The Last of Us Part II is being remastered. Great as it is, this isn’t a game I want to play again, but perhaps the success of the TV series made this rerelease inevitable. The parallels between theme park design and game design become very evident when you’re in a video game-themed space. The architects of theme parks and the architects of video game levels rely on visual details and environmental storytelling to guide people through, draw their eyes to the right places and keep them immersed in the experience. Both require a certain suspension of disbelief, and must encourage that with thoughtful and intentional choices. When you see a Disney castle peeking over a vista and want to head towards it, that’s by design. I have waited my entire adult life to be able to play games all day without feeling guilty, retirement is a wonderful thing! Who am I kidding, I’ve never felt guilty about the time I spend gaming!” Re-enact The Battle of Hogwarts from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with this LEGO Harry Potter castle toy playset. Fans of the wizarding world can build and protect their LEGO Hogwarts Castle section from Voldemort’s army. The modules of the castle toy can also be rearranged to make the bridge from another memorable location. Bring magical stories to life with the 6 Harry Potter LEGO minifigures, plus a Nagini figure. The Harry Potter and Voldemort minifigures each have a wand with attachable LEGO elements to create a ‘spellcasting’ effect, and Neville Longbottom has the Sword of Gryffindor, plus there is Scabior, Molly Weasley and Bellatrix Lestrange.

It’s beautifully done, turning the almost claymation-style visuals of the original into a miniature-toylike aesthetic, and it’s an interesting relic of a time when Nintendo was freer with its core franchises, letting other developers (Square Enix, in this case) do odd things with them. There’s distinctly unNintendo playful character banter, weird locations, slightly laborious turn-based battling. This would also make a good first RPG for kids eight-years or older who want to graduate from Mario platformers to something more narrative-focused. Our goal is to keep Pokémon alive for hundreds of years’: Pokémon chief’s plans for Pikachu and pals I really enjoyed this nostalgic and insightful essay by writer Carmen Maria Machado on being a lifelong gamer, and what it means to share them with others – she is the editor of a new collection of essays on video games from fiction writers, called Critical Hits: Writers on Gaming and the Alternate Worlds We Inhabit. How cute is the trailer for Netflix’s forthcoming stop-motion Pokémon series, Pokémon Concierge? I can’t take it.Universal Studios Japan’s re-creation of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts is down a long, winding path, obscured by carefully positioned trees and and the village of Hogsmeade – it reminded me a lot of those “loading corridors” used to great effect in the recent Tomb Raider trilogy or God of War, where you’d find yourself squeezing through a narrow gap or wandering through a cave for a few minutes while the game frantically loaded the massive building or beautiful vista that you were about to emerge into.