This week in video games, April 17, 2017: EA picks Nashville to win the Stanley Cup

This week, play a free demo of the upcoming sci-fi game Prey; play the complete Dark Souls III experience; and play on the new Razer Blade Pro laptop. But first, find out which hockey team the EA Sports NHL 17 sim predicts will win the Stanley Cup.

EA Sports predicts Stanley Cup for Nashville

The simulations created by EA Sports developers are built on a lot of science and statistics. So it's always interesting when the games run through simulated playoffs to predict a winner.

With the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs underway, the development team in Burnaby ran the simulation and are calling it for the Nashville Predators.

They get more specific than that, of course. The final series between the Predators and the Montreal Canadiens will, according to EA Sports, go seven games. 

Montreal will get to the Eastern final through the New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins, while the Toronto Maple Leafs lose to the Capitals in the first round.

In the Western Conference, the Edmonton Oilers, led by Connor McDavid (who will pick up 26 points in 20 playoff games), will get through to the western final, losing to Nashville in six games.

Prey demo coming next week

One of the most exciting games to be coming this spring is Prey, being developed by Arkane Studios, which recently gave us the sublime Dishonored 2.

In Prey, you play as a scientist on an interstellar research facility that gets taken over by aliens. The game releases on May 5 for PS4, Windows, and Xbox One, but you can play a free demo—the first hour of the game—on Thursday, April 27.

Complete Dark Souls III experience arrives this week

The final expansion for Dark Souls III, the brutally difficult adventure game from Bandai Namco, is The Ringed City, and it was released at the end of March.

On Friday (April 21), you can get Dark Souls III: The Fire Fades Edition for PS4 and Xbox One, which includes The Ringed City as well as the previous extra chapter, Ashes of Ariandel.

The new expansion includes new maps and new armour and weapons, as well as the ability to play with up to two other friends.

Razer nets THX accreditation for Razer Blade Pro laptop

Yeah, it's a laptop, but it's more powerful than most desktops. Razer is known for its high-end systems, and the new Razer Blade Pro is a premium laptop computer.

With an overclocked Intel Core i7 quad core processor and NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1080 GPU, the Blade Pro is powerful enough to run VR systems like the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift.

If you're using the screen, you won't be disappointed with the 17.3-inch, 4K display, which is highlighted by the Razer Chroma lighting effects that provide LED effects in the keyboard, around the trackpad, and in the ports.

All of this is packed into a chassis that is only .88 inches and eight pounds.

It's not cheap: the Razer Blade Pro starts at $5,800. Better start collecting that change hiding in your couch.

Releasing this week

Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series: The five-episode series is playable on almost all gaming devices, inlcuding mobile. Episode One is entitled "Tangled Up in Blue".