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Each week on Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

After nearly 15 years, the Final Destination horror franchise returned to theaters last month with Final Destination: Bloodlines from Freaks writer-directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein. The film about death pursuing an entire family is available to rent for the first time this weekend. A Minecraft Moviearrives on Max so you can see it without the risk of getting covered in popcorn by Chicken Jockey enthusiasts, or find new ways to get in on the trend at home. The robot romance Love Mearrives on Paramount Plus, while sci-fi horror fans will find the Dead Space-inspired Ashon Shudder.

Here’s everything new that’s available to watch on streaming this weekend!

New on Netflix

KPop Demon Hunters

Genre: Family musicalRun time: 1h 35Director: Maggie Kang and Chris AppelhansCast: Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo-seop, May Hong

Sony Pictures Animation gets into the magical girl genre with a film about a K-pop trio who hunt demons when they’re not on stage. But when the demons form a boy band, the heroes will have to fight for their fans and their souls. The film is packed with original songs featuring performers from around the world.

New on HBO Max

A Minecraft Movie

Genre: Fantasy comedyRun time: 1h 41mDirector: Jared HessCast: Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Danielle Brooks

Jason Momoa steals the show as the owner of a failing game store who enters a portal to the Minecraft Overworld along with two recently orphaned siblings, and has to wrestle a baby-zombie chicken jockey, learn the rules of the game, and cuddle Jack Black in order to return home. It’s not as earnest as The Lego Movie, but it is packed with silliness and references to the world’s most popular video game.

From our review:

At first, the CG interpretations of Minecraft settings, animals, monsters, and villagers are overwhelming: A carnival of nightmare visuals marches across the screen. The villagers are alarmingly fleshy, their eyes too moist for comfort. A sheep’s chewing motions are exaggerated and uncanny. Eventually, though, the alarming effect fades. Some designs are perfectly pleasant to look at, like the piglins, creepers, and iron golems. Once the story is in motion and the characters are moving through elaborate in-game environments, there’s so much going on, and the Minecraft architecture is so familiar, I stopped being concerned and started having fun.

New on Hulu

Out Come the Wolves

Genre: Horror thrillerRun time: 1h 26mDirector: Adam MacDonaldCast: Missy Peregrym, Joris Jarsky, Damon Runyan

A planned couples hunting trip gets awkward when a last-minute cancellation means three people are sharing a cabin and dealing with their past romantic entanglements and unresolved feelings. But the outing takes a much more vicious turn when the group is attacked by wolves who develop a taste for blood and hunt them through the forest.

The Quiet Ones

Genre: Action thrillerRun time: 1h 50mDirector: Frederik Louis HviidCast: Reda Kateb, Gustav Giese, Amanda Collin

Inspired by the true story of the largest heist in Danish history, this tense film follows a boxer who leads a group of men from across Europe in a plot to steal $10 million. Of course, everyone involved has their own secrets and complicated reasons for wanting to do whatever it takes for wealth.

Sally

Genre: DocumentaryRun time: 1h 43mDirector: Cristina Costantini

Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983, but she largely avoided interviews. The National Geographic documentary provides a new look at her life and career, including the 27-year romantic relationship with professional tennis player and science educator Tam O’Shaughnessy that Ride hid until her death.

Skincare

Genre: ThrillerRun time: 1h 36mDirector: Austin PetersCast: Elizabeth Banks, Lewis Pullman, Nathan Fillion

A famous esthetician (Elizabeth Banks of Pitch Perfect and The Hunger Games) fights to defend her success after a rival skincare studio opens across the street and her email is hacked. As the threats against her become more ominous, she needs to defend her reputation and maybe even her life.

New on Paramount Plus

Love Me

Genre: Post-apocalyptic romanceRun time: 1h 32mDirector: Sam Zuchero and Andy ZucheroCast: Kristen Stewart, Steven Yeun

In the year 2500, humanity is extinct, and a lonely weather buoy (Kristen Stewart) and a satellite (Steven Yeun) try to form a very human relationship with the questionable help of an influencer’s social media feed. A sort of adult version of Wall-E, the charming film fuses stop-motion robot models, live action, and animation for a mix of dark satire and classic science fiction.

From our review:

Love Me’s mockery of the artificiality of influencer lifestyle blogging feels pretty dated — this is the kind of thing Black Mirror has been doing for going on a decade now, and it isn’t any fresher here. And the ultimate message more or less amounts to “Be yourself,” which feels like a fairly rote conclusion for such an enjoyably odd, specific movie.

New on Shout TV and Shout Movies

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Genre: Comedy adventureRun time: 1h 32Director: Terry Gilliam and Terry JonesCast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam

John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, and Michael Palin share their memories of making their very silly and iconic retelling of the story of King Arthur and discuss its lasting legacy during a 24-hour stream to celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary. This quest for the Holy Grail includes coconut shells, a killer rabbit, and knights that must be appeased with the gift of shrubbery.

New on Shudder

Ash

Genre: Science fiction horrorRun time: 1h 35mDirector: Flying LotusCast: Eiza González, Aaron Paul, Iko Uwais

An astronaut (Eiza González of 3 Body Problem) wakes up from a coma on a distant planet with no memory and surrounded by bodies. She has to decide if she can trust her supposed rescuer, played by Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul. The truth comes back through dream sequences inspired by video games, including Dead Space, Silent Hill,and Death Stranding.

New to rent

Eye for an Eye

Genre: HorrorRun time: 1h 41mDirector: Colin TilleyCast: Whitney Peak, S. Epatha Merkerson, Golda Rosheuvel

A teen mourning the death of her parents moves to Florida to live with her grandmother, where she witnesses an act of horrible violence. She then finds herself the latest victim of The Sandman, a vengeful spirit that haunts the dreams of bullies to make them suffer the pain they’ve inflicted on others.

Final Destination: Bloodlines

Genre: HorrorRun time: 1h 50mDirector: Zach Lipovsky and Adam SteinCast: Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon

This revival of the long-running franchise, where death comes for people who’ve escaped its grasp through laying elaborate traps, quickly became the most successful film in the series at the box office. This version follows the family of a woman whose premonition in 1969 saved her life, as her descendants, who shouldn’t exist, improbably die one by one.

Friendship

Genre: Black comedyRun time: 1h 41mDirector: Andrew DeYoungCast: Tim Robinson, Paul Rudd, Kate Mara

Making friends as an adult is hard and particularly awkward in this A24 film starring Paul Rudd and I Think You Should Leave’s Tim Robinson. New neighbors bond and have adventures, including mushroom hunting and tunnel exploring, but as the relationship sours, it sends both of their lives spiraling out of control.

Inside

Genre: Psychological thrillerRun time: 1h 45mDirector: Vasilis KatsoupisCast: Willem Dafoe

An art thief (Willem Dafoe) gets locked in a luxurious New York penthouse and abandoned by his accomplices, slowly going insane as he tries to figure out a way to survive and escape. With no food, a malfunctioning thermostat, and a collection of priceless artwork, he reflects on his own life in a darkly funny tale.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Accidentally exposing secrets like API keys, tokens, or credentials in your code opens the door for threat actors to exploit your systems. Such attackers don't stop at one breach; they automate their attacks, move fast, and can potentially compromise entire infrastructure within minutes.

To tackle such scenarios, MongoDB has come up with an open source solution called "Kingfisher".

What's Happening: Launched as an open source tool for detecting secrets in code, file systems, and Git history, Kingfisher was born out of MongoDB's need for a fast, reliable way to identify exposed credentials and prevent security risks before they spiral out of control.

The tool doesn’t just stop there; it can also validate any secrets it finds, as long as they are from supported services, so developers know which keys are still active and risky.

MongoDB has been using Kingfisher internally throughout its development and deployment processes, helping them detect and fix exposed secrets early.

What to Expect: As for how it works, Kingfisher scans code, files, and Git history using various techniques like entropy analysis, real-time validation, pattern matching, and source code parsing for or accurate detection of exposed secrets.

It’s written in Rust and has many handy features like multi-language source parsing with Tree-sitter, high-speed regex matching with Hyperscan, extensible rulesets, cross-platform support, and over 700 built-in detection rules that cover a wide range of cloud services and secret types.

All of this runs on the user’s own systems or infrastructure, ensuring no sensitive data is sent to third-party servers, and there's cross-platform support for Linux, Windows, and macOS. Using Kingfisher also helps security teams stay aligned with SLSA compliance standards.

If you are up for a longer read, then MongoDB has published a detailed blog post explaining how they built Kingfisher.

From It's FOSS News via this RSS feed

The cat and bunny people of Final Fantasy 14 Online are finally getting the headgear options they deserve, the MMO’s developer announced Friday in a new Letter from the Producer Live stream. Hrothgar and Viera characters will soon be able to display the headgear they’re wearing as part of Patch 7.3, Square Enix confirmed.

Hrothgar and Viera have had limited headgear options since the two races were introduced to Final Fantasy 14 in 2019’s Shadowbringers expansion. But since the furry friends have “unique heads” — with cat ears and bunny ears, respectively — some cosmetic headgear hasn’t been available to them.

That will change soon, and Square Enix is promising that “further support for headgear, including helmets, will be added in future updates.” Hopefully, Square Enix is prioritizing the paid cosmetic outfits that its selling that Hrothgar and Viera can’t currently wear.

Of course, as important as hats for feline and lupine fantasy friends are, that’s not the only thing FF14 producer/director Naoki Yoshida and global community producer Toshio Murouchi revealed during Friday’s Letter from the Producer.

Patch 7.3, known as The Promise of Tomorrow, will feature the main scenario quest that serves as the finale of the Dawntrail story. It will be released in early August, developers said.

Elsewhere, FF14’s devs teased a new allied society scenario featuring the Yok Huy; a new level 100 expert dungeon, The Meso Terminal; an unnamed new trial with normal and extreme difficulty versions; a new 24-player alliance raid, San d’Oria: The Second Walk; a new Unreal trial versus Seiryu in The Wreath of Snakes; and a new Deep Dungeon, Pilgrim’s Traverse.

Of course, all that pales in comparison to the six-year nightmare of Hrothgar and Viera going mostly hatless finally coming to an end.

Final Fantasy 14 Online is available now on Mac, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Ryan Coogler’s vampiric box office hit Sinners is coming home to Max this summer. The film, starring Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld, will make its streaming debut on July 4.

The Black Panther and Creeddirector reunited with Jordan for Sinners, in which he plays identical twin gangsters Smoke and Stack. Set in 1932, the movie follows the brothers as they return home to Mississippi with the goal of using their ill-gotten money and booze to open a juke joint. But more is waiting for them than old flames and the Ku Klux Klan; their blues music attracts the attention of dark creatures, and the partygoers have to fight to survive until dawn.

Sinners also stars Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, and Delroy Lindo. The movie bowed in theaters on April 18.

A lot has been said about Sinners, from bad faith reporting about its box office numbers, its subsequent success domestically and internationally, its Twilight Zone inspirations, and its place in the pantheon of Black vampire films. However it comes up in discussion, through cultural conversations about vampires or recommending other media to consume after watching it, Sinners is now a staple in pop culture, no matter what flaws fans may find.

Whether Sinners will come to Max before it’s rebranded HBO Max is still unclear.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

First place is one of the most dangerous places to be during a Mario Kart match. A lead can prove temporary as the game regales everyone else some of its most powerful items, many of which will be aimed directly at the front of the pack. First place, meanwhile, is relegated to garbage weapons like bananas and green shells.

In this sense, Mario Kart World is like any other iteration of Nintendo’s chaotic racer. The difference is that players are trying to exploit this design, which can lead to some absurd races now that lobbies hold 24 players. As we’ve witnessed with our own eyes, rather than showcasing a fight for dominance, Mario Kart World can sometimes devolve into a struggle for mediocrity.

The tactic isn’t adopted across the board. Some Mario Kart World players are learning new wall-riding techniques that make the racer look more like Tony Hawk, and the feather is empowering some fans to create their own amazing shortcuts.

But it’s also becoming increasingly common to see people take things slow, happily lagging behind the competition with the confidence that 24th place can transform into first place after a good item box draw. In a video with over 360,000 views, YouTuber Shortcat spends 46 minutes encouraging players to bag their races, because it’s a good strategy that can ensure you’ll place well by the end of the match. Ideally, you go along at a leisurely pace until you get a really good item, like a star. Once you have it, you’re supposed to hold on to it until an opportune time, like the last lap of the race.

It’s wild to watch in action. You can see people stop accelerating altogether for a few seconds so they’ll fall behind. Some players don’t go for extremes, and instead simply aim to be near the middle of the pack, especially as the match progresses.

“He played that race SO SLOW and won?!?!” one YouTube commenter says of Shortcat’s gameplay footage. “It felt like watching a grandpa play. He didn’t even do anything crazy he just took the two shortcuts. That’s ridiculous, thanks Nintendo.”

Elsewhere, while players cop to adopting the strategy, they don’t really seem happy about it. “It really is ridiculous,” says JupiterClimb, as he narrates a match where he’s shown in last place. “Just absolutely flagrant. Just fully parked, not even trying to play the game,” he says, describing what other people are doing during the race.

Look, I love Mario Kart World, but bagging needs to be nerfed BIG TIMEWhat is the point playing online when you do better by playing badly??? Here I am throwing 2/3 laps to get an easy win, with others going for the same strat Only gonna become more common until a patch pic.twitter.com/56vANBBHRG

— JupiterClimb (@JupiterClimb) June 16, 2025

“With 24 players this is the only way to keep it competitive,” one reply reads. “Even in dead last you should feel like you have a chance go win.”

It’s a complex issue, especially when you consider that people who do try and compete normally also dislike that the game treats them like a digital punching bag. It’s not fun when you’re doing well and get hit by five different things in a row. But if that happens, and you end up near last place, Mario Kart World’s design also means you have a real shot at regaining better placement if the trouncing didn’t happen near the end of the match. In this clip, you can watch as one racer goes from first, last, to then first again over the course of about 20 seconds. The player still calls the whole thing “broken.”

It’s also not a concept unique to Mario Kart, arguably. In running, there’s something called progression runs, where athletes will start off at a slow to moderate pace and then speed up near the end, which is done to build endurance and avoid injury. Then again, there are also controversial instances of competitors who intentionally slow down during a race, as it can be difficult to discern the motivation behind the tactic.

One of the most common forms of sandbagging in a Mario Kart World race involves waiting for a drop of the lightning item, which hits every single rival on the track. The race then becomes about managing lightning attacks from opponents, and optimally timing when you unleash it.

“Right now a lot of people hold their dodge items in around 10~17 [place],” reads one YouTube comment on Shortcat’s video. “But doing so means more people behind you are likely to use an early shock, so you have to predict when it’s going to happen. It becomes a bit of a 50/50 guessing if it’ll be used early or not, so it’s usually better to just slow down and avoid it altogether.”

With time, it’s likely that players will develop all sorts of tactics and shortcuts that we can’t even imagine at present. Perhaps sandbagging will fall from grace as a preferred method once people find better ways of staying in first. For some, it doesn’t seem like a particularly big deal now that Mario Kart World has shortened the amount of time players get stunned after getting hit by an attack.

People also complained about sandbagging in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and insisted that it ruined the game. Perhaps Nintendo agreed with this assessment, because in 2023, the best-selling Switch racer [got an update that seemed to nerf the tactic.](http://"made it so that you can't acquire strong items when taking an Item Box by stopping or driving in reverse, or taking an Item Box that is in the same location multiple times during a race.") Specifically, Mario Kart 8 prevented players from acquiring strong items if they stopped or drove in reverse, or if they picked up the same box multiple times during a race. But that patch dropped many years into Mario Kart 8’s lifespan, amid a generation when Nintendo was still getting a grasp around games as a service.

Will things be different this time around? Switch 2 is a new generation, and a new opportunity for Nintendo to display its adeptness at maintaining live-service games. We could get a version of Mario Kart World that feels more actively in conversation with player concerns.

Or, just as likely: We’ll have to accept that Mario Kart’s accessibility is directly tied to Nintendo’s willingness to level the playing field so that anyone, regardless of skill, has a legitimate chance of doing well during a race. So long as that design ethos holds true, sandbagging can never go away completely.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

While it wasn't the first film to feature fast-moving ghouls, there is no denying how much of an impact 28 Days Later had on modern zombie movies. It was a gripping and nauseating wonder, whose action felt uniquely visceral thanks, in part, to director Danny Boyle's inspired use of a digital video camera. And there was a gut-wrenching sense of hopelessness baked into writer Alex Garland's script that made 28 Days Later feel far more grounded than most of the zombie films that inspired it.

Boyle and Garland stepped back from the franchise as it continued with a graphic novel and director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's 28 Weeks Later in 2007, but they are back together again for 28 Years Later. Though it's set in the same world and calls back to the original, the new film hits very differently because of how much more overrun pop culture is with zombie-themed horror. You can feel Boyle and Garland trying not to echo other big pieces of zombie IP as they weave a new tale about how the world has changed almost three decades after the outbreak of a deadly virus. And in a couple of the movie's pivotal moments, the filmmakers manage to avoid being too derivative.

Many of this story's small …

Read the full story at The Verge.

From The Verge via this RSS feed

If you’ve been curious about trying out a Mac for the first time or need a small computer powerful enough to be your home media server, we strongly recommend the latest Mac Mini. Thankfully, the step-up M4 model with 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM is on sale at Amazon and B&H Photo for $689 ($110 off), which marks its lowest price ever. The entry-level model with 256GB of storage is also on sale at Amazon and B&H Photo for $469 ($130 off) — another all-time low.

Former Verge staffer Chris Welch called the machine “a tiny wonder” in his review last year, namely because of its size reduction and power boost over previous generations. Apple managed to pack a lot into a computer that’s five inches wide and two inches tall. We reviewed the upgraded 512GB model on sale here, and it performed very well using synthetic testing software, such as Geekbench 6 and Cinebench, as well as a 4K export in Adobe’s Premiere Pro. If you work with high-resolution audio, video, or photos, Apple’s latest Mini should be able to handle your projects without a problem.

One of the Mini’s other strengths is its abundance of ports. There are three Thunderbolt 3 ports, an HDMI port, and an ethernet jack on the back, along with a pair of USB-C (USB 3) ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the front. You can use these ports to connect up to three monitors simultaneously, plug it into a TV or projector without an adapter, switch from Wi-Fi to a wired connection on your home network, or attach other common accessories. Alas, the pair of USB-A ports that have been on the Mini for over a decade are gone.

One of our only knocks against the M4 Mini was how expensive it was to upgrade its RAM and storage capacity, but this deal helps mitigate that. Also, keep in mind that the Mini is a dedicated desktop computer, which means you will need to supply your own monitor, mouse, and keyboard.

Even more great deals

If you need a new pair of wireless earbuds for working out, the Powerbeats Pro 2 are still available for around $199.95 ($50 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. Beats’ latest earbuds feature a curved shape that wraps around the back of your ears to ensure a proper fit while exercising, IP4X water resistance to prevent damage from sweat, and heart rate sensors that pulse over 100 times per second to provide an accurate reading. The Pro 2 can also last up to 10 hours per charge and run on Apple’s H2 chip — the same chip found in Apple’s latest AirPods Pro — allowing them to support spatial audio, one-touch pairing with Apple devices, hands-free Siri, and location tracking via Apple’s Find My app. Read our review.You can grab a three-pack of Arlo Essential Security Cameras at Amazon for $119.99 ($40 off), which matches the bundle’s second-best price to date. The 1080p battery-powered cameras can be installed indoors or outdoors, and you’ll receive a notification anytime they sense motion. They also feature a spotlight and siren, and you can view a live feed from the cameras through Arlo’s smartphone app or pay for a premium subscription ($7.99 per month) to store videos in the cloud.Marshall’s Emberton III speaker is down to $149.99 ($20 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, which matches its lowest price ever. The Bluetooth speaker can play music in true stereo, and automatically adjust its EQ as you raise and lower the volume to avoid blowing out its drivers. It also carries an IP67 rating, which means it’s dustproof and shouldn’t be damaged when submerged under a meter of water for up to 30 minutes. Marshall says the speaker can last up to 32 hours per charge, and plugging it in for 20 minutes will net you six hours of continuous playback.

From The Verge via this RSS feed

Applebee’s and IHOP plan to launch an AI-powered “personalization engine” that could help its restaurants provide recommendations and customized deals, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The personalization engine would use a customer’s past purchases — or the orders of customers similar to them — to make recommendations.

Justin Skelton, the chief information officer at the restaurants’ parent company, Dine Brands, tells the Journal that an AI-powered personalization system would be designed to boost customer loyalty, as well as serve as a way to upsell products. As noted by the Journal, IHOP already has some information about its customers’ ordering habits through its rewards program.

Instead of chasing viral trends like Chili’s, other restaurant franchises have hopped on the AI bandwagon as well, with Wendy’s deploying an AI chatbot at its drive-thrus that can take orders and even upsell menu items. McDonald’s also recently resumed plans to put AI at the drive-thru and inside its restaurants, while Taco Bell revealed plans to put “Voice AI” technology at more than 100 of its drive-thrus across the US.

As noted by the Journal, Dine Brands is considering rolling out AI tools designed for staff members as well. Along with exploring the use of AI-powered cameras to detect when a table needs cleaning, it’s also testing an AI app for managers.

From The Verge via this RSS feed

Last month, Marvel and DC dropped a bombshell: The rival comic publishers will release crossover one-shots featuring Deadpool and Batman teaming up later this year. DC will publish Batman/Deadpool#1 from Grant Morrison and Dan Mora, while Marvel has tapped Zeb Wells and Greg Capullo for Deadpool/Batman#1. The backup stories and their creative pairs for Marvel’s book were announced Friday, and they might end up being more fun than the main crossover.

Daredevil and Green Arrow will team up in a tale penned by Kevin Smith and and drawn by Adam Kubert; Captain America and Wonder Woman will meet in a story written by Chip Zdarsky with art from Terry Dodson; and, perhaps most importantly, super pets and good boys Jeff the Land Shark and Krypto the Superdog will hang out in a story from Kelly Thompson and Gurihiru.

“Two ICONS meeting for the first time! It’s such an honor for Jeff to get to be Marvel’s ambassador in this crossover story with Krypto,” Thompson said. Jeff the Land Shark has been having a moment since he stole the spotlight in Marvel Rivals, and Krypto is due for a starring role in next month’s Superman.

Zdarsky is set to pen Marvel’s ongoing Captain America series, out in July, so him slotting in for the Captain America and Wonder Woman crossover sounds like a natural choice. He’ll be joined by Terry Dodson on art, who drew interiors for Wonder Woman in the mid-2000s. “This has been surreal to say the least! Captain America and Wonder Woman are the best their worlds have to offer, both warriors for peace,” Zdarsky said. “Getting to explore a dynamic and history between them has been genuinely exciting.”

Green Arrow and Daredevil teaming up might be the highlight of the entire one-shot. While more known for his films, Kevin Smith has quite the comics bibliography, and has previously written for both characters. He wrote Daredevil: Guardian Devil in the ’90s (famous for the death of a certain someone in Matt Murdock’s life) and had a 15-issue run on Green Arrow in the early 2000s.

The Daredevil and Green Arrow and Jeff the Land Shark and Krypto pairings are being celebrated with variant covers as well, which you can check out below. Deadpool/Batman#1 will go on sale Sept. 17 and Batman/Deadpool#1 (yep, those are two different one-shots) will be out sometime in November. Details on DC’s crossover one-shot, including who are tackling the backup stories, are yet to be revealed.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

I went into Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game expecting to love it from the jump. Mirror’s Edge and Assassin’s Creed — some of the best parkour games of all time — dominated my formative years. And since Rooftops & Alleys has the same stylish flair as Mirror’s Edge, albeit with a stylish trick-focused twist, à la Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater*,* my hopes were high. However, what I found was a clunky sandbox that puts a premium on patience, as it is about skill.

Released June 16 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X, Rooftops & Alleys is a third-person platforming sim developed and self-published by MLMedia, an independent, one-person studio.

I played on Windows PC and encountered issues immediately: My DualSense Edge controller wasn’t recognized. Steam Input was able to fix my problem quickly, but it’s a minor frustration that foreshadowed the game’s sometimes janky feel. Comparison is the thief of joy, but the game doesn’t feel as intuitive as the games it automatically draws comparisons to.

Anyone can pick up Tony Hawk’s Pro Skaterand have a good time kick-flipping away. Mirror’s Edge takes a bit longer to understand, but by the end of the first level, you have a basic understanding of the mechanics that can carry you to the end. Rooftops & Alleys demands a certain level of mastery from the player, which is appealing, as I love the thought of becoming a parkour god in this title. Still, at the same time, it worries me because it’ll be harder to recommend to my casual gaming friends.

But before you can get a grip on its tricks, Rooftops & Alleys fumbles in adequately teaching you how it works. There are two tutorials in the game, and you access them through the main menu. Both tutorials are vanishingly brief and optional, so I’m unsure what benefit they offer in the first place.

No doubt about it, Rooftops & Alleys could benefit from longer, more detailed tutorials as well as a trick tutorial (similar to SSX Tricky’s best-in-class trick book). Any way to explore landing every single trick in the game in a streamlined, intuitive environment would be a boon. As it stands, you must pause the game, access a sub-menu to learn how to perform the trick, then exit the menu to practice it, and repeat. It feels like Rooftops & Alleys has all the pieces for something great, but those pieces don’t coalesce into something great.

This isn’t to say Rooftops & Alleys isn’t compelling in its own odd way. As I continued to experiment with the game and its systems, it slowly began to fall into place for me. With every session, I found myself warming up with the tutorials so that I could have the controls fresh in my mind. Once I chose the map I wanted to parkour through, the game released my hand completely and let me run free — and it was glorious. I spent a lot of time completely failing all of my tricks while I tried to learn the timing. I played around with the map’s time trials, and if you can sense the pattern, I failed those too. But with each failure, I noticed I was improving; my landings became more consistent, I became faster with each time trial attempt, I was better at maintaining my momentum, and I was even starting to have fun.

On one of my best trick rush runs, I attempted a trick toward the end that clipped me through the environment, pretty much dooming my high-point combo. Still, instead of getting frustrated, I just laughed, because I could totally imagine someone in real life landing a backflip awkwardly and getting stuck between some pipes.

This moment was the moment the game clicked for me, and I’ve been unable to put the game down since. The Steam reviews suggest that those who try the game are also enjoying it — that is, once they become accustomed to the controls. Rooftops & Alleys supports multiplayer, and while most of my time was spent playing solo, I hopped into a few lobbies to find plenty of people practicing cool sequences of moves. The open sandbox vibe of the solo play is just as present with others, and there’s something fun about racing your friends through the time trials and even sabotaging them from landing their tricks. (Someone stood in my way during a time trial, causing me to fail at landing a usually easy-to-land cartwheel. I’m not mad, you’re mad.)

This game has clearly found an audience, and as so often happens with these niche games, the community will take the torch and run with it. Every multiplayer lobby I joined had people running, jumping, and failing spectacularly. Rooftops & Alleys isn’t perfect, but it’s got charm. As a solo player, I lament the lack of a narrative mode. Don’t get me wrong, the grind of perfecting your tricks and times is fun but it does get a bit repetitive after a long session. Rooftops & Alleys offers a relaxing (if unpolished) playground and with some additional updates and improved tutorials, it could become something truly special. For now, it’s a niche game with just enough spark to keep me on the grind.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Blood Message is the first narrative-driven game in development by NetEase, the Chinese publisher behind hits like Marvel Rivals and Naraka: Bladepoint, and it’s swinging for the fences based on its first moody trailer.

The game is a third-person action-adventure game that has a hint of Uncharted meets Assassin’s Creed, which is another way of saying that it looks like a big-budget AAA game where the sheen as important as the gameplay itself. You play as a “messenger” and his son, both of whom are caught up in an uprising that will test their familial ties and country loyalty.

Here’s how NetEase is describing it:

Set during the final years of the Tang Dynasty, players will traverse a treacherous 3,000-li (around 1,000 miles) odyssey back to Chang’an, the heart of the Tang Empire. Cross lethal landscapes including desolate deserts and the vast wilderness of East and Central Asia to survive brutal sieges, unforgiving terrain, and overwhelming odds. The game’s setting in the last years of the Tang Dynasty provides a cultural landmark of Chinese history that frames the story with customs, culture, and rich history of the era.

Blood Message is the latest example of China flexing its growing dominion over prestige game development, and the enormous potential for the medium as cultural export. In the same way Black Myth: Wukong garnered interest by tapping into a popular Chinese novel, Blood Message looks toward Wuxia as inspiration for its setting. It’ll likely be a hit regionally, if not globally, through the sheer strength of its visuals and novel influences.

At the same time, there’s something deeply derivative at the core of Blood Message, a game that wears its intention of courting mainstream appeal on its sleeve. The visuals are impressive, but the art direction looks like something out of an Unreal Engine 5 tech demo. Like, literally. Here’s the reveal for the engine from five years ago; it also looks like an Uncharted action game partially set in a desert landscape full of vaguely cultural artifacts.

Mind you, this isn’t a knock on China. It’s not as if the West is a beacon of creativity at the highest echelons of game development, either. Black Myth: Wukong had a hint of ChatGPT to it, yet I loved that game. And to its credit, Blood Message’s proposal is being met with plenty of praise based on the comments on YouTube.

“NetEase is cooking,” one top comment says. “What Ubisoft could’ve been….Looks phenomenal,” another reads.

Blood Message doesn’t have a set release date yet, but it’ll be out for Windows PC and unspecified consoles.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Honkai: Star Rail just closed out its version 3.4 livestream, teasing what’s to come in the next update, which launches the evening of July 1. Alongside new characters and events, Hoyoverse uses the stream to distribute codes that reward free Stellar Jade and other upgrade materials.

This patch is going to be a big one, not only due to the launch of Phainon, the latest Physical Destruction unit that everyone has been waiting for, but because the Fate/Stay Night collaboration that’ll happen during this patch. You’ll be able to grab Archer and Saber as part of the collab, so make sure to log in if you’re a big Fate franchise fan. Older characters like Silver Wolf, Blade, Kafka, and Jingliu will also be getting buffs this patch, too.

Honkai: Star Rail 3.4 livestream codes

These codes are only active until the day ends, so you’ll want to make sure to use them quickly.

The Honkai: Star Rail reward codes from the version 3.4 livestream are:

FTJ6CVTULSXPZS36CVBUMTZBDTJ7CVACLBGF

These codes will expire on June 21 at 11:59 a.m. EDT / 8:59 a.m. PDT, so use them quickly or you’ll miss out on the free loot. For more codes that don’t expire in just a few hours, you can check out our constantly-updated list of active Honkai: Star Rail codes.

How to redeem codes in Honkai: Star Rail

You can redeem the codes in game by opening the menu and tapping on the ellipses in the top right corner. A “redemption code” option will come up that you can select.

You can also redeem them online through the Honkai: Star Rail code redeem website. You’ll need to select your correct server and login through the website in order to get rewards. You will also need to have a working UID for Honkai: Star Rail. If you’ve never logged into Honkai: Star Rail in any form using your Hoyoverse account, it will not work.

If you’re just getting started in Honkai: Star Rail, you can check out our beginner’s guide and gacha explainer.

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