Published , by Ozzie Mejia
Published , by Ozzie Mejia
Greetings, friends at Shacknews! We've reached a new holiday weekend and we're getting into it with a fresh round of news, memes, and entertainment. It's time for the Friday edition of Evening Reading.
Shacknews took Friday off in observance of Good Friday. We'll be back in full force on Monday.
And, because it's the weekend, go find yourself something to play!
If you've missed it for the past year, PC players, the Chaos-killing game is now on Steam.
The Diablo 4 beta may be over, but we're now counting down to the game's big release. Here's an early look at character building.
There are some great Diablo alternatives out there, as well. Path of Exile has launched its latest update, as Crucible comes to PC today.
Exciting things are coming to Modern Warfare 2. Check out this latest look at Season 3.
Finally, in gaming-adjacent news, pre-orders have opened up for The Super Mario Bros. Movie's soundtrack.
From a galaxy far, far away
Let's check in with Star Wars Celebration!
Live-action Ahsoka about to team up with live-action Sabine Wren and live-action Hera Syndulla en route to the return of live action Ezra Bridger and live action Grand Admiral Thrawn. This is everything I could possibly want from Star Wars right now.
Exciting, but remember that we've been shown a lot of Star Wars projects in the last two years and about half of them have been delayed or cancelled outright. Take any Star Wars announcements with a grain of salt these days.
Building bridges
You all know that I love watching streams and videos of Super Mario Maker 2 troll levels. Recently, troll expert Geek has thrown a wrinkle into the usual SMM2 formula by holding a 4th wall contest, in which a house rule is incorporated into the level.
That has led to this stage from creator Scriv, in which real-life bridge engineer Geek must deliver educational bridge lessons every time she sees a bridge in this level. On top of everything, this is an amazing stage with clever usage of the Dry Bones shell and a hell of a CP2 twist. Give this a look if you want to be entertained and/or if you want to learn something today.
First time for everyone
Over the past few months, I've discovered one of my favorite phenomenons: Content creators who are discovering Super Mario 64 for the first time! (Shoutout to Cuddle_Core!) Now it's happening with Maximilian Dood. So how's his first playthrough going?
Peachy!
The greatest single in the history of rap music
Game Theory's Bomani Jones explains why Outkast's BoB is the greatest single in rap music history.
As someone of a certain age, I'm here to tell you he's right.
Nothing but the Hotfix
We're exploring some head-to-head battles with this episode of The Hotfix Grudge Match. Witness this race of the classic Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and the slightly less classic Karnov.
GDQ's Hotfix shows air every week and you can catch them all at the Games Done Quick Twitch account.
Under the learning tree with Masahiro Sakurai
Masahiro Sakurai started a YouTube channel! Let's learn from his decades of experience together by looking at one of his latest videos. This week, Sakurai dives into this deep cut from his illustrious career.
This week in Shaqnews (and Chucknews)
Shaq's back on the Inside the NBA set, just in time for Chuck to nearly kill him with his story about his bar of soap.
IT'S STILL REAL TO ME, DAMMIT!
WrestleMania came and went and it was incredible. Atmosphere was electric throughout the entire night. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens winning the night one main event was amazing. Watching Rey Mysterio teach his kid some manners was fun. Brock Lesnar lifting a massive dude like Omos was super cool to witness live. Plus, Bianca Belair's entrance might have been the most adorable thing I've ever seen at a live wrestling show. Check out highlights from both nights!
But that wasn't all from the world of wrestling. In fact, a lot happened all over. But, for me, the moment that stood out was the start of Wednesday's AEW Dynamite.
SWITCHBLADE!
Tonight in video game music
To celebrate The Super Mario Bros. Movie, let's travel back to a few weeks ago and check out this lofi album from artist Helynt at GameChops.
That's it for the first Friday Evening Reading for the month of April! Be sure to keep the spirit of the classic Evening Reading alive by jumping into the comments about whatever you see here or whatever randomness you'd like to discuss. Join the conversation and dive into the Shacknews Chatty comment thread below. I'll see you all next week!