A TiKTok user is currently replacing bits of his Mazda MX-5 Mk1 car with various Nintendo Wii accessories, including the Mario Kart steering wheel that he actually drove with.
Tyler Atkin – ttptng on TikTok – began there, replacing his actual steering wheel with the Wii wheel, and described driving with the cheap plastic as a "horrendous experience".
As reported by VG247, he later replaced the gearstick with the Wii nunchuck, handbreak with the Wii Sports baseball accessory, the floor mat with the Wii Fit yoga mat, and even installed an actual Nintendo Wii in the radio slot.
"I just like to mess about with stuff; keeps me busy and I thought I'd record it." Atkin told IGN. "I put a Wii wheel on about three weeks ago just for something to do and put it on TikTok, told my missus the video would get one million views as a joke, and there's now two or three videos over three million."
The original steering wheel video is sitting at 3.1 million views, and since it went viral Atkin's fans have asked for more and more weird Wii-based additions. Installing the actual console — which turns on but isn't yet connected to a screen — was one of the biggest requests.
"Implementing a balance board in one way or another and a Wii-mote handbrake have got to be near to it too. I even get requests for other consoles such as PlayStation," Atkin said. "Realistically the possibilities of simply messing about are endless."
Whether that means turning his Mazda into a miniature gaming museum with tons of different consoles, or creating a sequel to his Wiiata (Miata is the car's original name and long-running nickname), fans will just have to wait and see.
When asked what the latter would look like, Atkin admitted "that's a hard one, but I guess as the U is the Wii's older brother, it would make sense to use the Mk2 MX5 as my Mk1's older brother."
Video game delays have become commonplace during the pandemic — we tallied 60 delays in 2021 alone — as studios largely continue to work within the confines of remote or hybrid development. This unprecedented shift in the way games are made has impacted the last two years of development dramatically, and as such, we're once again seeing a significant number of games delayed.
To keep track of these ever-shifting release dates and to keep you up on when to expect your most-anticipated games, we've created a running list of every such announcement: full games, notable DLC, and every piece of gaming hardware officially delayed this year.
Click through the gallery below or continue scrolling for the full list of every game delay announced in 2022 (so far).
STALKER 2 : Hearts of Chernobyl
Delayed from April 28 to December 8, 2022
Delayed again from December 8 to First Half 2023
STALKER 2 was the first game officially delayed in 2022. "These additional seven months of development are needed to fulfill our vision and achieve the desired state of the game,” said developer GSC Game World. “STALKER 2 is the biggest project in the history of GSC, and it requires thorough testing and polishing. We are convinced that development should take as long as necessary, especially in the case of such a project."
While it was unfortunate news for the sequel, series fans are well practiced with patience; STALKER 2 comes more than a dozen years after the franchise’s last release, Call of Pripyat.
STALKER 2 was once again delayed in June, this time moving to the first half of 2023, according to a graphic of Xbox's upcoming games.
King Arthur: Knight's Tale
Delayed from February 15 to March 29, 2022
The 1.0 release of King Arthur: Knight's Tale was delayed from February to March "in order to apply final touches and be able to provide a great launch experience," developer Neocore Games announced in January.
"As the pandemic situation is still very uncertain, we are putting health and security first," the post continues. "However, working from home does come with slight delays. We're confident that Knight's Tale will be ready by the end of March, and your journey in Avalon can finally begin."
Knight's Tale was released on Steam Early Access last January. PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions are also in development, though they will be released at a later date.
Ghostrunner: Project_Hel DLC
Delayed from January 27 to March 3, 2022
Project_Hel, a major new DLC for Ghostrunner, was delayed from late January to early March. The extra development time will be used “to make even more worthwhile improvements while ensuring the health & safety of our team and global partners,” reads a statement from the game’s official Twitter account.
In Project_Hel you play as Hel, one of the original game’s bosses. The DLC includes six story missions, new enemies, bosses, and six new tracks from electronic musician Daniel Deluxe.
Dying Light 2 for Nintendo Switch
Delayed from February 4, 2022, to an unannounced later date
Two weeks before its previously expected release date, the cloud version of Dying Light 2 for Nintendo Switch was delayed. Developer Techland says it should be out “within six months” of the original date, putting the Switch version's tentative release window between February and August.
The sequel will still hit PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC on February 4.
Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific and Vanguard Season 2
Delayed from February 2 to February 14, 2022
The second seasons of Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific and Call of Duty: Vanguard were both delayed by two weeks. Activision said it would use the additional time to “deliver updates, including optimizations to gameplay, game balancing (including weapon and equipment balancing), to fix game stability and bugs, and to ensure an overall level of polish to improve the experience.”
Life Is Strange: Remastered Collection for Nintendo Switch
Delayed from February 1, 2022, to “later this year”
The Nintendo Switch version of Life Is Strange: Remastered Collection — a bundle of Life Is Strange and the follow-up prequel Life Is Strange: Before the Storm — was delayed less than two weeks before its initial release date. The developer said it experienced a setback with the Switch version and plans to have it ready “later this year.”
The remastered games feature updated visuals, improved animations, and lighting upgrades. The collection is still expected to hit other platforms — PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia — on February 1.
Rumbleverse
Delayed from February 15 to August 11, 2022
Iron Galaxy's free-to-play, pro-wrestling-inspired battle royale game, Rumbleverse, was delayed out of mid-February to an unannounced later date. "We’re excited about the game we’re making – and we’re glad you are, too – but there’s more we want to do to perfect the experience," wrote the developer on its blog. "More than a game, Rumbleverse will be a community that we want to support for a long time. We’re going to take the time to make sure we can get that right."
While you wait, you can read our Rumbleverse preview, in which we said the game "seems primed to be a legitimate new contender in the competitive battle royale genre."
Evil Dead: The Game
Delayed from February to May 13, 2022
In late January, Saber Interactive and Boss Team Games delayed their official Evil Dead game from February to May 13, 2022. "This delay gives our team the time they need to get things just right, so your boomstick will be polished, fully loaded, and ready to blast Deadites on that Friday the 13th of May," they said. A new trailer for the multiplayer game will be released sometime in February.
This is the second delay for Evil Dead: The Game; it was previously pushed from 2021 to February 2022.
Battlefield 2042 Season One
Delayed from Early 2022 to "early summer 2022"
Despite launching in November 2021, Season One of Battlefield 2042 has yet to begin. The wait for that new content was made even longer on February 1 when EA announced it was pushing the start of Season One to "early summer" 2022.
While Season One was never officially dated, EA's own wording makes it clear this was a delay: "We’ve had to make some big decisions to ensure that our next set of updates can be focused on delivering these improvements, with the most substantial one being to move the release date of our first Season to early Summer." The extra time will give developer DICE "the time to focus on improving the Battlefield 2042 experience while finalizing the development of our seasonal content to ensure that it all reaches our standard for quality."
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Delayed from 2022 to Spring 2023
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has been delayed from 2022 to Spring 2023. The news was first reported by Bloomberg in February, before Rocksteady confirmed the delay in March. "I know a delay is frustrating," said creative director Sefton Hill, "but that time is going into making the best game we can."
The one-to-four-player action game set in an open-world Metropolis and features four playable characters: Harley Quinn, King Shark, Deadshot, and Captain Boomerang.
Martha Is Dead (PS5, PS4 Physical Versions)
Delayed from February 24, 2022, to an unannounced later date
The physical release of Martha Is Dead for PS5 and PS4 was delayed indefinitely, developer LKA announced in mid-February. While a new date wasn't given, LKA hopes it will be out in "a small number of weeks."
The delay is due to a seemingly last-minute decision by Sony to not allow certain elements of the game to appear on PlayStation platforms. As such, LKA "requires extra time to make these unplanned changes."
LKA did not reveal which specific elements from the game it was being forced to remove, though the delay announcement was prefaced with a message about Martha Is Dead's "potentially discomforting scenes and themes."
The Xbox and PC versions, as well as the digital PlayStation versions, will be released as scheduled on February 24.
Little Orpheus (Console, PC Ports)
Delayed from March 1, 2022, to an unannounced later date
The console and PC versions of Little Orpheus have been delayed indefinitely following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, publisher Secret Mode announced on March 1 (the day the game was previously scheduled to be released).
"While Little Orpheus was originally released on Apple Arcade in June 2020 and does not directly reference recent world events, we recognize some of the game's themes and content may be upsetting to players at this time," said the publisher. Set in 1962, Little Orpheus follows a Soviet cosmonaut who explores the center of the earth. It features narration by a stereotypical Russian general while poking fun at the propagandist language of the Cold War era.
The Settlers
Delayed from March 17, 2022, to an unannounced later date
Ubisoft's reboot of real-time strategy series The Settlers was delayed indefinitely following its recent closed beta. Developer Ubisoft Düsseldorf said feedback from the beta made it clear "the quality wasn’t yet in line with the team’s vision."
A new release window was not announced, though the developer said the extra time "will be used to further improve the game and push quality as our main priority for all our players."
Halo Infinite Co-op Campaign
Delayed from May 3, 2022, to an unannounced later date
Halo Infinite's campaign co-op mode is no longer shipping with the start of the game's second season on May 3, developer 343 announced in early March. It will instead be released "later in Season 2."
"The reality is that it’s going to take more time to land a high-quality, full-featured 4-player network co-op experience in the massive, wide-open world of Halo Infinite," said 343 Head of Creative Joseph Staten. "We’re also committed to a great 2-player split-screen co-op experience on all Xbox consoles, from the original Xbox One through Xbox Series X—and the non-linear, wide-open sections of the Campaign present some big challenges for split-screen that have taken us more time to solve."
Open world action-RPG Forspoken was delayed from May 25 to October 11, developer Luminous Productions announced in March. The additional development time will allow the team to "focus all of [its] efforts on polishing the game" in order to "deliver a game world and hero that gamers across the globe will want to experience for years to come."
In July, Luminous Productions delayed Forspoken again, this time from October to January 24, 2023. The developer said the "strategic decision" was made as "a result of ongoing discussions with key partners." It added, "All game elements are now complete, and development is in its final polishing phase."
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp
Delayed from April 8, 2022, to an unannounced later date
On March 9, Nintendo delayed Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp indefinitely, citing "recent world events," presumably referring to the ongoing war in Ukraine. While Nintendo didn't elaborate further, it's understandable (and wise) that the company is avoiding the promotion and subsequent release of a war-based game in a time of conflict.
Exomecha
Delayed from Q1 2022 to an unannounced later date
Explosive free-to-play FPS Exomecha has been delayed out of its early 2022 release window. Developer TwistedRed made the announcement on Twitter, saying it needs more time to polish the shooter and "prepare some post launch content." A new release window was not announced.
This is Exomecha's second delay; it was originally scheduled for August 2021.
Roller Champions
Delayed from Early 2022 to "Late Spring" 2022
UPDATE: Roller Champions was released on May 25.
Ubisoft's free-to-play, roller derby-inspired Roller Champions has been pushed from its early 2022 release window to "late spring," the company announced on Discord (via Tom Henderson). "After evaluating every possible scenario, the team has concluded that they will need a bit more time to deliver the successful game you deserve," said Ubisoft.
First announced in 2019, Roller Champions' release window has been a moving target, shifting from early 2020 to early 2021 to early 2022 and now "late spring" 2022.
EA Sports PGA Tour
Delayed from Spring 2022 to Spring 2023
The return of EA Sports PGA Tour has been delayed by a year. The next-gen golf game, originally scheduled for Spring 2022, is now due out in Spring 2023. EA didn't provide a reason for the delay.
The delay was first mentioned back in November, though it wasn't until March that EA made the official announcement and revealed PGA Tour's new release window.
Sons of the Forest
Delayed from May to October 2022
In late March developer Endnight Games announced it was delaying Sons of the Forest by five months, from May to October 2022. The developer said the initial May release window for its The Forest sequel was "overly ambitious," adding it needs the additional five months "to deliver our vision of the next step in survival games."
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2
Delayed from 2022 to Spring 2023
In late March, Nintendo confirmed the sequel to its 2017 hit Breath of the Wild will not be released in 2022 as originally planned. Instead, the team is aiming for a Spring 2023 release, according to series producer Eiji Aonuma, "in order to make this game's experience something special, the entire development team is continuing to work diligently on this game, so please wait a while longer."
Two Point Campus
Delayed from May 17 to August 9, 2022
Two Point Campus, developer Two Point Studios’ Two Point Hospital spinoff, has been delayed by three months, from May 17 to August 9. The extra time will allow the team to “deliver the best possible game that can be enjoyed equally on all platforms.”
The Witcher 3 Next-Gen
Delayed from Q2 to Q4 2022
The PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of The Witcher 3 have been delayed indefinitely, CD Projekt Red announced on April 13. (UPDATE: It's now been scheduled for Q4 2022.) The delay comes as CD Projekt moves development of the next-gen upgrades in-house; they were previously being handled by Saber Interactive. While a new release window has not been announced, the studio ensured fans there isn't "some monumental sort of time gap ahead of us."
This is the second delay for The Witcher 3 on PS5 and Series X|S; it was previously pushed from 2021 to Q2 2022.
The Day Before
Delayed from June 21, 2022, to March 1, 2023
On May 5, developer Fntastic delayed its open-world survival MMO The Day Before by 8 months. Alongside the delay, the studio announced it was shifting development on the project to Unreal Engine 5.
"The transition to a more advanced and adapted open worlds engine will make the gameplay of The Day Before even more fantastic," reads a statement from Fntastic. "In this regard, we inform you that the new release date of the game will be March 1st, 2023."
The Day Before is currently the most wishlisted game on Steam.
Redfall
Delayed from Summer 2022 to First Half 2023
In mid-May, Bethesda delayed Arkane Austin's co-op vampire shooter Redfall from Summer 2022 to the first half of 2023. No specific reason was given for the delay; game director Harvey Smith only said "the team needs more time to bring the game to life," noting Redfall is the studio's "most ambitious game yet."
The delay is rather unsurprising given the lack of new information on Redfall since its E3 2021 reveal and the approaching Summer 2022 release window.
Starfield
Delayed from November 11, 2022, to First Half 2023
Alongside Redfall, Bethesda delayed Starfield to the first half of 2023. The next RPG from Todd Howard and Bethesda Game Studios was previously penciled in for November 11 — a notable date for BGS, which previously released Skyrim on November 11, 2011.
As with Redfall, a specific reason for the delay wasn't given, though BGS followed up the delay announcement with a tweet saying it simply "needs more time."
Bethesda says gameplay deep dives for both Starfield and Redfall are coming "soon." Our best guess is we'll see both games in action during the Xbox Bethesda Summer Showcase on June 12.
Dying Light 2 Story DLC
Delayed from Early Summer to September 2022
Dying Light 2's first story DLC was delayed by a few months, developer Techland announced on May 12. The expansion, which takes place "sideways to the main events" of the base game, will now be released in September.
Techland said it simply needs "a bit more time to develop" the DLC in order to meet player expectations.
Kerbal Space Program 2
Delayed from 2022 to Early 2023
Kerbal Space Program 2 is the fifth notable game delay announced in May. The space sim will now be released in early 2023 on PC "and on consoles after that."
As part of the delay announcement, creative director Nate Simpson laid out the development team's ambitions for KSP 2: "We’re creating a game of immense technological complexity. And we’ve assembled a team of passionate, talented people to achieve that goal. But we’ve also set ourselves a very high bar of quality.
"The game has to be performant across a wide range of machines. The graphics have to be peerless. The universe has to be rich and interesting to explore."
Originally due out in 2020, KSP 2 has now been delayed three times — first from 2020 to Fall 2021, then to 2022, and now again to early 2023.
Replaced
Delayed from 2022 to 2023
Belarus-based Sad Cat Studios' retro-futuristic platformer Replaced has been delayed to 2023 due to the ongoing war in neighboring Ukraine. "The priority for Sad Cat was for the safety of the team and their families," the delay announcement reads. "As a result, part of the team has now relocated and work has only recently restarted on Replaced."
The delay will "ensure that the game is in the best state it could possibly be," while giving the studio space to prioritize "both the physical and mental health of the developers."
The Quarry Online Multiplayer
Delayed from June 10 to July 8, 2022
The Quarry's online multiplayer mode has been delayed to July 8, Supermassive Games announced on May 26. The single-player campaign, couch co-op, and movie mode will all launch as expected on June 10.
The developer didn't provide a reason for the delay, only stating the extra time will allow it to "deliver the best possible experience."
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake
Delayed from Ubisoft's FY23 to an unannounced later date
Ubisoft's Prince of Persia remake has been delayed once again, the company announced in June. The delay follows Ubisoft's announcement that development on the project was being moved from Ubisoft Pune and Mumbai to Ubisoft Montreal. Ubisoft told IGN the delay is a "consequence" of that shift to Ubisoft Montreal.
The game was previously scheduled for Ubisoft's 2023 fiscal year, which runs from April 2022 through March 2023. This is Prince of Persia's third delay; it was originally due out in January 2021.
Homeworld 3
Delayed from Q4 2022 to First Half 2023
Homeworld 3 was delayed from late 2022 to the first half of 2023, developer Blackbird Interactive announced on June 10. Blackbird said the additional development time will allow it to "make good on [its] commitment to quality in a healthy and sustainable way for all those involved."
More info on Homeworld 3 will be revealed during Gamescom in August.
Sea of Stars
Delayed from 2022 to 2023
Sea of Stars, a turn-based RPG from The Messanger developer Sabotage Studio, was delayed into 2023. The studio said the decision supports its "two main priorities — quality of life for our team and quality of the finished game."
Sabotage added it's "looking at options" to potentially release a demo sometime this year.
Star Wars: Hunters
Delayed from 2022 to 2023
Star Wars: Hunters, a free-to-play arena battler for Switch and mobile, was delayed from 2022 to 2023, developer Zygna announced in July. "We understand game delays are frustrating," the company wrote, "however, our top priority is ensuring players will have the best possible experience."
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (and Unannounced Ubisoft Game)
Delayed from 2022 to Ubisoft's 2023-24 financial year (April 2023 – March 2024)
Ubisoft's upcoming first-person action Avatar game, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, is no longer set to be released at the end of 2022, as previously expected. During Ubisoft's Q1 earnings report, the company confirmed Ubisoft Massive's Avatar game will be delayed to Ubisoft's next fiscal year, meaning it would be released in April 2023 at the earliest, and potentially as late as March 2024.
No explicit reasons were given for the delay, other than Ubisoft saying, "While this additional development time is a reflection of the current ongoing constraints on productions across the industry, we are hard at work to design the most efficient working conditions to ensure both flexibility for our teams as well as strong productivity while delivering the best experiences to players."
Ubisoft also delayed a "smaller unannounced premium game" out of this current financial year and into the next; Bloomberg reported that game is Assassin's Creed Rift.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
Delayed from September 1, 2022, to "a few months" later
On July 25, developer Daedalic Entertainment announced it had delayed The Lord of the Rings: Gollum by "a few months" in order to "deliver the best possible experience." The company added it will announce a specific release date "in the near future."
Gollum was initially scheduled to hit all but one platform on September 1; the Switch version was already expected to be released at a later date. It's unclear if this delay affects the Switch release date or rather aligns the release date on all platforms.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
Delayed from September 13 to November 30, 2022
The PC version of co-op shooter Warhammer 40K: Darktide was delayed from September 13 to November 30, with the Xbox Series X|S version expected "shortly after." Developer Fatshark Games said the extra time is needed to "improve stability, performance, and to mature key systems."
Season: A Letter to the Future
Delayed from Fall 2022 to Q1 2023
Season, the evocative bicycle road trip game from Scavengers Studio, was delayed from Fall 2022 to the first quarter of 2023. The studio said the decision was made in order to "push for quality without it affecting the wellbeing of our team." The extra time will be used for polish and refinement, according to the developer.
Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Westworld Season 4.
Westworld actress Aurora Perrineau has revealed that she was kept in the dark over her own character's twist, which was unveiled in the fourth episode of Season 4.
Perrineau, who plays a character known as C on the HBO series, told The Hollywood Reporter that she only received breadcrumbs of information about her character's identity and backstory. She admitted that she "had an idea" of what might be coming, but could never confidently predict her fate as she didn't see the scripts until the cameras started rolling.
"I didn't know anything," Perrineau said. "I got the scripts prior to each episode — you get it right before the episode and then you shoot it. So it was always a surprise. My first episode, I was like, 'Oh, I get to work with Jeffrey Wright and Luke Hemsworth. That's so f***ing cool.' It turned into like, 'OK, cool, I don't know who this girl is, but that's fun.'
"Then I got the script for four while we were shooting already and that was a big surprise. I had no idea. I called one of the producers and I was like, 'Wait a minute, am I Aaron's daughter?'," she continued, adding that she had a vague idea of her character's backstory after picking up a few more puzzle pieces from the script for the third episode.
It was revealed in Westworld Season 4's fourth episode that Perrineau's C is actually the older version of Frankie, the daughter of Aaron Paul's Caleb, who wanted to prevent his offspring from growing up in this world. Perrineau remained secretive about Frankie's involvement with the rebellion, but asserted that her character's motivations are now much clearer.
"It reinvigorated things that I already felt in thought," she said, explaining how the revelation helped her to shape the character. "It also then gave me even more of a purpose to why I'm doing the things that I'm doing, which was super helpful for the rest of the season. It's nice to know this is why you do these things, as opposed to just making a random guess."
Westworld Season 4 "Generation Loss" aired on HBO on July 17. IGN's review of Episode 4 recognized that it was a "wickedly exciting chapter" that "brought two big storylines together (while also tethering the third) in an action-packed, emotional ride filled with harrowing answers and harsh revelations," which resulted in one of the best episodes to date.
Silent protagonists are nothing new in video games, but Stray certainly pushes that concept to an interesting place. Part platformer, part traditional adventure game, this cyberpunk world full of neon-soaked robots transforms into a giant jungle gym from your perspective, which is just one foot off the ground. The concept of putting you in the paws of an average cat may be a silly one on the surface, but Stray uses that furry vehicle to tell a genuinely compelling story with some entertaining action along the way. Not all of its ideas land on their feet, but it was impossible to shake the fuzzy feeling it gave me right from the adorable opening minutes.
To be clear: you’re not a magic cat, not a mutated sci-fi cat, not some kind of sentient super cat – just a normal, cute cat, albeit one that displays the sort of intelligent awareness we all like to pretend our own cats do when we aren’t looking. The simplicity of that concept works wonderfully, especially because the fact that you are a cat doesn’t actually matter all that much to the artificial people you interact with or the things you are asked to do. The robotic denizens of this cyberpunk world generally talk to you like they would anybody else, and the only way it’s ever really relevant to the story or the action is because you can fit into tight spaces they can’t.
At the same time, Stray revels in the fact that it has made you a cat. Your feline form brings a lovely and lighthearted flavor to this otherwise dark world, and there are moments all throughout that encourage you to set aside your responsibilities and simply play. Walls and carpets can be scratched at, knees can be lovingly rubbed against, objects can be heartlessly pushed off shelves, and there’s a dedicated meow button that I rarely stopped pressing. You can also find serene spots to curl up and take a nap, letting the camera pull out and giving you a moment to enjoy a nicely staged scene alongside one of the many impressive songs in Stray’s excellent futuristic soundtrack.
This is a wonderfully rich world, one I really enjoyed learning all about. While your cat’s own story is a pretty simple tale of a lost adventurer trying to get home, the conflict you end up stumbling into is very well told. The beautifully designed city you have to make your way through is bleak without feeling pessimistic, full of history to learn and charming robot citizens to chat with despite the fairly dystopian situation around them. I talked to everyone I could, whether they were relevant to the story or not, and I loved seeing what their computer screen faces would display as I excitedly meowed around their feet, be that annoyance, surprise, or just a big heart.
This is a wonderfully rich world I enjoyed learning all about.
When you’re not sleeping on a pillow, Stray generally puts you in one of two types of situations: you’ll either be running through fairly linear levels full of amusing platforming challenges and some light puzzle solving, or exploring one of its more open town areas where you’ll collect items, talk to friendly robots, and complete tasks for them. The former sections almost reminded me of something like a 3D version of 2016’s Inside, with relatively simple obstacles being elevated by the exemplary atmosphere built around them. The latter sections, on the other hand, shift Stray into a genre more akin to a point-and-click adventure game – except in this case your pointer is a cat.
In either case, moving around as a cat isn’t always quite as fluid as I hoped it would be. It’s fun to scamper up air conditioners mounted to the sides of buildings or walk along railings, but you don’t actually have a dedicated jump button to do any of that with. Instead, you can press a button to hop to predetermined interactable spots automatically when prompted. That means the only difficulty associated with any of the platforming is wrestling the camera into the right position to hop to the spot you want, and you don’t exactly move with the nimbleness of a cat once you do – though that’s partly the fault of the movement animations themselves, which can be noticeably stiff at times.
The linear sections are still quite enjoyable despite their straightforward ease, kept interesting to the end of the five hours it took me to beat Stray by constantly introducing fresh ideas and environments. There are exciting chase scenes as you run from mutated creatures called Zurks, stealth sections as you avoid security drones, and puzzles where you might have to lure the enemy AI to your advantage. Not all of these ideas are as successful as others – the weakest of them gives you a weapon to kill the Zurks, which quickly devolves those previously tense encounters into a pattern of killing a few and then running backwards while you recharge it over and over – but they are all clever enough to refresh the platforming throughout.
Exploring the small towns between these sections is a lot of fun from a four-legged perspective too, with each area sporting a surprisingly dense layout full of nooks and crannies to sniff out and a great use of vertical space. While the main quest will send you running around them on its own, there are also plenty of optional collectibles and questlines that I enjoyed stumbling upon just as much. Some might have you tracking down the combination to a hidden safe in classic adventure game fashion, while another has you collecting sheet music for a musician bot to play back to you. There’s a lot to find, and some collectibles are hidden well enough that I didn’t manage to uncover them all on my first playthrough – so there’s definitely at least a bit more than five hours of worth of stuff to do if you want to find every last secret.
The relationship between you and B-12 forms the cornerstone of the story.
Assisting you with the less paw-friendly tasks is B-12, an equally adorable floating robot companion who hangs out in your backpack. B-12 accompanies your cat for most of the campaign, and the relationship that forms between them is a nice cornerstone for the plot as a whole. It’s as much B-12’s story as it is the cat’s – even more so, honestly, making your cat feel more like a furry avatar in someone else’s tale a lot of the time. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though, and writing for B-12 and the rest of the robots you meet is more than good enough to make up for the limited conversational skills of your purr-otagonist.
B-12 doesn’t get all of the interactive glory, either, as I enjoyed when initially superfluous cat actions were occasionally repurposed into actual game mechanics. For example, you might need to get someone to open a door for you by scratching at it or wake someone up by knocking something off of a shelf above them. Later on, the meow button I had been incessantly pressing with no consequences up until that point could suddenly alert a guard to my presence, which would have been dire if I hadn’t been appropriately hiding in a cardboard box. Again, none of these tricks were ever very complex or challenging, but they were entertaining all the same.
Sony has released the first full-length plot synopsis for God of War Ragnarok, giving fans a little bit more information on what to expect in long-awaited sequel.
Revealed on the PlayStation Store (and spotted by The Gamer), the new synopsis replaces a much more bare-bones version we saw previously. It confirms that game will not just take place during Ragnarök – the grand final battle of Norse mythology that traditionally sees Odin, Loki and other gods die – but also during the events immediately preceding it, a Norse saga known as Fimbulwinter.
"From Santa Monica Studio comes the sequel to the critically acclaimed God of War (2018), the synopsis begins. "Fimbulwinter is well underway. Kratos and Atreus must journey to each of the Nine Realms in search of answers as Asgardian forces prepare for a prophesied battle that will end the world.
"Along the way they will explore stunning, mythical landscapes, and face fearsome enemies in the form of Norse gods and monsters. The threat of Ragnarök grows ever closer. Kratos and Atreus must choose between their own safety and the safety of the realms."
While it was already confirmed that players can visit all nine realms, some of these story details were previously unknown, including the mention of Asgardian forces. Asgard is the home of Odin and other major gods, who Kratos will presumably come up against given his beef with Odin's son, Thor, so it seems likely that Asgardian soldiers will be a new common enemy.
