Gaming
Need for Speed series has been quietly retired, report says
Goodbye to a racing icon
Growing up, Need for Speed was the gold standard of racing games. The genre was simple back then: race through busy streets while evading the law. Today, especially because of the rising popularity of Formula 1, illegal street races have given way to more authentic simulators. In recognition of that change, EA is reportedly retiring the Need for Speed franchise.
The supposedly sunsetting franchise wasn’t exactly dead prior to these recent reports. Most recently, the series released Need for Speed Unbound, a fun caper that melded car realism with cel-shaded fun. In this writer’s opinion, the latest entry was a step in the right direction. However, one positive review isn’t enough to draw back the franchise’s old fans.
According to car photography icon Speedhunters, “EA Games [is] quietly parking the Need for Speed franchise.” Without much of a peep from EA Games recently about the series, it’s entirely possible that Need for Speed really has reached the finish line.
Still, it’s healthy to take the surprise announcement with a grain of salt. After all, the announcement came as just a footnote in a larger statement that says that Speedhunters isn’t going away for good. In conjunction with that, the statement hints that Need for Speed “might return in some form” in the future.
Today, there are a variety of options for racing gamers. The most popular of which are, of course, Xbox’s Forza series and PlayStation’s Gran Turismo series. Gamers also have more authentic motorsports simulators such as F1 25. There’s even an actual competitive scene in iRacing.
SEE ALSO: My First Gran Turismo is a free-to-play version of the racing icon
Gaming
Assassin’s Creed Shadows gets Attack on Titan-themed content
The story is available only until December 22.
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.
SEE ALSO: Assassin’s Creed Shadows is coming to the Switch 2
Entertainment
Ubisoft confirms Far Cry live-action anthology series
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.
Gaming
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 bags record-breaking 12 nominations at Game Awards
These include Game of the Year and three Best Performance nods.
Gamers today will rightly point out that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the game that will most likely bag the coveted Game of the Year award for 2025. Ahead of December 11, the popular turn-based RPG has not won yet. However, the nominations have just been announced, and it’s now safe to say that Expedition 33 has a real shot for the award.
The annual Game Awards has a lengthy list of awards it usually hands out. Of course, the highlight is Game of the Year. Besides Expedition 33, five other titles are vying for the crown: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Hades II, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Donkey Kong Bananza, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.
Besides the coveted award, Expedition 33 also got 11 other nominations, totalling 12, which is the most a single game has gotten in the twelve-year history of The Game Awards. This includes Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, Best Score and Music, Best Audio Design, Best Independent Game, Best Indie Game Debut, and Best RPG.
If you’ve been counting, that’s just nine nominations. The remaining three of the 12 need their own spotlight. For Best Performance, the game single-handedly got three nominees in: Ben Starr, Charlie Cox, and Jennifer English. That’s half of the list, rounded out by Ghost of Yotei’s Erika Ishii, Silent Hill f’s Konatsu Kato, and Indiana Jones’s Troy Baker. Notably, even 2023’s Baldur’s Gate 3 didn’t get multiple nominees in the category.
While Expedition 33 has a real chance with running away with a good chunk of the awards, viewers can control 10 percent of the vote via the fan voting process already up now. Plus, the awards will soon include a Players’ Voice award, which goes up on December 1.
SEE ALSO: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 review: Beautifully haunting
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