2026 Blade 16 doesn’t reinvent the formula. But under the hood, it pushes performance, memory speed, and efficiency forward in ways that matter.
It’s still the same idea: a no-compromise gaming laptop that looks like it belongs in a minimalist workspace — just faster, smarter, and a bit more future-proof this time around.
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