Friday is finally here and man was it a wild news week this week. If you were busy this week, or you are just now catching up on gaming news, we’ve got you covered with our End of the Week recap. If you’ve never seen one of these from us before, they contain links to everything we’ve covered during the week, allowing you to quickly select the news pieces you want to catch up on.
We also include a Staff Chat section where we discuss our personal thoughts on some of the week’s hottest topics, and it can help you get to know the team a bit better as well. This week, we’re talking about casting announcements for Borderlands and HBO’s The Last of Us, release date announcements like the one for Ratchet & Clank, scalpers buying out McDonald’s Pokemon cards, and more!
And because we’re feeling really random this week, we’re adding classical music references to each title section because… why not?
Prima | End of the Week Recap #16
News – Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2
- Demon Slayer Game Coming To PS5 And Xbox Series X
- 343 Industries Working On Another New Halo Game
- Konami Didn’t Ask Al Hub To Remove Silent Hill Interview
- Forza Horizon 4 Is Coming to Steam On March 9
- CDPR Hacked, Source Code For Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 Stolen
- Jamie Lee Curtis Will Play Dr. Patricia Tannis In Borderlands Movie
- Pokémon Go Is Getting A Valentine’s Day Event
- Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time Coming To Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, & PC On March 12
- Back Button For DualSense Controller Rumored To Be In The Works
- Pokémon TCG Cards Will Be Sold At McDonalds For 25 Anniversary
- Ubisoft Pushing Further Into The Free to Play Market, New Games Revealed This Year
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Teaser Drops a Release Date and Unbelievably Sick Trailer Music
- Epic Announces MetaHuman Creator, An All-New Way To Create Digital Humans
- Tales From The Borderlands Coming Back to Storefronts On February 17
- Scalpers Are Already Buying Out McDonald’s Pokémon Cards
- Blizzcon Online Schedule Revealed, Behind The Scenes of Overwatch 2 & More
- Deathloop Art Director Shares A Bunch of New Amazing Concept Art
- The Last of Us HBO Series Casts Joel and Ellie
- Post Malone Headlines Free Virtual Concert For Pokémon’s 25th Anniversary Celebration
- Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart Finally Gets Release Date & Digital Deluxe Edition
- CD Projekt RED Hacked Data Reportedly Sold for Over $7 Million
- Rage 2 & Absolute Drift Free On Epic Games Store Next Week
- Kingdom Hearts Is Coming to PC for The Very First Time Ever As Epic Games Store Exclusive
- Jack Black Will Voice Claptrap In Borderlands Movie
- NieR Replicant Gets Ten Minute Gameplay Video
Features – Moonlight Sonata
- The Daunting but Rewarding Task of Returning to Final Fantasy XIV
- The Medium | Interview With Bloober Team’s Wojciech Piejko
- FUSER Publisher NCSOFT Hosting Virtual K-Pop Concert Using XR Technology
- Make These 10 Sora Mods For Kingdom Hearts You Cowards
- Chivalry 2 Gets a Confirmed Release Date
- Interview: Talkin’ SaGa Shop with Square Enix SaGa leaders Akitoshi Kawazu, Hiroyuki Miura and Masanori Ichikawa
- Every 3D Super Mario Game Ranked From Worst to Best
Reviews – La Campanella
Guides – Gymnopedie No. 1
- Fortnite Week 10 Challenges | How To Upgrade Weapons
- Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5 Week 11 Challenges
- How To Get The Flash Outfit In Fortnite
- Fortnite | How To Deploy Scanners Near Retail Row
- Fortnite Week 11 Challenges | How To Catch Different Kinds Of Fish For Fishstick
- Fortnite Week 11 Challenges | How to Serve Fishstick and his Date a Fancy Dinner
- Fortnite Week 11 Challenges | How to Get Cupid’s Crossbow
- Fortnite Week 11 Challenges | Where to Find a Rose at Steel Farm or The Orchard
- Is FFXIV Cross Platform?
- Final Fantasy XIV Seasonal Event Guide: Valentione’s Day 2021
- Valheim Boss Order
- Pokemon Go: How to Catch Shiny Mew
- Everything You Need to know About Pokemon Go Tour: Kanto
- How to Get Leafeon In Pokémon Go
- How to Beat Arlo In Pokemon Go
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night | How To Access 1986 Mode
- Little Nightmares 2 | List of Achievements
- Do You Need to Play Persona 5 Before Strikers? What About Royal?
Staff Chat
Lucas
What did you think of the McDonald’s Pokemon card situation?
I was surprised at first, becaue Pokemon cards have typically been the cheaper game to get into for the most part. But scalping is outta control due to America’s whole economic situation so I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised. We got one for my kid without any trouble though, which was nice.
Thoughts on the casting announcements for the Borderlands movie and Last of Us HBO Series?
Borderlands and The Last of Us are IPs I probably couldn’t care less about, haha. I really don’t see Borderlands translating well to film especially but we’ll see I guess! And The Last of Us wishes it was a HBO series anyway so I doubt it’ll be much different from the source material.
Are you excited about any of the games that got release date announcements this week?
Not really, but you know your boy is hyped for Sonic the Hedgehog 2!
What sort of Kingdom Hearts mods do you think might pop up after the game’s PC release?
I expect to see the Resident Evil 2 community to have a real field day with this one when it drops.
Favorite piece on the site this week and why?
Jesse’s Final Fantasy XIV piece is awesome, and having jumped back in around the same spot in the game I can really relate to it!
Are you playing any interesting games this weekend?
Probably lots of Final Fantasy XIV! I’m also right on the edge of beating Phantasy Star (Sega Ages) on Switch, so I might hop right to the sequel via the Genesis Collection.
Watching anything (TV, movies, anime) that you’d recommend?
I’ll be watching Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna over the weekend, and I have no idea what to expect but I’m ready to be crying in the club by the end.
Bonus question, what’s one game you think you’re really skilled at, and how long did it take you to become skilled at that game?
I’m pretty good at Tetris. Not like Grand Master competition level, but I can smoke everyone I play with personally. It happened kind of by accident, too. I just really liked Tetris DS and all its cutesey Nintendo themeing, and suddenly I was clearing Marathon mode consistently. In Tetris 99 you sometimes get bonked out by circumstance, but I’ve got the win or very close several, several times. I’m proud of that!
Jesse
What did you think of the McDonald’s Pokemon card situation?
Pretty par for the course. Pokemon cards have been super difficult to get for a bit now. Blame the Tik Tok and Youtubers for that one. So it’s no shock that Mcdonalds would face the same fate.
Thoughts on the casting announcements for the Borderlands movie and Last of Us HBO Series?
I feel like every Borderlands announcement gets weirder and weirder. NOt really sure how that one is going to turn out. As for The Last of Us, I’m actually pretty happy with those casting choices.
Are you excited about any of the games that got release date announcements this week?
Honestly, I’m currently most hyped on the announcement of the FFXIV expansion Endwalker. I’ve been working my way through the expansions and it’s so good.
What sort of Kingdom Hearts mods do you think might pop up after the game’s PC release?
If Geoff Keighley is not put in that game, what are we doing? Like Keighblade is right there.
Favorite piece on the site this week and why?
I really enjoyed Lucas’ Persona 5 Strikers Review.
Are you playing any interesting games this weekend?
I’ll probably just keep going with FFXIV and maybe some of that Mario 3D World.
Watching anything (TV, movies, anime) that you’d recommend?
WandaVision!!!!!
Bonus question, what’s one game you think you’re really skilled at, and how long did it take you to become skilled at that game?
Honestly I’m pretty bad at most games, but I think I’m above average at Tetris, which seems to be the case for all of us here lol.
Morgan
What did you think of the McDonald’s Pokemon card situation?
I always think it’s weird when I hear about a situation with scalpers be it with the PS5 or Nvidia 3080, to now Pokemon cards at McDonald’s. Technically it’s not illegal to buy vast quantities of these items and resell them at a higher cost, but it is kind of disappointing for people who just wanted a pack or two of these cards and now they can’t get any unless they spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.
Thoughts on the casting announcements for the Borderlands movie and Last of Us HBO Series?
I adore Jack Black so I’m happy to hear he was cast as the voice actor for Claptrap. I also adore Jamie Lee Curtis, though I find her casting as Tannis a little odd. I think once a trailer comes out it’ll make more sense… hopefully. For HBO’s The Last of Us, I was surprised by the picks but the more I sit on them and think about it, the more I think they were both solid choices. I’m looking forward to seeing them bring Ellie and Joel to life.
Are you excited about any of the games that got release date announcements this week?
Yes, Chivalry 2. I put hundreds upon hundreds of hours into Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and I’ve been keeping an eye out for the Chivalry 2 release date announcement. Finally we have a date, and it’s June which isn’t too far away, so I’m stoked.
What sort of Kingdom Hearts mods do you think might pop up after the game’s PC release?
If any of Jesse’s mod suggestions pop up I will be very happy indeed, particularly Geoff “Keyblade” Keighley.
Favorite piece on the site this week and why?
The aforementioned Kingdom Hearts mod piece from Jesse is just amazing, also loved his Mario rankings. I loved the SaGa interview from Lucas and his review of Persona 5 Strikers. Adding that I’m particularly proud of being able to work in the subject of K-pop onto the site with my NCSOFT feature, and talking about why I love Chivalry in the release date post gave me the warm fuzzies.
Are you playing any interesting games this weekend?
Little Nightmares 2, probably some Tetris, it’ll really depend on how much free time I have.
Watching anything (TV, movies, anime) that you’d recommend?
I recently got hooked on a paranormal channel on YouTube called The Haunted Side. I think the quality of the content they’re putting out is just phenomenal. I binged all of their past episodes on their channel this past week and if you aren’t terrified of horror, scary content, paranormal/ghost content I highly recommend giving some of their videos a watch.
Adding that the “comedy” episode where they can’t enter a building because it’s full of bats is one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever seen, especially as someone who had to deal with two bats in their house at one point and had pretty much the same reaction.
Bonus question, what’s one game you think you’re really skilled at, and how long did it take you to become skilled at that game?
Well now, we’re all talking Tetris so I’m going to add that I am very, very good at Tetris. I’ll also mention Chivalry: Medieval Warfare. I was able to keep up with a lot of the pro players when they were active in the game and I look forward to seeing if I can be just as good in Chivalry 2 when it comes out.