‘Crossy Road’ creator Andy Sum’s next game will arrive on July 20th

Publisher No More Robots has announced that the next game from Crossy Road creator Andy Sum will be released on Steam on July 20th. While Crossy Road is a hit arcade-style title in the vein of Frogger, TombStar takes its cue from bullet hell roguelikes, such as Enter the Gungeon and The Binding of Isaac.

TombStar, which was announced in 2020, is a colorful space Western top-down shooter. There are three characters to choose from, each with their own playstyle. You’ll pick up abilities, weapons and perks to aid you in battle against the Grimheart Gang. Each of the worlds has a boss, but since the levels are procedurally generated, each run will be different.

PS Plus games for July include ‘Crash 4’ and ‘Man of Medan’

Sony has revealed the three games that all PlayStation Plus subscribers can snap up in July. They are Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, Man of Medan and Arcadegeddon — a notable leaker once again got all three games spot on.

Crash Bandicoot 4 arrived in 2020 and was the first new mainline Crash game in 12 years. It was pegged as a direct sequel to the original PlayStation 1 trilogy — meaning that it ignored all the PS2 games. Both the PlayStation 4 and PS5 versions will be available, with the latter supporting features like the DualSense controller’s adaptive triggers and haptic feedback.

Man of Medan is the first title in Supermassive’s Dark Pictures Anthology series. It’s an interactive horror game in which your choices determine whether characters live or die. However, we felt it didn’t hold up as strongly as the studio’s previous game, Until Dawn. Man of Medan is hitting PS Plus just after the arrival of Supermassive’s latest game, The Quarry.

Arcadegeddon, meanwhile, is a multiplayer shooter from Illfonic that has both co-operative and player vs. player modes. You’ll search for loot and unlock abilities as you take on the evil Fun Fun Co. megacorp, which is using an arcade for real-world weapons testing.

This is the first time Sony has refreshed the games on the lowest tier of the new-look PS Plus since it revamped the service. The company said it will continue to offer Essential tier users a couple of games a month that they’ll have access to as long as they remain subscribers. Sony will also update the Extra and Premium lineups in the middle of each month.

Crash 4, Man of Medan and Arcadegeddon will be available to claim on July 5th. Until then, you can still add the current batch of PS Plus Essential titles — God of War (2018), Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl — to your library.

Blizzard intends to buy ‘Spellbreak’ studio Proletariat to speed up ‘WoW’ development

It’s a busy spell for Blizzard, with Diablo Immortal, Overwatch 2 and mobile game Warcraft Arclight Rumble all arriving this year. The studio has another major release lined up in the form of World of Warcraft expansion Dragonflight, which is expected to arrive by the end of 2022. To help get WoW expansions out on time and ensure they meet the bar in terms of quality, Blizzard intends to buy Spellbreak studio Proletariat to bolster its ranks of developers, as GamesBeat reports.

The news comes one day after Proletariat announced it will shut down Spellbreak early next year. The free-to-play game is an intriguing take on the battle royale genre, with players using magical powers instead of guns. The game never took off, though. It had an average player count of 166 on Steam over the last month. Apex Legends, on the other hand, has more than a thousand times as many players at any given time on Steam alone.

More than 100 developers from Proletariat may soon be focused on World of Warcraft, though the studio has been working with Blizzard since last month. The Boston-based studio also plans to expand its team.

WoW general manager John Hight has spoken of the difficulties his team has had in hiring to deliver content updates to players more quickly (the publicturmoil at the studio over the last year might have played a role in that). Bringing Proletariat on board should help.

“A big part of caring for our teams is making sure we have the resources to produce experiences our communities will love while giving our teams space to explore even more creative opportunities within their projects,’ Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra said. “Proletariat is a perfect fit for supporting Blizzard’s mission in bringing high-quality content to our players more often.”

Activision Blizzard is itself in the process of being bought by Microsoft for $68.7 billion. Given the ongoing labor and workplace culture issues at the company, there’s a bit of irony in Blizzard snapping up a studio called Proletariat.

Correction 6/29/22 5:40pm ET: A previous version of this story stated that Blizzard had acquired Proletariat studios. The sale has not been completed and the copy above has been changed to reflect that.

A bundle with the Echo Show 5 and a Ring Doorbell is only $85 for Prime members

Amazon has pulled another solid deal out of its hat ahead of Prime Day. Prime members can now snag a bundle of the Echo Show 5 and Ring Video Doorbell for $85. You’d essentially be getting the smart doorbell for free, as Echo Show 5 typically costs the same price. The Ring Doorbell normally costs $100 by itself. The standard price of the bundle is $150, which is already $35 less than the products cost separately.

Buy Echo Show 5 and Ring Doorbell bundle at Amazon – $85

The current version of the Alexa-enabled Echo Show 5 arrived a year ago. We gave it a score of 85 in our review, finding the decent sound quality and bedside-table size to be plus points. The tap-to-snooze option is useful too. However, the interface perhaps isn’t as intuitive as it could be and, while it has a better webcam than the first version of the device, it’s still only 2MP.

Meanwhile, the second-gen version of Ring Video Doorbell arrived in 2020. It offers up to 1080p HD video, an improvement over the original model’s 720p resolution. You can view a video feed from the device on Echo Show 5 as well as on a phone, tablet or PC. The doorbell can run on battery power alone. It can also be hardwired or connected to a Ring solar charger.

Amazon says the device offers better night vision than the first-gen doorbell as well as adjustable motion zones. There’s a privacy zone option that allows you to block out certain parts of the field of view from recordings as well. Given that the second-gen Ring Video Doorbell is two years old, this deal could be an instance of Amazon trying to offload existing stock ahead of a possible next-gen model.

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Most of Amazon’s Eero 6 routers are on sale ahead of Prime Day

We’re fast approaching Prime Day, one of the biggest online shopping events of the year, but Amazon isn’t waiting to slash the prices of some of its own products. The company has discounted several Eero 6 routers exclusively for Prime members. The standard Eero 6, for instance, is down from $89 to $71 for Prime members. That matches the lowest price we’ve seen to date.

Buy Eero 6 at Amazon (Prime exclusive) – $71

As with the other models, the Eero 6 is a mesh router. The price is for a single node. The router supports WiFi 6 with speeds of up to 900Mbps and the ability to connect more than 75 devices. Amazon says the device will cover up to 1,500 square feet. The company’s TrueMesh tech prioritizes traffic to certain devices — a TV streaming a movie in 4K will require much more bandwidth than a smart thermostat, for instance. With the Zigbee smart home hub, which is built in, Eero 6 will connect Zigbee-compatible devices to Alexa.

Several other Eero models have dropped to new all-time low prices. Among them is the Eero 6+, which is $90, down from $139. This model supports speeds up to a gigabit and has two 1Gbps Ethernet ports. You may also get faster connectivity thanks to support for 160 MHz client devices.

Buy Eero 6+ at Amazon (Prime exclusive) – $90

The Eero Pro 6 also costs less than it ever has to this point. Amazon has lowered the price from $229 to $148. The device can cover 2,000 square feet and it supports speeds of up to 1Gbps.

Buy Eero Pro 6 at Amazon (Prime exclusive) – $148

In addition, the Eero Pro 6E is on sale. It’s down to $179, which is $120 off the regular price. As the name suggests, this router supports the WiFi 6E protocol and more than 100 connected devices. It provides speeds of up to 1.3Gbps over WiFi and 1Gbps via Ethernet. Each node covers up to 2,000 square feet. Along with Zigbee products, you can use the Eero Pro 6E as a home hub for Thread devices (Pro 6 has Thread support too.)

Buy Eero Pro 6E (Prime exclusive) at Amazon – $179

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‘Harvestella’ is a Square Enix farming sim with a dark twist

Square Enix is moving into the farming sim world with Harvestella, which is coming to Nintendo Switch and PC on November 4th. While this is a 3D game with a distinct art style, you’ll surely recognize some elements if you’re one of the tens of millions of Stardew Valley players out there. You’ll till land, sow seeds, water crops, collect items for cooking and crafting, go fishing, take care of pets, explore dungeons, slay monsters and so on.

You’ll be able to visit other towns and get to know their residents. In Nemea Town, cherry blossoms bloom all year, while Seaside Town Shatolla has a vibrant bar scene. There are multiple jobs to choose from as well, including mage, fighter and shadow walker. Each of those will offer different abilities in battle. You’ll also be able to explore some of the ocean in a submarine.

The overworld will change based on the season, but there’s a catch. Four crystals called Seaslight usually ensure there’s a stable transition between seasons. However, the game starts amid some abnormalities. Between each season is a period called the Quietus, when crops die and people are unable to go outside due to deadly dust. Even worse, these Quietus spells are lasting longer every year. You might have to do something about that.

Niantic is making an augmented reality basketball game with the NBA

Pokémon Go developer Niantic is creating a new augmented reality mobile game with more big-name partners: the NBA and its players’ association. NBA All-World will task you with exploring your neighborhood to find some of the league’s stars such as Chris Paul, Steph Curry and James Harden. You can challenge and compete against virtual players in mini-games like three-point contests before recruiting them to your team.

NBA All-World players will be able to deck out their NBA stars in custom apparel. Polygon notes that you can also improve your squad with items you find out in the wild at places such as sporting goods stores and convenience stores. You’ll have the chance to battle others in one-on-one matches with swipe-based commands too. These encounters will be available at various locations, including real-life basketball courts.

Following Pokémon Go and Pikmin Bloom, Niantic has a few other games in the works. Transformers: Heavy Metal is in beta, but it’s only available in a few countries for now. The same goes for Peridot, a modern AR take on Tamagotchi.

It’s not yet clear exactly when Niantic will release NBA All-World, but the game will soon enter a soft launch period. You can sign up for updates if you’re interested.

‘Sayonara Wild Hearts’ studio Simogo’s next game is an atmospheric murder mystery

Sayonara Wild Hearts developer Simogo has revealed its next game and the eclectic studio is again moving in a different direction. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a non-linear adventure title that will land on Nintendo Switch and Steam in 2023.

Simogo and publisher Annapurna Interactive announced the game during today’s Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase. The first trailer depicts a dark, atmospheric world in which you’ll need to solve puzzles to get to the bottom of a murder mystery. While the clip is light on story, there are a few peeks at the titular laser eyes.

The trailer description notes that you’ll play as a woman who’s looking for answers in a central European manor (or possibly a hotel or museum). Players will need to pay attention to what’s going on, and think about numbers, patterns and puzzles that they find. Annapurna suggests these could be part of a “macabre game” or just a “simple treasure hunt.”

Simogo shook up the gameplay of Sayonara Wild Hearts from level to level and it looks like it’s adopting a similar approach here. The trailer suggests there will be a first-person shooter element, for instance. The visuals will vary too, from lo-fi PS1-era environments and character models to wireframe figures. It looks delightfully strange.

Sayonara Wild Hearts is nearly perfect and one of my favorite games of all time. So, I’m really looking forward to checking out Lorelei and the Laser Eyes next year. Here’s hoping for more details during the Annapurna Interactive Showcase, which takes place on July 28th.

Google is trying to keep political campaign emails out of Gmail spam folders

Google is working on a way to ensure emails from US political campaigns reach users’ Gmail inboxes instead of automatically getting dumped into the spam folder. The company has asked the Federal Election Commission for approval on a plan to make emails from “authorized candidate committees, political party committees and leadership political action committees registered with the FEC” exempt from spam detection, as long they abide by Gmail’s rules on phishing, malware and illegal content.

“We want Gmail to provide a great experience for all of our users, including minimizing unwanted email, but we do not filter emails based on political affiliation,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda told Axios, which first reported on the move. Castañeda added that the pilot program “may help improve inboxing rates for political bulk senders and provide more transparency into email deliverability, while still letting users protect their inboxes by unsubscribing or labeling emails as spam.”

If the project goes ahead, users will see a prominent notification the first time they receive an email from a campaign. They’ll be asked if they want to keep receiving such emails. They’ll be able to opt out of campaign notices later too. That should help cut down on unwanted campaign emails, especially for users who didn’t sign up to receive them in the first place, while making sure they still hit inboxes.

Google has noted that a key reason why Gmail puts many campaign emails in the spam folder is because other users often mark the missives as spam. A North Carolina State University study from earlier this year found that Gmail was more likely than Yahoo (Engadget’s parent company) and Microsoft Outlook to algorithmically filter emails from Republican campaigns as spam during the 2020 campaign.

Republican leaders this month introduced a bill that seeks to make it illegal for email service providers to automatically put campaign messages in the spam folder. It would also require operators to issue a quarterly transparency report detailing how many times campaign messages were flagged as spam, with breakdowns for emails from both the Republican and Democratic parties. In addition, providers would have to disclose the tools they use to determine which campaign emails to mark as spam.

‘Persona 5 Royal’ and ‘Nier: Automata’ are coming to Switch this October

Today’s Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase featured a bunch of third-party games that are coming to Switch, including a bunch of big hitters. For one thing, three Persona games are coming to the hybrid console. Persona 5 Royal is the only one with a confirmed release date (October 21st) for now, but more details about Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portable are coming soon.

It recently emerged that Atlus’ games are also coming to Xbox Game Pass, as well as Steam, PlayStation 4 and (in P5 Royal‘s case) PS5. Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden were ports of PlayStation 2 titles Persona 3 and Persona 4. They were released on PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita, respectively.

Nintendo confirmed Nier: Automata is bound for Switch too. Nier: Automata The End of YoRHa Edition will arrive on the console on October 6th. It includes all previously released DLC expansions, as well as some exclusive costumes.

Leaks had suggested Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope will debut on Switch on October 20th and that turned out to be the case. Even though the game stars Mario, Nintendo technically stuck to its claim that the showcase would only feature third-party titles, since Ubisoft’s Paris and Milan studios co-developed it.

Meanwhile, a cloud version of A Plague Tale: Requiem will be available for Switch on October 18th, the same date that the game will hit other platforms. Focus Home Interactive brought the first game in the series, A Plague Tale: Innocence,to Switch last year, also as a streaming-only version.

You can find out more about all these announcements, as well as other third-party games that are coming to Switch, by checking out the Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase below: