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Weekly Gaming News Roundup: Starfield Early Access, Super Mario Bros. Wonder Direct, Bloodline 2 & More

Amar DeogaonkarBy Updated:5 Mins Read News

The early access release of Starfield was one of the most significant events that took place during this week. The much-anticipated sci-fi action-adventure RPG by Bethesda was released in early access on September 1, 2023, and amassed a massively enthusiastic response by gamers across the world. The game reached the top of the charts on Steam as one of the five most-played games of the year on the very first day of early access.

Even in the early access, Starfield managed to attract a huge number of players, with the count of peak concurrent players on Steam alone reaching 230 thousand, an unusually high number for a game in early access. The game has also inspired 50+ mods on the first day of the early access version release, including one key mod that lets PC players swap out the game’s native AMD FSR2 support for Intel’s XeSS or Nvidia’s DLSS. We have curated a list of some of the best Starfield mods that were released on the first day of early access.

The majority of noted gaming reviewers offered Starfield a high score, with Video Game Chronicles awarding the game with 5/5, the Game Informer with 8.5/10, and GamesRadar giving it 5/5. However, it is essential to note that a number of major reviews tagged Bethesda’s space adventure game as ‘good’ rather than great, owing to a number of in-game missions that were deemed ‘repetitive’ and ‘lacking a certain depth’ gamers have come to expect from Bethesda games.

Many reviewers have attributed this less-than-desired performance of the most anticipated title of the year to the developer’s decision to focus on offering a high quantity of planets and quests, rather than focusing on their quality. Reviewers at IGN have given the game a 7/10 rating. The same goes with GameSpot, who have also given Starfield a score of 7.10.

Nintendo hosts a Super Mario Bros. Wonder Direct & announces new Switch OLED console

On August 30, Nintendo hosted a 15-minute livestream to offer fans an in-depth look at the upcoming side-scrolling adventure game, Super Mario Bros. Wonder. The event featured new information about the new game areas, exciting new power-ups, and the characters and their abilities in the game. The event also served as an announcement for the release of the new, limited edition Mario Red Switch OLED console. You can read detailed information about the event and upcoming game’s features, such as revamped online play functionalities here.

 The Game Awards 2023 dates revealed

The dates for the 10th annual The Game Awards ceremony have been revealed, with the event set to take place on December 7, 2023. The event is set to take place at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, with a simultaneous livestream available for fans across the internet through Twitch and YouTube.

Sony announces release date for PS Portal

Sony has announced that its first remote console, PS Portal, previously revealed to fans as PS Project Q, will be released on November 15, 2023. The pre-orders for the console have started in select countries, such as the UK, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, France, Austria, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain, and the US. Pre-orders for PS Portal for customers in Japan and Canada will begin on September 29.

The new Sony PS Portal remote player is priced at US $199.99 and will offer gamers who currently own a PS5 an opportunity to play the games installed on their PS5 consoles in handheld mode, as long as both these devices are connected to the same wi-fi network. Along with PS Portal, Sony

Lenovo announces a handheld gaming console, Legion Go

Another handheld console revealed this week, Lenovo’s Legion Go console is set to release in October 2023. This handheld gaming device is set to be a direct competitor for ASUS’s new console ROG Ally or the long-standing industry favorite, Steam Deck. Priced at US $699.99, Lenovo Legion Go features an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme Processor, an 8.8-inch QHD+ IPS LCD screen, 500 nits of peak brightness, 144 Hz refresh rate, and runs on Windows 11. The controllers for this upcoming console bear a striking resemblance to Nintendo Switch consoles. Named TrueStrike controllers, these can be removed and magnetically connected to the console’s body as and when needed.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 gets a new developer & a release window

Poster for Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2
Poster for Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 (Image via Paradox Interactive)

The second installment of the popular action RPG, Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines is back again in development, this time with a new developer – The Chinese Room (famed developer of Amnesia: The Machine for Pigs and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture). The publisher Paradox Interactive has announced that they will showcase the first gameplay reveal for the sequel in January 2024, with the game set to release in Fall 2024.

Baludr’s Gate 3 receives its second major patch

Just a week after it got its first patch, Larian Studios has dropped a second patch for their incredibly popular RPG, Baldur’s Gate 3. The second patch, which comes a couple of weeks after Larian’s hotfix blunder, focuses on performance enhancements, makes certain noticeable changes in the game’s UI, and fixes several crash issues to enhance the quality of gameplay. It also included Wither’s Wardrobe of Wayward Friends, which enables players to get rid of select co-op members of their party, offering them more control over their playthrough.

Apart from that, the new patch also features new epilogue scenes for Karlach. Larian Studios has also expressed its desire to expand narratives for other companions by planning to release new scenes for companion stories in the coming weeks. The changes in storylines can be attributed to the massive negative reception and criticisms of the game’s endings. The second patch coincided with the much-awaited release of Baldur’s Gate 3 on PS5.

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Amar is a Video Game Journalist at GamesHorizon, covering the latest game launches and crucial industry scoops. He has been writing for more than a decade and gaming ever since the original Contra games were cool. A sucker for slasher RPGs with minimal skill-tree elements and hours-long cutscenes.