The week might almost be over, but if you’ve been looking to update your Nintendo Switch library, then you can find plenty of new games to add to your collection. From dark humor cult worship to higher education management and retro arcade dreams, here’s a look at some of the highlights you can find on the Nintendo eShop right now.

Cult of the Lamb is easily the biggest release of the week, as it combines adorable aesthetics with dark and demented gameplay to create a uniquely disturbing experience. Cute, but also chilling and hard to put down as you guide a vengeful sheep in a quest to form a new flock of followers that can help it destroy ancient gods.

“Nine times out of 10, being a lamb led to the slaughter is not the best position to find yourself in,” Jessica Howard wrote in GameSpot’s Cult of the Lamb review. “That tenth time, however, is while playing Massive Monster’s Cult of the Lamb, a delightfully demented roguelike that combines fast-paced dungeoneering, bold art, dark topics, and real-time simulation elements to create a one-of-a-kind experience.”

If you’re looking for a more relaxing game, Two Point Campus should scratch that itch. Following in the same footsteps as Two Point Hospital, this new game from Two Point Studios tasks you with setting up an institution of higher learning and using it to shape the next generation of scientists and critical thinkers. While making a healthy profit in the process, of course.

In GameSpot’s Two Point Campus review, Richard Wakeling described the game as “a marked improvement on Two Point Hospital” that’s full of charm and wit. To get a headstart, you can check out Two Point Campus tips for beginners, how to make students happy, and how to increase your students level.

Another game worth checking out this week is Arcade Paradise, a ’90s-themed retro arcade game and light-management sim. You’ll need to manage the day-to-day tasks of running the family laundromat, but at night, you’re free to build your very own arcade with all the profits you’ve earned.

You can find the full list of this week’s releases below.

Available now

Cult of the LambArcade ParadiseBlossom Tales II: The Minotaur PrinceTwo Point CampusAniquilationArcade Archives: Dig DugCat Slide TilesClumsy Rush: Ultimate GuysComic Coloring Book Complete Edition: SketchCounter Bunny Hop – Strike Go Simulator Xtreme Deluxe 3D ShooterFamily Chess Ultimate EditionFigGigapocalypseJapanese Nekosama: Escape The SentoJeopardy! PlayShowJump The CarKi11er ClutterLast ThresholdLogic PicMega Man Battle and FightersMonster destroyerOrigamihero games 2D Platformer CollectionSengoku PrincessShinChan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation -The Endless Seven-Day JourneyStar Seeker in: The Secret of the Sorcerous StandoffSuper Space Serpent SE / Perpetuum Mobile BundleThibalrynUltimate 4×4 Offroad Trucks: Car Racing Driving Simulator 2022Viki Spotter: Space MissionZen Mindfulness: Meditation and Relax

August 12

Sakura MMOSuper Bullet BreakVoyage

August 17

Hell BlastersLittle League World Series Baseball 2022Robo Revenge SquadRead MoreGameSpot – Game News

According to documents filed with Brazil’s national competition regulator, Microsoft has claimed that Sony has paid “blocking rights” to developers to prevent their games from being added to Xbox Game Pass. As part of the regulator’s review of Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the company alleged that Sony had “hampered” the growth of its Game Pass subscription service with its business practices.

“Microsoft’s ability to continue expanding Game Pass has been hampered by Sony’s desire to inhibit such growth,” Microsoft claimed in its translated filing (via The Verge) to the Administrative Council for Economic Defense. “Sony pays for ‘blocking rights’ to prevent developers from adding content to Game Pass and other competing subscription services.”

The deal that Microsoft refers to is one that’s common in the industry. Publishing contracts are complex, and with the addition of subscription services such as Game Pass or PS Plus, that adds another layer of complexity to any agreements between studios, publishers, and companies that own platforms such as Xbox and PlayStation. It’s likely not some sinister masterplan by Sony, but business as usual in an industry where timed and console-exclusive deals happen frequently.

Microsoft’s response comes shortly after Sony made its own claim about its users jumping ship to Xbox if Microsoft’s deal to purchase Activision Blizzard, and by extension, the Call of Duty franchise, is completed. Microsoft has disputed that claim, and had also previously indicated that it would continue supporting Call of Duty on PlayStation “beyond the existing agreement” and into the future.

Any existing publishing agreements with PlayStation made by Activision Blizzard, specifically the ones set up for Modern Warfare 2, next year’s Call of Duty: Warzone 2, and a new Call of Duty core release, will still be honored by Microsoft.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Running a cult isn’t as easy as it looks. People might hang on to your every word, but they might start questioning you if your doomsday prediction doesn’t come true or if you let them starve. Hungry people don’t worship all that well. In Cult of the Lamb, it can be a lot of trial and error, but if you’d like to avoid all those awful dissenters and outbreaks of disease, then we’ve got a few tips for you to follow.

Sermonize as often as possible

Want to pump yourself up for the dungeons? The most important way is gathering faith. You can do this in a few ways including rituals and sacrifice, but the easiest and most reliable way is to just deliver sermons.

You’ll be guided through delivering sermons in the tutorial, but if you’ve forgotten, just go to the altar in the temple and choose the option. You can deliver them once a day, and there’s no downside to doing it. However, if you’re going to do any rituals that lower faith that day, it might be best to sermonize afterward to get it back up.

Doors are unlocked with followers, not progress

At first, you can only go through the door to Darkwood, but you don’t have to eliminate Leshy to move on to the next one. You merely need to recruit seven followers to bust open the gateway to Anura.

Need to find more suckers.

There are a few reasons why you’d want to visit another area before completing the one you’re on. First, you gain additional resources and meet new NPCs that can give you the upper hand in other areas. Secondly, if you’re struggling to beat a boss in one area, there’s nothing wrong with clearing out the easier levels of another. Just remember; you can unlock all the doors without felling a single boss if you want to. There’s no need to just beat your head against the same wall.

Sacrificing followers is an option, not a requirement

The One Who Waits is pretty gung-ho about you slinging a sacrificial dagger around, but just know that it’s not a necessity to slay your followers for making the mistake of trusting you. While Cult of the Lamb coyly says that it’s a way to power up and gain new weapons, it’s really just saying it gives you a lot of faith. You can get faith in other ways like, say, sermonizing or throwing rituals.

It may be a fast track to the top of your upgrades, but chances are you’ll hit that naturally long before you’re ready to throw down against the end boss. Of course, don’t let that get in the way of fun. If you just want to see the look of horror on the face of your followers as their dragged down into the void, then you do you.

Don’t leave your flock for long

It takes a special kind of person to join a cult, and it’s the type of person who doesn’t know better than to eat poop. There’s no babysitter in Cult of the Lamb, and neither is there a cook. Your flock will die without your guiding hand. If you abandon them for too long as you gallivant around dungeons, they’ll gradually lose faith, grow hungry, and probably drown in their own excrement. That last one can be solved with a janitor shack, but the other two require your intervention.

If you let a flock go hungry for too long, they’ll start to die off. You can top off their stomachs before leaving and maybe drop some extra food on the floor, but eventually, you’ll have to return to make sure they get breakfast.

There are a few commandments you can whip out to help your followers stay faithful while you’re away, but it’s a foregone conclusion that if you leave them alone for too long, they’ll start questioning if you really are the messiah. Once your faith drops past a certain point, some of your followers might turn to dissenters, and that can be a slippery slope as they try to turn the rest of your flock against you.

Clean up after your flock

Does a fox poop in the woods? Yes, and they don’t know how to clean up after themselves. You may be the wearer of the red crown, but that doesn’t save you from chores. At the beginning of the game, your flock will have no choice but to poop behind a bush and puke where they stand. You’ll eventually get the ability to plop down bathrooms, but until you can build a janitor shack, you’ll have to clean those too.

If you don’t, your followers are going to get sick. They’ll start pooping and puking everywhere, and that just adds to the issue. Too much vomit and poop everywhere increases the chance that your followers are going to fall ill, so I’m sure you can see why you have to swallow your pride and pick up your poop.

Send sick followers to bed

If your followers do get sick, don’t let them just wander around spreading it to others. As soon as you see someone get that germ icon above their head, you’ll want to talk to them and command them to stay in bed. Note that it takes a while before they’re well again. Later in the game, you’ll unlock healing bays where you can spend camellia flowers to heal them instantly, but in the meantime, they need to be quarantined.

Only use bones when you have to

When you only have a few rituals on hand, it’s pretty easy to fall into the mindset that you’ll never run out of bones. They’re dropped by dead enemies, and when you don’t have much to spend them on, they can pile up.

However, later on, when there are a lot of helpful rituals, you’ll be wanting as many bones as you can get your hands on. Consider what you’re spending them on. The Bonfire Ritual, for example, simply raises your faith, so don’t use it if you can use a sermon or commandment to top up your faith meter. They’re better spent on something like the feast ritual, which not only raises faith but also fills their bellies.

Build a prison (or two) for dissidents

Glad we could come to an agreement.

Dissidents are jerks who are questioning your awesome teachings. They wander around trying to get other cult members to listen to them, reducing faith all around. If you’re ruthless, you can just sacrifice or murder them (if those options are unlocked), but it might be best just to re-educate their stupid brains. While this is possible while they’re ranting their blasphemy, the best way to keep them away from the flock and also get them back to normal faster is to build a prison and send them there. Re-education works faster when a follower is in the stocks than it does when you’re just arguing with them in public.

For more on the breakout indie, check out our glowing Cult of the Lamb review.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

In a 27-page document related to the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft attempts to refute Sony’s concerns that PlayStation Call of Duty players would switch to Xbox.

Sony recently claimed to CADE, Brazil’s regulatory committee, that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and by extension Call of Duty, would strongly influence consumers console buying choices. Microsoft responds to those claims in a new document, as reported by VGC, Microsoft states that Sony was the only company surveyed that made such claims. Microsoft also argues that Sony is “resentful” of competing with Game Pass and wants to squash any potential competition to its business model.

Microsoft deputes Sony’s claim that Call of Duty is in a class of its own when it comes to mass market video games, using Sony itself as a counter-example. The document argues that even though PlayStation has a massive set of loyal followers, it cannot be considered as a separate market from other video game consoles. Similarly, though Call of Duty has a large audience, it cannot be considered outside of competition with other titles.

Additionally, Microsoft claims that Sony, as well as other companies with gaming subscription models, have their own means for competing with Game Pass and that players see subscription services as one method for paying for games. Finally, Microsoft reaffirms that Call of Duty will continue to be available on PlayStation and states it would be unprofitable to remove Call of Duty from PlayStation, because it would have to pull PlayStation users to Xbox, rather than just letting them continue to purchase games.

Microsoft announced its intended acquisition of Activision Blizzard in a turbulent time for the massive publisher. In July 2021, the state of California filed an anti-discrimination lawsuit against Activision Blizzard. This kicked of a flurry of worker organization and continuing court drama. Microsoft did agree to recognize an Activision Blizzard union after the acquisition goes through. Because of the acquisition’s size, and possible anti-trust concerns, it has already received scrutiny from regulatory agencies across the world.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

I’m 35 years old, and I play Fortnite.

That’s not really that weird–lots of adults are Fortnite fans. But for those of us of a certain age, Fortnite is just a game we play sometimes, whereas for younger players, it’s part of their social fabric. It’s where they live. We’re just visiting. Or maybe encroaching? One particularly rowdy 8-year-old I met in the game not too long ago screamed that I’m way too old to be hanging out in Fortnite. Was he wrong?

No, of course not. But given the perception of Fortnite as the domain of the children, it’s only natural that we adults are scared to go beyond the battle royale surface. And that, in turn, means that those of us who do want to dive in are going to have a hard time getting started because our friends don’t understand it and can’t explain any of it.

But I’ve put in the work. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Fortnite wilds, dancing with and observing the stoners and children in the game’s strange social underbelly. It’s actually not that scary as long as you know a couple of dos and don’ts.

First, don’t voice chat with people you don’t know. This is actually pretty easy, because unless you’re LFGing in battle royale, there isn’t going to be any kind of pressing need for it. And in Party Royale and Creative modes, it’s rare for anyone to be on the open game voice chat. So that’s good news if you’re the sort of person who didn’t want to explore Fortnite because you saw Dunkey’s Fortnite Daycare video and really would rather not speak to children. And hey, there’s even a non-voice version of the Among Us mode.

This brings us to something you should do: learn the basics of non-verbal Fortnite communication.

The pillar of communication in Fortnite is a move that a lot of folks will recognize from other online games–crouching over and over again as a general signal of friendliness. Fortnite players use it that way, too, but there’s Fortnite-specific nuance to it.

This move, which I think of as a “crouch-nod,” kind of has an “aloha” quality to it–it works as hello and goodbye, please and thank you, an apology, or just a general acknowledgment. A polite sort of “I see you, I’m aware of you, I’m trying to not be a jerk.” Fortnite players use it so often it’s essentially in-game etiquette.

If you’re in a more normal social situation, in the Party Royale social hub or some Creative world, the crouch-nod is etiquette, and this is where the contextual nuance comes into play. In a more low-intensity setting, quickly crouching over and over again sometimes comes off as comical, inspiring the folks who see you to crouch repeatedly and spin in circles at you in some kind of stupid but often hilarious ritual. Other times, it plays like Lassie trying to tell everybody that Timmy got stuck in the well again–or, in other words, that you want others to follow you so you can show them something.

Here’s a fairly common scenario. You’re in the Party Royale social hub, making your Obi-Wan dance to Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now.” A Darth Vader walks up, starts doing the same emote for about half a second before cutting it off and doing a single quick crouch. That means, essentially, “Hey, I’d like to dance with you, let’s sync up our emotes.”

So your Obi-Wan cuts off the emote and crouches back. It takes a couple tries to get your emotes going in sync, but now you get that Kinect Star Wars vibe you’ve been searching for. But you don’t want to stand there forever. When it’s time to move on, you cut off your emote with the pull of a trigger, and then you give a single polite, apologetic crouch-nod at Darth Vader and Gangnam Style away. There, the meaning is basically, “I want to do something else now but it’s not because I hate you.”

These examples more or less sum up the sentiment of the crouch-nod move, and that’s what you really need to understand. You’ll have to figure out specific situational meanings on your own for the most part. But that’s the easy part, because just knowing was half the battle.

While the crouch-nod will be enough to get you through most interactions, there’s a more advanced layer of this language that involves emotes–though this layer is not necessarily one that you should use in most situations. I’m talking about what I think of as “horny” emotes.

There are three main ones that fit this bill: Ride the Pony, Eagle, and Bring It Around. There are other, less commonly used ones as well–any emote that begins with your character reaching their hand outward in a way that could look like a grope if another person is close, for example. But it’s mostly those three.

Like the crouch-nod, these emotes have some contextual nuance, and they don’t necessarily mean anything weird or negative. But if you’re wearing a lady skin and somebody walks up behind you and does any of those three emotes, then you’re probably being sexually harassed.

In the greater sense, those emotes aren’t just used as a literal declaration of horniness–there are ironic meme usages too, like a sort of jokey way of saying you think somebody’s wearing something cool. Most folks will just use a heart or fire emoji for that, since those are less ambiguous. But others just can’t seem to stop themselves from trying to be “hilarious”–your mileage may vary.

Beyond that, people don’t usually try to communicate anything complicated with emotes. Usually, a dance is just a dance. A heart emoji is a positive expression. There’s nothing to decode. It’s just folks being silly, and in Fortnite people are almost always down for silliness.

Last season, I was in a solo match, stalking somebody at the truck stop north of Rocky Reels, when the storm circle came up on us quickly. So my target jumped in a big rig and started to drive off, and I just hopped in the passenger seat and rode along with them. And this wasn’t the early game here–there were only nine players remaining when we began this little trip.

We rode in peace until we got to Coney Crossroads, where we ran into another player. This one also tried to get in the big rig, but couldn’t, since it only has two seats. So after some brief confusion, this third player climbed on top of the cabin and we continued on with our joy ride.

Sadly, the next person we encountered opened fire and killed our outside passenger, so I got out and killed this new person, and then our driver killed me, and then two other players hiding nearby sniped the driver. Step aside, Bilbo Baggins–this was the real unexpected journey.

Another time, I was hanging out in a user-made team deathmatch mode called Summer vs. Winter, in which two teams start at each end of an arena and try to push the other back to their home base. My team had dominated, and we had the opposing team completely locked down in their end, unable to do much of anything. And that’s boring, so I took advantage of the fact that this mode gives every player an infinite stack of Chug Splash healing items, and started throwing them into the other team’s spawn area while frantically crouch-nodding.

This move very quickly turned the whole match into an uneasy emote sesh, with folks occasionally shooting each other, but mostly just fooling around. I had fun with those folks for about 20 minutes before we all started trickling out. It was delightful.

Fortnite language is probably at least a little more sophisticated than I’m giving it credit for–I’m still an old guy who doesn’t have any children to guide me through this mess. Or maybe not. The crouch-nod and Fortnite-specific contextual stuff are things that most folks have to glean from playing, because every “word” of this language means 10 different things and you have to use context to know which definition is the right one.

In some ways, this level of non-verbal communication is ideal–I don’t have to know anything about anybody else’s politics or beliefs that I might hate, and it’s incredibly easy to permanently avoid anybody who annoys you because you can just block them.

But maybe most importantly, it’s just too adorable to see all these cartoon characters communicate with primitive gestures like cave people. I don’t need to ruin that by meeting the real people controlling them.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News