Top of the news for ya

Didn’t get your fill of the gaming news this week? Well, never fear, because we’re here to fill you in on the stories you’ve missed this week. With a lot of fighting game news, release date leaks, and new events, there’s quite a bit to peruse over this week.

Geralt of Rivia flirts his way into Soul Calibur

We’ve all been wondering who might be the out of place character in the latest instalment of Soul Calibur, and even though the surprise was ruined a couple of weeks ago, the confirmation that the Witcher Geralt of Rivia will be a new playable character in the upcoming Soul Calibur VI will nevertheless be this week’s big news story.

Not on;y will Geralt bring his much loved variety of swordplay, magic, and potions to the arena of souls, but he’ll also bring a new stage, set within the Kaer Morhen fortress, where two warriors enter – but only one leaves. We still don’t have any concrete release date yet for Soul Calibur VI, but we did learn a few things about what the game has in store for us.

Noctis gets set to Join the Iron Fist Tournament

Speaking of protagonists who want jump ship from loveable hero to faceless fighter, Final Fantasy XV’s Noctis is set to join Tekken 7 next week. Now, this isn’t really big news because we heard about months ago – but it’s still worth mentioning.

Unfortunately, it looks like the privilege to play as Noctis won’t come for free, with Polygon guessing that the price will be the same as Fatal Fury’s Geese, setting you back a further $8. Noctis’ character will be available for download from March 20/

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Release Date Confirmed

Perhaps the least surprising new of the week is the confirmed release date of upcoming Shadow of the Tomb Raider for September 14.

Square Enix’s trailer for the latest instalment of rebooted Lara Croft doesn’t give away too much, but it doesn’t seem too farfetched to assume an eclipse will play some part in the game – my money is on it being a spooky ancient curse.

Call of Duty Plans St. Patrick’s Day Event

Are you Irish? Do you care about St. Patrick’s day? No? Well, none of that matters, because Activision’s latest update – aptly named Shamrock & Awe – rewards every player regardless of their feelings towards St. Patrick’s Day.

Offering up new Irish themed gun skins, double XP until April 19, and a new game mode called The Leprachaun Hun Moshpit, the latest COD WW2 update is surely worth a go for players.

And Finally… Twitch breaks records for Drake

It’s sometimes tough to tell which game is dominanting the scene at some point – and sometimes it isn’t. So, when Drake and Ninja (whether or not this is a specific or general Ninja is not yet known) managed to break the Twitch record for views when they played Fortnite, we learnt two things: one, people like Drake and ninjas, and people bloody love Fortnite.

The stream managed to attract 635,000 players at its peak according to Polygon, with streamer Ninja unsurprisingly picking up a fair amount of new subscribers during the stream. If you missed the live show you can watch the entire thing below.

Watch Squads with Drake, Travis and JuJu you heard me. | @Ninja on Twitter and Instagram from Ninja on www.twitch.tv