It was effectively a single game that made Microsoft remake the standard subscription of Game Pass, by no longer including the biggest titles from day one. The game in question is of course Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 which is expected to sell something completely unhomely, and hopefully also lead to a boost in the number of Game Pass Ultimate subscribers (where all MS games and more are released immediately, as before).

In recent months, Microsoft has raked the ring for this and, as mentioned, changed subscriptions, handled the concept of pre-orders and made sure that as many platforms as possible can enjoy the lavish action game, from consoles to PC and via cloud solutions. It is therefore safe to assume that there will be many Microsoft executives who are gnawing at their nails and following developments in the coming weeks.

Because if Game Pass doesn't move but just ticks on, then this very expensive move has in other words been completely ineffective, while positive tendencies will be seen as the right way to go.

As we wrote about today, however, Call of Duty is on its way to the cloud and/or Game Pass in the coming weeks, which will quietly be the single most important for the service ever. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it goes our way, in which case we will probably see more and more similar moves, even from the competitors, and then we will all be winners.

On October 25, the first Call of Duty premiere for Game Pass will kick off.

On Monday, the Dreamcast turned 25 years old here in Europe. We got Sega's last console quite late, and uniquely enough also a blue logo instead of the original orange. Even though I personally preferred the orange one (possibly because I had one early on and was used to it), the blue still felt more Chewy, somehow.

My first contact with the Dreamcast was actually Petter's merit (yes, we've known each other since the days of Hedenhö) who had gotten hold of a machine for the game store he was working at at the time. We played Sonic Adventures and Powerstone, and the sight of the killer whale sequence in the former probably stands as the single most powerful graphics shock I've ever had. It just felt unreal that games could be so beautiful – and fascinatingly, it's pretty good looking when you still see them today.

As you know, things went badly for the Dreamcast, because despite a good start and a Sega that delivered like never before, there were no third-party developers who invested in the console. The lack of Electronic Arts sports games was particularly har sh, but on the other hand led to the creation of what we today call 2K Games, which ironically drove EA out of several sports, so they created their own worst competitor.

For my own part, the memories of the Dreamcast are many. Not only because the console had good games, but because it came during a period of my life where I had work and money, and above all time to play with friends and acquaintances. There were great game nights every week with lots of fighting, where Dreamcast was a natural part of the features with their many nice titles.

To this day, I like to pull out one of my many Dreamcast devices. It was really way ahead of its time in several ways and everything from dashboard to online support and other things feels like classic Sega innovation in a way that really only Nintendo usually offers nowadays. In many ways, I also think that the Dreamcast games have aged unexpectedly well, thanks to Sega's focus on timeless gameplay. Playing Soul Calibur, Virtua Tennis 2 or Crazy Taxi simply feels fresh in a way that games for consoles from the later same generation (mainly thinking of Playstation 2 and Xbox) don't.

Hip hip you wonderful 25-year-old and thank you for all the memories.

Old Manual legend Martin Lindell is sharing some cozy Sega commercials on Threads in honor of the day, a reminder of how cheeky this company could be back in the day. Check out this link.

Halloween is slowly approaching and me and my partner squeeze horror movies as often as we can. It's long been a favorite genre - especially so-called teen slashers - but most of it actually goes down. However, there is one kind I'm terribly sorry for, and that's so-called haunted house. 

I felt it already when I watched The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Haunting of Hill House that it kind of started to stand up in my throat with all these movies about magical shanties that always house a demon that takes over those who move in, and which always seems to have a basement with a well-hidden space. It's not like my beloved teen slashers are phenomenal movies, but they're generally just the right amount of cheesy, quite fast-paced and often creative.

Those who make films about magical shanties instead seem to be stuck in a grave seriousness and sluggish pace while we get to know the debris of a building that makes the residents lose the concepts. Today it has gone so far that I actively choose not to eat them, I simply do not tolerate them - and with that I am now curious about what type of horror movies you like least?

I can't stand this kind of fear anymore. There are too many sleeping pills and too little... horror.

I needed some time to digest the fact that Nintendo yesterday announced  Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo , an alarm clock with online features and a little Switch lull. For this they should have a thousand kronor. 

I actually don't know when I used a dedicated alarm clock last. For at least ten years now, I've had a smartphone for that, with exactly the type of wake-up I prefer (or... I prefer no wake-up call - sleeping is the best thing I know). I'm definitely not in the mood to go back to an alarm clock that I'll then start setting times for, and the game choices that come with it aren't that much fun, but nintendo has more classic game music than that.

But like damn I get happy just thinking about it. If I had received 10,000 guesses the day before yesterday on what Nintendo was going to announce yesterday, none of them would have been a dedicated Nintendo alarm clock with online functionality that plays sounds that help me sleep at night complete with Pikmin 4 and Ring Fit Adventure music.

It reminds me a bit of when Nintendo announced the cardboard concept Labo. It flopped, sure, but the whole thing about them being able to launch a whole series of gaming accessories built in corrugated cardboard complete with actionable gameplay is just too strange. 

And it's basically only Nintendo that offers this kind of thing. I love a fat announcement of a new game or hardware, but those total surprises that come from a direction no one could have predicted - only Nintendo delivers. And for this, I really love them. Never change!

Unlike Labo, Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo seems to be a success. It sold out in both Japan and New York immediately.

Just over a year ago , I asked you if you should go for FunkoVerse or Unmatched. Actually, the games aren't that similar other than that they revolve around light-hearted character battles with popular characters, but the consensus seemed to be that both are good. 

Since then, I've bought into both, especially in the FunkoVerse, but most of the time we play Unmatched, simply because it's faster to get started with smaller component picks from several different boxes.

To explain it simply, it's about battles, two against two, with decks of cards. The characters range from famous fairy tale characters (Little Red Riding Hood) to classic legends (Achilles) to novel heroes (Sherlock Holmes) to myths such as Bigfoot as well as pop culture phenomena such as Jurassic Park dinosaurs or Bruce Lee. In short, everything possible and then some.

The basic premise is that both of your team's fighters should kill the opposing team's with very simple rules. But each character is completely unique and can bring with them one or more helpers with different amounts of lives and abilities. In addition, it is played with a deck of cards belonging to your fighter, which is also completely unique.

I didn't intend to dig deeper than that, but I note that it quickly becomes really exciting to move around the board and try to outsmart your opponents

So. That said, a load of new Unmatched characters is coming soon, which will be funded via Kickstarter. And that's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They also come with two villains in the form of Krang and Shredder, as well as the Adventures game mode. So what is it then? Well, an opportunity to run a mini-campaign together against these last two debris dots, which are controlled by the "computer".

This is the icing on the famous cake that makes Unmatched absolutely indispensable. Now you can both geek out against others - or play together. And this with Ninja Turtles. The game has already collected around 500% more than asked for so it will happen and now it's all about how well filled it will be with stretch goals.

Believe me when I say you want this package. A really good game gets even better and this is a completely golden opportunity to get into the fun in the best possible way.

I can recommend Unmatched no matter which package you choose, but only those with Adventures support co-op, otherwise everything can be matched exactly as you want.