One of the best retro handhelds around is finally available for purchase again, but more expensive than ever. Resident Evil Requiem is neck-and-neck with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for the top spot in the Metacritic user-score leaderboard. And an Ark modder gets called out for reusing assets and tells fans to deal with it. It’s the latest edition of Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news, rumors, and culture. I thought this comment perfectly summed up why video games in particular are such a nostalgia trap.
The Analogue Pocket is back with another $20 price bump
The Analogue Pocket, which uses FPGA tech to run old Game Boy and GBA games at the hardware level instead of emulate them, was $200 back when it was first announced. Then it got bumped to $220 when it shipped in 2021. Now, after years of new versions that sell out super fast, the device is back in stock again but costs $240 as component prices rise.
Analogue isn’t the only retro handheld vendor raising prices. Ayn announced over the weekend that its Thor and Odin 3 will be going up in price too, due specifically to the AI-fueled memory crisis. “Our DRAM and storage supplier has officially confirmed that starting with February orders, DRAM and storage costs are increasing. Based on the information we’ve received, memory pricing pressure is expected to continue for approximately the next year. In addition to ongoing memory shortages and price increases, we are also facing increased exchange rate volatility and other materials cost increased etc.,” the hardware maker revealed on Discord over the weekend.
Insolvency is a good reason to delay a gaming showcase
Greedfall 2 publisher Nacon is currently facing bankruptcy as it tries to restructure its debt after some tough game delays and lackluster sales. It was set to hold its early 2026 showcase on March 4 but has now pushed that back to May. “Faced with a difficult economic environment for the company, we are choosing to focus our resources on upcoming releases and the development of our current games,” the publisher wrote in a press release on Monday. “This period will allow us to polish our projects and prepare for a new Nacon Connect to be held in May, which will showcase the work of our studios in the best possible way.”
New mod lets you zoom in No Man’s Sky
The sci-fi sim’s third-person mode just got a long-requested feature thanks to modding (via Gamesradar). The NMS Customizable Third Person Camera mod by MrSuS60 on Nexus Mods lets you zoom the camera in and out when you’re in third-person mode. It’ll be perfect for helping players document their journeys and all of their increasingly bonkers creations.
Warframe hits Switch 2 in late March with a new mode
Digital Extremes confirmed the upgrade to let fans play in 1080p at 60fps will be available on March 25. It’ll include mouse control support as well. This is also when the sci-fi shooter’s new The Shadowgrapher update goes live, which includes a 4v1 asymmetric multiplayer survival horror mode called Follie’s Hunt. Think Dead by Daylight but with alien magic and cosmic terrors.
Ark modder gets called lazy for reusing old assets from an abandoned pirate game
Modder Nekatus’ Ark: Survival Ascended map Astraeos recently received a Pyranthos update which used assets from the Ark team’s abandoned pirate sim Atlas, PCGamesN reports. The new Hydraskos boss apparently looks exactly like the Hydra boss from that older game. In response to criticism, Nekatus doubled down.
“Reading that I am uncreative or that it’s cheap to do that doesn’t feel good,” they wrote. “Atlas has some very nice creatures…I would like to see more of them in Ark, and I hope that more will come,” Nekatus added.
Resident Evil Requiem is currently in the fight of its life on Metacritic
The new release is tied with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for the highest user rating on Metacritic at 9.5 each. That puts it just a few tenths of a point above 1998’s Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation and 2008’s DS classic Cory in the House.
A must-read report on the hollowing out of games media by a gambling spam company
Aftermath has an in-depth investigation into Clickout Media, the UK-based company that’s been buying gaming sites like Videogamer and loading them up with gambling SEO junk and, more recently, AI-generated slop. Here’s a grim excerpt:
In addition, Aftermath can confirm Clickout Media sites have access to bespoke AI agents that can “emulate the style” of key personnel at its gaming websites, according to multiple sources. Aftermath was provided access to one agent, created for use at one of its major gaming websites. Though we could ask the agent about why it was created – and its generated responses suggest it was instructed to create articles related to casino news and game release coverage – we could not verify who created it.
Aftermath has also viewed and verified screenshots of Clickout Media’s work management platform, Monday, which shows a “traffic light” system for determining how much AI is included in a specific article, from green “AI Minor”, to yellow “AI Standard”, to red “AI Significant”. Several game guides appearing on The Escapist are flagged as “AI Significant”, while game news around topics such as Sony’s decision to close Bluepoint are labelled “Human Dominant”.
