WRUP: 2025 Edition

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Another year, another WRUP. How's 2025 treating you thus far, Twinstiquers? I'm going to go ahead and refrain from touching on any recent political stuff, even though there is more than enough to write about for days, because frankly, that's not what we come here for. But please feel free to share any thoughts and/or feelings in the comments. We won't judge. So what's the latest in the gaming world?

Well, let's see. There were three words in that last sentence, and this WRUP post is purporting to contain some sort of gaming intel, so...Half-Life 3 confirmed? Well, maybe not quite, but rumors are starting to swirl once again. Who knows? We may actually be closer than ever before to an honest to goodness Half-Life sequel with the number 3 in it! Here's an article from Ars Technica with more speculation and/or details about that.

Also, the Switch 2 has finally been officially revealed by Nintendo after years of being incredibly tight-lipped about it. But, true to form, Nintendo has even somehow managed to keep pretty tight-lipped with the reveal itself, forcing fans to wait yet another several months for additional information. Maybe they just like torturing us?

What's everybody planning on playing this weekend?

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AJ’s Picks: The 12 Best Games of 2023 (Habitually Late Edition)

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Another year, another ridiculously late Games of the Year article. Many apologies. It took much longer than expected to get to all the standout 2023 unboxings on my YouTube channel. I plan to have all of the 2024 unboxings done within the first few months of next year, and then I'll hopefully be able to focus on getting caught up with 2025 by this time next December. If it's any consolation, as a result of taking so much time to determine the winners of 2023, I'm feeling extremely confident in my picks (not that I haven't for most other years). Hopefully, you will too. Please read on to find out why I chose what I chose as the 12 best titles that 2023 had to offer:

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Save the WRUP for me, Clark.

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Happy December, Twinstiq troop! It's AJ, back with another WRUP because it's long overdue. Hopefully everybody is still doing well and getting into the festive holiday spirit, assuming that's your kind of thing.

I don't have much in the way of news to share, except that it is starting to appear that stores in the US may be scaling back on physical Xbox games. I happened into a local Target store recently and they didn't have a single physical Xbox game to be found. That entire section had simply been removed by the store. They still had plenty of Switch and PlayStation 5 titles, however.

While this doesn't appear to be the case with every Target location in my area (although the ones that do still carry them definitely seem to have scaled back the selection), and this reporting is purely anecdotal, similar reports have already came out of Europe earlier this year. If major US retailers are indeed in the process of 86ing Xbox options in the near future, that would signal a very interesting shift in this generation's console battle. Here's hoping the Xbox brand itself won't be disappearing anytime soon.

But enough about that, what is that we are playing this weekend?

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The Nintendo Wii U: A 12-Year Retrospective

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Despite the massive success of the Wii, Nintendo had a problem on their hands just a few short years after its release. While the system exploded in popularity shortly after its launch, it was failing to maintain that same level of interest over time. The motion-based controls that Nintendo (and their competitors) had gone all in on over the subsequent console cycle had clearly been a passing fad. Changes to the design of their next home gaming system would be necessary if Nintendo desired to stay relevant.

For inspiration, Nintendo decided to look no further than their very own successful line of DS handheld game systems. They came up with the idea for a tablet controller that would serve as a second screen, offering developers and players a choice of how they wanted to control their gameplay, be it with standard buttons and sticks, a touchscreen, or motion controls (for those that still wanted them). As an added bonus, this would also let players choose (in most cases) to either view the gameplay on a regular television screen, or the tablet controller itself, offering a unique level of versatility and flexibility for gaming enthusiasts who had to share the TV with other members of their household. The new console would ultimately also boast better graphics, HDMI output (which the Wii had notably lacked), and full backward compatibility with the Wii.

Dubbed the Wii U, Nintendo's new console would make its debut on November 18, 2012. Sadly, despite looking like a pretty respectable machine on paper, the console ended up being a pretty big flop for Nintendo, not even managing to reach a quarter of the numbers that its predecessor had sold. While the astoundingly poor choice of name was a big part of the Wii U's problems, so too was its comparatively anemic library of titles. Though the Wii U did have a fairly reasonable selection to offer at first, support for the console waned after the first couple of years, to the point where major new titles for the system began to come pretty few and far between.

That isn't to say that the Wii U's library was bad, however. Far from it. By nearly any metric, a good portion of the Wii U's titles actually ended up being objectively better than those that had been released for the Wii. Not only was the Wii U not absolutely rife with the same massive pile of third-party (wrist) waggle-controlled garbage games that the Wii library became infamous for, but many of its Nintendo-published titles were higher quality as well. Most games on the Wii U tended to score better with critics, featured more precise controls, and were arguably just more fun. Please read on for a list of 12 of the best games that the Wii U had to offer.

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Notable New Gaming Releases: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, Mario & Luigi: Brothership, and More…

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One might be forgiven for having thought that by the end of September, most of the year's big releases had already been released. Apparently this was not the case, however, as the last several weeks have seen the arrival of a number of high profile titles. This past week alone gave us the Octopath Traveler-inspired HD-2D remake of Dragon Quest III, a game that has been hotly-anticipated by many a fan of the beloved Dragon Quest series and/or high quality RPGs in general.

Also out in the last 7 weeks, the latest installment in the Mario & Luigi RPG series, a sweet-looking turn-based tactical spin on the action-packed Metal Slug series, and a remaster of the PSP port of the PS2 classic tactical RPG, Phantom Brave. A beloved masterpiece, reimagined. Jump past the break to see more new releases from the last 49 days.

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The PlayStation 2: A 2×12-Year Retrospective

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After the massive success of Sony's original PlayStation, a follow-up console basically became a foregone conclusion. Rival Sega, which had utterly taken a beating with their ill-fated Saturn console, attempted to correct course with their next gaming system, the Dreamcast; even managing to get a jump on the competition by getting their new hardware to market over a year before anyone else. Sony, still enjoying their considerable lead in the race, was able to take some time in developing a proper successor to the PlayStation, and did ultimately succeed in delivering something truly worthy of following in that formidable console's footsteps.

The PlayStation 2 would officially be unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show on September 20, 1999, merely a week after the release of Sega's Dreamcast. Despite some savvy design decisions, a respectable library of new and upcoming titles, and the Dreamcast's modest early foothold in that generation's console race, it wouldn't be enough. The absolutely massive amount of hype leading up to, and then following, the October 26, 2000 North American launch of Sony's smartly-designed PlayStation 2 console would impact Dreamcast sales to the point that Sega would have to prematurely bring its run to an end, just five months later.

The hype was definitely warranted. In addition to doubling as a budget-friendly DVD player, and being backward-compatible with a massive collection of original PlayStation titles, the PS2 would boast its own substantial library of games - - one of the largest for any console, not only then, but ever. While a collection that large is bound to have at least a few stinkers, it also, of course, contained plenty of top-notch exclusives as well, both temporary, and permanent (at least for that generation). Please read on for a selection of 12 of the finest titles to ever grace the PlayStation 2.

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Notable New Gaming Releases: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II, and More…

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Well, we're nearing the end of September and all the year's biggest titles have pretty much dropped by now. This very week saw the release of what has probably been the most-anticipated Switch title of the year, Echoes of Wisdom, a Legend of Zelda game that actually stars the titular character! As arguably the freshest title in the series since the multiplayer fun of 2004's Four Swords Adventures, this may have just been the most-anticipated game of the year for any platform.

Also out in the last 18 weeks, a follow-up to the surprisingly good 2011 Warhammer 40,000 title, Space Marine; an aquatic-themed follow-up to the outstanding 2015 robots-in-space action strategy game, SteamWorld Heist; and a collection of most of (if not all) of Capcom's incredible late '90s Marvel-themed arcade fighting titles. "Save Hyrule - - this time with Princess Zelda!" Jump past the break to see more new releases from the last 126 days.

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