A few months after Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty launched alongside v2.0, I stepped into Night City for the very first time. The experience was baffling. If I wasn't puzzling over the different kinds of operating systems and playstyles, I was getting an eyeful of every townie's butt cheeks as they strutted about Watson looking like randomized Sims. I powered through the weirdness and learned to embrace it, going on to complete it three times in less than six months.

Anything I didn't understand was chalked up to being a newbie. The lack of handholding or mechanic explanations confounded me at first, but I reminded myself that I was playing a three-year-old RPG for the first time. Maybe developer CD Projekt Red saw no need to tutorialize it too much for the hordes of returning fans, I wondered?

Only now, on my fifth playthrough, has curiosity finally gotten the better of me. One YouTube rabbit hole later thanks to videos like this, I've been confronted with how incredibly different this game was at launch. Not just in terms of being far more stable and less prone to bugs and crashes these days, but in the evolution of some pretty interesting mechanics and systems that I honestly wish I'd gotten to experience for myself. Cyberpunk 2, take note please.

Threaddy to rock

I adore games that let me diva out. I want to be the most dripped-out baddie in the Badlands, so it makes sense that one of my biggest draws into the world of Cyberpunk 2077 was V's impressive wardrobe.

I made it my mission from day-one to traverse every nook and cranny of Night City in search of the coolest threads V could lay her chromed-out hands on, and for the most part, I succeeded. One thing I shrugged off on my hunt for sartorial supremacy was the fact that clothing items, much like weapons or cyberware, are color-coded into tier grades. In the end I'd just assumed it was a Night City classist thing; grey tier-one gear was simply the cheap bargain bin stuff I'd start out with, while orange tier 5 pieces might run me a few more eddies in exchange for looking like street punk royalty. It wasn't until I finally took it upon myself to research why clothing items are tiered despite only being cosmetics that I started to feel left out.

Surprise, surprise: the color-coded tier levels on clothing items in Cyberpunk 2077 are a vestige from a time when they did serve a greater purpose. Once upon a time, gear could be crafted out of tiered parts just like quickhacks, weapons, and grenades, granting V different buffs and armor values depending on the tier level. They even had mod slots!

This resulted in some truly, uh, interesting fashion choices as players sought to min-max the hell out of their gear (as you can see from the vintage screenshot above, circa-2021). Transmog didn't exist at all, so it was perfectly acceptable to slink into a stealthy thief gig dressed to the nines in stilettos, a polka dot bra, and a hideous fluorescent beanie.

Suddenly, it all made sense. I feel highly privileged to be playing a version of the game that looks and feels fantastic, but there's something fittingly absurd about mercs cutting about Corpo Plaza like a half-dressed Barbie doll found in a dumpster. Sometimes I feel bad for being the only fashionable person in Night City as it is; how could these commoners possibly compete with Queen V's perfectly coordinated red, black, and gold outfits? But in another life, I, too, was meant to be clad in mesh vests and office slacks. Maybe I'm the weird one for sticking out like a sore thumb after all.

This is not me championing for CDPR to bring back a transmog-less world in Cyberpunk 2077. I'd sooner zero myself than let Judy see me in stained sneakers. But I do wonder how it would have felt to play the game relying on my gear to actually power me up rather than adding yet more weight and importance to the ever-grindy path of cyberware leveling instead.

Chop shop

While I'm at it, why did nobody tell me that cyberware used to come with added steps, too? Higher-level tech could only be attained at specific ripperdocs in a pre-2.0 Night City, incentivizing players to travel far and wide in search of unique ways to buff their builds.

Much as I love being faithful to V's pseudo-pops Vik Vector, it makes so much sense to me now that this is how cyberware was supposed to work, considering how districts used to be level-locked. Watson, being the pre-Heist mission "tutorial town", is the perfect low-level training ground to get familiar with the games' mechanics before nudging the difficulty level up. You can still only buy or craft tier-appropriate items tied to your character level these days – with the exception of clothing of course – but once your V is strong enough, they can get any bit of cyberware et al from any ripper closest to them.

Removing the gated difficulty settings makes for a more realistic RPG experience, with varying enemy toughness largely a surprise that keeps you on your toes until you see a quadruple-segmented health bar, but it does take away some of the signposting that helps players know exactly how they are progressing. One of my biggest difficulties with Cyberpunk 2077 when I first started playing was having literally no idea how crafting worked, or what a Sandevistan was, or which of the many, many mission pop-ups I should be tackling first.

I understand why that sense of overwhelm is part and parcel of the overall experience, but I do think CDPR missed a trick by cutting the ripperdoc stock exclusivity factor alongside the zoned difficulties. Imagine getting a call from that one doc across town who has something awesome in stock – he can't talk about it on the phone, and can only hold it for you for a few in-game hours. Or what if specific rippers specialized in different areas, offering a huge range of skeleton or appendage upgrades that grant you an extra special bonus in return for seeing a true connoisseur? Some of the lore of the ripperdocs has been lost in the homogenization of their craft, and it's something I would love to see rectified in the sequel.

I tell you all this as I dig deeper into my fifth playthrough. I'm a stone-cold corpo with a chip on her shoulder to match the one in her neck, both tucked beneath layers of plush nanoweave and velvet, as she searches for fair competition in the game of threads. It's too easy to be the most chromed out queen this side of the Blackwall, let alone the best-dressed merc. Please, Cyberpunk 2: look to your past to give me a challenge. I'll be waiting at Embers with Hanako until then. She, at least, knows how to dress.

Wake up, samurai, there are plenty of other games like Cyberpunk 2077 for a dose of dystopian RPG mayhem!

Treyarch's original Spider-Man game lacked something. It was solidly made, and enjoyable enough to play, but failed to replicate the visceral thrill of hurtling through New York as a web-slinging superhero. It didn't capture the freedom, speed and fluidity of movement that makes Spider-Man so compelling.

Jamie Fristrom, one of Treyarch's first employees and a key member of the development team, had been away on his honeymoon when work started on Spider-Man, which was based around the first instalment of the Sam Raimi trilogy. Fristrom returned to the office to find that his colleagues had embarked down a different path to the one he envisaged.

Webs were essentially cosmetic and players could swing continuously from one to another, regardless of whether they attached to anything or not. They didn't respond to your momentum either, carrying you along at the same steady pace regardless of circumstance.

Fristrom felt that the web-swinging experience wasn't anywhere near dynamic or immersive enough. It also made Spider-Man too easy, depriving the game of the necessary speed and peril. "I was pretty disappointed by that, but I also knew that doing something more 'realistic', with physics and grappling hooks, where you actually attach to stuff, was probably not going to fly," he says. "But, during the development of that game, I did work late to cobble together my own ideas. About six months into production, I'd got something that I liked and I showed it around the team. They thought it was interesting and had potential."

That initial discussion with team members gave Fristrom the confidence to push his idea further. "I talked to the owners of Treyarch – my college buddies – and said, 'Here, look what I did.' They were like, 'Come on, Jamie, be reasonable. You can't change the core game mechanic halfway through!' It also wasn't quite there yet. You'd swing and you'd stick to a wall automatically, because Spider-Man was pretty sticky back then. That wasn't fun."

Treyarch decided to continue with the initial plan and put Fristrom's ideas to one side, at least temporarily. After the game was released in 2002, the development team went to watch Spider-Man in the cinema for the first time, an experience which changed everything. Spellbound by the film's sheer dynamism, they recognised that a more ambitious approach would be needed to ensure the sequel lived up to heightened expectations.

"Maybe we still didn't know what to do next, but we knew exactly where we were heading. Now we could do iteration after iteration. If you feel it strongly enough, getting there is just a matter of work. And we were excited enough that we didn't care how much work it would take," says Tomo Moriwaki, the game's creative director.

Soon after Spider-Man shipped, the next game was underway. Treyarch had two years to deliver Spider-Man 2 and spent the first six months of that in preproduction, refining Fristrom's prototype. "We had this period where we had one team working on gameplay and controls and character and how the camera would work, and then another team working on the tech," he explains.

"In today's world, with the kind of budgets that would be in place for a game like that now, it's unreasonable. Our bosses would have stopped us," says Moriwaki. "But, at the time, there was more distance between publisher and developer, and even the leaders of the development company. We were given a wider berth."

There was no guarantee that all this experimentation would deliver the results they wanted, causing a lot of anxiety. "There were several months of us telling our bosses, like, 'Don't look at it yet! Don't look at it yet!' That moment came where we couldn't hold them off anymore," recalls Fristrom. "That was a great day for us because they were all very impressed. They ran it all the way up the chain to the chief operating officer of Activision to show everybody what we'd done."

The new fluid style of web-swinging, in which Spider-Man would latch onto a building, lamppost, tree or other structure and pivot like a pendulum, was given resounding approval. The more attachment points that were added, the smoother the experience became. You could suddenly cover large distances much more quickly than before, in a way that felt liberating and much truer to the film. "Spider-Man becomes more like a ball that just moves through space and is influenced by the choices we make with the controller," says Moriwaki. "That shifted our thinking towards uninterrupted movement. We were on the hunt for animation transitions that took account of player velocity. If you were swinging at like 70 miles an hour, if you let go, you'd fly at that speed before starting to slow down."

This one fundamental change served as the catalyst for so many others that came together to make Spider-Man 2 far more engaging and memorable than its predecessor. Building a large open-world environment – a faithful recreation of Spider-Man's version of Manhattan that players could freely explore outside of missions – was one of the most significant, drawing inevitable comparisons with Grand Theft Auto.

Programmer Greg Taylor led the city's construction, which was a huge task. "It took longer than we expected. Greg definitely did get pretty stressed out," says Fristrom. "One of the things we had that GTA 3 didn't have was the verticality. On GTA, you're usually down on the road so you can't see that far. If you haven't loaded in distant neighbourhoods because you don't have the memory, or whatever, then it didn't matter that much.

"With Spider-Man, you could go up to the top of the Empire State Building and look around so we needed something. You couldn't just have a fog plane, like so many games did back then. Somebody came up with the idea of loading in these low-detail neighbourhoods that were basically just boxes. Always having those things in memory was pretty key, and then just having the nearby stuff loaded in high detail."

Eric Pavone and other designers populated Manhattan with activity to keep players occupied between missions. You can make deliveries for the pizzeria and take photographs for the Daily Bugle. There are various races to complete, hidden tokens to collect and crimes to stop, each earning you Hero Points that are used to buy upgrades like new attack moves or increased swing speed.

The most common type of challenges in Spider-Man 2, where you have to stop a crime or help a member of the public, were referred to as 'shenanigans' by the Treyarch team. Some had to be initiated by players, while others occurred at random, leaving you to choose whether or not to intervene. Time limits occasionally applied, like when a ship was sinking or a construction worker was about to fall from a ledge.

The lack of variety in shenanigan scenarios is one of the game's biggest drawbacks, forcing players to stop an armed carjacking, rescue a kid's lost balloon or retrieve a stolen purse from a mugger many times over. This was a by-product of the approach the team had taken and the scale of what they were trying to achieve. "Part of the problem is that, in hindsight, we were a prototype game long enough that we had to use whatever the results were," says Moriwaki. "We were just diligently going on, building all kinds of complex infrastructure for a system that we didn't know would work. Because of the way we were doing it, it had to work.

"Some of that stuff, like the armoured car robbery, was really complicated. It was already a huge logical difference to the way we scripted gameplay. It meant we were going to have to be responsible for itemising what we pulled into the scene, and also when we dumped it out. That required a difficult and complex memory management and streaming logic model."

Screen to controller

Matthew B Rhoades adapted the Spider-Man 2 screenplay to create the story. It covers the main plotline, the rise of Doctor Octopus and his fusion experiment that threatens to destroy New York, but other Marvel villains like Rhino, Mysterio and Shocker are drafted in to extend the gameplay. A highly sexualised Black Cat competes with Mary Jane Watson for Spider-Man's attentions as he struggles to reconcile his superhero responsibilities with his normal life as Peter Parker.

"We had to get approval and that wasn't automatic for us. We did a first round of just asking for a lot of different characters and a bunch of them came back 'no'. All the stuff that they said 'yes' to, we basically came up with a rationale for it," says Moriwaki. "We broke up the overall story into half a dozen pieces and then plopped the movie script's key points across that timeframe. We just found a place for it to fit in."

There was lots of extra content that the team wanted to include. Too much, as it turned out. "We were definitely behind schedule near the end. If the movie had come out when they originally said it was going to, I don't know what we would have done," says Jamie. "We got a three-month reprieve. That gave us time to bring more polish. Even with that, we had plans to do this whole sewer system with the Lizard boss, which ended up making it into the third game eventually."

Looking back, Moriwaki believes that the team were simply too close to the project, and too passionate about it, to recognise that their bold plans were getting out of hand. Eventually, Activision had to intervene, requesting that Treyarch narrow the scope of the game considerably to ensure that everything could be finished in time. Some painful sacrifices had to be made. "Spider-Man 2 must have more cut content than any game that had come out until that point," says Moriwaki. "The amount that was cut is staggering. There were some people on the project who had almost their entire work removed from the shipped game and that's terrible."

The control system used in Spider-Man was completely overhauled to make the sequel's gameplay as fluid and fast-paced as Treyarch wanted it to be. Amid all the excitement about what they'd created, there was an underlying concern that players might find the new controls too complex, potentially alienating a significant chunk of their audience.

Feedback from playtests was inconclusive. The team estimated that 10% of players might struggle but worried that the true figure could end up being even higher. "It's probably one of the most difficult core game mechanics that you can dump in somebody's lap and say, 'Here, learn this!'" says Jamie. "I was nervous as we were shipping the final thing. It was like, 'Will people just buy this and not be willing to figure out how to play it?' Most games with 3D swinging do fail, but I have a theory that the lure of Spider-Man means people are willing to get over that learning curve."

The new control system was much less intuitive than the previous one, but with the time and space to practise, which the open-world setting offered in abundance, its intricacies would gradually become second nature to most players, making Spider-Man 2 a far more rewarding experience. Treyarch's leap of faith paid off spectacularly. With the success of the film, which was the third-highest grossing of 2004, Spider-Man 2 was always destined to sell in huge numbers. Perhaps more significant was the overwhelmingly positive reception from players and critics, who praised the game for its vast scale, daring style and sheer fun factor. Sprinting, swinging, climbing and leaping around Manhattan was an absolute joy.

The developers reflect fondly on the process that led them there too. "I had an extremely good time and a ton of those people are still basically like family to me," says Tomo. "What we were able to discover, and accomplish, together was super-satisfying. It was a lot of work and, I think in hindsight, it was maybe at a somewhat unreasonable pace, but even that over-commitment just felt like mad science and experimentation.

"We developed a control scheme and a locomotion experience that could sustain an almost unlimited amount of exploration. We had no precedent for what we did and the way we did it gives me this clear example of why we take chances."

"In a lot of ways, I still feel like it was the peak of my career. Even over 20 years later, that's the coolest thing I've ever done, other than having kids!" laughs Jamie. "There's just something about Spider-Man 2 that's special and enduring.

"The fact that Spider-Man games keep coming out, and they keep paying homage to that swinging mechanic we developed, really makes me happy and proud still to this day. We changed gaming history in our own tiny way, right?"

Take a look at the best Spider-Man games for more web-head adventures!

Even the best online multiplayer games aren't firing on all cylinders all the time. In fact, I'd argue that's what makes their best moments standout – the clutch sniper nest you establish to help your team make a comeback in Black Ops 7, finally clawing back some rounds in Tekken 8 from a random player who for that evening has become your absolute nemesis, the (for some of us) rare, glittering Victory Royale in Fortnite.

The same holds true for Gears of War: E-Day's newest mode – Horde Siege – which I've been playing in early access, which at times feels like Gears as you've never played it before. At others, the same old. But, the attempt to craft these moments across large-scale player-versus-environment co-operative play is ambitious enough to be worth a respectful hat tip. Three squads of four players battle locusts across a stonking massive district of Kalona City while clearing a checklist of activities before battling to safely extract.

City boy

Gears of War E-Day's Horde Siege vision comes together when these squads collide, interacting across their different objectives to make it really feel like the city has burst into war. A few of your squad's goals may have you circling the edge of the district, before all at once lines moving through the city intersect with those of other players, bullets fly, and hulking groups of locusts all converge as well.

Kalona City, even as it's being reduced to rubble, is gorgeous – bringing to life the mix of brutalism and futurism that so characterizes what remains of civilization in the Gears games set after this prequel (E-Day, 'Emergence Day', is when the world is rocked by a locust invasion from beneath the earth). Gears of War: E-Day's single-player campaign is set entirely within Kalona City, aiming to ground this disastrous first incursion with a real sense of place. The same seems to be true of Horde Siege, maps centering on districts so large it's easy to barely see players not in your squad during large chunks of play. (There's one district in my hands-on, but there will be three maps at launch).

All this is to say that the map design is incredibly open, and the unpredictable nature of how other squads are moving through it means battle lines can feel like they emerge anywhere. If the match was only catering for to squad, you'd have a good idea of how to move through, say, a courtyard, while making effective use of cover. But when another squad is coming from a different direction with the same idea, things can get messy. Yet, thanks to the overall co-operative nature, alliances come naturally, firefights ebbing and flowing between units all driven by the same goal to wipe out locusts and get out of there intact in order to do it all over again.

Gears of War: E-Day marks a rare case where I'm more curious about the multiplayer than the campaign. I remain a bit grumpy about fleshing out the titular E-Day, as I think the still-incredible first Gears of War handles its gritty, sci-fi worldbuilding almost immaculately.

But, I'm not so cold-hearted that the prospect of a back-to-fundamentals approach to Gears doesn't appeal (I vastly prefer the original trilogy to the later games), and I can rock more with the idea of E-Day being a backdrop to multiplayer scenarios than I really need to have my 'Solo explaining Han Solo's name' moment with Marcus Fenix and the iconic lancer chainsaw rifle.

Which doesn't mean Gears of War E-Day's Horde Siege multiplayer is without flaw (for clarity, I only played this mode – not Versus). For all the moments where Kalona City comes alive with converging squads, there are many more when it doesn't, and I'm left with just my squad defending a point from oncoming Locusts, and the action doesn't feel all that evolved from my recent replay of Gears of War Reloaded.

Shifting gears

Gunplay, once meaty, feels sedate in these more modest encounters, with bullets glancing off enemies like they don't feel it as they plod directly for cover, almost ignoring I'm there. (Executions, though, are delightfully brutal). I'm not sure if this is a consequence of Horde Siege's sheer scale – combat looked more tactile in the campaign footage I've seen. After all, even when two other squads are duking it out on the other side of the map to me, they're still there.

Some of this is also the case in Reloaded, but there I can excuse it because it's a remaster of a game from 2006, and constant splurges of gore to cap off kills are frequent. Here, draining whole clips into locusts, I'm conscious of the fact I'm not seeing the chunks of them flying I'd like to see. Perhaps, also, I'm spoiled by the excellent Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2, where co-op encounters felt considerably meatier – though I understand that Space Marine 2's encounters are more tightly crafted than the sprawling scale of E-Day's Horde Siege. Whatever the case, it's true that Gears has more meathead gore-blasting competition now than it did back in the day.

I'm not sure what the solution is other than to see how Gears of War E-Day's Horde Siege mode performs once it's out in the wild. There's a chance squads run into each other more frequently than in my experience, and it feels more electric as a result. As it stands, those moments where Horde Siege shine are few and far between, and rather than feeling like exemplar moments that make the build-up worth it, I'm left soaking enemies with whole clips while I wish it was happening more often.

There's definitely solid craft within what I've played of Gears of War E-Day so far, but I'm struggling to really get a sense of overall intention. Did I mention you can jump at any point now? No, I didn't, because it seems – at least here – relatively pointless. You can slide constantly now as well, which I can see getting annoying much as it did in Modern Warfare 3. The variable cover size is a nice touch, the tutorial having me crawl along small bits of rubble on my back. But, in what I play in Horde Siege, it's still all waist high cover still rules the day.

Alongside Halo: Campaign Evolved, Gears of War: E-Day is yearning for the past, much as I'm sure Xbox is as it enacts thousands of lay-offs across some of its best-in-class development studios, has become the target of boycotts, and is staring down the barrel of massively inflated hardware prices thanks to the component crisis. But, I'm not yet convinced E-Day or Xbox fully understand what made its historic moments work. The same old can never be entirely new, and while Horde Siege can feel special, too much of the time I'm left grasping for reasons to play another match, especially when Versus mode is right there.

But what about you? Looking forwards to returning to Gears' online offerings when E-Day launches? Let us know in the comments!

Take a look at our best co-op games ranking for more!

In Project Zomboid, it's rare to go out with a bang. Most of my characters in the zombie survival RPG have died with terminally short notice, be it a car crash, a bite I didn't notice until getting home, or a cooking mishap with comically flammable chicken (a story for another time).

But with the game's upcoming Build 42 finally launching this week – adding animals, basements, and more than I can mention in one breath – developer The Indie Stone has confirmed that saves will not carry over, spelling an end to the survivor I've kept alive in the update's beta branch. So why not go out in style?

Rather than go gently into that good branch, my friends and I were intent on giving our latest run a worthy send-off. Which was, unanimously, shorthand for driving into Louisville and taking as many zombies down with us as possible.

Highway to hell

This run in Project Zomboid has been unlike any other. For starters, my friend group survived an in-game month – no small feat, given we hid rotten worms in each other's beds and nearly burned down Rosewood with a stray molotov cocktail. But with our save based on an earlier version of Build 42's beta, it also offered a great taste of the update to come.

The rural town of Muldraugh has been my preferred starting point for over a decade. But a lot has changed. Cortman Medical, for example, has been transformed from a one-floor clinic to a fenced property, the clinic tucked to the side of a far larger mansion. The police station now spans multiple floors, including a basement with an evidence room and a morgue. Speaking of basements, we found our earliest ammo supplies in a doomsday prepper's basement – alongside several unlabeled tins of food that nobody was brave enough to eat.

But chief among the changes are animals. After finding a small farm on the outskirts of Muldraugh, we hunkered down with plans to build for long-term survival. There were already cows and chickens there when we arrived, and with animals being fairly intuitive to manage, we soon had a steady supply of eggs and milk, as well as a livestock trailer to rescue sheep and pigs from neighboring farms. Cortman became our armory, a nearby mechanic was restored to keep our cars in good condition, and when I wasn't picking corn or foraging for farming supplies, I was searching for basements to marvel at.

With so much to do, I didn't notice the passing of milestones we'd usually celebrate: a week without dying, or our first out-of-town supply run. Zomboid tends to slow down for me once my base is barricaded up and its cupboards stuffed with supplies, but in Build 42's beta it seemed there was as much ahead as behind. New skills like blacksmithing and woodwork promised plenty still to do once loot dried up, while huge chunks of the map remained unexplored.

But last week (July 24) The Indie Stone announced that Build 42 was coming to the main branch of Project Zomboid on July 29 – launching as an official update for those who weren't already braving its beta. Furthermore, the stable version will include additions not seen in its beta, including big overhauls for many towns. Knowing we'd jump into the flashier build as soon as it was available, we agreed that a guns-blazing trip into Louisville – an overrun city to the southwest – would be a fitting send-off for our latest adventure.

And it was! It took most of a day to drive from Muldraugh to Louisville, as the roads were choked with wrecked cars that made driving in a three-van convoy difficult. We stopped twice: first at a military checkpoint isolating Louisville from the rest of the state, where we had to leave our vehicles and fight through a horde to remove barricades from the roads, and again at the city's outskirts to sleep. The next day we travelled into Louisville proper, cutting loose from the cautious playstyle that Project Zomboid usually mandates to create as much chaos as possible – stuffing microwaves with metal cutlery to start fires, using emergency vehicle sirens to draw out hordes, and generally being post-apocalyptic nuisances.

When the inevitable happened, it was quick and bloody. Zombies chased me into a supply closet, and only after closing the door into pitch blackness did I realize it was occupied. Those last moments were lit by the muzzle flash of my panicked shots – say what you will about being eaten alive, at least Build 42's lighting overhaul makes it look good. My friends didn't fare any better, with one killed trying to rescue me and another while climbing a fence.

Sure, letting the save falter naturally would have given our characters a peaceful send-off. But loading into Project Zomboid, you're always given the same crystal-clear message. "This is how you died," not how you lived happily-ever-after. Build 42 certainly offers more reasons to live (and I can't wait to dig into them properly as the update is out now), but for these hardy survivors there are no nice farms upstate – only fire, dark closets, and lots of gnashing teeth.

Introducing my friends to Project Zomboid ended in disaster, but it's given me a newfound appreciation for the best zombie survival sim around

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has been a massive (and much-needed) success for Ubisoft, even if that hasn't stopped the publisher from laying off a number of its devs. Looking at the player reactions, it's evident longtime fans of the series were ready for a return to the series' pre-RPG roots.

Understanding where open-world games are right now is impossible without studying what happened in the early 2010s. Skyrim proved density trumps raw size and that immersive sim elements are the key to immortality. GTA 5 became a new gold standard for modern-day sandboxes that many studios still haven't reached before GTA 6 arrives. Assassin's Creed, meanwhile, toyed with a bit of everything and began rowing towards beautiful worlds of deceptive depth and excess.

Even as someone who loves to get lost even in the largest of Ubisoft's sprawling maps, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced feels like the most satisfying and leanest the series has been in a very long time. Mind you, clearing its upgrade of a pirate-infested Caribbean still takes tens and tens of hours, but coming from behemoths like Crimson Desert – which are obsessed with stuffing as many mechanics and systems as possible into a disjointed package – Edward Kenway's seafaring adventure hits a sweet spot I think we didn't fully appreciate back in 2013.

Land ahead

Assassin's Creed Black Flag's biggest trick when it came to its scope was – and still is, despite Resynced's notable additions – that most of its Caribbean map is just water. It sounds obvious, but even with points of interest emerging from time to time and entire fleets of Spaniards and Englishmen hunting down pirates, the vast majority of the map isn't the icon-filled nightmare we started getting with Assassin's Creed Unity. Even clearing Black Flag's biggest towns, such as Havana, doesn't take too long.

By building the game around the core premise of a pirate simulator and raiding forts and small outposts in remote isles during most secondary tasks, "cities" (they aren't big) are more of a fancy set dressing for a handful of shops and key locations. Of course, they're still fun to traverse and are put to good use by scripted story missions, yet they were far from becoming "black holes" surrounded by even more content grind. I must underline Black Flag Resynced isn't a small or mid-sized game, but I recommend booting up one of its later relatives, such as Odyssey, and comparing how each of them uses its square kilometers.

Less obvious (at least at first) is the fact you can't really fully explore any chunk of land bigger than an islet with a hidden treasure and two turtles. Assassin's Creed hadn't yet reached the "you can climb anything and walk in any direction" approach that made the rebooted saga so sprawling. Dense walls of vegetation and rocky formations are used to "enclose" handcrafted areas that are rarely bigger than they need to be. Stunning vistas abound, but they're no more than that: pretty backgrounds to look at. You can't climb every mountain. Sorry, Todd Howard.

True freedom

Even rebuilt in 2026, Black Flag avoids becoming an endless expanse as gargantuan and playful as Tears of the Kingdom or a Bethesda-style simulation like the upcoming Fable. It also escapes the gravitational pull of last year's Assassin's Creed Shadows, a lovely but eventually tiring Japan-set action RPG that feels like the end of an era. It's an interesting result, and with some remaining traits – such as the lingering deluge of cosmetics – still around, it almost feels like both developers and executives fighting against their worst impulses in an attempt to chart the series' future.

There's a way to make ridiculously detailed open worlds engaging – Rockstar Games and Bethesda Game Studios figured that out ages ago – but Ubisoft isn't interested in following those schools of design. As gorgeous and well-researched as these historical romps are, Assassin's Creed exists in a different sphere, one that's concerned with more immediate thrills and "snackable" stealth action. At some point, probably influenced by entirely different mainstream hits, it moved away from that in an attempt to produce massive games for everyone. As a proud Origins truther, I've been okay with those, but like many others, I've had my fill and would like to go back.

Of course, we still don't know how Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe will implement these learnings while also serving as the next big blockbuster for Ubisoft. Success aside, Black Flag Resynced is more of an experiment – but it's safe to say we'll be getting more remakes that could be more transformative. In any case, the larger message is clear: We still like to get lost in open worlds, we just don't want them to become second lives.

While the first two Plague Tale games had a lead character in Amicia de Rune, she wouldn't have got far without support. The friends and family she drew into her orbit not only filled in gaps in her skillset, they also underlined that she was a single element in a wider social drama. It's an analogy of sorts for these games as a whole. Examine their mechanics and systems closely and you'll note that the pieces are mostly standard-issue, albeit well-crafted, third-person stealth-adventure fare. But they are part of something bigger, slotting together with plot, script, location design, music and more to produce a harmonious ensemble.

Now here's Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy – a slightly unwieldy title which aims to emphasise that this is more spinoff than direct followup. With Amicia's tale told, we're given a new charge in the form of Sophia (one of the companion characters in A Plague Tale: Requiem) and sent back along the timeline to 1333, 15 years prior to the events of the previous games. As we sit down to play through a full chapter of Resonance we're thus faced with a change of personality, time and backstory, but most of all, it transpires, a change in how we play a Plague Tale game. With all these shifts, can everything still pull in the same direction?

Into the Macula

As far as the setting goes, the change could have been much more pronounced. The dark, mystical power known as the Macula that afflicted Amicia's brother Hugo and brought forth millions of ravenous rats exists everywhere in this universe, so plague tales could potentially pop up in any time and place. Indeed, a teaser at the end of Requiem suggested the possibility of a modern-day treatment of the fiction. Was there ever a plan to make that game instead? Asobo studio head and Resonance creative director David Dedeine responds with a simple "no" – the aim was merely to emphasise the transhistorical nature of the Macula. Not that he rules out a more future-facing project. "We hope one day we will do A Plague Tale 3," he says, underlining that Resonance is more sidestep than continuation. "And it might be the case that we see how the Macula would express itself in a contemporary world."

For now, though, we're planted firmly in medieval Europe, albeit no longer trudging around French forts, farmland and battlefields. Sophia, a life-hardened smuggler and pirate when we met her in Requiem, is in her early 20s here, yet already far from wet behind the ears. With a protégé named Leni in tow, she's on the run from the Venetian army, which has decimated the gang of plunderers she belongs to. Sophia is also bothered by visions relating to the Minotaur of Greek legend, which has led her to the island that was, supposedly, its place of residence. Much of the game will unfold here, it seems, giving it a tighter focus, although it's certainly not a monotonous location. Playing through what will be the fourth chapter in the final game, we wind our way through an enormous ruin, where Sophia and Leni must work through 'trials' left for visitors many hundreds of years before. Fortunately, Sophia has a curious metal orb which acts as a key of sorts to unlock various doors and mechanisms.

If this sounds like the plot of an Indiana Jones film, this chapter of Resonance does have something of that feel. There are even moments that recall The Last Crusade as we consult a diary containing sketches that point to clues in the environment. In game terms, this means a departure from Innocence and Requiem's sneaking and crafting routines that riffed on The Last Of Us, bringing us closer to the kind of adventure you might stumble across in Uncharted or Tomb Raider. It's a concerted change, with a character who's also more comfortable crossing cutlasses than skulking in shadows. "As a starting point, we wanted to move on from the pure stealth gameplay," Dedeine says. "What we have tried to do is really shift into something more action-driven." It's a different challenge in terms of expressing the overall Plague Tale DNA, he adds, in which the interactive elements become one with the narrative direction. "The dynamics between the characters cannot be the same, so you need to find different types of layers of story."

Once we've picked our way into the ruins, a cycle of puzzles, combat and exploration begins in earnest. If we stand in the rays of sunlight that beam through portholes in the great domed roofs, our orb refracts the light to reveal hidden painted symbols like a UV torch. It then acts as an interface when we insert it into a dais with a dial to input our findings. If these trials are largely matters of observation, others demand nerves of steel. Deeper into the level we find that the ancient trial-setters were particularly fond of spike traps, which still function rather too well for comfort. One trek across a long, pressure-padded floor with only a single safe path is surprisingly tense, the orb illuminating the correct route, except where your light source is blotted out by obstacles, leaving you to memorise a section and step forward blindly. The instant, fatal punishment for a mistake is liable to make you jump, infecting your next attempt with a touch of doubt.

Not all chapters will be stacked with puzzles and traps like this, explains lead level designer Valérian Robert. They're there because it's designed to be a trial, and "it has to be brutal, so you can die in a lot of different ways". It's a sign that, as in previous games, the makers of Resonance are working hard to marry action and tone. While progress isn't truly difficult, by the end of the chapter we're having to put some thought into solutions, and being impaled is a real possibility. Nor are Sophia and Leni quick to give up clues with their chatter, although they may chime in eventually. "We didn't want to backseat players," Robert says. "We wanted players to think by themselves, and maybe if they find it a bit too hard, they can have some help." Action-adventure games of this type can become boring if you don't have to do a great deal, Dedeine adds: "We realised pretty fast that when it was like this, you don't feel like you are [on] an actual adventure. The story and the background and the graphics are not enough to give you the breadth of the adventure."

Combat follows a similar ethos. Before we get into the level proper, we're offered a tutorial to bring us up to speed regarding what's expected, which thrusts us into some close-quarters duels. Sophia's weapon of choice is a scimitar, but using it is not merely a case of hacking enemies into submission. Landing successive blows sends enemies into a stun state – the ideal opportunity to pull off a charged dagger strike that will finish weaker ones or bite a chunk out of the life bars of those with stronger constitutions. Guarding and dodging are important for working openings, and the quickest route to a stun is to pull off a parry. There's some colour-coding here as well – yellow-tinged attacks can be parried but not blocked, while red ones must be dodged. Sophia's grapnel, meanwhile, is especially handy for yanking archers from elevated platforms or reeling in foes, while a hefty boot sends most assailants staggering.

With Venetian soldiers soon teeming around the ruins (to a man, they have English accents), it's not long before our first real fight – a quick and vicious affair. Well-practised thanks to her bandit background, Sophia fights like a cornered tiger as enemies gather around her. Her sword swings mean business, while incidental actions are pleasingly direct – a bottle on the ground can be grabbed and spiked at a soldier's head with a single button press. At the same time, she's far from invincible, and death can follow swiftly if you lose the duck-and-jab rhythm or get caught off guard by yellow or red attacks.

As with the puzzles, Dedeine tells us, "when you act correctly, it's easy, but if you are doing it wrong, you can be killed brutally, because that's the tone of the Plague Tale games in general." By the end of the chapter, we're asked to link all we've been taught together and, indeed, the speed with which you can end a group of soldiers is highly satisfying, but it's hardly guaranteed as you juggle several enemies at once. Pulling an archer down is easier said than done when there's a mob around you, especially when its leader is built like an ox and on a rampage with a heavy club.

Ancient combat

If not exactly realistic, there's a palpable sense of weight and aggression to these encounters. That could be crucial in order to maintain the thrill of fighting throughout the game, since the mechanics won't increase in intricacy a great deal. With a title of this scope, Dedeine says, "you don't have the space and the time to make a very deep combat game. We wanted to be sophisticated enough to be interesting and rewarding, but not too complex either in terms of skill or in terms of RPG [elements]." Still, we can expect Sophia to learn techniques that take her beyond brawling. "We introduce at specific moments some sort of supernatural powers," Dedeine says, avoiding any specifics. But even here, Sophia won't become a superhero. "We would have broken the universe's rules if we had gone too far," Dedeine says. "We had to find the right balance between what could be believable and the fun of killing five or six soldiers," Robert adds. "I think we nailed it."

Together, the combat, puzzles and traps, along with some light exploration and relic finding, are already a pleasing combination. The new direction clearly works. Still, once again, there is nothing revolutionary here – somewhat reductively, we might call it Tomb Raider meets God Of War in the Middle Ages. Some puzzles, such as a series involving rotating mirrors reflecting beams of light, could generously be called classics of the form, while responding to flashes of red and yellow in combat is hardly new territory. That's in addition to common genre tropes such as wall sidling, zip-lining and navigating crumbling platforms as we spelunk deeper into the ruins. In this sense, Resonance shares the family trait of leaning on tried-and-tested formulae. As ever with Plague Tale, though, that is literally only part of the story. The combat and puzzles are one arm of a narrative experience, selected to feel at home within this adventure. Around them is a suite of artistic flourishes that elevates the journey.

One thing that catches our attention as we push through the ancient construct is its scale. At one point we step into a huge amphitheatre whose central stage is sunk down perhaps hundreds of metres below. Within it stands a kaiju-sized sculpture of a proud soldier. With the wear and tear on this place, we're sometimes poking about where nobody intended us to go, ducking through cracks to get behind the scenes, only to emerge again facing another implausible feat of engineering. "The scale of the structures was one of the pillars [we decided on] at the very beginning of development," Robert says. "We wanted to demonstrate this whole civilisation, and how big and extraordinary it was. We wanted players to experience this kind of shock when they see the gigantic statues." The intention becomes clear as the level culminates around an enormous effigy of the Minotaur itself, its arms animated by unseen mechanisms as you solve the puzzle around it.

More subtly impressive is Sophia herself, in many ways the polar opposite as a character of Amicia's naïvete, vulnerability and sense of privilege. Dedeine: "When we created her in Requiem, I think the team fell in love with her initially, and it was obvious for us to push her further. Based on her past and the level of involvement she had, she was the perfect character to start the new approach." In the ruins, she is keen to push forward, as awestruck as we are, and even a little blasé about the danger. She's also well prepared for a scrap and not averse to using deadly force. "The biggest difference is Amicia was forced to confront violence to protect herself and her brother," says lead writer Carol-Ann Bañuls, "but Sophia was born into it." In terms of writing the character as a protagonist, there was already plenty to work with from Requiem, Bañuls continues: "We knew she was in control of her emotions [and] strong, so we just had to follow the thread of her story to understand where she came from. She kind of talked by herself. She was so well written in Requiem, it was the easiest thing to do in Resonance."

With Sophia – at least, when she's partnered by Leni – Resonance takes on a different tone to that of Amicia and Hugo's traumatic expeditions. There has always been back-and-forth conversation between characters in these games, but here it feels lighter as the women comment on mosaics and statues and the mechanisms they find. "In this level, Sophia and Leni are still discovering the island, so we wanted to keep [their perspective] close to the player's, this sense of discovery," Bañuls says. It reinforces the sense that we're involved in an Uncharted-style adventure, as the pair approach combat with something close to arrogance and aren't exactly wracked with guilt about offing their opponents.

We shouldn't expect this levity to carry right through the tale, however. One of the reasons for taking this spinoff approach to the new game, Dedeine says, is that the team wanted "to breathe a little bit" after the grime and darkness of Requiem. And yet the shadows couldn't be kept at bay for long. "The lore of the Macula – and appetite in the team for all the drama – actually came back into the story during development." Our demo chapter is one of the lightest tonally in the game, he adds, "but there are levels which are even darker, I would say, than the ones in Requiem. So we have more contrast." Despite their humorous banter early on, then, Sophia and Leni are no Nathan Drake and Sully, which suggests there are further layers to unveil. "[Sophia] is the kind of character you admire for her strength," Bañuls says, "but you fall in love with her when you start to see the cracks in the armour."

Balancing all these elements has been a challenge for Resonance's developers, it seems, with combat and traversal and character personalities and relationships all needing to meld together. "There is a lot of back and forth between the writing and the design as a whole," Robert says, even for the chapter we play, which he explains has undergone the least alteration from the original plan. For example, the introduction of music to a level may give an area a different flavour, so the dialogue needs to be changed to adapt. "We write with the controller in our hands at all times," Bañuls says. "You just have to replay and replay the map." As experienced as Asobo may have become in making these games, then, not everything can be predicted. "Sometimes you have a good surprise," Dedeine says. "Sometimes there are things that everyone was happy with and finally it doesn't work. You need to remove them."

Towards the end of our demo, it's Leni who feels that something isn't working, not least with Sophia herself. In a cutscene, Sophia is spellbound by a bizarre vision that almost leads to her stepping off a precipice, but Leni pulls her back at the last second. And, after a few too many deadly traps, the reality of their predicament starts to kick in, Leni wondering what on earth Sophia has dragged her into. Yet she doesn't know the half of it, and perhaps nor do we, as things are about to get stranger still. In another vision we segue back to ancient Greece and suddenly we're in control of none other than Minotaur slayer Theseus, about to enter a combat trial where we must fend off fellow soldiers in a free-for-all until it's time to begin some kind of ceremony.

When we ask about the ancient Greek part of the tale, our interviewees think for a while to decide what they're allowed to say at this stage – clearly this side of the game is crucial to the story's box of secrets. "With the Greek mythology, what motivated us to go in this direction was the fact that the story of the Minotaur and the mythology was the perfect setting for us to offer a new experience to the player," Bañuls finally says diplomatically. As for how closely they've followed the original myth, that's somewhat comparable to how they treated the real Great Plague in Innocence and Requiem. "We revisited the mythology and what was grounded in the reality," Dedeine says. "Why this myth has been told to the people, and what the reality was behind it." Artistic licence will be involved too, especially in linking the past back to Sophia. "What I can say is that the title of the game is connected to that," Dedeine offers. "There is a resonance between the main character and Theseus, and that's what the story will unveil."

Something else remains a mystery at this point, but here Dedeine can set us straight. "There are no rats," he announces. "Let's break [the news]. There are no rats in Resonance. They are gone." This feels like a shift away from one of the series' signature features, but it's easy to appreciate the rationale. "At the end of Requiem, we did lots of gameplay with the rats," Dedeine says, "and at some point, when you know that you are at the end of a mechanic, you need to stop it. Otherwise we would have bored everyone." There were never going to be rats in Resonance, then, and it does feel as though they belong with Amicia and her style of play. The presence of the Macula will be felt in another form, Dedeine teases, which he can't reveal yet. "There is another expression of what the rats were in Requiem and Innocence, and it's something different. Light and shadow are [still] important because it's the lore, but there is something, I would say, more interactive and interesting than what the rats were doing in terms of gameplay."

We can only guess for now, but whatever it is, we're optimistic based on what we've seen, heard and done in Resonance. For all the change, it is still all about the ensemble of features, all supporting one another, aiming to produce more than the sum of their parts. And in the spirit of celebrating the support acts, as we complete the final trial in our demo and Sophia and Leni head deeper into the ruin for more, we'll leave the last words to our companion. "The second trial. Let's hope it's as easy as the first," she quips sarcastically, recognising the difficulties they've overcome. Yes, and as enjoyable, too.

Want more creepy adventures? Check out our best horror games recommendations!

It's finally happening. The Final Fantasy 7 Remake series is coming to Final Fantasy 14.

Over the last decade, its addition felt like a question of when rather than if. Final Fantasy 14 is designed, in part, to be a theme park that pays tribute to the wider series, with references and nods aplenty. We've seen plenty of crossovers over the years – from Final Fantasy 16 and Nier to other franchises like Monster Hunter – and Final Fantasy 14's own producer and director Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida has spoken about the possibility before, saying the timing needed to be right.

So how did it finally happen, and why now, exactly? Speaking to Final Fantasy 7 Revelation boss Naoki Hamaguchi at Final Fantasy 14's Berlin leg of Fan Fest, it's one of the first questions I ask.

Hamaguchi tells me that discussions kicked off about a year ago during a conversation with Yoshi-P about the release dates for Evercold and Revelation, and it all went from there.

"Is there something we can do to use the fact that they're close together to bring some energy to the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole?" Hamaguchi tells us of the question he and Yoshi-P pondered. "That's really how things started."

Have you heard of . . .

Fast forward to today, and we have a better idea of what that collaboration looks like. Final Fantasy 14 is getting a Final Fantasy 7-themed raid called Beyond the Lifestream that involves the supervision of veterans of the OG JRPG – that being, writer Kazushige Nojima and the man responsible for Cloud's look, Tetsuya Nomura. Amusingly, Final Fantasy 14's version of the Gold Saucer is getting a revamp to look more like it does in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, complete with a typing game that'll get an FF7 theme to start.

Speaking to his own role in the collaboration, Hamaguchi says that, similar to Yoshi-P, he's there to guide the team's excitement into something realistic and achievable. "We have to be really careful that it's not impacting the [Final Fantasy] 14 patch release schedule," he says, "because then we're putting the cart before the horse."

As for what a successful collaboration looks like, Hamaguchi says Final Fantasy 7 fans jumping into Final Fantasy 14 and becoming Warriors of Light would be great, especially if Evercold and the crossover brought some of that momentum to the launch of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation itself. "I suppose the ultimate aim is to see that throughline of excitement and enjoyment," Hamaguchi adds.

There's certainly a solid sense of anticipation around both games already. Final Fantasy 14's Evercold reveal has certainly left some of the MMO heads on this very website feeling hopeful, and Hamaguchi tells me it's been "really wonderful" to see players pick up Final Fantasy Remake and Rebirth on PC, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch 2 following the reveal of Revelation.

Duty complete

Of course, excitement can lead to additional pressure. Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is the final entry in a trilogy that essentially splits one game into three. While I enjoyed what Rebirth offers in terms of combat and the open world, I ask Hamaguchi how the team is freshening up the game, especially in light of his recent comments about open-world fatigue.

Hamaguchi tells me there are two ways in which they're doing that. The first is adding a greater sense of exploration to the world map. Pointing to the Grasslands in Final Fantasy Rebirth, Hamaguchi says it's very large and expansive, but also very "flat."

The remedy is more verticality. Hamaguchi can't reveal everything, though he does say you can dive into the map from the Highwind, and your chocobo will also be able to fly, which Hamaguchi hopes will make "certain parts less frustrating."

Another way the Final Fantasy 7 Revelation team is keeping things fresh is by making sure the "goal and reward" of side content is clearer, especially following feedback from Rebirth.

"One of the things I think people got a little bit tired of – or maybe that's when they stepped away from the game – was on the world map, there is a lot of content," Hamaguchi says. "And sometimes you'd get rewards like materia if you finish that content. But for those people who just wanted to get those materia or rewards, they might feel like they have to do certain mini-games, even if they don't really want to."

To remedy this, Hamaguchi says that content in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will match the reward to what you're doing – rewards that'll aid you in battle will be achieved through battle, a new Queen's Blood card will be earned through Queen's Blood, and so on. The hope is that the clarity will allow players to ignore the content they don't want to engage with.

Finding the right FITS

When it comes to combat, one of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's standout new features is the FITS system – that being, Function Integrated Tactical Suitwear. It essentially acts as a new job system that allows the likes of Cloud and Tifa to play as something like a Black Mage as opposed to the brawlers people might typically typecast them as.

Despite the visual flair of a new outfit, Hamaguchi says the biggest influence on the new feature was the job system as a Final Fantasy staple overall, though he can't say there was "zero influence" taken from the likes of Final Fantasy X-2 or Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13.

The new feature hasn't been without its troubles, though, as Hamaguchi jokes that adding the FITS system reminded him about "how hard it is to develop games these days."

"When you look at some of the early Final Fantasy games that have job systems, you could put a lot in there," Hamaguchi says. And while the developers behind ongoing games like Final Fantasy 14 have done "fantastic work" in adding a variety of classes over the years, bringing something like 20-30 classes to a standalone title at launch would be "insanely difficult."

Hamaguchi also jokes that, while there are many open-world games out there, few allow your party to follow you around. "Even though we only have four FITS, we have a lot of characters, so it was quite a lot of work."

Another thing that makes Final Fantasy 7 Revelation stand out from the other two installments is a proper endgame. While players seeking a challenge in Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth are typically directed towards playing NewGame+, Revelation brings the challenge to your first playthrough, ready to tackle once you're powerful enough to do so.

Being the third entry in a trilogy, I ask Hamaguchi how the team is using that to shape how it's approaching the endgame and anticipated moments like fighting superbosses like Ruby and Emerald Weapon.

"Obviously, what we're making is an RPG," Hamaguchi answers. "And I think one of the things that's fun about RPGs is having the characters you've leveled, you've customized, and you've brought them up where they are, and using them to overcome difficult situations.

"So, say you had this fight against a Weapon, a giant enemy, or something that's really exciting or cool. And you go into it, and it's just a completely new mechanic or mini-game. I think there are quite a few players who would come away from that feeling quite disappointed that it wasn't a reflection of the effort that they put into building something up to that point.

"But the general goal for our team when we're thinking about making these Weapon fights is that we want to have the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series combat system at the base. What we've been building up over these three games. Perhaps there'll be some extra gadgets, some other things adding something new and unique to the Weapon battle, but we want to have that foundation there as well.

"So there may be some mini-games involved in parts of them, say at the beginning of one of the fights or something like that, to mix things up a little bit. But the core battle is really focused on the characters that you have come through the rest of the game with as an RPG."

On the case

While there are plenty of exciting developments within Final Fantasy 7 Revelation itself, those unfolding outside of the game and Square Enix are difficult to ignore. As Final Fantasy 7 Revelation nears completion, one of the more prominent conversations currently occurring across the industry is about physical media. Rockstar made headlines when it was revealed that GTA 6 would be a code-in-a-box at launch, though Sony's call to end PlayStation disc production in 2028 has swiftly dwarfed that in online chatter.

Given some of the conversations I've seen in Final Fantasy 7's fandom about whether Revelation will release on a physical disc, I ask Hamaguchi for his thoughts on the topic and whether there's any news he can share.

Hamaguchi starts by saying that some of his thoughts have been touched upon as part of Nintendo Switch 2's game-key cards – you can read about that here, as part of an interview we did with Hamaguchi last year. He then says that, as a developer and as a fan, it seems to be the trend that we're shifting away from physical to digital.

When it comes to his personal feelings, though, Hamaguchi says he's a fan of physical media, and events like Final Fantasy 14 Fen Fest are one of the many reasons why.

"I really think that people bringing up things, asking for autographs – I think that's lovely," he tells us. "I think it's a wonderful culture and it would be a shame to lose that. I want that to remain."

As for his personal prediction of where things go from here, Hamaguchi says he feels that "there will always be some kind of physical or packaged edition, even if download codes become the main way that games work."

"I feel like there will always be something," Hamaguchi says, "and I hope there will be."

Looking ahead to Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, Hamaguchi says the team is "still having internal discussions on what the exact SKU product lineup is going to be," so he can't say anything "definitive" at the time of writing. That said, he is trying his best to "allow us to have some kind of physical edition."

"Obviously, say, if you're talking to Nintendo, there's considerations about the storage limits on key cards and things like that, and then other platforms about how much you can put onto a disc," Hamaguchi explains. "Each platform and first-party have their own specific rules and regulations that we need to take into account, and think about what format is actually going to be best for the game.

"These are the discussions that we're having at this point in time. I do hope that we'll be able to come up with something that is as close as possible as to what players and fans are going to want, but you'll have to look forward to future announcements for that."

Given that Final Fantasy 7 marked the series' debut on disc, it's certainly odd to think of a different FF7 game going without. That said, Final Fantasy 7 launched on disc because the cartridge was no longer the best format for the game, and these days, given Square Enix's own strategy pivot, that would mean making the game as accessible as possible across multiple platforms. As the industry settles into a way of working that's more about getting the most out of average hardware rather than pushing hardware's limits further, it'll be interesting to see what compromises Final Fantasy 7 Revelation can manage.

Still, I remain cautiously optimistic for what Final Fantasy 7 Revelation brings. Rebirth improved on Remake in a big way that has me curious to see what part three of the trilogy has in store, and everything we've seen and heard so far hits the right notes.

"I want this guy to make Final Fantasy 17": Yoshi-P embarrasses Final Fantasy 7 Remake lead with the "highest praise you can get" from players live on stage at FF14 Fan Fest.

I loved Returnal. I loved my time demoing Saros' opening hours. But, I'm not made of money. I'm still getting used to new games launching for £70/$70 (let alone 80 bucks), and by 'getting used to' I mean 'not buying'. Years of my childhood spent a gaming generation behind, picking out discounted cartridges from behind glass at the pawnshop, or buying unloved discs for a fiver a pop has taught me one thing: the patient gamer gets the worm. But, that might be changing.

I finally snagged Saros last week for 40% off. It's still expensive, but it's the sort of deal I've been keeping an eye out for – my usual method for scooping up new releases I don't need day one. And yet, with PlayStation ending physical disc production, I'm struck by the cold realization this might be the last time I get my hands on a boxed discount like this for PS5. It's an ignoble end for a deal hunter like me.

Disc-overed at the scene

I like a digital deal as much as the next gamer, but there's no thrill of the hunt when it comes to snagging virtual discounts. Whether PlayStation or Xbox, each digital marketplace is a walled garden, where deals come and go like clockwork to the exact prices agreed upon in advance. There's no real competition to be had, no variables to consider. No satisfaction for snagging a particular good deal, just a deal – the deal you were told to be grateful for.

Countless times I've even been swayed into pre-orders by deals – combining storefront voucher codes with already-reduced retail pricing to knock a crucial few bucks off an already slashed release. Who can forget the highs of getting Super Mario Bros Wonder at launch for £37.49 from Currys? The earth-shattering frugality of it made the excellent platformer all the sweeter. It's basically the only way I will ever pre-order a game before release.

Rare is the new, physical game that doesn't have some price reduction as major retailers face off to secure their orders, and then over time reduce games further to reduce stock. In conversation with my friends – those who game constantly and those who only pick up one or two a year – we often discuss where we've snagged the best deals, which retailers to look to first to get a better offer. The local discounts at Argos! The big reductions at Smyths! I've written enough Black Friday and Prime Day gaming deals to see how heavy savings can be on Amazon across regions for relatively new games. I've regularly seen Star Wars Outlaws physical copies cheaper than it's ever been on the PlayStation store – and that's just one example.

And all of that's before I get started on second-hand and pre-owned shops where prices can spiral further. Fifteen quid for The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker with the Ocarina of Time bonus disc changed the trajectory of my life forever. Perusing the likes of CEX or other local shops formed the backbone of my own library when I was a cash-poor base Xbox 360 model owner, scooping up Devil May Cry 4, Fable 2, and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts for one crisp twenty note (an unwise chunk of my bank balance at the time – I never said I had good priorities).

These days, I'm rarely a collector. I personally don't really care if a game is on my shelf or in my digital library. I simply want to get a good price for my purchases, and encourage my friends to do the same. It's really the removal of purchase options that makes me concerned. I even worry that with less competition, we'll see digital deals get worse over time. At least on PC there are alternative shops to Steam, even if it has an incredibly large market share.

Giving consumers fewer ways to buy makes me feel disrespected. You will lose potential players as a result, even if it's in tough-to-track data – a player who buys a pre-owned game who might convert to buying the sequel new, new fans of a series or developer who only gave them a shot once they were cheap enough at their local. Streamlining an experience inherently removes avenues in. Market control is trumping the consumer experience.

It's not just the fact that gaming as a hobby is becoming more and more expensive to enjoy, it's that the ways in which you could make gaming more affordable for yourself are being obliterated. The AI industry is choking out component availability so hardware gets pricier over the course of a console generation rather than cheaper, completely inverting the traditional customer dynamic where the price of entry lowers and more users come in over time. Options to get discounts on new, physical games, and the pre-owned market are being crushed with hammers.

Even while indie gaming continues to offer some of the most affordable gaming and often incredible new experiences, the wider industry is also exerting tremendous pressure on those indie developers to remain sustainable. It feels like there's no way out of it, and it's those with less who are feeling it the hardest – players and creators alike.

For now, I guess I'll try to enjoy Saros, but it's a different kind of existential horror to the mysterious eclipse that's affecting me at the moment. If gaming had been like this when I was a kid, there's simply no way I would be playing today. There was nothing lesser in my experience playing the cheap, discounted scraps – there was a treasure-finding glee into uncovering the good stuff at a discount, even if that meant risking wasting pocket money on some absolute guff. Sorry-not-sorry if it affected a tiny margin on some Windows 95-era spreadsheets, I guess.

Stopping poorer gamers from deal hunting, young kids from counting up their money to see which pre-owned release they can afford, or prohibiting swapping, trading, and borrowing your favorites with your friends crushes a vital human element of gaming. It makes me worry about the future of the industry, but it makes me worry about those looking to find joy in a rancid economy all the more, whether that's playing games, or making joyous experiences you want to share with others. We all deserve better.

Check out the best PS5 games for what to play next!

Halo's greatest strength is simplicity. Super-soldier protagonist Master Chief is an immovable object, the Covenant's alien invaders an unstoppable force, and hitting them together like action figures has created 25 years of entertaining FPS hijinks. Returning to the first game via Halo: Campaign Evolved, little has changed – even when it has.

The remake features a prologue from developer Halo Studios, with three all-new missions that see Chief tear through a Covenant ship before the events of the original game. The prologue is Halo Studios' first original creation since the studio's rebrand from 343 Industries in 2024, which means we're effectively getting a glimpse into the series' future while fresher players are given the perfect introduction to Master Chief and Halo's setting.

Shipping it

Aboard the Covenant's vessel, you're thrown straight into the carnage. It's an excellent setting for an FPS, particularly one of Halo's straightforwardness. Squeezed into the ship are cramped service corridors, grand halls, and even a domed Earth-like desert biome – all unmistakably alien, but designed with perfunctory violence. Ornate balconies can be a vantage point for Jackal snipers or a haven for Chief to blast Brutes from a distance, and every door is a potential entry-point for more aliens – and just about the only place you can create a chokepoint, if you're quick enough to frag a gaggle of Grunts before they can disperse. Even in a linear shooting gallery like this, I always feel moments away from being overrun on all sides.

The developer also recognizes the importance of Master Chief's momentum, which is something I clocked while playing the original game's remade levels. Standing still is a surefire way of being pelted with grenades, leaving you to push forward as your only option – if only to pluck a plasma rifle from a dead brute, as limited ammo makes every weapon a disposable tool. I'm pinballed from gun to gun, drawn further out of position until I look back and realize I've completed most of the prologue this way. The original Halo campaigns were defined by their breathlessness, and it's bracing to see Halo Studios lean into the same dynamic so effectively.

As someone who has lapsed from the series since the Xbox 360 days, the new prologue also serves as a nice way into Halo at its simplest. A Star Wars-style crawl establishes humanity's war against the Covenant, while Master Chief is endearingly portrayed as both stoic hero and tongue-in-cheek action film caricature. "Chief – you ever get tired of being the strong, almost-silent type?", he's asked during a lull between shootouts. Long pause. "No."

By remaking the first Halo after a major development overhaul, Halo Studios seems to be looking back to find its way forward. Its originality in the prologue shows the developer certainly has the shooter chops to carry Halo forward – five minutes with the CE Magnum is enough to confirm that – but the bigger question is how this action will be framed going forward. Does the prologue's claustrophobic structure mean we'll see more traditional shooter levels in future Halo games, or will they build upon Halo Infinite's open-world experimentation?

Whatever the answer, I just hope the next game from Halo Studios is wholly original. After all: what's Halo if not moving forward?

Not sure where to start? Here's how to play the Halo games in order

If you're looking to play the Halo games in order, I've brought together this handy guide to break it all down for you.

Here, you can find all of the major Halo games and some off-shoots compiled below in two different orders. Starting with the release date order first, you can find a list that gives you an overview of the series as it originally launched, from its beginnings in 2001, right up to the latest new game in 2026 with the arrival of the remake, Halo: Campaign Evolved (which you can find out more about in our Halo: Campaign Evolved review).

For those of you looking to explore the series in narrative order, I've also detailed how to play the Halo games chronologically, with overviews of where each entry sits in the Halo timeline and if or how the events of the games connect story wise. Of course, alternatively, you can also explore the series by checking out our ranking of the best Halo games if you're after the highlights, too. But for an overview of how to play the Halo games in order, read on.

How to play the Halo games in release order

If you want to play the Halo games in release order, you can find a helpful list breaking down all of the games (including some major spin-offs) below, with the original launch years they came out in.

• Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)
• Halo 2 (2004)
• Halo 3 (2007)
• Halo Wars (2009)
• Halo 3: ODST (2009)
• Halo Reach (2010)
• Halo 4 (2012)
• Halo: Spartan Assault (2013)
• Halo: Spartan Strike (2015)
• Halo 5: Guardians (2015)
• Halo Wars 2 (2017)
• Halo Infinite (2021)
• Halo: Campaign Evolved (2026)

How to play the Halo games in chronological order

If you're instead looking to play the Halo games in chronological order, the list looks quite different. While, for example, Halo: Combat Evolved was technically the very first Halo game to release, later Halo games take you to earlier points in the Halo timeline of events. So, if you're looking to experience the narrative of the series chronologically, I'll break it down for you here.

With both a list so you can see the order at a glance, as well as a more detailed overview of the timeframes and how it ties into the overall narrative, you'll also find current platforms listed where you can still play these today.

• Halo Wars
• Halo: Campaign Evolved (prologue missions)
• Halo: Reach
• Halo: Combat Evolved
• Halo 2
• Halo 3: ODST
• Halo 3
• Halo: Spartan Assault
• Halo 4
• Halo Spartan: Strike
• Halo 5: Guardians
• Halo Wars 2
• Halo Infinite

1. Halo Wars (2531)

Halo Wars is the first real-time strategy game set in the Halo universe, and it's also technically the first game in the series narratively speaking. With the events of Halo Wars taking place some 21 years before Halo: Combat Evolved (and, of course, its remake, Halo: Campaign Evolved).

Taking place in the year 2531 during the tail-end of the Harvest campaign – which revolved around trying to reclaim the colonist world of Harvest that's been ravaged by the alien Covenant empire (who are determined to destroy humanity). You play as one of various leaders and take command of either UNSC military units who are part of the Red Team, or the Covenant, and get thrown into the conflict. The parasitic threat known as The Flood also factors into the campaign.

2. Halo: Campaign Evolved (2551 - Prologue missions)

For the most part, Halo: Campaign Evolved serves as a shiny new remake of Halo: Combat Evolved, but there are some new bonus prequel missions introduced that place it earlier in the timeline narratively.

Taking place a year before the main story of Campaign Evolved (and Combat Evolved) and prior to Halo: Reach, these Operation Meteorite missions explore a self-contained story featuring Master Chief and Sergeant Johnson teaming up to infiltrate and investigate a Covenant research vessel above the colony of Promise. It mostly establishes that Chief and Johnson were best pals before the events of Halo 1, but also introduces a new Prophet character, who may be more important in the inevitable Halo 2 remake.

So, if you do want to play the Halo games in order, it could be worth tucking into Campaign Evolved over Combat Evolved, or play it before you play the original if you're keen to try both. However, you won't be missing much by skipping these prequel missions and going straight to the next game.

3. Halo: Reach (2552)

Halo: Reach brings forward the Halo timeline from Wars, but is still a precursor to Halo: Combat Evolved. And rather than being an RTS like Wars, it's an FPS like the majority of the series.

Taking place a few weeks before the events of Combat Evolved in the year 2552, the game explores the Fall of Reach, a key human colony planet that served as one of the last bastions of military strength against the Covenant.

The campaign sees you playing as super solider Spartan B312 (aka Noble Six), a member of the elite Noble Team, who are sent to look into a distress beacon on the planet. It soon becomes apparent that the Covenant are on Reach and you'll get swept up in countless battles against the alien invaders as they continue their devastation from the Harvest campaign. Reach's ending then almost immediately leads into the start of Halo: Combat Evolved.

4. Halo: Combat Evolved (2552)

The FPS that kicked off the Halo Series, Combat Evolved (and its 2026 remake, Halo: Campaign Evolved), bring the events forward from Halo: Reach some weeks later. Still set within the same year of 2552, Combat Evolved follows Spartan John-117, better known as Master Chief, who begins the game in cryo sleep aboard the UNSC ship Pillar of Autumn after the Fall of Reach.

The Pillar of Autumn is quickly overrun by the pursuing Covenant, and Captain Jacob Keyes charges Master Chief with protecting the ship's AI Cortana from falling into the hands of alien forces. But after you crash onto an ancient, mysterious ringworld (aka a Halo) known as Installation 04, you'll soon find yourself fighting back against the Covenant forces that revere it and uncovering its true purpose.

5. Halo 2 (2552)

Also taking place in the year 2552, Halo 2 unfolds following the events of Combat Evolved. But rather than solely focusing on Master Chief, Halo 2 also explores a Sangheili warrior called Thel 'Vadam who holds the title of The Arbiter.

Playing as both characters at different points in the narrative (before their plotlines eventually converge), the game sees the Human-Covenant war escalate, with the aliens now invading Earth. Master Chief starts the fight aboard Cairo Station before eventually battling through the city of New Mombasa, which sets up what's to come in Halo 3: ODST. Meanwhile, the Arbiter contends with The Flood on another Halo known as Installation 05.

6. Halo 3: ODST (2552)

Halo 3: ODST actually takes place during Halo 2 and acts as a prequel of sorts to Halo 3. Taking on the role of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper called Rookie, you set out to find out the motivations behind the Covenant's attack and invasion of the city of New Mombasa on Earth.

Shaking up the combat, ODST introduces some stealth as you try to survive against the overwhelming enemy forces. Structurally, it's also quite different to other games, featuring some open world exploration as you explore the ruined streets of New Mombasa at night looking for clues as to where your missing squad mates are, which lead into more linear missions that show the chaos of the Covenant's invasion. Overall, it builds up a more complete picture of the Battle for Earth prior to the events of Halo 3.

7. Halo 3 (2552)

Halo 3 then sees out the year 2552 with the return of Master Chief, who's back in the leading role. The Arbiter also makes another appearance, although now he's only playable in co-op multiplayer. Set a few weeks after the events of Halo 2, the third entry follows on from ODST to bring the original Halo trilogy to a close.

After crash landing into an African jungle, Master Chief sets out to finally finish the long fight against the Covenant. As you battle against enemy forces, you also work to uncover a secret that could turn the tide of the fight. But along the way, you'll also have to contend with the threat of The Flood, too. With Halo 3 officially wrapping up the Human-Covenant War, the game ends with Master Chief entering cryo sleep on the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn ship – which is left adrift in space – to await rescue.

8. Halo: Spartan Assault (2554)

Set between the events of Halo 3 and Halo 4 in the year 2554, Halo: Spartan Assault is an off-shoot entry in the series that plays as a twin-stick, top-down arcade-y shooter rather than the mainstay FPS format of the core trilogy. Originally released on PC and mobile before coming to Xbox 360 and Xbox One, it features over 30 campaign missions.

Its concept revolves around a training simulation tool for Spartans. As you try to progress your career as a prospective Spartan, you'll be drawn into key battles that take place within the timeline. As the games go, this is one of those off-shoot you don't really need to play to follow the overarching narrative of the main series.

9. Halo 4 (2557)

Picking up where Halo 3 left off, Halo 4 takes place less than a handful of years later, and follows Master Chief as he's awakened by Cortana on the Forward Unto Dawn ship – which is still adrift. Cortana, now several years old, is starting to suffer from rampancy, making her unstable.

The duo eventually find themselves on the Forerunner world known as Requiem, where soon enough, he finds himself facing the Covenant and another threat in the Forerunners (another advanced alien species) with the mighty Didact as their commander.

10. Halo Spartan: Strike (2557)

Just like Halo Spartan: Assault, Halo Spartan: Strike is another off-shoot twin-stick shooter set in the Halo universe. Narratively speaking, it does jump a little in terms of the timeline, with it including events that took place in 2552, but it's technically set in the year 2557. As another smaller experience that doesn't hold as much weight as the mainline games, this is another one you could miss without much trouble.

But if you want to experience it, this is where it sits within the timeline of events, and it kind of mirrors the concept of Assault in that it's another series of missions centered around a tactical simulation training tool that was originally developed for mobile.

11. Halo 5: Guardians (2558)

Halo 5: Guardians takes place in the year 2558 after the events of Halo 4, and puts you in the role of both Spartan Jameson Locke, who's a part of ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence), and Master Chief. When series hero Master Chief goes AWOL after going after Cortana with his Blue Team Spartan allies, you as Locke set out to bring him back with Fireteam Osiris.

Playing as both characters at different points throughout the campaign, our original Halo 5: Guardians review picked at its story, which doesn't feel as cohesive or impactful as its predecessor, with much of its events feeling more inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

12. Halo Wars 2 (2559)

Just like the first Halo Wars game, Halo Wars 2 takes the series back to the realms of strategy and sees the Spartan Red Team awaken from cryo sleep 28 years after the events of the first Wars game. Set in the year 2559, it takes place in the timeline following the events of Halo 5 and sees you play as a leader of your choice as you command your own army and take on a new threat in the Banished, a Brute-led faction born out of the Covenant.

With the option to play as either humanity, or the Banished in the story, you build up bases, take charge of troops and vehicles, and navigate battles in missions centered around the Ark – a Forerunner installation first seen in Halo 3

13. Halo Infinite (2560)

As the most recent game to release in the Halo series (outside of the Campaign Evolved Remake), Halo Infinite is also the latest entry in the timeline, with events unfolding in the year 2560. Taking place roughly 18 months after the events of Halo 5: Guardians, Infinite sees you assume the role of Master Chief as the war against the alien Banished faction has effectively been lost.

With Halo Infinite being set on a Halo ring known as Installation 07 (Zeta Halo) which is coming back online and poses another threat, Master Chief works to shut down the Halo. Cortana's actions from Halo 5 are largely glossed over and, while she features in the story, Master Chief instead finds himself paired with a new AI known as The Weapon. If you want a more in-depth explanation of the storyline, you can check out our Halo Infinite story explainer.

Looking for more recommendations? Check out our pick of the best FPS games.

Wingspan Pocket is like one of the apex predators it depicts; it swoops in, claws outstretched, and carries you away before you even know what's hit you. I love the original version, but after getting my hands on this travel-sized follow-up… well, a new board game rules the roost in this house.

Based on the mega-popular Wingspan, this smaller, nimbler variant is designed to be played in just 25 minutes or so. Because it's made up of cards and a few tokens, it also requires much less real estate. (The original board game had some spectacular plumage, but it ate up table space like a gannet.) However, the most crucial difference with Wingspan Pocket is that it's so much easier to play… but is arguably just as fun. I spend a lot of time testing the best board games so would like to think I've got a good idea of what works, and I've got a very good feeling from this. My family enjoys Winspan but can feel overwhelmed by it if we haven't played for a while, so I appreciate that this one streamlines the system into something much more manageable.

You're still collecting birds here, but you don't need an entire menagerie; you just have to get six. Once half a dozen are arranged in a flock on the table, that's it – game over. Players then get another turn until everyone has had an equal number of goes, and you tally up your score. This means you can be done in a fraction of the time.

The way you get birds is the same too, but has been similarly tidied up. Rather than relying on dice rolls to earn resources, each bird card has a random resource symbol printed on the back. These are laid out in a row of four decks you can draw from each turn, and they'll be used to pay for any feathered friends you'd like in your flock. It's so much more deliberate than the original, because even though you're still at the mercy of chance based on what's at the top of each deck, there are always four to choose from at any given time. Plus, there seem to be a lot of 'double' resources available, with certain bird abilities allowing you to swap or ignore specific values. Canny players have options as a result.

The key is when to strike. Actually, that's true of everything about Wingspan Pocket. You have limited space for birds so must balance how many points they'll earn you at the end with their abilities. In addition, those abilities can only be used when the bird card is locked into your flock… so get ready to make some tough, quick-fire decisions on what to use, and when. Should you deploy something that allows you to use a resource in place of anything else, even though the bird itself earns you fewer points when all is said and done? Or are you better off going for a bird with a higher score, but less interesting abilities? I've only just started scratching the surface of this board game, and there's already a lot to consider.

This extends to the fact that your match draws to a close when anyone has added six birds to their flock. It adds a ticking clock to proceedings, because you don't want to be caught out by the endgame without having done everything you want… and by the same token, it adds pressure to keep an eye on what your foes are doing in case they're planning to end the game early to stop you in your tracks.

Even if it all goes awry, this only adds to the "one more match" element of Wingspan Pocket. There's always some new tactic or approach you'll want to try, and that's catnip to me. I can see it being a great travel board game as a direct result, because it'll keep you amused across many evenings of play on vacation.

It reminds me of Catan On the Road, which sunk its hooks into me nice and early too. Both condense their inspiration into something much more bitesize, all without losing what made the originals special.

Just proceed with caution, though; if you're anything like me, Wingspan Pocket may sweep you off your feet too.

For something else to play on the go, don't miss the best card games. As for something you can enjoy with your loved ones, be sure to check out our guide to the best family board games.

• Browse today's best discounts on board games at Amazon

It's December 2006, and after months of eagerly scrubbing through trailers and poring over Official Nintendo Magazine, a brand new Zelda game is on the way. Not just that, it feels like the Zelda game, a gritty successor to Ocarina of Time's throne, bolstered with the incredible motion controls of the Wii. As December 8 rolled around, I queued up at midnight with my best pal, giddy with excitement, and sped home quickly as if the wind of Tulin was behind me.

We stayed up until five in the morning playing Twilight Princess, briefly slept, then went straight back to it. My poor younger brother didn't touch Wii Sports for at least a week. But, it wasn't the much-touted waggle controls that offered the biggest thrills, or the (at the time) incredible graphics. Instead it was Twilight Princess's commitment to tone, to crafting a lived-in world, and the tangible feeling that this space was really right in front of us – if we could just reach in and touch it.

Now 20 years later, it's that attention to detail, along with a mixture of reality and fantasy, that still makes Twilight Princess's dungeons the best the series has ever produced.

Got that dog

Twilight Princess feels quaint in hindsight when compared to BotW, but when it comes to solving puzzles this works in its favour. Each dungeon feels like a distinct part of this world, but it also feels absorbing. Scale works both ways, and spending more time in a small but richly detailed world gives you a real sense of your place in 3D space, especially with the immersive motion controls helping to bridge your suspension of disbelief.

For instance, the Goron Mines in Twilight Princess feel like a functioning part of that world. Heavy doors groan when they're heaved open, and bridges thud with a distinct weight when you fire your arrow to lower them. Breath of the Wild offers so much to do, but occasionally the sheer scope of that world makes smaller moments feel weightless. Twilight Princess makes each room feel consequential, and every solution to a puzzle feels like you've shifted something monumental in the world. You can imagine the Gorons down here smelting all day, which makes it more fun when you interact with elements that feel tangibly useful.

One standout example is Snowpeak Ruins, a dungeon that sneaks up on the player as you slowly realize this frosty new area you have discovered is your latest mystery to solve. Here, you also consistently interact with the Yeti couple Yeto and Yeta as you explore the grounds, further strengthening the belief this is a space that characters actually inhabit. So, when you unlock the fantastic Ball and Chain and start swinging wildly, the sense of power and relief is thoroughly earned. Not to mention, the Snowpeak boss uses both those interactions and your understanding of the space perfectly, turning your time bonding with the Yetis into an emotionally resonant fight instead of just another piece of Ganon fodder.

Speaking of the Ball and Chain, Twilight Princess has one of the best selections of items in any game, let alone a Zelda game. Unlocking the Spinner, and not only discovering a Beyblade-esque method of transport, but the function of those conspicuous jagged teeth in the wall of the Arbiter's Grounds, is immensely satisfying. It is phenomenal dungeon design to add a weapon that feels like a genuine part of this world, then offer both functional ways to use it in this established environment but also ways to attack enemies like the awesome fight against Stallord.

Perhaps it was the overcorrection after Wind Waker's reception, but Twilight Princess works so hard to establish a feeling of unease, of an oppressive and omnipresent sense of dread in the world. Link feels truly up against the world, and you want to help every character you meet in this slim cast. Nintendo consistently makes great dungeons for Zelda games (except for you Breath of the Wild), but in Twilight Princess the mixture of tone, a push for realism, and the immersive motion controls really help to elevate already stunning work.

Even on GameCube, stripped of those motion controls, Twilight Princess works on many levels to make every action feel important. Link's quest here feels uniquely intimate; the standout cast of characters offers support and genuine peril, and the unique selection of weapons works overtime to make you feel like you're interacting with a living and breathing world. As we look to the future, I hope even as Zelda continues to grow, we can reclaim the sense of consequence and importance that occur when we interact with a smaller, functional, and uniquely living world.

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was so secret within Nintendo, most employees found out about it for the first time at its E3 reveal: "We popped off"

Nothing humbles a fan of first-person shooters faster than a hardcore Mil-Sim like Hell Let Loose: Vietnam.

Picture it. You're creeping under cover of the jungle canopy as helicopters whir overhead. Short sharp shocks of gunfire are your only real guide towards a forming frontline; squad orders are the other, as the voice of a squadron Commander crackles over the comms line to scramble Infantry units back through dense brush to reform fracturing formations. As enemies pour over the crest of a distant hill, your M16 rumbles as bodies crumble. And then, nothing. A bullet fired from an unknown location rips through your torso. Medics in the area ignore your pleas for help. The long walk back to the action begins again.

There was a time in my life where military simulation games were all I would play. Highly lethal gunplay meets minimal visibility and low hit detection across large open terrains? Count me in! The Operation Flashpoint and ARMA series were where I graduated to after growing a little tired of the more predictable cycles of Battlefield, Ghost Recon, and SOCOM. After a weekend of getting my ass kicked, I'm struggling to remember what attracted me to the brutality to begin with.

Run Through the Jungle

My friend group has started to migrate away from Battlefield 6, which has left me looking for a new shooter to play – ideally one that isn't of the Battle or Extraction persuasion. The Battlefield Studios effort really made me fall back in love with the idea of larger-scale, open-combat experiences so Hell Let Loose: Vietnam appealed.

Here's the thing, Hell Let Loose: Vietnam is an experience defined by the friction it generates. With 100 players populating exceptionally wide multiplayer arenas, the game is designed around dynamic frontlines and intense team communications. Every soldier has a role to play, and players buying into the fantasy of their assigned Command, Support, Infantry, or Specialized unit is the only way for such an unforgiving shooter to function appropriately.

Let's take respawning as an example of this game theory put into action. Despite being so focused on team dynamics, you are not able to spawn directly on squadmates in Hell Let Loose: Vietnam. Instead, you're able to dive back into the fray from a Garrison, created in tandem between Commanders and Specialists, or from an Outpost placed by a Squad Leader near objective points. If these fail to be established then you're forced to spawn far from the frontlines, back at a headquarters where you'll face a 10 minute walk back to any action. Once you return, you're as likely to get nailed from an unseen attacker as you are to establish a chokepoint to catch enemy soldiers pouring from trenches.

With this in mind, setting up Outposts or fortifying capture points to allow for faster redeployments into the fray is just as valuable – if not more so – than generating an unholy amount of kills and assists. Hell Let Loose: Vietnam reflects that in its unstable firing models, lack of discernible weapon feedback, and any real visual hit detection. The objective is to win the day as a group, not sit atop the leaderboard as an individual – killing enemy soldiers is simply a means to this end.

Whether this sounds even remotely appealing to you will determine whether Hell Let Loose: Vietnam is something you will enjoy. When it clicks, as 50 players come together to generate battlefield momentum, it's fairly spectacular – intense and rapid, capturing a tangible sense of large-scale action that Battlefield can only dream of delivering. When a round doesn't come together, it's a mess. A slow slog through open expanses where you're left to lament the shift in online gaming culture; wide adoption of microphones (at least on console) seems like a relic of a distant past, which is a problem for a multiplayer game foundationally built around quick-fire collaboration.

Hell Let Loose: Vietnam is a polished FPS with a well-defined identity, one which easily separates it from Battlefield, Call of Duty, and the waves of battle royale and extraction shooters dominating the charts. It's a challenging, uncompromising experience that isn't going to be for everybody. The brutality isn't a bug, it's a feature – the great differentiator that gives developer Expression Games a lane to dominate. I don't know that I necessarily have the patience for this sort of Mil-Sim any more but, then again, I still find myself eyeing the August 13 release date with an almost morbid curiosity.

Hell Let Loose: Vietnam is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X on August 13. If you're looking for more on new games of 2026 and other recent shooters, here's some reads I recommend for you next:

It's a very risky time to release a multiplayer video game. The 'live service' scene has become inundated with hundreds of titles trying to replicate the success that a select few established games have found. The likes of Fortnite and Call of Duty still dominate the scene, making it seem impossible for newcomers like Concord or Highguard to break in. That's not to mention the number of legacy games that simply can't sustain themselves with the rising costs of development, including Destiny 2, which received its final update earlier this year.

So much of the video game industry is increasingly dangerous and volatile, but one genre has flourished for decades – MMORPGs. As live service games try to hold onto their share of committed players for longer, the developers of the best MMORPGs have had to find new ways to evolve.

To better understand how, I spoke to the leads of three of the longest-running modern MMOs – Final Fantasy 14, Elder Scrolls Online, and Warframe – to unpack how the genre has changed amidst the landscape of multiplayer games.

Building a world

The MMORPG genre began its rise to prominence in the '90s and many developers have tried to play in the massively multiplayer online space since, but precious few have had any real staying power. It's the games which cleanly carve out a niches, and then double down on serving that fanbases, which have any chance at survival. It's a challenge that Nick Giacomini, game director of The Elder Scrolls Online, is well acquainted with.

"The MMORPG genre isn't going away any time soon. MMORPGs are homes for players in a way that most genres just aren't. It's right there in the name: they're massive. The sheer scale of these games gives you a space to truly inhabit, while the community makes it feel alive," says Giacomini.

"That said, the genre is challenging right now, particularly for new games. Creating an MMORPG is a monumental undertaking, and few new MMOs have been able to break through. And on the one hand, the rise of live-service games has made this more challenging. There are so many incredible games to choose from right now, so why should players choose your game when they have so many amazing options?"

That's a sentiment echoed by Warframe creative director Rebecca Ford, who feels there is a new window of opportunity for MMOs. First launched in 2013, Warframe's slow and steady growth has proven it as one of the juggernauts of the genre, able to carry on where others haven't. It might simply be good timing, but the idea of a game that players can "regularly" come back to, as a sort of daily, weekly, or monthly habit, has become more and more attractive in recent years – especially as the cost of everything goes up.

"There's really no place for confidence in the current ecosystem; nothing is guaranteed. The younger generations of gamers have not been exposed to the dominant MMO era, yet the strongest MMOs still stand. 'Interest' in genres comes and goes, but typically, the interest cycles happen much faster because games and hardware were iterated on more quickly," says Ford.

"This means people stick with their comfort games for longer, and devs can work on the same IPs longer. In another life, Warframe would already be on 'Warframe 4', but the conditions of our evolution mean we did not need to sprout gills, so to speak, to evolve. Other genres have certainly impacted interest, as have development costs."

Legacy MMOs like Final Fantasy 14, Guild Wars, Runescape, World of Warcraft are now ingrained into the fabric of online gaming culture and have established, loyal fan bases. The sheer size and nature of the time commitment MMOs have may, in turn, be the secret to their success. Players have to commit to an MMO to some degree, after all.

"MMOs still have several characteristics that could contribute to longer lifespans. For example, unlike games that run on peer-to-peer connections, MMOs have massive servers containing a tremendous number of assets – not just item and character data, but also game systems like player housing and friend lists," says Final Fantasy 14 producer and director Naoki Yoshida.

"When an MMO becomes a hit success, that boosts the number of long-term players and helps stabilize operations, so I can see how those factors often lead to MMOs having longer lifespans. That said, there are still countless MMOs that rose and fell. In the end, all online services have a common principle: they need to have long-term stability and an entertaining experience in order to endure."

It's no coincidence that Final Fantasy 14, The Elder Scrolls Online, and Warframe are undergoing massive shifts in gameplay or ideas at the moment. In accordance, all three of these developers see some kind of symbiotic relationship with live-service titles. Giacomini notes that live service games are helping the MMO genre by "expanding and normalizing the space," while Yoshida says the "boundaries" between MMOs and other genres are becoming more "ambiguous." The influence live-service games have had may not be obvious or tangible, but it's there nonetheless.

"Today, live service games are mainstream. They've normalized the idea of games as a hobby, a place to hang out with friends, and a world that evolves over time. They've introduced MMO-lite concepts to millions of people who may have never considered themselves MMO players," notes Giacomini.

But the other crucial piece of success to the future of MMOs, stressed by all three of these developers, is a passionate community – but more importantly a community that the dev teams themselves can sort of "work" with. The studios behind Warframe, ESO, and FF14 have all opted for transparency, keeping very little to the chest in favour of constant communication with the playerbase, and an open dialogue on what said players want.

"Our players know exactly what they want. They are our 'boss' at the end of the day, and our game is only ever as good as our last update. From the very beginning, we've been transparent and flexible with them, almost every month for nearly 200 announcement-filled Devstreams," says Ford.

She adds: "If we announce a feature and players hate it, we are prepared to scrap it or work collaboratively with them to find the Goldilocks version that feels right for Warframe. We as creatives will always try to take big swings with new things and cross our fingers that they land well. But if we miss the mark, we are always willing to hear our players out and iterate on the idea into something we all love, as devs and players."

"A balancing act"

There's a fine line to tread between retaining the experience players love, but still being experimental and ambitious enough to try new ideas. With a lack of growth, even a successful MMO can grow stagnant, or fail to attract new players. Change is often a scary word in the realm of tech and games, something that connotes that you're losing something, especially daunting when it's a game you've sunk days, if not weeks and months, of your life into.

But a particular, and noticeable, shift in MMOs has been to accommodate a wider variety of players. But a particularly fascinating part of this is these long-running games having to essentially "age up" with their players. Giacomini assets that, as live-service and multiplayer games continue to appeal to young audiences and new players, longstanding MMOs have had to adjust for players whose lives have quintessentially changed across a decade or two.

"If your design ethos doesn't change over ten years, you're going to get left behind," he explains. "Players who started playing with us a decade ago are at a different stage in their lives now, and we have to evolve to provide them with what they're looking for today. Player expectations have also shifted based on what successful new games are bringing to the table. Trying to make sure that every moment players spend in our world feels worthwhile requires change."

"It's definitely a balancing act. If you push too much unwanted change, the game becomes unrecognizable, and you risk alienating your core players. But if you don't change enough, you become formulaic and risk boring them. MMORPGs feel very different today than when I first started playing over 20 years ago. They're recognizable but fundamentally evolved. And I think that kind of continuous evolution is what innovation is going to look like for successful games in the genre."

Speaking to these key creatives, they've all reached similar philosophies in different ways. Both Ford and Yoshida note that the support and deep involvement of their respective communities is the key piece that keeps these games moving. All three stress the need for 'rewarding' experiences, ensuring the time players invest in their game feels well-spent. The development of each of these games revolves around player feedback, but trying to integrate that with the idea of experimenting and finding things that will surprise even players who have spent 10 years on a game.

Ford points to FF14 as a prime example of a game that's adapting to the needs of players, saying it's great to "see them [the FF14 dev team] focus on what they're good at, like Raids, at large scale." But she also stresses the need for integral change. Ford says there's one crucial way MMOs need to keep experimenting.

"Get weird! Go left instead of right, but always, always be ready to work with your community, not for or against them. Nothing is ever set in stone. Game design trends will always be in flux, whether that be due to advancements in technology or changes to player habits due to things happening in the world or their personal lives," Ford says. "We kind of joke about this. You don't want to see the current Warframe leads – me and Pablo Alonso, our design director – try and make a PVP mode again. Even if players think they want it, we simply aren't good at it, so we can't innovate with hero shooter genre appeal, so we have to try other things!"

FF14 is in the midst of one of those moments, with upcoming expansion Evercold making some of the biggest, most sweeping changes the MMO has seen since its relaunch as A Realm Reborn in 2013. And while Yoshida notes that his approach to developing FF14 has undoubtedly changed over the past decade, in a way, that's secondary to how the studio tweaks the game as a whole. Because the community has become such an ingrained part of FF14's identity, it's more about knowing when to hold off on major changes, and when to push forward.

"For our upcoming expansion, Evercold, I chose to steer FF14 towards 'change' in pursuit of creating even more enjoyment and evolving further. I felt that, in terms of mindset and time, we were prepared to update the gaming experience to be more enjoyable and comfortable for our players and their lifestyles," Yoshida says. "Our lifestyle routines are constantly changing, and the rate of change only keeps accelerating. But making sudden changes to try and keep up with that pace can be harmful to our operations, like how making sharp turns while driving fast tends to lead to accidents. Making these judgment calls is a constant part of overseeing FF14."

However, Yoshida says his approach might be completely different if he was making something from scratch, adding, "Incidentally, if I were to develop a new online live service title from scratch, I'd be challenging myself to tackle completely new game designs and values."

But cutting through all the noise, there seems to be one universal truth to the success of MMOs – something that none of these teams have forgotten even as they try to shift and adjust to changing player expectations. And it's especially attractive in light of so many multiplayer games that lean into short bursts of excitement, battle passes, and an ever-changing experience.

"The industry is more crowded now, but the desire for a world you can live in and escape to is stronger than ever," says Giacomini. "And if MMORPGs can evolve to meet players where they are and ensure the time they invest here feels worthwhile, the genre will thrive for decades."

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Wondering what to watch before Spider-Man: Brand New Day? Then you've come to the right place. With so many Marvel movies and shows to keep track of, it can be hard to know what to brush up on before a new release.

But that's where we come in. Below, we've rounded up all the Marvel movies and shows to watch before Spider-Man: Brand New Day, so you can get up to speed before the next chapter of Peter Parker's adventures.

So, for all you need to know, head to the below. For even more, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

The MCU Spider-Man trilogy

The most obvious three films to watch before Spider-Man: Brand New Day are the three that make up the MCU Spider-Man trilogy. Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home tell the story of Tom Holland's Peter Parker so far. If you're pressed for time, No Way Home is the most important to (re)watch, since that film covers how and why the world forgets Peter Parker. But, if you have more spare time on your hands, you could also go back and watch Spidey's MCU introduction, which came in Captain America: Civil War, though we doubt it will be relevant for this movie.

Punisher: One Last Kill

Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle has a role in Brand New Day, and, for the latest on Punisher's antics in the MCU, his own standalone special is the place to go. One Last Kill focuses on Frank's mental health and his mission to avenge his family, as well as a new crime boss threatening his neighbourhood. It tees up a vigilante Punisher who has moved beyond his revenge mission, which could make his dynamic with Spidey very interesting in Brand New Day.

Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame

While Spidey does appear in both of these Avengers movies, these actually provide great background for Mark Ruffalo's Hulk, who looks to have a hefty role in the new movie. These Avengers films give context to Bruce Banner's struggle with his Hulk persona, as well as the Smart Hulk that allows him to keep his head when he goes green. For even more context, you can check out She-Hulk on Disney Plus, too. The show focuses on Bruce's cousin Jennifer Walters, but Bruce has a supporting role.

Daredevil

Spider-Man: Brand New Day's villain is a mystery, but some signs point towards the Hand. Netflix's Daredevil show is no longer MCU canon, but the Hand is the main villain of Daredevil season 2 – so it could be worth checking out this show's version of the group before Brand New Day. You can also find the Hand in Iron Fist, if you really want to do your homework.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives on July 29 in the UK and July 31 in the US. In the meantime, check out our guide to the Marvel timeline for the story so far.

As soon as Kill Team: Exodite was announced, folks went nuts for its dinosaur riders. And you know what? That's fair. Space elves on the back of dragon-esque velociraptors is one hell of a sales pitch. However, this hides the most appealing thing about the box set.

Aeldari cavalry are all good and well, but the real gem is what they're sitting on – a kickass singleplayer or co-op campaign. This is far more in-depth than I'd expected, and while it's not going to dethrone Warhammer Quest: Darkwater, Kill Team: Exodite feels more like the best board games than I'd anticipated.

If you haven't been keeping up with the grimdark future, this is the latest installment for Warhammer 40K's smaller, leaner spinoff that brings back the eponymous Exodites – isolationist Aeldari who fled to "maiden worlds" before the collapse of their civilization. These guys are famous for riding dinosaurs (or "dragons," as they call them) into battle, so you're getting three here alongside a couple of what I like to think of as emotional support dinos. This Kill Team is being pitted against the Beast Snagga Boyz – Orks that love the thrill of the hunt.

As you might expect, this puts the two on a collision course. The Orks are keen to hunt those maiden worlds for their wildlife, while the Exodite Dragon Masters are honor-bound to protect those same planets. There's no chance of a peaceful solution here, so players must saddle up as dino-knights to see off the Orkish invaders across a sprawling campaign of missions. These greenskins are controlled by a clever matrix of behaviours, meaning you don't need anyone to control them.

Much like Armageddon, the launch box for Warhammer 40K's latest edition, Kill Team: Exodite does a great job of making you feel as though the weight of an entire world rests on your shoulders. A lot of time is spent building up the lore of the maiden world that the Orks have invaded, and the campaign itself features branching paths based on the approach you want to take or your success. This really puts you in the driver's seat and makes you feel in charge of this story.

However, unlike the previous box set, Kill Team: Terror on Devlan, your characters earn upgrades as they progress. This only helps enrich that sense of ownership.

Is it odd that Kill Team has focused on two singleplayer/co-op campaigns rather than its traditional competitive match-type? Yeah, a bit – and I'm now eager to see what the next 'season' holds, because we're due a head-to-head box set with a new Kill Zone to fight over. (I can't believe it's already been a year since we last got that with Kill Team: Tomb World.) But I shouldn't complain, because this fits a niche that 40K didn't really have – a legitimate singleplayer mode. We don't all have regular gaming groups or friends who like to play, after all, so this is a great way of getting matches in solo.

Plus, you do get some awesome dragon-riding space elves. So there's always that, if nothing else.

Looking for other recommendations? Don't miss our guide to the best tabletop RPGs. As for more Warhammer, the Ogor Mawtribes have won me over with how gross their mechanics are.

Blade Runner 2099 is almost here, and thanks to a bunch of recent news that just dropped during San Diego Comic-Con, excitement for the next outing in the sci-fi series is at an all-time high.

While Blade Runner started with Ridley Scott's 1982 movie, the upcoming show is a sequel to the second flick in the franchise, Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049. That movie came out all the way back in 2017, so yeah, it has been a good long bit of waiting for the follow-up for all of us Relpicant fans. Blade Runner 2099 was also announced all the way back in 2021, so seeing a bunch of recent updates arrive as part of the SDCC 2026 schedule was a welcome surprise, and I've gathered all the new details and information you need to know right here.

From the Blade Runner 2099 release date, plot details, casting news, and more, here is a complete breakdown on everything that you need to know about Amazon Prime's upcoming Blade Runner 2099 TV show.

Blade Runner 2099 release date speculation

Blade Runner 2099 will be released on Prime Video on November 25, 2026.

The news was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con 2026. During the panel, Amazon also mentioned Rings of Power season 3 (which also releases in November 2026), so it seems like the streamer was keen to highlight a big fall schedule.

Blade Runner 2099 plot

The official plot has been released for Blade Runner 2099, which is set 50 years after the previous movie. "Welcome to a future we no longer control," reads the tagline which teases how much the world has changed since that film. A war has taken place between the humans and the replicants, and the humans have lost.

Now the replicants are in charge and the humans are the second-class citizens. Hunter Schafer plays Cora, a human, opposite Michelle Yeoh's replicant Blade Runner named Olwen. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner confirmed that Cora and Olwen will be working together in the new show.

"Hunter is playing a human who is a fugitive and has spent her life running from Blade Runners," Silka Luisa said. "And now has to pretend to be one. In this struggle to survive and just trying to live day-to-day, she’s actually lost her humanity. So she’s a human who has lost her humanity. And the question for the series is: Once you’ve lost her humanity, can you regain it?"

Olwen and Cora will be working together and investigating the missing rogue replicants — and this being Blade Runner, don’t expect any of the answers they find to be simple or expected.

I'll keep you posted as soon as more news breaks, but for now you can check out our list of the best sci-fi movies to watch in the meantime.

Is there a Blade Runner 2099 trailer

The trailer for Blade Runner 2099 came our way during San Diego Comic-Con 2026, during the Prime Video panel. You can watch it for yourself above.

In the clip, we get our first look at futuristic LA as well as Schafer and Yeoh in action. So far, it looks stunning. It shows a grim post-war world where the humans are at the mercy of the replicants. I'm excited to see even more teasers in the future. Hopefully, we get more story details in the next trailer, but for now, the sci-fi vibe has been perfectly captured here.

Blade Runner 2099 cast

Currently, there have been quite a few Blade Runner 2099 casting announcements, the two biggest being Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer as the two leading roles. However, many character details and names are undisclosed right now. I'm still waiting to see if we get any familiar characters being recast or mentioned, so watch this space.

Here is the confirmed Blade Runner 2099 cast list so far:

• Michelle Yeoh as Olwen
• Hunter Schafer as Cora
• Dimitri Abold
• Lewis Gribben
• Katelyn Rose Downey
• Daniel Rigby
• Johnny Harris
• Amy Lennox
• Sheila Atim
• Matthew Needham
• Tom Burke
• Maurizio Lombardi
• Hugo Hamlet

Is Blade Runner 2099 connected to the Blade Runner movies?

Good news: Blade Runner 2099 is indeed connected to the two Blade Runner movies, taking place in the same universe and 50 years after the events of the 2017 movie, Blade Runner 2017.

This means that the Blade Runner 2049 ending is canon for the series, so I'd highly recommend giving that a rewatch before you dive in. I won't get into spoilers here, but that film does set up a lot of context around the state of humanity as well as how Replicants are treated. I'm sure that the series will give newcomers who haven't seen the films some kind of context, but for the full picture, watching the movies for yourself is likely going to be the best route.

Also, Ridley Scott is an executive producer on the series, so we can rest easy knowing that he'll likely make sure canon is followed.

Additionally, according to producer Andrew Kosove, the new series will have "connective tissue and character and storylines that relate to the first two movies," but you won't need to know them to enjoy it.

Speaking at SDCC, showrunner Silka Luisa also teased the difference between the previous movies and Blade Runner 2099. "2019 was dark and rainy. 2049 was snowy and cold," she said. "Our show is a rebirth. It's the rebirth of a city, it's a rebirth of all of our characters, and so to me that felt like it should be hot and sticky and chaotic, and that's where we got the idea for the 'sunshine noir,' and so you're you're seeing Blade Runner, Ridley's Blade Runner, but through the lens of hard sunlight and deep shadow where you still have neons, and hopefully that feels like it's both familiar but completely different."

While we wait for more Blade Runner news, you can head over to our list of the best shows on Amazon Prime to stream right now. Or, look ahead with our round-up of the best new TV shows on the way.

Bethesda has rumbled back to life. Nearly three years after Starfield and with The Elder Scrolls 6 nowhere in sight, the positive reception to the announcement of the Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters is hardly surprising. With the help of Obsidian, between 2008 and 2011 Bethesda cemented itself as the rightful king of the open-world RPG, Fallout 3 and Skyrim bookending the kind of development run we'll probably never see again.

A long-awaited return to the Capitol and Mojave Wastelands is welcome, but while these remasters aren't quite too little, too late, they serve as a reminder of just how neglected one of the biggest and best RPG series has become.

This November will mark 11 years since Fallout 4, with Fallout 76's eighth anniversary falling just a couple of weeks before. And until last week, there was nothing to suggest another game was anywhere close to the horizon – based on Bethesda's previous release cadence, 2033 was a solid guess for a potential Fallout 5 release year. That's not far short of two full decades since the series' last traditional, single-player RPG launch – an unforgivable drought for a series that has over the past few years, been transformed into a mainstream, global franchise thanks to the critically-acclaimed Amazon Prime series.

In the last week, admittedly, the Fallout slate has filled up significantly. First up will be next year's "prequel story to Fallout 3" heading to Fallout 76. The Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas remasters seem likely to follow relatively soon after, potentially positioned around Fallout season 3 and the Fallout Shelter show. Fallout 5 is officially in pre-production, but could easily follow as many as five years after Elder Scrolls 6, which still feels a long way off. Obsidian's new Fallout project seems likely to plug that inter-franchise gap – perhaps some time in 2029 or the early 2030s.

Kick in the head

It's that last project that's currently most mysterious, but also the clearest indication of what Fallout and Xbox actually need: help from the wider ecosystem. Xbox and Zenimax are full of studios that could have, over the six years since the acquisition, been running wild in the franchise playgrounds that are currently open only to Bethesda. Clearly, the kind of AAA, open-world RPG that Todd Howard wants to make takes many years to complete, but I see no reason why no other studio has been allowed to do more than sniff in the direction of the Fallout and TES brands.

The possibilities are huge; a stealthy, Dark Brotherhood immersive sim made by Arkane Austin instead of shuttering it after Redfall; a Ghoul-led game using the State of Decay tech from Undead Labs, which just got sold off; an Age of Empires conversion from World's Edge, which has been diligently plugging away on DLC and remasters for that franchise. Xbox's affinity for beefy guys with guns across the Gears, Doom, and Halo series could have led to an amazing power armor shooter. There are certainly studios whose work doesn't mesh with Bethesda's oeuvre so neatly, but within the Xbox ecosystem, they're surprisingly few and far between. And all that is to say nothing of Obsidian, a studio that not only made one of the best Fallout games, but eventually took its fate into its own hands and made Avowed and The Outer Worlds as its own answers to The Elder Scrolls and Fallout.

That none of those studios have been given a Bethesda license is a mistake, but it's a mistake compounded by the fact that Bethesda isn't equipped to handle them at the pace that should be required. Its two most important IPs have been left to languish for more than a decade. Starfield is a primary cause for that, but so is Bethesda's size. The studio has remained deliberately small by the standards of a major studio, and at about 450 staff isn't capable of being a two-game studio, especially since switching between three different franchises means it can't pull off the kind of juggling act that the similarly-sized Insomniac - which has launched a whole suite of Marvel games over the time since Fallout 76 – has been able to achieve.

A hit of Jet

It's likely that the Fallout release cadence will pick up now. The remasters are the start of that process, and the Obsidian game and Fallout 76 expansion will help. But while Xbox's recent deluge of lay-offs have hit hard, the fact still stands that the publisher is sitting pretty on some of the industry's highest profile RPG brands and what remains of the studios that created them. With only the likes of CD Projekt Red as major competition, the question is whether new Xbox chief Asha Sharma will be able to do what predecessor Phil Spencer couldn't, even as the company haemorrhages staff. If CDPR is able to push out three major RPGs in quick succession, could the much larger Xbox be in a position to follow suit instead of squandering the opportunity? Or, is such a massive entity prone to slow manoeuvring, like trying to turn a Brotherhood of Steel zeppelin?

But, whether or not that all comes to pass, it doesn't change the fact that as a gaming series Fallout has been left behind by its creators for far too long, and no number of remasters will help speed up the ongoing wait for its next major iteration, especially as the years tick on.

The Elder Scrolls Online is struggling with "team bandwidth" after Xbox layoffs hit Bethesda and ZeniMax, leading devs to limit a store for in-game items.

PATCH NOTES: v24.09.2026 – Nintendo should have been taking a victory lap this week, following the release of Splatoon Raiders on July 23. At a time where discussion should have been focused entirely around the latest Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, attention on the platform holder's activities has been divided between two ongoing legal battles.

What's going on with Nintendo this week?

• The first Splatoon spin-off launched as a Switch 2 exclusive
• A patent infringement lawsuit hit a new roadblock
• Request was made to dismiss a class-action lawsuit

Why is this happening now?

• The legal system works in weird and mysterious ways
• Nintendo has been embroiled in a dispute with Pocketpair for two years
• Two battles on the same week as Splatoon Raiders is bad timing

Meta Shift

This should have been a straightforward week for Nintendo. After a year of anticipation, Splatoon Raiders finally arrived, giving the Switch 2 one of its most compelling first-party exclusives. At any other time, this delightful spin-off – a confident shift away from the multiplayer focus that has otherwise defined the franchise – would have dominated the conversation for days.

Instead, Nintendo spent the Splatoon Raiders launch window fighting legal battles on multiple fronts. Attention was repeatedly diverted by fresh developments related to the ongoing legal dispute against Palworld developer Pocketpair, as well as a new court filing in a US class action lawsuit over the impact of tariffs.

While none of these stories are directly related, they do provide a window into one of the challenges Nintendo faces in 2026: launching platform-defining exclusives while simultaneously fighting to defend its business priorities in courtrooms all around the world.

Known Issue

• Another strange twist in the Palworld lawsuit

The biggest distraction from Splatoon Raiders' release week was undoubtedly from Japan, with a new development from a patent dispute adjacent to Nintendo and Palworld developer Pocketpair's ongoing legal battle. Nintendo has been attempting to patent the 'in-game monster-capturing system' popularized by Pokemon, which the Japanese Patent Office has rejected.

This decision has prompted Nintendo and the JPO to enter into a pretty extraordinary back-and-forth of counterarguments that, frankly, are well worth your time if you have it to spare. While this fight isn't at the center of the legal battle with Palworld, it certainly doesn't help Nintendo's case at all.

Patent disputes are difficult to follow at the best of times, but that's why this story was so essential – it illustrates just how complex these types of legal proceedings can become, and how entertaining it can be when they boil over in public.

• And then there was the tariff lawsuit

Just as players started to lock into arguments over whether it's even fair for Nintendo to test the strength of gameplay patents in this way (hint: enjoyers of Palworld 1.0 would say that it is not), a legal story with some spice emerged from the United States. This may have flown under your radar, but Nintendo is actually engaged in legal battles over tariffs.

Nintendo filed a lawsuit earlier this year over what it alleges was an "unlawful imposition of tariffs" by the US. This prompted two individuals to file a class action lawsuit against Nintendo; the pair claim that if Nintendo is owed refunds on collected tariffs, then so too should be consumers who purchased Nintendo products at increased prices.

Nintendo bit back hard, suggesting that players were "free to abstain from purchasing the product or seek out competing products" and that they got "exactly what they bargained for and paid for." Ouch.

Patch Notes Summary

• One company, three conversations

Nintendo spent the Switch era cultivating an image that it was consumer-first and software-focused. To see three separate conversations kickstart within days of each other – one about a platform exclusive, one around Japanese patent law, and the other around US consumer litigation – has created the impression that Nintendo's priorities are now being pulled in different directions.

Lawsuits and legal filings landing the same week as Splatoon Raiders is unfortunate – the courts work to their own schedules, not to the hype cycles we spend our lives following. But the diverting of attention in this way has been fascinating to witness.

Nintendo will have plenty of other moments to celebrate this year, with Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and The Duskbloods all expected to land. Whether they will also converge with ongoing legal disputes remains to be seen, but one thing's for certain: Nintendo needs to pull the focus of players back to video games and away from the courts.

Still, regardless of all the legal drama that has (admittedly) been pretty entertaining to watch from afar, I'll be spending this weekend diving into Splatoon Raiders. What about you?

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I spent an evening this week virtually hanging out with two of my closest friends as we put on some VR headsets and met up on the charming links of Walkabout Mini Golf. As much as catching up with my friends (and smoking them at mini golf) was the main focus here, as a VR headset nerd, I was also enjoying the fact that all three of us were accessing VR in different ways.

My friend Olly was playing on PSVR 2, a simple connection job to his console, which was probably the most streamlined of us all. I was playing on the new, lightweight, and ultra high-fidelity Pimax Dream Air, a direct-to-PC wired headset which I'm currently testing for review.

My friend Stewart, the newest of us to VR gaming, has had some trouble getting Steam Link to work wirelessly on his Meta Quest 2 headset, so he was using a Link Cable to plug into his PC and play via Steam.

After a good couple of hours (and some comfortable wins for me, which I definitely didn't gloat about), Stewart's headset, the oldest of the three we were using, died.

"Did you not say you got an Elite headstrap with a battery attachment?" I asked him. He had, but he explained that because the Meta Quest 2 only has one USB-C port, he wasn't able to play via the Link Cable and charge simultaneously.

Little did Stewart know that he had stumbled upon a design flaw that also plagues the much newer Meta Quest 3 and 3S, and it's a big reason a lot of folks will need to choose their Meta Quest accessories very carefully.

My mind immediately drifted to the upcoming Steam Frame. From what we know about it so far, it's not taking the same sort of accessory-ready outlook as the Quest headsets. It also, as far as we know, can only work wirelessly. It has one solitary USB-C port too, which is for power delivery/charging, maybe a few accessories, and limited data transfer through USB 2.0 speeds. You're not going to be able to hook up a link cable to play on PC.

Thankfully, it's had a true wireless outlook from the beginning. Its USB dongle will do all the linking work you want it to (supposedly), and it can also run games natively, but should the selection of accessories for it start to grow, it could run into the same issues as the Quest devices where you have multiple peripherals fighting over a single USB port.

With such a diverse selection of accessories available for the Quest 2 during its tenure, you'd think the Quest 3 headsets would have seen an expansion to two different USB-C ports. This would allow for linking up to a PC, as well as the option to keep the thing charged while you're using it, or even a separate USB-C option like latency-free earbuds and headsets.

For those wondering, a USB Link cable will supply a small amount of charge to a Quest headset while you play, but not enough to keep it alive indefinitely. The solution in recent years has been fancier wires like the Syntech Link Cable, which throw a divider into the middle of the connection so you can plug that into a wall outlet and provide super-fast charging, but this is less than ideal since you're then tethered to a secondary point in your room as you play, which could limit movement.

Even with one of the fanciest link cables, you'll still be limited in terms of the other accessories you can use. If you want to use the PrismXR earbuds, for example, or anything else that'll need a USB-C port to work, you're going to be limited.

Depending on how you use your Quest headset, this could be a minor gripe or a continual plague on your VR downtime. Either way, with rumors beginning to swirl about the Quest 4 being a larger upgrade and departure from the Quest 3, maybe we'll see expandable connectivity in the next generation.

Upping your PC power in time for the Steam Frame? Check out the best CPU for gaming, the best RAM for gaming, and the best graphics cards.

Scanlines! It's a phrase often hurled around the retro gaming space, and one you'll find on your "an enthusiast said I'm playing old games wrong" bingo card. The issue is that while it is indeed a visual effect that can be enabled when using emulators and retro console remakes, they won't always make your shiny new screen look like an old CRT TV, and that could put you off using the effect.

As someone who specializes in connecting retro consoles to modern TVs and monitors while also being a CRT TV enthusiast, there is a big fat myth tied to scanlines. While using an overlay that adds horizontal black gaps can enhance definition and add pixel separation, you won't magically get the same visuals as a tube set. There's way more going on with your old idiot box than that, and understanding those old visuals will help set your expectations.

When testing the best retro consoles today or using the originals, I typically enable scanlines. Adding in horizontal black lines can come with caveats, but for the most part, it will add useful pixel separation that helps sprites and textures look less like blocky blobs on modern displays. But, to help you work out whether you actually care about using the effect, I want to dive into what scanlines actually are and the various ways systems today can mimic an old CRT.

What even is a scanline?

By definition, a "scanline" is a horizontal row of pixels drawn rapidly by an electron beam to make a full CRT TV picture. Yes, your old box would make up a full image within a split second by blasting electrons against a phosphor-coated screen, which made for a very rock 'n' roll way of generating frames.

Unless you've got some really high refresh rate eyeballs, you won't be able to see a CRT actively drawing horizontal lines. In fact, there's every chance that if you grab an old tube set right now and feed it a clean signal that matches its native resolution, you won't even see the distinctive black spaces that are dubbed "scanlines" today. That's because those gaps were more of a symptom rather than a feature, one that just so happened to add some extra pixel separation when gaming.

I own too many CRTs for my own good, ranging from a backbreaking 32-inch Aiwa set to an impossibly small 3.7-inch Sony Trinitron TV. Whether or not you can actually see distinct scanlines on each comes down to the resolution of a retro console, the cable type, and the display's own screen type, as all three can work to make the black space between rows less visible.

Standard Definition used to be, and still techniclly is, 480p, meaning 480 lines drawn horizontally using progressive scan. That's fancy speak for every one of those lines being drawn in order from top to bottom, but that means some trickery is required when using a 240p retro console like the NES, SNES or Sega Genesis.

The workaround involves the CRT filling its 480p screen with 240 rows of pixels by leaving every odd line blank. That results in a full image still being displayed on screen, but with distinctive black spaces between. That quirk is exactly what modern scanline effects attempt to replicate today, but there are other forces at play also messing with the look of raw pixels.

Behind the mask

When letting a CRT TV blast your eyeballs, scanlines likely won't be the first thing you see. If anything, you're more likely to notice the defined pixels that look like separate dots rather than a linear line of squares. What you're actually seeing is the image being drawn behind a metal plate, or "shadow mask", designed to guide electron beams directly to red, green, and blue phosphor dots.

Most consumer CRT TVs use a shadow mask, and it actually provides a distinct look that may distract you from scanlines altogether. The metal plate actually channels the electron beams into a triangle formation, or triad, that can reduce the visibility of direct, horizontal rows, portraying a more staggered pixel look.

Naturally, simply adding in horizontal black lines to retro console visuals on a modern LCD or OLED doesn't quite hit the same CRT notes as a shadow mask screen. Rather than getting that staggered triad color effect that adds pixel definition, you instead get a bolder horizontal effect that won't quite look like an old tube.

At the same time, not every CRT uses the same phosphor plate either. For instance, Sony Trinitron models are heralded for their Aperture Grille technology, which separates phosphors with tiny vertical wires. The idea is that the positioning will only allow the appropriate color through, rather than trying to block more light with a solid mask.

As a result, Trinitron CRT images are brighter, boast better color accuracy, and have enhanced sharpness thanks to the higher-pitch vertical dots. That is to say, there's less of a gap within each vertical stripe compared to using Shadow Mask triad clusters, and that in turn produces a pretty different look in terms of pixel separation.

Effectively, there's way more to making your classic games look like they're on a faux Cathode-Ray Tube. Scanlines are really just one part of a visual symphony that presents old sprites and textures the way their designers intended, rather than a bunch of scaled-up blocky pixels. Knowing that elements like CRT masking techniques, color bleeding, and phosphor positioning will provide different results will ultimately help you achieve the look you're looking for, whether that's based on something from memory or a collectively agreed gold standard.

Modern scanline techniques

It might feel like CRT TVs vanished from gaming setups aeons ago, but in reality, the screen type only properly retired in the late 2000s. That's the point where I noticed LCD panels properly take over the consumer market, and as someone who kept using old consoles with those displays, it became quickly apparent that they were missing a trick when it comes to classic visuals.

I was actually extremely late to the LCD part, having only picked up a budget 720p 28-inch LCD set in 2007 for my Xbox 360. It only took me a couple of months to realise that, while Bioshock looks phenomenal in "HD", consoles like my Sega Mega Drive looked a bit off even when using a clean RGB SCART input.

Naturally, the subpar upscaler in that supermarket brand LCD TV was committing more than just visual atrocities, but my immediate concerns were sparked by pixel separation. I really couldn't jam with Blaze in Streets of Rage looking like a bunch of blocks, and it kickstarted what would be a decade long quest to bring scanlines back to my setup.

I should note that for years, the only way to really inject scanlines back into my favorite games was by way of "modern" retro consoles. Yes, I did experiment with using standalone VGA scanline generators, like the SLG3000, but that was more designed for CRT arcade play rather than mimicking consumer sets. It wouldn't be until 2014 when the Hyperkin Retron 5 arrived on the scene that I'd first get a taste for scanline overlay effects as a feature baked into a system.

The approach with basic modern scanlines is pretty straightforward, as it simply requires adding an overlay of odd or even horizontal black lines over retro console images. That helps provide pixel separation and something that is reminiscent of old CRT TV visuals, and the Retron 5 was one of the first to provide that.

Since then, scanline overlays have matured, but basic implementations still come with the same caveats attached. Firstly, adding horizontal black lines alone isn't really enough to give proper CRT vibes, and scaling-related symptoms like uneven thickness and unadjustable intensity can be distracting. Darkening half the lines on screen also reduces overall image brightness, and depending on your screen, the remaining active pixels might look a bit too dim.

These are issues that still persist with systems like the Hyperkin Retron GX, and even scanlines with some layer of adjustability included in the likes of the Evercade Alpha still aren't super close to a real CRT. That's not to say we aren't seeing progress, though, as HDMI upscalers and FPGA consoles like the Analogue 3D are introducing more elaborate effects that leverage the latest screen tech and add more than just horizontal black lines.

Analogue's 4K N64 specifically proudly provides "display filters" rather than just basic scanlines. Rather than just slapping an overlay on top, the feature is a real-time processing option that weaves in accurate CRT effects that mimic every classic display type. The system includes everything from the look of a Sony Trinitron PVM and BVM sets to consumer-grade tube TVs that use Aperture Grille or Shadow Mask tech.

Better still, the Analogue 3D can now even leverage "advanced HDR" tricks to facilitate the same pixel brightness on new screens. That helps each phosphor look like it's actually firing from an electron gun rather than just being mimicked on an OLED or LCD, and the result is damn convincing.

Analogue isn't the only company going the extra mile with CRT effects, though, as I'm seeing more ways than ever to add more convincing scanlines and masking. The OSSC line doubler I use for most consoles has a wide array of dials for adding in scanlines in real time; the newer OSSC Pro can even enable Shadow Mask and Aperture Grille overlays.

If you'd bring the Analogue 3D's advanced CRT filters to your entire setup, Retrotink also has you covered with its 5X Pro and 4K upscalers. They will make your bank account weep, but on top of providing FPGA-powered upscaling with motion-adaptive deinterlacing, they can also produce the same look as a Sony Trinitron or classic consumer set using similar processing techniques.

I'm fully aware I've been exclusively talking about hardware solutions, but modern emulators can also provide excellent scanline and CRT effects. Frontends like RetroArch include preset shaders for retro console cores, with CRT Royale being a prime example of a shader that can do more than just horizontal lines. Almost every emulation suite today at least has basic filters built-in, so it's worth messing around with those if you exclusively run your own ROMs on a retro handheld or PC.

Sneaking scanlines into your entire setup

I've been routinely asked whether there's a magic solution for adding scanlines to an entire setup. The answer is yes, as I've tested a doohickey that adds CRT scanline effects using HDMI, and it's not as atrocious as you'd think. Naturally, you'll have to use an upscaler or an adapter if you're using retro consoles with analogue output, but once you've got that sorted, it will inject adjustable effects into the pipeline before the image reaches your modern screen.

Of course, the effect produced by the standalone HDMI scanline generator still suffers from those classic caveats mentioned above. However, it includes on-board dials and switches for everything from scanline thickness to aspect ratio and even RGB color adjustment. The cherry on top is being able to switch between odd and even black lines, which will really help get you closer to the look you're after.

Your mileage with a standalone HDMI scanline generator will vary depending on your system of choice and screen. I do think it's worth a look if you can grab one for cheap, though, as it hooked my HDMI-modded N64 up with some much-needed pixel separation (the console's raw signal is pretty messy).

My hope is that by understanding why players rave about scanlines in retro games, you'll have an easier time deciding whether you care about the effect. Simply playing games raw without any overlayers or processing effects added in is completely valid no matter what those pesky enthusiasts shout at you online. That said, if you are craving CRT vibes but don't want to find a real tube set, you'll now know exactly how to go about transforming your modern display into a faux 20+ year old television set.

Swing by the best retro controllers for modern versions of classic console pads.

Until I played Warframe, the MMO had always been a hard sell for me. The constant updates and endless narrative expansions as seen in World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14 intimidate like nothing else in the video game world. I almost always crave the comfort of knowing I'm progressing towards a logical end point – at least when it comes to story-driven games – and the best MMOs, as a rule, seek to go on for eternity.

So despite my efforts, games like Black Desert Online, Fallout 76, and Genshin Impact lose me soon after I start, simply because I can't accept the potentially limitless experiences on offer. How am I supposed to feel satisfied with my progress if there's no end destination? Well, one game recently changed my mind.

Never too late to try again

I first tried Warframe over a decade ago on Xbox One but quickly bounced off it. This was a different time in my life, before I could appreciate single-player live service games like Diablo 4 and arguably Fortnite. Even the original Destiny didn't hold my attention, so maybe it was a sci-fi thing? No, that wasn't it – what futuristic FPS could compare to Titanfall back in the day? Or now, for that matter?

But when I went to TennoCon earlier this month, I saw Digital Extremes' long-running epic in a whole new light. The game's community is held in high regard, and it was almost immediately clear as to why. The fans attending the convention were enthusiastic, friendly and generous, praising cosplays and handing out stickers in the name of Warframe and Soulframe, the latter being Digital Extremes' latest work currently in early access on PC only.

As I breathed in the atmosphere, I knew I had to try Warframe again – so I installed the free-to-play title on my Xbox Series X when I got home and jumped in. I chose my first playable biomech warframe (Volt, if you're curious), and began exploring the numerous planets, enemies and loot all crying out for my undivided attention.

(War)frame of Mind

Unlike many of the new games I've been playing in recent years, Warframe is 100% a power fantasy. Right out of the gate, I was blasting foes to bits with firearms, cleaving through them with blades, and electrocuting them with my warframe's unique abilities.

It all felt wonderful. There was no immediate challenge like Elden Ring, or intrinsic sense of vulnerability like Resident Evil Requiem (the Grace sections, anyway). This isn't to say I don't enjoy FromSoftware and Capcom games – because I do – but the change of pace is refreshing in 2026.

As for the all-important narrative element that usually leaves me frustrated in an MMO, I was saved from my usual despair by simply not knowing what was happening. This tracked with what creative director Rebb Ford told GamesRadar+ when we interviewed her recently: "You will have no idea what's going on, and that's okay," she said with a smile, and she was right on the money. Luckily for me, the old adage of 'ignorance is bliss' rang true, because I was having too much fun dishing out damage to care who or what a Tenno was.

So why couldn't I stop worrying and learn how to love the MMO before? In truth, I don't entirely know, but the satisfyingly slick combat and traversal of Warframe certainly plays a part. Each time I begin a mission, I hurl my warframe head-first into the mayhem, shooting, slicing and ability-ing my way through the enemy hordes without a care for why I'm doing it. Yes, I have the guiding voice of Lotus, the game's matriarchal figure (and voiced by Rebb Ford), for support, but I don't pay too much mind to the why, merely the what..

And yet, my mind wanders from time to time. I think about Lotus, Teshin, and the other NPCs I've made contact with in Digital Extremes' universe, and I want to know their histories, motivations, hopes, and everything else about them. The thing is, I'm in no rush. Warframe has enough content to keep players occupied for a long time – between 114 and 1,556 hours according to How Long to Beat – so I'll find the answers when I'm ready.

My newfound appreciation for Warframe has doubled my excitement for action-RPG Soulframe, which I had the pleasure of dabbling in a few years back as part of an Alpha test. Now knowing what the developer is capable of in terms of gameplay and longevity, I can't wait to see it grow over (hopefully) a similar timeframe – only now, I intend to be there from launch day. And if I do end up taking a decade to fully commit to Soulframe, its predecessor (and creative director) has reassured me that it's okay to be late to the sci-fi party after all.

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I honestly think Hasbro getting the license to make Legend of Zelda toys is the best thing for fans.

Now, listen: I appreciate the concern about corporate giants scooping up IP so we're left with a monolithic industry run by big names. The company isn't perfect, either, so don't mistake this for blind loyalty. But Hasbro winning the license to make Legend of Zelda toys has me excited nonetheless – and it's all thanks to a galaxy far, far away.

As you probably know, Hasbro is a behemoth in the field – it has numerous companies under its belt, from the creators of Furby to D&D's Wizards of the Coast. One of these is an imprint called Hasbro Pulse, which focuses on high-quality action figures and replicas for adults based on Star Wars, Marvel, Transformers, and more. Hand-to-heart, I think it produces some of the best toys around – and it just got its paws on Legend of Zelda, as revealed by its first action figures based on the series. That means fans are in for one hell of a treat.

For starters, Pulse's action figures are absurdly detailed (often using face scans of the actor in question) with premium deco accompanying a host of accessories and multiple points of articulation for more realistic poses. However, they don't come with a premium price. The six-inch Star Wars Black Series range starts at around $27.99 per figure through Hasbro Pulse, for example, and you can usually get them for significantly less at the likes of Amazon after launch. The same has proven to be true for Legend of Zelda, and considering how good they look, I don't think $28 for Link or Zelda is bad.

Yes, Ganondorf is pricier at $43. But we saw the toy in person at SDCC so can confirm it's about two or three times the thickness of the others – so that higher cost does make sense in context.

What really excites me are the replicas, though. Hasbro Pulse is also responsible for a wealth of roleplay items such as lightsabers (including my all-time favorite, the Darth Vader Force FX Elite Lightsaber), helmets, and even masks from the Marvel universe. I've found the vast majority of these to be truly excellent thanks to a host of neat interactive features, quality build materials, and impressive weathering that makes them look as though they've been stolen from a movie set. If you take that care and apply it to the Legend of Zelda universe, we'll be truly cooking. We'd get Master Swords and Hylian Shields like this replica that made us weep with pure Zelda fandom joy, sure, but that also opens up the floor to Majora's Mask or accessories like the hookshot.

Crucially, both action figures and replicas will be much easier to get hold of than anything else we've had before. Existing Legend of Zelda toys are hard to pin down and often expensive due to being out of print. Hasbro's equivalent, on the other hand? Judging by how widely available its other products are, they'd be easy to find.

Of course, there's plenty of other Hasbro-related possibilities to get excited about. Hasbro is responsible for a wealth of board and card games including Magic: The Gathering, for instance, so a crossover seems inevitable. In much the same way, I'd be surprised if a Zelda supplement of some description didn't appear in the Hasbro-owned D&D down the line. But despite all that, it's the action figures or replicas that excite me most – and that's all thanks to how good Pulse's Star Wars gear is.

For more cool collectibles, don't miss the new Lego Star Trek Enterprise Bridge from the original series or the recently-revealed, playable Lego Donkey Kong Arcade set.

Marvel boss Kevin Feige says there's plenty more Spider-Man on the way.

"The good news is, Sony has the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse series, which are very popular and excellent, and Beyond the Universe is coming out next year," Feige said in an interview with Shanghai media outlet Watching Hollywood. "But yes, we definitely have plans, and I think a live-action Spider-Man movie has this destiny: to add Miles sometime after the Spider-Verse series ends. We've been thinking and discussing more Spider-Man adventures, regardless of agreements or contracts. My production partner, Amy Pascal, is already working on it, and we've had in-depth discussions about what the next two, three, four, and five Spider-Man movies might be about."

Fans have been demanding a live-action Miles Morales movie since Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was first released. It didn't seem like a possibility until Spider-Man: No Way Home introduced the possibility of more than one Spider-Man co-existing in the MCU, albeit living in different universes.

There's also a nod to Miles in No Way Home: In one scene, Electro (Jamie Foxx) finally sees the Spider-Man from his universe, Andrew Garfield, unmasked. In a funny but touching way (that was apparently improvised), Electro says, "You're from Queens, you got that suit, you help poor people... I just thought you was gonna be black." Garfield's Spidey apologizes, to which Electro says, "There's gotta be a black Spider-Man out there somewhere." Spidey's enthusiastic nod and smile in that moment led a lot of fans to believe that a Miles Morales movie was inevitable.

There are also some rumors that Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin has been cast, or at least is in the running, as Miles Morales due to the fact that he refuses to do the classic Spider-Man web-slinging pose at conventions. Other popular fan-casts include Miles Brown, who led the show Black-ish from 2014-2022, and Myles Truitt, who had a recurring role on Stranger Things season 4.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives in theaters on July 31. In the meantime, get up to speed on the rest of Marvel Phase 6 with our guide to the other upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

From here on out, it feels like the rumors and speculation about next-gen consoles are only going to ramp up more. We know for sure the next PlayStation isn't going to give us the disc drive console gaming has become synonymous with, but what shape will the other hardware take? I for one, feel like it's about damn time stock console controllers come with back buttons as standard. They've become the norm on even budget PC controllers, so why not Sony and Microsoft's official ones?

Maybe this is just my hot take as a controller reviewer, but back buttons should really be a guarantee in 2026. Hell, by the time the next consoles roll out, we'll probably be in 2028, with over a decade of the controller market integrating them into our gaming peripherals.

But what's your take? For some gamers (me), back buttons have become a must-have feature, and one that's hard to go back to doing without. But I have heard other folks saying the opposite, that back buttons aren't a necessity, or are annoying and even get in the way of pressing the standard buttons on a gamepad.

Thankfully, a few pro controllers that have back buttons will have lockable switches on them so that if you don't want to use them, they're not going to get in the way, which could surely be a happy medium.

I feel like the reason for Sony and Microsoft not putting them in stock controllers until now has been all about pricing, which is bound to be a controversial topic in the next console generation.

The performative reasoning is probably "it would cost more to put them on controllers, so we don't want to do it", but I'm not sure that holds weight these days. You can look at the majority of the best TMR controllers these days, and despite their advanced thumbstick technology, loads of the ones designed for PC and Switch cost less than, or around the same as, a DualSense. Oh, and all but one of the top nine I've recommended on that list have back buttons.

The Hyperkin Competitor, a DualSense knock-off for Xbox that comes in cheaper than Sony's PS5 controller, has back buttons, and I can think of loads of others from GameSir, 8BitDo, Flydigi, PowerA, and EasySMX that offer back buttons for less than the cost of a DualSense, so I don't think Sony or Microsoft could possibly say they'd cost too much to integrate.

Money could well be the reason back buttons are reserved for the Elite Series 2 and the DualSense Edge, but it's got nothing to do with costs. Sony and Microsoft likely see the value and demand for controllers with extra functionality, but they know people are willing to pay more for them. Ie, they want to charge you a premium for it through their more expensive homemade pro controllers.

But as gaming continues to get more expensive, and the lines between PC and console gaming continue to blur, I'm not sure this is going to hold up anymore. With so many affordable third-party gamepads in the mix these days that offer more in terms of design, features, and customization than the stock PS5 and Xbox controller, people have so many reasons to look elsewhere.

The reasons for considering a PC versus a console are getting louder and louder, and more affordable controllers that don't need to be licensed to a console platform could be one of them.

The DualSense has had a pretty rough time on the shelves since 2020, with stick drift issues and longevity problems that have forced people to buy replacements - and expensive ones at that, seeing as it has a lofty $70-$100 price tag depending on the colorway. If the next PlayStation or Xbox will cost you the same as a Steam Machine (or more), then the next gamepads for those consoles need to be built to last. They at least need to offer enough of a bargain to get people on board who are burned by the decision to end physical media access.

For reference, the Official Switch 2 Pro Controller has two back buttons, and the official Steam Controller has four back buttons, grip sensor buttons, and trackpads for maximum utility.

If you can't tell, I really hope to see back buttons as standard on next-gen controllers. If anything, just to offer some value for money in what will surely be a generation where the concept of ownership of hardware and software will go under the microscope.

For more, take a look at the best Xbox Series X controllers, the best Switch 2 controllers, and the best PC racing wheels.

Whether stemming a tide of Tyranids in Warhammer 40:000: Space Marine 2 or whaling on one of Left 4 Dead's chargers to make it stop pummeling your pal, the best co-op games thrive when you're hard-pressed to keep up. Far Far West, developer Evil Raptor's breakout co-op shooter, is no exception. It's equal parts maximalist and stubbornly simple, pitting spellcasting robot cowboys against escalating hordes of supernatural cowpokes – accompanied by the greatest (and first) techno-banjo soundtrack I've ever heard.

To dig into Far Far West's creation, inspirations, and the philosophy driving the small team at Evil Raptor, GamesRadar+ caught up with developer Arnaud Petit.

Questions and answers have been lightly edited for clarity

Goin' out West

How did the development team come together?

Petit: Evil Raptor was born out of Pumpkin Jack back in 2020, when Nicolas, the head of the studio, was solo-developing the game. Following its success, we had the opportunity to hire more people and become more ambitious with our projects. Most of the current team already worked together on our previous title, Akimbot. So, transitioning to Far Far West was just a natural continuation of our work as a group, with a few new additions to ensure we could make the game as good as possible.

Similarly, how did the creative vision of Far Far West take shape?

Petit: The art direction, the atmosphere, mood, and overall fantasy come from Nicolas, who is incredibly skilled at creating spooky and moody vibes. As for the concept of spell-slinging robots fighting skeletons… honestly, it's just cool. Gameplay-wise, our main objective was to create a fun (a very important word for us!) experience that anyone could enjoy, from casual to more hardcore gamers.

Far Far West actually went through three major iterations. Our first prototype was a fresh take on tower defense, and the second leaned into a linear, mission-based structure similar to games like Left 4 Dead. When we realized those directions weren't clicking the way we wanted, we decided to take our best ideas, throw them all in the same bag, and focus entirely on tight gunplay, funny spells, and wacky combos. We mixed it all into a replayable game loop, and the game finally found its footing! While we had a solid foundation, we iterated heavily and integrated player feedback right from the start, which really helped shape the game into what it is today.

Far Far West had a lot of hype at the demo stage, but that doesn't always translate to launch. Ahead of release, how did you feel? How about now?

Petit: Running several open playtests followed by a demo with open reviews definitely helped ease our nerves, as we could see people were enjoying the game. However, since the demo was free at the time, it was impossible to know if that interest would translate into actual sales at launch. Thankfully, it did! We honestly didn't expect the full release to be received this well, nor did we anticipate such a high player count. We couldn't be happier with its success! Now, we're back hard at work and can't wait to bring more content to the players.

Far Far West reminds me of some brilliant co-op shooters – think Space Marine 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Borderlands – more so in spirit than design . What do you think creates the right environment for a shooter to thrive in a group environment?

Petit: For us, the key word is simply fun. Everybody loves wacky concepts and flying around the map at lightspeed, so we thought, 'Why not let them?'. Once we ensured the gunplay felt satisfying and the core loop was engaging, there were still a lot of things to consider. But our philosophy is straightforward: if we think an idea is fun for us, we don't hesitate to implement it for the players.

I adore the music, particularly that crescendo in the final stage of an extraction. Could you tell me a little about why Far Far West's musical direction felt right? (Bonus question: would you like to name your electro-gothic-Western genre, if you haven't already?)

Petit: Like with pretty much everything we do, we just went with a vibe, and that vibe perfectly matched the rhythm of the game. Our composer also did the OST for our previous game, Akimbot, which was heavily electro-based. Since that's his specialty, we wanted to carry that energy over. You just slam some banjo over it, think cowboys, and you get this "electro banjo bop." Not tying ourselves to a specific name or genre keeps the door open to pretty much anything, so we're just going with the flow!

Are there any other developers – solo or studio – that you look up to?

Petit: There are obviously a few names that constantly come up when people compare Far Far West to other titles, like Helldivers 2 or Deep Rock Galactic. They are staples of the co-op shooter space, and they both did an excellent job defining the genre in their own unique ways. When it comes to the gunplay itself, I also have to mention Overwatch. They did an incredible job making shooting feel as satisfying as possible for an FPS, and we definitely studied their animations closely!

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The Odyssey is full of powerhouse performances. From Matt Damon's heroic Odysseus carrying the whole movie's narrative on his bow-stringing shoulders to a scene-stealing turn from Samantha Morton as witch Circe, whose performance is being favorably compared to Heath Ledger. However, there is another character in Christopher Nolan's film that has lingered with me after the credits roll – and it seems the internet agrees.

Benny Safdie's Agamemnon has become something of a phenomenon online since The Odyssey's release. Almost entirely hidden behind an epic helmet, he only appears on screen for a total of about four minutes. However, that hasn't stopped endless videos dissecting his role from flooding social media, and thinkpieces on something called "aura farming" (more on that later…).

Clad head to toe in armor with everything but his eyes covered, Safdie brings a physicality to the king of Mycenae that feels bigger than his limited role. He moves slowly but always with purpose and towers above everyone he shares the screen with. It's a captivating performance – and it feels like one that could be just enough to nab him a Best Supporting Actor nod at next year's Oscars, especially if we're in for an Odyssey sweep.

Strong and silent

For most of The Odyssey, Agamemnon is the strong and silent type. In charge of the Achaeans during the Trojan War, we see him recruiting his army. Nolan often films him from behind, focusing on his golden armor, at a distance from the audience. He feels like one of the first real monsters we see in the film, especially when he commits the horrifying act of sacrificing his young daughter to secure victory in the coming battle.

He's an embodiment of the brutality of this story and is an imposing villain, akin to Darth Vader, when he appears on screen. This is never more true than when the gates are opened to Troy and Agamemnon struts in with his men pouring in behind him. When Nolan finally shows us what happened that night in all of its horror, it's Agamemnon that haunts the screen as a force that cannot be stopped.

"I had to physically become more, I guess, strong as much as I could," Safdie told Screen Rant about playing the part. "When I saw the costume, I was like, all right, well I need to figure out how to move because everything was fastened practically as it would be back then. So everything moved and you just needed to really focus on your extremities and how you turn to talk to people."

It's what audiences online have been calling "aura", with conversations sparking about "aura farming," which apparently sees people deliberately behaving in a way to intentionally appear mysterious and cool. Search "Agamemnon" on social media and you'll pull up endless videos about this with audiences overlaying scenes of the performance with dramatic music. It's undeniable too, Safdie's slow-moving, purposeful walk carries with it an extraordinary gravitas.

However, beyond internet memes, The Smashing Machine director also brings a heavy emotion to the role – and his story is key to Odysseus's denouement.

Eye contact

As powerful as Safdie's physical performance is, for me it was his soulful delivery during the Hades sequence that elevated his role. Reanimated in the black sands of the land of the Cimmerians, we finally learn what happened to him. Returning home from the war a hero, he was bathed and anointed by his wife before she murdered him for killing their daughter.

As Agamemnon tells Odysseus his story with regret heavy in his eyes, he warns him not to make his mistakes. Enter in disguise, he tells him, and make sure you know your enemies first. It's advice that sets up the whole third act as Matt Damon's hero returns to Ithaca, and it hangs heavy over what should be his joyful homecoming.

Combined with Sinon's painful encounter with Odysseus in this sequence too, the scenes at the edge of the underworld are a standout in a film full of impressive moments. They're partly why Safdie's portrayal of the legendary Greek hero lingers so brightly in a film that he features in less than three percent of.

There's no telling yet how the Oscars will fall for The Odyssey, especially in the light of the sweep that Oppenheimer won in recent memory. However, it feels like Agamemnon may haunt the voters long into next year based on this early reception. It's just the kind of limited and powerful performance that could nab him a win come 2027. Let's see if his aura can last that long.

The Odyssey is out in theaters now. For more, check out our The Odyssey review, our beginner's guide to The Odyssey, and our breakdown of all The Odyssey monsters.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day director Destin Daniel Cretton says they're refusing to reveal Sadie Sink's character for a good reason... and that we won't be mad about it.

"If people are gonna get mad, I can't control that!" Cretton told Rolling Stone. "I wish everything was a secret. Some people wanna know everything, and some people don't. There are certain people like me... if I know I'm gonna watch a movie, I try not to even watch the trailers."

"But you'll see when you watch the movie that there's a very real reason not to tell people who Sadie Sink is playing," Cretton continued. "And I don’t think you'll get mad at it. I think you'll be like, 'Oh, I'm glad I didn't know that.'"

In the various Brand New Day trailers, Peter is faced with a "powerful threat" that no one can seem to defeat or even sense. The threat in question seems to be able to control minds and temporarily disable Spidey from using his powers... which are powers that founding X-Men member Jean Grey does indeed possess.

But, I ask you, why would Jean Grey be a bad guy right off the bat... unless she's playing the Dark Phoenix version of Jean Grey, or Madelyne Pryor, who is Jean Grey's 'evil' clone (and featured in X-Men '97 season 1). Either way, I will be seated.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives in theaters on July 31. In the meantime, get up to speed on the rest of Marvel Phase 6 with our guide to the other upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

Standing in front of a cracked, bloodied mirror in the No Tell Motel, I know what comes next. My latest Cyberpunk 2077 run is off to a depressing start already. V has done nothing but roll her eyes at Jackie Welles and mourn the loss of her Arasaka status since I wrapped the game's prologue. But much like Regina George, at least she looks as fabulous as she is evil.

She's cold. She's calculated. She's a corpo through and through, and I'm so in-character it's scary. But being snarky to her Valentino bestie and signing him up for literal soul prison are two different things, and as my first ever asshole Cyberpunk playthrough goes from bad to worse, I am seriously questioning everything that led me to do this to myself.

Night City's bad girl

The most important thing going into any of the best RPGs is to have a clear character in mind to roleplay as, but that gets a little trickier with each replay. I've explored all three Cyberpunk 2077 lifepaths already, as well as tested out all the playstyle-dictating operating systems the game has to offer (Sandevistan forever, by the way). But there's really only one combo that screams "what a bastard" in my eyes, and that's corpo netrunner V.

Just to be clear, my first playthrough was a fem corpo V, non-asshole variety. She was just a cool slick city chick who used her knowledge of Arasaka to stick it to the man and destroy it from the outside. Things panned out a little bittersweet that time, though; I never got the secret ending where you and Johnny storm the corp by yourselves, sparing your friends in the process, so I saved that for my street kid playthrough immediately after. This time, I am approaching my corpo playthrough with much firmer parameters in mind: I'm not trying to be anyone's friend. I'm trying to get my job, my title, and my life back, and I'll manipulate my way there if I have to.

That doesn't mean my V is a full cyberpsycho, cutting people down in droves for the hell of it. Think lawful evil over bloodthirsty chaos. My corpo V is the ultimate cynic, mocking Jackie for his "major league" dreams before giving the Konpeki Plaza receptionist a rude dressing down without flinching. She also refused to take the Burning Balls guy to a ripperdoc (and watched him explode on the sidewalk instead) because why the hell would she want that freak dirtying her new car?

But most painfully, instead of sending Jackie back to his mother, my corpo V sent him directly to Vik Vektor. That was, probably, the shittiest thing I have ever done in Cyberpunk 2077. It might not sound so bad at face value – in truth, I've roleplayed it as my V actually trying to do Jackie a solid by sending him to a ripper to get a bit cleaned up before Mama Welles lays eyes on her poor dead son. But, sending Jackie to Vik, and in the process, delivering him into Arasaka's hands, is just a step on the way to the ending I'm angling for.

The devil in I

The Devil is considered one of the worst endings in the game. It's the default base game ending, unless you've ingratiated yourself with Rogue by doing Johnny's side quests or invested time into helping Panam and the nomadic Aldecaldos family out in the Badlands.

It plays out after you meet Hanako at Embers (when you eventually bring yourself to do so) and sees V aiding Takemura and Hanako in bringing patricidal Yorinobu Arasaka to justice. If V tried sending Jackie's body to Vik early on in the game, a move you later learn was intercepted by Arasaka, they can meet Jackie's engram down at 'Saka HQ and have a chinwag. Sounds like a sweet little reunion, right? Wrong. Engrams can only exist if the copied personality construct was a victim of the Soulkiller virus, much like Johnny himself.

Arasaka's intervention means Jackie didn't just die during the heist on Konpeki Plaza. His soul was scrubbed away like an offensive smudge on Arasaka's glass-paneled corridors after they stole his body from Vik's, and it's all thanks to V.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm still in the motel, remember? None of that has happened yet. My V hasn't even met Johnny Silverhand, and nor does she know that the chip in her head is going to be the death of them both – or maybe just one, if they're lucky. The only problem is that I didn't expect to feel so bad about my handful of choices so far already, even in the name of playing one of my favorite games in a brand new light.

As I head out to meet Dexter DeShawn and seal V's fate, I make one last promise to myself. Being an asshole doesn't mean my V needs to be a bad person – just a person who does bad things. Man, I'm sorry, Jackie. I wish I'd told you I'd see you in the major leagues.

Check out the best open world RPGs to play while you wait for GTA 6 (and yes, I know it's not an RPG)

I was a late bloomer to Fallout. I saw it aplenty in the magazines during the late 1990s, but it wasn't until a year after Fallout 3's 2008 release that I loaded it into my PlayStation 3 console, and it became my late Game of the Year. Playing a title that was a mix of first-person shooter and RPG genres was a new feeling for me; the feeling of awe was something I hadn't felt since I first played Half-Life in 2000.

Like all my favorite games, I purposely stop playing them for a long while to maintain that feeling of surprise and joy each time I return. Metal Gear Solid 2, Half-Life 2, and Tomb Raider are a few of these titles for me, and Fallout 3 quickly joined their ranks. But as the years passed, it became harder to play the game. I didn't own an Xbox, and my PC was out of action. Thanks to Crossover, a macOS app that lets me play a bunch of Windows games on my Mac, I can play Fallout 3 again – but as a day one Switch 2 owner, I've been dying to play it on my new Nintendo console. That dream might actually become a reality now that a Fallout 3 remaster has been officially confirmed by Bethesda.

New Nuka Cola, but with a Switch 2 taste

I've loved owning a Switch 2 since its June 2025 launch. The previous model was also a day-one buy, and could always be found in my backpack. The same applies to the latest console. Now I can play my existing games with a glossier finish, as well as new games that couldn't run on the original Switch.

But while it's been fun to play Street Fighter 6, Kirby Air Riders, and plenty of the other best Switch 2 games out there already, I'm dying to know whether the Fallout 3 remaster will make the jump. I know I could wait for Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition, which is already confirmed for Switch 2. But I've always preferred the third entry to to 2015's Fallout 4 due to the graphics and the RPG elements and will accept no substitute.

It's July 2026, more than a year on since the Switch 2 debuted, and up until Bethesda revealed the official remaster alongside an update on Fallout 5, I'd been wondering why Nintendo hadn't delivered its own Fallout 3 port yet. Now that the remaster is officially in the works, there's little need for a Switch 2 port – if the Fallout 3 remaster launches on the console at all, that is. I hope it does; it would be a match made in radioactive heaven.

Liberty Prime with an extra shine

If the Fallout 3 remaster did make its way to Switch 2, I'd love to see features like less loading times, more NPCs across the open wasteland, and, as a treat, a redesigned inventory system that uses the Switch 2's touchscreen.

Combining it with a fresh coat of paint that’s similar to The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered could be a great way to lessen one of the few pain points I've always had with Fallout 3. I've found the method of arranging every bit of loot to be a cumbersome process. But just having it ready to play on-the-go via my Nintendo handheld, regardless of having that option available now via Steam Deck, sounds incredibly enticing to me.

With the sim-spinoff Fallout Shelter having been available on Nintendo Switch consoles since 2018, Fallout 3 seems primed for the platform. We're in an era where there's a Fallout TV series as well, which still feels surreal. It's really good, too, and with its second season having wrapped up in early February, it feels like the stars are aligning for the Fallout 3 remaster to come to Switch 2.

As I'm reaching the four-year mark since I last played Fallout 3, I'd love to go back into the world again on my Switch 2 instead of having to carry my Mac around for the pleasure. By all means, I'd do it anyway. But to help my back and my Mac's battery life, it'd be great if Bethesda sees my plight and adds it to the voices. It's time for Fallout 3 to join the Switch 2 party – I'll bring the Nuka-Cola.

Check out the best Fallout games of all time, from spinoffs to mainline entries.

I didn't realize I'd stopped playing new releases until my wife pointed it out one day. "You've been playing a lot of super old games lately," she remarked to me, and I didn't think much of it at first. But her words echoed long enough to make me stop and ponder exactly why I'd been snubbing new games in favor of old. I've come to the conclusion that I'm using them as a security blanket of sorts.

Writing about video games for a living in 2026 means generative AI and mass layoffs consume up to 100% of my headspace on any given working day. Whether it's another big company like Xbox announcing hundreds of redundancies or a C-suite executive extolling the dubious virtues of artificial intelligence, I log on for work each morning fully expecting to learn about something terrible to research and communicate to you, dear reader.

Don't get me wrong, the gravity of a story about corporate restructuring is usually offset by something fun, like a Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Balatro crossover. But as upsetting stories continue to take up a greater share of my workload with every passing week, it's no wonder that I'm escaping the horrors of gaming's present by losing myself in its past.

Take the pain away

My recent retro gaming phase came about organically. I hurt my back the other week and spent several days faced with a very physical dilemma. I could stay lying down, or exist in a state of perpetual agony. There's not much you can do in that situation besides watch TV and play video games, and I found myself doing a lot of both.

But what surprised me was my instinct to exclusively play very old games. As in, games that launched at least 15 years ago. In a mild state of sedation from over-the-counter painkillers, I reached for what was most comfortable: games from my childhood, like Pokemon Leaf Green, Diablo 2, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

It feels markedly different from the casual, inconsistent relationship I've had with the best retro games up until recently, fueled by an impulse to comb through my Switch Online subscription a few times a year and play something from the N64 collection. I'm sure many people resort to the same thing out of convenience, boredom, or lazy curiosity. But my current fixation on retro games is borne from something much more intentional, decided by whatever subconscious part of my brain is in charge of protecting my inner peace.

I can't be the only one whose sense of inner peace feels constantly threatened by games news headlines. The industry has always had its ups and downs, but 2026 is proving a uniquely challenging year.

Universally-acclaimed releases like Crimson Desert are weighed down by varying degrees of controversy. Marathon, Bungie's genuinely great new extraction shooter, has been saddled with responsibility for the death of Destiny 2. I had a lot of fun playing Highguard for the 90 minutes it existed before being permanently shut down, and then I just felt bad for the dozens of developers who worked on it that were suddenly out of a job. I was excited about Subnautica 2 for years, but after extensively covering the legal drama between the original developers and publisher Krafton, it became harder and harder to immerse myself in its world.

Old games let me detach from that misery. When I'm playing Dragon Quest 8, I'm not worried about whether that Dancing devil or Fencing fox was conceptualized using AI-generated art. My friends and I can go a few rounds in Halo 2 without worrying about the livelihoods of everyone who made the game. I can save the world as Tidus in Final Fantasy 10 and not even once think about phrases like shareholder value or operating margins.

What's even better is finding old games I'd never played or revisiting those I bounced off years ago, which I'm ashamed to admit was the case with Skyward Sword – a game I now regret ever saying anything bad about when I was young and stupid.

A link to the past

A lot of what bums me out about today's games also existed 10, 20, even 30 years ago (EA has been shutting down beloved studios long before Microsoft) but it wasn't at the forefront of the zeitgeist like today. Circumstances appear so exacerbated right now because seemingly very little has been done to address the industry's fundamental issues.

There are fewer and fewer places for laid-off developers to safely land. Startup studios consistently struggle to establish a footing due to the increasing scale of development. Meanwhile, billion-dollar companies appear slow to learn from their mistakes, buying companies and IP only to cut staff and shutter studios when sales don't measure up to investor expectations.

The games industry feels less sustainable than ever. I don't know how we're going to fix it, but playing older games in 2026 has had the ironic effect of sparking optimism for the future that I haven't felt in a while by reminding me how far we've come.

Real progress has been made for better representation in games. Investigations into workplace toxicity have resulted in high-profile departures and institutional changes. Workers are successfully unionizing at an encouraging scale, and the impact of crunch culture has been put under a spotlight like never before. We've a long way to go in each one of those aspects, but I'm choosing to believe the same collective drive for a better industry will fuel worthwhile movement in areas causing so much strife today.

In the meantime, I'll dutifully continue keeping y'all informed of the latest atrocities in the hopes that one day I'll find myself writing more about BOGO indie RPGs and less about people losing their jobs. But in my free time, you'll find me curled up under a warm, fuzzy mountain of retro games, whisked away to a simpler time.

Check out all the best N64 games to re-explore if you also want to lose yourself in the good old days.

The first official Avengers: Doomsday trailer is finally here, giving us our first real look at Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. However, thanks to some confusing angles and a rather bizarre accent, the highly anticipated trailer has me worried that Marvel may have taken the wrong direction with this new villain. That is, unless Marvel has another trick up its sleeve.

Avengers: Doomsday hasn't had the easiest road to the big screen. Once intended to be Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, the project saw a complete overhaul followed by a series of delays. But excitement for the fifth Avengers movie soon shot up again after Marvel's famed Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 saw unmasked Iron Man star Downey as Doctor Doom, confirming the movie had swapped out Kang the Conqueror for the green-suited baddie.

With Doom never appearing in live-action before, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Not to mention the fact that Downey had spent the past decade-plus playing the MCU's first, and perhaps most beloved hero, Tony Stark. With that, I wondered how Marvel would get around the fact that the new villain looks and sounds exactly like the late Avenger. However, I'm not sure that the first trailer has settled my worries. In fact, I fear it has made matters worse.

Doctor Dracula

The new Avengers: Doomsday trailer immediately delivers what we have been waiting for. As Professor X's academy burns to the ground, we hear Doctor Doom warning, "Something's coming, something we may not be able to deter," before we see the villain kneeling, wearing his iconic armour and silver mask. Later in the trailer, we get a full look at Doom as he faces Chris Hemsworth's Thor, before the camera closes in on the villain's mask and glowing green eyes.

However, I can't help but feel as though Doom's voice sounds like a bad Dracula impersonator. Yes, in Marvel comics, Victor Von Doom was indeed born into a Romani community in a fictional nation known as Latveria. I understand that having the new foe sound anything like Stark would be way too confusing, but Downey's newfangled accent sounds dangerously close to Hotel Transylvania rather than the Eastern European scientific genius Doom is meant to be.

The second issue I have with how Doom is presented in the trailer. When we first saw Downey's Doom in The Fantastic Four: First Steps post-credits scene, the villain had an incredibly dark and looming presence. Although he didn't really do anything too shocking in those few moments, his overall energy was ominous. But in the Doomsday trailer, the villain seems quite stiff and struggles to leave an impression. This differs from how Marvel Comics presents Doom as a 6-foot-7 force of nature who has brains and brawn. In short, I need him to have a similar aura to Agamemnon in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.

Marvel's main man

Complaints aside, let's not get ahead of ourselves and judge a book by its cover right away. As I mentioned earlier, Doom's initial appearance in Fantastic Four did leave a lasting effect, so letting the first Doomsday trailer put a dampener on the whole project would be a mistake. We know that Downey is a capable actor and has been put in quite a difficult position in practically saving the fifth Avengers movie from being delayed indefinitely. Let's also remember that the movie is still in post-production, meaning any kinks can still be, ahem, ironed out.

I do think it was a mistake to give so much of Doom away in the very first trailer. Just look at Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The upcoming Spidey installment is less than two weeks from hitting the big screen, and we still don't know who the main villain is. With this, I wonder why Marvel has chosen to show so much of Doom. Could he be a red herring? I have had my doubts about whether Doom really is the main villain in Marvel Phase 6's Doomsday.

Another detail in the trailer, which I feel as though many people are skipping over, is that Doom seems to be warning the heroes that an Incursion is coming to destroy Earth-616. Why would he do that if he wanted to put an end to the Avengers? On top of this, the new Doomsday synopsis from Fandango teases "Beloved heroes from three distinct universes will be set on a deadly collision course and ultimately face an existential threat unlike anything they've ever encountered." But fails to mention Doom by name.

The rest of the synopsis suggests anything goes in Doomsday, as the movie marks the Multiverse Saga's "final chapter" and "will lay the foundation for the future" of the MCU. I do think that Doomsday will change Marvel's Cinematic Universe as we know it, including killing off many of the heroes it is bringing back in its stacked cast list. I just hope that Doom's lackluster reveal is part of a bigger plan, and that we haven't just seen all of what Avengers: Doomsday's villain has to offer way too early.

Doomsday arrives this December 18. For more, check out our Avengers: Doomsday trailer breakdown, and keep up with other upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

Finally, after what feels like an age of waiting, the Avengers: Doomsday trailer is here. Naturally, it's packed with Marvel details you might have missed on first viewing – and that's where we come in.

Below, in our Avengers: Doomsday trailer breakdown, we've rounded up the eight most interesting things in the new footage. We've also offered some of our MCU expert analysis on what it might mean.

For even more, dive into our guides on the most exciting upcoming movies or all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

Doctor Doom's warning

The trailer begins with a voiceover from what sounds like Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom. Strangely, he's not issuing a threat, however, but a warning. "Something's coming," he says. "Something we may not be able to deter. Before this day is done, we shall be faced with an unthinkable decision." What does that mean? Well, we have no idea, but it suggests he's not going to be a straightforward villain. Probably, like Thanos, he'll have a twisted idea of how to save the universe (or, perhaps, multiverse).

The X-Mansion

We already knew the X-Mansion was in danger thanks to the brief teaser that showed off the mutants' involvement in the film. But we see more of the situation in this trailer, including Shang-Chi and Gambit facing off, Professor X looking out the window at a huge flare of light in the sky, and Sam Wilson's Captain America, Reed Richards, and Yelena Belova in the fight (and HERBIE). Plus, Mystique morphs into Yelena mid-tussle. We know it ends with Cyclops screaming on his knees, unleashing his powers, and the school in ruins, so it seems things will escalate dramatically from what's shown in the trailer.

New Avengers Tower

Earth's Mightiest Heroes gather in the New Avengers Tower as Thor warns them of the magnitude of what they're facing. Ant-Man, Sam Wilson's Captain America, Bucky Barnes, the Fantastic Four, and the Thunderbolts are present. Thor also arrives with the Fantastic Four, interestingly, suggesting he goes off to find them.

Wakanda

When Shuri and M'Baku meet with The Thing, Sue Storm, Ghost, Falcon, and Bucky Barnes, it looks like the ocean is being held back by some kind of force behind them. In Wakanda Forever, Namor didn't have any ocean powers of his own, unlike in the comics, and, in this trailer, he has a throne on land that appears to be nearby (you can see the ocean wall through the windows of the building). So, what's happening here? Perhaps a threat to the sea would be enough to get Namor, who had no interest in human affairs previously, involved. What is clear, though, is that there is still understandable tension between the Wakandans and the Talokanil, since they look seconds away from fighting.

Plus, in the comics, Namor and Bucky fought in World War 2 together, and they finally meet (or are at least in the same place) in live-action in this trailer. Namor and Sue Storm also share the screen here, and they have a very complicated dynamic in Marvel's source material.

Thor vs. Doom

Thor and Doom go head to head in what appears to be ruins of some kind. It's not clear if this is the X-Mansion or someplace else, but what can be seen is a statue. Frustratingly, it's not giving away any clues at where they're fighting.

But, what is clear is that Doom can easily stop Thor in his tracks, hammer and all. Considering Thor is one of the most powerful characters in the MCU (a god, no less), this spells serious trouble for Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

The Falcon

Danny Ramirez's Joaquin Torres can only be seen in the background of two scenes in the trailer, in Wakanda and in the X-Mansion. We're now very worried about the fate of the new Falcon. Could he be an early death? But Bucky Barnes can also only be seen briefly, so maybe we need to worry about more than one person. After all, Marvel fans are already convinced Bucky is not long for this world after Sebastian Stan's casting in The Batman 2.

Loki

Loki is back! He still has his TVA pass, despite becoming the God of Stories in the Loki season 2 finale. Interestingly, the tree – Yggdrasil – is etched on the back of his pass. Is this a get-out-of-tree-free card? Otherwise, something huge must've happened to release him from his duty of holding the multiverse together. Could this be linked to Doom's warning?

Steve Rogers

Also making a triumphant return is Chris Evans's Steve Rogers. He's bearded with longer hair, somewhat like his Infinity War look (and Thor resembles his Infinity War look, too, if that means anything). Most importantly, though, Steve is still capable of wielding Mjolnir. How he has returned and why remains to be seen, but his comeback was given away in the very first teaser for the movie. Sadly, we don't see in this trailer if he gets to have a reunion with his old pals Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes, but here's hoping.

Avengers: Doomsday arrives this December 18. In the meantime, check out our guide to the Marvel timeline for the story so far.

Assassin's Creed Hexe is a mystery. The follow-up to Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is so unknown that all its fans have to go on is a Blair Witch-style logo and a series of high-profile departures that threaten its very existence. But what you, the uninitiated, may not know, is that there's a pattern running through the entire series that gives away a lot more about the upcoming Assassin's Creed game than you might think.

Since the beginning of the series, every mainline Assassin's Creed protagonist has taken it in turns to be either a Nerd or a Bastard. The former are those characters who are steeped in the Creed and all it stands for; stoic, stalwart, disciplined. The latter are those who use their skills as much for their personal amusement as anything else. Taking down Templars might be their duty, but it can also be good fun - and it won't necessarily get in the way of a good time once the Bastard is off the clock.

If you're not prepared to take my word for it, I'm happy to show my working. I've enlisted the help of GamesRadar+'s cabal of AC experts to help fill in the gaps in my knowledge, and while there are a few grey areas (and while we're not counting games like Rogue, Liberation, or Freedom Cry), my theory holds up.

History lesson

We start with a nerd. When we first meet Altair Ibn-La'Ahad in the first Assassin's Creed, he's embedded deep within the Brotherhood and its teachings, at a time when its mission seems critical to his homeland's survival. He is calculating, serious, and entirely absorbed in his task. It's a collection of character traits that make him the proto-nerd, especially when you compare him to his immediate successor.

Jumping ahead to Assassin's Creed 2, Ezio is almost the opposite of Altair. Brash, arrogant, getting in street brawls and fleeing over rooftops just for the fun of it. Admittedly, his revenge quest puts a little bit of a dampener on that, and Ezio definitely mellows over time, but you get the sense that he's having fun and prepared to toy with his prey a little more. You don't fist-fight the pope and not end up with some kind of bastard status.

AC3's Connor is a huge nerd who, in fighting for his homeland in a manner similar to Altair, seems to barely crack a smile throughout his entire story. That's in marked opposition to his pirating grandad in the series' fourth instalment; Edward Kenway is a massive bastard, who is doing everything for the money and is barely an assassin for most of Black Flag. He's not interested in the Creed, wishing instead to get rich quick and hopefully have a good time while he's at it.

AC Unity is a personal blind-spot, but I'm reliably informed that Arno is a big ol' simp, who does pretty much everything he does in his game in the uncomfortably chivalric pursuit of a girl. Across the channel, Assassin's Creed Syndicate's Evie and Jacob are a little harder to place in contrast. Evie seems like a nerd, and Jacob is hard to classify as a bastard because he's such a himbo, but his pursuit of vibes-based gang violence and presence as a slightly bigger character than his sister makes Syndicate a bastard game.

From there, it's on to the modern era. Bayek kicks things off by bringing the stoic, desert-dwelling attitude of Altair back to the series in Assassin's Creed Origins. Alexios and Kassandra then immediately reject that vibe in Assassin's Creed Odyssey in favor of fighting and *ahem* sleeping their way across the Mediterranean. Much like fighting the pope, having a signature move based on the movie 300 is definitely a bastard-signifier. The religious Norse underpinnings of AC Valhalla mean that even though Eivor is prepared to have a good time demolishing monasteries, they're too nerdily obsessed with the gods to gain bastard status. But then Basim throws up an issue.

Assassin's Creed Mirage once again features a Creed-steeped desert environment, where Basim is a bit of a nerd as a fledgling Hidden One in ninth-century Baghdad. But overall, the presence of Loki within Basim as established in Valhalla means that he honks bastard status, giving way for Naoe and Yasuke to be big 'ol nerds whose Japanese background all but requires them to be extremely dedicated, serious figures in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

Back to Edward for Black Flag Resynced, and the bastard/nerd pattern holds up into 2026.

Yer a Wizard

All that brings us to Hexe, which by every metric I can consider looks like another major win for my pattern. Granted, we don't know much about its narrative, but many signs point to its tone and setting. Eagle-eyed fans pinned the Assassin's Creed Hexe setting to the 17th Century Wurzburg Witch Trials in Germany, and subsequent leaks have made that prediction more likely.

A game with Hexe's witchy theme was always likely to feature some nerdiness. Craft of all kinds, whether or not it was associated with magic or even medicine, requires devotion to learning and precision, which means a driven, academic protagonist seems likely. A community under threat draws comparisons to Connor and Altair, both massive Assassin nerds. And if setting can play a major part, as it did with Bayek, Naoe, and Yasuke, 1600s Germany in the grip of a religious fervor seems likely to prove a setting where the kind of flippancy that makes for a good bastard is not looked upon kindly.

Clearly, there's every chance that Hexe bucks the trend, but it certainly doesn't seem likely to offer up some carefree hero based on everything we've learned about it so far. The only thing that could disrupt my pattern is the rumored remake of an early Assassin's Creed game. If Altair returns just before or just after Hexe, that'll be two nerds in a row. I'll just have to pray for a post-Hexe Ezio remaster to keep my immaculate theory intact.

Explore the best Assassin's Creed games ranked in order of greatness, from the RPG era to spin-offs.

Razer has unveiled two new collaborations with the Pokemon Company just days apart, including the Espeon and Umbreon Collection and the Razer Pikachu and Eevee Collection, and they're just as adorable as you'd expect them to be.

Both collections include accessories like the Razer Kraken V4 X headset, which has hung up its plain all-black looks for imagery of the adorable Pokemon instead. Yet as stunning as its new purple starry Espeon and Umbreon or pastel pink Pikachu and Eevee look is, I wish that the best Razer headsets and other top-of-the-line accessories in the brand's back catalog got the same treatment.

These collections always revolve around existing Razer headsets, keyboards, mice and mouse mats, but they typically encompass products on the lower end of Razer's price range. That means that while you might be getting one of the cutest pairs of cups out there, you won't be getting the one with the best features - which is a shame given the extra $30 cost you're paying for the privilege of your headset looking fit for a Pokemon master.

Brands like Razer always have to factor in the licensing fee that's required whenever it produces new lines with big-name companies like The Pokemon Company. With that in mind, there is some sense in always utilizing its lower-end accessories for these kinds of collaborations. I can only speculate, but if I were Razer and I knew I had to factor in that extra $30 cost for each item regardless, I could understand wanting the products to be as appealing as possible, and that'd involve keeping prices low to make them more accessible to a wider range of fans.

If you take the Razer Kraken V4 X headset into consideration, it's normally priced at $79.99 at Amazon when there are no sales around. When you incorporate the extra $30 cost, that takes the pair up to $109.99, which is exactly how much you can expect to pay for both the Espeon and Umbreon and Pikachu and Eevee Razer headsets. However, if Razer were to incorporate one of the best gaming headsets in its back catalogue instead, like that of the Razer BlackShark V3 Pro, it'd be a far higher price to contend with. The wireless headset has an MSRP of $249.99 (Amazon), which would mean fans would have to spend $279 for its own Pokemon makeover.

That price tag is likely one that would not appeal to passing fans of the franchise who just want cute accessories and don't care much for its specs. Or even parents of kids who are eager to please their kids with cute accessories featuring their favorite Pokemon but don't have the budget to spare on high-end accessories - particularly ones that little ones may not know how to take full advantage of. But I don't like to assume that people who yearn for cute accessories don't also care about specs - especially as I care about both, and I know I'm not alone.

In particular, I wish more feature-rich headsets were regularly part of these new collections. The pair frequently used by Razer for its Pokemon tech isn't bad by any means, but it's missing some key features that may not appeal to fans who care about substance as much as style.

The Razer Kraken V4 X carries the same Triforce 40mm audio drivers as past pairs like the Razer Barracuda X, a pair that frequently topped out best Nintendo Switch headset guides for years due to its quality. The brand's drivers enable a leveled sound that still makes games sound incredible regardless of which pair they're in. However, the V4 X is a wired-only headset, which makes it more limited compared to other Razer alternatives.

As someone with the Gengar Edition Razer Kraken Kitty V2 USB at my disposal, its wire gets tangled easily, and its USB-A connection makes it suited for PC platforms only. The Kraken V4 X fortunately comes with a USB-A to USB-C adapter, but you still have to put up with being tethered to a wire. I'd much rather prefer donning a cute headset on my head while experiencing the freedom of Bluetooth and 2.4GHz low-latency wireless, which is what you'd get if the BlackShark V3 Pro were selected for these new collections instead.

The Razer BlackShark V3 Pro doesn't just have the option of a wired 3.5mm or USB connection, but you can utilize Bluetooth or 2.4GHz wireless too. It's also decked out with the brand's TriForce Bio-Cellulose 50mm Gen 2 audio drivers, which "entralled" our team's own Tabitha Baker in her review with how much space it conjured in its low end - a sound that many Pokemon fans would appreciate.

These limitations are just going to be apparent with the headsets chosen for these releases, but they're apparent with other accessories too. The Razer Cobra is the gaming rodent of choice when it comes to all of Razer's Pokemon sets, and it's a wired-only mouse that doesn't have all the bells and whistles of, say, the Razer Deathadder V4 Pro. Currently sitting as our best gaming mouse top pick, the Deathadder V4 Pro provides both wired and 2.4GHz connectivity options, includes Razer's Gen 4 optical switches over that of the Gen 3 found in the Cobra, and is even more lightweight at just 56g over the Cobra's 58g form factor.

It'd be incredibly neat if Razer chose a mouse like it, and options like the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro Mini, which joined our best gaming keyboard list last year, for their future Pokemon collaborations. That way, those who want to create a cute and cozy PC gaming setup don't have to feel inclined to settle for cheaper and less feature-full accessories.

It'd at least be nice to have the option as to what Razer accessories to add to your setup that are covered in cute Pokemon accessories instead. Razer even currently has a customizability option hidden amongst its online store, which could be perfect to utilize for just that purpose - pleasing those who are okay with budget-friendly accessories, and those who want something with beefier specs instead.

Within the Razer Customs page, you can select the Razer Orochi V2 mouse, Razer Gigantus V2 mousemat, and your smartphone to be bestilled with art from a selection of notable IPs that Razer has partnered with, including Squid Game, The Smurfs, Borderlands 4, and even art and designs from VTuber Iron Mouse. Pokemon is notably absent from the customization process, but its inclusion, along with a larger range of Razer gaming products, could be a great way to appeal to a wider selection of Pokemon and hardware fans.

Of course, it'd be entirely dependent on whether The Pokemon Company and Razer would agree to slapping Pikachu, Eevee, Gengar, and the Eevee evolutions across a wider variety of products, rather than the ones that are chosen time and time again. I can only speculate, but there's every chance that the Razer Cobra mouse or the Razer Kraken V4 X appear time and time again, as they're the only products allowed to be chosen for these collaborations.

In the meantime, by the time Razer announces its fifth Pokemon partnership, I hope I have a chance to pick up a headset that is dripping not just in cuteness the kind of impressive specs my PC gaming setup yearns for.

Check out our guides to the best PC controllers for gaming, the best PC headsets for gaming, and the best gaming chairs if you're on the hunt for new accessories that focus on substance over style.

San Diego Comic-Con 2026 is almost here, and we already have some thoughts (and big dreams) for what is going to be announced this year.

After looking at the SDCC schedule and all the panels that are heading our way, the GamesRadar+ team has come together to create the ideal wishlist of all the movie and TV updates that we are hoping happen in some kind of way over the next few days. Below you'll find a round-up of some of the team's expert opinions, from potential trailers for upcoming Marvel movies to iconic horror adaptations.

Obviously, keep in mind that none of these have been confirmed just yet. We are hoping that they all do, but for now, they are just speculation. So, with all that out of the way, read on to discover what we think will be the hottest announcements at SDCC 2026, from upcoming movies to the newest TV shows.

San Diego Comic-Con 2026 wishlist

The Rings of Power season 3 casting news

The Rings of Power season 3 will be bringing Middle-earth back to San Diego this year ahead of new episodes in November. Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay will be appearing alongside the cast as we expect more details about just how that time jump will impact the story.

However, we are most excited to see if it's finally revealed who Jamie Campbell Bower is playing. The Stranger Things star joined ahead of season 3 and has been having a lot of fun teasing fans about his connection to the Witch King. Our money is that he may be a little more Elven than audiences have realised though – could he be playing the long-awaited Celeborn? Only time will tell…

Blade Runner 2099 timeline details

Prime Video has kept its long-gestating sequel series Blade Runner 2099 tightly under wraps since filming finished in December 2024. But with a full reveal just days away, it won't be long till we're all elegiacally muttering "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe…"

A first trailer, release date reveal, and plenty of insights from the cast (Michelle Yeoh, Hunter Schafer and Tom Burke star) are all practically guaranteed during the show's SDCC panel. But what we really want to know is how 2099 will connect to Ridley Scott's seminal Blade Runner and Denis Villeneuve's superlative sequel. Will Replicant-born children factor into the story? Given Blade Runner 2049's paradigm-shifting ending, it's the perfect avenue to explore.

A new Lanterns trailer

With the newfangled DCU stumbling slightly after Supergirl failed to soar at the box office, it's suddenly Lanterns' job to right the ship steered by DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran. The elevator pitch – a True Detective-style mystery with a grizzled Green Lantern and a fresh-faced hero in training – holds plenty of promise, but the initial trailers showcasing Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre's John Stewart have lacked anything to make rivals Marvel Studios green with envy.

What we immediately want to see from its SDCC showing is a little more in the way of color and personality to help it stand out in a new trailer, as well as a slight taste from those attending on how it connects to the wider DCU. If nothing else, Lanterns' panel needs to be a confident tone-setter for DC's next 12 months.

More Avengers: Doomsday footage

Marvel could have its biggest year ever in 2026 with the release of Avengers: Doomsday, but, if it wants to have any hope of rivalling the shock announcement of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom at this year's SDCC panel, it needs to drop something huge. We are almost certain that means we'll get more Doomsday footage now that the trailer has just dropped.

Plus, if Marvel wants to absolutely blow the roof off, it could also reveal more about its upcoming X-Men movie. Here's hoping we get a cast reveal, especially with rumors swirling that Adam Driver is set to play Magneto.

A Silo spin-off

Silo season 4 is already confirmed, but we are greedy and hoping for news of a potential spin-off series during Apple TV's panel. Author of the Silo books, Hugh Howey, mentioned during a Reddit AMA that he has plans for another trilogy that follows Silo 40 "from before the events of WOOL to after DUST", so there is a chance here, folks.

We will say it is still a long shot, given that we've no word on these new books yet. But announcing whether we were going to get a spin-off and planting the seeds ahead of the show's final season would be a smart move and would also drum up excitement for Howey's new trilogy. It would be a win-win scenario, so we are keeping our fingers crossed.

A Carrie trailer

Horror legend Mike Flanagan is putting the boo in Ballroom 20, as the filmmaker makes his San Diego Comic-Con debut to tease his upcoming adaptation of Stephen King's beloved 1974 novel Carrie. The horror masterpiece has been adapted many times for film, but Flanagan's series, set to hit Prime Video just in time for Halloween, will explore the telekinetic teen's troubled time at high school over eight episodes.

Prime Video has already released first-look images and the official synopsis. Given how much information is already out there, we expect to see the first trailer at SDCC 2026. Deadline reports that the panel will include an "exclusive look at the series, behind-the-scenes insights, and a special announcement." Might we get a glimpse at the iconic prom scene? Or maybe King himself makes an appearance? However, we do know that Flanagan will be joined on stage by stars Summer Howell, Samantha Sloyan, Siena Agudong, Alison Thornton, Amber Midthunder and Matthew Lillard.

San Diego Comic-Con 2026 runs from July 22-26. For more, check out our list of upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

House of the Dragon season 3 continues this week with another episode that teases steadily building tension. While no battles break out in this installment, it looks like a climactic showdown is looming thanks to some seriously ironic foreshadowing.

Below, we've broken down the moment and what it means – but that means there are major spoilers ahead for George R.R. Martin's Fire and Blood. Turn back if you don't want the fate of a major character spoiled!

If you're still reading, then you're ready to dive in and find out what the latest episode of House of the Dragon season 3 sets up. For more, check out our House of the Dragon season 3 review.

House of the Dragon season 3, episode 5 foreshadows an major book death

In the episode, Ser Criston Cole walks for miles with the green army and Alicent Hightower's brother, Gwayne Hightower. Towards the end of the episode, Gwayne realizes that Criston is in fact hoping to march to his death.

Criston gives a rousing speech, in which he declares, "I am the realm's greatest warrior, and I will die as such, clear-eyed, unbent, glorious in battle, and not in their service, finally, but in my own." He even hopes songs of his death reach Alicent.

However, George R.R. Martin's Fire and Blood reveals a different fate for the Kingsguard knight. He and his host are confronted by the black army, and Criston unsuccessfully tries to negotiate for the lives of his men if he surrenders.

Criston then tries to battle against his three challengers, declaring, "One of me against three of you. Will that be enough to make a fight of it?" But, he doesn't get the epic death he wants. One member of Team Black, Longleaf the Lionslayer, signals archers and three arrows swiftly strike Criston dead.

"I'll have no songs about how brave you died, Kingmaker," says Longleaf. "There's tens o' thousands dead on your account."

So, Criston's grand hopes in this episode all come to nothing, because an anticlimactic death is awaiting him... and no songs will reach Alicent.

House of the Dragon continues weekly on HBO in the US and HBO Max, Sky, and NOW in the UK. Keep up to date with our House of the Dragon season 3 release schedule.

For even more, check out our guide to all the upcoming Game of Thrones movies and TV shows.

They say a change is as good as a rest, and by the end of Warhammer 40,000 10th Edition, I was in dire need of either.

Not that 10th Edition wasn't great – it had just gotten a little samey. Well, that's all out the window now because Warhammer 40K 11th Edition is here and I've smashed my way through a tournament's worth of games over the past two weeks to get the lowdown on the new version of the wargame.

We didn't get a full rules overhaul this time around – which means all our 10th edition Codexes still work and most of the core rules remain relatively familiar – but that doesn't mean that there haven't been some significant changes to the way we play Warhammer 40,000.

The good

Off the bat, I'll say this: I like Warhammer 40,000 11th Edition. It feels like a refined version of the game that we've all been playing for the past three years, with a lot of quality-of-life upgrades baked into it.

The overhauls to both terrain and objectives – which resulted in terrain becoming the objectives – have massively shaken up what a 40K board looks like, while the new army dispositions and asymmetric primary missions have given a similarly seismic shuffle to how we build our lists and play the game itself.

Secondary missions feel fairer too, because you can stockpile them, so you're never punished for drawing "Behind Enemy Lines" in the early game or pulling "Assassinate" when all your opponent's characters are hidden.

Getting to build your army towards a specific goal instead of generic missions adds a ton of flavour; my Necrons don't care much for reconnaissance, but they do love to stand in a place and proudly declare dibs, and I can build a list almost exclusively with that in mind now. I love the new detachment system, which lets you glue multiple detachments together to buff different unit types. It helps massively in the flavour department, something that was often lacking in 10th.

Battleshock is more impactful; attached characters no longer forget half of their rules when their unit dies; flying units can actually fly over buildings again… the list of improvements goes on and on.

To top it all off, this feels like the most balanced start to an edition of Warhammer 40K that I can remember, and, most importantly, the game is fun to play. I'm having a great time, and so are my opponents. What more could you want?

The bad

OK, now for all the "more you could want".

I said this is the most balanced start to an edition of Warhammer 40K that we've ever had, and while I stand by that, some balance issues are creeping up already, specifically around the five dispositions. Take & Hold, Priority Assets, and Reconnaissance all seem to be broadly in line with each other, but the other two have some issues.

Purge the Foe is just too strong and too singularly focused as it stands. While other dispositions need to vary up their game plan a little, Purge the Foe just needs to kill you stone dead. There's a danger it pushes the game into a "who can table who first" competition, which is rarely a fun time for Warhammer.

Disruption has the opposite issue; it asks too much of players, and the rewards are just a bit weaker than those in other detachments. You need an ungodly number of trash units to make it work, which means you can find yourself bleeding resources just to keep up, while your opponent has a much simpler and less costly objective to achieve. The missions can be tweaked, so I'm not too worried here long term, but it's an issue to acknowledge.

Some matchups also feel a tad noninteractive – games where players can avoid getting into a serious brawl with each other and still score 80+ points each. This can lead to some boring-ass games of 40K, so I'd like to see tweaks to these mission combos to force some engagement.

Another elephant in the room is that "toeing into terrain" is back. In 10th edition, if you touched a unit (like a tank) partially into a building, you could see into it, but not out the other side – you needed to be entirely within that terrain piece to shoot out the other side. That's no longer the case in 11th, and when combined with the new terrain layouts, it results in some frighteningly long sight lines across the board.

Fast guns are always strong in 40K, but this rule change is stacking the deck further in their direction. 10th Edition was smart enough to avoid this mistake. Again, this is an easy fix, and I suspect 11th will eventually revert to the old ways, but for now, prepare to get blasted from downtown.

The unknown

We're less than a month into the lifespan of Warhammer 40K 11th edition, and we have no idea what's in store for us as the edition progresses.

The codexes remain a mystery, beyond a brief glance at the contents page for the debut book – Codex Orks – from the Big Summer Preview, and they're certainly going to shake up the foundations of the game in a big way. We've seen a taster of how they'll work with the swathe of 1DP detachments that were added to the game alongside the Armageddon launch box, but these are bolt-ons to make the 10th Edition books work with 11th Edition.

The codexes will be built with this new edition in mind, and that offers a lot of opportunities for great (and terrible) things. GW are no strangers to releasing an overpowered codex at the best of times, but now they need to balance books built for 11th against a bunch of hangers-on from the previous iteration.

Hell, even some of the 1DP detachments they've already added are a little too strong, with the Librarius Conclave and Sekhetar Cohort both springing to mind. We've got our first balance pass due any day now, and I'm sure they'll get some appropriate nerfs, but it's a constant game of whack-a-mole that we've seen before.

For something to play in between matches, why not check out the best board games?

We're told generative AI is going to make game development more efficient. Platform holders like PlayStation say it can aid devs "by removing repetitive tasks and enabling faster iteration and higher-quality outputs." Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney seems to think AI could have saved Destiny 2 and, going forward, will "enable games like Destiny to thrive" by making mountains of new content easier to create. Supposedly, AI-aided developers will be able to work quicker, save money, and punch above their weight.

So, indie game developers, with their limited resources and unsure footing (as if anywhere in the games industry is sure right now), should surely love the idea of gen AI. AAA companies purportedly stand to rein in bloated production budgets and timelines, and small teams working with less funding on riskier games should be able to do more with less through the power of AI. That is the pitch going around.

I spoke to more than 30 game devs about this and, just as I heard numerous arguments illustrating why so many game developers don't want to use generative AI, indie developers consistently told me that they aren't interested. As a companion piece to that report (which also featured indie veterans like Rami Ismail and Xalavier Nelson Jr.), I wanted to spotlight their perspective. It's also a good excuse to mention some very cool games. Roughly two dozen indies told me that they see gen AI as some combination of a threat to their reputation, a trap for entry-level developers, a legal hazard they can't afford, or just plain impractical.

Creator-first

Not one, but two developers said "fuck that shit" when I asked how they feel about gen AI. That'd be Eric Berger and Bradley Boothe of Queen's Domain maker Freshly Baked Games, who maintain that AI is counterproductive. "Making things is the whole point, so why would you not?" wonders Boothe. Berger says, "I don't really care if it's made by a machine and polished to perfection. I'd rather see human ingenuity and expression." He thinks people "just shouldn't be using it in any artistic sense," including disciplines like coding, which some people weigh differently than AI-generated art. Boothe adds, "It stops you from building important skills and understanding things. It's a machine telling you what to do. You're not gonna learn anything."

Tons of people told me that making things, not having things made, is what matters. Morsels creators Sam Webster and Toby Dixon sum this up. Webster compares indie games to "bake sale" goods, so using AI "can definitely detract from that" homemade feeling. Dixon reiterates that just sitting down to do creative work, "thinking about it and lovingly forming it," is an invisible ingredient AI can't replicate. "That finds its way into the finished article and does make a difference," he says.

Indie studio Strange Scaffold has "a strict anti-AI policy," producer Manda Farough tells me. "We believe so fervently in the power of human developers and letting our artists be artists and not feel like they need to conform to standards that exist outside in the industry," she says, stressing that, "I got into video games to make. I got into video games to write and to help people."

"Using gen AI to remove the most important human elements, whether it's pre-production or full production, it creates lesser games," Farough adds. "They're not art anymore. They're not an expression of the human soul. Even if it's silly nonsense, like we make at Strange Scaffold, it's still made with so much intention and heart that gen AI literally could never."

Colin McInerney, a Strange Scaffold dev who also heads his own studio, Pedalboard, says, "I would rather not be able to make games anymore than use generative AI." He emphasizes that, "If you don't want to write the code yourself and you can't get the juniors to do it, then why are you even doing this? I personally can't fathom the mindset of, oh, I don't actually want to be doing this, so I'm going to make a machine do it. It's like, why are you here?"

In a similar vein, Grindset TV dev Michael Overton Brown says, "I'm a solo developer. I wouldn't be doing all this stuff if I didn't like the whole process." He feels that "anything visual" made with AI is "so soulless," and while the tech could meaningfully aid engineers, it shouldn't replace anyone. This is where he sees a "disconnect between execs and developers and players" regarding AI, echoing comments from Pocketpair and Palworld comms lead John Buckley.

Sable lead Gregorios Kythreotis of Shedworks is tired of AI arguments made by people who seem to reside in another reality. "Some proselytize AI as a world-changing technology but I don't see its place for me," he says. The best possible version of a game lurks unseen in the act of writing every sentence and drawing every line, he finds. "They are a way of thinking, processing thoughts and arriving at solutions. Often, the process of doing those tasks allows me to think about my ideas and the game more broadly."

"You can mass produce plates but there are still plenty of artisanal potters out there and there is still an audience for that practice," says Kythreotis. "I'm not interested in using AI. I also feel some of the so-called 'easy' or 'mundane' jobs that AI can automate, such as writing barks, are part of the process of authoring and making art, and provide important places for junior level staff to cut their teeth in the industry. If we automate junior roles out of existence, the industry will suffer greatly."

Artist Nidhi Naroth has bounced around the industry and most recently contributed to Beastro. "The core of my beliefs is that I feel like we should prioritize jobs for people and they shouldn't be replaced," she says of gen AI. "That's my priority. Down the line, I think there's always going to be some future integration, but I don't think there will be any full replacement of anything."

Industry-wide effects

Gen AI feels "a little inevitable" to Echo Weaver dev Chris Sumsky, but his team isn't using it and he also doesn't think "anything's going to replace the creativity side of things." Iconoclasts creator Joakim Sandberg says he won't use it because "I know I have so much I still want to create, and want to see how my mind creates it."

Sandberg also worries AI use will reinforce the industry's most destructive trends. "I think it's a perfect tool for flooding a market with useless apps and games that will drown out everything else, same as it will do with other media," he says. "Art isn't meant to be assembly lined. It's supposed to be 'you,' not 'that.' It's already a problem with opportunistic people being more interested in making the same thing as another solely because it made money, and this is a worse version of that, but the product will likely not even function in any worthwhile way, if at all.

"Executives that are already of the mindset that Studio A – who made their big hit – can be replaced with Studio B entirely because the games aren't made by human minds, they will replace as much staff as they can with AI and destroy the market before they realize a mistake was made."

Similarly, Rogue Eclipse dev Husban Siddiqi argues gen AI has "rotted our industry" and he's "strongly against" its use in game dev in general. He dismisses the prevailing argument in favor of the tech: "This is not being done for the interest of players or 'making developers' lives easier'; it's actively being used as a tool to advance the agenda of individuals or organizations who are looking to reduce their overhead while thinking this is their path to maximizing profitability."

Siddiqi says making Rogue Eclipse was a "humbling" look at "how difficult every part of the craft is," and even if you can ignore the "plagiarism machine and massive copyright risk" that comes with the way generative AI lifts references in unspecified ways, avoiding the difficulties of development rather than learning how to overcome them defeats the whole purpose.

Is there a good way to use gen AI?

Some developers are more receptive, or less immediately negative, to certain applications of AI. Future? No Thanks! creator Paolo Pedercini says it can be "useful" for coding support in prototyping, but he doesn't think it's "necessary" and pushes back on "anything visual" made with AI. He calls out the same issues highlighted in our previous report, "ranging from environmentalism to intellectual properties." He agrees "it is kind of a toxic tool that is also increasingly aligned with the technofascist ruling class."

Erenshor creator Brian "Burgee" has tried using AI to "generate examples, debug my own attempts," but always comes back to "the human element." He believes the gaming community will "police this topic" on its own: if AI games become more common, he thinks "we'll see passionate indie developers surge in popularity more than ever."

"Generating content on-the-fly within a game will never be appealing to me," Burgee adds. "I want to craft a very specific experience for players, and leaving any bit of that up to the whims of an LLM is not something I would ever consider doing. For me, handing entire pieces of production to generative AI goes against why I make games in the first place."

Baby Steps co-developer Gabe Cazillo has had a similar experience. "I use it not to generate code or anything, or assets in the game," he says. Cazillo finds AI can be useful for referencing or learning specific code languages – in this case, Lua – but he doesn't want to minimize the core skills for making games. His thoughts boil down to "deep uncertainty" about the tech's future.

"I have this feeling that everyone feels really certain," he explains. "It feels like they're presenting certainty about how it should be used and how it can be used. I don't have that. I feel deeply uncertain of both how it's gonna change things and how it's gonna change my process, and what ways it can be used. Part of me doesn't want to explore it because I've spent so long trying to learn these skills and I don't want to deal with it. But, a little bit, I feel like I should deal with it in some form."

Helen Carmichael of Forbidden Solitaire dev Grey Alien Games says her team doesn't want to "relinquish" creative control or problem solving, but she's curious about AI more broadly. "I’m interested in the bigger picture of how this technology is becoming prevalent, why it seems attractive to many, and where this may lead," she says. "I just learned from another developer that in some regions of the world it’s absolutely accepted in game dev. So there’s an element of culture at play, too."

Carmichael agrees that "it’s good that on some platforms [AI use is] being declared, as transparency matters. How do customers feel? Anecdotally, I see a push back against 'AI slop' from sections of Gen Alpha, but then again gen AI is widely used in the casual game sector, where older customers don’t mind."

Creative director Brandon Sheffield of Demonschool maker Necrosoft Games also highlights a cultural divide. "I think we are witnessing an attempted assassination on the very concept of creative work, especially in the West," he says. "While I'm anti AI use everywhere, at least in China and Japan people aren't getting fired with the intention to replace them with AI as that's legally difficult. There it's being used to supplement the work. I've seen Chinese companies express amazement at how Western studios are firing folks in order to have 'fewer devs do more' with AI. Why fire all your good people?"

Sheffield says Necrosoft will never use gen AI. "I feel sick about it frankly," he adds, and he would love to see the tech "be treated like a pariah." In his view, "once you let it infect your studio, [it] creatively bankrupts that studio."

"We've also seen that companies outside of games have had to hire back their engineers because AI couldn't cut it – or they're finding that all their tokens are getting spent by execs on 'convert this PDF to a powerpoint' which is cheaper to just have an intern do! So it may be slightly faster, and a lot worse, but it's also more expensive? Neat ... We're dismantling the entire industry in the interest of short-term shareholder gains and it's just a terrible plan."

Loudly manmade

In response to this AI wave, many developers are taking the opposite stance, stressing that all of their work is human-made. Rockbeasts makers Mica McFarland and Rafal Zaremba lead with an anti-AI stance in their startup screen. "All of the animations, all of the art, the voice over, are the product of people's passion and what they are," says Zaremba. McFarland adds, "Your ideas are what make things interesting and makes you connect with other people."

Never's End boss Ryan Juckett doesn't see AI as a competitive creative option. "I think generative AI is nowhere near at a point that you can do anything that's as good as somebody who's a skilled craftsman," he says.Japanese dev Nama Takahashi of Öoo fame also opposes using AI "for creative stuff." If anything, he is "looking forward to seeing if AI can do something only AI can do," rather than watching AI try to emulate or replace human labor.

Lost Hellden studio Artisan Games is in a similar position, according to boss Mario Rizzo. The clue's in the name. Rizzo says the team actually experimented with AI tools but never "found any value" in them. The studio is inordinately artist-heavy, and "the artists in particular felt like they lost a lot of creativity, because they felt like when they tried using some of the gen AI stuff, they were fed generic things that they felt took away from the idea of very creative monsters, or that almost slowed down our thinking process."

Horses developer Andrea Lucco Borlera says AI could "maybe" help him with code since he's not a programmer, "but then I still need a programmer to help me." He does expect it will "be used massively" eventually, "especially in the AAA industry," but "will not be as revolutionary as people think."

"I like the old ways," he says. "Because sometimes it's not so helpful. You can waste a lot of time. Maybe it can be somehow useful at the beginning, but I think creating your own things is much better. You have much more control. It doesn't make things faster, as people usually think."

Slowly but surely, more game developers are dipping their toes into generative AI, but many of them have hastily yanked that toe right back. Plenty of people wholly reject the technology as-is for its many risks and consequences, or because work exists that they don't want or trust a tool to do for them.

The proposed upsides of gen AI may appear greater for devs with limited resources, but if anything, the independent developers I spoke to were even more AI-averse than creatives working within large teams. It's perhaps no coincidence that indies, free from the demands and expectations of big publishers and public shareholders operating under the belief that a world of finite resources will allow infinite growth, can more easily ignore AI.

"We cough up a chunk of our soul": 32 game devs, from Doom's John Romero to Helldivers 2 and Palworld leads, explain what people get wrong about games.

If "murderhobo" was an army, I think it'd be the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Ogor Mawtribes. These monstrous gluttons are interested in one thing: eating and fighting. Well, that's two – but in my defense, they're one and the same thing for these horrors.

The mechanics of the Mawtribes' overindulgence force me to really play up to that idea, which ends up the perfect marriage of theme with gameplay. Everything about the Ogor Mawtribes is designed to make them hit hard and chow down harder, with combat often allowing your troops to take literal chunks out of other Warhammer Age of Sigmar armies. They're utterly disgusting, and that really helps them stand out from their rivals.

Barbaric goodness

This faction of gross gourmands was first introduced in 2005 for the Warhammer Fantasy Battles system, but back then, they were simply known as Ogres. Their range didn't change much with the introduction of the streamlined Age of Sigmar wargame; they simply got a new title and were left to it, becoming a nomadic species known for their love of food and fighting. That means many of their models are now decades old, and while they've held up surprisingly well to the ravages of time, they're in dire need of a spruce… and that's exactly what 2026's refresh does.

The Ogor Mawtribes Army Set is our first chance to take this revamp for a spin, and I was able to get my hands on a copy early following its announcement in the Big Summer Warhammer Preview 2026. Although it's lighter on headcount (which should tell you something about how hard the faction hits), there's plenty of barbaric goodness inside. Besides a full Spearhead force featuring a Tyrant leader, Maulbeast Cavalry, elite Ironguts infantry, and Gluttons foot-soldiers, the set includes a special edition version of the Battletome alongside 52 Warscroll cards.

I went into this unsure of what to expect, because my only experience with Ogors have been via mercenary units for the likes of Cities of Sigmar (a faction that brings back the weird, old Warhammer I love so dearly). However, it's immediately obvious that these new models are so much more dynamic than their forebears while still honoring their distinctive vibe. As is probably befitting their more… to-the-point attitude, they're really not that complicated to make. However, that doesn't mean they lack personality. There are plenty of customization options (more so than last year's excellent Helsmiths of Hashut, anyway), and while you'll need to be careful of certain heads only working on specific torsos, you can personalize the force a decent amount.

Bowled over

Their gameplay is an equally no-fuss affair. The Ogor Mawtribes aren't interested in the art of war or complex weaponry; they just wanna hit stuff, and then eat it whenever possible. This translates to incredibly tough troops who hit hard but will always be outnumbered – particularly with the Mawglutt Maurauders Spearhead featured in this box, whose troops don't all turn up until later in the game. This apparently represents their nomadic nature, but it also likely evens the playing field.

That kind of theme-to-mechanics thinking carries over into visceral, hard-hitting rules that make this army a lot of dumb fun to use. I adore the "Eat 'Em Alive" rule, for example; it shows your Ogors having picked up enemy body parts to chew on during the fight phase, providing numerous benefits like adding to their Control score or giving them dangerous bonuses. The "Bull Charge" is also a laugh; after charging, you can move your target three inches back to represent them being bowled over like tenpins.

All this makes the Ogor Mawtribes army a great fit for anyone that prefers the "just smack things" approach to Warhammer, or as a starter force that doesn't need to deal with much complexity. Mawtribes is also a great choice for a second army as a result, because its smaller number of models makes it easier to paint quickly, and the rules don't require quite as much juggling as others.

In other words? This is one of the few times where the game actively encourages you to be a murderhobo…

Looking for something else you can play on the tabletop? Don't miss our guide to the best board games.

It's been 25 years since Final Fantasy 10 Jecht-shotted its way onto the PlayStation 2 in Japan on July 19, 2001. I feel like I could turn into a big pile of dust at any moment, as I remember playing the game shortly after release and being bewitched by the world of Spira. I even went through a period as a teen where I'd stretch my hands out and bow like I was praying to Yevon to friends and family; that's how much the game became part of my personality.

These days I settle for collecting the best toys rather than roleplaying as summoner Yuna, and there's plenty of merch out there. To celebrate 25 years of Final Fantasy 10, you can get your hands on an LP Vinyl Set of the soundtrack, which features a curated selection of 20 of Nobuo Uetmatsu's amazing tracks. Personally, I'm a bigger fan of the Suteki Da Ne music box, which contains a small and adorable rendition of the song that plays during one of the game's best cutscenes.

If you don't want to collect merch that'll make you cry, there are plenty of TCG accessories too. Final Fantasy 10 characters have featured within both the official Final Fantasy TCG and Magic: The Gathering, so there's sleeves, deck boxes, and playmats available featuring Tidus and Yuna. The official Square Enix online store has also rolled out new plushies available to pre-order, so you can soon give the pair a cuddle, which they sorely need after the events of the game. If you know, you know.

With 25 years under its belt, there's too much Final Fantasy 10 merch to list, so I've just picked out some of my favorite and widely available favorite pieces. As a heads up, some of these are pre-order items like that fabulous Eternal Calm LP Vinyl set. It's definitely worth grabbing before resellers get their hands on it, as it may be your last chance.

Check out our best Legend of Zelda merch, best Super Mario merch, and best Animal Crossing merch guides for more quality video game collectibles worth adding to your shelf.

You've just left the cinema, but The Odyssey still beckons. But what if I told you there were four incredible games you can play to recapture a taste of the adventure? From the most beautiful and best open-world games to RPGs set among the Greek isles, I've picked these games because of how each draws upon different aspects of what makes The Odyssey so thrilling.

There's sword-and-sandals combat action to be found in one, if it's the glory of battle you crave, while others have a tighter focus on the myths and legends that have fueled Homer's classic for thousands of years. There's even a bit of a wildcard entry that might confuse you entirely, since it features neither gods nor Greeks, but I think the common theme of long, laboring journeys more than makes up for it.

If you're in need of a little refresher before you get stuck in here, check out our beginner's guide to The Odyssey to help you pick out your favorite aspects of the film – it will help narrow down your search, trust me. So what are you waiting for? Here are four games to play after experiencing The Odyssey!

The best games to play after watching The Odyssey, starting with...

Hades 2

A no-brainer game to play after watching The Odyssey is "godlike roguelike" Hades 2. The game features Odysseus himself as a Shade (aka a ghost) as well as a host of connected characters. His sea monster nemesis Scylla has been reimagined here as a glam rock siren, guarding the deepest layer of Oceanus with her bandmates Jetty and Roxy. Charybdis the Kraken also shows face, both as a randomized miniboss encounter and as a special guest in Scylla's band.

Melinoë also runs into the goddess Circe on the isle of Aiaia during her Surface runs, and can even engineer a meeting between her and Odysseus so he can make amends for his treatment of her in life. Oh, and the voice of Greek poet Homer narrates Mel's quest throughout! Hades 2 is one of the best roguelikes ever for its expert blending of snappy isometric combat and beautifully scripted storylines, and I can't recommend it highly enough for any fan of The Odyssey's mythical roots.

Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island

If you want your odyssey to be lighter on the violence yet heavier on the Greek pantheon itself, Mythwrecked is the game you should play after watching Christopher Nolan's latest and greatest. Shipwrecked on an island dotted with amnesic gods, it's your job to help recover their memories and make some powerful new friends on the way.

Mythwrecked is a narrative-heavy experience, drawing on the rich mythology and lore of The Odyssey while giving it a more modern twist. Unfortunately, you cannot romance any of these divine beings (*cough* Hades 2 is where you want to be), but this gorgeous PG-13 indie is the perfect fix for those who'd prefer their next great adventure to be a bit less bloody.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

The film name's in the game title, after all. Assassin's Creed Odyssey, set among the Greek islands during the Peloponnesian War, places you in the sandals of mercenary twins Kassandra or Alexios of Kefalonia as you unravel a nationwide conspiracy with decidedly Templar links – or as they were known back then, the Order of the Ancients.

Much of the action in this RPG takes place between the warring Athenian and Spartan armies. However, between ganking the Templar Order and lending either army a hand in battle, the thing that really makes AC Odyssey feel like The Odyssey is the amount of Greek mythology you encounter. Expect to go head-to-head with Medusa, the Bull of Minos, and even a cyclops as you uncover the glorious open world, with plenty of naval travel and combat if you're keen to ride the waves between each island. No other game on this list offers a third-person Ancient Greek experience, making it the most thematically and contextually similar to Nolan's new film of the bunch.

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

Now this might be a hot take, but Death Stranding 2 actually has a lot more in common with The Odyssey than you might think. At first glance, Sam's journey as a courier in a postapocalyptic Australia sounds about as far from the aftermath of the Trojan War as you can get. But think about it: Death Stranding is a long, arduous journey – an odyssey, you might say, albeit on foot – with plenty of pit stops along the way.

It too features a central protagonist with numerous other faces he encounters on his journey, all the while moving toward a single endpoint that somehow gets only further away the more he moves toward it. It's a grueling feat of a video game that perfectly encapsulates the relentless slog of The Odyssey (check out our Death Stranding 2 review for more), though this time, you'll be fending off BTs instead of sirens.

The Odyssey is out in cinemas now. For more information on Nolan's latest, check out our glowing The Odyssey review.

The shield saw, the star of last year's Doom: The Dark Ages, was my favorite weapon in Doom's entire bloody history. Not content with just sticking a parry in Doom and going for lunch early, id Software instead delivered the world's deadliest beyblade. A merciless disc of death you could frisbee into a screaming demon, or boomerang through entire hordes. The slowest, most lumbering entry of the new-Doom trilogy also starred a 'shield bash' that sent you rushing across the battlefield and slamming into Hell's finest. Slow? Please. Sonic wishes he could move like this.

The shield saw should be patched into Dark Souls immediately. Every other shield in gaming should hang its non-head in shame. What I'm basically trying to get across here is that the shield saw rules. And within the opening hour of Doom: The Dark Ages – Revelations, the FPS' new DLC, id took my shield saw away and snapped it in half.

It's a bold new step forward for the Doom Slayer, but rather than developers being able to celebrate, the studio is already losing half its staff as part of Xbox's ongoing large-scale layoffs. That includes reportedly putting the future of the id Tech engine itself in jeopardy, and leading developers to question the value of Microsoft's purchase of ZeniMax, which included id owner Bethesda, back in 2021 in the first place. That's all before we even had enough time to tell you this Doom: The Dark Ages expansion is actually super rad. Turns out, big business can be more devastating than any BFG – and that's heartbreaking.

Sawly Missed

The Doom Slayer has been sent to Hell-prison, you see, presumably on about four billion demon murder charges. He thankfully gets to keep all the spectacular guns from last year's game, including the one that sprays bone fragments of demon skulls, the shotgun that sounds like the Earth itself splitting in half when you fire it, and that wonderful chainshot that's essentially the grittiest reboot of ball-and-paddle ever.

While it's great to be reunited with all these magnificent murder-toys, the shield saw being taken away truly hurts. Last year this studio trained us to approach Doom in a whole new defensive way, and now it's ripped and torn that option out entirely. Even FromSoftware let us enjoy an entire trilogy of Dark Souls games cowering behind a shield before snatching it away with Sekiro. id barely waited a year.

So what replaces this divine disc of death? The new chain spear, which is so weedy in appearance compared to a shield/chainsaw hybrid that I thought the game was joking. It looks like the kind of thing the Doom Slayer would use as a toothpick.

The spear actually shares a surprising amount of the shield's functionality. You can hookshot onto obstacles on enemies, like the shield dash. It can parry green attacks, and it stuns enemies you lob it into – though this effect only lasts until its hookshot has finished dragging you towards your victim. Which means you'll now be standing right next to a monster who's no longer stunned and is ready to get revenge. Gee, thanks.

Ah, but I soon discover that where I land is actually in my control. This isn't your bog standard videogame hookshot, wherein you latch onto where you want to go and then simply watch yourself get yanked towards it. No, you're able to swing left, right, and above as you're hooked forward, opening up some sublime new strategies.

The cacodemon, the floating megabrain that caused me so much misery in the main campaign, is now basically a hookshot launch pad for me to ascend myself to bullet heaven. I fling myself over it then unload super shotgun blasts into its grey-going-on-red matter the whole way down, landing in a fresh pile of its giblet-y remains. Bloody bliss.

Revelations also restores the much-missed dash button from Doom Eternal. Not being able to block isn't so bad when you can hurl yourself around or keep flinging yourself into the sky. Better yet, Revelations starts rewarding daring dodges as much as it rewards parries.

Death From Above

Last-second dodges fill a meter you can spend on executing special moves. I initially opt for a ground slam that damages anything stupid enough to be near where I land. That dash works in the air, too, so I can hook myself up and get an impressive amount of kills in before my feet ever get reacquainted with the ground. Doom has rediscovered its love of sending you airborne and developed a newfound romance with keeping you up there.

Ammo scarcity, something I all but forgot about in The Dark Ages proper, constantly catches me out this time. Probably because all my ammo upgrades from the main campaign are gone, and Revelations is about as difficult as that game's third act right from the starting shot. Not being able to just rely on a couple of guns to get through an encounter, but actually properly engaging with the weapon wheel is friction I'd sorely missed. Oh, I have a weapon called the impaler! Good to see you, old friend. Sorry for, er, completely forgetting you existed. Um… has the shield saw asked about me at all?

Doom has also learnt how to keep a secret again. The Dark Ages' main campaign made the bizarre decision to put almost every collectable on the map screen. Then it had the audacity to cheer 'you found a secret area!' when you walked into the clearly signposted 'secret' area. Imagine if I showed you where my bathroom was and then bellowed "SECRET AREA FOUND" as soon as you entered it. You'd be baffled for a number of reasons. Revelations, somewhat ironically, knows to keep things under wraps so finding its secret areas and bonus pickups actually feel like achievements again.

You'll want to seek them out, too, to afford the excellent Chain Spear upgrades. There's Deflection, which makes the spear reflect back automatic weapon fire whenever you dash, the slayer twirling it like a dance baton (where was this in Lollipop Chainsaw?). Tormentor will spin you around an enemy you've got the hook of the spear buried in, perfect for filling them with lead. Upgrade Tormentor again and enemies will also drop ammo and catch fire during that process. Cowards are definitely onto something – shooting someone in the back is immensely satisfying. …What?

So, after a steep learning curve, the Chain Spear definitely won me over. But before it did, something odd happened. The saw shield came crawling back. A few hours in, Revelations returns the shield to you, and now you can switch it out with the spear whenever you want. I was really torn about this. Great as it was to have my favorite toy back, I respected the game a lot more when it locked me into a new playstyle.

Offense is the Best Defence?

The shield is essentially a safer, steadier bet. Whereas the spear, when used well, can end a brutal battle in seconds. The catch being it can also end the battle for you in seconds. Eventually, you learn when best to switch them out on the fly. Demons who fire automatic guns at me are no match for a spear which can deflect those bullets. Whereas near the end of a long, long onslaught of demons, I appreciate a quick breather behind the shield so I don't lose the last twenty minutes of progress.

Once I truly got a handle on the spear, the shield was reduced to mere cameos, but I still think the game would have benefitted from at least another hour of it being my sole option before tempting me back into the more familiar pleasures of the shield saw.

It's a minor pacing complaint with what's otherwise a terrific package, an inspired remix of Dark Ages and Eternal that's as exhilarating as Doom has ever been. It's beautiful, the story is… well, much less crap than the main campaign's, and the puzzles can actually be called puzzles this time without being laughed out of the room. Best of all, the core combat is about as good as FPS gunplay gets. Only Saros threatens this one's perch for single-player shooter of the year. I said single-player, Marathon stans. Put away your shield saws…

Imagine owning a studio that can make games of this quality, that last year got three million players on board, and then gutting them more viciously than a demon on the wrong end of a chain spear. Tragically, Xbox's cruel layoffs that are targeting 3,200 roles across several studios may have finally delivered the killing blow to the Doom Slayer. Let's hope Revelations isn't the swansong to a studio of such incredible talent.

Check out our best FPS games ranking for more blasting!

As I look out over what was once the familiar wilderness of Albion, wearing a ridiculous stick-on beard designed to dupe the comically English bandits hiding up ahead, I can’t help but wonder if Fable 3 is the new Fable fans need. Hear me out: yes, that’s an absurd claim to make about a 16-year-old RPG that divided Xbox 360 players with its aging morality system and mandatory performative dance for menu interaction, but Microsoft’s buried PC version feels weirdly fresh.

I'm finding it hard to get excited for Fable 4 right now, given the wider situation with Xbox. Rising console prices, the cutting of 3,200 jobs, and numerous other shadows hanging over Microsoft mean I’m less hyped about Playground Games’ take on Albion than a longstanding fan of the series should be. That, and a lingering anxiety over whether the reboot will recapture Fable's original vibe, drove me to the questionable act of reinstalling my physical PC copy of Fable 3.

Here’s the thing: I was expecting running Fable 3 on a PC in 2026 to be a travesty. After all, it’s haunted by the long-dead Games for Windows Live ecosystem that once tethered it to a maligned DRM experience. Plus, I figured that since Microsoft hasn’t once attempted to provide access to the port since it was pulled from 2013, running it on newer hardware must come with pretty cursed caveats. Instead, I've been treated to a surprisingly smooth return to Albion.

A true hero

I don’t subscribe to the idea that games need to look more realistic. The industry’s obsession with realism started to bother me long before Fable 3, and I recall wondering why we were hellbent on life-like visuals while watching Solid Snake smoking his lungs out on a supermarket Plasma screen. There’s far more to visuals than flesh and bone, and Lionhead’s penultimate RPG is a testament to that.

Out of sheer arrogance, and the fact that I’d initially wrestled with installing Fable 3 on PC using Games for Windows Live patches, I cranked up the game's output to 4K. Take it from me, a silly person who runs a lot of old games on new kit – that’s a horrible idea, but taking the risk came with the instant reward of unrecognizable beauty in a game I’d previously completed on a very loud Xbox 360.

I’m not saying that if you got a magnifying glass out and started looking for texture crimes, you’d find no scene. There are occasional hang-ups of the sixth generation that’ll pop up to remind you of Fable 3’s maturity. I certainly wasn’t paying attention to them, though, as I almost didn’t recognize the regal gardens of the sequel's opening sequence, to the point where I’d believe it was a remaster.

Am I simply that easy to please? I won’t argue with anyone on that, as I do still regularly jump into much older titles on the PS2 and before. But that doesn’t change the fact that Fable 3 looks far more modern than its crummy Xbox Game Pass streaming version would lead you to believe. That’s the only active digital option Microsoft currently offers PC players, and that contributes to the idea that the best-looking version of Albion belongs to Fable Remastered.

I believe in preserving experiences, and I’m uneasy at the thought of younger players thinking that the OG remaster from 2014 is where we’re jumping from. That works in Fable 4’s favor since it’ll make the game look like a multi-generational leap, justifying its existence. It’s only when you let Albion shine in Fable 3 using a PC that you begin to really respect how vast and detailed it actually feels.

My latest Fable 3 playthrough makes me feel like a tourist, which is odd given I’ve completed it on 360 multiple times. My modern rig's draw distance puts an entirely different lens on Lionshead’s fictional realm, creating a denser route ahead than on console.

Don’t get me wrong; vastness isn’t a valuable metric unless it’s occupied. And some of the connecting routes between main settlements do feel slightly emptier compared to a grand, contemporary epic like Elden Ring. Still, we’re talking about a game from almost two decades ago that still manages to fill its world with a fantastic variety of enemies littering paths, NPCs bustling around, and buildings to explore or buy.

Yes, there’s plenty to do beyond taking in the view. I’m not talking about new-age ray-traced lighting and granular textures that would make even the priciest graphics card go brrrr. I’m simply talking about environments that are still striking when given 4K space and haven’t wrinkled, in part thanks to their distinct fairytale aesthetic. Sure, there are a few strange NPC faces now forever burned into my psyche that look a bit rough by today’s standards, but I’m not convinced uncanny Richard Aoyade isn’t keeping me up at night anyway.

The part that’s really bothering me here is that many players drawn in by the new Fable won’t get to experience this superior version of its predecessor. You’d need to hunt down a physical copy of the game, source a disc drive since your PC likely has no idea what that is, then shift patch files into the install folder.

Is Microsoft actually keeping a revamped version of the Fable 3 PC port in its back pocket for a rainy day? I don’t know about you, but my shoes are drenched, and if I can get a physical disc running at 4K and frame rates that never dip below 100, then there’s no need to bury the series’ last mainline game. I can only speak for my own mileage in terms of stability linked to the latter performance, but hey, that’s a reason in itself to make Fable 3 your “new” Fable game right now.

Castlevania Belmont’s Curse is a Metroidvania with a capital Vania 'V'. It’s the first proper Castlevania game in 12 years, and a proud 2D action graduate of the Symphony of the Night school of design – not only one of the best Metroidvania games, but the one that set the blueprint for hundreds of replicas, establishing the genre.

Thousands of Metroidvania have followed in Symphony of the Night's wake, with a surge in indie popularity following 2014's Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 – the most recent game in the series. So, how do you bring the originator back into a space that’s now overcrowded with imitators?

Whipped into shape

This question stays at the forefront of my mind for approximately 10 seconds as I settle in to play the first 3 hours of Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse. But any thoughts about the weight of the franchise's genre-defining legacy quickly fade, replaced by one singular obsession: the Vampire Killer whip. When will I get the whip? Where do I get the whip? Will the whip feel as good as it looks?

Every second I spend without the whip is agony. Hooks dangle tantalizingly from the ceilings, begging to be traversed, but remain out of reach to my bare beginner hands.

I find myself galvanized, utterly fixated on claiming this weapon, a wry smile creeping across my face as the obsession takes hold. You see – this feeling, that gnawing sense of desire, is quintessential Castlevania.

Few series understand the power of longing quite like Castlevania. Whether it's a weapon, a spell, a trapped item, an inaccessible path, or simply the relief of the next save point, these dense, Gothic labyrinths have a particular talent for making the player truly, deeply want things. And I want that whip.

As Rose Belmont, the daughter of Trevor Belmont and magician Sypha Belnades, I storm, whip-less, through the blood-soaked streets of Paris until I meet the first proper boss in the game: The Fallen. He throws a large Holy Cross my way, it spins and ricochets against the walls, and every fiber in my being tells me to jump. But, then what? In a thoughtless moment of frustration on my fifth attempt, I slice the Holy Cross. A cocktail of surprise and satisfaction ripples through my mind, because in true Castlevania fashion: the less likely option has been rewarded.

Cleaved by his own cross, The Fallen is now down to his second phase, gripping me within his far-reaching whip, or using it to swing between walls. It’s difficult to get close enough to land a hit on him in this phase, and the fight is admittedly very challenging for a first boss.

But alas, the greater the trial, the finer the weapon earned. It would be an insult for the Vampire Killer whip to be wielded by an enemy less fierce.

As with all truly great bosses, I breathe a sigh of both relief and dismay upon defeating them. Glad that the stress of his second phase is over, but sad that I’m no longer fully absorbed in the all-consuming tension and rhythm of the fight.

But most importantly, I finally get my hands on the Vampire Whip. And it absolutely rules. There are few moments in life where the catch lives up to the chase, but this weapon is one of them. It’s a sheer joy to use from the moment it’s equipped.

I traverse new aerial routes via the hooks, swinging upwards through the vertical climbs with fluid motion. I whip onto enemies, using their positioning to access unreachable areas. This is a weapon that works in harmony with an inquisitive mind – experiment with it and you’ll be amazed at what it can do.

When in Paris

Wayfinding is intuitive in Belmont’s Curse, with exploration rewarded as the vast city of Paris gradually opens up around you in a non-linear map. With a setting as cool as 15th-century Paris, Konami would have been fools to confine the game to a single castle. Instead, there are beautiful gothic streets and catacombs to roam, alongside burning, imposing buildings to climb.

The city's architecture, with its lofty, monumental landmarks, complements the verticality of the game beautifully. Long stretches of vertical traversal feel exploratory rather than repetitive, as sweeping rooftop views of Paris unfurl around you.

Boasting a striking 2.5D art style, Belmont’s Curse is a feast for the eyes. But it doesn’t really look like a Castlevania game. Its solid slabs of colour and cartoony animations lack the rich, gothic detail I associate with the series. From an aesthetic standpoint the game has far more in common with Dead Cells.

I was wondering which aspects of developer Evil Empire would shine through in Belmont’s Curse, and turns out: it’s not the roguelike gameplay, it’s the art style. Belmont's Curse may wear the stylish clothes of Dead Cells and The Rogue Prince of Persia, but it doesn't play the same way at all. The shared ground between these Evil Empire games is predominantly the visuals.

While the bolder look is a swerve of direction that will take some adjusting for longstanding Castlevania fans like myself, it is fitting for a game series that recently had a huge hit animated show on Netflix. The game and TV series clearly share a visual identity, which makes sense considering that Belmont’s Curse will be many fans’ first Castlevania game after binging the likes of Castlevania: Nocture.

Growing up loving a game series the way I love Castlevania, it’s hard not to get bogged down in nostalgia. My eyebrows shot up with skepticism when I began moving around as Rose Belmont. She feels so different. Easily the most agile protagonist the series has ever seen. But, stepping away from the blueprint doesn’t mean losing what made the series great. In fact, I appreciate that Konami and Evil Empire are willing to push Castlevania forward with a fresh feeling character rather than opting for the more rigid, familiar style of movement.

Rose is an absolute joy to control, with a nimble moveset that lets her slide behind enemies, vault through the environment, and wall-jump her way across the streets of Paris. Alongside her trusty whip, Rose wields the Arcana System, a magical toolkit powered by enchanted tarot cards gifted to her by her late mother, Sypha Belnades.

Defeating powerful foes allows Rose to seal their essence into these cards, transforming them into Arcana that grant new abilities. These powers can range from devastating, screen-clearing spells to subtle enhancements that completely reshape how she approaches combat and exploration, making every new card feel like a meaningful expansion of her arsenal. Belmont’s Curse carries all the grace and elegance of the Castlevania series in an excitingly different way. Yes, it’s back to a 2D action adventure world, but it’s back to anything but basics.

It’s a tricky tightrope to walk: keeping old Castlevania game fans happy whilst simultaneously pleasing a new, modern audience derived from Netflix. There are plenty of nods to both to appease fans. But, the core of Castlevania is preserved here, with its beloved SotN-style gameplay of tight combat, intriguing exploration, and arcane spells. And I’m thankful for that: I’d much rather Belmont’s Curse play like a Castlevania game than just look like one.

Want to hop in? Check out our where to start with Castelvania tips!

Christopher Nolan's take on The Odyssey has arrived, and, as you'd expect, it's an epic, sprawling adaptation of Homer's poem.

Naturally, though, the film does make some changes from its source material. Below, we've rounded up 16 of the major changes, so you can get up to speed on how Nolan's interpretation differs from the classic tale. We couldn't account for everything, of course, but these are the biggest ways the film changes the famous story.

That means there are spoilers ahead for The Odyssey, so turn back now if you haven't seen the film yet. If you're still reading, then scroll down to find out all the ways the tales differ.

16 differences between Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey and the poem

The Trojan War

Homer's Odyssey covers Odysseus's journey home, meaning it picks up after the Trojan War has ended. That means the Trojan Horse and the sack of Troy do not take place within the poem, and are instead only recounted by different characters throughout the narrative. Nolan's film uses a similar technique to embed flashbacks to the Trojan War throughout the film, though, since these moments are not strictly presented as stories being told, we're counting it as a slight change.

Plus, while this part of the story isn't actually covered in the Odyssey poem, Greek mythology depicts Odysseus as very reluctant to answer Agamemnon's call to war. In the myths, Odysseus actually feigned madness by ploughing his lands with salt, thus destroying his own fields. But, the ruse was quickly discovered when baby Telemachus was placed in front of the plough, and Odysseus, unwilling to hurt his son, stopped – proving he was lucid after all. None of this is covered in the flashbacks in the film.

The Sea People

In the film, frequent reference is made to a mysterious group of raiders known as "the Sea People." The Sea Peoples are actually a real group believed to have contributed to (or at least been involved in) the fall of the Bronze Age, but they are not mentioned by name in Homer's Odyssey.

Antinous and Sinon

In Homer's Odyssey, Antinous and Sinon have no connection. The movie links them closely thanks to the drawing of lots for soldiers who must head to Troy: Antinous gets Sinon to take his place. Sinon also doesn't actually appear in Homer's Odyssey, though he can be found in other sources, including Virgil's Aenid.

The Cyclops

One of the most terrifying moments of Nolan's movie is when Odysseus and his crew get stuck in a cave with a towering Cyclops who chows down on them every time they get close. In the film, Odysseus and his crew escape by blinding the Cyclops and strapping straw to their backs, so the blinded Cyclops can't feel the difference between them and the sheep. Things are slightly different in the poem: Odysseus and his men hold on to the undersides of the sheep and are carried out of the cave upside down.

Plus, to blind the Cyclops, in the poem, Odysseus gets him drunk, while in the film the attack happens while the Cyclops is asleep. The Cyclops also asks Odysseus his name, and he responds "Nobody." This means that, when the Cyclops is blinded, he cries that "Nobody" is attacking him – and everyone in earshot ignores him. However, Odysseus boasts of his true identity as he and his men escape the Cyclops, which allows the Cyclops – a son of the sea god Poseidon – to tattle on them to his dad and get them in trouble. The wine and the name trick are not in the film, though the men still draw Poseidon's ire.

Helen of Troy

When Telemachus visits Menelaus and his wife Helen of Troy, Menelaus reveals he has disfigured Helen, cruelly joking that now her face might only launch "five hundred" ships, in reference to the famous phrase "the face that launched a thousand ships" – though Menelaus quotes this phrase, it won't actually be written until Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus in 1604, thousands of years after the war. In Homer's Odyssey, Helen was not disfigured by her husband.

Helen's sister Clytemnestra is also in the film – she is depicted as Helen's identical twin sister (both roles are played by Lupita Nyong'o), though, in the mythology, they have separate fathers and are not identical. While Clytemnestra is mentioned in Homer's Odyssey, her story is also told in other sources, like The Oresteia.

Hermes

In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus needs divine intervention to help him escape the witch Circe. After his men have been turned into pigs, the messenger god Hermes appears to Odysseus to gift him a special herb named moly, which makes him immune to Circe's magic. You might recognize Circe, her pigs, moly, and even Hermes from Hades 2. Nolan, however, cuts Hermes entirely, along with the moly, and instead Odysseus wises up to what's going on without help – and threatens Circe's sister, transformed into a crow, to escape.

Circe's sister

Circe does have a sister in Greek mythology: Pasiphaë, Queen of Crete and mother of the minotaur (as in, the monster in the labyrinth slain by the hero Theseus). However, Pasiphaë does not appear in Homer's Odyssey, as a crow or otherwise.

Circe and Odysseus

In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus and his men stay on Circe's island for a full year, and during this time Odysseus and Circe strike up a relationship. In Nolan's version, Odysseus and his men escape Circe's domain as fast as they can.

Hades

Odysseus does indeed speak to the dead in Homer's Odyssey, though he speaks to different shades in the poem compared to the film. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus speaks to more shades, including his mother, who died of grief while he was away, as well as the Greek hero Achilles, who was killed in the Trojan War (rather infamously by taking an arrow to his only weak spot, his ankle, giving birth to the idiom 'Achilles heel'). Odysseus's mother and Achilles are not in Nolan's film (though Achilles is mentioned in passing by Menelaus). However, in both versions, Odysseus does talk to Agamemnon and Tiresias.

Agamemnon's death

In Homer's Odyssey, Agamemnon tells Odysseus how he met his grisly end once he returned home, just as he does in the film. However, the film cuts Cassandra, the doomed Trojan princess cursed by the god Apollo to see the future but never be believed. Agamemnon took her captive after the fall of Troy, and she is also murdered by Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus.

Pylos

In Nolan's movie, Odysseus finds Telemachus in Pylos and accompanies him inside a temple dedicated to Athena, along with Telemachus's mentor Mentor – which is fortunate, because it means Odysseus is able to thwart a scheme to kill his son. However, in Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus does not go to Pylos or meet Telemachus there. Instead, Telemachus ventures to Pylos with Mentor (who is secretly Athena in disguise), where he meets King Nestor, who tells Telemachus more about his father. Odysseus meets Telemachus in the hut of Eumaeus, after Telemachus has escaped the plot against him.

Athena

Athena is present in Nolan's Odyssey in the form of a girl murdered during the sack of Troy, which we discover near the end of the film. However, the goddess takes a far more active role in the poem, assisting both Telemachus and Odysseus throughout the narrative. Her taking the form of a murdered girl is also Nolan's invention.

Calypso

Calypso holds Odysseus as a hostage in both versions of the story, but Nolan has Odysseus come to his senses and leave under his own power. However, in the poem, Athena asks Zeus to order Odysseus's release, and Zeus sends Hermes to pass on the message.

Penelope's test

In Nolan's film, as in the poem, Penelope tasks the suitors with an archery contest. In both versions of the tale, only Odysseus can string his bow. However, in Homer's Odyssey, there is one extra test from Penelope. After Odysseus reveals his identity to his wife, Penelope – still doubtful – asks that her and Odysseus's bed be removed from their room. When Odysseus points out that he carved the bed from an olive tree growing through their bedroom, so it cannot be moved, Penelope knows this stranger is truly her husband.

The ending

Nolan's Odyssey ends with Odysseus and Penelope going into exile together, leaving their son Telemachus to rule Ithaca. This is because the shades from the underworld tasked Odysseus with honoring them in a faraway land, since Odysseus was unable to bury their bodies. Since it fits with something Penelope wanted to do earlier – escape together rather than send Odysseus off to war – Odysseus seems pleased to go. However, Homer's Odyssey ends with Odysseus revealing his identity to his father, and then the families of the slain suitors arriving to seek revenge. Luckily, Athena intervenes, so no further violence can occur. Odysseus's father, Laertes, is also not in the film.

While it's not depicted in Homer's Odyssey, another epic poem, the Telegony (which is sadly lost), reveals Odysseus's rather anticlimactic death. His son with Circe, Telegonus, sets off to look for Odysseus. Unbeknownst to him, he lands on Ithaca for supplies. When Odysseus comes to defend his land, Telegonus accidentally kills his father with a spear topped by a stingray's barb. They recognize each other as Odysseus dies. Then, Telemachus marries Circe, Telegonus marries Penelope, and Odysseus is buried on Circe's island.

Omissions

The Odyssey is a huge text, so, naturally, Nolan's movie can't cover everything. Some notable omissions include Odysseus's father, Laertes, whom he reunites with at the end of the poem. Telemachus's visit to King Nestor (a comrade of Odysseus's in the war) is also cut, and, instead, the young prince only goes to visit Menelaus. Odysseus's visit to the court of King Alcinous is also excised – he washes up in the land of Phaeacia after leaving Calpyso and spends time enjoying Alcinous's hospitality there, which is where he recounts his many adventures in Homer's version.

Similarly, the film omits Odysseus's crew opening a bag of winds gifted to them by Aeolus – Aeolus is the ruler of the winds, and he trapped the most ferocious in the bag, meaning Odysseus and his crew could sail home with only a gentle wind blowing. However, the crew opened the bag while Odysseus was asleep – and while they were within sight of Ithaca – which blew them all the way back to Aeolus's island. Aeolus would not help them a second time.

The Odyssey is in theaters now. For more, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming movies, or our roundup of the best Christopher Nolan movies.

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is an adaptation of one of the most famous stories ever told, and, since that tale is steeped in Greek mythology, naturally the film has its fair share of unusual creatures.

Below, we've rounded up seven monsters from Greek mythology that appear in the film, so you can get up to speed at a glance. That means there are spoilers for The Odyssey below, so turn back now if you're not up to date.

For even more, check out our The Odyssey review or our beginner's guide to the Odyssey for everything you need to know about Homer's story.

The Odyssey monsters explained

The Cyclops

Odysseus and his crewmates meet the terrifying Cyclops in a cave. They get trapped inside with the creature, a one-eyed giant, and the Cyclops begins eating the men in a nightmarish sequence. Odysseus and his crew blind the Cyclops while he's sleeping and escape from him by strapping straw to their backs, so he can't feel the difference between them and his sheep. However, the Cyclops is a son of Poseidon, the sea god, meaning Odysseus and his crew face the ire of a powerful foe.

Calypso the Nymph

Now, Calypso is of course not a monster in the traditional sense, but, since she's a mythic figure, we're including her here. Calypso is a nymph, who, in Greek mythology, is the daughter of the Titan Atlas (he holds up the sky on his shoulders). She keeps Odysseus as a captive on her island by feeding him a lotus flower that makes him forget his mission to return home.

Laestrygonians

The Laestrygonians are towering, giant, armored warriors who are also cannibals. They chase Odysseus and his crew and kill plenty of them, destroying one of their boats, too.

Circe the Witch

Like Calypso, Circe isn't a monster or a creature – but, as a magical being, we're including her in our list. Circe is a powerful witch posing as a regular woman. In Greek mythology, she's the sister of Aeëtes, King of Colchis, and a prominent figure in the tale of Jason and the Argonauts, and the sister of Pasiphaë, the mother of the Minotaur (the beast slain by the hero Theseus in the labyrinth). In the film, Circe uses her powers to turn Odysseus's men into pigs. Odysseus, though, wises up to her power and gets her to change the men back by threatening her sister, who has been transformed into a crow.

Sirens

The Sirens look like women, live in the ocean, and have hypnotic voices that lure sailors to their deaths. Odysseus makes his crew plug their ears with wax to avoid their deadly voices, while he himself is tied to the ship's mast so he can hear the Sirens' song without leaping into the water and drowning himself.

Charybdis

Charybdis isn't strictly a creature in the film, but is instead a whirlpool in the ocean – sometimes in Greek mythology, however, Charybdis is depicted as a monster that creates its own whirlpool by swallowing and expelling water. Charybdis is located very close to the monster Scylla, which means travellers must choose between facing one or the other on either side of the strait, knowing it's certain doom either way. Odysseus lies to his crew to get them to choose the route that passes by Scylla, since that will minimize casualties.

Scylla

Scylla is a sea monster that resides close to Charybdis, on the other side of the strait. Scylla lives on a giant rock and eats sailors who pass too close. Since she eats just six soldiers, Odysseus decides to manipulate his crew into choosing this path, which angers the survivors. In some myths, Scylla was originally a nymph who was turned into a monster after her bathing waters were poisoned (and, in one version, Circe was the poisoner).

The Odyssey is in theaters now. For more, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming movies, or our ranking of the best Christopher Nolan films.

What is the best way to watch The Odyssey in theaters? It's an important question, as Christopher Nolan's fantasy epic is releasing on a range of PLF (Premium Large Format) screens in theaters across the globe.

From IMAX 70mm and Dolby Vision to a bog-standard mall theater screen, the many options on offer can be a little confusing, which is where our foolproof guide comes in. The Odyssey is already the highest-rated movie of Christopher Nolan's career, and with Nolan shooting every frame of the movie on IMAX film, you'll want to see it in the best possible format.

The Odyssey is one of the year's most exciting new movies. Want to know what to expect? There's no better place to start than our Odyssey beginner's guide, or check out our spoiler-free 5* The Odyssey review. But first, head below for the best ways to watch The Odyssey in theaters.

IMAX 70MM (1.43:1)

There are no bones about it: this is the definitive way to watch The Odyssey. Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema shot every frame of The Odyssey on IMAX film cameras, meaning no distracing aspect ratio switches or resolution dips throughout, just towering immersion.

There's no pixel count with analogue film, so it's not a direct comparison, but IMAX 70mm is considered the equivalent of about 12K resolution, making your 4K TV look like a 540p DVD. In other words, the level of detail is unmatched. Plus, this is the only way you'll get to see the exclusive Dune 3 prologue. Good luck getting a ticket, though; there are only 41 theaters globally equipped with IMAX 70mm film projectors, and many screenings are currently sold out.

IMAX (1.90:1)

Unlike IMAX 70mm screenings, you shouldn't have too much trouble getting a seat at an IMAX digital theater, as they are far more common, and you're still benefiting from an expanded aspect ratio and all the bells and whistles of IMAX's proprietary Image Enhancer process.

1.90:1 is almost exactly the same aspect ratio as your TV at home (16:9), which should give a sense of the extra screen real estate in this version. The resolution won't be as sharp as any of the film options at about 2.9K, but it'll still look pretty dazzling.

70mm (2.20:1)

Nolan is famed for his embrace of IMAX technology, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're missing out if you don't see The Odyssey in an IMAX theater. The director is an equally big proponent of projecting on film, because 70mm presentations of The Odyssey come with a massive resolution bump to around 12K. So if you can't find a seat at an IMAX 70mm screening, there are benefits to a 70mm presentation over IMAX digital.

Nolan has also worked with variable aspect ratios since The Dark Knight in 2008, so he has almost 20 years of experience 'center punching' the action, meaning you'll never miss out on important visual information at the top and bottom of the frame with this narrower aspect ratio. And Lawrence of Arabia was shot in 2.20:1, so if it's good enough for David Lean…

35mm (2.39:1)

Like 70mm film, you get a resolution bump over digital with 35mm film presentations – it's the equivalent of about 5.6K resolution. 2.39:1 (aka anamorphic widescreen) has been cinema's standard aspect ratio for around 70 years, and for many, is the most visually 'cinematic' way to present movies, so there are reasons to consider 35mm.

Dolby Vision (1.85:1/2.39:1)

Dolby Vision laser is about as good as digital movie projection gets. The aspect ratio will depend on what your local Dolby Vision theater is capable of showing, but either way, you're getting a crazy high 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, dazzling brightness, and exact color rendering. Certainly not a bad option if you have a Dolby Vision theater nearby.

Standard cinema screens (2.39:1)

Much is made of premium large format film presentations (including by us in this article), but the truth is: you're seeing exactly the same film whether you're paying a premium for IMAX 70mm or matinee rates at your local AMC. So if your budget can't stretch to one of the myriad PLF presentations listed above, The Odyssey is still well worth checking out. After all, our own 5* The Odyssey review labels it a "monumental accomplishment, an undeniable film-of-the-year contender, and one of the finest movies of Nolan's already impressive career." In other words, it's a must-see in any form.

The Odyssey releases in theaters on July 17. In the meantime, check out our ranking of the best Christopher Nolan movies.

Of all the games I've never played, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag may be the most celebrated. I've heard praise aplenty for its enticing sailing mechanics and roguish protagonist Edward Kenway, but I've never felt the desire to explore Ubisoft's take on the Golden Age of Piracy – at least, not until I saw the first trailer for Resynced.

The remake's announcement was received with huge excitement, so much so that even a landlubber like myself, who has never really clicked with Ubisoft's back catalog, was caught up in the frenzy. So when I met Kenway's actor, Matt Ryan, I took the opportunity to ask him if I should play the original or begin with this new iteration. "Start with Resynced," he said, and so I did, and I can say with glee that it's the best Assassin's Creed game I've ever had.

Running down to Cuba

In play, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is as gorgeous as it is gripping. Tearing across the cruel yet comforting waters of the Caribbean, I'm in awe of the multitude of things to do: battle enemy vessels, lay siege to forts, harpoon sea creatures, drop anchor at some new shore; or simply bond with my ship's many animal companions (Albert the Monkey is my best friend).

The result of all these activities is hours feeling like minutes, with no amount of time ever enough to slake my thirst for more adventure – and I say this as someone who normally gives up on Ubisoft games before the 10-hour mark. Why has Resynced hooked me so easily? It starts with the location.

The Caribbean is one part of the globe I can't imagine myself visiting. Not for lack of desire, to be clear, but a deficit in funds. Travelling isn't cheap, so the beauty and history of this area of the world will likely always remain a mystery to me, Black Flag Resynced provides a welcome alternative.

Boasting a beautiful map brought to life by Spanish architecture, Mayan ruins and tropical beaches, there's few games as pleasurable to play tourist in than Ubisoft's latest pirate entry. I have a similar relationship with the Like a Dragon series, taking in the streets of Kamurocho or enjoying an arcade in Isezaki Ijincho as if I'm simulating a vacation instead of concerning myself with any plotlines.

In fact, so great is the joy of simply existing in Resynced, I relish doing the open-world-checklist-style side quests on offer, something I usually ignore in favor of pursuing the main narrative threads. Instead of sailing after my destiny, I'm uncovering treasure chests like I'm in The Goonies, or tinkering with ancient puzzles like Nathan Drake.

Riches and reputation

Now, while there is no doubt equally as much pleasure to be found in the original Assassin's Creed 4, I can't imagine I'm missing out by playing Resynced instead. Some content has been cut, and we're a fair few years on from the rose-tinted Xbox 360 era the original game launched in, but playing on PS5 I'm having just as magical a time as I was led to believe I would.

The visual overhaul is magnificent and I can see how big an improvement it is because my mind's eye isn't clear of nostalgia. The character movement is slick, and the settings menu gives options to adjust the free-running/parkour experience for a more nuanced feel. Add to all this the fluid open-world structure with an impressive lack of loading screens, and it's hard to imagine any version of this game from two console generations ago could contend with it.

And yet, I still believe it could. The enjoyment I get from Resynced has me eager to play more games from the franchise. I want to try Altaïr's story, see Ezio's trilogy through to the end, and find out what AC3 has to offer before eventually setting sail in Ubisoft's first version of the Caribbean. Sure, I'll likely struggle with aged parts of the older game, but something tells me it'll be worth the effort. Whether I stay the course I can't know yet, but the desire to try is a sign of Resynced's quality.

All that's left to say is thank you to Matt Ryan. His encouragement has resulted in hours of fun listening to sea shanties, swordfighting with soldiers and cuddling with Albert. Here's to the rest of my voyage.

Sony has a habit of presenting big hardware changes as a matter of fact. You could say that's why I was surprised to see it preemptively announce that physical PS5 discs won't be a thing by 2028, as I was fully expecting the PS6 to simply rock up without a disc drive. However, that doesn't mean it's not hoping certain monumental trends will be naturally embraced before anyone has time to react, and the PlayStation Portal has sort of already signalled some upsetting handheld ambitions.

Yes, I know plenty of people love the PlayStation Portal, and I can see why. Those full-sized DualSense controls give even the best gaming handhelds a run for their money, and you could say it even influenced the Xbox ROG Ally X to embrace controller grips. Those perks have earned it plenty of praise, but I can look past how it dangled an always-online streaming device in front of us dressed up as a promising PS Vita successor.

The Portal may feel harmless enough as an add-on device targeting players who are into PS5 Remote Play or even dabbling with streaming. Hilariously, it couldn't even do the latter at launch, which in my eyes placed it in the same housebound ring as the Wii U GamePad. But, Sony does like to cite commercial success to back up its hardware and software decisions, and it could use said figures to argue people want streaming handhelds.

You only need to look back at Sony's more recent hardware history to see a "testing the water" trend. The PlayStation Portal isn't even its first attempt to make all-digital handhelds a thing, as it also made the PSP Go portable in 2009, which ditched the system's UMD disc drive.

Sony clearly had an overarching digital future in mind when coming up with the PSP Go, as while the $250 handheld with zero physical support for its own ecosystem of games was naturally a flop, the idea survived. In fact, you could say the Ericsson Xperia Play ended up being a spiritual successor, as it was pitching the idea of downloading games, all while including a few baked-in games based on that PS1 PUGA plug-and-play DualShock console I shared a couple of weeks ago.

The difference here is that the PSP Go and Ericsson Xperia Play are examples of Sony trying to get players to bite. It wasn't quite at the stage of presenting a portable that removes physical support entirely, as the PlayStation Vita was just about to take centre stage as a much safer bet. Still, the trajectory pointed towards all-digital ambitions, and there's an oddball system between the Vita and Portal that made the case for streaming.

I won't blame you for not remembering the PlayStation TV. It was originally called the "Vita TV" in Japan, which naturally helped signal its actual screenless handheld game functionality. Yes, it was basically a mini console that could run the portable's cartridges, but actually, Sony really seemingly wanted you to use it as a remote play box instead.

I'm not one for taking a hint, and I earnestly picked up a PlayStation TV to play Vita games on the big screen. It always irked me that the handheld lacked video output, so the tiny box felt like a reasonable compromise. The thing is that Sony actually blocked users from using a bunch of physical games with the system by using an internal "whitelist", meaning it wasn't ideal for playing your own collection.

Maybe I should have taken the lack of "Vita" in the box's title as a sign, but to me, the approach felt senseless. Yes, it used the lack of a touchscreen to bar some games from running, but that made little sense, seeing as controller emulation for compatibility was a thing. Add the fact that manually adding the missing games to the whitelist resulted in them running perfectly, and you have what appears to be a missed hardware opportunity.

Except, I'm not convinced Sony didn't intentionally neglect the PS TV's Vita functionality. After all, its other big new feature, and one that led to it being specifically bundled with PS4 consoles, was Remote Play. By including the gadget with systems, players would be more likely to start using a type of streaming to play games, even if it did first start with local Wi-Fi play.

Of course, the PS TV was also a response to the 2010s smart box craze, as tech companies were going all in on making their own add-ons. Sony's gizmo could also access apps like Netflix, but if we're going to say it was rivalling anything, it's probably Valve's Steam Link that established PC remote play.

The strategic difference there is that Steam was always a digital storefront, whereas Sony built its house on physical game foundations. That's not to say you couldn't establish strong remote play features while keeping discs and cartridges alive, but it's the arrival of the PlayStation Portal that highlights an alternate path.

The PlayStation Portal was the first sign that Sony was accelerating its all-digital plans. It actually signalled that the company had locked in an all-digital future, and it was now ready to make a case for providing games via the cloud. In my review, I highlight that while it feels like a nice handheld, the fact that it totally neglects letting players run games natively makes it far too niche, but it's a niche that Sony was hoping to make stick through pricing.

It's hard to deny that the Portal's price is alluring. If I didn't know better, I'd be jumping at a PlayStation handheld for $200, especially one that provides that PS5 controller goodness. The unfortunate reality is that you're not really getting a portable console for that price: you're getting a "portal" to Sony's subscription service.

Here's my specific worry: the PlayStation Portal has been pretty successful, and Sony is absolutely one to follow market trends. The upfront reason it gave for pulling the plug on physical discs is that the vast majority of players apparently buy games digitally, so it could apply the same quantitative logic to its next handheld format.

I can certainly see a reality where Sony releases a slightly higher-spec version of the portal alongside the PS6, rather than making a Steam Deck rival like current rumours seem to suggest. I'd even say that, if component price hikes caused by AI datacentres continue to persist, we might even end up with streaming being platformed as a solution.

I'm already seeing brand interest in creating streaming devices reignite, despite the cold response to low-specs, dedicated handhelds like the Logitech G Cloud. Just this week, teasers for a Lenovo C700 handheld designed with Tencent's PLAY platform emerged, and Acer is also cooking up a portable primarily for cloud gaming.

Right now, all the stars look unfortunately aligned for a streaming resurgence, and that means the future of consoles could be missing more than just discs. There's every chance that all the main players will point to the cloud as a solution for unaffordable hardware prices, and that completely takes any "ownership" over your game library out of your hands.

I don't want to sound like I'm completely bashing cloud streaming, as plenty of players enjoy letting servers deal with performance. It also works for people who are into the hands-off Netflix-style of paying to play rather than owning, but stable internet connections and monthly subscriptions aren't a luxury universally available to all.

Keep in mind that the PlayStation Portal arrived just before RAMageddon really ramped up. Therefore, it's reasonable to assume that Sony was already seriously thinking about hardware designed only for streaming games, rather than downloading purchased releases. In my eyes, there is a path in front of the console giant, and it seems to lead to some pretty stormy clouds.

Swing by the best retro handhelds if you're looking to play the classics.