Introduction
Nintendo Switch 2 Announcement
The Switch 2 has been announced by Nintendo—probably the worst kept secret, this thing leaked like crazy, but now we finally have a brief announcement video from Nintendo. Just a two-minute little teaser trailer really just highlighting the hardware, and that's about it. So what are the biggest changes, at least from what we know right now?
We don't know any specs. You can still go on the leaks and expect a significant boost in power, but the reality is it's all on the outside here. What we're talking today, so one of the biggest changes is the redesign of the Joy-Cons. Officially, it looks like the joysticks might be upgraded—hopefully, there's no stick drift—and the way these things attach to the Nintendo Switch has changed. No longer do they slide in; now they sturdily snap in, presumably with some sort of magnetic thing. There's also these little connectors in the embedded grooves. Those look very breakable; we're going to have to see how that goes. But they are thicker, the device itself is larger than a regular Nintendo Switch, the kickstand is redesigned, and it seems like it's got a lot of movability, just like the leaks suggest. Also, there's a second USB port, which is nice. There's potential there for a lot of fun stuff with accessories. Really, the added flexibility absolutely works.
There's also, it seems like there's going to be release buttons for the Joy-Cons that are a little bit bigger on the back of the Joy-Cons, different than the originals, as well as a button that we still don't know on the right Joy-Con what exactly that button does. I'm curious to see if that's one of Nintendo's little aces up their sleeve, some sort of gimmick or trick that hasn't been revealed. But also, the Joy-Cons themselves, going back to them, it seems like they do have some sort of mouse functionality. The video highlighted them kind of like surfaced down on a flat surface and moving around like a mouse with a little additional accessory that it connects into to make it flat along a surface. Weird, interesting. I'd seen that rumored before, I believe, and I don't know what this could amount to. Is this just a little Nintendo gimmick, or is this an absolute game-changer? You know, we're still going to have to really wait and see.
Compatibility and Games
Nintendo has also officially announced that the Nintendo Switch 2 will play Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive games as well as Nintendo Switch games, both physical and digital. They did note that with an asterisk that some games won't be compatible. I wonder what exactly that means. Is it going to be just a select few because of, you know, little controller things, or is it going to be a significant amount of games? We'll have to wait and see.
But in terms of games, the only actual information we got is a brief, vague look at a new Mario Kart game. People have kind of zoomed in and looked at the character designs. Things are different. It's not just Mario Kart 8 re-released again for the nth time. This is a seemingly new, full-fledged Mario Kart game, with some eagle-eyed observers noticing that the track has the most racers on a track that the franchise has ever featured. That's really it. That's all we have to go on. It looks like more Mario Kart to me. The trailer uploaded to YouTube is in 1080p, so maybe that's something, maybe that's not. Who knows? But for now, that's all we have. We finally know, after all the leaks, you know, they just said, "Okay, it exists. Nintendo Switch 2 is a real thing." We know that it is officially releasing at some point in 2025, and we're going to be getting more news about it April 2nd. We gotta wait a while. That actually sucks.
I was hoping to hear a little bit more before then, but April 2nd is when there's going to be a Nintendo Direct where more is revealed, and then there's going to be kind of like a fan experience event from April through May, depending on where you are in North America or Europe, where fans will be able to get hands-on with this thing. If that's the thing and that's like the promotional tour, right, where, you know, that wraps up in May, I would, you know, guess that we see this thing towards the end of the year, like a holiday season release type of thing. But that's really all we have to go on. Like I said, it was a very simple, very straightforward announcement from Nintendo. I really want to know more about the games, man, but I guess we're going to have to wait until April.
Viewer Engagement
But the big thing here, these videos are the best way to gauge interest from you, the Game Ranks viewers. How do you feel about the Nintendo Switch reveal? Let us know. Let us know what you're thinking. If you're a die-hard Nintendo fan, a casual Nintendo fan, somebody who's not on the Nintendo train at all, we would definitely love to know your feedback, just to see how the next, you know, months and years kind of start to shape up. Me personally, I'm cautiously optimistic. I really, really loved the initial reveal and announcement of the original Nintendo Switch. This time, I don't have the same excitement, but at the end of the day, the Nintendo Switch needed a power boost, significantly, so I'll take what I can get.
Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remake
Next up, there were some more Elder Scrolls Oblivion remake leaks, essentially from an employee. MP1st is reporting that the studio who has ported and remade things in the past is working on this, and now new details include some overhauled mechanics. Apparently, the game is going to be running on Unreal Engine 5, and combat and essentially combat feel, and how blocking works and how archery works, is going to be overhauled. How the stamina system works is going to be tweaked. The menus and interface are also going to be made a little bit more modern because the old ones were a little ugly and cluttered. And the report does suggest that we might see the game at, you know, somewhere in the middle of 2025.
For me, the most interesting thing is Unreal Engine 5. I think there are some great things about that and also, you know, maybe some technical issues with that, but compared to the state of Bethesda games in their normal engine, I think it'll be interesting to see this difference. But also, I'm curious to see where the Skyblivion project will end up. We've talked about this for years now, the fan project of people remaking Oblivion in Skyrim's engine and stuff. I hope that still is a thing, but either way, I just really like Oblivion, so more Oblivion, the better. I just hope that if they do do this, like remake this official remake re-release, they include the horse armor again, because, you know, that's when everything changed. That's when gaming history changed forever.
Assassin's Creed Black Flag Remake
But of course, if you're already sick of remakes and re-releases and remasters, I got one more for you. Of course, the Assassin's Creed Black Flag re-release remake thing has been known for a while now, heavily leaked and rumored and suggested, and I think pretty much acknowledged by Ubisoft themselves at some point. But now a new leak again from the website MP1st suggests that the game is actually going to not just be like a visual overhaul but, you know, some gameplay overhauls as well. According to the report, thanks to a job leak listing and a project description, new systems with combat and ecosystems around wildlife are specifically mentioned. That's really it, other than the report reiterating that we might see this in Fall 2025.
That being said, I didn't expect them to really significantly overhaul systems, but I say that as a biased person who really loves Assassin's Creed Black Flag. It's one of my favorite games ever. Still, it's interesting if they do invest the time and resources to make this a substantial remake or re-release because they could have done that from the beginning instead of investing millions and billions into Skull and Bones. But hey, what do I know? I'm just an armchair guy.
GTA 5 Liberty City Mod
Next up, unfortunately, some bad news. Something I talked about like a week or so ago—the Grand Theft Auto 5 Liberty City mod, the Liberty City preservation project—unfortunately, that has been shut down. A group of fans, community modders, and developers put together a great map of GTA 4's Liberty City to be added to Grand Theft Auto 5, but it seems like Rockstar Games gave the axe. The statement in the project’s Discord is, "Hey everyone, due to the unexpected attention that our project received and after speaking with Rockstar Games, we have decided to take down the Liberty City preservation project. We appreciate all the support that the project has received and we look forward to continuing to pursue our passion for modding the Grand Theft Auto series."
That is an absolute bummer because it seems like they did incredible work—not only with building and recreating GTA 4's Liberty City, but also just like how they put it out there and the trailers and everything. Like the reveal that we talked about—they just did a great job. So I'd say somebody just hire these people. Of course, Rockstar is going to shut down things for legal reasons. It's their property, whatever. But at the very least, these people are incredibly talented and deserve their flowers, just like all the modders and creative people out there. I always say it, man, when people are fans of games and they have some knowledge and some skill, the sky is the limit.
Until Dawn Movie
Next up, in some announcements and stuff, we have a trailer for the Until Dawn movie. This is from David Sandberg, the guy who directed the Shazam movies, one of the Annabelle movies, a couple of other horror things, and yeah, here you go. I don't know, it's an Until Dawn movie. I like that they're playing with the formula and the concept here—it's like they die and they repeat and different things happen to them. So it's messing with the formula, it's going for a video gamey thing, but I don't know, to me it just doesn't really scream much. And with Until Dawn itself being so inspired by horror movies, it still managed to feel cool and unique and iconic. Whereas here, now you have a movie based on a video game series that was celebrating horror movies, it just kind of feels like whatever. That being said, I will not judge a book by its cover. I will give it an honest shot. But for now, yeah, if you want to see that trailer, here you go. That's my opinion.
Blood of Dawn Walker
Also, we got a cool trailer—thank you guys so much for sending this to me. This is the Blood of Dawn Walker. This was teased a week or so back, but now we got a full reveal cinematic trailer. This is significant because it's from the director of The Witcher 3. They left CD Projekt Red to do their own thing, and yeah, unfortunately this is a mostly cinematic trailer with little snippets of what might be gameplay at the end. But still, just setting the mood, the tone, the atmosphere—I love this. It's like a Witcher 3-style thing but with more vampires, where vampires have a lot of control, all different types of vampires. We've seen a lot of different archetypes and powers on display here. As a vampire nerd, I really like seeing this, and yeah, I hope this is good. We're going to get actual looks at gameplay in the summer, which is painful, but for now, I'm going to be honest, even with the cinematic trailer and just the people behind it, it's shot to pretty high on my most anticipated list.
Releases This Week
Next, in terms of releases this week, we have Donkey Kong Country Returns HD on Nintendo Switch—a revival, a remaster of a classic. Also, Assetto Corsa Evo, as of right now the launch is a little bit rough; there's some stuff that's missing, the Steam reviews have not been super kind, but yeah, it's there. Also, Dynasty Warriors Origins—I think we're going to be trying to squeeze in a quick Before You Buy, some first impressions on this at some point, because it seems like the upward swing for the Dynasty Warriors games—the reviews so far have been pretty good.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Last but not least, and I have talked about this elsewhere, like on my podcast Friends Per Second and stuff, but I do want to give you guys a quick little tease, a snippet of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. I've been playing it for a review for quite some time, and I can talk about the first 10 hours or so. All I can say, you know, I don't want to totally spoil my review or anything, but I will say if you are a fan of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, then the sequel seems uncompromised. It seems very much like more, but higher quality, incredible music, better production values, even better voice acting performances, visuals. But also, down to gameplay stuff that really matters, right? World design, the size of the world, the density of the world, the compelling content within it, the amount of side quests I already found myself getting lost on, and also screwing up so many of those side quests and seeing how the game adapts and continues to go and how NPCs react and how things change.Â
So far, it seems like, you know, the original, a very old-school, not hand-holdy RPG that constantly tries to throw challenges in your face and make things kind of frustrating. It's got a little bit of a weird save system, but it seems like an old-school love letter, and so far I've been having a lot of fun. Again, I need my full review to really talk about some technical stuff and how those gameplay systems actually pan out over 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, whatever hours. But first impressions, at the very least, within the first 10 hours or so of the game, I can only report good news so far. Things are looking all right, but stay tuned for our full Before You Buy video that I'll be posting closer to the game's release.
Conclusion
But for now, I figured I'd leave you guys with that today. That's it. So let me know what you guys think about all the stories, of course. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2—I’d love to know what you think about my hot takes. But the Nintendo Switch reveal—that's the biggest thing. I want to know how you guys feel about that. From the name of it, do you think that's creative or not? To the Mario Kart glimpses, anything, let me know what you think. Of course, let's talk about all the leaks, the rumors, what you want from a PlayStation State of Play—anything at all down in those comments. We'll be down there as much as possible.
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