April Showers (of games)

Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest issue of the Destructoid Changelog. This week, it’s an Indie Extravaganza, plus PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass are absolutely stacked. 

Indies take the initiative

2025 is likely to be one of the biggest years in gaming history. We’ve already had the return of Assassin’s Creed, Monster Hunter, and the debut of Split Fiction, while Doom: The Dark Ages, and Metroid Prime 4 are on their way, too—and that’s to say nothing of GTA 6 and Switch 2.

And after the Triple-I Initiative this week, our wishlists got a whole lot longer. The whole showcase was a testament to the variety of indies, with gorgeous pixel art next to realistic, sci-fi landscapes and characters.

Speedrunners is making a comeback with a numbered sequel, while we got another look at Sifu studio Sloclap’s football title, Rematch.

Duskfade has a clockwork-style world that looks right out of a storybook, while Tears of Metal looks like a much more gory Dynasty Warriors.

Then there was another look at Moonlighter 2 (which we’ll be playing in Summer), the unsettling deduction game No I’m Not A Human, and the quirky hand-drawn The Eternal Life Of Goldman.

Add in DLC reveals for indie darlings like Katana Zero, V-Rising, X4 Foundations and Vampire Survivors, and it’s clear that no matter how good a year AAA games offer, indies will rise to the occasion.

Aside from the Triple-I Initiative, Blue Prince is the talk of the town. It’s currently this year’s highest-rated game on Steam, and sits at a 92-percent rating on Metacritic. That’s the same as Uncharted 3, SSX Tricky, and Super Mario Bros Wonder!

The game’s protagonist, Simon, has inherited a huge manor, on the condition he finds the “46th Room.” Simple, right? Except every time you step foot in the house, the layout changes. You’ll draft rooms as you progress through, avoiding dead ends and finding items to help improve your run.

Blue Prince has a little of deckbuilding, a little roguelike, and a little map creation that all mixes together to find one of the most unique games around. There’s an almost endless amount of depth, so we’ll leave it to our reviewer Kristina to sum up:

“Blue Prince is a unique and refreshing puzzle game that breaks away from the conventional, featuring complex challenges and solutions that constantly evolve.”

It’s out now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S and X.

Titanfall return rumours shot down

We were ready to believe. After a report earlier this week suggested Titanfall 3 was in development, we felt we were finally due another slice of FPS excellence.

Sadly, no sooner had we begun to dream of riding into battle atop BT-7247 than industry insider Jeff Grubb shot down those reports.

He did, however, suggest a small team within Respawn Entertainment is working on “skunkworks” project that could integrate Titans, but as yet, it’s not happening.

Ah well, we’ll have Apex Legends Season 25 soon to help soften the blow…

Freebies! Get your freebies!

OK, neither Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus are free, but both revealed a sizeable slate of titles this week that are well worth drawing attention to. 

PlayStation subscribers can enjoy Hogwarts Legacy as the main attraction, but Blue Prince will also be available to download and play.

Xbox Game Pass added South of Midnight this week, as well as the classic Diablo 3, adding on to last week’s arrival of Borderlands 3’s Ultimate Edition and confirmation that GTA 5 will return to the service next week.

Whoever said April was a quiet month? 

That’s all for today, but we’ll be back next week. Thanks for subscribing!

Destructoid team