Ryan Gosling plays a stunt double searching for a missing Hollywood star, while Britain’s biggest pop star offers some Glastonbury-ready bangers

The Fall Guy
Out now
It’s nearly two months since Ryan Gosling gave us that iconic slice of Ken at the Oscars, and if you’re jonesing for another hit, that’s understandable. Here the former Mousketeer plays an ageing action choreographer on the trail of a missing A-lister for whom he once acted as stunt double.

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The way that Wizards of the Coast is treating this venerable game is totally at odds with how its players see it

The words hit players of the world’s favourite tabletop role playing game like a magic missile straight to the heart. “Dungeons & Dragons has never been more popular, and we have really great fans and engagement,” said Cynthia Williams, former CEO of D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast, in December 2022 at an “investor-focused” web seminar. “But the brand is really under-monetised”.

In the run-up to D&D’s 50th birthday this year, the branded tat has flowed with a vengeance. Amid the ongoing celebrations, Williams’ comments have acquired the ring of a terrible prophecy coming to fruition in the tackiest way imaginable. D&D is “monetising” as never before, and it is terrible to behold.

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Microsoft; PS5 (version tested), Xbox, PC; Rare
You’re pirates on the ocean wave, fighting sea monsters and digging up buried treasure, but you’re also larking about playing musical instruments

When Sea of Thieves originally set sail on Xbox in 2018, it promised a journey filled with shared adventure, but set off a little short on supplies. Though early sailors found a vast multiplayer ocean to explore, it was tough to get a reliable crew together and when you did, the quests were limited in scope and the islands offered little in the way of emergent entertainment. You came, you dug up what you were told to by one of the game’s quest givers, and you returned to an outpost to cash in your treasure, perhaps occasionally battling another crew of players en route.

Over the past five years, however, developer Rare has added layer upon layer of extra content, from pets to fireworks to longer themed quests entitled Tall Tales, which are effectively games in their own right and include tie-ins with both The Secret of Monkey Island and Pirates of the Caribbean. Now various tasks and adventures can be discovered wherever you go, in shipwrecks, caves and other scenic features, so it’s possible to sail around in your boat, spotting interesting stuff and getting lost in side quests, like a pirate-themed version of Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

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Creative director and writer Dmitry Svetlov explains how his religious upbringing shaped this game about a nun with a rebellious streak

A young woman stands amid the labyrinthine architecture of a Russian nunnery. At first glance, you’d be forgiven for mistaking the scene for one from Tomb Raider. Then the woman moves – slowly, and without the athletic gait of action hero Lara Croft. Her head is bowed, shrouded in black cloth, and her shoulders are hunched in such a way that you have to angle the camera just so to catch a glimpse of her bright, nervous eyes.

Indika, the titular protagonist of this dreamy yet eerily photorealist adventure game, cuts a “submissive” figure according to its creative director and writer, Dmitry Svetlov – and that is precisely the point. The Moscow-born developer set out to make a game about the ways, in his view, people have come to “hate themselves” while growing too used to “living in fear.”

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In this week’s newsletter: Delta can be used to play games on vintage consoles from the Game Boy to the Snes … but for how long?

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A new app has been at the top of the charts on Apple’s store for a couple of weeks now: Delta. Its app store page is illustrated with shots of very Nintendo-esque on-screen controls, framing screenshots from Game Boy, Snes and Mega Drive games. The reviews are glowing: “I’ve been downloading tons of games I played when I was a kid, it’s so nostalgic!” “This has saved me so much money.” And yet neither Sega nor Nintendo has anything to do with the app, and until recently, software of this type was banned from Apple’s platforms. How can this be?

Delta is an emulator: that is, a piece of software that can successfully mimic a games console, and can run code designed for that games console (ie, games). Delta can run ROMs (digital copies, basically) of games for all the different iterations of the Game Boy, the Nintendo DS, the Nes, Snes and the Sega Mega Drive. This is not illegal. However, downloading those copies of games themselves is illegal. This is an imperfect analogy, but imagine Delta like a Kindle: it imitates a book, and you can read books on it, but only if you have the PDFs.

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Bethesda has just released a huge ‘next gen update’ for 2015’s Fallout 4. Now that the TV series is a hit, is it worth returning to the wasteland?

Last month, developer Bethesda released a hefty update for 2015’s Fallout 4, probably timed to welcome new fans eager to learn more about the inspiration behind Amazon’s hit TV adaptation. The base game and its expansions offered hundreds of hours of gameplay already, and this update expands Fallout 4 even further with new quests, experiential upgrades and in-game goodies to collect. Fallout 4 is nearly a decade old, but there’s never been a better time to jump into its nuclear wasteland.

The biggest addition is the most visible: new performance and quality modes boost the ageing game up to 4K resolution, running at 60 frames-per-second. The patch also provides widescreen support and Steam Deck compatibility, so you can play it on the go. These are welcome additions that sharpen the visuals, adding new detail to everything from rust to radscorpions, but it also highlights an uglier reality: Fallout 4 looks dated. This was arguably true even in 2015, but it’s undeniably so now.

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Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist find themselves in a love triangle on centre court in Luca Guadagnino’s tennis romance, while the synthpop veterans return with album number 15

Challengers
Out now
Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist star in this sporting romance that sees off-court tensions played out through the medium of tennis, as a grand slam champion competes against his wife’s former lover. From Luca Guadagnino, director of Call Me By Your Name.

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It may have looked like something you’d see a bank teller use, but it withstood heavy battering. And it ran the coolest games

I have told my wife that I want a Mini Amiga for Christmas. I know it’s only April, but I do this with things I want in the hope that when it suddenly appears in the house next week, my wife will think she bought it for me. I have slipped the purchase of seven games machines, a stuffed tarantula and an air fryer under the radar this way. In an inconsistent world, I like the way this institution of marriage works.

I read the reviews and was surprised at the appearance of two words I never associated with the original Amiga: cool, and love . It might seem strange to say the Amiga wasn’t loved, because a lot of people bought and used one. But people use things every day that they don’t love: electric shavers, patience, door handles, the train.

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Data scientist Antoine Mayerowitz, PhD, applied Vilfredo Pareto's (the early 20th-century Italian economist) theories to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to determine the best racer combinations. "When you break down the build options (including driver stats and various vehicle details) in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, there are over 700,000 possible combinations," notes Engadget. "But once you eliminate duplicates that differ only in appearance, you can narrow it down to 'only' 25,704 possibilities." From the report: Pareto's theories, most notably the Pareto front, help us navigate the complexities of choice. They can pinpoint the solutions with the most balanced strengths and the fewest trade-offs. Pareto's work is about efficiency and effectiveness. [...] Mayerowitz's Pareto front analysis lets you narrow your possibilities down to the 14 most efficient. And it turns out the game's top players were onto something: One of the combinations with the most ideal balance of speed, acceleration and mini-turbo is Cat Peach driving the Teddy Buggy, roller tires and cloud glider -- one already favored among Mario Kart 8 competitors. Of course, if that combination isn't your cup of tea, there are others that allow you to stay within the Pareto front's optimal range. As Eurogamer points out, Donkey Kong, Wario (my old standby, mostly because he makes me laugh) and Princess Peach are often highlighted as drivers, and you can use Mayerowitz's data fields to find the best matching vehicles. Keep in mind that others have identical stats, so racers like Villager (female), Inkling Girl and Diddy Kong are separated only by appearances. To find your ideal racer, you can head over to Mayerowitz's website. There, you can enter your most prized stats and view the combos that give you the best balance (those highlighted in yellow), according to Pareto's theories.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Pareto's Economic Theories Used To Find the Best Mario Kart 8 Racer