From gaming news, TV/movie trailers, and even some book goodness, here’s all the major news you may have missed in the world of geek this week.
Watch 14 Minutes of ‘Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound’ Gameplay
Follow Kumori and Kenji while they navigate a high-rise building under construction teeming with demons. As the ninjas ascend the skeletal tower, they’re relentlessly hunted by Rhyvashi, the level’s boss, who tries to thwart their progress with brutal area attacks. Players must master precision and timing to evade these attacks while simultaneously eliminating enemies.
After being chased by a bulldozer, the level culminates in an underground face-off with Rhyvashi, where Kumori and Kenji must skillfully plan attacks in between her onslaught of claw swipes, falling spikes, and electric orbs to continue to the next stage.
In addition to the combat, this new footage highlights the game’s robust upgrade and shop systems. In the shop, players can acquire Talismans, passive abilities that support a more defensive playstyle, or Secret Arts, which serve as powerful weapons and active abilities for more aggressive combat strategies.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound hits PCs, PlayStation 4|5, Xbox consoles, and Nintendo Switch(es) on July 31st.
Disney+ Offers a Look Ahead to the Rest of 2025
With the year half-way over, Disney revealed a sizzle reel featuring a slew of footage for the rest of their upcoming streaming slate. This includes all new footage for Marvel’s Wonder Man, the King of the Hill revival, and more.
The 60-second sizzle showcases footage from hit returning series, including new adventures of the demigod Percy in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, everyone’s favorite family, The Hills, in the King of the Hill revival series and more murder and mayhem in the fifth season of Only Murders in the Building. Fans will also get a look at Marvel Television’s Wonder Man, premiering later this year.
Titles showcased in the new spot include:
FX’s Alien: Earth* (streaming August 12)
All’s Fair* (streaming Fall 2025)
Chad Powers* (streaming September 30)
King of the Hill* (Season 14) (streaming August 4)
Only Murders in the Building* (Season 5)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Season 2) (streaming December 2025)
The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox* (streaming August 20)
Marvel Television’s Wonder Man (streaming December 2025)
ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires (streaming July 11)
First Poster for ‘Keeper’
Osgood Perkins continues to be busy as the first poster for his third film with NEON arrived this week. Starring Tatiana Maslany and Rossif Sutherland, the plot of the film is underwraps at the moment, but SDCC should give us more.
Keeper is slated to hit at some point late in 2025.
Official Poster for Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Caught Stealing’
Hank Thompson (Austin Butler) was a high-school baseball phenom who can’t play anymore, but everything else is going okay. He’s got a great girl (Zoë Kravitz), tends bar at a New York dive, and his favorite team is making an underdog run at the pennant.
When his punk-rock neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) asks him to take care of his cat for a few days, Hank suddenly finds himself caught in the middle of a motley crew of threatening gangsters. They all want a piece of him; the problem is he has no idea why. As Hank attempts to evade their ever-tightening grip, he’s got to use all his hustle to stay alive long enough to find out…
Caught Stealing hits theaters on August 29th.
‘Twisted Metal’ Season 2 Full Trailer
Following the revelations in the season one finale, John and Quiet find themselves entering the deadly TWISTED METAL tournament, a sinister demolition derby hosted by a mysterious man known as Calypso. As they try to survive an onslaught of dangerous new foes and familiar faces alike, including the murderous clown Sweet Tooth, things get complicated for John when he reunites with his long-lost sister, the vigilante Dollface.
Twisted Metal season 2 lands on Peacock with a 3-episode premiere on July 31st.
The Complete Guide to Videogame Performance Directing Book Pre-Orders Open
Tom Keegan, the Performance Director from such mega-games like Star Wars Battlefront II, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Jedi: Survivor, and more, is launching a new book that will serve as a reference guide for others. If you’re interested in how these stories are brought to life, or want to potentially get into such work yourself, this is going to be an invaluable resource.
CRC Press and major booksellers have begun taking pre-orders for The Complete Guide to Videogame Performance Directing: Place, Time, Action, an all-new book from veteran performance director Tom Keegan. This practical, accessible guide features fresh anecdotes and insights from projects like Star Wars Battlefront II and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, brimming with everyday advice for game makers struggling to craft performances in the “pcap” volume and voice-over booth alike. The Complete Guide spills the tea and shares the secrets to great video-game performance from one of the top practitioners in the field.
Based on the author’s decades of experience bringing interactive blockbusters to life, this is the definitive book on directing for video games—and an essential read for voice actors, mocap artists, stunt performers, games journalists, narrative designers, and other developers. Out July 22, 2025, the book will be available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audio editions from CRC Press.
Pre-orders for The Complete Guide to Videogame Performance Directing: Place, Time, Action are live now and it releases later this month.
Full Trailer for Apple TV+’s ‘Chief of War’
Told from an indigenous perspective, “Chief of War” is a passion project for creators Momoa and Thomas Pa‘a Sibbett, who share native Hawaiian heritage. The series features a predominantly Polynesian cast, led by Momoa alongside Luciane Buchanan, Temuera Morrison, Te Ao o Hinepehinga, Cliff Curtis, newcomer Kaina Makua, Moses Goods, Siua Ikale‘o, Brandon Finn, James Udom, Mainei Kinimaka, Te Kohe Tuhaka and Benjamin Hoetjes.
“Chief of War” is produced for Apple TV+ by FIFTH SEASON and Chernin Entertainment. Momoa directs the season finale and serves as executive producer. Doug Jung serves as showrunner and executive produces along with Sibbett, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Tracey Cook and Brian Andrew Mendoza. Justin Chon directs the first two episodes and serves as executive producer. Anders Engström, Jim Rowe, Molly Allen, Francis Lawrence and Tim Van Patten also serve as executive producers. Grammy and Academy Award-winning composer, Hans Zimmer wrote the theme music and co-produced the score for all nine episodes with composer James Everingham, during his tenure with Bleeding Fingers Music, the multiple Emmy Award-winning and BAFTA Award-nominated composer collective co-founded by Zimmer in 2013.
Chief of War hits Apple TV+ with a 2-episode premiere on August 1st.
Meet Vex the Siren from Borderlands 4
In the Vex Gameplay Overview, you can witness Vex’s destructive Phase energy in action, whether she’s blasting enemies to bits with elemental orbs, summoning an entourage of aggressive Phase Clones, or letting her adorable (and deadly) feline Phase Phamiliar, aptly named Trouble, tear the opposition limb from limb.
You can also watch Vex’s new Character Short “Purple Friday,” featuring Vex’s retelling of the bloody events that set her down the path to becoming a Vault Hunter and how she obtained her powers.
Borderlands 4 hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X, and PCs on September 12th.
Peacock Sets Premiere Date for ‘The Office’ Spin-Off, ‘The Paper’
The documentary crew that immortalized Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch in the Emmy Award-winning series “The Office” find a new subject when they discover a historic Midwestern newspaper and the publisher trying to revive it.
The Paper premieres on Peacock with four episodes on September 4th, followed by two new episodes every Thursday through September 25th.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Coming to PS5 Later This Year
Following a successful global launch on PC and Xbox Series X|S on November 20, 2024, GSC Game World is thrilled to announce that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl will be released on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro in late 2025.
Leveraging the console hardware, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 on PlayStation 5 will fully utilize DualSense controller features, including haptic feedback and adaptive triggers for deeper player immersion. Further technical enhancements for the PS5 Pro are also in development. More details, including a specific release date, will be shared closer to launch.
What was your favorite bit of news from the past week?
