Video game news in review: The biggest news from the week of October 11, 2024

Video game news was all over the place this week. From highly rated new releases this week to some Nintendo hijinks, let's dive right in.

New Nintendo hardware!

But it's not the Nintendo Switch 2 (or as I hope it's named, the Super Nintendo Switch). Nope, it's an... alarm clock?

That's right, the Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo can be yours if you want to be woken up by iconic Nintendo video game noises. It looks pretty cute, but not sure it's worth the $90 price tag... unless you snooze on the Zelda noise and it starts playing the guardian high-tinkling piano to get you out of bed.

Just know that it doesn't work right if you're not single because it'll also track your significant other's movements as well as yours...

Also, no, we have no idea what the mysterious testing is regarding the Switch that's later this month, and since anyone who was chosen has to sign an NDA, we probably won't know until it officially launches.

Halo is moving to Unreal Engine 5

Okay, there's more to it than that. 343 Industries made an announcement at the end of the 2024 Halo World Championships that there are multiple new Halo projects in the works and that they'll be using Unreal Engine 5 instead of the Slipstream Engine (which is what Halo Infinite used).

And 343 Industries is also rebranding as Halo Studios. Here's hoping this means bigger and better things for the series as a whole!

New releases this week

The Silent Hill 2 Remake is top notch. And hey, if it gets new players into the series who don't necessarily want to play a game from 2001, then that's awesome! If you're interested in learning more before you commit, you can check out Gameranx's Before You Buy.

Also some gamers are so many that the remake is getting such good reviews that they tampered with the reviews on the game's Wikipedia page. And Wikipedia had to lock down any future edits for the time being. Let people enjoy things!

The other highly-rated release from this week is Metaphor: ReFantazio, the latest JRPG from the makers of Persona 5, so you knew it was going to be good. But it's real good if you're into the Persona series. And SEGA seems to be faring much better with games lately, which is nice to see. Gameranx did a Before You Buy for this one, too.

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft releases on Netflix

We covered this a few weeks ago when the trailer came out (and also adore Hayley Atwell). The reviews are so-so, but if you're a fan of the series, give it a shot. We always like to see how video game adaptations fare.

LittleBigPlanet 3 PS4 version leaving the PlayStation store

We'll end on a bit of a sad note. Sony announced that LittleBigPlanet 3 will be leaving the PlayStation store permanently after October 31.

The game's been having server issues for years due to hackers, so this isn't very shocking. And it's not like the game will disappear forever; if you've already purchased it or have it through your PS Plus subscription, you can still play it.

What news came out this week that has you excited or angry? Let us know in the comments!