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It’s been a huge week for Xbox Game Pass, with multiple new releases, EA Play on PC, FPS boost on older games, and improvements to download speeds for Xbox Insiders. The Console Crew weigh up the service against PlayStation and Nintendo’s offerings.

By Tamoor Hussain , Lucy James , Jordan Ramée , and Max Blumenthal on March 19, 2021 at 10:00AM PDT

On this week’s episode of Console Crew, the gang celebrates Game Pass. You’ve heard us, and many others, say this before but Xbox’s subscription service is easily the best service in video games when it comes to bang for your buck. But it’s not just giving people access to a massive library of video games at no additional cost, it’s also changing the industry in a number of ways ranging from making content accessible in various places, to giving smaller developers more exposure, and helping some games develop a strong community where they might otherwise struggle.

One other key thing Game Pass doing is breeding competition, both directly and indirectly. PlayStation and Nintendo players will now begin to think about how much value those platform holders are delivering to them, and the ways in which they can maximize their money and time when it comes to buying and playing games.

That’s also a big discussion point in this episode of Console Crew, as Lucy, Jordan, and Tamoor discuss Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo’s efforts to entice players to play games on their platform and engage with their ecosystems. This comes as a number of high-profile titles from Bethesda are added to Game Pass and Sony updates the list of free titles that will be available as part of its Play at Home campaign. For its part, Nintendo has a library of classics available through Switch Online, but the question is, are Sony and Nintendo’s efforts enough to compete with Game Pass? Do they even need to compete, for that matter? Watch to find out what the crew thinks.

Echo Night Games has released a new update for Signs of the Sojourner, just in time for the game’s launch on consoles. The update adds five new characters to the game.

In a Steam blog post, Echo Night teases that the new characters will be a mysterious stranger, a caravaneer, a grumpy neighbor, a community organizer, and someone fighting to save their town. No further clues beyond that, and given the nature of Signs of the Sojourner, it’s very easy to accidentally miss folks in the story. So you may need to replay the game once or twice to see all five new characters.

Personally, I’m thrilled to have any excuse for jumping back into Signs of the Sojourner for another playthrough, now that it’s also available for PS4, Switch, and Xbox One (as well as PS5 and Xbox Series X|S via backwards compatibility). Signs of the Sojourner was my Editor’s Spotlight for 2020–it’s one of the most intriguing games I’ve ever played, relying on deckbuilding to emulate conversations, code-switching, and cultural differences.

In Signs of the Sojourner, you’re tasked with joining a travelling caravan to attract goods for your struggling town and keep it on the region’s established trade route so that it can continue to survive. When you meet someone new, conversations play out by matching the symbols on your cards with the other person–succeed and it’s a good talk; fail and you’ll miscommunicate your points. As you acquire new cards and continue to build your deck, you’ll more easily be able to connect with folks from other towns, but shuffling out and losing the cards from your original deck will mean that you can’t as easily match up with the friends and family you grew up with back home.

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Bunny Day is just around the corner again in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Nintendo has made some tweaks to this year’s event. The holiday itself falls on April 4, but just as last year, eggs will appear around your island in the days leading up to it. Fortunately, they won’t be around for nearly as long.

As Nintendo detailed in a post on Switch’s News channel, this year’s Bunny Day will only run from March 28 to April 4. That’s much shorter than last year’s event, which ran for nearly two full weeks, from April 1-12. Players were quick to share their frustrations about Bunny Day across social media at the time, taking issue not only with poor Zipper T. Bunny (who is just doing his job), but also the prevalence of eggs.

The eggs in particular were a common cause for complaint. Throughout the event, different types of eggs would be hidden in trees, rocks, the ground, and the ocean and river. These could be used to craft special Bunny Day furniture, but the problem was they spawned much too frequently, making it difficult to dig up fossils or catch fish without being inundated with eggs.

Nintendo tried to address these complaints by adjusting the eggs’ appearance rates partway through the event, but by that point, Bunny Day had already been sullied for many. The event’s shorter duration this year should hopefully mean that it won’t be quite as annoying this time around.

That isn’t the only change Nintendo is making to this year’s Bunny Day. The company is also adding a handful of new Bunny Day items to the game. There will be five new items in total, and unlike the ones you could craft from recipes last year, these will be sold exclusively at Nook’s Cranny. You’ll see one item on sale in the shop’s seasonal corner each day leading up to the event. The return of eggs means you’ll also have another chance to craft any Bunny Day items you may have missed from last year.

The new Bunny Day items were added as part of New Horizons’ 1.9.0 update, which also increased the number of design slots you can have and introduced a variety of Sanrio-inspired villagers and items. The Sanrio content is tied to the Animal Crossing Sanrio Amiibo cards, which will go on sale in the US for the first time starting March 26. Beyond that, Nintendo is also rolling out a new update for NookLink later this month, and an Animal Crossing collaboration with Build-a-Bear was recently announced.

WB’s new Batman game, Gotham Knights, has been delayed to 2022. The developer said on Twitter that it needs more time to ensure the product is up to the studio’s quality standards.

“We are giving the game more time to deliver the best possible experience for players. We look forward to showcasing more of the game in the coming months,” the studio said.

This is the second high-profile WB game to be delayed to 2022, as WB previously shifted the open-world Harry Potter: Hogwarts Legacy to next year as well. In the case of Gotham Knights and Hogwarts Legacy, WB did not mention the pandemic having an impact on development.

As we previously reported, Gotham Knights brings together Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, and Red Hood for an ambitious open-world crime caper that will pit players against iconic villains to keep Gotham safe. The big twist is, in this game, Bruce Wayne and Batman are believed to be dead, which means the Bat-family needs to rise up to the challenge and establish themselves as the city’s new saviors.

GameSpot spoke with creative director Patrick Redding and senior producer Fleu Marty about the concept and structure of Gotham Knights, and lots more. Check out the interview below.

Ever since the Fortnite Zero Crisis Finale debuted with the launch of Fortnite Season 6, fans have been asking one question–okay, a few questions really, but one of those most prominent has been: Who is the voice behind the mask of The Foundation, the leader of the mysterious group known in Fortnite lore as The Seven?

Epic Games has remained tight-lipped on it, and since this is Fortnite, it seemed unlikely that the answer wouldn’t be special. Now fans have accumulated a pile of evidence that convincingly suggests it’s in fact Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson behind that metallic suit of armor.

Most compelling is an Instagram video posted by The Rock himself on March 16, the day of the Zero Crisis Finale. In it, he talks somewhat vaguely about the day being “big” in a “certain world and in a certain culture” that is connected to his own. He says the hard work he’s done has all been to “strengthen, evolve, and grow the force known as…the foundation” before delivering his signature raised eyebrow. Donald Mustard, Epic Games’ CCO, even liked the Instagram video.

It’s only now, days later, that the video is being linked to Fortnite, but the evidence doesn’t end there. Fans also feel The Foundation’s character model looks suspiciously like The Rock, right down to the placement of certain armor designs aligning with The Rock’s chest tattoo. If you watch, or perhaps rewatch, the Zero Crisis Finale cinematic below, you may find The Foundation’s voice actor now sounds a lot more easily identifiable too.

Lending even more credence to the fan theory is how The Foundation is sort of a synonym for The Rock, plus The Foundation literally emerges from and later returns to the inside of a giant rock during the Season 6 event. Dwayne Johnson seems like exactly the kind of star power Fortnite loves to attract, with this season also introducing Neymar Jr., plus past seasons have included more pop culture collaborations than a closet full of Funko Pops. It may be some time before we get official confirmation, but it seems fans have started to smell what Epic Games is cooking.

For more on Fortnite, here’s everything in the Season 6 Battle Pass, a guide on how to craft weapons, and all the map changes.

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD may be coming to PC. This comes just as a set of preorder dates may narrow the release window for the game.

Gematsu reports that the Nocturne HD remaster is listed for PC on both the ESRB and PEGI sites–the ratings boards for the United States and Europe, respectively. Previously the game had only been announced for PS4 and Switch.

Meanwhile, Twisted Voxel notes that Nintendo of Europe sent out an announcement that included preorder dates for Nocturne 3, and the preorder end date is listed as May 24. That could mean a late May release date for the game, though no specific date has been confirmed by Nintendo or Atlus. The game had been slated for spring 2021, so this would fit that window.

Nocturne HD was first announced during a Nintendo Direct Mini last year. The PS2 original, which debuted almost 20 years ago, featured Dante from the Devil May Cry series. This remake looks to be based on Nocturne Maniax Chronicle, which replaced Dante with Raidou from Devil Summoner.

Shin Megami Tensei V has also been announced for a Switch release this year, though it likewise does not have a release date set.