The XP Drop 🕹 Friday May 16, 2025
Doom: The Dark Ages is out, Black Myth: Wukong is helping pave the way for Chinese developers, and Terraria is 14 years old (and Leeroy Jenkins turns 20)?!
☀️ Happy Friday gamers. The sun is shining, and it’s time for your weekly roundup. Enjoy the sun, but not too much, so you get some game time in 😉
🗣 The Patch Notes
🚨 ICYMI
🛒 Stock Check
💸 This week’s releases
📽 Clip of the Week
👾 RETROspective
🗣 The Patch Notes
Black Myth: Wukong and how it changed the game for Chinese developers
We’re huge fans of Black Myth: Wukong, and for a Soulslike game that came out of nowhere, it impressed in terms of visual fidelity and gameplay.
This piece on Eurogamer provides fantastic insight into how the game has paved the way for other Chinese developers and larger games coming soon. Ed Nightingale also interviews Chinese CEOs about the future of developing games in the country.
“The Chinese games industry is shifting, from developing predominantly for smartphones to creating PC and console games. That means bigger budgets, better graphics, and more complex gameplay.”
🐲 Did you know… The dragon Paarthurnax in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is voiced by the same man who voices Nintendo’s Mario 🐲
🚨 ICYMI
🔎 Nintendo has released the official specs for the Switch 2 console as we edge ever closer to release day. Eurogamer’s Richard Leadbetter has all the detail.
🏯 The delay faced by Assassin’s Creed: Shadows gamers is a good thing, according to Ubisoft - so they’ve pushed back a number of major games to 2026. GameSpot has the story here.
👿 Doom: The Dark Ages is out now - and it’s been met with rave reviews. Metacritic has recorded an average score of 85 across platforms and the Daily Star called it “as metal as they come”. IGN hailed its story while PCMag praised the “gorgeous, cutting edge graphics”
📈 A new week, a new price increase story. This time? PS5 consoles could be jumping in price in response to Donald Trump’s tariffs. The Verge explains why it might not impact the cost of US-made machines.
🦸♂️ Enigmatic superhero game Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra has also been delayed. Our colleague Liam Martin at The Express explains more.
🤼 WWE fans have expressed their disappointment after the release of WWE 2k25’s first DLC pack. Four new superstars have been added to the roster but there’s still an annoying missing piece, reports GameRant.
🔐 Steam’s parent company, Valve, has denied that personal information was leaked in an alleged data breach exposing 89 million users. The Mirror US explains more here.
🎬 The Super Mario Bros Movie sequel has been given a name - although it may have been accidentally revealed early, reports Video Games Chronicle.
Have we missed a story? Have you got feedback about this newsletter?
🛒 Stock Check
It’s only a few weeks until the Nintendo Switch 2 hits the shelves - and we expect stock to start ramping up a bit more as retailers get full inventory.
Our top pick to watch is the Game Collection, which has been randomly restocking during the week at 12pm. They have been really tough to catch, while Very has also been restocking at 9am during the week.
💸 This week’s releases
🎪 Throes of the Watchmaker (Sea of Stars DLC) (Switch, PC, PS5, Xbox) - 20 May
⌛ Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time (Switch) - 21 May
👼 Monster Train 2 (PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch) - 21 May
⚔ Blades of Fire (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S) - 22 May
🏹 Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny (PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One) - 23 May
🎮 What we’re playing this week
Chris is continuing to push his way through Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Act II is approaching an end - and he’s hoping it doesn’t end anytime soon.
“I’m absolutely having a ball with Expedition 33 and every cutscene keeps me on the edge of my seat. The gameplay is so crisp and smooth and I hope it doesn’t end anytime soon.
In a last-ditch attempt to catch up before Doom: The Dark Ages landed, Liam delved into his massive list of neglected games to speedrun Doom: Eternal…
I might be five years late to the party, but I’m having a blast with Eternal. It is just as enjoyable even now and trying to finish the story in days feels fitting with its breakneck gameplay
📽 Clip of the Week
This week marked the 20th anniversary of an iconic meme. It would be remiss of us to not reshare the classic Leeroy Jenkins clip to celebrate:
Keep us in the loop and submit your feedback, news and favourite clips here
👾 RETROspective
🌳 Terraria was released on PC 14 years ago today - and now we feel old…
The sandbox RPG came out on May 16, 2011, by developers Re-Logic on PC to begin with and has since been ported to tons of different platforms.
Thanks to its deep and fun gameplay, world-building and sandbox elements, it has become an absolute classic game that everyone should consider delving into.
And if you're a PC owner of the game, you'll remember the glorious treasure box of mods that you can use to improve the game and make it even better.
The most-visited links from last week’s newsletter:
Thanks for reading The XP Drop 002
Free subs: 42