Cosy games like Stardew Valley are more popular than ever and a reader has an idea for simulating the slowest, and most relaxing, form of water transport.

One of my favourite pastimes beyond the digital world is getting out and about on the waterways by foot. Over the last decade I’ve been walking along the Grand Union Canal and River Thames, appreciating the beauty and solitude of the waterways, imagining ever so briefly giving up the world of banking and a fixed abode and sailing the canals, moving from place to place in a transient lifestyle.

One of my secret guilty pleasures is a niche Amazon series called Travels by Narrowboat, where a recently separated man used the money he had left to buy a narrowboat to explore the canals and rivers around the UK. It’s a series you can switch on and listen to the sounds of the canals and countryside in the background. It felt very familiar – having walked a great deal of one particular canal over the years – and made me consider whether a game based on this pastime could work, or is it entirely too narrow an idea to appeal towards a big enough audience and demographic?

Sailing simulators exist, certainly, but they tend to replicate and recreate the excitement of sailing the seven seas. I can’t imagine there’s a high demand for taking a narrowboat up the Grand Union Canal, from London to Birmingham, through a mixture of the suburbs and countryside.

Recently, I was playing around in the virtual sandbox of Watch Dogs Legion, exploring its virtual depiction of London in the near future, when I suddenly remembered you can ‘hijack’ and sail on its limited waterways on a narrowboat. Admittedly, they are a basic form of a tank on the water, due to their length and limited mobility, but for a few brief moments sailing near the Camden basin, it was fun to experience a slight hint of what I imagine a narrowboat sailing game could be, stripping away the bright lights of the city and placing you onboard your own boat heading out into the countryside.

In recent months I’ve been trying to get into the discipline of walking every day to improve my fitness and health, if only for a couple of miles using the stillness of the waterways around my flat to inspire me to get out and about, even if I’m feeling tired or unmotivated. I love the peace of walking along the towpaths with only the sounds of nature and the smell of wood fires from the narrowboats in the mornings to distract me.

It’s a wonderful space to be in mentally, to tune out a lot of the noise of the outside world, to focus my thoughts and feel more energised for the day ahead. One aspect of the long walks, that tailed off a little towards the start of the year, was the peace of being alone for three or four hours surrounded by the countryside/ I got that feeling again watching the narrowboat series, which inspired me to consider how a game based on that experience would be received by a modern audience?

I envision an open world environment of sorts, that seems relatively easy to bring to the virtual domain. Long stretches of open but relatively narrow canals passing through the countryside, with brief passages through rural and urban environments. From a gaming perspective, the option to customise your narrowboat both on the exterior and interior living spaces came to mind.

You could add a simulation experience in the vein of Sailaway with seasons affecting the natural environment around you. The appeal wouldn’t be in the challenge, it’s in presence. You’d drift slowly between rural calm and urban grit, the canals acting as veins through Britain’s changing landscape. There’s quiet joy in the rhythm of slow travel, managing your floating home, and choosing where to moor next. From a thematic perspective, it could draw upon solitude after change, rediscovery of purpose, and the healing rhythm of movement.

It wouldn’t be a mainstream release, the idea of giving up the trappings of modern life and sailing a slow-moving canal boat through the urban and rural environment is a distinctly British mindset and a relatively niche game to consider. It would fit into that relaxation sim style genre, in the spirit and tonal design and aesthetic of Eastshade and Lake. There would be no traditional motivation to win, the emotional core of the experience would simply be to provide an experience to unwind in a relaxed environment.

That experience is about mindfulness, solitude, and the small pleasures of everyday life on the water. It is a story-less narrative, one told through mood, environment, and rhythm rather than scripted dialogue or quests. Each stretch of canal becomes a space for self-reflection – an unhurried journey where the act of moving forward, no matter how slowly, becomes its own quiet reward.

I imagine a style of soft textures, muted colour palettes, and natural lighting that evoke the gentle melancholy of a Turner landscape or a misty English morning. A game inspired by the seasons, rich autumn golds, pale winter blues, the vivid greens of spring, the environment subtly shifting over time to reflect the passing of the year.

Narrowboats, towpaths, and small towns would be rendered with care and intimacy. Weathered bricks, flaking paint, ivy creeping up an old lock wall. Every detail tells a quiet story, every journey along the canals and waterways a unique tapestry. The early mornings and late afternoons drenched in sunlight, the gentle patter of rain on the rooftop evoking a sense of emotion. Soft lights at nighttime reflecting on the water surface creating a feeling of isolation.

Breaking down the game mechanics, you can easily imagine some of the more obvious concepts, resource management carefully balancing the demands of stopping for fuel, food, and water along the way. Upgrade and customisation: do you stay with your original purchase or invest in solar panels and upgraded wiring to make a more modern experience? You could meet other boaters along the way, creating interpersonal relationships with those you meet on the waterway. You could have seasonal weather impacting on your journey and tonal experience.

The isolation of sailing in the winter contrasts with the spirit of exploration in the summer months. You could have an easy mode, in the spirit of modern day open world adventures, where some of the more challenging aspects of sailing run in the background, or a more challenging experience where you have to navigate the canals and locks with meticulous attention to detail.

In the end, it’s just one man’s idea for a game, something modest in its appeal, perhaps, but heartfelt in its intent. A game for those who find beauty in the slow pace of life, who seek calm amid the noise of the modern world. There are no scores, missions, or achievements here; only the steady, familiar pulse of a diesel engine echoing softly along the waterway. You could expand on the technicalities of steering a boat or navigating the locks, but I feel that would take away from the spirit of a game like this.

In the spirit of farming life simulators like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, it offers a space to unwind, to find meaning in small routines and quiet reflections. The concept of a slow, transient lifestyle feels both nostalgic and quietly radical in a culture that moves too fast. Maybe that’s the point. Sometimes, moving slowly is the truest form of progress. And peace, when it comes, is found not in arrival, but just beyond the next bend in the water.

By reader comfortablyadv (Facebook/Instagram/X/WordPress)

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot.

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MORE: PlayStation and Xbox have finally realised exclusives are the heart of gaming – Reader’s Feature

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With hints that both Sony and Microsoft are moving back to focus on single-player console exclusives, a reader is relieved at the idea they’re changing their approach.

It’s not been easy being a PlayStation fan this generation. We’ve had some great games – by the time you read this hopefully I’ll be playing Resident Evil Requiem – but not nearly enough of them have been from Sony. Naughty Dog still hasn’t made a new PlayStation 5 game yet and we’re six years into the console’s lifetime.

These complaints are not new, of course. After all, six years is plenty of time for people with much more insight than me to complain about Sony’s bizarre, self-defeating attitude. Although the story this week, of them managing to schedule betas for both their upcoming live service games at exactly the same time really did take the biscuit for me.

That takes a special level of laziness and indifference and while I don’t care, because I don’t like those sorts of games, it really does sum just how incompetent they’ve been this generation. And yet, to my surprise, there has also been some hope, with talk that Sony is pulling back from their PC support.

This wasn’t just some guy on Reddit but two of the most reliable and respected leakers in the business, so there’s every reason to think it’s true and that Sony is beginning to realise that it was shooting itself in the foot with PC ports, swapping short term games for the long-term health of their console business.

There was an open goal for Sony this gen, where Xbox was in absolute disarray and had no first party games that anyone cared about. Considering how good Sony had been in the PlayStation 4 era this was the chance to deliver a killing blow but instead they did the opposite and essentially started to copy Xbox. Because clearly a Switch port of Patapon and The Last Of Part 1 on PC is going to be the difference between financial success and failure.

The money they make with multiformat releases is relatively miniscule but the amount they lose, in terms of undermining the whole purpose of consoles is enormous. But if these rumours are right they have finally realised what they’re doing is wrong and damaging. One can only hope they feel the same about live service games and that was in fact one of the other rumours this week, albeit from a leaker I’d never heard of before.

And then at the same time essentially the first thing the new boss of Xbox said, in reply to random Twitter fans, was a hint about bringing back exclusives. She didn’t say which ones, and I suspect she has no idea how hard that would be, but I think it’s very interesting that she recognises that it would be a good idea.

So all it’s taken is six years and suddenly the two big console manufacturers have realised that the status quo of the previous 40 years was in fact the best way to do things. What a complete waste of time, with a ridiculous business plan based on nothing but hope and vibes.

Running a console business isn’t hard. You make the console, you let other people make games for your console, but you also set the standard with your own games. First party games get to show off the technical abilities, they take advantage of the console manufacturer putting a lot of money into it, and they provide a specific, exclusive reason for people to buy the console over a rival’s.

It’s not rocket science. It’s also not anti-consumer or whatever other nonsense Microsoft has tried to say over the years (mostly driven by their CEO, I suspect, who constantly proves he knows nothing about games). You don’t like how Sony does business then go buy a PC, nobody’s stopping you.

That’s the way consoles have always worked and there’s never been a problem until now. (I also resent the idea of upgrade consoles like the PS5 Pro. The whole point of a console is everyone has exactly the same hardware).

So please, Sony and Microsoft, admit your mistake and go back to how things used to be. Innovation is needed in hardware and games but not in the way the industry works. That was all going fine until you messed it up for no reason, and now you have to try and put it back together again.

By reader Gollum

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot.

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The Warner Bros. Discovery board may have enriched its shareholders Thursday when it chose Paramount Skydance‘s acquisition offer over Netflix‘s, but it also terrified a lot of its employees.

While some of those people own WBD shares and may prefer the financials of Paramount’s $31-per-share bid to Netflix’s $27.75-per-share offer, CNBC spoke to 10 WBD employees in a variety of different roles at the company. All 10, who asked not to be named for fear of potential backlash, expressed concerns about potential job losses and questions of who would ultimately run their divisions if Paramount and WBD are eventually merged.

“It’s fair to say people are deflated by the news,” said one long-term WBD executive.

Nonetheless, a WBD-Paramount merger “is not a done deal,” as California Attorney General Rob Bonta said yesterday.

The transaction must gain regulatory approval both in the U.S. and in Europe. WBD CEO David Zaslav acknowledged at an all-hands meeting Friday that the deal may still be blocked and expressed sympathy for those experiencing a sense of whiplash going from Netflix to Paramount, according to people familiar with the matter.

“The deal may not close. If it doesn’t close, we get $7 billion, and we get back to work,” Zaslav said, according to leaked audio provided to Business Insider.

Still, several WBD employees told CNBC they wished Netflix had acquired WBD, citing several factors.

While Paramount and WBD both have core competencies in news, sports, theatrical film and streaming TV, Netflix has far less overlap. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos repeatedly said he planned to leave the WBD business alone, keeping its theatrical business separate from Netflix while also keeping HBO Max as a separate, independent streaming service for the foreseeable future.

Netflix also wasn’t acquiring WBD’s linear cable business with its bid. Employees at CNN, Turner Sports, and the old Discovery networks would have remained in their jobs to forge a path as a standalone publicly traded company.

Now, WBD employees are staring at potentially massive job cuts. Paramount executives have previously stated they plan to cut $6 billion by eliminating “duplicative operations” on “back office, finance, corporate, legal, technology, infrastructure, et cetera,” according to Chief Strategy Officer Andy Gordon. Both WBD and Paramount have already gone through thousands of job cuts in recent years.

There are also questions about culture and leadership. While Mark Thompson currently runs CNN, Bari Weiss is the editor-in-chief at CBS and could plausibly add CNN to her purview.

The Wall Street Journal reported in December that Paramount CEO David Ellison promised President Donald Trump he’d make sweeping changes at CNN if he gained control of the network. Three CNN employees who spoke with CNBC said there’s rampant fear among their colleagues about Weiss making dramatic changes to the cable network’s anchors and tone.

“Despite all the speculation you’ve read during this process, I’d suggest that you don’t jump to conclusions about the future until we know more,” Thompson wrote in a memo to employees Thursday.

CNN media reporter Brian Stelter noted CNN “is a highly profitable business, and it would be foolish for any owner to put that at risk.”

On the entertainment side, WBD employees fear there may be too many proverbial cooks in the kitchen, which could bog down creativity and innovation for both film and TV.

One WBD executive noted that Paramount’s President Jeff Shell, Chair of Direct to Consumer Cindy Holland and Chair of TV George Cheeks are all used to being senior leaders in their organizations. Shell was CEO of NBCUniversal. Cheeks was co-CEO of Paramount before it merged with Skydance. Holland was a top executive at Netflix, where she worked for 18 years.

How that mix meshes with WBD’s entertainment leadership group is an open question and could lead to culture clashes.

TNT Sports is run by Luis Silberwasser and has largely steered WBD toward younger audiences with its programming decisions and investments, including Bleacher Report and House of Highlights. CBS Sports, meanwhile, is driven by the demographics of those who watch CBS and has historically catered to an older audience. This could lead to culture clash, or the divisions could mesh nicely as complementary assets.

While Silberwasser will have to work with CBS Sports President David Berson on employee duplications, like every other department, there’s some reason for optimism in the sports division, because WBD and CBS have worked together for many years producing March Madness, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. That’s given the units some degree of familiarity with each other.

WBD also lost NBA rights last season. Combining with CBS’s robust portfolio of sports rights, including the NFL and the Masters, makes WBD a major player again in sports, even if it’s as a subsidiary of CBS.

One other repeated concern among employees is the $64 billion in debt coming as part of the $111 billion enterprise value for the deal. Several employees said servicing large debt loads has hindered WBD in recent years, and they feared this could lead to more of the same. Two employees noted there’s comfort being a part of a giant company like Netflix, with a market capitalization of more than $400 billion. Paramount Skydance’s market valuation is just $15 billion.

GameCentral plays the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Resident Evil Requiem and is shocked at how it compares to the PlayStation 5 edition.

Resident Evil Requiem, the ninth mainline entry in the illustrious survival horror series, is out today and, surprisingly, it’s available for the Switch 2, as well as the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Mind you, Resident Evil does have a long history with Nintendo hardware, particularly from the GameCube era, when it debuted the Resident Evil 1 remake, Resident Evil 4, and Resident Evil Zero. Most people still probably think of the PlayStation first, when it comes to the franchise, but Nintendo second.

However, from the Wii onwards, Nintendo hardware has always been several steps behind the PlayStation, in terms of raw power, and so it’s been impossible to port games to Nintendo consoles in the same generation. We would’ve assumed, without question, that was also true of Resident Evil Requiem, because it is a great looking game and the Switch 2 is nowhere near as powerful as the PlayStation 5… or so we thought.

Although our main review of Requiem is on the PlayStation 5, we were also sent the Switch 2 version and we are genuinely shocked at how good it is. In terms of content it’s identical and in terms of graphics… it’s definitely not as good but the differences are mild enough that a casual observer is unlikely to notice the difference.

We want to be clear: if you care about playing a game with the best graphics possible then the Switch 2 is not the choice you should be making. However, it does have obvious advantages in terms of portability, so that’s what you need to factor into your decision, when balancing up what version to get.

We’re not going to pretend to be technical experts but the moment you play Requiem on Switch 2 the compromises are obvious to a veteran gamer, as it’s not a consistent 60fps. Requiem is an action game, especially when you’re playing as Leon, but we’ve all been playing 30fps action titles for decades, right up until the start of this generation, so it’s hardly an unforgiveable flaw, especially in a slower paced game like Resident Evil.

There’s also something a little off with the lighting, where it seems less realistic when interacting with moving objects, and we assume the resolution is being upscaled using DLSS technology but the latter isn’t obvious at all and the game still looks fantastic.

We’ve already discussed Nintendo’s strange reticence to talk about the Switch 2’s power, with not only no tech demos but no first party game to act as a demonstration of the console’s abilities. Normally when a console maker doesn’t talk about a feature it means it’s below par but it’s perfectly in keeping with Nintendo’s contrariness that their silence actually means the opposite.

The opening hour of Requiem features two short sections in a busy city street and while it’s not quite as photorealistic on Switch 2 as it is on PlayStation 5 – with simpler object models and textures – it is still far better than you’d ever expect. Things are even more impressive when you get inside a building, as the more controlled environments look almost identical to the PlayStation, with only characters’ hair, especially Grace’s, looking noticeably different.

Nothing is quite identical, if you start running side-by-side videos, but it’s nothing that any normal person is likely to recognise. The only time the Switch 2 does show its hand is in terms of the frame rate, which is unlocked – so it varies from a full 60fps to below 30fps, especially in handheld mode. This can occasionally cause problems when there’s a lot going on on-screen but even the PlayStation 5 had the occasional hiccup, particularly in one particular boss battle (that we won’t specify for spoiler reasons).

Overall, it’s a superb port and alongside Star Wars Outlaws and Final Fantasy 7 Remake shows that PlayStation 5 games are perfectly viable on the Switch 2 and, depending on how you prefer to experience your video games, potentially superior – thanks to the portability.

Given these releases, and upcoming titles such as Elden Ring, it would seem that any game that doesn’t rely heavily on 60fps is a good candidate for being ported to the Switch 2. The only problem is the price, since Requiem costs exactly the same as the other console versions.

Ports of Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village were also released today and while we haven’t played them we assume they work even better, as they were on the PlayStation 4. They are cheaper than Requiem but still more expensive than the same games on other formats, where they benefit from years’ worth of cumulative discounts.

We do feel Capcom is missing a trick by not charging slightly less (perhaps they could’ve tried talking Nintendo into subsidising them) as that would likely turn even more people into picking the Switch 2 version. That’s not the situation at the moment though, which means the choice is yours, between a slightly compromised portable edition and a more graphically advanced home version.

It’s an interesting choice to have to make and given most ordinary people aren’t going to see any difference in the graphics it means that, so as long as these ports sell, you should see a lot more in the future, from every publisher.

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The Boss is ready to Rage.

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band just enlisted Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello to “join [them] for select songs onstage” at all shows of his recently-announced ‘Land of Hopes and Dreams Tour.’

That 20-concert North American run includes not one, not two, not three, not four but five (!) New York and New Jersey stops. They’re scheduled to take place at:

Prudential Center
Newark, NJ
Monday, April 20

UBS Arena
Belmont Park, NY
Tuesday, May 5

Madison Square Garden
New York, NY
Monday, May 11

Barclays Center
Brooklyn, NY
Thursday, May 14

Madison Square Garden
New York, NY
Saturday, May 16

If you’d like to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers rock shred live, tickets are available for all ‘Land of Hope and Dreams Tour’ concerts.

At the time of publication, the lowest price we could find on seats for any one show was $69 including fees on StubHub.

For those hoping to attend in New York or New Jersey, the cheapest tickets we could find to see The Boss in the Tri-State was $177 including fees for his May 5 UBS Arena show.

Although we can’t say for certain what Springsteen will take to the stage with Morello in spring ’26, records indicate that he played typical marathon sets last summer while playing European stadiums and arenas.

Set List FM notes that he played fan favorites “Born To Run,” “Born In The U.S.A.,” “Badlands,” “The Rising” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” along with Patti Smith, Bob Dylan and John Fogerty covers as well as more obscure tracks like “My Love Will Not Let You Down,” a 1982 studio outtake.

“…Springsteen is a pure showman full of gusto and bravado incorporating every tool at his disposal,” The Post wrote in an enthusiastic review of a September 2023 MetLife Stadium concert.

Still need a few more details?

You’re in the right place, Spring-Nuts.

Our team has everything you need to know and more about Bruce Springsteen’s 2026 ‘Land of Hope and Dreams Tour’ with Tom Morello below.

Bruce Springsteen tickets

Inventory to see Bruce Springsteen live is available on all verified ticketing sites.

We recommend checking out StubHub, Ticketmaster and Vivid Seats to find the seats that makes the most sense for you.

Bruce Springsteen tour schedule 2026

A complete calendar including all North American tour dates, venues and links to the cheapest tickets available on StubHub can be found here:

Bruce Springsteen tour dates	StubHub prices start at
March 31 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, MN	$131 (including fees)
April 3 at the Moda Center in Portland, OR	$134 (including fees)
April 7 at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, CA	$86 (including fees)
April 9 at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, CA	$91 (including fees)
April 13 at the Chase Center in San Francisco, CA	$165 (including fees)
April 16 at the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, AZ	$106 (including fees)
April 20 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ	$265 (including fees)
April 23 at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, FL	$74 (including fees)
April 26 at the Moody Center in Austin, TX	$163 (including fees)
April 29 at the United Center in Chicago, IL	$203 (including fees)
May 2 at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, GA	$85 (including fees)
May 5 at the UBS Arena in Elmont, NY	$177 (including fees)
May 8 at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, PA	$431 (including fees)
May 11 at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY	$237 (including fees)
May 14 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY	$210 (including fees)
May 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY	$274 (including fees)
May 19 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA	$69 (including fees)
May 22 at the Rocket Arena in Cleveland, OH	$152 (including fees)
May 24 at the TD Garden in Boston, MA	$258 (including fees)
May 27 at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.	$234 (including fees)

Bruce Springsteen set list

As noted above, Springsteen’s last full concert was in July 2025. Set List FM reported these were the songs he performed that evening.

01.) “My Love Will Not Let You Down”

02.) “Prove It All Night”

03.) “Darkness on the Edge of Town”

04.) “Land of Hope and Dreams”

05.) “Death to My Hometown”

06.) “Rainmaker”

07.) “The Promised Land”

08.) “Hungry Heart”

09.) “My Hometown”

10.) “The River”

11.) “Youngstown”

12.) “Murder Incorporated”

13.) “Long Walk Home”

14.) “House of a Thousand Guitars”

15.) “My City of Ruins”

16.) “Because the Night” (Patti Smith Group cover)

17.) “Wrecking Ball”

18.) “The Rising”

19.) “Badlands”

20.) “Thunder Road”

Encore

21.) “Born in the U.S.A.”

22.) “Born to Run”

23.) “Bobby Jean”

24.) “Dancing in the Dark”

25.) “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”

26.) “Twist and Shout” (The Top Notes cover)

27.) “Chimes of Freedom” (Bob Dylan cover)

Encore II

28.) “Rockin’ All Over the World” (John Fogerty cover)

Bruce Springsteen new music

In addition to releasing an expanded 37-track edition of “Nebraska” complete with demos and outtakes in tandem with the release of Springsteen’s 2025 biopic, The Boss also dropped the fiery, ripped from the headlines protest anthem “Streets of Minneapolis” on Jan. 28.

Over 4.5-minutes, the 20-time Grammy winner paints a grim picture of what transpired in the city this past month noting “we’ll remember the names of those who died in the streets of Minneapolis.”

Tom Morello new music

Morello dropped three singles in 2025.

Most recently, he released the grimy “Everything Burns” with Beartooth that finds the axeman working in polished, studio mode. This one isn’t raw but will get your fist pumping in no time. Clearly, the Gen X icon still has some gas in the tank.

Second is the fascinatingly plucky and plinky “METAL!!” with BABYMETAL that finds Morello operating against a style wholly unlike his own to create something unique, electric and, frankly, a bit freaky.

Lastly, he unveiled “Pretend You Remember Me” on July 10.

The scorching rocker starts with a thrilling electric solo before settling into a melancholy groove complete with brow-beaten, downtrodden lyrics highlighted by the unforgettable refrain “Pretend you remember me.”

To dig deeper — and unearth tracks contributed to the “Last of Us,” “Arcane” and “Venom” soundtracks as well as his work with The Nightwatchman — click here to check out Morello’s complete discography.

Stream Bruce Springsteen movie

The 2025 biopic “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” starring Jeremy Allen White (“The Bear”) as the titular character working through his demons while writing “Nebraska” is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+.

You can stream the film with a subscription that can be purchased here.

Jeremy Strong (“Succession”), Paul Walter Hauser (“The Naked Gun”), Odessa Young (“Black Rabbit”) and Stephen Graham (“Adolescence”) round out the stacked cast.

Classic rockers on tour in 2026

Not every rocker from way back when can still put on a show like Springsteen.

Still, many of the greats from the ’60s and ’70s haven’t hung up their six-strings just yet. Here are just five of our favorites that we can’t wait to catch live these next few months.

• The Eagles

• Paul Simon

• Doobie Brothers with Santana

• Robert Plant

• Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band

Who else is “Proving It All Night”? Check out our list of all the biggest classic rockers on tour in 2026 to find the show for you.

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This article was written by Matt Levy, New York Post live events reporter. Levy stays up-to-date on all the latest tour announcements from your favorite musical artists and comedians, as well as Broadway openings, sporting events and more live shows – and finds great ticket prices online. Since he started his tenure at the Post in 2022, Levy has reviewed a Bruce Springsteen concert and interviewed Melissa Villaseñor of SNL fame, to name a few. Please note that deals can expire, and all prices are subject to change.

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The Wednesday letters page thinks the concept of Xbox handhelds may already be dead, as one reader looks forward to a Nintendo Direct in March.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Value for money
It always makes me laugh when fans complain about pricing because you can always guarantee that they will pay whatever the publisher charges, because if they care enough to complain it means they already like the game and they’re going to do anything that’s needed to get it.

I’m not at all surprised that Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen are bestsellers before they’re even out. A vocal minority might have complained about the prices, and the general unfairness of it all, but for most people if you like a thing, especially a game that’s going to give you dozens, if not hundreds, of hours of pleasure the upper limit of what you’ll pay is very high.

That’s why I think Rockstar are going to push for a higher price for GTA 6, because they know people will pay. And not only are they right but I don’t even know if it’s not worth the extra money, considering how long GTA 5 lasted. The latest rumour, which I realise might not have been true, was £90 and I admit I’d pay that.

For over a decade of gameplay and the best graphics ever made? Plus a no doubt amazing open world and who knows what else that they haven’t revealed yet? I’d probably go as far as £150 without blinking. I’d probably not buy another game for months, but then I probably won’t be playing another one for that long anyway.
Flashman

Minimum effort
I have to agree, that was truly a weird way to announce Wolverine’s release date. We’ve been guessing what it’ll be for months now and they reveal it with one low effort tweet? They didn’t even bother to make any new artwork for it or anything.

I’ll be there to buy the game, day one, but please, Sony, can we not have a bit of showmanship here? A boring blog post (which we didn’t even get this time) and an overproduced video every six months is just not lighting my fire.

GC is right when it talks about the excitement of E3 being something we all miss, especially you see something like this being the absolute opposite.
Focus

Downhill run
As much as I’m looking forward to the new Resident Evil, I’m curious what happens if Silent Hill Townfall is good as well. If it is, that will be a three game streak that Capcom themselves would be proud of. And if the Silent Hill 1 remake is good as well, which I imagine it will be, Silent Hill could end up with one of the best runs in modern game. Which is weird for a series that has a pretty low ceiling for how popular it can be.

As a fan I couldn’t be happier but I’m curious as to whether it’s profitable for them. They’re good-looking games and don’t seem cheap, even though I’m sure they’re not the most expensive games either. But if they’re able to continue with this level of success I’ll be over the moon, especially because of what that implies about other mid-budget games in general.
Rhino

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Pointed mystery
I’ve been playing Psychonauts 2 recently on my gaming PC, which is really good (and also funny) and I have worked out how you earn Xbox reward points for playing a PC game for more than 15 minutes a day. With Psychonauts 2 you go into the options on the PC version and sign into your Xbox account and save the details.

When you play Psychonauts 2 for more than 15 minutes a day you get the reward points and also when you unlock an achievement on PC in Steam you also unlock an achievement on the Xbox. Because I had already played some of the game on my Xbox before I played the PC version I got nine achievements unlocked on my PC as soon as I logged into my Xbox account on the options of the PC game.

Psychonauts 2 is a Microsoft game so whether to get the reward points you have to use a Microsoft game on PC and then log into your Xbox account, like I did with Psychonauts 2, perhaps for you to get the points. Mystery solved!
Andrew J.

Rest in peace
Apologises to anyone that liked the game but I really don’t think Prototype is worth bringing back. It was kind of popular because its main character was a complete edgelord and open world games were still fairly new at that point, but it was never great even then. And if the sequel flopped… well, if people didn’t like it then I can’t see why they’d suddenly be turned onto it now.

I know nostalgia is a hell of a drug but is it really that strong for things that weren’t even that good? Surely they have to be positive memories for you to care, not just the fact that you recognise something. The game’s nearly two decades old, just let it rest.
Poindexter

Ex-handhold box
Crazy to see Xbox falling apart like this, but I can’t pretend it’s a surprise in any way. They’ve been a dead man walking for years now and Phil Spencer should’ve gone at least five years ago. I read today that the creator of the original Xbox thinks that the new boss has been put in charge to wind things down and find an excuse to give it up but I’m not sure I believe that.

Tech companies never usually need an excuse to drop a product, no matter how much money they’ve pumped into it, so I don’t see why they’d need to put on a performance about it.

My guess is that they want to use it to promote AI in some way, because that’s all Microsoft is about nowadays, and if that doesn’t work out then maybe they’ll decide to call it a day.

I think they will go ahead with the next gen PC idea, but I imagine the handheld Xbox idea is dead now. The Xbox ROG Ally was all Sarah Bond’s idea, apparently, and Phil Spencer was always the one talking up the idea of handhelds in general.

My prediction is they’ll ditch that idea, and downgrade and eventually shut down Game Pass. Then they’ll try and make the rest profitable but if that doesn’t work they’ll lose interest, and that’ll be it.

I’d bet the farm they never do exclusives again though, not when the main Microsoft dude hates them. He’s really the one in charge now and we already know he doesn’t care about games at all.
Onyx

Series Slim
So what do we think will be the first thing to be shut down at Xbox, following the new boss taking over? It’ll probably be a couple of studios, but I think Game Pass is probably not long for this world now. It was a gamble that didn’t pay off and it was all Phil Spencer’s big idea, and that’s just the sort of thing new bosses try to get rid of early on.

Perhaps the most important question though is what will her big new idea be? AI seems too obvious a guess so maybe a new model of console, like an Xbox Series X Slim, that isn’t as compromised as the Xbox Series S? A better naming system for their hardware would probably be a good idea too.
Gamph

Still waiting
Very interesting article on Monolith Soft and why Nintendo isn’t pushing the graphics of the Switch 2. It’s crazy that all the best-looking games on the system are not anything to do with Nintendo. I’m very curious to see how Resident Evil Requiem turns out because I never would’ve imagined a game like that would’ve worked on the Switch 2, but everything I’ve heard says it works very well.

The problem is though, since I also own a PlayStation 5, there’s no way I’d buy that or probably any other third party game on the Switch 2, so it’s kind of a wasted effort. I get that some people will only have one console, but what I really want to see is how far Nintendo can push the console.

I agree whatever the first Switch 2-only game is will probably involve Monolith Soft but who can guess what that’d be? It’s probably too early for Zelda but would it still be open world or maybe even a new IP. We’ve been making guesses like this for years now and we never get anywhere.

I just hope we have a really good Nintendo Direct next month and the Switch 2 can catch up with itself, because at the moment it feels like it’s just treading water and all because of a lack of information and even a lack of any way to make an informed guess of what to expect next.
Gifford

Inbox also-rans
To Lumpy, who claimed to be a nerd in yesterday’s Inbox… evidently they’re not quite nerdy enough! Kitana was indeed in the first Mortal Kombat movie is 1995, played by Talisa Soto. She had a pretty key role!
Bingo Rose

Now that FireRed and LeafGreen have been released on the Switch eShop, I can now throw out my complete-in-box copies of said games.
LeeDappa

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: Will Xbox start having exclusives again?

MORE: Games Inbox: Is Phil Spencer going good news for Xbox?

MORE: Games Inbox: Why did Sony shut down Bluepoint Games?

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The Tuesday letters page thinks trying to sell Call Of Duty: Zombies separately is a bad idea, as one reader is not upset to see the back of Phil Spencer.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

No way back
My first reaction to the new Xbox boss hinting at a return to exclusives is that she didn’t understand the issue and/or was knowingly hinting at something she knew wasn’t going to happen, just to try and win over fans. That seems straight out of the usual Microsoft playbook, with their desperation for people to like them, and it’s absolutely not something you’d see from Sony or Nintendo.

But in reality I don’t see how they can. If you made something like Fable an Xbox exclusive how many people are actually going to buy it, given it’s on Game Pass day one? Microsoft needs to make money off their games and they can’t do that when Xbox Series X/S sales are so bad. They also can’t wait till the next gen because the RAM shortages mean that’s not going to happen soon enough.

There is no sensible way to bring back exclusives on Xbox and the only unsensible way is to sell the games at a loss, which is the sort of money wasting I’m pretty sure Microsoft has had enough of by this point.
Lemmy

Robo CEO
I initially misread your headline yesterday, ‘Phil Spencer replaced by AI expert as Xbox changes entire management line-up’ due to not noticing for a moment that the headline continued on the next line after the phrase ‘AI’.

For that brief instant it bizarrely didn’t seem that implausible.
ameisa (PSN ID)

GC: Somehow it’s never the execs who are in danger of being replaced with AI, despite the fact that would probably make more sense.

Exaggerated position
Well, Mr Phil Spencer has been given his cards at Xbox, just like the ones he sacked. I wonder if he was pushed or he jumped and as for who is taking over, don’t think anyone would be too worried at Sony or Nintendo.

The only problem with sacking Phil is it’s about 10 years too late. He spent $69 billion on Activision Blizzard and the first full Call Of Duty game under Xbox was a flop. They bought Bethesda for $7.5 billion just so Starfield wasn’t on Sony’s console and that was a flop and is meant to be coming to PlayStation after all.

The only game I have played from Xbox is Indiana Jones And The Great Circle. I know I said I’d never buy an Xbox game but it was a present from the missus and it was so bad it was good, if you know what I mean.
David

GC: No, we don’t. And underperforming doesn’t mean a game is a flop.

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Making cuts
I don’t get that report about Call Of Duty. I can easily believe that Activision will try and sell Zombies as a separate game (and that no one will buy it – it’d have to be free-to-play or nothing) but what was the stuff about Microsoft wanting faster development?

They get a new game every single year, which almost no other game but sports sims do. I know there’s a question about how much the new Xbox boss knows about games, but she’s not started yet. So who are all these dumbos that think you can just press a button and make games quicker? The Call Of Duty games always seem to be made in less than five years, when it really should be more, so what are you going to get if you rush it out even quicker?

No Zombies mode I guess is the answer, but somehow I don’t think that’s going to go down too well with players that are already fed up with the way the series is being run.
Bantor

MovieCentral
I know you guys are pretty busy just keeping up with games, but would you ever consider starting a TV show and film review section for games that have been adapted? I think a review coming from people that actually played the game would give a clearer review than some film student that never made it in the industry.

GameCentral is the only site I read for game reviews and 9 out of 10 times we are in agreement on scores, early God Of Wars being the exemption.
Bobwallett

GC: Thanks, we do usually do some kind of article on the big name ones but Metro already has its own dedicated film and TV reviews. And to be honest we haven’t been particularly interested by any live action video game adaptations.

You win some, you lose some
I’ve got to say thank you for your article on the Virtual Boy games that have popped up on the Nintendo Switch subscription.

I remember it being released almost out of nowhere back in the mid ‘90s.

I also remember the eye-watering cost of the device even after it was discontinued. Having said that, I always had a passing curiosity for the console. I’ve not yet committed to the Switch 2 and your article mentioned that I could still use my Nintendo Labo VR headset on my Switch 1 to play it. So, I got it out of my games room (yes, I have a man cave of stuff nobody wants).

I was not in the mood to wait weeks for the postman to drop it off to my house but as your article stated it would work fine with my Labo VR.

So I took the plunge, as it was a lot cheaper than buying the actual console itself.

Anyway, thank you, VR has always been the next best thing for gaming and that still rings true to this day.

Those games are over 30 years old and if truth be told, the 3D effect was pretty impressive, it’s just a shame it didn’t take off. In a gaming world where production companies will only back safe bets, I have to say kudos to Nintendo for trying to push the envelope.

Not every game is a hit but it’s definitely worth the try if you have the means.
freeway 77

Altering the deal
When I went on the Xbox app last week, to check my reward points towards a £10 Xbox gift card, it went down from 56% or 57% one day to the next day 53%. I thought there was a problem with my phone or Xy xbox account but then the penny dropped a few seconds later and I realised that the
amount of points you need to get £10 has gone up again.

I never saw an announcement for that on Twitter or anything.
Andrew J.

Single format
Firstly, my heart goes out to Bluepoint Games and the developers losing their jobs, a sad end to a proven great studio.

I’ve always found the discourse around Sony and PlayStation sort of fascinating, as summed up in the recent Reader’s Feature’s hot take. I recently upgraded to PlayStation 5, thanks to the pre-Christmas price cuts and I have to say the lack of first party, triple-A single-player games, and Sony’s ability to churn them out, isn’t something I think about when I’m playing Cyberpunk 2077 or Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

I don’t think the tens of millions on Roblox or Fortnite spend time wondering what Naughty Dog are doing either. I’m not sure why people feel great games only count if they’re exclusive? It seems a very old-fashioned idea given the current state of the industry where mega budget games need to be made as widely available as possible.

A lot of the discourse around consoles right now, between hardcore gamers, seems to assume everyone has a default PC to play games on, that sits in the corner like a washing machine or microwave, and these dedicated machines from Sony or Nintendo are added extras (the reader at the weekend owned a PlayStation 5, Switch 2 and PC – as if that is normal) when the reality for most people couldn’t be further from the truth.

The console is the only way they game, so any game ‘is exclusive’ since they only have one way of playing it and that’s the machine hooked up to the living room TV.

I think it would help everyone if us hyper-engaged gamer types realised the rest of the market isn’t like us, and most people only have one platform that plugs into the TV, and they don’t think about it until they turn it on to pour a few hours a week into whatever.
Marc

GC: The idea that games need to be made as widely available as possible to make a profit is primarily a narrative pushed by Microsoft. It’s certainly never been the case for Nintendo and Sony’s commitment to the PC is limited at best.

Inbox also-rans
Can I be the nerd and point out that Kitana was not in the first Mortal Kombat movie, which was based solely on the first game, so I’m not sure that music really fits (great performance, I loved it!).
Lumpy

I’m going to admit I have never seen or heard of Sarah Bond until this day. I don’t know what she used to do at Xbox but given the state of things at the moment I can only assume she wasn’t very good at it.
Busch

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: Is Phil Spencer going good news for Xbox?

MORE: Select Games Inbox: Why did Sony shut down Bluepoint Games?Games Inbox: Why did Sony shut down Bluepoint Games?

MORE: Games Inbox: Could memory shortages destroy the console industry?

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The delay of the next Xbox has affected Microsoft’s plans for Call Of Duty according to an insider, as it considers making Zombies a standalone title.

While neither Microsoft or Sony has announced release dates for their next gen consoles, they were expected in 2027 or 2028, until the worldwide RAM shortage put a spanner in the works.

Just recently, a report claimed Sony is considering pushing back the PlayStation 6’s launch to 2029 or later. It’s unclear if Microsoft will follow suit, but with Xbox Series X/S sales falling off a cliff, it has more reason to launch the next Xbox sooner rather than later.

Now, an insider has claimed that the next Xbox console *has* been impacted by delays, as it was originally going to come out later this year alongside Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4.

This comes from Call Of Duty insider TheGhostOfHope, who has leaked many accurate details about Call Of Duty games in the past. In a post on X, they claim the ‘delay on the next Xbox has ‘hurt’ a lot of COD’s marketing plans’ as Microsoft wanted ‘Modern Warfare 4 to be a launch title and draw a lot of hype to compete with people’s attention alongside GTA 6′.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, while not yet announced, is expected to be this year’s instalment. It’s rumoured to be set in Korea, and prior reports (also from TheGhostOfHope) claimed it was being developed for the next gen Xbox for 2026.

The reported delay of the next Xbox, however, has Microsoft considering other possibilities, according to the insider. ‘Because of this delay, the idea of two Call Of Duty games launching with the next Xbox has been floated,’ they wrote. ‘A traditional Call Of Duty multiplayer and a standalone Zombies title, presumably developed by Treyarch.

‘Likely similar to that of Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered where both released together.’

Additionally, they add: ‘Microsoft want Activision to be more agile and less attached to annualised releases in the future. The consensus is that a more quick and coherent product/development pipeline would have allowed them to cash in on the extraction shooter hype sooner with a DMZ update for example.’

In a follow-up post, TheGhostOfHope clarifies that Activision isn’t going to stop releasing Call Of Duty titles annually, but that ‘stuff like Zombies/DMZ could become paid standalone’ titles which get ‘multi-year support to stay in people’s minds’.

The idea of separating Zombies into a standalone package does make sense considering how content-packed Call Of Duty games are, but we’re not convinced many people will fork out cash to solely play Zombies – unless Microsoft goes the free-to-play approach like Warzone.

The other big question is whether this will impact the value proposition of mainline Call Of Duty titles if these modes are stripped out. A big selling point for Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7, and most previous games, is its breadth of modes despite the lack of evolution – so without that, people might expect more from the campaign and multiplayer portions.

If Microsoft is trying to synchronise the launch of its next gen console with Call Of Duty, it raises the question of what could be exclusive to Xbox, if anything, to attract players over from camp PlayStation.

Microsoft has said Call Of Duty games will remain on Sony’s console following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, but it’s possible that a standalone Zombies offering, or something else, could be exclusive to the next Xbox.

Whether any of this is true remains to be seen, but it’s likely whatever plans were in place have not only been changed by the memory shortages but also the sudden change in leadership at Xbox.

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