Role-playing epic Final Fantasy VII Remake is an ambitious revisiting of one of the most beloved titles in video game history.

On Thursday night, popular video game Fortnite hosted rapper Travis Scott as part of the Astronomical musical experience.

Sony announced it will release The Last of Us Part II in June after development studio Naughty Dog confirmed parts of the game were leaked online.

Microsoft plans to release its new Xbox Series X video game console for the 2020 holiday season. On May 7, we will get a look at games in the works.

Coronavirus lockdowns and extended social distancing has more people playing video games to stay connected and pass the time.

From love triangles to the bond between mothers and daughters, performers step into the relationships minefield

• Hottest front-room seats: the best theatre and dance online

The beady-eyed character of Iseult Golden’s monologue could be an Alan Bennett creation: steely and unsentimental, she speaks her mind smartingly in a video message to her daughter who refuses to talk to her. Her tone is spiky at first but Marion O’Dwyer’s wry, understated delivery gives the drama a quietly pained depth. Part of the Abbey theatre’s monumental series Dear Ireland, it captures the bristling complexities of love between mothers and daughters in eight bittersweet minutes.

Handing out contracts out to firms like Serco and G4S is now second nature to those in power. We need to rebuild state capacity

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The coronavirus pandemic has revealed a lot about British society – the fragility of the economy, the insecure situation so many workers find themselves in – but it has also shone a light on the state itself. Many comparisons have been made between the current mobilisation of state resources and the second world war. But while that crisis involved a ramping up of public sector capacity, this one is being managed by a state that believes itself to be utterly dependent on the private sector.

First, there are the outsourcing giants, shadowy corporations who have been handed numerous contracts over the past 20 years. Matt Hancock has put Serco in charge of the phonelines for contact tracing, a vital part of the government’s public health strategy. This is a company that mismanaged data at a GP surgery, and failed to train staff properly for a breast cancer hotline service. Along with G4S, it claimed money from the government for tracking prisoners who were later found to be dead.

Despite everything, the Tory party is sticking to the ideology of the free market, rather than saving lives and jobs

“How on earth did it come to this?” Keir Starmer’s question could skewer Boris Johnson at every PMQs from now on. It encompasses all the damage the government did in the last decade, as well as all it has failed to do to protect the country from Covid-19. The list of derelictions in the early stage of the crisis is long, the testing and the protective equipment still shamefully inadequate. Have lessons been learned? The auguries are not good.

Related: Picnics and sunbathing on cards as PM expected to allow more time outside

Coronavirus is much more likely to claim the lives of black people than white. Socio-economic factors are a significant contributor

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A universal experience is highlighting the sharp divides in our society. Few are as stark and shocking as those revealed by Thursday’s news that black people in England and Wales are more than four times as likely to die from Covid-19 as white people. Bangladeshi and Pakistani people were about three and a half times more likely, and those of Indian origin two and a half times as likely, the Office for National Statistics reported.

The disproportionately high toll of BAME people was already evident, notably among medical staff: a review of just over a hundred NHS staff who died found that almost two-thirds were black or Asian, though those groups account for less than one in seven workers in the health service. It is all the more striking, given that age is one of the biggest risk factors and the over-65s comprise only one in 20 of the BAME population, compared with almost one in five of the white population.

Clarity on lifting Covid-19 rules needed, from increasing time outdoors to schools returning

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Boris Johnson will address the nation on Sunday to set out a road map for how England might leave the Covid-19 lockdown. Any immediate changes have been billed as modest and incremental, but people are expecting more details on how life could differ over the next few weeks. Here are the questions the prime minister needs to answer:

The government must be cautious in both the decisions it takes and the messages it sends

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The end is not in sight. With an estimated 20,000 new infections a day, and with experts warning that the reproduction rate of coronavirus may be rising again, any premature loosening of the lockdown will only prolong the crisis. When the prime minister speaks on Sunday evening, it is essential that he makes it clear that people should still be staying at home, not relaxing their guard.

Though so many other countries had been hit, the government did not act soon enough to either contain the threat or prepare for it. Those failures have made a longer and tougher lockdown necessary. It was slow to take the pandemic seriously, slow to impose stringent social distancing, and slow to pursue equipment, testing and tracing, as the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, noted this week.

The Guardian’s data journalists in the UK, US and Australia explain how they have shone a light on the statistical narrative behind the pandemic, and what they have helped to reveal

It was intended as an interim measure to protect people during the pandemic, but now that doctors across Canada have embraced virtual care, some clinicians and patients would like to see it continue.

The once mighty northern cod stocks' growth is stalled according to DFO science. Ecosystem conditions including a lack of food are contributing factors. Fish harvesters say in the bigger picture though, the numbers are moving in the right direction.

A small Alberta town’s attempt to discourage geese from too getting comfortable there took flight about six weeks ago, but it’s getting mixed reviews and ruffling some feathers.

A U of S researcher says there is no evidence that COVID-19 jumped to humans from bats.

A small flock of shorebirds contaminated with oil after touching down on a northern Alberta tailings pond is expected to be released back into the wild within a week.

WeChat is one of the world’s most popular apps, but researchers at the University of Toronto caution it is surveilling international users and using their information to broaden censorship on the app in China.

Health experts agree contact tracing is a key measure to contain a pandemic. But is the answer a contact tracing app?

Sidewalk Labs, a Google-affiliated company, is abandoning its plan to build a high-tech neighbourhood on Toronto’s waterfront, citing what it calls unprecedented economic uncertainty.

For the second year in a row, the Government of Canada is enacting restrictions to help protect the southern resident killer whale population.

Whale and iceberg season has come early, but the local tourism industry has been forced to press pause.

Quebec provincial police are investigating whether at least two cellphone tower fires north of Montreal could be linked to conspiracy theories that 5G wireless technology caused the coronavirus pandemic.

In this week's issue of our environment newsletter, we look at the sustainability of different types of face masks and how orphan oil and gas wells in Alberta could be converted into green energy projects.

'Weekend Update' among segments returning

Presenter reveals homemade remedy that helped him through

TV star's also claimed to have fed a peacock he killed to his pets

Handful of stars will be interviewed live from their living rooms

The 'Saturday Night Live' alumni virtually reunited on Fallon's chat show

'If I'm not acting, I'm not sure who I am,' the True Blood star said

The tone of this half-hour comedy is part odd-couple, part hipster satire and part gross-out – but it stops short of taking any risks

Coronavirus pandemic has caused production shutdowns and delays

Show's expert called it 'by far the most expensive thing [he's] ever seen in 25 years'

'This has made the lockdown worthwhile'

'I'm not going to just abandon him when he needs support'

'Watching everyone's reaction to Joe Exotic was far better than the series itself,' one viewer wrote

'I'm very hurt and angry that she had to go through all that pain alone'

Actos said he's 'been more like America's dad than ever before​' following diagnosis

No one held back when asked about the controversial figure

It features many faces from the hit documentary

Zoo owner also accuses Netflix of sensationalising' story to make him 'villain' in new aftershow

He called Exotic 'unbelievably cruel'

She accused hit Netflix show of 'betrayal' in first interview since it began

Cowie doesn't hold back in aftershow that's just been released on Netflix

'The man's done a lot of stupid s***'

'I'll make you a rich man if you kill Carole'

New head writer Suzanne Heathcote's zombie-writing experience might come in handy. Where 'Killing Eve' had a vitality, it now feels tired to the point of lifelessness

Saturday's instalment of 'SNL at home' brilliantly acknowledged the gravity of our times while poking fun at quarantine culture

Webb's drinking had exacerbated an undiagnosed heart murmur

This article contains major spoilers for the first episode of 'Killing Eve' series three