There's a lot of pressure bearing down upon Senua's weary shoulders. Ninja Theory announced a new saga at the Xbox Games Showcase, a premium action-adventure that's set to release in 2027. The decision to sacrifice the Hellblade moniker is an interesting one. It's perhaps a signal that Senua has outgrown her own origins, or that the franchise itself has gathered too much baggage.

Hellblade is known for its intimate storytelling, introspective action, and stunning production values. It's also become synonymous with a certain style of play – cinematic to a fault, sometimes puzzling and ponderous. Speaking with Xbox Wire, Ninja Theory studio head Dom Matthews said that he spent a lot of time exploring the reaction to Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 before his team embarked on its next adventure.

"The resounding feedback, frankly, was that people loved the presentation, the story, the tone, and the atmosphere that we achieved, but they’d just love to be able to engage with Senua at a deeper level, with more gameplay, with more agency."

This introspection has caused Ninja Theory to change the way that it likes to work. Rather than silo small teams across different projects, Matthews has pulled the entire group onto development of Senua – it's the first time a production has been approached this way since 2013's DmC: Devil May Cry. That's been necessary to widen the complexity and fluidity of combat, traversal, and puzzle-solving.

Senua is aiming to be a more rounded package, one shaped by myth and madness as the celtic warrior fights through a fractured vision of purgatory. To reach the afterlife, you'll need to contend with larger groups of enemies and denser playspaces than the series has dared to attempt in the past. "It’s all about taking Senua’s combat and liberating it, so players can really express themselves a lot more."

Say what you will about the combat in Hellblade and its sequel, but I always appreciated its ferocity. The challenge now is retaining that weight whilst increasing Senua's mobility. The combat set has been deepened as Senua faces off against multiple enemies, all occupying space on various verticalities. You'll acquire weapons from slayed monsters, such as short axes which can be thrown, or combine Senua's primary sword with something like a flaming torch for slick dual-wield action. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I was this excited to fight manifestations of destruction, fear, and pain.

It's clear from my first look at Senua that this isn't Ninja Theory returning to its combat-action game roots but I do get the sense that this will be a more balanced action-adventure experience – one that recalls the studio's fine work on Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. The speed in which she's able to traverse environments is clearly increased, and more dynamic too – and I'm not just referring to widened exploration as Senua clambers up and around mountaintops.

Another deft decision sees Ninja Theory resist the impulse to head into open world territories. Senua may feature a map that's twice the size of Hellblade 2, but it's still ostensibly a structured narrative across a larger, wider world. Matthews says that rewarding exploration is a key focus for the team, but that the game is ostensibly a "linear story told through a map built of interconnected locations."

Ninja Theory has always been a leader within Xbox Game Studios with its animation quality, leveraging a world-class motion capture setup at the heart of its headquarters, and there's a sublime quality to the slickness in which Senua is able to channel fluid sword attacks into sharp dashes, blocks, and parries. Feed in an array of special Focus Abilities, and we're looking at something that's ambitious in a different way to anything the studio has released in the eight years since its acquisition.

Senua's Saga

I mention the acquisition, only because I do get the uneasy sense that Senua could be a make or break moment for Ninja Theory. While there's no doubt that production timelines were disrupted by COVID-19, and that the studio has been given leeway to advance its technology and pursue internal experiments like Project Mara, the truth is that it has only shipped two games as a part of Xbox Game Studios – the ill-fated Bleeding Edge (2020) and divisive Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 (2024).

Ninja Theory brings prestige to the XGS portfolio. It's a beloved studio that's stacked with talent, a group wielding cutting-edge technology to create standout experiences. I do worry that this isn't enough in the current environment, at a time where new CEO Asha Sharma is signaling both a renewed focus on Xbox's 'industry-defining franchises' and a need to execute an internal restructure.

"We expanded our studio system when we needed a pipeline of content to meet multiple strategies across subscription, streaming, and devices," says Sharma. "In the process, we have found ourselves over extended as we executed on changing strategies in a landscape of more readily available content."

What does this sort of rhetoric ultimately mean for Ninja Theory and Senua's latest saga? It's natural that there's some fear here, given the fate of studios like Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks. It's impossible to know for certain of course, but it's difficult to ignore the nagging sense that the decision to realign this character with a more broadly approachable action-adventure frame comes at a critical time for the studio.

Senua is set to release in 2027 as a key upcoming Xbox Series X game. It won't, however, be a console exclusive – and is expected to launch on PC and PS5. For more on the key new games of 2026 and beyond from Xbox, be sure to check out our Summer Games Preview.

I thought I needed a break from action-RPGs. I've been a massive fan of crawling dungeons, hoovering up loot, and clicking enemies into oblivion ever since I discovered Diablo as a kid – the terrifying cover art is still seared into my memory to this very day. But after sinking countless hours into Diablo 4 and its expansions, Path of Exile 2 and its (frankly ridiculous) skill tree, and plenty more indie hits besides, I was ready to give myself some time away from the genre.

And then Minecraft Dungeons 2 came along. Listen, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that the spin-off is as densely populated, visually rich, or challenge oriented as the mass of video games that have gone after the genre crown in the last five years, but there's something delightfully refreshing about Mojang's approach. It's every bit a relaxing introduction to dungeon crawlers, as it is for experienced players to share their love of ARPGs with a new generation of players.

Supporting up-to four player co-op, in both couch and online compositions, there's an ease in which Minecraft Dungeons 2 introduces its action. Familiar mobs from the vanilla Minecraft experience swarm as you beat and bash your way through the horde; loot pours from enemies as they explode off the screen, with dungeons carefully lit for maximum awe as Mojang pours more focus than ever before into making blocky spaces worth exploring.

Exploration is a key focus for Minecraft Dungeons 2, with the sequel earning itself an interconnected overworld that's full of collectibles and hidden talismans to uncover – a new type of item with unique capabilities, scaling once equipped in tandem with your levelling to produce more power and panache. Creative director Måns Olson tells me that Mojang is "purposefully not calling it an open world" although is quick to highlight a richer playspace with more room to dive into the depths of dungeons.

Speaking of dungeons, Mojang has answered your calls for more varied biomes. Minecraft Dungeons 2 will finally let you venture into the Deep Dark, complete with mobs that are unique to the playspace. One such enemy is the Twisted Warden, a towering boss that requires all four fighters to work together in tandem to take it down. I should note that this battle revealed one aspect that Mojang hasn't been able to solve between Minecraft Dungeons and its sequel: It's still exceptionally difficult to track your character in battle once the going gets a little chaotic.

That's also true while traversing the dungeons themselves, particularly as the studio has introduced the ability to jump this time around. In combat, this means you now get a unique jump attack which plays off of the weapon-type you have equipped (enhanced further by certain rarity buffs), although in exploration it means you'll get some light platforming sections with distances that are tough to judge.

Small frustrations with character-tracking and pathfinding aside, there's plenty of neat quality-of-life improvements. Armor is now split across head, chest, legs, and arms as Mojang tries to bring Minecraft Dungeons 2 a little closer to the core Minecraft experience, while the introduction of a mini-inventory system feels like a real game changer. You can now press 'up' on the D-Pad to adjust your weapons, swap in new weapons, and mess around with items actively in-game, rather than pulling everybody into the pause menu. It's a nice touch, one that makes Minecraft Dungeons 2 feel more responsive.

Into the Depths

Minecraft Dungeons 2 is a real breath of fresh air. ARPGs have embraced complexity in the modern era, which is delightful – if you have the time to tumble down wiki rabbit holes and assess every minute details of the hundreds of items which fill your inventory. MD2 feels like the sort of title which has a pick-up-and-play simplicity that's missing in the market, even as design director Laura de Llorens stresses that you can make life more complicated if you want to. "We don't have set classes, but you can combine different items to create your own and make your own playstyle. So you'll be able to do plenty of min-maxing here, if that's what you like to engage in."

With a contiguous, interconnected world that's full of dungeons to delve into, a more responsive and layered combat system, widened opportunities to customize your character, and a visual experience with truly vibrant fidelity, it should come as no surprise that I'm pretty keen to dive into the game proper on September 29, 2026 – that's when Minecraft Dungeons 2 releases for PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X.

If there's any room for improvement, it's going to be in the way that Mojang identifies and tracks your character on screen, but with months to go until launch there's still time to refine its pathfinding systems. But if nothing else, it speaks volumes that I'm considering diving back into another ARPG right now after Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred decimated another 20 precious hours. Bring it on, Mojang.

Minecraft Dungeons 2 is set to release on September 29, 2026. It's a key upcoming Xbox Series X game, although it's also set to launch for PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2. You can learn more about the new Mojang game this week as part of the GamesRadar+ Summer Preview.

Gears of War: E-Day is the video game I have been waiting 10 years for The Coalition to create. It's hard to believe that the series has already been under the stewardship of this studio for a decade, following Epic Games' decision to sell the intellectual property to Xbox in 2014. But you know what they say, time flies when you're dragging a Chainsaw Bayonet through mutating flesh and malfunctioning circuitry.

In that time The Coalition has become a technical powerhouse, has led the Xbox Game Studios transition to Unreal Engine 5, and delivered some pretty entertaining third-person shooters too. Gears of War 4 was a faithful continuation, and Gears 5 a pretty bold experiment in stretching solid foundations across more open-ended environments. I'm a fan, but there have been missteps.

The Swarm never clicked as a forbiddable force that could rival the Locust, and the DeeBees exposed Gears of War's need for ultra-violence to truly sing. Naturally, the introduction of exploration, wider playspaces, and RPG-lite systems in Gears 5 divided the playerbase. And so The Coalition is doing what I always hoped it would – channeling its reverence for the franchise into making the familiar feel fresh again, all while taking us back to the earliest adventures of Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago.

That's what we're getting in Gears of War: E-Day. It's a shooter that wants to honor the legacy of what Gears of War achieved in 2006, all while developing an experience that feels fighting fit as a new game for 2026. Did it take the divisive nature of Gears 5 to push The Coalition in the direction it should arguably have taken right from the outset? The studio has a different perspective.

"We didn't make E-Day as a reaction to Gears 5," says Nicole Fawcette, with the studio brand director stressing she doesn't agree with commentary that suggests The Coalition strayed too far from the Gears formula in 2019. "We're making E-Day because we had an opportunity to make what we wanted to make. We wanted to take on Emergence Day, and to have players rediscover Marcus and Dom, as we made the pivot to a new engine. That's what we wanted to do, and it's exactly what we have done."

Back to the Beginning

Creative director Matt Searcy tells me that "E-day is a return to Gears of War's roots" and an attempt to recapture the vibes of the original trilogy. "The best way we could think to do that was to go back to Sera at its darkest hour: the day the Locust came out of the ground." Emergence Day is an untold story that's long been at the heart of the Gears of War universe, where a populace already beaten down by the Pendulum Wars is brought to its knees as cities crumble and civilization collapses. Searcy adds: "It's such a great place to reimagine the tone of what we think makes Gears great."

Vicious monsters, unbridled brutality, towering architecture, and layered playspaces littered with waist-high debris. Gears of War: E-Day is set entirely in the city of Kalona, following Bravo Squad across three days as it attempts to battle the Locust Horde back to hell. "We put you right into the chaos of E-Day – in the beginning there's no soldiers around, only people getting torn apart by Wretches. You'll experience the moment Marcus and Dom first pick up guns, pulling Snubs out of the trunk of an abandoned police car, before setting off into the city where all hell is breaking loose," says Searcy.

"We believe that Gears plays best in a city," adds art director Aryan Hanbeck, "and that Kalona is the ultimate battlefield." Hanbeck points to the more linear structure and consistent playspace as a big point of difference between E-Day and its predecessor. "Gears 5 was more of a globetrotting adventure, you went from desert to forest and so on. A big way that E-Day differs from Gears 5 (and other Gears games) is that this entire game is set in one location."

"This isn't an open-world game," says Searcy. "Something we learned from Gears 5 is that going out on vehicles doesn't mesh perfectly with Gears, and that the freedom to choose your mission and what you're doing doesn't vibe with Gears either." Searcy tells me that The Coalition is pushing for a tighter alignment between claustrophobic missions and larger combat arenas. "We have very classic mission design – especially on that first night, where you're fighting back-and-forth in the streets – and there are parts of the game where you get these larger arenas, where multiple city blocks open up to you."

These larger missions are described to me as being akin to Black Hawk Dawn. Where "you're on a single mission, you know where your objective is, but how you get there is up to you," says Searcy, who notes that you'll have opportunities to delve deeper into the carnage of the day by assisting civilians and other soldiers if you want to. That's all a part of The Coalition's attempt to channel more player choice into E-Day, something the studio wanted to retain from Gears 5.

"One thing that we learned from Gears 5 is that if we want to give players more choice, and to still feel natural to what Gears is, then we need to do it differently to just giving you a vehicle in an open world. I think Gears 5 was really cool, but if we wanted to hit that core Gears DNA we had to increase the density. We had to make every street corner a combat opportunity," he says.

I've seen more of Gears of War: E-Day than what was shown in the Xbox Games Showcase, and I'm mesmerised by what The Coalition is delivering here. The visual fidelity is out of this world, with E-Day positioning itself as a true late-gen system showcase for the Xbox Series X; Kalona seeming like the perfect playground for Gears' heavy combat, with more fluid movement and vertical playspaces only helping to advance the idea that The Coalition has higher aspirations than ever before.

Starting From Scratch

Putting The Matrix Awakens tech demo and Gears Reloaded remastering experiment to one side, Gears of War: E-Day is the first title from The Coalition to be built natively in Unreal Engine 5. This has given the studio cover to do what it should have done in 2014: rip up the foundations of the franchise in an effort to refine and innovate the mechanics and systems so central to the way that Gears plays.

"We started with an empty hard drive," says Searcy. There are no ported assets in E-Day. Every animation, sound, mechanic, and system has been rebuilt from scratch. We have built a game that feels like Gears but plays like new. Many of us have worked on Gears for over a decade; we know how the cover system works intimately, we understand the importance of it and have built the game around the same pillars that defined the original trilogy, but we approached E-Day like a new game built for 2026."

If there was any fear that Gears of War: E-Day would be a continuation of Gears 5 – albeit with a tighter focus – this dedication to starting afresh should put them to bed. E-Days will play quite unlike any Gears of War game before it, as The Coalition makes some much needed quality-of-life improvements to the way that you shift your weight around these utterly gorgeous combat arenas. "Kalona – with its dense, tight streets and more open spaces – let us rethink how a Gear moves through the world," says Searcy.

"We've completely rebuilt our cover and movement systems, with smoother transitions and a bigger range of cover heights and shapes," he adds. "Our soldiers are basically giant tanks in armor, they slam into cars while weaving through hails of bullets. We wanted to keep that heaviness, but add more fluidity with how you move through the battlefield." Gears of War: E-Day is making fundamental changes as it introduces denser playspaces. You can now dive into low cover and mantle into more vertical positions, introducing more tactical variety to play; the sprint camera no longer pulls into your shoulder, giving more awareness of the world around you, and E-Day will finally let you slide under and into cover for more fluid, kinetic encounters.

The Coalition isn't making changes on the margins for Gears of War: E-Day. It's engineering a series revival that can channel the spirit of the first adventure and still push for genuine evolution of the systems that defined a genre for 20 years. That's why E-Day has been chosen by Xbox Game Studios to lead the return to console exclusivity – a statement of intent that can remind the world of why Xbox was a platform that shouldn't, couldn't be ignored. "We couldn't be more excited to be an Xbox exclusive," Searcy tells me. "Gears and Xbox have been tied so tightly for 20 years now, and it's an honor and a privilege to be seen as a flagship title in this way."

Gears of War: E-Day is coming to PC and Xbox Series X on October 6, 2026. The latest game from The Coalition is one of the key upcoming Xbox games and we'll have more insights to share as part of our Summer Games Preview this week.

Final Fantasy Resonance makes a striking impression. While Square Enix, and specifically the internal division Team Asano, have been making some excellently modernized takes on retro-styled RPGs for some time across the likes of Octopath Traveler and Dragon Quest, the publisher's premier series, Final Fantasy, has always been left out. Until now. That immediately puts a whole lot of weight behind Final Fantasy Resonance as a project, and as a huge fan of the classics – Final Fantasy 4 'til I die – it was an electric reveal at the recent Nintendo Direct.

That is, until the trailer revealed it'd play host to a litany of returning characters from previous Final Fantasy games, which sounds an awful lot like the grindy, gacha-hungry Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. That makes sense because, well, it is. Looking more closely, Final Fantasy Resonance adapts that mobile game's first story arc. Ah. Generally, I'm happy for mobile games to shed their on-the-go, often-money-hungry trappings, but it's deflating that the RPG series' first true foray into the HD-2D treatment, from Team Asano no less, has to work within the confines of Brave Exvius rather than being an original undertaking.

Swipe left, or right?

As a series fan, I've put my fair share of time into some of the franchise's many mobile games – in particular Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis, and the long-defunct Mobius Final Fantasy. I've never come out of the end feeling particularly good about myself, suffering through long, drawn out storylines with staccato, weightless gameplay, juggling the pros and cons of a multitude of live service, lootbox-esque, gacha spins. Yes, I did have Ariana Grande in my party. No, I'm not proud of it.

OK, fair complaints. We've all slipped into live service stupor at one time or another. At any moment, I'm primed to slip back into something like Honkai Star Rail. But then, surely Final Fantasy Resonance, which is "far from just a direct port" and has "been refined and extensively rebuilt as a full-fledged console-quality RPG experience" should be exactly what I want to fix my problems with Brave Exvius, right? On paper, that's correct – I did spend a lot of time playing Brave Exvius wishing it would just let me get on with the story, and that it could have properly designed RPG battles that don't just lean on power scaling and flashy pixel effects.

The problem is that I still feel burned by the experience all this time later. And it's compounded across the other mobile games too. I feel a bit of a sting when I remember all the time I put into Mobius Final Fantasy is lost. When I remember that an interesting dive into the Final Fantasy 7 backstory is locked behind dull-as-a-badly-kept-Buster-Sword battles in Ever Crisis. My respect for a project that aims to salvage and reimagine Brave Exvius butts with my desire to simply see a brand new retro-styled Final Fantasy, and the bad memories have me wondering about the capacity Brave Exvius has to delight given how bogged down in being a mobile game I remember it being.

Don't get me wrong, I really like Final Fantasy's capacity to change and evolve as the RPG series has become more modern. But, as someone who also loves to dip back into old school RPGs to grind levels, weep against unfair bosses, and explore vast worlds that would simply be impractical to develop to a modern fidelity – there's something truly special about the first six Final Fantasy games. The idea of taking modern design principles back into that framework is tantalizing (and I'd say the same if they made one in PS1 style too). I worry Final Fantasy Resonance's big first swing into FF doing something legacy facing that isn't a simple spin-off could be wasted on adapting Brave Exvius.

Yes, I am a bit grumpy. My time with Square Enix's mobile games have given me reason to be. Except… There is one glimmer of hope left, and it comes from another RPG series: Octopath Traveler 0. Released just last year, this is another HD-2D RPG that Team Asono worked on, and it's phenomenal. I've still not finished it, but I've been treasuring melting into its world when I get the time, and I can see why we called it "the strongest entry in this retro-styled JRPG series yet" in our Octopath Traveler 0 review.

Like Final Fantasy Resonance, it's also an adaptation of a mobile game – Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. That mobile game got a middling reception. I didn't even know it existed until the redo was announced. While I'd still prefer a fresh take on a retro-styte Final Fantasy, maybe a part of me is just too close to Brave Exvius to feel completely at ease with the idea of Final Fantasy Resonance until I see more. But, thanks to Octopath Traveler 0, I'm willing to give it a chance – maybe it'll resonate with me after all.

Check out our best Final Fantasy games list for more adventures while you wait!

Back in 2003, FOX aired the first season of Arrested Development, featuring Will Arnett as Gob Bluth, a member of The Alliance of Magicians. While Gob was relatively normal (looking, at least), the rest were dressed like absolute freaks, which contrasted wildly with their slogan: "We Demand To Be Taken Seriously." It's a motto that, without irony, often spills out into superhero fandom, and has played out with fans of DC's Snyder-verse, which took a dead serious, mythological approach to the comic book heroes.

Shockingly, while many likely expected James Gunn's rebooted DCU to go in the other direction, with rare exceptions it's been more extreme, more violent, and far more sexual than the previous iteration, catering to an aging fanbase that craves what they perceive to be the trappings of adulthood while grasping desperately at the last vestiges of their childhood. The antidote to this disparity between source material and fan desires? My Adventures With Superman, which returns for its third season on Adult Swim and HBO Max, and shows exactly what all of James Gunn's DCU should be; yet decidedly is not.

First airing in 2023, My Adventures With Superman stars Jack Quaid as Clark Kent/Superman, initially introduced as an intern at the Daily Planet. Along with fellow interns Lois Lane (Alice Lee) and Jimmy Olsen (Ishmel Sahid), the Shonen anime-inspired series rebuilds the Superman mythos from the ground up (where else can you find Chris Parnell as a dangerously sexy Deathstroke?), expertly mixing heart and humor with big action sequences, reinvented villains and origins, and even new powers for Superman that draw heavily from Eastern comics and animation instead of Western. The result is something that feels fresh, new, and decidedly modern, while not ignoring the core of what has made Superman one of the most popular and recognizable characters in the world since 1938.

It's on, like Krypton

To loop this back to the Alliance of Magicians, there's a reason this show airs at Midnight during Adult Swim's Toonami block… It doesn't take itself seriously, featuring wall-to-wall jokes ranging from recurring audio cues (every time Jimmy says the name of his startup news app Flamebird, a bird cry is heard in the distance) alongside deeply felt twists and epic action beats as Clark discovers his darker-than-in-the-comics origins. My Adventures With Superman knows how to be both silly and earnest, often in the same scene; and the whiplash of tones works because of how well modulated the scripts are, and how razor-focused they are on the main trio of characters – now a quartet in season 3, thanks to the addition of Kara Zor-El (Kiana Madeira).

Contrast that with Superman on the big screen from James Gunn, a hyperkinetic ode to Silver Age comics that has its charms, but also features oddly modulated commentary on the modern world alongside superheroes gleefully murdering people. Or to talk about an upcoming release, how about the My Adventures With Superman version of Supergirl, who spent most of her life brainwashed and corrupted by Brainiac (Michael Emerson) and now spends season 4 obsessed with hot dogs and dating, singing and dancing, and still brings a mean punch. Meanwhile, the big screen version of Supergirl played by Milly Alcock is a drunken mess who – spoilers for the book by Tom King and Bilquis Evely – goes on a mission of revenge after Krypto the Superdog gets shot with a poisoned arrow and seems likely to die. Hot dogs or dead dogs… Which would you rather watch?

In fact, to dig deeper into Gunn's DCU, most of it is for the "We Demand To Be Taken Seriously" fans to the exclusion of nearly anyone else. The Suicide Squad featured sex scenes, profanity, and massive amounts of violence. Creature Commandos highlighted nude, animated monster sex. This fall brings Clayface, a likely R-rated body horror movie. Lanterns is on HBO, and while we don't know the exact content yet, it is intended to be True Detective with superheroes; i.e. dark, twisted, and potentially also full of nudity and sex. And Peacemaker? Full frontal nudity and orgies, alongside wall-to-wall profanity and graphic violence.

Blue world order

None of this is an aspersion on the quality of Gunn's productions – and for a point of clarity, My Adventures With Superman is also produced by Gunn's DC Studios, so it's not like he's in a battle for control of the future of DC superheroes with a rogue animated series or anything. But the carefully curated nature of the DCU that has Gunn not producing any scripts before they're 100% done, while laudable, has front-loaded the rebooted franchise with fare almost exclusively appropriate for adults that does not open the door for new fans, or those who are superhero-curious. Superman came the closest, but any DCU follow-ups – with Supergirl potentially included – aren't appealing to the same crowd.

My Adventures With Superman, technically classified as an "Elseworlds," so not connected in any way to the live-action shows and films (or Creature Commandos and the upcoming, also likely extremely adult, based on the source material Mister Miracle), lays out the welcome mat that the DCU eschews. It feels exceedingly dumb to say, "hey did you know anime is popular," but it is, and taking the characters of Superman and his amazing pals to where the non-aging audience lives means these stories can continue for another generation, and perhaps more.

Add in the upcoming My Adventures With Green Lantern spinoff – another direct contrast with the blunt instrument of Nathan Fillion's bowl-cut Guy Gardner, and the adult shenanigans of Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) on Lanterns – and you have a path forward that Gunn should have taken, but instead he walked backwards.

It's not too late, though, for Gunn to look at the approach My Adventures With Superman has pioneered and adapt that for the big and small screen of the DCU. And all it would take is for Gunn to embrace another Gob Bluth catchphrase: "I've made a huge mistake."

My Adventures with Superman season 3 is streaming now on HBO Max. For more, here's everything still to come in DCU: Chapter One, or here's our rundown of the best anime to watch in 2026.

I've been an on-and-off Pokemon card collector for 13 years now, and while I've always enjoyed the collection aspect, there's no doubt that the hobby has... shifted slightly in the last few years. However, with a new goal and mindset, I'm now having more fun with it than ever before, and I'm once again feeling the magic for one of the best card games after the prominence of resellers killed my enthusiasm.

In the Pokemon trading card game (TCG) space, it's a universal experience to want to collect the rarest cards – not much beats the thrill of seeing something cool and sparkly at the back of a pack – but since around 2020, for many people, it's become less about the cards, and more about their value. It's extremely rare we see new TCG sets release these days without being immediately resold to oblivion at launch and beyond, with folks buying as much stock as possible to either resell it sealed, or rip open the packs to resell the hits, all at ridiculously inflated prices. Look, I think Ascended Heroes's Mega Gengar secret illustration rare is as cool as the next person, but you can't tell me that a new card that's still being printed could possibly be truly worth over $3,000.

You now see this monetary-focused mentality in a lot of TCG content, even if it's not from resellers. There's nothing inherently sinister about it, but content creators listing the value of all the cards they pull drives the normalization of the idea that the potential resale value is the most important aspect of collecting, and more money equals a better pull.

I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with this if that's how you enjoy the hobby most, but for me, it's honestly sucked a lot of the joy out of it. I mean, for a start, the level of reselling means it's not all that often you even see packs in stores at regular prices, and as a casual collector, I'm definitely not about to start paying triple or more for them.

Beauty in bulk

Simply, I realized I'm not cut out for how many people seem to be engaging with TCG these days, so I needed to find a different way to enjoy the hobby. Well, what better way than appreciating my stacks of bulk?

Bulk – the common, non-hits that make up the majority of the cards you'll get in a pack – aren't usually worth much. They're the ones listed as being worth pennies on those aforementioned videos, and many hit-chasers skip over them entirely just to look at the last few cards to see if they got anything rare. Anyone who's opened packs over the years will inevitably have a lot, and looking at mine, a thought crossed my mind – how much of the complete Pokedex might I have collected over the years? How many more would I need to get to complete a full (and enormous) Pokedex binder?

I'm not the first to have this idea, of course, but as soon as I set about figuring out how many Pokemon I had, I was already looking at my collection in a whole new light. Obviously, there are multiple different cards for every Pokemon, but I decided it made sense to make my Dex as personal as possible by picking only my favourite artwork for each one. It makes for an eclectic mix of cards, and it's somewhat odd to see a common from Plasma Blast alongside one from Perfect Order, but that didn't matter – I was assembling a collage of favorites, built on years of love for the franchise.

As for what I had already, well, I'm certainly not close to done. While I have a significant amount of the Kanto, Hoenn, and Unova 'mons, overall I'm only around a third of the way there. But honestly? I'm glad this is the case.

That's because it's already affecting the way I think about my new cards as I open them. I recently did my first opening of the latest TCG set, Chaos Rising, and my new goal gave me a surprising chase card.

Stunky is one of my favorite Pokemon. I think real-life skunks are adorable, and as someone who grew up with Pokemon Pearl and Platinum, the existence of the little Diamond-exclusive Poison-type was flaunted in my face for years, despite me never being able to use one. I was thrilled to finally play Diamond in my adulthood and put a Stunky on my team, and I've had a soft spot for it ever since.

A new goal

Alas, there are not many Stunky cards. Up to now, nine existed, and none from sets I'd opened. But looking through the card list for Chaos Rising, I saw something – my beloved skunk was a common card, and not only that, this one had the cutest art out of all the previous Stunky cards that have ever existed.

Needless to say, I had a goal. Looking at the illustration and secret illustration rares in the set, I was also eyeing up the adorable Cinccino SIR, but Stunky had to come home, and nothing else mattered.

Over the course of 17 packs, I was lucky enough to open a gorgeous Crobat illustration rare, as well as an ultra rare Mega Floette ex, but it was only in the last three packs that it finally happened. There it was, the common Stunky – immediately followed by an uncommon Skuntank to complete the evolutionary line. It was like it was meant to be, and I can honestly say that those two cards sparked way more joy than any of the objectively rarer hits I pulled during the course of the opening.

Although Stunky was a highlight, it was a joy for every pack to see what new Pokemon I could add to my physical dex, and it once again makes me glad that I still have so many missing. It'd be easy to get carried away and commit to buying all the missing cards I need right now, but I've decided I want this to be a long-term project. I can't imagine how long it's going to take, but I'm looking forward to slowly building it up each time I get my hands on new packs, something I suspect I'm probably more likely to do more often now that I'm not chasing the unlikely hits alongside everyone else. My chase cards now just got weirder, and I can't wait to find out who my next underrated hit is.

For suggestions of what to play next, why not check out the best board games or the best tabletop RPGs?

My hands-on demo of Stuntman: Hollywood was only 15 minutes long, but it was the best 15 minutes I spent at Summer Game Fest. I've never played the original games, but even without the rosy tint of nostalgia this is a fantastic arcade driving game that already has me eager to revisit its stages again and again to complete the perfect run.

As the name suggests, Stuntman: Hollywood puts you in the driver's seat of a car performing stunts for various action blockbusters. Your director shouts out instructions to you alongside visual indicators along the track, prompting you to, say, drift around a corner, launch off a ramp, and narrowly squeeze past an oncoming car. It's a bit like having a rally co-driver warn you of upcoming turns, just with a lot more explosions along the way.

Stunt on these bros

Each run is just a minute or two long, which prevents repeated attempts from getting exhausting. None of the five levels I play are difficult to complete, but getting perfect marks on every stunt along the way is a real challenge, and one that keeps me hitting that restart button over and over. (Producer Tim Lohrenz, who was overseeing the demo, jokes about how glad he is that current-generation consoles have effectively eliminated loading times.)

It's the excellent controls that really put Stuntman: Hollywood over the top. The car physics are by no means realistic – this is an arcade-style driving model through and through – but that just means you have a lot of leeway to get your drifts and corners just right. On the first run through a level, I feel like I'm just on the edge of control of my vehicle. By the second or third attempt, I'm already starting to build my flow toward that perfect run.

The big gimmick with Stuntman: Hollywood is that the game now features an array of courses licensed from actual car-focused action films and shows, ranging from Fast & Furious to Miami Vice – with more unannounced collaborations to come, Lohrenz teases.

I play through one of the Back to the Future stages, recreating the scene where Marty McFly escapes the terrorists in the mall parking lot. It's not exactly a one-to-one match for the scene as it's shown in the film – there are a lot more terrorists here, for example – but it nails the vibe, especially with the original soundtrack blaring in the background throughout the ride.

But honestly, I think the original courses might be even better. My favorite came at the end of the demo, featuring a collapsing stretch of highway covered in falling boulders, ruined cars, and even crashed airplanes. The undulation of the broken road creates a great sense of verticality, and drifting through the danger is even more exciting when you're sliding across a 70-degree slope.

Even the simpler tracks are still thrilling, however, thanks to the precise controls and fast-paced action. During my brief demo, I was already getting the urge to go back through each one to perfect my line and nail every stunt, and I can only imagine that urge growing once I've got the final game and all its checklists and trophies.

If you like to put the pedal to the metal, check out our guide to the best racing games.

I've had my eye on the Toniebox 2, the upgraded audio entertainment system for kids, for months now ever since a family friend gifted us the previous version of Toniebox. There are any number of reasons to make the jump, but the simple fact is that there are now some interactive characters or materials that simply don't work on the original.

That includes, but is not limited to, the newly revealed Tonieplay Hasbro Collection, which brings some of the best board games like Monopoly, Guess Who?, and The Game of Life to the Toniebox 2. When the opportunity arose to give some of them a shot for myself, bringing together something my family already enjoyed with new board game experiences, it felt a bit like kismet.

If you're completely unfamiliar with Toniebox – let alone Toniebox 2 – you can think of it a bit like child-friendly experiences by way of proprietary amiibo. Both are soft red (though you can get other colors, this is the baseline) cubes with little ears to turn it on and adjust volume for the speakers on its sides that also has a reader on top for the magnetic "tonies" to sit on. They're fairly simple devices that do still require an internet connection, but once you've bought the box itself and the figure, there are no ads or screens or unintended offramps to worry about.

They're designed for kids, and my family has had a grand time letting ours listen to kid-friendly podcasts, Spider-Man stories and songs, and so on. They've also had their fair share of time with the Nintendo Switch and locked-down tablets, so playing games isn't beyond them. The Tonieplay Hasbro Collection felt like it would be a natural extension of what they've already done.

And having now played both the Guess Who? And The Game of Life Tonieplay games, that is, by and large, true. Both are specifically designed for 5+, and we even had a newly minted 5-year-old kid play and win Guess Who? the first time we broke it out. The Toniebox 2 basically does all of the work with relatively little setup required.

To begin, you have to put a punchout on top of the Toniebox 2 that sort of sits over the aforementioned ears to provide a series of options along the edges. You then have to use the proprietary Controller in the middle, which has a button and an arrow, to pick and choose various elements. In Guess Who?, for example, the Toniebox 2 walks players through a series of stories that feature clues about colorful, playful monsters to try and determine which one is the culprit at the end of the day.

It's hard to say whether Guess Who? Or The Game of Life is more complicated in this format. Guess Who? features 30 total monster pieces with required stickers while The Game of Life has a full-on foldable board and pieces. Up to 4 players can take on The Game of Life while only 2 can do Guess Who?, though both are more playful than cutthroat.

The positive aspect here is the closed garden nature of the Toniebox 2 – you can hand these off to kids and they can play all on their own without any concern that some unfiltered internet might seep in around the edges. They also encourage imaginative play, as several different parts of The Game of Life had us acting out silly scenarios. But it's also not a cheap investment; the Toniebox 2 is roughly $150, another $25 (when discounted) for a game, and then $15 for the proprietary Controller. All told, $190 before tax to play Guess Who? is a bit of an ask.

More likely, this is aimed at people that are already within the ecosystem. Have a Toniebox 2 for all your favorite tonies to play on already? Why not extend that to games for a nominal fee? It's certainly more deliberately interactive than simply listening, and from direct experience, I can tell you that there's nothing quite like the look your kid gets when The Game of Life suggests a career they really want and then has them act out different scenarios about it.

Not that my kids picked "writer" when it came up.

The Tonieplay Hasbro Collection is currently available to pre-order on the official Tonies site, and is expected to be available at all major retailers on July 7.

The Toniebox 2 and relevant games and controller were provided by Tonies PR for coverage purposes.

For more game recommendations, don't miss the best card games or the best tabletop RPGs.

Fog clings to the island of St Amelia like taut plastic on skin, but I'm still not convinced Silent Hill: Townfall makes sense in the Konami psychological horror franchise. The 30-minute hands-off demonstration developer Screen Burn shows me during Summer Game Fest 2026 is laden with Silent Hill's trappings, milky fog and scabby monsters, but it's missing the cigarette-burned soul.

It's all too clean. Leading man Simon Ordell has ripped himself out of a hospital bed with all the tape and needles attached. A cannula pokes through a vein between his fingers, allowing healing liquid to revive him when he's injured, and a tight medical bracelet sticks to his wrist. But Simon is otherwise spotless while investigating St. Amelia in 1996, with vague instructions to find a brunette who I need to double check isn't Mary, the missing brunette from the soul-tearing Silent Hill 2. In only 30 minutes, I notice many callbacks to fan-favorite, early Silent Hill games – and I worry the unique parts of Silent Hill: Townfall can't compare.

Take me upstate

Townfall follows 2025's Silent Hill f, which was set in Japan, in taking Silent Hill international. I still yearn for the original lakeside town in Nowhere, USA, and the slow, somewhat inviting decay it represented, but I appreciated Silent Hill f's invention of a highly stylized, red spider lily landscape, too. Townfall's Scottish island St. Amelia is ruled by realism. Its cobblestone streets and neat white houses are hyper-realistic, looking better-suited to Call of Duty than an introspective horror game. Nonetheless, they are impressive. When the camera lingers on a bit of patterned wallpaper in an abandoned home, I can imagine what it would feel like just by looking at it.

Less tantalizing to me, someone whose favorite aspect of the best Silent Hill games is the poetry of their strangeness, is that Silent Hill: Townfall also employs realism in its puzzles. Rather than adding names to the Grim Reaper's list, as you do in the original Silent Hill, or burning pork liver to reveal a path in Silent Hill 3, the Townfall demo I saw has Simon searching for a prepaid electric card common in '90s Scotland to get the house's lights working.

Again, Screen Burn is demonstrating an impressive attention to detail here. But I don't play Silent Hill games for their faithfulness to history, and especially not to reality. I love them for the way they use magic to reveal our skeletons. Whenever the occult Otherworld falls over a Silent Hill protagonist, you're confronted with the rust under the hospital room paint, blood beneath a young woman's skirt, denial before freedom. I've always thought the supernatural was more real than real, so I've found comfort in past Silent Hill games, which lie on the cliff between observable life and hidden feelings. They push into each other, yin and yang, to make a whole world.

But Silent Hill: Townfall seems more oriented toward its surface. I'm first introduced to Simon as he's seated near a town monument littered with protest signs – "We Need The Truth," "Whatever Heart This Town Had Has Stopped" – and their unsubtle nature reminds me of Dead Space graffiti that routinely took me out of that game's horror. A Screen Burn developer also suggests during my Summer Game Fest session that Townfall uses first-person perspective because the series' usual third-person does more to coddle you from horror. In a sense, that's probably true. It's more viscerally horrifying to play Resident Evil in a VR headset than with ungainly tank controls, after all.

But third-person also encourages players to connect with a game's protagonist, as you can observe them as you control them, linking your movements with their mind. And since the average Silent Hill story is a storm whipped up to torment its main character, specifically (there are very few all-purpose spooks aimed at you, the player), third-person helps its effectiveness.

Though, Townfall isn't completely devoid of fantasy. It pays homage to the series' early convention of letting you identify monsters with a stammering radio by replacing the tech with a handheld CRT TV, which also swaps the need for on-screen UI by flashing cryptic images of your next location. It's an intriguing change, as the CRT TV is an elegant way to focus the player's attention on their next game objective while still being immersive in its story. However, I don't think a Silent Hill game's user interface has ever dulled the impact of its corpse nurses and brown toilets for me.

Ultimately, I feel like Screen Burn is worried about iterating on the wrong genre conventions.

I'm confused by all the changes I see in my Silent Hill: Townfall demo that are neutral at best. When the monster finally arrives, it's a melted flesh humanoid with its head sharpened into an axe. It looks like a struggling Lying Figure from Silent Hill 2... except with an axe for its head.

I thought this was supposed to be the fun part, but it's still too tame.

Refresh your memory of the Silent Hill we left behind with our list of the best Silent Hill games.

Gamers, Prime Day approaches, and with it, the chance to get some of the most highly coveted controllers for a little cheaper. But which one do you go for? Almost every pro gamepad promises the world these days, and with their prices spanning from $20 up to $200, it can be tough to know which of the best PC controller to believe in.

And it's not just PC controllers, either. Xbox controllers and PS5 pads from licensed third parties can easily set you back $200 while seeming like they're everything you could ever want. It's a lot of money to spend on something that might not suit your hands. That's why I want to help. I've been in the very fortunate position of reviewing controllers across all platforms for over three years now.

We all have strong opinions on gamepads, and I don't mean to brag, but when you see a strong opinion on one controller online, it's not all that common for people to have also tried each and every one that theirs competes against. I've been that sicko changing controllers from week to week so that I can give you the best buying advice possible, testing how each one compares with what else is on the shelves.

My hope is that this list will serve as a diving board for you. If you see one you like and you want to learn more, you can click the "view details" button to get a link to my review of that controller, some general thoughts, and a compatibility breakdown. Alternatively, you can use this as a price-checker hub to see which ones get the best discounts this Prime Day. Either way, I hope it does help, and you find the perfect gamepad for you in this year's sale. Happy hunting.

This Prime Day is a pretty open field. We've recently noticed a new influx of interest in the controller market because Valve launched the Steam Controller, and something tells me other peripheral makers are going to want to capitalize on that this Prime Day with competitive discounts. With that in mind, I've thrown together a list of some of the best controllers I've ever tested. This includes feature-rich bangers with loads of buttons and functionality, value kings, customizable magnum opus works, gamepads with screens, even a few TMR controllers. Being honest, the Steam Controller would be on par with a lot of these, but since it's got no chance of seeing a Prime Day discount, I've left it out for now.

For more on ways to play, check out the best joysticks, the best PC racing wheels, and the best gaming handhelds.

The first thirty seconds of The Blood of Dawnwalker's latest trailer had me begging for the end. Mostly because I, like many others, was successfully fooled into thinking it was a completely different game.

A doomed courier delivers a box to a high-rise apartment in some major city at the dead of night, and suddenly, I'm convinced this must be a Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 DLC. But Coen's sudden appearance – silver-streaked at the temples, strung out in an armchair, suckling on a bloodbag in the murky gloom – had me fully locked in. A modern-day scene in a late-medieval fantasy game makes absolutely no sense, but I should know by now to expect the unexpected when it comes to this upcoming RPG.

Catching up with developer Rebel Wolves at Summer Game Fest 2026, the beginning seems like a good place to start. Its modern-day teaser is a "promise" that The Blood of Dawnwalker's future extends beyond plans for a single game, game director and Rebel Wolves CEO Konrad Tomaszkiewicz tells GamesRadar+. "Our ambition is to create this series of games which will lead to this particular point and tell the story of Coen – not only Coen – and give players the opportunity to shape his character and see how it will end."

First blood

Outlining plans for a series before releasing its debut game is a strong sign of confidence. So much so that, much like in The Witcher and Mass Effect trilogies, players will be able to carry their Blood of Dawnwalker saves between each game, preserving their world state and creating seamless continuity.

"When you have the last save, your choices will go with you," Tomaszkiewicz confirms of The Blood of Dawnwalker's finale, citing expertise with similar systems while directing The Witcher 3 at CD Projekt Red . "From the beginning, we were telling people that we're planning a saga, and right now, this is the proof that we are doing it."

Coen's journey already sounds fraught. Turned into a half-blood vampire after a marauding vampire clan besieges his 14th-century village, his supernatural powers only come out at night. By day, he channels rune-based magic and more traditional melee swordsmanship to fend off the vamps – despite being one of them himself.

As an immortal being, at least partially (those grey hairs glimpsed in the modern-day sneak peek suggest a slowed-down aging process), it makes sense that Coen's story might break temporal boundaries. But driving towards that future of an epic vampire saga, one spanning hundreds of years, is no mean feat. It requires writers like Piotr Kucharski to employ their own near-supernatural abilities: the gift of foresight, working not only from the ground up, but from the top back down again.

"It's challenging, there's no getting around this, but it's also so much fun," Kucharski shares. "Because we already know some bits of the story – we have this big structure, we know where we want to end it, and so on – it gives you [a] good cohesive starting point to talk about things.

"Having this cohesive structure when talking about ideas, we can [tell when an idea is cool] but will make it really difficult for us to work [from] in the future." This gives Rebel Wolves the confidence to scrap those moments for something more reliable and future-proof. "The structure we give ourselves is also something that really helps us, because you know you have something to build on, and it sometimes helps you to answer some questions really quickly."

Whether a specific number of games are planned is something the team can't comment on just yet.

The Blood of Dawnwalker "saga", as Tomaszkiewicz puts it, is "not necessarily" going to be a trilogy. "But obviously it cannot be too long, because creating these kinds of games takes time." Even a trilogy might take Rebel Wolves "eight years" from now to reach a prospective end – "if we're really fast" – so the focus is on creating a branching narrative with plenty of future-proofing.

For Kucharski, that starts with offering players choice and consequence. "To us the basic question was, does [each] choice have impact? And it doesn't have to be something, you know, long term," he says, using something like a "gut punch" as an example of a lower-stakes consequence for your actions. But we all know that revenge is a dish best served in the final act. "I love those moments when you make a choice, then you play for like three hours, and then you realize that there is a consequence in a different quest."

Tall tales

No matter where the road ahead takes The Blood of Dawnwalker, I can already hear the synovial pop of bones clicking into place as something remarkable takes shape.

"I have a lot of hopes that we will bring a new fresh feel to RPGs," director Tomaszkiewicz rounds off. Dawnwalker's narrative sandbox appeal is key in that, functioning in a "totally different" way to the likes of Baldur's Gate 3, but immersive combat is the second feather in Dawnwalker's cap. While he hopes players enjoy fighting as Coen, the focus is on grounding players in the world itself. "The meaning of immersion [is] that 'I'm there, I'm inside, I'm doing it, I need to pay attention, and I'm having fun.' Sometimes I'm just running and fighting because I like to do that.

"Those two things will show that there is still huge space for RPGs to evolve, and it's worth trying things – this action, inaction, and so on. It's also giving you this feeling of urgency in a good way that you believe in." With only 30 days and 30 nights to complete his task, each of Coen's actions could push the clock hands forward. "I believe that this difference between us and other RPGs is important, because I hope that we will be an inspiration for [developers], and before we finish the sequel, we also will be inspired by them."

I've been praying for Total War: Warhammer 40K news since visiting Creative Assembly last year, and on Sunday (June 7), the Emperor delivered. Not only did we get our best look yet at how Total War's real-time battles will function in the sci-fi setting, but its appearance at the PC Gaming Show 2026 also confirmed that we're getting a Total War: Warhammer 40K closed beta later this year – although an exact date is yet to be confirmed.

Of all the new games heading our way, Total War: Warhammer 40K is the one I'm most excited for. Seeing it in action – and hearing I'll get the chance to play it by year's end – puts that anticipation into overdrive. I'm working through it the only way I know how: by watching the reveal again and breaking down everything in sight.

Git krumpin'

While a teaser trailer for Total War: Warhammer 40K debuted during last month's Warhammer Skulls showcase, its focus on narrative and lack of in-game footage suggested we'd be waiting a while longer to see more of the game itself. But the PC Gaming Show 2026 aired with a surprising amount of alpha build gameplay, leaving lots to get into.

30 seconds in, we're brought into a battle between the Astra Militarum and a horde of orcs. Taking place on what seems to be the outskirts of a war-torn hive city, the map is a lot more textured and urban-focused than much of what we've seen from past Total War games – with charred ruins shored against a bridge crossing, I get the sense that battles will be designed for players to dig into longer than Total War: Warhammer 3's comparatively quick clashes.

The most important detail, though, is nestled in the game's UI – revealing how Creative Assembly has made ranged combat work. Guns are prominent in the developer's Warhammer (Old World) trilogy and the likes of Total War: Napoleon and Empire have made gunpowder lines work in the past, but fans have long speculated how 40K's more advanced guns – often wielded in tandem with melee weapons – would synergize with the series' more medieval-style frontline clashes.

Here, we see that while most units do have ranged attacks as options (at least for the Astra Militarum), each has their own firepower value for light, medium, and heavy targets. Cadian Shock Troopers have 5/10 firepower effectiveness against light-class targets, for example, but that drops all the way down to 1/10 against medium and heavy foes. A tank commander, on the other hand, has 9/10 effectiveness against light targets and 10/10 against medium armor; but 6/10 against heavies. I can already see how this could encourage more fluid back-and-forth in battle – beefier units like Space Marines will be able to close in on small-arms fire without being torn to shreds, while Cadians will depend on a combined arms approach – think harder-hitting vehicles keeping melee-centric infantry from reaching their gunlines.

If anything, I'm starting to think that 40K's battles could be more fulfilling for strategy nerds. With there being so many options for melee versus ranged tactics and vice versa, real-time fights should be more strategic and slow-burn. The importance of cover should force players to spread their forces thinner and pay attention to wider battle lines, while environment destruction and having tools for fast-moving attacks (Space Marine drop pods, orbital strikes, jetpacks) will hopefully encourage more layered formations rather than one single frontline clash.

While I still have many unanswered questions about Total War: Warhammer 40K's campaign map and factions, its latest reveal has sent my imagination running wild. I've already registered for the closed beta – which you can do here – and even though it's scheduled to kick off later this year, the wait may well kill me. Although, with Total War: Warhammer 3's biggest DLC now within touching distance, there's going to be enough to keep us busy in the Old World for a long time to come.

Maverick Games is confident that Clutch can cut through the noise. When Forza Horizon 5 director Mike Brown exited Playground Games with a cadre of the studio's senior leadership team in 2022, the intention was to create a different type of open-world racing game. Now, little over three years of development time later, and with Maverick having been the victim of publisher Amazon Game Studios' shifting priorities, the newly independent team is finally ready to reveal its work to the world.

Clutch makes an excellent first impression. Maverick is walking a fine line between professional circuit racing and race-and-chase cinematic storytelling, where escalating pursuits and blistering getaway missions push you out into a lush open-world composite of the French Riviera. The presentation is absolutely sublime, built in a heavily modified version of Unreal Engine 5; Clutch can deliver the immersive visual fidelity and expansive soundscapes that came to define the Playground and Turn 10 Forza games, so that Maverick has been able to capture this feel after starting over from scratch is certainly impressive.

Forza comparisons are inevitable given the origins of the studio, but I get the sense that Clutch is trying to fill the void in the market left by the absence of new Need for Speed games. I got some Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted vibes as police presence ramped up in high-speed chases around the open-world, and the focus on single-player storytelling certainly echoes the Ghost Games era of NFS, from the 2015 reboot through Payback, Heat, and Unbound. I should note that Clutch will contain multiplayer elements and shared-sandbox elements, although Maverick isn't quite ready to get into all that just yet.

When I sit down with the studio at Summer Game Fest, the intention is to introduce the siblings at the heart of the story and highlight the way Clutch can shift its action between different styles. You'll hit the RK1 (a proving ground tournament for the world's top drivers) in slick circuit races, driving for social currency with the underground car community dubbed the Midnight Collective, and get involved in more considered storytelling as one of the two protagonists becomes indebted to a criminal element.

Maverick let me get hands-on with Clutch once this was all said and done, where I was able to take a vehicle out around a track for a couple of laps. It wasn't clear what sort of assists and settings the team had activated, but I can say that this is absolutely within the 'SimCade' genre of racing games – more forgiving than Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport, less arcadey than Burnout, and absolutely in that NFS and Horizon sphere of influence. The driving model is impressive, challenging without being overbearing. I'm certainly keen to play more of it and see how vehicles handle once I'm able to play around with the impressive suite of customization options available.

My concern with Maverick right now is that I think this new IP is trying to do too much too quickly. It's unclear how the game will blend its cinematic storytelling ambitions within a widely scoped open-world, a massive challenge but one I'm keen to see more of in the future. At certain moments (such as key story beats and car meets) you're able to get out of your car and slowly walk around, with one example having you investigate a sprawling mansion for a way to gain access to a supercar to steal. One chase sequence had such a glacial sense of speed that I wouldn't have known we were moving beyond 30mph if the speedometer wasn't saying otherwise.

That aforementioned supercar has a harpoon gadget bolted onto the underside of its chassis, introducing a mechanic which seems wholly unnecessary. While it can't be used in RK1 tournament races, open-world pursuits with cops and robbers will let you utilize harpoon swing points to make sharp turns around corners. "If you come across a tagged harpoon swing point, you're able to connect to it, but you still have to press that button again to detach from it – there's a skill check there, so if you stay connected for too long you're probably going to crash the car," says Brown. It's a neat idea, but I'm not sure it's all that necessary when the handbrake is right there.

And then there's the Midnight Collective races, which are run by a famous in-universe podcaster. This is where Clutch lost me. The game is set in the modern day, and is exceptionally online. In an instant, you aren't driving for pole position, but for likes. "Hey chat…" is a common refrain in this arena, as valuable real estate of the screen is consumed by an in-universe sprawl of text as viewers of the live stream comment on the race in real time. Eventually, requests start flooding in – donations of in-game credits offered for pulling off near-misses and other stunts. It's a little bleak.

Clutch is a really interesting addition to the racing genre, and there's a lot to like about what Maverick is putting out into the world. This is a confident first showing, but still I have a lingering fear that it's trying to get off the line too fast. With a long stretch of road to go ahead of the Spring 2027 release window, I do hope that some of my concerns will be allayed as more is shown to the world.

I previously reported that Clutch wouldn't allow you to change your route when you're completing a story mission in the open-world. Maverick reached out to clarify that this constraint is only applicable in the prologue of the game, but that it is an otherwise open-world experience. This preview has been updated to reflect that.

Clutch is set to launch on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X in 2027. Check out all the other upcoming games for 2026 and beyond while you wait.

Some people become experts in wine – instead, I tip my top hat and consider myself a connoisseur of asymmetrical multiplayer horror games. As an expert, I must warn you the fields that allow genre superstar Dead by Daylight and more recent breakthrough The Outlast Trials to flourish are brittle and unloving – competitors The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Friday the 13th: The Game, and Evil Dead: The Game were all discontinued or removed from sale in just 2025. But publisher Bloober Team knows this, and it seems to have prepared its upcoming Saw: Genesis multiplayer for a difficult winter.

"[Most of the games] you mentioned are dead, so, I think there's space," jokes representatives from co-developer Anshar Studios when I ask them at Summer Game Fest 2026 if they're nervous to enter a genre where ambitious new titles seem destined to be gobbled by Dead by Daylight the way Saturn gargles his son. They continue honestly: "We know this is the genre that kind of wasted big studios as well. But it's also a different approach we have. [...] We have this experimental attitude."

Saw inspiring

To this point, Saw: Genesis currently has a waitlist for its closed alpha playtest, which already has a "huge amount of subscribers" a Bloober representative won't elaborate on when I poke him about it. But he says it's an overwhelming number, and Anshar plus Broken Mirror – Bloober's new splinter studio dedicated to psychological and survival horror games – seem to be proud of it. When they demonstrate hands-off gameplay, I decide they have plenty of reasons to be.

Since the Saw: Genesis footage I'm shown is so early, my main conclusion is that this is a smart game. It borrows aspects of Dead by Daylight and The Outlast Trials to its own advantage.

Of course, there are also plenty of clear parallels to the 10 Saw movies I know better than my own heart. I realize this while gleefully kicking my Mary Janes – some traps' death scenes seem to induce the disorienting, distinctly 2000s music video fast cuts the Saw franchise is infamous for.

Unlike the movies, Saw: Genesis forgoes the straightforward explanation that Jigsaw, who's really the sadistic brain cancer patient John Kramer, does things like kidnapping suicidal people and greasing them up with lighter fluid while making them hold a lit match in a room dusted in broken glass because there's something wrong with him.

Instead, Saw: Genesis makes a historical analysis of misguided evil and brings us to World War 1. There, Jigsaw's forefather the Judge is habitually forcing three Accused into seemingly unconquerable situations involving clamps, barbed wire, and even the infamous reverse bear trap from the movies, which separates your jaw from the rest of your body like you're an easy-to-peel orange.

Bloober compares Saw: Genesis' premise and gameplay to something like Saw 2, the 2005 movie where a group of idiots are meant to work together to survive the nerve gas Jigsaw is pumping into their blood. But I also see clever call backs to The Outlast Trials. That game, one of the only asymmetrical horror games to withstand Dead by Daylight, is based on the premise that an evil corporation is conducting debauched Cold War experiments on unwitting, unwilling volunteers.

The similarly, delightfully ahistorical Saw: Genesis borrows The Outlast Trials' vintage touches, and its roster of Accused characters are carefully designed with gothic horror in mind – the "songbird" character wears a glittering dropwaist dress with a 1920s flapper's fluffy feather in her hair, while an apparent young veteran's face is uneven with long, white scars – horrible cat whiskers. They pucker and stretch as he screams.

Meanwhile, the Judge reminds me of Dead by Daylight's inaugural killer, the Trapper. Both are like deranged animal control employees, armed with rusty bear traps; in the case of the Judge, players will also have to strategize how to manipulate the level they've dropped their Accused into and plan routes and tricks to efficiently encourage them to scoop their eyeballs out with a spoon.

Though, in a unique twist from its competitors, Saw: Genesis makes its Judge – whose jaw seems to have been blasted off during the war, poor thing – physically vulnerable, and players can stab him to Hell if they plan correctly. I also notice and appreciate in my preview evidence of the game's originality while contributing to the ridiculous Saw canon; it seems to feature a girl version of the beloved Billy the Puppet, the ghost-white mascot on a tricycle who flaps its wooden lips on behalf of its master Jigsaw. Girl Billy is similarly black-eyed and menacing, and I think the image of her and her greasy, long hair is a perfect addition to a franchise that eschews subtlety for blood smears, leg stumps, and squeaky, creepy tricycles.

In noting this during my Saw: Genesis preview, I'm also made to consider the essence of Saw – why do I love it so much, and why do I think this game does it justice? Once I go digging for it, the answer surprises me in its simplicity: excess. The Saw movies – and if this early look at Summer Game Fest is a good indicator, then the game, too – makes pain seem ubiquitous, inevitable, and powerful. It helps me process my smaller, more quiet pains; like, at least I don't need to slice bacon bits of my stomach fat to appease a crazed old man's vision of salvation.

And, though the Saw movies' vision of redemption is completely clueless, at least Jigsaw thinks it's possible. I appreciate the idea that any tragedy is surmountable. And if Saw: Genesis lets me achieve that ideal from the comfort of my TV room, where I can eat a nice chocolate chip cookie instead of being submerged in nerve gas, then, even better.

Check out our best horror games list... if you dare!

The vibes in Stranger Than Heaven are immaculate. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is known for building worlds with an exceptional sense of time and place, with the Like a Dragon, Lost Judgment, and Yakuza franchises being as beloved for the virtual tourism they enable as much as the kinetic combat and wild distractions that they present. So what then of Stranger Than Heaven, as it attempts to walk this fine line between being a new IP or sorts and an origin story for the founding of the Tojo Clan?

Stranger Than Heaven is certainly the sort of world you'll want to spend time in, that much is certain after I spend an hour bouncing between combat encounters in a work-in-progress demonstration. The action-adventure separates itself from prior RGG Studio titles by splitting its action across five distinct eras: Kokura, Fukuoka in 1915; Kure, Hiroshima in 1929; Minami, Osaka in 1943; Atami, Shizuoka in 1951; and Shinjuku, Tokyo in 1965. The way Stranger than Heaven lets you see Japan shift and evolve over time is astounding, each era with its own distinct visual design and soundscape.

The creative decision to let you follow a single character, Tojo Clan founder Makoto Daito, across a period of 50 years is exceptionally ambitious, and undoubtedly a key reason to dive into this adventure – regardless of whether you're familiar with the deep lore which binds the studio's other franchises, or coming in fresh because of the slickly produced trailers or all-star cast. Either way, there's a growing sense of scale to the world you inhabit as you progress across the years, and I'm certainly impressed by the fidelity and attention to detail RGG is pushing for here.

Stranger Than Heaven is the first new game from the studio (so, excluding Director's Cuts like Yakuza 0 or remakes like Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties) to take a new-gen console focus, and the decision to leave the PS4 and Xbox One behind is clearly paying off. The game isn't set to launch until January 15, 2027, but early signs point to Stranger Than Heaven being the most immersive, lived-in world that the studio has created in years… but that doesn't mean it isn't without its problems.

The reason I'm keen to highlight that release date is because it's worth noting that RGG Studio still has over six months to refine its systems and mechanics, and apply layers of polish. Time which will be needed to get its battle system into fighting shape. For context, RGG Studio largely moved away from the fluid, somewhat slapstick real-time combat system which defined the best Yakuza games in favor of a punchier turn-based offering starting with 2020's Yakuza: Like a Dragon – a bold creative decision which I don't think the studio gets enough credit for implementing.

Stranger Than Heaven sees RGG return to real-time brawling, only this time with an ambitious flourish: Makoto's left and right sides can be controlled independently, giving you the capacity to perform punches, kicks, throws, and combos by using buttons which map to corresponding limbs on either side of his body. It's a neat idea, but I'm not totally sold on the execution. I found the entire thing to be a little staid and static, complicated further by a floating camera which seems hell-bent on losing track of the action or getting caught in elements of the environment – particularly troublesome, given how challenging encounters can prove to be when balancing multiple enemies at once.

I spoke with Masayoshi Yokoyama, RGG studio head and the executive director of Stranger Than Heaven, to get a better sense of what he wants this novel combat system to capture. "We want to tell the story of Daito through our combat system. When the game starts, Makoto is quite young and he's not a great fighter – this story takes you through 50 years of his life – in the same way that when the player starts the game, they won't be that skillful with the systems either. So we're hoping that by playing this character throughout the ages, the player themselves will grow alongside the character."

"Compared to other games that we have made in the past, a lot of them are something that anyone can play and eventually get to the end without too much trouble," Yokoyama continues. "But we wanted Stranger Than Heaven to be more gritty, and for you to feel that sense of growth as you both become better fighters over time. We also wanted the left-right, left-right style of the battle system to be something that feels more realistic."

From a role-play perspective, I'm with Yokoyama on that one. The battle system certainly is more realistic than anything we've seen from the Like a Dragon/Yakuza games. Stranger Than Heaven is more grounded and gritty, particularly with the way it handles attack combinations between enemy heads and elements of the environment, and the use of various melee weapons to help give you an edge.

But, having played through three separate encounters in three different ages, I never really got the sense that Makoto's fighting style or abilities had grown over time. I'm keen to see whether this changes by the time Stranger Than Heaven lands next year, as it's clear that there's something pretty special in here – but first impressions are of a system that's more button-bash than kinesthetic brawler.

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Shop the collection

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  SteelSeries

  Steelseries Arctis Nova Pro Omni - Hi-Res Wireless Gaming Headset, 96khz/24bit, Anc, Clearcast Pro Mic, Ai Noise Rejection, Mobile App, Mix 2.4ghz + Bt, Omniplay Pc+playstation+xbox - Midnight Blue

  $399.99
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  Turtle Beach

  Turtle Beach Airlite Fit Wired Gaming Headset – Officially Licensed for Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, Durable, Lightweight, Charcoal Blue/red

  $27.99
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  Skullcandy

  Skullcandy Crusher Plyr 720 Wireless Gaming Headset, Ultimate Immersion and Comfort, Thx Spatial Audio, Multi-Sensory Bass, Removable Mic, Xbox, Pc, Playstation, Wireless Transmitter - Digi-Black Xbox

  $267.78
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  4

  Turtle Beach

  Turtle Beach Atlas 200 Wired Gaming Headset Officially Licensed for Playstation, Ps5, Ps4, 50mm Nanoclear Drivers, Flip-To-Mute Mic, Memory Foam Cushions, Floating Headband - White

  $59.99
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  Razer

  Razer Kraken Kitty V3 Pro Wireless Rgb Gaming Headset: Chroma Rgb Kitty Ears - 2.4 Ghz, Bluetooth 5.3, Usb a - Super Wideband Mic - 40mm Drivers - Thx Spatial Audio - Comfortable Ear Cushions - White

  $179.99

I'm juggling brand-new pairs of cups every couple of weeks, but that's a bit of a given as the GamesRadar+ gaming headset queen. Before you ask, I most definitely gave myself that nickname, but nevertheless, it stands that I oversee and curate what new pairs deserve to be on our roundup of the best gaming headsets, and which ones are best left being as far away from your ears (and game consoles) as humanely possible.

With the best Prime Day gaming deals returning for another summer, plenty of my top-rated pairs from 2026 and last year are bound to get a discount or two, and I'll be sure to tell you all about it. But I thought it'd take this opportunity in particular to remind you which gaming headsets to look out for, whether you're after one of the best PS5 headsets under $50, or if you have your eyes set on the best money can buy - cough SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Omni cough.

If, and when, you see a pair listed amongst Prime Day's upcoming deals, you'll know which ones are worth investigating. While I've gathered some of my favorite pairs below, do be sure to check the 'view details' button to find out more. If you have any questions, you can always call on me, and I'll be happy to help. Just be loud enough, as I'll likely be testing yet another headset.

If you're on the hunt for more gaming accessories, check out our guides to the best early Prime Day PS5 deals and the best early Nintendo Switch Prime Day deals to see what discounts could be coming your way.

The subtitle of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis implies a lot beyond the scope of Lara Croft's quest to find the lost city. The developers at Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog have, themselves, had to reckon with the legacy of one of the most iconic characters and franchises in video games. After playing the game for myself and speaking with some of those devs at Summer Game Fest, I'm fully on board for their interpretation of this classic adventure – even as I'm equally certain that Legacy of Atlantis really needed its delay into 2027.

Legacy of Atlantis serves as a bridge between two different versions of the Tomb Raider franchise. On one end, you have the puzzle- and exploration-focused original series, and on the other you have the more cinematic, action-heavy survivor trilogy. This new game remakes Lara's original adventure, yes, but closes the distance between the two visions of the franchise – and is built as a jumping-on point for entirely new players.

The Tomb Raider legend

It's both an "incredible honor" and a "crushing responsibility" to be revisiting this story, experience director Jeff Adams says with a laugh. "We've been working hard to make sure that we're delivering something that feels faithful to fans who may have experienced this adventure in the past, but we're also really excited for a lot of new players who maybe have never played Tomb Raider before to get a chance to see stuff that they might find really enjoyable."

While at Summer Game Fest, I play Legacy of Atlantis's take on The Lost Valley. That's one of the original game's most memorable levels, where you need to collect a series of cogs to unlock an ancient mechanism to move forward, and then you fight a bunch of dinosaurs. That basic outline is the same now as it was then, but only in the broad strokes – the entire level layout and flow is completely different, but that original spirit is still in place.

In contrast to the survivor trilogy, Legacy of Atlantis seems to be much truer to the puzzle-heavy spirit of the original – something I've very much missed from the series. There are multiple paths to explore, room in which to get a little lost, and a fair few collectables to uncover. Lara's equipped with a scanner that'll give you some hints toward interactable objects, but you are encouraged to actually figure things out for yourself.

"I think we tend to learn a lot from every Tomb Raider that we make," game director Raul Siqueira explains. "Obviously, the survivor trilogy was way more focused on the action component of it. There was a lot more combat than previous games. But fundamentally we believe that the core of a good Tomb Raider game is the balance between puzzles, combat, and traversal."

That's why Legacy of Atlantis hearkens back to what the devs refer to as the "cerebral" pace of the original, but they have worked to make the combat feel like more than an afterthought. "We knew that we didn't want to put too much emphasis on it," Siqueira explains. "At the same time we wanted combat to have depth."

When you're beset by velociraptors, you'll need to dodge out of the way of their attacks with well-timed acrobatic rolls as you rain dual pistol fire on them. That sounds basic, but it feels very good, and the way Lara can leap out of the way of attacks has a similar pace to the jumps you would've been making in the original game. Just, you know, with a little more precision and a lot less flailing. Well-timed dodges let you build up a focus meter which you can expend to get a bit of bullet time and take down enemies quickly.

So what's that delay-worthy problem? The controls. Where the OG Tomb Raider relied on very precise, very rigid movement, this is a post-Uncharted adventure game, just like the survivor trilogy, where you magnetize to ledges and have pretty generous leeway to make your jumps. Until, that is, I find myself awkwardly shimmying back and forth trying to find the precise spot where I can grab the next handhold, or fall imperceptibly out of position of a grappling point, or get stuck in the ground, or touch a wall during an escape from a T-Rex and get jump-scared by an instant death as Lara is swallowed up.

There's plenty of time for these issues to be fixed before launch, but they were pervasive enough to really tamp down on my enjoyment of the demo. Legacy of Atlantis is stunningly gorgeous, but the majesty of its visual presentation quickly fades when you're confronted by – and I apologize for the word I'm about to use – this amount of jank.

Many individual aspects of Legacy of Atlantis are thoroughly impressive – the visual design, the emphasis on puzzles, and the expanded combat system – which is why I'm praying that the basic playability problems can be polished out by launch. There's an excellent foundation here, and I really want this version of Lara's legacy to stand strong.

Here's hoping Legacy of Atlantis can join the ranks of the best Tomb Raider games.

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Shop the collection

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  Amazon

  Evercade Data East Super Pocket

  £43.99£49.99
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  Amazon

  Lego Super Mario Game Boy Building Set for Adults - Nintendo Display Model Kit With 2 Cartridges Incl. Zelda, Plus Lenticular Screens - Father's Day Treat - Gaming Gift Idea - 72046

  £41.99£54.99
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  Amazon

  Lego Star Wars 75440 At-At Building Set for Adults - Display Model Kit W/snowspeeder, Stand & Nameplate - Shelf Decor Idea - Collectible Father's Day Treat - Gift for the Empire Strikes Back Fans

  £42.99£59.99
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  Amazon

  Magic: the Gathering - Final Fantasy Starter Kit - Learn Magic With 2 Ready-To-Play Decks (2-Player Card Game for Ages 13+)

  £15.99£25.92
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  Amazon

  Official Legend of Zelda Metal Shield Badge Bi-Fold Wallet - Boxed

  £25.98
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  Amazon

  Mcfarlane Fallout Vault Boy (version 2) 5in Posed Figure Toys

  £19.99

Struggling to find nerdy Father's Day gifts, or having a hard time knowing where to start? Don't sweat it. We're card-carrying geeks around here, and just so happen to spend most of our time hunting down cool collectibles. That's why I've rounded up the very best present ideas here. Even if you don't pick them up, they should hopefully give you some inspiration.

If you want easy gifts across a range of interests, I'd make a beeline for Paladone at Amazon. They make incredible, officially-licenced merch for everything from Batman to Legend of Zelda, and none of it is overly expensive. You're likely to find something to suit dad there.

Honestly, I don't think you can go wrong with Lego either. There are countless nerdy sets for display (as you can see for yourself via the Lego store), and most interests are represented here. Star Wars, Marvel, retro gaming... you name it.

In the meantime, here are the best nerdy Father's Day gifts that I've been able to find. These are the options I'd go for, or would want to be given as a nerdy dad myself.

For more goodies and gift ideas, be sure to check out the best Lego sets or the best Legend of Zelda merch.

Jack Quaid says he was overcome with emotion when he found out what happens to Hughie in the final episode of The Boys.

"Erin [Moriarty] made fun of me on the day because I kept staring at her fake pregnant belly, because it was so surreal for me," Quaid told The Los Angeles Times. "I’m not a father yet, but to me, the closest thing to being an expectant father was like, 'Oh, my TV partner has a baby on the way!'"

In The Boys season 5 finale, everyone (who lives, that is) gets their own happy ending. After turning down a position at the White House, Hughie and Annie own their own AV repair shop by day, and hunt rogue supes by night. One of the final scenes in The Boys sees Annie standing behind the counter of their store with a visibly pregnant belly, which doesn't stop her from flying off into the night to fight some bad guys, mind you. They also named the baby Robin, after Hughie's girlfriend who was killed in season 1.

Though this may be the end for the main cast of The Boys, we still have two spin-offs on the way: The Boys: Mexico and Vought Rising. Prepare for a whole lot more Soldier Boy on your screens...

The Boys season 5 is now streaming in full on Prime Video. For more, check out our The Boys season 5 episode 8 finale recap, our take on the episode in our The Boys season 5 finale review, and all the details about what's next in Vought Rising.

Prime Day is right around the corner, and although I'm not hopeful we'll be seeing big discounts on the Meta Quest 3 and 3S in this June's sale, it might be one of Meta's last great opportunities to convince gamers to adopt its hardware. The Quest VR headsets have been the approachable VR device in the gaming market for years now, but that's arguably been due to a lack of competition.

The Steam Frame is now set for launch this summer, which will no doubt change things. It's unlikely that the Steam Frame is going to be targeting the same budget as the Quest 3S headsets; in fact, if there's a worry, it's that Valve's device will cost closer to $1,000. We still don't know the price of Valve's headset, but I'd put it somewhere in the ballpark of $500-$800 as a relatively safe bet (that gives me a generous amount of wiggle room to say I told you so).

By any account, a price tag like this will cause outrage among gamers, including the mainstream crowd who use and any all VR news story to post "VR gaming ded" all over the internet.

But I have to say, against the Meta Quest 3, which recently saw a price increase of $100, whatever cost the Steam Frame has probably won't look so bad.

With a more refined gaming appeal, Meta might have some stiff competition on its heels in a month or two, and we could arguably see a shift in the market in Valve's favour if the Frame doesn't cost too much more than $600.

Of course, Meta has always targeted a more mainstream crowd due to its attempts to get Quests on the faces of as many people as possible for its Metaverse strategy, but that's now dead and gone. With that being the case, gamers are one of the last hopes of a Meta Reality Labs division that needs some wins.

This year alone, we've seen layoffs at Reality Labs, game dev studio closures, and then even more layoffs and rumors that the focus on wearables will shift to smart glasses, not VR headsets.

All of this said, Prime Day is arriving in less than two weeks, and with it, no doubt a slew of Prime Day Meta Quest deals. I struggle to see big discounts and new bundles coming to the Quest 3 hardware, but accessories are a cornerstone of any of these Prime-exclusive sales.

While that Quest 3 price hike is still pretty recent and makes me hesitant to expect any discounts on the headsets, there's a small part of my brain arguing the opposite.

Yes, Reality Labs needs to pull in money, so discounts likely wouldn't help profit lines, but as a last throw of the dice before the Steam Frame arrives, Prime Day could be a great opportunity to punt as many headsets as possible with approachable offers. Even a $50 discount to the Quest 3 would look great against a Steam Frame that's likely going to cost $700 or more. Not to mention, if the Quest 3S headsets see a discount, it creates a resurgent look against PSVR 2, which is currently lapping up the good faith with gamers who don't want a standalone device.

But if the Steam Frame arrives and, by some miracle, it's closer to $600, suddenly, the Meta Quest 3 512GB model is a lot harder to justify for gamers.

I'm not optimistic for big savings, but Prime Day could be a very interesting time for the VR market, and could tell us a lot about Meta's attitude toward the future of duking it out for more consumer territory. Will it stand and fight, or will it continue a year where it's looked ready to duck and run in the face of new gaming competition?

For more Prime Day coverage, check out the best Prime Day Kindle deals, Prime day PC deals, and Prime Day gaming deals.